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Casualties of War by Tom Murphy
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Casualties of War Part 1
Date: 23 January 2002, 9:27 pm
Introduction
In the old days, they thought combat would never be done this way again. They thought wars would only be an exchange of bombs. For a while that's the way it was. Until the Great Bang.
The Great Bang was the Earths most tragic event and ended up causing the death of more than one billion people. It was the cause of the Earths massive over population, because the bomb they used left the surface of the Earth with a massive amount of radiation.
Plants and flowers suddenly vanished; people and animals were instantly turned into a heap of bones. The entire country of India reeked with the wretched smell of Death.
Soon after this horrible day, all atomic weapons were destroyed in hopes of a world peace. All cloning experiments were dropped because everyone knew what was soon to happen.
No one was permitted to settle this area for over a hundred years and people grew restless. Crime rates exploded and people were being murdered in plain daylight over things that would barely trigger an argument. Suicide and disease swept over every country and many people believed that Armageddon had come.
In the old days, people thought lasers or plasma weapons would replace bullets. Now we know though. Lasers are an impossible goal. The only lasers we could call weapons are those that cause an ancient and easily cured disease called cancer. And plasma was far too dangerous to be used as a weapon, and it simply burnt through every type of metal we had. So how were we to contain it?
Instead, during these past few hundred years, we as a planet have put our research into the stars. The blackness of outside the world that people have always thought so ominous and amazing was quickly claimed like any piece of land. Any suitable planet has become a second or third or fourth planet for the human race to destroy.
Mankind thought that finding these planets would lead to the end of all our problems. But that can never happen; the human race has always been unhappy or angry, so why would this suddenly cease that unhappiness?
Now we have found a new reason for war. We have found a new reason to hate, a new reason to want, and a new reason to kill. In the years of ancient civilizations there was war, in the years of kings and queens there was war, in the years of the new world there was war. Now, more than five hundred years after the second millennium, we find ourselves still holding wars. The area where the Great Bang took place, formerly known as India, has been turned into a war zone and I now am going to this land of ash and skulls to do my part in the fifth world war. I disapprove of the war, and all of war in general, but I will not dishonor myself by refusing to fight for my country.
I feel this way because our country fights in defense not in offense. However it ruins me to think of what a beautiful planet we have given up on. What and amazing place we have destroyed and all the people we have killed. Now I find myself bouncing up and down on every bump as I sit in the back of a troop transport. I was with eight other soldiers, who sat across from me, almost blending in perfectly with the gray walls of the truck. Over the time we had been with each other we had become brothers almost.
Each soldiers face was hidden under a mask of gray and his clothes were a collage of gray and black. Most of them toted an automatic with the butt of it hidden between his arm and ribcage and his hand of that arm was holding the handle. The second hand had a firm grip around the front of the gun. I looked at my own gun and realized I held mine the same way.
All nine of us bounced with every pebble the truck hit and we traveled a medium speed of two hundred miles an hour. Behind and in front was the rest of the herd. More than a hundred gray trucks migrated into the barren wasteland. Each truck had an extra passenger, one that no one could see or here, or feel or smell. Yet everyone knew it was there, they could sense its presence. When they closed their eyes they could almost picture the cloaked figure sitting next to him, peering into his eyes. This is what everyone feared.
I felt the G-Force of the truck weaken slightly and realized we were slowing down, it seemed everyone else also realized it because I heard him or her all click their guns out of safety. One soldier however, a new one, simply threw up. His vomit flowed slowly on the floor of the truck and under the other soldier's boots.
As soon as this one had joined our group he had been labeled "coward" because of the way he acted about Death. To the rest of us death had become something we mostly accept.
When the truck had come to a complete stop we all stood up and faced the doors waiting nervously for what the captain would tell us. I let my eyes dart back and forth from one part of the door to another until they started opening. Dim light floated into the mostly dark truck and I squinted my eyes for a moment until I was used to it.
Above me was a blanket of gray, but off in the distance a low thunder trembled through out the sky and flashes of white or red and yellow shot up into the clouds. I suddenly felt my stomach lunge into my neck.
Three minutes later the eight of us were on our way to the real battle zone. The smell of rotting flesh and old bones flooded into my nose as I passed by corpses and skulls, and the sound of explosions and shots grew louder. I looked up to the flashing sky, which let so little light through and only added to the feel of depression. I let my eyes wander across the open area never giving them time to rest.
The soldiers they were sending in now, us, we were an extremely small force. There were only about a hundred of us.
Suddenly a crash went off about ten yards to my left in the open ground, sending ash and dirt flying onto the rest of the soldiers. Another explosion and another, at first only coming every minute or so but quickly becoming more frequent. Ashes stained my already gray face and blinded my vision. I wiped my eyes lids and kept walking.
