The Blue Casket

This week I’ve got a short-short from Lee Bradley, he of the Collect blog. It’s the first in his series of Fallout 3 reports, and you can find the whole set here. Want to write for this section? Send me in a piece to bluecasket <at> sekritforum <dotcom>.

It started with an accident and ended with mass murder.

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Another blog-to-be here, this time from Adam, who’s been replaying the understated F-29 Retaliator, a game from when men were real men and aviators were real aviators but didn’t really play videogames. Let’s get on with the Short – if you want to see your name in 12pt font, email fifteen hundred words or less to bluecasket at sekritforum.com. Somehow, I’ll find it.

I’m the son of a senator, Senator Bill Young of Georgia. I won’t lie, I had it easy. Growing up, I mean. Well, everything: schools, friends, money, girls, a kickass dad with some really scary friends. I’ve taken the easy road through life, but now I’m here, standing in an office wearing a crisp uniform and saluting. With my hand, I mean. And at an officer, not a high school cheerleader. That other thing in the hotel room the Atlanta Herald made up. Anyway, and so I’m doing that and he says to me:

“Congratulations, pilot. Welcome to the Air Force.”

This is my story.

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Today we’ve got an experimental little thing from Cathal Healy, that might one day move on into a fully-fledged blog. For now though, here we are. If you’re interested in submitting a short, I like them under 1500 words and I like them sent to bluecasket at sekritforum.com.

1998 – 12 – 16
I had a nice life. A beautiful wife, a wonderful baby boy and a house in the suburbs. Life was nice here, it was safe, it was comfortable.

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Gentleman and scholar Andrew Dunn, he of The Fall And Rise Of Reggio Perino, has penned us a short this week. It’s an account of a particularly close mission in Men of War. Fans of the game will probably have fond memories too.

Action of 21st November 1941 at Rostselmash Manufacturing Plant No. 6
Junior Lieutenant Oleg Kyznetsov (Officer Commanding 233rd Mechanised Rifle Regiment)

Having been driven back through Rostov-on-Don after heavy fighting, Major Kristyakov deployed the battalion in defensive order around Rostselmash Manufacturing Plant. As our orders were to hold the factory railyard until the industrial equipment could be removed by train, the companies were each assigned a sector to hold and ordnance and equipment was distributed equally. The armoured company was evenly deployed across the factory yard to strengthen the defences. Fascist forces were thought to be in divisional strength. The estimated time for the equipment loading was 1600hrs, while fascist troops were expected by mid-morning, necessitating a defence of the train while loading was completed. (continue reading…)

An excellent short-short this week from the same author as last week’s Thief 2 piece. This one’s a good ‘un.

The metal is clean, a blue-grey steely kind of clean. Cold. Military. Dangerous. But its still just a wheel, an oiled metal wheel.

Its only if you know that a turn of this little wheel will – as if magic – swivel a huge double-barrelled gun into a new position, that you really feel the clean blue-grey of it. The cold, slick tang of the military paint.

And thats my job. Turning a small wheel. Just that; not much more.
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In a new Saturday slot, I’ll be posting up some one-off pieces from the same band of writers that bring you our blogs. To kick things off, we begin with The Guard, a Thief 2 Short by SKW. Fancy submitting a Short? Drop me an email (I like them best under 1000 words).

I hate you, Martin Larner. I hate you with a deep, abiding hatred, fermented by the years and years of seeing you every day; of knowing that you live. What god did I so offend, to place you here on this earth?

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