NationStates Jolt Archive

A slight bump roused Aegis Van Grimm from his long meditation. The raft he had constructed out of rubber hoses, wood planks and nearly four gallons of super glue held up nicely during the time he drifted aimlessly at sea. The first night was fine; he was using the starmaps stored in his cybernetic data banks to chart a course back to Total Distopia. The next day a massive storm decended upon his makeshift raft, and Aegis found himself fighting harder than he had ever fought in his life just to keep his dingy afloat. After one particularly enormous wave smashed into him, Aegis lost consciousness.

When he awoke next, the dark night had enveloped him. For a moment he thought he had been dashed to death by the rough seas, but several seconds later his nighttime optics kicked into gear, proving he had failed to fall off the mortal coil. The deep darkness was due to thick roiling clouds obliterating the stars and moon from view. Aegis was now officially lost at sea.

"Well, I guess I'm fucked now." Muttering to himself, Aegis began to shutdown all unnessessary bodily systems in order to conserve his energy. Without any food, he needed all he could get. His body slipped into a self-induced coma. This meditative state keep him alive for the next two days until the aforementioned bump jarred him back to reality.

Aegis shook his head and concentrated.

*thud**scraaaape*

*thud**scraaaape*

The sound was indisputable; Aegis had run aground.

He rose from the hard plank floor of his raft and took in his surroundings at a glance. A glance was all it really took for him, as the nanites in this eyes processed and re-processed all visual information and stored it neatly in one of his data banks.

His brain automatically began to catalog the information his eyes were taking in:

- Thick forest of fir trees: Some indiginous to Total Distopia, most not, a few unidentifiable.

- Long, rocky beach with no suitable landing for any ship larger than a dingy: Analysis of rocks indicates volcano somewhere inland, though treeline is too high and thick in this area to corroborate this visually. Further analysis indicates high level of granite with trace amounts of precious metals, indicating area is rich in mineral resources.

- Small animals and birds: Analysis indicates ecosystem is very similar to that of Total Distopia. However, several species within visual range are not found anywhere in homeland.

Using this information, Aegis attemtped to determine what country he was most likely in. His data banks came back with over five hundred results, none of which were Total Distopia.

"Well, now I'm lost as well as fucked." He said to noone in particular. A small crab scuttling by stopped for a moment as if to answer him, and then simply burrowed into the sand and out of view.

Cursing to himself, Aegis Van Grimm left his raft and entered the forrest, looking for some sign of civilization...

Sweeping back and forth across a mile long strech of land, Aegis zig-zagged through the forested area in an attempt to cover as much ground and catalog as much information as possible. After scanning several more animals and plants, he narrowed his list of possible countries from 500 to 476.

"This...is getting me NOWHERE!" Lashing out, Aegis struck a nearby tree, dead for a long time, and it splintered into thousands of shards of rotting wood. The nanites in his bloodstream quickly began to heal the minor damage to the skin on his knuckles.

Plunking down hard on a nearby log, Aegis began to ponder simply trudging through the forest in one direction until he found a road, or even some sort of primitive settlement at least. Over the course of the day, he had covered ten square miles of territory, finding no sign of anyone save for an abandoned Misubishi at the base of a cliff. There was nothing inside the aging vehicle, and the only sign of damage to it was caused by the fall from the cliff top. Aegis concluded someone long ago decided this car was more trouble than it was worth and pitched it into the ravine; most likely to collect insurance on their "stolen" vehicle.

Aegis had, since starting his trek, determined the time of day by the possition of the sun, and stored this information in his data banks. According to his internal clock, it was now 6:46 PM.

"Well, finding real live people is better than wandering though this place in the dark. I guess it's time for the straight approach." With that, Aegis determined the direction leading directly away from the beach was north by northeast, and he proceeded to march...

The quest for civilization was taking too damn long, and Aegis was beginning to reach the edges of exhaustion. He had been living on berries and whatever animals he could catch without using any of the limited ammo he had for his Bluette .50 cal. for the past six days. Walking north by northeast in a straight path had yeilded nothing in the way of functioning civilization, and he began to wonder if he should double back and choose a different point of the compass.

No, he thought, north by northeast leads inland to the center of the landmass. That is the most likely location for settlement.

This did not help to ease his mind in the slightest.

On the seventh day, after twelve hours of hiking through rough, rock-hewn plains, Aegis finally saw something to lift his spirits. Despite his fatigue, Aegis dashed forward and fully took in the sight before him.

A road.

A road headed southwest to northeast.

"Oh for glorious fuck's sake, finally!" He called to the sky in triumph. Not wanting to reach civilization in the state he was in, Aegis quickly formed a shelter among the rocks several yards away from the road. Once construction was finished, he instantly fell asleep, making sure to set his internal alarm to wake him up in twelve hours or if someone approaches his camp. Whichever comes first...

The night was uneventful, and when Aegis woke he felt more rested than he had in the last six days. Extending his arms in an extremely pleasurable stretch, Aegis Van Grimm stepped out from his handy lean-to shelter, and into the pages of a story book.

Perched on a nearby rock, standing straight and stock still, was a woman dressed in flowing white robes. Scarves and ribbons floated around her on non-existant currents of air, giving her the semblance of floating underwater. Beautiful was an understatement for this creature. Aegis was struck dumb by her haunting visiage. Her small, slightly upturned nose pointed to the sky as her head was set in a posture of aloof indifference, but her eyes blazed a deep crimson, indicating this woman was anything but indifferent. Her silver hair was the only part of her which did not flow; it was held in a severe bun on the top of her head which remained still as if the strands of her hair were made of stone.

Standing all around her in loose knots of grumbling bodies were creatures Aegis would have sworn were impossible were it not for the fact they stood before him at this very moment. Disfigured faces with the features of several creatures (human and animal alike) protruded from bulbous, hanging heads. The bodies of the creatures were likewise bulbous and pulsating, sometimes bursting with sores filled with black ichor. Each of the disease riddled abominations carried a cruel bladed weapon of some sort, most of which were serrated and rusty. The contrast between the creatures' extreme hideousness and the woman's awe-inspiring beauty was so striking, Aegis almost laughed.

A soft, echoey voice emminated from all around him, but Aegis new it originated from the woman, "Who defiles this sacred land with his unnatural aura? What blasphemer has brought evil machines to our homeland?"

"Uh, I'm not sure about the 'evil machines' part, but my name is Aegis Van Grimm, former commander of the Total Distopian Stalwarts. I was cast out of my country and have recently ship-wrecked here," He noticed, as he spoke, the mongrel-men were beginning to edge their way around him, closing him in, "However...if you would like, I can hop on the nearest boat and take myself elsewhere."

"Your words are meaningless, machine-man. Your defilement of this holy place with your demon technology will not go unpunished. We cleansed this land of your kind once, many years ago, and we remain ever vigilant in case your kind returns." She spoke as if he were of no real consequence, his sentence more a tradition than a necessity.

I guess that explains why someone would leave a perfectly good Mitsubishi to rot in the woods, he thought, mentally assessing the situation. He pegged the enemy opposition at eightteen, just two less than he had bullets in the extended clip of his Bluette .50 cal. Figuring these people had never seen nano-technology in action before, he figured he could take them all if he made the first move. However, a peaceful resolution is always preferable to using almost every ounce of ammo you have.

"Wait, if you wanted me out of your country so bad, why didn't you meet me on the beach six days ago and kick me out then? Or even two days ago as I was weak and wandering?"

"We assumed you would die of exposure in our vast, emerald forests. We did not expect you to reach the Last Route of the Defilers," she waved her hand over the road, "It is fitting, and amusing to us, that you should meet your end where so many of your kind have before."

Stepping off the rock, the woman floated to the ground slowly. Aegis tried to compute this new information, but the method in which she preformed this feat was unknown to anything in his databanks. He hesitated to call it magic, because the existence of such a think is impossible.

At least, so he thought.

"The time for talk is over, evil one. The time for your punishment is now," with a clap of her hands, the woman was gone. There was no flash of light or puff of smoke, the woman was simply there one moment, and gone the next. The mongrel-men looked at each other as if in anticipation of some silent command. This moment of hesitation allowed Aegis the chance for the opening move he concluded would be necessary for him leaving this situation alive...

"Well don't just stand there, RUN!" The voice was crisp, clear and authoratative...and female. As was the boom of the massive hand cannon that sent the nearest of the mongrel men bonelessly to the ground. The DE spoke again with the trained competence of some one who automatically thought in double taps. However instead of targetting the nearly decapitated first kill the massive rounds - 50AE - the shooter used the second tap to take down another.

Gently aligning the scope with the target's head boil covered face, Gegori pulled back the trigger. His Alex sniper rifle recoiled into his arm. He watched as his target's head exploded it's headless body fell to the ground. He grinned repeating to himself the sniper mantra, One shot one kill.

"Get out of there quickly girl," he said into the mike secured around his throat,"There's about 20 creepers on your tail."

,"There's about 20 creepers on your tail."

Damn! More of them? Mina (http://www.atddm.com/mina.jpg) thought annoyedly. The old hag, whom she'd been hunting for nearly two years now, seemed to be growing in power and in the demon sullied lands that meant nothing good. "Off and running" was her short reply as she did just that.

With their quarry gone she didn't want to waste any time getting out of there. Mina didn't much bother to see if the stranger could keep up with her. She'd used him as bait for days now, knowing that he was irresistable prey to the mad renegade psionic. She could out run almost anything including a cheeta in full sprint, given the augumentation of a Cadrewoman.

She was very glad that Gegori was backing her up. The taciturn sniper and she had been partnering for about six months now. And she knew little more about him than he knew about her. That seemed to suit both of them. She couldn't talk about her past and he wouldn't talk about his, but he was an excellent sniper and Mina had come slowly to trust him.

Aegis blinked, and in a matter of seconds several of the monstrosities before him were gunned down. He shot a glance back to his right and saw a woman sporting a pistol much like his own, but obviously from a different manufacturer. He also picked out a sniper somewhere to the west of him, judging by the whine of the bullet as it passed through the air. Aegis did not hear the shot, indicating either extreme distance or a silencer. He could not be sure which was the case.

The strange woman spoke, and was suddenly off like a shot. She ran fast. So fast, in fact, Aegis believed if she ran even one iota faster, he would not be able to catch her.

Shaking off the confusion, Aegis fired three shots; each at a different mongrel. Three bodies crumpled to the road. Aegis took advantage of this opening in their ranks and burst through, chasing after the woman. Running at the absolute maximum speed he could muster, Aegis barely caught up with the woman.

"Th-thanks *pant* for the hand *pant* back there." Exhaustion started to creep back into his body, making him think he wasn't as rested as he originally thought, "Could we *wheeze* possibly *pant* slow down a bit?"

"Rocks" Was the only word Mina uttered. The cairn of rocks some twenty feet ahead were sheer enough to give the creepers pause. And give the runners a safe place to kill off the remaining ones from. She could hear Gegori shooting with perfect precission - each shot dropping one of their foul pursuers- but had no attention to divert to appreciate his skill. He was saving her life and that was what counted. Somewhere in the last six months they'd stopped counting who'd saved whom, and it'd stopped mattering. She nodded to herself as she left her feet in a massive upward jump Damn he's become a friend

Her hands snatched out, grabbing, then tightening their hold on the barely protruding rocks and pulled herself up to the top. Once she had her butt up top she leaned over and stretched out her arm to that the stranger could use her as leverage to help himself up. She had heard him tiring, - breathing had changed and he'd stupidly wasted energy asking her to slow down - Mina hoped he had one last burst of energy.

"I've established a safe zone up on the top of that cliff Mina," Gergori said into the mike again.,"There's about 3 creepers still on your tail." He fired another shot,"make that two. Signal when you've reached the top and I'll meet you there." He ejected the spent bullet and placed another in it's place.

Upon looking through the scope again he had lost site of the two creepers. Damn, He thought to himself as he searched up and down the cliff face,Lost 'em. It's all up you now Mina.

Mina nearly lost her rather precarious perch atop the small cliff when two of the creepers, as Gergori had named them - nearly grabbed the stranger - one "Aegis Van Grimm, former commander of the Total Distopian Stalwarts" - what ever those were and whereever Total Distopia was -well she knew a lot ab out being 'former'.

Her free hand automatically whipped the big Desert Eagle - what she wouldn't have given for a proper weapon, not this lowtech monster - out of it's holster, and it thundered twice. But she only dropped one. It was vanishingly rare that Mina ever missed but as she liked to think with great disgust on such instances It only goes that despite everything I'm still human and need to remember humility from time to time.

OOC I'll wait until Total Distopia post before doing anything

I travel on pilgrimage and I find Jihad everywhere I look. How ironic.

Sayf Udeen raised his head slightly behind a boulder to view several plague-beasts fall to the hidden sniper he knew was prowling around the forest. The demons seemed to ignore him as they raced back and forth, trying to avoid the hail of well aimed bullets. Sayf kept one hand on the scimitar secured in the belt of his white, flowing gown and the other on the cord of chakram rings around his body for protection. Such weapons were archaic in this day and age, but could be nonetheless effective.

