States Of War

[Admiral Valdemar]

Some old story that I, yet again, stopped way before I got anywhere with it. There are a couple more chapters if anyone wants me to post them too.

Enjoy.

Chapter 1

‘There’s a war coming.’

‘What?’

‘I said, a war is coming.’

‘But… haven’t we just had one?’

‘Yes.’

‘So why is there another one then?’

‘Hate to pull you from your dreamlike la-la world but wars happen all the time, and this time and place needs one.’

‘But we’ve just been in one!’

‘Yes. That war was a long, long way away on another planet in another system with the same type of savage 4 metre tall armed bears that didn’t make the kiddies toy line.’

‘So… this war, is it going to be here?’

‘No. Well, yes and no.’

‘Meaning?’

‘Meaning that we will skip over to the epicentre of the erupting war at the end of the day so as to get some decent “work”. The News net here says that the two humanoid races rattling sabres right now may extend their conflict to the outer Militia worlds.’

‘Won’t that annoy all those armed warlords there?’

‘Hmm let me guess… like a wasp in your earlobe! Of course it fucking will! Hence why it will be everyman for himself when those self-righteous bastards come over here, guns blazing. We have to pick the side that seems most able to pull off this extermination plan, do our job, get our wages and bugger off sharpish before the Correctional Order of Hepheron poke their noses in and lay all sorts of smacking onto the warring governments.’

The café was bustling with the atmosphere of a tense civilisation on the verge of all out war. Artane had been to this system and planet before about all of 2 standard years ago. Ordinarily this café would be not so filled with devious conmen or freighter pilots washing their debt troubles away with the local brews. Now however the place had acquired several new News net connections and every screen within 2 blocks of the café in this old town were brought in so that everyone could convene in one-place and watch events unfold. Business was booming for the café owners, only problem now wasn’t paying taxes but paying hauling companies to get their stuff and themselves as far away from here as possible.

Artane watched Drexler finish his… squid thing before downing the last of the strongest liquor in the land. He belched and collected his things—annoying as many people as he could when he did so—then pulled out of the table area next to a window and below a screen easily 2 metres across showing people fleeing the inner planets of Rotol’An, a system currently besieged by both of the main players in this carnage.

The only reason Artane and Drexler were anywhere near this potential heat zone was because they were Solquail gen Iltot (according to the Hepheron), or in English, Soldiers of Fortune: mercs. They had kept their eyes peeled for trouble in these naturally unstable systems as the two dominant races, the Jazor and the Yvesen threw down the gauntlet finally and wanted to settle their differences over shed blood and not diplomatic papers. It led to the nearby systems upsetting as the planets controlled by powerful warlords, since the collapse of any normal government, began threatening guerrilla action against the two heavyweights showing off their “big sticks”, militarily speaking that is.

It was to no avail. The rivalries continued, the threats increased in intensity and the civvies groaned and fled as their once peaceful and organised world around them withered and died thanks to a simple sex scandal (one high and mighty politician of the Yvesen slept with someone who the Jazor regard as “empress” and so the shock of having a neighbouring race sleep with essentially your god and leader led to a public outcry and war was on the drawing boards. They didn’t care about the empress being drunk at the time) between the Jazor and Yvesen.

‘Prep the Solar Phoenix ready for blast off, get Olen out of that porn shop, tell Kajeq she has no time for that psionics class and somebody find and wake Marsden!’ Artane was walking too fast for Drexler to keep up whilst tapping on the data pad and trying to contact the rest of the crew.

The dusty and rickety town was emptying every day and more and more people were looting what was left. Artane and Drexler were walking down the main street when a smash was heard as a youth threw a rock through a shop window, jumped in and came out with a set of cases marked “LIMITLESS ARMS INC. CLASSIC COLLECTION”. Artane had stopped in front of the kid trying to lift the black and heavy looking box up to shoulder height, Drexler watched in anticipation.

Then suddenly Artane flung his right arm from his side so that it pointed to the boy and with a quick and decisive click and bang a small pistol leapt out from the leather jacket sleeve into Artane’s hand. The chest didn’t fall because Artane was now holding it, the boy was now lying in a pool of orangey/red blood on the dusty floor of the main street; no one took any notice.

