Chapter 6

The ramp descended from the Nomas and the sounds of Lai Nim’s cries and pleas filled the bay. The two station guards waiting at the bottom of the ramp grinned as Yin, Shar, Momla and MP5 led the unfortunate bounty to them.

“Aw, now don’t cry.” one of the guards said to Lai in mock sympathy, “We’re going to have all kinds of fun.” His companion laughed ominously as they started to lead Lai Nim away to the holding cells.

“No harm or discomfort will befall our bounty.” Yin said ominously.

The guards turned around, a little taken aback, “You don’t have any authority here. And if you think you can threat-”

“If it does,” he continued smoothly, ignoring the guard’s rant, “our anger with you will be substantial.”

The guard’s mouth moved silently for a moment as he struggled to come up with a suitable response to the threat. Then thought better of it, nodded and left.

Yin watched the guards leave. “Fools.” he said to the others, “They flaunt their position thinking they display the power of life and death. They display only the type of self certainty that ignorance and stupidity can breed. They know nothing of true power.”

MP5 added, “Such stupidity, if left unchecked, could ruin our designs.”

“They won’t hinder us now.” Shar surmised.

“Maybe.” Momla replied as they headed toward the turbo lift, “But if they do…”

Yin interjected, finishing Momla’s thought, “Then we will personally give them an abject lesson in True Power.”

Drogis looked up as they approached his usual table, “You did a good job getting Lai. Short time, too. I’m impressed.” He pulled out a cred stick and laid it on the table, “Here’s your money. I’ve got more work, if you’re interested.”

Yin took the cred stick, “Always.”

Drogis grinned, “Good. Come back in three days and I’ll have a new contract for you. Until then, just hang around. Enjoy the pleasures of Starforge Station.”

“Three days then.” Yin said, and they left.

Drogis pulled one of his thugs over as he watched the Sith leave, “Take a couple others and keep an eye on our new “friends”.”

For three days they waited. Momla had noticed almost immediately the Dug’s henchmen shadowing them.

“We’re being followed.” he said sarcastically as he pointed openly to the two thugs watching them. They quickly tried to look nonchalant.

Yin said, “Well, let’s hope our Dug friend doesn’t get to smart. If he searches Lai and finds the tracking devices we planted, we’ll have to kill him. And that will make tracking Tednal all the more tedious.”

When they got back to the Nomas, MP5 ran a complete scan and found a tracking device Drogis had planted. “Leave it.” said Yin, “It may be of some use to us.”

After the second day, MP5 walked into the crew cabin of the Nomas, “I’ve tracked movement on Lai Nim. He was put on a transport and taken off of Starforge Station.”

“Have we calculated a destination?” Shar asked.

The astromech beeped excitedly. “It’s destination was successfully vectored.” interpreted MP5, “The Socorro system.”

On the third day, they went back to the Dug. Still sitting at his usual table. “Is that job ready?” Yin asked as they walked up to him.

“Yes.” said Drogis, apparently satisfied with their intentions, “This ones an Iktotchi named Daesae Kyren. He’s apparently pretty dangerous, but I think you can handle him. He was last seen on Tatooine. Seventy five hundred when you bring him in…alive.”

Yin piloted the Nomas out of the hanger bay and into the heavy clouds of Starforge Nebula. He turned to the astromech and said, “R6, plot a series of jumps along the Perlemian Trade Route and then the Corellian Run. Destination is Rodia.”

“Why are we delaying?” asked Momla.

“No delay.” replied Yin, “We’re going to make certain Drogis knows we’re going to Tatooine.”

Yin fed the first coordinates into the nav computer and engaged the hyperdrive. The Nomas disappeared into hyperspace.

Four jumps later the Nomas landed on Rodia. MP5 removed the tracking device and placed it on a transport headed for Tatooine. The Nomas then took off again and jumped for Socorro.

Entering Socorro space from outside the system, Yin cautiously flew the Nomas into orbit around the smuggler’s haven. The signal from the tracking device MP5 had implanted in Lai Nim had been dampened soon after entering Socorro’s atmosphere. So a precise destination at landing was impossible to determine. They would have to do some reconnaissance to find Tednal’s base.

Staying close enough to successfully monitor any interspace transmissions from the surface, Yin was careful to keep the ship far enough away to elude sensor detection from the planet’s meager defenses. For days they watched and waited as interstellar traffic came and went to the various towns and small cities that dotted the planet surface. All with not a mention of Tednal Corga. But they were patient in the Force and continued to wait.

