Jump to content

JamesSavik

Signature Author
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    8,823

  • Joined

  • Last visited

 Content Type 

Blog Entries posted by JamesSavik

  1. JamesSavik

    Not An Addict

    By JamesSavik,

    Not An Addict- K's Choice

    Breathe it in and breathe it out
    And pass it on, it's almost out
    We're so creative, so much more
    We're high above but on the floor

    It's not a habit, it's cool, I feel alive
    If you don't have it you're on the other side

    The deeper you stick it in your vein
    The deeper the thoughts, there's no more pain
    I'm in heaven, I'm a god
    I'm everywhere, I feel so hot

    It's not a habit, it's cool, I feel alive
    If you don't have it you're on the other side
    I'm not an addict (maybe that's a lie)

    It's over now, I'm cold, alone
    I'm just a person on my own
    Nothing means a thing to me
    (Nothing means a thing to me)

    It's not a habit, it's cool, I feel alive
    If you don't have it you're on the other side
    I'm not an addict (maybe that's a lie)

    Free me, leave me
    Watch me as I'm going down
    Free me, see me
    Look at me, I'm falling and I'm falling.

    It is not a habit, it is cool I feel alive I feel...
    It is not a habit, it is cool I feel alive

    It's not a habit, it's cool, I feel alive
    If you don't have it you're on the other side
    I'm not an addict (maybe that's a lie)
    I'm not an addict...
  2. JamesSavik
    Case:Black is an experimental work in progress.
     
    As I have been working on it, it has sort of evolved completely on it's own a 24-esque format.
     
    I didn't intend it to happen that way. It came from the short scenes built onto a tight timeline.
     
    I would really like to go back and re-format the whole thing but GA's author/story page... ummm I'm not sure how I would go about it.
     
    I have decided- why fight it? The ticking clock/24-esqe format is a natural fit for the story. From now on, I am going to run with it. I don't think Kiefer Sutherland patented it and... I think he would be good as Doctor Jackson or Sgt. Taylor.
     
    From now on, each chapter will contain multiple scenes from a single hour.
     
    The following events occur between 1am and 2am on July 17th...
     


     
     
    PS- computer problems have been corrected.
  3. JamesSavik

    Computer problems

    By JamesSavik,

    My hard drive is dying.
     
    It says so. It is a new generation drive from Seagate that uses SMART(ass) technology to warn me that a crash is inevitable.
     
    So far too many sectors are going bad. It's only a matter of time before the drive says ERK and dies horribly.
     
    As soon as this happened I went into uber-geek mode and begin doing stuff like backing up and preparing for the installation of the new drive.
     
    It is of course a huge pain in the ass. Why does my SMART(ass) technology only last two f-ing years? That's not very SMART if you ask me.
     
    I'm treading very carefully and waiting impatiently as my SMARTass mail order parts provider takes 2 god damned weeks to deliver a simple 1 TB hard drive.
     
    It's times like this that make me miss drinking.
     
    At some point soon I will vanish for a while. You can be sure that I'm rebuilding my system and will be back.
     
    As grouchy as ever. GRRRR
  5. JamesSavik

    Case: Black begins!

    By JamesSavik,

    Some of the most horrifying things on earth come from the minds of men.
     

     
    Venezuelan Equine Encephalitis before it became the Pandora virus.
     

     
    It's never going to be all right again.
  6. JamesSavik
    FROM: National Command Authority
    TO: All Commands

    RE: CASE BLACK

    THE UNITED STATES HAS BEEN HIT WITH A CATASTROPHIC BIO-TERRORIST ATTACK OF UNKNOWN ORIGIN.

    CASE BLACK HAS BEEN DECLARED. FOLLOW PROTOCOLS: SILENT WINTER, VIOLET PYRAMID, SIERRA HARVEST.

    DECRYPT ORDERS AND ACTIVATE CASE BLACK IMMEDIATELY.

    ALERT STATUS TO DEFCON 2. SNAP COUNT IS IN EFFECT.



  7. JamesSavik
    Characters:
     
    Bishop Keilor- leader of the anti-augmented human faction
     
    Sebastian Beck- Former Alliance Marine Colonel, Keilor's 2nd.
     
    _________________________________________________________________
     
    Free Trader Argus
    Parking Orbit above Parliament
     
    Sebastian Beck was having that same old nightmare again. It always took him back to the war: his war. When a cabal of rouge corporations rebelled against Alliance authority, he was a twenty year old Marine platoon leader. What the history books called the Corporate Wars had been a little slice of hell.
     
    The Corporate Wars were a bloody, hard fought affair that lasted three years but his dream always took him back to the final assault on MilTech’s headquarters on Pelenor. The Pelenor system was littered by the debris of the largest naval battle in Alliance history to date. The fleet had slugged it out with the rebels for over a week before they had cleared the space above the planet enough to begin the assault.
     
    The transport carrying the 22nd Battalion was the old Normandy. She and her four of her sisters brought the 3rd Regiment into orbit and began a 2 hour bombardment from orbit to smash as much of the planetary defenses as they could find. When the bombardment ended, the assault shuttles immediately began the drop. Even with an escort of fighters and fire support from the ships, four assault shuttles were destroyed and another eight were so badly damaged that once they were down, they would never take off again.
     
    Beck’s platoon was lucky. He got down with all five of his squads, a headquarters detachment and a heavy weapons section. That was the last thing that went right all day. Due to heavy fire on the drop, they were 20 kilometers off target. Enemy jamming snarled communications and they couldn’t reach Battalion HQ. To top it all off, they had landed less than a klick from an enemy artillery battery under heavy concealment and were forced to assault it almost as soon as they were dirt side.
     
    What they did not know at the time was that Beck’s Bobcats had landed inside the enemy perimeter. Their quick assault and destruction of the artillery battery actually punched a hole in the rebel lines. The enemy counter attack came in battalion strength and was supported by a heavy artillery concentration.
     
    The rebels were savage. They were cyborgs: genetically modified humans that were extensively modified with implants, armor and other enhancement. They had no fear and you had to blow them to pieces to keep them down. Even with state of the art Marine body armor and with the best firepower available, it was a horror show.
     
    What kept coming back to Beck in his worst nightmares was one of the last assaults on their position. One of the cyborgs was shot up but it wasn’t dead. He turned it over and he could see the humanity in its face. Something was broken inside it. With tears in its eyes it said, “Please, please God, kill me.”
     
    Beck and his men fought from the captured enemy fortifications for three days. At the end of the third day, Beck had lost almost half of his men and they were low on everything when they were finally relieved by Captain Keilor and the rest of the company.
     
    After the battle, Beck had received an Alliance Cross: the second highest decoration a marine can win. Over drinks Beck, Keilor and many others swore an oath: they would never again allow insane, amoral men to create such monsters. They had worked for years to create a network as a means to accomplish that end.
     
    When Beck awoke, drenched in sweat, he saw that he had a message pending.
     
    He got out of bed, got a drink of cold water and sat down at his terminal.
     
