I activate the holopad and cherish the minute forms of my family one more time. The roar of the plasma cannons is fading. If they have done their work, much of the population of the planet below has been obliterated. This will make our job easier - but still not without danger.
If I survive this mission, I go home. The Great Expansion can continue without me; I just want to hold my children again.
A jolt signals the release of the clamps holding my dropship. Sol-3, soon to be bereft of its strange bipedal primary species, grows majestically beneath me.
