From SC Creator: This was an amazing piece of fan fiction and it was a great pleasure for me to read and edit. It is the first piece of fan fiction which I will consider part of my universe since it is very general and Carlos took great pains to write it to not conflict with SC and fit into the already established Shattered Citadel Universe. He also gave me the liberty to edit it and add to it. Most of the story is his work, but I did correct much of the errors and put in some of my own stuff to add to its relevance. I hope you all enjoy this story. 21022011.
Hello Mr.Mangual,
This is a fan fiction I wrote in interview style entitled Pasos de los Padres (Footsteps of the Fathers). It revolves around a young mexican-american boy and his experiance during the North American campaign. The date it takes places I leave to you since I dont really know when earth really recovers in your universe but all others correspond to what you have writen. I hope you enjoy reading this as much as Ive enjoyed reading your stories. I have several more ideas should you like this one.
Carlos Javier Vazquez, Los Angeles CA.
“Then join in hand, brave Americans all! By uniting we stand, by dividing we fall.”
John Dickerson, Songs of Liberty
SCFF: Pasos De Los Padres
By: Carlos Javier Vazquez
San Fernando Station, Los Angeles, North America, Earth [Sol] 06302192
The mag rails had been running late that day, so I arrived a little late to the city. This was my first time visiting the rebuilt city of Los Angeles. After decades of it being radiated and let to burn, it had finally become habitable for humans after years of terraforming. The city was bustling with activity as construction crews rushed about from construction site to construction site. Everywhere I looked another building was being rebuilt or entirely created to house the influx of people sent to repopulate the reclaimed city of Los Angeles. Los Angeles was a now one of the fastest growing cities in the world and was going through an economic revival and population explosion.
I arrived to where I was supposed to meet my next interview, it was in a small Mexican style restaurant named “El Sol de America.” Walking inside my interviewee immediately recognized who I was and beckoned me to his table where he sat eating with his young wife. He smiled at me and wrapped his arms around her. He was more then a century old, but still looked young. Not surprising since modern medicine and the augmented human project had extending the life spans of every human being including many of the Great War veterans. We exchanged pleasantries and sat down together. His wife excused herself and sat at another table with their children.
"So Mr. Esperanza shall we get started?"
"Please call me Nathan, let’s keep this from being too formal." He said with a smile.
"Nathan, well let me thank you for agreeing to this interview. I’ll be asking you several questions about the third war, please answer truthfully. I want you to know that whatever you say can’t be used against you in a court of law. You are protected under the Third Human Civil War Amnesty Act of 2119. Do you understand?"
"I understand completely ma’am."
"Lets us start with your birth place."
"I was born here in Los Angeles on September. 1st, 2045. I was the second generation of my family to be born in the United States."
"Tell me more about that."
"Well what can I say? I was a typical American guy; I grew up in the United States. I learned here and lived here. My family was as patriotic as any other American. I visited my ancestral homeland of Mexico every summer and respected my culture as much as possible, but America was my home. When the Third War hit I was sad to see my older brother go off to war. He enlisted in the Marines..."
"Tell me about the war."
"I was ten when it started; my older brother immediately enlisted and was shipped off the pacific to fight the Chinos. The first five years were filled with riots and protest of all sorts. I remember several students at my high school organizing a walkout. Today it’s easy to mock those so called traitors, but back then I could see why they wanted peace. America wasn’t what it once was, but still acted like the tough bully it wanted to be. A century of exploiting the world and ourselves had finally caught up. My pa fought in the First Democratic War and when he returned; nobody gave a shit. Both my parents worked very hard to keep our family afloat and provide for me and my brother. No. America wasn’t perfect, but for us it was home and we loved it. I guess that’s what most of those protesters didn’t see. We had it good compared to other countries. I don’t blame them or the government. What happened happened."
"Was that what made you want to fight in the war?"
"Want to fight? [He says in a slightly annoyed tone] Nobody wanted to fight, we had to fight. I never actually enlisted. I was thrown into the war at the age of fifteen. That’s what most people don’t get. We weren’t fighting for land, freedom, or country. We were fighting for our very survival. At least that's what I found out later." [He takes a sip of his tea and smiles kindly at me]
"I see... Can you tell me about your experiences during the war?"
"Where should I begin?"
"How about where you personally entered the war."
"Well that would be during the summer of 2060, right after the invasion of America. My family was in Zacatecas, Mexico for my brothers’ funeral. He had died defending Hawaii from the Chinos in Honolulu. It's a small miracle that his body was shipped back to us. We heard about the invasion of California on the local news and for the first few days we watched on TV as Los Angeles was nuked and slowly destroyed by the Hegemony. Everyone I knew was there and I worried constantly about my friends there. I remember the violent protest as millions marched in anger here in Mexico. There was hardly anybody in Mexico who didn’t have a relative or friend living in America. It didn’t take long for Mexico to join the war with America. As the Hegemony invaded Mexico itself and approached Zacatecas my father had my mother and grandparents sent south to safer areas. I begged him to let me stay and after hours of yelling and arguing with my mom he decided to keep me by his side to stay and fight."
