Colony Wars 5: Tales of the Galaxy

Sacrifices

A 'Human Story Arc' Short Story

12th July 2065 – 1st Galactic Step

Tatra Forest

Slovakia

Earth

Solar System

Private First-Class Fabian Villeneuve was the modern-day equivalent of cannon fodder, and he knew it.

Conscripted into the EuroTac army at the age of ten with his older brother Samuel and younger sister Rose, the trio of Villeneuve siblings were subjected to sub-standard training with rusty equipment and rations that tasted worse than cardboard. After two years of vigorous daily exercises and basic weapons training, Fabian was separated from his family for a second time and sent to his first assignment as a message runner for the 3156th EuroTac infantry division.

Fabian was sure that his job as a military courier was completely pointless, he would spend his days running back and forth in his oversized black boots, between various senior officers delivering messages that he was sure they already knew. His purpose seemed irrelevant, for in a time of radio communications and encoded laser zip-squeal messages, paper scraps and memorised transcripts seemed old fashioned and out-dated. Fabian hoped that his commanders knew what they were doing and that maybe there was a reason for his enforced exercise, but he had no idea what that reason might be.

Fabian's first experience of an actual battle was his greatest revelation. He hated it; the sounds of the explosions hurt his large ears and the bright burning explosions bore painfully into his grey eyes. The terrible stench of smoke and burnt flesh was the worst; Fabian had been forced to stop several times during the skirmish, when his stomach could no longer hold its contents, due to the sickening nausea that the smell caused. He had not been tasked with fighting during the encounter; he had just been given even more messages to deliver, along with the somewhat discouraging words "keep your head down boy."

Despite the discomfort that those words had made Fabian feel, they were probably the most useful; he stooped his shoulders, ducked his head low like a hunchback, and scurried along behind the front-line troops. Bullets zipped overhead, black plumes of smoke-filled Fabian's eyes with grit and twice the vibrations of the explosions sent him to his knees. He scrabbled around in the russet-coloured dirt, wishing suddenly that he was a mole.

His mind wandered; he thought of his black-haired brother and bronze skinned sister, he hoped that they were faring better than he was, wherever they were. He missed all the rough and tumble games he played with Samuel, he missed the catty arguments he had with his sister Rose and most of all he missed his parents. Letters, emails and vid-calls did not come often to the soldiers on the battlefront between EuroTac and the New Russian Confederate, and Fabian had not heard from his family in many months.

The battle ended almost as quickly as it had begun, neither side gained anything from the conflict and the only thing that changed was the number of the living. The number of casualties on both sides was significant and Fabian was disgusted by the bloody injuries and amputated limbs. This terrible wasteful experience on a plain of stodgy brown mud, combined with Fabian's morose estrangement from his family made him seriously consider going AWOL.

EuroTac had forced Fabian to sacrifice so much of his life for what seemed like so little. He could still remember the night the soldiers came to take him away. He could still hear the cracking sound of the commando's fist connecting with his father's jaw. He could still remember the vibrant spray of crimson blood and the thud of the oaken door slamming closed, on his final viewing of his parents, as Fabian was dragged away.