A mortar landed right out side the right end of our herd sending two soldiers flying over my head and spattering me with warm blood. More ash, more dirt.
I let all the ash and dirt and blood sit on my face and I kept walking staring straight forward. Up ahead I could see the other soldiers on our side running and rolling on the ground firing across their wall of sand bags. I could hear the small pops of the bullets ramming themselves into the sandbags and soldiers crying out in pain as they were brought to the bloody ground.
Before I was thirty yards within the sandbags I ducked down and started a crouching run for cover. Dirt was still exploding into clouds of smoke round me and I was quickly becoming afraid. I was here to snipe, not there was any suitable place to snipe from.
I hid as much as my body behind the sandbags and switched my gun from automatic to single shot. This would increase the accuracy. I brought my eye about two inches from the scope and closed the other one.
Across the field I saw a soldier who was fighting and shooting and killing my men. He took out a grenade and threw it across the corpse-strewn area and over our heads. He threw too far.
Dirt shot up in all directions covering my face even more. I aimed quickly, and right above his eyes, and squeezed the trigger gently and watched the man topple over backwards.
I panned the rifle left and found another target. Once again I aimed above his eyes and fired. He stood up straight even after the bullet sunk through his head. Blood trickled out of the hole and he then just fell into a crumpled heap on the ground.
Soldiers were dropping down around me like flies and the opposing force was obviously winning. I didn't even know the name of the country we were fighting because boundaries and alliances changed so often. All I know is that I'm fighting, because that's what I was told to do.
I ducked down behind the sandbag barrier because I had the feeling I was being watched. I sat with my back against the rough bags and my feet buried in ash. When I looked to my right I saw a soldier looking at me and asking if I had been injured. I told him no but he stayed there and stared at me. As if he were looking for something. Then he left.
Next thing I knew the captain was yelling something really loud to us, but I couldn't hear him over the gunfire. I stared at him trying to read his lips but he suddenly flipped into the air and it almost looked as if he were being lifted by dirt.
He body fell on the ground, half buried in ash, and lit up by fire. I peeked my head up to see what the opposing force was doing but realized they were all- retreating? I couldn't understand why. They were obviously beating us and had just killed our captain. Why would they retreat?
I kept playing the battle scene over and over in my mind, and then came back to the fact that the captain was trying to tell us something. I looked off in the distance and saw all the transport trucks driving up and loading troops in.
In a moment I was bouncing up and down in the back of a truck along with the three who were left from my brigade.
One of who was weeping. He wept loudly and heartily. He held the clothes of his best friend who was struck down and killed in the midst of battle. The clothes were a dirty color of red now and wrinkled and crumpled, and each tear that landed on them seemed to clean away the ash just slightly.
Seeing the tears drop from his eyes triggered some sort of new emotion in me. One I had never thought existed. I suddenly realized that the killing was totally pointless. That it was insane, and done without reason. My mind suddenly burst with a million thoughts each one triggering another, it felt as if there were flies inside my brain waiting to break out and shoot out of my mouth.
Casualties of War Part 2
Date: 28 January 2002, 7:32 pm
In about seven hours we were out of the country-sized battleground and on our way through the doors to the barracks. The barracks were the most unsafe to be around these times because they were easily seen and more easily bombed. Air raids were constantly being held around the borders.
There were beds in the barracks but nobody slept in them. I always thought they were only for show. But obviously the general is feeling extremely confident because we were all going to sleep in the building.
The building consisted of about five rooms full of standard white covered bunk beds and a few chests to keep your belonging in. There were also a few large halls, which were lit up by hanging light bulbs. There was also the mess hall, which no longer served food. Lastly, was the study that was well lit and full of books. Old books.
No one really wrote anymore because there were movies. Paper pens and pencils had become delicacies and to see a tree being torn down to make one of those was even more rare. In fact, when I was growing up, during my last few years of schooling I had to watch movies such as Lord of the Flies or The Prince and write reflections on each part. I'm told the movies were based on old books.
I was in a dark room, which had unpainted walls of gray plywood and a few bunk beds. I was on the top bed and lying down with my hand behind my head replaying exactly what had happened on the field. Then a private burst in through the door and told us to report to the mess hall.
When I got there I saw the rows and rows of tables all lined up as if it were a cafeteria and the small serving line room. I found the three who were left from my brigade and sat next to them. The one who had been weeping in the truck had let tears fall down his face the whole way here, and I could see now he had dark circles under his eyes and his hair looked like someone had tried to spike it up. This should never happen.
