Short Stories Of The Mind

The Child of Mars

Mars, the red planet of our solar system. For many years, humanity has been seeing it from a distance, until the year 2050 Now the human population of Mars is around fifty thousand individuals. The council of humanity had sent all of the homeless and any volunteers from where to Mars with the promise of work and homes for each and everyone of them. But there was a select few who became the "police of Mars", those who keep the peace for the council, in order to save money and resources. They are known as the gunslingers. Those who are highly trained and are great gunslingers can shoot a grape about a mile away.
Royce Tiller was once a gunslinger, who traveled from settlement to settlement dealing with those who broke the law or abandoned their assigned jobs. He is six foot two, long black hair that went to his shoulders, blue and hazel eyes, and a scar that goes across his neck this is really straight forward. For, you see, one time, before he was a gunslinger, Royce got attacked by some gangsters and they tried to slit his throat, it didn't work. After twenty years of being a gunslinger, he has retired and took his family to a small house out next to a cliff.
Thanks to his old job, Royce earned enough water to keep his family hydrated for around thirty years. He had a name or a title while he was a gunslinger, the reaper, the man with no fear and never brought them back alive. After Royce retired he placed everything: his equipment, his uniform, everything that was part of his old life inside of a box and placed them in a grave with a tombstone with the name Reaper carved onto it. For that man was dead, and now only Royce remains. Now he lives as a farmer, taking care of his crop and livestock with his wife Taunya and his daughter Ophelia.
"Good morning, honey, did you sleep well?" Taunya said as she cuddled with Royce underneath the covers on their bed.
"I slept okay, probably going to head into town to buy some aspirin for my head," Royce said, as he started to rub his head.
"Okay. Could you also get a birthday present for Ophelia while you're there?" Taunya asked as Royce got up and began to dress for the day. Taunya is around five foot seven with long brown hair and light blue eyes.
" 'Course," Royce said before grabbing about two dozen hydro-cubes. Hydro-cubes are tiny metal cubes that contain clean water. He soon placed all of them into a satchel on his sand strider, a beast genetically created for long distance travel on mars.
"Daddy, daddy!" Ophelia yelled as she came running out of their house with a big smile on her face. She was still in her night gown as she came out the door.
"Hey baby girl, why're you up so early?" Royce asked as he lifted Sera up as she ran into his arms.
"Because I didn't want to miss you leave again," Ophelia said. She was four foot nine and had long brown hair with blue and hazel eyes.
"Well okay, now go back inside and make sure to help your mother with the morning chores," Royce said as he set her back down. "And if you're good, I'll bring you a treat, how does that sound?"
"Don't worry, you can count on me," Ophelia said before giving Royce a huge hug. "I love you, daddy."
"I love you too, now off you go, those chores won't do themselves," Royce said as he watched Ophelia run back inside the house. Once she was back inside, Royce mounted his Sand Strider and started his journey to the nearest town. After Royce was on top of a nearby hill, he looked back at his home and at his wife and daughter as they enter the garden. He also looked to see that the sentries are still doing their job, since the Sand Strider isn't the only genetic monstrosity on this planet, but it is one of the few pleasant ones.
But little to his knowledge, someone was watching both him and his home from a distance, waiting for the right moment. Once they saw that he was far enough away, about a dozen bandits charged towards the homestead, ready to take whatever they wanted.Meanwhile, Royce was about to head back home after buying the aspirin and a pendant for Ophelia.
"Is it a weird feeling Royce? Not being a gunslinger anymore," the shopkeeper asked before Royce could leave.
"A little, but I like the quiet that comes with it," Royce said looking back.
"Well say 'Hi' to your family for me," the man said, knowing that he needs to get back home.
"Don't worry, I will," Royce said before exiting the building and riding back towards his home. But as he got closer and closer, he noticed that something isn't right so he began to ride faster until he saw his house on fire.
"Tanya...Ophelia!" Royce yelled as he rode his Sand Strider as fast as it could possibly go towards the burning house. As soon as he was in front of his house, he jumped off of his beast, and fell to his knees next to the body of his dead wife.
