Fiction:Ice Age/Atonement

"A soldier is in no place to question his orders. He has no right to. He has no friends, no family, no loyalty to any person but his superior. His superior in turn has none of these things either. It is not a soldier's place to question. It is his place to act. A soldier can never be certain of who his friends are, for tomorrow, they will be different. He can be certain of only a single thing: his goal." Those are the words I have always lived by. A quote that fits all. It is only changed for a single purpose: when discussing female soldiers, and the "he" is replaced with a "she". Nothing else changes.

But I must wonder, should I have lived by them? What kind of words were they? Words of useless propaganda, to place control over their soldiers, fooling them into thinking they must not question orders so they can do nothing? Were they words of wisdom, from a wise man in the army who knew that, truly, a soldier questioning the words of his superior was wasting his time and money? Or were they mere words of desperation, the words of a soldier attempting to excuse his, or her, previous sinful actions? These things I do not know. None of us ever knew, or ever will know, where the quote originated from. We know only that it is considered a code among our troops.

All I know is that I have committed many things under the orders of many. To whoever is reading this little, "manifesto", I suppose you could call it, know this: I am neither proud nor ashamed of my actions. In my time, the amount of people I have murdered, I have lost count. I have lost count of even how long I have lived. How many timelines I have visited, how many places I have gone. I have no idea. But know also that I am a murderer. Yet, who am I to question whether the things I have done are truly sinful actions, or just the actions of a righteous and just freedom fighter? I have never been one to judge myself or what I have done. I have a sole purpose: to kill. And I do not know if that makes me a dreadful person. I can think of very few perspectives of morality in which I would be considered 'good' for it. But what I do know, and what my employers and my past superiors know, is that I am very useful.

So why, then, am I writing a manifesto where I ask questions to which the answer is already obvious? Why do I continue questioning my existence, as I have done for millennia, if I already know that doing so is useless? If I already know I am wasting my time, why do I bother? That is the only question I have no certain answer to. As the old quote suggests, I have no certain answers to any question but this: "what is my mission?" But for the first time, I am to give myself a new mission.

For the first time, I am doing something of my own will, for myself. Or was it the second time? Perhaps. I am . And from this day forth, until I am finished, I am to atone for my sins. There is something that I must do, before I continue. I am a killer, and I will kill. But I am killing for myself now.

-From the manifesto of a fallen warrior.

The Attonement of Genrai Nal is a story written by Technobliterator, a subplot of the Ice Age focusing on the story of Genrai Nal. It will be a prelude to the story coming soon, the reboot to the failed Cleansing Flames fiction. This, for the most part, will be a solo short fiction, though collaboration is possible.