Tales of the Belt, Part 8: The Fall of Amazon – The Risk

by | Sep 6, 2021 | Fiction, Fun, Science | 99 comments

It all began in the early 21st century. When the great jump began. The tech was finally available to head to Mars and the race was on. At the time there were several nation states, CCP, Rus, Indo, and to a lesser degree the old US Republic, but the biggest players were the industrialists. There were many, but only two rose to amass enough power to ignore any nation, and in fact owned a few here and there, Bezos and Elon.

In ‘21 Elon launched the first Starship, and Bezos was not just angry, but sought revenge, ego played a lot into the events that followed. Bezos’ efforts left him in LEO, while Elon moved on to the Moon in ‘23 and then Mars in ‘25, all this while launching normal payloads to orbit three times a day, Bezos could barely do one orbital per week. The nation states were watching, the US was complicit when it came to Elon, again Bezos was angered, maybe rightfully but hey, gotta fly right?

Elon had a vision from the beginning and he was seeing it play out now, over a hundred Starships in his fleet, with weekly transits to Mars, yes I know it takes six months, but the Starship ran every two weeks. He had plenty, and more being built and launched every day. While other players had simple, basic Mars structures, Elon was digging in, building an advanced base, fuel generation plants and the basics for self sustenance. No one really knew what his goal was, at first.

At this point, most of the players had established colonies and production facilities on Luna. Amazon had a meager presence there due to the fact they had to hitch a ride on Elon’s Starships, painful, ironic, but cost effective, for now. CCP had been very active and had basing, launch and production facilities, and had expanded enough to make a visible presence on Luna, just look up. It was about this time when Bezos was approached by a certain agent, from the CCP.

The CCP had a base on the Far side and no one really knew what they did there initially, but some sharp Earthers with old fashioned optics (I’m a fan) noticed anomalies leaving Luna and striking ‘Roids in the belt, after some spectrography it was determined to be tungsten rods thrown at high velocity and high accuracy, what the hell were they doing?  When the ISC got involved the CCP said it was just long range analysis of potential ‘roids, which was a clever, if useless idea, but the ISC bought it all, I imagine for a price. Everyone knew what danger a weapon like that posed anywhere in the system, and it needed to be countered.

 

 The Risk

Elon had well over 200 Starships operating at this point, with self containing fueling at LEO, the Lagrange points, Luna, and a wanderer he discovered cis-Mars, he calls it Olga, go figure.

The offer was simple: get on board, fly for six months, land, and work your life away,  building a future.It may not work, and there is no return, families and the poor encouraged, tuition available. He had over a billion applications, so he started moving people to what began to be called The New Start. It was a sight, 250 people, by now three times a week headed to Mars to maybe save Humanity, or die trying, a noble pursuit indeed.

By ‘28 Bezos was ready, Elon already landed over 150k and Nikola City was thriving, and better still, independent, so when the first Starship went down everyone was shocked. What could have happened? Meteoroids have struck many Starships, with no issue, this was different. At first it was thought to be a one off but when the next one hit at eleven cycles, we wondered, so did the people going to Mars, enough that they began to call it The Risk, and Elon needed an answer or the project was doomed. The issue wasn’t the projectiles but where did they come from? And better still, who operated them? Answer that and you can respond, until then, The Risk.

After a bit of Kompromat, Bezos became the main cover for all the CCP activities, they paid for his cis-Lunar ships and basically owned Amazon at this point, but Bezos would have his revenge. He was gaining domination in cis-Lunar and reaching out towards Mars, and eventually Elon, and thanks to the CCP, the Uighur transfer program was well under way, they had over 100k workers at the Amazon Luna facility, and more on the way every day, they tend to die over there easily, Luna you know.

 

REDACTED

Emerald Au was a Nobel winner in ‘25 for her work on Mass drivers , so Elon brought her onboard, mostly so no one else could get her, and she happens to be the premiere Scientist in her field, so he gave her a great budget and room to play,

“Em, may I call you Em?”

“Of course.”

“As you know, I’m Elon, how’s your work?”

“Boring, but we get by”

“We?”

“My crew, we work together, or not at all.”

“I like that, and your current project?”

“Linear object acceleration using Xray bursts, sir.”

