Young Writers Society

Chapter 3: Jack

“We’ll stay here. Soldier! Set up the camp. I want armed guards watching the entrance. No one comes in or out of this place without my expressed permission is that understood? How dare they refuse us? Clarkson, I want you to contact NASA asking for back up. Inform them that the indigenous are savages and are refusing to grant permission for us to have plantations here. Tell them that they will turn hostile and we must be prepared to launch full nuclear weapons if necessary. The life on this planet is too precious for us to ignore. The colonies will be built here, with or without their permission.”

“Commander, don’t you think wiping out the population is a little drastic?” I asked. I mean, I knew we needed a planet for colonies but couldn’t we reach an agreement with these people instead of blasting them to kingdom come?

“Drastic? Jack if I didn’t know you better I would think that you’d gone soft. Desperate times call for desperate measures. They have openly flouted us, so we will do the same.” I sighed and obeyed my orders, helping the other soldiers set up base in this vast cave. I shuddered at the thought of this planet being damaged. The trees surrounding this cave were purple. The trunk and branches themselves were a shade of lilac whereas the leaves and flowers were a mix of deep violet’s and indigo’s. The grass, too, was lavender and reached up as far as your knees. The cave itself was made of grey stone but the entrance is shrouded by many purple vines that look like the veins of the forest crawling inside this open orifice. There was a veil of mist clinging to everything. It sat a few metres from the ground but it was enough to shroud this part of the forest completely.

This place was like a little haven. Tucked away in the stars. I wondered how they were able to speak English, and how they looked exactly the same as us, apart from some native markings like tattoos. But those were put on by people, not part of their biological code. I wondered what sort of food the people ate. What that Chiyaka or whatever that girl was talking about earlier. She did seem very flustered. She had a cut on her face. It must have been something very important.

“Commander, we’ve caught her!” A voice called from down the tunnel.

“Caught who?”