| Author |
The Price of Respect... |
The Reaper
Cadet
Joined: December 09, 2002
Posts: 234
From: Eternity
|  Posted: 2003-12-10 15:16
Evenin' all.
I've been especially bored at work for the past couple of days, and so I thought I'd knock together a quick short story, as I know some of you guys seem to like them.
It's called The Price of Respect.
Enjoy!
P.S. No, I still haven't continued with the Defiance Trilogy yet!
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The Price of Respect
======================================
A DarkSpace 'Fan Fiction' Short Story
© Copyright David Pitts 2003, reproduction permitted
with credit to the author.
Owens checked his weapon once more. The power pack was secure and fully-charged; the safety release locked in the
'SAFE' position. He glanced to his left and right, before settling his gaze on the imposing shape of the armoured
form before him. He directed his attention upwards, and looked straight into the face of his commander, Sergeant
Ru Denko. "Chopper" was the sergeants' callsign, passed around the troops' wives' conversations back at the UGTO
training bases, because of his affinity for woodwork - a dying art. Owens involuntarily shuddered inside his
armoured strike suit as he recalled the more accurate reason. Denko was fond of blades - more particularly the
swords of the old world.
He had an extensive collection of very old, very rare swords from around the galaxy, he even had a K'luth battle-
blade he took from the fallen body of a alien commander once.
His favourite sword was a Japanese one he had managed to acquire when he was the commander of a strike and fade
operation on a corrupt Chancellor's pleasure frigate. 'Sutarukeru' he had called it; the 'Stalker'.
When the troops heard him talk of the sword, it seemed to them as if he loved the thing more than life itself.
The truth was, of course, that Denko did not value his favourite weapon more than life; he simply accepted death.
Owens recalled the sword in his minds' eye. The sergeant had made some significant alterations to the already
formidable blade. An authentic dai-katana; the largest of the katanas; from the period in Japanese history which
was ruled by a powerful family called the 'Tokugawa Shogunate'. The metal used in the blade was of the highest
quality, folded hundreds of times by master swordsmiths, and with an edge ground so fine that it seemed to vanish.
Denko had removed this blade from the hilt, and encased the tang in a powerful self-contained micro-generator.
Then, using micro-filament molecular bonding, he had applied a coil of hyper-conductive alloy, just beneath the
surface of the steel of the blade.
This process created a sword which, when charged and running, could cut through even the toughened carapace of
the alien K'luth.
Often Owens had seen 'Chopper' use this weapon with devastating effect in the heat of battle against K'luth
ground troops - once he had witnessed a confrontation with a K'luth commander, in which Denko had eventually
triumphed; and where the sergeant had lost his left arm, now replaced with a prosthetic.
Denko glanced down at the young private, and offered him a nod. The private - Owens, John Owens; a good lad, but
far too young to have witnessed the sorts of carnage already thrust in front of him - inclined his head slightly to
his commanding officer, then looked away again, around the cabin.
Denko looked up also, and surveyed the view offered to him through the transpara-steel porthole. The planet was
looming larger and larger, blurred through the flames of the red-hot plasma as the pod sped through the upper
atmosphere towards its' surface.
Owens gripped his las-rifle tightly, and closed his eyes as the pod shuddered slightly with turbulence. He
always hated this part of combat drops. He thought of the outside of the pod, intense heat beyond his comprehension
scorching the outer ceramic panels with licks of flame. He opened his eyes again, and caught another glimpse of
those flames once more, real and all too near. He began to check his rifle again.
Denko looked around at his troops. Good men; loyal men. He trusted them with his life, and he knew they did the
same. Denko hated this part of the drop. Falling like a guided block of steel from the orbiting ships high above.
He preferred actual combat to this; at least in battle he could face his enemy head-on, scream a war cry and dive
headfirst into oblivion. He was disgusted at the fact that one small error in the descent trajectory, one small
defect in the supra-dense ceramic tiles coating the underside of the pod would condemn him and his men to a flaming
death. He glanced to the pods' rear, listened to the thrum of the retro engines flaring, slowing their decent to
stop them slamming into the planets' crust so hard and fast that the inertial dampeners would be overloaded and
they would all be splattered onto the pods' front like so much fruit dessert.
He closed his eyes and started to think of the fight to come.
As the pod smashed through a high-rise civilian building, and slammed into the ground behind it, the troops inside
lurched forward slightly, the only internal indication of the impact - even the sound was dulled inside the pod, due
to the extensive armour-plating and ceramic coating on the exterior. Owens looked up to the back of the pod, and
heard the internal mechanisms begin to open the blast door. Everyone else around him were already on their feet,
readying themselves for the slaughter that was to come. The young soldier hauled himself to his feet, and pulled-on
his armoured helmet. It felt heavy, the weight making his head feel much larger than it was. As the tactical
heads-up display began to boot up, Owens could see his reflection slightly in the visor before his eyes. He was
breathing heavily, starting to sweat and even he could see the panic in his eyes. He tried to slow his breathing,
closed his eyes and thought of his training.
