Rio

by on April 15, 2017 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Art, Character Profiles

Rio never has answered my questions as to why she chose Christian’s personal assistant as her new body. She just gives that mysterious smile the old Rio was famous for. Rio was one of the best AIs I’d ever seen, close enough to human that most of us fanboys didn’t see the limitations. The new Rio is similar to that Rio of old, complete with the mischievous glances as she does something new. She has the stage presence down perfect, and can make anyone feel like they are inside one of Christian and Rio’s old Pre-War adventures with one look. But the new Rio is far more than the old Rio ever was. She’s like bright colors compared to a pale imitation. But in Rio’s case, the imitation came first, and then we got to see the real thing. She’s alive now, in every way that matters, and that makes her far more amazing than the old Rio ever was.

High res version available for free on Patreon

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A Primer on the Races of Humanity – Peloran

by on April 14, 2017 at 12:01 am
Posted In: The Races of Humanity

The Peloran scout service is more closely related with the border patrol than they are with the various battle fleets. They live on even smaller ships than the border patrol, and they spend most of their lives skulking around in hyperspace clouds, stray asteroid fields, or anything else that can hide them from detection. They are the unparalleled watchers of everything that happens in Peloran space, and they have become very good at finding anything that anyone does not wish to be found. Most scouts are nearly as nonviolent as their planetbound brethren, but the other Peloran consider them to be the most disreputable members of their entire race. Those Earthborn humans who’ve met them say that the scouts are more “human” than any other Peloran they’ve met. Whether that is a compliment or not is certainly colored by your point of view.

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Christian

by on April 13, 2017 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Art, Character Profiles

Christian Mack was a famous actor back before The War. But few people realize he was a Master Gunnery Sergeant in the United States Marine Corps before Contact. He organized many of the “disagreements” over who owned what colony during that time. Reports say that he was a vigorous debater who liked to speak with his rifle and enjoyed bringing the filibuster to the other side. I can attest to that. He came home after Contact and only then became the actor an entire new generation of people grew up with. He was a century outside the service when The War came and he volunteered to serve again. The brass considered him more Actor than Marine and sent him to join the Cowboys. Thank God they did that. He was always a valuable man to have on my wing, and I trusted my life to him more times than I would have believed possible. You may wonder after reading this why he did not step up to lead the Cowboys when Major Johanson died. The answer is that he was still a sergeant at heart. So he called me and asked what my orders were. Then he gave me a suggestion like any good sergeant does for his wet-behind-the ears officer and waited for me to come to grips with my new command.

High rez version available for free on Patreon

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Rio

by on April 12, 2017 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Art, Character Profiles

Christian and Rio were famous network detectives when The War came upon us all. They had a weekly program, with several seasons already on the streams, where Christian and his beautiful assistant investigated computer-related crimes all over the Solar System. They had the whole film noir motif down real good, and Christian and Rio were household names everywhere that mattered. Rio was just a personal assistant back then. An AI. But she had her own network pages, calendars, and you could even purchase an official Rio personal assistant for your own use. I actually had her installed in my car’s computer, and used to put on dark shades and pretend we were off to some secret meeting as I put the pedal to the metal. You could almost say I knew Rio before she became a real person. But that wouldn’t really be true, because the real Rio blows the old Rio away in every way that matters.

High rez version available for free on Patreon

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Flying United – May The Odds Be Ever In Your Favor

by on April 11, 2017 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

I try to stay away from modern politics here. Try and fail more than I’d like. The reason is that I like to tell stories in a universe where we did enough right that people like to live in it.

But days like today make me shake my head. Seriously. At what moment did the people at United finally wake up and think “this might not have been a good idea?” Has it happened yet? Do they realize that they actually did something wrong, or do they still think of this as “re-accommodating” passengers?

Let me be clear here. Having a paying passenger beaten bloody and dragged unconscious off the plane is not “re-accommodating” the passenger. And it blows my mind that a sentence like that actually needs to be written down.

So it was Sunday. Everybody wanted to go home to their families or to their work. So nobody wanted to give up their seats. Even when offered 800 bucks. Fine. I understand that. 800 bucks doesn’t go as far as it used to. So what do you do? You keep upping the offer until somebody DOES accept it, or you decide that it makes more sense to get your four employees to their destination a different way.

Busting out the Police State tactics and breaking heads doesn’t make you any friends. It really doesn’t. If anyone involved in this still has a job when the fallout clears, I hope they remember that. And if they still have a job, and I hope every potential customer of United remembers that fact as well.

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