Short Story: Vamoose

Vamoose

by Floyd Looney

(apprx: 3,380 words)

I don't like this city, I don't like crowds and I definitely don't like being outside at night in a place like this. All the freaks of society are out and about and someone as normal as me just does not belong. I just have some business that needs tended to.

These streets at night are like the worst parts of human degeneracy lit up like Vegas. You got your normal drug-dealers and prostitutes during the day, but at night they probably avoid this place too. You might think it'd be interesting if you accidentally clicked on their website but being in the midst for real is just too much.

There's a guy in a top hat and tie, and nothing else, his face is painted like a devil. He's dancing in circles as if he's trying to make himself dizzy. Over there is a woman in a see-through booth, wearing nothing but high-heels, an array of objects on a small table in front of her. For a small fee she'll put on a “show” for you.

I keep walking, looking straight ahead. There is a massive man walking ahead of me, his back is an electronic billboard. Images moving around, advertising, even full video. His entire broad back is one big implanted sub-dermal LED screen. I doubt many people in the crowd are interested in Vita-Grow, no matter how plants crave it.

Finally I spot the little bar, looking out of place without neon signs and video boards, almost looked closed. I ducked inside and head to the bar. A muscular man already at the bar just ignores me, the laughing video skull on his bicep poked out of the short sleeves. In the back I see a shape in the dark that looks like the person I was here to meet.

“Just give me one Co-Va mixer.” I tell the bartender who whips it up quickly. I take the drink and head to the table in the back. He was facing the back wall and when I sat down I would be able to see the whole bar.

“Is your name Carlos?” I ask. He nodded. He reached into his coat pocket and pulled out the holo-cube and laid it on the table. He's the 'let's just get this done' type.

“I want enough DV to get through the chute.” I say to him.

“Can't promise luxury, though. You take what you can get. If you want too much, you'll never get off the ground.” he said in a deep throaty voice.

I look to the left and roll my eyes, Carlos was sounding like my dad.

I wanted off this sad, cadaverous world. There were people out there selling arms and legs to cannibals when they ran out of sell-able organs, for crying out loud. There was no coming back from this fallen culture, civilization on this planet was dead. I needed to get to one of the colonies, I didn't care how primitive they were.

I finished the drink after Carlos took the money and became gone. I closed my eyes and enjoyed the deadening of the mental pain. Seeing a society dying from inside was not easy, and while I didn't care about these people I did care for the species. After it wore off enough for me to stay balanced I leave to head back to the rat-hole motel.

I ignore the impromptu orgy in the street, the latest craze they called “Caterpillar”. Once I reach the motel and turned on some music to drown out the banging noises from the next room I took the holo-cube and laid it on a table top.

I activated it with my wrist-comp and a steady stream of data appeared in the air above it. Then there was an image of a small, rusty four-man ship. It was old. One of the experimental models in the early days of pre-light. There was no galley, no compartments or storage. It was just a four-seat cock-pit and engines.

It would have to work since it was all I could afford. Plus, it was not registered. A ship that small would be confused for a shuttle from one of the larger ships or from the transfer station itself. It was small and light enough to slip into the chute without putting everyone's lives in danger. The chute could only handle so much tonnage at one time.

I would have to get to the ship alive before I could leave though. Looking at the map I saw that there were gang-controlled areas all about it. Security would have to be a prime concern but if I carried an adequate amount, I would be carrying fewer provisions.

There was a knock at the door. I lean down and pull the pinzer from my boot before I walk over and tap the preview button. The door becomes transparent, at least on my end. On the other side was a young woman, a shiny bald head, a collar with a short chain and black leather panties. Her nose and mouth were bleeding and one eye was swollen closed.

It took a second to remember her. Right, she had offered herself to me when I first arrived here, for a price. Apparently she was homeless, a stray, looking for a master. Looks like she found a bad master not too long ago.

I hit the intercom button. “What do you want?”

“I need to hide. Can I stay there for a while?”

I rolled my eyes. Why were freaks either hot or cold around normal people? Either they hate us with a purple passion or they like us and want us to keep them around. Okay, there were a lot who just wanted to see us corrupted, somehow that would make their pain feel better. No, it wouldn't.

“I'm busy.”

“I know your alone!” she said quickly. Alone, is that a crime or something. She also knew I wouldn't be out there at the bizarre bazaar.

“Listen, what I do and especially don't do, is my own business.” I tell her, but she just bangs on the door and says “He's going to kill me. Please help.”

I hated myself but I unlocked the door and she came inside and I locked it again. She went and sat on the bed and put her face in her hands. She was crying. I could see she had several earrings on each ear and a small video tat on a shoulder.

“How did you end up involved in a place like this?” I asked

She looked confused by the question, or maybe because there was a question.

“Isn't this all there is? I thought the whole world was like this.” she answered. “My name is Mija, by the way.”

A common answer. They just didn't know anything else existed, people like me were the freaks, we shouldn't exist. Of course it was people like me who paid the bills, kept the economy moving, grew the food, researched, created, invented. We did that for a long time, too long. We knew they hated us but we thought we were safe while they depended on us.

So did the 9% of Venebabwe that was European before they were killed and sometimes eaten as the 3rd world countries dropped back into uncivilized barbarism. Sure, those pale faces had been growing most of their food and keeping the government funded, but when the crap hit the fan, it was cannibal time.

You see, that was all they knew. It just was.

She looked well enough to carry extra provisions to the ship, her bruises wouldn't prevent her from carrying a backpack. I could take her with me to the ship, if she didn't want to leave I wouldn't care.

“Listen Mija. I could use some help carrying things across town. I could even pay you for carrying some of it.” I tell her, she looked at the door. “If that guy tries to hurt you, I'll shoot him.”

