Most of these events I would rather wipe from my memory, but life doesn’t work that way. No, I am now cursed with remembering all of the mistakes I made and all of the lives I couldn’t save. You have to understand that ultimately, the decisions I made were for the well-being of those around me and that I did what I had to do to help us all survive. 

Now, my name is Joseph and I was one of the warriors who was part of the second generation of colonists on Orion, the red planet. I was raised on Earth, I had no family, and I was a member of the Tatski Hara for as long as I can remember. The Tatski Hara was the ultimate warrior clan born from the ashes of Earth. Pollution, greed, and nuclear destruction ruined the planet, those who were left alive were eventually forced to leave. Our only option as it was presented to us was Orion, the Red Planet. 

The individual who discovered Orion was named Caleb. He was appointed as the supreme leader of life on Orion by the Tatski Hara, after the nuclear war extinguished most of the governments around the world. Caleb was, above all else, a brilliant scientist. He was a great man and I had the pleasure of knowing him. 

When his team discovered that humans could inhabit this new planet it was news all over the world within days. Those with the resources started planning for a mission in conjunction with the Tatski Hara to colonize the planet. Everyone wanted to be a part of this mission because life on earth was becoming increasingly difficult. When I was stationed in Okinawa, there wasn’t enough food to keep everyone alive and we had to watch as mothers and fathers starved to death sacrificing their rations for their children. In an attempt to keep their children alive many families were broken. The Tatski Hara was the only real option for a ‘fair’ chance at life, unless you were a genius who could be of use to Caleb and the scientific network within the Tatski Hara.

The clearest path forward for the human race was to colonize this planet and that was exactly what the first generation of Tatski Hara warriors set out to do. Most of the men who raised me ended up going to be a part of the first mission on the Red Planet. The rest of us who stayed on Earth never heard about the status of the mission for years. It was kept secret from us what the conditions on the planet were. It was always the topic of discussion for us all because it gave us hope at a time when there was almost no hope left. 

It was hard for us, all of us thought that we were being kept from a better life on this new planet. More and more time passed and the hope that we all initially felt was fading. I had a weird feeling in the back of my mind that something had gone wrong. As the conditions on earth deteriorated even more we were still left wondering what had happened to the mission. Eventually, after what felt like an eternity, three years after the mission was launched, we finally heard from Caleb's team that the mission was a success. This created a new set of problems: who would go next? What was to be done for those still confined to earth?

Three days after the mission's success was shared worldwide, Caleb’s team had sent out a message that a new group of Tatski Hara warriors were necessary to secure several positions on the planet. 'It is with great satisfaction that I tell you we have established a base on Orion. Due to extremely limited resources we can only offer travel to our youngest children and the highest ranking members of the Tatski Hara. Those who wish to secure passage to the planet must pass a physical and mental screening and arrive at the capitol in three days. The Tatski Hara has open positions for those over the age of 18.'

It wasn’t the message we were expecting. We all thought that if the mission succeeded then we would all be able to start a new life on Orion. Listening to Caleb’ message brought many around me to tears and it’s hard for me to say that I didn’t feel their suffering. The news meant that the families of those still alive on earth had to endure more suffering. Those who weren’t a part of the Tatski Hara had to stay here while their children were sent to Orion. This created riots as positions in the Tatski Hara ranks were highly sought after, but not available to all. Many capable men and women wanted to join our ranks but couldn’t. They weren’t warriors. They weren’t selected to be a part of the Tatski Hara at birth and that meant they were condemned to the increasingly desperate state of life on Earth.

When I got the message I set my watch on a countdown: 72 hours. I knew that a lot could happen in that time, but I had to stay with the team and get to the United States in order to travel to Orion. At that time I wasn’t sure if I even qualified for travel to Orion. The Tatski Hara had a ranking system of twelve and I was ranked 7 of 12. Those who were rank 10-12 were considered to be high ranking members and they held many accolades from previous wars. The open recruitment of combat-age males was a sign that things were not going well on Orion. This part of the announcement meant that Caleb thought we needed more than the current second generation of Tatski Hara, he thought we needed a third generation, and that put a bad feeling in my chest.

