...Of The Fallen.

Pretty awesome movie - you'll be rooted to your seat for all 2.5 hours of the film.

One thing that bugs the hell out of me, though. They clearly show CVN-74 essentially geting 1HK'd by the Fallen and his cronies
(something that made the voices in my head howl in outrage). And then we see CVN-74 in good order out in the Red Sea. WTF!?

Other than that, the only other thing is how little time we get with some of our Autobot friends. I mean, Soundwave got more friggin' screen time
and he spent the entire sprockin' movie in orbit!



Seriously, I would not have minded waiting a little longer for a serial, LOTR style, if it meant actually building characters other than Spike and Makaela.
And not just the Autobots - we see that Makaela's father is finally out of prison and all he gets is One. Lousy. Line. They made an awesome movie, no
doubt, but it had potential to be an awesomely epic story.

SCIMITAR STORIES


Girl's Night Out




by Sofaspud and OpMegs


The hideout -- or The Lair, as Nena Romanova somewhat playfully termed it -- wasn't particularly hardened against attack. In Katherine Madigan's
estimation, it didn't need to be. Hardened against visual and acoustic surveillance, check; against someone busting down the door? Why bother? Any of
her girls could handle a random intruder, and if it was a determined attack, that meant they'd been discovered and she'd rather they abandon the place
and find another instead of calling more attention to themselves with a massive firefight in the middle of an otherwise-quiet office building.

Since it was -meant- to be abandoned at a moment's notice, that meant she had provided little in the way of creature comforts. Some of the Scimitars
didn't need or want them; Galatea, for example, was equally neutral when surrounded by fancy furniture as when she was curled up on a dirty cot. She
didn't -care-. Fate was similar, though she at least obviously cared about one more than the other. It was the other three -- Jen, Robin, and Nena -- who
preferred and actively sought out quality-of-life improvements.

Like the 120-inch flatscreen display that Robin and Jen had hauled up eight flights of fire escape, while Nena cheerfully annihilated the memories of everyone
in sight who might have noted the strange procession. And, being Nena, some who hadn't, but who she felt like messing with anyway.

Or the satellite reciever, acquired by Jen one night when she couldn't sleep and reprogrammed by Robin -- who, for her part, wasn't quite sure when
she'd picked up -that- skillset, but she wasn't complaining -- to allow full access to every channel, all the time. At no cost, of course.

Or the ever-growing pile of stuffed animals that threatened to spill out of Nena's room in a plushie tide of destruction whenever the door was opened. The
others weren't even sure if the girl had a bed in there anymore, or if she simply burrowed into the stuffies and slept surrounded by button eyes all night
long. After Nena had approached Madigan one day asking how best to clean bloodstains out of plushie fur, nobody bothered asking where she was getting them
all.

Despite the unusual arrangements -- by any normal standard, at any rate -- it was as much a home as some of the girls had ever known.

On this particular Friday afternoon, it was fast becoming intolerable.

"I'm bored," Jennifer announced for at least the twentieth time that day. She lay on her back on the couch, her feet hanging over the back and
her head dangling over the front, watching from her upside-down perspective as Robin annihilated wave after wave of attackers on a video game.

"Me too," Nena put in, entering the room and brushing what looked like ash from her shoulders.

"So am I," Robin said absently, her eyes focused on the screen. "But Miss Madigan hasn't given us orders yet."

Nena snorted. "So what? That just means we don't have to work right now. We can still go -do- something."

"Yeah," Jen agreed. "Anything would be better than -this-." She concentrated briefly, scowling at the lone fly buzzing around the
ceiling. A faint hum sounded and the fly was wreathed momentarily in blue light, before turning into a streak in midair.

Splat.

Jen giggled as Robin sighed and paused her game so she could clean off the screen.

"Well, what do you suggest, then?" Robin asked as she returned to her seat. "The only movie theater I know of around here hasn't changed
reels since the 80's."

"We could find some guys," Nena said thoughtfully. Jen raised her head and looked at the other girl, while Robin settled for raising an eyebrow at
Nena. With Robin's attention distracted, the character on the screen let out a piteous wail as he was skewered half a dozen times in quick succession.

"What?" Nena asked at their looks.

"You only want them for their minds," Robin quipped, shutting off the game.

"Your point?" Nena replied with a grin.

"Hey, I heard there's a new bar that opened up last week," Jen put in. "Supposed to have live music, strong drinks, and it's Mook
protected, so it'll probably still be there."

"I don't know..." Robin mused. "What if Miss Madigan calls us?"

"Then I sober us up real quick and we go do whatever it is she wants." Jen shrugged.

"Yeah!" Nena agreed. "And afterwards we can see how much it takes to get Maddy plastered."

"... Maddy?"

"Oh, hush."

"Can we even -get- drunk?"

"Only one way to find out!"

