Attitudes.

A Marine Corps Sergeant did his part in an attack on a Middle-Eastern city, in order to take down a dictator who not only shot the rightful president, but had the populace killed in their thousands.

During the attack, the Sergeant’s unit was informed that there was a possible nuclear device in the Presidential palace.

The Marine’s unit lifted off in the evac chopper, when from the tailgate, the Marine Sergeant saw a Cobra attack helicopter get hit by ground fire and crash land. The pilot was killed, but small arms fire along with panicked calls for help showed that the gunner was still alive.

Despite the massive number of enemy soldiers that were advancing on the chopper, the Marine’s commander chose to land and attempt a rescue, even though the rescue attempt guaranteed that the chopper wouldn’t be at a minimum safe distance if the nuclear device in the Presidential palace detonated.

During the rescue, the Marine Sergeant dodged enemy gunfire from a massively superior force and managed to pull the female gunner from the wreckage. He physically carried her, still under heavy fire and wounded himself, back to the Chinook. Obviously in pain, she flopped onto a chair, with not even enough strength left to thank her rescuer.

The Chinook lifted off, and still coming under heavy fire, joined a formation of friendly aircraft evacuating from the city.

The radio crackles, informing the troops that a NEST team was on location and was working to defuse the nuke. However, the transmission was cut short as the Marine Sergeant saw a mushroom cloud bloom from the ground behind the chopper. As the blinding light faded, a shockwave raced out from ground zero, destroying everything in its path.

The Chinook, electrics fried from the blast’s EMP, went into a violent spin. The Marine Sergeant could do nothing but watch in horror as one of his friends lost his grip and was thrown from the back of the helicopter. From his vantage point at the back, the Marine also got to see the other aircraft in the formation spin out of control or get thrown out of the air by the shockwave that was rapidly gaining on his aircraft. The helicopter crashed hard and the Marine lost consciousness.

He awoke in a nightmare world. The chopper was split almost cleanly in two, and the only company in the wreckage was one of his dead comrades. From the tailgate all he could see was a blood-red sky. A nuclear wind was whipping up radioactive ash that was so thick it looked like snow.

He pulled himself along the floor as best he could, inch by agonizing inch, and managed to struggle to his feet. He tried to jump from the back of what was left of the chopper, but landed badly, his legs unable to carry him. He clawed his way along the ground, managing to stand again for a few seconds, but fell again after a few limping steps.

As his vision faded for the last time, the last thing he saw was a tall apartment building collapse in front of him, burned out cars littering the road and, almost bizarrely, a street sign written in a language he can’t understand standing next to the cracked, destroyed road, almost pristine among so much destruction.

He lost consciousness for the last time.

No one will ever know he helped save his comrades lives during the attack. No one will ever know how he ran through heavy gunfire, dodging bullets and getting wounded himself, just to save the life of a pilot he didn’t know.

He becomes another statistic. Another Marine soldier KIA.

All of the above happens to one of your characters in ‘Call of Duty : Modern Combat’, not if you lose, but as part of the story

…and people say these games de-sensitize you to violence and glorify combat and killing.

All I took from this game is a deeper respect for our armed forces, and the hope that I never, ever have to go to war in real life.