The Soul of Our Homeland, 5: The Common Enemy
08 Dec 2024Meowers
( 08.12.3310 / 03:50 GMT )
( Duamta )
We fought them off in Duamta. Space around Orunmilla has been clear for more than an hour already, and recons reporting the same for the entire system. A little stretch of silence should've been a blessing but I'd be lying if I say that I feel any relief at all. We've been given two hours to pack our stuff, and then we head for EZ Aquarii, bugs are hitting the place no less hard than it was here.
And it was really hard. At first, I wanted to play smart, sending a few wings deeper into the system to do some mayhem. Not to kill as many as possible, but to annoy them. Maybe to make them think we're counterattacking, probing their defences here and there. Didn't work, the onslaught was so intense that it pinned us to Orunmilla in a few hours, and the only good we were able to do, besides fighting for our lives, is creating passages for evac ships.
Forces from Sirius and Procyon were the most welcome sight, despite the chaos they brought. Those occupied landing pads, angry Thargoids turning left and right messing up our aim, even mid-flight collisions, all that, of course I kept my serious face, but... Some of my pilots haven't slept for more than a day.
Even I... I feel the last week taking its toll. It's becoming difficult to focus my thoughts, they keep running away. Speaking things out in those logs usually helps, but maybe it's getting a bit too much.
There's enough space on megaships and stations but we're using one of our transports as a rec room of sorts. When this is possible and the thing isn't under direct Thargoid fire of course. And it feels... Surreal. Just a few minutes ago you were rampaging through fire and acid, bringing destruction and death, waves of heat striking your face and weapon recoil shaking your entire body, and here, behind the thick armoured plating, in the belly of a megaship, it's almost silent. Only distant, dampened sounds of groaning metal. And the heavy breathing of people around you. Smoking, drinking their coffee. Steel eyes staring blankly. This silence rings.
I can't stop looking at them and thinking, whom do I see for the last time?
Have to leave six pilots here, on Orunmilla. I can't attend the funerals myself, but I've sent my words, to be said. I guess funerals are the business these days... Saw some of those refugees. Most of them aren't crying anymore. They just sit wherever it's possible, with their scarce belongings next to them, their eyes shallow and their voices quiet. Kids are playing with toys they've managed to bring with themselves, but without that childish fun, without sparks in their eyes. Mechanically. Clinging desperately to that little piece of safety they remember.
How many lives, how many hopes and plans to grow were ruined over the last week? I guess that question lingers in billions of minds at the moment. Some say flowers which grow through cracks in concrete are the most inspiring. But the flowers which grow in gardens are still the most beautiful.
So here I stand, next to that 'rec room transport' with a cup of coffee in my hand, recording this log. Watching ships depart, to Tau Ceti mostly. Should be some massive fighting over there. And my path will soon take me to EZ Aquarii, with the same order: strike them hard, support those fighting there already, and hold on until the rest of the forces show up. Thought about calling Dr. Bowman, he should certainly remember me, but, most likely, his hands are full, with so many wounded. So I left a message through Aegis office, that I was here, in Duamta. And I wasn't alone, I brought my entire group. Fought from the very first minutes of the attack and haven't taken a single step back until it stopped.
I stand and watch the ships departing. Different squadrons, different colours. Different people. Departing, after a battle won, to fight side by side once more. How many of them had put everything else aside because of this war? Where would've they been otherwise? Where I would've been, if not for that single day when I joined AXDF, even before the war, as most people know it, had begun?
Maybe we humans really do need a common enemy to live in peace with each other.