Story:Tales from the Bunker

Tales From the Bunker is a collection of short stories and encounters revolving around the special operators of the Galactic Senate Special Operations Corps.

Guns
“Mhmm… Yes, this is nice. Oh yeah.”

Etah paused in front of Tholker’s door. His mutterings were just audible beyond the wooden door, and curious ones at that. The Immortal Colonel listened for the suggestive-sounding speech to continue. Perhaps Etah had stumbled upon one of Tholker and Karla’s intimate moments again, and that would mean blackmail material, a commodity valuable for so many different reasons.

“Look at that… Yes, nice fit. Just let me polish this up a bit.”

The Karnasaur fought back a snicker. Whatever was going on behind that door, it was something the Eteno and someone else (Etah thought that the identity of the other participant was easy to guess) was a enjoying. Ahrganot and Pyro were absorbed yet again in a sort of Chess-like game, both in deep, silent contemplation. Sol I Dor and Galiana were off in the training rooms, exploring some sort of ancient Delson form of combat. Etah continued to listen to the incriminating speech. If it got too good to keep to himself, he’d have to invite someone else over for a listen. Etah stealthily put his ear up against the door.

“And that just slides in there… That goes here… Oh my, look at this…”

Indeed, it was too good for the Karnasaur to keep just to himself. He tiptoed over to Ahrganot and Pyro’s game, and tapped the Dhragolon of the two on the shoulder.

“Listen to this.” Etah mouthed, beckoning them to follow.

Reluctantly, Ahrganot stood and followed, with Pyro eagerly in tow. Perhaps some cultural information was to be apprehended. Etah again put his ear up against Tholker’s door, with his two GSSOC comrades following suit.

“And just look how this all comes together… Mmm… Yes…”

Etah smiled, Ahrganot scowled, and Pyro grinned.

“I’m liking this… Just look at the… Oh, the power…”

“See?” The Karnasaur said.

Pyro replied, “Some things are quite universal.”

Ahrganot was less pleased, “If Tholker’s doing what I think he’s doing… Unbecoming!”

With narry a second thought, the Dhragolon burst into his supposedly-lewd comrade’s quarters, only to be reminded of just what kind of person Tholker was by the sight before him. Indeed, the Eteno had been up to something that he enjoyed. Gun parts were strewn out over a workbench, and hand-loaded cartridges found themselves neatly organised into a series of small boxes. A half-complete machine gun dominated the centre of the workbench, which seemed to have been the object of Tholker’s cooing.

“Need something, Ahrganot?”

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in">Skizgo sighed, and resigned to his and Pyro’s game.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in">“What’s his problem?”

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in">“I think he just forgot who exactly you are, Tholker. Carry on, I suppose.” Etah replied, before leaving in a disappointed manner similar to Ahrganot’s. Pyro was the last eavesdropper remaining.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in">“What is it with you and firearms, Captain Zhevhyit?”

Damn, This Is Awkward...
Etah was ticked off.

Once again, Tholker violated thier pact and trashed all the training mechs, so Etah had to wait to do his practice. He had a good idea for a training sim, too; It involved a target with Titanic enhancements. Just a little something to have fun with. He was storming down the Bunker halls to Tholker's room to give him a piece of his mind.

Stopping in front of Tholker's door, he began pounding on it.

"Thoker! Open up!"

Etah was met with silence.

"Tholker! We agreed not to trash all the mechs at once!"

More silence.

"Damn it, open up!"

Still no response.

"THOLKER! IF YOU VALUE YOUR TRAINING ROOM RIGHTS, OPEN UP!"

Still nothing.

"THOLKER. IF YOU DON'T OPEN THIS DOOR THIS INSTANT, I AM GOING TO PRY IT OPEN MYSELF."

Despite the threats, Tholker still didn't open the door.

" DAMN IT, THOLKER, I WARNED YOU!!! "

Etah proceeded to punch in the lockdown override codes to open the door manually. After he punched in the last digit, he gripped the door's edge and pulled it open with one swift motion.

And he felt nothing but swift regret immediately afterwards.

Tholker was on the couch with Karla, thier faces interlocked in an intimate, passionate kiss. Karla looked up at the intruder, and gave a small scream. Tholker looked over at Etah (who would be blushing, if he had veins in his skin) and immediately felt a massive surge of the awkwardness. Especially since his shirt was off.

