The Planet unfurled below like a blossom during the first spring. Not that I knew what spring looked like having been born in a colony. Would have been a waste of materials changing the seasons in a place that never saw a sun, and so, I fought Ryker for a window seat to get the first look.

I didn’t expect there to be so much green left in all the universes, let alone on a single planet. The color bled across the land and, as the clouds dispersed, blue greeted us. An ocean, of all things, wide as could be. The Planet, titled something completely fucking ridiculous that we all ignored because we wouldn’t be capable of pronouncing it anyway, resembled what Earth once was, based on the adverts. Land and water, serene and full of life, spread upon its surface, entirely untouched by colonization.

“Breaching lower atmo,” the shuttle’s gravely com said. The seatbelt light blinked on.

“When we land, no one leaves the shuttle without my say so,” Roys said from the front of the cabin. Though his back was turned, I envisioned the permanent scowl on the bastard’s face.

“Yes, sir,” the group agreed, save me. I kept my attention on the porthole, admiring the surface.

“Ethin,” Roys warned in that low voice that made my teeth grind.

“Lucky,” I corrected.

“Repeat my last order. I want to make sure you heard it.”

Beside me, Ryker laughed and earned a fist to the gut.

“No one leaves the shuttle without your oh so special permission,” I said.

Over the seats, Roys watched, his blue eyes practically black. The many scars across his needlessly attractive face made him all the more intimidating. Each scar spoke of a battle that he survived and most of us wouldn’t. The shadow of a beard formed along his square jaw.

“Good. Now share with the group what our mission is, so I know you paid attention back on Main,” he ordered.

More snickering bled from the group, 24 soldiers spread throughout the shaking cabin. The lights flashed red, signaling the upcoming landing, and the shuttle’s timer blinked at fifty seconds. Roys would make us wait long after landing if I didn’t follow orders. Mostly because I didn’t follow orders.

But that time I would because I never felt fresh air on my face or grass or unfiltered water and no bootlicking captain with an attitude problem would get in the way of that.

“We’ve been sent to neutralize all threats within a ten click radius of the habitat to ensure the safety of all future tenants. Our biggest threat, based on scans, are not the animals that inhabit The Planet, but the flora. We are never to go out in less than a group of two and we must all report our findings to you immediately to ensure our safety and that of the survey team that will be joining us in two weeks,” I said without breaking eye contact.

Ryker whistled and blocked my punch to the gut that time.

“Twenty seconds to landing,” the shuttle blared.

Satisfied, and far too smug, Roys turned away. Annoying fucker.

I faced the porthole to get a final glimpse. We abandoned the cloud cover to observe the flora we were so warned about. The report didn’t have more than a dozen dangerous flora listed because that was the most the droids acquired prior to being demolished. Initially, The Company believed animals tore the droids to shreds. In time, they learned it was the flora.

They were peculiar creations, a great variety of plants ranging from glowing orange bulbs that caught fire to their surroundings when agitated, to towering structures with stems as thick as a grown man’s waist and wide tops where tendrils snatched prey to be yanked into the canopy and dissolved little by little.

A particularly nasty flora paraded itself as a pleasant yellow flower that, when approached, ripped out of the soil to reveal a monster of rooted decay that enjoyed ripping the flesh off its victims and devouring their innards. That particular video involving an unfortunate rabbit-like creature made the entire troop sick to their stomachs.

The shuttle landed in a field previously cleared by droids, the remnants of them scattered about. From the window, their remains peppered the landscape, broken hands and feet sticking out from the loose soil. Grass and moss devoured their exoskeletons, making the droids appear as if they were there for decades rather than a month. The Company didn’t send the best of the best AI to non-colonized planets. Too much of a risk losing the big tech like security units. They didn’t consider droids much of a loss, or us.

The shuttle landed with a lurch that phased Arana only. She hurled into a bag. Her stomach never liked landing, though once her stomach cleared up, she wiped the remnants of sick from her mouth and launched to her feet.

“Don’t give the captain a hard time.” Arana retrieved her canteen to wash out her mouth. She spat into the pack, then proceeded to brush her teeth. She always had a toothbrush on her for potential shuttle rides.

“He’s going to be more pissy than usual and I am in no mood to run the perimeter when we could be snatched by who knows what to be eaten nice and slow.” Arana leaned over the seat to snatch me by the collar. “I have two good women waiting for me back home and if I do not get to fuck them again before I die, I will kill you myself.”

Smacking her hand away, I said, “Good to know that sex is more important than our friendship.”

“You bet your ass it is. I haven’t had a decent fucking since we left the last port.” Arana gave a great sigh, her eyes drifting to Iylene lifting their packs out of the overhead compartment. “If I wasn’t in a closed polycule, I would jump your bones tonight.”

Iylene spoke with no inflection in their voice, as Aevid’s often did. “If you tried, I would shoot you.”

