posted 08-15-2001 01:23 PM               

I’m currently working on a project I call Area 85 (yeah, nice name huh? ). I don’t want to give away a whole lot of info about it, but it’s going to be a three-level campaign with custom WADs, outfits, and textures – you know, all the works. The genre of the levels is a mix of the India (TR3), Area 51 (TR3), and VCI (TR5) levels, so I’m hoping to catch the interest of a lot of gamers. So far, I’ve got the story line complete (which I think is the more exciting part unfortunately) and I’m now working on the actual level designing (which is the more difficult side for me because of my short attention span ). The objective of the campaign is somewhat different from other Tomb Raider games because it actually does not involve the recovery of an artifact - Heh but that’s as far as I’ll go on that . Below I’ve posted the Introduction to the mission/campaign for your guys’ viewing. But uh, I wanted to say that usually I don’t like showing my stuff to public or whatever before it’s ready release because I’m kinda paranoid about someone stealing and copying my stuff, but I’m hoping it will help me stay more committed to the level-building part of the project so I’ll actually end up finishing it. But yeah, one last remark: the following excerpt was written by Brad White a.k.a. 85, in July of 2001, so please no copying or stealing my material or I will get really pissed and so will my lawyer – and yeah, all the rest of that copyright crap. So enough of that, here it is:

Over half a century ago, on the fifth of December 1945, a squadron of elite U.S. bombers code-named Flight 19 set out to somewhere in the Atlantic on a mission typical of that time, but still classified as extremely secret. At that time, the U.S., having just obtained the science of the atomic bomb and demonstrated it’s awesome yet terrible power earlier that year in both Hiroshima and Nagasaki, was experimenting with the newfound technology. Each of the five bombers was equipped with an atomic bomb and each knew what they were supposed to do. The pilots’ orders were to perform tests of these bombs out at a designated area in the Atlantic Ocean. Each pilot was ordered to carry out the mission with the utmost caution and that any one of the bombs could not, under any circumstance, fall into the hands a foreign power or anyone at all for that matter. It was made strictly clear to each pilot that if anything should happen to go wrong, that they were to destroy any evidence that the bombs and the mission ever existed – even if it meant killing themselves in the process.
The planes had a successful takeoff and were having no problems during the beginning of the flight – the weather was clear, the wind was fair, and the pilots were more then prepared for the mission. However, this changed at approximately the time that they passed that imaginary line that borders the mysterious area known as the “Bermuda Triangle”. As they entered the Triangle, several odd “happenings” began to occur. The first occurrence was when one of the pilots reported several flashes a few miles off from their position, which he thought “looks like sunlight reflecting off of ten or fifteen planes” out beyond the squadron’s ability to see. Even though the planes were equipped with the latest, most powerful radar technology, they didn’t pick up a single thing. A few minutes later, the squadron’s directional devices began acting oddly. Each pilot’s compass and altimeter began “spinning and pausing – as if they couldn’t make up their minds.” Following that, each of the pilots’ radios began fading in and out. With each passing minute, communication with the aircraft became increasingly difficult. Soon, all that could be heard were short garbles that were completely incomprehensible. By this time, the controllers had realized that something was going very wrong. Then, at exactly 7 minutes and 18 seconds after the planes had officially crossed into the Triangle, the control room received a chilling distress call from the squadron leader. The radio had cleared just enough for the controllers listening to make out “Mayd–!,Mayday! Oh my g–, no! Not –“ but before anyone could make out rest of the sentence, radio contact was lost permanently. Neither Flight 19 nor its precious cargo was ever seen or heard from again.
A seaplane had been sent out to search for the aircraft the instant the controlling tower had first lost contact with the planes. It disappeared as well.

With these disappearances, Washington got extremely uneasy. Some believed that somehow the Soviets had intercepted the planes and now had acquired the power of the atomic bomb while others thought that the planes had just fallen victim to some tropical storm that had interfered with directional and communication equipment and eventually crashed the aircraft. Some even believed it to be a supernatural power of the Triangle that had gotten the planes. Soon enough, the news of the disappearance of Flight 19 reached the public. Because of the sensitivity of the mission, officials had to cover up the incident. The press was told that the flight was a novice squadron that had lost its way while on a training mission. They were also told that the search plane had actually exploded over the runway right after taking off to search for the lost aircraft.
Several more attempts were made at finding the airplanes at site they were believed to have “disappeared” but were unable to recover any trace of Flight 19.

This incident was followed over the years by several cases very similar to this one. Most of the ships were American, but 3 were British as well. Overall, around 200 disappearances have occurred in or around the Bermuda Triangle, however only 21 of those have been reported to the public. Each time the aircraft or sea vessel that disappeared was carrying some sort of important cargo – from newly developed military weapons or devices to secret messages or even vast amounts of fuel – with the total cost of all the disappearances put together ranging around $30 billion dollars. Each time the government tried to conceal the disappearance as well as possible, but wasn’t always successful. Whenever news of a disappearance did happen to leak out, it was soon thwarted by a new string of false stories and explanations. Up to this day, no one has been able to find the real reason these disappearances have occurred…
That changed at 2:47 this morning.

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Um, I thank you for reading through it all – that really means a lot to me and I hope you liked it. Please keep in mind that I’m only 15, so if your thinking like “Wow, this really sucks…” I’ll understand and I guess it’s because we’ve all got our different styles, but whether you liked it or not, I really want to get some feedback on it. Just in case any of you were wondering, this whole story is based on true facts – there really was a Flight 19 that disappeared in 1945 along with it’s search plane and there have been over 200 disappearances in the Bermuda Triangle in total. All the dates, events, and statistics are real, and all I did was add in a couple parts. That’s what so great about writing – you can really play around with the mind and get people wondering… But that’s enough for now. Please tell me what you guys think of it!! Thanx again!

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Rock on.

85

posted 08-15-2001 01:38 PM               

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Rock on.

posted 08-17-2001 02:26 PM               

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Rock on.