Soldier of the Past
The Jolly Rogers
By David Kean
KANSAS CITY POLICE DEPARTMENT
JULY 16, 2002
945 CHICAGO TIME_
Iris was sitting at her desk looking over some files she had been collecting since the incident. Ever since she came across the undead, she and her small force was delegated to take care of any further cases. As she was looking at one file, she looked back at what happened.
KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI
JULY 5, 2002
1450 CHICAGO TIME_
Sergeant Gainsburough was lying on the ground face first from getting punched in the face by the undead soldier. Things looked bleak for her until a sword came out of nowhere and stuck in the ground. Both the zombie and Iris looked to see David standing in the distance, and missing a sword. David held the remaining sword in his left hand.
“Hey, asshole! Why don’t you try me on for size?” he shouted.
“Come and get it!” the zombie replied.
David leapt towards his opponent and the two soldiers clashed as Iris looked on. Then she felt an arm pick her up and take her to an alleyway to be out of harm’s way. Her rescuer was Grim himself.
“Take it easy, kid. You ain’t dying on my watch,” Grim said.
“Th-thanks,” Iris said.
“No problem. You stay here and we’ll get you taken care of.”
Iris nodded and peeked around the corner to watch David and Grim deal with the zombie. Also there to cause more problems was Miranda herself. Grim went after her as David dealt with the other soldier. Some ways away from the battle, there were some other zombies and skeletons, but they had already been taken care of. The duels went on and on.
Finally, David had enough time to recall his other sword back into his hand and cut the zombie in half at the waist. The zombie screamed as it got cut and tried to crawl its way to David, intending to deal one last blow. Unfortunately, David was ready with a Colt Series 90 Double Eagle 10mm. He aimed the pistol and shot the zombie in the head. Then a blue orb flew towards David’s right arm guard and was sent back to the Underworld.
As Grim and Miranda fought, Miranda caught a small hole in Grim’s stance and stuck the spear into his chest. Grim lurched back to laugh. Clearly, this wasn’t what Miranda expected.
“What were you thinking? Did you really think I’m mortal like you?” Grim asked.
“I-impossible. How could it be that you can live from such a fatal blow?” Miranda asked back.
“Simple,” then got into her face, ”I’m immortal. I’m the Grim Reaper.”
Then David slashed at Miranda’s arm, and she yelped in pain. She held her hand against the wound to prevent it from bleeding any further. Then David aimed the pistol at her and looked for a good shot. Miranda staggered a bit, and disappeared just as David took his shot. Then Iris snapped back into reality when her boss showed up.
“Iris, is something wrong? You’ve been staring at that file for some time now,” he said.
“Oh. Sorry, chief. I must have been thinking about what happened,” Iris replied.
“Well, don’t let it interfere with your work. That lieutenant you’ve been mentioning has been a great help to this metropolitan. It’d been nice if he actually been a part of our police force.”
“Eh heh. I’m sure it would have been a benefit,” Iris said and smiled.
“At any rate, keep up the good work. These recent undead attacks have been really bothersome since they started.”
“Indeed, sir. My task force will be on top of things.”
“See to it that it is.”
“Yes, sir.”
The police chief walked away from Iris’ desk and she went back to work. The investigations had made Iris a hard worker to make the streets safe.
Meanwhile, on top of another building, David was taking some time to refine his combat skills with Grim as his sparring partner. Grim had noticed that David was a bit rusty in his sword strokes since he woke up from the long snooze. David swung his swords; Grim blocked and tried to counterattack. Every now and then, each would score a hit and keep going. When Grim had enough, David stopped, and sheathed his swords. They knew that David couldn’t practice firing his upgrades on the rooftops. It would attract too much attention. Instead, David would practice some martial arts as Grim rested and watched over him. Seeing David practice brought some memories back to Grim when David first started to fight for real.
MOON PALACE ARENA
AUGUST 18, 8113, BCE
845 UNKNOWN TIME ZONE_
David, as a child of ten years old, stood on the arena floor awaiting his opponent. His parents, the queen, and Grim watched in anticipation. Then a sailor senshi stepped into the small arena and looked at David. When stepping into the lights, his opponent was none other than Sailor Jupiter herself. Grim looked at the queen.
