Prologue:The Break

The woman turned from the window and strode across the room. Cut glass beauty in a sharp military cut uniform. Her stride was long, languorous and sensual revealing a perfect line with every step. It would be enough to breed fantasies in normal men however the men stood around the war table were not normal. Every one of them stood precisely 2 metres tall in their stocking feet but not only that they looked alike and spoke with the same inflections and mannerisms. They regarded her with rapt attention and an almost soulless submissive posture. Their cultured similarity only heightened her frustration at the world outside. The Terrans called the world Hephaestus after one of their ancient gods but to her its dreary barrenness reminded her of the tedium of day after day of inaction and frustration as she tried to imagine why High Command had sent her here? One of the few born of natural birth in a race of clones it was natural that she would be in command but at this moment she would exchange it all to be one of the carefully programmed and gene sculpted warriors who had come here to save the Kalderan race from themselves. The clones only knew war and discipline. Clones were bred to enjoy endless drills and fatigues even when there was no enemy. Contessa hated drill, parades, Terrans and clones in that precise order. Now they had wiped them all off of this dust bowl and shipped the survivors back to New Kaldera for genetic strengthening of their warriors she was forced to follow her last orders to hold the planet and start mining the minerals.

The Lieutenant of Flight 9 whose insignia showed his designation as Sigmala 712 turned to give his report. He did this every day with endless punctuality and nearly always said the same thing. Contessa drifted. She mused over her situation. She couldn’t go home because the gate had broken down. The techs were puzzled but then they were all clones as well. They had told her the gate had just shut down and nothing they could do would make it work again. They carried on telling her that even after she had killed three of them so she guessed they had to be telling the truth. She had killed one more but that was just her way of working out her temper. The other techs had just shuffled back to work. She hadn’t smiled much only when she thought of one of the petty cruelties she had inflicted on many victims. Like that Terran youngster she had left scarred for dead in the ruins of his pathetic power lifter. Hardly a match for her Custom Medusa he had tried to stand up to her. She had turned his puny toy into mulch and then taunted him with his genetic weakness. The hate in his eyes had made her feel excited in a way that she hadn’t known before. Pity he was dead now, undoubtedly a victim of dehydration and the heat that the twin suns gave out. She stopped hearing something wrong in Sigmala’s report.

“Repeat that again!”, Sigmala 712 jumped a bit but then carried out her order monotonously.
“Two water bowsers are overdue. Their transponders do not answer. Their absence has been logged.” Sigmala 712 waited impassionately.

Commander Rugen turned to hide her face as she bit the back of her knuckle like a little girl. This was it, the break in her purgatory and the drones in at the table didn’t even see it. She cleared her face of emotion and turned to face the mindless drones at the table.

“Get me a full report of the last reported location of the tankers, Oh and prepare my Unit. I’m going hunting.” She strode across the room to her suit closet undressing as she went. The retreating lieutenants just looked away and filed out. Now naked she reached for her flight suit.

“Shall I notify your wingmen?” a querulous voice rose.

She turned herself round to face the Lieutenant and rolled her eyes at his completely passive face. Not even the remotest lust for her. A Terran would be a molten pool on the floor by now crying out for her attention. Terrans just gave back more for her effort.

“No I hunt alone! Now get out” She almost spat the last with contempt tinged anger. The clone just saluted turned and left. Oh how she hated this planet!

Thoughts from a Ships Doctor

The thoughts of Fitz. Ships Doctor of the Firefly Ace of Spades, 2 days out of Verbena.

(an NPC in my Serenity game hence why here and not on unspeakable message)



It’s quiet. I like quiet. The crew don’t usually give me time for quiet so I think its time for me to think.

