TWG VIII: The Froimor Incident

Theslan · November 2006

Day 6

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The scientist looked in horror at Crispy as Crispy roared and took two consecutive swipes at the scientist, piercing through his body and ending his life. The scientist croaked as he screamed and spitted at Crispy . Then he slumped down on the ground, with his mouth opened in pain as he faded away, joining the rest of the marines.

Lolfighter flapped down next to Crispy , as Crispy slowly removed his claws out of the scientist. Then he noticed something shiny along the scientist’s neck.

“Crispy , take a look at that.” Lolfighter pointed to the scientist’s neck. Crispy peered downwards to the scientist’s neck, seeing the collar at the first time, originally hidden by his collared shirt. Crispy removed the shirt to find collar, identical to his, on the scientist.

“Huh. He has a collar, but he was controlling me earlier. If he has a collar…”

Lolfighter finished the sentence. “… Someone was controlling him.”

Crispy growled. “Let’s find Blackmage and Swiftspear .”

~.~.~.~.~.~

Blackmage found the place that they left Swiftspear , finding him slightly annoyed and still stuck behind the electric power lines. Quickly climbing along the walls, he launched himself to avoid the water and the lines into Swiftspear ’s area. Swiftspear yawned and looked at the skulk

“About time you came. I’m tired of this dump, and I’m still hungry. Anyway to get out of here?”

Blackmage looked around and found a simple switch that turned off the electricity. He clicked the button and the soft humming along the walls died away. He looked at Swiftspear irritated and said,

“That was it? You could’ve done that yourself. Why did you need my help?”

Swiftspear stood up and took a tentative step into the water. Seeing that nothing happened, he quickly went to the other side, freed from the trap.

“Hey, I have hooves. What do you think I was going to do, gore that button down? Come on, let’s go.”

Swiftspear went off to find more tasty marines, with Blackmage grumbling and following along.

~.~.~.~.~.~

The base was a mess. Alien bodies were littered all over the place, despite the hive being contained in a field. Lolfighter and Crispy carefully stepped around as they went through the automated defenses. Since Crispy altered the settings, the turrets did not attack Lolfighter and Crispy . However, they were uneasy by the amount of Kharaa dead in the hallway.

“No doubt about it. There has to be another hive. Some gorge must’ve hid away and dropped it through the whole fight.” Crispy nodded in agreement as he moved away from the turrets.

“We have to go find Swiftspear and Blackmage .”

Lolfighter stopped and turned to Crispy . “And do what? The humans are dead. The scientists are dead. There’s nobody left to do research on the hive. There’s nobody left to break our link to the hive. Face it, we’re just going to end up back into the hive’s whim to send us into another invasion, only to either survive and do it again, or die. That’s going to be our life.” Lolfighter quieted down as he said softly, “That’s always our life.”

Crispy paused for a moment, and then said, “As long as we have the collars, we have a chance. Come on, let’s get out of these turrets.”

Before Crispy took one step, his collar lit up, and started blinking rapidly. Crispy blinked in surprise as his collar produced a rainbow of lights, and made screeching sounds. Finally, it suddenly stopped. Crispy turned his head curiously to try to see what happened.

Then, the collar broke in half, with its pieces falling down into the ground. Crispy again blinked in surprise.

“How did that happ…”

Crispy didn’t finish his sentence. The turrets, now finding a new target, unloaded their bullets into the alien, making it the first dish on the mystery meat special for the mess hall, if any marines were still alive. Lolfighter stood there in horror watching his comrade lose his life due to the collar. He flapped his wings away from the hallway in fright just in case his collar deactivated in the same manner as he tried to find the last two remaining aliens.

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Day 6 will end at Tuesday, 3pm PST.

Players remaining:
1 Swiftspear (1 phantom vote)
2. Blackmage (1 phantom vote)
3. lolfighter

instantlynch is at 2 votes.

lolfighter · November 2006

Well, no reason to drag this out. Sorry Swiftspear, but you gotta go.

BlackMage · November 2006

swiftspear

Theslan · November 2006

Night 7 - No posting!

~.~.~.~.~.~
~.~.~.~.~.~

On the other side of the base, Swiftspear, freed from his prison, went forward with a purpose towards the communication array, with Blackmage in trail. Blackmage was fidgeting a little from the scenes where several aliens have been tailing them, only to be torn up by the turrets. Amazingly, the automated turrets did not hit both Swiftspear and Blackmage.

“I said I don’t like it. Everyone’s dead. There’s nobody human alive left to spy on, nor is there anything we can do but wait until that counter counts down.” Blackmage sighed slightly. “I wish we could just whisk away somehow and get off this rock. If it weren’t for the infernal link to the hive, I would take the escape pod. At least I learned how to do that.”

