Writers of the Future Honorable Mention Short Story
By Tyler Tarter
Tales of the Past
Achar Ronga eased himself down into the hard wood chair at the front of the classroom, glancing around at all of the bored faces of the teenagers in the room. His old bones and scars didn't like chairs that weren't filled with form fitting gel that molded to his permanently destroyed body. The young woman that taught the class spun a small knife between her fingers as she paced back and forth as she spoke.
“Now that you've been in this quiet combat class for a few months, we wanted to show you why we now train to fight the way we do. Adjudan Ronga served in the Khalsa Army for twenty years as a member of the Fifty-Second Drop Infantry. He fought through some of the bloodiest battles in human history and we've asked him to come speak with us today about that.”
Sliding the blade into her wrist sheath, the teacher walked back over to her desk before turning to bow to the old warrior that sat in the other corner of the room. The class shifted a little in their seats with some students sitting up to pay more attention while others slumped down in their seats. As she sat down, she activated the display screen on the wall behind them to reveal an old picture of Achar kneeling in the group of his fellow soldiers just days before they climbed onto that first jump ship.
Memories flashed through his mind as he met the life-sized gazes of each of his fallen friends. Tears crept to his eyes as he remembered the deaths of some of the men and women on the screen causing his breath to catch. He took a deep breath and pulled his gaze away from the picture before facing the class and letting the words he'd prepared flow out of him.
“As your teacher said, I'm here to tell you about where my life took me and why my life is a good reason for you to train in the silent arts instead of the warfare that our people have trained in for over a thousand years. You may have learned our people’s history and the laws of our faith that require us to be prepared to protect the weak and needy. Today we're going to talk about the fight that kicked off the last major war in human history.”
He glanced back at the screen again, letting the story start to flow as the teacher clicked over to the next slide that showed the brownish green world of Olao beside a smaller picture of his former unit.
“The people you saw on this screen believed this with their whole heart and I want you to learn about them to truly understand why we now fight the way we do. This is what the world of Olao looked like when we were sent there about sixty years ago. As I'm sure you have learned, it all started when one group of people decided that another group wasn't worth keeping around.”
As the words spilled from his mouth, the classroom shifted in his mind, being replaced by a memory of the past. When the memory took full hold, he let his voice shift into the storyteller's lilt that came natural to him when he told the tales of war.
The troop compartment of the lander lit up as the rear doors opened to the dry tundra world of Olao. A cold wind rushed in with the slightly bluer rays of sunlight to kick up the thin layer of dust that had settled over the drop ship during the long flight from their carrier ship. Doors locked into their open positions with a hard clang of steel on steel before the harness that held Achar in place was released.
Lifting the padded metal clamps so that they locked in the upright position, he pulled his weapons belt from the overhead rack and quickly checked his pistol, blades and ammunition to make sure that nothing has been damaged during the drop into this hostile planet's atmosphere. With the three belts strapped around his waist and across his chest, he released his heavy machine gun and sword from their locking case beside his seat and clipped them on to the webbing harness that he wore over his uniform. He quickly fixed his turban once all of his gear was collected and moved to take his place in the formation of soldiers waiting to deploy onto this new world.
The slender figure of the squad's sniper stepped into her place beside him in the center of the three rows and spoke softly as she shifted her long rifle to lay across her chest.
“You ready for this Achar? We finally get to do something after all of that training. I know it's just supposed to be some simple peace keeping mission while we evacuate the targeted people, but I'm hoping we see a little action.”
Her nearly black eyes glanced over to meet his gaze as studied the woman that carried a rifle that was nearly as tall as she was. He shifted the weight of the heavy pack of ammunition and supplies on his back before responding.
“I don't know about that Chiran. We're here because of the request of the United Worlds Council so the Sovereign Hegemony shouldn't resist us. It's not like the government is the one causing the problem for these people. They just aren't able to control the group that's targeting them.”
Before she could continue the conversation the platoon's First Sergeant strode past them. His voice boomed over their earpieces and echoed off the boxy metal compartment where they'd been housed for their journey to the surface.
