The soldier flew toward the green planet in a blissful sleep. 

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His armor’s thruster fired every few seconds, slowing him down and pushing him out of the way of the defense satellites. When it reached a predetermined point, the armor started the resuscitation process. Jason woke up with a desperate gasp for air. He calmed his panicking mind and focused on the planet.

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The inhabitants of this gem among the star had a long poetic name for it that told the life story of a revered ancient explorer of the stars. To Jason and the rest of humanity, this world was Dawnlight. 

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A low thrumming alarm sounded. Jason immediately silenced it. Even before the alert’s text unfolded, he already knew what it was. Three battleships and twelve cruisers had entered orbit and engaged the defenders. Within seconds, the entire space above the planet became a light show of particle beams, missile flares, and explosions. The defenders were outnumbered three to one, but they still stood their ground. Brave bastards, Jason gave them a nod of respect before he rotated toward the planet.

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He hit the atmosphere, and fire enveloped him. “Trust the heat shield” was the mantra drilled into everyone who qualified for orbital insertion. Trusting that as long as Jason stayed still, the thick and medieval-looking armor would keep him safe. The fire soon cleared. The armor’s outer plates released with a pop, the charred remains dropped separately to the planet below. Jason deployed his parachute. His body jolted upward, and he slowed to a glide.

​

The confirmation signals began to stream in, each one making an audible ping as they appeared highlighted in his vision. Out of the ten groups that launched with him, one was missing. It could still be drifting up in orbit or had burned up as its heat shield failed. It did not matter. Jason still had enough to complete the mission.

​

Jason swept his gaze over the surface. Lust green and brown forest stretched all around the land, broken only by the boundary of ocean, rivers, and the telltale lights of civilization. One on the tip of a peninsula shone the brightest, the capital of the planet. Using it as a reference, Jason traced a line south to find his target, Mount Kakarot or specifically, the sprawling complex of a planetary defense center on its side. 

Jason methodically scanned the base, tagging any threat he could find; tanks, aircraft, and missile launchers. Once he was done, he sent the targeting profile up to orbit. Almost immediately, a cruiser dropped below the battle in a fiery entry. For a brief second, the night turned to day.
“Fire mission received. Firing for effect,” a cold toneless voice spoke.

Multiple particle lances rained down on the base, hitting each target with pinpoint precision. Five minutes of carnage later, the bombardment ceased.
“Mission kill confirmed. Friendlies entering ops area,” Jason reported.
“Roger that. We got you on our scope. Happy hunting.”

 Jason began his assault on the base.

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The assault pods reached the ground first. Their thrusters fired to slow them down, but their landings still resulted in small craters. Like a blooming flower, each pod burst open and ten Silver Guards stepped out. They were two meters tall, clad in thick titanium armor, and carried both a battle rifle and a grenade launcher pod on their right shoulder. They were one of the fiercest of humanity’s ground combatants, and when paired with Jason’s neural implant, a dozen Silver Guards could match against an entire army. Ninety had landed on Kakarot base.

The Silver Guards formed up into squads of five and engaged the enemy. They were over three meters tall with hard scale-like skin and red-slit eyes. When humanity first encountered them in combat, the Thraxos were like monsters from their worst nightmare. They were not only bigger and stronger, but their skin could shrug off dozens of conventional bullets as well. The Silver Guards, however, felt no fear and were able to match them strength to strength. Their Coilgun rifle could alternate armor-piercing and explosive bolt bullets with each burst shot. If that wasn’t enough, the Silver Guard still had the grenade launcher. With their heavy weapons already destroyed, the Thraxos had no chance.

By the time Jason landed, the battle was over. He lost only twenty-nine Silver Guards while the Thraxos lost over three hundred soldiers. Jason rallied four squads on him as he made his way toward the bunker’s entrance. It was a massive 100-ton concrete gate. The Thraxos had smartly smashed its electric motor when they realized they could not defend against his attack. Fortunately, Jason had factored this possibility into his plan. Ten Silver Guards stepped in front of the gate. On their shoulders, instead of grenade launchers, were grappling hooks. They all shot in unison toward the gate. The projectiles drilled into the concrete and the claws expanded, gripping them in place. Once all the hooks were attached, twenty Silver Guards pulled the gate off its hinges. 

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Jason assigned two squads to follow him inside and ordered the others to set up a defensive perimeter around the base.

​

The orbital scan had indicated the underground complex spanned the entire mountain. Jason, not wanting to painstakingly explore it room by room, ordered his squads to launch their scouts. Dozens of small disk-shaped drones flew forward and spread throughout every corner. Within twenty minutes, Jason had found his target.

