His senses were bombarded as Jimmies took his first step. The heat felt choking and dry, his nose wrinkling at the alien smells, smelling like salt that had been wet by blood, dirt and sand mixed together to form a concoction of smells. The suns were blinding, and he tried blinking the brightness away, but found it impossible as he had to shield them from the light. And as he took his third step, his eyes slowly adjusted to this new environment, not fully, but enough so he could squint with them.

A vast landscape of nothing came into view, brownish-golden land as far as the eye could see. His foot impacted the ground, sinking into the dirt with slight resistance, not enough to be a nuisance, but enough to notice. One arm firmly holding his gun and the other covering his eyes. He listened for any sounds, hearing the wind rushing past. Then a voice yelling something.

He turned around and peaked to the side of his pod, both hands now firmly holding the gun. Then he spotted his commander, joined by Dick and Bill, his grip around the gun loosened. A little further away, he could see the others. He noted how the pods had dispersed several meters away from each other, but close enough so they wouldn’t be completely separated.

“Perimeter! Set up a perimeter!” The commander shouted, waving at everyone to gather round. Chris and Rick jogged over, heads darting from side to side as they scanned their surroundings. Jimmie also noted that they wore what looked like sunglasses, looking back at the commander, he noted down that he also wore similiar glasses, but bigger and seemingly thicker. Then he noticed Piernov walking up to them, but he kept his gaze somewhere behind us, staring intensely. Jimmie noticed that he wasn’t wearing any glasses, somehow not fazed by the blinding suns.

Bill and Dick took up positions on either side of what Jimmie assumed was the commander’s pod, and Jimmie saw that they were wearing the same sunglasses as Chris and Rick, which confused Jimmie; why had he and Piernov not recieved any glasses? The commander hunkered down on one knee, pushing at the sides of his helmet that connected to his glasses, looking down at the ground with a focused expression.

Jimmie closed in, Dick nodded towards him, then focused back on where he was looking. Jimmie sat down, taking up position opposite of Dick and Bill, staring out into, nothing.

When Chris and Rick came, they positioned themselves to cover Jimmies left, which was Dick’s and Bill’s right. Then, when Piernov came, he positioned himself opposite Chris and Rick, but didn’t take his eyes away from where he was looking, saying.

“Commander, I can see movement in that direction” Pointing his arm towards where he was looking. The commander took one look at him, then back to where he was pointing, narrowing his eyes and nodding affirmatively. Jimmie also tried to see what Piernov was talking about, but couldn’t see a thing because of the blinding suns. And the fact that there was nothing there.

Piernov was pointing in the direction that Chris and Rick was facing, and glancing down at them, Jimmie noticed that they had taken up a more stiff posture, aiming their rifles forward. Rick then yelled.

“How far?” The commander didn’t look up to respond, but still shouted back.

“Several miles away, probably more. Impossible to see who they belong too” To which Rick nodded, but still let his weapon rest high, each hand uneasily moving around to get a better grip.

“Jimmie! Watch the perimeter!” Dick suddenly yelled, taking Jimmie by surprise, a flash of annoyence crossing his mind, angrily staring back at Dick. Then through the corner of his eye, he noticed that the commander had paused what he was doing to give him a curious glance. Which made Jimmie slowly turn away, staring back at his designated spot. Out into nothing.

Minutes passed by in silence, everyone focused on their respective position, patiently awaiting the commander's orders, the commander himself hunkered down, looking as if he was muttering something to himself while pointing at different parts of the dirt.

Everyone was doing something, except for Jimmie, Jimmie felt restless. He started checking himself, realising that he had something on top of his helmet, and as he pulled them down to look, he smiled briefly as he immediately recognised them as sunglasses. Then he looked back and forth, trying to gauge if anyone had seen his stupidity, and breathing out in relief as there didn’t seem like anyone had. The glasses were tinted black, arching back into an oval, looking like nothing special, but as he put them on, he quickly realised that they were. The glasses dimmed the brightness of the sun, but not in a way that impeded his vision, then a small red number flashed to life, showing the number “two hundred”. He puzzled his brain around the number for a second, then looked down at his gun, seeing the same“two hundred” and took a guess.

Spurred on by his find, he searched with a vigor for anything new. Eventually finding two high explosive grenades strapped loosely to the back of his waist. And then finding the promised obsidian “knife”.

