The carrier has a slightly more smooth feel to it than a high stability sphere. Ophelia is one of the rare few rulers left in the galaxy that prefer carriers over Spheres. This particular carrier fleet, consisting of the new Gemini Class Carriers, was accompanied by a cruiser fleet of Star Chaser class cruisers, and was in fact the first battle fleet commissioned by the Antarans since the loss of their capital.
New Xanaphia is indeed their destination. �Notify the Star Chasers to break off and go ahead of the Gemini Vessels� Ophelia commands the bridge crew. �The cruisers will clear the path of Hurdler�s gunboat squadrons. You�ll sweep in and attack the planet as quickly as possible after the path is clear. We must be swift in our actions and land our troops before the enemy has time to send reinforcements. What are your scans showing?�
The High Commander replies, �We are showing one of Sana�s probes just outside of the system. The probe we launched earlier relayed only minimal resistance just before it was destroyed. Lets hope it didn�t give away our element of surprise.�
�Very good.� replies Ophelia. Before she can finish starting her next sentence, the officer standing at the screen interrupts, �We�re receiving a message from the Duke.� �Patch it through on my private channel.� Ophelia orders, unable to hide her excitement. She admired the Duke for his superb conquering abilities and relentless victories. She thought that perhaps now he would offer a place to conquer along side him now that she is commissioning fleets again, but would it be somewhere close enough for her to reach it.
�Halt your fleets.� The Duke politely proclaims. �I have a surprise for the unwelcome guests of New Xanaphia. I�m building a new warpnet for my spheres to reach NX. My first warpnet was discovered by Sana just before completion.� This was unquestionably good news to Ophelia. She was ecstatic. Perhaps now she would be apart of a much bigger victory than she could have imagined, as it was a gamble if she went in by herself.
Ophelia orders her fleets to hold their positions, returning to the bridge display screen. �It looks like we�ll be the reinforcements this time around. It appears that we weren�t the only ones with big plans for our home world, Commander. We won�t be going in alone...............................
The father was standing with his son as they gazed through the thick glass window. Most space stations have long since switched to the micro-threaded window materials, but the upper public decks had an elegant look to their windows in an attempt to impress the foreigners and perhaps persuade them to stay. They were looking at the shipyard that was about a thousand meters out, not at the colony ship in the next furthest shipyard that everyone was talking about, but at the star cruiser in the nearest yard.. He could remember that the construction was the deciding factor for choosing to take his vacation here instead of to the Holyland.
He had always been fascinated by warships, a fascination that was passed on to his son. Though being an Antaran indeed meant that he was given at least a basic education of fighting, he himself had never been on a major military campaign. He had only been on the antique warships when he was a child. Those ships were destroyed when they were recommissioned for the battle that destroyed the Antaran Planetary Defense Fleet.
The crimson cruiser being built, the Star Chaser, is to be the escort for the colony ship, which is the pilgrimage to the metallic planet. It is the only ship class that can keep up with the transports. Upon arrival the Star Chaser will then begin patrolling the transport route between New Xanaphia and the freshly established mining colony. Though his world is a very peaceful one, the Antarans are not known for being caught off guard. If everything wasn�t so peaceful on New Xaniphia they�d probably have their shipyards further from the space stations.
The higher ruler promptly gave the order to have Theaznfishy's colony removed from New Xanaphia before he could initiate a local uprising. The ruler then turned to Ophelia and suggested that she be the one to eradicate this disappointing threat.
The ruler at the table and Ophelia had previous dealings that went wrong due to logistics errors that caused the economic gain to go to him instead of her. Ophelia had no ill feelings about that, but appreciated the sentiment, and she has never questioned an executive order.
She was anxious about showing off her newly revamped homeworld fleet. Her Royal Guards have even recently added a regiment to the fleet. For all of these reasons, Ophelia promptly accepted the suggestion to conquer Theaznfishy's colony.
The Antaran HighGuard seems to have lead the assault, having taken most of the casualties. No credit is taken away from the other branches...Natalyan Mercenaries (Natalya being the capital of the Antarans and mercenaries being mostly people who didn�t want to adhere to the military�s regulations), Antaran Reserves, Antaran Elite, and the Empress� Personal Guards.
