Online Fiction

Status
Not open for further replies.
the page turner becomes a cliff hanger....

two questions, Halffast:

1. is the arch-villain using grenades?

2. do the good guys have no long-range radio? What about couriers going between the raiding party and home base?



One comment:

I see and like your development of the plot twist. Can I ask for more body count? How about the good guys taking out a truck driver or two?

with this plot twist, you're on the hook for a reasonable explanation: why did the arch-villain decide to attack this latest target after the plot twist??
 
Darnit

Darnit, I knew Jon and his crew were going to get away. Gunny should have known to close the back door. :banghead:

Time to take the offensive to the next level.

Great Read. Thanks Halffast!!!
 
Freaking Mark! :barf:

The sucker still doesn't get it! The world AIN'T the same. The rules have changed. :evil:

That civilized - follow the old rules crap would IMNSHO get him killed in a real world situation identical to that postulated in Halffast's excellent story.

In fact I think killing the stupid SOB off as a lesson to those who follow his idiotic lead would be a neat (and totally unexpected) plot twist (in a way that recognizes his morality as no longer appropriate of course - i.e. the MZB's take advantage of his weakness).

Now I imagine many will disagree but IMO contemporary rules of engagement, morality and a dependence on old style law enforcement just wouldn't work. Ruthless (at least in the short run until a new culture evolves) would be the order of the day. NOTE: there's a big difference between ruthless and evil, or ruthless and bloodthirsty for bloods sake. Mark should have offed the prisoners (it would be the practical and least risky thing to do). Sometimes one must fight fire with fire. IRL he'd pay for not doing so in many imaginable ways - most very unpleasant.

One can talk about sinking to evil's level all one wants but in the final analysis all that really matters is who's left alive. Preferably those left will be those that can - given the proper circumstances - live a good life and cause no unnecessary harm.

OTOH...
Darwin always WINS!
Show of hands! Who want's to see Mark buy it? :D
 
RevDisk:

One nuke specifically rigged for EMP would not be able to knock out the power grids for all of the US. Even the largest nukes produced by the USSR. (Very few if any of the massive nukes are operational anymore. Everyone got into the MIRV game. Lots of smaller nukes.) EMP weapons are indeed a threat, but it'd take a number of devices to do so. I don't know the optimium number or placement, and I'm not breaking out the calculator to figure out.
Click to expand...

An EMP weapon of sufficient yield detonated high enough in the atmosphere can bathe our entire continent with EMP. At an altitude of 250 miles, the 48 continental states will be line of site of the blast. The US tested a 1.4 megaton EMP device, Starfish Prime at a 250 mile altitude over Johnson Island. EMP failures were seen in Hawaii 1,300 miles away including street lights, fuses, and phone service were burnt out/disrupted.

Here are some quotes I dug up

http://www.globalsecurity.org/org/news/2005/050309-electric-wmd.htm

A nuclear bomb detonated high above the United States could unleash an electromagnetic pulse that would shut down the nation's power grid and, along with it, communications, water supplies and even food transportation.

If the effect is long-lasting enough, it also could trigger a social collapse that could conceivably cause the deaths of millions of people and, temporarily, push the nation back 100 years, a congressional commission told the Senate.
Click to expand...

http://www.fas.org/nuke/intro/nuke/emp.htm

The pulse can easily span continent-sized areas, and this radiation can affect systems on land, sea, and air. The first recorded EMP incident accompanied a high-altitude nuclear test over the South Pacific and resulted in power system failures as far away as Hawaii. A large device detonated at 400–500 km over Kansas would affect all of CONUS. The signal from such an event extends to the visual horizon as seen from the burst point.
Click to expand...
 
An EMP weapon of sufficient yield detonated high enough in the atmosphere can bathe our entire continent with EMP. At an altitude of 250 miles, the 48 continental states will be line of site of the blast. The US tested a 1.4 megaton EMP device, Starfish Prime at a 250 mile altitude over Johnson Island. EMP failures were seen in Hawaii 1,300 miles away including street lights, fuses, and phone service were burnt out/disrupted.
Click to expand...

Satellites bathe our entire continent with electromagnetic energy all the time. The question is how much? EMP loses energy rather quickly in atmosphere, specifically the radiation's strength at a given point declines with the square of the distance from the source.