Finally, on the fourteenth day, MP5 snapped the comms on, “Outbound transmission from the Killee Wasteland. It says bounties are collected and ready for pick up. The name of Lai Nim is among those on the list.”

“The Killee Wasteland.” Momla repeated as Yin moved the Nomas into geosynchronous orbit over the town.

After a few hours, MP5’s voice came over the comms again, “Inbound transmission to the Killee Wasteland. Origin is planet Duro, Duro Starshipwright Shipyards Corp. They are acknowledging the previous transmission and confirming incoming scheduled transport pick up for Lai Nim.”

Momla asked, “How soon?”

“Two standard days.” MP5 answered.

“Do we have a reversion point?” Yin asked.

“Yes.”

Shar looked at Yin, “What are you planning?”

“A surprise visit.” he replied.

The DSS modified Corellian Star Shuttle raced through hyperspace toward the Socorro jump point. Outside the bridge view port, gravitic reflections of real space stars made it seem like the ship was flying down a tunnel of light. “Prepare for reversion. Engage on my mark.” ordered Capt. Desh as he started the countdown. His copilot Vosh began powering the ion drives and preparing the hyperdrives for shutdown.

“Mark.” said Desh as the ship seemed to stop dead in space, the stars shrinking back to single dots in the void. “Power to ion- What the Hell!?” he yelled as he looked up to see the Nomas flying towards them on what looked like an attack run. A forward cannon flashed on the front of the Nomas and Desh screamed, “Brace!”

The ship shuddered as the ion bolt slammed into the aft hull. The lights dimmed momentarily as the back up generators kicked in, and the ship began to visibly list to the left through the view port.

Vosh scanned the damage report and shouted over the warning klaxon, “Direct hit on numbers one and three sublight engines! Engine two still functional but failing fast!”

“Raise shields!” shouted Desh as he fought to gain some measure of control over the ailing ship.

“Trying sir. I’m having difficulty rerouting power to shield generators.” Vosh said with some annoyance.

Desh watched as the Nomas banked around for another pass almost lazily. “They’re coming around! Send a distress signal to - ”

“They’re jamming us, sir!” interrupted Vosh.

“Brace!” yelled Desh as another ion burst shot towards them.

Yin saw the bolt impact directly on the bridge and the ship went dark. Flashes of electrical discharge were visible inside the bridge view port as the ships nose angled down, the transport beginning to tumble.

Shar opened a channel to the stricken vessel, “DSS shuttle, you will power down all functioning systems except life support and prepare for boarding. If you don’t comply, we will destroy you.”

“There systems are powering down.” said Momla, “Engaging tractor beam.”

Yin began his approach for boarding.

Captain Desh, his copilot and the navigations officer waited at the airlock. The clanking of the docking assembly rattled through the hull as the Nomas attached to the shuttle. The airlock hissed and slid into the ceiling recess as Shar walked through the portal. The Sullustan copilot and Duros navigator blanched at the sight of the silent Umbaran, his fierce yellowish red eyes settling on Captain Desh as he began to yell, awless, at the Sith.

“Just what the hell do you think you’re doing?!” Desh began as Yin, Momla, and MP5K came through the door, “Do you know who we are? We are here at the express invitation of Tednal Corg - Ach!” Desh grabbed at his throat, choking as Shar casually raised his hand toward the captain.

MP5 pounded over toward the copilot, who shrank back from the imposing droid, “You will take me to the Gran named Lan Ree.” Vosh looked over to Captain Desh as he fell to his knees, his eyes bulging, gasping for air with his hand stretched out toward Shar in pleading. With a final gurgle, Desh fell heavily onto his face and lay still. Vosh looked back to the droid and nodded hastily, quickly leading MP5 toward the cabins.

Yin and Momla searched the rest of the ship bringing the remaining crew to the conference room. MP5 returned with a very frightened looking Gran and the still blanched copilot.

Shar looked at Lan and smiled warmly as Yin said, “MP, would you take the crew and give us some privacy with Lan?”

“As you wish.” MP replied as he marched the crew out the door.

The door closed and Yin turned to Lan and said, “Don’t worry, we don’t want to harm you.” Lan glanced back at the door, shaking as he heard what he was certain was two lightsabers ignite.

