[RFC] [Sports] The Port Phobos Invitational

[robkelk]

Near the piano a karaoke machine had been set up and two miniature women were signing a duet.

It's far, far too late to try summoning Mothra, girls...

---

Kagome grabbed Jake's arm before he could duck around the corner. "Don't. It's the perfect place for a trap."

"You're sure, Ms. Mishima? Of course you're sure." Jake Hansen, enjoying a rare day away from Stellvia's main ops, sighed. "What have we got left?"

Miyuri Akisato looked at the grenades left on her belt. "Three pantsu, two pompom, and four spiderwebs."

Kagome didn't look at her own belt. "Two pantsu, three webs, and a kudzu."

"And I've got both the kudzus I started out with," Jake volunteered. "Not much, considering there's still at least 30% of the opposition left."

"29.6%," Kagome corrected. "I've been getting a feed from Lebia. Take cover." Stellvia's security chief pulled a web greade from her belt, butdidn't throw it immediately...

... because Kohran barreled around the corner three seconds after Kagome pulled the grenade's pin. "Eep! Oh, it's you..."

"Down!" Kohran ducked, Kagome tossed the grenade around the corner, and the curses of the group that had been chasing the Stellvian drifted around the corner. "That takes care of them. Where's the rest of your team?"

"Safety was taken out before the kaboomite bomb went off. Takami... I don't know. We got separated. I think I saw some catgirl Potterites chasing her."

"Then we have to assume she's gone bye-bye," sighed Miyuri.

"Right. You're with us now, ma'am."

Kohran smiled. "And happy to be with somebody to watch my back again!"

Kagome's commwatch beeped once. She looked at the display and frowned.

"What's wrong?" asked Jake.

"The last of the SJGames team just got taken out. By Nagato and Kyon."

Jake sighed. "Which means they get the book Noah wanted. He's going to be pissed off..."

"Down!" Kagome tossed her kudzu grenade over her shoulder. It went off as nerf arrows flew over the Stellvians' heads, trapping the Renfaire fen who had tried to ambush them.

"Oh, blast." Miyuri sighed as she took a nerf arrow out from between her collar and her neck. "Loot my body before you go, okay? You're going to need the grenades."
--
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

[ECSNorway]

"Banner 2, this is Greentrees. What've you got for me?" I settled in to keep an eye on the door while Amy and a few of Jess checked the
'bodies'. All of them seemed to be unconscious at first glance.

"Peters is on Medical, boss," came the young pilot's voice. "No sign of Fivers yet. We had some Stormtroopers headed in your direction,
though. Headed up from level 5, stairway Baker." The map references were our own, internal, and carefully designed to mislead anyone who might have hacked
the channel.

"Yeah, we found 'em. Some redshirts got there first, though... had a nice little unmoderated truth-politics reaction. We might need that
medical." Truth and politics - just like matter and anti-matter, but without the benefit of dilithium. Rei held up a hand to get my attention and pointed
at the hallway. "Hang on a second, Lufy, I think we've got some more company coming." I settled into a squat by the door and palmed a grenade in
one hand, Nerf in the other. "Amy, Jess, take cover, get ready."

Another glance told me who it was we were facing now and I bit my lip as several of those behind me cursed. "Greentrees for Banner 1," I snapped at
the radio as we started piling stormtroopers into a makeshift barricade. "Lafiel, get your team and those Browncoats you hired up to Corridor J, level
six. We've got Space Marines."
--
Sucrose Octanitrate.
Proof positive that with sufficient motivation, you can make anything explode.

[robkelk]

(OOC: I just noticed that Stellvia and Azu are the only ones who have lost any "name" characters so far. Shouldn't other folks be taking losses to their less-capable-in-combat forces, too? After all, if everyone makes it to the final fight, it's going to be a royal pain to write... Just a 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

[ECSNorway]

(OOC: I'm about to lose some. Of course, some of those are people I'd planned on first introducing as Rockhounds folk in 'Carcharadon Astrodontis', but I'll get to them when I write more of that... but damnit, Space Marines farking cheat.)
--
Sucrose Octanitrate.
Proof positive that with sufficient motivation, you can make anything explode.