Swiftspear didn’t respond as he went into the room toward the communication controls and started punching in commands. Actually, it is more like stomping at them, but the computer seemed to respond to his controls and the timer added a few hours. Blackmage blinked curiously.

“Wait, how did you do that? I thought the marines were the only one that had the ability to reset…”

Before Blackmage finished his sentence, Swiftspear turned around and glared at Blackmage. With a roar, Swiftspear charged against the little skulk, propelling him towards the cryochamber tubes, into the empty one that had not been occupied. Quickly, Swiftspear closed the hatch.

“Sorry Blackmage, but the escape pod is only big for me. Nobody else can fit in it.” Swiftspear turned away and stomped a few more instructions. After several commands, he pulled out the collar information of the remaining alive aliens. He quickly set Crispy’s collar to disconnect, and then set the timer reset to reset 30 minutes, reducing the time by several hours before the Orion came by.

Blackmage looked bewildered. How did the onos charge without the full support of the hives? Why is he acting this way? What is he trying to do? He clawed the glass, but it didn’t break. In desperation, he asked, “Why are you doing this?”

Swiftspear chuckled. “You should know by now, you sneaky skulk. One of the scientists discovered how to dissolve the link to the hives. He tested it on me, so I no longer am tied to the hives. With this independence, I devised a plan to kill all the marines. Sadly, my scientist did not survive, the one that freed me from my prison.” Swiftspear shook his head sadly, but then brighten with the next sentence. “But, now I am free from all ties. I will be gone from this place, and able to hunt whomever I want, whatever I like. No hives will control me, and I will be in paradise.”

Blackmage looked straight at Swiftspear, pleading, “Share it with me. I will pledge to you, and help you for your conquest. Really. I don’t want to die here, after tasting some of this freedom. Let me help you.” Blackmage did not want to serve him, but for the moment, he had no choice. Swiftspear was stronger and in control. He needed time to figure out how to get out of this situation.

Swiftspear looked over at Blackmage, gauging his sincerity. Finally, he nodded with approval. “Excellent. There is still some room in the escape pod that you can crawl into. You’ll be my first subject in towards making a paradise.” He lumbered over to the tube, and smashed the glass, shattering it so Blackmage can crawl out.

Blackmage slowly got out of the tube and said, “Thank you Swiftspear. You won’t…”

Blackmage didn’t got a chance to finish his sentence for the second time. Swiftspear opened his jaws and took the skulk into his mouth. Leaning his head upwards, he swallowed Blackmage in one single gulp, feeling the body entering his stomach. He smiled wistfully.

“No, thank you Blackmage. You were the first one to start my paradise.”

~.~.~.~.~.~

As Swiftspear swallowed Blackmage, Lolfighter flew into the room. He looked confusedly at Swiftspear, and then angry with him when he heard him talk about paradise. Lolfighter flew up to Swiftspear’s face and yelled, “What are you doing? Why did you devour Blackmage?”

Swiftspear ignored Lolfighter as he walked back to the communication array. He tapped a few controls before turning his head and said quietly to Lolfighter, “You better go Lolfighter. There’s nothing you can do here.”

Lolfighter stared at Swiftspear, and then at the screen. He noticed the collar information on the display, as well as Crispy’s information, with the collar status in red. Immediately, he concluded, “You were the one that killed Crispy!”

Swiftspear looked back with disdain. “Brilliant deduction. Now go away before you get hurt.” Swiftspear would like to devour Lolfighter, but his stomach is full with another alien. Some things cannot be changed, and apparently he could not devour more than one being at a time. He smiled to himself. At least he could devour aliens now.

Lolfighter backed away from the Swiftspear’s animosity. Something had to be done and it had to be done quickly! He noticed that the timer had been reset to 29:21, probably something Swiftspear did.

Lolfighter quickly glanced around. Other than the dead marine and broken tube, most of the equipment nearby seemed to be the same place. He shook his head sadly, not seeing anything he could use to stop Swiftspear. He was an onos, and Lolfighter is a lerk. There was no way he could take him down, unless…

Lolfighter flapped over there, and bite Swiftspear on the ankle, then backing away again. Swiftspear ignored the lerk until the fifth time he did it, he turned to Lolfighter and said “Do you mind I’m busy.”

Lolfighter responded by releasing his spores directly into Swiftspear’s eyes. The onos roared, and closed his eyes, shaking his head. “Oh, you’re going to get it now…”

Lolfighter chuckled and flew out of the room. Swiftspear started chasing, then stopped to reset the timer to one hour, and then locking the controls. He did not want Lolfighter to flank him do something to the communication system. Then he went to hunt the pesky lerk.

