Story 1 Equilibrium

The sparks of battle lit up the nights in that one forest. The sounds echoed like a distant call to the surrounding villages. All manner of intelligent creatures had fled long ago. The noise was constant and until now had never ceased. It did not fade as most noises would, but just quite suddenly stopped.
Both immortals collapsed in exhaustion, and fell on the soft moss below them. As if on queue the soft ambience of the stream became audible once again. Little by little, the insects came back, the singing birds picked up melody, and most other manner pf creatures sensed the sudden peace and returned.
The two men, so equally matched, had a bitter rivalry that swam to the surface centuries ago. They had fought for what was likely an eternity. Every cut they obtained perfectly matched the other. The desert around them had become fertile; the saplings that sprouted around them had become fully grown trees. Mountains had risen up. All that they had known and loved had faded to dust while they had warred. Suddenly they wondered why had they fought at all. What had it achieved? Now they had nothing.
When they looked up, they saw that the night sky was no longer the constant reminder that they thought it was. The darkness had faded to some unknown shade of crimson. A thought that they had both shared though they were both manifestations of each other’s opposite was that maybe they were the same being. Suddenly feeling distant, their bodies disappeared into the same cosmic dust that had created the universe. It gathered in the shape of a pyramid at where they had laid. After a few moments, a sprout quietly grew out of the dust.
Years past and it became a great tree the devoured the heavens. It bore two fruit, a white and a black. They grew ripe and then fell to the earth beside the two swords that remained. The fruit broke open and released their gods to war again for another eternity.

