TCS.PRODUCTIONS.LTD Presents A Virtual Experience of Epic Proportions The Stunning Sequel to the MegaHit "Otaku Rising" The _Second_ Untitled Geek War Epic: OTAKU RISING II: "HENTAI HEROES" Written by J. Daedalus Govoni with Mario Di Giacomo CAST ==== (Of Dozens!) J. Daedalus Govoni.........................Corinthian Mario Di Giacomo...........................DigiCom/DC Thomas L. Carney.................................Wolf Michael R. Frost II............................Frosty Carley Paynting..................................Kali Mike Stewart...................................Marius Sheila Lippitt.................................Sheila Nicholas McNab...............................Zebediah Paul J. Cummings....................Mystic Maxx/MMaxx Suzie Simms....................................Tareah Maxim-3...........................Jess/Jessie/Jessica Annapuna....................................Anna Puma Unipuma......................................Una Puma Captain Julius G. Spaulding...................Polaris Sean Dunstan..................................Crowley and John Patrick O'Hanley as the Silver Falcon with special unasked for appearances by Keith Dauplaise as Decoy, the Pig Hostage and Jerry Mathers as the Beaver Visuals by the Psychotropic Chain Reaction Special Visual Effects by The Sixties Acid Flashback Group Lighting by GOD and Son Cool TechnoStuff by TooLittleSleep, Unlimited. Robot and Cybernetic parts lifted from the Quinn Labs Demolitions, Explosions, and Things-That-Go-BOOM by Dr. DAD From a kinda original screenplay by J. Daedalus Govoni Original Animation by Etch-a-Sketch FOLEY editing by Moe, Larry, and Curley Sound System by THUD (The audience is now deaf) Vehicles provided by GM, Chrysler, and the DMC The UPSTruckFromHELL(TM) created by Vulcan The UPSTruckFromHELL(TM) generously provided by PRose Original Score by Mercury Falling Tape Collections Stunts by Super Dave Osborne and the Incredible Crash Dummies Stunt Driving by Toonces the Driving Cat Toonces handled by Jim from Wild Kingdom Costuming by TheBigRedSal'sBin and Hentai, Unltd. MechaFashions by Mr. Mario Titles and Credits by This Little Piggie Went to Market Catering by Little Sleazer's Pizza and Mom's Fridge, Ltd. Caffeine provided by JOLT Cola, The Jolt Company, Inc. Psilocybin, Ovaltine and FiddleFaddle generously provided by Sandoz, Inc. "OTAKU RISING", the Original Story, available by anonymous FTP to WPI.WPI.EDU, anime/FanFiction/UF.Otaku.Z courtesy of Megazone@wpi.wpi.edu Typed on a WYSE85 with OneEyeClosed and TheOtherFoggedOver Published by URIACC.URI.EDU Bitnet With Nothing Even CLOSE to Permission (c) 1993 by TCS.PRODUCTIONS.LTD All Rights Wronged, All Lefts Righted, All Guilt Catagorically Denied. DISCLAIMER: All the events and persons portrayed herein are purely fictional, despite what THEY might try to tell you. :) Corinthian: This story is dedicated to all the anime fans who long for the days of Star Blazers, Force Five, and Battle of the Planets (Sandy Frank!). In addition, a lot of "new" stuff is tossed in to keep it current and entertaining. For all those out there who inspired this, especially the crowd up at WPI (Zoner!), thanx. For Naomi, the woman I love, for standing by me in all my times of need, and for truly believing in me and my writing ability. Baby, you are the BEST. DigiCom: I'd like to thank the Academy...oops, wrong speech. Anyway I'd like to thank Cor for letting me in on the game, Robert Alyn Howard, Timothy "Doctor Stomper" Neeck, the staff of the Proteus Continuum, the writers at Valiant Comics, Del's Lemonade, and the inspiration of the Universal Science Fiction Parody. Special thanks also goes to my folks, who told me to keep writing [even if they think I'm doing schoolwork all day] And now, the story: Changes____________________________________________________________ONE "What is the beginning, but the beginning of the end?" "The Knights of Pendragon" Act III, Scene 4 DEEP SPACE The door to the bridge of the starship irised open and a young ensign stepped through. He walked over to the commander's chair and said, "Sir, the data is confirmed." "Very good. _Very_ good." THE LIPPITT COMPLEX UNIVERSITY OF RHODE ISLAND CAMPUS, KINGSTON, RI Corinthian and Wolf were looking at the UPSTruckFromHELL(TM), when a subtle shift in reality caused them to pause. Cor straightened up and said, "Did you feel that, Thom?" He looked at Thom for a second. He really should get a haircut, Cor thought. Thom's shoulder-length brown locks hung limp over his plaid flannel shirt. "Yeah," Wolf replied. "I felt dizzy for a second. What was it?" "I'm not sure," Cor said, instantly armoring up. It was a strange effect to watch: it looked as if his black AC/DC t-shirt and blue jeans grew and changed on his body, "retooling" themselves until he was encased in a jet black HardSuit that crackled with energy. Cor called it the STELLARIS Affect. "I got a touch of Vertigo (tm) myself. I'm going down to see if Mario or Frosty noticed anthing down where they are." Cor headed for the 'lift doors. The door to DigiCom's workroom opened and Cor stepped into the clut- tered workspace. DC himself could be seen standing in front of a large, boxy structure with a large opening on one end. Cor noticed three things amiss right off. One was that DC was half dressed. Another was that he looked _extremely_ annoyed with something. The last was that he was cur- sing at the top of his lungs in fluent Klingon. "Geesh, Mario," Cor said with his ears covered against the din. "I had no idea that you could pronounce those words, never mind use them in the proper _context_. What happened?" "jIpumpu' 'ej jIHu'laHbe'," DC said loudly. "You've fallen and you can't get up?" Cor laughed. "Just checking," DC smiled. His grin turned into a rather toothy scowl. "This blasted machine just shit the bed." "No shit?" Cor asked incredulously. "We felt something odd upstairs." "Well, the KDCFieldGENerators seem to have ceased functioning," DC said with Venom and Carnage in three part harmony. (Scary thought) "Um..." Cor said thoughtfully, his chromium subdermal lenses glowing faintly green. "Continue," DC said. That eye thing was still creepy, even after all this time. "Maybe we should try to fix it?" Cor said rhetorically. "I _have_ been!" DC screamed. "Hmmmmm..." Cor said. "This could be _bad_. Y'know, you should get more sun. The white, pasty look is out this year." "Bite me," DC spat. <<> Frosty and Sheila were outside, enjoying the brisk October sunshine on a wooded path north of campus. The scene was sickeningly sweet and ro- mantic. Sheila was wearing a light blue cashmere sweater and matching hat over her dark brown hair, with a long white scarf wrapped loosely a- round her neck. Frosty... was Frosty. Generic college sweatshirt, jeans, ragged sneakers. The two of them kept looking at each other as they held hands. "Sheila," Frosty said gently. "Mmmmmm?" she purred, looking up at him. She didn't have to look up very far--she was tall for a woman at 5'9", while Frosty stood at 6'1". He looked into her large brown eyes. "I've been meaning to ask you something..." THE DEMOROOM Kali looked up in time to see Marius drop what looked like a huge slab of steel on her. She remedied this situation by not being there when it crashed into the floor where she was standing. Looking at the side, she could see the words "400,000 TONS, This Might Hurt" stenciled on the side of the black steel. <<> "That...was...not...nice," Kali said slowly with emphasis for dramatic effect as she took careful aim on the spot where he should be with her small, yet effective backup pistol. The first one had fallen prey to a large, ravenous group of metal eating gerbils. Marius had a really sick sense of toon humor. She fired and then rolled to the side as three beams of death lanced out of the shadows. "Nice try, but no cigar," Marius said from behind her. She whirled to come face to face with a large CyMech wearing a red Starfleet tunic. She blasted it on mere principle. This action however, distracted her long enough for another CyMech to appear and clock her with a large cricket bat. "Ouch," she ouched as she crashed through several large buildings and a crowded concert hall. The concertgoers were sleeping through a four- teen-hour-long recital of an aria from Vivaldi's Epic-To-End-All-Epics _Das_Flatulence_Der_Ubermensch_. The only being still awake in the hall was a huge grey figure with bone spurs protruding all over who was trying like mad to get at the lead character. Kali shook off the blow. Fortunately her R.O.A.C.H. armor absorbed most of the force of the blow(s). She looked cautiosly around the area in the alley next to the theatre. No threats present. That soon changed as she heard a sound behind her. Whirling to face the sound, she saw a long, furry appendage extending from a trash can near the door to the Chinese restaurant next door. It was unclear on first glance whether the can was coming in or going out. She relaxed as she saw that it was mere- ly the tail of a stray feline. It did seem a bit large, though. As she turned to head out of the alley, the "feline" withdrew it's bulk from the trashcan and hurled itself the full length of the alleyway at Kali. Kali was crushed flat against the tenement house across the streetlamp-lit road with an audible *splat*. Kali threw herself backwards away from the brick sandwich she'd been enjoying and did a neat backflip over the beast. Her eyes widened when she saw it's reddish-brown mass crouched to pounce again, a toothy grin on it's semi-intelligent face. The grin faded as Kali pointed her pistol at the creature's furry mug. Kali's finger did not touch the trigger, however. This big fella was kinda cute. <<> "Heel," Kali said through her teeth. "Good monster, _nice_ monster." "Oh, he's not a monster," Marius said next to her in the form of a anthrophagous bovine (read: Man-Eating Cow). Kali shot the heifer just to be rid of it. "That's twisted, Mike," Kali said as her attention snapped back around to Mughi, who was raising a giant paw to playfully mosh her. Kali threw up her hands reflexively and the furred extremety bounced harmlessly off of the air in front of her. Mughi looked puzzledly at Kali for a second and crossed and uncrossed his eyes. "Better," Marius said from inside a discarded coffee can near them in the alleyway, which Kali punted over the fence at the other end of the alley. "Temper, temper. Remember, you _asked_ for this training session today." This time the voice came from the fire escape above her. She snapped off a couple of shots with her pistol at the spot where Marius would be standing, if he had been stupid. Mughi crouched in front of her, aware that he'd been forgotten for the moment. _Not_ a smart thing to do. He rocketed himself at her chest in an attempt to knock her down. Kali turned back just in time to see Mughi leave the ground. That's as far as he got. His look of playfullness quickly turned to one of puzzlement and then one of frustration as he found himself encased in an invisible force bubble two meters above the ground. "Very good," Marius said from beside her. he saw her eyes flick to- wards him for only a fraction of a second. Mughi's prison started to drop and break up around him. She redoubled the effort, and the bubble held. Marius calmly placed a short-barreled pistol against her right temple and said, "bang." "Damn," Kali hissed as she unceremoneously dumped Mughi into a pile of wadded newpapers. "What did I do wrong?" "You let your concentration go to far," Marius replied. "Remember, it takes a lot of willpower to use your abilities, but it doesn't have to be difficult. You're still trying to use it like a tool instead of an ex- tension of your self." As he spoke, a bright red helium balloon appeared in his left hand. Mughi's ears perked up and what could pass for an anx- ious smile crossed his face. Marius let the balloon go and Mughi bound- ed away after it, leaping to the top of a dumpster and then onto the fire escape in pursuit of the playfully bouncing spheroid. "It was that simple?" Kali asked as she pulled off her helmet and let down her chestnut curls. "I thought it was going to make lunch of me." "Nah," Marius smiled with a vampiric grin befitting his nomenclature. "Mughi wouldn't eat you. Too much cholesterol. He does love a good bal- loon though. He's very playful. Smart, too." "Ah. Good. I think." SEVERAL MINUTES LATER They all gathered in the Communications Center. Frosty fiddled with his boards, lots of buttons, blinkies, and machines that go "Ping" doing their thing. Cor scowled at the reams of hard printout strewl across the conference table that had been added in the recent months. "This, to quote a man not yet dead," Cor was saying, "blows chunks." He looked askance at Wolf, who shrugged. Marius and Kali were sharing tales of derring-do and belly-button lint. DC was mumbling to himself in a corner in between fits of banging his head against any handy flat sur- face. Zebediah just sat with his feet up on the table, sipping a Shirley Temple through a swizzle straw, while Sam and Sheila chatted about human suffering. "Contain your chunkage, stupid," Marius said over his shoulder. This recieved an answering par-beam from one of Cor's forearm guns that scorched his hair and vaped his pen. "TouchY-a-pet." "Quite," Cor Commander McBragg-ed. Sam pooh-poohed his outburst, and effected a new pen for Marius. A blue Bic. "Can I flick your Bic, baby?" Marius leered. "Masher!" Sheila said, belting him with a Hollywood-Balsa-Chair(tm) that Sam handed her, breaking his new pen. "Sigh," Marius sighed. "Look!" Zeb cried gleefully. "A running gag!" "Where??" Kali asked as she drew a pistol and started looking under the table for the offending creature. Most of the pens left in the room ran and hid. Cor slowly stood and planted his hands on the table, which shook a bit under his armor enhanced frame. "We have a problem, people," he began. "The KDCFieldGENerators have pulled a Wilson. _This_ could make things.. difficult." Wolf DUH-ed him in the back of the head. "I'm sure this is only a temporary setback, right?" Marius asked. "Maybe, maybe not," Frosty said. "We can't seem to access the program anymore. It seems like it's just closed itself off. Sealed up tight. Locked us out. Denied us entry. Ignored out attemts to interface. Put up a brick wall. Laughed in our fac..." "We get the idea, Mike," Cor said. "I want Marius and DC working on either solving this problem or finding a way around it. Frosty, you keep monitoring... whatever it is you monitor in here. You really should get out more. Zeb, you and Wolf do that voodoo that you do so well. We may need some new transport and I _know_ you're probably fuquing with the UPSTruckFromHELL(tm) yet again." "Who, me?" Wolf sarcasmed. "Never." "Right," Cor smiled. He knew he could count on them. "Oh, Sam, I al- most forgot. You said you and Sheila had something you wanted us to see? Now is as good a time as any." "Alright, Cor," Sam smiled at him warmly. He always melted when she did that. Sam was their resident A.I., an artificial being brought to 'life' by way of countless Omnidirectional Holigraphic Diodes located throughout the complex. She had originally been his STELLARIS armor's onboard computer, but took over the Lippitt Complex mainframe when Sheila vacated the position and gained flesh. She shook her straight, white-blonde, shoulder-length hair fetchingly at him and wrinkled her nose with a smile. Marius had made a few cracks about her being too "cutsie", as he put it, to run the battle computers. Though she did resemble a younger version of Ann Jillian, she had a head for battle that quickly quelled his concerns. Marius sometimes called her "Ice" after the DC comics character of the same name. <<> The door to the room opened and in stepped a pair of identical twins. Well, almost identical. They both had very long flowing hair, but one of their's that was a slight bit shorter than the other and a shade dark- er than the other's very pale white shade of blonde. A hush settled over the room as they all stared at the two fems. They stepped into the room and smiled all around them. Both were tall for women, standing close to six feet, and were dressed in identical HardSuits. The one with the darker hair's suit was dark green, the other's was deep purple. All present noticed that they both had rather feline looking ears on their heads. "Hubba hubba, call me Bubba," Marius drooled. Both were rather at- tractive, in an Anime sort of way. Cor recognized them. "Why, Sam, that's the Puma sisters," Cor said simply with a satisfied smile. "Well, that was the design I was given," Sam replied coldly. "Do I detect a hint of jealousy?" Cor asked with a feigned look of shock. "Absolutely not," Sam denied a tad too quickly. She regained her com- posure. "Members of the Otaku Group, may I present to you Annapuna and Unipuma. The Cat Sisters." They bowed and curtsied respectively, the shorter haired one, then the other one. "HENtai, hentai hentai, HENtai, hentai hentai," Marius chanted. "Very nice, Sam," Cor said. "Gang, these are the first of the Series I-AI30 Positronic Androids we've cludged together. I figured a few extra pairs of hands around here couldn't hurt. I think 'Anna' and 'Una' will work for nicknames." "Of course! Jane Royal!" Marius exclaimed gleefully. He was the first of them to make the connection. "Got it in one, Mike," Cor agreed. "She was the base chassis we had to start with. I did tweak the basic design a little bit here and there. All in all, I'm pretty happy with the results." Una Puma had moved over to the conference table and was idly toying with Marius' long shock of brown hair. He smiled contentedly. "I like this one already," he said. "Just don't get her mad," Cor said with an evil grin. "We beefed up the battle frame and increased the top-end load limits." "Ah, beautiful _and_ deadly, my favorite combo," Marius said. "And don't let her cook for you," Zeb chimed in. "No, that's C-Ko," Cor corrected. "Or Akane," Marius giggled. Una quickly had him in a headlock. "Um," Frosty said tentatively. They focused their attention on him, noticing that Sheila was holding his left hand. "We have an announcement to make, everyone." Frosty looked nervous. "I've asked Sheila here to marry me." "And I've said yes," Sheila said as she smiled up him. The applause was deafenening. LATER THAT EVENING THUD...THUD...THUD...THUD...*crunch*..........THUD...THUD...THUD... <<> "Excuse me, DigiCom?" A knock came at the door to his workroom. Sam passed through it and entered. She looked around at the messier than usual surroundings. DC was in one corner pounding his head against the steel wall. From the look of things he'd been at it for a while. There were several dozen head-sized dents in the walls, and DC was working on another. "What...is...it..." DC said through clenched teeth. "What's wrong, Mario?" Sam asked, a concerned look wrinkling her brow. "Can't sleep?" "I don't...need...sleep," DC said, and started pounding again. THUD. "That's not true and you know it," she replied. "At least four hours of REM sleep is needed on average to stay sane." DC stopped and turned to stare at her. His eyes looked like two burn- ing coals. "REM sleep is my problem." "Want to talk about it?" Sam asked, hopping lightly up on the edge of a table and letting her feet dangle. "Ever since we...took out Deslok," DC began, "I've been reliving that battle in my dreams." "Shell shock is to be expected," Sam said clinically. "The others have had similar problems to varying degrees... except Carley." "When I created the armor," DC said, "I designed it so it's tactical memory would be contained in the suit, not in me... But it hasn't worked out that way. I keep reliving it in excruciating detail." "Maybe some time of dream suppressive," she offered. She had put on a pair of large, round, blue-framed glasses and looked like a pharmacist. "That won't help," DC sighed. "Lately, I've been reliving it while I'm awake..." <<> Madness______________________________________________________________TWO "I am created Death, the Shatterer of Worlds" -The Bhagvad-Gita "Cor, you've got to do something about Mario," Kali snarled. "What did he do now?" Corinthian asked. "I went down to his lab to ask him something, and he threw me out! He's getting on everybody's nerves," Kali fumed. "He has been a bit irritable lately...Sam, where is DigiCom now?" The holographic image shimmered to life. "He's in the DemoRoom. I can't tell what program is running, he overrode my monitors." "No problem," Cor replied. "Access code Eyebite-1" The image paused. "It's a standard workout, but...Good Lord, he's re- moved the mortality fail-safe!" "Can you override?" Carley asked. "No, he's switched them off manually," Sam replied. "Come on Cor, we've got to stop him," Kali said, heading for the door. Cor followed, and they headed towards the 'lift and sublevel-D. "Shit!" Kali shouted, banging on the sealed and locked DemoRoom doors. Several small piles of kipple disintegrated nearby at her rage. "Observation level," Cor said, jerking his thumb in that direction. Kali followed him up the stairs and they were soon looking through the VERY thick layer of ALON seperating them from the melee. <<> Below they saw DC, surrounded by several large, hulking generic beasties. He was taking them on, armed with a single sword. "Mario, what are you doing! Turn off this program now!" Carley ex- claimed. Mario fought on, bleeding from several shallow gashes. "Backdoor," Cor said to himself as he flickered and appeared next to DigiCom. "Um, Mario, are you totally DEE-ranged" Cor quipped. As if in re- sponse, he turned and tried to slash Cor with the sword. Since it was a holographic construct, the blade passed right through him. Mario tried again, and again, his other opponents forgotten. Finally he threw the blade away, and just stared at Cor, panting heavily. In DC's lab, a dusty pile of kipple began to shimmer, and vanish. "Oh shit..." Carley said, as the armor reappeared around DC, "The PREDATOR suit." "Target acquired," DC said in a low monotone. "Well, if you want to play it that way, I'm more than willing to ob- lige," Cor said. As he spoke, his generic black heavy metal T-shirt and jeans built upon themselves, tooling up into a very powerful, and very nasty looking heavy-duty HardSuit. STELLARIS was online. "Sam, give me a full spectrum laser bath of the DemoRoom. I don't want him cloaking on me." "Coming online now," Sam said, as she spoke the lighting in the room shimmered, and a subtle light change made everything sharper. "Threat level upgrade: Level 4," the PREDATOR droned. It grasped a disk-shaped object on the back of it's left forearm with it's right hand. It hurled the deadly Nega-Disk with unerring accuracy towards Cor's neck. "Bloody bastard's playing for keepsies!" Kali cried in the OR. Cor raised his right hand at the last moment and did the unthinkable: he caught the blade. The disk whirred in his vise-like grip as it tried vainly to return to it's master. Cor chuckled as he closed his fist, crushing the disk into a misshappen mass of useless debris. "Threat level upgrade: Level 5," the PREDATOR droned, again. On his left shoulder a podlike protrusion deployed, swinging up next to it's helmet. Three red points of light appeared on Cor's chestplate... And nothing happened. Cor smiled slightly. DC wasn't TOTALLY gone in there. "MAKER Pod malfunction," stated the PREDATOR. The smile on Cor's face only faltered slightly. "Switching to secondary replicator system." "What the deuce is he talking about," Kali asked herself. "SECONDARY system??" "Mario, this has gone on far enou..." Cor's plea was interrupted by a searing bolt of plasma from the fully functional shoulder pod. The blast hit and arced off of Cor's armor, the force of the blast sending him back against the immensely thick steel wall of the chamber. "Cor, I'm reading a slight drop in internal pressure in your armor," Sam said. "Maybe you should end this now." "Dammit, Sam, I know he's in there somewhere," Cor said through clenched teeth as he sealed the armor and added four inches to it's outer layer. Banks of weapons showed up on the outer surface of the armor. twin particle cannons showed up on the backs of each forearm. Cor start- ed to walk towards DigiCom. "Don't hurt him!" Kali shouted into one of the microphones on the panel in front of her. "I'm not going to hurt him... much," Cor replied. In one blinding movement, the PREDATOR reached behind him withdrawing the collapsed shaft of it's spear, and simultaneously extended the shaft and hurled it at Cor. At that same instant, Cor cut loose with a mass barrage of phaser-fire set on heavy stun. The spear barely slowed as the phasers lanced over and around it, and it flew true to course, striking Cor slightly left of center. Cor blanched (and Stanley-ed) as the tip sliced through his armor and pen- netrated the flesh beneath. He dropped to his knees, grasping the spear. Squinting through the pain, Cor saw DC hurled backwards by the phaser spread, and stagger slightly. But only slightly. Cor tore the spear free of his chest and snapped it in two, hurling it away. DC was bringing the pod to bear on him again, focussing on the hole in his chest. "Damn...stupid...ugly...bastard..." Cor cursed. He brought his right arm to bear on the pod on DC's shoulder. "YOUR MOTHER DRESSES YOU FUNNY, YOU SHIT!" Cor screamed as he fired a double blast of par-beam death lancing towards DigiCom. <<> Ironically, DC fired a split second after Cor. Cor's beams washed DC's pulse out of the air, sending most of it's energy back towards the source, namely, DC's shoulder pod. The ensuing explosion was deafening even in the large chamber, the shockwave actually causing minute cracks in the huge thickness of ALON in front of Kali's disbelieving face. Cor, looking up through a haze of pain and shock, saw that DC still lived. "Sam... Whatever you do... don't let me die..." Cor moaned. He pitched forward onto his face. "Oohhhhhh... the pain, the pain," he Dr. Smith-ed before passing out. DC paused for a moment, looking at Cor's prone figure. Suddenly he dropped to his knees, threw his head back and let out a howl of anguish, which echoed throughout the chamber. Ripping the helmet from his head, he sank through the floor. "Where'd he go?" Kali asked desperately. "I can't pick up his phased form on my scanners. Wait a minute, auto- matic systems just triggered a largescale bodyslide from his lab to the Hangar Annex. Scanners on-line...his lab is empty, and a Runabout is missing from the H.A. He's gone...." "Can you track him, Sam?" Kali asked. "No, he may have gone straight to warp," Sam replied. The doors to the DemoRoom finally slid open, admitting a distraught looking Kali and Sam onto the scene. Sam surveyed the damage done to the room, while Kali rushed over to the fallen Corinthian. She slipped her hands under his armored form and turned his mass over with a big hand from her TK abilities. She stared at him, shocked at the damage. The hole in his chest could be seen through the now-reknitting armor. It looked bad. Cor's helmet had come loose and his subdermal eye lenses had the letters "TI" on his right eye, and "LT" on his left. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?" she demanded. "It...means...dear...that...." Cor's voice faded. "...it worked." She stood and whirled around to come face to face with Cor. He was alive. He was smiling. He was in serious trouble. "You... BASTARD!!!" Kali screamed. The construct behind him scattered as the force of her cry broke it up. The ALON window from the OR cracked further and exploded. Sam flickered. Cor's hair was ruffled. "I couldn't tell you, Carley," Cor said patiently. "There wasn't time. I had to let DC think that it really was me he was fighting. I couldn't take the risk of him somehow finding out." "You still could have _told_ me!" Kali breathed heavily. Sweat ran down her forehead. The mental strain was noticable now, a minute after the fact. Cor took note of this. "By the way," Cor said. "I'm impressed with the progress you've made with your TK (pronounced 'teke')." "I'll get to work on the repairs," Sam said. She put a hand on Kali's shoulder. "Sorry I couldn't tell you. He might have heard." "......" Kali fumed. DIGICOM'S LAB Cor, Wolf, and Marius blasted open the doors to DC's lab. The place was a mess. That is to say, more of a mess than usual. Kipple, refuse, and assorted odd bits of the door were strewn everywhere. They started searching. They could have had Sam do an inventory of the room, but this was personal. As they searched, several things became apparent to Cor. One was that DC had a plan of sorts to evacuate quickly. Virtually all of his high powered tech was gone, as well as most of his personal equip- ment and his library of texts, manuals, and dog-eared SF paperbacks. "Guys, check it out," Wolf said, pointing at one of the smaller piles. They both turned to see what Wolf meant. The remains of DC's PREDATOR armor lay in a pile, mostly smashed. "Looks like he tore it off of himself," Cor stated thoughtfully. He went back to his search. Ten minutes later he found a hidden panel on the far wall. Tearing it open, he revealed a wall vault. "Sam," Cor said. She appeared next to him almost instantly. "Open it for me, would you dear?" "I can't," she pouted. "It's a seperate system." Gods, he thought, she's adorable when she does that. "Nevermind," Cor said, gripping the door. A charge of electricity coursed through his hand. A voice said from the ether, "What is your name?" "Arthur, King of the Britons," Cor said, and received another shock. "Monty Python, this ain't," said the voice. "What is your name?" "Um, Corinthian," Cor said. Another shock. "Shall we try three out of three? What is your name?" "J. Daedalus Govoni," Cor whispered. "I can't _hear_ you. What is your name?" Cor told the infernal contraption his _real_ name, and the voice said "Voiceprint confirmed. Infinity Vault opened. Took ya long enough, you stubborn SOB." The vault door slid upwards and revealed an empty space. Cor kicked the wall and started to turn away when a flash of light caught his eye. He looked again, and there was a small, white cube sitting on an envelope with the inscription 'read me' just visible. "Snarky bastard," Cor smiled as he lifted the cube out. Cor and Wolf looked at the envelope for perhaps the tenth time in as many minutes. Kali looked bored. Sheila and Frosty were off somewhere being sickeningly sweet together. Marius was taking turns getting slapped and pummeled by the Puma sisters as he repeatedly pinched their bottoms. He was bruised, but happy. "I guess the time has come," Cor said for the fourth time. Wolf nod- ded, and reached for the envelope. Cor snatched it away with a 'mine' look on his face. He opened it and pulled out a single sheet of paper. "Oohhh, aahhh," Marius giggled. Now he and the Pumas were engaged in a tickle fight. Marius was losing. "It says," Cor said, "'Dear, Cor...'" "I didn't know he cared," Wolf muttered. Cor DUH-ed him. "'...sorry about the vault'," Cor continued, "'but you deserved it, trust me. Anyway, I needed the Gauntlet for something, but here's some- thing in exchange. It's not as efficient as the KDCFieldGENs, but it should do the job. Try not to break it, okay? The BP power supply can handle it, but the micro-replicator has it's limits. Just plug it in...'" "Plug it in, plug it in," Wolf sang commercially. "'...and tell Wolf to shut up.'" Wolf did so. Quickly. "'As Arnie says, 'I'll be back' -DC'." "Well, that solves our Cube problem, I guess," Kali said. "Maybe... I still want you, Marius, to see what you and Frosty can come up with from the originals," Cor sighed. "I hope DC doesn't go and get himself killed. Or wind up killing a lot of innocent bystanders." Cor thought for a second; DC could be one tough rogue to bring in. "Can I have his room?" Marius asked jokingly. He'd already cleared an enormous space on Sublevel-L (L for "Lestat", of course), and had taken up some space in the Hanger Annex located under the old open pit north of of the URI campus. "No, Mike, you can't," Cor replied. "He'll be back. I'm sure of it." "You could stay with us, Maaaaaaaarius," Anna purred, twitching her right ear rather vixen-like. "Ah, cats," Marius replied, playfully ruffling her hair. _________________________________________________________________THREE "Big Brother, is there a bigger one watching you, or is there one smaller who I should be watching too?" -Jon Anderson "Cage of Freedom" "You've got to see this to believe it," Frosty was saying into the intercom to Corinthian. Wolf stood nearby, dressed in his usual jeans, black t-shirt, and unbuttoned plaid flannel shirt. Sheila was using a Goff-YoyoDyne Super High Intensity Tunable Spectrum Transduction Analysis Integration Nullifier on a workbench nearby. (Don't hurt me, it was there. -Cor) <<> "Tell me," Cor said as he flickered into existence next to him. Frosty only jumped slightly, having almost gotten used to the effect. "Well, we've been trying to tear apart the Cube for a couple of days now... and we're coming up with more questions than we're answering," he explained. "Wolf did a physical analysis and came up with squat. As far as we can tell, the Cube shouldn't exist. The outer shell, if you will, is monomolecular in thickness, yet infinitely strong. It took a highly focused Nega-Blade to open one up, and I'm almost sorry we did." Frost paused for a moment to gather his thoughts. "I can't explain what is inside the Cube. It's that simple. Suffice to say that it puts out e- nough rads to melt a Star Cruiser. There's also a mysterious trace of energy unlike any we've seen before. I have Sam working on it." "You've been busy," Cor nodded thoughtfully. "What else?" "I've been going over reams of code with Sheila," Frosty continued. "The program is so convoluted and meanders so much that it'll take years to figure it all out. However," he produced a single sheet of paper and handed it to Cor. "It seems that our wonderful little black boxes are phoning home. What you see there seems to be a binary code of an un- known type. The Cube's have all been transmitting it repeatedly in four minutes cycles on an extremely low subspace frequency." Cor raised an eyebrow. This was news. "Any idea of the messages con- tent or the intended recipient?" Frosty shook his head negatively. "None. It's a tough one to crack. Sam's working on that, too." "Wait a second," Cor said thoughtfully. "You said that the Cube's contained an extremely high amound of radiation. Just _where_ did you open one up?" "In the DemoRoom," Wolf answered for Frosty. Cor looked nervous. "I set it up with all kinds of safety measures, including several hundred power collectors and convertors. I had a hunch about what we might find out. Let's just say, we've got enough juice stored up from that one little experiment to light all of CONUS for four thousand years." "Wow," Cor whistled. "What happened to the casing of the Cube when the energy released?" "It collapsed upon itself and crushed itself out of existence like a black hole," Frosty answered. "Though very thin and lightweight, the containment vessel was _very_ dense. It damn near overloaded the safety systems when it 'poinked'." "Poinked," Cor repeated. "That's the sound it made," Wolf said, smiling. "Right." MEANWHILE, SOMEWHERE IN SPACE <<<2001: A Space Oddity, David Bowie>> The Runabout floated dead, having burned out it's engines on it's high speed run from Earth. DigiCom found himself with a lot of time on his hands. For the Nth time he asked, "computer, what is our present loca- tion?" "Insufficient data," the computer replied again. DC sighed. He hummed. He lip-doodled. "Okay, now for something completely different," DC said. "Computer, analyze medical data. Report anomalies." Moments later, a soft 'bong' signified the completion of the requested task. "Inorganic traces found in three locations. Largest of said traces found in cranial sinus cavity. Second trace spread throughout maxilla and mandible region. Third, small trace located in region of lower intestines." "Describe largest trace," DC requested. "Records indicate cybernetic implant of alien origin," the computer replied. "Readouts indicate connections to both the limbic complex and cerebral cortex." "Presence of memory nanocircuitry?" DC asked, a light coming on in his head. "And possibility of surgical removal." "Confirm presense of memory coil, independent of main unit. Surgical removal impossible." "I don't think so," DC responded aloud. "Access transporter biofilter database. Incorporate structure of trace groups one and three." "Completed," the computer responded. "Lock transporter on me," DC said, "and beam up." "WARNING," the computer blared. "This proceedure is not recommended for organic life forms. Unable to comply." "Override, Authorization: Crowbar-1," DC snapped. After a few grudgingly long moments, the computer said, "Complying." "Energize," DC said, and screamed. DC appeared from a blue-green glow three feet away on the Runabout's transporter pad, and promptly keeled over. Moments later, he sat up and in one of the worst Nicholson impersonations in history, exclaimed, "Honey, I'm home." The computer said nothing. "Okay," DC muttered. "We're lost. Completely, and totally lost. I might as well get _really_ lost." Rummaging through a pile of kipple, he extracted a device the size of a sewing machine. Moments later, he had it attached to a bulkhead and hooked into the computer. "Computer, initiate random rotations and translations on my mark," DC said, posing dramatically, "engage." The Runabout vanished. THE UNDERGROUND HANGER ANNEX, KINGSTON, RI <<> Kali stood looking perplexed at the thing that Wolf had cobbled to- gether. It looked like an oversized gun turret mounted on a huge slab of steel. She couldn't help but wonder how or if it was supposed to be moved; it didn't have wheels or rollers or treads that she could see. She decided that it looked like a huge beetle. Wolf's latest crush, Jessie --formerly Maxim-3-- was standing idly nearby. She was now a tentative member of the Otaku Group, being more a mercenary than a fascist bootlicker. She had on the standard dark grey, jumpsuit that the O.G.Irregulars had taken to wearing. One shoulder had a large patch with an enbroidered Planet Earth in the center of a red shield. Overlaid on the planet was a blade-up Nega-Sword, the UPSTruck- FromHELL(tm), and the symbol for Infinity. The other shoulder had a faded red and white circular patch with a stylized double-B on it. She also had on a black utility belt and a black SWAT-Team vest. Her long, jet-black hair lustered under the lights of the hanger. "Well, it's impressive looking," Kali admitted. "But it looks like a tank you forgot to put the wheels on. Looks heavy, too." "Don't let it's bulk fool you," Wolf said with a broad grin. "It's very agile. Quick, too. It tops out at over a four bucks." "What's it got in it, a bloody rocket engine?" "Nothing so mundane," Wolf replied. "It's a Hover Tank. It also con- verts to an anthropomorphic mecha." "It's a Transformer(tm)!" Kali giggled. "Wrong show, dear," Wolf snickered. "I added something to it that you'll like." "What's that?" "I improved the controls," Wolf answered. "Where your basic Veritech fighter has some fifty-seven hand and foot controls, this generation of Hover Tank has only twelve. Makes it a lot easier to handle and learn. Also, a neural link increases response time in battloid mode by over four hundred percent. It's almost instantaneous now." Wolf smiled like a proud father. Kali eyes his latest "spawn" warily. "And I bet they get a lot of respect in rush hour traffic," Kali forced a smile. "But seriously, what are we going to do with it? The Gulf War was over a year and a half ago." "I'm thinking of the future of our little band of misfits," Wolf re- plied. "Our planetary security's been compromised once before, and it seems like we might have to do it again. Marius and I have an appoint- ment first thing in the morning at the Aberdeen Proving Grounds in Mary- land with some bigwigs from the Pentagon." "You're going to sell these to the fuqing _government_?? Kali cried in shock and horror. "Relax, the model they're going to see is over there," Wolf pointed behind her into the shadows. There squatted a dupicate of the 'Tank they were looking at, however it seemed smaller and had less protrusions on it's hull. It was also painted woodland camoflage. "I call that one the HT-100. It's basically a stripped down, non-coverting model of this one. _This_ one is the HT-500X. Still I figure with a tentative global threat, we can make several hundred billion dollars on the deal." Wolf grinned evilly. "How will you explain the production method to them?" Kali snarked. "It's 'CLASSIFIED'," Wolf counter-snarked. "I've already applied for patents on all of the tech and alloys it's made up of. Also, any attempt to dismantle one will render the entire 'Tank inoperable. Call it an espionage deterrant." Kali noded thougtfully, taking it all in. "You should come down and see the demo," Wolf said. "We've got quite a show planned. Marius has on site an American M1A1, Soviet T-72 and T-80 Main Battle Tanks, and a variety of hand and crew-launched antiarmor weapons currently in use around the world. We even tossed in a half-a- dozen AH-60H Cobra gunships and a pair of A-10 Thunderbolt II tank kil- lers, affectionately called 'Warthogs'." "Did the Army provide all of that?" Kali asked. "No. We did," Wolf said. "They're all slave-rigged to an STA so Sam can run them as 'smart' drones from here. The hand and crew-launched weapons are being handled by some of the 'generics' we have lying around. Don't worry, the danger level is close to zero." "Um, okay," Kali said. "It's sounds like bollocks of fun." "Great. I'll save you a seat," Wolf smiled. "I'll wear my best set of fatigues." Wargames__________________________________________________________FOUR "...morale is essential to victory, and... nothing improves morale so much as superior firepower." -Otto von Friedrich ABERDEEN PROVING GROUNDS, MARYLAND The sun stood just over the horizon, glaring hotly down on the vast open fields and heavy armaments sprawled out in the Army's vast toybox. The reviewing stand was just starting to fill, and the crisp flags of the United States, all of her major armed forces, and the Otaku Group's cur- rent banner. (Go look at the flash patch design in the last chapter, I can't be bothered. -Cor) General Charles Emerson McCarthy II, decked out in his dress blues, stood with his aide de camp, Major J. Random Officer. GEN McCarthy was the current head of the JCOS. With him on the podium were the CINC-SAC ("Hefty, hefty, CINC-SAC!"), CINC-CONUS, CINC-LANT, and the Commander-in- Chief Heavy Ordanance and Logistics (CINC-HOL), as well as their assorted assistants and able adjutants. One notable presence was that of LT GEN Winifred Karen Randolph-Parker, the first woman to be appointed to the position of Commander-in-Chief of Strategic Intelligence, National Ana- lysis, and Terrorist Investigations (CINC-SINATI). "Jesus, there's enough brass here to build a battleship," Kali whis- pered into her commlink to Wolf. There really was no need to whisper; Wolf and Marius were stationed behind the controls of the HT-100 "Kill- dozer" Hover Tank, parked and idling four miles downrange. Kali was seated in the reviewing stand as a guest of the contractor, along with the Pentagon's liason, Captain Julius Spaulding, who chuckled slightly. She turned her attention to the figure standing in front of the podium. "General McCarthy, General Havoc, General Ripper, Admiral Halsey, Gen- eral Newsons, honored guests, and associates," said Sam, dressed in a navy blue skirtsuit and looking very professional. She glanced down at her notes and adjusted her wireframe glasses. "I welcome you all here today to the debut of the first armored fighting vehicle of the twenty- first century. I guarantee that this is the first 'true' multi-surface war machine. I give you the HT-100 'Killdozer' Hover Tank." She paused for polite applause. "Here we go," Wolf said with a smile. "Keep 'em looking, Sam. ETA your position, One minute, fourty seconds." Marius grinned back. "The HT-100 Hover Tank," Sam continued, "is the tank of the future. It's powerful, American-built engines can propel it across virtually any surface at speeds approaching one hundred and fifty miles an hour." A few of the officers chuckled at this perceived boast. "The HT-100 is extremely maneuverable at high speeds as well as very quiet. It's main armament is the BFG 'Slingshot' coilgun, capable of launching a projec- tile at extremely high speed. For this demonstration we will be using a solid steel projectile, although a Staballoy round may be substituted." She let this sink in. A few eyebrows were raised, and nods went all a- round. "ETA 30 seconds, Sam," Wolf said into his comm. They were rocketing along an old tank trail, and coming up fast on the reviewing stands. He grinned evilly. "Secondary armaments are provided by two Wolf fifty-millimeter Vicars guns, as well as hidden SAM and Surface-to-Surface banks. Gentlemen," Sam said. "If you would please put on the provided protective eyewear and hearing protection. The HT-100 itself is very quiet, but it's effects can be deafening." She held up a set of headphones and a pair of wraparound shooting glasses appropriately called "Eye Armor". She put them on for appearance sake. The OHD's located in the custom podium and surrounding stage floor were working perfectly. Wolf had put an STA in the podium itself for Sam's debut. Her instant access to data could an- swer any question those present might have. She was also very nice to look at, something not lost on the senior military men present. Just as all present, including Kali, had put on their respective gear, a beetle-shaped, camoflage object weighing close to 90 tons shot past the stand doing better than a buck fifty. Few actually got a good look at the Hover Tank as the backwash stole not a few hats in the crowd, as well as notebooks and other assorted kipple they had brought. Sam smiled as her holographic notes fluttered lightly. Wolf always did have a flair for the dramatic. Wolf slammed the thrusters backwards and pulled the controls hard to port. The tank responded by sliding to a stop less than a thousand yards past the stand. Not a dime, but 88 tons has a hell of a lot of kinetic energy at those speeds. He applied forward thrust and glided back to the stands. The G-drives worked perfectly. Wolf had tested them out two days before, going from Narragansett to Martha's Vinyard and back in just under an hour and a quarter. It handled fantastically over water. "Gentlemen," Sam said into her microphone and into the headphones of those present, "the HT-100 Hover Tank!" The 'Tank glided up and stopped just in front of the stands close enough for everyone to see, but not close enough for a really _good_ look. They hadn't bought it, yet. "We have taken the liberty to set up a little demonstration of some of the Hover Tank's abilities," Sam continued. "Our crew chief for this mornings exercise will be Mr. Wolf." Wolf popped the hatch on top of the 'Tank's turret and poked his head up. He flashed a toothy grin to the crowd and waved. Kali waved back. "The HT-100 has a standard crew of two, that of driver and gunner," Sam said. "All reloading is done auto- matically by onboard systems. The HT-100 has two additional crewspaces for the commander and his radio operator." "Mr. Wolf will now demonstrate the formidable abilities of the HT-100, accompanied by music," Sam concluded. "MISTER Wolf," Marius snickered as he brought the weapon systems on- line. "Better than Mr. Marius," Wolf replied. "That sounds like a video game." He backed away from the stands and headed downhill. They had set up the drones and weapons crews in ambush positions around the edges of the large main field. The aircraft would come afterwards, with the full assault. "Any time, Sam." The crowd Oohh-ed as a Soviet T-72 MBT (Main Battle Tank) shot out of the treeline at full speed, it's turret already swiveling to fire. Sam pretended to watch while she coordinated the choreographed attack. <<> "Target, 10 O'clock," Wolf said. Marius already had a bead on it and had it locked. He depressed the actuator and the coilgun spat it's 30 pound slab of death towards the tank at close to mach 3. A loud "CRACK!" signified that the coilgun had fired. The T-72 never had a chance to lock on. Even travelling at top speed, the coilgun round tore straight through the tank's centerline. As the crowd looked on, the T-72 was re- duced to scrap instantly, it's reactive armor cooking away merrily. "Jesus H. Christ," CINC-LANT's aide said. A ripple went through the crowd. Wolf had their full attention now. Sam smiled slightly. Small plumes of smoke could be seen around the perimeter of the field as several different types of hand and crew fired anti-armor weapons were launched against the 'Tank. "Incoming small arms fire," Wolf chuckled. Most of the rounds bounced or exploded harmlessly against the hull as they rolled cautiously towards the center of the field. The rest fell short. The treeline erupted as both a Soviet T-80 MBT and an American M1A1 Abrams Tank broke clear and fired on the HT-100. The projectile and explosive rounds covered the distance and had no effect other than to obscure the HT in smoke for a moment. The answering fire was formidable. Marius cut loose a six round salvo with the coilgun and then sprayed the treeline with both Vicars guns. Three rounds each holed the oncoming Soviet and American tanks, leaving both smoking ruins. Marius had given up the one-shot-one-kill routine for dramatic effect. The Vicars guns chewed up the foliage around where the AT-4 and other anti-tank fire had originated. Marius smiled. "Bring on a _real_ challenge, Icy," Marius taunted Sam. All he heard was a slight chuckle in reply. Six AH-60A2 Cobra gunships roared up and over the treeline. As soon as they were clear, they loosed a total of twelve Hellfire AGMs towards the Hover Tank. Marius, in reply, popped the covers on the bank of SAMs located near the rear of the vehicle. The Cobras did not remain as easy targets as the tanks did. They jinked and dodged valiantly, Sam pushing them to the limit of their abilities, far beyond the stresses their air- frames were meant to endure, nevermind those of a human crew. They never had a chance. "Kill em'," Wolf growled into his comm as the Hellfire missiles from the gunships blasted away ineffectively at the hull. "Roger that, MISTER Woof," Marius chuckled with glee as he set the solution and cut loose the dogs. "Scratch six eggbeaters," Kali giggled with delight at the 'Tank's missiles lanced skyward with surgical precition. "Argh! Mixed Meta- phore!" Kali groaned. One gunship escaped the first salvo of SAMs, but only received a mo- ments respite. Vicars fire tore into and reduced the chopper first to Swiss cheese, and then to pate'. "That is the most incredible fighting machine I've ever seen," General McCarthy said to himself. He knew whereof he spoke, being a veteran of Korea, three tours of Vietnam, Grenada, and the Gulf War. "They probably want an arm and a leg off of the Lincoln Monument for it." "It ain't over till the fat lady sings," Marius said. "Call me fat again and I'll have the Puma sisters flay you alive and eat your entrails," Sam said icily into her commlink. "Heh, now you've done it, Ollie," Wolf said with a sadistic grin. Two of the United States' premier tank killers, the A-10 Thunderbolt, dove out of the sun and opened fire with their 30-mm cannons. Basically, that's all they were, flying cannons. Those who had fought them referred to them as the "Devil's Cross", due to the straight wing design and the engines that looked like an afterthought. "Here come the Warthogs," Wolf said as the 30 mike mike rained down on them like some hellacious form of hail and acid rain. "That looks painful," Kali said as the rounds from the two A-10s tried to claw their way inneffectively through the 'Tank's thick skin. She knew there was no danger, but it sure _looked_ nasty enough. "Returning fire," Marius said simply as he locked in one Warthog with the Vicars and sicced a pair of SAMs against the other. For all their prowess on the battlefield, the A-10s are not a particularly fast plane. They're not used to a target surviving to shoot back. The Vicars spat fire just as the SAM launched from the rear of the HT-100. Marius walked the fire first across the wings of one of the A-10 Thunderbolts and then lengthwise, effectively quartering it. Sections of the aircraft spiraled downwards to crash and burn on the field of bat- tle. An engine landed almost two miles away. The other A-10 had a problem. The SAM launched at it by Marius had grabbed hold of it's enormous heat trail and was closing fast. Sam dove for the deck. She rolled. She launched countermeasures. Finally, she set it's course directly for the HT-100 and opened the throttles. Give them a show, Wolf had said. "_This_ could be interesting," Wolf said as he goosed the throttles. The 'Tank leapt forward as both the doomed Warthog and the SAM impacted at the same time. KA-BLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOEEEEYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!! The explosion was deafening, even with hearing protection. Most of the onlookers had to turn away from the blast. A few crossed themselves for the crew of the surely destroyed Hover Tank. They needn't have bothered. The HT-100 emerged from the fireball vir- tually uscathed, the only damage being several large scorch marks on the hull. "That thing is unstoppable!" cried LT GEN Randolph-Parker's young nu- bile secretary. "Who could have built such an abomination?" The Hover Tank turned and rolled back up to the reviewing stand as the dust and smoke from the battle cleared. After a brief pause to absorb the ramifications of what they'd seen, the crowd broke out in unanimous applause. A few even got to their feet. Sam beamed with their approval. "Thank you," Sam said as the applause died down. "As you can see, the HT-100 Hover Tank is a formidable power on the battlefield. It utilizes several dozen new technologies that are highly classified at this time. They are also extremely complicated. I thank you for your time this mor- ning, and will now open the podium to questions." "I have a question," voiced General Havoc, the burly CINC-SAC. "Can I have three dozen by Tuesday?" Laughter rippled through the crowd. "You'd have to speak with our production manager, General," Sam re- plied with a smile. "Ms. Lippitt?" came the voice of one of the aides present, "A personal question if I may. Are you single?" More laughter. "I'm flattered, Mr. Kennedy," Sam said with a slight blush. "Ms. Lippitt," said General Newsons. "You've shown us what appears to be _the_ premier fighting vehicle of the day. My question to you is this: If the Pentagon approves funding for this project, how soon can we expect to see production, where would it be produced, and approximately how much is this 'Hover Tank' going to cost the American Public?" "Those are all very good questions, General," Sam started to say. "A tentative start date would be before the end of the fiscal year. Need less to say, they would be produced here in the States. As to the pro- jected cost..." Sam was interrupted as several large explosions rocked the demonstra- tion field. Sam quickly checked her notes. There had been no warning of an attack. They'd have to do something about that. Just over the horizon (isn't that where ALL bad guys come from?) came several dozen small aircraft travelling at high speed. Wargames II_______________________________________________________FIVE "I like nothing better than aggression." -Commander Breetai "Looks like uninvited guests," Marius said into his comm. "Go to Contingency Plan Kilo-Alpha." "Roger that," Wolf acknowledged. "No, I'm Marius." Kali looked in the direction Sam had been, and paused. "Here we go again with the nameless-aggressor-attacks-for-no-apparent-reason-plot- device," she sighed. Wolf and Marius must have a plan. They _always_ think of these things ahead of time. "Of course they do," said CPT Spaulding simply. Sam shimmered slightly and took in the scene. Twenty high-speed, heavily armed attack helicopters of unknown origin. Six larger, slightly slower helicopters that were conceivably troop transports of some type. The ground shook with more explosions as missiles were fired from the lead helicopters. Sam threw up a pin-point barrier system to protect the crowd from flying debris. Looks like their ruse as a legitimate weapons manufacturer was blown. Maybe. The crowd looked more confused than any- thing. "Ladies and gentlemen," Sam announced. "This is _not_ a part of the scheduled demonstration. I repeat, this is _not_ a part of the program you are here today to see. We are under attack. Please remain calm. Steps are being taken to provide for your safety." <<> Marius had already adjusted to fire on the incoming helicopters and was preparing to fire. "You got an I.D. on them yet, Thom?" he asked. "Coming up now..." Wolf replied. "The gunships appear to be EDF Com- mancheros. Standard weapons systems include a forward, triple-barrel, M-89, 12.7mm, air-cooled machine gun, two side-mounted, 32mm auto can- nons, and six wing rack missile pods. These things are _heavily_ armed. The larger choppers look like EDF Sea-Sergeants. Weapons include twin M-89s in the nose, as well as four anti-sub, ATW torpedoes. They may have replaced these with ATG missiles of some type, judging by the changes in outline. It's primarily a troop carrier." "Whoever these guys are, this stuff isn't current tech," Wolf con- tinued. "It's at least three generations ahead of America's best. Top speeds are 500 and 300 mph respectively." "Shit," Marius stated. "Let's hope they don't have any friends." "You can say that again," Wolf replied. "Shit," Marius restated. "Let's hope they don't have any friends." "You can say that again," Wolf rereplied. "But _don't_. You have the conn. I'm activating plan B." Marius took over full control of the HT-100 from his gunnery station as Wolf popped the top hatch. Wolf goosed his HardSuit's boot jets and was gone. "Plan B?" Marius asked himself. "Evidently," himself replied. Behind the reviewing stand there sat the HT-500X Hover Tank that Wolf had parked there just before dawn. The reason that no one had noticed it there was that Wolf had set up an SEP field around it. Most of those present had actually seen the HT-500X, but figured it was Somebody Else's Problem. A large, black, red, and silver mecha tended to attract atten- tion. The hatch on the top of the turret opened on command from Wolf. Kali and most of the crowd looked up as Wolf shot out of the gun tur- ret like a rocket. Wolf arced over the heads of the crowd, doing several somersaults before sailing spread-eagled over their upturned faces. "ORION QUEEEEESST!" Wolf hollered for dramatic effect, his black Hard- Suit glistening in the light. He tucked back into a ball and did another somersault before landing neatly on the gun turret of the HT-500X. "Ye gods, but that was corny," Kali said. As she spoke, Spaulding slipped on a handy banana peel and before Kali could react, he vanished beneath the reviewing stand. Dropping down the hatch, Wolf brought all systems fully online from standby and sealed the hatch. While the 100 series could be run by a single person with difficulty, the 500 series only required a crew of one to be fully operational. "Ready to rock and rule," Wolf misquoted. Marius, meanwhile had dashed back downhill to draw fire away from the reviewing stand. He locked onto his preselected targets and opened fire with the coilgun. CRACK...Boom! CRACK...Boom! CRACK...Boom! Three of the lead gunships met their doom. "This is too easy," he said. As he spoke, two of the helicopters launched full barrages of missiles at him. "Um, maybe I was a bit hasty with that..." The ground around him shook as thirty six short-ranged anti-armor mis- siles struck and pummeled his position. A lone system damage light came on on the panel. The auxiliary G-drives were gone. Four of the gunships opened fire with their M-89s, raking the 'Tank with a hail of automatic fire. One of the Sea-Sergeants cut loose with a pair of large air-to-ground missiles. They both screamed towards Marius' position. "Shit!" Marius cursed. "These guys are playing for keeps!" The 'Tank was tossed about by the explosion. No damage this time, fortunately. He locked on and retaliated with vicious and deadly precision, sending four more gunships and one of the troop transports to their fiery doom by means of the coilgun and the Vicars cannons. While Marius was cursing, two of the Sea-Sergeants had touched down in a nearby clearing. Their doors opened almost simultaneously, and both disgorged their contents: a full detatchment of humanoids in heavy power armor. They regrouped and moved out with mechanical efficiency. Under the stands, Spaulding paused for a moment to see if he was ob- served. He was alone. "Looks like they might need my help," he said as he opened his briefcase. <<> (The lyrics don't fit, but the rythm does) Wolf shot around the reviewing stand and rocketed towards the incoming forces. He let loose with a deadly hail of fire from the main coilgun as well as the Vicars cannons. Half a dozen SAMs soon followed. These were _not_ standard ordanance. Wolf had taken the basic 'Lobo' Revenger-III SAM and upgraded them to a medium-range, high-explosive missile he dubbed the 'Piledriver'. Impressively, eleven of the remaining gunships and one of the two air- born transports were utterly obliterated. With the guidance systems he had put into these 'Tanks it was hard to miss. Just aim and shoot, and the T.A.R.G.E.T. system does the rest. The group of thirty-six humanoids in heavy power armor fanned out in pairs and set up a 45 degree perimeter. Meanwhile, the third transport touched down and dropped off the remaining 18 troops, who quickly moved to secure the viewing area. Kali caught a rapid movement off to the right. She turned her head just in time to see an armored figure slip behind a copse of trees. Fo- cussing, she saw another figure join the first. She recognized it. "Um, guys," Kali said in to her commlink. "I think I see some of our old friends here." "Which ones, Kali," Wolf asked. They'd made a few enemies in recent times. "The armored guys that attacked us at URI," Kali replied. "Ah," Wolf said thoughtfully. "Sounds like mandroids. Where are they now, dear?" "Moving towards the stands," Kali responded. "Who are these bozos? And don't call me 'dear', you snarky bastard." "Roger," Wolf laughed. "Sounds like they're making a play for the brasso boys. Try to hold them off as long as you can." "I believe I can assist you in that," Sam cut in. Kali saw that she was had drawn a very large handgun from her purse.Z. "Looks good, Sam," Kali said. "Very stylish." <<> Wolf swung the HT-500X around back towards the stands and pulled one of the larger levers on his control panel. The main body of the HT lift- ed up and several large sections of the hull pulled away and moved about. One moment there was a Hover Tank, the next a vaguely bipedal form with a gun turret for a body, and finally a full combat battloid with the coilgun in the right 'hand'. "Party time!" Wolf shouted. The HT-500X battloid ran towards the reviewing stands at high speed. The mandroids were just starting to open fire on Marius' 'Tank. Multiple green parbeams washed over the hull of the 'Tank as Marius was hit. No damage, but he was shaken up a bit. Some of the mandroids had grenade launchers, and were firing at him also. None of the weapons seemed to have any visible effect on the 'Tank, but it was slowing Marius down. "Nasty little bastards," Wolf cursed. He sent one of the HT's legs pistoning outwards and punted one of the mandroids across the field where it hit one of the grounded troop transports. Both exploded. This could be fun. Kali drew her sidearm and opened fire on the advancing mandroids. She actually holed one of them before they realized that their targets were not totally helpless. The rest ducked for cover and took pot-shots at her from there. "Sam, they're behind that big rock over there," Kali called out. <<> "I see them," Sam replied, leveling her oversized pistol and firing at the rock. A huge gout of flame shot out of the barrel and completely vaped the boulder, blasting it to smithereens. "Ooohhh, nice shot," Kali said admirably. "A MagnaFlame Pistol." Sam nodded with an innocent smile. Marius, for his part was mopping up the remainder of the choppers. He made quick work of the two gunships and one remaining transport still flying around, their guns and missiles either missing his darting 'Tank or harmlessly hitting the hull. He turned and headed for the treeline where Wolf was stomping mandroids into jelly. <<> One of the mandroids managed to make it to the stands. A coppery blur swept from under the stands and knocked it flat. The blur resolved itself into the strangely changed CPT Spaulding. Although he still wore his dress blues, he now sported a studded black glove on his right hand and a metallic tint to his skin. He raised his hand over his head and paused. The metallic sheen seemed to draw itself about his hand as he swung down and in one blow removed the mandroids helmet. Picking up the fallen mandroid's large rifle, he turned it on the other attackers. He fired again and again, mandroids falling before the hail of fire. Some of them actually managed to return his fire, green beams of death ricocheting off his now rearmored skin, doing permanent damage to his uniform and a few innocent trees. "Christ, I guess I'm glad he's on our side," Kali whistled after see- ing Spaulding's attack. She and Sam had managed to pick off quite a few of the remaining mandroids from the cover of the stands and the podium, respectively. So far there had been no casualies on their side, Kali noted with some satisfaction, although there had been one close call when one of the generals' aides had stood up and started yelling at them to stop the demonstration. Kali had managed to knock him back down into his seat with a TK hurled piece of a tree. He was dazed, but at least he didn't have any holes in him. <<> Wolf was actually puzzled by the actions of the mandroids. They seemed intent only on holding the Hover Tank on the demo field, not act- ually destroying it. It seemed more like a holding action. The other thing was the way that he could smash one of them, and the others just kind of looked around puzzled, shrugged, and went back to shooting at Marius. He crushed four more of them before curiousity overcame his need to wipe them out. "Hey, Marius," Wolf asked over the comm, "I have a question." "Go ahead," Marius prompted. "Well, I keep smashing these guys," Wolf replied, "and while it _is_ a lot of fun, it's sort of boring because they don't shoot back at me. All they do is keep firing at you." "It's like you're not there right?" "Yeah, I guess so." "Like maybe you were invisible?" Marius prompted. "Yeah." "Or maybe your wiping out their friends was 'Somebody Else's Problem?" "Shit! You're right!" Wolf DUH-ed himself in the forehead several times for effect. "I forgot about that. Can you see me?" "Yes, but that's because I know what I'm looking for," Marius replied. "I actually doubt that Kali can, though." "Hmmmm... This thing could be _very_ useful," Wolf thought out loud. "It's just not very fun, or satisfying for that matter." "You and your bloodlust," Marius laughed. "I wouldn't have thought that giving them a fair chance would be your style." "I don't want to give them a fair chance," Wolf flatly denied. "It's just that I _like_ seeing how scared they are before I mosh them." "Heh heh heh." <<> Marius shot through the treeline and overran one of the mandroid's positions. One of them stood up when they saw his charging and got struck in the chest with 88 tons of metal. The other mandroid ducked and let the hurting mass pass over it. Marius quickly moved to change this as he came about and raked the spot with both Vicars guns, which very effectively ventilated the mandroid. Marius turned and started to head towards Wolf, effecting a pincer movement that either crushed or herded the remaining mandroids between them. "We still have a few bothering us over here guys," Kali said over the comm. "I'll be over just as soon as Wolf and I finish with these clowns," Marius replied. "Wolf seems to think that these guys are just trying to delay us for some reason." "Well, they seem pretty intent on reaching the reviewing stand," Kali shot back. "Hostages perhaps?" "Maybe," Marius replied. "Wolf, can you down that last transport and kill that other one on the ground?" "Roger wilco aye-aye cando willdo, and all that," Wolf snarfed. He brought the coilgun/now-a-big-pistol to bear on the last two of the Sea- Sergeants and reduced them to scrap. "There goes their ride home." "People," Sam interjected. "I believe we have a larger problem to deal with at this time." Kali looked at her quizzically. What could be more important that guys in armor trying to shoot them? Then she looked up. <<> The Gamelonian light cruiser _Jorratu_ dropped silently down out of the clouds. All present stopped whatever they were doing for a moment and looked towards the heavens. For those military and civilians pres- ent, seeing a large Unidentified Flying Object above them was a new ex- perience and was quite a shock. The members of the Otaku Group present were beyond shock: this was getting to be an old story. "Looks like Deslok's merry band of men haven't completely given up on our little planet," Wolf said rhetorically. The fact that Deslok him- self was dead and his skull was sitting in Kali's office didn't seem to change the facts. "What now, crew?" Kali asked. "Um, shoot it down?" Marius asked with a stiffled giggle. "Right," Wolf replied, and promptly started to do so, opening up with his coilgun. Marius soon joined in the barrage, followed by Sam with her MagnaFlame Pistol. Kali kept up her attempt to keep away the man- droids while Spaulding had seemingly vanished in the smoke of the battle. "Captain Kaufman," said one of the crewmen of the _Jorratu_, "we are receiving fire from the ground defenders." "Are the shields holding?" asked the heavily bearded man with the bright, piercing eyes. "Affirmative, sir," the crewman replied. "Open the external feed," Kaufman commanded as he stood and strode forward, grasping a large, heavy cane. "Our fire seems to be having little effect," Sam stated as she fired again and again. "I'm alerting the rest of the Otaku Group." "Good idea," Kali said, blasting a mandroid into kipple. "Not the Corinthian-rushes-to-save-all-of-our-sorry-asses-scenario a- gain," Wolf bitched. "Sad but true, I'm afraid," Marius grimaced. "Bastard, robble robble," Wolf hamburglered. "ATTENTION, PUNY HUMANS," came a blaring voice from the sky. "THIS IS CAPTAIN KAUFMAN OF THE STARSHIP _JORRATU_. STAND AND DELIVER. ANY FUR- THER HOSTILITIES WILL RESULT IN YOUR DEMISE." For emphasis, all of the lower guns of the cruiser trained themselves on the reviewing stand. "What a complete and utter bastard," Kali said. "Who the hell does he think he is, the Romanian Army?" "But where are the Teen Angels?" Wolf asked. "What the hell are you babbling about," Kali asked. "Heh heh heh hee hee hee," Marius giggled. "Good one, Thom." "You wanna die, 'Michael'?" Wolf shot back. "What is so funny???" Kali demanded. "Cap-tain KAAAAAAUUUFF-MAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNN!!!!" Wolf and Marius chorused. "Are we in position?" Kaufman asked with an edge of irritation in his voice. These humans were annoying him. "Yes, Captain," replied his helsman. "We are in position over the target." "Good. Proceed." "_That_ can't mean anything good," Kali muttered as the lower bay doors of the _Jorratu_ halved and slid open. A brilliant beam of light irradiated from the opening and shone directly earthward, right over... "MARIUS!" Kali shouted. "TRACTOR BEAM!" "I...*crackle*...figured tha...*sputter*...ut...*hiss*" Marius tried to respond. The tractor was playing havoc with his 'Tank's scaled down electronics. Marius couldn't even look at the bay of the cruiser with- out opening the turret hatch. Wolf was not having the same problem. "They're after the 'Tank!" he cried like a parent who was watching the kidnapping of his infant child. He concentrated his fire on the open bay of the cruiser in vain, the tractor beam seemed to act as a secondary shield for that vulnerable area of the ship. "Sam! See if you can help him," Wolf said through gritted teeth. He was about to try jumping on Marius' 'Tank in an attempt to overload the beam. "Roger," Sam replied adjusting her own fire to the bay. The Magna- Flame Pistol had a marginally better effect against the tractor beam, being based on the same technology, but it was still not enough. Handgun versus starship, I don't think so. "Uh...*snap*...guys...*crackle*...help? *fizzle* (you were expecting a pop, perhaps? -Cor)," Marius begged as the Hover Tank started to lift from the ground and slowly drifted upwards. Marius tried to elevate the barrel of the coilgun to shoot into the beam and thus into the cruiser, but it wouldn't cooperate. There was also no way of changing the posi- tion of the 'Tank to facilitate this. "Dammit, give me back my tank, you prick!" Wolf hollered as he ran fired again and again at the cruiser, concentrating his fire on the gun emplacements on the ships belly. He actually managed to knock out two of the six turrets. Fortunately, they still hadn't noticed him. Spaulding noticed the opalescent beam tugging away at the tank. He tossed away his spent rifle and turned towards the mandroid that was his present target. As he clamped his right hand on the faceplate, azure bolts of lightning coruscated from the point of contact, shorting out the armor. "I'm getting a message from Cor," Sam said into her comm. "He esti- mates arrival in ten minutes." "Why so long," Wolf asked curiously. "He's looking for his other shoe." "?" Spaulding concentrated his armor about his fist once more, and leapt into the beam, which locked onto him, slinging him upward into the ship's bay. As he entered, the beam switched off, but his momentum carried him into the emitter. The resulting explosion, as fist met tractor beam mount, rocked the landing bay. "Oh, SHIIIIIIIIIIIIT!" Marius cried as the tractor beam cut out and he floated unsupported momentarily like Wile E. Coyote before plunging earthward. The 'Tank impacted with incredible force from about 100 feet up and buried itself halfway up the hull. Had Marius not been wearing his ROACH armor, he would have been pulped in the impact. As it was, he was quite badly shaken, his brain rattling around loose in his skull like a small marble. Spaulding staggered to his feet, wincing. His right hand, or what was left of it, smouldered. As the smoke cleared, he was disappointed to find several crewmembers pointing rifles at him. "Take me to Kaufman," he said, slumping to his knees. Two guards picked him up, one at each arm, and dragged him to the bridge. "Sir, the prisoner is on his way up," a random ensign reported. "Good....," Kaufman purred, "I haven't interrogated anyone in months." "MIKE!" Kali exclaimed, forgetting his codename for a moment. She re- doubled her efforts at blasting the four remaining mandroids and reduced them all to smoking corpses in a matter of seconds. She then half-flew half-jumped off of the reviewing stand with a TK assisted boost and hit the ground running for the fallen Hover Tank. "Christ, what a mess," Wolf muttered as he fired into the now tractor beam-less bay of the _Jorratu_. The bridge doors parted, and the detachment entered, with Spaulding in tow. They dropped him in a heap in front of the Captain. "Why do you resist? Your puny weapons are no match for us." "Just lucky I guess." Spaulding replied painfully, "We will win, after all." Kaufman laughed villainously, and kicked Spaulding across the room. "To borrow a phrase from your world, you and what army?" he said men- acingly. Spaulding staggered to his feet, the deck rocking under his feet as the fire from Wolf's coilgun scored several hard blows at the ship's soft interior, and reached into his uniform with his left hand. When he with- drew it, he revealed a heavy, bronze-colored gauntlet studded with six gems. <<> "Army?" he said, his voice suddenly stronger, "I don't need no steenk- een' army!" Wolf noted with satisfaction that the cruiser suddenly listed sharply to port. It reached the commit point and rolled completely over. "Oh, hell, this is just _not_ my day," Wolf said as the stricken ship started to drop, it's shadow covering them all. Cor flickered and appeared just over the forward airlock of the now crippled _Jorratu_. He retolled his armor into something a little more appropriate and tore the door free. Dropping into the ship, he rocket- ed off towards the bridge, doors and hallways blurring behind him. <<> Kali screamed and threw up her hands in a vain attempt to ward off certain death. She then threw her TK into the mix and actually succeeded in slowing the ship by a tiny fraction. Fortunately, it was just enough. As she said last minute prayers to her diety of choice the ship sud- denly righted itself and drifted off northwards where it touched down. Not having landing gear, it sat rather ackwardly on the scorched earth of the proving grounds, but they were all safe. "Whu...?" Marius asked foggily. "Geez," Wolf said. "How?" Kali asked. "Cor," Sam said, matter-of-factly. "True, true," Cor's voice came over their commlinks. "Looks like I got here just in time to stop the 'plummeting-starship-scenario/gag'." "And just in the Nick-O-Time(tm), too," Wolf laughed with relief. "Heh heh," Cor chuckled. "I did always have a flair for the dramatic entrance." "Don't be snarky," Kali said. "Here's something interesting," Cor said as he looked around the bridge of the _Jorratu_. "The crew seems to have left." "They abandoned ship? Why?" Wolf asked. "They were winning." "Not abandoned ship. Left. There's absolutely no sign of the crew except a litter of hand-held weapons on the deck," Cor explained. "I mean, even their seats are still warm. It's like they just vanished." Even the Best Laid Plans___________________________________________SIX "Imagination is more important than intelligence." -Albert Einstein "...and usually more interesting and profitable." -anon THAT NIGHT, KINGSTON, RI <<> The doors to the new Recreation Room slid open and the man known as Corinthian entered and looked around. Marius was crashed out on one of the many couches while Anna and Una tended to his wounds, most of which were psychosomatic. (Try putting Bactine(tm) on one. -Cor) Wolf and Kali were chatting on another couch while scarfing down copious amounts of pizza and Moxie. Cor shook his head. A woman who drinks Moxie. No wonder she fits in, he thought. Cor turned as Frosty and Sheila came through the door holding hands. He shook his head. As long as he'd known Mike, he never expected him to fall for an artificial being. Calling her that was less than fair, he realized... she contained elements of all of them, but the genetics of only one. "Gods, but this is getting old," Cor sighed as he flopped down on a couch. His chrome subderms clouded for a second. He stretched, aimless- ly changing the color of his t-shirt from blue to yellow to green. "Where is that Gamelonian cruiser right now, Marius?" "Oh, that," Marius replied aimlessly. "I parked it in orbit next to the MFG Platform. I figure that we can use the bulk of it for something that DigiCom and I were working on before he...ah...left." The MFG Plat- form was the orbital MagnaFlame Gun that Cor and Marius had cobbled to- gether from debris in the satellite graveyard and was currently parked in geosynchronous orbit over Langley, Virginia. "Uh huh," Cor prompted. "And what might that be?" "Expanding the MFG Platform to an orbital space station," Marius went on to say. "Eventually, all large production operations will be moved there from the Hangar Annex." "That sounds logical," Cor agreed. "Someone's bound to notice us one of these days taking off and landing there. WASP class scout ships and other space vessels might get some attention. When can you start work?" "Immediately," Marius replied, "it's just a matter of getting the proper equipment on site and booting up the A.I. that DC left us." "Another A.I.?" Wolf perked up his ears. Una laughed at him. "Heh, yeah," Marius said. "This one's a regular Alfred." "Heh," Cor laughed as he stood up. "Sounds like a barrel full of fun. I assume you'll need help with it?" "Of course," Marius smiled. "The two lovely...ladies...here have de- cided to join me. That will either be a blessing or a curse. I haven't decided which." Both of them tried to smother him with cushions. He re- taliated by tickling them. "Wonderful," Cor said, rolling his eyes. Boxcars. "Anyone else got anything new? Frosty? Any progress on cracking that binary stuff that the cubes have been putting out?" "To put it bluntly, no," Frosty replied. "The problem is that we don't even know what it _could_ be that we're looking for, so we don't know how to look for it. It could be anything. A codeword, a series of random numbers, a color, a thought, anything. Not to mention that it's doubtful it's in English. We're baffled." "Marvelous," Cor sighed. "Anything else?" "Not really," Kali said, "but if you have a minute can I speak with you alone?" "Ooohhhhh," Marius chided. "Kinky sex, anyone?" "Bastard," Kali said. What she did next surprised everyone: she walked away. "Hmmmmm," Wolf said thoughtfully as the doors slid shut behind her, "That might be significant." "Okay, folks," Cor said, "I'll be away for a few days, maybe a week. "Wherefore art thou going?" Marius asked. "Hunting." <<> Cor caught up with Kali in her quarters down on Sublevel F. He paused outside the door and knocked softly. "Come in," came Kali's voice as the door slid open. Cor stepped in and looked around. Come to think of it, he'd never actually been in her room. It was a large but cozy dual-level room with a sunken entertain- ment center in the middle. A standard kitchenette was off to the left, with a hallway and doors off to the right and straight ahead. Standard decor, thick carpet, nice furniture, etc. Cor's eyes locked on a large painting on the long wall between the hallways. It appeared to be either a photograph or a very detailed painting of the Sydney, Australia water- front at night. The Sydney Opera House was in the foreground with the bustling metropolis behind and all around it. Motion caught his eye. The painting seemed to be moving. "You like it?" Kali asked. She had walked out from the bathroom and was standing there watching him. "Yes, it is an actual photograph. A film actually, I had shot in tri-D. It reminds me of home." "I thought you weren't from Sydney proper?" "I'm not, but it's more active and pretty than my hometown," Kali re- plied. "The film is fourty-eight hours long and repeats constantly. It also serves to give me a sense of time down here in this hole." "I can see the purpose in that," Cor agreed. "Time does seem to lose all meaning here. What's up?" "Well," she said, flopping down on the large, semi-circular couch in the center of the room, "can I ask you a question?" "Shoot." Kali cringed. "That's part of it," Kali explained. "Does the killing ever bother you? I mean we've been blasting everyone in a black hat for quite a while now." "What do you mean?" "I've been feeling kind of guilty lately," Kali continued. "I mean, I just blasted a lot of people in armor because they held beliefs counter to my own. At