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probably wont be around tonight bunch of crap going on at home

Game is off until next week just wanted to give the heads up that Dhak gave me

-yawn-

-le sigh-

Several days go by which the author won't bore the audience with; suffice it to say, Anon is no longer with Phoenix Force and has gone back to his family compound... or at least that is what Leena is led to believe. It is unknown if he managed to trek solo by himself over the multiple hundreds of miles between Lazlo & the Wilks compound in the West without being utterly anhilated by overwhelming Coalition firepower, or tech-jackers disabling his unique mecha and making sure "dead men tell no tales.". Perhaps no one ever will know his true fate...

July 24th., PA 109.
A day that saw the introduction Montreal Island (Including Leval) and Mechanicsville.
The former shot a medium range missile as the stealth systems of the groups' aircraft weren't quite up to snuff; what with Montreal being a pirate & smugglers haven now and paranoid of competitors / lawmen. 30 MDC to the main body later, the group heads to location 2; Mechanicsville.
THERE they find more information to tracking down their quarry and the circus he / it is hiding with.

It seems that the infamous James T., the 'Twisted Tin-man' as he is called in Cirque De Freq, has gotten the circus driven out of another township, as Mayor McKinley informs the team; "I am not a biggot but some of those performers are...LOW class in manor and actions. James T. especially."

Becomeing creeped out by the leering gaze of the mayor, Fionna regrets not being able to take up the mayor on is offer to remain in Mechanicsville (where even THERE, the exploits of Phoenix Force have gained popularity via the comic book of the same name), and quickly departed.

Durring this time period Tim teh Borg started acting more and more brain damaged; almost as if his already addeled mind had taken irreperable damage during his bodies retrofitting earlier that week. As the rest of the team grew tired of his inane nattering and random actions, the borg collapsed at his duty station on the teams aircraft. It took a full minute for the indifferent Phoenix Forcers to realize that Tim wasn't just passed out or malfunctioning; he was dead.
Something had caused the nuclear-pellet power system to vent the waste heat into his chest cavity and braincase, cooking him from the inside.

As Fionna (being a Burster, immune to the heat coming off of the slowly baking borg) stripped away the armour plates of the unlucky merc, Shalyndra saw a number of warning lights click on their vehicles instrument panel; the reactor was about to melt down.
Then the worst possible thing happend; the sound of raspy voiced munchkin-sized laughter from the inside of the instrument panel.
"Yummmm yummmm."
...gremlins.

http://palladium-megaverse.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=2564049#p2564049
Yes I know it's late and NOT in my usual style but nearly a month of no game after two players go AWOL?
... *shrug* "deal with it"

DhAkael wrote:"Yummmm yummmm."
...gremlins.

That's why I leave solar-powered pocket calculators rigged with Windows 88 encoded, and an explosive filling for back up, lying around.
Unattended cellphones with plastique filling work well too....Gremlins find ringtones irresistable...

taalismn wrote:

DhAkael wrote:"Yummmm yummmm."
...gremlins.

That's why I leave solar-powered pocket calculators rigged with Windows 88 encoded, and an explosive frilling for back up, lying around.
Unattended cellphones with plastique filling work well too....Gremlins find ringtones irresistable...

LOL

Explosive cellphones also deal with a number of other vermin too...

taalismn wrote:

DhAkael wrote:"Yummmm yummmm."
...gremlins.

That's why I leave solar-powered pocket calculators rigged with Windows 88 encoded, and an explosive filling for back up, lying around.
Unattended cellphones with plastique filling work well too....Gremlins find ringtones irresistable...

See, that's weird. I was watching Gremlins while I read this.
...
Got a spare phone?

Oh things are gonna get...-ahem- "REAL" start of next session.
Just hope that the pilot (Shalyndra) is able to use the last of the emergency power to land...
Safely.

DhAkael wrote:Oh things are gonna get...-ahem- "REAL" start of next session.
Just hope that the pilot (Shalyndra) is able to use the last of the emergency power to land...
Safely.

Any landing from orbit you can regenerate from is a GOOD landing.

Dramatic emergency landings.
Discorporated gelatinous gremlin goo hair care.
Robo-Rhinos rampage.
Dead clowns.
All this and more in the next update of 'The saga continues'.

...
"No, seriously. I'm not making this [censored] up."

DhAkael wrote:Dramatic emergency landings.
Discorporated gelatinous gremlin goo hair care.
Robo-Rhinos rampage.
Dead clowns.
All this and more in the next update of 'The saga continues'.

...
"No, seriously. I'm not making this [censored] up."

Dead clowns? Good start.

and a few moments of me disappearing due to household annoyances

Reposted from the 'Shemarrian Fan-page' but it IS relevent. Please ignore the typo-daemons.

