Fourteen
The mountain meadow
Clomonastik stepped off the landing craft carefully, adjusting his balance to the high gravity. The planet positively pulled at him, his weight half again what he was accustomed to.
“Sir, the two aliens are fleeing south,” his Assistant Commander reported.
“Yes,” he answered. “Station two of the scout ships at altitude in front of their expected route. Send as many troops as you can spare, out on scooters to patrol to the south. These aliens will no doubt try to reach their fellows in that colony.”
“Yes sir. We’ll have two hundred troops landed in the next rotation.”
Clomonastik reached out to tap his Assistant Commander on the shoulder. “Tell them to take them alive, if possible, but to kill them if they must.”
“As you command, sir.”
The hunt was on.
In the forest, thirty kilometers farther south
Mike and Jenny crossed a good-sized fern meadow just after midnight. Mike had scouted the edge of the open area, finding nothing. They’d lain in the brush for ten minutes, listening for any sign of whining or buzzing conveyances. Hearing nothing, they had jogged across the kilometer-wide opening, disappearing into the trees on the south side.
Meanwhile, fifteen kilometers overhead
“Subcommander, I have them.” A Grugell scanner technician pointed at his screen. The Subcommander in charge of the ship took a look at the tiny figures darting across a clearing far below, and turned to send a message. The spidery scout ship slipped slowly from a hover to float farther south towards another opening in the trees.
In the forest
Two hours after crossing the clearing, Mike began to grow worried. Something was nagging at him, and it took him a while to figure it out. When the realization hit him, it came like a hammer-blow between the eyes.
“Honey,” he whispered to Jenny, “We’ve got to pick up the pace some. Something’s following us.”
“What? How do you know?”
“Listen,” he pointed out, “hear all the creepie-crawlies chirping and squeaking all around? They usually just stop as we pass by, and then pick right up behind us. Now listen behind us.”
She paused, listening hard; there was a silent zone in the woods they’d just passed through.
“Oh, no, Mike, how close do you think they are?”
“Not too far, if they’re disturbing the night critters close enough to hear. They’re pretty good at moving in the dark, too, or I’d have heard them by now.”
A hundred meters to their rear, two Grugell scouts approached slowly, their flying platforms turned down to minimum power to damp out the buzzing. This held their speed down to a little more than a fast walk but eliminated the sounds of booted feet in forest litter. The mounted scouts, guided by low-light scanners, floated over the forest floor in silence, and now they picked up the images of their quarry in the trees ahead. They exchanged a glance and a nod, turned up the power, and accelerated after their prey.
The buzzing sound swelled up suddenly in Mike’s ear. It was too late to run; he could hear the alien craft buzzing in fast now; they’d have to make a stand here. “Mike!” Jenny screamed, a note of panic in her voice.
Mike fought back the urge to flee. “Jenny! Hit the ground and stay down!” he shouted and prepared himself to face the enemy.
Buzzing madly now, the first of the platforms shot out of the darkness, a fiercely grinning alien standing behind the t-handle. He drove directly at Mike, apparently intending to run him down. Mike had other plans, however. As the alien drove at him, he stood his ground, diving aside at the last minute. He hit the ground on his side, and as the platform buzzed past a few centimeters over his head, he struck out with the heavy barrels of the Parks double, snapping both the alien’s legs just below the knee. Howling in agony, the stick-thin monster fell one way, his flying scooter the other. The platform coasted to a stop a few feet away. Mike rolled once, bounded to his feet, and ran to the screeching alien. As he ran, he drew his razor-edged skinning knife. The alien was lying in a clump of ferns, clutching his legs. The swipe of the knife nearly decapitated him, spraying Mike with black ichor and ending the screams.
The familiar buzzing rose again. The second pursuer had overshot Jenny and was screaming back in for another try. A scream came from the ferns, as the platform-bound alien brushed the back of Jenny’s dress. She pressed herself harder into the forest floor.
The Parks rifle lay on the ground back where it had fallen. In a moment, Mike pounced on it. In the slight trace of moonlight filtering down through the trees, Mike saw the second attacker rounding a tree, turning for another pass. Now it held one of the rod-shaped weapons in its clawed hand, aiming at the spot where Jenny lay on the ground.
“NO!” Mike shouted, throwing the Parks to his shoulder. The flying invader moved in and out of patches of moonlight, the shot would be almost impossible, a fleeting glimpse in the silver light. Mike squeezed off his shot.
The Park’s roar split the night wide. When Mike recovered from the recoil, he saw the second attacker spinning around, clutching one shoulder where the giant 15mm solid had shattered it. Regaining control of his flying platform with one hand, he made off clumsily to the north.
“Jenny!” Mike shouted, running for her face down prone form on the forest floor. Dropping to his knees beside her, he grabbed her shoulder and flipped her over. Her eyes were closed, her breathing shallow. “Jenny!” he shouted, tears streaming down his face. Her eyes snapped open, and crying in fear and relief, she threw her arms around his neck.
