WAR JOURNAL

                                          Introduction

People wonder why I always come back from the dead every time they see me go through a near death experience. Some say that I'm a demon, some say that...that I'm just a lucky person. But things have change since that awful experience from my home town... They... They all took everything from me! My home...my family...my sister! I just want to kill them all, the ones who were corrupted enough to do such a thing. Starting with the Cornerian army..... I was thirteen when that ungrateful incident happened....

Year 20012 the second summer of an unknown planet thirty light years from the Lylat System.

Our town was beautiful, like the buildings made of pure glass and hard black stones from the sediments on the planet, and the sun showing up every five hours of the day, giving us three summers and four winters when we reach the left side of the Lylat system, and the water which flows through out the planet like the vains holding our blood. My name is Vex Hollander, but people call me Hollan for short... At least my sister does.

We lived in a Normal sized apartment located by the Central watch tower, which is the stronghold of our soldiers called the Manevilin. Very strong and noble soldiers sworn to protect our city from disaster times. My father use to be in their forces, (maybe one of the best) but became ill from a deadly wound and died shortly after. His most prized weapon was a diamond bladed gauntlet that has functions of a wrist cannon. Today it sits in our living room by his badges and trophies (Our mom tells us to never mess with it).

Our house is just the average, not too rich or poor, just normal people trying to live our lives. Everyday when we come back from service training (In their culture they have service training for future soldiers of the Menevalin instead of having school, it is lawed that every person must attend one year of active duty before they can leave one their own) we all end up doing chores, mom says it builds character for living.

"hey what are you doing, we got to go to service training in thirty minutes" I open my eyes and saw Kelly, a black furry fox with the opposite coloring of mine which is white from the muzzle. Her eyes were also the same as mine which is a dashing emerald green, even though the color is inherited to every member of the family. She was poking me on the head hoping I  would wake up. To tell you the truth she is a bit of a brat sometimes to me than any other girl I ever face in my life, but I do love her even though she like to tease me. Right know she is eight and turning nine next month.  I yawned and buried myself under the covers waiting for her to leave "Hollan come on we have to go!" she looks around his room and picks up a tuning fork, she then hit it by the wall and tilts it close to my ear.

"AHHH! Alright I'm up!" I yelled removing the cover and snatching the fork away from her "damn you know how sensitive my ears are... Aw damn that hurts... Get out of my room I have to change"  I removes my covers showing bear white fur from his chest and black from his back and muzzle. I was sleeping in my pants so I wasn't totally nude. Fully awake I saw her in her Service uniform which is a vest with soft shoulder blades and a blue skirt (its optional if they can wear a skirt or Blue pants) each uniform has an insignia of a cross with a lightning going through it, representing "death is hard to follow". The cross means "we give out light to others and others will give light back"

She laughed and ran off as I started to stretch and looked at the calender showing friday. Written on it was the gun shooting test, they thought the age of twelve was a good year for children to learn how to use a rifle or a simple laser pistol. Looking to my left I opened the closet and picked out my uniform which was almost the same as my sister's, but the pants were much tougher and more resistant than normal clothing.

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As soon as I put on my uniform, I went into the kitchen and started up the microwave to heat up the food we all had yesterday. "are you ready for that test today honey" My mom walked in and took a mug out from one of the shelves. She works with the Menevalin forces as one of the Meteorologist for the northern hemisphere. She looks just like Kelly only her fur is a bit lighter and grayish. Since she was an adult, her uniform is an advance armor wear black or red with decorations and chains as rewards.

"yeah I'm ready only I wish I had more practice with the 'hand cannon' I probably would get better” I said sarcastically as she laughed.

"Hollan you know your too young to carry such a weapon, your not ready" she replied making me fell a bit weak.

"aw mom never say that I'm not ready for anything, and I was only kidding" their was a ding on th microwave and Vex opened the container and took out the food, taking a bit. It wasn't very warm, but good enough to eat.

"Hey Vex, when you and your sister get back I need you to run out and get a delivery from the mailing company" again the give us goals and chores for later while she works at home with a stack of math papers.