I looked up to the front of the room, near where we had come in and saw the general speaking to someone. General Hawke was a balding man around forty-five, his face was deeply wrinkled and his eyes showed more pain than I thought existed. He had been awarded four Purple Hearts and one Medal of Honor. He wore and dark gray commando suit, which was decorated with several medals and stars.
Once he had finished speaking to the man next to him he turned to all of us and started to speak. "I'm afraid I have some disturbing news for you all," he said glumly, "You were pulled off the battlefield because-"he paused and drew in a deep breath, "The colony of nearly forty thousand humans has been destroyed."
Everyone just stared completely shocked, at him for a few moments. "What planet, sir?"
The general gave him a somewhat angry glare, but then proceeded to answer. "Felix- it was Felix. Part 1 "Little is known about who did this, but we know that it wasn't a human force. The Felix government sent in one last distress call muttering some jumbled and inscrutable words into the microphone, we have our best men with our most advanced technology trying to figure out what was said. We don't know how many survivors there were," he paused and looked around the room nervously, "if any. "Every planet inhabited by man has been warned about these tragic events and I am told each one is assembling an army. The rulers of Earth are now in a meeting that will change the history, and the future, of mankind forever. A peace treaty between all nations is under negotiations at the moment, and they are in the process of creating an alliance between all humans." The captain finished what he was saying and put his hands behind his back and looked at the floor, fidgeting. A man at the table in front me raised his hand slightly. The captain looked back up and began scanning across the room, saw the man's hand and asked him what he wanted. "What about Felix, sir?" "I- I don't know." He gave the room one last glanced and walked out the back door. Moments later we were being ordered to head back to our sleeping quarters. I took off my clothes and lay down in my bed staring up at the blank ceiling. I had never even heard of the planet the captain had mentioned but apparently it held some sort of sentimental value to him- he looked so pained. More than usual. I knew Felix was a Greek or Roman God but nothing more. They named all the planets after ancient Gods. Buddha, Mars, Venus, or Jesus. There were tons of new planets that had been discovered, I hadn't even heard of most of them. My thought went on and on all through the night, never stopping to give me rest, each thought springing a new question. I eventually fell asleep, although I don't know how late it must have been. The next morning I woke up much later than I thought the captain would have let us. It was almost noon, and I really needed the sleep. I went to find the mess hall and was surprised to see they actually had food waiting for us. It didn't look very good, but at that point I would have eaten almost anything. While I was eating, many of the other soldiers drifted into the room groggily and without any energy. When it looked like everyone was present they started making announcements. "In light of the events that recently occurred we let you sleep in and are serving you food. After you all were probably asleep last night a peace treaty was formed between every nation on Earth, and even those new ones that were formed off the Earth. The alliance is still being worked on but will hopefully be finished by the end of the day. Also, we need to speak with the following people: Smith, Julius; a Arthur, Ronald;" Ronald Arthur, I suddenly realized that was my name and looked around the room to see what Smith was doing. I saw him walking up to the front of the mess hall and followed him. I stood next to the speaker and waited patiently for him to finish calling names, "Um- Rohin..ee?... oosh? Oh, Rohineeosh, James." There were now eight of us up there and I looked around curiously from face to face. "Good morning gentlemen, the captain will be with you in a moment. Please this way." He gave us a brief nod and began walking out the back door. We followed him out and through the narrow hallways and into the study. There were red and green shelves lining every wall that were packed full of books. Each one looked a million years old but had some sort of aurora to it that made me want to pick it up and flip through the pages. The room was quiet and there were comfortable looking red velvet couches to the right of the door. The captain was sitting at one of them with one leg propped up on another, and scratching his head as if he were thinking hard about something. "Have a seat soldiers." He said tonelessly. We all sat down at the couch across from him and waited nervously for what he would say next. "As you know, the planet Felix has been captured by an unknown force. One that was able to take over an entire planet without us even knowing they existed. Somehow we need to find out what they are- or who they are. The President wants me to assemble a team that will go on a covert operation to Felix, and find out as much as they can. Each of you has been chosen for your special and unique talents in the Art of War. When I say this, try to remember, you may be a good sniper, or pilot, of driver, or whatever it is your good at, but you are only human. Understand?" "Yes, sir," we all chorused. He nodded slightly and then began speaking again, "I'm sure you have already figured out that it is you eight that I have chosen to go." We all gave a brief nod or grunt and he continued, "Good. I'm sorry to have to do this to you but we will be leaving in one day. So pack up and write to your family," he stopped for a moment, "It could be your last chance." At this we all got up and walked out the door and to our quarters.
