A prestigious individual and somewhat of a father figure to me, the revered General Novak was hosting the presentation. It was a blend between an orientation and a speech, he was trying to encourage us and inform us at the same time. Right when he started talking I noticed his voice sounded haggard and his sentences were interrupted by unexpected fits of coughing; it sounded like his vitality was fading. Novak was 76 years old so it’s safe to say he was getting up there in age, though he was still youthful at heart. Perhaps it was his long history of chain-smoking finally catching up to him. The teleporter behind him which we were to use for travel to Orion, also served as a projector which showed images of the Red planet.

Novak: 'Welcome everyone, I am glad to see all of you here. We have a moment before the gate opens for our trip to Orion. Now I know that you’ve seen the sacrifices that our brothers and sisters made on this planet. Make no mistake, Orion is not our home.’

‘I, as you can tell, am a member of the first generation. I know what lies on the red planet, and you think that those pods have shown you, but you don’t understand Orion. It’s different, it’s brutal. The only reason I survived was because I was not part of the battalions that went into the Tyran forest. Based on Caleb’s calculations of the creature's roar, the creature known as Tyrannus is estimated to be one hundred and fifty feet tall and three hundred feet in length. We don’t have any images of it, but I can tell you that I have seen it. I was stationed outside the Tyran forest on that day. I looked into the darkness of the forest and saw it standing tall among the trees, looking at me with its piercing eyes. I could not move.’

‘But it never attacked. No, It never attacked us, the lucky ones….

Nothing could have prepared me for what I saw. It was several hundred yards down the path into the forest. All I remember were its eyes and its teeth. I could not see the rest of it.’

‘ The target of your mission may make no attempt to communicate with you or compromise with you. We believe the part of the Tyran forest that we are entering is the edge of Tyrannus’ territory. Because the forest is vast at 2.797 million square miles, we believe he is more likely to live further south. His movement can be tracked through the Richter scale - his movement creates earthquakes. If you ever are within a mile of Tyrannus, this will affect your ability to run. If you encounter Tyrannus you will hide like your life depends on it, despite our experience we believe it is best to let Caleb take over control of the mission from there if it gets to that point. We don’t expect to encounter Tyrannus because he fell off of our monitoring system. However, I warn you. Do not do anything to provoke Tyrannus.’

‘If you hide from Tyrannus like all of the other things in the forest do, you might survive. As difficult as it may be, you can not worry about.. It. Worry about the things you are certain you will encounter. Everything in the forest is brutal and will try to kill you. Many insects of considerable size reside in the forest and are energized by the resources on the land that we’re going after. Same thing with the Blitzers, these stand 8 feet tall and approximately 16 feet in length.’

‘They usually travel in packs, with your equipment you will stand a chance against them from a terrain advantage. Be extremely careful of the blitzers, if your team is separated they will pick you off one by one in less than a minute. The trees in this forest are your friend. The blitzers and a number of other creatures can’t climb the trees *cough* that well…Climbing them could save your life. Novak fidgeted and looked through his notes. What else? Oh, yes there are seismic waves being emitted by something very far underground, we don’t know about that yet. *cough* I’m sure we will find that out from Caleb.. The fairies in the forest don’t appear to be hostile, though I don’t suggest following one through the forest. Don’t be that guy… Keep your armor on at all times. The insects on Orion are not just pests, most of them can kill you too…’

‘I know that some of you did better on your exams than others, but that doesn’t mean anything now. We call Orion the red planet because of this savagery that will permeate your life. They’re only beasts on Orion and we have to kill them to survive. Lest you want to see the blood of your brothers and sisters on the ground instead. Good luck'

And with that, the entire room started to shimmer and in a flash of blinding white light and we were away. I couldn’t get my vision back for a minute, but when I did I could see that we were in a nwq Hangar that resembled the new Tatski Hara headquarters. Instead this time it was made out of iron. Everyone started to make their way outside. I noticed the air was harder to breathe although mission control maintained that it wasn’t hazardous but insisted that it would instead make us stronger.

