Commie Eater

[Eiuol]

Feel free to critique anything. I don't often share my writing on forums, but I'm working on a particular style in plot/story construction that could use some criticism. I've wrote other pieces like this, but this is the one that'd likely be interesting to any fan of Rand.

Commie Eater

The Commie Eater, that's what they call me. A business extraordinaire in the Aresian mining fields, an innovator of mining and distribution methods, but that is not all I'm known for. There's a certain kind of bang that I'm known for, to put it literally. No tolerance for the egalitarian nonsense swarming these fields in both the processing plant owners and the miners, trying to turn profit into some sort of exploitation of people because of the needs provided and eased by the martian rocks. Space station production, lightweight rocket design... Do they forgot an individualistic notion is involved in the very idea of space exploration?

Well, no matter, there are issues to deal with, no sort of force to stop me. Back on Earth I had the same nickname, operating on no authority other than my own. I lived in the Bulgarian Commu-Egalitarian Zone, established by some of those of the Euro neoegalitarians years before I was born. It was always touted as a prime example of Communism succeeding, having none of the Stalinist and Maoist contradictory sensibilities. Industrialized through and through, productive through a successful education which injected in the minds of all the virtues and ideals required of the literally equal society. If anything, they were beyond Communist, a sort of enlightened Marxism where all were duty-bound to equalize as possible. Patience was promoted endlessly, the very thing which held back complete worker dissatisfaction.

All a lie though, I knew it. Inherently unstable, which is why I never took to support the ideas even myself in those massive schools. All white-walled brainwashing. The outside hardly looked better with its gray skies and industrial smokestacks processing the materials for long-range space travel, massive skeletal scaffolding for construction of space materials all about the cities. All saw it as the industrial capital of the world, the greatest experiment in societal structure of the time since the Economical Unification movement of the United States. In fact, the one societal experiment showing signs of working within 5 years of being established. Massive production increases as all around, people were desperate to be in it together. Aside from the neoegalitarians, life was bare and empty, a dehumanization. People needed a point to live, and it was provided arbitrarily from on high.

Of course, when the Orbital War began, it didn't stand up for long. The production couldn't keep up. People were beginning to see the inherent homogenization provided by their system. Goals of society, the individual an atomic piece. Soldier as arms of a government mind which none understood. The will of society, that's how decisions were made. No one knew what to do, too much thinking required. Making rockets and other spacetravel materials were all that ever had to be done, obvious and direct demands of the other industrial cultures of the world. The Bulgarian Zone was an artistically forward country, but no technological leads of development. The bordering Russian state, filled with all sorts of capitalists, showed all the signs of technological development ever since the first lunar settlements by Russian trillionaires decades ago. They got it, they understood, but not the Bulgarian Egalitarian. They didn't know what it was. A little obvious something called individuality. In no time at all, the entirety of Bulgarian culture was about looking towards other systems of thought for guidance in productivity, having no idea what ought to be made and for what purpose. Many sought out what to look up to in order to fill up their lives with passion they heard about existing abroad. I looked to those Russians, and the New England Jurisdiction. A true capitalistic sentiment that spoke to me.

The Orbital War, started by the US upon bombing a Russian settlement on the Moon, was an overwhelming force for all the people in The Orbit. Hierarchy of production was disrupted all over, corporate structure unable to operate on an orbital scale. Alliances were formed at the spur of the moment all over, attempts to undermine power structures. The Bulgarians especially thought it was opportunity to spread their structure all over through education. They began to fight the war, but the war won, and kept going for 2 years more with the once Bulgarian Commu-Egalitarian Zone turning into general anarchy. Perfect time to spread those capitalistic ideas I had always been influenced by. I grabbed a shock rifle that I bought years before, went outside, and shot a commie (a damncommie as I phrased it to those around me) in the face as I was contemplating my goals in a to-be-established society. I didn't want to put up with the same thing again, not at 19. I did not want the endless boredom of pre-established values. Blood splattered. I didn't really care. Some of my friends grabbed shock rifles too, in attempts to expand our revolution. I don't know if we were being hypocritical to our ideals, but there was nothing to support. Running to Russia in a time of war was not possible, and the New England Jurisdiction was continents away. We camped out for weeks in the Egalitarian Center, many known commies were killed. Enlightened Marxists they called themselves, but at heart, they were commies. I had an undeniable ruthlessness at going after each one, with an undying hunger that gave me my nickname. The Orbital War ended soon after, with the US becoming a dwarfed version of its old power, and capitalist mentality being seen by more as the best way to live. The NEJ remained just as forward looking as ever with its technological innovation, Russia had many settlements on the Moon and some beginning on Mars.

