In the 5th or 6th grade (circa 1995/1996), I wrote a sci-fi novel(la) entitled Renegades. It is more or less a blatant rip-off of any sci-fi or action movie or book I had consumed up until that point in my life. It definitely reads like the work of a 5th-grader, and I’m fairly certain I introduce a new character with a semi-unpronounceable name every few paragraphs, only to kill them off shortly afterward. Having recently recovered this work of art from floppy disk (!), I plan to serialize it here over the coming days. Enjoy (?).

RENEGADES

Part 1

Haunting interstellar space, it propelled slowly with its long, black hull, it was the Comachen Spaceliner. Three miles long, it was the ultimate enemy war-craft that could take out whole populations, it could carry up to 1000 pilots and soldiers as well as various spacecraft. No one in the galaxy ever dreamed of going near this military horror, ever since it was built.

He could see it coming from ten miles away, and now he was there. Hacker, trouble-maker and hijacker, he was Jack Decartier, a renegade. He gazed on the black exterior of the battleship and thought about his mission, and probably his last, but if he survived, he could become the richest guy in the system. His mission was given to him by a secret council behind the falling government of Alderia, a small, rocky moon and the last surviving outpost of Earth that was also thriving with people and pollution.

The V-13 personnel carrier neared closer to the giant warship as Jack prepared himself with weapons and his favorite techno gadget: The black box, it could break the code of everything. Loading his handgun and assault rifle and sliding knives into their sheaths. He slipped on a com-link over his long, brown hair. The com-link connected to his brother, also taking part in the operation but staying on the V-13 to guide Jack to the main computer.

Jack was ready, “you ready bro?”

“Every thing’s a go, I’ve jammed their contact link, tractor beam and many other obstacles like a small doorway in the outer wall of the laser shield a 100 metres from the ship.” Said Jack’s brother John Decartier. “We’ll be docking in four minutes.”

“Copy that.” Jack answered as he finished loading all the hacker goodies. He walked down a small set of stairs and to the airlock and waved to his brother sitting at a bunch of computers.

“You almost forgot. “Johnny said as he tossed him, a small, one inch camera and connected it to the com-link so John could have audio and video. Jack stitched it on and looked on his watch, one minute to docking. Just hope their ain’t no party of guards waiting for us to blast us down, he thought.

Thirty seconds… A metallic scraping sound was echoing around the V-13, the docking was commencing. Fifteen. The airlock was now fully attached. Ten. The air was depressurizing around the airlock. Five. Four. Three. Two. One…

The airlock door opened leading to the the ship’s airlock labeled B-7. His hand was on his gun when he heard the faint sound of his brother’s voice. “Good luck!”

The airlock opened and he pulled out his handgun. No one was there. His gun lowered and he stepped to the side of the corridor and took two steps, then two more and another two, very slowly. The airlock closed and made him jump, it could have been guards. The second corridor leading to the right he took, this one was much smaller and had track lighting from the sides. Doors were on either side, many of them, every two metres, right and left were doors for storage and at the end of the corridor was a fork in the road that shaped like a capital T and at the end of the corridor there was one last door labeled Main Computer center, that was what he was looking for, the main computer that could aid to Alderia’s survival, and maybe, just maybe, a way to destroy the Comachens for good. Though, the door had a entry code. It was a panel that looked like a calculator, it had ten digits and an enter button and a screen to display entry access.

This is where the black box came in handy. Out of his small, leather pouch buttoned to his belt, Jack then tore off the panel with his small screwdriver that was also in the pouch and attached a few wire to the box. As soon as he flicked the ‘on’ switch, lights on the box glittered and sounds rumbled in the machine searching every possible nine-digit code there was. It all took twenty seconds until the door opened, inside was two long tables with four computers each, office chairs were beside the tables. There were no space-views only a large, computer television set at the end of the room, it was the main computer… From there you could do anything from driving the darn thing to sending E-mail to self destruct and not to mention government information. He detached the black box and slipped it back inside the pouch as he stepped into the room., it was carpeted and the walls were gray and boring except for the track lighting that blinked on as he set foot in the room, he guessed the room about 20 x 35, though he was never good at math.

He still could not believe that there was no guards, although they could come with a surprise attack from behind. “I’m in.” Jack Decartier said into the com-link.

John’s voice rang in his ears. “The main computer?”

“Yeah.” Jack Replied.

“I’m now about two miles from the ship and be back in fifteen minutes, no later, no earlier.”

“That doesn’t give me much time, I’ll have to get crack’en.” He paused. “Why so early?”

“My alarm jammer would only last that long, so go, now!”

Jack rushed into the room and stepped up beside the central computer. A large red button underneath the screen marked ‘on’ was the first button he pushed, a black keyboard sprang out from under it and the screen flickered with light. “Voice authorization please.” The computer’s feminine voice demanded.

“Admiral Walter Xaniroth.” Jack replied.

“Access denied.”

Jack shrugged. “Deny this.” and the punched the speaker.

All was silent, again he detached a panel beside the screen and again, hot-wired it with the black box. The screen began to search all possible password codes, it took about a minute this time until it found the right pass-code, a window showed up reading ‘access granted‘. Now his hand took control of the mouse, pulling out any classified or Top secret files with the helpful code-breaking box.

