One Man Against the Martians (Story)
Jun 8, 2022 4:26:12 GMT
Quendil, David N.Tanner 07011959, and 1 more like this
Post by xaxiuscolnier on Jun 8, 2022 4:26:12 GMT
(Authors note: segments divided by three dashes "---" are jumping between the current events and flashbacks)
It had taken him four days to crawl from the Red Weed choked ravine to the edge of the redoubt, but it was the only way, the only way to save those trapped inside. if he didn't do it no one would, and then they would all die just like his wife.
it was agonizing to him to take so long, every day more were fed into the machines that turned people into food for the Martians every day he crawled more would die. but if he didn't then he would die and they would all die anyway, at least this way he might save some. but still, it had been agonizing listening to the screams last night as he had rested and prepared for today.
He slowly peered over the edge and counted the tripods that were active, three small ones, scouts he'd been told, were wandering around near the edges of the pit seemingly on patrol. "Foolish of them" he thought to himself. observing that they only patrolled the inside. scanning the pit he also saw three of the larger tripods, the assault ones, but they were still off to one side. "sleeping? or are they not occupied?" he wondered to himself. Next he spotted the squat machines they used to harvest resources, three again, working through a pile of scrap metal probably dragged in off a nearby battlefield. and finally at the far side of the pit he saw the cages, with three more machines by them, two with cages on their backs and one that he recognized all to well...
---
He screamed her name as he held her arms trying to stop it from taking her, his legs braced against the windowsill and wall around the window that the segmented arm was pulling her through "Don't let go baby! I've got you" She screamed inarticulately as the mechanical limb tightened and pulled again. his legs shook and his grip started to slip "NO YOU BASTARDS, YOU CAN'T HAVE HER!" he yelled in defiance and tightened his grip heaving with his legs pulling her back slightly until suddenly another arm burst in through the wall grabbing him and pulled them both out together "NOOO" he yelled as he kicked at the arm holding his wife "let her go, you can have me but let her go you bastards!" The arm holding him gave him a shake but he wouldn't let her go, it then squeezed him hard and he felt a pop in his chest and a searing pain but still he held her "i won't let go love' he wheezed unable to breathe "I won't let them have you!" he looked at her as she started at him her mouth open trying to talk but unable as the arm holding her squeezed the breath from her lungs. he felt her grip slacken he saw here eyes flutter "No baby No, Darling stay with me" he pleaded as the arms pulled them away from each other "NO!" he cried with the last of his breath tightening his grip to no avail as her hands let go and his hands slid down her arms, and with a final jerk they were separated. The arm suddenly relaxed slightly, and he could breathe again, though there was a fire in his side with every breath. He kicked at the arm and beat it with his fists screaming with rage as the arms of the tripod lifted them higher, he tried to reach for the knife in his boot but the coils of the arm around him wouldn't let him bend far enough " Let her go, god please help me save her, please take me if you must, but save her!" he pleaded as he struggled as the arms of the tripod brought them over itself and then he looked down in horror and saw it. A mechanical Maw big enough for a horse lined with hundreds of blood-stained teeth grinding and grinding at a red slurry. "Oh god no, NO!" he looked over as his wife was coming to "BABY!" he screamed, and her eyes snapped open focusing on him for one horrible second that lasted an eternity as the arm let her go. and then she fell into the whirling maw her scream rending his heart and soul as he watched her get torn to shreds and he let out a scream of primal agony and rage so intense he felt as if the world would rend asunder. then as if the world heard him the ground beneath the tripods leg suddenly blossomed into a column of fire and it lurched to the side. then the tripods hood too flashed and shattered in in a ball of fire and it fell into the house it had ripped him out of and he was slammed into the roof as it dropped him, his ribs screaming at the impact as he slid down and fell again onto the ground knocking him unconscious...