    RESET WARNING: at time 14:22 local Implant #2234 was reset. Fault 22: overload.
     
    Beck issued a command: “Computer, establish an encrypted link to the Bishop.”
     
    There was a short pause and Bishop Keilor’s face appeared on his screen, “What’s up Seb?”
     
    “Maybe trouble, maybe nothing but I thought you needed to know. Marion’s implant reset itself. It looks like she took a good shock when she was putting together the gear to hack the wireless network.”
     
    The Bishop frowned and said, “Marion may be trying to be entirely too clever for her own good. What is their status?”
     
    Beck replied, “The Mason kid went out and bought a new power cell, some clothes and a few other items. Marion has her system up and is reading the security network and the rest of the teams are in place and ready to go.”
     
    The Bishop sighed. “Things are so close now Seb. I think Marion has served her purpose. When this is over she joins her family.”
     
    Beck said, “I’ll set it up. See you in orbit.”
  9. JamesSavik
    Vozrozhdeniya Island
    Aral Sea
    Soviet Biological Warfare Testing Facility
    Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic
     
    June 2, 1988
     
    "Come on Vanya, unless you want to be another test subject!"
     
    Vanya Akulov quickly tested the restraining strap and checked the instruments monitoring the test subjects vital signs on the last chimpanzee and left the large vapor chamber. The beast gave him a murderous glare but was completely restrained and tranquilized. There were thirty test subjects inside the chamber and none of them would leave it alive.
     
    Akulov stopped and heaved the heavy steel door closed and sealed the large bell shaped chamber. It's walls were four meters thick. When the tests were done, a gas would be pumped into the chamber and ignited reducing anything inside to ashes.
     
    It was a big day for the youthful virologist. It was the first full up test of his brainchild which had been given the innocuous title of preparation 437.
     
    Preparation 437 began as a Alphavirus. In its original form, it caused Venezuelan Equine Encephalitis or VEE and was a mosquito borne menace to horses and people in its original jungle. It had been troublesome enough for a vaccine to be developed but still had interesting characteristics.
     
    As an Alphavirus, it had a ridiculously simple structure: simple and elegant. VEE was a positively sensed, single stranded RNA virus. It was this very simplicity that allowed Akulov to radically redesign the virus by splicing its genetic material. It was no longer VEE. It was a genetically programmed bioweapon. Like its origin, Preparation 437 could easily be transmitted by mosquito giving it a vector that could spread it far and wide.
     
    Akulov completed the preparations outside the mist chamber and climbed a spiral staircase to control room on the next level. He stopped at the airlock in between and stripped off the heavy "space suit" and proceeded in scrubs.
     
    When he arrived in the control room there were several officer there in the uniform of the Soviet Army and KGB. One of the officers stepped forward and said, "Comrade Scientist Akulov, your breakthrough has been noted at the highest levels. I bring congratulations from the Chairman of the Central Committee."
     
    Akulov said, "Thank you Comrade General. I serve the Soviet Union."
     
    That made the KGB man and the faceless party apparatchiks smile but some of the other scientists winced. Nobody likes a brown-nose regardless of the system but the Soviet bureaucracy bred and rewarded many scores of them.
     
    Dr. Rodenko was senior in the lab but there was glory enough to go around. "Gentlemen, we are ready to begin the test. Vanya has modified the original virus. In its original form, it attacks the brain and causes Encephalitis: a swelling of the brain that causes coma and sometimes death. However, in its modified form, it's attack is more targeted. It attacks the higher brain function."
     
    Akulov said, "I expect that we will see a different illness. Some will die outright. Encephalitis can do that. In its modified form, I expect the victim to awaken from a short coma with all higher brain functions destroyed."
     
    The general asked, "What will that mean Comrade Scientists?"
     
    Akulov relied, "We will see but if it works as I expect, we will have the agent that causes incapacity and chaos that the Sub-committee has been wanting for years. Give us 4 days for the test to run its course and we'll see.
     
    Twenty-four hours later, all thirty chimps were comatose.
     
    Thirty-six hours later eight of the chips expired from cerebral edema.
     
    The first of the others awoke fifty-two hours after infection. They raged. They fought at the restraints with all of their might. Over the next four hours sixteen of them awakened in a murderous hatred. Fighting and snarling to free themselves. Six more of them stayed in what Akulov judged to be a persistent vegetative state.
     
    As the first one finally freed itself 56 hours into the experiment, a pale and shaken Dr. Rodenko armed the self-destruct system and incinerated all of the test subjects in the vapor chamber.
     
    All of the important men that had come to see Akulov's accomplishment were badly shaken. It was obvious for all that had seen, anyone the raging chimps might have gotten their hands on would have been torn to shreds. Should they have survived, the victims would be certainly have been infected.
     
    Preparation 437 was never advanced to full production. The People's Sub-Committee on Special Weapons deemed it entirely too dangerous. It was saved for special projects by the KGB and became yet another agent in the Soviet bioweapons massive arsenal,
  10. JamesSavik
    SARS-linked virus may have spread between people
    http://news.yahoo.com/sars-linked-virus-may-spread-between-people-103711107.html
     
    LONDON (AP) — British officials say a mysterious virus related to SARS may have spread between humans, as they confirmed the 11th case worldwide of the new coronavirus in a patient who they say probably caught it from a family member.
     
    The new virus was first identified last year in the Middle East and the 10 people who have previously been infected had all traveled to Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Jordan or Pakistan.
     
    According to Britain's Health Protection Agency, the latest patient is a U.K. resident with no recent travel to any of those countries but who had close personal contact with an earlier case. The patient may also have been at greater risk of infection due to an underlying medical condition and is currently in intensive care at a Birmingham hospital.
     
    "Although this case provides strong evidence for person to person transmission, the risk of infection in most circumstances is still considered to be very low," John Watson, head of the respiratory diseases department at the Health Protection Agency, said in a statement. "If (the) novel coronavirus were more infectious, we would have expected to have seen a larger number of cases."
     
    Six hospital staffers where the patient is being treated are being monitored for infection but none have so far showed any symptoms of the illness. The patient did not come into contact with any other hospital patients and is currently being kept in isolation.
     
    The new coronavirus is part of a family of viruses that cause ailments including the common cold and SARS. In 2003, a global outbreak of SARS killed about 800 people worldwide.
    Officials at the World Health Organization said the new virus has probably already spread between humans in some instances. In Saudi Arabia last year, four members of the same family fell ill and two died. And in a cluster of about a dozen people in Jordan, the virus may have spread at a hospital's intensive care unit.
     
    "We know that in some of those cases there was close physical contact between family members caring for one another, so we can't rule out human-to-human transmission," said Gregory Hartl, a WHO spokesman.
     
    He said there were still big gaps in the understanding of the novel coronavirus, which can cause acute pneumonia and kidney failure. Of the 11 cases to date, five people have died.
    Health experts still aren't sure how humans are being infected. The new coronavirus is most closely related to a bat virus and scientists are considering whether bats or other animals like goats or camels are a possible source of infection.
     
