Random Ideas (Input Requested!)

High tech intrigue and Cold War
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Arty
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Re: Random Ideas (Input Requested!)

Post by Arty »

So, less of a Random Idea, but this seemed like the best place to put this. I know I've sort of left CSW in Siege and Moby's hands (and they've done a stupendously kickass job with it, it must be said!) but I was re-reading the Shadow Tempest Black stories, and it put me in something of a writing mood.

The next thing I knew, I had 11,300 words of a story set in 1972 and starring, among others, a sixteen-year-old Chandra Gosely.

The question I have is, would you guys mind if I made a new [Story] thread for it, and would you prefer to proofread it first for canon inconsistencies?
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Re: Random Ideas (Input Requested!)

Post by Booted Vulture »

I am obviously no authority but Siege and Moby have a kind of hypertime/flexible canon sort of thing going on with their stories anyway. So I'm sure you're fine.
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Re: Random Ideas (Input Requested!)

Post by Arty »

You're probably right, but it seems the polite thing to ask :D

Though it also seems polite to offer a sample of what I've got in store:
Annapolis, Maryland, United States of America
1700 Eastern Standard Time, October 29


“Docking clamp is secured. Initiating handshake procedure... handshake accepted. Equalizing atmospheres... equalized. Opening airlock now, Houston. Taking a breath... yep, smells like spaceship alright. And stepping onto the ring... Houston, I am feeling a pull. Ring is spinning at expected rate, and... as you can see, I have taken a short jump, and have fallen back to the floor. One half Earth gravity, confirmed. Initiating power-up procedure... all lights up here are green. Environmental looks good... we're receiving telemetry from Apollo 17... main reactor is stable, and purring like a kitten.”

“Ladies and gentlemen, I think it's safe to say that StarBase One is officially up and running.”

There was a scattering of cheers and applause at the bar where Ames was sitting, and she joined in. It wasn't, she thought, quite like when the first American had set foot on the Moon, but Ames allowed herself a little special pride in knowing that StarBase One was sitting in geosynchronous orbit right over her hometown of Pearl Harbor.

“Come on!” someone in the back yelled. “The Redskins are on, change the damn channel!”

Ames rolled her eyes, but she supposed the show was, more or less, over. The bartender reached up behind the Dewars and Bushmills and turned the knob until a grainy black-and-white picture of men in football padding flickered, grudgingly, onto the screen.

“Sheesh,” a man said, sitting down next to Ames. He was good-looking, in the way of wolves and cheetahs, with a conservative haircut and completely free of the thick sideburns and mustaches that were becoming ever more popular on men these days. In looking so old-fashioned, he managed to almost cycle back around into being radically scandalous. “It's not even playoff season, what do they think they're missing?”
I know it’s a mess and it’s half-taped together and it’s old and busted — but it’s mine. And you gotta make that work, right? You gotta make your own stuff work out.
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Re: Random Ideas (Input Requested!)

Post by Siege »

Ames?

Like, Aldrich Ames?

Well, I suppose not considering Ames is a she, but I still want to read this!

Also yes, the gist of the 'hypertime' idea is that because it's all spy fare, it's super unreliable; the Big Event of any given story probably happened, but the way in which it did can vary greatly between authors (and even stories). This first and foremost gives us all the freedom to write whatever we like without getting constrained by each other's work, it also allows vastly different styles to co-exist within the same universe, and (ideally) it fuels a kind of meta-paranoia about what is actually real and what is just made up. The same attack on Moscow could be made by a giant flying robot in one story, an Ultramilitant armored spearhead in another, and a platoon of Spetsnaz augments in the third; readers will be left to decide what they think is the most likely actual course of events (or indeed if that even applies!)

That's why I don't mind Chandra Gosely being 16 in '72 whereas in most other stories she's only a few years older than Ridley (and he's born in 1970 -- although that, too, could probably vary from story to story). As long as stuff is engaging and characters stay consistent within certain broad strokes I really don't care about nonsense like a 'canon'.
"Nick Fury. Old-school cold warrior. The original black ops hardcase. Long before I stepped off a C-130 at Da Nang, Fury and his team had set fire to half of Asia." - Frank Castle

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Re: Random Ideas (Input Requested!)

