NationStates Jolt Archive

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A lone Tilsitsinian Airforce Li-504/B-1 (http://www.nationstates.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=36683&highlight=) transport from the 20th Transport Squadron, 1st Air Transport Group, begins it's landing approach to a GenTec airfield, ready to pick up a precious cargo. Shortly after landing, a Tilsitsinian army science team, led by General-Major Walter Gooden, disembarks the transport and looks for a GenTec representative at the airfield..

As the General disembarks, a Limousine with an unusually high roof pulls up. the door opens and an extremely large, broad shoudered man, if you could call it that, steps out of the car. The guard is closely followed by a graceful, and exotic woman follows, in a tight, split-skirt dress. her most striking features, however, are the patina of emerald scales around her large, violet, vertically slit eyes. These featureas give her a predatory caste, and also make eye contact slightly disturbing.

The woman ignores her large guard, and walks towards the General, smiling and extending her hand to shake.

Ten soldiers sit on the hilltop, fully equipped. One of them, after sliding noiselessly down the hillside, looks at the scene with a pair of binoculars, and talks into the microphone with a vastly feminine voice, "Sir, I can't really see-" The rock she was hiding on the back ofd, out of horrible bad luck, instantly started to slide, and tumbling rocks from behind knocked her in front of the rock, and she slid to the bettom of the hill and landed unconcious.
Tarenteor, as that's all anyone knows him as, besides sir, was wearing a black leather trenchcoat, unlike the rest of the team's fatigues. He cursed. and leapt down the hill, and all but two followed him, the two snipers. One was named Eddie and the other, Guhdnien. Dmitriy and his brother Popov were both assault men, along with Kendahr Majeed. The heavy weapons specialist was Gregoria, and the demolitions expert was Freddy. These men had last names, yes, but not Taren.
Tarenteor launched off into the air and shot at the tires, in an attempt to stop them escaping, and Freddy pulled out two over-sized mines and three them into the open bay door, hoping to destroy the cargo and maul the plane to a vast extent. The three assault men surrounded the scout, by the name of Sallah. The snipers trained thier weapons on the general's and the woman's heads. The hevy weapons man aimed a portable minigun at the car.

OOC: exactly how did you get onto my island undetected? and how do you manage to run down the Mountain (the only hillside) without anyone seeing you, or responding in any way? im sorry but i will have to modify that slightly, also, the cargoe is not on board yet, so its safe :twisted::

IC:Ten soldiers sit on the hilltop, fully equipped. One of them, after sliding noiselessly down the hillside, looks at the scene with a pair of binoculars, and talks into the microphone with a vastly feminine voice, "Sir, I can't really see-" The rock she was hiding on the back ofd, out of horrible bad luck, instantly started to slide, and tumbling rocks from behind knocked her in front of the rock, and she slid to the bettom of the hill and landed unconcious.

Meanwhile, in the GenTec internal Security Room, the radar man hits an alarm, yelling down his headset that there is a receding contact, and that they have a security breach, all around the island, long disused and largely overgrown perimeter defences come online, automatic weapons systems crank into action, emerging from casements all around the perimeter, all around the airfield, chaingun turrets and anti-aircraft weaponry emerge from hidden casements around the runway and main buildings, in the control tower, a team of snipers already set up to monitor the eexchange swear and select new targets.

Tarenteor, as that's all anyone knows him as, besides sir, was wearing a black leather trenchcoat, unlike the rest of the team's fatigues. He cursed. and leapt down the hill, and all but two followed him, the two snipers. One was named Eddie and the other, Guhdnien. Dmitriy and his brother Popov were both assault men, along with Kendahr Majeed. The heavy weapons specialist was Gregoria, and the demolitions expert was Freddy. These men had last names, yes, but not Taren.

Tarenteor launched off into the air and shot at the tires, in an attempt to stop them escaping, and Freddy pulled out two over-sized mines and three them into the open bay door, hoping to destroy the cargo and maul the plane to a vast extent. The three assault men surrounded the scout, by the name of Sallah. The snipers trained thier weapons on the general's and the woman's heads. The hevy weapons man aimed a portable minigun at the car.

Turrets all over the airfield swing around, swiveling to point at anyone not wearing a FOF transponder, (this includes the general and his research team) a roar splits the air as the guard takes off with amazing speed at the heavy weapons man, two of the snipers pick out Tarantuer, and the heavy weapons man, while the third scans the hilside for enemy snipers, the roof of the Limousine blows off up into the air, revealing three more of the huge super-soldiers, and a small man in heavy ballistics with a bulky assault rifle at his shoulder, the woman, meanwhile, drops her stance then goes perfectly still, her expression calm, pupils shivering, and her right hand vibrating slightly with tension.

This is Taren's bad day. Freddy goes down, a bullet in his abdomen, and Taren spins completely around and lands with a thud as two bullets strike his shoulder. Eddie and Guhdnien shot at the enemy snipers using thier long training, as taren hopped up again, nearly unphased, and whipped out twin 9mms, with an auto and semi auto mode. He flicked them to semi and opened fire, as the heavy weapons man shot off a burst from his minigun at the woman, and the demo man launched an anti-tank rocket at the plane cockpit, before sliding in another rocket from inside his fatigues and launching it at the limo.

OOC: You should notice, Taren looks human enough, but he's a demon. He's fast as hell. And strong. He also used to be an assassin, and is now a jack of all trades.

Taren spoke into a small wristband. "Aim sattelites, arm nuclear payload."

He yells out to everyone. "Stop the shooting and shut up! You don't this place is nuked."

Abruptly, the womans bodyguard stops mid-stride, rumbles loudly, and remains poised like a coiled spring, the woman straightens slowly, her hands flutter over her clothes, as if to straighten them.

the Hydes in the limo steop out of it, and fall into ready stances, these creatures dwarf their smaller cousin, and their muscles bulge and ripple under balistic nylon body-suits, their small eyes travel constantly, looking for any small movement that may constitute a threat, the small man points his weapon at the ground at Tarantuers feet, and the turrewts remain poised, locked onto the intruders.

the snipers consolidate their aim, the third picking out one of the snipers on the ridge.

the woman straightens, arranges a polite smile on her face, and speaks:
"very impressive, Tarantuer. Youre reputation proceeds you. what is it that we can do to help? For i assure you, without our cooperation you will not leave this runway alive, no matter what your... fascinating abilities"

OOC: It's Tarenteor.

"Don't maul my name. I was just here to see what was happening. My demolitions expert got a tad overenthusiastic."
Taren dabbed something from a bottle on his should and the wound cauterized.
"How about this. We don't nuke you, and we get rights, notes, formulas, everything. And we get out alive."

the woman shrugs, her smile widens, and her hand makes an odd gesture in the air, everyone relaxes...slightly, and she says: "all this for that? fine, if you are willing to wait, then the design notes will be brought down from the lab."

in the tower, an encrypted message is hard-lined to the central lab "bring proteus papers to runway by jekyll, prep dust", a lab assistant pulls a number of sealed alloy tubes from a wall safe, and hands them to a group of nervous young men, who immediately hurry out of the lab to a waiting car, which begins to drive them down to the runway, as they leave, several scientists gather at an elevator marked "Maintainance, Restricted" and then go down to a lower level

OOC: nukes? i hope you like losing major characters...

Tarenteor takes the tube and pulls out a small gun-liike implement and aims it at the tubes. The implent slowly seals the tubes in a plastic ball, shich comes from inside the thing itself. The implement sucks in the tubes backwards, through the barrel and into a small container, without breaking them. He slides the implement back into his coat and speaks into his wristband.
"Call Terracoste-calss anti-gravitational ship to pick us up." A light hum is heard and on the horizon a floating... battleship, approaches? It seems so. The ship moves closer and the team waits.

OOC: wow, floating undetectable battleships, whatever next? i suppose sinking undetectable battleships could be an option... also, did you actually destroy the plane?

IC: the woman nods and smiles, she tilts her head and says: "can we get on with our delivery now?"

one of the young men standing next to Tarenteor sneezes, smiles, nods, and gestures to the rest, the men then back away from the intruder, and walk slowly towards a hangar on the other side of the airfield

OOC: you said: "implent slowly seals the tubes in a plastic ball, shich comes from inside the thing itself. The implement sucks in the tubes backwards, through the barrel and into a small container, without breaking them." thats either a really big gun, or you think these are small tubes, no dice. the tubes are 2" in diameter and almost a meter long. also, there are six of them.

After the "show", the general walks up to greet the woman and obtain the goods..

OOC: show?
IC: the Woman turns to the general, and shakes his hand, and says "we shall begin the loading immediately" she gestures in the direction of the hanger "as you can see"

the hangar doors open and the men emerge, each carrying two spheres, one in each hand, by handles mounted on the top. the spheres are made of some kind of organic polycarbonate, bound with an alloy frame.
inside each is a small embryo, in the early stages of developing recognisable features, and each is suspended in a green fluid, and the placenta has been replaced by a network of tiny cappiliaries which both hold the embryo in place, and draw nutrients from the surrounding fluid.

the woman then turns her attention to Tarenteor, and she extends her hand to shake his, saying, "It was good to finally meet you! nothing personal, i hope you understand"

OOC: The ship is coming in from the horizon. It's like, a few miles away. though it shoudl be here now, and lets jsut say I slid the tubes into my trenchcoat, ok? Yeah the plane got kinda busted up. Machine-gun fire, 9mm bullets, two grenades, and an anti-tank missile

Tarenteor reaches out his hand and shakes hers.
"Nice bubble-babies. Oh, and so you know, your weapons shoot at us, our sattelites can track a person, let alone a plane. How are you gonna get out of here anyhow. You got a back up plane? And, so you know, in my opinion, most things in government and polotics ARE personal, but all believe you. Most people usually DON'T want to meet me, with my reputation for slaughter. Goodbye."
Taren and his team hop into the open cockpit of the floating airship and flies into the sunset, weeeeeeeee!

Message from the Kalessin Ministry of Peace to Gentec:

"We are willing to take Gentec Amalgamated under our protection, if you allow us to buy a 51% share in your company at a reduced rate."

as the gravship flies away, the Woman turns to the General and says:
"Sorry about the plane, we will have to use one of mine."
she turns back towards the dissapearing gravship, and then reaches into her inside jacket pocket and removes a silver case, which she hands to the general, "inside are a number of tablets, i recommend that you take one."

she then turns back and smiles "wouldn't want to catch something nasty, now would we?"

meanwhile, on the gravship, Taranteor bigins to feel a pain in his chest, and a numb sensation spreading up his arm. He tries to think, but everything seems to be moving so...slowly.

In his bloodstream, small polyhaedral viral particles allow themselves to be consumed by his white blood cells, then infect their DNA, causing them to create and release more viral particles, and switching the genes regarding cell recognition, causing the cell to attack the surrounding tissue, consuming red blood cells and causing mass organ failure, especially in the heart, lungs and brain. by the time he realises what happened, he is unable to speak, but still able to move clumsily.

Message from the Kalessin Ministry of Peace to Gentec:

"We are willing to take Gentec Amalgamated under our protection, if you allow us to buy a 51% share in your company at a reduced rate."

we would be willing to negotiate at 25%.

Message from the Kalessin Ministry of Peace to Gentec:

"We are willing to take Gentec Amalgamated under our protection, if you allow us to buy a 51% share in your company at a reduced rate."

[OOC]
Mmm, hostile takeover, with an invite, how deliciously devious. ^=^

The woman then turns away and says as she walks towards the control tower "our long-range executive jet will take you back to youre country, you may pursue Taranteors people if you require compensation for the damages, though i doubt Taranteor himself will be doing much more than pushing up daisies from now on" she pauses, then continues "such is the fate of those who compete with gentec on such terms. we do not fight fair." the short man follows him, and a small jet follows the men out of the hangar and on to the runway, lowering its stair. the young men walk towards the waiting plane, board, and then secure the cargoe, and take seats at the front of the craft.

When she is far enough away, she signs up to the control tower "coming in, clear to central. run invite to bidder 3" the message is forwarded, and a message is sent:

To the Empire of Kalessin

You are invited to attend negotiations regarding the offers made previously, we are ready to recieve you as soon as you are able.
Yours Sincerely
Markus Alben, Chairman
coordinates following

Less than an hour later, a trio of rather small black Dragons appeared just off the coast of Gentec Amalgamated.

The dragons are directed an open square in front of the central building, there to meet them are a small group of men led by The Woman in a red dress, who was examining the heel of her right palm until the Dragons came into view, she then put her hands by her side and awaited their arrival. other than those sent to meet them, the streets of the main city are strangely empty.

Seven robed figures dismounted from the Dragons, which instantly disappeared. Six of the Kalessini wore black robes which appeared to be slightly ill-fitting, and shuffled forward, their wizened frames seeming diminutive beside the leader, whose robes fit him perfectly. Unlike the others, he strode forward easily and gracefully, an air of utter self-confidence perceptable even to the Gentec functionaries standing before him.

"I am Baron Iulsthiz al Vvishiak, of the Empire of Kalessin."

The woman bows deeply in response, and says "I am Tatiana De'Lamia, CEO of Foriegn Affairs, we are honored by your presence Baron. please, step this way." she then turns and walks towards the Command bulkhead, which stands open, and enters the Command Complex.

Far below, in a dimly lit room deep within the mountain, a man dressed in understated black watches the scene on a wallscreen.