"fine...I guess, but only because your my mom" I laughed and walk off into the living room seeing my sister eating ice cream "Kelly you know your going to get sick eating that this early" she gave me a smile which was covered in pink melted cream.

"but how could you resist such a meal like having desserts first!" she yelled proudly as the timer said ten till eight. Ten minutes before the airship stops at the circle of our park. "come on we got to go, get your bags" I quickly went to my room and grabbed my back pack holding my books and journals (oh did I ever tell ya I was a writer...Didn't think so) "alright were leaving, see ya mom!" I yelled running out the door.

"bye mom!" Kelly running out following me.

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Half way down the block Kelly took a head start and looked at a large airship fly over us. It stopped and pointed its gun at the sky making a defensive position "what do you think their doing?" Kelly

"probably just an exercise, Kelly come on we go to..." I was staring at her tail which was decorated in tail rings "when did you get tail rings?"

Se looked around and grabbed her tail "huh oh these, its sort of a style that's going on. I.. Im meeting a boy this afternoon and..." she started to blush as they started walking.

"really know, who's the lucky guy"I crossed my arm impress. Shes really much of a shy person.

"well he is about a year older than me, and his name is Kevin" they look out at the park and saw the ship flying over them.

"give me the details later, right know we have to get to that ship" we both ran through the grass catching up to the landing sit. As soon as its legs touched the ground we made with the others and walked up on the platform a hanged on to the rail on the shuttle. "few we made it, so tell me about this person" she was panting like crazy as she tried to catch her breath.

"well... He one of the popular guys, mostly like girls that wear accessories on their tails. I'm just hoping that he at least notices me" her smile turned into a frown "so what about Shelly? I'm sure she notices you already, you two are so close know. Wish I was like you, always confident"

Shelly was my girlfriend, she is a brown furred fox and wears small glasses cause her eyesight is so poor. But when she removes them her dark purple eyes sparkle like crazy. We been together for over a year. "Look Kelly, don't try to compare yourself to me. As long as you believe in yourself I'm sure you can do more than I can"

She started to giggle "really know, why doesn't that surprise me" she pulled out the tuning fork. I felt a bit scared from it.

"were did you get that, du- keep that thing away from me!" she laughed almost loosing her balance until she saw the giant air fortress covered in guns and cannons.

"you sure its just a drill, they look serious to me. Just look at the armor their wearing. Very unique, and scary if you ask me. look their carrying weapon!"  she pointed at a gunman holding a giant gatling gun, his armor was pure black with a helmet that covered his whole face which was in a fox shape head. The rest were each picking up missiles and battery charges for the main cannons. Their turrets were spinning around at the ground and sky at a three-sixty range.

"I... Don't think their serious, I mean come on, we haven't had a war in over seventeen years" I looked at here seeing she was worried and afraid.

"Then how did you think dad died" I felt shocked that she would even think about this. I turned her around and looked at her straight n the eyes.

"Kelly listen to me, if anything ever happens, I'm here to protect you. Plus that was years ago, I don't think a war is going to happen again" she stared to cry and hugged me.

"your awesome Vex" the airship started to land at a different spot and picked up my girlfriend Shelly.

"Hollander how's it going!" she glomps on me and kisses my left cheek. Kelly pouts to the side felling a bit jealous.

"I'm doing fine you ready for that test today" I laughed.

"uuhg not really, I'm still shackey from holding that blaster, I'm scared I'm going to fail" she starts to bit on her sharp nails.

"your just going to have to try your best" I said as we waited for the ship to land by the center.

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As soon as we landed my teacher Mr. Devian walked up to us and told us to get off the platform. (every student in pairs of at least four need to have a trainer, from retired and motivated soldiers. For our team it was just me and Shelly)  He is a retired soldier from the black ops Menevalin army. But on one mission he got badly injured to the point were he can barley walk. His right arm was dismembered and left hand removed due to a major explosion from a warship after fighting a fleet of battle drones. He was one of the few to have the cybernetics repair corporation fix his body with an arm and hand. They say he is very lucky to survive. Today he is very old and keeps himself steady by using a cane. He may be old, but he is actually a coach in martial arts and is a defending champ for three trophies "are you guys ready" he asked as we both saluted.