I had to give my family a letter before I left. So I picked up my message recorder and started filming myself. Then I had a thought. I put the camera down and went into the study. "Captain," I said, "Is there any paper and um- writing utensils in here?"
"You have your own message recorder." He said.
"No I mean- paper," this time I said with and emphasis on the word.
He cocked an eyebrow at me and then got up and got me some paper and a pencil, I think it was called. In the letter I told them all about what was happening but I couldn't tell them everything. I just said, 'I have to go somewhere, and I might not be back for a long, long time. I'm going to miss you.'
After I was finished I thanked the Captain Hawke for the help but he stopped me before I left and told me to follow him. "Don't show anyone this." He said to me, standing near a bookcase. He pushed the bookcase over to the right revealing a small door way with stairs leading down it. He put one foot on the footstep and turned back and gave me the signal to follow. I followed him down the stairs and into the basement. He flicked a light switch and eight fluorescent lights turned on overhead and lit up the room brightly. He flicked another switch and the bookcase rolled its way back into place. In front of me were shelves and shelves of weapons. He started walking down along the side of them, almost hugging the wall until he got the fourth shelf over. I followed him and he walked down a little ways in between two shelves and he stopped at place and stared respectfully at one gun. "See this Private? This is a Class A weapon. A sniper rifle designed specifically for the military and far to dangerous to be released to the public. There were only five hundred of these made. The scope can go eleven miles and still give you a decent shot at something. The accuracy on the weapon is just as amazing. Wherever your cross hairs are aimed, is where that bullet is going. The gun fires with such immense power that it has been seen to go right through two layers of concrete. Of course, you couldn't take an army on by yourself with it, but it is truly a magnificent weapon. It was a long black rifle designed the same way as most sniper rifles except in the back, above the butt and below the scope, there is a small screen that had the letters thermal heat reader. The captain picked up the gun carefully and handed it to me. "I want you to have this weapon Private. Take good care of it." "Don't you want it, sir?" "Me? No, no, no, no. You have that. I'm using this." He picked up a gun that looked like a regular automatic but I knew what it really was. It fired twenty bullets a second, with surprising accuracy for an automatic and with almost as much power as the sniper rifle. That was a gun for a lunatic. The Z-7400. I went upstairs and my new gun away. I wandered around aimlessly for a short while wondering what to do next. I didn't really have anything of value with my so I just sat around all day wondering what exactly it was going to be like. Wondering who these mystery attackers were. Hours went by and I finished my two extra meals of the day and dragged myself off to bed. Once again I found myself awake until almost dawn, until my eyes finally shut and I fell into a deep slumber. It seemed like only ten minutes later someone was nudging me repeatedly to wake up. I opened my eyes wearily and turned my head to face whoever it was. It was a young man, maybe in his twenties, who had been assigned to come with us, he was the fifth name called. He had a smooth face and jet-black hair. His eyes were the same and he was already wearing his uniform. Commando pants and a camo shirt. "Wake up," he said somewhat gently. We gotta' go, man." I looked at the nametag on his shirt. Pvt. Keyes. I lifted my legs out from under the covers and got up and got dressed. Afterwards I followed Keyes out to the Mess Hall where Captain Hawke was waiting for us. "Alright men, follow me. There's a ship outside waiting for us." Upon hearing this I became extremely nervous because I suddenly remembered I had never left Earth before. I had never even seen a space ship for my own eyes. But here was one now. It was somewhat small for a ship, but they're only nine of us, including the captain. It had a pointed nose and a rectangular top. In the back there were double doors that opened away from each other. The ship looked like it had just been painted, because it was very clean and along the side, in letters as white as teeth was, PELICAN. "In ya' go, boys," the captain ordered us. I hopped into the back and made may way to the forth seat back on the left side. I took a seat and waited until everyone else was in. When we all were situated the captain started telling us how things would go. "Here's the deal, men. This will be a long ride. We'll be going just under five thousand miles an hour, and should arrive near the moon of the planet in about eight hours. When we get there you will wait patiently," he said eying each of us suspiciously, "for further instructions. Is that understood?" "Sir, yes, sir!" we all replied together. "Okay, here we go. Start the engines, and lets move." From the cockpit I could hear one woman talking to another, the first said, "I'll let you bring us up Alice." Then the second voice, which sounded African-American replied, "Thanks, but please, I want to be called Foe Hammer while I'm behind the wheel." There was then a laugh and ship started rumbling slightly, and the G-Forces kicked in making us all lean this way and that. It seemed in seconds we were on our way through the atmosphere and everything was getting hot. We were on our way to decide the future. Because of my lack of sleep the night before, I almost immediately fell asleep once we got into space. While I was sleeping I dreamt about what it would be like once we reached Felix. It began with the doors of the ship opening and us quietly getting out. We were in the middle of a jungle sort of area where trees shot up all around us and cast a dark shadow over the muddy ground. Suddenly the trees on my left started shaking violently and our entire group propped our guns up and stared at them. Then a huge greenish blue animal with tentacles jumped out at us and he left a trail of drool as he flew through the air. One tentacle wrapped around the man next to me and with a single movement, cracked his neck. I woke up sweating. "Hey! Just in time Arthur, we're just about there," Keyes said to me. I opened my eyes and squinted as the light flooded into them. "Huh?" I asked groggily.