Etah didn't feel quite so ticked off anymore.

Silently stepping back from the room, Etah grabbed the door again and slowly pulled it shut, not breaking eye contact with Tholker for a second. After he shut the door, he turned around and stared into space, wide-eyed with awkwardness. Ahrganot came into the hallway and approached Etah.

"Oh, Etah, Tholker wanted me to tell you he'd make up those mechs for you later, just to leave him alone for a few hours. He said he had soundproofing installed into his door, too, but he didn't say why he did it or why it was important."

"Yeah, yeah, I think I know why... um... thanks... thanks for the, uh... warning, Ahrganot." Etah said, still not breaking his awkward trance."

Ahrganot, deciding it was best not to ask, retreated back into his quarters.

"...Damn... that was awkward..."

The Breakfast Thief from the Shadows
It was early morning and the GSSOC had just got back from Ucharpli after crossing the Frozen Wasteland. Ahrganot had just obtained the Shadow Ring and he got up extra early to practice in the simulator. Everyone else however went to get breakfast.

After losing track of time, Ahrganot realized that he partially skipped breakfast. He did not feel that hungry, but he figured he still needed energy. He made his way over to the cafeteria to grab a bite.

"Sorry, Ahrganot. We're out of food."

"You've got to be kidding me!" Ahrganot replied rather irritatingly. "What happened to it all?"

"Well, you see...uh...the rest of the team took a bit extra. They haven't finished yet though."

"Hmmm..." Well, having recently obtained the a powerful artifact that made him virtually undetectable, he figured he did not need to reason with the other team members to get some food. He had a different plan...

Tholker was sitting at the table enjoying some extra bacon. From the shadow of his drinking cup, a pair of chopsticks emerged. He did not even notice. The pair of chopsticks were aimed at one of the pieces of bacon on the plate and it snatched a fair bit like a kingfisher bird catching a fish and the bacon was pulled back into the shadow.

"What the-" Tholker said very mystified as to what just happened to his bacon. "Hmmm...maybe I'm just imagining things." Moments later, the same pair of chopsticks emerged from the shadow and snatched some more bacon. Tholker looked at his plate. "No, I'm sure got more food than this."

Curiously, Tholker asked Etah who was sitting elsewhere. "Hey, Etah? Is your food by chance...disappearing?"

Etah replied, "I haven't noticed..." Etah then checked his food plate again to find less on there than he rememberd. "Okay...maybe you're right. This is just...weird. Maybe something's wrong with my cybernetics. I didn't sleep too well last night."

It was not long until Pyro, Galiana and Sol I Dor began complaining about the same thing. Their food was vanishing from their plates. Ahrganot was watching from the shadows practically invisible to them as they stood their puzzled. He covered his mouth with his hand trying very hard not to laugh.

"Yours are disappearing, too?" Etah asked.

Sol I Dor replied, "Yes. It was right there one moment. Then when I looked down at my plate, it just disappeared."

Galiana said, "Wait a minute, where's Ahrganot?!"

Tholker said, "He said he was going to get up extra early to train a bit...or so I thought."

Sol I Dor replied, "He's up to something. I know it."

All of them marched their way to the training simulator and saw Ahrganot in combat against some polygon warriors. They all stood their watching him with crossed arms and irritated faces. They did not say a word and just waited for him to notice. Ahrganot was so entranced into his fighting that it took a while for him to notice them all standing their glaring at him. After finally becoming aware of their presence, he turned off the simulator and faced them.

"Oh, hey guys," Ahrganot said. "I was just practicing a bit...wait, why are you all staring at me that way?" None of them responded. Their faces simply tensed up while Ahrganot's blushed. "Oh, I...uh...I got to go...check my...um...mail. Bye!" he replied promptly vanishing into a shadow.

"Sneaky little bastard..." Etah said.

"Hey, look on the bright side. At least we know that artifact of his actually works," Tholker said shifting to an optimistic tone.

