Mission Echo returns
Writing Prompt: A colony mission sent from Earth loses contact, discouraging further missions. Hundreds of years later, the colony has established a powerful interstellar frontier and has regained contact with Earth, pledging their allegiance to the world’s leaders.
Surprisingly quietly, the dropship’s landing legs settled into the dust, under the shadow of the gigantic ex-colony ship hanging in low-Earth orbit. Scarcely had the dust settled when the ship’s belly split open, a battered metal ramp crashing to the dirt. Another heartbeat of silence came and went, as if it itself were afraid. Then a rush of movement and humanoid figures filed out, sweeping the area with the glowing weapons clasped in their gloved hands. Each figure had an expressionless mirrored visor and wore a streamlined but tough looking exosuit. When the metallic creatures had established a perimeter, a new figure stepped from the ship.
Piercing red eyes glowed from within the figure’s metal visage, points of light blazing from sunken sockets. A fixed and malicious grin was carved into the mask under arching cheekbones. Light glinted off it, then scurried away as fast as it could manage. Several of the members of the welcoming committee that Earth had sent out to meet this unknown force recoiled at the grim sight. Other than the visor, the ironclad form was much the same as any of the other figures. So deeply black was their armour it seemed to absorb light from around them — though this was surely a mere illusion. Here and there bright metal shone through fresh scars in the compact plate. For a minute that dragged, kicking and screaming, into forever, nobody moved.
Then the skull-masked figure’s face opened — almost seeming to dissolve. It revealed, not some blue-skinned sharp-faced alien, not some steely robot — but a human. The woman’s face was tough and craggy with a lingering hint of something alien — but definitely, undoubtedly human. Well, all human except for her left eye, which shone just as the sockets of her mask had — a blood jewel set into shining metal that merged seamlessly into her worn flesh. A long, raised scar ran across her face, interrupted by the metal. Clearly from the wound that had taken her eye. Her mouth was set in a distinct grimace that too, almost matched her mask. Moments later, her gravelly voice boomed out, “Which among you is of the highest rank?” The words were uttered with an inflection foreign to Earth, but carried absolute authority. This woman was used to giving orders. Orders that were promptly obeyed.
“I suppose that would be me” replied a short, grey haired man sandwiched between two gnarled men whose muscles strained at the seams of their traditional dress suits.
“I am technically in command of this planet’s armed forces, what remains of them at least” he said, quietly. Inwardly, he wondered about the assumption that the planet would be governed under military rule.
“I am Captain Octavius of PDF Special Forces. I headed Colony Mission Echo that left Earth in 2036. Now we return.” The Earth Delegation had so far been doing well at maintaining their composure — they had been training for this much of their lives after all. But these words caused visible shock to pass across every member of the Earth Delegation’s faces. “How…”, the aged man began to mutter, but was curtly interrupted.
“The original mission parameters: self-substantiating colonisation of the worlds orbiting Epsilon Eridani, and establishment of a forward base. Accomplished within a decade. Then they struck…” The inflection on the word they carried an ominous meaning, and once again questions began to bubble up from the earthers.
The Captain raised a hand for silence, and it fell like a cast stone. “The attack was swift and merciless, and most importantly cut off our contact with the outside world. With High Command. With Earth.” At that, the faintest crack in her marble facade could be seen, a slight hoarseness to her voice. Directing a statement at the Earth leader as if she were sighting a shot she asked, “Can we continue this briefing somewhere else? Somewhere more secure?” While not a military man at heart, he understood the gravitas of the situation and thus nodded once, then spun on his heel, his aides swarming around him. The space marines closed up into a tight formation around their own leader, and the group moved off in quick flawlessly synchronised lockstep. The crowd of reporters that had gathered around the ship were left standing in the dust, cameras panning to cover the disappearing backs of the two groups.
Not long later, the groups were seated at each side of a long, dark mahogany table, facing each other. The Earthers reclined into the plush chairs, while the soldiers sat ramrod straight. Octavius reached up and smoothly removed her helmet, shaking out a cascade of raven-black hair. As one, the rest of the squad made the same maneuver, revealing a host of faces each as battle-scarred as their leader’s. Here and there, metal shone where flesh should have sweated — these warriors clearly could not afford to have their fighting ability compromised. Visible shock and more than a hint of disgust scrawled itself across the faces of the soft men and women that reclined away from these looming warriors.
