We had been slow on business and it made me quite mad, so I decided to take on some offers that we generally don’t support, yes, those kind of jobs, the ones for ruthless dictators who steal and rob from their own people, and yes, kill them too. I took three of my men and Blitzkrieg on our private plane to the new self proclaimed country of “Outer Rwanda” led by some former Rwandan general. He had tasked us with stealing a shipment of gold and diamonds that had been taken from his palace in Rwanda, and a big bonus if we kill the guys who did it. We arrived in Rwanda and met the man, he had some cheap military surplus gear on and his men had even more meager weapons, WW2 and early Soviet Era weapons and clothing, I smiled and thought of us in the early days of our country, we had used similar gear. After inspecting his troops, we met the General in his “Palace” which was just really a broken old hut that was rotting, he fed us a “Delicious” meal of some of the finest food of Paris, some snails he dug up and some cheap instant noodles. “The diamonds are mine! I earned them fairly,” the General said, his story sounded oh so convincing, but I knew they were earned in blood of his enemies, but we still accepted the assignment, but this one was special, we were doing this one for free.

We waited a few days for some more of our men to fly in then we planned the attack. The objective was on a train, heading out of the country, the total amount of men was around twenty on the train, but what the General didn't know is that we had no plans to kill them, but safely return it to its owner. “Blitzkrieg, here use this one!” I yelled over the sound of the rotors spinning as we sat in the helicopter, flying over the train, I handed him a VSS rifle with sleeping dart rounds as we flew over the front of the train, I smiled and flipped my Walkmen on, the tape that was in was a mixtape, the first track was Long Tall Sally, one of my favorites. Me and a few others jumped out of the helicopter onto the front of it, I busted the front window out and the driver screamed something at me, in which I responded “Knuckle Sandwich” but used my fist to say it, he slumped down out cold, I climbed in and stopped the train, then climbed out from the driver,s cart and hopped into the helicopter, whichthen we flew off as our other helicopters picked up the cars of gold and diamonds, we begin flying north, instead of south towards the General’s camp.

We arrived at a village in Rwanda and got out, the people of the village ran away scared, so I got out and yelled, “Those who live in fear, want fear, to achieve freedom you must fight for it.” I then motioned for the troops to offload the gold and diamonds and it spilled out onto the dirt. I picked some of the diamonds up and handed them to a small child who began crying, he took them and ran to a hut, we then begin giving the diamonds away to them, some of the men in the village came to us and joined up with us.

About a week later, I got a call from a very angry Rwandan man, who demanded his gold back, we had taken it and melted it down into large blocks of gold, and hid it upon our base, and we had a buyer confirmed for it as well, it was time to expand the business, and these kind of expansions are costly.

My dream was a nation where people could be free to express who they are and to provide a safe haven for soldiers who have no other cause, and five months after the gold heist, we made this dream a reality. The island in which we currently inhabit is about the size of the Moloka’i, with about two-hundred people. We had at last become our own nation, not led by creed or autocracy rules, but by a military nation who does not abuse their power, but they wanted one more thing of us, to become a nuclear superpower.

“Sir, you do know how many innocent lives are on the island?” the President said, as he sat down in his seat. He was sitting at a table, on the phone with the Joint Chiefs of Staff  and a few other officers, they had a map of a small island on the table, General Vance walked over and stubbed his cigar out on the table, he used the unlit, burnt cigar to draw some lines on the map. “We do airstrikes here and here and we can take out the fuel lines, which will burst and leak fuel on the main base, giving us one big ol target!” the General exclaimed. He then sat back down and looked at the President, “Let’s plan this out a bit more before we go any further”.

We had a decent amount of funds left over from the gold heist, but not even close enough to buy a nuclear weapon, so we needed at least two more jobs, or one really big one, like one of those government contracts. I talked with my contact in the Pentagon in within a day ,the JCS faxed me over a document, with what they wanted from us, the job seemed way too easy, steal uranium rods from the Chinese-North Korean border.

“General, say if this group ends up taking the rods for themselves, what do we do then?” said the President as he snubbed out his smoke, he looked at the Joint Chiefs of Staff who were blacked out on the big screen in the command room, he sighed as they conspired in the darkness of their shadowed out figures on the screen. “Another question for you guys. When can I meet you guys?” the President said, as he had never met these high up men in his life, but only talked to their darked out faces on a screen. “We pick who we meet, just like the Ministers Of Espionage, you may never live to meet us,” one of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said to the President, who now was looking at them oddly, by the time he heard the click behind him, he died in a quick boom from a pistol. The Joint Chiefs of Staff on the screen laughed and begin speaking to each other. “What was the leader of that group’s name again?” one of them asked to the other ones. “Grim, from what intel has reported.”