Story 2 Star Gaze

Case #1 Jan 12, 3265
“Careful! The ship can’t take that much stress!” Yelled Hiro as his partner pulled an extremely tight turn to avoid the oncoming missiles. He watched in anticipation as the Stargazer shot around the enemy. Hiro himself had to pull up just to avoid crashing into him.
“Yo, buddy I think I know what my own ship can handle. Look out!” Hollered Deus over the radio as he charged head long over him. Hiros ship the Westwind shook violently as he narrowly dodged the little red ship. “How’s the ships fuel and ammo?”
“Haven’t used any yet! Can’t see him! Where is he?” Hiro slammed the reverse thrusters and watched as tiny brown ship passed over him. “There you are!” He flipped that little red button on his joystick and laughed madly as his bullets whisked through the weightless space. The target took a sharp climb and avoided most of the shots. “I’ll get you!”
“Whoa geez, calm down he’s only worth a hundred thousand! No need to get so worked up about it. AHH!” The tiny brown ship flew straight up in front of him followed very closely by Deus’ ammo. He banked quickly to the right and followed the ship. Carefully watching the computer screen with ever turn he waited for the right lock on. Can’t believe that we pulled these things out of a junkyard piece by piece. Who would throw these things away? They work so well. The stargazer passed him spinning violently out of control. Huh? What the? Guess I spoke to soon.
“AHHHHHH!! The gyros screwed up bad! I’m going back to the ship soon as I can.” The trail of exhaust looked like a winding staircase. “The old man said he fixed it!”
“Probably your fault! I warned you not to be so skittish in your flying.” The tiny brown ship did a quick turn One-eighty that caught them both off guard. Holy Crap! This guys goin kamikaze. The brown ship open fire with everything it had it looked like. Hiro pulled some evasive maneuvers with his ninety-degree bursts of fuel and then gunned the accelerator outta there. “Dues watch out! A major salvo comin your wa-!” He just noticed that his wing was leaking gases. Erg, must’ve hit me… “That’s it! Leave him to me!”
“Heh, hit’cha didn’t he? You better look out buddy. He’s gonna go ape shit on you now!” Yelled Deus with a laugh that would scare anyone. Hiro saw the main gun on the stargazer charge and discharge with a blue halo on the incoming ammunition. Some of it was incinerated and the rest he avoided with that same out of control spin. He shot past the brown ship with uncontrollable speed. About the only that was controllable was the sound of his mumbling. The brown ship chased after him wasting all his shots on Deus. Had he not been spinning he probably would’ve been killed.
“Whoa… that is really lucky. Sorry Yorui Kard you’re going down now!” His missile system had finally locked on. He reached for the little black button on his HUD a pressed it with a smirk on his face. A nice rhythm of music had begun and echoed through the radio frequencies all over Mars. Ah. The jazz may it ring free. He searched for the missile button but couldn’t find it. Hey, where is it? He glanced down to find it and looked back up for a moment. The tiny brown spacecraft was heading straight for him. AH! JESUS! He had no time to be care full he pulled up and left. His craft did a little flip that didn’t agree with his stomach. It lurched and refused to keep in his lunch. He felt the food stop in his mouth where he tried his best not to lose it.
Deus finally got his ship back under control and headed back to battle. He saw the brown ship and aimed carefully this time with his main cannon. His ship shook but he had always managed before. He charged it, line the target up and fired the blue stream of anti matter directly into the foes engines. The craft exploded into a fine line of fire that quickly died without oxygen for fuel. The back end exploded and the sides erupted “Listen to that jazz. You sure chose some good music today…uh…halloo? Huh, what’s the matter?”
“You don’t want to know…urk…” He finally lost it completely.
“Eww… Well, back to the ship. Then on to IBF for our hundred thousand.”
The strangest memories…
Hiro flew his craft into the Blackguard’s hangar and hopped out content, aside from the after affects of puking. Deus flew in shortly afterward. Hiro had already climbed the ladder was about step out into the main room when remembered that he needed to change first. “Figures.”
“Yehhaaa! I never can get enough of that head rush! Even when I’m spinning outta control1!” As he stepped out of his ship he saw the cockpit of Hiros ship. He cringed “Yuck, he really did loose it! Bet he wishes he had an iron stomach, like me.” Deus rubbed his belly like it was something to be proud of. Not that he was fat but, I mean, what’s there to proud about a trim belly or extra large for that matter? Deus followed him like a stray animal searching for its next meal. He walked in when Hiro had just pulled down a new shirt.
“Don’t follow me…now we gotta go back to the old man…he treats me like an idiot when you’re the skitzo…our ships are junk we need an upgrade…and he was only worth a hundred thou…carrier needs an overhaul…it’s not enough that they should send me out here, but the fact that your sis insisted on it…”
“Yeah-said it’d be good fer ya! Now that we’re partners and all-!!”
“Please…don’t remind me. I should never have let you come with me…should’ a never agreed…I’m tired…leave me be.” Hiro snapped his fingers and the same genre of music clicked on. He sat down where he was and closed his eyes, dreaming of the time they first met.
