The Jump

Jump, or fall as most of us preferred to call it,  it was all I had to do at the start and THAT would only be the easy part.
The word jump was easy for our leader to say as he spoke from home and, right now, sitting in the middle of a space freighter in orbit around the planet Earth made even thinking about the word so hard that my stomach churned. It was my first jump and would most likely be my last, no one would denied that not my superiors or my fellow soldiers.
The distance from the freighter to earth was not something I knew. To a grunt like me it was irrelevant. All I needed to know was that it was far, too far.
All that mattered to our cause was that I survive the jump and if my respirator and/or bones didn’t break then I was to shoot everything and anything in sight. Munitions and food would be something our platoon of millions would have to fight to get as supplies would be dropped in specific areas give or take a few Earth miles. IF they came at all, Earth was an unstoppable force that bullied other worlds solely because they could.
My feet felt tight and constricted in the flight boots we were all wearing for the jump. They had flaps around our the gaps between our arms and legs so it looked like we were a flat circles or children’s kites.
A voice crackled overhead. It was the voice of our infallible leader. Our leader spoke clearly and calmly dictating the situation that was happening right now in our very homes at this second. To anyone else not of our homeland it would only sounded like static but to my fellow soldiers most of whom were nothing more than workers, a part of our planets large labor force that stretched across two planets. Them they were the words that struck fear into all of us to hardened our resolves for war that was about to come after today.

‘Men and women of our home planet, Sonashra. I fear the worst for our planet. The “Humans” have blocked our last supply’s of fuel from us. we cannot survive as a race in the cold of our planet without the supply of oil we receive from our secondary planet in Neabudis. It is also considered by all to be our secondary home since, I know, that all of us have, at least one friend or family member working hard to mine and refine the used oil for our very survival from the harsh cold of our world’

Neabudis was an uninhabited planet we had discovered and used to cultivate and refine ancient fossils into what humans called oil. They used it too but in vastly larger amounts than us. I couldn’t believe what we used as an extreme necessity for our survival in the cold temperatures of our planet for centuries, they had whittled away for their ‘convenience’. I rubbed my forehead washing the frustration out of the rough pores on my hard skin, that came in he form of sweat, all the while the voice crackled on.

‘We’ve attempted previous peace talks but they have only lead in the “Humans” forming a blockade against us. closing US off to the very thing that is to us the very blood in our veins.’ 

The voice grew angrier and more aggressive as a beat formed inside the freight.  It was the strong and sudden sound of our energy rifles hitting the ground in unison. The force of the rifles caused the once slow thumping of my chest to increase rapidly. I couldn’t help but stick my head out and look down the line of soldiers. The line continued far down until it was out of sight. Somewhere my brother was in-between the line of what ,at the very least, was five million of us.

‘Their attempt to cut the blood that kept the hearts of our cities beating has been considered an act of war against our people. I will not lie. They have power greater than ours and technology too match but we have the need to survive. We have the love of our homeland.’

There had been constant talks of a plan being made for peace. Of course I knew there was no chance of peace. Most of us didn’t want peace since they’d claimed our life blood and rationed it for themselves. The humans had brought forth an age of poverty life became more costly for each and every civilian on our homes causing people to combine or burn homes for warmth. All the while getting increasingly weary of Earth’s limited and weak “support"

‘You are our first and most powerful wave. You all stand ten million strong in each of the twelve thousand vessels we’re sending today. You the brave men and woman of our home lands. There will be no artillery support from space. In fact these ships will most likely be destroyed as soon as we enter we their atmosphere,  which is why you’re jumping. ’

The  word jump made my head reel as the slamming of the guns grew louder in my mind. The truth was it had already stopped but I could hear it inside my head as my heart thumped intune to the now invisible beat. All men and woman involved stood tall and ready for war. I strapped my self into the suit I was given, making sure it was tight. Looking behind me I saw the round box. It was to be where I would be locked in before being flung into humanities deceiving gravity.
I had been to earth before and nearly died. I had been chased by men who waved a red flags while firing at me and my colleges who’d only come to address issues involving the oil refineries and their use of it. I was an engineer and was sent to help the human to save our oil. We never made it to our destination and we were chased back to diplomatic safe points. The human monitoring forces or ‘police’ had promised to make an “investigation” on our college who had died in the chase. Even though I knew exactly who had committed the crime. Nothing had ever happened.