“Are you sure this is what you had in mind?” Grim asked.
“Of course, Grim. You’ve seen how much progress the colonel’s son has made in his training,” Queen Serenity replied.
“But to have the kid face Jupiter? Why not have Venus or Mercury fight him?”
“From what I saw, he would need a stronger opponent. The best on hand was to have Sailor Jupiter face him.”
Grim shook his head, “I hope you know what you’re doing.”
“I do, Grim. I do.”
Little David charged at Sailor Jupiter, and gave her an uppercut right square in the chin. However, she caught his fist. Then Jupiter backhanded him in the face and sent him flying to the other side of the arena. David’s mother looked on in shock as his father held her. David stood back up and got into a fighting stance. Jupiter ran at David, going for a clothesline. David wisely rolled away and gave her a sharp kick behind the knee. Her knee gave and then David kicked her in the face.
David’s parents cheered on their son as the fight went on. The fighting got intense within minutes. Both fighters were giving their best in the match, not giving up. It seemed it went on for minutes, maybe even hours. Finally, David went down Jupiter’s Oak Evolution. The referee began the 10 count as the only audience consisting of David’s parents, Grim, the moon queen, and three senshi watched. To everyone’s amazement, even Jupiter’s, David slowly stood up when the ref was at 8. David’s mother smiled, seeing her son would not give up so easily.
David was breathing hard and looked worse for wear. Burn marks and bruises were all over his body and dents on the armor. Then he stood in his fighting stance, waiting for Jupiter to come at him. Jupiter stood in her stance and motioned him to come. Then they charged at each other. The audience watched on as the two fighters collided. David had punched Jupiter in the gut while she was going for a knee in the gut. Both stood in the same spot for a while until David fell to the floor. The match was over.
David’s mother immediately rushed to her son’s side to take care of his wounds. Jupiter held her stomach as she coughed. His father aided her to a seat. The queen calmly walked over to David and smiled.
“You have done well, little soldier. I’m proud to see you fight,” Queen Serenity said.
David coughed a little, “But…I lost.”
“I know. But you never gave up. You fought until the end. Your family’s renown resilience was what kept you going.”
“Really, your majesty?”
Serenity nodded, “Indeed it was. For your excellent display of fighting against one of my strongest senshi, I shall reward you.”
“What’s that?”
Serenity calmly took David’s left hand, and placed his index and middle fingers on her forehead where the symbol would show up. A soft glow came as the fingers had touched her forehead and energy gently flowed in his left arm. The moon symbol appeared on the left arm guard and she removed the fingers from her head.
“What happened?” David asked.
“Your power that you inherited from your father copied my power,” Serenity answered.
“It did? Wow, that’s neat. But why?”
“Because, my dear, you deserved it. You have fought valiantly and bravely against Sailor Jupiter. Soon, you will have more senshi powers to obtain and they will grow with experience.”
Grim snapped back to reality as present David continued to practice. Grim knew that David was among the best the Moon Kingdom had to offer. However, evil never takes a day off.
UNKNOWN LOCATION, UNDERGROUND
JULY 16, 2002
1021 UNKOWN TIME ZONE_
Sailor Hades watched her army grow and grow, despite the losses she had suffered already. She then watched her soul siphon continuously take souls from the Underworld and bringing back soldiers long dead. Then Miranda entered the throne room and bowed to her superior.
“You summoned me, Hades?” Miranda asked.
“Yes, I did. Over the past few days, the Grim Reaper and the lieutenant have been returning the souls I have taken back to the Underworld,” Sailor Hades said.
“I have noticed that. The souls returned were nothing more than expendable soldiers.”
“As well as the souls of some of our top soldiers, our best. Those two had better be taken care of quickly if we are to take over this god forsaken planet.”
“We will at once. I will see to it myself.”
“You better. You do know what happens to those that fail.”
“I understand the consequences. The lieutenant and the Grim Reaper will not interfere any longer.”
“Good. I await their end.”
“Yes, milady.”