"She does well, father" says a deep, musical voice from the shadows in the corner of the room

"yes" he says "she is a natural, or rather, she has been executed masterfully" he then turns to the shadow, and says "you shall be leading the negotiations. i just ask one thing.... try not to kill anyone."

there is an embarassed silence, and then the shadow speaks:

"you do know that was an accident, dont you? i mean, i know what it SOUNDS like, but i, i didn't MEAN to kill them-"

"-you hatched a dozen mark two's in the test arena and ordered them to kill you, i would call that intentional, and i would call it reckless, hell boy, you werent even armed! anyway, that isn't the point. the point is that this is not the test arena, and you are not competeing with this kalessin prince physically. it is a contest of wills, a contest of minds, do you understand? you are the sum of twelve years of intensive research, most of that in dead of night, and you are irreplaceable, a work of art. i will not lose you to some minor kalessin nobleman."

again, tension fills the room, but this time of a different sort, the contest of wills, father and son, creator and masterpiece. after an indefinite time the slight sussurus of cloth sliding against stone heralds the departure of the son. Markus Alben turns back to his monitor, and switches through the cameras until he finds the party again.

Taren keels over, coughing up a gob of black blood. Sallah, the scout, and Taren's siter, she him.
"What's wrong?"
Taren looks up, his eyes filling with a glowing red, and pulls out the tubes, sliding them into an analyzing container, and waiting a few seconds. A stream of data flicks up.
Taren grows, stumbling over to a cabinet and opens it, filled with needles filled with liquid. He blinks back at the screen again, and pulls out twelve needles, and shoves them all into his arm at once. Crazy bastard. He grunted as the veins swelled up in his entire body. He fell to the ground, twitching, and blacked out. And entire day later, he woke up on a hospital bed, Sallah leaning over him.
"How the hell did you know what to take? The doctors needed to call in a chemist."
"I know these things. It took me a while. It was a nerve agent, I'm almost sure. Stay here. I have a score to settle."
Sallah chuckled, and let him up. Taren pulled on his trenchcoat, and slid his weapons into it.
"Where's my car."
"Right outside, of course."
A small blue dragon walked in.
"Bring me along. I'm the only other person capable of healing you. And you might not be so lucky next time."
"Alright Kar'den."
"And bring your dragonmount. Technology isn't acceptable in this situation. he enemy seems to have dragons too. I kept the sattelite watching."
"Make sure you keep all of them ready for an attack."
"Of course."
Taren walks outside and hops into his car, to a large stable, and walks in to see a colossal dragon. He sits on it's tail, which the dragon curves, sliding Taren down to the head, making sure not to slice him on his blade-like frills. The dragon's name was Cataclysm, an opal dragon, capable of breathing any range of things. Taren made an odd clicking noise and the dragon bent down, ran through the door, and lifted into the air, Kar'den close behind.
OOC: I don't

The woman then turns away and says as she walks towards the control tower "our long-range executive jet will take you back to youre country, you may pursue Taranteors people if you require compensation for the damages, though i doubt Taranteor himself will be doing much more than pushing up daisies from now on" she pauses, then continues "such is the fate of those who compete with gentec on such terms. we do not fight fair." the short man follows him, and a small jet follows the men out of the hangar and on to the runway, lowering its stair. the young men walk towards the waiting plane, board, and then secure the cargoe, and take seats at the front of the craft.

OOC: Just so I'm clear.. was this my aircraft that was destroyed?

OOC: what exactly did you inject yourself with, and what did it do? this is important because i can actually not think of a single way he could personally survive that virus. i know that youre character has a habit of surviving against extreme odds, but this is frankly ridiculous. by the time you display symptoms, the virus would have permeated youre entire circulatory system, and the white cells would be causing severe damage to any part of the body with high white count or blood supply. lungs, heart, muscles, and most importantly, brain. you would be severely brain damaged, youre higher brain function severely impaired. any attempt to heal you would probably have to be administered by someone else, but how could you tell them what is wrong, cos you cant speak? also you would rapidly be losing sight, and temperatue control. youre motor functions would be slipping, ad your body would be reacting by creating more (corrupted) white cells, and anti-body antibodies. if you really really want to save him, fine, im just saying its far fetched.

OOC:yes tilsitsin, he blew up youre plane, with a minigiun, a pair of invisible RPG's and a pair of heavy mines. apparently.

The Baron nodded slightly in achnowledgement, and followed Tatiana, the other robed figures shuffling along behind him.

OOC:yes tilsitsin, he blew up youre plane, with a minigiun, a pair of invisible RPG's and a pair of heavy mines. apparently.

This being the case, an explanation is in order.. Our diplomatic corps is currently working on the issue, and will be issuing a statement on the matter shortly.

As they enter the command structure, the they find themselves not, as they perhas expected, in an entrance hall of some kind, but a huge chamber. the entire surface structure is hollow, and disguises a huge steel-clad, reinforced concrete bunker cap, and a number of large ventilation towers. the entire surface city is essentially an illusion, one which becomes apparent as they enter the bunker and descent into the true home of Gentec Amalgamated.

Inside the bunker is a large service elevator, which brings the party down into what turns out to be an enormous, cylindrical, subterranean city, with houses, offices, and other civilian amenities arranged around the outside, and a series of huge arenas, one on top of the other. people swarm around the borders of the arenas, people who are at once unremarkable, and destinctly unsettling, no two are even remotely alike, each seems to be specialised physically to the job they perform. in the arenas, the latest and greatest feats of GenTec technology, who range from the near-uman to the nightmarish and alien, fight it out for the amusement of the specators, and to test their effectiveness. each level shows a different combat environment, and a different set of creatures.

In the last arena the fight has apparently just ended, the floor of the arena is littered with the bodies of the fallen, the closest to the arena gates is still smoking slightly, and a close up is bieng displayed on a huge screen near the cieling of the stadium. his eyes have collapsed and are wrinkled like dried prunes, his featured drawn, and cracked. his teeth have turned to powder in his mouth and his entire body is wasted and smoking. as the gates of the elevator lift, they reveal a figure reclining against a low wall.

The Man has raven hair and ivory skin, his eyes are green flecked with gold, and swirl disturbingly, he is dressed in loose white trousers, and a gauzy white sleeved mantle over his white, sleeveless shirt, on his hands are intricate gauntlets made of a metalic substance, and he plays idly with a swirling mass of blue plasma, which twirls around his fingeres, ad gatheres in his hands like sentient play-doh. at the sight of the party he stands, his smile wide, his eyes dark and calculating. he makes eye contact with the baron, and the baron feels a slight pressure behind his eyes, the small hairs on the back of his neck stand up, and he gets a feeling like cold water running down his spine. it lasts a moment then recedes, a shadow of something like respect passes through the eyes of the man before him, and the man speaks in a deep, and musical voice:

"I am Asher, son of Markus, i have been tasked with seeing to youre wellbieng, and carry on the negotiations regarding the price of the defence treaty" he then bows to Tatiana, and says quietly "father wants to see you... now.", then returns his gaze to the emmisaries, "follow me and i will shaw you to youre quarters, should you need them, and the conference foom where our negotiations will take place. f you have any questions, please feel free to ask them at any time."

OOC: That was my squad. The demo expert had three grenades and an anti-tank rocket launcher, with two rockets. My heavy weapons man had a machine gun. Standard special ops issue. Play Ghost Recon. Also, you should note that the fact that you don't have the disease as much as I do is twinkish. If it was air-induced, you'd get it too. And if it sunk into skin, it never touched his skin. Do you know an assassin that DOESN'T wear gloves? And I have CLOTHES under my trenchcoat. So shhhh.

OOC: Jangle Jangle Ridge: It looks to me like both the Gentec staff and the Tilsitsin emissaries have been infected, but that both have been given the antidote before symptoms could show.

OOC: if the man was wearing gloves, you would have said so. if i had asked you never would have shaken my hand. i am not such an idiot that i would/could not immunise my people against my own bio-weapons. the virus was administered with a tiny barb in the heel of the Woman's (Tatiana's) hand, which would have penetrated any glove. the poison was administered to the general as well, as a precautionary measure, and included a mild anaesthetic, so you felt nothing. in future, when dealing with nations with retroviral technology, i suggest you show more care. also, you would know next to nothing about the virus i used, i have seen no other people with remotely similar tch, except for the A.R.E.A virus, which is a totally different viral agent. the one i used is based EXTEMRELY loosely on the action of HIV. now, if you only tell me what you did to counter it, i will tell you if it would have worked. and why. also, you never mentioned the firing of any RPG's, and the minigun was only fired at the Limo. hence the invisible RPG.

OOC: to merely assume that you have the ability to survive against a danger you have never faced before, i believe, is godmodding. I dropped some heavy hints, and you made no effort to protect yourself. i very much doubt you would have the availably technology to detect, analyze, and manufature an antidote in sufficient quantity, and deal with the damage already done to youre immune system, in the time you had left to live. otherwise i would have shot you and burned your body. do not flatter yourself, you may be big, but you are so far not bieng very clever.
remember america in vietnam, and russia in afghanistan.
also consider kalessin, tilsitsin, and all of their allies. cos at the moment they are not looking terribly freindly.

OOC: show?
the woman then turns her attention to Tarenteor, and she extends her hand to shake his, saying, "It was good to finally meet you! nothing personal, i hope you understand"
Heavy Hint

there to meet them are a small group of men led by The Woman in a red dress, who was examining the heel of her right palm until the Dragons came into view, she then put her hands by her side and awaited their arrival.
Post administration heavy hint

OOC:yes tilsitsin, he blew up youre plane, with a minigiun, a pair of invisible RPG's and a pair of heavy mines. apparently.

This being the case, an explanation is in order.. Our diplomatic corps is currently working on the issue, and will be issuing a statement on the matter shortly.

OOC: The Duchy of Tarasovka doesn't really like the fact that the planes of our Tilsitsinian allies are being blown up in sovereign territory :shock:

The nation of Tilsitsin has the diplomatic backing of the Grand Duchy. If more support is needed, we will provide it.

After all, this might be a good "opportunity" to test out the "combat faculties" of the ECTOS (http://www.nationstates.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=67629&start=0) :twisted: :roll:

OOC:
Just don't know whether I am to publicly "know" :shock:
So posting in OOC.

OOC: i wonder if i should publicly broadcast the unprovoked attack/act of terrorism. might provoke an interesting response...

OOC:yes tilsitsin, he blew up youre plane, with a minigiun, a pair of invisible RPG's and a pair of heavy mines. apparently.

This being the case, an explanation is in order.. Our diplomatic corps is currently working on the issue, and will be issuing a statement on the matter shortly.

OOC: The Duchy of Tarasovka doesn't really like the fact that the planes of our Tilsitsinian allies are being blown up in sovereign territory :shock:

The nation of Tilsitsin has the diplomatic backing of the Grand Duchy. If more support is needed, we will provide it.

After all, this might be a good "opportunity" to test out the "combat faculties" of the ECTOS (http://www.nationstates.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=67629&start=0) :twisted: :roll:

OOC:
Just don't know whether I am to publicly "know" :shock:
So posting in OOC.

The following broadcast has appeared on all international news networks:

the broadcast shows recorded security footage of the entire terrorist attack on GenTec, including closeups of the faces of all involved terrorists, and special, multi angle coverage of them blowing up the plane belonging to tilsitsin, and a recording of their threat to use ortillery to nuke the island if their demands are not met. it is made clear in the broadcast that the attack was an entirely unprovoked attack on a peacefull trading nation that was merely involved in a confidential transaction. the nature of the cargo is not disclosed, nor is the fact that it was not destroyed. footage of the super-soldiers is minimised, and most of the angles of the woman are from behind. the handshake is also ommitted. it follows to say that at this time, it is unknown whether Taranteor was acting independantly, or with a nations backing, but he is known to be affiliated with the nation known as Jangle Jangle Ridge, and calls for the delivery of said criminal for prosecution in GenTec courts.

A phallanxian black operator climbs out of an unnasuming car and takes his ignore rifle off the back seat

Two Phallanxian Blackout Anti satalite systems move into position over the island. steathily moving into position besides JJR's Ortillery the simultaneously emit EMP Pulses

The Baron didn't openly react in any way to what he saw within the Gentec dome, but with the depths of his cowl, his eyes flicked from right to left, cataloging everything. Defences, gladiators, offices and people, nothing escaped him. He pulsed a thought to his cheif advisor, Doctor Glum;

What a fascinating place. An early share buy could gain the ministry much leverage at court. Is our 'negotiator' ready?

He is.

Suddenly the sensation hit him. The Baron searched for a psychic residue, but found nothing. He cautiously reached out with his mind to Asher, attempting to gain a covert glimpse into his mind, but remaining ready to flee to the safety of his own skull in an instant.

"We do not require rest, but I would appreciate a brief tour of your facilities."

Taren blinks, chuckling at somthing, before rearing the dragon and simply flying back, without much ceremony. He sets into his chari and flicks on the news, as Sallah walks in, suprised.
"It was THAT fast?"
"No, I never went. Ked-ran was wrong."
He watches the broadcast.
"Affiliated with?" Taren chuckled again, "I'm the leader of it. They're not going to get me."
A chunk of the wall melts away as a cloak is pulled away, showing only a man, completely in black, with a black full-head mask.
"I've gotten to you, without much work."
Taren blinks, almost boredly.
"And you are?"
"Your worst nightmare, demon-punk!"
That cloaked man runs at him, a dagger in his hand.
Taren pulls out his 9mm and unloads the entire clip into the man's head before his body hits the ground.
"Not really."
Taren taps a button and small joystick pops of of the chair's arm, and a world map appears on the screen, with 5 small pictures on the side and crosshairs set on GenTec and Tilsitsin. Taren presses in the joystick and the crosshairs turn red, and Taren twists the joystick twice, clicking it in again, and selecting two pictures, one a nuclear symbol and one a biohazard/chemical system. He presses in the joystick one last time and smiles.
The computer speaks stonily, "Full Chemical and Nuclear loadouts readied, launching all at Gentec Amalgamated and Tilsitsin."
"Let the fireworks begin!"

