Convergence – Story Part Three

Please read part one and part two before reading this.

6.4.3. 15:76 rm

We had already begun our assault on the hangar bay an hour ago. It was an ideal time, as most of their leaders were tied up in a meeting. Fine time for meetings. We already have contingency plans for such events, and all it takes afterward is a memo to the officers with which plan we’re using and maybe an update. Anyway, the rain had ceased momentarily. Our craft had burst through the cloud cover, firing the instant we were clear.

In a single decisive strike we had obliterated their defensive turrets. HA! Fools.

We flew cover, preventing their ships from getting out. The bombers moved in and blasted the structural supports to the main entrance. The launch shaft caved in with a large crash. I could hear a small voice over the howling winds. “Computer, amplify external vocalizations.”

The sound of the wind faded, and the voice of a loudspeaker, coming from underground, said:

“ … Immediately. Repeat, evacuate immediately. All personnel, abandon the hangar bay. Everyone out. No exceptions. The hangar is in danger of collapsing. Get out, or you may die.” A computerized voice finished with a corny message designed to promote patriotism. The rebels seemed to care about people and relationships and junk like that. I relayed a message to Admiral Reon. “Objective complete, sir. The valyeds deserve it.”

“Very good,” said the commander. “We are sending the reinforcements now.”

- Cptn. Phinirri

6.4.3. 15:77

The main hanger had almost been destroyed! Those barbarians. All they cared about was slavery. Not the good of the people. I once heard the name of their national anthem. ‘Rise to conquer all’ or something like that. Goes to show what they cared about. We had gotten the shields 1 minute ago, and were on our way to install them in the various buildings. We could still install them, and have them cover the damaged area in the hangar. Then we could repair the damage. I had gotten a go on my plan. It was very simple, and yet brilliant. Now, all I had to do was get to the hangar and get out the emergency dock with a ship. I would be done and back within the hour.

-Major Morvagim

6.4.3. 15:78 (and 16 seconds) rm

Yes! The Supply ships had arrived! We drilled through the rubble using a modified mining ship. The whole operation was moving on split second timing. The instant the shaft was drilled, a team moved in. Telescoping rods moved up and supported the ceiling. Now that there was no danger of the cavern collapsing, security teams rushed out and sealed the exits. No one was getting in.

But wait… There was someone in a ship! It was powering up, It would be gone in a matter of moments. I hit the alert button on my wrist computer, and twenty men came to my aid. The ships ahead rumbled, moving into position to fire. The ships lights came on. I fired at the rear engines. If we could take those out, the rouge would be unable to launch. The Specialty forces moved in behind me, and powered their projectile weapons. Old fashioned? Yes. But in the age of technological advancements, people are so wrapped up with biggest and greatest, they tend to forget to protect against the outdated. Who uses guns anymore?

They began firing. Projectiles though they were, we were far past gunpowder. We used extreme plasma displacement that sent out the objects at speeds exceeding Mach 8. The sound was prevented from reaching our eardrums by the use of gel sacs that swelled up in response to loud noises. They also amplified weak noises, increasing our hearing. I could still feel the shock waves pounding through my body and had to lean forward to keep from being blown off my feet. Two holes appeared in the rear thrusters, one punching through both sides, and the other shaving off the top. The ship blasted off, and down a tunnel. The pilot was good, but still scraped some walls. The tunnel lead cut through a large section of earth. It would probably get out, but it would be extremely difficult to maneuver.  Skrassing renegades.

“Sir, reinforcements have arrived.” came the voice from the surface commander, the captain of the Holdaaer, a large bomber.

The reinforcements were in the form of many troop carriers, and large portable turrets. The Hangar bay was indisputably ours.

“Tow their fighters into space, give them plenty of berth from the fleet in case they try to self destruct, and move to Stage II.” I said.

- Cptn. Phinirri

6.4.3. 15:80 rm

I barreled out of the emergency dock. My rear thrusters were blasted away. I only had the main thruster. And that was one of those ones that used fuel. I could still complete my mission. The ship still had the hover-pads. I steered the ship towards the sky. Once I had gotten out of the atmosphere, I put out the satellites. They automatically spread out to cover the planet. I was in a freighter. The ship could hold every one of the satellites. This was the Remavim. One of the biggest freighters in galaxy. Once I had deployed the satellites, I headed for a hangar near the military headquarters. Now that the satellites were running, no ship that wasn’t ours, or one that had a different race inside, would not survive. Except our allies. Whatever ship, no matter how big would be obliterated. If the enemy ever went back to their ships, they would not be getting a message.

-Major Morvagim

6.4.3. 15:82 rm

We were moving through the complex quickly, securing building after building, and slowly making our way to the Coordination center. As we had suspected, the security equipment was still the ones that had been installed by us when we held the planet. The codes were different, but they were unfamiliar with the design. They didn’t know it’s weaknesses as we did. We scanned the entry pads one by one with a high radiation X-ray/gamma frequency hybrid scanner, and the codes were laid open to our view. We were now more than halfway to the Coordination Center, and we had captured a secondary storage unit containing huge quantities of staple foods. Amazing what they had done with the economy. A voice broke in on my speaker. “Captain, a rogue ship has made it’s way into orbit, and has dispensed large numbers of barrier satellites. They’re not too much trouble now, because we’re keeping our range, but if we get to close, they could blast us away!”

