The flight down to the surface of the planet was irregularly smooth. I stood over the commanding pilot as he prattled on and on. He began explaining about how this ship descends to the surface.
“You see, the ship uses Nitron pockets in the atmosphere to coast down instead of coming in through the giant gray-green gas clouds. Now we release the rear wings to…”
I looked away not paying much attention to the remains of his lecture. It all would have seemed fairly interesting to me if my mind wasn’t so stranded on all that had transpired in the last revolution day.
I wondered off to think to my self.
I walked down a corridor and stopped at a hatch. I glanced out the hatch window to see that the planet was in full view. Taras IX was an odd planet. In truth, it was more of a small moon with a breathable atmosphere. It was basically a rusty dark red mass of rock and canyons. I didn’t understand the point of making this strange world ground zero for any sort of test.
I stood at the window for what seemed a fair amount of time when Mr. Canington came up behind me.
“Amazing isn’t it?” he asks.
I sighed trying to avoid his small talk, “why are we going here Canington?”
He put his hand on my shoulder, “you were a miner for how long? About…”
“Most of my life,” I cut him off as I let out my answer with as much dignity as I had left in me.
“So you know how important Vespene is to the Confederacy?”
I gave him an odd look, “I suppose.”
“The confederacy has a small mining colony on this planet. The crew is primarily made up of miners and scientists. A contact of the NSO has gained valuable information that they are researching a new, cleaner, more pure kind of Vespene at this station. We intend to harness this new type of gas for our own use.”
“Won’t the confederacy try and stop you?” I asked him confused.
He gave me a dishonest glance and then smiled as if trying to reassure me. “We are almost there, we must not keep our comrades waiting.”
Why I followed him down the hallway is beyond my comprehension, but I did.
“You will learn to live as we do,” Canington spoke up again as we walked, “We are your family now.”
I didn’t respond.
He led me to the main deck of this ship. It looked like a holo-theater like the ones back on Corpois. A massive view screen sat in the front wall, with stations all around it. Monitors and such cluttered up this great room. The chamber was so metallic it made an SCV cockpit resemble pillows like the ones my mother had made; Well the ones I thought that my mother had made. I tried to remember my mother but it seemed harder now. All the SC members were on the deck as the remaining landing procedures were being taken.
After we had made landing, Canington myself and the rest of the Stratus Court boarded a hover-trans. It wasn’t a big ship but it was big enough to hold all of us, with seven rooms in back and one pilot deck. I sat in the corner waiting. I wasn’t sure what I was waiting for. “A test” kept playing back in my mind. What kind of test could this be? Vespene Gas tests maybe. I continued to ponder a while longer before I started to drift off. With all that had gone on I didn’t realize that I had gotten about three hours of sleep since my departure from the mining colony.
“Hey wake up man”
Something hit me on the arm a couple times.
I opened my eyes and I couldn’t speak. Right before me stood Kertion. Smiling as he used to.
“ What the….you’re…you’re dead!?”
“Now why would you think that you lazy bum?” he said with a smirk.
I couldn’t help but smile at that.
“What happened? Man I thought I killed you Kertion. How is it…”
“I forgive you.”
I looked at him oddly, “Huh? Forgive me for what?”
He stopped smiling. He gave me a vacant glare as if there was just an empty shell in front of me. “I forgive you.”
“Come on Kertion stop playing man. What’s the joke?”
He looked down at his shirt and then lifted it up. There were bullet holes everywhere. Blood started to ooze out like liquid plasma from a coolant pack. He looked back up at me and smiled.
“I forgive you.”
I backed up, my mouth was open wide but I could not speak. I just kept backing up. His stare was penetrating me. My back touched wall behind me and I couldn’t go any further.
“I forgive you”
Someone grabbed my arm.
“Hey are you ok there?” one of the men from the Stratus Court was standing over me.
I looked back.
“What the? Where’s Kertion?”
“Who?”