[Black Aeronaut]

At last they had found what they were looking for: a secure location with ether-wave access. In this case, it was a closet that house one of Port Phobos's network hubs, complete with an ether-wave transceiver. A bit of judicious jimmying with Benjamin's biomod got the door open.
"You had better have it still," said Gina as Benjamin re-secured the door as best as he could.
"But of course, M'Lady," he said, drawing out the device from somewhere inside his tactical gear with a flouish. It was a cobbled together little thing that seemed to be held together by duck tape - the universal bonding agent (especially so when handwaved). Benjamin and Gina had gathered the materials needed to build it from left-over bits and peices of whatever was lying around and Benjamin had somehow assembled the damn thing while on the run. It was a testament to his status as a gearhead and a loyal follower of Skuld the Ravenhaired.
"Good, give it here," she said, snatching it from his hand. She then pulled a chip out of her own tactical gear - the NPU from the toy car that had attempted (unsuccessfully) to put them out of the game for good - and slotted it into the device. She then took the cable that ran out of it and carefully plugged it into the micro-port hidden behind her right ear.
"Alright," she said as she then hunkered down and closed her eyes, preparing herself for a deep net-dive. "Accessing the wireless NPU from the toy car... Success! Slaving it to my own wireless system. Accessing the Port Phobos ether-wave network... Done. Now spoofing the car's MAC and IP addresses. Accessing the Fateful Lightning's network..." Gine then looked over at me and grinned savagely. "Conquest!"

---

Atropos was quite busy at the moment. With so many of her toy cars out and about, it wasn't surprising that one had dropped off the network, only to reappear again. It'd happened a couple of times when a car had strayed into a dead-zone and some curious Fen had picked it up and wandered back into reception range again. Needless to say, this usually proved to be a nasty shock for the curious Fen in question.
The car that had popped back into her awareness had been the one she sent into a hotel room quite a while ago. She wasn't sure who was in there as the car's camera had no time to properly focus the image, but from what she had seen she'd interupted something that she really shouldn't have. Ah well, that's what people like that get when they forget about their surroundings.
The car in question wasn't doing anything. There was no one nearby - it was just sitting in the street. Maybe someone had found it and chucked it out the window? No matter. She ran a quick diagnostic check and, finding nothing wrong, she sent it on its way to terrorize whoever it could find and promptly put it out of her active sphere of thought.
It began at first as noise coming from somewhere inside the network. Of course, that meant something was wrong, but where was it coming from? And then she realized where she had open connections to the Port Phobos network. Checking on her connections to all her cars, she found that one of them, the recently recovered one, was uploading files to her servers! She did the cybernetic equivilant of a horrofied gasp and shut down all the connections. Just before she did, though, the icon that represented the Trojan Horse car suddenly shifted. It was none other than Regina Langely! She suddenly blew a kiss at Atropos before winking out of existence. Oddly enough, she actually felt the 'kiss' hit her... it was a note. Curious, she read it.

Good morning, asshat.  As a registered citizen of the Principia Universalis I find your actions to be offensive and a violation to the Discordia Accords. This is your mandatory warning.
Love and Missiles,
Lady Regina Langely of the Wired,
Follower of the Writer of the Devine Code, Skuld the Ravenhaired

At first, Atropos wondered when the hell Gina had started talking to Trigon and how that had gone over (she suspected that Gina hadn't since the hacker-war to end all hacker-wars hadn't erupted - Gina's mean-streak was well renown as was Trigon's tact). And then she remembered who she was dealing with. A quick check over the servers didn't reveal anything right away until she noticed an odd looking creature in the periphreal of her perception. It was only there for a moment and then it was gone, but not before she got a look at it. It was an icon of something white and fuzzy with too-big eyes, long upright ears, a goofy grin, and buck teeth. Oh, and legs. Six of them to be exact on a round little body.
She then figured that she was just downright screwed right then and there as it would take her all day to clean the Yggdrasil Bug virus from the mainframes. The others were not gonna be happy about this.