To the crew I am an enigma I am glad to say and invaluable which I am even happier to say. People might ask me why in the ‘verse I put up with morally backward apes in this flying tin bath? At least this Ace of Spades is cleaner than the wreck we left on Dreyfus Moon. Not a bad idea of Besters switching the Transponders on those Alliance Specials. As far as I am concerned after what the Alliance have done to my good name I am bloody glad Billy broke the nasty Colonels neck! If the Colonel had of seen my face and let slip to Billy, well Billy wouldn’t be so glad to see me with a sharp instrument!

Any way enough about that, let me think about the crew. That Dreyfus Moon thing was a close thing it’s time I evaluated the threat level of this crew.

Brother Lassa.
No threat whatsoever as he has as much to hide as me. I’ve had him on the table and know his secret. He seems to manage to climb across my table more than a monk should. Odd that!

Marion Day.
Clinically I could retire writing a thesis on his contorted brain. His reaction levels are off the chart. If he practised he could possibly defeat Yun Fat in a gunfight. Not sure on danger level as he is the most unpredictable member of the crew. Also he was bounty hunting when we met and I’ve had to kill far too many of that type. If I have to I will have to make sure he never sees the blade drop which brings me to Yun Fat.

William Yun Fat.
Fortunately not high on the intelligence level however nor is a snake and that’s his speed level. He could be a good ally or bad enemy. My problem is which? Depending on who gets to him first and who he believes that could be critical. I know he was on New Kasmir but I don’t know when or what he was involved in. Do I kill him now or hope he can be persuaded to the other? If he had seen the lower lab on Dreyfus and checked the wrong dockets in records I may have been making that decision a whole lot quicker. If I have to remove Billy I am going to have to make sure of him.

Anders Schaeffer.
If this guy looks wrong at me he’s dead because he is by far the most dangerous. I think he knows and the only reason he is still alive is he don’t look like he’s going to be a problem. He might be the only kindred soul I have on this bucket.

Bester.
A threat! That’s a joke. By the time he becomes a threat to me he’ll be busy locking himself in the engine room to block the fallout. Mr Bester sticks to what he knows and lets me stick to what I do. Not worried about this one.

The Hornet Crew.
Kaz is a worry and Rimmer isn’t. Those adapted seeker probes are going to have to be dealt with.

The Companion.
Their business is confidences I am not worried.

The Captain and Dana Racine.
I don’t think the Captain is going to be around long enough to worry about. To my knowledge only one person I know can permanently cure him and if I do that my life is over. Sorry Captain it’s you or me. As for your Sibling that could be a problem. Dana she has always been ok. She may have been a bounty hunter but fortunately not good enough. Not sure where she went but good luck to her. May she stay away. I actually like her and I rue the day I will have to severe her slender neck, may that day not come!

Harmony and Sammy.
Sammy is no problem. He has no imagination and that’s good for me. Now Harmony has gone as they say fruit loop and mentally reverted to her former name and identity, well the level of mental care hasn’t really gone that far where P.T.S. is concerned! Again no problem.

There that’s so much better really cleared my head. Well I’m just going to log this in my personal records, Triple threat protected of course, then it’s time for chai and bed. Oh bugger that’s the wrong……….

…………+++ FILE SENT TO PUBLIC BOARDS THANK YOU +++


Oh …….

Thoughts

Thinking of starting to run a serial in the manner of old style newsprint drama's or Saturday morning Cinema shorts like Flash Gordon or Sexton Blake. IF I do it will run on Dark Pharaoh or here depending on Genre. So if it verges on the Gothic side of Horror it will appear there if not here! Got to think about it though but several ideas are coming up. Thinking of Shiva Cantrell making it to serial. If you are not sure who she is her death is captured in muy short story Slowdive which had some good positive feedback if not this I may make it an alternative pulp horror set in a Captain and the World of Tomorrow kind of World with a completely new character. Stay tuned.

Phoebe

With fleetness you race, a pale argent chariot,
Across powdered track of Indigo calm.
Your cry heralds your hounds of plenty,
Savage children resting in Demeter’s palm.
Your cool beauty ignites the landscape,
Quicksilver flashes accent the deepest night.
Chasing the dawn, your kin’s golden harness,
Washing our sin’s in your gentlest light.