OOC: This is, needless to say, a lot of firepower. The nation sthemselves will be hit with up to 50 nukes a piece, along with immeasurable amounts of chemical and biological weapons. It'll be hard to survive.

OOC: You do realise that if Gentec gets destroyed, a Kalessin nobleman might die? And if that happens, Jangle Jangle Ridge might find itself at war with the entire Arda alliance? Just an observation, of course. On the other hand, Gentec is one giant bunker, and might well survive completely unharmed. :)

I have an entire region of socialist nations on my side.

I have an entire region of socialist nations on my side.

We demand reparations for our destroyed aircraft and killed crew, and we do have the backing of friendly nations to ensure that this happens..

IC: The Baron's mind probe finds little apparent resistance, and breaks in to Asher's mind with little difficulty, only to nbe suddenly overwhelmed by its immensity.

The Human mind, generally speaking, operates on two levels, subconscious and conscious. Ashers works on perhaps 10 that you can percieve. this means he can conciously pursue many lines of thought simultaneously, and is required to process the immense amount of sensory data, and to co-ordinate the intricate processes that facilitate his abilities. Asher has billions of tiny wide band electro magnetic radiation emmitters and receptors integrated into his highly complex nervous system, these allow him to develop a three dimensional echo image of his surroundings, and also facilitate his near psychic abilities, as he is able to percieve and manipulate the movement of polar or charged particles, which are the basis of the nervous system, and also the operation of computers and electronics generally. it is also the ability which allows him to manipulate the plasma which threads through his fingers. for a brief moment, the Baron sees through his "eyes", and percieves the world as he does, and only his own highly developed brain saves him from bieng crushed by the sensory data to which he is exposed. to Asher, what he sees with his eyes is less than one percent of his perception.

Simultaneously, Ashers brain scans and corrects the electro-magnetic fields that hold the plasma in place, scans the delgates for metallic objects, reads the energy signatures emanating from the armour the Baron is wearing, and the strange energy readings emanating from the baron himself, catalogues avenues of escape and attack, and actively deep tissue scans the robed man to the Barons right, in 1cm slices (think CAT scan). while doing this, other parts of the brain scan the structure immediately around him, and the actual material that makes up the Barons armour,bringing back detailed stress analysis, and analysing it for weak points, and another level of his Consciousness calculates the optimal EM patterns for penetrating the armour, and the strange protective energy fields that wreath it in misty tendrils, complicating the stress analysis.

all this happens in a mere fraction of a second, a tiny glimpse of the outer reaches of his alien mind, before his secondary defenses kick in and slam the door closed again, leaving the Baron momentarily phased.

OOC: eat your heart out JJR. Asher is basically a techno-magi, he uses scientific, technological means to achieve near-magical results. he is the son and masterpiece of Markus, the leader of GenTec, and is the result of twelve years of well-funded pre-independance research.

GenTec City is basically a huge, underground nuclear bunker, designed to house the best and brightest of a now destroyed empire. it was built with the best technology that that nation had to offer at the time, and is capable of taking a direct nuclear strike, though many non-essential structures would be lost, and all surface activity would have to be halted until the radiation subsided. the island gentec is built into is the remnant of a huge old volcano, the suface has been annealed (melted then cooled) in a controlled way so as to produce a solid, crystalline shell several meters thick, and surface defences include anti missile defences which would cause an armed nuclear or biological weapon to detonate in the air, minimising structural damage, but causing widespread irradiation/poisoning of the surface.

The people that now make up GenTec are the scientists, soldiers and diplomats that survived by taking shelter in the bunker. they have been isolated for so long that many of their values, and the aspects of their culture have changed dramatically, as have their genetic profiles, even without their ever present gene- modification (started from neccesity to stamp out the consequences of their small gene pool).

IC:Shortly after his enthusiastic outburst, a small error window appears

[[WARNING]]
**ERROR: ILLEGAL OPERATION**
**Unable to locate weapons sattelite**
**Sattelite not responding**
**would you like to RETRY: (R) ABORT: (A) or CANCEL: (C)**
_

Two Phallanxian Blackout Anti satalite systems move into position over the island. steathily moving into position besides JJR's Ortillery the simultaneously emit EMP Pulses

OOC:his pop is not much smaller than yours, therefore he can as well!
thanks Phallanx!

Asher smiles, as if he has just realised something, and is quite pleased about it, turns, and walks slowly away, saying "this way to the main research wing, we will have to go through the arena entrance, but we should be all right"

OOC: Is it just me, or are you saying what's happening to me? For all you know, I have EMP-proof sattelites. And no bunker of any-form can withstand twenty nuclear-core tesla-fielded Class-A Hyper-sonic High-yield Bunker Busters. Just try and stop them. The tesla field will stop any electronical devices from interfering with it, and any electrical thing it comes near will get a 1,000,000 volt current shoved through it. And no, this is not a god-mod. A normal tesla coil, less than a foot tall, can generate such a thing. These are large missiles. Tesla coils can be made by any normal person with the internet and 100 dollars. That'll make you a small tesla coil, fully operable.

Phallanxes nex ASIW has now been deployed against JJR's ortillery

OOC: JJR i have read up on you, and nothing i have read before indicates that you even have ortillery in the first place. the technology has just materialised out of nowhere. let alone emp proof tesla-protected hyper-sonic(?) nuclear core bunker busters. also, real life tesla coils do not in any way resemble those in command and conquer. they are not weapons, they are toys found in boys-own fun-with-electricity books and the effect is pyrotechnic, nothing more. it has the military potential of a jacobs ladder. you are a god-modder, and a cheat, you have never lost, and endlessly stick youre nose where it does not belong merely as some sort of pissing contest. also, bunker busters are merely missiles with post impact time lapse arming. that means they are not armed until several seconds AFTER they impact, therefore my anti-air defences could shoot them down without detonating them. you cannot have a super-sonic bunker buster, because bunker-busters are built heavy. and super-sonics are built light. also, missiles fired from orbit require a great deal of heat shielding, anything on the missile (eg tesla coils) which is not covered in ceramic heat tiles would be burned off in re-rentry. you are merely tagging names onto the end of your missiles to make them sound scary. i am not impressed. Phallanxe is well within his capabilities in challenging you, as he is of a similar size. also, i decide what happens when you push the button, yes, that is the way this game works, otherwise i would have told you you died from the virus, just like youre telling me "oh, ive nuked you now, no matter what you do your entire nation is carbon dust". that is the way it goes :roll: . at the very least, the emp would have fried any communications equipment on the sattelites, as you cannot shield comm dishes, only isolate them. unless you communicate with the sattelite via a hard line? :lol: quite frankly, i find youre nation, and its actions to be quite juvenile, how old are you? twelve? either that or you are just in it to ruin it for everyone else. i suggest you read the forum on godmodding, you should find it either very helpful, or very embarassing.

here are some classic JJR moments:

Anyone wanna fight me?
I've used nukes twice. One was rather recent. I was spying on a little transaction, and things went bad. I ended up asking them for a piece of the pie. Then he godmodded that the plans he gave me were laced with an uber-virus. I had as much contact with the virus as he did. Anyway, I injected myself with the chemical opposites of said virus, after a quick analysis of a computer. He got mad at this, as it was slightly cheap, I will admit. But nerve agents would have killed everyone in the place, not just me. I never even opened the plans. Anyway, then he rallied publice support, and called my spying of said transaction a terrorist action, and turned a lot of nations against me. And I had no other way of attacking him. He has a nation with more Godmoddy protection than the Bubble, despite the fact that he was a tiny nation with no regional support. So I used 20 nuclear bunker-busters on his super-bunker, with magical missile turny-off powers of DOOOOOOOOOM!!!!11!!!111!!!! If he says it didn't work, he feels the wrath of my IGNORE(Ignoramus Gone Now or Original RonaldMcDonald is not Evil) COW(Cattle On Wonderdrugs)
Taren slammed more clips in and emptied them again, before slamming another huge mine on the wall and hopping away. The explosion was just as fantastic as the other, beofre finally melting through the wall. He shucked off his black leather trenchcoat, revealing another under it. He hurled the jacket in, which was filled with plastic explosives, mines, grenades, c-4... just about everything. All set to explode in three seconds. Boom boom.
Taren is thrown from the building and lands with a thud, groaning as chunks of cement and metal sticks out of his entire body. Shadows drift away from thier proper places as he body begins to heal and chunks of detritus are squeezed from his body. He stands up and walks towards his ship. On the way, he calls in a massive attack on the fighter from his battleships, such as cruiser, destroyers, dreadnoughts, rangers, "and all that jazz".
He's a demon... you can't ignore my entire nation...

JJR, you seem to be confusing your Weapons of Mass Destruction (odd for someone who makes extensive use of them) a VIRUS is NOT a NERVE AGENT!! there is a distinct difference in spelling, for one. and you cannot merely find the "opposing chemicals" for a virus. in fact, it is near impossible to destroy viral particals specifically. especially with chemicals.
also, it was not on the document tube, it was injected into youre bloodstream via a spur in my reps hand. everyone who shook her hand WAS infected, but i gave them a SPECIFICALLY TAILORED deactivation hormone, which is paired specifically to the virus in question, and causes it to cease functioning. they were fine. you were not. and technically you should have died.

OOC: To build upon Gentec's excellent idea, some more gems from the Jangle Jangle Ridge archives!

The Plasmatic Bomb, and offshoot of the Plasmatic beam program, has been completed. This bomb doesn't just explode. It won't explode until all of it's gaseous contents are settled- usually in a crack or such thing. This way, it blows up things at breaks, where they are weakest. The bomb shell disintagrates during the fall, letting the gas fall un-noticed.

When will your men be here? I need to warn my military. We have a number of our prototype plasmatic beams attached to our defense turrets, and they would easily kill anything at a rather long range. We vaporized a plane of bishops to nothing. By accident, of course. The crystal directional matrix got jarred. The laser was tilted and came out the side, and the gun turned and shot too fast to stop it.

Far in space, a space station's telescope watches the scene, then moves to Galdania, looking for major cities. Five nuclear missiles fall into the missile pods, as a Message zooms in by radio, over all of the palaces frequencies: "We have five nuclear missiles ready for launch. We have five more aboard this space station. I suspect that launching chemical weaponry on the ocean would create LOADS OF CHEMICALS FLOATING IN THE WATER OFF MY COAST! Now stop shooting scuds and let him have the prisoners. AND GET AWAY FROM MY COAST! Your fighting quite near it, you know. Thank you, this is scientist Magnifico Giganticus.

(ignored by Galdania)

As a missile pod aims five REAL nukes at Galdania, four of the Ultimus Laser cannons are set to detonating "Stun" level. These weapons are rapid-fire, long enough range to hit things on earth from orbit, high detonation, and have superb guidance. Each of the guns have eight barrels. Connections touch, and the firing commences on the shores. On EVERYONE.

We have desroyers, frigates, even floating weapons platforms. These are undetectable by heat, as they preduce none, and some are designed with a field to displace radar. They are outfitted with our newest weapons. They are capable of land, air, water, AND atmosphere-bouncing travel. THey are being outfitted with our newest weapons. These weapons include: Ultimus Laser Cannons, Single and multi beam laser cannons, Plasmatic Beam Cannons, Plasmatic Bombs, Arachnid Missiles, a variety of small nuclear weapons aboard the larger ships, and our greatest creation yet, the Tri-Crystal-Induced Ion Cannon with a horde of multi-faceted jewels along the barrel to amplify the force. There are 50 ships in the fleet as of now.

I am proud to annouce that my nation has just rolled out another 200 Anti-Gravity ships for Jangle Jangle Ridge's United Anti-Gravitational Fleet. These behemoths are fitted with cutting edge technology. Also, a new devision of fighters have recently joined the army: The Scaled Fiends, jokingly dubbed "Lizard's Gizzards", as they ride dragons and wyverns. Though wyverns usually aren't large enough or strong enough to be ridden, these have been bred and genetically enhanced. The dragons are largest to be found, each at least 200 feet long. There are 30 dragons and 30 wyverns on the team.

My Multi Beam Laser Cannons would do the job. They can be programmed to simply slice the warhead from the missile, allowing you to use the explosives. Or it could just hit the missile ON the warhead, in which case the missile would explode above you.

OOC: My grav-ships, and everything on them, have an EMP deflector shield. I announced it with my second batch of planes.

(in response to EOTED's EM weaponry)

We crossbred some of our dragons, an now we've created a new strain that relies completely on fire. They NEVER use melee attacks, despite being 1 1/2 times the size of the other dragons. They huge clouds of fire which come apart mid-air like grapeshot. Usually filled with magma and rocks too. Sometimes they spit a little liquid metal.

OOC: I have the right to claim all of my weapons are possible. Yes, including the lasers and Plasmatic Beam Cannons. We use lasers in steel factories, mine are just a little stronger. And the plasma can be wrapped in a magnetic bubble long enough to hit the traget, thus keeping it in a stable and extremely hot form. The US is working on such weapons. AND YES, anti-grav is possible, you just need a series of magnets to work against the earth's iron core.

OOC: Sniper country, man, don't you call me JJR. The economy is in relation to population. Anyway, my population is about ot jump, cause I plowed a rainforest for uranium

(touchy about his name isn't he!)

And this doesn't even scratch the surface!

The Baron withdrew into his own body as soon as he saw the secondary defences closing, raising his own simultaneously.

Fascinating. I've only ever had contact with a mind of that power once before, and that was when Prince Drazyen allowed me a tiny glimpse of his. And his perception...he sees as much naturally as I do with my mind. I must think of something to block his vision....

