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Re: 5 Minutes: Reloaded

Posted: December 7th, 2014, 5:10 am
by oldwrench
Ok, I know, if I'd written a word a day I would have finished this chapter weeks ago. Actually, that would probably be exceeding my best typing speed. My best speed in class in high school was 14 wpm with three mistakes........ Epic Fail!
I can beat that now...... sometimes. One of God's greatest gifts to mankind is the word processor, with spell check.

Time to delve again into the saga of our intrepid pilots. When we left them, They had just learned of the real reason they had been assigned to the escort mission to Shakuras. It is a far deeper assignment than just delivering the princess to the council. Now they just have to get there without personal problems dividing the group. I told you I can't think like a female....... so please, be kind and don't send too much hate mail.

Chapter 17
Rose was looking for Georgianna. She had been slowly getting angrier at the captain each time Georgianna had been uncivil to John. John was her friend and she knew he didn’t deserve it. The pictures the princess had shown them, of Dominic with that school girl, had only added to Rose’s dark mood. She found Georgianna in the training room, kicking a heavy bag.

“Figures I’d find you here,” she sneered, “kicking something that can’t kick back.”

Georgianna spun around, a dark look in her eyes. “If there’s something you wanted to say, just come out with it,” she growled.

“You need an attitude adjustment….. Georgi, and I’m going to make sure you get it.” Rose told her.

“Is that a threat, lieutenant,” Georgianna barked. “And, don’t ever call me that.”

Rose laughed, “I was going to call you Queen Bitch, but I like dogs and I don’t want to insult them. Call it whatever you like, GEORGI, you’ve been ragging on everyone since you got here, especially John.”

“Crighton shouldn’t be here, he’s useless, he can’t even walk without a cane. How do you expect him to fight?"Gorgianna answered.”

“Even on one leg, he’s a better fighter than you’ll ever be,” Rose told her. ”You’re a danger to your unit. You’re careless and reckless. You sent your whole command in to get shot up in the pirate war.”

Georgianna’s look became darker, “I was cleared of that charge, I didn’t do anything wrong.”

“No?” Rose voice dripped sarcasm, “what about at Mar Sara? You disobeyed orders and just about got us all killed. You should have been court marshalled.”

Georgianna’s reply was almost desperate. “No, I had to stop them. I couldn’t let it turn into another Tarsonis. …….. If I hadn’t been on the planet to take out their Lancers, the colonel could never have attacked them. I had to……..”

“Right, you left the ship with a weakened defense that could have cost not only the loss of the ship but the start of a colony war. You can’t do anything right by yourself. If it weren’t for Ross you’d just be a big hole in the ground along with Crichton and a lot of other people. If John hadn’t been there covering your butt, you wouldn’t be here right now. He’s always there to cover your stupid actions. You’re the one who’s useless, or worse, dangerous.”

“LIAR!” Georgianna screamed as she rushed at Rose.

Georgianna expected to overwhelm Rose because of her size and strength, but she had miscalculated. Georgianna was an expert in the use of firearms, but Rose had excelled at hand to hand combat, and her sensuous curves hid a well-trained and toned body. Rose quickly sidestepped the larger woman, she used her leg to trip Georgianna as she slammed an elbow hard into her back. Georgianna hit the floor mat hard and rolled quickly to jump back up. She winced from the pain, she was going to have to be more careful, Rose wasn’t going to be a pushover. The two women circled, the fight became a rapid series of kicks and punches. They landed on the floor in a tangle, both straining to gain an advantage on their opponent. Georgianna finally rolled onto the top, exhausted, and ready to finish the fight, but Rose got her feet between the two and pushed Georgianna off.

The two women turned to face each other, trying to catch their breath. Georgianna found much of her anger had burned itself out. “Why do you defend him?” She pleaded. “Crichton’s nothing but a lecher, he doesn’t care about anyone, all he can think about is the next girl he can grab.”

Rose stared at Georgianna for a moment, then laughed. “Is that what your problem is? Your eyes really are green, aren’t they.” She laughed again, “you’re either naïve or dumb. Don’t you realize that’s the way guys like John are. They have to show off, they have to attract all the girls, just to prove they’re the top dog, to prove to themselves that they’re a man. It’s just the game they play. How many of those girls do you think he gets into his bed?”