Denko's heart had begun to pump faster, the helmet's HUD showing his vitals in a small display just above his
right cheek; the amount of adrenaline in his body had begun to rise also. He gripped his shotgun with one hand; the
sergeant had never been fond of the modern las-rifle, preferring the short-range stopping power of the pellet-
based magnetic shotgun instead; and rested his other on the pommel of 'Sutarukeru'.
As the blast door gears started to grind together, the thump was heard of the outer panels covering the door
blowing away from the drop pod; the sudden gap in outer sound-dampening letting through an indication of the carnage
taking place outside. Denko checked the status of his team on his HUD, then coughed into the microphone to get
everyone's attention. He took a breath, then began, "This is it people. The drop zone's hot, and Command have
dumped us in the thick of it. The target is still the anti-matter generator roughly two clicks due south from our
position. Hodgeson, you prepped those charges?" He glanced to the high-explosives expert.
"Yes, Sir! You get me there, and I'll light up that place so bright, th'bugs'll see it in Sirius!"
At this, the pod erupted as the rest of the soldiers let loose a cheer that was not all just enthusiasm, a part of
it was nervous energy too.
Denko checked his gun, "Door release in ten seconds. R'you scum ready to kick some lobster ass?"
The men raised their weapons in the air, and said almost in unison, "Locked, cocked and ready to rock, SIR!"
As they all lowered their weapons again, and clicked off the safety's, the door release sounded, and a bright
green light glowed above the egress hatch as it opened.
Before the hatch had even hit the ground, Denko was outside and running away from the pod, and towards a burned-
out building ahead; the rest of his men pouring from the opening behind him.
Owens watched as the hatch opened, as 'Chopper' ran towards it, forced it down with the enhanced power of his
armoured leg and charged outside. He could see the artillery explosions between the moving bodies of his battle-
brothers, the streaking crimson of laser fire as it flashed by his vision. Then they began to move too, Owens was
caught up in it, being pushed and tugged towards that opening - towards death.
Denko got to the ashen shell of the building, a quick sensor sweep by the electronic-warfare expert in the team
confirmed that it was clean, and went inside. Blackened husks, chunks of burned wood and piles of ash and soot were
all that was left of the interior of the once opulent building. A glance of the map overlay in his helmets'
display confirmed that the building used to be the Ambassadors' personal apartment; a building used to house
visiting emissaries from friendly worlds. Usually richly decorated, draped in wealth to show, or at least hide, the
economic climate of the planet to off-worlders. A shadow in one corner of the main hall, a man once by the shape
of it, could have been one of those ambassadors. Denko shook his head. This was no way to die, cowering in a
corner, trying to stay the flames with will alone. He moved away from the shape, towards a blown-out window.
Owens ran with his fellow troops, letting his training take over, subconsciously taking in his surroundings, and
evaluating risks. A nearby mortar impact made him re-evaluate some of those risks, and the men spread out a little
further apart as they moved towards the building Denko was in.
The sergeant took a cautious glance through the opening, then seeing that no-one was near, crouched low, and took
a longer look. The last vestiges of the planetary militia were managing to hold back the tidal wave of K'luth
troops for now, but Denko could see that soon there would be too many, and even the great plasma cannon mounted
to the remains of a crashed hover-tank would not hold them at bay forever. A stolen shield generator was keeping
the K'luths' mortar fire from damaging the cannon for now, the small alien organisms filled with explosive gas they
used as shells detonating harmlessly meters away from the barrel, the energy bleeding into the massive heat sinks
situated behind the cannon.
He moved away and over towards another window, south-facing, glanced then looked through again. The massive
silos of the anti-matter generator visible even from here, the sparks of surplus energy arcing between them. The
reddish hue of K'luth vehicles surrounding the building visible also. He quickly totted-up the number of troops
and support units around the target. Fifty armed drones, and four mantas; (K'luth hover tanks, so-called because
of their surprising similarity to the Earth-based sea animal, alarmingly more deadly however, K'luth mantas were
genetically-engineered animals, with exoskeletal armour several inches thick, and covered with a slick oil - not to
mention the huge protrusion at the top of it, a large bile duct the UGTO bio-engineers had discovered, which spewed
viscous acid up to three hundred meters away); he knew that they would need a diversion to get close enough to set
the charges.
As he moved away from the window once more, the rest of his men filled the hall, Owens bringing up the rear.
Denko knew the youngster was still wary of battle, was still looked down-upon by his fellows.
Denko had an idea.
