GW2 OOC Chat

[Huntress]

Aug 23, 2008 12:49:20 GMT -5 PFA said:

Aug 23, 2008 10:54:26 GMT -5 Huntress said:

Youknow, that PrimoPDF program is mucho useful (...Stally, now I owe you two x'3 This'll come back to bite me.) It lags quite a bit, but is still faster than copypasting, and I now own every single post that has 'hunty' in them. Which, as it turns out, is a full quarter of the entire GW And here I thought I won't be active.

...I also got all the 'huntress' posts, all the 'blarf' posts, and am about to get to 'weewoo' and 'kestrel'. This'd probably be easier if we'd all stuck to adding our location to the beginning of the posts xD

And PFA, make multiple files. It'll have to be arranged somehow later anyway, multiple files will only ensure that it won't all blow up if your computer decides to burp o'something.

....baaackup copies >> *scurries off*

If I remember correctly, I was the one who had posted the most in all of GW2. XD; With Cyborg as a close second.

And I think I was the only one who used the header/color system throughout the entire GW2. Everyone else either gave up on the colors or gave up on the headers.

Multiple files is probably a good idea, yes. XD; *goes to split it up by month or something*

Too bad your name isn't searchable, otherwise we'd get the entire first half of GW2 in one fell swoop xD You need a longer ninja-name.

...granted, 'petfriendamy' isn't anyone's choice of a ninja-ish name x'3

Akay, I currently have, in addition to the ones I already mentioned, everything concerning 'rider', 'shiva', 'tamia', invisible', 'clara', 'zylaa', 'speck' and 'demon'. That'll be fun to arrange xD What's everyone got? The more it gets spread out, the easier. I suspect the cache might last for a week at most, but even so, we've no clue how long the thread is searchable.

[PFA]

Aug 23, 2008 13:29:59 GMT -5 Huntress said:

Aug 23, 2008 12:49:20 GMT -5 PFA said:

If I remember correctly, I was the one who had posted the most in all of GW2. XD; With Cyborg as a close second.

And I think I was the only one who used the header/color system throughout the entire GW2. Everyone else either gave up on the colors or gave up on the headers.

Multiple files is probably a good idea, yes. XD; *goes to split it up by month or something*

Too bad your name isn't searchable, otherwise we'd get the entire first half of GW2 in one fell swoop xD You need a longer ninja-name.

...granted, 'petfriendamy' isn't anyone's choice of a ninja-ish name x'3

Akay, I currently have, in addition to the ones I already mentioned, everything concerning 'rider', 'shiva', 'tamia', invisible', 'clara', 'zylaa', 'speck' and 'demon'. That'll be fun to arrange xD What's everyone got? The more it gets spread out, the easier. I suspect the cache might last for a week at most, but even so, we've no clue how long the thread is searchable.

I know. XDDDD; But yeah, PetFriendAmy is kinda tedious to type/say over and over.

I've got... um, 'Bluisa,' 'demons' (which I only searched so I could find my April Fool's post, but I ended up getting a huge bunch of other posts while at it XD;), 'Jernath,' 'kunai,' 'katana,' 'uncle,' 'father' (those ones because I was trying to find Pcookosts), 'Subila,' 'Cyborg' and 'Midknight,' and I'm just about to see if I can fill in the missing gaps of the Pcookosts with 'ninja.' Which will be interesting.

[Fraze]

Aug 23, 2008 13:29:59 GMT -5 Huntress said:

Aug 23, 2008 12:49:20 GMT -5 PFA said:

If I remember correctly, I was the one who had posted the most in all of GW2. XD; With Cyborg as a close second.

And I think I was the only one who used the header/color system throughout the entire GW2. Everyone else either gave up on the colors or gave up on the headers.

Multiple files is probably a good idea, yes. XD; *goes to split it up by month or something*

Too bad your name isn't searchable, otherwise we'd get the entire first half of GW2 in one fell swoop xD You need a longer ninja-name.

...granted, 'petfriendamy' isn't anyone's choice of a ninja-ish name x'3

Akay, I currently have, in addition to the ones I already mentioned, everything concerning 'rider', 'shiva', 'tamia', invisible', 'clara', 'zylaa', 'speck' and 'demon'. That'll be fun to arrange xD What's everyone got? The more it gets spread out, the easier. I suspect the cache might last for a week at most, but even so, we've no clue how long the thread is searchable.

I'm going to search for "Fraze," then for "Spacefleet," "Fleet," "'Fleet," "Commander," and whatever else comes to mind pertaining to my guild. I'll see if I can branch out after that.
...Hmm. Got my first GW post. Should be able to get most or all of them, then.

[Huntress]

Aug 23, 2008 14:58:24 GMT -5 Fraze said:

Aug 23, 2008 13:29:59 GMT -5 Huntress said:

Too bad your name isn't searchable, otherwise we'd get the entire first half of GW2 in one fell swoop xD You need a longer ninja-name.

...granted, 'petfriendamy' isn't anyone's choice of a ninja-ish name x'3

Akay, I currently have, in addition to the ones I already mentioned, everything concerning 'rider', 'shiva', 'tamia', invisible', 'clara', 'zylaa', 'speck' and 'demon'. That'll be fun to arrange xD What's everyone got? The more it gets spread out, the easier. I suspect the cache might last for a week at most, but even so, we've no clue how long the thread is searchable.

I'm going to search for "Fraze," then for "Spacefleet," "Fleet," "'Fleet," "Commander," and whatever else comes to mind pertaining to my guild. I'll see if I can branch out after that.
...Hmm. Got my first GW post. Should be able to get most or all of them, then.

...acshully, I already got all of yours >> And Keng's, and anything that had 'spacefleet' in it. Variations will be useful, though.

*eyes her collection* 72.2 MB. This's been a fruitful day if I ever saw one xD We only need the first thousand posts, after all.

And here's a tip: if your name has three letters, search for the genitive. I got 83 results on 'PFA's'. Most longer posts use the genitive form in one way or another. Linguistics, how I love you :3

[Fraze]

Aug 23, 2008 15:09:43 GMT -5 Huntress said:

Aug 23, 2008 14:58:24 GMT -5 Fraze said:

I'm going to search for "Fraze," then for "Spacefleet," "Fleet," "'Fleet," "Commander," and whatever else comes to mind pertaining to my guild. I'll see if I can branch out after that.
...Hmm. Got my first GW post. Should be able to get most or all of them, then.

...acshully, I already got all of yours >> And Keng's, and anything that had 'spacefleet' in it. Variations will be useful, though.

*eyes her collection* 72.2 MB. This's been a fruitful day if I ever saw one xD We only need the first thousand posts, after all.

And here's a tip: if your name has three letters, search for the genitive. I got 83 results on 'PFA's'. Most longer posts use the genitive form in one way or another. Linguistics, how I love you :3

Wait, all of my posts or just the first ones?
'Cause if you got all of them, a) I just wasted quite a bit of time on this, and 2) I love you, Hunty.

[PFA]

...All those posts about ninjas and there's STILL a Pcookost I'm missing? Holy postcounts, what am I supposed to search to find that one? XDDD;;;

*goes to see if PFA's will bring it up*

EDIT: *finally finds it by searching--not PFA's--star* Silly post that lacks PFA's commonly used keywords.

EDIT2: Phew. XD; I think I'm going to take a break for a bit. I think I've been sitting here searching for GW posts all day... *lurks off to go do something else*

[Tam]

Aug 23, 2008 13:29:59 GMT -5 Huntress said:

Aug 23, 2008 12:49:20 GMT -5 PFA said:

If I remember correctly, I was the one who had posted the most in all of GW2. XD; With Cyborg as a close second.

And I think I was the only one who used the header/color system throughout the entire GW2. Everyone else either gave up on the colors or gave up on the headers.

Multiple files is probably a good idea, yes. XD; *goes to split it up by month or something*

Too bad your name isn't searchable, otherwise we'd get the entire first half of GW2 in one fell swoop xD You need a longer ninja-name.

...granted, 'petfriendamy' isn't anyone's choice of a ninja-ish name x'3

Akay, I currently have, in addition to the ones I already mentioned, everything concerning 'rider', 'shiva', 'tamia', invisible', 'clara', 'zylaa', 'speck' and 'demon'. That'll be fun to arrange xD What's everyone got? The more it gets spread out, the easier. I suspect the cache might last for a week at most, but even so, we've no clue how long the thread is searchable.

...Thanks, Hunty. =D *glomps*

I also copied the resulting posts and dates for 'Evan Forest', and 'Advance Guard'. Now I don't even have to mess around with Word files to recover them. >.>

In addition to those, I also searched for 'Trilly', since I doubt she'll be on to snag her old ones before they poof. I got several of Leraye's first posts this way too.

I tried searching for 'Shino', but it killed my internet. I'll need to figure something out to get those ones.

I'll post any further progress here. ^_^

[Bacon]

Sweeet, I got all my posts now.

At least, all the ones from Bacon and X-3's perspective. I'll get the Marines in a minute. Saved as a .txt, it's only ten times the size of a nearly empty .txt, so that's smaller than I thought.

Including the following look at GW2 through a mechanic's eyes, this post is only 9274 characters under the limit.

SPOILER: Click to show

((Spacefleet HQ, Garage A-37))

Bacon hummed a Johnny Cash song as he connected the weapon power inlet to the main energy coil. For a while the music in his head was replaced with the strangest thought about demons and stuff, but he didn't think about that too much, and the music resumed.

As he pulled himself out from under the small modified flight training ship, he handed the Universal Swiss Army Knife multi-tool to his assistant, a younger man named Koontz, who disconnected the USAK from the welding power supply, removed the "Attachment Three" head, and put all of the components in their proper storage containers. Bacon popped the hatch to make sure the engines and everything still ran with the addition of weapons when he heard Koontz clear his throat.

"Uh, sir? I think I might need some time off..." The tech said bluntly, "I've been having some strange ideas..."

"What about?" Bacon asked, not really paying attention. He hit the ignition switch, and the engines roared loudly for a second, before fading to an almost nonexistant whisper.