‘Remember when you’re released from you chamber spread out your arms and he wind will do the rest. You are to speak English at all times. So you get used to their words and you can make plans beyond their understanding. They will be out done by our will and strength’

The beating returned. It lasted ten seconds then stopped again.
To clear my head I thought of the kiss I’d given my two daughters on their foreheads as they’d cried, they were so smart at such a young age. They would be the beaker that lit up the future and I believed it with every fiber of my being. My sons had built a frame filled with items from a past only my wife could have known of, but it didn’t matter if she cheated in helping them or not. What mattered was what they’d done to show me that there was something worth surviving for and something  worth fighting for.

‘Our complexions, forms, shapes and proportions match those of their people. Or at least one shade of them. So infiltrate and destroy. Use everything we can give you and fight with everything we give you for it is everything we have and hopefully everything you need.

Remember heroes of Sonashra, you are fighting for the survival of our home planet.

The voice of our leader seemed to break down now and the beating came back slowly as if the sound itself had sowed down to listen to it’s troubled leader.

‘You are fighting for the future of our people. Our neighbors,  brothers, sisters, husbands, wives,  children, sons…

The voice took a breath before it quivered at the next few words.

…and daughters’

There was a silence as the voice that hovered overhead was overcome. I couldn’t hold back a tear that zigzagged across the rough texture of my skin that would easily give away the true nature of my species. 

‘May the will of the Gods be with us.’

The transmission ended but the beating didn’t, until a shout rushed from the far side of the room, deep into the darkness. It was the war cry that had been once used by Ishavara our greatest leader when he fought against people who had tried to invade our planet  four thousand years ago to oppress us as the humans were today. It grew louder and it came out up to me. I shouted at the top of my voice praying for the spirit of Ishavara to lead us to victory. I listened as the shout disappeared into the darkness again, this time on the other side of the freighter. We all stepped back into our pods checking our rifles which could pass through steel and burn living energy or tissue. We held them to our chests like as a single unit. Music played around my head inside my pod. Looking through the pod door I saw the stars and the night spreading out to every part of the universe. The music sounded so powerful and morose at start. It was a story of a woman who had lost everything to war. I tried to practice my Earth languages as I translated her song to me self.

I have loose… um... lost my sons
I have seen men take my love from me.

The songs tone without losing it’s powerful meaning grew more passionate as she sang with the softest sound of hope.

I dream of the future.
Where I can hear my children’s laughter.
Where I  can see their happy faces in the warmth of our land.

The tone grew ever more passionate as she felt the seed of her love to her home land growing inside her.

I couldn’t fight the urge to cry and I didn’t want to fight it at all. I forced out the longing, the fear, the sadness and embraced my love in the form of tears.  Right then I was caught in the grip of her voice, it felt like it would have been a travesty to hide my emotions from the music in my head.
The whole room lit up as one by one the pods blasted of the ship. The side of the ship burst into flame just as I felt a jerking sensation that sent the pod falling off towards the Earth. I felt free of the fear and regret that would be constrain the enemy in battle. The enemy that would soon be standing before me in it’s full malice, intolerance and greed.
Out the front of the Pod the ships flames spread out to the whole ship before it, like our pods ,sunk too, succumbing to Earth’s pull breaking up slowly on the way down. Pieces fell past my Pod as I watched the ship fall. The ship was moments from catching up to me as it had with thousands of other pods. A second before the ship caught me in its searing embrace, my pod, along with millions of other Pods exploded down the sides and split in half, releasing us from its hold. I watched thousands upon thousands of human tracer bullets fly up at me as almost a hundred thousand Earth tons of fire fell over head. I spread my arms and the wind caught the flaps that had been added to my clothes. I just missed the flaming comet that was our way back home.
I turned my body away as it crashed down into the crowds of humans and comrades alike.

That was the easy part, I knew as I glided down the earth.

Whether it was to death I flew towards, or the greatest of glories, I only hoped that our seeds of hope would grow in the hearts of our children. Then and only then would all this be worth it.

End.