“You should know,” Georgianna angrily bit out, “you’re one of them.”

“Huh?” Rose looked startled, “what are you talking about?”

“I saw the two of you, in the corridor, outside his room, on the way to Mar Sara,” Georgianna accused her. “You were all over him.”

“What……?” Rose had to stop and think for several long seconds, then, she started to laugh. “You mean the time he came charging out of his room and almost ran over me? I’d have been sitting on the floor if he hadn’t grabbed me. Sure I flirted with him a bit, but it was all in fun, he and I have known each other since the academy.”

Now Georgianna looked surprised, “you weren’t…..”

Rose laughed hard, “John and I?” She laughed again. “You’re an idiot………We never have done anything, not even go on a date. But right now, I’d steal him away in a minute, if I could. But there is only one person that John wants, only one pilot in this group that he would dive his mech in front of a rail gun bolt to protect…….. only one woman he would die for, and you don’t deserve him. “

“No,” Georgianna said softly, “he wouldn’t……. he didn’t……… it was a battle and……”

Colonel Hellwind burst into the room, Yuki had informed him of the women fighting. “What the hell is going on here?” He demanded.

Both women looked at the Colonel, “nothing, sir, just training,” Georgianna told him.

Daniel strode up to the combatants, “Damn it, if you want to hammer out your differences, wait till after the mission is over.” He looked over Rose, then lifted Georgianna’s head by her chin and turned her face back and forth. “I can’t have you looking like you’ve been in a brawl.” He satisfied himself that the two didn’t have any serious damage, nothing a woman couldn’t repair with a little makeup.

Rose got to her feet and started toward the door, “I thought I could teach the captain something, but, I guess I was wrong.”

Colonel Hellwind waited till Rose was gone, then he started to leave. “You can find the battle cam video from Rose’s mech in my archives. I’m sure you already know how to access my files.” He turned and left the room.

Georgianna sat where she was for a long time, tears running down her cheeks. She couldn’t have been so wrong, she didn’t want to see the video from the battle. She didn’t want to know…… but she had to.


Megumi entered her assigned quarters. It had been a long day. She smiled as she thought of Ben’s fumbling words as they parted. She knew what he was trying to ask, but she thought it best to let him find the words on his own. Megumi was surprised to find her roommate, Arisa was already there. She almost laughed, Arisa was sitting on her bed, wearing fuzzy pink pajamas that had a hoodie, complete with cat ears. Megumi thought the small girl was almost too cute, except for the unhappy frown on her face.

“Hi, Arisa,” Megumi said trying to sound cheerful. “Is something wrong? I thought you’d be with Chad.”

“I wish,” Arisa groused, “He’s having dinner with the princess.” Arisa let out an unladylike humph. “Mel is trying to steal him away from me. The boys are always flocking around her. It isn’t fair.”

Megumi tried to think back over the last hours, the princess had spent time with all the pilots, she hadn’t seemed to spend more time with one than the other. “It doesn’t seem to me like she is, Arisa.” Megumi told her. “I don’t think you need to worry.”

“You saw how she smiled at Chad when she met us in the hangar.” Arisa reminded her. “It’s just like when she came to my high school graduation party, all the boys followed her around, they didn’t even know I was there.”

Megumi noticed the tears in the corners of her friend’s eyes. “I’ve seen how Chad looks at you, Arisa, I don’t think you need to doubt him.” She assured Arisa.

“You don’t know Mel, she always gets what she wants.” Arisa wiped her eyes and put on a defiant look, “but so do I. She isn’t going to win this time, I won’t let her.”

Re: 5 Minutes: Reloaded

Posted: May 14th, 2015, 5:16 am
by oldwrench
Sorry it's been a while again...... I'm retired, I don't have much time to work on this...... Actually, I think I have less time than I did when I was working. I'm going to keep at it though.