“Never call me ‘sir’ again, I am Elon.”

“Right, Elon.”

“Ha! So,I want to go on offense, Bezos is fucking up our shit and having fun doing it, this needs to stop, any ideas?”

“Sure, but what’s the deal?”

“Deal?”

“I don’t need to work for you, Elon.”

“No, but you are a stockholder. C’mon, step up to the next level. It’ll be fun, I promise. Stop!” Elon held his hands up. “Yes you get your crew, why change a good thing?”

“Fine, our work was anticipated as soon as we saw tungsten rods, and we can zero their base, BTW don’t worry about plasma, we have lots of tungsten and can throw it all day long, sir!”

 

One week later….

As in the days of sail, the first shot was high, the next low, but the third made it all the way to the dark side, and devastated the railgun there, the next month was smooth running, Mars Colony was over 300k by now and doing well, then of course Bezos pulled more shit, He Blew Olga out of the sky. Talk about cutting your own throat, it had become the gateway to Mars, without it, it was a 14 month journey, why? No matter, the ship increased speed to 10g constant, and they were there in two days…Two days of analyzing the wreckage, picking up the few survivors, and sending a lot of bodies into the Sun, so say we All.

 A way was needed, a way to make them show their hand, so they threw some decoys at them, they got the poles, and devastated them, but there were more to be found.

Of Course the CCP/Amazon would move on Mars, what’s a space opera without a good old Martian shootout? Anyway, Mars knew what was coming and blockaded the entire sphere of influence, so again, it was fish in a barrel for the Martians, seventy-five percent of the Amazon fleet was wiped in the span of an hour, and the rest scattered.

 So much for the communist collusion that Bezos took up, and the free Market took him down, in a day. The Dawn of Elon was upon us, easy transport and comms, and we still had Prime! And until Something Big came from somewhere else, We were good, until then….

to be continued…

About The Author

Yusef drives a Kia

Yusef drives a Kia

Punctually illiterate But never late

99 Comments

  1. DEG

    all this while launching normal payloads to orbit three times a day

    These euphemisms.

  2. DEG

    Of Course the CCP/Amazon would move on Mars, what’s a space opera without a good old Martian shootout?

    Hah! Yep, need a good shoot-out.

    Nicely done Yusef.

  3. Ghostpatzer

    Thanks, Yufus!

    Apologies to Sir Elton John…

    And Bezos, he wants to go to Venus
    Leave Elon far behind
    Take a balloon and go sailing
    While Elon, Elon slowly dies

    • Yusef drives a Kia

      and the USA, tells Bezos to fuck off,
      Elon musk, has another launch,
      and he shall be ELON,

      • hayeksplosives

        And until Something Big came from somewhere else, We were good, until then…

        Intriguing!

      • limey

        Is it the Borg?

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        Worse, the CCP!

  4. kinnath

    I am enjoying this story.

    • UnCivilServant

      Your archive is asking for a capcha, but I cannot complete it.

      No Redheads for robots 🙁

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        Don’t worry, there wasn’t a redhead in the bunch, not one,

  5. R.J.

    Great story. Looking forward to reading more!

    • Yusef drives a Kia

      Thanks!

  6. Gustave Lytton

    Like the French at Agincourt, arrows seem to be killing Glibs.

    • limey

      Nice.

    • straffinrun

      Unfortunately, it’s basically unreadable on my phone.

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        That sucks! the format is very basic,

      • Raven Nation

        The formatting clears up somewhat on my iphone if I hold it horizontally instead of vertically.

      • straffinrun

        Awesome tip!

      • rhywun

        Your phone is telling you that it is not an adequate device for surfing the internet.

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        I like my PC,

      • rhywun

        ?

      • straffinrun

        I never accept updates. Probably my fault.

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        Derivitave,

      • rhywun

        All music is derivative.

      • straffinrun

        Calling a song derivative is derivative.

      • rhywun

        You’re a derivative!

  7. straffinrun

    Never really listened to the lyrics of Long Way Home by Supertramp. “ And then your wife seems to think you’re part of the furniture”
    Ha. He takes the long way home cuz his wife’s a bitch. Bet she liked all that Supertramp money, though.

