Hey! No Split this time! Ain't that something! And better yet, I managed to keep the page count reasonable as well! And the next chapter should be more or less the same, it's also almost done. So we're getting back in the groove I think! To celebrate, how about some Behind the Scenes for this chapter?
Aftermath of the Plunder Nest: I needed to show Snarlbeak's reaction to all his stuff getting destroyed. It had been too long since we last saw him, more importantly the last arc was all about his far flung plans and he never showed up. It was time to get his perspective. And also show how he is not doing well after the Mind's Eye... at all. If anything he's worse. He's still the businessman and crime lord but his priorities have been completely skewed. Now convinced he has to be even more ruthless and uncompromising.
Credit to my editor Crow here, he actually suggested changing the punishment Zhoc had in store for the security chiefs who failed. As a practical way of showing he hasn't completely fallen off the deep end and can think practically, even if his practical solutions are horrible. He was originally going to kill them all here, well Lurz would. I cut it down to one as an example instead and had the rest thrown into the meat grinder for the raid instead.
I will say this about Snarlbeak, he's not doing this solely for himself. He really is convinced that this is all for his sister. The fact is, he has never been able to properly process her death and in his grief has subjected others to similar pain. The harsh truth is, he wants to be his sister, but he has become his father. Which is another parallel in some respects to Zek actually. But that's for another chapter, as I'm alluding to with the small rift that's growing between Zek and Retz. The thing is, there's still hope for Zek... I don't think Zhoc even wants to get better or is capable.
Sneaky Business: Stealth and infiltration were the orders of the day for this chapter on both sides. I decided that, given how high octane the action was last time, we needed a breather even if we were jumping right in to the next relic mission. For Zek and Company, they just dressed up like they were Covies and lied their way through, as per with them. The Spartans and Shepard were more standard military, and I probably pulled more than a little from Ghost Recon for that.
I have a lot of inspirations for my stories, but it's safe to say I'm most comfortable relying on military fiction to an extent. It's direct, it's procedural, I understand to a certain degree at this point how it works. It's probably why I still like Tom Clancy even if it seems to age poorly political wise. It doesn't hurt my enjoyment of the series though. Sneaking through the brush to take down bad guys is always a blast for me. And getting to see Shepard and the Spartans work more closely together felt necessary after they were apart for so long.
I will say it's hard to leave certain characters out though. I try to make Shepard's choices for his squad make logistical and tactical sense, but that does mean sometimes others I would like to use are left behind. So I'll have to make it up to those characters another time in some way.
I liked doing the synchronized sniper scene the most though, just building the tension to the very end of the scene. I won't lie, there was a little inspiration from the scene in "Captain Phillips" but I was playing Ghost Recon Wildlands not long ago, so there's also a bit from there. Like I said, I pull from a lot of sources for these stories.
Spaceship Planetoid: I wanted to facilitate the Battle in the Void from First Strike, but decided I needed to change it around. So I thought up this idea. I elaborate more on it later, but essentially the idea was, this Relic controls Slipspace exclusively and when it connects to the other relics, which I showed is possible previously, it does some wonky things. That would enable me to do the Void Battle in Subspace but with different parameters even if the results and causes are mostly the same. Now we can fight in a doubly unique setting of a mostly destroyed hunk of space rock within the dark void of Slipspace.
To be frank, I had to check up on what Slipspace looks like from the inside. I had it in my head it was black and blue void with constant speedlines lighting things up. No, it's just black. Like none more black. There's nothing in there. If there is anything, you can't see it because anything from subspace apparently has a different visual cue range. Still creepy of course, I mean, everything just being pitch black is... frankly a little terrifying. But it's not as visually interesting to write or imagine. I suppose everyone being sorta blind is an issue, but Drop Troopers have night vision and flashlights. The image of a massive half destroyed planet floating in the pitch black makes up for it though and I'm not here to greatly change lore, regardless of what some might say.
I think the imagery comes across nicely enough though and I'm just glad we've finally got to this part of First Strike. I know everyone has been excited for it and were disappointed we didn't go straight into it, but here we are! I hope it was worth the wait.
The Mind of Lurz: This scared me. It scared me to write this and it scared me how easy it was to write this. I have made it no secret that Lurz is a psychopathic monster, but I've never really sat around in his headspace for long. He doesn't talk much, he doesn't really voice his purpose or reasons or motive. This was really one of the few chances I could get for an excuse as to why Lurz is the way he is. And it's very simple... he really likes killing.
I'd be remiss for saying he's just crazy, because it's not really that. He might be a sociopath and a psychopath, but he has greater reasoning than that. He could kill on his own no problem, but to him... it's sorta senseless. There's no direction, no purpose behind his actions. Snarlbeak gave him those things because he couldn't do it himself. His loyalty isn't out of companionship or any actual love for Zhoc, Lurz is incapable of that sort of emotion. He just sees a kindred spirit in Snarlbeak, a person who understands the power of what Lurz does. Zhoc needs a killer and Lurz is the best at it. As long as Zhoc needs people dead, Lurz has purpose and direction to his actions. His horrible, horrifying, terrible actions.
