| A Sci-Fi novel in progress. Comment if you like...
Posted: 4/18/2005 8:11:02 PM | This story takes place well into the future, and is the tale of a lone Android named Markus B-19. A bounty hunter that gets recruited for a job that becomes more puzzling to him every step of the way. I've had this story on the back burner since the days of my high school years (soooo long ago)...I've tweaked the story in my mind from time to time and I'll be the one to admit I was influenced by Blade Runner in it's overall mood and tone. But what cyber-noir novel hasn't got some elements of the BR universe in there at some point. Just a fact that everyone gets inspired by something in their lives to spawn off of it and create another approach on it.
Anyhoo...here's what I've got so far....(Take note...I haven't spell checked this yet...so forgive my mistakes.)
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The Holographic Rose
By Jeff Walker (aka - Jetplague)
Prologue –
Keep it tight. Almost got him where I want him.
Took me forever to find this ***hole, I can’t believe he thinks he’s getting away from me. It’s bad enough I’m trying to keep track of him in the rain, my good old tan colored overcoat is nearly soaked no thanks to him. Good thing I’ve got a pair of these lightweight running shoes on. I feel like I could glide on water with these suckers on. Nearly cost me all my earnings the year before, but at least their comfortable. So where is he? I’ve been running down this darkening street for ages. Shit! I better not have lost him. How am I going to explain this to my employers? A simple job; Locate, track down and eliminate. I better not screw it up now, I need that credit to get off this outer world colony. Hard to spot him out here. The day is growing shorter and the pink-ish hue sky is signaling to me that time is running out on my contract. Good thing the streets are not very occupied. A few lurkers in the back alleys I’m going down, but they see me carrying this plasma charged gun in my hand. Screw with me and be prepared to have a hole blast through you, it would be like having burst of energy rip through and explode violently out the backside. That’s right you scum, back into your dingy looking make-shift homes, death has come for someone and better not make yourselves a target.
Crap, where is this guy? I had him a few blocks away. Keep running, keep searching. Check the corners, look up at the escape ladders, keep the gun out infront just in case he tries to make the drop on you. Hard to see with all this rain coming down, who knew it was the rainy season on Orion Four. This rain is coming down worst then a tropical storm for christ’s sake. So many places he could be hiding in this big metropolis of a world. Cities all look the same here, skylines filled to brim with massive towers of glass, steel and concrete. Humanity has moved far into the cosmos, each colony is becoming as over populated as the next one. A mixture of high technology and rapid economic growth, overwelming to see it all, the human race is progressing faster then they can aquire the planets.
There he goes. Hiding behind one of the dumpsters, guess he didn’t think I saw him crouched behind there, but nothing gets past my eyes. Come on, don’t lose him again, follow him quick. Good…the pace is becoming easier now. A warning shot will make him think twice of leaping over that railing and getting away from me. That’s right buddy, I ain’t here to chase you down all day. Give him another shot across the shoulder, he seems to be trying to find another ally to hide down. Look at the fear in that guy’s eyes. He knows who I am, he knows what I’ve come for, why does he still try to run? Why doesn’t he know it’s over? Shoot his leg. That will stop his running, a quick blast and I can breathe a little easier after chasing him for nearly seven blocks.
That did it. A quick jolt from my hand cannon of a gun and the guy goes down just as I predicted. Look at him clutching his leg and screaming like a wounded animal. At least there is some privacy down this alleyway, nobody close to bother us and interupt me from doing my job. Time to reload the plasma cartaridge. That reminds me, I need to restock my supply if I’m going to keep doing this sort of mission. Seems to be the way of late, usually I just track them down and bring them back. But now the demand to kill on site has increased. Feel sorry for him I guess, but I don’t know why really. I’m just doing what I’m paid to do. It was his fault for running in the first place. Take aim at his head, steady that hand, come on…don’t miss.
“Wait! Wait!” He screams to me.
“Wait for what?” I snap back at him. “You know this is how it has to happen.”
“But…I…I…”He stutters back. “I only want my freedom!”
“Freedom?” I snicker as I point my gun at his head. “Freedom is for humans. Not androids. You want freedom? Then here it is…the only one you’ve got.”
