Even before the Falcon D9 fighter could reach the end of its dispatch tube, Morgan already doubted everything the flight simulator had taught her in training. Every angle seemed more defined, every bump was more severe, and the leveling was much more responsive. Not sensitive, but definitely more responsive. The ride through the tube lasted a total of six seconds, but the narrow tunnel made it seem like ages. She knew that he slightest nudge against the control stick could tilt the wing just enough to clip something and end the training run before it even had a chance to start.
The end of the tunnel was coming closer, but Morgan could only tell this by the red neon lighting that lined the top, bottom and sides of the launch tube. They blinked in a forward motion, and then dropped off at a black end. Morgan thought they looked like the individual strands creating the number on a digital alarm clock.
Before she could have another thought, the Falcon burst out the side of the base ship with a gasping airish sound of the last oxygen escaping into nothing. Though crowded by the seams of the cabins windows, Morgan couldn’t help but stare at the vastness—as well as the emptiness—of space. It was, after all, her first live training-op. She had moments like these in the past, but they were all in the company of others or very short lived. She never had a moment to take it in for herself and now this was it, even if it lasted just a few seconds. Her eyes instinctively looked past the orbiting space stations, of which there were no more than half a dozen in her view, and into the incredible blanket of stars which shined brilliantly in never the same pattern. She understood now, above all other moments with the stars that they were indeed out of reach. Stars had a way of simultaneously being two feet and two billion light years away, depending on the way she thought about it. Now Morgan never felt so far away from them, and it was that thought alone that made her feel like the smallest and most insignificant spec in reality.
“Not what you thought it would be, right?” Flynn said over the wireless, and Morgan could hear the smile in his tone. She could picture that smile very well, especially the way his scruff seemed to act as definition rather than rugged laziness. She figured it was that smile that made her say yes to the early training-op. Maybe not even the smile, maybe it was him. Captain Flynn and his convincing smile.
“No, definitely not,” Morgan said, momentarily forgetting which button activated the intercom. “Simulator didn’t prove anything, I just don’t want to be the next example, you know?” She giggled a little but made sure that her thumb was off the intercom button for it.
“The simulator is a control hub with a video game plugged into it; I haven’t liked that thing since we installed it. Are you still locked in?” He asked, referring to her levelling function.
“Affirmative. Should I let go?” Morgan glanced at the bright green light.
“No, not yet,” Flynn said almost immediately. “In a few seconds, we’ll go together. You’re going to feel a pull when it happens.”
“A pull?” Morgan asked, tracing back everything she ever learned about fighter pilot training but not even coming across the word. “From where?”
A few seconds of silence passed, and with each of them Morgan wondered more and more if she had asked a stupid question. Flynn came to her ear again through a mess of static that calmed down after the first word.
“When you level, the thrusters are constantly working to make sure you stay in the position you locked up in. So when you unlock, the thrusters stop. Once they do, you’ll feel like you’re being pulled in a direction. Bottom line is to keep moving forward to maintain level.”
Morgan nodded, half-knowing that no one was there to see it. “Unlock then go, roger that.” It was her first time saying something like that, and she smiled when she did.
“On my mark…” Flynn uttered, “three… two… one… mark.”
Morgan clipped off the level lock and instantly began twisting to the right. If Flynn hadn’t already been slightly in front of her, she probably wouldn’t have noticed against the blackness. She gave the rear thrusters rocket a push, and it reacted like a sensitive gas pedal in a car, pushing her back in her seat with inertia.
“Well done,” Flynn said as they cruised along together, banking slightly to their right and bringing into view the tail end of their base ship and putting out of view the orbiting space stations, which Morgan could now identify as botanical hubs. “So from here on out, it’s like that video game in the simulator.”
“I thought you hated the simulator?” Morgan asked. As she looked to her right at Flynn’s D9, she could see the projectile hatches popping open, then sliding out to the side to make room for an over-sized launcher that looked too big to be a turret and too small to be a cannon.
“I never said different,” he said, “but if you can simplify it down to a point and click interface, you’re sittin’ pretty. Copy that?”
“Copy that, Captain.”
“Now get in front of me a little, arm up.” As it came through the intercom, Flynn was already dropping behind Morgan’s field of view, but he wasn’t far off according to her HUV.
The jitters had passed, mostly. That much she knew. Flynn was behind her and she was able at least momentarily regain some of her composure.