“Weapons at the ready and begin disembark. The pilots reported that some of the locals were taking pot shots at us as we descended so don't plan on a warm welcome. Snipers and heavy weapons specialists should get to cover and prepare your positions. We're the first platoon down so our job will be to secure this landing zone.”
A chorus of “Yes Sarjan Mahzor!” rang through the drop ship as the basic infantry charged down the ramp towards the surrounding buildings. As the middle of the company charged down the ramp, Achar and Chiran kept pace with the disembarking warriors. The sounds of battle grew until it could be heard over the thunder of reinforced boots marching on the steel deck plates.
Achar flinched as the zip and ping of actual bullets flew overhead and struck the ship and ramp around the warriors. A single scream broke through the chaos as a warrior to his platoon fell to his right. The pace of the soldiers increased as a second and third warrior of the Khalsa Army fell to enemy fire until their boots hit the dirt and they broke for some of the nearby buildings.
Achar led his childhood friend towards the building that they'd been assigned to protect along with their squad. The almost body builder of the squad, Ajit stepped to the flimsy wooden door and gave it a hard kick. Wood splintered and buckled under the force of the mech enhanced kick of the team's breacher.
As the remnants of the door clattered against the wall the twin soldiers Manat and Yashdev slipped into the building and moved through the open room with the eight other warriors following as they pealed towards the different edges of the building. Voices of frightened people floated down the narrow staircase on the right side of the open living area. Achar and Chiran turned in that direction with two other soldiers behind them.
The four soldiers stepped out into the hallway with two rooms on each side and a dense wooden ladder that went up to the roof. They checked the two rooms at the top of the stairs and found the two children's rooms recently abandoned. Soft, terrified voices echoed out of the last door on the right where one of the other twins stood.
Achar stepped over to the soldier and looked into the room where a woman cowered with her two children. The brightly colored fur clothing of the three people was easily recognizable from the pictures in the briefing. He stepped in between the civilians and his frustrated comrade that was angrily trying to get information from them.
“Yashdev, those people are the people we're here to protect. Go take a lap of the roof to check for firing positions for us while we get these guys down to the landing area for the trip back up to our transports.”
With a growl the best fighter in the squad turned and prowled from the room, climbing the ladder before disappearing out the hatch. Achar let all of his weapons hang from their straps and he pulled a piece of chocolate from a breast pocket. Splitting the chocolate bar in two, he held it out to the two children as he spoke in a broken form of the local language.
“Please forgive my people. We were, um... were attacked when we arrived. He is just nervous and doesn't mean you harm. We are actually here to get you and your family to safety. Is your, how do you say it? Husband, yeah husband. Is he nearby or do we need to go retrieve him from somewhere?”
Instead of answering the question, the women kept her arms locked around her children as her eyes darted between the soldiers as she spoke.
“Why are the Sikh here? This city is dangerous enough without you here to cause new problems.”
Achar tried to smile as met the woman's gaze, keeping his voice calm and friendly.
“We're here because this city is dangerous, and your leaders asked for our help to get your people out of here. We have a safe place that we'll take you once you're off world. So, if you could please tell me where to locate your husband we can get your family to safety.”
The woman's face dropped further, and tears glistened in the corners of her eyes as she responded.
“He was taken away by a mob a few days ago. We don't know what happened to him or where he is now.”
Achar handed the two children the chocolate before placing a hand on the woman's shoulder. When the woman finally looked up to meet his gaze, the young warrior responded.
“We'll do everything we can to save your husband, but we need to get you and your children to safety so that we can do that. Manat here will help you gather your essentials and then will get you to the safety of our dropship. Don't worry about food or water, we'll provide all of that.”
He glanced back at the female twin that was still standing by the door, trying to not look intimidating. Manat gave the woman a smile and held out a hand for the two children to take. With a little encouragement from their mother, the two children went with the young soldier to pack things in their room. Helping the woman to her feet, he spoke softly so that only she could hear him.
“I'm sorry that we had to scare you guys like that and I'm sorry that this is only going to get harder before it gets better. We were fired on when we landed so once you have a bag each you'll have to run to the ship. We're going up to the roof to try and set up some firing positions to keep you guys safe.”
