101Hello, this is my first attempt at a sci fi novel but from what people tell me this is my best work yet. I hope you enjoy and please feel free to review.
Chapter One
The war had ended with the Catrions victorious and the losing side…devastated. Apparently these invaders never considered assisting the defeated morally sound. Then again we humans have only done it for about half a millenia. Now all surviving humans had to hide in pure fear. I ironically, don't need to hide. I have secured a ticket for myself on the last flight off the planet on the civilian Tour ship designed by Burt Rutan. Unfortunately I have to get to the ship by tomorrow without traveling by any primary source of pedestrian travel.
It was ironic because during the war I was a part of a local resistance force. The resistance force will be a prime target for the Catrions. I had probably already been discovered as an easy kill. The resistance was quite literally a branch of the Mafia. I was going to spend the last of my family of favors before I left. I may appear conceited and selfish for running but my plan was to come back in a few years to try to make a stand. According to the Mafia I am not allowed have my own family of favors because it creates competition on the Don. I don't think I made competition for him. I think he made more for me though.
I thought of the people I needed to communicate with and instantly called all of them with my cellular implant. "If we are going to get there we have to leave now." I said hurriedly collecting my old projectile weapons.
My old weapons are all considered antiques now but they are far cheaper than the standard tazer. Besides stun guns rarely penetrate Catrion armor and sound emitters are useless because they have no ears. The primitive guns from the twentieth century seemed to intimidate the Catrions.
I strapped the ammunition cartridges onto my belt and grabbed my M16. Expecting to have the bulky gun confiscated somewhere along the line I pocketed my great uncles police pistol and several more ammo clips. As I finished my preparation I heard a buzzing in my ear.
"Hello?"
"Are you coming?! We are outside your apartment."
"Is the mag-lev train operational?"
"Only one track. Hurry we need to leave now!"
I ran out of the door of my apartment and saw an old internal combustion vehicle; a Mitsubishi Eclipse. The plan was to take an old gas powered vehicle that anyone could own and are no longer registered by the government, and drive to the train station. Well that was the plan. Whether it worked or not depended on if the curfew was still in effect, where the Catrions were in the city, if the minute amount of gas we'd scrambled to collect was enough, if the spaceship pilot waited for us, and if the artificially generated power for the mag-lev train worked. We couldn't convince the train operator to run the trains illegally, and if he did it could be stopped. We needed a sure-proof way to power the magnetic tracks.
I squeezed into the back of the tiny flashy red antique. It was tight but this sports car was quite fast compared its day's technology. It was no where near the speed of a mag-lev train or even an ancient jet craft but there was just something about hearing yourself thrown back in your seat. That feeling couldn't be replaced by anything.
I was quite glad no one paid any attention to our show car. If they had they might have seen four heavily armed people. Three of them are under twenty years old. The fourth man, also the driver, was far older. In fact he was old enough to be the others' grandfather. His ray wire like hair was slowly thinning leaving him bald.
This fourth man, I had technically done a favor for and he technically didn't owe me a favor. He was with me because the person I had done a favor for did not wish to be anywhere near a departing human spacecraft. He thought that the Catrions would surely attack all departing spacecraft; destroying both the ship and its passengers in the process. I doubt they will attack, I mean how low can you go? Killing their fleeing victims? If a lion kills an antelope it doesn't chase after the escaping antelope to kill them too. That would be excessively criminalistic.
The dangerous little Mitsubishi stopped, setting its passengers free. I wormed out of the backseat, with the help of the person in front of me, and started to board one of the mag-lev trains.
"Stop! We are taking train 323Z on track C." the old man ordered. I walked to that specific train and began to board again. "Stop! We have to remove all of the cars from our track except one." He ordered again. I unhooked the front car and gave it a light push. The train car glided smoothly about ten feet away. After an hour's work the extra train cars were on parallel tracks. I slid open the sliding door of the freight car we were traveling in. Before I entered I asked obnoxiously, "Anything else that we need to do before we set off?"
"Yeah. Get me a double mocha latte with one quarter cream and cocoa sprinkles." The old man replied.