It is the military�s job to kill. It is the government�s job to lead. It is the people�s job to mourn. It is the leader�s job to take the blame. We will not overlook the casualties of Theaznfishy�s citizens. We are holding a memorial service at Natalya for both the Antaran soldiers and Port Royal�s citizens. Apparently Port Royal had an impressive entertainment industry. Any mistreatment of captured Port Royal Civil Defense Soldiers will be dealt with by Ophelia personally.
The deep exploration vessel had been traveling though space looking for new civilizations to interact with for so long that the vessel was starting to make strange noises. It was obsolete to say the least. It�s crew, including some of the most renowned Antaran diplomats, had almost forgotten what home looks like. They were yet to come across any civilization to establish relations with.
It was one of the most interesting endeavors that the Antaran government had indorsed. The concept was to launch a long range vessel supported by a very large fleet of long range warships from the outer most colony in the core to travel as far and as fast as possibly conceivable. Most civilizations would declare it a pointless endeavor.
They were examining a world very far from the nearest Antaran colony, the exploration vessel having advanced research labs and scientists that couldn�t resist such opportunities, when the vessel received a long range transmission stating that war had broken out, and with the worst possible enemy.
It wasn�t long after receiving the message that their diplomatic exploration mission would go terribly wrong. They were being redirected to a set of coordinates that was way off course, yet within one long jump from their current position. The coordinates turned out to be what all of them were too afraid to acknowledge in their fore thoughts. They were the coordinates of Don Julio�s home world.
Being Antarans, they still had an underlying sense of duty from the ancient days of when they were a hive. That didn�t necessarily help the tension. They all knew that it was a suicide mission and that none of them would get out of it alive.
When they arrived they confidently broke through the system�s blockade. The crew quickly gathered the requested reconnaissance information that they were ordered to retrieve. They were ready to leave the system. They were expecting to see the end coming at any moment, so they set the communications relay to a steady stream and headed straight towards the planet like some kind of oversized reconnaissance probe. Time didn�t exist anymore. They were all in a mixed trance of fear duty and aggression. They instinctively turned to leave the planet once they had completed the task, when suddenly one of the diplomats looked out his bay window with a newly reborn twinkle in his eye. �The station!� he yelled. The bridge crew turned to look at him. �The station! Lets blow up the station! To hell with it!� The bridge crew all turned to look at one another, and with an air of insanity they all started to turn the vessel without saying a word. They all just had that sh*t eating smirk that only a crazy person can have.
It was all a blur after that. They were waiting around for their own destruction after the second station was destroyed and finally gathered themselves. Today was not the day to die. They quickly evacuated the system and headed into open space. The exploration vessel and the 20 accompanying cruisers were changed forever. They were now warrior diplomats.
Above the planets so calm and fluid,
below the surface of bombs and ruins,
something a shivering miner once thought he�d seen,
is God watching over him through a giant screen
Like something you swear you�d dreamed before,
this universe of factions at war,
draws you in like an endearing whore,
it draws you in and locks the door
You�ve nurtured it and watched it grow,
Sana comes along and down it goes,
your roommate says it�s time to go,
that�s when you suddenly know,
to kick them out for their untimely act,
because nothing will keep you from your warfacts
Like a beloved child you�ve raised from birth,
until it�s so complex and far beyond earth,
so many hours and sleepless nights,
so many devoured in needless fights,
My child is reborn from the womb of NX,
languidly, meticulously, it retakes it�s first steps,
at the top of the universe staring through the screen,
my glory will come for all to see
Zoom in and see for a split second, the life of one of my citizens (a cargo transport family).
WARNING: Slightly dismal and depressing, and possibly boring...
�I�m leaving again tomorrow. I won�t be back until April.� The son listened as his father spoke those mundane words that seemed to give away the meaning of life. You work so hard that you don�t have time to enjoy what you earn. If you�re lucky enough to find a job that pays enough for you to have nice possessions it means that you�ll be away from your comfortable family more than you�re around them. His father continued, �If you need anything from me then take it now because it�ll be spring before I�m able to help you again. Stay out of trouble, be careful, and take care of what needs to be done.� He looks at the ground and scrapes some gravel around with his feet as he avoids eye contact with his father. He�s afraid that his father will notice the insanity in his eyes and regret what his son has become, even though his heart is filled with the deepest of humble love, honor, and respect for his father.