Men started screaming on the other side of the door as Yin continued unconcerned, “All we want is your cooperation and we’ll let you go. Do you understand?” Lan, still looking at the door, nodded quickly and then jumped about a foot as something slammed into the door, clawing at it from the other side. There was an energy like humming followed by a blood curdling scream and then the clawing stopped.

Yin kept talking conversationally, “We want you to give us access codes and get us into Tednal’s base. Then we will let you go. Do we have a deal?” Tednal looked back toward Yin and nodded again as the screams died down to pleas and begging, then silence.

“Good. Then let’s begin.” Yin concluded.

The door opened and MP5 entered the room. Lan looked past the droid and his mouth fell open as he fell to the floor at the sight in the hold beyond. Blood and various organs slicked the floor and stained the wall, with little bits of tissue stuck to various surfaces where it had splattered. Arms and legs hung like meat from tables, crates and counters. The torsos cut into so many parts that he could not for the life of him tell which pieces belonged to which crew member.

MP5 looked at Yin and said casually, “I have made certain you will have all the privacy you need.”

Yin Piloted the DSS shuttle to the Killee Wasteland space port, giving them the pass codes Lan provided and landed at the dock.

Lan descended the access ramp, the three hooded and fully robed Sith to his sides and front with MP5 and R6 at his back. Two Rodians approached them cautiously.

“You are Lan Ree?” one of them asked.

Lan nodded as Momla answered for him, “He is.”

“Then you will have payment for Tednal Corga, yes?” said the Rodian, “Corga demands payment before delivery. First you pay, then we take you to collect your bounty.”

Momla moved aside so Lan could pay them. He gave the Rodians a cred stick and they checked the identity of it’s source account as they extracted the money.

“Good.” the Rodian said as he handed the cred stick back to Lan, “You are who you say you are.”

“Why all the security?” asked Lan nervously.

“Tednal has many enemies, yes? And he hasn’t gotten to where he is by being careless.” the Rodian answered, “Now we will take you to collect Lai Nim.”

The Rodians led them to the center of the town where a large heavy blast door stood at the front of a tunnel leading under the ground. They opened the door and led them down a long, sloping, dank passage with little in the way of lighting, to another blast door. The Rodians opened the blast door and they entered a security room with a door on the other side guarded by two Nikto. A security camera hung from the ceiling and a terminal stood next to the Nikto.

One of the Rodians said, “We turn you over to them, they will take you to Lai. It’s been a pleasure doing business with you.”

“Thank you.” said Yin as he threw open his robe, drawing his lightsaber and igniting it just as his stroke reached the first Rodian’s neck, cutting the surprised alien’s head off.

MP5 activated one of the blades of his staff and cut the security cam from it’s base before he spun and jammed the energy blade into the seam between the blast door and it’s frame. He began slowly drawing the edge along the seam, welding the portal shut.

Momla was on the Nikto by the console before he knew what had happened, cutting through his ample armor and polearm like water and leaving him in two pieces on the floor.

Shar drew his saber and took the other Rodian at mid thigh in an upward strike. The Rodian fell to the ground, his chest split and steaming.

The second Nikto lunged for the security console and Momla ran his lightsaber up to the hilt in his chest. The guard stumbled and fell to his knees as Momla withdrew his saber and cut the Nikto’s head from his shoulders with a casual circular stroke.

R5 accessed the console and disabled the security system as MP5 finished sealing the blast door. Stepping around Lan Ree, cowering on the floor and sobbing with fear, the Sith opened the opposite door and entered the base of Tednal Corga.

Then the slaughter began.Chapter 6

The ramp descended from the Nomas and the sounds of Lai Nim’s cries and pleas filled the bay. The two station guards waiting at the bottom of the ramp grinned as Yin, Shar, Momla and MP5 led the unfortunate bounty to them.

“Aw, now don’t cry.” one of the guards said to Lai in mock sympathy, “We’re going to have all kinds of fun.” His companion laughed ominously as they started to lead Lai Nim away to the holding cells.

“No harm or discomfort will befall our bounty.” Yin said ominously.

The guards turned around, a little taken aback, “You don’t have any authority here. And if you think you can threat-”

“If it does,” he continued smoothly, ignoring the guard’s rant, “our anger with you will be substantial.”