As the Baron began to think through the various spells in his arsenal, looking for one that might block the strange second-sight of the being known as 'Asher', Asher himself realised that although the robes which draped around the Baron were as real to his electromagnetic scans as to his sight, within them was only darkness, as if something was absorbing every form of radiation which penetrated the cloth.

The scans on the other robed Kalessini revealed nothing out of the ordinary, except a tiny scanner hidden in the robes of the figure to the right of the Baron, and a set of small metal tools, many of which were rather sharp, hidden in the robes of the rearmost Kalessin.

Still thinking of a suitable spell, the Baron and his entourage followed Asher towards the arena.

Slowly, a Parkan H-16 Class CSS space raider cruises through the orbital space. His nano-stealth layer rendering it toally invisible to optical insturments, it surface rendering it totally invisible to radar and detector systems.

http://www.digikitten.com/playhousev2/files/Mishgan/ParkanVertical1.jpg

- Enlist into the Taraskovyan Space Fleet they said! See new people and places! My ass!!!
Now... where are the freaking coords that I need to check...

The pilot, mumbling something under his nose, checks through the screens, while the AI's take over the control of the ship automatically. Finally, the pilot sets the course and the ship moves on...

- Ah! Here it is!

The view of the huge ortillery piece is finally in front of him.

- Now that's one big ass thingy-thing. I wonder how did they get it into orbit in the first place. Oh well, orders are orders...

With that, the Parkan Raider sets an attack course and releases two combat drones.
http://www.digikitten.com/playhousev2/files/Mishgan/combat_drone12.jpg

The combat drones, already pre-set by their AI cruise near the sattelite and when they pass near it on high speed, they suddenly lose control and after making a circle around it - the two drones bump into each other...
They detonate, the plasma weaponry generators on the drones explode, the missiles explode... Two fireballs first explode near the ortillery piece and then crash into it.

- Shi-...!

The pilot yelled, switched all energy on thrusters and flied out, running for his life as the huge explosion was consuming everything in its way.
The Raider made it out...
Two drones were "lost".

- TSC-1 command, this is Raider 0.715. Reporting mission success, two drones "accidentally" lost. Presence undetected. Pulling out...

And the Raider cruised off into the emptyness of space...
Unseen, unheard of...

The parts of the ortillery system would crush into the open waters around the island and the nuclear fallout would be dissipated in the vacuum...


OOC:

JJR - you have nothing against me, the Parkan Raiders are the result of years of research and billions of dollars pounded into the project ;)
so the ARE invisible, that one raider WAS NOT detected by anyone, be it my allies or you.

Have a nice day!

OOC: thanks for the support Tarasovka!

IC: Asher turns, revealing a small blood stain on the hem of his outer robe, and leads the party around to the other side of the arena, where one of the Access points waits, open.

inside several burly looking GenTec workers are clearing up the mess left by the last fight, and as they enter, three of them commence attempting to lift the dessicated corpse (featured previously), however, as the first one touches it, it collapses into a pile of ash on the floor. the other two shrug, and one goes to get a broom.

scattered around the arena are circular doors set into the floor, which open to release the contestants into the ring, Asher goes to the nearest and opens it with a device he takes from the folds of his clothing. as it opens, he speaks:

"The Labs are sealed during lock down to prevent escapes, the only way in is through the arena access corridors. they should be empty, but if you have any weapons, i would keep them close but not obvious."

Asher then drops nimbly through the door, and dissapears into the unlit interior. a primal shriek, and a flash indicate that the tunnel is not quite as empty as it should be, but ashers voice drifts up after a moment of silence:

"come on down, it is now clear!" and with that, a faint purplish glow radiates up, illuminating the slight drop into the tunnel, and Ashers face, thrown into Alien relief by the strange light.

The Baron and his followers did not respond in any way, but sedately made their way into the tunnel.

Just inside the entrance is the smoking corpse of a hulking humanoid creature, Asher stands, a look of moderate concentration shaping his features as he seems to strain purple energy from the air, which resolve into gossamer threads of purple light, and flow into the palm of his hand, gathering into a roiling ball of violet flame.

this done, he turns and advances down the tunnel, using the ball of plasma to light his way. the tunnel soon ends in a rather impressive looking door, which has no apparent opening mechanism, or handhold of any kind. Asher places his hand on the door, and the sound of gears grinding, and bars sliding fills the air. the door then opens with a creaking groan, and the room beyond is illuminated with red emergency lighting.

several suprised looking scientists stand on the other side, one holding some sort of handheld console, which is beeping in an alarming manner, and two of the others loosely hold compact, dangerous looking machine pistols in a manner that suggests that they know how to use them. at the sight of Asher, they all relax, and then move away in ones and two's.

the room itself contains a rack of simple weapons, a pool of what is presumably drinking water, and a sturdy looking dispensor mounted on the wall. there is also a small, semispherical indentation in the center of the floor, framd by a bracket which holds above it an empty, halved sphere of polycarbonate, opened down its equator. the floor around it is layered in a viscous substance. despite this, the room smells clean, and the walls and remainder of the floor are thoroughly and scrupulously clean. the door going through to the next room lies open, smaller than the first, but no less impressively secure looking for its smaller size.

Asher gestures around the room, and says: "this a prep room, where the cells containing the soldier embryos are taken after their activation codes have been entered. the contraption on the wall is a nutrient delivery system, which produces a sticky nutrient paste which is easily digested, and contains exactly the right nutrient balance for the unit at its stage of growth."

he then walks into the next room, through the small bulkhead door.

The Kalessini, seeing and recording everything, but responding to nothing, silently followed Asher into the next room.

[bump]

Asher leads the party through the door into a well lit un/loading area, and directs the party into an open topped electric vehicle, powered by brush contacts on the floor. the driver then pulls out into what appears to be an underground road network. the other vehicles appear to be ferrying dead super-soldiers, scientists, or racks of what must be spherical embryo-canisters. colour coded stripes on the walls indicate the directions to various locations, and the place they currently seem to be going to is the "product" labs. the other stripe heading in the same direction is white and unmarked. when they reach the labs there appear to be two sections, the Reasearch and Factory sections, Asher directs the driver tio park at the Research sector, and then, assuming now that the Kallisini Party will record everything, say nothing and follow him silently, he goes through a pair of swishing doors and into the remarkably hospital-like reception area.

The reception area smells like every other post medieval hospital the world over, like antiseptic. to the more receptive, it looked more like a particularly austere abortion clinic. in the corner of the room, a pregnant woman with a feathery mane instead of hair cries into the shoulder of a man who is presumably either her Partner, or a family member. the psychically inclined would note that the grief is not tinged with anger, but dissapointment. Asher gives the two a vaguely sympathetic look, then turns around, and says "this is the research wing, and also the place where mothers come to have their unborn childrens birth defects corrected through gene therapy. the embryo's used for economic and research projects are those whose defects are otherwise uncorrectable. in essence, we take the embryos that would have died under any other circumstances, and alter them to fit our needs, so that they may at least serve a purpose before they pass on. such is the price we pay for an exclusive gene-pool. are there any questions before we proceed?"

How intriguing. The creature displays sympathy for the woman. His emotion shows in his features. A visible lack of control. That might prove useful, if the emotion is not feigned.

The Baron glanced at the sobbing couple.

"Would I be correct in surmising that the presence of a partner indicates that you still use sexual reproduction to produce the embryos before modification?"

This was said in a completely flat and emotionless voice, and behind him, the figure to the right of the Baron continued to record all they saw with the device hidden within his robes.

OOC: JJR i have read up on you, and nothing i have read before indicates that you even have ortillery in the first place. the technology has just materialised out of nowhere. let alone emp proof tesla-protected hyper-sonic(?) nuclear core bunker busters. also, real life tesla coils do not in any way resemble those in command and conquer. they are not weapons, they are toys found in boys-own fun-with-electricity books and the effect is pyrotechnic, nothing more. it has the military potential of a jacobs ladder. you are a god-modder, and a cheat, you have never lost, and endlessly stick youre nose where it does not belong merely as some sort of pissing contest. also, bunker busters are merely missiles with post impact time lapse arming. that means they are not armed until several seconds AFTER they impact, therefore my anti-air defences could shoot them down without detonating them. you cannot have a super-sonic bunker buster, because bunker-busters are built heavy. and super-sonics are built light. also, missiles fired from orbit require a great deal of heat shielding, anything on the missile (eg tesla coils) which is not covered in ceramic heat tiles would be burned off in re-rentry. you are merely tagging names onto the end of your missiles to make them sound scary. i am not impressed. Phallanxe is well within his capabilities in challenging you, as he is of a similar size. also, i decide what happens when you push the button, yes, that is the way this game works, otherwise i would have told you you died from the virus, just like youre telling me "oh, ive nuked you now, no matter what you do your entire nation is carbon dust". that is the way it goes :roll: . at the very least, the emp would have fried any communications equipment on the sattelites, as you cannot shield comm dishes, only isolate them. unless you communicate with the sattelite via a hard line? :lol: quite frankly, i find youre nation, and its actions to be quite juvenile, how old are you? twelve? either that or you are just in it to ruin it for everyone else. i suggest you read the forum on godmodding, you should find it either very helpful, or very embarassing.

OOC: Shut up. I have use my orbital batteries MANY times. Look at my complete post lists. You will find my first post to be the creation of my sattelites. This was in March I believe. I didn't exactly think it prudent to have anything before then. Hyper-sonic is another word for Mach 7 or higher. Tesla coils are made to be protected from heat. They have to if there is an excess of 6,000 joules and 1,000,000 volts of electricity running through them. I understand, and could most likely BUILD most of the things I talk about. EMP weapons have been talked of thousands of time. It isn't possible. There is a lab, I believe out in California, which is mostly comprised of some computers and a massive EMP device that fills the entire building, which isn't, in any manner, small. It can, on good days, shut off the personal computer barely a foot away from the device. Be quiet. You don't know anything about what you're talking about, or at least you know certainly less about it than me. Also, in order to shut off something of mine, you would have to be similiar size and spend time equal to, in more than the time I spent making it SAFE from things. I never stated your casulties. You stated I had the disease/virus. Am I less hardened to said virus than you? Or did you suddenly transport all clothing into the ethereal plane from a nanosecond, giving me your unstoppable super-virus, while keeping yourself safe and the time not being long enough for anyone to notice? If so I bow to your great and unstoppable might, and fear your virus will suddenly outbreak and kill my entire nation in five minutes. And so you know, I have people who consider me rather good at it. Your just resorting to idiocy when faced by someone smarter than you, and with the power to beat you. You seem like the kind of person who gets around by thier muscles alone, and found out how to use a mouse, and tried cross-state conquest of the world. And I mean state as in country.

OOC: To build upon Gentec's excellent idea, some more gems from the Jangle Jangle Ridge archives!

The Plasmatic Bomb, and offshoot of the Plasmatic beam program, has been completed. This bomb doesn't just explode. It won't explode until all of it's gaseous contents are settled- usually in a crack or such thing. This way, it blows up things at breaks, where they are weakest. The bomb shell disintagrates during the fall, letting the gas fall un-noticed.

When will your men be here? I need to warn my military. We have a number of our prototype plasmatic beams attached to our defense turrets, and they would easily kill anything at a rather long range. We vaporized a plane of bishops to nothing. By accident, of course. The crystal directional matrix got jarred. The laser was tilted and came out the side, and the gun turned and shot too fast to stop it.

Far in space, a space station's telescope watches the scene, then moves to Galdania, looking for major cities. Five nuclear missiles fall into the missile pods, as a Message zooms in by radio, over all of the palaces frequencies: "We have five nuclear missiles ready for launch. We have five more aboard this space station. I suspect that launching chemical weaponry on the ocean would create LOADS OF CHEMICALS FLOATING IN THE WATER OFF MY COAST! Now stop shooting scuds and let him have the prisoners. AND GET AWAY FROM MY COAST! Your fighting quite near it, you know. Thank you, this is scientist Magnifico Giganticus.

(ignored by Galdania)

As a missile pod aims five REAL nukes at Galdania, four of the Ultimus Laser cannons are set to detonating "Stun" level. These weapons are rapid-fire, long enough range to hit things on earth from orbit, high detonation, and have superb guidance. Each of the guns have eight barrels. Connections touch, and the firing commences on the shores. On EVERYONE.

We have desroyers, frigates, even floating weapons platforms. These are undetectable by heat, as they preduce none, and some are designed with a field to displace radar. They are outfitted with our newest weapons. They are capable of land, air, water, AND atmosphere-bouncing travel. THey are being outfitted with our newest weapons. These weapons include: Ultimus Laser Cannons, Single and multi beam laser cannons, Plasmatic Beam Cannons, Plasmatic Bombs, Arachnid Missiles, a variety of small nuclear weapons aboard the larger ships, and our greatest creation yet, the Tri-Crystal-Induced Ion Cannon with a horde of multi-faceted jewels along the barrel to amplify the force. There are 50 ships in the fleet as of now.

I am proud to annouce that my nation has just rolled out another 200 Anti-Gravity ships for Jangle Jangle Ridge's United Anti-Gravitational Fleet. These behemoths are fitted with cutting edge technology. Also, a new devision of fighters have recently joined the army: The Scaled Fiends, jokingly dubbed "Lizard's Gizzards", as they ride dragons and wyverns. Though wyverns usually aren't large enough or strong enough to be ridden, these have been bred and genetically enhanced. The dragons are largest to be found, each at least 200 feet long. There are 30 dragons and 30 wyverns on the team.

