A dark red light flashed into existence, cascading the ship with a foreboding light. Before Jimmie could make sense of the situation. “WERE UNDER ATTACK!” The pilot screamed out loud. The commander shouted back “Take evasive maneuvers, take us planetside, now!” Jumping away from the cockpit and back towards us, moving in between the soldiers as he took the tenth seat furthest away, strapping himself in. Jimmie pressed his arms against his restraints, holding them tight in an attempt to shield himself from reality. Closing his eyes tight, clenching his jaw and trying to ignore the shaking. Then a sudden loud bang, followed by the sounds of blaring alarms and a strange floaty sensation in his body. He heard a scream, but it sounded distant, as if it were miles away. Jimmie looked around with wide eyes, trying to locate what had just happened, feeling a tap on his right shoulder, snapping his head to see what was poking him, noticing one of his fellow soldiers, gesturing towards his helmet while pointing at it. Jimmie stared at the soldier, until he realised what he meant and turned on their companies internal comms, immediately hearing a loud screaming followed by. “JIMMIE DO SOMETHING!” Jimmie looked around, trying to locate the one screaming, seeing a strange red liquid floating around the middle of the ship. He followed the strand of liquid down to its source, down to his left, pouring out of a large hole, a hole carved out of the soldier that sat next to him. He stared for a second, taking a moment before he realised what he was staring at. Oh, he thought. That’s why he’s screaming. “JIMMIE! YOU FU-“ But another loud explosion, and the scream went silent. Jimmie saw why, the soldier's head was now gone, replaced by a floating blob of red liquid. Then the pilot shouted. “EMERGENCY LAUNCH! EMERGENCY LAUNCH!” And Jimmie felt his body moving, the dead soldier still occupying his thoughts. While his mind was slow to react, his body remembered. Rigorous training had taught his body to raise his arms above his head, grabbing the emergency latch connected to the pod. A whispered “Fuck” came out, followed by one soldier pulling his latch, getting sucked into his pod and launching away. “NOT YET! WAIT FOR MY ORDERS!” The commander shouted after the long-gone soldier. And Jimmie waited, why did he wait? Well, he wasn’t perfectly sound of mind at the moment, and his body had taken control. His breathing was ragged and uneven, heart pumping faster than he had ever felt before, but his mind felt so clear. He just looked at the empty body of his fellow soldier. And he felt a tiny flick of regret; he wished he had known his name. “LAUNCH LAUNCH LAU-“ The commander screamed out, and Jimmie pulled the hatch, his world being thrust into a tiny capsule, straightening him to a standing position and a little dazed, all within seconds. Then it shot him out, out and away from the ship. The pod didn’t have any mirrors, but had three screens connected to several cameras pointing outside, and from one of them, he could see a large hole in their ship, then another hole appeared, and then he couldn’t see the ship from his monitor. Suddenly, there was nothing, only darkness. Jimmie could hear his ragged breathing, fogging up the already cramped helmet. Then something red caught his eye, he glanced down, seeing a glowing red button that turned dark, to red, then back to dark. The pods communication, stronger than that on his helmet. He pressed it, then heard a crackle, followed up with the commander's voice. “-of John?” “I can’t see him on the flight comm,” Dick responded, voice a little dimmer than the commanders, sounding frustrated. “Shit! Roll call! Who got out?” “Bill, here!” “CHRIS HERE!” “Piernov still alive” “Rick here!” Everyone shouted out in unison, making it hard to hear who had said what. But somehow the commander seemed to have made sense of it, as he quickly asked. “Jimmie didn’t make it?” “Here, commander” Jimmie quickly said, surprising himself by the strength of his voice. The commander cursed loudly several times. And from the sounds of it, banged hard at something. “-FUUCK! Okay, everyone. We are off course. If we're lucky, we’ll land inside home territory. But my luck hasn’t been the best recently, so I’m expecting the worst. Give me a minute.” He said, going quiet for a moment, the crackle of space coming through, leaving Jimmie staring helplessly at the red light. Then the commander's voice came back. “From the looks of it, we’ll be smack dab in the middle of no-mans-land-“ Jimmie couldn’t discern the last part as his pod started shaking violently, pushing him back and forth. Jimmie grabbed the designated hand holds, shutting his eyes tight to ignore the fact that he was stuck in a tight space with no way of escaping. As time went on, the pod shook even more violently, stomach grumbling in protest as he just wanted to get the hell out of there. New sounds started flooding in, mostly the creaking and shaking of his metal tube, but then the sounds of burning, loud but muffled, and the sound of wind rushing past. Someone tried to speak through the comms, but Jimmie couldn’t hear, he was lost in his own mind. Then his closed eyes picked up light from the monitors, which scared Jimmie, but he never-the-less, slowly opened his eyes, and saw the horizon. A vertical rounded sphere, tinted with blue and magenta. Smoke pluming up from the planet in various locations. Pods, ships and big carriers hanging in low orbit. He could see distant explosions on the planet and near the ships, all off which wasn’t entirely human in design. Jimmie even thought that he could see debris flying past his pod at ludicrous speeds. Some explosions on the planet looked small, but the closer he got, the bigger he realised that they were. And the further down he came, the less and less of the horizon were visibly growing flat as he neared the surface. The comms were clearer now, but he couldn’t for the life of him pay any attention to what they were talking about. The monitors had taken Jimmies attention, somehow, they were comforting Jimmie in his weakest of moments. Suddenly, Jimmie could hear distant artillery, those weird plasma cannons and the sound of massive, massive amounts of small-arms fire. Jimmies heart was already beating fast; But now it was like a machine, pumping blood in a mad attempt at keeping up with his adrenaline soaring through his veins. Jimmies was scared, excited, nervous, and frightened. But he felt, so alive. Jimmie peered down the monitor, clouds coming quick into view, then passing them just as quick. The ground nearing at an intense speed. Underneath the clouds, Jimmie could see a barren land, yellow like the desert, but with less life, and no sand. The pods brake thrusters fired, Jimmie shook around before he held tight, knowing what was to come. Impact And Jimmie was on land, the thrusters cushioning the landing. Jimmie's years of training, his lifetimes wish, was just outside his pod. He pulled off the rifle from its racks and waited for the pod to remove his spacesuit, a quick affair. Then pushed the button to open the pod doors, and the harsh suns blinded him as he took his first step.