Meanwhile; somewhere in the Ontario / Ottawa wildreness.
"It will be easy they said...no trouble, just find these people called Phoenix Force and warn them of the coming swarm they said. YEESH! Grey seers; obtuse when they were flesh & blood, worse now they're shoved into magitech enhanced biomechanoid frames. Why couldn't I just have just been born a city-rat in Ishpemning?"

Frankie Neuromancer continued muttering to himself not realizing he was speaking in Elven again, his antennae lashing back and forth under the cured deer-hide hood.
He just hoped that he'd be able to avoid...

>>"HALT! Indentify yourself male! What tribe do you hail from!?"<<

...any 'wild' Shemarrians.
This was gonna be a lonnnnnnngggg day.



The week truly sucked. Evading Coalition deep-range scouts through the former FQ ghost-archology (and didn't that place give one nightmares), avoiding hostile fauna AND flora plus trying to keep a low profile and not get caught by the Shemarrians; 'living' or otherwise. On the last point Franky's luck had run out.

He had tried to convince the gynoids (just his luck they had been tribeless and unawakend) in vain that he was the same as them; just going about his slave "programming" and reconoitreing the area for the Maker & Shaper. Franky had almost gotten away with it, but the mention of the M and S words seemed to trigger a capture and incarcerate response. Even with his ECM suite he was unable to escape the trio of mounted Shemarrians. In quick order Franklyn was knocked down & pinned by the Monstrex battle steeds, and then hog-tied with what he estimated was hypercarbon (otherwise known as 'Bucky') cable and dragged off to what the gynoids called a Healing cave. For two days he had been locked in a lightless room barely 10 by 10 by 10 feet. Before the hunt mistress had left he was informed via radio-link in a passionless squirt of binary that he was soon to undergo "recycling". Though he felt terrified about what that implied he was also stunned; all of the Shemarrians the Wayfinder had encountered always thought in broken english or elven, never in robot / A.I. technocan.

Another strange occurence happend on the second day after his capture. Two obvious robot humanoids entered the Shemarrian scared 'Healing Cave' dragging along a third broken droid or full-conversion cyborg missing its lower torso below the waist. The broken machine man was obviously still functional though. Curses and screams in nasal toned East coast accented 'mericanese (not english as Franky knew it; the twisted and mangled polyglot the CS insisted its uneducated citzens learn to speak) trailed down the coridor past Franklyn's cell. After the new-comer was unceramoniously tossed into another cube-cell, the two droids stepped to either side of that cells door and then shut down.

Franky had been given the mission to find "The twisted metal-man" but he also was told by the Grey-Seers that he'd find aid in the 'Warriors of the Firebird'; what he assumed were those Phoenix Force people he had met in the Tolkeen ruins a few months previous (and in his FIRST Shemarr body; NOT the correct gender)...just his luck that also made him the only person qualified to go out from the Wayfinder enclave to find the eccentric mercenaries again.
He decided the only way to be sure to complete his mission was to escape, find the "Firebirds" and bring them back to the healing cave hopefuly in time to rescue the twisted metal-man.

On the midnight of the second day, tipping over to morning of the third, Franklyn used his carefully hoarded mana-reserves and cast his 'Transformation; Energy' spell, allowing him to live up to his name as his entire body magicaly flowed into the wireing of the healing-cave facility. In the electron-dataverse he flew along the highways of semi-conductor and transferred from one energy state to another at virtual metro-stations (again; Franky wondered why an alien bio-mechanoid race would use obviously pre-cataclysm iconography in their Reality Enforcement System Protocols) into light pulses along fiber optics and then back again. It was at one ofthe junctions that lead to an Input / Output node he identfied as a transmission & reciving tower in real-space that he felt "IT".
IT definately sounded male as it made its presence known to Franky, though there were no visual cues except the image of a giant single floating red lens across the digital sky. Myabe this was "He"; the "He" the twisted wretch of a borg (or nerural intelignce droid; Frank was still unclear what his fellow prisoner was) kept babbling to himself about, as if "He" was a hated and feared enemy...or longed for lover.

[REMAIN WHERE YOU ARE. IF YOU RESIST, YOUR MIND WILL BE ERASED AND WE WILL USE YOUR BODY AS A LAB EXPERIMENT.]

Franklyn did not like the sound of that, and began to use up even more of his magical reserves. He just hoped that there was a ley-line nearby he could recharge from.
"Sorry big-red; but I'm pretty sure you'll erase me anyways. Funny, I didn't think the Shemarrians went for patriarchs in their religeon."
A few mental nudges and a quick dig into his onboard expanded memory for the spell formulae, and in afew seconds Franklyn could make good his escape.

[THAT COMMENT ALONE ENSURES YOU CAN NOT BE PERMITTED TO ESCAPE. PREPARE TO TERMINATE.]
The giant red lens bagan to extend tendrils of liquid metal from its circumference and with snake-like speed shot towards the Wayfinders electron body.
...only to snatch a hollow and empty shell, as a half dozen more 'Frankys' shot out from the tentacle assault.

