Words All The Way Down

Inspired by the following prompt: [SP] Your commander is congratulating you on another successful genocide, but you can’t get their screams out of your head.

Heads up: This story will have cursing, touch on themes of depression/suicidality, and refer to a genocide (as per the prompt).

It started as some annoying fucking hissing noise. You stepped off the transporter, looked at the green sky, and were immediately assaulted by a noise that fits somewhere in between a charging capacitor and whistling tea kettle. I took it for granted that the hissing was just another feature of this godless planet.

p { line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0.1in; background: transparent }a:link { color: #000080; text-decoration: underline }Then, I killed my first family. I burst into their barrow, looked them in their freaky compound eyes, and blew the heads off of every last one of them while they cowered in the corner. That day, the hissing got louder for a bit. Then it got quieter. That night, when I bunked down, was the first night I couldn’t escape the hissing. Now that I knew what it was.

The forced relocation operation was my chance to rationalize it all. Look at them with their bowed legs and membranous wings. Look at them with their antennae. The two suns beat down from overhead as we corralled them. They aren’t human, I thought. Why should we give them food and water. Why do they even need the clothes on their backs. Eventually, we got the destination and killed them all anyways. Graves are easier when the bodies move themselves. The hissing didn’t stop the whole march.

The war is finished now. A job well done, my CO says. Not one of those cricket looking bastards left on this planet. Just a little more work from the engineers and the colonizers can move in within the year. Why can I still hear the hissing then? Even in my dreams, I still hear the hissing. It’s gotten louder.

p { line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0.1in; background: transparent }a:link { color: #000080; text-decoration: underline }I wanted to settle it once and for all. So, now, I’m just sitting here, decibel meter in hand, staring at the green sky, watching one sun chase the other over the horizon. The meter swears all is quiet, but I know better. I have one last idea for how to get the hissing to stop.