I was mentally all over the place. I wanted to help those on earth but I didn’t have the intelligence to solve the colossal scale of the agricultural and atmospheric problems, and considering the brightest scientists had devoted all of their efforts to Orion, It seemed nobody felt the same way about helping those who were to remain on earth.

 It was a difficult situation and I didn’t call the shots. I knew that Caleb didn’t want to leave anyone behind, but he had to do the best with the limited resources available to him and that’s what resulted in this judgement call.

I thought a lot that night about why the highest ranking members of the Tatski Hara were requested to arrive in three days. The first mission to Orion sent nearly all of our forces including most of our high ranking officers. Was there a war raging on the new planet? Even if there was, I knew I had to get to Orion because there was almost nothing left on Earth. I had to leave.

It seemed like it took forever to get to the United States. It was left largely in ruin from the previous wars.  It was assumed that none could survive the toxic elements that covered the majority of the U.S. and that a plan to save any survivors hidden away would meet a dead end. In spite of this, D.C. and a few other capitals were rebuilt using the last of Earth’s resources and D.C. was redesigned in the image of humanity’s last stand - a testament of humanity’s will to survive. One building stood tall above the others - the Science Center where Caleb made his eclectic rise. It was a brilliant skyscraper, grandiose in every sense of the word. I arrived early in the morning of the second day, with 62 hours remaining on my watch. My team was flown in on a C-130, just the 12 of us.

We assumed most of the soldiers left were not stationed in Okinawa like we were. The guys who were with me were my brothers. Each one of them was brave and I loved them all, but one was missing. Three years ago in the first war my friend Kai saved my life. I didn’t know him at the time but since then we grew close, until he had to leave to assist with missions on Orion. I was hoping to see him at the capitol building. When we touched down, I had no idea that as fate would have it, that time living in the destruction of Earth was one of the last times in my life when I would ever feel peace. We talked about what our next move was going to be. There were tens of thousands of people trying to gain entry to the capitol and the Science Center. We landed on the top of the Center, and when I looked down, the crowd of people resembled a horde of ants.  

There were so many of them and they were gathered outside the science scenter fighting to survive. They believed that by coming to the capitol, that Caleb would allow them entry and save them or enlist them in the Tatski Hara. The reality of the situation was that there were not many options available for us to help them. The machine that Caleb had built to ‘warp’ us to Orion was not something that could save us all, it required an extreme amount of energy to operate, but these people didn’t know that. They thought if children and warriors could be sent to Orion, then they could all be sent to Orion. The cruel reality was that a better life just wasn’t in the cards for them. 

My team was welcomed to the capitol building by other Tatski Hara members. The Tatski hara had a ranking system : 1 through 14. Only rank 12’s and higher were sent to Orion. I saw Kai waiting for us with his arms crossed. He was a bit taller than me, around 5’11” with medium length brown hair. The biggest difference between Kai and everyone else was something I saw in his eyes. I could tell he had seen a lot, yet in his eyes shined a youthfulness and a strong sense of altruism. As we approached the elevators he waved to me and said ‘Hey, Joseph. Heard you were coming. Don’t worry about your rank. I’ll make sure you get in, you have what it takes.’ I smiled and said ‘We’ll see!’

My team and I went into the Elevator and descended to floor -12. This was the Tatski Hara command center; it was the bottom floor and it also had the teleporter that was created to get us to Orion. The 12th floor was the largest level by far and also served as a storage space for weapons and other supplies. The other floors below ground level were dedicated to Caleb’s will, in other words - anything involving science. I wasn’t qualified to know what kind of things were being made on those floors, my best guess was biochemical weapons. I wasn’t too concerned with those things at that time. 

If only I could see the future. After we checked in with headquarters we still had roughly 59 hours left until our departure. I was out of shape and figured the best use of those 59 hours would be to prepare for war. 