I pull out ten thousand-Global notes and hand them to her. She takes them and looks at them closely, for a second I wonder where she would put them. Apparently she has a built-in pouch on the front of that leather thong.

“Once we get there I'll give you more.” I tell her. I was leaving, this scrip meant nothing off this lousy world and it was worth less and less on it. The economy was in shambles and getting worse by the day, but the freaks didn't care. They just wanted to dance and sell their bodies and souls to each other.

“If we're going through NorLand, I want a gun too.” She says while I was checking my Mag-shot, I pause and consider this. Then I pull out the 9mm with 9-rounds and handed it to her. Again, I was sort of curious where she would put it.

She put it in a small net attached to one of the bags, this would be carried in front. Since her right arm would be free to reach over and grab it, I nod.

“I know a little.” She said as I stood. We were both loaded down, but she had several bags hanging off her shoulders and the backpack and it looked a bit ridiculous with the way she was, or wasn't, dressed.

“Are you sure you don't want to put some clothes on?” I ask

“What's wrong with this?” she asked me in return. Then again, it was in the middle of the night and we'd get to the ship before morning. Then she'd be on her own and she could spend the money however she liked.

I carry the Mag-shot and lean it on a shoulder. “Time to go.”

It was the dead of night and that is when the freaks are in total control of the streets. Drunk, high or whatever else they called it these days, they were all over the place.

“Stay close.” I tell Mija. Suddenly I wondered if she might just vanish with my stuff, she could probably sell some of it, especially the gun. Instead, though, she stayed closed to me and seemed alert, looking all around as we walked.

“Yo, how about a drink?” Some woman, I assume, in blue spandex asked holding up a large pitcher of something that could have been urine. We kept walking, don't make eye contact was a good rule out in these parts. Vendies weren't the really dangerous ones, just truly annoying.

For the first few blocks I was a bit surprised to see a couple shops still open. One was a fish & chips place with the old UK flag hanging above the door. The other place was actually an outdoor place under a tent, from the smell they were selling fish cake and other thing on sticks. I could hear the K-pop rocking inside, as if they wanted to block out what was happening outside.

We were much faster than I thought possible. This was always a bad sign in my experience. It usually meant some worse than normal terror was waiting for you up ahead. Like when the birds stop singing in a forest because you were too close to a bear or something. Maybe that only happened in novels.

“How far?” She asked, sounding tired. I mean, what did she misunderstand about “across town” exactly?

Suddenly we came to a pitch black intersection and nobody was in sight. The sound of the freak revelers was muffled and far away.

“We have to go back!” Mija said.

“Yes, we do.” I answered, but it was too late. Behind us several hulking men with neon flat-top haircut sporting piercings all over and carrying weapons were closing in. One of them dragged an ax behind him, causing sparks.

I pulled Mija toward the center of the intersection. My instinct was correct, we were surrounded on all four sides by these thugs. A light came on from somewhere and illuminated several of the hulking guys and one tall but thin man. He had slicked back but thinning blond hair and he wore a purple trench-coat.

“Look what we have on the menu tonight.” He said, his clean white teeth had been sharpened to points.

Then the expression on his face changed and he smiled. “Mija. Is that you?”

She stiffened. “Hey, Rodrigo.”

“Does this guy have any idea what he's messing with?” The man asked, she looked down and to the right.

“It's pretty obvious, actually.” I answered. “We're going on a trip.”

The man laughed like a ninnying goat. “Oh, you are definitely going somewhere.”

I dropped the bags I was carrying, my hands already lifting the Mag-shot. I see eyes going wide and then grins.

“You are very outnumbered.” Rodrigo says.

“I can take most of you with me, then. Who wants to volunteer?”

Rodrigo laughed again. “Got eyes in the back of your head? You are completely surrounded.”

I hear Mija drop her burden and the safety clicking off the handgun I had given her. “I''ll cover this side.” She announced.

“Looks like Mija doesn't want to play with us tonight.” Rodrigo said.

“I know what you are, Rodrigo, and I am never going there again.” She said calmly.

Everyone calls them Specs. Not sure where that nickname came from but I assume it was because they had all worn sunglasses as part of their uniform once upon a time. You weren't too scary if you were blind most of the time, in the dark wearing sunglasses. The scary parts came after they dropped the shades.

These people believed they were the modern day vampires. They were cannibals who liked to trap their victims, beat them up and then take them for a home-cooked meal. They stayed in the shadows, instead of attacking the groups and crowds that gathered every night, they preyed on those who strayed.

The Mag-shot is a formidable weapon. It carried fourteen “rounds”, but each round was a box of twenty-four small caliber bullets. It fired them all at the same time, ejected the box and moved another into place with the pull of a trigger.

Twenty-four slugs, even small .22's, makes quite a mess of a human.

The Specs backed up a bit. I picked up my bags with my left hand and threw them over my shoulder as I aimed the Mag-shot with my right arm. All I wanted to do was to get away from these insane people and get to my ship. I wanted off this dying world.

Suddenly Rodrigo pulls a shotgun from under his bright purple trench coat. I point the Mag-shot at him, he had trouble with the strap getting in his way, I fired. Rodrigo's body shuddered as twenty-four holes formed, center mass was around his sternum. Whether all twenty-four struck home is kind of immaterial, because he fell like a sack of potatoes.

The Specs screamed and hollered and ran in all kinds of directions as if they had all gone haywire in the head at the same time. It reminded me of monkey tribes on the old nature programs, I wanted to get away before the poo was slung. I took advantage of the confusion to pull Mija and run towards the original destination across town.

We ran several minutes before I pulled her into an alley for a breather. I suddenly felt her staring at me and I looked up. “What?”

