Homesick

Where do I start? I can hardly remember how long I've been here on Helphas. It must've bee... what? Six GS months? It doesn't matter; it never matters. The stench of burning flesh, the ripe smell of rotting bodies, and the ever-present smoke that burns your eyes and ravages your lungs are all more than enough to poison your mind.

I remember the day the Horns of War sounded. The grand Ruvian Infantry had it's legs chopped off at the shins and the government was calling in reinforcements; young men from all over the empire flocked to the stations, eager to sign up: they all wanted to be heroes. But we all know that heroes are for vids and bedtime stories. There are no heroes.

I remember when the Call of Honor sounded. The great Ruvian Army had it's balls shot off and was sending out the draft. I was in the yard with my sons when my youngest wife had called to me; in her hand was my ticket to Namos. I remember her eyes, that young one.

I remember the day when I left my home; when I left my three lovely, beautiful, loyal wives... and my seven robust and proud boys and girls. I remember the tears in their eyes... and the tears I dared not show. I remember the duty I felt: not to my country, but my family. It wasn't to return a hero... was to return alive.

And here I am, sitting it this metal trench. It's been nearly five years since that day. My youngest has already graduated middle school; my oldest already training to follow in my footsteps... what a wretched thought.

There are no heroes in war. My good friend, Gyruul, lost his life yesterday; he was always the dumb one. Thinking he could win the war on his own; the only thing he won was a quick and painless death. Took a Hazarian Crusher shell straight to his chest. I'm still covered in him right now. There was no fanfare, no epic last words... he didn't even finish his sentence. Just splat... and he was gone.

Wave after wave, they struck like a sandstorm. Battalion after battalion, our lines thinned. And all that time, what was I thinking? About winning? About revenge? About my family? No. Get your head out of the old vids. I wasn't thinking at all; if it was black-'n'-white, shoot it. If it had a tail and horns, shoot it. We were machines.

I may have lasted the years; I may have saved some friends; I may have taken down a few officers... but I'm no hero. I'm just a grunt. Just your average guy that got shipped off to the meat grinder. Just one of the numbers you see on the news.

And right now, I just want to see my family again.

_____________________

It's finally done

I've lost count of the hours I've spent on this--although most of those hours I was just slacking off >.>--but I'm proud to say that my best piece is finally finished!

Weeeeeeeee~!!!

When I put down my initials I was like:

"I'm gonna cry..."

Whew, it was quite a roller coaster. I learned a lot of nifty tricks along the way and, since the pic is pretty big, I got a lot of practice with them

I'd say the perspective was the largest roadblock that halted progress the longest. I had no idea that simple two-point linear perspective could unfold so conveniently x_x

The next big challenge was color scheme. I was going for a twilight/afternoon setting but with the harsh, beaming sun. So I opted for a muted "dawn"
That also made it tough to choose/modify the colors of the characters, since the Ruvian's red armor is a bit warm for the setting. I really had to grunge everything up to tone things down. Needless to say, I'm pretty damn pleased with the results ^^

I put a lot of heart and soul into this one and I hope you enjoy it~!

Detail shots here: [link]
Photo sketch here: [link]

Naturally, everyone was done by me!
(No real references either XD)