3/24/11 Prometheus

We must defend against the aliens within, not without.

The Prometheus project was a defensive satellite system the Collective developed from technology left behind by the Scholars and technology scavenged from the Grays. The Prometheus was designed to provide a defense in case of alien invasion of earth. It wasn’t meant to prevent invasion, the military space fleets in the system were meant to do that. The Prometheus was intended to help fight aliens if they gained a foothold or invaded earth. There were a few times when Prometheus was targeted against human threats but to use it would have forced the Collective to stop what it was doing and reconsider sharing all it had learned from its years of research and collection.

3/22/11 Jack Fargone

Jack Fargone reworking

Jack Fargone always wanted to live an extraordinary life. Unfortunately he was born on Earth in the early twenty-first century and little would happen. That is until the IDIOTS fleet came into his 9-planet system and destroyed it. The fleet needed fuel to get to their next destination and they converted every planet into said fuel. Fortunately for Jack and 87 other people were rescued. Why he was chosen was just luck. There were 7 billion people on the planet and the IDIOTS chose 87 healthy individuals. It could have been any 87 people with good health but he was one of them and it would change his life and the lives of the other survivors forever.

3/18/11 The Collective

Ugh, March is almost over. Here you go.

Why did the Collective approach Ensign Est?

Ensign Est was the only person to see the Null Weapon technology. They wanted the technology in their possession to prevent two things: The technology falling into the wrong hands and preventing the Anuras and other Ambassador races from destroying anyone with the technology. The Collective wanted to make sure Ensign Est was either isolated so they could get the technology or killed before the Anuras got a hold of him in a populated area.

Why did the Collective believe they could trust Est?

The retrieval mission was not Est’s first mission. He had served for five years aboard the Aegis and was their only Intelligence soldier for at least half that time.

3/17/11 Unicorn Ranch 1

Ensign Est arrives at Unicorn Ranch.

The shuttle bumped up against the air lock and Ensign Est felt the grav-locks activate and stop the shuttle from bouncing off the side of the station. Ensign Est had arrived at a location that was not supposed to exist. Unicorn Ranch was the most secret of secret locations. It was where all prospective members of the Collective came to depart for Collective headquarters.

Est unbuckled his safety harness and waited for the red light above the air lock to turn green before he stood. There was no one else on the transport with Est. The light switched to green and Est stood.

Est adjusted his eye patch and grabbed his duffle bag from under his seat.

3/16/11 Unicorn Ranch

The Collective wasn't going to be part of the Scholars and Others stories but they some how made it into the setting.

Unicorn Ranch. When Ensign Est heard the name of his next destination he couldn’t help but laugh. The admin officer he stood in front of didn’t think it was funny. But that officer had to tell a lot of soldiers that was their destination. The Unicorn Ranch was the secret location of pickup point for the intelligence agency known as the Collective. The Collective wanted Est in its ranks to help them determine what was in the satellite and how that knowledge could be interpreted. Unicorn Ranch was located in a mining system and was such a random location that when the transport arrived Est had no real reason to tell them where he was going.

3/8/11 the Plan

The plan had been called ‘hair-brained’ and Ensign Est called crazy for coming up with it. The crew of the Solace was relying on the plan of a 20-year-old intelligence soldier.

The plan relied on calculations and projections on where an 18-year-old satellite would be located. Est dared not tell everyone he was guessing on some of it.

But this type of mission was for what the Solace was designed. To jump into a hostile system and within a minute spool up their jump engines and get the hell out.

Two seconds and the ship would be in the targeting arrays of all the pirate vessels. Two seconds would decide whether the plan Ensign Est came up with would cost everyone his or her life.

3/7/11 Ensign Est 2

Additions to the short story for Scifi writing

The satellite collected information on the pirate activities in the system. It was constructed from Pakam reverse engineered technology and was designed to avoid detection. When it was deployed it was done so not knowing where exactly it would travel in the system.