“Everyone knows me. I have a reputation. I can't live here now, they'll connect me to Rodrigo.” She told me. “I don't know what to do.”

“You can come with me. Like I told you before. To a world much better than this one.” I told her, taking another breath. “You might have to learn how to live like normal people, but it's better than being here.”

The blank look on her face told me she had no idea what I was calling “normal”.

“Let's just keep moving.” I said.

Eventually we somehow arrived at the warehouse in the abandoned section of town. Most of the warehouses and factories were home to derelicts and homeless people. The one we came to was surrounded by a high fence with absurd security precautions.

I punched in the code at the gate and it swung open. We closed it behind us and then there was a second code. It was the same as the first but backward, if Carlos had told me the truth. I admit I was surprised when it also opened. Inside the warehouse looked like it was in good shape, but getting to the center meant going through a maze of containers and large machines.

Then we found what we were looking for. A Helix-class Jump ship. A short range transport vessel with four seats. It was covered in dust but it looked like it was all there and in working condition.

“A spaceship.” Mija said. “Wow.”

“Yes, these were built to take people to space stations and to the moon. We have to go a lot farther than that, though.” I told her, “We have to sneak through the chute.”

She shook her head. “That sounds dangerous.”

I nodded. “Staying here is worse.”

The side of the cockpit slid open on command. We stow our luggage in the two rear seats, belting them into place. Then I sat in the pilot seat as she sat next to me.

“Will it fly?” She asked, sounding excited.

I was still activating the CPU. “I'm going to find that out soon enough.”

After a few minutes of fiddling with the computer I finally had the thing up and running and everything was working. The top of the warehouse above us opened up on command, although slowly and with loud creaking noises.

The engines whined as they spooled up. Mija was started to look a bit scared.

“Hang on, we're about to launch!” I tell her. She grabbed the rail above her with her left hand and the one on the dash with her right.

I release the Grav-lock and the ship moved straight up very quickly. This is the speed that we entered space with.

“Oh my!” Mija said, about a hundred times.

We were in space. I charted a course for the only transfer station that was still operating and with only a skeleton crew. Earth had very little trade and tourism with the other human settled worlds, it had very little to offer.

There was a large transport ship waiting for the chute to be activated. It looked like some sort of cruise ship with all of the transparent blisters along the side. People must pay big bucks to take a cruise through the Sol system seeing the pretty planets of our origin.

I “parked” very close to the cruise ship. The computer connected to that of the transfer station with some difficulty. Apparently the software was a hundred updates behind the times.

“What's that?” Mija asked, I look up to see the chute turning different colors.

“Almost time to go!” I tell her. I notice the slightest movement of the cruise ship and then I punch the accelerator. Our tiny Helix would barely register on the mass scale, which was good. Too much mass passing through the chute at one time and goodbye Milky Way, we'd be exiting in hundreds of different directions.

We went through at the same time as the cruise ship. The impact on us was more than it would be on the larger ship. By the time we woke up the cruise vessel had moved at least a few parsecs. In front of us, though, was a colonized blue-green world. One scan told me that this was it, this was Proximus, home of one of the colonies I wanted to live in.

“Mija.” I said to her as she ogled the world we approached.

“Yes?” she asked.

“Do you think you could wear normal clothes and get rid of some of those piercings? I think it'd be a good idea for us to fit in.” I say. “Might want to wear a hood over that bald head.”

She put her hands on the top of her head. “What's wrong with my head?”

I laughed.

End.

-------------------------------------------------

New Arrivals (203-pages) is 99 cents at Amazon

Brad Black, 12, and his friends must join the resistance when refugees, welcomed as fellow settlers, from another world decide to take over their colony.

Vagabond Fleet - Chapter Three

Do not forget that this weekend you get a lot of sci-fi & fantasy ebooks for only 99 cents at http://pattyjansen.com/promo/ where 84 authors have come together for the big weekend sale.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
chapter one
chapter two

Vagabond Fleet

Chapter Three

Captain Woo Sang-Ji parked his ship, Nanjin, between the Broadsword and the United Front of Arirang cruiser Yeong-ung. Captain Myung had been throwing his weight around and acting as if was in command of both convoys, which was annoying enough. Now it looked like Myung was going to commandeer the Broadsword.

“Prepare a message for Captain Myung of the Yeong-ung.” Captain Woo ordered his Coms officer, as he thought about it. “I protest your attempt to commandeer the Broadsword, this is something that we should both be deciding. I could easily take your action as hostile towards the Confederation of Segye if it were not for the truce and the aliens. I propose that Broadsword become the command vessel for both convoys, both you and I should take joint command.”

He gave the signal to send it and awaited an answer. During this time the Scan officer announced that the Komar had just entered normal space and was coming towards them.

“Commander Pan of the Komar is hailing, sir.”

“Let's hear his report.” Captain Woo said and soon Commander Pan appeared on the small screen next to the Captain. “I can see you Commander, what is your report?”

Then he saw that Pan looked disheveled and his eyes were wide. “Captain, the Alphix system has been attacked by the aliens, there were more ships than we could count. Some of those were huge. I am sending the intel we collected, we can't go to Alphix, the aliens are too strong.”

Woo sat down and grabbed the armrests on his chair. His hands were shaking. Nearly every officer and politician or anyone who could afford had evacuated their families to Alphix. He pulled up the images the Komar had brought back with a shaking hand.

“My God!” he said, he had never seen so many ships in one image. Space around and between both of the twin worlds was cluttered with them. He zoomed in the images and to his horror, they looked to be bombarding the planets.

“Hail the Yeong-ung.” he ordered, his breathing a bit raspy “I want to talk with Captain Myung now, right now!”

