ALIEN: Manticore

Bww. I encountered a similar problem when brainstorming my idea for how to utilise the xeno and still make it fearsome. I found from a biology perspective the big chap in particular is so damn Alien it doesn't belong in any natural environment at all! You just cant see it frolicking through a nice forest, or skipping through some grasslands.

There was 2 terrestrial environments I came up with:

1.Primordial Volcanic environments full of hot steam, smoke and shadows, twisted lava/silicate/obsidian structures. 

2.Taiga forest where its blackness contrasts with the snow quite fearsomely. hide in the snow, or amongst the thick alpine conifers, glacial ice tunnels, hot springs etc.

ps. I've used them both ;-)

Other possibilities that haven't been done (with a xeno anyway) - Desert biome?

The Big Chap suits space environments very well but they're all been done and explored extensively in books, comics and movies. And as you say, the crews have a big advantage and you have to think hard and be quiet creative to put your protagonists in a situation that doesn't favour them, and that hasn't already been explored. 

IRaptus

Nice to know other writers have had similar challenges working with The Big Chap these days!! TY for saying and letting me know!!

Man...Taiga Forest with an Alien...that's just Horrific-Beauty, really!!
Volcanic and such environs...is just totally and absolutely Perfect.
You make a great point about it's 'Alien-ness' and regards to environments!!

" You just cant see it frolicking through in a nice forest, or skipping through some grasslands. "

Unfortunately...I can now. LOL :D

And this exchange has just given me a flash about a minor detail that everyone keeps overlooking...
It's stated in a few places that LV-426 was a 'captured' body, an interstellar wanderer...so...hmmm....gears and machinery are spooling up. ;)

sorry for the loopy imagery of a frolicking xeno, its too early in the morning where I am, and I have a nice hypo coffee buzz going.

One other note. No one has done a good dystopian urban environment story with a xeno yet.....not the whole Jurassic Park 2 T-rex running amuck down town thing.... but a truly terrifying intimate encounter in a dead city. so much potential!!

IRaptus

No, no!! It's quite alright!! It's kind of a fun mental image...the beast romping in a field of grass and daisies, chasing and snapping at butterflies...it's ODD, but not unpleasant. :D

Dystopican city with one of The Big Chaps...heh, that would be a nightmare, yeah...and almost straight out of my head as well. :)
That's a good idea, intriguing I must say!! Definitely deserving of thought, and the mental imagery leaps right to mind!!

Man, I love this forum where I meet you and others you and I have encountered who have imaginations as active as our own!!

Update: Completing Editing Pass #4. Then there'll be Editing Pass #5 with the 6th as the final one before releasing the story. It's going well enough that I can make accurate estimates now and things are on-track as per the release date I stated :)
2 weeks, possibly a 3rd week, at most. :)

YES, it is most definitely the best website I've come across in a very long time, for a lot of reasons!! 

Wow, It must take a while to get through your entire script on an editing pass? Or do you pick out chapters that need work?

Ive found while doing some editing on the fly in between chapters that if you make a change somewhere, it typically requires changes elsewhere. Maybe to reinforce certain aspects, flesh out a character, reduce duplication/redundancy etc.May I ask what your total word count is?

IRaptus

Ditto and I am so glad I found my way here!!

ALIEN: Manticore:
10 Chapters
58,019 word-count, at the present time

So, it takes a while to go through it, yeah. I work from start-to-finish, to be sure I don't miss anything. It takes longer, but also helps me keep track of what I've edited and such thus far.

EXACTLY, a change somewhere can induce,inspire, or outright force a change elsewhere!!
So far, that's actually been working in my favor as some weak areas have been found and reinforced, built-up to a better degree.

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Godzilla: King of the Monsters

TY for saying!!

Yeah, it's long, with more to be added. :)

...which is in-progress, and will make things much better than my original first-draft ideas.

8000-odd words is quite a good piece of work!!
In perspective, here's (below) some word counts from writer's guidelines from Publishing sources, so you have a pretty solid accomplishment under you!!

• SHORT STORY:
  • Under 500 words can be described as ‘Flash Fiction’
  • Between 1000 and 8000 words is a short story (also, most short story competitions will stipulate their required word length for entry)
  • Between 5000 and 10,000 words is a long short story
  • NOVELLA: This is a story that is between 10,000 and 40,000 words.

Good to hear you're adding chapters and building on what you've got, and I'm looking fwd to reading it!!