Meanwhile the invisible "real" Franky crept to the base of the transmission tower and upon touching the virtual represntation of the main trunkline, allowed himself to revert back to physical reality at the nearest outlet with a large enough space to accomodate him; outside in the wilderness. Looking up with his real eyes and allowing for his enahnced senses to "taste" the ambient radio AEther, Franklyn detected a spy drone. This one was cleverly disguised as a hawk, and were it not for the senses built into his new body, he'd never have been able to tell the difference. Quickly but with economy of effort (as he no longer was bound with the Bucky-cable), he unlimbered his railgun carbine.

"Hey ugly...here's mud in yer eye!" he transmitted as the trigger was pulled.

And Jack has become smitten

calto40k wrote:And Jack has become smitten

With a certain 12ft. tall, 4 armed, golden-glowing & winged "goddess" avatar.
Ah...L'amour

half her size but four arms equals a lot of interesting fun lol

July 24th to 26th

Shalyndra was able to bring the CG drive system and shields back on-line just in the nick of time, narrowly avoiding a deadly crash. Unfortunately, the inertial damper fields did not have enough available power so when the Starwind “landed”, everything and everyone not strapped down or braced went flying. This meant that the Gremlin was skewered and then gooified on a protruding section of bulkhead (and dripped onto Shalyndra’s hair) and Tim teh Borg’s body went into the weapons control main-wiring bay.
After a period of time recovering from the impact, the team decided that, even though unarmed, they were still in the best position to complete their mission if they took 18 hours to reset the Starwind’s reactor. The day and early evening were peaceful, but in the late afternoon of the 25th, while out side on foot patrol Jack Chirax detected a plume of smoke not more than a few dozen miles to the south of their position. Quickly battening down the Naruni light freighter, Phoenix Force Alpha flew to the site of the smoke.
A scene of carnage awaited them.

Cirque De’Freq had been found; blasted and hacked apart (even the pack animals). The only sign of the force that had slaughtered the traveling entertainers was a set of deep foot prints leading off to the Southwest. Using the Starwind's sensor suite set to extremely narrow-field tight-focus, Fionna tracked the trail (Shalyndra estimated by the stride length, the unknown aggressors must be traveling at a steady 80 mph) to a narrow river / stream with a low waterfall (more of a rill). While hovering in full stealth & TW invisibility, a cloaked figure separated its self from the shadows and opened fire with a mini-railgun. The burst came within mere inches of impacting the Starwind’s hull but instead struck a flying object, turning it into half molten shrapnel. The figure then ran at an inhumanly fast speed towards a nearby ravine, the Starwind perused. While directly above the mysterious person, the team received a tight beam radio transmission from the person below them. He introduced himself as Franky Neuromancer and asked politely that he not be destroyed or better yet, if they were friendly could they give him a lift as he was looking for some people in Lazlo City called Phoenix Force. Fionna and Shalyndra both looked at each other stunned. They remembered the name, but when last they had seen ‘Franky’ he had been a she; a male soul encapsulated in a Shemarrian warriors body. Quickly they took the male human/Shemarrian hybrid aboard and flew a short distance to deal with this unexpected reunion.

After a few pleasantries and good natured jibes at each other (particularly between Jack Chirax and Franky), the group got down to some good old fashioned information sharing. It seemed as if Franky was the victim of fate, or at least the oracular visions of the Grey Seers amongst his ‘cabal’ known as the Wayfinders. He was sent to find “the warriors of the firebird” who would be instrumental in unraveling the mystery of the ‘Maker & Shaper’, via rescuing someone the seers called “The twisted metal-man”. Team Alpha nodded and informed Franky that they too were after someone who fitted that description; a broken borg named James T. Franky then proceeded to tell them he had been taken to a Shemarrian “healing cave” (in fact it was located under and behind the waterfall close by) but that it did not in any way seem to be alien in construction. In fact, not more than 24 hours previous, two very un-Shemarrian humanoid robots had entered the cave, dragging a screaming and babbling borg upper torso.

It was decided that Franky would lead Shalyndra and Jack Chirax to the entrance to the cave while Fionna stayed behind to offer evac support when James T. was retrieved. Shortly there after, the trio on rescue mission duty returned to the river & waterfall. Jack volunteered to remain outside to provide cover fire when they exited. Shalyndra and Franky agreed and then dove under the water and using Frankys weight to walk along the bottom of the river, they entered the cave and ascended into the lightless facility. Though undiscovered and ninja-silent up to this point, Shalyndra tripped over a piece of armour plate that hadn’t been cleaned from the last time the cave had been used and in response the two “prison guards”; the two robots Franky had seen before his breakout, turned around the corner of the T-junction ahead of the two rescuers. Battle was joined in a flurry of sword blows and railgun bursts.

