“… so how do we hunt them?”
“You use this grapple launcher, and try to latch onto a Pyrat. Its quite a distance, so you have to try and account for the fact that they’ll be moving and the lava rivers current will move them as well. If you can successfully hit and grapple, you hit the auto-winch button fast and it hauls the Pyrat up towards here. Then you get down the stairs over there fast and get ready to fight it before it can chew thrrough the grapple. Then you kill it fast before it can retreat to the river or kill you.” The attendant informed. Killer, Vain, Zane and Download were watering at the mouth with anticipation of hunting these things, so the attendants handed them two grapple rifles and they got to work. The first few attempts saw Vain narrowly miss grabbing a Pyrat and Killer the proud captor of a big rock.
“I’m glad you’re coming with us Killer. I feel so much safer about all those menacing rocks we’re gonna be passing by.” Zane joked. Killer cracked the rock over his skull and Zane wasn’t laughing anymore. Twenty minutes later Download managed to grapple a Pyrat.
“Ok, lets move!” The four ran down the steps just as the Pyrat melted the grapple. It looked at the four and glared. Then it coughed up a fireball at them. Zane dived out of the way, Download got hit in the knee
“Arrghhh I’m wounded!” Download yelled.
“MEDIC!!!” Eva ran to the veranda and waved her boobies at Download and he was immediately rejuvinated, althoug his knee still hurt. They began blasting the rodent with plasma and fusion fire, but it was having no effect. All of a sudden, Zane tipped his hat and grinned.
“I have a plan!!!”
“I’m not gonna sodomise it.” Vain retorted.
“I have another plan… CRONO!!!” Crono got out of the lake and ran over.
“What? Hey whats with the flame grilled feeling rat?”
“Use your freezer cannon on it.”
“Uhhh… ok.” Crono hauled his freezer cannon out of ….somewhere (he was only wearing speedo’s after all so the physics don’t make much sense). He fired at the rat and it slowed to a crawl. Its skin hardened and it tried to walk forwards. Crono fired again. This time it stepped forward but one of its feet snapped off. It then came to a halt. Zane walked over towards it and pulled out his whip.
“Astalavista, ratty.”
“Didn’t we do this Terminator parody in a previous issue?” Vain asked.
“Yeah, Issue 30, you know when Foyle grabbed the coolant pipes on the cryo-freezers for the Deltagens and ….”
“Yeah ok… the point is its been done. This story’s been going on too long. NERD Editor is running out of material…” Vain said firmly. From out of nowhere a horde of NERD fans ran over and beat him to a bloody pulp.
“Anyway…..”
“Yeah, lets go get this bone stuff.” And the 3 who were still standing went over and dragged the now dead Pyrat back up to the veranda, where the very impressed attendants showed them how to extract the useful loot from the carcass.
That night, the 15 sat down at a long banquet table, and Callash had the bikini girls bring in the main course. They removed the dish lid to unleash a smell hereuntoforth unknown to them. It was incredible. So full of flavour, so rich with meaty wonder.
“Oh My Lioon, we get to eat an actual meal!!” McDanish stated. An echo from far away was suddenly heard.
“…..you BASTIDS!!!….” Shodough had spazzed again.
“What is it Callash?” Lisa asked.
“This is called Roast Lamb.” The wooly creature outside, once stripped of its fluff and cooked correctly, turns into this delightful meal.
“What was the name of that creature again?” Warlock asked.
“A cat.”
“Ahhh.” They all began to eat, and their faces brightened as if a fusion round had just crashed into them. The taste was like nothing they had ever eaten. The addition of a few herbs that grew around the lake added even more potency to the meal.
“This is the best thing I’ve ever had in my mouth!” Eva squeeled.
“And coming from her, that’s saying a lot!” Reef chimed in. A fork went flying past his ear.
Later that night, everyone retired to their respective rooms (respective in that most were too drunk to find their own room, so they wound up in A room).
D minus 178 days
The next morning everyone arose around 7 am and had a breakfast of fruit and lamb leftover. Then they put on their packs once again and set out. As they began walking, Callash called Warlock over.
“You know he’s not gonna like this, right?”
“Yeah well, one thing at a time. In order for me to worry that he’s gonna piss in my pool, I kinda have to save the pool first.”
“Best of luck to you all.” Callash yelled. And with that they set off again.
“So, whats our course today?” Trillian asked.
“Its all just gravel and heat for the next 7 days friends, so grit your teeth, this part won’t be pleasant.”
“And at the end of 7 days, can we expect anything like VC?”
“Well…. You’ll see.”
Meanwhile back in Neocron…
The Board of NEXT was meeting to discuss their plans.
“Well projections say that with only half our manpower we can have the Ethalica finished within 120 days.” Gaven Parker, Human Resource Director of NEXT stated.
“Half? Should we not be dedicating all our manpower to finishing this project?” Hamish Haggis interjected.
“We did that with the Agratharia, and look what happened. The cruiser will never make it through a test launch, much less get anyone into space if we do not develop adequate weapons to combat the forces of Tokio.”
“I thought it was Tokyo….”
“Potato, potaato who gives a rat flesh? The point is, the Raijuta mechs make our mechs look like angry little children. The Banshee’s dominate the airspace and we have nothing that can even touch their carrier group in the harbour. We must finish the DD project before the Ethalica is ready to launch.”
“I agree,” chairman Randy Johnson wheezed, “the DD project must move forward. Tangent has already decided to complete the Phalanx Wall.”
“Well…. Seems things around here aren’t quite as doomed as we had once thought.” Hamish laughed maniacly. As happens at so many meetings, it was contagious and soon the whole board was laughing maniacly.
Also meanwhile, in Dome of York…
“Woah…. Dome of York Rox man, it rox!!! Sid, how’d you get such a sweet pad?” Morpheous asked.
“Cause I r l337 precious…”
“Right, cool, so like, is there a l337 club I can join, cause I want a place like this.”
“Stoopid Tangentses does nots upderstandss. DoY is Precious’ Precious. Cannot take, cannot have.”
“Why not?”
“Why nots? Why Nots??? I dunno why nots. Ok here’s.” Sid handed the keys of Dome of York to Morpheous.
“Oh My Lioon, Sid you rock!”
“Yess… Precious is l337, all bows before me’s.” It was at this point that Precious got out of the shower in Sid’s tear ducts and realised what he’d done.
“BAAAAAAKKKKAAAAA!!!!!”
“What’s Baka Precious?”
“It means Idiot in Japanese you BAKA!!!”
“Why’s me a baka Precious?”
“Cause you just gave Morpheous the keys.”
“Why’s that bads precious?”
“CAUSE WE WON’T HAVE ANYWHERE TO LIVE YOU PANTSLESS PANTS LOVING MOTHERPANTS!!!”
“No needs to yells. Watch.” Sid walked over to Morpheous.
“Key inspector.” Sid said.
“Key inspector, oh my, here, I think you’ll find everythings in order.” Sid was already running down the hall.” (Guy in a suit comes running past “SIMPSONS, COPYRIGHT PAY UP!!!”)
“Hmn…. Dome of York is awful busy today,” Morpheous muttered as he got down to upgrading the BETA Warbots for drilling.
Another meanwhile…
“Umm…. What is this?” one of the diggers under Military Base asked.
“I don’t know.” Borris Vandal said. The Mercs began hauling a large cylindrical object out of the ground. An hour later, they found another one. By the end of the day they had nine of the cylinders. Each one was about 15 feet long and about 4 feet wide (that’s roughly 5 – 6 metres long, 1 & a half across for you metric types). They set them aside for later, for closer examination, and continued digging. By the end of the day the hole was now as deep as Tech Haven is tall.
D minus 171 days.
The 15 arrived at the estimated time on the other side of Volcano Plains. The march had been long and harsh, and sleep had been hard to come by. The fourth night had seen them awoken by a scream as Lisa was sent hurtling into the sky when the boulder she was lying on was shot upwards by a steam vent erupting below. Thankfully Crono’s ample head cushioned her fall.
As they came out of the field, the could see quite clearly now a small town ahead.
“Is that our destination?” Keyser asked.
“It is indeed old friend. Welcome to Crystal Fissure. This fissure is 10 miles long and 3 miles wide. Below are thousands of jagged rocks, formed over the years. The only way across is the Rope Carriage above.” And he pointed to the giant cables running from one side to the other. They could clearly see carriages, the size of 4 subway cars from back home long, dangling from the ropes. As they entered the town, they could see it consisted mostly of junk and debris. Obviously this port of call was very much a work in progress. Amidst the rubble, they were shocked to see yet another familiar face.
“CODI!!!!” Everyone yelled. Codi nearly jumped out of his pants at the sound.
“Woah, where’d you all come from?” Codi exclaimed.
“From Tech Haven.” Trillian responded.
“Ahh yes, the Texpedition eh? So I’m guessing you need to use the carriage.”
“That was the general idea Codi.” Warlock replied.
“Well, gimme a sec and I’ll get it running again.”
“It’s broken?” Reef asked.
“No not broken, I just took it offline for upgrades. Now its been ‘patched’ up like never before.
“You patched this thing? Oh no….”
“Oh don’t worry, I did a great patch.” Codi then pulled off his pants and reached inside, and pulled out a connector conduit and attached it inside the Carriages engine.
“Well come on, its not like we have a choice.” Warlock pushed them all in and they boarded the Carriage.
“Is this thing safe?” Killer asked.