"We're going to be landing on the second moon of Felix and once there we will be heading into another ship called the Meriwether Lewis. From there we will fly into through the Felix atmosphere and into a jungle area. We think this will provide us with better hiding and less obstacles. Near the outskirts of the jungle is the communication building where we received our last message.
"Speaking of which, the message has been decoded and we have realized it is an unknown language. Actually, it is two languages, to my understanding. One of which has been partly translated into, 'For our god, we will-', they haven't finished the rest. So we have guessed that it could be some weird cult or religion of some kind of violent protest for rights," the captain rolled his eyes, "Anyway, we'll be landing in about five or ten minutes." He gave one final glance at his watch and then sat back down on the black seat behind him.
Five minutes later the vehicle came to a slow stop and the sound of something mechanical outside connection to our ship drifted into my ears. Then the co-pilot, Alice, told us everything was ready and the captain pushed the doors open and there was a small hallway for us to go into an even smaller ship.
I was told though, that ship had cloaking and would make it up to four times easier for us to get in with out being noticed. On this short ride Captain Hawke gave us each an earpiece so we could all communicate no matter where we were. We were also given a few extra garments including bulletproof vests and camo colored facemasks.
In a short while that ship had touched down on a muddy and watery ground and the doors were open and we all stepping out cautiously.
"Alright soldiers, here's what I'm gonna' do for you all. You can just wait here for a few moments, I'm gonna' scout ahead and see what's goin on and if there is any major threat near by. You just wait here and stay safe.
"And if you don't come back captain?"
"I'll come back, private." Hawke gave us a reassuring look and then disappeared into the foliage.
"Aw, is poor little Bob worried?" Smith asked in a condescending tone.
"Bob?" I asked.
"Well since what's his name's name is so hard to pronounce we just call him Bob. It's easier." He shrugged.
I looked at Bob and saw he was just looking at the ground and kicking dirt up with his combat boot. I smiled slightly but then I heard the bush rustle slightly. Everyone else heard it to and we all had our weapons propped up and aimed at the bushes. "What the Hell?!" Keyes said.
Casualties of War Part 3
Date: 3 February 2002, 9:17 pm
Suddenly, in a blur something leapt out from the leaves landed on its two feet. It was Captain Hawke. He smiled at us and said, "A little jumpy guys?"
"Geez captain, I almost shot you." Keyes said.
The captain laughed slightly and then started telling us what he had seen, "The building is north west from here and the next hour or so through the woods ought to be easy. My thermal heat reader detected nothing. So... let's go."
We stayed somewhat scattered through out most of the journey because we knew a line formation or a tight formation were very weak. Huge trees flew up around us on all sides creating a sort of smoke screen so blinding it was almost impossible to see. Mist was floating up from every single puddle and there was a constant drizzle of rain falling down on us. Every step we took sent watery mud flying all over our clothes, leaving our legs dirty and wet.
Strange birds flew over our head screaming signs of warning and the captain took the lead with his thermal heat reader held out far in front of him. Quickly and silently he lifted up his right hand for the signal to stop us. I stopped moving stood absolutely still. My eyes shot from one dark tree to another until I realized I had stopped breathing.
I let out a deep breath and whispered into my earpiece, "Captain, what's going on?"
He lifted up his hand again putting up to fingers this time and then tapping the device he held in his hand. He lifted up his shoulder to show he didn't know what they were. Then he whispered something back, "They could be animals of some kind, remember we are aliens on this planet, proceed with caution."
We started walking again, this time more slowly and more quietly. Then in the distance came a sound. It sounded somewhat like a voice, deep in tone and it could have been a laugh. We stopped moving. I kept listening intently for another sound. Then I heard more, it sounded like gibberish spoken while you had something caught in your throat.
Two deep, gurgling voices were speaking out through the forest, obviously to each other. Then the captain talked whispered something into the earpiece again. "Arthur, get up on that hill to the left, and turn on the thermal heat reader on your rifle, see if you can tell me how many and if you can snipe them. Everyone else, wait for further instructions. And Arthur, move quietly!"
