or maybe its just me... but it seems to me that all bob's lovely customizations have been berfed up. I miss our friendly green banner, and the
anticipation of looking to see if the k count has ticked up or not. Hopefully this is something that is easily fixed and wont majorly bork Bob's weekend.
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

At least not that I can tell directly... but apparently EPU's forums are "Down for Maintenance"... something G is usually quite good about
warning us RCW's about in advance.

Of course he could be having a Truss moment ala... ala... gods, which story was it where he was driving his Nanami(?) nuts with his fiddling combos?

then again, none of its here or there, is it... Just wanted to pass the word that for the time being apparendly EPU's forums are not responding, for
whatever cause.
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

Blackbird Class Assault/Escort Carriers

History:

Early on during the refitting of the Magnificent Midnight into a proper space ship, Benjamin and Gina both
realized that the sort of force of fighter jocks that Haruhi was talking about simply didn't exist yet. While there was the F-EZigs, they were too small
and too lightly armed to pose a real threat to larger enemy forces and assets. And thus Ben hit upon a simple and elegant idea: we need more Blackbirds.

When Benjamin pitched the idea, the SOS-Dan balked. Haruki, was pleased that Ben was taking his role
seriously, but Kyon mentioned that acquiring the new Blackbirds would be all but impossible without possibly starting a war with the 'Danes. Haruhi is
crazy, but not stupid, and declined the initial pitch. It was Gina, usuing her network, that pointed Ben in the direction of Hephestus. By negotiating a deal
between the Rockhounds (raw supply), Hephestus (parts manufaturing), Gnarlycurl (assembly), the SOS-Dan (not-so-silent partner), and himself, he arranged for
the construction of five non-original wave-tech Blackbirds.

The new Blackbirds do not have the same sort of speed and endurance that the original Midnight does, but they make up for it in combat capability. The most notable difference is in the armory - in addition to
what the Midnight has, the production model Blackbirds have a small VLS system. Despite using relatively small
missiles, the ability to volley the entire payload of fifty missiles can have devastating effects on enemy assets. Coupled with the ships' speed and
stealth, they make for formidable opponents. The ability to carry four F-EZigs per ship just seals the deal.

Registry Number:

SR-####

Base Hull:

All-new design and materials based on the Lockheed/Skunkworks SR-71X Blackbird
airframe.

Drive Type:

Speed

Drive Rating:

0.11C

Owner of Record:

The Roughriders and the SOS-Dan

Primary Manufacturer:

Hepheastus and Gnarlycurl

Purpose:

Strike/Escort Carrier and Heavy Assault Ship

Launched:

TBA

Crew:

1 Pilot

2 Gunners

1 'Airboss'

Supplementary Crew:

None

Faction:

Any

Status:

Inactive

Armaments:

2 60 mm Coil Guns (Chinaries)

2 M61 Vulcan gattling cannons, retractable (dorsal,
ventricle)

2 Vertical Launch System Units, 25 cells (amidships, aft)



Class Quirks



Mother Henned: The new Blackbirds all look upon Midnight as a sort of mother figure and she has, in turn, taken to the position of Matriarch
quite admirably, showing the new kids what it means to be a Blackbird.



ADD: Like any child, these younger Blackbirds are insatiably curious about everything around them and need to have watchful eyes on them during
missions so they don't get distracted. Hopefully this will change in a few years.

Trivia:

Buy Yours Today: As part of the deal struck between the other commercial/industrial members of the Fen, the Blackbird Class is not exclusive
to the Roughriders for purchase. Therefore, any Fen who's got enough money can buy one for themselves. Given the time and the quality of workmanship it
takes to build these things, it is not a cheap thrill. Benjamin only got his five so quickly (three months) because Haruhi pushed for it.

So there I was, idly wondering the net when I came upon http://www.notafishinglure.com/SinCity.html]THIS. So I thought I'd infli^H^H^H^H^H share this with you.

I had no idea there was a project still working on this series, one of my old
favorites. And they're nearly done too, on volume 35 out of 40! Just thought I'd share the happiness with anyone else who happens to be a fan. (I was
so happy it inspired me to write a TV Tropes
page for the manga. )

Now someone needs to get cracking on Ushio and Tora...

--Sam

"The two strange men who tried to kill us were eaten by a cow and that almost makes sense to me."

http://www.deadlinehollyw...-watchmen-in-legal-peril/

Apparently Fox is claiming that they never gave up all their rights to the movie before Warner got it. They're currently suing Warner over it.

RMH
If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it?
- Albert Einstein

OK. This came about from a number of things - me working on the Jason's catalog, and realizing that with all of the troubles with the zwilniks and the
Boskonians, the Jason would be wanting something a bit..sturdier than the Lightning to use as a base. Plus, this has
the added bonus of giving a LOT of extra room for experimentation. The downside is that, even with all the work he's put into it so far, there's still
a lot to do. Many of the available levels on this new...ship...are still unfinished, bare spaces for storage until the time and materials can be found to
finish them. *grin* However...it's also very great advertising. I'm still coming up with the write-up for the ship; most of this hit me today at work
while doing data-entry, and I wanted to get it down. Opinions? Too over the top. maybe? I'd like to hear feedback from folks, please?