one point I got so angry I shot four of them in as many seconds. What's the point?" "Not to make light of it, but that's a damned good shot ratio," Cor said with a kind smile. "Remember, you saved several dozen lives during the fight. As it is every one of the people there escapes with only one major injury and one MIA." "I realize that," Kali agreed, "but it still bothers me. Pulling the trigger is just too easy." "Have you been sleeping well?" "No, I haven't," she replied. "I keep hearing voices." "Mmmmm hmmmm. Have you spoken to Sam about it? You might be more comfortable speaking with her." "Not yet," Kali admitted. "It's a good idea, though. Can I ask you another question, Cor? I'd appreciate an honest answer." "Um, okay, I guess," he said nervously. "How do _you_ cope with it?" "It's either them or us. There's a war on, you know." Cor stepped over to her and gave her a kiss on the cheek. He then turned and left, Kali staring after him. Cor stepped out of the 'lift doors into the ground level of the ever- expanding Lippitt Complex and thought for a moment. "Sam," he said. Moments after he spoke, she appeared next to him, dressed in a standard blue jumpsuit. It really fit her curves well, he admitted to himself. "Naughty," she said with a smile. He had forgotten the wetware link with her he had "installed". "What did you find out about our friends from Aberdeen?" Cor asked. "This might interest you," she replied. "Almost all of the uniforms they were wearing under their armor were manufactured in the United Arab Emirates." "The Middle East," Cor said thoughtfully. She nodded. "And a small plate found in each of their armors identifies the man- ufacturer to be KDCI," she said. "Sound familiar?" "All too familiar," Cor admitted. A list of subsidaries?" "One that fits the bill," she answered. "A company by the name of Sandosia International has extensive holding in the Middle East, primar- ily in the nations of Sudan, Querac, and Iraq." "Wonderful. Well it looks like a start point. Any response from SF?" "I left a message on his voice mail with your .sig on it," Sam said. "I'll patch it through to you if anything comes in." "Great. Thanks, Sam." "You're always welcome, Cor," she smiled at him warmly. He walked to the center of the room and concentrated. His STELLARIS armor seemed to glow and crackle around him and then it started to grow and change, extending itself into a seperate form next to him. The new form grew and shifted as the armor retooled itself. Finally it settled on it's new form and an outline became visible in the mass, then a color. What was once empty space was now occupied by what appeared to be a per- fectly restored, white on red, 1958 Plymouth Fury. Cor stood there smil- ing, his hand resting on the hood. <<> "Very nice," Wolf said as he stepped out of the 'lift. "Tell me, Cor, is there a limit to what that STELLARIS armor can do?" I haven't really tested it to an extreme," Cor said as he slid behind the wheel, "but I haven't found one yet." He started the car up and the engine purred like a kitten, albeit a large one. "I assume the 'engine' is just for effect," Wolf said with a devilish grin. "Of course," Cor said as the large door at the back of the Complex rolled up. Cor dropped the gearshift into [D] and rolled past the bulky UPSTruckFromHELL(tm) that Wolf _had_ to be working on again and drove out into the night. SEVERAL DAYS LATER GEOSYNCHRONOUS ORBIT, DIRECTLY OVER KINGSTON, RI <<> "Anna, do you have that linkage finished yet?" Marius asked over his helmet commlink. The fact that he was currently floating upside-down over the former MFG Platform 22,300 miles up from the earth's surface was negligable. He breathed easily in his custom utility hardsuit. At least the view was spectacular. "Yeah, I got it," came Anna's reply from several meters behind him. "Y'know your ass is cute in that suit. Right, Una?" "You know it," said Una from the control room of the MFG Platform. In a matter of four days time the platform had undergone a remarkable amount of change in it's size and shape. It was now over a mile and a half a- cross at it's widest point and shaped roughly like an inverted teacup on steroids. Several large green hemispheres projected from the hull in various places, allowing a spectacular view of earth and the starfield beyond. All in all, the new station was spectacular, that is, if anyone could see it. One of the first things that Marius had equipped the place with was a very powerful SEP field that resisted even the most scrutinizing scan from earth or elsewhere. Marius closed the last panel and crossed his arms. "That should just about wrap up this part of it, girls," he said. "Great!," Anna cried. "Now can we try out the grav pool?" She and Una both giggled at this prospect. They loved to have fun. Already they had nailed him twice with practical jokes, including a nasty one that had to do with his toolbox, a pocket generator, and four thousand pounds of whipped cream. Marius had been more than willing to include the pool in the station. The very thought made Marius quiver. "Sorry, girls," Marius said with not a _little_ feigned regret. I've got to get the rest of the electronics online and load the AI into the onboard mainframe. About two hours worth of tweeking, I'd guestimate." They both booed and hissed. "It'll take longer if you make things difficult," Marius scolded them. Cor had outdone himself with these two, he thought. He shook his head. "I still have to finish the main bay, but that can wait until LUCIEN is up." "_Then_ can we have fun?" Una pleaded. Marius noted with some annoy- ance that she had pointed several of the exterior defense guns at him. "Yes, I think that we can have fun then," Marius admitted. "Hey, Maaaariusssss," Anna purred, "What's this flying teacup called, anyway?" "It's not a flying teacup, it's an orbital battle station," Marius pouted. They'd been razzing him about the shape ever since they'd seen the plans. "I'm thinking of calling it TALAMASCA." <<> Marius, Anna, and Una lay sprawled out on the comfortable couches in his personal recreation room, relaxing and taking in one of the many good anime tapes in his collection after having taken a refreshing dip in the grav-pool. Anna and Una were both drying their long, flowing hair with towels while Marius let his air dry. As they watched, two bikini-clad femmes, one with a shock of red hair, the other with long brunette tres- ses, discarded their outfits in an abandoned factory and proceeded to take a pair of bubble baths. Marius had a smile on his face, this was always one of his favorite scenes. The two women watched the giant screen and exchanged glances with each other. Smiling and giggling they both stole glances at Marius to check his reaction to the scene. As they all watched, a third person entered the picture by way of an overhead airvent. He crept along stealthily, his eyes intent on the pair beneath him. Marius and the two girls laughed riotously as the vent gave way and Carson D. Carson plunged headfirst into the redhead's bubble bath, coming to rest with his head between her fleshy thighs. The dialogue was all in Japanese, but the gist of her reaction was there, as she smashed him away from herself, sending him sprawling towards the brunette. "God, I love this movie," Marius sighed. "It comes _so_ close to be- ing dirty. It's hilarious." "Oh?" Una's ears perked up. "You like that, do you?" She exchanged a knowing glance with her twin sister. "You know how I am by now, I would think," Marius replied with a wick- ed grin. He was a hentai and they both knew it. He couldn't thank Cor enough for making them the way he did. "Oh, we know what you like," Anna said as she stood and stretched, her curves teasing him and her long hair dancing around her face. She fixed him with a smouldering glance and he melted. "Una?" Wordlessly her sister stood and joined her. The two stood back to back and started to tap their feet with the music. The effect was almost uncanny. The two looked as if they were standing with their backs a- gainst a pair of mirrors, their slowly growing gyrations echoed in each other. Marius sat back and enjoyed the dance. He'd seen the scene in the TV show that they were recreating for him, and he loved it now as he had then. The actions of the two women and the intruder on the screen behind him were long forgotten. The dance progressivly became more and more suggestive, the two turn- ing to face one another. They turned and twisted towards and around one another with their sinewy bodies, tiny water droplets from the pool still sparkling in their hair. They stopped simultaniously and winked at the smiling Marius. [ Author's Note: The rest of this scene with Marius and the Puma sisters HAS been written for this section of the chapter, however it is in no way suitable for general net-release/posting, nor does it affect the general storyline. Suffice to say, Marius and the Pumas get to know each other on a much more intimate level. (For those of you out there that are true hentai and would actually be interested in it, the alternate version of the chapter is available by request. You MUST state in the request that you are at least 18 years of age. I have no way of verifying it, but at least my ass will be partially shielded. Mail requests to JGOV1447@uriacc.uri.edu ) ] THE LIPPITT COMPLEX, KINGSTON, RI <<> Wolf stood looking at the UPSTruckFromHELL(tm) and scratched his chin. The stubble there was itchy and scratchy, and it provided a distraction. The door from the quadrangle beeped and opened and in stepped Mystic Maxx and Tareah. "Morning, Thommy," MMaxx said jovially. "Hi," Tareah said, tossing her long blonde hair very blonde-like. "Hello," Wolf replied, "what are you two up to?" "Oh, you know," MMaxx answered. "This and that. You look like a man with a lot on your mind. Problem?" "Well, I'm trying to think of a way to improve this thing some more," Wolf said. "I mean, it's already got great armaments, the bests 'drives I could think of, excellent tracking and targeting systems, and comfy seats. What's left?" "A good stereo?" Tareah offered. "Got it," Wolf sighed. "I put in a Blaupunkt weeks ago. With the STA it gets every major rock station on the dial." "Does it get good mileage in town?" Tareah snarked. "Funny," Wolf grinned. "The BP Field generator doesn't use outside fuel." "Well, can you drive it to the moon and back?" MMaxx took a stab. "Hmmmmm, you may have something there, Paul," Wolf nodded. "It's not really all that great for space flight. That could be it." "The question is, Thom," MMaxx retorted, "_why_? I mean besides the fact that you've got a hanger full of perfectly servicable starships." "Well... because," Wolf said. "Oh, that's a wonderful reason," Tareah said rolling her eyes. <<> "...and that's what's been bothering me lately," Kali was saying. "Well looking at the events of late, I'd have to say that you're not alone in feeling that way," Sam responded. The two of them were on the couch in Kali's room, sipping drinks and chatting. Kali preferred this atmosphere to that of the doctor-and-the-couch psychiatrist schtick. "I know it," Kali agreed. "Marius never really had a thirst for it, Frosty hates it, and DC flipped out on us. Are we all falling apart a- round here?" "We all have different ways of expressing our feelings about the vio- lence that's been forced on us," Sam said soothingly. "Some people try to refrain from it like Frosty, while others like Wolf seem to think of it as just a job. Rationalizing it helps some, looking at it as a neces- sary evil, and that helps sometimes, but when it boils down to it, it's just tough to deal with." "I just wish the voices in my head would stop," Kali said. "Part of the reason for that is the fact that you have been given a high level of mental ability," Sam explained. "Along with the plusses that this provides comes a down side: hypersensitivity to the thoughts and events that occur around you. You may actually be empathizing with the others without knowing it. Your mind is acting like a resonator for their pain." "Maybe, but what about Deslok?" Kali asked. "I keep hearing his voice in particular." "In that case you were directly and personally involved in his execu- tion," Sam rationalized. "You witnessed DC's killing of him firsthand and the feelings of outrage and anger you were feeling and expressing at the time etched him in you mind. Don't worry. It will fade with time. All things do." "Sam," Kali said, taking her hand gently in her own. "I'm so glad that I can talk to you like this. You sound so much like Cor, but at the same time different. More approachable. I don't know. It's strange." "Well, that's easy enough to explain," Sam said with a smile, "Cor is the one who programmed me in the first place, as you know. It only makes sense that you'd see a similarity." "Can I ask you a personal question, Sam?" "Sure," Sam replied. "Why is Cor so distant sometimes? When I tried to talk to him about this he foisted me off onto you. He's very closed off sometimes and that makes me worry." "Cor is... well, he's Cor," Sam replied. "I probably know him the best and still parts of him are a mystery to me. Maybe he deals with any pain he might feel by sealing it off and not thinking about it. Maybe he dwells on it when we're not in direct contact. Not all of his thoughts are open to me, you know, even though I'm linked with him." "You two are linked?" Kali said, shocked. "I thought you were just the AI in his armor, and later took over for Sheila." "No, it goes much deeper than that," Sam said with a faroff look. "He and I are 'soulmates' to coin a phrase. I'm always with him." "What's he doing right now?" Kali asked. "Without sounding too nosy." "Oh, that's alright," Sam replied. "I believe he's just about to get into a fight in a bar in Querac." "That's Cor," Kali said, noting the hint of concern in Sam's voice. Kali dropped her eyes and lowered her voice. "You love him, don't you?" Sam replied in a voice that was almost too low to hear, barely above a whisper. "Yes." A Hunting We Will Go_____________________________________________SEVEN "Shhhhhh... Be veeeeewy vewy quiet." -E. Fudd The glass exploded mere moments before a black-gloved hand would have clasped it's sweat-trickling exterior. The hand paused in mid-air and the man looked up. "We don't like strangers here," stated a fireplug of a man with a sawed-off rifle in his hands and an equally short temper. "Especially ones that smell like WORD-UNKNOWN," he continued in the local dialect. The translator was having a hard time again, it seems. The limits of technology, he sighed. <<> The man whose drink was running for the edge of the bar slowly clenched his right hand in to a fist. The other patrons of the out of the way dive moved as quietly and quickly to either side of the room. At least they _all_ weren't stupid, Corinthian sighed. At least he knew e- nough of the local speak to know that the last word spoken translated roughly as 'cop' or 'mercenary' and was meant as an insult. "So now you think you are some sort of bad-ass, is that it?" the local tough asked sarcastically. Cor sized him up as he turned slowly to face him. Five-one, close to 200 pounds, most of that being muscle... incud- ing the area between his ears. The rifle he held firmy, but kept it mov- ing slowly side to side. Not _completely_ stupid. Quickly scanning the rest of the patrons, Cor confirmed the obvious--most of the locals agreed with the tough, except for one out of place patron who was wearing a long trenchcoat and a floppy fedora. Trenchcoat was smiling and joking with his companion, but his eyes never left the potential confrontation, Cor noted. Cor slowly brought his body around to match his gaze, and started to stand up. The tough grinned hesitantly and warily backed up a couple of inches, throwing a quick glance over his shoulder to see who was still with him. As Cor rose to his full six-foot-five, the tough's eyes grew larger. When he saw that he had the tough's full attention, Cor's sub- dermal eye lenses changed quickly from their usual chrome to white and then to red and back to chrome. The tough paused and tilted his head slightly to one side, looking very much like a puzzled bulldog. "I have no quarrel with you," Cor said softly in a voice that flowed smoothly like silk yet still had a sharp ened steel edge. "Let me leave in peace." Whether the tough was too stupid for the mind trick to work of some deep-rooted reptilian part of his brainstem rebelled against the suggest- ion would remain a mystery. The tough shouted and brought the rifle to bear on the center of Cor's chest, pulling the trigger hard. <<> With a thought, Cor's world red-shifted, freezing all motion in place. With a smile, Cor noted the rifle's round hovering in place two feet from the end of the barrel. There were a dozen ways he could finish this, but it had to be in such a way that the locals would both remember yet not a- rouse suspicion. With his right eye he projected the course of the bul- let. Despite being a moron, the tough was a pretty good shot. The round would catch him close to center. Cor side stepped the round and shifted back. To the tough and the others in the bar it looked as if Cor seemed to flicker and slide a foot to the right. The bullet hit the wall behind him and caused a few bottles to rattle. "Hey! Take it outside!" the bartender raised his voice, reaching for what Cor assumed was a weapon of some type. Better end this fast. His gaze seemingly locked on the eyes of the tough, Cor strode torwards his opponent. Four more times he seemed to flicker as the rifle was fired at him more frantically, until he stood within arms reach of the gunman. As the tough looked up in awe of the stranger who seemed unstoppable, a slow intake of air was heard and the other patrons held their collective breath. "I asked you once nicely," Cor whispered in that same smooth yet sharp voice. "Now I'm afraid I have to insist." Before anyone could move, Cor had taken the rifle out of the tough's white-knuckled grip and tossed it casually over his left shoulder. Without missing a beat, trenchcoat caught it one-handed as if this happened everyday. The doors behind the tough seemed to swing inward of their own accord on some unfelt wind and Cor gave the tough one last grin. As the tough started to return the smile, Cor's right leg pistoned up and outwards, impacting the tough square in the chest. The force lifted him off the floor, doubled him over, and sent him hurtling out of the doors and a cross the street. Before he even landed, the tough knew he had at least seven broken or cracked ribs and a dislocated shoulder. He was effect- ively out of commission for quite a while. The inpact with the ground brought blackness as the doors to the bar slowly swung shut again. Cor turned and faced the stranger, who stood up and removed his hat. "Nice of you to join me," Cor said with a smile, "what do you say we blow this popsicle stand?" "Works for me," said Zebediah. Cor and Zeb stepped out into the hazy late afternoon sunlight. Cor's subdermal lenses automatically compensated for the change in light. Zeb drew out and put on a pair of round John Lennon-style sunglasses. Cor noted that the tough he had "asked" to leave the bar had vanished. Audio and visual enhancement told them that they were being watched by not a small number of eyes. The magnetic and infrared spectrum revealed the evils of man. Four heat signatures and a large cold spot that could only be a had-launched weapon of some sort. Probably a "Stinger" missile lov- ingly provided to the rebels by the US Government as humanitarian assis- tance. Two rifles and three handguns, too. They no doubt thought it was enough. he thought. [I already took the liberty, Cor] came the reply. Cor was glad that he had thought to include an STA in the Fury's hardware. "What's up, Cor?" Zeb asked curiously, having noticed his silence. "My friend from the bar has a few heavily armed companions, it would seem," Cor explained. "Nothing I can't handle though." As he spoke, Cor retooled his leather jacket, boots, and the rest of his clothing into his usual black body armor, but left off the helmet for now. He brought his full E.R.I.S. HUD in his lenses online and his STELLARIS armor was at 110% operating level. "Always the glory hound, that's you," Zeb laughed. "Quickest means to an end, as I always say," Cor smiled. Cor added the helmet and launched himself skyward. Once in the air, Cor assessed the situation. Best thing to do first would be to remove the "Stinger" from action. This called for an up- close-and-personal approach. He almost didn't get the chance. Zeb was creeping around the corner of the building they had been behind, a nast looking pistol at the ready. One of the quartet saw him and pointed. Cor red-shifted and the action froze, relatively speaking. They weren't actually "frozen", Cor had side stepped into an area effect that made every real-time second last one minute to him. It was the closest he could get to a time-freeze. They moved, but _very_ slowly to him. "...and with the girl that keeps perfect rhyme," Cor sung to himself, "just like the gold watch keeps perfect time'...Gods, I love this stuff," he laughed, trying to take the edge off the situation. [Very nice, but don't quit your day job] Sam laughed. "Gee thanks, Sam. I love you too," Cor snickered, not realizing how close to the mark he actually was. It actually seemed a strange oxy- moron, his singing and laughing while planning the best way to increase the country's widow population by four. The war in this county was bad enough as it was. Cor dropped down into the center of the group of four men. First, the heavy weapon. Activating the NegaBlades on the back of each wrist, he raised his right hand over the man's left shoulder. With a thought he dropped back into the normal timestream, slashing down on a diagonal. As soon as the cut was finished, he red-shifted again. he took a moment to inspect his handywork. He had cleaved the man from left shoulder to right hip. Looking closely, he could see the white of the man's ribs and the multicolored ichor inside as the two seperated parts of the man hov- ered two inches apart. A gruesome way to die. Hopefully the autonomic nervous sytem wouldn't cause the man's trigger finger to spasm. <<> With machine-like precision, Cor similarly dropped into real-time and decapitated each man in turn. It happened so quickly that the first man had barely started to turn towards the first victem when he too was exe- cuted. Cor even had time to catch the thankfully-unfired "Stinger" be- fore it hit the packed sand that passed for pavement on this sidestreet. "Okay, Zeb," cor called after detooling his helmet. The four bodies lay around him as Cor stood casually holding the "Stinger" casually on his right shoulder, a pile of weapons at his feet. The entire confront- ation had taken less than eight seconds. "Messy," Zeb said as he came around the corner. "NegaBlade?" Cor nodded. "So where's our ride?" Cor proudly pointed at the white-on-red vehicle their four assailants had been "guarding". "That's it right there," he said. Zeb looked at the car, then at Cor, then at the car, then at the 27 eight-by-ten color glossy pictures with the circles and the arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one saying what it was, and then looked at the seeing eye dog. "You're kidding, right?" Zeb asked. "At least you've got style." "Nick, you wound me," Cor said as he walked around the car and opened the driver's side door, the automatic safety and security systems disen- gaging at his touch. "You know very well that appearances can be deceiv- ing. Hop in." Zeb shrugged and got in. As it was, loud voices could be heard from somewhere towards the bar they had left. "Geez, I thought you'd never get in," Cor said, turning the ignition key. Zeb noticed with a smile the gold double-Z keychain it was on. Cor dropped the selector lever on the column to [D] and pulled back on the wheel. The nose came up slightly and was soon joined by the tail, the car rocketing skyward. Cor stepped on the "gas" and they were off like a shot, the ground passing quickly beneath them. "So, where are we going?" Zeb asked offhand. "PLANET 10!" Cor shouted gleefully. "No no no," Zeb chided him. "I mean _really_." "Oh," Cor pouted. "Well, I've gotten information on the location of a friend of a friend of ours." "Oh? Who?" "Remember our pals at the Klarion DataCorp?" Cor asked rhetorically. "Sure," Zeb said. "Why?" "A subsidiary of theirs was responsible for the attack on Aberdeen," Cor explained. "It seems that they were looking to snag the Hover Tank that Wolf and Marius were demonstrating there. How that information got out of the Pentagon is still a mystery. These guys must have people on the inside." "Makes sense. So we're going there now? What do you plan on doing, walk up to the door, ring the bell, and say 'Hi, I'm here to see a man about a Tank'?" "As a matter of fact, yes," Cor said with a wicked grin. "Just kid- ding. I've got an angle." "Ah," Zeb said, the look of shock and horror fading from his face. "Whatever you say, Captain Stern." Cor handed the binoculars to Zeb, not needing them himself. Zeb took them and scanned the scene below them. Little numbers and symbols danced around the edges as he did so, showing him range to target and other fun- ky details. The entire Sandosia International Production Complex lay sprawled out before them. "You're right," Zeb agreed, "looks like a really boring place." "Yeah," Cor said, "I haven't picked up activity on any wavelength. The only hot spot seems to be the reactor itself." He refered to the plume of steam rising from the cooling stack of a large nuclear reactor. "Should we go down and investigate?" Cor asked. Zeb nodded. <<> Cor flickered and appeared just inside the defense perimeter, and put Zeb down. Zeb, for his part, threw up. Spacial and temporal displace- ment had that effect on some people. Cor was already inspecting the two large, grey doors in front of them. This appeared to be a secondary ser- vice and loading entrance, and Cor hadn't seen any surveilance equipment on this side. He popped the panel and sent small tendrils of his armor into the locking mechanism. After a moment's interaction with the secur- ity computer, Sam gave him the go ahead. Cor smiled as the doors slid open silently. "They keep this place up pretty well," Zeb said, noting the way the door opened. "Almost no sand penetration of the tracks." The surronding sand of the relative wasteland could be deadly to electronics and could penetrate into almost anything. "Mmmm hmmmm," Cor agreed as he stepped inside and scanned the area. Nothing moving. "'Curiouser and curiouser, said Alice.'" They both moved silently into the complex and began their search. "This is creepy," Zeb said. "Remember the scene in 'Aliens' when they penetrated the alien's ship and it was quiet and empty like this?" "Don't remind me," Cor said as they turned a corner and came up to a door labeled "Command Center". "This looks promising," Cor said as he hit the open key. The doors didn't budge, locked from the inside. Cor remedied that by tearing them open, all need for stealth behind them. This place was deserted. They slipped inside and looked around. Rows and rows of empty chairs and screens looked back at them in si- lence. Most of the monitors were still on and the place looked like the staff had just gotten up and left for a fire drill, but would be right back. The locked doors had Cor puzzled. "Look at this," Zeb said. Cor walked over and did so. A coffee pot was still half full of hot liquid and was still on. Several cups had been poured and were still lukewarm. Strange. "Looks like they left very recently. No signs of a struggle, though," Cor concluded. "It's like they just vanished..." he trailed off, think- ing again of the Gamelonian cruiser. "Cor?" Zeb asked him. "Oh...sorry. Just thinking about something," Cor replied. "See if you can raise Frosty on their commo equipment and download everything on file to him. I want to check something out." "Sure." Cor slid open the doors to the president of SI's office suite and stepped inside. Nice office, he thought, noting the deep pile carpetting and antique furniture. He walked past the secretaries dest and pushed open the large wooden doors to the inner sanctum. An enormous desk dominated the large room. Surrounding it on three sides were shelves and shelves of books. The fourth wall was a large window that opened out onto the complex and the roiling desert sands be- yond. He tread across the enormous oriental rug and stopped behind the desk. While it looked like an authentic antique, the top was inset with a myriad of touch sensitive controls and several screens. On top of the desk was a briefcase, which was open and empty. A compact PC was on a stand next to the desk, and Cor snagged the diskettes located next to it. He turned to leave and almost missed it. Someone had placed a small, origami unicorn on the seat of the highback leather chair behind the desk. Cor picked it up and looked at it thoughtfully. He then turned and went to collect Zeb. Bad Moon Rising__________________________________________________EIGHT "Gentlemen, kick their butts." -The Caretaker THE LIPPITT COMPLEX, KINGSTON <<> "...so now we know almost everything there is to know about Sandosia International," Corinthian was saying. "That is, everything that they had on their computer files. There's a lot there to go through. What went on behind the scenes we may never know." "What was their connection to Klarion?" Marius asked. "Well, it's clear that they worked either for or with Klarion, so ul- timately it was a Gamelonian run operation. Aside from the files and the twisted path connecting the two companies, there's this," Cor reached into a pocket and drew out a small, jet-black cube and set it down on the table. Wolf's eyes opened little wider. "Relax, it doesn't work either," Cor said, "I've already tried to get it online. At least now we know that the shutdown of the cubes was not just isolated to us. It's global." Thoughtful looks were exchanged all around the table. "Well, one good thing to announce is the formal opening of TALAMASCA for business," Marius said with a broad grin. The mention of broads got him whomped by Anna. Una was onboard the aformentioned space station. "TALAMASCA?" Cor raised an eyebrow. "Yup. That's what I christianed the new space station as," Marius replied. "I assume the name has some sort of vampyric meaning, right?" Marius nodded. "Wonderful. Space vampires. What's next, Biker Mice From Mars? Honestly, Mike." "I kinda like it," Wolf announced from his seat at the table. He had a large circuit board in front of him and a cordless soldering iron he was busy making connections with. "You would... by the way, what is that you've got there?" Cor asked. "Oh, nothing really," Wolf evaded the question. "Just building a better mousetrap." "When can we see this new tallywhacker-whatever space station?" Cor asked with a grin. Marius' ears twitched. "Right now, if you want," Marius replied. "Who wants to come along?" "I do," Wolf said. "Same here," Zeb chimed in as he yawned and woke up from a short nap. "Anyone else?" Marius asked. "Sam?" "I'd love to," Sam said as she shimmered and appeared next to him. She was now wearing a very fetching blue skirt and matching turtleneck sweater. Marius whistled appreciatively. Much nicer than the suit, he admitted. Anna covered his eyes. "I'm sure Lucien can provide the neccessary arrangements," Marius said knowingly. "Is that it? Frosty?" he asked into the intercomm. "Count us in," came the reply. Where he and Sheila had gotten off to was anyones guess. Well, Sam knew, anyway. "Great!" Marius beamed. Wolf put on sunglasses. "Lucien," Marius said into his Dick Tracy-esque wrist communicator. "Bodyslide by six, and give Sam access to the OHDs, if you please." "Certainly, sir," came a formally cultured British voice. "Pip pip, Cheerios, and all that rot," Wolf snarked. They all were covered by a field effect that looked like a portal appearing over their heads that slid down to the floor and were gone. TALAMASCA <<> "I like that," Cor said as they appeared. "Much less disconcerting than my way." Cor noted that Wolf was tossing his lunch a small distance away. "I'm glad you think so. Wolf doesn't agree, though," Marius said. Cor looked around. They had appeared on what looked like the main ob- servation deck. Through the large portal ahead of them the planet Earth could be seen, just a-floating along in space. Frosty looked like he was a little green upon seeing this. He had never told anyone, but heights made him a little more than nervous. To him the Alon portal was way too thin. "Um, can we move on?" Sheila asked, noting Frosty's Vertigo(tm). "Sure," Marius replied. Sam shimmered and appeared nearby, then walked over to them. "We're currently on the main observation deck as you probably guessed. "Lucien?" "Here, sir," came a disembodied voice from all around them. "Gang, this is Lucien, he's the onboard AI for TALAMASCA," Marius ex- plained. "He'll act as tourguide, he knows everything about the station. This way, crew." He turned and headed to one side of the broad platform where a door slid open. "...and this hangar can house any number of small to midsize craft," Lucien was saying. Wolf peered through the window into the well-lit hanger. Too bright, he concluded. He'd have to get Lucien to tone it down a bit. "Looks plenty big enough to me," Wolf said. "What about production and repair facilities and access to the hanger?" "We have a large automated production area located one level up, sir," Lucien replied. "Both the production and repair fascilities are pressur- ized for a personal touch. I was informed of your hands-on method of manufacture, sir." "Niiiiice," Wolf poked Marius. "What else did you tell him, eh?" "You like your steak prepared rare, and you don't prefer to wear any undergarments, sir," Lucien answered for him. Wolf licked his lips and growled at Marius. "Play nice, Thom," Cor laughed. "What's left, Mike?" "Just the Central Core," Marius answered. "The 'Central Cor'?" Zeb asked with a grin. "*sigh* The things I do for my friends," Marius rolled his eyes and played the martyr. "Quite, sir," Lucien said as a door slid open in the wall and they all stepped into a 'Lift. ELSEWHERE Kali knew after a few minutes that she must be dreaming. Then she was sure she was. What gave it away was the blood. It was everywhere. The floor and walls were covered with it and it seemed to writhe and move a- cross the ceiling. She was seated at the familiar controls of the UPSTruckFromHELL(tm) as it rocketed towards a pair of solid-looking oak doors. The truck hit the obstruction and smashed them off of their hinges, then shoved a long con- ference table through the far wall as a figure rolled clear. Kali hit the brakes and the heavy vehicle slid to a stop. With horror she took in the scene. DC stood next to her in his PREDA- TOR armor, phased through the floor of the UPSTruck. Across the room a man slowly got to his feet. Kali saw that it was the late Leader Deslok. She also saw that he was surrounded by a dozen or so rotting corpses, all facing her direction accusingly. A few were dressed in business suits, most wore generic flightsuits, two wore lab coats, and one was a female with a _large_ rusting handgun. "Oh, my god..." Kali said in growing fear. All of them had died by her hand. DC turned and walked through the dash, the engine, and out the front cowling towards Deslok. Kali stole a glance at her co-pilot. Instead of MMaxx it was now a cross between Jane Royal and one of the Puma sisters that sat in the seat beside her. "I don't know who you are," Deslok said. "But you have made a fatal mistake in coming here." DC kept walking towards him. "As we speak my loyal fleet is enroute to defend me." "I think he's going to ace him," Jane/Puma said. "No," Kali said softly. "You weren't here. Cor killed you." DC raised his right hand and pointed it at Deslok. A needle-thin Nega-Blade extended itself and fizzled against Deslok's forehead. At the exact moment of impact, the corpses in the room exploded and vanished, leaving no traces. Deslok threw back his head and laughed, then threw his hands towards DC. All ten fingers turned into silver stilettos, lanced forth across the space between them, and penetrated DC's armor, pinning him to the right-hand wall. "You can't do that!" Kali screamed. "It didn't happen that way!" Deslok withdrew his "hands" and looked directly at Kali, his eyes seeming to burn into hers. "Of course I can do that, Carley. I can do anything," he said with a voice like thundering velvet. As she looked on his face and clothes melted and changed, revealing another person all to- gether. It was a strange image she beheld, a blend of Deslok, DigiCom, and... "Not you," Kali denied her eyes. "Cor, no." "Yes," the new image replied. He stood in his black STELLARIS armor, looking like a demon from the pits of Hell itself. His eyes glowed redly as his armor crackled and pulsed as energy danced across it's surface. Huge spikes projected from the back and shoulders of the armor, and Cor's hair flew around his head in a whirlwind. Kali's eyes widened as she saw the enormous volume of blood leaking from DC's body onto the floor of the room. the pool of it seemed to be expanding, impossibly huge, and would soon cover the entire room. Part of it seemed to meet Cor's feet and flow upwards. Cor gestured, and the UPSTruckFromHELL(tm) vanished around her, leaving her and Jane/Puma standing alone with him. "As I said, dear Carley, I can do anything," he stretched out his right hand and the end of his gauntlet became a pair of huge parbeam can- nons. Cor pointed it at Jane/Puma and a huge bolt of energy shot towards her. Kali saw that the bolt almost looked alive, seething and roiling towards her. Jane's body completely disintegrated on impact, leaving just her head, which landed on the blood-corrupted floor, smoking. The eyes seemed to look pleadingly at Kali, and the mouth hung open in shock. Kali gasped when she looked at it. The face was her own. "Cor, please don't do this," Kali begged as he started to walk towards her. As he moved, the front of his chestplate seemed to writhe and move of it's own accord, changing the shape of the armor's surface. Kali thought she could almost see the form of a face. After a moment she rec- ognized it. It was Sam. "I always knew you didn't have the stomach for this line of work," Cor said as he moved closer. It was definitely Sam's face now. The lips moved and Kali read the words, Help me. "SAM!" Kali cried and reached out to her with both her own hands and her TK in an attempt to pull her free. The front of Cor's armor respond- ed by seeming to buckle with the effort, and a large area of Cor's torso extended itself and grew. "What are you doing, you witch?" Cor demanded as his armor rebelled against his own commands, seeming to fight his control as Kali pulled telekinetically. The armor started to take on a new shape, almost look- ing as if there was a person wrapped around the front of him, struggling to break free. Cor and his armor turned and twisted, almost starting to spin, as if like two lovers embraced. The front of Cor's armor eventually grew to full size and broke free, the new mass taking on the now-familiar shape of Sam. "Sam!" Kali cried out, outstretching her hands. Sam turned away from Cor and tried to run across to her, but was stopped halfway between the two of them. "Oh no you don't," Cor said as he himself raised his hand towards the running figure of Sam. Kali was surprised when she felt a powerful TK force grip Sam and start to pull her back towards Cor. She gritted her teeth and it soon became a tug-of-war between the two of their mental a- bilities. Beads of sweat broke out on Kali's forehead from the strain. Bits of debris started to whirl around the room as if caught in a sudden vortex. The very fabric of the room itself seemed to momentarily waver before the onslaught. "Let her go," Kali begged through gritted teeth, the pain of the ef- fort starting to show. Her abilities had increased greatly over the past few months, but the shock and horror of what was unfolding in front of her, coupled with the surprise attack by Cor, put her under an enor- mous strain. Fatigue started to overcome her and Sam started to creep, minutely at first, then faster, across the room towards the grinning Cor. "For God's sake, Cor, she loves you!" Kali cried in desperation. "'He' had nothing to do with it," Cor replied. "I made her. _I_ am her 'God'." As Cor spoke a rift appeared in his armor from just under his neck to just above his crotch. A strange, whitish liquid started to leak from the rend. Kali screamed as Cor threw back his arms in one last mental tug. As Sam started to hurl across the room towards Cor's outstretched arms, the front of his armor split open vertically, revealing a large, gaping maw filled with jagged teeth. The entire effect made the front of his armor look like an enormous Venus fly trap. A long black tongue snaked out the orifice and wrapped itself around Sam's waist. Sam screamed as the tongue tightened and hauled her towards the huge opening. "Sam!" Kali screamed as tears started to roll down her cheeks. From deep within her she managed one final effort to pull Sam free from Cor's grasp as she slipped within arm's reach of him. "Sam..." Cor said sweetly as he slowly wrapped his arms around her. As he drew her up against his chest, the deadly jaws clamped shut around her body, the razor-sharp teeth puncturing her skin in over a dozen places. Much to Kali's surprise, where the teeth bit through Sam's clothing and skin beams of white light shot out and danced around the walls of the room as Sam threw back her head and screamed soundlessly. The windows of the room imploded. "We will always be together, you and I," Cor whispered almost tenderly as he kissed her lightly. Sam's body pulsed with energy and the light grew blinding. Kali knew she had lost. "Sam...Oh, Sam..." she whispered. Kali screamed and sat up in the bed, an afterimage of a tall, thin, very pale man dressed in black fading behind her eyes. She pressed her hands to her face and wept. TALAMASCA <<> The doors slid open and they all entered the 'brain' of the station. Cor nodded, impressed. Frosty drooled. All were awestruck. The room was large and almost every wall was covered with screens of many sizes. Several others came on and seemed to float framelessly in the air. It was obvious that Marius had outdone himself this time, but in fact it was obvious to Cor that just the opposite had occurred: Marius hadn't done it at all. They passed through this room into an adjoining chamber and all took seats at a large conference table. "DC did the layout for that room, didn't he?" Cor asked. "Yes," Marius replied, "DigiCom actually did quite a bit of the layout for this station. You should see the library." "Personally, that's my favorite room, sir," Lucien said. "It would be," Marius laughed. "So what do you all think?" "I'm impressed," Cor said honestly. "We needed something like this." "I'm happy as long as I can play with my toys," Wolf said, crossing his arms. "Yes, and this way no one can scold you for it," Cor quipped. "Hey!" Wolf interjected. "It's nice," Frosty admitted, "but what about going outside and walk- ing in the sun?" "We've got several full holodecks available throughout the station," Marius replied. "I'm sure you'll find something you like. And anyway, Earth is just a 'slide away." Frosty smiled a little and squeezed Sheila's hand. "I like it," Sheila said, looking at Frosty. "What do you think about it, Sam?" She noticed that Sam had been quieter than usual since they had gotten there. Sam's attention seemed to be elsewhere. "Well..." her reply was interrupted by Lucien. "Sir--begging your pardon, miss," Lucien, "I've intercepted a distress signal originating from the moon." "The moon?" Marius asked in disbelief. "The moon, sir," Lucien replied. "It appears to be under attack." "Patch it through," Marius requested. "Certainly, sir," Lucien said. "...is MOONBASE ALPHA requ...