Young Writers Society

It was late, the sky dark save for the moon and the fiery engines of the warships. They

rocketed away from Earth, their engines roaring at full speed. They headed away from thir

dying planet, travelling into the deep unknown of space. Their search for life would

begin, but it would be a long and bloody road and their vicious past would follow them to

the ends of the galaxy.

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Malik Andrews was sitting in church, joining in the special annual services. It was

the aniversary of the destruction of Earth and every year at this time, the churches held

special services. This service was different thought. This was the thousandth anniversery

of earth’s fiery destruction.

It was said that Earth hadn’t been destroyed, but that the surface had been scoured.

it was also said that some people survived and went underground to live. Malik was very

interested in the history of his people, and so read up on everything he could get his hands

on about Earth and its terrible end.

The priest up at the alter had finished and the other people were leaving, their

chatter filling the room. Malik stood up and moved out of the aisle, heading for the front

doors.

Malik called a taxi and it stopped at the curb. He got in and it lifted off, humming

away through the clouds. He told the driver his home address and the taxi shifted

direction slightly. The ride home was uneventful and Malik unlocked his apartment door,

and enetered the livingroom. He turned on the TV and went to the fridge for a soda. He

came back and sat on his sofa, flicking through the channels. He stopped on channel 1120

and watched the president give a speech to reporters. He sat there for a while, then turned

off the TV in a furious mood.

The president said, “ As of a few minutes ago, three of our outer rim stations were

attacked and burnt to the ground. We have stopped the culprits at Ireyuja, but our losses

were heavy. I am asking as many people as possible to volunteer. Help us beat back those

who would kill our family and friends. Thank you.”

Someone had dared attack them. It was unheard of. All of the races that the

Uluhor had come across had been peaceful and hadn’t tried to attack. But these creatures

were attacking them like they were the most powerful race in the galaxy. Malik went to

bed, his dreams plagued by phantoms, killing his family and friends.

The morning proved to be a sunny one and Malik’s mind was made up. He was

going to tell his parents where he was going, then he would leave.

Jenna and Malikar Kahliel lived in the suburbs of Wyrmer, a small city on the

eastern coast of Malik’s home planet, Eas Quo. It was a twenty minute shuttle ride and

Malik was soon on his parnet’s doorstep, his knuckles rapping on the door. His mother

opened the door.

“ Malik, We weren’t expecting you. Come on in. She gave him a hug an a kiss

and they walked into the livingroom where Malikar was sitting, watching the news.

“ Malik. How are you doing. Hows the city. Things have been quiet since you

moved out. Sit down.”

After some chitchat about the weather and such, Malik decided it was time to

break the news to them.

“ Guys, I have something to tell you.”

Malikar stopped halfway through a sip of coffee and set his cup down. “ What is

it?”

“ I’m volunteering for the aerospace force. I want to do my part to help defend us

against the invaders.”

“ Absolutely out of the question,” his father said, “ Look at what happened to your

uncle, Vissais.”

Malik’s uncle, on his mother’s side, had lost his legs in the aerospace force when

his ship crashed.

“ Why in heaven’s name would you want to do something like that. You could get

killed,” his mother said, her eyes wide with shock.

“ This is something I want to do. I don’t have anything to do for the rest of this

summer. I’ll only stay in until my required service time is up, then I’ll get out, I promise.”

His father regarded him for a moment and finally said with a resigned tone to his

voice, “ Alright. I can see that this is something you really want to do. So, do it. For all I

know, you could become a hero.”

Malik spent the rest of the morning there, and then once he had said his goodbyes,

he headed for the aerospace recruiting office in the city. He found it without much

trouble, a large blockish building right on the main street. He entered into a lobby with

several young men and women in lines. He got in the back of one and waited while the

line slowly moved up. Malik arrived at the front dask and looked down on a man in

aircorps fatigues, his bulldogish jowls jiggling whenever he moved.

“ I want to volunteer for the aerospace force.”

“ Sign here.” The man handed him a digitype pad and stylus.

