Six Sentence Stories: Eject! Eject! Eject!

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I’m linking up with Denise at Girlie On The Edge Blog, where she hosts Six Sentence Stories, and everyone is invited to write a story or poem constructed of six sentences based on a prompt word given.

This week’s prompt word is Kaleidoscope

Eject! Eject! Eject!

(a DC Comics Watchmen fan fiction Six Sentence Story)

President of the United States of America Jane Fonda is currently holding a press conference on French TV, and I will translate: “Citizens of the Republic, our Thermosphere Interception and Mass Engagement programme is now installed at several locations throughout your great land, and you may have full confidence that any further (squid) attacks upon your nation at the hands of the evil Adrian Veidt will be swiftly dealt with by the brave men and women Collider pilots at your service.”

“But the survival rate of your pilots… these so-called Colliders, is only 50 percent,” said a journalist, “and those who do survive the escape pod ejection risk multiple injuries.”

“Indeed,” said another journalist, “with this knowledge, how do the brave Collider’s cope?”

“Quite simply, by being brave,” said President Fonda, “and being armed not only with the most sophisticated thermosphere attack weapons ever developed, but knowledge; yes, knowledge, that they might die to protect others, and avenge the three million souls murdered by Veidt in 1985.”

Meanwhile, on Mars, or perhaps not, Doctor Manhattan observes the daily spectacle of Collider pilots ejecting over earth, as their interceptor ships explode head-on against Veidt’s squid cruisers; and as usual, there is not much he can do but watch these distant space fireworks with a blank stare, and sometimes a rock skimmed petulantly across the surface of a Martian lake.

While somewhere else, Adrian Veidt has quite literally lost his head, and he must use mind-control to replace his squid cruisers as fast as they are destroyed by Colliders, while his angry speech booms across the somewhere else and shakes his servants to their knees: “Look at those fools! Mere bees pitifully protecting a doomed nest against the might of murder hornets, ah, prevail they might – yet only for precious minutes on the clock face of time, for I have great pesticides to sweep and perish them on that blue disc of Earth they call their home, yes, I, Ozymandias, king of kings: look on my illusions, ye Mighty, and despair!”

Eject! Eject! Eject! written by Ford Waight

All images from watchmen.fandom.com and are property of DC Comics; HBO; Warner Bros. Pictures.

Editor’s note:

My story Eject! Eject! Eject! is a fan fiction Six Sentence Story based on the 1986/87 critically acclaimed DC Comics graphic novel Watchmen by Alan Moore, Dave Gibbons and John Higgins; and the also acclaimed 2019 HBO limited TV series Watchmen created by Damon Lindelof.

Eject! Eject! Eject! makes a play on the Six Sentence Stories prompt word kaleidoscope with an imaginary force of TIME (Thermosphere Interception and Mass Engagement) ships piloted by Colliders to counter frequent squid attacks believed to be deployed by the world’s smartest man super-genius Adrian Veidt aka ex-Watchman member Ozymandias. In my tale, Jane Fonda is the current President of the USA, and presides over the TIME counter attacks with full knowledge of the fifty percent survival rate among its Collider pilots.

If you haven’t yet read the Watchmen graphic novel (recognised in Time‘s List of the 100 Best Novels as one of the best English language novels published since 1923) then what are you waiting for! Likewise, the HBO limited TV series Watchmen is outstanding viewing and was nominated for eleven Emmy awards. As well, the 2009 Zack Snyder film adaptation of the novel is a must-see.

Dear vintage mates, who watches the Watchmen?

PS. There is no irony lost on me that one of the major themes of Watchmen is masks, as I use my ‘enforced week off work’ to rewatch epsiodes of the HBO series, while at the same time writing this post, when wearing a mask myself during a period of positive infection for me in this – year 2021 of our dear Covid-19.

Ford.

35 thoughts on “Six Sentence Stories: Eject! Eject! Eject!”

  2. I really like this, brought right back into “The Watchmen” (2019).
    I’d never heard about the Tulsa Massacre before watching the show, and obviously I had a lot to learn. Cheers to Marvel!

    Liked by 1 person

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  6. Such fine science fiction humor. Having already been an adult in ’85, I was surprised that I couldn’t remember the Veidt. It took me a while to recognize that everything in your story is based upon a bunch of distinctive pop cultural references

    Liked by 1 person

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  8. Have watched the movie version a few times and, just today, happened to surf past a reference to the HBO series, which I have not watched.

    Liked (the movie) from the start on the basis of the whole, retro-alternate history-verse. Surely the notion of alternate history alone is total…. ‘OMG! Where do we start…. maybe if we make tiny change and see where it leads ….or, or… re-write the past and see if a present can be created to make it inevitable…. or or….’
    lol
    Now the idea of fan fiction… I’ve seen reference to it, of course, but have never attempted it. Kinda intimidating… like any cover version that surpasses the original… it makes sense, once someone writes it… but to make the good better
    ayyiee
    ‘a course, writing a blog, at least for more than 12 months, does not suggest a lack of ….ego, so the temptation is surely going to find a way to trick me, eventually.

    get better soon so I can do some Fight Club references in my comments

    Liked by 1 person

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    • Thanks, Clark. I too return to (them) often – just a stunning graphic novel + film + series, utterly immersive.

      As for fan fiction – yikes, never tried it before this, and never really read it tbh. But here, this time around, couldn’t help it, and it sort of wrote itself before I even knew what was happening.
      Helps that it was done in the confines of a 6SS. Short, sharp, in and out, goodnight.

      Thanks for the get better soon wishes too 🙂 On my way there!

      Like

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      • saw your reference to Barbarella as I scrolled down here…
        Leaving the theatre with one thought in mind, “I will, by god, become a Man of Letters!”

        lol (I could stop this search for skill were I able to write of those days in a manner that would translate to all Readers)… oh well, miles to go, Chucko, miles to go

        Liked by 1 person

  13. Good work. I’ve been tempted to rewatch the movie as it appeared on Netflix a while back… just haven’t found the time.

    I’ve actually not seen the HBO series yet!

    Liked by 1 person

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  17. I know this seems like a crap comment, but I really enjoyed this one. Now, please don’t go ’round with your head all blown up, not being able to fit through the door. I would end up shaming myself for causing such an atrocity.

    Liked by 1 person

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