Ducking to avoid being showered by black pus from another dead plague-beast, Sayf decided it best to lay low until the melee was concluded. Such fighting was reserved for professional warriors anyways, not religious men like himself.

Aegis decided his stubborness would not get him killed (not today at least), so he activated his adrenaline reserve. It would take a day or so for his body and the nanites therein to work together to refill this reserve, but for the next ten minutes Aegis would be filled with the energy needed to take on an army.

As with every first generation Stalwart, Aegis' vision tinted red slightly with the release of the hormone. However; also as with every first generation Stalwart, rage and bloodlust filled Aegis to brimming. Instead of jumping up onto the ledge with the strange woman who saved his life, Aegis turned his body in mid-stride and skidded to a stop.

Now Aegis was face to face with the last remaining monstrosity. The thing had grabbed at him, but the death of it's companion halted it for a moment. The moment was long enough for Aegis, braying a hoarse warcry, to piston his knee upward with bone-shattering force into what passed for the thing's genitals. It squeeled in a way no human could and blindly swiped at Aegis with what appeared to be a flail composed of rusted nails and bone shards.

Aegis deftly ducked the strike, and countered with a forcefull uppercut. He felt the thing's jaw crumble with the blow, and a gout of black ooze splattered across Aegis' forearm. In his rage, he paid it no mind.

The creature hit the ground squirming, but Aegis gave it no time to recover; blasting its head to a fine paste with three shots from his Bluette. Aegis' bloodlust was anything but satiated, and with no other targets in sight he charged back the way they had come, bellowing in fury.

What the! Mina blinked in utter astonishment - given her past, for anything to astonish her was nothing short of nearly unprecedented, to utterly so... was nearly unimaginable. Her jaw hung open for nearly a second and then closed with a snap as the stranger went into beserk mode. He'd obviously activated some sort of resivoir of battle drug. Not one she'd ever consider using from the look of the results but ovbiously effective.

Mina watched evaluatingly as Aegis totalled the creature. She'd been a part of the Cadre for nearly fifty years, and was a Cadre Brat - third generation Cadre - and knew combat from the inside out and all angles. He wasn't bad, but whatever drug his people used it wasn't anything like Tick.

She raised both eyebrows as he went ragiong back the way he'd come. That could be a problem. The cliff hadn't been much, the cairn that provided the launching point for making the top was only ten feet or so, the cliff behind it barely twenty five, an easy drop for her augumented body. Mina's leap down was nearly soundless, but she paused for a second to see if Aegis would react.

Gregori stared wide-eye through the scope of his sniper rifle. He I was thinking he was useless. He grinned as he packed up the sniper No need cover anymore it seems better get a head start to the cliff. He hopped down of the stone platform on which he had positioned himself.

Speaking into the mike as he sprinted towards the cover of the forest, Gregori said,"I'll meet you and kamikaze at the safe zone. Should only take me a couple of minutes to reach you on foot."

"Roger...and be careful, she shouldn't have been able to make so many of the things so damn quick" Was Mina's subgvocaliszed reply though the transceiver implanted in her mastiod bone. It had taken no little fiddling, and no little gelt, to find an available tech set up that matched the frequencies of her 'built-in' commo system, but persistance had paid off. She had access, should she chose to use it, to a variety of Cadre tech, and for a split second - and for the first time -she wondered if Gregori might be interested in such.

The majority of her attention hadn't left Aegis Grimm, or her surroundings, as she waited to see if he would spin about and attempt to attack her now that she was in his zone and he was beserk.

((Sorry folks, but I won't be able to post for the next few days. Check back after New Year's for my next post. P.S: I'm posting this from my new PS3. I love this thing!))

The amusing thing about Total Distopia's first generation of adrenaline boost tech for its Stalwarts is not that it didn't work well enough, but that it worked too well. Aegis had whirled around at the near non-existant sound of Mina's feet parting the grass as she landed. His mind raced with thirst for combat, but his interrior friend/foe system identified Mina as an ally. As such, instead of attempting to tear out her throat, he turned back toward the forest again and completely ignored her. Now that he knew she wasn't a threat she fell out of the realm of the real; at the moment Aegis' only concern was enemies, not friends.

Too well, indeed.

Aegis broke into an all out run, spotting through the trees a small re-grouping of the animal-men in a clearing. They appeared to be panicked and jabbered furiously at each other in their disgusting language. Aegis burst into the clearing and seized the jagged short-sword of one of the men. With a yank, Aegis lifted the confused thing off its feet and it landed face-down in the grass. However, the stubborn creature would not let go, forcing Aegis to persuade it by planting a slug from his Bluette in the back of its skull.

The other grotesqueries had enough time to ready their weapons during this exchange, but it did them no good. Pulling the sword free from the dead monster's grasp, Aegis darted back into the trees at full speed. One creature gave chase, but no sooner had it ducked under the canopy than a gurgling choke sounded behind it. It turned just in time to see one of it's companion's head had been impaled from the side. Aegis had circled and thrown the sword, rather than attacking head-on, and was rewarded well for his tactics.

The remaining two creatures faced each other, confused, and had just enough time to look at each other with comical expressions of surprise when Aegis dashed back into the clearing behind one of them. His arm clamped around the thing's head and his feet pistoned out ahead of him. For a moment, Aegis was completely horizontal in the air, but in the next he was falling, bringing the monster's head down with as much force as he could muster. Its head connected with a slab of rock potruding from the ground, caving in its skull from the front.

The last remaining assailant gazed in fear as Aegis rose slowly from the ground. His eyes burned, he was covered in blood and dirt, and he was grinning like this was all the fun in the world.

Not knowing what else to do, the creature turned and fled. Aegis would have given chase, but a warning claxon sounded internally; the adrenaline boost was wearing off. Aegis clutched at his head in a feeble attempt to stay conscious, but the after affects of the boost were inevetible. Aegis teetered and fell, the darkness of unconsciousness closing in around him...

After a short run Gregori was almost bowled over by a fleeing creeper. He emerged from the forest panting and adjusting the sniper strapped to his back. "What did I miss?" He asked. His eyes suddenly widened as he surveyed the battle scene in front of himself.

Broken bodies were strew every ware No gun alone could do this damage. His eyes passed over the man they were trying to save. He was laying on the ground covered in the black blood of the creepers."Seems I missed quite a lot."

"Beserkgang, and from the way he dropped it looks like he's got a good old fashioned 'Drinal Reservoir. Stupid that." Mina shook her head in half amused disgust. "Purely good way to commit suicide."

She went over and despite being not much more than five foot ten tossed Aegis's body over her shoulder into a firemans carry with ease. "Lets get out of here before any more make themselves known. We need to see if he's taken any of the venom into him."

The Creepers venon was evil stuff, and wasn't truly venom at all but a highly contageous disease that rendered the victim into either a corpse or another Creeper. Both she and Gregori had had to put down their share of sufferers of the irreversible illness.

Their main base camp was several days hard travel, but they had cached some supplies just a few hours away in a very defensible cave. They could make it before sundown if they moved quickly.

"We have to move then," Gegori said unclipping his Px4 Storm from his belt,"go ahead and find shelter,while I stay and make sure we're not followed."

Not wasting any breath Mina nodded and headed out at a steady fast walk, one she could keep up for days if need be. Gregori had a nose for the Creepers, she trusted him to cover their rear leaveing her free to forge the path back to their last cache.

After the first hour with no sign of pursuit Mina stopped and set the deeply unconscious man down in a su lit clearing and stripped his clothes off uncerimoniously. "He's got some on him, but I don't know if it penetrated the skin" She noted the foul ichor that coated his forearm. Pulling a pair of thin disposable gloves out of an inner coat pocket she used some tissues to casrefully, and very thoroughly, wipe it off and then sealed the soiled tissues in a ziplock baggie. "What do you think Gregori?"

Agustus Rummley sat stern and straight-backed, waiting patiently for Emperor Peterson to acknowledge his presence. Over the past few months the Emperor had changed. After dissolving the senate and declaring himself sole leader of what was formerly known as New Hope, Psy Peterson began to degenerate into a kind of maddness fit only for movies about psychotic killers and dangerous sociopaths. Now Rummley had to deal with him, and the mysterious boy sitting next to him.

"Aegis Van Grimm," Said Peterson, without turning to look at the audience of two, "I'd like you to meet Agustus Rummley, our top agent in the current arm of Total Distopia's national security network."

Finally he swivelled his chair around to face Rummley and Van Grimm. The look in his eyes was a mix of paranoia, cunning, and murderous intent, "Agustus, I'd like you to meet the wave of the future: Aegis Van Grimm. Aegis is to be the first recipient of our new and improved nano-soldier program. He will be the crowning achievement of our time: a living machine capable of no independant action, but loyal as a dog."

"Uh, are you sure this is wise, sir?" Rummley didn't like to question Peterson, as it usually led to a painfully slow death, but the boy to his left was no more than eight years old. Not even able to think for himself completely, yet a candidate for the most controversial weapons program in the long and disjointed history of the nation? Rummley's conscience could not permit him to stay silent, "I mean to say, this is a dangerous proceedure, and the boy's welfare must be taken into account. Does he even know what he's being volunteered for?"

"Ask him yourself." Peterson sneered with hidden knowledge and said nothing else.

Rummley turned to the boy. He was handsom, but plain; the most average looking boy you could imagine. Even after seeing him face to face, Rummley would be hard pressed to pick this kid out of a crowd. The only thing off about the boy was the glazed look in his eyes. Rummley knew that look, and from that gathered what the boy's answer would be, but he asked his question anyway.

"Do you know why you are here? You are going to become a soldier for us. The proceedure is possibly dangerous, maybe even life threatening, so I want to know if you understand full well what you are getting into." Rummley fell silent and waited for the boy to speak. He was not surprised at Aegis' answer.

"I am Total Distopia. Through me, our will is done. I know what I am doing, and it fills me with unbridaled joy to serve my country in this way." Words and concepts too big for an eight year old child. it was obvious the boy had been programmed. His voice was monotone and his eyes devoid of anything but what the Mind Takers had implanted within his brain.

Psy Peterson howled with laughter...

"...Rummley..." Aegis muttered while being jostled and manhandled by Mina. His mind was racing with images of the past while his nanites fought hard to break the infection the blood of the Creepers brings. It would be at least twelve hours before his body was fully purged of the disease, according to his Uplink. While his body fought against the ravages of physical demons, his mind was exorcising mental ones...

Willamina Aurielle Freyasdottir sat back on her haunches and cocked her head. It seemed as if their rescuee might come conscious sooner than she'd estimated. He seemed little more than blandly handsome, but there were recent lines of hard luck on his face.

She knew alot about that. She - or at least her ancestors- had been bred to be beautiful, until the Tanaran Empire had taken on and taken down the Karzad Empire and put an end to their slave breeding. Every single one of her ancesstors had been freed pleasure slaves that had managed to pass the inhumanly rigorous testing - only one in a million of the Tanaran Empire's citizens even met the basic criteria, and usually one in ten of those made it into training. They, her illustrious ancestors going back three generations, had all had long and distinguished carrers in the Cadre...she had gotten kicked out. And solely due to her own stubborn hold on her ethics and an immense, even unbelieveable, amount of bad luck.

Sayf peered through the trees as the pair of rescuers talk quickly and quietly about shelter, watching the woman pick up the berserker and heading off into the woods. The sniper followed carefully behind his companion; obviously he was a rear guard, covering their retreat. Sayf followed carefully, even painstakingly; he knew how to conceal himself when the situation called for it-which tended to be rather often-but wearing a white robe in a green forest didn't help matters. He knew his sniper quarry was well trained to see the unseen as well; Sayf prayed that God had kept him invisible.

After quite a good while of sneaking, his "prey" finally stopped in a clearing, presumably for a rest. Either that, or the pair had finally realized they were being followed by something other than demons. Knowing that it was unsafe for he himself to travel alone, Sayf decided to take a gamble. Breathing deep, he called out a greeting through the trees.

"Salaam, my fellow travelers!" He walked out into the clearing, hands spread wide open and, most importantly, playing dumb. "It is such fine luck to have stumbled upon each other this fine day, is it not?" On cue, Sayf's eyes played upon the partially unconscious man on the ground. "Oh...Oh, my, he doesn't look so well, does he. I have some skill in medicine, my lady..." His eyes turned towards Mina cautiously. "Do you require any assistance?"

Training his gun upon the man Gregori asked,"Who are you and how come you are untouched with the Creepers?" He rested his trigger finger lightly on his Px4 Storm's trigger. He he observed that the man was carrying no more then a scimitar.

Lowering his gun slightly but keeping it aimed at the man's midsection he said,"You carry no gun I see. That scimitar of yours would no good 'gainst a Creeper."

Neither should a man's bare hands, but that didn't stop our friend here, did it? Thought Sayf, staring down the barrel of the man's pistol. A weapon is most effective when you know exactly how to use it...especially a weapon such as this. His hand began to wander to the sword's hilt before he caught himself, putting his hands in the air.

"Sayf Udeen is my name, a simple pilgrim from a far-off land. I've been traveling through these woods for some time now, and while I hear many strange noises at night, I've not had any contact with any...creepers, did you call them?" Sayf moved slowly closer to the man, hoping he would not do anything rash. "Please, lower your weapon; I am no threat to you, although the forest gets sometimes gets violent at night."

