Juniper’s Daughter: Frontier Town by Nick Armbrister
Copyright 2012 Nick Armbrister
ISBN -978-1-4716-5982-9
Thanks and Acknowledgments
A big thanks to Diane, the pagan
gothic witch who inspired the title of chaper1 of this book. A big thanks to my
pagan Goddess of Mother Nature for letting me have the skills to do my books
and see it through, this book is for you! And thanks to my friends and family
for their support, you know who you are. Thanks to my enemies and to the girls
who broke my heart and ruined my life, your actions made me angry, this anger
flows onto these pages. Out of my darkness comes something even darker but a
positive.
Forward
This novel is set at a date shortly after my previous novel Juniper’s
Daughter, how long you ask? Not a year and not a ten thousand, I’ll leave it up
to the reader to date when. Some events link it directly to the 1st
book namely the witch Juniper’s Daughter and several chapter titles are linked
to the earlier work with a link to the past, Juniper’s Daughter. Many new
characters, story lines, information and other new events are featured in this
book; who knows I may even do a book3 Juniper’s Daughter, a 2nd
follow up. I’m beginning to like her character and I do relate to her in the
real world and not just on paper, as a work of fiction.
I really love the dark background of a world torn apart by war, conflict
and suffering, how the people try to survive either living or dying. How
clear-cut in perfect black and white! What else in life is like that? After my
disappointing years of 2008-?, I will put a lot of my own personal darkness in
these pages so you can experience it through the characters. My own events like
the break up of my family, being laid off my dangerous job and having to move
away from my home in the south of England, up to my old home in the north of
England, helped shaped my views and attitudes. I have put my own darkness and
despair into my new book, created a positive out of a negative.
Juniper’s Daughter – Frontier Town is set in a town on the edge where
life means nothing and death is a constant companion in day to day life, in the
night and in the dark recesses of the traumatised human mind. Maybe the dead
were the lucky ones; maybe the ones who prayed for a final nuclear holocaust
weren’t so crazy after all…
Nuclear
Bombs Not Very Nice (The Power Of The Witch)
Blackness covered the land as a freezing night descended like the gloved
hand of a strangler choking her victim. Baron landscapes arced out in every
direction for what seemed like forever, something shimmered under the
snow-laden clouds while snow slowly fell carrying radioactive isotopes.
Invisible death fell again on this wasteland in an endless cycle of evil,
darkness receding one degree to grey as the poison snow took hold in a Devil’s
grip. Radiation clouds full of charged particles became visible under freak
metrological conditions, where the edge of the snowstorm indicated the
beginning of the cold front radiation in the air glowed, shimmered. A haunting
pulsating blue light of ether brought to life by nuclear explosions, of what
was carried out before, the cargo of hundreds of nuclear weapons.
Material destruction was physical, destroying hundreds of towns and
cities. Glowing charged particles were mystical in appearance, spiritual in
their meaning – to view them from a distance was to be mesmerised by their
beauty. You had a chance to flee and save your wretched life, to be amongst
them was to witness pure lethal beauty before you died a hideous death from
radiation poisoning. Slowly the lights from the charged particles faded out as
the cold front advanced driven by a cold northerly wind, grey contaminated snow
covering everything in a hideous of death. Underneath the snow lay the remains
of what was once a town, Oldham had been its name, now forgotten and lost like
so many others destroyed in one war or another that had engulfed the United
Kingdom. This was after Wales and Scotland had gained their much cherished and
fought after independence from England in a bitter civil war, for a few short
years they were free until a nuclear war with France destroyed almost
everything.
One hundred and thirty five thousand buildings of various sizes from
bedsits on old council estates to heavy concrete structures like the old art
gallery were obliterated near the centre of the nuclear explosion that wiped
out Oldham. Further out in circular rings the damage went from severe to minor,
this last bit was a distance of eight miles encompassing the whole town. When
the twenty-kiloton suitcase bomb exploded almost in the centre of town nothing
remained, over two thousand people were killed and many more injured. With no medical
help most of them perished unless they were walking wounded, for those trapped
under buildings or with broken limbs it was a slow agonising death from
injuries and radiation. This weapon was a small device in a suitcase, man
portable in a metal box, similar in size to the crude weapons that destroyed
Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Tactical weapons designed to stop armies of tanks and
men or attack targets like an airbase or other important smallish target; yes
they worked on towns too. For bigger towns and cities a bigger device was
desired in the tens or hundreds of kilotons range, even a one megaton device would
be perfect but like a sledgehammer cracking a nut. Big bombs were hydrogen
bombs using a small nuclear device to explode them after bring the main device
up to critical mass, a nuclear trigger. Cities like Leeds and London had been
hit by similar weapons; the single one-megaton missile aimed at Leeds had wiped
everything out and killed or wounded over one million people. The entire
population was annihilated.
