Intergalactic Affairs [FINAL CHAPTER OUT NOW!!]

The Universe

Everyone always says that the Universe is huge; infinitely big, they tell us, so big that even the most powerful telescopes that human-kind has made can't even come close to showing us half of it, let alone the entire thing. Of course, we've certainly come a long way from thinking we were the center of the Universe, though now scientists say we're closer than we ever have been before.

We started on Earth, a small planet, really, in a small galaxy that no-one had ever heard of before. Then, when the Earth died, humans moved away. Some boarded the space-carriers bound for the colonies on Mars, others took the long-haul to another galaxy entirely, where a planet so similar to Earth had been found that they started calling it "New Earth." Both of those expeditions were apparently short-lived. Mars didn't sustain life nearly as long as had been projected, and New Earth suffered a similar fate to the original.

Luckily for the human race, people saw it coming. They moved out yet again, looking for other life-sustaining planets, and that's when they first ran into aliens. Well, we say it was the first time. It's common knowledge these days that aliens had been coming to Earth and the other places humans inhabited for ages before that fateful day. But our history classes would have us believe that this was the first human interaction with extraterrestrial life forms. The aliens showed us to a planet with all the proper elements needed for humans to exist, and even showed us other places to move to, also recommending space ships as suitable living.

Since then, the human race has spread out, no longer just testing the waters of the infinite Universe, but making it home. We've interbred with other species, spread to more than 60 different galaxies and over 100,000 assorted spaceships and stations, all while continuing our research and technological advancements.

The human race has come so far in the Universe, and done so much, and yet some things have always been the same. The feeling of inferiority when you look up to the stars, the wonder when you see other species, the connection humans feel to each other, but most importantly, the unavoidable war that humans create.

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Michelle ducked as she heard the telltale humming of a ray-blaster. A fraction of a second later, the wall she'd been leaning against crashed to the ground with an almighty rumble. She flinched before lifting her head. The enemy were almost invisible in the smoke and dust that covered the battlefield, once a small town. Michelle glanced behind her. The wall had been reduced to rubble, but one substantial piece was left intact. She grinned, and carefully backed up until she was crouched behind the boulder. The damage from the enemy's ray-blasters made excellent cover, a flaw that she figured ought to have been corrected years ago. It'd be so much easier to have something that disintegrated walls and buildings, or at least turn them into smaller bits of rubble.

Her radio crackled, and Michelle glanced down in annoyance. The stupid thing had never really worked well, but it'd been hit by a bit of flying shrapnel earlier on, and hadn't stopped crackling and making weird popping noises since. Through the static, she was able to make out her commander's voice, warbling a bit as it came over the speaker. "We've detected high levels of radiation, you need to get out of there. The enemy is distracted well enough now, the others will be in the base shortly. You need to disappear."

Michelle rolled her eyes. Radiation poisoning was one of the things humans were still susceptible to, despite the last few hundred years worth of research. It was something every soldier was briefed on time and time again, and countless warnings were issued before, after, during, and even in between missions. So, of course, Michelle knew that radiation, even in high dosage, took at least five minutes to fully infiltrate a human's system, and there would be at least ten more minutes before any of the effects manifested. Which meant she had fifteen minutes to take out as many of the baddies as she could.

She peered over the top of her boulder. She could see the enemy now. They were closer, and had gas-sucking fans in their ranks. That would prevent them from getting tear-gassed or poisoned, but even still the front line wore gas masks. It also made their position very clear, which meant that her position would also be visible any second now.

Michelle didn't really care. She'd always wanted to die a martyr, sacrificing her life for the good of humankind, or at least so that her mission could succeed. Or, in this case, since her mission had already succeeded without her doing very much, she would sacrifice herself taking down as many of the enemy as she could, less work for her partners.

She watched for a moment, entranced as the enemy trampled through what had once been a beautiful park, with trees that had vivid gold and silver leaves, and flowers that smelled of one's most favorite things, and blue grass that struck such a contrast against the sky painted with hues of orange and yellow in the late afternoon lit by three suns. The place where innocent children had once played in freedom and peace had long been evacuated, and was marred by pits and trenches from the battle.

Michelle grabbed her death-ray from it's holster on her belt. It felt strangely light in her hands, not at all like the ray-blaster that had fallen from her hands as she scrambled away from the troops that grew steadily closer. She clicked the safety out of place, and put her finger to the trigger.

She hesitated a moment, calculating the best strategy to take down the optimal number of people. Her green eyes flashed, and she reached behind her, towards a small bag that sat beside her foot. As she did so, her radio once again crackled to life. "What are you doing? We detected radiation, get out before-" Michelle's fingers tingled on the switch of her radio. Now she was disobeying direct orders from her commander. A smile crept across her face. There was a sort of thrill that came with the knowledge.

Of course, the orders were inconsequential. She would probably die anyway, it had been three and a half minutes since the warning had come across her radio. Besides, this small insubordination wouldn't jeopardize the mission. From what she'd heard, they'd as good as succeeded, and a few extra moments of distraction surely couldn't hurt. Her brain made some quick calculations. She could easily take out at least half the troops that were marching towards her, which she figured was about half the enemy army. One quarter of the soldiers gone, that had to be worth one soldier's life.

She reached into the bag and pulled out her favorite toy that the army had given her: a brainfreeze bomb. It temporarily incapacitated anyone within a three mile radius, and could be quickly followed up by an actual bomb. Michelle loaded the brainfreeze bomb into a cannon that would shoot it just far enough so that she wouldn't be affected. She fired it, and immediately, the soldiers nearest to her froze. She loaded a real bomb, and shot it. It wouldn't go nearly as far as the other one, but that was fine. Michelle caught a flash of fire before she turned away. She knew that killing the enemy was vital to any mission, but the thought of hundreds of soldiers burned alive still made her cringe. When she looked back, the soldiers that had been standing a thousand yards in front of her had vanished, replaced with crisped grass, and lumps of charcoal. She resisted the urge to vomit.

In her head, a mental countdown had begun. She was at 00:08:39 when the rest of the soldiers affected by the brainfreeze bomb grew close enough for her to do any damage. Michelle once again pulled her death-ray out and unlocked the safety. She stood up, no longer caring if her position was compromised, and began firing. Shot after shot left her gun, and soldier after soldier fell. She got over the initial shock and nausea that came with killing other soldiers, and fell into a sort of numb rhythm: target, aim, fire, reposition, dodge, target, aim, fire, duck and weave...

The numbness encompassed her until her reflexes were a second too late. She had just fired, was about to move out of the way, when a humming reached her ears. Too late, she turned, too late, she tried to swerve left, too late, she fired at the soldier she hadn't seen. There was a flash as the bright ray hit her body, a tugging in her gut, and then she fell.