"He's not carrying much tech Gregori and I think the Hag was concentrating on him" She jutted her chin to the still unconscious man then swept her glance over him once again while she considered. "And swords can be just as dangerous as a gun in the right hands."

No the Hag had a hard on for men, but it really was technology that set her off. Mina wouldn't trust this new stranger, but neither would she be willing just to leave him to his own defenses. They'd killed enough of the Hag's creatures this day for the madwoman to be really rather pissed off at them, and as soon as she recovered her energies she'd be after tham all. There was the thing about safety in numbers.

"I don't know you and you don't know me, but I am not your enemy unless you make yourself such. And for the moment I'll take your word as good." She looked back down at the unconscious man from Total Distopia - where ever that was.

"If it has gotten into his blood stream, there is nothing any one can do for him in this life. But we can not stay here, we have a more defensible place. If you will carry him, Sayf Udeen, Gregori here and I will be point and tail. We both have ranged weapons that are better than the chakram you carry." She'd recognised what he caried at his waist. But for this, guns were better, and her handling of the matter meant to be the best possible option. She knew what she was capable of, and what Gregori's skills were as well. But Sayf Udeen she did not know and thus relegated to the duties of porter. It also burdened him down and left them free to act if he tried anything inhospitable.

Sayf easily recognized what his new companion was doing, and given the circumstances he couldn't blame her. It seemed newcomers around here was a rarity and obviously trust didn't come easy. Still, he trusted the pair's skills with firearms enough to leave himself open. Nodding to Mina, he hefted the barely conscious man over his shoulder. For a rather thin, weedy looking man Sayf was stronger than most would expect.

"Very well," he said, nodding. "We must hurry, then, before it gets too dark. I assume you know where we are going?"

"...I'll kill you...bastard...LEAVE ME ALONE!" His delirious dreams were given life by his half-comatose voice as the nanites in his bloodstream worked overtime to rid his body of the Creeper's infection. Aegis' mind was racing through his memories, reliving every painful moment of training to become the first of many Stalwart agents. Between the ages of 8 and 18, Aegis underwent tortures which would reduce any normal man to a withered husk. However, the lessons he learned during this time have saved him from certain death countless times...

Age 10...

"...so what can we learn from the Spartans of ancient Greece?" Rummley gave Aegis a gentle look of encouragement. The boy was learning military strategy well, but his tendancy of working tactics involving a single agent rather than a full team were a worrisome forecast of the future to come.

"That a group of skilled warriors, no matter the number, can win a battle based on choice of battleground and inventive use of the environment?" Aegis was sure of his answer, but was not so sure Rummley would agree with him. Ever since the implantation of the Uplink (the first of many operations over the years), disagreements between teacher and student became a regular occurance. Rummley was surprised just how independant the boy was becoming.

"Yes, that is part of it. However, young one; teamwork and reliance on the skills of your fellow warriors is also a key factor in victory over greater numbers."

"If you are skilled enough, you won't need to rely on anyone." Aegis was growing in his brilliance, but was still young and immature, "A lesser warrior at your side is like a bullet wound in your shooting shoulder."...

Age 16...

"I'll kill you, you fucking bastard! Let me out of this machine! LEAVE ME ALONE! AAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRGH!" Tubes potruded from Aegis' body like the leaves of a willow tree. The nano-technology coursed into him, taking over his bodily functions and enhancing his natural abilities ten-fold. His eyes watered as light became ten times brighter, ears bled as foot steps became bombshells in the small surgical lab, and his nose stung with the pungent odor of the garlic bread Dr. Radnik had for lunch. The agony of the transformation was indescribable.

"Ho ho ho, little one. Are you adverse to pain? It's alright; pain is temporary. The gifts I give you today are forever." The doctor almost seemed to enjoy watching the boy squirm.

"If I ever get out of here, programing or not, I will kill you...slowly." The doctor wasn't surprised the boy meant every word...

"Woah, shit!. Here put him back down." Mina ordered as the man went spastic, almost knocking Sayf off his feet despite the man's wiry strenth.

"This is not good. Gregori have you ever seen any one go nuts like this? He's burning up, temp at least a hundred and three." That was confirmed by the sensors." She swore again. The sensors in her bracer just weren't set up for full medical sweeps. "I think maybe he has some sort of nanite pack, we're going to have to get out of here fast. I don't have anything one me to handle full blown convultions."

She rocked back on her heels thing hard and weighing option. The fastest way to their cache would however leave them stranded save by 'shank's mare' for twenty four hours. The aporter would need that long to recharge.

Reholtering his pistol Gregori moved to the convulsing Aegis. "Please hold is arms Mina, and you," He said indicating Sayf," Hold his legs.

Removing his ammo belt from around his shoulder he searched it's many pockets. By the fourth pocket he had found what he was looking for, a pair of acupuncture needles. "With these i think I can at least slow his convulsions," He said to no one in particular.

Mina was quick to comply, wary of the seizures growing worse - normally those infected went limply unconscious as the changes partially paralysed them while the transformation occured. Or at least thsoe she had wittnessed in the past. She knew little of accupuncture, but trusted Gregori, if he though it would ease or stop the convulsions then she'd not hinder his attempt.

She twisted around so she could watch what Gregori did out of the corner of her eye, though not taking but a tiny part of her attention off of Aegis. She'd ask him more about it later.

A tiny portion of her wondered what in the Total Distopian's past had him so mentally agitated, for his mumbled and disjointed words spoke of a pain filled past.

Aegis' mind worked through several other memories as the time passed, but his body quieted significanly due to Gregori's efforts. His thoughts became blurry and mixed as several memories collided together in a melange of nostalgia...

...Rummley handed Aegis his Certificate of Completion at age 18. In front of an awestruck crowd hundreds of thousands strong, Aegis demonstrated his honed abilities. He lifted a VW Beatle off the ground and, with effort, spun around and tossed it like a hammer in the Olympic Games. The car flew fifty feet and struck a target set up for the occasion. Aegis then sprinted a mile-long course in 21.04 seconds, demonstrated his drug-sniffing abilities (putting the local K9 unit of the police force to shame), and finished with a showcase of his firearms proficiency.

Throughout it all, Aegis performed with an air of dignity laced with subtle sadness...

...Aegis ran through the thick jungle at top speed, bleeding from six bullet wounds located in several parts of his anatomy. Under his arm was the severed head of a local cocain cartel leader...

..."You never listen to me anymore! You drift in and out of conversations, you think only about your work, and you never tell me any of it! Am I your wife, or am I just a tool to let you believe you're still somewhat human?" Carrie was miffed, again, but Aegis wasn't listening. As was usual these days, he was thinking about Peterson and his ever-increasing edicts. This one allowed government officials to detain anyone suspected of being part of the Omni Psychotian rebels without trial, and put them to death if need be. At age 27, Aegis began to finally question his involvement in this opressive dictatorship...

...Screaming. Children screaming; crying for various members of their families, and for each other. Aegis watched from a nearby hill as the rebel base was incinerated in a towering inferno. In his hand he held the remaining incendiary bombs he had not needed in this operation. He didn't realize it, but as the buildings below him burned, he wept silently...

...Aegis sat in the church pew, silently mourning the loss of his wife. He didn't know for sure if he really loved her; her words about him using her to make himself feel human were more than just angry speculation. However; he could not help but feel the rising rage brought on by the injustice of her death. Carrie had fit the description of an Omni Pschotian rebel which lived in the area, and she was detained without trial. When she could not produce any information regarding the rebels, she was executed publicly.

Aegis was angry, but mostly at himself. He had done nothing to help her. Obeying his government as he had been programmed as a child to do, he sat and watched the execution take place without one word of protest. The turmoil in him due to this forced him to request an audiance with Peterson and ask him why this had come to pass. Why, if they knew Carrie was married to the Commander of the Stalwarts and loyal to Total Distopia, had they taken her and put her to death based on a vague description provided by an anonymous source?

"Because, my dear agent," Peterson said with a tone of pure, undisputable logic, "Sometimes it is more effective to make an example out of an innocent celebrity than a martyr out of some unknown rebel scum."...

...Dr. Radnik had soiled himself; the smell was almost unbearable. However, the naked terror in his eyes was worth every second Aegis had to endure the smell of his waste.

"You won't get away with this! They'll mark you as a rebel and kill you! You'll be lucky if you get the chair; they'll probably crusify you instead! Please, just think about what you're doing." Radnik's eyes never left the survival knife Aegis held just inches away from the doctor's face.

"Mark me as a rebel, eh? They already took my life from me - made me into a monster - and they took my wife from me as well. What is so bad about being labled a rebel by a man who is nothing short of evil incarnate? That is all beside the point; I'm here to make good on a 13-year-old promise." Aegis ignored Radnik's blubbering and subsequent screaming. The process was slow. Just as slow as promised...

Aegis snapped awake slightly, "Help...shelter. Need shelter...must recover. It will take...time. Please..." The rest was lost in incoherant mumbling as Aegis slipped back into the darkness of his mind...

"Help...shelter. Need shelter...must recover. It will take...time. Please..."

As the convulsions slowed then stopped Mina nodded "Good work Gregori. But we'de better get moving. I don't think he got a real dose and what ever nanite pack he's got seems to be fending it off. I'm willing to give him a chance."

If the process didn't get stopped they could always kill him later.

"Look sharp, don't hesitate to ring out if you see anything suspicious." She told Sayf as she picked up Aegis, not in a firemans carry, but more gently in the fashion of a groom carrying his bride over the threshold.

Mirna strode tirelessly though the forest for the next few hours, as the sun shifted ever westward, casting long shadows through the evergreen forest that sprawled over the mountain sides.

As afternoon drew into the indigo and auburgine dusk of twilight she made her way into a deep cave. It was a 'dry' cave, not part of a system, but it recessed and angled entry meant that if storms came they would be dry and snug from the wind and any one on the outside would have a hard time spotting any light within the cave.

As time passed, Aegis' breathing slowed and he came to a state which was more sleep than anything else. By the time the others had set up the shelter in the cave, he was regaining concsiousness. Gregori's amazing healing skills helped speed the process of his recovery. Aegis sat up from his place on the floor and observed the motley crew surrounding him.

"Greetings," His speech was groggy, but he put forth his best effort to a good first impression, "I thank you very much for your assistance back there. I don't know what happened to me. One moment I was fine, but the next I was using my adrenal reserves, which is something I have only resorted to once before. I apologize if I acted sort of...savage."

Aegis put on his best face possible, but it was obvious he currently felt like several different kinds of shit at the moment.

As the hours passed and their cache had been opened up and set up to provide many comforts- light, warmth, a hot meal, cool clean water and compact air beds that expanded to true luxury...

As Aegis tossed and turned as the poisons sweated forth from his body, the stink of it became vastly annoying to Mina, and she broke open a package of self heating cleansing towels. As impersonally as any nurse she stripped the man down and used the soothingly temperatured wipes to clean him off. Then she dumped him in a fresh cotton sleep sack and tosssed him on one of the airbeds.

"Savage? Messy and suicidal if we hadn't have been there. Hungry?" Mina shrugged off his words - she had seen worse. She set about heating a container of gentle on the stomach beef broth and some easy to chew soft bread sticks.

"You fight like a hellion, Siddiq. Truthfully, there are few as brave or strong as you." Sayf rose from his very comfortable air mattress, stretching widely. It had been several weeks since he had slept in anything resembling an actual bed, and was quite thankful for Mina's hospitality. "I pray you recover quickly, friend; our little cave seems quite secure, but it could be a double-edged sword if we were attacked." He glanced warily at Mina. "You're sure nothing has tracked us here? I would like to sleep without one hand on a sword tonight."

"Gregori would have sung out if anything had tracked us...but I also have this" She indicated a small console with a fold out color monitor. "Watchdog system. The Hag or any of her minions get within a mile of us, we'll know it and be waiting for them.

"Take what pleases you from the meal packs, the tea packed with them has electrolites that can be added, they're tasteless, but do a good job of balancing out ones system. We chose this cave because it has no back door, but we do." She didn't explain further as she set about heating her favorite, chicken a la king with spicy rice.

"She's getting stronger. Her Creepers- she was able to teleport more of them with her this time and her aura slowed me far more than it has in the past. I should have been able to get closer. I wanted a really clean killing shot, and I mucked it." Mina chastized herself harshly.

"Don't let her rant fool you. She is no goddess, no leader, and this isn't 'her' forest." Mina went on to explain.

About ten years ago the region of Fatal Terrain had almost been wiped out by an invasion extradimentional beings, and they'd left behind pools of foulness, and places that mutated those who entered them.

"The Hag is a powerful psionic, one of those who fought in the war, but her mind snapped after she gotten trapped in one of those zones and now she's nothing but crazy - and dangerous."

"This area had never been settled anyway, no nation claimed it and thus no one has gone to the trouble to decontaminate this area. " Mina explained further. "But there's a bounty on her head, she's killed or infected quite a number of people who's only 'crime' was to be found by her. She's powerful, and very canny in her own warped way, or those of Cats Keep would have found her by now."