*crackle*...der attack by unknown assai.. ...*pop*...ommander is dea...*heavy static*...they're killing us..." then only silence. "'Moonbase Alpha'? Isn't that kind of corny?" Wolf asked. "Yes, but the message sounds serious," Cor said. What was the actual point of origin, Lucien?" "It would appear to have originated from the Sea of Tranquility on the bright side of the moon, sir," Lucien informed him. "So it's probably authentic," Cor said. "Frosty, do you know of any American or Soviet lunar stations?" "If it's ours they actually managed to keep it secret," Frosty replied after a moments thought. "Sheila?" "I seem to remember something from the late 1980s about a moonbase that NASA was trying to get funding for from congress," Sheila answered. "I thought it had been killed in Senate subcommittee, though." "Apparently not," Cor said. "Wolf, can you and Marius get the others some transport to the moon?" "Well, the UPSTruckFromHELL(tm) can make the trip," Wolf replied. "It would only be a matter of a half hour to get the beta slaved to it again. Can you 'slide me to the Hanger Annex, Marius?" "Sure thing," Marius said, "you need any help?" "A hand would be nice," Wolf answered. "I'll pick up Kali when I get down there. Zeb, you want to come along?" "Sure, why not," Zebediah said. "'Slide me, Loosh," Wolf said. "Loosh, indeed," Lucien sniffed as Wolf and Zeb vanished. <<> Wolf and Kali looked out of the windscreen of the UPSTruckFromHELL(tm) at the huge space station before them. Wolf had seen the plans and also pictures of the place on the tour with Marius, but to actually _see_ how big it was was a different story. Wolf could see it because he was look- ing for it. Kali hadn't seen it because of the SEP Field. She took his word for it that it was huge. Zeb just smiled knowingly from the naviga- tor's station. "Is this thing going to fit?" Kali asked, refering to the large mass of the UPSTruck and it's beta, Thunderbird 2. She appeared to be slight- ly uneasy sitting in the UPSTruck. "Trust me," Wolf replied. "Marius built this station to handle ships even bigger than this. As he spoke, he guided the UPSTruck and it's beta through the now-open main lock of TALAMASCA. He marveled at the heavy armor and the sheer mass of the place. It _looked_ like a battle station to him. "Oh!" Kali exclaimed as they slid inside. As soon as they had crossed the threshold to the landing bay the SEP Field effect had been nullified. The bright lights of the hanger dazzled her for a second, then she focus- ed and marveled at the huge structure. Wolf noticed that the handling changed slightly as they entered. Marius had included a field effect that allowed the hanger to be pressurized even with the outer door open. He goosed the drives and settled down near the inside door. "Kali!" Sheila called as she stepped into the hanger from the observa- tion and hanger control room. Cor and Marius followed her in. Cor stopped and looked at Wolf's craft. It still seemed a bit odd to him to look at. It was a large, purpleish-blue, bulbous craft from an old UK SF show with a large number '2' painted in white on one of it's two vertical stabalizers. What made it odd was the sight of a brown UPS truck sticking partway out of the spot where the cockpit _should_ have been. Cor shook his head. At least it flies, he thought. "Sheila!" Kali replied as she slid back the passenger-side door of the UPSTruckFromHELL(tm) and dropped lightly to the deck. She had donned her black flight suit with it's blood red piping and the matching boots and gloves. The two women ran up to each other and started to talk. "I brought a couple other toys along, Cor," Wolf said with an evil grin. Cor rolled his eyes. "I knew I could count on you for fun," he said. "What have you got?" "Well, I loaded half a dozen Hover Tanks in the hold for the gang to use," Wolf said. "They're easy to get the hang of and provide a lot of firepower and maneuverability. We'll use the UPS and TB 2 to get them there, as five of the six aren't space capable." "Um, not space capable?" Cor said curiously. "Relax, they're sealed," Wolf said, "I just mean that they aren't up to space flight over distances." "And the other one?" "That's mine," Wolf grinned evilly, "the HT-600XVDT." "I figured as much," Cor admitted. "Let's round up the troops." They all stood in the hanger, ready for battle. Cor was bulked up in his STELLARIS armor, looking about the size of a small house. The size was deceiving, though--he still had an enormous amount of agility and speed. Kali had her flightsuit on and helmet in hand, a large blaster strapped to her right thigh. Frosty wore a similar outfit, but with a phaser instead of the gun. Marius was in his custom chrome HardSuit, Wolf wore his jet black one, and Zeb wore one that changed colors pris- matically. Sheila joined the group this time, wearing a royal blue Hard- Suit of her own design. The Puma sisters... "Um, do you really think that's appropriate battle dress armor?" asked Frosty. Sheila noted with anger that he hadn't taken his eyes off of the pair since they had stepped into the chamber. "Of course," replied Una. "What else do you wear to a fight?" The two of them posed and romped in their...armor. They both wore as little as possible to cover their...vitals. Armored bikinis were a more accur- ate description. "Looks like B-ko's 'Battle Bikini' to me," Marius hentai-ed. "Ah. Just so," Cor deadpanned. "Now that we're all here, let's load up. Wolf will point you to your respective craft once inside and explain the controls on the way." "Go, go, Power Rangers!" Zeb hollered. Everyone else groaned. MOONBASE ALPHA, SEA OF TRANQUILITY, THE MOON <<> Major Domo was not having a good day. His base was being torn up all around him by what appeared to be large, sluglike creatures with very strong limbs and sharp claws. The base crew had been decimated already and the southern quadrant overrun. The base commander had been killed in the initial attack and he was now in charge. "Captain Picard! Status report on Green Sector-Two!" he hollered over the din and the explosions in the metals refinery off to the south. Although there was no air on the moon, the sound and vibrations transmit- ted through the ground under their feet. It was quite obvious that they were losing. "Sir! We've got drilling crews manning the laser borers in the open area between the plant and this facility, but the creatures are just too fast!" came the reply. "Dammit to Hell and BACK!" Domo cursed. "Any word from NASA, Miss L'Engle?" "No, sir," said the frightened telecommunications operator. "Nothing since the antenna went down." "Blazes! Keep trying!" he slammed his fist down on a table for empha- sis. "I want to know who the fuck is attacking us, and I want to know NOW!" "Sir!" cried a random crewmember. "We've got more seismic activity from the south rim... and something else..." "What is it now? More bad news?" "I can't tell, sir," came the reply. "It sounds to me like a space- craft of some type has just landed to the west of us." "Well, is it friend or foe? Try to hail it, Miss L'Engle." "Yes, sir." "Attention, MOONBASE ALPHA," came a deep voice over the speakers. "We are here in response to your distress call. I am Corinthian of the Otaku Group. How may we be of assistance?" TALAMASCA CENTRAL CORE The station was quiet, all things considered. That was about to change. A silvery-grey circle irised open on a nearby bulkhead, spread- ing from floor to ceiling. Inside this disk, a standard hatch appeared, and opened, allowing the entry of a cloaked and hooded figure. "OK, S.G., this shouldn't take long," the figure said, "maintain this fix." A voice sounded from the middle of the room, "Oh dear, you aren't sup- posed to be here. Internal security ac-" "Relax, Loosh...activate override Elderberry Hamster," the stranger interrupted. "Override confirmed, internal monitors disabled. How may I be of assistance?" "Give me a full readout of all sensor logs from time stamp Exodus" "Certainly, sir. Downloading data now." Moments later, the main screen lit up. A blur of images began to un- fold, fast-forwarding smoothly. "Will that be all, sir?" Lucien asked. "Yes, Lucien, I've got a lot to do," the stranger replied, "Smart Girl, it's time to go." The hatchway reopened. As he turned to leave, his right hand protruded from the cloak, revealing a shiny white object. "A lot indeed." he said as he entered the hatchway, which vanished. The station was quiet, all things considered... MOONBASE ALPHA "Whoever this is, a hand would be most appreciated," Major Domo said into the comm. "Roger that," Cor replied. "Can you advise us as to the situation?" "Well, we're under attack at the moment by creatures of an unknown origin," Domo explained. "They are rather large, incredibly strong, ca- pable of extreme violence, and have a taste for rare metals. Other than that your guess is as good as mine what they want." "How much damage have they done?" Cor asked. "On the trip in it looked as if your southernmost buildings were a complete loss." "Dammit! There were over a dozen personnel in those sections!" Domo cursed. "They seem to be moving northwards towards the main building, where I presently am. I have a crew with laser borers set up to try and repel the beasts, but the things are just too fast for them." "Roger," Cor replied. "See if you can get your people as far away from the area affected as possible. We're going in." Cor clicked off. "You heard the man, people. As we sit here people are dying." As he spoke, he flew in a rough circle over the UPSTruckFromHELL(tm)'s LZ. "How awful," Sheila said. "To die so far from home." "Let's move out, then," Wolf said as he dropped down the hatch into the T-Bird's cargo hold. The others followed him down and boarded their respective craft. Kali and Frosty remained at the helm of the UPSTruck- FromHELL(tm). When they were all set to go, Kali hit the controls for the cargo doors. <<> "WA-HOOO!" Marius whooped as he shot out of the T-Bird's hold onto the barren surface of the moon. The Sea of Tranquility was mostly flat, so there was plenty of room to move. After taking a second to get used to the 1/6th gravity, he blasted out across the surface in his HT-500XV. "This thing handles fantastically compared to the -100 series, Thom!" Marius cried over the comm. "Roger that," Wolf replied as Sheila and Zeb left the bay in their own HT-500XV Hover Tanks. They both turned and headed for the south, slow enough for the others to group up with them. Cor, for his part, was providing air cover in his STELLARIS armor. He scanned the area as the Puma sisters joined the three outside in their custom HT500XVH hover Tanks. The XVH was slightly smaller than the other 'Tanks and more maneuverable. They were also better looking. "And Wolf makes an even half dozen," Wolf said as he launched his own 'Tank from the T-Bird as if it were shot out of a cannon. Cor's eyes got slightly wider when he saw it. "That thing's huge, Thom," Cor said. It was. The HT-600XVDT was al- most 50% larger than it's predecessor. It looked _really_ dangerous, too. "You got that right," Wolf replied. "I like big things." "'The size of them impresses me...'" Cor quoted. "'Just give me plenty, forget about the quality'," Marius picked it up from their cue. "That's silly," Kali said, putting an end to their comedy schtick...or STYX, as it were. As soon as they were clear, she lifted off. "Let's go kick some butt!" Marius said, zipping off towards the com- motion on the horizon. As they approached the southern portion of the base where the ore proccessing plant was, several of the creatures that were attacking paused and looked up. Two of them leapt into the air, crossing their clawed front limbs in front of them. <<> Marius just managed to catch the sudden movement and started to haul the controls over to port. The sudden change in direction caused Zeb and Sheila to swerve and almost collide with each other. The move proved to be in vain. Marius noticed a sudden shift in the weight of the 'Tank as the two creatures slammed down on the hull. "Geddemoffame!" he hollered. Wolf responded by shifting to battloid form and swinging his coilgun around in a deadly arc. The hulls of the HTs were strong, but the claws of these creatures, if Wolf remembered right, could cut steel like but- ter. He managed to smash one of them, but the other jumped clear. Wolf hosed it with the Vicars guns, shredding it. "Thanks, Thom," Marius said, sounding relieved, "I thought I'd had it. At least now we know what we're up against. But how did they get so big?" It was true. The creatures were at least five times as big as he remembered them being. "I've no idea, Marius," Cor said, touching down next to his 'Tank. "The best thing to do people is shift to battloid and try to keep them at a distance. These things aren't very smart, but they're nasty as hell." "It reminded me of an 'Alien'," Frosty said from the copilot/gunner's seat of the UPSTruckFromHELL(tm). "You never saw the movie they're obviously from," Cor replied. "For- tunately, they aren't as smart as the 'Aliens'. Let's hustle." Cor shot into the air again and headed around the perimeter of the buildings on a long arc to the left. The others regained their momentum and moved in, this time more cautiously. At Cor's advice, they all shifted to battloid form. Marius noted with some satisfaction that the Puma sisters' 'Tanks were more feminine than the others' in battloid mode, and that the sisters seemed right at home at the controls. The two seemed to work in tandem, almost as if invisi- ble cables attatched to two mecha. Pure poetry in motion. Zeb, on the other hand, was a a bumbling fool. His mind seemed to re- bel against the HT's neural link and his battloid staggered under him as if drunk. After a few moments of fighting the controls he got the hang of it. Sort of. He still lurched a bit. "Look! It's Franken-Zeb, clomping his way into battle," Marius said with a laugh. The others joined in. "Very funny," Zeb replied. "How'd you like a coilgun enema?" He waved the weapon about menacingly, almost clotheslining Sheila. "Ahem, Nicholas," Sheila said reproachfully. "Sorry, dear," Zeb apologized. "Niiiiiiiicholas," Marius mocked. "'Dear'?" Frosty asked, playing the jealous fiance. "INCOMING!" Kali warned them. They turned their attention on the buildings. A large number of the creatures that Marius had fought were massing and headed for them. Most of them seemed to spring along like grotesque grasshoppers while a few of the smaller ones loped along like apes. All thoughts of laughter died in their throats. The proverbial feces was about to hit the air motion de- vice. "Gaaah!" Zeb exclaimed, opening fire with his coilgun. The rounds went wild and flew far off over the moutain range to the south. "Easy with the ammo, Blammo," Wolf chided him. "Those things are dan- gerous." "Sorry, Thom." Sheila and the Puma sisters opened up with a deadly hail of fire from both their coilguns and the smaller Vicars guns that decimated the ad- vancing horde, being careful not to hole the Base accidentally. The fast moving creatures were mostly able to dodge the coilgun rounds, but the computer-guided Vicars were no match for them. Marius and Wolf soon joined in and pressed the attack. "That's showin' em," Cor said from his vantage point on the far side of the base. He noted with dismay that there seemed to be hundreds of the things. For every one they killed, two more seemed to rush forward. "I've got an idea, guys. Hang on." Cor red-shifted and the action stopped. He dropped down into the horde of monsters and looked around. They really were larger than they should have been, standing almost twice his height, even in his heavy ar- mor form. He retooled his gauntlets and activated a pair of nasty two- meter-long NegaBlades. "Let's try something, shall we?" Cor said to himself. "What do you think, Sam?" [ What you have in mind _should_ work, I imagine ] came the reply. [ The extreme density of objects in the effect zone should be no problem for a NegaBlade. It's not matter after all.] "What would I do without you," Cor said with a smile. [ I try not to think about it ] was all she said. What? Cor thought to himself. What could she mean by that? Cor put it out of his mind for the moment and got to work at the task at hand. Drawing back his right arm, he turned his head and sliced at the midsec- tion of the nearest creature. He only felt slightly more resistance than usual as the 'Blades matter conversion field made easy work of the dense material. Cor opened his eyes. No explosion. No backlash. The 'Blade did it's job as usual. There was a huge slice missing out of the monster's mid- section and Cor could see it's guts... or whatever they were. Not that it really mattered. At least this way, he knew how to gain the upper hand. With the sheer numbers of them, the beasts would overrun the base within an hour. Lifting off slightly over the moon's surface, Cor extended both arms and flew along the first "rank" of their foe, slicing apart in seconds what might take the rest of the crew precious minutes to shoot. He shot back up into the "sky" and shifted back. "What the Hell?" Marius asked as they watched the entire leading edge of the advancing horde fall apart before their eyes. It almost seemed to happen in slow motion with the reduced gravity, the bodies first pausing in mid-air in mock horror and then dropping slowly to the dust, their fluids boiling away in the vacuum. The second line paused only momentar- ily as their brethren fell before Cor's blades. "That was me," Cor said with a satisfactory tone. "Consider my exper- iment a success." "Time shift and NegaBlades, right?" Wolf said, catching on. "Bingo," Cor acknowledged. "That's cheating!" Zeb exclaimed as he fired on the next wave. "Maybe so, but it speeds things up a bit, wouldn't you agree?" Cor said in his defense. "You've got a point there, Cor," Kali cut in. "This will make it that much easier to rescue the scientists still trapped inside the remains of the buildings." "You can't be serious," Marius said. "The oxygen had to have been ex- pelled through the ruptures in that part of their habitat." "Not so," Kali replied. "I'm getting five heat signatures in the col- lapsed building to the right of us. Either their trapped in an air lock or they managed to get on their suits in time." "They might be part of that drilling crew that Major Domo mentioned," Sheila added. "Whoever they are, they won't be alive for long at this rate," Zeb spoke up. "Not if we keep chatting like this," Cor interrupted. "I'll get them out. The rest of you try and keep the monsters away from the main part of the complex. I'll be back in a flash." <<> Riggs knew he was going to die soon. He and the others had barely managed to close the airlock door when the creatures started pounding on the outer shell. They would find them soon, he knew. Jackson, Parsons, Puckett, and McDade were all that was left of their twelve-man crew. He silently cursed Major Domo for sending them on a suicide mission. But it was better to die fighting than like this. Trapped. Parsons had been injured badly by falling rubble, and his suit's integrity was gone. As soon as the air seal broke, he'd be dead. Then a strange thing happened. Parsons vanished. "How?" he started to say, and then noticed the hole in the roof. As he lifted his head to see the stars, Jackson and Puckett vanished. This can't be happening, he thought. Then the world blurred. One moment they were facing death in the ruptured airlock, the next they were back in the main complex vehicle airlock. Riggs looked around dazed. All five of them were there, including Parsons. A figure in a very odd yet powerful looking space suit was tending to Parsons' leg. Riggs had never seen a suit like that before. It was all black and looked more like armor than a space suit. The figure stood and turned to face him. "Are you the leader of this team?" the figure asked him. "Yeah, I'm Riggs," he replied. "Who're you?" "Call me Corinthian," Cor answered the dazed crewman. "You men are very lucky to be alive. If I'd been a moment later, that air lock would have given way and this man would have died instantly." "I don't know how you got us out, but thanks," Riggs said, extending his right hand to the stranger. "No problem," Cor said, smiling inside his helmet as he took the out- stretched hand and shook it. Despite being badly shaken, it wa still a firm handshake. Cor instantly like this man. "You're not from NASA, are you?" Riggs asked rhetorically. "No, we just heard the distress call first. The signal was so weak, we were lucky to hear it at all," Cor explained. "Well, thanks again, I don't know how we can ever repay you," Riggs said, trying to see through Cor's helmet at the man underneath. This was a man of great power, he thought. "Your welcome. Now if you'll excuse me, my companions could use a hand outside against those monsters that attacked you here," Cor turned to go. "A word of advice: stay inside for now. The moon is a harsh mistress." Kali ran another straffing run over the horde, taking care to stay well above their jumping range. These things have springs for legs, she thought. "Good shooting, Kali," Marius said as she and Frosty turned to make another pass, the belly turret of the T-Bird spitting fire. Marius him- self was making good progress, along with the others. They had actually managed to stop the advance on the main buildings. "Die die die!" Wolf said next to him as he hosed the area with death. As he fired, three of the monsters attempted to circle him and pounce. At the last moment, Wolf hit his boosters and launched himself clear. Straight up. He stopped and hovered there above the action, firing down onto the spot where he should have been. The creatures met their end. "Hey!" exclaimed Zeb. "Yours can fly! No fair!" "All's fair in love and war, Nick," Wolf snickered. "Wow, look at them go," Zeb gestured in the direction of the Puma sisters. Wolf focused on the action. Anna and Una were loving every minute of it. The two of them circled and danced around each other as if perfectly choreographed to some un- heard music. Actually it _was_ heard. The two of them had on some base- heavy dance music they were synching to beautifully. The fact that they were both piloting 80 tons of state-of-the-art battloid was beside the point. <<> The two of them danced and turned as they fought onwards, the death toll rising faster. Their kill ratio was almost perfect. These two were very dangerous. Almost wordlessly they plunged into the thick of it, an almost steady rain of fire pouring from their weapons. "This is great fun," Anna said with a giggle as she emphasized the staccato base of the song with her coilgun. "Yeah, I think Wolf deserves a great big hug when we gat back," Una a- greed as she matched the stabbing synthesizer in the music. The two fought on. The battle was wrapped up quickly between the Otaku Group and the mon- sters. Between the Hover Tanks and Cor's NegaBlades, it was soon over. The last stragglers were hunted down and killed. Cor and Wolf retrieved all of the remains of the base crewmembers for proper burial and placed them outside of the vehicle airlock. "Well, I'd call this mission a success," Cor said. "We kept the nasty buggers from getting the main building." "Yes, but 50% of the base was destroyed and fifteen lives were lost," Kali contradicted him. They had all returned to the T-Bird after the battle. "Better than all," Marius chimed in. "We did get here late, after all." "That was fun," Anna said. Una agreed. "Ladies, ladies," Marius sighed. "Whatever shall I do with the two of you." "Mmmmm...Maaaaarius," Anna said, cuddling up to him. "Enough of that," Kali scolded them. "Rent a room." "Well, the base commander has offeredan official word of thanks and says that we're welcome here at MOONBASE ALPHA anytime," Cor said as he shut off the comm. "I'm sure NASA security will have something to say about that," Sheila said. She and Frosty were holding hands again. "Well, they can't stop us from coming to the moon very easily don't you think?" Zeb said sarcastically. Sheila glared at him. "After we saved their bacon, they'd better roll out the red carpet," Wolf added. "Right," Cor agreed. "Let's go home," Kali said as she headed for the controls. "Home, Jeeves," Marius snarked, "and don't spare the horses." Nuptuals__________________________________________________________NINE "It's a nice day for a white wedding." -Billy Idol Over the course of the next two weeks Frosty and Sheila finalize the wedding plans, sending out reems of invitations and announcements. Also during this time, Marius and Wolf start planning and construction of a new type of long-range interceptor to be stationed in TALAMASCA. THE WEDDING DAY, CHRIST THE KING CHURCH, KINGSTON, RI <<> They came from all over to witness the ceremony. Most of Frosty's family came down from the People's Republic of Massachusetts for the wedding, while friends from all over poured in. The sheer number of cars present made it look like school was in session instead of being a Satur- day. Even Captain Avatar had made to journey from his command on the USS Theodore Roosevelt to be present. His helicopter was parked in the Fine Arts parking lot with his pilot. "Geesh, that's quite a crowd out there, Mike," Corinthian said as he double checked Frosty's bow tie. Frosty insisted on a hand tied one. "I know it," Frosty replied. "Even Jen made it from Ohio. I didn't realize I had this many friends."' "Bullshit," Cor laughed. "You had a good idea. It's a good thing the bride's family is paying for this." "No shit," Frosty laughed, punching him in the arm. "Ouch! Do you have that armor on all the time?" "Sorry, habit," Cor replied. He had changed his eye lenses to a clear non-reflective color for today. Frosty's family might not understand. "Nice to see the Colonel still fits in his dress blues," Cor said, re- ferring to Frosty's father. "You know dad stays in shape," Frosty said. "Yeah, I do. Wait until you see Sheila's dress. The girls outdid themselves," Cor said. "I believe it," Frosty said nervously. "Relax, old buddy, this is your big day." Zebediah looked over the crowd from his position at the door as usher. He didn't actually know most of the crowd, but was impressed by the sheer number. Frosty's side of the church was almost full, and they had let a lot of them sit on the bride's side. Sam had whipped up a few 'generics' in suits and dresses for Sheila's side. She'd handle any conversation they might get into. "You know," Wolf said next to him. "I really hate tuxedos." Wolf looked out of place clean-shaven and dressed up. He obviously felt it, too. His dress whites looked nice, though, especially with the Presiden- tial Citation at the top of his 'salad bar'. He would be escorting Jess down the aisle, as she was one of the bridesmaids. "Me too," Zeb replied. They'd had a tough time getting him to wear socks with his shoes. Zeb was paired with Una, and that suited him fine. MMaxx and Tareah were busy greeting guests outside. "Hi guys, what's up?" Marius asked as he and Anna walked over arm in arm. Una gave Anna a jealous look and got a tongue in reply. "Not much," Wolf said. "Are all the guests here?" "Yup, I put Captain Avatar's escort on the bride's side to help fill it out," Marius replied. "It looks a little unbalanced." "True, but that really can't be helped," Zeb said. "Well, you can add two more to that side of the church," said a voice behind them. They turned to face the newcomer. "I wasn't sure you'd make it, SF," Wolf said as he greeted the man known as the Silver Falcon. He'd helped them out in the last battle with Deslok's forces in Kingston. SF was partially in costume, having kept on his 'mask' and 'gloves' with his tuxedo. ( Picture the Silver Surfer in a tux. That's all you'd see of the costume. -Cor) "I was glad to be invited," SF replied. "Wolf, Marius, Zeb, may I present to you my fiancee, Jennifer." "Pleased to meet you," Jennifer said, her voice melodic. She was a very striking woman, standing close to six feet in heels. Her smooth, white skin contrasted her dark hair vividly. Her lovely green dress brought out her eyes. Zeb escorted the two of them down the main aisle and seated them while everyone else lined up at the rear of the church. "You look fabulous, Sheila," Kali said as they adjusted her veil. "I hope so... I'm nervous," Sheila commented. "You should be. Frosty's a nice guy, though," Kali said. "You'll be fine." <<> Everyone stood as the bridal party entered the church from the rear. Frosty stood at the foot of the altar, waiting nervously. First came two little flower girls, played by Sam, followed by Zeb and Una, Marius and Anna, MMaxx and Tareah, Wolf and Jessica, Kali and Cor, and finally the blushing bride, Sheila, who was to be given away by Captain Avatar at Cor's request. Smiles all around as they reached the altar and Fr. Henry began the ceremony. "Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today..." "...and if anyone present here today has any reason to object to the union of these two young people, let them speak now or forever hold their peace," Fr. Henry was saying. "ACT-ually, yes," came a voice from the rear of the church. All heads turned and faced the rear. "I do object." "Oh...my...god..." Kali stammered. "Not even close," Cor said with a smile. The newcomer sauntered down the main aisle as guests whispered amongst themselves as to his reasons for objecting. The stranger smiled broadly as he passed, his well-tailored tuxedo crisp and sharp. His shoes were polished to the point of being blinding, and his hair was pulled back in- to a tight ponytail. Marius smiled when he saw this. "Glad you could make it," Cor said as the stranger reached the altar. He looked a little older, a little wiser, a little bolder, and a little saner. "Of course I wouldn't miss it," DigiCom beamed. "How can you have a wedding without the father of the bride to give her away?" <<> "...a beautiful ceremony, Sheila," Jen Mason was saying, "and I just _love_ your dress. Who's it by?" "It's from the Myria Sterling Collection," Sheila replied. "It's a new line." "Beautiful," Jen replied. "Good job, Mike," Terry Ryan was saying to Frosty. Terry and his wife Kim had been overjoyed at the invitation they received in the mail. "Thanks, Gumby," Frosty responded, smiling broadly. "Good to see that you looked the abyss in the face and walked away, DC," Cor said. "Actually, I looked the abyss in the face and it blinked," DC said with a smile that held many mysteries behind it. "Nice work on the wedding, by the way." "Well, fortunately Captain Avatar gave up his job willingly," Cor said in reply, "or we might have had a fight on our hands over who got to give Sheila away." "I would have pulled rank on him," DC said with an evil grin. "Hey! That's _my_ trademark," Cor said, grinning evilly. "You'll have to fill us in on your exploits." "Just as soon as you stop scanning me," DC countered. "Fair enough," Cor laughed. "You know me too well. So, where have you been?" "Lots of places," DC Mcleoded. "And?" "Lots of times," DC continued cryptically. "Just spill your guts," Cor snarked, his eye lenses shifting just slightly red, enough to be visible. "Or I'll spill them for you." "Relax, Cor, the red eyes make you look like you need some sleep," DC said. "I'll explain it all later on TALAMASCA." "?" TALAMASCA, LATER <<> "Well, that was lovely," Kali said as they all arrived back on board the space station. She still wore her dress, albeit wrinkled from danc- ing at the reception. "I thought so, too," Cor agreed, having changed his armor back into it's usual HardSuit configuration just before the bodyslide. "I thought there should have been more meat at the buffet," Wolf pouted as Jess smiled at him. "You would think so," Marius laughed as he and the Puma sisters hung all over each other, having imbibed mass quantities of alcoholic bever- ages. "Achh, yoour a sloppy druunk, Maan," MMaxx Scotty-ed. He and Tareah looked around. "Nice digs, by the way." "Thanks," DC replied. This got a half-strange look from Marius, who glared at one of the three DigiComs he was seeing. "It was a beautiful ceremony," said Sam as she appeared in the chamber with them. "Can I take off these shoes now?" Zeb wesley-ed. "Sigh. Of course," Cor said, retooling his armor to include a gas mask. "Very funny," Zeb said upon seeing this. "I'll have you know that feet that are allowed to breath rarely smell as bad as one trapped inside armor for extended periods." "Funny," Cor retorted. they all moved slowly into the recreation room and flopped down on various types of furniture. Marius couldn't resist a comment about himself, the Puma sisters, and a pool table, for which he got his tux shredded. "So, you were going to tell me what the hell you've been up to for the last few weeks," Cor said. "Besides improving your appearance, that is." "Tricky question," DC replied. "What for you has been a couple of weeks has been a _long_ time for me, relatively speaking." "Relatively speaking?" Marius jumped in. "Yes, time travel is hell on tenses," DC said. "To me it's been over a century since you have laid eyes on 'me'." "What?" Kali asked, confused. "Five words: white cube, Spaulding, missing people," DC said simply. "That was _you_?" Cor asked incredulously. "That explains how you got that cube in your lab so quickly, but the missing crews?" "Spaulding?" Wolf gasped. "That was...no. I refuse to believe it. Captain Spaulding was a legitimate military officer. _I_ contacted _him_ to set up that demo." "True, I verified his rank myself," Sam added. "This is where things get complicated," DC sighed, extending his hands to the sides in frustration. "I read the sensor logs onboard a week ago, went back in time approximately fifteen years and enlisted in the Army. It was a simple matter to be in the right place if I knew the right time to be there." "..." Wolf sputtered. "And the missing crew...and the personnel at Sandosia?" Cor asked. "You couldn't have gotten them off that quickly. That cruiser was _just_ starting to drop when I got there. Even _I_ can't move that fast." "Like I said, this is where it gets difficult," as DC spoke, his right hand seemed to break up into pixels and scatter, evidently a hologram. What was left made a light come on over Cor's head: something closely resembling the Infinity Gauntlet that had vanished from DC's lab with him except it was now silver in color instead of bronze, as well as being right-handed. "Ah, light dawns over Marble Head," Cor said. "Let me guess the rest: Burrough's Gear?" DC nodded. "What? What?" Kali demanded. "I just hopped back and forth in time and removed the crew one at a time," DC explained. "It all took place in 'real' time in under a second as you saw it. Sure left me tired afterwards, though." "Snarky bastard," Marius laughed. "And Sandosia?" Cor prompted. "The crew was very informative," DC replied. "So I decided to ask a few pointed questions at Sandosia." "So where are they now?" Kali asked. "Well, Mickey Dolenz was the voice of Scooby Doo," Zeb answered. She fixed him with a stare and telekinetically squeezed off any more com- ments. "Yipe!" Zeb yiped. "I took them to Arisia," DC said. "You took them to a science fiction convention?" Marius asked in mute horror. "No, I took them to the _planet_ Arisia," DC explained. "Mentor owed me a favor." "Right," Cor said. "So now you're a Lensman." "Among other things," DC said. "Where do you think my Mind Gem came from?" "So you're not crazy anymore?" Wolf asked curiously. "Nuts? Wacko? Bonkers?" "No, I'm not an orange and black bobcat with my own afternoon show, Thom," DC replied. "I'm mostly sane now." He smiled. "Ah," Wolf ah-ed. "So, you've just explained how you helped remove an alien threat, what are you gonna do now?" Zeb asked as the Walt Disney World Theme came up in the background. "Not that," DC replied. "That's where Frosty and Sheila went." "You could always help us with the interceptors," Wolf offered. "That could prove amusing," DC said with a smile. "By the way, Marius, the name TALAMASCA. I approve." "Gosh, how generous and magnanimous of you," Marius laughed. "I have a couple of improvements to the monitoring net I have to show you." "I know," DC said simply. "Huh?" Marius countered. "Yes," DC range-topped. "I also made a few slight improvements on the overall design. I've been playing with tech for a while. This station is an antique, but adequate." "Hey!" Marius said, sounding hurt. "Okay, okay, you win. Now about the satellite network..." Marius and DC stood and walked out of the room as they spoke techno-stuff. "Gods, it's like the bastard never left," Kali snarked, rolling her eyes. Zeb joined in and rolled his, too. The whole effect was eerie. "Cut that out, guys," Tareah pleaded. "It _does_ look kinda goofy," Cor agreed, changing his subdermals to show a pair of spinning eight balls. "ARGH!" Tareah argh-ed, tugging at her hair. Wolf found the whole thing side-splittingly amusing. A SHORT WHILE LATER... "Can I ask you a question, Sam?" Marius said as he tweaked the con- trols of one of the new interceptors. The ship was jet black, with a vague rounded teardrop shape, short, round wings that canted downwards from the fuselage and had stubby vertical stabalizers bent inwards, and a seamless canopy. (picture what the F-19 stealth fighter was SUPPOSED to have looked like, but 2X bigger. -Cor). The long, smooth shape and color of the craft gave it a menacing quality, as well as making it look very fast. They were dubbed the SFX "Kestrel" Series-1 Interceptor. They were armed with a series of phaser emmiters, as well as the new IP2 "Rug- sucker" Implosion Torpedoes. These medium-sized weapons were useful a- gainst any ship up to a cruiser sized vessel. The compliment of twelve IP2s could be replaced with four IP3 "Overthruster" Heavy Implosion Tor- pedoes, for use against larger ships and mid-sized space stations. "Certainly," Sam replied from the deck next to the ship as Marius fin- ished locking down the panel. "What's on your mind?" "You've been very quiet lately," Marius started. "Is something about this station bothering you? I know Lippitt is your home..." "Oh, nothing really," Sam said with a wan smile. "I like what you've done up here. Human ingenuity is fascinating." "Don't hand me that Mr. Spock-thinks-it's-fascinating line," Marius countered. "I know something's bothering you. Is it me? I know I've picked on you a bit in the past... wait, you don't think I'm ignoring you because of the Puma sisters, do you?" "No, Mike, it's not that..." "Um... It's Cor, isn't it?" Marius looked serious for a moment, a rar- ity, to be sure. "I'd rather not discuss it right now," Sam said, averting her eyes. "I suspected as much," Marius sighed. "Give him time, Sam, he'll re- alize what's going on. He sometimes misses the things right under his nose. You're a heckova gal, Sam. He's lucky." "Thank you, Mike. Thank you." TALAMASCA LIBRARY "Mario?" Kali said as she stepped into the Library. She looked around and was surprised at the sheer size of the place. Obviously a holodeck, she thought. The rows and rows of stacks seemed to stretch off to infin- ity in the three visible directions. A small PC sat on a help desk right in front of her. She started down the main corridor of the Library, poking around and looking for DigiCom. The rows and rows of books and tomes had titles of all descriptions and subjects it seemed, all ordered in a system resemb- ling that used by the Library of Congress (LOC). Several large display areas opened up off of the walkway, one filled with suits of armor from various eras past, present, and future, one filled with display cases of