Cinematic Toys

More than a number, originally uploaded by Thorsten Becker.

It’s been a grueling three standard months for Evren Groal and his squad, three months of endless patrols on the frozen tundra on planet Eobosh, a world full of extremes, of scorching deserts on one side and near eternal night and constant sub-zero temperatures on the other. So far his team has lasted the longest. Four squads before had gone missing in this area, no one knows what happened as each one was sent to investigate the priors disappearance. Evren’s Theta Squad was the unlucky number five. The moral of the garrison had already hit rock bottom at that point. There were bets on how quickly they’d lose contact once they get out there. Dread was hanging in the air like a toxic cloud.

This wasn’t what Evren had imagined when he signed up to defend the Empire against its enemies. It was supposed to be honorable, he wanted to be a defender of order and law, a good citizen who performed his duty, willing to give his life for what is righteous. And then he simply became a number. ‘They call your number, you step up to the task, you get lucky and come back to fight another day. And if not, they’ll just write you off, literally, and slap the next higher number on a fresh recruit. This isn’t honorable, this is questionable at best, revolting at worst,’ he thought to himself while slowly wading through hip deep snow. They’d beaten every bet against them, day after day. And each day they’d returned with nothing, no clues as to what had happened to the other squads. In the beginning, for a while, they received looks and comments of disbelieve and relieve when they came in but by now nobody could care less. ‘Numbers 356, 359, 412 and 423 reporting in. No, sorry sir, we didn’t find any of the other numbers. But you can keep counting on us,’ that’s how Evren felt he should respond at their next debriefing.

A minute later this endless sea of snow and ice began vibrating, shaking and rattling. About twenty meters in front a gap appeared, widening in a circular motion. He signaled his squad to fall back while keeping their blasters trained on whatever might spring from the rapidly growing hole. “Let’s make this one count, mates.” And as quickly as the rumbling and rattling and shaking had started it now ceased and Evren found himself barely a meter away from the edge of a gaping chasm. A few seconds passed, a minute, two minutes but nothing else seemed to happen. He took half a step forward, peeked over the edge into the darkness, his blaster firmly aimed. But nothing jumped, nothing screamed, nothing tried to grab him. Nothing but a deep, black pit. “Alright boys, let’s give ‘em back at base something to bet on. Ready grappling hooks, let’s see how deep this rabbit-hole goes. We’ll do this by the numbers but make sure you don’t act like ones.”