The disposable (15)

“Your rifles loaded?”

“Y,es sir!” We all shouted in unison. I untucked my battle rifle from beneath my armpit, running my fingertips along the white barrel until I reached the tip where a large opening was. I examined the sides of the rifle, my eyes fixating on the pulsing blue energy that was waving through an indestructible see-through canister. The trigger had a wide gap, allowing me to rest my fingers beside it without worrying about accidentally firing it off, and the stock was a pure black that allowed me to rest it upon my shoulders comfortably.

“Squad T-154! Load into your pod!” A man shouted from across the way. I walked from inside the large spaceship and loaded into the small pod, three of my squad members following close behind me.

I watched as they all filed into the pod, settling into the small seats beside me. I examined their jet-black uniforms with a red patch on the shoulders of the suits that read “squad T-154.” They all hoisted rifles upon their backs and held large black helmets within their grasps, black visors covering the face part.

Once we were all fully settled in, our straps emerged from within the seats and tied themselves around us, the door to our pods closing shut with a silent fwoosh sound. A dim blue light lit up the inside of the pod as four screens emerged from the metal floors. These were the controls for our pod's force field, the straps to our seats, the emergency parachute, the communications, you get the point.

“Are you guys ready for this?” One of the men asked, though I could tell he was really asking himself in an attempt to hype himself up. The man who just asked that question was named Carlos. I did not know him very well, but he was a very kind and eccentric guy; he always kept his hair buzzed, and his face was clear of any cuts or marks. Right beside me was Markus, who was a renowned captain of the Z-squad in his earlier days, leading armies through countless victories against unbelievable odds. Finally, on the furthest seat from me, sat a woman named Raven. She was mostly known for her keen technological abilities and aircraft management, but I’ve heard she’s really crafty and can adapt to pretty much anything. Raven had her hair tied into a ponytail, allowing me to see her pitch black eyes and her pink, pursed lips, and on her right cheek was a large gash leading from her above her brow down to her jaw. No one really knows how she got that scar; no one ever bothered to ask.

And then there was me, Zachari. I was what's known as a “disposable”, meaning I had no special role in this army, and I would likely be expected to give my life for the team if need be. Every team had a disposable, and we disposables aren’t normally very talented. Most of us come from working-class families and were drafted into the war unwillingly, forced to leave Earth and drift throughout the cosmos. This would mark my first large-scale battle, and a little voice in the back of my head was telling me that I was going to die.

“Alright, everyone! Now that we’ve all loaded into our pods, will you all please begin the launch sequence!” Upon hearing the commander's voice on the intercom, Raven started clicking away at her screen until the pod began to violently shake. Just a few seconds later, the commander could be heard on the intercom once again.

“All pods ready for launch! Launching in T-minus thirty seconds!”

My mind went blank as the commander began counting down.

“twenty-five!”

I could feel my heart pounding out of my chest; it hurt so bad that I began squeezing my chest.

“nineteen!”

“Hey! You need to relax, get your breathing under control, and calm your mind, otherwise you’re as good as dead!” Markus said, his voice so deep it vibrated the pod even more.

“twelve!” I tried controlling my breathing, closing my eyes, and ignoring the constant shaking of our pod.

“five, four, three, two, one!” With that, we were off.

We separated from the mother-ship, falling toward the large orange planet that sat below us. Our pod went dark for a split second before the blue lights returned. I looked up, and the top of the pod was now see-through.

I quickly looked between the thousands of pods falling around us.

The shaking only got more violent by the second, and we began falling at an even faster pace as the pod's boosters activated.

“What the?” I could hear Carlos mutter through the loud sounds of clanking and cluttering.

My eyes met what he was looking at, above us one of the pods began spiraling out of control and was lit ablaze, before bursting into flames just a few seconds later. Then there was another, and another, and another.

Pod after pod would spiral out of control and then burst into flames.

“Hells going on out there?!” Markus shouted.

“Could the pods be malfunctioning?” Carlos asked, desperately looking between us.

“No, that can't be it, the enemy must’ve already spotted us. Damn it.” I could see Raven try and lift her hand up, but the force of our fall was weighing down on her hand; still, she struggled against the resistance. Eventually, she was able to lift her hand up, slamming her hand down onto her screen and slowly typing something into it as best she could.

“Commander Zeldrich! Come in! Commander, come in!” She shouted. There were a few seconds of silence before a scratchy nose could be heard over our intercom.

“I don’t know if you can hear me from up there, but they know we’re coming! You need to send in reinforcements.” She was instantly cut off as our pod started to jerk violently from side to side, her hand flying back and forth as she continued trying to use her screen.

“Give it up! Just brace yourself!” Markus shouted, hugging his seat buckles as tightly as he could.

The lights in our pod began to flash from red and black like a strobe light, allowing me to only see glimpses of my comrades as they all braced themselves.

It didn’t take long for our pod to begin spiraling out of control, the vast, empty void around us becoming nothing but a blur of black and white.

“Damn it! We’ll be knocked off course at this rate!” Raven shouted.