With one shot I take him out. Yeah, another running android. They do this from time to time, just part of the problem in artificial intelligent machines. Scientist made too many of them and now society is paying for that mistake. They’re not really stopping making them mind you, buisness is still good for robots and androids. Cheap labour and disposable is what they are. Not all are so sophisocated like this one, one of the higher end models, bleeds like a human and even mimics some emotional content like one. But inside, metal and wiring, a machine of human creation. Sorry guy, but them the breaks.
Time to pat this guy down and see what he’s got on his person. A few credit slips, memory upgrade chips and stolen ident-card. Probably needed to get past Orion Four security with it. Something else catches my eye, a small silver colored disk, a few inches thick in the width and yet light enough to carry around. One little button on the bottom of it, naturally I’m curious to see what it is. As I switch it on, a hovering image now appears like a ghostly apperishion. A hologram. Haven’t seen a holographic mini-disk in a long time. It’s of an older make, but still rather well used in this day and age. The hovering image slowly spins as if to advertise itself. My eyes are captivated by it’s presence. The colors are beautiful. Red, green and full of detail like I couldn’t believe. There use to be a name for this sort of extinct speices.
A Rose.
Yes. That’s what it was called. A botanical marvel it was, fragile and yet dangerous to the touch. The red bloom distracted the eyes from it’s thorns attached to the perfectly green stem, such beauty was hard to ignore. Why did this android carry such a thing? What could it possibly mean to him? More programming that humans instilled on their creations perhaps? A curse to give any android. Feelings, emotions, all that makes the humans compassionate and moral. Most wouldn’t have that if it wasn’t for human brain imprinting, placing the creator’s thoughts and personalities into the androids of his or her creation. Thank goodness they stop doing that after it was banned several years ago. Too many androids were getting away with what this poor sap was. Freedom? Androids don’t have freedom. They do what their told, they have jobs to do and they do them without trying to gain personal freedom in the process.
I should know.
I’m an android. A bounty hunter really, but I only go by one official label.
Tech-seeker. I’m not a cop, I’m not even a private eye, what I am is a paid android of limited means. I do my job and I do it well. What else is there for me? This is all I can do, all I’m programmed to do. Its not like I have another option right? Freedom?
I’m not human.
Chapter One – Welcome To Eden
Earth.
What a flocking dump.
I hate coming back to this dead world, seems like everytime I get a job from this place, it depresses the hell out of me. But why should I feel so depressed? That’s a human emotion, and there ain’t no way I’m in that same line of species. I may look very much like one of them, a pink hue of skin tone, dark short hair, bad breath, sweat and all the other failings of theirs…but I’m nothing like them at all. I’m synthetic and built for one purpose alone. To locate, to find and to destroy if need be. I wasn’t born on Earth or created on it, but I sure as hell hate coming here all the time. Small jobs for the mining foremen and the odd rich couple looking for their servent is about all I ever did here. I’ve probably seen this planet more times then any human who lives beyond the solar system. Look at it hanging in space, the swollen sun just bursting at the seems to go red giant and the poor suckers left behind on this planet are here to continue to suck it dry of every last resource they can. Good thing I asked for a window seat on this flight. Coming down from space and decending through the thick dirty smog that used to be the atmosphere seems to tell me this planet hasn’t got long to live anymore. Hard to believe anyone would still live here. Sun scorched and sandy as all hell, the once lush green-blue planet many knew of is long gone, now there’s not a lick of water moisture in the air, hell even the oceans have long evaporated. I guess since the rent is cheap here and the work is steady, many don’t want to leave just yet.
“This is your captain speaking. We are now making our arrival to New York and request that all passengers please stay in their seats until we have landed safely on to the ship drop zone. Thank you again…and thank you for choosing Andromeda Seven Space Cruises.”
God I hate those cheery ship captains. The smug tone in their voices makes me want to vomit from the overly happy tone they always use. Not many people aboard this flight, the seats of pale green and grey look as bout as sickly as some of the other few passengers on board. Still, can’t really complain too much, it was rather cheap and the lack of annoying stewardesses makes it worth the flight. I didn’t pay for it, so why complain at all? Shit I hate having these twisted human traits. I’m just an android for christ’s sake, should have spared me all this garabage. But who ever built me must have used some of their own brain emgrams to program my positronic matrix. The least he or she could have done is made me less emotionally fragile, I can’t help feeling so depressed and alone all the time. Being a bounty hunter definitely has its draw backs, everyone treats you like shit and you get paid peanuts for every marker you make. Still, at least the flight is paid for.
