Electronic Warfare

The Gromm High Command was meeting at the Intelligence Gathering Collective’s assembly pod. It was an enormous space built of spun aluminum hexagonal prisms, and the Gromm worker caste had extruded comfortable resin shelves into this matrix for their leaders to reside in. The dozen Gromm generals, scientists and analysts sat around a central podium and fanned their wings to keep the pod cool.

Assomi-som, most senior general and Leads-From-the-Apex, was in a foul mood. The tubules along the sides of his thorax burned an incandescent green, indicating his general peevishness. “Ussami-gul,” buzzed the general shrilly, “Hive-of-the-Vengeful-Swarm has crossed the orbit of Sol’s outermost planet. It will not be long before we will be fighting for our lives to eradicate humankind or be eradicated. Would you not agree that now is a little late to be raising concerns regarding what we know about our enemy?”

Ussami-gul picked his words carefully and pitched his keenings as sweetly and deferentially as possible. “Assomi-som, doubtlessly you are correct,” said the xenosociologist. “We have been monitoring the Earth broadcasts for almost five of the humans’ generations, and we have built a physiological and psychological profile of the species that we believe will serve our Battle Plan well. We know about their sensitivity to pain and discomfort, for instance; we know what disables and kills them. We know what they hate and fear, and we know what they love and respect. They, meanwhile, know no such things about us, and this advantage will allow us to prevail.”

“We know all that,” replied Assomi-som crossly. “If that’s still the case, why have you convened this meeting?”

“Recent broadcasts from Earth, those from the last ten years or so, have introduced some anomalous data into the models,” Ussami-gul said. “We’re getting information that suggests our picture of the humans may not be as accurate as we had hoped. It worries me that things have changed so radically. It certainly suggests that the humans may be intentionally sending out misleading broadcasts to damage our Battle Plan.”

“But that would mean the humans know we are here!” trumpeted Igguzi-rup, his mouth-parts nictitating agitatedly.

“Soothe yourself, Igguzi-rup,” Assomi-som said. “Yes, I see why you were concerned, Ussami-gul, and it was wise of you to bring this to the attention of the High Council. Tell us more about these aberrant transmissions.”

“The humans,” intoned Ussami-gul, “call them ‘reality television’.”

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WEDAY: February Stats

Word Count: 54691. Much better than last month, about 20% lower. This is appropriate.

February is the shortest month, but this felt really long. The latter half of the month was very hard, and I did find myself digging into the idea file more often than I wanted. I had to force a lot of it, which sucks, but I knew this wasn't going to be all fun and games.

I'm disappointed that I deferred work on The Torch twice. That's not cool. Writing longer fiction is hard, but I'm supposed to be tackling the hard things so they won't be so hard any more. I have started planning for another serial project when Torch ends.

I liked Batey and the Seeder, but I think Lean on Me would require the least amount of editing to be made presentable. I was disappointed that I didn't manage to catch the spirit of I Am the Interloper the way I had imagined it. Some Less Romantic Things is just embarrassing, but I am also doing this so I can conquer my fear of being embarrassed if something doesn't come out right, so yay me.

I continue to be grateful that people are catching my stupids so they can be unstupided. I also like getting advice, insights and random pats on the head, so thanks to my many commenters.

I like to write! Everybody should do this.