He tried traveling with his father on the cargo transport about six years ago. It�s the typical �hurry up and wait� job. It�s not particularly hard work, and it pays better than almost all jobs because anything dealing with resources is regulated by the government, and anything government regulated pays well. You can leave your home for three months and come back with enough money to either live for the rest of the year or have a six month long party with your friends. He chose the latter three times in a row. He discovered the fault in overendulgence of high morale. That�s why he�s currently insane.
Now he sits in his chamber of insanity, with his life intervaled with the coming and going of his father, watching the evening news flashes stating, �transport postponed due to unstable weather at the mines�. He is haunted by the image of his aging father working his life away while regreting all of the lost time that he should have spent with his son, knowing that that same fate will befall himself.
WARNING: This story is from a society that has legalized narcotics and contains narcotic consumption, hallucinogen consumption, and references to drug use.
As I walked into the entrance corridor my instant impression was utter insanity. Too many loud sounds and distracting visuals for someone to be able to keep their composure, especially if they ingested the amount of frictide that my companion and I have eaten on the way to the space station. We had picked up the frictide at Natalya on the surface, along with enough narcotics to have the entire star system�s law enforcers chasing after us.
Even though the narcotics are legal in most places, and are allowed on the station because this particular station regulated by the Natalyans, the potency and volume of what we possessed was in contempt of at least fourteen separate laws.
The stimuli in the corridor was overwhelming. I couldn�t help but notice a strange alien being strolling along the side next to the shops. I couldn�t tell if his outfit was actually that absurdly colored or if I was merely hallucinating. He was definitely on to us, but he has probably seen this sight a thousand times. Hell, he�s probably trippin�, himself. I blacked out after that and came to on the second floor balcony that was overlooking the entrance. My friend didn�t seem alarmed so I must have simply subconsciously walk upstairs.
Before I finish the story you must realize that this is not the normal behavior of your normal god fearing narcotics user. We were pushing it to the limits. This was a highlight in our lives that would never be reached again, at least not in this direction.
In my trip-logic, it felt as if I was inside of a living breathing entity, that the space station was alive. My sense of proportion was all messed up. I was larger than the station itself, suddenly expanding to where the station was inside of me, but at the same time I shrank to the tiniest speck of dust on the floor. Every time this would happen it would make me loose my step and my friend would have to catch me, or at least I think he did.
Looking over at my friend, I could see that he was in no better shape. His eyes have a very serious and concerned look on his face, but as with me, he keeps shifting to intense euphoria. I can only makes guesses as to what exactly is going on inside his head. He never really speaks much. It almost looks as though he is in his element, he�s right where he had always belonged.
That�s when I realize that I�m getting that same feeling of belonging and peace at the same time. I think the narcotics are kicking in, right when I was beginning to think that this was a dangerous mixture of mind boggling hallucinogens and narcotics.
Neither of us could have expected what happened next. This heavy hand grabbed my shoulder and pulled me to the side. My friend didn�t even need to be grabbed. He twisted around and stumbled towards me and the officer as though he was sucked into a vortex created by the sudden change in momentum. Right at the worst of times I fell into an uncontrollable pattern of movement. I couldn�t stop my body from moving all around, and it seemed to be getting stronger. My feet were firmly planted, yet my upper body was swaying violently as if it was a tree caught in a severe storm.
God knows what I must have looked like. I played it off like it wasn�t even happening. I started to talk, feeling that silence would only confirm our condition. Before any words left my mouth I realized what a terrible idea trying to speak would be. Silence was indeed the best route. So we both stood there in front of these three very large security people as they looked us over and talked on their communicators. It felt like an eternity had passed just standing there. I was too far under the influence to realize exactly what they were saying, or even if they were saying it to us or not.