When she shook off the shock a little and began to pack her things, Achar left the room and climbed up the ladder to the roof. He stuck his head slow out of the hatch to check the situation. Once he was sure that he had cover from a two-foot-tall lip of decorative stone, he pulled himself up and crawled quickly over to the lone soldier that was laying near a decent firing position.
As he reached the hole that had once been three cranes flying through a sun, he slid his heavy machine gun through the opening. He pivoted the gun from right to left as he checked his range of fire before activating the small maglocks on the tripod and activating the one-way plasma shield to protect him from enemy snipers. When the gun was in position, he turned to the soldier lying next to him.
“Time to move Inder. I've got this spot locked down now.”
The lean soldier didn't move in response to his order, so Achar reached out to shake his shoulder. Instead of responding to the nudge, the young warrior slumped off of his rifle. Achar rolled Inder over onto his back and was met with the cold dead face of his fallen friend.
Panic began to fog his mind as he stared at the dead gaze of his friend. All thought of finding a wound and helping his friend was gone in a heartbeat. The cold icy hand reaching its way up his throat cut off any cry for help that his training was trying to force through.
A crack of thunder just inches from his head broke through the fog, pulling him back to where the plasma shield glowed in a starburst pattern. In the center a single pink bolt of energy hung temporarily frozen. Achar rolled to his left as the plasma released to slam into the cement just inches from where his knee had been just seconds before.
He spun and put his back to the solid wall of the lip perpendicular to his gun and hollered back at the ladder where his friends were still climbing up onto the roof.
“Chiran, I need you up here now! We have an enemy sniper that has already taken out Inder and is using shield breakers. I need you to take him out so that I can provide fire for the other teams.”
The small sniper crawled quickly over to Achar lay, using the air conditioner and small water tower as cover. She stopped next to him and lay on her back so that their faces were just inches apart. Achar shifted so that she could slide her electro-rifle through one of the thin decorative slits in the wall. For several moments the two lay still in an awkward silence, Achar not wanting to move in case he messed up Chiran's aim.
After several moments, she glanced away from the eye piece of her wire thin scope and glanced down at where his face was resting against her stomach armor.
“I'm going to need you to make him shoot again. Your shield should be able to take another round, so go get in position and fire a few shots at the enemy down there. I'll watch for the shot and finish him as soon as he gives himself away.”
Keeping low, Achar climbed over her and crawled over to where he'd left his rifle with the shield still active and giving the air a soft shimmer that filled the hole. He picked up the rifle and swiveled it to the street below where a group of armed men were firing towards the landing area. He let a single burst rip into the group that thought that they were safe in cover before another thunderous crack of the shield signaled a second shot from the sniper.
Achar dived out of the path of the round as it broke through the energy barrier and took cover as a quiet bark from Chiran's rifle signaled the fall of the enemy shooter. Through the shimmer of the shield Achar watched as the purple bolt of energy ripped into a half-opened window. After a few tense moments, Chiran held up a thumb to signal that it was clear, the world seemed too quiet down as everyone.
Achar seized the opportunity and let the magnets of his railgun turn orange as they spat out a stream of metal darts toward the cowering behind a parked vehicle. Some of the enemy tried to fire back in his direction but most moved to a position further up the road. Chiran's rifle barked as the enemy left Achar's sight and moved into hers.
A small smile crossed Achar's face as he watched the enemy scramble away from any position that would allow them to attack the civilians that were being loaded into the landing craft. Not looking back at what lay beside him, he called out over the radio.
“We need a stretcher team at my current position. Inder is down hard. The roof is safe to move on.”
He shifted his focus back to the road that lay ahead of him, sending a few more short bursts at the enemy to keep their heads down. As the voices behind him told him that the stretcher team had reached the roof, Chiran's voice broke through his focus.
“Rocket!”
The Art of Survival
The room was silent as the students all stared at the old man at the front of the room. Achar fought back the wave of emotion that built inside him as the memories flooded back. He took a deep breath and studied the room, studying the mix of surprise, concern, and excitement that was written across the children's faces.