You judge us not nor brand us inhuman,
As we hunt beneath your gaze,
Your golden kin finds us not so easy,
Our ashes spread from his fiery haze.
Lovers and madmen beg to your glory,
Poets and priests worship you too.
Even Poseidon bows down to your wishes,
His very mood follows your cue.

Watch as your hounds play in your tresses,
Tumbling and howling, filled with delight,
The innocent pray you do not turn Gibbous,
And summon in the mare of the night.
The guilty they play free with your license,
An attempt to stay the headman’s axe,
Of these Sweet Phoebe, I am of neither,
For with my soul, I pay you my Tax.

Copyright Tony Bennett 2000

A small alteration

As from now my diary blog is moving, leaving Sharpes Wolf Pit to cover only my creative and rants if you like. This does not mean I am leaving it just dumping the dross of everyday thought on a new livejournal page leaving this for more higher thought and Dark Pharaoh for darker aspects.

The new page is http://tybaltstormcrow.livejournal.com/ but do not abandon this page as it is not defunct

Back again!

I have now been away for over a year. This is mostly due to the birth of my new son Kristian (Now nearly one year old!). Having now got one of each no more are planned. My work has me at a desk most of the time so haven't been online as much as I could. Also have been very busy personally. So thats my reasons for not blogging but I am not apologising. I said a while ago I would never show guilt for not posting but people still need reasons for their own sense of justification so that them and that's that.

May I add a congratulations to the American Democrat party for their recent successes. It's about gorram time! As a member of the the local Liberal Democrats and having stood for Councillor in Sheffield's Arbourthorne Ward coming second in a field of 5 candidates and scooping a fair proportion of the voting I know how hard it can be to face a staunch opposition. Arbourthorne is a died in the wool Labour area so I consider it a success as I cut the majority well down.

I need to also give a shout out to Carl Anderson over in Hell-A. Congrats on the wedding, sorry couldn't make it but same reasons as above. I am afraid I do not believe it is fair to fly with young children unless absolutely necessary. Hope you are liking Torchwood and the David Tennant Doctor Who's. Just waiting for Christmas edition. Good luck in your future life! Maybe hear from you soon?

Well for now that's all I have to say. I am now off to write the plot for this months Live Cthulhu game. For those who know Markham Eggleton and his Carl Zendik book, Fallen Skies, available on Lulu. He is re-issueing it after a re-edit, some new bits and a new cover and even a new publicist! Go there and buy it as it will be well worth the money! In the future I am hoping to be collaborating with him on some future works as he now lives just round the corner from me!

So until next time Das Vadagna and all that jazz

Shrinking Freedom Wraps!

Found this while trolling through blogs testing them because I am having trouble with one of my linked blogs. It was found on “My Turn at the Mike” at http://athinkingmansvoice.blogspot.com/ ;

“Yesterday, November 11, 2005 (Veteran's Day in the U.S., Remembrance Day in Canada) the United States Senate passed by a margin of 49 votes to 42, a resolution sponsored by Republican Senator Lindsay Graham that could effectively eliminate the Writ of Habeas Corpus from American law. The Writ of Habeas Corpus, which is grounded in English Common Law, grants the right to an accused person to appear before a judge and demand that the legitimacy of any charge brought against them be clearly and adequately demonstrated, and it requires that the state formally charge anyone held in captivity. The elimination of Habeas Corpus effectively allows the state to hold anyone for any reason it chooses without charge, without trial, and without any legal recourse whatsoever indefinitely. Once this absolutely vital legal right and principal is lost to the power of a corrupt and evil regime like that of George Bush (who is demanding that even though the United States does not torture, that it reserve the right to do so), it could be very difficult to get it back from a totalitarian dictatorship that is doing it's level best to hold on to power by any means.”

