I've been writing stories about the Asesino of Fire, his brothers & sisters, and their 'mother' for years. No one showed any real interest in them til Marvel came across them a few years back. Since most everyone in the Legendary knows how that turned out, I've turned to doing something a little... well, different with Fire. There are two things I'm working on with him: One is a movie script about how he arrives on Earth, setting the story for Fire, his enemies, and even his friends - all leading up to his death. The second is a novel I'm working on, which focuses on Fire's friends and how they're all changed after his death; it also brings in the 'other' Tabbies, like Hellfire and Terror. I plan on posting snippets of each on the forum for feedback of sorts, if you all don't mind.
What I'm posting now is called a 'Movie Map'. It goes over the three acts of a movie, focusing on major points of it also. This is an edited version of the map I handed in for class, since that was originally limited to two pages. This got to about.. 2 and three quarters of a page; So yes. There will be a bunch of text.

Spoiler

Title: HAVEN

Premise: A world of super heroes and villains is
shocked as an unknown creature crash-lands in lower Manhattan, and
are even more surprised when Vandal and Vanguard, two relatively
unknown Legion Initiates, are able to defeat it. Legion, a powerful
super hero organization wants to study the creature, to find where it
came from. However, while en-route to a Legion base, Gin, a
down-on-her luck mercenary steals the creature away for a mysterious
benefactor. On the way to her pick-up point she begins to think the
creature known as 'Fire Starter Theta' is hiding it's true intents.

Genre: Action

ACT 1

Inciting Incident: The Asesino of Fire,
a self-described being of "Pure Evil" crash lands in Manhattan,
bringing a floating base down with him. A city block already
destroyed by his chaos, there are only two relatively unknown Legion
initiates left to stop him – Vandal, a stuck up young man who grew
up on Staten Island and believes that happiness is power; and
Vanguard, who grew up in the Bronx and only wants to help people.
They manage to beat and subdue Fire, much to the surprise of their
superiors and a nation at large. A week passes, with the Legion
denying to release any information on the creature they're calling
'Fire Starter Theta'; they only insist that he's being held in a
maximum security facility designed for super-powered Villains. In
truth, Fire is being transported to upper-state New York, so the
leader of the Legion can meet with the creature face-to-face. A group
of down-on-their-luck Mercenaries, led by Gin and several friends,
strike the caravan, intending on taking Fire back to their employer.
They're plan is to use a woman named Christina that can sense and
sway the emotions of others. Even after releasing Fire from his
strength-reducing restraints, Christina can't sense any sort of
emotions from the creature. Deciding that this must be the now
infamous 'Fire Starter Theta', Gin and the mercenaries start their
journey West. Before they research their pick-up point, they must
pass through a relatively small town.

Plot Point 1: Word of the Caravan's
attack reaches the leader of Legion, Tom Singer. He has a brief
conversation with Vandal and Vanguard, putting the two in charge of
hunting down Fire. Vandal becomes irate at the news, and, in private
with Vanguard, reveals he plans on killing the creature if he gets
the chance. Vanguard is appalled, reminding Vandal that any other
super villain would have beaten the two – they just happened to
'get lucky' with Fire Starter. Vandal ignores the warning, stating
that Fire had 'unlocked something within the two of them'. Upset, his
comrade just decides to stay silent.

Back with Gin and her mercenaries,
they've reached the town and are about halfway through when a
lieutenant and close friend of Gin's notices some Legion soldiers
hassling a mutant. When the Gray Tabby sees how she's being treated,
we see a small flash of what happened when she was younger – we
only catch a glimpse of her body (covered in fur), but still never
her face. She confronts the Legion soldiers, calling them 'bullies',
but a fight breaks out. Gray is quickly able to dispatch the
Legionnaires without powers, but, fearing the young girl has seen too
much, decides to bring her with the group. ShiShi, a disaffected
Japanese youth, takes an immediate liking to the Asesino of Fire upon
seeing him. It's there Christina gets a brief glimpse into Fire's
head with her powers; to her surprise, she senses pain. She tries to
talk with the creature, but he seems much more interested in
listening to ShiShi and her stories of growing up in Japan.

