Unfinished Shorts by Paul Groffry Swanson (beautiful books to read txt) 📕

Story 1 Equilibrium

The sparks of battle lit up the nights in that one forest. The sounds echoed like a distant call to the surrounding villages. All manner of intelligent creatures had fled long ago. The noise was constant and until now had never ceased. It did not fade as most noises would, but just quite suddenly stopped.
Both immortals collapsed in exhaustion, and fell on the soft moss below them. As if on queue the soft ambience of the stream became audible once again. Little by little, the insects came back, the singing birds picked up melody, and most other manner pf creatures sensed the sudden peace and returned.
The two men, so equally matched, had a bitter rivalry that swam to the surface centuries ago. They had fought for what was likely an eternity. Every cut they obtained perfectly matched the other. The desert around them had become fertile; the saplings that sprouted around them had become fully grown trees. Mountains had risen up. All that they had known and loved had faded to dust while they had warred. Suddenly they wondered why had they fought at all. What had it achieved? Now they had nothing.
When they looked up, they saw that the night sky was no longer the constant reminder that they thought it was. The darkness had faded to some unknown shade of crimson. A thought that they had both shared though they were both manifestations of each other’s opposite was that maybe they were the same being. Suddenly feeling distant, their bodies disappeared into the same cosmic dust that had created the universe. It gathered in the shape of a pyramid at where they had laid. After a few moments, a sprout quietly grew out of the dust.
Years past and it became a great tree the devoured the heavens. It bore two fruit, a white and a black. They grew ripe and then fell to the earth beside the two swords that remained. The fruit broke open and released their gods to war again for another eternity.