“Tesh! Can small ships get in?”

“No, seeing as how they’re based on our designs, we assume they will seek and fire on any ship not bearing their frequency, or DNA not of their particular variation.”

“Based on our design?” I asked, moving back toward Invasion Headquarters.

“Yes, we had some here when the rebellion started. They kept them from getting out.”

“So they’re using a ‘net’ design?”

“Yes, all linked together.”

I got on a transport that had come to pick me up, and we moved with extreme rapidity through the miles of corridors.

“Here’s what we’ll do. Get that defector, put him in one of the captured ships, and grab a satellite. Then, warp away as fast as you can, and the rest will follow. Problem gone.”

“Roger, but they’ll catch up eventually when he runs out of fuel.”

“Then move the fleet out of the way, and set the ship on a collision course with the sun. He ejects at the last moment, and everything else melts.”

I was now in the main bay. They had re-dug the exit shaft out, and it was fully functioning again. On our side. I could see the twinkle of stars over the ocean, and, more importantly, the blinking yellow lights of the satellites.

“Do it.”

At 15:93 rm, one satellite was pulled slightly out of formation, then quickly vanished. The other satellites went after it like rainbow sprinkles down a toilet and disappeared. Time to move on to the next stage.

-Cptn. Phinirri

[Notes] Okay, I’m not proud of that sprinkles analogy. I apologize. On another note, their evacuation notice originally concluded with “And have a happy, cheery day!” but he threw a major fit at me, which I barely dodged by eventually agreeing to change it.

Also, I think it’s clear that I was enjoying this more, from the lengths of the posts alone.

We’ll be taking a break from my old writing projects for a while, but this story will continue to be posted over time, until we reach the end of it. Then we hit re-writes.

Convegence – Story Part Two

In the last installment, the Kassis had been alerted to our invasion because of a spy. The spy was promptly captured, and the story resumes:

6.4.3. 10:12 rm

We burst through the clouds, raining fire along with the clouds. Vivid flashes of red and orange from the Angelflame missiles mingled with the grayish blue of the pounding storm.

I was leading an assault wave against their communications center. Missile after missile streaked with deadly accuracy, detonating in shaped blasts that obliterated a large domed building that housed the planetary communications central.

Finally, the blasts were too much, and the roof caved in. We could see from the lights that the whole complex hadn’t been shut down, but now that the primary shell was down, we could use the recently installed orbital cannons to obliterate the enemy building.

I sent the command. Three long seconds passed… Then green vibrant fire reigned down like the hail of armageddon.

- Cptn. Phinirri

6.4.3. 12:47

I raced to the communications building. We were getting a message about some fighters going at high speeds towards the building and it had suddenly stopped. As I came closer, I realized what had happened. I stopped dead. The building, or what was left of it, was ruins. As I picked my way through the rubble, I realized what happened. They had destroyed it!

“There goes our planet to planet communication.” I thought out loud. At least we could communicate with the ships, and they could communicate with the planets. I calmed down. We still had that. And our base communications were intact. We still had communications across the globe. Several other people had heard the boom, and had just appeared.

“What happened here?” and, “What the…”

I spoke into the mike in my helmet, my voice echoing across the clearing.

“Attention. There is no need for alarm. Go back to your homes immediately. I repeat, Go back to your homes immediately!”

The cleanup crew got here when all the people had gone.

“Get this mess cleaned up.”

I walked away with grim satisfaction. I had a plan that the council would not be able to refuse, and that would drive the enemy into full out panic.

-Major Morvagim

6.4.3. 13:32 rm

We were on our way out of the atmosphere when I got a message from the Admiral. “Captain Phinirri,” he said, “We have rooted out their spies from the Gorohond resistance.”

“How?” I asked. Gorohond resistance fighters were notoriously difficult to discover.

“They are not the only ones with spies and double agents. We have received information that all their agents wear a device known as a Lifeline that allows them to check the vitals of their agents. We double checked on the intercepted agent, and we confirmed it. We now have the operating frequency of the device, and we used it to hunt down all the members of their resistance. We did a full cavity search to make sure we didn’t miss any little gadgets. Now we’re sending them back to the homeworld for interrogation in their birthday suits. The Gorohond have a nasty little habit of using things to start uprisings. We’re broadcasting signals that will make them think the agents are still there, and receive any plans that they have made. We can use it to throw them off-guard. In the meantime, we need you to take out their fighter bays, and hopefully keep the fighters out of our way. Copy?”

“I copy, commander.”

“Also, we have set up a barrier using modified drones. They’re orbiting the planet some distance away.  There’s hundreds of ‘em, and those’ll block any communications that they try to relay through their ships, and tell us if anybody tries to escape. They’ve armed lasers to keep them tied up till the big guns get there.”