"So you fought as a child soldier?"
"Child soldier, adult soldier, it didn't matter to the hegemony. They would of killed me just the same. My father organized the local men and taught them how to fight and we ambushed the Hegemony as they rushed into the city of Zacatecas. Those first few years were tough, the Hegemony occupied nearly half of the continent and killed anybody who resisted. Millions died. It didn’t take long before my dad’s hard earned knowledge in guerrilla warfare paid off. We spent our time ambushing convoys, laying roadside bombs, booby trapping building and sending as many of those damn chinos straight to hell. It didn’t matter how out gunned or out manned we were, we always had something to give to those bastards. By the age of eighteen, around the time I should have been graduating high school, I was a finely tuned guerrilla soldier. Instead of learning algebra I learned how to make plastic explosives. Instead of going to prom, I went out and shot up an armored column with my friends. Talk about a wild adolescence." [He says laughing]
"Tell me about the march north."
"Oh yes… that was when the United States counter attacked across the Mississippi. Mexico launched a massive attack to put pressure on the hegemony from the south. What’s funny is that that’s what Mexico had been doing the whole time."
"What do you mean?"
"Well unlike the United States which had a natural barrier to stop the hegemony; Mexico wasn't so lucky. The U.S. had the Mississippi river which ran along their whole country; the U.S. converted it into a fortress and stopped the chinos there. We stopped the Hegemony by constantly being on the offensive and keeping the Hegemony on its toes. The front lines would constantly shift and we would find ourselves behind enemy lines most of the time. Most Mexicans compared our fight against the Hegemony to the struggle the Aztecs went through against the Conquistadors. Personally I hated that comparison."
"Why is that?"
"The Aztecs were exterminated by the conquistadors! Besides I didn’t consider myself Mexican, in my mind I was still an American. I wasn’t fighting for country like the others; I wanted to fight the Hegemony here just so I could get those Chinos off my country. When I told my father that he slapped me across the head so hard I damn nearly forgot how to speak Spanish. He told me to get that bullshit out of my skull. We were fighting not as Americans, not as Mexicans but as a single people. There was no difference between the man in India, Europe, Brazil or Africa. We were one people now, fighting for survival."
"He sounds like a wise man"
"The smartest guy I ever knew, it hurts knowing that he didn’t get to see the new world we created today."
"You did eventually make it back home didn’t you?"
"Yes I did. After the massive counter attack we soon began to push the Chinos out of North America. It was hard fighting but when people in the occupied cities heard of our victories they rose up and gave the Hegemony hell. By March 2064 we started to surround Los Angeles. Armies from many different nations assembled there to finally kick those damn Hegeemos off of North America. Our group of men where attached to a Free Japan robotic unit in the second battle of Los Angeles. When the attack began we moved block by block covering the Japanese machines from anti-armor infantry as they covered us from enemy armor. Meanwhile the combined Allied Air Forces gave the retreating Hegemony army all sorts of hell. We eventually reached the coast and my unit was tasked with clearing the San Pedro Hills. Those hills overlooked the Pacific Ocean and that’s when it sank in what my father told me. There I was fighting with men from across the globe in a city that had been burned to ashes. We fought as brothers and that’s what I think is the most important lesson we learned from the war."
"What do you mean?"
"For centuries we killed and fought against each other. But when driven to near extinction we said 'No more!'” We fought as one and worked to create a better world. Today we live in a near utopia. This garden we call Earth is well cared for and our people are beginning to see each other not as different creeds but as a single race."
"What about those who say humans can’t live united like the purists or the secessionists?"
"They are letting the past cloud their judgment. I saw great horrors during that war, things that should have not been allowed. My wife is a survivor of the comfort camp. [He looks at her and smiles at his wife as she plays with a toddler on her knee] We must put the future of the next generation first above anything else and not follow the same path our fathers took. That’s the only way we can truly honor the dead."
"Is that what you’d like to say to future generations?"
"Yes and also how to make a decent caldo." [He says as he swirls his spoon around his soup bowl and laughs]
We stand up and shake hands as his wife joins us and we say our goodbyes. Their grandchildren play around me and try to open my bag. Mr. Esperanza yanks the child back and tells him not to do that. I walk out of the restaurant into the sunny weather outside. I notice a man painting a mural on the wall of a ruined four story building on the other side of the newly paved road. It has a half painted picture of a bloodied soldier waving an American flag in a Mexican uniform, below him are the words “Unidos siempre para todo humanidad.” I smile.