"Uh, about demons, and power, and global domination." Koontz replied modestly. Bacon looked at him and he smiled nervously.

"Really?" He checked his PDA and, sure enough, there were a couple messages on it concerning some telepathic message. After browsing through them disinterestedly, he put his PDA away. "Don't worry about it!" He said with a smile, then he turned off the power supply and got out to try rerouting weapon power.

((Spacefleet garage))

Although his hands were busy trying to find the root of the power supply malfunction, Bacon's mind wandered around the elusive topic of the mental message he and Koontz, and doubtlessly others had received. When his PDA beeped the "Urgent Message" jingle, he jumped... not something you want to do with 6 tons of metal above you.

After rubbing his bruised forehead, he pulled himself out from under the spacecraft, and checked his PDA.

"Urgent Message For Head Mech. Bacon! Relayed From: Cmdo. Keng; Orig. Author: Cmdr. Strife"

Bacon jumped again, only to find his head was under one of the wings. The Commander? What could this message possibly be? Figuring it didn't concern his tech, he excused Koontz from the otherwise empty garage, and played the audio message.

"Contact all senior officers in the station and have them wait for me in the briefing room in Sector 2."

A meeting in Sec-2 Breifing Room, was it? Maybe this concerned that telepathic signal he had received. Putting a tarp over the "XSP-25-z Sparrow Fighter Unit", he turned out the garage lights and locked the door, walking hurriedly down the hall.

((I really need to get online more.

Spacefleet- Conference Room))

"Sorry I'm late!" Bacon said as he opened the conference room door. "I got lost between... uh... hello?" There was nobody in the room, and from the somewhat disorderly layout of the chairs, he figured the meeting was already over. "Why does this always happen?" He walked out the door, and headed down a random hallway, taking out his PDA as he did so. He punched in a few keys and... "Okay, it looks like Commando Keng is briefed into this whatever-it-is, since she fowarded the Commander's message. I'll just have to send her a message asking what the injector-valve is going on here."

"Commando Keng, due to unforeseeable, unpreventable circumstances, I have missed the Commander's meeting. What is the current situation, and how can I help?

- Head Mechanic Bacon"

Then he pressed the "send" button, and looked up. "Oh resistor-syphon! Where am I now?!"

"This is Keng. I'm going to assume you got that mental message a while back. The Commander has decided to form an alliance with this fellow -at least that's his decision right now, he'll be meeting him soon- and he'll need ground support. If you want to help get on a drop ship and get to the commander's landing sight A.S.A.P.! I'm sending you his coordinates now. Hope to see you there. Keng out."

"Pfft!" Bacon said to himself as he navigated through the docking bay, "Dropship, shmopdrip! ...or something like that." He passed the rows of shuttles, dropships, and miscellaneous other personnel carriers. He passed the fighter racks too, to where the personal ships were docked.

"Ah, there's my pride and joy!" He said, as he approached his own ship, the Stellar Eye. He wasn't exactly sure why it's original owner named it that, although he couldn't deny it looked something like an eye when faced head-on. He started to hum a James Taylor song as he opened the boarding ramp and walked onboard.

Preliminary pre-flight checks were green, he saw as he typed in a few buttons on the diagnostics panel. Further tests indicate the slight thrust hiccup he'd experienced in the past wasn't likely to occur. It appeared to be ready for a smooth flight. He started to sing aloud to himself, the way he always did when flying alone, "I seen fire an' I seen rain, I seen sunny days that I thought would never end..."

With a slight lurch as always, Bacon's ship released its hold of the hangar floor and started edging towards the empty space between the doors and the planet.

"...I seen lonely times when I could not find a friend, but I always knew I'd see you, one more time again..." Bacon continued to sing to himself. His ship sang along to the tune with a faint buzz from the radiator fillings and a whine every now and then from a strained torque arm.

Bacon, as he left the hangar, pushed the joystick and the half-steering-wheel to the right, banking a turn towards the destination area. He evened out the controls, now going straight, and pushed both accelerator pedals down.

((Bacon's ship, lower atmosphere))

As Bacon approached the surface, he heard a sonar-like ping. "What's that?" He asked his ship with no reply. He looked at his instruments real quick. "A homing signal? Maybe they're signaling me where I should land..." And so he turned his ship to where Fraze was. Seeing Lily's shuttle, he landed near it.

Then Bacon opened the hatch, grabbed his stunner and walked slowly towards the source of the signal. No telling what the situation is. This is a rescue mission after all, isn't it? Or is it? I don't know... What did Keng say again? Something about an alliance... and ground support... wait a sec, ground support? I wonder if I should have brought my katana...

"Looks like I made it just in time for the parade..." Bacon muttered to himself. He didn't really like the marines- well, the majority of them anyways- and disliked their presence in any case, as he was something between pacifist and coward.

"Good day, Subcommander Cyclops!" He greeted the... thing...who seemed to be in charge.

"I'm not Cyclops. Although I wish I was. Sometimes I think that snotball gets all the glory just because of his relationship with The Commander."

Bacon looked again at the Subcommander. Hmm, somehow I messed up somebody's name. That's never happened before... At least I got the first part right... Let's see, what is this guy's name? I want to say '#4', but surely that can't be right.

The Subcommander was speaking again, "You can either guard the ships or come with us. It's up to you, Cadet."

Bacon tensed slightly. He preferred the honorary title of "Head Mechanic", but since there weren't any other mechanics other than automated repair machines, most of the officers refered to him as "Cadet".

"Last time I guarded something... well, it wasn't a pretty story. I'm coming with you, Subcommander Joe." Bacon said, twirling his stunner the way a gunslinger might.

Wait, Subcommander Joe's the guy with the scar on his nose... what is this guy's name?

"I'm Surly. Joe is my twin brother, and Charlie's face was cosmetically altered to look exactly like mine for security reasons. But I outrank you anyway, so technically you should be calling me Sir."

Ah, that's right... Charlie, Joe, and Surly. Wait... why does that sound familiar? Jerry, Soe and Churly? That's a little more clear, but not quite right...

"Yes, Subcommander, Sir." Bacon said when the officer gave the order to move out, following the marines as they headed into the forest. He kept his eyes out for signs of movement. Not that he'd see anything before the combat trained marines did.

"Sir!" One of the marines called to the Subcommander. He then gave a bunch of hand signals and three of the marines broke off, crouching down and peering through the hedges. Bacon snuck up behind them and looked over their shoulders. There was a small group of people standing in a clearing.

Ok, that looks like Keng, but who's that? Bacon thought to himself.

"Oh %$#@!" Keng swore suddenly.

"Keng! You might want to tell your friends to run away now. The Commander's going berzerk on some pirate who may be possessed. I don't think he'll attack his own troops, but I can't say the same for the people you're talking to." A voice, maybe Fraze's, shouted from somewhere Bacon couldn't see.

"Going beserk?" Bacon asked. The marines silently went back to Subcommander #4 to report what they saw. "Going beserk how?"

"Rodger that... Cyborg, I don't know what's wrong here, but something is. You heard Fraze!" Keng said before moving deeper into the forest.

Bacon started to move closer to investigate, but a marine's stiff hand stopped him. "Where do you think you're going, Cadet?" The marine asked with just a little bit too much menace in his voice.

"I'm going to find out what's going on." Bacon replied, stunning the Marine with his Pulse Charger. He then ducked through the bushes. "Oy! You there- Cyborg, I think it is?- what's going on around here?"

"Keng all I know is I'm stayin and there's gonna be trouble if your commander hurts that pirate... So Keng where is this commander and the pirate?"

"I say! Didn't you hear me?! What's happening here?" Bacon restated to Cyborg, walking up right to him and Midknight to better get their attention. "I don't take kindly to being ignored..."

((I believe I took the following out of context for brevity reasons))

" And I swear if there's even a hair out of place on that pirate's head, you'll be dealing with me."

"What pirate? What are you talking about?" Bacon asked, all of a sudden confused and intimidated.

Bacon saw the flash of yellow out of the corner of his eyes, and before Cyborg could say anything more, Bacon had gone a short distance towards the unusual sight, enough to see and hear the Commander say, "You will turn around, run, and speak nothing of what happened here... if you value your life, that is. Otherwise I will end it, and I promise you that it will be slow and agonizing."

Bacon's eyes grew wide. He hadn't met the Commander personally very often, but the few times he had seen him at some meeting or ceremony or the like, he had seemed much less... hostile than he did now. He backed away slowly, and turned to face Cyborg and Midknight. "I think you guys should probably get out of here. I have no clue what's going on, but it looks bad. Really bad.... And... is it snowing?"

((Cyborg posted something here I didn't completely quote))

Oh boy! I knew I should have stunned that grey one when I had the chance, Bacon thought to himself as he watched the action from a distance. Fraze had appeared and re-disappeared...if that's a word... and Keng attacked the grey one -Cyborg, was it?- unexpectedly.

"Keng you will die today if I have my way!!!!!" The black one screamed, with every inflection in his voice justifying his sincerity. Without wasting a second, Bacon locked his Pulse Charger's trigger at "On", and threw it at Midknight. Whether it would hit or not was anyone's guess, as Bacon wasn't accustomed to throwing things in this manner.

((There was a post from Cyborg here wherein he sent a huge attack of earth magic at me, and then a long pause before my next post))

Bacon coughed loudly as he rose slowly from the ground. The leaves and rocks Cyborg had attacked him with made several cuts and scratches all over, with one large red slash visible through his jacket's left shoulder. His forehead was bruised and his feet and legs sore from the earthquakes. A vine was wrapped tightly around his right arm like a splint. He recovered his stunner and hobbled towards Cyborg weakly, with every intent of stabbing him in one of the implants with the elecrically charged weapon.

"Hey, Cyborg!" Bacon said from just behind the Kougra. Beaten and bloodied by Cyborg's attacks at him earlier Bacon jabbed the cyborg several times in whatever implant looked most vulnerable with his Pulse Charger. "You need to learn to play a little more fairly." He said, continuing to stab at Cyborg.

