The flight back to Siag was one of silence and misery, my dad cold dead on the floor of the ship, turbulence, and all the certain knowledge that we just went from my allowing us to potentially win the battle, to completely and utterly screwed. I was so shook up for the first time of my life I actually felt depressed enough to open the side hatch and leap out the side of the gunship. However I just couldn't bring myself to do it, not with my father's dead corpse right next to me. So instead of pussing out I could do nothing but sob and clench my fingered nails into my skull in agony.
When we arrived back on Moebius it was of course raining. While normally I like cold and cloudy days with a feel of brisk breeze, the even more depressing weather made the ride all the more worse. Lighting in the distance, drops of water pounding the steel chasis of the ship,it was as if Moebius herself was weeping for the loss of her most prized chatter from the pilot and soldiers was unnerving and their words still plague me to this day.
"This is Zalga Veris had to make a emergency evac, overlord do you copy? AMA forces in full retreat from Ghansistan and heading back to Siag. Lord Bradanksa has fallen, requesting entrance to Siag and inform command over."
As we were given clearance I could hear from outside of the ship a loud siren, a sound that I have heard before. This warning siren always meant something bad was happening. The last time this blasted noise pierced my ears was during the bombing of Siag itself. I was an even younger kid back then, no older than five. When the humans invaded they left a deep wound in the back of my people, however I didn't even realize before what all this would have brought me in the future. It was at this moment that I felt the fear everyone has inside of them, the fear of not only death, but helplessness. Just like all the people who died in the bombings, now I felt useless as my father laid dead before me.
Once we landed the side hatch door was opened and our entire landing strip was surrounded by soldiers and officers. Outside all I could see was people all around me, everyone stared inside the vessel and waited in shock to see what I had to see. Ever see a Moebian cry? I mean really cry? It's pathetic, and yet not only me, but all of us were close to tearing up.
"Kid, I don't know if you want us to but um, I think it would be best if you carried him out. He's your father you know? It would be best."
Nodding my head I felt I had but no choice. Out of all of me not wanting to have to carry his now cold dead body I knew deep inside this maybe the last time I felt the warmth of my father. So I picked him up with my enhanced strength and stepped out of the ship. All around me I could see the stilled hearts of my comrades. All kinds of soldiers and comrades of mine who followed my father and I into battle were now spirit broken as all they could watch as I carried his body towards the medical lab for an autopsy. As I moved the torrenting rain increased, yet no soldier or officer dared head back inside of the Central Administration Building. No, instead as I neared them they began in unison saluting with the customary Moebian left-handed salute.
His funeral was a few days after this. Not being the religious type of folk as the humans are, save for a few tree huggers, the service was quick and more of a way of coping with the loss of our leader. Seeing my father's body all embalmed like that was too much for me, I could barely hold it in as we carried him in a casket from the meeting area to bury him deep under the Central Administration was to be that all of the Bradnaksa family would be buried under the nerve center of Siag, the CAB. To this day I don't venture below to the isolated bunker where my father's corpse resides.