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| >> Static Item >> Short Story >> Military >> ID #1075007 |
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Pepsi vs. Coke
Political and environmental conditions in the year 2025 were perfect for war; humanity had used a great many resources trying to improve the standard of living for suffering countries around the world. But Fifteen years of hard work and 30 trillion dollars didn’t do as much as hoped. The U.N was having trouble keeping order; its peace keeping troops had diminished and no longer had the money to fund all of its humanitarian projects. Then just as it seemed Man-kind would plunge into all out war against itself, two things happened, PEPSI, and COKE. The two Multinational companies had become, so huge that they each owned around 23% of the world’s economy. They came as saviors from heaven giving money and relief to those who had none. For the next 200 years prosperity ruled, everyone was happy, the world its self rejoiced.But peace cannot last forever.... By the 23 century man kind had done great things, we finally conquered things as species rather than warring factions. We had colonized the stars, building grand star ships to carry us on our way to the heart of the Galaxy. But Pepsi and Coke who had been the greatest of allies, propelling humanity to greatness, suddenly they distrusted each other; they began to scheme to over throw one another. First it was creative disagreements, then open mocking, and insulting, but as the leaders of men had seen happen so many times before. The thing that we humans find so illogical but so often engage in, war. Thus man kind plunged into its darkest hour. All human worlds were pushed into a . No one new why they were fighting, only that there were two sides Pepsi and Coke. The Government of Earth and all of her colonies were powerless to stop the clashing of these to Giants. They fought over all human controlled planets and just when it seemed that all hope was lost for one faction they would push the other back and gain superiority over the other for a time. But a great leader of Earth, Jonathan Williams, came forth and finally stepped between these two Titans, calling for peace. -------------------------------------------------------------- In The Great U.N building on earth, he speaks to them. “I sorry Mr. President, but Pepsi, will sign no peace agreement with the monsters known as Coke. Said the Pepsi representative. “Monsters!” Howled the Coke ambassador. “You speak of monsters, if are afraid of them I suggest you look in the mirror!” He said with a smile. “How dare you!” Spat the Pepsi representative. “Coke has caused the deaths of Millions of my people, and you have the audacity to call me a monster!” The entire amphitheater erupted in shouts and screams of threats and insults. Jonathan bowed his head and walked away from the podium. “It’s disgraceful, full grown men ready to throw themselves at each other.” He said to his assistant and bodyguard Pim. Pim was a silent man, medium build, with short jet black hair and dark glasses. He was impossible to pick out in a crowd. Perfect for protecting someone who did. “What do I have next Pim?” he said with a smile. “You have a meeting with a man who wishes to share information with you about plans of Coke, he’s waiting for you back at the hotel” He said without the slightest bit of emotion. “Well, best not keep him waiting.” He said, starting towards the street. Walking through the U.N building was like going back in time. You could see many of the era’s of building styles from the 1970’s to 2200’s. The main audience chamber was a huge high ceiling room, with a large mural painted along the top, similar to the one in the Sistine Chapel. It was crowded with people and security officers, with their harsh glare and imposing physic, no one would try to do anything other than talk under the security guards watchful eyes. They walked out into the busy streets of New York, the traditional flags of all the countries of old Earth had been replaced by the flags of all the planets still held by the weaning Earth government. The Presidential limo came out of the garage; it had a sleek black finish with unseen hover generators hidden where an age ago, wheels had once been. “Driver, to the U.N Hotel please.” He said looking up to the front seat. “So, Pim how are the election polls looking?” “Well your numbers are starting to go down; people wanted you to be the do something president. But so far you haven’t done, anything but send negotiators, people don’t think of this as action.” Saod Pim as he looked through his folders trying to find better news. “Well I’ve only been president for a year and already they want me to have ended the war...." ****************************************************** The trip was short and uneventful, and as soon as they got out, a swarm of camera’s and reporters was waiting for him; luckily the secret service was there to keep them in check. “Have Pepsi and Coke gotten any closer to peace?” asked one of the reports close to the front. “How does it feel to be called 'the do nothing President'?” Asked one particularly pushy reporter. “The President has no comment, no comment.” Shouted Pim, wading his way through the crowd, ushering Jonathan along. Once they made it through the main doorway the all the noise from the reporters and camera’s started to die away. As he walked through to the elevator, people would take