"were ready for testing sir, show us the way to the ranging room" said Shelly. Kelly ran of to her teacher and was gone with the rest of them. "At ease cadets, come this way" slowly he turned and walked towards a small platform "hop on" we both nodded and jumped on the plate as it flowed through the hallways and into a large hanger were people learn to build ships. I looked around until I felt a tap on my shoulder.

"hey Vex, what do you want to do when you graduate this academy and finish the service?" she asked.

“I thought I already told you”

“please just this once more”

"I guess..you remember I wanted to leave this planet and see the entire universe and its dangerous habitat. This world is just way too high tech, have you ever wonder what its like if you didn't have these things... That's what I want to go through and experience something new" I've told her this before but she loves to hear my goal over and over. I really did wish to leave this planet and maybe never come back.

She gave me a worried look seeing that I was so serious "but what about your family or friends, don't you think they matter most to you" we stopped and landed in the ranging hangar. Our teacher jumped off "this way" he walked off behind the shielding room grabbing the basic laser pistols. Its a pretty good gun only the down fall is its heating system, like after five continuous shoots it heats up and stops firing till the temperature drops to eighty "remember you all are trusted with this weapon, hope you won't do anything stupid" he gave us a very serous face which made us start to coward down.

"hehe f-fine I will" he grabs the two blasters from his hand and handed one of them to Shelly.

"Thanks, come on ill race you up their" she tagged me and ran off to the stair way leading up to an elevator platform. I laughed and easily caught up to her and beat here to one of the platforms "no fair (sighed) I guess you win" she tied here long hair up into a pony tail and turned off the safety from the gun.

I pulled out some small ear compressors to protect my ears from the loud noise of the gun. The last time I did this without ear plugs, I fell on the floor twitching. "alright you guys, your gun has limited ammo for this test so don't start wasting it, time your aiming. Especially you Shelly"

"gulp" she started to fell nervous as she pointed the gun out practicing her pose.

"alright were starting the target range, first the fifty meter, hundred, and last moving targets. Were beginning know!" he pressed a switch and it showed a metal sheet of paper and it moved back to were its fifty meters. 3 aimed my gun at the target and instantly fired it right at the bullseye. Shelly was still trying to aim and fires it three seconds after me hitting about an inch away from the bullseye. She jumped in excitement.

"great job Shelly!" I waved to her as the targets move out further to the point to were it only looked like a small dot.

"alright you only got ten seconds to aim, you may start know!" we both quickly pointed our weapons and stair at the target quietly. My eyes were concentrated between the dot and the marksman, then after nine seconds I pulled the trigger firing a beam down the hallway. Infact I didn't notice that we both fired at the same time. "alright her are your test results. The two sheets came up to us and showed were we hit our mark. I was impress for myself that I actually hit the bullseye twice. As for Shelly, she hit the target but by seven inches from the bullseye. "Great job my students, I have taught you proudly as true soldiers. Vex, you are truly a marksman” a soldier behind him gave him a paper showing our insignia, meaning something important “Vex, the top command would like to have a word with you." I almost didn't know what to say, I looked at Shelly and she nodded me to go on.

"thank you sir" I said as the platform lowered itself to the floor and a group of elite soldiers told me to follow them to the main command room. "as for you Shelly, you passed but were going to go through more training afterwards."

"aw man, you can't be (sigh) fine" she pouted taking the battery from the gun.

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It was very disturbing going up the elevator with the elite guards. They just stood their like turned off robots or something. The elevator was set to the top floor passing above the air fortress.  As soon as the door open two more elite guards came up and exchange information to tell if they are impersonating as officers.

Then they saluted and pushed me lightly on the shoulder to move on. They took my blaster on the way. That when I saw Geo the man in charge of the entire program "take a seat son" one of the elite soldiers. Geo looked at me and at his papers at the same time, just trying to analyze me. When I turned my head seeing my teacher appeared beside me  and gave me the thumbs up (I don't even know how he got up here). "Vex Hollander, The son of the great commander Doku, since you were a small cub we have seen major improvements and you may have already surpass him from his grades." I was surprised to here that "you also surpassed the marksman shooting grade by thirty percent, very impressive also, but lets cut to the chase.” He stood up  and cleared his throat “How would you like to join the Menevalin black ops team, lead your own squadrons out to the west part of the universe and locate the Lylat system for us"

"but sir he's not ready-" said Devion as one of the soldiers stood in front of him and told him to back away. I was starting to get worried of what's going on.

