Short Fiction for Finish the Story Contest- Hunt Down the Bananafish

Hunt Down the Bananafish
by @theironfelix

Boots clamor with the machinery humming. Iron walkways, under stomping feet, ache despite losing the senses a while ago. Grunts echo and bounce off the marble-walls and iron-ceiling. The grunting marchers ache for purpose, as they can stand no more of their shoulders’ acidity caused by hauling a crate so long.

"Hush, we near the Colonel-"

"Bob, we’ve been on the USSS Milky Way for how long? It’s pronounced ker-nel - not co-lo-nol."

"Keep your peace, Jerry. Anyways."

Raised arms, Bob’s hands knocked three knocks, every knock so polite yet firm. His legs, being precautious, retreated; doors squeaking due to leaving their closed state, the Colonel with a pipe and cocked hat steps out. Steadying the shades, the pipe soon found itself hugging the floor.

"Master-Sergeant Bob, how’d you... oh He would be very proud, yet let’s not yammer on about that."

"Indeed, and we tracked the coordinates-"

"Coordinates! I’ll patch you in sonny. Please yank that box in now. Tell me, how’d you got this potassium-skin?"

"I’ll take this one Bob, go input the coordinates. Colonel, the details matter not, but our white gloves are still white. Anyways, coordinates should be in now. Say, when does that bounty expire?"

"I still cannot believe it, we’ll be rich! We’ll have the Bananafish finally in our hands and the bounty just renewed and quadrupled its payout!"

Frothing came racing out and spreading about the Colonel’s mouth, Master-Sergeant Bob’s and Jerry’s eyes picked up on the bubble-infection. Bob’s hands signaled to Jerry if now was the time to act, but that time to act was inappropriate as Jerry’s hands signed. Bob’s ears, hearing the awkwardness, compelled the voice-box to utter.

"Would you like to do the honours of telling the other ships?"

"Ah, sorry. Anyways, the coordinates are already sent - now just an announcement... Ahem... Attention crew, this is the Colonel speaking. Right now coordinates have been uploaded and you may have a question. My answer: we found the Bananafish and we’re going to hunt! I repeat, we’re hunting down the Bananafish... I muted my mic, but do you hear that Master-Sergeant?"

"Ecstasy."

"And a hero, for that’s what you and your platoon are. When we’re back, I’ll make sure you get your due honours."

Bob’s and Jerry’s eyes deadlock together on the other, lips arching high and their minds ridding of any misdeeds. Turning their heads to the ship’s front view, the image of starry seas became interrupted as the view warps to a tunnel of passing light spires that raced with the ship. However, the moment was fleeting and the armada of spacecraft found themselves floating above the Bananafish’s home.

"Master-Sergeant’s Platoon, come ‘ere. You’ll be my personal convoy ‘til the mission is over. So sit in your own Orbital Drop Pods and await blastoff."

Sat they were, their armour covered with more weapons than plating and a soldiery hoorah echoing. The clock ticked, yet they were ejected soon and all saw the Nature below.

The fleet of myriad ships that had appeared about two thousand kilometers away from Thebes, some had to be farther out to avoid the gravity wells of one the other 66 moons orbiting Jupiter. Thebes was a lifeless chunk of dense carbon and metallic compounds like most of Jupiter's moons with two exceptions. One was it's synchronous rotation - i.e. it's one side always faced Jupiter while the other always faced away; and two it had a natural cavern big enough to dock half a dozen frigates. Perfect hideout for pirates.

In the early years of the FTL (Faster Than Light) era, when the Alliances had not yet formed piracy was rampant, especially in the sectors which were controlled by planets with a definite technological advantage. This affected all races and was one of the reasons which led to the Alliances. The Andromeda Alliance was the largest with 17 planets and five disparate species joining hands to police the Andromeda Quadrant. Most of the pirates had to either leave the Quadrant or quit piracy. Bananafish was a celebrity. It was a pirate ship about which many legends had been written and even TV holo- shows produced. For almost a century Bananafish has been a bane for cargo carriers, especially military cargo ships ferrying weapons and electronics.

And now the hunt for Bananafish has begun. As dozens of small pinnaces and landing spheres converged toward the pole of Thebes - from where a faint radioactive signal was detected, the mother ships co-ordinated their orbits to lay siege to the moon. Colonel spoke "Launch tracker drones- with universal access for all." In reply there were a series of confirmations. "Launching now." Like a horde of angry bees the robotic drones rushed towards Thebes. Small puffs of dust were noted immediately all over Thebes, small projectiles were coming to meet the drones head on. Colonel almost clapped in glee. "We are in the right place."

After six seconds when the projectiles were roughly fifty kilometers from the drones six camouflaged airlocks opened up around the poles of Thebes. The drones were transmitting real-time and the Colonel saw six ships nose out of the airlocks before the hostile projectiles blew up all at once. It was an EMP blast spread over eight thousand kilometers. All the drones and many landing pods shut down- becoming from a highly precise marvel of micro engineering to junk metal in an instant. The landing pods did have auxiliary engines which kicked in a second later but the damage was more lethal. The landing pods and pinnaces were on converging trajectories when the drones just switched off many impulsively went into evasive maneuvers to avoid fire from the surface, haplessly barreling into the path of others. Five pods and twenty seven crew were lost in two explosions. All of them had slowed down to a wary crawl when the six ships launched. All of them showing up as Bananafish. Colonel was red faced with agitation his whole frame trembling, Jerry murmured. "If anyone launches a nuclear warhead we are done for." Bob almost shouted at the Colonel. "Advice Beam weapons only Sir?" Colonel growled, his eyes returning to focus on the Master- sergeant. " All ships fire with beam weapons and targeted projectiles. Grade Nine weapons on hold till a thousand kilometer safety radius. Catch them alive if possible. Pinnaces 2120 and 2129 proceed to land and scout. All the rest return to ship. Launch secondary drones- we need eyes on the surface."

Two of the six Bananafish were destroyed inside a minute of launching from Thebes. One crashed into a Gluwer mothership while three made it past the siege. Only one went FTL while the two became fantastic fiery infernos as nuclear charged warheads ripped into them, the shock waves spreading over hundreds of kilometers. Three frigates chased the lone getaway, blowing it up finally, after forty hours of chasing. On Thebes there was nothing to find. The cavern was empty but for dismantled craft and piles of spares. The solar generator was blown up and airlocks jammed open. The Colonel's own convoy landed and for two days everyone searched Thebes with no result. The celebration though was not dampened and the word of Bananafish's end spread throughout the quadrant.

"The Colonel seemed deflated." Bob remarked. "Bob, we’ve been on the USSS Milky Way for how long? It’s pronounced ker-nel - not co-lo-nol. And don't you go shooting your mouth off- we're being made officers." "Thebes search was difficult to manage. I never thought the Co-lo-nul would want to see the dead bodies so badly." "We got lucky Bob reaching the cavern before the Gluwer party made it there. Those ..crabs.. would surely have sniffed out the hidey hole."
"The Odd Gods Of Steemit always side with Bananafish." Bob remarked smugly. Jerry sighed . "The Colonel's heart will give out though, when he hears that they are alive and kicking."

The Contest:https://steemit.com/finishthestory/@bananafish/finish-the-story-contest-week-40