It was a time of great depression for him. The war had finally ended…and everyone was happy but Hiro. Something else was on his mind that day. He glanced up and saw a storm. Ever since humanity began repopulating these worlds they have been dumping these artificial storms on the citizens. Raindrop after raindrop landed on his face. He watched with unblinking eyes as larger object fell toward him .It was so sudden and painful when it hit he didn’t know what happened until he woke up in a hospital three weeks later.
The ship shook violently. He rolled into a table and got up fast. Crap! “What now?” The music has stopped how long was I out? “Deus are we under attack?” Asked Hiro in any direction. Deus at the time was already out in space trying to fend off the enemy. Hiro saw this and ran to his ship but hesitated remembering his lunch. He put it aside and glanced in thinking it was still there, but it wasn’t. Deus must have taken care of it for me. I’ll have to thank him later. He hopped in and pulled his cockpit toward him everything clicked together quickly. Who would be attacking us now? “Westwind ready to launch. Westwind launching.” Hiro sat in his seat, pressed the button and his ship shot out of the hangar with a flash of light.
He searched for his communicator. Three weeks and still don’t know where it is…that’s pathetic. Found it! He grabbed it and activated it on frequency Two Nine One O. The station they always use, and it constantly plays good rhythmic music even some classics from way back in the 2000’s. “Deus where are you?”
“Bout time you get out here! What did you sleep through all the explosions or what? I’m above you.” Deus sped into view and gave a salute of satisfaction. But that grin quickly faded to anger as soon as a barrage of ammo hit him in the rear. The stargazer pulled a turn just like what the brown ship did.
“Whoa…nice maneuver.” Hiro had never seen Deus pilot so expertly. “You can learn all there is to know about him in week, but an hour later he’ll surprise you…” Hiro whispered to himself. Deus sped toward his enemy, which Hiro still could not see. He banked carefully trying to see the foe. “How many are there?”
“One, two…I don’t know! They’re to fast to count.”
“Right…The IBF better pay extra for this.” Hiro pulled a fast bank and was lucky to avoid a stray missile. He watched straight ahead where the stars shone the brightest. He noticed a slight distortion. The lights moved out of focus and then back to normal. “Distorted imagery? That can only mean one thing!” Hiro followed the trail of stars and fired along the path of distortion. “You’re the group that killed my friend!” He hit something that left a gas trail. “Deus follow it! Don’t let him get away!”
“Right I see it!”
“I can handle things here!” As Deus sped out of view following the trial of smoke Hiro saw another distortion, a radiation path. That can only mean-! He set his targeting system to search and complexly predict the next for that craft. Hiro waited for a moment and set it for a full screen system. The computed did so willingly and without fault. Almost immediately he got a lock and released it. “Fire one, Lancer Imagery.” A little green missile shot out and exploded after it traveled for a second. A resonating purple flash was all that was left of the missile. A translucent shockwave shook his ship, but the enemy was now visible. “Sucker…some good that cloak did ya…loser. Hiro track him now!”
“Thanks…” Hiro’s ship flew past Deus with a small twirling wine, guns blazing the whole while. “I’ll take care of this one!” The enemies ship spray painted tin can was doing it’s best to avoid being shot. Hiro lost sight of him once or twice but managed to tail him just the same. He was originally going to chase him off after destroying his or her stabilizer. At the time Hiro could’ve cared less about the aggressors gender. The spray painted spacecraft he was chasing clipped the main ship and made its lights flicker till they went out, that’s when Hiro went and hit the missile button out of frustration. “I JUST fixed that not even two days ago!” He yelled it utmost fury at the target. The missiles chased away a made contact. And that’s that, as they say.
A moment later Deus confirmed that he had taken care of the two he was following. Abruptly Hiro realized that the ship he had just blown up looked tremendously like the one that had crashed into him.
Then…September 16, 3263
“That’s twenty thousand, for your troubles.” The lady handed him a pack of crisp new bills. He took it smiling and pocketed in his tux it with a firm grin of satisfaction. He took his notice in the firmness of the money and told that money had just been delivered that morning or didn’t he hear her the first time.
“Great,” He said. “Been chasin those weirdoes for weeks. Just got the lucky break yesterday. Found’ em in five hours.” He gave a little whistle of amazement and took a step as if to leave, but pulled back quickly and glanced at her nametag. “Hey, Linda, if you hear anything about the Leon boys let me know, Kay?”
“Sure thing, Mr.?”
“Derkins, Hiro Derkins.” He got up trotted out of the private stall. He knew that they weren’t supposed to help the bounty hunters track down their prey but he had to ask anyway. He stopped in the middle of the lobby and glanced over to the IBF listings and scrolled down with his eye; found the mans name and watched it change to captured status, and then watched his name blink next to it. “Ah it’s great to work alone. All this is mine.” He tapped his pocket with pride and did a little hand gesture and put his fingers through his black hair. It fell back down over his eyes. I Suppose I need a haircut he thought without even trying. Hmm, that was my fifth bounty return. What now? Suppose the chart’ll tell me…but it’s so weird. He walked toward the screen footsteps echoing on the empty lobbies clean tile floor. He stopped three feet away and stood akimbo with a doubtful look on his face. Silently he watched as the screen kept scrolling spinning off names of hunters he had never heard of. He stayed there for what seemed like an eternity but then finally his name showed up, it said his next target had yet to be determined. “WHAT!” His voice echoed down ever hall in sight. “I SIT THROUGH TEN LISTS OF NAMES FOR THIS BS! I’m ready now!” He realized that he was yelling and decided to shut up before he got himself into trouble. Hiro’s badge dinged. He pressed it and was called to his boss’s office on the third floor. “Figures…probably about me sending my bounty through that sausage grinder. I mean it was an accident.” He charged up the stairs to his right.
