D3CONF3D3RATION

Alejandra Carillo tightly gripped Rosa’s wrist with a long-sleeved black glove and cradled a ball of tightly wound wad of money, roughly pulling her forward with her under the bright afternoon sun, heading towards the complex of fortified buildings shimmering in the desert heat.  Kenji followed a few steps behind them, trying to keep up.  Rosa and Kenji looked at each other anxiously, glancing at the woman between them and her oddly smooth, toe-less bare feet appearing under the hem…

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Dante Valderez glanced out the large windows of the control tower to see the dissipating, twisted columns of orange-tinged steam still rising into the dark, dense orange cloud that had formed high over the rotating Quadristar. He returned his focus to the green console screen in front of him, adjusting the power output slider gradually down to zero. As he did so, the vibrations rattling the control tower subsided and the movement of the horizon subsided with it. “Starburst sequence…

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Rosa Jardine lay protectively over Hanyo Soon, who himself was lying flat on his back on the dusty ground. Both were looking up at the woman standing over them, her green eyes flashing brightly with anger. She stepped back from the two on the ground, and gestured to the bodyguards surrounding them to step back as well. She leaned down to pick up the ball of money she had tossed beside earlier, and rolled it around between her black-gloved hands….

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Leanna O’Regan sat on the rear bench inside the helicopter cabin, with both of her arms held on each side by young men in light grey uniforms.  She had an alarmed look on her face, seeing through the opened side door of the aircraft the churning white waves of the ocean around them and the huge column of steam rising from the center of the massive battleship.  They could feel the rattling vibration come from deep withing the ship, making…

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Dante Valderez stood in front of General Thompson, swaying slightly with his posture subtly changing between authority and subservience. Dante was certainly more intimidating than the balding, pudgy, middle-aged General, although they both wore the same all-black uniforms. Dante was taller, fitter, and more ominous than the petulant man with the distended belly pushing out the bottom of his jacket, and the lower half of his face was concealed behind the mask of a respirator, with tubes running from each…

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Hanyo Soon looked through the scratched, yellowed window of the rear door of his old, battered twin-prop plane, squinting to see through the dust outside, kicked up by their hurried landing. The bright mid-day sun lit up the dry, dusty landscape outside, showing a group of burly men jump out of a white pickup-up truck, clearly carrying rifles and spreading out around the plane. In the clearing dust, he saw the last occupant step out of the driver’s side of…

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Leanna O’Regan didn’t open her eyes immediately, as she felt the blanket she was laying under yanked away from her roughly, leaving her exposed on the bench inside the large helicopter’s passenger cabin. The bright mid-day sun shone through the windows of the cabin, letting a bright shaft of light strike her directly on her face and making her squint and sleepily bring a hand up to shield her eyes. She groaned slightly and tried to turn her back to…

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Rosa Jardine’s head flopped forward, after the old, battered plane she was a passenger of jumped suddenly. The other passengers in the cabin with her also jerked forward in their seats with the shuddering, erratic movements of the 1969 DHC-6-200 Twin Otter. Rosa blinked quickly for a bit, looking as if she was trying to understand her surroundings after waking from a deep sleep. She saw her son, Theo, sitting in the seats across the aisle from her, looking back…

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Dante Valderez stared coldly at the young woman resting peacefully on the helicopter cabin bench, flanked by two young officers in light grey uniforms. She lay on her side with your knees pulled up, and her hands under her face, letting her long, dark hair slide to the side of her face and below her chin. She was only wearing a white t-short and shorts, and had kicked off her tennis shoes, which were lying casually on the cabin floor….

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Hanyo Soon shook his head and rolled his eyes, as he walked back to the cockpit of the decrepit 1969 DHC-6-200 Twin Otter aircraft, leaving the old man and the pretty young woman sleeping in their seats behind him. He stole one more quick glance at Rosa Jardine, his sardonic grin softening a bit. “Sir! Are we there yet?” a young voice called out to him. Hanyo looked back at the boy in the seat across from his sleeping mother,…

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