Young Writers Society

Blue rushed quickly after Griff, he tended to leave trails of bodies, and Blue was running out of rats.

Skully

The pods began to launch and i leapt nimbly into my Sparrow Fighter, pausing breifly to nod to Shadow and Scar.
"See you on the otherside ladies," i grinned pulling the cockpit shut and launching into the vaccuum of space. As we dropped into the atomsphere the HUD sprung to life highlighting friendlies. I smiled as my craft shot past Grif. Without another moments thought the triple S fell into its usual routine. The continual chatter of Scar over the comms pointing out targets for Shadow and i to decemate.
Scar's ship skipped and rolled nimbly, avoiding fire and dropping anything too problematic. Anytime anything seemed to be on her tail for too long i would nose dive from my fight and shred them with gauss cannons. Shadow got on with her usual job, namely filling bunkers with proton missiles and Mk.III plasma bombs or Fizziwigs Bunkerbusters as they were affectionately known.
Finally most of the pods had landed safely and those that hadn't probably never would. Doomed by fate to be blown out of the sky.
"Shadow how we doing?" I asked calmly.
"Last of the anti air defenses will be down any ... second ... NOW!" she replied as a tower was first lit from the inside and then destroyed in a tower flame.
"Ever the subtle touch Shadow," i grinned. I was glad. Now that the anti air was down we could begin landing and joining in the fight.
"Scar, we clear?"
"We should be given the order to touch down any minute now. Just got wait for Snoink and Grif to give the go ahead." She replied calmly.
"Why you in such a rush to touch down Skully?" Asked Shadow. "Eager to get to work with those blades of yours?"
"Don't you know it. Can't let Blue have all the fun." I laughed.
"And here we were thinking age and combat might have matured you."
"Sorry Mrs and Mrs S. Not going to happen." I grinned. I could almost see the looks of disapproval at that nickname etched on there faces. We contiued to patrol the skies just waiting for instructions, occasionally dropping an escape vessel or late lift off fighter.

Scar:

I barrow-rolled out of the way of incoming fire, laughing. "Typical," I said, listening to chatter of my fellow Triple S team members. Of course, Skully would want to get out his swords as soon as we touched down. I smiled as they split off from me and did a quick sweep of the area. It was our usual routine.

"Scar," Griff said. "You've got a go to land."

I nodded. "Yessir," I replied and banked hard to the left, doing one last sweep before coming in to land. Something exploded to the right and I spotted Griff's pod. It was open. Ah, so he was already in the fight. Avoiding fire from the Utopians, I brought my fighter in to land, sliding her sideways down a clear section of runway while firing at a group of Utopians rushing towards me.

Grabbing my weapons, I left my fighter and began taking out the soldiers approaching me with gun and whip. Off in the distance, something else exploded.

*I decided to add a warning, that all though quite amusing, it is pretty disgusting and not for the faint of heart*

I noticed the triple S landing, then scar went out and joined griff, who was quite busy at killing things in the loudest, most explosive matter possible. I sighed, exploded enemy means I'll have to make the crew a meat that was already roasted once- reheated- they'll be so disappointed...
Griff and Scar, now joined by Skully and shadow butchered through the enemy, hunter- predators.
Me- on the other hand, not out of fear, but out of job requirements, did the part of the vulture, grabbing a canteen filled with substance that was probably related to jet fuel in one hand, taking the occasional sip- and a big knife on the other, using it to scavenge tomorrows dinner ingredients, and to collect them to a bag strapped to my belt.
I was searching for a good name for the dish in my mind- the booze very helpful on the subject.
Mystery meal? meat? no, no, no- something creative! maybe... um... One of the ingredients was crawling away, I slammed a heavy boot against his head, spilling the insides of his skull on the floor. Damn! I'm gonna need a ladle or something! anyway... Oh! how about 'victory spoils'? No! that's for a fancier thing- Wait, I got it! 'A Taste Of Utopia'! Yes!
I grinned, revealing very yellow teeth. It was about time, for some reason, nobody seemed to like my hot-dogs...