Hiro never was afraid of being scolded or even fired in the past and why would that change now? He always charged headlong into situations with his head held high if it was someone important, or if it was a dangerous situation he ran boldly with his pistol drawn, righteously named Dud Eye. He was always apt to encounter the bad guys even since he was a child, once he had run across a group of men in the process of raping a girl less than half their age. He did what he felt was right and picked up a loose pole and brought it down upon one poor mans head. Unfortunately it hadn’t knocked him out as was intended. In fact it was so utterly useless that he was beaten to a pulp in exchange for that head wound and then nailed to the wall of the local church till the next morning.
He had had always been a troubled kid after that always getting into fights, trying to prove that he was stronger. His old psychologist said that it was an unconscious decision based upon his once righteous failure of attempting to help that girl, who was by the way found dead shortly after he himself was pulled off the wall. He was told that she was found crucified with her insides hanging out of her chest and a single bullet hole between the eyes. They were never caught. After being told that he had sworn an oath to always try to help the world improve. He would visit her grave everyday for three years without even knowing her name. Hiro had always felt responsible for what happened that day.
That third year he had gained enough courage to become the bounty hunter, that year was the end of the beginning of his life. The bar code that was now imprinted on his forehead was proof of that dedication. He had it put there so he could tell the world you-better-watch-out-big-badass-Hiro’s-in-town-ready-to-kick-ass-and-chew-bubble-gum, and he was all out of gum, to bad for them; or at least that’s how he evaluated it when he began.
Hiro continued up the flights of stairs until he reached long marble hallway, probably not even real he would learn to think every time he took this five hundred foot journey from base level to the mercenary captains’ office.
Now…January 13, 3265
“Hiro!” Dues had a habit of yelling rather than simply talking even though he was right beside him.
“Huh…what?” He yawned they had been sitting in the middle of an asteroid field since yesterday. The engines had blown out on the Blackguard again and Hiro didn’t much feel like fixing the lights at the time and they were still out flashing and blinking randomly. He supposed they were lucky that they didn’t need the lights. Often he would sit by the windows staring out into the abyss wondering what he hell he was still doing alive. One can only experience so much before the soul loses track of itself in the shroud of life’s mystery.
“It’s coming on again!” Hiro shrugged, got up, and snapped his fingers once to get the jazz going again, but jazz didn’t come on instead some other genre of rhythm pulsed through his ear drums.
“What the heck?” He heard snickering, “Deus!” The snickering stopped. “Just record it. I’ll watch when I’m done with the repairs.”
They all thought he would die, but no not Hiro. His soul was so strong that even a falling spacecraft couldn’t kill him. His reputation was so what astounding to the general public, a lot of people regarded him as some sort of modern holy symbol. A modern Jesus-Moses if you will. He had never even been much of a holy man to begin with. He supposed they only called the Friendly-Neighborhood-Evangel because of the scars that he bore since his childhood.
It may have been on Saturn that he had aquired the scars of a stigmata but word travels fast even across planets even if they’re a million miles apart. He hated being called an Evangel, the term sounded odd, not hateful just odd. Humanity, with its many sins always looking for someone to lay the blame on or for someone to listen. Well, who really has the time for that, let alone carry enough will power to avoid yelling at them to shut up? Certainly not the so-called Friendly-Neighborhood-Evangel.
And so he had done many times already. He hated his title with a passion. He had gone so far as to backhand a beggar that would not leave him alone. Nonetheless even after people had heard this that they still continued to pour by the dozens to his door. It was exhausting. So he had to do something.
He ended up taking the backdoor one-day and found himself and the space port being bar-coded. Now he would have a new title. The kind that would allow him to release an inner fire, hopefully just the opposite, as he was unwillingly known for. Looking at this opportunity as a chance to rebel against the general public. He grabbed a big brown ship and bought a small racing jet from an old man that was just happy to get rid of it. And so on the day he getting ready to escape to the void of darkness he found a curious fellow sitting in the ship he had just fixed up.
An escaped asylum patient was sitting in his pilot seat. The guy just waved and bobbed his head to some silent tune. This struck Hiro as funny so he laughed. The guy opened his eyes and just glanced over to him, then closed them again.