---

"Have fun?" asked Benjamin as Gina came out of her net-dive.
"Yes, I did as a matter of fact," she replied, vestiges of her nasty grin still on her face.
"Great.  Let's go find Jess and see what she's been up to lately.  I figure it's about high time we see if she could use any extra help."
"The day Wondergirl needs extra help is the day..."  She suddenly trailed off, as though thinking better of what she was about to say.  "Nevermind.  Skuld only knows what Handwavium can do and I might be jinxing myself."

---

OOC: Hope I'm not stepping on your toes much here, Feinan.  ^_^;;
Edited to fix a few small things.

[Black Aeronaut]

(OOC: Norway, Ben and Gina are heading the way of Marsden's group. By all means, feel free to use them. Remember that Benjamin's Biomod is extremely useful for sending himself or anything/anyone else into 'Low Earth Orbit' but he's gotta use the attack phrases to trigger it. Also note that the arm, when it is active, has a mind of its own and it is quite perverted.  To prevent gropings, Ben keeps the thing clip to his waist by the wrist.
Gina, as you've seen, rivals Motoko Kusanagi from GitS. Oh, and the top of her head, especially her A10 clips, is an extreme erogenous zone - weird quirk that I only recently thought of. Just throwing that out there if you think you can use it to some effect.
I haven't gone very far into detail of what they're packing, but at the very least they both have a sniper rifle and an SMG a piece. Also note that they're of the mindset that they will use every unfair advantage they got, so they should be able to help out with those Space Marines somehow. Maybe have Ben launch something fu-huge at 'em?)

[Cobalt Greywalker]

(OOC: Which type of Space Marines? The only GOOD WH40K ones in Fenspace are the Cybers Grey Knights, the Boskonians fielded the others. You might need heavy
backup from Lebia's team.)

[Black Aeronaut]

(OOC: Indeed then... The crew of the Peacemaker Class Ship GaoGaiGar and the pilots of their escort fighters would be the heavy weapons contingent. They'll most likely have some kind of high-mobility armor on par with a Hardsuit... in fact the one or two ladies of their group may well be packing Hardsuits. The larger armors they'd have been able to bring into the game would already be taken out, thanks to things like that Terminator Unit, but the smaller ones evade much better. So I'd say that about a quarter of that bunch should be in the game still.)

[ECSNorway]

(Having reconsidered on the basis of the above-presented evidence, I have to consider the -other- possibility... and one that's more in keeping with the spirit of the game. ... and, ok, I've been reading too much of the Through the Looking Glass series lately...)

We all ducked back into cover as a spray of Nerf bullets spattered into the room. Fortunately we'd left nothing for them to hit but 'dead' people and empty walls. "Lafiel! Where are those browncoats you promised me?"

"Ah ah ah," came the taunting, all-too-familiar voice. "No browncoats for you, Rockhound."

"DODGE!" My shout grabbed Rei's and Jess' attention, and got a look of disgust from Amy. "You rat! You ... you squid! What in Garfield's name are you doing on this channel?"

"Why, gloating, Mr. Marsden, I'd have thought a man of your acumen would find that obvious." He was clearly having way too much fun, which just meant more fun in the post-battle bar brawl for the rest of us. As soon as we hunted him down, that is. "After all," he continued, "I've dealt with your browncoats, and with the lovely Miss Abriel, and the rest of her friends here at... was it Stairwell F, I believe?" Hell. He'd broken our whole system. Or he'd bribed Catty... which was all too possible, they were fairly close...

I stuck my hand around the edge of the door and let loose a couple of short bursts of fire, just to keep the Marines honest. They were getting too damn close for comfort as far as I was concerned, and Jess' harassing fire wasn't doing much to slow them down. "Hell, Dodge, I'm surprised you can even pronounce a word as long as 'acumen'."

