This is just a short-ish story I wrote, based on some ideas I wanted to explore about mechscape, and some of the things that might be available in it- and also what the society may be like, and what prejudices could exist. Although it was written in first person, I wasn't trying to make the narrator a patricularly likeable character, and I hope that comes across.
I would appreciate anyone who takes the time to read it, as it's maybe a little longer than some of the other short stories on here, and also I welcome any critique or comments. Please keep in mind though that I was using a word processor without a spell-check! :)
The Gardens of Aion
Picture this. A barren landscape as far as the eye can see- dead trees, desolate hills and withered life everywhere you look. This is the planet Hawkenon V. The still smouldering remains of buildings- there was once a thriving colony here, and although the residents are long dead, they have left this planet a terrible legacy. The people who lived here were mechatronic smiths and engineers by trade, and on a secret mission from the military, they moved to this planet with their families. Their cause? To build a super race of mechas- an invicible army.
How naive they were- because of course, the more they built, the more ambitious they became, until they were finally building mechas they could no longer control- ones that morphed themselves without any human help, ones that eventually turned murderous.
A barren and burnt out landscape, yes, but not quiet and still- far from. They swarm everywhere- glinting new and metallic in the red sun, or rusting and old, but all of them still moving. Moving, killing, burning. The screams of the people they encounter get whipped away by the ferocious winds that fuel the blinding sand storms, but the steady sound of gunfire and explosion of powerful warheads can still be heard. Heard all the way down into the bunkers beneth the abandoned colony- heard even right in the lowest, darkest hole- where I am hiding.
There are two things you should know about me.
One is, I am not a soldier or a mercenary- I am a gardener. My name is Augustus Dimitiri, and I am twenty-four years old. I am from the not so far away planet of New Saunus. I had a moderatley succesful flower shop there- I sold common things such as Kab-Kun grass, blue May flowers and all manner of fruit and vegetables, but also some wonderfully exotic plants such as Tertia stems and Septima flowers from Aceon.
My shop was in a wonderful location in the central square of the grand city of Ichtia. The square was surrounded by fluting arches and magnificent palaces, but it was always filled with the hustle and bustle of ordinary people selling and buying as many different things as you could imagine. Space captains also often came there, looking for either crew or quest- and I did a nice business supplying them with fresh food for their trip.
The other type of person you would get in the square was the young and foolish adventurer. They would band together in a larger, more foolish group, and go off together to train on some distant planet, hoping for glory and riches. Some came back- the ones who went to planets such as Hawkenon V did not.
The second thing you need to know about me, is I am not a religious or patriotic man. This may seem like no problem at all to you, but here on New Saunus we are a colony planet of Aion- where the great council live, who rule over this sector of the universe. We are required to worship the great council as if they are gods, and pay part of our earnings in tribute to them every cycle. I, however, am a man who believes in looking after myself and my shop, and I do not intend to use my hard earned money to pay for the council to keep themselves in luxury. My one hope in life used to be that the Militia would never find out about my lack of belief in these 'gods'- if they did, I would be arrested for sure.
I will travel to Aion one day- not to pay homage to the council, as most do when they make that trip, but to see the gardens- the palaces on Aion are all surrounded by them, gardens with the most beautiful specimins of every type of plant and flower you can think of, and many more besides. Waterfalls cascade down man-made mountains, and the air-dome keeps the temperature regulated, so it is always a beautiful spring morning. I have heard you can wander freeley through most of the gardens, but the most spectacular of all are reserved for the council themselves and their families. Yes, I will go one day. When the shop is doing well, I will hire an assistant to look after it while I am away, and I will visit all the gardens of Aion. Just not quite yet. Lots of things to do, and this place can't run itself!
My story probobly starts on the day that a stinking Pliigi came into my shop looking for Redweed- like I would sell something so common and ugly! I hate those twisted looking abominations- oh sure, tell me that they are 'people' just like anyone else. They sure don't look like people to me! We took them into our human colonies out of the goodness of our hearts when all their home planets were destroyed, and they don't even have the decency to try and fit in! Of course, I chased the stinking creature out of my shop with a broom.
Well, later that day I heard all this noise outside, and when I poked my head out of the window there was at least twenty Pliigi outside, a few humans, and even a Mistman! And they were all waving signs and chanting 'equal rights for the Pliigi! We are people too!'
