Some brought photos… some brought trinkets that were now more priceless then gold. Hell... Lt. Jackson actually brought a chunk of wood from the wreckage of what was once her home before the Bane came. “Only what you can carry” was what we were told. At the time, we didn’t realize we would likely never set foot on Earth again. So we took what we could carry… what was precious to us. And now, those trinkets are all that remains of earth. That and one thing we could all carry with us. Our memories.
The name is Bishop, and I’ve been here on Foreas longer then most. I was one of the first to be evacuated, and have been here ever since. I received my first command a few months ago… who would have ever thought? Me, of all people. But here I am, charged with the lives of the men and women I lead. Sometimes it seems like that other life, the one I left behind on Earth, was nothing but a memory.
Well, not left behind. Taken away is a better way to put it. Everything was taken but our memories. And every year that we have been fighting this War, those memories, and the memories of those who fell are honored. In a couple weeks, on the 21st of December, the Days of Remembrance celebration will begin.
Our squadron has been stationed out of Snake Pit for the last few months, and I have a few new recruits who are eager to get back to Foreas Base for the festivities. We celebrate in every AFS base, on any planet we find ourselves fighting in… but the hub of all the activity has always been Foreas Base. It’s not looking good though for this year. Bane activity has increased in this area and that has increased the hostility of the local wildlife. So we’re getting hit from two sides out here, and R&R in the middle of that is just not gonna happen. But we still honor the traditions. I saw Pvt. Harris grinding up some of those Forean Calla fronds so he can dye his gloves for DE Day.
DE Day, or Defeat of Earth Day as it’s formally called, is recognized every year on the 21st… the day the Bane invaded Earth. Several of the larger AFS bases hold a large memorial service each year, but every soldier, every where, pays their respect for the loss of Earth and the loss of our friends and families by taking a moment of silence on that day. It’s eerily quiet during that moment. I remember being hunkered down in a foxhole during the first DE Memorial service. There was shouting, gunfire… and then, at the appointed time, which differs slightly every year to keep the Bane from catching on, there was just silence. We all stopped for a moment, bowed our heads to honor the fallen, the ones that didn’t make it off Earth before it was overwhelmed. That moment of silence holds our humanity, and it is that humanity that will see us through this war.
We started dying our armor that year with homebrewed dyes from the local plant life. Red, to symbolize the blood that was shed. Everyone dyes something different, something meaningful to them. I dye my boots…. to symbolize the hike to the AFS safe-zone the day I was teleported to Foreas. On the way there, our party crossed what we thought was a small stream. We thought nothing of it, though I remember feeling a little irritated. I thought, “Not only am I hungry and tired and being shot at, but now my feet are wet too.” When I got to the AFS refugee encampment, the first thing I did was sit down to take my damp boots off. It was then, in the light that I realized my boots had been stained red. We hadn’t crossed an ordinary stream after all, but one tainted by the blood of the fallen.
So when the tradition of dying our amour came about, I dyed my boots bright red. Harris is dying his gloves in honor of his little boy, who died in his hands after taking a hit from a Thrax laser rifle. Baker dyes her goggles to symbolize all the death she has seen. The dye eventually wears off, but it helps us remember, each in our own way.
A lot happened in the year following the Bane invasion of Earth. When those first groups of us got to Foreas it was like some strange altered reality. Like being on vacation in Florida, but in the middle of a warzone. And aliens… I can’t forget the aliens. I remember the first time I saw a Forean. I remember thinking, “Green… there ARE green men”, and just feeling like I was staring in an episode of the Twilight Zone. Either that or having some really vivid dream I would wake up from, roll over, and then tell my wife about.
But it wasn’t a dream. We got a crash course in weaponry, field training, and basic first aid. Some of us were sent off to be trained as a receptive; not that we knew what that meant at the time. Not me though. I’m just another grunt with a laser rifle. But the receptives were different. When they came back, they could do amazing things I still don’t fully understand. We have 3 receptives in our squadron and one of them, Jackson, she can change herself into a Thrax. First time I saw her do that I almost fell over in disbelief. I had to order her to stop sneaking up behind the others like that while we were in camp. It was funny the first time, but it looks so damn real. On more than one occasion, she’s scared the hell out of someone so much it’s nearly gotten her shot.
Things were in dire straights that first year. The Bane had managed to push their own front line forward almost all the way to Wilderness. The Foreans were struggling to keep them at bay, and were reluctant to fight alongside us. But we started to make progress. Working together made a difference. A small one, but one that grew with each inch of land we took back from the Bane. Then something happened that nearly tore apart the fragile alliance between our two peoples.
The Bane overtook Foreas Base not long after they overtook our planet. It was the very first base constructed by the Human and Forean alliance. That was back before the AFS was even formed, almost 5 years before the invasion of Earth. It was a devastating blow to our fragile relationship with the Foreans, and they became even more reluctant to fight alongside us. So a battle was planned and coordinated by the human leaders at the time and a handful of Foreans who felt the alliance between our people was critical to our survival and eventual victory over the Bane.
The plan was to take back Foreas Base on the anniversary of the invasion of Earth. The Generals thought it would boost morale, which had pretty much sunk into the depths. And it did… there was some serious partying inside the base once we finally secured it. But it was brutal. We were all recruits then, green as grass. Even with all the battle plans and firepower, it took two days to get Crusty out of that base. But by the 22nd, the Human and Forean troops working together successfully drove the Bane from Foreas Base. It was a huge victory, tactically and symbolically. We didn’t know it then, but it was this battle that finally proved our worth to the Forean people, and paved the way for the treaty that formed the AFS we know today.
After the battle, there was a huge celebration. We didn’t have fireworks, so we fired our chainguns, rocket launchers, whatever we could find that made a loud bang and a bright flash. There were restrictions because of the ammo shortage, but for that moment, no one cared. It was a time to rejoice. We’ve been doing it every year since. Someone came up with the name, Resurgence Day and it stuck. After all, it was the day we rose up and showed the Bane what we could do. That we weren’t just going to give up. We showed them that we were going to fight till our dying breath.
And the Bane have a bit of a tradition of their own too. They try to retake Foreas Base every Dec 22nd with increasing ferocity, but so far, the AFS has been able to keep the base under their control. We built the inner wall in Foreas Base after the first Bane attack, to act as a fallback position in case the Bane ever managed to breach the front gates. I remember when they finished it… I was stationed there at the time. We were all so pumped, every single soldier that was there wrote their name on that wall, as a way of expressing their dedication to the AFS and as a pledge to defeat the Bane. The ink was faded by the first rain, which washed the rest of it away, erasing any evidence our names had ever been there. But it was the signing that was important. We signed our names on that stone, and made pledge that day which could never be washed away. That’s why I want to get my squad back to Foreas Base; I have a few who haven’t added their name to that wall yet. It has since become as important to us as the Veterans Memorial we had back on Earth. The only difference is this wall ended up being a monument to the living, in honor of those we lost, and a soldier only signs his name when he still has breath in him.
Maybe memories aren’t all we have left after all. Maybe the most important thing we have is hope. Hope that we will someday defeat the Bane. Hope that we survive long enough to get our name on that wall. Hope that we will eventually step foot back on Earth. And hope that we can one day start creating new memories of Earth to carry with us.