Story 3 Undiscovery

It was finally time to send the first colonists onto the newest planet discovered. The atmosphere was perfect for human inhabitation: plenty of oxygen and all the other required elements of life. It was called Planet Noke. The planet surface was rich with trees.
The team that would explore and set up camp consisted of four biologists, ten ecologists, six geologists, and twenty civilians. The leader’s name was Core Élans. The team’s shuttle was dropped from high orbit. The team saw the similarities to Earth even before they landed. Clouds rushed past them and moisture tried to collect on the windows. At the rate of speed they were falling, it was all but impossible and it ran up the windows instead.
As they watched the fauna rise up towards them, a message ran though the shuttle telling them to attach their safety harnesses and be cautious immediately upon disembarking. The shuttle landed with a lurched thud. The forty passengers quickly got out, all too happy to be back in gravity. Not long after everyone sat down and looked around in awe at the surroundings, they discovered other beings.
‘Very much like a chicken robot’, is how Core described them. They eventually became known as Cybyr.
His meeting with them was very much like a surreal dream in which one has no conscious ability to change the outcome. He had walked some thirty meters away from his team in order to empty his bladder. Thinking very little of encountering anything, he trotted without care through the brush on the ground. He heard the brittle leaves crunching beneath his weight. Quite suddenly, his foot caught on something and he sprawled on his face. As he fell, he heard a warble, such that had never been heard before by human ears.
He rolled over and sat up quite vexed; but also puzzled when he looked back at what he had tripped on. It was some kind of bizarre bird just over a foot long. A metallic sheen covered it from head to toe. It got up just as startled as he was, and began to run in circles warbling all the while. Tiny slits on either side of its head served as its eyes. Each of its joints had a distinct glowing circle running around it. Core doubted it was an organic creature but could not rule it out as a possibility. It had clearly felt the slam of his foot; no machine that he knew of could feel pain or even any sensation.
Core did not know what to do. He didn’t want to get up and go get the others; it might be gone when he got back. Neither did he want to touch it; it might snap his fingers off with that beak if he tried to take it back with him. He figured he would just stay there and hope someone would hear the racket the thing was making. Without realizing it, the thing had stopped screaming and was just lying on its side. Surprised, he got up and bent down to look at it a little closer. The eyes were dimming in and out like a flashlight running out of batteries.
Assuming it was safe, he called over one of the Biologists. She was just as perplexed as he was and called the other three over. They also had no idea what it was. The only thing they could agree on was that it was dead. They bagged the specimen and carried it back to the camp. By this point, few tents were up. They set up the cold storage unit and dropped it into place. They did this with very few words.
No one knew quite what to say. They must have had an idea or two, but no one wanted to be the one to sound like the idiot. Core sent a message to the flagship from which they left. All he could tell them was that it looked like a ‘chicken robot’.
They said to wait until morning and then they would send a team of specialists to examine it. They finished setting up camp about an hour later. The specialists would be there tomorrow. With nothing to do but wait, they sat down and did just that (with the exception of the Geographers).

Story 4 Armageddon

When the meteors fell they destroyed everything he knew, well almost. One day he was sitting in the city library reading about knights and chivalry, oh he loved the notion of chivalry, and the next moment the book in his hands was ash. Everything around him turned to ash, and everybody.
All he heard was a loud boom and the glass around him shattering. The shards never hit the floor, just shattered and was gone just like everything else. The building frame and him, was all that remained. Some nearby buildings collapsed under the strain of being warped others just stood strong. That was when he was eleven, now he was thirty-two.
And instead of being at work, in some office, he was a wanderer. And the rest of the known world fled into cities built underground. Fewer than a thousand people survived the constant explosions made by the meteors.
At first he thought it was just that city block that was destroyed, but on his walk home he saw horrors beyond any book he ever read. Shadows burned into walls and bone fragments lay scattered across the roads all the way back to his home, which was also in pieces. After searching the rubble of his home he found only a single object was spared destruction. His broadsword. It had hung on his wall ever since he got it as a gift, everyone around him knew that he loved medieval things so they got together and decided on the weapon. He remembered how happy he was.
And now twenty-one years later he still carried that broadsword with him. It was strapped to his side, hidden under the cloak he had sewn to keep him warm. With him he also carried a shovel, a sack to carry his food, three water canteens and a pocket sized world atlas. His black hair dangled messily over his eyes and he brushed it aside with his fingers.
His walk from New York to Illinois had been a long one. He had taken his time. After arriving at Springfield and searching for three months he headed head north toward Chicago. He hadn’t seen very many survivors. Only two cities he had ever come upon had survivors, the first being in Buffalo New York; which was the one he spent the rest of his childhood in, and the second was in Columbus, Ohio.
And now even as the meteors continue to fall, he wandered the land looking for others, making notes in the atlas he carried around.
He saw an overpass not to far away, that’s good, he thought because it had started to drizzle. It down pored just as he made it under. He dug a shallow hole in the ground that was about three feet wide and seven feet long. He took off his belongings and grabbed a piece of beef jerky out of his food sack. Then he tossed his stuff into the hole at the top and then chucked the food sack on top. He covered the hole with his cloak to disguise it and walked to the other end of the overpass and took a piss.
After walking back and swallowing the rest of his jerky he slipped under the cloak and slept in his hole. He did this to hide himself and his belongings from the rogues that also wandered the lands. To avoid contact with these gangs was a wise idea. It also kept him warm, like an igloo, or at least he hoped that was the correct comparison.
The rain continued though out the night. When he woke it wasn’t yet dawn. He put his stuff back on and continued deeper into the city. The sun was just beginning to rise as he approached a bridge. A crooked sign on the side of the support beckoned him. It would have normally welcomed him into the Windy City but it was crossed off with graffiti and instead it read “Welcome to the Dead City.”

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Tag der Veröffentlichung: 20.11.2009

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