by E. R. Torre
The tribe leader again examined the three strangers and, whether they forest spirits or not, realized they meant his tribe no harm. He stuck his spear into the dirt and motioned them to his side.
The two strangers who held back walked to their blue-eyed companion’s side.
Together, the three stepped forward until they were before the tribe leader.
The blue eyed stranger offered her hand in a sign of friendship. The tribe leader took the woman’s hand into his.
And just like that the tribe leader allowed the suspected forest spirits into his tribe.
ACT I
1
The Distant Future…
She awoke to the sound of heavy boots clicking against a metal floor.
It came from somewhere far away and echoed through the darkness around her. She realized, with a start, that her eyes were closed. She tried to open them but couldn’t.
Click, click, click.
The footsteps faded.
Whoever was out there walked away and left her all alone. Fear gripped her. She tried calling out. She wanted this stranger to come back and not leave her all alo—
She stopped.
Where am I?
She didn’t know. She took a few seconds to think. Her mind, she realized, was a jumble of thoughts. Little made sense and her fear grew. She tried to move but couldn’t.
Her body was tied down.
What in Hades?
She trembled. The thoughts in her head flashed faster and faster and whatever was holding her down was too strong for her to break free. She felt—
You’re panicking. Calm down.
She lay back. She tried to relax.
After a few moments, her panic lessened and her thoughts cleared, if only a little.
She tried to remember the time before she got here. Hard as she tried, she couldn’t recall what happened to her since—
Since when?
She sighed.
Ok, let’s try an easy one. Where are you right at this moment?
She moved her body against the restraints. She felt cushion below her.
You’re lying on a bed.
She almost let out a laugh.
Of course you’re lying on a bed. Where?
She sniffed the air. It was processed and pure. Sterile.
You’re in a hospital. Either that or a med-unit.
She again tried to open her eyes to look around but couldn’t. There was something over them, something tight.
Gauss?
She relaxed. The sterile smell felt strangely comforting.
You’re alive.
That thought startled her.
Why would I even think…?
She heard the footsteps.
He was returning.
He?
He was coming to continue his interview.
Interview?
She remembered some more. She feared his questions.
Why?
She thought about that.
He wants you to remember what happened on Gehinnom.
For a moment she couldn’t recall what Gehinnom was. Then:
Gehinnom, a planet in the Aeliana Corridor, Pollox Sector. Gehinnom, where you—
Her body tightened.
He wants you to remember what happened on Gehinnom and you don’t want to remember any of it. You don’t want to remember the blood and the death and the horror and the—
She pressed against her restraints and stifled a scream.
The memories were coming back.
As much as she wished they wouldn’t, they were coming back.
2
Planet Gehinnom, Pollox Sector, Year 5022 A.E.
The lander’s thrusters screamed as they deployed three miles from the planet’s surface.
Aboard, several soldiers grunted as the force of gravity pushed their bodies into their unmoving metal and chrome battle suits. The lander’s forty-eight crash seats, twenty-four on each side, were filled with them.
They were officially called a stabilizing force, though one authorized to use its resources to the maximum. The rebel presence on Gehinnom was considered an embarrassment to the government. The Phaecian Empire’s Council of Twelve patiently waited for the local government to deal with the rebellion but instead the problem grew. Worse, Gehinnom’s ruling class insisted the threat was contained even though each passing day proved this was clearly not the case.
It didn’t take long for the Council of Twelve to not so politely and over the objections of that ruling class order Peacekeeper squads to surround the planet and descend upon it. These forces were aggressive. They would end the rebel menace.
They would do so once and for all.
Though belted in tight and with the heavy, high tech armor absorbing much of the force of orbital entry and, soon enough, the landing itself, the heavy gravity nonetheless pushed the soldiers’ bodies to the limit.
One seated toward the rear of the craft lost consciousness while another threw up. The scent of his bile mixed with the stench of sweat baked into the compartment.
The thruster roar faded and was replaced by the steady screams of starboard and port engines. The lander jerked from side to side as its automated landing protocol adjusted her descent and moved her closer to her target.
“Two minutes from mark,” the heavily distorted voice of the pilot said over the ship’s speakers.
One of the soldiers, a woman with dark features and piercing green eyes, paused for a moment from adjusting her fusion rifle to check the countdown clock at the end of the landing bay corridor.
There, bloody red lights listed the time from deployment.
1:56
The woman’s attention returned to her weapon. She checked the battery charge and made sure the safety was on. A loud click and the fusion rifle was ready for action. As with the other half-dozen missions she engaged in the past year, her hope was the weapon would not be needed.
Hope and reality, she knew, had a way of proving opposites.
Satisfied her weapon was in order, she double checked the magnetic straps that kept her battle suit locked into her chair. Should there be any malfunction, she would experience the full gravitational force of landing.
She shivered.
