The devastation of the fifth world war had ravaged the world of the early 22nd century; but now, fifty years later, a cold war was at its peak, a cold war unlike any the world had ever known. World War Five had been a size war, and neutrino dissimilators had shrunk three-quarters of the world’s population down to one centimeter tall; now, the world was still reeling from the aftermath.

But despite the intensity of world history over the past half century, it appeared to be an ordinary day on a United States Marine Base somewhere in California; young Marines were running on the track while their D.I.s barked orders at them. It was apparent that these people were one centimeter tall by the huge strands of Bermuda grass used for decorative foliage towering over the buildings of the base. A sergeant walked a pet ant on a leash, and from his perspective the ant was as big as a medium-sized dog.

Two corporals were just finishing a game of chess in the N.C.O. club.

“Damn it!” said Dirk. “You beat me again with that crazy strategy of yours!”

“I can’t believe you fell for that again!” said Jake. “I beat you in four moves!”

Two high-ranking officers entered the club, and approached them.

“Corporal Dirk Devon?” asked the general. Dirk was short and slightly muscular, with wavy blonde hair and blue eyes.

“Yes sir!” said Dirk, as he and Jake snapped to attention so abruptly that Dirk knocked his chair over.

“And Jake Joplin?” asked the general. Jake was taller than Dirk, with darker skin. He was also muscular. With thick black hair and brown eyes, it was apparent that Jake had some Native American ancestry.

“Yes sir!” said Jake.

“I’m General Barger! This is Major Thompson! You two have been hand selected for a covert operation into Europe to rescue a team of scientists. We need to go to a briefing room so I can give you the specifics of your mission!”

The two corporals followed the general and the major to one of the buildings on the base where they would be offered a higher degree of privacy. Once there, they sat down, and the major who accompanied the general closed the door behind them.

“About three months ago,” the general began, “a team of scientists made their way into Europe to try to steal the schematics to the neutrino dissimilator cannon, the infamous device that miniaturized our ancestors during World War Five exactly fifty years ago. Each of these scientists now has knowledge of how to return us to normal size, but they’re all in different locations in Europe and India. Each scientist has a different piece of the puzzle, and when they’re all rescued, we should have what we need to build a neutrino transfer device that can restore us all to normal size again!”

“Can you tell me a little more about that war, general?” Dirk asked. “I’m an engineer, history was never my area of expertise. All I know is that we're all one-centimeter tall, but I’m not sure why or how it happened.”

“No problem, I’d be glad to!” said the general. “It was the early 22nd century. A scientist from India had developed dimensional braning technology. European scientists had been working on neutrino dissimilation, which effectively reduces the size, weight, volume, and mass of atoms. With the Indian scientist’s contribution, it became possible to shrink people without hurting them, because of the protective dimensional brane surrounding the miniaturized person’s body. This brane keeps the miniaturized atoms of the shrunken person’s body separated from the normal-sized atoms of their environment. Did you know that part of history?”

“I knew some of that,” said Dirk, “but I don't understand how the people of India teamed up with Europe and Russia and targeted the rest of the world!”

“It's simple. A Neo-Nazi group utilized mind control technology to manipulate the minds of Europe's leaders to launch neutrino dissimilators into orbit and use them on the people of North and South America, Africa, and South-East Asia. The Neo-Nazi flag still flies all across Europe to this day!”

“I have a question, sir!” said Jake.

“You have permission to ask me anything, corporal.” said the general.

“Didn't the leaders of the European Union ever figure out that mind control technology had been used on them?”

“Yes,” the general replied, “but by the time they figured it out, they were so indoctrinated into the white supremacist way of thinking that they no longer cared!”

“How did Europe team up with India?” Dirk asked. “Indians have dark skin, it doesn't make sense that the Neo-Nazis would ally themselves with them.”

“India has had a powerful space program since the waning years of the 21st century, and since they had developed the more technical aspects of the neutrino dissimilator cannon, the Neo-Nazis didn't want to become enemies with them out of fear of retaliation. India had the stronger hand, so to speak! So Europe turned their aggression against us during World War Five, the world’s first size war; and that is why we are all one centimeter tall to this very day! So, do you think you can do well on this mission?”

