The Storm - S. Roche & L. Wise

Lightning seared Felicia's eyes as she stared at the cityscape
outside her office window. She glanced at her watch, Peter was already
two hours late and the storm would not help the schedule. The expensive
leather office chair caught her weight as she collapsed onto it and let
its vibrations soothe her stress and fatigue. It had been such a long
day already and with the tasks still looming ahead, the night would be
even longer.

The intercom on her desk crackled, "Dr. McKay, your last
appointment finally showed."

Her finger pushed the reply button and Felicia replied, "Give me
one minute and send him in." She pulled a white legal pad from a desk
drawer, made sure that her Mont Blanc was at hand, and started the
concealed tape recorder with its foot switch. Quickly pulling out a
small mirror, she checked her hair and makeup.

The oak door to her office swung open quietly admitting Ryan
Younger, homicidal maniac and her newest patient. He strode across the
room like a panther, the soles of his patent leather shoes barely making
a sound.

She stood, smoothing the wrinkles from her skirt and extended a
hand. "Good evening, Mr. Younger," she said while forcing a smile.
He returned the smile and she could immediately see why he had
been able to win his way into the houses of each of his seventeen
victims. He was devastatingly handsome, broad-shouldered and had the
manner of a natural charmer.

"Hello Dr. McKay, I apologize for being late."

"It is quite all right," she said, withdrawing her hand and
concentrating on maintaining her composure.

"I feel like quite the cad and want to make it up to you."

Felicia kept her smile as her trained mind reached back to her
classes, particularly old Dr. Dwyer who lectured the students on always
being calm and controlled in front of a patient. "Not necessary in the
least I assure you, but if you insist you can have a seat and we can get
started." Outwardly, she kept up the façade while inside she thought,
where is Peter?

He sat in one of the two overstuffed chairs that faced her desk.
Felicia sat with the legal pad in her lap and said, "So do you remember
where we left off last time?"

"Of course doctor, we had just gone over my family history and
the usual first visit rubbish that members of your profession find so...
tantalizing."

"I believe we went a little farther than that," she said, pretending to look over notes on the blank legal pad.

"Lies, lies, lies, everything that comes out of that pretty
mouth of yours is a lie." His voice gained a harsh edge, so unlike the
suave debonair Ryan Younger she saw on the first visit, in fact he
sounded more and more like the man Peter warned her about.

Her foot hovered near the alarm button on the floor, but she
would wait until she felt absolutely certain that her life was in danger
to use it.

"To tell you the truth Doctor," he began, and Felicia noticed
for the first time that Younger's left hand had never left his tailored
pants pocket, "I have not exactly been honest with you either."

Vainly, she tried to remember those silly self defense
techniques that Peter had insisted she learn. Peter, an ex-SEAL and her
boyfriend of three years was big on self-defense, but where was he now
and how could he not be here after they had agreed that he would be
hiding in the closet while she kept her appointment with Mr. Younger?

"You see Felicia, I have been sent here on a very special
mission by someone you know very well and that mission involves you."

"And what would that mission be, Mr. Younger?" Felicia said, now
feeling the alarm button through her shoes, the button that would send
an emergency signal to her receptionist just outside the door.

His hand whipped out of his pocket faster than she could blink,
a switchblade appearing as if by magic. Felicia pressed the button with
her toes, repeatedly, frantically, until she noticed a shard of cloth
hanging from the red-stained blade, a cloth that looked like part of the
scarf her receptionist was wearing earlier.

He followed her glance and smiled, "I let your secretary go for
you, she looked tired."

Felicia had one more chance if she could stall for time, "Mr.
Younger, did you hurt Maria?" she asked while she felt behind her desk,
reached in her purse for her cell phone and pressed Peter's speed dial
number.

"I'm sure she's not," his sentence was cut short by a musical
tone from behind the only entrance to the room. "It seems that we have a
visitor, Dr. McKay," he said coldly, "Why don't you see who is at the
door?"

