---Esme’s perspective---
---Monday, 20th of July, 2685 Terran Calendar---
---Eastern Pangaea, New Australia---
‘Die.’
‘Die.’
‘Die.’
‘Die.’
‘Fuck you!’
‘Die!’
I think as I kill xeno after xeno in the ruins of what was once a vibrant planetary capital.
My body is producing the movements necessary to sever limbs and punch in faces with very little direction from my, otherwise occupied, conscious mind.
I wrench the head off of a 3m tall mantis looking fucker and throw it at a lizardy looking one hard enough to stove in his chest.
Laserfire roasts a patch on my back, hot enough to burn my skin with the heat my armour conducts.
I round on the four foot tall xeno who looks like an aye-aye.
As I beat him to death, my mind just keeps showing me my husband being stabbed in the back by that snake monster.
“Esme! Silence that nest!” directs Burrows.
“With pleasure.” I answer, joylessly.
Since Oskar’s death, he’s being using me as an attack dog.
I know it… I don’t particularly care.
It’s almost certainly not the healthiest way of dealing with grief, channelling yourself into vengeful killing… but it’s the only therapy I’ve got available, right now(!)
My sword flashes, destroying the gun and, in short order, dispatching its crew when they pull small arms on me.
“Angels inbound! 600 seconds! Hold position!” shouts Burrows, over the helmet comms.
Please don’t order me to wait!
It hurts so much less when I’m fighting!
For the next ten minutes, we just huddle behind cover, periodically popping up to return fire at the heavy fortification blocking our way.
Then, a dozen Humans streak through the sky from behind us.
The Airbornes land, handily avoiding the pathetic attempts to shoot them out of the sky.
They quickly begin dismantling the resistance.
They signal us that the fortification is dealt with and immediately take off to some other part of the battlefield requesting their help.
“Obstruction neutralised! Move up!”
---Nathan’s perspective---
---Saturday, 8th of August, 2685 Terran Calendar---
Eleven months to the day since we landed on this planet, I lean forward to the microphone, on the desk, and begin speaking:
“To all civilians, partisan forces and liberation forces receiving this message… My name is Captain Nathan ‘Wellington’ Burrows and I am the Acting Commander of the 16,616th Battalion, from Earth… I speak to you now from the chamber of The New Australian House of Representatives… A place I’m sure all, native to this planet and old enough to remember a time before the War, know well… It is my great honour and privilege to inform you that, as of moments ago, UTC forces accepted the surrender of the last pocket of GU occupation resistance, in New Canberra… This city is no longer a conflict zone.”
Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.
I pause here to collect myself before continuing:
“A pipeline has been established for the evacuation of civilians to planets that remain safer from the conflict. Any and all, but especially those who require medical aid, are urged to make their way to New Canberra, in the Flynn Valley, to be evacuated, if they are able… Though this city may be once again in Terran hands, this planet is not… To my fellow liberators, I thank you… but must remind you there is work we have yet to do… To all partisans who choose to remain and fight the good fight, I wish you Godspeed…”
Here, my voice turns hard:
“To all occupiers receiving this message, your days here are numbered… Terran Military analysis indicates your government’s capitulation will come in less than 6 months… I urge you to cease this senseless violence against us!… Surrender yourselves to our custody and receive all the rights and dignities due to you as prisoners of War!… Continue to fight and you will leave us no choice but to deal with you as mankind has always dealt with those who would threaten us… harshly!”
Softening again, I channel my inner Charlie Chaplain:
“We Terrans… we do not wish to be emperors… that is not our business… We do not wish to conquer or rule anyone! We would like to help everyone, if possible, deathworlder, gardenworlder, Terran and not… We all want to help one another… sapient beings are like that… We want to live by eachother’s happiness, not by eachother’s misery… We don’t want to hate and despise one another… This universe has room for everyone and creation is rich… and can provide for everyone… The way of life can be free and beautiful… but you have lost the way… Fear has poisoned your souls, has barricaded the galaxy with hate… has goosestepped us into misery and bloodshed… Your knowledge has made you cynical, your cleverness hard and unkind… Fearing too much and feeling too little… More than knowledge, you need compassion. More than cleverness, you need kindness and gentleness… Without these qualities life is violent… and all is lost… Spacecraft and Faster than light communication have brought you closer together… The very nature of these inventions cries out for the goodness in you… cries out for universal brotherhood… for the unity of us all… Soldiers, don’t give yourselves to brutes like Vlixrothju… men who despise you, enslave you… who regiment your lives… who tell you what to do, what to think and what to feel… who treat you like cattle, use you as cannonfodder! Don’t give yourselves to these unnatural men! You have the love inherent to sapience in your hearts! You don’t hate! Only the unloved hate! The unloved and the monstrous!… You, the people, have the power! The power to create happiness! You, the people, have the power to make this life free and beautiful, to make this life a wonderful adventure!… Then, in the name of benevolence, let us use that power! Let us all unite!… Let us fight for a new world… a decent world… that will give all people who wish a chance to work, that will give youth a future and old age a security! Now, let us fight to fulfil that promise! Let us fight to free the galaxy, to do away with political division, to do away with fear, with hate and intolerance! Let us fight for a world of reason! A galaxy where science and progress will lead to all people’s happiness! Soldiers, in the name of compassion, let us all UNITE!!!”
---Wednesday, 16th of September, 2685 Terran Calendar---
We do not open the bag.
It has been hermetically, vacuum sealed since his death but I don’t think anyone wants to see what nearly four months of anaerobic decomposition do to a body…
Instead, we lay it in the box, as it is.
Obviously, none of us are dressed in funerary white, instead, each only wearing a white ribbon, tied around our respective nondominant arms, over our freshly laundered combat fatigues.
As much as I would like to lay this warrior to rest in his armour, durasteel is simply too valuable… it’s already been shipped off as salvage and will likely be reissued to another soldier who matches his proportions or reforged and adjusted to the proportions of a new soldier (though, it would probably be waiting for a while in that latter scenario, and I truly hope the War is over before then!)
Additionally, high value grave goods would likely make him a target for grave robbers, later down the line.
Still, I don’t have nothing to lay him to rest with.
Before the lid is nailed closed, I lay a beautiful, Norse sword (its fusion core and containment field generators having been removed, giving it not much more value than the same weight of metal) across his chest, pointing down toward his feet.
The casket is closed and carried from the mule to the hole meant for it.
At Esme’s insistence, there is another hole beside it, which already has a headstone for her, printed from the grave soil, standing at its head…
A note has been put on her file that this is to be her final resting place, should she die in combat.
She watches, her expression sombre, as we lower the father of her child into the earth.