---
He shook his head clearing the nightmare visions from his sight, no not nightmares, memories, that really happened, they took her from him, and he would make them pay. he glanced around the pit again making sure nothing had changed while he'd been having his "Phantasmagoria" as the doc had called it. the scouts had moved round closer to him and the harvester had moved over to one of the cages. "No, not this time!" he said with vehemence and drew up his Sharps-Borchard rifle and slid in the .50-140 round closing the breech and taking careful aim. he waited sighted in on the hood as the tripod pulled out a victim from the cage and took a step back raising the poor soul slowly. "Shift you bastard!" he growled as he waited, just as he thought he would have to take the arm it turned presenting the red eye he'd been waiting for, instantly he fired. The loud boom rang out as the black powder burned and launched the heavy projectile across the pit to punch through the eye and into the Martian pilot inside, the tripod spasming and falling as it died. for a brief moment all the Martians stopped seemingly confused two of the scouts turned toward the harvester as he reloaded quickly knowing he had little time, the other turned towards him, and the puff of smoke that lingered in the still air. "Thats right! Look at your death!" he growled as he took aim and fired again right as the tripod looked at him. BOOM! the rifle roared and the Martian died. The other scouts turned back letting out their cries "ULLAAH!" they howled and started towards him as he loaded again "Come on you devil squids and meet your doom!" he shouted standing and raising his rifle again "I've got death enough for you all!" and again the rifle roared and a Martian machine fell. the last tripod raised its heat ray and fired but he was already sliding down the outside of the redoubt cursing the Martians with such vehemence and vitriol that the devil himself would balk. but the Martian didn't understand or didn't care, and the tripod came over the ridge, a trap of its own making, and it too died to the roar of the rifle when the eye crested the top. "That's for my love you bastard" he screamed at it as it fell back out of sight.
Panting he rushed up the redoubt again looking around frantically. he saw the two tripods with the cages moving toward him, but the small machines were gone from the pile of scrap, he quickly turned and looked at the assault tripods there the machines were but motionless and empty and the large tripods were stirring. "Damn" he growled and fired at one, but the Assault tripods were made of sterner stuff and one shot wouldn't always do it, this one didnt. "ULLAAH" it howled and moved towards him raising its heat ray as the other two followed. He dropped down below the ridge as the ray fired and boiled the air above him scalding his head and back. desperately he scrambled back down to the bottom and loaded once more "come for me if you dare!" he yelled defiantly taking aim at the ridge. and once again the Martians obliged. As the lead tripod came over the ridge, he fired the flash and smoke obscuring him for a moment and the tripod raised its ray to fire, only for it so spark and sputter impotently as that had been his target this time. the Tripod howled again and its companions behind it returned the call as they came over the top "Thats right you curs come on" he goaded as he loaded once more. and as he did the two behind moved to the sides and over the top to bring their heat rays to bear, and he smiled as he dropped to the ground and hit the plunger for the dynamite he had planted last night. the ridge erupted and shifted the charges turning the redoubt into an avalanche taking the tripods down with it he ran to the side trying to clear out of the way as they came tumbling down. Realizing he wouldn't make it he dove to the ground and covered his head as the world turned to a cloud of dust and shrieking metal around him...
---
He woke up confused being shaken and rocked and his ribs screamed in agony as he started thrashing and swinging his fists "Ill kill you, you bastards" he tried to yell but it came out as a hoarse croak and tortured wheeze. "Bloody hell! hold him down!" he heard an accented voice say as a couple pairs of hands grabbed his arms. the voice caused him to pause and he blinked his eyes clearing his cloudy vision as he looked around confused. he was in the back of a wagon with two men on each side of him a native and an Englishman each. he swallowed to wet his throat as he tried to think "who? where? ... What's going on?" he tried to remember what had happened but it was a blur "i was just, just?" his eyes went wide as a single memory of his beloved falling into the horrid maw snapped into focus and suddenly he remembered "MY WIFE!" he howled and started to sob collapsing back on the cot he'd been placed on. "they killed her, they took her from me and killed her, torn to shreds my love WHY! WHYYY!" the men around him sat in silence and the natives released his arms. "god why did you take her, i told you to take me and save her WHY, WHHYYYY" he felt a hand on his shoulder and lashed out with a fish his ribs screaming again "you should have let me die!" he yelled at the men and went to swing again only to be grabbed and held down once more by the natives as the younger British officer rubbed his jaw "I'm sorry for your loss chap but we did what we could, I'm sorry we couldn't get the guns up sooner but..." the officer sighed realizing he was giving empty platitudes and excuses to a man who had obviously just lost the woman he loved. The young officer sighed and drew his revolver proffering it to the man "if you wish to join her i don't blame you." "Lawrence!" Hissed the other older British officer but the man paid him no heed. He looked at the revolver with not just a bit of desire but shook his head and said "I can't, it would be a sin and i wouldn't join her in heaven." Lawrence looked at him and frowned "well then perhaps you should just die fighting" Lawrence then started to tell the man of his mission and plans to take the fight to the Martians and how he could do the same. He listened for a while too drained and depressed to do much else but sob a little on occasion listening to Lawrence talk on and on as he drifted back into a fitful sleep fully of death, despair, and revenge.
