The hatch opens, I try to turn my head to have a look but when I turn my head, the helmet stays in the same place. I have to turn my whole body just to look a little to the left in this bulky suit. Just as I unlatch from the seat a hand appears in front of me. Someone is reaching in through the hatch, I grab their hand and they pull me right out. The man pulling me out seems to do it with ease, must be the lower gravity. As I get to my feet he points me towards his colleague down on the ground, just down the stairs. When I descend the stairs, she in turn points towards a hill a few hundred meters away. There is something at the base of the hill. Something white and round, it's too far away to make out exactly what it is. I feel someone push on my back, I look back at the woman, she is now pointing more aggressively towards the hill and pushing me to start moving.

  “It’s the entrance, she wants you to walk over there.” Wolf says over the radio as she descends the stairs as well.

  “I thought they would pick us up in a rover.” I reply.

  “They usually do. Guess not this time. No point in waiting.”

  Wolf starts walking and I follow her. The bulky suits are incredibly difficult to walk in even here with the reduced gravity.

  “Good news is: our comms with Lunar Local are down as well.” Wolf says.

  “How is that good news? We just had to land with no comms whatsoever.” I reply.

  “It’s good news cause if our comms worked here that would mean that home base was not answering us. Meaning something must’ve happened back home.”

  She’s right, we lost comms as we started the Trans-Lunar Injection burn three days ago. I guess the thought struck everyone in the crew that maybe our comms were not the issue, maybe it was home base.

  The entrance to the base is open, or at least the entrance to the pressure chamber. Wolf and I enter. When I turn around to have a look back towards the landing module and the rest of the crew I’m hit with a blinding light. I quickly pull down my sunvisor but it still takes me a few seconds before I can see normally again.

  “The sun really is blinding huh?” I say.

  Wolf does not answer, she is busy reading something on the screen on the wall. I look back out and try to take in the view. It is incredible, the landing module on the pad in the middle of what looks like an endless gray field of nothing. The epicness of the view is however a little broken by the funny walk the rest of the crew is doing as they make their way towards us.

  Once we’re all in, Wolf pulls the large red handle and a red light fills the room as the door closes behind us.

  The inner door opens as soon as the light in the pressure chamber turns green. There are people on us helping us get out of our suits as we step inside.

  “Captain Shelly!” Someone exclaims as soon as I take off my helmet.

  I recognize the voice immediately.

  “Nicklausson!” I say.

  He has a huge smile on his face as he embraces me. We have not seen one another since I left France after the ceasefire. Him and his men stayed behind and manned the frontline while I got to go back home to England.

  “It’s Captain Nicklausson now.” He says as we let go.

  “Look at you moving up in the world.” I reply.

  “My god you stink.”

  “Well I just spent three days in a tin can with no showers or toilets.”

  “Yeah, I remember my journey as well.”

  “Captain, we need to move them further inside and close the chamber doors so we can start loading in their gear.” One of Nicklausson's men says.

  “Right. Get out of your flight suits and follow me. You need to clean up and get some food in you then we can brief you while you eat.”

  “Can we postpone the briefing to later? I think we all need some rest.” I reply.

  “I wish we could, Captain. But we have a new timeplan. My men will unload your gear while you get cleaned up, the rovers are fully charged and ready. We are moving out as soon as you’ve been briefed.” Nicklausson says.

  “What? The first launch is not for another 72 hours.” I reply.

  “They moved it up. Our little stunt to get you here with the weapons spooked them. They are launching in a few hours. I’ll tell you all about it at the briefing.”

  I look around at my men as they eat, except for Larsen and Wolf. I tend to forget that they’re not soldiers, they’re astronauts. They’ve never been through this before. I remember how I felt when I was sent to the front lines the first time. I could not sleep the night before, I didn’t eat anything the whole day until our first Lieutenant ordered me to eat just one hour before we headed out.

  Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

  “Larsen, Wolf.” I say.

  They both look up at me.

  “You need to eat.”

  They both just nod.

  I know being sent out like this has them shaken, the plan was for us to have three days on base before we moved on with the assault but our launch from earth escalated everything. According to Nicklausson's briefing, the Americans caught wind of our plan and attempted to stop us. Which led to the Russians and the Chinese also finding out, it does not matter that we were not the first ones to send weapons up here and breach the resolution. When we suspected that the Americans were doing it, not one European leader said anything out of fear to escalate the tensions again. Then the Russians and Chinese followed suit. Again, not one leader spoke up. Now we have to pay the price for their cowardice. The only ones who dared to act were the Swedes. They gave up on diplomacy with our adversaries long ago, they learned that there was no use trying to make peace and deal with liars. Guess they were right.. again. So here we are, on the Swedish Lunar base, ready to show the Americans, Russians and Chinese that they can not walk all over us anymore. We all know what this will mean for the other nations in the UEN. Even though this is a Swedish operation and they had no idea about it, they will be blamed equally.