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[ This Message was edited by: The Reaper on 2003-12-10 15:17 ]
[ This Message was edited by: The Reaper on 2003-12-10 15:27 ]
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The Reaper
Cadet
Joined: December 09, 2002
Posts: 234
From: Eternity
| Posted: 2003-12-10 15:28
Stupid post limits..... *grumble*
As Owens looked around he though about the sergeants' proposal/order again. He still didn't like it. Stood alone
in the doorway nearest the K'luth prisoners' encampment he felt a little less than confident about the plan. He
checked his rifle again; just as he did so, Denko's voice came over the group intercom, "Dammit Owens, the gun's
fine, now get your ass over there and make some friggin' noise!"
He shook his head to clear the fuzziness he felt there, "Sir, yes Sir!" With that, the young UGTO marine ran from
the doorway firing into the collection of armed drones, and screaming as he went.
Denko listened to the commotion as the K'luth were suddenly roused from their complacency. The militia had their
hands full stopping the main attack force at the city centre, what was this new interruption? As many of the
aliens moved away from their posts to chase the human, the other half of the sergeants' plan came into effect.
Another two of his group had secreted themselves inside another building, directly opposite from Owens', and as the
bulk of the bugs had moved after Owens, they moved out and took the remaining guards down with minimal disruption.
Denko once again thanked the potency of sub-sonic electro-grenades, and the effect they had on the K'luth sensory
and nervous systems, he just wished they had a larger blast radius as he heard one of his men engage a K'luth who
had escaped the grenades' effects. The blinking and sudden black hue of one of the marines' indicators on Denko's
HUD let him know just how much he wished for a larger radius. Once the area was secure, the prisoners were released
from the gooey bonds which held them, and with two of Denko's men sent back towards where the militia were held up.
The remainder of the strike team then moved out in the direction of the generator.
Owens didn't need to look behind him to know that they were closing, the psi-weapon blasts were getting close
enough for him to know that. He winced as one of the alien weapons' projectiles glanced against his left side. The
armour absorbed a great deal of the energy from it, but the percussion was still enough to almost spin him around.
The impact caused him to stumble slightly, but he quickly recovered as another blast hit the ground beside his right
knee. He returned a couple of shots as he regained his footing, hitting one enemy square in the shoulder-joint,
between two of the aliens' four arms. The thing kept running, dropping the two useless limbs to its' side, and
holding its' weapon two handed. Owens looked up ahead as he rounded the crumbling corner of another building, and
withdrew a thermal grenade, setting the thumb-click timer to ten seconds as he did so. As he charged around to his
right, and out into a small clearing, he armed the grenade and dropped it into a wide crevice in the building to his
left, the small explosive rolling to a stop mere centimetres from the buildings' outer wall.
As he ran behind a low wall in the middle of the clearing, and dropped to the floor, the K'luth came around the
corner behind him. Owens counted down, and at 'four' he sprang up and opened fire on his pursuers. As streaks of
laser fire rained about them, some of the aliens dove into the space where Owens had dropped his grenade, trying to
shelter themselves from the white-hot fire outside; the others jumping back behind the corner from where they had
come.
As Owens got to 'one', he dropped to the ground behind the meagre wall in front of him and closed his eyes tight,
as the grenade suddenly exploded in a conflagration of the surrounding area. The confined space the thermal
explosive was placed in only served to make the damage much more localised than usual, burning much hotter, and
faster than normal. The unearthly screams of the K'luth troops caught in the explosion could be heard from inside
the crevice, over the sound of the flames. Owens jumped back up as the explosion died down, and the flames inside
began to flick outwards into the street, and rested his rifle on the wall. He aimed carefully at approximate
K'luth head-height and waited for one to peek around the corner again. It was at that moment that a figure burst
through the side of the burning building, all four arms flailing wildly, and wreathed in fire. Owens tore into the
K'luth with his weapon fire, and the alien fell to the ground solidly, a strange, sickly smell filling Owens' lungs
for a second until his suits' air-filtration unit kicked in. He settled back down and aimed at the corner once
more.
As Denko's group reached the generator, he noticed that the diversion had worked better than he had thought.
All but one of the mantas had moved away to investigate the commotion Owens had caused, and no doubt to attempt
containment of the escaped prisoners. The sergeant smiled beneath his armoured shell, and started running towards
the tank with his men.
Owens looked around nervously. Since he shot down the flaming K'luth, there had been no more activity. Had the
aliens retreated? He got up to a crouch, and moved to the edge of the low wall he had been behind. With another
fast survey of the surrounding area, he moved quickly over to a building opposite the still flaming hole in his
trap. He could see no-one around the corner. Where had they gone? He moved closer to the corner, his heart
pounding in his chest as he did, and looked to his left as he rounded it. Nothing. He could not see any movement
back up the way he had fled either. he took another few steps forward onto a grassy verge, and lowered his rifle
slightly. The soft earth beneath his feet suddenly erupted as a buried alien grabbed at his legs, Owens fired
wildly into the ground, hoping for a hit when he felt a sharp pain in his left thigh, and that leg quickly went
numb. A scream, and the earth beginning to settle once more let Owens know he had scored a successful kill.
