The Lost Planet of Ko'sstahn, where beasts with three heads and five tails roam the city streets at night, is in peril. Summoned by the Princess Kelliana, James Carver must battle dangerous and powerful foes if the day is to be saved ... A collecti...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Author's Note - My entry for the Final Round of SciFiSmackDown 8
Genre - Sword and Planet
Prompt - The Lost Planet of Ko'sstahn, where beasts with three heads and five tails roam the city streets at night, is in peril. Summoned by the Princess Kelliana, your hero must battle dangerous and powerful foes if the day is to be saved
Includes five out of ten possible quotations - in bold
I used pictures - #1 Jupiter and planets, #2, Coloured ribbons, #3 Plane against sunset and #7 Woman coming through arch, and my song choice was Pitchshifter - Please Sir.
Word total - 5602
Part One - Mars
Alpha team's six combatants waited on the hard bench opposite the plane's hatch, their bodies swaying automatically with the movement of the plane. They were all dressed in full combat gear. A rust-red bodysuit - the latest in flexible armour - with a pair of twenty centimetre high boots, and a wide utility belt, containing everything they would need in the short term for emergency survival. In addition, they each carried three photon rods on their backs, one for each hand and a spare.
The officer in charge, Lieutenant Carver, was leaning against the wall with his eyes shut. Anyone who didn't know better might have thought he was asleep.
Carly and Wilson, the two female members of the team, were focussing quietly on their wristcoms, taking the opportunity to send a last minute message to family.
Jones and Bailey were engaging in a noisy discussion of the latest holo-vid version of the old classic, Lord of the Saturn Rings, which they had both seen only a few days ago.
Each member was dealing with pre-mission adrenaline in their own way.
"What's sexier than an elf princess's sword?" asked Jones, with a snigger.
Bailey grinned. "An elf princess's-"
"That's enough!" interrupted Sergeant Barker with an impatient frown. "Have you arseholes finished mucking around? We've got a job to do!"
He activated the hatch door and peered out. Through the opening, the others could see the setting sun, distant on the horizon, the still-glowing remains of Earth looking like a companion satellite from this angle. Both were overshadowed by the broad face of Jupiter, hovering over the Martian landscape like a watchful parent. A tiny cluster of lights glimmered in the desert beneath the plane.
"There's the target. Jones, you're first. Remember, wait until we're all down before making your approach. Don't do anything stupid."
Jones shuffled forward and swung his legs out of the plane into the thin atmosphere. Moments later he disappeared, to be followed by the rest of the team in quick succession.
Just before Carver jumped, the pilot called back over his shoulder. "That's pretty funny you know. 'Don't do anything stupid'? Who the hell is he talking to? A bunch of morons who volunteered to jump out of a perfectly good airplane. Can you get any more stupid than that?" He laughed. "There aren't enough credits on Mars to get me to jump out of this plane before its safely on the ground. Are you ready, Lieutenant?"
Carver smiled briefly in response. "Stet, Ascot. I'll be clear in three, two, one ..." The next minute he was floating down toward the surface, his gravity boots directing his descent. The plane disappeared from sight, shooting up into the stratosphere having discharged its burden.
Usually Carver would be the first down, taking control, but this was a training mission for the team; the real rebels had been cleared out of here months ago. This time, he was here as an observer only.
He looked for the target and adjusted his descent slightly. The rest of the team should be on the ground by now and in their positions, ready for the mock assault on the 'enemy' outpost. If everything went as planned, they would advance and neutralise the post in less than ten minutes, without any warning and preferably without any casualties.
By the time his boots hit the sand, the sun had disappeared below the horizon and it was as dark as only a Martian night could be. Carver activated his night vision and scanned the area.
A couple of small dome shaped buildings stood about fifty metres north west. Carver could see the tall figure of Wilson keeping lookout to his left. After a second's glance in his direction, she ignored him. As an observer, he wasn't part of the operation.
He saw the back of Sergeant Barker disappearing into the nearest dome and glanced at his wristcom. Five minutes forty since Jones had left the plane. Pretty good so far.
To his surprise, Barker suddenly re-appeared in the entrance to the dome.
"Run!" he screamed.
Arcs of orange and silver light whipped through the darkness, bursting forth from the dome in a spray until they grounded themselves in the sand. What the-? Carver could only stare in horror as the photon beams sliced through Barker in multiple ribbons. He saw Wilson turning to run. She took one step before a silver arc cut her in half like a hot wire going through cheese. Both parts fell soundlessly to the sand.
How? The photon rods they'd been issued for the exercise were supposed to be dummies. They were dummies - he'd checked them himself when they were all kitting up. Which meant ... this wasn't an accident. It was a trap. The rebels hadn't been cleared out after all and the painfully negotiated cease-fire had just been broken.
They'd murdered his team in cold blood. Fucking bastards! A hooded figure firing a stream of silver light, ran toward him.
Unarmed except for a pocket knife, Carver could do nothing to defend himself. "I swear ... Fuck you!" he shouted.