"Heh. I tend to live by the motto 'Messy but Effective'. It may seem suicidal, but I've survived worse encounters. Not much worse, considering I've never fought against anything that wasn't fully human (aside from machines, that is), but worse enough." Aegis nodded to Sayf, "Thanks for the compliment, but I'm not exactly proud of myself. I've done some terrible things with my abilities...horrible things..." Aegis trailed off as Mina explained their situation.

"Well, it seems I've stumbled into the wrong forest during my...travels." Aegis gladly accepted and thanked Mina for the rations, "But now that I'm here, I can't just leave without making sure this madwoman is stopped. Two questions, though: Is there a plan of action for taking her out, and just how much is this bounty you speak of?"

Mina ignored his comments about what he'd done with his abilities - if he wanted to talk more about it, exorcise his demons he would without any urging from her.

"The bounty is ...very substancial, seeing how it's being put up by three of the local nations who really want her depredations on the accidental tourist ended. Cats Keep is listed as 10M, Tanaara at 15- she took down their SAR unit that was searching for the lost wilderness explorers, and Tarlachia has tossed in another 15 I think." The exCadrewoman shrugged. "There might be some corporate and individual bounty floating as well, she's taken down a number of those hunting her."

"And given that I've been hunting her for two years, and earlier today was the closest I've ever gotten to her...Plan has always been to get me close enough, inside her psionic aura, to blow most of her head off and be sure that its really happened, not just the reality she wants you to have. Gregori is my backstop - not to kill her - we're sure after six months of trying to get through her 'shell' that a ranged hit isn't possible -but to kill me if I come away from the encounter as a Creeper." She spoke about that possibility very matter of factly.

"And given that I've been hunting her for two years, and earlier today was the closest I've ever gotten to her...Plan has always been to get me close enough, inside her psionic aura, to blow most of her head off and be sure that its really happened, not just the reality she wants you to have. Gregori is my backstop - not to kill her - we're sure after six months of trying to get through her 'shell' that a ranged hit isn't possible -but to kill me if I come away from the encounter as a Creeper." She spoke about that possibility very matter of factly.

"They can toss in another 15 mil..." mumbles a quiet listener.

Even among his own people, a group of genetically created hybrids, he was an oddity. It was rare for species to intermingle, though it was capable. His father had been a wolf and his mother a panther. He had been fortunate to inherit most of the good traits and few of the bad. It had worked well for him during his tenure with the Vulpine Marines. He had made it into Recon, one of the most arduous units in a military where the average human could barely survive. It had been an unfortunate accident that lead to his death. It had been a fortunate accident that enough of his body survived for reconstruction. He had been reborn, enhanced both physically and mentally, nano-tech and cybernetics giving him an edge over the best of his own kind, let alone most adversaries. After his term was over, and he was released back into the general populace, there had been little he could do with himself. He was a soldier. So, he had taken up mercenary work. That had led him to this forsaken hellhole. He had been here only a week and had realized he needed help. That bloody witch had destroyed his vehicle, however, as well as most of his equipment. Now, all he had was what he could carry on his back.

Slipping the electronic ear back into its holster, he made his way down from the tree as silently as any feline. He hit the ground an easy loping trot. At a stead pace, he would reach the cave in an hour or two. Hopefully, they wouldn't just shoot him on sight.

"And as to why in two years I haven't been able to do better than today..." Mina broke out another part of her computer kit. Unfolding a projection panel folding the panel she activated the display and a hologram sprang to life hovering in mid air.

This is the Fatal Terrain Region (http://www.atddm.com/FTRM1.jpg) If you will notice the Arithon Wastelands then look up and right, about the 1:30 on the clock. That's base camp, in red and labeled 3, we're at 2 now and the line and arrow labeled 1 was we're we nearly got her following you our bait," She nodded to Aegis unashamedly acknowledging their rather callous seeming use of him " Oh and by the way the yellow bar upper left- yes that is a thousand mile marker, this is a very large area, and like I said almost completely uninhabited." A blinking alert popped up and Mina swore underneath her breath.

Abruptly she was on her feet and searching with intense concentration, one hand going up to demand silence. It didn't take more than a few minutes fo her to find the tiny device. She held it up for all to see then placed it in a cache drawer in her comp, and the built in systems disabled it. Mina looked at the read out and snorted. "My tech doesn't recognise it, and it's nothing from any Fatal Terrain nation, or other that's it's been programmed to recognise." She enlarged the display so they all could see it clearly

"Any one know it?" As she spoke she moved away from the console to check the sentry system once again and to ready herself for any visitors.

Tightening his grip on his sword, Sayf looked at the display and shrugged. He knew very little of the ways of technology and machines, certainly not enough to know what region any particular piece came from. He glanced at the map, concentrating hard on the eastern island for a moment. Home is where the heart is... Shaking himself from his memories, Sayf turned to Mina, frowning.

"If this woman can't be killed by your guns, then why not give something else a try?" He held up his sword by the scabbard. "I have little experience with psychics or battle, but I'm a skilled swordsman and according to my faith required to stand against such unnatural evil. I've only been in this forest for a short time, but I've not been attacked or even threatened. Perhaps I am not seen as a threat?"

Sayf had rarely participated or even thought of such actions, but this White Woman was obviously a problem that needed taking care of. Obviously his new enemy was very skilled, and Mina would need all the help she could get.

Aegis' eyes opened wide for just a moment before he they set in a furious glare. He recognized what the creature on the display could be, but the odds were heavily against that possibility. The rage he felt stemmed from his time in the labs, watching helplessly as Dr. Radnik and other Total Distopian scientists failed time and time again trying to create human-animal hybrids. Many innocent people died, not to mention the millions of helpless critters used during these experiments. Ever since Aegis has had a deep-seated hatred for genetisists and their experiments.

"I've seen something like it before back home, but nothing near as advanced. Those that Dr. Radnik worked on usually died within a matter of days or weeks." Aegis popped the clip from his pistol and checked the rounds. Empty.

Well of course it's empty you simmering moron, he thought to himself, you unloaded what was left when you were berserking.

Replacing his Bluette in its holster under his jacket, Aegis began to stretch and crack his joints.

"It doesn't hurt to be prepared," Aegis removed his survival knife from the sheath concealed in his jacket between his shoulderblades and balanced it on the tip of his finger, "I don't know about you guys, but I sure hope he's comin' for a fight."

Perhaps I am not seen as a threat?"

"While she has a hard on 'gainst men, your lack of technological gear might be what has kept you from her gunsights. And that might be an idea. I don't carry swords myself, but I darn well shoulda thought of them. We'll discuss it more later" Mina agreeed as she thought it over.

She glanced at the image projected by the comps AI, which had brought up a guestimate of appearance drawn from a skin cell or two left behind by the one that had planted the listening device. It looked like an animal based gene mod. She didn't know of any races that naturally combined the lupine and feline characteristics.

She shrugged, they were common enough in the Tanaran Empire, and she know that many non human races were found in Fatal Terran.

"I don't know about you guys, but I sure hope he's comin' for a fight."

However Aegis's comment had her turning slowly around and her tone was cold and unyeilding "And I hope he's not. If you are stupid enough to forget that your gun is empty, as is your suicide resivoir, then lay back down, go to sleep and let the mature folk in this here cave handle our visitor."

"I don't start fights just to be fighting, and I don't indend to let you do so either. And Mister Aegis von Grimm of the Total Distopia Stalwarts, just remember you are alive, and not a Creeper, because of me. This is my house and I make the rules. I have no compunction against expending you."

"She brought up another image (http://www.atddm.com/mirelle.jpg) "Scholar Lady Mm'rr'll is one of the most respect beings in the Tanaran Empire and her son was my commanding officer for many years. There's a universe of different sentient species out there, you might ought to get used to that."

He realized that they had probably discovered his bug by now and no doubt knew of his approach. They seemed to have a decent tech base, from the look of the equipment they had stashed. The ammunition suggested at least one sniper, which was good. He liked snipers; they almost always hunted in teams. Making sure to leave as little trace as possible, he continued on. As he approached the cave, he slowed to a walk, leaving cover entirely. His retinal implants made the dark cave seem bright as day, and his targetting sights were going haywire looking for something to center on. He made an effort to relax. He took deep breaths, mentally reciting a mantra of days past. As his heartrate slowed, his targetting reticles slowly calmed and vanished. Raising his hands to shoulder height, he stopped several hundred feet from the entrance.

Humans, he thought. Remember they're humans...

Clearing his throat, he called out in a clear, sharp baritone, "I come in peace."

Mentally, he slapped himself in the forehead. Yeah... that works in the movies too, huh? With a sigh, he waited for a response, whether it be hostile or friendly.

Mina paid no more attention to Aegis, but watched the sentry monitor closely.

The fact that the stranger had apporached openly without skulking spoke well for him.

"And if need be we can always send you away in pieces." Mina's tone was not aggressive as she walked openly out of the cave but held a laugh.

"but you know crucifixion poses never did hold much appeal for me. So relax. We can try to kill one another later if need comes to."

Her senses were far above anything resembling human, courtesy of the technology available to the Cadre. She herself was, when one came right down to it, a fully genmodded human derived species. No two of the Cadre were just a like, but they sure weren't human once augumentation was complete.

"Captain Willamina Aurielle Freyasdottir, Tanaran Imperial Cadre...retired." That last pause would be telling to one familiar with the Tanaran Empire, but the Empire was over six hundred million Light Years away and very, very few on Earth had ever heard of it.

"Heh, you're the boss, I guess. Just remember what you might think is suicidal or stupid isn't always as it seems. I may not have survived the aftermath of the Creeper attack without your help, true, but that doesn't mean my survival fully counted on your interferrence. As for my ammo," Aegis grinned widely, "I don't need bullets to best my enemies, they just make the job easier."

Aegis' tone went deadly serious, "None of this means I'm not thankful for your help, just don't make the mistake of underestimating me. As for the hybrid; I don't trust this mutt..."

"I come in peace."

"...no matter what his intentions may be. I can keep cool-" his survival knife twirled in his hand and then disappeared from sight; Aegis deftly deposited it into a cuff-sheath in his sleave using slight of hand, "-as long as he doesn't try anything funny."

Sayf went right out behind Mina, loosening his grip on his weapons as he saw the newcomer obviously posed no threat. Opening his arms wide, he bowed to the creature gracefully. In his time traveling, he had met many strange people and races, including those that were part animal. Such things, though considered unnatural in some corners of the world, didn't bother him in the slightest.

"And I am Sayf Udeen, a friend to those in need and a spiritual wanderer. Tell us, what business do you have in this...delightful forest?"

Trailing behind Sayf and Mina, Aegis gave the creature a curt nod.

"Aegis Van Grimm." He didn't doubt the creature really did come in peace, but his history with beings such as this was spotty at best. Aegis could still remember field testing a rhino-human hybrid for Dr. Radnik. The thing lost control and leveled a small fishing village, killing four people before finally falling to Aegis' Bluette pistol. As Total Distopia is fiercly xenophobic toward anything outside of it's regional boundries, Aegis never had the slightest clue sentient, independant races of these beings was possible.

Aegis stayed silent as he stood behind Mina and Sayf, but made a gesture of pointing to his eyes and then pointing to the hybrid, indicating Aegis had his eye on him.

"First Lieutenant Rabine Corlis, Vulpine Marine Force, retired. Canis lupus lycaon crossed Neofelis nebulosa." His eyes wander over Mina's body as his arm drop to his sides, seeing more than the surface though appreciating both her internal and external makeup equally. "Nice upgrades."

He returned Sayf's bow, quirking a brow at Aegis' obvious warning. "I'm here for the same reason you are, I gather. Decon, essentially. Sorry I took my liberty with your gear, but I thought it best to see who I was dealing with before I put myself in the line of fire."

His eidetic array catalogues the obvious enhancements he can see as he scans over the three of them, passive tissue scans adding a second layer of info. "I can understand why you two would be here, but... what's up with the turban?"

OOC: Wolf and clouded leopard...interesting ,and since I've given people over a 24 hour chance to reply, and no one has...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Thanks for the compliment " Mina replied as she closed the distance between them as she 'felt' his scans try to penetrate the dermal unerlayer that was partial protection from just such scans. Though she wsn't sure how much it had blocked. Much of the technology the newcomer had- as was being revealed by her own scans - was incrediubly different that she had in her data base.

"Don't you know it's not polite to scan a lady without asking first" Her voice, carrying only to Rabine, was light but held a dangerous undertone. Though she had absolutely no objections to the way his eyes had wandered over her body. She was very female and appreciated male attention. And Rabine was more than a bit of a 'handsome stranger' himself.

"Don't mention his headwear. If I remember my info correctly it's some sort of protest against religious intolerance.. Indelicate conversation topic." Mina hissed with warning glare. Death, religion and taxes were gernerally forbidden topics with cultures unknown.

Then there was a sudden crack of a multitude of wings, as every bird in several mile radius took pannicked flight, and the woods came alive with the sound of pannicked animal movement.

Mina frozed for a long second, then she gasped "Oh bleed us all running!. Move it, the Hag as lit off a Psi storm. Move or die mad!"

With that she plunged into the cave.

