Peter Walker recently completed his Ph.D. at Rice University's Department of Space Physics and Astronomy, developing for Dr. Paul Cloutier a global magnetic potential model of the interaction of the Solar Wind's magnetic field with the Venus ionosphere. Currently, he is a post-doc at Rice, and expects to remain until April 1999. Formerly, as both a graduate and undergraduate student, he worked for Dr. Bob Haymes, developing a new type of balloon-borne gamma-ray telescope, Prometheus I. For a summer as an undergraduate he worked with Dr. Gene Herrin of Southern Methodist University's Geology and Geophysics Department. Pete is also active in the Rice Graduate Student Pub, Valhalla, and was co-manager for the 1995-1996 school year. Furthermore, Pete is the Houston site manager for Laser Fantasy International and a laserist at the Houston Museum of Natural Science, performing weekday and some evening Rock laser shows.
Born and raised in Dallas, Texas, Peter attended St. Mark's Episcopal School, from which he graduated in 1988. He then attended Rice University in Houston, receiving his B.A. in Physics in 1992, staying on there for graduate school.
Peter became involved with Robotech when it first aired in 1985, and was one of the few at the premiere of "Robotech - The Movie: The Untold Story" when it was released in Dallas in late summer 1986. Inspired by the film, and by his conversations with Carl Macek at the theater and days before at Lone Star Comics, Pete - along with his best friend Anand Rao - began to turn his nascent Mekton campaign into the Objective Reflex Point trilogy, on which they have since labored. Pete has authored numerous articles on the Internet regarding the original television show, and is the co-moderator of (and frequent poster to) the Robotech mailing list. He has also followed anime and manga in general, and was one of the founding members of a short-lived fan-club in Dallas.
In addition to Robotech, Peter maintains active interests in history, language (he has studied Japanese and Latin, and maintains a rusty fluency in German), Asian art history, Indian and Chinese philosophy and religion, amateur astronomy (he used to be a certified operator on the 36" reflector at George Observatory in Brazos Bend State Park), and role-playing (especially Warhammer FRP). Unmarried, Peter is an enthusiastic amateur chef, a connoisseur of fine spirits and cigars, and is a former violinist and a music lover - with special affection for classical, opera, classic rock, ethnic, and the blues. Pete has long been a fan of Science Fiction on television and film, beginning with Star Trek at a young age through Babylon 5 today.
Peter is the senior partner of the ORP project, and has also begun a related novella - ROBOTECH: The Hunted, ORP's prequel - ROBOTECH: The Will of Heaven, and is developing the concept for a potential comic, tentatively entitled ROBOTECH: Old Soldiers. The episodes he has written are Disaster, portions of Roll Call, the Jeanne/Roger subplot in Salvage Yard, Evasive Actions, the Laurie subplot in Schwarzwald, Citadel Gates, Transmutation, Zor's Orphans, and Requiem in Three Voices. His mark can also be seen on a reworking of Video Melee, Allegiance, and Friends and Enemies, which were written by Andy. Upcoming chapters: A Call to Arms, A Soldier's Fortune and Jealous Time.
M. Anand S. Rao (a.k.a. Andy or "Slouch")
is currently a Patent Examiner for the Electrical Engineering Group of the United States Patent & Trademark Office in Arlington, Virginia. His professional areas of concentration include medical imaging techniques, video bandwidth compression techniques and applications, and stereoscopic image processing. A brief history of Anand's employment includes one year (1992-93) as a digital control systems engineer at Control Systems International in Austin, Texas, and a summer as a design engineer for Loral, S.I.S. at Ellington Field in Houston. Before seeking employment, Anand attended Washington University in St. Louis and graduated in 1991 with a BSEE with particular concentrations in digital engineering.Anand was born in Bangalore, India in 1969, but was raised in numerous parts of the globe. He emigrated with his family to England, living there from 1970-1974, in various locales including the Isle of Wight and Newcastle-upon-Tyne. His father's work took the family to Ndola, Zambia from the years of 1974-1977, where Anand first began attending school. In 1977, Anand's family moved to Rochester, New York. One winter in Rochester was enough reason for Anand's father to move the family again in 1979, this time to warmer climes, settling on the sleepy West Texas town of Snyder. In 1983, Anand was sent to Dallas to attend St. Mark's Episcopal School, boarding for one year under the auspices of a faculty member. In 1984, the rest of the family moved to Dallas, and it was January of the next year that Anand met a soon-to-be close friend and future writing collaborator: Pete Walker.
Anand became involved in Robotech through Pete's near-religious zeal for the animated series, and Anand watched with some interest the various runs of the series as it commenced airing from 1985. The inspiration for the ORP trilogy came from Pete's first attempt at executing a Mekton campaign in the Robotech environment, with each one of the twosome role-playing a specific character. Brief session summaries somehow became detailed outlines; and Anand and Pete decided to write full-time in the summer of 1986, at the expense of the campaign. While Anand and Pete have been able to adapt a cross-town to a cross-country partnership on the project, Pete has been and will probably remain the driving force for completing the novels. Anand's role in the writing partnership has been passive, as he has been content to let Pete receive and deal with the attention the project has generated.
Anand has other interests outside of the project. In addition to the writing and his career, Anand loves literature, sports, music, cooking, fantasy role-playing games, and travel. Some of his most preferred reads are: almost anything by Ben Bova, Steppenwolf, The Spy Who Came In From the Cold, A Separate Peace, and Heart of Darkness. Anand loves basketball, and has the fadeaway jumper to prove it. He is an accomplished cook, but prefers to experiment with Western cuisine rather than attempt the Indian fare of his ancestors. He is a former musician with an average skill at playing the French Horn. He has studied the French language, but now can carry only a phrase or two in that tongue. His musical preferences span the gamut from the Rolling Stones, to Miles Davis, to Handel. Anand's taste for Sci-fi was also sprung from Star Trek, both the various TV series and the assorted movies. But his treasured video collection includes: all twelve seasons of M*A*S*H, all of the James Bond movies, John Carpenter's The Thing(1981), and Caddyshack. At present, Anand is an avid fan of the current series The X-Files. His RPG interests lie mainly with Palladium's Heroes Unlimited, but he was raised on AD&D. Anand loves to journey to the local vineyards dotting the Del-Mar peninsula, and frequently plans as many weekend getaways as his schedule will allow. On Christmas Day 1994, Anand was married to Geeta Padbidri (aka Gauri). Geeta is a staff scientist at a pharmaceutical company in the area. As of yet, Anand himself is the couple's only child.
Anand is the junior partner on the ORP project, and his main contributions include portions of Roll Call and Salvage Yard, and the main plots of Out on the Town, Schwarzwald, Video Melee, Allegiance, and Friends and Enemies. Upcoming chapters include: Yellow Rose and Black Gold, Kith and Kin, and Mourning Song. Plans are also underway on a sequel, taking place 15+ years in the future with the same cast of characters, tentatively entitled: ROBOTECH: Destiny's Children. Anand has had little to do with the tech files or the web site. He hopes to be on-line from home sometime this spring (maybe!), but has access to this web site and has visited it frequently.
Go to ORP, Book 1 - Roll Call.
Go to ORP, Book 2 - A Soldier's Fortune.
Go to ORP, Book 3 - Final Mission.
Go to the Robotech Reference Guide Home Page.