In France not a single town or city remained standing, in revenge for
firing several hundred nuclear missiles at England, Wales and Scotland. The tri
manned Trident nuclear missile carrying submarines launched almost every weapon
at the French. Many French towns and cities were hit by up to three or more
weapons, Paris were hit by seven 475 kiloton nuclear warheads. Not even London
was hit so badly, it received just a single bomb like Leeds. Due to the size
the city the outskirts survived but huge areas were radioactive with fallout.
The only people alive in France were country people, not living in the built up
areas and radiation covered most of the rural areas so many people left alive
were slowly dying from the contamination. It wasn’t a functioning country, it
was a destroyed country twice as badly hit as the landmass of Great Britain, a
nuclear nightmare that killed and had polluted the oceans and land of many
other countries bordering GB and France.
France had used submarine launched medium range missiles from her four
nuclear missiles submarines, only two firing due to the others being sunk by
the Royal Navy. French Air Force Mirage 2000N and Rafale nuclear strike
fighters carrying Aerospatiale nuclear tipped cruise missiles had hit some cities;
Leeds and London were perfect examples of a big bomb on a medium/large size
city. The submarine launched missiles each carried six 150-kiloton nuclear
warheads with a total of sixteen missiles fired from two French nuclear missile
subs giving a total of 192 separate warheads. Each the same size of 150-kilotons.
Combined with the big one megaton bombs on the Aerospatiale cruise missiles
from the fighters, this was a huge amount of nuclear fire power delivered
against cities, towns, harbours, oil refineries, military barracks, bases,
ports/harbours, air bases, aircraft factories and dozens more targets in
England, Scotland and Wales. The newly independent countries weren’t spared due
to alleged sympathies with England. Not a single French sub launched nuclear
missile was intercepted and shot down; indeed no defences were in place to
shoot down any incoming missile. Out of 32 missiles launched from the two
submarines that survived to launch, two failed, one whose solid fuel rocket
engine failed to ignite before it fell back into the ocean and the other didn’t
achieve the right trajectory, heading off the Atlantic where it splashed down
with its warheads still inside the missile. In total 180 French submarines
launched warheads hit England, Scotland and Wales; not a single warhead failed
due to the superb reliability of the design. Both missiles submarines were
hunted down and sunk by the remaining ships of the Royal Navy after firing
their weapons. In turn some of the RN ships were sunk by aircraft and missiles
from the two French aircraft carriers; these being engaged by the two carriers
of the Royal Navy in a bitter no holds air to sea battle. All four aircraft
carriers were sunk along with three quarters of the supporting destroyers and
submarines; nothing survived this mini Armageddon in the North Sea, Channel,
Atlantic and Mediterranean by the powerful navies of England and France. Of the
French air launched cruise missiles several were shot down by RAF Typhoon
fighters after launch, not an easy job considering the missiles was a small
fast stealthy target that flew at low altitude. Many French Mirage and Rafale
nuclear strike fighters were shot down before launch, picked up by RAF AWACS
radar planes as they took off from their bases and headed low to try and hide
under the radar. Fifteen one-megaton Aerospatiale cruise missiles hit towns,
cities and other targets killing millions of people, one was targeted at Oldham
and the aeroplane factory there but the strike fighter carrying the missile was
shot down before it could launch, saving the town. No French airbases or
aircraft carriers remained for any surviving Mirage 2000N or Rafale to return
to, the crews flew until they ran out of fuel and crashed, ejected or landed in
other countries to have their fighter planes impounded and pilots interned.
The Royal Navy, England’s senior service, defended England and also
Wales and Scotland. With superior submarines and better missiles and more
aggressive tactics, each submarine launched its Trident D5 nuclear missiles at
France hitting towns, cities, airbases, factories and everything else that made
France a 21st Century nation. A total of 64 missiles were launched
at targets in France, one missiles failed to ignite its seconds stage and it
fell back into the ocean along with its eight warheads, the remaining missiles
each carried eight four hundred and seventy five kiloton nuclear warheads – a
total of 504. Every one of these detonated at a French target totally wiping
France off the map, seven bombs in revenge hit Paris for the single hit on
London. After the war? People left alive suffered slow deaths from radiation or
blast injuries; just a few small towns remained in France with shell-shocked
inhabitants.
In the landmass of Great Britain roughly half of the large towns and
cities had been hit and destroyed with casualties of up to one hundred percent,
London suffered greatly and much of the outskirts were untouched but suffered
bad fallout. Three quarters of military bases were hit, the civil war hit the
British Army badly with units in Wales and Scotland belonging to the new
nations, so the already depleted English army was down to just twenty thousand
men, a few heavy vehicles and helicopters and the few RN missiles and warheads
that weren’t on the lost subs now passing to the army, after the nuclear
exchange. The Royal Air Force was wiped out losing every single airbase; the
dozen fighter planes that survived the air battles intact either force landed
on open roads and motorways or flew to Germany or Spain. There they remained
with the crews being interned like the French planes that survived this hideous
little war. The English army took over the few small naval vessels that
survived from the old Royal Navy, a major base was set up on the Isle of Man
which was free of contamination and damage and was safe, being in the middle of
the Irish Sea. Here the small number of coastal patrol and gunboat type craft
managed to patrol the waters and the sea relatively easily, small
clashes/skirmishes with similar craft from Ireland (the North was absorbed by
the South after the nuclear war with France and England), Wales and Scotland
occurred from time to time. So did gun battles with heavily armed war veterans
and freedom fighters smuggling guns, booze and other illegal things from
Ireland and the Continent into England. It was a real law of the gun world of
barbarity and death, the only power remaining was the small English army, local
Police Forces fell into disrepair after the nuclear violence. If you had your own
gun you were your own police force and army all in one.
