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    Chatham Islands War
    Chatham Islands War
    Chatham Islands War
    Ebook150 pages1 hour

    Chatham Islands War

    By Beaulah Pragg

    ()

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    About this ebook

    A co-authored novel about an imaginary war between New Zealand and Australia, taking place on the Chatham Islands. Written by home-school children aged between ten and fourteen.

    Authors include:
    Joshua James
    Charlotte James
    Joshua Gorman
    Grace Stapleton
    Matthew Palmer
    Phoebe Kerr
    Oliver Kerr

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBeaulah Pragg
    Release dateFeb 14, 2018
    ISBN9781370483969
    Chatham Islands War
    Author

    Beaulah Pragg

    Beaulah works for Christchurch City Libraries, as well as teaching creative writing and independent publishing. She is a founding member of the Christchurch Writers' Guild, a free and accessible space for new writers to find encouragement and support. Her novel, The Silver Hawk, is the first in a science fiction / fantasy trilogy for young adults.

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      Book preview

      Chatham Islands War - Beaulah Pragg

      Introduction

      Beaulah Pragg

      I didn’t realize, when we first embarked on this project, just how ambitious we were being. We spent the first lesson creating back stories for our characters and agreeing on the world they lived in. New Zealand, some time in the future, had been bombed by Australia (for unknown reasons), leading to war. We were mostly green recruits, barely out of training, on a special mission to stop Australia from ending the world (or at least our part of it). Each character was given a skill and a responsibility. We all tried to come up with a weakness and a way the character might overcome their weakness in the course of the story.

      Then we got to work. The first few chapters were easy—everyone was in the same place and knew what was happening. We worked together on the plot, but as each person wrote their part of the story, there were lots of facts and details that didn’t agree with what other people had said.

      Bringing all of those pieces together has been the work of many months. I loved the characters we created and the unique writing styles of all our writers. I’ve done my best to keep the fun bits, the silliness, the over-the-top violence and all the important things that happened to each persons’ character.

      I have had to change some things to get all the pieces working together.

      Thank you so much to everyone who took part in this project, to the young writers with their wit and imagination—I loved laughing with you, to the parents who supported us and helped make this thing a reality, and to the staff of the Peterborough Street Library who are generous with both their time and their space.

      I hope you enjoy reading our story as much as we enjoyed creating it!

      Briefing (Mike)

      Kieran Gullidge

      Colonel Mike Patterson looked out of the of the window of the plane. He could see the Chatham Islands just up ahead. The biggest island, covered in forest with a T-shaped lagoon in the middle, was their target. The time was seventeen hundred hours. Right on schedule.

      Mike looked back at his squad. They were a bunch of recruits that were hastily assembled by the New Zealand army to protect him and his engineer on a mission to neutralize the enemy once-and-for-all. Mike knew it was unlikely any of them would come back alive. He thought about what to say. He would give a quick briefing then he would jump out of the plane first.

      Mike said, We followed the Aussies all the way out here to the middle of nowhere to stop them from getting there filthy claws on New Zealand. Our orders are to stop them from building their bio-weapons. They’ve got a factory located in the middle of Te Whanga Lagoon. He paused and looked at each of their faces. Fifteen men, five women, two dogs, and one terrified engineer. Most of these novices hadn’t seen real combat before. Mike grinned, showing his teeth. When we meet them in combat, we’ll reach out and rip their heads from their spines and toss ‘em away laughing. Am I RIGHT?

      Some of them looked shocked, but every trooper yelled, Sir, yes sir!

      Damn right I am! Now check your weapons and prepare to jump.

      Mike took stock of the weapons he carried. Six fragmentation grenades, a pair of M7 sub machine guns and a MA5B assault rifle. He nodded to himself, then he said, Troopers, it’s time to jump. You’ve trained for this. I know you’re ready. Follow me.

      The pilot opened the hatch and Mike jumped out.

      The Courage to Jump (Jane)

      Grace Stapleton

      The plane jolted to the side. Jane’s entire body stiffened and a new surge of panic welled up inside her. This was it. The plane was going to crash and she, as well as all her comrades, would die. The thought barely finished forming when the plane straightened out, as it had every other time. Jane flopped back against the wall behind her, letting out a breath of relief. From take off she had been a nervous wreck. Every time they’d hit a patch of turbulence, the past hour or so, she’d managed to convince herself something disastrous had happened and as a result the plane would take a plunge into the ocean far below them. She knew the likelihood of a crash was one in eleven million and that she was being unreasonable, but whenever the plane so much as slightly dipped, reason went out the window and the fear took hold of her.

