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Fnarrg
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Everyone,
I’m new to the forum but I’ve whipped up this piece just to see if you like it. Any comments welcome. I've called it Horizon.
Enjoy……
Fnarrg
Horizon :
Greg watched the twin sun’s of the Alpha Centauri system rise above the curved horizon of Planet’s comforting bulk in a dozen different spectrums including ‘ visible ‘ light, infra red and x-ray.
On a sentimental note Greg opened a channel from the main data buffer and copied the imagery to his personal archive.
Keeping to the operational routine Greg scanned surrounding space with military grade, high-resolution sensors. The usual scenery. Empty space. Orbital debris. A pair of communication satellites. A sky hydroponics lab. All friendly. Greg contacted the hydroponics lab AI and played it a six-millisecond game of chess, which he won. It was no contest really. The orbital defense pod ( ODP ) he commanded was equipped with enough processing power to run a small city. Or manage a state-of-the-art heavy weapons platform in an L3 polar orbit armed with a dozen different weapon systems. Greg was amusing himself with some mathematical algorithms for a time when a low priority alarm sounded. A Hive missile complex deep within the Monsoon Jungle no doubt, he thought, up to it’s usual tricks again. More accurate sensors focused and confirmed a thermal signature rising into orbit. Flight profile confirmed an ASAT ( anti-satellite ) missile heading for a friendly communications bird in a higher orbit. A tracking array swung to cover the missile and a long-range gamma pulse coupled with the array gained a target lock and flash heated the missile to dust. The whole interception took no more than 9 seconds.
What was this ?? Yet another alarm ? Higher level monitoring devices were detecting multiple field disturbances approaching from outside Planet orbit. A comprehensive search through a database found the disturbances bore characteristics of cloaking devices. Greg dispatched an alert message to a ground station to warn the rest of the defense net. In a split second the disturbances disappeared and were replaced by the same number of unidentified and unknown spacecraft. Energy readings of the craft showed weapons systems powering up. Targeting programs tagged them as Hostiles 1- 6. Hostiles 4, 5 and 6 broke formation and fell towards Greg’s ODP. Greg began stowing away delicate appendages such as antennae and solar panels into the ODP’s hardened shell to prevent any damage. Greg choose the lead ship, Hostile 5, as his target and pulverized it with both gamma and x-ray laser fire. Like a wet dog Hostile 5 shook off the blasts without damage and hurried onwards. Greg made and dispatched another flash message to a ground station while using the ODP’s tachyon defense shields to absorb simultaneous weapons fire from all three ships. A digital curse from Greg formed as his dual chaos cannon fire failed to have any effect on Hostile 4. The three intruders had completed their first attack run and now swung about to attack again.
The Spartan transcendi known as Greg, residing in Orbital Defense Pod #B61 prepared to make his final stand.
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08-08-1999 00:02
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