Pull (originally published as Deep Darkness v1)

Memoria

Memoria

My name is Devon Cross (well, at the very least that is my host's name but my real name is obviously not Devon Cross - I am Sev, a user, a soldier serving under orders to peer into the past as humanity struggles to survive) I am a commanding officer in the Terran Military, the military branch of the Hegemony and it is my job to protect the citizens of Earth, Mars, Deimos, Phobos, Europa, Pluto, and all the colonies of the Sol System from the alien force known as the Skrav. Why? Simple... they would see us die. We have no choice but to fight if we want to survive. The galaxy is a dangerous place.

We just devastated an entire fleet. Hundreds of Skrav ships destroyed in an instant. Nice way to introduce ourselves. First contact is always a bitch.

It only took a day for me to make up my mind, I resigned my position as an officer and re-enlisted as a soldier. In spite of a lingering hangover and high I volunteered to lead Alpha Squad, a group of Terran Marines to do a head on attack against one of the few Skrav daggers (a nickname we gave the Skrav ships based on their looks) that didn't totally burn up in our first offensive. We nicknamed the Skrav crash site "Hastur". It only took two hours before I was in my gear sitting in a drop ship ready to be deployed.

Our starship, the New Hope (should have been called 'Jaws' if you ask me; it looked like dark gray metal shark tooth) tore through the man-made atmosphere on Deimos, a colony we only recently terraformed. I get the call and begin running down the hallways of the ship grabbing my prototype M17 and checking my suit. The military sees this as a great opportunity to test some new, more experimental weapons. Every Skrav we find living or dead is a corpse to test our technology on. We were also told to take no prisoners. Not like we could talk to them anyway. The M17 is an energy/projectile weapon that runs of electric and kinetic impulses. The more it fires the stronger it becomes. I grab the latest in military protection, black body armor and a gun that resembles an old world chain saw. Others in my unit carry much the same gear all of us well armed with a vast assortment of automatic weaponry. M16s, sniper rifles, rocket launchers, etc... all set and at the ready to be used. Each of us also has a silver magnum at our hip.

My anxiousness makes me fumble. I tend to get a little clumsy before a big game but I am all action once they let us play. I trip going into the hangar but my second in command, Lieutenant Chev grabs me. "Not getting too old are you Cross?" I wanted to tell him I was, I wanted to turn back. I wanted to scream, I have seen too much blood and I want to give up on war, this is pointless, this is meaningless and I can't go on but I knew otherwise. I knew why it was that I had enlisted my services. The Skrav wanted to kill us, all of us. I had the necessary skills needed to protect the human race, protect the ones I care about and love. "Never too old lieutenant to kill some Skravs," I answer with a grin. In spite of myself and my own insecurities I get myself situated inside the skiff we are going to ride down to the surface. The skiff looks like a small silver platoon boat with a metal shell covering the sides. It holds seven troops. This feels familiar, kinda like D-Day but we are hoping all the Germans will be dead.

Within moments we are ready for take-off. All the soldiers in the unit are fastened in their seats. Some are looking off at the wall. Some are whispering low, grumbled prayers. Some are trying to control their breathing. Each of us do whatever we can to focus and get our heads ready as we make our big play. All of us are scared. We are the first to face an enemy we know little to nothing about.

There is a slight jerk. We could feel the ship steady itself as it began to rise from the cargo launch bay. The bottom of the skiff floats several feet off the hangar floor and moved towards the open bay doors. I could count the seconds before it clears the bay,. One. Two. Three. We are approximately two feet out from the ship. Sweat pools down soldier's faces, especially the newbies. Fresh meat. No question about it. It hovers for ten seconds in midair before we begin our descent dropping straight down. The descent is quick, instantly turning the stomach to knots. You immediately feel the air pressure drop and breathing becomes almost unendurable. You feel your ears pop and the world around you goes quiet. Anything wrong with the skiff then you are dead. Our lives are in technologies hands. Depending how far you are seated up front you can't even hear the roar of the engine over the roar of the fall. When that first breath of air leaves your lungs you feel like you are choking. Many expel hacking coughing trying to suck the air back up. Its best to just let it go. Others swallow their tongue choking on it. The captain steadies the skiff and glides us towards the Skrav. A few of the newbies pass out.