Amor vincit omnia - an original short

[Kwizard]

This snapshot mainly came about to spite my current case of writer's block, and I'm hoping to pick back up on 'Ignore me now, I dare you' before the school year drowns me. Enjoy
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Amor vincit omnia



Fire is the only pure thing.

Wordlessly repeating this to yourself as you climb the irregular, rocky embankment of the city, you try once more to find reassurance in the fire. Can nobody else feel it? The constantly warring, constantly absorbed memes of the universe – always present in all things physical and otherwise. Many tons of what once was a mountain top beneath your feet, the Adityan city crouching atop its plateau, that frail and dying sun casting a warm orange glow over your grimy space combat suit and the landscape. And you don’t even remember the damned star’s name. You’re beyond sick of being dragged across the cosmos from one military operation to the next to the next to the next… yet you’re somehow still grateful for it all. Getting off your homeworld and into the service dropped you straight into the teeming furnace of interstellar war.

Hoisting the assault weapon to your shoulder more for want of sound than anything else, you survey the airless, almost soulless terrain. A century ago, the Aditya nomads had built a small settlement on this sad chunk of rock which was flung into planetary orbit by two dueling battle fleets on opposite sides of the deserted globe. Now the blackened and empty orbital city still holds onto its mother rock out in the void, hugging it tightly with steel supports and pipelines even in death. You crane your neck up at the world’s crescent dayside; from thousands of kilometers away you can spot uncountable deep scars left on its face by a million directed energy shots, and you halfheartedly wonder which group of ships won that battle.

Another step brings you into the city’s artificial gravity well. You’re surprised that the tugging force is still provided after so many years of neglect following the vacant, dead husk of a drift city being abandoned – and the shield generators caging in the old municipality’s air are long gone. You start to head down a slope, sliding along and rousing plumes of dust as you go.

Reaching the city’s lifeless basin, you stare down what was once an avenue and is now a muted ghost lane. All the windows have been shattered into tiny fragments by passing interplanetary debris and their pulverized remains form a pristine, white blanket on the pitted street. Gingerly stepping forward, your foot displaces some of the silicone snow. It sends an eerie shiver through you. How long since this street was last changed? How long since it had felt the fire’s warmth? Perhaps the entire mass it was resting on might soon fall or be pushed back into the planet from whence it came, tearing through a meager remaining atmosphere and making a fresh boil upon the abused crust. You could see that happening.

Before you can walk any further, a familiar voice crackles to life over your helmet’s communication relay.

“Emerson, I’m hailing you from below the rock right now – there’s a Gernot fighter retreating back to the topside.” Your breathing hastens as the purpose for coming up here returns with a flood.

“I’m on it,” you utter in reply. Loading a fresh clip into the rifle, your arms clench at the ready.

Almost instantly the sleek black form of a crippled fighter jumps into your line of sight, rising above the deserted buildings in an instant. You carefully take aim at its underside and, mentally roaring, unleash a torrent of buckytungsten slugs at the enemy vessel. The craft seems to take notice of you and its fuel hold sustains the damage. You feel your heart nearly stop.

Wheeling about on agitated thrusters, that fighter barrels toward you with a bright streak of engine light as you frantically continue with your onslaught of fire. Fire. It races through your veins and out the weapon. Still the gunship cuts toward you. As it draws close and makes an obtuse turn, an intense beam connects to the ground near your feet, vaporizing a chunk of rock and knocking you over. You quickly scramble for the weapon to squeeze off one final shot at the now escaping craft. It succumbs to your attack as all the remaining fuel detonates at once. The visor in your helmet darkens to protect your cringing pupils from the brilliant flash. One desperate Gernot fighter down, its pieces and the pieces of its crew tumble into the Adityan city’s momentarily brightened depths.

And then the darkness of the infinite night returns.

[Ford Prefect]

Bleak but successful.

[Kwizard]

Thank you.