When Ensign Est told the Commander of the plan, the Commander laughed and told him no. Then the Collective came aboard and didn’t laugh when Est told them he had an Intel satellite in that system. They had every intention of getting to the system before the Anuras but when they arrived they realized they were too late. The Anuras had destroyed every pirate ship and pirate colony.

Before deploying to the system the Commander made it clear that if the Anuras had made it to the system before them, the mission would not become a rescue mission. No pirates were to be rescued.

3/6/11 too much writing

so you are just going to have to trust me when I tell you I did write on the 6th but it was all for class. I worked on my script for film writing. It is Jack and the IDIOTS. Here is a snippet from it.

INT. GREAT HALL
The Great Hall bustles with excitement. Row after row of bleacher line the walls up to the ceilings. The room drums with anticipation as the middle of the hall is suddenly illuminated with realistic holograms. Three aliens stand in the middle of the room on the stage area.
One alien is a big four armed, four legged cat like creature. His body is covered in tattoos and markings. He growls and slams his fists against his bare muscular chest.
The alien across from the cat like alien is a blob of a creature. It whips tendrils and globs of goo out.
Jack and Huan take a break from cheering and look at each other. They both shrug.
JACK
Kick it’s amorphous ass!
HUAN
Turn that kitty into litter!
They watch as the referee alien moves between the waiting fighters. The Referee is very boring. He looks like a purple human with tall rabbit ears.
REFEREE
Ladies and Gentlemen and those in between, are you ready for Universal Fighters Competition to begin?
The crowded room erupts in cheers.
REFEREE
I can’t hear you!
The referee cups a hand to his ear.
REFEREE
I can’t hear you!
The crowd erupts louder.
REFEREE
In the red corner we have five time UFC champion and reigning Universal fighter belt holder, Yinlu of the Diion system.
The cat fighter jumps up and down. The crowd goes crazy for him.
REFEREE
In the blue corner we have Epsilon Chi Tau Omega of the . . . some where in space.
The crowd doesn’t go nearly as crazy as for Yinlu.
REFEREE
Okay. Let’s get it on!
The referee signals for both the fighters to come to the center of the stage.
REFEREE
Okay, this is going to be a clean fight. No cheap shots, sucker punches or disintegrations. Are you ready?
The cat-like fighter nods. The blob still whips his tendrils around.
REFEREE
Ready! Fight!
The referee backs away in a quick leap.
The cat fighter takes a defensive martial arts stance. He prepares for whatever the blob is prepared to throw.
The blob continues to flail its slimy tendrils around. The crowd yells for blood.
In a flash the blob completely covers the cat fighter. In a mess of blood and melted flesh and bone the cat fighter is dissolved inside the blob.
The crowd falls silent.
The blob expels the UFC champion belt. It clanks on the floor of the Great Hall.
The crowd goes freaking crazy.
REFEREE
Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you the winner: Epsilon Chi Tau Omega!
Jack and Huan stand stunned.

3/5/11 Ensign Est

This is going to be a short story for Scifi and Fantasy writing class.

Two seconds and the ship would be in the targeting arrays of all the pirate vessels. Two seconds and the only person who could do anything was Est. He watched as his display illuminated with the targeting information. Two seconds would decide whether he would cost everyone their lives or if everyone would survive this jump into hostile space.

Two seconds passed and his targeting array was dark. No hostiles.

Est tapped on the screen and widened the display field. Nothing. He couldn't believe it. They had jumped into the heart of the pirate systems. They should have been surrounded on all sides, hostile weapons charged and ready to fire.

“Sir, there are no hostiles,” he said.

“Check comms,” the Commander ordered.

Another crewman pulled up the communication arrays.

“The entire system is completely quiet, sir.”

“What the hell,” the Commander pulled up the imagery. "Did we come out of jump where we were suppose to?" The Commander looked back at Est.

"Yes sir, this is where we needed to be."

"Is the courier on his way?"

Est looked down at his display. He smiled.

"I'll take that as a yes," the Commander said.

