Market was busy today. Busy enough to kick up a dusty haze in the summer heat. What a wonderful day Johnna thought to himself. Things can’t get any better. Beautiful day, busy market, plenty of credits for the food he’d need for this afternoon, and to top it all off; today was the day he’d make his first step towards citizenship. Today was Johnna’s birthday, his eighteenth birthday. Today he was eligible to enlist in the Armed Forces. That is the fastest way for a dweller of the Burbs to get their citizenship into the Coalition States and admittance to Chi-Town.
With his bag full of fruits, vegetables, and a few steaks Johnna headed home. He walked the streets with all the confidence in the world. He felt no danger here in this burb. It was his home, and he was an active member of the local militia that kept D-Bee’s, Practitioners, and anything else the Coalition States deemed “Undesirable” out of SouTau. Everyone knew, SouTau was a clean burb and riff raff of any sort were not tolerated. That level of zero tolerance was enforced to the extreme. To break Coalition law meant immediate death. Johnna was safe in SouTau. SouTau is safe burb.
A block from home, Johnna spotted an individual he vaguely recognized. Struggling to remember where he had seen this person, it snapped in on him with sudden clarity. This man, just an ordinary looking person, around 5 foot 6 inches, sandy red hair, glasses, wire thin, and pale, was Marcus the Book, a known and wanted felon by the CS, the Coalition States. Johnna had just seen an alert vid of him not to long ago. He was wanted for trafficking in contra-ban and sympathizing with D-Bees. Johnna smiled to himself. He could net a nice little reward and look like a neighborhood hero all at once. This day just couldn’t get any better.
He watched him from a distance. Marcus was casually walking down the street, looking around every once in awhile. To Johnna’s surprise, Marcus actually walked right up to his house and knocked on the door. Johnna’s Grandfather answered the door and the two began speaking to one another. Johnna hurried his pace and closed in on the two. From a distance he could hear they were talking about repairs to something. His grandfather spotted him closing and waved him over, “Johnna, come here boy.”
“Yes sir”, Johnna stammered.
“This man needs some repairs.” the elderly man stated.
“Indeed I do. I hear you are one of the best Operators in SouTau. I have a Big Boss ATV that’s blown its drive transfer or some such thing. Could you take a look at it? I can pay in barter or credits, whichever you prefer.”
“Sure.” Johnna sputtered, “I can fix jus’ about anything.”
“Good then. My rig is south of here at the edge of the burb, side of the road headed in to the Wilds. You’re alright with that aren’t you?” Marcus asked.
“I am.”, Johnna answered in clip.
“When can I expect you? I’m in somewhat of a hurry.”
“I should be there by mid-afternoon, sir. I need to load my tools on the H-Truck.”
“Very well then, I will see you then.”, and with that Marcus walked off the way he had came.
Johnna watched him go.
“What is wrong with you boy?” his grandfather spat.
“I’ll tell you inside, grandfather.”
Johnna hurried inside and placed his groceries on the nearest counter. He frantically began searching through various drawers in their kitchen. “What’s this all about”, his grandfather asked.
“That man, grandfather, that man is a known enemy of the State.”
“Yeah? What’d he do?”
“It doesn’t matter what he did. He’s a D-bee lovin’ sympathizer, and I need to find Sorphep’s telecom number.”
“You’re just going to turn him in? He didn’t do anything to us, but ask to give you some money to do what you do. Your father’s rollin in his grave, bless his heart.”
“What? My father? Dad was a sympathizer, and would help anything that offered him cred. Not me, if you ain’t human, I ain’t workin for ya. If you deal with other-worldly trash, I ain’t workin’ for ya. No sir, I’m turnin your ass in. That’s what dad should have done, and he’d still be alive today. Screw the damn telecom. I’m just going to walk to the garrison.” Johnna started for the door.
“Don’t be gone too long, Johnna Shale. I’ll be fixin that dinner for ya regardless.” Johnna’s Grandfather snapped at him on his way out.
Grandfather was not happy about what he’d said. He knew that. The only time Grandfather used Johnna’s full name was when he was angry. “It doesn’t matter what grandfather thinks. It’s was the right thing to do.”, Johnna thought. “And that what I’m going to do.”
A short time later Johnna made his way to the local CS garrison. He knew Sorphep was inside. He could see Sorphep’s “pack” lazily sprawled across various lawn chairs and picnic tables. Sorphep was a Psi-Stalker and his “pack” consisted of five dogs of different breeds mutated to the point of being able to walk upright and talk like humans. Johnna hated them, and they hated him. He viewed them as abominations, and they just hated him for no known reason.