“I’m going to fire out some drones. They’re going to jet out several clicks, acquire you as a target, and attack. They can’t kill ya but they can bang you up something good. I don’t have turrets on this Falcon, so I can’t help you. And even if I could, I wouldn’t.” He laughed. Morgan smiled. “Avoid, gain advantage, and eliminate, copy that?”
Standard level 3 training-op, Morgan thought, something you’ve aced a million times… in a video game. She took in a breath, and started feeling the confidence she had in her hands not forty seconds before drip away.
“Private Taul, do you copy?” Flynn repeated, and Morgan was all there again.
“Copy. Fire when ready.”
Without any hesitation or confirmation, Morgan saw Flynn release three drones from both of the oversized launchers, two from the right and one from the left. They popped out with a thunk, and then ignited their own thrusters and sped off into the distance.
Morgan couldn’t have followed them if she tried, they were moving almost four times her speed. She could, however, track them both visually as well as with her HUV, where the three drones appeared as blinking red Xs. She watched as the drones turned and changed direction, blazing their way toward her in a triangle.
She opened fire. The first few shots were off target by an embarrassingly large margin, but she corrected almost perfectly in the ones that came after and obliterated two of the drones. They halted and exploded in a small flash that was gone almost as soon as it was there.
The third drone she lost in those flashes, and for a second her heart was still with anticipation and fear, and then resumed its rhythm as Morgan spotted the third drone as it fired at her. The blue beams it shot were weak, that she could tell right away, but they were the equivalent of being hit with a hammer through a phonebook. She rattled in her seat as three streams of blue connected with the aft wing, letting out a scream she tried to stuff back down her throat.
“You bitch!” She yelled, and somewhere in the back of her mind she thought of what Flynn might say if he heard that.
Morgan and the drone blazed past each other, and Morgan pulled a huge file out of her training and commanded her D9 into a somersault and boosted her thrusters toward the drone who was now going the same direction as she. She fired as it started making its turn.
Nothing.
She looked to aft and saw the turret sparking off shards of light that hurt her eyes. She averted them and was met with a monitor that portrayed her wings as two red flashing problems.
“Flynn, nothing’s working!” She yelled into the intercom. “Repeat, Flynn, nothing—ah!” Sparks flew on the inside of the cabin, for a split second shrouding her in bright capsules of fire. After the somersault she had decelerated considerably, and was now at relative cruising speed. She shoved the stick forward. Nothing. She gasped, staring at the drone burrowing toward her. It was going to smash right into her. This was going to be one of those accidents. She was going to be the next example. Flynn was in a miming panic, motioning something with his hands and mouthing words she couldn’t hear. She couldn’t figure it out, she was frozen. She wouldn’t know what he was saying if he yelled it in her ear.
The drone was coming, it wasn’t stopping. They weren’t meant to stop, just be stopped. And the only thing that was going to stop it now was the window of her cabin. Then it occurred to her, the pull. She could even see it in Flynn’s silent words. The pull.
She clipped in the levelling button, felt a jolt of steadiness, then unclipped the button. Her D9 twisted with the pull, but Morgan knew it wasn’t going to be enough, the drone would clip her wing at least.
And it did.
The drone bounced off the underside of Morgan’s wing and spun off and away, but the damage was enough to rupture its casing. The drone bled a red blaze and then vanished into a flash.
Morgan sat there stunned for a few seconds, and then giggled.
“Nice, Mo, smooth,” she said to herself, and burst out laughing.
Flynn’s D9 ascended into view. He was giving a thumbs up, which Morgan as delighted to return. He held out his hand as if to ask her to get ready. Morgan watched Flynn’s thrusters push him forward into her, and when their ships intertwined, they moved as one back to the base ship.
This must be the push, Morgan thought, and thanked Captain Flynn with her best impression of his convincing, safe smile.
I've never read a book over 700 pages in length. I came close a couple times with Bag of Bones, Dreamcatcher, and Duma Key, but on the whole I try to stick to the smaller books. Sometimes I think it has something to do with me holding the unabridged and uncut paperback copy of The Stand somewhere back in the fifth grade. Wait, was it uncut back then? Either way, the book was massive, and not being much of a reader back then, I think I only got through about half when I gave up. The bible-thin pages were enough to turn a lot of people away, to be honest. Like I demonstrated at a recent game-session with some friends, opening up the first pages to a beast of a novel is like standing at sea level with your head tilted up in a vain attempt to see the top of K2.
