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They looked around one last time at what they had to leave behind. The scene before them was hauntingly terrible: their comrades fell from the sky like shooting stars, tumbling to the earth whenever hit by the enemy's fire. The sky above glowed orange and red, as if bleeding, and below the land scorched black was lit up with fire wherever the ships crashed and wherever the fight carried on on foot.
"Come on, we've gotta go," the commander urged. "Pod's waiting for us."
"Sir, we can't," she hesitated. "We can't just leave them-"
"It's over, corporal," the stressed out man cut in.
"We lost."
She could not tear her eyes away from the falling aircraft; their dying wails deafening in her ears.
"We can't just abandon our entire planet like that."
The commander's eyes softened somewhat, but his tone remained stern. "We've lost the war. The planet's theirs now. We have to go now, or there won't be anything left of us to go on elsewhere."
"Elsewhere?" she redundantly asked. She found it increasingly hard to remain focused and able to comprehend her superior's words. But she knew of the 'elsewhere' he referred to, and the thought instilled more fear in her heart than the prospect of dying right there, in the battlefields, amongst her fallen comrades.
A voyage of no-return amongst the stars, onwards to seek out a new home. Yet she could not see it as anything other than a humiliating retreat.
“I will not leave my homeworld to those monsters. I’d rather die here, at home,” she declared. The commander opened up his mouth for what was likely an admonishment, but was cut off by a light up in the sky, followed by a thundering roar.
The thunder above them in the red sky was not thunder, but exploding craft. The voices were the laments of thousands of souls dying for their homeland.
She felt a sharp tug on her suit's sleeve.
"Come on!" the commander shouted, and broke into a sprint.
She followed close. They ran over the red dust of the rocky ground towards the Pod that awaited them on the edge of the cliff, but between them and their means of escape stood countless bodies and piles of debris, while more of it continued to fall from the sky. She dodged a falling piece of scrap metal by mere chance, but the impact of the object on the ground caused her to stumble and fall. When she recovered her footing she realized that what had nearly fallen on top of her was the piece of a wing, part of the military armour they wore for combat. The insignia, their planet's sigil, was smeared with a patriot's blood and part of their arm still remained attached to the gauntlet.
She felt bile rise up, threatening to come out, along with the panic she'd been trying hard to suppress.
"Corporal!"
The commander's voice snapped her attention back to the retreat. She scrambled back on her feet and began running once more. The commander was far ahead of her, almost at the pod.
She barely had time to register what it was when it happened.
The impact's blast threw her several feet in the air. She landed on her left shoulder. Immense pain shot up like a lighting rod through her entire body. She doubled up in pain and threw up. Her head felt underwater, all sounds muffled and broken up. She blinked, trying to see, but her entire vision was blackened by the smoke.
"Sir?" she asked the air, thick and metallic. Something wet and warm slid down her face. She touched it and pulled back her hand to find blood on it.
Her eyes fell to the ground. She threw up again at the sight before her: the commander was split in half, his limbs scattered in all different directions.
"Cor...po..ral," he gargled, blood foaming at his mouth. She wiped the bile from her mouth and made her way towards him (or what was left of him) on wobbly knees, tears streaming down her face.
"Sir... Sir, just.. hold on," she choked out, feeling incredibly stupid. Hold on to what? There was barely anything of the man left. She knelt right next to him and attempted to carry him towards the pod, but he shook his head slowly.
"Go," he whispered. He tried to lift his hand but there was only a bloody and charred stump where that should have been. Unable to hold her sobs back, she cried, dipping her head into his chest, letting her tears dampen his uniform.
"You.. were the best of us, sir, I-I owe you my life. It should have been me, it should have been me..." she sobbed.
He gave out a weak chuckle. "I'm proud to die defending our home." He then smiled and added, "defending you."
"Go now," he urged yet again. "The garrison won't stay in orbit much longer. You need to get to it before it leaves the inner system."
She nodded. Wiping her face on a dirty sleeve, she got to her feet and walked towards the pod. She stood under the open hatch for a moment and turned to give him one last glancing look and a salute.
"Praise the Fallen," she said with pride.
"Praise the Fallen," he echoed, with his last gasp.