Tales of Old:
The air was dry and I could feel nothing but sand beneath my body; Where was I and how did I get here? As I stood up from the ground and scanned the area; it appeared as though I was in a desert. The temperature was unbearable. I began to pat around my body for my canteen. Nothing. "Kahretsin," I muttered in my native language under my breath as I holstered myself off of the ground. I began to make my way through the deserted area - covered in sand and stray cacti here and there - trying to remember where I was. That's when it hit me, I was in the middle of my international training for the Ozel Kuvvetler Komutanligi which is a group comprised of the most elite soldiers. We survived the several weeks in the deadly tropical rainforest and the horrid below zero temperatures of the Artic and now we were at the height of our training to survive in Egypt. It was absolutely vital that we knew how to survive in every kind of environmental condition. After Egypt, we still had to tackle the wild terrain that was Russia and a mountainous region but my fellow soldiers were nowhere in sight.
That's when it hit me, I strayed away from my brethren because of the strangest occurrence I've ever faced. I stopped in my tracks and turned to a nearby cactus, I went to place my finger up to one of the very few lavender flowers that blossomed from the plant. As my finger connected, the once beautiful flower began to turn to a dark grainy sand. My mouth became even more dry at the sight and my heart began to race. What was I? I stepped away from the cactus and started to run, I'm not sure why or where I was even going. I didn't stop until my legs gave out and the sky had darkened to the point where the stars were gleaming in the night sky over the desert.
Exhaustion was sinking in and I didn't know where my comrades were or if I even wanted to find them. I wasn't normal and this was not something they were going to easily accept. I began to feel around for my radio now, by god I could only hope I still had that and there it was strapped to my ankle. I grabbed it and went to speak into it before I heard voices coming from the shadows. I put the radio back in its holster on my ankle and tried to stick to the darkness, the last thing I wanted was confrontation but the sensation in the pit of my stomach was telling me otherwise. I could hear their thick Egyptian accents speaking in their native tongue. It was only a matter of moments before they began to close in on me, seven in total I counted and before I could raise my hand to surrender, my face was met with the butt end of a pistol and I fell unconscious.
When I awoke, I was in a dark cavernous area with my hands cuffed to the back of a chair. My eyes took notice to my now destroyed radio on the ground before me and a flashlight now was pointed to my face. These men were Egyptian Rebels, intent on taking the Military Counsel of Egypt down. They'd mistaken me for a soldier of the counsel despite my very unique uniform. I was questioned for what felt like hours on matters that I knew nothing about before I heard bodies dropping in the distance. As the one questioning me turned to figure out what the hell was happening, a machete was drove through his chest and I was face to face with an elderly man. He was my hero, he set me free that night and harbored me for a few days and this very man was Prince Osman Rifaat Ibrahim, one of the last remaining links to the Mohamed Ali Dynasty and a man that both the Rebels and the Military Counsel of Egypt feared.
My life forever changed through meeting this man, he was very kind despite the negative stigma that surrounded Royal Families. Not only was he kind but he was also gifted and through his knowledge, I began to gain control of these powers that were granted to me. I stayed with him for four weeks before I decided I needed to return to Turkey and show my fellow comrades and officers that I was without a doubt still alive despite the circumstances. I gained an ally and a vast arsenal of knowledge before I began the long journey back home and this was the event that forever changed the life and guided me on the path I am on to this day.
Now onto how I became who I am today
My name is Haji Sahin and my father, Alp Sahin, always told me I was destined for greatness. He was a soldier of the Turk Silahlฤฑ Kuvvetleri in his youth and he met my mother, Annalissa Massri Sahin whom was a esteemed Psychiatrist for the armed forces - consoling the men and women who risked their lives for their country - through the Army. These two set me on a path to lead a wonderful life. My father began training me in hand to hand combat and the ways of a soldier when I hit the ripe age of five and the training from my father never stopped up until the day I joined the Turk Silahlฤฑ Kuvvetleri. My mother was an intelligent woman who could mentally break down any individual who stepped into her office. She ensured that I held an impeccable mental prowess and for this. She is the type of woman to know when there was something wrong in my life and how to fix it. If not for her, I probably wouldn't have managed to survive the crippling training my father put me through but I did and I'm all the better for it because of them.
When I turned seventeen, my father was determined for me to join Turk Silahlฤฑ Kuvvetleri, so he pulled a couple of strings and my basic training began. The basic training was a walk in the park compared to what my father put me through and when I succeeded basic training, my commanding officer came to me. I took several exams, some of which were mental and others which were very physical. I was unsure what he was preparing me to do until I was branded an official candidate for Ozel Kuvvetler Komutanligi or more commonly known across the world as the Turkish Special Forces. So began my forty-seven part intensive training to become an elite soldier. It began smooth, I practically sailed through the seventy two week domestic training, learning several foreign languages, new methods of combat, the methods of how biological, chemical, and nuclear warfare worked. I also gained knowledge in parachuting, diving, sniping, demolition, counter-terrorism, search and rescue, stealth seek and destroy, reconnaissance and most importantly, survival. A lot of soldiers dropped out through these intensive training processes but several others and I stood strong as we moved into the next phase. Throughout training, one phrase stuck out to me the most: Olum onurlu olduฤunu, korku ve baลarฤฑsฤฑzlฤฑk deฤildir. Which in English means, Death is honourable, fear and failure are not.