That got a little laugh out of the bastard, at least. Come on now, Chris, just keep him talking... And then the pop-thud-hiss sounds of large Nerf rounds and silly string escaped the headpiece as Amy detonated two of the claymores we'd left on the stairwell. They were shortly joined by a spluttering Dodge, just as quickly cut off. "That ought to keep them from getting any more reinforcements up this way."

"Not that it'll do us much good at the rate these guys keep coming," said a Jess, slapping the first Marine over the barricade with a boffer sword to the neck. We backed deeper into the banquet room, taking cover under tables, as more of them poured in.

Then my radio crackled again. "Banner 2 for Greentrees," came Lufy's voice. I was about to ask when she'd get here when she yelled, "DUCK!", so I did.

Five minutes later, I could only conclude that Dodge had not, after all, been able to bribe Catty....

(BA, feel free to write a bit yourself about Ben and Gina running into Lufy and her team on the way up... as for the swap in antagonist, well, nobody'd mentioned the Navy team yet, and who cheats more thoroughly than the USMC?)
--
Sucrose Octanitrate.
Proof positive that with sufficient motivation, you can make anything explode.

[Ebony]

J. sidestepped the boffer sword the catgirl swung at him, grabbed her arm, and pulled her through an over the shoulder throw that tossed her to the ground.
Unfortunately, she had a dartgun in her other hand, and he felt the sting of the impact in the middle of his chest. "Dead," he said, smiling.
"Good shot."

The catgirl picked herself up. "Good fight," she replied. Looking around at the spectators, all staff and residents of the Home for Wayward Catgirls,
she added, "Although, I wonder if you were planning on fighting all of us by yourself."

J.'s smile got broader. "Not really," he answered. "I was just hoping to get a large enough group in one place." Raising his voice, he
shouted, "Fuck you, G.I.!"

There was a muffled "WHOOMPH!" as Kaos fired a grenade from the cover of a third-story window across the street. As the grenade spiraled through its
brief, lazy trajectory, a manic, prerecorded voice could be heard emanating from it, squealing in high falsetto, "I'M A BOMB! I'M A BOMB! I'M
A BOMB!" The explosion of paisley colored foam was approximately the consistency of shaving cream, and smelled like avocados. It filled the courtyard and
the front parking lot, coating everyone who had been there.

J. wiped foam out of his eyes and glared at Kaos as he walked up. The tall, thin Blazer smirked at his partner, and said, "Nice distraction."

"Thanks," replied J. "Could you have waited until I cleared the blast area?"

"Not really, no," replied Kaos blithely. "Anyway, you're dead. What do you care?"

"Fine, fine. Let's get out of here. I smell like guacamole, and I need a shower."
Ebony the Black Dragon
http://ebony14.livejournal.com

"Good night, and may the Good Lord take a Viking to you."

[Cobalt Greywalker]

Greenpeace trudged back into the Stallion's galley looking the worse for wear, causing Safety to cluck.

"Yeah, yeah. I know." Greenpeace sighed. "At least I took out Haruhi. But that counter-sniper fire did me in. Johnny avenged me, and did for
most of her close allies before falling. How's everybody else doing?"

"Well, Noah's upset because he lost that book to Nagato and Kyon." Miyuri said from a table by the kitchen. The Forge crew had offered the
Stallion as a meeting place to their allies (because it was the largest of their collective ships, and had bed space for all of the major allies) when knocked
out.

"Madam Lebia has lost Keiichi from her group." Roberta said from where she and Fawn were giving Anthy cooking lessons. "They did eliminate the
last of the Spartans however, so we have nothing to worry about in that respect. Chief Inspector Ten-Joh has just eliminated Koizumi, but her position does not
look good according to Mister Eddie. Madam Kasumi eliminated the final S-Class Ninja involved in the event, which means we are just down to the independents.
And Mistress Attim has informed the Players of an assault on Phobos Medical."

"Ouch." Greenpeace winced. "Never upset a Doctor. I'm going to change out of my gear."