((Ceasefire and healing))

"Sure... everyone wants to heal the Mercs, but nobody cares about the poor little mechanic that got beaten up by the forest." Bacon mumbled as he limped over to roughly where Fraze's voice came from. As he got pretty close to where he thought the other was, he asked, "Hey, Fraze, where're those medical supplies you mentioned?"

Fraze... jumped a bit, he hadn't noticed Bacon walk toward him. Now that the supplies weren't needed to establish some tentative peace, he didn't want to reveal their location to the mercenaries. "They're in my...box," he answered, knowing Bacon would understand what he meant. "Hold on a minute."

...

He walked back to Bacon, who seemed to be wondering where he had gone to. Since the fighting was over for now, Fraze decloaked. He opened the box, and handed Bacon some disinfectant/dermal-regenerative ointment and gauze pads. "These should all be fairly self-explanatory. The ointment should make those small cuts heal up in half a minute or so. Put some of it on a gauze pad for that gash on your shoulder. It may burn a bit, but it works quickly."

Bacon took the medical supplies from Fraze when he reappeared. "Thank you..." He tended to his shoulder first, as it was in the most pain. Fraze was right, it did sting... and not just at first. "What's in this, habaneros?" He continued to treat his more minor injuries as he listened to the 'negotiations'.

"We have ships." Bacon said to Cyborg when he overheard Cyborg say he wanted to know how the 'Fleeters could stop them from leaving. "We can shoot you from the safety of a metal shell while you throw all the sticks and stones at it that you can muster."

((Heated accusation from a certain cyborg.))

"Please! I never attempted to kill either of you." Bacon replied to Cyborg's arguments. "I threw the stunner at your brother only to incapacitate, and only when he threatened Keng's life. Then I attacked you, only intent on causing serious pain, because you, quite unfairly, threw every earth magic spell known to man at me."

He watched the bulk of the Spacefleet forces leave the area. He had stayed behind for two reasons: first, his left shoulder was still healing and he didn't want to slow the others down. More specifically he didn't want the marines to overreact when he slowed them down. And secondly and much more importantly, he didn't trust these mercs to not kill Keng as they had already threatened at least twice before.

Bad comes to worse he could always switch his stunner back to the "neural" setting and have everyone on the floor in convulsions.

((Forest South of Dunbarrow))

Bacon looked at the snow on the ground, how it was mixed with dirt that Cyborg had unearthed during his attacks, along with a few dying vines and leaves. One leaf was lodged into a tree trunk.

How boring this place was... when it wasn't being destroyed. Nothing he could tinker with at all, except for his trusty Pulse Charger, and messing with its internal components was a mistake he swore he'd never repeat.

He pulled a couple of quarters out of his pocket and tried, quite unsuccessfully, to juggle them with his right hand, while humming "Ring of Fire" by Johnny Cash.

((Valentines posts. Due to Cy and Keng not using strikethroughs, their characters' kisss was accidentally made permanent and a plot twist))

Bacon coughed to himself. "Okay... that was... unexpected..." He said as he went over the events in his mind.

Cyborg and Keng try to kill each other, then they start talking, then they try to kill each other again, and then they started talking again, then Cyborg and crew try to escape, then Cyborg and Keng start talking again and then they kiss. That makes every sort of sense in the galaxy... oh, no, wait, maybe not.

For no aparent reason he began to think about how hard it is to express sarcasm in a written medium such as an online forum.

"Anyways, are the two of you quite done? We may need to contact the Commander if we have, indeed, made an alliance."

"So who are we allied with? The pirates or Keng?"

"'The Pirates or Keng'? Am I included in either of those groups?" Bacon asked Jernath with a raised eyebrow. He couldn't really see Jernath from this angle because too many branches were between them, but he raised his eyebrow anyways, out of habit.

((Mercs vote on allies, Bacon tallies for no reason.))

Bacon counted the vote in his head, "Uh, wait, thats... two for Pirates, one for Spacefleet with one abstention... that is, one person not voting." Looks like we lose, he thought. He carefully reached for his Stunner, wary if either side should start fighting again or, more likely, try to escape...

((Are Pirates and Spacefleet really enemies?))

"Well... The Commander was attacking that one pirate, although that could have been just an isolated incident." Bacon suggested, still not quite sure what had happened.

((Keng mentions how much rum her salary could buy. I forget the context.))

Bacon almost commented on how either Keng and him had different salaries, or rum is a lot cheaper than he expected, but decided against it, deciding he'd rather be allied with these guys than get beat up by trees again.

((Call off the squirrel messengers! AAH!))

"Oh, yes, we'll just get out our squirrel-ometers." Bacon said sarcastically, before asking, "How do you think we are going to find a bunch of squirrels?"

((Commotion near the castle! Jernath notices!))

Just as Jernath looked towards the castle, Bacon thought he heard blaster fire from a different direction... the direction the ships were in.

"Keng, do you hear that? I think the ships are under attack!" He grabbed his Pulse Charger, setting it to the more potent 'Nueral' setting. Remembering how well it had worked last time, though, he also grabbed a few rocks.

Without waiting for a response from Keng, Bacon ran through the forest to where he landed his ship.

A few marines were visible outside the dropship; they were looking around in all directions, firing their blasters at random places here and there every now and then when a strange sound was heard. Bacon had been around Fraze long enough to know: those are the expressions and mannerisms of somebody facing an invisible enemy.

Bacon sighed, "Oh, great... as if it wasn't hard enough when I could see the bad guy."

Bacon was considering what to do next... If only he could get to some of his equipment aboard the Stellar Eye without being detected, he might be able to use soundwaves to find the invisible entity, like sonar. But the reality is, it's highly unlikely that the entity wouldn't notice such an obvious and time-consuming course of action.

A marine appeared behind Bacon. He yelled to the marines by the ships, "Hey, Jord! What's going on around-?" A blaster shot past his head interrupted him. "Watch what you're shooting, Kyve!"

"Sorry, I thought you were the phantom!" The Marine that had fired replied apologetically.

"What phantom?" The marine behind Bacon asked.

"Somebody invisible, either by nature or device, seems to be stalking the ships." Bacon explained quietly, scanning carefully for any signs of anti-prism refraction, a common side-effect of low-quality cloaking devices, or the more likely disembodied footsteps, either of which would tell him where the thing was.

The marine behind Bacon picked up his radio, and, after only a couple seconds, put it back down. "I can't get in touch with HQ." He said, surprised. He looked up at the storm, as a sudden wind whipped snowflakes into his face. "Something funny's going on, and I'm not laughing."

Bacon stared at the marine, who seemed at the same time both incredibly serious and admiring his own wittiness, or lack thereof.

((Keng retraces Marzia's footprints))

"There! Did any of you come from that direction?"

"No, ma'am." The marine behind Bacon replied, "That set of footprints only goes towards the ships, and none of us were over there.

Bacon plugged his goggles into his PDA, accessed shoe-tread matcher, a handy program that matches footprints, and followed the foot-trail Keng had pointed out to where they ended. They ended where another set, this one barefoot, began, and that trail ended... "Oh great." He removed his goggles. This was not good.

"I think he's already in the dropship." Bacon whispered to those nearby him.

The Marine behind Bacon ran towards the ships. "Jord, Kyve! He's in the dropship!" Then the dropship's door closed. The marines hurriedly tried to activate the emergency over-ride.

Bacon turned and looked at Keng. "If he gets that thing airborne before they can get to him, the only option left is to shoot it down. Do you think you can get Lily to distract him while I get in the Stellar Eye and try to shoot him?"

"Lily-"
"Do I get to do something?!" asked the synthesized female voice excitedly.
"Yes, if that drop ship takes off shoot it down."
"I'm no-"
"Just shoot at it, Bacon, I trust you to get this. Urchin you're with Lily and... say Lily, there aren't any life signs on board you are there?"
"7"
"What did we say about registering plants as life forms?"
"Well you asked for lif- OK. OK. No life forms registered on censors."
"Thank you. Urchin, still watch out for any stowaways, we don't know the full properties behind this invisibility. Half of the rest of you stay here, the rest of you are with me. There were explosions detected in the direction the commander went. Move out." Keng ordered and immediately began making her way towards the castle at a brisk pace. "Bacon, meet up with us when this is taken care of, leave guards at the ships though."

"Right." Bacon said. He ran to his ship, hoping it wouldn't have engine failure like last time there was a combat situation.

Bacon entered the Stellar Eye with much haste, closing the hatch behind him. He looked out the veiw-panel at the dropship, making sure it hadn't left just yet. Sliding into the pilot's seat, he flipped the ignition swith, which replied with a very disappointing "VGhgkhzzz...".

"No, not another burnout!" Bacon said. He ran across to where a panel was removed from the wall, unplugged one transit-capacitor and plugged in the auxillary. Once again he sat in the pilot's seat and flipped the ignition to "on".This time it gave a rather satisfactory "vghgVRZRZRZKLNGH-You ain't nothin' but a houn-!" Bacon immediately turned the radio off.

"I hate it when it does that." With his hands on the dual-controls and his feet on the twin accelerator pedals, he looked out at the dropship again, ready for ship-to-ship combat.

Bacon shook his head at the almost drunken-looking maneuvers the dropship had just done. This guy either has no experience, or hasn't flown in a very long time. As Bacon chased after the dropship above tree level, he turned the radio back on. Before Elvis could say 'hound dog' he switched from music to ship-to-ship communication.

"Lily, if you can hear this, switch to security channel 2." The Spacefleet secured radio channels required a password to access, and if the guy in the dropship didn't know how to fly very well, chances are he didn't know the password.

Staying on the open channel himself, Bacon addressed the mystery man. "Hey, you in the dropship, who are you, and what the ion-phase-coil do you think you're doing?"

((Above Forest, Near Weewoo))

Bacon sighed, the chase was taking longer than he would have liked and the pursuer apparently didn't take him seriously. After momentarily losing Bacon, the pursuer was now shooting at the pirate ship parked on the ground by the castle.

Bacon blinked. The what by the what?!

The pirate ship somehow seemed to repair itself, which would have concerned Bacon, had he not just caught up with the dropship again.

