History
Michael was born to a Disas family. His mother was a religious person, and his father was an officer in the military. At an early age, he became very sick with various diseases, giving him his yellowish complexion, as well as resulting in his thin body he hasn’t fully recovered from. This made his mother very overprotective about him while his father, when off-duty, was ordering him to do chores around the house.
At school, he wasn’t really faring well. He used to be weak-minded, enjoying unimportant and childish things, but he eventually grew out of them. Instead of pursuing the things his classmates liked doing, he enjoyed staying at home, simply reading various theories at a young age. He became very interested in history, as well. It was also at this point that he was filled with the nationalistic spirit of his father, but alas, he was still too physically weak. Instead, he wanted to pursue a political career.
Eventually, however, the Wrea Federation attacked his homeland, and immediately, he wanted to answer the call to arms. He was seventeen at the time, so when he one day escaped from home, he applied for the army. They believed his initial lie of being eighteen, but they didn’t accept him because of his physical weakness. He snuck back home, and despite his hatred of physical activity and despite his laziness, he began to exercise and eat more and more. In a year, when he was eighteen, nearly nineteen, he was fit enough by military standards.
However, the final nail in the coffin that made him pursue a military career was the death of his parents in one day. Her mother, while out in town, was killed in a bombing raid. His father, while in a jeep en route to the battlefield to be with his troops, was killed in a strafing run by a Wrea Federation plane. His hatred grew, and he saw his world crumble right in front of him. He saw the destruction that Wrea had brought to his nation. He joined the military a day after their funerals, giving the rights to their family home to his brothers.
Eventually, Michael was accepted due to a short supply of men. In the same day, earlier, an order was issued: all men and women capable enough were to be drafted, no matter who they were, whatever their history may be, or whatever their jobs were; they were all to be drafted. They took Michael, saying he was ‘good enough,’ and was given a two-month training course. Being a fan of high-power, high-velocity guns, he wanted to have a bolt-action rifle in hand, but they saw that Michael did not have steady hands. Instead, he was handed a submachine gun. He excelled in training, and he saw his own potential with an SMG. He would definitely be a stormtrooper. The thought of death consumed him, and that kept him awake. However, he soon concluded that all men die, and to die gloriously on the battlefield is better than dying sickly in a bed. He would die for his country, and he would not back down. He would protect his nation, and more importantly, he would protect his only family left: his brother and sister.
He saw the horrors of war once he was deployed with a single order: “Not one step back.” He cursed when he saw this fate he was given, rushing into a volley of machine gun fire. He charged, indeed, but his entire unit was wiped out. That was when he saw the reality of their situation: they were so desperate that their leaders were sending them in droves to die. He watched as his first friends were all annihilated right in front of his eyes, and his heart broke. But, there was no time for tears in war. Honestly, he was disappointed with this tactic of charging into enemy lines, but what could he do? An order was an order. If the nation lost this war, it would be the fault of the generals. For the first time in his life, Michael felt hopeless. On his nineteenth birthday, his present was imprisonment. He was captured while hiding in an urban battlefield by Wrea forces, and imprisoned.
He was kept in the nearest POW camp, and to his surprise only a week after, Gersan forces liberated the destroyed town, the Wrea lines of retreat cut off after a surprisingly brilliant manoeuvre to the enemy’s rear, crushing them and forcing them to surrender. Michael was impressed. He was liberated soon enough, and the first thing he asked for was his gun.
Michael was sent back to be reassigned to a new unit, and he was reassigned to the 7th Platoon of the 65th Spearhead Division. At first, he didn’t know what they were supposed to do, but when he was sent behind enemy lines, he knew immediately that they were going to distract enemy forces. It was the only reason why they were being dropped off in the area miles behind the enemy. Majority of those in the platoon were way older than him, and he tried to know about them. Only a man, a corporal, by the name of Isaiah Nekrivich was the only one who asked first, and Michael wasn’t able to ask back. The two established a good connection immediately, but Michael was continuously thinking: was this one a journalist? His questions sounded like questions a journalist would ask. However, the only question he asked before being deployed on the ground was: “How long are they going to stay distracted?”