The night sky lit up with eerie radiance...closing in on their location fast

Nightsky1 (http://www.atddm.com/ps1.jpg)
Nightsky2 (http://www.atddm.com/ps3.jpg)
Nightsky3 (http://www.atddm.com/ps4.jpg)

"Inside! Now!" Aegis recognized the danger based solely on the expression on Mina's face. Considering her serious nature, Aegis was possitive whatever was coming was very bad indeed.

As the others began to rush past him into the cave, Aegis removed two rock-climbing pitons from one of the many hidden pockets in his suit jacket. The rope was attached to a harness built into the jacket itself; an ingenious design made use by spys, mostly.

There was a very large boulder fifteen feet from the entrance of the cave, and Aegis dashed toward it. With a grunt, he swung both pitons over his head and drove them into the rock. Using the harness in his jacket as a brace and his nano-tech enhanced strength, he began to drag the giant rock toward the entrance of the cave. He was making progress, but judging by the speed at which the storm was approaching, he would not make it on his own.

"Mina! Gregory! Give me a hand! We'll block the entrance and then use that 'back door' you were talking about once the storm subsides!"

Mina nodded, the rock walls of the cave might remotely be thick enough to stop the effects, but she wasn't sure. She turned to help him, waving Gregory on. Between she and Aegis they - grunting and cursing the entire time- got the rock in place blocking the opening. Distance from the epicenter was the only sure safety, as far as she knew...

A vast and lethal feeling of pressure was still building within the cave, making the eardrums feel as if they were about to be ruptured, and giving every one a feeling of nauseous vertigo. "I don't hink it's going to be enough. There's nothing here thats irreplaceable. I'm going to ring us out now, rather than risk it."

"Grab up the comp if you would" she requested loudly as she grabbed up what looked like a weird, seriously oversized hula hoop, save that it was of a strange sliver blue metal and fitted with dozens of small control pads.
Her fingers flew over the various keyboards. It would hold the five of them but they would have to be more than a little 'friendly'. "Something told me I shoulda bought the larger model" She chuffed wryly

"Into the hoop, facing inward is best" Mina called out to the others as she stepped into it as it floated some eighteen inches above the ground.

You will not escape me. If I have to extract the information I need from your dying brain, I will. I will follow you to the ends of the Earth, Van Grimm, and you WILL lead me to the Omni Psychotian ruins...

The pressure in Aegis' head began to swirl and become words. The warning echoed from inside his own head, making the nausia worse. Aegis grabbed a bag full of rations and water without thinking about it, and hurried into the ring.

"Can we please get this show on the road? This woman's voice is starting to give me a righteous headache."

"Mina! Gregory! Give me a hand! We'll block the entrance and then use that 'back door' you were talking about once the storm subsides!"

Rabine takes notice of the pointed jibe, but ignores it, slipping inside past Aegis and Mina as they drag the rock into place. As the pressure built, a low whine rose in his ears, growing louder as the seconds passed. He clasped his hands over them, giving a whine of his own. He felt a warm trickle against his palm. Even as his implants began to filter out one pain, another arose, one nothing could block. Whispers from the past and flashes of memory assaulted him. He fought to keep his mind clear, knees wobbling as he joined Mina in the hoop.

Sayf, disappointed that he couldn't have chatted with the newcomer longer, calmly viewed the coming storm with great curiosity; never had he seen such an interesting sight, and judging by the panic that his companions were showing, he didn't want to stick around. Unlike the others, Sayf himself was feeling no ill effects from the storm; rather, he felt a moment of what he swore was clarity and connection with whatever what was on the other side of the psychic blast.

Suddenly, his ears started to ring with an incredible pain; forgetting all his previous feelings, Sayf rushed into the cave, hesitating before the ring. He had never fully trusted such newfangled technologies, but he really didn't have any sort of choice now. Taking a deep breath and securing all his items, he squeezed into the ring with his companions, hoping for the best.

"Can we please get this show on the road? This woman's voice is starting to give me a righteous headache."

Mina wasn't capable of responding to his comment at the moment. Her mind hurt too badly. All was a chaotic whirl of colors and shapes, memories she'd rather not have remembered and overlaoded senses.

She'd managed to survive a Psi Strom with her mind intact, in her first hunt of the deranged psionic, and now would ever be- like one seriously burned would be overly reactive to heat- was sensitive to a Psi Storm. Not the Hags daily activities, but a Psi Storm was a whole nother level of assault..

She was barely able to keep standing as the others joined her in the aportation device.

The here was no long Here, and no one retained consciousness...

Here had become some two thousand miles to the south - and thus safe from the Psi Storm - where Mina had established her main base.

Once it had been one of the border installations thrown up by the TMZ to guard against incursions from the Airthon Wastelands. Hurriedly emplaced just after the start of the Dark War that had ravaged the region - the war had lasted decades and had ended some ten years ago -the vast base, it covered several square miles, mostly wooded and with extensive underground facilities - had been mothballed, it's AM reactor set to minimum and all vital equipement removed. That still left lots of useable stuff, but Mina had just moved in, and claimed ownership of it. No one objected, it was outside every nations in the regions boundries, and the TMZ had no real claim to it either.

Each of the evacuees would awake, in their own time, to find themselves - clean and clad in fresh lightweight caftan type robes -tucked tidily into medical beds in a small but very well stocked medbay. The place was spotlessly clean, but the air held the pleasant fragrance of fresh rain, wildflowers and sunshine rather than disagreeable disinfectant solution scents.

Area1 (http://www.atddm.com/bbl2.jpg)... Area2 (http://www.atddm.com/bbl7.jpg)...
Area3 (http://www.atddm.com/bbl9.jpg)...
Area4 (http://www.atddm.com/bbl15.jpg)...
Area5 (http://www.atddm.com/bbl12.jpg)...
Area6 (http://www.atddm.com/bbl18.jpg)

Dr. Radnik stood in the empty blackness facing away from Aegis. He stood stock still with his hands at his sides, seemingly oblivious to the fact he was staring into nothingness.

"You are a worthless failure. You know nothing but death and destruction. You cannot save us." His voice came from everywhere, but it was not his voice. When Dr. Radnik spoke, the voices of thousands of Aegis' victims spoke with it; accusitory and sad.

"Our land is doomed, and you helped doom it. Psy Peterson could not have found a better lapdog to bring form to his mad schemes," Radnik's voice changed then. It became the one voice Aegis could not accept: his own, "You make me sick, murderer. Child killer. Agent of evil!"

"SHUT THE FUCK UP! YOU'RE DEAD! I killed you myself..."

Radnik said nothing. He slowly turned to face Aegis, and Aegis could see the empty, bleeding sockets where there were once eyes. The sight was familiar, as Aegis had gouged Radnik's eyes out with his own thumbs long before he decided to end the doctor's suffering. The memories of the torture session which ended with the good doctor's last breath slammed into Aegis with a force that nearly knocked him over.

Radnik began to laugh.

"Stop it...stop it! I said STOP!" Aegis lunged forward and plunged his hand into Radniks mouth, seizing his tongue. With a heave, Aegis tore the muscle free of the man's head, and yet the laughing continued, unaltered.

Now more voices were joing the horrible laughter; it was the sound of thousands of raving lunatics.

Aegis roared...

...and woke up screaming like a man possessed by a rage unmatched. Blindly grasping the nearest object (a small heart-rate moniter), he whipped it toward the wall with all of his strength. The moniter hit the reinforced material of the wall and exploded in a shower of sparks and millions of bits of plastic and steel. A small piece of the moniter's inner working stuck in the wall and stayed there.

Aegis was about to roar again for the laughter to stop when he noticed it had. It had just been a dream, most likely brought on by the psychic attack of the mad woman in the white dress. He noticed his outburst had begun to rouse the others from their own dreams.

He wondered if they were just as bad.

"Hey maan, it's all copacetic, no gris-gris here." Cam a odd slightly metalic voice as one the the things (http://www.atddm.com/base11.jpg) that had been left behind ambled into Aegis's view. It carried a tray laden with steaming cups of coffee, and a large plate of pasteries.

"I've got a spot of tea if you prefer it over kaff" The robot offered calmly, as it set the heavy tray down on the table besides Aegis's bed.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mina stirred, having fallen to sleep from unconsciousness some time ago. Her dreams were as always, sad, filled with the dreamscaped memories of those she would never see again, the Cadre - family and friends that had comprised her life, one that was lost to her forever. She would have not done anything differently and so she never dreamed of that which had cost her the life she had had.

The strength and grace to accept that which could not be changed... It hadn't been easy and she'd spent far longer seeking oblivion than her self respect liked to admit to. But her core personality would never accept suicide, and so she had slapped herself in the face and made a new life for herself. She been at it for nearly twenty years now, and while it had been a mostly lonely life, it had had it's pleasures to.

"Do I smell kaffe?...real cream and lots of nicely metabolicaly poisonous sugar? She moaned as she opened her eyes and gingerly tired to sit up.

Sayf wandered through the dark forest alone, wondering where his companions were. Tightly gripping his blade as he pushed his way through the clumps of trees, catching flashes of white amongst the branches. Quickening his pace, Sayf drew his weapon and jumped into a clearing to view his quarry...the white woman herself! He tried to bring his sword down on the psychic, but found his strength to be lacking; he could not bring himself strike her. There was no fear or dread in his weak arms, but...compassion, perhaps?

The woman who was so unfairly called the Hag by Mina and the others walked forward, putting a hand over Sayf's heart. Trying desperately to swing his weapon, he looked into her eyes longingly.

"Who...what are you?" Sayf whispered, trying to shield himself from her blinding beauty. The woman just smiled and laughed...then pushed her hand into his chest, ripping his heart out in one fluid motion. Sayf could still see his beating aorta as he fell, crashing to the earth with a loud bang...

"Oof!"

Sayf fell out of his bed onto the very real and very hard ground, his entire body shaking from the dream he had just experienced. Wobbling to his feet, he quickly checked his surroundings, easily deducing that they were in a safe place.

"Some tea, please," Sayf gasped to the metallic being offering some sort of drink to Aegis. "And make it as strong as possible."

"And make it as strong as possible."

"Why certainly mahnn." Boggle replied - the rich accetmixing oddly with the metalic undertone.

