The Last Men on Earth: A CATH Pilots Journey Home

A lone CATH pilot embarks on a perilous journey home after the devastating loss of humanity in a war that has left only him standing

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The Last Men on Earth: A CATH Pilots Journey Home Chapter one – The celebration of defeat I was lined up in the launch tube. The check system for my Combat Armor, Tactical, Heavy, was running. Our last ditch assault on the Instagian home world would launch in a few minutes. This war had lasted far too long. I had been a CATH pilot for twenty-four of my thirty-two years in service. I watched the last of the system lights switch to green and thumbed the intercom system to life. “This is Field Admiral Adam ‘Rock’ Drake. I am green and hot across the board and ready for launch at your command.” My intercom answered from the bridge of the carrier. “Rock, we are a go for launch in T minus seventeen seconds. Hang onto your hats men this is an all out assault. No matter what happens the war ends today.” I watched the timer count down. We were under radio silence once the umbilical cut loose. I listened to the last minute chatter as the nineteen other CATH suits reported green lights. Then the timer hit zero. It felt like someone stuffed a rocket engine up my ass, as the launch system slammed me down the length of the tube. Faster than it took to think about it, the launch sabot was packed around my suit, and I was ejected at mind numbing speeds towards the planet below. Two minutes after launch, we passed the moon of the planet Instag. That was when the first layer of the sabot wrapped around my suit started its function. The braking rockets fired and we started to slow. We would still hit the atmosphere at more than eighteen thousand miles per hour. Much slower than our current speed. I looked at the combat clock. In four minutes we would enter the outer atmosphere. I had expected enemy fire by now. The fleet was moving in behind us with the landing craft and space defenses. But there was no resistance. Not even a scanning beam to detect us. …but everything was about to change

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