As the dead beast released him ,and he fell backwards, he looked down at his leg. Or at least where his leg
used to be. The K'luth had sliced the remainder of his limb cleanly off between a razor-sharp pincer and battle-
blade. As he hit the floor, and his protective armour began to staunch the blood flow with an automatic tourniquet,
he recalled Denko's captured K'luth battle-blade. He had shown Owens it once, during hand-to-hand and melee weapons
training. A magnificent weapon, curved and double-bladed, with the grip at the centre. Exceedingly difficult to
wield, but a graceful display when used by someone competent with it.
As the pain-killing drugs began to cause a euphoric surge in his system, Owens got back up to one knee, and looked
about. The other aliens were emerging from their hiding places now, some were buried like his friend down there,
others had climbed up into the higher floors of the building above. Owens squeezed off a few shots towards the
closest one, caught it in the face with a lucky hit, and watched it fall backwards, clutching reflexively at the
melted mess of a head which now rested upon its' neck. A solid strike to the back of his head caused Owens to fall
forwards now, dropping his rifle as he did so. He just managed to turn his head enough to see the aliens' foot come
down towards him before a loud snap, and his suits' HUD, illuminating his dead face, informed him that his neck was
broken.
Denko watched as Owens' indicator blinked then faded to black on his own HUD. "Dammit," he thought to himself.
He had wanted that kid to be okay. He had hoped he would make it back to the pickup point. "Dammit!" He shouted
aloud, as he let loose another spray of magnetically accelerated shotgun pellets towards the nearest enemy, and
then discarded his weapon, its' ammunition spent.
He drew 'Sutarukeru' and charged towards a group of the enemy. As he approached, they opened fire upon him, psi-
projectiles flew by the sargeant, and some even impacted against his armour, but he would not be slowed. The
closest alien raised its' rifle, hoping to smash the human in the face as it neared, but Denko ducked as he
got close, and 'Sutarukeru's kiss across the aliens' mid-section caused it to fall; a cut so clean even the blood
did not spray from the wound until the beast had hit the floor. 'Chopper' looked upwards into the faces of his
adversaries, and launched into them.
The aliens' hover-tank lied in a pile of smoking flesh and carapace, one of Hodgeson's high-yield charges
inserted into the acid-launcher had taken care of that problem. Now, just a score of the K'luth guards remained to
guard the anti-matter generator, and Denko's men were more than a match for them in an all out gunfight.
With the charges in place, and the other enemy mantas returning to the generator, Denko and his troops were well
on the way to the pickup point. As the troop carriers' hatch opened, and they all began to filter onto the ship,
freed prisoners already re-united with the local militia, the sergeant removed his helmet and looked out towards
the generator. A deep rumble within the earth let him know that the charges had begun detonating. The collapse
of the buildings' silos inwards showed him. As he saw the alien tanks begin retreating from the inevitable
cataclysmic explosion which would follow, he turned away, and boarded the carrier.
As the ship accelerated upwards, and headed back towards the UGTO destroyer they had debarked from, a massive
explosion blew the remains of the generator upwards into the sky behind them, instantly annihilating the surrounding
area in a matter/anti-matter detonation, and removing the power source for the planet-based defence bases below
them.
When Denko looked out of a viewport, and witnessed the vast number of MiRV bombs arcing thier way towards the
surface of the planet, each targeting a different enemy structure, he felt a distinct sadness at the loss of some
of his fellows. He replaced 'Sutarukeru' in its saya, and bowed his head in respect of the fallen.
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Andravus
Fleet Admiral
Joined: December 16, 2001
Posts: 39
From: Weeki Wachee, Florida
| Posted: 2003-12-10 18:01
Kewl story! ... Poor Owens ... 
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The Reaper
Cadet
Joined: December 09, 2002
Posts: 234
From: Eternity
| Posted: 2003-12-12 11:11
*Cough* bump *cough*
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Axianda The Royal
Fleet Admiral
Terra Squadron
Joined: November 20, 2001
Posts: 4273
From: Axianda
| Posted: 2003-12-12 13:45
OWENS NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!
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- Axi
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UberBrooksie
Cadet
Sundered Weimeriners
Joined: August 23, 2002
Posts: 433
| Posted: 2003-12-12 19:42
Hey....Whats this about this isnt the Janson Trilogy............NNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
With that said another good sotry here sad about that owens guy though poor guy
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Deathscythe
Admiral
Joined: November 30, 2002
Posts: 420
From: The netherlands
| Posted: 2004-02-17 14:34
yea he seem to stoped whit the jason story half way sad he did not worked on whit it
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