The Choice
Story was written out of sheer boredom and random thought processes. Hope you enjoy!
Could you do it? Could you end thousands of lives for any mission? One day you all might be called to make such a decision. One day you might have to sacrifice many for one. One day you might have to kill. You might be forced to kill people who dont deserve to die.
Those words flashed through his head as he hovered 300 kilometers over the hunk of rock below. The mission had been a simple search-and-rescue for a squad who had lost contact 12 hours ago. However, the real mission, he recalled, was to discern why ESF had lost over 100 squads on this hunk of rock. The dropship had been issued a 6-man squad, along with some antimatter warheads if whatever was down there was deemed a threat. Despite their looking, theyd found only the most recent squad, though something had changed inside them. They werent thinking straight as they babbled silent nothings to themselves. Even the squad leader, a powerful, dominant stallion had been affected as he rolled about the dusty soil, whimpering about them.
Then he noticed his own squad was starting to act strangely. They were flailing about, some thinking they had bugs crawling through their fur, others thinking dead relatives were talking to them, and still others pivoting in position, looking for what their ears had heard. As he noticed this, it became apparent to him that he was hearing voices. Thousands of them. Some crying out, others simply babbling. One in particular sounded familiar. It was his own voice, joining the unholy choir of the others. It slowly began to increase volume until he realized he was babbling incoherently.
Panicking, he somehow had made it back to the dropship and launched it into orbit. Every fiber of his being was telling him to land and join his squad. Join them in the insanity. As he broke through the atmosphere, he was unable to maintain his composure and restrained himself to the pilots chair, hearing a cacophony of voices, screaming at him, telling him that he could never leave.
They still spoke to him in orbit. They begged him not to. They were scared. They didnt want to die. The mission dictated that they had to die. His finger hovered over the button that would launch the antimatter warheads into the planets core. There could be no hesitation. The mission must be completed.
He felt a piece of himself die as he heard the screams of his squad.