Beaver Flight Commentary - Prologue

Welcome back to the commentaries.  If this is your first time here, please read the chapter first.  Spoilers may abound.

Beaver Flight was my project for NaNoWriMo 2012 and was the reason I started blogging.  To save time going back into the archives, the core of the story came from an Arrogant Worms song, "We Are the Beaver".  The idea of mecha flights named after national animals appealed to me.  That's still not enough to hang a plot on, so more thinking occurred, leading to a mystery on the moon.

The prologue turned into mostly exposition.  I had a number of elements that needed to come out without interrupting the flow later.  Darcy, our Fearless Leader, needed to know this so she wouldn't have to ask embarrassing questions later.  By having the Brigadier provide the information, top secret info at that, to a low ranking officer, I avoided the dreaded, "As you know, Bob," set up.  Darcy doesn't know.  No one does.  Military conspiracy at its finest.

Darcy is quick on the uptake.  One survivor, a Russian woman, deliberately left behind while the men were removed.  I wanted to flip the "Mars needs women!" approach to pulp.  "Venus needs men!"  Why?  That comes out later.  For now, it's part of the mystery.

Because the song is "We Are the Beaver", Darcy is part of the Canadian Forces, specifically part of Air Command.  While mecha tend to be ground forces, even if they have flight capability, the complexity of balancing the movement of the arms and legs led me to compare piloting one to piloting a helicopter.  The Heron isn't a current Canadian helicopter, but the name fits into current naming patterns that uses animals and weather.  I am hoping that current craft like the Comorant and the Griffon will be retired by 2127.

To add to the fun, Darcy will be the only military officer in her flight.  The other three women are civilians given sweetheart deals to join up.  The civilians have other specialties that could be handy given that the closest help needs to time departures with launch windows.  The more self-sufficient the lunar base is, the better.

Tomorrow, Chapter 1, Arrival.
Also tomorrow, over at Psycho Drive-In, Godzilla (1998).
Saturday, over at MuseHack, Howard the Duck.
Also Saturday, check out Comics Bulletin for comics-related reposts of Lost in Translation.