Chace Randolph

Hello, and welcome to another edition of tight beam. It’s that time of the month again. And by that, I mean it’s a new month, so happy August to all those people who have exciting things going on in August. Birthdays and what have you. The last good month of the year, before the rest of it gets taken over with holiday advertisements and Christmas music. So time for the news update, the facts and the story in this edition of tight beam…

The news of it is, two or three days after I wrote the previous article of Tight Beam in the beginning of July, the editor finally replied, and I got my manuscript back. I spent that entire weekend poring over the manuscript, accepting and rejecting her suggestions. That went well, and quickly. Added about a page of dialogue for one scene, no major changes, widdled down some of my crutch words like ‘strange’ a bit more. All good stuff. I won’t comment much more on that, other than I’m not happy with the customer service side of the interaction, but it is what it is. I have moved on since then. With that all done, I have handed the book off to one of the beta readers I have worked with before, for final approval. The last go or no go signal before I go public with the book. They had some comments and we are going to meet in person sometime middle of this month to iron it all out once and for all. Something about sentence fragments.

I have my audio equipment all set up, and soon I will start work on the audio book recording too. Plus I have to file for copyright and all that, but I now have measurable progress and we’re really close. I’m hoping end of the month, or perhaps with my next issue of tight beam in the beginning of September, I can publish the book. It’ll be on amazon both in E book and paperback. And when available, the audio version will be on audible. I also plan through some other supporting company, maybe 48 hours press, or something like that, to do a limited run of Hard Cover books, that will be available through our partnered Etsy shop. Nerd Smith Consolidated, on top of the other stickers and 3d printed models they’ll be doing. I’m not sure when or how, because that will cost me a bit of money out of pocket, but that’s the plan, its on the horizon.

I also have completed the video series I was working on, on YouTube, completing the game, Callisto Protocol. I have started a new series of shorts, talking about the notable feats of the Soviet Space program. And while the first videos in the series were all done quick and easy with AI. They’re not up to the Par I want, and from here out I will be making the short videos myself, and hopefully their quality improves. Get a little more into the nerd stuff that I like. So that’s going to be my fact section for this post. Go to the descendant saga You Tube channel, and look at those shorts. They have the facts you’re looking for. I have a lot of episodes planned, so there will be steady content there for a long time, I hope. I have started on the next game in my science inside the science fiction series. This time we’re picking up Detroit Become Human. So you can subscribe to the YouTube channel to see that too.

http://www.youtube.com/@DescendantSaga

Now for the story in this issue of tight beam, I have another one of the old short things I have written, I don’t remember it, but it’s in my files here on my EXT HD so you can look it over just the same. Hope you like it. This one is called Omen. There are a few more, and about half of them, are more like thought experiments than actual stories, but I’ll post them just the same.

Omen

The soldier looked up at the warrior in awe. These cybernetic, genetically engineered super soldiers lived for centuries, were immune to illness, and were known to survive mortal wounds and continue to function unimpeded by pain. Tales of their actions and battles, victories and defeats were near legendary among the un-augmented soldiers.

The soldier stared into the faceplate of the towering warrior’s helmet, the giant’s shadow enveloping him. After a moment the head tilted down to look at him properly, and it was only then that the soldier remembered there was someone in there looking back at him. The warrior didn’t speak. The soldier quickly looked away and fell back into his spot amongst the others. The squad of towering dark warriors had been locked in the shuttle with the platoon of soldiers for hours, and they hadn’t spoken a single word. They were nearing the landing zone, having already passed through the rough buffeting part of the atmospheric descent on whatever world this was. The soldier didn’t even know the name of the planet, or why they were here, just that they were here to fight.

The soldier sucked in a deep breath and let it out with a huff, echoing inside his helmet as the ship thudded against the ground. He looked to the towering set of shoulders standing next to him, nearly as wide as he was tall. They would be fine. This campaign would be an easy one. With these cybernetic men here with them, their borderline mythic status couldn’t be all exaggeration.

The light next to the shuttle door switched from red to green, and the exit ramp started opening. Sharp beams of orange dusty light seeped in, filling the compartment as the gap grew wider.

A shiny meter long black claw hooked in through the opening and wrenched the ramp down. Rending the metal and slamming it into the fine powdery dust that made up their limited view of the planet beyond. A high-pitched screech that sounded like a chihuahua trapped inside a mailbox full of bees as dozens of black three-meter arthropods were clambering onto and into the shuttle even as the dust still settles around it. The cyborgs standing in the front row didn’t have time to ready their weapons and were rent limb from limb by tooth and claw. In his last heart beats before the bugs reached him while he fumbled with his weapon, the soldier realized that the presence of the cybernetic warriors was not a good thing, but an indicator of how bad the infestation was.