"Tanya... my beloved wife," He takes her into his arms, and embraces her tightly. Tears flow down his cheeks as he holds her and that was when he notices some footprints in the dirt leading away from the burning building. Royce then goes to bury Tanya and looks over at Reaper's grave and clenched his fists in anger.
"If Ophelia is alive, I'll find her and end the ones who did this," Royce then begins to unbury the box of his gunslinger gear. He then opens it and sees a pistol inside a holster on a belt of bullets that glowed bright blue. For these bullets are made out of hardened plasma. After Royce changed into his gunslinger uniform and collected his gear, he activated a holoball. It flew into the air and scanned the area and began to create a holographic simulation of recent events.
He saw as the attackers invaded their home and Tanya tried fighting back with the sentries but the men deactivated the sentries and shot her in the heart. Then they went to Ophelia and used energy bands to tie up her ankles, knees, and her wrists behind her back. Once she was restrained, they took some of the remaining energy bands and placed them over her mouth, so she would be quiet. Then, they stuffed her inside of a crate and rode off. Now the hunter has his prey. Royce thought to himself after the holoball was done with its simulation.With the anger of a hundred men, Royce road out following the tracks of the attackers, hoping against all hope that Ophelia was still alive. He soon noticed that the tracks led back to the town Royce bought his aspirin from. When Royce entered the town he found two large creatures standing in front of the town's tavern that wasn't there before. He recognised them as Crested Steeds, another creature made for humans on mars.
They were designed to travel farther and longer in the desert than the Sand Striders but they are much slower and less agile. Royce then tied his Sand Strider to a wooden pole and grabbed his pistol and checked his shell count. He carried around three dozen rounds on his belt and eight inside his gun. Once he knew that he had enough bullets, Royce placed his gun back in its holster and entered the bar. Everyone stopped what they were doing and stared at Royce in surprise and shock, for the reaper had returned.
"Who rode in on those Crested Steeds?" Royce asked not looking at anyone in particular. He then walked up to the bar and asked for a beer as me tossed the bartender two hydrocubes. As Royce waited for his beer he turned in his seat towards the rest of the customers.
"Tell me who rode on those creatures, or else I'll start shooting some knees," Royce glared towards them as he placed his right hand over the gun at his right hip.
"Now reaper, I don't want any trouble," The bartender said as he handed Royce his beer.
"Then tell me who rode on those creatures, now," Royce pulled his gun out and pointed the barrel right underneath the mans chin. The man soon slowly took his left hand and pointed to two men sitting in the corner of the room. One of them quickly drew his pistol; the worst mistake he could've made. Royce moved even faster than the attacker and shot him into his hand. The bullet travelled completely threw his arm and out the back of his shoulder.
"AAAH, MY ARM!" The man falls to the ground, clutching his right arm in pain. As he was on the ground, the other man started to run for the door. Royce took aim and fired but missed and hit the wall. He watched as the man rode his beast out of town and then went back inside to deal with his "friend".
"Now then, you'll either talk willingly or painfully, either way, I'm gonna get what I want. So start talking," Royce then grabbed the man's injured arm and began to squeeze. The man began to scream in pain.
"We were hired to do a job and if we did it, then we'd be paid with enough water to last us four lifetimes each," The man managed to say through the pain in his arm.
"Who hired you guys to kill my wife and take my daughter?"
"I can't tell you, they'll kill me if I tell you," The man looked into Royces eyes in pain and in fear. Royce then pulls out his pistol and places the barrel on the man's forehead.
"You have ten seconds to tell me, or your brains will paint the wall," Royce then began to count down from ten, nine, eight.
"No please," The man begged, not wanting to die.
"Seven, six, five," Royce then cocked the hammer back and prepared to fire.
"Alright, it was a woman from the council, she hired us to take your daughter but your wife got in the way,"
"Where did your friends take her?"
"To the airfield, where they make transactions of supplies and natural resources," Royce then stood up and then took aim. "Wait, you said you'd spare me if I answered your questions,"
"No I didn't," That was when Royce put a bullet through the man's head and watched as his body laid limp on the floor of the tavern. He then holstered his gun and began to walk out of the tavern but stopped and looked at the bartender in the corner of his eye.
"For your troubles," Royce tossed five hydrocubes to the bartender and then left to his Sand Strider.
