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Description
At midnight on Ice Planet X, while everybody decidedly stays back at base to get drunk, high, or have sex until the sun rises, a lone soldier bears the cold and makes her way to a nearby hill.

With an clear look out onto the desolate frozen wasteland, covered by the night's purple hue, she activates her wrist communicating system. She doesn't have a message for a commander, general, or sergeant, but for her family. She takes a picture of the sky; aurora borealis. She sends the image back home, across the stars, jumping from moon to moon, one comm station to the next. Recipients are her boyfriend, her mom, and her brother.

Across the stars, the message serves it's exact intended purpose. The text that came along with it reads "Im OK. Its beautiful here. A true alien night. Ill be home soon. I love you"-- using every letter in the seventy-five character limit. All was true except that which could never be promised. Tomorrow they begin an on-foot eleven mile push to The Enemy's encampment known as "The Hornet's Nest" by recon teams. The chances are on their side as The Enemy will have no forewarning if all goes as planned. But something in the soldier makes this feel like the end times.

Perhaps it's that after this final push, she'll be going home and never have to hold a weapon again, or perhaps it's that she feels that this will be her final day-- period. She looks at the images of her loved ones once more and then she looks back to the sky. Behind her, down the hill, back at the base, a red flare shoots up into the air and a siren blares. She turns and draws her weapon to her side, comforted only by the fact that she never made any promises.

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Description
At midnight on Ice Planet X, while everybody decidedly stays back at base to get drunk, high, or have sex until the sun rises, a lone soldier bears the cold and makes her way to a nearby hill.

With an clear look out onto the desolate frozen wasteland, covered by the night's purple hue, she activates her wrist communicating system. She doesn't have a message for a commander, general, or sergeant, but for her family. She takes a picture of the sky; aurora borealis. She sends the image back home, across the stars, jumping from moon to moon, one comm station to the next. Recipients are her boyfriend, her mom, and her brother.

Across the stars, the message serves it's exact intended purpose. The text that came along with it reads "Im OK. Its beautiful here. A true alien night. Ill be home soon. I love you"-- using every letter in the seventy-five character limit. All was true except that which could never be promised. Tomorrow they begin an on-foot eleven mile push to The Enemy's encampment known as "The Hornet's Nest" by recon teams. The chances are on their side as The Enemy will have no forewarning if all goes as planned. But something in the soldier makes this feel like the end times.

Perhaps it's that after this final push, she'll be going home and never have to hold a weapon again, or perhaps it's that she feels that this will be her final day-- period. She looks at the images of her loved ones once more and then she looks back to the sky. Behind her, down the hill, back at the base, a red flare shoots up into the air and a siren blares. She turns and draws her weapon to her side, comforted only by the fact that she never made any promises.

[link]