pictures, and ask for him to sign things. He signed a few hat’s and note pads, and then continued to the elevator. It opened with a satisfying **PING** and the President stepped in. As the guards slipped in he pressed the button for the Penthouse suite, grasped his hands behind his back and started humming. It was an old tune from an opera that he had seen several days ago, but he hadn’t been able to forget it for some reason. This didn’t bother him at all, so he started to hum it a little louder, his guards looked at each other quizzically but quickly went back to their monotone blank faces. When he again heard the customary **PING** again, the elevator doors slid smoothly open, he walked down the beautiful floral wall-papered corridor with Pim flowing in step. There were flowers from every planet know to man there, each more beautiful than the next he continued his humming until he got the incredible double French doors. He and Pim stopped and Pim put in a key card, opening it and saw a tall darkly tanned man, wearing a black cloak, with long and spiky flaming red hair. “Good afternoon Mr. President.” He said turning to face the President. His cybernetic implant shimmering in the afternoon sun. “I understand you have information to share?” He said while taking his coat off and hading it to Pim. “Share is a relative term, but I think you misunderstand it, when I say share, I mean, you share something with me, and I share something with you.” He said smiling, while his Cybernetic eye roamed around the room. “I think we understand each other.” He said, motioning for Pim to come with the Briefcase he was holding. “Twenty thousand credits should thank you for your troubles, no?” Said Pim, opening up the brief case. Inside was a small electronic credi-banker. “Please enter your credit number to start banking.” Said the metallic voice. Xanlet quickly punched in his number, looking to make sure no one had seen it. “Please enter second credit number to continue.” Said the computer once again. Pim handed the brief case to one of the Secret Service agents, and punched in several numbers. “Thank you and have a nice day.” The computer said in its ringy robotic voice, that tried and failed trying to sound human. “So no that we’ve shared, I think it’s your turn.” “Fair is fair.” Said Xanlet, pulling out a mini Holo-projecter. There was a light humming noise as the projector began. A planet appeared in mid air, with small space stations, ships hovering around it. “This is the Coke capital of Cola, In the Alpha Centari system, population 1.3 billion” Suddenly the picture changes to another planet with roughly the same features. “This is the Pepsi capitol of Caffeinis III, in the Octanus System, population 1.2 Billion.” He said looking at the president. “We were here for something useful not a geography lesson.” Said Jonathan, beginning to turn away. “Ecscuse me, Mr. President, but I don’t think your tax payers would be very pleased to find out that you pay’ed twenty thousand credits for information, and not even bother to listen to it.” He said with a smile. ‘Well I am a busy man, so you better hurry, if you catch my drift.” He said, as one of the Secret service agents cracked his neck. “I wouldn't dream of it.” Smiled the black clad bio-mechanic. “Coke and Pepsi spend Trillions of credits, expanding their militaries, finding bigger and better weapons to wipe the other out.” Droned Xanlet, pausing for dramatic effect. “These planets each reflect the desire to commitment that they will fight until one of them is wiped out; they stay true to this commitment by throwing everything they have into the war effort, anything they do always get undone in a matter of years, helping maintaining a status quo." “But this time it looks more serious,” spoke Xanlet in a deep voice, “They each have gone to great lengths to keep this a secret, but my intelligence network is far superior than they would like to think.” Clearing his throat he continued. “They have each come up with weapons that are so powerful they could destroy the entire galaxy.” He said changing the picture. “This is the Coke weapon; it has the power to immobilize whole planets.” he said pointing to the new projection. “It fires a huge blast of anti-matter into the planet causing a power overload and frying all technology, thus letting coke rain destruction down on the planet with out worrying about orbital platforms and ground fighters.” he continued. “The Pepsi weapon is another story all together, launches a small capsule from a deep space platform, to its chosen target, when the capsule reaches the atmosphere, the hull will start to disintegrate, and when the pressurized seal is broken, the air that is rushing into the dying capsule mixes with the other free floating chemicals and forms a deadly mixture that expands continually in the oxygen, and then it starts to eat way at the planet, in its expansion it uses so much oxygen to form expand that the planets atmosphere collapses and solar winds and flares start to tear away at the planet, rendering it uninhabitable.” He shuddered. “We are currently calling it the ‘The Maw’” he added “These Men are the instigators of these super-weapons.” He growled, pointing to the display, which now showed the faces of two young men, the one on the right, a young but mature looking man with a brown short military style hair cut, the other a long haired black and fierce red striped, wild looking man with teeth bared, He radiated a