He took a deep breath and looked back at the screen that had changed through several slides while he told the story. Several pictures and some maps had been included so the students could follow and comprehend the story as he had talked. A different image appeared from those that had come before it, showing a field hospital deep in the woods.
The image had been selected for the newspapers years ago because it didn't show much of the horror of the desperate field hospital. Sounds seemed to float on the mist of his memories as he studied the picture. Several men and women stood in front of the tent in a loose formation, each carrying weapons despite their various wounds.
Before the memories completely overtook him, Achar spoke, just loudly enough to catch the class’s attention.
“This is the hospital where I woke up after the rocket attack. It was a terrible place to come back to life, but there wasn't much of an option. While I was unconscious the fleet of the Sovereign Hegemony had arrived and had attacked the fleet. Our army had been forced to evacuate the city with the civilians that we'd been sent to save after they had started bombard the city.”
A video replaced the picture, showing rail darts and energy weapons slamming into the city. Buildings and walls collapsed like a stack of children's blocks during a temper tantrum. Achar looked away from the screen and tried to ignore the sounds that haunted his dreams as he spoke.
“This is what I woke up to. I'd been moved to the aid center in the woods beyond the city before the enemy bombardment had begun. It took me three days to open my eyes, only to find out that our fleet had been pushed away from the planet and half of my team had been lost.”
The video ended and shifted to another picture of several soldiers dug into foxholes in between shredded remnants of trees. In one of those holes Achar saw his younger self, still wrapped in olive-green bandages on his arm and neck. A new heavy squad weapon sat behind him with its power cells powered down at the moment.
Achar glanced at the picture one more time before starting the story once again, rolling up his left sleeve to show his heavily scarred arm that the blast had given him.
“We spent months in holes like this, having to move every time the enemy found us so that we couldn't be a target for the starships above us. The worst day came after two months of fighting when our supplies were running low and about half of our forces were fighting despite being already wounded.”
The beams of early morning cut through the dust and smoke that filled the valley that had once been a dense forest. Achar sat low in a protected foxhole that had been surrounded with a short wall of fallen trees. He scanned the distant horizon with his damaged arm resting on top of the cold gun.
Manat shifted from where she'd been asleep against the side wall of the foxhole. She did her best to stretch in the confined space before crawling over to lay on her belly beside Achar, lifting her spotting scope to look out over the wide valley below them. As she scanned the wasteland for any sign of movement, her voice came low over the howling wind.
“How long do you think we can keep doing this? We've moved six times in three days, and we've lost half our squad. If I have to dig another foxhole, I think my arms are going to fall off.”
Achar chuckled softly as he leaned back from his gun to get a better view of what the valley beyond held. Despite the thick fog of smoke and ash that still floated in the air, the dim outlines of burned trees and scattered buildings lay like a nightmarish painting before them. As he responded, he let his melancholy echo in his voice.
“You have no room to talk, you got to sleep for the last four hours. I've been up for eighteen straight. With that said, if we keep having to move, we're going to run out of places to hide. The city is basically powder at this point and over half of the forest is little more than a burned-out husks. We only have so much further we can go before we'll sitting ducks.”
The two soldiers stared out at the ghostly valley, lost in their own thoughts for several moments. Achar's mind wandered as the light of morning began to cut through the greyness, thinking about the life he'd left behind when he joined the army. It all seemed like a lifetime ago despite only being on this world for a little over two months.
A faint flicker of movement in the distance yanked him from his tired thoughts and sent a jolt of energy coursing through his muscles. He slid back over behind the heavy machine gun and swiveled it to point at the small abnormality behind the scorched hunks of wood. He marked the point with the scope and sent it over to Manat's binoculars as he spoke.
“I thought I saw something there. I'm not sure what it could be but it's enough to make my hackles go up. You see anything worth shooting at?”
She shifted her gaze in that direction and studied the small piece of ash smudged white fabric that seemed to be flapping in the wind. As her glasses fixed on the fabric it quickly disappeared behind the shattered tree and showed a small piece of a polished wood rifle stock. With the press of a button on the side of her spotting scope, she marked the target and sent the location over to the artillery hidden somewhere in the forest.
