Planet Fall
"Who am I?" I ask as the wind blows over the scorched earth, "When did it all go wrong?" I whispered to the ash and dust. A man stands alone in the ruins of steel, glass, and earth his eyes vacant and his clothes torn. The ground shakes and bits of debris start floating as the man stares not understanding, and he looks above him as the subsonic hum gathers into the frequencies of human hearing, his eyes go wide the horrors shocking him from his stupor. Fear. Fire. Loss. Flashes before his memory. Screaming, his cry, his morning. His anger his pain. In his yell of rage one word. Su'Karr. The ship the size of manhattan on Earth cruised over Terra Nova's capital, now ruins. His home, his life, his world. The loss to the plasma of Su'Karr ships undoubtedly cleaning up human resistance.
Terra Nova was 167 lightyears from Earth, it promises was one of freedom and of hope. Earth has always been a divided place, the source of all of humanity's diversity in thought, culture, and art. However, the same wonderful diversity is also its own curse. In all of humanity's brilliance, there's bound to be dissenting beliefs. Which brought humankind to the brink of bloody extinction many times before the FTL drive. With it the tribes of humanity can get space and Terra Nova was one of the first, It's founders were primarily American, Mexican, and Japanese who held Libertarian politics and Conservative economics. Self-reliance was celebrated and a practical common sense was shared by the population.
The planet was thriving, the white dwarf star burned hotter than Earth's star Sol, Terra Nova was 0.97 Earth's mass and orbited on the slightly warm side of Nova's habitable zone. Not much to the poles but the bright sun and having 15% more oceans than earth gave the world a semi-tropical climate nearly year-round having only a 1.56-degree rotational tilt. Perfect for rich farmland and diverse carbon-based sub-sentient life which was biochemically compatible with human's digestive system. A near-perfect New Earth and the jewel of Earth's colonies bringing lot's of off-world tourism to further fund the growing colony. Before the Su'Karr Contact War. Before their plasma cannons streaked fire from orbit. Before this.
The man sat in the shade of the ruins of a general store. He stared as a fallen stuffed Novian Monkey laying in front of him. The six-armed monkey-like creature was cute proximity of the animal, obviously meant for a young child. Visions of a young girl flashed in his memory, playing back like a movie, 'Who…. Emily my daughter' He thought, in his memory, his daughter hugged a stuffed toy very similar, she smiled joyously at him and run excitedly to a woman. "Mira… My love.' he thought as tears welled up in his eyes. His wife and daughter smiled and laughed surreally and lingered. He hears not their voice because the last words he heard them speak was of pain and death cries. His mind protected his sanity by recalling only their laughter. 'But who am I?' still not able to remember his identity.
The sounds of the Su'Karr hover tanks, a low rhythmic hum growing louder, he ducked behind the counter. The tanks of iridescent silver armor were massive, out massing Nova's Main Battle Tanks three times over. Ten feet tall, twelve wide, and twenty-five long. It's turret carry twin plasma cannons and a laser turret for antipersonnel defense. Despite weighing several hundred tons, it floated three feet in the air on repulsers that gives off a unique subsonic hum and vibration.
The man held his breath as the pair of hover tanks floated by, followed by a company sized contingent of black armored Su'Karr soldiers. Anger burning in his heart, the man endured the urge to fight the Su'Karr, but unarmed and unarmored he knew he was nothing but target practice to the alien soldiers. Three days of wandering the wastes created by the Su'Karr bombardment had chilled his rage, he has seen survivors fall under the alien pulse rifles, didn't matter if they were fighting them, surrendering to them, or just hiding from them they were all gunned down.
So he waits, not moving, not making a sound for the aliens to pass. Minutes feeling like hours as the soldiers scanners search for any trace of human life signs. The counter looks thick and the refrigerator unit he was lucky to duck behind should disrupt their scanners as it hummed away dutifully in the long abandoned store. Nova has some severe storms during the rainy season so business' and most residents had solar panels and 72 hours worth of battery banks.
He prayed silently that this store's solar systems are still intact as the soldiers pass. After what felt like an eternity the last soldiers marched pass the store front. He silently exhaled his breath and slump against the counter and drifted to sleep as his exhaustion caught up to him. 'Tonight I'll move on toward the rural district', he thought as darkness overcame him.