The last soldier to go through a lock malfunction had his remains poured from his suit.
She faced the man next to her.
The C.O. called him Harrison. She couldn’t be sure if it was his first, last, or only name and didn’t know where he was from. Nor did she really care. He was a newbie to both the squad and the Phaecian Armed Forces. He stared straight forward and gasped for air. Every time he did so, it annoyed the fuck out of her.
“Deep breaths,” the woman yelled over the roar of the engines. She pointed to his weapon. “You checked your gear?”
The man didn’t react.
She swore.
“I’m talking to you Harrison!”
At the mention of his name, the man’s frightened eyes were upon her. He looked like he was about to shit himself.
The man’s lips moved but it took a couple of tries before words formed. In a voice that barely registered, he said:
“Yes, Laverna?”
“You checked your gear?”
The man’s reached for his fusion gun and trembling gloved hands fumbled over it. It was as if he just realized he carried it.
“Check it!”
The man turned the weapon over and it nearly dropped.
“Whatever you do, don’t pull the fucking trigger!”
At that, the mountain of a man opposite Laverna sneered.
“If you do, make sure the barrel’s pointed at your head,” the man said. “Cause if it isn’t and you fry any of us, you’ll be the next to go.”
“Unless of course we get lucky and he fries you, Osborne,” Laverna said.
The man opposite Laverna laughed.
“You say the meanest things to those who are supposed to watch your back,” Osborne said. “Are
n’t we all here for Gods and Country?”
“More like political expediency,” Laverna said.
Osborne nodded.
“You’re right,” he said. “Don’t recall seeing any of Gehinnom’s finest among our squad. Do they even have a military?”
“Who knows and who cares,” Laverna said. “Our job is to crack heads and not think too hard about who they belong to.”
“As long as the cause is just,” Osborne said. “Then again, protecting politicians from their own people doesn’t feel like the most noble of missions.”
Laverna smiled.
“You’re quite the philosopher. And here I thought you were just a big, dumb jock.”
Osborne winked.
“Looks can be deceiving. You know what my papa always said?”
“Can’t wait to hear.”
“He said to never trust politicians because they tell you what you want to hear but always do what their financial backers tell them to.”
“Your father was a genius,” Laverna deadpanned. “You, on the other hand…”
“Open your mind,” Osborne said. “Face the truth. It does wonders.”
“If it’s all the same—”
“Heads up,” the pilot’s voice transmitted over the ship’s speakers. “Drop zone in twenty seconds so make sure your battle suits are sealed up.”
The soldiers pressed buttons on their battle suits and clear tinsel glass panels slid before each of their faces. The air within the suit was pressurized and Laverna felt her ears pop.
Their dropship hit low level turbulence and thrashed from side to side.
Harrison closed his eyes. His head was down.
“You like to pick up strays?” Osborne said.
“Some more than others,” Laverna replied.
The countdown reached its end but the ship remained in the air.
“Course correction,” the pilot announced. “Thirty more seconds.”
The ship shuddered as the landing gear came down. This was to be a quick dump and liftoff and the soldiers stiffened. Laverna heard Harrison mutter a prayer. It was interrupted by Osborne.
“Here we go,” he told Harrison. “Keep it together.”
There was no longer any mirth in his voice. Like Laverna, Osborne was a veteran. He could be rough, especially to newbies, but he cared for them every bit as much as she did.
Laverna felt her entire body clench. Landing was easily the squad’s most vulnerable moment. There was nothing you could do except wait for the green light to tell you it was time to disembark. Until that moment, the only thing keeping you alive were the automated cannons of the landing ship and whatever friendlies were in the air or on the ground protecting you.
The ship’s interior shook yet again. There came a heavy thud as her landing gear hit dirt. The countdown clock read 0:00 and shut off. The cabin’s inner lights, as blood red as the clock’s display, turned bright green.
“Move!” someone yelled.
The hatch blew open, revealing a lush Gehinnom forest.
As one the peacekeeper squad, including the newbie, were out of their seats and marching to the exit.
Their weapons were drawn, powered up, and ready for use.
Outside, the squad formed a tight circle. They aimed their weapons outwardly and covered a three hundred and sixty degree angle.
When the last of the squad exited, the lander’s hatch closed and sealed back in place. Heavy metal bolts turned and the ship’s thrusters, never quite off, roared to savage life.
The lander lifted off.
Once it was a little over a hundred feet in the air she picked up speed. A sonic boom shattered the peace and only a few seconds afterwards the ship was nothing more than a small black dot many miles away.
The soldiers looked west and past the surrounding trees. They spotted their target, the city of Gehinnom. Named after the planet, it was the largest, most modern city within this world.
According to the latest Intel, it was also the place two rebel leaders and their powerful, dangerous sects were holed up.
The Peacekeeper Squad stood in place for several long minutes while Sergeant Castor, the Squad Leader checked his computer and talked to someone over a private comm line. The discussion was very animated.
