Sunday, September 2, 2007

StarCraft Fan Fiction

Hi guys,

I had originally wanted to write a piece of fan fiction on Peter Pan and Steven Spielberg’s 1991 film sequel Hook. I entertained the idea for a couple of weeks but it didn’t work out for me. I couldn’t design a storyline that I am able to write about in a convincing way. I think the reason for this was at least partly because I am not British or American.


So with that put aside, I am now writing a piece of fan faction about Blizzard Entertainment’s extremely popular 1998 Sci-Fi Computer Game StarCraft.

I know at least Birdie in our group is also a great fan of this game, and I think that everyone here has at least heard of the game, if not played it excessively.

The game has an epic storyline, chronicling the important historical events of the exiled-from-earth Terrans, the insectoid Zerg, and the technologically-advanced and psionic Protoss. My FanFic begins at the time of Episode One, when the Terrans were first invaded by alien forces. I made up the character Mathew Cain, a naive young man born on the border-world colony of Mar Sara. He will be my main character as he unwittingly bears witness to the unfolding history of StarCraft, and the deeds of heroes and villains.

The following link is the Wikipedia article with a brief (too brief) summary of the main plot of StarCraft:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/StarCraft#Story
This site has the transcript for all the dialogues that occurred in the story:
http://www.sclegacy.com/encyclopedia/starcraft_story.php#E1



Here is the current draft of my FanFic:



(The above two screenshots are the work of Blizzard Entertainment. They have been modified using Photoshop, with changes in the text narration.)


“This is Mining Operations Central to Mathew Cain. Mathew Cain, do you copy.”

“Roger that, this is Mat here. I am currently in the process of my 83rd mining cycle.” Mathew had thought this was just another random status check from his overseer, but the next radio message surprised him.

“Well, I need you to abort that mining cycle, and get your butt back to the command center ASAP.”

Mathew’s coworkers all gave him a strange look. Not that they could actually see Mathew or Mathew them through their mining protection gear, fusion cutters, and the minerals they were handling. Mathew's the best worker on their team, not only is he the best at handling equipment, he was also the rare worker who is actually enthused at his job of mining minerals. Of all the workers, Mathew was the least likely candidate to have pissed off their boss.

Mathew parked his mining vehicle beside the command center, and went to his boss’s office to report as he was told.

“I don’t know if you’ve heard, but our new Magistrate has arrived. They are giving him a welcoming party aboard the orbiting space platform. They need someone who knows how to work some mining and construction equipment for a demonstration, and I’ve volunteered you to do it. Your shuttle up to the platform leaves in 5 minutes. You haven’t got time to take a shower, but be sure to get into a new jumpsuit and wash your face before you leave. And oh yes, you’ll get the full details on what’s going to happen at the equipment demonstration en route to orbit.”

“Yes, sir”

As the shuttle roared its way into orbit to dock with the space platform, Mathew looked at his PDA with a briefing for the upcoming equipment demonstration. Nothing to worry about, the demonstration includes nothing he hasn’t done at least 10 times before. And with any luck, he’ll get a chance to meet the important people from Tarsonis, the capital of the Terran Confederacy.

The demonstration began with the Magistrate’s personal Artificial Intelligence Advisor announcing the “T-280 Space Construction Vehicle is the cornerstone of our hostile-environment construction and resource gathering operations. In order to build a thriving colony, numerous SCVs are necessary.”

How amusing that such common sense on the outer-world colonies have to be explained to these Tarsonion officials, thought Mathew. Mathew had operated the T-280 SCV for months since he started working for Mar Sara’s mining operations. And despite the fact that the SCV was in no way state-of-the-art technology, Mathew still thought it was quite an awesome vehicle with its Hover propulsion system and twin multipurpose robotic arms.

After Mathew performed a few mining cycles and set up a few supply depots with his SCV, the demonstration ended. However the Magistrate and the other officials were not a bit impressed with Mathew’s performance, and hurried to a shuttle to Mar Sara Starport’s fully catered reception.

Mathew took the shuttle back to his mining camp. His working shift for the day was already over by the time he returned. Tired from the day’s work, Mathew retired to the worker’s quarters and soon fell asleep.

“Hey, get up, ya gotta see this.”

Mathew had not slept for 1 hour yet. Being still half asleep, he didn’t quite hear what his co-worker just said. However, what he did notice is there was a loud broadcast on every screen of on the walls of the worker’s quarters and on every PDA.

“...destruction of our sister-world Chau Sara by alien forces has been confirmed. As your new Magistrate, I hereby declare marshal law throughout the entire planet. Confederate military forces have ordered that this colony be locked down immediately, and all colonists are to relocate immediately to the outlying wastelands... ”


To be continued...

I’ll edit and update this post as I write more. I’ll have to redesign my fanfic and where it ends, since the assignment’s recommended 1200 words won’t even take Mathew 1/4 of the way through Episode One.

2 comments:

Pear Jin said...

That's a bit of a cliff hanger over there. :)

I love how you photoshopped the images for the fanfiction as well.

Good stuff. ^^

Birdie said...

Yes, I agree that, Pear. However, it is quite common for movie director for their series to attract the audience.

Guo Fang, your writing reminded me to think about my youth age in the university. At that moment, I always escape with boys from classroom, and stay in the computer game bar monthly to play the Star Craft. At the end of semester, I always failed in half of the papers, but win a lot of money in the game gambling.

Wish I won’t fail anything in this semester because I did not play any game except sleep too much in the class.