We in the Uk had a similar but not quite so extreme “Anti-Terror” Law thrown out. Blair aka Bushes Lapdog and Crusade Companion attempted to ram through a 90 day hold without charge Law through. Fortunately for once the House of Commons was awake and chucked it back in his face passing a more sensible 28 day law.

In these difficult times the rights of the common man to a life of his own and general freedoms are a rough road to walk. As long as harm is brought to no other persons have a right to their own way of life and style of living.

The first step to a dictatorship is the narrowing of rights. For example a 19 year old boy in the south west of England was arrested and fined a considerable sum under new laws against promoting religious hatred. What was his crime? He wore a Cradle of Filth T-shirt with “Jesus is a C*nt” on it! Someone complained and he got shafted. So why haven’t Cradle of Filth or the T-Shirt manufacturer been charged? Its ridiculous. This should never have happened.

Knee Jerk reactions will bring the world to its knees. World leaders are playing to baying mobs and that’s a dangerous habit! Ask the South coast Paediatrician who got hounded from his home because his neighbours couldn’t tell the difference from a child doctor and a child molester! (Paediatrician Vs Paedophile).

Do not forget those who died in terrorist atrocities but also do not forget the rights of those still alive who may be innocently dragged unknowingly under just because they were not aware they may have spoken to a “suspect” recently!

Following on from a comment by my good friend Crum on “Insane ramblings of a Yorkshireman” every country in the world has a few skeletons in its cupboard. From a British point of view we could point out that during the American Revolution, American Revolutionaries were considered terrorists while Americans viewed themselves as Freedom Fighters! Also without help from the French, America may not have become free! Don’t forget that the American Statue of Liberty was built by the French as a present to commemorate the help. The French who incidentally certain US politicians have indicated know nothing about Freedom. Their very financial Aid to the American Rebels was just one step on the road to their own Revolution! America would not exist with out Britain’s nearest neighbour and most common enemy, at least before the 20th century anyway, for France helped create the ability to win that revolution.

In Britain’s past we condemn the Nazi concentration camps as works of evil Germanic mindsets. What those same people forget is that the British invented the concentration camp during the Boer War! It’s also conveniently ignored that a Psychologist by the name of Milgram successfully proved that all the typical American required to actively torture by electrocution a passing stranger was the ability to pass on the responsibility for that heinous act!

So lest we forget we are all fallible and have indeed all have at some point fallen. Condemn the rights of the free man at the risk of creating a new threat. A tightened grip can only hold on to so many and more shall slip twixt the fingers of desperate power!

Sleep well fellow global travellers!

Slowdive

God she was beautiful! I sat and watched her last flight in awe; well it wasn’t so much a flight as a plummet. Flaming contrails spread wide from the stubby support wings as if grabbing for support with incandescent wings. If only Shiva were here to see and not encased within the now fatally crippled craft I could see from the confines of my car.

Let me introduce myself to those who are not familiar to the world of the professional transport executive, wheelman, air jockey or whatever term you use for those who have an excess of capability with mechanised forms of transport. My name is Hyper, ok that’s not my real name but it’s what I post on my advertising BBS tags. Now I specialise in wheels, if it has them then I am a veritable Titan at using it. My current vehicle, a sleek Kalitech Sidewinder, is the cream of Grey Op Culture cool. I used to be a racing driver but the challenge just wasn’t there and I got bored. It affected my races and concentration and sure enough I got fired. All the corporate bullshit jacked me off anyway. That was when Shiva entered my life. This elfin slender woman who radiated so much confidence and eyes that danced with razor sharp thrills clothed in a battered flight suit. She said she was a fan so I told her to sling it as I wasn’t in the mood for a blow job. She handed me a card and told me that she had a job for a real good driver. I told her to hire a taxi what she said next blew me away.