"You can't go to the airfield all by yourself," someone said from around the corner.
"Hello Davison, and why not?" Royce turned his head and saw the shopkeeper who sold him the flowers and aspirin.
"It is heavily guarded by not only earth troopers but also by Silver Devils," Silver Devils are another genetic mutation made to be used as war machines, around the size of a small rhino and two times meaner.
"Then what would you suggest?" Royce was hoping that he wasn't going to say let Ophelia go.
"Let me and the other gunslingers help you," This turn of events shocked Royce, he didn't think that the gunslingers really helped one another.
"I know you were one of the best gunslingers that's ever been on mars, but that was forty years ago,"
"I'm a gunslinger, and I will always be a gunslinger till the day I die," Davison then pulled out his old pistol and looked at it in his hands. "Let me do one last good deed before I die,"
"Alright, but how will we get the other gunslingers?" Royce almost never saw another gunslinger, but when he did, one of them got in trouble for trespassing into their protection zone. For all gunslingers have their own zones or pieces of land that they do their work in. More often than not, when one trespasses into another's land, one of them ends up dead. Davison then grabbed a flare gun and shot into the air. The flare exploded in a ball of red and purple fire, hundreds of feet in the air.
"That's how, now come on, we have a little girl to save," Davison then took the Crested Steed of the dead man in the tavern and the two of them rode into the desert. As they waited on the edge of a large canyon side, Royce and Davison soon saw an army of gunslingers riding various animals towards them. One of them rode closer to them on the back of another Sand Strider, similar to the one that Royce rode.
"Are you the ones who shot the flare?" The man asked as he looked at both Royce and Davison.
"Yes, it was us," Davison looked back at the rider in his usual calm and confident demeanor.
"Why?" Another gunslinger asked as she rode closer on the back of a Dune Shadow. Pretty much mars equivalent of a tiger.
"Because I need the help of all the gunslingers to get my daughter back," Royce said as he rode a bit closer.
"Who took her?" the woman asked as she became just a little bit curious.
"The council, she'll be taken off world at the airfield," All of the gunslingers started to talk amongst themselves, not sure if they should help or not.
"So you expect us to risk our lives, defy the rule of the council, all to save one little girl," The woman asked, sounding a little mad. Royce nodded, getting a feeling of doubt about receiving their aid in his fight.
"Then we are with you," He looked back up at them in shock, they'll actually help him out.
"Why?" Royce had to know their reason.
"Because you are one of us, a gunslinger... besides, spitting into the eyes of the council will make for a good laugh all across Mars," a good portion of the gunslingers started to laugh at the thought of them defying the council.
"Well then, let's ride," Royce said with a big smile on his face.
Meanwhile, at the airfield, two large transport ships were taking huge crates of water off as the men from Mars began to give them boxes of natural resources onto them. Then the people who took Ophelia started to bring a smaller crate that contained her.
"What is this?" one of the crew members asked.
"Something that the council wanted," the crew member looked at the crate in confusion but let them pass nonetheless. But then the ground began to shake beneath their feet.
"What is it? A Quake Digger?" asked one of the crew members.
"No, gunslingers," they soon saw the army of gunslingers charging towards them on their various beasts and armed with their different types of guns and pistols.
"Battle formations," yelled a general as all of the security loaded all of their weapons and prepared to unleash the Silver Devils upon their enemies.
"Hurry, get that brat onto the ship and get her back to earth, we'll deal with these rebels," said one of the kidnappers towards one of the crew members.
"TAKE AIM GUNSLINGERS!" Every single one of the gunslingers then pulled out their pistols and took aim towards the army of troopers.
"FIRE!" That was when both sides began firing almost everything they had at each other. Plasma bullets flew through the air only stopping when they found their marks.
"RELEASE THE DEVILS!" The general said to the handler of the silver devil's right before they opened around six dozen cages, each one containing five devils. All of the monstrous creatures broke from their containers and charged at the hoard of gunslingers. Royce saw them coming and put his pistol away and then pulled out his shotgun out of his saddle and began to load it with around twelve rounds. Once he was ready he saw a devil coming right at him; Royce took aim and waited for it to get closer and once it was in range, he shot a bullet right between its eyes and into its brain.