Hello Mr.Mangual,
This is a fan fiction I wrote in interview style entitled Pasos de los Padres (Footsteps of the Fathers). It revolves around a young mexican-american boy and his experiance during the North American campaign. The date it takes places I leave to you since I dont really know when earth really recovers in your universe but all others correspond to what you have writen. I hope you enjoy reading this as much as Ive enjoyed reading your stories. I have several more ideas should you like this one.
Carlos Javier Vazquez, Los Angeles CA.
“Then join in hand, brave Americans all! By uniting we stand, by dividing we fall.”
John Dickerson, Songs of Liberty
SCFF: Pasos De Los Padres
By: Carlos Javier Vazquez
San Fernando Station, Los Angeles, North America, Earth [Sol] 06302192
The mag rails had been running late that day, so I arrived a little late to the city. This was my first time visiting the rebuilt city of Los Angeles. After decades of it being radiated and let to burn, it had finally become habitable for humans after years of terraforming. The city was bustling with activity as construction crews rushed about from construction site to construction site. Everywhere I looked another building was being rebuilt or entirely created to house the influx of people sent to repopulate the reclaimed city of Los Angeles. Los Angeles was a now one of the fastest growing cities in the world and was going through an economic revival and population explosion.
I arrived to where I was supposed to meet my next interview, it was in a small Mexican style restaurant named “El Sol de America.” Walking inside my interviewee immediately recognized who I was and beckoned me to his table where he sat eating with his young wife. He smiled at me and wrapped his arms around her. He was more then a century old, but still looked young. Not surprising since modern medicine and the augmented human project had extending the life spans of every human being including many of the Great War veterans. We exchanged pleasantries and sat down together. His wife excused herself and sat at another table with their children.
"So Mr. Esperanza shall we get started?"
"Please call me Nathan, let’s keep this from being too formal." He said with a smile.
"Nathan, well let me thank you for agreeing to this interview. I’ll be asking you several questions about the third war, please answer truthfully. I want you to know that whatever you say can’t be used against you in a court of law. You are protected under the Third Human Civil War Amnesty Act of 2119. Do you understand?"
"I understand completely ma’am."
"Lets us start with your birth place."
"I was born here in Los Angeles on September. 1st, 2045. I was the second generation of my family to be born in the United States."
"Tell me more about that."
"Well what can I say? I was a typical American guy; I grew up in the United States. I learned here and lived here. My family was as patriotic as any other American. I visited my ancestral homeland of Mexico every summer and respected my culture as much as possible, but America was my home. When the Third War hit I was sad to see my older brother go off to war. He enlisted in the Marines..."
"Tell me about the war."
"I was ten when it started; my older brother immediately enlisted and was shipped off the pacific to fight the Chinos. The first five years were filled with riots and protest of all sorts. I remember several students at my high school organizing a walkout. Today it’s easy to mock those so called traitors, but back then I could see why they wanted peace. America wasn’t what it once was, but still acted like the tough bully it wanted to be. A century of exploiting the world and ourselves had finally caught up. My pa fought in the First Democratic War and when he returned; nobody gave a shit. Both my parents worked very hard to keep our family afloat and provide for me and my brother. No. America wasn’t perfect, but for us it was home and we loved it. I guess that’s what most of those protesters didn’t see. We had it good compared to other countries. I don’t blame them or the government. What happened happened."
"Was that what made you want to fight in the war?"
"Want to fight? [He says in a slightly annoyed tone] Nobody wanted to fight, we had to fight. I never actually enlisted. I was thrown into the war at the age of fifteen. That’s what most people don’t get. We weren’t fighting for land, freedom, or country. We were fighting for our very survival. At least that's what I found out later." [He takes a sip of his tea and smiles kindly at me]
"I see... Can you tell me about your experiences during the war?"
"Where should I begin?"
"How about where you personally entered the war."
"Well that would be during the summer of 2060, right after the invasion of America. My family was in Zacatecas, Mexico for my brothers’ funeral. He had died defending Hawaii from the Chinos in Honolulu. It's a small miracle that his body was shipped back to us. We heard about the invasion of California on the local news and for the first few days we watched on TV as Los Angeles was nuked and slowly destroyed by the Hegemony. Everyone I knew was there and I worried constantly about my friends there. I remember the violent protest as millions marched in anger here in Mexico. There was hardly anybody in Mexico who didn’t have a relative or friend living in America. It didn’t take long for Mexico to join the war with America. As the Hegemony invaded Mexico itself and approached Zacatecas my father had my mother and grandparents sent south to safer areas. I begged him to let me stay and after hours of yelling and arguing with my mom he decided to keep me by his side to stay and fight."
"So you fought as a child soldier?"
