Welcome to your weekly story competition. I'm your host for this week.
All these stories are exactly 100 words long and are set in the Elite Galaxy. The theme for this week is Solar Flares. It's a great crop of stories . Beware! Some of the stories may contain puns. Read them and vote on your 3 favourites.
Contestants caught voting for themselves will be burnt to a cinder.
Music reverberated through District Four’s superstructure. Pilots from all walks of life queued to get into Diso’s annual Disco Dance-fest. Pilots’ uniforms were swapped for wide collars, medallions, psychedelic clothing and questionable hair-dos. Outside, many more ships queued for docking permission.
Callum jostled his way to the centre of the dance floor and adopted THE pose.
Nobody noticed.
He pressed the button on his belt and became the centre of attention. Plasma swirled through his custom designed bell-bottom trousers and he strutted his stuff. The crowd went wild.
Queuing ships were notified of increased delays due to active solar flares.
02 Splendour: - Non (plasma) canon
Hours ago a huge mining support vessel had plunged out of control into the surface of Diso's primary, catastrophically firing it's hyperdrive as it struck the star and detonating with such an intensity it would be clearly seen in Lave's skys several years hence.
The EMP from the blast had fried most of Diso’s planetary comms so the citizens were blissfully unaware of the fiery doom that had been ejected from the star directly into the course of the planet, a geyser of superheated gas, plasma enough to make up Diso’s mass several times over.
Burn baby, burn. Diso Inferno.
03 Frank: - Warning Notice
It's a job that's been around since the dawn of interstellar spaceflight, a heavily shielded craft in close orbit around a star, a single person keeping vigil on the star.
The observers earned the nickname of "Paul Reveres". They're ready to spring into action at a second's notice. They arrive at colonies in their fast spacecraft yelling "The coronal mass ejection's coming!". The extra few minutes gained by these messenger runs can mean the difference between life and death.
The weeks of solitude required for each tour of duty attract a certain kind of pilot who enjoy these solo affairs.
04 Ian Phillips: - The latest craze.
It's the latest craze for the kids with super rich parents. Get a Fer-de-lance (which are not cheap themselves) and then spend a fortune modifying it for this new sport. Huge arrays of magnetic sensors, deep temperature analysers, chemical composition detectors and loads of other stuff that scientists get exited over. The pilots mostly haven't a clue how it all works, they are just interested in the results of the analysis.
The location of the next surge.
Once found, the surfers flock together and head of to enjoy their time in the sun. Literally!
Solar flare surfing is a thing!
05 Darkoba: - Lave City College: Term end Exam Report. Summer 3014
Astrophysics......... 89.............. Satisfactory. Pity the model Fer-de-Lance went through the Principal’s window.
Astro-navigation.. 94............. Will go far.
Human History..... 78............. Knows all the planets of the original home system and their development, but .............................................very little else. Has what I call a Solar flair.
Mathematics........ 72........... Can improve, with calculated determination
Chemistry............ 84........... Dar’koba, stop making rocket fuel in the lab!
Languages........... 63........... Sometimes we don’t understand each other.
Art..................... 45........... Stop doodling sketches of Cobra III’s and get down to serious artwork!
COMMENT
Do better next term, your time to fly will come!
06 Garthyre: - Showstoppers
"I can't see, daddy! Lift me up!" The child was hoisted onto her father's shoulders, azure pennants clenched in tiny fists, huge excited eyes staring at the words appearing above the filtered sun on the massive screens.
Commander Montgomerie's astrobatic formation flying team were famous across Federation space.
The awe inspiring climax of the show involved the nine pythons swooping close to the stellar surface from different vectors. Under artificially induced Solar Flares arcing into the photosphere, the ships almost touched before separating again, trailing starstuff and glowing plasma.
The show began, the words faded:
"Monty's Python-Flying Circus – Lave."
07 MrMogadon: - The Hunt
The attacks had been brutal.
Five giant fanged behemoths driven down from the Highlands, by an unnaturally dry summer had laid ruin to the small farming community. Each one had been given a name. ‘Bjorn’, ‘Bennie’, ‘Olaf’, ‘Gunther’ and ‘Solla’.
The six men paused at the tree line, pleased to be leaving the dank, foreboding forest behind and relishing the fight ahead.
The first kill, Solla, had been more luck than skill. But now, with only one remaining, they knew how to work as a team
Jaroslaw, the tracker, pointed to a cave in the distance “There, that’s Olaf’s Lair”
08 The Lone Gunman: - Simple Joe
"Damn weather men!" Joe was not impressed "and damn its hot and tight in here!"
He shuffled about as best he could
"Sure it could get warm, hot even! get your sun-cream ready its gonna be a scorcher they said!"
"Nope still uncomfortable!" he now wished he had taken a few things out before getting in
Then they change their minds "not hot, oh no, now they say roasting, literally! a catastrophic Solar flare that will engulf the planet
"So i climb in but i forgot to make sure its plugged in!!
Damn Weather men and damn the Fridge!"
09 insanephoton: - Storm Chasers
To some they are dedicated scientists putting their lives on the line to gather vital data. Others see them as a bunch of reckless thrill seekers. The truth is somewhere in between. Whatever peoples point of view, they all call them the same thing, storm chasers.
The name is ancient and used to refer to people studying extreme weather events on Earth. While it's true that you still get planetary storm chasers, these days it mostly refers to solar storms. They wait for the solar flare then race ahead of the storm front deploying probes and sensors as they go.
10 psykokow: - Merry Go-round
The handles where shaped like ears and holding on was difficult.
It was a strange ride, but so exhilarating as the carbonite vehicle shot down the track, the people behind me screaming as we hit the loop de loop.
My hands slipped but the belt held me in place safely.
The ride slowed to a stop and the barriers rose letting all of us disembark, a Strange dustbin shaped robot bleeped at us and led us to the next ride.. Mall Ayone Falcon… a strange ride running through rooms chased by a hairy carpet.
That’s Han solo fair for you.
11 Erik Marcaigh: - The Endless Summer
The port side injector exploded, causing a trickle-down effect through several other ship systems, finally culminating with the port thrusters. The thruster spat out a funny looking purple and green flame which Kikks would have loved to have seen, if he weren't in the pilot's seat, pulling hard on the stick.
"He's really charging that tube, dude!"
"Yeahhh, pretty gnarly out there, man. Betcha a brick he eats it."
"You're on! He ain't bailin'. He's really..."
The explosion lit up the other surfer's screens.
"Dude carked it, but it's what he loved. Hey, that weed better not be the bammies!"
12: GavThomas - Sola Fluer
Aulin station waitress and part-time dancer Sula Fleur was a natural star. It was a credit to her that she could make ends meet on wages more scandalous than her dance routines in the Gentleman's Club 'the Growling Badger'. She could certainly entertain, she was bright, she had flair and could dazzle passing 'truckers' with sights they'd never seen. And she was hot... she had a body the other dancers would die for. And flame red hair, scorching looks and with eyes that could melt you... unfortunately with her equally fiery temper she was an utter pain in the ass.
It is a bumper crop of puns this week, with even the Landlady of the Thargoid & Fer-de-Lance submitting a pun.
My tip is to always laugh at the Lady-with-the-Lager's jokes, or you may find that Sven has had instructions to keep you out next time you go for a drink.
11 voted so far. That's almost as many contestants. Please read these stories and vote on them. If you don't have the time to read them then just vote for the 3 stories that have your favourite titles.
I'm still convinced the pun can't be original, but I'll take the prize anyway.
A new topic may need some thought, though. Meet you in the main thread when I think of something - and thanks again to everyone who voted for my story.
on 
