Ethereal Phantasm

CHAPTER II

LAIRE'S POINT OF VIEW

The message bothered me until I woke up from that night. I forced myself to sleep even though I didn't feel like sleeping. It was running through my head even after I packed my things.

Paglabas na paglabas ko sa kwarto ay sinalubong ako nila mom at dad ng yakap. Gano'n din sa Kuya Xander. Before letting go, he whispered another message.

You're a brilliant woman, Laire.

...

Nasa harapan ko ngayon ang mga kasama ko sa platoon na mga ka-ranggo at ka-edad ko lamang na pupunta rin sa Earth. Sa harap namin ay kaniya-kaniyang ship kada platoon. We are arranged by platoons and by squads.

Before going in, we are announced that the Prime Minister will be here and will make a speech.  Not long after, he arrived and went in front of us with a big smile on his face.

The crowd is silent as we wait for our Prime Minister to speak. Everybody is waiting for him to utter a word, like staying until a command to follow is instructed. We deeply respect our leaders because we are alive until today because of them. Our Prime Minister saved us and now we decided to put our lives for the nation.

"This generation of people will change our future," saad ng Prime Minister. "Your works and efforts to serve will always be a treasure to humanity. Right now, everyone is already proud of your bravery to face this catastrophe. We are entrusting you with our lives."

Napalunok ako. Right. As much as our lives are at stake, we will also remember that the future depends on us and the information we collect.

"Now, go to Earth, kill as many extraterrestrials as you could, gather information, report back alive, and let's take back our home," Prime Minister Liu Zan, the child of the former Prime Minister Liu Feng, declared as he smiles proudly. "For the humanity!"

...

Training was fun back then. The thought of hurting someone physically for no reason is wrong, but a valid reason changes everything. We got a painful practice in combat for years for this moment.

As we got inside the ship, we were handed by the same pill we take everyday ever since we survived those unfortunate events. There might be gravity inside the spaceship I lived in for years but Earth feels different.

We landed on a quiet seaside. We have pools inside the ship but the touch of the sea water is odd. We cautiously got out of the ship, together with my squad. We are given different locations to search. Our task is just to survive, gather as much information as we can, and go back alive. We can kill if we're commanded by our lieutenant. Our squad is composed of seven members.

Our squad is commanded to go inside a forest and find civilians as much as we can. Hindi kami inatasan na dalhin sila pabalik sa ship. They'll be used for us to have data and all.

It's been 8 hours since we landed. I've read many things about what will happen to a human's body if natagalan sila sa space at bumalik sila rito sa Earth. Those are older books and documented things about Astronauts.

I'm guessing it's because of the pills we are consuming and the modern technology that has been developed all throughout the years, those difficult things to explain have solutions in this day and age.