“So when do we deploy?” Jake asked. “I've got nothing better to do on a Friday night!”

“Same here!” said Dirk.

“You're my kind of Marines!" said the general. "A hypersonic transport jet will take you to Germany, with the two of you on board, and the onboard Artificial Intelligence will attempt a landing on the roof of the building where the scientist is being held captive. You will be equipped with jet-packs to rescue Professor Calvin Sutton. You'll be leaving within an hour. The onboard A.I. is named Pappy, he will pilot the hypersonic jet.”

“What if the jet is spotted by radar or German satellites?” Jake asked.

“Europe may have mastered neutrino dissimilation technology,” said General Barger, “but our stealth technology puts theirs to shame. The hypersonic jet will remain invisible while it is on the roof of the building you will be infiltrating. Each of you will have a mini-computer with a control console that activates and de-activates the stealth technology.”

“What part of Berlin?” Dirk asked.

“This is going to sound like something out of Penthouse forum," said General Barger, "but it is an all-female college in Berlin. One of our scientists and several others were captured by a female German college student there. You'll be given a map of the building that shows where her dorm-room is. Once you've successfully acquired Professor Sutton, you'll rendezvous with the jet on the roof of the dorm building, and Pappy will take you to your next mission, in London. Are there any other questions?”

“What are our odds for success?” Jake asked.

“The odds are stacked against you,” said the general, “but that's why you're Marines; you can do more with less and you march into danger knowing success is never a guarantee!”

The general snapped his fingers at the major, who was holding some files in his hands. “Give Corporal Devon and Corporal Joplin a dossier on Vanessa Krueger!”

The major did as ordered. Dirk and Jake flipped open their dossiers and saw a photo of a beautiful young German woman with blonde hair and steel-gray eyes.

“Don't let her looks fool you,” said the general. “She's beautiful, but very, very dangerous. She's interested in vore, so be careful, or you might get swallowed by her. I’m downloading the schematics and blueprints to her dormitory building into your portable personal mini-computers. Her room number is 238!”

“I don’t speak German, general!” said Jake.

“That’s perfectly okay,” said the general. “You don’t need to. I’ve brought a mind control device along that we’ll use on the two of you so you can learn the German language in a matter of seconds! You’ll probably have a more extensive German vocabulary than native speakers when we’re done with you!”

Less than an hour later, Dirk and Jake were seated in the hypersonic transport jet. Even at miniaturized size, it could still reach anywhere in the world in an hour. They each had time to study their dossiers on Vanessa Krueger, the woman who was holding Professor Sutton captive in her dorm-room. They also looked over photos of Professor Sutton, so they could identify him quickly when they encountered him.

“You want to know something weird?” said Jake.

“What's that?” Dirk asked.

“We can communicate with the Germans over the Internet, and it's like we're the same size. Our size difference only becomes apparent if we go over there.”

“I have a cousin who corresponded with a woman in England,” said Dirk. “She was like a girlfriend to him, and they would've gotten married, if they had both been normal size.”

“Really?” said Jake. “Maybe if we succeed in bringing these scientists home, we can all be re-enlarged once and for all. This cold war is really strange.”

“Even if we succeed, it’ll probably be years before we can all get re-enlarged. You know how that goes.”

Within an hour, the onboard A.I. named Pappy informed them that they were over Berlin. It was night time, because of the time difference between California and Berlin. Dirk and Jake put on their jet-packs, and exited the jet after it landed on the roof of the dormitory of the university in Berlin where Vanessa Krueger was living. It was a warm summer night in Berlin.

“We're on the roof,” said Dirk, “so according to the map we studied, we need to use our jet-packs to fly over the eastern side of the building. Vanessa's room is on the third floor, so that's two floors down from where we are!”

They glided through the air with the assistance of the self-renewing jet-packs; there was no need to refuel. The propulsion systems pulled water vapor out of the air and separated the hydrogen and oxygen and used it for fuel. At their diminished size, the jet-packs were much more efficient than they would have been at normal size.

The two men activated their jetpacks and glided over the roof of the dorm building, and flew down over the side. They cruised down to the third floor, between the two windows that divided one room from another. When they reached Vanessa's level, they were in between her room and the room next to hers. There was a ledge built onto each window. Dirk and Jake reached the window ledge in front of Vanessa's room, and de-activated their jet-packs, and landed on the ledge.