She stood, her knees threatening to fail her at any minute, and
went towards the door. She felt as though she were in a dream as she
neared the giant oak door, the lighting flashing outside, until she
finally grasped the cool knob in her sweaty palm.

The plane of wood shoved into her, knocking her onto her back.
Her head banged against the floor as she sensed, something, rushing into
the room. Thunder boomed and lightning flashed, but that couldn't be
right. She turned her head, in a daze, and saw someone (Peter?) walking,
no stumbling, across the floor and then falling onto his knees.
The gun in Peter's hand fell to the floor and she saw Ryan
stretched across her desk bleeding onto her legal pad.

"No!" she yelled, trying to get to her feet.

Peter stood and managed to cross the room making it to the
sliver of steel on the floor. Ryan stayed motionless across the desk,
blood running in rivulets over the legal pad, while Peter picked up the
switchblade and said, "Are you okay, Felicia?"

She began to sob and ran to him, crying into his chest. As she
pressed her cheek into his body, his chest felt... Wet.

As she reeled back, he lifted the knife to chest level and spoke
words that chilled her to the core. "Ryan was number eighteen."
She took two steps back and tripped over her heel, her hand
hitting something cold and hard. Her mind screamed, the gun!, she
grabbed it and aimed it at Peter.

He stopped and smiled, "You wouldn't."

"Oh yes I would," she said in a cracking voice, vainly trying to
sound brave, while her eyes caught a hint of movement on the desk behind
Peter.

Ryan rose from the desk and screamed like a banshee, launching
himself at Peter's back. He plunged Felicia's bejeweled letter opener
hilt deep in Peter's flesh and pulled violently downward, ripping a
bloody gash.

Peter grunted under the assault and returned the strike with a
slash of his own while she looked on horrified. The two men grappled,
blood splattering from their wounds. Peter had training on his side,
but Ryan's own maniacal strength eventually overcame it. Ryan gained the
upper hand long enough to choke out the words, "You said nobody would be
hurt..." After one more titanic struggle and a horrible cracking sound,
he rolled off of his assailant and looked at his doctor, "I guess he
lied too."

An especially bright flash of lightning illuminated the room as
Felicia relaxed her grip on the pistol and muttered, "In more ways than
one."

Timeline...

In Miami on February 15, 1933, Guiseppe Zangara fires five pistol shots in the direction of President-elect Franklin Delano Roosevelt. In our timeline, he misses FDR and hits five other people. One of the bullets fatally wounds Chicago mayor Anton J. Cermak. FDR lives and is President until his natural death in 1945.

In our alternate timeline, one of Zangara’s bullets hits FDR in the heart. He quickly dies, throwing the nation into a constitutional crisis. Unpopular President Hoover, coming off his landslide defeat in the 1932 election starts pressuring Vice-President-elect John Nance Garner to continue Hoover’s policies. Garner, who did not consult with FDR about any real policy plans, agrees. The people, already shell-shocked over the Depression, mourn the loss of FDR, whom an overwhelming number of voters saw as their only hope. Unrest grows, as Garner is sworn in as President.

Garner’s first term is a disaster. The depression only gets worse and in 1935, there is an attempted coup by a Fascist group seeking to emulate Nazi Germany and Italy. General MacArthur, the Army chief of Staff in Washington, stops the coup and Garner names MacArthur as special military assistant to the President with wide-ranging powers. The people rally around the general, who quickly assumes near dictatorial control of the U.S. government. He institutes a series of surprisingly left-wing economic reforms that revitalize the U.S.

MacArthur is elected president in 1936 unopposed and continues his reforms, including the redistribution of land. The power goes to his head and his ego grows. He begins a program of massive military buildup as a means of creating jobs. When Hitler begins making aggressive moves in Europe, MacArthur sternly warns Hitler that any violation of the Versaille Treaty will not be tolerated, even though the U.S. never ratified the treaty. Hitler backs down, for now.