Skully

"Youve got a clear to land." Came Grif's voice through the comms. We finished one last sweep and swung into land. By the time i found a clear space, Scar was out of her craft, gun and whip in hand. I ran with Shadow to catch up with her rapidly disappearing figure. Finally we caught up with her and Grif, locked in combat with the Utopians feirce hunter-predators. They seemed to pouring into the room down two corridors. I drew my Boltok revolvers and fired off the twelve shots in quick succession, instantly killing one man as the hollowpoint entered his skull, mushroomed and bounced inside his skull, pulping his brain. I bet that turns up in someones dinner, i thought grimly, scanning the room to see the effect of my other eleven rounds. Three Utopians were bleeding heavily from their chests while the other eight had accrued various no less incapacitating injuries. I quickly stowed my sidearms in to their thigh holsters and flicked out my wrist blade. I closed my right fist, enjoying the familiar feel of the blade against my knuckles.
Diving beneath a Utopian blade, i rolled onto my feet half turning before driving the blade through where the helmet met the neckpiece, severing his spine at the weakest point in his armour.
I'm getting good at this, i thought diving into the fray with the others. One particularly sly Utopian tried to sneak up on Grif while he was bisembowling another. I ran toward him and threw myself at it head first. I flew through the air and collided with his helmet with a smash and a particularly nasty sounding crunch. Looking into the visor, there was a forehead shaped chunk cracked clean out, showing a vaguely human head, with the face caved in an identical forehead shape.
Whether Grif had noticed or not i didn't know, but for a moment i was filled with pride that i had saved the noble SPEW commando. Filled with renewed vigour i ran into the continuing fight, drawing my katana in my empty left hand.
Smiling i thought to self, how suprised are they going when i use it in my better hand?

(I just realized that I haven't posted in here yet-Jeeze I am such an ass sometimes. XD)

Shadow:

I Followed my other two Fighter mates down and into the atmosphere of the planet, all the while chewing madly at my gum- I hated when my ears popped upon entry.

As soon as we were down we all began our appointed spots. Scully and Scar watching each others backs and taking out the bigger boys, whilst I did my usual of filling the trenches with bodies.Ten minutes later we got the call that is was safe to land and we all three made out decent. I hovered the Reaper to let the others get down first, that was one of its special tricks, helicopter hovering. I smiled- and Griff said the Reaper's blades were silly!

"Yo Shadow! focus, your going to get yourself killed!" Scully shouted as we entered the hot spot. I ducked down just in time as Blue tossed a mangled something past me.

"Am not! Scar I thought Command said the area was secure?! this doesn't look secure to me!" I could feel the withering looks I got form the ground troops. I crouched down wiping the sweat that had gathered on my forehead from my helmet.

Suddenly a chorus of explosions destroyed the place we had been hiding, everything was chaos now and I didn't like it.

"Crap!" one of the ground troops shouted I didn't know who.

"Well of course it's crap! we're in a frigging war zone!" I screamed back. I looked about and spotted Griff- he was madly trying to contact Command.

"Hey Griff I'm-" Bomb blast, "I think it would be best if-" Another bomb blast. "Holy hell! I'm going back to my ship and blowing that-" another blast, thankfully this one drowned out what I had said. Griff turned to me.

"Shadow, Your not a hand to hand combat soldier what are you doing!?! Get back to the Reaper and give us some cover woman!" -He obviously hadn't heard what I said.

I turned tail and ran back down the trenches my boots splashing in the bloody mud. two minutes found me back at my ship, once in my cockpit I quickly turned my baby on, her engines revved to life, eager for a fight. Reaper glided quietly into the air and when she reached the regulated safety height I slammed her into gear.

I raced towards my comrades and brought all my weapons systems online- I wasn't going to be ladylike today. No bloody, bloody carnage was the rule!

"You Utopians are mine now!" I screamed manically into my headset as I sent a torrential downpour of ammunition into our enemies- I always wondered if Command ever got worried about me?

(Hope this is alright. If I did something wrong just tell me and I will edit!)