The advantage of a freight mag-lev was that no conductor was needed and the Catrions would recognize it as a cargo shipment vehicle but would not recognize that single freight cars moving independently are suspicious occurrences. Perhaps if our cover was properly maintained my three accomplices could escape down their separate paths with this one rail car. Perhaps the human race could escape in this one transportation unit powered by a homemade electromagnet. There I go again daydreaming in the middle of an important task. Before the war I would've had a neural operate to help me concentrate. Unfortunately all surgeons and major doctors were drafted to help victims of Catrion attack.
My thoughts were interrupted by the sound of a silenced antique gunshot. I spun and saw the old man firing an old army surplus sniper rifle at a group of Catrions surrounding a fallen friend. In a rage I kicked the old man in the ribs making him his fire his armor piercing rifle. "You can't do that! It's murder! They weren't even attacking a human!"
"I was going to pluck off as many of those - -s as I could while I had the chance! We are at war you know!"
"No. We are at war no longer. It has been declared over. We are defeated. Besides you could have blown our cover. If you were truly under my command I would have, most definitely pushed you out of the door!" I bluffed angrily.
"You are a weak sniveling coward. You have neither the heart nor the stamina to bruise a Catrion." The old man said shoving past me to gaze out a vent on the side of the fuming I waited anxiously for the train to stop at the launch site. When the train stopped above the runway I noticed a crowd of people. They were probably all local refugees who'd discovered a departing ship. Even though the tourist ship could only make it into orbit, it was still far better than life in a concentration camp. I wonder who let the information leak. Whoever it was, if he or she was an employee, they were probably fired. I am sure I could make a fortune by selling my ticket. I could get anything I wanted that these people had.
Breaking my thought process, the old man rudely demanded when I was going to climb down and board the aircraft.
"The ship won't leave for another eight hours. Patience is a virtue."
The old man scowled and sat down to clean his rifle. I sat down and leaned my head against the wall. I drifted out, dreaming of a life in the Mars Colony. Then my pleasant thoughts mutated into dark gory battlefields across the red sand. I was leading a group of people, the size of the group I did not know, however I did know we were bonsai charging the Catrion fleet with crude primitive weapons like swords and clubs. We were attacking without apparent worry of Catrion bio-weaponry or Catrion bombers. My slumber was interrupted by a low hum. I recognized it as the un-mistake-able whir of a Catrion solo bomber. The hum was so loud there must have been at least a half a dozen. I grabbed my M16 and ran to the sliding door to shoot if needed. The old man was already there shooting down the Catrion flight suits. Noting we aren't being shot back at I looked for a reason. The crowd below was either asleep and oblivious to the danger or awake and watching curiously. Shaking my head disapprovingly, I muttered "civilians" Then I realized someone needed to warn them. I grabbed the rope, tied it to a handle inside the train, made myself a simple harness, and stepped off the train to fall close to two hundred feet. The rope jerked me to a stop ten feet from the ground. After fumbling to untie it, and unable to find a knife on me, I drew my pistol and shot the rope. I fell flat on my back, scrambling to climb to my feet to help the refugees. No sooner had I reached the mass of bodies than a Catrion Dragonfly, which was the official name for this particular craft, swooped out of the sky and dropped a grass green glass sphere near the crowd. The sphere exploded outward in all directions in an enormous ball of green gas with an approximate radius of 200 feet. I squinted slightly through the mist and hurried in the direction, I thought, was away from the fog. I knew it was too late for me. Even if I made it out I made it out, my body had already consumed a fatal dose of the noxious gas. The crowd of people was sure to be dead also. Space couldn't have disorientated me more than this warm fog.
There was a cry for help from behind me. It sounded like a small girl crying in fear. I ran back to her, hoping, praying, that I could reach her before she died just so she would have the comfort of protection. I knew I couldn't save her and my running to her would guarantee I would die. If I didn't die from the gas the Catrions would finish me. They have a habit of smashing the heads of their victims to ensure they are dead. Even so I doubted I would live long enough to feel the agony of my skull being crushed under the pressure. I was already suffering from the fumes. I dropped to my knees, not in despair but in fatigue. Before I blacked out I heard a small plea for help. I gave a cry in anguish and…died.
So how was it? Don't fret. The main character is not really...no nevermind. I won't tell you the main character isn't using up minutes on his cellular implant.