I began a crouching run to the hill and had and immediate flash back to the battle that started this all. My feet sunk into the mud with each step but I kept running. I dodged the bushed and clumps of dry leaves or any twigs lying on the ground. I tried every way I could not to make noise. When I had reached the top I lay down on my stomach and propped the rifle in front of my shoulder.
I hit the switch to turn on the screen and glanced at it quickly. There were three green, red, and yellow blobs about forty yard in front of me. I brought my eye to the scope and moved the cross hairs back and forth until I found my target. I could only see one of them; the other two were hidden behind a tree. "There are three there, captain, I only have the chance to snipe one from here. But captain, this thing isn't like any human I've ever seen," I whispered.
"What do you mean, private?" Captain Hawke replied.
"...It's blue, and its face is, well, weird. It seems to have a snout and a human face at the same time. It eyes are gold and, wait, another just came out, it smaller and its orange and gray. Its about the size of a five year old."
"Well... what about their weapons?"
"Um, one has a curved weapon with a green top, sort of in the shape of a U, and the other has a weapon with lots of little spikes on it. Pink spikes."
"What the Hell?!"
"Should I fire?"
"At will, private."
I took aim at the bigger one first and aimed directly for his head, he had it thrown back in a laugh, because the smaller one had just said something to him. I gently pressed the trigger down and the bullet shot out with an almost silent whiz and the larger one almost immediately fell over backwards. A purple substance, which must have been the creature's blood flew up into the air along with mud and water.
The little one threw his arms up and began screaming something and running around in circles. I quickly took aim at him and fired. He fell over sideways sending little mud and water up.
The third jumped out and started running in between trees and yelling something. I took a quick and sloppy shot at his chest, and he glowed a rippling white and yellow for a short while. I reloaded and while I was doing so, the thing leapt behind a tree.
"I couldn't get him," I whispered into my earpiece, "The third one, that is."
"We'll get him," the captain replied almost immediately.
I zoomed out a little bit with my rifle so I was able to see all the actions. The eight of the soldiers suddenly came charging in off the left, firing their automatics. The captain was first, with his weapon. The bullets left the nozzle so quickly there was almost no sound at all besides a small whiz.
Pieces of the strange animal went flying in all directions, and his arm was pounded into oblivion by the bullets. It fell bloodily to the ground, screaming loudly. The soldiers lifted their weapons above their heads and started cheering.
I got off the wet ground and started walking over to them. "How'd ya' like that rifle, son?" the captain asked me.
"It was incredible," I told him honestly.
"I told you it would be," he said and started laughing. He looked at the blue one, and saw that the bullet had ripped half his head off. "Nice shot. All right soldiers, we need to check out these weapons, and of course these bodies. Obviously they are the highest, or one of the highest forms of life on the planet, because they had weapons. There's a chance that whatever cult they are in has them dress up like this, 'cause that's just the way some people are."
He walked over to the red one, which lay dead on its stomach in a puddle of its own purple blood. "Captain how do you explain this blood?" Smith asked, wiping some of it from off his hand and onto his shirt.
"I have no idea, private. I've never seen anything like this. "Damn it... what the hell is this?!" He stared at the body a moment, as he sat there crouched down on one knee, then said, "I don't think we're dealing with any sort of human here."
"So what do you plan to do? Keep going?"
"Our mission is to find out anything we can about these aliens. We could stop now and bring these bodies back home, or we could keep going and bring something a million times more valuable home. A living body. With something like that, we could translate an entire language, we could learn about weaponry, and their planet and species. The knowledge from even one of those tiny orange things has incredible potential."
"Sir, how do you know they have a language?" one of the soldiers asked. I didn't know this soldiers name, and if he had ever talked before now, I was asleep during it.
"You heard them laugh didn't you? Humans have a language and are the only animal that laughs. Even on the alien planets, we have found a few strange species, which appear to have a muddled form of language, and we have heard them laugh."
"Whatever," the soldier replied, shrugging.
My ears were now completely alert to any sound, even the sound of my breath began to startle me. As we trudged on through the dark and wet ground I began to notice the rain getting light and the canopy the trees made above us growing thinner. It was obvious we were coming out of the jungle.
"Almost there," Captain Hawke informed us. "You stay here again and let me scout ahead for a little while. I'm going to find out about the buildings defenses and see the best place to try and infiltrate it is. From there we'll try to send a few messages back to home base, Earth, about our victory. Cross your fingers soldiers, this time it might not be me jumpin' through that bush."
He left us in an eerie and surreal silence that echoed through the trees. The bird noises had ceased and I had stopped my breathing because the wait was so intense. My stomach jumped up and down and seemed to vomit inside it self.
