PTTP Systems

Some folks know that I am life-long science fiction geek. (With a liberal helping of fantasy on the side; go Brent Weeks!) I've been fixated on the genre since I was, like, eight years old, and I have book cases filled with hundreds of books, from Abbott to Zelazny, with plenty of space occupied byAsimov and Heinlein (and yes, a lot of contemporary authors, too, like Alistair Reynolds and Iain [M] Banks).

Writers often create entire universes full of characters and stories because they are great frameworks for meta-story arcs and long term character development. Some very generous folks even allow others to write stories set in their universe (yes, I own every volume of The Man-Kzin Wars series).

Some computer game universes follow the same pattern. Last year I got interested in the StarCraft universe created by Blizzard Entertainment and started devouring all the stories I could get my hands on. 

Then I caught wind of a writing contest and thought, "Hey, I should try that!" The story had to be set in a Blizzard universe and between 2500 and 7500 words in length.

This short story was my submission.