Post by Mobius 1 »

To back up what Siege has said - somewhere on my computer I've got a doc with a big list of birth years and event dates on it that get referenced whenever I need to write. And I'm fairly sure they don't match up or are flat out wrong - but that doesn't really matter (for example, I'm fairly sure our dates for ST and Unforseen Consequences are off of each other's by two years), because our stories end up being from different perspectives in the universe.
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Re: Random Ideas (Input Requested!)

Post by Arty »

Okay, I can get behind that. I'll go ahead and post the story now - if you do see something that is glaringly inconsistent, let me know and I'll whip something up to patch it.

Hope you guys like it!
I know it’s a mess and it’s half-taped together and it’s old and busted — but it’s mine. And you gotta make that work, right? You gotta make your own stuff work out.
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Re: Random Ideas (Input Requested!)

Post by Arty »

Found these during my most recent trawl through the inspiration treasure trove that is Concept Ships. I figure at least a few of these might spark something cool.

Image

Image

Image

Image

(clicking the cropped images should link to the full-sized versions)
I know it’s a mess and it’s half-taped together and it’s old and busted — but it’s mine. And you gotta make that work, right? You gotta make your own stuff work out.
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Re: Random Ideas (Input Requested!)

Post by Siege »

Image
"Nick Fury. Old-school cold warrior. The original black ops hardcase. Long before I stepped off a C-130 at Da Nang, Fury and his team had set fire to half of Asia." - Frank Castle

For, now De Ruyter's topsails
Off naked Chatham show,
We dare not meet him with our fleet -
And this the Dutchmen know!
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Re: Random Ideas (Input Requested!)

Post by Mobius 1 »

Just the perfect image to view after a Slenderman marathon.

THIS SUMMER

FROM JAMES CAMERON

SLENDERMEN
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Re: Random Ideas (Input Requested!)

Post by Mobius 1 »

Here's some recent stuff from my military folder. There might be some interesting concepts or ideas in there, I hope.

Like Mad Jack Churchill leading an assault with a broadsword.

or combat beards
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Re: Random Ideas (Input Requested!)

Post by Invictus »

I'm convinced that if Hideo Kojima ever did a Metal Gear game set in WWII, it would have Jack Churchill in it.
"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."
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Re: Random Ideas (Input Requested!)

Post by Siege »

Quick dump: Col. Yana de Raditzky Duval, commander, 13th WEU rapid brigade, Goma, Congo.
"Nick Fury. Old-school cold warrior. The original black ops hardcase. Long before I stepped off a C-130 at Da Nang, Fury and his team had set fire to half of Asia." - Frank Castle

For, now De Ruyter's topsails
Off naked Chatham show,
We dare not meet him with our fleet -
And this the Dutchmen know!
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Re: Random Ideas (Input Requested!)

Post by Mobius 1 »

If WEU had a team dicking around in Africa during STB3 where the characters would be investigating a huge army outfitting with rogue MIDNIGHT tech, what would the team be like - as a counterpoint to the main characters and say, STRIKE TEAM AKULA (the russian cyborg rejects merc squad)?
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Re: Random Ideas (Input Requested!)

Post by Siege »

Depends where. WEU presence in N.Africa is huge: some nations are members after all. Central, there's rapid intervention brigades in some places to keep peace. If you're looking for commandos, gimme some time, I'm working on a few.
"Nick Fury. Old-school cold warrior. The original black ops hardcase. Long before I stepped off a C-130 at Da Nang, Fury and his team had set fire to half of Asia." - Frank Castle

For, now De Ruyter's topsails
Off naked Chatham show,
We dare not meet him with our fleet -
And this the Dutchmen know!
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Re: Random Ideas (Input Requested!)