“No, but what choice do we have. It’ll take us over a month to march around, whereas it takes 2 hours to cross using this.”
Everyone eventually relaxed as the carriage made its way across the ravine, which, despite the danger, was a breathtaking sight.
“Ok War, we’ve got time to kill. What’s up ahead?” ReefSmoker sat back.
“I don’t know if I should tell you.”
“Oh come on… we gotta go, so just tell us.”
“Fine. Once we cross the ravine, we get about a months fairly easy travel. There is a coastline area with functioning outposts we’ll be travelling. The climates pretty good and we can get supplies there. After that however, we will have to climb Mount Terafice in order to reach the Valley of Night.”
“Valley of Night? Mount Terafice?”
“Mount Terafice is like nothing you’ve seen in the Wastelands. The gradual mountainous regions around Tech Haven are like foothills compared to this one. We will march for 3 days without stopping through snow before we cross to the other side. It is not a pleasant part of the journey, and it is very likely the Snowsters will be out of hibernation at this time.”
“Snowsters?”
“Oh horrible creatures they are. Imagine Killerbunneh if he was more stupid. That’s them. All the destructive power, none of the mental faculties. Anyway, once we’re past that we enter the Valley of Night. Sunlight only reaches into this valley for 1 hour a day, so it will be a virtual endless night when we are inside. I passed through that region as quickly as I could. And the villagers on the other side told me I was fortunate as at that time of year, there was little activity in the Valley. But we may not be so fortunate this time. From the moment we begin climbing Mount Terafice, everyone should be combat ready at all times.”
“And once we cross the Valley?”
“Then we bargain for passage to Tokyo II. If we can maintain the same pace we have so far, we should reach Tokyo II within 60 days.”
“Here’s hoping.” Trillian responded.
“Hmn… hope…”
Until next time (part 3 soon to follow)...
28-08-03, 13:18
Brammers
I await for the next part! :)
...
Meanwhile back in the Phoenix Store, it's 9.01am Techhaven. The store had only been open 1 minute, and it was full of the sound of busy engineers and scientists working away.
The sound soon changed to a atmosphere of swearing and cursing when Brammers made the mistake of announcing that Pheonix had just recieved a order 1,000,000 PSI booster 3's.
Above the noise, Brammers looked at the next email - it was from the boss himself - Zane. He read the email to himself and smiled.
"Ok boys", Brammers shouts in the store, "Got word the boss won't be about today, let's pack up early."
There was a loud cheer, as all the engineers and scientists charged out of the doors as fast as possible. Brammer's picked up a PB20 drone and changed the store sign. "Out for lunch - find us in F.13"
28-08-03, 14:40
Brammers
Brammers sat at the citycom, staring blankly at the screen, wondering how the hell one was going to get 1,000,000 PSI boosters done. He drank a little bit of coffee, and winced at the bitter taste. He found a sugar diamond and dropped it in the coffee, and tried to find sometime to give it a good stir. As normal, there was no spoons, so he picked up the spanner he found lying near by, and used it to give the coffee a good stir.
The shop doors opened, and Thonkus, the Chief Scientist walked in.
"Hello my good friend.", Brammers smiled.
"Hey Brammers, how goes it... and have the cabinets been re-arranged....again?", asked Thonkus.
"Yeah - we just was testing a new idea for the 101 uses of the cabinets."
"I see now.", Thonkus looked at the cabinet on the floor, finally spotting Syntax’s short pair of legs sticking out from underneath it. "Oh well…any orders that need sorting out?"
"Yeap, and you are not going to like it".
Brammers selected the PSI order from the citycom, and swung the screen around to show Thonkus. "Oh my…", as Thonkus read the quantity for 1,000,000 PSI booster. Brammers nodded slowly. "I’ve not entered it yet on our order system – this is going to take weeks to make."
"Hmm", Thonkus looked at the Citycom. "Give me that spanner a sec". Brammers handed over the sticky spanner that he used to stir the coffee with. Thonkus then proceeded to un-tighten the screw on the back of the Citycom, and then rotated the screen 180 degrees.
"What was that quantity again?"
Brammers smiled, "0000001…erm one….damm usless Tangent Technologies equipment always adding leading zeros to numbers." He then proceeded to add the order to the Phoenix ordering system.
"Job sorted then?", Thonkus asked.
"Yeap!"
"Good one…oh by the way what was Syntax testing the use of the cabinets for?"
"An idea for a headache cure...", replied Brammers.
01-09-03, 00:01
NERD Editor
Part 3:
D minus 170 days
Plaza 3 was alive with business and bustle this day. Most of the city work crews had the day off (as rest was important) and were relaxing within their city walls. A few however had gone to the public ‘FORUM’ and had been a bit stupid. So it was with no great surprise that they found themselves booted into the street outside Diamond Real Estate. Moments later a giant hammer wielding menace stalked out after them. Well, I say hammer, but what I really mean is the worlds largest Sledge. It was about 2 metres long, with a 1 metric tonne hammerhead on the end, the entire surface of which was covered in spikes.
The 3 perpetrators shrinked away on their hands and asses as Niddhog stomped forward.
“I don’t care whether its your day off or National Morons Day. This is MY FORUM. And in here thy shall obey The Commandments!!!” Lightning crashes. (feel free to play the mp3).
“Oh great Niddhog, wielder of the Mighty Hammer of Bannage, we fall prostate before thee.”
“That’s protrate, not prostate. Your prostate is the thing you weren’t controlling in there when you pissed on the wall.” Nid corrected.
“Errr… Oh great Niddhog, please enlighten us once more as to The Commandments of the Forum”
“Very well….” And the people did cometh to the foot of Niddhog, and there he bestowed upon them the 10 Commandments of the FORUM.
“1. You shall fear no other MODS before me, for I R Nid, And I will whoop thou spurious asseth with this great Hammer.”
2. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in Neocron, or that is in the servers beneath: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I Reakktor Media am a jealous Company, visiting the iniquity of the lawyers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that pirate me; And showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commands and pay their subscriptions.
3. Thou shalt not misuse the name of Neocron, or its EGOS or its MODS, for we are cranky and don’t like it.
4. Thou shalt not have any other MMORPG before Neocron
5. Thou shalt not double post
6. Thou shalt always have a valid point when posting
7. Thou shalt not flame.
8. Thou shalt have a dictionary handy when posting, for 1337 is not a language, it be a headache in waiting.
9. Thou shalt not powerpost
10. Thou shall read NERD
Obey these commands and it shall go well with you. Break these commands and though shalt be struck down smitily to your 4th reroll.”
And all the people went away with renewed fear and awe of Niddhog. (NERD Note: Special thanks to Niddhog for helping to write these commandments, particularly # 2)
Meanwhile Tangent Technologies Command was making full preparations for their work for the next 2 weeks. With orders for work for NEXT’s special project, the new cruiser, the Phalanx Wall now being moved forward on the schedule, NDA’s call to kill The Cells, the City Mercs now requesting a LOT of demolition charges…. Business was good, but very frantic.
Meanwhile at Dome of York,
“But seriously, people want to come here!” Morpheous had been arguing his ass off with Sid all night as to why Dome of York should be available NOW (Big Red Subtitles slam down “THE FEELINGS MUTUAL!!!”). Unfortunately, Sid had an iron clad counterargument.
“I know you are but what am I?”
“THAT MAKES NO SENSE!!!”
“I know you are but what am I?”
“Look, if people came here, you’d be the king of all those people.”
“I know you are but what am I?”
“ARRRGGHHHHH!!!!!” The conversation believe it or not had actually carried on like that for 15 hours before Morpheous first said ‘arrggg’. We at NERD Inc would like to extend our congratulations for his restraint.
Meanwhile at Tech Haven.
Syntax-Error had taken charge in Tech Haven after Trillian had left. As a keen tactician, she was determined to make sure that if any more ground forces attempted to invade the Wastelands, Tech Haven would withstand it. The wars of the last year between the Fallen Angels and Tangent Technologies, that had stained the blue halls red, had prepared the citizens for long term invasions and they were prepared, but the idea this time had to be to repell all invaders from making it inside. But finally, Tech Haven had an ace up its sleeve. So today, Syntax had gone to talk to that ace.
“Hello DEATH.” Syntax said. DEATH had been sitting in a corner of Tech Haven sector 2 welding plate steel over the walls, as it had been instructed.
“Greetings Fallen Angels runner. What can I do for you today?” DEATH politely replied.
“I want you to become a weapon of mass destruction.” Syntax cut to the point.
“Ah. Ok.”
“Really?”
“No.”
“Since when do bots know sarcasm.”
“Since now. I’ve seen your bots try to fight, they can’t. I will not sacrifice myself if it means fighting alongside these piles of junk.”
“Well what would it take to convince you to help us defend Tech Haven?”
“What did you have in mind for me?” And so Syntax sat down at the FAB (Fallen Angels Bar) and explained to DEATH her plan for the defence of Tech Haven. Now, its not easy to gauge responses from a lifeless robot, but DEATH seemed to come alive and become quite animated as the explanation rolled on. It wasn’t long before the stick it called its head was nodding up and down in agreement to join the defence. Syntax was overjoyed, and now went to see Phoenix about part 2 of her plan.