“Kertion he was right here…you didn’t see…”
He gave me an odd look; “ you have been asleep here for over an hour. You started to make peculiar noises and shiver so I thought I would come and check on you.
I put my hand on my forehead and moved it up through my hair. “I’ll be ok thank you.”
The man shrugged his shoulders and continued on to the other room.
I stood up wiping off my hands from the sweat that had gathered there from touching my hair. My forehead was burning up. I knew that that was too real to be a dream. Nevertheless, there was no way Kertion could still be alive.
I proceeded back to the main chamber.
“Ah just in time!” Canington said standing up from the captain chair. “View mode please.” He requested the large view screen on. “Look familiar?”
“It looks just like the mining colony where I was at”
“Indeed,” Canington said with a smile.
“We are ready sir,” a man I have never seen before spoke up in the front.
“Begin!” he made a wave of his hand to confirm his order.
At first, nothing happened. The miners continued to mine and go about the tasks for the day. SCV’s entered an unusually large Refinery and exited with a grayish-gold gas pack. Unlike the usual green packs that come from normal Vespene. The screen focused on one particular area where a SCV had left the group lines. In an instant a woman climbed out of the cockpit and brought up a Phase Variance Rifle. She began to pick off each miner as he or she came out involuntarily, not knowing each was walking to his or her certain demise. The loud sound of the PVR rattled my head. I started to get queasy and my legs were getting frail. I grabbed hold of a chair next to me to hold my self up and then managed to choke out my words.
“Stop! Stop her! Why are you all just sitting there! She is killing all those innocent people!”
“They are confederates,” Canington shrugged out, “did the confederates not take what was so rightfully yours, the right to a life, The right to be born or to have a family. They have grown you in a tube yet you still have compassion for them. I suggest you remember what the confederacy has done to you. How could you have sympathy for them?”
“These people have done nothing that has to do with me Canington! This is not how I want to get back at the confederacy! Murder is not the answer!”
At that moment, words began to play back in my mind.
“I forgive you. I forgive you.”
Then it struck me! The miners, the killing, the loss of control;
”You did this to me! I didn’t kill all those people! You made me! I did not kill all those people! You used me!”
“Please, how could you put the blame on us? We freed you from your lie, from the world that was pulled over your eyes. You were nothing. You are nothing without us. The confederacy is not your friend. It cares nothing for you, or for these people. They are full of greed, hate, and selfishness. The Confederacy is The Enemy!”
I backed up against a wall. Everyone was staring at me now.
“Look at yourselves,” I began to point and wave my finger around at each individual, “your just as evil as you accuse others to be. You care nothing for this new Vespene. You wish to kill and murder to satisfy your own spite. You are the ones that are full of hate and revenge! I will not be a part of this!”
Canington smiled, “if you are not with us then you are of the confederacy. And,” he sighed, “you shall die. Take him”
Two men began to move at me. I grabbed a man sitting beside a view pad and grabbed his weapon. “I will kill him I swear I will.”
Canington as calm as usual held up his hand, “let him go, he is of no use to us anymore.”
I threw the man down and ran. I didn’t know where I was running to I just began running. I found the hatch I had glanced out of earlier. I opened it and began running towards the colony. The hover-trans lifted off and began a flight pattern back to the check point. I was still running. Random thoughts raced through my mind.
They did this to me. They caused me to be this way. How could I have listened to such evil, to such hate? I began to cry, still running. I dropped my gun, but kept on running. I made it to the colony. There were dead bodies everywhere.
“You’re not dead! NO! You’re not dead. Please,” I dropped to me knees, “ please don’t be dead.”
I looked up and saw Kertion standing in front of me.
“I forgive you.” He said again. He began to point behind me.
I turned around and saw the same girl who Canington had corrupted just a short while ago. She was on her knees with the same PVR in her hands. I walked over to her. I placed my hand on her shoulder. She looked up at me with tears in her eyes.
“I didn’t mean to. I really didn’t mean to. What have I done?”
