| "Earth is within our reach." the General smirked. "Soon we will have all its inhabitants in our control. We have waited so long for this. Finally Earth will pay for the lives of our lost brothers!" "Sir, what is our plan of attack?" the lieutenant questioned. "Our attack will be simple. Earth has no space-based defenses. We will simply land and deploy our troops and invade. We will land the ship in this uninhabited 'blue' sector, here." he continued as he used the mighty horn atop his head to point at the map. "We have scouted the planet for many years, yet we have gained very little knowledge. We do know, however, that these 'blue' areas are undeveloped and should be useful channels with which to move around the planet." The general walked steadily on his four legs away from the map. The planetary sphere loomed spectacularly in the large window of the control deck. He didn't speak; he simply stared. He imagined how amazing this conquest would be. The Elders would be very pleased with the downfall of the "unconquerable world". So many had tried before, but none had ever returned. Everyone on the ship hoped to find their brothers still living on the planet. The battle-hardened General stood strong and proud in front of his soon-to-be capture. He was an accomplished conqueror, but none of his conquests held such beauty, prestige, and mystery. He wondered whether the Elders would rename the planet after him. "Sir, there is a large projectile quickly approaching the ship." a soldier announced, pulling the general out of his daydream. "All our readings have shown Earth has no planetary defense! Have we been fooled?" "Not sure sir. Should we defend ourselves?" "Yes, fire a warning shot and monitor its trajectory." "Yes sir." The lasers fired with a brilliant red flash. "Sir, the object has diverted course. Perhaps our warning has worked. I will continue to follow it." "Good work." After a moment a gigantic shadowy object passed well in front of the ship; it eventually fell out of view as the warship passed. The General ignored the disturbance and returned to his battle plans. "Land us here." he told his lieutenant, again pointing to the map. "We will regroup and contact the Elders from there. Then our invasion can begin." Several minutes passed, and the sphere eventually engulfed the whole window. The General grew anxious as his dreams were becoming reality. Another soldier made the announcement: "We are now moving into the atmosphere. There should be no complications unless it is an oxygen-rich atmosphere." Immediately the ship began to lurch. The General was knocked of balance and had to stumble to correct himself; yet, the ship continued to shake. "Reports are coming in!" the same voice informed, "The atmosphere is dangerous! We are too steep, and we cannot turn around. We are going to crash!" As the ship began to crumble into pieces, everyone on board braced for the imminent collision. The spaceship-turned-deadly missile trembled and shook as the tremendous forces of speed and gravity laid waste to its form. After what seemed like hours, the fireball splashed with a massive explosion into the deep blue of the terrestrial ocean. The General woke up on a strip of sand leading into a dense forest. Here on the planet, it was early morning. His head hurt. Slowly, the events of his ship's plight came back to him. He understood now why all his predecessors had failed, including his very own brother. How he had survived the crash was a mystery. Down along the beach were strewn pieces of the wreckage, but as he stared in horror at the remains of his beautiful career, he noticed another form moving among the tides and sands. Still shaking, he managed to make his way to the movement, and there he found another survivor: his lieutenant, also dazed, was looking through the rubble for anyone or anything of value. Upon seeing the General, he was overjoyed. "I'm glad to see you are alright sir, but it appears we are the only survivors," he admitted. They took a while to explore their surroundings. They had landed on a small island, amidst endless fields of blue which they now realized was water. Considering their options, the General decided they should try to reach the mainland. If they scouted out the planet and the enemy's technology, maybe there was still a way to escape this mysterious world. Their only hope was to swim for land out beyond the horizon; they hoped to find a more profitable location there. After resting and regaining their strength, they started the daunting swim. Eventually, they could barely see the beach from which they had started. In this open setting, an ominous feeling came over them. They were tired. Looking up into the sky, they observed an object hanging high above them. It was moving closer. "Sir, does that shadowy object look familiar?" the lieutenant wondered. "Yes. It is the very same." was the solemn reply. "What should we do?" Wisely, the General assessed the situation, "If we turn back now, we may be able to safely reach the beach, but if we continue, we have no idea how much farther we have to go. If it is too far, we will have no chance." In agreement, they turned around, constantly looking back at the massive apparition barreling toward the planet. They swam; fearing for their lives, they exhausted their reserves of energy. Finally nearing their destination, they heard a booming explosion; the rock had landed where they had been only minutes before. They knew the shock of the collision was approaching, and they swam faster, hoping for the safety of land. The beach awaited in front of them, while the rising wave of destruction loomed behind them. As their feet reached the ground they felt the water rising into the deadly swell. They rushed into the forest as the wave engulfed the beach, still chasing them into the depths. Yet, as they ran, the strength of the trees sheltered them from the water that rushed and swarmed around them. They had again, narrowly survived disaster. Nonetheless, they were still trapped on an unexplored world. The rested again, then began plotting for their next attempt to conquer this world, and maybe one day, go home again. |
| Unicorn Island |
| My Award for this story: |
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| Title: A picture is worth a thousand words Theme: Using the unicorn picture as a guide, write a story on how the picture came to be, or what is happening in the picture POV and tense: Third person past Genre: Humor/comedy |
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| The Unknown World |
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