I maintained that I would keep my sanity while on this planet, no matter what kind of problem was thrown my way. No matter how bad it got. My first day on Orion, All I can say is that it was fascinating. I just didn’t know that this was the calm before the storm. We got there at night, but the time system over there was different. A single day on Orion was 32 hours long and we showed up at 03:00, early in the morning.

Novak shouted: 'Everyone, Rendezvous at the northwestern base on the outskirts of the Tyran forest at 08:00, it will take approximately three hours to get there from where we currently are. Around 13 hours north is where the civilians are - in Roudan. That is our home base. Right now, we aren’t stopping by for a visit.'

We went to the vehicles. The model that the Tatski Hara had built resembled a Hum-V that seated sixteen inside and eight more on top. It was the real deal, it looked like it was another thing that Caleb designed. Fred said to me 'Okay, you and I are the gunners on top right now, I talked to Novak and he said we’re just going to keep the station secure so right now we aren’t going into the forest. You can relax a bit.' I said, 'Alright, Well let’s get there early.' Then he motioned for everyone to follow and load up the vehicle. The device that was still on my right hand started to feel heavier and heavier.

When I found my seat I took my pack off and looked at my hand. It didn’t look or feel like a device anymore, it just felt like my arm was encased in rock. I wondered about that, about a lot of things. Why Kai wasn’t here yet if he was supposed to be leading the mission. Would I die from a blitzer bite or a mosquito bite? I could feel the valor of those around me and I could tell that our team needed Kai. Everyone liked Fred but Kai was the best of the best. I believe that the other members knew Kai could save all of our lives if things went to shit.

Fred sat down next to me with a sigh and said, 'So, what is it now on your arm? It looks like it's affecting you.' I didn’t lie 'It’s starting to hurt actually, but in a good way I guess. If Caleb made it I don’t think it’s supposed to hurt me right?' Fred gave me a weird look and said, ''I guess so. What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. This puppy right here has just been sleeping since we got here. I think I’m going to send him to the home base up north because I don’t want an insect from the forest to nab him.'

Then he left. A woman who looked to be around my age came up top. I didn’t really believe that women should fight the same battles as men, especially here. I wasn’t sexist, at least I didn’t think I was, but I was protective and believed that all women should be safe in Rou’dan. They could get involved in Caleb’s intelligence protocol. I knew this woman was different because she didn’t say anything until five minutes later when we left for the base. She had medium length light brown hair and had what appeared to be an extra canine tooth.

She turned on her brightness and smiled at me: 'Hi, I’m Jess, what’s your name?' The moment she talked to me I cracked a smile ‘'I’m Joseph, nice to meet you.' I wasn’t really in the talking mood when she approached me but something about her, I liked her already. She asked me: 'What’s that on your arm there?' I told her 'This was what I was given by Caleb. Right now it just feels really pretty heavy, I haven't found out what it does yet.' She asked to take a look at it and took my arm. She slowly moved her fingers over it and said, 'It’s very smooth. Can you feel that? You can get it off though, right?'

'Yeah I can barely feel that, I don’t really know how to take it off yet. I was passed out from the exam when I could have spent more time understanding it. It didn’t come with instructions.' 'Oh, I see. There are some words along here, do you know what they mean? Oh that’s weird, It’s writing more.'

I looked down at my arm and it was hard to see from my angle but she was right. Near my elbow there was something else, but the letters were so dark and I couldn’t see. I just changed the subject to something more serious 'Are you involved with this mission?' She said yes. She told me she was a medic, with a specialty in helping the Tatski Hara deal with the insects. I told her I thought that was important, with all of these giant mosquitoes, ha. They gave me the creeps. I wondered just how good she was at her job but I figured I’d find out soon enough. She asked me ‘Are you part of Kai’s team?’

I nodded ‘Yeah, I’ve known him for a while.’

She said, 'I haven’t met him yet, but I’ve heard stories from my friend named Bry. She said he is a supersoldier now - Caleb gave him this serum that gives him super strength.’

I was surprised to hear that ‘Really? There’s a serum that can do that? Like steroids?’

She laughed, man she was really good looking when she laughed. ‘No, not like steroids. I don’t know exactly how it works. I did hear that he had used it to take down a rogue Tatski Hara soldier who was killing rank 12’s in the forest.’