Soon the Captain appeared on his monitor, they were adversaries. They had been, he corrected himself, but as of now they were on the same side.

“Captain Myung, I am sending you the intel from the Komar. It's grim. I'm still in a state of shock myself.” he said sending it to the Yeong-ung. He watched as Myung and his Commander looked through the report and images. The shock and horror on their faces was the same as himself. He knew they felt sick inside as he did.

“The idea of using Broadsword as a joint flagship has merit.” Myung finally said, looking like he had a bad case of ulcers. “Why don't you send your engineers to join ours in patching it back together, it will speed up the work quite a bit.”

“Agreed.” Captain Woo answered “Time is of the essence. We must also find a new destination for these refugees.”

Myung nodded “And one more thing, we need manned fighters, our weapons are not up to the task.”

“I don't have the capability...”

Myung held up a hand “We do. Remember that from this point on, we are one fleet, one people.”

Both Captains agreed and engineers on shuttles from both ships made the trip to Broadsword, the Perry was parked nearby, fabricating the new hull plating. It was a bit more involved than patching up a half-dozen holes in the ship, there were all sorts of sub-systems that ran through those holed areas.

Bodies had also been collected and placed into a large fabricated cylinder, engines taken off of torpedoes were added to this. A quick ceremony was conducted where both Captains gave prayers and remembrances for the dead crew and then the cylinder was launched.

It would take a fifty years of drifting for the cylinder to be influenced by the gravity of a nearby brown dwarf star after the engines died. It would take hundreds of years before their bodies were pulled into a planet or stars gravity well and burned up.

New assignments were given out as soon as the Broadsword was deemed in working order, a new emblem was painted on the sides, one that took elements from both nations on Zenith. This emblem was then added to the military vessels of both sides and their crews were slightly mixed to make this reality. The Broadsword would have a crew made up of people from both sides, the two Captains would be sharing power.

This meant that Commander Harry Nelson was now the senior officer on the Yeong-ung. He made it clear that he wanted four fighters parked in his bay as well, no sense in the Broadsword carrying all of the eggs. Of course that would have to wait until they had enough eggs.

…

Broadsword Starboard Hangar

Lieutenant Stacey Drew stepped off of the shuttle she had piloted along with eight others, at least some of them were Marines. It was the same hangar bay she had been to a few days earlier but now it was alive, and abuzz with activity. “It doesn't feel like the same ship.” she told herself, then noticed she had said it out loud.

They took the lift to deck two and were escorted to a chamber with more than four dozen seats facing a main stage area. It was a much bigger version of the ready and debriefing room from the Yeong-ung. She was surprised to see a man in a CS uniform on the stage with Colonel Maxim nearby, then she noticed that some of the others entering the room were wearing CS uniforms.

“You have all been called here because you are pilots with the right qualifications, some of you even flew fighters before they were replaced by unmanned drones.” the CS officer said “Right now, the alien threat has shown us that our weapons and drones are useless against them. We need manned fighters, we all know what four lightly armed shuttles did not too long ago, that is what we need from you.”

The UFA officer then spoke “We are building fighters modeled after the basic Daggers as fast as we can, once we have enough we can think about more advanced ships. The aliens could return at any time and we need to be prepared for them, wherever we are.”

The recruited pilots looked at each other and whispering broke out.

“Aren't we going to the Alphix system?” One of the female CS pilots asked.

“I don't think so Lydia.” he answered “The Alphix system is under the full control of the alien forces. It does not look good, they were bombarding the planets.”

A shocked gasp ran across the whole room. All of them had family members and friends evacuated to there. There were some tears and hugging for a moment. Their hopes seemed lost.

“We are now one convoy, one fleet. We have to work together, live together and fight together, we won't give up until we have found a place that can be a new home for these refugees and for us.” the UFA officer told them “The aliens could not have taken over or destroyed all the colony worlds, there are just too many.”

…

Broadsword – starboard hangar

The first Daggers were being delivered and all of the pilots were down to see them. They might be from an old and outdated design but it was enough to defend the fleet, they were sure. Fast and agile they carried much stronger weapons than the shuttles had.

Stacey put a hand on it. Somewhere in the middle of this nightmare one of her dreams was coming true and she felt a little guilty about it. The Broadsword now had sixteen Daggers, eight in each of the two big hangars.

“I heard we were getting new uniforms.” the CS pilot Lydia said.

Stacey nodded “We're going to be divided into wings too. With sixteen I guess that might be only two wings for now.”

“When did CS pilots start carrying sidearms?” Stacey asked when she saw the gun on Lydia's hip “Have you already picked up one of our traditions?”

Lydia smiled “Yes, nothing wrong with that, I think, or those.”

She followed where Lydia had glanced and saw the male UFA Marine pilots. They had on tight gray shirts and they all looked very buff underneath. Then she looked back at Lydia “Slow down, they were your enemy a few days ago.”

“Okay, we are going to need a CAG and some ground crews.” Stacey shouted and turned in a circle “Who is in charge around here any way? I want to fly!”

She bumped into someone and looked up into the face of Colonel Maurice Maxim.

“I'm sorry, Colonel, sir!” she said trying to look composed. He just smiled and then shouted “All right, I want my pilots gathered around!”

Soon the sixteen or so pilots were standing there and listening intently. These were just from this hangar, the other would also have a bunch of pilots without fighters.

“Here is how it is going to go down.” he told them “I want every one of you to go through twenty scenarios in the simulators, I want to see who the best pilots are there before I decide who gets to fly the real ones first. I will also decide who the wing leaders are when I see you fly for real. Then we will do this in shifts, two or more to a bird until we get more delivered.”

She heard Lydia whisper “He's hot.”