‘What the hell did you do that for?’

‘I’ve always wanted this set and I’ll be damned if a punk alien kid is going to get one before me. C’mon, we have a war to catch.’ Artane walked off with the black box in front of his chest, Drexler could’ve sworn he noticed a faint glimmer of a smile on Artane’s weary old face when he caught the box from the limp kid.


‘Shiiit. I was just starting. Tell me Marsden, what exactly is the point in a holiday if you can’t do what you fucking want anymore?!’

Marsden stirred, but only just. The waiting room for the special psionics class was all but empty bar the young dark skinned and haired woman and the sheepish looking middle-aged engineer who was curled up on a waiting bench with a newspaper over his head. Kajeq turned and looked down on the sorry excuse for a man but resisted the urge to hit him in the leg and get him up. Instead she slammed her fist down on the armrest of her chair and closed her eyes in a state of meditation mixed with severe frustration. She uttered some silent words to herself then opened her eyes and composed herself to look more or less business like.

‘Well,’ she said with a cheerier sound in her voice. ‘I’m about ready to go tear down the walls of civilisation once again. You coming for the end of days too Marsden.’

No answer.

‘I think you should you lazy heap of skin ‘n’ bones because if you don’t I shall personally take that as treason and rip your eyes out and shove them up your ass so you can watch me kick the crap outta ya!’

Still no answer, a nearby road conveyance exploded in the main street after joy riders crashed into a beauty parlour.

‘Be like that then, I love you really,’ she blew a kiss despite Marsden’s backside facing her then got up and collected her stuff and left the building. A bell tinkled as the door opened and then closed. Another explosion drowned out the bell sound along with loud profanities from the psionics class teacher as he watched the hell outside.

Marsden sat up, stretched and yawned and checked the weapons and tool kit in his taut belt. ‘Cheers for the nap,’ was all the teacher could hear as the ungraceful engineer waddled through the doorway and laughed at two women fighting over a handbag before strolling away.

Chapter 2

Perched atop a ravine overlooking the town, which was by now covered in total chaos, the Solar Phoenix glinted in the sun like any other inanimate object would. The craft was fairly new; Artane had bought it during his once in a lifetime deal with a major galactic arms firm shortly after his 46th birthday. The ship looked like two horizontally flattened ellipsoids separated by a single stub like wing towards the back connecting the two hulls together. Gull like wings swept forward, extended and arched from the amidships of each hull so from the front each oval hull had an arc from one side spreading up and out. Main power was supplied by two fusion reactors powering 4 main fusion drives, 2 on the tip of each gull wing and one underneath each hull at the rear. Overall the ship was a good 290 metres long, could sustain a one point two million lights cruise speed so it could cross the entire galaxy in around a month. It was not spectacular speed but just good enough for what Artane needed it for.

Artane had been a merc for over 35 years now. He had started off in the military academy on Hepheron and worked his way up until a minor mishap including him and a cover up in the high ranks forced him into exile where he created the Venerable Anarchic Hired Guns Group, or VAHGG for short.

His crew respected him as most had fought alongside him in the military before… or against him. While the captain was getting on a bit now he retained certain rebellious qualities normally associated with the younger generations. He was strict at times, tactical minded and often “fun” to be with as long as you were in his good books. Of medium build and with a slight greyness setting in on his hair atop a stern and mottled face, Artane demanded respect by simply looking at someone.

His second in command was Drexler, also fought in the academy although to a lower degree than Artane. Slim and with an angular face, Drexler had short-cropped hair and icy blue eyes. His skin was ever so slightly dark tanned and he was mostly responsible for co-ordinating missions with Artane, second in line of command should Artane be lost, presumed dead or drunk out of his head.