Aevid’s were known for two things; apathy and shedding. The latter of which I could have gone my whole life without seeing, but unfortunately Iylene shedded once a year, leaving remnants of their skin all throughout the barracks.

At the front of the cabin, Roys stood. The captain wasn’t the tallest guy in the shuttle but certainly had the most presence. He had been on more tours than the rest of us and to planets far more deadly than most.

Ryker always tried to sneak into the captain’s bunk because he swore the man purposefully bought shirts a size too small so they’d struggle to contain his figure. Arana argued the guy was just big and I agreed with her. Roys was made entirely of muscle, spite, and a pinch of dick. Arana disagreed about the pinch, but her attempt to convince me to sneak up on Roys in the shower to prove otherwise never worked.

“Our first priority is securing the area so we can set up the habitat and energy shield,” the captain said in a booming voice. His commands always sounded as such, words that shouldn’t be ignored. “I’m sending your orders through the commlink, which must remain on at all times.”

The commlinks flashed. I wasn’t surprised to find myself, Ryker, Iylene, Arana, Lilea, and Zavir together. Over the years, most of the troops found their groups and stuck to them. As much as Roys could be a pain in the ass, he seemingly understood breaking apart units wasn’t a good idea.

“Visors on.” Roys took his from under his arm and we did the same.

Visors started as a face mask that, when adhered, spread over and down our necks to connect with our exoskin. The Planet had a breathable atmosphere for all species aboard the shuttle. However, due to the heat, humidity, and unexpected threats, we were ordered to keep our gear on for the time being.

When Roys next spoke, it came through our connected commlinks. “Follow your orders and watch each other’s backs.”

The shuttle doors buzzed on either side of the cabin, spreading out to let in light. Real light. And heat that even our exoskins couldn’t entirely cool. The humidity put a fog on the visors. Silhouettes piled through the light into the world beyond. My visor adjusted to the abrupt brightness and I stepped out.

We were surrounded by flora of all colors and shapes, spiraled and puffy, tall and thin, budding and sleeping, but all their caps striving to reach the suns. Two of them danced in the sky, one to the east and the other the west. Real light that I wanted nothing more than to touch my bare skin.

“Move along,” said Roys.

Over my shoulder, the captain stood in the shuttle’s threshold, taking up half the opening. Soldiers marched past while I blocked the other side. I gave the captain a contrived smile that he never returned. He could see me. My visor wasn’t on black out. Zavir and I argued over beers that Roys couldn’t smile because he was secretly an android in disguise that hadn’t figured out how humans worked. Again, no one tested the theory as of yet.

Stomping along, I descended to stand on an actual planet. This would make my fifth tour, but it was the first planetary one. Born and raised in a colony, I had always been on a mining vessel leeching off asteroids. I breathed recycled air, drank recycled water, and saw flora on adverts or the incredibly rare and expensive flowers that decorated the uppercircle’s yards. The richest of the rich lived there, the ones who worked for The Company that survived off the asteroid materials my people mined. And now there I was waltzing along The Company’s future venture because no one ever really escaped them.

I joined my group before Roys could do anything to piss me off. Lilea and Zavir came last while the droids took more time unloading. Everyone had their duties on their commlink. When I opened ours, I growled but Arana was the one to whisper, “Oh, what the fuck? Why do we have habitat duty?”

“Because Lucky is in our group and Roys hates him,” said Zavir with an excited hop. All four of his hands spread out in a display of excitement. “Once again, your luck is helping us out.”

“In what way?” Arana countered. “We’re stuck here with the droids that could put the place up without our help.”

A screen popped on all our visors about a flora the droids encountered prior to being smashed. The flora stood tall with a single thick bloom that hung low from the top of the stalk. That bloom opened to reveal petals lined by teeth as thick as our arms.

“Do you want to risk running into that?” Zavir asked, each of his four eyes locking on a different person. “I sure don’t, so let’s enjoy setting up the habitat and getting in a nap before the captain returns.”

“I like that idea,” said Lilea, who wandered over to the habitat materials.

I wasn’t entirely against the idea of setting up base, but following Roys’ orders always put me in a foul mood. He’d been with us a little more than a month and acted like he owned us. Every superior officer did, having those sticks of superiority rammed too far up their asses for it to ever be pleasurable.

“Don’t make that face, Lucky. Think of it this way.” Ryker swung an arm around my neck. “The captain isn’t here to breathe down our necks. We’re likely to have most of the day without him.”

“True, and if my name holds out, one of the flora will eat him,” I replied.

“Let’s hope you’re extra lucky today.” Laughing, Ryker departed to join the others.

I set out to do the same but stopped. Around us, soldiers traveled into the flora, disappearing among the thick and unknown jungle. At my feet, grass sprouted to brush against my ankles. I fell to my knees and ran my hands over the grass, yearning to feel it, so I removed my visor and fell forward. The grass touched my cheeks, cool and wet. I wondered how humans supposedly came from such beauty and why they would ever destroy it.

Selling thirty years of my life was entirely worth this.