Phoenix were also quite pleased with Syntax’ plans (and yes, to many FA’s this was a surprise. Some of Syntax’ other great plans in the past had not been so great, like the drink machine which looked like an olden day milkman, and you had to squeeze it between the legs to pump the drink out, or the plan where he tried to install a skylight in TH2 to make it more cheery and ended up dropping 6 tonnes of mountainside in on the poor vendors.) Phoenix immediately approved his request and got to work.
“Now all we need is a little time and a lot of firepower.” Syntax mused to herself.
On the other side of Crystal Fissure,
The Texpedition as Codi had called it had made it to the other side of the Fissure after dark, and had found a nice area to make camp. They had settled down for the evening and slept well after their long carriage ride. As morning rose on this day, they had awoken early and well refreshed and were now prepared to tackle the next section of their great trek.
As one looked northwards and eastwards from the Carriages landing point, one could see a giant hilly landscape. Dotted around were a few villages and 5 fortified outposts (which in point of fact from a distance looked far more menacing than the ones that were found in the currently mapped Wasteland. The 15 hauled their packs back on and began marching. By noon they reached the first village, a fairly empty location, but they were able to get up out of the marshy lands that they had been walking through and dry themselves under the noon sun.
“Is it just me or does it seem warmer here than it does back near Neocron?” McDanish asked.
“No, I think you’d be right there McD.” Reef replied.
“The people around here say that this is actually quite cool by their standards.” Warlock replied.
“We haven’t seen too many natives,” Lisa pointed out, “just those guys at VC, Codi and Callash.”
“Yes, we won’t see too many, if any at all till we reach Vagnass Fortress.”
“Did you go inside?” Trillian asked.
“No, and unless its necessary we probably won’t try this time either. This isn’t the time to be playing missionary with these folk. We should just move on or at worst get in and out as fast as possible.”
“Hehehehe Missionary…. In and out…. Heheheeh”
“SHUT UP EVA!!!” Everyone yelled.
After an hours break they began wading through the marshes towards the Fortress, as it was built on solid bedrock and would thus be easier walking. By 1500 Neocron standard they reached the bedrock and quickened their pace. That was until….
“Hold it right there!” A hidden sentry yelled. The 15 halted quickly, as a dozen armed guards sprang up from hiding spots and surrounded them.
“Who are you? Identify yourselves.” The sentry yelled.
“We are a party of travellers from the south, heading up past the White Mountain to see Balaran the Boatsman.” Warlock replied.
“You came this way before, didn’t you? Why have you returned so soon?”
“I went to see Balaran by myself. Now that I am convinced he is the man who can help us, I have brought my friends here to meet with him and talk business.”
“Uh huh…. And why do you travelled so heavily armed?” He looked at the large number of holstered weapons they were carrying.
“Be Safe in the Wastelands, that’s my clans motto!” Zane replied.
“You calling our beautiful fields a wasteland?” the sentry was enraged.
“Peace my good man, he means no disrespect to your lands. Where we come from the lands do not bear such life, and are rightly called the Wastelands, for a waste is all that they are now. He did not intend to infer any such title on the Watered Fields of Noir.”
“Noir?” Tricia asked.
“Yes, Noir. You others seem less knowledgeable than your well travelled friend, so for his sake I shall ignore your ignorance. This land you stand on.is that of Noir. For 6 months of the year, these lands are filled with water, and everything grows full and green, as you see it now. People rarely travel as it is difficult, but instead prepare for the time of harvest and choose to enjoy life.” The sentry explained.
“The lands are called Noir because for half the year, this land is full of water as you see it and the sun is always up, but during the other half, the water recedes and it will be constant night.” Warlock added.
“You are well informed traveller. It is during the Times of Noir that the 5 fortresses have battled against the creatures of the night, for during that time, their power is great. 40 years ago we struck down the creatures and took the land as our own finally. But we remember the Battles of the Long Dark and thus named our lands Noir.”
“That’s cool man.” Vain always liked war stories.
“Yes, it was…. Cool.” The sentry was not too familiar with the term but accepted the intention, “however now during the light months we have heard strange things. Giant whales with many men upon them and horrible screaming birds have passed across the sea heading south.”
“Yes, those ‘whales’ are called ships and they have been attacking our brethren to the south.”
“You fight against the masters of the whales?” Everyone was realising the sentry and his people were still a bit behind the times. It was often easy to forget that those who had not been exposed to the knowledge of the Ceres Discs were still living in a very basic, primitive fashion.
“Well, we don’t wish to fight with them, but they think we’ve tried to hurt them. Actually at some point in the future we will probably be trying to explain that to them.”
“Then today is a most fated day. Truly the Long Day has looked kindly on you. Some of the Whale Master’s have come to our city. They wish to speak with us about letting their birds nest near our city.”
“People from Tokyo II are here?” Diesel looked stunned.
“Tokyo… yes, they said they were from a place called Tokyo. Please, you must come with me anyway, as is our custom,” Warlock nodded, knowing that to refuse would cause far more problems, “and then you shall have a chance to speak with the Whale Masters. No weapons are allowed within the city, so you will be quite safe.” Everyone winced at the thought of going to face the Tokyo representatives without weapons. But like it or not, they walked to the city and surrendured their weapons. All except the Monks. For the people of Noir had never seen Psi Monks before. And neither in fact had the people from Tokyo II. Hence none of them had ever seen a Psi Gauntlet, and thus did not recognise it as a weapon.
They walked into the main square of Vagnass Fortress and met with the leaders of the Fortress and with the Tokians. They were shorter than most, with black hair and elongated eyes. But what they lacked in height they made up for in presence. Each Tokian stood in magnificent clothing, each one with carefully embroidered patterns of beasts, birds, creatures and plants. The colours were incredible, far better than anything the Outfitters back home had to offer. Each one also bore on their left hand a control panel, similar to a wrist mounted hacktool, but with far more options.
What perhaps should be noted was that the impressions the 15 had got of the outpost from afar were nothing compared to what they were thinking now. The outpost by far and large dwarfed all of the ones they had back home, being twice the diameter of the largest fortress. The outpost had battlements going all the way around the wall, where armed guards could stand and look out over the wall to see approacing people and vehicles. But perhaps even more impressive than all of that; the outpost actually had a gate. Once they had all stepped inside, the operators sealed the gate and the outpost became a true fortress. There was nowhere somone could just walk in. Furthermore, once the gate closed, large missile racks on the top of the battlements became active and started tracking for targets.
“Geez, this place has turrets that can target stuff outside the outpost, and everyone inside can fight from the inside while the gate holds people out! This is like the perfect outpost!” Crono whispered.
“Makes you wonder what went wrong with ours.” Keyser grumbled.
01-09-03, 00:02
NERD Editor
The Tokians were none too pleased to see them, but as their hosts were receiving the Texpedition warmly, they restrained themselves. The 15 sat down on one side of the room, facing the Tokians on the other side.
“Welcome travellers. Our city becomes most busy this day. Two sets of travellers have come together. This is a most blessed day.” The city elder, Nanchuu said.
“Thank you Honoured Elder. We come on a long journey that is far from over, but perhaps the Long Day has granted us good fortune to meet these travellers, as we had need to speak with them at some point in our travel.” Warlock said. The Tokians scowled.
“Indeed, the Long Day must be shining its light upon you.”
“Honoured Elder,” Aoi Jinei, head of Tokyo Strategic planning spoke up, “these travellers seek only to deceive. These are the evil ones of the south I mentioned, who have caused the earth to shake and now seek to leave us all to die!” The people of the city looked on and gasped.
“Is this true?” Nanchuu asked.
“No Elder,” Reef took his turn to talk, “the one who caused the earth to shake has already died. She was killed by a horrible creature that has been stalking the south, that kills and then turns its victims into more of themselves.” Again the cityfolk gasped in horror. The Tokians were not convinced.
“So the one who doomed us all is dead? How convenient?” Jinei replied.
“Hardly. This woman has set off a machine that if unchecked will destroy our whole world.” A few darted looks at Reef, wondering if he was giving away too much information, “That is what has brought us to the lands of Noir. We are searching for a solution to this calamity.”
“Is there any hope?” Nanchuu asked.
“There was. Some of our brethren had built a great vessel that could carry many thousands of lives away to a new land if we could not stop the destruction. But alas, thanks to a misunderstanding, the Whale Masters destroyed that vessel.” More gasps. This statement caused Jinei to twitch a little.
“Do you think you can find a solution?”
“It is difficult. Even now the Whale Masters do not believe that we wish to stop the destruction. They blame us and thus are attacking us. This is making it harder for us to find a solution.”
“You Lie. You started this!” Jinei yelled.
“I’m sure you believe that, but even if we did start it. We’re trying to fix it, what are you doing?” At this Jinei was silenced. It was true the Tokians had no plan to stop the destruction, merely to exact revenge for their inevitable deaths on the Neocronians before it was too late.
“This is most troubling. Whale Masters, we must ask you not to attack the travellers brethren!” Nanchuu said.
“You would choose their side so easily?” Jinei narrowed his eyes.
“They are trying to save our world. That means they have chosen everyones side.” The 15 were all grinning at this now. Jinei wasn’t.
“They are akuma’s and must die!!!!” Jinei signalled his guards who tapped buttons on their wrist panels. Energy whips dropped out and they began lashing the table to shreds.
“There must be no weapons inside our city!!” Nanchuu yelled.
“Well guess what Chief, there is. Whatcha gonna do about it?” And one of his guards struck at Nanchuu. Crono dived in the way and took the hit, which seared through his chestplate.