I couldn’t believe that. ‘Who would turn on the Tatski Hara?’

She didn’t know. I told her ‘I hope I get to see more of you around here. With how crazy and violent this planet sounds, you already make it seem alright.’ She looked at me expressionless for a second, then cracked a smile. She was pretty funny. I looked up at the view of the moon, from Amala it was beautiful, the night sky was much more grandiose than that of Earth and it made everything feel quite peaceful, almost ominous. The only sounds were her voice and the breeze. I had a natural tendency to be silent. I didn’t know exactly what that meant about me. The words showed up when Jess touched my arm so I knew that they were connected to that moment.

I fell asleep and when I woke up we had made it to the base outside Tyran forest. Everyone seemed at ease. It was strange being in this world. I had not seen any threats yet, but I did start to see some giant insects and I made sure none of them got too close. I think the insects knew we would attack if they didn’t stay far away. Novak said our orders were to stay put and guard the base. I figured how hard could that be?

I got off of the tank and walked around to check the place out. I overheard other Tatski Hara talking about a giant crater that they saw on the way here. I didn’t catch sight of it, but they were wondering what type of thing was capable of making something like that, or if it was a naturally occurring geological phenomenon. The forests that surrounded the base were made up of several different kinds of giant trees that towered several hundred feet into the sky. The base was lush with wildlife; I could see squirrels running around and fish swimming in the water. It was also quite a windy day. Sometimes the wind caused the trees to make loud creaking noises as they swayed. This sound was ominous and combined with what I knew was out there, it put me on edge.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

Fred saw me and said, 'Hey I heard that there’s a species here who made these buildings, this wasn’t us. The bridges too.' I didn’t respond but I was thinking about what he said. He continued on, he was more of a talker than I was. 'Hey, do you feel that? I feel like we’re being watched.' This was the same place where Novak saw Tyrannus. That really creeped me out.

Novak said we would definitely feel it coming. 'It’s probably nothing. I hope these weapons hold up in a real fight with some Blitzers. You have to aim for the head or neck right?' Then I walked off to look at my arm.

Fred took off after me to say: 'No, don't aim for the head, that just makes them angry. It’s the neck. The front and sides of their head are armored. Wait till we see one though, we’ll all probably shit our pants... I heard the first gen killed a lot of them to carve out space for us here.'

The bravery of the first gen was always inspiring but in the bottom of my heart I was sad. I didn’t think any of the warriors who had raised me had survived. I always knew Novak, but he seemed different when he gave his speech to us. That made me curious. I had to find out more, there was still something that the higher ups in the Tatski Hara weren’t telling us. When I saw Kai again I would ask him. It seemed like we had a lot of new faces on the team. I saw everyone else over by the stream that ran through the center of the base and decided to go over with Fred to see what they were talking about. Jess said: 'You see this? The water looks shallow but it’s really deep.'

I looked to try and see what she was talking about - the water was crystal clear. It only appeared to be 4 or 5 feet deep. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, I saw fish at the bottom that looked like oversized piranhas, almost the size of my chest. I asked how she knew if it was actually a deep river. She responded: 'During my test, the computer said it’s an optical illusion from the different composition of the water. It’s why everything is so full of life here, the atmosphere here supercharges everything with nutrients.' Apparently it was obvious to the rest of the guys that I had a thing for Jess right away, because when I looked away from her they were all looking at me.

I said, 'What?' and everyone started laughing at me. I thought I was doing a good job of being stoic, but I guess not. I checked the time and it was 08:32. 'Hey weren’t we supposed to be getting reinforcements at 8?' . Some of the guys walked off when I said that, Jess said, 'Yeah, they got here already didn’t you see them? They’re trying to locate a vantage point just a click west of here. They saw you sleeping and poked fun of you..I valiantly fought them off. Sometimes people need their beauty sleep.' Kind of embarrassing. I thought someone would wake me up, I didn’t want to get a reputation as the sloth of the team. I noticed my radio was turned off so I turned it back on. Novak was talking on the radio right when I turned it on:'-he said something changed in the seismic activity, team M report back to the Northwestern camp. Make it fast.'

