The Travis Hicks Diaries

Entries 1 Through 5

CASE FILE # 20-06-78 VBH

PRISONER NAME: HICKS, TRAVIS

AGE: 24

PLACE OF BIRTH: EDWARDS SPACE STATION

FORMER OCCUPATION: JUNIOR SERGEANT IN THE UNITED EARTH ARMED FORCES

CRIMES: COWARDICE IN THE FACE OF BATTLE. TWO CASES OF MURDER IN THE FIRST DEGREEE, BOTH COMMITTED AGAINST SUPERIOR OFFICERS.

RECOMMENDED PENALTY: EXECUTION. ALTERNATIVELY, THE PRISONER CAN BE, GIVEN HIS STELLAR MILITARY RECORD PRIOR TO HIS CRIMES, BE RECRUITED FOR THE DPW PROJECT. THAT HE MANAGED TO SURVIVE THE FIERCE BATTLES ON LV-089 SHOWS US THAT HE HAS THE NEEDED SKILLS TO BE A USEFUL ADDITION TO IT.

FINAL VERDICT: THE PRISONER IS TO BE TRANSPORTED TO THE UNITED ARMY TRAINING FACILITY IN BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA, WHERE HE WILL BE ADDED TO THE DPW PROJECT. HE WILL THERE UNDERGO FURTHER TRAINING, AS WELL AS BEHAVIOR MODIFICATION THERAPY FOR THE NEXT TWO MONTHS, UNTIL HE IS TO BE SENT OFF TO THE FRONT LINES, WHERE HE WILL SERVE A MINIMUM OF TEN YEARS OF COMBAT DUTY, BEFORE HE IS ELIGIBLE FOR PAROLE. HE IS FOR THAT DURATION OF TIME TO BE CONSIDERED EXPENDABLE AND CAN, IN CASE HE CHOOSES TO ATTEMPT TO FLEE OR REBEL IN OTHER EXTREME WAYS, BE EXECUTED IMMEDIATELY WITHOUT ANY NEED FOR A NEW TRIAL.

November 8, 2193

United Army Training Facility

Buenos Aires, Earth

Entry #1:

DPW. Three little letters that when separated mean nothing, but when they're put together mean everything to me and the other 11 men and women, I've been put here with. Officially it stands for "Directly Placed War-Combatants", but we all know what it should stand for: "Dead Piss-Ants Walking", because that's all we are to them. Everyone is here because it was this or the death penalty for them and since I'm the only one of us, who can read and write in a fairly intelligible way and is willing to do this, I've been chosen by them to tell our story. Who knows, maybe someday someone will read it and realize what a shit-show everything was right now. Then again, with the dick-heads we have in charge, it wouldn't surprise any of us, if the worst is still to come.

Allow me to introduce myself. Travis Hicks is the name and nowadays, it's close to being all I have left. Not that I ever had much to begin with, but there was a time when I could hold my head high and my folks back home on the station, where I grew up, could be proud that they'd raised such a fine soldier for the United Earth Army. It's hard to believe that it's been 8 years already, since I signed up on my 16th birthday (like most of those I grew up with did as well) and said my goodbyes to them a few days later. I remember telling them that I would return one day with a uniform, that was covered from top to bottom with all of the medals, I was going to earn in the war against the Syndicate. What a stupid kid, I was!

Here on the base, the days are more or less the same. You eat, you train, you eat some more, you train some more, before you're forced spend the majority of your evening listening to Weyland/Yutani propaganda, or as the army calls it "Behavior Modification Therapy". When you hit 9 o'clock, they send you to bed, so you can wake up and do almost the exact same thing again the day after. They told us on the first day, that we will get 60 days of training, before we're sent out on our first mission. For nearly all of us, it's the same as going through basic training again, with a few extra "assignments" thrown in to make us obedient to their system again. If there's one thing the United Earth Army have always been experts in, it's making stubborn assholes fall in line, but with this rag-tag group of misfits, they definitely have their work cut out. We all know too well how little of a shit they give about us, so we give as little of a shit about them and their whole rotten system.