Lurz doesn't even view killing as purely that, as you could read between the subtext and... insane thought process, he thinks he's stealing life. The one thing that he can take that can never be taken back. He's that sort of pirate, the one who doesn't care about money or power. The power comes from being able to steal the existence of others away from them. And his pack is much the same way, Lurz having found others who felt similar to how he viewed the world. I don't think all Ibie'shans are like this, but from what I've read they are generally far more brutal and vicious. Lurz just takes that mentality and lifestyle to its most extreme.
And that's the power he gives Zhoc. The fact Snarlbeak can control something as just plain evil and disturbed and wrong as Lurz... that's power enough to keep anyone in line. Does Zhoc truly understand Lurz though? I can't say for sure. I think Lurz believes that or at least thinks that it's something Snarlbeak knows deep down but won't admit. But while Zhoc needs Lurz because he understands how having an enforcer like him around benefits him, I don't think they share the same exactly philosophy about the nature of power. For Snarlbeak, I think while he believes power must be taken by force, he does believe in negotiation. At the point of a gun, sure, but he believes in making deals. Lurz just believes in blood, pure and simple.
We'll get plenty of time with Lurz here, trust me. But I'm going to be concerned about dipping into his mind again for a while. I don't want get to like it that much.
Come on the Rising Wind: So the ODST sequence... yeah, I'll admit it, I was borrowing a ton from Helldivers 2. Can you believe we could've gotten a game like that in the Halo universe? What the hell guys! 343, what were you thinking saying no? I unfortunately do not have the game, but I keep up with what's going on inside it. Frankly, I'm both amazed at the community's ability to rally... and dismayed at how disorganized and really stupid they can be at times. It's a mixture of joyful elation and annoyed, anger at seeing their triumphs and failures regularly.
Currently as I'm writing this, the HD2 Community is sabotaging themselves on a major order because they simply refuse to take a certain planet because they're all fed up with fighting fire tornados alongside regular enemies. Honestly, the fact they just can't seem to get over their hang ups and properly finish up a planet that would get them where they need to go, is rather disheartening. I mean, they took it before and they could probably do so very quickly if they all rallied, but they just can't it seems. They need some sort of in-game method of organizing each other or this sort of stuff will keep happening.
Anyway, given my interest in Helldivers despite my inability to play the game, this was McKay's time to shine. She's been a captain for a while, but this time she gets to lead a proper drop into battle. This is what the ODSTs were made for. I really wanted to capture the feeling of being in one of those pods, dropping towards a planet... and then the drop going sideways once the slipspace rupture hit. That was a cool thing to write honestly. Just placing myself into McKay's headspace of both trying to keep her unit together while not getting killed as she plummets, first through space, then slipspace and then towards a rapidly approaching planet's surface.
I just want to say, I've come to really like writing McKay. Just a normal regular soldier on the frontlines and in command. It's a different experience from Kowalski, who is mostly doing whatever he's told and has no special knowledge to the inner workings of command. He's just a regular marine grunt, and while he's certain had a lot of special training and acquired a ton of skills, he's still just a private doing his best to survive the insanity he's found himself in.
McKay is in command, she doesn't have the special powers or abilities of Shepard or the Spartans though. She's a regular human woman with a ton of lives at her disposal and under her watch. Some of those Troopers were fighting against her not long ago, so that's another level of pressure on her shoulders. She finds herself more regularly navigating the myriad of personalities who are in charge and dealing with the soldiers on the ground. She's a lot like Balak in that way, but for the UNSC now that I think about it. Unlike him though, she had to confront the commanding officer who betrayed her, or more accurately, the one who she turned her back on when he went down the road she couldn't follow.
So seeing McKay in her element, truly leading her people and doing her best to get the job done had been a long time coming. And her being in charge of this drop was real special to me. I really wanted to get this right and that meant picking the correct music to play on BBR as they headed planetoid-side. Trust me, it was not easy. I went through several songs and I was really annoyed that I couldn't pick some. Mostly because, well, it would be too on the nose as to what I was referencing.
By now everyone has made the connections, Helldivers 2 has reinvigorated an interest in Vietnam War Era rock music. So many compilations and music videos have "Paint it Black" and "Paranoid" playing in the background. I couldn't play "Run Through the Jungle" as much as I love that song, because it didn't fit other than being a Helldivers reference. Not to the game, but to the community at large.
So I eventually settled on "Up Around the Bend" by CCR, if mostly because the lyrics felt like they had the best connection to the ODSTs themselves. And it sounded like something that you'd listen to if you were dropping into a hot war zone. It took me a bit to settle on it of course, there were a few other songs I considered, but they were either too heavy or not sensical for the sequence. "Up Around the Bend" fit the best in the end.
You can probably expect the ODSTs to borrow some from the Helldivers, but don't worry, I'm not gonna have them shout "For the UNSC!" or whatever. Drop Troopers do not possess them same levels of insane patriotic zeal. That's for sure. But this is not gonna be anymore an easy mission on them than for any of the other teams.
I think that's all for now. I'll be seeing you again soon though, don't worry. We'll be getting through this arc much faster and onto the true endgame very soon. Don't worry, we're getting back in the saddle here. Thanks again for sticking with me, I honestly sometimes if I deserve you folks, I really do, so it does me good to know you have. Means a lot, more than you could know.
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