I went to the rec. facility in order to get some of my worries out through exercise; to get ready for the unknown. I was in this weird bureaucratic limbo where I wasn’t considered important enough to access classified information because my rank wasn’t high enough. As a result of that, I had no idea what the operation was going to be or what kind of situation was on Orion. That being said, as a rank 11 I had the respect of a lot of my fellow Tatski Hara, but not all. I knew that if I didn’t pass the associated exams for entry to Orion then I had a good chance of not making the cut. A lot of members were held at rank 11 for a very long time because you had to have connections in the Tatski Hara to reach rank 12 and be sent to Orion. By the time you were a rank 12 you had access to a lot more resources and there was a large price tag associated with the promotion to rank 12. That being said I was rank 11 since I was 17 and when I arrived at the capitol I was 21, would I really have to wait longer than four years?

When I got to the recreation facility I was really surprised by how it looked. It was designed using state of the art architecture the likes of which I had never seen before; stainless steel bars outlined the grand overhead skylight which stretched from one end of the facility to the other. There were plenty of workout machines, weights, and other equipment, rows and rows of it all. It made me feel sorry for those people I had left in Okinawa, the destitute. I wish more of the resources that were used to build this place had gone to them. There were a ton of young guys that I could tell were the uninitiated, looking to gain a spot in the Tatski Hara. 

They all seemed to be in their late teens, or very old, there was no middle ground. I was just the slightest bit older than most of them at 24 years old. Most of those guys were there to join the Tatski Hara. They were busy getting in shape for the exams just like I was, but they were taking entry exams to join the organization instead of the Orion exams. 

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

These were the guys who heard Caleb’s message that said we needed warriors. A lot of them looked tough, but you had to be tough, not just look tough. Many of them looked at me because I was wearing the black Tatski Hara armor. It proved to them that I had fought in the wars that they hadn’t been a part of. After walking through a bit, wondering where to start on my physical regimen, I saw a battle-scarred veteran in a wheelchair. I went over to him to find out more about the red planet. He had a white beard and had lost one of his eyes in combat, so he was wearing an eyepatch. When I greeted him he didn’t respond, he waited before he looked at me and waited an odd amount of seconds again before saying hello back to me. I asked him 'Hello brother, have you gone to Orion?' It didn’t take long for me to understand that I was seeing the brain damage that was inflicted upon him. He was deaf and he had lip-read what I said. He talked slower but eventually he processed his emotions and said 'Orion, yes- I’m... not going back. I…was a ….survivor. I lost my hearing and all of my friends. It’s not our home.'

He then looked at my armor and motioned for me to go to the other end of the room.

I had to make my way through all of those stupid guys who were trying to prove something to the Tatski Hara through their weightlifting. They gave me angry looks as if I had something that they deserved more than I did but all of them knew that I was not the enemy. They knew I was part of Kai’s team and that I was trained by the best. So, those guys kept control of themselves, even if they wanted to show me I wasn’t all that, they knew Kai would demolish them. I made it to the other side of the room and I saw there were three doors all protected by rank 12 Tatski.

The one directly in front of me said R* 10-12 (ranks 10-12). The doors to my left and right were for lower ranks, (1-7) and (8-10). The guards motioned for me to go into the rank (10-12) room. I entered the room and found out it was an exclusive weight room and armory reserved for rank 10+ members.  I was immediately approached by a Tatski Hara guard and he motioned: 'Rilling, this way. You’ve been promoted to rank 12. Follow me.'  It appeared Kai already pulled some strings before I got there. The guard led me to a room that looked like it wasn’t created by humans but instead by robots. Everything looked like it was made of steel and the room itself was defined by these cylinder shaped human-sized capsules that were placed equidistant across the floor. He explained that this was the start of the exam.

