The Rain: The End by Marietta Standlee (good summer reads TXT) 📕

just in case goodbyes in our room, before we went to the meeting, but this is the final hug before we engage the enemy.

Colin held no speech this morning, our troops are too spread out. The individual Commanders will have to do the honors today. They, just like Colin and I, were up all night, spreading word of the new plan and leaving their Captains to take the news down the chain of command.

Briggs picked the pilots who will vanish in the line of fire. Depending on our casualties during the land battle, her pilots will take some of our soldiers with them back to Earth. Just to ensure not to arise too much suspicion. We'll try to minimize any scrutiny that might fall our way.

Every single Gorongiath not on our side—distinguishable by not wearing a black ribbon, will have to die. There will be no mercy given; too much depends on this mission being shrouded in secrecy.

I'm fine with that, though, even if the aliens we're about to kill aren't personally responsible for the death toll on my planet; they're just as accountable for it as their brethren who actually invaded Earth. I don't feel the slightest hint of pity for them.

The minute they attacked my world, they sealed their fate, and if I have to kill every single one of them, I will do so. My hate for their species is uncompromising. I may not hate Parm and the ones claiming to be on our side as much as the others, but even them, I would have no qualm killing, if it served the greater good. Their species started it, and by God, I will see that we—us humans, will finish it.

Colin waves his fist in the air as we assemble by the giant ramp. A small shudder goes through the ship's body as it hits solid ground, just before the ramp descends.

I check my weapons one more time, ready to disembark and scrutinize our assembled troops' faces; some are so young, like Drew, who is already wearing the scars of this war. Some are seasoned soldiers, and some were normal people a few months ago who decided to fight rather than to stand back.

Each face I study wears the same expression of determination. Most show the need for payback, for revenge, some more personal than others. I try to memorize the faces, and a wave of sadness goes through me at the thought that I don't know most of these men and women. Our numbers swelled in such a short time that I never had the time to meet every single one properly.

Twenty-five hundred are just too many to meet individually within a few weeks. I wonder how many of them I'll never get to know because they'll die here, today, on this strange planet that has nothing to do with us, with our fight.

This planet that will provide us with a small opportunity for some small measure of revenge towards our enemy— this is not our war. I keep thinking, we shouldn't be here and realize, they probably think so too. But it speaks for everybody's courage to do this, even if it means to die here today, far away from Earth.

When the ramp is all the way down, we stream forward, towards the sound of guns firing, people screaming. No matter what language or what species, screams are universal. Screams of anguish and pain penetrate your being in a way that you are not prepared for, a way that will never ever leave your mind again.

After we all assembled by the ramp, we couldn't see our approach to Ooaron any longer, no windows. So this is the first I see of the settlement we're supposed to destroy. Fifteen thousand Phinaruhs we were told live here. Fifteen thousand! The number is mind staggering.

Through the already building smoke from the air attacks, I see houses; some one story, others more. They remind me so much of home, it makes me catch my breath. This could be any small town on Earth.

Alien creatures run for cover, without any coordination to their attempts of escape. Most hold some kind of weapon, trying to fight back, but they are never given time to build a line of defense.

Armed Phinaruh try to protect loved ones as they run towards the forest for cover. Buildings are bombed and crumble under the missile impact; the noise level is deafening.

Metal on buildings squeaks in defiance as they are hit by bombs, whose booming sounds as they make impact have my eardrums vibrate. My eyes water from smoke coming from several fires burning all around.

Spaceships fly in and out of view, dropping bomb after bomb after bomb. Not just on the small town, they're leveling the surrounding forests as well in case people make it there while fleeing the city.

In horror, I watch animals run for their lives; some are burning as they run, looking strangely like comets as they zig by, their screams mix with that of the thousands of aliens getting slaughtered right before my eyes.

When will Lorant finally give the command? I don't think I can take this much longer, even though we've barely been here for a minute. I move on the balls of my feet in anticipation to do something, anything. I don't think I can watch this much longer; already all of my senses are on overload.

The Phinaruhs are extremely human-like; in contrast to the Gorongiath, they have hair, which most of them seem to wear long since I can see it streaming behind them as they run for their lives.

From pictures I saw, I remember their eyes are huge like the Gorongiaths, but in all shades of green instead of amber, and they blink just like us with a thick curtain of eyelashes.

The grown-ups are lithe and tall, for the most part, taller than humans by at least a foot on average. They're very long-limbed but not very muscular with a skin varying in shades of grey, some darker