World On Fire

Chapter Three

Bristol, England

Humming quietly in the corner the Druidth made heater easily warmed the room in which his squad was bunked. Almost everyone was asleep, Sekert purring as she slept in her bunk next to him, except Ezca. Too many questions ran across his mind to allow him to sleep tonight.

Closing the letter, he received from Tigris, his former squad mate who was in charge of his own squad now, Ezca pulled up the info net on his datapad and scrolled through the recent news. Most of it was the standard approved by Command drivel but occasionally some real information got through. The Americans had broken through the defensive line that protected the North American Command Center from their forces but a counter attack that would 'decimate their forces and bring the war on the continent to an end' was being planned. Ezca snorted through his nose. When a plan like that fails it was people like him, the troops in the field, always got the blame. It was a good plan but those incompetent soldiers messed it up. Yet when it succeeded it was the officers that got the glory. This is an example of what we can do with our might and technology.

Curious, he pulled up the news about Russia. Things were going good, if the news was to be believed. The Russian attack that was mounted after the nuclear bombs went off was routed and now they were on full retreat. But Tigris had reported how things had badly devolved into another defensive line much like the one that divided North America. But this one was much worse. His friend had reported that it was a slaughterhouse, with the Russians throwing everything they had at the Druidth. For every one they killed two more took their place. Men, Women, Old, and Young were all in the fight. Some were killed without bullets in their guns, some without weapons. Tigris said he overheard the Visi discussing use of area effect weapons, but so few of those had been brought with them that it probably wouldn't matter. Now he worried that their munitions stores were not as high as he was told in his weekly report sent out to every Kantotally. Each rank got one, filtered down based on their need.

At least the news from home can be trusted, He told himself. Crop yields were actually up this quarter, Ezca thought of his sister working on the farm, and the first group of pilgrims were underway.

What'll happen when they get here and there's no planet? Already some places had been pacified but nothing like what was promised by the Army.

Ezca swiped his finger across the screen and switched tabs. Now he was in the forum sections where soldiers could talk freely. <Has anyone encountered those traitors?>

<Sad day when our own take up arms against us>, Someone wrote back. This opened the gates for a slew of violent and insulting messages about those that Went Native.

He wrote, <What would cause someone to do that?>

As his message went unanswered, Ezca assumed they had forgotten about his question. Some time had passed and he was ready to just give up and go to sleep when a personal message popped up in the corner.

<Perhaps they found out the truth. That we're all murderers who came to steal what we could not gain. That our world is built on lies and we are happier not seeing that.> Ezca checked the sender but found the ID was blocked. Normally, no one could block their ID but this person had managed to, even hiding their network location.

His curiosity piqued, He wrote back, <And what lies are those?>

<Our whole reason for being here. To pacify the murderous Humans.>

<The Colonial Massacre.>

<Perpetrated by our own. Kings Guard sent undercover.>