Piotr Andreyev

"An old man once asked me, while I was on patrol, back on some backwater colony on the edges of AUR space... "Why do you fight?" He couldn't have been more than 70... thin wrinkles, broad shoulders, eyes that were worn and tired. He was hunched, leaning on a cane, then... and honestly, I couldn't answer. Why did I fight? It stuck in my mind... a burning hole that I couldn't fill no matter how hard I tried. It was years later that I found myself back at that same place, sent there with my unit in the midst of the War. It was in ruins... the buildings crumbling, streets cracked, homes and houses in shambles, wrecked from the artillery barrages... and it was then that I saw him, body torn to shreds... his flesh and his clothes and his organs all mangled together in a bloody visceral mâché. And that was when... when it really dawned on me. I didn't fight because I wanted to... nor did I do it because I was told to. I fought because I could."

- Corporal Piotr Andreyev, Faces of War

Piotr Grigorovich Andreyev was a Ukrainian-Born enlisted UNSC Marine and later, a UNSC Ranger. Andreyev continued active service throughout the Remnant and Necros War eras, and was eventually awarded a Colonial Cross for his actions during the War. He would later retire from the UNSC Marine Corps as a commissioned Officer, and would go on to write two memoirs on his life and military service before his death.

Childhood
"My childhood was... interesting, to say the least. It was happy, definitely, but aren't all childhoods? It's the frosting on the cake of life, hiding the rotten bread and filling underneath. You never really know what's coming ahead."

- Piotr Grigorovich Andreyev, Memoirs of a Dead Man.

Born in Kiev, Ukraine to middle-class parents Nadia Romanova and Konstantin Andreyev (a Captain in the UNSC Marine Corps), Piotr Grigorovich Andreyev lived a relatively modest childhood in the Mega-City. Often times his mother Nadia was left to care for him alone, as his father (as a Commissioned Officer,) was very often stationed off-world; thus Piotr became detached from Konstantin, leading to a rift that would only widen later in his life. This was exacerbated in that Piotr thoroughly disliked the UNSC politically; whereas his father, as a Military man, was sworn to loyalty. Piotr would undoubtedly go on to make relatively few friends, leaving him often to brood in solitude, deep in his own thoughts.

Adolescence
"I wasn't at all popular... I'd had several friends that had since elevated themselves above me. Leaving me in the dust while I brooded on my own. I was in myself secluded; detached from what was going on, and what I was thinking. But... I understood, at least, what I needed to do. I had a goal, a purpose in life, and really, I don't think I could have said the same thing of anybody else."

- Piotr Grigorovich Andreyev, Memoirs of a Dead Man

This social disfunctionality would only become worse in his teenage years, whereupon he would often become lost in his own thoughts, completely detached from what was happening around him. Such "day-dreaming," as his instructors at his Intermediate Academy would call it, ultimately contributed to his mediocre grade-point average, along with a severe lack of initiative (which would ultimately result in Piotr missing or failing to complete his assignments). Piotr became sluggish and lethargic, sitting in his own room or in front of a Personal Computer for hours on end, contributing to a strong dislike of athletics and sports, as well as exercise in general. It would be during this time that he would set his own future in stone, convincing himself thoroughly that in spite of everything, he would enlist in the UNSC Marine Corps.

Enlistment
"And what if I wasn't athletic? What did it matter how utterly lazy and lethargic I was... how much I lacked any initiative to do things... I knew my due course. I was dead set on what I needed to do, and I knew what my future was. Love? Friendship? No hopes of that... it was the Military."

- Piotr Grigorovich Andreyev, Memoirs of a Dead Man



At the age of 18 Piotr Andreyev enlisted in the UNSC Marine Corps, with an MOSQ as an Infantry Machinegunner, taking training at Fort Polyushka in the Russian Federation.

The Ranger Corps
"Surprise. That was the only thing I felt when the news came through... they'd actually accepted me. I was a Ranger."

- Piotr Grigorovich Andreyev, Memoirs of a Dead Man.



Outer Colonies
"Patrols... days upon days upon days of patrols. We'd go through the city streets, march through the forests, hike through the mountains... The UNSC was growing increasingly paranoid about the Remnants, and it showed. But... we would learn soon enough it was all for good reason; I didn't know... hell, nobody knew that Kanna was just around the corner. We were the shepherds tending the sheep; and the Brutes? They were the wolves."

- Piotr Grigorovich Andreyev, Faces of War.

Kanna
"I remember what Kanna was like before the battle... pristine waters, dense forests, and clear skies as far as the eye could see. There were cities abound, cultural and economic power-centres, filled with all sorts of... dazzling architecture and friendly people. But... then the Brutes came. The Brutes and all their bastard friends. And when you were moving through a neighborhood you remember passing by in a Patrol 'Hog before the war, you suddenly found yourself under fire... The cities suddenly became warzones. Houses that weren't blown by enemy artillery were fortified with sandbags, MG's, and combat barriers. And the nice little fountain that you saw at the centre of town, the one with the bird-shaped spout, was suddenly tinged red, filled with the dead or dying bodies of Marines you knew, plasma having burned its way through their stomachs and leaving them burned and bleeding on the cold hard stone."

- Piotr Grigorovich Andreyev, Faces of War.

Wounded-In-Action
"I remember it clearly, that day... running hastily backwards, still firing off my M45A while the other Rangers held positions. There were three of them prone on the floor, firing off MG's, and six others behind the sandbags and combat barriers, returning fire with assault and battle rifles. The sniper had been shot; knocked him right off his roost while he was aiming for another round. I remember running towards him back then, his visor cracked, the inside spattered with blood, the superheated spike having driven itself through his helmet, and shattered in his brain. It was oddly funny, seeing him twitch, blood still oozing out of his helmet, but then again, it was War, wasn't it? After that I'd ran back... two other Rangers in the platoon had since been shot, clutching wounds and cringing on the floor calling out for the Corpsmen. It was then... right then, that it came. Almost slow motion, seeing the superheated spike fly, pinning me against the instacrete fortification that I'd been in front of. From there on all I can remember is the pain... searing pain... a feeling as if somebody had stabbed you with a knife on fire."

- Piotr Grigorovich Andreyev, Faces of War