'Bentley Ashers is me, always has been and always will be. Throughout war and peacetime, he is who I am. He is what I became, he was there for me through thick and thin. Someone I could always rely on. But that, that is a different story.'
This story however, will cover sad times and happy times. It will follow Bentley Ashers through his life in the Bretonian Armed Forces and how it changed him, how it hardened him to death. To feel no emotion in the face of danger. To look death in the eyes and pull victory from the jaws of defeat.
[color=#FFCC33]Ashers was an ordinary chap before he was called up, he enjoyed sitting at home with his family, watching his children play in the summer sun, gleaming off of the emerald sea. He enjoyed his life, there was no fear. Nothing to be afraid of. War, however, that changes a man.
Ashers was called up during the very start of the Kusari invasion, pilots were needed to fill the boots of the fallen. He didn't want to at all, hell he didn't even think the war was a good idea. But being on Leeds, his family was in danger, so he stepped up and stopped whinging. Basic training took six months where he showed he certainly wasn't a fighter pilot. The Colour Sergeants were about to send him home when they found he had a certain knack at Co-Piloting a bomber, to Ashers' dismay, he was on the frontline four weeks later.
The vessel he was in, the Challenger or the 'Duck' as the Pilots nicknamed it, was a great piece of kit. Could take a beating whilst dishing it out. The pilot he would be flying with was a known Lieutenant by the name of Boris McDonald, he was a loud mouthed Edinburgh chap, but he had a massive heart. The pair grew to be great friends over the coming years, to Ashers it had almost been as though his family were with him, in the form of a caring, funny man. But, since the evacuations on Leeds a few months prior, he had not seen them. Not even McDonald could fill that gaping hole. But as usual, Ashers thundered on. His thoughts upon the whole situation, if he won the war, he would see them again. It was as simple as that. Win the war. This focused him more than ever,he worked his way up the ranks with McDonald right beside him. They both got to Commander until the unthinkable happened.
Reality had slapped them in the face. They had just been shot down and were being marched into the brig of an unknown warship. All they knew was that their war was over, for now at least.
Bravery is being the only one who knows you're afraid. - David Hackworth (1930 - 2005)
