“Stand Down” Week 27 – Smooth Sailing
Jordan pulls himself up to sit in a cross-legged position, with Scorched ‘El still manifesting its legs in place of his. Jordan’s breath is ragged, and the dark liquid staining his teeth and chin is so hot he can’t tell whether it’s his own blood or Scorcho Sauce. “That voice couldn’t have been anything– nothing…
“Stand Down” Week 26 – …Is Doomed
A massive, avian form rises from Wenji, triple her height and sporting four gargantuan wings. Its feathers are pitch-black, standing out well in the snowstorm. Not a single part of it is not obscured by the feathers, with even its “beak” being formed of pressed-together blackness, save for rows of horns on either side of…
“Stand Down” Week 25 – Black Wing
The snow-storm continues to rage as Jordan, slowly and shudderingly, raises his head from the snowbank. His face reddened by the bite of the cold, and his eyelids drooping from exhaustion, Jordan sees that he rests upon a rocky mountain outcropping, the outline of a forest visible very far down through the storm. The all-consuming…
“Stand Down” Week 24 – A Way Out
In Jordan’s cell, we find Goggles and the two guards Charleen and Terry. The rest of the guards can be seen leaving the room in a hurry, weapons drawn. As Charleen and Terry finish buckling on their rappelling harnesses, Goggles puts a hand on either guard’s shoulder. “Remember: you can’t catch him alone. Just try…
“Stand Down” Week 23 – Bloodhail
Back in Zain’s cell, in a corner by the ceiling, we see a security camera. We see also as its lens is pushed in, shattering under the force of seemingly nothing. The entire camera is then twisted, its “neck” being warped so that it is looking straight up into the ceiling. We hear the alien’s…
“Stand Down” Week 22 – Veteran of the Psychic Wars
In the midst of the cloud of fog obscuring the stairwell, the sound of heavy stomping can be heard to resonate throughout the metal. Hydraulics lowers himself to a ready position just before the stair’s top, his geared arms ready for grappling. A POV from behind his goggles shows us that he cannot see through…
“Stand Down” Week 21 – Looking Back is Blinding
At the top of the staircase down which Zain resides, the camera moving just above the blinding gas, the four guards can be seen. From right-to-left, their designations are: Hydraulics, Cloud, Decibel and Ronnie. Hydraulics is hunched, already made massive by the plating on his torso, but brought to be larger still by the chrome…
“Stand Down” Week 20 – Sudno
We transition to the interior of Scott’s house. Over the following scenes, we hear a male, monotone-voiced narrator speaking. Scott is in his room, dressed in the mark 1, the reflective black plating covering all but his face. Looking himself over in a large mirror, he sees just how much the suit “enhances” his form,…
“Stand Down” Week 19 – A Beautiful Collapse
A researcher and a guard can be seen rolling a vending-machine sized metal container down a hallway. Even on a trolley, it looks heavy, with it’s hatch-piece looking to be like the door of a fridge. GUARD: Who was this guy, again? RESEARCHER: Well, persons files came up with nothing, so he probably lived off-grid.…
“Stand Down” Week 18 – Here Come The Ravens
Without a word, Wenji makes her way toward the helicopter. There is a scowl on her face as she looks at the vehicle. WENJI: (muttering) Loud. As Wenji starts to climb into the chopper’s back seat, Angosin can be seen to not have moved, looking again into the sky. The janitor has now taken his…