After the civil war, the nuclear exchange with France and general low
level fighting between armed people and the English army, a series of
operations was launched by the army to crush the many heavily armed groups.
Anyone with weapons and the skill, determination and willingness to use them
was a major threat to the army’s slender power base. After an attack against it,
the English army acted using its heavy firepower to wipe out groups of war
veterans and freedom fighters and individuals who were all armed and dangerous.
The English army operation was very successful until it met with fierce
resistance when it attacked Oldham; the first attack with heavy weapons was
defeated. A second attack was a draw with both sides suffering heavy losses; by
using superior skill, tactics and weapons the army took the town, killing,
capturing or driving away the freedom fighters that stood up to defend the
town. In other towns there was generally much less resistance. Oldham was indirectly
destroyed by the army in an operation to capture a hidden stash of weapons and
because of booby traps; this was destroyed from a distance by heavy fire.
Unknown to the army a tactical nuclear weapon was hidden amongst the other
weapons. This detonated when hit by normal high explosive shells destroying the
town centre, surrounding flats and houses and everything else to a radius of
several of miles. Thousands of people died and were injured by this explosion
(much smaller than even the smallest French bombs that hit the country in the
previous war).
After this it was the beginning of the end of the English Army in that
part of the country, an attack on their base that sent troops and vehicles to
attack Oldham and other towns was a success. The army base was destroyed along
with many heavy weapons and hundreds of soldiers; the army now had no influence
in the north of England. The nearest other bases was in the Isle of Man where
the remaining helicopters and nuclear warheads were based and one in the east
of the country. With large helicopters the army flew missions from these to try
to hunt down the remaining freedom fighters and war vets who had gone to
ground. A few were killed when caught by surprise or by heavily armed heli-borne
troops; one chopper was shot down on one of these operations. The Isle of Man
base was attacked by an unknown craft allegedly flown by the freedom fighters;
a silver flying disc equipped with stealth technology, superior performance and
advanced beam weapons. The base was wiped out, every single helicopter was
turned to ash, weapons storage bunkers were incinerated, barracks set on fire,
army controlled naval vessels sunk burnt to a crisp, hundreds of soldiers
killed or injured and the nuclear missiles simply disappeared. The army lost
another base, its power was taken away as a fighting force able to threaten,
kill, invade or take over the whole country. This would have happened had their
operations been successful killing the armed groups. With the army’s nuclear
weapons any major target would have been destroyed so a miracle had stopped
that. No one knew who flew the flying disc, where it came from or where it
went. Only rumours of a witch with unparalleled powers of magic, healing and
war fighting ability; many people claimed to have seen her, been healed by her
and to have seen her fight the Devil and win. Was it her who destroyed the
island base? Her name was Juniper’s Daughter and she thought that nuclear bombs
weren’t very nice. Nor the radiation poisoning and dangerous climatic changes
they brought. Juniper’s Daughter was back…
Juniper’s Daughter walked over the gently shifting desert sands feeling
the fine grains move between her toes and bare feet. A nice walk in the sun,
she took her time on this leisurely stroll under the fierce midday high Saharan
sun. A temperature of a hundred and forty two degrees along with humidity of
over ninety percent would have killed a normal person, de-hydrated their body
and shrivelled their flesh. Not this little lady, she was Juniper’s Daughter, a
person who was able to stand most extremes of this natural world, for she was
also a part of Mother Nature. She liked being in the extreme areas enjoying the
climatic conditions that were so extreme; in her head her agile mind covered
many issues at the same time. One caused her some trouble, the event she didn’t
stop some years ago because her mortal enemy the Devil got one up on her: a
nuclear war that killed nearly a hundred million people in less than a day. The
nuclear exchange between England (and Wales and Scotland) and France caused by
something so trivial and stupid – a fishing dispute in the North Sea. With
fishing quotas per nation at their lowest limit ever, boats returned to port
with half a catch or even empty. Desperate measures followed with rival crews
cutting the nets of their foreign competitors, boarding the boats and smashing
the sonar equipment used to locate fish, assaulting the crew members and the
occasional death. Naval warships were deployed to escort the fishing vessels
and patrol the seas; both nations sent guided missiles frigate type ships. It
was only time before they came into contact and under tense and circumstances
not fully understood shots were exchanged, first warning and then direct fire.