    Michael Osterholm, an infectious diseases expert at the University of Minnesota, warned the virus could be adapting into a more transmissible form. "At any moment the fire hydrant of human-to-human transmission cases could open," he said. "This is definitely a 'stay tuned' moment." He noted that before SARS sparked a worldwide epidemic, there were a handful of human-to-human cases, until something happened, like a virus mutation, which triggered an explosion of cases.
     
    WHO says the virus is probably more widespread than just the Middle East and has advised countries to test any people with unexplained pneumonia.
     
    ______________________________________________________
     
    New pathogens don't "come out of the blue". They do come from somewhere. Most of the time the really problematic diseases are the ones that have "jumped species". The original SARS came from bats.
     
    It is called zoonosis or the transfer of an animal disease to humans. It happens all the time. HIV and a host of other emerging infectious diseases have all come from the animals to humans.
     
    There is no need for a conspiracy or germ warfare. The planet has been doing this since before there were people.
  12. JamesSavik

    Hammerhead preview

    By JamesSavik,

    Aramus Depot
    Irulan 350 System
     
    The Aramus Depot orbited the third planet of the Irulan 350 star system. Like so many Alliance military facilities, it was an abandoned commercial concern. The big space station was originally a refinery and trans-shipment point for the minerals mined in this and the surrounding systems. When the mines were no longer commercially viable, the company had abandoned it. The Alliance Fleet took over the station when the war broke out. Now it was the graveyard of hundreds of obsolete ships that had been replaced by the new construction.
     
    Lt. Com. Nick Pace, senior officer of the facility, had a mixed staff of thirty fleet personnel and civilian contractors. Their job was to maintain the ships but they were hopelessly outmanned in that department. There were over a hundred obsolete destroyers alone. Many of the ships had sustained significant battle damage before they were decommissioned.
     
    Their real job was to make sure that those ships didn’t end up in the wrong hands. That was accomplished by removing the ships core security key. When ships were consigned to the depot, it was the first thing removed and stored in a safe deep inside the space station.
     
    Each Alliance naval vessel had to have a core security key. They looked innocent enough: they were 10 centimeter long stainless steel rectangle with a special interface connector on one end. Each was engraved with the hull number of the ship that it was associated with. The core key was actually a very sophisticated device that had to be in place before an Alliance ships computer core would boot. It had a considerable amount of static memory inside that contained the ships primary access and transponder codes and root encryption keys to Alliance codes. Once installed, it could not be removed until the computer core was completely shut down. Their construction was a closely guarded secret so they would be very difficult to counterfeit even if you could get hold of one.
     
    Commander Pace was inspecting an old light cruiser that had just been added to their tattered collection. The St. Louis had served with distinction through the first few years of the war. She had taken an enemy missile escorting a convoy to Epsilon Ceti and been sent core-ward or repairs. Instead of repairing her, she had been retired. The damage was extensive but it wasn’t the worst that he had seen. Much of the port side from frame 30 to the bow was gutted but it wasn’t anything that a couple of months in the yard couldn’t fix.
     
    He was entering her salvage potential in his computer pad when his comm link buzzed.
     
    “This is Pace.”
     
    Ensign Ortez voice came through his headset: “Commander, we just got a priority message from the Marine Annex on Parliament.”
     
    A priority communication to the boneyard? “Send it to my Pad.”
     
    The message scrolled across the screen:
     
    TO: Lt. Com. Pace, Aramus Depot
    FROM: Brigadier General Geiger, Marine Training Command
    RE: MAV Corregidor
     
    Prepare the Marine Assault Vessel Corregidor for reactivation as a cadet ship.
     
    We need her ready for pick up within the week to take advantage of dockyard scheduling.
     
    Your resupply ship will be carrying an officer and skeleton crew to transport her to the Griffin Shipyards in the Ostland system for refit.
     
    MarTranComm
    Ends
     
    Pace knew that this was time sensitive. The shipyards were at maximum capacity and any yard time was at a premium. He said, “Alert the team. We need to fuel and prep the Corregidor for pickup by the time our resupply arrives.”
     
    Well, at least we get to do something useful for a change.
  14. JamesSavik

    The Vermilion Cannery

    By JamesSavik,

    The Vermilion Cannery
     
     
    The storm started out modestly near the Cape Verde islands off the coast of East Africa.
     
    The prevailing winds took it across the warm waters of the tropical Atlantic where it grew to become a category 3 hurricane but it was too late in the season. When Hurricane Mona entered the Gulf, instead of strengthening like they often do in August and September, it meandered through the cooler waters of October and November losing strength. It brushed Hati and Cuba and then made a bee line for the coast of Louisiana and Texas.
     
    The storm came ashore at Cameron, Louisiana as tropical depression Mona just short of hurricane strength. It collided with an East bound cold front and began to move East across Baton Rouge into Mississippi and finally Alabama before it came apart. In its path the storm dumped 6 to 18 inches of furious rain flooding parts of South Louisiana and Mississippi that most storms missed.
     
    Cameron barely noticed the storm. Built on stilts, the town that had been destroyed so many times by hurricanes was built to survive them. The residents simply drove out of town and returned when it was over.
     
    The swamps of south Louisiana are criss-crossed by numerous oil and gas pipelines. Before the refineries could make the crude usable, the pipes had to be checked from Port Arthur all the way to New Iberia.
     
    Pilot Jeff Chandler and a couple of engineers from Acadia Oil and Gas got in a Bell 407 helicopter and began to follow the pipes west to east.
     
    They could easily see that the storm had done its usual damage to the swamp but spotted no leaks and all of their transit and right of way markers were still in place. After spending most of the day looking at the lines, Chandler turned the helicopter North-West at Freshwater City to land at Lake Charles.
     
    A few minutes later he saw it. Just a little West of Freshwater City was a huge old cannery. The factory had been built on a deep water channel so fishing boats could deliver their hauls for processing and be picked up by ocean going freighters. Chandler had used the old cannery for years as a reference point because in the vast, featureless swamp, you had to remember any sort of landmark.
     
    Chandler had no idea how long the factory had been there. The pier was long since gone leaving only a row of posts in the water. The factory had collapsed and much of the timber scattered by the storm revealing a large concrete structure hidden underneath.
     
    Chandler said to his passengers, "Hang on a minute. I want to see what we have here."
     
    He circled the big factory twice. The waterfront side of the factory was gone. There was definitely a large concrete structure under the building which had originally stood on big steel I-beams.
     
    One of his passengers said, "What do you suppose that is? Storm shelter maybe?"
     
    Chandler replied, "I don't know. It would be an awfully big one. That old building has been here as long as I can remember. After surviving hurricanes Audry, Ike and Rita, seems a shame that little blow like Mona took her down. Well, we're burning the companies gas, lets go home."
     
    After a fairly routine hop to Lake Charles, Chandler returned his passengers safely with good news. The oil and gas people could get back to work.
     
    The mystery bug bit Chandler. He flew over the site any excuse that he had. There was nowhere safe to land but he took pictures and a got good GPS fix on the site. He even spotted mounds of oyster shells out behind the factory building.
     
