Chapter 8: Alliances

Sand and grit assaulted Hughes’ face, whipped into a veritable sandstorm frenzy by the thrusters of the descending Cav carrier, an aging Heater class. Its engines weren’t big enough, and it was too bulky, making it slow and awkward. Hughes wondered if that was the best they could procure on a dustball like Dulabar. He would have expected a higher ranking Military commander like the Colonel to at least be using the more modern Kite class.

Chapter 7: Freefall

Due to an excellent suggestion, I've changed the spelling on one of the character's names, and will be using that spelling going forward.  Good suggetion, Dad.  :)

Kella awoke to red-tinted clouds and a horrible, incessant buzzing. She realized with a start that she was still in her Scythe, so she couldn’t have been unconscious for too long. There was blood in her eyes and it was difficult to see, but she did finally recognize the buzzing. She wished she hadn’t. Her Scythe was empty, out of fuel. She must’ve burned the last of it in her desperate attempt to escape the missiles.

Chapter 6: The Duel

A little late, but better late than never...

The emergency reserve fuel indicator lit up in Kella’s cockpit. She completely ignored it. She was transfixed on the explosions flashing across Duckett’s Landing. Was she too late? Kella dropped altitude in order to pick up speed. She’d be damned if she let her prize get taken out in some Podunk landing strip in the middle of no where.

Chapter 5: Turbulence

“Sorry fellas, I appreciate the hospitality, but I really need to run,” Gavin said while commanding all the ports to seal up. The mechanic crew jumped clear as the auto-loaders stalled and backfired. Spare fuel rods fell from the gantry to clang loudly onto the tarmac. Gavin ignored the mechanics’ screams and warnings as he powered up the main engines. The mechanics couldn’t miss the ground-vibrating rumble of the massive Koenig engines powering up and ran for the trucks.

Chapter 4: The Sherbet Is a Lie

Hues got out of his jeep at the base of the tower and looked back towards the mammoth aircraft. He could barely make out the mechanics as they loaded fuel rods into the ports and supply crates into the cargo hold. If all went well, another ten minutes or so would see the Rear Admiral on his way and Hues would similarly be on his way to packing. Just a little further and this hellhole would be just another bad memory. But the good feelings died as Hues was confronted by the flight controller mere feet from his jeep. The controller had just run down the seven flights of stairs and was breathing heavily and obviously alarmed. It took the man a long moment to catch his breath before he could speak.

Chapter 3: The Airport

Major Evan Hues sighed as he looked out the window of the control tower. The tower presided over the most boring plot of earth the Major had ever seen. He had been assigned to his sleepy little post after a ‘difference of opinion’ with his previous commanding officer. Hues had been a little overly ambitious there, and the commander wasn’t pleased with Hues’ methods for rising through the ranks which the commander considered political back-stabbing. Defeated by the old buzzard, Hues was sent to the place where ambitions died, or as the local’s called it: Duckett’s Landing.

Chapter 2: A Quirk

Breathing a sigh of relief to be out of the complex, the Mercenary cracked the seal on her helmet and pulled it from her head. Her black, shoulder length hair tumbled down in a matted mess. Almost subconsciously she started running her hand through her hair working the knots out. She had eyes of deep, agonizingly beautiful blue that seemed to be depthless matching a likewise beautifully framed face that was marked only by a small scar that ran from her right eye towards her ear; a reminder of her first mission as a soldier of fortune.
The console beeped at her and she glanced at the curious message.

Santi-U

Ok....so here it starts.  I'm absolutely crazy.  I am going to attempt...attempt to write and post a new chapter of one of my w.i.p. stories each day.  This is going to be really hard.  50000 words in a month was freaking hard for nanowrimo...and now I want to write a chapter every day.

I know why I want to do this, I just don't know if I can.  I have a serious issue with following through on long-term goals.  I usually end of forgetting, or my priorities shift, or I just plain get lazy.  But this is something I want to work on, and this is how I've decided to go about it.  But seriously?  And entire chapter a day?


Yeah.

I give myself two weeks...tops.  Let the challenge begin.

Below is Chapter One of a story I have tentatively titled "Sentinel".  It's basically about a guy stuck as the brain/main computer of a large ship.  The concept isn't new, and was greatly inspired by Anne McAffrey's Ship Who Sang series of books, although I read these a long time ago, and am not too familiar with them anymore.  I do remember them fondly though and I heartily recommend them to any fan of fantasy/sci-fi...actually...she's a must-read author...look her up, pick a book, any book.

So we'll start with this.  If I manage to complete this project, I have about twenty other stories that could use re-writes or just get plain finished.  Please let me complete one!

Chapter 1: Theft

The Cavalier engineer looked over his work and nodded in satisfaction. Standing nearly twenty feet tall and humanoid in appearance, the object of the engineer’s attention was a true killing machine, a walking tank. To him, it was a beautiful, shining example of bleeding-edge engineering. Cav’s were designed to be the shocktroopers of the Union Military, and were brutally efficient at the job. At the same time, the high-performance machines required a lot of special attention to maintain best performance, and that’s where the engineer came in, and he loved every inch of those machines.

Fire Above the Battle

So I've been playing Final Fantasy XIII (some people would say obsessing, and I really can't argue the point), but I've noticed recently that several game review sites have taken points away from the game because it's too linear...

Um hello?  This is a Japanese-made RPG.  This isn't Rockstar San Diego.  There is a very big difference between eastern and western RPG philosophies.  Eastern Gaming Philosophy is all about the journey, and the story involved in said journey, while Western Gaming Philosophy is all about choice.  FF13 subscribes to the former, and choice is given a back seat in priority to the story, but this provides the game designers to script a much more in-depth experience.  Here's an example:

Western RPGs use the term 'sandbox' because it is an open environment that lets you do, well, whatever the heck you want.  Eastern RPGs aren't sandbox, instead, I liken them to the slide.  It's one way, but it's a helluvan exciting trip there.  Or a rollercoaster if you prefer the metaphor - you can't choose where your rails go, but that's not the point, it's the ride (journey) that keeps you coming back.

You don't really compare the two, now do you (slides or sandboxes)?  So when these game review sites are nitpicking that the game is 'too linear', I really have to laugh.  That's like saying the slide is no good because you can't build sandcastles with it.  I have no problem with sandcastles, but sometimes, I just want an exciting journey.

So reading those reviewers really disappoints me.  These people are supposed to be video game aficionados, so they should know the difference between the gaming philosophies and know not compare apples to oranges simply because they feel they have to nitpick something.  They should know better.  It's a good game, don't cheapen it.

Which brings me to another point.  Why do video game reviewers have to insist on revolutionary game play?  A new iteration of a tried-n-true franchise does not need to change the control scheme merely to keep things fresh.  If it ain't broke, don't fix it.  JRPGs are continuously slammed in reviews because they supposedly didn't bring anything new to the genre - but did they really need to?  Like God of War III for example.  It has the same control scheme, and a reviewer said it didn't bring anything new over its older siblings.  Again, I ask, why does it have to?  It's in HD.  It's Kratos beating the living stuffing out of everything.  It has giant female mountains.  What else do you want?!

Maybe this is a core problem of the larger whole.  Why does society need new things over old things just because?  Your cell phone works just fine, and does everything you want it to do, but you still 'upgraded' to the shiny newer one.  Why?  Because it was shiny(ier)?

Riddle me that, Batman.