Post by Mobius 1 »

It would probably be around Chad and the 'null zone' we discussed a while back. The basic premise of the story has Gold being pushed into his role as a MIDNIGHT operative to track down COLONEL HANK EASLY, who's been missing for close to two years. The Colonel was last seen in an arms transaction with representatives of a mysterious people's army that seems to be forming in the Null Zone - one who's violent anti-imperialist message is tied only with the fact it's seen using both MIDNIGHT and USSR blacktech in making the council in charge of MIDNIGHT extremely nervous.

That leaves Gold and Follow plunging into their version of heart of darkness against hired mercenaries - STRIKE TEAM AKULA - and grey WEU teams who don't appreciate MIDNIGHT screwing around in a region they had long since supposedly abandoned.

That got into plot pitch mode really fast, but pretty much everyone is supposed to show up, since compared to New York City, a a post-monolith/nuclear eldritch creepzone leaves a lot more room for everyone to throw down.
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Re: Random Ideas (Input Requested!)

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"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."
-
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Re: Random Ideas (Input Requested!)

Post by Siege »

That is one fine lookin' plane.

---

Addition to SK-13 VOID HOWL:

HYDRA Kajsa Sinder, codename HYDRA, is VOID HOWL's scout and counter-surveillance specialist. Underneath a shock of red hair the skin on top of her skull is tattooed with branching loops of fractal symbols that look down her temples and down the back of her skull to its base. This pattern is repeated on the bone underneath, in the opposite direction, laser-printed directly onto her cranium. The markings, or more specifically the entropic function of which they are an expression, allow her to deflect and thus resist the mind-bending influences of DYNASTY GOLD entities better than would have otherwise been possible -- although it must be said that "better" does not mean all that much when confronted with the full attention of weakly godlike entities.

The markings do more than that however: they make very hard to observe in general. CCTV renders her presence into an indistinct blur of compression artefacts; audio recordings of her voice suffer extremely bad signal clipping. It is even difficult to keep track of her with the human eye.

HYDRA is the only member of VOID HOWL invulnerable to FETTER's abilities. And that is all too well, because otherwise he could learn that unlike the other members HYDRA is not a dedicated ESI commando at all: she is an infiltrator, a member of the occult Order of the Stygian Key to keep an eye on the team. She is sixty years old, some thirty more than she looks, a sorcerer of the third circle with some rather more impressive abilities than she typically demonstrates.
"Nick Fury. Old-school cold warrior. The original black ops hardcase. Long before I stepped off a C-130 at Da Nang, Fury and his team had set fire to half of Asia." - Frank Castle

For, now De Ruyter's topsails
Off naked Chatham show,
We dare not meet him with our fleet -
And this the Dutchmen know!
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Re: Random Ideas (Input Requested!)

Post by Booted Vulture »

Geeze forget plane. my first though was it looks like a friggen star destroyer.
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Re: Random Ideas (Input Requested!)

Post by Siege »

London Britannia Airport, ca. 2015:

Image
"Nick Fury. Old-school cold warrior. The original black ops hardcase. Long before I stepped off a C-130 at Da Nang, Fury and his team had set fire to half of Asia." - Frank Castle

For, now De Ruyter's topsails
Off naked Chatham show,
We dare not meet him with our fleet -
And this the Dutchmen know!
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Re: Random Ideas (Input Requested!)

Post by Invictus »

Attaching a cruise ship terminal to an airport seems a pretty inspired idea, even though the artificial island approach doesn't strike me as particularly British.

EDIT: wait, what do you mean this is an actual proposal for replacing Heathrow, and might be built as a floating island at the mouth of the Thames.
"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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Re: Random Ideas (Input Requested!)

Post by Siege »

Yep :). I can only imagine it's explicitly designed that way to give land reclamation companies more work or something.