He strode smartly out of view to come back with yet another tray of comestible, the tea pot steaming as smartly of the mugs of coffee were. "'Dis supposed to be 'British Strong' but I can't say fro self sure"

`````````````````````````

Mina had managed to sit up but she very well knew that trying to stand up would be a very iffy proposition at best. She'd rather not end up collapsed on the floor and emptying her stomach simultaneously in front of strangers. The table the Boggle had set the tray on was between hers and Aegis's.

With careful intentness she reached out and used both hand to lay claim to the nearest mug that held kaffe made nearly blonde with cream and sugar. "Ahhhh" She moaned underneath her breath at the first heavenly sip.

Not caring if the tea was hot or not, Sayf filled a cup shakily and drank the whole thing in one gulp, forcing the scalding stuff down his throat. He began to feel instantly better, although he was obviously not going to get in tip-top shape thanks to a bit of tea. Nodding politely at the robot, he filled his cup again, this time drinking slowly to savor it's strong flavor and very potent taste.

"So where are we this time, Mina? Somewhere safe and far away from the hell-storm, I hope?" Sayf wondered how they-and he-would find the White Woman again; he didn't know how far away they were from their previous location, and no way of knowing where the psychic was.

"So where are we this time, Mina? Somewhere safe and far away from the hell-storm, I hope?"

Mina nodded after taking another sip of the restorative kaffe.

"About two thousand miles south, and no she can't spawn a storm that can cover that large an area" Under her breath she added "I hope"

Then she shrugged and added "If she can we're flat out fandangoed."

"Boggle have you set the sentry systems?"

"Verra minute y'all arrived so unexpectedly. I also have the Codex whirling roun 'n roun..Nulmage at full effect" The robot said placidly as he offered thick, freshly made sandwiches about.

Run run run run run run run run run...
There was nothing else to do, nothing more that could be done.
Flashes of fire, blood, parts and pieces that once belonged to bodies...
RUN! Get away, keep away, get to safety.
His insticts screamed in his ears, and as much as he tried to fight them, his body obeyed. They knew his weaknesses too well. After all, they had designed them.
Others! Pack, stay with the pack, run with the pack, get away, safety in numbers, strength in numbers.
It had all gone tail over muzzle and downhill from there. Everything was FUBAR, and all because of one stupid simple mistake. It had been a good mistake, one no one would blame him for, but he would never forgive himself.
Run run run run run run run run run...
The whine of lead slicing through the air, dirt flying from the impacts, tree trunks exploding...
Can't see! Can't see! Eyes burning, lungs heaving, panic! Panic!
They had used gas. He had gone blind and deaf, unable to do anything but writhe on the ground and howl as it seemed to eat at his brain from the outside inwards. A heavy boot landed on his back, and as if from far away, he felt impacts trail up his spine, sharp, brutal impacts. There was no pain, and he was already in darkness. There was only a feeling of fading away, like at the end of a movie.
Here come the credits...
He tried to laugh, and realized that he couldn't. There was a moment of clarity, and he realized he was dying but could not work up the energy to care.

He opened his eyes a crack. The bright glare blinded him momentarily, and he flinched, an ever so slight ripple through his fur if anyone was paying attention. He opened one a bare slit, trying to focus. Green text flowed over his vision, displaying system status reports. His vision seemed to distort momentarily as his optical implants adjusted. He looked around, not moving from his near-fetal position. Wherever they were, it did not seem overly hostile. Mina looked to be at ease, so it was likely safe.

"Where in the name of the first Den Mother are we?" he inquired, his voice raspy. He gave a soft groan, a shudder passing down his spine as he mentally checked over every square inch of his body. Everything seemed to be in working order, so he slowly uncurled. After a stretch, he lay on his stomach, legs falling to one side, arms supporting his raised head, much as his feral predecessors reclined when at ease. He sniffed the air, giving another moan, this one of longing. "Is that coffee? For the love of all things sacred, can I have some? Strong? Black? Two sugars, no cream?"

"Is that coffee? For the love of all things sacred, can I have some? Strong? Black? Two sugars, no cream?"

The robot doctored one of the mugs as requested and brought it over to Rabine. "This is firebase Nottingham Epsilon 239er, but the Boss just calls it Base." The robot jerked it's head over towards Mina. His odd accent had disappeared "And ahm'm Boggle." The accent was back.

"Back with hotrats in a mo" He proceeded to nearly bolt out of the room.

"He got inadvertantly left behind and over the last decade or so got a little strange." Mina commented as she finished off the last of the mug, and felt much better.

Okay just to let you know. I think we're safe. Like most of the forts that got tossed up during hte war, this one sits inside a contaminated zone. It's not contaminated, but outside of the roughly ten square miles of the base, theres a 'donut' of about thirty miles depth that tainted and nothing 'normal' can live there. Even the Hag won't come into one knowingly."

She slid to her feet, pleased to find that she could now stand with only a little wobbliness.

"And with the Codex going she can not teleport in - the base is warded against psionic or majical teleportation. And as you 've all probably figured out she's not going to use technological devices."

"Feel free to nose about, the underground portion goes down about ten levels, most all of it stripped out of anything and everything. The above ground stuff is almost always done in domes and such shapes, they prefabbed everything, but built to last to it's all in good shape. The hotrats Boggle spoke of are some flash frozen dinners I brought in, they're as good as anything in your average family restraunt for taste and quality."

"Me I'm headed for the sauna, hot tub and tropical lagoon then sleep."

Mina paused at the door "The armory's open if you feel you need to rearm. I restocked it with locally available weapons. My stuff is in the blue section. I would seriously suggest Not touching it."

With that she left the room.

The armory was very well stocked. (Just take anything here as the lowest tech available (http://dsc.discovery.com/tv/future-weapons/weapons/zone3/slideshow/slideshow.html). There are also a number of NG3P90's - third generation P90's that fire a much nastier round that did the original P90's* and other PMT weapons, <feel free to describe>

http://www.atddm.com/fnhp90.jpg

*The P90 is a fully-ambidextrous individual automatic weapon. All of the P90's controls are ambidextrous, including manual safety/selector switch, mag release, and charging lever. 19.7" long- with a 7.9" barrel, 8.3 inches high, 2.2 inches wide, & 6.6 lbs loaded -50 rounds-. It is a sling weapon, designed to be worn across the operator's back, side, or chest. The P90 utilizes a top-situated, horizontally-oriented magazine - 50-round capacity. The cartridges are rotated 90 degrees before being fed into the chamber and fired. Spent casings are ejected straight down at the operator's feet. The P90 uses the proprietary 5.7x28mm SS190AP cartridge- the 31 grain SS190AP projectile has a muzzle velocity of 2,346 fps, about 374 ft. lbs of muzzle energy.

The SS190AP round has only 2/3rds the recoil force of 9mm NATO ammo, yet has "considerably greater" stopping power than the 9mm. The round can pierce car windshields and doors, and even kevlar vests and helmets up to 200 meters away, with the kevlar material having "virtually no effect" on the round. It will also pierce NATO CRISAT body armor -1.6mm titanium armor plate and 20mm of kevlar soft armor- & retain a minumum of 80 joules of energy after armor penetration. 80 joules is enough energy to incapacitate a human being. The SS190 round relies on bullet yaw and tumbling effect to achieve its stopping power.

Aegis found his suit folded neatly on a chair next to his cot. He fumbled through the pockets until his hand seized what he was looking for. He took the pack and shook out six cigarettes. He tossed one to each of his companions. He hesitated with Rabine but, ultimately deciding friends were much better than enemies (even if they're 'Genetics', as he called them), Aegis threw him a smoke as well.

"Not sure if any of you smoke, but if you do I'd guess you need one right about now. These two are for me, heh," He stuck the two smokes into his mouth and lit them with a rather fancy looking zippo. He took a deep drag off both at once and sighed in relief, "I'll take one of those coffees as well, if you don't mind. Just black. Maybe with a shot of Gibson's Finest Rye if you've got it, but I doubt it."

Aegis deducted the dreams the others were having were just as bad as his own, but he said nothing. Better not to pry into personal business just yet.

"Sorry about the moniter. I wasn't exactly myself for a moment there."

- You were more yourself than anything -

He ignored the persistent voice in his head, telling himself it was just nerves getting the better of him. However, it was strange; his nerves NEVER got the better of him...

"Um, Mina? You wouldn't happen to have a nano-tech maintenence interface I can plug my Uplink into, would you? I'd like to run a diagnostic on my systems. I'll visit the armory afterward."

Mina had tossed the cigarette right back "Thanks but I only smoke cannabis." She declined politely. "but there is something from the Highlands in stock. Boggle, break out the Bowmore for Mr Van Grimm." It was probably better than any one on the planet deserved, - it was what she had been told was the best- and she prefered buying quality over quantity any day.

"Um, Mina? You wouldn't happen to have a nano-tech maintenence interface I can plug my Uplink into, would you? I'd like to run a diagnostic on my systems. I'll visit the armory afterward."

"Yes, Boggle can show you where the nano kit is. I don't know if the basic kit's links will mate without an adaptor, but the kit comes with a universal docking collar."

Fortunately the sauna dome was less than a mile down the corridor the med bay openend on to. Once there she stripped of the caftan and scrubbed off under a shower that ran as hot as she could stand. Even though the Boggle had cleaned them up when they'd arrived messily unconscious, she still wanted to do a good washing herself.

Then she padded to the sauna and stepped within, instantly swallowed by the steam. The tile was of palest blue, nearly white and still slightly cool for it had not been one till they'd arrived. Though the AM reactor produced nearly limitless energy, she had been raised to be conservationist and she still was. Mina sprawled out, belly down, nearly falling back aslep again.

Sayf finished his second cup of tea quickly, leaving the medical bay to wander the halls of the facility, making himself familiar with it's different areas. He didn't quite understand everything Mina had said about wards and protection, but he trusted her with the fortifications of the base. Walking the white hallways quietly, he delved deep into his mind to try and find some meaning to his strange dream; putting a hand over his heart, he wondered just who the white woman was.

Sayf suddenly snapped his head up, suddenly viewing walls lined with lockers and racks of weapons; realizing he was in the armory, he stared curiously at the fierce-looking rifles and pistols that filled the room. He noticed his own distinct weapons lying in the corner, but neglected to strap them onto himself; Sayf felt a sense of peace and security here, and had no need for weapons.

Picking up a large pistol, he twirled it around his finger clumsily, frowning as the gun flew from his fingers and onto the ground. He knew the very basics of gun fighting, but had no experience and skill with them. Perhaps he could ask Mina or Aegis to give him a few lessons on the art, but of course he felt more comfortable with his sword and chakram. Looking out a window at the sun, he suddenly prostrated himself on the ground, praying to the east loudly. What with all the excitement of the recent times, Sayf had nearly forgotten to pay his respects to his beliefs.

Aegis had finished his cigarettes in silence and then quietly slipped from the medical ward, searching for the diagnostic machine Mina spoke off. He wandered the halls seemingly without purpose, almost as if he was intentionally avoiding his destination. What he was really doing was mapping this section of the base in his Uplink. Every bit of information was stored.

What he could learn from his observations was the technology in this base was definately not of this Earth, and much more advanced than even the Omni Psychotian relics of his homeland. He also gleaned there was something very wrong with the world outside the 'donut' area Mina spoke of: biohazard warnings, posters calling attention to dangerous beasts, and many motivational mottos regarding a war of some kind.

Due to Total Distopia's fierce xenophobia, Aegis knew nothing of this war, but he knew it had been a major moment in the history of Mina's people. Eventually, Aegis found himself in the room which housed the nano-diagnostics machine. He slipped the strange collar around his neck as per Mina's instructions and immediately felt the nanites in his body react.

"Oh! H-hello. I am diagnostic interface AI V-234N-13US. You may addre-e-ess me as Venus."

"Um, hello Venus. Could you run a routine diagnostic on my nano-systems." Aegis looked over the machine and cataloged what he could. He found that the power used to run the machine came from a source not known to his people. This information could prove useful if he ever managed to get back home, but that was for later; now he had other things to think about.

"Diag-" There was a whirl and a clunk, ""-nostic complete. Subject: Aegis Van Grimm. Age: 37. Height: 6'4". Weight: 254 lbs. Blood Type: -O. Species: Human. Nanite power reserves at full. Internal cranial harddrive and terra-flop processor running at 98% efficiency. Nanite reserves at 94% efficiency. Warning: nanite modle unknown. Technology estimated age: 234 years. Upgrade is suggested."

Aegis didn't know whether or not to be insulted, "So everything is running smoothly? I mean, aside from being 'outdated'?"

There was another whirl and clunk, "Negative. System discrepancy detected. Paradox feedback loop located in central cluster. Unrepairable due to archaic technology. Upgrade is strongly suggested. Final re-re-result if no action is taken: Possible decent into dementia, with strong possibility of schitzoid behaviour."

Aegis sat for a moment in calm silence. He wanted to refuse what he heard, but he knew it was no use. Defective? His nanites were defective? It couldn't be. It shouldn't be. How could this happen?

Psy Peterson once called him the future of Total Distopia, and now he knew why. It all fell into place so perfectly, he almost burst into a fit of laughter. Peterson didn't want to rule Total Distopia; he wanted to undo it. By creating the best warriors he could and placing them under his command, he took the country over. Now, through a technology resurrected by Emporer Peterson himself, he was going to cause absolute chaos by letting these elite warriors decend into vicious madness.

- You're not mad. You're just evil. Why not embrace it? -

"Leave me the hell alone, or I'll kill us BOTH!" Aegis reached for the knife in it's hidden sheath with the full intent of stabbing himself in the eye, if only to quiet the voice, but found that it had been removed by Boggle when they had arrived.

Instead, in a fit of helplessness, Aegis put his head in his hands and began to weep.

After a healthy bout of jubilus praying and even a bit of ritualistic dancing in the Armory, Sayf began to explore the rest of the facilities, trying to memorize his way around. He was notorious for getting lost and simply wandering, and certianly didn't want to get lost in unfamiliar territory. He walked by the sauna dome, but declined going in; despite his enjoyment of pools and hot saunas, he knew Mina was winding down in the room. It certianly wouldn't be polite to walk in on a woman in such a state. Instead he continued down the halls until he heard what he thought was sobbing.

Frowning and increasing his pace, he rushed to the noise as fast as he could, stopping outside what he assumed was the nano-diagnostics room. Sayf looked on as Aegis wept, wondering what was torturing the poor soul. He thought of going in to comfort him but instead decided to wait outside the door; Aegis would hopefully realise his presence soon enough.

Aegis heard Sayf's footsteps too late. When he snapped his head up, he knew the robed man had seen him crying.