There it is now, looking out my window I can see the once proud city of the long extinct Americas. Towers and skyscrapers of old looking empty, hollowed out and half buried in dry lifeless sand. Those that can tolerate the ultra hot sun and heat are the very few privlaged enough to take up residence in those vacant city rooms. Some have managed to keep cool some how, humans are nothing but resourceful I’ve always found. In the protected areas of the buildings, they know how to sheild themselves from the dry hot wind and the corse desert sand. Nomadic they’ve become, as each building eventually breaks down from the years of being reoded down into dust. Yet above it all stands the one massive annex tower of those who mainly own Earth and all who live on it. A shimmering beacon in the valley made of special glass, cement and steel. Some have called it the “Spike of God” but to others it symbolizes the end of mankind’s destiny.
Eden Industries.
How two depraved spoiled brats came into power of it I’ll never know. Twin siblings that much like the barren and hot wasteland of madness are as complete off their rocker as those living beneath the Earth’s crust. I’ve never really met them in person, stories always seem to leak out to other worlds about their strange behavior and odd practices. Their father was just as equally strange if not mentally imbalanced himself. He’d have to be if he lived here on this rock with nothing to see out his window but sun and sand. Not a green leaf to be seen, not a blade of glass or flock of birds gracefully soaring in the air. Thanks to mankind, all those were wiped out or transplanted to other worlds. The more I think about what humans did to this planet, the more it makes me laugh at the irony of their doomed exsistance.
“Attention passengers. Platform one appears to be experiencing a slight sand dune problem and we are unable to land. This ship will now dock at Platform Two and arrangements can be made from there to take you back to Platform One or any other destination you choose. Sorry for the inconvience and thank you for flying Andromeda Seven.”
Great. Now we’re forced to go to the far end of the city and find a flocking taxi there? Unbelieveable. I almost want to walk down to the****it, force the anti-terrorist doors open and break-in to make the captain land at Platform One no matter what. Finding a taxi service at the far end of the city is like trying to find your identi-card in deep space. Geez, now I’m starting to even complain like the humans. This is such a curse for any android to have.
I hate Earth.
* * * * * * * *
“Welcome To Earth. Are you here for Business or Pleasure?”
This was the twit who greeted me at the gates. A young caucasian looking punk wearing a bright blue uniform and sitting behind a plexiglass booth. This guy gave a stupid grin and a false pleasentry that made me want to spit in his face.
“Since when is coming here ever a pleasure to anyone kid.” I said to him in a rather sarcastic tone.
The young man began to cool that smile and cleared his throat, looks like I made quite the impact on his statement and made him rethink his words to me.
“How long is your stay then sir?”
“Look, kid.” I said to him as I tapped the seethrough glass sheild protecting him. “Let me spare you all that crap. I’m an android, a Tech-seeker to be exact, so if you want to know what I’m doing here or how long I’ll be…just hand me that uplink cable and I’ll give you all the info you’ll need, huh? Stop wasting my time and just let me by, I’ve got a meeting with the heads of Eden Industries.”
The boy blinked at my blunt response and suddenly changed his posture at realising he was being all nice to an android. Funny how humans quickly change their attitude to someone of sythentic origin, you’d think we were some sort of alien race that had become the trash of the galaxy. But for the most part, that kind of thinking would be right, all robotic life is nothing more then a second thought to organics. We don’t have rights or freedoms like those that created us. Just a race of machines that serve humanity for all their needs and wants. Slaves some would say…not me…I think we’re more like disposible dolls. Robots are a dime a dozen on many colonized worlds, so are low end androids, they’re mainly sex doids and maintainace machines. But not me, I’m one of the rare few of androids that were built for special reasons. Tech-seekers are high-end androids built to hunt down other andriods or robots. As much as I lothe my primary fuction, I have to do it no matter what, its my only talent they’ve programmed into me. Thanks a lot. Sleep modes help to recycle my power nodes, but is it possible that they’ve made me too much like one of them? I seem to have images flashing in my mind, faces tend to haunt my thoughts as I recall the many I’ve deactivated or returned. The look of betrayal in their eyes almost gives me a cold feeling in my body. Why did they make me this way? Is this a fail-safe to keep me inline?
“Are you Markus B-19?” The young kid spoke to me as I snapped out of my long gaze to him.
“Yeah. Why?”
“You are expected.” He sighed in a very bored manner. “No need to use the uplink. There’s a taxi waiting for you curtiousy of Eden Industries.”