“As for the ground crews, we are short on those too. We are looking through the civilians on all the ships to find anyone with experience. I am sure we'll find enough to make do, but more will have to be trained too.” he told them “It's a bit impromptu but this is the situation as it stands. Now who is going to be the first in the simulators?”

The pilots all ran to the lifts.

Broadsword Captain's office

“Are we planning to take turns being in charge?” Captain Myung asked as he set a mug of coffee in front of his CS counterpart and sat across the table from him.

“I don't know yet.” Captain Woo admitted “We'll have to hammer out some arrangement.”

“I think the nearest planet besides Alphix and our world is Polaris.” Myung said “I have already plotted the course. It will take us about ten jumps, if your... I mean the ships from the CS can keep up with the rest.”

“They can.” Captain Woo said “We already did for 2 jumps. Now that the Broadsword is functional, I think we need to start immediately, no sense in waiting around.”

“I agree.”

“Polaris it is.” Woo said “You can take the first shift.”

Broadsword – bridge

“Captain on the bridge.” the Yeoman announced as Captain Myung entered and looked around, his seat was near the center of a much larger bridge than his old one. Here he was not standing right in front of open view ports with a small main screen between his pilot and navigator.

“All shuttles and crews accounted for.” the Watch officer reported “Everyone secure.”

The Coms officer reported in too, “All ships have the coordinates and ready for jump, sir.”

“All right everybody. We jump in thirty-five seconds, tell all ships to synchronize.” he ordered sitting in the command chair, it had more monitors and bells and whistles than his had on the Yeong-ung. It was a much larger ship, even larger than the cruise liner than was hauling refugees.

The first jump would take the fleet nearly a light year closer to Polaris. He felt the slight vibration that always came a few seconds before the jump and then, bang, they were somewhere else. It took a second for the sensors to calibrate and collect returns.

“Jump successful!” the female Ops officer said and there smiles all around. That first jump in a “new” ship always came with some stress. “We'll be able to jump again in fifteen minutes.”

The next jump would take them near but not into the Alphix system as they bypass it, Captain Myung made sure that all the military vessels were preparing for anything while they were there.

Captain Woo found him in the corridor “The engineers have upped the power output on all the plasma lasers. Did you know that this ship had half its turrets turned off, on purpose?”

Myung shook his head “They were on a science mission, it was peace time for them. Someone over there thought it was a good idea. I don't see their reasoning, but I damned sure not going to follow suit.”

They walked through the corridor side by side and there was still room for the crew to stand aside and let them pass. It was just a bigger vessel all around.

“As long as we don't stay in the next area any longer than we really need to, I doubt there should be too much of a problem. All of the civilian ships have shown us they are quite capable of keeping up.” Captain Woo said.

“I agree.”

…

Captain Myung was back on the bridge for the next jump. All the ships had successfully completed the jump and reported no problems.

“Start setting up the next jump.” he ordered “The faster we leave the better.”

The Scanner officer spoke up “I have sensor contacts exiting the system at one-fifth. They look like civilian vessels, but they aren't broadcasting on any frequency.”

Myung thought about it. Civilian ships escaping the alien slaughter would definitely not want to send out any signals. If these were indeed civilian ships they needed to be rescued, not left out here for the aliens to find.

“Hold on the next jump, prep everything and hold.” he ordered, he opened an intercom channel from the right seat console “CAG Maxim, we need full radio and sensor silence, can you send out an escort for possible refugee ships right now?”

“Yes sir!”

…

Broadsword - starboard hangar

Four of the Daggers were lined up for launch, fully prepped for takeoff.

Maxim spoke into the radio “Okay. Everything is ready, Gold Flight. On your mark Gold Leader!”

Lieutenant Stacey Drew gave him a thumbs up and answered “This is Gold Leader, launch!”

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh! They launched their Daggers out of the hangar through launch tubes, airlock doors slamming shut immediately after the fighters went through. They then turned in formation towards the possible refugee ships.

Lydia was on her left and a Marine named Douglas on her right, she knew that behind and above her was another Marine called Harrison. They would stay in this formation until they reached the bogeys, if they were refugee ships they would escort them back to the convoy.

It would be done in silence.

After a long while her passive sensors detected something and she turned toward where it indicated to find a line of about fifteen vessels. Upon closer inspection they looked like civilian ships of many types, so she steered toward the one in the lead position.

Taking up a position two kilometers off the bow of the lead ship she used a low-power transmitter to try and raise them.

“This is Gold Leader to convoy lead ship, can you hear me?”

“This is Williams of the Sonnet, we got away from the aliens, can you help us?”

“You need to follow me!” she said “Follow me to the fleet. Can all of your vessels make a hyper jump?”

Williams was breaking up in static a bit but she heard “Negative. There are a few back there are little more than habitat modules.”

“Roger, follow us, no more radios or active sensors!”

“I hear you.”

They got back to the fleet. She reported in by typed message that a few of the ships were incapable of jumping. Gold Flight was ordered to provide cover while the passengers on those ships were transferred to other vessels.

She saw shuttles moving between some of the ships and a small one entering the hangar on the cruiser Linus. It was already carrying a lot of refugees although still a military vessel. Finally Gold Flight was ordered back to the ship and she was the last to land.

As she climbed out of the cockpit she saw a ground crew surround her fighter and start inspecting it, connecting the umbilical hoses and everything else. She started to move toward the lift for the debrief when someone tapped her shoulder.

She was a little surprised to see Harold there, in a ground crew uniform. The helmet made his chubby face look even funnier.

“What are you doing here?” she asked “You got a job here?”

“Yeah.” he told her “They're still short-handed but who is better with computers than me?”