ACT 2

Deciding to rush the rest of the trip,
Gin pushes her caravan on without stopping, crossing into
Pennsylvania. Reaching their pick-up point, their leader is
disheartened as she realized the ghost town is still deserted, with
no sign of anyone coming to retrieve them. The White Tabby (Tina)
tries to cheer her up; we see her out of her armor, looking just like
a regular human, but with the cat tail and ears. It's during this
conversation we learn that Gray is the only one truly 'deformed' by
the mutation, and that Gin has tried to cure it multiple times.
Depressed further upon hearing of her other failures, Gin wallows in
an empty building, afraid one of her competitors has set her up to
become an enemy of the Legion. The Tabbies order the mercenaries to
set up a perimeter; Gray points out that Fire, Christina and ShiShi
are missing. The Brown Tabby takes off, trying to find them before
the perimeter is set. She finds them in a field of flowers, where
Christina is trying her best to talk to the Asesino of Fire, doubting
him to be the furious creature she feared him to be. Fire continues
to pick flowers with ShiShi as both Christina and Jennifer (The Brown
Tabby) watch, sharing their fears on having picked up a decoy that
Legion may have planted. They both receive a radio call as Legion
descends upon the small town; to Gin's surprise, she finds that a
tracking device has been planted on one of her trucks. She bursts
from her hiding place and orders everyone to let loose their powers,
but not to kill; we see her lieutenants and some mercenaries showing
off their powers, drastically changing the tide of the battle.

As the battle continues, Vandal gets
further and further upset, ordering the use of lethal force. Vanguard
belays the order, telling the Legion to use non-lethal takedowns.
Irate by Vandals actions, he forces the hero to step down and wait
until the battle is over. Here, we see Vandal spots Fire and ShiShi –
with Fire leaving her side to deter a few Legionnaires from attacking
her.

Midpoint: Desperate to win the battle
and get a chance to kill Fire, Vandal picks up an SUV and throws it
at the most vulnerable target at the time: ShiShi. Seeing her in
danger, Fire leaps in front of the vehicle and stops it just in time.
Vandal is surprised to see Fire save an innocent, and is even more
surprised when he leaps into action and beats the armored hero to the
ground, throwing him into Vanguard and knocking the sword-toting hero
unconscious. As the Legion soldiers are mopped up, Gin spots a black,
tank-like vehicle roll up near her. A figure in odd red armor steps
out, explaining he's their contact – and he's there to take them to
Haven. Knowing that time is limited, he offers to take them, but only
if they agree to be knocked unconscious for the trip. The Mercenaries
all know what awaits them if they stay for the Legion to find them,
and all happily agree to be knocked out. Before she is placed into
the comatose-state, Christina senses an emotion from Fire –
something of satisfaction.

Plot Point 2: Gin and the major players
from her group awake in an unknown structure with six figures in
front of them. We're introduced to the villain of the story, and
anymore to come: A man named Wrath who claims to have control of the
largest corporations in the world. He admits to an Agent of his
slipping a tracking beacon on Gin's vehicle, saying that he wanted
her to prove her strength. Impressed by Gin, the Tabbies, and even
her soldiers, he offers them a place in his Haven – but is quick to
warn them that it's a dangerous place, where might determines how
much pull someone had. He also tells them the two golden rules of
Haven: Never to attack him or his lieutenants; and never to attack
the 'Wills', special assigned soldiers who carried the almost exact
same armor as Wrath himself. Almost in awe at the prowess of Wrath
and his lieutenants, Gin and her companions are all surprised as Fire
speaks for the first time. He challenges Wrath, revealing that the
self-proclaimed 'Overlord of Villains' was his target all along; and
with the death of Wrath, chaos would reign supreme over the world.
Fire doesn't have enough time to explain his plan in anymore detail
when one of Wrath's lieutenants – Legacy – intervenes and pummels
Fire within an inch of his life. ShiShi reveals her powers, just
knocking Legacy of Fire long enough to save the Asesino. Using the
combined powers of the Tabby Quadruplets, Gin and the others safely
make it out of Wrath's complex, stumbling onto the chaotic streets of
Haven below. They quickly find that Wrath was right about strength in
the world of Haven. They begin to carve out a small piece of land
with a warehouse, recuperating and getting their forces back
together. In the few days it takes, the Asesino of Fire disappears,
much to the disappointment of ShiShi and Christina.

ACT 3

Wrath, happy with how quickly Gin
acclimated to Haven, decides it's time to truly test her powers. He
incites a gang that roams the neighborhood she frequents to begin
attacking her Mercenaries; and, just to make sure it's an uneven
fight, has Legacy join in the fight on the side of the gang. ShiShi
is out looking for Fire when the gang first attacks. Christina is
able to try and protect the young girl, but they're both captured by
Legacy. Hearing the sounds of battle, Fire goes to investigate, and
finds one of the Tabby sisters cornered as she tries to fight her way
out of an alley. Here we find that Fire has been communicating with a
disembodied female voice, who reassures him saving the weaklings will
allow him to cause more chaos, even if it meant he would appear
'soft'. After consulting with this Mother, Fire joins the fight,
quickly defeating any of the gangsters he came across. Unlike many of
the Mercenaries, Fire kills the gangsters he fights.

Climax: Gin's Mercenaries find out that
ShiShi and Christina are being held by Legacy. Led by the Asesino of
Fire, Gin, the Tabbies, and even a few minor soldiers in Gin's army
try to dissuade him from killing the gangsters they come across.
Finally reaching their destination, Legacy launches a surprise attack
on Fire, catching the Asesino off guard. They begin to fight as the
mercenaries try not to die fighting another group of gangsters; it's
obvious the Fire is losing the battle.