'These pods were designed to help us acclimate our members to the atmosphere of Orion and get us ready for battle. What you will experience in the pod is different for everyone, some members wake up just fine and others aren’t so lucky. You will likely experience: fear, nausea, muscle pain, muscle spasms, euphoria, …'

You gotta love new technology. The list of side effects was so long that I can’t remember everything he said. He continued ‘Even though you’re now officially rank 12, if you do not pass these tests you wont be allowed to travel to Orion, so try your best to keep control of yourself. Don’t freak out. Whenever you’re ready.’ He motioned for me to get into one of the capsules. All I wanted was a moment to get in better physical condition but I was rushed right into the test. I thought that was kind of bullshit, I had jet lag. I wondered if it would matter. I didn’t understand why so soon, after all I had just landed. I was told to take off all of my clothes to get into the capsule. It was cold as ice, which was lovely. The chamber closed and filled with a warm mist as it lowered itself into the floor.

I felt like I was sinking, then everything went pitch black for a minute until a screen on the front of the pod read in a robotic voice: 'Rilling, J, R-12, You were chosen by one of the ranking generals to join the southern reconnaissance mission on Orion.' As the voice read this to me, the vapor in the chamber started to slow my system down.  It felt really difficult to stay awake but I knew that I had to stay awake to pass the test. The screen turned on with a zap, and showed an overview of the planet from above in 4k. It was beautiful.

'Orion is the only habitable planet in the yunik solar system, the third farthest from the sun. It is roughly ten times the size of Earth. Daytime temperatures can reach 200°F and nighttime temperatures can be as low as -30°F. On the planet are many different species of hostile animals. 

To assist you in your mission, you will be given a mixture created by Caleb which will increase your physical attributes and make you sharper.' I started to sweat as the temperature of the pod increased, and then I started to shiver as the temperature of the pod went down to freezing. What else was in the test? The voice continued:

'Orion is home to three deities that were born when the planet was created. Joseph, you were chosen to aid in the mission of the Southern region of Orion’s main continent, Amala. This region is marked by thick forests, mountains, waterfalls, and the deity Tyrannus. When members of the first generation of Tatski Hara ventured into this forest for resources, they did not return. The being we call Tyrannus fought back to protect its home from the first seven battalions of Tatski Hara soldiers. The attack revealed to us that Tyrannus’ roar ruptures eardrums within a one-mile radius. The reinforcements on the outskirts of the forest were left deafened, and the creature's roar was heard from Rou’dan. Since the attack, Tyrannus has not appeared to protest our presence on other parts of the continent.

However, the resources found in the south-eastern Tyran forest region of Amala are crucial for the creation of life on this planet. Without it the human race does not stand a chance at survival. Your goal with Kai’s team is to establish communication with Tyrannus, protect other Tatski Hara 2nd gen. and retrieve the priority object found deep within the Tyran forest. Because your mission is of the utmost importance you will be given the best equipment available.'

It was a lot to process. So many images flashed before my eyes in such a small amount of time. The screen showed me how the planet was colonized by the first generation of Tatski Hara. I remember this caused many different emotions to well up inside of me when I saw how many Tatski Hara were killed. They fought to create a new home in northern Amala. Their sacrifice was courageous, and this computer was showing me that I was meant to do the same. Everything I saw seemed so real.   

I thought this ‘test’ was showing me my future, my purpose in life on this new planet. I saw a beautiful woman and I felt like she knew me. At the moment, I guess I couldn’t process it all. I passed out at a certain point, I don’t remember anything else. After the test was over I was rushed to the medical bay.

It felt like I was in the chamber for just 5 minutes. Time sped up for me, and apparently that was one of the numerous side-effects associated with the mixture that I was given to boost my system. I woke up and I saw I had just 9 hours left on the countdown to departure. That meant that I was asleep for almost two days, technically I was in a coma. It was a weird feeling because I knew I wasn’t hurt. In fact when I woke up I felt great. I was excited to finally know what was going on and I couldn’t wait to meet my new team.

I was pretty sure that I was fit to leave, and I was reassured when Kai walked into my hospital room.