As shadow took to the air, I started to scream "No! what are you doing?! you'll ruin the supplies!" I ran and held an exploded utopian body, which could be used for utterly nothing now to my chest- "He was so soft! no!" I then got up, rage in my eyes- and roared, charging towards the unquiet supplies, who turned and ran, crying to their mommy and soiling themselves- no matter, it will add extra taste- to the hands of grif, skull and scar, who just seemed to recklessly mangle them.
I roared, leaped in the air, and landed on a very lucky utopian- he may scream and kick and cry as I cut him, but whether or not he likes him, I'm gonna make a delicious dinner out of him.

The moment that Grif leapt from the pod, he took fire from every corner. The shields of the SPEW Commando suit kicked into action and absorbed the fire. The shields began to go down as they worked over time. Grif returned fire. With his Gauss Rifle, he took out a pillbox. He turned to another opponent, only to see them go down as he was impaled by a sharp crochet needle. Stella had emerged from her pod.

Amidst the chaos of combat, Grif began giving orders.

"Stella, you're with me; we're going to find Vit. Grant, find the automatic turret controls, then program them to target the Utopians. Blue, go with him. Scar! Skully! Find the guard house and release any Arbian prisoners," Grif said. By the time he had finished speaking, the Utopians in the plaza had been exterminated, their guns silenced.

"Grif, what about the bodies," Blue asked.

"Leave them for the buzzards."

"But we can't leave food like this lying around!" Blue said. Grif narrowed his eyes at him.

"The Utopians are not for eating."

"Then what will we eat?"

"The SPEW Gryphon's replicators are capable of making any and all types of food we could ever want. Leave the bodies alone, that's an order. Shadow?" Grif said.

"Yes Grif."

"I need you to watch the perimeter. They probably managed to recall their patrols, keep them off our back."

*I'm so sorry I've taken so long, first of all was looking for a good entrance and then I was so busy the past three days I haven't had a chance to catch up on my SBs...*

Stella

Shadow nodded. "Yesssssir," she said, with far too much sibilance. Stella sniffed at the sights of the bodies. Combat had never exactly been her thing, but there you go.

"Thomas! Come on!" Griff said impatiently. She picked her way through the bodies and hurried after him.

"You know, for a perfect world, you'd think the Utopians would make better uniforms. I've never truly believed black is as flattering as it's made out to be- YWS-regulation blue is so much nicer, but on top of that, well, you'd think their body armour would be better."

"Just be glad it's not," Griff said darkly. Stella had to agree. While death was unpleasant at the best of times, at least it was Utopian casualties and not YWS ones.

"Okay, so. Vit. Arbian resistance, got a pair of Wings- I should really make a few of those-"

"You think they'd be useful?"

"Of course they'd be useful. Got anything on radio?"

Griff shook his head. "Not his style. He's a guerilla type. Up," he commanded as they hopped into an elevator onto the top floor of the base, where, they hoped, Vit would be.

The doors slid open to reveal the top floor, a huge expanse of black floor under a glass roof, the sky littered wit hstars and the lights of YWS and Utopian ships.

"So... dark clothes. Wings. Heavily armed- Arbian, so not wearing those awful black uniforms, though as I say, dark clothes, probably camouflage and maybe looking as shifty as us..." Stella took a furtive glance around the base as if to prove that they were looking shifty, but there were no living Utopians to be seen. "And probably looking for us just as we're looking for him, not hiding like the Arbian servants."

"Great. So where is he?"

Stella looked up, through the roof, skipped a few steps in front of Griff so she was at the right angle, and looked at the winged figure hovering by the uppermost guns of the base. "There," she said, pointing. On cue, the figure hurtled towards them. With the Utopian forcefields down temporarily, the glass shattered into a million pieces. Vit landed on his feet and, as calmly as anything, strode towards them.

"Commander Griffinkeeper, sir!" He stood to attention and saluted Griff.

"Good job, Vit. You've done YWS a great service."

Vit nodded curtly, then eyed Stella. "VitaminCakes at your service, ma'am."

"Stella Thomas, pleasure," she said dryly, taking in his complete scale armour, the weapons belt, the wings, the boots. Sensible, yet still a work of art. "Love the ensemble, by the way."

