This is Mars Oh-Two-Three

This is a copy of a post I made for a short story contest.  The only rule was that the story could only be in the form of dialogue-

(DOR) This is Mars Oh-Two-Three

“Mars Mineral Corporation Excavator 1-A awaiting instructions. Please upload imaging instructions for phase one of the Pyramid Mining Complex.”

***

“This is Mars Mineral Corporation Oh-Two-Three. Progress report: The automated excavators are at the new mining location and I’m just waiting for your instructions to upload, I haven’t seen them yet. Those guys sure are big, they should have this done in no time. I’d like to schedule a few of my vacations days when I get back. I haven’t been able to pick up any of the entertainment channels since the secondary dish collapsed and I’m going a little stir crazy.”

***

“Calling Mars Oh-Two-Three. Good morning Ray. The boys in engineering finished up the instructions a few days ago, we’re just waiting on satellite time. The military’s got the whole system tied up for ‘exercises’ or something like that. Government workers, eh?”

***

“This is Mars Oh-Two-Three.I just got a screech on the general bandwith and lost all telemetry. There’s a major dust storm out here right now, may have suffered some damage. Have sent utility rover out to check the main dish. Please advise of any problems on your end. How’d your wife’s recital go?”

***

“Calling Mars Two-Oh-Three. Trust me, you didn’t miss much. We’re still waiting on the satellite. There’s been a total lockout from the network on our end, I’ve never seen anything like it before… wait, Cindy just came in and said the President’s talking about it on the news. She said it looks like he’s in a bunker. Let me get back to you.”

***

…..-ble…..sure what’s hap-…. everyones…-nicing right now….. get back…

***

“This is Mars Mineral Corporation Oh-Two-Three. I didn’t quite read that. The utility rover should arrive at the main dish in a few minutes. Did I ever tell you how much I really wish corporate would have sprung to have two of us out here? I hate relying on these bots to do everything while I mind the controls. It wouldn’t be so bad if there wasn’t that twenty-five minute lightspeed lag between us.”

***

…-ash….-ire.. dead…

***

“This is Mars Oh-Two-Three. The rover’s checked the dish, there’s nothing wrong. This dust storm’s playing hell with the telescopes, I can’t get a definite lock on your relay satellite. WeatherBot says the storm should be over in fifteen minutes. Please advise.

***

…Static…

***

“I just got the telescopes back up. Rick, Where the hell is the satellite? I can’t see it anymore. It should be right in orbit over you. I’m seeing an awful lot of infrared anomalies on the thermal. What’s going on down there?”

***

You have reached the emergency broadcast system. Please stand by for an important announcement. You have reached the emergency broadcast system. Please stand by for an important announcement. You have reached…

***

“Rick, what’s going on down there? I’m getting a really bad feeling up here, please talk to me. It looks like I’m about to get whatever address the President gave you.”

***

“…unfortunately, our negotiations have failed and the time for diplomacy has ended. We have already detected Lemurian bombers on a course for our airspace. Rest assured, my fellow Atlanteans, that our response will be swift and absolute. Godspeed to you all, and may the world always remember the name Atlantis.”

***

“This is Mars Oh-Two-Three. Calling anybody still out there. I can see it through the telescope now. It looks like they hit… everywhere. Total devastation. I just ran the scenario through the computer and it’s calculating a nuclear winter lasting thousands of years. I’m not expecting anybody to come and get me now. Hell, I might be the only one left. And once I’m gone, there will be no evidence left that we even existed.”

***

‘Mars Mineral Corporation Excavator 1-A awaiting instructions. Please upload imaging instructions for phase one of the Pyramid Mining Complex.”

***

“Now that’s an idea! Where the hell is my personnel file on this computer? Funny, they voted me “Least Likely to be Famous” in high school too.”

***

Mars Mineral Corporation Excavator 1-A instructions received. File ‘Raymond-portrait-image’ uploaded. Commencing dig.

***

“In science news, NASA has just released new images of the famed “Face on Mars.” It appears today that the “Face” is simply a trick of light and shadow. This anomaly was first reporting back in the 70′s, with conspiracy theorists claiming it is evidence of a long-dead civilization…”

Terella

Last post of the day, I promise

I just wanted to share a few pictures I’ve found of terellas (“little earths”) which used to be used to study Earth’s magnetic field.  You can read the wikipedia article here.

I just find it fascinating to see black and white images like this, with scientisits utilizing equipment that we would generally never think of.  It was only 100 years ago, but we usually think of that as being a “primitive” time compared to our own.  These pictures lmost feel like they shouldn’t be real.  Enjoy.

Killzone 2 Multiplayer- M82 vs Sta52

Following up on my initial story, I’ve decided to post my comments on the various weapons available.  Here are the two primary assault rifles you can choose from, the M82 and the Sta52.

Class: Rifleman, Medic, Tactician

M82-

Killzone 2 Multiplayer

image courtesy of IGN.com

This is my little review of KZ2 multiplayer. I’ve unlocked all of the primary badges, but still have a few secondary badges to unlock.

To start, class building in Killzone consists of choosing two badges and a weapon. Each class has a primary badge and a secondary badge. After you meet certain requirements, you can freely mix and match these, with the exception that primary badges are always primary and secondary badges are always secondary. What this means is that your primary badge determines what weapons are available- and the rifleman can’t use badges. You can only pick one of each, so you can’t combine two primary or two secondary badges. Also, all characters can auto-heal only up to half their max HP.

Rifleman
This is your starting class. It has no primary and secondary abilities, and at start can only use the M82 or Sta52 rifle. The M82 has a 30 or 32 round magazine and a greend dot sight. It has very low recoil, so is great for firing bursts and range. The Sta52 has a 40 round magazine and iron sights. It has higher recoil, but has a smaller spread when firing formt he hip. Better at close range.

They Nuked Detroit

So I had a bunch of trouble falling asleep last night and didn’t get to bed until around 3:30am.  About 6:00am this morning I woke up to my entire house shaking.  My head is right next to a window in my bedroom, and I could hear the glass shaking.  I could also hear an incredibly loud rumbling sounds.

Being in a very groggy and deeply sleeping condition, I was absolutely petrified.  The first thoguht into my head was “they nuked Detroit” and I actually sat there waiting for the shickwave to hit.  After a couple seconds I regained a few more of my sense and then figured that my neighbors house had exploded.

Turns out, of course, it was just an incredibly loud thunderclap.  But as far as wake-up calls on your 25th birthday so, this one was pretty good.

She’s Not Real

She’s not real

I’m just I’m just thinking of all the different ways this could be utilized. Video games and movies are one thing. But imagine if in the enar future, you could make a digital person pretty much indistinguishable from a real one? Or you could make a copy of a person, and create video of that person doing or saying things they never actually did? They’ve said that pictures only show you what the photographer wanted you to see, but what if the cameraman could even decide what reality was?thinking of all the different ways this could be utilized. Video games and movies are one thing. But imagine if in the enar future, you could make a digital person pretty much indistinguishable from a real one? Or you could make a copy of a person, and create video of that person doing or saying things they never actually did? They’ve said that pictures only show you what the photographer wanted you to see, but what if the cameraman could even decide what reality was?