My Multi Beam Laser Cannons would do the job. They can be programmed to simply slice the warhead from the missile, allowing you to use the explosives. Or it could just hit the missile ON the warhead, in which case the missile would explode above you.

OOC: My grav-ships, and everything on them, have an EMP deflector shield. I announced it with my second batch of planes.

(in response to EOTED's EM weaponry)

We crossbred some of our dragons, an now we've created a new strain that relies completely on fire. They NEVER use melee attacks, despite being 1 1/2 times the size of the other dragons. They huge clouds of fire which come apart mid-air like grapeshot. Usually filled with magma and rocks too. Sometimes they spit a little liquid metal.

OOC: I have the right to claim all of my weapons are possible. Yes, including the lasers and Plasmatic Beam Cannons. We use lasers in steel factories, mine are just a little stronger. And the plasma can be wrapped in a magnetic bubble long enough to hit the traget, thus keeping it in a stable and extremely hot form. The US is working on such weapons. AND YES, anti-grav is possible, you just need a series of magnets to work against the earth's iron core.

OOC: Sniper country, man, don't you call me JJR. The economy is in relation to population. Anyway, my population is about ot jump, cause I plowed a rainforest for uranium

(touchy about his name isn't he!)

And this doesn't even scratch the surface!

OOC:Once again, shut up. Those are months old. I was a godmoddy newb. I don't even have that tech anymore. AND I was a space nation back then. I switched. Yes, I have hoverships. What about it. Air and magnets, boy. Learn physics. And I didn't notice the acronym, ok? Everyone calls be JJR now. The concrete and glass one wasn't considered godmoddy by any of the OTHER nations in the thread. It was a space nation meeting. On some planet.

OOC: As my EMP pulses were thwarted by JJR's stating what technology i have available. being in the year 2160 i am slightly more advanced than the US army today.

IC: Phallanxes ASIW (anti satalite ignore weapons) deploy firing ignore beams at JJR's massive nuclear death bringing satalites that can be anywhere on demand without having to be retasked and then reorbit, that are invunerable to EMP and have tesla coils stuck on them to make sure they can't be destroyed

OOC: lol, i am not the one with the Neo/Wolverine cross-breed for a main char. the virus was inserted via a spur in the palm of the diplomats hand (for the third time) the diplomat is immune to the virus. all others who were infected (ie. the Tilsitsin General) were given a hormone treatment, which is a biochemical that reacts with a receptor on the surface of the virus, deactivating it. afterwards, i rped the woman checking the heel of her hand (read spur) for damage. the virus is not transmittable except by fluid transfer, so unless you vomited blood into someones eyes, or had sex while terminally ill, i doubt you would be able to pass it on. thus, i did not intend to kill anyone else but youre godmoddy character. dont get me wrong, i thnk he is cool. whowever, he is cool in a kind of very invincible way that i find annoying in games like this.

I do not think with my muscles. all of my tech is possible, and could be developed within the next ten years. i am sorry if you think my virus was a godmod, it was not. but it was simply not treatable in the method you described. i do not think you fully understand what a virus is. if you explained to me how you treated yourself, or asked me OOC how it would be done, i would have given you my opinion. which, btw, would have been to use immune suppressors, get him to a hospital, and possibly in stasis, take a sample and design an antiviral treatment, or possibly an alternative hormone. the other alternative would have been negotiating with me for a cure, or having the grace and sportsmanship to let your character die at my hands (no pun intended).

You were very arrogant to assume that you could waltz into a country, wander about without taking any precautions, shake the hand of a snakelady, and then waltz out again. America does it all the time, and most of the time it gets a bloody nose. get used to it. also, if youre first post was the aquisition of ortillery, when most nations wait till they are at least 100 million, then i rest my case. i have tried very hard to justify every last bit of technology i have. my nation is very specialised, and my specialty is using viral agents to achieve my ends. your scope of specialisation seems to me to be too wide. i have, for example, stayed away from magic. my one character who is closest has painstaking work done on his story and his background so that i can justify everything he does in a scientific context. can you say the same thing abaout taranteor and his pet dragon? i doubt it.i would suggest that we both just pretend that this never happened. our nations are not really compatible in the technological sense, as mine is near future, and yours is clearly far future with a magical twist. this has degenerated into us screaming "godmod" at each other, and i tire of that kind of thing quickly. i am still trying you set my country and its story up, and it would be a shame to see it go up in nuclear smoke now.

maybe later, when i am better established, we can have this little discussion again, but at present i have only a couple of allies, and i stand little chance in a full on exchange. my obstinence up till now has mainly been due to the fact that you took me on on my terms, in my territory, and then pointed at the size of your country as the reason you would have won. that is a misconception made all too often by large nations. and a good socialist example (because you claim to be a socialist nation) would be Russia in afghanistan.

They eventually had to withdraw because they were taking on the mujaheddin (did i spell this right?) on their terms, if you had surrounded me with your teleporting stealth gravships, and then flooded my beaches with marines, i would have thrown my hands in the air and said "take what you want!" and then waited till you left and then pleaded for UN action or something. But you didn't. also, if you make it a habit to attack new, and weak countries in order to steal their ideas, i pity you. the plans i gave you are not bogus, and they will put any super soldier technology you have foreward by years, but they are not complete, because my scientists do most of it by memory. only specific gene sequences had hard copies. you asked for the hard copies, so i gave them to you. i have not god-modded personally yet, so far as i, or anyone i have asked can tell. but you have. In appearing on my island without warning, or bieng spotted offshore, and for materialising assets like your gravship, and your satalites, around or above my island.

Satalites have to be re-tasked every time they change their orbital pattern, and gravships have to come from somewhere. i have this on the authority of a number of experienced players, and common sense. you cannot, no matter how large you are, simply teleport in 10 men, then claim that there is a weapons satalite conveniently overhead, then zoom off on a spontaneously materialised gravship. you instigated this confrontation. if you were too arrogant to do your homework on the common offshoots or retroviral recombinant DNA resequencing technology, or even finding out what a virus WAS, then i am sorry, but that is your problem, not mine.

Deep in ashers mind, a part of him smiled in satisfaction. another part continued to analyze the energy absorbtion qualities of the barons clothing, bombarding it with ever more complex energy patterns, attacking it in the same way one might attack a mainframe's security. yet another part was scanning through all available research/intelligence material related to kalessin, and in particular the Baron, also, it researched evertything to do with Kalessini rune-magic. all over the world, university and government mainframes were bieng broken into, and pillaged. easy targets only, however. Asher really, truly did not want to get caught right now. the concentration required to evade a trace was more concentration than he currently had available without dropping something else along the way.

Outwardly, he smiled slowly, Ruefully, perhaps slightly overdoing the show of emotion, for just a teasing millisecond. he then replied:
"yes, we still reproduce sexually, it is more fun than artificial insemination, and we find cloning... distasteful. as for childbirth, that has been eliminated as it is impractical in terms of gene treatment. you will see why soon."

He then turns, and leads them through into the labs, which start out looking more like hospital wards, but steadily become more like University laboratories, DNA testing seems to be the most sinister or high tech thing on this level, at the other end of the corridor, however, is an elevator, which the party is then asked to enter.

The elevator looks much like any other hospital elevator, large enough to fit a trolly, and thankfully devoid of annoying tinkly music. there are six levels that are labeled according to purpose, and one unlabeled, and a palm scanner mounted on the wall above them. Asher places his hand on the scanner, and all the buttons light up, he then pushes the third one, and the elevator descends silently.

"the third level is where all the actual alteration is done on the prototype models. mass production stuff is done next door. this is also where all of our babies are treated for defects. L3 is a clean level, that means you will have to remove all bulky clothing and wear HazMat suits. wouldn't want to catch something nasty now would we? we dont know what effect the viral agents would have on you, so i suggest you wear one. also, you will have to in the interests of the embryos, they are highly vulnerable to infection."

the doors open, and the room beyond is a changing area with cubicles but no lockers. there are two one way bulkheads, one into, and one out of the next room, and there are HazMat suits arranged along one wall on hooks.

Asher takes one, sheds his outer robe, muttering curses as he notices the blood, and begins the somewhat fiddly process of donning the suit, and indicates that the others should do the same.

The Baron, his lips concealed by both the cowl of his robe and by the black helmet underneath, had spent most of the tour muttering a fairly lengthly incantation, and, as he whispered the final syllable, a strange change occurred in Asher’s second-sight, as the forms of the Baron and his assistants were replaced by what appeared to be seven gigantic roses, although to the naked eye there was no change at all.

Naturally, Asher found very little information on the Empire, rune magic-related or otherwise, due to the simple fact that those few computers which existed within the Empire were not linked up to any form of network, and even those had no information on sorcery, while the only other sources of information were a few scant observations recorded on rather secure machines in the intelligence departments of The Territory and The Empire Of The Eternal Dawn.

The Baron looked askance at the HazMat suits.

“No, I don’t believe that I really want to enter that room. You don’t happen to have any fairly weak-minded individuals to hand by any chance?”

Asher laughed aloud. all levels of his mind registering some level ogf amusement.
"We are a nation entirely descended from either great scientists, or great Generals. i doubt you would find a weak-willed person on this entire island. would it not be possible to do whatever you are doing on one of your own? or perhaps on me?"

Ashers mind then seemingly opens, like a drawbridge dropping suddenly. he stands, awaiting a reply.

Suddenly, Asher staggered, the defences on his mind came up with a force that caused a disturbance in the air around him. all over the room, the small hairs on the backs of necks stand on end, a sensation like static on a TV screen fills the air, and there is a faint taint of Ozone. suddenly, Klaxons wail, the elevator momentarily powers down, and then reactivates, and a voice comes over the intercom.

"Security breach. Lock down level three is now in operation. Evacuate all staging, and treatment areas. warning, unauthorised continment breaches on levels 3, 4 and 5, unauthorised containment breach in factory wing. unauthorised containment breach Prep rooms 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,13 and 16."

The small window in the door leading to the treatment labs is spattered briefly with a mist of blood, and small scrabbling noises begin to issue from the access door. there is a loud thump, and a dent appears.

Asher suddenly bursts to life again, and he shreds the HazMat off himself, taking much of his shirt with it. this reveals that the metallic gauntlets on his hands extend all the way up his arms, and that he is in fact wearing a body-hugging suit of armour. the surface of the metal sheens like petrol spreading on water, and the armour seems to be all of one piece, cunningly jointed and hinged to allow free movement, and it fits him perfectly, echoing the muscles in his arms, chest, and even back.
Asher then rushes to the elavator, which opens, while speaking t over his shoulder:
"Something has hacked into the mainframes contolling communications and containment, and is releasing all of the old Hyde Mk 1 units we had in storage, a well as all the new prototypes we had in there (he indicates the bloodstained door), I am going to my lab, we may have to fight our way out." he then turns to face them from the elevator, and grins "well, are you coming or what?"

OOC: sorry to let another thread hijack this one, but the opportunity for a good ass-kicking should more than compensate :twisted:. on the bright side :) this is an ideal way to see the effectiveness of my products first hand. pls bear in mind that these will be new-bornes mostly. (think end of godzilla crossed with the little dinos in one of the better Jurassic Parks) if you dont like the way this is going, we can always ignore this post and carry on as before.

basically, Benderland's out of control AI is hacking my mainframes. thread here:
http://www.nationstates.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=1529863#1529863

The Baron nodded once, and strode wordlessly into the elevator, his servants scurrying after him.

The elevator lurched downwards at a gesture, and continued to drop well past the levels indicated by the elevators buttons, eventually it came slowly to a halt, and the doors opened to reveal a minimalist but tasteful apartment. instead of the usual modern brass or steel sculptures tastefully arranged in alcoves and on pedestals around the main room, there were moving, often floating and always unsupported and impossible seeming sculptures, the nearest a set of concentric rings and spheres that spin around each other like a madcap Renaissance model of the universe.

In the living room there are several display cases containing various weaponry, from guns, to a case full of weapons relating to the Hung Kuen form of Kung Fu. also, at one end of the room is an especially aesthetically pleasing supercomputer, whirring quietly, and looking like its going to take off at mach10 at any moment. the computer has no visible method of interaction, nor (if scanned) any invisible method of interaction.

Asher goes over to the cases and removes two nasty looking submachine guns that fire what looks suspiciously like assault-rifle ammo (4.46), and a number of extra clips, and then goes to another case and removes a nasty looking pair of Hookswords. he attaches all this to his armour by what must be magnetism or something, because there are no obvious fixtures on it. he seems to put a lot of care into placing the hookswords in exactly the right place, as if this is very important to his method of fighting. (Asher fights with a highly customised version of Hung Kuen style Kung Fu. i will be using a lot of licence, but thats what it is.)

An MP7 PDW
http://www.hkpro.com/pdwmain.jpg

A pair of Hookswords (mine are sharper tho :twisted: )
http://sunnytang.com/Merchant2/graphics/00000001/HookSword.jpg

Having armed himself, he turns to the Kalissini delegates:

"you may help yourself to anything from these cases. you will probably find most of them are these (indicating his MP7's), they are standard diplomatic corps issue. there is also a couple of G11 assault rifle's floating around, and a number of P2000 subcompacts."

OOC: MP7 has a clip of 40 4.6mm, 950rpm on full auto. you can probably carry 4 spare clips. it is a machine pistol, and can be fired in one hand.
G11 has a clip of 90 4.73mm caseless, 2000 rpm, and you can carry six clips.
P2000 has a clip of 10 9mm, and is semi automatic. it is a pistol, and you can carry six to eight clips. (estimations are with no other clips acquired)

A G11 Assult Rifle, magazine is horizontal on top of barrel
http://www.hkpro.com/image/g11proto14.jpg

Five of the six servants, the exception being the one with the scanner, shuffled over to the weapons case, each picking up a single MP-7 and a copious quantity of ammunition.