Dirk and Jake looked into her room through her window, and were astonished at what they saw! A blonde woman of about 20 years of age was on a bed, with about thirty or more captives, who all stood about one centimeter tall.

“She's got more captives than we thought she had!” said Dirk.

“And one of them is Professor Sutton,” said Jake, “we've got to free him somehow!”

“Only one of us should go in at a time, in case of capture!” said Dirk. “Let's flip a coin to decide who gets to go in!” Dirk pulled out a coin and flipped it in the air. "Heads or tails?"

“Screw that!” said Jake, "I'm going in! You can wait for me out here!”

Jake went to the window before Dirk could protest. The screen separated him from the interior of the room, because it was a warm summer night and the window was open. Jake took a small laser gun and cut through the screen. Before the metal even had time to cool off, Jake climbed through the hole, and was soon on the other side of the screen. He was now inside Vanessa Krueger's dorm room.

He hid behind a curtain and tried to assess the situation; Vanessa was playing with somewhere in the neighborhood of about thirty or more captives on her bed, when her doorbell rang. Vanessa got up to answer the door, and Jake could see that she was dressed like she was going out for a night on the town. She had fishnet stockings on, a black leather mini-skirt, and some type of skimpy negligee under a ripped t-shirt that showed her well-defined abs, and a tight leopard-stripe vest. Her black Doc Marten's climbed up her shins and stopped mid-calf.

Seizing his opportunity, Jake activated his jet-pack and glided down onto the bed while Vanessa’s back was to him. Out of the thirty or so prisoners, Jake quickly identified Professor Sutton, and grabbed him. The professor was an older man with a bald head and a beard, so he was easy for Jake to quickly identify. Seeing that he didn’t have time to reach the window before Vanessa and her friends walked in, he glided down to the floor and pulled Professor Sutton under the bed.

“I’m Jake Joplin! I was sent here to rescue you!”

The two men hid under the bed, where they could see Vanessa and her two girlfriends enter. One of the women had purple spiky hair, a black leather jacket, and a miniskirt like Vanessa’s. Her stockings were typical black pantyhose that had been skillfully shredded in strategic areas. She also wore boots, and she wore an iron cross necklace around her neck.

The other friend entered last, as Vanessa punched the button on the wall control console that activated the sliding front door. This woman was dressed differently than the other two women. She wore a traditional German outfit; a blue bodice with a dark vest that was tied in the front. From the waist up, she looked like a German bar maid. From the waist down, she had a short blue mini-skirt that showed off her fantastic, muscular legs. She had on black spiked stiletto heels that matched her dark vest.

The women were speaking in German, but Jake could understand them as if they were speaking American English, thanks to the mind control technology that had been provided by General Barger.

“I’m glad the two of you came over,” said Vanessa. “I’ve got thirty-three captives, and I chose tonight as the night that I’ll dispose of them!”

“Vanessa,” said the purple-haired woman as she counted the captives, “I only count thirty-two shrunken people on your bed! Do you have one of them somewhere else?”

“What?” Vanessa shouted, running toward the bed. With an embarrassed look on her face she used her finger to mentally tag each captive as she counted them one by one.

“You’re right! There’s only thirty-two of them!” Vanessa turned her head toward the remaining captives. “What happened to the slave-toy who escaped?” she asked them. “If you fail to tell me, I’ll torture you one by one!”

Jake couldn’t see the captives from underneath the bed, but Dirk could see them from the window-sill outside. They cowered from their mighty mistress, fearful of what evil plans she had in mind for them.

“I’ve got an idea, Ursula!” said Vanessa as she addressed the purple-haired woman. “How many pieces are there on a chess board?”

“Let’s see,” said Ursula, “Rook, knight, bishop, multiply that by two, add a king and a queen, and eight pawns makes sixteen on each side!”

“And sixteen and sixteen is thirty-two!” said the other woman dressed in the blue bodice.

“I have exactly thirty-two slaves right now,” said Vanessa, “not counting the captive who just escaped! I’ll go get my chess board!”