Miranda exited the room and headed towards the war room. Several undead were working diligently to make plans for the Moon Kingdom’s destruction. She then stopped and talked to a soldier without even looking.
“Lieutenant Malice. Make sure our friends don’t cause any further trouble,” Miranda said.
“It shall be done,” Malice said throatily and disappeared.
Miranda smiled as she looked at the city map of Kansas City, MO. Then she gave the order, “Send several squads to assist our lieutenant.”
“You got it, commander,” a skeleton said and slammed its fist on a button.
When the skeleton moved from the button its hand fell off and the others began to laugh at it. It screamed for the hand to be put back on and at the others for laughing at him. Even Miranda chuckled at the skeleton’s problem.
KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI
JULY 16, 2002
1338 CHICAGO TIME_
David and Grim were making their usual rounds from the rooftops, keeping out of sight from any civilians. David took a break from his patrol, removed his helmet, and prepared a Meal Ready to Eat (MRE). He sat against an entranceway in the shade as his meal was cooking. Grim sat across from David.
“Quite a day, isn’t it?” Grim asked.
“Yeah. Who’d have thought that it’d get so hot today,” David said.
“I told you to check the weather reports. If you had, you wouldn’t be so tired.”
“So I made a mistake. Thank goodness the water here’s great.”
“I suppose. Boy, we’ve searched all over and not a thing has turned up. Not even that Miranda chick.”
“Well, we did manage to get a little more information about where she’s stationed.”
“Yeah, it’s a start. But it could be anywhere underground. It could be in the north pole for all we know.”
“Indeed. I just hope we can find whoever is stealing souls from the Underworld and start searching for the Moon Kingdom Army.”
“Who knows? The soul problem could take months, maybe even years to get done.”
“I know. If only we had something to work from.”
David then started eating his lunch as Grim watched the streets from the roof. After David was finished eating, the soul retrievers went back to patrolling. David checked from one side of the roof while Grim was checking from the other. A few minutes later, David spotted a small group of undead. Both Grim and David went down to street level to ambush the little band of undead soldiers.
David walked out into the middle of the street and confronted the skeleton and zombie warriors. David fought the small group to the best of his abilities. When a skeletal warrior attacked, David jumped to the other side of the street. Then energy formed from behind him, and then launched towards his target. As he made his way past the soldier, David swiped at it with an energy blade and stopped a few feet behind him. The skeleton just stood there for a moment and looked at David.
“What was that? You call that an attack. That hardly did anything, fleshy. Now I’m gonna get ya really good this time. I’m gonna,” then it stopped as it was bringing its sword up to attack.
David stood up, the blade retracted into the top of his wrist, and the skeleton fell to pieces. A blue orb flew to David’s right arm guard, sending it back to the Underworld. The other warriors looked at each other and back at David. David turned around to face the rest of the group, and smiled underneath his helmet’s facemask. Then the undead yelled and ran away. David gave chase to finish off the small band of undead soldiers. When he turned the corner, he then stood face to face with an even larger group of undead soldiers.
“Oh fuck me,” was all David could say about the situation.
“Get him!” the lead zombie said and the group charged after David.
David ran as fast as he could, trying to put some distance from him and the undead. Grim was waiting from one of the corners for David. When the undead turned the corner, they saw David and Grim waiting for them.
“Hello boys. Miss me?” David said.
“So nice of you guys to join the party,” Grim said.
“Uh oh,” a random skeleton replied.
Then David and Grim began to slice and dice the large group of undead. As the fight went on, several figures some distance behind David and Grim showed up. They were all wearing armor and carrying rifles. The leader was in a magenta colored suit of armor with a motorcycle-like helmet. She stood in between two small groups and gave an order.
“Rogers ready!” she yelled.
“Ready!” the soldiers said in unison.
David looked behind him and saw the group of armored soldiers, readying their guns.
“Aim!” she yelled and they aimed at the group of undead.
“Shit! Grim, move it!” David yelled.
“What?” Grim said.
David pointed behind them and Grim saw the rifles aiming at them. Grim disappeared as soon as the next order was given.
“FIRE!” the woman yelled out and all of the guns fired a volley at the undead.