President Mac sees expansionist Japan as the biggest threat to the U.S. and so the biggest U.S. military buildup is in the Pacific. Mac signs defense treaties with the French in Vietnam and the Phillipines. Meanwhile, Mac brings big business into line with his economic reforms by a combination of threats and reasonable persuasion. Mac does not think Hitler will ever carry out his threats in Europe.

For his part, Hitler realizes the problem of Mac and a newly powerful U.S. so he makes a bargain with Stalin to keep the Soviet Union neutral and then bides his time. He breaks the Versailles Treaty by building up his military, but Mac can’t convince France and Britain to do anything about it. Mac cannot act alone and he becomes frustrated with the European allies.

Japan has the opposite reaction from Hitler. Feeling threatened by the U.S. in the Pacific, Japan invades China in 1937. Mac immediately begins an aid program to Nationalist China and bulks up U.S. forces in Southeast Asia, establishing bases in Vietnam and Philippines. He scrapped most of the older battleships in the Pacific fleet and built modern ones. The U.S. is on a near-war footing.

A peace movement begins in the U.S. and Mac quickly squelches it, or so he thinks. Some intellectuals leave the U.S. for the Soviet Union. Japan has success in China and invades Vietnam and the Philippines. Mac decides to commit American forces in 1938. Soon, there is full scale war in Asia and the Pacific. The military begins to chafe at Mac’s hands-on involvement, but Japan is being pushed back. The Chinese communists and nationalists are both fighting with the U.S. against Japan, but their alliance is weak and uncoordinated. Once the initial stock of supplies diminishes, the U.S. finds it hard to re-supply across the vast Pacific with Japanese naval harassment of the convoys. The war bogs down, with Japan still in possession of much of Manchuria.

Hitler wants to take advantage of the distraction and attack Poland, but German generals talk him out of it because the army is not quite ready. Germany is bold enough to occupy Austria and Czechoslovakia in 1939, to nothing but talk from France and Britain, both of whom are fighting on the U.S. side in Asia. Japan is asking Germany for help, but Hitler refuses. Tensions build in Europe. Finally, in spring 1940, Germany invades Poland and France simultaneously. Both quickly fall, driving France from the Pacific war. The Vietnamese communist party, led by Ho Chi Minh, begins a guerilla war against the U.S. Germany and the Soviet Union restate their neutrality toward each other and divide Poland between them. Britain tries to come to France’s rescue, but is repulsed. Germany invades Denmark and Norway. The Democrats run a weak peace candidate against Mac in 1940 and loses. Mac is surprised at Hitler’s actions, but commits the U.S. to a European war against Germany. On hearing this news, Hitler abandons his secret plan to invade the Soviet Union.

As 1941 dawns, World War II is on.

To sum up, Mac is in his second term and is a near dictator in the U.S. Hitler went about pretty much the same plan as in reality, only delayed. That only allowed his forces more time to prepare and build. Also, Hitler does not plan to invade the Soviet Union. The Pacific War is more land-based than ‘island-hopping’ and is logistically harder for the U.S. than in reality. There are all kinds of undercurrents in U.S. society, lots of Communist, Fascist elements operating underground.

Characters...

Sgt. Rick Johansson – A veteran of the conflict in Viet Nam and the Philippines. He’s back home and itching to go but a missing right leg keeps him off the battle field. He can still fly a plane and works hard to recruit fresh meat for the coming war overseas.

Vicki Pearce – A British reporter who knows a lot about the goings on in “American Occupied Asia” and the atrocities on both sides. She is now in America and trying to contact the leaders of the underground peace movement.

Stewart “Big Stew” Washington – A cell leader in the peace movement, he too was active in setting up the military bases in Asia and hated what her saw. He is publicly fighting as best he can for civil rights in America, while running a group that is preparing to sabotage the American War Machine.

Klaus von Adler – Nazi insider and member of the Thule Society, he is the first Nazi Superman. He possesses great strength physically and mentally. He is being groomed to assassinate MacArthur and any other world leaders that cross Hitler’s plan.

Wernher Von Braun – He broke through earlier than anyone knew about and possesses the plans for a working A-9 (early ICBM) and has fled to parts unknown with those after destroying all records of his research.

