The Medieval Marine Part One

The Medieval Marine

CHAPTER I

Luke MacDougall was stretching out in his tent during his last night hunting the Brooks Range in Alaska. He had been hunting moose all week, and while he seen a couple, none had presented a decent shot so he hadn’t taken any. This didn’t bother him any, because in addition to hunting, he had also done some fishing and he had done good here. Plus, being that he had been away from the office, he had gotten a number of projects done and had sent the drafts to his secretary and second in command via his satellite link. Luke owned his own engineering firm that worked all over the world, mainly for the chemical industry. Luke had master’s degrees in chemical and mechanical engineering plus a bachelors in metallurgy. He had been in the Marine corps, but a combat injury had forced him out. While in the corps he had been a combat engineer and he still did engineer consulting work for the Marines. He stood six foot eight and weighed two hundred and sixty pounds, and even though he did mostly desk work he was by no means out of shape. Not only was he very strong, but he was a hand-to-hand combat expert while in the corps, was one hell of a shot, and had gotten his black belt in martial arts after he had gotten out. He had thought about trying out to be a sniper, but figured that his size would give him away and therefore be a threat to his team mate, this he couldn’t live with. He had light brown hair that was kept in a crew cut and piercing blue eyes. Although he looked to be very definition of a hard ass, he was actually extremely considerate to those around him and always took the extra second to consider how his actions would affect the people around him. While he didn’t have a family, his older sister Mackenzie, did. Her husband, Dan, was one of Luke’s oldest childhood friends and they had two kids. Luke always made sure to spoil them rotten. Since he didn’t have anyone to spent money on, he had set up trust funds for both kids over his sister’s objections. His sister still lived on the same ranch that they had grown up on in Wyoming. Their parents had been killed when Luke was sixteen and Mackenzie was eighteen. Mackenzie, without thinking about cancelled going to college and stayed on the ranch to take care of Luke so that he wasn’t taken by the state. Luke’s mom had been a geologist and his dad had been a part time jeweler and worked the ranch in his spare time. Tonight, Luke had another reason to be happy. He had gotten the jewelry done for his niece’s birthday and had sent it to her the day before he left for his trip. Since he lived in Anchorage, Alaska it took some time to get there. He had made her a handmade necklace out of gold that he found in some of Alaska’s streams. In the pendant he had a large sapphire set in it, her birth stone. He had gotten that while working on one of his overseas jobs and upon smuggling it into the US, had cut it to maximize its beauty. It had been in rough form when he smuggled it in. Luke’s jewelry making was a hobby of his to relax after a hard day in the office and actually knew how to cut and grind gemstones thanks to not only his dad but his mom as well. Going to sleep that night, he never in a million years would guess that his life was about to change completely.

During the night, while Luke slept in blissful ignorance, a cosmic disaster struck. This was a weird one, for the only person immediately affected was Luke. This disaster transported Luke across space and time. When Luke woke up, the first time he noticed was that it was a lot more humid and warmer than it had been when he had gone to bed. He then noticed that the bird sounds were different as well. ‘Ok this is weird’ he thought. He stuck his head out of his tent and his confusion deepened for around him was a wild forest of deciduous trees. When he went to bed, he had been surrounded by scrub land with stunted aspen trees. ‘I must be dreaming, and if this is a dream, damn.’

“Well, I guess I better had a look around” he said to himself. He spent the rest of the morning looking around his “dream world” wondering when he was going to wake up. He noticed that the sun was almost straight overhead and he had an idea. He would check the time on his phone and use that to figure out about where he was at. When he did it, he got an even bigger shock, his phone was nine hours behind. That combined with the tree species around him, put him in England. The weather plus the state of the leaves on the trees likely put in in late spring.

“Well fuck me!” exclaimed Luke.

For the rest of the day, he stayed near his tent. He found a stream nearby to get water and fish from. Hopefully he would wake up from this nightmare soon. When he woke up the next morning, he was starting to realize that something was truly fucked up with his world. He was still in the same spot. Figuring out that he was fucked, he did an inventory of his gear. He had his tent, sleeping bag, backpack, and camo clothes. He had his 9mm sig and his .338 rifle that his had picked up while in the Marines, and he had plenty of ammo for both. In his backpack he had is laptop and solar powered charger, one MRE, plenty of survival straws, matches, his extra canteen, and extra fire starters. Of course, he had is travel rod, a ***********ion of terminal tackle, and some lures. He had respooled the reel right before going to the Brooks Range. All in all, he was in good shape. What really bothered him was that he couldn’t get any satellite lock or cell signal at all. After his inventory, he figured that he probably should get moving, so he packed everything up. While he was packing, he had water boiling over the fire to fill his canteens up. Checking is compass he decided to start moving East. He walked carefully through the woods for the rest of the day, stopping with about an hour of daylight left at another stream, to make camp. First thing he did was get a fire going and got himself more water. He had managed to catch some fish and frogs for supper. Early the next morning he again topped off his canteens and started moving again, still heading East.

The way he figured it one of three things could be going on: one this was all some weird dream; two somehow, he had traveled through space and time; or three he was in an alternate universe. He was hoping that this was a dream.

