Shadows and Stardust: A Tale of Ambition & Quest for Recognition

The person who invented instant pudding was moved to action by an inability to wait for pudding – Dana Gould

Operation Giga Pudding (D-96 hours)

Inside the courtyard of Fort Carré, four wooden stakes were stuck into the ground. White strips of engineering tape ran from one side to the other, marking the perimeter. By one corner, there was a stack of boxes on a wooden pallet.

T.C. walked along the inside of the perimeter, holding a cardboard box filled with toy buildings and spray paint cans, which he placed in key positions and spray-painted other areas. Occasionally, he stopped to check his map, correct the location of the building. Once satisfied with his work he moved on to the next block.

One of the taller buildings, which T.C. placed near a park, kept falling over whenever a gust of wind blew between the fortress’s ramparts. He tried to push the building further into the dirt, but it refused to stay upright until he put a rock on top of it. Satisfied that the building wouldn’t topple over, he wiped his forehead.

Estelle stepped out from behind the door, holding a shade umbrella with Montaigne strolling beside her. They were silently talking with each other, which suited T.C. just fine because they were leaving him alone and he was also enjoying the outside air.

After all the buildings were placed, T.C. used a blue can of spray paint to make the river and bay. Once finished, he stepped out of the replica of the Boardwalk and inspected his work.

Whisper stood on the stone walls with a cloth doll in her hand. She studied the map from above, then tucked the doll under her belt and jumped down. Whisper placed her hands behind her back as she inspected the replica and checked the positions against her Battle City map, ensuring everything was accurate and in place.

“What do you think?” he asked her.

“Mmmhuh, hmm,” she said as her eyes darted across the map. “Jus’ one thing missing.”

Whisper smoothed out a patch of dirt with her foot outside the parameter. Then pulled out her can of spray paint and painted two parallel lines on the ground and numbers next to the lines.

“You’re missing the linear scale; it gives the audience an idea of distance ratio they are looking at.”

“Good thinking, I take it that’s common sense, right?” he asked as he moved his hands towards hers.

“Only if you done these sandbox drills a million times,” she replied, holding his hand. “Don’t forget to make sure all your skill points are assigned.”

“Already done,” T.C. said smiling back at her as he held her hand tightly.

Estelle's cheeks flushed as she accessed her skill chart. She had three unassigned skill points, having ignored the notifications since advancing to level 3.8.

Rather than enduring the complexity of researching the new skills available, Estelle chose to increase Subatomic Management from level 2 to level 5. Her eyes briefly glowed a bright purple before returning to their normal hue.

“Forget something?” Whisper asked mockingly.

“I refuse to dignify that with an answer,” Estelle said and crossed her arms, then directed her attention toward the courtyard.

“Boss Kitty forgot,” muttered T.C. causing Whisper to giggle.

From the entrance of the fortress the Wheels strolled in. Once the gang reached the courtyard the light from the sun reflected off their black leather jackets.

The door to the center of the fortress opened and the Thornewood’s emerged.

Montaigne waved his hand in and air and moved to the north side of the replica city.

“Listen up Wheels, our sister crew, the Thornewoods, are ready to help us take back our turf,” Marko said when he approached Montaigne.

Montaigne used his walking stick and pointed to the northern side of the map.

“To catch everyone up on the situation, as you may or may not know last week the Queen Pins assaulted and successfully seized the Boardwalk. They initiated their attack at 07:00 here at the Mily Park,” Montaigne said pointing again. “Another squad moved in took the Stain and Paula Church here and swept into the Action Housing block.”

Estelle moved closer to the map. She squatted down and wrapped her arms around her legs. Once she had a better view of the map and began to picture herself inside the planning room of the Queen Pins villa. Their smug expressions as they developed a ground plan to beat the top team in the Battle City games.

“Once they held on to those three areas, they employed a layered defense instead of trifecta approach,” Montaigne continued.

“One-layer acts independently of each other, looks like we are dealin’ with a top tier strategist,” Tauru said to Estelle.

Estelle continued to stare at the map, her face emotionless.

“When our crews moved to counterattack, they were hit with a pheromone-based gas. Those who didn’t immediately fall in love, for a lack of a better expression, with a Queen Pin, found their heads exploding when the Siren’s song started to play over their loudspeakers,” Montaigne continued.

Angel and Sidedragon stepped forward.

"Only females weren’t affected by the gas that the TWA gang, or Trogs with Attitudes, was dispersing," Angel Eyes added. "When our girls tried to attack, the Queen Pins or the muscle from the Playboy Mafia stopped them dead in their tracks. Even if we managed to get in a hit, they just shifted the damage to the Playboys. The siren song hit us what was left of our forces.”

A woman with long almond brown hair, round rimmed glasses and leather jacket crossed her arms. Whisper gave her a pat on the back.

“During the battle I was scanning all freqs, trying to figure out how they were coordinating to their troops. Every wavelength was being scrambled, conventional comms failed, even the Akashic Record was suffering from heavy turbulence, like from a Chronal Dissonance Storm,” Sidedragon said.

“Probably because you are not as good as you think you are,” Bee thought, which earned a tap on the medical alert bracelet by Estelle.

“All attacks were rapidly countered with twice the force,” Montaigne remarked. “We face two immediate challenges before we can formulate a strategy: First, if all frequencies are being jammed, how are they coordinating their attacks? Second, where is the siren or her music emanating from?”

“But before that, we need to compete with that gas,” someone from the audience said.

“Gas masks, duh,” another person replied.