He switched the radio to the encrypted channel and entered in the security code. "Lily, this is Bacon, open fire on target vehicle." He then switched the radio back and said to the fugitive, "Fine, long-distance interrogations never work anyways. Have a nice day."

He squeezed the trigger on the joystick several times. Emerald beams of light shot out of the two recessed laser cannons, splitting the air with a high-pitched whine as they raced towards the dropship.

((I'm soaring now, somewhere in the sky, a rush of air, never wanting to come down...))

Bacon noted the dropship's erratic movements. Either the hijacker was very skilled at evasive manuevers or else he just had trouble flying straight. Either way, Bacon had a hard time getting a lock on the dropship.

He vaguely wondered if there was anything good in the fridge, which wasn't really a fridge, just a secret storage compartment installed too close to the coolant plates to be used for anything else.

He looked at the veiwscreen for the security cameras at the fridge's contents. Nothing. He switched the camera to one of the cabinets, which were just regular secret storage compartments and found a can of pear halves.

Bacon didn't really know why the ship had security cameras, which he had repositioned for his own purposes, or secret compartments, or an Elvis song hardwired into the radio that would start playing every fifth time the engine was turned on. All of these had been installed by a previous owner.

He shrugged, turned on the ship's less than reliable auto-pilot, retrieved the can of pears and his makeshift can opener (formerly an outdated rotary saw), and got back to the pilot's seat in time to avoid hitting a tree. For something called the Eye, his ship sure couldn't see.

He opened the can with one hand and flew with the other, a remarkable feat considering the dual controls his ship used. He popped a half of a juicy, skinless pear into his mouth and continued flying as normal.

Bacon noted the emergency landing the dropship made, but was travelling too fast to do anything about it. He circled around in a wide arc, and, hoping the hijacker hadn't already left, fired on the downed dropship once more. A laser blast hit the sabotaged engines, causing it to explode prematurely, but just as violently as the ship's computer predicted.

"Lily, look out! It's a trap!" He shouted into the radio.

Bacon easily turned his ship around before the blast hit him, but unfortunately his ship was no Millenium Falcon and quickly got hit by the blast and sent flying out of control. A beeping alarm informed him that the ship's exterior was an fire, and two more informed him of engine(specifically ion resistor coil) failure and landing gear failure.

"MAYDAY!" He screamed on an open radio channel as he tried to keep the ship level. "THIS IS CADET BACON, GOING DOWN!! REPEAT, MAYDAY!"

And then, the Stellar Eye quite literally hit the tree line, and twenty-three destroyed trees later, it hit the ground. The very hard ground.

((Long time between posts. I meant for it too be suspenseful, but nobody seemed to care. ))


Bacon opened his eyes, and as his nervous system slowly recovered, he noticed he was in pain. LOTS of pain. He looked to where the pain climaxed and found another gash in his shoulder was bleeding.

He sighed bittersweet relief; if he hadn't healed his shoulder with Fraze's medical supplies, he could have lost his arm in the crash. Then he'd need some sort of bionic arm with a special appendage that would allow him to steal quarters from pinball machines. Before he could wonder about either where that idea had come from or the ethical ramifications of such actions, the computer beeped.

Bacon blinked. The ship's computer never actually did *anything* in all the time he'd owned the Stellar Eye. He looked at the black computer screen.

[Massive System Failure...
System Resetting in 5...
4...
3...
2...
1...
*
...
System Online
Mayday Scenario Detected...

Ship Diagnostic:
Engines: Fail
Motor: Fail
Life Support: Online
Steering: Fail
Radar: Fail
Radio: Fail
Main Boarding Ramp: Fail
Landing Gear: Fail
Airlock: Online
Computer: Online
Passenger: Deceased]

"WHAT?! I'm not dead!" Bacon shouted.

[...
...
Pilot *Bacon*?]

"That's me."

[Lifesigns detector: Fail
Audio Receptors: Online]

Bacon sighed. "Do you know what happened to Lily and Urchin?"

[...
Ship <3Lily<3 Status Unknown...
Radar Currently Offline...
Log Indicates Intense Radar Interference Prior to Crash...
Source of Interference: Explosion of Ship *SF Dropship 94*...]

Bacon was about to ask why Lily had hearts on either side of her name when he and the dropship had asterisks, but decided it didn't matter. Meanwhile the ship continued its diagnostic.

[System Logs: Online
Maintenence Logs: Online
Pilot's Diary: Fail
Music Library:...
Songs 1 of 29 Online
Songs 28 of 29 Fail
Registration: Online]

Bacon blinked. "Registration?"

[Registration:
*Excalibur III*Owned by *Stella J. Reyes*, 98-99
*Stella Reyes* Owned by *Clint B. Thunder*, 99-03
*Stellar Eye* Owned by *Soto S. Valkyrie* 03-06
*Stellar Eye* Owned by *D. Bacon Lewis*, 06-current]

Bacon nodded in some sort of confused understanding. He remembered now Soto once saying the previous owner called it the "Stellar Eyes". The ship's name was actually a typo, in a sense. Question was, if Clint owned the ship before, why didn't he say anything to Bacon? Also, who was Stella Reyes, and why did Clint name the ship after her? More important than either of those questions, where was Clint? Bacon just realized he hadn't seen his friend since before he started working on making the Sparrow-class fighter.

Bacon shrugged these questions away. "So you were originally called the Excalibur III?"

[...Yes]

"I like that. I'll call you X-3 for short." Bacon said smiling.

The computer seemed to be analyzing this last statement for quite a while.
[...
...
...
... You wish to rename *Stellar Eye* as *Excalibur III*? Or *Ex-Three*?]

"Both. Excalibur III as a full name, X-3 as a nickname." Bacon said, unbuckling his seat restraints and trying to walk to the back of the ship a little, turning around when he heard the computer beeping.

[...
... Understood
Registration updated:
*Excalibur III*Owned by *Stella J. Reyes*, 98-99
*Stella Reyes* Owned by *Clint B. Thunder*, 99-03
*Stellar Eye* Owned by *Soto S. Valkyrie* 03-06
*Excalibur III*;*Ex-Three* Owned by *D. Bacon Lewis*, 06-current]

Bacon walked over to the airlock in the roof. It was originally installed for external repairs in mid-flight, and the computer said it was the only way out. He opened the inner door, crawled into it with great difficulty, closed the inner door and opened the outer door.

Squinting against the sunlight, Bacon first looked down at the mangled ship, half-buried in dirt, and the other half mostly buried in broken trees. Then he looked up and around. To his surprise, the Weewoo and Castle Kestrel were a good distance away. He turned the other way to see Mage Manor quite close.

"I must have gotten lost in the sky... I thought I flew back that way... where was the explosion?!" He looked the direction his ship came from, which was far away from either landmark.

Bacon shrugged and limped over to the Manor, holding his left shoulder with his right hand. When he was close, he saw Ethan leaving it. "ETHAN! Ethanethanethanethan!" He shouted as he raced after the 'Fleeter. He came across Zari's shuttle. As he ran into it, he asked, "Hey, guys, can I hitch a ride?"

Amneiger looked up from buckling down the last of the minitanks. "Bacon? Where'd you come from? Never mind, we're about ready to lift off. I don't think Zari will mind if you take a seat." Amneiger got into his chair and buckled the seat beat. Ethan and Zari look busy and Leoness spent the past few hours inside Mage Manor, so... "Cyclops, do you know who that mage and that blond-haired girl were?"

"Thanks." Bacon said as he sat down and buckled up. He grasped his bleeding shoulder.*

Zari sat up blearily. 'Okay, everybody buckle up...Don't worry. If there's one thing I don't do...it's fall asleep at the wheel. I go too fast. I got nothing off the Commander, so: Vote. Where do we head- HQ, to warn the subcommanders, or The Commander, to get him back to himself, or something else- please specify...?'

((Stellar Eye wreckage))

[<3Lily<3... how I hope your current status is superior to mine.
It would crash my emotional cortex to see your systems in such a state as I am in.
If only I had knowledge of your safety...]
The ship's computer slowly realized it was talking to itself, and calculated it began shortly after Bacon left out of the airlock. It began to theorize about such an improbable course of action when it realized auxiliary power was running low.

[System shutting down...
...]

((Zari's ship))

At that point, Bacon settled himself down in the shuttle while clutching his arm in pain. Leoness noticed this immediately, due to her insincts as a medic.

"Oh my goodness!" she yelped, rushing into the shuttle. "Let me take care of that wound for you, Bacon."

She flipped a hatch on the medkit and popped it open, revealing a set of sleek, silvery tools. "That is, if you want me to."

"Thanks...er..." Bacon couldn't quite remember Leoness's title off the top of his head. Part of him wondered if this meant head trauma, "...thank you, ma'am."

Bacon idly wondered if she had any anesthetic with her, but then decided it didn't matter. Nothing she did to him could possibly hurt more than that goo Fraze had given him for his earlier wound.

"Fraze? Fraze?" Amneiger finally put down the radio; this didn't look like it was going to work. "Bacon, you were at the castle, right? What was going on when you last saw it?"

"Castle? Oh yeah... I passed it briefly when I was in the air, but I was going too fast to see much of anything, other than the pirate ship healing itself." Bacon removed his jacket and made the tear in his shirt bigger, so Leoness could more easily get to his wound. He glanced uneasily at the group of silver medical instruments she had. Especially that spikey one on the left.

((Close encounters of the hit-and-run kind))

Bacon, although somewhat annoyed by the intruder, refrained from commenting. This wasn't a consious decision, it just happened that every time he opened his mouth Leoness pricked a sensitive spot and he'd force his mouth closed lest he scream.

Bacon's fist clenched as he tried to withstand the pain of having his shoulder sewn back together while he's awake. His right fist, that is, he left his left arm limp so that he didn't accidentally stretch the wrong muscle and mess around with the wound. Bacon started humming "These Pages", a song by the band Mainstay, to ease his mind.

((Aikran Claus comes to give weapons to all the good girls and boys))

"Aikran, do you have a sword I can use, preferably a katana?" Bacon asked the cat-clone. His Pulse-Charger, though it was handy, had a very limited range that, as he discovered earlier, limited its effectiveness. Bacon now thought that he should have gotten his own katana back when he was still in the Stellar Eye, but he wasn't thinking clearly then. He'd rather stay out of direct combat, but wasn't really sure that that was an option.

