The US military does not condone the killing of unarmed or surrendering combatants. But this isn't real, so why should you care?

'Dear Princess Celestia,

Today I learned an important lesson about friendship! While me and my friends were out having a picnic we ran into a little bit of trouble and there was some arguing. In the end even though some feelings were hurt everything turned out to be okay and we managed to have a lovely afternoon together! In the end I learned that even though you have occasionally have conflicting opinions and ideals than those you care for, that doesn't mean that you shouldn't trust and support them whenever you can. I feel the experience has made us closer as a whole and I'm glad it was resolved peacefully! Anyways, as we were heading back to Ponyville we passed the Everfree and I noticed some rather large magical anomalies coming from within.

"W..why..., we c-came to t..-take you h..-home.."

Walker glances down at the bloodied solider as he speaks, emotionless eyes casually noticing the mans hand desperately grasping for the M9 pistol at his side that had fallen off of the hood of the Humvee and landed next to him. In response he grabs the man and throws him to the ground, stomping onto his hand with his boot and impassively noting the sound of bones snapping and the subsequent screams of pain from the solider. In truth Walker didn't know why he had decided to slaughter Falcon 1, but in the end he simply didn't care enough to think about it either. A small semblance of pity passes through him as he watches the man writhe on the ground in agony, so he raises his AA-12 and with a swift squeeze of the trigger turns the mans head to bloody mush, spraying blood and grey matter onto the front of the Humvee.

He raises his head as he hears the radio on the dead mans vest spark to life a concerned voice calling out "Falcon-1, this is command - Do you copy? We heard shots. Is everything okay? Sergeant Roberts, what the hell is going on?!"

He reaches out and grabs it, bringing it up to his face and gazing at it for a few moments, contemplating.

'After we got back to Ponyville I was unable to rest, so I decided to head out to the forest at night, I know. Not a smart idea, but I was concerned. After a few hours of investigating I found nothing and no further trace of unknown magic, so with confidence I do believe that it was nothing dangerous or that important, and even if it was me there's nothing me and my friends can't handle together!

Your Faithful Student

Twilight Sparkle'

"Gentlemen, welcome to Dubai."

Dubai
Time Unknown
Date Unknown
Year... Does it matter anymore?

Walker gazes around the ruined city as he walks through it's deserted streets. The only noise being the crunching of sand under his boot or the squelching of flesh every now and then as he tramples a forgotten and covered corpse. He had been doing this for hours now, walking aimlessly in his own personal purgatory. Even as he gazed at all the ruin he had wrought he still cannot let go of his belief that all of it was necessary, that he HAD to do it. The 33rd had left him no choice. Konrad had left him NO choice. At the Gate his hand was forced by the 33rd, everything that had happened was their own fault! They had brought it onto themselves...right?

At least that was what he kept telling himself as he wandered the broken streets, he had no real objective or place that he was specifically walking to, nor did he care about how even the sun seemed to be spitefully gazing down upon him, relentless heat doing nothing to stop him, doing nothing to make him care. His thoughts are brought to his deceased squad mates, his friends. John Lugo, the one constantly telling him to stop. To think about what he was doing, in the end he was beaten and hung by the very refugees they were trying to save. Walker remembers the blind rage he had felt at seeing his friend die, and remembers raising his rifle along with Adams and gunning down the entire crowd, slaughtering his way through the camp. They brought it on themselves just like the 33rd did. He wasn't a monster!

Adams had died sacrificing himself so that Walker could make it to Konrad's tower with him died the last of Walkers ability to care. After he had made it in the only goal or thought he had was killing John Konrad, the source of all of the suffering in Dubai. He still remembers one of the things Adam's had said to him earlier that day, ‘Lugo's blood is on your hands, Walker, not mine!'

Walker could understand why Adams had thought that way, but he also understood that Adams was merely hurt and speaking nonsense. Of course Lugo's blood wasn't on his hands it was the fault of the 33rd like everything else was! Walker is torn out of his thoughts as a sound breaks the silence of Dubai's streets - a cough and the crunching of sand.

