Excerpt from official report. Confidential.
“…Company C had been ordered to secure the overrun area and establish communications and watch posts. Green Platoon was assigned the damaged fortifications between Hills 147 and 183. We deployed in loose skirmish order and proceeded to scan for live munitions and/or enemy personnel. At 0210 hours…”
Turned out the fellows from the military did want to see it, and were pretty upset that it was no longer there to be seen.
They had some sharp words for the sheriff, even after he explained, reasonably, that there didn’t seem to be much they could have done to stop it “except get runned over maybe.”
Continue readingReluctantly, the sheriff moved his investigation indoors, and tried hard to ignore the fact that the… the whatsit gave him the willies.
It just stood there, apparently immobile. The thing hadn’t moved at all since it first emerged from its resting place inside the wall, a neat hollow behind a layer of loose-set bricks. Fact was, it didn’t look much like something that could move. It was all one piece, of fired brown pottery, glazed, and decorated with abstract swirls. There were no joints of any sort that he could see. It had no eyes, nor anything that could be properly called a face, on the squat ceramic dome that stuck out where its head ought to be.
Continue reading“…and when I come to, I called you, Sheriff.”
The sheriff looked the part, only shorter and darker than average. (He’d been a fighter pilot during the War, and had run for office on his record.) Since then his life had gotten a lot quieter — except for days like today, that is. Right now, he was standing on the board porch next to the farmer, hat tilted way back on his head, taking notes. “So, you heard a loud noise, and something busted through the wall. That would make a noise, all right.”
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The old farmer’s face was seamed and leathery, his pale eyes deceptively mild as he sat reading peacefully by his fireplace.
His first harvest from this new homestead was safely in the barn and the fields lay fallow, awaiting a kind of winter he’d not yet seen. The War had forced him to relocate three times, and he devoutly hoped he’d never move again — never mind that it smelled funny here when it rained. The government radio broadcast said he wouldn’t have to, but that’s the kind of thing governments always say. He had his doubts. He kept them to himself.
Continue readingThe player changed the colors of the other players in his space strategy game so he could more clearly distinguish them on the map. The situation was becoming complicated. It was frustrating; a new computer player had been introduced into the game. A new version of the AI. And it was better, which was great. But…
Continue readingFounder’s Landing is a city on the planet with the same name, out on the edge of that nebula known as the Lesser Ephebian Cloud, and held firmly in the iron grip of the Imperial State. The nights are dark and the law is hard. But wherever there’s too much law, there’s guaranteed to be crime. That’s where I come in.
Founder’s Landing is a city on the planet with the same name, out on the edge of that nebula known as the Lesser Ephebian Cloud, and held firmly in the iron grip of the Imperial State. The nights are dark and the law is hard. But wherever there’s too much law, there’s guaranteed to be crime. That’s where I come in.
Continue readingFounder’s Landing is a city on the planet with the same name, out on the edge of that nebula known as the Lesser Ephebian Cloud, and held firmly in the iron grip of the Imperial State. The nights are dark and the law is hard. But wherever there’s too much law, there’s guaranteed to be crime. That’s where I come in.
Fried chicken, wine from a jar, and a tiny hovel next to a logging mill welcomed Graye to his new home in the foothills of the northern reaches. Planet Azaylia-4 was a barely-habitable rock halfway between Alliance and Federation space, but it served its purpose well. Most worlds between the enemies were barren wastelands, making for a perfect buffer zone, so for months the Alliance had built up a hidden base and prepared to strike.
Planets Magazine 