    After talking to a few people, he decided to go to the Vermilion Parish seat at Abbeville and see what he could discover about the mysterious cannery.
     
    He drove the hour and a half from Lake Charles and camped out in the Parish Clerks office. It took him forever to find any documents regarding the site but they began in the thirties.
     
    The company paid its taxes in 1938 as Finster and Klein. They wrote a check on the New Orleans Industrial Bank for the staggering sum of 1,812.35.
     
    Chandler kept going backwards. 1937, 1936, 1935 until the property was purchased and the factory constructed in 1934. Every year they paid between $1200 to $2200.
     
    The old country clerk brought him a dusty folder with very little contents with 1934 written in fine penmanship on the cover. He said, "Thought you might like to see this. It's the articles of incorporation for all the companies founded in 1934."
     
    Chandler opened the folder. There was only one document. He looked at the old man who shrugged and said, "It was the depression. Not much was going on here."
     
    According to the documents, in 1934 Finster & Klein of Wilhelmshaven, Germany founded the Vermilion Cannery. It paid taxes and abruptly stopped in 1939. So, it was a German owned company that abruptly shut down at the outbreak of World War II.
     
    That was all Chandler could discover at the parish clerks office but at least he had a name and some dates.
     
    Later that evening, Chandler got on his computer and began to do some searching. He found that Finster & Klein were a subsidiary of Krupp Industries. Their ownership was close to Hitler and very influential in the Nazi party. In 1940 their holding in the United States were seized by the FBI for suspected espionage activities at various sites along the East Coast. At a couple of locations that they missed, Nazi spies were radioing the comings and goings of allied ships at American ports. That wasn't completely sorted out until late in 1943.
     
    Wow! Chandler rolled away from his computer. He picked up his cell phone and called a friend in Freshwater City.
     
    "Hello Louis. This is Chandler, how you doing?"
     
    "You still running charters?"
     
    "Good. You free Thursday? There's a place I want to see up close..."
     
     
    * * *
     
    Chandler arrived at the marina at Freshwater City at dawn in time to catch Louis Bossard having breakfast.
     
    Louis smiled at seeing his old friend and said, "Jeff, how you are boy?"
     
    "Fair to middlin' Louis. How does the weather look?"
     
    "Good, good. A little cold for fishing. What you got in mind?"
     
    "You know that old fish cannery off Decater Point?"
     
    "Yeah, sure. Mona knocked most of it down."
     
    "I wanna see it up close."
     
    "I can get you there. There's a deep water channel all the way to the place."
     
    Chandler told his old friend about the factories checkered past. Bossard agreed that it was worth a look so they loaded their modest gear in a Sea-Ray Weekender and took off. They had to go South for deep water before they could turn West. It took them about an hour to get to Decater's Point and they could see easily see the huge old factory.
     
    As they were traveling Bossard said, "You know, I can believe there might have been Nazi spies in these parts. It's damn hard to get to, remote as hell and I run diving charters to about a dozen wreaks within a hundred miles of here."
     
    Chandler replied, "It's about halfway between New Orleans and Houston. If I wanted to keep an eye on Gulf shipping, I couldn't think of a better place."
     
    They approached from the deep-water channel and tied off on and old pier piling and climbed up to the railroad cross ties to what must have been the main dock. The first thing Jeff noticed was the rusting remains of a tall radio mast that had collapsed in the storm.
     
    They could easily see the formed concrete underneath the collapsed rubble. After investigating it, Chandler discovered that it was even larger than he thought. He took out his camera and began taking pictures.
     
    Bossard said, "Grab onto this big piece and pull Jeff."
     
    They pulled on the old rotten timbers and they collapsed away from the structure revealing what appeared to be a very large rusty black metal door that extended along the waterline along the water front side of the factory.
     
    Bossard said, "Well I'll be damned. Am I looking at.."
     
    "Yeah. I believe so. It looks like an old U-boat pen. The Germans built a ton of these in France to service their U-boats safe from air raids."
     
    "What's it doing here?"
     
    "Isn't it obvious? The Feds could shut down the business but all of this stuff was still here. It's the only dry land in 30 miles in any direction. It's ideally suited between two of the United States biggest ports. They shut the place down but all the Germans needed to do was sneak a crew in here by sub and they are good to go."
     
    Bossard said, "I think we just solved the mystery of why there were so many ships sunk out of Houston and New Orleans."
     
    Chandler took his big mag light and struck the iron door knocking a hole in the rust. He braced himself and kicked enough of it the rust away to clear a small passage through.
     
    Bossard said, "You aren't thinking.."
     
    Chandler said, "I sure am."
     
    He turned on his light and looked inside. There was a concrete walkway just inside and he stepped through.
     
    Chandler disappeared inside and Bossard said, "You OK in there?"
     
    "Yeah Louis. Come on in. You aren't going to believe this."
     
    Louis crawled through the hole in the door and walked down the concrete walkway to join Chandler.
     
    He whistled and said, "Would you look at that."
     
    The unique black form of a U-boat was lying on its right side at a 20 degree angle against the opposite wall of the pen. On it's conning tower was the Nazi swastika and its identifier U-757 in white letters.
     
    Chandler said, "I heard of this boat. When things were falling apart in 1945, a bunch of the Nazi big-wigs got aboard to escape being captured and tried for war crimes. The Allies thought that it was destroyed by a British bomber in the Irish Sea."
     
    Bossard sighed and said, "Well, if you ask me, it looks like they made it."
  16. JamesSavik

    the New People

    By JamesSavik,

    Coming Soon in Operation Hammerhead
     
    ____________________________________________
     
    Scorpius Sector
    Evergreen, Agricultural Colony
    Evergreen University Campus
    Student Union
     
    Jeff Mason looked across the chess board at his opponent. It was rare that anyone could give him a good game. This kid wasn’t it. Mason's genetically engineered intellect could see twenty moves ahead.
     
    His bishops and knights slashed into his opponent’s flanks, his rooks smashed straight ahead, and his queen powered her way deep into enemy territory. Checkmate.
     
    The freshman sighed and said, “I like to play against strong players. It makes me better but every time I play against you, I seem to get worse.”
     
    Jeff said, “That’s because you do.”
     
    The kid said, “What am I doing wrong?”
     
    Jeff said, “Most people fall into patterns of play. It’s perfectly natural to use the strategy and tactics that you’ve had success with. The problem is that pattern fails you when you play the pattern and not your opponent.”
     
    “How do I learn to do that?”
     
    Jeff replied, “You’ve got to play a lot and with many different players.”
     
    The freshman nodded and took his leave.
     
    Jeff remembered the only person that could consistently beat him and wondered what had happened to his old nemesis. So much had happened in just a few years. He picked up his tablet computer and headed back to his apartment.
     
    As he was walking across the quad, his computer chimed that he had an incoming message. He looked to see an unfamiliar email address with the subject line “heads up”.
     
    He stopped and read the message:
     
    Jeff-
     
    You will have two visitors late tonight. They are OK. Listen to what they have to say.
     