It's only a short time till the Krikav drops out of warp drive into the system of Shakuras. The Colonel must be getting tense..... or is he? Remember what happened when his unit arrived at Mar Sara? Or is he thinking about the princess? What about the princess? She's been rather friendly with the pilots...... especially one of them. Is there trouble on the horizon?
Well, only time....... and my fertile, if a bit ancient, imagination can tell.

Chapter 18

Daniel watched Melpomene enter the bridge. He knew it shouldn’t bother him that she had spent most of her time with the pilots, but it did. She walked up to the main screen and touched the point of light that was Shakuras.

“We must be getting close, how much longer?” She asked.

“Two hours and fourteen minutes,” Yuki answered from her station at the ships controls.

Melpomene jumped, she hadn’t thought about the controller being on the bridge. “Oh, thank you.” She looked back at Daniel, “So soon, I wish we had more time.” She sat down in the first officer’s chair next to Daniel.

Daniel sighed, yes, he wished they had had more time too, but, she had spent her time with......... No, it wasn’t his business who she spent her time with. They were just childhood friends after all.

“I had the EDF insignia removed from the mechs and shuttle as you wished.” Daniel informed her. “Though, I don’t understand why. Wouldn’t it be better to make a bit of a show?”

“No Dan,” she answered, “you know the people of Shakuras don’t like the EDF since we forced them to let us put a base there during the last colony war. It will be better if the people of the colony just think we are representatives of one of the other colony planets.”

“I doubt they’ll miss the fact that we have mechs with us.” Dan told her. “They’ll know we’re from the EDF.”

Mel smiled, “some of the richer colonies have mechs to guard their rulers. Hopefully, the locals won’t notice ours are more advanced models.” She drew her legs up into the chair and leaned over closer to Dan. “We don’t want to cause more friction with the colonies. I’m here to try to keep the colonies from starting a war. The Empire is dying, Dan, we know that but if we let it break up now, it would lead to anarchy among the colonies. If we can keep the peace, we can guide them to transition to some form of federation without the violence.”

“They would have to be fools to start a war with the empire. They don’t have any warships, the empire outlawed anyone but the EDF having warships.” Dan assured her. “Sure, they have plenty of cargo vessels, but you can’t fight with them. The EDF would destroy them in short order.”

“I can’t let it come to that, Dan” She told him. “It would be worse than you know. They have been building war ships in secret for years. We’ve known that, but it would have caused more problems trying to stop them than just to let it go. Can you imagine if they could arm their ships with that cannon you encountered at Mar Sara? It could be a bloodbath. The colonies want their freedom, and some day they will have it. Maybe not in our lifetimes, but soon. The only thing that could keep the empire together would be the threat of some outside force......... aliens, but in all these years and all our exploration, we have never found a sign of another sentient race. That was the purpose of the EDF, our shield when we met an alien race, but it never happened, and we turned it against ourselves. We have to change that.”

“I’m sure you’ll win over those colony diplomats, Mel.” Dan answered. “And don’t worry, we’ll find Torres and that big mech.”

The princess smiled as she closed her eyes. She was sure he, and his pilots, would. Dan, and his group of pilots, reminded her of those really old books and comics her brother collected when they were young. Tales of ancient times, written before the great war, stories of swords and sorcery. She hadn’t thought about those old tales in years. She let her imagination play over those old memories and Daniels unit........... Georgianna, the tall red haired warrior woman with her fierce green eyes; John, the handsome ladies man, a con man and gambler with a cane and elegant style; Megumi, the dark haired ninja girl, and Ben, the powerful giant of a man who followed her; Chad, the tall lean thief, a steely eyed rouge that no lock could keep out, and his companion, Arisa, a little pixie girl with curly blond hair and explosive magic; Rose, the voluptuous seductress, her dark hair and sexy dark eyes belie a more than competent fighter; lastly Kaze, the mercenary, the small quiet man is far more dangerous than his looks lead his opponents to believe. With this eclectic band, the Princess and Daniel, her loyal knight, must strive to save the kingdom from the invaders and their giant dragon.


Daniel looked down at the princess. He hated to wake her, she looked so peaceful......... and beautiful, but the two hours had passed and very soon they would be dropping into normal space, with the danger that might bring. Dan reached over and gently woke the princess.