Ashers eyes fix for a second, then he says: "i think we had better leave by the back way, i think the Hydes have found the elevator shafts."

He then turns, and exits the room through a side door. walking through the door reveals that it is a collection of artifacts from all over the world. the walls of this room are tremendously thick, and upon entering the Baron feels a lot of interference in his magic, something in the room is disrupting it severely.

in the room are several items of note. one is a Book, bound in bleached leather, it appears to be very old.

another is a misshapen statue of a humanoid creature, one arm outstretched, grasping air, the other drawn back, fist clenched, as if ready to strike. three fingers on the grasping hand, and a large chunk of its head seem to have been hacked off at some point, and there is evidence of engraved symbols all over the statue, the deepest and most distinct, however, are disrupted by the break in the creatures head. the statue has a sense of arrested movement about it, as if it were alive but frozen in time.

the third and last is a sword, which radiates antiquity, and yet carries not a scratch, and gleams in a mildly disturbing manner, as if reflecting flames.

all the other objects in the room are priceless, but otherwise unremarkable pieces of art or literature.

at the back of this vault is another elevator, this one far more cramped.
Asher waits for the group to enter.

The Baron purposefully ignored the items on the wall, knowing that when in the presence of something which affected his magic, looking at it might not be a particularly wise move.

Instead, the whole group strode into the elevator after Asher, where the Baron's attendants purposefully began to look over their newly-aquired weaponry.

The elevator hissed as it ascended. The attendants looking over the weapons found that they were light, just over the size of a chunky pistol. they had T-bar cocking levers (similar to some types of M-16), folding forward grip, and a telescoping stock. the rounds it fires are either 4.46 jacketed hollowpoint, in like a penny, out like a pizza. or Teflon coated AP rounds, which type is indicated by a strip of colour around the mouth of the magazine. red for hollowpoint, blue for AP.

when the door opened it revealed a scene of carnage. spatters of blood decorate the walls like obsene modern art, and wire and loose piping hangs from the gutted cieling like grotesque bunting. above a nearby alarm console, there is a single bloody handprint, and a pool of miscelaneous gobbets of former technician that are all that remains.

an impression of movement at the far end of the corridor reminds all that this place is still dangerous, and that the Hydes now know you are here....

Deep in the night of Erebos, in a tower of gleaming white, The Watcher sits on an ornate oaken chair. the rustle of robes announces anOthers presence.

The Watcher stood: "Light"... and there was Light.

The Other stood in the doorway, his normally faintly amused face drawn with worry. He spoke, His voice like velvet on steel:
"Three of the Artifacts have resurfaced. There is little time."

The Watcher turned, his voice rich and deep.
"We Should Never Have Let Them Fall In To Human Hands."

"That folly can be rectified." said the Velvet voice.

"Let It Be So Then."

A near silent tinkling like falling glass anounces the Others departure, and the watcher turns back to survey the Infinite Darkness.

OOC: This is an Angel nation called the Nephalim (actually spelled Nephilim), a group of fallen Angels that were banished because of the forbidden knowledge they gave to man. i have divided the population by 1000,000 for balance. that means that Erebos, at time of writing, has a population of twelve. Erebos means/is The Darkness in greek, and is a part of the underworld in Greek mythology. in this, it is a pocket in space accesible only through special gates, or by magic teleportation, or wormhole technology.

Angels are Magic(ish) energy based lifeforms, their physical bodies are merely matter layered atop their energy forms. the Nephalim are Fallen angels, but not inherently evil. they are NOT satan-related. their physical bodies can be destroyed without harming their energy forms, and so they are very difficult to kill. they do not need to eat, sleep or breathe, and so they have very low overheads, and their money comes from a number of very, very long term investments.

Angelic miracle magic is achieved using Words of God. each Angel has only a few Words, like "Light", the example used above. such Words are completely nuetral in nature. they are drawing off of the power of the infinite and very nuetral, indifferent Universe. Demons use the same source of power, as do High Angels. the more poweful the angel, the more Words they know. the angelic language however, is also based on the "Language" of God, and so has power in itself, but the power comes from the speaker, as opposed to the Universe, and so this magic is generally less effective.

The Nephalim are divided into the Watcher, his Council, the Choirs, and The Other. the Other is not technically speaking, a nephalim, but will feature a lot. a choir presently consists of four Angels. the council is three angels, with the Watcher bieng the fourth. there are therefore, at the time of writing, the Watchers council and two Choirs. population expansion will be due to Nephalim gathering from across the world. and i plan to have a number of RP's based around this, and the recovering of Artifacts that mankind has been deemed unready for.

This post was cleared by GenTec beforehand. I would like some honest feedback on this, but preferably no scriptural pedantry, or fundamentalist Bible Bashing. Primarily balance issues.
please put all feedback on this thread:
http://www.nationstates.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=1556655#1556655

OOC: Cool angel thingies! *is glad that he has demons, just in case.*

IC:

The Kalessin servants cautiously followed Asher into the corridor, all their senses alert, and their weapons loaded, forming a hollow pentagon around the one with the scanner.

The Baron brought up the rear, his weapon still sheathed.

Asher's breathing slowed, his eyes closed. all unneccesary distractions faded away. he visualised a circle with the radius bieng his reach. purple plasma flame licked up his arms, and danced across his body like cavorting spirits, the last vestiges of his shirt singed and crumbled to white ash. slowly he removed his hookswords from their places at his side, a deliberation of movement, combined with controlled breathing that relaxed and prepared him. he advanced.

about half way down the corridor, they came. six from the front, four from a floor-level ventilation grille behind them. they were lightning fast, three of the six in front leapt into the cabling hanging from the cieling, attempting to bypass Asher and attack the assistants. The four behind ran alternating attacks and feints on the Baron, testing him.

As soon as the first of them entered ashers circle, Asher burst into a flurry of movement, plucking the first out of the air with the hook-end, and flinging him into one of the swinging Hydes with enough force to reduce both to mangled heaps. He then followed on into the other two, ducking an attack, he lashed out with the backs of his swords, slicing one in half, and delivering a wicked blow to the legs of the other, knocking it into the walls and out of the fight.

The first Hyde to attack the Baron ran straight toward him, emboldened by his lack of any visible weaponry or armour. Iulsthiz watched its frenzied advance with contempt, confident that no mere Young-Kingdomer could possibly pose a threat to him, and faintly surprised that one so small and immature-looking would even dare to try. His hands remained calmly by his sides, as he pulsed a bolt of fear into the mind of his aggressor. But the Hyde could feel no fear, and its fist blurred in the air as it jabbed into the midriff of the Kalessin nobleman. A bright spray of blood sprinkled Iulsthiz’s fine black robes, as, even through his finely-crafted armour, he felt the impact, but even as the Hyde began to withdraw its bloodied fist, from which the skin had been torn by the force of the blow, the Baron’s own gauntleted hands whipped up to grasp the creature’s neck, which snapped with an audible crack.

So fast! How could any Young-Kingdomer of that size move so quickly, or strike so hard with only its bare fists?

He drew his sword, shaking the stained robes from his shoulders;

These might well prove a good investment.

The next two Hydes, made cautious by the death of their comrade, advanced together, one on each side. The Baron sensed the movement, and pulsed a breif thought to the scanner-equipped servant;

Arm, leg, head, groin, heart. Reactions.

And then, with a blur of movement, the Hydes closed, and the Baron’s sword lashed out, claiming an arm from one and a leg from the other before the creatures could even come within their limited reach. Blows to the other three locations followed swiftly, with one losing its head, and the other finding large holes where its heart and groin had once been. The fourth Hyde, seeing the fate of its comrades, retreated rather rapidly.

Meanwhile, three of the five robed servants turned the weapons on the approaching Hydes, firing on full automatic at the heads and legs of their adversaries with surprising accuracy, given their wizened physiques, but, to their horror, the Hydes shrugged off the bullets, and kept coming, limping forward and juddering with the impacts. The scanner equipped figure in the centre was a blur of motion, recording all three confrontations, and trying to analyse them all almost simulateously.

The Hydes fell back then, as quickly as they had come, the ones with missing limbs suffering only a 30% loss of mobility. muscular constriction of blood vessels stopping the bleeding almost before it began. the four which Asher had engaged thrashed about of the ground, their decentralised nervous systems had been severed from one another, and therefore were not acting together. Asher quickly finished each in turn.

The only one of the Hydes not to fall back was the one who lost its head, which launched itself blindly on to the sword of the Baron, in a last ditch attempt to attack him. like chickens, the scanning assistant noted, they seem to be able to fight without their heads for quite some time. he was also suprised by the complexity of the reflex systems, and the lack of reaction at the groin attack. the loss of the heart seemed to be lethal, but again, not immediately. the capacity of the Hydes to prevent bleeding meant that they could fight for up to 2 minutes without a heart. they also seem to have a limiter on their pain levels, so that it cannot paralyze, nor even really traumatise the creatures.

So far the Baron was counting two kills, and Asher four.

Asher then gives a number of extravagent hand-gestures at their retreating backs, and speaks to the Baron:

"We must keep moving. there may be as many as 800 of those things loose around the base. kill teams and surface defences will have been deployed by now, so our best bet would be a safe house on the surface. that group was newly hatched, as we get farther from the point of release, they will get bigger. And meaner."

he then walks down the hall, towards the next set of elevators.

(OOC: Asher is disabling them by severing their spinal cord near the bottom. this only works on the small ones, but it leaves them thrashing useless heaps.)

As they followed Asher down the corridor, the Baron reached into the scanner-operator's mind, and found what he was looking for, sitting right at the forefront of his servant's conciousness;

Lower spinal cord

OOC: sorry for the delay, i have been settling in to Uni.

IC: Asher strode up to the elevator doors. but he made no move to open them. instead, he walked over to a recessed panel in the wall. with a touch, it opened, reveealing a console and a small screen. the air between Ashers Palm and the console shimmered and light scattered strangely as he accessed the Security override. a message appeared on the screen:

//Sec1S1F1 Override. Shaft purge. Confirm?
Yes(Y) No(N)

suddenly, there was a roar. Heat radiated off of the elevator doors, flames licked around the slight gap. the screeching of dying Hydes filled the air.

after some minutes, Asher gestured, and the door opened, revealing a scorched and skeletal interior. he stepped inside, apparently satisfied by its structural integrity. turning, he waited for the others to follow, stepping on the scorched skull of a Hyde, which crumbles easily to dust under his tread.

The Doctor looked down at the skull;

Vulnerable to fire. The skeletal structure cannot stand extreme heat any more than the flesh, and rapidly becomes brittle. Fascinating. Fire elementals should prove effective.

He felt the slight pressure in his mind which indicated that his chief was receiving his thoughts.

The Baron nodded faintly at the Doctor, as he pondered the significance of such extreme interior defences as the one which he had just witnessed in action, and followed Asher and the robed servants into the lift.

Asher smiles grimly, "The Hydes develope a thick fire-retardant armoured layer of skin in the twenty-second hour of development. this elevator is designed for initial evacuation in the event of something like this happening. Internal sensors are showing a cleansing team on sevel two, we will attempt to meet up with them."

The elevator makes small plinking noises as it cools down. eventualy it reaches level four. the doors shudder open, and reveal a battle in progress.

Six large men in full body-armour and oxygen-masks are fending off twelve slightly larger Hydes wielding metal bars and lengths of chain and steel cable.

The men are armed with flame throwers and MP7's, and appear to be very well trained in corridor fighting.

Burning napalm clings burning to the walls, and the air is thick with fumes and has little oxygen left.

The Kalessin party watched the fight, analysing the tactics employed by the Gentec security personel, and recording the whole encounter for later review. However, interesting although the fight was, they did not let down their guard in any way, remaining aware of every approach for any possible threat.

The Kill-Team appear to be very highly trained. they move like a single organism, covering each other and acting in a deft, economical movements. The flamethrowers are used to keep the Hydes back, while controlled bursts from the MP7's. the high Caliber of the MP7's (4.46), and perhaps some specialist customisation means that it penetrates the thich hides of the Hydes. They seem to be aiming specifically for the central mass, and the MP7 specialists tend to choose targets in pairs, two soldiers to one Hyde.

Asher stands back and admires the actions of the Elite troops. He doe not show the slightest inclination to interfere.

Iulsthiz turned to Asher, still alert for any possible attack;

"If these creatures develop a fire retardent coating after a few hours, how do your men propose to deal with any which survive to that age?"

Meanwhile, the scanner-equipped servant began to run analyses of where the bullets hit the Hydes, and what effect each hit had.

Asher nods, and leans back.
"This is emergency containment stage one. The main purpose of these teams in a major outbreak is to cover the evacuation to the main residential bunkers. they will then withdraw and the levels will be sealed and the air pumped out. as tough as our Hydes are, they cannot operate without air. they will all die within 8 hours. The teams then return, clear any surviving infestation, and then the air is pumped back in and repairs initiated. we will be back up and operational within six weeks. the main damage will be to our Personnel. we have lost a good number of technicians and low level research personnel in the initial outbreak."

The last of the Hydes then falls twitching to the ground. the kill team consolidate, and secure the area, then the officer then approaches Asher.

"Sir! we will accompany you and the delegates to a secure location. these corridors are not yet safe."

Asher turns to the Delegation and says:
"Yes, If the Baron has seen enough, then we will adjourn to a safer location and begin talks."

He then turns back to the soldier. "Have the backup labs been brought online yet?"

The soldier nods. "The backup labs have been brought online, salvaged materials have already been tranferred. main research personel casualties were minimal."