Suzanne Wong – Japanese-American code-breaker for Army Intelligence. She has recently decrypted a communiqué about a long range Japanese sub using an unknown power source with a weapon that rivals the power of any conventional armament. Frustrated by her desk job she yearns to get involved in field work.

It was a dark and stromy night...

No really! It was dark. It wasn't the weird kind of dark like the indeterminate paint color on a customized PT Cruiser. (Is it purple? Is it green? Is it black?) It was the real dark. Dark like the intentions of an evil dictator about to collect more money from his oppressed subjects. Dark like your eyes closed in a windowless room. Dark like 80% Cocoa chocolate. I'm talking DARK DARK.

Stormy? You'd think that a tornado mated with a hurricane to produce this lovechild storm. Rain was coming up at a 10 degree angle. Trees walked around like last minute Christmas shoppers. Cars glided by like seagulls on a hot summer day. Paint chips were in the air as thick as hornets after shaking their nest. (Don't ask me how I know what that's like, but it is THICK).

IT WAS DARK AND STORMY ALRIGHT.

Yet, as I sipped my Latte at Starbucks, I thought about the fact that my laptop was still getting a wifi signal, so I went to weather.com and looked at the pretty pictures.

Alrighty...

Now that everyone has accepted that looks like they're going to, lets do this. As I see it we have a choice to make before we go much further. We can go with a future/sci-fi (dystopian or not) story-verse, we can go retro history (like Sky Captain), or we can do something in a present day. I think enough of us present have stated a lack of interest in fantasy. Since I want maximum cooperation, but I realize that we aren't likely to get any sort of unanimous decision I will post some options and I would like for you guys to post (in a comment) what your order of preference is.

1) Futuristic Sci-fi (immediate future/40-50 years ahead)
2) History redone (20th century with a twist, Sky Captain style)
3) Modern fiction (current day with or without a twist <---to be decided if we go this route)

Also, no matter which direction we go we'll need people to go with their strengths. If we are going to make one massive story then we'll need to cooperate.

Do you want to work on (again order of preference):
A) what got us to this point in our worls (historian)
B) what our world is like now (set designer)
C) Give us a rough cast of characters (casting director) note that what these guys come up with does not limit us.

Comments

Comments are activated. I like the post nuclear war apocalypse option. If the other guys are looking though, this isn't by any any means our only option. We're noodling at this point.

If you see a little pencil, you can edit that post. To keep things in line you can just edit the post stick your stuff on the end and maybe that way we can keep things in line.

Near Future

Yeah, I think maybe in the 50's (2050's that is). Let's see what the other guys have to say once they get to thinking.

Well...

I think first we might want to decide on a level of reality and a time frame.

Also, will we each tell our own stories within this framework or will we combine or talents into a few or a single story?

Personally I think we would do well to go with something gritty in the near future. Sci-fi, but not Trek level, more like Blade Runner or Minority report. How does that sit with you guys?

From one of my last posts

Awrelias Severus Tigius - Father of the Republic
Two years into the cataclysm, (5839 ED) the senate took a risky move by deposing Junias Metellus. Junias had served as a general in the military for 25 years and done much for the empire as emperor for the past five years. He was noted for capturing the Ikan lands, as well as destroying a great Sook threat in the south. During his brief reign, he built roads throughout the border territories and began to allow Ganarii traders in the common markets. However, due to overwhelming military losses from attempts to retain the eastern reaches of the empire, the soldiers did not object to his removal. The republic was restored and Awrelias Severus was made consul. Awrelias had also served in the military mostly by fighting the Siptidrans (humans) in the northern frontiers. In areas where he encountered magically augmented forces, he developed a system of strategic retreats and razing the land as they left. This allowed them to retain some territories in lands where magic is possible while creating a barrier between to protect his outmatched forces. History also records a gambit whereby he tricked the Siptidrans into believing that he had mastered certain magical abilities combined with an inventive use of archers and cavalry. No doubt that Awrelias displayed some kind of military ingenuity, diplomacy, and cleverness to retain territory against a vastly superior foe.

