In The Shadow Of Giants

The Soldier

I was just a soldier doing the things that I was told to do when this god awful war struck us. After we discovered Icarus and got over our initial shock that we weren't alone in the universe, we folks on Stara didn't really care to do more research about their history or how they behaved. After all they never hurt us or even passed through our solar system.

Still there were a lot of folks who were fascinated with him or it. They wanted to know what he or they exactly were. The radio message that we had picked up from them was cryptic.

Gabe moves his hand over to a remote control device and begins to search for the message. He finally finds the grainy and coffee stained piece of paper that has the words that might have started the Thousand Year War.

steel and flesh

Life and death

Not to be found

We are Icarus

Just about everybody was trying to figure out if that was a declaration of war or something else entirely but after a hundred or so years we decided that war was unlikely and ignored it as a message that we were not supposed to read.

Humans ended up expanding from Stara and began to colonize the neighboring planets, one of them being Harper's field, a dead world with an atmosphere that was not breathable by any chance of the imagination, and which housed a population of a hundred thousand people surviving in climate controlled spaces.

About a hundred years into this colony's development the colonizers began a project to jumpstart its core. The endeavor was successful causing the planet to become volcanically active once more. The ice caps were melted in order to create oceans and fresh water and all of these features helped the planet to become self sustaining. We were a young species dealing with a whole new set of challenges and our technology made us triumphant against all our newfound foes.

I stop him him mid sentence to have him describe this brave new world that he was born into.

"What were the challenges that we faced?"

He stopped and nodded, understanding that he had to go into even more detail.

"The singularity was our biggest challenge, basically the idea that our own computers were going to advance too fast and go rambo on us. We had just reached that terrifying time in our history and we dealt with it in a most simplistic way." his cheeks begin to lift with the sides of his mouth moving upwards creating an amused smile.

"What was the solution?"

"Our scientists spotted the self improvement right away, and before the think tank could do anything really malicious they turned off all the power to it. Now the problem of the singularity really had a simple solution and that was to just split up all the process of the computer into their own individual routes without worrying about the computer becoming aware. After that came our little run in with human enhancements."

Gabe leaned forward ignoring the weight of his white cat jumping on his back to get to the next platform and he grabbed a vial of green liquid and refilled his shot glass again. His right arm was shiny and black, slick as marble and stronger than any normal human hand. it was also more illegal than any other human hand. "You know how that turned out kid. they used us soldiers, turning us into war machines, then afterwards told the rest of the public to go screw themselves and that this technology was for military purposes only. Hell, you broke a lot of red tape asking that question." he smiled and bit his lips while pulling out another shot glass for my own use "that's takes balls, here ya go" he poured the whiskey into my tiny glass. Whiskey is one of the most expensive things you can buy nowadays. almost a million for a bottle and he was just there pulling it for a question that I was not aware was considered bold to ask.

"Now about the landing" gabe said with a tiny hint of tedious annoyance

I wasn't apart of the first wave. But I came in right after their fuckup of an attack." He pointed to a painted mural on the roof of his wall of a soldier drenched with dirt and blood, his body in a muddy trench looking underneath the belly of the landing ship while nearby with men and machine like creatures are fighting hand to hand and what looks like a commander stands above the mess holding a terrified soldier by the throat. "Fifty first regiment didn't even have a chance, but damn if they weren't heroes. They made sure to evacuate the entire city. and did a fine job of it."

I thought they started to bomb at the city right away?

"That's a big misconception about the war. They began attacking military outposts on the outskirts first, Then went for civilians, and that was when their ground assault began. Foot soldiers and chemical weapons. Ether..made to incapacitate everyone. We never got the chance to figure out why they were using it until it was too late. Should have just nuked the city right away." he stopped talking then turned his head to the mural of chaos. "I'm glad I was just one of the guys picking through the rumble I'm not sure...That I could have taken it." "First regiment...man what a godawful unit to be a part of at the start of the war." he brought his hand with the burning cigar over to an ashtray and flicked it. Burning ash fell down onto the red plastic while he gave out a sigh. "Ash.....Goddamn I never thought about how terrifying it could be..Grey ash..When we were doing clean up..When We walked through the ash of that bombed out city the scanner kept on saying in that wicked monotone voice 'be courteous of the dead..be courteous of the dead.' there were no bodies anywhere, only that grey ash."

I looked up to the mural of that soldier lying in the mud for one last time. His face posed a look of horror as a metalic being stared down at him with his red eyes.

We can end the interview now if you want...

"Yes please." he said while getting up from his leather arm chair. He walked over to his desk and brought up a copper version of a famous frigate. "Here. I usually give them to kiddies brave enough to knock at my door."

How many of them do that?

"Not a lot..they all think i'm some scary general. Kids..." he gave short and dry chuckle, then handed over the elegant copper frigate. "The Dawn" was inscribed on the plastic base. He smiled and started to walk me out of his house. On the walls were photos of him and the frigate on launch day, a hundred thousand men and women all prepared to fight a war... A war unlike any other ever seen by the human race and hopefully never again. In the photo Gabe was caught mid sentence pointing his hand to the grey hull of the Dawn, with Fury in his eyes. A famous line of his came to my mind. "Our enemies may be unknown, everything about them alien....But by god We will make them feel fear even it it is the last thing we do as a species."