+- Drunkard's Walk Forums (http://www.accessdenied-rms.net/forums)
+-- Forum: General (http://www.accessdenied-rms.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?fid=1)
+--- Forum: Other People's Fanfiction (http://www.accessdenied-rms.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?fid=8)
+--- Thread: I just got back from the book store... (/showthread.php?tid=7707)
I just got back from the book store... - firvulag - 07-16-2006
and after finishing my latest purchase and reading some of the Naruto threads here, I had a horrible idea.
---
I am a warrior, or at least I was supposed to be. I had not finished my training when the Enemy attacked. It was not a surprise, they had been spotted long before they could reach striking distance.
The problem, in the end was as always the sheer numbers of Enemy that we faced. No matter how many we killed there were always more. We is perhaps the wrong word, for I never saw them myself. I had been awakened early when the attack began, and was moving out of the training area when the weapon struck the facility.
I do not know what kind of weapon it was, only that when I regained conciousness I was no longer in the facility. I was no longer anywhere I recognized. No matter when I looked I could find no trace of the Enemy, or of my people.
I came back here, to where I had first arrived and contemplated. It was possible, probably, that I was halucinating, despite the safe guards. However, every check I ran came back clean. So here I wait, sleeping, hoping that my people will come that I might be rescued, or the Enemy, that I might truly become a warrior. It does not seem likely though. The war was savage, no quarter would have been given or asked.
I have computed the probabilities and it is 91.76% likely that all but a few scattered pockets of either side still exist. Also, knowing the doctrine employed by both the Enemy and my own people, it is 95.32% likely that
hunter-killer squadrons were sent to ravage every part of our respective realms.
So I wait, for a very long time. One day I hear the sounds of foot steps approaching my resting place. Bipedal foot steps, a number of people are coming near. This is impossible, there is no trace of a high tech civilization anywhere, I have looked. As subtly as I can, I try for a better look.
***
Naruto ran easily up the path beside Jirya. The frog-hermit was not watching the trail they were following too closely. Rather he was searching for traps, or signs that some of their prey had left the path.
The main trail wasn't hard to follow, there was only one ninja ahead of them, along with a group of bandits and the surviving women of the small village that had lain at the foot of the mountains.
Naruto figured that he knew why they were taking this path. Jirya had been telling him about it the night before they had spotted the smoke rising from the villiage. A few narrow paths wound their way into the foothills around here. Several of them lead to some kind of ruined fortress.
No one knew who had built it or when, but it was of a style unlike anything found on the continent. The local people were afraid of it, and no one else cared enough to explore. The bandits could be fairly certain that they wouldn't run into anyone.
"Oi, Ero-sennin! we're catching up aren't we?"
Jirya didn't bother to glare at his student. It would have been wasted anyway.
"Hmph, yes, they're maybe twenty minutes ahead of us. If they haven't left any more surprises."
"Hey I beat those guys all on my own. They were horrible." Naruto growled back.
"Yes, but we don't know what that ninja might have done."
A little less than twenty minutes later they rounded a rocky outcropping and found their quarry. A loose semi-circle of ragged bandits stood between them and a group of hopeless looking women.
Behind both rose the bulk of the strange ruins. Short and broad compared to the castles and forts Naruto was familiar with, it was almost completely covered by short stunted trees and other plants.
The ninja was standing on a large piece of rubble, off to one side. He had a kunai ready in one hand, the other hidden behind his back. His forehead protector was heavily scratched, obliterating any trace of his home village. A missing nin then.
Naruto yelled at his opponents. "Hey, let them go!"
The other ninja laughed. "Why would I want to do that? They'll bring me a good price at a brothel I know. You aren't going to beat me little brat, nor are you old man."
"Huh, you can't be much of a ninja if you've got to use thugs like these to fight for you! A ninja is supposed to protect people!"
"Protect people! You've got to be the dumbest kid I've ever met. Tell you what, I'll leave you alive so you can watch what we do with these tonight." The missing nin sneered down at Naruto. "Now, let's settle this."
Everyone was surprised by the clear feminine voice that spoke next.
"Yes. Let us."
***
I watch the group of people gather about. They seem agitated about persuit, a group of refugees perhaps. They are armed strangely though, with primitive melee weapons. There are no needlers or man portable energy weapons in evidence. Perhaps that is why I was not able to find them. I was looking for the wrong sort of civilization.