Everyone turned their attention to the main visual display that took up one whole wall of the command deck. It looked like a giant window with data streaming across it explaining what they were looking at.

Ships lay in ruin around the only m-class planet in the system. Tendrils of fires burned as the oxygen from the ship’s leaked out into space. Debris streaked across the planet’s upper atmosphere like scars.

“What the hell happen,” the Commander asked.

“Sir, we are reading Anuras weapon signatures,” Est said.

“Anuras?”

“Yes, sir. Degradation indicates less than an hour old. You need to see this, sir.” Est transferred the display to the main view screen.

“What are you showing me, Est?” the Commander asked.

“Anuras vessel on the far side of the system, sir,” Est said. “It was in the upper atmosphere of the gas giant. That’s why we didn’t detect it upon reentry.”

“Lower defenses, power down weapons. Get me communications with that ship.” The Commander manipulated the image on the main display to enhance the Anuras ship.

The Anuras ship resembled bundle of copper wire so tangled up that no one or thing could undo it.

“Sir, I have the Anuras on comms. He is requesting we leave the system,” the communication crewman reported.

“On main.”

The mvd that filled the entire front of the ship shifted and the Anuras captain was on the display.

He resembled a very large humanoid frog. His wide mouth and thick lips dominated much of his face. His eyes were set on the top of his head and were bulbous. Where humans have only one iris, Anuras eyes have three or more, depending on age. This was an older Anuras captain with 7 irises in his golden eyes. His eyes sank into his head briefly to be moistened as his eye lids snapped over them and then the slid back up into place. The Anuras were named so because of their resemblance to earth frogs.

“Translator functioning, sir.”

“Anuras vessel, this is Commander Wise with the Empirical Frontier of Man. Please state why you have destroyed these human vessels and your business in this system.” Commander Wise and all on the command deck knew the Anuras had no real reason to answer such questions. Everyone on the command deck knew that one Anuras ship was the one who destroyed the pirate fleet. A fleet of 230 Stellar, Frigate and Destroyer class vessels wiped out by a single Anuras command ship. It would have taken more than this lowly Scout vessel and the battle fleet that is waiting for our signal.

“Commander Wise. Return to the frontier and inform your commanders that the Pirate fleet in this system has been destroyed, your appreciation for such a task is unnecessary,”

“Sir, we have it,” Est said.

The Commander knodded to Est.

“Anuras vessel, we will respect your request. Commander Wise, Out.”

The Commander rushed off the command deck.

He ran through the corridors of his ship, dodging past the lower enlisted who stopped and saluted, slid down multiple deck ladders as he made his way deeper into the ship and emerged on the loading bay of engineering out of breath.

“Ensign Est said we had it?”

A man in an external vehicle excursion suit was standing next to a large satellite.

The man removed his helmet and smiled.

“Yep, it’s intact.”

3/4/11 And the meek shall inherit the Earth

There is a genetic trait among cats that gives some of them extra digits on their feet. A friend had one that could open stuff with that extra finger. Evolution is interesting.

They inherited the earth and they knew nothing about us.

Fifteen different species evolved to replace us. Cats were the first but disease wiped them out. Feline diseases were rampant without human intervention. Ferrets and weasels followed them. The evolution of the ferrets and weasels was quick and ripe with failed genetic lines. Ultimately conflicts among tribes and starvation ended their reign. Next the insectoids took a shot at dominating. Ants evolved to dominate but queen-icide led to a loss of leadership and colonies fell apart. Next were wasps. They dominated almost as long as man but then the new ice age wiped them out. From the ice emerged the next species to dominate earth. Aquatic mammals that looked similar to sea otters but large stood up and reigned. Their cities just beneath the surface of the oceans would be a marvel that few understood.

3/3/11 Octation's Obsession

This is going to be a novel. Metroscape and it's wacky heroes and villains is going to be a novel.

