Did a stint topside early on in this whole mess. Fucking hell up there, radiation out the ass, never day, never night, no cover. Never thought I'd miss the tunnels til my ass was out in the open like that. Satellites can see everything up there, and the enemy doesn't need a bomb to fuck up a position, just drop a big enough rock and gravity does the rest.
Lost a whole fucking platoon to a single bombardment, was out taking a shit when the whole ground shook. Came back and absolutely nothing left, just water vapor boiling out of a huge crater. Six other bodies, just gone. No bones to bury even. If their psuits hadn't winked out on the HUD there'd a been no way of knowing what happened to em.
Brass nixed fighting topside pretty quick after that. Signed some treaty or some shit, now everybody just watches each other from orbit, ready to go screaming to the UUN if anyone so much as farts in the wrong zip code.
True what they say about Jove though. Motherfuckin eye comes around and it triggers the ape inside. Whole body just starts screaming run, hide, anything to get away. Deep breathing, psyche meds, telling yourself its just a ball of gas, doesn't do shit. Ape brain sees the eye of god and falls apart. Probably the real reason we abandoned the surface now that I think on it.
First men in orbit talk about the pale blue dot, how seeing the planet from way up there made them see how insignificant it all is. Seeing Jove does the opposite; makes you feel like everything you do is being seen, remembered, recorded. Judged.
Maybe if humans had started off here we wouldn't be so fuckin eager to kill each other. 'Course we'd probably be some radiation-proof squids or some shit. What the fuck do I know.