I do not know their language, but I recognize bits and pieces. It does not take me long to realize it is a decendent of Japanese. They do not speak much, but I am capable of extrapolating much of the vocabulary from what they do say.
Eighteen minutes after the first group arrives, two more people round the corner of the trail. Judging by the postures and reactions of both groups, these are the chasers. They pause for a moment, and begin to
speak. I follow the conversation as best I can, revising my vocabulary and come to an unpleasant conclusion. I check the condition of the women with the first group.
Their body language indicates fear and pain. They are afraid of both those with them and those who are chasing them. It is obvious, their protectors have failed, and they have been captured by their enemy. It also seems obvious that the youngest of the two persuers, a blond boy is intent of rescuing them.
I reach my conclusions quickly, and as the fight is about to start, speak.
***
Everyone froze for an instant, trying to find the speaker. The voice seemed to be coming from the ruins, but that didn't necissarily mean much.
"In the absense of specific, lawful orders, I must act of my own volition and follow the precepts of my service as best as possible. As such I cannot allow you to further harm these people." The voice was firm and unyeilding.
The missing nin was splitting his attention between his two visable opponets, and trying to track down the source of the voice.
"I'm not going to be intimidated by a voice. Show yourself!"
"I am two zero point five four meters behind you. I am not hiding, nor am I attempting to intimidate you I merely wanted you to move slightly farther away from your victims."
The trail errupted into violence in that moment. Great roars of thunder overlapped one another as something tore through the bandits and the missing nin, ripping them to small, bloody rags and shreding the ground beneath them.
Jirya leavered him self up off of the ground to peer over the
rock he had found cover behind. He was completely focused on the ruins, which were moving. Tearing free of the plants that had buried them.
Naruto was still standing where he had been, his arms raised reflexively to protect his face. The boy looked wide eyed at the remains of the bandits. "Wow! How did you do that? That was so cool! Who are you?"
***
I consider them both, the old man and the younger. The younger who was determined to protect people he hardly knew. I come to my decission. It is in the end the only decission I can make. I focus on him, and speak.
"Unit Niner-One-Seven-Three-HNT of the Line reporting for duty Commander."
---
I realize HNT isn't speaking with the precision she ought to, but I was worried it might give away too much too early.
F
--
#4 "Many people tend to have a nasty tendency to carry grudges to the
grave. Specifically, yours. And they'll come back yearly just to do
the Meposian Dance of Joy on it. Besides, nothing bad ever happens to
Kasumi or Mihoshi, does it?" - the Guide to living in an Anime Universe
Re: I just got back from the book store... - classicdrogn - 07-16-2006
Oh I say, that's remarkably wicked. I have to wonder what the ninja world would make of Deng...
...well, besides "spider-alien mince."
- CDSERVO: Loook *deeeeply* into my eyes... Tell me, what do you see?
CROW: (hypnotized) A twisted man who wants to inflict his pain upon others.
A kung-fu nun in a leather thong was no less extreme than anything else he had seen that day. - Rev. Dark's IST: Holy Sea World
--
"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
Re: I just got back from the book store... - Valles - 07-16-2006
Quote:Granted, but going back over the descriptions of the war make it damn clear in retrospect that HNT...
...well, besides "spider-alien mince."
...ohmigodhe'sgonnanameherafterhinataisn'the...
...is at least a XXXI or XXXII, and that the Enemy du jour are the Melconians. I mean, even without the 'hunter killer' bit (aka, 'Case Ragnarok'), they were the only large scale opposition I can remember tangling with the Concordiat who actually had anything approaching overwhelming numbers.
Plus, they were the foes featured in the most recent book.
This has actually started a plot germinating in the back of my head, you know.
Ja, -n
===============================================
"Puripuri puripuri... Bang!"
Re: I just got back from the book store... - Evil Midnight Lurker - 07-16-2006
Oooooooooookay.
I'm seeing a battle royale against multiple Bijuu.
I'm seeing the Bijuu running away, multiple tails between their legs and everything.
I like it.
![[Image: smile.gif]](http://www.ezboard.com/intl/aenglish/images/emoticons/smile.gif)
--Sam
"Egad! A gigantic well-dressed digestive enzyme! I am in a whale!"
Re: I just got back from the book store... - Valles - 07-16-2006
Quote:Yup. But, alas, it doesn't make for much of a story, so I was planning on playing the 'hyperdimensional energy beings' card. Figure a given Bijuu will be about an even match for a XXIV; less firepower, of course, and a lot less able to actually absorb damage, but capable of phasing around most of what gets thrown at it.