“It’s almost time, things could be a bit tense, you might want to go to your room,” he advised her.

Mel rubbed her eyes and straightened herself in the seat. “I would like to stay here with you, if that’s allowed.” She told him. “I’d feel safer here with you.”

Dan smiled, “sure, it’s ok, if that’s what you would like.” He couldn’t help feeling a bit of hope.......... No, that was just wishful thinking.

Re: 5 Minutes: Reloaded

Posted: August 23rd, 2015, 8:29 am
by oldwrench
After enticing the infinite number of monkeys at the infinite number of keyboards with an infinite number of bananas, I finally got another chapter out of them. The Krikav is finally approaching Shakuras. I hope everyone is ready for what they might find on the planet. And what's going on back on Earth?

Keep on reading.

Chapter 18

Daniel watched Melpomene enter the bridge. He knew it shouldn’t bother him that she had spent most of her time with the pilots, but it did. She walked up to the main screen and touched the point of light that was Shakuras.

“We must be getting close, how much longer?” She asked.

“Two hours and fourteen minutes,” Yuki answered from her station at the ships controls.

Melpomene jumped, she hadn’t thought about the controller being on the bridge. “Oh, thank you.” She looked back at Daniel, “So soon, I wish we had more time.” She sat down in the first officer’s chair next to Daniel.

Daniel sighed, yes, he wished they had had more time too, but, she had spent her time with......... No, it wasn’t his business who she spent her time with. They were just childhood friends after all.

“I had the EDF insignia removed from the mechs and shuttle as you wished.” Daniel informed her. “Though, I don’t understand why. Wouldn’t it be better to make a bit of a show?”

“No Dan,” she answered, “you know the people of Shakuras don’t like the EDF since we forced them to let us put a base there during the last colony war. It will be better if the people of the colony just think we are representatives of one of the other colony planets.”

“I doubt they’ll miss the fact that we have mechs with us.” Dan told her. “They’ll know we’re from the EDF.”

Mel smiled, “some of the richer colonies have mechs to guard their rulers. Hopefully, the locals won’t notice ours are more advanced models.” She drew her legs up into the chair and leaned over closer to Dan. “We don’t want to cause more friction with the colonies. I’m here to try to keep the colonies from starting a war. The Empire is dying, Dan, we know that, but if we let it break up now, it would lead to anarchy among the colonies. If we can keep the peace, we can guide them to transition to some form of federation without the violence.”

“They would have to be fools to start a war with the empire. They don’t have any warships, the empire outlawed anyone but the EDF having warships.” Dan assured her. “Sure, they have plenty of cargo vessels, but you can’t fight with them. The EDF would destroy them in short order.”

“I can’t let it come to that, Dan” She told him. “It would be worse than you know. They have been building war ships in secret for years. We’ve known that, but it would have caused more problems trying to stop them than just to let it go. Can you imagine if they could arm their ships with that cannon you encountered at Mar Sara? It could be a bloodbath. The colonies want their freedom, and some day they will have it. Maybe not in our lifetimes, but soon. The only thing that could keep the empire together would be the threat of some outside force......... aliens, but in all these years and all our exploration, we have never found a sign of another sentient race. That was the purpose of the EDF, our shield when we met an alien race, but it never happened, and we turned it against ourselves. We have to change that.”

“I’m sure you’ll win over those colony diplomats, Mel.” Dan answered. “And don’t worry, we’ll find Torres and that big mech.”

The princess smiled as she closed her eyes. She was sure he, and his pilots, would. Dan, and his group of pilots, reminded her of those really old books and comics her brother collected when they were young. Tales of ancient times, written before the great war, stories of swords and sorcery. She hadn’t thought about those old tales in years. She let her imagination play over those old memories and Daniels unit........... Georgianna, the tall red haired warrior woman with her fierce green eyes; John, the handsome ladies man, a con man and gambler with a cane and elegant style; Megumi, the dark haired ninja girl, and Ben, the powerful giant of a man who followed her; Chad, the tall lean thief, a steely eyed rouge that no lock could keep out, and his companion, Arisa, a little pixie girl with curly blond hair and explosive magic; Rose, the voluptuous seductress, her dark hair and sexy dark eyes belie a more than competent fighter; lastly Kaze, the mercenary, a small quiet man, far more dangerous than his looks lead his opponents to believe. With this eclectic band, the Princess and Daniel, her loyal knight, must strive to save the kingdom from the invaders and their giant dragon.