The com-link sounded. “You have five minutes and counting until the detector comes back on.” Jack ignored the warning. He inserted a disk and began to download the first file on government and locations of bases, planets, etc. This file took about a minute and was over when he heard his brother’s voice again. “Four minutes.”

Even the time limit would not stop him from getting this information, Jack was extremely patriotic. He pulled out a second file window, this time using the black box, because this file was one of the most important, leaders and secret missions or plans. “Johnny, I’m downloading the first file onto you’re computer.” He mentioned as he clicked and typed a few orders.

John Decartier sat near the computer as his pilot, Neill Othan sat beside him with a sandwich in his right hand. Neill had just sat down when he announced the ship was in hover and no hostels hostiles in view. John didn’t really care, he just read the first file as soon as it hit the screen. Othan gazed at the many screens, one of them on his right caught his eye, it was counting down-but to what? Niell tugged on John’s white T-shirt. “What’s that?” he said pointing at the screen.

John finally turned his head, and looked at the screen, and was struck by awe, it only read twenty seconds… “Oh no.” was all he said.” That Jack’s time limit, when that reaches zero, the jamming will finish, uh, guards will be notified of his arrival, and we, Neill Othan, will be blasted to shreds…”

“Jack! Jack!” John’s voice yelled. “Get out of there now, you’re time limit’s up, go now.”

“Look, I don’t get out until there’s guards, you get that! “Jack barked back.

“Jack, abandon the mission now!”

“Yeah.” Neill included.

Jack did not answer, he just continued. Everything was still, sweat rolled down his cheek and no reply from John and Neill.

“Jack!” Neill called.” Two dozen guards coming from two directions and it doesn’t look like their coming for tea!”

Jack then suddenly realized he had made a big mistake, he knew he had no chance, but he would not go out without a good fight. He began to load his 2-foot long double-barrel, assault rifle. After loading, he set it down on the table and went back to work but now with major distraction. “I’m downloading the second file now, then I’ll get out of here.” He said clicking the Lima-bean shaped mouse.

“First guard patrol is closing in.” Neill told him.

Just as he was about to transmit the file, the computer went blank and a huge window saying ‘access denied’ showed up on the screen, then, with an echoing boom, the black box exploded from the wall and was disintegrated by it’s fire. At the very same moment, the door opened wide and a party of armored guards crowded into the room with plastic shields, protective, riot, control headgear, and machine guns…

Jack spun around to meet them gazing at all 24 of them, all of them with grim faces.

The captain stepped forward. “Put down you’re weapon.”

“You expect me to.” Jack smiled.” Wouldn’t count on it.” and blasted the officer between the eyes sending him back into the doorway.

The room went into a frenzy, a hail of bullets came to meet him and he dived for the floor, his gun burst into pieces in his hands, his hope was weakening.

“Aahh!” John yelled and threw off the com-link and grabbed his ears.

“He’s under attack!” He yelled.

Neill hesitated, I’m going in!” he said getting out of his chair, grabbing a handgun and a knife.

“Neill no!” John said.

“If I don’t come back in a minute, leave right away.”

“A minute!? No!”

“Sorry John.” and was gone.

The airlock closed. Jonathan knew now that they would not survive, he must escape… Jack fired four times taking a guard in the chest and another in the arm, taking only one out, now the guards were swarming about the room, he stood and took cover from one of the computers. Another guard fell, twenty-one still, remained. A guard came up behind him quietly and tried to break his neck but Jack kicked him in the jaw before he could notice, the guard, now with a broken jaw and bloody chin was unconscious against the wall. Another guard two metres away on his right pulled out his gun, and Jack unsheathed a dagger and flung it at it, the guard received it in the eye and died immediately. But it was the guard on his left he did not notice, and with blast of a gun, Jack crashed into the computers with a bullet through his shoulder. Blood gushed from the wound and he tried to press it in, but it was no use, he rolled off the desk and on to the floor, one more shot, and he would be finished. At the same moment, Neill Othan leaped into the room, blasting one guard after the other, but soon they over powered him and shot him down into the wall. After twenty seconds an officer stepped up to the body, kicked it to make sure he was dead. Neill Othan’s body slumped over on his side, and the officer backed off, and then walked over to the other enemy…

Five minutes had passed and John was now piloting the V-13 out of the Airlock and back into infinite space. He knew know, something had gone wrong, and he hoped, Comachen battleships, were not waiting for him. It seemed clear, taking off and after a kilometer of space, there were no pressers. It was then when he heard something on the com-link.

Jack Decartier sat five metres from Neill Othan’s body and other dead guards. He could not breathe, he was dying, a bullet in the shoulder and now another below the ribs, he had to let his brother know…

The guards had left thinking he was dead so now he was alone. “Johnny…” He mumbled. “Can you here me?”

John just could not believe it, he was listening to his brother die. “Yes.”

“Johnny… Go back to Alderia, tell them that…The Comachen capital is on a small… planet called Ivatia in Leo 4…Tell them… That Neill Othan and I died acquiring this information, that could save all of our buts…” Jack coughed, and the transmission ended…

Johnathan DeCartier returned to Alderia several months after his brother’s demise. He attempted to make contact with the chief admirals of Alderia but he had no such luck, his information was ignored and so was he. Then he left Alderia on his secondary  objective, revenge……

The ongoing serialization of “Renegades” will continue in the coming days. Please stay tuned.

Read Part 2.