Then, the silence broke from somewhere behind as we turned around and pointed our guns at where the sound came from. A loud inhaling, and then an even louder exhale. Like a dog except longer and deeper breaths. One after another, the sounds floated into our ears. "That you, sir?" Julius asked worriedly.
A pink ball flew across my sight so that I could barely see it, and slammed itself into Bob. He let out a single cry as his face melted away into a bleeding pulp. He fell over backwards, steaming.
"Holy shit!" a soldier yelled.
"Run!" Keyes said, and began following his own instructions. The rest of followed suit and began running full speed leaping over logs and jumping over puddles, stepping left and to avoid the huge trees.
We started coming out of the forest and saw a huge white building with a satellite sitting on the top, pointed toward the two moons. That was it. "Let's go find Hawke and get the Hell outta' here."
Casualties of War Part IV
Date: 12 April 2004, 9:28 PM
You really should read the other parts in the series. I really feel confident that this is interesting.
We didn't stop running. We couldn't give those things a chance to catch up to us, so we kept moving as fast as we could until we were through the doors of one of the buildings in the Communications Compound. After the last man was in Julius slammed the door closed and leaned on it. "What the hell was that? It was like his face was... I don't know... like, burnt or something, man. What the hell?"
Keyes put a heavy hand on his shoulder. "Julius. Calm down. I'm sure whatever it is that's out here, I'm sure we can deal with it. We were chosen because we're better than the rest. For our ability to survive. Bob's out because we weren't ready. We didn't know what was going on. Now we have an idea so let's just get to General Hawke and get home."
Julius loosened up a little bit and lowered his shoulders. "Alright. But how do we even know Hawke is in here?"
Keyes gave Julius a stressed and weighted look, "We don't. We have to hope. I don't think we should go looking for him though. We'd have a better chance if we just made our way into the Communications room and waited for him. It's the only logical place for us to go. But be ready for anything."
Keyes had obviously adapted the position of leader. He always seemed to know what to do and during our time in Old India he was constantly with the Sergeants and Officers telling them the best way to attack. He had been promised promotions more times than I can count, but the people who were going to do it were always killed before sending the request up the chain of command.
He had leader written all over him. He was one of the few people who had actually survived with me from the beginning of enlistment.
I watched him intently as he signaled and gave commands and positioned everyone safely around the next door. He swung it open and Smith let him know it was clear. We all moved in through this door and took in the new room. There was a wall console to the left of the door. Keyes moved over to it and brought up a map screen. "This is us," he pointed to a room on the map as he stepped out of the way so we could see. "This is where we need to get." He moved his hands three rooms to the left. "So I think... I think that means we'll be going through that door." He brought up his other arm and pointed to a door on his right.
"Well then... let's go," Smith said.
We moved through the next two doors without any problems but stopped at the third. Something inside all of us knew there was going to be problems in the next room. At our goal. There was an extra person in the room. Just like there was on the truck no more than two days ago, the same person was in this room. No one could see him, but he was sensed. The cloaked figure flowing darkness forth from his very soul waiting for one of us to fall. Watching.
Keyes took a deep breath. "Ok, get ready folks. I got a bad feeling about this one. Lipton, get over here and watch the door when I open it. Stamos, you too. The rest of you just wait.
Julius looked over at me. "I hate this waiting crap, man."
"Won't be long," and with that Keyes swung open the door and the two men watching the other side immediately began firing. Keyes peeked around the wall and started firing, and I and the other men moved up closer. I watched as a pink ball flew through the air and into Stamos. He dove onto the ground and rolled out of the way. "Shit! It's melting my armor! Get this shit off of me!" Julius and I ran over and got the burning metal off his skin. Smith ran over and took Stamos' place. I watched as he fired over and over into the other room at an enemy I had yet to see. But suddenly a dozen or so small pink things flew into Smiths body and sat there for a second. He looked down at them, utterly confused, until they all simultaneously exploded.
As a reflex, Smith jumped up into the air a little as his whole body just seemed to burn. He was dead before he hit the ground.
"Got 'em," Keyes said. "It's not lookin' good fella's. It doesn't make sense. How can anything take that many bullets and stay standing? I don't get- Whoa. Wait a second here. Those are my bullets! Why aren't they in his carcass?! Holy shit! They must have some kind of armor!"
"Keyes," Julius said interrupting his discovery. "Smith is down." Smith's body lay on the ground twitching and smoking and he all stood around it just staring down at it. "This is going to be one hell of a war." Keyes said solemnly.