“Hey look guys, Trunks is here! Yay! You here to fix more gear for free? Huh, Stumpy? More suck up time to Master Sorphep? ah hahaha.” They chided as he approached. They always tried to pick on him about his size. Johnna was not tall, only around 5 feet 2 inches, but was stocky and built solidly. As a result the dogs had taken to calling him Trunks, like a tree trunk.
“Shut it chaser, or I’ll spray you with the hose.” Johnna retorted.
“What did you call me, tool-boy?”, the largest of the Dog boys stood, reaching nearly six foot tall, and began to move into intercept Johnna.
“Sit boy or I’ll send you back to your bitch mama.”
“If thing were different, I’d be tearing your throat out right now.” the large Sheppard like Dog boy growled.
“Enough!” came a command from inside the garrison, a building that more resembled an old restaurant with fortifications than a military post.
The Dog boys all straightened and returned to their lounging area, the larger still eyeing Johnna.
“What can I do for you Johnna?” Sorphep asked, and Johnna relayed to him what had happened. Moments later the two of them where jumping into a 4 wheel drive vehicle that had enough room for them up front and the pack to ride in the back box. Fully armed and armored, Sorphep and his Dog pack made for an impressive and intimidating group. Sorphep hit the accelerator and they headed toward Marcus the Book’s location.
They approached the edge of town and parked the 4 wheel drive vehicle. They walked to the outermost buildings using them as cover. The Dog pack stayed back away from them. Johnna could see the ATV in the distance along with a few people standing and sitting around it. It looked like they were grilling something. Sorphep looked around the edge of the building and touched the side of his visor dialing in the range and magnifying the area for a better view. Sorphep pulled back and touched the comm on his throat and it crackled to life, “OK, boys here’s what we got. One male, Caucasian, mid 30s, human, he is wanted. Non-fatal retrieve. One Female, blah blah, D-bee, kill it, and the rest are smaller D-Bees, most likely younglings, put them down. Here is the plan; I will open with a mini-missile into the ATV to remove it from the board. There are books, disks, and other contra so that is two birds one stone. After launch, I repeat launch, not impact. You all go. Standard five fan deploy. We all smell the PPE about, so be careful. Kill everything except the male. Johnna you stay here, under cover. Copy?” the Unit responded in almost unison. “Copy Johnna?” Sorphep asked directly. “Copy. Sir”, Johnna spoke with excitement.
Sorphep marked the ATV with a small laser and thumbed the red switch on a tube he had placed on the ground. A split second later a mini-missile spiraled out of the tube like an angry hornet. The pack launched into action. The five Dog boys rushed from their position in a well trained and executed maneuver designed to block, and corral fleeing suspects. The missile dropped into the ATV from above impacting exactly where Sorphep had marked. The brilliant explosion liquefied three of the younglings and blew the rest of the unsuspecting to their backs. Then the Dog Boys were upon them. The rest of the younglings were downed quickly. The male, Markus, began to pull a pistol, but Snapper the smallest and fastest of the Dog Boys leapt straight over the man’s shoulder and clipped him in the back of the skull with a neural-mace. Electricity coursed through his body rendering him unconscious before he hit the ground. The female found her feet and screamed out in a howl of rage that flayed the sod from the earth ten feet around her. In unison the Dog Boys and Sorphep chimed “Mage!” across the comm. The female spat a few arcane words toward one of the Dog Boys and he burst into flames. Another Dog Boy leapt at her, she caught him in mid-air and tore the creature’s arms off. While discarding the dismembered Dog Boy, Sheppard, the behemoth of a Dog Boy Johnna had argued with, leapt upon her from behind and began raking her with three vibro-blades extending from his gauntlet. Sorphep, closed in on the woman as Sheppard’s claws began to find flesh. She screamed in agony for a split second then fell silent.
Everything was silent except for the sputtering of the ATV’s metallic fire. Sorphep beckoned Johnna from hiding. “You did very good in telling us about this man.” Sheppard and the two remaining Dog Boys held Marcus by his arms and feet. “Markus the Book, you are hereby charged with crimes against humanity, consorting with practitioners of magic, trafficking of contraband, and a multitude of other crimes that result in death. Your sentence shall be carried out henceforth. May you find atonement in the afterlife… Johnna, Come here son. Would you like to do the honors?”
“I’m sorry. What?” Johnna asked not quite understanding.
“Would you like to carry out his sentence?” Sorphep asked.
Johnna shook his head vigorously, “Very much so sir.”
“Have you ever fired an energy weapon before?” Johnna shook his head no.