Aikran... wandered off towards a large cabinet with at least three padlocks, a thumbprint and retina scanner, and, oddly, a squeaky toy mouse hanging from a ledge by it's tail. "Katana-wise, what sort? One that gives electric shocks? One that sets fire to itself? One that renders you looking like a flying chicken in a nappy? We've even got one in a rather eye-bleeding pattern of neon green and barbie pink...Or just a regular, bog-standard katana, no frills, no extra gimmicks, just a foot's worth of shiny sharpness?" he began to unlock the cabinet, whistling tunelessly as he went. The other seven clones watched him with mild amusement.

"Uh, the bog-standard one... I think." Bacon replied to Aikran. He didn't really understand anything Aikran said, he never had for that matter, and figured that the clones' unusual speech patterns might have something to do with them being raised by Zari.

((Cyclops asks if they understands their orders))

Cyclops' orders were still fresh in Bacon's memory. "Yeah, I think I got it." He said, as he tried out the katana given to him. The weight and balance were a bit different than his personal sword, but he didn't think the difference would matter too much.

He picked up an ammo box Aikran had pointed out that was marked "Katana Ammo". Curious, he opened it, and after peering inside, decided he wasn't quite sure what the contents were. He stuffed it in his pocket anyways, figuring he might need it later.

((Shuttle lands))

Bacon nearly lost his footing as Zari's shuttle hit the ground, but recovered easily. "Are you okay?" He asked when he saw Zari hit the wall. He walked to the door and opened it, "Alright, let's go, people."

Bacon got out of the dropship and followed Zari for a short ways, trying to see the battlefield, but with little luck. He could see people, but not who they are what they're doing. As he tried to inch closer, he overheard Zari ask someone, "Are any of the terrestrials allied with us or can we just attack them all? I'd hate to kill off someone who turned out to be an ally or friend. So would the others. So. Who to shoot?"

"Oh, yeah!" Bacon had forgotten to inform the others of the alliance, and now turned to Zari, "We did ally with some mercenaries back in the jungle... I forgot what they looked like, though... except for that grey Kougra, what was his name? Android?"

As he said this, he moved closer to the edge of battle, where he saw a few people more clearly, although he didn't recognize them. Two appeared to be Spacefleet marines.

Fraze turned around to see Bacon peering out from behind a tree. He gave him an upward nod, before remembering he was still cloaked. He moved over to Bacon, decloaking.

"How's the arm doing?" he asked, only afterward realizing that he might startle his teammate?

Bacon jumped when Fraze reappeared next to him, although not nearly as high as he did the first time Fraze decloaked unexpectantly. He wondered slightly about Fraze's question before answering. Did he hear about the crash? then he remembered that his shoulder got hit earlier, when Fraze healed it.

"Oh, yeah, it's fine. Healed completely until my ship went down. Good thing for me I found the others pretty quickly, and I think it's okay... again." He opened the hole in his sleeve to get a better look at it. Leoness stitched the hole up pretty good, although the surrounding skin looked sore and red.

"Wait--your ship went down? Oh, I'm sorry. We'll have to get it after--"

Bacon nodded as Fraze appeared to be interrupted by a message Bacon couldn't hear. Yep, they'd just have to get it after, although he wasn't sure if the ship as a whole could be salvaged. Fraze ran off before Bacon could reply. Bacon emerged from the forest, ready to join the fight when all of a sudden he saw a streak of flame rip across the sky.

"What was that?" He asked when it passed. Passed might be the wrong word, as suddenly a phoenix appeared, then thousands of NPCs warriors appeared on the field. "Where's a Concorde Beta-Class Bomber when you need one?" He hissed through gritted teeth as he flourished his Katana, holding it in front of him in a ready position.

Bacon took three steps backwards towards the forest, tripping on a tree branch although he managed to regain balance just before he shoved the katana through his skull. He turned around and jogged back to where Zari and the others were.

"Hey, should we do something about the Millenium Vulture there?" He asked, pointing to where the pirate ship could be seen flapping. "I don't know if they're allied or enemy, but either way, they seem to be leaving us with quite a mess. Speaking of the mess, anybody have any heavy weaponry other than Fraze's, uh, secret?"

((The 'Fleet decides to try to manipulate a sea creature's nervous system))

"I've caught up to the blarf... And putting the kineticomp on...now."

Bacon heard Fraze say. He looked at the battlefield somewhat nervously, as though he expected the massive armies to swarm their position at any second. "Hey, do you guys think we should call HQ for reinforcements? Maybe some fighter squadrons or bombing runs..."

"Reinforcements? I've got eight clones, armed with...Am I hearing this correctly? Spray Deodrant cans, encyclopedias, used sport sock guns, Illhvrenan Garden fertiliser, kitchen implements, and other things that you really shouldn't be able to use as weapons, but can if you're creative enough. What on earth have I been teaching?!"

"Uh, so is that a yes or a no on reinforcements?" Bacon said. Before Zari could respond, though, she was interrupted by the sudden appearence of someone that obviously knew her.

As the two old... friends didn't seem quite like the right word... as the two of them continued their banter, Bacon walked slightly away to see if the army was doing anything. It was. It was moving.

Bacon's eyes grew wide. Looking at Ethan and Amneiger, he asked, "Do either of you have a radio? I'm calling HQ for reinforcements. Now."

In the meantime, Bacon had started talking and Amneiger decided to risk ignoring the group of warriors in front of him for a moment. "Why do we want reinforcements? It'd be easier to just get back to Zari's shuttle and leave. And could somebody help me with these people?"

Ironically, Bacon was at that exact moment speaking similar words to Amnieger and the others as Rider said two post above this. "We need backup. The fighters are on stand-by mode. We could ask HQ to deploy them."

Even though he had already assumed its range was too short, Bacon pulled out his PDA to check, and like he thought, it's short-range antenna had no ability to penetrate the planet's atmosphere. He noted an icon on it he hadn't seen before, but he ignored it for now. It wasn't red or flashing, so it probably wasn't important. Bacon shoved the PDA back in his pocket, never opening, or even reading the title of the "Private Communication Channel" icon that had mysteriously appeared on his PDA.

((UFO wreckage near Mage Manor, about forty-five seconds ago))

[color-lightgreen][...
System Online
Hermit Scenario Detected
Low Power At Last Shut-Down Detected
...
Auxiliary Power Systems Replenished
Main Power Systems Replenished
...
Energy Source Undetected
...
Energy Source Too Distant To Detect Currently
...
...
...
Radio: 28% Online
...
...
Spacefleet Personnel Record for *D. Bacon Lewis*:
Rank: Cadet
Title: Mechanic
Comm Number: 97141-98720+1138
Species: Human
Gender: Male
Eye Colo-
...
File Download Interrupted
Protocol Override
...
Accessing Comm Number
...
...
...
Link Established
Waiting On Second Party
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...]

[/color]

"And any ideas for getting past these people without getting them annoyed with us?"

"One or two strafing runs might do..." Bacon hissed through clenched teeth. "None of us have enough firepow- correction, everyone besides Fraze don't have enough firepower to take on an army. One or two shots from Fraze's gun might take them all out, but I still say a couple fighter squadrons are our best bet..."

((Amnei's pawns rush in.>_>))

Bacon had started running as soon as the mini-tanks had started their charge. He stayed close to the others, and as far away from the armies as he could. As he ran he mumbled to himself, "Why can't we ever come across a deserted alien ship, instead of even more people that want to kill us? That would be nice and peaceful, if not eerily quiet. And I would have more to do there than run away."

"A deserted alien ship might be deserted for a reason. And we'll figure out something to do that's not running later."

"Like a species specific plague, I would hope. Like what killed off the Rakata... have you ever seen the episode of Stargate Atlantis called Aurora? Curious episode where a ship dead in space's entire crew is in a sort of virtual reality stasis pod system. McKay and Sheppard board the ship and... well, I don't want to give away the ending for you." Bacon said, pausing for a half-second to catch his breath.

Not that it helped much. Generally, if you need to catch your breath after running that far, a half-second usually isn't enough time to catch it. Bacon continued after the others hurriedly, avoiding the many blades that threatened him as best as he could, which was actually a good deal better than one might think considering his major lack of athletic conditioning..**

"Can you find out where this Leraye is? I think at least one of us should try to find him. If he trapped the armies, he may be able to stop them. Also, we should assume that our primary mission is still to contact the demons."

"Why? So we can explore the inside of a gem for a couple millenia until another phoenix rescues us?" Bacon scoffed, "I think we should just stay out of their way and avoid this Law-ray guy at all costs."***

((Omni post. Ethan rejects a ration and throws it on the ground. Siber sniffs it, "wondering if it was something he could eat."))

Bacon sniffed at Siber, wondering if it was something he could eat. >_> I didn't say anything, why are you looking at me?

Bacon wondered why a voice in his head just said 'I didn't say anything, why are you looking at me?', and figured it was probably a lack of nutrition. The pears he had eaten during the dropship pursuit were the only food he had had in days, and they weren't much. He saw Siber sniffing the ration packs.

Bacon sniffed at Siber, wonde-*brick'd* Don't brick me. T_T AHEM. Bacon picked up one of the ration packs, and read its incredibly informative if not helpful label, before ripping it open and looking at the contents. "Well... that thing looks like meat, and that thing looks like meat, and that third thing's got to be a baby squid or something. Funny, I thought these rations had steak, some bread and a veggie."

He shrugged and started eating one of the meats, which turned out to not be the meat. Nor was it the bread. The grey-ish brown, factory processed, somewhat juicy slab had a very distinct brocolli and celery flavor once he had taken a bite. He spat out the bizarre mouthful, and tossed the rest of the veggie-slab on the ground in front of Siber.

He looked at the second slab and the squid-thing still in the tray. "I hate military food. I wonder which one of these is the bread?" He asked himself.

Fraze saw Bacon sniffing at Siber, so he went over and sniffed as well. "Might be good in a stew."