“I'll talk to you later, get back to work.” she said and got into the lift with the other pilots of Gold Flight.

“We make a great team.” Stacey told them

Lydia bumped against Douglas a little too familiarly but he smiled.

Note From An Average Devil

Ever wondered what a demon, cast out of heaven through Lucifer's revolt, would think about humans, God and such...

Note From An Average Devil

The world is so well-ordered and colorful it makes me gag. I prefer the night, where everything seems more black and gray. The world is my prison, it doesn't mean I have to like it. On the plus side there are very few limits on what I can do in my prison, at least for the next thousand years or so.

Humans are stupid and they also make the best targets because they are reactionary. Unlike animals, which don't dwell too much on the ephemeral, humans will wax philosophical and entire cultures will rise up at the merest spiritual intervention or the just the belief there was one. Humans have no end to their imaginations and they are so easily played with.

There's a devil that dwells in the Indian subcontinent who finds delight in getting humans to create new religions out of whole cloth. It's that devils specialty and he finds great amusement in the results, I do admit it is funny sometimes. I mean, really, worship a cow? I still have a hard time believing that one, it's like making a vegetarian swear off grass.

We devils are everywhere. Though the ones like me are not “The Devil”, we are teammates. We tempt people into sin and their souls are tasty snacks, every little bite makes us happier in what we do. Not that we are actually “happy”. We like corrupting others to become like us because we know we live in hell and we want to spread the misery. Corrupt humans do the same thing, I see it all the time.

Sure not everyone will fall. Not every boy becomes corrupt with the first look at pornography, not every girl sells her soul to buy a purse, not everyone who drinks becomes a raging alcoholic but these are all tools for us. Some of those boys will start to see girls as nothing more than sexual beings, some of those girls will start thinking its fine and harmless to become sluts, some of those alcoholics will move on to harder drugs while dragging their children and others down into their personal hell with them.

It's a long-term strategy. Once a society begins to accept a certain amount of sin, the hardest part, then it is pretty much a downhill slope. Once in a while God himself has to intervene as he did back in Sodom, Gomorrah and some other places. Sure he might let a Roman emperor be stark raving mad and abuse people, but an entire society cannot function like that.

Which is the whole point. That is our goal. Humans are animals, we dare to challenge the idea that they should ever have become something else. This idea of a thinking, self-controlling animal was ludicrous from the beginning. God wanted to create beings for the purpose of worshiping him. It was rebellion to this narcissism that got Lucifer and the rest of us thrown out of heaven.

Some of my kind specialize in creating new religions among the humans, the dumber the better, as way of kicking God in the shins. Even his precious Christianity has been corrupted through the centuries by us devils. Once the idea of praying to “Saints” was inputed, it was over in the long run. Such an obvious violating their own scripture proves to us how stupid humans are.

The somewhere between the first and second Councils of Nicea the devils had turned Mary into a goddess. That was fast work, I was truly impressed by that one. Somewhere down the line this morphed into Mary being born sinless and without sex being involved. So Mary's parents were holy too. We devils still laugh about this when we get together, the knots humans reason themselves in to justify their corruption is truly amusing.

Cows. Humans are like cows.

Me? I'm not a specialist. The only time I ever influenced a religion being created was when I was hanging around L. Ron Hubbard. That was one of those “whole cloth” things and it's still my proudest accomplishment. Sure I had a small role in the Mormon thing but that wasn't my gig, I was just helping out.

I'm a freelancer. Attract a girl to the lights and glamor of Vegas and I can have her an unhappy, alcoholic, soulless stripper in a couple of years. I know some devils who do nothing else but that, they never leave southern Nevada apparently.

Another way to corrupt people in groups is to demoralize them. Humans get these dumb ideas that preachers and Priests are somehow supposed to be without sin (impossible), so of course we take them down when we get the chance. I don't really get how hard some people find it to separate the message from the messenger, nobody says the messenger is clean. (read the Old Testament, too)

If your tuning in to those idiot preachers on TV, I can tell you for a fact you're corrupting yourself. Not that you should take my word for it. Once you put a human on a pedestal you are just setting yourself for disappointment. Being disappointed in your faith leads to corruption and sin. Since humans often put the “leader” on pedestals we aim at them all the time.

You know, this stuff would never work if humans were basically good. They aren't. Humans are born sinful and anyone who says otherwise is probably working for us. If humans were basically good then they wouldn't need to be “saved” would they? If humans were basically good then why is being a good person hard work while being bad is so easy and fun? (for a while any way)

If humans dropped their pretensions of being born innocent or being basically good and started taking their religion seriously instead of using them as social clubs, it would make our job much harder right off the bat. I can tell you this because I know my warning won't be heeded.

Because humans are cows.

God is the big boy, he is the boss, the one with all the real power. Just this once though, he is wrong, time after time century after century proves this. In our opinion, I guess, humans are a big waste of time and energy. Once it becomes plain to God that this little experiment is never going to work, he will relent and admit we were right.

We already know what will happen, right? God will take the few humans that are worthy of being brought to the next level and the rest will go away. Surely, this means Luce and the rest of us will have our imprisonment lifted. Isn't that obvious? Our positions should be restored, although we know God denies this right now.

Humans are animals, depraved to the extreme under the right circumstances. When you hear about elementary school teachers letting children have sex in class or a celebrity orgy with minors, just remember. Humans are animals and we devils are proved right every single time you sin!

See you in hell!



Signed,
                 An Average Devil

--------------------

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Zombie Tyranny (just an idea)

The Zombie Tyranny

 Just a general idea I had.

The Zombie Tyranny (just a short idea I had)

I was being chased by a horde of zombies. Dr. Maelstrom had sent me to see the future and was taking his time retrieving me. The zombie apocalypse was the past, the zombie tyranny is in power in this place.