Osborne and Laverna looked at each other. Osborne switched off his squad comm and leaned in close to Laverna. Their helmets touched.
“Looks like the higher ups changed plans on us,” Osborne said.
“And Castor doesn’t approve,” Laverna replied.
“Complications, complications,” Osborne said. “And here I figured we were supposed to just kill everyone we ran across. What’s the use of being a gun if you can’t shoot?”
Laverna shook her head and chuckled. Things got serious the moment Castor faced his Squad.
“Let’s go,” he said.
The Peacekeeper Squad marched forward.
In less than a half hour they cleared the last of the forest and hit a broad tarmac leading into the megacity.
For a little over a mile they had no cover, so they set their armor to enhanced movement.
They jogged quickly and in computer assisted formation. Overhead, Phaecian Fighter Jets crisscrossed the sky, their sensors and weapons ready to come to the ground troops’ aid should they encounter hostilities before reaching the city.
Harrison hesitated as they marched along and this drew Laverna’s attention. She reached out, intent on pushing him forward but stopped.
The newbie had thrown up in his now sealed battle suit and didn’t know what to do.
“The suit will take care of that if you ask it to,” Laverna said.
Harrison nodded and, embarrassed, thanked Laverna.
“Initiate cleanup,” he said.
At the order, the suit’s cleaning system sucked the vile matter away from the glass paneling and discarded it through vents near the suit’s feet plates.
“Now that you’ve got that out of the way, how about stepping it up?” Osborne said.
Laverna shook her head.
If he made it through this, the newbie would be fine.
If.
3
The first day on Gehinnom wasn’t bad.
The Peacekeeper Squad made it to the capital city’s outskirts and established a perimeter. Sergeant Castor told them they would spend the day holding that position.
Outside the perimeter, the soldiers saw a few stray citizen in the buildings before them. They moved quickly and steered clear of the Peacekeeper base camp. Not a single shot was fired.
Two more squads of Peacekeepers arrived and merged with Laverna’s group. At some point she lost track of the newbie, though at dinner she spotted him talking with another group of soldiers.
“How cute,” Osborne said. “Our little boy’s making friends.”
Laverna sat next to the burly soldier and on a sidewalk. Everyone still wore their metal battle suits. Many, like Laverna and Osborne, removed their helmets and sipped liquid from protein packs. When they were done, the helmets came back on.
“Sure is sweet,” Laverna said.
“Makes you think about what comes next, after our tour is done.”
“There’s something other than military life?” Laverna said.
“By the Gods I hope so,” Osborne said.
The second day was far worse.
The Peacekeepers broke camp and marched into the heart of the city. For the first time since their arrival, they met resistance. A minor firefight erupted two miles east of their position but the rebels were quickly beaten back by another squad. Another, even smaller firefight erupted to their west. There were a total of two rebels involved in that attack and they were put down without the loss of a single Peacekeeper life.
“This is almost too easy,” Laverna overheard Harrison tell his newfound friends.
Sergeant Castor also overheard the newbie’s words.
“How about you let me be the one to declare victory?” he said.
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The smile on Harrison’s face dissolved.
“Yes sir.”
Sergeant Castor addressed his squad.
“We’re moving on,” he said. “Tight formation. Slow and easy. Stay in contact and watch your sensors.”
The Peacekeepers formed a phalanx and covered both sides of LeMile Avenue, one of Gehinnom’s main roads.
They marched as one and kept to the sides of buildings while watching for hostile movement.
The hours passed and with it the squad journeyed deeper and deeper into the city. At one point they took a break and huddled near a subway line. The subway was enormous and had probably never been as deserted as it was now.
“How many people are supposed to live here?” Laverna asked Osborne.
The burly soldier shrugged.
“Twenty million, give or take,” he said. “Why?”
“You don’t feel it?”
“What’s that?” Osborne asked.
“Something’s off,” Laverna said. She shook her head. “It’s… I don’t know how to explain it.”
The two listened in silence for a few seconds before Osborne said:
“I think I know. It’s too damn quiet. Normally that’d be a good thing. But in a city this size…”
“See the building off to the west? The tallest one?”
“Yeah.”
“Focus on the higher stories.”
The visual equipment in Osborne’s suit come to life and zoomed in on the structure.
“Broken windows,” Osborne said.
“And smoke coming out one of them. We’re on the front line, right?”
“Have you been sleep walking all this time?” Osborne said. “Of course we are.”
“If we are, why does it feel like we’re following in the wake of something else?”
Osborne thought about that. His attention returned to the buildings.
Everything was so very quiet.
A little after noon they heard the sound of fusion blasts. Those sounds confirmed what most of the soldiers by now suspected: A ghost squadron was ahead of them and clearing their path in a terrifyingly surgical way. There was little to no blood. There were no bodies.