Thank-you for the kind words of appreciation and encouragement!!! :)
I'm indeed just about to open it up and continue work on it, as well as roughing out a short story that ties in directly to ALIEN: Manticore and covers the new character more in-depth. I'm TRYING to keep that one genuinely 'short-story', but we'll see how it goes, sometimes stories decide some things for themselves and the writer is just along for the ride. :D

Hi  Godzilla: King of the Monsters

may I ask what you are working on? I love reading everyone's original works on here. so much inspiration! 

At  Blackwinter-witch Im currently sitting at 8000 words, and about half way through. There is much duplication, redundancy and fluff that needs cutting out though. I tend to over-word things on a first draft lol. 

In regards of environment. Somehow a game called Hellgate: London comes to my mind. Basically earth was overrun by demons and mankind fights for survival while living underground (subway, sewers etc.).

The cities are abandoned and lie in ruins. The survivors have to go to the surface every now and then. Wich of course is suicidal.

Replace the demons with xenos and let it take place on a quarantined planet and you have plenty of room for survival horror stories.

IRaptus

Yeah, I know how that is, my first drafts are train-wrecks of duplication, fluff and assorted debris...BUT first drafts are supposed to as messy as toddler's fingerpainting. :D First draft, all that matters if getting the ideas out and written down, all else can be handled with editing to make it 'nice'.

Tiwaz

Interesting idea. It would be a challenge to write, but if done carefully and properly, with attention specifically paid to making it as Distinctly it's own work as possible to avoid seeming like a derivative of the game you mentioned..it could work.

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Godzilla: King of the Monsters

It sounds like you're well and truly on a writer's-journey, and about in the middle, based on what you've said. It's good to see and I know it's hard at times, but it's a form of Maturation, like how wine and other fine things in life come about via Time.

As and when you choose to share your works is entirely Your Call, when you feel ready, then do so, and not before. Take your time, but I warn you about the Trap ALL writer's must avoid and we are all vulnerable to; The Endless Editing Circle, be careful of that, it even snares the best and most experienced professional authors at times.

Also, listen to your intuition, it can be and often is a writer's best ally.

Godzilla: King of the Monsters

Mate I'll still give it a read for sure. Have you got a link to it anywhere?

Its so awesome finding all these sci-fi writers on here! We should start up a fanfiction writers guild thing on here, regardless of the 'Verse we write in. 

Tiwaz

Sounds a bit like the early parts of The Darksiders game too. Very atmospheric!

IRaptus

I like the idea of a Fanfiction....department? Sub-site...whatever it would be, here on scified!!
GOOD idea!! :D

I know this isn't really the place but just for the vibe of HGL:

Really liked this game. Sad it went down the way it did.

Quote from HGL: "Remember the dead and fight for the living!"

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Godzilla: King of the Monsters

You're welcome! :)

Tiwaz

Interesting armor in the pics! The shot of the Parliament House in London, yeah, I could see that in a world-war-Alien way.
Good quote, I have to say!

Thanks Godzilla: King of the Monsters I will most definitely read yours chapters and give some feedback!!! If you are interested I can PM you a link to my own Alien fanfiction?

Tiwaz

Looks like a great game, i haven't played it.

Dead Space is another game that has a great atmosphere similar to Alien..

@IRaptus

I know Death Space. Never played it but watched a full Let's Play. I liked it.

It's atmosphere is much like Alien indeed. 

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ALIEN: Manticore is now a good ways past 60,000 word-count.

Work is ongoing with both editing and adding material.

I am working on a short-story as well, and will be posting a short excerpt from it presently. :)

ALIEN: The Silent Dark

'The Lander'

EXCERPT BEGINS---------

Katherine looked out the narrow window of the lander’s hatch at the barren, rocky landscape around the ship, her breath fogging the glass slightly as she stared out into the distances and tried to ignore the massive dome-shaped building in her view.
The barely-above-freezing temperature inside the lander was something that didn’t bother her in the slightest, but did have the benefit of somewhat annulling the olfactory effluvia from too many people living in too-close quarters for entirely too long. She raised a hand, a three-inch talon slid out from under her index-finger’s nail and she idly scratched a small ‘smiley face’ into the paint and underlying alloy below the lower rim of the window.
“Happy birthday…” She said very quietly to herself in a lifeless monotone under her breath, officially marking her nineteenth year of life as well as the third week trapped on the planet they’d landed on
There was tension in the air aboard the small vessel, thick and heavy, spiced with sheer desperation that continued to build day upon day. Supplies were dwindling, the thirty-odd year old ship’s electrical system was damaged beyond any hope of repair, and there was no other way off the planet they’d sought as refuge. They were going to die on the nameless world, and there was no way to deny it, and none of the crew were pleased by the inescapable fact.
For her crewmates, death would come from suffocation, as the air scrubbers wore out and could no longer remove the CO2 from the world’s otherwise breathable air. It could also come from starvation, she supposed, but it was more likely be the air scrubbers wearing out that would kill them. The water supplies were dangerously low, and while death by dehydration loomed, she knew that when the scrubbers went, death would come for them in mere minutes.
For herself, she was mainly concerned with food and water. The cold wasn’t a factor for her as much it was for her Human crewmates, nor was the air.
She’d been outside the ship, in the course of the excursions to pick through the wreckage they’d found in the vicinity of the creepy non-Human structure. It was during one such trip that she’d discovered the expired air scrubbers in her respiratory equipment, whereupon she’d been surprised as she realized she could breathe the CO2 laden air without any difficulties whatsoever. She would survive, somehow, on the lifeless world they were stranded on.
She looked into her own eyes in her reflection on the glass of the window, green eyes to phantomesque green eyes. She’d survived the past, she’d survive the present, and she’d survive whatever the future brought. This wasn’t a promise she made to herself, it was simply affirming a fact, she felt.