“Please, honoured travellers. Is there anything you can do?” Nanchuu whimpered.
“Now die!!!” Jinei bellowed. Diesel just grinned and snapped his fingers. Dark clouds appeared overhead and the Tokians looked on in surprise as a Holy Lightning blast crashed down right in the middle of the room.
“Leave… now…. Or McD and I shall reign fire upon you…” And they both snapped their fingers, and the clouds above lit up as if they were on fire. Jinei and his troops panicked and ran to the now opening gate.
“We will not forget this!” Jinei yelled as he ran.
“Well…. So much for peace talks.” Killer smirked.
“Kind travellers. You have saved my life and this city. And you even command the skies! Truly this is a wondrous day. Please, this night you stay with us as honoured guests.” Nanchuu brought them up to the main building where they did indeed enjoy a stay worthy of honoured guests.
Night fell back on Neocron, but the Fortress experienced endless light.
“This is freakn weird. How ya supposed to sleep with the sun still out?” Eva asked.
“Oh, that’s easy. We sleep underground.” Nanchuu replied. They went underground and slept well, and looked forward to the next day.
D minus 169 days
Early in the next morning (or so they guessed, as it was hard to tell) the Texpedition got up and left with fond farewells, the backwater but extremely nice city of Vagnass. About 20 minutes out, they were walking up a hill to the north.
“Geez Warlock you found some nice places. You know, when we’ve saved the world and everythings sweet again, we should take another trip this way, you know, to explore.” Said Trillian.
“Yeah I agree,” Lisa backed her sister up, “we definitely need to…. What is that noise?” a high pitch whistle was growing ever louder in everyones ears. Then all of a sudden the ground shook. They turned to look behind them and were faced with a terrible sight.
Shell after shell impacted with Vagnass as the carrier group berthed in the bay to the west bombarded the city. The walls exploded and debris was sent flying as the agrarian populace was slaughtered. And the 15 could only stand on watching helplessly as their new found friends were repayed by the Tokians for their hospitality in blood. Slowly and feeling like the weight of the world had been dumped on their shoulders, they turned back northward and started walking again. They had walked maybe an hour in total silence when Tricia snapped.
“THOSE PANTSLESS SWINE!!! How could they do that? They couldn’t fight back. They’re worse than DICK’s.”
“Come on, what’re we doing heading north. We should head west, maybe we can get some revenge.” Diesel suggested. A few others murmerred their assent.
“No.” Trillian, normally the most eager for a good fight, stopped them short, “our mission is more important than that. We will have a chance to right the score later I’m sure.” They grew silent.
“Here’s the real problem,” McDanish spoke, “they just ripped that outpost to shreds and that one is far bigger and better than any we have down south. If they bring that kind of firepower to bear on the Wastelands….”
“Then the work they’re doing down there will be screwed up!” Lisa panicked. And it was true. That night, just before the attack on Vagnass, the carrier group in the North harbour had began shelling the northern wastelands. Drakkhan Fortress was no more and Rockshore Factory would not last another day. The Military Base was attacked late in the afternoon, but fortunately the anti projectile defence system was working and the barrages could not destroy the base. But it was not known how long they could hold out against a sustained barrage. And none were to know that 2 more carrier groups were coming to join in the assault.
Later that evening, camped in a ditch in the shade of some trees, still in the Lands of Noir,
“When I was in Tokyo II last time, I got some information about those carrier groups,” Warlock began, “apparently the main battleship has a very special item on board.”
“What kind of item?”
“A generep.”
“WHA????” Everyone exclaimed.
“Yeah. Apparently the battleships have enough power to keep a mobile generep active at all times. This allows them to transport troops to and from the main city and in between the carrier groups.”
“And this helps us how?” Download asked.
“Well, if we can get to Tokyo II and get the Generep codes, we could transport an assault squad onboard one of the carrier groups. It might not be much, but it could help.”
“Yeah, but that would alert them to our presence.” Vain pointed out.
“True. If we tried this, it would have to be done as two separate squads. One offensive against the carriers, and one stationary planting the bomb. The offensive squad might actually prove to distract them long enough for us to get set up with the bomb.”
“Ok, so we get a squad onboard a carrier. What then? How could even all of us take on an entire carrier group? You saw what we had to fight when they attacked the Wastelands.” Crono grumbled.
“Yes but remember that Tokian guy at Vagnass. He was terrified of the Monks. We send Eva, Zhut, Diesel and McDanish to attack the carrier group. They unleash every barrel, every trick every lightning bolt they can till they take the main battlecruiser, then they turn the cruiser on the rest of the group. That should either severely cripple an entire group or perhaps even destroy it. Then, they either generep to the next group, or they end the mission. As I said, its not much, but its something.” And so it was that the 15 devised a strategy to help out their brethren back home. The only question now was whether it would be enough.
D minus 168 days.
“Take Cover!!!” Syntax yelled as more Fallen Angels were rushed inside Tech Haven. The air raids had begun during the night and were now persisting. Tech Haven was perhaps the safest place, as the surrounding turrets had lots of practice at shooting down flying targets (the ever annoying Hoverbots had paid the price for that training). But even so, the air assault was frantic and they rushed to get people to safety.
“This is gonna be rough.” Syntax murmerred to herself as she slammed down the blast doors on the TH entrances.
The Military Base had divided its forces into 3. 1 third continued to dig. 1 third slept. The other third were outside, assisting the defence system in intercepting incoming fire. This team spread out across the zone and were shooting down incoming missiles and shells. As the bombardment entered its 26th hour, a convoy from Tangent arrived, bringing more supplies and much needed munitions.
“Send word back to Neocron!” one of the Guards yelled, “the MB is under seige. Have them analyse this cylinder and tell us what it is, and if it can be used at all.” They loaded the convoy with one of the large cylinders they had found, “we need to break this bombardment. The defenice system won’t run for more than 3 days straight.” The convoy left at high speed for home.
The air raid siren was blaring throughout all of Neocron. Banshee fighters were screaming towards the city, and it was all that the Firewreathes could do to stop missiles from blasting away the outer walls.
Twilight Guardians was faring the worst. With no fighters, no anti projectile system and no turrets, the Canyon was being bombed back to the stone age. After 4 hours of bombardment, the order was given to evacuate Twilight Guardians and make for Tech Haven. And the order could not have come sooner. For escorted by a half dozen Banshee’s came the Tokians Commander of the Skies. The Payloader bomber flew over TG, dropping Seismec charges. Within 3 minutes the canyon walls had completely crumbled, and the great stronghold of Twilight Guardians was reduced to a giant crater.
And then it began….
The exhausted Mercs who were taking their turn to sleep were abruptly woken up just as night was falling when the entire Wasteland shuddered. A screeching sound blared across the wastes and then it struck. As the forward cannons of the Arbalest, the largest Battlecarrier of the Tokain fleet opened fire, the shells screeched through the air and pounded into the wastelands around Redrock Mine. Sides of the mountain were flung into the air, and the 90 day bombardment began. For the next 90 days the Wastelands would be shelled continuously. Every runner wishing to travel had to do so at pace in order to limit the chances of being caught by artillery fire. The darkest chapter of Neocron’s history had found a new shade of black.
Until next time….
01-09-03, 02:39
Wannabe
"It was a late night when Wannabe got back to his Plaza 1 apartment. He was so tired after a batch job of 1000 psi booster 3 blueprints some monk had ordered. Of course he knew the psi monks name and for some reason, she had sounded quite familiar to him. Perhaps it was just a name that was common on the Crahn faction but nonetheless, Wanna was just too tired to start thinking of anything other than a cold beer and a warm bed.
Wanna woke up early that day. His, let's just say, tender places, where hurting like hell as was his head and chest. "God dam p.o.s. Biotech implants. Can't take a few hits from Chaos minions until they break down". But alas, it wasn't the truth... something strange had happened.
MJS had walked upon the land that night and he was really thirsty. As it was late, none of the stores or vendors wouldn't sell him alcoholic drinks (Damn CA!) and our friend, Wanna, was the only runner who had his own private stash of cron 55 beer, MJS's favorite beer.
MJS snapped his fingers and teleported, invisibly of course, to wanna's apartment just at the precise moment Wanna drank his last beer. MJS was devasteted! The last of the beers in NC was drank, and it wasn't MJS who had drank it! It was a lowly droner/researcher spy who had done it.
So he came up with a plan of vengeange. As wanna was quite the ladies man (especially if the lady was a psi monk.. and a hot one!) he decided to make him suffer. A lot.
So, during the night, MJS snapped his fingers couple of times, laughed out loud for a while, and disappeared. Thirsty of course, like one of the Jeriko vendors found out during the first light of the morning."
Soo.... still here, under a disguise of a ... Ah.. I'll let you guys find out what class I'm currently playing =)
// Wannabe
01-09-03, 22:44
NERD Editor
Hmn Hmn.... still no volunteers for the singing job.
Come on people help me out here. This is the song I want to mail to KK offices and have Teh KillerBunneh stick it on everyone's work machine so that they play it 20 times a day and find it a source of supreme motivation to 'do' something important.
But, if no volunteer shows up, it'll just show up as lyrics again at the very end of Issue 50.
Alright, in other news, Part 4 of Issue 50 will probably not be today as I'm estimating it will be about 15 - 20 pages to type up, which is equal to the length of Issue 20. After that, as long as I can sum the will up, Part 5 will complete Issue 50.