"H-hey! W-whoever you are, I need help! I-I was wounded by those Delta fucks and I've been wandering around for...god I don't even know how long now! Please, I need help!" comes a desperate plead from up ahead, Walker looks up and sees a silhouette of a man among the blowing sand. Having nothing better to do he resumes walking, though this time in the direction of the plea. After a few minutes he gets close enough to see the man clearly, scowling as he sees the emblem of the 33rd on his armor.

"O-Oh..f-fuck..., Y-you're f-fucking him? Y-you're fucking W-Walker!" the man cries out in total fear, desperately drawing the M9 at his hip and raising it in an attempt to be threatening. "N-not one more fu-fucking step man! I-I'll blow your head off y-you fucking psychopath!"

Walker carelessly keeps approaching the man, watching as possibly the last member of the 33rd in Dubai drops his gun. When Walker gets within 15 steps of him, the damned solider starts scrambling backwards in an attempt to escape, but merely winds up falling backwards and desperately trying to back up.

"C-C'mon man...I-I'm a Solider...A US Soldier. I...I n-never wanted to stay here! I-I didn't agree with the c-colonel disobeying orders, b-but I'm j-just a Corporal m-man...", he stammers out eyes desperate and pleading.

Walker stops a few feet away, looking down at the man as he reaches into a pocket of his vest, taking out a worn picture of a young woman cradling an infant in her arms. "P-please man... I-I got a k-kid and a W-wife man....Just let me go. Please. If I make it back I'll turn myself in, I'll do whatever the fuck you want! I just don't want to die here, sir!" he cries out, tears starting to streak down his face.

Walker stands still for a few moments, contemplating before he simply and coldly says "No.", and draws the Desert Eagle from his holster and fires six of the seven shots in the guns magazine into the mans head.

The soldiers legs give out and he drops to his knees, missing most of his head and neck as a fountain of blood spurts out of where it once was.

The broken Delta Captain reaches down and grabs the dead mans pistol, ejecting the magazine and letting out a coldhearted chuckle as he sees it's empty and tosses it onto the ground.

All clear. It's silent; no sound of voices, no distant voices. No sign of anyone at all. Bereft of guidance or a goal he just wanders aimlessly through the empty streets, the corpses offering him no clues. Walker is at a dead end now, with no way to escape. He had been sitting in a half fallen apart chair under the partially collapsed roof of an abandoned cafe for hours now, puffing on a cigarette he had found being clutched in the hands of a bloodied corpse, one of the ones he had made himself earlier in the day.

He sighs to himself as he thinks of everything that had happened over the last seventy two hours. It was supposed to be such an easy mission, he and his team went in. Do some recon, possibly get Konrad, his men and the civilians out of the wretched hellhole and then return home as heroes. But of course nothing in life is simple nor will anything in life ever be simple. So as the cigarette burns down to barely a bud his brain focuses on a single thing. 'Why am I still here?', he had won; there was no reason for him to stay around. So with that final thought in his head he starts to chuckle, an insane and unpleasant sound as he grabs his pistol placing it against his temple. It all was really so simple in the end, wasn't it? Just one simple fact that he had been missing for so long.

No one leaves Dubai.

He pulls the trigger.

Author's Note

The absolutely most heart wrenching thing about the story of Spec Ops: The Line is that everyone, absolutely everyone is only trying to do what they think is the right thing.

Konrad disobeyed orders to attempt to save Dubai. When the evacuation failed, he tried to keep everyone safe by creating some form of order in Dubai with the military power of the 33rd.

The looters fought back because they felt like the 33rd were exploiting them and treating them as slaves.

Riggs doomed Dubai because he wanted to protect his country.

The Radioman and the 33rd fought back because of their loyalty to Konrad.

And Walker just wanted to be a hero.

Look how that turned out.

This story was born of a simple idea, is Walker a monster? Can be be redeemed? Or is he simply doomed to repeat his mistakes over, and over, and over again.

That dear readers is up to you to decide.

I am by no means an experienced writer nor do I claim to be one. I'm writing this because I had an idea and I saw no one else had written anything like it so here I am. In the end I am simply writing this for fun.