Mana Pool Snippets - The Days After

Three

The plasma pistol was a heavy-duty revolver-type gun, custom made, and used the same plasma bullets as his rifle. Under the rubber grip wood frame dangled a woven leather lanyard ending with a Vyroken cog. He pushed the cylinder to the right, checked the ammo, and clicked it back into place.

A few soldiers were watching him by the time Jaruka noticed and a short stink eye made them look away. After mounting the bike he revved the engine alive, opened the throttle and sped past the military and the couple without kicking dirt at Mathews.

Over the hill and with some airtime, he landed and fired his pistol in the air screaming, "Out of my way! Pissed off drunk coming through!"

The crowd turned and then panicked. The people were confused, scared, and curious: the military would need riot teams to subdue the chaos. A few religious followers bowed to him, while the rest got out of the way, clearing the way to the dropship.

One human shot at him, but white light appeared and blocked the bullet from his body.

Somebody's courageous and stupid, Jaruka thought

He jumped off the motorcycle, rolled in front of the hatch, and let the Howler Cycle drop to its side, nearly colliding with some people. As Jaruka stood up the humans started to run at him.

The cube was shaken. The hatch door opened. Jaruka jumped inside as the hatch quickly locked itself closed. People banged on the door and hull, yelling, but Jaruka did not want to see any of them.

"Dude, check out his bike! That's some Akira shit right there!" A hippie said.

"You touch my baby, your head goes straight into a rocket!" Jaruka yelled.

He ran for the bridge after tripping over crates and clothes and banging his head on a shelf, managing to sit down as the terminal came on. The bridge was not covered and people spotted him and started banging on the glass while others just stared at him. Jaruka saw one person lift a finger at him, and Jaruka returned the favor. He had to look up what that really meant, or if that finger meant what he thought it did.

Jaruka typed several commands on the terminal and then pricked his finger on a small device on the terminal. Three beeps followed.

Screams came from outside. A man, probably religious, raised his gun at the bridge's window. Jaruka smirked as the man fired.

The bullet ricocheted off the thick space-rated glass and punctured through the man's right foot. There was more screaming, but the man's screams were drowned out. "I have to kill him! He will bring doom to us all!"

"How about you, dumbass?" Jaruka said.

"DNA signature catalogued," the terminal said. "Activating repulsion shield."

A white shield rippled into existence an inch off the ship's hull and windows. People that were banging on the hull were pushed back a few feet from the recoiled force. The shield shifted and expanded outward, pushing humans and vehicles back like a bulldozer pushing soil. The dome shield extended out a hundred feet then shimmered away, invisible, but still present. No humans or human tech were left inside the dome.

Jaruka said, "Thank you, Nova," while patting the terminal.

He came out of the dropship as he stuck his pistol behind him in his pants. The humans and the few terrans gasped at his appearance. So many eyes. Is this how it's going to be for two years?

"Now who's got the high tech stuff, huh?" Jaruka asked smiling. "Bang all you want and see all you can, you will never get to me."

Even his words held value to them. Scientists wrote and recorded everything they saw and heard, hippies were stunned, religious nuts preached, still, and curious citizens either stood still or walked away, not sure what to believe. A few curious bunches touched the invisible shield only to be pushed back and off their feet.