But yeah, come on everyone. Sing a song, be a NERD, make my day. Don't tell me Danae's got more balls than the rest of you.... (wait... lemme rephrase that)
*signs off as Danae starts choking the life outta N'ed*
07-09-03, 06:14
NERD Editor
Dum dee dum....
Naggy fans always demanding more and showering me with their adulation....
Right, it seems there may be hope for the the NERD: Music Project which I am quite happy about and as a result I'll put a motor on Part 4 and get it done asap. Was getting a little depressed at the idea that this particular song might not get done.
So... anyone figured out how Issue 50's gonna end yet? Just before anyone asks, no all of these new locations do NOT exist, nor are these spoilers I've stolen from KK's hidden box of tricks. The whole journey to Tokyo(Tokio) II part of the story is entirely made up out of my head, and is at best just a suggestion to KK (particularly the members of the team who read this) of ideas to be put in in the future.
I'm in a killing mood btw, hence at least 3 people are gonna die real soon as we approach Part 5, the final part of Issue 50.
Will the clock reach D minus zero? Am I the kind of writer who would let the world blow up as an ending? Am I wearing a thong right now? Did you really want that image in your head? No.
Anyway, hopefully, Part 4, within the next 24 hours.
07-09-03, 14:12
NERD Editor
Part 4: The 90 Days of Fire
The following is the account of the Wastelands and those in them during the time referred to as ‘The 90 Days of Fire’. The tale of the Texpedition will be told thereafter.
D minus 167 days.
24 hours into the bombing and there looked to be no signs of it letting up. The once all to familiar hills and ditches of the wastelands were now just endless fields of unfamiliar craters. Fires burned throughout the forests, dirt mixed with the pools and lakes to create giant sinkholes of mud. Hills were flattened, flats were made into ditches and ditches into chasms. The skies above the Wastelands turned a dead brown as dust was thrown into the atmosphere, blocking the sun, clouding all light, and darkening the land. The only saving grace was that the amount of particulate matter in the sky made it impossible for Tokyo forces to travel very far with their air units. The Firewreathes could still manoevre, but only at very low alititudes. And all across the land, runners ran and hid inside whatever shelters they could get to. Even the wasteland creatures were hiding. The once proud and daunting Grim Chasers could be found cowering in crevices of cliffs, confused by the big booms going on around them. It was a bad time for all.
However, some people just won’t take a hint.
For early on this morning, with the shelling slamming around them, a contingent of NDA were spotted marching towards Regants Legacy. When asked what had posessed them to go NOW of all times, they replied that they were going to fight The Cells. And faced with that opponent, did a few hundred artillery shells really matter? Unsurprisingly that was the end of the debate and Centuri marched his scout force to take a crack at The Cells, their first attempt to slay them.
At around 2115 Neocron standard, the convoy carrying the cylinder from the Military Base was nearing Crest Village. It had been a long drive, having to divert and veer past artillery fire all night. They had taken a break under the shelter of Tech Haven’s onramps for a few hours during the morning, while the shelling was lightest, but were now on the move. However, as they neared Crest, an especially heavy barrage began slamming down around them. Shell after shell blew away the road as the truck veered left and right, desperate to keep going and not wind up in a ditch.
“This is crazy!! We’re gonna be killed!” the navigator yelled.
“Shut Up!! We’re gonna make i…..” a shell slammed into the back of the truck and into the cylinder they were carrying.
2117 NST (Neocron Standard Time), Outzone Station Wasteland Gate
Kramer The Weird and Carinth were helping to repair part of the Outzone ramp that had been damaged during the night when a brilliant flash of light illuminated the darkened wasteland. Then the shockwave hit and they were knocked off their feet. The dust in the skies cleared quickly as a sandstorm rushed across the land in a growing circle being forced out by the fusion explosion by Crest village. Citizens inside the city felt the shockwave crash into the outer walls and ran to their terminals or to a nearby city exit to see what Tokyo II had just shot at them
In fact it was not Tokyo II that had shot anything at them, but rather one of their shots had triggered off the weapon that the convoy was carrying. For had Reza still been alive, and had he seen the cylinders that the Mercs had uncovered, he would have recognised them immediately for what they were. Cold Fusion Long Range Missile Warheads.
When news of the explosion spread to the Mercs, they were still not fully aware of what they had in their posession, only that they should not try to transport any more of them at this time. It would be 3 days before the truth of what they were would be revealed by tests on the explosion data.
D minus 166 days
PIMP sent out scouts to determine the fate of Crest Village in the morning. Where once a com-tower and small village had stood, where once Padre Morpheous had lived, now there were the burnt out hulks of what were once buildings, if one used their imagination. Essentially there was littke more than a few burnt logs of timber and steel sticking out of the centre of a 2 mile wide blast circle. Amazingly the generep was still standing, or rather, leaning, on the side of the blast circle.
NDA reached The Legacy during the night, but didn’t begin their assault till morning. But once they began, it was all out war. Using every kind of poison weapon they had been able to acquire, they first cornered and then began to push back The Cells. 6 monks created a wall of Holy Pestilence blight around The Legacy, while Centuri and others fired long range poison rounds at the mass. Late that night the second squad of NDA showed up to relieve the first, and thus began their prolonged assault on the Legacy.
“Ok, I think these ones are ready to try out Sid!” Morpheous yelled. Sid came down from his quarters and ordered the newly equipped DrillBots to begin boring. The mechanical giants stooped, pointed their shoulder mounted drills at the ground and began ripping the terrain to shreds.
“Yesss precious… it has dones wells. Its r l337 2.” Sid patted Morpheous on the back in congratulations of his fine work.
“Thanks Sid. Now if we can just make the required depth in time.”
Dark had moved to the Crahn Sect recently and had got stuck into helping with the excavation to set the bomb in place. Delloda was doing his best to organise the effort so that the bomb would both be deep enough to have the required effect, and also so that it did not destroy the Abbey when it blew.
Over the next two weeks, things carried on much as they had the last two days. The bombings continued, but as with all irritatitng things in Neocron, the runners got used to them and began to function reasonably well despite the constant threat to their lives. The Drillbots made a depth of 500 metres, the City Mercs had excavated a solid mile straight down, and at D minus 157 days, NDA was able to see a noticable shrinkage in The Cells mass. It would still be a long time before they could be obliterated, but progress was being made. But also, the walls of Neocron had been under heavy construction, despite the danger to the workers. The ‘Phalanx Wall’ project was going ahead full speed, and much to the average runners delight, the finished sections of the wall seemed to resist all damage from the artillery bombardment.
D minus 152 days
A meeting between The City Mercs and Tangent and NEXT resulted in the cylinders being moved to one of the Storage Halls, behind the locked blast doors, a sealed location within the Military Base. There, a few engineers from the 3 factions began working on a launch system. A plan had been hatched to save their skins, should the SWG machine be unsuccesful in ending the world.
Meanwhile, atop an unaffected cliff, overlooking the wastelands, MJS sat and glared. Despite the futility and hopelessness of the situation, every runner in the south was actively busy, perhaps even happy. They had less than 6 months to live, were being bombed back to the stone age, and faced possible invasion from a technologically superior force at any time, yet they worked their asses off with smiles on their faces. This annoyed MJS more than anything. He would have his Armageddon, no matter what it took.
D minus 131 days
In an incident that would have had the Mercs giving up all hope, had it not been for their bravery, the Mercs found themselves boxed in on two fronts this day. They had made such incredible progress towards meeting their required depth of 2.5 miles. With only 200 yards to go, they had reached an impass. Solid iron ore blocked them the rest of the way, and their current digging tools would work no longer. They were going to attempt to race to Dome of York to see if a Drill bot drill might be effective when the ground war began. 37 days into the bombardment, Tokyo II began rolling troops in to invade the Military base. With the bases satellites and advanced warning grid all smashed during the bombardment, they were taken by surprise, and Shinobi-warriors had made it all the way into Sector 1 before the Mercs could retaliate. The Shinobi’s raced straight in and sabotaged the Generep, making it impossible for reinforcements to travel directly to them. But this in itself was their downfall. The Mercs that had been resting flooded from their apartments and cornered the bulk of the Shinobi-warriors in the Generep room, which as many runners will know, is a slaughterhouse. The Mercs are many things in life: brave and strong, ballzy and sometimes a little stupid with their gung ho attitude. But undoubtedly, when you wake a Merc from his or her sleep with the sound of gunfire, and when they retaliate, they are merciless. The Mercs crashed down on the Tokyo forces, some of which were only half dressed having rushed off their Recreation units so fast, and annihilated them with terrifying efficiency. The Tokians were marching 3 Raijuta’s to the gate of the Military Base, when their forces inside began retreating, as over 100 Mercs, all packing Speedguns hailed rapid death their way. Then, the Mercs decided to get one up on the 80 tonne monsters. The call was sent back and the newest additions to the MB’s defences was activated. 4 large guns popped up from the cliffs nearby and targetted the Raijuta’s. The weapons had originally been designed to deal with the annoying Warbots that kept trying to walk into the MB’s outer yard. Each gun had a giant Harpoon that it launched and smashed through the chassis of a Warbot, killing it instantly, and dragging its corpse away from the entrance to MB. The 4 guns fired at the Raijuta’s. 2 harpoons slammed through the cocpits and killed the pilots immediately, and then dragged 2 near perfect condition Raijuta’s out of the line of fire. One missed entirely and wound up crushing 2 dozen ground troops. The fourth speared into the Raijuta’s fusion reactor, causing it to go critical. The Raijuta exploded in a mini nuclear blast, wounding 8 mercs but killing over 50 Tokians. With this quick retaliation, the Merc’s forced the attack back and sent them retreating back to the North Sea. Tired, but victorious, the Merc’s returned to their much tougher opponent, 200 yards of Iron ore.