stone tablets, countless scrolls, and price- less artifacts from the Library at Alexandria. An area filled with abor- iginal artwork from the eighth century A.D. drew a closer look from her. All in all, the place was impressive, for a hologram. She smiled upon seeing an entire area filled with erotic Etruscan Pot- tery, from the Hysterium Collection, no doubt. Feeling a bit bewildered by it all, she decided to ask Lucien for help. "I'll put him around the next corner at one of the reading tables for you, Kali," came Lucien's voice. <<> "Thank you, Lucien," Kali said, and headed down that way. Rounding the corner, Kali saw DigiCom, floating a foot above a long table with a book hovering in front of him. The book itself was huge and had a large chain dangling from it. It looked ancient and was floating as well. DC looked up as she walked over. "Hello, Kali," DC said with a smile. "Hi. I won't ask about the book you're reading," Kali said, "some things I'm better off not knowing about." "True," DC replied as the book slowly closed and the chain relocked by itself. "What's on your mind?" "I was wondering about your return to sanity," Kali started. "What was the cause of your insanity in the first place? Was it battle fa- tigue, as one would suspect?" "Nice of you to get right to the point," DC smiled. "Well..." Kali said. "I'm just kidding," DC said. "The real reason for the madness episode was the implant from the PREDATOR armor. It somehow left it's memories imprinted on my psyche. I started to hallucinate and decided it was time to get it out. A handy transporter took care of the rest." "I see..." Kali said thoughtfully. "Were you having nightmares?" "Yes," DC said. "I also seem to hear voices, though for some reason I haven't heard them while up here. Strange." "Oh, that's just a practical joke that Marius pulled on you," DC ex- plained. "Next time you're in your room, check Dessie's skull for a nano- transmitter just inside the brainpan." "I'll kill him," Kali said matter-of-factly, "I'll absolutely, posi- tively kill him. That bastard." "Don't be too harsh on him," DC said. "It _was_ funny at first. I'm sorry about the nightmares, though. That wasn't his doing, though the 'voice' may have suggested it." "Grrrr...." "Don't take it personally," DC said. "It'll kill you if you do. I agree with Sam, though, I think your TK and other mental abilities are a major factor in the problem. That does seem to be the best explanation." "Maybe," Kali agreed. "That still doesn't forgive Marius for being a bastard." "Maybe someday he'll outgrow it," DC offered. "If I let him live that long," Kali fumed. "Wait a second... How do you _know_ about his 'joke'?" "Where do you think the transmitter came from?" DC said, doing his best not to smile. "You son of a bitch," Kali scowled. "You're all the same: a bunch of babies. I don't care how old you are, you're still a jerk." "Remember, that happened before I left," DC said soothingly. "I've learned quite a bit since then. I hadn't even gone nuts yet. At the time I didn't know what kind of damage it would do. The way I see it, turnabout is fair play." "I'm listening," Kali said with the start of a wicked grin forming on her lips. "How about if we do this..." Cor walked into the hanger and whistled. The interceptors were a work of art in his opinion. Marius looked up and waved. Sam smiled. Kali, DC, the Puma sisters, and MMaxx had joined them minutes before for a full rundown of the ship's controls and capabilities. "Marius, you never cease to amaze me," Cor said with a grin. "Those are beautiful." "Just wait 'till you see them fly," Marius said with a devilish grin. "I believe it," Cor replied. "They're perfect." "And fast, too," Wolf said as he hopped down out of the cockpit of the closest ship. "These babies really haul." "Good," Cor said, just noticing the fact that Marius looked a little worse for wear, his hair standing almost straight up and his jacket still smoking. "What happened to you, Mike?" Cor asked him. <<> "Well, I played a practical joke on Kali and it sort of set her off," he explained. Kali caused his hair to whip down over his face as he spoke, obscuring his vision. "I bet you deserved it," Cor laughed. "It _wasn't_ funny," Kali spat. "I said I was sorry," Marius whined. "Sort of." "Sort of???" Kali said loudly, energy literally coursing over her skin as she got angrier. "Watch the power level, Kali," Wolf noted as several missile racks be- gan to rattle. "Hey, Marius," Cor said, hoping vainly to change the subject. "Did you get that satellite net online?" "Yes, as a matter of fact," Marius replied, thankful for the interrup- tion. "We've got eleven satellites placed geometrically around the globe so that any given spot has triple coverage. One can never be too careful when dealing with space orbits." "That's good," Cor responded. "Excuse me, sirs," came Lucien's voice. "I hate to interrupt, but it has come to my attention that there is yet another alien fleet poised to attack Earth." "Thank you, Lucien," DC replied a split second before Marius. "Also, sir, a transmission from said fleet to Earth has been detected and intercepted," Lucien added. "Oh?" Cor asked. "Can we get a translation?" "Certainly, sir," Lucien replied. "One moment." "Have you ever had that feeling of deja vu?" Marius said rhetorically. "Have you ever had that feeling of deja vu?" "Cut that out, Marius," Wolf said. A chime was heard from the wall near the exit to the rest of the sta- tion and Marius walked over. He retrieved a single sheet of paper from a slot there and walked back, reading again and again the message. "Guys, you are _not_ going to like this," he said simply. Skirmish___________________________________________________________TEN "We're off to outer space/We're leaving Mother Earth/ To save the Human Race..." -"Star Blazers" Theme "Tell us what it says already!" Kali demanded. The hair on the back of Marius' neck stood up. "Okay," Marius said, a bit rattled. "It says 'HPM-KDC-FYEO ATTENTION: Deputy Director Wilks. Be advised as to the imminent arrival of advanced battle fleet. More to follow. -Devorak'." "Oh boy," Corinthian muttered. "That sounds like bad news alright." "Um, hello? Can someone translate that header for me?" Anna asked. "Well, 'KDC' is obviously the 'Klarion Data Corp', 'FYEO' looks like 'For Your Eyes Only'," Marius explained to her. "And 'HPM' might be 'HyPerMail'?" "Try 'High Priority Message', Mike," Cor corrected. "It doesn't give a time on there, does it?" "No, it doesn't," Marius replied, closely scrutenizing the sheet. "More butts to kick," Wolf said with a wicked grin. "None of that," Kali chided him. "How many qualified pilots do we have that can fly these new intercep- tors, gang?" Cor asked the group. "Well, Wolf and myself have actually _flown_ them," Marius said. "I'm sure we can count on you and the Puma sisters, Cor. That's five. Kali, dear, would you give up the UPSTruckFromHELL(tm) for one of these?" To his surprise, she nodded. "Paul?" Cor asked Mystic Maxx. "Only if you really really need me," MMaxx replied. MMaxx was a good strategist, but avoided direct combat when he could. "And we can leave out Zeb, I think," Marius said. "He had a problem with the last toy we came up with." "Don't count me, I can't fly worth a damn," DigiCom said flatly. "No, but you can draw them when you leave your mouth open first thing in the morning," Cor snarked. "_Not_ my fault," DC retaliated. "I brush regularly." "'You know, some people have bad breath, Martha, but you could knock a buzzard off a shit wagon'," Marius Carlin-ed. "So that's six... did I miss anyone?" Marius asked. "Yes," Wolf said. "Jessie." "Um, is that wise?" Cor asked. They'd had a bad experience in the past with former enemies joining their group. "I can personally vouch for her," Wolf said with confidence. "Okay... I guess," Cor admitted. "How tough are these things to fly, anyway?" "Piece of cake, m'boy," Wolf smiled. "It's like driving a car with more controls." "And another plane of movement," Marius added. "I based the controls on the ones in the HT-500's. They're of course a lot simpler because of the non-transformable design. The neural link picks up a _lot_ of the slack in the handling." "Nice," Cor admitted. "Lucien, what would you estimate time of the fleet's arrival?" "If I had to guess, sir, I would say within three hours," Lucien said. "Good," Cor said with a smile. "Kali, see if you can raise Sheila. I know she took her comlink with her." "Jon, they're on their honeymoon," Kali reminded him. "I know," Cor said, "and I feel bad, but we're going to need every hand available. Frosty can run things from here. I have a feeling that this one is going to be tough." "I just thought of something..." Marius said. They looked curiously at him. "Don't stare at me like that!" "Well, spit it out," Kali prompted. "I was just thinking that this fleet still thinks Klarion is up and running things. Can we use that somehow?" "Other than the element of surprise we _might_ have, probably not," Cor said. "Also, without a response to whatever messages they send in the future, they'll figure out something is wrong." "Ah," Marius said. "Good point. At least they probably don't know how outgunned they are." "Outnumbered, yes. Outgunned, maybe. Outclassed, NEVER!" DC snarked. Cor and Wolf both laughed heartily, the rest less so. SATURN'S ORBIT The huge starship slid silently through the void, it's crew mindless of the picturesque ringed planet whose orbit they crossed. Only the ves- sel's commander noted the enormous ice rings for their aesthetic value. Commander Devorak sat at his conn, deep in thought. Sheer overkill in his estimation, bringing his entire battle group into this system to as- sume command of the third planet, 'dirt'. Amassed all around his command flagship was his fleet, comprised of the best fighting ships and crews in the seven galaxies. Ships of all types and designs were represented: from the huge dreadnaughts of the lost Katana Fleet to the newest effort from the strange race known as the 'bugs' by those who crossed them. No one had actually seen a member of this race--their name came from the vessels they employed, which resem- bled huge, hulking beetles, their myriad limbs swept aft and their hulls the color of dead stars. Not counting their various shuttles, fighters, and tenders, the fleet aprised seventy-three vessels. Not the largest ever gathered, but by far the most diverse and the most deadly. This milk run to a little backwater like the Sol System was a waste, in Com- mander Devorak's opinion, but obviously the higher-ups felt otherwise. Devorak's flagship, the _Ampoliros_, dwarfed even the huge Old Repub- lic Dreadnaughts of the Katana Fleet, being just under fifteen kilometers from bow to stern and a third of that in the beam. The ship was black, and had a long, sloped nose, the upper side domitated by eight round ports arranged in two vertical rows of four each. These were the ship's main guns, capable of reducing planetoids to rubble in a matter of a few minutes. From there the ship narrowed sharply, and then two horizontal planes extended, along with the projection of a huge flying bridge. The hull bristled with gun turrets, and the bridge was heavy with armor. At the ends of the two horizontal planes, canted vertical planes met them, extending upwards and down, each a full kilometer across. The aft-most portion of the ship was mostly comprised of an enormous star drive, with four fins extending out at the corners, forming a large, flattened 'X'. Devorak shifted slightly at his station on the bridge. What a huge waste of time, he thought once again. He idly toyed with the idea of de- stroying the planet and reporting back that the idiots had blown them- selves up. Unfortunately, for all the power at his command, others held more, and he knew it. Hopefully all that would change some day soon, he thought ruefully. "Any reply to our message?" he asked his communications specialist. "Negative, sir," the crewman replied. "No response as of yet." "How very strange," Devorak said thoughtfully. TALAMASCA <<> "I still don't see why you need us, Jon," Frosty said for the third time in as many minutes. "It seems to me like you've got plenty of able bodies already." "Let me explain something to you, Michael," Cor said, trying hard to ignore the mouse ears his lifelong friend was wearing with a Hawaiian shirt, faded Levis, and beat-up Topsiders. Sheila stood next to him dressed in a gauzy, white cotton dress that left little to the imagina- tion when properly back-lit. "We _need_ capable pilots. Sheila _is_ a capable pilot, therefore we need her. We _also_ need qualified techni- cians. _You_ are a qualified technician, therefore we need _you_ as well. I'll make it up to the both of you later, I promise." "But can't Sam make a whole bunch of generic fighter pilots and a fleet of X-wings for you?" Frosty whined. Cor had pulled them off of the "Pirates of the Carribean" ride, one of his favorites. "We don't have the time," Cor said patiently. "Please, can we talk a- bout this later, after the fleet invades?" "We'll help you, Cor," Sheila said for the two of them as she patted Frosty on the arm reassuringly. "What do you want us to do?" "Well, Frosty's needed in the Central Core by DC, and Sheila's due on the flight deck for a briefing," Cor said. "I am too, for that matter. I'm one of the briefers." Cor smiled at them. "Relax, the good guys are supposed to win, right?" <<> Cor and Sheila stepped into the main hanger bay and all heads turned to see them. Sheila had swapped her dress for an official Otaku Group Flight Suit, a black and red modified ROACH armor with matching helmet and gloves. Kali waved and walked over. "I'm sorry about this, Sheila," she said to her friend. "I understand, Kali, we're short on time," Sheila replied with a weak smile. "Get yer butt over here, Cor," Wolf berated him. "Right, right," Cor said and walked over. Kali and Sheila followed. "Okay, now that we're all more or less here," Wolf began, "let me fill you in on the finer points of your ships. All of the 'Kestrels' are set up with a full compliment of arms consisting of the standard phaser em- mitters, five IP2's, and two IP3's. Most of you have been briefed on the capabilities of the IP's, but for Sheila's benefit, I'll go over it once more." "The IP is what I call an 'Implosion Torpedo'," Wolf continued. "What it does, is set up a heavy gravitional field in the area of activation, producing a miniature black-hole-effect. It sucks everything into it. One good thing about this effect is that it renders gravitic shielding useless. The delivery system is based on that of the 'Revenger' missiles with modifications for extra-atmospheric conditions. Basically, it's a fast missile that collapses the target. Questions?" "Sounds nasty," Sheila commented. "Has to be one of yours, Thom. I like it." "Wait a second, Thom," Cor interrupted, "That leaves room for one more of the IP2's in the bays. What gives?" "Can't sneak anything past you, can I, Cor?" Wolf snarked. "The final and ultimate weapon in each craft is the GG "Horde" UOICOE Missile." "'You-oh-eye-cee-oh-ee' Missile?" Kali asked. "'Use Only In Case Of Emergency'," Wolf explained. "And I really mean it, too. This is a last resort weapon in case we come up against some- thing just too big to handle." "I think I've got it," Cor said thoughtfully. "'GG' is for 'Grey Goo', right?" "Exactly," Marius said. "When all else fails, go for the 'goo'!" "Does the designation 'Horde' mean what I think it does?" Cor asked a trifle nervously. "Yes, it does," Wolf said seriously. "These GG weapons are different from the ones you've used in the past, folks. Once they are activated on their target, there is _NO_ time set self destruct in the programming." "They'll just keep eating until whatever it is is _gone_," Marius add- ed. "So don't launch them at a planet you like very much." "Important safety tip, thanks, Egon," Cor Venkman-ed, trying to light- en the implications of what they had just heard. He failed. THE CENTRAL CORE DC sat thoughtfully pondering his existence, the huge screens around him revealing the world in color and shadows. Russia was fighting it- self, Somalia was fighting the UN, and Plucky was getting blown up again. The door behind him irised open and Frosty walked in, still in his mouse ears. "Hello, Frosty," DC said without turning. "Hi," Frosty said with a slight frown. He'd been having _so_ much fun before this all came up. "Sorry to interrupt your honeymoon," DC apologized for the nth time, "I've got things pretty much set here." As he spoke he rose from the command chair, which had swiveled to face the door. "Okay, thanks," Frosty said, taking the seat. "Oooh. Warm." "No snide remarks about farts," DC warned him. "Heh. don't worry," Frosty replied. "Are the sky-jockeys ready to go yet?" "Almost," DC said. "I've got Lucien and Sam set to work on any sensor data on the fleet, and Zebediah and MMaxx are working on the backups." "Backups?" Frosty raised an eyebrow. "I've got a bad feeling about this," DC Lucas(tm)-ed. "We're ready to launch, Control," Cor's voice said clearly over the room's Dolby-Surround-Sound-Home-Theatre-Overkill-Stereo-System. "Roger, Cor," Frosty replied. "I read you five-by-five." "Roger," Cor said. "Initiating launch sequence on my mark. Mark." "Don't call me Mark... or Roger, for that matter," Frosty laughed. "Right," Cor agreed. "By the numbers, people, sound off!" <<> "Midnight 1, here," Wolf said. "Dynotherms Connected!" With that he slammed the throttles open and the Kestrel rocketed clear of the bay, reaching for deep space. "Midnight 2, reporting in," came Kali's voice. "Um, Infracells Up!" She launched as well. "Midnight 3," Sheila said, "Love you, Mike." "I love you, too, dear," Frosty replied, his eyes feeling moist. "Megathrusters are GO!" Sheila cried as she launched. "Must be some Megathruster ya got there, Frosty," Marius snarked. "Die," Frosty said simply. "After you, my good Frosty, after you." "Midnight 4 launching," Jessie reported in. "Go Voltron Force!" she grudgingly said as her interceptor cleared the bay to join the rest of the wing. "That's Wolf's group," Cor said. "Blackhawk 1, launching. Grandizer GO!" "Um... next?" Frosty said, this was getting tedious. "Blackhawk 2, shooting off," Marius came back. "SPOON!" "Blackhawk 3," both Puma sisters said simultaneously. A short spat e- rupted over who would be '3' and who would be '4'. Anna won the catfight and launched as Blackhawk 3. "Wild-spinning-mid-air-super-powered-mega- panty-showing-KIIIIIICK!" "HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!" Marius Happosai-ed. "Slut," Una chided her sister. "Blackhawk...um...4, set to launch. "Iiiiiit's SHOWTIME!" she Beetlejuice-ed. "That's all of them, thank Murphy," DC said. "They are a silly lot," Frosty Python-ed. Outside, the two wings formed up into two flattened diamond formations looking somewhat like this: [MN1] [BH1] A [MN3] [MN4] [BH3] [BH4] | | [MN2] [BH2] (Direction of Flight) (MN: MIDNIGHT) (BH: BLACKHAWK) Once they formed up, Cor gave the command to move out, and they all headed away from TALAMASCA and the Earth in the direction of the incoming fleet. Cor was impressed by the precise handling of the mid-sized craft, and the gravitic drives moved the ship along at a good clip. DC had also set them up with what he called a "Cascade Drive", but they weren't going that far for this trip. The initial plan called for them setting up and ambush site for the enemy fleet in the Asteroid Belt, where the large amount of iron present would cause trouble with their sensors. Also, the small number of de- fenders would not be immediately apparent. "What's the enemy fleet's current position, Frosty?" Cor asked. "The lead craft are currently in the area of Mars," Frosty replied. "You'd better hustle if you want to make the 'Belt." "Roger that," Cor replied. "Let's move people." He upped the speed and the rest of the ships followed. <<> JUST INSIDE MARS ORBIT The WWS _Shadowline_ Lurker-Class Long Distance Recon Ship plied along through space, receiving and forwarding data to the fleet via it's myriad of sensors and antennae. Things were thankfully quiet for the crew and they actually were a little bored. This backwater system had no real space travel capabilities, by all reports, aside from a few visits by ships from outsystem and a primitive net of satellites pointed down at the planet's surface. They seemed intent on spying on each other rather than looking for outside threats. Primitive, seperatist governments, the crew chief thought. The navigator checked his sensors again. They were coming up on a rather large belt of asteroids composed mostly of iron ore. Perhaps the remainder of a tenth planet in the system? Data was inconclusive. In any case, the belt was a possible danger area. Best to radio back to the main fleet for instructions. THE ASTEROID BELT <<> "You see it, Wolf?" Marius asked quietly. All of the Kestrels were powered down to passive sensors, intership short-range communications, and life support. "That reflection at about one o'clock?" Wolf replied. "I see it. You got anything on it, Cor?" Wolf and his wing were hidden in and around a large asteroid just "above" the main belt (On a system plane of relation) while Cor's wing was in a similar position below. The sighting was just below the horizontal. "Roger, Wolf, I see it," Cor replied after a moment. "Looks like a recon ship." Cor had adjusted his optics to provide non-electronic mag- nification of the area in question so as not to give their position away. "Should we take it, or let it pass?" Kali asked. "Keep it in sight, but don't let it see you," Cor responded. "I'd prefer not to let it know we're here, but if it sees us, shoot it as fast as you can so it doesn't get a chance to report in." "Can we clear this channel?" Marius requested. "The chatter might tip them off." "It shouldn't," Wolf said. "All it should look like would be ambient background noise to him, I think. Best to hold it down, anyway, thought. Just in case." They watched silently as it passed below the field, but above Cor's position. "Wonder if he has any friends out here," Marius mused. "Probably," Cor replied. "This has a familiar feel about it." "I know it," Wolf added. "I feel so Last-Starfighter-esque." "Hey, it worked," Marius said. "It should work this time as well." "I've got another one down here," Anna cut in. "Straight down." Cor craned his head that way and took a look. "Yup," Cor said, "same type of ship. I don't think he saw us either." "We _can't_ be this lucky," Kali said prophetically. As if to prove her right, another Lurker swept close to the asteroid they were hidden on. "This looks interesting," said the sensor operator of the WWS _Shadow- run_ as he looked at his boards. "I'm getting two distinctly smooth shapes from that asteroid there. Take another pass, would you?" "Will do," replied the helmsman, thankful for something different to do. He guided the ship on a long, slow arc that gave the sensors a good look at the asteroid in question. "Wait!" said the sensor operator. "Right there! You see anything?" "Just shadows," said the navigator. "OH, I see what you mean. That round shape sticking out of that crevice in that formation there. Could be a ship, I suppose." "We'd better tell the fleet we've found something unusual out here," as the crew chief said this, the sensor operator bathed the area in ener- gy, scanning every nook and crack of the asteroid they were looking at. Just as the image of the front third of a Kestrel came up on his screens, the helmsman screamed and jerked his controls hard to the starbord. The collision was unavoidable. "Good job, Kali," Wolf said, mindful of how it hurt her to kill the crew of the recon vessel. Her TK _did_ have it's saving graces, though. "Yeah, nice throw with that rock," Jessica commented. Kali had hurled a nearby small asteroid at the recon ship. Hopefully, it would be seen as a navigational error, but somehow Cor doubted it. "Look sharp people, his buddies might come looking," Cor advised. "Cor, I'm reading a speed increase in the main body of the fleet," came Frosty's voice over the comm. "Well, that's that," Wolf said. "I didn't like hiding, anyway." "Right," Cor replied. "Before you ask, yes, you can hunt down the two other scout ships. But be quick about it." "You ain't seen quick yet," Wolf replied as his ship shot out after the two Lurkers. "Now it's just a matter of time, I guess," Marius said. "I've got the time," Anna said. "If you've got the place," Una continued. "Girls, girls, there's plenty of me to go around," Marius laughed. "Yeah, I noticed that, Mike," Cor snarked. "You been hitting the food replicators again?" "Funny guy," Marius pouted. Wolf returned in just under ten minutes, as the rest of them steeled themselves for the coming battle. Confrontation I_________________________________________________ELEVEN "Men, the object of war...is to WIN." -General George S. Patton MARS ORBIT Commander Devorak was mildly upset about the apparent loss of his three recon vessels. He glared at his bridge crew. They avoided his eyes. Every one was trying to blame everyone else, with the intelligence section taking the brunt of the heat. "Sir, the _Digiorno_ reports several small ships in his sector," said the communications officer. A sigh of relief from the rest of the crew could just barely be heard. At least now they'd have a target to oblit- erate. "'Several'? I expect exact numbers," snapped Devorak. "Send the _Di- giorno_ and the _Desainte_ in to investigate... belay that. We'll _all_ go. Alert the fleet as to a minor heading change. I don't want even the smallest of my ships lost to some backwater world's feeble attempt at an ambush." No one reminded him that three such ships had already perished that way. JUST OUTSIDE THE ASTEROID BELT "Here they come, people," Corinthian advised the rest of the Otaku Group. They were still hidden in the belt, their strategy a hit-and-fade one, with room for variations. "Looks like a _lot_ of ships, Cor," Sheila said as the fleet grew clo- ser. "Geez, I count at least fifty ships... I can't see the rearmost ones," Marius said. "More to hack and slash, my dear," Wolf said bloodthirstily. "You're whacked, Thom," Marius larfed. "'Sick' is more like it," Kali said a bit concernedly. "Enough chatter, guys," Cor said with a sigh. "Remember the plan, hit and fade. We can't handle a prolonged ship-to-ship fight." "Like, gee golly, Mr. Wizard, you mean an interceptor can't beat a Star Destroyer in a gunfight?" Marius snarked. "Well, no, Mikey, they can't, so you'll just have to be _sneaky_ about it and cheat a lot," Wolf giggled. "We don't need the strength of thirty, we can win by fighting dirty!" Marius chanted. "Two, four, six, eight, tiptoe, sneak, and infiltrate.." "...cha cha cha," Cor finished for him with a slight giggle. Kali and Sheila groaned. The Puma sisters giggled. The _Digiorno_, a Victory-Class Heavy Battle Cruiser(HBC), slowly (I know that speed in space is relative... it moved at about .5 C, which is slow on an interstellar scale. -Cor) moved closer to the belt, all it's weapons crews on standby. Slightly behind and above her, the _Desainte_, a Whorfin-Class Medium Cruiser(MC), was on similar status. First blood had gone to the Otaku Group. Devorak intended to claim second. <<> Suddenly, a large missile shot out from within the confines of the as- teroid belt, homing in on the larger _Digiorno_. The large vessel, anti- cipating a sneak attack, had it's energy shields up. It needn't have bothered. The IP3 "Overthruster" Heavy Implosion Torpedo contacted the sheilds and the anti-gravity containment field around the singularity core dropped. The result was spectacular. The shields of the heavy battle cruiser visibly arced and warped in a rainbow of color. The shields then burned out. After the shields failed the forward portion of the hull then tried to wrap itself tightly around the IP3's extremely heavy gravity singularity. Almost half the ship was drawn into the field before it collapsed. What was left looked like a large ball of twisted metal with an engine cluster attatched to one end. Over eighty-five percent of the crew perished, either from crushing, lack of oxygen, or internal injuries common to high g-force exposure. Need- less to say, the ship was out of commission. "My god, Mike. I can't believe you came up with something so sadis- tic," Kali said in horror. "I didn't," Marius replied. "DigiCom invented them." "I liked it," Cor said. "This _is_ a war after all. But from now on, try to hit the engines, if possible." "What, and leave the crews out here to die?" Kali demanded. "No no no," Cor soothed. "We'll coordinate a rescue effort if neces- sary. I'm sure they have methods of rescuing their people." As they spoke, Jessica fired one of her IP3's at the _Desainte_. Al- most the same thing occured with this smaller ship, except several escape pods managed to eject from the hull as it collapsed. The ship itself was crushed entirely into a ball the size of a small office building. "Well, at least some of them got clear," Marius started to say. "Not all of them," Wolf said. It was true. Two of the escape pods that had ejected struggled vainly to escape the enormous gravity well of the IP3. First one and then the other halted and fell back against the _Dessainte's_ remains. One of the pods was crushed flat, the other only partially, as the field finally reached it's terminus. All that was left of the starship was one more lifeless asteroid for the belt they were in. "That's two," Anna said. "I think we've got them mad at us." She was right. Several beams of energy pulsed out from the fleet in their direc- tion, their location divulged my the IP's. "Evasive!" Cor hollared. "Try to stay clear of their fire. The IP's can take care of the mid-sized ships." <<> All of them banked and dodged the incoming fire amongst the debris of the Asteroid Belt, using the iron-heavy asteroids to their advantage. "I've got a full count on their compliment," Sheila announced. She had been on the comm with DC and Lucien the last few minutes. "The fleet is comprised of fifteen larger dreadnaught-sized ships, twenty-nine mid- sized craft, twenty-two smaller frigate sized ships, and of course one gigantic flagship. That's not counting the five ships we've destroyed already." "Looks like we've got a good fight on our hands," Wolf admitted. "Why, Thom, you almost sound like you're impressed," Marius mocked. "No, I'm just regretting not bringing a lunch," Wolf countered. Thus the battle was joined. THE BRIDGE OF THE _AMPOLIROS_ "Someone tell me what the hell they are using against my ships!" Com- mander Devorak demanded to know. "Unknown, sir!" an ensign replied. "All that we've been able to find out is that it employs some type of incredibly strong gravity generator." "Dammit, I can _see_ that!" Devorak screamed. "Do whatever is neces- sary to keep those ships away from my flagship!" Wolf was blasting away at the shields of one of the Scarab-Class Fast Attack Ships. The phaser banks raked it again and again, but to no appa- rent effect. He couldn't decide if it was some type of high density gra- viton shielding or just an absorbsion coating on the hull itself. On top of that the ship was _fast_ and very manueverable. The bulbous, beetle- shaped craft shot straight upwards at an almost impossible ninty degree angle. What most intrigued Wolf was the fact that while most of the other ships in the fleet seemed to fight on a strictly two-dimentional plane, these strange, appendaged craft worked in three planes, implying advanced thinking on the part of the crews. "Christ, he's fast," Wolf said as he pulled up sharply to pursue. "What does it take to beat these guys?" The ship was at least eight times the size of Wolf's Kestrel and yet moved like a single-seat fighter craft. "Try firing two missiles at him at once," Shiela suggested. "One dir- ectly at him, one off at an angle. They seem to be able to dodge single attacks." "Sounds good," Marius replied. "Hey, Cor, you know what those things remind me of? I can't quite put my finger on it." "Roadbugs?" Cor answered. "Yeah, that's it," Marius acknowledged. "And those spiny, blowfish looking ones like the first one that Jess rubbed out look like the space ship they were building at YoyoDyne Industries." "You're right, they do," Wolf cut in. "In fact, _most_ of these ships look familiar. What about those big guys? Anyone recognize those?" "Those long ones there look like the ship from the Black Hole movie, but without the tower on them," Kali said. "No, they're from the Galaxy Ranger show. BETA Mountain used them as battleships," he said, refering to the Victory-Class HBCs. "And the really big ones?" Kali asked. "They appear to be Old Republic style dreadnaughts," Sheila said. "_That's_ where I recognize them from!" Cor blurted. As he spoke, he swung a little too close to one of them and received a hail of crimson turbo-laser fire for it. "Jesus Christ!" "Watch your ass, stupid," Wolf chided him. "You're getting cocky for a novice pilot." "Nah, I'm just drawing their fire away from you, Thommy," Cor retorted as he shot clear of the big guns. "Uh oh." "What's up?" Marius asked. "Um... nothing," Cor replied. "Just had a bad feeling for a second," he lied, trying to correct for the damage the few hits he had received had done to his intereceptor. "Don't lie, Jon," Frosty scolded him. "I just read a sharp drop in cabin pressure from your ship." "Squealer," Cor shot back. "Problem, Cor?" Kali asked. "Nothing I can't handle," Cor answered. He was now wearing full body armor. As they exchanged snappy patter they were making a good dent into the enemy fleet. Enemy casualties so far numbered nine frigates, six corvettes, and two more of the heavy battle cruisers. They had only man- aged to damage one of the huge dreadnaughts. The flagship itself managed to remain clear of the action. Cor maneuvered up close behind one of the dreadnaughts and let fly an IP3 at it's engine ducts. The missile sailed true. The large ship, slow in reacting, was the unwilling recipient of the deadly package. Cor smiled as the IP vanished inside one of the huge thrust ports. Most starship builders didn't expect an attack from this end of the ship. The result was startling. As the body of the weapon was vaporized by the huge star drive, the outside edges of the enormous opening started to buckle inwards. The drive spasmed and flared erratically as the metal slowly sealed the port. Cor didn't hang around. He wasn't sure what a plugged thrust port was capable of doing to a ship, but he had an idea. The rearward portion of the behemoth pulled inwards slightly, the hull craching in several places under the unusual strain. The other 'drives started to sputter. The hull then ballooned outwards as the power core detonated. The gravity effect of the IP3 held for a moment longer, the entire rearward section of the ship glowing white-hot. It looked like an explo- sion behind a bulletproof glass wall. The field effect collapsed and the entire rear third of the dreadnaught blew itself apart spectacularly. "Wow!" Marius said, shielding his eyes. "What was that?" "I did that," Cor replied. "My version of the old banana-in-the-tail- pipe trick." "IP3 in the exhaust port?" Wolf asked rhetorically. "Bullseye," Cor verified. "At least now we know what will kill a real big ship." "I don't know if that would work on the flagship," Sheila spoke up. "Why not?" Marius asked. "Have you actually taken a good _look_ at it?" Sheila asked. "Not really," Marius admitted. "It's been hanging back... That's it over there, right? The long black one?" "Right," Sheila replied. "Take a _good_ look at it... it looks small because it's far away... but it's a lot farther away than you think." "What do you..." Marius paused as he got the range on the _Ampoliros_. "Holy SHIT! That's a real monster!" "What?" Kali asked. "Look at the flagship," Marius prompted. "It's big," Kali acknowledged. "Now look at the range," Marius prompted further. "It's... shit, is that right?" Kali asked. "Is it really over a hun- dred klicks away?" "Yup," Marius said. "That makes that ship over..." "Fifteen kilometers stem to stern," Cor finished. "It's quite a ship, alright." <<> Wolf tried the tactic that Shiela had suggested, launching two IP2's at once at the Scarab. One missile he sent screaming straight for it's hull, and the other he fired a few seconds later and above their current trajectory. The bastard was fast and tricky, Wolf thought, but he had used a similar maneuver before and hadn't managed to shake me. True to it's pattern the Scarab pulled up at a ninty degree angle, the first IP sailing under it and away. "Watch that loose missile, folks," Wolf warned. "Roger, Midnight 1," Cor replied. "Midnight 1? Lose that formal shit, Jon," Wolf shot back. "Okay, butthead," Cor laughed. "Heh heh, heh heh...You said...shit," Marius Beevis-ed. Kali groaned. Wolf's second missile intercepted the insect-like ship and clanged a- gainst the hull. Wolf's eyes grew wide as the missile showed no visible effect on the craft. "Was that a dud, Thom?" Marius asked. "Impossible," Wolf replied. "I doubled-checked all the electronics before we launched. Lucien can verify it." "Looks to me like a super-dense hull," Sheila said. "He's slowing down a bit, though." "You're right, he is slowing," Wolf agreed. "Yow! Hasn't made him any less agressive." Wolf rolled out of the way of several crimson bolts of return fire. "Remember, when all else fails, go for the Goo!" Marius advised. "A good idea, but I count eighteen of these bastards, while we only possess eight Goo Missiles," Wolf replied. "As it is, we'd better start conserving the IP2's and 3's," Cor said. "Try to use phasers against the small ships." "I'd hate to lose a fight because I'm out of ammo," Wolf whined. "Right," Cor agreed. Cor smiled as a pair of the Katana Dreadnaughts exploded, this time as a result of twin IP3's fired by the Puma sisters. They seemed to be having a marvelous time of it, reveling in the destruc- tion. THE _AMPOLIROS_ "This is unacceptable," Devorak cursed. "How a rag-tag band of adven- turers from some little backwater world that isn't worth pissing on could decimate my splendid fleet is _inconceivable_! Prepare to engage the en- emy on my mark!" "Should we risk the flagship, sir?" asked his second in command. "Just follow my orders, Deuchamp," Devorak snapped, "or I'll eat your innards for my lunch." The crew within earshot grimaced. One of them wondered how he could eat the innards of a "gutless" wuss like Deuchamp. "Bring all weapon banks to bear! Prepare to fire the main guns! Plan a clever counterattack! Release Worrick and Ajax! CALL MY AGENT!" "Looks like the flagship's making it's move," Jessica said. "Gods, I think we ticked someone off," Marius agreed. As they watched the ponderous bulk of the _Ampoliros_ turned and accelerated towards them. As it picked up speed it mindlessly battered out of the way three of it's own fleet: the last two Stingray-Class corvettes, and one of the Scorpion-Class frigates. "Holy shit," Wolf declared. "Aptly put," Cor acknowledged. "Prepare to fire." As he spoke, vol- ley upon volley of turbo-laser fire erupted from the myriad of guns on the flagship's foredeck, filling the sky with crimson death. Several shots came close to the mark, barely missing Una and Kali. One of the Whorfin-Class ships took several hits and drifted dead in space. <<> "FIRE! FIRE!" Marius cried, himself letting loose with his two IP3's. Sheila and Jessica were closest, and each fired one of their IP3's. Cor added his final one, and Wolf cut one loose as well. "You should eat fewer beans, Wolfy," Marius giggled. "_Don't_...call...me...'Wolfy'...I'll kill you while you sleep." "Have you tried decaf?" Cor asked. They all watched (while dodging laser fire, of course) as the six Im- plosion Torpedos sped towards their mark. All six hit the gigantic ves- sel. The hull in the effected areas buckled and warped towards the cores of the weapons. Wolf smiled in satisfaction. Then his smile turned up- side down as the missile cores expended themselves and the ship straight- ened itself out. "What the fuque was _that_ all about?" Kali demanded. "I'm not sure..." Cor said thoughtfully. "Bastards! No fair breaking my toys!" Wolf hollered in frustration. "You know, that looked familiar..." Marius speculated. "LOOK OUT!" Anna shouted as two gigantic energy pulses erupted from the front of the flagship. Both bolts went wide into the Asteroid Belt, causing a swirling storm of stone to swarm about in a deadly hail. "He's firing again!" Una announced. The _Ampoliros_ fired it's second wave right after the first, then a third, and forth, bringing all eight of the main guns to bear on the enemy. "He's demented," Wolf concluded. "Main guns against interceptors? Just what does this idiot need to prove?" "Watch the asteroids they're tossing about, Wolf," Jessica warned him. "Go for the GOO!" Marius repeated himself, stabbing the release for his weapon of choice. The surprisingly small missile cleared the pod and headed for the flagship. "Marius, no!" Cor objected. "I want that ship intact!" "For Murphy's sake, why?" Marius asked. "Well, it's neat looking," Cor answered. "Plus, I finally remembered where I've seen it before." "You've seen this monstrosity before??" Kali said aghast. "Sure," Cor explained. "Remember second season Star Blazers?" "Oh, god! Yes!" Marius said in realization. "Zordar's flagship!" "Bingo," Cor confirmed. The UOICOE "Horde" Missile met it's target and activated, the pod spreading open and fading away. "Hey!!" Marius cried. "That's not supposed to happen! What the deuce is that ship made of, anyway?" "It's a construct," Cor said simply. "That's the only explaination. All we are seeing is the product of a large KDCFieldGENerator, or what- ever _they_ call it." "Gedaddaheah," Marius replied. "Makes a cruel kind of