Still a Little Human...
(Just Prior to Opertaion Titanic Discoveries: Ashadra)

Galiana faced down the training drone. Her blades whirled like a bladed whirlwind as she attacked it. Then, she decided to attempt to master a technique she never really got down: she began to continuously strike the drone. Without wasting a single movement, she continually struck everytime her blades passed the drone. After a few seconds of this, Galiana thought that she might finally have the technique down: that she'd finally be able to pull it off, when, suddenly, the problem that plagued her attempts at this showed up: too much accumulated momentum. Finally, when she swiped, she put too much strength into the attack, which sent her spinning to the ground.

Just then, Sol I Dor, Tholker, and Etah entered the room. "Galiana! Are you alright?" Sol I Dor asked, worried.

"Yes, I'm fine, dad," Galiana responded.

"What was that?" Etah asked, "What were you doing out there?"

"I told you not to try that move until you were ready," Sol I Dor said to Galiana, chastising her for her recklessness.

incomplete

An Older Simulator
"Hey Ahrganot, I think you might like this," Tholker replied. Sometime ago, he got his hands on an electronic artifact over 150 years old originating from Earth. It looked like a grey rectangular box. With it also was a grey cartridge with a sticker on it.

Ahrganot stared at, his eyes widening. "I know what this is. I've read about in Earth's history! This thing is just like the training simulator! I'd never thought I'd see one up close!" Ahrganot took hold of the cartridge examining the date: 1985. He turned it around to the back and read a warning. "CAUTION: Do not store in extreme temperatures. Do not immerse in water. Do not clean with benzene, thinner, alcohol or other such solvents."

Eagerly Ahrganot hooked it up to the training room's holovision screen. He inserted the cartridge into the grey box and pressed a button. The red power button flashed repeatedly and the screen flashed white.

Tholker replied, "Oh...guess it doesn't work anymore...it's a shame..."

"No wait. I read about different techniques to fix this problem. It happened a lot back in the day."

Ahrganot shook his head, then pulled the cartridge out. He blew into the connector ports then tried to reinsert it into the grey box. The same thing happened. Flashing white screen. Ahrganot pulled the cartridge out and blew on it even harder. He reinserted again and the flashing white screen happened. Ahrganot tried one more time blowing as hard as he can. Ahrganot gasped for breath - his eyes were about to fall out.

Tholker replied, "Easy there, Ahrganot..."

Then an idea hit Ahrganot. "Wait, I got it! I need a Q-tip...and some cleaning solution."

"What's that gonna do?"

"I read about it. The cleaning equipment that came with this thing was relatively unreliable. But I know of another trick."

Tholker quickly made his way to the cupboard to grab a Q-tip and brought it to Ahrganot. He dipped the Q-tip in the solution then dabbed it over the cartridge's connector pins. Then, he reinserted it into the grey box and pressed the power button. The screen turned black and some large letters appeared on screen. A synthesized melody came buzzing out of the TV's speaker. The colors on the screen suggested that it was relatively primitive. There were no 3D models, simply 2D sprites. Two muscular soldiers, one with a cigar, appeared back to back on the title screen. A message appeared that read "Press Start".

It did not impress Tholker that much. But Ahrganot eagerly picked up a smaller grey apparatus with several shiny buttons and attached it to the grey box. He pressed a button labelled "start" and was already drawn into the simulation.

Tholker was watching. The simulation involved a soldier with a gun running through a gauntlet of enemies on an unknown island. It was intensely difficult. One shot would defeat the soldier, or in the simulation's terms - lose a life. Three deaths would result in the simulation ending. At first, Tholker wasn't too tempted to join since he preferred training mechs over simulators, but upon seeing the hardcore soldiers running around with Eteno-like firearms, that immediately piqued his curiousity. He had trouble resisting. "Hmmm...I'll just go after you," he replied.

It was not long until Ahrganot's character had died three times. "Wow, this simulation is tough. Only three shots and its over?" Ahrganot remarked.

"Wait a minute...we're missing something. Give me that controller." Ahrganot handed the old grey apparatus to Tholker. Moments later, Tholker pressed an unusual combination of buttons. Then, when he pressed start, the game showed that he had 30 lives.

Ahrganot did not quite understand what happened. "What the- How'd you do that?!"

"Not telling..." he replied. Tholker said as he played away on the simulation.

"By the way," Ahrganot said. "there's two controller ports. We can get two people in this simulator."