In CSW though I could see it being used to service the low orbit 'to New York in an hour' parts of international flight, 'cause I bet those types of aircraft make too much noise to have them come into Heathrow. So London Britannia (or whatever we call it) could be a major international hub for your Concordes, Star-Rakers and Fireflashes to land whilst London Heathrow could continue to service the 'normal' international traffic.
"Nick Fury. Old-school cold warrior. The original black ops hardcase. Long before I stepped off a C-130 at Da Nang, Fury and his team had set fire to half of Asia." - Frank Castle

For, now De Ruyter's topsails
Off naked Chatham show,
We dare not meet him with our fleet -
And this the Dutchmen know!
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Re: Random Ideas (Input Requested!)

Post by Siege »

Image

MAJESTIC supercomputer, ca. 1918.
"Nick Fury. Old-school cold warrior. The original black ops hardcase. Long before I stepped off a C-130 at Da Nang, Fury and his team had set fire to half of Asia." - Frank Castle

For, now De Ruyter's topsails
Off naked Chatham show,
We dare not meet him with our fleet -
And this the Dutchmen know!
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Re: Random Ideas (Input Requested!)

Post by Siege »

Image
"Nick Fury. Old-school cold warrior. The original black ops hardcase. Long before I stepped off a C-130 at Da Nang, Fury and his team had set fire to half of Asia." - Frank Castle

For, now De Ruyter's topsails
Off naked Chatham show,
We dare not meet him with our fleet -
And this the Dutchmen know!
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Re: Random Ideas (Input Requested!)

Post by Siege »

HMS Leviathan, ca. 2020. Admiral Sir Sheadon Castle, CGC, CBE commanding. The largest aircraft carrier in Europe and pride of the Royal Navy. Unfortunately for it, in my vision of the crazy piratical seven seas of the near alternate future Leviathan is perenially in dire need of saving by the various (invariably much smaller and less powerful) 'hero ships'. Who'll have to stop things like hypersonic pirate ekranoplans and cyborg dolphins from blowing it up.

Image
"Nick Fury. Old-school cold warrior. The original black ops hardcase. Long before I stepped off a C-130 at Da Nang, Fury and his team had set fire to half of Asia." - Frank Castle

For, now De Ruyter's topsails
Off naked Chatham show,
We dare not meet him with our fleet -
And this the Dutchmen know!
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Re: Random Ideas (Input Requested!)

Post by Siege »

With ample help from PeZook, who knows a lot more about the history of Poland than I do, we have arrived at the following summary of the pivotal events of 1976:

1976
  • After the Soviet economy has been faltering for some time, Leonid Brezhnev becomes aware that he is being plotted against by elements of the Politbureau lead by his longtime political enemy, former rocket scientist Alexa Zhadanova.
  • At the same time Poland is hit by a wave of strikes and riots caused by an economy in decline mostly due to failed policies by the government of 1st secreterary Edward Gierek.
  • Brezhnev, realizing he is in dire need of political capital and believing the Polish first secretary to be easily bullied, personally travels to Warsaw to threaten the Poles with a second Prague Spring if they do not get the riots under control (much like Kruschev had done decades before after the election of Gomulka).
  • Unfortunately for him, Gierek was already co-opted -- by Zhadanova, who had offered to pay off the Polish debts if he were to tacitly support him by drawing Brezhnev out of the USSR.
  • With Leonid Brezhnev in an airplane over Poland, progressive Party elements, intelligentsia and senior army officials lead by hadanova seize power in Moscow. Leonid Brezhnev is detained upon his arrival. Zhadanova is the next General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. This event becomes known as the Second Revolution.
This then simultaneously explains (broadly) how Zhadanova dethroned Brezhnev and also why the Poles are BFFs with Moscow in the Zhadanova-era and beyond when historically they were anything but.
"Nick Fury. Old-school cold warrior. The original black ops hardcase. Long before I stepped off a C-130 at Da Nang, Fury and his team had set fire to half of Asia." - Frank Castle

For, now De Ruyter's topsails
Off naked Chatham show,
We dare not meet him with our fleet -
And this the Dutchmen know!
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