---Steve’s perspective---

---Thursday, 15th of October, 2685 Terran Calendar---

---New Canberra, Eastern Pangaea, New Australia---

I walk down the dusty road, bits of preWar pavement visible through the sand, here and there.

Ruined buildings are everywhere around.

Grandad always told me that the cities looked ‘post apocalyptic’ these days.

When I asked him what that meant, he said that ‘post apocalypse’ was a kind of film where the world has ended and people are trying to survive. Said I was probably too young for Mum and Dad to have shown me any before we lost power and satellite connection.

Even though this city looks like a ‘post apocalypse’, it’s still buzzing with life.

Survivors of all stripes walk this way and that.

Soldiers stand and walk about in matte armour, coloured in dull reds and oranges, with the fascinating swirly black pattern of the metal underneath being visible wherever bullets have taken off the top layer.

I walk past four folk, all dressed in the same loose outfit, in bright white and strong red colours, and wearing white helmets that don’t protect their faces as they stand, smiling and nattering with eachother.

Never understood why the medics wear visible colours, when everyone else tries to wear colours that blend in… Sure, there may have been an understanding that people don’t target medics but… what about when you’re fighting people who don’t care about that?

Then, something comes into my view that’s very interesting…

Gardenworlders… hundreds of them… stood around, on some open ground, no weapons in their hands, no armour on their bodies… very little of any of their tech in sight!

Around them’re many soldiers holding weapons, keeping them corralled.

This doesn’t look like a mass execution, though!… Everyone looks way more relaxed than any of those that I’ve seen.

Then, I spot a familiar figure.

I don’t recognise the woman by her face, covered now, as it was last time. Instead, the first thing I notice about her is the badge on her shoulder… A circle, chopped in four by black lines, with two of the fourths green and two blue.

After that, I notice her build, her posture… then her nametag.

“Hey… Lady…” I shout, raising my hand as I approach her.

She turns.

“Oh… it’s you… Sorry kid, I can’t talk right now… If you need to tell me something you’ll have to wait a few minutes…” she says, in her weird accent, gesturing to the crowd and then to the steps of a nearby destroyed house with a right arm… that has a white armband on it.

I shrug and walk over to them, taking a seat, on the seventh step up from street level, looking out over the throng of surrenders.

There’s a big, empty space to my left, as I face them, where the soldiers aren’t letting them stand.

The reason becomes obvious as a big ship (obviously Human! Even if the last time I saw one that size was years ago, there’s no mistaking Human work!) falls from the sky, slowing down to stop, gently, on the empty patch.

An announcement plays loudly in a language I don’t know and the soldiers begin pointing the gardenworlders onto the waiting ship.

The crowd are, quickly, all aboard, the door closes and the ship leaps back into the sky.

The soldiers start walking away, all in the same direction, except the woman, who comes to me, walking up the steps to take a seat on my right, her mourning armband about 25cm from my shoulder.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

“So… you got something you want to report… Steve, right?” she asks, her helmet facing forward and her voice sounding tired.

Instead of answering her question, I point upward “Where’re they all going?”

“A prisoner of War camp, offworld…” she answers, straightforwardly.

“Earth?” I ask, interested.

“Not Earth, no… We control better planets. Closer than that…”

“That ship gonna take ’em all the way there…?” I ask.

It didn’t look roomy!

She shakes her helmet “No… just to orbit… then they’re going to get on a bigger one.”

“That seems dumb…! Why not land the bigger one and have them get straight on…?”

She gives a laugh with no joy in it “Maybe you should take it up with the Logistics Bureau… teach them a thing or two about efficiency(!)”

I grin at the jab.

“Look… kid… I’d love to stick around and chat but… I have things I need to do… Did you have something you need to tell me?… Is there someone abusing their power in your housing area or…?”

I shake my head “I… just wanted to say… sorry… for the things I said to you… ’bout my grandad… It wasn’t right…”

She turns to me with curious bodylanguage.

