So, It Has Come To This...

I'm 21.  God I'm old, I guess it was only a matter of time till I had to come to terms with it.  What do I want from my life?  I don't want to be alone, it's something I guess.  I want to be happy, but what is happiness?  Is it being with those who you love and are loved by in return?  Is it doing the things that you enjoy, without fear of judgement or repercussion?  But then, what is love?  And who has the right to judge you for being you?

If I were to go back five years and give myself one piece of advice, what would it be?  What if I went back ten years?  Would that advice be the same?  Surely not, what I needed to know ten years ago and what i needed to know five years ago are not the same thing. 

I would tell myself from ten years ago to be who you are, and be comfortable with that.  You have emotions, never forget that other people do too.  Think before you leap, but only so far as the next jump, for you can't know what lies just around the river-bend.  And most importantly, salicylic acid and a good moisturizer will save you a lot of trouble in the coming years.

Five years ago, Be honest with yourself and others.  Plan your words carefully, they can cut deeper than the sharpest blade, or bludgeon better than the biggest dictionary.  Pay attention in class, and some of those ideas you have this year will set you right for the foreseeable future.  Nothing is certain, be free to change your mind, but remember there will always be someone smarter than you.  For gods sake, don't assume that you are right, you make mistakes more than you realise, learn from them.  If you want to be really excellent, try to learn form others mistakes as well.

Better yet, what will I tell myself five years from now?  Was it all worth it, the pain and happiness?  Have you traveled, shown someone new amazing sights that you yourself haven't ever seen before?  What have you learnt?  Do you look beyond what you see, because you should.  So much is hidden just below the surface, much like the riverbed its surface does not show the wonders or the dangers that lurk below the surface.  Assume nothing, you knew that ten years ago, you should remember it now. 

So then what is happiness, it is being with those who you love, its doing the things that you enjoy, without fear of judgement, its trying every day to be better than you were the day before, even if its only one thing.  Give someone a complement, or go for a walk and think about nothing the whole time.  And what of love?  Give it freely, accept it when it is given.  Shout it from the mountain tops when it consumes you, and let it be your guiding light when you feel down.  Let none judge you who are above judgement themselves. 

We are all equal, and all deserve to be treated how we treat others.

Tis A Sad Day In The Empire

My loyal subjects, it is with great sadness that I address you.  One of our own has fallen in battle.  Our loyal and trusted defender of food-stuffs is unwell.  There is hope that she may be revived in time, but her vassals will die without her protection.  Already the produce has passed on, only the fancy lettuce and pre-packaged capsicum has survived, but the latter will not last long.  For now we must fight the mould scourge and prevent the stench of damnation from taking hold.  May help honour you with its presence speedily and may you be an easy fix.

Long Live The Empire, Long Live Vercadina.

Tales From Beyond

Cmdr. Gurchack couldn’t believe his eyes.  Surely there had to be a malfunction in one of the display systems, or even the sensor array, but this was his ship, best survey vessel in the entire fleet, and more redundancy in its systems than even the mightiest <dragon> War Destroyer. 

“How is this possible?” he asked, “Come on people, this isn’t something that just happens, either find the fault or tell me what I’m looking at.”  This was not a good day, not by a long shot.

 

Deep in the ships hull, the AI Dalmsh was replaying ancient scripture to one of the researchers when he suddenly stopped.  This wasn’t all that odd, he predated the development of civilisation by millennia, and yet, this time was different.  His display hadn't faded as was usual when he hit a corrupt section of his data structure, no this was different indeed, he appeared brighter, more intact.  As if he had hit a routine that existed at the very core of his programing.  The researcher was paying extreme close attention to Dalmsh at this point.  Suddenly Dalmsh turned to the researcher and said something, not in the ancient long dead language that was all he knew, but rather the same language as the researcher. 

“Run.  He has awoken.  Run for your lives, all my creators have done will have been for naught if you don’t turn this ship around and run.”  said Dalmsh.

“What but why?  Why must we run?  Who has awoken?” quizzed the researcher. 

Noticing that the researcher was looking at him with disbelief, he said “My apologies, I don’t believe we have been introduced.  I am Dalmsh, Artificial Intelligence tasked with keeping track of the other side.  It appears that we are near the boundry, yet I find my systems have fallen into disrepair.  Odd.” 

“Yeah, we received a call from one of our outposts, we came to lend a hand in identifying what it is.” said the researcher, “I’ve been working for years studding the scripture that you have been repeating but never have you spoken in anything other that the tongue of your creators”

“I see.”  Said Dalmsh, “I must run repairs on my systems, but being this close to the other side is a unique opportunity, we are safe from his influence for the time being, but I must have access to external sensors, the safety of this side is paramount.”

“You want me to hook you up to the ship?  Oh I don’t think so, we tried that once before and we had to replace all the equipment just to get the language back to our own.”

“Oh, in that case I understand.  But surely not all of the equipment would have been replaced.”

“Well, there were a few systems we couldn’t replace, but that’s why all new ships have hot swap modules.”

“Ah, I can see those systems now, thank you kind sir, but unfortunately you should have scuttled the ship after connecting me while I was in that state, Now lets have a look at the boundary.” With that Dalmsh faded from view.

“He doesn’t know.  NO, wait, he does know, but of course.  He doesn’t care about this place, why would he.  You are not they who did imprison him.  But neither are those left behind, although more direct is their ties, it is not their burden to bear.”  muttered Dalmsh to himself as he returned from the sensor array.  “Hmm, interesting, he seems to be sending what ever they throw at him through to this side, that could prove his downfall.”

