It's a Double Feature!

Yes, today I bring you not only a short story, but also one of those internet quizzes that involves your mp3 player. So, quiz first:

If Your Life Had a Soundtrack
Opening credits: Temple of Time - Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Remix OST
Waking up: Guts - Berserk OST
Average day: Prophecy by Soulfly - MTV Headbanger's Ball, Volume 2 Disc 1
First date: Push It by Static-X, Wisconsin Death Trip
Falling in love: I want It All by Queen, Platinum Collection Volume 2 of 3
Love scene: Pushing Me Away - The String Quartet Tribute to Linkin Park
Fight scene: Unidentified Enemy by Hiroshi Watanabe - Berserk: Chapter of the Millennium Falcon OST
Breaking up: Jakobz Ladder by Project Wyze - Misfits, strangers, liars, friends
Getting back together: Let's Go, Come on by Super Eurobeat - Super Eurobeat presents Initial D: Fourth Stage
Secret love: Pain Inside by Adema - Adema
Life's Okay: Tree of the Dead by Tyler bates - 300: The Battle of Thermopylae OST
Mental breakdown: Question! by System of A Down - Mesmerize
Driving: The Fight Song by Marilyn Manson - Holy Wood (In The Shadow of the Valley of Death)
Learning a lesson: Fatality by Loaded - Mortal Kombat: More Kombat
Deep thought: Falling to Pieces by Thornley - Come Again
Flashback: The Encounter - Initial D Live Action OST
Partying: Forgiven by Disturbed - Ten Thousand Fists
Happy dance: Rock Star by N.E.R.D. (Feat. Jason Nevins) - She Wants To Move
Regreting: Movin' Up Moving Now by Super Eurobeat - Super Eurobeat presents Initial D: Fourth Stage
Long night alone: Starship Troopers Theme
Death scene: Savior - Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Disc 2
Closing credits: The Wolf by Tyler Bates - 300: The Battle of Thermopylae

... You know, for having 1000 songs on there right now (and more to come), there's quite a few repeat albums. Meh, most of them work quite well.

Now onto the Story!

This Is War

Warfare/Sci-fi

The flashes from the muzzles of the artillery very briefly lit the area, serving to let the enemy know that another salvo had been fired. Smaller flares from machine gun nests shot over the distance as the tracer bullets lit the darkened sky. The otherwise brilliant moon couldn’t penetrate the haze of clouds and smoke.

Several men were using various objects as cover for their advance, they were trying to join up with the rest of their platoon and engage the enemy head on. With all the jamming from both sides, satellites and even homing beacons were useless, and no one wanted to send up a signal flare to mark their position, it would probably invite certain death.

Armored boots crunched over the soil and grass and bits of concrete as one soldier came to hide behind what was once a pillar. His elbow pads clicked faintly against the concrete and then he slid down to one of his armored knees to peer around it. Other men rushed past him, the rustling of their fabric audible to him as they passed. Everything seemed so much louder when they were trying to be quiet. He waited a few seconds, scanning behind him with his helmet – one of the few pieces of tech that hadn’t been jammed in this war – and then moved forwards again, continuing the leapfrog.

They had gained almost one hundred meters of ground when bullets hissed past them. “Close.” The man muttered but continued onwards. They didn’t return fire, for all they knew, the enemy was simply firing at random for targets of opportunity, or to scare them into thinking they had been discovered.

But when a bullet snapped right beside him into the former building foundation, he knew that they knew for certain. Crouching down again, he looked over at a few of the men he was with, hiding some meters away under their own piece of rubble. They cocked the hammers on their rifles and readied themselves. He took a deep breath to calm the shakes that were starting, and as his team swung their rifles overtop of the rubble, he did as well and they opened fire as one entity.

It was blinding and deafening, he could barely tell if his rifle was firing or not amidst the noise. Out of the corner of his eye he saw a man go down from a shot to the throat – one of the few body parts unprotected – and then somebody yelled “Grenade!”

The explosion outdid the noise and light from the rifles and threw them all. He felt pain all over, and noticed that some of his body was warm while other parts were cold. His rifle was nowhere to be seen and his helmet was missing as well. Painfully he sat up and felt the fragments of metal shift in his body. Wounded, definitely bleeding and obviously in a bad situation.

Boots crunched soil, grass and bits of concrete as many pairs approached the area where he sat. The lit visors that surrounded him weren’t blue like the one he once had, but red. His enemies. They could see him as he pulled a grenade from his vest and hold it out and he could feel the rifles aimed at him as they all waited for what he would do. “This is war.” He said and pulled the pin.

As the grenade dropped to the ground the soldiers pulled their triggers and it was a nanosecond race between the bullets and the grenade to see which would kill the man first. But with all the light and noise, he couldn’t really tell.

Or even care.

It was war.

--
This is what happens when you dream of Clones, mixed with Coke. It's gotten a few good words from a trusted friend.

Adios!

Ninja ... VANISH! *p00f!*

ShirtNinja Theater Presents: Inner Visions (c)2007 Kiyoshi Perkins

Round One

Hello and welcome to me giving into everyone on the internet. I remember back in the day I used to have a blog that I shared with my friend and creator of WorkBytes.net, and all we'd do is create sentences out of track listings on CDs. It was pretty fun and we or I might end up doing that again sooner or later.

I personally run the HTML creation and maintenance of WorkBytes.net, having created now three different versions including the current format of the site. The title is an obvious pun and the comic itself was based off of life in a call center and soon grew past that. But all of that information is available under the Creators tab on the site. This is about blogging.

I read various blogs and livejournals, though most of them are the same at heart, places for people to pour their hearts and/or troubles out where people can decide whether or not to take the time to actually read them. And it gets addicting. Though I'm bad at guaranteeing, this blog is mainly going to be a place to post quick story ideas and random chapters from whatever I'm working on. It helps keep my mind focused on the big picture, or the main title I'm trying to work on.

And when in doubt, I follow Heinlein's Rules for Writing (author of Starship Troopers):
1 You Must Write.
2 You Must Finish what you Write
3 You Must Refrain from Rewritting, except for Editing
4 You Must Put the Work on the Market
5 You Must Keep the Work on the Market until it is Sold

"Writing is nothing to be ashamed of. But do it in private and wash your hands afterwards."

My current big title is "The Paradise War", a work in progress that originated out of my desire to leave mecha fighting for a while and go back to old-fashioned fighters in space. The idea and plot quickly formed for the 2005 Nation Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo.org) which was sent to me by a friend from the States.

In 2006 I put that idea aside to work on "The Prodigy", an idea created solely to compete in the 2006 NaNo. In early 2007 I picked "The Paradise War" back up, dusted it off and resumed writing, and shortly thereafter, I created the idea of "Inner Visions" to keep all the various ideas unusable for "The Paradise War" in check.

"Inner Visions" is going to be a collection of short stories, poems and quick rhythm and rhymes that pollute my head. I cannot afford to stop writing one book to start another and then drop the second and go back to the first, so instead they get logged. Whether or not Inner Visions actually gets published is another matter entirely, but one might consider this publishing, according to some rule about publishing.

Thus is why the stories posted here will seem short and quick. They are ideas given five minutes of time, nothing more. And of course the random internet quizzes. So I fare thee well after having to read all that text, and I hope you'll be back to read my future posts.

Adios!

Ninja ... VANISH! *p00f!*

ShirtNinja Theater Presents: Inner Visions (c)2007 Kiyoshi Perkins