Author's Note (Final)

In February of 2017, the author of Here We Go Again published a thread on r/Gate titled "How to Avoid Writing a Bad Gate Fanfic." In his second point, he noted that the majority of Gate fics consisted of sending some nation through the Gate to go roflstomp Romans. At that time, I realized that my silly NASA idea might be a fun way to subvert the normal Gate pattern, in that it would not include a Gate invasion, would not include any crossovers or time travel, would limit military action as much as possible, and would feature a cast of characters where every person was at least slightly wrong about something.

While I am uncertain if I met all the criteria of that Reddit thread, I feel pretty satisfied in what I have written. I feel like I have successfully gotten Gate and NASA out of my system, and that all of the plot threads have been played out to their furthest extent. This is truly, finally, it.

I've learned a lot about writing through this experience, as this was my first time writing print-length serial novels, which was a great deal more intimidating than the yearly NaNoWriMo. If it helps any of you going forward, here are some key points that worked for me:

1) Have A Plan - Each volume of the Skies series used about a page and a half of bullet points, with notes for each chapter describing little more than what characters were present, where they were, and (briefly) what they were doing. For instance, this is everything I had written down for Ch1-4:

* Rory at Hakone, Komakkado vs Ayaka, the changing world

* Govt talks with Dawson, Youmei, Kuragin, Greta, "Why do they want to know?".Ayaka offered option of going to SR

* Kommakado performs interviews of captured cult. Ayaka in new world, Lelei.

* Evening Gate Gala? Ayaka explores Italica, opens discussion on magic.

It also contained a brief section at the top listing the story's driving secrets, and each character's name, occupation and personal flaw.

Sasaki, Ayaka - The Holden Caulfield 'phony' issue (Japan)

The Key secrets:

* Nguyen is trying to become a god

* Japan PM intends to hold WLs hostage for better trade options. US plans to outmaneuver and hostage hostage takers, Sherry wants to start WWIII to make FR more powerful.

* Kuragin did nothing wrong, him being Russian isn't important

You really don't need to plan further ahead than that, except during battle scenes, which get a few more bullet points for keeping track of the action.

*Everything explodes

-Berlin

-Sydney

-Houston

-Moscow

-London

-Outside of Tokyo

-SR

-Taking off from Des Moines, Iowa

-AFO, all the action

-Singapore

All worldbuilding that wasn't grounded in real life was usually improvised on the spot. Keep in mind: if it's not one of those Key Secrets, it's exposition, and you should never be wasting too much of your planning time on that, if you can help it.

2) The Characters are the Story - So you've just sent Captain Crunch through the Gate with his band of Heroes, and the ground is now littered with Roman corpses. Now what? The effective way to keep a story moving along is to know your characters, what they want, what they fear, and write to that. The Gate, Falmart, Magic, all of it should be a vehicle for exploring your characters, and the more you let your characters tell your story instead of the world, the easier time you'll have finding something for those characters to do after the 293rd Siege of Italica. I've been especially enjoying havok038's God of Cookery, which does a brilliant job at this, and would highly recommend it to everyone else.

3) You are Writing for People - Keep in mind that you're writing for an audience of humans. They have things they like and that they don't like, and that they have limited time too. This means that they will always prefer hearing something from you over silence. Perhaps that means you don't get to write a 20,000 word chapter. That's fine. Release 5,000 word chapters instead. Bank as much writing as you can ahead of time, because there will be days where you can't write, and having those chapters ready and waiting can be a lifesaver. For Fire, I had two chapters banked at the offset. For Thunder, I had five. For Starlight, I had all but the last two. Guess which was the least stressful?

4) Know the Core Material - If you haven't been on Skythewood's site and read the Gate LNs, you should. The more that you remember, the less you need to go searching for later, and the more tools you'll have for keeping things interesting if your characters aren't being challenged, or are being challenged too much.

2019 looks like it's going to be an exciting year for spaceflight. Back in 2017 Falcon Heavy was the most interesting thing going on, but this year we have everything from Commercial Crew Launches with SpaceX and Boeing and the start of Space Tourism though Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin, through to Commercial lunar landers and a host of deep space probes. With so many new beginnings, it's a great time to be interested in the field, and I can't wait to see how this year turns out.

I would like to thank everyone who stuck with me these past three years, and everyone since the start who was willing to give these stories and these characters a chance. Hopefully they have given you one or two laughs, a few seconds of feels, and made you stop and think here and there.

Before I go, there is one last thing I wanted to cover. After all, a powerful coalition suddenly having access to a Gate to other worlds does create a striking sense of Deja vu...