Naval vessels were damaged and sunk, French missiles fired from a naval vessel
attacked an English homeport and this was chased down and sunk. A French port
was hit by English missile fire; an escalation came in the form of a French
tactical warhead fired by submarine on a naval shipyard at Portsmouth. Revenge
was swift, multiple submarine launched nuclear missiles were fired by the Royal
Navy missile submarines at every known French military harbour, ship repair
facility, dockyard with military vessels at anchor, aircraft production
factories, military air bases, troop barracks and other targets. Most civilian
targets like towns and cities were spared at first from the English first
strike, only after the French retaliated by launching their own nuclear
missiles at English military targets, towns and cities, did they get hit in a
horrible escalation of hideous proportions killing millions of English
civilians, decimating the areas hit and wiping out most military bases. It
would have been much worse had the Royal Navy not managed to sink two of the
four French nuclear submarines carrying half of France’s sea borne nuclear
arsenal. French naval aircraft from that country’s two aircraft carriers
engaged targets in Scotland while flying at the limit of their range. Not all
the Rafale naval nuclear strike fighters got through the Royal Navy F-35
Lightning 2 fighters or the defending Royal Air Force Typhoon fighters, which
flew from bases in the North of England. Due to Scotland’s independence they had
to fly an extra 400+ miles to engage the French fighters, having lost their old
bases in Scotland. Nuclear tipped cruise missiles hit these vacant bases and
all of the major Scottish towns and cities, no mercy even on a country
independent from England.
The English response was swift, more missiles were launched at French
air bases not yet hit, at every French town and city over ten thousand people,
the naval vessels of the Royal Navy hunted down every single French aircraft
carrier, frigate, destroyer and nuclear submarine sinking every single major
vessel. The losses it took to do this were only slightly less than the French
had sustained, in total four carriers and eight nuclear missile subs along with
seven patrol submarines from both nations were on the bottom. French air force
jets that survived the nuclear bombardment of their bases, avoided the English
fighters to launch their weapons had no bases to fly back to. It was almost a
suicide mission.
At what cost and stupidity the witch angrily thought, the Devil had won
this round with nearly a hundred million dead and four countries in ruins.
Neighbouring countries suffered blast damage and fallout, with large areas
evacuated of people until it became safe to return home, if that was ever
possible. The witch did her best to stop the domino effect of other countries
launching their own missiles to settle their grudges. In this the witch was
successful but it was close with Russia nearly launching at America over a
dispute in the Crimea. This was an ongoing problem that Juniper’s daughter
finally brought to an end using her flying saucer to do her duty, to keep the
peace.
Back to reality, the witch looked up at the sun while it slowly arced
over the heavens, as it had done for millions of years in an unending cycle of
night and day, of light and dark. Yes she had done well but she had to always
be on her guard, she never knew when the next problem would arise either by
humankind’s own doing or the Devil upsetting the balance. She was good at what she
did but she didn’t get it right every time, her failure with the nuclear
exchange was her biggest loss, she swore that would never happen again. Not on
her watch. She thanked her Mother, Great Goddess Juniper for giving her only
daughter Juniper another chance to steer the humans away from the temptation of
evil and darkness. In the very early days her Mother had done the same job as
her daughter but then it was so much easier, nuclear weapons didn’t exist and today,
the next generation of weapons just coming on line were even more hideous and
evil – nuclear powered laser beam weapons.
She had to do something about that before millions more innocents died;
the weapons designers, builders and politicians needed dealing with. How?
Direct action would be too obvious; mind control leading to cancellation of the
weapon programs and deployment plans was the only way. People had to realise
the lethality of these devises without seeing them in action first. Turning,
she walked slowly back over the undulating sand dunes, back to her silver
coloured disc that shimmered in the high summer heat. Closing her eyes
Juniper’s Daughter sent the command; a small opening appeared in the disc’s
side allowing her to athletically climb aboard. Seconds later the opening
closed and the disc slowly climbed upward, shooting off at great speed and
Juniper’s Daughter’s new job – the eradication of a new class of deadly beam
weapons.
Cobalt Blue weapons lab, former Soviet Union. Doctor Gregori Ivan Ivan
Ivanovich was pulling his trousers up after getting a blowjob from his Mexican
whore, he frowned when he saw his own spunk stain on his trousers. Fuck, this
was pants! He wiped it off with the cuff of his stained white lab coat. His
sale of hand held laser weapons to the Mexican drug dealers was fine and dandy,
they would slowly kill off American financed gangs in Mexico City and elsewhere
and bring more Russo Block influence to the region. In time he would move up to
the export of laser rifles, then laser cannons to go on the back of pick up
trucks, onto coastal ships and bigger and bigger till America was surrounded.