Meanwhile, outside Jack (in his modified NG Samson) was ambushed by a 26ft. tall quad-leg battle robot. Jack unleashed a flurry of mini-missiles and railgun bursts. When the smoke and fire cleared, he saw only shallow pock-marks on the surface of the machines sensor head; it had had a force-field generator. The battledroid responded with ion canon and railcannon. The Samson resembled a shooting gallery dummy inside of 15 seconds of intense, continuous weapons fire. Only the emergency explosive bolt and ‘soft-eject’ system of his suit saved jack as he was flung into the River. Holding his breath, Jack figured it was he may as well go and join up with his two team mates and figure an alternate exit when they had gathered their objective.

The melee in the healing cave was intense; Franky having half his face sheared off by one of the robot guard’s vibro-sword, and Shalyndra barely fending off her own opponent. Even with Jack joining in and back-shooting and disabling one of the guards, it was a close run thing. Eventually (over the noise of James T.’s stuttering imprecations and pleadings for help further up the corridor) the trio won out, with Franky even able to use his in-built TW robot-capture systems to shut off the self destruct of the disabled guard bot and retrieve its data core. Unfortunately, the one Shalyndra and Jack defeated began its self destruct when jack head shot the machine point blank. Running fast as they could, they ran to the end of the right side corridor into the holding wing of the cave as the internal plasma charge annihilated the defeated drone.
Becoming tired of the nasal stuttering and bi-polar babblings and screeching of James t., Jack & Shalyndra both kicked the pathetic twisted wretch of the borg when they opened his holding cell, and Franky (seeing the rot inside james T.’s aura) used the last of his mana reserves to knock him out for ease of transport out of the cave. Which was deemed a necessary evil as there was still that battle droid outside…

Meanwhile outside...

[Hunter Killer unit; 2001 on standby alert. Unit identified as NG-"Samson" power armour with after market modifications terminated. Repair facility A-016OV Ottawa Valley now secure.]
The 26ft. tall 4 legged battle machine, recently created by Hagen & ARCHIE-3 stood at the edge of the swift flowing stream. Soon the prisoner designated 'Twisted-metalman' would be loaded into the specilzed containment pod installed into its chasis and it could return to A3-OZ Station 2.
In its simple silocon "brain", existence was good.
Then something odd happend. A golden glow appeared to the port-side of its primary sensor cluster "head" and a light but firm tapping on its casing.

"-ahem- excuse me giant death machine, but that wasn't very nice. That man was just minding his own business when you snuck up on him and blew his very expensive suit apart. Now he'll most likely be monster food if no one helps him."

[???!!!???!!!? Does not compute. Error 404.]

"Hmph. Won't even say 'hello' you ARE a very rude machine. Rude machines need DISCIPLINE"
Ava Seiran's holographic aura intensified as her forcefield deployed. Eye-lasers and arm particle beam projectors began to cycle their capacitors to full.
If a machine could sweat drop, HK-2001 would have had a waterfalls worth.

The early morning darkness lit up with ruby and cerulean brilliance, blotting out even the instense golden glow of the 'Avatar of Shemarr'.

When the power suit pilot, Warrent officer Jack Chirax, Phoenix Force Alpha, finally decided it was safe to come out of the river (he again thanked the nerd boy centuries back who created fully enclosed EBA), all he saw was the smoking slagged hulk of the assault robot that had blasted 'Bettsy' into shrapnel, quietly steaming as the cherry red durralloy cooled.
Quietly dragging himself onto the gravled embankment he sensed a presence.
Looking to his right he came nose to cleavage with a giant 4 armed blonde woman.

"HI!"

Jack smiled and adjusted his codpeice.

I'm reminded of the installment of the webcomic 'Schlock: Mercenary' where they discover that the shipyard robots, who are extension subsets of a greater computer net and autosave their 'personas' to backup when they're destroyed, are programmed with pain perception to better learn from their mistakes...So Tagon starts shooting them in retaliation for assisting his rival in pranking him.

HK-2001 Memory Back-up(in Repair facility A-016OV's memory core): "....oww..."

http://palladium-megaverse.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=2581646#p2581646

Cross-post MAAAAAADDDDNESSSSSS!

DhAkael wrote:http://palladium-megaverse.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=2581646#p2581646

Cross-post MAAAAAADDDDNESSSSSS!

Oh booooyyyyyy.......Polymorphing raptor-design starships in the future, then?

taalismn wrote:

DhAkael wrote:http://palladium-megaverse.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=2581646#p2581646

Cross-post MAAAAAADDDDNESSSSSS!

Oh booooyyyyyy.......Polymorphing raptor-design starships in the future, then?