​

Surrounded by his ten Silver Guards, Jason ran down the corridors. Three times, the Thraxos defenders tried to ambush him. Each time, Jason sent one of his Silver Guards forward first. It would charge at the defenders, and when it eventually fell under the intense fire, the grenades on its back ammo box would explode. Jason and the rest of the Silver Guards would then step forward to mop up the survivors.  

Eventually, he reached the end of the complex and the metaphorical throne room. The Silver Guards fanned out, securing every side. The room functioned as the command center for the planet’s defense force, but at the moment, all of its computer stations were vacant. Only one Thraxos remained in the center of the room. 
“You are the War Chief of this planet, are you not?” Jason asked as he slowly walked up toward the alien. His scales were whiter than the average Thraxos. He was also covered in scars, some almost faded. Even without reading his intel file, Jason knew the Thraxos was an old respected soldier.
“I am,” the Thraxos said with an artificial voice coming out of the translator attached to his neck. “I am ready to offer you the surrender of my soldiers and the planet. I can send the order to stand down within the minute.”
“No, War Chief. I cannot accept your surrender,” Jason said, keeping his tone as respectful as he could.
“Then take me to whoever commands your war fleet.” 
“You misunderstand me,” Jason said, the words tasted bitter as they left his mouth. “We are not accepting any surrender.” 
The Thraxos’ stare intensified. Even across the barrier of species, Jason could see the gears clicking inside his head.
“I understand now,” the Thraxos said. “Why did you attack my base? You could have destroyed it from orbit.”
“To ensure you don’t escape. On the last planet we invaded, your peer had hidden a spaceship in their fortress and got away before we could establish a proper blockade.”
“I am not a coward!” the Thraxos shouted. “If my people are to die, then I will die with them.”
“Very well.” Jason pulled out his combat knife. “I can give you a warrior’s death if you like.”
“It does not matter to me,” the Thraxos muttered. He glanced up with a sad sense of longing. “I do have one request.”
“If it is within my power, I will grant it,” Jason said.
“I wish to die where I can see the stars,” the Thraxos said. Jason checked with the Silver Guards outside. The base was secured, and there was no sign of any potential counterattack. He nodded and gestured for the Thraxos to follow him. 

Once on the surface, they climbed up the damaged comm building. The top was half wrecked and half melted, but there was just enough flat clearance for them to stand. The Thraxos dropped to his knee and gazed up to the sky. With no more light from the base or the nearby cities, the ocean of stars became so crystal clear that even Jason found himself staring at them as well. Was it always this beautiful? he asked himself.

His memory answered. He was alone on the balcony, clutching the glass of Lagavulin in one hand and the letter of acceptance in another. He looked up as the light of the city twinkled out. From the horizon, the ship launched. A beam of orange light pierced the night sky. It joined the twinkling stars and began its burn toward Luna. Soon it would be his turn to go up. He wondered whether the stars would look prettier up there. It seemed like divine luck that he was born in a time when the stars were finally within reach; when all mankind united in hope for a new golden age. Things were so much brighter then, Jason solemnly recalled.

The moment of serenity ended as a bright blue beam flew down from the night sky. The particle lance reached the city in the distance and the sound of an explosion followed afterward.
“A hundred and fifty million lives, all extinguished,” the Thraxos muttered. “Is it too late to ask for forgiveness?”
“I’m afraid I’m not familiar with your God,” Jason said.
“I’m not talking about forgiveness from a divine deity. I am asking forgiveness from you as a human,” the Thraxos snapped back. 
Jason took a deep breath as another particle lance hit in the distance. They were coming down like rain now, constant and unrelenting. “We are destroying your civilization, War Chief. Why are you asking for my forgiveness?” Jason asked. 

The Thraxos peered toward the horizon; toward the burning cities.
“I know what my people did to your world. I wish I can say that I have no part in it; that I oppose the conquest, but the truth is I did not. We are all guilty, even if it’s only by inaction. For the longest time, your world was just an afterthought. Another world among five that we were subjugating. Then the news came.
“When the image of the aftermath reached our homeworld, it shook our society to the core. Such destruction… Whatever we were trying to achieve by conquering your world, it is not worth that high of a cost. One protest leads to another. Eventually, the warmongers inside our government were purged and replaced. Our warships and soldiers were recalled back, but we were too late. Your people wanted vengeance, and now we will die.”

The rain of particle lances had stopped, but the city burned still. 

They had found the War Chief who ordered the bombardment in Earth’s orbit. He was barely alive in his escape pod. They did their best to save him, so he could be tried and executed a month later. His body was then condemned to phase space, to be forever lost in that unnatural dimension.
“I wish I could offer your people mercy, War Chief, but that is not within my power. If it means something to you, then I forgive you.”
“Thank you, human,” the Thraxos said. He closed his eyes. “I am ready.”  