I tried to escape. I ran, Lord knows I ran. I am between two cliffs that rise up on either side of me and standing on them are the Generals or Shepherds. Whatever one would call them. They laugh at me and tell me my resistance is futile.

“What can you do, alone?” They ask in unison. “Your room to run is at an end.”

It was. The trail I had followed had come to a cliff. It was so deep that I could not hope to see the bottom. At least two-dozen of the mindless ones were approaching me from where I had come from. This was the end of the road.

“I will never become one of you!” I yell up at the two masked leaders. They laugh.

Just then I hear a voice calling from behind the zombies.

“Jay, is that you?” It asked. It was Doctor Maelstrom himself, “What's going on here?”

“Get away Doctor! Run! You can't save me now!” I yell as I edge closer to the abyss.

“Save you from what, exactly?” he asked.

The zombies stopped moving towards me and they all looked back at the scientist. His eyes widened and his mouth opened in a silent scream. This was a common reaction. Where their faces should be were cell phones embedded into their flesh and skulls.

The Doctor back-peddled as the undead began moving toward him.

“I will fix this! I will change this! Somehow!” he screamed as he fled.

I waited until they were almost atop me and their handlers were laughing before I finally jumped. If Maelstrom had survived then he had not managed to change anything as far as I could see.

Maybe Doctor Maelstrom hadn't escaped.

I woke up. As soon as my vision cleared I could see two faces that were cell phones peering into my face.

“So, joined us at last I see.”

I touch my face but find nothing but a flat screen. As my hand moved across my face it blocked the camera momentarily. They had removed my face and implanted the device, but wee waiting for me to wake up before changing my mind.

“No!” I said through the speaker phone. I tried to grab the device, I wanted to pull it off my head, but the skin and flesh had fused with it. There was no way to get a hold of it.

“Kill me instead!” I cry.

Laughter was the only response this elicited from my captors.

“Once it is activated, the contract is unvoidable. The penalty for early withdrawal is death.” Said one of the zombies standing over me. “Then again, once it is activated, all your thinking will be done for you.”

“NO!”

Vagabond Fleet: Chapter Two

A story that may or may not be completed any time soon. I thought I would share the first couple of chapters to see if there is any response.

Chapter One

Vagabond Fleet

Chapter Two

Shuttle 1

Lieutenant Stacey Drew piloted one of the four shuttles. She was carrying eight heavily armored Marines in the back, instead of a co-pilot she carried Colonel Maurice Maxim, who was in charge of the Marine detachment on the Yeong-ung. He was giving orders to his Marines on all of the shuttles, mapping out their movements aboard the large carrier.

Alphix had been stupid to give up manned fighters but just as dumb to reduce the unmanned fighter complement to such a paltry number. The ship probably hadn't stood much of a chance once the combat started. This ship should have had armed escorts instead of going on science missions. What had they been thinking?

As ordered she flew into the starboard-side landing bay with all exterior lights shining, it was eerie to be flying inside of a dead ship. She put the magnetic clamps on and the shuttle stuck to the deck as the Marines donned their life-support helmets. She donned hers as well, decompressed and opened the rear hatch.

The Marines fanned out when they left the ship, their combat rifles drawn. Floating just above the ground they found one of the hatches to the lift to the regular body of the ship. They were not going to wait for a life carriage though, they would float upwards to the main decks.

Stace examined the remains of an unmanned fighter against the bulkhead near the lift, had it even been launched?

“Lieutenant!” Colonel Maxim called to her “You should come with us, we should not be split up right now.”

She followed the Colonel into the lift tube and jumped after him, using her hands to keep from hitting the wall and bouncing around. Finally they emerged from the tube near the bridge and floated all the way to it. The helmet lights and the lights on their wrists showed them the control center of the ship but also the bodies floating there like gruesome zombies.

“Colonel, sir.” came over the helmet radio

He answered, switching to a different frequency, but she still heard his side of the conversation.

“I understand, I will inform Captain Myung that this ship can be repaired quite simply.” the Marine leader told the person on the other end.

Repair the carrier Broadsword? The carrier would need fighters, manned fighters. The unmanned ones just could not deal with these aliens, she saw the same as everyone else. Stacey bet morale in the convoy was grave because of what everyone saw. Torpedoes that couldn't keep up with the target, plasma lasers that were unable to hit them farther than a couple of kilometers away.

They needed responsive humans flying real manned fighters. She would be of them!

“We have retrieved the memory core and the logs.” one of the Marines said

“Okay, both teams have carried out their missions. Return to the shuttles.” Colonel Maxim ordered and they all headed back toward the lift they had come up in.

Yeong-ung bridge

“We have new contacts, bearing 200 degrees by 44 degrees at 29 million kilometers and closing very fast, Captain.” the Scanner officer reported

“The shuttles are leaving the Broadsword now, sir.” The Watch officer reported “They will not get here before the bogeys.”

“Are we going to jump?” Commander Nelson asked

Myung considered this and then thought of the shuttles and the Broadsword, he needed to think about the big picture. Calculate coordinates for a big jump! Send the coordinates to all the ships in both convoys, tell them to jump together when I give the order!”

Then he turned to the Coms officer “Then I want to open a channel between us the Nanjing. Order the Linus to jump with the convoy. The Blinder and Defender are staying with us.”

“We're staying?” Nelson asked “We've already lost our unmanned fighters. Our plasma lasers can't hit their fighters our torpedoes can't catch them. We have no reason to stay here.”

They watched the shuttles returning from the derelict vessel as they watched the scanner returns of the incoming bogeys. “I count six of them.”

“That's more than last time.” Nelson said

The Captain took a deep breath “Those shuttles are armed, right?”