Resolution: Driven on by an unsuspected
rage he receives seeing Christina and ShiShi in danger, Fire is just
barely able to knock Legacy out. After rescuing the two, Fire
disavows any sort of attachment to the group and leaves to create
more chaos – hopefully enough to destabilize Wrath's hold on Haven.
Gin uses her Mercenaries to try and protect the small area of land
that she's claimed in Haven, happy to have found something in her
life that she believes is worth fighting for. Vandal carries on a
search for Fire, fueled by rage; unbeknownst to him, a Legion
initiate reports back every action to Wrath. Vanguard is seen
visiting the house of a Legion Soldier that died during their battle
with Gin and her mercenaries; we see that he's been promoted to a
much higher rank than before. Back in Haven, Fire silently picks
through the dead bodies of several Wrath soldiers, reaching down and
picking up dog tags; With an evil grin, we see the beast shift and
transform into the dead soldier. Finally, Tom Singer sips from a
glass of brandy, looking out across the skyline of Manhattan. Several
air-cruisers sit in the background over construction equipment. On
his desk is a folded up newspaper that reads "Can Legion Protect
Us?"

Yatzee reviews DCU online... and god... you have to see it for yourself.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/ ... rse-Online

Okay. I think I understand enough about computers to know my current machine is *spit* HP "blackboxed." Model s5310y. [I asked a tech at BestBuy and he seemed to think that HP dicked around with the Power Supply making it difficult to use an aftermarket one for my (already known difficulty for getting a new vidcard) slimline case. Unless I was misunderstanding him and he was stating that HP has asked Best Buy to not do the power supply mods for people.]
I'm contemplating getting the parts to assemble a modest system on my own, hoping to spend... not terribly much. See If I can do better than what I got for $500 - 600 or so.
What is my "You're a ****ing idiot if you don't have THIS" list?
In before "make it a Linux system/buy an Apple" a-haha, no.
Unlike last year, I may actually follow through on advice.
''We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat
them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.''

-- James Nicoll

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/02/15/s ... he-unborn/]I'm not kidding.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

I know we've been around with the issue of currency before, but it suddenly occurred to me...What would the actual, hard currency be like?  Certainly, the fen usually go about their business electronically, but surely there'd be at least some demand for good old coin and paper...  Nix that, we're spacers.  Paper is a fire hazard in space ships, so all we'd have is coin.  (Truth - playing cards on the space shuttle are not made of paper.)
So, that said... what would our currency look like?  Personally, I'm going for human achievements in conquering space such as Gagarin's face with his rocket on the pad in the background, Armstrong's first step on the Moon, and etc.
Thoughts?

As you can see, this is barely a single scene, plus rough outlines for the whole. Mainly, it's a desperate cry for help from you'uns as was kickin' ideas 'round in Crossovers That MUST Be. For one thing, I haven't seen Nanoha past the first few episodes of A's, though I have up through the end of StrikerS waiting for me to get around to it.

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

I'm Takamachi Nanoha. I was supposed to be an ordinary third grader, etc.

(Nanoha intro here)

The door to a world of magnificent adventure is opening now.

HAZARDOUS LYRICS

The First Verse

by dialNforNinja

from ideas & suggestions collected on the Drunkard's Walk Message Board

Nanoha let herself droop a little with fatigue as the latest Jewel Seed was sealed, for once without making a lot of trouble. That had been especially unexpected, if welcome, after the news the day before had featured stories of the mysterous collapse in the basement of the high school, but for all it seemed like it the past few days not every problem in the city was relaed to the secret duty she'd taken up on behalf of Yuuno. Letting out a puff of breath, she lowered Raging Heart as the intelligent staff reverted from Sealing Mode, and the pale tan ferret scampered up to her shoulder. Before Yuuno could say anything, however, there was a distinctly odd sensation, like the feeling of a spiderweb sliding across the skin but in the nebulous magical sense she'd developed since becoming a mage.

"Ah! What was that?" she squeaked, surprised.

"It's a magical barrier," Yuuno answered, his own magical ability warping his mouth to allow human speech. He sat up straighter on her shoulder and explained. "It's a sort of area of shifted time, usually ised to allow magical battles without causing lots of damage to the surroundings, since physical objects without magic return to the state they were in before when it's released. Well, that's the basics anyway - they're kind of my specialty, but this one feels a little unusual."

"I see... Should we check it out?" Firming her stance, the young girl gripped Raging Heart more tightly. It might be nice to meet another mage, she thought. Maybe she could get a little tutoring with combat magic, since Yuuno said he'd taught her what little he knew about that already, or even some help sealing Jewel Seeds before they became troublesome. Of course, it was possible that other magi would be troublesome themselves, but it was always better to keep a positive attitude in Nanoha's opinion.