Nope nope...just, well, everything will be moving along as already writ / read (no neo-tech for now), just in a unique plot-twist. Like how DID the Shemarrians get their hands on nanofacs in the first place?
Again, wait for the update

DhAkael wrote:Nope nope...just, well, everything will be moving along as already writ / read (no neo-tech for now), just in a unique plot-twist. Like how DID the Shemarrians get their hands on nanofacs in the first place?
Again, wait for the update

"Ewwww!!! It's got a big ribbon on it! Can I open it now? Can I? Can I?"
"No. And quit shaking the box."

"Get back here you crazy fairy!!! No absinthe for you for a YEAR when I catch you!"
-ahem-
Appologies... writing muse has gone AWOL again.
...be with you in a few.

July 27th. To 30th.

Ava made sure that Jack Chirax was okay, then quickly vanished just as Shalyndra & Franklyn carried a loudly complaining James T. out of the river. Once Jack, Franky, Shalyndra and their now unconscious rescueé James T. (courtesy of Franky’s TW EMP palm-projector) were retrieved by Fionna in the damaged Starwind, they set course for home. A quick uneventful trip back to Lazlo, drop-off to Riccardo T. Ratt’s official representative, Nunzio T. Borg and receipt of payment allowed the team to go off and relax with a mission accomplished.
Jack of course worked on replacing his destroyed Uber-Samson, while Shalyndra invested her finances into her new home’s renovations and Fionna returned to her familiar Ginger and her paramour Garrus. Franklyn meanwhile wandered off with a promise to keep in touch but figured he would be best off to lurk the Lazlo magi guild. With everyone taken care of the next few days were quiet.
All that changed on the 30th. of July PA 109.

Most of Team Alpha was given formal letters to gather precisely at 9pm in the government building of Lazlo (not city hall) down on the Lakefront, in what used to be the old Convention complex. After the core team (minus Uno-rez, Garrus, Roy & Leena) arrived, they were led down nearly 5 full levels below ground into the most secure rooms of the massive complex. There they were introduced to Section-09; the governmental body that was tasked with research and military matters best not made public.
To the surprise of no one, Plato (in full draconic form) was there along with the Wolfen Gen. Xarl, former First Among Equals Narciss Du’Lackmoore (elven multi-disciplinary magus) and Rika’s gene-cousin Myra Saei-Plato. A fifth member was represented by a spherical robot remote; someone named N-Cron 16 (male by the sound of the pleasant tenor vocoder). When everyone was settled and formal introductions were concluded the reason behind the meeting was made known. Two critical matters had come to light from recent events.
First, the TMC pod that had been retrieved in Northbay was in fact a ‘Code-omega’ drone; the black-box ejected from a craft facing imminent destruction. The contents were the final recordings of the crew of that ill fated vessel as they had explored Tau-Ceti V.
The TMC vessel appeared to have encountered something that had awakened due to Anon Wilks’ idiocy in activating the Genesis Device on Tau-Ceti IV-03. In orbit around the gas giant fifth-planet had been a 4km long cylinder of accreted rock, radiating neutrino energy (at levels indicating an active fusion source of some kind). As the TMC vessel approached to within 15,000 km, one end of the object shattered revealing the front end of what looked like a space vessel of some kind. The last image and sensor recording from the omega-pod showed a powerful energy weapon charging then firing directly at the TMC patrol craft.

As the hologram faded, Section-09 mentioned the need to send an expedition out to the Tau-Ceti system to find out if the alien ‘thing’ was still present or if it was even now, on course for Sol. It was at this time the 5th member of the organization made himself known.
To the sound of multi-tonne mechanical foot treads and the admonition by Plato to keep an open mind, N-Cron 16 revealed himself in person to Phoenix Force Alpha; and the reason why it was necessary to keep his existence secret from the rest of Lazlo’s populace.
From out of the dim lighting near the main meeting table stepped forth the gleaming form of a Mk-I Mechanoid Runner.
N-Cron 16 was an AbM.
(…to be continued)

"You knocked out James T. with your EMP Fist?"
"Ah...no...actually I used my BT Fist..."
"'BT'?"
"Blunt Trauma."
"Oh."
"It was that or my CSB."
"...ah..."
"Curb Stomp Boots."
"Thank you."