    • rhywun

      He takes the long way home cuz his wife’s a bitch.

      aka “Let’s get a couple drinks after work.”

      • straffinrun

        And the negative feedback loop intensifies.

    • Yusef drives a Kia

      “It must have been, so, nice”

      • straffinrun

        “She” used to be so nice. Or was it “Xi”?

    • Toxteth O'Grady

      Will have to give that a re-listen in the morning.

    • Mojeaux

      Try “Rudy”. I love that song.

    • straffinrun

      Gonna buy it and turn it into alt right Evergreen。

  8. Ownbestenemy

    Always fun Yusef. Now where is my beer ?

    • Yusef drives a Kia

      Tall Cans! at ya OBE!

  9. Toxteth O'Grady

    Hey Trigger H., you out there? RUOK?

    I too was suggested a Falling Down clip on YT (briefcase) and I watched it.

  10. hayeksplosives

    Relevant:

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inspiration4

    Inspiration4 (or Inspirati④n) is a spaceflight planned for four people aboard the SpaceX Resilience capsule on 15 September 2021.The three-day flight will be the first human spaceflight to orbit Earth with private citizens exclusively on board. The flight will be privately operated by SpaceX using a previously-flown Crew Dragon capsule launched to low Earth orbit. The flight will be sponsored by Jared Isaacman, who will be on the flight along with Hayley Arceneaux, Christopher Sembroski, and Sian Proctor.

    There’s a Netflix doc about it too.

    September 15. We should do a Zoom watch party.

    • Yusef drives a Kia

      You know i’m down for it,

    • Chipping Pioneer

      ? A three hour day tour. ?

      They’ll get blown off course by a solar storm and end up stranded on one of them CCP ‘roids.

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        “Trouble at L5!”
        new episode….

      • Suthenboy

        Until we learn how to drop valuable resources safely onto the earth I dont really care about people going into low earth orbit for shits and giggles.

    • R.J.

      I am all for it.

    • rhywun

      “Also works on horses.”

      LOL

    • hayeksplosives

      “ A Pfizer spokesman also confirmed that their drug will be approximately 30,000% more expensive than Ivermectin.”

  11. Yusef drives a Kia

    Day one: spent bumbling around the cabin trying to find their seats.
    Day two: trying to find out who shit there pants in the night and organizing a potty schedule
    Day three: Re-entry in the stinkiest Capsule in History!

    • Yusef drives a Kia

      Blew that thread, oops

  12. Ownbestenemy

    This fucking holiday really sucks. I would imagine for older generations feel the same for the pivotal moments that are etched in their brains. I was a month out from my oldest being born with my worries being can I get food on the table and keep the lights on and rarely an effort towards safety, security, liberty, love, and freedom. Those were taken for granted.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIAjoTes_lQ

  13. robodruid

    morning all
    insomnia sucks

    • Sean

      Mornin!

      Back to work today, for me.

      ?

      Should be thrilling to see what got really fucked up in my absence.

    • Gender Traitor

      It’s apparently not about “public health” anymore.

      Kick them out of the Big 10. They don’t belong there anyway.

      • Ghostpatzer

        Mornin’ GT. I made a brief appearance at Rutgers in 1972. Our main sports rival at the time was Princeton. Prior to 1972, Rutgers College was all male; 600 women enrolled in the class.of ’76. It’s.been downhill ever since. *ducks*

      • Gender Traitor

        Good morning, ‘patzie! ::pointedly ignores bait:: Nothing personal against Rutgers – it’s a regional thing. I don’t think the Terps belong in the Big Ten either. I’m inclined to keep Northwestern in as the sole private U for the sake of having at least half-assed academic cred in the conference. [Note: I did NOT attend a Big Ten school.]

      • Ghostpatzer

        Heh. I had my heart set on studying meteorology at U of Michigan, but the financing didn’t work since dear old Dad refused to cosign a loan for 17 year old me. Sorry, Sloopy, TOSU was not on the radar.

      • Suthenboy

        Anymore? It was never about public health.

    • Ghostpatzer

      New Brunswick is J&J’s corporate headquarters. I’m sure that has no bearing on Rutgers’ vaccination requirement.

