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Science Fiction Thriller Drama

Some things are greater than life. A single action can be more powerful than a thousand words. What we are doing is greater than life itself, and if we win, the world will never be the same.


Since the beginning of our journey, you have been my loyal follower, and I would trust you to hold my beating heart. If anything were to happen to me, I wish for you to take my place and lead our people towards victory.


I will always love you, my beautiful flower.


Merculio



Rosetta read the note repeatedly, her tears slowly soaking the words while she wept over his grave. She could still feel his blood on her hands when she carried his lifeless body back to their camp.

Her mind was tormented by the wails she heard while walking the body to their church. She heard sadness almost every day in the life that she lived, but this was enough to tear her soul apart, but she could not allow that to be. It was now her duty to sit upon the broken throne and find a way to restore its beauty.


It wasn’t supposed to be like this, never ever was it supposed to be like this! It was all their fault; the Molova had acted with no mercy, pouring more blood into a battle they started on their own. By the time Rosetta had sent out a search squad, there was nothing but mutilated bodies for them to find, just adding more and more bodies to the pile of unjustified genocide.


Rosetta wanted nothing more than to spend the rest of her day wasting away at Merculio’s grave, but her new crown allowed no such time for grief. Her name was being called more than ever before, being asked questions she didn’t have answers to. It was days until she could answer the most prominent question of them all.


“What is our next move, Mrs. Rosetta?”


“We return the favour.”


“You don’t mean taking down the Molova leader, do you? Merculio never had us be violent in vain before.” Tilla—her new second in command—retorted, leaning in closer to Rosetta. “Must we throw away his dedication to an honourable fight just because you are too trigger happy?”


“I am to lead the Barbakans to victory, and that is what I intend to do. Are you questioning my motives?” Rosetta pushed back, her fists scrunched up in fury.


“I’m questioning your decision. Going lethal at this point in the fight may destroy us and damage our cause.”


“Do you really believe we can win by playing nice? They threw the first strike, and it’s about time we got up and fought back. Make them pray for mercy for all the sins that have committed against us.”


“I still believe for this to be the wrong move, but if Merculio trusted you to lead on, then so do I.” Tilla crossed her arms and huffed while looking down at the territory map, her expression only softening in the slightest. Rosetta didn’t dare to express it, but a weight lifted off her shoulders after hearing those words. “How shall we even plan an attack? Our clan lacks the physical abilities they have. We could never outdo them in a contact fight.”


“We fight to our strengths, use the technology they stole from us against them.” Rosetta pointed to a flight camp just north of the Barbakan and Molova border. She placed a scroll of paper down next to the map and unrolled it for Tilla to see. “I’ve had scouts sent out to infiltrate their northern headquarters, and our translators have discovered that their leader is currently hiding in that base.”


“The northern base?” Tilla squealed, taking the translated document to read the language she was still struggling to learn. “Our technology is nowhere capable enough to overcome the walls of that base. It would be a suicide mission to even attempt it. We have lost too many lives already. We cannot spare anymore lives.”


“We shall not see the light on their faces; I would never be stupid enough to pull such a stunt,” Rosetta muttered, feeling slightly hurt from Tilla’s accusation. “Within a couple days, their leader and his inner council will be leaving for their central base in the southern region. For them so cross, they must fly over our base to avoid the mountains’ high winds.”


“You want to take down their plan while they are in our skies?” Tilla traced the flight patterns with a finger, going from the north Molova camp to the central one. A slight smile appeared in her lips once she tapped her fingers over the tiny speck that represented the Barbakans single base. “What can we do while they are there?”


Rosetta reached under the table and pulled out a small device that looked quite generic compared to a variety of technology the Barbakans had invented. “This is a radio-activated electrical shocker, it connects with the generators on the plane, including the emergency alternator. Once they are within our range, all our surveillance teams have to do is activate it, and their plan will lose all power.”


“Then they won’t have enough time to get the power back on, not enough time to avoid hitting the ground.” Tilla stared off for a moment, her mind stuck in a place of complementation. “How will we get the shockers on the generators? The planes are locked up in the base; we still have no way of infiltrating.”


“That’s what we believed,” Rosetta smirked, grabbing the document stolen from the Molova base and reading the notes from her scouts.” Sixty yards west of the back entrance is a warehouse hidden by Ivy and stone. On the east side is a back door concealed with a passcode; our analytic receiver revealed the combination to be 875116. Two guards stay in the rotation, but only guard the front entrance. Within the building are multiple helicopters and a single large-sized aircraft. Three camera’s located but easily avoided.”

Tilla’s snatched the document back, her nails catching Rosetta’s hand and causing her to hiss, but Tilla was too distracted to care. She read it over and over as if she didn’t believe it. Rosetta rolled her eyes and got herself a bandaid while Tilla took in the truth.


“How can they be this stupid? Leave something so vulnerable out to the open eye. Did they really think the Ivy was going to stop us from finding it?”