    The New People live!
     
    -Marion
     
    He stood looking at the message like he had seen a ghost. As far as he knew, when the Ministry of Justice thugs had arrested him and his friends, Marion was the only one that had gotten away free and clear.
     
    The New People was Jeff’s creation. A group of illegally genetically engineered kids, for a few short months they had made headlines all over the Alliance as they fought for their rights. They had used non-violent pranks and tricks to make a horrible nuisance of themselves to local system authorities on Mars that oppressed genetically engineered persons. The authorities hadn’t seen the humor in their pranks. Their group had been labeled terrorists and hunted down ruthlessly by the Ministry of Justice. Of the original six, only Marion had gotten away. They had all been split up and sent to the far corners of the Alliance forbidden ever contact each other as a condition of their parole.
     
    The authorities had sentenced him to probation, given him a fine he might be able to pay off before retirement and sent him away to a cow college on Evergreen to study Environmental Engineering. He would be sent further into the frontier to terraform new worlds. They wanted to safely stash him away from the core worlds to keep him and his cause out of sight and out of mind.
     
    Many illegals suffered no discrimination at all while others were hunted and murdered by religious fanatics. His native Mars had been a hell hole. On a horrible night almost a decade before, Jeff and his friends parents had been murdered protecting their children from an angry mob. They had never forgotten it.
     
    He continued walking to his apartment with his head spinning from the abrupt reminder of the life that he thought that he had left light years behind.
     
    * * * *
     
     
    Jeff was almost dozing when the knock came at his apartment door at a little before one in the morning. He knew that he was under surveillance by the Ministry of Justice. Why had Marion been so reckless to try to contact him this way?
     
    He opened the door to his apartment and found a set of identical twins waiting. They appeared to be about twenty and were tall, muscular and exceptionally fit. Their faces were tan and they had long straight jet black hair. Both were dressed and carrying backpacks like students but their bearing was completely different. Their eyes said something else that gave him pause.
     
    One was carrying a pizza box and the other had a six pack. The one with a six pack said, "I'm Sean and this is my brother Seth. Marion told you to expect us."
     
    Jeff said, "Come in and pull up a chair. How is she?"
     
    The two brothers entered the apartment and closed the door. Seth produced some kind of electronic device from his backpack and swept the room. He looked at his brother and shook his head. He then took out another gadget and turned it on. A red LED indicator light started pulsing on the device and he placed it on the coffee table. He said, "The jammer is active. We can talk."
     
    Sean said, "You've been out of touch for a long time. You got shipped off of Mars as soon as you got arrested. Marion sent us to fill you in."
     
    There had to be some way to authenticate these people. They made Jeff nervous. They looked like Ministry or maybe the military. He asked, "What is Marion's cats name?"
     
    Sean answered, "Pouncer." He opened the pizza box and handed Jeff a beer.
     
    Seth opened up a data crystal reader and a holographic image of Marion appeared:
     
    Jeff, you've been out of touch for a long time. The Alliance hid you away very well and we've only just been able to find you. You started something with the New People that shook the Alliance to its core. When I got away from Mars, I thought it was all over but nothing could be further from the truth. Illegals exist in vast numbers all over the Alliance. They live in fear and hiding. My two messengers were originally genetically engineered to be soldiers for a corporation in the Succession Wars of a little more than a decade ago.
     
    Things really have changed. We are no longer a group of kids playing pranks. There are thousands of us now with cells all over the core worlds and many of the colonies.
     
    We need you back. No one has the moral authority to lead us like you do. Sean and Seth can get you on a starship that we have waiting and off planet.
     
    Now is our time. We need you to lead us to freedom.
     
    As the message ended, Jeff realized that he had been holding his breath. His heart was racing. He stuttered, "Me? Why me?"
     
    Sean said, "It's your writings. They've been put together in a pamphlet. It has been banned by the Alliance but that only makes more people want to read it. When they do, they feel the same outrage that we do for being branded like cattle and tracked like criminals just because of the way we were born."
     
    As Seth put the data crystal reader back in its case, Jeff asked, "When do we leave?"
     
    Sean said, "After we eat. We are going to be busy and might not get another chance for a while."
  17. JamesSavik

    First Night

    By JamesSavik,

    Pandora
     
    After clearing security and going down two different elevators, I guessed that I was at least 500 meters underground. The corridor had heavy steel blast doors with key card locks and biohazard signs every 50 meters. The deeper into the facility that we went, the higher the biohazard protection level of the labs that lined the corridors.
     
    I asked the guard what the USAMARID needed from the Dept. of Homeland Security and he told me that answer was well above his pay grade.
     
    We finally entered a lab marked BL-5 and I followed the guard inside. We had to strip and leave our clothes in a locker. We passed through a chemical shower and another steel door to a locker room where we put on surgical scrubs. We passed through a final airlock where a computer sat in front of the final door.
     
    The guard told me to go log into the computer in the corner of the room. He then excused himself saying that this was as far as he goes. The computer asked me to input my name, rank and agency:
     
    McGrath, Scott Special Agent Department of Homeland Security.
     
    The computer then asked for me to to state my name, surname first. "McGrath, Scott."
     
    The computer screen turned green and displayed: Voice Print ID verified. Agent McGrath clear for access to Pandora.
     
    The big steel door popped open and I entered the lab.
     
    A group of eleven men were waiting: two scientists and nine other agency representatives. As soon as I entered, the senior scientist said, "Good. Now that Homeland Security has arrived, we can begin."
     
    "Gentlemen. Everything that you see here is above top-secret. The code word is Pandora and its very appropriate."
     
    "Several years ago CIA and NSA received intel that there was a BL4 bio-weapons lab somewhere in the tribal areas of Pakistan just across the border from Afghanistan. They also found that over several years that appropriate equipment for such a lab from Germany, France and Russia had been diverted from legitimate projects and had ended up somewhere in Pakistan."
     
    "We've been looking for that lab ever since. We finally found it two weeks ago. As soon as we located the lab, a joint team of SEALs and Delta Force operators were sent in on a covert raid to bag and tag it. What we found was horrifying. Please follow me."
     
    As I looked around I saw a few familiar faces: Colonel Will James was a troubleshooter for the Joint Chiefs. SAC Gwen Heller was FBI's Senior Agent in Charge of their counter-terrorism desk. The imminent epidemiologist Dr. Tom Ross of the CDC was looking very troubled. Most of the others I had never seen before but their very bearing screamed military or spook.
     
    We entered a room with black boards and display monitors. The scientist continued the briefing: "We found that the lab was working on a number of weaponized pathogens. All of the familiar horrors like Anthrax, Marsburg and Smallpox and one that we've never seen before. It is a chimera virus that we have code named Pandora. It's why we're here and it may be the scariest damn thing I've ever seen in a bioweapon."
     
    "Pandora began as a flavivirus called VEE or Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus. Through years of manipulation and gene splicing, it has become this."
     
    The big monitor in the room came to life and showed an electron microscope image of a spherical virus.
     
