From: "nikolai kingsley" <nikolai@warehouse.net>
Newsgroups: talk.bizarre
Subject: it all looks so different from up here
Date: Thu, 2 Dec 1999 02:40:49 +1100
Organization: that one, over there.
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i would have expected a more involved targeting system. i sat up the back of
the ship, wondering where the gravity was coming from, while she wrestled
the charges into an old shopping trolley. it had a long piece of rope tied
to the handles. she shoved the trolley down the gentle ramp that led into
the bomb bay, letting the rope trail out. the trolley with its beanbag-sized
burden slid through the field that kept our atmosphere in, sort of like a
Dark Mistress walking through a door blueprint in Dungeonkeeper 2. the
trolley caught at the edge of the bomb bay, tilted and spilled the charge
out into space. then she'd reel the trolley in by the rope and do it again.

after the first half a dozen or so had been launched i'd gone around to the
back of the ship to watch them drift away. there was a cluster of about six
of them with insufficient impetus to move away from the ship, but most of
them began their stately march down towards the planet. the first few had
hit the surface and gone off, fist-sized chunks of antimatter within
magnetic fields. they were set to turn themselves off when they hit. they
made these lovely flower-shapes when they detonated.

after about two hours of this she came back to where i was considering the
bowl half-filled with machine-rolled joints. "I don't have a lighter," i
said in a leading kind of way.

"wouldn't do no good in this atmosphere. they keep going out. they're for
when we get invited down to negotiate for peace."

"hang on. there's people down there?"

"depends what you mean by 'people.'"

nikolai
---
(angrily) "why don't they just put Marmaduke to sleep?"
 - Jake Morgendorffer