Through the reading, I kept thinking of the title. Under the Dome. It really said a lot more than those three words. Lately I've started to think more about what the story is about than what's in the story. Obviously not all the time, but sometimes seeing the forest instead of the trees can be helpful. I found myself always wanting to know what the people outside the Dome were doing. In the end I was quite glad not knowing about that kind of thing, and I reminded myself of that each time I thought of the title.
For a 1100 page monstrosity, the book had surprisingly little fat. Sure, some of the scenes could have been left out, particularity one of the town's riots and maybe a few confrontations, but even then it would be a hard thing to accomplish without stretching the tale too thin. Without re-telling the plot, the story revolves around the town under the Dome, mainly Dale "Barbie" Barbara and Big Jim Rennie, who are the protagonist and the antagonist, respectfully. Rennie is probably the only one in town who likes the Dome, as it's the only thing helping him strengthen his dictorial stranglehold on the town. As hearts sink and the body count rises, it's mostly up to a handful of townsfolk (the ones who can see through Rennie's beloved Christian demeanor) to put an end to it.
But what about the Dome? There was still this thing, this enormous invisible barrier between them and the outside world. What I liked about this part of the book was the mystery. The Dome is explained. Not completely, but it's explained. And take it from a guy who just closed the back cover not forty minutes ago; it's not what you think it is. Being a Lost fan, I'm always longing for a good sci-fi enigma, and this one didn't disappoint. Physically, we get a good sense of what the Dome is. Spray water at it from one side, a fine mist comes out the other. It's not air-tight, in other words, but it's damn close. Soon the environment takes a toll, and the Dome started picking up the fine film of life: pollen, smoke, pollution. Eventually, the stars and moon have a pinkish hue to them as they hang in the night sky. The mental side of it, or rather the rational side, is almost vacant. Almost. Personally, I don't mind, but there were a lot who wanted to know why the Dome was brought down, and where it came from. You get some answers, but like any good Lost episode we are left with that feeling of I get it... sort of. Maybe that`s just me.
I'm only a book and 50 pages into the Dark Tower series, but every time a number came up it always seemed to add to 19. How cool is that for all you DT junkies? I'm sure there is a lot more than just numbers lying around, as King's non-DT novels all seem to encompass at least a little from Roland's dreary wasteland.
I enjoyed my time with this book, and it's the first time I've ever read anything so late into the night. Like that anticipation we all felt before the finale of Battlestar Galactica, or that wrenching and twisting sensation in our bellies as we were about to find out who was in the Lost coffin, Under the Dome chimes in with a whole new feeling of awe. It really is that good.
A week with no posts, wow. I think we've all either been working or too busy playing Call of Duty to bother writing about TV shows. And besides, there was no Lost this week.
Apparently Fox has been doing a week of musical themed programming called "Fox Rocks", but I had no idea when I sat down to watch--so you can imagine my surprise when the Kesha song "Tik Tok" replaced the usual Simpsons intro. The song was done with a unique music video that was pretty much the same as the regular one, except they add more scenes and the characters are singing the song. I gotta admit, at first I was a little peeved, thinking that this was an actual change, but it didn't take long for that to wear off. I love when the creators of the show care enough to go out and do something fun like that.
Anyway, the episode was my favourite of this season, and lately it feels like I say that after every new episode. I like new stuff, and since The Simpsons has lasted so long I'm always intrigued as to how they are going to make the episode fresh and not just have some re-hashed idea. I bet that sometimes they mask it so well, we wouldn't even know anyway. This one deals with that "big brother" aspect of modern surveillance after Homer leaves an unattended bag (with plutonium inside) at a train station, the town freaks out (in classic Simpsons style) and installs a similar surveillance system to Great Britain's, where virtually every spot in town is being watched over by concerned citizens, namely Ned. I use the word "virtually" for a reason, as Bart soon discovers a blind spot to the cameras and he and Homer open up a party zone to get away from the constant nagging of the goodie neighbour.
It made me laugh, and that was the most important part. It was the part that made me okay with having to stay up until 4:30am to watch the episode. I went to bed almost giggling in my sleep at some of Lisa's one-liners from the second act, and Homer's logic in the first. Looking forward to next week's, but not as much as Lost and Parks and Recreation.