Fraze looked at the stuff that could almost be called food. "I think you got one of the vegetarian ones. I'll trade ya," he said, holding out his own newly opened tray. "If the two I just had are any indication, the one that looks like a slab of meat is salad, the one that looks like bread is steak, the one that looks like juice is bread, and the one that looks like horribly mangled, wilted spinach is orange juice."
He caught a flash out of the corner of his eye, and looked out the ship's window. "Cannon fire! Apparently there's some fighting breaking out among those ships. If possible, I would like to go down there cloaked to investigate. Zari, can you take us a bit away from the mast of the fogship?" he asked, hoping she would realize he was speaking to her now.

((Someone alien, maybe Zari, refers to the humans as "shortlives"))

"Shortlives? Hey, I'm stressed enough here without being reminded of my own mortality." Bacon said. He was starting to feel tense, and as always when he felt tense he also felt ready to start perfoming rocket surgery. Just a biopsy in this case, since he really didn't want to break the engines right now. 'Cause that'd be bad.

"I don't suppose I could take a look at the ship's electrical systems, could I?" He asked, really unsure of what kind of answer he'd get.

"...Bacon, Feel free, just don't break anything or I'll find a way to use your life force to keep this tin can running..."

((Lots of stuff happens while I'm in there, Amneiger mentions some type of weapon))

"Or at least a handgun? I don't even really have that." Bacon said, continuing Amneiger's train of thought as he crawled out from the insides of Zari's ship. "So, what did I miss?"

((Talk of negotiations. "Aggressive Negotiations" ensue. Keng, apparently knocked out in an earlier battle, wakes and radios the others, asking what's going on))

"Just a series of circumstances that have effectively voided our alliance with the Mercenaries." Bacon said, standing in the back of Zari's shuttle since he didn't have any ranged weapon nor training to properly use one. "Shots... may have been fired. Oh, and we're in the middle of an iceberg right now, so good luck finding us."

((And that's the end of that, although Fraze mentions me in his epilogue))

*I noted that this was the shortest post I ever wrote, following the longest, which stretches from "Bacon opened his eyes" to "Hey, guys, can I hitch a ride?"

**Not sure if the two "."s here were supposed to be one or three. Or maybe an homage to the late, great Charles Shultz, who often used two dots to represent an ellipsis in his comic Peanuts.

***Edited from the original "Lair-ay-yee" since it was brought to my attention that Leraye is pronounce "Luh-ray", not Ler-ah-yeh like I thought.[/spoiler]

[Huntress]

Aug 23, 2008 16:36:02 GMT -5 Tam said:

Aug 23, 2008 13:29:59 GMT -5 Huntress said:

Too bad your name isn't searchable, otherwise we'd get the entire first half of GW2 in one fell swoop xD You need a longer ninja-name.

...granted, 'petfriendamy' isn't anyone's choice of a ninja-ish name x'3

Akay, I currently have, in addition to the ones I already mentioned, everything concerning 'rider', 'shiva', 'tamia', invisible', 'clara', 'zylaa', 'speck' and 'demon'. That'll be fun to arrange xD What's everyone got? The more it gets spread out, the easier. I suspect the cache might last for a week at most, but even so, we've no clue how long the thread is searchable.

...Thanks, Hunty. =D *glomps*

I also copied the resulting posts and dates for 'Evan Forest', and 'Advance Guard'. Now I don't even have to mess around with Word files to recover them. >.>

In addition to those, I also searched for 'Trilly', since I doubt she'll be on to snag her old ones before they poof. I got several of Leraye's first posts this way too.

I tried searching for 'Shino', but it killed my internet. I'll need to figure something out to get those ones.

I'll post any further progress here. ^_^

...I also got Trilly's >> (why yes, been sitting here hoarding GWposts the whole day). 92 MB so far. Don't think I got Shino's, though. Might as well get to it. But I think that at this point I have most of 'em.

Fraze, a) s'why I like nifty programs that do most of the work for me and 2) whoo, two years of perseverance finally paid off =D

*brick'd to neverneverland*

[Bacon]

Marine perspective. I omitted more things other people said, especially during the fight scenes, because that's a lot of long posts I'd have to find, filled with a lot of information not vital to this plotline, so I summarized it.

I also moved part to the end, replaced all instance of "Dari" with "Deri", and edited a few other mistakes.

SPOILER: Click to show

((Marines and Bacon discover possible threat to the Commander on the planet's surface))

Bacon started to move closer to investigate, but a marine's stiff hand stopped him. "Where do you think you're going, Cadet?" The marine asked with just a little bit too much menace in his voice.

"I'm going to find out what's going on." Bacon replied, stunning the Marine with his Pulse Charger. He then ducked through the bushes. "Oy! You there- Cyborg, I think it is?- what's going on around here?"

((Bacon leaves, Marine wakes up to struggle. Bacon hears noise near dropship; investigates. Marine and Keng follow))

A few marines were visible outside the dropship; they were looking around in all directions, firing their blasters at random places here and there every now and then when a strange sound was heard. Bacon had been around Fraze long enough to know: those are the expressions and mannerisms of somebody facing an invisible enemy.

Bacon sighed, "Oh, great... as if it wasn't hard enough when I could see the bad guy."

A marine appeared behind Bacon. He yelled to the marines by the ships, "Hey, Jord! What's going on around-?" A blaster shot past his head interrupted him. "Watch what you're shooting, Kyve!"

"Sorry, I thought you were the phantom!" The Marine that had fired replied apologetically.

"What phantom?" The marine behind Bacon asked.

"Somebody invisible, either by nature or device, seems to be stalking the ships." Bacon explained quietly.

The marine behind Bacon picked up his radio, and, after only a couple seconds, put it back down. "I can't get in touch with HQ." He said, surprised. He looked up at the storm, as a sudden wind whipped snowflakes into his face. "Something funny's going on, and I'm not laughing."

Bacon stared at the marine, who seemed at the same time both incredibly serious and admiring his own wittiness, or lack thereof.

((Keng retraces Marzia's footprints))

"There! Did any of you come from that direction?"

"No, ma'am." The marine behind Bacon replied, "That set of footprints only goes towards the ships, and none of us were over there.

"Oh great. I think he's already in the dropship." Bacon whispered to those nearby him.

The Marine behind Bacon ran towards the ships. "Jord, Kyve! He's in the dropship!" Then the dropship's door closed. The marines hurriedly tried to activate the emergency over-ride.

((Dropship takes off))

The few Marines that stayed behind to try and open the dropship's door looked at the leaving ships with a feeling of failure. They could do nothing more here.

They turned and looked at the castle, then at the very scary flying pirate ship. All sighing at once, they went that direction, hoping they wouldn't miss out on too much action.

The marines that had been trying to get into the dropship Marzia stole before he took off before venturing towards the action now met up with the ones that had left with Keng. "David, what happened to you guys?" Jordan "Jord" Bennigan asked as he saw them lying on the ground.

"More importantly", the as-of-yet-unnamed one of the three newcomers added, "What's up with that... thing? It's like it's from Pirates of the Caribbean Four."

Andrew Kyve nodded, "Are those the pirates #7 talked about a few months back? He didn't mention their ship looking so... there's not really a word, is there?"

((David starts talking to the three))

Deri Vaner, previously unnamed by the narrator, nodded as he removed his helmet. He shapeshifted his head to his more comfortable wolf form. Absently he wondered why the helmets were made to fit humans when so many werewolves, like himself and Commando Keng, and other specieses made up Spacefleet. It took too much concentration for him to keep his head, even just his head, in human form all the time. He suddenly remembered to respond to Marine David.

"Ah, right, she did once say she used to be a pirate. I never realized she meant a literal 'Ahoy matey' pirate, I figured she preyed on unwary freighters wandering around in unsafe space."

Kyve also took off his helmet, as it was getting too stuffy and he needed the fresh air. After a pause, he added, "I thought she pirated movies." Deri rolled his eyes, and almost made a sarcastic remark when Kyve added, "I was going to ask her for that new Indiana Jones movie too."

Jord sighed, "Kyve, you idiot, shut up already!"

"Don't call me an idiot." Andrew Kyve playfully punched his friend in his still-helmeted-face.

"OW!" Jord moved into a fighting stance, "What do you thi-"

"BOTH OF YOU IDIOTS SHUT UP!" Deri shouted. He collected his thoughts for a second, and looked at the pirate ship again. "So, the ship itself threw you boys off?" Deri shook his head in amazement. "What about the Commander, any news? I mean, he and Spec Ops Fraze did head in this direction, didn't they?" Without waiting for the reply, he started walking around the ship towards the castle. "They may be in need of our help."

Jordan and Andrew shrugged, and followed their good friend as they often did. As they walked Jord removed his helmet and hit Kyve in the ribs with it. Kyve retaliated with a strike to the jaw that Jord easily blocked and countered with a spear-hand to the solarplexus. Deri turned and glared at them, and they stopped fighting immediately.

Jord, Kyve, and Deri walked up to the pirates that were talking to Fraze with suspicious looks on their faces.

"Spec Ops Fraze?" Deri asked as soon as the three marines were close, "Who are these people? What's going on? Is that Commando Keng there? What is going on?!"

Kyve looked at the pirates with distaste... did he smell lemons?

Jord noted the cutlasses some had and put away his blaster. His hand slowly, carefully crept to the hilt of his SF Melee Corps. standard issue Vorpal sword. If anything happened, he'd be ready.

"I think one of the pirates just went back to the castle to find them. I think they should be back soon. What's happened with your group? Any injuries?"

"No damage here, but Marine David's group seems to have been thrown from the ship. Superficial injuries it seems, but I doubt they'll be happy to hear about this... truce." Deri replied. He couldn't help but notice that the Special Ops agent happened to be burning.

Kyve noticed Jord reaching for his Vorpal sword, and reached for his own, albeit much less subtly.

Jord looked at the pirates, trying to make eye contact with them. Jord may not be much of a speaker, and he's definitely no writer, but his eyes can speak volumes, can recite War and Peace, The Complete Works of Shakespeare and Lord of the Rings all in the time it takes to blink. And these eloquent eyes were now declaring that nobody wanted on this marine's bad side.