sense of randomness, like he would strike at any moment. Jonathan studied them, staring deep into the projecting, looking for some sort of weakness in their features, he found none. “They are each the leaders of the factions respective fleets, the first man Geo-Kahn of Pepsi, “The Maw” is his brain child, he has fought long and hard on the battle field, and in the political arena for his weapon to be used, make no mistake about him, this is one of the most powerful men in the Galaxy.” He said gravely. “He thinks of himself, a true gentleman, and is regarded as such by his peers, this gives us a little insight from what to expect from him.” scoffed Xanlet. “He is a quiet and calculating man, you can bet every move he makes is carefully thought over before he does it, this also means he can overthink, and be too careful at times, which can be an advantage for his enemies.” “Mattwell Cockle, commander in chief of the Coke military and a respected tactician in the field, he is perhaps the exact opposite of Geo-Kahn, he is brash, loud, and swift, he rarely thinks before he does something, its all spur of the moment.” he grumbled. “This is what makes him dangerous, he will not think twice or even once in some instances, about firing his weapon on anyone, so in his spontaneity, and brashness he becomes a powerful foe.” He explained. “He and Geo-Kahn are forever hateful, and revengeful of their factions and their leaders, which means given the opportunity they will pummel each other, and anything else in their way, to dust.” vowed Xanlet. “The problem is, they now have very ample means to pummel not only eachother, but the entire galaxy into oblivian.” finished Xanlet, as he closed down the holo-presentation. “To see such men of power and influence prepare to annhilate their fellow man makes me sick to my stomach." said the president shaking his head. “At this point I don’t know what to do.” The president spoke. “But we must trust that we will succeed, the moment we believe we can’t do it, is the day we won’t.” He said regaining his composure. “There’s something else Mr. President.” Stopped Xanlet. “My intelligence network found transmissions coming from earth, to Coke and Pepsi operatives, that contain detailed coding, we tried to crack them, but they are set to diplomatic frequencies that my people can’t crack..” he said with mild disgust. “We don’t know what’s in them but we do know that they came out at the beginning of every month, hence my wanting to meet you today.” He finished. “So you need our help to crack the codes?” Said Pim sitting down on the couch. “Quite simply, yes.” admitted Xanlet, scratching the back of his head. “Pim.” Said the president. “Yes sir.” Answered the bodyguard, while digging into his pockets. “What code format is it?” Pim said ready to punch it in on the little pocket computer he had brought out. “It is of earth origin, but it has strange Coke and Pepsi variations.” “Where were the transmissions directed to?” asked Pim. “It greatly confused my network but, one month to Cola, the next to Caffeinis III.” explained Xanlet. “Pim,” Motioned the President. “Please do a through analysis of these messages.” “Yes Mr. President.” He said, bowing as he spoke. Pim carefully handed the little device to one of the agents, who took it and walked out the door with it. “That concludes our business this afternoon, thank you for your time.” said the President quickly, before Xanlet could react. The information dealer was no stranger to the world of politics, no matter how much it irked him, he hoped that he had at least done some good with this news. He gave a short bow of his head to the President, and then walked out the door. ------------------------------------------------------- “Curses!” yelled Xanlet as he slammed his fist down for the third time in five minutes. “Why can’t he see that all this is true?” he questioned to an old woman in the street, who got a worried look on her face and promptly walked away, staring over her shoulder the entire time. Xanlet slowly made his way out of the U.N hotel, nodding to the security guards as he passed through the big front doors. Walking down the street, he headed to the underground where Model Ceti MM (Mars Motors) Rover awaited. ----------------------------------------------------------- It took Xanlet only a short time to gain acess to his ship parked in the secure hanger in the lows of the west side. It cost him a pretty penny every year to ensure that he would have a spot, but being central as it was, it was completely worth it. He could write it off as bussiness expences anyway. Settling into the cockpit, his fingers danced over the control keys, and with a brief wash of gravity over his body, the ship lurched out of the hanger and into the atmosphere. He punched in his co-ordinates and leaned back in his pilots seat. Looking back on the city, he could see the millions of ships dancing about the sky of New York. The farther he got from the scene, the more the image reminded him of some child's video game, bright lights and flashes moving in all directions. "Goodbye dear mother, may we meet again soon in better circomstances." ------------------------------------------------------------ Yes, after years of waiting, I think I will begin to finish this story. Thanks for everyone who kept sending me great comments after all this time. Check back every now and then to see what I add! :D -A Guy
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