"I can see this is a big decision, but I want you to know that we will provide you with the best of training and knowledge of all of our command for your entire fleet so ill give you till tomorrow to think about it" he gets up from his chair showing a sword like hand from his right and placed it by my shoulder "our army is about trust and I trust that you will not tell a soul about what's going on around here, is that understood Capitan Vex Hollander" I never though I'd hear the name of being captain as I excitedly stood up with the blade still place on my shoulders.

Then I saluted  "I will sir and I will not tell soul about what happened" he removed the blade and smiled. Then he cut of my ranks and passed a new rank representing Capitan with a marksman insignia< which is a wolf that has a scar on its left eye.

"I expect good things from you, and we will be watching you for know on, soldier let him pass and Davion... You stay I got a mission for you"..........................................................................................................................

That was all I could remember until the next day when a Giant military fortress popped out of know were in our solar system and the air fortress started firing scaring away all the civilians. I was standing in the middle of the park with Shelly "what's going on! Why are they firing!" I yelled placing the compressors in my ears.

"come on we got to get out of here... " suddenly a large airship swooped down and destroyed the air fortress in two, slamming against the Menevalin HQ tower. Shelly froze as they started destroying the city "Shelly! We got to go!" it was to loud for her to hear and she was in total shock as a large airship came down dropping soldiers near the park. I quickly grabbed her hand and dragged her out of the line of fire. One by one our elite soldiers died cold on the ground. Some I couldn't tell they were dead from the helmets. "we have to got to my house Kelly is over their" I picked up a gun from a dead soldier and ran as quickly as I could to the next street  trying to escape the wild fire.

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Ships were flying everywhere and some of our X flyer were being shot down by gunships from above. Shelly started crying from what's happening and fell into a fetal position holding her hair together "my hope in life is life my own, my hope in life is like my own!" she kept saying that over and over as the soldier ran this way.

I slapped her trying to make her snap out of it, though it was the only way in this situation. "Shelly snap out off it, were not dead yet! Know pull yourself together and listen to me!" she tried to stop crying and nodded, trying her best to calm down "now here I want you to follow me and look behind you, hers my gun, you've been through the training, know its time to to put it to use" she kept it close to her chest and nodded again “(sigh) alright then, were only a few blocks away from my house, and whatever jumps out from us, if its not black armor, then shoot. Lets go!" hwe ran for the corner that showed a couple of vending machines for cover.

Suddenly one of the gunships were shoot down and was heading right for us. With the rush of adrenaline I grabbed Shelly by the waist  and ran for the nearest door, then ran inside before the tip of the ship made it to the streets "come on well make it through the back door!" we ran through the kitchen and through the small hallway leading towards the back yard showing a garden.

"Hollan hold on (pant) let me catch (pant) my breath." she knealed down and turned her head seeing Vex picking her up "thank you" she looked behind him and saw the gun ship slowly tipping over "Vex run!" I didn't know that she was talking about but I ran as fast as possible kicking down plastic fences and rails. Then I heard a loud crash behind me but I just kept running till I made it to my own house which was on fire.

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We were thirty feet from my house as I set down Shelly. Holding the gun tight in her hands "listen I want you to stay close and follow me" he ran into the blazing fire and Shelly jumped behind him. She follow me to the living room finding a soldier half dead on the ground "for freedom!" it fired its laser but missed as we both ducked for cover. Shelly popped out of the corner and fired her gun continuously till it hit its max temperature gauge. The soldier was for sure dead.

I looked at her see that she was freaked out "I ...I killed him. I killed a soldier" she dropped the gun twitching her hands.

"its alright, you did-" she pushed me away.

"I didn't want this, this wasn't suppose to happen in my life. My mind is going crazy!" she was beginning to commit suicide as I quickly held the gun giving her a furious face.