Malik read throught the text on the pad, then signed his name. The man took it

back and looked up at him.

“ Report to Starbase 7 at 0200 in three days. Next!”

Three days later, Malik arrived on starbase 7, a small cube of metal in the middle

of nowhere, its hull silver in the light of the sun.

Malik got off the shuttle and was herded along with thirty other recruits into a

roughly straight line. There, they were screamed at by a drill seargent, and whoever didn’t

meet the instructer’s complete satisfaction was told to do fifty pushups.

So began Malik’s training as an aerospace pilot.

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The summer had passed with crawling speed and It was finally September. Malik

had just graduated from aerospace training and was officially a pilot.

In the four and a half months since Malik had left civilization, the foreign

invaders had decimated the ships of the Uluhor and were now winging their way to Eas

Quo, the main planet in the empire. Malik scowled as he left the graduatiuon cerimony

and the entirety of the base headed to the mess for dinner. There, they would get their first

briefing, before they were thrown nto the melee of battle.

“ Everyne, quiet down. I have an announcement to make. Listen up,” The base

commander said, his voice booming out over the rest of the chatter.

“ Tomorrow at 0700, this entire recruit regiment will ship out to Eas Quo. There,

we will engage the enemy and we will keep them from destroying Eas Quo.”

“Finally,” Malik’s best friend, Jorna, yelled.

“ Quiet.” The commander said, then continued, “ Tomorrow, I want you all to

fight your best. It is your duty to prtoect the people on Eas Quo. Good luck and God

speed.”

With that, the commander turned and walked away from the podium. After a

moment or two of silence, the chatter started again and Jorna nudged Malik’s shoulder.

“ Hey, dude, we actually get to kill something. I can’t wait.”

He pounded Malik on the back and headed off to the food dispensers to get some

food. Malik followed him and wondered how he could be so happy. Malik was sick to his

stomache.

The night was slow and Malik got no sleep. He had just dosed off when one of the

seargents, came down the lines and started smacking peoples legs. Malik groaned and

rolled over. The lights came up to full brightness and revealed that no one else had gotten

much sleep either. Malik got out of his bunk and dressed in his pilot fatigues. They again

went to the mess hall, bu this time, the tables were cleared away and in their place sat

several hundred chairs lined up in rows. Everyone took a chair and waited for what

seemed a long time. Finally, the commander came out and started calling off names. He

assigned everyone to specific transports and they were dismissed. It was 0630 and all of

the pilots headed for their designated transports. the ships themselves were very ugly,

largish insectoid looking ships with long pods slung under the fuselages. Malik followed

the other pilots up the ramp of his designated transport and sat down in a roller coaster

style seat, with the brace coming down over the shoulders.

There were two levels in four rows each in the pods and Malik moved up to the

second level in the third row. The inside of the pods were lit with red lights. Malik sat

down and the brace moved down over his shoulders and locked in. He couldn’t move and

he sensed that he’d be glad to have this brace when they were entering Eas Qou’s

atmosphere. It was some time before everyone was on board and when they all were,

Malik heard the large doors at the back of the pod close with a loud hum and then a clang.

The ship began to rumble and shake as the engines kicked in. He felt it lift and start

rocketing away on its huge boosters. Malik was slammed against his left side as the ship

gained speed. It thundered away from the station accompanied by the other three ships

and an escort of fighters.

It was a twelve hour ride and Malik used that time to sleep. He would need to be

alert during the upcoming battle. For the first tme since he joined the aerospace force, he

was afraid. He couldn’t explain it, but it nagged at him and he became quiet and morose

for a long time.

