A story in progress, March 2029
I had no remorse for the Promethians. As the Xray blaster toasted a hole into the surprised leader, I watched the screen as the chaos unfolded. My breathing sped up as I feared they would rush this direction, but it looked like they scattered. I could only imagine the screams, I was 400 yards away and the sound didn’t carry that far. I hear the double beep of the xray blaster telling me its seconds away from being ready to fire again. Now its time for heavy artillery. One more check of the fire control solution, and yes it looks like many pale green citizens around that triangle building. They won’t be alive for long. I flip off the safety and hit the fire button. Three seconds. . one, two, three, and a bit kmore, then booom. After the smoke cleared, I see a handful of the men still moving, and about twenty bodies. I am not sure if the leader is one of the dead.
My next target, a flying vehicle that appears to be ready for take off. I aim into the engines, and fire. The focused xray beam takes about 100 milliseconds to weaken several turbine blades, and puff of smoke belches out the back as the engine catches fire. The spinning rotor blades slowly wobble as the transmission and engine become useless. A promethian gets out of the ruined vehicle and stares in my direction. I feel exposed, does he know my position? He walks to the wing of the plane and unlatches something. . perhaps a missile, from underneath the wing. This guy maybe trouble, I aim the xray gun at him, but it is still recharging the capacitors, I can’t shoot. He disappears into the forest.
The events that led up to this day, I reflect upon as I pack my equipment into the combat vehicle. Such noble and elegant creatures, never thought I would find the need to wage war with these things. In many ways I just want to go back to mining. I don’t want to be this contractor, hired gun for killing. Can’t have a war with just robots, that would be illegal in so many ways. Have a few of us here killing alongside the robots, and the congress and public will cause no grief. I dont take orders well, I want to be back with my synthetic and my mining rig. Yet I had my reasons and principles.
It was what, two years ago? Stopped me at gunpoint at the refueling depot, said they must inspect my vehicle for invalid biomass. Soon we were in custody. They locked me and several of my crewmates in prison, experimenting with us for what reason? Forced with hypnotic drugs, torturing and experimenting with our minds and bodies like we were lab rats. The horror of seeing my crewmates go insane, becoming derealized and depersonalized. They left me and my brain, why? They perhaps had other ideas for me? Too bad for them I escaped. And the far side prison, they killed forty miners. Couldn’t negotiate a good price for the metals, so they seized the goods and imprisoned the miners, then wiped them all out when they tried to escape. The elegant dressed fuckers, never knew they had such mysteries. Mysteries the likes of which have never been seen in the known universe, only small facts have emerged, from the dark days of the early explorations, a Promethian begging not to die because it would kill the child. A lie, just a lie until finally it all made sense, the hormones they used kept the fetus in a dormant state and not growing, and this Promethian had no hormones, and the child was growing. And then only years later to discover they have no capability to give birth, that was bred out of the lineage a long time ago. The only alien species to be found that can not reproduce without technology. And why such a dark tone during negotiations, like they did not trust us. At least they did not act like cheerful aliens of Ganda. The more I get to know them, them more it seems, at times seemed to have no conscience. Nothing held back when it came to being cruel to another race. Well we will see, maybe they haven’t dealt with a race that fights back in a few centuries. Fuck you Promethians. I turn the mech on, and head west.
I head down a sloping jungle, avoiding the large trees. The mech weaved a slow zig zag down toward the ravine. My plan was to see if any other prisoners were here, and possibly steal whatever I could take of value from these lunatics. Then I would head for the open plains, cross the hundred miles to the big canyon and stay there, make a home there. Maybe the mining federation would send a recovery team, but it’s possible that I’d be here a while on this planet. I stopped the mech. Why not just go now, leave the carnage I have done and be at peace? Nope. I will get more revenge until I can leave here with the same money I came in with. For now, a bit of sleep. I set the auto-gun alarm and engaged the CIWS into Air Ready mode. Just ten minutes?
I awake after 20 minutes, I pulled up my binoculars, unlatched myself from the mech and scanned the jungle. The air was getting heavy and darkness would be here in two hours, I thought. Only in thermal mode could I see anything past the fog in the jungle, and what appeared to be an angular building or wall was to the left of us, about 200 yards.
The building appears deserted, ornamented with curved designs near the tall door. I walk closer, holding my pistol. The door looks like it would be easy to open, but I am hesitant. I try to figure out a way to get on the roof. . .I don’t see a way unless I get the mech to lift me up. I see a small foot path leading to the north. I investigated it first, it appears not to have been used for some time. Possible Promethian footprints but also some other smaller footprints, humans? The footpath has a junction, probably one path going back to the camp I just blew up and another path up the ravine. I walk up the ravine. I hear noises ahead, coming through the jungle slowly I see a clearing, and rows of small plants. I send a drone around to the west, with intention to photograph the entire field for movements. Drone shows possible autotroph over the hill. It takes me a bit and I start to crawl at the hills apex. A few more crawling steps and I see a Promethian, sitting on a tractor as it plows the field! Wow these guys actually work. I thought they were too dignified for field work.
I decide to take the Promethian hostage. I have heard they hold family dearly, we will see. I aim my pistol at him. . .I could drop him dead for sure if the tractor stopped. I move through the trees and approach the side of the tractor. I hope this one is alone.
“Stop right there.”, I said, pointing the gun at the farmer.
The tractor stops, the alien looks at me with a tilted head and I see his lips pinch, as if he wanted to say something but he arrested his expletive. Obviously shocked to see a human, he is.
“Get off the tractor, go that way!” I say, waving the pistol in the direction of the building.
The dumb farmer looked too innocent to die, not yet anyway. I walk behind the tall alien and occasionally I notice the odd gait of his legs. I remember that these things can run, so I set my pistol to stun. He runs, he won’t be dead, he will be shocked. I hate bleeding prisoners.
“Sit down. I have some questions for you.”
The alien doesn’t understand English. He has some odd, slow mannerisms. My translator, I left it in the mobility module. I cant tell if the prisoner can hear em or not. He just keeps nodding his head when I ask a question.
************* Tips for non-fiction ********
Here are some items I copied a long time ago, regarding a good fiction story.
1) Not thinking about basic infrastructure.
2) Not explaining why events are happening now.
3) Creating fictional versions of real-life human ethnic groups, that never go beyond one dimension
4) Creating monolithic social, political, cultural and religious groups.
5) Inventing a history that is totally logical
6) Not really giving a strong sense of place, like what it smells like after it’s been raining.
7) Introducing some superpower, like magic or insane tech, without fully accounting for how it would change society.
crypto_voyage 