As Awrelias took the consulship, the Senate wisely passed many of his reforms quickly without much debate. This allowed the fledging republic to quickly respond to various threats and begin to establish order.

The new consul first created the Awrelian Demarcation. Using various concrete columns bearing the inscription “gafe nekorum” (beware of magic) the ‘boundaries’ of magic were quickly marked and discovered. Continuing his tactics from the northern frontiers, he also instructed military commanders to make strategic retreats to the demarcation line along the eastern front. Having successfully defended the northern boundaries years earlier, the military could focus on the eastern boundary. Special units on horseback sent messages quickly up and down the eastern line allowing troop movement to areas of greatest need. Five years after the cataclysm, the bulk of the fighting ended except for periodic skirmishes in the southeast. This allowed Awrelias to move to promote stability and realign Hesberia in the face of a new reality.

He had increased the grain dole when he first took office, but after five years reserves were rapidly depleting and the current level could not be maintained. Rich farmland in the east was no longer available and the western lands could barely meet the demand. However, the northern lands he had been able to retain continued to increase their harvest. The grain was not considered to be as good as grain in the southern lands, but the increasing volume met the need. He instructed the governor of Tecia in the north to investigate the increase and in short order, a new system of fertilization with the use of adamite was developed. This advance averted a widespread famine, though areas of the west experienced local famines of their own.

Spending reserves of the empire, he created several large building projects throughout the empire. He encouraged slaves to become a part of these projects promising citizenship and soldier’s pay in return for five years of service. This helped to quell the small slave revolts and artificially created demand for important goods and services. More roads were built under this program than at any other time in the empire. Temples to the Old Gods were created in many cities - this sated the superstitious belief that the Old Gods were punishing the empire for ignoring them. Awrelias’ minister of Religion and minister of public morality also actively suppressed “Eastern” ideas seen in many religions dedicated to the so-called New Gods.

In 5851, the Bredurium guard, the personal protectors of the consul, attempted to assassinate Awrelias. The empire had lost much of its former glory. A plague the year before along the eastern border discouraged some of the generals in the military. In addition, many soldiers were involved in construction projects - this was seen as shameful to the soldiers and to their commanders, especially Lysias Cosas. Lysias had led unauthorized raids into the east with modest success. He began to build support amongst the other generals under the belief it was time to reclaim the lands that were lost. The senate had begun to slow down reforms and were seen by citizens as needlessly quarreling and corrupt.

The story goes that Awrelias, himself, fought off the attack and killed his would-be assassin with his own blade. Cutting off the assassin’s head, he carried it to the Senate where he made an impassioned speech “for the glory and people of Hesberia”. He declared that he was not too weak to defend himself and neither was the empire. He then spoke against the slowness of the senate and demanded that the senate stop vying for position and start caring for the people. He declared that a politician was the most destructive of assassins.

Lysias, not knowing that the assassination was foiled marched into the capital leading a procession of plunder, strange beasts, and prisoners. Upon hearing the trumpets, Awrelias marched to greet him. As the senators held their breath, Awrelias publicly congratulated Lysias on his military success and love of the empire. Awrelias claimed victory on his behalf and held the first public games in several years. To thank Lysias, Awrelias promoted him to his cabinet in a position that took him far away from the capital and the eastern front. Lysias passed away in his sleep two years later while returning to the capital. (It is said he was struck by lightning).

For the rest of his reign, Awrelias spoke of restoring the glory of Hesberia. He expanded his various construction projects and even discovered new lands across the seas to the southwest in 5867. The discovery of these large islands brought in much needed resources and materials and goods. In 5870, Awrelias died of a fever. His successor, Rufus Quintus Livius appointed by the Senate, was another military general that had served as a young soldier under Awrelias. In 5875, Awrelias was deified and a temple to him was built. Rufus took the name of Cajus (Kai-us) Tigius on his appointment.

Test

This is a place for us to tell our story.