Don't Give Up - A Sci-Fi Short

Hawken

As if it was another surprise, he heard a somewhat familiar sound so far in the distance. Shortly after, he saw the tracer of a human projectile going through the Orc’s skull, and the Orc, his heavy weight now an empty burden, fell over Rick’s body. Dead. Green and warm Orc blood was spilt on the ground around him. Next, the events went to a better turn. He heard the sounds of a Hawken Gunship in the distance, its two wings – a fusion engine on each – slowly turning to descend. It was then when he saw through his blurred and tired vision the greatest sight he had ever seen and the greatest feeling of relief he had ever experienced; The Hawken gunship landed not more than twenty meters from where he was, unloading a group of soldiers to search the area. Not a minute later, a fireteam of airborne troopers discovered a waving, alive, human arm under a dead Orc officer. “Heeey! Heeey! Over here!” Rick released tears of joy, and now his face’s surface was a mix of blood and water. Two of the four men lifted the Orc’s body off Rick, and Rick quickly went off his back and sat on the ground.

“Can you walk, soldier?” asked one of the men. They were dressed similarly, and in the same outfit as Rick. He carried a CM2 Carbine in his hands.

“Yeah.” Rick said. The soldier offered a hand and Rick took it. With what remaining energy he had, he and the four-man fireteam walked back to the Hawken. En route to the VTOL craft, Rick saw Karel being carried on a stretcher. An oxygen tank was connected to his mouth, and his eyes were tightly asleep. His chest wounds were being treated by the medics with whatever they had. “Is he gonna make it?” Asked Rick, now only able to see with one eye thanks to the big scar on the left side of his face.

“We don’t know.” Said one of the medics. “But he’s stable. You guys went through a lot.”

“We went against fourteen enemies and two mountains.” Said Rick. He took a couple steps closer to the medic and said in front of his helmed face, “Hu-a.”

“Let me check that for you, Rick.” Said a female, status unidentifiable due to her being in armor. As everyone went into place, the loadmaster of the Hawken gunship gave a thumbs up and the craft lifted quickly, now heading towards whatever defined as safe. Rick turned his head towards the female soldier, one among the twelve soldiers in the search party. She opened her helmet, revealing her short blond hair and pretty blue eyes. A familiar face. Caylie. She carried a large, .50 caliber sniper rifle in her hands. It could penetrate any kind of personal armor, and deal a deathstrike to anyone who faced it. “You got thirteen. And you owe me something.” She smiled.

Rick gave back a beam. He was glad a member of his squad survived the attack.

Another soldier opened his helmet. A firm nose and one or two scars was revealed, with black hair on top and hazel eyes in the middle. Lieutenant Salvade. “And they would have gotten two more of ours if we weren’t there to save your ass.” He said. He had a cold, monotonous way of speaking. His effectiveness was never doubted, and a promotion to captain seemed to be waiting for him at the end of this flight.

“Lieutenant.” Said Rick. He seemed to want to go to his feet, but doing so at the moment would not be a very suitable thing.

“Corporal, you’re lucky to have survived. The planet is being overrun by Dominion. They’re setting this place up as an operations base, it seems... We were about to nuke the place when we received your beacon.”

“Where are we going now, sir?”

“Anywhere but here.” He said. The rear ramp of the Hawken gunship slowly closed, and the cold blizzard below was dismissed. Iceni was a hellhole in its very own unique way. People defined hell as a place of gleaming lava and sneering heat; but to Rick, the dead cold of the planet Iceni offered more hell than anything in the galaxy.

“We’ve lost Iceni, but we’re amassing naval forces at Rasmussen IV.” He said. Rasmussen IV was one of the two terraformed planets on the Rasmussen system. “There’s a big battle going on, and we’re going to be in it.”

Rick looked down. Another battle.

“Corporal.” Called Salvade, causing Rick to raise his head and look towards him. “Sir?”

“Don’t Give Up. Don’t Lose Hope. In times like this, in a war against inhumane beings, basic humanity will be the things that are needed the most. It’s our identity as humans, and our identity will be how we fight back against these shits.”

As they conversed a small Alliance raiding fleet stood silent in the airless darkness of Space. The capital ship of the task force, the Alliance Navy Ship (ANS) Lexington, a small carrier, sat idle against the black, star-dotted, background. Around it were five other frigates, all seemingly ready to unload its weight of tactical nukes onto the enemy positions in the world below. As the Hawken closed in onto the fleet, Rick could see through the high-pressure windows that Tactical Nuclear Missiles were being launched from the hull of every frigate; all seemingly falling from the sky and towards the innocent, white-coated world below.

The lieutenant then said, “We’ve fought this war for three bloody months. And we know that these guys won’t stop for anything. Let’s show them that we will do the same; we’ll do anything to win.” He turned to the windows. “Do anything to kill.”

* * *