Although this is clearly an opening story, I don’t feel as though it gives us enough to want to read on – who is Private Stone?

The reader needs to identify and engage more with the central character to keep us hooked – and to make sure that we have a human anchor wherever the plot takes us…

A nice set-up, but you could have gone further – MH :)

I thought it was a fair story starter. We don’t have a ton to go on, but it’s a short piece. Worked just fine for me, especially in the sense that for every detail we don’t know we’re as caught off guard as is your protagonist.

:O, I’m not sure what Ed was talking about, the ambiguity of this one left me wanting more. What was in that box?

Thank you for the comments! I can see what you are saying in that story is more prominent than character development. I had wrestled with that in this piece, because I knew what I wanted to happen and I had to sacrifice something to keep it at the 1,024 characters. I am planning on expanding this a bit. Not sure when or what yet, but there is more there and I may get my chance to get to know the character a bit more and share it in future sequels.