Octation’s main goal is to steal the Heaven Emerald from the Museum of Gaudy Theatre dress. The museum is challenging to break into because it is located in the basement of an old millionaire spinster’s mansion. One would think a supervillian could overcome an old lady. But this old lady has surrounded herself with retired superheroes from Metroscape.

When Octation first tried to steal the emerald he believed that same thing. He could just sneak in and take it. But what he did not know was the mansion is not only a museum but also a retirement community for the superheroes who are no longer fighting crime.

3/2/11 The Grays

Hmmm. Not much to say. Here you go.

Time was lost and there was nothing they could have done. Thousands of years had passed and the Grays could do nothing but warn us about what was out in space. They did not give us the technology we needed to defend ourselves because it would only lead to a quicker discovery of us. They hid their ships flight signature from anyone who would be looking for it. When they came to us they were the last of their kind. They knew they were dying and had decided to let themselves die. The Grays knew so much about us yet told us nothing. They wanted to make sure we stayed hidden. And they were successful.

3/1/11: 99 years is not enough time

I read an article about how immortality can be attained by the preventing the breakdown of DNA at the very tips of the chromosomes. Wish I could find it. Will find it actually and post a link on here. But the Bel Shavo figured out how to do it and that led to our immortality after their departure. But first they did some very sick things to us.

The 99 years following the invasion of the Bel Shavo was a very dark time for humanity.

So many people had been lost. So many lives were gone. Thousands more starved to death but in that dark time we discovered what the Bel Shavo had done to us. They had created a new mankind.

The Bel Shavo conducted so many macabre experiments on humans during their occupation of Earth. They tested every aspect of human physiology and psychology. Some of the most heinous experiments were conducted on pregnant women and newborns. The horrific stories that came from the Panama Internment camps still give nightmares to those who listen to them. The Bel Shavo were demons in every sense except where they came from. No hell could spawn their sinister appetites.

2/28/11 Octation, the most ambidextrous villian

Omega Lobster and the other superheroes of Metroscape need villians. Here is one.

His brain was larger than most evil villains and he had more arms that most villains possessed also. His brain weighed 15 pounds and made up most of his weight seeing as how the rest of him weighed less than 20 pounds. His arms, actually his appendages, were interchangeable so he could have anywhere between 1 to 6 arms or legs at one time.

Of all the evil villains in Metroscape, Octation was the most ambidextrous.

He was the result of a similar experiment that changed Omega Lobster into the super hero he became. But the experiment that changed Octation into a villain was meant to make them more flavorful.

Octation main goal was to destroy all of Metroscape’s shipping and fishing fleets and also steal the Heaven’s Emerald in the Metroscape museum of gaudy jewelry. He really likes shiny things.

2/22/11 The Keri Wolves

The tundra was a rough environment but the Keri Wolves were rougher than anything that could be thrown at them. They were trained to defend the most precious of all resources: Drian Crystals. A single crystal the size of a coin was able to power a starship or space station.

Years of plundering by pirates led to the Drians to create the Keri wolves. Each weighed over 370 kilograms. They could sprint up to 56 kilometers per hour for long distances. Their red fur clashed against the snow of the tundra but that didn’t matter. If you saw the Keri Wolves you were dead.

2/21/11 The Residuals

They don't call them aliens. They don't call them survivors. They are called residuals and they are humans or other aliens corrupted by Chaos that bleeds in from the Edge.

When the ship came out of the system’s warp gate window the alarms blared.

The nuero receptors of the helmsman compensated for the loud warnings that caused others to flinch.

“Do we approach, Captain?” the Helmsman asked.

“1/2 impulse,” the Captain said. “And can somebody shut off that damn alarm.”

The alarm silenced.

“Any sign of survivors?”

“Negative, sir.” A crewman scanned the display showing the 11 planets.

“My God, 45 million people lost.” The Captain watched the main display before him.

In the distance the light from the sun of the system fluctuated and ebbed.

“Where is the nearest settlement?”

“Antiaon 4. A mining facility.”

