Arecibo radio telescope, an icon of astronomy, is lost

Timing seems a bit suspect.I believe a bunch of our national observatories here in the US are also offline as of this summer.a reply to: gortex

a reply to: Jaypeth

Part of the plot to get Biden elected, you think?

a reply to: Phage

You do realize that you have just started a whole new conspiracy plot.

I can just see it now, it's dark and the thin athletic gymnast turned secret agent for a clandestine group shimmies silently along the cable to were she then tip's a vial of corrosive material onto the wires, almost immediately they begin to snap with twang's that shiver along the cable but slowly enough for her to slide herself to safety, as she walks toward the road through the jungle were her waiting accomplice is ready with the getaway car she stop's and slip's the black mask off her face before slipping the evening dress over her one piece skin tight black body suit and a pair of high heel's onto her feet.

They race off into the night as a former KGB agent called Alexey Zhukov watches from the shadow's, he's intrigued at what this admittedly very attractive slightly built Asian American lady was up too, suddenly there is a large crash from the dish and he knows the job he was hired to do has been done by someone else, he look's wistfully at his old rental and think's about ditching the large cache of plastique he has in the boot but being a mercenary decides he will find something else to use it on, anyway he loves explosion's and it would be such a shame to waste it.


Jeff Rogers former CIA spook and former Navy Seal in his youth observes from the shadows despite being officially dead since for more than ten years he tailed Alexey here more out of curiosity and caution than anything else and wonders to himself what is going on, Alexey was an old timer like himself and if they had not been enemy's but they were, rubbing the invisible scar from his plastic surgery he decides that it does not really matter so lets Alexey go and stroll's casually back to his own car.

Leaning against the side of the old sedan he strikes up a Cuban and takes a long deep pull feeling the eyes of the other observer whom is now watching him.

At least he knows now that they are not here for him but this other guy feel's dangerous, like the agency kind of dangerous and he does not like it one bit not after cutting ties the way he did and taking enough cash to retire which he saw as his pension anyway, after what he had done he knew that he was a dead man walking anyway so that had been his only way out.

More out of chance and his still cat like reflexes than anything else he feels it and duck's just in time for the silenced bullet to miss as it smashes into the window of his car then he dives back into the undergrowth rolling and pulling his own silenced pistol in a fluid instinctual motion before returning fire even as several more round's missed him but only by a hair and one hits him in the chest were his Kevlar vest barely stop's it, wincing in pain he realizes that this guy is good, perhaps too good and he is not as young as he used to be, maybe this was his time but he was not going to go down without a fight.

He knew now that the others had not come for him but this guy Had and he had walked right into the most convenient place for him to take him out, only the fact that this guy was not as good as he had once been and that streak of luck had saved his life so far, turning after a few more pot shot's at were he assailant was or were he thought he was he made his getaway on foot cursing silently, maybe he could lead his pursuer into a more suitable place if his pursuer was dumb enough to follow.

They knew were he was now of that he had no doubt, he would have to lose the cash he had in Geneva and use his back up account, if he could just make it to his safe house to get the papers he had hidden there he would call Martinez to arrange thing's, could he trust Martinez he was no longer sure and as his blood raced the adrenaline gave him a speed he had not had since he was in his twenty's as he ran expertly and almost silently through the dense jungle before slowing at a stream and taking a detour to hide his track's.

he knew that his evasive tactics were likely in vain since one of the eye in the sky satellites was probably watching his every move, that was from his time in the agency and they may have better now he knew but he also knew a number of bolt holes that only men on the ground, men like him familiar with the terrain knew and so he headed for one.

The dense rock of the cave here would shield him as he dived into the darkness and made his way to the other side to head out when he felt it was safe, he would make his way then to another cave nearby, he hated tight spaces but it could not be helped and he would have to crawl there, he would do this through four nearby caves he knew of then exit using the river were at least his thermal print should be masked if he stayed under water for a while and appearing only now and then for air should not give him away as his head was a smaller target than his whole body.

How long would they stay on him IF they were watching and tracking the labyrinth of natural tunnels behind him would buy him a half an hour at least once the special team got here and perhaps if he was lucky an hour to two hours at most as he made his way through the network to his intended river exit, downstream he would find a car somewhere and head for the safe house before getting over the border.

This was not about the Election, it was about something far bigger and more dangerous and the election was only a tiny piece of the puzzle, does Rogers survive to turn Crusader against some of his former colleagues who had sold out or does he die?.

And what of his mysterious accomplice, who is really behind this, maybe we will find out in the next episode of WHEN THE WIRE BROKE, stay tuned to find out if our Rogue agent will turn out to be the Hero he originally started out to be.

Disclaimer (Demanded by the statutes and peoples of Allegoricallia)
All names have been made up for this production, no similarity to any person's living or dead is intended and this is purely for entertainment value.

a reply to: LABTECH767

Wrong plot it was aliens they had to take it out to prevent us seeing their fleet aproach from the sounthern hemisphere. As long as they stay south of the equator they wont have to worry about goldstone spotting them.

I thought you guys may find this interesting they caught the cable snaping on video.

a reply to: dragonridr

That's just were the other spook turn's out to be a man in black, or denim or something.

Meh. Weak.

originally posted by: dragonridr
Wrong plot it was aliens they had to take it out to prevent us seeing their fleet aproach from the sounthern hemisphere.

Arecibo could only view objects within 20° of the zenith. Since it was located at 18° north latitude, it could only see 2° into the southern hemisphere.

As long as they stay south of the equator they wont have to worry about goldstone spotting them.

Meet Goldstone's Australian counterpart: Parkes Observatory