The wall of beasts smashed into the army of gunslingers, their huge tusks skewered beasts and riders alike. That was when Royce saw one gunslinger riding a Saber Fang, the genetically enhanced version of earth's lions.
His Saber Fang was slashing and tearing at the necks of any of the Silver Devils near it. It was fast enough to dodge any of their attacks and get close enough to kill its enemies. Amongst the chaos, Royce soon saw a way for him to get behind enemy lines. As his Sand Strider began to ride in the direction he needed, Davison was not too far behind him.
They soon snuck behind the enemy's line of defense and began searching for Ophelia. Royce looked in all the boxes they came across but none of them contained his daughter. That was when he looked up and saw the crate that was in the hologram simulation being put into a transport ship. As he began to run towards the crate, not letting it out of his line of sight, Royce reloaded his pistol and took aim at the closest person that was in his way. Davison was shooting around Royce once he saw where he was going and just followed his lead. The two of them soon became completely surrounded by about two dozen thugs, some of them were the ones who took Ophelia.
"Any last words?" Said the lead thug as he took aim.
"Yeah, duck," then out of nowhere a large bat like creature fell from the sky and landed on a few of the thugs. Before the others could react, the creature smacked most of them with its long powerful tail and snatched a few others in its massive jaws. Royce went running to the lead thug, he then got him into a headlock and stuffed the barrel of his gun into the guy's mouth.
"This is for my wife," then Royce shot the gun and the bullet went out the back of the thugs head. After he dropped the man's body to the ground, Royce looked up and saw the rider on the great flying beast. The man smiled and tilted his hat towards Royce before taking his sniper rifle and began to fire at the people around Ophelia's crate. Once it was all clear, Royce ran up to the crate and opened it. When he saw Ophelia sitting inside the crate he untied her and gave her a huge hug.
"I'm so glad you're okay," tears began to roll down his cheeks. "Now come on, we gotta get out of here," Royce grabbed Ophelia's hand and began to run back towards his Sand Strider. Davison gave both of them covering fire from the top of a nearby crate.
"DAVISON COME ON!" Royce yelled once they were on his beast.
"GO! Take her home," Davison gave them a smile and a wink before turning back around and continue to shoot at the thugs that seemed to just keep coming. Royce knew he had to leave him, so he rode his Sand Strider as fast as he could and shot a signal flare into the air to signal a retreat. All of the remaining gunslingers started to fall back towards the direction from where they came. While Davison continued to shoot, until the general fired him twice in the chest.
"You old fool, any last words before you die?" The general asked as he walked up towards Davison.
"Yeah, play with fire, you're gonna get burned," then bombs began to explode all around them and all of the sensitive materials made even bigger explosions until the whole airfield was covered by an enormous mushroom cloud.
All of the gunslingers were back at the canyon from where they all gathered, their numbers cut almost in half from the battle. But they were soon visited by a little communication drone that created a holographic silhouette of a woman.
"Congratulations to your accomplishments gunslingers, very unexpected of all of you," Royce held Ophelia close to his body and only glared at the hologram.
"What did you want with her?"
"Exactly what we got, for you see your daughter is very special, and now that we don't need her anymore... there is no reason for her to continue living," soon a dart was shot into Ophelia's neck and she began to choke on her own blood.
"Ophelia? OPHELIA!" Royce rubbed her hair as she became limp and watched as the life left her eyes. When she was finally dead, Royce stood up and glared at the hologram with his fists clenched so tightly that they turned white.
"Goodbye mister Tiller," the hologram shut off and the device flew into the sky. Royce fell to his knees and held Ophelia in his arms and began to cry.
"Don't worry Royce, you won't be going to earth alone," he turned and looked at the remaining gunslingers, all ready to bring justice back to earth. Royce took Ophelia back to where their home once was and buried her next to her mother and created a grave for both Royce Tiller and Davison. He then looked up to the sky towards earth and then looked back to the army of gunslingers.
Epilogue
Back on earth a woman was walking down a dark hallway and entered a laboratory. She walks up to a scientist who was taking notes on something that he was observing in the testing center.
