Going to switch gears from the Character Contests to Friday Night Fights! Our host, Jeff Hebert, keeps teasing us with a new FNF challenge. That, and I’m in a writing mood as of late. The theme for this FNF was “Robin Hood in Space.” I have a story that I’ve been kicking around for some time. It is the foundation of my mecha-verse. I simply adapted some of the characters to Robin Hood and His Band of Merry Men and the Sheriff of Nottingham. This was a lot of fun.
Welcome to Sherwood Fortress!
Setting
Some time in the future…
Humanity has been established among the stars for centuries. Distances between the Known Systems are great. Wormholes are the most common form of interstellar travel. Various “gates” are posted throughout the galaxy. The gates enable passage through the wormholes. They also control interstellar commerce and politics.
The Known Systems are an amalgam of competing governments. The situation is such that contemporary historians compare their days to those of earth during the Common Era of the mid-16th and 17th Centuries in society and attitude. The Kingdom and the French Empire are two rival superpowers.
The stargates are known as “locks” in The Kingdom. The Kingdom controlled a solar system with a sizeable number of locks. So many, they named the host world “Loxlie.” It was a major hub of interstellar traffic. Now the French Empire’s L’Armée des étoiles occupies Loxlie.
So are the times. His Majesty and his heir Prince John controlling The Kingdom and the Environs. The Sheriff controlling the Nottingham system, the Outlands, and the tributaries beyond the Pale, along with their untold wealth. The French Empire cutting access to Loxlie and its stargates to all of the Known Systems. Rumour has that L’Armée des étoiles is amassing its forces on Loxlie in preparation for open war against The Kingdom. Other powers are appealling for peace, if not only so the French will re-open the trade lanes.
It is during these times, there lives a band of idealists and rogues who seek to overthrow the whole system. Robin Hood and his Merry Men are based in an underground complex somewhere within the Known Systems, possibly beyond the Pale. With interstellar war on the horizon, they fight on all fronts. Whether hacking computer systems, leading a protest in Trafalgar, duelling in aerospace, or slogging through the mud, they will fight.
One weapon that the Merry Men have acquired is the mecha. The anthropomorphic tanks that were once reserved for the warrior nobles known as Knights. Their appearance has become more common with the invention of Lancer Rooms. There is no longer need for on-board pilots with this virtual simulator. It allows a single pilot to control every aspect of a mecha through cybernetic interface from a secure location.
