Omezo the Astronaut

It's thirteen minutes to the drop and I'm still hiding in my locker. A new level of combat avoidance even for me. Omezo Ueda: master hide and seek player, that's me: not that anyone's seeking me. Well, no one but Ayako, though I keep hoping she'll just leave me behind this time. I'm no good to her on the field, hell, I'm no good to her off the field. I'm always just the needy little brother who gets in the way.

 

With the light shining through the slits in the locker, I can make out some of the posters and pamphlets I've stockpiled in here over my three year service. Death to all Farris! one leaflet announces in bold red letters, with a picture of our alien enemies underneath. The artist's impression is a little off. The multicoloured insectoid's last pair of arms needs to be at the hip, not the waist. But then again the leaflet was printed from the earlier stages of the war, maybe ten years in? Who knows. The war is now in its sixty first year, its last year as unbelievable as that seems. For even as I hide here moping, the ship I'm in sitting in: The GS Nirvana, and all the other Galaxment vessels are bombarding the Farris home planet: Far. It is this planet which my superiors wish me to drop into, a mop up operation of the last pockets of resistance on surface, to these men I say fuck you. Though not to their faces, my complete absence from the battle will be protest enough. Astronaut or not, I refuse to take part.

 

I'm too caught up in my own thoughts to notice a shadow blocking out the light coming into the locker, one turn of a key later and there's Ayako, the usual annoyed expression on her face. My sister is bigger than me, both in stature and personality, she's no less shy, just... bigger. As I anticipated she already has her Astronaut gear on.

'Get up,' she says simply, obviously in no mood for my bullshit. 'drop's in nine.'

'I'm not going.' I try to protest she as stands me up and takes me from the locker.

'Yes you are.' she says without mirth. 'Either you put on the gear yourself, or I do it for you.' I can tell she's serious too, her greatest concern about me is that I'll get locked up by the higher ups for disobeying a direct order. For a second I wonder if she really could force my gear on me, she's certainly stronger than I am. Plus she knows enough grapples to disable an average adversary in combat, but forcing someone to dress could prove tricky even for her. What am I thinking? Do I really want to get rid of my last scrap of dignity so badly, to have my sister dressing me like a child? I sigh and get on with it as she turns her back.

 

This is a strained relationship my sister and I have, a circumstance that would have seemed impossible five years ago, back when we were both still under the conscription age. Back then my sister, mother, father and I all lived on Earth, in a rural slice of Japan known as the Izu Peninsula. Ayako and I were inseparable in those days, nothing would ever be done alone: whether it be racing across the rice paddies in spring, or diving into the water filled belly of one of the Amagi mountains in summer, or jousting with sticks among the maple trees in autumn, or just reading by the fire in winter. Then Ayako turned sixteen, and the Galaxment came to get her. My parents cried as the men in grey took her away, I myself tried to fight them. 'What are you getting angry about?' the combatant had asked, holding me at arms length as Ayako was escorted to the car by his partner. 'You're sister is going to be just fine, the hard fighting is done, all the conscripts coming in now: they're the victory generation.'

 

The next two years were the loneliest of my life, I had no friends in the village and the only contact I maintained with my sister was the videos we'd send each other; updating one other on how we were doing and making our usual silly jokes in an attempt to recapture what we had. Unfortunately her video messages got more and more sporadic as she was flown further away, with mine undoubtedly doing the same on her end. Two weeks to my sixteenth birthday, and I hadn't heard from Ayako in five months. I'd been counting the days till I would be taken, truth be told I was desperate to see her again.

 

I spent six months after that training to he an Astronaut, fooling the brass into thinking I gave a shit about the war in the process. I did make some friends in those training days, it didn't matter what planet you came from then, we were all scared children. They'd wanted me to join them on the GS Zenith, but I couldn't let my sister down. I got a transfer to the Nirvana the day I graduated from the academy.

 

I remember how I'd been waiting to meet her at the check in, how anxious I'd been to see her again. I'd waited three hours when I realised a woman was staring at me from the middle of the room. Ayako had changed, the sprightly, unspotted sister I had known was now taller than most men, with dark bags under her eyes and slight plasma burns decorating her unsmiling face. I was sixteen, she was nineteen. We stared at each other in that room for what seemed like an hour.

