Character Study: General Rollins

This mission hadn't been planned with the luxury of back up plans. If they lost, there was no home to be relegated to. If they died, there were no more people to refill the ranks or be taken into captivity. Three ships were the last hope of everything General Rollins knew.

Thanks to gravity and an inexperienced pilot, one ship--his ship--had already been reduced to a handful of stragglers: an old man, barely able to walk without the assistance of his elaborate cane; the old man's grandson, an assumed delinquent with all the street art of the world tattooed on his body and the last of the precious metals hooked into his face; a preteen girl marked with innocence and marred with bruises and burns; the little girl's older brother, an intimidating young man with a breaking voice; a twenty-something year old supermodel type and the girl she probably tortured in high school; a grieving father; and last but not least, the general's mentally challenged,  twenty-five year old son. That they had survived the night spoke volumes not only to their luck, but to the general's patience as well. As much as he hoped their luck would hold out, Rollins knew that capture was inevitable.


There was no denying that the motley crew had taken painstaking measures to remain hidden in the forest, sleeping behind the protective cover of the trees and blocking them from any ground troop's view.  At first, he was certain he'd imagined it in the excitement of the crash, but on the way down, Rollins had seen a magnificent set of mountains in the sky. While he was taking watch as the other slept through the night, he'd seen the floating isle above the canopy of the forest not once but twice. A scientist may have been concerned with how it was possible, but as a military general, the only thing Rollins was concerned with was that the isle acted as an all seeing eye above them. He had little doubt that the enemy was perched there, waiting to notify ground and air troops of their location. For all he knew, their location had already been detected.

Rollins wanted to negotiate; he'd been on every side of a hostage situation and he had no intention of letting a crash landing tip the hand of the war. Of course, the crash foiled any attempt at a surprise attack, that was a given, but the least the general could do was offer a false promise of peace and security to the local inhabitants. Without his ship's instruments he wouldn't be able to communicate with the other ships--they would likely assume his ship had been shot down which would prompt an immediate attack.

Rollins sighed, he had no idea what they were up against, but it was his duty to preserve human life. He had already fought too many battles in his career to succumb to fear now. Whatever happened, he would protect the civilians. However hopeless, he would fight.