---
He Jerked himself back out his Hallucinations of the past focusing on that one word, REVENGE. he tried to stand, pushing himself up and staggering to his feet. he picked up his rifle and looked around, the Martian tripods were all down two were tangled together and unmoving in a cloud of green gas that must have come from one of the machines but the third was trying to right itself, he staggered over pulling his bandanna up over his mouth and nose stumbling on the debris of the collapsed redoubt avoiding the gas as he hurried around the dented top of large hood to the front of the Tripod one arm thrashed ineffectually while the tentacles were pinned beneath the bulk of the machine. He smiled and walked over to the great eye which was now shattered and peered in at the Martian pilot as it weakly worked at the controls for the machine, he drew his revolver and slowly fired all six shots into it before walking away up the redoubt, or what was left of it looking down inside he saw neither of the tripods with cages and everything else was as he last saw, aside from the layer of dirt and grit. he hurried down and across to the cages looking around warily. as he approached the people who has been stunned by the battle saw him and started clamoring for help. One, a soldier in an American army uniform with a Texas star on his shoulder caught his attention "you soldier where did the other two go" he snapped, the soldier took a moment and "uh up off the other side when the redoubt went up" He frowned but nodded and raised his rifle "stand back I'm blowing the lock" everyone moved away, and he fired blasting the lock mechanism on the cage to pieces. "Soldier take these flares and go up on the redoubt" he said handing over a flare gun "if the tripods start coming back or if you see any more fire the red one, if they clear off and you don't see any more fire green" The soldier nodded and started up the redoubt as the man moved to the next cage "Stand back" he said and fired again "all of the rest of you start moving to the ravine to the west, stay away from the downed tripods and the green gas, hurry north up the ravine till you reach a circle of stones wait there unless you see a red flare" one man stopped and looked at him "what if we see the red flare". He half smiled and handed the man a spare revolver "then you lead them north to the mountains" He hurried to the next cage and then the next freeing the captives looking at the sky in between each one when suddenly on the last cage a flare went up. and bust a bright brilliant green. The Martians had fled out of sight he'd done it. one man against the Martians with planning and preparation had saved a hundred lives. He looked up at the sky "I did it love, I saved them" He smiled then blasted the last lock and ushered the people out as he called down the soldier and followed them to the rendezvous. Lawrence was right this can work, now we just have to get the miners and the natives to set aside their differences.
-EndÂ
I hope you enjoyed the story, im sorry if its jumbled, poorly edited, and for any errors, it was written on a whim of inspiration in about 3 hours after a long day of work and i wanted to get it on here rather than have it sit on my pad forever till i got around to editing.
thanks for reading and as always, any feedback is appreciated.
It had taken him four days to crawl from the Red Weed choked ravine to the edge of the redoubt, but it was the only way, the only way to save those trapped inside. if he didn't do it no one would, and then they would all die just like his wife.
it was agonizing to him to take so long, every day more were fed into the machines that turned people into food for the Martians every day he crawled more would die. but if he didn't then he would die and they would all die anyway, at least this way he might save some. but still, it had been agonizing listening to the screams last night as he had rested and prepared for today.
He slowly peered over the edge and counted the tripods that were active, three small ones, scouts he'd been told, were wandering around near the edges of the pit seemingly on patrol. "Foolish of them" he thought to himself. observing that they only patrolled the inside. scanning the pit he also saw three of the larger tripods, the assault ones, but they were still off to one side. "sleeping? or are they not occupied?" he wondered to himself. Next he spotted the squat machines they used to harvest resources, three again, working through a pile of scrap metal probably dragged in off a nearby battlefield. and finally at the far side of the pit he saw the cages, with three more machines by them, two with cages on their backs and one that he recognized all to well...