  “You’re ready for this?” Nicklausson takes a seat next to me at my table.

  “It has to be done.”

  “This time we won’t stop until we end them.” He replies.

  He’s smiling.

  “This is where we belong, you and me.” He continues.

  “On the moon? Far away from civilization.” I ask.

  We both laugh.

  “No. On the frontline, no matter where it is. People like you and me are the only ones who understand what’s at stake here and we won’t quit until we finish them or we’re dead.”

  “We’ll return home as victors.” I say.

  Nicklausson lowers his voice.

  “About that. I skipped something in the briefing.”

  “What?” I ask.

  “According to General Ekenquist; the frontlines are not frozen anymore.”

  “What!?”

  “Shortly after your launch, the French reported that they were taking fire from American destroyers. Also, paratroopers have dropped in behind their lines.”

  I say nothing.

  “A few hours later, the base in Kiruna where you launched from was hit by Russian hypersonic missiles. The Swedish Airforce answered by sending Gripens to hit five different bases deep in Russia.”

  Again, I say nothing. I don’t know what to say. I get a horrible feeling. The war is starting again and I am too far away to do anything, I want to go back, go back and fight.

  “We’re at war again. You know what that means, right?” Nicklausson continues.

  “No, what?”

  “We have new rules of engagement, no damage control at all.”

  “We shouldn’t be here.” I finally say “We should be back home, back with our team and help out, like we were before. We are no use to anyone out here on a mission to save another world when ours is crumbling down.”

  “We are helping. We are finally showing them that we can not be bullied anymore. The age of the Americans and Russians is over and our mission here is us putting our foot down for the first time.” Nicklausson replies.

  He is partly right, this mission does send a clear message to the Americans and Russians, we are telling them that they can not do whatever they want and that we will just roll over and take it. This is the first time we chose to stand up for ourselves without being forced to. However, the mission was done in secret. Most European nations had no idea what we were up to because they would have shut it down. Is it really a sign of strength if only a small number of us dared to do it? Or is it yet another sign of weakness that we yet again could not come together as one to fight for what is right?

  “As for being back with your team.” Nicklausson continues. “Look around you, your whole squad is here.”

  He gestures with his hand to the room where Barbier, Rossi and Edwards are sitting at different tables, eating and talking to some of the men from Nicklausson's team.

  “Tell me about Williams and Skatt.” He says.

  “Skatt is a good man, he’s strong and dependable. As good as one can get without any combat experience. Then there’s Williams. He fought in Warsaw during the war. He’s good as well and you can count on him to do his part and to have your back.”

  “But?” Nicklausson adds.

  “But.. he never stops talking.”

  We both look over towards William's table, he’s talking loudly and making grand gestures with his arms while telling some sort of story to the men at his table, when he finally reaches the punchline he bursts out in laughter and does not seem to notice that no one else is laughing. Nicklausson looks back at me with a smile on his face.

  “I’m guessing he’s been driving you crazy the last couple of months.”

  We both laugh.

  “I’m guessing Barbier, Rossi and Edwards would still follow you straight down to hell? Just like before.” He says.

  “They’re good men.”

  “Strong men.” He adds.

  “They all agreed to the mission when they were told that I had agreed. I don’t think they would have if they had known what the mission was.”

  “Would any of us?” Nicklausson asks.

  “Maybe not. But last time none of us had a choice. We were attacked and did what we had to do. This time, we are going after them and not only that but we are going to fight them in a completely new kind of warfare. Everyone left their families to follow me into battle once again thinking they left them in a safe place and that our mission would ensure their safety in the future. Now their homes are in danger and we are too far away to do anything to help them. Their loyalty to me has dragged them away from their families in a time when they need to be home more than ever.”

  We are interrupted by one of Nicklausson’s men before he has a chance to respond. She informs us that team Charlie are in position and that we need to head out. Team Charlie’s objective is the Chinese Mars hopper. Since the Chinese base is farther away than the Russians and Americans joint base, team Charlie had to set out over four hours ago.

  “Back to the frontlines once again old friend.” Nicklausson says as he turns back to me. I look at him and nod. He gets up out of his seat and talks to the entire room.

  “Alpha team, bravo team. Grab your gear and get in your suits. We’re heading out.”