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
… Continued from Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5.
Part 6
PERSEUS 4
To get off the planet without nobody knowing was to cross the mountains and the plateau area to get to a secret spaceport in the middle of the desert. There they would be smuggled off in a ship. Claire had just enough money to rent them a 4 wheel drive dune rover. They packed it with all they needed, water, food, gas for the rover and two pistols that were low on ammunition. The three of them left the mid-morning, by noon they’d be under the shade of the mountain, and by mid-afternoon, they’d be on the plateau, and by midnight, they’d reach their destination.
They The two hour journey across the desert was not as hard as they thought it would be, the sun only peaked when they were safely under the shadow of the plateau wall towering over them. Now they would have to go west until they found a place where they could steadily mount the plateau. The rover rose at a slow pace up the mountain up a rocky crack in the plateau just big enough for their rover, at the other end was the top of the plateau. Out of nowhere, guns from the top side of the canyon started to fire at them, as Tim’s response as being driver, he put the rover into reverse, sending it at a fast pace down the hill.
“What the heck are you doing!?” Jonathan yelled at him.
The rover was sent strait into a pillar mortally damaging the rover. Jonathan felt like hurting Tim for canceling his trip, but he had other problems, the gun firers from the top of the plateau were running after them.
“Rats, they’re Comachen infantry.” Declared Claire as she pulled a gun from a provision bag, inserted a clip and aimed at one of the lead commandos running down the hill, she kneeled knelt behind the rover for cover as she shot one of them in the arm.
Tim handed Jonathan the second gun and another small sack. “You never know what they’re after, but I do know one thing, Johnny, they want you dead, so we’ll cover you, run East until there’s a place to climb the plateau, head north from there! Now run!”
Jonathan at first wanted to say no, but if he was killed, that would mean Comachen victory, since he is the only man alive daring enough to steal from a Comachen Spaceliner. He ran away at his fastest speed. Claire an Timothy held off resistance until they could break away too, but by then, they did not know where Jonathan had went…
* * *
The consequences of the canyon fight were not severe at all, his team had only lost two, and the others had lost twenty-three out of their 34. The Perseus resistance had gave up and the bounty hunters were now roaming the streets of Takroth. They had come upon an old spaceport, Broman and two others entered the building when they saw a cargo ship identical to the one reported of escaping Sortak. A woman outside of the ship was checking it over and over.
“Would you know anything about a Jonathan DeCartier? “Broman asked politely.
The woman turned towards him. “No I would not.”
Broman did not trust her, he checked the ship for a marking that meantt in delivered to Sortak, a serial number. There, below the cockpit was a Sortak symbol. The two other bounty hunters drew her back to the wall.
“Now I’ll ask you again. Jonathan DeCartier escaped from Sortak on a ship just like this one, and you have a Sortak Delivery marking on your ship, now are you telling me that Jonathan DeCartier never met you?”
Maria said nothing.
Broman nodded to the others, they threw two plasma grenades at the ship and it erupted in blue flame.
“Okay, okay, he was aboard my ship.” Maria finally said.
“And where did he go?”
“He, he, he went to a place to get off the planet, North over the Plateau.” She trembled.
“Good.” Broman replied.
Suddenly Raechal opened the door from another room. “What’s going on, Maria?”
Maria turned. “Nooooo! Ruuuun!”
But it was too late, one of the guards shot her above the hip bone.
They threw Maria to the ground as the three guards walked out of the spaceport.
“Thanks very much, miss…”
* * *
Broman arrived at the base just in time for a long explanation from Lieutenant Leerots. He explained Preian’s treason and escape, and the murder of Berzerac.
“I had the same problem with Denthra myself, but I eliminate my traitors quickly.” Said Broman. “I have now acquired some useful information, that DeCartier is heading North to a secret spaceport on the other side of the plateau. Oh, and you are now my second in command.”
“Yes sir!”
* * *
Cassen and Claire had got up on the plateau two hours later, and by then, Jonathan was probably way ahead of them. They still had plenty of water to drink and provisions as they walked across the scorched desert plateau.
* * *
Hours had passed, and without the rover, it was a slow going. Darkness had come and he knew he could not go North without a compass, so he sat down and had a sip of water. The quarter moon and stars were out. To keep him awake he [Jonathan] searched for familiar constellations, but before he knew it, his eyes were closed, awaiting morning…
* * *
When he awoke two shadows blocking the morning sun stood directly above him, perhaps it was Cassen and Claire? He blinked twice, then the figures came into view. They were two unfamiliar men he had never seen before.
“Well we know he’s not dead.” One of them admitted.
“Who are you?” Jonathan asked.
The two looked at each other. “We’re with the Perseus resistance, we kill Comachens, if it frightens you.”
“Of course not, I hate Comachens too.” Jonathan said as he rose to his feet. “Jonathan DeCartier.” They shook hands.
“Josef and Devon Shandler.” The shorter one said. “What you doing out here?”
“Running from Comachens, tryng to get off the planet.”
“Well you are in luck mister, we run a spaceport five miles from here.” Said the one named Josef Shandler.
“Then I shouldn’t have stopped here, should I?” Jonathan shrugged. Judging from the position of the sun, he estimated it was around nine in the morning.
They told him to walk with them to their house that was over the next few ravines. “So did two others pass by here last night?” He asked.
“Might of, we don’t see everything.” Said Devon.
In five minutes they had reached a small desert shanty sticking into a large boulder, by his judgments, there house was bored into the ground.
