Now that I've got a 2-month summer vacation, please send me your short bios/stories on your builds for last year's Twilight 2000 campaign.

The following have sent their storylines for the following builds:

GunTruck - BMD
Jaster - F-150 guntruck
Jacques - HEMTT guntruck
HastyP - Leo1A1A1*

If I forgot anyone's name, tell me ASAP for me to add to the list.

RedNevWing: I'll be needing your help on polishing up the document of last yeat's campaign.

All: I've now got a PDF converter, so once the stories have been sent and after me and RedNevWing have finished the document, I'll send the whole thing in PDF to GunTruck for his posting at this site.

*Edited to add HastyP to the list (2 Apr. 04)

No problem mate

A word of warning though, we have an anti-spam program, and anything Mrs Nev doesn't recognise gets bounced back the server (we get a lot of spam). so if you get a "message not delivered" report, or something similar, she probly thinks you're try to sell her a privates enlargement or something Probly best to post here each time you email me so I know if I've received it.

Redwingnev: Hehehe perhaps you can configure the filters so that it accepts email with the subject "ARMORAMA", that way it can pass through the filter. If it's a size filter, tell me what's the allowable file size your email can receive.

I'm currently working on the current draft, fixing some items. I'll email it to you (Word Document) ASAP for corrections in geography, timings, and other items.

BTT

Treadhead?
REMF111?
Anyone else?

I have a short story to go with a diorama I'm planning to do. I doubt I'll get round to building the diorama, but I can insert my story when you send me the document for proofing.

I have mine started. Wil make every effort to get it finished and to you. Deadline? Let me know.

Thanks,
Shaun

Red: Will send you the document soon. I'm at the part where SACEUR dies.

Keenan: I don't want to give deadlines, but I have roughly 2 months of free time to work on the story. If you can send me yours within that time frame, then that'll be ok.

btw GIB, I have no problem with file size wrt my email.

GIB - I got your e-mail and have been reading through the document you sent me. It is a masterful piece of work! It got me all revved up again to share another little bit of the story:

Every so often the Sun would cast a baleful eye upon the white landscape. Mid morning, there were small breaks in the cloud cover. Deep blue skies lay far beyond, distant, inviting. They promised an escape from the depression the World had become. Sam grunted and turned back to the gearbox cover he was latching back into place underneath his M948 LARS. He was ‘waxing poetic’ again – he chided himself every time he caught himself getting “all mushy”. The snow crunched underneath him as he wiggled out from underneath the nose of the compact artillery rocket launcher. For a moment, he sat, perched on one elbow, looking out over the expanse lying ahead of their defensive position.

Streams of golden sunshine burst through the cloud cover along the horizon, almost looking like solid shafts – like the DEW (Directed Energy Weapons) that blossomed over the northeastern US and Canada several years back. Sam was there and he remembered it well. The US had, and still has, several weapons orbiting in ‘unknown’ orbital slots. Few in the civilian world knew that the original US Shuttle Orbiters came equipped with ‘hardened’ fixtures and sub-frames – allowing them option for military missions and equipment. Though two orbiters had been lost during their service, they kept flying, through near-endless debate, scrutiny, and budget fights. The billion-dollar vehicles were too important and versatile, capable of more than most would ever know. Sam remembered with some amusement in the shock when one orbiter made an emergency swing around the Moon and back – without an apparent acknowledgement from NASA other than a comment about that ‘stunning achievement’. The US Air Force made no comment when nuclear hostilities broke out between NATO and WARPAC – an orbiter presently aloft on a scientific mission rapidly changed its orbit (five times) to destroy eight Soviet Satellites. Four of which were combat spacecraft long thought abandoned by the Soviet Union. The US Orbiter carried the same DEW barbette that the US Satellites did that faithful day when they were employed to halt a Soviet Spetnaz invasion of North America along the Maine border. It was later learned that the Shuttle Orbiter “picked-up” the DEW Barbette shortly after launch when inserted into orbit – a job capable of being handled by the ‘seventh man’ in a quick spacewalk. It was wildly tossed about that the Americans had these things lying all over the place in orbit – after all – they did track all the “useless” space junk anyway! There were accusations and speculations that went on until lost in the din of nuclear devastation and the collapse of the global media.

One report about Project: Jim Bowie never made it to widespread media. Lost for decades, “Jim Bowie” was a Command & Control System thought to give Battalion Commanders direct uplink to call in DEW fire support – without having to go through higher organization command authority – from anywhere on Earth. It was rumored that “Jim Bowie” was near ready for deployment in US Forces worldwide just as hostilities broke out – but had only gone to certain CONUS units...

Destroying ships, landing craft, and aircraft before they stopped, the US DEW Orbital Platforms were not used again. They disappeared from view of the best tracking stations in England – not to be seen since. Like its Strategic Oil Reserve, the DEW Orbital Platforms were another example of secret American weaponry all combatants knew would one day be used again. The greatest trick the Americans played on their enemies before the War was to convince them that secrets could not be kept in the ‘open’ US society. They didn’t reckon that the best kept secrets were the ones kept out in the open…

Golden tendrils reached down from on high, raking the rough mountains along the horizon, looking like the “Fingers of God”, Sam-Joe thought admiringly. Named “Sam” after his Dad and called “Joe” in honor of his Father-in-Law who was killed attempting to regain control of a hijacked aircraft over the Pacific, Captain Samuel Joe Collins, Jr. was a man who wore his emotions close to the surface. Usually a weakness for a leader, he turned it into a strength and powerful presence with the men he commanded. The power of his command authority wasn’t found in his shoulder pips – "Sam-Joe" was a nickname of honor his men addressed him with openly. His had been a cohesive and hard-fighting unit from Day One – and would be until their doom.

When the clouds tamped out the sunlight over the distant horizon, Captain Collins’ demeanor changed to suit the pall all around him. The trap Colonel Borrelli had set – had worked. Collins’ MLRS unit had not been discovered by the 6th AAD BMD’s – but they had detected them and were silently training their rockets on their positions as he stood up and brushed himself off. Borrelli was rarely accused of being an over-confident man, but Collins would allow him a bit to gloat. In this little corner of the World, they would win this fight.

He gazed back up into the skies, like he did often over the past few years. Sam always wondered what else might be up there and when the DEW’s might come calling again.

Would it be today?