“This, Johnna, is the C-10 Laser Pistol. This small package has the power to put a hole through several feet of concrete. This is the safety and this is the business button. There is no kick, so be careful when you discharge the weapon. Any questions?” Johnna took the weapon and shook his head no.
“Aim for the body. Center mass. The C-10 will do the rest.” Sorphep encouraged.
Johnna held the weapon up toward Markus. Markus closed his eyes, and began to sob slightly. The Dog Boys stepped clear of the man, now on his knees. A bead of sweat trickled down Johnna’s face and his heart raced to the point it threatened to leap out of his throat. He squeezed the trigger, and the weapon came to life. It hummed with power for a split second as it focused the energy stored in the e-clip into a concentrated beam of light. There was a flash of light. In that instant Marcus the Book ceased to be. The power of the concentrated light consumed flesh and bone. Now, only pieces existed and they fell in upon one another as the devastated remains of the man collapsed to a heap of smoldering gore.
Johnna exhaled.
“So it’s your birthday today, huh.” Sorphep stated as he took a long drink from his iced tea. Seated across from him Johnna leaned back in his chair, back at the garrison, and propped his feet up on a near by chair. “Yes sir it is. I’m eighteen today. It’s been a great day so far. I totally waxed that simpy out there. Are you sure you won’t get in trouble for that?” The Psi-Stalker looked across the table at him sternly. “No, as a human and potential citizen of Chi-Town, you have every right to eradicate everything that is not human and weed out those people that consort with them. Now usually there is a trial for a traitor, but we didn’t need one. There was magic on the scene, and damn was it delicious! I haven’t fed off of a true line-walker in a long time. Are you having second thoughts about what happened out there?” Johnna considered the question, “Not at all. It’s my duty to protect SouTau. To keep it safe from scum like that. SouTau is a safe burb.”
Sorphep winked at him “Good Man.”
“If I remember right you were going to enlist to get your citizenship bumped up, right?”
“Yes sir I was.”
“Why don’t we get started on that? I can do all the official stuff; you just need to sign the proper documents.”
“Sign? What do mean? I’m not sure I know how to do that. I can’t read, sir, I wouldn’t know what I’m putting my mark on.” Johnna said shakily.
“I’m just kidding. You’ve already completed the pre-requisites; all we need is a bio-scan and a blood sample, and you will be assigned a date to report for boot-camp. You just needed to be eight-teen to enlist and today is that day.” Sorphep stated with a smile.
“Let get this set then. I’m ready when you are.”
Sorphep dug around in the drawer of his desk and retrieved a small hand-held computer. He flipped through a few icons representing the specifics of his new recruit. He tapped an icon the shape of an Antenna and the hand-held established a communications link to the central recruiting station. Confirmation of connection came back and they were awaiting his input.
“Alrighty, Central is awaiting our first set of bio-metrics. Let’s start with a blood test before I inject you with IRMSS.”
“IRMSS?”
“Little robots that look at your insides. Finger out. This click will make you jump, but it won’t hurt.”
“OK.”, there was loud click and indeed Johnna did jump. A small bubble of blood welled up on his finger and he was instructed to dab it on to a metallic strip protruding from Sorphep’s hand-held computer. The machine drank up the drop of blood hungrily and began to process it. A few moments went by and Sorphep furrowed his brows.
“Hmmm. Johnna. Is there something you’re not telling me?”
“No, sir. Is there something wrong?”
“I see your father was little bit of an activist.”
“Yes, sir and he got what he deserved for it.”
“What about Mom?”
“She died when I was a baby. I don’t know anything about her.”
“Hmmmm seems we have a problem here son.”
Johnna’s heart began to race, “Whu..What do you mean?”
“Poor child, someone should have told you. You’re a half-blood. Mixed with dwarf it seems.” he half chuckled, “.., explains your height.”
Johnna bolted for the door, running as fast as he could. Half-blood! That’s the same as being a full-blood D-bee. He sprinted across the grass and on to the dirt road. The three Dog Boys looked on with curiosity at the running Johnna. Sheppard couldn’t help but howl an insult, “Run home Trunks!!”
Sorphep casually strolled out the door of the garrison, and looked over at the trio laughing at the boy.
“Sheppard!”
“Yes sir!”
Sorphep gave the Dog Boy a bemused grin, “The boy is half potato.”
Sheppard cocked his head to one side, and then remembered a racial slur for the dwarven race was potato. He looked back at Sorphep excitedly, and received the nod that told him he could go.
Eighteen tiny wax candles burned to a stump, in a cake that would not be cut.
SouTau is safe burb.