Several undead soldiers went down quickly and the souls immediately went to David. The armored soldiers fired another volley from their rifles at the undead. David immediately ran at the group, wondering what was going on.
“Who in the hell are you?” David asked.
“Sir. Sergeant First Class Iris Gainsburough of the Jolly Rogers Platoon, reporting for duty,” Iris said and saluted with the three small groups.
David saluted back, “Just what the hell were you thinking? You could have shot me.”
“I yelled loud enough for you to hear, didn’t I?”
“Yeah, but still. You could have shot me.”
“Sir, we better take care of your undead friends first before we can continue our introductions.”
“Right. All right Jolly Rogers let’s get ‘em. Aim!”
The entire group aimed their M-16 rifles at the undead group. Then David gave the order to fire and the entire platoon shot a volley of bullets at the undead. Then they strapped their rifles onto their backs and drew their swords. David drew his bastard swords and Iris drew a serrated long sword from her sheath.
“Charge!” David yelled and the Jolly Rogers Platoon ran at the undead.
Both groups of soldiers clashed and fought a fierce battle. Even Grim lent a hand to eliminate the undead. As each zombie and skeletal warrior went down, the soul would go to David’s right arm guard and was returned to the Underworld. The soldiers fought for a while when the undead leader showed up and started to make his way through the undead ranks. He had wrist blades ready and made its attack. A few members of the Jolly Rogers were wounded and the leader spotted David.
It made its way over to him and made a swipe at David. David was able to move away in time and take a defensive stance. The undead leader kept attacking so fast, David couldn’t counterattack at all. David was finally able to kick the zombie away from him to regain his footing. The zombie took a fighting stance.
“I take it you’re the leader of this group?” David asked.
“I am. And I will make sure you will not stop the undead,” the zombie leader said.
“Is that so? You’ll have to try harder to do that.”
“I, Lieutenant Malice of the Hades Regime, will kill you.”
“Hades as in the Greek God of the dead?”
“Not even close mortal. Sailor Hades is our glorious leader. She will bring this world and the universe to its knees.”
“Not if I’m still around.”
David then attacked Malice and Malice returned in kind. Both warriors fought fiercely as the undead group and the Jolly Rogers kept fighting. Grim did his best to fight the undead. Soon he met up with Iris.
“Hey, Iris. Long time no see,” Grim said.
“It has been a long time, Grim. I’m glad we got reunited,” Iris replied.
“Where’d the platoon end up?”
“Would you believe we were in a bunker underneath the city?”
“At this point, I’d believe anything.”
“Well, that’s where we’ve been staying all this time. When David showed up, it was great news for us.”
“Glad to know the Jolly Rogers Platoon’s back together. Let’s show these undead what we’re made of.”
“You got it, Grim.”
The platoon kept fighting on as David and Malice kept their fight going. David was scoring a few hits while Malice didn’t get quite as much. David then sheathed the sword in his right hand, aimed his fist at Malice, and fired a fist-sized laser at him. Malice roared in pain as the laser burned his flesh, or whatever flesh is left. David fired again and knocked Malice against the wall. Then David began to charge energy into his fist for an even more powerful shot.
“VENUS UPGRADE!” David yelled as he aimed and fired a one-foot radius laser.
Malice roared out in pain from the burning. When the laser stopped, he slumped to the ground and was breathing hard. David walked up to Malice, and stood in front of him. Then he pointed his sword to Malice’s face.
“Surrender, Malice. It’s over,” David said.
“Never. The Hades Regime will take over this planet,” Malice said.
“Face it. You lost. Surrender immediately.”
“You have no idea what you have gotten yourself into. Hades will see you dead.”
“I’m afraid not.”
Then David sliced Malice in half, straight down the middle. Malice’s soul flew to David’s arm guard and got sent to the Underworld. Soon more souls were returned to the Underworld as the Jolly Rogers cheered in victory. David and Iris shook hands and gave each other a hug. The Jolly Rogers Platoon was back together.