“All of that doesn’t matter! This is our window of opportunity. This is how we make them pay. They started this war to steal our technology, so we shall use our technology to end it.” Rosetta looked Tilla dead in the eye and leaned in close. “Are you ready to do with me?”


Tilla looked down while taking a deep breath, scaring Rosetta until she finally looked up and nodded. “I will be by your side. When will we make our first move?”


“Tonight we sent out the scouts with a team of engineers, then tomorrow we have them reconfigure the radio tower to pick up on the shockers signal. From there, we wait for the flight to take place.” Tilla nodded before joining Rosetta at her side to assign the tasks.


“What will happen if this succeeds?” Tilla asked, her voice now not seeming as sure of herself.


“When this succeeds, our world will never be the same again.”


September 06, 2020 22:41

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56 comments

Fplldg Wakdwwdg
11:30 Sep 17, 2020

Very well written. Hey can i use your "electrical shocker" stuff? Please notify.

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Lynn Penny
16:09 Sep 18, 2020

LOL! For sure! Just gotta build one first!

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Itay Frenkel
23:19 Sep 06, 2020

A cliffhanger!!! This was an amazing story, you were able to give us all the background we needed while keeping the story moving forward, that's amazing. This is just a guess if you plan on writing part 2, it seems like Rosetta might be sending her army into a trap, the enemies left their base "so vulnerable out to the open eye," maybe it was on purpose? I caught a couple of spelling mistakes, like 'so' instead of 'to', and 'plan' instead of 'plane.' That being said, I loved this story. If you get the chance, could you read the new one I p...

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Lynn Penny
17:06 Sep 07, 2020

Thank you! I'm not so sure about a part two because I'm not sure which direction I would take it. Thank you also for the misspell notices, I'm terrible at proofreading. I'd love to read your work!

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Elizabeth Inkim
23:29 Sep 19, 2020

The tension in the scene is palpable! How do you know when to fade in a scene or dialogue in so seamlessly? I am interested to know what you think about the pacing and dialogue in my story ‘Auditorium Antics’ if you wouldn’t mind giving it a read. In all my stories I am developing my fantasy world building skills; which in summary means that in all characters and locations in my short stories belong to the same fictional universe; everything’s interconnected, just not told chronologically.

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Tempest Wright
03:18 Sep 18, 2020

Hi there, Loved the story and the way you describe the grief turning to power. Awesome use of the prompt. There are a few places where plan should be plane. But the idea that vengeance brings power is definately well written and defined in your story. I enjoyed it very much!

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Lynn Penny
17:30 Sep 18, 2020

Thank you very much! I shall go through and edit my rough copy!

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P. Jean
19:42 Sep 17, 2020

Interesting story. You write plan instead of plane in two locations. Read through again slowly. Tidy up your work. Good job of writing!

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Lynn Penny
17:29 Sep 18, 2020

Thank you for telling me, editing is my weakness. School has me rushing everything 😭

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P. Jean
17:57 Sep 18, 2020

Never short school....plenty of time to write if you have the desire and gift.

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Abhishek Todmal
14:21 Sep 17, 2020

Love that you've expanded and grown into the Thriller Genre. As you well know, I am an ardent fan of the kind. I agree with the comments, it did have a Game of Thrones vibe about it. Comparisons aside, I'm deathly scared of flying, so I wouldn't want to be on the receiving end of this device that you seem to have conjured up for the enemy. I'm glad you took out the time to write this. Even though that is becoming an increasingly difficult ask for you of late :) Great job, Lynn ! Keep it up !

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Lynn Penny
17:28 Sep 18, 2020

Thank you! I’m starting to love the thriller genre, might stick in it for a bit. Thank you so much for reading!

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D. Jaymz
02:37 Sep 14, 2020

Very well-written 👏 You use dialogue superbly and you break up the narrative in bite-sized bits for easy reading. Great job 😊

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Lynn Penny
16:07 Sep 14, 2020

Thank you for reading!

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D. Jaymz
16:17 Sep 14, 2020

You're welcome 😊

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Zainab Shahid
15:50 Sep 13, 2020

You a marvelous writer :) please read my second story and guide me. Thanks!

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Lynn Penny
17:10 Sep 13, 2020

Thank you. I'd love to read your work.

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Rhondalise Mitza
18:44 Sep 12, 2020

Bit of a play on the Romeo and Juliet characters Rosaline and Mercutio?

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Lynn Penny
20:45 Sep 12, 2020

The names did come from the play, but they aren't inspired by the play. I just love those names.

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Anshika Goyal
17:48 Sep 12, 2020

I really liked this story, it is well-written, and you take the definition of show don't tell seriously. It is a perfect combination of actions, descriptions, and dialogues. Keep Writing!! P.s. Would you mind checking out two of the recent stories?

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Lynn Penny
18:20 Sep 12, 2020

Thank you so much! I'd love to check out your work.

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Anshika Goyal
18:22 Sep 12, 2020

No problem and thanks hehe.