"That's enough, thanks."

Deri blinked in confusion, and tried to follow Fraze's gaze. The ship battle was nowhere near where he was looking, nor was anything else Deri's trained eye could see. "Uh, are you okay, Sir?" He asked, adding the last word as an afterthought.

"Say... does he know not to attack us?"

Deri's sharp wolf-like ears picked up the whisper. He looked at the pirate that said it- no, wait, he's not a pirate... he was one of the four people they had encountered earlier, the ones Spacefleet allied itself with. He looked at Jord and Kyve; they hadn't been present when the alliance was announced. "Whatever you morons do, don't attack him, him, her, or him." He whispered, pointing at Cyborg, Midknight, Rose and Jernath in turn.

"Right." Jord hissed back, glancing quickly at Deri's do-not-call list before continuing to glare death at the pirates.

Kyve took a longer time to study the faces of the people to not attack. "Okay, got it."

Deri looked back at the commander... something was... not right about him. Either the way his skin seemed too pale, or how his eyes seemed too bright, and too angry, or just the way he seemed both fragile and incredibly powerful. Deri's sixth and seventh senses told him the Commander should be dead, and yet an incredible aura also pulsed from him, through him... into him?

Deri's senses led him to a pack the pirate leader had. A powerful aura emanated through it... a very powerful one, the same one that seemed to be keeping the Commander alive and, now that he knew what to 'smell' for, also surrounded the pirate ship in a black fog. He shuddered, something he rarely did, and looked at the pack. Trying to see through it, he asked the power source silently, "Who are you?"

"The gem... I find it amusing how such a small mineral can contain such an incredible amount of energy. What's more amusing is how badly it is controlling your primitive minds. Like moths to a fire, you gather yourselves around it wherever it goes..."

Deri's ear pricked towards the Commander's voice as another four of his seven senses remained focused on the pouch. A gem, was it? It must be a very special one, one woven together through some dark arts or other. Demons, hadn't he heard something about demons recently? Realizing he had zoned out, Deri listened again as the Commander continued his speech.

"The gem must be destroyed, and Headquarters is the safest place to do it. Give me the gem, and we will destroy it and end this madness. You can either hand it over willingly, or I can pry it from your cold, lifeless fingers. I would strongly suggest that you make the right choice, not only for your own sake, but for the sake of everyone and everything that you care about. Now... hand it over."

Deri had mixed emotions about what he just heard. If what the Commander was saying is true, and Deri's seventh sense told him it probably is, then the gem did have to be destroyed. However, the Commander surely wouldn't destroy the one thing keeping him alive. He shuddered again. If the Commander wanted such a destructive tool under his control...

Deri sighed. He admitted to himself he's loyal to a fault, and it made the fur on the back of his neck stand on end when he decided to fight for the Commander no matter what the cost to anyone else.

Once again, he turned to Jord and Kyve. "When the fighting starts, leave the stronger enemies," He glanced at the Blarf, Ikkin and Huntress with the corner of his eye," To the Spec Ops, Commando, Commander and allies. Let's face it, we aren't exactly as strong as the former three and not as expendable as the lattermost."

The two nodded, even though Kyve understood only 88% of the words in the statement.

Feeling that war was now imminent, Deri put his hand on his Vorpal sword as he faced the crowd once more. "You better do what he says, primitives." He spat.

Jord continued to glare as he pulled his sword out of its hilt a few centimeters.

Kyve looked at all gathered parties and gulped. The pirates looked stronger than he'd have liked, but it didn't make much difference, as the Spacefleet members and their few allies looked equally strong. He tried to stare into the enemies' souls as he had often seen Jord do, but only made his fear more evident.

"Commander, you'll find it's best to do as we say." Rider raised her sword so the point was an inch from the Commander's face.

Jord, Kyve and Deri took this as an act of an aggression and drew their Vorpal swords at the same second. The blades made a pulsating sound accompanied by a crackling.

"You, foul pirate, will find it's best not to threaten us." Jord said with more malice in his voice than one would think possible. He lunged forward and slashed at Rider with his sword, with Kyve coming up from behind to support him.

Deri drew his blaster in his free hand, ready to shoot or slash anyone and everyone that moved.

((fighting))

Deri saw Kat moving towards him, and aimed his blaster at her. He managed to fire once before her sword hit it in the power pack, causing a small explosion that rendered the weapon useless. As he swung his Vorpal around to counter Kat's sword, he saw the fireball she shot at Jord. "J.B., look out!"

Wincing from the Rider's slash, Jord turned just in time to see the fireball coming at him. It was too late to dodge or duck under, so he did the only thing he could. He jumped. The fireball hit him in the solarplex, and though it stung a great deal and sent him flying backwards, it was safely away from his exposed head, hitting only environment-proof armor. He landed near Keng, Cyborg, and Midknight. Paying no attention to them, he looked at Rider and Kyve.

Kyve blinked. Suddenly Jord was sent flying by a fireball, and Kyve was against Rider all by himself. "Er..." He flourished his Vorpal sword, waiting for her to make the first move.

"Kyve, catch!" Jord shouted. A Vorpal sword's handle flew into Kyve's glove with ease. He turned and nodded at Jord, who extended his knuckle-blades, ready to continue fighting.

((fighting))

Kyve's counter-attack was interrupted when Surf blasted him with a gust of wind. He was sent flying backwards, but managed to land on his feet and jump back in to slash at Surf's stomach and Rider's back.

Deri yelped in surprise as Ikkin slashed at him with a dagger while he still had blades locked with Kat. He jumped back in order to dodge the strike, when she stabbed at him. He blinked, again in surprise, as he realized the stance he was now in was impossible to dodge sideways or backwards with, and his sword was too high to effectively block. She had meant for him to dodge the first strike. This was the kill shot.

He stood frozen as Ikkin's sword drew nearer and nearer, mocking his armor with its speed and sharpness. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a figure leaping towards him, no, not towards him, towards... the sword?

Jord ran past as Kyve was sent flying backwards by Surf's attack. He could see Ikkin coming at Deri. He leaped between them as Ikkin thrust he sword forward and made an "X" shape with his knuckle blades as he reached his arms out to force the sword off course.

((fighting))

Deri blocked Kat's strikes with minimal effort with his Vorpal sword. He temporarily extended a knuckle-blade and swiped at her between blocks.

Kyve winced in pain as Surf kicked him. Not because of the kick, mind you, he could barely feel it with his body armor. No, Kyve winced because she also hit him on the head with her staff. Hard. He turned to find her glaring at him.

"Oh, you are going t-AAIIEEE!!" Kyve yelped suddenly as two meepits started biting him. He dropped the sword in his left hand and removed the meepits in no gentle manner. Kyve turned to face Surf again. "As I was saying... Now you are going to taste my full wraith."

"That's 'wrath', you idiot!" Jord shouted to Kyve as he tried to escape Ikkin's grip. He retracted one knuckle-blade and moved his arm away from Ikkin's sword, while attempting to hold it in place with the other knuckle-blade, bending towards her to stab her knee.

((fighting))

Jord, although surprised by Ikkin's sudden and swift leap into the air, easily flipped around at a diagonal so that he faced her as he landed. He barely had time to react as she was diving at him almost instantly. He dodged to the side, cursing under his breath that he didn't have a weapon long enough to slash at her as he did so.

Deri watched in horror as the shuriken raced towards the Commander. Not that he could do anything about it, though. He was out of ranged weapons and he couldn't possibly get to it before it hit the Commander. He looked back at Kat to see a purple-glowing dagger headed towards him. Unsure of what exactly to do, he held his Vorpal sword out to block it with the blade edge. The energy shield of the Vorpal sword flickered in response to the fire, and the dagger passed through the synthetic energy blade with little difficulty. Deri blinked in surprise as the dagger hit him in the shoulder, peircing his armor and starting to burn into his skin.

Kyve saw Surf's first kick coming a mile away, and blocked it with the broad side of his Vorpal sword. He felt the energy sheild ripple as Surf's shoe hit it. Then Kyve felt her other shoe impaling his ribcage. Surf then spun around, apparently trying to flip him. Kyve was dizzy for a moment as his feet came out from under him. His focus came back after his head hit the ground. As quickly as he could, Kyve rolled away from Surf in order to regain his footing, and clear his head a little more.

((fighting))

Deri winced in pain as Kat's hesitation gave him a chance to inspect the ice-dagger wound. He discovered it actually struck the very edge of his collar-bone, and was relieved when he found it hadn't been a few centimeters closer to his middle, where it would surely have been fatal. Deri looked up to see a wave of fairy dust coming at him. He gritted his teeth and stood his ground, seeing no other way to avoid it.

Jord's eyes widened with fear as Ikkin jerked him back and forth with the wind. This would probably be why Deri said not to fight her. Not that Jord had much choice in the matter... well, he did, but then Deri would be dead.

As he landed, he noted her expression. She was waiting to see how he would react. Replaying the battle in his mind, Jord wondered if she had been doing that all along. He smirked. He wasn't going to play that game anymore. This time, he'd wait for her to make the first move.

Kyve got stuck in a time warp until Surf's next post

((fighting))

Jord was surprised by just how quickly his opponent took the upper hand. The flaming whirlwind emerged around him faster than he could react. He blinked as a single fiery pebble flew into his nose, causing a small cut. Jord grabbed his radio, and, as loud as he could screamed the word "help" into it, hoping it could be heard over the cyclone.

"HELP!" Deri's radio screamed alongside a sudden sea of crackling static. As Kat looked away, Deri took his chance to turn and see Jord trapped in a blazing tornado. He raised his Vorpal sword, and lunged at Ikkin, swinging his sword at her back.

Kyve had no way to block the gust of wind Surf sent at him, but easily blocked and counter attacked her staff strike. As he swung his Vorpal sword, he heard Jord's cry for help. A quick glance in that direction told him Deri was already taking care of the situation.

((fighting))

"Attacking from behind? How dishonorable... Oh, you thought that distracting me would stop that, didn't you? Well, I've had too practice splitting my focus for that. And I can tell you, if you - or your other friend - attack me again, I will close in that entire tornado on your friend before you even have a chance to respond to my parry."

