Tell a Story to Me – Contest #01/Big Brother’s Got Your Back – @bananafish
Image Credit Pixabay.com
Prompt: Big Brother’s Got Your Back . . .
From @calluna’s writing contest. For more information please see the link:
https://steemit.com/tellastorytome/@bananafish/tell-a-story-to-me-big-brother-s-got-your-back
My Entry:
“Viper 1? This is Viper 2. Do you copy?”
“Yes Viper 1, copy. Looks like all hell is going to break loose.”
“Roger that Viper 1. Today is a good day to die.”
Lt. Todd Montgomery, piloted the star fighter Viper 2 in the darkness of space. They were operating 5,000 miles from the forward operation base on Pluto, the final outpost of Earth’s civilization, and the crown jewel of advanced military technology.
Behind Lt. Montgomery, every planet in the solar system, every moon, and most asteroids, had been settled from everything including mining rigs to luxurious city resorts.
In front of Lt. Montgomery, a colony fleet from Proxima Centauri approached. They had been at war with the neighboring solar system for longer than Lt. Montgomery could remember. Somehow these two civilizations remained at about the same technological development.
However, Proxima Centauri had the advantage of being able to travel the void of Interstellar Space. Not without difficulty though. Thus the constant attacks on Pluto, a fortress that they needed in order to gain a toe hold in Earth’s solar system.
Lt. Montgomery had taken the vow to never let that happen. He had a wife, and two children back on Earth. Their picture sat on the controls of his star fighter. He and his squadron had the advantage of fighting for home, they also had superior numbers, and so far had held firm against the Proxima Centauri onslaught.
“Viper 2 here, got a clear shot at the mother ship. Going in for the kill!”
“Roger that, Cobra squad has your wing support. I’m bringing my guys around a different way,” said the pilot of Viper 1.
Both ships accelerated, and broke formation with their auxiliary support ships following their battle plan closely.
Lt. Montgomery’s shields began to take a beating from enemy laser fire. He made an evasive maneuver to shake the deadly beams of light, then locked on to his target, and punched it again. The Cobra fighters began a dogfight with other smaller fighters from Proxima Centauri.
As Viper 2 closed in to launch a deadly payload, Viper 1 did the same. The well time attack destroyed the mother ship. Once again, only the small fighters from Proxima Centauri would need to be cleaned up. With no place to refuel they were doomed in the vacuum of space.
“Alright! That’s always a great way to start the day. Might get back to Pluto for some warm coffee,” said Lt. Montgomery.
“Funny guy. More like dinner time. Help us mop up these alien ships,” said Viper 1 with a relaxed communication protocol. Just another day at the office for these experienced veterans.
333
Lt. Montgomery sat in his stateroom in the Pluto planetary base. Out the thick glass wall he could see the speck of the sun. With a telescope he could watch planets, like Earth. Only now he sat through the end of his wife’s message sent to him on the Steemit blockchain.
Her hologram stood on a black disc relaying the events of the day back on Earth. This advancement in communication technology allowed for faster transmissions. Yet they were still on a 20 minute delay.
Once she finished, he made a transfer of Steem into her bank account for the children’s school supplies. Then he began to record his reply, and in 20 minutes she would be able to watch his hologram standing on a small black disc in their home speaking to her.
“Thanks again dear for filling me in on what you guys are doing. We are constantly on patrol and even engaged enemy fighters today. Don’t worry, we have Earth’s back, and your love makes me invincible. We will never fail in our efforts to secure our solar system.
We also got paid today. I’ve made a transfer into your account that should cover all the expenses. God, our kids grow up fast. I should be home before the end of the school year with my deployment ending. Love you babe . . .” and Lt. Montgomery ended the transmission.
He then got ready for bed.
333
4.67 billion miles away, on Earth, Lucille Montgomery finished watching her husband’s reply to her message. She smiled with delight knowing that she had plenty of Steem to buy whatever the kids would need.
“Are you kids almost ready to go shopping?” She shouted into the void of the house, the white walls illuminated in sunlight with the open floor plan, the sea breeze fluttering the curtains in the open window. The weather has always been perfect in San Diego, California.
“Yes, just finishing my Steemit blog post!” Yelled Abbagale, her older daughter, from her room.
“Me too!” Exclaimed Henry, her younger son, from his room.
Lucille hit the post button on her blog as well. Writing Steemit blog posts had become the only job people living on Earth needed. Everything else had become automated with robot labor.
She finished her martini as well. No need to drive with the Google driverless car. If she wanted to, she could order everything online, and have Amazon deliver it with a drone. Only they preferred to go out shopping so that they could walk around Horton Plaza; just like they might watch a movie at the theater that they could already see on Netflix.
333
In a deep underground bunker beneath Moscow’s Red Square stood a bulky bald man smoking a cigar. He watched the hologram relay messages between Lt. Todd Montgomery, and his wife Lucille. He also had conventional LCD screens playing images of the CCTV cameras that surrounded the married couple, and their family.
