CHRONICLES OF HOPE:EP 3

Door Hope

Episode 4: Target down

"Hello...?" resonated a little timid voice. The speaker, a little girl of no more than 8, shivered from the cold whilst nervously scanning the desolate landscape around her. She turned back to the pod that had been her home for almost 2 years until it had finally hit a planet.
She grabbed her doll and her survival pack and stumbled over to a nearby collection of what she presumed were trees. She stared at the tree fora while until a small oblong shaped fruit dropped off next to her. She jumped for it and took a few big bites before chewing.
Silently and unseen above her a yellow light shot across the sky leaving nothing but a dust trail that like the light dissapeared from view.
The girl continued to eat, savouring every bite she could. It had been years since she had eaten anything fresh.

There was an explosion near by. She dropped the fruit and swung round, nothing. Clenching her doll she stood there with no sound but that of the wind. Without moving she stood, nervously glancing around.
"I want my mummy..." she moaned. There was no sound now, the wind had ceased to blow. In silence she stood there until 2 red dots appeared next to each other in the shadows. She turned and ran, ran back to the pod. Another 2 red dots appeared in front of her in the darkness underneath a dead tree. She side stepped to her right and ran into an opening. Panting she backed futher into the opening away from the twisted trees. Until she reached something behind her. She span ran. In front of her stood a black clothed agent with no skin showing, his head was covered with glowing red goggles. On his shoulder was the tell tale LTC badge that had brought so much fear to the galaxy. He had the barrel of sidearm to her head, with his finger on the trigger.

Two more similarly dressed soldiers emerged from the shadows. THey looked down at the little girl with a frantically bleeding fatal wound in her head. Her eyes were open and her face still full of fear. "My God" said one of the newly emerged soldiers,
"You raped her....", he uttered the words with disgust.
"Soldier 144753, shut up, its the daughter of Hope, she deserves no respect. If you speak of this I shall have both of you court-marsheled. You understand?"
"Yes my lord, we do only as you say general" the two said in unison. The general had already turned is back, removed his helmet and was walking back to the ship. The other soldier turned and followed his general. Only 144753 remained, looking down at the dead girl. "But shes just a girl" he said as he covered the body with a blanket and then walked back to the others.

"OK group good work today, we should have all the targets dead by next week. We have just found the next one, another female, Hopes wife in fact. Ready yourselves we leave in 10."