The Glass House…
I do not own Captain Harlock. Captain Harlock is the property of Leiji Matsumoto and Toei Animation.
This is my first try at a full fiction of Captain Harlock. It should be only a few chapters long. I cannot promise it will be updated regularly, as my inspiration for our dear Space Pirate seems to come and go.
… Feedback might stimulate my creativity, though. Enjoy!
Beware well wishers and their intentions…
As the atmosphere was filled with plasmatic explosions, red flames contrasted with the pale blue skies of daytime.
Nonetheless, the small two-place space-fighter managed to dodge every shot of the automated defense artillery. This was no small feat, and only an exceptionally talented pilot could have slipped between the webs of lasers unscathed.
Finally out of range from the ground defenses, the freighter accelerated. Behind it, a small flotilla of robotic planes made an attempt to catch it. The red fighter distanced them easily. The ever-grinning Jolly Roger painted on each side appeared to mock the poor excuse for a defense system before leaving the atmosphere and slowly disappearing from sight.
On ground-level, a vast plain reached all the way to the horizon. There were miles and miles of farmland, all in perfect rectangular shapes of different colors. Though battle had just raged above their heads, the workers and droids kept working seemingly without a care in the world.
Slightly above the plain, where a small hill covered with grass marked the frontier of a small forest, dozens of skeletal battle-droids lay broken and smoking on the ground, at the booted feet of a single man. His face hidden in the shadow of the single oak tree that stood on the hill, the man watched the space-fighter make its daring escape. A subtle, but determined smiled graced the man's lips.
A horde of metallic troopers quickly made its way up the hill. Quickly and efficiently, they surrounded the stranger, blasters in hand. Among them was a short and fat man, dressed in a brown suit:
- Y…you there! In the name of the Space-Federation, you are under arrest!
Bolstered by the stranger's lack of reaction, the greasy-haired midget continued:
- Surrender your weapon and you will not be harmed!
The hill went silent. The stranger seemed unaffected by the presence of the fat midget and his robotic guards. His eyes stayed still where, a moment earlier, the small space-fighter had disappeared from view. A gust of wind caressed the grass and the oak's leaves, the stranger's cape floated for a moment, its fabric flapped quietly in the air, like the defiant sound of a lonely flag.
The man in the suit was at a lost, the stranger was completely ignoring them! Like a fish, his mouth opened and closed a few times. The other man showed no sign of doing anything, as if he was lost in his own thoughts, despite the dozen riffles pointed directly at his head…
The small man froze a moment, his brain trying to process what to do next. Part of him, his instinct, whispered that the stranger was too calm, stood too straight and that he should beware. A single drop of sweat ran down the man's temple, betraying his inner-conflict. But the whisper was blatantly ignored, as the midget grew bold once more:
- Very well… You two, secure him!
Two droids broke the ranks and walked, blasters ready, to the stranger who had his back turned on them.
Schwing! Slash!
The two droids crumpled on the ground, broken and smoking.
The fat midget took two steps back, mouth gaping in shock. In a flash, the stranger had turned around and sliced the droids in half. His face, now in full view, showed a prominent scar under the left eye. The right eye, partially hidden by a mass of dark copper hair, seemed covered by something black, a patch perhaps. The stranger half-smiled; half-snorted in disdain at the man and his droids.
Yet, the man in the brown suit seemed to notice for the first time that the stranger's left arm hung uselessly at his side. The strange saber was also held slightly lower then it should have been. Was the stranger… injured? Oh, yes!
The fat man had no time to savor his discovery; the stranger had read his face like a book. A glint in his eye showed his anger at the midget for scrutinizing him like a vulture would its next meal.
The fat man managed to squeal "Seize him!" before one of the droids jumped in front of him and avoiding the midget to be transpierced by the saber. The other guards moved on the stranger, but the later had apparently no strength left. He dropped one knee on the ground. The cross of a blaster connected with his neck, and the stranger fell into darkness…
-TBC-