As Greenpeace left, Miyuri turned to Roberta.

"Has anyone heard about Takami?"

Roberta looked off into the distance as she queried the Net.




"Ah. It seems as though the Rockhounds have called in a Medical team, as they have found Miss Sakuragi. The Mistress will send her back here once one of
the Tachikoma which has been reset and marked as out arrives at Phobos Medical."

With a two-tone signal, the intercom came on.

"Keiichi here. I'm almost done, so I'll head out."

"Thank you Keiichi." Miyuki called.

[robkelk]

(OOC: Oh, drat - I wanted to take out Haruhi. Guess I'll have to go for bigger game instead...)

I opened the emergency pressure valve in the door to discover a group of swords-and-sandals fen on the other side, working themselves into a battle frenzy. "This... is... PHOBOS!"

The valve was big enough. Before I closed the valve, I donated a kudzu grenade to their team, but forgot to include the pin. Once it was safe, I opened the door and said, "That... is... clichéd!"

If looks could kill... I swear, some fen have no sense of humour. We didn't stick around to give them a chance to get free and take their revenge.

We made it halfway down the corridor before Yayoi pushed Leda and me to the deck, just before something raced along the side of the wall. Just "something" - I couldn't see it, but it did make some sort of noise.

"That's a good trick, Jason," Yayoi called out in the direction the sound was travelling.

The Jason. One of the more dangerous opponents, according to Lebia's datafeed. And Yayoi just let him know she could spot him. We were doomed, unless we acted fast. I got what looked like a claymore out of my backpack. Pity; I'd hoped to use it against a mob, not one person, but the Jason was that dangerous.

"Okay, how'd you spot me?" Damn, he was already back. I still couldn't see him.

Yayoi smiled and tapped her glasses once with one finger. "Skuld made these for me."

"Ah. Divine intervention." The Jason looked like he popped into existance right in front of us. "A silly string bomb, Noah?"

I pointed the front of the bomb at him, and grinned. "No, you're agile enough to dodge silly string even at point-blank range. This is ludicrous string!" I hit the detonate button and hoped against hope that the Jason wasn't fast enough to dodge the entire effect...

(OOC: Your call, Fenian. Is the Jason out, or was he fast enough to dodge all the silly-string-on-steroids from Noah's ludicrous-string bomb? And did he retaliate before (not) being tagged?)
--
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

[Black Aeronaut]

(OOC: Norway, there seems to be quite a few charactes involved and I've lost track of where you'rs are all at here. Can you give me a detailed
description of the situation they're in there? Also, since it's getting a little complex, you want to make this next one collaborative through email?)

[ECSNorway]

(PM'ed you here, since I don't have your email.)
--
Sucrose Octanitrate.
Proof positive that with sufficient motivation, you can make anything explode.

[Feinan]

Ben - *grin* No toes stepped on. I'm assuming that the virus is an annoyance type? Just taking up resources and hard to get rid of? If Atropos can't
get rid of by the time her sisters get back, they can help her clean it up...or she might ask Sekhmet for help. Let's see....cute little rabbit-type
bug....and an Egyptian war-goddess in lioness form. I know who I'D bet on. *snicker* Though Atropos would owe her a favor, then. It makes sense, though.
Fate tends to be the one that does the more active maintenance in the systems, so it'd be easier to sneak something in on Atropos like that.

And rob - I don't think he'd get away totally unscathed, though given how fast you've got him moving, I'm going with him being on
Kinto'un...which definitely ups movement/reaction times, since the AIs are controlling it...So...

---

Even as the claymore bomb exploded in a horrendous mess of strings in my direction, Kinto'un was already moving backward as fast as the AIs could drive it.
Still, I'd been too close to avoid it entirely. I wound up on the opposite side of a gigantic tangle of silly string, my left arm caught up in it.
"Blast it, Noah! I'm getting to HATE bombs. Somebody managed to tag me with a bloody Kawaii grenade earlier. I still reek of the thing...and it seems
to make women view me as adorable. As in 'I will hug him and squeeze him and call him George!' adorable. I've been running from overgrown Elmyras
for the last hour." Noah grinned at that. Unforunately, Leda was starting to get that same look in her eyes. Hrm. "Chakra scalpel...." A glowing
green blade extended from my fingertips and I cut my arm free.