They held each other for a moment, soaking up comfort from the contact. “We’ve got to get out of here,” Mike said, a sense of urgency consuming him. “One of them got away. I hit him good, but he might get back to tell the others. We’ve got to get out of here.”
Gathering their wits, they looked around a moment to get their bearings. Mike pointed, “This way,” but before he could take a step, Jenny grabbed his arm.
“Wait a minute,” she said, “What about that thing?” She was pointing at the flying platform belonging to the dead alien. They examined the vehicle with Mike’s penlight. The thing was eminently simple in design. A twist throttle on one side of the t-handle, a dead-man switch affair that had to be held open to move the platform. The t-handle moved forward and back and side-to-side to steer the strange vehicle. Mike guided it cautiously around the area for a moment to get a feel for the controls, finally floating back to where Jenny stood watching. He stepped off, picking up his great Parks double and slinging it even as Jenny slung her old Remington. He kissed her once, murmuring, “What would I ever do without you?” He stepped back on the platform. Jenny stepped on behind him, wrapping her arms tightly around his waist. He gradually opened the machine’s throttle; the buzzing sound rose beneath their feet as the contraption slowly accelerated. He kept the pace to the equivalent of a hard run, at which speed the buzzing was present but not excessively loud. Taking a bearing, they headed south on their captured alien machine, buzzing into the night.
To see more of Animal’s writing, visit his page at Crimson Dragon Publishing or Amazon.
Ho ho ho! Now I have a
machine gunspeeder bikefast transportation!I want an alien Segway.
We have one in stock. I’m afraid it requires six arms and telepathy to operate.
Eh, I heard them live. They really need the studio production to sound good.
So you are saying autoturn wrecked Alien Segway?
Exactly my inspiration for this thing.
🙂
USA! USA! USA!
https://s3.uspsa.io/announcements/Team%20%20Announcement%20PCC%20MR%202025.pdf
A
RiflePistol Caliber Carbine behind every blade of grass.What’s wild is I’ve shot with some of these people. I know they’re much better than me, but I didn’t know they were that good. And when did Justine go from being “good, for a girl” to “actually legitimately great?”
Watching some of the videos, I recognize a RO that worked for me at CMP. I need to get my international cert and work some of these.
I did not know that. Neat 😎.
How far are you from an international cert? Or is it a case of “separate process, haven’t started”?
USPSA = a pseudo-independent branch of IPSC. Since I’ve got an NROI (USPSA) certification, I can get an IROA (International) one easily enough.
It’s much less work than the NROI Range Master program, but much more money. The course itself is only $100/two days. But they’re only offered a couple times a year and never anywhere without a hotel stay. I’ve already put in more that 70 hours on the RM and am about half done I think.
Looking it up… I may go for the next one in August.
Go for it!
It turns out that the course in August only gets me a IPSC RO, not an IROA cert. I have written to find out what more I’d need to do.
Also, the LMS system (Sumtotal) is not set up to give the mentors the ability to unlock/resubmit/second drafts of assignments. So that sucks as my mentor finally gets around to looking at work I submitted back in February.
I can’t believe that fucker Mig didn’t tell me he got a World’s team slot. He’s gonna owe me at least two gin and tonics…
How did we win open/irons/ladies/super senior but NOT senior? And how could we have the High Junior and High Super Junior but not win junior?
And how can the high junior buy you a drink?
Give Sheldon the money and Sheldon buys it himself?
Setting reasonable expectations – How long should it take for an amendment to go through? I know that the one week as of tomorrow is unrealistically short, but I keep checking my mail for the paperwork.
Saratoga’s take less than two weeks.
🤔
Thank you.
I get that Albany County is more hostile, but from my read of the judge he’s more bored and businesslike than antagonistic. Don’t know if that impacts processing times though.
Another King of the Hill VA gone, and just before the return.
https://variety.com/2025/tv/obituaries-people-news/jonathan-joss-dead-king-of-the-hill-shooting-1236415703/
Dale finally figured it out?
RIP. Sounds as if it’s a risky gig, like drumming for Spinal Tap. 😕
67% of the way through the book, Animal, and greatly enjoying it. At this rate I’ll have to grab Sky of Diamonds before vacation on Thursday.
I misread that as “Sky Diamonds”, which I think would make a better title.
Back from the errands.
From last thread regarding the agitators that are fronts for the deep state creeps:
Yet we never find out who they are…Soros of course is the evil villain boogey man but he is just as much of a front as Antifa.
I think it is a shadowy cabal with an ever changing roster. That doesnt mean we cant name names but I think it would be quite a list.
I will post this again: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dreRX4q_V3E
Long but worth the time if you are interested in getting a grasp.
I don’t think that Soros is a front. Soros and his friends are the ones who’re benefiting from the cheap real estate that come with the political chaos they like to forment. Maybe.
You are correct. ‘Front’ was not the right word. People need to believe in a central, top-down puppet master villain. It is an oversimplification. He is not that. It is more like a bunch of them that think alike and have common interests and goals.
To beat another dead horse – from the discussion on the ‘assault’ weapon ban, that those guns are similar to military used weapons is not a reason to ban them but the very reason for the second amendment. Proposing or supporting such a ban is the very definition of unconstitutional and reason enough to put such a person out of office/off of the bench.
