not sure if you care here but here is my image sources
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Generator_FB-59-009-C1-01_01_1.jpg
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_lower_bracket_of_the_30,000_kilowatt_waterwheel_generator_which_Westinghouse_Electric_Company_8d20042v.jpg
You should post this on the Final Drafts forum if you haven't already , because this RPC needs more exposure, given its quality. On that note, I loved what you've created here. The lore you've created is especially great, but my favorite aspect of this article is without a doubt the growing sense of urgency and impending doom this RPC exudes. The atmosphere you've created here is phenomenal. Can't wait to read more from you.
thanks, i appreciate your feedback a lot, glad my first article was well-recieved
it might sound corny but this is honestly close to what i was going for
i'd like the reader to think, once they got all the details, "oh man, we really fucked up"
Funny how the least plausible part of this article is that the USSR and US conducted join operations in the 1950s. The only thing I'd suggest is replacement of AU with some other unit, since there is no reason RPC-043-1 would need to extend anywhere near the distance between the Earth and the Sun
I like this concept and execution, but there still exists some tonal errors that damage my immersion.
3 now. 4 if this gets improved.
Such is life in the Soviet Union
Such is life in the Soviet Union
Shady conspiracies and existentially chilling subject matter. The idea of the world ending because everyone thinks it's over is incredible. This is the good shit I come here for. 5/5
It’s fairly good, but it falls short of a great execution. The entire article reminds me of that one joke about the anti-tiger machine:
A man in the city keeps walking around town with an incredibly loud and ugly piece of machinery that keeps everyone on their wits’ end every day. One time, a passerby stops the man and asks him:
“Sir, what is the machine even for?”
“Well, it is a tiger repellant.”
“But there are no tigers here!”
“You’re welcome!”
The point being, the machine/RPC-043 is just not convincing enough that it actually works as intended as well as the article not being clear enough whether there are or aren’t any aliens - there is just a claim that some red dots were seen that prompted the two biggest superpowers at the time to create a machine against an “enemy” they don’t know how they look, act or even whether the machine actually works against them. It almost has a humorous note to it with the creation being so incompetently constructed that it is absolutely capable of being turned against humans with no proof of it actually working against aliens.
The image of an apocalypse created by people believing the world is dead and gone is extremely powerful, and is the saving grace of the entire article.