 

My next three years were spent at her side, though it was not as happy a coupling as before. In my absence she had become one of the most decorated Astronauts on the fleet, using her skills with a minigun to help clear five Farris worlds. This gained her a slew of points on the scoreboard, and a bunch of friends because of it. That's how missions work in the Galaxment, your suit records how many Farris you've killed, one point for each, and the results are shown publicly on the scoreboard. The reasoning behind this, so I've heard, is to propel healthy competition among the crew. I think it's the most twisted shit ever invented. Soldiers shouldn't be congratulated for killing at all, let alone worshipped as celebrities because of how many frags they racked up that day. It was the discovery of this system that opened my eyes to just how monstrous the Galaxment really is. They're not even fighting a war that needs to be fought any more, they're just making a game out of one that could have ended years ago.

 

Seeing the remnants of a conquered Farris planet for the first time made me realise how wrong this conflict is, the horrors I've seen have stayed with me; while others seem to not see them at all. That's why I've never scored a point on the scoreboard, throughout my three years I've refused to take a life at all, in spite the pressure put on me. This has earned me the animosity of the entire crew save for Ayako, who despite not understanding my take on things, respects my decision none the less. Though this has meant she's had to act as my protector throughout the entirety of our surface missions together. I'm pretty sure I would have been locked up for non participation already if she wasn't such a big shot Astronaut.

 

'Hurry up.' she presses, lost in my thoughts again. I've only attached the harness and my leggings. Frustrated with my slowness, she helps me with the rest. After dressing me we jog through the silent barracks, which only last night was filled with the moans of young men and women having sex. The other soldiers get like that before a mission you see, that I could die tomorrow mindset locks in, and before you know it every bed is occupied with a fucking couple, or trio, or whatever. Save for mine and Ayako's bed that is, we have a double bunk. I've managed to render myself a nineteen year old virgin because of my unpopularity, and Ayako... in truth I don't know. I've never seen her with any guys, but then I'm not always around. She could sneak off with them when I'm not there to save hurting my feelings, she's certainly popular and pretty enough to nab anyone she chooses. Plus she's Asian, which is somewhat of a rarity on the Nirvana. The thought of her being with a man, it kills me a little inside if I'm honest, which is why I've never asked her about it. Is is unhealthy to feel like that? I don't know.

 

Whatever the case, Ayako and I have spent many nights lying irritably awake as others have loud, frantic sex in the rooms surrounding our own. Occasionally I'll hear intoxicated male voices calling her name as they rap on the door, which she ignores. It sucks, and I don't doubt my sister resents my being there with her. It's just another way I'm holding her back.

 

I knock into someone and realise we're on a gunship, just in time for the drop. The instructor is yelling out commands we've heard a hundred times before, hopefully this really will be the last time I have to go through this shit. A short while later and were all sat down and strapped in, our white Astronaut gear barely fitting in the chairs. The others are chattering with bravado as usual. I glance Ayako's way, she's looking to her knees: mentally readying herself for the battle as she always does. One stomach turning jolt later and our gunship has been dropped into free fall above the planet. Everyone cheers as if it's a ride. I try to block out the universe for this tempestuous period, lest I throw up in my helmet.

 

The land is bumpy, but the gunship makes it in one piece. Upon the green light's go we all unbuckle ourselves and take our tools of the trade from the weapon rack. Ayako primes her minigun, and I cock the laser rifle, a gun half as big as me. With everyone armed up, the doors open and we rush out into the alien world. The planet looked to be a dull backwater from space, seeing it on surface level I realise it is anything but. The bronze colouring of the globe comes from the tone of the turbulent oceans that smash themselves against the high sea walls. The base land follows suit, the metallic ground I tread upon glistening a light brown colour. The distant harbour city it is built upon however, is a multiplex of neon colours and wonderful, impossibly shaped structures. It is this place we run to invade, it is this place we run to destroy. The idea of the violence to come scares me, but what scares me even more is the notion that after this: there will be no battles to fight. All the young men and women the Galaxment has spent sixty one years grooming into soldiers will suddenly have no further purpose. How is the rest of the solar system going to deal with having millions of killing machines coming home without any more purpose in their lives? What will be the repurcussions of having a mobile army with no one to fight? I don't know, I just don't know.

