Not So Random

It's not very often that planes simply explode in mid-air. In fact, it almost never happens. Except for a few instances where wings have fallen off (again, very rare), I cannot come up with another instance where a plane has fallen out of the sky in a ball of flames...

Back in the days when Hijackers were still classy and the TSA didn't exist, a man by the name of Dan (D.B.) Cooper took control of a 727 over the state of Washington. Cooper demanded that the plane land in Seattle to take on $200,000 and four parachutes...

Enclosed is a collection of scenes surrounding the lives of the characters in Operation Anarchy. It is likely, even as this project draws to a close, that their stories are not yet fully told. read more

A day and a half of hasty traveling brought Vex, Jarin, Kareima, Newlin and Kendrick to the safehouse, and the plague masses to Terra. The group watched as, in the foggy distance, the capital building collapsed into a growing wall of smoke, and from it emerged the seventh laboratory of Palador...

For a number of hours, the tram shot along it's track through Calibria, and during that time Jarin was taken by the city's enormity. Building after building flew by at hundreds of kilometers per hour, one after another, with no end in sight...

Chapter 15: The End Aden was expecting some time to breathe once they were safely in orbit around Terra. He would later admit to himself that this was a foolish expectation...

First off, to everyone who reads Operation Anarchy I'd like to wish a Merry Christmas if you're into that sort of thing, or a random unprovoked happy December 25th if you're not...

The elevators in Calibria's capital building had, with some delay, delivered the five to the routing station at the heart of the city some six hundred and twenty stories beneath the spaceport. It was as they reached the ticket counter that Vex realized the tram wasn't the best idea...

"Alright, so we're on Terra," Newlin said to Vex as he watched Kendrick show Kareima the sticker that the nice paramedics had given him. "Now what?" "There's a place I know of in the red arm. A safehouse that an old friend built." "I thought you avoided having friends?" Newlin teased...

Jarin and Kareima spent the half hour that Vex was gone in the lobby. Now, however, they didn't talk. Jarin, after losing Sarnrei yet again, didn't find himself with much to say. That is, until Vex and I returned from the meeting room. "What are you doing here?" Jarin spat. I merely smiled...

"Sir, you're needed," an officer called from down the hall. Aden had not even left the landing bay of his new ship when he was approached. "They've picked up the Plague mass on sensors...

When the wall of the Jerusha finally fell open, Jarin was surprised to find the rescue workers standing flat on the tarmac. "Is everyone alright?" called one of the workers over the still incessant noise. "Where's Sarnrei?" Jarin shouted back, clambering to his feet and stumbling toward the opening...

Captain Radnikot could still not believe his ears. He sat in the debriefing room of the Independence, staring at the screen at the end of the table. "Our next objective is Arzanakus," I said. "The Independence is being stationed there...

Aden Radnikot was surprised to wake up in the medical bay of the Independence because he had fully expected to be dead. The place was a total mess...

Chapter 14: The Palador Foundation It has been said that the city of Calibria is big. This statement, while technically accurate, is unspecific. Calibria, by no less than fifteen orders of magnitude, is the biggest city in the Galaxyscape and is called home by nearly 300 billion individuals...

In the past week, I've received E-Mails containing pictures of two rather spectacular aircraft accidents. While not worthy of a number in the top ten countdown, these photos are too cool to not share. read more

"All hands, brace for impact!" Aden Radnikot shouted into the comm system. Smoke hung thick in the command deck, but the bright lights of the landing bay of the ironsides Independence were bright on the forward screen. The Alan Mora was hardly functioning...

For all the time they had spent stumbling after each other, Jarin and Kareima hadn't had a proper conversation alone since they were aboard the Albatross. It had taken the first fifteen minutes of the conversation for Jarin to get used to having a girl rest her head on his shoulder...

Liz punched the 'seal' button on the door to the airlock harder than she needed to, and failed to compose herself before Newlin, who appeared from the door behind her, noticed her frustration. "Everything alright?" he asked with caution. read more

The Albatross was big. Jarin, despite his reclusive nature in the few months following his escape from Alnardia, had learned that it was, in fact, quite remarkably big...

A hissing could be heard from behind the door to the cargo hold, and as soon as it stopped and the light above turned green, Liz pulled on the handle and swung it open. Immediately she was hit with a foul stench that hung in the stale air of the unventilated cargo bay. read more

Chapter 13: The Alan Mora Vex stared disbelievingly at the incredibly empty blackness of space. "Sorry, I think I misunderstand you," he said. "See, I thought you just said there was nobody left to warp us to Terra." "That's what I said," I replied...

Captain Aden Radnikot sat quietly in his chair, staring at his PHT, which displaid the current orders for his ship, the GSN Alan Mora...

Newlin's direction, with the assistance of the geographic maps on the ship's navigational computer, had brought the Jerusha through the turbulent re-entry process and into Gorin Tali spaceport in the city of Duronaide, only a few hundred kilometers from the capital city of Gulnorm...

Vex Mortlef sat in the pilot's seat of the Jerusha, tapping nervously on the console beside him as he listened to an audio broadcast that had arrived some time earlier...

In a continuation of last week's blog entry, another way NASA is using my taxpayer money well: the Space Shuttle. Okay, maybe not well. But at least it's entertaining to watch...

Part 3: The Plague Wars Chapter 12: The Agreement...

Kareima's eyes grew wide as soon as Jarin turned to face her. His shirt was stained down one arm and along the chest with blood, and his face looked not unlike the face of someone who had just killed someone else. "What happened?" Kareima gasped. "Is that yours?" Jarin looked dumbly at his shirt...

Kadon Parwiz was beginning to grow exasperated. His protégé sat in the co-pilot's seat of his ship, attempting to dock with the Opaque pirate base, but the Pugnarian control scheme was simply unintuitive to a human. "No, starboard roll!" Kadon exclaimed. "I'm trying!" Sarnrei shot back...

Galed Sartis, his walking stick in one hand as it usually was, and a heavy black duffel bag in the other, was waiting in the landing bay of Copia for the arrival of his business partner, Franchot Brogan. Understandably, he was nervous, but he wouldn't let it show...

Chapter 11: The Payment and the Repayment In the otherwise relatively quiet landing bay aboard the Eneac shipmesh, a jet of exhaust shot out of the thruster assembley of the Jerusha...

It was much later, well after the others aboard the Jerusha had gone to sleep, that Franchot Brogan stumbled drunkenly through the tiny hallway past the crew bunks. With very little on his mind but sleep, he turned and climbed the stairs into the galley...

Vex sat quietly, concern strewn across his face as he watched the news program that played on his PHT. "This is Tani Giordina, reporting on the Galaxyscape News Network for the Terran press," said the newscaster, her speech translated into subtitles to Azrat...