The hum of moving vehicle filled my ears. Emotions surged through my head, a tense calm settled over me, soon it begin twisting, I begin to move my fingers, in rhythm, reaching to my other hand, combine them together and release and went back to move my fingers again and doing the same action as before in repetition. In my mind I was wondering, why I sat here, and have nothing planned for the future.
“Well, the future that has already been set in stone is hard to change anyway”. as I sighed, my lips were shut, only air coming out through my nose.
“This might not be that bad” that thought had been echoing in my head for a while now.
“Yeah…perhaps, not so bad…”
I am 26 years old. My name is Eric Rossvolt. Never in my life in would I think to be sitting here, crammed in with twenty other people, moving toward a place with little to no hope for return. It seemed like my life flashed before my eyes as I stared blankly at the floor of this vehicle.
I am a mundane man. A failure.
Well, at least that’s what I would say to myself.
I have achieved nothing in life at my age, except for being in debt. That would explain a lot, including the stupid decisions I’ve made throughout the years. I graduated from higher education as a scholar, but to no avail, I couldn’t hold down a job seriously and ended up pursuing my own self-indulgent passion: studying the world.
One would argue, why in the heavens did studying cost me so much that I ended up in debt?
Well, I was basically a NEET. But not entirely, since my freelancing job got me some money. But due to my lack of self-control recently, I fell into what people nowadays call the credit card rabbit hole. I kept abusing my limit, and when the bills came, I had no money to pay. It was my fault.
And now, here I am, taking responsibility.
The problem wasn’t that I couldn’t pay the debt. The problem was that I lost my purpose when my mother passed away several years ago. With nothing to keep me on track anymore, I just started living in hedonism and selfishness. I didn’t want to burden my family, especially my sister, who had worked her ass off for years to get where she was as a functioning member of society.
So instead, I took on debt and failed to pay it.
And then I saw an ad.
A job. Lucrative pay.
Despite knowing full well that I might not come back alive or worse, never leave this job for the rest of my life I signed up.
“But that’s fine”
“I’m sure it’s fine”
“Yeah…”
“Ah, shit”
The air in the vehicle was thick with silence. Some recruits kept their heads down. Others tapped their knees repeatedly. A few looked far too calm, like they’d seen worse. Maybe they had. Or maybe, they were just patriots who wanted to fight for their species’ greater good.
Whichever it was, all of us, including me were screwed up in the head.
Eric still bowing his head down, around him the tense atmosphere puts everyone fixed in their position, eyes wonders around, as to afraid of making contact. Forced or not, almost everyone has lost in thoughts.
Three hours had passed since we departed, and we still hadn’t reached our destination.
“Damn. This sitting position is awful” his thought.
“I have to keep my eyes on the floor, well it’s not because I like to see the floor, or pondering anything, but it’s the woman across from me, well, she hasn’t broken her glare since we boarded” the said woman that Eric describe have been staring at him constantly for the past hours, her gaze is sharp as if she ready to strike him and ended his life in an instant, with her arms crossed, and her muscles tense, making the air surrounding her feels heavy.
“Man I’d rather not die on my way to the job so, so yeah, looking at the floor it is” said Eric to himself in his mind.
Spark of conversation break the long silence.
“Guess this beats rotting on Earth-1,” someone muttered.
“Beats starving, you mean,” another voice said, dry and bitter.
Across from Eric to the left side beside the woman before, a man with a jagged scar running down his jaw leaned back against the steel wall, his outfit was torn out, arms crossed, sitting with his right leg sit on top of the left, his eyes relaxed, constantly smirking.
“Ain’t like they forced us,” he said with a his constant smirk. “Y’all signed up for it, didn’t ya? Debt, bad luck, or just a ticket off this shithole, it makes no difference. You in, you fight. You live, you get paid. Or You die”
Eric just listen to the conversation. He keeps his head down while the scarred man tap his fingers against his knee, restless after seeing the jagged scar man speak.
He whispers slowly. “The rumors were true, then, the military denied it, but some of these recruits weren’t just desperate people, some of them probably criminals”
“Damn Rift screwed everything up,” a recruit muttered across from the scarred man. He was older, grizzled, and wore his clothes like it barely mattered. He let out a bitter chuckle. “Should’ve left it alone. Not like any of us are ever seeing what’s on the other side.”
The younger recruit next to him frowned. “They say Earth-2 wouldn’t exist without the Rift. They say the nobles have technology we can’t even imagine. Cities floating in the sky. Clean air, and other stuff you think would be impossible to get in our world!”
The older recruit scoffed. “Yeah? And you think they’re giving that to you?”
The man with jagged scar reply. “this is a shithole place, do you think they will treat shithole people with care and help them like a noble warrior or somethin’? Fuck no”
No one continues after that line.
Eric, his eyes still fixated on the floor, he tires to closed them, and wonder off but the deafening sound of the vehicle keep him at his bay, as like a steady reminder that there was no running away from this, no turning back.
One hour later, the vehicle stops moving. The driver yells at the all the recruits inside and tells them to get out and start moving.
“Get all of your asses off the car!”
The hatch slammed open.
The window on the back of the car opens, we scatter out of the car immediately. Oh boy, I wouldn’t have believed it if I had not seen it with my own eyes, this military base is awesome. Ships are flying down and up like a busy port, planes are moving in and out, and many vehicles are also in sight. If it weren’t for the job, I would’ve loved to ask a few questions here and there to the people around and explore, but alas, I can’t do that right now.
as Eric and his group walk to the center of the base’s field, he also sees some holographic posters video advertising the military campaign, the exact same video Eric saw when he decided he wants to join the conscript, the video display a cinematic view of the moon and the moon’s military’s base and how the “Rift” hole in the moon was epicenter of it all, the singularity point of the miracle advancement of human civilization. Some of the posters also advertise the chance to going to “Earth-2”.