Watching him tap up that information on the computer panel infront of him was rather interesting to witness. A red light flashed over my name and a full instruction in the faint blue text gave him all the words to speak as if he was merely a puppet. As he looked up at me again, he shifted his eyes over to the exiting archway beside him and gestured his head for me to go through.
“Have a nice day…Droid.” The kid finished saying in a snotty, stuck up manner.
“All expenses paid huh? Well doesn’t that just beat all?” I muttered to myself.
Eden Industries were the ones responsible for my flight, a well paid ticket from Orion Colony Four where I was finished from my last case. Now they’ve even sprung for a taxi? Holy crap, these guys must be desperate if they want to treat me this good. Nobody, I mean, nobody ever treats an android this well. They’d rather see us do everything the hard way instead of skipping ahead and having some comfort in our lives. Now I really am curious to see what all the fuss is about.
Passing through the gates and walking down the long narrow corridors of Platform Two, one can get a sense that this is the landing zone you never want to be in. The dank grey and yellowing walls smell exactly as they look. A rundown place that must shelter a few of those who seek to live above grounds. The windows, if you can really call them that, are filthy and cracked. The sand and wind have blasted at them for years causing major damage to their stucture and frosting it over like an over scratched lens. The people shoved into these coridors like sardines and each looking of various levels of lifestyles.
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That's all so far. Its going to take awhile to write this one. I'll probably expand a few parts at the beginning, but for now this is what I've come up with. | |
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| A Sci-Fi novel in progress. Comment if you like...
Posted: 4/19/2005 6:19:47 PM | Thanks Toonsmith
It's very hard to come up with something new in this day and age. I mean...what hasn't been done already? It's just a matter of borrowing a bit here and a bit there to make something new. The comic industry is like that, I'm sure the animation world is like that too, so why should anyone be surprised that somethings are going to sound familiar? It's frustrating, But I shall not yeild to any critic. (Just cry in my  and keep going. Heh!) | |
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| A Sci-Fi novel in progress. Comment if you like...
Posted: 4/20/2005 10:01:03 PM | Don't worry about responses, that comes later. (people are shy) The nice part is seeing how many people in the column over are visiting and reading! You would be suprised who reads....someone down the line is very likely to write and comment. This is a good way to express who you are and what your interest is.
Better than a skimpy profile among hundreds of other profiles. Keep at it! It's good. Let the creativity flow.
Toonsmith | |
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| Blade Runner: Vision of a Future.
Posted: 4/21/2005 10:26:37 PM | The film Blade Runner, has to be one of the most influential films in recent times. The dark film noir used to portray off-world has appeared in many science fiction films and television series since the film first came out in 1982.
1982, hard to imagine it was so long ago.
I saw Blade Runner in it's first run on a hot summer day in 1982. The film had bombed and the studio tied it with Mad Max:The Road Warrior in a double feature run, in hopes of making their money back.
Even Harrison Ford, the star of the movie, when asked by David Letterman on the Late Show, what the film was about, muttered "I don't know".
It drew a laugh and Harrison sheepishly grinned.
Then he followed up with "You'd have to ask Ridley Scott, the director."
I was awestruck when I saw the film. I had loved Vangelis music anyway and when my ears heard Vangelis coupled with swirling futuristic cars and pyramid buildings....I was in seventh heaven! I sat at the edge of my seat, taking it all in. I felt the barren emptiness of the main character in his apartment, searching for answers, the anguish of death in it's finality, from his hands....I even cried at certain times, especially at the end, when Rutger Hauer, a murderous replicant defiantly asking his maker "I want more life, f*ucker." I thought, don't we all?
Then, to see him love life all the more, and let his prey go, with the simple improvised word..."all those moments will be lost....like tears in the rain....time to die."
Yes, I cried.
Never had a movie moved me so much. I ran home and told my dad. "You have to see this incredible movie! Flying cars! Killer Replicants! Wierd chinese blimp billboards with a chinese woman singing aiiiiiiiieeeee, DAD!, it is sooooo cool!"
Now my dad was not much of a movie goer, I only convinced him to go for two reasons. One, it was hot inside our house and the theatre was air-conditioned, and two, he could see this movie "Summer Lovers" about a guy and two chicks doing it in the hot sun in Greece.....As well as Blade Runner.
Guess which film he liked better.....Yup, the skin flick.