"Is it almost ready?" The woman then looked into the testing center as people were being thrown through the air by something.
"It's almost ready, true it would've gone faster with the original specimen here but it's going at a steady pace,"
"Good, those gunslingers are going to need to see what science can truly do,"
"Don't worry when this is perfected, those gunslingers will become a thing of the past," the scientist then pulls up a holographic file called Project Aurora. "This project will allow us to create the perfect human being... immune to disease, increased healing, increased senses, strength, speed, and intelligence_"
"Everything for the perfect army," the woman said as she continued to watch soldiers get killed left and right. The one who was fighting all of the people in the testing center was none other than, Ophelia Tiller. No matter how many people they threw at her, she would just push back even harder.
"See how she does against one of her siblings," the woman said to the scientist before he pushed a few buttons allowing a nearby door to open. What came out was a fusion of Ophelia and a Praying Mantis. It was around twelve feet tall, the exoskeleton was all black except for the joints. The beast roared at Ophelia before charging at her. She ran towards it and grabbed a nearby knife and slid underneath the beast. Once underneath her "sibling" Ophelia used the knife to cut off its legs at each of the joints. When it was on the ground screaming in pain, Ophelia through the knife and it entered the creature's brain, killing it instantly.
"She's ready," the woman looked at Ophelia with a proud look on her face.
"Are you sure madam? There is still many more tests to go through,"
"Forget the tests, start making the rest to match her specifications... the time has come for the army to be mass produced," The woman said before walking into the training center. Ophelia then charged at her with the intent to kill but she fell to her knees as searing pain coursed through her body. The woman then pulled out a remote with a button.
"You see? You belong to me, you will do as you are told, do you understand me?" When Ophelia didn't answer, another jolt of pain went through her body. "I really hate to repeat myself,"
"I will obey my mistress," Ophelia said as she huffed from all the pain.
"Good, now what is your name?" The woman knew that she was based off of Ophelia Tiller but that isn't what she is now.
"Ophelia Tiller," When she got it wrong another jolt of pain coursed through her body like poison.
"Wrong, your name is Aurora... say it," The woman commanded the young girl while she was still recovering from each jolt she had received.
"My name is Aurora," The woman nodded in approval.
"I have a very important mission for you Aurora... I want you to kill The Reaper, I need you to kill Royce Tiller," The woman then began to walk away as security went to restrain Aurora. Security then pulled up to Aurora with a cart that had a giant metal full body straightjacket that went out and grabbed her like a huge hand; it went from her neck to her ankles. They then placed a muzzle over her face so she didn't tear out someone else's throat. The woman returned to the scientists side and watched as security wheeled Aurora back to her cage.
"Are you sure this is wise madam?" The scientist asked, still not sure about this plan of hers.
"She will either kill the person who started the rebellion on mars in the first place, or she will die,"
"And if she dies?"
"Then there's room for improvement, isn't there Doctor Richard?" The woman asked before she left the laboratory, leaving the scientists to catch up with the security that was transporting Aurora.
"You did well Aurora, the mistress is very impressed with how you've turned out," the scientist said as they went passed rows of cages, mostly full of other mutations like the Mantis Aurora fought earlier. But as they went farther and farther towards the back of the containment facility, the mutations began to look more and more human. Until they came to an end, where the security quickly managed to force her into her cage.
"Better get some rest, little Aurora, for you'll soon be going to mars," the man said before they all left her to her thoughts. In the cage across from Aurora's was another girl like her, the closest thing to a sister Aurora ever had.
"You're leaving?" She asked, a bit scared of what'll happen to her after Aurora is gone.
"I won't be gone for long, just need to deal with someone," Aurora said trying to reassure her sister. "Besides I would never leave you behind,"
"Good, us sisters must always stick together,"
"Also I heard them saying that they'll make more like us, more sisters," Aurora said with some excitement in her voice.
"That's cool can't wait to have more siblings in here instead of all the freaks,"
"Well you better get some sleep, once I'm gone tomorrow, you're going to need to take care of yourself without me,"
"Don't worry about me, I know whomsoever you are after, won't last long... good night," Aurora then layed on her back and glared up towards the ceiling with only one thought floating through her head.
Royce Tiller shall die