The Phalanx Wall was completed, although still no details of what it was were forthcoming. Tangent turned its attention to assisting NEXT with their special project.
NDA had been quite successful during the last week. They had beaten The Cells back far enough that they could actually see the surface of the Legacy again. But now The Cells were becoming more ferocious, forming tentacles and actually throwing things like boulders and steel girders at the troops.
The excavation of the Abbey of Crahn was completed. By placing a blast cover over the pit, the Abbey was ensured to survive the blast. But this was not why the Crahn Sect was happy. During the dig, they had located a pod, buried several hundred metres below the surface. Without informing any other diggers they transported it to a secret location within the Outzone, where they placed it under the heaviest of guard.
07-09-03, 14:13
NERD Editor
D minus 100 days
There were many excited runners throughout the Wastelands this day as a signal came through from the Texpedition. The details of some of those conversations will be provided later, but in particular, after a heated argument, Kramer The Weird walked away from the terminal, after talking with Lisa, and did not talk much for several days. But, for the rest of Neocron, it was the best of news to know that the Texpedition, despite some stumbles, were still on track in their mission.
After 68 days of bombardment, enough was enough. NEXT high command decided now was the time, especially considering the Ethalica would be ready for testing in a week. And so it was that PIMP, DR, SXR, DICK’s, and the Crackheads were given command of the first fleet of Hovertanks by NEXT command. 200 of the Hovertanks burst forth from the West Hanger, skimming over the craters towards the north. By mid afternoon, the battlegroup had made it to Rockshore and skimmed straight out onto the ocean and towards the Carrier groups (for now a 2nd group had joined the first). That afternoon, the first real fightback against the Tokians began. The carrier groups scrambled all their air forces, but it was not working as well as they had hoped. The dust in the sky made it so that none of their fighters could get any altitude or speed, hence they were easy pickings for the FireWreathe squadron that had accompanied the Hovertanks. The ‘choppers’ that were launched were quickly destroyed, as the ‘Whiplash’ hovertank, a mobile missile launcher tank, shot them out of the sky with terrifying efficiency. The ‘Behemoth’ hovertank, with its dual Fusion Cannons bombed the hulls of the ships as it glided inbetween and the ‘Pelter’ hovertank with its 4 multi-directional Gatling Cannons targetted the crews and any other air units nearby. By late evening the battle had forced the carrier groups to move to deeper waters in order to get distance between the ships so that they could fire on the Hovertanks. The battle continued on for 10 days before both sides eventually pulled back to refuel and rest. During that time, bombardments of the Wastelands were considerably less, although a third Carrier group joined the bombardment while the other two fought the hovertanks, hence the difference was not easy to notice.
D minus 90 days
The Hovertank battalion pulled into the Military Base for a breather, after 10 days of solid fighting. It had done everyone’s spirits a world of good to actually be able to fight back against the Tokians, rather than just enduring everything they had been throwing at them. The gunners and drivers alike took in some solid rest time at the MB, and also stopped to observe what was going on with the dig.
It had been painfully slow, but the Mercs had made progress. They had broken out a large number of Laser Cannons and had been systematically cutting sections of iron ore out, and incidentally had been piling it up around the MB walls to reinforce their defensive perimeter. They currently had 80 yards to go till they reached their objective. Hope was good that they would make it well in time.
NDA had been going bezerk. It had literally been months since they started the battle with The Cells, and every member of the clan was tired, wired and pissed to high hell. In the entire history of the clan there had never been an opponent that had fought them this well and for this long. But at long last the tide had turned. The Cells were barely holding the entrance to the Legacy any longer, instead of covering the entire structure in a giant ball of themselves. They had, however, become more adept at projectiles. Not only were they now throwing smaller sharp objects in large numbers at NDA, but they would also attach some of themselves to the objects and leap from the already fast moving projectiles at those members that were already diving out of the way. Hence while NDA was fast approaching its objective of killing The Cells, every day saw them receiving more injuries, more casualties and more rage.
Sid and Morpheous however were in full celebration mode. They were less than 2 weeks from reaching the required depth, and the bots were making no signs of slowing down. Hence they were now entertaining themselves by teaching the DeltaGens new dance moves for their nightly karaoke sessions. The 500 beefy gentanks in intimidating power armour all doing the Macarena in complete unison was a lot disturbing, by the way….
D minus 79 days
The details of what happened were not clear to anyone in the Wastelands for a long time to come. All they knew was that in the early hours of the morning the bombardment of the wastelands was cut short and the only explosions that could be heard were coming from the North Sea.
When the Hovertank batallion arrived, refreshed and ready to fight again, they were confronted with a sight they had not expected. Half the ships were sinking, and the other half were already on fire. Not that this mattered much to them. The battalion laid seige to the fleets and began sinking the ships one after another. But, there was one battlecruiser, the head of the 3rd fleet, that was still unscathed. The other ships were surrounding it as a large and unknown gun on the bow seemed to be powering up.
“I don’t know what that is, but it can’t be good.” Kramer yelled.
“Let’s smash it!!” Carinth yelled back. Everyone agreed that smashing was the appropriate response to the curious situation, and began to focus all firepower on the gun.
Onboard the cruiser….
The crew was already dead. Only one individual still remained on board, and began to manipulate the controls for the Bow Railgun.
“Weaklings. You shall not allow them to save this world. I will have my Armageddon.” And MJS tapped the control, and the Railgun turned to face the East and fired.
“Damn, the gun’s firing!” Carinth moaned.
“Nothing we can do about that now, lets sink some ships.” Others yelled back to him. By the end of the day the remains of the 3 fleets had been sunk and the 90 days of fire came to a close. Well, almost….
“Yo Sid, I think we could actually send the bomb down now!” Morpheous called up.
“Reallys? Sweeetssss.” Sid ran up to his office and tapped some controls. A crane lowered the bomb into the crevice, to join the Drillbots in the deep.
“What’s I set the timer to?” Sid called down.
“59 days.” Morpheous called back up. Sid inputted the time and sat back.
“We’s dids it Precious. We is so uber l337, we is soo goodss. Yesss.” Morpheous went back to adjusting the Drillbots commands to finish the work, and then closed the cover over the hole.
And then there was pain.
The railgun round smashed through the Dome and blasted through the primary tower, exactly at the height where the bomb had been suspended. The round passed straight out the other side of the Dome and bored its way 30 miles through a nearby mountainside.
Morpheous dug himself out from a pile of debris and looked around. The Dome had been shattered, with two giant holes on opposite sides. But the main tower, from the middle up, had been obliterated. And Morpheous’ eyes narrowed and went weak as he realised that Sid’s office was part of the carnage.
“Sid?? SIDD!!!!!!” Morpheous was cut short when a cloud of smoke burst forth in front of him from out of nowhere and reformed into MJS.
“You… You dared to oppose me?” MJS’ eyes blased with fury. He reared back and kicked Morpheous right under the jaw, sending him flying out of the Dome and across 4 zones before landing on top of a barbed fence, impaled on the spikes.
“None shall oppose me. My will SHALL BE DONE!!!!” MJS roared with anger and the entire Dome shook to its very foundations. The Dome further fractured, the central tower crumbled some more and the entire Dome of York was left a barren, lifeless wreck. Then, MJS departed in the same menacing cloud of wreathing smoke as he had arrived in.
But the Drillbots went unnoticed and carried on with their work.
Morpheous respawned back near Tangent HQ and after a moment to get over having been drop kicked 500 miles and then impaled, reported his news to his superiors.
Sid however, only had one active generep, after his banishment from Neocron, and that generep was in his office. Hence Sid died, once and for all, and the only items that could revive him, his own underwear, had been annihilated in the process.
Thus Insidious Wolf and Precious parted from this world, never to return again. Morpheous, however, would not forget his time he spent with the Lord of the Dome.
NDA had pushed The Cells back into the Legacy. They welded up the cracks in the walls of the Legacy and created a Poison barrier across the entrance, and were thus able to finally take a break. Thus on the very night when the bombardments ended and Sid died, NDA rested.
The Hovertank batallion returned to Neocron just before midnight. They listened to Morpheous’ tale, and pondered what else MJS would do to ensure the end of the world came about.
Thus ends the tale of the 90 Days of Fire.
07-09-03, 14:15
NERD Editor
Here begins the story of the 15 Fallen Angels, and their experiences during the same time frame.
D minus 167 days
The same day that Neocron was waking up to a blackened sky of dirt and the beginning of 3 months of hell, the 15 of the Texpedition were marching silently northwards. The destruction of Vagnass had demoralised the entire team, and they had all vowed not to stop at any more of the outposts, as it would put the citizens in danger if they did.
“Killer, you and Vain take point ok?” Warlock requested. The two rifle users moved to the forefront and scouted ahead.
“How many more days till we reach that?” Lisa asked, pointing to Mount Terafice, looming ever larger on the horizon.
“I’d say another 20 days of reasonable walking, maybe less if we hurry. It’ll be a fair hike over the top though.”