Roberts waffled. The end conclusion is all military weapons are included, and he isn’t happy with that.. Can’t figure out a middle-ground, so is kicking the can.
They are all thinking of where they can split the baby… semi vs full? personally directed weapons vs area effect? Nukes?. You need a relatively bright line, and the AW bans are so squishy that they don’t have that.
All of the politicians are afraid of the full auto question. It really feels icky to them. I see most of the AW cases ready to negotiate that full auto is different, and perhaps “unusual”.. but semi is not… but the states aren’t backing down on that compromise.
The bright line was drawn when originally drafted at all arms.
While I’d rather my neighbors not have nukes, few people would have the resources to actually acquire them.
Now, you can regulate the use of arms – ie, lobbing hand grenades in a dense urban environment threatens innocent bystanders and thus is grounds for restriction of that use, but the acquisition and ownership is something that should not be limitable.
Our militia of all citizens needs to be better armed than the Army.
If I sound cranky, I’m sorry. I am a little.
I did spend half of yesterday trying to find .45 ACP ammo so I could go to the ranger later this week, but everyone I visited was sold out.
The record has already waffled at “dangerous and unusual” arms. And they are trying to drive a truck through that window…
They should have squished the “military arms aren’t arms” part.. but again, they don’t like full auto, the next case is clear. semi OK?.. why not full auto??.
All of these cases aren’t regulating use.. just possession. Which Heller said “no”.. but “no doesn’t mean no”
“dangerous and unusual” is stupid.
Arms are supposed to be dangerous. If they were not dangerous, they wouldn’t be arms.
Every weapon was unusual at some point when it was first developed. By permitting the banning of innovation you have immediately stagnated development and prevented anything new from becoming usual.
The problem with nukes, is that they go off by themselves if you don’t carefully maintain them. There’s a certain level of public nuisance at play here.
UnCiv:
https://www.targetsportsusa.com/winchester-usa-45-acp-auto-ammo-230-gr-fmj-100-rounds-value-pack-usa45avp-p-1176.aspx
$0.35/round. Order through saratogashootingsports.com
Last time I had looked, they were sold out.
It appears they got some new stock in.
How do nukes go off by themselves? Maybe if you used dynamite on a gun type and the nitro sweated out. We had to change the tritium bottles out or else no fusion.
Autobahn to Hell
President Donald Trump faces the challenge of convincing Republican senators, global investors, voters and even Elon Musk that he won’t bury the federal government in debt with his multitrillion-dollar tax breaks package.
The response so far from financial markets has been skeptical as Trump seems unable to trim deficits as promised.
“All of this rhetoric about cutting trillions of dollars of spending has come to nothing — and the tax bill codifies that,” said Michael Strain, director of economic policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, a right-leaning think tank. “There is a level of concern about the competence of Congress and this administration and that makes adding a whole bunch of money to the deficit riskier.”
Congress is begging Trump to let them cut spending, but he won’t hear of it.
Fuck you, cut spending.
The pigs are never going to get rid of the trough. Not the blue ones or the red ones. They will stop bellying up to it when it is taken away from them. Not before.
The tax and spending cuts that passed the House last month would add more than $5 trillion to the national debt in the coming decade if all of them are allowed to continue, according to the Committee for a Responsible Financial Budget, a fiscal watchdog group.
Spending cuts?
Spending cuts will add to the deficit? You people are not helping!
Well, when you figure in the multiplier, and the undercoating, we’d be a fool NOT to spend that money!
Cool story, Animal. Now we know their shins are week, kick em in the shins.
Release the Dachshunds!
Release the Hundadlers!
And here I was thinking the Rocs would take them out. A pack of wild Dachshunds to the rescue.
thanks for the story Animal
People need to believe in a central, top-down puppet master villain. It is an oversimplification. He is not that. It is more like a bunch of them that think alike and have common interests and goals.
I don’t believe in vast shadowy cabals perpetrating elaborate grandiose conspiracy plots. I believe in opportunistic self-aggrandizement rom power hungry “what’s in it for me?’ political operatives.
You repeat yourself. It is a vast, shadowy cabal of opportunistic self-aggrandizement power hungry “what’s in it for me?” operatives.
We cant get rid of them but we can stop concentration so much money and power. Disburse that and they will be disbursed as well and have far less power over individuals.
https://www.thedrive.com/news/this-old-ford-model-a-rat-rod-is-actually-a-polaris-rzr
Neat
Well, they usually stick
tupperwarefiberglass panels on a Chevy S-10, so whether this is an improvement or not is up to you.Was that a Fender Jazzmaster headstock welded to the handbrake? Fuckin’ classy!
FAAAAAAAACK YOUUUUUUUUUU!
https://reason.com/volokh/2025/06/02/justice-kavanaugh-to-second-amendment-were-really-busy-now-come-back-in-a-year-or-two/
Neat
I don’t know why you’d need 18″ of suspension travel on a Model A, but sure.