The Toxic Tea Shop

(I'd actually written this ages ago but forgotten to post it, and yes, it is a bit short) Chapter 8 It was dark, darker than I had expected. I switched on the light for my suit, and visually checked myself, I had avoided the teeth and was totally intact, even if I was inside a space monster. The muscles and sphincters were moving me downwards, towards what I supposed would be its stomach and frankly I would rather not end up in there. I still had my knife, which I then used to latch onto the inside of the monster's throat, and for a short while it continued trying to swallow me, creating a large gouge in the wake of my knife. I could feel the vibrations of it roaring in pain. climbing back up the creature's gullet was no easy feat, but I made it back to the mouth. I looked down at my gear and remembered my jack! This Jack was designed to hold lift doors open during repairs, but it should suffice to hold this creature's mouth open, I know, how convenient eh? I...

Chapter 3 My face must have been a picture as I stood there staring at our new guests. Dr. Anibo gently nudged my shoulder and I snapped out of my trance. I turned to him and he had a grim look on his face so I didn't ask the question that was burning on the inside of my mind. He guided me out of the medical wing and we walked slowly next to each other. We stopped just short of my classroom and he turns to me, places a finger on his lips, indicating to be quiet about the ordeal, and then left me. I turned around and entered my classroom. The class was halfway through a surprise test, and everyone stared at me silently when I entered. I muttered a “Sorry” to Mr Strauss and trying to hide my now bright red face, I scuttled back to my desk and sat down. After a few seconds of silence, everyone turned back to their tests. I then sat, staring at the test paper for the remaining time. Mr Strauss sounded a buzzer when the time was up and the class gave off a collective sigh. Risa pre...

The Way Of The Sword I sat patiently as my armor was strapped over my under suit. The heavy chainmail clinking quietly against the padded bottom layer. The maids were pretty as always, though the palace maids were always a bit plumper than I liked. To be fair I was a bit plumper myself, it had been a while since I’d had time to attend one of master genous’ training sessions. But now the war had made its impact upon the citizens and it was required that one of the royalty was to attend the battlefield. This honour fell to me, what with my father being too old to fight and my other brothers either being too young or too poor with the sword to join in, let alone letting the women fight! I stood up to allow the rest of the straps to be tightened and soon I was ready. The armor was heavy, but I was used to its weight. I held my helmet under my arm as I walked out of the dressing tent. My personal butler, Griffin, was waiting outside, we studied me, and tightened a few more straps, and...

It was my 143rd birthday, the holo cake still managed to fit all of the candles. I stood in the lounge with my friends and family, my parents came all the way across the ocean to my habitat just to celebrate my birthday. They had to hire a special drone to fly them across, they did live 50 years before the singularity after all. My sister made the joke that they are nearly more nanomachines than person at this point. The act of giving gifts at birthdays phased out a long time ago, since everyone lives so long now, even my grandmother, who lived most of her life before it happened, made it to 203rd birthday! I mean, they cured cancer within the first five years after the singularity. The year is now 127 PS, PS standing for Post Singularity. The oceans have risen and most of the 12 billion people of the earth live on habitats which float on the surface of the ocean. The lunar bases are restricted to qualified professionals ever since the “Grey Lung” epidemic of 120 PS and the few space...

Chapter 2 I rose with the morning alarm, the blaring siren that goes off at 8:00 am. I hopped out of my bunk and strode into the shower before my roommates could hog it. I let the hot water cascade down me, cleansing me as much mentally as physically. I dressed in a freshly laundered uniform, a dark green boiler suit emblazoned with the bases logo, a trident with wings and the phrase “ Sub fluctibus Salutis ” which is more or less latin for, it is safe under the waves. After checking that I had all my things, I shouldered my bag, and headed for school with Riza, who had already unbuttoned the top two buttons on the uniform. We both agreed that trying to face the morning rush hour wasn’t worth it, so we took the more “express” route. An air vent near to our room had a broken lock so you could just climb in and follow the vents to your destination, it had taken us about a year's worth of free time to find the correct route. I was grateful for the padding on the knees and elbows ...

Chapter 7 It was surrounded by bodies and entrails of the old crew, the walls were painted with blood, as well as large floating orbs of it around the room. The creature resembled a hole in the wall, filled with teeth and surrounded by tentacles, all of which was a dark pink colour, whether that was a natural colour or if it was stained with blood I did not know. My fellow crewmates that I had arrived with, floated motionless in the room, attached to the walls by some sort of umbilical cord, their helmets had fogged up indicating that they were still breathing. I darted back around the corner and prayed that it hadn't seen me, let alone smelt me. I backed away from the corner trying to not draw attention to myself, and yet one of those tentacles followed me round and slowly came towards me. I span around and pushed my way down the corridor, attempting to put as much distance between myself and the incoming tentacle. No matter what I did, the tentacle continued towards me, I cou...