"I think that would be a good idea," Yuuno replied. "It seemed to come from inside the school building, or maybe under it. There aren't supposed to be strong magic users on this world, though, according to the surveys. Be careful, okay? Especially since it's an unknown type of barrier."

N sees M enter the building ahead of her, arrives just in time to see Ifurita glow as she does the dimensional shift

The First Verse: Ball of Confusion

Nanoha lands in the shrine from OVA2 and befriends Ifurita II in her traditional fashion. Her traveler-power is an even faster learning curve, so she can mimic observed spells as well as a demon-god. (She could make up new spells on the spot based on intent and whatever words came to mind in canon - Yuuno never taught her how to seal jewel seeds, just told her to concentrate on the idea and 'say the words that appear in her heart.' Raging Heart's Shooting Mode and the long-range sealing and attack magic using it were spontaneous modifications as well.) Yuuno gains the ability to read (and understand regardless of language, and perfectly recall) books (and similar records, as long as someone somewhere somewhen was meant to understand it with natural senses) with a moment's touch, which tickles his scholar's heart something fierce.

The Second Verse: Beautiful Girl

Nanoha leaves the shrine, as the old dude has thoroughly studied the library there and there's nothing relevant to getting her back home to finish collecting the Jewel Seeds, despite Yuuno's scholarly objections. Back home, her parents and siblings flip out when she vanishes, since odd things have been happening lately and they've noticed some things that make them suspect she's somehow involved with their mad leet ninja skills. This includes tracing her to the high school (strange lights were seen flashing from there that evening) and finding Ifurita as she staggers out of the building.

The Third Verse: Turn the Sky

Flying over the Desert of Bleached White Bones, Raging Heart detects amgic being used when the Priestesses blast the intruders on their vacation. Nanoha meets up with the main EH cast, but keeps her full ability secret for the moment. With the coach missing for one eam and the coache's daughter for the other, the soccer game is cancelled; Fate nabs the jewel seed lying in the field later that day. Ifurita is too low on energy to walk any more at all, and can only tell the Takamachi family that everything has happened according to fate before losing consciousness.

The Fourth Verse: My Pledge of Allegiance #1 (The Sealed Fate)

Ifurita I is awakened, mostly according to canon. Fate has scooped up the remaining 16 Jewel Seeds without opposition, so Precia has enough power for the whole Garden to make the transit, as well as dimensional buffering spells to make the trip safer, rather than the rough ride and widespread collateral damage, not that she cares about that) of the 'tear a hole in spacetime, jump into the gap between dimensions' plan. The TSAB detect the transit, but aren't in position to do anything about it and have nowhere near the neccessary power to follow. Precia does the 'worthless doll' speach since she's one step (she thinks) from the finish line, but since Fate did at least manage to collect the Jewel Seeds she's sealed in a stasis tube like Alicia in case some other menial task comes up. Arf is kicked off the ship when she tries to protest, and is too injured by the landing to do more than drag herself into a nearby hole and curl up to heal. Alicia's power is She's Not Dead, She's Resting. (Possibly with astral projection, when she's had a while to gain energy.) Precia's is self-healing, that takes care of the Cough of Death. Fate gains the ability to heal others with a touch, though she can't do herself and so doesn't find out for a while. Too bad Precia wouldn't think of letting her lay hands on Alicia...

The Fifth Verse: Thunderstruck

Mainly a 3-way fight sequence between Ifurita, Fate (decanted and told to make the false life she was given meaningful by using it to buy time) & Nanoha. Politically, Roshtaria bluffs that she is also a demon-god, fighting on their side, but since she was only partly successful and Precia raided the Royal Academy while the fight was in progress (during which the Garden hung low over the city, causing panic even though it did nothing) there's still pressure to unseal the Eye of God. Fate, in a suicidal depression thanks to her "mother's" decision to throw her away, intends to fight to the death, and nearly succeeds (in dying, that is. Her reflexes & skills are too off due to mental issues to take on two tough enemies at once.)

The Sixth Verse: Light of Day

Nanoha befriends Fate, while she recovers. Arf hears about the blonde lightning-user who was captured aafter fighting two demon-gods in Roshtaria and makes her way there after waking up, still badly injured until she sneaks into Fate's cell and gets healed. Discovering that she can restore life with her hands helps bring Fate out of her funk, sicne it means she has some innate worth no matter what her "mother" said. Precia flips, having discovered that she's most likely the most knowlegable person about the ancient civilization on the face of El-Hazard, and there's definitely not the kind of ultimate ancient magic lying around she was hoping for. After wrecking her throneroom and collapsing crying against Alicia's stasis tube, she swears to scour every inch of El-Hazard until she finds the magic or relic device she needs.