'Hey, good news. In 9 hours we’re with a hundred other Tatski, you know the reason. Get ready for some long days, It’s not going to be easy. Here is something that Caleb made for you. Each member of the team gets one of these and they’re different based on your role in the mission' He handed me this triangular stone, it was very dense, solid black. It fit in the palm of my hand. I asked him 'So what does this do then?'

'You will have to figure that out for yourself. I won't be there right away with the rest of you, but hang tight when you get there. Don’t win too many battles without me!'

What a joker. He walked out of the room.

I smiled and got out of bed. The nurses and everyone else said my reaction was nothing out of the ordinary. They said some people can’t handle the atmosphere, that their body entirely rejects the change and they never wake up. I did consider myself lucky after hearing that.

After I got dressed, nothing changed for the last nine hours. I experimented around with the black device, for some reason it felt alive. I knew it was a device with a purpose but it just felt like a dense stone. Around the center of it, in a ring there were words inscribed : 언제나 나와 함께.

The words that were added to my arm were 보호 which after a google search, I found out it means: Always with me. I wondered why it was written in Korean, I didn’t think Caleb took the time to learn Korean. Maybe some of these devices were created by a different scientist. The words were inscribed faintly and were hard to see. I could only see it when the light in the room made it shine in just the right way. As I thought about what those words meant to me, I felt different, like I had gotten heavier. I felt pressure on my skull as if I was under thirty feet of water. It was hard to explain, but the feeling didn’t progress any further. 

I was uncomfortable, but I think I was supposed to be. I didn’t fully understand it but I thought the object might help me in battle so I wanted to find out what it really did.

I decided to slide my index finger slowly around the words in a circle.

If the device was supposed to be designed for me specifically, why was I having trouble understanding how to get it to work? And then, a circle in the middle popped up. When I pressed my finger to it, it changed its shape and attached itself to my hand, like a glove on my right hand. It made me feel good, it felt kind of like I was smoking a cigarette or having a beer so I didn’t try to take it off. Weird.

The ingenuity behind the device was astonishing. I could tell it had some electromagnetic component to it, but it also felt like this was a ‘living rock’ if that makes sense. When it was on my arm I felt a light icy-hot feeling along the surface that it covered. I decided to just accept it and maybe spend more time figuring out how to get it back off of me later. I thought it was more convenient to have it attached to me than just sitting in my pocket if it had a use in battle. I didn’t have any bags to pack but I was quickly feeling less refreshed and more restless. Probably residual effects. I went to get my last meal on Earth which was spinach and eggs. I then went back to Floor -12 for the official briefing and travel. This time the door was on the other side of the main hall.

I entered the hangar. It wasn’t too crowded yet so I was able to see my friend Fred at the front left beside the teleporter. He was a big guy, probably a hundred pounds heavier than me but he didn’t look fat. I knew him for a couple years but hadn’t seen him in a while. He had a new beard. I walked over to him and the rest of the guys, double checking to make sure I had everything. I hugged him and I asked him where Kai was.

Fred told me 'Oh yeah, he’s with Caleb right now. I think they’re doing something else to him.' Fred said it like it was no big deal so I didn’t think about it. I wanted to know if he had gotten something from Caleb, but then I realized everyone had their own upgrade. I asked: 'So, did you get a device or something for this mission?'

'Yea I got this puppy here' Fred pointed to an adorable puppy sitting in a pocket on the front of his armor. He said 'It’s Kind of lame actually, now I have one more thing to worry about. How am I going to keep a puppy alive over there on Orion man? Kind of stupid when you think about it. Shouldn’t it be a rock or robot puppy, kinda like what you have there?' He motioned to my arm. I laughed, I said the puppy was special, then I showed Fred a closer look at my right hand: 'Oh you got a glove? What the fuck we call this guy Caleb a genius? Hmmm.' I laughed it off, the rest of the guys and I caught up until the meeting started. Meetings like this one made me feel honored to be a part of the Tatski Hara. The demeanor of everyone in the room seemed to make it appear as if they felt the same way. We were the ones most willing to die in order to give others a chance at life.