Cantral The Entra

But what will one dead Entra achieve?

Entra scientists meet us, another race of entra, smaller, slender. There's more entara in these entra, they don't need the bulk of the Saskquine. One steps forwards and I kneel before him. He tilts my head, so my ear is facing up. My nose scrunches in anticipation, my hands clench. A white gun is pressed against my ear and a communicator shoots down my ear canal.

Probes snake from the communicator, long wires that will enter my bloodstream and embed within my brain. A communicator, but it will also monitor me intensely, intrusively... heartrate, brain activity, stress levels.

With a small blade the scientist slices into my earlobe and removes a patch of skin. I wince internally as he places a sensor upon my exposed flesh. Entra don't believe in pain relief. Because if an entra can't tolerate pain, they're not entra. But the pain soon fades as a pocket healer erases the wound and covers the sensor with a layer of grey skin.

"Tap once to record and twice to receive communication," he says.

I turn around to Ramet. She's still on her knees and another scientist heals the mini wound on her ear lobe. A frown creases her forehead, and she scrunches her nose. The scientist, who carried out her procedure, takes a hasty step back as Ramet stands.

We're ready. Nausea settles in my stomach. I've choreographed invasions before, in the simulation rooms. In the simulation rooms I was confident and assured. But here, that same cloud of doubt encompasses me, until I'm breathing it in and it's filling every cell in my body with its presence.

I sit at the cockpit with Ramet beside me and the shuttle rises under my diligent hands. Flying is a passion, it's something I was allowed to practice outside the simulation rooms and the space outside Prime became my playground. My racecourse. My enjoyment was solo, until Ramet came into my life.

"This is going to be unpleasant," Ramet says. "Your prepared for that, aren't you?"

"I've trained for missions like this my entire life."

"No, you haven't," Ramet says as the shuttles zips from the Battle Cruiser. "Simulation rooms don't prepare you for real life." Oneera shimmers before us and reflects in Ramet's eyes. "They don't prepare you for hate and anger." She's sounds knowledgeable, but this is her first invasion too. "Oneerans want to save their planet but anger and fear push people into making irrational and illogical decisions. Entra have hurt them—" she stares at me, her eyes sink into mine "—they're going to want to hurt us."

I fly the ship towards the planet, steady and calm. "I can do this."

"I think so too."

"Even though I'm weak and spineless?"

A hole opens in the forcefield, that surrounds the planet, and our ship slips through. We enter the atmosphere, the shuttle vibrates, it tingles with energy and tension. Oneeran ships meet us and fly in formation around us. Sleek aerodynamic vessels that swoop through the air like birds of prey.

"You're not those things," Ramet says.

"Why do you say I am?" I focus on the controls.

"I don't know..." Ramet stares outside, at the black and grey Oneeran ships, at the world, that unravels before us. "Because I'm angry at you, because I'm in love with you and I don't like it."

"You don't want to be in love with me?" The ship breaks the cloud cover and I see land.

Cities imbued with green and speckled with lakes of blue disappear beneath us as I follow the Oneeran vessels. Cities built around nature. A paradise, if such a thing exists. We skim over a forest with deep green leaves, it spans the length of the continent and edges every city.