Welcome ladies and gentlemen to this week's Drabble competition. I'm your host, Frank, wearing a snakeskin suit in honour of the topic. I was going to wear snakeskin shoes but they made a weird hissing noise with every step.
This clutch of Drabbles are very slick. I hope you enjoyed reading them as much as I did.
And please vote for your 3 favourite stories to show your appreciation. Anyone voting for themselves will have their legs removed and be banished from Eden.
The pain when he tightened the tourniquet around his thigh was excruciating. Hissing through gritted teeth "What's we doin' in this snake-infested hellhole anyways?"
Burke shot him a dirty look "We swallowed more than we could chew. That canister's too hot for us. Getting caught with it's an immediate death sentence. We leave it here and look for a fence. If we find one we can lie low for a bit, maybe even consider changing careers."
The massive rumble of an arriving spaceship made them look skywards. The familiar arrowhead shape of a police cruiser was overhead with deployed lasers.
02 MrMogadon: - Burns Notice (Please forgive me)
The cold embrace of empty space, amidst the glowing stars.
The hopes and dreams and best laid schemes, thought up in far off bars.
The human race goes forth at pace, to gather and explore.
Some search the void for new found homes, on far flung distant shores
Some mine the ores and precious gems, that is mankind’s desire.
Still others take to cart and freight, through the maze of cosmic fire
All these are prey to darker souls who cheat and kill with no respite
The only thing that gives them pause; the Space Police; the deadly Viper’s Bite
03 KalRyper: - Blood Trail
The Krait jinked behind a sizeable rock in the asteroid field. Close enough for its engines to scatter micro-debris into the pursuant’s path.
The Viper’s shields flared.
Several more times the Krait ‘dusted’ the area, forcing the Viper to evade, increasing their distance.
The Viper cut left but the Krait countered, skimming shadows of another rock.
The courier pilot flinched as impacts pinged off his hull, “Too close,” he breathed.
A second Viper emerged from a dark shadow, needle-gun mounts retracting. Its colleague slowed to a stop alongside.
Two neat puncture wounds vented oxygen, leaving a crystalline wake to follow.
04 Ian Phillips: - Mixing drinks
It started as a joke. Have a shot of each themed drink they could find and work their way though an array of ships.
Cobra Cobana Venom for the Cobra MK III of course. A famous old beer called Asp Exploder for the Asp. Then they found drinks to reference other ships such as the Anaconda, Boa and Sidewinder.
An evening of epic drinking that would go down in the annals of their group as the 'night that you had to have been there'. But there was one ship they never drank to.
The hangover was named the 'Viper's bite'
05 cassius: - One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Viper's Bite
Give me some more of that old Viper’s Bite
It keeps me awake all through the night
In all the little corners of this here ‘verse
My little ol’ ship becomes my hearse
Won’t you give me that old Viper’s Bite
I’m gonna keep drinking til morning light
But out here in the deep dark black
That morning light ain’t coming back
So I’ll keep a-drinkin that old Viper’s Bite
And when they find me I’ll give ‘em a fright
In here I’ll drown and this old ship will rust
And that bottle o’ Bite will be sitting in dust
06 Dung Beetle: - Once Bitten...
When you disturb the nest you get bitten. That’s the rule. Vipers - bit me once, never again. Had me a ‘winder back then, cost me a bomb it did.
Them Vipers are swarmin’ now, ready for the feast, fangs glimmerin' bright with poison. I can feel their hissin’ and bitin’ and stingin’ against the hull. Shields down, systems failin’. Nah, I ain’t complainin’; I done plenty O’ killin’ in my time too.
See, they think I’m toothless, think I’m weak. Them rozzers won’t know what’s bit ‘em. Got me an energy bomb in the hold.
This old snake bites back.
07 Darkoba: - Still deadly
In many parts of the galaxy, the old Viper is no longer fashionable. I bought one from a police-auction for cents on the credit.