Fate, seated in the armchair at the far end of the room with a book in her lap, lifted one hand in absent goodbye without looking up as the others left.

Warning: Sad stuff behind the link.

Hammertime.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

One way to get a telemarketer to stop calling back.  (Maybe NSFW near the end, depending on how high-strung your job is.)

-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

Posi posted a couple interesting pictures on the CoH forums today, related to what i16 will be about...
files are named "purple_fire_control" and "blue_fire_dominator"


Color me impressed!

In need of medical help after cleaning up a bioweapons lab, Tony Stark turns to the best diagnostician he can find.

Doctor Gregory House.

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4291378/1/Iron_Irony

and the sequel,

http://www.fanfiction.net..._Irony_Second_Encounters

(ETA: Damn. This was supposed to go under New Fic Recommendations... how'd it get out here?)
--
Sucrose Octanitrate.
Proof positive that with sufficient motivation, you can make anything explode.

Hey, Logan, is this you?

http://www.starblazers.com/html.php?page_id=235

(Anime Fandom, Texas Style....)
Hear that thunder rolling till it seems to split the sky?
That's every ship in Grayson's Navy taking up the cry-
NO QUARTER!!!
-- "No Quarter", by Echo's Children

- File Begins -
File: Unit Scimitar
Security Clearance Rating: Black Omega-2
Date Of Evaluation: [DATA RESTRICTED]
Location Of Evaluation: Nerva Archipelago, [DATA RESTRICTED]
Evaluation Conducted by: [DATA RESTRICTED]

Codename: Inferno Scimitar
Name: Katherine R. Madigan
Rank: Colonel [Crey Security brevet rank for concurrent operations contingincies]
Role: Scimitar Commander
Evaluation:
"This one's the most dangerous and make no mistake of it, Dr. [DATA RESTRICTED]. Simply put, of all the computer cores we salvaged from [DATA RESTRICTED], she's been the most independent. I know the given theory is that they're all a single line, given the similarities in cerebral mapping, but I don't buy it. The others are all vaguely deferential in their initial debriefs. Madigan, however, she's a spitfire, no pun intended.
I'm sure you've seen my reports about her using her free time to begin doing other work in Crey, particularly in the [DATA RESTRICTED] branch. And she does good work, that's for certain. Every one of her promotions has been earned, and we've seen a [DATA RESTRICTED] increase in net profits in areas she's been involved in. I hear she's due to be promoted to [DATA RESTRICTED] any day now, and she definitely has the raw talent and intelligence to do so.
But that's the danger, really. She's honed the Scimitars from a group of solo operatives with barely any experience working together into a finely honed team that I'd put money on against an equal number of these so-called [DATA RESTRICTED] they're hunting any day. But you don't boss someone like that around forever. Eventually, either they wind up in charge, or you have to be worth their loyalty that they're satisfied being below you. We don't know anything about her past on [DATA RESTRICTED], but given all we've learned about [DATA RESTRICTED], I'd say it's a good guess she was a mover and shaker in their power structure. Given her mainframe was hooked up for remote control of some sort of mobile device, it's possibly an anti-assassination measure. She expects our spying on her, but I think she should get looked at for a position in [DATA RESTRICTED]. She's not going to be satisfied with this piss-poor assignment forever."
Conclusion: Loyalty seems reliable. Possible sources of disruptive activity: personal ambition, disatisfaction with current assignment, high propensity of units programmed from her development source to go rogue (See files: Silicon, Net, Dance, Street, Nano, Mirage, Plasma, Hawk). Class 4 Surveillance recommended.

Codename: Shadow Scimitar

Name: Galatea

Rank: Major [Crey Security brevet rank for concurrent operations contingincies]

Role: Scimitar Executive Officer, Primary Assassin
Evaluation:
"This one's a real cold fish, and I don't mean because she's an ice queen. I spent a good hour and a half talking to her and barely got more than the absolute minimum of reaction from her. She's sentient, and certainly not defective. She shows far too much intelligence for that. However, she seems perfectly willing to remain in her current position, or even our evaluation of her. She's...a living machine. She accomplishes her tasks without personal feelings whatsoever, whether it's paperwork or tearing out some poor sucker's heart.
She certainly doesn't have the ambitious nature of some of the others, but I'm a bit unnerved by that. She doesn't seem to have any ambition, which is vaguely disturbing. No wants. No desires. She exists to fulfill her function, and she's very good at it, but I don't think she thinks beyond that. Madigan has to do most of her thinking for her, probably, which makes her a poor exec, but maybe Madigan's used to boot-licking yes-men.
Her loyalty is seemingly unquestionable, though. Someone like that doesn't seem to waste time contemplating betraying the people that give her her function, after all."
Conclusion: Trustworthy. Retain Class 1 Surveillance.