I didn�t even care where I was at that point. A holding cell would be just as much fun as our ever-elusive lodging room. That�s when it happened. I felt this unholy cramping in my stomach. Before I realized what was going on my sphincter clinched closed, as tight as a bear trap. I needed a bathroom immediately. I was going to sh*t on myself. Oh God not now, not in front of the security officers, not on a balcony in front of a corridor of the finest space hookers in the galaxy. I felt as if we were on display in front of the entire space station. The guards were using us as an example.
Suddenly, without further warning, my ass exploded. I could feel the watery chunks filling my pants. For all I know, shitlets are squirting out through the back of my pants. I feel the warm brownness running down the back of my legs. With all of my remaining consciousness I was finally able to mutter out some words. My voice modulation was off. I actually ended up yelling it straight at the officers, �Someone put shit in my pants!� The officers looked at one another and went about their business.
My friend and I seemed to be on the same level and both scurried up to our rooms uneventfully. It wasn�t until we made it inside that I realized that I had only thought that I had shit myself. I had imagined the entire thing. My friend turned to me and asked, �Did you see how hot those three chicks were that pulled us to the side? I think they were trippin� too.� �Hot!?�, I replied, �CHICKS??!!� �Holy F*ck�, I thought to myself. They weren�t security officers at all. They were probably just trying to talk to us. �We need to go back down there. We need to find them.�
To be continued...
The older brother, Nathan, was sitting on the vault toilet in the wilderness park. It was one of those toilets like a portable outhouse except it has a manhole behind it where the rotting cesspool can be drained once a year. Nathan was in deep thought about the nomadism of his family because of the high unemployment rate on his planet. They would simply move to another planet but it takes money to start a new life and that was money that they simply didn�t have. They were struggling to survive on scraps as it was.
Now they were in the middle of a god forsaken desert while their father slaved away in a copper mine. They took showers with canisters of water set in the sun throughout the day so they could have warm water with which to take showers in their make shift shower at the end of the day.
Suddenly, his thoughts were broken by a loud thump. He was about to disregard it when he heard it again. With the business at hand unfinished, he decided it was best to investigate the source of the sound. He steps outside to see his brother, baring that sh*t eating grin as he rolled a massive rock over with a loud thump. It was too heavy to simply roll with ease and the flat shape of the rock made it that much more difficult to move.
Intrigued by what would inspire his brother to try so hard to move this small boulder, he walked over to him and asked him what was so damned funny. Adam, the younger brother, explains his plans to terrorize the vault toilet by pushing it into the manhole behind the outhouse. At first Nathan was disappointed in his brother�s choice of recreation, then succumbs to curiosity and remembers his battling of boredom, gives in and helps him maneuver the rock to the vault toilet.
Once they finally made it to the target, Nathan, being the older, wiser one of the two, takes many extra steps back. Adam struggles to push the boulder down into the hole containing everything unholy and bile, everything that you never want to come in contact with, smell or even see.
Nathan was checking the surroundings to make sure that noone was around to foil their plans. Noone was ever in the park during the week though. On the weekends the park was full of thousands of immigrant holding some kind of weekly festival, all using that same toilet. That same toilet and the bile nightmare that lies beneath, baking in the hot desert sun day after day and cooling off night after night, getting a little more full each weekend by a thousand immigrant and their questionable food.
A little sense came to Adam right before he committed that final push. He decided that it wouldn�t be smart to be that close to the entertaining disaster that was about to occur. He positioned the boulder to where it was tinkering on the edge of the hole that the heavy rock was barely able to fit it�s hulking mass into. He promptly found a very long limb to use as a pushing stick. He could barely push hard enough to move the boulder because he was overcome with laughter at the thought of a thousand immigrants having no choice but to use a sh*t and p*ss soaked bathroom because it was the only one in the camp.
The rock flips into the hole. It seems to the two brothers that an eternity goes by. Time has now slowed down for the siblings. SMACK.. KATHUMP... SPLOOOOOSSSHHHH... The two brothers are paralyzed with laughter as a giant finger of the Sh*tgod towers above the earth from beneath the ground, and the outhouse shakes fervently from the impact. Adam�s expression suddenly changes and Nathan�s eyes widen as the giant finger of the Sh*tgod crashes down to crush Adam, straight at him. Adam think�s to himself, �We�ve angered the Sh*tgod.� �RRUUUUNNNNN!�� Nathan screams for his brother�s sake.