For several seconds the world remained silent before a single echoing pop shook the birds from their slumber and sent them scrambling for the sky. A soft whistle broke through the screeches of the frightened songbirds. As the whistle grew to ear shattering levels, the artillery shell exploded just feet over the tree line, sending shrapnel ripping through the scorched hillside opposite them.
Several screams of pain were drowned out by the war cries of hundreds of enemy warriors breaking from cover as they charged the hill where Achar's unit was hidden. A single ping came from the earpiece in his helmet and sent another jolt of adrenaline through his body. His hand finger slipped off the guard and squeezed the trigger as the first enemy warriors reached his weapons range.
For several minutes, the enemy poured out of the smoke and mist into the wall of bullets that turned the few remaining trees into wood chips. The guns fell silent as the last of the enemy warriors stopped moving. Achar dropped back down into the foxhole to avoid looking out over the results of the fight.
He reached up and quickly began disengaging the power supply and the belt of mag darts from the gun. By the time the order came, he'd already locked down the two boxes on his pack and was pulling the gun out of the dirt and fallen tree cover. Manat climbed out of the foxhole and held a hand down to take his back and rifle so that he could follow her out.
After pulling his pack on and clipping the heavy machine gun to the carrying straps, the two warriors sprinted away from their position as fast as they could. Several other soldiers were emerging from holes all around them as the two scarred veterans led the charge towards their backup positions. Several thundercracks shocked the sky as railgun darts were launched from the enemy ships in low orbit above them.
For nearly a minute the wall of warrior sprinted through the trees, towards the cover of the still living forest as the counter in the top corner of his targeting computer counted down the sixteen minutes that it took the large metal darts to reach the surface at hypersonic speeds. The crowd of soldiers around them picked up their pace at the thundercrack, some of the warriors with lighter weapons and armor pushed past the veterans that had been running at full speed since the firefight had ended.
As they crossed the two-mile danger zone that had been marked on his targeting eyepiece Achar located a foxhole that they had dug earlier in the day and pulled Manat into it beside him. The two soldiers fought the urge to look back at their old position as the countdown hit zero. A second later a wall of dust and heat ripped over the hole and dug a chunk out of the far side before continuing past.
As the rush of sound and air broke through the trees behind him, Achar slowly raised his head over the lip of the foxhole and looked out over the barren landscape that had been a forest just a few seconds ago. Now it was a scorched and shredded world, covered in ash and chunks of wood with no sign of green available. He took a moment to breathe the hot dust filled air before sliding his pack off and beginning to set up for his machine gun again.
The last piece clicked into place and the tungsten dart slid into place and the accelerator magnets spun up to slide the dart to the tip of the muzzle before pulling it back into place to signal that all checks had passed. Exhaustion from the day started weighing as he let his body follow its muscle memory as his brain shut down to a minimum. He propped the device up so that it was resting on his mostly empty pack before slumping down into the dust as he waited for Manat to build a proper cover to hide the guns muzzle.
The thin tree cover that had held during the shockwave still blocked out large swaths of the sky, hiding him from the cameras and sensors of the warships that drifted above them. His sore body relaxed as he slid down into the hole where the cold dirt numbed his stiff back as he watched the clouds and flying steel death machines float past. Moments drew out into hours as he felt a peace that had been wildly rare since he'd dropped onto this planet.
A second sun filled the sky above him to join its larger twin as he watched. For a moment his mind enjoyed the beautiful streaks of red and yellow and orange plums that joined the black and grey of the enemy fleets and the white clouds. When his tired brain finally set off the alarm that he'd been trained to see, he activated his comm system and screamed into it.
“Fleet combat directly overhead. Hunker down and brace for falling debris. It looks like it's getting wild up there.”
Manat dropped back into the hole with her job half-finished and curled up beside him in the space that was barely big enough for one person to lay uncomfortably. Achar pulled close to the only warmth around him on the cold day as the two tried not to think about those that would be lost in the fighting overhead. The explosions of combat flared like a fireworks show on Guru Nanak Gurpurab that he'd watched from his roof as a boy.
