Friday, September 25, 2015

i just finished alister reynolds new novella slow bullets, it's a great read, as all his books are. anyway i liked the term 'slow bullets' and i guess it got me thinking... and i wrote this in a kind of tribute to him.... 

the first thing you notice about a slow bullet is you don't notice it until the second thing. the strange way vision impairs, things begin to fall out of shape, contents leave their boundaries, time folds in on itself so what was behind you is now in front and what was yet to happen happened. it's an effective weapon which is why both sides use it.
eventually some sort of mental overwhelming occurs where the personality itself disengages and falls apart, assembling in a reformatted equivalent. 
the quanta force militia were on my heels, i was leading them towards my own unit but my satellite nav com system must have taken a hit as i slipped off line and found myself in the dark. the territory was vastly alien, we were shooting it out on some hostile world. a neutral planet with low gravity and two suns. the militia had been chasing us for several years now we had even   skipped through the wormhole technologies several times but they were like glue on our backs, relentlessly pursuing their targets.
the commander had signalled the base station for back up but that was several years ago, and we were still waiting a response. 
i took in the darkness momentarily, the night vision was erratic and my helmet had taken a battering but it worked well enough to guide me into the maze of rubble ahead. chances are they would find me, i was outnumbered and outgunned, my technology was failing fast. i had to work out a way to slow them down, get my system back online at least. 
an explosion to my left send me reeling down a natural bunker, out of sight.  rained down upon me. these guys were not messing around.
i checked over my suit, i had a few smart bombs left, my zap gun was almost deplenished. i estimated i had a few charges left. i took out the slow bullet and held it in my hand, it would have to be this, one shot at their chief would at least confuse them. i placed the silicone unit in the plasma weapon. my hand was shaking.
okay. i clambered out of the bunker and made my way along the maze like a rat, vision began to go on the fritz but it was good enough for me to sight a position up high where i could launch my defence. 
i clambered up and laid out my tools, this would be it.
keeping down i could hear sounds of the approaching enemy, there were three of them. it didn't take me long to work out who the leader was. i could zap the other two and then i'd be in a dog fight to the end. soon they would be in range. 
jessica was running towards me, what was she doing here. she had long dark hair and wore a simple dress, her face all radiant in the sunlight. 
'jess, jess, over here,' i called.
she waved and wandered over. 
'get up soldier'
what happened to her voice, i must have looked confused, as she grabbed me forcefully and brought my face to hers. the stench from her mouth was terrible, her nostrils seemed to grow larger than possible and her voice began to get much deeper and masculine.
'you've been hit solider, a slow bullet is inside you. we won. you're a dead man walking.'
'jess, what's happened, a slow bullet inside me, jess, is that you jess, i miss you so much jess, i really miss you. all i want is to feel you in my arms again.'
they could have left me there, they could have abandoned me to the delusion but for some reason they must have pitied me. maybe i just reminded them that they had wives back home, maybe they were lonely and frightened and they had endured enough of war, pointless war, maybe they just were human after all.
they took me back and took the slow bullet out with their technology and machines, they put me on a blimp ship and sent me back to my people, and as i float through space in my suspension pod my dreams are of jess, and home and holding her in my arms.

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