Inferno

3 - Change of Heart

The light flashed into existence, blinding Tobias momentarily. He blinked repeatedly to adjust his vision to the newly brightened room faster.

"Welcome to the belly of the beast."

A man sat adjacent to his own seat at the stainless steel table. He wore a black military jumpsuit, and had short buzzed hair. If there was a stereotypical persona of a hardened military vet, this guy was the spitting image. Tobias couldn't help but think that this 'interrogation' was just a bit over the top and predictable.

"Captain Gates reported that her team retrieved a survivor from the nasty skirmish down on Nedar; one that was instigated by the IMC." The man narrowed his eyes. "She didn't mention that you were on the wrong side."

Tobias crossed his arms. They'd taken his armor and pistol, the only defense he had, when they'd reached this Militia frigate stationed in the system. He felt a bit helpless without them, at the mercy of the faction that had been his enemy less than twelve hours ago. But survival dictated action, and he was content with his. He'd come out of this too.

"Funny, until recently, I thought it was the other way around." He knew that a biting remark like that probably wouldn't make a great impression on his interviewer, but he had little patience for this whole routine. If they were going to kill him, then they'd kill him. Nothing he could do to stop that, so why grovel?

The man gave the subtlest of tugs on the edge of his mouth, the ghost of a smirk. He didn't have a good feeling about that smirk.

"I'd watch yourself, if I were you. See, we used to have a desperate need for soldiers here in the Militia. We had to take anybody who volunteered." That smirk materialized in full on his face. "But ever since the battle of Demeter, where the IMC lost any support from beyond the Frontier, and the massive influx of willing fighters rallying to our cause..." He made a tsk sound. "We're allowed to be a bit more selective of who we take on."

He pointed at Tobias. "I'm here to assess you for what you claim is a 'change of heart'. Convince me that you really want to fight for us, and I won't have my usual fun that I would with an IMC officer in my custody." That remark caused Tobias to look around their surroundings a bit more carefully.

They were in the medical wing. More specifically, a wing with several operating tools and sharp instruments lying around.

Shit.

He exhaled. "I was just a guy with no real direction until roughly two years ago. The war that had been thus far fought throughout the frontier for so long, was now raging in front of me. Places I'd known since I was a kid were reduced to ash, colonies across the map were wiped out. I've seen that humans are very individualistic beings, we really only care about issues when they start to concern us, and I'm a prime example of that. To me, it had seemed like the Militia's fault; causing all this suffering by refusing to follow a few simple rules, bringing torment to so many systems so selfishly."

The man's eyes were calculated, intent. He was hanging onto Tobias' every word.

"I joined the IMC, because I thought it was my duty as an able-body to fight, to bring peace to the frontier." He sighed. "But nothing got better; it just got worse. I've seen some bad things the IMC has done, and I've seen some bad things the Militia has done. At the end of the day, I had no real loyalty to the IMC. I was just trying to help in the only way I knew how."

"So why continue fighting? Why join the very side that you've been against for so long?"

He thought back to the aftermath of that skirmish, where he watched Captain Shears die, held the man's arm as he did so. "I saw something that I haven't ever seen before in this war; a moment of peace. I saw that maybe, despite my increasing doubts as the war dragged on, there really was hope for what I'd originally joined up for." He looked at the man. "But the thing that surprised me was that it came from my enemy. Never would I have seen an IMC officer do what I saw that man do. And it caused me to question whether I was fighting for the right side."