Finally into space…
In return for this he got a Mexican whore every month to satisfy his
desires on, like Anna Maria who had just sucked his four-inch hardly useable
Kazakh cock dry. He would fuck her later but now he had a weapons test to
complete on the MK12 plasma laser rifle. The target was the previous bitch that
he didn’t want anymore because he had used her and abused her and knew every
whole on her sweet 17-year-old body. She couldn’t be sent back as it was a
one-way service for the girls, in return for laser arms. Smiling and saying that
he would be back for more afterwards, Ivan left the small room that served as
his quarters, securely locking the door so no one could pry into his business
and so the girl wouldn’t escape. He walked to the lab and checked up on
progress – all was well; the weapon was mounted securely on a test bench bore-sighted
on the target. This was the previous girl he had discarded; she was tied to a
wooden chair that was firmly mounted to the floor by special plastic
attachments, all of this would burn when his by laser fire.
He looked through the one way mirror made of two inch gold plated glass
out onto the indoor test range. He saw the girl sat on a chair with her eyes
closed, dozing. No doubt thinking of Mexico and freedom, her Hail Mary’s
wouldn’t save now. The countdown clock slowly ticked by, Ivan checked the
computer display showing the status of the laser rifle aimed at the girl and
all was in the green. He inspected the weapon in the other room separated by a
reinforced concrete wall and six-inch blast doors, no problems there. He walked
down range to the girl and stood in front of her, looking at her – there was no
mark on her for he didn’t believe in beating women. He saved that for his
soldiers who sometimes fucked up on a task. Silently as he had come he softly
walked back to the lab leaving the sleepy girl, glanced up at the clock while
the secure door shut and put on his blackened safety goggles. Seconds ticked
down: 10, 9, ….3, 2, 1. The weapon was connected to a small nuclear reactor the
size of a small can of baked beans, this was the nuclear power supply for this
new class of weapon giving many more laser bursts than a normal battery pack.
Fire! Green light coloured the room a beautiful luminous green as the gun fired
a two second concentrated burst of laser energy, a pencil thin beam was visible
even under the strong spot lamps. Then the light faded, the reactor powered
down, the door locks automatically unlocked and it was time to check the girl.
Opening the door Ivan and two other lab technicians walked out of the test room
and onto the range to the girl, only there was no girl there just a pile of
blackened ash eighteen inches high – the remains of the girl, the chair and the
plastic chair restraints. The technicians carried equipment and they went to
work taking radiation samples, still photos on an advanced multi spectrum
camera and readings on other secret advanced tools. She hadn’t even screamed
but she must have opened her eyes a millisecond before she died in the hideous
evil green light.
Did she suffer? He doubted it. Ivan would review the film footage from
the camera bank later after lunch, he would slow the million per second frame
camera down and watch the girl in her last seconds on earth, seconds that he
was responsible for. As he was about to turn and head back to the lab and then
canteen to eat, leaving the techs to finish their job and clear up the mess
something happened. Ivan glanced to the wall for some reason and then looked
away, then back again. A whooshing sound filled the firing range and the wall
disintegrated in front of him in a super display of pyrotechnics. Had the
nuclear reactor failed? It was his last question before he died, as he watched
a silver suited figure stroll through the still molten concrete and metal, a
lithe female figure dressed as an astronaut.
It was Juniper’s Daughter carrying a hand held laser weapon of extremely
advanced design, making Ivan’s designed nuclear powered laser weapon look like
a child’s spud gun. The witch shot him and turned the laser fire from an alien
designed weapon onto the two techs and then onto the lab wiping everything out.
She said a silent prayer and invocation for the lost Mex whore, she couldn’t be
brought back. The witch tried to use mind control on the Russo criminals who
built these laser weapons but it was too late, the Devil had claimed them so
she had to act directly. Later she returned to her flying saucer that she had
left hovering above the weapons complex and climbed to two thousand feet
altitude. She beamed down red ruby laser fire from the disc, evaporating and
vaporising the whole weapons site and everyone who was left alive. This type of
weapon being built here couldn’t be brought into service; it would make killing
all too easy, never mind the classes of weapon due to come on line later, much
more powerful and deadly. With her attack being visible from beyond the
complex’s grounds, word would get round that someone had taken the place out
and don’t build such weapons. Would connections be made to the trashing of the
English army’s last major base many years previously on the Isle of Man? She
certainly hoped so…
Amongst the bomb damaged ruins of what was once England people suffered
grievous deaths in the radiation that blanketed the wrecked towns, cities,
other targets and huge areas unaffected by the blast. Some towns were untouched
by the nuclear warheads, either the French deemed the town unimportant, didn’t
have enough weapons or the missile failed or the plane was shot down. Most of
the main cities were hit but Manchester was spared yet Salford was decimated by
a small 150-kiloton bomb with heavy loss of life. When Salford died people in
Manchester knew they would be next but when no weapon hit them they tried to
understand why, in their shocked state after seeing their neighbouring city
destroyed. Warheads from the same missile flattened Liverpool and Birkenhead.