---
He screamed her name as he held her arms trying to stop it from taking her, his legs braced against the windowsill and wall around the window that the segmented arm was pulling her through "Don't let go baby! I've got you" She screamed inarticulately as the mechanical limb tightened and pulled again. his legs shook and his grip started to slip "NO YOU BASTARDS, YOU CAN'T HAVE HER!" he yelled in defiance and tightened his grip heaving with his legs pulling her back slightly until suddenly another arm burst in through the wall grabbing him and pulled them both out together "NOOO" he yelled as he kicked at the arm holding his wife "let her go, you can have me but let her go you bastards!" The arm holding him gave him a shake but he wouldn't let her go, it then squeezed him hard and he felt a pop in his chest and a searing pain but still he held her "i won't let go love' he wheezed unable to breathe "I won't let them have you!" he looked at her as she started at him her mouth open trying to talk but unable as the arm holding her squeezed the breath from her lungs. he felt her grip slacken he saw here eyes flutter "No baby No, Darling stay with me" he pleaded as the arms pulled them away from each other "NO!" he cried with the last of his breath tightening his grip to no avail as her hands let go and his hands slid down her arms, and with a final jerk they were separated. The arm suddenly relaxed slightly, and he could breathe again, though there was a fire in his side with every breath. He kicked at the arm and beat it with his fists screaming with rage as the arms of the tripod lifted them higher, he tried to reach for the knife in his boot but the coils of the arm around him wouldn't let him bend far enough " Let her go, god please help me save her, please take me if you must, but save her!" he pleaded as he struggled as the arms of the tripod brought them over itself and then he looked down in horror and saw it. A mechanical Maw big enough for a horse lined with hundreds of blood-stained teeth grinding and grinding at a red slurry. "Oh god no, NO!" he looked over as his wife was coming to "BABY!" he screamed, and her eyes snapped open focusing on him for one horrible second that lasted an eternity as the arm let her go. and then she fell into the whirling maw her scream rending his heart and soul as he watched her get torn to shreds and he let out a scream of primal agony and rage so intense he felt as if the world would rend asunder. then as if the world heard him the ground beneath the tripods leg suddenly blossomed into a column of fire and it lurched to the side. then the tripods hood too flashed and shattered in in a ball of fire and it fell into the house it had ripped him out of and he was slammed into the roof as it dropped him, his ribs screaming at the impact as he slid down and fell again onto the ground knocking him unconscious...
---
He shook his head clearing the nightmare visions from his sight, no not nightmares, memories, that really happened, they took her from him, and he would make them pay. he glanced around the pit again making sure nothing had changed while he'd been having his "Phantasmagoria" as the doc had called it. the scouts had moved round closer to him and the harvester had moved over to one of the cages. "No, not this time!" he said with vehemence and drew up his Sharps-Borchard rifle and slid in the .50-140 round closing the breech and taking careful aim. he waited sighted in on the hood as the tripod pulled out a victim from the cage and took a step back raising the poor soul slowly. "Shift you bastard!" he growled as he waited, just as he thought he would have to take the arm it turned presenting the red eye he'd been waiting for, instantly he fired. The loud boom rang out as the black powder burned and launched the heavy projectile across the pit to punch through the eye and into the Martian pilot inside, the tripod spasming and falling as it died. for a brief moment all the Martians stopped seemingly confused two of the scouts turned toward the harvester as he reloaded quickly knowing he had little time, the other turned towards him, and the puff of smoke that lingered in the still air. "Thats right! Look at your death!" he growled as he took aim and fired again right as the tripod looked at him. BOOM! the rifle roared and the Martian died. The other scouts turned back letting out their cries "ULLAAH!" they howled and started towards him as he loaded again "Come on you devil squids and meet your doom!" he shouted standing and raising his rifle again "I've got death enough for you all!" and again the rifle roared and a Martian machine fell. the last tripod raised its heat ray and fired but he was already sliding down the outside of the redoubt cursing the Martians with such vehemence and vitriol that the devil himself would balk. but the Martian didn't understand or didn't care, and the tripod came over the ridge, a trap of its own making, and it too died to the roar of the rifle when the eye crested the top. "That's for my love you bastard" he screamed at it as it fell back out of sight.
Panting he rushed up the redoubt again looking around frantically. he saw the two tripods with the cages moving toward him, but the small machines were gone from the pile of scrap, he quickly turned and looked at the assault tripods there the machines were but motionless and empty and the large tripods were stirring. "Damn" he growled and fired at one, but the Assault tripods were made of sterner stuff and one shot wouldn't always do it, this one didnt. "ULLAAH" it howled and moved towards him raising its heat ray as the other two followed. He dropped down below the ridge as the ray fired and boiled the air above him scalding his head and back. desperately he scrambled back down to the bottom and loaded once more "come for me if you dare!" he yelled defiantly taking aim at the ridge. and once again the Martians obliged. As the lead tripod came over the ridge, he fired the flash and smoke obscuring him for a moment and the tripod raised its ray to fire, only for it so spark and sputter impotently as that had been his target this time. the Tripod howled again and its companions behind it returned the call as they came over the top "Thats right you curs come on" he goaded as he loaded once more. and as he did the two behind moved to the sides and over the top to bring their heat rays to bear, and he smiled as he dropped to the ground and hit the plunger for the dynamite he had planted last night. the ridge erupted and shifted the charges turning the redoubt into an avalanche taking the tripods down with it he ran to the side trying to clear out of the way as they came tumbling down. Realizing he wouldn't make it he dove to the ground and covered his head as the world turned to a cloud of dust and shrieking metal around him...