At the Akashi yards at Barnard's station I had it tuned up, armed and fixed internally. Apart from beefing up the shields, I wanted the exterior looking old and tired.
Now, the living is easy. I drift, powered down, around remote systems until curiosity brings somebody sniffing around the 'carcass' to see what they can get out of it.
What they get is 'bitten'. What I get is enough booty to survive until the next victim.
08 Rog: - Viper Spite
It had been a long and successful run, but for even the best smuggler (and Tev was far from that!), luck runs out.
Today was that day.
The old family Cobra was in dire need of maintenance, and that had been his downfall. The leaky engine signature had made it too easy to follow, and police had been waiting as he emerged from the jump.
'Ya win this time, but I'll be back in business sooner or later...'
'Yes, I nearly forgot...', the cop muttered.
The ship looped gracefully, and blasted the Cobra.
'Illegal parking penalty enforcement', the officer smiled.
09 Erik Marcaigh: - A Snake by Any Other Name...
The Texas rancher moseyed out through his field of bluebonnets towards the landing pad. A Lakon Type-9 was sitting there, having just come from Alpha Centauri. It's custom paint marked it as a ship owned by the Hogg/Starr Ranch, which incindentally also took up the entirety of those two counties.
"How'd it go, Buck?"
"Twern't too bad a haul, Pa. Only problem I run into was the viper."
"Viper? Did it damage the ship?"
"Naw," said Buck as he pulled a dead snake out of his saddlebag. "Damn rattler sure was a fright to see floatin' through the cockpit though!"
Image of Holstein Cow paint job by Fenris Wolf HERE.
Bluebonnet field and landing pad mash-up by me.
10 Luniticisi: - Life's harder now..
'Beware old friend, Vipers Bite!'
His mentors words rang around the commanders head as he put all power to shields and tried to escape the onslaught.
Things were much easier in the old days, the law seemed more relaxed.
He was now running for his life, Canopy cracking, engines failing, he knew he couldn't escape.
He should have heeded his mentors advice.
The Police response was devastating.
In his last moments, even he had to coincide that the Viper was indeed a great deterrent.
His days of parking his Anaconda outside of Freeport, shooting at everything that moved were over.
11 Splendour: - Lock On
The Eagle flashed past meters in front of the Viper’s cockpit as Shen pulled back on the throttle for all she was worth. Viciously she yanked back and right on the stick, banking round to try and bring the nimbler vessel into her sights. The blip on the scanner showed her adversary had looped around and Shen whooped in triumph as she killed flight assist, spinning wildly before bringing the Eagle into her sights.
The computer calmly counted down “Three, Two, One, Target acquired.”
“Gotcha!” cried Pilot Officer Shen, pulling the trigger on a 500 credit fine for traffic offences.
12 insanephoton: - The next big thing
Viper's Bite is the new drug craze that's sweeping the galaxy. It's been banned throughout Federation space and many parts of the Alliance. Even the famously decadent Imperials are considering restrictions.
No one knows where it came from. Rumours are that it was originally developed for the Imperial military in a failed attempt to create a super soldier with enhanced endurance and resistance to pain. It certainly succeeded on those counts but also caused an intense euphoric 'loved up' feeling in users that rendered them useless for combat. The name comes from the distinctive dual syringes used to administer it.
I think I got the very first Picture Drabble! (almost like a picture book, but you're limited to one really small picture that hides all the flaws, like lighting and inconsistent vanishing points.)
Ok , who spiked Frank's Janx? He thinks the last voter is a horse when clearly Steed is a gentleman of distinction
Voting is open to anyone, it costs you nothing but a moment of your time. Just give your favourite 3 drabbles your vote and make a poor drabbler happy.
Congratulations Erik. You won and now you know what you must do. Your Drabble stood head and shoulders above everyone else's. That's no mean feat when you consider the standard of all the other entries.
It's that high standard that makes me feel flattered to come in joint second. Thanks to everyone who voted for me.
And a special thanks from this week's host to the three voters who weren't contestants. The more votes we get, the better the competition looks.