Jason pulled out his combat knife. The black blade shimmered from the light of the distant fire. He gently slipped it between the scales. With one quick and powerful stroke, he thrust into the Thraxos’ abdomen, right where his heart was. The Thraxos jolted violently for a second. Jason carefully laid him on his back. 

Accessing the targeting feed of the warships above, he could see the result of their bombardment. The collection of lights he saw from the sky was no more. In their place were craters of ruins and body parts. One survivor limped out of a ruined building, only to be hit by another particle lance that leveled the entire area. 

The sight horrified him to his core. He stared up at the burning sky, and his soul screamed.

​

***

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The red sun slowly rose, revealing the towers of black smoke all over the horizon. Thousands of drones were already descending from the sky, dousing the fires, clearing the rubble, and disposing the bodies. Soon mobile terraforming towers would be dropped, subtly altering the atmosphere’s composition. By the time the first colonist landed, the planet would be pristine, as if the Thraxos had never been here. A cleansing, some had called it.

​

The sound of footsteps broke his reverie. He looked back. Flanked by two armed marines in silver armor, was an older man with a scar running through the right side of his bald head. He wore a crisp long-sleeved dark blue uniform that looked rather out of place in a battlefield. 
“Grand Admiral,” Jason greeted with an unenthusiastic salute.
“Give us some space,” Grand Admiral Zhang ordered. The two armored marines spread out. He then turned toward Jason. “You did a good job rooting out the War Chief.”
“Thank you, sir,” Jason said, his gaze turning to the towers of smoke again. 
“What’s going on, son? It’s not like you to not answer your comm?” Admiral Zhang asked.
“I’m just not ready to go back yet,” Jason said. His hands slowly clenched tight on his thighs. “I can’t.”
“What’s on your mind, soldier?” Admiral Zhang asked again, slowly walking up beside him.
“Sir, do you ever think what we are doing is evil?” Jason asked.
“If you are talking about the killing, that is simply our duty as soldiers,” Admiral Zhang pointed out.
“There a difference between killing enemy soldiers in a battle and this…” Jason gestured to the towering black smoke. “We are massacring those people, Admiral. We are killing not only soldiers but civilians too. People who can’t even fight back!”
“Soldiers or not, it makes no difference on who they are,” Admiral Zhang said, his face stern and resolute. “They are the invaders, Jason. Have you forgotten how many they killed on Earth?”
“And that somehow justified an even greater genocide?” Jason asked. When Admiral Zhang did not answer, Jason continued, “What measure is a human, sir? Is it our capacity to think? To create art? To build machines? Thraxos has all those as well. We can try to make ourselves feel better by claiming they are not human, but the simple truth is that it does not make a difference. Life is life. Every one we snuff out is a lifetime of potential lost. What we did is evil, sir. It must be.”
“So what, Jason? I would bear the entire evil of the galaxy if it will secure humanity’s future,” Admiral Zhang snapped back ferociously.
“They are in the middle of dismantling their own empire! They’re not a threat to humanity anymore!” Jason said. When he saw the Admiral’s unchanging expression, something clicked inside his head. “You knew… and you still decided to kill them.”
“There wasn’t enough evidence to point that their regime change would last,” Admiral Zhang slowly said.
“We can’t know that for sure!” Jason countered. “We could have talked to them. There are dozens of ways to make sure they are genuine, yet we choose the easy way.”
“It’s not easy, Jason. Simple, yes, but never easy. Trust me, son. I have debated our course of action for days and nights. This is the only certain way to keep us safe.”
“It’s the wrong way. It has to be,” Jason pleaded, his voice growing more broken with each word. A wave of intense anger flashed through the Admiral’s face. It soon melted into a sympathetic expression. He reached out and held Jason by the shoulders.
“If that is the case, then let me bear the evil. You just need to follow orders.”
“When we meet the devil in hell, we can’t say we were just following orders. On Old Earth, we would have been condemned as war criminals,” Jason said. The Admiral pulled away.
“Perhaps it’s a mistake deploying you so soon after Earth,” Admiral Zhang said. “I’ll arrange for you to be sent back to Unity on the next supply ship. All you need is some time back home, and you will be thinking straight again.” 

​

Jason looked up to the now black clouded sky. The Admiral was treating him like he was only tired, but the truth was that he felt more like he had been broken into a thousand pieces. A year or a thousand, no respite will ever calm this storm inside him. Now that he knew what he was doing was evil, there was only one thing he could do. He faced the Admiral as he climbed up the ramp of the shuttle. As he had trained a thousand times before, he drew his sidearm and aimed. The marines instantly raised their rifles, but Jason knew they were a second too late. He closed his eyes and pulled the trigger.

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