---
He woke up confused being shaken and rocked and his ribs screamed in agony as he started thrashing and swinging his fists "Ill kill you, you bastards" he tried to yell but it came out as a hoarse croak and tortured wheeze. "Bloody hell! hold him down!" he heard an accented voice say as a couple pairs of hands grabbed his arms. the voice caused him to pause and he blinked his eyes clearing his cloudy vision as he looked around confused. he was in the back of a wagon with two men on each side of him a native and an Englishman each. he swallowed to wet his throat as he tried to think "who? where? ... What's going on?" he tried to remember what had happened but it was a blur "i was just, just?" his eyes went wide as a single memory of his beloved falling into the horrid maw snapped into focus and suddenly he remembered "MY WIFE!" he howled and started to sob collapsing back on the cot he'd been placed on. "they killed her, they took her from me and killed her, torn to shreds my love WHY! WHYYY!" the men around him sat in silence and the natives released his arms. "god why did you take her, i told you to take me and save her WHY, WHHYYYY" he felt a hand on his shoulder and lashed out with a fish his ribs screaming again "you should have let me die!" he yelled at the men and went to swing again only to be grabbed and held down once more by the natives as the younger British officer rubbed his jaw "I'm sorry for your loss chap but we did what we could, I'm sorry we couldn't get the guns up sooner but..." the officer sighed realizing he was giving empty platitudes and excuses to a man who had obviously just lost the woman he loved. The young officer sighed and drew his revolver proffering it to the man "if you wish to join her i don't blame you." "Lawrence!" Hissed the other older British officer but the man paid him no heed. He looked at the revolver with not just a bit of desire but shook his head and said "I can't, it would be a sin and i wouldn't join her in heaven." Lawrence looked at him and frowned "well then perhaps you should just die fighting" Lawrence then started to tell the man of his mission and plans to take the fight to the Martians and how he could do the same. He listened for a while too drained and depressed to do much else but sob a little on occasion listening to Lawrence talk on and on as he drifted back into a fitful sleep fully of death, despair, and revenge.
---
He Jerked himself back out his Hallucinations of the past focusing on that one word, REVENGE. he tried to stand, pushing himself up and staggering to his feet. he picked up his rifle and looked around, the Martian tripods were all down two were tangled together and unmoving in a cloud of green gas that must have come from one of the machines but the third was trying to right itself, he staggered over pulling his bandanna up over his mouth and nose stumbling on the debris of the collapsed redoubt avoiding the gas as he hurried around the dented top of large hood to the front of the Tripod one arm thrashed ineffectually while the tentacles were pinned beneath the bulk of the machine. He smiled and walked over to the great eye which was now shattered and peered in at the Martian pilot as it weakly worked at the controls for the machine, he drew his revolver and slowly fired all six shots into it before walking away up the redoubt, or what was left of it looking down inside he saw neither of the tripods with cages and everything else was as he last saw, aside from the layer of dirt and grit. he hurried down and across to the cages looking around warily. as he approached the people who has been stunned by the battle saw him and started clamoring for help. One, a soldier in an American army uniform with a Texas star on his shoulder caught his attention "you soldier where did the other two go" he snapped, the soldier took a moment and "uh up off the other side when the redoubt went up" He frowned but nodded and raised his rifle "stand back I'm blowing the lock" everyone moved away, and he fired blasting the lock mechanism on the cage to pieces. "Soldier take these flares and go up on the redoubt" he said handing over a flare gun "if the tripods start coming back or if you see any more fire the red one, if they clear off and you don't see any more fire green" The soldier nodded and started up the redoubt as the man moved to the next cage "Stand back" he said and fired again "all of the rest of you start moving to the ravine to the west, stay away from the downed tripods and the green gas, hurry north up the ravine till you reach a circle of stones wait there unless you see a red flare" one man stopped and looked at him "what if we see the red flare". He half smiled and handed the man a spare revolver "then you lead them north to the mountains" He hurried to the next cage and then the next freeing the captives looking at the sky in between each one when suddenly on the last cage a flare went up. and bust a bright brilliant green. The Martians had fled out of sight he'd done it. one man against the Martians with planning and preparation had saved a hundred lives. He looked up at the sky "I did it love, I saved them" He smiled then blasted the last lock and ushered the people out as he called down the soldier and followed them to the rendezvous. Lawrence was right this can work, now we just have to get the miners and the natives to set aside their differences.
-EndÂ
I hope you enjoyed the story, im sorry if its jumbled, poorly edited, and for any errors, it was written on a whim of inspiration in about 3 hours after a long day of work and i wanted to get it on here rather than have it sit on my pad forever till i got around to editing.
thanks for reading and as always, any feedback is appreciated.