The guard’s mouth moved silently for a moment as he struggled to come up with a suitable response to the threat. Then thought better of it, nodded and left.

Yin watched the guards leave. “Fools.” he said to the others, “They flaunt their position thinking they display the power of life and death. They display only the type of self certainty that ignorance and stupidity can breed. They know nothing of true power.”

MP5 added, “Such stupidity, if left unchecked, could ruin our designs.”

“They won’t hinder us now.” Shar surmised.

“Maybe.” Momla replied as they headed toward the turbo lift, “But if they do…”

Yin interjected, finishing Momla’s thought, “Then we will personally give them an abject lesson in True Power.”

Drogis looked up as they approached his usual table, “You did a good job getting Lai. Short time, too. I’m impressed.” He pulled out a cred stick and laid it on the table, “Here’s your money. I’ve got more work, if you’re interested.”

Yin took the cred stick, “Always.”

Drogis grinned, “Good. Come back in three days and I’ll have a new contract for you. Until then, just hang around. Enjoy the pleasures of Starforge Station.”

“Three days then.” Yin said, and they left.

Drogis pulled one of his thugs over as he watched the Sith leave, “Take a couple others and keep an eye on our new “friends”.”

For three days they waited. Momla had noticed almost immediately the Dug’s henchmen shadowing them.

“We’re being followed.” he said sarcastically as he pointed openly to the two thugs watching them. They quickly tried to look nonchalant.

Yin said, “Well, let’s hope our Dug friend doesn’t get to smart. If he searches Lai and finds the tracking devices we planted, we’ll have to kill him. And that will make tracking Tednal all the more tedious.”

When they got back to the Nomas, MP5 ran a complete scan and found a tracking device Drogis had planted. “Leave it.” said Yin, “It may be of some use to us.”

After the second day, MP5 walked into the crew cabin of the Nomas, “I’ve tracked movement on Lai Nim. He was put on a transport and taken off of Starforge Station.”

“Have we calculated a destination?” Shar asked.

The astromech beeped excitedly. “It’s destination was successfully vectored.” interpreted MP5, “The Socorro system.”

On the third day, they went back to the Dug. Still sitting at his usual table. “Is that job ready?” Yin asked as they walked up to him.

“Yes.” said Drogis, apparently satisfied with their intentions, “This ones an Iktotchi named Daesae Kyren. He’s apparently pretty dangerous, but I think you can handle him. He was last seen on Tatooine. Seventy five hundred when you bring him in…alive.”

Yin piloted the Nomas out of the hanger bay and into the heavy clouds of Starforge Nebula. He turned to the astromech and said, “R6, plot a series of jumps along the Perlemian Trade Route and then the Corellian Run. Destination is Rodia.”

“Why are we delaying?” asked Momla.

“No delay.” replied Yin, “We’re going to make certain Drogis knows we’re going to Tatooine.”

Yin fed the first coordinates into the nav computer and engaged the hyperdrive. The Nomas disappeared into hyperspace.

Four jumps later the Nomas landed on Rodia. MP5 removed the tracking device and placed it on a transport headed for Tatooine. The Nomas then took off again and jumped for Socorro.

Entering Socorro space from outside the system, Yin cautiously flew the Nomas into orbit around the smuggler’s haven. The signal from the tracking device MP5 had implanted in Lai Nim had been dampened soon after entering Socorro’s atmosphere. So a precise destination at landing was impossible to determine. They would have to do some reconnaissance to find Tednal’s base.

Staying close enough to successfully monitor any interspace transmissions from the surface, Yin was careful to keep the ship far enough away to elude sensor detection from the planet’s meager defenses. For days they watched and waited as interstellar traffic came and went to the various towns and small cities that dotted the planet surface. All with not a mention of Tednal Corga. But they were patient in the Force and continued to wait.

Finally, on the fourteenth day, MP5 snapped the comms on, “Outbound transmission from the Killee Wasteland. It says bounties are collected and ready for pick up. The name of Lai Nim is among those on the list.”

“The Killee Wasteland.” Momla repeated as Yin moved the Nomas into geosynchronous orbit over the town.

After a few hours, MP5’s voice came over the comms again, “Inbound transmission to the Killee Wasteland. Origin is planet Duro, Duro Starshipwright Shipyards Corp. They are acknowledging the previous transmission and confirming incoming scheduled transport pick up for Lai Nim.”