UNDERGROUND BUNKER, KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI
JULY 16, 2002
1625 CHICAGO TIME_
David and his platoon were celebrating their victory with food and drink. Even members who were wounded joined in, though not as jubilant. Grim could only watch the group have their party. David sat next to Iris and began a friendly conversation.
“It’s been a long time, Iris,” David said.
“I know. I’m glad that the platoon’s back together from all those millennia,” Iris replied.
“No kidding. I thought I never would find you guys.”
“Well, now you have found us, or rather we found you.”
“And I’m glad you did. Grim and I would have had our asses kicked if you hadn’t shown up.”
“True. The fight would have lasted longer.”
“I would have been exhausted from fighting. Again, thanks for coming.”
“No problem, David. For now, let’s just kick back and relax.”
“And how.”
Meanwhile, Sailor Hades was absolutely furious about the day’s failure. Miranda’s body had been smoking from Hades’ blasts. Miranda struggled to stand up when another blast hit her hard and she screamed in pain.
“Once again you have failed me, commander,” Sailor Hades bellowed.
“I’m sorry, ma’am. I thought it would be taken care of,” Miranda said while in pain.
“And it cost us one of our finest soldiers, Lieutenant Malice.”
“Please, milady. Forgive me for my failure.”
“You had better not fail me again. It will be your last.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Miranda disappeared from the throne room and another figure entered. He bowed to Sailor Hades in respect. Hades took notice and welcomed the soldier.
“Ah, welcome major. So good to see you,” Hades said.
“Miranda has been doing her best, milady,” the major said.
“Humph. She tries but it has ended in failure. You know I don’t like failure.”
“Of course I do. Would you like to hear what I have in mind?”
“Go ahead. I’m listening,” Hades said as she sat on her throne.
“If Miranda fails in taking the city, perhaps we should try another.”
“And if those soul retrievers follow?”
“They’ll be dealt with in the utmost importance.”
“Good. The Moon Kingdom shall fall. I will be its new ruler.”
“I will always follow you to the end.”
The major bowed and left. Hades sat on her throne and watched the battle that took place earlier in the day. Then she turned it off and slammed her fist on the arm of the chair.
“Curse you, Lieutenant O’Cain. You may have won this time, but ultimately, you shall fail,” she said and then began to laugh.
Outside of the throne room, the two skeletal guards looked at each other.
“You know, that laugh of hers reminds me of someone, Larry,” the left guard said.
“Oh yeah? Who is it, Joe?” the right guard asked.
“I don’t quite remember. But the girl was really annoying.”
“Like that big boobed chick from Slayers?”
“Nah, not her. More like that one who thinks she’s elegant or something.”
“Oh her. Eh, she can’t be elegant. More like idiotically insane.”
Both guards laughed as Hades continued her laugh. Meanwhile, David sat on top of the roof, staring at the night sky. Iris made her way up and sat next to him. She had a small cooler of beer and offered one to him. David took the bottle and continued to look at the sky.
“Iris, can I ask you something?” David said.
“Sure. What’s on your mind?” Iris said as she took a drink.
“Have you ever wondered if it’s possible to go back to the moon?”
“Not really. Hell, I haven’t even thought about it. Why do you ask?”
“To be able to visit the home you once knew.”
“I see. Someday, we will be home. But for now, Kansas City’s our home.”
“Very true. God, it’s been such a long time since we worked together.”
“Yeah. The last time was… during the last battle of the Silver Millennium.”
David nodded and took a drink. “Well, better get back down to the bunker for the night. I could use the rest.”
“Me too,” Iris said and stretched, “Been a hard day’s work for the both of us.”
David and Iris climbed down the ladder and the stairs leading to the bunker housing the Jolly Rogers. They went to their separate quarters and went to bed. Grim looked over the place once more before he went back to the Underworld.
Next time… On Soldier of the Past. The Jolly Rogers have been reunited. However, the undead continue their attack. Miranda has decided to fight the lieutenant at an abandoned quarry. A member may take up the slack if she fails. The battle will be fierce in the next episode: Miranda’s Last Stand. (R. Lee Ermey-like voice) Did I say you can leave, you grabasstic load of crap? I didn’t think so! Stick around, or I’ll give you latrine duty for the next month!