“We’ll be lucky to live long enough to see that happen!” Markus grit his teeth and pressed his body back up against the seat.

In what seemed like an instant, the pod burst into flames as the see-through top of our pod started to crack.

“Helmets on!”

“Shit! Shit! Shit!” Carlos exclaimed, trying to retrieve his helmet, which was gliding through the air.

“How the hell are our forcefield systems down?” Raven exclaimed to herself, plucking her helmet out of the air and strapping it over her head. I did the same as well, quickly buckling my helmet over my head as I watched my visor light up and whirr on.

Markus did the same, but Carlos was still having trouble getting his helmet as it had flown too far upward.

“Carlos, get your damn helmet on!” Markus demanded, his voice muffled by his large helmet.

“Stabilize the pods and force field as best you can, do that, and I can reach the helmet!” Carlos demanded. Raven and Markus obliged, nodding their heads as they began typing away on their screens.

“I’m trading some extra stored power to give the forcefields ten percent more battery life. Markus, try to deactivate the eastern and western thrusters so we can slow our spiral.” They both continued tapping away on their screens, as I just watched in shock and awe.

They both quickly accomplished their task, and the pod started to get back on course and stopped spiraling out of control.

Carlos quickly unbuckled himself and floored upward, plucking his helmet out of the air and buckling it over his head. He quickly settled back into his seat and strapped himself down.

“We’re back on course, at our current descent, we’ll be in the planet's outermost layer in about two minutes and thirty-five seconds,” Raven said, sighing with relief as her hair flopped back down.

“This wasn’t part of the plan. We need to conserve as much of our helmet's life as possible.” Carlos’ sigh was muffled by his helmet.

“I know, something's off here, our pods are being picked off one by one,” Markus stated.

“One minute and forty-five seconds until we’re in the planet's outermost layer!”

I started to close my eyes again, feeling the adrenaline rush through my body as the pod started rattling even more.

“With the pod's force fields down to only ten percent battery life, there’s a high chance the pod will start to break apart once we’re in orbit. Unless we can find a way to slow down our descent, we’re screwed.” Raven began tapping on her screen furiously.

“Communications are down, northern and southern thrusters are both heavily damaged, and our emergency parachute isn’t accessible for some reason. I say our best bet is to reach a low altitude while trying to control the pace of our descent, and then we bail on the pod.” Carlos looked between us, as I kept my head up, staring deep into the void of space.

“Fifty seconds, I say, Carlos’s plan is as good as any. Markus, help me control the descent of the pod. Disposable, I want you to read the emergency eject system, it's right behind you.” She did her best to point to the large red lever above my head. I simply nodded at her in response.

“Twenty seconds!” They both continued tapping away, as I readied my hand firmly around the lever. In an instant, I felt a strong pressure overcome my body as the entire pod jerked and wobbled as we entered the planet's outermost layer. It didn’t take long after that for the crack at the pod's top to expand and completely combust.

Soon after the explosion of the glass top, a gust of wind rushed throughout the entire pod as a loud and overbearing alarm deafened me.

“Pull the latch!” Upon hearing Raven's command, I used all my might to force the latch down.

Following my pulling of the lever, a loud creaking noise could be heard as the pod split apart completely, the seats unbuckling themselves and flying away as our pod became no more, the pieces of debris falling out in different directions.

I quickly looked up as we were all free-falling, watching as Raven pulled her arm up to her face, a holographic screen appearing before her.

“Activate wing-suit!” Following her command, she sprawled out her arms as a blue light formed between her arms and sides, a black wing suit forming from this blue light.

Markus and Carlos did the same, as did I.

“Follow my lead!” Raven shouted. I watched her intently as she closed her arms tightly together, speeding up her descent. We all did the same, falling toward the orange planet at an impeccable speed.

The dark void of space started turning into a bright orange as we were now reaching further down into the planet.

We continued falling until we passed through a large orange cloud. Once we were through, the ground became more visible. On the ground was a large run-down city, all the buildings decaying and falling apart. The ground was completely covered in a deep orange sand, which also seemed to envelop the base of all the buildings in the city.

“What the hell? This place doesn’t look like it does on the report!” Markus exclaimed.

“What happened here?” I could hear Raven's voice through the comms system.

“Let’s slow down.” She stated, spreading her arms and tilting her torso slightly upward, we all did the same, slowing our descent as we flew above the city.

“Follow me, we’re going to land and try to assess our situation.” She closed her arms, this time leaving a little room between her arms and her side as she descended onto the balcony of one of the largest buildings.

We all followed behind her, my entire body thudding onto the hard floor as I flew inside.

I started to quickly examine my surroundings, eyeing the two beds in the middle of the room, separated by a dresser that had one lamp and alarm clock atop it. I quickly glanced over at the empty closet, a few hangers dangling from the vent just outside it.

Finally, I examined the carpet floor, rubbing my hands on the ground as I let out a sigh of relief.

I quickly snapped my attention back to the squad, the three of them now examining the room.