Momla asked, “How soon?”

“Two standard days.” MP5 answered.

“Do we have a reversion point?” Yin asked.

“Yes.”

Shar looked at Yin, “What are you planning?”

“A surprise visit.” he replied.

The DSS modified Corellian Star Shuttle raced through hyperspace toward the Socorro jump point. Outside the bridge view port, gravitic reflections of real space stars made it seem like the ship was flying down a tunnel of light. “Prepare for reversion. Engage on my mark.” ordered Capt. Desh as he started the countdown. His copilot Vosh began powering the ion drives and preparing the hyperdrives for shutdown.

“Mark.” said Desh as the ship seemed to stop dead in space, the stars shrinking back to single dots in the void. “Power to ion- What the Hell!?” he yelled as he looked up to see the Nomas flying towards them on what looked like an attack run. A forward cannon flashed on the front of the Nomas and Desh screamed, “Brace!”

The ship shuddered as the ion bolt slammed into the aft hull. The lights dimmed momentarily as the back up generators kicked in, and the ship began to visibly list to the left through the view port.

Vosh scanned the damage report and shouted over the warning klaxon, “Direct hit on numbers one and three sublight engines! Engine two still functional but failing fast!”

“Raise shields!” shouted Desh as he fought to gain some measure of control over the ailing ship.

“Trying sir. I’m having difficulty rerouting power to shield generators.” Vosh said with some annoyance.

Desh watched as the Nomas banked around for another pass almost lazily. “They’re coming around! Send a distress signal to - ”

“They’re jamming us, sir!” interrupted Vosh.

“Brace!” yelled Desh as another ion burst shot towards them.

Yin saw the bolt impact directly on the bridge and the ship went dark. Flashes of electrical discharge were visible inside the bridge view port as the ships nose angled down, the transport beginning to tumble.

Shar opened a channel to the stricken vessel, “DSS shuttle, you will power down all functioning systems except life support and prepare for boarding. If you don’t comply, we will destroy you.”

“There systems are powering down.” said Momla, “Engaging tractor beam.”

Yin began his approach for boarding.

Captain Desh, his copilot and the navigations officer waited at the airlock. The clanking of the docking assembly rattled through the hull as the Nomas attached to the shuttle. The airlock hissed and slid into the ceiling recess as Shar walked through the portal. The Sullustan copilot and Duros navigator blanched at the sight of the silent Umbaran, his fierce yellowish red eyes settling on Captain Desh as he began to yell, awless, at the Sith.

“Just what the hell do you think you’re doing?!” Desh began as Yin, Momla, and MP5K came through the door, “Do you know who we are? We are here at the express invitation of Tednal Corg - Ach!” Desh grabbed at his throat, choking as Shar casually raised his hand toward the captain.

MP5 pounded over toward the copilot, who shrank back from the imposing droid, “You will take me to the Gran named Lan Ree.” Vosh looked over to Captain Desh as he fell to his knees, his eyes bulging, gasping for air with his hand stretched out toward Shar in pleading. With a final gurgle, Desh fell heavily onto his face and lay still. Vosh looked back to the droid and nodded hastily, quickly leading MP5 toward the cabins.

Yin and Momla searched the rest of the ship bringing the remaining crew to the conference room. MP5 returned with a very frightened looking Gran and the still blanched copilot.

Shar looked at Lan and smiled warmly as Yin said, “MP, would you take the crew and give us some privacy with Lan?”

“As you wish.” MP replied as he marched the crew out the door.

The door closed and Yin turned to Lan and said, “Don’t worry, we don’t want to harm you.” Lan glanced back at the door, shaking as he heard what he was certain was two lightsabers ignite.

Men started screaming on the other side of the door as Yin continued unconcerned, “All we want is your cooperation and we’ll let you go. Do you understand?” Lan, still looking at the door, nodded quickly and then jumped about a foot as something slammed into the door, clawing at it from the other side. There was an energy like humming followed by a blood curdling scream and then the clawing stopped.

Yin kept talking conversationally, “We want you to give us access codes and get us into Tednal’s base. Then we will let you go. Do we have a deal?” Tednal looked back toward Yin and nodded again as the screams died down to pleas and begging, then silence.

“Good. Then let’s begin.” Yin concluded.

