SALVATION SOLDIERS

[YEAR 2900 – PLANET NARTHEA – HERPERO HABITABLE SYSTEM] NIGHT

The two sat together on the old water well and faced the sky, father and ten year old son staring at the two shiny silver moons that illuminated them from above. The well was sitting at the centre of a grain farm on a deserted planet called NARTHEA. They both stared at the constellation of stars and the comets that passed by one after the other.

"Dad….what is that?" Verrick asked curiously as he pointed at a bright dot in the sky, one that stood alone due to its extreme brightness.

"What?" The father asked in confusion.

"That bright shiny star thingy….up there…..you see it?" Verrick affirmed its position by pin pointing its location.

"Oh that….that is the Galadrius." The father smiled and patted his son.

"The Galadrius?" Verrick asked again restlessly.

"It is real son. The greatest space vessel in the universe, controlled by the most powerful soldiers in the universe…. " The father replied as he nodded and smiled. He stood up and grabbed his machete.

"Woah….I wanna go there." Verrick pointed at the bright dot, energy was in his soul and he was anxious.

"They are the protectors of the universe, the Salvation Soldiers…..to go to the Galadrius, you must become strong….in fact, very strong. You must become the strongest in the universe…..they don't allow people like us Verrick….we are not strong." The father began to walk away from the field slowly as he held his machete on the right and pulled a big bag of grain on the left. 

"That is why we are farmers; we play our part by feeding the soldiers up there and provide them energy to fight" The father concluded and left the field

"I will go there dad…..I will become a salvation soldier and I will go to the Galadrius." Verrick was sure within him and he knew he would make it up there. He kept on staring at the tiny dot in the sky. One way or another, he knew fate would take him up there. He knew he would become a Salvation Soldier.

 [13 YEARS LATER]

{Ferocious Gunshots, soldiers chanting, BOOM!! A big explosion, soldier's screams, body parts everywhere, blood on the walls, things go haywire, everyone and everything scatters, everyone DEAD!!!!}

 "S24…."

"S24…."

"S24….do you read me?"

"S24…..are you alive?"

"S24…..you cannot die on me now soldier….if you die, I will be forced to kill you myself. S24 please respond!!!"

{Dead Silence for some seconds before a voice emerged on the radio}

[YEAR 2913 – PLANET ORBITO – HERPERO HABITABLE SYSTEM] DAY

S24, a salvation soldier in full space battle gear emerged from beneath the dry desert sand and shook the dust off his battle gear. He stood up, observed the battlefield and dusted the sand off his face. The explosion was intense and most of his men were down. He checked his rifle count by swiping the slick screen near the trigger; it projected a hologram count of how many bullets remained in his gun. He pressed a button on his wrist watch screen and it loaded a projection of a series of screens and some info.

He tapped on one of the screens and it projected a map of the whole area. The scattered red dots were the enemies and the blue dots were his dead allies. He smiled and corked his futuristic rifle.

"If I die….then I am already dead. You can't kill someone who has been killed" S24 responded into his radio. His radio was directly linked to the Galadrius which was in low orbit far above him.

"Thank goodness you're alive…..what's your status S24…I want full details" Colonel Rick replied from the Galadrius.

S24 ran nearer to a barricade which shielded him from being shot dead by the enemy. He bent low and peeped outside the barricade; immediately, a bullet flew towards his location and pierced his ear. He hurriedly tucked his head back into the barricade and groaned in pain. Blood gushed out of the ear wound.

 "S24…..do you read me?" The colonel's voice ricocheted from the S24's radio again.

"Critical, we took a hit, a ballistic missile….status is critical….all salvation soldiers are dead…they've got snipers everywhere" S24 replied over the radio breathing tiredly, he sighed in pain every now and then.

S24 looked around and spotted something moving in the sand behind him. He crawled over and dug the sand relentlessly. He pulled up another soldier from the ground alive.

"Okay do you need an evac soldier?" Colonel Rick asked.

"Negative….I've got S15 alive and breathing. With the right planning, we can pull this through." S24 replied as he dusted off the sands from S15's body.

"Are you sure soldier?" The Colonel asked quietly and subtly

There was dead silence between S24 and the Colonel, he was confused and had no reply to the question, and he sighed profusely and looked straight into the eyes of the S15. S24 pointed at the radio on his chest asking indirectly for her consent on the mission; whether she wanted to stay or leave. S15 nodded sharply without uttering a single word and faced the dusty fog determined and confident.

"We are wasting useful time soldier….I need a fast reply. Can you survive?" The Colonel asked again, this time impatiently.

There was dead silence for another three to four seconds before

"We might die…but….Colonel….but Orbito is our planet and it needs to be sanctified. The raptors must die for humanity to live. I vowed to make that happen….I am not quitting Colonel and neither is S15 right here" S24 concluded and gripped his rifle with pride. Colonel Rick had no reply.

