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    Sentry
    By Fredric Brown

    He was wet and muddy and hungry and cold and he was fifty thousand light-years from home.
    A strange blue sun gave light and the gravity, twice what he was used to, made every movement difficult.
    But in tens of thousands of years this part of war hadn’t changed. The fly-boys were fine with their sleek spaceships and their fancy weapons. When the chips are down, though, it was still the foot soldier, the infantry, that had to take the ground and hold it, foot by bloody foot. Like this damned planet of a star he’d never heard of until they’d landed him there. And now it was sacred ground because the aliens were there too. The aliens, the only other intelligent race in the Galaxy…cruel, hideous and repulsive monsters.
    Contact had been made with them near the center of the Galaxy, after the slow, difficult colonization of a dozen thousand planets; and it had been war at sight; they’d shot without even trying to negotiate or to make peace.
    Now, planet by bitter planet, it was being fought out.
    He was wet and muddy and hungry and cold, and the day was raw with a high wind that hurt his eyes. But the aliens were trying to infiltrate and every sentry post was vital.
    He stayed alert, gun ready. Fifty thousand light-years from home, fighting on a strange world and wondering if he’d ever live to see home again.
    And then he saw one of them crawling toward him. He drew a bead and fired. The alien made that strange horrible sound they all make, then lay still. He shuddered at the sound and sight of the alien lying there. One ought to be able to get used to them after a while, but he’d never been able to. Such repulsive creatures they were, with only two arms and two legs, ghastly white skins and no scales.



    Sentry
    By Me

    The soldier sat shivering. He was soaked to the skin from the heavy rains that were falling. The wind made it even worse, making the soldier feel as if he were freezing. But he had to sit here, huddling under his soaked uniform, because they had to eliminate the invaders. The soldier shivered, but this time, not from the cold.
    The invaders had come from outer space, the only other known intelligent beings in the universe. They were repulsive creatures, with many arms and legs and scales covering their body. One would not think that they were intelligent at all. They spoke making strange gurgling noises. They terrified everyone the soldier knew, including himself.
    The soldier didn’t know why they had come to Earth. All he knew was that one day these menacing creatures had appeared with terrifying guns that never missed their target. The soldier didn’t believe the tale about their guns. He had seen some miss, but they were so fast and aimed so well that he’d only seen it twice. It seemed almost hopeless to be fighting these creatures, but the soldier had to protect his planet from these ugly beasts who invaded.
    At least the wind and rain would give the soldiers extra cover as they tried to infiltrate the enemy’s base. The General had been worried that the full moon would make them too visible for the aliens’ sharp eyes. But perhaps luck was on their side, since the aliens couldn’t see or smell them in this type of weather.
    The soldier saw a brief flash of red. The signal! With heart beating rapidly, he raised himself to a crouch and could sense the others around him doing the same. They slowly moved in the dark, towards the enemy’s base.