I kept this in mind as I made my way into international training, the most intense part of the entire training process. We were already exhausted but we only had to survive thirty six weeks in a variety of different climates with only a radio if we were to decide to opt-out. There were times when all of us wanted to, we had to hunt for our food, find shelter in even the coldest of climates and pretty much just live on the land. It's what the ancients did, right? Well it was going well, there were only a few more weeks ago and that's when Egypt happened and I learned that I was no ordinary human. I panicked and fled from my comrades only to find myself captive to rebels and saved by a Prince of Egypt which I've told you about above. That day forever changed my life, the Prince was unable to set me up with a plane home and I was to travel back to the base on my own.
I was a survivor and I surely survived the nearly year-long journey from Egypt all the way back to Turkey. I arrived several days before the soldiers who survived had officially become Elite Soldiers. My Commanding Officer, Hezarfen Ahmet Celebi, and all of the comrades who survived the remainder of the international training were all surprised that I had lived to see another day. I was considered left for dead but here I was, alive and well, exhausted but alive. I debriefed the Commander Celebi and the Chief, Berkant Gahmet on what had taken place in the months of my absence. I left out several key points to my story, Prince Ibrahim being one, as well as my newfound sand manipulating abilities. I filled it in with the rising tensions of the Egyptian Rebels and the Military Counsel, information I learned a lot about from the Prince. I told them how I'd got caught by the Rebels but managed to set myself free and begin to seek a method home with only a compass.
They were baffled, almost unbelieving but I was here and they couldn't disprove that. This was honored and considered the last half of my international training because I had survived without the assistance of my comrades, completely on my own. It was mostly the truth, that year journey back to Turkey, I was alone and it was a terrifying journey. There was only one more test I would have to pass and I would reach prestige. I would be known as an Elite Soldier, oh my parents would be so proud of me. The Trust Shot had come and we were all honored with a ceremony of only our families and other soldiers.
My parents had received word that I was no longer alive and the looks on their faces when they saw me that day was the best thing I've ever seen. It was wonderful, I was alive and they were proud of me. I would now serve with some of the most elite soldiers to walk the Earth. I was only twenty years old and in for one hell of a ride.
The next few years I pretty much lived in the shadows, sent on countless classified missions directly from the General Staff of the Republic of Turkey. What I've witnessed and my very actions at times were enough to make any normal civilian cringe but us elite soldiers didn't make it to this prestige to walk the land among the norm. We were the protectors of the innocent and that's what we will always do. Protect the innocence.
I spent time honing my abilities over those few years and by the time I was twenty three, something very strange happened. I was summoned to Egypt by Prince Ibrahim, he was an intelligent man yet finding me still proved to be a very difficult task but he did and requested a very unusual request which I'm still surprised was approved by the General Staff of Turkey. Tensions between the Royal Family and the Military Counsel of Egypt had reached new heights with the notion that the Royal Family was the only threat to their official conquer of Egypt to transform it into a total police state.
They were finding and slaughtering the members of the family and Prince Ibrahim sough me out so I could provide his young granddaughter, Layla Omari with the protection she deserved. A manner of paying back the life debt I owed the elderly Prince. Ibrahim was killed shortly after I found my way to Layla whom the Prince had hidden away in a cavern near the Nile River. Layla Omari was only fourteen years of age, so youthful yet everything she'd known and loved had crumbled to pieces around her. She witnessed the very murder of her parents and knew of her grandfathers death with me showing up. She'd been forewarned that Ibrahim had sent a very viable soldier to protect and train his granddaughter. He knew that together we were capable of taking down the Military Counsel.
Layla Omari was an amazing young girl, full of secrets, her royal lineage gave her a special prowess, magic which was bestowed upon her ancestors by the Egyptian Goddess Isis several centuries prior. She had such potential and I had to unleash it. This was all so very strange to me, Ibrahim opened a door to a whole new world to me and I just had to embrace it. I had to protect this young Princess and ensure that Ibrahim' death was not in vain. The Military Counsel, elites who were supposed to protect needed to be removed from their current positions so that Egypt could get better and Layla could live the rest of her life in peace. I am convinced and I have convinced the Princess that together we will succeed. There is no doubt in my mind, for Death is honourable but Fear and Failure are not.
I still occasionally do missions for the OKK but my main priority is taking the Military Counsel down and ensuring the preservation of the last link to the Royal Mohamed Ali Dynasty because she alone is the very hope for Egypt.