“Well lets hurry it up.”
For the next 15 days, they marched through moist, but not boggy marshlands. The moisture made sleeping a problem, as they had to hunt out rocky outcroppings or anything that wasn’t on the ground, but it did not hamper their speed. Each night they would sit back and Reef would pass around some of his stash to lift morale. Every morning the gentanks would waken everyone with their trademark ‘good morning’ call. The lands around them were fairly dull in appearance, being just wide open green fields for miles, but on occasion, whenever they came upon an abandoned village or outcropping, they would find wooden crates and other boxes. And unlike back home, these boxes would often contain interesting treasures. It was far more pleasing to search a crate and find an abandoned utensil like a ‘fork’ or a screenshot called a ‘painting’ that they could later take home to their apartments stowed around the place. Some of the stuff was so damaged it was unusable, but certainly the scavenger in Reef and Lisa took over during the march to find new and interesting things. It was thanks to this searching that Lisa found a Tokian wrist unit thrown behind a barrel.
“Wonder how it works?” Zane asked. Killer took a good long look at it.
“I’ll bet its con…. I’ll bet its compa…. Guys, help me out… Insert big word here, starts with c” Killer sometimes had trouble with big words.
“Constipated.” Trillian smirked.
“Right, I’ll bet its constipated….. DAMNIT!!” The others laughed. Lisa however found a hidden button on the inner side of the straps and pressed it. The wrist unit latched onto her arm and became active. It had an option for language modes, including Tokian (a language called ‘Japanese’) a computer coding language that only Reef and Zhut could read, and Neocronian, or ‘Japlish’ as the unit called it.
“I select Japlish.” Lisa commanded the unit. It then presented everything in English, but with Japanese grammer.
“Use energy blade, will you? Record data, want to? Geez this is gonna take some getting used to.” Lisa commented.
D minus 152 days
The 15 got up early this morning as they stood at the base of Mount Terafice.
“We won’t be going to the peak. See that pass between the peak and that smaller peak on its right? That is our road.” Warlock pointed out. Everyone, as previously instructed, prepared their weapons.
For two days they marched through wind and snow. There was nothing to see, and nothing to do but march as the cold fronts hammered them from the left, the right, and from behind. Everyone had to remove their powerarmours again as they cold began to seize them up and make it impossible to walk. This unfortunately had the result of making things even colder. The march however was making good time, and they crossed the pass and were out on the other side by the end of the 2nd day of the march. But there before them lay an area they were perhaps not in such a rush to get to. The Valley of Night. Where the Lands of Noir saw daylight for 6 months then night for 6 months, the Valley of Night saw complete darkness all the time, with only one exception. One day a year, for a period of 5 hours, the valley would be lit with an eerie moonlight. During those 5 hours it was said in folktale by those that lived near the valley, that a great and mysterious beast walked the valley. Of course, none of the storytellers had ever seen the beast so they could not describe it. But just to make their far-fetched story sound really good, it was said the creature guarded a hidden treasure from before the days of the Cleansing Light; from before the 3rd World War.
D minus 150 days
“Eva, stop nibbling on my ear….” Vain muttered to himself, curled up with everyone in a rocky overhang, “I know I said I like it… but….ow… come on…. Ow…OW….OWWW!!!!” Vain lept to his feet, stepped on Zane’s nuts, kicked Eva in the boob, tripped over Reef’s head and landed ass first on Crono’s face. Consequently Vain was not a popular boy. But he had reacted with good cause. For once everyone was awake, they all crammed into one corner, and looked upon…. A Snowster.
“Warlock, what do we do?” Reef called, but Warlock, who had been on guard duty the last 3 nights, was still fast asleep, and was just inches from the Snowsters saber-buckteeth. Killer took the initiative, lept forward and took aim with his Pain Easer. The Snowster, without even blinking, leaned forward, bit his Pain Easer, and swalled the entire gun in one go.
“It ate my Pain Easer…. IT ATE MY FREAKN 4 slot Pain Easer…. ONOZ!!!!!” Killer was going nuts. Trillian took aim with her Liberator, but with lightning speed the Snowster bounded forward, ate that too, then bounded back to where it was before.
“IT ATE MY UBER LIBBY!!! KEEELL IT!!!” During all the ruckus, Warlock woke up. He looked around blearily at everyone, highly annoyed at being woken up, then looked to his left into the beady eyes of the Snowster. He grimaced, curled up his fist and punched it in the nose. The Snowster whimpered and bounded off down the hill.
“That’s it??? We lost 2 freakn guns and all we had to do was punch it in the nose?” Trillian was about to cry.
“You lost guns? Ughhh, hang on.” Warlock pulled out a trash hand grenade and lobbed it over to where the Snowster had been sitting. The Snowster ran back in blinding pace and swallowed the grenade, then exploded into little furry bits. Two guns, covered in gibs lay on the ground.
“Snowsters will eat just about anything metal. They’re bloody annoying if you don’t have a grenade with you.” Warlock mumbled as he went back to sleep. Killer and Trillian spent hours cleaning their prized guns back up and hugged them repeatedly. The rest of the day was uneventful, involving just more marching. And at some point that would have been early night, they entered the long dark of the Valley of Night.
D minus 149 days.
Thus began the 3 week walk to get through the Valley of Night. The darkness was so thick, being more than just an absence of light, but also a thick mist that reduced vision to only 5 metres ahead. Everyone with flashlights brought them out. For 3 days they marched without incident, but then they met their first obstacle, the Ramshedds. A giant creature, with 4 legs, a large frame, and 4 large tusks pointing out the front, it had a skin entirely of bone.
“Damnit, what do we do?” Zane called, as he whipped at the creature to keep it at bay. This worked only for a few seconds, as the whip wrapped around a tusk and the Ramshedd flung Zane out of sight and into a rocky outcrop.
“I don’t know, I got through here without fighting anything.” Warlock called, not realising Zane was no longer with the group, nor was he conscious. Everyone grabbed their weapons and just blasted the creature, but it was having little effect.
“Either this thing has the biggest healthbar ever, or we need to find a weak spot.” Diesel growled. He was not used to having things he could not kill. All of a sudden Crono and Keyser charged forwards, and light burst from their hands as their Banana’s of Death, their Devil’s Graces surged from the handles and the two began hacking away at the monster. Pained by a strike through its leg, the Ramshedd reared back on its hind feet, and exposed its underbelly, which had no bone coverings. The two Gentanks plunged their blades into its gut and carved out the Ramrodd, the creature that controlled the bone frame. For the Ramshedd was actually an armoured chassis of old bones, that the clever little Ramrodd’s used to protect their physically weak forms. Now it was time for the spy’s to take action. Using their cloaks, Warlock, Reef and Vain stealthed the Ramrodd as it hid from the Gentanks, appeared behind it, and blasted it with their weapons. They checked the corpse but it had nothing of value.
“Zane? Where’s Zane?” Download asked. Everyone looked but could not find him.
For the next day they searched, bound together by a rope, looking for Zane. Eventually it was Trillian who found Zane, lying unconscious on the rocks and bleeding from the skull. They constructed a carry cart out of the bones of the Ramshedd and carried him with them. Zhut took charge in healing his wounds, and Trillian attended to him when Zhut could not.
During the nights, the 14 would form a circle around Zane, all facing outwards, watching for things that moved. And things were moving. For as had been dreaded, the Valley had come to life at this time of year. Small things scuttered, larger things dragged themselves along, but worst of all were the Grocks. Flying creatures with rocky underbelly’s that made them nearly impossible to kill from the ground. The team managed to kill one during their walk, when the Rifle users found a raise group of rocks to snipe from as a Grock dived at Zane’s stretcher. Trillian was wounded during the fight, as she threw herself over the stretcher to protect Zane’s prostrate (that’s prostrate readers, as in wide open, not prostate, the thing that’s up his peepee) body and was clawed at. But they killed the Grock and were able to extract Feranganol, a potent drug that allows the user to see through solid objects, from the body (although they did not know what it was or what it did till they reached the village).
Finally, through much toil and struggle, they exited the mists of the Valley of Night and reached the Seminut Peninsula.
07-09-03, 14:16
NERD Editor
D minus 127 days
The party reached the village Warlock had spoken of and brought Zane to their medical facility. Zane’s coma was in part due to a broken implant that needed to be manually extracted, but also due to a condition called Mist Seepage. The mist itself can infect certain individuals, particularly when they are injured, and cause their very minds to black out. Zane took 2 more days to heal before he was fully back on his feet.
But the delay was not the end of their bad news.
“You can’t be serious!” Warlock was severely agitated.
“I’m sorry Mr. The Hermit, but it is true. The Tokians came a few weeks ago and carried Balaran the Boatsman away. We have been in dire need of his skills, as it is the season to fish, but we do not have enough boats.” Hikedi, the towns spokesman informed him. This was dire news. Balaran had been a key part of the plan. Without a boat, how would they reach Tokyo II?
“So what do we do?” Download asked.
“I have no idea.” Warlock replied. The 15 now sat around, pondering their next move. They had only 4 months till the end of the world, and now they were sitting around Zane’s bed, eating Fushu fruit and trying to figure out how to cross the sea to Tokyo II.
“Can we fly?” Zane asked.
“Can’t fly, nothing to fly with.” Reef replied.
“Can we swim?” Lisa asked.
“Can’t swim, too far, and we can’t get the bomb wet.” McDanish pointed out.