While looking around, Eric sees there are many people situated in this military base. Not too long after they arrived, a few dozen military vehicles are starting dropping off the recruits as well. It seems many have taken this opportunity, as the enlistment is open to the public and that the recruit will get paid with lucrative sum of money if they passed the test and join the exploration expedition on moon.
A paid conscript, a position where individuals get paid to serve as conscripts for years to aid military operations. One might wonder why conscripts are getting paid. Well, unlike going out to war, this operation is about venturing into the ‘unknown’, and you would serve the army with no rank or title officially, because they hire you with a contract to aid the army and not to join the army.
A loudspeaker starts echoing a voice while a large hologram of the military logo is displayed in the front of the field.
“ALL RECRUITS, LINE UP TO THE FRONT!” the speaker echoes.
Suddenly, someone from the military steps in to get us, that just come out of the vehicle lined up. With a harsh manner of speaking, the person seems to be one of many in charge of this ceremonial event. He appears to be a man somewhat around my age or older.
“Move it, maggots! Get your asses in line and fall in behind me! NOW! MOVE IT!, MOVE IT!, MOVE IT!!!” shout the officer.
We don’t have much choice but to obey the instruction. Our group lines up accordingly. After everyone in the field is lined up perfectly, the hologram changes from the logo to a display of a person. I would say he is quite famous—almost everybody knows him, at least on Earth-1.
“ALL TROOPS, GIVE SALUTE TO GENERAL EDWARD R.VON VALZVEIN!” shout with a loud voice vibrates through the air from the front of the formation.
Everyone on the field snaps to attention and salutes, including me, raising our hands with mechanical precision.
“My thanks to all of you who have gathered here today, Officers on duty and our newly recruited soldiers who have chosen to join us in combating and tackling the unknown. I would love to go on and talk about how this is the most important mission of our civilization, but as you all might have known that narrative has probably been drilled into your heads a thousand times already. Instead, I would rather keep this ceremony short and concise, straight to the point with no bullshit. Once again, pardon my vocabulary, but I’d rather give you the truth to swallow rather than some fairy tale”
As the General continues speaking.
“Damn, can you believe all of this started with some hole in the moon? My grandpa used to say the old world went to hell over it” said one of the man in my group line from the back.
In Eric’s mind, “Ah yes, the classic tale of how our civilization and humanity discovered the hole that cracked in the moon. This would be an interesting story if he talked about the wonders of the technological breakthroughs that came from that singular event. Man like imagine three hundred years ago, our civilization made it to the moon in 1969 and discovered a freaking portal in the sky that was pouring out a liquid-like substance, creating like a sea on the moon. The whole world was in chaos at this discovery, and many religious organizations believed this was a message from God, a warning of the apocalypse, or some divine thingy. Evangelists, and other radical groups emerged with conflicting theories, eventually, all nations on Earth-1 had to decide what to do about the moon, and then they agreed to explore and study the mysterious said hole and the phenomenon surrounding it, especially why it was not visible from telescopes on Earth”
A joint venture among all nations came into fruition, leading to the creation of a lunar base to explore the strange sea of liquid pouring from the hole in the sky. What they discovered was beyond comprehension. The liquid pouring from the hole wasn’t just a colorful water, it was a dimensional gate to another world.. This world was vast, at first sight of the discovery the land was barren, and covered with crystallized sludge of dark blue hues. The atmosphere was dense with mist-like substances swirling around, matching the eerie blue environment.
With this discovery, even more chaotic situation follows. Every nation wanted a piece of this new world, triggering a race for exploration. To prevent conflicts, an organization called the League of Lunar Exploration was formed to mediate and ensure fair division among Earth’s nations. However, just four years after the organization was established, exploration efforts remained slow due to increasing tensions. Conflict between nations couldn’t simply be resolved by forming an organization, and soon, war broke out. Initially, it was minor skirmishes, one nation against another, but it quickly situation escalated, alliances were formed, then continental-level wars erupted, at the end, Earth-1 became a barren wasteland due to these conflicts.
The victor of this war was the nation that uncovered the secrets hidden within the rift, they used their newfound power to conquer the others and then forming a singular world government. The Irony of this is that the world used to be more of a democratic world, but then it transformed into absolute monarchy, this happened because the government need absolute power to maintain order. A hundred years later, the government fragmented into more smaller families monarch. It’s funny, that one singular event led to all of this… and now, we have Earth-2, which is they said the fruit of humankind discovery of the rift, and then there’s the discovery of artifacts, after that everything there’s still—
(Eric snaps back to the speech.)
“And that’s what matters most! So ONWARD, SOLDIERS! FOR HUMANITY!”
Eric blinked and then the speech was over? He had been so lost in thought he hadn’t heard a word of it.
“Ah crap, what was it, what is his speech about again? Shit I don’t even know what he was talking about… Ah well, probably not that important anyway”.
Eric quickly fixes his demeanor and straightens his posture.
“Alright, you maggots! Fall in line and get your asses to the Med Bay, NOW! MOVE!” the officer snapped, his voice carrying the weight of authority. We stiffened, then fell into formation, moving swiftly toward the facility, every step heavy with the urgency of the command.