Asher nods, and turns to the Baron, obviously waiting for his assent before leaving for a safe location.

Iulsthiz smiled genially within his helm;

"I was rather looking forward to seeing a few fully-grown specimens, but if you think it best, by all means let us go to a quieter location. I will require a few minutes in private with equipment suitable for contacting my government before we begin any talks."

Asher nods and gestures to the guard, who then leads them to a bulkhead, behind which is a small pod with seating inside, asher steps in and seats himself towards the rear of the small craft. the seats are remarkably comfortable, and the pod takes off at incredible speed, apparently driven on linear induction drives. soon they reach their destination. a small illuminated sign declares it to be the Diplomatic Headquarters. Asher then leads the party to a small room containing a communications console, then leaves them and stands outside.

Iulsthiz chanted softly under his breath for a short time, before sprinkling the entire room with silver dust from a red velvet bag which he had produced from within his robes. This had the effect of making the entire room appear to be enveloped by a fuzzy, nigh-on-impenetrable haze, whether it was being observed by camera or by other means...

The servant with the recording device then removed it from his belt, and plugged it into the communications equipment, sending the information it contained to one of the three machines stored within the Kalessin Ministry of Peace which was capable of such a transfer.

The reply came back within seconds. Spoken in an ancient and long-dead demonic tongue, known only to some few of the people of Kalessin, the message translated simply as "Red, 452".

Iulsthiz smiled and pulsed a breif thought to one of his companions, before dispersing the dust, and opening the door.

Iulsthiz chanted softly under his breath for a short time, before sprinkling the entire room with silver dust from a red velvet bag which he had produced from within his robes. This had the effect of making the entire room appear to be enveloped by a fuzzy, nigh-on-impenetrable haze, whether it was being observed by camera or by other means...

The servant with the recording device then removed it from his belt, and plugged it into the communications equipment, sending the information it contained to one of the three machines stored within the Kalessin Ministry of Peace which was capable of such a transfer.

The reply came back within seconds. Spoken in an ancient and long-dead demonic tongue, known only to some few of the people of Kalessin, the message translated simply as "Red, 452".

Iulsthiz smiled and pulsed a breif thought to one of his companions, before dispersing the dust, and opening the door.

the Baron finds Asher still where he was before, Ashers eyes are distant, his attention apparently elsewhere.

Within moments however, he comes back to himself, turning, he smiles and, gesturing towards the room, he says:
"I trust you found the equipment suitable for your needs? If so, Dimitri shall accompany you to the Board Room, my father wishes to speak with you. I regret that i cannot come, as i have an... Apointment."

OOC: why dont you plant a bug or something on him.? i promise i wont find it, and it may prove interesting...

Iulsthiz nodded toward Asher.

"Thankyou for the use of your equipment. I do hope that we shall meet again soon."

as he spoke, Iulsthiz stretched out into the ether with his mind

Fibbit! Come to your master.

As Asher turned away, and strode from the room, the cloth upon the right shoulder of the Baron's cloak depressed a little, only a few millimeters, as if some tiny object had landed upon it, although nothing could be seen.

Fibbit! Follow the creature that just left this room, and watch where he goes.

His flow of thought paused for a second,

And do not borrow anything.

As Iulsthiz stepped forward to follow the Gentec soldier, a minute, and virtually imperceptible shimmering in the air swept downwards from his shoulder, and shot along the floor in the path which Asher had previously taken.

Asher nods and smiles, maintaining the barest veneer of decorum, he turns and briskly walks down the corridor and around the corner.

As soon as he is around the corner, Asher begins to run... fast...
So fast in fact that poor Fibbet is having a hard time keeping up. at one point he does a double wll rebound with a somersault in order to avoid a cleaning crew.

(If fibbet was present before he realises that Asher is doubling back)

After much running, Asher turns a corner, and bang, runs straight into a ruined Laboratory. the transition between pristine and destroyed almost nonexistant. A group of Hydes stand gawping at space in the center of the room. they do not respond to Ashers fleeting presence.

Asher quickly makes his way back to the elevator that leads to his apartment. after activating it in a different manner to before, a pristine elevator answers him, which he steps into hurriedly. The elevator descends at twice the normal rate, and still he occasionally kicks the door and swears under his breath at how slow it is.

When it arrives "finally!", Asher rushes out into the gallery, to see four individuals, one White, one Black, and two men in black suits, and big crate. upon seeing him, three of them and the crate dissapear in a blue glow, but in a frenzied attack, Asher manages to separate one of the men in suits, and dispatch him before he gets away.

He stands over the body of the dead man. disgust and dissapointment war for supremacy on his enraged face. he kicks the body, then bends down and searches it. in one pocket, he finds a meddalion, fashiond in the style of a just post-crusade coin from the Holy Land. it is made of the same substance as his armour. he stares in fascination, turning it over in his hands, and then grips it strongly, and mutters to himself:

"Electrum. hmm. Most interesting. but i havent the time."

he then turns on his heel and walks through into his bedroom. when inside, he triggers a secret door that seals the door out simultaneously with a growling metallic grind. He steps through the door, and into another Lab. this one however has full, man-sized stasis tubes all around the outside, and one highly sophisticated one at the center, which stands empty.

A handsome, middle-aged woman stands at a console, constantly and innefectually pushind at a stray lock of raven hair. she looks up with a start, and exclaims in suprise:

"Oh! you startled me Asher! you shoudn't sneak up on me like that. and whats that thing you brought in with you?"

Asher begins to turn, the strange static feeling begins again to build as he spreads his senses, but the woman gestures irritably.

"Come on, It is probably nothing. we dont have time. I have the next set of upgrades ready, and we need to restabalise you! you really are pushing it, leaving it this late. that suit cant hold you together forever you know! speaking of which, i have a new version of that as well that you will need installed. Daniel knocked it up over the weekend. quite snazzy."

Asher rolls his eyes.
"Yes Mother. Im coming."

He strips off his outer garments, revealing the full extent of the "Armour" he wears. The "armour" is actually directly implanted into his skin, several discreet panels, and a number of small jacks are hidden away in less visible areas. the implants are certainly designed to have a protective function, but that seems to be only part of the equation.

Fibbet also notices that there is a small display on the inside of Ashers right forearm, and that it is currently flashing red.

Asher steps into the the open tank in the center of the room, and begins hooking up the various jacks, and opening panels to recieve larger cables, some of which designed to carry fluid.

All of Ashers chest-plating then opens to reveal a rumber of other ports and jacks, and a small console as well. The woman conects these, and inputs a series of commands into the console. she then steps out, and the tube closes, and begins to fill with fluid. Asher closes his eyes, and his head lolls back slightly as he is suspended in the fluid.

The woman then retreats behind her console, muttering and whispering to herself, obviously furious with Asher in a, perhaps suprisingly, parental way.

Fibbit is left to consider his next course of action.

Fibbit zipped through the corridors as he followed his target, his tiny legs blurring as he hurtled along the floor, walls and sometimes even the ceiling. Even had he been still, the imp would only have been visible as a minute shimmering in the air, for, as with all of his kind, Fibbit was able to shift most of his physical form into the dimension in which he habitually dwelt, but as it was, the cleaning crew saw nothing, as a tiny breath of air brushed over their heads.

Upon reaching the lab, Fibbit swerved to a halt, slipping silently into the shadows as he caught his breath and looked carefully around the lab. For a while, caution, and the Baron's warning, held him in the corner, but eventually, his nature reasserted itself, and he began to dart around the room with unbridled curiousity, his keen eyes running over the various control panels and stasis tubes even as he sped over them, like quicksilver.

Fibbet sees this:

The room is circular. The architecture is sweeping and organic, completely dissimilar to the design elsewhere in the island. complex patterns of the silvery metal are inlaid into all the surfaces of the room.

The multitude of quietly humming supercomputers and consoles have no visible displays or output devices of any kind exept for the cables that snake across the floor between the computers and the various tubes. The inputs however, consoles, switches, slides and dials, are extremely sophisticated, and the labelling and lettering is all done in a strange 3-dimensional pictographic language halfway between Aramaic and Braille.

The Tubes that stand around the edge of the room are filled with a murky green liquid, floating in this are vaguely discernible humanoid figures, which move occasionally, and seem to be alive.

Fibbets attention is returned to the center of the room by an impatient exclamation of satisfacton from the woman Asher called "Mother".

A few final touches, and "Mother" initiates the process with a flurry of keystrokes.

Asher spasms, rising to nuetral bouyancy in the blue fluid of his tank like a puppet pulled up on its strings. He floats spread-eagled, his veins stand like cables across muscle that bunches and writhes like eels under his skin. The humming of the computers rises to a screech, and a silvery fluid begins to course down the pipes into the implants, which begin to grow and change. The silver fluid is then replaced by a different, clear fluid. Asher writhes, his eyes open, showing only white as his body assimilates the new fluid, which is a high nutrient supplement laced with retroviral Geno-Patching serum. Complex hormonal cocktails keep his body functioning under carefully monitered parameters as the cells of his body, of his brain, are carefully restructered. Critical flaws in his volatile genetic structure repaired by sophisticated engineered retroviral agents.

Asher is bieng upgraded.

Fibbet rapidly memorises the scene, concentrating so hard that it takes a few moments to realise that something is wrong.

The woman is looking at him.

Or not. The woman is not looking at him, he quickly realises, because the woman is blind. her eyes have no pupil, yet they focus unneringly on him.

He shifts uneasily, clearly caught, and unable to think what to do about it.

Fibbit’s large, round eyes widened in shock, and his jaw dropped comically as an expression of sheer panic flashed across his tiny face. He froze for the merest fraction of a second, and then darted toward the door.

Fibbet leaves uncontested, no alarm is raised, and no attempt is made to block or pursue him.

Fibbit fled back to his master with the blind speed that only abject terror can bring, and within seconds had raced up the shoulder of the Baron, squealing in his own primitive tongue, his voice far too high-pitched to be detected by the human ear, as words blurred and merged with one-another in his panicked haste;

“Shesawmeshesawmeshesawmeshesawmeshesawmeshesawmeshesawmeshesawme.”

Iulsthiz frowned within the darkness of his cowl.

Silence. Who saw you? Where? Report.

“Bigscarymanranreallyreallyfast, jumpedroundlikeabigimp. Shinyplace-allroundandcurvywithlotsofprettypatterns, lotsofshinyboxeswithhorridlumpsonandbiiigscarygreysnakespokingout, boxesmadewierdsoundslikethis – hmmmbeepbeephmmmbeep – bigseethroughairwithgreenstuffin, bigscarywomanwithnoeyes, hitlittlelumps, putbigjumpingmaningreenstuff, puthorridsnakesinhim, soundlikethis – eeeeeeee – thenshesawmesawme, andiranawayveryfast, yesidid, don’twantsnakesputinme, noidon’t.”

You were right to flee. You have done well. You will have your ‘pretty, shiny things’ when we return to my palace.

The imp, had he been visible, would have been seen to visibly relax at his master’s reply.

“Thanks boss! Can I go home now boss?”

You may.

And with that Fibbit vanished completely, fading back into his own world.

Iulsthiz turned to Dimitri, as he began to ponder the implications of the imp’s words in his mind;

“Shall we start our negotiations?”

Dimitri nods and leads the Baron and his entourage down short corridor to a large, dimly-lit board room.

Enthroned at the other end of the large table that dominates the center of the room is a slender, highly intelligent looking man with dark hair going white at the temples, and pale skin, To either side of him sit the board members.

One of them you have already met, DeLamia nods respectfully at yor apearance. The others however, are strangers bearing a panoply of different aesthetic modifications, from fur and feathers to scales. Each nods respectfully to the Baron, but do not rise, or show any further measure of respect. a deliberate ploy to establish an equal ground with the Baron.

The dark man however, stands gracefully. He gestures to the seats arrayed along the other side of the table, and smiles:

"I am Markus Alben. I am sorry for the earlier inconvenience, I assure you the damage is not as severe as it may have... Appeared. Please, sit.
The negotiations will commence as soon as you are ready."

He then smiles again, and sits as gracefully as he stood.

Iulsthiz bowed curtly to Alben, before taking the indicated seat.

"I am ready. I trust that you will not object if my servants observe?"

Markus inclines his head slightly, granting the request.

"I believe there was a minor incident while you were touring our facilities. I trust no-one was hurt? It gave you, at least, a measure of the security we already have in place, and some indication of the effectiveness of our products. we are fortunately in the midst of an extensive expansion and upgrade of our facilities, and much of the equipment they destroyed is going out of date. Anyway, a relatively minor mishap, highly localised. How did you find the rest of our fledgling Nation?"

"From what I have seen, your 'Hyde' warriors could well be extremely challenging opponents for almost any mortal warrior, once they are fully grown, and the creation of young Asher shows that your research has not yet hit a dead end. I can easily see such warriors fighting in the arenas of Kalessin, although the limited life-span does mean that they will have to be more a novelty item, since they could not live out a full tournament."

Iulsthiz smiled genially;

"Nevertheless, the Empire has instructed me to offer to buy a 51% share in your corporation. In exchange for a controlling share such as that, we will of course both provide protection against any foreign power who might threaten you, and almost unlimited research-funding, as well as any raw-materials that you cannot obtain by yourselves. All we ask in return, is that you do not sell to Menelmacar, or any of her allies."

Markus smiles grimly. he leans forward, resting his elbows on the desk, and steepling his fingers.

