Wyatt's History & War Journals, Part 2: Reality of War

"Have I ever told you, if you've ever met me, that I despise war? Or that it's not my cup of tea? Well, if I did, I can tell you I lied to your face, or muzzle, as I suppose the saying goes. War is... My bread and butter. It's my profession, my life. I know little else. Stalingrad was my first taste of true war, true hell. And I loved every second. The adrenaline, the fear, the... Hate. All of it, combined to make an experience I can never forget... That's what war does. Gives you such a fucking rush if you have a fight instinct. You crave that afterwards. You need it." War Journal Entry 3: I... I can't... Putting into words what I just experienced can't come close to what it was like, how it happened, the feelings... There were civilians, herded onto a boat, being told to fight for their Motherland. The speeches were rousing, that's for sure, as we all got riled up to fight. We were assaulted by aircraft, with some men in our boat dying. Others went overboard to escape, but their own Officers shot them for desertion. We were brought off the boat, with some men being given rifles, others ammunition. I got the latter. I ran the trenches, watching Russian soldiers dying around me, the deafening bombs going off around me, the bullets flying overhead. We finally broke through with... I don't know many dead. It must be hundreds of thousands... And we've only taken a hill for all our troubles... But Red Square... That was the worst. Three of us survived that massacre, with the Russian forces getting obliterated. I had to hide among the bodies of the dead. I crawled of there with my two allies, and we managed to kill the General in charge of the massacre... A Pyrrhic victory, really. But one that was needed. We had to sacrifice an entire division to see him dead. "That was possibly the most harrowing experience of my life. On the way to Russia, I met someone, a young woman on the train. It took days to get to our destination, so she taught me what Russian she could while we travelled. I instantly fell for her, but... Well, nothing came of it. The war trudged on, with no experience after that being as horrifying as that day. 3 more years it went on. I found out that I'd been informally inducted into a Special Operations unit by that woman I met, The Cobras, who were in charge of my assignments. They all carried emotions into battle, and were named for them. I was known, for a time, as The Courage. But... Something else dwelled within me. A hatred of my enemies, that burned within my very soul, and fuelled my anger and violent tendencies. It was what I used to survive. And ultimately, it's what drove me on after that..."