The door opened and MP5 entered the room. Lan looked past the droid and his mouth fell open as he fell to the floor at the sight in the hold beyond. Blood and various organs slicked the floor and stained the wall, with little bits of tissue stuck to various surfaces where it had splattered. Arms and legs hung like meat from tables, crates and counters. The torsos cut into so many parts that he could not for the life of him tell which pieces belonged to which crew member.

MP5 looked at Yin and said casually, “I have made certain you will have all the privacy you need.”

Yin Piloted the DSS shuttle to the Killee Wasteland space port, giving them the pass codes Lan provided and landed at the dock.

Lan descended the access ramp, the three hooded and fully robed Sith to his sides and front with MP5 and R6 at his back. Two Rodians approached them cautiously.

“You are Lan Ree?” one of them asked.

Lan nodded as Momla answered for him, “He is.”

“Then you will have payment for Tednal Corga, yes?” said the Rodian, “Corga demands payment before delivery. First you pay, then we take you to collect your bounty.”

Momla moved aside so Lan could pay them. He gave the Rodians a cred stick and they checked the identity of it’s source account as they extracted the money.

“Good.” the Rodian said as he handed the cred stick back to Lan, “You are who you say you are.”

“Why all the security?” asked Lan nervously.

“Tednal has many enemies, yes? And he hasn’t gotten to where he is by being careless.” the Rodian answered, “Now we will take you to collect Lai Nim.”

The Rodians led them to the center of the town where a large heavy blast door stood at the front of a tunnel leading under the ground. They opened the door and led them down a long, sloping, dank passage with little in the way of lighting, to another blast door. The Rodians opened the blast door and they entered a security room with a door on the other side guarded by two Nikto. A security camera hung from the ceiling and a terminal stood next to the Nikto.

One of the Rodians said, “We turn you over to them, they will take you to Lai. It’s been a pleasure doing business with you.”

“Thank you.” said Yin as he threw open his robe, drawing his lightsaber and igniting it just as his stroke reached the first Rodian’s neck, cutting the surprised alien’s head off.

MP5 activated one of the blades of his staff and cut the security cam from it’s base before he spun and jammed the energy blade into the seam between the blast door and it’s frame. He began slowly drawing the edge along the seam, welding the portal shut.

Momla was on the Nikto by the console before he knew what had happened, cutting through his ample armor and polearm like water and leaving him in two pieces on the floor.

Shar drew his saber and took the other Rodian at mid thigh in an upward strike. The Rodian fell to the ground, his chest split and steaming.

The second Nikto lunged for the security console and Momla ran his lightsaber up to the hilt in his chest. The guard stumbled and fell to his knees as Momla withdrew his saber and cut the Nikto’s head from his shoulders with a casual circular stroke.

R5 accessed the console and disabled the security system as MP5 finished sealing the blast door. Stepping around Lan Ree, cowering on the floor and sobbing with fear, the Sith opened the opposite door and entered the base of Tednal Corga.

Then the slaughter began.

Making some headway of several different projects. Chris Field and I had another productive conversation that lasted just long enough for my cell phone to die! I am in negotiations to acquire the publishing rights to another series of products that is going quite well. I am very excited about the way things are shaping up for the next year.

Sales are down a bit this month, as I suspect they are across the board since 4th edition was announced. But, I don’t think my sales are all that far off, and with three more days in the month I can’t complain at the way things are going. I am gearing up for November and hope to have a maximum number of releases in November.

Got a piece of artwork back from Anthony this weekend also.  Take a look at the Manhunter:

Was planning out some future releases and I have thirteen PDF’s “on deck” not counting some of the larger projects (Omens, Pandora & Otherverse) I am working on.  I just need to record the Publisher Audio Commentary for the Powerphage before I release it.  I plan to do that tonight and have it up before I go to bed.

I worked on the Black Tokyo layout last night; I am at the point where I am going through the document and fine-tuning the layout.  You want the text to flow properly around the images and that kind of thing.  I am finding that as I go through it I am moving things around quite a bit; but the project is well in excess of a hundred pages so that is to be expected.

Chris Field sent me two new manuscripts for the Adventurer Essentials line.  They came out of the blue but I really like both of them a lot!  Look for them soon as well.  (I still need to send them off for artwork.)