"I'm fine. Just...just some personal stuff. I'll be alright in a moment." Aegis forced himself to be calm by pushing the thoughts of his impending insanity aside.

"Hey, why don't we go find out where they keep the food in this joint? I'm dying for some grub." Aegis put on a smile he hoped looked genuine and began to to stride out of the room.

He would have to talk to Mina. Venus said he could get rid of his problem by upgrading his nanites, but according to his host, everything of use has already been stripped from the base. Aegis hoped she was wrong.

Sayf shook his head as the tortured man swept past him. You're not fooling anyone, Aegis...Least of all me. If only I knew what is slowly killing you. Not missing a beat in his new friend's illusion, he returned the smile with one of his own, nodding his head.

"Yes, food would be nice...we'll need to keep our streanght up for the times ahead. Perhaps we should find that robot butler in our quest for food? I believe Mina is occupied in the sauna at the moment, so it would be best not to bother her."

OOC: Actually the 'donut' is demonicly damaged ( thankfully not actively infested with demons any longer but their taint lingers and nothing that goes into the zone survives long unchanged...if they survive at all -there are some unbelieveably nastly things living in the 'donut'. outside the donut it is mostly untouched northern forest- mixed decicious with evergreen in the southern area (where you are now), running to almost solely evergreen in the norther area ( where you were before the 2,000 mile transport )

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Actually I'm through and decided food was more needed than sleep." Mina said as she came up behind the two men. Her thick ebon hair, still damp and smelling faintly of sandalwood, was pulled back into a cascading topknot that tumbled to the bottom of her ribcage. She wore a deep irridescent teal green silk shalreez over navy blue slacks that were also of heavy silk (http://www.salwarkameez.org.in/_images/indowesternsalwarkameez.jpg).

Her right forearm was wrapped in an odd bracer that looked as if it had started out life as a Yautja wristcomp and had been added to by a mad jeweler, encrusting it with gold and faintly glowing gems of various hues. It had once been exactly what it looked like but now it also carried five zettabytes worth of computer memory and was home to her personal A.I., Valkyrie, though it prefered to be called Val.

"Venus tells me you need a nano- up grade and ...we need to have a serious talk." Mina spoke bluntly, but her tone was compassionate. The information Venus had reported to Val had filled her at first with total disbelief, then horror, then utter anger.

It was hard to keep it off of her face, and while among the Cadre a commrads mental health was something no officer left undealt with, she felt that Van Grimm might respond better to a private discussion.

He tossed one to each of his companions. He hesitated with Rabine but, ultimately deciding friends were much better than enemies (even if they're 'Genetics', as he called them), Aegis threw him a smoke as well.

He sipped at his coffee, giving a nod of thanks to Aegis, and pondered the cigarrette. They played havoc with his sinuses, and tended to stink up his fur for weeks... but what the hell? Best to live while you can when you could very well die tomorrow. Slowly, tenderly, he shifted to a sitting position, leaning back against the headboard, pillows propped behind his back. As the tobacco turns to ash and his mind wanders the back roads of memory, his hands wander over his body, checking himself for injury other than general soreness, prefering tactile response to technological ingenuity in this case. There seemed to be nothing wrong more than usual. His over-sized paws ached furiously, and he massaged the pads, wiggling his toes and stretching them. That was one problem he had always dealt with. He could never find paw coverings that fit him properly. They were always either too large or too small.

Finding himself in workable condition, he carefully slipped from the bed, wrinkling his nose at the strong musk wafting up from his fur. Too long without a decent bath and he began to smell feral. He was surprisingly slender, for a wolf, though wide in the shoulder for a feline. In his younger years, his shapely form had been labeled as effeminate, though years of hard training and several layers of muscle had put that far behind him. He was still somewhat self-conscious about it though, and was glad the robe hid beneath its billowing length. He made a small incision in the rear to allow his long, fluffy tail through, then began to wander the installation, following Mina's scent. It led him to the showers, of which he gratefully partook. He was also glad that none of the others wandered in. He noticed Mina leave the sauna as he was finishing with his wash, simply basking in the flow of hot water, enjoying the feel of it trickling through his fur. Eventually, he shut off the water and shook himself off. He spent a few moments looking for a dryer, then remembered who his host was. With a heavy sigh, he grabbed several towels off of the rack and began the arduous process of hand-drying. He would normally air dry, but humans tended to look at nudity with disfavor, and he would much rather follow their customs than violate their morals and end up out on his tail.

OOC: Sorry for the late response, been a little hectic the last few days. Meant to catch Mina in the sauna, but oh well.

OOC: His state of dress or un is supremely unimportant to Mina- in general the Tanaran society overall doesn't care too much about skin/fur/feather/scales - clothed or not -

OOC2- Tis' okay -Life happens, good to see ya back!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The mouthwatering scent of pot roast, veggies, gravy and something sweet and fruity began tickling their senses. Mina felt her stomach protest too many days on op-rats - nourishing, but not really 'meals'.

Boggle hadn't been anything more than a combat robotic, accidentally left behind and not valuable to go and fetch when then TMZ had pulled out and motheballed the facility after the Dark War. Mina had found him carrying out his programed duties and turned Val loose on him.

She still didn't understand why the A.I., fully a citizen with all the rights, responsibilities, and privildeges back in the Empire had agreed to go into exile with her. She had been afraid to ask before her long period of semi suicide, and ashamed to ask afterwards. But she accepted the companionship, a link with her past, with a quiet gratefullness the two never discussed.

How much of Val's self she had 'cloned' into Boggle Mina wasn't sure on- she had taken just the bsics on cyber systens and sentiences at the University to cover the requirements. And during her five decades in the Cadre she'd assissted the armorers, but had never officially filled the slot - so while she could very compentently bring a cadre suit on line, and maintain it, she wasn't head and neck deep on the cyber side.

But Boggle was nearly as sentient as Val and had picked up an unexpected talent for cooking. He always managed to turn the admittedly adequate ration packs into somehting close to 'top notch family cooking'. Which Mina happily took advantage of, as she loved to eat - and with her augumented metabolism seriously needed to do. Her caloric requirements were disconcerting to those who had no experience with genetically or augumented people.

But Boggle was nearly as sentient as Val and had picked up an unexpected talent for cooking. He always managed to turn the admittedly adequate ration packs into somehting close to 'top notch family cooking'. Which Mina happily took advantage of, as she loved to eat - and with her augumented metabolism seriously needed to do. Her caloric requirements were disconcerting to those who had no experience with genetically or augumented people.

The enticing scents drew Rabine from the showers. Compromising on a towel around his waist, he followed his nose. He licked his chops as saliva filled his mouth. It had been quite a while since he had tasted real food. His tail wagged of its own volition, and his pace increased to a trot as he neared the origin. He stopped himself as she joined the others, barely able to contain his natural reactions. He was nearly dancing from paw to paw. Soft whines escaped his throat. He felt much like a pup begging for scraps, but he quite honestly could care less. FOOD was coming.

Aegis nodded and followed Mina to the source of the heavenly scent. He had no idea when it had been since he had a cooked meal, living off rats, rations, and ramen for the past three years of his fugitive life. His stomach turned slightly at the long forgotten smell of real food.

Aegis grabbed his meal from Boggle with thanks and moved to sit by Mina. He wanted to get whatever she needed to say out in the open as soon as possible; delaying things such as this always caused more problems in the future.

"So, you said we needed to talk? What about?" Aegis had an idea what it might be about, considering one of the first things she mentioned to him when she came out of the sauna was regarding Venus's suggestion of upgrading his nano-tech. Seeing her as she was - outside of uniform and relaxed - Aegis couldn't help but marvel at her striking beauty. It was times like these he sometimes considered turing off the nanites which surpressed his sex drive.

Shaking the unsavory thoughts from his head, Aegis prepared himself for whatever subject she was to bring up.

At Rabine’s arrival- accompanied by the faint but pleasing smell of clean damp lupine mingled interestingly with that of freshly washed feline - Mina turned to him, giving him a lopsided smile as she noted his hunger. “Please, don’t stand on ceremony. Sit, eat, safe and replete at my hearth” It had the tone of a ceremonial greeting. She took his appearance in with an appreciative once over but there was too much fury boiling deep within her.

The table, battered and some what shaky with age, was never the less spotlessly clean and large enough for the unexpected arrivals and more. However the plates and place setting looked scrounged together with no sense of matching or style. Mina obviously hadn’t though there might be visitors to dinner.

A huge casserole dish was filled with steaming, gravy-drenched pot roast, surrounded by new potatoes, carrots, onions and mushrooms. Minted peas filled a goodly sized bowl. A nearly toppling tall stack of toasted bread was piled on a plate with butter and small jars of various jams had been set nearby. Another casserole dish, this one filled with a cranberry and apple cobbler rounded out the feast.

"So, you said we needed to talk? What about?"

Mina’s mental sigh was filled with relief. He was willing to get it out in the open.

"ou, Aegis van Grimm, and what I am about to say I think you know far better than I…You have been well and truly done dirty” She wasn’t going to be tactful, but changed her mind at the last second. No need to be specific and possibly cause more pain.

“What ... done to you is one of the foulest crimes,… and while Val” She tapped the bracer lightly “can not be completely sure of what age you were when they started on you;she does know that it was well before puberty and any ability to give anything resembling ‘informed consent’.” While her face was set, serene as any Madonnas, her voice was ragged with outrage and rough with compassion. Not a trace of pity, but the utter loathing of one who passionately believes in justice…and knows full well how justice can be perverted.

”Among my people, such a set of crimes would have seen the perpetrators psilocked in their own minds - reliving it, from your perspective, over and over again, for a very long time indeed…then executed.”

She looked down at her empty plate, letting it’s blank canvas wipe some of the near killing anger that filled her. Then after a time she slowly let out a long cleansing breath.

“I can spin down some of my own nanos. That can buy you time while I can see if I can get you to the Empire. I can't go with you, but Empire med and psych tech are levels above what’s available here on Earth”

Aegis' expression lost it's small trace of dark humor and turned as serious as the grave. He knew this would be the topic of their conversation before he even sat down; he would have been a fool to think Venus would not inform her commander of the situation.

"I thank you for your concern, and I graciously accept your offer of help. However, I cannot journey to your empire. There is something back home, and I need to get back there as soon as I can. Part of it has to do with this weird woman who lives here, but I'm not sure what." He sighed; this was hard on him, but his resolve was strong. This needed to get out in the open.

"Look, my home is very different from what you're used to. Our nation was once the great Omni Psychotia. Billions strong, and verging on technology such as teleportation, full cybernetic conversion, and interstellar travel, our country was besieged by the blood-thristy tribes of The Sickness. These barbarians outnumbered us in combat ready soldiers by 10/1, as their entire culture was based around combat and conquest. Our technology was vastly superior, but their crushing numbers evened the balance completely.

The war lasted a long, long time. How long no one is sure of, as the next hundred years were spent picking up the pieces of the two shattered nations. In time, we formed a government again and became New Hope.

Psy Peterson, the man responsible for my condition and the current emporer of what is now known as Total Distopia, was not evil at first. He sought to unite the two former nations under one banner. Using scavenged and reverse engineered technology from the ruins of our ancestors, he began to propell our society back to its former glory.

That all changed when his scientists rediscovered nano-technology. Shortly thereafter he formed the Stalwarts, and me, but he had changed. Gone was the caring sculptor of our home's future, and here was a power-mad sociopath, seeing everything and everyone as a personal plaything. I don't know what caused the change, but judging by what I've learned today, I think I might know." He looked around to make sure no one else was in hearing range before he continued.

"Listen; if he has found a way to reverse engineer Omni Psychotia technology, we're all in deep trouble. Whatever he was before, Psy Peterson is a madman, and I cannot allow him to use my people's past to destroy their future."

He sighed again and took a few tentative bites from his meal, "That's why I can't go to your Empire Mina. Even though it might mean my death, I have to try to stop him."

Sayf sighed heavily as he absorbed the conversation between his two friends while he quickly devoured a warm piece of bread. Normally he would have been more polite, but the sight of such fresh food nearly made him lose control of himself. He helped himself to a hefty amount of vegetables before speaking up.

"I can't say that I understand what is wrong with you, Aegis, but whatever it is obviously poses a severe threat to you. I think that your cause is noble and purpose true, but there's no point in trying to accomplish the impossible. How much time do you think you have? Weeks? Months? Years, even? Your dream will die without proper medical attention. Listen to Mina, get yourself fixed up, and then worry about Peterson. We can deal with things here."

Sayf knew that common sense didn't come clearly to all people, but Aegis seemed more intelligent than most. Unfortunatly, his friend seemed to be quite stubborn as well. He only hoped Aegis listened to reason before he lost control.

Mina half shrugged. She'd make one more attempt, but if he chose madness and death it was his priviledge.

"Teleportation? How do you think we got here. Cyberdyning is common place in the Empire. And as far as FTL goes...I'm not from around here. The Empire is 600 MILLION light years away in the Hoag Object as it's called by Earth's astronomers." She hoped the distance mentioned made some impact on Aegis.

"And just how old do you think I am?"

"I understand your logic-" he glanced at Sayf, "-both of you. But none of that changes the fact my people need me now. If Peterson gets ahold of those technologies, then my homeland is doomed. As are most of our neighboring countries. It's possible Peterson will be put down by a more powerful nation, but that will just spell the end of my homeland anyway."

He ate a few more tentative bites of his meal and lit a cigarette, "I appreciate what you're trying to do, Mina, but I'm not an idiot. I realize your people are vastly superior to mine in the ways of technological advancement, and I understand if I spoke for a space of just five minutes about the things that go on in my country, you're people would come down like a flaming sword of justice to stop the inhumanities. However, my people, opressed or not, will fight you. They are beyond the reach of anyone but one of their own, as everone else is just an outsider.

