Flashback

Garth stood slightly apart from the rest of the tour group watching the crests of the treeferns swaying in the light breeze. They were not as tall or as dark as he remembered them but then much that he remembered of that time was vague. Perhaps it was the change in the daylight. There were still countless megatons of fine dust in the upper atmosphere left from the surface bombardment and the shattering comet strike on the inner moon. Although it was still late afternoon spectacular layered yellows and oranges were beginning to suffuse the light cloud cover. A young woman in the group was gazing upwards, a rapt smile on her lips as she hugged the arm of her boyfriend who was still listening to the guide\u2019s professional tones. Garth looked away from them both. He had hardly heard a word the guide had said all day and of the sky he remembered only dark clouds and rain.

The guide finished her speech and invited the group to take a few minutes for pictures before moving on. Garth watched the group disperse slowly as people sought their own personal space before using their cameras. His own last dispersal here had been considerably more rapid. He had been deploying a Squad Anti-Armour Weapon and personal space had been dictated by the kill radius of an Ophidian railgun. The camera in his hand felt small as he raised it to catch a long tracking shot of the spectacular sky. Eventually the guide called them back to the portal and ushered them through to the next stage on the tour. Garth was among the last to go through.

It was slightly warmer in the valley where the wind was shielded by the surrounding hills. The group assembled in front of a stone column with an inscribed metal plaque inset into its rough surface. Behind the column was a blast crater almost 150 meters across. Vegetation was slowly reclaiming its crumbling bomb-glass surface. The guide took up her position and began.

"Three days after Coalition forces entered the system the Ophidians were in retreat. They took what they could salvage and destroyed the rest before leaving the planet for the last time. In this place there was a settlement of some two hundred Ophidian agricultural workers that could not be evacuated when the ships left. A departing warship fired a single high-yield missile directly on the settlement, killing all the inhabitants. Coalition troops found only this crater, still molten from the energy of the blast. Two years later the High Commission for Reconstruction and Redevelopment erected this monument as a reminder to us all of the nature of the Ophidian threat that was overcome by the combined efforts of the Coalition."

Garth left the monument and walked slowly towards the mounded rim of the crater. Lumps of fused dirt crunched under his feet at every step. The twistgrass thinned out around him giving way to cinders and vitrified rock. He climbed the dead slope to the crater\u2019s rim and stared down into it. He had hoped it would look something like it had done all those years ago. Smoke had been rising from the very ground beneath his boots with a steady breeze drawing it inwards to the fierce heat at the centre where it was swept skywards. Gritty fallout had rained steadily out of the black haze blocking out the daylight. The crater could have been fashioned from liquid fire, a sizzling mirage of Hell itself.

Some strange feeling of wrongness tugged at the edge of his mind. Reminders of the war always left him feeling uneasy. He never spoke of his service except to the Army psychs who still checked up on him occasionally. This whole trip had been a mistake, he should never have come back to this place. Chills swept through his body and he felt suddenly sick. He turned to go just as someone took a picture. The flash caught him straight in the eye and cast long stark shadows through his memory.

"Cease fire! Cease fire, Godfuckingdammit!" The lieutenant's words were almost lost amid the deafening noise of smallarms fire. Garth crouched in the wet twistgrass hugging his carbine. The plasma cannon he'd carried on his back was in action on the ridgeline firing down into the bubblehuts in the valley. Where the fuck had this firefight come from? Someone dragged him to his feet and pushed him down the hill. It was his sergeant, screaming something in his ear which he didn't comprehend. Training took over and he triggered a burst of automatic fire then ran downslope with the rest of the squad towards the burning buildings.

"Whoa, easy man. Are you okay?" Flinty lumps dug into his hands. He'd fallen on all fours and thrown up. The taste of it seared his throat but it was mixed with the metallic tang of plasma fire and the reek of burning plastics.

"I dunno, he just lost it. C'mon, lets get you out of here."

"Get the hell outta here! The Powell's gonna zap this fucked-up site in eight minutes so get your stupid asses over the ridge if you don't wanna be toast! Fucking move!" Garth fixed his eyes on the ridgeline and started running.

"Hey, not that way! The portal's over here! What's with this guy?" He stumbled and fell again. Vomit bubbled up inside and he retched explosively. The ridgeline was too far away. He looked desperately at the sky shielding his eyes from the sun.

"Incoming!" someone yelled. Another managed to laugh before fits of coughing took him. Garth lay exhausted in the wet grass beyond the ridge. A bright point of light was tracking across the sky above them. It elongated and accelerated streaking down at a steep angle. The warhead lanced into the valley behind them and the clouds blazed with harsh white light. He tucked his head into his arms and waited for the blast.

(David Colter - March 2002)