War was organised chaos and sometimes mercy spared a city and her population
due to pure circumstance. Things would never be the same again, the law of the
gun ruled the remaining streets, like English army patrols, single gunmen, war
veterans or freedom fighters from the past campaigns. This way of life added
more deaths, injuries and suffering to the already shell shocked landmass, only
supernatural actions would stop it and defeat the number one enemy – the Devil.
It was his fault that all the people died and damage was done, forcing
confused, frightened, angry men to push the red button and fire the missiles to
kill, kill, kill!
People still talked about the sightings of strange lights in the sky. Of
an astronaut that flew a strange silver flying disc, of ghosts and spectres, of
Juniper’s Daughter. After this rash of sightings it suddenly stopped, no one
knew why but in peoples’ dark hearts some of the darkness had receded – the
witch had been partially successful in her campaign against the Devil. The
longest war in history, light versus darkness. How Juniper’s Daughter wished it
would end but she was a total realist who was battle hardened, knowing that
combat with her enemy and the resistance he put up was essential in the path of
all things.
It wasn’t always stopping armies or weapon designers that brought
Juniper’s Daughter into conflict with people; often it was determined dangerous
individuals who were capable of carrying out actions that jeopardised many
people. One example was in the country of Serbia where a computer hacker called
Ludolf Arkane set about gaining extra funds to buy arms and ammunition to help
in his organised crime actions. A highly skilled computer hacker capable of
overcoming Class A computer security systems, Ludolf was both intelligent and
determined. He preferred to work alone rather than in a group when it came to
computer actions, only when it was frontline crime like ambushing Serbian
Police carrying the newest computer equipment, was he involved in a group or
other secretive paramilitary operations.
With the skills he had from years of illegal hacking, he got into the
top European and American banking systems and withdrew the lowest level of
currency possible from every persons account. Then it wouldn’t be noticeable,
like taking thousands was from a few accounts, this way he amassed a fortune
for himself and his armed gang. He bought illegal weapons from bent contacts
within the Serbian military, government and state owned arms factories. In time
he planned not to confront the army for power or to overcome the government and
become leader but to target foreign individuals, companies, power structures of
any kind and any other target that needed to be taken out, for a price. The
first operation was carried out over the border in Albania, a closed private
country that eyed Serbia with suspicion and hostility due to religious, ethnic
and border dispute issues. Ludolf and a group of six heavily armed men trekked
three days over the high mountains avoiding the passes and tracks to illegally
enter Albania, carrying everything they needed. Moving slowly with stealth they
blended into the rough scenery and rugged landscape, not even calling their home
base on mobile, radio or sat phone. Emission free, invisible, not existing. At
their target they laid up for two days watching their target’s movements to
tally this up with previous intelligence. They missed nothing, they were the
best the black world provided, they had the cash to buy the best weapons and
the best men and not even the Serbian military could match them, or dare to
try.
By a small coastal town ringed by high mountains cut off from the
outside world lived the target; the only access was by the hazardous Adriatic
Highway, by sea or by air. Only brave or foolish people came over the
mountains. Dushabe Constanza was a man of notoriety in Albania and the Balkans,
he was their target who had to be killed, the money of his bank accounts taken
and his crime operation neutralised and if possible taken over by the Serbian
group led by Ludolf. Moving silently and quickly the group surrounded Dushabe’s
villa in the dusk of the dying day, taking out a small laptop computer Ludolf
hacked into the villa’s security systems to neutralise it. Putting the CCTV
cameras onto a loop so they couldn’t be seen, turning the remote controlled
guns off but in a way that wasn’t picked up by control and other things. Inside
the building the killing began, first the security staff that were meant to
protect Dushabe from this type of op, in this they failed not even returning
fire cut down by silenced pistols. The cleaners, maid and family members were
next until the group finally confronted their target – Dushabe. He pulled a gun
on the group and fired three rounds, hitting two men in the head, killing one
and wounding the other; the remainder quickly overpowered the big Albanian and
started to torture him, old skool. With pliers on his balls, metal nails down
his fingernails and other evil tricks to make a man talk. It was only a matter
of time until the tough Albanian talked revealing bank account numbers, the
location of a medium amount of cash, where his weapons cache was (this would be
blown up with time delay bombs), what his new and long term business contracts
were and any other useful info. Then they killed him by shooting him three
times in the head, setting fire to his body along those of his dead staff and
colleagues and the villa. A random spread of time delay bombs would make the
clean up of the place difficult by the authorities or Dushabe’s remaining men.
Quietly leaving the corpse and burning villa the four able men and
one-wounded Serbian paramilitary men entered the nearby town of Miaman. With
plenty of ammo and explosive it was time to have some fun at the expense of the
local Albanians, walking down the main street by the seafront the group split
up and headed off to do trouble. Gunfire soon echoed down night time streets as
the gun men fired into sleep houses or the odd night bar that was still open,
casualties due to gunfire weren’t so heavy. It was the explosive that caused
most mayhem, haphazardly placed time bombs dropped into long grass near bus
stops, by an electricity sub station, tossed into the shallow harbour under the
bow of a ship, placed under a parked up lorry full of pallets of cooking oil.