Daniel looked down at the princess. He hated to wake her, she looked so peaceful......... and beautiful, but the two hours had passed and very soon they would be dropping into normal space, with the danger that might bring. Dan reached over and gently woke the princess.

“It’s almost time, things could be a bit tense, you might want to go to your room,” he advised her.

Mel rubbed her eyes and straightened herself in the seat. “I would like to stay here with you, if that’s allowed.” She told him. “I’d feel safer here with you.”

Dan smiled, “sure, it’s ok, if that’s what you would like.” He couldn’t help feeling a bit of hope.......... No, that was just wishful thinking.



Tom, general Parker’s top aid, drove up to the isolated research building at the Victorville EDF base. It had been several months since he had last been in the facility, during the incident at Mar Sara and the search for the lost mech, the Dragonfly. He knew that the young pilot, Chad, had been recalled to duty from the research team and wondered if that would hurt their attempts to find the answer to finding pilots able to operate the Dragonfly’s advanced systems.

Ah well, that wasn’t the reason general Parker had sent him to see the doctor. Tod, and his assistant had done work with advanced gravitics with the Ghost stealth systems and now the general hoped they might be able to help unlock the secrets involved with the operation of the giant mech the Red Faction had used on Mar Sara. After clearing security, Tom proceeded to the large lab area where he was told he would find Tod and his assistant, Janice.

As before Tom was impressed by the clutter of the room as he entered. There were benches covered with a birds nest of wires connecting incomprehensible assemblies of electronic components and sensors. He called out, wondering where the doctor was in the large room.

There was a thump and several expletives from behind a low cabinet and Tod’s face appeared above it. “Tom!” He exclaimed, shoving a handful of components and wires onto the mess on top of the cabinet. “Welcome, nice to see you again...... Janice, Tom’s here, bring some tea, we can take a break.”

“Yes, sir, be right there,” Janice’s voice came from behind a large bank of readout screens.

Tom smiled at the lean scientist. Tod was always hyper like he drank way to much coffee. “You seem in a good mood,” Tom said as they took seats at the chairs and table set for the researchers to take breaks. “Have you made progress with the Dragonfly program?”

“Oh, that’s been solved, simple thing really. Chad put us on to it just as he left. Control, it was all a matter of controlling the system so it wasn’t quite so transparent. I didn’t even know it could be done but Ghost itself had written into it’s system to comply with a request from it’s pilot. They can start out with the mech opaque and slowly turn it more transparent. That way they can find their tolerance point, not optically optimum but a lot better than a panic attack.”

“So, what’s all this?” Tom asked.

“Nanobots!” Tod replied. “The next big thing. They aren’t a new idea, but manufacture and control have been problems. We’re going to design nanofactories to produce the bots and an external AI system to control them. Imagine nanobot doctors able to perform surgery without an incision...... or nanobot construction building anything you want one atom at a time.” Tod was getting excited, “It’s going to revolutionize everything........ Just think we could.....”

“Excuse me, Tod,” Janice broke in, “the tea is ready.”

Tom smiled and thanked her as she handed him a cup. He wondered if she ever changed her looks. She had been the same every time he saw her, a mousey young woman in a white lab coat, her dusty brown hair wrapped in a messy bun on top of her head, her large round glasses perpetually slipping down her small nose. She was the stereotype lab assistant.

“The reason I’m here, Tod, has to do with something a bit larger.” Tom told him. “We were supplied with the technical drawings and data on the giant mech weapon that the Red Faction used against the Krikav at Mar Sara. It’s a complicated and technically advanced system. It uses advanced inertia damping gravitic systems in order to give agility to so massive a machine. The problem is the research notations were encrypted in some form of binary code and our best analysts have been unable to decode it. We are hoping some of our scientists will be able to recreate the gravitic control systems without decoding the notations.”