“Need anything to eat?” Josef asked as they entered a wooden door.
“Sure, I ate my last provisions last night, and as a matter of fact, I’m starved.” Jonathan replied.
The house was neat, but almost nothing was in the front room, they pointed down the tunnel which was lit by power from generators.
“Almost everything is down there.” Said Josef as Devon walked down the stairs to get some food for them.
“Do you think I’ll be able to get off the planet?” Jonathan asked.
“Well, we got a shipment from Takroth a couple of days ago, we are late for delivering it already, so we were going to go this afternoon, you are lucky.”
“Where’s the shipment going?”
“A planet called Fortiva in sector 18.” Responded Josef.
Just then Devon came up the stairs with packets of food, he tossed one to Josef and another to Jonathan.
When they had finished eating, Devon spoke. “We’ll get our vehicle ready, and we’ll reach the Spaceport in no time.”
Jonathan stepped again outside when Devon pulled up in a large expensive desert tuck, it had a shielded roof, a tent covered storage compartment in the back, they loaded some cargo aboard and Jonathan and Josef climbed into the back and grabbed hold of a metal bar. They steadily rose and descend the rocky hills until a three story station came into view. It had a garage roof and a warehouse door on the first level, two doors were on the west side, they pulled up along side them, and Josef was the first to disembark the truck. He was going to open the door with a key, but two his surprise, the door was already open.
The three suspiciously stepped inside the building, instead of the one ship inside the hangar, there was two. Beside the Shandlers’ cargo ship was 2203 bounty hunter ship, Devon rushed outside to the truck and armed them all with handguns. They stepped inside and looked around, on the upper level looking down was a young man who appeared to be not armed. “There!” Said Devon, and they all pointed their guns toward him.
“No need, no need.” The man said. “I’m a friend. Daniel Preian, with the Alderian Rebellion, DeCartier.”
Jonathan lowered his gun.” How do you know my name?”
Preian ran down the stairs. “I’m a spy for the rebellion, and the Comachens are on this planet looking for you, so I’m supposed to help you get off Perseus 4.”
Just then Cassen and Claire appeared beside Preian. “Where’ve you been?” Cassen asked.
“With them.” As he pointed to the Shandler brothers. “This is Devon and Josef Shandler.” The two brothers waved in turn.
“We should not waste any time at all.” Suggested Preian.
“Of course.” Josef said. “We’ll go get the cargo.” Josef and Devon walked out of the building to unload the truck.
By chance, Devon looked at the sky and saw a group of black shapes moving towards them. “Drop everything! Get back into the ship, something’s coming!”
Josef looked at the sky, the black shapes that looked like ships approached. “Oh no!” He said as he only carried one case back into the building. “Everyone, Comachens are coming, they’ll be here any minute!”
All six of them were sent into a large confusion.
“It’s him, Rian Broman, and he’s after you, DeCatrier.” Said Daniel.
Echoes of ships landing trembled the spaceport. Josef tried to open the case. “Fortiva is a place of conflict, I wonder what were delivering!” As he kicked open the case full of ammunition and machine guns, he tried to fill as many as possible with ammo. He kept one for himself and tossed one to Cassen, one to Preian and one to Claire. Cassen and Devon stood guard over Jonathan with their guns pointed at the warehouse garage door. Sounds of men got closer and closer.
In a burst of fire, the garage door exploded and nearly twenty-five Bounty hunters stormed the warehouse with Rian Broman at their rear. The first wave of gunfire was fired by the Bounty hunter, bullets slammed into the metal walls, but causing no injuries, Josef fired two bullets killing two of them on impact. Cassen covered Jonathan and fired a couple rounds, but only causing a few injuries. Gunfire continued and lowered the force of twenty-one against six.
Devon ran up the ramp and into his ship and powered up the engines. A low hum was heard in the room as the engines charged. Claire covered Josef as he ran to the case two arm his gun with more bullets. In a corner he noticed something, a mini-nuclear bomb, that could scorch anything within fifty meters. Then he had an idea, leave the planet in four minutes and make a run for it. Claire yelled at him to get back but he was setting the bomb for four minutes. He set it down near the wall. He rejoined the battle and said: “Back up a bit to the ship, in four minutes the whole place is going to blow!”
Jonathan was the first to run to the ship, leaving his cover. Rian Broman had a clear shot on DeCartier, it didn’t matter when he killed him, now or later. He aimed with his handgun, smiled and pulled the trigger.The bullet tore through the air at a whistling speed.
Jonathan had heard the bullet fire, but then Cassen dove in the way and took the bullet in the chest. Jonathan felt guilty for what happened. But there was no time.
“Nooooo.” Cassen groaned as Jonathan dragged him inside the ship.
Josef gazed at the bomb, it read 1:37 left, he was the last to finally enter the ship with the weapons case. The ramp went up and almost one Comachen got in, but he was punched senseless by Josef.
Preian climbed into the cockpit of his ship and launched a minute before the other ship. Then, the other ship with everyone aboard left with just 20 seconds to spare.
Then as Rian Broman inspected the partly destroyed spaceport, he spotted a blinking object beside him, it read 13….12… “Everyone run!” he screamed as they all began to run away.
He barely made it when fire broke loose everywhere as the bomb exploded, leaving only seven men and three ships to spare.
The two ships headed towards the stars.
Broman stood on a dune. “I’ll have vengeance, DeCartier…”
The ongoing serialization of “Renegades” will continue in the coming days. Please stay tuned.
Read Part 7.