One terrorist primed his bomb for instant detonation and chucked it with all
his strength onto a petrol station forecourt, it detonated five yards from the
pumps in a huge blast severing fuel hoses and making a crater that blew in the
top of the fuel storage tank. A massive blaze engulfed the station and a wave
of burning fuel ran down the gently sloping road setting cars, houses and shops
on fire.
Only now did the Albanian police and army react to this attack, they
wouldn’t miss the death of Dushabe or his men but the destruction of the small
coastal town was something else. Confused by the violence of the attack, by the
flames and by the high level of training of the attackers made many problems
for the authorities; they suffered many dead and injured hunting down the
Serbian gunmen. Ludolf made it back over the border alone unscathed, the
wounded man was killed in a gun fight with cops rather than surrender, the
remaining men were killed one by one over the next two days when the
authorities became more organised. The Albanian government fell, chaos reigned,
rogue army units shelled Serbian villages bordering Albania and a dozen angry
soldier conscripts crossed over the border after shooting their officer dead
and took revenge by burning, raping and killing in a Serbian town but not on a
scale as had happened in Albania. In return, Serbian air force jets bombed
Albanian targets with little accuracy and open war started with centuries of
hate boiling to the surface. Albanian helicopter gunships shot up Serbian
troops massing by the border planning to invade Albania.
Ludolf planned his next operation as the chaos reigned and his country
became the Balkan superpower again – an attack on Croatia, similar to the one
he had just hit Albania with. If successful this would lead to more Balkan
instability, the German lead European Union would have to deploy peacekeepers
along with NATO led military, separating and maybe even fighting in the
Albanian-Serbian war. Ludolf would become very rich and very powerful out of
all of this; he would lead crime gangs throughout the whole Balkan area and
control a criminal empire even more powerful than the mafia in Sicily, Italy
and the US. One thing stood in Ludolf’s way – Juniper’s Daughter.
Juniper’s Daughter flew her flying disc low over the choppy waves of the
Adriatic, climbed steeply over the coastal mountains and over the battleground
that was now Albania to head into Serbia. She gave them a light show to pause
the fighting as she flew over and then made her ship even more visible while
she slowed and challenged the Serbian Mig 43 jets in aerial warfare. She shot
down three in quick succession killing the pilots, reducing the Serbian air
force strength by a fifth. These new Mig jets cost a fortune and Serbia was a
poor country. Coming over Ludolf’s heavily fortified villa the witch cloaked
her craft making it invisible, she hovered a metre over the roof and entered
the gangster’s house. He didn’t see her as he sat at his computer and hacked into
an American military computer system to illicit more illegal funds and cause
confusion in his enemy. Silently watching him the witch became visible, she
spoke startling the evil man, “Ludolf. Stop what you are doing. It is wrong!”
“Motherfucker! How the fuck did you get in here?” he screamed with wide
eyes. He reached for a gun and fired two shot at the witch; she ducked and
gracefully rolled across the floor to stand in front of him. With a well-aimed
kick she knocked the gun from Ludolf’s hands. Menace and revenge flickered in
his hate filled Serbian eyes; he rose and stood in a combat stance, his upper
body muscles rippled and his arms moved ready to strike. He shot a curving
punch to Juniper’s Daughter, she moved her head to one side and it missed, as
did the quick follow up, a right jab at her side. Ludolf swore and snap kicked,
catching the witch on her thigh in a powerful kick. She almost fell backwards
but before he brought his foot back down she caught it in both her hands and
lifted with all her strength. The Serb went flying over onto his back nearly breaking
his neck, totally stunning him and he became aware he was losing this fight.
Where the fuck was his security detail? How had this blond haired bitch gotten
past them? They were the best!
She walked up to the stunned man and kicked him in the ribs before he
could get up, she felt two ribs give, actually heard the snap when the bone
broke. Again she kicked him, more gently this time to show him she was the
boss. “What you did was wrong! Your attack and the death it caused. You have to
learn your lesson and never do it again, do you understand?” she told him in
Serbian.
“Okay, you win. I’ll stop. Yes I did wrong, I thought it was the right
thing to do,” Ludolf painfully lied through gritted teeth.
“I know you took out your Albanian opposite number but your attack on an
innocent town has caused a war. You have sided with the Devil, either on
purpose or innocently. What you have done can’t be allowed to continue!”
Juniper’s Daughter commented angrily. She never took her eyes off the crippled
man.
“Look, I promise you I am sorry! I will never do it again! Kill me if
you want, your problem is solved then!” he remonstrated.
“Don’t give me ideas Ludolf! I may take you up on the offer!”
“That’s your choice. I’m no threat to you now, I’m unarmed, you bust my
ribs and I’m on my back. You nearly broke my neck! How the fuck can you fight
like that?” the man lied, hoping he was convincing.
“Much practise with people like you over many lifetimes! You’re a piece
of cake. For some reason I don’t believe you! For that I’ll have to kill you so
you can’t do anymore evil form which the Devil benefits,” Juniper’s Daughter
told him.