I had seen the like of this before- but I had never seen a Mistman lower himself to such depths! For Mistmen are almost the complete opposite of the Pliigi- graceful and tall, they are human in shape, but owe their name to their misty and un-substantial appearance. They have a name for themselves- Ak'ral'karion'fektyire I believe it is spelt- but us lowley humans cannot pronounce it, so we call them the Mistmen. They are clever and peaceful, and I come into contact with them frequentley as they make excellent merchants. Lousy fighters, though.
Well, eventually the demonstrators went away, leaving me to shut up shop. Today was the last in the cycle, and everyone was to go to the law offices and pay their dues to the council. Not me though. I went straight home, and gave neither Pliigi nor taxes another thought.
The next day, I went to my shop as usual- and to my dismay, saw a large group of Militia gathered around the door! They were all armed to the teeth, and with them was that cursed Pliigi I had thrown out of my shop the day before. I took a hiding place in the alley round the corner where I could hear them talk.
'Saw him with my own eyes, I did!' Said the Pliigi in a surprisingly high voice. I supposed it must have been female- it was so hard to tell with them. 'Yestarday I followed the gardener Augustus home, and although it was the last day of the cycle, he didn't even go near the law offices! I swear on my brood, the man paid no taxes to the council.'
With the mention of the council, the Militia bowed their heads all at once and muttered a short prayer for the good health of all the members of the esteemed council. I hardly noticed though, my heart was hammering so hard and I was sweating so much. It took all of my considerable willpower to wait in the alley until the Militia had left- and then I scurried up to my front door, and read with terror the notice pinned to it-
'Warrent for arrest- The owner of this shop, Augustus Dimitri of New Saunus, is wanted for treason against the holy council. Reward for capture: Ten bars of highest quality mithrill.'
Pleased as I was with the high reward placed on my head, I knew it was past time for me to be gone from New Saunus. With a sad farewell glance at my shop, I headed to the square, listening carefully for my chance to escape.
It didn't take long for me to locate a likley suspect- Captain Drake Van Damne he was called, and obviously ex Militia. Missing one hand and several teeth, he was the definition of the word tough. Standing in the square, he was hollering for any brave souls to join his crew on a most profitable venture.
I soon learned that Captain Drake was in possession of a reward notice quite different from the one nailed to my door- apparentley, Haiden Vel'Allarion, the very brave and very foolish son of Celestine Vel'Allarion, high ruler of the great council, had taken it upon himself to go on a training mission to Hawkenon V. With Haiden being the heir of such an important person, a notice had been dispatched to all planets in the sector, offering a reward for his safe return. And, as you will already have guessed, Captain Drake was of a mind to claim this reward himself.
It struck me as wonderfully ironic to join a mission to save a member of the council's family when I was in this mess because of the council in the first place, so I signed up immediatley.
There was only four other members of Captain Drake's crew- Ellewind Valentine was the mech operator. Her mech was a beautiful thing to behold- as high as five men, obviously well looked after, and with an impressive arsenel of weapons. It looked too expensive and advanced for a mercenary to be operating- I had to wonder what kind of dark past Ellewind was hiding in order to have stooped so low as to join a crew like this.
Ellewind herself had a boyish figure and short haircut- not my type, but the way she handled her mech was certainly impressive. When she was seated in the giant robot-like machine, she definatley had a certain appeal about her.
Another crew member was a Mistman- I never learned his name, but he was certainly like no Mist I had ever met before. He seemed to have a cruel streak, a violent one, which is how I suppose he came to be working on captain Drake's crew, instead of enjoying a more normal job for one of his race. I reminded myself to try not to cross him.
The other two were Magus and Belal- two boys who could not have been more than eighteen, and had obviously never finished the training that all us who abide on this world are supposed to complete before we seek employment. The training is aimed to have the effect of making us into well rounded individuals, equipped to be either merchant or soldier or mech operator- but these boys seemed to have no interest in anything except playing cards and shooting their plasma rifles. They claimed to be brothers, but one was short, ginger and pug faced, the other tall and lankey with almost no hair on his head at all.
Captain Drake's plan was for us to visit the armoury and weapon's stall and prepare for the trip- but even on crossing the square we heard five other space captains all shouting about the same quest and asking for men to join their crew. So Drake decided we could not waste the time on shopping, and off we set, completley unprepared. Well, by now I was having seconds thoughts about the whole venture, but the gleam in the Captain's eye told me I would not survive putting voice to these concerns.
