Capitalism - The not too Distant Future (370 hits)
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Submitted by sword (View user info) at 2005-05-02 15:27:24 EDT
In downtown New York was a thirty two story building that everyone just called The Ankh. It earned its name from its strangely constructed observation deck which overhung the sides of the building and gave the entire structure a T like shape. On the thirteenth floor of The Ankh was the command center for the Global Mining Consortium (GMC). The GMC had decided to move their command center to this rented location, despite the considerable cost, due in large part to safety concerns.
First of all the building was owned and run by Long Realty and Long Realty was a gigantic, widely known and widely feared organization. At Long they had a saying "Interfere with our business and we will kill you, your family, your employers and their families and your employees and their families." It wasn't terribly catchy but Long had demonstrated many times in the past that they meant what they said. With terrorist activity and guerrilla warfare so common these days the leader of GMC had decided that the expensive rent for the thirteenth floor was a necessary cost of doing business. One of the reasons for the recent rash of terrorist and guerrilla activity was the fact that a company who specialized in executing car bombings, suicide bombings, fire bombings and the like had recently dropped the prices they asked for such services by a gigantic percent. With prices so low many companies contracted with Global Warrior to have the factories, offices or executive residences of competitors blown up or otherwise destroyed. Global Warrior wound up losing money because they sold their services so cheap but in the end it didn't really matter as they were a subsidiary of Long Realty and Long Realty made a fortune by providing safe buildings.
The thirteenth floor was less crowded then usual as the leader and founder of GMC was absent and he had taken 13 of the guards with him. The leader's name was Dutch Hollow and currently he and his 13 men were climbing out of their convoy of armored cars at a place a few miles away from The Ankh. Dutch, like his men, wore an ankle length trench coat a heavy flak jacket and a belt with two well used pistols holstered on it. The 13 men, unlike Dutch, carried assault rifles, shot guns or flamethrowers depending on their personal preference.
These 14 people were standing around one of the many piles of burning rubble that filled downtown New York and there wasn't much to distinguish it from any other except for the light blue mini-van parked nearby. Dutch walked to the mini-van and a small weasel like man jumped out from the back door. The weasel looking man ran up to Dutch and held out his hands expectantly. Dutch first handed over a manila envelope and then a small briefcase. The envelope held satellite pictures, maps and blue prints all depicting a large storage facility. The facility was owned by a company called Mineral Extractors Extraordinaire (MEE) and was used to house most of their heavy equipment; the building was located in Southern Africa. Inside of the briefcase was 1 million dollars in cash.
The weasel looking man jumped back into his van and then sped off. Dutch smiled but he knew even if this effort was completed perfectly that his troubles wouldn't be over. For almost a decade GMC had run an extensive mining operation in Southern Africa extracting valuable diamonds and uranium as well as gold and iridium for major contracts with other companies. GMC had made much of its considerable fortune from these contracts and from skimming their mining operation. Unfortunately though MEE, which was far richer then GMC and had many more and more powerful friends, had taken an interest in the valuable African operation and had committed a sizable amount of wealth to pushing GMC out of the way and stealing those contracts. It was something that Dutch Hollow had no intention of letting happen, and blowing up one of their new warehouses was only the first step.
After delivering the money and information Dutch and his guards returned to their armored car and drove farther into the city to their next appointment, a large single story building that was owned by a company called Magenta Diamonds. Dutch had paid a handsome sum of money in order to learn that MEE had sent one of its bright young Vice Presidents to go finesse the owner of Magenta Diamonds into doing business with MEE over GMC. Dutch, who had been in business with Magenta for nearly 10 years, was well acquainted with both the President, Frederick Smith, of their company and the second in command, Luke Henry, and Dutch liked Luke almost as well as Frederick.
Dutch and his men got out for a second time that day and went quickly to the door. Luke had disabled the security cameras and reassigned the guards who would normally have been watching the front. They came to the big reinforced steel doors and found it unlocked. Dutch smiled as the 14 armed men crept inside. They moved silently through a long abandoned corridor, the floors clothed in rich dark carpets, before coming to a wide room. Without entering they listened and they heard the soft lilting tone of a woman's voice "Mineral Extractors Extraordinaire could insure you a much larger load and cheaper service then any of our competitors" Dutch recognized the voice at once and signaled his men. With a roar they burst into the room.