sense, I suppose," Wolf admitted. "Now how do we fight it?" "Good question," Cor admitted. "Frosty, you and DC been monitoring this?" "Roger that, Cor," Frosty's voice replied. "We have a suggestion for all of you: run away, _now_." "That's not really an option, I'm afraid," Sheila said. As she spoke, her interceptor was grasped in the invisible hand of a powerful tractor beam. "SHEILA!!!" Frosty hollered, their headsets crackling with the clip- ping. "Everyone else get clear, NOW!" Cor shouted. He snap-rolled his Kes- trel and boosted towards the asteroid belt. The others did the same, ex- cept for Marius, who tried to rescue her. "Get out of here, you jackass!" Sheila berated him. They obviously gave up on killing us and want us alive. Save yourself!" "SHEILA!!!" Frosty bellowed again. "Get clear, Marius! That's an order!" Cor demanded. "I don't leave my teammates behind!" Marius countered. "I have no intention of letting them keep her, Marius," Cor replied. "We have to get clear to formulate a rescue effort." "But they'll torture her!!" Frosty shouted. "They'll torture _all_ of us if we hang around," Cor said. "Dammit! I'm caught!" Jessica exclaimed. She gritted her teeth and fought for control of the Kestrel. "Me too!" Anna cried. Una immediately tried to rescue her sister. "Get clear!" Cor pleaded with her and the others. "We'll rescue them later! We have to get clear, NOW!" "Shit shit shit shit shit!" Marius cursed. "I've had it, too." His Kestrel bucked under the force of the tractor beam that grabbed him as well. < Sam, can I clear them with the 'Interventionist'? > Cor thought. [ No, Cor. You'd get trapped as well, even in the red-zone ] came her reply. "Dammit!" Cor cursed, slamming his fist down on the canopy sill. This proved to be a stupid thing to do: the canopy tore itself clear of the ship. "Shit!" "Cor!" Wolf shouted. As he watched, three bolts from the still-firing turbo-lasers tore into Cor's Kestrel, the interceptor disintegrating. <<> Wolf crammed the throttles against the firewall (figuratively) and headed for the Asteroid Belt and TALAMASCA beyond. Una and Kali followed him soon after. Confrontation II________________________________________________TWELVE "...this looks like a problem that can be solved by the classic methods of brute force and ignorance." -Prince Charming THE ASTEROID BELT Corinthian drifted weightlessly amidst the wreckage of his Kestrel in- terceptor, the _Ampoliros'_ having torn it to shreds around him. Una, Kali, and Wolf had escaped back to TALAMASCA. The enemy fleet pursued them after recovering most of the escape pods and lifeboats that had man- aged to clear the wreckage of over half of Devorak's ships. Devorak had claimed the victory, but it was a pyrrhic one at best--his fleet was dec- imated. Cor didn't move, his mind having retreated after the explosion. He was alive, but unconscious. The blast had surprised him, catching him in relatively "light" armor. His headset crackled with Frosty's voice try- ing to hail him. The only answer was silence. <<> [ Cor? ] Sam asked almost timidly. No response. As long as she'd been online, he'd never been unable to respond to her. There were some things he kept from her, but he'd never shut her out from him completely. She ran a quick scan of his vitals: pulse weak but steady, breathing un- labored, pupils dilated, no broken bones. He'd survive. [ Please, Cor, answer me, ] she repeated. As she tried to reestablish contact with him, she retooled his armor using her limited overrides into a sarcophagus to protect him. She then added external micro-drives to return his body to TALAMASCA. A cloak hid him from the advancing fleet. [ Don't you dare die on me, ] Sam implored of him. She sounded on the verge of tears. [ You can't leave me alone. I need you. ] I love you, she didn't add. Cor's armor drove him on towards his companions. TALAMASCA CENTRAL CORE "Good news," Mystic Maxx said to Frosty. "Cor's still alive and Sam's bringing him in now." "Good," Frosty replied. "That way I can kill him myself." It was ob- vious he was upset about the capture of his bride. "Relax," MMaxx advised. "He did the best he could. Getting the rest of the gang clear to coordinate a rescue attempt was a good idea." "I know, but I wonder where his priorities are sometimes," MMaxx said. "What we _should_ be worrying about is that fleet," DigiCom said as he entered the 'Core. "Fortunately, I've started work of a rescue vehicle." "What'll be any good against that flagship?" Frosty asked. A flash on one of the screens told him that the others were back. "You saw how it reacted to the Implosion Torpedos and the 'Goo'." "Yes, I did," DC said calmly. "I have an idea that a strong field disruption might do the trick. Either that or another thing I was work- ing on while I was gone." "What's that?" MMaxx asked curiously. "You'll see," DC smiled slyly. He still like an air of mystery. THE HANGER BAY Wolf and Kali were having a heated debate over what to do about their captured brethren. Una just wanted a few heads to smash, so they left her alone. She was taking the loss of both her sister Anna and their 'playmate' Marius rather hard. For all their bluster and toughness, the Puma's were soft deep down. "I think we should just blast that flagship to Kingdom Come!" Kali fumed. "With what? The MagnaFlame Gun?" Wolf shot back. "You wanna get them rescued or _killed_?" "Well, I don't see _you_ coming up with any bright ideas, hairbag!" she spat. "We have to think this out first, bust heads later," Wolf tried vainly to calm her down. "Oh, RIGHT! Since when have _you_ thought things out before shooting everyone in a room or tearing them to shreds?" she demanded to know. "Hey!" Wolf said indignantly. "_That_ was pleasure. _This_ is seri- ous business." <<> "Will you two...CUT...IT...OUT!!" Una roared. "We've gotta rescue them _now_!" Wolf and Kali paused a moment and watched her intently. Wolf knew that dispite the soft-and-cuddly-and-sexy exterior, there lay a molybednium combat chassis underneath capable of over 4000 pounds of killing thrust. Cor built them well, he thought. He hoped he wouldn't be on the recieving end of her wrath. "Um, okay, Una," Wolf said steadily. "We're only interested in doing just that." "Then stop _arguing_ and _do_ something!" Una breathed heavily. Her eyes had flames dancing in them. She was really upset. Wolf hastily tried to think if Cor had built in any voice overrides. "It's okay, Una," Kali said, going over to her and hugging her. Wolf almost hit his jaw on the floor. "We miss them, too. We'll save them. You'll see." "I feel so helpless..." Una trailed off, tears soaking into the right shoulder of Kali's jumpsuit. "It'll be alright," Kali soothed. The door slid open on the wall they were headed for and in walked Zebediah and Sam. Both looked very serious about things, an unusual state for Zeb. "Is she okay?" Zeb asked Kali. "Yeah, she misses her sister," Kali explained needlessly. Sam looked distracted, she noted. "Any word on an arrival time for the fleet, Sam?" Wolf asked her. "Oh...Lucien's current ETA is one hour, ten minutes," Sam answered. She bit her bottom lip. "Any word on Cor?" Kali asked gently. "He's alive... I'm bringing him in now," Sam answered softly. "I'm glad he's got you to watch out for him, Sam," Kali said. She meant it, too. "Thank you," Sam said, dropping her eyes. "I hate to interrupt, but Cor is arriving," Lucien announced over the comm. As they turned, a black, coffin-shaped object entered the bay from outside through the open portal. It glided silently towards them and came to rest hovering in front of Sam. "I take it you reconfigured his armor to bring him back?" Wolf guessed as he examined the exterior of Cor's vehicle. "I didn't know you could do that." "Only in cases like this," Sam explained. "It's a backup in case he's ever incapacitated." "Good thinking," Wolf admitted. "I'd better take him to his room," Sam said, turning to leave. "Wouldn't the clinic be better?" Kali asked. "Not really... he's not really hurt, just traumatized," Sam answered after a moment. "Between his armor and I, he'll be fine." She smiled wanely. "Okay," Kali said. She figured correctly that Sam wanted a minute a- lone with Cor. THE BRIDGE OF THE _AMPOLIROS_ "Do you have any idea what a royal pain in the _ass_ you monkeyboys are?" Devorak demanded near the top of his lungs of his prisoners. Anna, Marius, Sheila, and Jessica stood before him bound in chains, partially for effect and also to scare the piss out of them. For Jessica it worked. Not since she'd been effectively stripped of her weapons and armor with a huge blade by Sheila during the assault on the Lippitt Complex had she been so frightened. Marius, on the other hand, was quite taken by Devor- ak's remarkable resemblence to Harvey Korman. "You're not paid by the dramatic pose, are you?" Marius asked inno- cently. He recieved a nasty glare that could have baked the paint off of a space shuttle. He was also thumped in the back by one of their burly guards. "Oooff." "Did you just call my guard an 'oaf'?" Devorak asked. "No, I said 'oooff', as in 'gosh, that smarts'," Marius explained. "Oh," Devorak said. "Now the question is what to _do_ with you pesky little privateers..." He looked thoughtful for a moment. Marius barely managed to refrain from making a comment about wood burning. "You'll get us all killed, stupid," Sheila whispered to him. "Will not, will not," Marius whispered back. "Shhhh," Anna shhhh-ed them. Jessica stood stoicly silent. "Nice alliteration," Marius commented. "No whispering!" Devorak shouted. "Sorry," Marius, Sheila, and Anna said in unison. "Well," Devorak said as he paced back and forth. "As much as I'd like to torture any and all information you have in your tiny little minds, I think that m'lady would like it better, curse her." "You work for a woman?" Sheila asked curiously. Marius saw the tactic immediately. "C'mon, big strong fleet commander like you working for a _girl_?" he goaded Devorak. Jessica elbowed him in the ribs. "As a matter of fact, I _do_ work for a 'girl'," Devorak replied. "I see through your feeble attempt to pry information of no use to you out of me. Take them away and throw them on the next shuttle." He waved his hands at the guards, who grabbed the chains and started to lead the four of them off. "Oh, and one more thing," Devorak called after him. "I wouldn't use that tone of voice with her, 'Marius' or whatever your name is. She's much less forgiving than I am." "Oh, _that's_ certainly comforting," Marius said before being whapped again. TALAMASCA MAIN HANGER BAY DigiCom and Wolf stood admiring their handywork. For a nasty assault craft, it had been finished in record time. Replicators made that kind of thing commonplace with these two. Wolf had actually had some business cards printed up that said "Wolf: Supergenius - Give Me an Idea and Half an Hour and It's Yours For the Right Price". "That's...impressive," Kali said as she walked up to the two madly grinning manifesters of machines of mayhem-making. "ENOUGH with the al- literation, already! Geesh!" Sorry, Kali. "Glad you like it," Wolf replied. "Recognize the hull design?" "Unfortunately," Kali admitted. "What are we using for assault vehi- cles this time?" "Well, we're going for an internal assault, so we need smallish, fast vehicles useful for fighting in tight quarters and armed to the teeth," DC said. "So where's the UPSTruckFromHELL(tm) go in there?" Kali asked. "In the nose," Wolf grinned evilly. "That's _my_ schtick, Thomas," Cor said from the doorway. Sam was at his side. "Cor!" Wolf shouted. "Jon!" Kali cried. "Bueller? Bueller?" DC snarked. "Let me guess... you missed me?" Cor asked with a smile. "Yes, but I don't advise going near Frosty anytime soon," Kali said. "I know he's mad, and he has every right to be," Cor replied. "I should have planned ahead better." "Well, here's our chance to get even," Wolf said, gesturing at the large black craft behind him. "I give you the _Dark_Phoenix_" <<> "Argh!" Cor said, slapping his forehead. "How _could_ you, Thom?" "With my help," DC spoke up. "I redesigned the weapon systems from the ground up. It should be more than enough to rescue the others." "What's your payload?" Cor asked. "UPSTruckFromHELL(tm) in the nose with increased shielding," DC ex- plained. "We expect them to put up a good fight, and in close quarters you need it." "Okay," Cor said. "Kali will pilot the UPS," Wolf furthered. "Left wing houses the new _Dunstar_. Crowley offered to help out." "_This_ I can't wait to see," Cor said with a grin. "And I thought the right wing might hold _Christine_," Wolf finished. "Okay, but you pilot," Cor agreed. "I'll explain the onboard systems to you later. Anybody contact SF?" "He's arriving shortly along with Crowley," DC informed him. "You guys seem to have the situation well in hand," Cor said. "'On the sea or on the land...'," Wolf sang. "'Doot doo-doo doot doo-doo...'," DC joined in. "'He's got the situation WELL IN HAND!'" they chimed together. "ARGH!" Kali argh-ed yet again. "Does the Firey-Phoenix form still work?" Cor asked. "Naturally, but with some major improvements," DC smiled wickedly. "I'm sure," Cor said. "Thanks, guys, for sticking by me." "Don't go getting all sentimental on us," Wolf said. "I hate that mushy stuff, especially between men." "Well, I mean it," Cor said again. "I know you do," Sam assured him. "Thank you, Sam," Cor said honestly. All heads turned as the doorway to the hanger irised opened, revealing a heavily armored figure carrying way too much weaponry. The newcomer tread into the hanger and his identity was revealed. "You don't actually think you could leave me behind on this trip, do you?" Frosty asked from beneath his huge load of armament. He had donned what appeared to be a heavily modified ROACH armor. Frosty had added several meters of chrome tubing to the exterior and two huge tank to the back-pack unit. His hand weapons included a NegaSword on his belt, a BMG Maelstrom Mark-5, a Vorpal Blade, two Kill-O-Zap guns, a half-dozen IP1/2 Implosion Grenades, a compact 'Lobo' Revenger-IV missile launcher, and a spoon. "Um...seeing as it's your wife we're rescuing, okay, but I think you _might_ be overdoing it a bit," Cor advised. "Kali needs a copilot, any- way. Kali?" "Sure, but that stuff's going to have to go in the lockers," she said. "Okay, but not the spoon," Frosty agreed. THE CENTRAL CORE "Well, there they go," Tareah said as much to herself as to Lucien and Sam. They were the only ones left onboard the massive space station. It felt awkward to her sitting in the command chair in the center of the room looking at all the screens and such. Fortunately, most of the sta- tion's defenses were automated. The other's Sam could help Lucien take care of, leaving her to monitor communications. She said a silent prayer for all of them. SPACE The _Dark_Phoenix_ roared through the boundless confines of space to- wards the enemy fleet. Those onboard were anxiously awaiting the trials to come with nervous anticipation. Cor finished briefing Wolf on the weapon systems aboard _Christine_, and the others chatted with the newly arrived Crowley and Silver Falcon. Kali was trying hard not to laugh at Crowley's craft, the _Dunstar_. Somehow a rust-orange, 1986 Honda Civic hatchback covered with rust and bondo was difficult to take seriously as a formidable fighting vehicle. Crowley pointed out to her that it was no more ludicrous than a flying UPS Truck. "Does everyone know their assignments?" Cor asked over the comm. "Zebediah and I are providing you all with a means of access to the flagship as well as covering fire in the _Dark_Phoenix_," came Una's re- sponse. She had taken to flying the unique vessel with ease, their mis- sion driving her like a woman possessed. "Frosty and I will take the task of leading the internal assault in the UPSTruckFromHELL(tm)," Kali acknowledged. "I will be covering the left flank in the _Dunstar_," came Crowley's replied. As an OG Irregular he'd been outfitted by the Group for just such an occassion. There were in fact seven more members of the OGI, but most were unaware of the others. "I've got the right flank, and I'll cover for anyone who can't carry the ball," Wolf said with significant bravado. He was quite take with the armaments of the '58 Fury that Cor had 'built'. "And that leaves myself, DC, and SF to provide spot support," Cor said finally. Cor was armored up and bristling with weapon emplacements. SF was in his usual super-hero-neat-looking-costume-with-a-nice-cape garb. DC...wore a trenchcoat. Underneath he had on some unknown type of armor, and his right hand was covered with the Gauntlet. "Let the enemy tremble and quake with fear at the coming of the mighty Otaku Group Legionnaire Element!" Wolf spouted. "O.G.L.E.?" Kali asked. "You simple can't be serious." "Heh, it fits, sorta," Cor laughed. "Oh dear," DC said, shaking his head. "You should have the fleet on visual by now," Tareah's voice came over the comm. "Um...okay...I see it now," Zeb confirmed. "I see what you mean about the flagship, Cor. I'd really like to know who their ship designer is." "Me too," Cor admitted. "What a monster!" Crowley said as the image was relayed to his onboard displays in the _Dunstar_. "They haven't spotted us yet," Una said. "Hit them fast and hard, Una. They've got roughly fourty ships left," Cor advised. "Hit the flagship fast." "You don't have to tell me twice," Una replied. She swept the black ship on a long, graceful arc that took it down (relatively) and up under the enemy fleet. She was impressed with the enormous speed capability of DigiCom's Cascade-Drive System. As the Scarab-Class Fast-Attack Ships and others started to react late to this flash assault, Una reached over and pushed a red handle forward. <<> Fire erupted from almost every ship within range at the _Dark_Phoenix_ as it charged the flagship, literally filling the ports with a crisscross of death. Una gritted her teeth and pumped up the power levels. The hull of the ships seemed to burst into a dark crimson flame which quickly covered the entire ship. The two wings seemed to change and shift, giv- ing the ship a rather avian appearance. The turbo-laser fire from the _Ampoliros_ and the other ships fizzled against the 'fire' of the _Dark_Phoenix_. Una aimed straight for what a- peared to be a hanger bay on the belly of the enormous flagship and set her controls to ram. "Hang on folks, we're going in," Una said needlessly. The ship shud- dered slightly as it passed through the shields of the _Ampoliros_, it shook much more violently as it tore through the hanger doors. "Erg," Kali said as a particularly bone-jarring rattle shook the air- frame of the _Dark_Phoenix_. As soon as it started, it was over. Una shifted the ship back to it's normal configuration and took in the seen outside. THE BRIDGE OF THE _AMPOLIROS_ "What do you mean, we've been boarded?" Commander Devorak demanded to know of his crew. "Just that, sir, we've been boarded," said a junior officer. "I know that!" Devorak hollared. He drew his sidearm and shot the man for answering a rhetorical question. Without a word, his body was re- moved and another took his station. They knew better than say anything. "Status report, all levels!" Devorak thundered. "I want them found and brought to me, NOW!" A klaxon sounded throughout the vessel. THE HANGER BAY "I guess they figured out we're here," Cor said. Several dozen guards were shooting at the ship, with several dozen more behind them just itch- ing to join the battle. As soon as they reached the front of the hasty formation, Una mowed them down with the wing-pod mounted heavy phasers. The sound of the repeated firing was deafening, even in the cavernous space of the hanger bay. "Get ready to move out, people," Una advised. "I'm cutting a hole for you to exit through." "Roger that, Una," Wolf responded, his foot poised over the throttle of the '58 Fury in the right wing. "All set here," Crowley acknowledged. "Green lights across the boards," Frosty replied for Kali and himself. "We're ready to move out," SF said simply. He, DC, and Cor stood just inside the roof airlock. "Okay, group, the order is given," Cor said. "Let 'er rip, Una." Una answered with a conflagration of phaser fire that bathed the area in a crimson flash. As she did this she popped the wing-pods and the nose of the _Dark_Phoenix_ open to allow them to exit. "Here we go again," Kali said as the UPSTruckFromHELL(tm) rolled out of the nose and headed ahead towards a large archway on the wall. Frosty had the nose M61A1 20mm Vulcan turning and it spat forth it's enhanced stream of death at the remaining enemy crewmembers ahead of them. He then popped open the Mark-17 40mm Grenade Launchers. They had been load- ed alternately with smoke, cs gas, and flash bombs. As an added precau- tion, he also brought the exterior public address system online and held his thumb over the pain field generator. "Alright, a real challenge!" Crowley exclaimed as his...car...rolled out of the wingpod. He popped up the roof-mounted laser turret and raked the area with blue beams. He goosed the gas and shot over to one of the side passages to provide fire support. "And awaaaaaaay we go," Wolf Gleason-ed as the throaty rumble of the white-on-red Fury's duel glasspacks echoed around him. The incoming fire from the guards on the hanger deck reflected harmlessly off of the car's Autumn red paintjob. Wolf smiled and ripped them apart with the tri-port plasma emplacements behind the grill. "How the fuque are we going to find them in a ship this bloody big?" Kali griped as the UPSTruckFromHELL(tm) rolled slowly forward. "_Not_ a problem," DC replied, rolling back the right sleeve of his trenchcoat. Raising his right hand, he closed his eyes. The back of the gauntlet split open at the base and slid upwards off of his hand, leaving only the blue Mind Gem on the back of his hand. The Gauntlet clenched itself into a fist and vanished. DC opened his eyes, which now glowed a bright light blue. "What was that all about?" Cor asked. "I'm making us a map," DC answered distractedly. "Neat trick," SF commented. He stepped out towards the top of the _Dark_Phoenix_. Cor looked at DC and then hesitantly followed SF out. Cor stopped and turned back. Something was wrong. He looked at DC just in time to see his eyes and the Gem glow blindingly bright. DC then screamed and fell over, unconscious. Cor hesitated. "Mario?" Cor ventured. DC just lay there. "Zeb, get back here. DC may need medical assistance." "What happened?" Zeb came back. "Looks like he passed out," Cor answered. "I think some type of feed- back loop got him." "I'm tougher than you think," DC said groggily as he sat up. "But the Gauntlet is toast," he explained as Cor helped him to his feet. "Explain," Cor requested. "Based on the sensor logs at the station and my own experience, it blipped straight into a KDCFieldGENerator." "Ah. That would explain the feedback," Cor agreed. "True. But what you don't realize is that it's a bit larger than the ones you're used to dealing with," DC explained. "I had the Gauntlet mapping rooms only." "How far did you get?" Cor asked, filing what he said. "I didn't find the prisoners, but I did locate the bridge," DC replied as he shuffled through his pockets. "Sounds like a plan," Cor said, and headed back outside. DC followed him, pulling large weapons out of small pockets. THE BRIDGE OF THE _AMPOLIROS_ Devorak was fuming. The crew was frightened, both of the enemy and of the commander. Devorak stopped and pointed an accusatory finger at his second in command. The man started, afraid of what was to come. "Alert my elite guard to station themselves outside of this room," Devorak ordered. The man mumbled something like 'right away' and walked over to a console. All heads turned as all three doors to the bridge exploded inwards. As Devorak turned to flee like the base coward he was, DC, Cor, and SF strode commandingly into the room. "Too little, too late, I'm afraid," DC said. "ATTACK! ATTACK THEM!" Devorak screamed, himself trying to make it to one of many escape hatches hidden around the room. Moments later the fight was over and Devorak froze in mid-jump down a chute, the three Otakus standing around him glaring at him. "You will tell us where our friends are!" Cor demanded, pulling him to his feet and hurling him to the deck. "I'll never talk!" Devorak squealed. "Do with me what you will, I'll never betray m'lady!" "You don't need to talk," DC said as he reached down and grasped the man around the neck with his right hand. Lifting him in the air, he then pinned him to the main viewscreen. "Open your mind or this will hurt a _lot_," DC advised. "Go stuff yourself in an antimatter furnace, monkeyboy!" Devorak re- fused. Cor rolled his eyes behind his subderms. SF stood quietly by. "Right. The hard way it is," DC said finally. "Good." DC's eyes a- gain started to glow. Devorak's started to glow as well, the same shade of light blue. <<> "GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!" Devorak screamed. SF winced. DC opened his hand and let Devorak fall to the deck. Devorak's mouth still hung open, but mercifully for the others, no sound came out any longer. "What have you learned?" Cor asked simply. "Well, I got rid of my headache," DC started to say. "I also learned that the others are no longer on this vessel." "Where are they?" SF asked. "I'd say we're in for quite a fight," DC explained. "According to his mind, they've been taken to a place called 'Warworld'." Storming the Magic Kingdom____________________________________THIRTEEN "It's what I do. Any time there's something so ridiculously dangerous that no rational human being would even consider trying it, they send for me." - Belgarion (King of the Murgos) THE BRIDGE OF THE _AMPOLIROS_ "Um...did you say 'Warworld'?" Corinthian asked, the shock of it still missing the mark. "I think that's what he said. Why?" Silver Falcon asked. "It means that the proverbial excrement is about to impact the ancient air movement device," Cor replied. "Mario, what's the crew complement of this ship?" "Well, a standard Eclipse-Class Star Destroyer carries a crew of over 708,000, and this ship is 50% larger than that...Why?" DC answered. "Yikes! That's a million-plus people that want to see us dead!" Cor exclaimed. "I figured we might need this ships firepower to take on War- world." "And just _how_ do you plan to convince a million aliens to attack their leader?" SF asked semi-sarcastically. He'd long since realized that these two were capable of almost anything, and were sick enough to try. They were to be considered _very_ dangerous individuals. "Hang on... Kali, have you secured the engineering section yet?" Cor asked her over his comm. "They're putting up one hell of a fight down here," Kali's voice re- plied. In the background could be heard the sounds of heavy gunfire with several large explosions accompanying them. "Okay, change of tactics," Cor advised. "You and Frosty blast every non-essential-looking thing you come across, and in about ten minutes re- treat back to the _Dark_Phoenix_ ." "WHAT??" Kali demanded. "You'll see in a few minutes," Cor answered. She keyed off. Cor then turned and looked at DigiCom thoughtfully. "See anything green?" DC asked him, aware of his stare. "Nope," Cor said. "Do you think that you can do the voice and manner- isms of Don Karnage there?" He gestured to the prostrate form of the former Commander Devorak, who was drooling. "Yeeeees," DC replied with a grin, Cor's train of thought starting to become clear. "Good. SF, would you dump him down the hatch he was trying to get to? I think it leads to an escape pod," Cor requested of the chromium hero. After a moment's consideration, he did so. "Here you go, Mario," Cor said as he popped opened his right hand and handed DC what appeared to be a small lapel pin. "Put it on and then tap it thrice." "Thrice?" SF asked. "Do people actually still use that word in ordi- nary conversation?" "Not usually, but Cor's far from ordinary," DC explained as he pinned what looked like a small, yellow smiley-face button with a red smear on his right lapel. He then tapped it as instructed. A shimmering effect appeared around him momentarily, and them Cor and SF were looking at an exact body double of Commander Devorak, right down to the nasty facial expressions. Cor had added a few rips, scratches, and scorch marks to his tunic and exposed skin. "Wow!" SF said. "That's eerie. Creepy, even." "Nice job on the programming, but what makes you think I couldn't have done that myself?" DC asked. "Just wanted to be sure," Cor said, he himself retooling parts of his armor, appearing to be bound in heavy chains. He also added a few nasty- looking-yet-superficial dents in his armor. "This makes our ruse credi- ble. I can make you a generic crewman, SF, if you want." "I can take care of that," as they watched, SF's form changed shape in a rather fluid, quicksilver-like effect, much like that of the Terminator T-1000. Before them stood J. Random Crewman. "Good enough?" <<> "I didn't know you could do that," Cor understated. "You never asked," SF replied with a smug smile. "Commander Devorak," came a voice from the intercom. "What's happen- ing up there? Are we under attack?" The man peered closely at the view screen on his end, taking in the signs of a struggle and the many fallen crewmen on the bridge of the _Ampoliros_. "Not a moment too soon," DC said, turning towards the viewscreen. "I am well aware of that. We were indeed under a sneaky, devious attack by the dirtlings." DC's voice impression was uncannily smug and superior. "Dirtlings?" SF whispered to Cor. "Shhh." "Commander, we seem to have the enemy in full retreat," the crewman on the screen informed them. "What are your orders?" "I fear that the ship is rather badly damaged," DC/Devorak replied, "and I have lost a number of my senior officers during the fighting. We will have to return to Warworld and let the remainder of the fleet remain here to act as security. As soon as the invading scum return to their vessel, seal them off from any possible escape routes. Their odd ship will make a fine gift to m'lady." "Yes, sir," the crewman blinked. As they spoke, Cor moved out of view and popped an access panel to the ship's computers. < Sam, I need you to take over the ship-board operating systems, > Cor thought. < For this to work, we need total or near-total control of this vessel. > [ I'll see what I can do, ] she replied as Cor extended a tendrel of his armor into the access port. [ This may take a while, I've never done this on such a large scale . ] < Well, from what DC tells me, we may have a little while to work it out, > Cor told her, leaning nonchalantly against the console while she went to work. THE BRIDGE OF THE _DECHANCIE_ The _DeChancie_ slid unnoticed through space, a mere fifty klicks from the seemingly-damaged _Ampoliros_. As the fleet's observer ship, the new class of ship was unable to be detected on any known scope or sensor. It was also invisible to the naked eye. If she were to decloak, one would be fascinated by her unusual hull design. She looked like an irregular grouping of curving tubes with nipple-shaped ends. Breast-shaped protur- bances stuck out here and there, adding to the ship's unorthadox shape. The hull itself was a dark olive drab--almost black--and if one looked closely at it, an ingrained pattern of tiny lines and geometric shapes and patterns was barely visible. "Inform higher command that the _Ampoliros_ has been compromised," a man dressed all in black said from what must be the commander's position. His statement was dirrected at a similarly-dressed man stationed at what appeared to be a blank board of the same color as the rest of the ship. He somehow seemed to know where to place his hands, though. "Yes, sir," the crewman acknowledged. As the fleet's observer ship, the _DeChancie's_ task was two-fold: observe any enemy activity they come across, and also observe and monitor the fleet itself, much like the pol- itical officer's position on Soviet submarines. Knowing that Big Brother was watching tended to keep conquered races in line. The message was sent. _AMPOLIROS_ SHIP'S ACCESS CORRIDOR 17N <<> Kali and Frosty were blasting away at anything that was bolted down or pointing anything at them, the new integral shielding on the refitted UPSTruckFromHELL(tm) holding up under a barrage of incoming fire from all sides. "These guys are just pouring out of the woodwork," Frosty said as the hail of fire was added to by the arrival of another squad of the red-clad armored security guards they had been mowing down for the last mile and a half. "How's the ammo holding up?" Kali asked him, her eyes never leaving the corridor ahead of them and her two outboard mirrors. Barrelling down a large hallway filled with people with guns at close to 30 mph was not an easy thing to do by any stretch of the imagination. "We should make it back to the _Dark_Phoenix_ with a few missiles to spare from the forward 'Lobo' emplacement. The 40-mil is gone, and the 20-mike-mike can't hold out much longer. I'm reading 26% left." "Dammit all to Hell and BACK!" Kali cursed. "It's because of those fuquing Cubes that we're having this problem. Cut back on the fire while I try to use the nose for crowd control." "Maybe they'll be smart enough to get out of the way," Frosty hoped. "Or not." They _had_ captured his wife, after all. SHIP'S ACCESS CORRIDOR 7G Crowley and his...um...amazing _Dunstar_ fought their way back up the long corridor from the detention block, lazing a path with the large roof turret cannon. Crowley had some rather loud brand of heavy metal of an unintelligble variety blasting from the external speakers which more than adequately added to the confusion. He also had the rear-mounted phaser bank covering his ass as he set a course back to the _Dark_Phoenix_. "ETA in ten minutes, Nick," Crowley said over his comm as he melted a set of blast doors that someone had thought would stop him with the front mounted plasma cannon. For a goofy-looking little import, the _Dunstar_ had a lot of power available. Also, despite the Bondo-bandaged appear- ance of the hull, it was quite heavily armored. "Okay, see you in a few," Zebediah acknowledged. Crowley set to the task of withdrawal with added fury, the sooner he got back, the sooner an assault on the people holding the others could be set in motion. SHIP'S ARMORY <<> Wolf was effectively barricaded inside the _Ampoliros'_ heavy weapons storage fascility, and he couldn't be happier. As the heavy blast doors to the corridor outside took a furious pounding from a crewed particle cannon, he desperately tried to stuff one of everything in the trunk of the '58 Fury. He'd already crammed the back seat with a myriad of hand and crew-fired energy, plasma, and projectile weapons, but was having trouble getting an Orbit Cannon in on top of a Space Mine. "Damn damn damn double-damn," Wolf cursed/chanted as he desperately whipped out a bungee cord and furiously lashed down the trunk. Cor would probably kill him if he took a shot to the rear with this cargo, but it was a chance he was more than willing to take. "Um, we're waiting for you, Thom," Una informed him. He finished his loading and took one last mournful look around. So many toys to play with in here. He hopped behind the wheel and goosed the throttle just as the blast doors gave way. With a whoop he rocketed through the doors, past the stunned particle cannon crewers, and up the hallway, dragging a fifteen meter length of DetCord from the rear axle. TALAMASCA CENTRAL CORE "Would you believe that they have control of the enemy's flagship?" Tareah announced to/asked Mystic Maxx. "Figured Cor would go for the biggest ship they had," MMaxx commented. "Any ideas who's behind all this, Lucien?" "None, I'm afraid, sir," Lucien replied, his voice coming from all a- round them. "Well, at least the fleet's not coming anymore," MMaxx said. "Keep all weapon systems on standby just the same, though." "Yes, sir," Lucien replied. What would come next was anyone's guess. "Um, cut to Warworld?" anyone offered. Shut up, you. WARWORLD DETENTION BLOCK THX-1138 <<> The heavy door slammed open and a pair of guards of an unknown race leapt upon Marius. The fact that he was held in a stasis field was be- side the point. They shoved him out into the corridor and he blinked at the semi-lit scene. His eyes watered after being in total darkness for over twelve hours. They'd given him stimulants that had made sleep im- possible, so the darkness had some of the effect they had desired. Iso- lation and sense deprivation was a common enough interrogation technique, but his captors didn't know he _liked_ the dark. Anna, Jessica, and Sheila stood blinking in the hallway with him, and all were hustled forcefully towards the far end of the corridor. Marius noted with some disgust that the girls hadn't been allowed the decency of removing their chains. He added it to his list of reasons to fete the man responsible and watch him slowly bleed to death. "Move along, you!" One of the guards commanded him, shoving him in the back with what looked like a glaive. None of the guards that he had seen carried sidearms, so blasting their way out of here was not an option. There was also a lack of handy garbage chute vents. This was not, after all, an orbital battle station, it was a planet. It was so large and dense that it even had a very slight external atmosphere. Marius thought it odd that the guards spoke perfect, if not literate, English. He had spent some time of his isolation trying to come up with a good reason for it, covering everything from built in translators in the guards uniforms, to little yellow fishies. Maybe Cor would know, if they ever say him again. They reached the far door and it opened ponderously. Beyond it was a- nother corridor, which they were marched down, and terminated in a lift tube entrance. The door cycled, opened, and they entered. Marius tried to count the levels they decended, but lost count due to the incredible speed. Odd, no inertia, he thought. "Get out," one of the seven guards in the car with them said. They did so and blinked again in unison. They were in a huge chamber, the ceiling at least a hundred and fifty meters above them. It seemed to extend at least three times that in di- ameter and was perfectly round. What looked like a field of some type was in the center and a countless number of seats in what looked like stands circled it. Higher up on the wall could be seen what looked like executive viewing suites, much like the skyboxes at the Boston Garden. "The Arena..." Marius whispered. He got struck for it in the back of the head. "Shut up, you!" the one who appeared to be the highest ranking amongst their guard ordered. They were marched up a long flight of stairs off to the side and into a large, poorly-lit audience chamber where two figures awaited. One of them appeared to be a high-ranking military official, wearing a mostly similar uniform to that of Commander Devorak, but this man had on many more decorations. Obviously of higher import and rank. He also wore a full iron mask that covered his entire head. The other person in the chamber was cloaked in shadow, yet Marius was able to make out some detail. The figure was seated, but had long, light colored hair. Something about it rang a few bells in Marius' mind. As the humanoid stood and moved into the light, Marius' eyes widened slight- ly. This person was a woman, and she wore an oddly familiar suit of full body armor. <<> "So, these are the prisoners captured in the Sol System," she stated. Her voice was very commanding, almost compelling. It sounded to Marius like she had a _very_ slight Bronx accent. Curiouser and curiouser. She pointed at Jessica. "YOU! Give me one good reason why I shouldn't have you all killed right now!" Jessica stood silent, not knowing exactly how to respond. Her delay cost her: one of the guards stepped in front of her and slammed his huge right fist into her stomach, doubling her over despite the fact that she anticipated the blow. "You BASTARD!" Marius burst out, straining at his bonds to get a shot at the guard. The guard turned towards him and stepped closer. "Well then," the woman said. "Since you seem so vocal, perhaps _you_ can answer my question. Why should you live?" "Because I'm fun at parties and great in bed?" Marius quipped. He flashed a toothy grin to top it off. "You should add faintly amusing to that list of self-agrandizement," she said in reply. "K'rlEJo, show him some humility." The sergeant of the guard that had brought them stepped up in front of Marius and did the alien equivalent of rolling up his sleeves. He then belted Marius full in the face with a quick jab. Marius never saw it coming. "Don't...you...hurt...him..." Anna growled, crouching slightly. She strained her muscles slightly and completely shattered the chains binding her. With a blink of an eye, she was on the guard and slashing. He never had a chance. She drew back her fist and repaid the guard's injury of Marius in kind with a well-executed Tanaar-maneuver, plunging her hand into the guard's face and out the back of his head. The sheer ferocity of the attack momentarily stunned the remaining guards. Without a word, the man in the iron mask drew his sidearm and shot her in the chest. She sprawled unconscious to the floor and after a moment two of the guards picked her up and carried her off. "What will you do to her?" Sheila asked warily. "I think the best place for an animal is either in a zoo or in the A- rena," said the man in the mask. "Wouldn't you agree, m'lady?" "I think she'd make a splendid Arena challanger," the woman agreed. "The rest of you will be interrogated before meeting a similar fate. I do not wish to look at these 'humans' any longer. Take them to Doctor Malvogel for questioning." THE BRIDGE OF THE _AMPOLIROS_ Despite the fact that they knew what to expect, the sheer size of War- world