“What?  Where did you just run off to?  Who is sending what through?”  asked the researcher

“Look, long ago my creators locked this section of space away from the rest to protect themselves from a dark entity, they stayed outside the ‘Rift’ and sent a few seed ships to this side, to be safe, that rift was sealed when they defeated the entity, but it seems as if it didn’t stay defeated, now their direct descendants, who may not even know what is happening are having to deal with it, and it appears as if they may wind up on our side.”

“Wait, your creators are coming here?”

“No, no.  Their descendants, its quite possible that they are less technologically advanced than your own civilisation.  And that’s just judging by the station that just appeared in the asteroid field.  I should add translation software to your ships systems so that you can communicate with them.  It is likely they will be fearful and quite possibly dead from the journey.”

Shameless Plug - Album Review

Album Review - The Earlybirds "Favourite Fears"

Here is an album review I posted over on The Batcave Blog.  Go check it out

Halo: Reach ViDoc - Forge World

Fall Of Juniper - C1S3, C1S4

Feb 11 2073, Gregorian Calender
2124hrs Earth Time
Shipyard Titan-B, In Orbit above Io

Viz didn't like this, no sir, not one bit.  Being sent into the unknown with a squad of testosterone crazed Hi-temps.  Being in charge of half a ship yard was hard enough on a good day, but he had just shut down for refitting, only a skeleton crew on-board and he was being ordered to jump into the unknown. 
"I fucking hate fires," he muttered to himself, "They are bad enough planet side, but in the confines of a research bucket.... I don't know, is it even worth it?"  Of course it was and he knew it, it was doubtful that their had been a fire, hell he had seen the file that Juniper had got out.  No way in hell was this a fire.  Some big wheels were in motion, or at least that's what his gut said.

Ah fuck it thought Viz as he reached for the radio.  "Attention Crew," He paused to breathe, knowing that these could be the last words he said while still in command of this half of the shipyard, "Melbourne has ordered us to investigate the disappearance of Research Station Juniper.  Their last known position was in a geosynchronous orbit above the Great Red Spot of Jupiter.  I don't know what could be waiting for us there, so as per usual on errands like this I give you the chance to take some time off relax for a few days.  You have five minutes to clear off shipyard B before we lock down and prepare to jump. That is all, Captain Out."

Long gone were the days of reckless youth, Viz was old, and at 56 that sort of trick, letting crew jump ship, it could force him into very early retirement.  But he knew his crew, those that had stayed on to help coordinate the refit, they were seasoned veterans, not the kind to be high tailing due to a little misplaced bucket. 

Five minutes passed and not a single soul left Titan-B.  As the Jump Drive spun up Viz couldn't help but think, why did the great red spot vanish?  Titan-B jumped away without a hitch, but they never reported in when they exited the jump.  Communications had just been replaced and passed the gauntlet of tests, And their jump drive was out for repairs so they had used the ship launcher on Titan-A to get them to their destination.  No one could figure out what went wrong.

Feb 11 2073, Gregorian Calender
2157hrs Earth Time
Melbourne Communications Centre

CPO Little had had just about enough of the trouble that damn bucket of a research station.  First they send in the most bizarre reports and then they vanish from existence, then when help is sent, they vanish into the black.  He knew that it would be his head on the block if he didn't think of something.  Hell why not just send a battlecruiser from Mars and let them deal with it.  But his boss would never approve such a risky op.  Then again, this could be a good way to get rid of that pesky Captain he was always complaining about.  He picked up the phone and punched in his bosses code, he gave him the run down of the situation, and his fancy solution.  When it was all over, his hands would be clean of this mess.  His boss had caught the trap hook line and sinker, pesky Captain was likely off to nothingness, and his boss had accepted all responsibility.

Tales from beyond the Rift: Gift of The Past.

He had been running for days, He had no idea how far he had travelled, but he could still hear them in the not to far distance.  Through forests and across rivers they had chased him, and all because he found some silly amulet.  None of this made sense.  He was just the son of a farmhand, no ties or titles.  Worthless, on the edges of his society, and now on the run from a force not of this world.  The Doragonzu, ruthless, unrelenting, and now they were on his tail.  Ahead he could see a cave, so just like he had been doing for the past three days, he ran.

As he crossed the threshold of the cave, a door slid shut behind him.  "Shi kan," he thought, "trapped like a swine."  This cave was not a natural formation, someone built it, so it must lead somewhere, but where was indeed the question he needed answering. 

He wandered through the cavern for what seamed an eternity, but it was a welcome respite from the running he had been doing these past few days.  Not a soul or sound to be heard except for him and his thoughts. 

And then for no apparent reason he turned and walked through one of the caves shimmering blue crystal walls. "Strange," he thought "walls should be solid and yet that one was not."  He thought it best not to question it, as he felt he had work to do.  And with that feeling a blinding light filled his retinas.  Someone or something had just turned the light on inside this massive chamber.  Slowly recovering his senses, he looked up to see the most magnificent sight he had seen since Empress Elirntha had visited his world when he was but a boy. 

Now looking up at what was a very likely explanation for why a Doragonzu hunter squad was after him and his little trinket.  "Hmm, Suppose this amulet is the key to this vessel."  He said aloud to himself, "better go try it out."  Cruising past shelves of parts and workbenches of half completed systems, he approached what he unconsciously knew was the cargo bay door controls.  At his touch, a door opened and lights came to life inside the ship.  As he stepped in he noticed a screen displaying the cavern system that he had entered earlier that day, on it he saw what appeared to be the hunter squad he had been evading, and they were about to breach the outer door to the caves.

"Well then, Looks like its time to fly."  He said as he began running to the flight deck.