"Tourniquet and sling." A 'wounded' band went around my arm, and a sling appeared to hold it. "All right...before Leda loses it, I think
I'm gonna run. Later at the bar? Oh...and one last word. Bonsai!" Yayoi blinked. "You mean 'Banzai'?" My unwounded hand was in the
pouch at my waist, and I pulled out something that looked like a huge acorn. "No...I meant exactly what I said. Bonsai!" I tossed it out towards the
trio from Stellvia, and commanded, "Be fruitful and multiply! GROW!" The nut shimmered, seeming to split
into multiple copies in mid-air, even as they started to sprout. Within moments, twenty one-foot-tall miniature treants had sprung up. I gave a huge grin.
"Sorry....it's required." I let out a mad cackle, and yelled out, "Get them, my wooden warriors! ATTACK!" The treants began to pull
vines from their foliage and started trying to entangle the three. "Have fun, Gulliver!" I murmured into my mike, and Kinto'un took off, away
from the mess...and hopefully to a spot I could regroup. Still....walking wounded meant I was probably going to be out soon. Ah well...still a chance for a
little more chaos first. I grinned as I zoomed down a corridor...and gave Woody Woodpecker's famous laugh, letting it echo in my wake.

---

Heh. Not TOO serious a threat, rob - more a distraction/annoyance, though if they get lucky and someone gets distracted, they might be able to take someone
down and tie him/her up. One of the treants is enclosing the mini holoemitter (the original acorn) that a couple of the AIs are using to drive the army. A
decent hit on a treant will disrupt it, and when you hit the emitter treant, the army goes *poof*. The main treant will then give you a bow and take itself
back to the Yggdrasil. *grin* I do find it amusing to use treants - oak ones, at that - against Leda, though.

I'll probably be out in the next posting or so for me. I've got one last trick I want to try, though....*snicker* And it might be interesting if
it's Ben that I run up against. Mainly because of his arm. Though I'm up for suggestions.

Edit - and yes....I can do Woody's laugh. Even in RL.

[Black Aeronaut]

Feinan - Annonaynce type, but it can grow to become potentially dengerous as they're as industrious as social insects and multiply like rabits. Even
Sekhmet's gonna have a bit of trouble cutting down their numbers. Gina was righteously pissed and, inspired by Skuld's own misadventures, coded the
virus on the freakin' fly.

---

Jess was taken mildly by surprise when she heard Ben's voice on the radio. One of herself that was already tagged out took the radio call - after all, who
could say she was really cheating? The only way she could not know about it would be if she had the ones tagged out take off their headsets, and she honestly
didn't feel like rounding up that many independent runners.

"This is Black and Red to Blue. Come in Blue? What's your status?"

"Benjamin? Gina?" she said in shock. She then turned away from the rest of the crowd at Callahan's and spoke in a hushed tone, "You two are
still in the game?"

"Yeah," said Ben with a smile in his voice that spoke of mishievious doings. "We had a close call with one of those toy cars that's been
giving everyone trouble, but you don't have to worry about that anymore."

"Well, that explains why I haven't had to shoot any more of the damn things. Status right now is bad and about to become FUBAR. I've been hanging
out with Chris Marsden. Felt kinda bad for him after we ambushed his group early on. Right now, we're trying to pull his entire force together, and we got
a bunch of Skuld-damned Space Marines closing in on us. You wouldn't happen to have something up your sleeve, would you?"

"Well, Red and I still have our Berret Fifties..."

"Wait," came Gina's voice. "The cars."

"The cars?" asked Ben.

"The Toy Cars," Gina clarified with annoyance in her voice.

"Gina," said Jess with a big grin. "You are awesome. Give 'em hell!"