It was then Ludolf knew no mere mortal woman confronted him, her
fighting experience and knowledge was impossible for a girl of no more than
twenty-five. This was crazy! He had to kill her, right now. As quickly as was
possible he flicked his right arm and a hidden three inch blade shot forth
hitting the witch in the chest, it stuck in up to the handle.
Pure anger filled her entire being as she tried to direct it in a
focused wave of energy at Ludolf but it wasn’t totally possible, her body was
rapidly dying and she was losing this battle. The energy fizzed and popped from
out of her being, giving the Serb cancerous cells and a withered right arm. She
was being pulled someplace else that wasn’t of this world. She would finish
this little war another time…
Juniper soothed her daughter gently stroking her hair, “Child you can’t
win every battle and it just isn’t possible. You did your best, we both know
that.”
“I know Mother but I was so close, Ludolf acted for the Devil, that I’m
sure. My death by Ludolf’s hands is another victory for evil against us!” Juniper’s
Daughter cried.
“I know my dear, I know if we won every time there would be no evil, no
Devil and in the end no job for us. This is what we have to do; long ago when I
was earth bound it was my job, now it’s your turn. Soon you will return and the
fight will continue, you can stop the Albanian/Serbian war and bring peace and
positivity to the region, the world,” Juniper quietly said.
“I know Mother, I was doing so well. This endless struggle does tire me
out. Was that why I failed this time? Was it?” the crying witch desperately
asked.
“No my dear Daughter, you are even better at this than I ever was. It’s
just sometimes we fail, we can’t win every time. It’s the way it is, the law of
light and darkness proclaims it to be this way. We can’t change that; all we
can do is to fight for the light and for goodness my dear. Rest now, shh, rest,
all will be okay…”
Juniper’s Daughter closed her eyes and dreamed of peace and of
happiness, not of a world in trouble so very far away that tugged at the edge
of her mind, trying to pull her back. For now she slept and let Nature run her
course, developing a new body for the witch, moulding her talents from her
previous self into the infinite knowledge that was her energy, life force and
magic. Without it she was nothing but an empty shell with no soul, her life
force was powerful and never-ending, how many times had she been born, died and
reborn? In this cycle of life that was the witch Juniper’s Daughter who was
humankind’s only defence against themselves and the Devil. What would happen if
she decided to join the other camp, turn herself over to the Devil and work
with him dooming the world to total darkness forever more? Could she do that to
defeat the Devil once and for all? Would that ever be necessary or would he
draw the witch in and control her like a puppet on a string caught in a
spider’s web of pure evil? If that happened would her Mother Juniper have to be
earthbound again to fight her own daughter and the Devil? Who would watch over
the upper realms? There was no one else…
Down on the wicked place that was the earth, fighting went on in
selective areas flaring up like a brush fire under the summer sun, dying down
for a period and then re-igniting twice as ferocious. From north to south and
east to west something was always happening to bring misery to individuals or
countries or whole races of people. This seemed to increase when the witch was
absent almost like the Devil was taking advantage of some free time to cause
mayhem and mischief to blanket the land in darkness and evil. For certain
individuals especially children the evil one had a special way to do this –
night terrors; spread selectively amongst weak, impressionable, easily targeted
kids. He spread evil wicked dreams that caused sheer terror, laden with
darkness, evil images and foreboding, throwing negativity onto these young
innocents who were now in the grasp of the Devil. With enough night terror
dreams a good number would turn out to be evil in their thoughts, actions and
their souls. As they grew up more selective targeting by the evil one would
make dark warriors for his cause, to spread darkness over the land eventually
killing and doing wanton destruction. In war situations this was ideal because
anything went, as the individuals thought they were acting on their own beliefs,
when in reality Satan placed it their years before. In peaceful societies this
brought low-level problems that were often unnoticed.
Through human history the Devil had won darkly with some spectacular
victories even though he often lost the war – Hitler and Stalin were two of his
most successful dealers of death, killing over 70 million people. Hell was full
of many souls making the Devil smile like a wicked Cheshire cat, what was
called Heaven had more souls in it by comparison, mainly innocent victims of
war and cruelty. Juniper’s Daughter had the skills to be evil but her intent
wasn’t there, she acted for the good of humanity, nature and the world in this
constant battle to stop the evil. Her latest battle ended in failure. Soon she
would be ready for the next round, where would she be fighting next? And with
who?
In a cold place death camps were being established again, soon people
would be shipped here to be used as slave labour till they were worked to death
in mines and factories and other traumatic environments. An army still existed,
it moved to control areas contaminated by radiation where no living thing
survived in an area of nuclear devastated cities and towns, fallout zones
covering huge area of wasteland including abandoned towns polluted by fallout.
Living there was a death sentence. These places were taken over for reasons of
pure evil, the Devil wasn’t done just yet and this place was called Siberia but
it wasn’t in Russia…
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