About midday he paused and rested for a bit for it was a warm, humid day. As he was getting up from a short nap, he heard shouting nearby. It sounded like English, well sort of. Now Luke was curious, for he had also heard metal on metal contact, so he headed toward it. Within a minute he came up to a dirt road. Looking North, Luke’s seen six men on horseback riding around a stopped carriage. On the ground was several dead men, all wearing armor. As Luke watched, two men burst out of the carriage and were quickly cut down there was nothing that Luke could do for them because he was too far away. The men on horseback now dismounted and approached the carriage. The next sound made Luke’s blood chill for it was a female scream. Not one but two. Two young women were yanked from the carriage. One had golden blond and wore a blue dress, while the other one wore a green dress and had brown hair. The younger one looked to be about eighteen or nineteen while the other looked to be slightly older. Two men grabbed each woman and pulled them in front of what Luke assumed to be the commander. While the men were occupied, Luke quickly closed the distance. As he got to within thirty yards, he heard something about the men having some fun with the woman. That was enough for Luke, he slipped off his backpack. He was still in his camo and had carefully modified it into a ghillie suit. He stepped out into the road, mad sure to have his handgun ready and yelled;

“HALT, DROP YOUR WEAPONS!”

CHAPTER II

Marion of York was pissed to put it mildly. She hadn’t wanted to come along, with her older sister, Cecilia, and father, Charles, to London. Normally she loved traveling to London, but this time it was for Cecilia’s engagement and her fiancé, John of Sussex, gave Marion the creeps. They had spent almost a week in London getting the wedding contract ready. When they were married, John would become the lord of Charles’s land and the land would then stay in the family. Marion would continue to live in the castle until she was married. Charles was making these arrangements to avoid a situation with his greedy neighbor who had been eyeing his land and daughters for years, and Charles knew that his health was failing and that he wouldn’t be long for this world. After the contract had been signed, John decided to travel back with them, as much to check out his new land as to check out Marion and the other woman of his soon to be castle.

They had been traveling for three days when they were ambushed. Their guards were cut down within minutes, because although these men were very experienced, loyal, and brave; they had been caught by surprise. Soon all six men were dead. Three were John’s and three had been Charles’s. They had managed to cut down four of their attackers though. Soon the remaining six attackers were circling the carriage. Marion recognized the colors that the men wore. They belonged to their greedy neighbor, Richard. One of them, Marion personally recognized as Richard’s son, William. The same man that her father had kicked out of their castle when he had persuaded relations with Cecilia. This wasn’t good. Soon her father and John decided that their only chance was to try and kill the men attacking them. They both knew that if they surrendered, they would be killed anyway. They burst out of the carriage and were quickly cut down without achieving anything. This left the ladies defenseless. William ordered them to be pulled from the carriage. They were brought before him where he then told them;

“Well bitches, we’re going to have some serious fun then you’ll both have to die. However, I will give you a choice. If you cooperate your Death will be quick and painless, if you don’t well…”

Both ladies started turning white for this was their worst nightmare come true. Both despised William, his father, and all the people loyal to them. As William was cutting the dress from Cecilia, they heard a booming male voice:

“HALT, DROP YOUR WEAPONS!”

The voice echoed through the forest and the trees even seemed to move at the sound of it. Although the words themselves were weird, the point was clear. The ladies looked up hopefully and the men spun around. There thirty paces in front of them was a massive humanoid creature. It was dressed with leaves and small branches and not a single patch of skin was visible. In one hand was a small black object, but it didn’t have any armor or any weapons for that matter. Then William spoke up;

“Says who? A stupid, unarmed swamp thing?” His men snickered. Apparently, the humanoid had understood him.

“’Says who? I’ll tell you; I am your worst nightmare come to life. A man that can kill you were you stand and you won’t be able to do a thing about it. Now this is how things are going to be. I am going to count to five. If you fuckers are not out of here by then I will kill you all.” The humanoid made this threat in a way that seemed like it might have ordered food, not facing six heavily armed men.

William snorted; this was going to be too easy. Looking at his men:

“Lads, time for some more entertainment. Kill that thing.” The ladies knew the stranger was dead. Suddenly the humanoid couched slightly and brought the small black object up to a horizontal position. The next thing the ladies knew there was a sound like thunder, the small black object jumped around in the humanoid’s hand, and a quick jet of flame shot out the end of the object. The men around them started falling with blood and meat exploding from their necks. Within seconds, only William was left and he was using a now nearly nude Cecilia as a shield. Cecilia was nearly nude because William had just finished cutting her dress when the humanoid interrupted.

“So, I see mister tough guy in armor is actually just another coward that uses an innocent woman as a shield, how pathetic.” The humanoid stood very still for a short time as through he was debating something.

“Get out of here, beast. Nothing here concerns you” commanded William. Marion thought this was a stupid move on William’s part but then again, he wasn’t known to be the sharpest tool in the shed. Her thoughts were confirmed within a second.

“Beast is it now? Well tell you what is going to happen. You let that lady go and I’ll put my weapon away. Then we can see who is the better in a real man’s fight.” Luke knew this course was a bit dumb but one he didn’t want to risk hurting the lady even though the chances of that were slim. The other reason that he did this was that he wanted a bit more fun from this engagement.

“Deal” said William and he released Cecilia and Luke put away his gun. As he released her, her dress fell away but this was the least of her concerns at the moment.