Scar:

I set about following Griff's orders, Skully in tow. So, guard houses. Arbian prisoners. I turned a full circle, frowning. What did their guard houses look like? Skully was staring at me. "What?" I asked, looking at him.

He smiled. "I think that's a guard house," he said, pointing to a nearby building with GUARD HOUSE painted in big, red letters on the side. Oh, yes. Duh, Scar. Very obvious, isn't it. I must be blind to miss that. Very blind.

"Right," I muttered and took off at a jog. Skully could keep up or get left behind.

As I approached the guard house, I uncoiled my whip from around my wrist. There was a chance this would get messy. In the distance, I saw something explode. That would be Shadow doing her job. I smiled and kicked in the door. Somethign exploded, sending Skully and I backwards in a tangle of libs.

"Griff!" I called over the comms when I'd recovered enough. "I think they rigged the guard houses to blow when tampered with!"

"Scar, we just got information from Vit. He said that the place marked "Guard House" was a trap, meant to kill anyone that tried a rescue attempt. The actual guard house is located beneath the garage. Unknown number of guards or prisoners. Proceed with caution."

"Right. Moving to the garage," Scar said.

"Grif, engaging an enemy patrol to the North of the base. Other patrols are inbound. We may need some assistance," Shadow said.

"Our second wave is inbound Shadow. We just have to hold out until they get here."

"What's our next move sir?" Stella asked. Grif looked at Vit.

"We need to gather any intel we can on the Utopian deployment on Arb VII. Vit, take us to their command center. We'll need their computer core."

"They've likely destroyed them," Vit said.

"Probably. Even so, I have a computer expert that might be able to recover some of the data," Grif said.

"Fine, this way," Vit said. They moved through the compound. Grif took point. He turned to enter the command center and found himself taking fire. He stepped back into the hall way out of the fire and took out his gauss rifle and activated the scope. The SPEW scope zoomed in through the walls. Grif adjusted his aim, then fired three shots in rapid succession.

"Clear," Grif said, lowering the gauss rifle.

Vit:

"We have fifteen minutes to get the information we need, this facility will be swarming with Utopians by then. I'll split up from your group and plant some explosives in the hangar as a diversion while you get the data you need. " Vit said, while placing the suppressor for his Seeker rifle.

"And if things don't go well?" Griff asked with doubt.

"Well, we improvise, the extraction point is at the top of the command center. Leave that to my shuttle." Vit said, turning his back and engaging his mercury boots, jumping to the other side of the wall in order to reach the command center's hangar.

As Vit proceeds to the hangar, he notices the thunderous explosions and gunfire flaring up in the distance.

"Griff and company, what's your status?" I whispered to my comm as I observe a guard near the hangar with my binoculars.

"We're good, there's not much resistance on our way to the computer core. We've just started downloading the data." Griff said.

"Roger." Vit whispered, squeezing the trigger of his suppressed seeker rifle, the guard went down.

Vit then opens the door to proceed inside the hangar and notices it is dark and deserted. There's a large cargo shuttle inside, feeling the warm metal near the exhaust of the shuttle, it seems that the ship just landed only recently. Vit examined what it was carrying and noticed that there was a figure that resembled missile, shrouded with cloth. When he pulled the cloth shrouding the figure, he stepped back in fear. Vit quickly pulls out the explosives and plants them on the cockpit, engine and cargo bay of the shuttle.

"Griff, I have something really important to tell you." Vit said in a nervous manner while planting the explosives.

"What is it? Is there something wrong?" Griff said.

"Damn right! They're bringing Planetary Surface Life Deprivation Missiles! Fortunately, it won't explode unless you use it in a proper way. A single missile can obliterate half the planet. There's only 2 that's been ever made." I yelled into my comm as I plant the explosives, but my progress was halted when the large door in front of the shuttle opened.

"Put your hands up!" A Utopian on top of the armored vehicle yelled with his large speakers, numerous men aimed their rifles at Vit, the moon silhouetting them.

Vit placed his hands over his shoulder, the detonator on his left hand. He squeezes it softly so the guards won't notice. A small grin on his face

Griff then hears a large explosion from a distance.