That first job defined the rest of my life. Shiva’s thing was speed, hairy balls out nut tightening pulse pounding sweat inducing finger whitening speed! What was more amazing is that she flew naked. No of course she wore a flight suit, what naked means in the Grey Op Culture dictionary is she was without cybernetic enhancements. The correct term is that Shiva Cantrell was an exhibitionist. Thing was so was I back then and that’s why she came to me. Shiva needed someone who could drive a combat team out of an area of electronic and magnetic anomaly. The driver had to be lightening quick and non-enhanced. The combat team itself would likely be mainly out of it with the area being bathed in such cyber-unfriendly radiations. Once clear she was going to swoop from the above the radiation and commit to a high speed magna-latch before flying off with the ground vehicle in the same manner as an eagle would a rabbit. God she was so quick I pissed my pants at the clamp on and passed out from the rapid acceleration, I’d never had so much fun. I was in love and then I spoiled it.

I decided to get myself neural enhancements and a blood pressure equaliser. I had been embarrassed by the ease with which I had passed out and thought maybe getting my nerves jacked and reducing my susceptibility to high-gee manoeuvres would help make us a perfect team. I even got them hardened so Electro-magnetic fields wouldn’t slow me down. It was the wrong move. Shiva threw a shit-fit. I hadn’t known that way back when one of her former boyfriends had come back from an enhancement appointment, he’d changed. The metal had eroded his mind and he’d forced himself on her before throwing himself from their 20th floor habitat. Two months in hospital being put back together and turning down limb replacement after limb replacement for cell grown real meat no matter what the cost had embittered her to the chrome tinted world of cyber. She hadn’t spoken to me since I got wired.

I followed her career from there. She’d gone corporate military. They get all the best flying crackerjacks and she knew it. No exhibitionist could beat her. There was very little but a total Borg that could out fly her physically but no-one could out fly her mentally as uncluttered by wire as she was. She didn’t do combat unless she could avoid it so she got most of the evac and insert jobs. If you needed a team threaded through the eye of a needle before being dropped into a hot zone that could melt diamonds then Shiva was your pilot. That was why she was where she was. Turned out the aforementioned boyfriend had survived his fall by being full-borged. He’d gone corporate military as well but for the opposition. His Corp was at war with Shiva’s. They’d viral bombed one of her Corp’s buildings and then wrecked it by crash diving several Full- Borg piloted VTOL combat craft into key structural points and into the top of the lift shafts! Shiva had volunteered to take survivors from the roof. The job was tricky and dangerous as hell. I turned up after catching the newsflash on Citywide Today with Gervin Testudo. She had less than 4 minutes to get her craft to the roof and evac survivors huddling on the burning rooftop and then clear before the whole building collapsed. All had gone well as the waspish craft cleared the ground with a scream of fire and neatly inserted itself in less than 30 seconds at the parapet. The whole world watched as she mimicked the sway of the building keeping it steady for the survivors. The sheer joy was wiped away as a terrible figure threw wreckage from itself and emerged battered but not down from one of the suicide craft. The Ex-lover tore one of his destroyed crafts Vulcan’s from its rigging and interfaced with it as the shocked escapees gawped with horror. The symphony of metal jacketed rain tore through them as he opened fire whilst Shiva danced her crafts tail away and brought her own guns to bear. That was when the roof blew thrusting steel and Fusioncrete upwards and flipping Shiva’s craft before tearing its stabilisers off in a shower of thermite rain.

And now she fell as a Phoenix to final rest. Without warning an internal fire blew the burning wreckages tail off changing the fragile crafts trajectory. It was heading towards a residential arcology. The life loss would be terrible. All seemed lost as Shiva was surely already dead. That was when the nose lifted and the safety wing spars extended causing the craft to halt and affect a clumsy slow dive stall turn. It had to of been the ugliest manoeuvre I had ever seen Shiva pull but the flames made it transcendental. Flares took place of lead wing feathers and the nose edged gracefully towards the polluted wastage of a river before the spars finally folded and condemned Shiva’s coffin to its interminable plunge into that black cemetery.

