12-22-2007, 02:15 PM
_____A man was kneeling in the dry dust with the fierce Texan sun beating down upon him. The Hudson mountains surrounded him, their peaks visable all around him on the horison's line. They had stood like sentinals for hundreds of millions of years watching and waiting, unmoved by the passing of decades, centuries and millenia. The stranger's head was bowed as if in prayer and his hands gripped a rifle, the butt on the ground barrel facing the sun, as if it were a staff. It's wooden furniture had intricate carvings cut into it. The words: Judge, Jury, Executioner. They were etched into the ancient wood in a old looking font, with curling letters, each intertwined with the last. Along the barrel there where more etchings, and other twisting patterns like Ivy steming from the guns butt stretching to the foresight. I was a ancient weapon that would have looked in place in the ancinet Wild West of Earth. A heavy hood covered the mans face, the shadows concealing his face black and impenetrable. The cloak he wore was not the synth-material popular with other pilots and the rich and powerful but a coarse woven material- natural, it made him look like a shepard searching for his flock. His eyes were closed, as if he was asleep. The only indicator as to his emotions were that his eyebrows where creased into a frown. He remained kneeling, unmoving for a whole quater of a hour, like a man carved from marble. He finaly rose from the baked concrete like earth as dust swirled around him, dancing with a rare breeze. His cloak flapped out behind him but still he remained motionless, unaffected by the heat. He raised his face to the sky and opened his eyes. Whisps of cloud were racing across the sky, driven by a high altitude wind, but other than these the sky was empty. There was a sudden roar from above- a sonic boom as a ship plummeted from the heavens. The man smiled- the lord would provide. Soon the blood debt would be repayed, and the flames of purity would engulf the corruptious tumor that had destroyed the lives of so many.
_____Paul Jones was a successful ship dealer. He knew who to sell to, who to avoid, and most importantly who to make friends with. His current roster of friends included celebrated VIPs, politicians and officials in the LSF. He ran on a you scratch my back, Ill scratch yours policy: he gave them ships at a reduced price, and the police overlooked some of his more shady deals, such as perhaps the odd ship going missing and appearing in the hands of a pirate or other such trivial matters. The navy could always pick them up later when he turned his unlawful client in. He was certainly doing well all right. Soon he would be able to afford to get of the damn piece of baked rock he called- for now- home and get a fancy villa on some resort world. And if that plan didn't suit him later in life, he could always start buying up land, become a property tycoon. Paul imagined himself wearing a crown of solid gold studded with jewls standing on the battlements of a huge castle. Such dreams of grandure could wait for a later date though. There was earning the money to fund his dreams to cinsider. Ok maybe he would scrap the crown, but by hell he was gonna build that mansion!
_____He was happy; hed even got himself a new ship in celebration of the near fulfilment of his plans, a state of the art civilian class job- a Starblazer. Many laughed at his choice of ship, but he liked it. Maxed out equipment, weapons- you name it. No expense spared. Hed even splashed out, and using up some precious favours people owed him had managed to obtain a mark two armour upgrade. Hed have to test it soon are he was going to explode. He glanced out his offices window to look at his baby parked on the spaceport landing pad. Screw it. He suited up and walked out to his ship. A few minutes later the engine was running, idling, waiting for the command that would let it roar up into the inky black depths of space. He wanted to test the guns Where was something he could shoot that no-one would miss? Ah yes. He knew just the place
_____The caravan was hidden in the Hudson hills; it was a part of a much larger camp of squatters that moved constantly to throw off the police law-hounds that had been searching for them for the last few months. A woman wearing a ragged shawl sat in the shade behind it, listening to the hum and buzz of the small cricket like insects that lived in the hills alongside them. A boy stuck his head out the window and called over to the woman.
_____Mam! Mam! The Feds have found us! The woman stood up and limped over to the boy. He pointed at a spec on the horizon. It was a ship, a small lone ship. The whine of its engines broke the peace and tranquillity of the camp and panic set in. If they were found theyd be sent to one of the labour camps or arrested or separated or It was too horrible to bear thinking about. Any number of other terrible events could happen. The ship was closer now. It didn't look like it had spotted them- it wasn't heading straight for them. There was now a frenzied rush as the camps inhabitants tried to throw camouflaged netting over the caravans hulls to dull the glare from the sun and break up the large blockey objects profile.
_____A woman ran from van to van collecting children and running them over to a shallow cave at the nearby stream, just in case they were found. That wouldnt happen though. It couldnt happen. They had been running for months It couldnt end like this The ship was closer now, then it slowed and finally halted about 5 kilometres from the camps location. A hush had fallen over the camp. No-one moved, no-one spoke. The throb of the tiny crafts engines was clearly audible now- the sound of discovery, the sound of capture! The sunlight glinted off the ships view screen as it circled the camp, searching. Then it stopped again before sharply pulling up and disappearing into a wispy cloud. The settlers breathed a collective sign of relief. They were safe. Then there was a roar like a banshees shriek and the craft came plummeting down through the cloud, arcing down towards the camp. Screams broke out and a few people tried to run to the cave the children were hidden in. The ship opened fire, spitting bolts of fire and death down on the camp. Strafe after strafe it launched itself at the settlers homes. Explosion after explosion riddled the ground full of craters, flinging the caravans into the air and rolling them down the hills rocky slopes. Flames engulfed the scrubland around the camp and soon there were flames blazing. Screams of the injured and dieing filled the air, mingling with the explosions of fuel tanks cooking off. The camp was no more, a raging inferno that claimed the survivors that could not walk and beat back the walking wounded and uninjured. No-one could survive. The supplies were gone, shelter was gone, home was gone. They had had to flee once, evicted from their homes. They would have to move again their lives in shreds.