    The scientist said, "This little horror is a blood borne pathogen that attacks the brain. It causes fever and chills and then the victim falls into a coma. While the victim is in a coma the virus continues to attack the brain and eventually destroys the cerebellum while leaving the lower brain function essentially in tact. At this point about a third of the victims die. The rest wake up from the coma and attack the very first person that they see. They continue attacking everyone in site until they are killed."
     
    "When we raided the lab, three of our guys got bitten and succumbed to the infection. This is what they look like now."
     
    The scientist pressed a button that caused a panel to retract. Behind thick glass were three people that had once been elite special forces operators that had been transformed by the virus. As soon as the panel retracted and they saw us, they attacked the glass with such violence that the glass was smeared with their black blood. It was clear that anyone that those things got their hands on would be in very serious trouble.
     
    The scientist caused the glass to retract and continued: "Bites spread the virus. That's how our three operators got infected. The infection runs its course from 24 to 36 hours. They are vulnerable to tasers and gun fire. They retreat from fire but attack pretty much everything else: people or animals. The virus leaves the brain in a continuous state of rage that causes their hostility and the only thing that will stop them are kill shots. You can shoot them to pieces but unless you get their head, spinal cord or their heart they just keep coming."
     
    "We brought you here to see it with your own eyes. This is no bullshit. Pandora is real and we know that the terrorist have it. It's only a matter of time before they use it. When they do, we had better be ready because the epidemiology of this thing is terrifying. Once this virus is established and starts spreading by secondary vectors like mosquitoes, there simply aren't enough bullets to stop it."
     
    * * * *
     

     
    the Call
     
    "Look, I know you weren't really ready to talk to me, but I have to tell you what has been going on. Just listen to me ..." the voice on the phone said.
     
    I sighed at my cell phone. The clock by my bed read two oh-three am and I had a crazy woman on the phone.
     
    "Jessie. How nice to hear from you. What gave you the idea that I didn't want to talk to you. Not taking your calls, ducking your voice mails or actually hiding from you?"
     
    Now it was Jessie's turn to sigh. "Oh come on Philip. We've known each other too long."
     
    "It's what you are saying girl. It's crazy. It is just like what the Army said in their press release: a gas was accidentally released that causes confusion and hallucinations."
     
    "You are a smart enough reporter to know a cover story when you see one."
     
    I said, "I have to admit that it is a little convenient. But what you are saying. It just sounds so crazy. Look humor me. Tell me the story again."
     
    Jessie cleared her throat and said, "Yesterday morning at about three am, the paramedics brought us a psyche case. He was fighting and biting and appeared to be seriously injured. We put a bite mask on him and put him restraint table. He had some kind of seizure and flat-lined. We called a code blue. We gave him direct cardiac adrenalin and shocked him at least a dozen time. We pronounced him dead at 3:25. The only ID we found on him were a dog-tags. We called our contact at the Yuma Proving Grounds per established protocol."
     
    "We got busy with a car crash. Bunch of kids. Nothing serious but cuts, bruises and a broken arm. We had just cleared it when this corpse started going ape shit."
     
    I said, "This is the guy you pronounced right?"
     
    "Yeah. Dead. Stone cold, dead as a post. No heart beat, no respiration. Nothing. Starts growling and thrashing around under the sheet. If he hadn't been restrained, he would have gotten up."
     
    I said, "This is where we have a problem with your story. Corpses don't get up."
     
    "No shit Sherlock. This is where it gets weird. We figured that we had made a mistake and pronounced him too early. We went back to work on him but got no vital signs. No heartbeat, no blood pressure. We gave him enough Valium and Atavan to put an elephant on his ass and he was still fighting us. No. That not right. He was fighting to get at us."
     
    "That's when the Army showed up, shut down the ER and came up with that bogus cover story. They gave everybody vague threats and discouraged us from talking to the press."
     
    I paused for a moment and said, "That's one hell of a story but I've got nothing solid. What can I take to my editor?"
     
    Jessie said, "You remember the paramedic from last night?"
     
    I said, "Yeah."
     
    "He was bitten. He here now and he's in the same shape as the guy from last night. On top of that, he bit his wife and kids and they are in isolation with high fever and we've got seven more bite related cases. Dr. Lawrence just pushed the panic button and called the CDC and I don't mind telling you I'm scared shitless."
     
    My cell phone went dead and a recording started: This conversation has been terminated for reasons of National Security. It repeated itself and my phone went completely dead.
     
    * * * *
     

     
    Law & disOrder
     
    "Oh my god, I think I killed him!" , the young woman shouted holding a shovel.
     
    I answered, "I'll check. Stay back. Where is he?"
     
    She said, "In the back yard. He surprised me on the patio. He tried to grab me but I smacked him." Her hand were shaking as she held the shovel at port-arms.
     
    I pulled my Beretta and clicked off the safety and pulled my mag-lite.
     
    I keyed my radio and said, "This is one-L-19 responding to complaint of a prowler, I'm Code 2 at 145 Pine Valley Highway. 10-70 reported in the back yard. Roll backup."
     
    Dispatch responded, "One-L-19, Code 2, any available backup please respond."
     
    I wasn't holding my breath for back up. As crazy as things were going that night, I wasn't really expecting any for a while.
     
    "Mam- go inside and lock the doors. I'm going to clear your back yard."
     
    She disappeared inside the garage door with her shovel and I heard the latch snap.
     
    If it was illegal aliens in this neighborhood it would be a first. The surrounding terrain was some of the roughest desert in the South West. This little berg was a well-to-do far flung suburb of Tuscon way out south of Red Rock.
     
    I went around the side of the house and found the gate to the back yard standing open. There was a diffused blue light coming from a bug-zapper on the other side of the fence. As I passed the gate there was a distinct smear of dark blood. Thought to myself- it looks like she got a piece of him.
     
    As I went into the back yard, I yelled, "Pima County Sheriff's Office! let me see your hands!"
     
    I swept the yard with my mag lite and saw nothing on my first sweep. It was a nice place. It was a fenced in back yard with a pool, pool house and tool shed. The tool shed door was standing wide open and a light was on inside.
     
    As I swept through the yard, I saw a shadow move in the tool shed. I came around, put the mag-lite and Beretta on the door of the shed and ordered, "You in the shed. Come out and let me see your hands."
     
    Suddenly a big guy in army fatigues, combat boots and a holstered side arm appeared in the door of the shed. The flash-light beam in his face made him stop. There was blood on the side of his face and he appeared quite pale. What bothered me the most was the blood on his hands. Holy shit. What I stumbled into?
     
    On seeing his side arm I yelled, "Drop the weapon. Drop it now!"
     
    He started coming toward me and began accelerating.
     
    I yelled one more time, "Drop the weapon and get on your knees. Last warning!"
     
    He continued to accelerate toward me.
     
    I shot him twice, center mass and he fell on his back.
     
    I keyed my radio mike and said, "Shots fired, shots fired, suspect down! I need a bus and a supervisor now!"
     
    I approached the suspect, leaned over and took the pistol out of his holster. As I was securing his weapon, the suspect opened his eyes and made a grab for my legs.
     
