Earth Warriors (Undergoing Revision)

Chapter 40 - As the Dust Thins Out

In the back of the plane near the cargo hold, Jackson sits near a weapon cache while Rian stands beside him, holding his Zlocan blade, a look of uneasiness on his face after what happened today in his duel with Boris.

"You okay, brother?" Jackson asks.

Rian shrugs. "I've been better."

"Yeah..." Jackson nods. "Me too. Boris did pretty well, though, for a geezer of that age."

"Guess we can't take him lightly in a fight if he becomes full robot at this point." Rian sighs. "I've learned lots from that battle, though. I can't get any better than that after that."

"I think that's up to you to find out if you know the right tool for growth, especially with that shiny blade of yours you just "borrowed"."

"Well, lucky me." Rian chuckles.

"Don't know about that. The way you hold that thing, it makes me wonder if you're planning to use it to kill someone, or simply harm them. I hope you don't do the latter."

"You know me too well, brother." Rian nods. "I'll try that I won't. Emphasis on try."

"Logan would make sure you try well." Just then, Amira approaches the group as she holds her hands near her chest.

"Mr. Jackson, not sure if this is appropriate but, how do you know that man called Boris? Did you two ever met?" she asks.

Jackson shakes his head. "Not personally, no. But I read his files, lots of them. And it makes you wonder if you can either hate him...or just pity him. Cause I heard some stories about him. Some of it is really hard, you know?"

"How hard?" Amira asks.

"This should be interesting," Rian adds.

"Well, I'll make it as short as possible. He was born in 1960 in a town in what could become the border between the Czech Republic and Slovakia after the dissolution of Czechoslovakia. He was just a boy who did whatever made him happy, no matter how small things were. It was the only noteworthy thing in his life in his childhood. At least, until the 1968 invasion by the Soviets in response to Dubček's reforms. He saw his neighbors taken away when they protested, and could only narrowly escape a house fire. From that, they were forced to move to Moscow. From there, they had to live in fear and vigilance from any sight of dissidence."

"Guess these Soviets were always a bastard bunch," Rian says.

"It remained that way until an agent from the KGB went to the house to inspect potential dissent activity when he was a young adult. Afraid, and unwilling to lose any further, he ambushed him, bludgeoning him until he stopped breathing. This attracted the attention of the government, but curiously enough, instead of deciding to execute him right away, they gave him an offer: He could either serve the government or die. He took the offer, knowing he would want to avoid the death penalty for himself and his family, and became a soldier for them."

"Oh dear." Amira chokes.

"It gets worse, his first deployment was in Afghanistan in 1980.  From there, he experienced many things most of us wouldn't believe. Witnessing butcherings and massacres both his fellow soldiers committed as well as torture from guerrilla fighters. He was even forced to take part in any of them. It was a nightmare for him. But he did it all because he knew his family would need him. Or so he thought, he received news that would forever change him; his family perished in a hunger strike. Combined with the withdrawal and the ensuing collapse of the regimes in 89, from then on, he lost his mind. He couldn't stand the fact that he survived the war while everyone else dear to him died. Left with nothing else, he took what he felt what was the thing that he thought could fill him: blood money. That was the last straw for him. He didn't care anymore. He just wanted to make himself feel better."