“Can we walk?” Vain asked.
“Can’t walk, its an island, not land connects to it.” Warlock pointed out.
“Then can we make our own boat?” Killer asked. Everyone looked up and thought about it.
“Yeah…. YEAH!! We’re freakn Fallen Angels! That’s what we do! We build stuff!” Trillian jumped to her feet.
“And fight endless wars inside our headquarters cause our security bots are useless pieces of tinfoil.” Keyser pointed out.
“That too, but we can build a boat!!” Trillian jumped up on the bed and started jumping around till she lost her footing and crashed butt first on Zane’s prostate (yes readers, you read right, his Prostate). Zane found it in himself to enjoy the strange mix of pleasure and pain.
For 26 days they foraged and scrounged for whatever they could, recycling and constructing the materials to build a seaworthy craft, roughly the size of 4 lifeboats.
D minus 100.
During construction, Lisa knocked her wrist unit and a new menu came up. After an hour of running through the options, Lisa found she could use the Tokians long range com-network. Very excited, she showed the others and patched into the system and transmitted home.
Everyone took turns talking to various people. Zane was most interested in what Phoenix was doing concerning Syntax-Error’s master plan. Ithaqua reported to the other FART’s about the bombardment and gave everyone a great deal to think about. Trillian and Reef reported to Neocron central about their progress.
And then came a long conversation between Lisa and Kramer. Now, the details of this conversation are private, and no one else has any right to pry, but unfortunately the end result of the conversation was that Kramer and Lisa’s marital union came to an end. Obviously the harsh situations and the long time apart had not helped the situation, but alas, this was the case. And so the marriage came to an end. Trillian spent that night consoling her sister in her grief, Kramer, as previously reported, went into a stoic mood for several days. But Lisa was not the same afterwards. Heartbroken and dejected, she found it hard to get up the next day, and her friends worried greatly about her.
D minus 97 days
The lifeboat was completed and the 15 boarded, saying goodbye to their kind hosts at Night Village. They set sail with only a vague idea of where they were going and a months supplies on board. They quickly set off and paddled with all their heart in the direction they thought was right.
“Aye mateys… we be setting sail for a new land…. Arrrrr” Crono jumped around the boat.
“What the pants is he talking about?” Tricia McMillan queried.
“Arrr… this be the talk of fisherman folk.”
“Ahem… I think you’re getting your Ceres Disc 101 lessons screwed up there Gentank boy.” Reef pointed out. Nonetheless, he didn’t stop doing that stupid voice for some time.
D minus 88 days.
After 9 days at sea, they knew they were lost. As the sun rose, a great mist covered them and they could not see the person 2 seats in front of them. Zane and Trillian sat in the front, trying desperately to keep an eye out for obstacles.
“Look hard Zane, we must keep an eye out for land, rocks, bumps…” Trillian whispered. Zane looked at her, then realised those weren’t the bumps she meant. The pleasing distraction however meant that Zane didn’t notice the huge object that the craft smacked into on his side.
“Good one Zane.” Eva moaned.
“Well that’s just pants…” Zhut growled.
“Woah… SHHHH.” Killer hissed. And everyone looked. They had not hit land, or rocks, but a sheer metallic surface, that was moving perpendicular to them. On the side it had writing in Kanji. Lisa immediately recognised it as the same writing on her Wrist Unit.
“It’s a freakn Tokian cruiser!!!” She whispered.
“Guys… this is an opportunity!” Diesel’s warlike mind kicked into high gear “We should board this cruiser. Maybe we can do some good for the guys back down south.”
“Maybe, but if we’re all noticed, the mission is over and everyone dies.” Warlock pointed out.
“So lets split up. The monks will jump on board, the rest of you carry on. These cruisers are probably leaving Tokyo II, so you should head that way,” he pointed to where the cruiser had just come from. Reluctantly, everyone agreed and the Monks parted. McDanish, Zhut, Eva and Diesel latched a rope to the stern of the cruiser and clambered on under the cover of fog, while a sole wooden craft sailed unknowingly right into Tokyo Harbour.
D minus 87 days.
After having found a storage room to hide in, the 4 monks had caught some sleep, not having the strength to beseige a cruiser of unknown manpower after 9 sleepless, seasick days and nights in a leaky boat. In the morning they awoke, and set their wills towards one singular goal, the complete ownage of every person on the ship.
They burst from the hull, fully buffed and packing Holy Lightnings. Amazingly their luck was working overtime. The captain of the vessel had half the crew (the ones that weren’t sleeping) on the bow of the ship for a drill. The monks just took this as a sign that the DEVS were feeling generous, grabbed their Holy Pestilence’s, and coated the forward decks with blight. The entire active crew died in mere seconds. Then the two Passives went down to the crews quarters, parashocked everyone in their sleep and threw them overboard. Thus in less than 5 minutes, they had taken the ship. And more was added to their luck, as the ship was lagging behind the 4th fleet, and thus none of the other ships had seen the slaughter. By late morning, they had learned how to control the ship and had brought it up alongside the largest battlecruiser of the 4th fleet. And then they got to kick some ass.
McDanish, Diesel and Eva lept from their ship to the main battlecruiser and began slaughtering the crew, with merciless efficiency. Zhut activated the guns on the ship they had taken, and opened fire on a big ship with a flat surface. As gravlifts brought Banshee fighters up for launch, the ship was blown apart by fire from the ship.
Quickly Diesel raced up the levels to the command deck, where he unleased another blight of Holy Pesitlence on the command crew. McDanish blocked the lower levels with a Holy Thunderstorm. Diesel and Eva then turned the guns, including the Forward Railgun, on the other ships in the 4th fleet.
By late afternoon, only 2 ships remained. The main battlecruiser, and Zhut’s frigate. Unfortunately Zhut’s ship had been damaged too severely and was sinking, so he joined the others on the main ship.
“Well, that was fun. Shall we head back to Tokyo II?” Eva asked.
“No, I have a better idea,” Zhut grinned, “set course south.”
D minus 80 days
“Are we there yet?” Trillian asked.
“No.” Zane answered.
“Are we there yet?”
“No.”
“Are we there yet?”
“No.”
“Are we…. “
D minus 79 days.
It was 3 in the morning, Neocron standard time, when the Angelis (the name the 4 monks had given to their cruiser) came into range of the 3 fleets. It was obvious they were distracted with repairing damage from various weaponfire. The 4 monks didn’t know what had happened to the fleets. Nor did they care. At 0303 NST the Angelis opened fire on the 1st and 2nd fleets with the Forward Railgun. The first salvo capsised both the main battlecruisers for those fleets, and over the course of 2 hours of intense weaponsfire 11 more Tokian vessels were sunk. But this was not a battle that they could win. The Angelis began sinking fast when one of the 2nd fleet’s destroyers opened fire with a beam weapon and slashed the forward section off, causing the railgun to explode. The ship began taking on water fast.
“Damn…. Think we made them mad?” Eva grinned.
“Just a little.” Diesel replied as a gush of seawater nearly knocked him off his feet.
“Quick, this is a generep. It can be used to generep to another place.” McDanish did the honours. The 4 monks rushed to it and activated the list. They were astonished to see a new destination on their lists “Tokyo Military Waystation”.
“Better than sinking. C’yall on the other side.” Eva said as she teleported, and the others followed.
Meanwhile on the Eastern docks of Tokyo II…
11 pale and exhausted runners knocked into a pier. Blearily they looked as they saw that they had indeed reached land, and not a moment too soon. During the night a storm had torn their rickety boat into driftwood, and it was all they could do to keep their supplies buoyant. 10 minutes later they were all standing on a well constructed harbourfront, in the early hours of the evening.
“Is this?” Trillian barely dared to ask.
“Welcome to Tokyo II.” Warlock looked around and confirmed.
“Great…” Lisa sighed forlornly. The others did not have time to consider her poor state of mind, as they hurried to find somewhere to get out of sight.
“Any ideas?” Zane asked.
“There’s a place I stayed last time. They didn’t ask where I was from, just accepted things for trade. If we can get there, we will have a decent place to stay.”
“Great lets go.”
“Just remember guys, we now have 58 days left to get the bomb in place, or all of this was for nothing. Time is working against us.” Reef pointed out.
“Then we should not waste any more time talking here. Lets go…”
Until next time…
08-09-03, 05:09
NERD Editor
Thats PROSTATE!!!
*smacks everyone around the head with a dictionary*
Anyway, just one more part to go..... *MoonUnit begins long drumroll*
I'm just waiting for the song to be recorded before I put out the end of Issue 50, so stay tuned for the 3rd NERD mp3.
10-09-03, 08:22
NERD Editor
The most complete stock of NERD's is on the Blue Technologies website. Reefsmoker was kind enough to slap the previous 49 episodes into 'The NERD Collection' part of their site. Blue-Tech Website
However, at the time of posting it appears the site is offline... joy.
I believe the NERD site is still up but as it hasn't been updated since Issue 35, you're probably better off going to the above link (when its up) but for the extra stuff: NERD Site
And yes, Codi, you built a big cablecar thing to get people over the big hole in the ground so that they may continue on their journey.
And you can't have more NERD yet, still need to finish the song
14-09-03, 10:31
NERD Editor
*cracks Morpheous upside the head with the anvil of 'incorrect quotation*
Now for 500 points and a cookie, can any TRUE Nerd fan tell us who actually says Eyyyyy?