Knife was a bad word to describe it, as it was the same length as Jimmies upper arm, even a tiny bit taller. Almost like a small sword rather than a knife.

Jimmies was roused from his musings as the commander spoke up, and Jimmie turned around to listen to him while sliding the knife back.

“Okay, Bill I want you to keep an eye out. The rest of you, gather round me” The group quickly moved in close, forming a semi-circle around the commander. He nodded, then pointed at the ground, pushing a finger at the dirt then saying.

“I’ve got some bad news” Looking at each of us in turn.

“Were far ways into no-mans-land. There will be no evac, and there will be no rescue for us” The gathered men remained silent, expressions turning firm and grim. The commander continued.

“If my map is correct, we should be a week's march from the nearest fortification. We'll have to march through were Piernov had sighted movement” He took a deep breath, then quickly moved on.

“Hopefully, it’s allies. But you never know in no-mans-land. Piernov and Dick, you’ll walk upfront, tell us when you can discern if their enemies or allies” A nod from Piernov and Dick.

“Chris, Rick and Bill will march with me in the middle.” He then turned to Bill who had his back away from the group and yelled.

“Bill, you’ll get heavy gun duty” Getting a rough sigh in response, which the commander ignored as he looked to me.

“Jimmie, you’ll be rear guard” Moving back to pointing at the ground, but stopped as Jimmie loudly declared.

“I dont want to be rear guard” To which the commander, almost comically, snapped his head back to look at Jimmie, staring with narrowed eyes. An expression that told of future retribution, but Jimmie just stared back. The gathered troops looking horrified, Chris even shook his head furiously out of sight of the commander, trying to tell Jimmie something. But before Jimmie could figure it out, the commander continued.

“And why would I care about what you want?” Almost a whisper, the hairs on Jimmies arm folding up. But Jimmie still met the commander's eyes head on, not flinching as he responded.

“I’m the best shot here. I’m off no use as the rear guard” The commander narrowed his eyes, almost vanishing under his thick eyebrows.

“That’s right, but I’m not so sure you’ll hold up to the pressure” Now everyone was shaking their heads at Jimmie, even Bill gestured in the distance for Jimmie to stop, doing excessively big motions with his huge body. But Jimmie didn’t care for them, he only felt cold resentment towards the commander, who in his eyes, were questioning his bravery. What does he think he is? A child?

“Of course I’ll hold up. If anything, I’ll just kill the one who pressures me” There was almost an audible gasp at that, but Jimmie just continued to stare intensely at the commander who just stared blankly at Jimmie, a hand scratching at his non-existent beard. Without looking away from Jimmie, he asked.

“Dick, what do you think?” And Jimmie immediately shifted his sights away from the commander and onto Dick, a cold sweat breaking out on his back. A sense of dread creeping on, then forming back to anger as he hated that Dick made him feel like that.

Dick stared at Jimmie, his face an unreadable mask. The group was now looking at Dick, all with raised brows. But Dick just continued to stare at Jimmie, no changes in expression. And the seconds ticked on.

“He’ll do fine” He suddenly said, turning his head to the commander while nodding with a smile. Which made Jimmie sigh loudly in relief, then going confused, then turning to mild annoyance. The commander merely huffed in response, staying silent for an entire minute until he himself spoke.

“Change of plans. Bill, you’ll be rear guard, if we have to retreat, you’ll set up shop with the heavy gun and give us suppressing fire. Jimmie, you’ll be with Dick and Piernov at the front” The group nodded, each casting glances at Jimmie and the commander. Jimmie knew he had just made it out of the fire and was lucky to do so. But he was still glad that he had spoken up, for he wished, no, he craved for real action.

“Oh, and Jimme, you’ll take orders directly from Dick. If he tells you to take a shot, you do it. If he tells you to shit your pants, you do it” The surrounding men lightly chuckled, then as they turned their heads to Jimme, the chuckle turned to a laugh. Jimmie’s face was easily readable as his face was contorted into disgust and anger. Jimmie immediately tried refuting.

“I wo-“

“Is this understood, Jimmie?” The commander wore a smile, but his eyes looked threatening and Jimmie remembered why he hated groups. So he nodded slowly, letting his head fall down to show submission.

“Good, now then. I want everyone to gather your bags and take stock of what we have. All ammo, food and water is to be gathered into a single pile.”

The group responding in unison

“Yes sir”

Then moving to their own pods. Jimmie sat still, feeling rather dumb as he pondered.

Bags?