So, yes. An EMP weapon could cause disruptions. But you'd need a very very large nuclear device to knock out most of CONUS. Most of those don't exist anymore. Everyone has moved to the MIRV concept, multiple smaller nukes. Building a nuke with a strength of between 5-10 mt is a lot harder than building a smaller kiloton range nuke.

Of course it's theoretically possible to build a EMP device strong enough to wipe out the entire CONUS. It's just not very practical. Getting it into proper orbit is even more tricky.
 
"Most of those don't exist anymore. Everyone has moved to the MIRV
concept, multiple smaller nukes."

Does the fact that they're obsolete mean they don't exist--or that they aren't front line service? (Or were they marked as "destroyed" and now in the hands of some nut job third world dictator with just enough tech know how to lob one up?)

"Of course it's theoretically possible to build a EMP device strong enough to wipe out the entire CONUS. It's just not very practical."

Why is it not practical? The big fuss about china stealing our MIRV tech was that they could build much smaller and more accurate warheads, yes? IIRC, during the 50s, the nuclear club kept building bigger and bigger bombs because they could--that changes with targeting improvements over the years. Seems like building bigger ones capable of EMPs wouldn't be difficult.

"Getting it into proper orbit is even more tricky."
Aside from the rocket to just hit orbit (which countries like Brazil are capable of), what's so tricky about lobbing it up to between 200-300 miles over the great plains? Pretty wide area to hit, I'd think--and the timing would be unimportant (middle of night or middle of night--does same damage). I'd agree that would be harder than hijacking a plane or two, but not impossibly so for a rogue state that would sacrifice itself to pull it off. Regardless, I'd think that would probably be the hardest of the tasks.

I don't think its a likely scenario--but definitely believable within the presented fictional backdrop.
 
ARGHHHHHHHHHHH!!!! Well, thanks for the fix... And thanks for posting the pdf. But gosh darn it!! Way to leave us hanging... :uhoh:
 
FWIW - I have noticed that the quality of the writing has improved immensely since the first chapters.

Lights Out is a great story - I still say it would make an even better TV series.
 
nothing wrong with a good cliff hanger

where'd you research the fight sequence, Halffast?

Have you seen Dragon Ball on the cartoon network? Your writing is great. I felt as if reading/watching the old Dragonball comics before the inflation in martial acrobatics.

For some realism, I thought a few freeze frames from SouthNarc's picture tutorials would contribute to your fight scene. May I suggest you search THR for his posts and his forum?

great read.
 
would someone mind PM'ing me when I can buy the finished book? I refuse to read a book either on my monitor or printed out on 8.5x11 paper.

Can't wait though, seems pretty good by all the buzz here.

atek3
 
I have finished the first two groups of chapters. All told, its not bad at all. The only thing I would say, at this point, is that the opening needs some more explanation. The EMP pulse........ who did it, for what reason, and why does it seem that only the USA was affected. Most scientific thought on the subject seem to indicate that such an EMP event is not really possible. Localized yes, but not nationwide.
Thanks for making the story available, its good reading. :)
 
So where are they still getting their gasoline to be doing all of this driving around that they do?
 
would someone mind PM'ing me when I can buy the finished book? I refuse to read a book either on my monitor or printed out on 8.5x11 paper.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately Davids work in order to be published would need to be re-written down to around the 100,000 word level. I know there are other works that exceed this, but the rule of thumb in publishing is that 100K mark. To give you an idea about 100K words...that's about 30 chapters.

Halffast is an excellent writer and I would really love to see this on the store shelves.

psst...are you listening David? Lets get this thing published, bro!
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

P
  • Locked
NaNoWriMo - Online Fiction
Replies
8
Views
647
Fly320s
F
J
  • Locked
Online Fiction Stories at Highroad?
Replies
11
Views
812
mons meg
M
M
  • Locked
What would your fictional character carry?
2
Replies
31
Views
1K
cratz2
C
N
  • Locked
Writing gunfights is hard
2
Replies
41
Views
4K
Correia
C
D
  • Locked
Paid In Full - A new novel by Steve Camp.
Replies
16
Views
1K
Stephen A. Camp
S
Back
Top