Moe Lane's Blog, page 691
July 27, 2021
July 26, 2021
Last week of the July Patreon Pledge Drive!
Last week to go!
Fiction! Microfiction! Gaming material! All for a mere $1 a month! …Or more. I’ll happily take more. Sign up today!
Patreon!Jeff Bezos has Lunar Fever.
And he’s ready to spend billions of dollars right here on Earth* to break it:
With that in mind and on behalf of the National Team, we formally offer the following for your consideration:
Blue Origin will bridge the HLS budgetary funding shortfall by waiving all payments in the current and next two government fiscal years up to $2B to get the program back on track right now. This offer is not a deferral, but is an outright and permanent waiver of those payments. This offer provides time for government appropriation actions to catch up. Blue Origin will, at its own cost, contribute the development and launch of a pathfinder mission to low-Earth orbit of the lunar descent element to further retire development and schedule risks. This pathfinder mission is offered in addition to the baseline plan of performing a precursor uncrewed landing mission prior to risking any astronauts to the Moon. This contribution to the program is above and beyond the over $1B of corporate contribution cited in our Option A proposal that funds items such as our privately developed BE-7 lunar lander engine and indefinite storage of liquid hydrogen in space. All of these contributions are in addition to the $2B waiver of payments referenced above. Finally, Blue Origin will accept a firm, fixed-priced contract for this work, cover any system development cost overruns, and shield NASA from partner cost escalation concerns.Via Hot Air. Now that Bezos can demonstrate he can launch and retrieve an automated manned vessel, he wants in. And he’s willing to pump that money into the economy now in order to — well, take your pick on his long-term goals, whether they be squalid or noble. Or possibly both. And I don’t much care, as long as it doesn’t interfere with existing contracts. I don’t care if there’s one company or two that’s capable of going to the moon; I just want a proper space infrastructure built, and I don’t want it built by the People’s Republic of China. The more, the merrier.
Moe Lane
*I will not pretend that spaceships are made out of paper-mache dollar bills which are then sent up into space in a fit of spiteful potlatch. The money is “spent right here on Earth:” it’s just that certain sorts object to where the money is being spent (i.e., not on their pet projects).
07/26/21 Snippet, DEEP IN THE HEART OF SEX FISH.
Breakfast! DENIED.
Patreon!The evening ended like it had before: at my place. This time I managed to stay awake long enough to drowsily offer Emily the other half of my bed, with a nice breakfast tossed in. Or she could come back for it, if she’d rather sleep at her own place.
She nicely but firmly turned me down. “That’s sweet, Bob. But do you even have anything to cook?”
“I could go out first thing in the morning,” I mumbled. “I don’t mind.” And I didn’t. At all.
Maybe Emily saw that, because she was quiet for a second. “What’s the motto of Trawlr, Bob?” she asked me.
I remembered it, sure. There’s Plenty of Fish in the Sea! “Right,” I said aloud. “I’m not trying to crowd you, sorry. Just wanted to keep it going a little while longer.”
She sat on the bed, and even tousled my head for a moment before pulling her hand back. “I’m not mad,” she said. “And I had a lot of fun tonight. But this is all the time I can have for right now.” She brushed my hair a little. “I have to go. Get some sleep, Bob.”
And, just like that, I was out like a light.
07/26/21 Snippet, THE DEFENSE OF CASTLE WINDERMERE.
Exploration!
Patreon!The mine gates were unlocked. This disturbed everyone in the party. One did not leave the door open during an undead apocalypse, after all. At least, not twice.
Carlotta had chosen herself, Jimmy, and Witherby for the expedition to shut down the beacon; Loud Mary and the others she kept outside, on the principle that six would probably not be more likely to survive than three. If the three outside had to flee, say, an awakened horde of shamblers, they could always split up, and increase the chance of somebody making it back to the castle. And she absolutely had to go, since Carlotta was the only arcanist in the group.
Also, she was a duchess, which was a duty that now had expectations attached to it. No doubt her companions might have preferred to have a duke along, instead, but she was here and there were things that needed doing.
The Wanderwell Gang [The Day After Ragnarok]
The Wanderwell Gang
No sense in sugar-coating it: the Wanderwells are a bandit gang based out of the ruins of Columbus. What makes the Wanderwells interesting is that they’re a mechanized bandit gang. The gang uses motorcycles (converted to ethanol engines) to hit their targets unexpectedly, then retreat. They generally have twenty to twenty five members, broken up into three squads for raids.
These are not romantic bandits, by the way. Wanderwells aren’t the slave-collars and spikes-on-shoulders sorts: they don’t kidnap for ransom or trade in slaves; and they aren’t gratuitously cruel. But they’re not trustworthy, and in a fight they’ll shoot to kill. And if you’re a weak-looking merchant caravan they’re absolutely going to try to rob you, regardless of the situation. Life is hard in the Ohio Country, especially when there’s a war going on. And there’s always a war going on.
The two leaders of Wanderwells – Idris and Nell – were both traveling adventurers in the 1920s and 1930s (indeed, they were both married to the same charming rogue at one point). Idris was peacefully enjoying her semi-retirement when the Serpentfall happened; she ran into Nell in 1946, back when the Wanderwell gang was still pretending to be a guard company. They shifted to outright banditry soon after. Idris’ supposedly estranged current husband still lives in Cincinnati with their children: in reality, he’s secretly providing the Wanderwells with information on good merchant targets via coded phrases via Cincinnati’s WHIO’s broadcasts. The kids are likewise bandits at heart.
The gang’s biggest weakness is that it keeps getting harder to find the supplies they need to keep their bikes running; Idris and Nell are now looking for One Big Score to retire on. They may have made Ohio too hot for them, but Chicago always has a place for entrepreneurs who know how to do business. But the problem there is that Chicago is expensive to buy into, so it has to be a really big score…
July 25, 2021
I have returned!
Saw my mom for the first time in pretty much two years. So did my kids. It was a time of root beer floats, sea breezes on the porch, walks on the beach, and the Wu-Tang Clan:
Belmar, NJ. cc @Wu_Tang_Finance pic.twitter.com/7iX1DD0SHm
— Ogiel (Moe Lane) (@Ogiel23) July 25, 2021
That’s art, dammit.
Moe Lane
PS: Regular posting returns tomorrow.
July 24, 2021
Book of the Week: Tales From The Fermi Resolution.
Cheating, but I’m visiting my mom and Tales From The Fermi Resolution has a tale from my upcoming novel in it. Check it out today!