"Child soldier, adult soldier, it didn't matter to the hegemony. They would of killed me just the same. My father organized the local men and taught them how to fight and we ambushed the Hegemony as they rushed into the city of Zacatecas. Those first few years were tough, the Hegemony occupied nearly half of the continent and killed anybody who resisted. Millions died. It didn’t take long before my dad’s hard earned knowledge in guerrilla warfare paid off. We spent our time ambushing convoys, laying roadside bombs, booby trapping building and sending as many of those damn chinos straight to hell. It didn’t matter how out gunned or out manned we were, we always had something to give to those bastards. By the age of eighteen, around the time I should have been graduating high school, I was a finely tuned guerrilla soldier. Instead of learning algebra I learned how to make plastic explosives. Instead of going to prom, I went out and shot up an armored column with my friends. Talk about a wild adolescence." [He says laughing]
"Tell me about the march north."
"Oh yes… that was when the United States counter attacked across the Mississippi. Mexico launched a massive attack to put pressure on the hegemony from the south. What’s funny is that that’s what Mexico had been doing the whole time."
"What do you mean?"
"Well unlike the United States which had a natural barrier to stop the hegemony; Mexico wasn't so lucky. The U.S. had the Mississippi river which ran along their whole country; the U.S. converted it into a fortress and stopped the chinos there. We stopped the Hegemony by constantly being on the offensive and keeping the Hegemony on its toes. The front lines would constantly shift and we would find ourselves behind enemy lines most of the time. Most Mexicans compared our fight against the Hegemony to the struggle the Aztecs went through against the Conquistadors. Personally I hated that comparison."
"Why is that?"
"The Aztecs were exterminated by the conquistadors! Besides I didn’t consider myself Mexican, in my mind I was still an American. I wasn’t fighting for country like the others; I wanted to fight the Hegemony here just so I could get those Chinos off my country. When I told my father that he slapped me across the head so hard I damn nearly forgot how to speak Spanish. He told me to get that bullshit out of my skull. We were fighting not as Americans, not as Mexicans but as a single people. There was no difference between the man in India, Europe, Brazil or Africa. We were one people now, fighting for survival."
"He sounds like a wise man"
"The smartest guy I ever knew, it hurts knowing that he didn’t get to see the new world we created today."
"You did eventually make it back home didn’t you?"
"Yes I did. After the massive counter attack we soon began to push the Chinos out of North America. It was hard fighting but when people in the occupied cities heard of our victories they rose up and gave the Hegemony hell. By March 2064 we started to surround Los Angeles. Armies from many different nations assembled there to finally kick those damn Hegeemos off of North America. Our group of men where attached to a Free Japan robotic unit in the second battle of Los Angeles. When the attack began we moved block by block covering the Japanese machines from anti-armor infantry as they covered us from enemy armor. Meanwhile the combined Allied Air Forces gave the retreating Hegemony army all sorts of hell. We eventually reached the coast and my unit was tasked with clearing the San Pedro Hills. Those hills overlooked the Pacific Ocean and that’s when it sank in what my father told me. There I was fighting with men from across the globe in a city that had been burned to ashes. We fought as brothers and that’s what I think is the most important lesson we learned from the war."
"What do you mean?"
"For centuries we killed and fought against each other. But when driven to near extinction we said 'No more!'” We fought as one and worked to create a better world. Today we live in a near utopia. This garden we call Earth is well cared for and our people are beginning to see each other not as different creeds but as a single race."
"What about those who say humans can’t live united like the purists or the secessionists?"
"They are letting the past cloud their judgment. I saw great horrors during that war, things that should have not been allowed. My wife is a survivor of the comfort camp. [He looks at her and smiles at his wife as she plays with a toddler on her knee] We must put the future of the next generation first above anything else and not follow the same path our fathers took. That’s the only way we can truly honor the dead."
"Is that what you’d like to say to future generations?"
"Yes and also how to make a decent caldo." [He says as he swirls his spoon around his soup bowl and laughs]
We stand up and shake hands as his wife joins us and we say our goodbyes. Their grandchildren play around me and try to open my bag. Mr. Esperanza yanks the child back and tells him not to do that. I walk out of the restaurant into the sunny weather outside. I notice a man painting a mural on the wall of a ruined four story building on the other side of the newly paved road. It has a half painted picture of a bloodied soldier waving an American flag in a Mexican uniform, below him are the words “Unidos siempre para todo humanidad.” I smile.
Mexican soldiers prepare a defensive position outside of Juarez, Mexico, Earth [Sol]
SCFF: Pasos de los Padres
Tue, 22nd February, 2011
By: Carlos Javier Vazquez, Los Angeles CA.
A man remembers his time fighting against the Chinese Hegemony as a guerrilla in the Mexican resistance in North America. A story set in WW3 based on the Shattered Citadel Universe. Comments appreciated. Please leave them here.
A man remembers his time fighting against the Chinese Hegemony as a guerrilla in the Mexican resistance in North America. A story set in WW3 based on the Shattered Citadel Universe. Comments appreciated. Please leave them here.