Casualties of War Part V
Date: 22 April 2004, 7:07 PM
Smith and Bob were both dead. Bob's body lay insecure somewhere in the marshy jungle outside the building, while Smith's lay here in front of us and we had nowhere to put it. So we left it there.
We were all a little stunned at what had just happened, and at these alien bodies which lay in pools of their own blood and little pieces of purple skin strewn across the walls of the communications room. But Keyes wanted business. He wanted the hell off of this planet. "There's the com station. I hope they're not smart enough to figure out how to sabotage it," he glanced around the room nervously before stepping in. Once inside, he immediately made his way over to the holographic computer and started moving things around.
Small beeps and buzzed emanated from the base of the hologram and we watched as new objects appeared and the picture of the satellite gave us the sign that it was sending data out. "Speakers are shot," Keyes said, "But I've sent text based information back to all of Earth's colonized planets. Or at least all the one's that Felix is in contact with."
Julius had his jaw dropped, "How the hell did you learn how to do that?"
"Before I dropped out to help fight, I spent three years in college as a satellite technology major. But I'm pretty sure I knew how to do this well before that," he said flashing us a little smile. "Anyway, I've let them know about this alien species we've encountered. I let them know that we're separated from Hawke, and that Smith and ..uh.. the other guy are dead.
"Hey, and don't forget, I'm injured over here!" Stamos said through gritted teeth. His hand was still on his chest in the area that had been burnt. "Who's the medic in here anyway?"
We looked around at each other. Keyes, Stamos, and Julius were the only ones still alive that I knew the names of. There's no way they would have sent us on a mission like this without a medic. Then I saw the little red cross patch on the soldiers right arm. His mouth was open and his eyes wide. His gun lay on the floor at his feet and saliva was dripping from his lower lip. His limbs were shaking slightly and his pants were soaked down to his knees. His nametag read "Stone".
"Aw shit! I thought they were supposed to send the best of the best over here. Not some pants pissing little puss!" Stamos yelled out. Everyone else had seen Stone just when I had. "What the hell was the General thinking?"
Stone was in shock. It was obvious that his condition was even more severe than Stamos. Extreme shock can kill anyone, but we were all afraid to help him. It seemed too dishonorable. If we had been able to stomach the fight, why should he be allowed to show such cowardice.
Keyes took a step toward him. He signaled to me to come over with him and he told me to help him lay Stone down. Once down, Keyes forced him to drink some water and splashed some over his face and chest as well.
Before any further treatment could be given, the hologram base beeped. Keyes got up and moved over to it. He stood there a little while, apparently reading, and then spoke, "I just got word back from... Hm. Earth, Dionysus, Zeus, and... Hades. Well good. Hades is pretty close by, I'm sure they can help."
"Well what do they say, man?" Julius said.
"I'll read Earth's response first. 'If you're sure the enemy is in fact and alien race, try to bring back a live specimen. If it is not possible, bring one dead. Otherwise please evacuate as soon as you meet back up with Hawke."
"Did somebody say my name?" the old and somewhat more wrinkled face of Hawke greeted our eyes as we turned around to inspect the voice. "Looks like you boys have been busy," he said looking around at the dead bodies. "Who's bright idea was it to come here when hell broke out outside?"
A weak voice came out from the corner of the room, "Keyes', sir. His idea."
Hawke gave the limp body of stone a fairly disgusted look and then looked at Keyes. "Ah, of course. I should have known. It's time you finally got what you deserve Keyes." He stepped back over to the communications command console and managed to turn on the video output. "Damn, speakers are busted. Have you been sending text data?"
"Yes, sir," Keyes replied.
Hawke nodded at him and started pushing buttons. "Done. I just sent word back to Earth to promote you as soon as you return home. I also asked for an evacuation ship as soon as possible. I don't want to stay here another second and I sure as hell don't think Smith or Stone do. Or Stamos." He stopped and looked around for a second, "Where's the other guy?"
"Dead, sir. Hit in the face. We had to leave him behind. Tags and all, sir," Keyes said.
"Sorry to say this boys, but we have to go get him. You know how policy works."
"Sir, with all due respect, Stamos and Stone won't be able to fight. Smith's out, too. That leaves only five of us to fight." Hawke walked over to Stone and kicked him in the gut. "Get the hell up. I don't see any blood so go do your job and fix Stamos up. Now!"
Stone rolled over onto his stomach, lifted the upper half of his body, vomited, and then got on his feet. He walked over to Stamos and started working. "Okay. We'll be fine. How far in there is he Arthur?"
"Not far, sir. Thirty yards. Max," I replied.
"Let's go then. I'll lead, you boys just tell me which way to go."
Keyes gave a heavy sigh of submission and started following the general as he made his way out of the building.
And we all followed Keyes.
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