She was pulled from that wreckage not much more than a burned shell but the medical teams knew best. They replaced her destroyed nerves and damaged body with artificials and cybernetic parts. They were top of the line provided by a grateful public. I knew she would have hated it so I intervened. She’s sat by me now as we head down the highway. The orderly was a little surprised when my Taser rendered him unconscious, the explosives weren’t easy to get and the insurance companies going to have a shit-fit over the explanation but she can’t do it for herself. They won’t let her. They’ve slo-moded all her nerves so she’d be stuck in a perpetual space walk speed movement cycle to stop her killing herself until they can get her a cyber-shrink to help her adjust. The unfinished bridge rumbles under my wheels and I turn for one last look at her delicate features now free of tubes. The chrome plate over the ravaged right side of her face glimmers in the reddening dusk and her lips slowly blow me a kiss as her hand finds mine and she smiles one last smile and mouths her thanks. As I hit the ejector mechanism I’m rocketed up and back as my beloved Sidewinder launches over the straits. As the explosives tear apart all I have ever loved tears run down my face and mercifully rain comes to hide them as the police cruisers wait for me below. God she was beautiful!

All Characters and Story “Slowdive” copyright Tony Bennett 08-11-2005

DON'T PANIC

I am still around. Becoming a father the second time round is a little consuming and I’ve also been indulging in a little irony of a pastime.

10 years ago I used to Wargame a lot. I stopped partly because I got too busy, partly because space was a problem and mostly because of the hand over fist money grabbing tactics of the main producer of the games and figures. Many a time would I walk into the local outlet and have a red shirted individual  (If only they had the same life span as a real red shirt!), jump all over me trying to sell me something I really hadn’t come in for and tell me that I really must have this really expensive addition to my army. Now for me it wasn’t too much of a stress because I knew what I was in for and told them politely to examine their anal orifice with their own personal genitalia as they departed and then bought what I wanted anyway. What I objected to was the same approach on budding young gamers who were told say two days before an updated army list was due to be published they really needed the old one and at least 500 points of lead figures (yes back then they were real poisonous lead!) which were about to be phased out in the new list. Ok that scenario is a bit exaggerated but gives you a fairish idea!

Now I am pleased to say that that particular company has changed its policies a lot and have dropped the high pressure sell. In fact the last time I was in most recently to get some new paint (My old paints were 10 years old and some were casualties on the long haul), the staff were genuinely helpful and in fact told me not to buy something because it would be a waste of money as an update was due. Not only that but actually suggested cost cutting solutions. Thinking this may be an anomaly I rechecked with a different member and the same result occurred. I won’t mention the company but bravo, now if you can just cut some costs down as you are still too bloody expensive we’ll really be getting somewhere. I’ve found an outlet that is not belonging to the main company and they can cut at least a fiver (Five pounds sterling or about 8 dollars I think) off vehicles! If they can do it so can the mainline stores!

Now due to having some evenings free I am back on the war trail. That’s the irony really as I detest war in real life but a lot of my pastimes revolve around violent tactical conflict! It’s the tactics really that I like and the competition against a live opponent. Computers are all well and good for games but the level of AI’s brainpower in games is still nowhere near as complex as a human brain. Also as much as graphics are bloody spectacular up until the online revolution roleplaying was pretty linear on computers. However old style role-playing has a lot going for it. Its social and cheap since you are not stuck at a screen paying £5.95 a month for time on game after buying it in the first place just so you can gang up on a poor computer brained and thoroughly predictable bad guy but are in fact not paying a bloody thing more than you originally shelled out on the game whilst sitting in a well lit room with a bunch of mates and going into tangents that even the most powerful PC cannot as yet or I doubt for a while even compute! All this and exercising your imagination which if you let it can outdo even the best graphics card.

Wargaming is a little more expensive but painting the figures is almost as much fun and challenge as actually pitting yourself against an opponent. Oh yes and of course in Roleplaying and Wargaming of the non pixellated variety there are no cheat codes. You actually have to use skill and thought to win! What an unusual concept!

Think on that a while! See y’all