_____________________________________________________________

Although Operation Great Justice and the fighting with the Boskonians, as well as several actions by various zwilnik 'recruiters' were the final
trigger, the method of the Jason's arrival at Phobos in the summer of 2014 started several years before, back in 2010. He'd created a masterpiece of
biomodification for people to use...and some were, yes. But...none of them were using his creations to their full potential. The clients were always asking him
to suspend the growth phase before things had ever really gotten started. He'd left one growing all by itself, hidden away in a seldom-visited portion of
the Belt...wanting to have something spectacular to show people. Then...when the troubles started, he decided it could serve a different purpose. Oh, he
could...and would...enhance the Fateful Lightning's defenses. But, she'd been built in a time of peace. His
new ship....she'd been designed to carry families...children. In a fashion that HE'D deemed safe...

________________________________________________________________________________

The Jason was up to something - that was nothing new. The Jason was always up to something. But for the last year or so, the rumors were flying fast and
furious that he was involved in something major. Everybody was talking about it...mainly because he was calling in favors and making deals WITH everyone. There
were large orders for Wire Geek and Hephaestus, items requested from the Professor that were just barely short of
insane, a known order for a very LARGE Interwave transmitter, talks with Buckaroo, with Fred...and Kohran Li. And many others. Whatever he was doing, it was
obviously going to be big. So when Fate called ahead and requested an isolated parking orbit, well away from other traffic, the rumor mill at Port Phobos
immediately went into overdrive.

____________________________________________________

Tom settled into his chair, putting his coffee on his desk as he looked over the monitors. Fairly normal morning, everybody actually keeping to their assigned
orbits without problems...though that wouldn't last. It hardly ever did for long. He looked up as Kathy, one of the on-duty techs came up with a
diagnostic scanner and started looking over the long-range scanner on the next desk over. "Problem?"

She shook her head. "Matt said he was getting some odd readings that didn't make sense. He wanted me to look it over." She finished a diagnostic
cycle, then shook her head. "Everything's clear..." She started the machine back up, and then whistled softly. "Great Ghu! I see what he was
talking about. That can't be right...."

Getting up, Tom went and glanced over the tech's shoulder. Incoming vessel, size...Tom's eyes widened. "What the hell?!" The pair glanced at
each other, and then went to activate a visual scanner. Tom shook his head. "Whatever it is, it's on..." He called up scheduled orbits, and
frowned. "...on the Jason's flight path. But that can't be the Lightning." Kathy laughed, a little
nervously. "Not unless he's found a way to make cars and trucks actually grow bigger. Though with him, who kno...." She broke off as the monitor
finally showed a picture of the incoming craft. Neither said a word....as the monitor displayed a majestic, giant tree drifting serenely on its way. A tree
with a silvery trunk and green-black leaves....that was over a mile long. For several long moments, only the sounds of
electronic equipment were heard in the room, until a voice came in over the communicator. "Ahoy, Port Phobos. This is the Jason aboard the Yggdrasil. I'm on my assigned path, and should be there shortly. Everything OK on your end?"

Tom reached out and hit the 'send' switch. "F-fine on this end, Jason. Uh...new ship?"

There was a mischievous chuckle over the speaker. "The Yggdrasil? Yeah, just a...little something I've been
working on."

__________________________________________________________

The Yggdrasil is about 1.25 miles long, and 600 feet in diameter through most of the trunk. The bark and outer layers
are 20 feet thick, and between the metal and mineral content in the wood, the ship could really be described as living petrified wood. Handwaved petrified wood, so it's not exactly fragile. The ship is capable of docking the Fateful Lightning internally.

I just uploaded a spreadsheet of the set bonuses (I think I got them all, I got them off Paragonwiki) in Excel format, suitable for sorting and calculations,
or printing and framing fish.

The file is at this link, and is Excel 97-2003 formatted. All the
action is in the tabs, anyway. I split things up into pretty broad categories ('blue stuff', 'green stuff', 'status stuff'), but being
able to sort by size of bonus, or amount of bonus vs amount of slots consumed..

It make happy. Below is an excerpt from the 'Movement' tab.

[table]

The Drawing Board forums has some fun art to ogle every now and again, but I found these rendered Muppet portraits to dive into the Uncanny valley:

http://www.drawingboard.o...394e1fff039e2c30b3#705966

They're still incredibly well done but *shudder*
''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

Okay, I just finished reading four chapters and a timeline of an unfinished fic called Bubblegum Convergence, which crosses over BGC with Sailor Moon. I've had them in my "to read" archive since April and only now got to them. And now that I'm impressed, I want to find out if there's more. Except... It's not listed by Google, and there's no URL in the files, and there's no author's name. I've completely forgotten where I got it from. I'm presuming someone here sent it to me to read, so if you were the kind person, please wave your hand or something? Thanks.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.