"i am afraid that theat is not possible. I cannot condone any treatise which would threaten our sovereignty. In addition to this, 45 percent of this corporation already resides in the hands of private shareholders. In fact, only 25 percent of the shares are available to this treatise. This number of shares carries with it a seat on the Board, and a powerful, if not controlliing, intrerest. You would in fact, be second only to me in terms of share ratio. Menelmecar and her allies have shown no desire to trade with us, and so we are not adverse to cutting all possible trade relations with those powers. I could, however, offer you this:"

He then leans back, and smiles again:

"I have heard of your willingness to make large... Sacrifices... in order to meet your goals. I would suggest this: We open a small research lab in your country. we have access to... Test subjects. In return you get full rights to all military applications for the research they carry out. In return for this, the 25 percent, and the trade embargo, all we wish is your protection in any military conflict we are drawn into. We have no need for funding, and have means of obtaining any materials we require for research purposes. Also, your ownership of 25 percent of the shares would mean ythat you will be required to have a constant embassy to protect your interests. Facilities above or below ground can be made available for this purpose.

He then looks out from under half-hooded eyes, as if growing bored, and awaits the reply.

The Baron looked Markus in the eyes.

"Your suggestion seems... reasonable. Who, might I ask, are these private shareholders? I trust that none of them have a larger than 20% share...."

Markus dismisses the question with a wave of his hand:

"The private share-holders are generally GenTec executives, as part of the internal markets of the Corporation. They are symbolic of the overall market share held by them. No individual, other than myself and Asher, has over ten percent overall market share. This deal would make your nation the third, and in reality second, most powerful force on the Board."

He then fixes his gaze on the baron, attaining eye contact even through the helmet:

"I take it then that you find this deal acceptable?"

Iulsthiz nodded;

"I have just one more request, and then I shall sign, and arrange for a transfer of the relevant amount of money. Our Ministry of Peace would like to be permitted to engage in free and uncensored communication with your leading scientists, that they might work together to some extent. Oh... and I trust that you would willing to back work on any specific research which we might commission?"

"The Corporation as a united body has no objections to any research opportunities. in fact, we as an administrative body do not involve ourselves in the process except to subsidise the research, and demand a return on our investment, and access to the results. If you wish to commision research, then i am sure one of our research teams will be more than happy to oblige. In fact, as you will have a twenty-five percent share, two staffed research labs will come under your nominal control. one for every full ten percent of shares. these Labs may be used in any way you see fit, so long as they reach the containment standards enforced by the Corporation. These have been tightened in lieu of recent... events, and so your teams will be expected to comply to regular inspections."

Markus then sits back and makes a minute gesture with his hands. paper begins to feed up from a narrow slot in front of the Baron, as the information is simultaneously displayed on a holo-projector in the center of the table. It contains the full details of the treatise, of the powers and obligations, pacts and promises discussed and agreed. all the Baron has to do is ratify, and sign.

Markus produces an elegent, slimline black pen, and offers it across the table.

"I understand that youre nation has a distinct lack of computers, so i toojk the liberty of printing it, anything you sign will also be reflected in the holographic version."

The Baron read the treaty carefully, as did one of his aides, before removing his right gauntlet. He then took the pen, and signed the treaty with his personal rune, before handing it back to Markus and replacing the gauntlet.

"I shall arrange for the monies to be transported to you as soon as possible. Would you prefer to be paid in Kalessin Sovereigns, gems, or unmarked gold?"

Markus smiled, and leaned back. The slot in front of the Baron produced some more paper:

"This is a list of rare crystaline and metallic material that... our research teams have requested. the rest is to be delivered in gold bullion."

Markus then stands, and grins:

"It has been a pleasure doing bussiness with the Empie of Kalessin. And with you. Shall i direct you in a tour of prospective sites for your Embassy Baron?"

Baron Iulsthiz took the paper, and handed it to one of his servants;

"It shall be attended to immediately upon our return to the Empire. You shall have your payment in full within the week."

He smiled genially within his helm;

"Now then, let's see what prospective sites you have lined up for us"

Markus smiles as he stands:

"Very well... Embassador. And take that silly hat off. The time for secrets is over, and the time for trust has come."

He then gestures with his left hand. Immediately the room is bathed in a blue glow as a huge three dimensional hologram of the island appears, dominating the center of the room. It shows all installations and developement, above and below ground.

Markus gestures grandly:

"You can have any two square kilometer piece of land you like, so long as it does not overlap any of the structures shown here."

The Baron chuckled gently, and casually gestured toward a point on the map which was right on the coast, yet near enough to the Gentec central complex for easy access.

"I believe that should be a suitable location."

Markus nodded, accepting the proposal without hestation. he then bowed minutely, and said:

"I hope you forgive me, but i must attend to other bussiness. My son Asher has just finished his treatment, and i must see him. Duty of a parent."

Without waiting for a response, he he turns to leave. As he walks away he speaks again, over his shoulder:

"You may begin construction immediately, If you need something, then consult with my assistant, Miss DeLamia."...

The Memory was abruptly and annoyingly cut short, just before the crowning moment. A buzzing sound was emanating from the intercom on his desk. Markus took a deep breath and pushed the button, looking at the plasma screen "windows" which simulated an office above ground. currently it looked out over the newly constructed Kalessini Compound.

the voice that emanated from the sleek speaker unit was Ashers:

"The Scientists are ready. No sign of the Embassador Vischyiak yet though, or his dragon."

Markus activated the mike:
"Patience Asher. He will be there. How is the latest implant settling?"

Asher snorts:
"As well as you might expect. It doesn't like the Embassador much, i think its the dragon smell. when the Dragon itself turns up, things might get a little interesting..."

Markus' voice becomes concerned, he does not need the complication.
"Can you keep it under control?"

"Yes. Of course i can."

"Alright. Be careful. where is your mother?"

"In with the others. Calm down, "Bob" is with her."

"I wish you wouldn't name that thing."

Laughter, and the connection cuts out.

Outside, in the Compound, a concerned and impatient group of scientists stand in a huddle. Asher stands to one side, his mantle cloak fluttering and snapping in the breeze. He idly traces the silvery implants that cover his arms like a celtic tattoo. The rest is covered by the sleeveless shirt and loose silk trousers he wears. He watches a small woman with a cane, and her "attendant", Bob.

Asher spreads his senses, and his mind "touches" hers. She smiles, and turns her blind eyes in his direction. It is a mtherly gesture, and as she does so, she mentally chastises Asher for not dressing warmly enough. Asher turns away to hide his smile, and looks to the sky expectantly. Patience was not a virtue he was born with, nor one bestowed upon him. he was growing tired of the wait.

As if from thin air, a quintet of fairly small Dragons, three black, one green and one blue, appeared just in front of the main doors of the Kalessin Compound. All five were ridden by tall black-robed figures, who sat upon their steeds with the natural grace of swordsmen. The rider of the central Dragon bowed down toward Asher.

"Greetings Asher. My warriors and I are ready to carry you and your party to the Empire. Each dragon can carry three men comfortably. The riders will instruct your scientists in the best ways to mount."

Posted: Mon Feb 16, 2004 12:54 pm Post subject:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Asher did not watch the dragons land, he had felt the disturbance of their arrival before they appeared, and picked up and began checking the contents of a small satchel. Mother likewise picked up her bags before the dragons appeared.

At their appearance, there was a whisper of awe and excitement through the crowd, and at their landing the scientists quickly mounted, eager to begin their journey. Asher and "Bob" helped Mother on to a dragon before getting on themselves, and soon everyone was settled. noone noticed the small thornes that emerged all over Ashers arms and chest, forming out of his exoskeletal implants as he struggled to control his most recent addition.

All that remained now was the 5 large steel crates full of lab equipment, which sat ready at one side of the landing site.

The riders remained almost silent as the scientists mounted, restricting themselves to taciturn, monosyllabic orders regarding the placement of a foot, and other such things. Their faces and expressions remained hidden with the darkness of their cowls.

Eventually, with everyone mounted, the Dragons flapped their way slowly into the air, until they were hovering but some 20 meters from the ground, the air from their wings blowing any watchers to the earth. Then, as one, they swooped down upon the crates, each taking up one in its huge claws, and then swept upward again, before vanishing into into the darkness of between

The scientists struggled to hold on, though their legs were firmly strapped to the saddles of the Dragons, as the wind from both their passage and the beating of the great leathery wings tore at their clothing and hair, and their eyes widened in awe at the power of the titanic muscles rippling the scales beneath them.

Then they almost screamed as the darkness took them, and the bitter cold of between drove into their very bones. But before any sound could emerge, they were in open air again, below a cloudy sky, through which the sun's rays could only be seen as a timid glow. They were flying high above the dense forests of Kalessin, and the only sign of life other than themselves was the occasional stream of smoke spearing up through the canopy.

The great forest continued almost as far as the eye could see, ending in the north with the blurry image of craggy, snowcapped mountains rearing up toward the sky like the teeth of some long-dead monster, and in the south with the glistening blue of the ocean.

As they come out over the trees, Asher regains his composure. the only outward sign of his inner struggle, the spines that covered his body before takeoff, recede.

He quietly regards the vista... listening to the exclamations and whisperings of the others. Calmly, he checks on the others.

Mother seems more interested in the Dragon itself, and runs her hand over the scales as her senses dive under them, peeling back the layers like a CAT scan.

"Bob" sits up stiffly, as if he wants to be as far from the creature as possible. His expression is one of grim determination.

He then turns his full attention to the scene presentd to them. different levels of his conciousness begin to process data as he spreads his senses wide. There is a reason they were shown this first. and if there is valuable intelligence hidden in this seemingly idylic landscape, he would find it.

Mother's senses drove into the scaly hide of the Dragon, and stopped. The atoms which formed each scale were terrifyingly tightly packed, so much so that the great beast should have found flight nigh-on impossible while bearing only a single fragment. Yet nonetheless, they were travelling faster than a peregrine falcon, swooping up and down with the air-currents, the leathery wings beating rhythmically with apparant ease.

Meanwhile, Asher's keen eyes and senses easily penetrated the thin layer of leaves and branches separating the dark interior of the forest from the outside world. Within, he percieved all the normal things that one might expect in such an environment: trees and shrubs, squirrels and birds, wolves and badgers. However, he also saw sensed the presence of larger creatures, far greater in size than was natural in such a place, smashing their way through sapling and tree alike with careless abandon. And there were smaller beasts too which were equally unnatural, travelling, as they did, at speeds scarcely slower than the Dragon upon which he travelled.

Asher notes all of this silently. casually he raises his left hand, and mentally triggers a mechanism, which ejects a cartridge from a slot in his forearm. The spent cartridge spirals downwards, trailing purple vapour as it falls. he then takes a fresh cartridge from his pack, and inserts it into the slot in his arm, it is taken in with a pnuematic hiss, and after it is fully inserted, Asher shudders, the muscles in his arms writhing like snakes under his skin, his pupils dilate, and his fists clench reflexively.

Within, energy surges through his systems. New sensations course through his body as implants that had never before been brought fully online now reached full power. The new plasma fuel mixture was working perfectly, and he could feel the difference as a near narcotic high, as the world was brought into sharper focus, his muscles were filled with new strength, and his mind processed faster and more efficiently than ever. But this was not an illusion, a narcotic effect. This was real. Asher 3.0 was fully online.

He could feel Mothers triumphant joy, and pride wash over him. Now he was fully online, he was independant of the regular charges and upgrades, the hours suspended in a tank of green fluid. He was even partially independent of the brace of plasma canisters around his waist. his symbiote was now capable of maintaining his systems at normal levels by itself. only exeptional acts now drained the plasma canister in his arm. acts that required more than a refocusing of his existing abilities.

Asher now sits back, exalting. He waits eagerly now for the end of this journey, that he might exercise his new power.

The dragon flying just above and behind the beast upon which Asher was mounted followed the falling cartridge with its cold, yellow, slitted eyes, flitting downward slightly in its course to take a tiny whiff of the strange purple vapour.

Intriguing

Gradually, the Dragons slipped lower and lower, until they were only a few hundred metres above the canopy, the leaves and branches of which blurred into an almost fluid mix of indistinct greens and browns as they hurtled along at a bewildering rate.

Then, the lead Dragon, upon which Asher sat, the wind whipping through his hair, raised its head in an ear-splitting bugle, which resonated in a strange, bubbling fashion, as if it came not through the clear air, but through deep, clouded seawater. And as the strange sound poured out from the creature's fanged mouth, the Dragons swept upward in unison, spreading their wings vertically, and stopped, yet there was no feeling of deccelaration - merely a bizarre, disjointed feeling of change - such as one might feel when waking up from a dream.

Directly below them was a large-ish clearing in the forest, bordered by a mighty wall, which appeared to have been constructed of solid iron, and which rose up well above the high-point of the forest canopy. Within sat an array of featureless concrete buildings, and it was in front of these that the Dragons landed, having glided down as delicately as group of butterflies, despite their vast weight.

:twisted: Meanwhile, unbeknownst to the others, another player has taken up a position overlooking this scene. Using high-power opticals, he scans the others alarmingly close, then switches to a resonating-wave device that renders solids almost transparent, scans the contents of the plane and everything carried/worn by the others, and makes his report via global-positioning device retro-fitted to transmit data to geosyncronous satellite of his government. Once this is finished, this spy (who has been recruited by an enemy and feels no remorse at betraying his own people) silently vanishes. Who knows what evil will come of this?

Asher slides off the Dragons back, and looks around. the others disembark more slowly, and one of the scientists rushes off to be sick in the bushes.. As asher looks out at the buildings, Mother drifts noiselesly up behind him, touching his shoulder. He turns to her and smiles. they embrace warmly.

she then flutters her hands over his face and chest, her blind face screwed up in concentration as she checks his systems. satisfied she nods once, smiles, and returns to supervise the unloading. Asher meanwhile seeks out the rider he had spoke to earlier. or a greeting party, if such existed..

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