Story Blog #1

The elements:

    a cherry poptart

    a shotgun

    a spaceship

    a picture of a pretty girl on a beach

    (submitted by D.B. Lincoln)

Goal - 500 words - Actual - 397

The Calm Before…

A tale of the $tar Corp$ universe…

By Paul Arden Lidberg

Devin sat contentedly munching a cherry poptart in the ready room and watching the vid. The Universe Cup was down to Capella IV and Siberia. Devin chuckled as he thought of the irony of a frozen planet being the best at an outdoor sport.

He picked up the oily rag and went back to cleaning his shotgun. Sure all the modern weapons are cute, he thought, but nothing beats a classic. Pump action, 9 rounds -  perfect for the occasional close encounter. He finished up cleaning and oiling it, then stowed it in his ruck.

Glancing up at the vid, he saw they’d moved on to the IFL scores. With 16 divisions, it was hard to keep up. They’d finally been forced to reorganize the teams so they could play more often. Even with that, it still took almost 2 years to play one “season.” His great-grandfather told him they used play the Super Bowl every year, but he wasn’t sure he believed him. “Would you look at that” he said to the empty room, “Earth actually has a team that doesn’t suck!”

When he thought about it, it wasn’t all that surprising. Ever since they dropped their objections to prosthetic enhancement, it was only a matter of time before one of the Corp Execs built themselves a decent quarterback.

Almost time to go, he mused. He grabbed his wallet from the table, and opened it. Anna looked beautiful in that bikini, he thought as he again stared at the picture of his new wife. That day on the beach was something he would never forget. “Gotta find a way to be home more” he said, “this is not what I had in mind. Shaking his head to clear it, he stowed the wallet and got up.

“Who am I kidding? I’m a soldier. It’s what I do. She knew it going in, so that’s that.” Satisfied at that, he turned to leave.

“Five minutes to drop” came the announcement, the ship’s computer sounding almost human. “Five minutes.”

He hustled through the hatch, and ducked down the passage to the launch bay. The sergeant was already there (of course), alternately shoeing and berating the troops into the Assault Pod. “Get moving, maggots!” he shouted as he waved them in.

Devin checked the men in his squad, then strapped in himself. Just another day in the FedEx Rangers.

(c) 2013 Paul Arden Lidberg.