      A stabbing pain in her hand caught Jane’s attention. Unfurling her fists she saw four new crescent shaped indents, near indistinguishable from the countless other depressions branded on her palm from when she instinctively clenched her fists while reflecting on the many catastrophic scenarios that could happen. Her gaze wandered up to the window opposite her, the window she had been so carefully avoiding looking out of the entire trip. Beyond was a large stretch of grey. Seeing it now she felt sick. Her mouth filled with a horrible metallic taste. The mission felt real for the first time. Oh God. She, Jane Thompson, was going to jump out of a plane and then hope, HOPE, that this parachute wasn’t faulty and she would land safely on the beach ten thousand feet below. If it didn’t work well… it would be too late to do anything when she was plummeting to her death.

      Caught up in her pessimistic thoughts, Jane didn’t notice when Colonel Patterson stood up began what seemed to be a recap or pep talk of sorts.

      Our orders are to stop them from building their bio-weapons. They’ve got a factory located in the middle of Te Whanga Lagoon, he said. When we meet them in combat, we’ll reach out and rip their heads from their spines and toss em away laughing. Am I RIGHT?

      Sir, yes sir! barked the others. Jane tried to join in with them, but her voice had deserted her—most likely a side effect that came along with contemplating a long fall and a messy splat.

      Damn right I am, continued Mike, Now check your weapons and prepare to jump.

      If he said anything else, it was lost as the door opened and the roaring wind outside doused out all other noise. A second later he stepped out into the air, vanishing in an instant. The next person walked down the ramp.

      I am so not ready for this, Jane muttered, but she started checking her weapons and provisions anyway. There was no chance of backing out now. She’d skipped over the grenades when they were loading up (the idea of free falling with a couple of them didn’t do any favours for her nerves). Instead, she’d picked a combat knife. It might not be very practical from a distance, but if stealth was needed it would be a great deal more useful than a gun. Her hand slid to the pistol on her hip. She had two assault rifles strapped to her back, but the pistol with it’s long-nosed silencer was her favourite. She took a deep breath and fell into what she decided was a rather short line of people who would be jumping before her.

      One by one, her colleagues made their descent down the ramp and stepped off without a moments hesitation. Jane could feel her face growing colder each time somebody disappeared over the edge, bringing her closer to her own doom. It wasn’t long before only one person stood between her and the ramp.

      It’s going to be okay, it’s going to be okay, it’s going to be okay… she chanted inwardly, as if thinking it enough would give the words meaning. She was anything but okay. The person who had been in front of her was gone. There was nothing between her and the endless sky. Jane could hear the blood pounding behind her ears and the frantic beat of her heart mixed with the overpowering rush of wind.

      It’s going to be ok, it’s going to be ok.

      Without warning her legs buckled beneath her, as if twenty kilograms of extra weight had fallen on her. She threw her arms out, trying to steady herself, but to no avail. She collapsed on her knees. Her newfound view of the floor blurred as tears filled her eyes.

      This is absolutely mental, she thought, her breath catching in her throat. She let out a small sob. She wanted nothing more than to stay here on the floor, free to cry, but that wasn’t possible.

      It’s going to be ok. I am a soldier, she reminded herself. This was her duty! She knew what she was signing up for when she joined six months ago. She wasn’t going to screw it up.

      Hastily, Jane got to her feet. Very much afraid, but determined, she marched down the ramp and stepped out into the air before she could stop herself.

      AGHHHHHH! The wind tore Jane’s scream away before she could catch the sound. Any courageous thoughts she’d had fled the moment she left the plane, replaced with one thing: faaaaaaalliiiiiing!!!

      Um, no, I’m flying, she corrected herself deliriously. At least it felt like flying. The island was definitely getting closer, but this was nothing like the dropping sensation she had been expecting—the feeling of riding on a roller coaster. The air underneath her was pushing up so intensely it took her a second to remember whether she was falling upwards or downwards.

      Her stomach knotted. The island was coming closer with every passing second and

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