~.~.~.~.~.~

Swiftspear panted as he chased the lerk. Even though he could charge to the lerk, the lerk was faster. Lolfighter could maneuver through the tight hallways, while the onos bashed and hit debris until he ran out of energy. The end result was that he was as fast away from the lerk as before. He growled.

His stomach wasn’t acting any better. Apparently with Blackmage in there, he was slower and heavier. Furthermore, Blackmage has not passed through his system. Perhaps his stomach could only digest anything but Kharaa, something the hive might have foreseen when they created him. Well, no matter. He’ll make sure he’ll destroy both the lerk and skulk.

He charged at the lerk again, and the lerk ducked into a room. Swiftspear went into the room, and felt immediately he was stepping in some water. He glanced down, and at the walls. It was the room that electrocuted him and the heavy armor earlier. Swiftspear shook his head.

“Lolfighter, if you think you’re going to electrocute me, you’re wrong. I set up this trap, and I know how it works. Your idea failed, and you’re trapped.”

Lolfighter chuckled from above. “So you think, so you think.” He then clutched on his light machine gun and fired at the onos.

Swiftspear chuckled again, easily blocking the bullets with his hard head. “Is that your plan?”

Lolfighter didn’t answer, as he carefully aimed the bullets at Swiftspear’s neck, firing at the collar. At first, the collar deflected the bullets, and then it started the sputter with sparks. Swiftspear immediately saw what was happening and backed away from the room, but the damage was done. The device blinked and sparked, creating a small explosion. It then powered down, slowly falling off Swiftspear’s neck.

The onos roared as the hive found his mind, and reached with a harden grip. Swiftspear roared again as the hive flooded commands into the onos, telling him what he could not do, and what he was allowed to do. Swiftspear backed further into the hallway as he bashed his head left and right trying to fight of the hive’s control.

Lolfighter slowly came out of the room, watching the whole scene. Swiftspear backed further, stomping, trying to charge, but could not without the support of the hives. He snorted as he tried moving away from the hive.

Unfortunately, Swiftspear moved into a hallway where the turrets were active. He roared at the turrets and they swung into position pointing their guns at him. With desperation, he tried to waddle through the turrets, away from the hive. About midway through, he collapsed to the ground against the unrelenting barrage of bullet fire. He snorted weakly before he closed to his eyes, with the bullets shedding him apart. Taking one last breath, Swiftspear tilted his head to the side, unconscious, achieving the one goal he wanted: to stay away from the hive’s control. He had found his paradise after all.

~.~.~.~.~.~

Lolfighter crawled his way up to the carcass, touching it and moving it around. He had hoped he wasn’t too late, and that Blackmage could be saved. Chewing against the hide, he opened the onos’s stomach. There lay Blackmage, conscious, but unable to move. Lolfighter tried to coax him out.

“Blackmage, snapped out of it. Get out of there, we have work to do.”

Blackmage blinked, and then slowly moved. He shook the grime off himself and looked at Lolfighter. “What happened? Last I remember Swiftspear had me by his mouth.”

Lolfighter nodded. “Well, he is no more. Come on, let’s go to the communication room.”

~.~.~.~.~.~

Blackmage sighed for the fifth time. “No luck. He locked us out.”

Lolfighter growled. “There has to be something we could do to unlock it. We don’t have much time.” He pointed to the clock that read 15:12.

Blackmage nodded as he tapped the controls. “I don’t know, I tried all sorts of combinations. Maybe his collar allowed him access.”

“Well, if we don’t have access, we’re going to end up like Swiftspear. So start trying other combination and try them fast!”

Blackmage tapped the buttons. “I know, I know. It’s not like if I press these three buttons quickly they’re going to unlock.” However, the system just did that. Instead of seeing the lock symbol across the screen, the system started showing the collar information, as well as current status of the base.”

Lolfighter stared. “Talk about luck. So, now what?”

Blackmage looked at the controls. “Swiftspear said something about a scientist setting his to be complete independence from the hives. I wonder if…” Blackmage stopped mid-sentence as he pulled up a report concerning the independence of Kharaa. Though they could not read the writing of humans, the report gave simple pictures to configure the collars. In fact, the document went to go so far to show how to deactivate the collar tracing so they would not show up on the system.

Blackmage and Lolfigher looked at each other. Lolfighter whistled. “I believe we just found our new life.”

~.~.~.~.~.~

Epilogue

~.~.~.~.~.~

“Sector A4 secure, sir!”

“Sector B5 had alien scum, but we cleansed it. Charlie took a hit, nothing a medpack could handle.”

“Marine causality here, commander. Looked like a failed unit.”

“Looked like it was part of a unit that was fighting here.”

“The chamber is still functioning! The glass is broken, that is all.”

“Poor fellow. He won’t live long, but he could tell us what happened. Reyonds! Get your butt here fast and get this marine revived. We need to know what happened.”