Nelson took off his sunglasses. “Yes, sir. But those aren't fighters.”

“We have no real choice, we need the Broadsword. Maxim says it can be repaired, it could carry a lot of refugees.” He told his first officer “Order the shuttles to engage.”

“What about the convoy jump?”

“Tell them to hold, if the shuttles are destroyed, they are to jump immediately.” Myung answered.

…

Shuttle 1

Stacey thought about the Marines they were carrying. “Put your helmets back on, get ready to disembark from space.”

Colonel Maxim looked at her like she was insane. Then he got the drift and gave the order. Meanwhile Stacey was sharing her idea with the other shuttles.

When they got as close as they could before the enemy was in range they spun around while momentum kept them moving in the same direction. The hatches opened and twenty-five Marines poured out and the momentum carried them all the way to the shuttle bay of the Yeong-ung.

“Now, let's show them what we got.” Stacey said “Bader, go to my right, Cindy to my left and I need you, Charlie to take topside.”

They all understood and answered “Roger!”

She poured on every ounce of speed the shuttle could attain and they all targeted a different enemy fighter. The enemy showed no signs of paying any attention to the shuttles, which was a stupid decision on their parts.

The enemy fighter came into view on her HUD. It was larger than a shuttle and had rounded wins, the thing sort of look liked a sea creature from Earth called a stingray but with a lump in the center. She took aim at what she thought was the cockpit and then opened up the gun on it.

The aliens were clearly surprised by this attack and the first four of their ships were heavily damaged in the opening barrage. At least two of the enemy fighters were dead and tumbling away while Stacey reassigned targets for the shuttles. If the fighters targeted the shuttles they would need their active stealth to slip away.

“Go stealth everyone. We need to get these guys, right now!” she told them as she banked behind the damaged alien fighter craft, it was headed right for the Yeong-ung. She targeted the engines and fired again, one of the engines exploded and the alien lost control and flipped sideways side over side.

“I got another one!” Charlie said then sheepishly added “Okay, Cindy helped.”

The last fighter turned away and moved away at a high speed.

“Shuttles return to the ship.” they heard Commander Nelson order.

As she landed the shuttle in the bay, after passing through the airlocks, she knew that the aliens would never take shuttles for granted again. This kind of defense would never work a second time. They needed to build fighters and they needed to do is as soon as possible.

Her tech crew chief and even Harold were waiting for her when she came out of the shuttle.

“That was some great shooting Stace!” the crew chief told her

Harold looked like he had survived a near-death experience. “Thank God you're alive!” he said and gave her a quick huge before she could push him away.

“We won't be so lucky next time.” she said “I have to go to debreifing, Harold, what is it?”

“I'm just so happy you made it.” he looked like he was going to cry “Give that memory chip to the Commander, this is the right time I think.”

“I plan to.” she answered as she headed toward the lift.

….....

Yeong-ung conference room

The four pilots entered the debriefing room and found Commander Nelson as well as Colonel Maxim standing at the front. They entered and sat, there were still a dozen empty seats but these hadn't been needed for years.

“Good job out there today.” the Commander said “I realize that using shuttles like fighters is not going to work again. The enemy will be ready for that.”

“We need to start making fighters, manned fighters.” Stacey said out of turn “Sir.”

Nelson and Maxim glanced at each other, she saw the beefy Maxim grin.

“The Captain agrees with you, Lieutenant Drew.” the Commander said trying to repress any anger at the interruption, they traditionally gave pilots some latitude after an engagement “We will be looking to see if we can manufacture...”

She stood up again and took the memory chip from her pocket and handed it to him and sat back down, he just looked confused.

“Everything is on that” she said “The Yeong-ung has all the capabilities to start fabricating fighters, it won't be quick to make...”

The Commander grinned now. “The Perry can make them a lot faster.”

She had totally forgotten that the manufacturing ship was in the convoy. All the cool she had just built up seemed to leak out just then.

…

“The CS Captain sent the gunship Komar ahead to Alphix after the battle.” the Coms officer Jaycee Walters told the Captain “It left just after the last battle. Its mission was to inform them about the aliens and the Broadsword.”

“How are the repairs to the Blinder and Defender coming along?” he asked

The Watch officer answered “Both ships report they are functional but the Blinder won't be moving faster than one-sixth for a while.”

“Order the Blinder to the center of the convoy and send the Linus to the tail.” the Captain said

“The ships are all getting anxious to move.” Jaycee reported “They want to jump as soon as possible, not wait around for another enemy attack.”

“I'll take that in my office.” Myung said as Commander Nelson entered the bridge “Nelson, you take the con.”

…

In his office he found Colonel Maxim waiting as well as his Chief Engineer Hugh Howard.

“I understand that the damage to the Broadsword can be repaired?” Myung asked “What would this entail?”

“There were holes on the bridge, in engineering and the underside, their atmosphere was vented” Maxim answered “We can fusion weld on new hull plating and get the ship going again.”

A ship like that needed a screen of escort ships, why it was alone on a science mission was just beyond stupid. Of course Alphix hadn't been at war in decades, while his own planet had always been at war.

“Let's get working on that.” he said to Howard who got up to get to work “Put all resources to that end.”

“I understand that six of your Marines are rated pilots?” he asked Maxim “We're going to need as many qualified fighter pilots as we can get. I already have the Perry setting up their manufacturing to put out clones of the old Daggers. Basic and easiest to make. Once we have enough of them, we can start working on upgrading to more advanced designs.”

The alarm sounded and Commander Nelson sounded over the speaker “Captain the Nanjin has just moved between us and the Broadsword.”

Captain Myung got up and went to the bridge, Maxim went to his Marines.