surprised them. Devorak/DC stood commandingly in the center of the bridge, SF at his side. Cor was 'chained-up' in a corner, still connect- ed to the ship's computers. "I can't believe we pulled this off," SF whispered to DC. So far no one had questioned DC's acting as Devorak, despite the fact that he was having a tough time holding onto the personality and voice inpersonation. A mind siphoned off by the Gem only had a temporary effect before the memories were integrated with DC's own. "Yeeeeees," DC whispered back, pleased with his performance. The image on the main screen grew larger, almost filled with the bulk of War- world. It appeared to be just that, a world. Roughly the equivalent in size to Earth's Moon, it was awe-inspiring. "It's the second-largest construct I've ever seen," DC marveled(?). "What's the largest?" Cor asked over his commlink. "A shipyard I visited once, made from a Dyson Sphere," DC explained. "You'll have to tell me about that some time," Cor whispered. As they spoke, the _Ampoliros_ maneuvered it's formerly-impressive mass towards a large opening in the surface of the planetoid. "Looks like garage park- ing here. Who do we give the keys to for valet service?" The ship settled into it's reserved docking bay and came to a halt. A flurry of movement outside caught DC's attention. What looked like ship- yard maintenance drones buzzed about outside. "Trouble, guys," Cor reported. "Sam reads a _lot_ of heavy armor and weapons being stationed at all of the main access ports to the ship. I think we've been found out." "Bugger, damn, blast, felching heck," DC cursed under his breath. "It was fun while it lasted." "Shall we rejoin our compatriots?" Cor asked rhetorically as he had Sam start to withdraw from the system. "I'm arranging a diversion...Una, tell everyone to strap in and get ready to blitz on my mark. We're gonna need an evac in a few moments." "Um, okay," Una replied over the comm. "What did you have in mind?" SF asked. "I'm going to rock their world," Cor said cryptically. As DC and SF looked at each other, every single external weapon on the entire ship, including the eight main guns fired simultaneously. <<> Chinese Fire Drill____________________________________________FOURTEEN "Winning isn't everything, son... It's also important to [completely] humiliate your opponent." -Hagar the Horrible WARWORLD Sheila felt the ground beneath her feet shudder almost imperceptively. She instantly snapped back to awareness, her thoughts having been on Frosty, and her mind focused on the sensation. A hundred possibilities flashed through her mind in the blink of an eye. It had seemed a good distance away, and it was definitely something large-scale. What now? she thought. TALAMASCA CENTRAL CORE "Corinthian has just informed me that they are starting their assault on Warworld now," Lucien announced. "I sure hope he knows what he's doing," Tareah said with her arms folded across her chest. This sitting and waiting for news was getting to be a drag. "I'm sure he hasn't a clue," Mystic Maxx replied with a smile. "Why do you think he took everyone else along?" "'HE took'? I thought it was a coordinated effort, Paul," Tareah asked. "I'm kidding, Suzie," MMaxx explained. "Actually, he does have something of a plan," Sam said from one of the many consoles in the room. Her physical presence wasn't required, but it made Paul and Suzie a little more comfortable being in space. THE _AMPOLIROS_ DRYDOCK, WARWORLD <<> Una and Zebediah had the _Dark_Phoenix_ powered up and ready to go when Cor, DigiCom, and the Silver Falcon stepped out of Devorak's private turbolift car into the area just outside the auxiliary hanger of the mas- sive starship (did you honestly think they managed to raid the MAIN hang- er in their blind attack?). DC still wore the smileyface button that Cor had fabricated to make him look like Devorak. His voice, however had al- most betrayed them on the bridge moments before. DC was having difficul- ty maintaining the ruse outside the physical. SF was still guised as a random crewmember, and Cor was now garbed as one of Devorak's elite per- sonal guard, looking somewhat like Maximillian from the _Black_Hole_ film with feet. He also looked quite a bit more threatening than the standard mandroid they had fought before. As they approached the airlock to the hanger at a dead run, the two sentries present there snapped to attention at the sight of the commander and saluted. "Open the door!" DC/Devorak roared above the klaxons sounding through- out the ship. "NOW!" One of the guards looked at the other. Behind the door they were "guarding" stood a battalion of soldiers with their guns trained on the "alien" ship. "Sir, I don't recommend you going in the..." one of them started to say. His words were cut off as his head was vaporized by a blast from one of Cor's shoulder turrets. Another blast turned the other guard's chestplate to slag, killing him instantly. "Let it never be said that they suffered unduly," Cor Henry McCoy-ed as SF cycled the door. It swung inwards and the three stepped casually into the hanger. "I hope they pull this off," Zeb said partially to himself as they came into sight in the hangar. "Get ready folks." Zeb told the others over the comm. All three of the vehicles that had been sent out were now back in their initial positions, although Wolf's added payload had given them a slight timing problem. He was currently grinning madly and hand- ing out blasters of all types and shapes to the others. "Uh oh," Una said beside him, "looks like trouble." Indeed it did. The guard's battalion leader was having heated words with Devorak about Devorak wishing to speak personally with the aliens they had "contained" in their ship. DC was flailing his arms around and pointing at the man repeatedly, while Cor was hulking menacingly alongside. SF had slipped away unnoticed. "...You will allow me to see the prisoners _now_!" DC/Devorak spat at the man, spraying him with tiny droplets of spittle. Col. Digby was not having a good day, and the Commander chewing him out didn't make him feel any better about it. The man was clearly mad, but this was nothing new. "Sir, I can't allow that," Digby choked out. Devorak's face turned a bright shade of crimson. "Who is your second in command?" Devorak demanded. A fetching woman with reddish-brown hair stepped forward. "Fine. Your name is?" "Um... Deering, sir," she answered. "Good. Congratulation, Colonel Deering, you are now this battalion's commander," Devorak said with a kindly smile. "Mister Dredd, if you would." Cor stepped forward and executed Digby with a knife-hand chop to the throat. Deering swallowed as the head hit the plating of the deck several meters away and the body pitched over. "Now, as I was saying, I wish to speak with the prisoners inside this strange dirt-ship..." Devorak continued. "Ugh," Zeb said after Digby was removed from command. "Cor's playing it a little bloodthirsty this time." "I thought it was well done," Una said matter-of-factly. "I just want to rescue Anna and Marius... and the others. Oh, here they come." "Okay, lower the main ramp," Zeb suggested. Una did so, and Cor, DC, and the newly-promoted Colonel Deering stepped up and into the ship, the latter with rifle at the ready. "That won't be necessary," SF said from behind them as he reached out and took the rifle from her startled grasp. "Yes, thank you, Deering," Devorak said as he turned towards her and smiled. Stepping towards her he said, "it's truly a shame, you know, you really are quite attractive." DC grasped her and planted a kiss on her startled lips. As she started to sputter a reply, he gently, but firmly, sent her back down the ramp. Cor hit the [close] switch and the ramp sealed itself shut as her firm buttocks hit the deckplates. "Well, that should confuse and irritate them," Cor said, retooling his armor back to it's normal appearance. His statement was confirmed by the vibrations of the hull due to a barrage of fire from the several particle cannons outside. DC removed his holo-button and handed it back to Cor as the three men manned their stations for what lay ahead. "What's the quickest and easiest way out of here, DC?" Una asked as she added more power to the external shields. "Where do you want to go?" DC asked, moving to the main controls. He leaned over her shoulder and called up a few special functions. "Outside of this starship would be a good start," Zeb piped up. "Any particular direction?" DC said with a knowing smile. "Just outside the hull of the _Ampoliros_, I think," Cor suggested. "No problem, close your eyes," DC said, reaching for a keyboard. "All set. You can open them now." "Burroughs Drive?" Cor guessed. He hadn't closed his eyes. "Give that man a cigar," DC said, and did so. Una flashed Cor a dead- ly glare as he moved to light it. "Not inside _my_ ship," she chastized him. "Whip me, beat me, make me write bad checks," Cor said with an evil grin. DC rolled his eyes. They rolled back. "Cut that out," Kali advised. "I know what you two are doing up there and I don't want to have to _hurt_ you." "Now we're in for it, Mario," Cor said, elbowing him. A loud clank resounded throughout the cabin. "Can we get _on_ with it?" Zeb said, exasperated. "Hey, it's called 'filler'," Cor informed him. WARWORLD ARENA READY ROOM <<> Anna was nervous as she looked around her at the others in what was the equivalent of a dressing room. Most of the beings in the room were easily identified as female...some of the others, less so. She checked the straps on her token beginner's 'armor'. It wouldn't stop an arrow, nevermind a laser-sword. She had no shield, and was to be armed with a pair of long daggers. "Oh, Marius..." she whispered. She hoped he was okay. She wished fervently that her sister was here at her side. Then this might be a lot of fun. A large horn sounded and they prepared to move out. DARKNESS The world was a pounding, throbbing place, Marius decided as he lay on the floor of his cell, his nose swollen up like an over-ripe melon. The pain was so great he could see the capillaries in his eyes when his heart pulsed blood through them, looking like a myriad of cracks in his world. He tried again to sit up. Agony assaulted him viciously and he lay back. He silently vowed again that the woman would pay with her life, as well as the guard who'd smashed him. Touching his tender probiscus, he felt blood, dried and cracking. This was not shaping up to be a good day, he decided. Good thing we'll be rescued soon, he thought optimist- ically. WARWORLD SECURITY CORRIDOR 1257-M Cor and DC stood silently in the alcove and waited as the approaching footsteps grew louder. One man, large, and alone, from the sound of it, Cor guessed. Perfect. Hopefully, DC could grok the information they needed from him. The man turned slightly and glanced at them unconcernedly as he passed them. His mistake. Cor flickered and grabbed him, covering his mouth. DC strode forward and commenced with the brain-drain. The man passed out and Cor dropped him in the alcove when DC was done. "Anything useful?" Cor asked as he scanned the area. "Maybe... our friends could be in one of two places: the detention block," DC paused, "or the Arena." "Arena," Cor said thoughtfully. "We're going to have to split up a- gain, then. Any suggestions?" "Send Kali and Crowley to the detention block, they tend to be heavily guarded," DC advised. "You, SF, and I will attend the Arena, Una and Zeb will act as our reserves." "What about Wolf?" Cor asked. "Just cut him loose to stir up trouble," DC smiled wickedly. "He'll like that, and the distraction could be useful." "Sounds like a plan," Cor grinned evilly. "They won't know what hit them." WARWORLD SECURITY CORRIDOR 1326-B "I sure hope DC gave us the right directions," Frosty groused. "Every minute we waste is another one they have to hurt Sheila." "Well, I'm driving as fast as I can," Kali glared at him. As she said this they shot through another intersection of the corridors, almost pan- caking a pair of droids. Crowley and the _Dunstar_ shot through right on her heat trail. "Oh my goodness me! What do you suppose that was?" asked the taller of the two droids. He looked down at his companion, a short, barrel- shaped affair. "Beeep boop *whistle* crap *whirr* chugga chugga zoom," replied the little unit. "Well *I* don't think that was amusing," said the gold protocol droid. "To say that it looked to you like an ancient, internal combustion deli- very vehicle the color of feces followed by an orange rust-bucket is just downright rude to say the least. When we get back to maintenance I'm having your logistic circuits looked at..." He trailed on as they conti- nued on their way. WARWORLD MAIN ACCESS CORRIDOR 24-R "Slow motion man, Iron and steel in the palm of your hand, High flying heart, Betting your life on the state of the art..." -Harcastle and McCormick Theme Song Wolf barreled along merrily blazing a trail of death and destruction. This was the life, he thought as he vaped a few more guards at the next intersection. Just for fun he hauled over hard to the right on the wheel and goosed the throttles down the new direction. "This is a lot of fun," he commented to himself. "Hey, Cor, can I take this car apart later?" he asked over his comm. "Heh heh, glad you like it," Cor replied. "How's she handling?" "Great! Corners like a dream, and the gas guage hasn't budged," Wolf answered. "I like your choice in weapon labeling, by the way." "*laugh* I tried to stay true to the original," Cor explained. "Oh, I almost forgot. _Don't_ use 'Sic 'Em Fido' unless you absolutely _have_ to. It's nasty." "Sounds like my kind of party," Wolf answered. "Any particular place I'm headed?" "Nope, just keep it moving and keep it interesting," Cor advised. "I think you can handle being the diversion, right?" "Roger that," Wolf laughed. "Wolf out." WARWORLD MAIN ACCESS CORRIDOR 97-X "Where the hell's DC?" SF asked. "Oh, he's probably preparing for one of his patented dramatic entran- ces," Cor snarked. "Go fig." "A fruit or an obscene gesture?" SF asked, "or don't you have any red nines?" "No. 'Go fig' is X-er for 'go figure'," Cor explained with a sigh, "You really should get out more." A howl caused them to turn. What had to be DC was now astride a large black motorcycle of sorts. What made it different was the fact that it had two headlights and the wheels were on fire. <<> The howl died down as the bike stopped and the engine idled. DC was now dressed in yet-another-strange-looking-armor. He had large, flaring shoulder pieces that met on the chest, compact gauntlets studded with a number of handy thingies, and a loose mask/collar that covered his lower face and neck. The rest of it looked like black ROACH armor. "Nice color scheme," Cor said, refering to the black and grey tint of his outfit. Several weapons were visible in various places. "I especia- ly like the turtleneck-of-doom look." "Sometimes I just want to hurt you, Pinky," DC Brain-ed. WARWORLD SECURITY CORRIDOR 1356-M "I think we have a problem here, Crowley," Kali said over the comm. Up ahead in the corridor there was a large barricade of sorts blocking their passage. She slowed and tightened her grip on the controls. There really isn't much room to maneuver in here, she thought. "Ready, fire control," Frosty advised her as he popped the front hatch on the 'Lobo' Revenger II racks. A shower of red pulse bolts told them that they were expected. Kali hauled over the wheel and slid to a halt against the steel wall. "Oooff," Kali said as a thump was felt from the rear. "That you back there, Crowley." "Yup," he replied, backing off the rear bumper of the UPSTruckFromHELL (tm). He'd been tailgating again. No damage, fortunately. "You guys backing up?" "We can't," she answered. "The last intersection was almost a klick back, and the map we have doesn't show another corridor going this way for a while." "Right," Frosty said, hitting the fire controls. Four of the twelve missiles Robotech-ed outwards before converging on the barrier. The re- sulting explosion was both blinding and deafening in the confines of the corridor. "Looks like Wolf boosted the explosive potential on them." "I noticed that, too," Kali commented. "Count on Thom for that." The HUD came up with infrared while the smoke took it's time dispersing. The Warworld ventilation system soon took care of it. "I don't believe it," Frosty said as the view forward returned. From the looks of it, the missiles had just barely managed to damage the ob- struction. As they looked on in fascination, the fractures and cracks in it grew smaller and finally vanished. "Well _that_ was futile," Crowley commented as several much larger weapons opened fire on them. "How close are we, by the way?" "Within seven klicks, by my reconing," Kali answered. She opened fire with the forward 20-mm Vulcan and had Frosty start lobbing willy-pete with the 40-mil grenade launchers. Her confidence in Wolf was starting to slip. "Allow me," Crowley said. Kali looked in her outboard mirror to see what he was planning. The little "car" known as the _Dunstar_ shot out and around the UPSTruckFromHELL(tm) and hurtled towards the barricade. Crowley hit a big-red-button(tm) and the vehicle lifted up off of the plating of the hallway and started to shift and change, accompanied by the sound of snapping duct tape and flaking rust and bondo. The car took on an anthropomorphic appearance ala 'Bumblebee' on the original Trans- formers series. The hood split apart, swung outwards, and extended to become the feet and lower legs. The arms extended from the sides and the roof of the car became the chestplate, placing the roof turret in the center. Crowley himself was dropped onto his back as the chassis righted it- self and was positioned facing forward. The _Dunstar's_ "head" extended from the hatchback, it's eyeslit glowing in the standard menacing way. A VR rig gave Crowley full control. A large plasma rifle was gripped in right hand. He charged the barricade. "Did you know he could do that?" Kali asked Frosty as Crowley shot past them. "Nope... did you notice the rust disappeared when he transformed?" he answered. "Just like 'Wonderbug'. Strange." Crowley hit the barricade and set to work on the cracks his impact had made, wedging the _Dunstar's_ left hand into the opening and applying leverage. The crack split and widened as it tried to close itself. He started to blast away at the wall with his plasma rifle. Slowly the barricade gave way as Crowley shifted tactics and jammed the barrel of the rifle into the crack itself and fired repeatedly. The whole construct started to quake under the onslaught. Kali pulled away from the wall and started forward. "Kali!" Crowley hollered. "Hit it, _now_!" She punched the accelera- tor and launched the UPSTruckFromHELL(tm) forward and into the barricade, using Crowley as a battering ram. "I love it when you play rough, Kali!" he shouted as his _Dustar_ was propelled through and clattered to the floor beyond. <<> "You didn't move!" Kali berated him. "You're a fuquing _masochist_!" "I'm an anarchist," Crowley explained. "There's a fundamental differ- ence. I chose to ignore the laws of physics." "Whatever," Frosty sighed. "Can we get on with the rescuing already?" TALAMASCA "What's the fleet's current position, Lucien?" MMaxx asked. "They just entered lunar orbit and are taking up a guard perimeter, sir," came the bodiless reply. "Your analysis of their activities?" MMaxx requested. "They seem to be watching the Earth." "What about Warworld?" Tareah reminded him. "Artifical Planet Designate: Warworld just entering the Sol System," Lucien answered. "Gravitational effects are negligible at this time." "Keep us updated," MMaxx said. "Sam?" "Yes, Paul?" she answered, turning away from her console. "Anything significant from Jon?" "Nothing yet," she answered. "They've penetrated Warworld and have split up to find the others." "Thank you, Sam," MMaxx said thoughtfully. WARWORLD MAIN ACCESS CORRIDOR 125-F The impact and resulting explosion rocked the Fury on her springs as Wolf fought for control. Despite the precariously small amount of atten- tion he was paying to his driving, the car managed to straighten out al- most of it's own accord. A fantastic machine, Wolf thanked Cor mentally for the fifth time in as many minutes. He blazed ahead with the tri-port plasma emplacements firing again and again. He'd left quite a trail of destruction and meyhem behind him, in- cluding five teenagers in bird costumes, a small boy who looked like a black and white Sonic the Hedgehog, and a Robocop-esque man in armor with a large number '8' on his chest. All had tried to stop him and failed. He grinned wickedly. Another explosion snapped his attention back away from his revelling in his trail of anime bodies. He checked the mirrors. What he saw made him laugh. It appeared to be a very small, almost comical rendering of a World War I tank. The turret sat on top of a body that wasn't much larg- er than a VW Rabbit, and a large-eyed woman could be seen shouting at the top of her lungs from a gaping mouth wound. She seemed to have on some type of military uniform. For all it's ludicrocity (?), the mini-tank was surprisingly fast. Wolf pulled a finger-shaped lever labeled 'Bottom Burp'. A green slick of fluid expelled from the undercarriage. The mini-tank skidded slightly on the slippery liquid and lifted up on it's tiny, independant 4-tread suspension. The female operator gunned the throttles and pulled up next to the 58' Fury. "HA!" the woman shouted, her mouth huge on her face. "You cannot out- run my little _Bonaparte_!" <<> "'Blown-apart'?" Wolf asked through the rolled-up window. "I can ar- range that." He hauled over on the wheel, crushing the little toy tank against the wall with the much heavier Plymouth. Sparks arced and show- ered the two vehicles as they approached the next intersection at close to 100 klicks per hour. As they cleared the junction, the little windup tank drifted slightly away from _Christine_ and slammed into the wall of the perpendicular cor- ridor. Wolf rocketed forward through the opening and dropped his foot. His rearview mirror was filled with flames and smoke, bits of firey deb- ris hurtling through the air after him. "Heh heh heh," Wolf chuckled. "Nothing beats good Detriot steel." "I heard that," Cor interjected. "'She was made of good Italian wood, good Italian steel, they said she'd never go down'," he quoted. "I wouldn't know about that... ask Marius," Wolf snarked. WARWORLD MAIN ACCESS CORRIDOR 92-J Cor, SF, and DC rocketed, flew, and rode down the long, wide corridor towards the Arena at high speed. As they passed a junction Cor turned his head and looked to the side. Empty. Just like the last four. Odd. According to DC's information, the Arena should be just ahead, he thought to himself. "Where is everyone?" SF asked, seemingly reading Cor's thoughts. "It's probably a trap," DC responded as he peered ahead at an upcoming bend in their path. "Head's up, crew," Cor advised. They all slowed slightly as they rounded the bend...and skidded to a halt. "I don't believe this," Cor started to say. The other two were beyond words momentarily. A large form blocked their path. It appeared to be a huge bipedal carnivore of the Earth's Jurassic Period known as the Tyran- osaurus Rex. What caused them to pause was the fact that they recognized it. The basic facial features and the fact that it was colored purple and green were enough to inspire fear and loathing. What sent them into overload were the teeming masses of three-foot-high human and alien young clammoring to be hugged by the creature. "I love you, you love me..." the hideous creature sang instead of eat- ing the children like a self-respecting member of it's species should. "ARRRRRRGGGGHHHHH!" SF hollered. "Can't we blast it?" "Might hit the kids," Cor replied over the din. "They _are_ sicken- ingly sweet, though." He made ready to set his particle throwers on 'flambe'. "*I* have the solution," DC said with a grin as he held up a glossy black disk. Cor turned and looked. "Oh, you're _good_," Cor admitted, taking the cue. He retooled the shoulder pods of his armor into two massive speakers. He added tweeters on his chest, and a large subwoofer on his...torso. "Just call me the new 'Blaster'." "Nice transformation," DC said, handing him the CD. Cor slid it into a slot located on his left forearm. "Everyone cover your ears," Cor advised. "This is going to _hurt_." As he spoke he retooled his helmet to exclude audio pickups, DC pulled up his turtleneck-o-doom over his ears, and SF made his disappear. Cor hit [play]. <<> "Urk," said the purple subeke. It stopped singing in mid-sickeningly- sweet-verse. It's eyes grew larger. It started to tremble. Cor turned up the volume. The children scattered and started to cry. The pathetic beast began thrashing about, it's tail sweeping several slower-moving rug rats into the walls, pulping them into jelly. "Now we've got him!" Cor bellowed. "Go to ELEVEN!" DC shouted. Cor could barely make out his words over the sheer aural onslaught. The dinosaur fell to it's pudgy knees, beg- ging for release. Cor never let up, pumping up the jam. The carnosaur's ear holes began to bleed, and it's eyes became extremely bloodshot. "AAAEEEIIIOOOUUU!!!" the creature screeched, it's knees trembling as the metal of the floor started to thrumm (wub wub wub) with the sound. As the song reached it's crescendo, the meatasaurus' pitched over onto the floor, it's purple skin bubbling in places. Finally, it's head ex- ploded in a shower of blood and Marshmallo Fluff(tm), covering the walls with it's messy yet somehow hollow-feeling fluids. "Whoop, there it is," Cor said as he mercifully pulled the CD out of it's slot and crunched it between his fingers. "Whoa," SF said as he reformed his ears. "Death by stereo." Counterparts___________________________________________________FIFTEEN "Zoinks! What was that?!?" -Shaggy WARWORLD SECURITY AXIS POINT OMEGA The UPSTruckFromHELL(tm) skidded to a halt as Crowley righted the fal- len _Dunstar_. Surprisingly enough there didn't appear to be any guards on the detention block. Frosty and Kali took in the scene warily. "What the hell is this?" Crowley asked for them, just as shocked as they by the bareness of the corridor. After the heavy assault they had taken at the barricade now far behind them, they'd expected anything but this. "I don't like the looks of this..." Kali said. The area they were in was a large, round open room with eight corridors leading away from it at equal intervals. The hub of a wagon wheel was her first thought. "My spidey-sense is tingling like a children's triangle orchestra," Crowley said, swinging around quickly to and fro with his plasma rifle. "It's a trap," Frosty said finally. And indeed it was. All eight of the corridors leading from the room irised shut, effectively trapping the two vehicles. Crowley went to one of the walls and started blasting away to no effect. Frosty popped the rear Vulcan and started both spinning. He then be- gan sweeping with the 40-mm grenade launchers in wide arcs. The limited space really didn't afford that much maneuverability. "Here they come!" Kali shouted as the floors, walls, and ceiling star- ted to bulge and buckle in places. The bulges extended themselves and grew larger, taking on an eerily familiar shape. <<> "Holy shit!" Crowley exclaimed. "Somebody call Sigourney Weaver!" He turned and started firing at the nearest xenomorph, the rounds from his large rifle punching straight through it and exploding harmlessly against the wall behind it. The alien's torso reformed itself. "_This_ could be bad," Frosty said, gritting his teeth. He let fly with several dozen rounds of WP from the 40-mils. Explosions rocked the room, blasting several of the creatures apart. Kali looked on in horror as the remains slowly slid across the floor and the beasts regained their original shape. "We are in _serious_ trouble here," Kali said into her commlink. All told, there were twelve of the things attacking them in two groups of six. Crowley was managing to avoid them with his better manueverability in the limited space. "What's up, Kali?" Cor asked over the comm. "We walked into a trap in the detention block," she explained. Ask Mario what works against T-1000s in the shape of Aliens." "That sounds bad," Cor replied. "Hang on a second." "Hello, Kali," came DigiCom's voice after a few seconds. "Antimatter, extremes in temperature, and prayer are your three best bets. I would personally recommend fleeing." "Um...thanks. I think," Kali said. "I've got Wolf heading your way," Cor cut in. "He's got a few surpri- ses that might work." "I don't know how long we can hold them off," Kali said plaintively. "Just keep blasting them so they don't get close to you," DC advised. "Easier said then done," Kali muttered as she clicked off. She hauled the wheel to and fro, trying to run down the nimble creatures as Frosty laid it on heavy with the guns, all the while trying not to hit Crowley. Crowley himself had started spinning around, similar in appearance to the VF-100 shot in the opening credits of Harmony Gold's Robotech, laying down a deadly hail of fire with his plasma rifle. Shards of rounded me- tal flew in all directions as he blasted several T-1000s apart, but they quickly reformed. "What was that?" Kali asked as a thump and a scraping sound on the roof shook her concentration. "You don't want to know," Frosty said, popping the roof mounted ZUNI CIW missle system and firing wildly in all directions. A screech of ren- ding sheet metal informed them that the hull had been breached. WARWORLD SECURITY JUNCTION 7-ZED-7 <<> Wolf was running hellbent for leather, his foot pressed hard on the accelerator of the white-on-red '58 Plymouth Fury. _Christine_ wasn't e- ven working up a sweat, having taken all of Wolf's punishment in style. Wolf was nowhere near her top speed. She seemed to howl like a living thing as they approached the junction just ahead. "SHIT!" Wolf cursed, gripping at the wheel. Up ahead he could just make out what looked like a terran vehicle headed straight towards him on a collision course. Wolf's knuckles whitened. His eyes widened. His grin broadened. The sleek automobile had classic lines, remeniscent of the early 60's. It's smooth, white finish was marred by a large red "M" painted on the hood. Wolf had little time to admire the racer's coachwork, however. A combined speed of over three hundred miles an hour left scant seconds in which to make a decision. Wolf made his. He stepped on the gas. The antique auto leapt forward, almost bounding towards the onrushing obsticle. Wolf got a brief look at the other driver's much-too-large eyes as the two cars hit head on. They collided with a deafening shredding of steel and plastic, fol- lowed by the eardrum-rending explosion of high test racing fuel. A huge fireball engulfed the scene and blasted heat down all four of the tunnels of the junction. Almost in slow motion, one of the gouts of flame formed a familiar shape. From the direction the white speedster had come from, the nose of the Fury errupted from the conflagration as if shot out of a cannon. Flames and melted wreckage bathed the chassis as Wolf fought for con- trol and won with the assistence of the car itself. The flames behind him dissipated somewhat. Moments later, as he neared his destination, all hell broke loose. "SHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIITTTTT!!!!" Wolf howled as he and _Christine_ were sent cartwheeling end-for-end back down the way they had come by an earth-shattering explosion. The stomach-curdling backflips the car was doing came to a bone-jar- ring stop, leaving the classy chassis protruding tail out from a formerly intact wall. WARWORLD DETENTION BLOCK THX-1138, CELL 1447 Sheila sat bolt upright in her cell, her eyes wide open. She threw back her head and howled, "NNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!" WARWORLD ARENA RAMP 12-A "Whoa," Silver Falcon whoa-ed. "Did you guys feel that?" "I dunno," Corinthian said with a slight grin. "Did the earth move for you, Mario?" "Keep it in your armor," DigiCom replied. "I'm a bit busy right now." As he spoke he blasted three more security drones. The sawed-off shotgun looking weapon he was using was rather effective. Gravitically accelera- ted plasma rounds tend to be. "Well, it was _something_ big," SF said. "Felt like an explosion of some type," Cor admitted. "See if you can raise Kali and Wolf on the comm." "Cover me, I'm going in," DC advised as he made ready to storm the blast doors blocking their progress. "Can do," Cor said, redoubling his efforts at reducing the drones in their way into little smoking chunks. The effect was noticeable. Soon the hallway was almost empty, leaving DC plenty of time and room. "Hey, you've been holding back!" SF declared. "Can't have _all_ the fun," Cor explained. "That wouldn't be sports- Cor-like." As they exchanged quips, DC revved up his bike and charged the door, the "wheels" leaving flame trails on the plating of the floor. The bike's front fairing lowered to cover the front "wheel" and DC bent over the handlebars. The bike hit the doors and plunged through, leaving a rather large, ragged hole in the thick alloy. DC then hauled over on the controls, kaneda-ing into a 20-foot skidding stop. "Very nice. Overly dramatic, but nice," Cor snarked as he and SF stepped through the opening. As soon as he finished speaking, they found themselves under attack. Again. WARWORLD SECURITY ACCESS POINT OMEGA Wolf dropped the car into [R] and backed out of the wall. The fact that the wheels were a meter over the floor was negligable. He executed a perfect Rockford-Turn or a Reverse-Bootlegger (depends on who you ask) and shot back towards Kali, Frosty, and Crowley's last location. What he found there was a surprise. As he cleared the corridor, the nose dropped, and he found himself sliding down what looked like the in- side of a rough sphere. "Christ!" Wolf cried, jinking left around what looked like a ball of chocolate brown metal, and slid partly up the far wall. He managed to bring the vehicle to an awkward halt, and surveyed the scene. The walls looked as if they had been compacted by an incredibly strong force. High in one corner (?) was the remains of the _Dunstar_ deeply imbedded in the wall. In the center of the room... The brown ball crackled and blew itself apart. Wolf instinctively ducked and armed a major weapon system, despite the relative safety of his position inside _Christine's_ hull. Rising from the center of the circular crater was the figure of Kali. Her hair flew about her head as she rose, her limbs extended in all dir- ections. Energy crackled around her in a spherical shape (think Magneto in the X-Men arcade game. -Cor). She threw back her head and screamed. Lightning coursed over the outer surface of the '58 Fury as the car slid a few meters to the left up the side of the bowl-shaped room. The Sure-Trax rollers the car sat on, that looked remarkably like whitewall tires, crackled with static electricity in protest of being forced side- ways. Kali had had too much. Her mind unhinged. The very air of the room was ionized with the vast amounts of teke energy she was throwing off. Fortunately, she soon expended herself after tossing around everything in the room looking for Frosty. She'd lost track of him in the blast. He was nowhere to be found. "Where _is_ he?!?" she screamed. She focused her glare on the form of Crowley's _Dunstar_ mecha embedded in the wall. With a thought, the entire front portion of the crew compartment tore itself loose and was hurled across the room. Crowley looked up in surprise and shock. From what he saw in Kali's eyes, he wasn't long for this world. Not finding Frosty there, her attention changed to the Plymouth. Inside the car, Wolf turned white. An almost visible bolt of energy shot across the distance from Kali to the Fury...and fizzled on the hull. Wolf said a rare and silent prayer to the gods of Maaco paints. Crowley had a decision to make. He opted for the risk, climbing down from his wrecked 'car' and moved slowly towards Kali. "Kali... he's gone," was all he said. "There's nothing you can do a- bout it this way." As he spoke, he crept closer, trying to soothe the beast that the shock had released. The chance paid off. "I know," Kali whispered, closing her eyes, and blinking back a tear. Her shoulders slumped, and Crowley caught her as she dropped into merci- ful unconsciousness. WARWORLD ARENA <<> Anna looked up as one of the doors to the arena exploded and a black motorcycle with flaming wheels shot through. A familiar form was right behind it, accompanied by a relative newcomer in a dark blue cape. "COR! DC!" she shouted as she ducked out of the way of a spinning blade attack by her current opponent. Those in charge were really trying to wear her down, it seemed. This was the fourteenth opponent she had fought since entering the arena three hours ago. She'd barely broken a sweat. The man charged her again, his twin sickles spinning in front of him like an eggbeater. She turned her attention back to him. Her opponent was fast, his sleek and muscular body the ultimate conservation of mo- tion and the epitome of grace. Neither of them had been able to touch the other since he entered the ring. Anna's breathing became slightly more labored as her red and black- clad opponent danced with her in a deadly ballet, each trying to gain the upper hand over the other. It was an obvious stalemate. She feinted with her left dagger. He leapt upwards and over her, landing gracefully in a crouch, immediately leaping for her. She crouched and raised her fist, asssiting his forward motion with her own impressive strength. He recovered. Cor shot him. "Argh!" he argh-ed, clutching the stump where his right hand had been moments before. His sickles lay useless on the arena floor. He stood upright and bowed to Anna. Then he just stood there as she stepped up to him and drove both daggers into either side of his neck. His death was instantaneous and mostly painless. A worthy adversary. The guards, meanwhile, had not ignored the intrusion of the three new- comers. They quickly moved to surround the trio, cutting them off from Anna. "Heh, check these guys out," Cor said with a smile. "They actually think they can stop us." "They're paid to think that," DC said. "You take the three on the left, I'll take the other twenty-seven," he GIJoe-ed. "Um, either of you smartalecs got a spare blaster?" SF asked. "Fists and flight don't work too well in fights like this." "Take this," DC said, tossing over his 'shotgun'. SF glanced at it to get the gist of it's workings and decided it would do the job. The three of them waded into the fray, weapons blazing, arms flailing, guards dying everywhere around them, and bad jokes being exchanged. A veritable mountain of a guard charged Cor, brandishing a large rifle menacingly. "Wait a second!" Cor said, holding up a hand and dropping to the ground. He shook his hand and rolled a small object. "A-HA! I rolled a 20...with a plus five to hit...you're dead, pal." Cor pointed his left arm at the puzzled man and blasted him to atoms. SF soon found that the 'shotgun' was more than up to the task of clearing a path through the melee. The guards were so close together that a single shot took out several at a time. They were, however slow- ing him down. He was reminded (on purpose, of course) of the Chinese tactic of wave assault used during the Korean War. He kept blasting. DC paused during a momentary lull to catch his breath. Cor and SF seemed to be taking care of the guards, so he had moved down closer to the arena floor. He then took a flying leap (no jokes!), somersaulting over the numerous guards' heads and landing semi-gracefully at the edge of the arena. As he straightened up and prepared to move out, he found his way blocked by an enormous chest. "HA!" a familiar voice declared. DC looked up past all of the ster- oid enhanced musculature and flashy costuming. A known face looked back. "Dauplaise??" DC said with shock. "You walking methane deposit, you. What are _you_ doing here?" "Right now, getting ready to tear you apart, stupid," Dauplaise re- plied, flexing and posing for the crowd. Cheers and jeers and one loud cry of "prick!" were the response. "And just what are you supposed to be in that gettup?" DC asked as he slowly crossed his arms in front of himself. His opponent was decked out in an outlandish silver and purple costume, reminiscent of Cable on a bad fashion day. "I...am D-Koy..." Dauplaise replied proudly, "...the Mighty. And your doom. Oh, and we know all about your vaunted Nega-Blades, so don't even _think_ about it. I've been made immune." DC paused for an infinitesimal moment. "You might think that would bother me, but there's one thing you don't know." "And what is that you puny, insignificant, piss boy?" Dauplaise/D-Koy pseudo-snarked. DC drew two handles from his forearm gauntlets. "I don't carry Nega- Blades." The blades FSSSHed open and an unmistakable hum filled the air. With a deft motion, he brought both sabers in an X-shaped arc, neatly quartering the total and complete schmuck barring his way. "Well, that was pointless," DC said, looking around. "Next!" A monstrously huge four-armed figure moved into view. "THAT WOULD BE ME," it thundered. WARWORLD SECURITY ACCESS POINT OMEGA Wolf and Crowley, after helping Kali into the backseat of the Fury, piled in the front and headed for the holding cells. Wolf was muttering under his breath about power supplies and containment breaches. The damn BP Generators provided loads of power...until they're disrupted. He was rather unhappy about the whole thing. "...seems the blast burned out the security net in this sector," Wolf muttered as he stopped next to a row of cells that looked right. He got out of the car and looked around. Consulting a datapad that he'd appro- priated from one of the guards, he pressed