Chapter 6 I was glad of the similar designs, it definitely made getting around easier, I guess new crew members got given a map as there were no signs. I floated around, until i had found what I was looking for, the engineering bay opened from a small door in a thin corridor. The engineering bay itself was a large room, with the walls and most of the floor space being covered by machinery. I made my way to the main terminal, which was set into a large semi circular console, extra buttons and levers to check  it over and unsurprisingly it was powered off. It was a simple matter to re-boot the generator, a flick of this switch, a twiddle of that knob and it roared back into action. Life re-entered the ship and it shuddered with the addition of power, the lights came on illuminating the until now dark interior. The alarms also came on, creating a cacophony of noise, I made my way back the console and found a flashing red button labeled with “Alarms”, I pressed it and the alarms s...

Hey guys, so worlds adrift, an in development game i'm following, recently started a creative writing contest, where the reward is to have the winners entry in game as a piece of collectable lore! Any-who this is my entry to the contest, and the names are not linked to my other bits! Oh yeah and it is limited to 500 words. I looked up at the clear blue sky, enjoying the cool breeze run across my skin, our ship creaked a gust of wind brought the scent of pollen. My brother called me over, he said that he had found something. I turned from the edge and jogged back towards the ruins. He was trying to move a stone pillar that had fallen over, but underneath it I could see his discovery. A small gold coin lay pressed into the dirt, I could already tell that it was old. Lorus held the pillar steady as I crawled underneath it. I used my trusty knife to pry the coin from the ground and I quickly retreated from under the pillar. Lorus dropped it with a thud and a small cloud of dust ...

Chapter 1 - A Bounty Fit For A King It all started back in the Drakoon system, I was posted there as part of the high king's new “security initiative”. I was with the 44th squadron holding position in orbit around the systems 3rd and most remote planet, on paper it was called Drakoon 3, but we called it “Red-Light-Roody” due to its Prominent Red-light district. My old Tiger-class Skirmisher, called the Dubber Rucky, was parked on the dark side of a large asteroid within the planet's rings, My crew was on edge, there was a rumor running around about a large drug train which makes its way through this sector once every 168 hours. We were staying dark, so that meant no heat, no lights, only enough power running to stop us from suffocating. And so we just sat there, no leaving our stations, ready to go at a moment's notice. I checked the low scanner, its infrequent pings showing no differences, the timer clicked on, showing that we still had 3 hours to go before the drug t...

This is the story of Corporal Jash Masterson, and how he survived world war 3. A Smoothie of Comrades- I was tucked into my bunk when the first bombs fell. The ground trembling around me, I heard loud noises from within the compound as some of the ceiling caved in. I flung myself from my bunk, and legged it down the corridors. The corridors I knew so well, rushing past me as I charged forwards, the piercing wails of the alarms cutting through the chaos. I was one of the first to make it to the kit room, a few others made it in before the ceiling collapsed outside the door. The hardened walls and roof of the kit room, made us all feel better. In the room with me were; Captain David Hams, Lieutenant Laura Barnsley, Corporal Gregory Smithers and Madam Cornblower, one of the Compounds cooks. We all stayed silent for the first five minutes, except for the still screaming alarms, recovering from the sudden start, breathing heavily. I stood up and made my way to one of the cases and ...

Chapter 1: A speech to the masses “And now a reading from Miss Sakamoto, from class 2B” said Mr Strauss, the whole base clapped me as I walked across the stage to the microphone. I felt so small under so many stares, I looked down at the piece of paper which was supposed to have my speech written on it, instead it had a picture of a cowboy riding a narwhal on the moon, no, I don’t know how that works either but it does so ok? I looked up from the paper, and stared at the back wall of the classroom, through the porthole positioned there and into the deep blue water beyond. I took a deep breath and began: “I am grateful. I am grateful for the food we eat and the water we drink. I am grateful for the walls which keep us safe, and dry” There was a small chuckle from the audience, “I am grateful for the friends and family I have. I am grateful for my education and the teachers who provide it. I am grateful for the life I lived and will live. But most of all, I am grateful for the ove...

Chapter 5 The lights on the interior dimmed to red and the security lady, I now knew to be called Marshall, announced that we had arrived. I got up from my seat and made my way to the pods. We each stood by one and once the all clear was given, climbed inside. The actual pods are situated inside the wall on one side, and you have to slide into a small airlock/hole in the floor next to the wall, where you can then climb into the pods. The pods were rugged and claustrophobic, meant to withstand atmospheric re-entry. I pulled the harness tight and locked myself into the pod. I pressed the button above my head which told the pilot I was ready. I heard the pings of the other members readying up. A countdown started on the small screen in front of me. 5. 4. 3. 2. 1. FOOSH A large force pushed us out of the ship, after the G’s normalised, the screens turned on and I could see the others pods falling into position ahead of me. I could see the target approaching, appearing be...