Mercs on Mars - Logan's Log 11: After Jasper
After the skirmish, Logan is safe in Jasper, where he rambles on about life, religion, geopolitics, and the battle itself.
LOGAN’S LOG 11: AFTER JASPER
AUDIO-LOG FILE:
TRANSCRIPT BELOW:
«BEGIN AUDIO»
This is Logan. You know the drill.
Well, uh, Jasper turned into a bit of a Cluster, but uh, we made it in the end.
Ahh… [drags on cigarette]
…I'm looking now at a hummingbird, inside this little biodome. The Russians pushed hard at the biodome. They turned the cold war Hot, which maybe was inevitable… maybe it was. But I like to think otherwise. I like to think that maybe we could've... Ah, Hell.
You know my rules: [silly, whiny voice] Don't trust Russians! Sneaky Russians…
But with the Fected an’ the Bugs? With the Xenos creepy-crawling around? Could we not put aside our differences for one hot damn minute? Seems like that's too much, I guess.
Too much for for, for the Brass at the top. I don't know who's making these decisions anymore. I'm just, uh, just a Merc, on the ground, trying to keep the *planet* alive. Tryin’ to keep this whole freakin' planet alive while it's Dying… like Earth was, back in the day.
And it hurts! It does. It hurts, to see men and women turned. I don't know how many more of these missions I got left in me. [If] we don't find the heart of what's doing it all soon, I may have to retire. Early retirement, but not croaking. I— Val got me through that, that it's not good to die. [harsh chuckling] I thought it was for a while!
Valerie, she, she… She showed me! Good, long, and hard. Oh, she showed me. She almost relieved me of command. She almost busted me up with the higher-ups, she did. I didn't hear it at the time because I was so sleep deprived, but I'm awake today. And, uh, you know. What can you say? What can you say to that?
Well… she was right, and I was wrong, and it’s difficult for me to admit my wrongs—I know that. I have some pride, after all.
But, you know, “Pride goeth before a fall, and a haughty spirit before somethin’…haughty, some…” I don't remember the verse.
[Long sigh] I bet a good Southern Baptist would remember it, but… I may have been a Southern Baptist once, but… I’m not so good anymore.
[Lights up another cigarette, and gets another lungful of smoke]
You know, uh, Lupe…[short chuckle]… She’s uh…[still smoking and giggling] She, in the last, uh, few she's been trying to convert me to her religion. You know, Roman Catholicism.
I say, ‘What is that?’ She said, ‘It’s the way,’ you know. I said, “What?! The Way, the Truth, and the Life! That's Jesus Christ, y’know, my Lord and Savior.”
She says, “Yes, but He started the Church.”
I said, “What? I thought a man named Peter started it.”
And she said, “Yes, because he was the Rock that God put the Church on.”
Peter was a screwup in a myriad of ways! He denied Him three times! For crying out loud. Y’know, he was a fisherman, so he knew how to fish. God said he’d make ‘im fishers OF men, and the others, y’know the disciples, and, uh… Helck [sic], Hell… I don't know, um.
Theology is beyond me, I think. I think it's for theologians. And, uh… Y’know, what's an army vet supposed to do with it? Well, he’s supposed to stay frosty and watch his Six, y’know. That's what we Mercs say [giggling.] It’s the mot-to of the Texan Colonial Mercs: “Murder on, cool and slippery as ice. Murder on!”
[Stretching, yawning] Man, we are pro-fessional killers, lemme tell ya. We’ve killed so much, it's hard to remember what not to kill sometimes. But… other times it's just, it's just tiring is all.
War… war, y’know, they argue about does it change or does it not change? Well, it does an’ it doesn't, ya dumbasses! It does insofar as the technology changes, and the humans change and adapt with the technology. But the conflicts themselves and human nature doesn't change, no matter what any of them cyborg wannabes try and tell ya.
I have no cybernetics, and… [Noise of Cicadas becomes pervasive] perhaps I’m a freak for not modifying my body that way, but, uh, y’know, it is my body, and I'm pretty comfy in a Mech-suit, so why should I make my body a Mech-suit? I already got one, thank you very much.
I'm ramblin’ again.
I don't know what part of this log is anymore… Oh! I guess I'll actually tell you what happened at Jasper.
There were three hover-suit pilots, damned good ones. The Russian hover-suit pilotry [sic] is almost next to none. I, I used to do that before I was in the mech, y’know. I’ve done the P.V.E. — “Personal Vehicle Execution,” blah blah blah.
And, guess what? Svetlana showed! [Dark chuckling] She did! She showed me her tail; she showed me her face. Maria Svetlana! Whatever-her-name-is, something Svet… [still chuckling]
She was in, she was in a Raptor suit, as in Rap-Tor Predator, predatory-Falcon-suit. Oh buddy! And I was in my Wolf-Suit.
And I had to beat, box ‘er bibbidy-bobbity-boo back from Jasper.
Why the Russians said they were taking over Jasper that particular day is beyond me.
That's their intelligence problem.
My intelligence problem was that the intel buddies, the comm-jockeys, said [the Russians] would amass near Jasper and that Xenos would be involved, but that [the Russians] wouldn't try to punch holes in the dome. They tried, real hard.
And there was one more Dog-Limmer, there was a Lurker, and to top it all off, there was in fact a large, large Slither that day, and uh, well, between the Russians and the Texans, there were no more Xenos!
BUT, once we took care of the Xenos, we had ourselves our own little square-dancing, we did, yeah! Right in front of the Dome. They actually hit it. I mean they tried to hit the glass. [cackling]
It’s like, “Eff off!” Do you not know there's, there's farmers in there? There's ranchers? There's, there's human beings in there! Do they don't have farmers, rancher? Yeah they do, but because of what I perceive as their illegitimate post-post-post-Commie government, they don't give a crap about their farmers or ranchers.
I don't know.
10 minutes, and I'm pissed.
[AUDIO ISSUE: QUIET & INDISTINCT]
Well, 10 minutes and maybe you make it to 11 and then you sign off.
I just, I just need some strength and guidance. Strength AND guidance. I got some strength, but when the guidance isn’t good, I start making enemies of everyone, including myself. I have the scars to prove it. Scars from fights and scars from myself, I guess. I don’t know… My face ain’t the shape it used to be… let’s, let’s say that.
Anyhoo…
[RESUME REGULAR VOLUME LEVEL]
How’s it going on planet Earth? Got any good news for me, planet Earth? Cuz, if you don’t, I don’t wanna hear it. I only got time for good news now.
[sighs]
The Wilderness is still out there. It’s still dark. It’s still cold. There’s still monsters… out there.
But hey! It’s sunny in the afternoon today. It’s actually kind of pleasant here in Jasper. Feels more like September than August… let’s say that. One of those days…
Anyway, I just, I just gotta let you go, recorder. [unstable laugh]
Your my bestest bud in the world, the only one that understands me.
[Genuine laugh]
But I gotta let you go. BYE!
End Log.
«END OF RECORDING»