Suddenly their was a scream at the second floor as they looked at each other and ran upstairs.

"Kelly!Kelly!" the fire was starting to become more severe as I screamed here name two more times "Kelly!Kelly!" then I heard crying from the other room and kicked it open seeing mom protecting Kelly, she had three fresh laser wounds from her right chest and her left leg "V-Vex" she said silently as she coughed up blood and was barley alive.

I held her hand trying to keep her from leaving us while Shelly guarded the door "m-mom I...im right here mom" I started to cry seeing that she was in so much pain. "Vex your alright... Im so...glad ahhhh!" she jumped from the pain on her shoulder.

"please don't move I got the med kit right her-” she slapped the kit away from her "mom?" she coughed up more blood and looked at me smiling.

"your a good boy Vex, but that's not going to help me. Please do me one favor..." she reach behind her for something.

"mom don't say stuff like that! The hospital can help you! They-" she pulled out the gauntlet that my father used long ago. It was already loaded and sharpened for battle. She dropped it as I quickly picked it up Kelly was in shock seeing her own mother dieing "mommy please don't die!!Please!!!" she yelled pulling her bloody uniform.

"Vex" she said silently

"What is it mom" my tears started to run down my cheek as she touched both our faces, wiping the tears from our eyes.

"my time is up for this world, I will soon join your father's spirit trapped in the gauntlet. Vex I want you to take charge in Kally and leave th... Ahhugg, place! Take the gauntlet and go, don't ever look back...don't ever cry... Don't even think about giving up...” she looks at Kelly “Kelly listen to your brother... And be a strong woman.....(breathing heavy)  don't ever come back to this place...... I love you....two................." she stopped breathing  and her face and hands just dropped to the floor. Kelly almost drowned in tears as she yelled her name over and over but she didn't respond.  At that moment I lost my ability to cry and place on the gauntlet on my left wrist as it glowed yellow.

"Vex... Im sorry" Shelly placed her hand on my shoulders as I placed my clawed hand on hers.

"Kelly were leaving, their nothing we can do" the flames were starting to take up the room as I got my backpack and took a picture from her dresser and took the diary that she always held in her purse. Also inside was a tail gun that acts like a tazer only more fatal. So I placed that in my pocket and I took my journals.

Suddenly the front door was kicked open "Vex we got company!" soldiers started storming through the house tearing down the walls and furniture. "what do we do!" she yelled walking back and readied the gun.

I looked around seeing a window that was broken down and safe to walk to the ground. "this way come on!" I grabbed Kelly and jumped out. Shelly came out second and the whole house came on fire.

"Hollan let me go! I want to be with mom!"

"Kelly! She gone and is never going to come back!" she looked at me and knelled to the ground like Shelly was earlier, then in the background their was a soldier with a knife screaming towards Kelly. She just froze as she saw the blade stop at the tip of her nose seeing it was stopped by a cane.

"you shouldn't really be picking on small children like that" it was our teacher Davion.

"son of a bitch!" he tried to stab him but caught his wrist and broke it with his elbow. Then he tried a kick and he easily dodged it and punch him twice in the chest and head area making him instantly fall unconscious.

"you kids alright" he help Kelly up and stroke her from the back, making her try to calm down , "im sorry about your mother, she was a good soldier" Kelly buried herself in Davion's arms "we have to get out of here, I was told that the enemy is planning an air strike any minute now. If we go this way , I can fire up a small airship. If we move quickly we might survive" Carrying Kelly they ran through the garbaged dumped streets and dodged the traffic of gun fire and any signs of smoke. When they reached the city limits their was a transport that was in top condition "were leaving lets move!" we nodded and ran inside automatically starting the engines and flying off into the sky.

Then one of the ground troops found our position and fired at the side doors.  Shelly was frozed and afraid as the bullets fell closer and closer until "look out...!" I jumped in the way and got shoot in the back three times and a blow from the right side of my eye. The pain was so strong it made me fell like stone as Shelly drown in tears seeing me fall off the transport and down into a desert like canyon. Everything was going in slow motion as I heared my name over and over. Every passing second it became quiet and then I fainted........everything was just a blurr from that point.

                                          To be continued