Pulse blinked slowly, hearing lots of words slurred together, unable to form distinct thoughts. He wasn’t even able to discern what was going on, from the onos’ interaction, and even the lerk that was here earlier. All he knew is that somebody was here, and somebody friendly was going to do something to him.

Hot. Warm. Feelings that he couldn’t feel earlier. Now, it was growing in sensations, spreading throughout his body. Then the pain, the numbness felt at the edge of his fingers and toes. Finally, he felt his own heart started beating, echoing in his brain. However, the beating was too irregular, and too fast. Something went wrong.

“Sir, he’s coming to, and he doesn’t look good. I don’t know how long it’ll last, but he’s awake.”

A hand was placed on Pulse’s shoulder. “Son? Son?” A pause. “Pulse? Can you hear me?”

Pulse fluttered his eyelids open, seeing a marine, a lieutenant, looking down at him. “Good, you are awake. Can you tell me what happened here?”

Pulse slowly drew a breath, and let it out. He could tell them about the friendly aliens, and how he with the aliens tried to stop an unknown entity that tried to sabotage the base. He could tell them that he was the only marine left alive, and he saw every marine he was in contact with die within several feet. He could tell them that an alien saved him life the first time. Instead, he croaked and said, “Alien… outbreak… hive…”

The lieutenant nodded sadly. “That’s alright son. We killed the hives here in this base. Most of the infestation tore through the security system, draining all the bullets they had here. It was amazing that this place was still intact when the Orion arrived and bombed this place to bits. Too bad most of the equipment is gone.”

Pulse struggled to hear more, but his heart could not stand much longer. He closed his eyes and went back to sleep, with one odd thought in his mind. Did the friendly aliens survive the onslaught?

“Sir, his blood pressure went down again. I don’t think his heart could take the treatment.”

“Damn! We need more information of what happened here. Reyonds, try it again.”

“We’re losing him, his temperature dropped drastically. It’s amazing he even woke up.”

“Well, bring him up the second time, we need…”

“…”

~.~.~.~.~.~

The hive is pleased, very pleased. The experiment worked well. The humans have served their purpose, and discovered a way to detangled the aliens from the hive. This was something that the Kharaa considered and tried to do without success. Luring the humans here and letting them experiment allowed them to discover the technique. Unfortunately, there was no time to infest and gather the data because their blasted ship came in to rescue the base.

Well, no matter. The rest of the hives will know it is possible for the aliens to not tie their lives to the hive. There will be testing and failures, but ultimately the hives will succeed with a new breed of Kharaa. It would be nice to process the data, to shorten the testing life. But the war is long and plentiful. There will be many, many victories to follow.

The hive pondered sending information about the two Kharaa creatures that escaped. They may have the information on their collars; however, they did earn their freedom. While the hive maybe cruel with its subjects, it is fair. They can have their freedom. The hive smiled inwardly as the ship moved into position to bombard the base. They were too late. The signal to the other hives has been sent.

The hive chuckled as the first bombs hit the base, battering it to pieces. The hive had served its purpose. It will die, but soon the hive will have its vengeance.

The Kharaa will win this war.

~.~.~.~.~.~

Someone hanged up the phone, and looked over the desk in a dark room, with his hands on the table. “No such luck. The Orion found nothing salvageable. Even if it were salvageable, I doubt they will tell us.”

“Oh, I’m sure they will. Remember, we control some of their budget. They will be quick to please us by revealing information.” The man smiled as he rocked his chair in the background.

“One thing for sure is that everyone died in the base. Looked like our contact did indeed do well, killing everyone. It’s too bad he couldn’t hide himself better.”

The man in the chair shook his head. “I don’t know about that. One thing that they did tell me is that an escape pod was missing.”

The man standing stared at the other. “Are you sure? They said nothing was salvageable.”

The other man chuckled. “Positive. My contacts are quite reliable and possible more resourceful than yours. All we have to do is find the escape pod.”

“And from there?”

The man looked at one of his hands, being filled with rings of alliances with other organizations. “If we find anybody or anything there, we can interrogate him. Possibly salvage some of the technology.”

The other man grinned. “Good. Then our plans continue. We will have control of the government soon.”

Both of them nodded their heads as they raised a glass to toast each other. “To a new future.”

Humans win! - the end?

Crispy · November 2006

<img src="http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y220/CrispyPie/vader.gif" border="0" alt="IPB Image" /> NoooooooooooooOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

Oh, man. Tough break, I almost won my first TWG game. Ah well, HUMAN WIN c'mon guys PARTAAAY!!! <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/asrifle.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="::asrifle::" border="0" alt="asrifle.gif" />

TWG VIII: The Froimor Incident

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