EXCERPT ENDS---------------

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Godzilla: King of the Monsters

Thank-you for the compliments!!

I'm glad to hear that you've been inspired to do ALIEN fan-fiction, possibly in-part by my efforts!! When you feel it's ready, we'll be here to read it. Take your time, and think of writing as what it is...sculpting with words. There's other writers here who have some truly splendid and chilling works here as well, and reading those or re-reading them can help you develop your skills and help you get a grasp on the 'feel' of ALIEN.

The suspense part, is both Hard and Yet 'easy'. The trick is give hints, little 'precursors', then let that get buried in the goings-on until it's time for another.
Setting and Environment is a MAJOR element and your best ally. Description and detail is very important as unlike a movie, you can't 'show', you have to direct the reader's mental theatre and film-making. Just a good environment description can lend a good sense of suspense. ;)

Go for it Godzilla: King of the Monsters!!, It would be fantastic to see your writing style and Godzilla background crossed into an Alien fiction! I reckon it could bring a whole range of new ideas and concept into this verse!!

Blackwinter-witch congrats of cracking the 60,000 mark. Your writing is so polished and eloquent. I like what you've done to keep the sense of dread.  Nothing increases the fear factor and anxiety by dialling up detrimental environmental conditions and an expiry date lol.

"but did have the benefit of somewhat annulling the olfactory effluvia from too many people living in too-close quarters for entirely too long" - love the livid description. I could use it to describe my workplace hahahaha

IRaptus

Would you be kind enough to post some links here to you works so Godzilla: King of the Monsters! can find them?? :)

That invitation extends to everyone else who wishes to post links to their works here in my thread!! :)

Thank-You!! There's still a LOT more to do, adding and editting, but it's coming along, slowly but steadily.
The short story is a work to help me get a better grasp on the character I'll be introducing into ALIEN: Manticore, and that lander isn't there by accident. ;)Also, not much anziety if all's a-ok, right? :D

I'm trying to remember, to teach myself to involved all the reader's senses, and glad you liked the description!! :D
I know a few places that'd match this description also!

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Godzilla: King of the Monsters

You're welcome!! Just remember, take your time with it, don't give in to any feelings of 'pressure', those are just 'ghost' sensations, no one's pressuring you.
I thought to mention that as it seems a LOT of writers put enormous pressure on themselves even when there's none from external sources. I'm really bad in doing that to myself, as an example. :)

ALIEN: Manticore

61000+ wordcount, AFTER trimming out the 'gristle', with work ongoing as I'm, starting the additions to the Story-Block section involving everyone's favorite Petting-Zoo planet:

LV-223!!!

Free Fifield Technique Ultra-Deep Pore cleansing and Makeover!!

:D

Short Excerpt; 'Meeting the neighbours'

BEGIN-----------

As the planet’s sun moved towards evening, Selinaehra was on the bridge, watching over her husband and fellow crewmate as they made their way across the landscape towards the lander in one of Manticore’s SDRT transports. She kept overwatch from the combat station on the bridge, in the event things went sideways for her husband and Declan, she’d display to the lander’s crew why they would benefit from better manners.
She had the ship’s utility lasers tied in to the combat systems, the Hydra Mk-8H point-defense-close-engagement weapons were deployed and on ‘hot standby’ along with the lasers.
She’d left the ship’s main armament alone, as the accelerator cannons were simply too powerful to use versus a target as small as the lander and as close in proximity as it was to them. The missiles Manticore had were likewise too overpowered for such a target.
She had selected the weapons specifically as she intended to use the ship’s armaments to protect her crewmates, not obliterate the lander, a good part of the landscape and them in the process.

END--------