“So, one mug of apple cider and a large plate of confetti cupcakes?” Lily asked, still scribbling into her notepad, her short hand quick and chicken-scratched to such a degree only she could understand it.

The mousy man at the table nodded. “And if you have any scratch paper about, would you mind bringing some by?”

“Of course, Bartley.” She spun off on her heal and swerved through the maze of tables and chairs just as the sirens began screeching outside. No one moved but the room fell silent, waiting for gunfire or perhaps the sound of a far off explosion. Lily paused beside the register as the siren puttered out. It wasn’t at all uncommon for it to go off but everyone’s nerves were strung just a bit too high.

She started to shuffle around under the counter when she felt it, the grumble of something erupting far off in the distance. The windows rattled and several female patrons squealed in their seats. A small child, somewhere outside, started to cry and Lily watched, eyes burned open wide, as the crowd outside began to scatter.

The power flickered out then back on and all fell silent with the exception of every electrical contraption in the room buzzed back to life. “Is anyone hurt?” Lily called, realizing she was the only waitress on the floor.

No reply.

“I’m just going to take it you’re all alright and we should go about our –” Just then, in a shower of dust, the outside door flew open. Out of the corner of her eye, Lily saw Bartley raise his hand up to his mouth and gasp.

Grant:

For as obvious a layout as the compound should have been, they sure made the turret control room hard to find. I dashed around down the left corridor at a junction and into the sights of a Utopian soldier. It grinned menacingly as it strutted it's way down the corridor towards me. I let out a small gasp and stumbled backwards, opting for the right path now. Not that I don't enjoy fighting, but I couldn't bother to be hampered with a duel right now. I still had to find that dang turret control room.

From behind me, I could hear a laugh. "You can run, kiddo, but you can't hide forever!" The sound of running feet was quickly growing closer, so I picked up the pace to a full-on sprint. Looking ahead, I could see a four-way intersection of hallways. I looked down the left corridor; there was a series of doors on the left and right walls. To the front, stairs leading downwards. And to the right-

Aw, crap. More guards.

My heavy breathing must have alerted them to my presence, as they turned around and yelled out in surprise before charging at me. Blindly, I ran down the stairs and hid in a broom closet. Cowering in the darkness, I heard the guards run past. They may have tech, but they certainly aren't bright. I fumbled around for a light switch. Flicking it on, I turned around and was face-to-face with a Utopian guard.

"Hello, precious," It scowled at me. "Care to dance?" It pulled out a combat knife and tried to slash my chest. In the confined space I couldn't do anything but duck. Without thinking I pulled out my mini Super Sledge and brought it into the sides of the guard's knees. It howled in pain, and I hit it in the face again to prevent my cover from being blown. I looked on the back wall and noticed that one of my hammer strikes had left a small dent in the wall. I hit it again, harder, and the wall buckled in into a different room. Peering in, I saw a row of computer banks. The turret control room!

...well, isn't that convenient. Walking through it took me a matter of seconds to rewrite the turret's to identify and attack Utoptian guards. With my job done, I left the room (through the formal door) and went to find Griff.

Grant might haven't noticed- but I followed him the entire time:
"Damned grif, 'ooh, we have a thingy that allows us to create everything- so we don't need you to make delicious meals with love-'" I dodged a soldier's gunshot- then bit his face off, I kept going- ignoring the soldier that's attacking Grant- "'ooh' I'm a big tough SPEW commander that can't even bother to kill in a rational way- let's just blow them up!' Anyway what's up with that- if I won't cook-" i dodged another assailant's leap, then bashed him with a hatchet 46 time, looked around, and collected the pieces- "What will I do?! you wanna take my job, grif?! huh?! no waffles for you, you smug bast- hey where did computer wiz go?" I looked around, I couldn't find him- but I did managed to detect the aroma of anther 'Taste of Utopia' dish- coming from a closet- that opened to an empty room filled with computers.
I looked around me again, then shrugged, and started dragging the corpse by it's legs on my way back to ship, he was a big one, A dish and a half, really.
I noticed some Utopian soldier looking at me, tilting his head weirdly- so I shot him.
I then walked back to the ship, ranting.