“Scan that facility. Make sure there are no residuals.” The Captain watched the crewman follow his command.

“Sir, scan shows there are approximately 293 thousand residuals in the facility.” The crewman brought up a map of the facility. “All levels are compromised.”

The facility image changed red and warnings glowed across the screen.

“Tactical, prepare the weapons to blow that facility to hell.”

“Aye, sir.”

2/16/11 The Darkness of the Edge

Alrighty, well it is 11:40pm and I had yet to write anything. I really couldn't come up with anything so I just asked questions and before I knew it the world was being consumed by the Darkness that had seeped from the Edge. Have I mentioned a pizza commercial was the inspiration for this?

Who knew?

Who knew what would happen when the stars went black and the darkness engulfed us all?

The darkness had crept from the Edge and swallowed millions upon millions of systems.

Billions upon billions of lives were lost.

Entire civilizations blinked out of existence.

Suns were consumed in the darkness and we ran.

We tried to escape it.

But you cannot escape the darkness of the Edge.

Mankind watched from its last refuge as the stars blinked out and the night sky was blank.

Darkness consumed all and the cries of trillion stars went silent.

I have been to the Edge and we cannot escape our fate.

2/14/11 Deanionionasad

Earth has been destroyed and Jack and Huan watch as it is being sucked up into a giant hand vacuum to make fuel for the IDIOTS fleet.

The alien leads Jack and Huan through corridors. They see other humans being met by various aliens. Some of the humans are reacting less than civil. The alien introduces himself as DEANIONIONASAD but they can him Dean. He tells them they are on a ship orbiting what is left of Earth. Jack and Huan stop walking. Jack asks if he heard him right. Dean sighs and tells them to follow him. Dean takes the two to a large window overlooking a fleet of ships surrounding a debris field that is being sucked into another ship that looks like a hand vacuum. Ships pull are pulling up to the ‘handle’ of the hand vacuum ship and refueling.

2/12/11 The Black Shalu

For years I have had this idea of a military force that is hired by others to fight wars and provide security, much like a modern security force in Iraq or elsewhere. But this military force works contracts across the galaxy and along with money they are paid in solar systems and battle fleets. And leading this galactic military force would be a single man. This is the story of one of those men and how he caused problems for the Black Shalu and the future leader of the mightiest military force in the universe.

The contract was to suppress the rebel forces on the desert moon orbiting Odiu. When the Black Shalu negotiated the contract there was an antiquities clause that was created to compensate for any additional costs if the hiring party could not pay for extensions. The desert moon tested that clause.

Fleet Admiral and Supreme General of the Black Shalu, Gulion Strax IV, led the Black Shalu forces in the suppression operations. This was a very rare occurrence and when the mission was successful the native inhabitants of the desert moon despised the Black Shalu for reasons other than fighting a war against them.

The inhabitants of the desert moon used a form of energy manipulation that many superstitious individuals would consider magic. After action reports and intelligence summaries referred to this as Manipulation of Physics and Energy. But in the field, soldiers referred to is sorcery and witchcraft. Commanders warned troops not to discuss it in such ways but court martial and demotion takes valuable troops away from the fight.

Gulion Strax IV sought an item that the inhabitants used long ago to protect the moon from outside interlopers. He was not a superstitious man and sought the item to use it militarily. Unfortunately, it would change him and the Black Shalu forever.

2/11/11 Kay Nein

Every good superhero needs a side kick or ally. Omega Lobster has one that helps him deal with the inner and outer conflicts.

Kay Nein is Omega Lobster’s best friend and ally. She has the ability to change into any type of dog. She was born with this ability and has used it to do both good and bad. When she was a teen she used it to sneak out at night. When she was in her twenties she used it to sneak in to places and steal stuff. Most of the time she was sent scurrying away by the shop or storeowner. Other times the local dog pound would catch her and she would change back when she was locked up and the pound would be very confused about how she got into the cage. She changed though when she met Omega Lobster.