Estelle continued to stare at the map, her mind turning blank as the side comments persisted. She let her mind drift, allowing memories of what she knew about the Queen Pins to bubble up to her surface thoughts.

The all-female gang had joined the BC games to promote their brand image and sell merchandise like clothes, perfume, makeup, or whatever was popular that year.

None of the four main sisters, who weren't related by blood, had any military training or specialty experience that set them apart like an elite team such as the Wheels. Maybe except for Lillian Rose, if Estelle was willing to do the mental gymnastics needed to justify that being the daughter of a notorious arms smuggler was akin to being a professional soldier (like those in the Blood Hound Gang) or individuals with special forces training and experience (like Whisper or Sidedragon).

Estelle envisioned a gaggle of pampered privileged princesses wearing taffeta dresses, lounging around on velvet sofas surrounded by horribly mismatched colors and peacock feathers. During which time muscled bound men covered in olive oil wafted oversized palm fans for them. During which, they would spout whatever mindless dribble that would pass for a slightly intelligent thought or vomit out comments for their audience.

“What’cha thinking?” Bee asked.

"The Queen Pins layered defense is meticulously designed, clearly not the product of superficial materialistic narcissists," Estelle reflected. “Someone must be providing them with this strategy; otherwise, the Queen Pins would have implemented it earlier.”

She stood up and asked to no one in particular, “What does S4 have to say about the Queen Pins, TWA and Playboy Mafia?”

“Not much, what’cha thinking, Doll Face?” Marko asked.

“We need more information,” Estelle replied.

She reached into her bag and pulled out Pocket Girlfriend, which earned her giggles from the Wheels.

“The Thornewoods sure love their dolls,” someone said pointing to Estelle and then Whisper.

“How may I serve you, Captain Estelle?” Pocket Girlfriend asked.

This earned more comments and whistles from the Wheels till Angel Eyes was forced to bark at them. The comments died down to dull murmurs.

"Could you please provide us with the most recent updates on the gang known as the Queen Pins?" Estelle inquired.

Pocket Girlfriend began to rattle off the statistics: 22 members including the 4 core members. During the brief, she lost the interest of everyone till she started talking about the core.

“Frau Petra is the official leader and former model turned entrepreneur, Diamond Anny, with a ‘y’, was a former singer and half merfolk siren,” Pocket Girlfriend said.

Montaigne interrupted, “Is she freshwater or open ocean merfolk?”

The other Wheels stared at him questioningly.

“Water amplifies merfolk’s power and abilities, we need to have an idea where she be staging her concert,” Montaigne said as the others nodded.

“Processing,” replied Pocket Girlfriend. “Unknown at this time. Shall I proceed?”

Estelle waved her hand for Pocket Girlfriend to continue.

“Diana, also known as Strawberry, Black married the lead singer of the Lazer-88s and runs a highly successful Public Relations and Marketing firm,” Pocket Girlfriend said. “Lillian Rose was a former model turned perfume maker. Her father is Pavel Orlov Rose.”

Whisper perked up and tucked the doll under her belt. A few of the others exchanged uneasy glances at the mention of Pavel’s name.

“According to reports Frau Petra or Diana isn’t the real tactician of the Queen Pins, but is the newcome named Icepick,” Pocket Girlfriend said.

“I know her,” T.C. said holding his hand up. “She was in the same gladiatorial school with me, Bravo Class.”

“Echo!” shouted Pink.

Indigo and three others replied in unison, “You know!”

Estelle’s eyes glazed over while she stared blankly at the map, while the others started chanting their class mottos back and forth.

“Shit, I think she’s got something,” said Tauru. “Bout time, Boss Kitty.”

Then Estelle snapped out of her trance. She tapped Pocket Girlfriend on the head and stepped past the parameter. Her foot knocked over the tall building with a rock with her foot.

"The fundamental flaw in their plan is its focus on offensive maneuvers rather than a robust defense. We must exploit this vulnerability to reclaim the Boardwalk," Estelle said.

The door creaked open, and Lieutenant Webb entered the courtyard. The Wheels refused to budge as he attempted to push his way towards the sandbox setup.

“Do you know the victory conditions?” asked Estelle.

Angel Eyes explained that the residents were moved out into nearby residential zones. This turned the Boardwalk victory condition into a meatgrinder situation. T.C. raised his hand and received a flurry of answers.

“A meatgrinder mission consists of 100% elimination of enemy forces,” Webb said. “But before you get too far into planning phase Captain Thornewood, your services are required elsewhere.”

He handed Estelle an envelope which she snapped out of his hand. After reading it, she shoved it back in his hand.

“Please inform to the originator of this letter and the captain of the Astro Outlaws they can defend the bridge themselves, They are more then adequate…” Estelle started to say.

“This is a direct order from Counselor Peloso, if you ignore this you invite automatic suspension and possibly being permi-banned,” Webb said.

“It is indeed a risk,” Estelle said, “but I have already allocated resources and personnel to reclaim the Boardwalk. One should not compromise their integrity or renege on promises due to the capriciousness of a single advisor.”

Webb tucked the note away and saluted Estelle, who dismissed him with a wave of her hand. Several members of the Wheels crossed their arms and blocked his path. He attempted to sidestep them, but they moved to obstruct his exit.

“Captain Marko, could you please handle this?” Webb requested.

Marko crossed his arms and shook his head no.

“We could always shoot you out of a cannon, half-pint,” Whisper suggested.

The gathering laughed and snickered. Webb sighed, pushed past them, and exited the fortress.

Once he had left, Estelle stepped forward and declared, “Now, we have a battle to plan.”

***