“Grim…...are you even close to nervous about this as I am?” Blitzkrieg said, his voice was shaky and nervous, and this was a man who was never afraid of anything, so I knew something was wrong. “What’s wrong with you today? I think it would be best for you to stay behind on this one.” I said, and before he could complain or argue I said, “That’s final, if you don’t like it then leave…..” he sat down and smiled, and I could tell by the way his eyes looked, the evil thoughts going through his head

As we flew, we saw the truck going on a backroad, with no protection around it, we flew pretty low and landed in front of it, I thought of how Blitzkrieg was doing back at the base and then got out and aimed my rifle at the driver, who gave up pretty easily, he didnt even have a gun ,I knew this was too easy, but this was not even the beginning of it. About five tanks and over fifteen soldiers came out of the bushes and had their guns aimed at me and the few men I had, I looked at them, their rifles were aimed securely on me. I noticed one of them looked behind me and I then looked, and saw Blitzkrieg walking towards me. “I told you I don’t ever need backup.” I said, he smiled and said, “Backups not for you…” he said, with a big smile on his face, as he hit me with his pistol, I fell down and went out cold.

I awoke to the cold splash of water being thrown upon my face. I was tied up to a chair and had a bag over my head to cover my face, I could hear other men talking and through the bag, I could make out the shapes of other prisoners. My captors removed the bag from my face and spit on me, they also yelled in what sounded like very very broken Korean, like they were Americans reading it from a translator (Which I knew thats what they were). Me and about forty others were subjects to waterboarding,being put in a heated room, then thrown outside into the snow and doing chores around the prison. In our cells, we were given a radio, which only got some cheep amatur radio station that played some rock and some blues.

After awhile, I was met with some interrogators from the states, the questions were mostly about the island and the nuclear rods. “We know you have a certain need for nuclear energy and thats why you came all the way out here.” the man said to me, I kept silent as he went on and on for answers “Theres nothing you can do that will make me betray my men..” I said to him. “Why don’t we kill them then? How will that make you feel?” I smiled and said “I fight for them and for myself.” I then leaned back in my chair and smiled, he then motioned for something.

“If you fight for yourself and them, then what if you can’t fight? Then what will you be?” I got ready to respond but before I could the door slammed open and a man with a bone saw walked in, along with two men, one of which slammed me head down on the table and held me down. “I will be the deterrent of your act of terrorism towards OUR GREAT NATION!” the man said as he got up, I smiled with my busted lip and said “Our nations are two different things”.... as the man walked out, the two others nodded and the third man took his saw and placed it at my elbow of my right arm and began sawing, I cried in pain and within moments, they were done, they took my arm and then took a knife and jabbed my left eye with it, and with that, they walked away, leaving me in the room bleeding out on the floor.In this moment, I decided all the rules of engagement we had were off, we will deter them.

I stood up a bit later and opened the door with my left arm and stumbled towards the laundry house, nobody was here so I sat down in a chair and grabbed some tape and covered my mouth with it, I then picked up a iron from the table and plugged it in then turned it on. After it sat for a bit and heated up, I closed my eyes and pressed the iron against where they cut my arm off, I could feel flesh burning as the wound closed, I grunted and tried to scream but I couldnt. I got up grabbed a kitchen knife from the table and quickly shoved it into a outlet, with sparked and shorted out the camps power. I ran out of the building and towards the helipad, men with guns shot at me but mostly missed, I hopped into a attack chopper and fired it up and took off, driving it with my left arm and right knee

I begin going towards the island and saw mostly fire coming from it. I landed on the helipad of the main building and saw men being dragged away from fire and smoke, I fell to my knees on the helipad and a tear came from my cut out eye, stinging the wound and I fell limp on the ground.

I opened my eyes  and awoke on a bed, some of my medical staff were treating the wounded, I ripped the IV from my stump arm and got up, some of the staff tried to stop me, but I walked past them and walked out into the sunlight of the hot afternoon, I whispered to a medical staff member to bring all the wounded and those that are left of able bodied soldiers to the main hall. I stood on the main stage in the hall and looked at my army of over 500. Most of them were wounded, I tapped the microphone and begin speaking to them.

“We were promised freedom in our homelands, and some of us, totalitarian governments, but we stand above all of those, we are the iron fist the world fears, the one who will help free them…” I paused for a minute, the crowd was looking semi riled up, I smiled and started up again.

“When a soldier fights, he does not fight for his country, but for his brothers in arms and family's freedom and independence.
Politics change with time, so does one's country
If if he fights for his country, he is not fighting for his beliefs, but for those of others who nitpick and control those who have been set free.
By going by his own system of freedom and independence, the soldier fights not for his country, but for his brothers in arms and family.
This is why we fight
Not for politics, homeland or country
But for yourself,family and fellow brothers in arms.
That is why we fight!”

Every man in the room stood up and clapped and yelled, even those who were left crippled from the attack on the base tried their best to clap and yell, I smiled and said, “At this moment we change our rules, as the foes of us have changed their tactics and rules…” the curtain behind me came up and Blitzkrieg was tied to a chair along with some other hostages, they had blindfolds on their heads. I had men aim their rifles at them and on the count of three they pulled the triggers and the men tied up shuddered, but there was no gunshots. “We refuse to go to that level…….these men betrayed not only me, but all of you….and they will one day pay…” I opened a box next to my chair, it was quite large and when I opened it, it shone of green light, I then spoke up, “I promised you guys a nuclear nation, and your wish has been granted…..now who will take the fight to them?” and on this day for the first time, everyone stood up.