“Do you have the drawings with you?” Tod asked. “Can we see them? Janice should look at this too, she did much of the gravitic work on our stealth system.”

“Yes, I have them along,” Tom answered as he set his projector on the table and projected the schematics onto the wall next to them.

Tod asked for the controller and scanned through the pages. “Fascinating....... If this is as big as the numbers indicate, I can see the problem. Even with the researchers notes it would be a challenge to program the correct control system for this. It’s going to take a long time to reverse engineer this without those notes.”

We may not have that much time if someone is already building an army of these things.” Tom told them.

Janice was intently watching as the doctor scanned the pages. As he finished and left the projection on the first page, Janice pulled a pencil from above her ear and her ever present note pad from her pocket. She began to write then stopped and nibbled on the tip of the pencil as she looked at the projection. Again she began to write on the pad.

Tod noticed his assistant’s actions. She only chewed the point of her pencil when she was on to something. “What is it, Janice?” He asked. “What do you see there?”

“It’s not binary........ the notation....... it’s a language. An ancient written language, dead before the great war.” She answered.

“Huh?” Tom registered his disbelief. “It’s just two symbols, a line and a point, how do you figure that’s a written language?”

“It’s something my father discovered when he was on Earth, he was an archeologist,” Janice informed him. “He had found a few notebook pages of this language and a printed sheet with the letters translated to old English alphabet. There were only a few others who knew about it. Father didn’t know what people the language originated with, or where on earth it was used. He always hoped to learn more about it, all he knew was it was called Morse.”

“Would your father be able to translate this for us?” Tom inquired hopefully.

“He died with the rest of my family in the pirate attack on Seris Four during the pirate war.” Janice informed him. “I was one of the few survivors.” She wrote down a few more letters on her pad.

“I’m sorry, I’ve read the reports of that colony.” Tom replied. “The EDF was told that the Serins were manufacturing arms for the pirates. A force was sent to clean out the pirates and take over the colony, but when they arrived, the capital city was in ruins, there were few survivors.” Tom sighed, and looked at what she was writing.

“The colony refused to help the pirates, that’s why they bombed the city. They planned it so they could blame it on the EDF........... I think I can decipher this. It may take a bit to remember the letters, I use to write secret messages in this script when I was a child.” Janice told them as she concentrated on the writing. “I’d like to meet the person who wrote this. It must be one of the men my father had contact with.”

“If we find the that person, I’ll make sure you get to talk with him.” Tom assured her.

Re: 5 Minutes: Reloaded

Posted: November 4th, 2015, 4:09 am
by oldwrench
Back again after a long busy summer. I hope you all had a good summer. Between gardening, landscaping, traveling, working etc. time went by so quickly.
Now, back to our intrepid band of warriors........ or will they just be a delivery service? I guess we'll find out this chapter. Is the Red Faction lying in wait, or will it be an easy landing?

Chapter 19


The princess stepped down from her carriage, accompanied by her faithful knight. On each side of the path below them were two of her small band of warriors, the remaining four rode on huge war horses.
As she passed the young thief, she reached up and touched the scar on his cheek. She smiled and held back a laugh as she noticed the Pixie girl move closer to the thief, her normally light blue aura turning decidedly green. This could be interesting.

A rather expensive looking sports car pulled up in front of them, followed by an old and rugged looking truck. Melpomene sighed, back to reality......... it was far less enjoyable than her daydreams. The man who got out of the car and hurried toward the princess was slim and of average hight. His black hair was oiled slick and carefully combed. His face was narrow with thin lips, close set brown eyes and a hawks beak of a nose. his pencil thin mustache was waxed to sharp points. Mel had read about the local preference for colorful cloths, but she had to stifle a laugh, the man was dressed in dark orange slacks, a light blue blazer and a bright yellow ascot. She wondered if the pilots would fall down laughing.

The swarthy figure approached the princess and as she reached out to greet him with the usual handshake, he lifted her hand and kissed the back of it as he bowed. “Regent of the Empire on Shakuras, Rimbaud Devreaux, honored to be at your service, Milady.” He stated.