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Bianka Nova
17:07 Sep 11, 2020

Great build up to something potentially very disastrous. I would love to know what happens next. I agree with Rayhan that the meeting reminded a bit of the Game of Thrones world. I kept imagining them as Danerys and Missandei. And then for some reason, I envisioned the battlefield and the enemy base as some camp from the Walking Dead 🙃 No idea why, maybe it means that a screenplay might come out of your writing one day. 😉 Good job!

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Lynn Penny
18:13 Sep 12, 2020

It is every writers dream to see their work on the big screen, but hopefully with a good adaptation. Thank you for your kind words.

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Bianka Nova
19:32 Sep 12, 2020

Good luck! Hopefully it happens some day for you. Start reaching out to agents and producers 😉

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Jade Young
15:35 Sep 10, 2020

I love how you took this prompt and made it your own. I love how you expressed Rosetta's pain, and how it provides a relatable reasoning for why she's about to go through with such a plan. I love the cliffhanger at the end, makes me want to find out whether her plan will work or not. Your pacing was really good, the emotions you conveyed were really palpable and I loved reading this story from beginning to end. Keep writing! If you get the time, please check out my story, Bonds that never break, and let me know what you think. I'd really ...

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Lynn Penny
18:00 Sep 12, 2020

Thank you so much! I love to read such kind words, it makes me love writing even more. I'd love to reach your work!

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Thom With An H
19:08 Sep 09, 2020

I'm hoping there is more to come. This was such a good set up for the infiltration, the execution, the aftermath. I love the take on the prompt. Having the power go off in a plane, or any vehicle for that matter, had never occurred to me. It's a great twist and will set your story apart. There were two times where you typed plan where you meant plane. I know it's too late to edit now but if you use this for any other purpose keep it in mind. All in all, a great read. Great job. I submitted a story called "Choices" this week. It w...

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Rayhan Hidayat
03:38 Sep 09, 2020

This was like one of those super-meticulous strategy meetings in A Song of Ice and Fire. I love how you immediately create tension by setting the story in the wake of Merculio’s death and establishing an uneasy relationship between Rosetta and the commander. And such a creative take on the prompt. Keep at it! 😙 Btw I’d love your thoughts on my latest if you can spare the time!

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Lynn Penny
17:09 Sep 12, 2020

Thank you so much! I'm glad you enjoyed the intro. I'd love to read your work.

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Rebecca Lee
12:21 Sep 07, 2020

I like your stories. You have the talent of keeping your story cleanly formatted, cleanly organized and it is just cool. As with everyone else, i encourage three things - 1. Write for yourself don't worry about what the rest of us say. 2. Write understandably, clearly and lastly, 3. Don't write just to submit a piece, write with purpose. And have fun with it. And it is obvious you have that passion and eye as a story teller. Good job. Hey will you read my latest submission looking for some feedback.

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Lynn Penny
20:42 Sep 07, 2020

Thank you, your words mean a lot. I love your three statements, but I am guilty of writing to submit. I find it difficult to write without having a motivator, and these prompts are the best motivator i've had in years. It's so wonderful to have feedback from writing, it makes me excited to write more. I'd love to give you feedback on your work.

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Rebecca Lee
02:04 Sep 09, 2020

I love the prompts too. Makes me write daily. I appreciate your taking time to read my stuff and all your stories!

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Amogh Kasat
08:00 Sep 07, 2020

It's a wonderful story! Please read my latest story

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Lynn Penny
20:27 Sep 07, 2020

Thanks! I shall!

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Amogh Kasat
02:01 Sep 08, 2020

thanks

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S. Closson
04:54 Sep 07, 2020

This was a great story! I can't say that I see Rosetta's plan going particularly well, but I can say that I look forward to finding out! You really did a good job setting up potential sequels in the world, I'm certainly interested. I wonder if Tilla's loyalty to Rosetta can survive any further deviation from Merculio's ideals. Would you mind checking out my submission, 'On the Drift'? I'd love to get your feedback. Thanks, and keep up the awesome work!

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Lynn Penny
18:49 Sep 07, 2020

Thanks! I'm not sure which direction I would take a sequel but I would most likely make it in Tilla's perspective. I'd love to read your work.

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Andrew Krey
00:38 Sep 07, 2020

I really like the way your story winds up the tension, and an interesting take on the prompt. Hopefully we get to see what happens next! Happy writing!

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Lynn Penny
18:37 Sep 07, 2020

Thank you!

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Andrew Krey
02:13 Sep 08, 2020

You're welcome, I look forward to reading more of your stories.

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Cindy Alexa
23:52 Oct 07, 2020

Great story! Thank you for sharing it.

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Lynn Penny
18:03 Oct 08, 2020

Thanks! I like your works as well!

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Cindy Alexa
22:41 Oct 08, 2020

That means a lot. Thank you ☺

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What a great story! I want more, what a cliffhanger :o You write so well and are really talented! Good job I love the dialogue and am excited to read more from you! - It would be amazing if you could read my latest story and maybe give me some tips on how to improve it!

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