While Lisa has had a few good B-stories ("Boy Meets Curl" and "Thursdays with Abie" come to mind here), the 21st season of The Simpsons hasn't really focused an episode primarily on the bright 2nd grader until Sunday's "The Squirt and the Whale". One of the more emotional tales, this one can be hailed as this year's environmental awareness episode. I don't even say that in a negative way, one of my favourite episodes of Futurama is "The Birdbot of Ice-Catraz", which actually deals with a very sticky plot in which baby penguins need to be hunted in order to save the species. The benefit of having Lisa deal with one of these types of situations is her youth. While she's smart enough to ask the right questions and come to logical conclusions, she's still a little girl who can get in over her head.
In a likely attempt to focus on the emotional ties that occur in the latter half of the episode, the first act was chalk full of jokes and gags that once again find a way to be hilarious while still being relevant to the scene. Even the first scene, which begins with a random trailer for probably the stupidest movie in the world "Tic-Tac-Toe: X v. O", still ties in the plot by having Homer rip the plugs out of the wall before giving a rant about the inflated Hydro bill. So, off to the environmental fair to find a new way to power their home. I love when the Simpsons go to fairs, expos or carinivals, like in "The Twisted World of Marge Simpson" where she attended the Franchise Expo, some of the booths were so odd, like the picture straightener. This has a lot of the same while being completely different, my particular favourite being the confrontation between the Switchgrass Power and the Corn Ethanol tables--gotta love science fights. The Simpsons settle on wind power, and erect a enormous fan in their backyard. It even makes their power meter run backward.
The whale story crops up in the second act when Bart and Lisa go around town to see what kind of damage the wind storm did to the town (you can imagine what happened to the backyard fan). They trek down to the beach to find the beached whale. I like what happens here, where Lisa is overthrown with emotion and Bart is dancing around the blow hole, because it separates the two's different characters. I know it's a small detail, but its things like this that ground the characters in their proper emotional categories. Anyway, the episode is unique in that the B-story and A-story are not interwoven, but that's because they don't happen at the same time. The fan story and the whale story are the only two things happening, it's a narrative device that's hardly used, especially in 20-minute episodic comedies.
I was curious to see how they were going to deal with the disposal of the beached whale, because that can be something of a problem when the PETA gets involved--but I thought they did a good job. They don't make a joke out of it, but they still overlay the tragic inevitability with a nice veil of humour. Chief Wiggum again chimes in with a couple great one-liners.
I didn't much like the climb into the dramatic ending, where sharks and whales sort of duke it out. However, they did raise a good point when Homer tries to save the whales by killing the sharks by explaining the trade off between the two innocent creatures. If Homer did harpoon a shark, it would have sent the whole episode into that dreaded "counter-productive" territory.
On the whole, this episode stands out from the rest of the season not only for its environmental message, but also the writers ability to keep the same "Simpsons" spin on each and every issue addressed.
8.5/10
I started playing Trine at 2:30am in the haze of a half awake delerium, but it held my interest for a good hour or so before my body cracked the whip on me and I sauntered off to bed. I'll admit though, the intro was a great way to ease a new player like me into the game. The graphics are crisp, the controls are responsive and simple, and the overall feel is quite smooth. Basically, the story starts off with a thief entering this shrine to steal this crystal, but when she touches it, it freezes her in place. This same thing happens to a knight and a wizard (though they come to the crystal for different reasons), and once all three of them are there, they disappear. The intro lets you play as each of these characters as they get to the crystal, giving you a crash course in the character's specific abilities. The Knight can fight with the sword and block with the shield, the Thief can use a cool hookshot thing and fire a bow, and the Wizard can levitate objects, and create a block if you draw a square with your mouse (lol?). So it's like a tank, dps, and... mage, I guess, since you collect health from dead skellies.
Speaking of, I was really taken in by the graphics. The scenery is in 3D, sometimes obscuring my view but never at key times. There's a lot of nice detail to it, like little bugs flying from flower to flower, pollen reacting to being disturbed, even the sound gets more intense as a tree passes in the forefront.
Though I haven't played through the whole thing, I've played enough to know that I'll eventually want to get there. The narration overlays the gameplay, which at times makes it feel like I'm playing a extremely cool picture book. The story is admittedly simple, but I wasn't really expecting much. Besides, the amount I got out of this game for the price I paid is enough to trump any criticism. Okay, well the Knight's voice is pretty annoying. But seriously, I paid 6 bucks for some McDonalds last night and all I got from that was a depressing and greasy feeling in my stomach.
On a final note, the game has a multiplayer portion that I have yet to sample, so get on Steam and spend 5 bucks!