The Seventh Verse: Back in the Moment

Befriending Ifurita I, Part Two - possibly calling in Ifurita II to help, since the Phantom Tribe, Bugrom, and an uncontrolled Eye of God threaten the the shrine as well? Manga-style Phantom Tribe Ifuritas? (Jinnaestica & the male) Precia appears briefly and fights as well, she wants blood samples and aura scans from the Princesses in case they're needed to unlock any more ancient relics (she can always clone them if living bodies are needed.) It's a Thirty Demon God Pile-Up! Makoto's Make Freinds And Influence Mecha power gets a work-out, but if Phantom Tribe demon gods are involved they probably escape to appear in a later arc.

Coda: Ordinary World

Collecting Ifurita (a few weeks later; even with the buffers dimensoinal transit is impossible to Nanoha's Earth until then) and dealing with Nanoha's family, including Uncle Takahata called in from his teaching job since it looked like magic was involved. He may or may not have managed to feed Ifurita a bit of mana to get her semi-functional despite the lack of power key staff, consulting with Eva and whatsername the time traveller (Chao? Chachamaru's other 'parent') due to the (admittedly superficial) similarity to Chachamaru is an option. Somehow having her form a provisional pactio with Negi is not out of the question, though in the long term her lips are entirely Makoto's. Negi, being a kid, can get away with it, though. (or if all else fails Eva, I suppose; I'm sure Negi would be happy to have her moved from his circle of vult- sharks- girlf- ACCQUAINTANCES to Makoto's. Negima isn't meant to be a major crossover element, though, just a means to get a bit of mana into Ifurita and facilitate a "...so that's how it is," off-camera plot summary to the Takamachi family so they have outside verification when their nine year old daughter vanishes for a few months and comes back twelve, and so the seriously drained Demon-God doesn't die of energy depletion before the dimensional turbulence has settled down enough for Makoto to bring her staff. (Maybe shed just shut down, but if so why bother sticking her in a stasis chamber on Forbidden Island?)

Hazardous Lyrics II: Das Omen

Dealing with Die Wolkenritter/continuing the Nanoha story with her and Fate suddenly a year or two older, (rather than about four, since Yuuno's knowlege of Alhazared's Lost Logia let Makoto figure out the Eye of God much faster.) The TSAB is not apt to be amused by Rosharia using a dimensional weapon/transit system they only control in the loosest sense, not to mention the possibility that they begin dimensional exploration with it (and possibly Phantom Tribe members go through under invisibility or human illusions) or by Ifurita (let alone Ifurita II, and possibly Ifurita Jinnaestica and... the male one I still can't remember a designation for...) as a loose cannon of an intelligent, free willed Lost Logia able to do dimensional transits beyond the ability of their own ships. Examination of El Hazard magic, relatively weak in surviving examples but much faster than Mid style (Belkan is probably closer, which makes sense if the Tome of the Night Sky was an early attempt at an Ifurita) an not requiring rune circles/triangles/etc., or even (for low-level stuff) the use of a Device - the Priestesses can all use a bit of magic even without their elemental Lamps.

Thousands of years of study have led to some advancements, however - whatever enhanced toughness the Lamps may provide is nothing next to a modern Barrier Jacket, and the Belkan cartridge system was either lost or a more recent modification to the Wolkenritter, possibly at the same time the Tome became the Book of Darkness. On El-Hazard, the events of OVA 2 happen mainly off camera, but Kalia's pimp-cane is actually an Intelligent Device (whose programming was locked down until Makoto or the old dude got his hands on it) which turns out to work for Nanami. Originally used by the people who built her but left her trapped in stasis, it's not Kalia's at all per se. Makoto can use Ifurita's staff as one, too, since she doesn't really need it except to recharge even if it makes precision and top-level casting easier.

Possibly Precia has found out about Fate's healing ability, and now wants to retrieve her to use it on Alicia... even if thouroughly disenchanted with her putative mother by then, I think it's quite likely Fate would agree to try to help her 'sister,' though it's just as likely Precia is planning to magically dissect her to figure out the ability and apply it indirectly rather than letting Fate anyhere near The Preciousss. Goal here is to get Alicia up and at 'em and Precia way the bloody hell far away from any more kids to whip and electrocute, at the very least until she's been through some counseling. Alicia can inherit her Device, though I don't recall it ever speaking or being explicitly used. The how: weakly astrally-projecting Alicia saw Fate sent out to fight Ifurita and Nanoha, curious about this double who also called Precia 'Mother' she keeps checking in on her when she gathers enough strength to do so, up until the Earth group go back, or Precia moves the Garden beyond her range if this is sometime around EH OVA2 - she can't do it beyond the same region of the planet let alone interdimensionally, and without the recurring target bulds enough power to manifest a semi-visible form. When she appears before Precia Fate's healing abilities come out and Alicia suggests asker 'her sister' for help, not understanding exactly what Precia said and did to her, since the contact she observed was so brief and the only mother she knew was distant but kind when she remembered to be, and Fate never talked about it while Alicia was spying.