So we all boarded Drake's ship- if you could call it that, the low slung and ugly thing it was, probobly only being held together by it's own rust.
The journey to Hawkenon was not too long- just a few days, even without warp, which the ship did not seem to be equipped for. I took this time to try and familierise myself with the plasma cannons and the light guns, but I knew that I was still going to be in serious trouble if we ended up in a fight. Also, I watched Ellewind train with her mech- it really was a most beautiful machine, and I decided that it would be a good thing if some kind of nasty fate was to befall Ellewind, and the mech ended up in my possesion. Magus and Belal played cards in the hold and drank themselves half to death, and the Captain and the Mistman spent the whole trip locked away together on the bridge- presumabley deciding on a plan for when we reached Hawkenon.
When we did finally get there, it was completley still, and we thought our mission was perhaps even too easy. Infact, we soon located Lord Haiden- the coward had never even made it into battle, and had spent the whole time cowering in a hole, waiting for rescue. Apparentley the first night he arrived, his whole party apart from him had been torn apart by wild mechas. This did put us on the alert, but we weren't planning to wait around to meet them anyway. Haiden told us that he had managed to take a location beacon with him into his hiding place- even now, the search parties sent by the council could be nearing in on the signal. And WE wanted to be the ones to claim the reward, not them!
Well, I was almost having a merry time of it all, and thinking that it was a fortunate twist of events that had led me away from my shop, and out to see the world. But before we could make it back to our ship, night fell. It happened without warning- one minute it was as bright as day, although the sun here was red and stained all of the land with it's light- the next it was pitch black, and Haiden started screaming and saying we all had to hide.
We didn't have a chance though. The 'brothers', Magus and Belal, were the first to go- the mecha was a huge, horrible thing with many legs, each equppied with a sharp cutting claw, and it lunged out of the blackness, tearing the boys apart where they stood.
Of course, we all panicked, running off in seperate directions. I could hear Captain Drake shouting at us all to come back, and what must have been the Mistman being attacked in yet another direction, but I could also hear them all around me- scuttling, scraping, horrible laughter- and I knew that my only chance was to run and find a place to hide. Drake's voice was soon cut off in a gurgling scream, and now the night was lit up by a flare and the sound of gunfire shook in my ears. I stopped and turned, and saw the sillouette of Ellewind in her mecha, firing wildly, and not seeing the snake like creature that came from behind, until it was too late, pulling her from the robot and crushing her in it's huge metal mouth.
'This way!' Came a voice, and I turned to see Haiden off to my right, carrying a wildly swinging torch. 'The hole I was hiding in before, it's our only chance!'
I saw the hole up ahead in the torch light, and ran for it- I was faster than him, and I made it first.
'Let me in!' He gasped, when he saw me blocking the enterance.
'Sorry, only room for one!' I kicked him in the face, sending him back into the night. As I dissapeared further down into my hiding place, his screams followed me.
So now we're back at where we began- the horrible, barren landscape above, and me, below, hidden and cowering. I'm not ashamed to say I was probobly crying a little too.
I was only down there for an hour or so though, before a voice came echoing down the hole-
'Lord Haiden? Is that you?' Then another voice, quieter,
'It must be! His beacon signal is coming from down there!'
'No, I'm-' I started to shout back, but then stopped short. I DID have Haiden's radio beacon. Haiden was dead. These goons wouldn't know if I was him or not...
'Yes, it's me! Get me out now, you fools!' I shouted back, trying to sound like a pampered and impatient Lord.
Weeks pass, and I lounge in the palace of the great council on Aion, ordering servants to bring me exotic wines, and spending my days wandering in the fabulous gardens. They really are as amazing as I was led to believe- even more so. Green and lush, yet so many other colours as well- and water that is not just clear, but rainbow, and rain that leaves small crystals on the petals of every flower. I spend hours sitting and studying each plant that is new and wonderful to me- and wondering how I was every happy before, with the small and paltry selection I had in my meaningless shop.
Of course, none of the council are here at the moment- they are all out on different planets, on state business. I do not believe for one second that they will also be fooled into thinking I am Lord Haiden- and as soon as even one of them returns to check up on me, I will be found out for an imposter, and put to death.
It will have been worth it though, to walk in the gardens of Aion.
The end.