Footnote - Part One
Date: 21 January 2005, 1:17 AM
FOOTNOTE - Part One
[12:17 A.M, August 16, 2552 (Civilian Standard)
Verino, Thaddius; Colonel (retired),
planet Mars]
In the end, his father turned out to be wrong. Corporal Robert Verino made a big difference. He died a hero, on Sigma Octanus IV. He killed his enemies and sacrificed his life to ensure that his fellows would survive. Three Jackals had killed the Corporal with thier beam rifles, but before that, he had murdered two Spec Ops elites and a Hunter; and with the Jackals' attention still turned the other way, Corporal Verino's squadmates killed the murderous Jackals. The squad then rescued the civilians trapped in the Covenant-held building, herding them to a crashed cargo transport. Robert Verino died a hero, a selfless act that would have resulted in a medal if things had been different.
It would have surprised the elder Verino (who regularly wondered how such mediocre offspring could come from his genes) to have seen his son give his life so bravely. Within his experience, he found it to be an incredible - even ridiculous - notion that Robert could've died in any manner other than accidental. Later, when the senior Verino read the datafile sent by the United Nations High Command on Earth, he noted it made no mention of exactly how Robert met his end. The letter described the carnage at Sigma Octanus IV's Cote d' Azur and the violent battle for survival against the Covenant, but only two sentences were dedicated to his son's death.
"The United Earth Government - Marine armed forces division - regrets to inform you that it was in this valiant, but ultimately doomed, struggle that your son, Corporal Robert G. Verino, was killed as a result of enemy action. You should take comfort in the knowledge that your son carried himself well even in the face of overwhelming odds."
Colonel Thaddeus Verino (retired) assumed that the vague text meant Robert died in a characteristically pointless manner. He even feared that the command was trying to spare him from the knowledge that Robert died a coward. (In reality, UEG Command had no clue as to how Robert died, due to the fact that a HAVOK nuke detonated at Cote d' Azur, wiped out anything in the area, and any evidence of anything there. And in regards to the Cote d' Azur nightmare itself, the Marines serving by him had very few answers, and even fewer of that number survived.) He thought it was a shame that the distinguished Verino line (Four generations of proud military service!) should spiral into oblivion.
Two sentences. Not even worthy of a footnote, not even a chaplin.
Thaddeus crumpled the letter and threw it unceremoniously into the waste chute. He sighed and went about trying his hardest to forget he ever had a son at all.
To his credit, it should be noted that Thaddeus Verino never mentioned his son again until he succumbed to delirium on his deathbed a good thirty-three years later. Even then, all he said was a cryptic, "Ya gotta push with yer legs, Robert! The damn thing ain't gonna budge on account 'o yer girly arms!"
Corporal Robert Verino couldn't have cared if he had known about his father's reaction. Wasn't able to, anyway. However, there was a time, not too long ago, that the younger Verino would've been deeply hurt by his father's lack of compassion. Throughout his short, sorry life, Robert spent most of his time trying to win his father's approval. But by the time he died, Robert earned approval from someone better.
Robert knew exactly how much he was loved when he died. From the moment he opened his newly reformed eyes after the Overmind took his humanity from him, Robert's mind was filled with the comforting echo of the Overmind.
FORMYLOVEFORMYLOVEFORMYLOVEFORMYLOVEFORMYLOVE...
That kind of overwhelming love is scary to most humans, but by that time, Robert Verino was no longer of the Homo sapiens. His veins were filled with the brownish goo that surrounds all of the lord Overmind. His eyes saw into the thermographic spectrum. He no longer needed to breathe oxygen. His lungs were filled with an explosive mixture of methane and ammonia. He was from within and without, the Flood.
Robert only dimly sensed his former humanity. It manifested itself as a dull throb in the back of his re-wired brain. It was easily drowned out by his master's will.
DOMYBIDDINGDOMYBIDDINGDOMYBIDDINGDOMYBIDDING...
The urging of his new Flood instincts were so completely potent that Robert took all of two minutes to begin his assignment. He ran...
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