The landing at Eas Quo was rough and Malik was bruised and battered by the time

they finally landed at the landing port in Wyrmer. There, they were shown to a field of

smallish fighters. They were lined up in exact formation and the names of the pilots were

already written in black on the silver fuselages, right under the bubble cocpits. The ships

looked similar to the large transports, but were much sleeker and antennae pointing

backwards from different points on the ships. They looked like large wasps and Malik

rushed along with the ohers to find his ship. It wasn’t hard to find. Whoever had lined

them up had put them according to the pilot’s last name. Malik got int the cockpit of his

and it slid down over him, protecting him from the extremes of space. There was an

oxygen mask sitting on the arm rest beside him and he picked it up. It fit over his nose

and mouth, and he found that there was a radio in it. He put it on and it connected it to his

helmet. He flipped the visor of his helmet down and his face was completely covered. the

radio crackled and the Leutenant of the squadron said, “ Alright every one. Get familiar

with your ship. You’ve got five minutes. The designations for your ships are right above

the computer. Memorize them.”

Malik looked at the computer, and sure enough, the words RED 3 were printed in

bold letters. He took a deep breath and took hold of the joysticks on either handrest.

There was a fire button on the front of each joystick and a button on the top. Malik booted

up the computer and felt the engines engage, their hum steady and powerful. He pushed

the left joystick foreward and he felt the engine become louder. He puilled it back and the

sound died to a low hum. His thoughts were broken by the radio.

“ Alright. Here we go. I want you to stay in the formation that your ships are lined

up in. Follow me up.”

Way up at the front, a fighter rose smoothly and rocketed away into the sky. Malik

engaged his engines and pulled up on the right joystick. The ship smoothly rose and the

comuter kept an eye on the lead ship as Malik maneuvered his ship up into the sky. All

around him, there were other fighters rising and they seemed to move as one mass. Way

off to Malik’s right, two ships collided, their fuselages cracking together. Seconds later, a

fireball was all that remained of the two ships.

“ Did you see that?” Jorna yelled through Malik’s raio.

“ Cut the chatter.” The leutenant said, and Jorna fell silent.

The ride throught the atmoshere was rough and bumpy, but no other ships crashed

and soon they were out, the vast blackness of space filling Malik’s vision. There, they

stopped, their ships clicking over to autpilot. Malik took his hands off the joysticks and

looked around at the inside of his ship. The red light from the back gave Malik a clear

view of the computer and other navigational equipment.

It was only an hour or two before the enemy showed up, their ships black and

boxy. They stopped three millon kilometers out and formed a similar formation to that of

the squadron Malik was in.

Suddenly, their engines engaged and they came roaring towards the wall of

insectoid ships.

“ Go!” The lieutenant’s voice echoed throught their headsets.

Malik shoved the left stick foreward and his ship leapt as it rocketed towards the

advancing enemies. Instanly, the laser bolts started flying. They crackled past Malik and

detonated in or behind the other ships. All around, wasp like ships were dodging laser

bolts and firing back. Malik held down both of the front buttons on his joysticks and

crimson laser bolts streaked out from under his wings. He slammed the left stick to the

side and his ship skittered left, passing other ships from his squadron. It was then that the

enemy ships hit them. It was impossible to tell friend from foe and Malik started firing,

his lasers cutting through metal and sending ships careening away.

Malik soon found out that the top buttons on his joysticks released fragmentation

bmbs which cut huge pockets of space in the fields of enemy ships. Suddenly, an

explosion close on his left side sent Malik’s ship careening through the battle. He scraped

along the top of a really big ship and finally, he got his ship under control, but there was

no power. All the computer and radio equipment was out and the engines weren’t

responding. Malik’s ship rolled slowly, then bounced out of the fray just as another bomb

exploded beside him. Malik’s ship was losing pressure rapidly and he slammed a red

switch near the bottom of his seat.

The whole cabin area and nose section of Malik’s fight sprung off from the

damaged fuselage. Small thrusters kicked in behind him and his ship did a sumersalt and

re-entered the atmosphere, what was left of the computer system taking Malik back to the

point of liftoff. He remained still as his ship ground to a halt on the landing field. Medics

and technicians ran up to his ship, and Malik released the seals on the cabin and the top

slowly slid open. He looked up into the evening sky and saw the flashes of the battle still

going on up above him. Then, Malik’s world went black, and he remembered nothing for

a long time afterwards.