    "Stay down! There's an ambulance on the way!"
     
    The suspect rolled over, got up and came after me again.
     
    I took two more shots and dropped him again.
     
    He got up faster this time. I put two more rounds in his chest and another two in his head. This time he didn't get up.
     
    I looked around at the scene and there was blood and gore everywhere.
     
    Somewhere in the night I heard the boom of a shot gun. The shot gun went off three more times and there was a blood curdling scream.
     
    I heard the gate creek and I turned to see another messed up person shambling into the back yard. The man was in his thirties and had a bloody neck wound.
     
    I ordered him to halt but he kept coming for me. I shot him twice once in the chest and one in the head. As soon as he had dropped a horribly injured Mexican man came through the gate snarling and running toward me. I shot him twice and went dry. I quickly slammed another magazine into my gun and decided that it was time to get the hell out of Dodge.
     
    As I ran through the gate there were two more. I shot them both and sprinted for my cruiser when I saw dozens of those things coming toward me. I jumped in the patrol car, fired it up and ran over three of them as I ran like hell.
     
    What had just happened? Why had I just left the scene of a shooting and run over three people? What the hell was going on? What was wrong my my freaking bullets? Nobody got up after taking center mass shots at close range. Nobody.
     
    I listened to my police radio as unit after unit reported gunfire, officer involved shots fired and people acting crazy. The world was falling apart for no apparent reason.
  18. JamesSavik

    The War Inside

    By JamesSavik,

    The War Inside
     
    Stardate 43887.3
    Dr. Walter Ingalls, Starfleet Medical
    Personal log.
     
    At the request of the Angosian government, Star Fleet has dispatched a team of doctors and other specialist to help rehabilitate veteran's of the Tarsian War.
     
    When I first got this assignment, I thought that we would make quick and easy progress. Nothing could be further from the truth. What I first thought were symptoms of severe Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is a much more complicated condition created by conditioning, drugs, genetic engineering and nano-technology.
     
    This may well be a case where we can not think in terms of a cure per see but to manage the condition to improve the patients quality of life.
     
    This interview is typical of the patients that we have seen at the Luna V facility.
     

     
    Subject 378- Rayner Zale
     
    Ingalls- I specifically asked to speak with you because you have had nothing to do with Roga Danar's insurrection and have expressed no interest in therapy or to live anywhere but the Luna V facility. I wanted to understand your reasoning.
     
    Zale- There's simply no point in it. What I have become, what we are, we're not Angosians anymore. We're something else. Something horrible that frightens those of us who were conditioned to be soldiers most of all.
     
    Ingalls- So you consider the conditioning program irreversible?
     
    Zale- They can remove the drugs, disable the implants, reverse the genetic alterations but... how do you get rid of the faces? I personally have killed over three hundred Tarsians. My enhanced memory allows me to remember each and every face in exacting detail. Can we get rid of that?
     
    You can take the soldier out of the war doctor. It's much more difficult to take the war out of the soldier.
     
    Ingalls- Perhaps we can help. We have treated many Federation veterans of the Dominion War. I'm certain that we can help.
     
    Zale- Maybe you can. I will see how it goes with the others before I commit.
     
    Ingalls- No good soldier commits to action without intelligence or reconnaissance.
     
    Zale- (laughs) You sound like a soldier yourself.
     
    Ingalls- I fought in the Cardassian War and the Dominion War.
     
    Zale- It's good to talk to a fellow soldier. Most of the Doctor's are nice young people who have no idea...
     
    Ingalls- Yes. Tell me your story.
     
    Zale- (sighs) It's fairly typical tale. I will tell it in trade. Your story for mine.
     
    Ingalls- That's only fair.
     
    Zale- I was young when the war started. I was in my first year at university studying architecture. The war was going very badly at first. Angosians aren't naturally a warlike people. Many of our first generation soldiers hesitated. We suffered defeat after defeat. The Tarsians were... brutal, almost animalistic. We soon discovered that the Breen were backing the Tarsians in a bid to destabilize the area around Romulan space. Both sides were pawns in a much bigger game. I volunteered when our home world was bombarded and several of our cities were leveled.
     
    We asked for help. Not from the Romulans of course. The Federation wouldn't get involved. We were able to secure key defense technologies through third parties that made our military at least competitive. With Klingon disrupters, Romulan shields and old Federation warp drives, Angosia was able to build a small, formidable fleet that was able to stop the Tarsians cold and turn the tide of the war in our favor. But... I'm getting ahead of myself.
     
    I joined our military in the third year of the war. After basic training and testing, I was asked to join a special unit. We were warned that it was dangerous and that many didn't survive but being young and patriotic, I volunteered.
     
    It was nothing like the training that I had previously had. Rather than Subadons (Angosian equivalent of a drill instructor), we had counselors. We were enhanced by biological engineering, drugs and nanotechnology. Most importantly, we were conditioned not to be like other Angosians.
     
    Ingalls: What do you mean?
     
    Zale: When it came time to kill, we were conditioned not to hesitate.
     
    I was there for the our first assignment: to retake Angosia VI. The Tarsians had captured one of the planets in our home system and we had to remove them. Angosia VI is a cold desert world with low gravity. It can barely sustain life. The military called it Operation Mystic Winter. Those of us that went called it hell.
     
    We launched on four troop transports with twenty-five hundred men each and equipment. One transport was destroyed in space. One crashed landed. The two that did land were badly off course. The first day we lost thirty men to the cold.
     
    It took us days to move into position to strike the Tarsians and they had air superiority until the very end. Finally we were able to hit their defensive perimeter and our programming kicked in. I didn't even know that it was possible to move that fast. I would look around and the hands and feet of my fellow soldiers were just a blur. We fought until we were completely out of ammunition. Then we used knives, clubs, rocks and even our bare hands.
     
    We won the battle. When it was all over there were only twenty-seven hundred of us left. Historians call it the turning point. To me it's just another one of a score of nightmares that keeps coming back over and over.
     
    Ingalls: By all accounts, the Battle for Angosia VI was the turning point.
     
    Zale: And I have the campaign ribbon, the Angosian star and... a lot of dead friends to remember it by.
     
    Ingalls: That's the part you never get used to. Burying your friends.
     
    Zale: The conditioning lets you turn it off.
     
    Ingalls: What do you mean by turn it off?
     
    Zale: Part of the conditioning allows you to turn off emotions. The only problem is that they don't go away. They don't stay turned off forever. Just long enough to keep you from being distracted from your mission.
     
    Ingalls: You were promoted after Angosia VI.
     
    Zale: Yes. That's when it got so much worse. It's one thing to be a soldier. To be responsible for the lives of others... that's hard.
     
    I was given command a platoon (24) of soldiers that had just completed the conditioning program.
     
    We fought in a number of minor skirmishes and did extremely well.
     
    We were in the first wave of the invasion of Kavis Alpha. I lost eight of those kids. I can still call them all by name.
     
    Enhanced memory is very difficult when you want to forget.
     