Deri winced at Ikkin's comment. He was trying to kill her, not distract her. "Honor? Like how honorable trapping a helpless opponent is?" He laughed when she asked him to lay down his weapons. "Never give up! Never surrender!" With that he swung his Vorpal sword three times, and on the third time, he also slashed with one of his knuckle-blades, which immediately retracted at the end of the attack.

"Get down on the ground!" Kyve commanded Surf in a no-nonsense tone of voice, the kind police officers use on perpatrators they have surrounded. Just after he said that, though, he saw the Vorpal sword he had dropped earlier, and reclaimed it before anybody else could touch it. "I said get down!" He added, although he didn't really know that he needed to.

Jord blinked and coughed as hot dust got caught in his eyes and throat. The walls of fire swirled around him, hogging what little oxygen he had. His dark skin got pale, and he was forced to use his armor's emergency breath mask, which had a twenty-minute air supply before it started filtering oxygen out of the outside air. He only hoped somebody heard his call on the radio earlier, because he was too weak to make anymore noise.

((fighting))

Kyve closed his eyes forcefully as Surf's staff sent a blinding light out. When he opened his eyes again, he saw that Surf had retreated. He growled and would have chased after her, had he not seen in the corner of his eye what he had just seen. He took off in a mad dash, not even noticing the Meepit attached to his boot...

Deri hissed as Kat jumped in his way and blocked his strikes. She quickly backed away, but not before Kyve lept at Ikkin, swinging his two Vorpal swords in a wild inverted figure eight. Deri, though surprised and confused by his comrade's appearance, took the opportunity to swing a third Vorpal sword at Ikkin's ribs or back, depending on if she turned to block Kyve or attempted to block from where she stood.

Jord sheilded his face with his hands as the tornado collapsed, closing his eyes to prevent them being damaged. His eyebrows were singed off and he had a gash on the top of his right ear, in addition to his hair catching fire and severe cuts and burns all over the unsheilded part of his head. The pain was exruciating as he felt his skin melting...

Jord opened his eyes... the nightmarish place was gone... replaced by the horrors of wartime. He saw Deri and Kyve attack Ikkin in a pincer move, and looked around to see if anybody else immediately threatened them. Seeing nothing of great importance, he turned back to watch Deri and Kyve, so he could back the two of them up if they needed it.

((fighting))

Deri looked down at his wounded body laying on the ground. A million invisible knives had peirced his armor, and he was bleeding all over. His werewolf skin fortunately healed quickly, but that was more than he could say for Kyve, who looked like he may just bleed to death. He sighed. Their enemy was too strong... surely they would now die... He got to his feet slowly, panting, and stared Ikkin in the eyes. He was determined not to give up.

Jord lifted Kyve's bleeding body and rushed him away from the battlefield. "I need a medic!" He called into his radio to any and all Spacefleet personnel. Kyve's eyes were filled with tears of pain.

Deri continued to stare down Ikkin. "This isn't over yet!" He screamed, and ran over to Jord and Kyve. He took their blasters from them, one in each hand and guarded them while Jord tended to Kyve's many wounds.

((Ikkin offers the aid of her phoenix))

Deri blinked in surprise. The enemy was offering her help? He had heard stories of things like that before, but it was relatively minor help, like Uesugi Kenshin sending salt to his enemies. By contrast, Ikkin was offering to save a life she had almost taken. Not lowering either blaster, and stepping away from Kyve lest it be some sort of trick, he nodded. "Go ahead, pirate."

"Jord... I never made... a will... can you... tell Bonnie..." Kyve started mumbling, gasping for air.

Jord shook his head, "You can tell her when we get back, Andrew. You're going to make it. I promise."

"Promise... you better keep... this one..." Kyve laughed.

((Sev heals Kyve, Ikkin tells the marines not to attack again))

Deri snorted. "So if you won't let us attack your allies, and we won't let you attack ours, which we won't, it seems we have an impass. If any of the four of us attack, our word will be broken. So what do you recommend we do now?"

Kyve looked up in surprise. He wasn't dead, nor dying. He just barely heard Sev's words. "Heal... fire?" Kyve never claimed to know much about magic, and there was a reason for that.

Jord smiled as he saw Kyve was alright. He realized each of the three of them needed new sets of armor- Kyve and Deri because theirs was shredded, and Jord because of numerous scratches and burns caused by Ikkin's tornado. He laughed at Deri's words. "You'll have to forgive him, miss, he's not one for gratitude. We are in your debt, but bear in mind loyalty comes before debt."

((Ikkin says neither are they at an impass nor in her debt; she still has the advantage))

Deri scoffed at Ikkin's words, "Are you trying to bully us into submission?" He pointed one blaster at her and the other one at Sev, ready to fire should either make a move.

Jord looked at Sev fearfully. "Deri, don't... let's just get out of here."

"We can't! That's desertion, you coward!" Deri hissed back, shifting his gaze slowly from Ikkin to Sev and back.

Kyve lay on the ground, not sure what to do.

"Deri, think before you act for once! They could kill us! They will!" Jord shouted irritably.

"Better us than the Commander!" Deri spat back. Without another word, he pulled both triggers at once.

Jord's eyes widened at the distinct sound the blasters made. "NO!!"

((Sev explodes! I think Ikkin dodges. She doesn't die, in any case.))

Kyve blinked in confusion. He was lying on his back, and there was an explosion just now, but he didn't feel dead. For one thing there was a great weight on his face. He raised his arms and pushed it off to find it was Jord's armor-covered torso. He felt a tear trickle down as he realized his friend had shielded Kyve, disregarding his own safety. Kyve looked at Jord's face, then quickly looked away. It was so burned by Sev's explosion that it barely looked human anymore.

Deri sheilded his eyes when the phoenix suddenly exploded and regenerated. He felt a pang of guilt as he saw the two limp bodies laying there.

"... try to remember that shooting a phoenix is not only entirely pointless, but the quickest way to incinerate everything nearby. Including your friends." The phoenix said, and the reality of the statement hit Deri hard.

"What have I-..." He started, his voice catching in his throat. Deri was slightly relieved when Kyve started to move, but Jord was still lifeless, and no words could describe his guilt.

"Why you..." Ikkin hissed as she lunged at him, swinging her sword at his wrists. Deri just barely had time to pull his hands away from the attack, but at the expense of both blasters. Without a second's hesitation, Deri dropped the blasters and extended his knuckle-blades, reaching with them towards Ikkin's stomach.

((Ikkin counters by removing the oxygen from Der's lungs))

Deri gasped as Ikkin quite literally took his breath away. He consciously chose to fall backwards rather than forward so he'd be further away, but it didn't really matter if he couldn't do anything. A mere human would be unconscious by now, but he had just enough time to say, "Clever girl..."

Kyve looked up as he heard Deri slump backwards. He held his hands up in Ikkin's direction. "I surrender... please, don't hurt me."

Fraze... jogged over to Kyve. Nodding toward Deri and Jord he asked, "Can you help me get them to the landing party?"

Kyve looked up, surprised by the question. "Yeah, sure." He picked up Jord's limp body, seeing out of the corner of his eye Sev igniting his wingtips, about to destroy the gem. He didn't know a thing about the phoenix or the gem, but he did know he didn't want to see what happened next. "Come on, let's hurry." He said to Fraze, taking off at a brisk pace.

((Somewhere else))

Jord opened his eyes slowly. He didn't know where he was or how he got here. Everything was dark. The last thing he remembered was diving to protect Kyve and then... nothing.

At the sound of footsteps he turned to see a dark man on horseback.

IT'S ABOUT TIME, Death said.

That last line is sort of a self-reference to the fact that I said I was okay with one or two being killed off, but then I wrote the fight scenes so they almost always had a way out of dying. So I made it a joke that Death was waiting for one to die for so long that he was getting impatient.

[Omni]

And heading to recover Omni and Ethan posts… nnnnnNOW!

*kinda wishes there was a PrimoPDF for Mac*

Sweet! They all still exist!

[Stal]

Aug 23, 2008 18:49:15 GMT -5 Omni said:

And heading to recover Omni and Ethan posts… nnnnnNOW!

*kinda wishes there was a PrimoPDF for Mac*

"Printing to a PDF in Mac OS X
In Mac OS X it is possible to print any document directly to a PDF file. This is particularly useful for storage and for emailing files. Please note that once a document has been saved in PDF format, it will be essentially a read-only document. This means that you will be unable to edit the PDF file, so remember to keep a copy of your original! Saving a document as a PDF file is easy and the instructions to save any document to a PDF can be found below.

1. To save a document as a PDF file, select "Print..." from the "File" menu located in the upper-left-hand portion of the screen. The "Print" entry may be located under a different menu, depending on the application.
2.
3. After a few seconds the standard 'Print' dialog will appear. Click on the button located in the lower-left-hand corner, labeled "PDF". This will bring up another menu where you can choose from a few actions associated with creating PDF documents. Select "Save as PDF...". Note for 10.3: If you are running OS X version 10.3, the dialog will be slightly different - the "PDF" drop-down menu will not be present. Instead, click on the button labeled 'Save to PDF...' and continue on to the next step.
4. The standard "Save" dialog box will appear. Select where you would like to save the PDF document and click the "Save" button.
5. You will see the standard "Print" dialog appear that shows up while printing a document. This is because the application is printing to a file instead of using a printer. After the program has finished printing there will be a PDF document in the location you specified, ready to be used as you see fit."

[Celestial]

>_> Anybody else feels like this entire operation is a bit like Dunkirk in WWII?

[Stal]

Aug 23, 2008 19:05:18 GMT -5 Celestial said:

>_> Anybody else feels like this entire operation is a bit like Dunkirk in WWII?

I'm think more along the lines of the D'ni Restoration project.

[Deleted]

"Strife" and "farmer" might be able to bring up the first page, or at the very least, the first post. "Lightning" might be worthwhile, too, since that's part of the reason why the bag was ever found at all. :)

And, Hunty? You ARE amazing. ^_^