Ranger Landing

Six months later the door opened to their ‘room’ on the ship… the room they had been locked into five and a half months earlier. Travis and his ‘wife’… there had been no actual ceremony, but that hadn’t stopped either of them and she was now pregnant… stepped out of the room to the sight of two ship marines in battle armor.

“They’re afraid of us, Love,” Travis said, his arm around his wife.

“This way,” one of the marines said, pointing with a baton he held. Travis noted neither of them was armed. The walk was about ten minutes long, and there was no one in the hallway.

“This is your shuttle,” the marine said. “The pilots are locked in their cabin. You can’t get at them. Your supplies are here in the back. When you get down, unload them. Quickly. The pilots will be taking off ten minutes later, whether you have them all or not. You will get more instructions via communicator. They are in the boxes.”

Travis nodded and he and his wife walked up the ramp, which started closing almost before they reached the end. They had a few seconds to strap themselves in, and then the ship took of. “We will be landing in a mountainous area,” a voice said from overhead said. “The aliens don’t like the cold or the thin atmosphere. It will make you sick for the first few days, probably, but then you should be able to move about normally. Humans have better tolerance for both cold and low atmospheric pressure than aliens.”

“All of the weapons that we have given you will record your kills automatically, and download and send their reports when they get near your main communicator. Further supplies will be sent to you if you are successful at killing aliens. Destroying their supplies and equipment will also count.”

“Sounds good,” Travis said, kissing and pawing at his wife… hoping to embarrass whoever was giving this lecture.

But it seemed to have no effect, the voice just continued on. “Several other rangers will be dropped off in your area. Not close to you. They are not there to socialise with you, but to kill aliens. Leave them alone.”

Then the tone changed a bit, “We realise that you are here because you both have psychopathic personalities, and would otherwise have been executed. However it is possible that it might please you to know that the job your are doing is actually very important, and if you do it well you could be saving hundreds or even thousands of lives. God bless.”

Travis left off pawing his wife and stared at the ceiling where the speaker was. Before those words were pronounced he would have said that he didn’t care. But perhaps, in some small way, he did. Perhaps his heaven was complete: a job killing aliens, a beautiful and willing wife, and a chance to do something that everyone considered good.

—

Article 17

Article 17 is a military science fiction story with aliens and romance. It is set in a future reminiscent of Napoleon era Britain. The war was going very poorly until the military installed a dictator. This story follows one of the dictator’s great men: Cladin Tomirosh, Leader, and thrice decorated hero.

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Thank you for reading Von’s Substack. I would love it if you commented! I love hearing from readers, especially critical comments. I would love to start more letter exchanges, so if there’s a subject you’re interested in, get writing and tag me!

Being ‘restacked’ and mentioned in ‘notes’ is very important for lesser-known stacks so… feel free! I’m semi-retired and write as a ministry (and for fun) so you don’t need to feel guilty you aren’t paying for anything, but if you enjoy my writing (even if you dramatically disagree with it), then restack, please! Or mention me in one of your own posts.

If I don’t write you back it is almost certain that I didn’t see it, so please feel free to comment and link to your post. Or if you just think I would be interested in your post!

If you get lost, check out my ‘Table of Contents’ which I try to keep up to date.

Von also writes as ‘Arthur Yeomans’. Under that name he writes children’s, YA, and adult fiction from a Christian perspective. His books are published by Wise Path Books and include the children’s/YA books:

The Bobtails meet the Preacher’s Kid

The Bobtails and the Cousins

The Bobtails go to France

and

No Ordinary School

As well as GK Chesterton’s wonderful book, “What’s Wrong with the World”, for which ‘Arthur’ wrote most of the annotations.

Arthur also has a substack, and a website. On the substack you can listen to some of his published books. Free.

Thanks again, God Bless, Soli Deo gloria,

Von

Other Stories

Article 17 is not my only story on Substack. I have another light dystopia, or cultural sci-fi. And a Sci-Fantasy, with elves and dwarves. And a Morality Play, ala Aesop’s Fables.