2. The first week of basic has exceeded my expectations for physical exertion and the ruthless crackdown on individuality. As I sit in my bunk, putting these thoughts to paper, I endure the jeers and taunts of my supposed comrades, the ones who I must bond with to form an effective team. For killing. Unenviable prospects, to say the least.

These poor creatures - I do not fool myself for a moment that I am superior in any way, but to willingly conform oneself to such dysfunctional men as of instructors? They berate and beat us down, and yet everyone seems to want to emulate them! Whether they simply want to please and ease their sufferings, or actually believe in the speeches they give us, is beyond my comprehension.

Here I find a crossroads, a divergence, two paths. I can sample both, enjoy both for a little while.

These pathetic, listless parasites that swarm around me are incessant in both their vocal beliefs, and their determination to instill said notions upon me. Idiots, fools the lot of them. They serve an ideal that cannot be quantified any more than two people claiming one color or another is superior. They're parasites, leeching off of each other to find their own, self-perpetuating purpose for their woeful existence. Their thought processes have been trimmed by years of hidden  conditioning for service. Or, at least, they were the ones in our society gullible enough to believe.

On the other hand,  I could understand them, I genuinely could. I'm an outcast, a quandary. Humans tend to react poorly to that which they cannot quickly understand. Their thoughts run free and unchecked if they fail to come up with a satisfactory explanation to me.

I know what they fear. Men are never

It's not as if they can rightfully have anything else against me.

~

3. Here I come to a crossroads. An oath must be taken today. The months of basic have been strenuous, yes, but they are nothing to me compared to the leap that must be taken today. It's worth mentioning that in most militaries one takes their oath before the simplest of instruction takes place.

All the maltreatment and misuse has lead up to this. It has been ruthlessly hammered into us from the opening day that we live to serve our country and it's people - our people. It's likely that this oath has as much historical significance to some obscure, misunderstood event in their past as it is a final, minor test.

Minor to them, perhaps. Do I give up my individuality, my person, my life, my freedom, me, to these men?

I must go now. I hear their calls, beckoning me to

~

4. I lie in the darkest corner of the troop airship, pouring my head out into this cup. No one bothers me, and I gratefully return the favor. My head is one step away from swirling with thoughts of the year to come, our destination, and the actions we'll undertake there. I've given my life, but will they keep it? They've set my physical destination, my moral destination, my purpose and my hopes.