"Well, I only found one controller. We'll have to make another one. These things are probably worth a fortune nowadays. Only a handful of them made it aboard the ship that rescued 30,000 or so humans from Earth."

Ahrganot added, "I've even heard that this device actually supported a handheld gun of sorts that you could use in these simulations. Amazing what humans were able to achieve back then." That only made Tholker just as eager about the device as Ahrganot.

As Ahrganot was watching Tholker, an alien monster appeared on the screen for him to battle. Throughout the simulation, the character would have to confront powerful enemies. However, Ahrganot realized that the monster was behaving strangely. It was not attacking back and it was completely immobile.

"Tholker..." Ahrganot said rather frustratingly.

"What?" he replied.

"Why isn't that alien attacking you?"

"Probably just a glitch."

"Give me that!" Ahrganot said as he snatched the controller away taking his try at the boss. As soon as he gave it a go, the monster started moving again and pummeled him completely. Ahrganot had lost all of his lives almost at once.

Tholker remarked, "Oh, I guess it's my turn again."

"Eletar droppings. I know what you're doing..." Ahrganot replied. "You're messing with the simulation's code using your mind."

"Wha-" Tholker replied.

"I knew it! You got that alien to kill me!"

Tholker's face slightly blushed. "Oh, uh..."

Ahrganot replied shifting to a nonchalant tone, "Ah, oh well. I'll take it as payback for stealing your breakfast."

Tholker smirked at Ahrganot. "Oh by the way, you know starting the simulation with 30 lives, that was not me messing with the code. It's actually in the game. I only read the simulation's code with mind to figure out what it was. A certain combination of buttons you must press at the starting screen."

"What's the combination?"

"It's a secret to everybody..." Tholker replied, chuckling afterwards.

An Older Simulator - A New Toy
It was not long until Tholker had gotten a hold of more games. However, he had some trouble getting a hold of the gun that Ahrganot mentioned earlier - it was a light gun used for certain games, one in particular simulated the human sport of bird hunting. The games were relatively more common as cartridges were reproduced much later, but the light gun itself was a rare commodity.

"Hey, uh...Etah? Can I um...borrow some Nras?"

"What for, Tholker? Going to buy more guns?" Etah replied.

"...sort of..." Tholker said.

"How much?"

The auction prices for light guns were outrageous nowadays. Very few still work among those that survived the Harbinger invasion on Earth. Tholker hesitatntly answered, "...um...10,000 Nras..."

"You're joking, right? We could buy another ship with that kind of money."

"No, this type of gun is...well...exceptionally rare...and um...awesome..."

Etah snarled irritatingly. "Alright, well you better pay me back."

---

About a day later, Tholker retrieved a package. It contained a duck hunting cartridge as well as the fabled light gun itself. It was orange. Tholker twirled it around. Etah stood behind him staring furiously at it.

"You paid 10,000 Nras...for that?!" Etah replied. He snatched the light gun out of his hands. "This is not even a real gun, you lying little-"

"Hey, careful with that! It's an artifact!  Surely, you don't want those 10,000 Nras to go to waste.  Anyway, the gun is supposed to be used with the simulator Ahrganot has been using a lot lately."

"Oh, in that case, this is somewhat impressive then. Let's give it a try."

Etah and Tholker walked and saw Ahrganot practicing at that soldier game. He paused it and turned his eyes gleaming at the fabled light gun itself. He took it from Etah and examined it.

"This is...incredible. How'd you get a hold of this, Tholker?"

"It's a...um...long story..."

"He practically stole some of MY money!" Etah replied.

"Well then, Etah, since you technically paid for it," Ahrganot said, "you shall have the honor of being the first to use it."

"I kind of prefer actual training mechs rather than this simulation stuff, but oh well. How do we hook this thing up?"

Moments later, Ahrganot plugged the light gun into the second controller port and swapped the game cartridge for the duck hunting one. He pressed the power button then handed the gun to Etah.

Ahrganot explained, "Pretty simple, right? Just shoot the ducks."

A melody buzzed out showing a dog sniffing the ground then leaping behind some tall grass. Moments later, ducks began flying across the screen. Etah aimed the gun and clicked the trigger. The screen flashed, but he missed. Moments later, the dog emerged from the grass and laughed at him. He was puzzled.

"Maybe I'm not doing something right..." he replied.

-more to come