_____Paul turned his ship around and headed for home, looking back once at the blazing ground below him and the ant-like people attempting to scramble out the way of the engulfing flames. He laughed, madness glinting in his eyes. It had been fun. He had complete control over those peoples lives; he could go back and finish the job. He decided against it, it would be more fun to leave them. So what if they died. They were squatters, gypsies- they shouldnt have been there anyway. He had helped the universe, rid it of some of the wasters, the scum who fed off society. He wondered if there were any other camps he could find. Hrrrm, maybe not. He had to get back to the office and do some paperwork Like anyone cared what had just happened.
***
_____Paul Jones was a successful ship dealer. He knew who to sell to, who to avoid, and most importantly who to make friends with. His current roster of friends included celebrated VIPs, politicians and officials in the LSF. He ran on a you scratch my back, Ill scratch yours policy: he gave them ships at a reduced price, and the police overlooked some of his more shady deals, such as perhaps the odd ship going missing and appearing in the hands of a pirate or other such trivial matters. The navy could always pick them up later when he turned his unlawful client in. He was certainly doing well all right. Soon he would be able to afford to get of the damn piece of baked rock he called- for now- home and get a fancy villa on some resort world. And if that plan didn't suit him later in life, he could always start buying up land, become a property tycoon. Paul imagined himself wearing a crown of solid gold studded with jewls standing on the battlements of a huge castle. Such dreams of grandure could wait for a later date though. There was earning the money to fund his dreams to cinsider. Ok maybe he would scrap the crown, but by hell he was gonna build that mansion!
_____He was happy; hed even got himself a new ship in celebration of the near fulfilment of his plans, a state of the art civilian class job- a Starblazer. Many laughed at his choice of ship, but he liked it. Maxed out equipment, weapons- you name it. No expense spared. Hed even splashed out, and using up some precious favours people owed him had managed to obtain a mark two armour upgrade. Hed have to test it soon are he was going to explode. He glanced out his offices window to look at his baby parked on the spaceport landing pad. Screw it. He suited up and walked out to his ship. A few minutes later the engine was running, idling, waiting for the command that would let it roar up into the inky black depths of space. He wanted to test the guns Where was something he could shoot that no-one would miss? Ah yes. He knew just the place
***
_____The caravan was hidden in the Hudson hills; it was a part of a much larger camp of squatters that moved constantly to throw off the police law-hounds that had been searching for them for the last few months. A woman wearing a ragged shawl sat in the shade behind it, listening to the hum and buzz of the small cricket like insects that lived in the hills alongside them. A boy stuck his head out the window and called over to the woman.
_____Mam! Mam! The Feds have found us! The woman stood up and limped over to the boy. He pointed at a spec on the horizon. It was a ship, a small lone ship. The whine of its engines broke the peace and tranquillity of the camp and panic set in. If they were found theyd be sent to one of the labour camps or arrested or separated or It was too horrible to bear thinking about. Any number of other terrible events could happen. The ship was closer now. It didn't look like it had spotted them- it wasn't heading straight for them. There was now a frenzied rush as the camps inhabitants tried to throw camouflaged netting over the caravans hulls to dull the glare from the sun and break up the large blockey objects profile.
_____A woman ran from van to van collecting children and running them over to a shallow cave at the nearby stream, just in case they were found. That wouldnt happen though. It couldnt happen. They had been running for months It couldnt end like this The ship was closer now, then it slowed and finally halted about 5 kilometres from the camps location. A hush had fallen over the camp. No-one moved, no-one spoke. The throb of the tiny crafts engines was clearly audible now- the sound of discovery, the sound of capture! The sunlight glinted off the ships view screen as it circled the camp, searching. Then it stopped again before sharply pulling up and disappearing into a wispy cloud. The settlers breathed a collective sign of relief. They were safe. Then there was a roar like a banshees shriek and the craft came plummeting down through the cloud, arcing down towards the camp. Screams broke out and a few people tried to run to the cave the children were hidden in. The ship opened fire, spitting bolts of fire and death down on the camp. Strafe after strafe it launched itself at the settlers homes. Explosion after explosion riddled the ground full of craters, flinging the caravans into the air and rolling them down the hills rocky slopes. Flames engulfed the scrubland around the camp and soon there were flames blazing. Screams of the injured and dieing filled the air, mingling with the explosions of fuel tanks cooking off. The camp was no more, a raging inferno that claimed the survivors that could not walk and beat back the walking wounded and uninjured. No-one could survive. The supplies were gone, shelter was gone, home was gone. They had had to flee once, evicted from their homes. They would have to move again their lives in shreds.
***
_____Paul turned his ship around and headed for home, looking back once at the blazing ground below him and the ant-like people attempting to scramble out the way of the engulfing flames. He laughed, madness glinting in his eyes. It had been fun. He had complete control over those peoples lives; he could go back and finish the job. He decided against it, it would be more fun to leave them. So what if they died. They were squatters, gypsies- they shouldnt have been there anyway. He had helped the universe, rid it of some of the wasters, the scum who fed off society. He wondered if there were any other camps he could find. Hrrrm, maybe not. He had to get back to the office and do some paperwork Like anyone cared what had just happened.