Actually Jack immediately upon finding James T.'s whining form proceeded to drop kick him

(Continued...)
After the initial shock wore off, Team Alpha calmed down and listened to how a Mechanoid was part of the scientific advisory board of Lazlo. Myra & Narciss told how they found N-Cron 16 in the Eastern wilderness near Maine during the Mechanoid incursion many years back, broken and mentally befuddled. N-Cron 16 further explained how he had not been initially accepted by the ruling body of Lazlo, and had to earn his place as the preeminent contributor to the aerospace Lazlo program (though he admitted to having lost most of his racial memory of the higher sciences that Mechanoid Runners share).
Rika waved away the tangential discussion, having accepted the facts of the matter and taking it on faith that N-Cron 16 was legitimately a “good” person. Instead she demanded to know what other reasons there were for bringing Phoenix Force Alpha into the secrets of Division 09. General Xarl and N-Cron 16 apologized and then taking turns, informed the group that James T. had been handed over to the Lazlo defense council by Riccardo T. Ratt after he had proved uncooperative; where upon N-Cron 16 used his extremely powerful psionic abilities to “strip mine” James T. N-Cron 16 did NOT like what he had found in the twisted & broken cyborg's psyche, but… a further part of the puzzle linking the unknown combat robots with the Shemarrians had fallen into place.
The mysterious ‘HE’ that James T. continued to be obsessed over may very well be the same Dark One or “Maker & Shaper” that had enslaved the biomechanical amazons. Thus it was important, Division 09 felt, that Team Alpha be brought into the fold and told as they were the first group from Lazlo (aside from the Shem-rahn) to broker diplomatic ties with two of the ‘awakened’ tribes of free-Shemmarians.

Rika became more and more agitated until she erupted and questioned why no one had done anything about the ‘Other’ N.E.M.A. that had not once but three times attacked her own home world and had also attempted to destroy the Lazlo gateway between Motavia and Terra. The members of Division 09 had no ready answer and tried their best to calm the angry NuMan. Rika eventually was calmed down by Fionna but refused to remain to listen to anymore. Instead she gave an ultimatum to the Leaders of Lazlo & Division 09; make the Sleipnir ready for immediate use at a moments notice, and to “get off their behinds and do something to give the free-Shemarrians incentive to work WITH us.”
With that Rika gathered her team and then teleported back to Fionna’s apartment to confer amongst themselves. After a calming pot or two of coffee, Jack Chriax & Shalyndra felt it was best if they dealt with the situation closest FIRST; deal with ‘HE’ and find out more about the Shemmarians connection to it. The best place to start would of course being the ‘Healing Cave’ they had found James T. in.
Rika agreed but mentioned that they should also send someone out to investigate Tau-Ceti. Garrus (who had decided to visit Fi between therapy sessions) stated he was going to take himself off of the active field duty list but he’d work on logistics back in Lazlo. The first job he was given by Rika was to get in touch (along with Fionna; who would remain behind as well) with Phoenix-Force Team Beta and have them work in collaboration with the orbital community to send out a small scout mission to Tau-Ceti. Meanwhile; Rika, Jack, Shalyndra and their new technician Leena, would go out east and pick up the trail of ‘HE’. They would use the modified Naruni Hover-RV assigned to their team instead of the Starwind (which was still being repaired from the last mission), and hopefully be able to gain some more leads. The 1st of August, PA 109 would see the Team Alpha split their forces; one part remaining behind to coordinate resources, the other going out into the North American wilderness to unravel the mystery of ‘HE’ / the Dark One / the ‘Maker & Shaper’.

(…to be continued)

...and the Multiversal Bloody Mayhem Pinball Fun Machine cranks on....

taalismn wrote:...and the Multiversal Bloody Mayhem Pinball Fun Machine cranks on....

One more update to be up-to-date.

“Riders of the storm…” August 1st, PA 109.
Traveling Eastward with Jack Chirax piloting the RV and suffering from caffeine overload plus sleep deprivation (due to all-night gear buying), Team Alpha still managed to get around 200 miles out from Lazlo. Hitting the border between Ontario, Ottawa and Vermont the RV had to come to a very sudden halt; a mid-summer thunderstorm had blown in behind the RV and struck with extreme winds & lightning. After Rika had managed to crawl out from under the co-pilot dashboard, she sent everyone to their bunks. Not able to sleep after the intense thunder, Rika stayed up as first watch. Shalyndra later took second watch and was present when the storm abated, just in time to see half a dozen objects flying at over 300mph straight south over their location. A little navigation cross-checking (and sensor database-diving) showed that the objects were on a direct course to the Healing Cave that Shalyndra & Jack had investigated days previously. Also, that these flying objects were Kittani Foxbat power-armours. It seemed like the Shemarrians sworn enemies were about to do some payback (though how the “Apes” had found out about this specific site was unknown).

Leena Shidow quickly dove into the power transmission system of the RV to give the AG coils a boost of speed; though even with that advantage they still would be nearly 20 minutes behind the Kittani strike team. They need not have worried. As Team Alpha approached the river where the Healing Cave was located, they detected multiple small fires along the route and inside the flames were fragments of Foxbat. Suddenly a spread of plasma mini-missiles speared towards them. Some quick thinking and nearly superhuman piloting allowed for Jack Chirax to avoid the salvo and ground the RV out of sight of what ever had shot at them.
Shalyndra went forwards at Rika’s order to scout the river banks. What the Elf swordmaid saw stopped the team cold from a full on assault. Right beside the short waterfall that hid the Healing cave was a 60ft. tall tower resembling a rook chess-piece. As she watched, multiple gun ports were slowly and smoothly opening up including a giant energy cannon on the top. It was decided a frontal assault would be unwise.

