Part Eight: History“Does anyone know,” began the Cardmaster wearily, “how the TCG came to be?”
All around the hall, people shook their heads like little schoolchildren when their teacher asks them if they’ve done their homework. The Cardmaster sighed deeply and sat down on a large chunk of what had previously been wall. He folded his arms onto his lap, coughed, cleared his throat and began his story.
“Long ago, Spacefleet was not the only thing floating around. Many people do not know of this, but when Spacefleet was still an unknown entity, there was an … incident. A few strange ships showed up on the scene and set about destroying Spacefleet. I was there, just a nervous little scientist, when the Commander himself came to visit our laboratory. He demanded that we think of a way to create an army and then he swooped out with the promise that, if we failed, we would all be executed.”
“Pressure breeds sloppy work, but one of my colleagues came up with an idea. What if we could create soldiers that could be re-used? We started working on a few theories and eventually came up with what we called a gem. We created some cards which, to the naked eye, looked just like your average playing card, but which were encrypted with specifications for a fighter. We then set about figuring a means of activating it and we came up with something simple, yet elegant. Radio signals.”
“We created a machine which would broadcast a specific frequency that activated any card within range. The card’s manifestation would then be free to move around, apart from its origin card. It would remain solid as long as it stayed within the broadcasting radius.”
“The Commander liked it and set about implementing it right away, untested and potentially dangerous. We protested, but you don’t argue with the Commander, so in the end we all did the only thing we could. We stole a jumper ship and headed landside. As a scientist, one does not simply leave behind one’s very important and potentially revolutionary work, so we took all of our research and all the cards we had made that the ommander wasn’t using, all the blueprints and everything else we could think of.”
“We got away safely, what with everyone being distracted by the galactic war, and set up a makeshift lab not far from where we are now. We wanted to know for sure if there would be any side-effects to the system, or if it was likely to fail. So we built a new transmitter, not as great as the old one, and started running some tests. We got pretty far, too, and found only a few bugs. Or course, nothing this fantastic stays secret for long. One of the younger scientists working with us as an assistant saw a window of opportunity and took it for his own profit. He was always a greedy bugger.”
“He took our cards and sold them off as a game. Our only consolation upon discovering his treachery was that he hadn’t managed to get the transmitter machine, though he had disappeared and even to this day, we have no idea where he went. We decided to destroy the transmitter machine rather than have it cause trouble if the cards were activated in its vicinity. That was over 30 years ago. We scientists, left with nothing, simply moved on. I heard of the birth of the TCG and came as quickly as I could. I wanted to watch over it and make sure nothing bad happened and somehow I gained a reputation as a know-it-all rules-lawyer. Well, people who think they know better than me don’t like rules-lawyers, they cramp style, so I faded into the background and so it has been ever since.”
His story finished, the old man leaned back in a grandfatherly fashion and rubbed his hands together, glancing around nervously as though someone might suddenly try to attack him. It took a while before the information sank into Sarinon’s brain. It churned and whizzed and beeped until it finally produced a response.
“And you’re sure this transmitter was destroyed? Beyond repair?” she asked, her voice shaking somewhat. The Cardmaster nodded.
“So,” Scar piped up, “so … that thing was one of the attacking aliens? Why was it after its “brethren” … I mean, we don’t have any alien hostages or anything.”
“You’re smart for a kitten, and I don’t have answers to those questions. We lost touch with Spacefleet when we went planetside. I only know that they did eventually win, but I have no idea what happened to the aliens or to the card-based army used by the Commander. But I do know that, whatever that thing was, its coming back, and there are more like it. They want something from you … from us, and if we don’t’ deliver then I’m willing to bet they are powerful enough to exact vengeance.”
“So what can we do? We don’t even know what they want!” wailed a duelist Sarinon recognized as Candy.
The Cardmaster turned his gaze upon her with a momentarily surprised expression, as if he had forgotten that every duelist stood, sat or crouched around him, listening in. He coughed softly and managed a small smile. “I think I have an idea. If you don’t know what they want, then your only chance is to fight them.”
He got up and started making his way out of the hall. Every single duelist stood up as well and began to follow him as if he held the bread of life itself. The old man continued to talk as he ambled down the street.
“We built the transmitter machine with certain features. A failsafe, if you like. There are settings and frequencies that have different functions, and most of it was destroyed, but if I can find the right parts …” The Cardmaster made his way down a small alley and into what looked like an overgrown junkyard, in the middle of which stood a rickety shack. He pushed the door open and it fell off its hinges.
“Cardmaster!” Sarinon yelled, confused and desperate, “Please, tell us what you have planned.”
He ambled back to the crowd and crouched down in front of the fox. She looked up into his milky eyes and gasped as the gleam of a mad scientist appeared.
“I’m going to modify that old wreck into a transmitter that will dominate every frequency. One frequency to rule them all. Whatever communications they use, it’ll be destroyed, if they used frequency based weapons, they won’t work. It’s brilliant! But …” he raised a finger, “it needs something to power it up.”
“What do you need?”
“I need … KOs.”
~*~*~*~
This is where I stop babbling and you come in. Check the first post for details. =D