Vanessa exited the room, but Ursula and the other woman stayed behind, so Jake couldn’t risk escaping with the professor. He wouldn’t have had time anyway, because Vanessa returned with the chess board just a few moments later.

There was a night stand next to her bed, and Vanessa moved it into position so she and one of her friends could play chess. She moved the lamp that was on it and set it on the floor, and she roughly slid the remaining items from the night stand with her hand, and knocked all of it onto the floor.

“Heidi, start arranging the captives while I get a chair!”

Jake now knew the name of the woman in blue, the one wearing the traditional German dress. Not that it mattered; escape still wasn’t a guarantee at this point. Vanessa soon returned with a chair from another room, and set it on the opposite side of the night stand from where the bed was, as Heidi placed each captive onto their square. At an average height of one centimeter, the captives were in no position to argue with or challenge their monolithic matriarch. To them, she was an unstoppable goddess who ruled their very existence.

“Now what I had in mind,” said Vanessa, “was that we would play a game of chess; however, the rules are a little bit different from traditional chess. If I take one of your pieces, I swallow that piece; if you take one of my pieces, you swallow it!”

Jake noticed that Vanessa referred to her captives as “it” rather than him, as if they were nothing more than possessions to her.

“Wait a minute, said Ursula, “there are two of us, so which one of us gets to play against you?”

“Yeah,” said Heidi, “I want to swallow some captives, too!”

“Maybe neither one of you will play me!” said Vanessa.

“Huh?” Ursula and Heidi moaned in unison.

“If these pathetic worms would tell me where my missing captive went, I might not force any of them to play chess!” Vanessa tilted her head and looked down at the captives on the chessboard in front of her. “Well, what do you have to tell me?” Vanessa asked, as she crossed her arms in front of her.

A captive in one of the pawn squares yelled up at Vanessa: “I know where he went! Someone flew through the window and collected Professor Sutton!”

“Where are they now?” Vanessa asked, with a smile on her face.

“They’re under the bed right now!” said the captive.

Instantly, the three women surrounded the bed and got down on their hands and knees. Vanessa was on one side, Ursula on another side, and Heidi on the other side. The headboard was against a wall, so there was no escape from that angle; Jake and the professor were surrounded.

“You can make it easy on yourself by surrendering to me immediately!” said Vanessa. “If you do, I promise your death will be swift!”

Jake grabbed Professor Sutton and held him as he activated his jet-pack and headed for the side of the bed facing the window, where Ursula was located. They flew vertically and evaded Ursula’s grasp, but as they flew up vertically by the side of the bed, Vanessa had grabbed a broom and swatted at them, knocking them down onto the top mattress.

Ursula grabbed them, and held them in her clenched fists so they couldn’t escape, and walked around the bed to the night stand where the chess board was. Ursula handed Jake and the professor to Vanessa. By now, Jake had deactivated his jet-pack to avoid injuring himself or the professor. Vanessa set the two of them down on the chess board.

“Who are you, little man?” Vanessa asked Jake.

“I’m Jake Joplin, Corporal in the United States Marine Corps.”

“Are you alone?” Vanessa asked.

“I’m only required to give you my name, rank, and serial number!” said Jake.

Meanwhile, outside, Dirk realized that now that Jake had been captured, he had to come up with another plan. He looked into the personal mini-computer device he carried with him, and looked at the blueprints and schematics to Vanessa’s building, and found where the fuse box was located. He activated his jet pack, and flew toward the roof of the dormitory.

Back in Vanessa’s dorm, Jake was standing on the night stand next to the chess board.

“You’ll be my opponent!” said Vanessa. “Every time I take one of your pieces, I swallow that captive!”

Jake had no choice but to agree with Vanessa’s plan. Of course, Vanessa went first. Jake then told the guy in his King’s pawn position to move forward. After Vanessa took her next turn, Jake told his king’s bishop to move up three squares diagonally. Vanessa didn’t realize she was falling into a trap when she made her next move, so Jake continued with his plan and told the guy in the queen’s position to move diagonally two squares. Vanessa made another move, and at this point no pieces had been taken by either Vanessa or Jake. When it was Jake’s turn, he told the queen to move up vertically and take the pawn in front of Vanessa’s bishop.

“Checkmate!” said Jake. “In four moves! I can’t believe you fell for that!”