No doubt Octavius noticed the emotion on display. She displayed none of her own. Instead, her impassive gaze swept once again to the short man, now seated opposite her. He squirmed almost imperceptibly under the concentrated, attentive stare as if he could feel her eyes reading him.
Stiffening a little, the man spoke before Octavius could get a chance. As he did so, the flicker of a smile tugged at Octavius’s mouth, as if she were pleasantly surprised and amused by the man’s sudden growth of a spine.
“Before you continue your…report, I must ask a question. When you arrived, you carried with you the assumption that this planet would be governed militarily, correct?”
“Absolutely. How could it not be?”
“The last soldier on this planet laid down arms almost thirty years ago.”
“Ah, so the squabbling petty disputes were resolved at last. But, by laid down arms you surely mean ceased to actively fight, not ceased to train in the event of war…?”
“I mean that people like you…soldiers, no longer exist. Globally. The concept of war is scarcely remembered. We are at peace.”
This crashed through Octavius’s expressionless facade like a hammer, her shock laid bare for all to see. Then in a second the walls were back up, the face neutral once more.
“I…see. The situation is far worse than I had imagined. Time is now absolutely of the essence”
“What do you…”
“Of the essence. That means no time for interruptions” Octavius cut in
“Yes, M’am.” The man tilted his head to imply deference. Now it was the turn of several of the Earth Delegation to look visibly shocked, clearly not anticipating the leader of Earth to treat the commander of a colony mission this way.
Several hours passed before Octavius had managed to fill the world leaders in on what precisely had transpired several star systems away. She spoke slowly and deliberately, “Missions Alpha and Bravo failed, the seed-ship unable to reach its destination. Charlie was initially successful, but the colony’s governance structure collapsed rapidly. The inhabitants of Ship Delta simply never woke up. I now understand that the missions ceased after Echo, as we suspected they might after being unable to establish contact with Earth, to tell of our success. We thought this contact failure was simply technical problems. This turned out to be a grave error of judgement.”
A veritable barrage of questions followed and then a rather pregnant silence.
Octavius had no qualms breaking the silence, “The population of Earth needs to be told. Everyone must prepare.” Instantly objections came from across the room, some dissent even sourced from within Octavius’s own contingent, although these were quickly silenced with a laser glare. Her gaze had such intensity one might wonder if a look from that glowing bionic eye might actually kill.
“That will cause mass panic!” shouted one particularly bold Earther. Murmurs of agreement followed, almost unanimous.
“She is right” The leader that Octavius had first addressed spoke conversationally, not raising his voice. And yet somehow the authority that permeated and those deployed words allowed their message to slice through the clamour, and silenced the room.
Octavius nodded her thanks to the man, as casual as if they had just agreed on where to eat dinner rather than a decision that could change the lives of literal billions of people.
Now it was all a matter of logistics. Something Earth fortunately remained quite good at, despite the total lack of military capability. There was already a system in place to allow the man now revealed to be titled The President of Earth to address the entire population through every one of the unanimous screens scattered through the population, portable and otherwise. The camera was prepared, the room deathly silent. All Octavius had to do was give the signal, and her words would be instantly broadcast to the entire planet. A technological marvel. She signalled her readiness, still maintaining her casual demeanor but sitting stiffly and staring squarely into the gleaming lens of the waiting camera.
“I am Captain Octavius of Colony Mission Echo.” She paused here, aware of the shocking effects her words would be having.
“Few among you will be familiar with the history of the Colony Missions. None among you will know why they lost contact. Until now.
Mission Echo have been engaged in a fight for survival since moments after landing. And not just against inhospitable conditions and severely limited resources, although those certainly played their part.
Not just against that. Against hostile beings. Aliens.
Aliens that seem to want us erased from existence.
We are faced with a choice. Submit and be annihilated, or fight. Petty differences have been put aside, humanity living in peace with one another at last. Wars forgotten. Now we must re-learn the art of war.
This is about the fate of a species. Our species. I have battled to survive for years, and am not about to give up now. Who is with me?“
The camera panned across to Earth’s leader seated beside her.
“I am.”
Across the world, old embers sparked, fresh defiant flame licking upwards triumphantly. Old spirits, old warlike natures reignited by the rousing, heartfelt words spilling from Octavius’ battle-worn form.
Be it whispered, spoken or screamed, humanity in unison said “I am.”
This was on /r/WritingPrompts a loooong while ago. I’ll try and find the link if I can. This draft has been sitting in my folder almost as long. Finally decided to clean it up and publish it, even if I’m still not quite happy with it. Medium is a silly place to publish fiction anyway!