If I go through with the patch upgrade for my nanites, I think I'll last at least another few weeks, maybe even a couple of months. That is just long enough to get home and put an end to all of this. The only thing I'm worried about is why this White Woman is so interested in the Omni Psychotian ruins."

Mina started to speak but stopped abruptly as Val spoke. The A.I. generally didn't around people she didn't know, so Mina had no intention of causeing her to pause.

The A.I's chosen voice was a warm alto " Mister Van Grimm, IF you can give me five days, I can spin down enough of Willamina's nanos to overcome and replace those peices of nanocrap some one made the mistake of calling nanotech. And I can take over and replace whats in your head, cyber wise, with enough of me...barely... to keep you sane and functioning for about seven months. I'd say longer but your cyberware isn't very good " She sounded almost embarrased for him.

Mina waited to her his answer on that and while she did she tried to come up with any mention of a place called Omni Psychotian and any ties it might have to the Hag. She seached memory but found nothing to even suggest a connection. Silently she asked Val, though her cyberlink, to make a sweep through her data packs. Val had nothing either, and wasn't very happy about that - she liked knowing about Everything.

"Yes, I'll definatly take you up on your offer, Val. Thank you," Aegis clenched his fist, "Now all we have to worry about is taking out that bitch psionic. Have you considered planting a double agent in with her cronies? We could program some of our nanites to numb the memories of one of us so she won't be able to read them. Then all we have to do is implant a trigger of some sort to remind our double agent of their mission. It's not much of a plan, but it's a start I guess."

==========================================================

Elsewhere:

"Sir, the excavation is going as planned. The foremen predict the process will take just another week or so." Bryan Auxley sat with one leg crossed over his lap in a pose of eloquence which betrayed his vicious nature. What he failed to report to Peterson was the deaths of six of said formen while attaining the ETA of the excavation's end. The workers need a little of Auxley's patented "persuasion" to cut the time in half.

"Very good," Peterson stood at his office window, fifty-five stories above the streets below, brandishing a large calibur rifle. A deffening crack filled the room, "Fuck. I only winged him. I wonder how long it will take for him to bleed to death?"

"Uh, sir? The excavation?" Auxley prompted.

"Oh yes. Well, once we unearth the device I seek we will increase the strength of our bait. Those psychic emitters will do a damn fine job of making that crazy woman across the sea salivate. Make sure we have all the preperations in place before our final pull. We need her alive, and I can't afford for her to wreak havoc in my nation. Even if it would be very entertaining." Peterson took another pot shot into the streets below. An old man driving an aging Ford was caught in the arm, losing control of his vehicle. There was a spectacular explosion as he weaved into a delapitated gas station, "Score! I hope the cameras caught that one."

"I'll do as you wish, my lord, but what of Van Grimm?" Auxley knew this was a dangerous question.

Peterson's tell-tale grin disappeared, and he became more serious than he had ever been in a long time, "Leave him; he is our catalyst. The woman will power the machine, and he will be it's driver. I went through a lot of trouble to make it look like I goofed by sending him on that death cruise. Soon he will reach the plauged lands of that woman's territory, and the final phase of our plan will begin, barring any unforeseen circumstances."

"That land is uninhabited save for her and her minions. I believe our plan is safe." Auxley reassured.

"Yes...but I sort of hope he does run into someone," The grin returned, filled with malice, "It's always fun to play with new toys."

It's not much of a plan, but it's a start I guess."


"To the best I've been able to discover she doesn't have any cronies save the creepers she makes. And they aren't sane, they aren't bribeable ...and go mind wiped into that womans hands? " Mina couldn't believe what he'd just suggested.

"Look I've been hunting her for two years, backed up with the best information Cats Keep has on her. And nothing in that info has suggested she works anything but alone, or is anything but a batshit crazy psionic."

"Mina! Stop talking and eat. If I'm going to be doing a rough and ready nanite purge on you you neede to have reserves built up and you've been ignoring your body for longer than I like" Val said crosslly "And you too Grimm. These nanites are going to all soft and fuzzy...nor am I!"

Mina rolled her eyes but dutifully began eating. Yea mother"

"Sorry, I was just popping ideas out there," Aegis obeyed the AI and started to shovel food into his mouth, "I don't know anything about this woman, so whatever plan you have, just tell me my part and I'll do it."

Aegis finished his meal in a matter of minutes once he concentrated on eating. He let out a large belch as a compliment to the chef, tipped Boggle a wink, and got up.

"Sorry to eat and run, but I've got to check up on my baby. By baby I mean my Bluette. That sucker has gotten me out of countless situations, and it's about time I gave her some TLC. Give me a shout when we're all ready to discuss plans." With that, Aegis turned and left in the direction of the armory.

OOC: I really do appologize for my lack of participation, I was really enjoying this, however, I got fired from my job last friday. So, hopefully my absence is understandable. I will try to get myself caught up and post something IC by the end of the week.

OOC: No prob Vixen. I won't be posting anything for the next few days either, so we can all come back next week and have at her. Good luck with your new job hunt.

OOC: Oh I am so sorry to hear that VV, and best of luck on the job hunt ( I'm having too to and so I know how hard it can be )
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mina nodded and went on eating, but she still had doubts...and the tought of the upcoming session in the medbay did nothing for her appetite.

Several minutes later she pushed her plate away and smiled wanly at Rabine and Sayf. "Once again, please excuse me. I have a date with a blood filtration machine." She bgarely managed to keep the shudder out of her voice. She stood slowly, reluctant to head back to the med bay, something still bothering her about van Grimm.

Omni Psychotian Ruins - Total Distopian Digsite - Presently

"Hey Jim, give me a hand with this will ya?" Bob Hoppkins gripped the sides of a large plasteel slab. The slab wasn't heavy - in fact, it weighed about a quarter of what it looked - but it was big, awkward, and covered in a thin coating of slimy residue which seemed to cover every flat surface in the vast network of ruins.

Jim sauntered over to the wall where Bob stood holding one side of the slab. It portruded from an otherwise blank wall, leaning slightly. It looked as if it had one time concealed something beyond the wall, but over the centuries the slab shifted and fell out of place.

Jim wordlessly took hold of the other side of the slab and heaved on the mark of his co-worker. What they found behind the removable section of wall struck Bob silent and made Jim utter the first words he had in hours.

"Holy shit..." Jim was awestruck.

Floating in the center of a fairly large room, in a miraculously active anti-gravity field, was a gray-green, paper thin circle of material which neither man had ever seen in their mid-length lives. The circle shone brightly in the minimal light provided by the workers' equipment, reflecting it back even brighter than the original beam. Jim walked into the room, approaching the circle with tentative curiosity.

"I think we found it." Jim said as he got closer. Bob still couldn't find the words to express what he was thinking. He was thinking Jim shouldn't be in there. He was thinking, deep down, that they would probably be better off replacing the plasteel cover and forgetting this room even exists. As Jim approached the control consol for the anti-grav field, the buttons on it slowly glowed to life. As if in a dream, Jim reached out toward the consol.

"Jim! What are you doing? Don't touch that!" Bob wanted to spring forward to stop him, but his legs wouldn't move. He watched helplessly as Jim pushed several buttons seemingly at random.

A low hum, more felt than heard, vibrated the room. Jim looked up in time to see the reflected light from the circle flash once and then give way to the spectacular sight of a never-ending tunnel of swirling energy.

"It's...it's beautiful." Jim shed a single tear, and then he was gone.

It happened nearly as fast as a human can blink, but Bob saw it all as if in slow motion. Jim's body didn't move on it's own, but it stretched outward toward the blazing portal like it was suddenly made of rubber. Jim's body lengthened, giving him the absurd look of a reflection in a carnival mirror; his torso doubled, then trippled in girth as his front half was pulled like taffy toward the floating circle. As soon as Jim's elongated front half touched the surface of the circle, his entire body was snapped forward into the mysterious portal. The circle waited a few moments, almost as if it were waiting for Bob to try his luck by going after his friend, and then it shut-down. The circle was gray-green and lifeless yet again.

All of this happened in an instant, but it was an instant Bob would remember for the rest of his life. He took a moment to pay his respects to Jim, and then hurried off to report what he had found.

=========================================================

Aegis Van Grimm - Location: Unknown

Aegis sauntered into the medical lab with a blank look on his face. He didn't want anyone to worry about his state of being at the moment, and so refused to let anyone know what he was thinking or feeling. It would be hard enough for them to take on this bitch psion without his personal problems jepordizing things further.

Aegis' Bluette .50 Cal hung at his side in a shoulder holster designed to fit perfectly under his suit. Aegis had been pleasently surprised when he found it in the armory, along with clip after clip of wonderful hollow-point and armor-piercing ammo.

Thank you for being so advanced conventional weaponry is considered expendible, he thought as he glanced around the armory. Sub-machine guns and a few carbines rested here and there, but the advanced ion and laser based weapons were all stripped from the facility, as well as the even more advanced tech that Aegis couldn't even begin to understand. He stocked up on as much ammo as he could store in his hidden pockets, and took a couple of simple frag grenades for good measure.

Aegis came into the room where Mina was having her blood filter and stood there in the doorway, "Hey. I'm ready when you are."

Mina loathed what she was doing. The entire process left her feeling weak and nauseous. And try as she might she'd never been able to sleep though it, or read through it, or meditate through it. All she could do is lie there utterly miserable. All she could do is bear it stoically as possible.

"Hey. I'm ready when you are."

The lights had been dimmend and a light blanket covered her, the temperature in the room had been turned up. She looked over as Van Grimm entered.

Val replied "Thirty more minutes Van Grimm. I'll give you have of the load then, and put the other half in fast grow and give half of it to you in the morning. ANd have of the next batch of grow in the evening. Then I can start fixing your cyber ware. But you've got to let the nanos start first."

Aegis took a seat to wait out the thirty minutes until it was his turn to be manhandled. He felt sympathy for Mina as a look of obvious discomfort adorned her face. He knew all about tests, and being prodded by machines. He surpressed a shudder.

"I'm sorry to put you through this. I very much appreciate what you're doing for me, even though you just met me." He ran his hand through his hair; an nervous gesture he hadn't performed since his childhood, "Tell you what. Once I oust that crazy bastard back home, I'll treat you to the best Total Distopian cuisine there is. I hope you like gruel." Aegis laughed at his own joke, hoping to lighten Mina's mood.

Mina didn't laugh at his joke, she really wasn't in any mood to, nor was she willing to ease his discomfort at the moment. Not very nice of her but she really didn't much care. Maybe later

"Just be glad I brought a long a full 'hospital in a box'. Boggle trying to insert these hunts wouldn't have been fun." She sat up as the thirty minute mark chimed in and the Med unit took the large needles out of the large veins that passed under her clavicle.

Personally Mina was very glad she had, she didn't even want to think about trying to cobble something together out of bits and pieces. She waited until Val and Med unit had Van Grimm down and were prepping him while the dialysis unit seperated half of the nanites to go in and half were sent to a growing chamber.

"Don't forget to eat afterwards and expect to feel funny. My nanites are damned aggressive and will take over your's in a heartbeat." She commented as she left intent once again on soaking yet some more, then sleep.

Aegis watched her leave with great interest. There was a mystery behind this woman, and his curiosity was begging him to find out what it was. However, his common sense told him more pressing matters were at hand, and he pushed the thoughts aside.

The proceedure was far from pleasant, but he had endured much worse. The funny feeling Mina spoke of came on near the end, and it felt like he was melting and reforming from the inside out. His muscle fiber tightened and his senses exploded with renewed sensitivity. It took him several moments to get his bearings as he coped with the increased sensory input. His Uplink protested slightly, but then pulsed with hunger for the power which the new nanites afforded it. Aegis counted the tiles on the floor and the dots on the specked ceiling in a matter of seconds: 258 tiles, 43,567 dots.

"Wow." Was all he could manage as the possibilities flooded his mind. Grasping the edge of a table made of shining steel, he reefed upward and succeeded in snapping the bolts which held it in place. Despite his feeling of weakness, his strength had increased exponentially. He then clenched his fist and made a crumpled hand print in the metal. He was quite impressed.

"Thank you very much Val, if you're still here. I'm going to have to do something special to thank Mina." That could wait until tomorrow though. For now, he was going to heed Mina's advice by eating a large meal and going to bed.

"Thank you very much Val, if you're still here. I'm going to have to do something special to thank Mina."

"On Mina's behalf, you're welcome. She won't accept any thanks. I'm less stubborn." The A. I. replied from where the bracer sat, Mina had left her hooked up to the Medicomp as one extra bit of oversight.

"Now food, lots of it, and sleep" She reminded him, bruskly but not unkindly.

"You have one cold commander, Val," Aegis commented as he straightened the creases in his suit, "I guess it's necessary when you have a job like hers. I know all too well. But I think we owe it to her to show her not everything is an Op, and everyone needs to let go sometimes. I don't know about her people and how they deal with the combatant life, but I've seen many Section-8s in my time."

He bid Val farewell and went to the mess hall. Boggle was just finishing a huge meal made with whatever ingredients he could muster mixed with several ration packs. When Val said lots of food, she really meant it.

Aegis dove into the meal like a starving hobo, genuinely surprised at how hungry the process had made him. After devouring a meal which could feed four people, he stumbled, food-drunk, to his bunk and passed out.

Tomorrow would bring new challanges, and he wanted to be rested for them.

Val watched him go though various scanners.

"You'd be cold to if every one you knew and everything your life had been about turned against you." The A.I.said softly as internally she triggered a audio reciever in Mina's quarters, and listened to the sound of her 'cold' commander playing the violin... (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHCIWsapKhc)

((OOC)) They say bad things come in threes... lost my job, lost my mate, and then my computer blew up all within a span of a week... On a friend's long enough to post this. I really do appologize... Trying to get myself up and running again... Please feel free to consider Rabine inactive, and just move on with the story...

OOC: Yeah, I believe we can consider this RP dead. Some have lost interest, others have more pressing issues at hand, and personally I've just been putting off posting due to work and other issues. Sorry folks, but it was great fun while it lasted.

Best wishes to all.
- Total Distopia