a small, garage-door-opener- looking device in his left hand. Crowley exited the vehicle, pulling what looked like a small, rectan- gular riot shield over his face. The fact that it was bright yellow and looked like a smiley-face made it 'interesting'. The myriad buckles on his leather jacket chinked as he stepped around to Wolf's side. "Nice saw," Wolf remarked as the cells, one after another, slid open, proceeding down the corridor in either direction away from them. After a moment, several heads of various shapes and sizes poked out of the openings. A set of tentacles with eyestalks extended from one parti- cular cell farther away from them. Wolf moved into the closest cell, clicking on a small maglight. As Crowley stood guard with his unique weapon, Wolf emerged from the space holding Sheila in his arms. She was visibly weeping, somehow al- ready aware of the loss of her husband. Wolf gently placed her in the back seat of the Fury next to the catatonic Kali. Jessica and Marius both stepped warily out of their cells and were overjoyed at seeing their liberators. Jessica leapt at Wolf, throwing her arms around him. Marius smiled broadly and walked cautiously to the car. "Glad you guys could make it to the party," Marius said weakly as he climbed in the backseat with Kali and Sheila. "Well, we received an invitation we just couldn't refuse," Wolf smiled at his friend. "Call it a command performance," Crowley piped up. A small crowd was starting to gather around the Fury, as the other prisoners realized that their benifactors were planning on making their exit. Wolf even recog- nized a few of them... "Well I'd just like to say somethin' to ya, young feller... Thank you. Thank you very much," said a rotund man in a white polyester suit with enormous muttonchop sideburns and slick, black hair. "Time for a hasty exit," Wolf asided. He and Jessica slid into the front seat of the Plymouth as Crowley called shotgun. Slamming the doors simultaneously, they all buckled up. Wolf laid the hammer down and bolt- ed for freedom from the pressing throng. The crowd cleared a path for them rather than get mowed down. Crowley looked out the side window and saw several familiar faces, including several men in leather bomber jac- kets from Flight 17, Amelia Earhart, the cast and crew of Gilligan's Is- land, D.B.Cooper, Mr. French, Donald Ismay (a dollar and a signed copy of OR1 to the first person to correctly identify this man and his importance as a science fiction reference!), Caspar Hauser, and the leads from the Broadway production of "Carrie". Crowley blinked his eyes. He'd always wondered what happened to Fay Wray. As the car shot past two youths, one turned to the other and said, "Gee, Lumpy, that was cool." "Heh heh...heh heh...cool!" replied the other. WARWORLD ARENA Cor had had just about enough of blasting guards for a while. "Well, there's a quick way around that," Cor muttered to himself. He concentra- ted on the red-shift. Nothing happened. "What the fuck?" Cor stammered. < What the hell's going on, Sam? > [ ... ] < Sam? > [ ...As near as I can tell, something's jamming the field effect. ] < Thought I'd lost you for a moment there, Sam. Don't scare me like that. > [ I wouldn't do that to you, Cor. ] Cor retooled his armor again in- to one with jetboots and launched himself skyward. With a blast of flame and a dramatic pose, he landed in the arena near Anna. "Cor!" she shouted, running to him, her arms outspread. She wrapped her arms around him tightly, making him glad he was armored up. After a moment of thought, Cor put her down and handed her a large blaster and a tight-fitting suit of ROACH armor he tooled up for her. "Thanks! I need this," she said as she deftly donned the armor and sealed it. She then started blasting away at the encroaching group of guards that was headed across the arena towards them. DC looked up at the figure before him. And up. And up. In a dazzling display of dexterity, he tossed his right hand sabre into the air, drew the pistol hanging at his hip, fired three times, holstered the gun, and caught the sabre on the way down. [Flashy, but effective -ed.] The bolts struck his attacker in the chest, knocking him over. There was a short pause, and then he sat up, "I, Goro, will crush you." [Oops, I guess it was just flashy --ed.] "He's not dead?!?" SF called in disbelief. "Good, that means I can kill him again," DC snarled. He hurled himself into the air, executing a dizzying sequence of forward somersaults, only to be kicked in the chest. His sabres dropped to the ground, as he flew backwards. Goro stood over him, and picked him up in his lower two arms. As he pummeled DC with the upper pair, he growled, "I live on fear and hatred. You can never defeat me..." Over the sounds of cracking armor, DC replied, "Fear and hatred? Sounds gonzo." A furry blue birdlike creature popped up his head momentarily, as DC struggled to free his arms. Finally they were free, and DC smiled. "Let's see how you like something a little more positive." he remarked. He clamped his right hand over Goro's forehead, steadying himself with his left. As his smile grew, his eyes began to glow. <<> Goro moaned, and dropped to his knees, loosening his grip. DC kept pouring on the power, forcing Goro to lie back. Finally his massive frame shuddered, and he was still. "What are you, anyway, a 2000-year-old Half-Dragon?" DC asked rhetor- ically. Goro's topknot tilted backwards, revealing two small, white fig- ures. The shorter of the two replied, "Actually I'm a mouse in a large bio- mechanical suit." His companion chimed in, "...I'm gonna be your Franken-stein...NARF!" "I'm going to pretend I didn't see this," DC sighed. SF and DC soon joined Cor and Anna in the center of the arena. Anna hugged DC and said hello to SF, whom she'd never met. It was a rather friendly hello. "My fiancee will kill me if she ever finds out about this," SF said as he extricated himself from Anna's grasp. "Heh heh... at least you'll die with a smile on your face," Cor snick- ered. As they bantered, the few remaining contenders in the arena began to regroup, massing for one last charge. Suddenly a rather large explosion announced the arrival of Wolf and the others in the battle-proven _Christine_. The huge automobile shot a- cross the arena towards the four OG members, swerving slightly to mow down a good number of those preparing to attack. Wolf hauled over on the wheel and skidded to a stop mere inches away from Cor. "I see you've been having a good time in my car," Cor commented as a madly grinning Wolf bounced out and swept Anna off her feet. Crowley and Marius exited the Fury and joined the others. Anna leapt cat-like from Wolf's arms into Marius'. Marius grimaced and blinked back the pain as she lavished him with kisses. "Well, here we are," Wolf said. "'Born to be kings!'" DC and Cor harmonized. "'We're the PRINCES of the UNI-VERRRSE!" Marius joined the three of them in singing. Anna immediately DUH-ed him, subtly reminding him that there were at least four 'princesses' present. "I humbly apologize, Princess Puma," Marius said through a fog of pain and humiliation. "Um... Where's Frosty?" Cor asked quietly. "And _where_ is Crowley's little car and the UPSTruckFromHELL(tm)?" "We suffered a few losses, Jon," Wolf explained straightforwardly. "I got there a little late... the UPS was obliterated, taking Mike with it. I'm sorry, Jon." "What happened?" DC asked curiously. "Those T-1000's tore it apart," Crowley replied. "I'm pretty sure he went quickly in the explosion, though." "My guess would be a ruptured BP containment cell," Wolf surmised. "Damn," DC said after a moment. "I knew I should have put better shielding on those bozos." "No remains, then," Cor said quietly. "Right. FRM doesn't even describe what's left," Wolf said. "Sorry to sound so callous, Jon." "How's Sheila holding up?" Cor asked. "And what about Kali?" "Sheila's taking it pretty hard," Marius said. "Kali's gone catatonic on us." "I'd suggest we make for the _Dark_Phoenix_. There's been enough bloodshed today," DC said. "Not...so...fast..." said a venomous voice from the rear door of the Plymouth. Turning, they saw Sheila standing next to the car, her eyes the color of manslaughter. "Um...Sheila?" Marius asked. "I...want...her...dead..." Sheila declared. God help anyone who gets in her way, Cor thought. WARWORLD MAIN ACCESS CORRIDOR 14-A The ten of them hurtled towards what DC called the Central Control Room. Cor and SF flew ahead, while Wolf and DC drove their respective vehicles, stuffed with passengers. Anna rode behind DC, making his at- tention on driving tenuous at best. "ETA, DC?" Cor asked over the comm. "Four minutes, seventeen seconds and counting," DC replied. "What's a second or two between friends?" Wolf snarked. The walls on either side of them blurred with the extreme velocity of their passage. Suddenly up ahead three child-like black and white figures with red noses bolted out of a side corridor being chased by an extremely overweight security guard with a large butterfly net. <<> "What was that?" Wolf asked curiously. "The running gag," Cor said simply. WARWORLD CENTRAL CONTROL The wall exploded, sending chunks of metal hurling across the enormous room on the far side. The lone figure present stood stoicly still. As she watched, the members of the Otaku Group barged in and stopped. "Get a load of this place," Wolf said in admiration. Huge columns of black marble towered around the outer edge of the circular floorspace. The place almost looked like a shrine or a mausoleum. The room was dom- inated by an enormous jet-black cube upeneded and slowly rotating on one corner. Wolf estimated it at sixty feet on a side. His mind boggled. A dead silence hung in the air as they stood there, poised for an attack. They didn't have to wait long. <<> "You presumptuous pack of pathetic peons," the woman spat, her armor crackling and her light blonde hair swirling around her shoulders as if by some unseen wind. "You have come to meet your death!" "Cor, is that?" Wolf asked. "I think it is," Cor answered. "This could be interesting, if not dicey." Cor retooled his armor for power and speed, settling on a rather War Machine-esque appearance. As he did so, the woman braced herself. "ATTACK THEM!" she cried, triggering several dozen doors around the room. Through these opening poured close to a hundred troops in mandroid armor armed with a variety of weapons, ranging from cyberblades to por- able anti-ship weapons. "Mosh Pit!" Crowley hollered as he pulled the cord on his 'chainsaw' and cranked up the volume on his Walkman(tm). The blade started turning at a frantic pace as he waded into the fray. "Suck my spinning steel, shithead!" Crowley Derek-ed. <<> Most of the others turned to face this new threat a well, firing at will with their own weapons of choice. Wolf pressed a button on his new hand-link, locking the doors to the Fury. He spread his arms and shouted. "GUYVER!" Wolf bellowed. The air around him crackled and shattered, pieces of armor appearing out of null space around him. The armor at- tached itself to his ROACH armor, augmenting and surpassing it. He now wore his unique W.O.L.F. armor, ready for battle. He popped the half- meter Nega-Claws and pounced on the nearest mandroid and started slash- ing. "What the HELL?!?" Wolf cried in frustration. The Nega-Claws had no effect on the humanoid-shaped armored figure beneath him. He shut them down and smashed in the mandroids faceplate. Cor smashed aside several mandroids as he strode across the room to- wards their intended target. She stood waiting for him, unafraid. He stopped five meters in front of her and paused. "May I ask you a question?" Cor asked her. "You may _not_," she replied, raising both her arms and pointing them at him. A double bolt of azure energy leapt from her forearms to Cor's armor. The blast washed over him, pressing him back. "Impressive," Cor commented, retooling his armor again. He popped a pair of pods on his shoulders and sent a crimson parbeam lancing back at her. She deftly leaped over the beams, landing slightly closer to Cor. Cor blasted her again as soon as her boots hit the floor. "Nice try," she said, gritting her teeth. She returned his fire, blue flames leaping again for him. This could take a while, Cor thought. [ Cor, DC has an idea for resolving this evident stalemate. ] < I'm all...er...ears, Sam. > As Cor and the woman alternately blasted each other. DC disappeared. "POLARIZE ME/SENSITIZE ME/CRITICIZE ME/CIVILIZE ME/COMPENSATE ME/ ANIMATE ME/COMPLICATE ME/ELEVATE ME/Goddess in my garden/Sister in my soul/Angel in my armor/Actress in my role/.../Spirit of my psyche/Double in my role/Alter in my image/Struggle for control" - "Animate", RUSH "Fall!" cried the woman. She and Cor had progresively increased their power expenditures so that they were surrounded in a huge sphere of pure energy. The air around them pulsed and crackled with hundreds of thous- ands of joules as the two combatants continued their onslaught, neither gaining ground. Slowly, interminably, Cor inched closer to his foe, almost blinded by the power being exchanged. The forces clashed, appearing almost as liv- ing beasts around them. The battle slowly changed from one of power to one of wills. The battle around them waned as combatents either moved out of the way of the pair or they stopped completely to watch. "I can't believe the power levels those two are putting out," Wolf commented, visually impressed. Enough power was being exchanged between the pair that the air in the room was ionized, sending forks and tendrils of lightning coursing over the walls and through the air. Several man- droids fell just from the backwash of energy. Wolf estimated their com- bined expendature of force as easily being able to slag a small battle- station. Cor had been holding back for a _while_, he decided. "Who...are...you?" she asked through a wall of continuous pain. She tried to look into Cor's eyes for recognition. "I'm...known...as...the...Cor...in...thi...an," Cor grunted back. "Who...are...you...and...why...do...I...know...you?" Merely forming the words hurt immeasurably. DC had better hurry up. "I...am...called...URK!" she urk-ed as a hand reached out from behind her and touched her forehead. Through the use of his ENIGMA armor, DC had been able to maneuver undetected close enough to the woman through their combined blast field to physically make contact with her. Her at- tention devided, Cor poured on the energy as she hurled the unseen DigiCom away with a blast. At that exact moment, Sam struck. Leaping across the void via a sub- space burst transmission, an aspect of her program entered the woman's STELLARIS armor. The effects were immediate as she surged through the onboard systems like a virus, eating every file and operations program in her path. "What have you done?!?" the woman demanded. The force she was direc- ting at Cor peaked, throwing him back slightly with it's strength. He waited. { What are you doing to me? } the woman demanded to know. [ Call it a hostile takeover, bitch. I won't let you hurt him. ] { A woman! It figures that the pretender would be defended by a wo- man! I shall kill him as I did his predecessor! } "Huh?" Cor asked. [ He's the only Cor I've got, and you're not about to take him from me. Sorry about this. ] As Cor watched, the woman pitched forward and her armor seized up. He ceased his attack as her armor split itself open and dropped away from her slender form. The discarded armor crackled and cooled as it lay on the floor around her. Cor was quite take with her beauty as she stood revealed to him. But the past weighed heavily on his mind and spirit. He slowly pointed his right index finger at her. "No..." she whispered. The action in the room around them seemed to pause as time stood still. "Yes. You've caused too much pain and suffering. Goodbye and fare- well," Cor said with a note of finality that impressed even DC. A pencil thin beam of white light coursed from his finger and through her heart, stopping it instantly. She crumpled to the floor. Cor lowered his head slightly. "That was for you, Mike," he whispered. All around them the battle ground to a halt. Their leader fallen, the simple troops of her personal guard dropped their weapons and raised their hands over their heads. A few fought on, and were quickly executed by Wolf and the others. "So that's it," Marius said as he and Sheila climbed out of the Fury. "Now we go home?" "Yes, now we go home," Cor replied. "Is that what I think it is, Cor?" Wolf asked, pointing at the huge spinning cube. "A really big KDCFieldGENerator? Yes," Cor replied. "No," DC corrected him. "This is the master unit. The ones we know were just cleverly programmed remotes. This is the real deal. Also, this entire planet is a construct of _this_ Cube. "That eliminates taking it home with us for show-n-tell," Marius said. "That explains a lot of other nagging details, as well," Wolf comment- ed. "Including how she got the armor." He gestured towards the fallen figure of their antagonist. "I have a small question, DC: who the hell _was_ she?" Marius asked, catching on to what had just occurred. "Her name was Jillian Maxima," DC replied. "I don't recognize the name, but I got the general impression that she had gone through a lot of pain to get to where she was, and that she wasn't going to give up for anyone." "I don't recognise the name either..." Cor trailed off. "People, let's go home." ______________________________________________________________EPILOGUE "Innocence and time once lost can never be regained." -Sum Dum Goy PEREGRINE BLUFFS, QUINDESSET POINT, RI <<> The wind swept coldly over the ocean as the small group stood in a rough circle high above the jagged rocks below. All were suitably at- tired for what had to be done. "...I never expected to be doing this for you, Mike. In the fifteen years I've known you, I always thought that you'd be the one there for me after _I_ left. We bid you fond farewell, my friend. May your journey to whatever lays beyond this world be a fruitful and fulfilling one. I love you like the brother I never had, Mike, I'll miss you," Corinthian finished, a wetness behind his eyes forming from more than just the brisk salt air. "Thank you, Jon," Sheila whispered. "He never had as good a friend." Kali had her arm around Sheila's shoulders for comfort. Both had their heads bowed. "Very nicely done," Marius agreed. he stood with the Puma sisters on either side of him. DigiCom stood slightly off to one side, silent throughout the service, reminiscing about lost comrades. Jessica buried her face in Wolf's shoulder, blinking back her own tears. Though she had hardly known him, Frosty had been a man of unique honor and integrity, something she herself had lost years before. Mystic Maxx and Tareah held hands in silent tribute to a man they both had liked and respected. Silver Falcon and his fiancee Jennifer stood by, sharing the loss in their own way. After a while, they all turned and left the cliffside, some to return to their 'normal' lives, others to grieve privately, and one to try and glom meaning from it all. "At least it's finally over," Marius said as they walked down the path leading from the cliff. "Yes," Cor agreed. "The survivors on Warworld have promised to honor our wish to leave the system. Having seen us defeat their ruler and the mightiest of their champions in open combat shook them a bit. Jillian's plan to conquer Earth won't be repeated, at least by them." "Even if they change their minds," DC added. "I sent a message to some old friends to keep an eye on them. You'd have more than enough warning." "Let's hope so. Leaving that much potential power in the hands of a defeated enemy could be risky," Marius said. "Power is relative," DC commented cryptically, "there's always some- one stronger." DC went on ahead of the other two, leaving them to ponder his words. "Sometimes he baffles me," Marius said, looking idly around at the windswept pastorial surroundings. "SF has quite a nice layout here. It was nice of him to let us have the memorial here." "Yes, it was," Cor said, lost in his own thoughts. Marius couldn't see the pain in Cor's eyes behind his reformed subdermal lenses. "Ah, well..." Marius trailed off, looking through a narrow break in the foliage. "...What the hell is _that?" A single grave marker could be seen barely through the treeline. Stepping through the brush, he moved closer to the simple headstone. Cor silently followed him. "Now I understand why you lingered on Warworld and you didn't ride back with us in the _Dark_Phoenix_. My only question is: why?" The marker was carved out of black marble with white and gold veins in the cold stone face. The following inscription was all it said: JILLIAN MAXIMA January 18th, 1969 - November 20th, 1993 "Why'd you bring back her body to bury here, Jon?" Marius asked quiet- ly. "You didn't even know her." "I had to, Mike," Cor whispered. "In a strangely convoluted way, she was my daughter." <<> "_What?_" Marius gasped. "You know about alternate timelines and paradox, right?" Cor asked with a sigh. "Jillian here was the daughter of an alternate me. One that went through a hell of a lot more than I did. Remember the planet bomb that hit Block Island and the ripple we felt just before it?" "Um...yeah," Marius asked. "Your saying that's where it split?" "Yes. In my alternate's timeline the planet bomb was on target. Most of Kingston, Rhode Island, was obliterated," Cor answered. "You all died that day. I can only guess what he did after that, but it seems likely that he tried to avenge you all. I know I would. I think we have him to thank for all the 'coincidental' mistakes the KDC made. Jillian killed him just over a year ago." "My brain hurts," Marius said. "Maybe I was better off not asking." "I know," Cor said. "Sam had to show me the files she got from her time in Jillian's armor four times before I believed it. But the final proof lies before us." TALAMASCA, THREE WEEKS LATER Marius sat in the Central Core, trying to crack the security code on the Puma Sisters' shower monitors. DC had upgraded the control system, but seemed content to let him run the boards. An image appeared on the screen momentarily, but static and scrambling made it imperceptable. A soft gong caught his attention. "Excuse me sir, " Lucien whispered, "I hate to interrupt your work, but long range sensors have picked up a large vessel approaching at a high rate of speed. Shall I call an alert?" "Hell yes!" Marius shouted, gracelessly rising from his chair. "Put it on the main screen." The vessel was circular, and appeared to be about four kilometers in diameter. It approached the station, keeping itself out of planetary visual range. Cor, Wolf, the Puma Sisters, Kali, and Sheila bustled into the room, and Sam appeared beside Marius. They all asked the same general ques- tion: "What was going on?" "Sirs, we are being hailed." Luicen alerted. "Open a channel, " Cor Picard-ed, "Alien vessel, what are your inten- tions in this system?" The turbolift opened behind him, "That's no alien, " DC said, "That's my wife." The main screen came to life, revealing a spacious bridge reminiscent of the Enterprise-D. The slim brunette in the center chair toyed with a guitar pick, as she turned her ice-blue gaze on them. "Mario, dear, vacation's over," she remarked, "Lazarus is having fits." "Maddy, m'love, I was just getting things wrapped up. Let me just say my goodbyes." DC replied. She nodded, and the screen flickered out. Marius had finally worked it out, "You're married? To HER?" "Yes, to her, Marius, " DC smiled, "TALAMASCA is all yours. Don't be too rough on her. Jon, it's been strange." Cor bristled, "You know I don't like that...Get lost, you hoser." The Puma sisters licked DC's ears, sending rather unfaithful thoughts ricochetting through his brain. Wolf just grinned, and shook his hand. Kali gave him a hug. Sheila was quiet, as she had been since the service. "How can we find you if we need you?" Kali asked. "Lucien knows how to get in touch with me." DC replied, "Anything else people?" "Take me with you." Sheila whispered. DC paused for a moment, "Are you sure about this? You might be gone a long time." "There's nothing for me here now, just memories, " Sheila responded, "I love you all, but I have to go." She stepped over to Kali, her best friend in the group, and the two women embraced, silently saying their goodbyes. Sheila blinked back a tear. She then hugged Sam, her virtual soul sister. She stepped back and with a catch in her voice said, "Okay I'm ready, Mario." "As you wish," DC said, tapping a pin on his chest, "Maddy, two to beam up. Energize." The two figures shimmered, and were gone. On the viewscreen, the ship followed suit. "With everybody taking off like this, soon it'll just be me and Sam left," Cor said with a sardonic smile. "Oh, I'll be hanging around for a while, I think," Marius said. "I have way too many toys to play with as it is." Anna playfully bit him on the right ear. "What a frightening thought," Wolf said, "an enormous space station, twelve orbiting satillites in a complex monitor net around the globe, and access to a powerful artificial intelligence. The mind boggles." "Marius, you've just inherited the most powerful orbiting satillite network known to man, what are you going to do next?" Cor Disney-ed. "I'm going to... pirate the Playboy Channel in fourteen languages, re- place Barney with Ren and Stimpy, and use the monitors to zoom in on the next Spring Break at Ft. Lauderdale," Marius replied. "And that just for starters!" Anna and Una both started to tickle him, causing him to yelp and fall to the floor laughing. "Playboy Channel, eh?" Anna taunted him, nibbling on his nose. "Lauderdale, huh?" Una said, mercilessly poking him in the ribs as a cascade of tears from Marius' protestations showered the three of them. I guess that settles that," Cor said, turning towards Kali and Wolf. "How about you two?" "Therapy," Kali said simply. "Sam and I are trying to work out the problems I've been having as of late. After that, I'm not sure. Maybe go back to school and get my doctorate." "Sounds good," Cor said. "Thom?" "Oh, you know me," Wolf smiled and shrugged in his unique way. "Idle hands and all that." "Do I ever," Cor laughed. "Gonna rebuild the UPS Truck?" "I'm not sure," Wolf said. "I'm nostalgic and all that, but is it really practical? I might take apart _Christine_ first." "Be _very_ careful going about that," Cor advised. "Now that DC went through and beefed up the shielding on all of the BP generators and per- manently changed the design specifications, the sky's the limit." "What about you and Sam?" Kali asked. "Anything you want to tell us?" Sam flashed her a look that said she hadn't told him yet. "I don't know," Cor admitted. "I guess try to clean things up a bit around here and in the immediate area of Earth. Moonbase Alpha needs to be rebuilt. Oh, and SF and I were thinking about a little joint salvage and restoration project." "I can just imagine," Wolf rolled his eyes. "Titanic?" "It's been done too many times. _Twice_ by Mr. Clarke," Cor replied. "We were thinking of the Yamato." He smiled broadly. "Just be careful," Kali said. "I don't want bury anymore friends." "Hey, it's me," Cor Han Solo-ed. "There's nothing to worry about." THE END AUTHORS' NOTES, INDEX OF TECHNOJARGON AND ACRONYMS, AND SOUNDTRACK LIST -------- ------ ----- -- ------------ --- --------- --- ---------- ---- Corinthian: "In the beginning there was nothing at all...just a distant hum..." -Howard Jones "Hide and Seek" For some reason the lyrics to that song sum up a lot of the things that have been going on in my life as of late... I type this as I look longingly out the window of the computer lab on the second floor of Tyler Hall here at URI... and I'm forced to wonder what's next. After almost a year off from writing, Mario and I put this story together. Late, yes. Large, of course. Hopefully it ties up a few of the looser ends that I left hanging at the end of OR1. Several new members have joined the Otaku Group... Sean sits here next to me, reading over my shoulder... Our adventures are far from over, it would seem. Mario ran a working title for the next OR volume by me yes- terday... *sigh* He's not a well man. :) A few short stories may pop up between this story and OR3. Look for them in the spring. What else can I say? It's been real, it's been strange, it's been _real_ strange. I hope you enjoyed the story, we had fun writing it. I willingly accept any comments or questions you might have (including re- quests for the missing chapter and use of tech stuff. :) here at this ad- dress. Until next we meet, farewell. J. Daedalus Govoni -11/30/93- +---------------------+ | | | | | | | | | +--------------------------------+ | The Corinthian | +-----------+---, | "Would someone please stop | | J. Daedalus Govoni | | ANVIL!! | _/ | that man from shouting | | Haunting the NET at | \---------/-' | 'dragon'?" **anvil drop** | | JGOV1447@ | _)_______(___ | *THUD!* "Thank you." | | @URIACC.URI.EDU | |_____________| | -Yakko Warner | +---------------------+---------------------+--------------------------------+ | corinthian@archive.otaku.hentai.WORLD.sys.COM.super.KALI.fragile.list.ic@ | | expera.lido.cious.silly.monster.ANIMANIACS.wubba.wubba.wubba.non.edu | +----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ ------------------------------------------------------------------------- DigiCom: "I felt like poisoning a monk" -Umberto Eco. Sometimes, I ask myself, "Why is a slightly insomniac Math major writing all of this Sci-fi/fantasy/anime stuff?" The answer is, of course: I don't know. But thanks to a lot of people, [listed in the prologue] I'm hooked. So I've spent all of my free time writing, to the detriment of my social life [like I can afford one]. There will be more to come, just wait a bit. _______________________________________________________________________ |Mario Di Giacomo /\/\/\|"In the province of the mind, what one believes| |The Harlequin \/\/\/| to be true either is true, or becomes true..."| |MDIG8154@uriacc.uri.edu| -John Lilly| |-----------------------------------------------------------------------| |This calls for a subtle combination of mathematics and extreme violence| `-----------------------------------------------------------------------' ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Index of TechnoJargon and Acronyms: ----- -- ------------ --- --------- (AUTHOR'S NOTE: These are listed alphabetically, not in order of appearance in the text. Also, entries that duplicate those in Otaku Rising I are left out.) CHRISTINE - This almost exact replica of a classic white-on-red 1958 Plymouth Fury Special is actually a complex and unique fabrication produced by Cor's STELLARIS armor. Designed meticulously after the Microcosmos Production Idea and Design blueprints for a similar ve- hicle (apologies: John DeChancie), it's abilities and special syst- ems have yet to be fully explored. CUBES - Originally known as KDCFieldGENerators, the Cubes fall into three distinct catagories: Black, White, and Prime. BLACK CUBES - These are the original Cubes as "discovered" in file format by Cor on the URI mainframe. The original file was the product of Dr. S. Laurence Sheuchster(D), with the Cube called the Klarion DataCorp Random Flux Field Generator. It is later revealed that the Black Cubes are actually remote units linked to a master unit on WARWORLD. Even Dr. Sheuchster had no idea of the true origin of the Cubes. (See CUBE PRIME) Physical Description: A Black Cube is just that, a cube three inches per side and black as the blackest thing you can think of. (And then even five times blacker.) Basic Operation: When a connection is made to a Black Cube by an outside information link (ie. a computer link), the Cube re- sponds to complex commands and instruction by creating what is known as a "hard" force field. Basically an intricate hologram with the look and "feel" of a concrete object, constructs of the Cubes _must_ maintain physical contact with the Cube it or- iginates from at all times. Other than that limitation, virtu- ally anything is producable. Almost any type of input data is acceptable, the onboard files containing several devices for doing so. Important: Through the use of a system file labeled CONVERTER_M in the INPUT_OPTIONS menu solid objects _can_ be sucessfully produced, providing the proper amount of matter is "inputted" to the resulting device. NOTE: All Black Cubes generated by the program lifted from the Klarion DataCorp are now nonoperational, due to a sympa- thetic link to Jillian Maxima, their rightful progenator, and her armor's onboard systems. Her death severed all links to CUBE PRIME. WHITE CUBES - A Cube in physical manefestation only, DigiCom came up with these after the Black Cubes went down. Basically a micro- replicator ala Star Trek, it mostly duplicates the abilities of the Black Cubes, but at a cost. White Cubes are nowhere near as efficient as Black Cubes and require an enormous amount of energy to run. Fortunately the BP Generators are more than up to the task. :) Physical Description: Um... just like a Black one, but Whiter than White, duh. :) CUBE PRIME - This is _it_, the grandaddy of all Cubes. This Cube is sixty feet per edge (tough to steal, no?) and blacker than black and all that. All of the Black Cubes were programmed copies of this one. As far as anyone knows, this artifact has existed since the dawn of time (*yawn* Not the dawn-of-time speech!) Extensive testing and analysis by an ancient race known only as "the Builders" (those beings that constructed the first WARWORLD) as well as the more current research done by Jillian Maxima(D) reveal the CUBE PRIME to be a cosmic singula- rity composed of both a micro-pulsar and an infintisimal black hole in dual orbit centered inside a gravitic cross-rip spin- ning at close to the speed of light. (...or perhaps not. -DC) Apparently, the cross-rip is powered by a slight draw from the pulsar. An extremely thin, yet incredibly dense and strong cube-shaped housing seals it all from outside influence. "Pow- er" is tapped from the vertical axis points of rotation. Ap- plication is virtually the same as that of the smaller Black Cubes, but on a much higher level. The Otaku Group discovered that the entirety of WARWORLD is a product of CUBE PRIME. _DARK_PHOENIX_ - Shamelessly ripped off from Ninja Science Team Gatchaman and Sandy Frank, we gave it a much better paint job and _effective_ weapons. ("But what about the ultimate weapon?" "Shhhhh...") _DUNSTAR_ - Really stupid mecha we blew up for sheer destruction value, but do you really care? The only mecha/ship inspired by a classic misspelling of the owner/pilot's last name, right Sean? E.N.I.G.M.A. - DC's personal battle armor. "I'd tell you what it can do, but then I'd have to kill you." -DC ETERNITY GAUNTLET - (Utilized by DigiCom) Description: A silvery gauntlet worn on the right forearm, ending in a nasty looking hand studded with six gems. The gems are associated with several implanted devices as follows: -RED: The "Time" Gem, incorporating a Burroughs Gear, usually located on the knuckle of the index finger. -GOLD: The "Reality" Gem, incorporating a holographic image inducer, located on the middle finger. -GREEN: The "Soul" Gem, consisting of a neural modulator, and a nanotronic tissue repair system, located on the ring finger. -CYAN: The "Space" Gem, which induces a directional gravitic field, located on the little finger. -BLUE: The "Mind" Gem is Arisian Lens, of limited use due to the fact that it's power source is in another dimemsion. It is located on the back of the hand [naturally] -MAGENTA: The "Power" Gem, or BP2 field generator, located on the thumb. The hand unit is capable of limited autonomous activity, linked to the back of the wrist by the onboard STA's. The com- bined unit also incorporates a POLARIS field, to protect the user. HT - HoverTank Series 100 through 600XVDT. Primary and Secondary weapon systems are described in detail in the story. Based loosely on the Hover Tanks from the Robotech: Southern Cross mecha of the same name. 88 tons of metal moving at mach .75 is still impressive. HT-100 -Generic, non-transformable Hover Tank, demonstrated for and hopefully soon to be purchased by the Pentagon. HT-500X -Heavier, transforming mecha, also equipped with an SEP field generator for easy parking. HT-500XV -Identical to the -500X series, except that this version is fully vacuum capable and can perform in little or no gravity. HT-500XVH -Slightly lighter and more maneuverable than the XV, this series is also more streamlined and pleasing to the eye. Only two were produced, and those for Anna and Una. >B^) HT-600XVDT -Sigh. Leave it to Wolf. "My mecha's bigger than your's" syndrome again. The 600 series is quite a bit larger than the 500, weighing in at just over 130 tons. Wolf also increased the range and effectiveness of the main gun by lengthening the barrel and increasing the size of the round fired. Let him have his fun. IMPLOSION TORPEDO - Take a handy singularity, load it into a nearby grav- itic containment unit, throw it at someone you don't like and who you think would look good the size of a pea, and then have an inter- nal fuse drop the containment field. Whoomp, there it _went_. L.U.C.I.E.N. - Logistics Unit Containing Intuitive Electronic Neurosystem P.O.L.A.R.I.S. - POrtable Localized Anthromorphic Radiation Induction System: See chapter 5 SERIES I-AI30 POSITRONIC ANDROID - Or, more properly, Anna and Una Puma. These two hentai-bait characters were designed by Cor and built by Sam to supliment the Otaku Group's limited resources. ("And to make _me_ happy!" -Marius) Right. Basically, they are Asimovian Posi- tronic Androids modeled after the infiltrator Jane Royal(D). Cor made a few minor and one significant change in the design. In addi- tion to beefing up the battle frame to make it more durable, he sig- nificantly increased the upper load limits, putting the pair into a Wonder Woman-esque strength class. This comes in handy at times, but the pair have quick tempers and are rather mischievous. Marius definitely has his hands full with these two! NOTE: The significant change in the design was the removal of the First and Second Asimovian Laws of Robotics. Self preservation is still a must, however a deep sense of loyalty to the Group at large and it's fundamental ideals has been instilled in them. ("Hey, do you _really_ think I _didn't_ include override codes?? WhattadayathinkIamstupidorsomething?!?" -Cor) UPS Truck - Unified Phalanx Systems Model 4000 Multi-Surface Armored Transport Vehicle. A complete listing of weapons and capabilities is in the text of Otaku Rising, Part I, with upgrades in this volume. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- THE SOUNDTRACK (Available on Mercury Falling Records (c)1993) Walking on Sunshine Katrina and the Waves The Anvil Chorus Tiny Toon Adventures Stray Cat Strut The Stray Cats Face to Face Pete Townsend Bang Your Head Quiet Riot Welcome to My Nightmare Alice Cooper Kung Fu Fighting Carl Douglas Don't Fear the Reaper Blue Oyster Cult Rubicon Journey 2001: A Space Oddity David Bowie Big Time Peter Gabriel Mars the Bringer of War Holst Locked In Judas Priest Sleeping Bag ZZ Top The Transformers Theme Transformers: The Movie Janie's Got a Gun Aerosmith Gaston Disney's Beauty and the Beast SD Invisible Touch Genesis Cliffs of Dover Eric Johnson Heads Up(The Sky is Falling) Tommy Shaw Gimme the Prize Queen Gravity Dennis Deyoung Friends Will Be Friends Queen Who Can It Be Now? Men At Work Bad to the Bone George Thorogood Major Tom(Coming Home) Peter Shilling Matters To Me Poker Face El Dorado to the Moon Michael Nesmith Losing It RUSH New World Man RUSH Don't Shoot Shotgun Def Leppard Don't Lose Your Head Queen Spies Like Us Paul McCartney Open Secrets RUSH Also Sprach Zarathustra Richard Strauss Welcome to the Machine Pink Floyd Raise Your Hands Bon Jovi Under the Gun Deep Purple Walking on the Moon The Police Monster Dirty Pair: Project EDEN SNDTRCK Under Pressure Queen Blue Monday New Order Putting on the Ritz Taco Wedding March Mendelssohn Together Robotech Perfect Collection CD Here Again RUSH It's a Kind of Magic Queen Hocus Pocus Focus The Angry Young Man Billy Joel Fly By Night RUSH Samuri Pizza Cats BGM Samuri Pizza Cats Space Truckin' Deep Purple Dark Side of the Moon Pink Floyd Instruments of Destruction NRB Fly Me Courageous Drivin' and Cryin' Fly Like an Eagle Steve Miller Band Fire Your Guns AC/DC Learning to Fly Pink Floyd The Stranger Billy Joel Chase Runner Jeff Lynn Cut to the Chase RUSH Jailhouse Rock Blues Brothers Killer Queen Queen Surprise, You're Dead! Faith No More Flirtin' With Disaster Molly Hatchet Dangerous Type The Cars Back Into Hell Meatloaf Break on Through(to the Other Side) The Doors Hot Nights in Cherry Moon A.D.Tank Police Main Theme We Will Win Lynn Minmay You Could Be Mine Guns'n'Roses Born to Be Wild Steppenwolf Street Fighting Man Rolling Stones Dr. Feelgood Metallica Animaniacs Opening Theme Richard Stone Bitch Rolling Stones Caught in a Mosh Anthrax Animate RUSH Who Wants To Live Forever?(reprise) Queen Hide and Seek (reprise) Howard Jones "OTAKU RISING II" 1993 by TCS.PRODUCTIONS.LTD ---------- +---------------------+ | | | | | | | | | +--------------------------------+ | The Corinthian | +-----------+---, | "Would someone please stop | | J. Daedalus Govoni | | ANVIL!! | _/ | that man from shouting | | Haunting the NET at | \---------/-' | 'dragon'?" **anvil drop** | | JGOV1447@ | _)_______(___ | *THUD!* "Thank you." | | @URIACC.URI.EDU | |_____________| | -Yakko Warner | +---------------------+---------------------+--------------------------------+ | corinthian@archive.otaku.hentai.WORLD.sys.COM.super.KALI.fragile.list.ic@ | | expera.lido.cious.silly.monster.ANIMANIACS.wubba.wubba.wubba.non.edu | +----------------------------------------------------------------------------+