Codename: Psycho Scimitar

Name: Nena Romanova

Rank: Lieutenant [Crey Security brevet rank for concurrent operations contingincies]

Role: SigInt, SigWarfare (Psionic)
Evaluation:
"This one's got the most apropos codename I've ever heard, though it's inaccurate. Specifically, she's not psychotic. More accurately, she's a sociopath, though I note that hardly disqualifies one for working here, yeah? She has the mind of a sixteen year old girl who's never been told that using her powers on bystanders for her own amusement is wrong. In fact, due to her training, she probably finds it an interesting and challenging hobby.
Though no exact correlation exists, however, she sees Madigan and Galatea as her authority figures and obeys them, even if she'd prefer not to. It's a very odd situation, as Madigan's certainly not encouraging the girl to view her as a maternal figure, but it seems to be happening anyway. Very dysfunctional family that'd bring, yeah? Maybe she's looking for some stability in her life.
However, her loyalty is very much to Madigan more than Crey. She cooperates with us because her "mother" tells her to, and that's about it. Yet another reason we need to keep Madigan under control. Her "pranks" are harmless now, but if we were to threaten Madigan, they'd turn deadly very quickly.
Also, that one incident with the [DATA EXPUNGED]? Yeah, I asked her about it. It did happen, though it was more [DATA EXPUNGED]. Just to clarify.
Conclusion: Loyalty erratic and conditionary. See attached notes. Class 2 Surveillance recommended.

Codename: Arc Scimitar

Name: Robin Smythe

Rank: Lieutenant [Crey Security brevet rank for concurrent operations contingincies]

Role: Assault
Evaluation:
"This one makes me wonder why we bother with this whole android brain thing anymore. Smythe's well-adjusted, intelligent, well-spoken, and utterly unaware that she used to be the previous head of Project Scimitar. She's also incapable of saying anything bad about Crey, or even thinking it. I had a private telepath hired just to check!
Interestingly, for a former bookworm, she seems to be enjoying the violence first hand a lot more than you'd expect, but it's nothing more than someone who finds their job particularly fun. Sociopathic tendencies are a given in her case, but nothing major. She doesn't toy with our security troops like Romanova, for instance.
Overall, I think she's our main controllable one inside the Scimitar ranks, thanks to the leadup to her addition to the unit. Very stable, very competent, very violent. Just what the doctor ordered."
Conclusion: Trustworthy. Retain Class 1 Surveillance.

Codename: Amp Scimitar

Name: Jennifer

Rank: Lieutenant [Crey Security brevet rank for concurrent operations contingincies]

Role: Battery Combat Support (Ha ha. Very funny. - CS)
Evaluation:
"Jen's a weird case. I don't think she particularly cares about Crey, but neither does she really care about anything but her next buzz. Not that she's bad at her job, but she possibly enjoys it a bit too much.
Simply put, something went wrong with the allignment of her neural pathways to the whole setup, and she gets a massive endorphin rush along with the typical boosts to everything else from her kinetic projectors. She's at her best when operating at 200% of normal speed, and typically gets unenthusiastic and depressed if kept off her "speed-crack" for too long.
However, I honestly think it's harmless. In combat, she can keep herself buzzed as often as she likes, and elsewhere, it's not like she's depressed enough to do anything drastic. She's erratic, but not dangerous."

Conclusion: Trustworthy. Retain Class 1 Surveillance.

Codename: Zanbar Scimitar

Name: Fate

Rank: Lieutenant [Crey Security brevet rank for concurrent operations contingincies]

Role: Assault
Evaluation:
"While similar to Gally, Fate here isn't quite the same. She clearly has the full emotional spectrum that most humans consider normal, but simply fails to express most of it. She's....muted, for lack of a better term, and there's no real explanation for why, as she's a production model, not a brain transplant or anything. Maybe it's something in her programming that compiled wrong to make her so mopey.
However, while she's quiet, she does her job just fine. She may not enjoy it like Arc does, but she's definitely good at what she does. Missions tend to go quickly and quietly for her, though she'll jump at the next one. Maybe missions give her something simple to accomplish.
Socially, she's awkward, often avoiding the rest of the Scimitars who all socialize amongst themselves, usually off to one side or in her room. She also answers the questions for the basic eval like someone trying to pass the test but not quite fooling it. Frankly, however, if this is the only quirk she develops, we're lucky. I'd say keep an eye on her, but I don't expect programs.
Conclusion: Erratic, but stable. Class 2 Surveillance recommendation.
---
"Oh, silver blade, forged in the depths of the beyond. Heed my summons and purge those who stand in my way. Lay
waste."

Spotted on the SJGames forums: http://www.azcentral.com/community/chan ... icide.html]Man tries to commit suicide using sword, steering wheel

Is the quality of sword steel really that low nowadays, or are airbags really more powerful than I thought?
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012