So, how-come in all the stories I've read since I was a little girl, the protagonist always had a best friend? She was also very plain, too. Then if it were a love story, some sexy mysterious guy would randomly come along into the protagonist's life and they'd fall in love, have an argument that separates them, then they'd fall in love again and in the end they'd get married. The protagonist's best friend also ended up being with somebody.
I don't get it, though. I don't have a best friend. Hell, I don't have anybody that I'd consider my friend. No sexy mysterious guys take any interest in me. Things like that do happen though. A girl named Maggie, she got to have that dream come true. Jared, ex-soldier from The Sun Clan, was decent-looking and very mysterious. Maggie and Jared fell in love, but recently they've been separated since the officials found out that Jared was from The Sun Clan and dared to return to a normal colony. They took Jared away. Maggie and Jared will be together again though, since it seems like the exact story line of some corny love story. They fall in love, get separated (instead of an argument), then get back together and get married.
Okay, and to avoid confusion.. here's life for you:
The world is pretty much divided. Earth is ruled by its clans and militaries, each unique and different. Each clan with its own base and territory. In other words, this planet is filled with never-ending war. Plenty, plenty of different wars. Some clans are small, and are easily defeated and extinct. For example, The Sun Clan that Jared was in. It was defeated, it was no more. Nobody was supposed to survive, so those that did fled into the colonies. Of course, then there's the big clans. Deers Territory, Yaoj, Military of Buzd, Xeo Legion, Zithotan Empire, those are some of the names of the big guys. Nobody wants to mess with them. Some of them don't have that many soldiers, but their soldiers are highly-skilled and specially trained. Zithotan Empire is a perfect example of that, only 1500 soldiers, but damn they could defeat anybody. Military of Buzd is probably the other most widely-known one, because it has the most soldiers. 600,000 soldiers. Most of them have never even fought though, Military of Buzd loses a lot of wars. They manage to defend their territory, though. That's how they're still around. Many people don't mess with them because of their numbers. As usual clans and militaries, most of them have allies. Xeo Legion is notorious because it tries to ally with all the big-guys, and it does. If anyone attacks the Xeo Legion, Military of Buzd, Yaoj, and several other empires not as well-known will instantly step in.
I already briefly referred to the colonies, but never explained what it was. Well, not everyone chooses the violent, completely and utterly terrible, military lifestyle. So scattered around there's different colonies that people can try to live in war-free peace. Separated into 2 types of colonies. One for the people who just live out their lives without any influence of war, and one for which people who go to war and decide to come back. People who come back from the military are widely frowned upon, so they're not allowed back into our regular colonies. We look down upon them because they decided to go fight, and then changed their mind about the peace that we at the colonies all want. With that being said, there isn't many colonies for those who come back from clans.. but at least there are some out there.
What is the main reason people don't want to go join a clan? No love. In the majority of the clans, and all the serious ones (not the little tiny ones like The Sun Clan that are easily defeated) there is no relationships tolerated. No sex, no love, nothing. Therefore, people in the clans cannot have children. Even rules can't stop some people from love though, so when a girl in a military gets pregnaut it's EXTREMELY frowned upon. Depending on what clan you're in, the consequences are different. In some of the clans, the woman and the father would get sent to live in one of those ex-military soldier colonies, and then when the child was born it would be sent to a normal colony to be an orphan. In others, and probably most of them, the woman and the father would be executed. When I was young, I heard a story that a man and woman from the Zithotan Empire got drunk and had sex, then eventually she found out she was pregnant. The Zithotan Empire found out about it, and locked up the man and woman and tortured them for 12 hours each day. They weren't given food or water, so they died out quickly. It's a pretty scary story..
People who do join clans mostly just join to have power, that's it. Well, and the other big reason.. Clans think they can push us around since we're just colonies. Some militaries help colonies from the clans that think they can push us around, but usually they're busy defending their own land because it's the small militaries that help. The colonies can be a terrible place to live. Soldiers from clans come in and think they can eat whatever they want, do whatever and whoever they want, and kill who they want. The colony I live in is mildly safe, but I've seen some pretty gruesome things happen over the years...
Lastly, because I'm sorry to rant on, but before I start telling you about what's going on in my life.. you need to understand. Okay, so how to join a military. It's extremely simple. Once we're the age of 15, we have until we're 30 to decide if we're going to join a clan. At the end of each month, guides will come to take away people who wish to join a clan. They're sent away for us to show our skills in front of clan-leaders, who'll then either accept them as a soldier or not. We can choose what clan we want to join. If we get declined, we can either apply for another one, or start going through special training to apply again. That is, if you're allowed to apply again. In order to get into the Zithotan Empire, you have to be elite. People go train for a few years before they apply, and then it's still hard to get in. You're allowed to train before you apply for a clan, but most people don't unless it's something like the Zithotan Empire. Oh, back to what I was saying about age 15-30. When we're 15, we can either choose if we want to join a clan or not. Each month when the guides come, they'll sit outside for a day with a booth set up. Starting at age 15, we're welcome to sign up and then go with them at nightfall.We have until we're 30 to decide if we want to join a clan or not, but once we're age 30 we are no longer able to sign up to join a clan. But say if we join a clan at age 29, and then become 30, we won't retire. Most militaries fight till the death, retiring is seen as disloyal, dishonorable. We can choose to retire though if we must, some clans allow it. We'll just get sent to one of those ex-military colonies. However, some clans, like the Zithotan Empire, if retiring is attempted we're executed. People need to manage to sneak away somehow, which is very difficult if the case is you're in the Zithotan Empire.
I've decided NOT to join a clan. I turned 17 just two months ago, and I thought that if I ever wanted to join a clan, I'd go at age 15 and train until I'm 20. Then I'd enroll in a high-end military. I like peace, I'm satisfied with my life I guess. I could probably meet some nice friends if I joined a clan, and I'd never find love anyways... but fighting? That isn't really my style.