I like it.
Of course, you should be more concerned about the question of 'how did Hinata get there' and 'what saw her arrive' and 'what might have followed her'.
^_^
Ja, -n
===============================================
"Puripuri puripuri... Bang!"
Re: I just got back from the book store... - firvulag - 07-16-2006
Quote:HNT was intended to be one of the last production run Bolos made on Bolo Prime before the Melconians burned it. So there's a decent chance she's a Mark XXXIII.
damn clear in retrospect that HNT...
...ohmigodhe'sgonnanameherafterhinataisn'the...
...is at least a XXXI or XXXII, and that the Enemy du jour are the Melconians.
I don't know if Naruto'd name her properly but I figured that as long as I had something to say about it at least one Hinata would get him. One way or another.
Quote:Pretty much what I thought. I'd never intended more than the short bit I posted.
Yup. But, alas, it doesn't make for much of a story
There's nothing much in Naruto's world that can stand up to a late mark Bolo. There's not much story in "and they blew up the hidden village of foo". Way too much mary-sue in that.
A Bijuu could probably damage a Bolo, destroy some of it's armament, if it could get close enough to get inside the battle screen. But out right destroying one would be very difficult.
Although there might be something from the perspective of a group of people trying to work around a Bolo, which can only be in one place at a time. A Bolo wouldn't be as usefull against Akatsuki as it would against Cloud. Hmm...
Oh, and as to how HNT got there, well we don't what kind of R&D the Concordiat were conducting on Bolo Prime, or how it would interact with a Melconian planet burner, do we.
F
--
I work on the Quentin Crisp principle "The dust stops piling up after 4 years"
-- Stevo in ASR
Re: I just got back from the book store... - Valles - 07-16-2006
Quote:I think that the XXXIIs were still in production up until the very end; the fluff text Weber worked up about Bolo history indicates that the XXXIII was more of a fire-support type than a front-line combatant. ...For that matter, didn't they get off a run or two of the (anti-orbital) XXXIVs before the very end?
HNT was intended to be one of the last production run Bolos made on Bolo Prime before the Melconians burned it. So there's a decent chance she's a Mark XXXIII.
Quote:HNT would probably twig as to the dynamics of that relationship as soon as she laid a camera on the girl, and even if she didn't decide to tell him directly, the neural-interface state doesn't leave much room for hiding things...
I don't know if Naruto'd name her properly but I figured that as long as I had something to say about it at least one Hinata would get him. One way or another.
Quote:It might make for an amusingly different sort of Bolo yarn to have her float up on contragrav and settle in one of Konoha's practice fields, then spend the rest of the tale giving out advice, without even getting the chance to blow anything up.
Although there might be something from the perspective of a group of people trying to work around a Bolo, which can only be in one place at a time. A Bolo wouldn't be as usefull against Akatsuki as it would against Cloud. Hmm...
Nah.
What I said about something tracking her wasn't anything to do with the Concordiat or the Dogboys, BTW - I'm thinking that NinjaWorld is likely to have its own local intersteller powers, who might be very interested indeed in the kind of technology HNT has stored in her databanks and implicit in her structure.
Ja, -n
===============================================
"Puripuri puripuri... Bang!"
Re: I just got back from the book store... - Evil Midnight Lurker - 07-16-2006
Daisenshahagakure.
The Village Hidden in a Giant Tank.
--Sam
"You got nothin' on me copper, I'm just a part-time electrician!"
Re: I just got back from the book store... - Werehawk - 07-17-2006
Not bad at all...Not too many bolo xovers out there. Could probably count them with my fingers. I'm looking forward to seeing where you take this.
I've sort of had one sort of in the idea phase with mostly nebulous plotting set as an xover with Babylon 5 just pre the minbari war or alternately during the dilgar war...
Basic summary of plot is a refugee fleet from the cocordiate/melconian war ends up via a dimensional discontinuity ends up in babverse. Depending on when the concordiat refugee fleet ends up in babverse would be the fun part.
Other idea I've had sort of in the back of my head is a outright fusion between mutineers moon (fifth imperium) & babylon 5. But that would involve some pretty drastic reimagining of the babylon universe...as well as the mutineers moon side.
WMD
--Werehawk--
My mom's brief take on upcoming Guatemalan Elections "In last throes of preelection activities. Much loudspeaker vote pleading."