Leena volunteered to fly a wide semi-circle and approach the tower from the “rear” and try to disable it with her telemechnaics, while the rest would attempt to sneak into the river using their power suits and / or EBA to walk along the river bottom to the Healing Cave, under the guns of the tower. A sound plan but it was to be altered as six humanoid combat robots tried to ambush the team. A quick fire fight and sword skirmish ensued where the gods of battle smiled on the beleaguered Phoenix Force Alpha; each strike seemed to hit a critical system on the robots, while the tower was kept impassive by Leena’s psi-skills. All seemed well and victory was won with no physical damage to the Phoenix Forcer members. Then Leena nervously radioed the rest of the team that she had met some “Strangers.”
Arms up and palms out, Leena walked out from behind a large rock formation; behind her two Shemarrians in silvered armour mounted on Monst-rexes with a third draped over one of the saddles. Rika recognized the heraldry by the reports she had read from the ambassadors to the Hawkmoon’s. This was ANOTHER tribe; the Silvermoon.
…and they seemed most irate.

Meanwhile, off-camera...

Two individuals, both dressed in black sat before complicated game board. Partly chess, aspects of go and other more escoteric games were involved in the boards' layout. Presently the player, head to toe in a voluminous heavy robe, placed a game peice carved from black iron resembling a Shemarrian Chiefteness weilding a war-axe beside the cinnibar representations of a cat eared girl, a ponytailed male in heavy armour, an elf woman with many swords and another cat-girl with a tool belt.
A bloodless lipped smile could be seen under the hood as the player waved carelessly towards his opponent.

"Your move, Prince Yzmarr."

The other figure, this one in armour of shadow-infused steel scratched at the crown of horns peeking from under his hair. 'The preist of the Darkness Profound has more peices in play than I do.' thought the Nightprince. His blackend eyes wandered the board; looking for any way to counter his opponents bold move.
'There!'
Not allowing his revelation to show in his face, Yzmarr of the Cracked Mirror made a show of looking disgusted, waiting for the priest to become smug... then he pounced. Laying his wild-card peice behind the vermillion figurienes.
A small statuette made from onyx of an angel, with tiny flecks of garnet for eyes and hair-fine chains of black-metal.
The shocked reaction from the robed player was worth it.

"I play my spy, who counters your warrior host's ambush by warning the Phoenixii.
... I see your wager and double it. Shall we see who takes this round...Dominus?"

Beware Cosmic Chess....for you can see only one level of the game, and you can be certain you're one of the pawns.

taalismn wrote:Beware Cosmic Chess....for you can see only one level of the game, and you can be certain you're one of the pawns.

That's the whole point; who plays the players?
...and how many layers does it go?

Could be worse' could be dominoes.

Meanwhile; back to the borderlands between Quebec and Vermont... A NEW PLAYER HAS ENTERED THE ARENA

Introduction of James Cormac to a typical Phoenix Force styled week.

The week had not been good; in fact the few months pretty much had sucked since Dec 6th. PA 108 when Free Quebec had died. Stories of a blasted crater where the main archology had stood and the ruined outer city being populated by phantoms and screaming ghosts and “other” unsavory creatures abounded. Add to that the nightmare storm that had swept across North-America and the chaotic maelstrom of magical energies that surged through Tolkeen city on a regular basis: yes the last several months for Mr. Cormac had not been filled with joyous news.

In an attempt to try and shed some light on what had been happening, the scholar had approached the Lazlo Council of Learning, the Guild of Magi, and even the Defense council for information. Each and every time he was stalled, put to the side or given vague assurances that “…all that could be done to rectify the situations has been done; do not worry yourself.”
James didn’t believe that for a moment. Using his contacts among the various independent prospectors and scholars, James Cormac finally managed to find a lead that could pay off. The much publicized ‘Phoenix Force’ (Via the much debated for veracity comic series and anime movies) would be the people to speak to. Though he would be unable to enter their head-quarters (and gaining any contact with the administrators & leaders was a mountain of red-tape that would put a CS border guard’s workload to shame), he had heard verified information that the Alpha team, lead by Rika Hanlah, were now on assignment deep in the Eastern territories. At last! He could get to the bottom of the mysteries that had been plaguing his mind. There was only one slight problem.

