What to do next?

[General]

It seems like some folks liked my last story so I’m eager to start working on the next. While I do like making long, detailed stories, they tend to take a while. In the mean time I end up with a lot of plot ideas sitting in a mental queue.

I’ve got five different stories in mind and I could use some input. I’ve outlined them below without spoiling anything important. If you want to weigh in, you can either use the vote above or please feel free to leave any freeform comments or criticisms below. I appreciate all the positive feed back the community has provided but constructive criticism is also important for improvement. I'm not sure when I might actually get the opportunity to start writing again, but it helps to know which way to go when I mentally mull over a story.


Story 1 Terminator Future War
Setting: Post apocalyptic Terminator universe, shortly before the fall of Skynet
Basic Plot: The hero is a Resistance fighter based out of Las Vegas. He’s been fairly successful against Skynet presence in the area and made a name for himself for long distance raids.
One day when returning from a very successful supply raid, he is removed from his team and brought to the command bunker under the old MGM Grand. Inside he is surprised to see the first time the legendary John Connor. Connor explains to him that the Resistance received a coded signal two days ago on a background Skynet channel. The encoded message is from an unknown group that says it holds the potential key to defeating Skynet. They want to meet in person under the St. Louis arch in one week.
The hero must make the journey, but to avoid detection he cannot take his normal team. Instead Connor assigns him a diminutive female terminator as an escort. She is an advanced model captured from a recently discovered Skynet automated factory.
At first the hero refuses to work with Metal, but Connor insists and they start their journey.
Expected length: Medium to long
Expected sex: moderate to low
Expected action: high

Story 2 Terminators to Plowshares
Setting: Post apocalyptic Terminator universe about a year after the fall of Skynet and the end of the war.
Basic Plot: The hero is an younger man, that’s known nothing but the war against Skynet. He served under Connor and even participated in the final assault on NORAD. But after the machines fell, he had little purpose. Councils popped up everywhere as humanity tried to prop itself back up. People actually started rebuilding, and openly communicating. Connor had dissolved the Resistance and only kept a small few of his elite soldiers as a standing army that guarded against a potential rise of any other threats to mankind. Unfortunately for him, the hero was not part of this group.
Instead he had been assigned an old parasol of land in the once lush California Central Valley along the San Joaquin River. He’d been given a few books on agriculture that someone found and told to start growing something. People needed food after all.
Life on the farm turned out to be much more difficult than he thought. There was always work to do and his expertise was limited. In his first season he barely grew enough food to feed himself, nevermind anyone else.
It was the first new spring after VS day that the California Provisional Council (the weak attempt at local civilian government) decided to help out to boost post-war production. In a controversial move they reactivated a few automated factories and began producing Terminators. These new cyborgs were programmed with a wide range of practical skills and meant to assist the humans they once hunted.
The hero is assigned a female terminator that looks like an attractive girl in her mid 20’s. At first he’s not happy about working with metal, but he’s happy he at least didn’t get one of the dudes.
The hero quickly takes to his new companion and enjoys her company and perks. However after a while the CPC enacts another program to spur population growth. He is assigned a ‘wife’ with instructions to be fruitful and multiply. Neither human is happy with the situation and the wife is especially frustrated with the terminator and the level of attention she gets from the hero.
Expected length: Short to medium
Expected sex: moderate to high
Expected action: minimal

Story 3 Future Gothic
Setting: Near future urban gothic. Borrowed liberally from Hellboy, Dresden Files, Buffy, Supernatural, Blade, etc
Basic Plot: What would those movies above be like if someone had a sexy, kick ass android with them?
The hero is a private eye that makes his living hunting the hidden horrors that stalk New York City. When his partner is killed by one of those horrors, he purchases a high end android to help out.
Expected length: Short to medium but with the potential for many follow on stories; like episodes in a television show.
Expected sex: moderate to high
Expected action: high


Story 4 Zombies
Setting: Far future, gritty sci-fi. Atmosphere and technology level borrowed liberally from Firefly, Battlestar Galactica, Aliens, and Mass Effect
Basic Plot: Zombie Apocalypse in space. The hero is an ex-Navy technician that retired from active service and settled on a frontier world as a fix-it-man. One day a private space ship crashes outside of the hero’s small village. The locals investigate it and find a scene of gore and carnage inside. Suddenly one of the bodies they believed dead wakes up and bites a farmer. The locals lock the attacker inside the ship and rush the farmer to the doctor. After a few hours of unsuccessful treatment and a rapidly worsening condition, the hero volunteers to drive the doctor and farmer to the nearest city as he is the only one with a large enough truck.
When the trio gets to the city they find it in a state of semi-chaos. He drops them both off at the hospital and as he can’t find parking, he grabs a spot downtown near a bar to wait for them to be finished. Over the next few hours he watches the news that humans are succumbing to a strange ‘alien plague’ that renders them insane and violent. Some reports even indicate that the infected die then re-animate some time later, but they are laughed off as ridiculous by the other bar patrons.
Eventually the hospital erupts with the infected, who quickly overwhelm the limited guards outside. A mob flees down the street past the bar and the hero has to fight off a few infected that come inside before he ducks out the back door. He makes his way to the spaceport with a few other survivors and commandeers a small Navy gunboat that had detached it’s marines and crew to secure the hospital. He takes on a few more survivors but eventually has to take off lest he overload the ship’s environmental systems.
In space, he assess the ‘crew’ for bites or wounds and they’re all clean, except one. A young female, protected by her one friend, cradles her arm. He inspects it but instead of finding blood, sees synthetic flesh. Some of the other refugees demand he land and cast the androids out in favor of saving more humans. For some reason the hero refuses and takes them into space.
He hoped to find refuge somewhere, but by now the whole human region of the galaxy is overrun with the virus. Millions of ships drift about looking for salvation. Some of them go wild as their crews are overtaken from within and others just stop transmitting. Unfortunately for humanity, the rest of the galactic community imposes a quarantine on human space and threatens to destroy anyone that runs the blockade. A large fleet of human military and refugee ships try to break through but are wiped out at the Battle of Orion’s Belt.
The hero must now try to protect his ‘crew’ and try to find safe haven among the dead wastes of he galaxy.
Expected length: moderate to long
Expected sex: moderate to low
Expected action: high

Story 5 Invasion
Setting: Modern day Earth
Basic plot: The hero is a Marine Reservist who is suddenly called back to active duty when a swarm of alien ships appear out of nowhere and land in various places around the globe. Hordes of semi-sentient alien beasts of many varieties pour out of the ships along with their humanoid controllers. They rampage across the countryside, claiming large swaths of land in the fertile heartland.
The hero’s unit is overrun and he’s nearly killed himself before he’s saved by a strikingly beautiful and deadly young woman. Once he’s safe, she explains that she is an android sent by an interstellar race that is in conflict with Earth’s invaders. They are sympathetic to Earth’s plight, but are unable to intervene either due to treaty or a shortage of manpower (not sure which way to go here). She continues to explain that she is one of many special forces agents built to specifically blend in with humanity and aid them in resisting the invasion. She offers to teach humanity the invader’s weaknesses and convey new technology they can use in the fight. She even hints that her government may intervene in the future with supply drops or direct military action if Earth can hold out long enough.
The hero would be assigned as the android’s liaison officer with the Marines and they would work together to help win the war.
Expected length: moderate to high
Expected sex: moderate to low
Expected action: high

[akori]

I have to say, it's tough call between 2&3 for me.

[Brytestar]

Leaning towards 2 myself.