I’ve been listening to a Stephen King book on my iPod called “Cell”.  I have never really read (or listened to) any Stephen King books.  I’ve seen Kujo and Carrie and that one about the old car that runs people over.  But I have to say I really am enjoying this book a lot.  If you have an iPod, you really should check out Audible.com.  I subscribe so I always have a few audiobooks to listen to while I am commuting to work.  You can find some great material to inspire your PDF ideas!

Coming very soon from Skortched Urf’ Studios…

“That’s a neat trick you can do…”

Many people are jealous of the powers displayed by the heroes and monsters that share the world with them. These larger-than-life figures command potent magic with a thought, and have mystic abilities as natural to them as their arms are to the common man. Yet most ordinary folk manage to put aside this petty envy and continue on with their lives. A small number of people, though, become obsessed with such thoughts, burning with jealousy that others are so gifted while they are denied. As their obsession takes them over, they learn the secrets of how the brain controls the supernatural aspects of the body just as it does the natural ones, and that by ingesting certain portions of a creature’s brain, they can steal these powers for themselves. These are the powerphages.

To view the Flash Flip-book preview of this PDF click HERE.

*UPDATE*

Audio Commentary Added

Listen Now:

 The Powerphage: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Got a call last night from Chris Field.  Sure, we have been working together for almost a year, but this was the first time we had actually spoken to each other!  (Isn’t email great?)  We talked for a long time about a new project, and covered lots of other stuff as well.  You really can get more communicating done via an actual conversation than you ever could via just email.  (But email doesn’t rely on your spotty memory!)  My cell phone died before we could finish the conversation; but I think were were both pretty excited about the various projects that are coming up.

Still no costume for Haloween, and I have two parties coming up on Saturday.  I have a couple of last minuite ideas that will still be fun.  We’ll see.

When I hadn’t heard anything from OBS from my emails I went to the private publisher forum to poke around.  I saw from another post that someone was out of town; and assumed my emails had gone to that person which is why I hadn’t heard anything back.  So I posted a quick note on the forum about my problem and got a very quick reply from Mike Todd saying they would look into it.  I thought “great, now it’s on their radar” and figured it would be a few days since this issue really only effects one publisher (me).  He had the issue nailed down within a few hours and not only corrected my initial listing but found the root of the problem and fixed that so future products wouldn’t have the same issue.  Turns out they have a WYSIWYG editor where you enter product descriptions, with a button to also allow you to see the HTML.  When parsing <object> tags the WYSIWYG editor choked on my code and didn’t display properly.  So it wasn’t that the site didn’t allow <object> code, it was the form didn’t handle the code well.  Gotta give props where they are do; they handled this issue quite fast once I made them aware of it and it really only affected one small publisher.  Thanks guys!

Went to the gun range last night after work with a guy I go to church with.  He works for some branch of the Federal Gov. and has been through some of their security training courses, but had never  been to an actual indoor range.  We went to the NRA Headquarters range in Fairfax, VA which, as you might guess, is a very nice range.  I brought along a Ruger 10/22 and a .22 pistol, as well as my recently purchased Taurus 24/7 and a hundred rounds of .40 to feed it.  We started off with the rifle and did some target shooting; mostly concentrating on gun handling and marksmanship.  We moved over to the .22 pistol and did some more shooting, a little more coaching on trigger control.  The we started in with the 24/7.

Now you have to understand, this is like the third time I have ever taken this pistol shooting.  I just got it and have been breaking it in.  As such I haven’t been able to shoot it very well.  Last time I went shooting I had a sandbag rest, and would line up the sights and fire and get the first shot right where I want it.  But the rest of the shots would be spread all over the target!  I just couldn’t get a good “group” with this thing to save my life.  Don’t get me wrong, all the rounds would have fit inside a typical paper plate so I was having acceptable accuracy; but for a self-defense handgun I wasn’t satisfied.  So I was a bit worried when we started shooting that I would have shots all over the place.  Well, I guess I am almost done breaking in my new pistol!  By the time we finished our hundred rounds I was getting very nice groups AND placing those groups right inside a six inch circle. My buddy was doing OK, but his trigger control was pushing about half his shots low and to the left.  But he, too was getting the hang of it by the end.  A few hundred more rounds and I should have it dialed in.