Vanessa slammed her fist down on the chess board, crushing one of the captives who had been acting as a pawn. “You bastard! Now all of you are really going to pay! I’ll find new ways of torturing you!”

Vanessa grabbed a pair of scissors and cut two of the strands of her fishnet stockings on her upper left thigh, then she grabbed a captive at random and tied him with the fishnet strands. When he was secured to her fishnets, she crossed her right leg over her left, smothering the captive.

“I’m saving you for last,” Vanessa told Jake, “so you can see the torment that awaits you!” Vanessa turned to Ursula and Heidi. “Go ahead and each of you grab a couple of slave-toys, and do with them as you please!”

Ursula and Heidi each grabbed a shrunken prisoner. Ursula had grabbed a captive who had been one of the pawns on the chessboard. She held her captive above her mouth, then lowered him and gave him a kiss. She raised him about six inches above her open mouth, and dropped him; he fell straight onto her waiting pink tongue, and she sealed her lips and smiled.

“This is fun!” Ursula said to Vanessa. “I’ve never swallowed a pawn before!” Ursula tilted her head back and swallowed with finality, and Jake thought he could see a distinct bulge in her throat as her tiny captive plummeted to the depths of her Aryan belly.

Nobody knew the struggle that Ursula’s captive was now powerless to endure. He was in the belly of his mistress, covered in the gastric juices of her stomach and the contents of her most recent meal. He tried to hold his breath, but even if he could hold it for several minutes, it would do him no good. The only way he could escape was if Ursula vomited, but Ursula had an iron stomach; there was zero chance that she would vomit, regardless of how much alcohol she consumed that night.

Heidi held her captive as she watched Ursula swallow her first captive. Heidi dropped her captive into her bosom intentionally, but acted like it was an accident.

“Oops! Look what I did!” said Heidi.

The miniature slave struggled to regain his composure, but Heidi grabbed him and held him up in the air.

“So tiny, but so delicious!” said Heidi as she licked her lips. Heidi lifted the captive higher, and dropped him into her open mouth as Ursula had done with her captive. “Swallowing captives makes me feel like a conqueror, in the tradition of our Nordic ancestors!”

“The captives are only one centimeter tall,” said Vanessa, “so they’re the ideal height for swallowing! They don’t stand a chance!”

Vanessa went to the stasis chamber and grabbed a six pack of wine coolers. “Does anyone want a drink?”

Just then, the lights went out. Since it was night time, everything went pitch black. Jake had stayed close to Professor Sutton, so he grabbed him, and activated his jet-pack. Jake was in such good shape that he could carry the professor and steer his jet-pack at the same time. Vanessa and her girlfriends had failed to notice the hole in the screen, and they hadn’t closed the window; Jake flew through the hole and landed on the window ledge outside the window.

“Are you ready to head to the roof?” Jake asked the professor.

“Yes, as ready as I’ll ever be!” the professor replied.

Jake held onto Professor Sutton, and the professor held onto Jake as Jake activated his jet-pack and flew to the roof. There, he met Dirk.

“I had a hell of a time with that fuse box!” said Dirk. “I didn’t think I’d ever cut off power to Vanessa’s room! I had to use my laser gun to fry the fuse box circuit board, they’re going to need an electrician to fix it now!”

The hypersonic transport jet was parked on the roof. Dirk deactivated the stealth technology with his mini-computer, so the jet was visible. Dirk, Jake and the professor entered the jet, where they were welcomed by Pappy, the onboard A.I. When the three of them were secure, the face of General Barger appeared on the screen in front of them.

“So you completed your mission!” said General Barger. “Dirk, Jake… you two make a hell of a team!”

“It’s too bad we couldn’t rescue the other captives, General Barger!” said Jake.

“It’s too late for them, Corporal Joplin!” said the general. “There was nothing you could do to help them! If you boys succeed in rescuing all of these scientists, you can make it so nobody ever gets shrunk again during a size war! Are you two ready for your next mission?”

“Yes, sir!” said Dirk and Jake in unison.

“After you drop Professor Sutton off in California, your next stop is London!”

Jake and Dirk leaned back and anticipated their next mission, as the transport jet attained altitude.

The End