Some Humans Find It Fun to Fall From Kilometers Up in the Air

The large group of Humans were laughing, smiling and joking together while poor little Grackle was sitting in a corner watching them do so and wondering what in all the seven heavens they were doing in this human dropship heading towards planet Frosh-II.

Each of the massive, and not so massive humans, was taller and heavier than Grackle but that wasn’t what was so disturbing. It was what they were going to do when they reached the planet. Their orders had them landing on the planet and going into combat with an enemy that had devastated hundreds of thousands of square kilometers of land, destroying towns, cities and villages and unfortunately killing way too many people who lived there.

Grackle was the first Lhoshian to join this unit and they felt the pressure of all his race on his shoulders to succeed and show that Lhoshians are just as good as humans in fighting this enemy. And even with his years of training and being equipped with the latest in technology dropsuits and equipment and weapons to fight the enemy, he was still scared.

One of the humans saw Grackle in the corner and came over. “Hey buddy, you doing okay there? This is your first time into combat isn’t it? Don’t worry. We are here to back you up and you have the guts to join us in combat, so you don’t have much to worry about, besides the enemy of course.” and then they and others burst out laughing.

Grackle looked up at them and spoke quietly “It’s not that so much as the pressure from my people. They need me to succeed and not let down and that is why I am scared. The enemy is bad enough, but letting my people down is more than I can handle.”

At this the humans all stopped laughing and all turned to look at Grackle and their intense focus on him was frightening in it’s own way but also reassuring.

“Grackle, you have nothing to fear. You were selected due to your training scores, your history in combat and you were chosen to join us because we could see in you something that was seen in each of us. Guts. We are all scared as well. We are scared of failing our people and ourselves but the worst thing we are scared of is failing those who depend on us every time we go into combat. That is what scares us the most.”

Another human piped up “And little buddy, we could never be disappointed in you because we know that you will never fail, just like we will never fail. We will never give up fighting, no matter what. And even when we lose people, they never gave up fighting. The enemy was just too strong on that day. So cheer up because this next part is where you will have to find even more courage because it isn’t combat but much more fun.”