S24 and S15 crawled back to the barricade. They corked their rifles and prepared to fight. The smoke and dust was everywhere, no one could see anything from the barricade but S24 was the captain, a prime soldier. He was the only one given the ability to map out the area using his wrist watch. The map displayed the enemies in red dots but the dots were shifting constantly, the raptors were wise enough to keep switching locations and used the dusty fog as cover. S15 knew what was at stake.

"You got a plan sir?" S15 asked curiously.

"The raptors…..they have snipers….thermal scope, which means…" S24 was interrupted half way through his sentence.

"Which means they can see us even in the dark" S15 whispered.

S24 went silent for some seconds and ransacked his brain for some easy way out of the problem they were in. One thing about S24 was his excellent planning and memory.

"You need to run? You go northwards. Don't engage….don't shoot…just keep running. Make them shoot at you; I will study where that damn sniper is. You fast right?" S24 asked before wiping the sweat off his face.

"You sure you can get em snipers fast?" S15 asked

"The raptors have the futuristic technology to destroy us….but they got no good eye sight. It'll be pretty hard for them to get you when you run in zigzag." S24 replied and continued

"Hope….right? That is what keeps us running….right soldier?"

"Yes sir" S15 replied.

"Then run soldier...gimme a perfect zigzag….now!"

S15 took off into the dust fog running like a wild cheetah. It was like as if she wasn't human at all. The enemies opened fire on her silhouette but she didn't hesitate. She kept running in zigzag and confused the raptor shooters. S24 placed the scope of his rifle in his eyes and focused on where the gunshots were coming from. He squinted his eyes and carefully mapped out the sniper's location.

He took a deep breath after he achieved his target and BAAM! He fired. The bullet went through the dust and hit the sniper in the head. The humanoid alien let out a huge groan and fell to death. The other raptors kept shooting at S15 as she ran.

S24 made sure he took down each one of them one gun shot after the other, he never missed a shot. He leaped over the barricade, moved closer and opened fire rapidly. More and more raptors fell to their deaths as S24's bullets flew through the dust. One of the raptors tried to attack S24 with a lazer knife, S24 dodged all the swipes confidently before jabbing the scaly alien with the butt of his rifle crushing the alien's head instantly.

From within the fog, several gunshots could be heard followed by bright light flashes. It continued like that for some time before everything stopped suddenly. There was an immediate dead silence again and only S24's static could be heard.

"Coast is clear….cost is clear soldier!" S24 yelled as the dust cleared revealing the entire battle field and all the dead. S15 stopped running and deactivated her rifle. She walked back to the barricade and sat on the sand next to S24 who was breathing very hard.

"We did it…..we won….we won….we cleaned Orbito." S15 said as she smiled.

"They killed every single one of us…. that is not victory" S24 stood up and walked past the dead bodies of the other soldiers. He knelt beside one of the dead soldiers. A male who got shot in the chest, he was dead a few minutes ago.

"You know him?" S15 asked curiously and walked closer to S24, the moment she got closer, BAAM! A loud gunshot echoed from within the mountains.

S24 was startled and hurriedly stood up. He faced S15 who looked suprised and they both shared a glance, S15 fell down like a rock and gasped for breath.

"Shit….shit"

S24 opened fire on the mountains rapidly. He grabbed a rocket launcher from a dead soldier and fired two rockets intermittently at the location where the gunshot came from.

 S24 had been hit and blood was gushing out of the wound on her neck. She couldn't utter a single word as blood was flowing from her mouth consistently. She was choking on her own blood.

"Stay with me…..stay with me….come on….everything's gonna be okay" S24 yelled as he ran back to help S15 pulled her up and tried to stop the bleeding using his hands. S15's bleeding was intense.

"Captain S24…..this is Galadrius Evac….do you read me?" A voice echoed through the radio on S24's chest.

"Copy Galadrius Evac…..Orbito is Sanctified….I repeat….Orbito is….Sanctified. Requesting immediate medical assistance, S15 is down…over" S24 replied.

"Affirmative...dropping down to lower atmosphere"

S15 and S24 felt the planet shaking and they looked up. They spotted the Galadrius in all its glory coming down. The fifty turbo charged nuclear engines roared as they blew hot air all over the skies. The ship which was about five kilometers wide blasted into the planet's atmosphere with sheer strength and agility.

In the ship, a man stood in the control room staring at the gigantic monitors while others ran around trying to keep everything under control. One thing was sure; this man controlled the whole vessel. The man held chess piece in his hands and flicked it up and down from time to time. He was Colonel Rick.

The moment the gigantic ship touched the ground, the medical team rushed out into the battle field to lift the dead soldiers. They didn't carry S15. Wounded soldiers weren't allowed on the ship. The dead were more respected than the wounded. Amidst the ruckus, S24 pulled the unconscious body of S15 into the ship. They were the survivors of the platoon. S24 was pushing through the medical team when he met Colonel Rick. He stopped and exchanged glances for some seconds. The colonel was proud

"Welcome back….Salvation Soldier" Colonel Rick smiled 

"Please…help her" S24 begged as he dropped S15's body to the ground bleeding, wounded and dying.

End of Episode One.

TO BE CONTINUED