This got my blood flowing. It could be a naturally occurring geological function of the planet itself, it could be Tyrannus, or something else. As of that moment it seemed Novak was airing on the side of caution. Almost immediately after he gave the order on the radio, I saw Kai and seven others show up on foot. I ran over to him and asked 'what was that about?'

He held up his hand as if to say ‘hold position’ and nobody else said a word. Novak again buzzed on the radio 'Stay at the northwestern base, we have targets congregating outside the treeline.'

The moment he said that everyone readied their weapons. Kai said in response 'We have seven blitzers to the left, waiting behind the trees. Everyone get down.' The idea was obviously to not present ourselves as a threat. Kai thought avoidance was the best defense. Fred and Jess ran over to our position behind the Tanks. We huddled around Kai for instructions:

'Okay Rilling, go to that bridge that crosses the river and hold position, you’re going to be our bait if they attack, don’t worry you’re in our line of sight.' Great. I tried to swallow all of my fear in that instant. I got up and ran to the bridge. It was easier because I couldn’t see those things yet. Kai said over the radio 'Lower your weapon, they can see you. Don’t show fear.' I did what he said and watched the treeline as they approached.

I saw several of them, one was in front of the other two. The blitzer that led them towards us was incredible. Their bones and hide were made of obsidian, it had razor sharp teeth and was much taller than I was, we locked eyes and it walked right up to me. It was a cross between a dinosaur, a dragon, and something from hell. As it approached I saw its claws and the rock-hard scales on its body. Then, something strange happened. It saw who I was in my eyes, it saw my memories. It saw how I felt, my mind immediately betrayed the idea that this was something from hell.

Its eyes looked very sharp, filled with cold-calculated intelligence. It started to circle me and then I understood. I could die in this moment, unless somebody knew something I didn’t. It finished its circle around me, looking at my eyes. She spoke to me in a whisper 'Brave one. I see your arm. You are an abomination. You’re unworthy. Your kind will not encroach any further on our lands. We will kill to defend our families.'

I pulled myself together, remembered the mission objective and…I whispered back because I was terrified: 'If you kill me you will die. We do not want to hurt you or your kind, we need something from the forest for our species is doomed without it.' This blitzer revealed her curiosity like a cat after hearing what I said. Her body language showed it and my team picked up on it. 'You.. don’t want to kill our kind. What prompted this sudden change of heart after your kind decimated so much of our forest and killed so many of my race? The second generation Tatski Hara…soft?'

I didn’t respond, I didn’t know what to say. I’m sure that this blitzer would be perfectly fine with letting our species die a slow death. When the blitzer spoke to me again I realized that this wasn’t the case.'I desire one thing from you and you can enter our forest. I desire the one you love. When the time is right I will take her from you, and you will finish your own cycle. Death. Paid in full, by blood. There is a catch. The further you go to promote this idea of peace between our races, the more you defend our race, the more time I will let you spend with her. Now, do we have a deal?'

I took a second to think about it as she stood in front of me.

'Okay' I said. 'Deal.' I thought I was becoming an ambassador for our species. I thought I was promoting the mission objectives. I should have known that getting too close to one of those things. That I wouldn’t be the same. If peace with the blitzers meant that Jess may die I thought we could pull her out of the field. The blitzer said.. 'Let’s shake on it' then extended her right claws. I didn’t hesitate, I touched my right hand to hers. Her claws were made of the same material as my arm, more refined, sharper, almost clear, made the clink of metal on metal contact then she said to me: 'My name is Mu-jung jo and we have made an agreement. This could benefit us both a great deal...' Once it was over I pulled my hand back and watched as she turned to join the rest of her kind. As she walked off she said to me 'Treasure every moment.' I just stood there for a minute afterwards. It didn’t take anytime for her words to haunt me, much less her appearance. I was still in shock when Kai came on the radio and said, 'Good work, let us know what she said.'