"Well, space is there, and we're going to climb it, and the moon and the planets are there, and new hopes for knowledge and peace are there. And, therefore, as we set sail we ask God's blessing on the most hazardous and dangerous and greatest adventure on which man has ever embarked."

-John F. Kennedy, 1962, Rice University

THREE YEARS LATER

Kepler-62f

Five Thousand, Two Hundred and Eighty Trillion Miles from Earth

The air seemed to twist and bend in on itself as the Gate formed, churning and then tunneling inward before admitting its first explorer.

The UGV was rugged and somewhat bulky. It had to be, considering as it was impossible to tell much about the surface features of most exoplanets from long range. It rolled across the interestingly smooth terrain on its six bulbous wheels and extended a series of cameras and sensors on booms to get a clearer impression of its surroundings. It also unleashed half a dozen drones from a compartment on its back to begin building a map of the area. Once done, it sent its analysis back to the team on the other side, which slowly began to filter through.

First through was CMSgt. Jones, formerly of the 24th STS, United States Air Force, followed immediately after by Chief Sergeant 1st Class Zhao, formerly part of "South Blade", Chinese PLAGF. Neither wore equipment that would have been recognizable a decade earlier, as each wore lightweight environment suits built of synthesized wyvern skin and dragon scales-tough, flexible, and impervious to light arms. They each also held identical copies of the Raytheon Mk.2 Phizon Directed Plasma Energy Weapons, better known by that point as "Blasters." These weapons used onboard Focus Crystals and Phizon-balanced fusion cells to launch superheated plasma at supersonic speeds over a dialable spectrum, allowing them to operate as fast-firing short range automatic weapons, or slow-firing long-range beam snipers.

Together, they took up positions behind the UGV and scanned their surroundings before Jones clicked on his radio and said, "LT, it's just as crazy as the pictures. You need to see it to believe it."

The rest of the recon squad made its way though, composed of either the best or craziest Earth had to offer. There, former SAS, here, a Spetsnaz loaner. Korean SBS, Polish GROM, Israeli Sayeret, Indian MARCOS… it was impossible to know what one would encounter on an alien planet, and so the UN Gate Task Force collected the best of the best into twelve units and sent them as a kind of warning to any creatures dumb enough to bite first and ask questions later. Second to last was a Falmart Republic former battlemage, who slowly waved his staff around as he cast a detection ward; after all, not every magic trick had a technological equivalent just yet.

Finally, any expedition on this scale required an interesting background and a certain level of boldness to succeed in. Lt. Shino Kuribayashi had declared years ago that she wouldn't let a ridiculous otaku like Itami one-up her, and had applied for officer and Special Forces school. With much of the JSDF's old 3rd Recon Team either retired or otherwise engaged, Kuribayashi somehow came up as the most experienced available member of the Japanese Military in first contact scenarios. While thirteen years had mellowed her out a lot, she still had a crazy streak which reared its head from time to time. The others didn't mind; sometimes, with the things they had encountered, you needed to be a little crazy to know how to respond.

Kuribayashi whistled in admiration at the landscape around them. In the past year, she had seen it all; diamond cliffs that rose miles out of a mint-green ocean like frozen waves, sprawling neon forests that shuddered and sang as you walked through them, skies full of dirigible-whale herds thick enough to blot out the sun… but nothing that compared to this.

"...is this a city?" Kuribayashi said.

Indeed, they were surrounded by crystalline spire-like structures filled with strange, shrublike creatures without familiar appendages, slithering along designated sidewalks or riding hovering tablets that spat static as they moved. As the reconnaissance team from the Gate watched, several such vehicles pulled up and disgorged a small army of the creatures, all grasping odd metal poles. One advanced, its outer branches rippling with waves of glowing lavender light, like some deranged cuttlefish.

The lieutenant advanced carefully, weapon slug over her shoulder, arms out, palms open. She keyed her suit speakers and said, "Hi there! We're visitors! Want to be friends?"

But at the noise, the creatures turned a bright orange, leveled their poles at her, and the meaning became abundantly clear. "L.T.!" Jones shouted, "DUCK!"

And she did, just quickly enough to miss what seemed like a bolt of lightning as it passed over her head and struck the stationary UGV behind it, shattering it with the force of an explosion and knocking half of the soldiers to the ground.

Kuribayashi wasn't sure if her actions had come off as aggressive, or if these aliens were just aggressive themselves. Either way, she now had only one priority: to get her team out alive.

If all of human history could be compressed into a single idiom, it would probably be "Playing with Fire." On the one hand, mankind has always prided itself in advancement through pushing boundaries, whether social, technological, or geographical. On the other, fire can and will eventually burn you.

"Open fire!" she shouted, and the invaders from the far side of the Gate began their counterattack.

Thus they fought there.

8andahalfby11

February 23, 2019