Melpomene felt like gaging, “oh lord spare me,” she muttered under her breath. Aloud, with a haughty, authoritative voice she said, “I expect you have accommodations ready for us.”

“Of course, princess. The only rooms I could find for the military that could accommodate their equipment is an abandoned hotel. The area is scheduled for redevelopment but I was able to secure it for the duration of your stay. You, my princess, will be staying at my official villa, of course.” He informed her.

Melpomene favored him with an icy glare. She knew of the man‘s reputation as a womanizer. He was a member of a prominent family of one of the inner colonies and had been “granted” the appointment to this remote rock when he had been caught in an affair with the wife of the ambassador of one of the other colonies. “No, I will be staying with my guard.” She informed him.

“But, but” Rimbaud stammered, “that place is hardly good enough for the likes of the military personnel. It is definitely not good enough for someone of our class.”

The princess gave him a stony look. “Give the directions to the hotel to the colonel, we will be leaving.” As Daniel got the information from Rimbaud, the princess turned to walk to the vehicles but jerked to a stop. “No........ not him too.” Mel complained as she watched the little man pulling his large suitcase toward them.

Colonel Hellwind came up by her side. “What’s the trouble?” He asked. “Who is it........ Oh, isn’t that.....”

“Walter,” Mel answered with a sigh, “He should be gone. I ordered the Loire to return to Earth, and he was supposed to be on it. Now I’ll have to put up with his constant griping about not following imperial protocol. We really don’t need that. Pomp and show might be fine for the old inner colonies, but these frontier colonies see it as a symbol of oppression.”

Walter came puffing up to the princess, dragging his case behind him. “What’s the meaning of this, princess? Why did you order the Loire To return? Why...... the captain refused to let me have a shuttle. I had to threaten him before he relented.” He looked around at the truck and car, then addressed Rimbaud. “Where is the reception? She is of the Imperial house after all. Where is the Limousine? This won’t do, it won’t do at all.”

“That’s enough, Walter.” Melpomene ordered.

Walter looked back at Melpomene, she was dressed in a common business executives attire. “And what is that you’re wearing? You look like a common......”

“SHUT UP!” The princess barked. She turned and started toward the truck. “We are leaving.”

“Princess! You can’t ride in that vehicle.” Walter exclaimed. “You must at least ride in the car. Rimbaud smiled, that was exactly what he wanted.

You could almost see the waves of heat rising from her anger as the princess stopped and turned back to face Walter and Rimbaud. “I will be riding with my guard. There will be no more argument.” She started to turn away, but stopped. She had to do something to keep Walter out of her way, and thwart the womanizer, Rimbaud too, and a plan had just come to her. “Walter, I have a job for you. I want you to audit the books of the imperial regency of Shakuras. For every year since Rimbaud Devreaux has been regent.” She knew Walter had started with the imperial house as a keeper of the accounts and this was within his specialty.

“But princess, that would take.........” Walter began to protest.

“Yes it will,” the princess cut him off. “And I want no stone left unturned.” Rimbaud looked decidedly pale as Melpomene turned back toward the truck. “Let’s go, Daniel.”


As they started toward the truck, Georgianna didn’t move. John turned back, “Come on, captain, we’re leaving.” She still didn’t move and John noticed the look her eyes seemed far away. “Georgianna, it’s time to go,” he said more forcefully, but she still didn’t respond. John took hold of her arm and shook her slightly. “Hey, Georgi, snap out of it.” Georgianna looked at him, her eyes coming back to life, she pulled away. “Don’t touch me,” she barked. “You were spacing out there, captain,” John defended himself. “It’s time to leave.” Georgianna looked around, trying to get her head back into what was going on around her. She knew she had blacked out again and was afraid John had found her out. “Right,” she answered as she followed the other pilots, “let’s go.”