Inside the room two luxurious couches sat opposite a smooth glass conference table. Behind each couch were two armed men and sitting at one couch was Frederick Smith. At the opposite couch was a young woman who looked about 28 years old and had a thin athletic body. She was a Vice President for MEE and she started to scream. Her first shriek was interrupted by the resounding roar of a solid slug being fired from a shot gun. The slug hit her squarely in the eye with sufficient force to tear her head from its shoulders. Even as her decapitated body collapsed to the ground the rest of Dutch's men opened fire quickly killing the four armed guards before they could even draw their weapons. A gout of flame from a flamethrower consumed Frederick Smith and cooked him alive. Voices came from down another hall.
Dutch looked down the other hall and saw a squad of 6 men running towards him all brandishing weapons. The lead man was in the process of pulling the pin from a grenade when Dutch sent a bullet from one of his pistols straight between the lead man's eyes killing him instantly and letting the now live grenade fall to the floor. The other 5 men in the squad froze as if their stationary positions were objections to the cruelty of fate and then they all died as the grenade detonated. Dutch called to his men to flee and they did running back the way they came hurling canisters of poison gas and heavy explosives behind them at random.
Dutch and his men made it back to their cars and then sped off in the direction of The Ankh. If it had been an ordinary day they would have been pursued and likely killed by the pursuit helicopter that Magenta Diamonds kept stationed at their building. Luckily though Luke Henry had scheduled the helicopter to undergo serious maintenance and it was unable to pursue the escaping band of killers. When Dutch arrived back at his own office he reflected upon how perfectly the day had gone. MEE had lost one capable executive and a warehouse full of valuable equipment, he had personally strengthened his ties to Magenta Diamonds and Luke Henry had given him half a million dollars as payment for assassinating Frederick Smith. Dutch Hollow couldn't help but laugh. This was the way Capitalism worked.
User Reviews
Submitted by Jungle_Jimanee (user info) at 2005-05-05 09:53:59 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Next please.
Submitted by sword (user info) at 2005-05-02 18:55:58 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
BLITZKREIG_BOB
Its not terribly symbolic, rather I happened to know that most buildings don't have a thirteenth floor because of supersititious reasons and in this entirely capitalist world I imagined I figured they would be more pragmatic. Also it could be a terrible omen of things to come
Submitted by Stabkill (user info) at 2005-05-02 17:00:56 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Actually, with the way GM is doing now, there will be no GMC in the future.... Horrible business tactics and the union labor is helping put nails in their coffin instead of helping to solve matters.
Submitted by Stabkill (user info) at 2005-05-02 16:59:53 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
+2 for future prospects of corporate warfare... please do continue.
Submitted by sword (user info) at 2005-05-02 16:53:03 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Stabkill
I didn't know there was a real GMC and also I had planned to incorporate outright warfare into the sequal for this. It seems like it would be more cost effective though to destroy valuble peices of your opponents corporation like executives or warehouses and such then to just buy a large army and blow up everything your opponent owns.
Also I am not trying to make any kind of political point here or anything, I am just imagining a world where the only purpose is to make money.
MyNameIsTim
Some shot gun shells are solid slugs and no that does not mean it is a rifle. Shot guns can fire a variety of different ammunition. Solid slugs are one of those varieties.
Submitted by Stabkill (user info) at 2005-05-02 16:46:57 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
GMC? Wouldn't they get sued by the REAL GMC for using their registered trademark? Hmmm. -1
Is this a platform to say that capitalism will lead to one corporation doing as it wishes without any intervention...even murder? I'd much rather have my government murder me than private organizations.
If you take your theory on capitalism further you would see real wars between companies in which armies of employees would face off against each other and kill as many as they could to dominate.
It is far fetched...way more likely to happen in a system like China runs, not the USA.
Submitted by MyNameIsTim (user info) at 2005-05-02 16:39:23 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
do they really make shotguns that fire solid slugs? wouldn't that make it a rifle? a gun that fires a slug, and not "shot"?
i don't know, someone enlighten me
Submitted by JonnyX (user info) at 2005-05-02 15:46:55 EDT (#)
Ranking: -1
ENGLISH, MUTHAFUCKER, DO YOU SPEAK IT?
Submitted by BLITZKREIG_BOB (user info) at 2005-05-02 15:41:37 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Is the repeated use of the number 13 symbolic? I ask because I thought most buildings don't have a 13th floor.