Brrrrr.
Moses felt the vibration in his bones as the carrier that he had taken to return to the surface of Earth descended through the atmosphere. The inertial dampeners were probably worn out from years of constant wear and tear, so it was not up to par with the rough descent. If the pilot reported it, then it would probably get fixed within a week.
"Oi, Moses!" Someone called his name, and Moses turned to face the person. He saw another uniformed man walking toward him, and with a glance at his shoulder, he was able to tell that they were both of the same rank - Officers.
"Hey, Richard." Moses greeted the brown haired man as he stopped beside him. He was familiar with Richard, but they were not too close. There were a couple of times when their squads had worked in tandem, but those times were few and far in between. Their paths rarely ever crossed.
"I heard a little birdy say that you are being reassigned to the front lines." Richard came close and threw his arm over Moses' shoulders. Moses just sighed. He was not really a fan of body contact, but he was too reserved to tell people off.
"Yes, I am being transferred to the front lines." Moses confirmed.
"Ah, damn. You must feel weird. No familiar faces or anything." Richard leaned on Moses dramatically, "But guess what? I'm coming along with ya!" He suddenly exclaimed.
"Oh, I see." Moses replied blandly.
"You're not really a fun person, are you?" Richard finally clued into to how unenthusiastic Moses was.
"No, I'm not really a people person." Moses sighed. He turned to look out the display that showed the view of the planet down below, and Moses' thoughts drifted.
He was not emotionless for no reason. Once upon a time, he used to be a very happy and lively boy. But that all ended when his world came crashing down.
His father used to be a mech pilot. He had been deployed when the aliens launched a deep strike attack against Earth, and had died in battle. His mother had fainted when she had received the news. She had hit her head on the way down, and she never got back up.
Moses had been devastated, and ever since then, he had held back from trying to get close to people so that they would not be able to leave their mark on his heart. After all, if he never let them in, then he would not lose them.
The turbulence eventually passed, and the carrier resumed smooth sailing in the direction of the spaceport where it was to land. Seeing that Moses was not returning his enthusiasm had chilled Richard's fire a bit. He was excited a minute ago, but now, that excitement had simmered down.
Silence reigned in the cabin as the carrier touched down. Moses and Richard, along with a few others who had been reassigned disembarked from the carrier after it touched down in the base's spaceport. They all headed straight toward the main command center to report for duty.
Several minutes later, they were all saluting in front of a higher ranking officer. The officer handed each of them a file before sending them out of his office.
Moses and the others went through their files, and while some of them bore wide smiles, others had looks of disappointment. Not all of them would remain on Earth. Some of them were being sent off to Mars, or other distant planets, while others would go much farther than that. Moses was one of such.
With a deep sigh, Moses closed his file and tucked it under his armpit before turning to leave. He had a few days before being shipped off to Pluto.
"Hold on, Moses." Moses recognized Richard's voice and turned to face him with a raised brow. A strand of his jet black hair hung in the way of his vision and he blew it aside with a puff of air.
"Where did you get stationed?" Richard asked, coming to walked beside Moses. It seemed like he really wanted to be Moses' friend or something.
"Pluto." Moses grunted.
"Oh, damn. Me too." Richard whistled.
Aside from the humans that grew up on Pluto after it had been altered and adjusted for human colonization, very few soldiers wished to serve at Pluto. The garrison of the United Terran Confederation that was stationed at Pluto was mostly made up of natives there.
Pluto was at the edge of the Solar System, which also served as another major deterrent that prevented most people from wanting to serve there. If the aliens committed to a major strike, then they would most likely start from Pluto, which was so far away that the aliens would surely do some major damage before back-up arrived.
But Moses did not mind being stationed at Pluto. After all, it only brought him closer to the aliens, the most hated things that he knew. Any chance to kill an alien would be welcome in his books. If the army wanted, then it could send him to a different system with ongoing battles, and he would gladly go out there.
"You seem calm. Aren't you scared of becoming Xenon food?" Richard mimicked the posture of the Xenon as he spoke, hunching his back and letting his arms hang low.
"They should be worried about becoming my food instead." Moses thought, but unknown to him, he had spoken out loud.
Richard froze mid step, shocked upon hearing what Moses had to say. He did not know how to reply, and could only watch as Moses kept on walking until he was out of sight.
"My God... What kind of monster is that guy?" Richard mumbled when he had snapped out of his daze. He continued to look in the direction that Moses had gone off into for some time before shaking his head.
"Maybe being his friend won't be so bad after all. I need some radical people around me to spice up my life." Richard shrugged and went his own way. He needed to make some preparations before returning to be transported to Pluto.