It would be safe to say that this brick wall of a man watched almost every second of their lives as it transpired. There were four others like him that monitored the Montgomery’s. They worked in shifts, and could cover each other for vacations.
In the next room over, another team of Watchers monitored the lives of the Viper 1 pilot’s family. This entire complex built to spy on the elite officers of the Space Corps. during their active duty while stationed on Pluto.
“God I love people like the Montgomery’s. One of these days we'll have to tell the Earth Solar System that the threat from Proxima Centauri doesn’t exist. We just need something to keep our solar system united, and fighting for a better tomorrow,” said the mysterious stranger.
Thank you,
Cyrus Emerson
Also, available from the Author:
Steemit Blog: Contests – ebook, and now a new print edition available!
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07MVPT72Q?pf_rd_p=c2945051-950f-485c-b4df-15aac5223b10&pf_rd_r=JJKTKWBJWMDK97NQAVRR
Fear and Loathing in the State of Jefferson - ebook
https://read.amazon.com/kp/embed?asin=B079R5KLPN&preview=newtab&linkCode=kpe&ref_=cm_sw_r_kb_dp_GsURAbAVDYNEM
Lost Angel – Introduction with Ray Manzarek of The Doors
https://www.downpour.com/lost-angel?sp=249812
Red Roses - audiobook
https://www.audible.com/pd/Fiction/Red-Roses-Audiobook/B07F2LWHPN
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Thanks. Really appreciate it.
This post has been manually selected, curated and upvoted by CI mod staff team. Supporting all posts that are in high quality and don’t get enough recognition.
This post was submitted for curation by: @theironfelix
This post was voted: 100%
Like how SteemNova informs the writing, LOL.
Ha ha. This is where The Lords of Hemp ends up.
This is wonderful. For one thing, I didn't get lost in the battle. I always get lost in these battle scenes--very hard to keep track of who is shooting whom. For another thing, the way you weave Steem into the story is nothing short of brilliant. Your final coup--the enemy is a fiction, a device to keep people united: straight out of 1984 (and current events). You deserve and award for this one :)
Thanks @agmoore. Yes the ideas in this story have been floating around. The prompt like gravity bringing everything together.
That's an effective way to describe the creative process :)
Upvoted and resteemed
Thanks!
This is not just a story, but a roller-coaster, and it was truly a pleasure to ride the twist and turns with you!
The premise is instantly hooking, the fighter pilots, this is a fantastic example of clear world setting, in just a few sentences, you describe an entire solar system, and so very well I could picture it. The contrast of mining rigs and luxury cities brings to mind the full span in between, and I could see nearly every floating rock claimed and colonised. A subtle reflection of the need and consumption of humanity.
The cheeky tie in to steemit and the blockchain does wonders for lightening the story, whilst also making it exceptionally relatable, taking something you know every single member of your audience here will understand and incorporating it in, feels like a flash into a possible future would could achieve, if we wanted. It almost feels like an invitation.
The actual story here is great, the fighter pilots and action, the way they speak to each other - causally and familiar, feels so natural, you bring in a depth of history and experience, they feel like they have done this together for a fair amount of time. Then the cut to the base on pluto, and the distant fighter missing his family and sending money back to them, you manage to give a feeling of closer to home, such a long way away from earth. A story so well known world over, told in a cosmic setting. The familiar aspect serves to highlight the advances and differences so very well.
The tone begins to shift as we get closer to the end, the family's use of steemit, and the expansion from the things we are all already so used to fulfils the prompt entirely, although this is more automation that smart tech, there is still that element.
People watching the family round the clock is so intriguing, and raises a whole host of questions about the level of control this society doesn't realise it's under. They could be control subjects, a family with a member on the front lines chosen at random to make sure no one is suspicious, or they could do this with the family of every fighter pilot, in this world of automation, it doesn't seem unrealistic that four people would be assigned to watch a family.
Then the actual ending, in a way a little reminiscent of starship troopers, although this time there is no enemy at all. In so little, you spark possible answers to so many of the questions you raise here. Who are the pilots fighting then and how far has their tech really come, could easily have the same answer, the motherships that appear, the smaller alien vessels that need picking off. Wow, the more I think about this, the better and the scarier it becomes. It feels very much like a world wide group has orchestrated this, the price of peace between man is an endless war. The old peace is war, war is peace. The inference that tech has been advancing at a crazy rate, yet people are still using the things we recognise from our current time, because that tech is being used in secret, to manipulate and control the entire species. It isn't a far-fetched notion at all, as generally nearly every war is in some way a front for another goal, at least this goal seems better intentioned.
Damn cye, I can always count on you for an enjoyable story, and there is the real thought provoking depth I just adore in this one.
~ Calluna <3
Thanks @calluna. Always value your feedback. Respect your time and energy as a contest curator on the Steemit blockchain with so many amazing writers here.
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