Story 2 Star Gaze

Case #1 Jan 12, 3265
“Careful! The ship can’t take that much stress!” Yelled Hiro as his partner pulled an extremely tight turn to avoid the oncoming missiles. He watched in anticipation as the Stargazer shot around the enemy. Hiro himself had to pull up just to avoid crashing into him.
“Yo, buddy I think I know what my own ship can handle. Look out!” Hollered Deus over the radio as he charged head long over him. Hiros ship the Westwind shook violently as he narrowly dodged the little red ship. “How’s the ships fuel and ammo?”
“Haven’t used any yet! Can’t see him! Where is he?” Hiro slammed the reverse thrusters and watched as tiny brown ship passed over him. “There you are!” He flipped that little red button on his joystick and laughed madly as his bullets whisked through the weightless space. The target took a sharp climb and avoided most of the shots. “I’ll get you!”
“Whoa geez, calm down he’s only worth a hundred thousand! No need to get so worked up about it. AHH!” The tiny brown ship flew straight up in front of him followed very closely by Deus’ ammo. He banked quickly to the right and followed the ship. Carefully watching the computer screen with ever turn he waited for the right lock on. Can’t believe that we pulled these things out of a junkyard piece by piece. Who would throw these things away? They work so well. The stargazer passed him spinning violently out of control. Huh? What the? Guess I spoke to soon.
“AHHHHHH!! The gyros screwed up bad! I’m going back to the ship soon as I can.” The trail of exhaust looked like a winding staircase. “The old man said he fixed it!”
“Probably your fault! I warned you not to be so skittish in your flying.” The tiny brown ship did a quick turn One-eighty that caught them both off guard. Holy Crap! This guys goin kamikaze. The brown ship open fire with everything it had it looked like. Hiro pulled some evasive maneuvers with his ninety-degree bursts of fuel and then gunned the accelerator outta there. “Dues watch out! A major salvo comin your wa-!” He just noticed that his wing was leaking gases. Erg, must’ve hit me… “That’s it! Leave him to me!”
“Heh, hit’cha didn’t he? You better look out buddy. He’s gonna go ape shit on you now!” Yelled Deus with a laugh that would scare anyone. Hiro saw the main gun on the stargazer charge and discharge with a blue halo on the incoming ammunition. Some of it was incinerated and the rest he avoided with that same out of control spin. He shot past the brown ship with uncontrollable speed. About the only that was controllable was the sound of his mumbling. The brown ship chased after him wasting all his shots on Deus. Had he not been spinning he probably would’ve been killed.
“Whoa… that is really lucky. Sorry Yorui Kard you’re going down now!” His missile system had finally locked on. He reached for the little black button on his HUD a pressed it with a smirk on his face. A nice rhythm of music had begun and echoed through the radio frequencies all over Mars. Ah. The jazz may it ring free. He searched for the missile button but couldn’t find it. Hey, where is it? He glanced down to find it and looked back up for a moment. The tiny brown spacecraft was heading straight for him. AH! JESUS! He had no time to be care full he pulled up and left. His craft did a little flip that didn’t agree with his stomach. It lurched and refused to keep in his lunch. He felt the food stop in his mouth where he tried his best not to lose it.
Deus finally got his ship back under control and headed back to battle. He saw the brown ship and aimed carefully this time with his main cannon. His ship shook but he had always managed before. He charged it, line the target up and fired the blue stream of anti matter directly into the foes engines. The craft exploded into a fine line of fire that quickly died without oxygen for fuel. The back end exploded and the sides erupted “Listen to that jazz. You sure chose some good music today…uh…halloo? Huh, what’s the matter?”
“You don’t want to know…urk…” He finally lost it completely.
“Eww… Well, back to the ship. Then on to IBF for our hundred thousand.”
The strangest memories…
Hiro flew his craft into the Blackguard’s hangar and hopped out content, aside from the after affects of puking. Deus flew in shortly afterward. Hiro had already climbed the ladder was about step out into the main room when remembered that he needed to change first. “Figures.”
“Yehhaaa! I never can get enough of that head rush! Even when I’m spinning outta control1!” As he stepped out of his ship he saw the cockpit of Hiros ship. He cringed “Yuck, he really did loose it! Bet he wishes he had an iron stomach, like me.” Deus rubbed his belly like it was something to be proud of. Not that he was fat but, I mean, what’s there to proud about a trim belly or extra large for that matter? Deus followed him like a stray animal searching for its next meal. He walked in when Hiro had just pulled down a new shirt.
“Don’t follow me…now we gotta go back to the old man…he treats me like an idiot when you’re the skitzo…our ships are junk we need an upgrade…and he was only worth a hundred thou…carrier needs an overhaul…it’s not enough that they should send me out here, but the fact that your sis insisted on it…”
“Yeah-said it’d be good fer ya! Now that we’re partners and all-!!”
“Please…don’t remind me. I should never have let you come with me…should’ a never agreed…I’m tired…leave me be.” Hiro snapped his fingers and the same genre of music clicked on. He sat down where he was and closed his eyes, dreaming of the time they first met.
It was a time of great depression for him. The war had finally ended…and everyone was happy but Hiro. Something else was on his mind that day. He glanced up and saw a storm. Ever since humanity began repopulating these worlds they have been dumping these artificial storms on the citizens. Raindrop after raindrop landed on his face. He watched with unblinking eyes as larger object fell toward him .It was so sudden and painful when it hit he didn’t know what happened until he woke up in a hospital three weeks later.
The ship shook violently. He rolled into a table and got up fast. Crap! “What now?” The music has stopped how long was I out? “Deus are we under attack?” Asked Hiro in any direction. Deus at the time was already out in space trying to fend off the enemy. Hiro saw this and ran to his ship but hesitated remembering his lunch. He put it aside and glanced in thinking it was still there, but it wasn’t. Deus must have taken care of it for me. I’ll have to thank him later. He hopped in and pulled his cockpit toward him everything clicked together quickly. Who would be attacking us now? “Westwind ready to launch. Westwind launching.” Hiro sat in his seat, pressed the button and his ship shot out of the hangar with a flash of light.
He searched for his communicator. Three weeks and still don’t know where it is…that’s pathetic. Found it! He grabbed it and activated it on frequency Two Nine One O. The station they always use, and it constantly plays good rhythmic music even some classics from way back in the 2000’s. “Deus where are you?”
“Bout time you get out here! What did you sleep through all the explosions or what? I’m above you.” Deus sped into view and gave a salute of satisfaction. But that grin quickly faded to anger as soon as a barrage of ammo hit him in the rear. The stargazer pulled a turn just like what the brown ship did.
“Whoa…nice maneuver.” Hiro had never seen Deus pilot so expertly. “You can learn all there is to know about him in week, but an hour later he’ll surprise you…” Hiro whispered to himself. Deus sped toward his enemy, which Hiro still could not see. He banked carefully trying to see the foe. “How many are there?”
“One, two…I don’t know! They’re to fast to count.”
“Right…The IBF better pay extra for this.” Hiro pulled a fast bank and was lucky to avoid a stray missile. He watched straight ahead where the stars shone the brightest. He noticed a slight distortion. The lights moved out of focus and then back to normal. “Distorted imagery? That can only mean one thing!” Hiro followed the trail of stars and fired along the path of distortion. “You’re the group that killed my friend!” He hit something that left a gas trail. “Deus follow it! Don’t let him get away!”
“Right I see it!”
“I can handle things here!” As Deus sped out of view following the trial of smoke Hiro saw another distortion, a radiation path. That can only mean-! He set his targeting system to search and complexly predict the next for that craft. Hiro waited for a moment and set it for a full screen system. The computed did so willingly and without fault. Almost immediately he got a lock and released