    Ingalls: That battle forced the Tarsians to the peace table.
     
    Zale: It was a great shock to the Tarsians. Angosians that could snap their necks like twigs and didn't shy away from striking killing blows. That's the battle that scared them. They couldn't handle us at all and they knew it. The war dragged on another year and a half but they had gone from swaggering militarists to skulking cowards that hid in bunkers.
     
    Ingalls: You seem to still have a lot of anger towards the Tarsians.
     
    Zale: You're damned right I do. I'm angry at all of the lives they took. And for what? To gain another star system? To be acknowledged as a regional power? No. We know the Tarsians all too well. They were just bullies with more weapons than sense and stopping them made it all worthwhile.
     
    Ingalls: You consider the sacrifices that you and others had to make worth while?
     
    Zale: Honestly, I didn't expect to survive the war. Ask our soldiers an most of them will tell you the same.
     
    Ingalls: Don't you ever want to leave the Luna V facility?
     
    Zale: No. To win that war, I had to become a monster. I am still that monster. I can still snap a mans neck or jam his nose cartilage into his brain in a split second. There lies the problem. We had to learn how to act without thinking- to not hesitate to kill. That is an absolute necessity in war but it has no place in peace.
     
    I am no longer fit to be a part of any civil society. I am a weapon that must be locked away until it is needed again.
     
    For me the war never really ended. I see, I smell it and I feel it every time I close my eyes. I am no longer in a war. The war is in me.
     
    _____________________________________________________________________________________
     
    Angosia III ( http://en.memory-alp...iki/Angosia_III ) was a world visited by the Enterprise-D under Jean-Luc Picard on Stardate 43489 ( http://en.memory-alp...d_%28episode%29 )
     
    The Tarsian Wars were a protracted conflict in which the Angosians were forced to create super soldiers to survive and eventually win the war.
     
    What does a peaceful society do with super-soldiers once the war is over and they are no longer needed?
  19. JamesSavik
    In 1970 Black Sabbath released their self-titled album, established Ozzy Osborn as an artist and became one of metals premier and most influential bands.
     

     
    During its time, Black Sabbath was highly controversial because of its dark imagery. Their music was widely criticized by evangelicals of all sorts on several continents. When asked about this Ozzy said, "It's not about evil love. It's about selling albums,"
     

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCjspyo-_aI
     

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ey2zwdErPvQ
  20. JamesSavik
    The first giant hit from Yes was the Yes Album in Feb. 1971. It hit no. 4 on the UK charts, #40 on the Billboard 200 and certified platinum.
     

     
    The Yes Album was so unique and different from what was being done that it would stop people in their tracks. It's rare when a new sound comes along and even rarer still when its allowed to flourish by an industry that is traditionally known for me-too sound-a-like whoredom.
     


     


  21. JamesSavik
    In 1966 a rock manager impressed by the young guitar genius Jimi Hendrix, helped him form his band, the Jimi Hendrix Experience and record the album Are You Experienced.
     

     
    The chemistry was magic. The album exploded on the UK charts and soon made inroads into the US market which finally accepted a rock band with a black front man.
     

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vqf9FxaMIsI
     


     
    Because of his unique style, the combination of blues, jazz, funk and pioneering new techniques with feedback, amplifier use and innovative technology, Hendrix has been one of the most influential guitarists of all time.
  22. JamesSavik
    Supertramp c.1978- Doug Thompson, Rick Davies, Roger Hodgson, John Helliwell and Bob Siebenberg
     
     

     
    In 1979 Supertramp, an established British arena rock band, released their sixth album. Breakfast in America became an instant hit providing three hit songs in the US and two top 10 hits in the UK.
     

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5k3JVfxluFU
     

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0VjNxQgxNU
     
    Well some they do and some they don't,
    Some you just can't tell.
    Some they will and some they won't,
    And some it's just as well...
  23. JamesSavik
    There is an eternal debate: who is the best guitarist ever.
     
    Jeff Beck and Jimi Hendrix get a mention. So does Jimmy Page and others.
     

     
    Only one has actually been deified by their fans.
     

     
    Eric Clapton is certainly one of the most influential guitarist of all time. He has been inducted into the rock and roll hall of fame three times: once as a Yardbird, once as a member of Cream and finally as a solo artist. His career began in the sixties and continues.
     

     
    My favorite album by Clapton is called Slowhand. Released in 1977, Slowhand came at a time when punk, new wave and disco sounds were beginning to dominate the airwaves. Clapton's album brought back the classic power trio sound.
     


     


  24. JamesSavik

    the Cars

    By JamesSavik,

    There is music that moves you. Then there is music that is fun.
     

     
    the Cars are, from the left: Benjamin Orr, Ric Ocasek, Elliot Easton, David Robinson and Greg Hawks.
     
    The Cars were fun packaged in a jam-tastic new age sound that tore up the charts with their debut album in 1978. You weren't looking for the meaning of life listening to the Cars. You were probably driving around, smoking weed and looking to get laid. That's what their songs were about.
     

     
    It wasn't just their chart-toppers either. Their first two albums had surprising depth and staying power. All Mixed Up is as haunting as Just What I needed and You're All I've Got Tonight are classic power anthems.
     
    When the Cars followed up their debut album a year later with Candy-O, they made a statement.
     

     
    Once again the Cars had released an infectious album that you could put on and just let it play. There were no bad songs. Just play it loud. It's music to drive dangerously fast by.
     
    Some might argue that the Cars peaked with Candy-O. The direction that the band went with their next album Panorama went to the new wave sound "whole-hog". Their fans still enjoyed a string of hits. They never caught that magic again. They did produce two albums that belong in any body's collection.
     
    Just remember to play it loud.
     


     

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhfoyJt4TVE
     
    Can I touch you, are you out of touch
    I guess I never noticed that much
    Geranium lover, I'm live on your wire
    Oo come and take me whoever you are
     
    She's a lot like you
    The dangerous type
    She's a lot like you
    Come on and hold me tight
     
    Oo inside angel, always upset
    Keeps on forgettin' that we ever met
    Can I bring you out in the light
    My curiosity's got me tonight
     
    She's a lot like you
    The dangerous type
    Oo she's a lot like you
    Come on and hold me tight
  25. JamesSavik
    I found this gem on e-bay. Some j@ck@ss stole my copy of this album and Weird Scenes Inside the Gold Mine back in the day. I'm not a big vinyl collector but I've got some good stuff. Lots of it is 1st edition.
     
    It's an awesome album and worth a few bucks. The album art is cool and the tracks read like a best of the early Doors which of course it was.
     
    the Doors 13
    tracks
    Side One
    Light My Fire
    People Are Strange
    Backdoor Man
    Moonlight Drive
    The Crystal Ship
    Roadhouse Blues

    Side Two
    Touch Me
    Love Me Two Times
    You're Lost Little Girl
    Hello, I Love You
    Land Ho!
    Wild Child
    The Unknown Soldier

     
     
    wikipedia: ==> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/13_%28The_Doors_album%29
×
×
  • Create New...