Time slowed as the incomprehensible fighting raged and the threat from the enemy on the ground quickly became an afterthought. After several minutes of enjoying the light show a stern voice broke Achar's hazy thoughts.
“This is Captain Gazdar of the United Worlds Fleet. We've broken through and we're headed down with replacements and reinforcements for you. Can anyone mark a safe landing zone near the forest outside of Istiquz?”
Achar listened to the silence on the command channel for several moments before deciding to take the initiative.
“This is Adjudan Ronga. I hear you and I'll pop green smoke around the safe area and have my soldiers set up a controlled perimeter. We did just push back an enemy attack, but I believe that they retreated before the orbital strike.”
Relief that he wouldn't be on this planet for much longer warred with the fact that no senior officers had responded as he opened up a general channel to every soldier for a quarter mile around him. He took a deep breath before trying to mimic every officer that he'd respected as he spoke.
“This is Adjudan Ronga. We just heard from the relief force that's inbound. All soldiers that are hearing this need to expand back out into the orbital strike zone and set up a landing zone to this side of the crater. If there are any officers hearing this, please let me know so that I can pass command to you.”
By the time that he was done speaking, Manat had disassembled his machine gun again and stood with all of the equipment waiting outside the fox hole. A deep breath helped him heave himself up out to see the roughly two hundred soldiers moving out into the barren wasteland that remained.
A Silent Future
The fog of memory evaporated as the chatter of the classroom broke through his memories. With a handheld up for silence, the teacher moved out from behind her desk and stepped to stand beside the old veteran. Her voice cut through the background noise and drew the class back to her.
“Mr. Ronga has a lot more to tell us, so please pay attention. I'm sure you have some questions, but I'm sure he'll answer them as he continues his story. Please hold onto your questions until then.”
Despite their teachers request dozens of hands shot up and several questions were shouted out. Achar turned to better see the class as he searched the faces for someone that looked like they had a reasonable question. He pointed to a young girl that sat in the middle of the group with more color than most of the other students. When she spoke, her voice trembled with nerves at being singled out.
“Thank you for being her sir. May I ask what happened to the family that was in that house?”
For a moment, Achar struggled to understand the question. His memory had long forgotten the people that they'd evacuated on the first day. As he tried to remember if he'd ever heard, the teacher stepped over to stand beside him, placing a hand on the old warrior’s shoulder as she spoke.
“I can answer this one Guru Ronga.” She gave Achar a quick tear touched smile before turning back to the class. “I haven't had a chance to tell the Guru this, but I'm the young girl in his story. We made it off of the ground just moments before the rocket hit and I had to watch my childhood home crumble. Guru Ronga also was indirectly responsible for saving my father who was a prisoner in a labor camp that his forces rescued before his unit finally evacuated.”
Achar sat back in his chair and looked up at the nearly forty-year-old woman, trying to picture the face of the small, terrified girl against hers. Some of the pain of his memories faded as he looked up at one of the people who he and his friends had saved. Glancing back at the class that sat silently, as stunned by these revelations as Achar was, he spoke with an emotion drenched voice.
“As you can see, the war that cost most of my friends’ lives was worth saving people like your teacher. But after twenty years of fighting that left several planets barren and more people dead then I can comprehend. At the end of the war, Manat and I had developed an elite strike force that could infiltrate enemy planets and remove dangerous leadership and positions without the risk of sterilizing the planet.”
Solemn looks from the twelve and thirteen-year-old youth seemed more mature than Achar expected as he continued.
“You all may not be the people preventing these kinds of wars after you graduate, but learning these skills will protect your friends and family from the threat of war. I'm proud of the work you are already doing, and I think you will have some of the best shadow warriors in history if you all work hard. Do your best and make our people proud.”
With a wink Achar stood and embraced the teacher that had been a bigger part of his life than he'd realized when he took the assignment. When that was done, he turned and returned the students’ bow before walking out the door. As the door to the classroom closed behind him, he took a deep breath and headed out of the school, trying not to wonder how many of those children wouldn't live to see their thirties.
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