"I tell you what. After we survive this, I'm going to take a looong bath, the longest one ever. Then I'ma get wasted and forget this whole thing ever happened."
The soldier's promise fell on deaf ears. Mere moments after his dream was declared, a red orb vaporized him just as it had his comrades.
Across the desolate battlefield, similar orbs snuffed out any remaining life—a thousand dreams eviscerated in a single instance.
Most of the bodies were simply erased from existence, but the ones left behind offered a gruesome enough scene. Loose limbs, not bodies, littered the bloodied battlefield—hands whose last moments were spent holding some talisman from home.
Open lockets revealed pictures of a simpler time when they could smile with their family.
The smiles of their loved ones permeated through the fabrics of time, unbothered by the cruelties of war. Even now, as the memories fell to the ground, they smiled upon the dead world.
Not a single soldier survived this simple barrage.
The worst fear was confirmed—humanity's last defense was falling.
...
"Hey, Grumpypants! Tch... Hey! Akizo! Don't ignore me, you bastard! What are our soldiers gonna think, huh? With that grim face, they're gonna think we already lost, ya know! What, are you trying to scare them all to death, you idiot!" Aylin laughed, softly punching his shoulder. "Liven up a little, damnit."
Akizo merely closed his eyes in response, not bothering to fight against her. His seat offered enough resistance, anyway.
The two commanders were sitting across from their subordinates in a loading dock filled with advanced spaceships. Each soldier was outfitted with a weapon of some kind, whether it was a gun, sword, spear, or other such gear.
Across the loading dock, their soldiers watched the two commanders with varying emotions. Some shared Aylin's apparent cheer, while others were as sad as Akizo. A few ignored them completely.
Cassie was one of those people. She had known Akizo from the start, from the first attack. War hadn't changed him at all—it was as though, from the moment they met, he already knew this day was going to come.
Throughout this entire war, he'd already seen countless friends die. He knew even more were going to die today. That's all people did, was die. It was likely every person here would be dead come tomorrow morning.
Then the Endless would feast upon Earth.
They were facing a cruel, insurmountable enemy. Tears shed over the fallen were as effective at stopping them as blades. That is to say, completely ineffective.
Everyone in the loading dock knew they were preparing for the gravest massacre of their lives. They knew they were going to die. They knew they probably wouldn't succeed in driving back the enemy either.
Still, they hoped they would. And all they had left was either hope or the horrible promise of extinction looming over them. So, everyone held onto that hope—everyone except Akizo.
He knew better. Looking at Cassie, he felt she should know better as well, and yet she still never learned. The girl was forever optimistic.
A tap on his shoulder pulled his gaze away from Cassie. He knew the tap would be followed by Aylin's squabbling. Even after what felt like an infinite amount of lost battles, her cheering philosophy somehow persevered.
"Come on, don't be so gloomy! Bad vibes rub off on other people, you know." Aylin whispered this time, her laughter far more forced.
For a few moments, Akizo continued sitting there, staring forward as if trying to find a way out of the situation. Knowing none existed, he stood and said, "Activate your gear and enter your ships. We leave in 5 minutes."
Aylin jumped to her feet as if she was going to argue, but quickly decided against it. He was right anyway; they had to leave.
The soldiers erupted into bustling movement and scattered chatter. They all took special care to fasten each other's weapons and gear, making sure it was perfect. Each soldier took turns uplifting the other, giving false promises of safety to maintain their sanity.
Cassie headed this effort. One of the soldiers was shaking so badly he dropped his pistol. When he reached to pick it up, he saw that Cassie already held it out to him with a beaming smile.
"I think you'll need this, Sam."
Sam took his weapon with a nervous glance, embarrassed that he had dropped it. If he did that on the battlefield, he'd be dead instantly.
As he watched Cassie and his other soldiers, Akizo couldn't help but feel doomed by their camaraderie. He was burdened with the sinister truth.
"Most of us won't survive today. Whatever past attachments you have, they stay here. If you survive, you can have them back. Understand?" he said as he fastened his gloves and made sure his swords across his back were properly placed.
"As always, a man of few, if decisive, words," Aylin muttered with a chuckle.
The soldiers nodded their grim understanding, knowing that what he said was true. There would be plenty of sacrifice and death on the battlefield. Even if they were friends, even if they loved one another, they couldn't sacrifice humanity just to save each other.
Their lives were meaningless. Their dreams were meaningless. Their hopes, their past, their futures were all meaningless.
Even Aylin knew this.
By the end of the day, unless they won, humanity would be extinct.
...
Seconds into the battle, the winner was known.
Even these soldiers, the best humanity had to offer, fell in droves against the red orbs. The true enemy didn't even need to show its face. Not yet, anyway.
Akizo watched from his spaceship as nameless soldiers fell to the enemy.
'Ryka, Terno, Mieska. That one's Hya; he probably has a family that was waiting for him back home. They got Kiko too... he was going to go on a date tomorrow.' Akizo gave the soldiers names as he stared at the onslaught, using the spaceship's interface to get a good look at the ground battle.
Just as he thought, the red orbs would make their presence known the second they found a soldier on the surface. Silently thanking the dead comrades he had sacrificed, he turned his attention to the living.
Over the intercom, he radioed to the other five spaceships orbiting the planet.
"We are lucky. Even if their death tells you otherwise, know I speak the truth. I've never lied to you before, and I don't plan on doing so now. Their sacrifice has shown us the position of the enemy's infantry. Yes, I sent them down there knowing they would die. They went down there with that same knowledge—that they would die, but that we would carry on their legacy and avenge them. After we kill those red bastards, the sky is going to go dark. The Colossals are going to exit hyperspace and begin evaporating the planet. That isn't anything we haven't trained for, though. It's like I said. Survive. Tomorrow, we reclaim our humanity."
If he could hear Aylin right now, he knew she'd remark about his speech—though he was just trying to delay the inevitable.
Akizo activated the ship's landing sequence, already knowing his crew was doing the same.
...
Even though he had already seen the devastation a million times, the death that covered the battlefield was still an unsettling scene. Or, the implication of death. The red orbs were very good at covering their tracks, erasing the victims from existence so thoroughly that it was rare for even specks of blood to remain.
If this was his first or millionth battle, Akizo would have died there. He would've been lost to despair, and the orbs approaching him would have eviscerated him.
Thankfully, he had fought billions of battles at this point. Loss, death, and despair were all bygone feelings to him.
Not even bothering to unsheathe his weapons, he raised his right hand to the five orbs zooming through the air.
Crack!
A sudden burst of lightning erupted from his hand, blasting across at least an entire mile of the battlefield. Even though Akizo had only cared about the five orbs coming for him, it appeared as though he killed about half the infantry in a single instant.
There was no celebration or idea of victory, however. Experience taught him that his comrades would not be as powerful.
Experience proved true as screams rang out through the battlefield.
Unsheathing his sword, Akizo only wondered how many of them could survive this battle, already feeling the answer would be none.
0.