I
I lie here, the fires out above me, with my body broken, debris around me.
I was shattered, now I am broked.
Is this death? Another mystery of the cosmos. When you are dead, are you trapped in your body, helpless to your fate?
Burnt steal lay scattered around me. I often wonder about the human's ideas about heaven and hell, their philosophies about death and the afterlife.
One idea that paticularly intrigued me was what the ancient egyptians though about death.
They thought that the deeds of you soul were weighed againts a feather, if your heart weighed more than the feather, your soul was devoured, if it was lighted, you had a long and happy afterlife.
The afterlife.
My afterlife is right here, even though the fires of my good deeds haven't killed me yet, their intrapments might.
But what about when I face the feather? Will it be the feather of peace, or will it be feather for the good of my deeds. Will I be devoured by fate, of freed to glory?
Concerning the beast, the devourer...
Could that be a metaphor for something more? Having you soul devoured by some dog-headed man? Could it be in fact, that you had commited so many terrible deeds because your soul have been eaten away slowly by greed long before you had to face the piercing eyes of fate?
The team freed the crystal reaper at near super-human speed, and they were off into the martian desert in no time at all, headed for Alpha base, all prepared for a tremendous battle thay all knew they couldn't win. They knew they were going to die.
Alpha base was really just a collection of vehicles on mount Olympus. The armored drilling unit, the crystal reaper, the recon dropship, the crystal hawk, the ultra drill walker, several other vehicles, an assortment of small mining vehicles, and the awe inspiring mx-81 hypersonic spacecraft. Miner gaped at the power of the ultra drill walker.
There was no time to lose- however, Mission Commander held a strategetic meeting with Alpha Commander while the others got some rest.
Miner fell asleep quickly on a couch in Alpha Command's only shelter- a defense station. Some of the other astros sat down in the chairs and caught some Zs.
Miner got shaken awake by Mission Commander.
"It is time to go. Four of the motherships have began to build hives, but one has split off from the rest and is heading out direction. We have to be ready."
Miner and the others raced out. Miner was asigned to the ultra drill walker, apparently it had some cool defensive features as well, as he was shown by alpha commander. Mission Commander went in the hypersonic spacecraft, and alpha commander commanded the armored drilling unit.
Miner sat there, patiently awaiting orders.
"Ok, is everyone ready?", asked Mission Commander from the hypersonic spacecraft.
"Miner ready.", Miner said.
"Alpha ready. Recon ready. C-Hawk ready. D-Station ready. Switch-Fighter ready. Trike ready."
"Ok, let's go."
The ground shook as all the vehicles started and took off. It made Miner nautious the way the ultra drill walked vibrated up and down as it 'walked', but his awe at the power of the machine overshadowed his nausia.
Then it came, the mothership, followed by an onslaught of other alien craft that the aliens had already built since their recent re-arrival on the red planet. Then the shooting started.
Green blasts erupted from the alien's organic weaponry toward the astronaut ships. The switch-fighter got shot down first, with five or six alien strikers on its tail. It crashed into the ground in an enflamed spiral.
The hypersonic spacecraft retaliated. The left and right wing cruiser seperated from the main body of the spacecraft and engaged the strikers in a spectacular arial dogfight, resulting in two of the strikers quickly shot down. The mothership joined the other aliens in their attempt at bashing the hypersonic spacecraft.
The armored drilling unit shot up and energy sphere that knocked another striker out of the air.
A second wave of alien ships, dragon cruisers, flew in, banging up the armored drilling unit very well.
Then Miner's own personal problem set on, a wave of probably fifty mosquito-like aliens with jetpacks.
He had no idea where the weapons were in the chaos, he had only been given a one-minute long tour of the controls. The aliens landed all over the ultra drill walker and began taking it apart from the outside.
He grabbed laser blaster from the console, opened up the cockpit, and began manually shooting the aliens down off the legs of the ultra drill walker. One of the aliens flew up and grabbed him, picking him up high above the ground. He flailed with his arms and legs. He was far above the ground, he could see the battle below him, only air between him and the ground. He knew what it was like to fly now, although he doubted flying was normally this stresfull.
Then the alien dropped him.
He spiralled through the air, the red martian ground racing toward him. He saw his life flashing through his eyes, mashed up with flashes of the battle around him. He hit the ground, and all was black.
Mission Commander sat it the main cockpit of the hypersonic spacecraft, trying to stop the barrage of strikers. They were losing. Badly. There was a crash. He had one of the outside cameras turn. He saw on the viewscreen that the ultra drill walker had fallen over. Great.
Alpha commanders voice crackeled onto the radio. "It appears that another one of the motherships has broken off from the group.".
"Oh no. It isn't coming here, is it?", he asked.
"No, it appears to be headed toward the ruins of Eagle Command."
A million thoughts raced through Mission Commander's mind. That could almost be as bad as it joining the battle here. If any of the data in the computers has survived the explosion and the fire, the aliens could use it againts them, and crush them.
Everything was in there, blueprints, details on the crew, battle plans, logs, everything. If that were to fall into the alien's hands...
"We need to intercept it.", said Mission Commander.
"We're already losing the battle here... we can't spare anyone."
"We'll all be dead if the aliens find anything in there. We have to. I'll go.", affirmed Mission Commander. Before anyone could protest, the main craft of the hypersonic spacecraft zipped away from the battle on a course for the ruins of Eagle Command.
Mission Commander brought up a lcd radar tracking screen. The mothership had almost reached the base. He knew he probably couldn't stop the mothership, but he could finish the job by totally annihilating Eagle Command.
He found it kind of ironic... he had spent two years risking his life protecting it, and now he himself would be firing the shots that finished it off.
At Eagle Command, the alien lied there, with both despair and hope for the future.
Then came the humming.
The mothership was coming, its engines humming loudly.
What is happening? Have my kin returned?