I'm looking for a 1970s sci fi short story that I think was published by Scholastic where humans were the aliens. It takes place on an airless moon or asteroid. It's a military story where we follow the main character who just wants to kill the aliens and go home to his family. The "aliens" are described as silver eyed cyclopes creatures who make a horrible screeching sound when they die. The twist is that the big "silver eye" is a human space helmet and the screeching sounds are human screams.
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1 Answer
This could be "Sentry" by Fredric(k) Brown (different printings spell the name differently). The preceding link carries the full (1/2 page) text.
It's a military story where we follow the main character who just wants to kill the aliens and go home to his family.
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.
creatures who make a horrible screeching sound when they die.
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.
If I quote much more, I'll have reproduced most of the story, which is not much longer than the question. The one miss is the big silver eye; if this is your story, you may have conflated that particular detail with another one. The "aliens" are described as hideous, though...
Such repulsive creatures they were, with only two arms and two legs, ghastly white skins and no scales.
answered Apr 23 at 20:11
