When I and a handful of other writers began planning the HTL story over five years ago, we had no idea it would become the giant that it has. The original plan that I had in mind featured 50 or so chapters and maybe half a dozen writers, all wrapped in an year or two. What no-one expected was that over two dozen writers would join up, or that the ideas, characters and subplots they contributed would flesh out the bare bones of the story I had in mind so well. All good things come to an end though, and while it's not quite the end for HTL just yet, this story marks the beginning of the end.

That's because despite all the improvements and additions that have made to the story, the core plot has remained the same. The outnumbered fleet of Confed and Border Worlds vessels has been fighting to hold back the Nephilim tide long enough for the wormhole to be closed, slowly giving way before the enemy armada while making the Nephilim pay for each advance they make. Meanwhile, their reserves and support forces have been gathering to help them finish the battle once and for all. Now that the main fleet has linked up with the reserves, the defenders will be throwing all their resources in one final and cataclysmic battle, HTL's big and bloody finale.

A recurring complaint many characters have made throughout the story has been about the scarcity of those resources. Like most things in life though, it's not black and white. We kick the finale off with an interesting story called "The Other Side Of The Coin." This chapter is written by Brandon "Avatarr" Alspaugh, so please send any and all comments to him at avatarr@sprynet.com, not to me.

The story is at: http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~theraj/archives/ch162.htm

Best, Raptor