“Your grandad died because of me… I think you were justified in the way you reacted!”

“No…” I refuse “…he didn’t… Drid and the others told me what happened… He walked into that with his eyes wide open!… I said what I said because I was hurt, angry and scared… you deserved better…”

“I… know a little about what that’s like…” she answers, thoughtfully.

“I’m guessing you ain’t wearin’ that for my grandad… are you?” I ask, pointing at her armband.

A helmet shake.

“My husband… Killed in a night time attack… Buried him about a month ago…”

“I’m sorry.”

She puffs “Don’t be… you had nothing to do with it, did you(?)”

“I’m still sorry… I know how it feels… losing someone like that.”

She thinks for a moment before saying “Thanks, Steve…”

That word reminds me of the other thing I wanted to say “I never thanked you, did I?”

“Thanked me for what?” she asks, confused.

“Take your pick… Comin’ here to free us, givin’ us half of the supplies you got from that raid even though you didn’t have to and got less than you wanted becausa it… All this!” I point all around at the first safe city that there’s been on this planet in more than a third of my lifetime “…Never thanked you for any of it, did I?”

“Just doing my job…” she says, getting up.

“Still… thanks…” I smile.

---Nathan’s perspective---

---Monday, 2nd of November, 2685 Terran Calendar---

As a lowly Captain, I would not be in this room if not for Wilhelmina’s death earlier this year.

Sure, I was the one allowed to give the broadcast address upon our taking this city but… that was because I was the only one with any skill in acting, nearby… I was chosen for my ability to give a moving speech rather than for my command credentials(!)

The face of the Brigadier General, looking out at the gathered battalion Commanders and Acting Commanders, is grim.

“Ladies, gentlemen and others…” he starts “…I’m afraid I have bad news for you all.”

A 2D graphic representation of this planet’s only significant landmass appears on the wall behind him.

The Flynn Valley Safe Zone is represented in green, to the Eastern edge.

The rest is covered in orange with enemy armies being represented in red.

“The day before yesterday, our orbital surveillance noticed worrying movements from all armies in the Occupation Zone…”

The red dots all begin moving in a way it doesn’t take a data analyst to work out the meaning of(!)

“Data analysis indicates a high likelihood of the convergence point being here… for a massed attack…” a point is highlighted just to the West of the Safe Zone “…err… Yes, Major Lee?”

“Has orbital bombardment been attempted, Sir?” asks the woman, professionally.

“It has. Each army is still equipped with a network of shield generators that render our orbital attacks operationally ineffective.”

The man pauses, briefly, allowing room for Lee to ask followup questions but she doesn’t seem to have any, so he continues.

“Thankfully, it seems as if something the enemy lack, at the moment, are aerial troop transports… meaning they are forced to make both their journey here and their attack, with only ground based vehicles… This will significantly slow their advance!”

He clears his throat here.

“Much as I would like to hope that a ceasefire will be called before War King Vlixrothju’s army arrives… We must prepare a defence of the Safe Zone, for the eventuality that it isn’t!”

The graphic zooms in on the green area, the Flynn Valley being displayed with the Ngunytju Mountains to its West and the rest of the (mostly mountainous) Flynn Peninsula to its East.

“Fortunately, this valley is a natural fortress… there are only three practical points of ingress, here, here and… here.”

Three places are circled, one to the North of the Ngunytju, one to the South and one right through the middle.

“The passages to the North and South are wide, open plains and, as such, I am despatching around half of our available forces to each… the Central passage, however, is a path that, while traversable, should be very easy to secure against incursion: A narrow passage only a few hundred metres at its widest… Consequently, I am despatching a single battalion to safeguard it… That should be enough to hold back the attacking army in an environment where they can’t use their numbers to their advantage… and they should be unwilling to use artillery bombardment for fear of collapsing the very passage they wish to pass through… Now…”

---later---

I walk out of the briefing and immediately check my holo for my battalion’s deployment.

‘16,616th Battalion: Central Passage’