A Light Away From Home is a story told in six songs and six sets of graphic-novel panels. It follows Cal Mercer, a lonely photographer who has spent years climbing Tikaboo Peak in the Nevada desert to watch a secret air base, and a small, frightened visitor from somewhere far beyond the stars. Tikaboo Peak is a real mountain, and people really do climb it to look at the base. Everything that happens in the story is made up.
If you’re new here, start with chapter one and read the chapters in order. Each one has its own song on Suno, so you can listen while you read.
Chapter One: Tikaboo Peak
Cal climbs the mountain by red headlamp, as he has on countless nights, and looks down at the base lights far below. His notebook says “nothing”, over and over. Then, in the middle of the night, the headlights down there start to move.
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Chapter Two: Hangar Lights
The base wakes up. Through his long lens, Cal watches convoys, figures in white suits and a covered load being driven into the biggest hangar, and he realises he’ll never know what it is from up here.
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Chapter Three: The Perimeter
Cal leaves the tripod behind and heads down in the dark, past the warning signs, the patrol trucks and the buried sensors, until he reaches a side door that someone has left open.
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Chapter Four: The Visitor
Inside, at the end of a long, empty corridor, Cal finds a sealed room, and someone in it who is a very long way from home.
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Chapter Five: A Light Away From Home
The Visitor shows Cal what it has been through, and who is waiting for it beyond the stars. Cal has nobody waiting for him. He makes a promise.
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Chapter Six: The Run
Now Cal has to keep that promise, with the whole base coming after him. This is the finale, and the heaviest song in the series.
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Thank you for following Cal and the Visitor. I have a feeling their story isn’t quite over yet.
More Kaiser Maschine on Suno: suno.com/@kaisermaschine
Kaiser Maschine on Bandcamp: kaisermaschine.bandcamp.com
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