“I-I don’t understand. This looks like an Earth hotel room,” Carlos muttered to himself.

“We need to figure out what the hell is going on!”

“Where are we? I thought we were back on course?” Markus questioned. “I thought so too, maybe something was tampering with our pods' systems; it could explain why a lot of our guys lost control of the pods at pretty much the same time.” Raven deduced.

“That still wouldn’t explain how. Do you think it was some sort of weapon?”

“No, I never saw anything fire at us, there must’ve been a strong source of power or something that caused our systems to go offline-” Just as Raven finished making her thesis, Carlos butt in.

“Uh, guys, come get a look at this!” He exclaimed. We all rushed outside to see what Carlos was talking about.

Once we were all on the balcony, we looked up at what he was staring at, all our eyes falling onto the large spaceship that was sitting perfectly still in the distance.

“Guess we know what was tampering with our pods,” Raven muttered in a frustrated tone. I continued to stare at the ship, not being able to make out its appearance as it was so far away.

“We gotta get the hell out of here, find a way to get back in contact with the others,” Markus stated, turning back into the room and heading toward the door.

I adjusted my rifle more comfortably on my back, looking back at Markus as he started jerking on the doorknob.

“Shoot! All our food and water were being kept inside our pod's storage. Without our pod, we got no communication, and no food or water.” Raven hissed.

“That’s why we need to find the others as soon as possible,” Markus replied, jerking the door off its hinges.

“Gonna have to agree with Markus here, it’s probably best we try and look for a way to communicate with our comrades.” Carlos looked back into the room, following behind Markus as he roamed the halls of the hotel.

“Two against one,” Markus shouted back at us.

Raven and I weren’t as eager to roam around this uncertain territory, but we had no other choice.

“Keep up!” he shouted to us. We followed close behind them, Markus holding his rifle tightly in his grasp and looking around frantically.

He slowly roamed the halls, peeking into corners and aiming his rifle at any little sound.

“This floor is clear. I doubt anyone's been in this building for years, let alone this entire city.” He sighed and lowered his rifle, looking back at me, Carlos, and Raven with a frustrated expression. The sunlight shone upon his face as he stood idly in the hallway.

“I say we just descend through the elevator system I found earlier and explore a little, try and see if anyone else in our squad was misfortune enough to fall here.” He began to hoist his rifle onto his back, but just as he did, a deafening bang, followed by the sound of something shattering, filled my ears. My vision went white for just a split second. As my vision returned to me, the horror presented itself.

Markus, his head. His entire head had been blown to nothingness. Where his head once was, nothing but smoke emitted from the empty hole atop his body.

Blood covered the hall, leaking down his suit and onto the ground. A second later, his body went limp, seemingly falling to the ground in slow motion.

I could see Raven turn to me with a look of terror, trying to get me to snap out of it, only to realize that my ears were ringing louder than the sound of my own thoughts. Though I couldn’t hear, I could read her lips. “Run!” She kept shouting, but I couldn’t, my legs felt like ten-ton stones were tied around my boots.

After a few seconds of staring at Captain Markus’s body, I eventually gained the courage to move, but it’d be to no avail.

“Hands up! Now! Do anything strange and you’ll end up like your buddy over there!” Two men in masks appeared out of nowhere, toting strange-looking guns that appeared to be made from garbage and different metals.

I could see Carlos from the corner of my eye put his hands up, reluctantly, and Raven did the same. I too put my hands up, watching as the men approached us, their cloaks waving through the air. I examined their masks, which appeared to be made from human flesh.

“Turn around slowly and keep those hands where I can see them.” One of the men demanded, his voice carried enough weight to crush my soul. We all three turned our backs to them as they snatched the rifles from our straps.

“These were made with some pretty high-end materials, you must be from the utopia!”

“We aren’t actually from this planet! I assure you, this is one big misunderstanding!” Raven shouted out in desperation.

“That’s impossible, no one gets on or off this planet alive.” The other man stated, circling us with his weapon pointed at us.

“I’m telling the truth. Why would I lie at a time like this?”

“To be quite honest, whether you’re fibbing or telling the truth don’t matter to me, I’m going to be getting paid all the same!” He quickly responded.

“Take off those helmets and suits, we’ll need those too.” The other man demanded.

“You can keep our suits, but we need these helmets on, we don’t know if the air here is toxic or not!” Carlos exclaimed.

“Talk back again and I’ll put a bullet in your brain.” I was the first to remove my helmet, taking in the stench of smoke and burnt rubber as my throat immediately became sore. I let out a slight cough and lurched forward before stripping out of my uniform.

“Good, throw the clothes here.” I tossed my uniform and helmet forward, putting my hands back up as Carlos and Raven did the same, realizing the air was somewhat safe to breathe.

“Let’s bag em.” One of the men said, stepping close behind me and wrapping a sack around my head before sticking something sharp into the side of my neck.

Quickly lost my equilibrium and wobbled a bit before falling out onto the floor, my consciousness quickly fading to black.