I quickly got onto a rocket ship to Mars, the first one I could get on once I got to Moscow. Some harvest companies were looking for laborers, and I jumped at the opportunity. I had nothing to lose, no values to maintain, all I had was the possibility to live my beliefs.

Details matter little. What counts is I developed a rapid sorting method in the Aresian fields after a year of spending time in the fields. I developed a rapid-growth corporation, able to provide the materials for the equally rapidly growing urban centers on Earth, as well as completely new cities being built on Mars and the Moon.

Of course, commies would begin to appear in the Aresian minefields, complaining about some kind of labor exploitation and an evil capitalist profit motive sucking the humanity out of everything. Stupid as always, entirely oblivious to what makes up the possibilities in life. A mining life sure as hell isn't fun, but the commies come in and tell me what is or is not supposed to be tough? Do they even get that anything in life takes effort? If it wasn't tough, something would be wrong. If I was pampered, then there would never be any need to mine. Egalitarian demands of the workers getting what they needed by right because my production demands were too much for them. A stupidity beyond comprehension, no realization that in the new productive post-Orbital War society all sorts of entrepreneurs needed jobs, niche markets developing all over because no one in the entire Orbit wanted to have an overwhelming government. Commies hated the growing worldwide capitalist structure, and they probably believed Mars was their last chance. Isolated and far, only a handful of capitalists, overwhelmed by thousands of proletarian people. To them, there was a clear and direct chance of destroying those who they claimed to be parasitic. Exterminate me, utopia established. So I decided to stop “exploiting” them, I fired all those protesting my forceful and evil habits.

They still insisted that I was an exploiter and a parasite. I apparently deprived them of a livelihood, which they had so explicitly decided was harming them. There were huge swaths still available for harvest in the rest of the Aresian fields, but they wanted my fields which had no discernible difference in mineral quality from the rest of the field. There was abandoned infrastructure from bankrupt companies only a little further south even. Too much jealousy for them to handle.

So now they swarm my fields, attempting to destroy my mixing belts and anti-gravity sifters with massive double sledgehammers, the massive heads specially built for the lower-than-Earth gravity and semi-soft martian minerals. My favorite, if used to make something in the end. All these people want is a fragmented sense of individuality, in the same manner they are attempting to fragment their livelihood.

I've got guns, I've got lots of 'em. I'm not stupid, I always had a preference for workers that knew that the point of business was technological betterment. They'd be willing to defend their beliefs, and plenty of those I hired were once living in the Bulgarian Commu-Egalitarian Zone. None of them would stand for a moment to see productive property destroyed, and neither would I. The government was weak enough out here that I had to use my own force to defend my property, but I've always been ready. (Mercenaries, that could be a formidable business venture out here...) My weapons are the highest end shock rifles, and here the commies are using sledgehammers. Powerful, but not with the same grace and flash of a shock rifle.

I didn't put on my suit on for no reason, I didn't walk to the mixing belts for exercise. The makeshift factory defense force is already by my side. 3 to 1 in my favor. Mercy is not anything crossing my mind, even now that several of the commies dropped their double sledgehammers and are now running. Only about fifty are even here smashing their hammers against the machinery. I don't care if some of them are scared now, I'm going to blast their helmets. The only potential these people have any more is to destroy the rapid development of the Orbit, worth stomping out like the insects that they are. Bloodless, but my direct command is to kill all commies, no questions. My hunger has been starved for too long. They'd now be unable to propagate their destructive beliefs towards the other nations of the Orbit.

Edited June 5, 2011 by Eiuol