    • TARDis

      a task that could take several days even as just the initial 800 names are subjected to the vetting process

      That’s some straight-up evil shit right there.

      Hey Joe, just pretend they’re coming in from Mexico, you demented POS.

      • Gender Traitor

        Or maybe the rescue groups should pretend they’re smuggling out heroin?

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        Put up some tents at a national guard armory in Wherethehellever USA, put out a couple of guards, and vet them there or in some other country even. What they’re doing now is just insanely stupid and it paints an enormous target on these people’s backs.

    • Ghostpatzer

      I don’t get it. There’s no upside to this for the administration, it’s not as if something like this can be kept secret forever. Evil? Stupid? Both, apparently.

      • Suthenboy

        Look at it this way and it all makes sense: The left never met an enemy of the United States that it did not fall in love with.

        Jimmy Carter bailed out the USSR twice, condemning 600 million people to live under the communist boot for ten years longer than they should have. He gave away the most strategic location in the Western Hemisphere and now the Chinese control it. This fucking piece of shit we have now makes Carter look like George Washington.

        To everyone that helped him get elected because OMB, fuck you. If I could I would have all of them living under a bridge for the rest of their lives poking through dumpsters for food and giving $4 blowjobs to syphilitics for cash.

      • Ghostpatzer

        It does look as if the Carter administration is being used as the template. Next up: stagflation and gas lines, I guess. Gonna be a rough ride.

      • Festus

        Waiting for the hammer to fall up here. Half the Country is under threat of mandates. 3/4 of the people think that they are a good idea. We’re fucked in the pooper.

      • TARDis

        The most disgusting part is they are just preventing the world from hearing that the US Military abandoned them in their time of need. Private groups are doing what needed to be done. This is making the Xiden admin look really bad and the left is looking the other way.

      • Ghostpatzer

        Hey, how was the Festa? Young Patzer was disappointed with his Chicken Parm sammich which came on a Kaiser roll and included a dollop of Ricotta. And he’s only 20, so no beer.

    • TARDis

      Linky Failure….

      • Loveconstitution1789

        Dang. Early morning link blues

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Crenshaw’s mind is a neocon dumpster fire.

  14. UnCivilServant

    Morning, Glibs. Another long driving day for me today. We will end up in New Mexico. Were I alone, I’d take one look at their stupid mandates and see if it’s feasible to get past New Mexico and into a sane state. Problem is, I don’t think the distances work in my favor here.

    • Gender Traitor

      Good morning, U (and TARDy and Lovecon and Sean and robo.) Where in NM are you planning to stop? Is southern CO an option – or are they any better, restriction-wise?

  15. Festus

    Mornin’ Glibs! Last night was a bear. The staff set up a full weekend +1 for me to deal with in one shift. The pain, it hurts! I was wobbling by the end but it got done. Assholes.

    • Ghostpatzer

      “Last night was a bear”

      Phrasing?

      Srsly, hope you feel better.

      • Festus

        Feels like I’ve been mauled by one, either ursine or Tonio’s type. Thanks, Patzie!

  16. Festus

    Oh yeah, broke my specs near the end. Sat down for a second and started drifting to my right. Put my hand out and popped a lens. Fixed it when I got home. Ah, heck. I need a new prescription anyway.

    • Ghostpatzer

      • Ghostpatzer

        WTF?

        “ProtonMail founder and CEO Andy Yen said that while it is not subject to French or EU requests, due to being based in Switzerland, it still must comply with requests from Swiss authorities.”

        Proton Mail needs to set up operations in Somalia. I blame Swissy.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        Based from an abandoned oil platform in the North Sea, otherwise the privacy is illusory. Probably the same for VPNs too if someone takes an interest in you.

      • Ghostpatzer

        Yup. “Person of Interest” was a reality show.

    • Festus

      Yeah, that ain’t good at all. First they came for the climate activist and then they came for everyone else. Unvaxxed? No internet for you!

  17. Suthenboy

    Some dog’s lives are just suffering and suffering. My poor new dog, Tucker, has to put up with biscuits with butter, honey, sausage and gravy. Poor thing. The hardships of being a dog. (Mrs Suthenboy and I just fed him our leftovers from breakfast)
    Now he is nagging for more. Poor little guy.