 

'Focus Omezo!' Ayako calls out, seeing that I'm straying from the group. Our Astronaut harness allows us to move as if we were in an environment with minus twenty five percent gravity, this grants us the ability to jump higher, manoeuvre in battle with more dexterity and cover longer distances in a single bound. I mostly just use it to keep up with Ayako. Not long after we drop, our point man marks out a group of Farris heading our way. On his lead we all take cover behind the metallic rocks and wait for their arrival. Seven of the insectoids come over the pass, three adults, four children. The purple on their shells marking them out as a family, obviously seeking to escape the fighting in the harbour city. Only one has a weapon on it, but that's all the excuse the squad needs. Using concentrated fire my allies gun down the group, the shots grinding through their unarmoured flesh with telling little cracks. I don't even need to look to tell Ayako was firing her minigun along with them, the sound of its rotors whining is proof enough. 'Hostiles down.' our squad leader notifies, and we get out from the cover to move to the next battle, stepping over the bodies of Farris children as we do. A few of my squad members give me dirty looks for not firing my weapon, that's fine: I'm used to it.

 

Having made it into the harbour city, I realise the mop up operation talk was complete bull, there's no more Farris warriors to mop up, just scared civilians in a desperate struggle to defend their families. 'This is wrong...' I murmur as I see groups of the insectoids being lined up against walls and shot down by firing squads. 'This isn't war, this is race cleansing.' To my distress my squad is too busy exchanging fire with a band of Farris across the street way to notice what's really happening around them. With a burst of speed I propel myself to Ayako's side and tug at her arm.

'We need to go now.' I tell her, ducking under the toppled statue of a revered Farris hero she's using as cover.

'Are you crazy? We're in the middle of a battle zone! If you wont fight then at the very least don't distract me.' she retorts as her minigun shreds a couple of runners to pieces.

'This isn't right Ayako, this is genocide.' I plead as a waterfall of alien bodies leaks out from the bombed structure ahead.

'You don't think I know that!' she snaps back at me, before getting down to reload her weapon.

'But, how... how could you...' I stutter, lost for words.

'Stop being such a child, Omezo, Help me reload!' she shouts, pressing my hands onto the belt feed as shots fly over our heads. 'You think I enjoy doing this? You think I enjoy killing them? Well I don't. I'm as sick of it as you are.' she fumes as she snaps the belt into place.

'Then why?' I ask, on the verge of a nervous breakdown.

'It's either us or them, there's no morality about it. You never saw Magon and Grand Barazmis, you've never seen Archlight and all the other colony worlds. The Farris wiped them out, Omezo, entire populations blasted to dust clouds. We've been fighting them for sixty one years, sixty one years, with so many sacrificed we can't even keep count any more.'

A flighter blazes overhead, the aircraft shattering one of the far off towers with its scatter missiles.

'This is the final hurdle brother,' she surmises as she places her minigun back on the cover 'we either stop them for good now. Or the fighting will never end.'

I gaze up at her. '...If this humanity's solution, then how are we any better than them?.'

Her black eyes, devoid of all light, look down on me. 'We're not.'

 

Utterly defeated, I slump down to the floor as the rotors whine once more. Where is the Ayako I once knew, who would nurse rabbits and mice back to health in the cruel oriental winter? Where is the swing we used to play on? It's rope straining as we pushed each other higher and higher until the long grass could no longer reach our feet. Where is the happy life I used to have? Where each and every day was a little adventure all in itself and nightmares did not invade my sleep night after night.

 

In this haze of sadness I spot six arms clawing out of the rubble behind us, the bloodied Farris warrior smouldering with rage as it lifts itself up. The orange shelled insectoid is dauntingly big, as all the warrior classes are, with a scarlet cloak and an electro spear gripped in two of its hands. I quickly realise that it means to throw the lance, my Astronaut gear scans the trajectory in a second: he's aiming for Ayako, her back turned to the threat.

 

Laser shots eviscerate the Farris' middle and the alien slumps to the ground with a groan, Ayako looks over her shoulder in surprise. The scoreboard pops up on my visor.

                                                   

                                                  Omezo Ueda: one point.