Olen was another story. A horror story. He was the sort of person who considered anyone he had not already met an enemy. He was also the only alien of the group. Standing at well over 2 metres tall, he was a whole head above Artane and resembled a living wall. He was chief weapons officer and had limited knowledge on how to fly the Phoenix. Olen was a descendant of a humanoid race that had pitch-black skin which in some parts was tan colour; he was bald and had a stubbier neck than a normal human. The main distinguishing feature however was the four tentacles that protruded from his back. These could easily lift a full grown man off his feet and fling him to his death or snap his back, they had an added bonus of being poisonous but Olen preferred a fight that was going to last more than a minute. The tentacles were genetically engineered and not a part of his normal anatomy, rumour has it they were mainly for sexual usage then fighting foes. Nobody knew all the facts on him and nobody really wanted to.

Kajeq was the only female crewmember and she was in charge of intelligence and was a fully approved medic who Drexler owed his life to. She was thin and slim with blonde/gold hair over her dark skin; she was one who had fought against Artane during the main Hepheron civil wars. Additionally she was capable of telepathy to an extent that she could read people’s minds vaguely. She needed far more training however. A sort of relationship exists between Drexler and Kajeq but they never talk about it nor do they give a slight hint.

Finally, Marsden was the engineer of the group and friendly giant. He was large and easy to talk to if you had a problem. He was also responsible for making upgrades etc. to the ship, weapons, comm systems and other vital techno gizmos that were needed for each mission. If he wasn’t fixing, inventing or talking to someone he was sleeping.

The group was assembling on a ramp leading up into the bowels of the Phoenix. Marsden yawned again while Drexler showed Artane, who was overlooking the carnage below, a list of tasks set on his data pad. Stamping out some sort of cigarette, Artane turned to view his crew through his dark field glasses.

‘Okay listen up,’ Kajeq smirked every time Art used his commanding voice. ‘We all know why these guys [pointing to the town] are packing up and leaving. In case you don’t know… then quit wasting my fucking time and go off to your mummy and daddy,’ that surprised Kajeq out of her smirk.

Marsden was stupid enough to raise his hand like a pupil would on his first day at school. ‘Uh, sir, is getting into this here war going to be one of your better ideas or are we going to have another Palot situation on our hands?’

Drexler frowned, Olen scuffed his feet on the rocky floor and Art looked over his glasses at Marsden.

‘For the curious, this is not going to be another Palot disaster, I would also like to say that that nuke was going to go off before we left anyway. No, this is, as they say on Earth, a whole new ball game. We are going to go for a big one here folks, even bigger than the ones right after the academy. Two of the most powerful forces in this quadrant are locking horns and forgetting all rules and conventions previously signed.’

Kajeq groaned.

‘Objection noted,’ continued Artane. ‘If you have more than one brain cell in that vacuum between your ears then you will know that this means all the big guns will be pulled out along with all the stops in this war. This lady and gentlemen is where we come in. If we can get work as mercenaries for one side, any side, I think they all have good gear, then we may be able to be on our way with some top notch stuff ready for another mission or for selling to the Militia,’ Artane gave a little laugh, ‘these guys are going to be funding a militia war against themselves and we will be the main traders. Sooner or later they will annihilate each other or the Hepheron will “correct” them but by that time we will be two things; rich and alive which is more than I can say for the poor bastards who are fighting in this war.’

As if his hearts had just been jump started by divine intervention, Olen stuttered into life and asked with a sick disposition in his deep voice, ‘Do we get to blow people away?’

‘In what manner? Sexually or the other one you like?’ Drexler felt particularly pleased with himself after that response.

‘Both,’ replied Olen with a sick grin on his face. Drexler didn’t know if he was lying through his teeth or being serious. It shut him up no less.

Artane took one last look at the town, checked his wrist terminal for the time and clapped his hands together. He then jogged up the ramp into the darkness of the main bay of the Phoenix. His voice echoed down towards the others now joking around about Olen’s dark fantasies of death and sex and sometimes both at the same time. Everyone got together and went into the ship as the ramp slowly raised itself from that sandy ground that was already stirring as the fusion drives murmured into life and vectored their thrust downwards. The only thing alerting the locals to the plot forming above them was the sonic boom as the Solar Phoenix accelerated towards the stratosphere and beyond.