The film tanked but it had its loyal followers. Home Video Rentals came out and saved the film from obscurity. Three years later, after Max Headroom was a hit on TV and my dad rented Blade Runner, did he admit, "Yeah, you know, this is actually a good movie."
Duh.
Toonsmith | |
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| A Sci-Fi novel in progress. Comment if you like...
Posted: 4/24/2005 12:58:32 AM | Great start to the story, Jetplague. I'm very interested to see where this is going.
I hope you don't mind some constructive criticism, but some of the early scene/universe setting felt a little awkward. Most of it fitted, it just felt like too much at once for someone's thoughts.
Hope that helps.
Gavin | |
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| A Sci-Fi novel in progress. Comment if you like...
Posted: 10/28/2005 4:13:13 PM | | I like it. Good story line. Just needs some polish. Critique; Android has thought and speech pattern that is human in nature. Ergo... not credible. Perhaps Frank miller narrating interactions of characters and reformating thought pocesses of bounty hunter to account for human reactions counter to it's inhumanity.i.e Machine. | |
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| Bravo-19 version 1.0
Posted: 10/28/2005 8:06:11 PM | | The Androids, B-1 thru 19 or Bravos-1 thru 19, version 1.0, were manufactured by the Sony Corporation and introduced to the public market in 2135 AD. They were designed as tools for the bail/bond industry. Due to the turbulent times of this era, they were allowed by corporate legislature, to be placed into service without the usual software prohibitions regarding the sanctity of human life. (* note, see; Restrictive or Prohibitive Software; Sony Corp. Model: Bravo-1 thru 19. Appendix 6.a) These androids were the first to incorporate miniaturized fusion drives, nano-molecular manipulation technologies, flex steel construction techniques, and nano-negatronic functions. These combinations of design techniques, technologies, unlimited power, and software short-comings have since been proven to be dangerous and disasterous in some applications. Case in point; The capture and subsequent destuction of B-6 by the Triad Underworld council. B-6, as we now know, was the first android to have the "Evilution chip" installed. This chips software applications and exact language is currently unresolved. B-6, sucessfully carried out it's assasination mission against the Prime Minister of Sony Corporation, Hirohito XVIII, thus igniting a corporate war that ended in the destruction of the cities of Nagasaki, Beijing, Chicago, and Victoria City on Ganymeade in 2192 AD. As of this posting, August 10, 2207 AD, only two of these androids are known to be still in existence and functioning. B-9 and B-19. Of these two, only B-19's whereabouts and operating status can be ascertained. B-19 is currently in the service of it's original buyer, Lunar City Bail Bonds Inc. and it's corporate sponsor; Microsoft Corporate Council. B-9's whereabouts and status, is unknown as stated, but is a subject of much debate. It is theorized that B-9 has been installed with the "Evilution Chip" and software. It's current mission objectives are completely beyond our best deductions. It's movements, despite our vigilance and vast expenditures of capital and manhours, is still only to be determined after the fact by M.O. and eyewitness accounts. It is the recommendation of this organization, Microsoft Corporate; Central Intelligence Division, That Sony Corporation; Android; Model: Bravo-19 be tasked with the mission of finding and terminating, Sony Corporation: Android; Model: Bravo-9............ | |
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| The Junction City Masacre
Posted: 10/28/2005 9:50:47 PM | | The Pivateer Jump-ship, Reaver, came barrelling out of High-transit in the radar shadow of Phobeos at a rate of 167,000 ft. p/second. It's drive field screaming in the oxygen enriched confines of the ship as it as it reversed and began to hyper-brake. Several weapons platforms on Phoboes and in orbit around Mars did register the unauthorized incursion. Martian Space Defense Forces were immediately dispatched to intercept the intruder and force a boarding if possible. All weapons platforms were placed on line. The Reaver was still well ahead of the chase, by hours, into the gravity well of Mars, and while the MSDF Destroyers and Escorts had no real chance of catching the Reaver before it reached Mars, the odds were nil to long on it ever leaving Mars. Not that the sole living, if it could be said to be living, occupant of the Reaver gave a damn. The crew most certainly didn't have a care in the Solar System. All 17 members of the crew, were all stone cold dead, at their duty and rest stations. The only mind aboard the Ship that wasn't splattered all over it's interior was an Android's. This particular brutal piece of hard wired, muder and mayhem delivery system, is known as Sony Corporation; Android; Model: Bravo-9. or B-9. ( benign?) | |
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