Somewhere in there: Saint's Cradle vs. Garden (Maybe Jinnai and Diva take it over after Precia gets tossed in the clink - it's got to have some offfense ability, even if it's just a ship-scale magic booster with all those lenses at the rim and the big 'eye' lens) vs. Eye of God? Maybe the Trigger Of Destruction and Asura thrown in too, so the TSAB can be on hand to haul Precia away - not having been on hand when Fate was acting under her control to gather evidence against the cloned girl, Fate is not included in the case except as a plaintiff & witness.

- CD

ETA: Gotta run, but I just hit stoptazmo.com and they do have a few chaptrers of the EH manga where the non-anime demon gods appear.
--
"Anko, what you do in your free time is your own choice. Use it wisely. And if you do not use it wisely, make sure you thoroughly enjoy whatever unwise thing you are doing." - HymnOfRagnorok as Orochimaru at SpaceBattles
woot Med. Eng., verb, 1st & 3rd pers. prsnt. sg. know, knows

It's just a routine raiding mission on a Zwilnik base, but Jet Jaguar and the Panzer Kunst meet one enemy they can't ever hope of being able to defeat.

Note: Not intended to be Canon Fenspace. Just something that sparked off IRC and was a little bit of fun to write.... and is hopefully some fun to read. I mean, adding one of these to Fenspace may well lead to you-know-Who appearing.

Also, I did this in about three hours.

Quote:Jet gave the usual briefing in the common room at Grunthal.

"This is 21963 Badwolf, in the Main Belt. Intelligence received by Great Justice Headquarters suggests that Zwilniks have established a weapons research base, possibly around some crashed ship or device. Our mission objective is to land on the asteroid, destroy or take possession of whatever technology they're working on, take possession of whatever design and testing information is in their computers. Capture of enemy personal alive is preferred....."

For some reason, that always raised a few smiles.

"We can expect they've locked this down tight," Jet continued. "So the only way in for us is using the Nova. They receive food supplies on a fortnightly schedule, all we have to do is take the place of that transport, and deliver something a little less friendly than crates of tootsie rolls and fruit. Now, how're we going to do this?"

It was, nothing out of the ordinary. Jet and Five other Kunstler planned the assault, as they'd planned any number of similar mission over the last two years. It was routine. Each Kunstler was assigned a target to take down within the base, power, command, sensors, with priority assigned based on mission parameters, and how well guarded the base was.

Use the Destiny Nova as a Trojan Horse. Hit power and comm's systems first, followed by sensors. Then go for command and control. If anything gets in the way, make it regret it. It didn't take too long to put together.

----->>

"Still no response," said the pilot, staring at the screen in front of her. "Their transponder answers on automatic to our codes, so their comms are up."... something the Senshi double checked once more as she was speaking, "The lights are on but there's nobody home,"

"Think we've been made?" Gant asked.

Jet looked at him. "I'm not sure..." she spoke slowly. "My first instinct is that it's a trap. But... something doesn't add up," She stared at the radar plot, her face a picture of concern. "Maybe the want us to land, and to take us on the ground.... but why no voice then?"

Not to mention what everyone knew. It would be far easier to blow them out of the sky, than to take them on in hand to hand.

"Well they ain't shooting at us," said the copilot, her accent sounding like it belonged in a little larger. "That's always a plus."

"We'll go in as planned. If it's a trap, then we're going in with our eyes open."

"And if not?" questioned Gant.

"It might've already been abandoned." But why leave the transponder running? The obvious answer was a simple cock-up. The worst-case answer was a trap... somebody wanted them down on the surface of that rock. For what nefarious reason?

Did they think they could take them alive?

Unless they were hiding something. But going to full active sensors could give the game away. Jet decided that she had to know for certain.

"Give me an active scan. One ping only,"

"Active scan shows nothing. Just the target." answered the copilot, reading from the screen "Power levels appear to be at a minimum. No internal radio chatter. Electromag is low, but active. Thermal radiation shows signs of internal heating. No other objects within range... "

"It really does sound like someone forgetting to turn out the lights after they left," commented Gant.

Jet took a deep breath, trying to clear her mind. Booby trapped then?

"We won't land the ship. We'll disembark to space. "

------->>

The Destiny Nova braked onto a course parallel to the asteroid, decelerating at a rate of nearly a hundred g. Her four thrusters flared a bright hot blue, pulling her alongside a few hundred meters above the surface of the rock.

21963 Hartnell was small enough, as far as asteroids went, a few hundred meters long. Just large enough to hold small settlement. The lights on the dome still shone bright in the darkness of space.