“Yes sir.”

“Good. Move out immediately.”

We dove back towards the planet surface, at the large underground complex we could only assume was their hangar bay. If we had our way, it will soon be a junkyard.

- Cptn. Phinirri

6.4.3. 15:75

“I want all main complexes secure! I want shields on those things!”

The general was giving out orders.

“Right. That’ll be really easy. It should only take a couple of days.” I thought.

“General, why don’t we use the portable shields?”

“Because they can’t resist much fire. Especially those big guns they have on their ships.”

He did have a point. The portable shields could only support one person. And that was during a fire fight. One blast of those new cannons, and the strain on the shield would be too much, and they would both be destroyed.

“But it could take days, possibly weeks to install a shield that can hold up against that firepower. And if I’m right, we don’t have that much time.”

“Not anymore. The scientists have developed a shield that can easily install to almost anything. They will have enough made when you get there. Once you get to your assigned location, you can have it installed and running in six minutes. Install them into every major complex we have.”

“Yes sir.”

-Major Morvagim

[Notes] All throughout this story, you can sort of see Josh just sort of trying to play catchup with everything I did, although it gets very obvious in the later bits. There was a LOT of “debate” in between these segments, but they got done anyway. I hope you’re enjoying our old, amateur  attempts at writing. As you can see, Josh (writing for the Kassis) leaned towards dialogue and direct sentences, where I preferred more prose.

I’ll post one more segment next, then we’ll take a break from my old writing for a while.

Kyler’s Tale – The Last

[This is the last chapter and a half of the story as it was written. Posts will be returning to every other week after this. I hope you enjoyed this old tale.]

Kyler’s Tale – Chapter 4 (and 5!)

[Merry Non-Denominational Mid-December Holiday! Today, you get TWO chapters! At the same time! And one of them has a fight with a bear! Truly, the best holiday gifts are those that involve bear fights. Anyway...]

Kyler’s Tale – Chapter 3

Chapter Three

The wolves circled closer. In desperation, Kyler threw his sword. It did not enter the heart, but slammed lengthwise across the creature’s face. Bleeding profusely, it whimpered away, trying to lick its own wounds. The last wolf came closer. Once it saw that Kyler did not attack right away, it became confident. It knew it had him. Kyler knew it too.

Kyler’s Tale – Continued

[Chapter 2. Things progress rather rapidly, as then, and to a lesser degree now, I paced things rather quickly. Except fight scenes. Those, of course, must be told in full detail.]

Chapter Two

Later on, the rain cleared up. As he rode he tried to form a plan. He had always been a thinker. First, he had to leave to the lands south. Once there, he could think, plan, and prepare. Yes, he admitted to himself, it was a little obvious, but it gave him a priority. He liked to have his goals outlined.

Kyler’s Tale – Old Writing

Several years ago, I started a story that was not-quite-fantasy. It took place in a medieval setting, and a world separate from ours, but with no magic or other common fantasy elements. It dropped off before progressing more than a few chapters, but still had potential. I may someday revisit this, but for now, here is chapter one of the original, written when I was around 14. (other chapters to follow)

[working title was Exodus, for lack of a better name. Exile would have been more appropriate]

Prologue [setting and exposition]

In the year 650, on the world Auth, Kyler was born. He was the fifth son of the duke of Embearn, a far northern county in the far northern kingdom of Carsac. When he was ten years old, his education began. He learned from his father to ride, hunt, fight, and survive. His father always insisted on teaching his children himself. “No teacher better than their father,” He would say in his deep gruff voice. Often, under his breath he would add, “None that would come up here, anyway.” From his mother he learned to read and write. From his tutor he learned politics, diplomacy, and strategy. He was sturdily built, and tall. With his noble face, he was an inspiring sight, who men looked to naturally for leadership. He was a good leader, but he did not seek power or leadership, unlike his brothers and sister.

On his 17th birthday, he was in his quarters when the soldiers brought him to his father’s court. His uncle had been murdered, and all evidence pointed to Kyler. He was innocent, but he could not clear his name. The only thing that kept him from execution was being the son of the Duke. His mother burst into tears as his sentence was read: Exile.

Superheroes – Nelson Rydgis

Nelson Rydgis is one of the major villians in the story. One thing that generally seems unrealistic to me is where the average or morally dubious guy somehow turns evil because he has powers. (Or even hero to villian- I’m looking at you, Two-Face) I realize that a some of people probably would start committing crimes if there were to suddenly acquire power. However, most people probably would not. After all, a gun could give them the same leverage that powers might, and firearms are much easier to come by. So, barring insanity, it’s more likely a villain would already be a bad guy before gaining powers. 

Some Illustration via Photoshop

Just thought I’d share some of my favorite Photoshop work.

Animoids – Jane Castello

Jane Castello is a the second member of the Animoids corp to gain morphing powers, and the first to achieve them on purpose.