“Epsilon-7, this is Genesis Control Tower, your landing permission has been accepted…please proceed to the I-2 landing pad…”

“Understood Genesis, Epsilon-7 will proceed to the I-2, happy to be here, 

“May we build a better world”

“May the world be a better place”

The ship with its matte black color, has landed flawlessly, and all the other ships did the same. The cheers from outside were almost inaudible because all the chatter from inside the ship was so noisy you couldn't even hear your thoughts. But sitting in a corner with her arms crossed was Lilly, probably the person who needed to speak to herself more than anyone.

My name is Lilly Hedburn, this generation's best cadet and I am so close to achieving what I worked so hard for all these years, my dream. But is this really what I want? I asked myself this for so long, so many sleepless nights looking at that white cold metal ceiling from the Academy dorm.

When I was little I wanted to be a singer and to call myself Lillystar or Starlight Lilly.

It’s funny when I think about it but my parents were the happiest when an Army scout came to my house to recruit me, happiness they didn’t show when I told them about singing.

I only found out later that the reason for their happiness was that the graduating cadets get their families back to Earth, so I was used to their benefits. That was the turning point for me when I started to not feel anything and just do my job and protect the people in front of me, believing that one day the people's gratitude might fix my broken heart a little bit.

As I opened my eyes, I suppressed my feelings and went back to my persona of the stern cadet I was. I stood up and shifted my gaze to the door where Robby waited for me, my only ray of hope in this twisted world. He is the only person with whom I can be my real self. He is my childhood friend who was by my side before I was a cadet and the only person who supported me with my singer dream. My truly most precious friend.

“Come on Lilly, get those red eyes here, you have to lead us. Don’t tell me you are scared, you want to cry?” he said smiling, trying to tease me.

That’s because of you, dummy “Ha, you talk, you wouldn't stop babbling on the way here, try to keep up, chicken” I said walking past him, going out in the blinding light.

There wasn’t much to be seen here, just a regular landing dock, Army members frantically walking from one place to another to help civilians and create order, and the Earth, the good old Earth.

But for me, who was born and raised in space for 18 years, it was a sight to behold. I saw the bright blue sky, not the same old black cosmos and metal walls that I saw from birth. Those walls always gave the feeling of being cast away, thrown into space with no way to return. That’s just how I felt, maybe I’m more of an Earth person. Who knows, haha?

I felt and tasted the fresh air *haa* oh my god, it feels so much different from those ventilation systems, it feels so…soothing in a way, relaxing, I could say.

I then crouched and touched the grass, and even that felt different from those hydroponic farms back home. Yes, these few blades of grass that slithered through the concrete cracks feel more alive than those. Even the soil under my boots has untold stories of an unspoken time. Stories brought about by the sound of life.

  

The next step to be considered an Earth resident again was to be registered by the soldiers at the gate, where the armoured vehicles waited for us to board and escort the civilians to the first district, the heart of the new “home”. The cars had the well-known yellow G on them, placed inside of a circle.

The cadets saw this sign every day; it was the Genesis Army logo, called by the people “heroes” and by the instructors “the pillars of the new world”.

I had to wait for some time for the registration because of those Rousseau twins, they skipped the line as always because their mommy and daddy are senators and will probably put those two in some guard position… so the center of the city, and what center of the city means…bingo, safest position, but it’s finally my turn.

“Next… your name and ID!”

“Lilly Hedburn, ID, E-7-12!

“Good, you are assigned to the car on the far right, G-4, go… Next.

The ID was given to the cadets that needed to board the ship back to Earth. The first letter and number stand for the ship name, meaning this was the seventh Epsilon flight, and 12 is the randomly assigned number for every soldier, in my case it was 12.

The flights to Earth have been made for 10 years, so there were a lot of Epsilon ships before and will be a lot after, as well as other ships; the next will be Zeta ships, six months later.

“Hey, Lilly, what car did you get? I got G-7”

“G-4, it’s good that I will finally escape your relentless babbling.” 

“Nah, you’ll just miss me, admit it already, haha. By the way, I’ll be in the car back left, so I got your back; I am the first line of defence.” Said Robby, with the same cheerful attitude he always had.

“Sure, sure. If you see one monster you will faint, and make sure you brought spare pants,” I said patting his head

“Said the girl that was defeated by me”

“First, that was on our first spare training session, and second, I beat your ass after that.”

“Even if you won 30 times, I still won once. I was the catalyst of your power.” Said Ronny holding his index finger in the air.”

Me and Robby always have these kinds of quarrels between us, and that’s what makes us less tense about all that will happen in the future. I mean, we don’t have politician parents, or the money to pay for safety. We will be in the first line, fighting with monsters and protecting the districts; that’s what we and future generations will do. 

This is our way of coexisting with the beasts. That’s how humans always work, we take from nature, and we get angry when nature lashes back at us, and in retaliation, we exterminate the danger until nothing is left, and only after that we reflect on our actions.

After our chatter, we went to choose our weapons for the road. The weapons were made from Zephyr, a metal that was found here on Earth and some of these crystals had element energy. The Zephyr is basically a metal that absorbs energy, and when you mold it into a weapon, you can use that energy. Most of the hostile creatures had tough skin that could only be cut by Zephyr. The government wasn't happy about that because a soldier was the one that discovered it 10 years ago, in the first generation and since then they haven’t found anything more effective, you could say that this hurt their pride, and yes I was one of those kids that liked to learn in school so I know this kind of stuff.

“What do you choose, Lilly? I will go with these double axes.”

“I’ll go with these 2 machetes, more effective than your axes.”

“Everyone to the cars, we will leave in 5 minutes.” Signalled the senior member that would guide us to the first district.

In the G-4 car, I was placed alongside other senior members as well as fellow cadets. All the other cars were structured in the same way cadets alongside senior members. The best cadets were placed in the vanguard cars while the others were placed in the rearguard. The cars that carried the people were in the middle, and our cars were placed on the sides so we could protect the people from all sides.

The cars were equipped with machine guns on top of them, grenade launchers, grappling hook guns and most of all, the armour that was impenetrable for most of the beasts. I say most because there was one type of beast that could pierce through this armour, It's kind of a legend here on Earth; not many have seen it, but even fewer lived to tell the story.

All along the road, I looked out the window. I had to take in the scenery outside. All the nature, the trees, these new things to me. I felt like a baby that was astonished at anything he saw.

 But who knows what lies behind that welcoming facade. The seniors were telling stories about all the missions they went through, fighting giant bears and wolves that spit out lightning and how they protected their squad and defeated the beast by themselves; I mean, at this point, add that you defeat it blindfolded and with a hand tied behind your back. But to whom you can show off more than to inexperienced cadets.

 At some point I catched with the corner of my eye something moving between some trees in a forest on the side, but I didn’t pay much attention until the emergency report arrived; and it was a very bad one.

Cover by: Studio Shanti