Looking at them with her own eyes, just made the place seem all the more peculiar to Jet. It looked alive. But the only answers they got from anything was automated. For some strange reason, it reminded the Kunstler of Serenity.... the film. There was a certain wrongness to it that she couldn't quite place... what a good warsie might call a ‘bad feeling'.

Jet made an easy landing, touching down with only the merest flash from her feet. The others landed moments later, kicking up small clouds of dust. Then.... peace.

"Where's the welcoming committee?" Lenneth wondered aloud, her voice betraying her uneasyness. The cyborg scanned around with her thermal sights. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary....

That just made her feel a whole lot worse.

"Alright. Proceed to our objectives. Take it slow and easy. Open comm at all times."

"This seems too much like a damned Aliens movie," Jash commented.

"Definitely," said Tiegel with a nod, "You wouldn't abandon a place and leave it like this, if you abandon it on purpose."

"Perhaps they had some sort of accident," Lenneth suggested, almost sounding hopeful.

"If it can kill everything on an asteroid base, it makes me nervous," Gant commented.

"Radiation?" Jet looked to Tiegel.

"Geiger counter is normal background cosmic," he answered. "That leaves chemical and biological agents,"

"None of which can affect us," Jet said, trying her damnedest to sound calm. "Check in every five minutes. If we get to their computers and control room, we can find out what happened. We're not Space Marines, we're Panzer Kunst.... whatever it is, we can deal with it."

Why did she feel like she had just signed her own death warrant?

Jet made a specific point to radio the Destiny Nova and tell them what was going on.

----->>

"Engel One Two," Gant radioed her. "I found another body. Same as all the others."

That made twenty by Jet's count, including the one's she'd found herself. They all looked like they'd just dropped where they were... in the middle of a corridor, against a door. Like their life had just been turned off mid stride. A few days worth of decomposition had set in, but none of the bodied actually looked like they'd been harmed. No wounds, no burns, no broken bones. And the ones who'd been carrying gasmasks, still had them clipped to their belt.

Some appeared to have been running. Some, hiding. None were harmed physically. They were just dead. Like a puppet who'se string had been cut.

Jet felt her skin crawl. And with most of her skin being a solid handwavium ceramic metal composite, that was some feat.

"Engel One Three, I'm at the main lab." Jet heard Tiegel take a deep breath, "There was one hell of a battle down here. Looks like they were trying to keep something in.... " a pause. "I can't walk anywhere without stepping on spent cartridges. It didn't do them much good.... at least twenty, dead like the others. I'm going inside."

Jet winced.

"Engel Three One. Standby. Do not enter the lab. I repeat, do not enter the lab,"

She'd be damned if she hadn't seen this movie, and how it would end. Tiegel copied, sounding a little surprised.

"Engel Four One. Are you near three?"

"One Four, I am," Lenneth answered. "He's just around the corner."

"Four One. Help Three search the lab. Cover him,"

"One Four, wilco. This place is giving me the creeps too,"

You could hear her shiver as she spoke.

"Engel One Two," Gant cut in. "I'm at the computer room.... the door's been smashed in, but everything seems to be running. Two casulaties, same as the others. One of ‘em's curled into a ball under a desk. i'm going to try pull their logs"

"Engel Two One. Get those logs... and watch your back."

With a bit of luck, the answer to the mystery would be in there, and not waiting around the next corner.

Jet wanted nothing more than to take off, and perhaps call up Noah Scott and ask him if he just happened to have any Kaboomite to spare. Kaboomite the site from orbit, only way to be sure. Whatever this was, it wasn't something she wanted to get out.

Jet's natural instinct said ‘berserker'..... but berserkers didn't leave human bodies so horribly intact. A berserker would be easy... Jet turned the corner into a new corridor, and nearly tripped over the wreckage of one.

A yelp of fright nearly sent her launching through the ceiling, but it took less than heartbeat for her to realise that it to was dead.... same as everything else. Just turned off. It's joints had locked right in the middle of an attack, and it just toppled forward.

Something that could do that to a berserker. Whatever this was, clearly outclassed the five of them. It was an unfamiliar and unnerving position for Jet to be in.

"Engel One All. Berserker, my location. It's dead. Just like the humans here. And if whatever's in here can do this, I don't want to know what it'll do to us. If you come across anything at all, do not engage... repeat... do not engage."

5 voices answered in the affirmative. This really was turning into a bad horror movie. But Jet had to grit her teeth and keep going... she had to make it to that control room. Somehow, she knew she'd get an answer there.

"Engel One Two, I've got their logs." Gant radioed.

"Two One, Good, Fall back to the airlocks. Secure our escape route,"

Jet spoke quickly, her voice betraying the very real fear that was rising deep inside her. She could almost feel herself being hunted. She passed by a canteen of some sort... food still waited to be eaten on the few tables which hadn't been tossed out of the way as the people inside made a desperate attempt to escape.

