The Challenge of Dawn Chapter 9 SNEAK PEEK

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Invictus
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The Challenge of Dawn Chapter 9 SNEAK PEEK

Post by Invictus »

To despoil this virgin forum, to revive my long-delayed story and to inject a bit of life into the new board without actually doing anything, I'm posting a snippet of the incomplete Chapter 9:

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A week of frenzied work has turned an area the size of several small countries into the site of the greatest fighting competition between Earth and the rest of the universe. The zone’s selection was the fruit of relentless networking between businessmen, diplomats, geographers, politicians, high-energy physicists and statisticians; xenologists, ecologists, military personnel and licensed precognitians. World experts formed a special committee, most members of which have not yet met face-to-face by the time the tournament began. The committee grew in size, becoming an organization within itself, albeit with a power disproportionate to its brief existence. The damage caused by the initial encounter with Phaeton was quantified, fed into supercomputers and extrapolated. Reams of maps were brought out and heads were shaken. Lists were made and confidential databases queried. Phone calls backed by the authority of great powers and international organizations were made to heads of poor states, offering them a fair price for renting large tracts of desert. Satellites were requisitioned from military agencies to track down the ones without official addresses, who were nevertheless tided over with a combination of rapid transport, veiled insinuations and men with briefcases full of greenbacks and gold bars. To those who agreed, masterpieces of deceptive obscurancy drafted by superbright law-wizards were shoved into their faces and pens into their hands, hoping they wouldn’t read the small print too closely. To the more recalcitrant ones it was explained that no, this wasn’t neo-colonialism, this was vital for the safety of the entire world which, incidentally, not just includes the pieces that they are about to part with but, in fact, everything they owned at all. Needless to say, the beginnings of an economic shockwave swept through the whole northern part of the continent, billions of dollars flowing into the pockets of political leaders and landowners of every moral stripe. How much of this trickle down into the hands of the population at large remains to be seen, but the promise of tumultuous change is undeniable.

All this was before construction even began.

Anthony’s executive shuttle, a handy little twelve-seater which can cross continents, touched down on a makeshift airstrip which amounted to little more than flattened, compressed and chemically bonded sand. The desert surface was too loose to take heavy aircraft and all he saw were various light planes being shuffled and parked by busy air traffic controllers. Helicopters, sleek private jets and high-tech transport not unlike his own were unloading VIPs, organizers, dignitaries and the like. For the still fairly exclusive but much larger crowd who bought the regular tickets, they were alighting in droves from the silent zeppelins berthed nearby. What may be the only advantage of the desert was it offered plenty of empty space for the gargantuan craft to land. Beyond the crisscrossing runways and landing pads marked by digital cat’s eye stones, customs officials were sitting in prefab offices, handing out special visas for an extraterritorial zone whose ownership and jurisdiction is, at best, complicated. Fences and security checkpoints then funneled people into the gigantic reception tents where refreshments and air conditioning awaited.

While his pilot negotiated for a landing spot closer to the entrance, Klapaucius briefed Anthony on how things were going, burying him under a kaleidoscopic storm of status reports, abstract charts and annotated footage culled from patrolling sentry drones.

“Alright, alright.” He was saying as the landing gear unfolded. “So in short, how well are we doing?”

“Pretty good.” Klapaucius replied.

Anthony had to feel a rush of satisfaction at that. From the sheer number of problems he and the committee had run into last week, it was miracle that the whole thing was up and running at all.
"This explanation posits that external observation leads to the collapse of the quantum wave function. This is another expression of reactionary idealism, and it's indeed the most brazen expression."
-
REBUILD OF COMIX STAGE 1 - Rey Quirino Versus the Dark Heart of the Philippines
"...a literary atrocity against the senses..." - Ford

REBUILD OF COMIX STAGE 2 - Advent Rey Returns: REVERGELTUNG
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Mobius 1
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Re: The Challenge of Dawn Chapter 9 SNEAK PEEK

Post by Mobius 1 »

I like it. It's certainly nice to see CoD (Take that, Modern Warfare. This story is much better) return, and the preparations for the tournament laugh at Cell. It seems the world is taking the Challenge to heart.
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Siege
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Re: The Challenge of Dawn Chapter 9 SNEAK PEEK

Post by Siege »

Awesome... But so short!
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Peregrin
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Re: The Challenge of Dawn Chapter 9 SNEAK PEEK

Post by Peregrin »

I like it that you went into the political repercussions of it all. I can't wait for the rest of chapter nine.
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Re: The Challenge of Dawn Chapter 9 SNEAK PEEK

Post by Ford Prefect »

It's snippets like this which really set OZC! apart from the norm. 'Oh, yeah, I challenge your world to a duel' results in politics and construction and all manner of excellence. Money, money, money, lies, damned lies and statistics. Countries change hands, whole new organisations have erupted, tickets are sold. All so humanity can engage in its favourite passtime: beating up aliens. :D
FEEL THESE GUNS ARCHWIND THESE ARE THE GUNS OF THE FLESHY MESSIAH THE TOOLS OF CREATION AND DESTRUCTION THAT WILL ENACT THE LAW OF MAN ACROSS THE UNIVERSE
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Invictus
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Re: The Challenge of Dawn Chapter 9 SNEAK PEEK

Post by Invictus »

It's more like "getting beat up by aliens", but the whole thing is in good humor, I agree.
"This explanation posits that external observation leads to the collapse of the quantum wave function. This is another expression of reactionary idealism, and it's indeed the most brazen expression."
-
REBUILD OF COMIX STAGE 1 - Rey Quirino Versus the Dark Heart of the Philippines
"...a literary atrocity against the senses..." - Ford

REBUILD OF COMIX STAGE 2 - Advent Rey Returns: REVERGELTUNG
Coming NEVER
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Shroom Man 777
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Re: The Challenge of Dawn Chapter 9 SNEAK PEEK

Post by Shroom Man 777 »

When Manny Pacquiao, the Philippines' first born son, was set to have a boxing match with this Mexican who he ultimately beat the living crap out of, the Philippine military issued a truce with communist rebels so everyone could watch Pacquiao beat the living crap out of a Mexican on a Sunday.

The same should happen with Rey Quirino.
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Re: The Challenge of Dawn Chapter 9 SNEAK PEEK

Post by Malchus »

A Challenge of Dawn update at long last? :shock:

HUZZAH!!! :mrgreen:
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