It didn't always look like this. We had a good thing going, didn't we? A triumph. Success. We had everything we wanted. Humanity was on a roll, huh? We didn't have to screw up: we had it made.
But end it did, just a few days ago. The higher-ups got a little too greedy for their own good. And they started with me. My family, my friends. What did I do to deserve this? I had a normal job, a normal life. I was just a builder. I made the skyscrapers of the rich, and the houses of the regulars. Then the Bureau took it all away.
What's the Bureau? Well, I think you can figure that out. Imagine every government and major corporation coming together under one flag. All united, for better or for worse. That's the Bureau.
Well, I won't let them ruin me. I've come too far in life, working with my own two hands. I won't let them take it all away. I've got a few friends, in the same boat as me.
We'll start something. I don't know what, but we'll change this world. One way or another, I'm going to fix it all.
Everything.
#2
What is the soul? There is no such thing, or so I always believed. The soul of life does not exist. I thought I knew this. We knew this. It is pointless to try and assume that such a thing exists. The soul is but a construct of intelligence. Ingenuity has been pushed to the side, and those with 'soul' are considered the best of the best by our society.
And yet...it is impossible to find fault with the believers in the spirit. I certainly cannot, now that everything has come to terms so quickly. They always believed in him, I'm sure. Those of us who weren't involved with religion feel fairly foolish now, I suppose. We tried to shoot him down. We expressed all our doubts. For every trouble, he had an answer that blew us away. If only we'd known.
He did appear, yes. A true deity. One day, suddenly, it showed in the news. A man creating gold from nothing. He brought a man back from the brink of death, and his touch instilled energy and power within those it touched. There was no denial.
He could have been a man from the future, or a magician, or any other manner of trickster. We were certainly all skeptics. I myself tried to debunk him. But there was no way to prove that he wasn't all he claimed to be. His touch, well, it showed me that I was vastly mistaken about many, many things.
But I am still unsure. I can't believe this man is an omnipotent. I have made my living on proving that he isn't, that we as creatures of evolution have come this far on our own initiative. It would be too much to bear, if I am wrong.
There is still so much I do not understand.
#3
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It's been a long time since the bastards moved in. Humanity wasn't ready to deal with them. Not by a long shot. We were so wrapped up in our own self-important bullshit, we completely ignored our real safety. The United Worlds never said anything about an alien invasion, right? Nothing like that could ever happen, right? So they said.
And look where we are now. Almost gone. Mars, Earth, Europa...there aren't too many places we humans can live in this Solar System. That was the biggest problem. We only had three planets. They had...what, two dozen, at least? Billions of soldiers, tons and tons of war machines. What chance did our worlds have, fighting back and forth like little kids? They swarmed in last week. Just dropped. Right out of the sky.
It was an eclipse. Worse, even. The sun itself disappear, suffocated by metal, and screaming Xenos. What the hell were we supposed to call them? They were completely unlike anything we'd ever seen, physically, and mentally. We barely fought off the first wave.
Thankfully, our warring sovereigns had been paranoid enough of each other to come up with some high tech weaponry. Lasers, plasma, and nuclear explosions, all ripped them from the sky, in hundreds, thousands. We actually stopped them, at first. It took everything we had. The nukes were done, the lasers drained, and too many factories had been wrecked to replace them.
Plan B. Evacuate to Mars. Oh, wait, Mars was gone. They didn't have quite the arsenal Earth did. One of our only three planets, completely wiped away. The Xenos literally covered the surface, rippling, fleshy, horrible waves.
Of course, the ever-terrified higher-ups had a Plan C, and probably one for every letter in the alphabet. Europa. The moon was still small, in terms of population. Only about ten thousand humans. It was time to go. I was lucky; as a soldier, I got a free ride to the huge rock. Of course, getting off the planet wasn't the real problem. Our ships cut through theirs like bullets through paper. It was probably our only advantage, one that wouldn't last long against their numbers.
Getting to the Evac ships was a whole other problem. The Xenos had nasty shit. Their guns tore through our body armor and shields so easily. So...God, I don't ever want to remember what I saw. But, for the sake of the next generation, I'll tell as much as I dare.
Step one: get out of the hellish little building we'd barricaded ourselves in. The guys in my unit, well, we were all friends. Machine-like precision, that's what we had. We waited for a lull, and then the Mac gave the signal. Guns loaded, but not to be fired if we could help it. We slipped out onto the street, unseen. For the time being. Only for the time being.
We got maybe...thirty steps, before there was a screech. We all turned, but Mac, he...stopped us. Told us to keep going. I wanted to stay, but some of the other guys, my friends and brothers, they got the jump on me. Now, I'll be honest, I'm that stoic. I'm pretty emotional. But...damn, but when the ones who were running grabbed my arms, I almost shot them down. They were dragging me away from my comrades. "Live together, die together": our simple and clichéd motto meant nothing. Not anymore.
Well, we made it out. But then came the next hard part. Other runaways. Civilians. They begged and pleaded for us to save them, and we had to. That was what we had sworn to do. But it was such a horrible idea. They slowed us down, gave away our position, countless times. I lost two more of my comrades. There was only five of us left, and we weren't any closer to the ship.
Well, I thought we weren't, but suddenly we turned the corner, and there it was. It was completely hidden, and we almost missed it (even though we had a vague idea of where it was), but it uncloaked, just in time. We rushed for it, but, of course, one of the poor bastards we were escorting tripped up, and cried out in pain.
No time for hesitation. The Xenos came screeching around the corner. A huge pack of them. There was no way to stop them.
I still don't know why I'm alive. The other four guys rushed the civvies to the shuttle, as best they could, and then threw me on, too. I could have cracked their skulls. Hell, I wanted to. But the door shut, and the ship was gone. And so were they.
Fuck, I don't know how I can keep telling this story. I've been on Europa since Monday. The Xenos hadn't tried to raid here, yet, even though they must have known about it. They probably just wanted the resources. As much as I fucking hate them, I can understand their reasons.
But...but, I'm not done with their sorry asses. Oh, no. We've "suddenly" been contacted by another race. Not the Xenos. They say they can help. Apparently the two have a little grudge. What can I say? We accepted their offer. They'll arrive by the end of the week.
I lost my home, my friends, and my life. I won't rest until I get it back.
A set of quick, improvisational writing that I did in spare minutes of my days.
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