They didn't get far.

"Engel One Three, I'm in the Lab with Four." Oh thank Christ they're alive. " It looks like they had something chained up in here. There's a lot of power tools, heavy cutting equipment.... even some acetylene torches.... and it looks like whatever it was just ripped the chains clear out of the wall. "

Jet heard him curse under his breath in his native language.

"Engel Three One. Fall back to the airlock. I'll catch up in a few moments."

"Copy that," he answered. His tone of voice seemed to add ‘Thank God,"

"Engel Five One," she radioed Jash' "I want the tunnel down from the main airlock rigged with charges. Rig it to collapse and seal this section off,"

Whatever was in there, was going to stay in here for a good long time.

"Wilco. I'll have to depressurise it first but it's doable. Gimme five minutes at most."

Jet wasn't far from the control room, by her own reckoning. She walked forwards, her body tense and ready to leap into a hard run to safety. Part of her began to wonder how far she'd get before she too was turned off. She promised herself she'd use her main engines if she had to...

A few wisps of water vapour snarled around a corner up ahead. A broken main? An arrow on the wall told Jet that if she wanted to get to PRIMARY CONTROL, she'd have to go through it. No... she told herself. How many horror protagonists had died because they didn't know when to turn back.... when to just run away?

But... she was close to that control room. She was too close to turn back... she had to at least know what happened. The more information they had, the better for taking it down when they came back. Bracing herself, she turned the corner and saw it.

Through the steam, she saw its bulk, mechanical form, standing upright in the centre of the corridor, looking at the ruptured pipe throwing billowing clouds of hot steam. A dark shape which for a brief moment reminded her of a novelty fridge, or a pepperpot. Two manipulators seemed to extend from it's mid section, working at the pipe, while a third device extended from the top of its domed head.

It looked almost like a.... The stupid bastards... they couldn't have. Could they? Who in their right mind would?

As if hearing her thing, it swiveled its dome towards here, fixing her with a staring, shining blue spotlight. Jet guessed immediately that it was looking her right in the eye, analysing her. A pair of white lights flickered on for a moment, and Jet heard it speak one single blood chilling word, in a synthesised, staccato voice.... a voice that Jet knew, truly was inhuman.

EXTERMINATE!!

------>>

Three months later

"A Rockhounds spokesman today released a statement regarding the propulsion failure during the towing of asteroid 21963 Hartnell into Earth orbit. They have assured the public that the asteroid poses no further danger to Earth or Venus at this time, and is expected to harmlessly impact upon the sun within the next three days,"

Jet turned the television off. "Thank God," she said, breathing a deep sigh. Just as he'd suggested.... it was gone.

Ford Sierra gave her girlfriend the most peculiar look for a moment. "It was never really any danger anyway. Besides, Doctor Who is on...."

------->>

Looking for some Windows Vista/7 tweaking help here.
I'm having an issue with Windows Explorer as I browse my hard drive. It seems to be constantly defaulting to the "Music Files" or "Photo Folder" display mode, showing the columns appropriate to those formats no matter what is actually in the folder. Is there any way to control this selection without having to manually remove and re-add each column I want every time I open a folder?
It doesn't help that half of the items I want (like, say, FILE SIZE), are not even available on the default list, I have to go hunting for them...
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Sucrose Octanitrate.
Proof positive that with sufficient motivation, you can make anything explode.

Here in Ireland, the website boards.ie is running their own General Election poll, attempting to predict the outcome of the general election next week. It's rather fascinating because unlike the traditional telephone poll's, this system implements the entire electoral system we use in this country, so you should be getting a more accurate reflection of the end result.

Also, boards.ie is a very diverse website.... you get all sorts there. It's a huge place, with everyone from grannies to scumbags to the occasional Bono posting there. It's fair to say that the userbase is pretty reflective of Irish society (for good or ill, mostly ill)

The actual page is here

The results themselves make for interesting, and mildly worrying reading, especially the showing from Sinn Féin. It'll be interesting to see how close to the final result they get in the end.... though for some I'm hoping that GIFT is an explanation. If this poll were official, Gerry Adams would be a TD.....
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--m(^0^)m-- Wot, no sig?

In case any of you haven't already heard, IBM's AI/supercomputer Watson is going to be on Jeopardy tonight. Watson is up against Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter, both Jeopardy champions. In the US it will be on at 7:30 est, on whatever channel airs Jeopardy near you. (You might want to double check the time, make sure your local station isn't airing it sometime else.)
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Stand between the Silver Crystal and the Golden Sea.
"Youngsters these days just have no appreciation for the magnificence of the legendary cucumber."  --Krityan Elder, Tales of Vesperia.