It felt like it was a dream. A bunch of Tatski ran over to me. As they were running over I fainted and fell in the water. One of them said, 'somebody grab him!’ but everyone was too slow. Jess dived into the water after me. She caught me when I was halfway to the bottom. She used her device which created a bubble around us and we floated to the surface. I was paralyzed, some sort of aftershock from the intensity of the experience. I didn’t want to say anything. The whole thing seemed to energize the other Tatski Hara, some of them started laughing. 'Haha, what did you say to that thing to keep it from biting your head off, Rilling?' another 'Did that thing mind control your dumbass into the water?' Apparently the Blitzers could be communicated with and I was the first one to really do it. It wasn’t my idea, but Caleb’s. The whole thing was crazy. Jess followed me to the tanks where I was trying to get a moment to think about my deal with Mu-jung jo, that divine creature.

Novak came on the radio for an update from mission control: 'Abort mission, return to Rou’dan.' What? Was that a good thing? I didn’t know. We all got into the tanks and left just like that. As we drove away I swore I felt an earthquake, but nobody else seemed to feel it so I didn’t say anything. I was traumatized from that moment with Mu-jung jo and I was surprised to see all of my friends in the tank so carefree. Jess sat next to me, but this time she didn’t say anything for the entire first hour of our drive to Rou’dan. I respected that.

A lot of people don’t have the self control to maintain silence, in fact she showed me that she had good survival instincts. She made me think. I was picking up that Jess was already special to me, but it seemed out of my control. I wasn’t trying to pursue a relationship or anything. I was focused on the reconnaissance mission. Although certain things on Orion seemed pre-ordained. It seemed that the universe itself acted differently here. Almost like the world had a living will of its own. I didn’t think I could control whether I fell in love with Jess or someone else.

A couple of the guys came up on top of the tank to joke around. It was over a ten hour drive which made some of them restless, I get it. I thought some of them had brought alcohol from earth because they were acting like they were intoxicated.

After what we’d seen I didn’t figure this would be a renewed cause for celebration but instead a renewed purpose for training and getting stronger. In that way I was kind of out of touch with the rest of my team. I was thinking to myself when one of the guys made me laugh even though I was trying my best to appear distant, aloof. He said, 'That creature that you talked to looked like my ex-wife! You’re a brave man Rilling.'

Jess shook her head but I laughed, I thought it was funny. I found out this guy's name was Ben and he was about ten years older than me. He had a crew of his own made up of the other guys sitting with us on the roof of the tank. I considered Kai, Fred, Liam, Jason, and now Jess to be my crew. Most of the higher-ups who I considered to be my friends were driving back in a different tank so I couldn’t talk to them. I wanted to find out more about my role in all of this and find out more about the Blitzers. I didn’t care so much about being chosen by Mu-jung jo. It didn’t feel glorious, instead I felt like I had entered into a deal with the devil, not some sort of peace treaty.

I finally asked: 'Hey Jess, what was the thing Caleb made for you?' She looked at me and then showed me her wrist. 'It’s a bracelet.. I don’t control it, it does things based on how I’m feeling or I guess what situation I’m in. It’s not a weapon though... After seeing that Blitzer you talked to, you’d think I would have something else.' I thought that was a good point.

I said: 'So, if it reacts based on how you’re feeling, when your bracelet created a bubble around us, was it because you felt like floating away with me?’. She waited a moment and then smiled and said, 'Maybe! Or it thought you’d fall in the water.’ Ben chimed in with 'So, why did you fall in the water when the blitzer walked away? Were you sleep deprived?'

Good question. I told the few people around me about what it said to me. What it said about killing them. I didn’t mention that Jess and I were part of a contract with the blitzer. Jess said, 'When we go back, will they attack us? Are they going to let us into the forest?' I said, 'I guess we’ll have to go back to find out.' That wasn’t the last of all the conversation, but I tuned a lot of it out. I think my body had a harder time adjusting to the atmosphere on Orion. The other guys and Jess seemed to be perfectly fine but I was very tired.

When I touched Mu-jung jo’s claws it felt like she sapped the energy from my body. That combined with the heavy air that felt hard to breathe, that’s why I passed out. I felt grateful for those seconds I spent with Jess underwater. The more I thought about it, the more I didn’t mind the possibility of it happening again.