Daniel opened the door to the cab and helped Mel up as the pilots clambered into the back of the truck. He went around the truck and climbed into the drivers seat. Daniel sat a few moments and stared, bewildered by the guages and switches, the levers and steering wheel. There was no input panel for drive commands. “Umm, I, ah, haven’t ever driven a truck like this. It doesn’t seem to have auto-driving capability. Just wait here a minute.” Dan got out and went to the back of the truck, he was sure that the locals had set this up to embarrass the EDF pilots. “Ross, come out here.” Chad looked a the others and shrugged, got up and climbed out. “Would you be able to drive this thing? It doesn’t have auto-drive.” The colonel asked.

Chad smiled, “sure, no problem.” As the colonel climbed into the back of the truck, Chad climbed into the cab. He smiled at the princess, “I guess I’m the chauffeur today, princess.”

Mel smiled, “we’re lucky to have you along or we might not have gone anywhere. Being a former tech, you must be the only one who could drive this thing.”

Chad laughed, “I doubt that. Ben was from a mining colony, I’ll bet he’s driven these old trucks, and Kaze, those para-military groups would have trucks like this. I saw those locals, over by the hangars, laughing. I think they picked the wrong group to pull this trick on.”

“But Kaze and Ben are in their mechs,” she reminded him.

“I guess you’re right about that,” Chad admitted as he reached forward to flip a switch and push the starter button. There was a whine of gears and a clatter as the truck shook to life.

The princess grabbed the hand bar on the dash in front of her and looked at Chad with frightened eyes. “What’s happening?” Her voice high with fright.

Chad looked at the terrified woman and couldn’t suppress a laugh. He hadn’t thought about it, but, of course, the princess had never been in a vehicle that wasn’t powered by one of the nuclear power units. “It’s just an oil burning engine, they make a lot of noise,” Chad reassured her. “Military trucks use them and a lot of the frontier planets use them.”

“Oil burning?” Mel questioned. “Aren’t those outlawed? Why would they want those dirty things when they could use power units?”

“They aren’t outlawed out on the frontier, and they’re easy to build and a lot cheaper than importing power units from earth.” Chad told her as he engaged the drive motors. “The military still uses them because trucks can’t carry the weight of armor needed to shield them and oil burners don’t take out everything within half a K if they get hit.” Chad pulled away toward the gate at the edge of the field. “By the way, do you know where we’re going?”

“Yes, I listened to the directions as Daniel got them.” She held a local type cell phone and showed it to Chad. “I put the address he gave to Daniel into the map so, no problem.”


Colonel Hellwind looked down at the blond haired girl sitting next to him. He noticed the angry look she had as she looked through the back window of the truck cab at the princess. He could almost feel the jealousy emanating from her. This could cause trouble with the mission, he thought to himself. Having jealousy clouding their minds wouldn’t do. He looked through the window at the princess and the lieutenant and sighed, no, it wouldn’t do at all.

Re: 5 Minutes: Reloaded

Posted: November 19th, 2015, 3:56 pm
by Sakura
Have you considered sending me the text files by email so I could purrrepare the book? :love:

Re: 5 Minutes: Reloaded

Posted: November 21st, 2015, 2:15 am
by oldwrench
Yes I have. I've been busy getting ready for a trip to Japan...... I'll get the files out as soon as I can, and more of the story.

Re: 5 Minutes: Reloaded

Posted: February 25th, 2016, 9:21 am
by Sakura
We have a new copyshop at my home town and they will print 10 books including cover for 140 Euro. Gladly your books don't contain any copyrighted files. However, considering the reduced amount of visitors I assume I will stay on 9 of these books. I can send one to the national library for archieval.

Re: 5 Minutes: Reloaded

Posted: February 27th, 2016, 5:06 am
by oldwrench
I didn't think my books were worth printing.....

I had the next chapter of 5 min ready...... and I disappeared it. Sigh....... yes I searched for it, maybe I can do a better job rewriting it. I have it about half done again.

Re: 5 Minutes: Reloaded

Posted: March 13th, 2016, 11:37 am
by Sakura
How did you manage to do that? :sob:

Guess Arisa opened a wormhole and stole the book. I need to have a talk with her.

Re: 5 Minutes: Reloaded

Posted: March 14th, 2016, 1:19 am
by oldwrench
I think Lucy ate it. I'm trying to get more done.