Комментарий "Feral"

[DeJaVu]

I wrote this story at least three years ago. In fact, I think it was the first Dragoon story I ever wrote. How's that for lead-time, eh?

"Feral" is the story of a special-ops raid, conducted by the Seventh Kommando of Wolf's Dragoons against a guarded HPG compound in the then-Chaos March. It's also a story about pain, about war, and about sacrifice. It's a story about soldiers.

The story's barely been posted for a day and already it's pretty evenly split between "Yeah, kick-ass Dragoons!" and "Bloody criminals!" This doesn't surprise me, since most of my Dragoon fiction gets handled like that. All of it, certainly, that's set in or around the Jihad.

Good. I'm glad you hate it. I'm also glad you love it. I'm just glad you read it.

As stated in other sources, Feral for Dragoons pretty much makes every engagement zone a free-fire zone. I've drawn a lot of criticism for making my Dragoons killers. They kill people in the HPG compound in "Feral." They shoot or step on downed pilots in "Samadh" or "The Day After." They just keep coming in "The Last Day of Zeta." They don't act "honorably" whatever the hell that means.

I know about the Ares Conventions. I know how things are supposed to work in CBT. But the thing is, war isn't like that. It's about breaking things. And killing people. It's policymaking by saying "You'll do this or else I'll kill as many of you as I have to until you do it." It's ugly, it vicious, and its not in the least honorable. There is glory in it, of course. But no one gets up in the morning, picks up the rifle, and leaves a man behind him with a gun because "it's the honorable thing to do."

Or, if he does, he doesn't live long.

Speaking specifically about "Feral" the only person in that HPG compound who was under threat of murder was Hasegawa. Everyone else was just in the way of the mission. Yes, they shot defenseless people in the corridors. They also took casualties in the corridors. Commandos, by and large, are not trained to wait until shot at to make sure the enemy is a combatant. Find a gunner on any thunder run. It moves--you shoot it.

And, besides... the "rules of war" in CBT are pretty weak. They can be legally set aside. So what if "do unto others" is a little harsh. The Word did just assault their homeworld. In a few months they'd be nuking it. Perhaps they did it because of what Peter and his troops did here. Who knows. It happened. What matter does "why" make?

In war the mission comes first. There's a reason soldiers die accomplishing missions--its because they acknowledge that the mission is more important than their life. Now, I'm not a soldier and I never have been, but I've known enough of them and read enough to understand that decision. In the best armies it's voluntary. But I feel pretty safe in saying that if the mission is more important than their life, it's a pretty safe bet that someone standing in the way, who may or may not be a threat, and who belongs to an enemy organization, ranks pretty low on the list of priorities.

So. End rant. I'm glad you read "Feral," no matter what you thought about it. Hopefully you'll read the next one, too.