In early June of PA 109 the Shemarrian cyber-amazons had declared a massive section of the Eastern North-American territories as theirs, from the ‘Eastern wall’ to the coastline of Maine and from just under Quebec to the Eastern part of the Gulf of Mexico (Georgia and Louisiana). Though reports of any major violence by the Shemarrians were minimal, it was known they were very insular and did not appreciate trespassers interfering. That, plus the rumors of increased Sploogorthian slaver incursions into that territory (as if to spite the cyber-nomads) and the proximity to the magic zone made a trip to find Phoenix Force in the field a risky one. James just shrugged his shoulders adjusted his cap on his head and warmed up the engine on his trusty speedster.

On the 27th o f July, James Cormac headed out. Through forest, field and hills he sped along. A number of times he was forced to shut down and hide in the thick growth as passing CS patrols or Kittani Fox-Bat power suits flew over head. For the most part the trip was uneventful except for the 1st of August; a massive thunderstorm of particular ferocity forced James to huddle himself under a shallow cave’s overhang. He was so close; his radio had in fact picked up encoded transmissions on the frequency he had been given by his Lazlo contact, said to be the one that Phoenix Alpha used. They were within only a few dozen miles.

Once the storm passed James began his travel again. Close. So close to some of the answers he sought.
Skimming along the surface of a narrow river, he arrowed towards where he was sure the team was.
All his credentials were in order, including the official Lazlo Museum Curator license. Any minute now…

CROW! –Whap-

A sensation of falling and rolling into blessed blackness.

Unconsciousness...not the ideal way to start an adventure, but as long as you still have your pants when you regain consciousness.

Only a couple of more 'the saga continues' posts left for this thread then we will be moving on to;
"Phoenix Force; Prelude to Inferno."
Stay tuned.

And hopefully I'll get my dang computer running so I can join in! (James Cormac,who had the unfortunate crash is my pc)

Point-form update of two sessions ago.
Not feeling the writing love, on account of 'bleh'-ness.

“Off to see the Toaster, the wonderful Toaster of OZ.” August 2nd, PA 109.
~Introduction of James Cormak via crashed hover-bike (and mild concussion of Leena shidow).
~Possible witnessing of a Shemarrian being awakend (re; Calys Lightseeker, Pariah).
~Travel to the Eastern wall, led by the Silvermoon tribal warriors to “The place none of the Shemar may enter, as it is the domain of the Maker & Shaper.”
~Located the entry to “HE”’s lair under 5 fallen trees in an ancient pre-cataclysm ruin. Many broken machines and discarded objects litter the ruins from previous excavation teams (none near the air vent).

DhAkael wrote:Point-form update of two sessions ago.
Not feeling the writing love, on account of 'bleh'-ness.

“Off to see the Toaster, the wonderful Toaster of OZ.” August 2nd, PA 109.
~Introduction of James Cormak via crashed hover-bike (and mild concussion of Leena shidow).
~Possible witnessing of a Shemarrian being awakend (re; Calys Lightseeker, Pariah).
~Travel to the Eastern wall, led by the Silvermoon tribal warriors to “The place none of the Shemar may enter, as it is the domain of the Maker & Shaper.”
~Located the entry to “HE”’s lair under 5 fallen trees in an ancient pre-cataclysm ruin. Many broken machines and discarded objects litter the ruins from previous excavation teams (none near the air vent).

Generally feeling 'blaaaaarraggasaggaagagaahhhhhhggggaaaaaaaa' myself, on account of damnedheadcold. Working back to normal levels of insane monomaniac activity.

survived sandy and ready to kick in "He's" teeth on sunday well lack of teeth but you get the jist

calto40k wrote:survived sandy and ready to kick in "He's" teeth on sunday well lack of teeth but you get the jist

Excellent. *Monty Burns pose*

calto40k wrote:survived sandy and ready to kick in "He's" teeth on sunday well lack of teeth but you get the jist

Been seeing scary things from New Jersey. Looks like the NorthEast Katrina.
Last I heard, they were looking at THames-style tidal surge gates for New York City again.
Yeah, there will be a lot of analysis and preparedness revisions in the aftermath of this one.
In my region, Irene last year prepared us for this one. Would have been worse if we hadn't had that kick in the arse to push disaster preparedness this past year.
Despite that, though, we still have boneheads throwing rocks at line crews.

yeah seaside heights and asbury park where i spent my teenage years and early 20's is practically nonexistant now same as the rest of the shore areas

fortunately i live in the backwoods area of millstone township only had to deal with falling trees and new yorkers trying to get all the gas from our gas stations and to that i say benny go home

calto40k wrote:fortunately i live in the backwoods area of millstone township only had to deal with falling trees and new yorkers trying to get all the gas from our gas stations and to that i say benny go home

Scariest roadtrip I ever had was driving at dusk between the refineries and Newark Airport....flaring refinery towers and plane landing lights superimposed...made me feel like I was in a scene from 'Bladerunner'.

New update soon.
Just need to edit some stuff and run it throught the spell-check cycle a few times