Adam looks back over his shoulder. Still in slow motion, he see�s a rotating blob of brownness, of liquid sh*t inches from his face. Nathan is again paralyzed by laughter, falling on the ground, unable to breath from laughing so hard. Every time that Adam would lift up his foot to take his next step with his quickly moving feet, a blob of liquid sh*t would take it�s place within the same moment.
Once the tower fell, Adam collapses in laughter. Definitively, the funniest moment of their lives. Suddenly, their laughter was broken by facial expressions of utter horror. The smell hit them. The smell of ten thousand bowl movements, that had been consistently baked and cooled on a daily basis, and had now been stirred and splattered onto the ground. It burned their faces and scorned their minds.
Two days later, three hundred yards away at their campsite, the sound of flies could be heard and the hellish smell still stained the air. The two siblings were watching the local native make his semi-daily cleaning rounds in the campground. He grabbed a bucket of cleaning solution and unexpectedly walked towards the toilet. He opened the door, quickly turned around letting it slam shut, and walked away with this sad look on his face, without cleaning the toilet.
The ground shook. The shaking wasn�t stopping, and almost sounded like a giant heart beat. Nathan, having studied military subjects thoroughly, had his suspicions. None the less, it took them by surprise to see a Global Class Assault Mech lumbering through the trees at surprising speeds. They were supposed to be slow. That�s what they were always told anyway. It was going so fast that if they had to move out of it�s way they wouldn�t have been able to do so.
It wasn�t concerned with the brothers. It was going to the city, over fifty miles away. They could hear others far in the distance. Adam asked, �What are they doing practicing this far out?� Nathan answered, � They�re not practicing, and that�s not ours.� They heard another noise, but this one was more like a thunder, getting louder with each moment. �Come on, we have to go into the cave, now!� Nathan was studying to go to officer�s school when he completed his current courses, so he had a good idea about what was going on.
�What about dad�, asked Adam. �He taught us to survive. Lets do what he taught us to do now. That�s what he would want us to do. Lets just survive the next hour, then we�ll worry about what to do next........
Their legs try to freeze as they run up the mountainside. They couldn�t seem to move fast enough, like something from a terrible nightmare. They cath a soldier�s eye.
Nathan quickly grabs a rock and throws it at the soldier�s face with a force so strong that his whole body acts as a lever and he falls forward to the ground. Without hesitation, he gets up, tripping towards him and gives the soldier no time to react as he bashes his face over and over again with the rock.
�Caveman style� he thought in the back of his mind. Their father would always tell them that the only thing that would save their lives in the worst of situations was if they were willing to be meaner than their enemy. Who was willing to go further? Do it caveman style.
They quickly capitalized the situation by stripping him of his gear and dragging the battered body up into the small cave. Now they had weapons, armor, and could hear the enemies communications, if only they spoke the same language. Adam, often noticing what noone else realizes, thinks to check the body for a transponder. That would surely spell bad news for the two brothers and their newly found safe haven.
The bad situation just became worse. There, flashing on the inside of his armor chest plate, was the object that might foil their successful escape. If they simply crush the transponder it could even quicken the effect of a squadron searching for their fallen companion. Someone was surely in some kind of command module monitoring the locations of the soldiers. What if it recorded the last known position of the trooper.
In the past the siblings had tried to bend reality by debating trippy theories. One such theory was about soldiers invading a foreign land. It involves the power of belief and common concensus. The invading soldiers would be on such a high that they wouldn�t only feel ten feet tall, they would actually become ten feet tall. They would become giants, and would be able to crush the enemies skull with one blow. This indeed would have a negative morale effect on their enemies. As their enemies started to give in to the belief, it would make the invaders� belief even stronger, and they would become even larger. The more people you have in one place believing that something is true, the more true it becomes.
There was no glory or glamor in what they�ve witnessed in the past long thirty minutes. They�ve seen the brutal truth. Their entire world had changed, and nothing would be the same from now on. They could only hope that the enemy was saving the Infantry Assault Mechs for the cities. Six feet tall, razor sharp swords extending from their left arms, with a thirty mm machine gun in the other, unleashed en masse........