When it was over, I told him I was headed over to a Gun Rights meeting held by the VCDL.  (Virginia Citizens Defense League.)  I asked him if he wanted to go, and he did so we headed over to the meeting place and met a good friend of mine there.  (The VCDL is to state politics in Virginia what the NRA is to national gun rights politics.  They are a non-profit grass roots organization that is extremely effective.)  After the meeting (I won’t bore anyone with the details) I dropped him back off at his car and headed home feeling pretty good about how the evening went.

I put AE: Waterskin up a couple days ago.  And the Flash flip book demo as well as the embeded Audio Commentary file are not showing up correctly on the OBS sites.  The code works great over at Your Games Now; just like it’s supposed to.  I know they are doing lots of code-updating over at OBS so, while a bit frustrated, I can understand there being a few issues.  So I sent an email to them informing them about the problem and asking for some help.  I even included a copy of the complete product description html.  I haven’t heard back from anyone in two days.  Getting a bit more frustrated.

Haloween is sneaking up on me.  I have no costume this year.  (I had a GREAT costume last year!) Not sure what I am going to do this year.  Big party (actually two fo them) on the 27th.

Been going over my plans for year 2 in business; and I have to say I am fairly excited about the projects that are upcoming.  Stay tuned for more details!

**UPDATE**

I just finished recording the Audio Commentary and uploaded it.  To listen click on the player below the image.  I’ll post the PDF to all the usual places later tonight.

I finished up AE:Waterskin yesterday. I just need to do the audio commentary and it will be ready to publish. You can check out the flip-book o it by clicking the cover image below.

Listen Now:

 AE: Waterskin: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

A couple of updates. I was hard at work last night on Black Tokyo. It’s coming along quite nicely. I am not going to promise a date on it, cuz I did that back in JULY and it still isn’t out yet! But soon. I swear! Really!

I try to keep pretty good records of my sales and expenses. I have a big old color-coded spreadsheet where I track how much a product makes during it’s first 12 months of sales. (And how much it has made to-date for products older than a year.) I also break down the total cost of any given project by how much I paid the writer and/or the artist. I finished updating the spreadsheet for our first year in business and came up with some interesting numbers.

I paid $1,345.10 to writers during our first year in business.

I paid $1,994.11 to artists (Read: Anthony) during that same period.

(Give or take a few bucks…I estimated a couple of them cuz I didn’t feel like digging through my email or PayPal to find the exact amount.)

So how much of it did I get back in sales? That’s the REAL question, isn’t it!?

Best selling product: Keys of Magic (Our second release) with 119 copies sold on RPGNow/DriveThru.

I also count 18 products at the Copper level (Over 50 copies sold) so far. With several more within “striking distance”.

On another note, I got a new piece of artwork back from Anthony today. This will appear on the cover of a soon-to-be-released project. Makes me hungry just looking at it!

Happy Columbus Day! Unfortunately I still have to work. (My wife and daughter are off today, though.) So traffic coming in today was very light, and I expect it to be just as light going home. Traffic in D.C. is great when the Federal Gummint’ is off work!

Worked this weekend on Black Tokyo. It’s coming along well. I’ll be glad to get this project out and published; as I am sure Chris Field will be as well. I sent over a couple of projects to Anthony for some artwork. He sent over the first draft of a cover this morning. I was counting and I have at least six projects in the works and ready to hit. It’s time to get back on track with my release schedule. I plan to keep up a regular schedule for the rest of the year.

Picked up the DVD set for the first season of Jericho. Great show. You can watch the first season on the web, but I opted for getting the DVD’s so my wife could watch with me, and then I can lend them out to friends. I read one person complain that the show isn’t realistic enough; which I can agree with. But I never watched Baywatch to learn about being a lifeguard. I never watched E.R. to learn about being a doctor. I don’t watch Law & Order to learn about cops either. Jericho is a great “What if” show. The premise; what if there were 20+ nuclear explosions in the US? You live in the small town of Jericho, Kansas. How do you cope? Sure, in “real life” the armed barricades might have gone up sooner, or people might not be so clean etc. But they address lots of issues in a meaningful and entertaining way. The final episode of the first season made me crack up:

Hawkins: This satellite must remain a secret.

Johnston: (pauses briefly) Sounds good.

Jake: What, that’s it?

Johnston: What do you want me to say? I get it, man has a satellite, doesn’t want anyone to know.

Jake: Yeah, but…

Johnston: I am about to go to war with New Bern, Kansas, the home of the nearest Costco - today is already just about as weird as I can handle. I’m not asking any more questions.