---

Gina grinned and closed her eyes as she accessed the nearest etherwave antenna while Ben covered her. Suddenly she had about twenty remote bodies scattered all
over the place. Quickly, she set a subroutine to seek and destroy as many Marines as possible. That done, she set herself up to maintain a constant connection
to the server so her subroutine could keep running the cars.

"Done! Let's go meet up with them. It's not often I get to pull her fat from the fryer."

"Right! Blue? Red and I are on our way. Let Chris know we're coming in."

"Roger that, Black and Red!"

---

At that moment, Jess passed the word over to Chris...

(OOC: Norway - TAG! YOUR IT! ^_^

Check your PM Inbox. ^_^ )

[robkelk]

Feinan - Annonaynce type, but it can grow to become potentially dengerous as they're as industrious as social insects and multiply like rabits. Even Sekhmet's gonna have a bit of trouble cutting down their numbers. Gina was righteously pissed and, inspired by Skuld's own misadventures, coded the virus on the freakin' fly.

I expect that Gina will be given a dressing-down by the http://fnord.sandwich.net/fenwiki/doku. ... underspace]Hacker Underspace after the game, for putting an AI in actual danger... then asked whether she wants to join the group. (Being saccharine-nice isn't a prerequisite for membership; Trigon's a member.)

And rob - I don't think he'd get away totally unscathed, though given how fast you've got him moving, I'm going with him being on Kinto'un...which definitely ups movement/reaction times, since the AIs are controlling it...

Which he was when I saw him previously, so I assumed that was still the case. The Jason isn't the type to throw away a tactical advantage during a skirmish...

---

I sighed. "Yayoi, next time, don't ask - just assume it's something nasty." She looked contrite... for two seconds. "Now, do I dare use that Top Secret weapon?"

"You're keeping secrets from us?" Leda asked distractedly while staring off in the direction the Jason had ran.

"Not 'top secret' as in 'don't tell', 'Top Secret' as in a game that's older than you are." I pulled the Termite Bomb out of my backpack, sighed, and tossed it into the middle of the bonsai ents. "You did bioengineer the termites to be sterile and short-lived, right?"

Leda nodded. "Oh, that's why you wanted them like that."

"Yep. Let's go." And we took off in the opposite direction and down a stairwell, Yayoi and me half-dragging Leda. If she didn't snap out of it soon, we might have to send her to A.C... which meant sacrificing her somewhere so she'd be out of the game. I didn't want to do that to Leda.

Damn... the biggest weapon we brought didn't work against the Jason. Maybe I should have let Kohran bring along the toys that the Girls had left behind... but it was too late to go back and get them.
--
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

[Black Aeronaut]

Feinan - Annonaynce type, but it can grow to become potentially dengerous as they're as industrious as social insects and multiply like rabits. Even
Sekhmet's gonna have a bit of trouble cutting down their numbers. Gina was righteously pissed and, inspired by Skuld's own misadventures, coded the
virus on the freakin' fly.

I expect that Gina will be given a dressing-down by the Hacker Underspace after
the game, for putting an AI in actual danger... then asked whether she wants to join the group. (Being saccharine-nice isn't a prerequisite for
membership; Trigon's a member.)

Oh no. Not quite that dangerous - only if mishandled which she knew Atropos wouldn't even though security isn't her specialty. She
wanted to at first, but then thought better about it. Once Fate has the time to disect one of them, she'll find comments along the lines of, "I could
have done this instead, but I decided not to since that would make other people angry at me. Be glad that I have more self-control than others give me credit
for. -G"

That's right. In keeping spirit with the game, she nerfed the code. ^_^

The fact that Trigon's a member will make her wary. She'd rather not deal with someone that has a superiority complex worse than she ever had. If she
were ever to have met Trigon they'd probably start trying to off-line each other after the first hundred milliseconds, and that would eventually devolve
into the hacker-war to end all hacker-wars. You know, the sort that everyone stays clear of by an unspoken mutual agreement because they all know that
they'd just get their asses handed to them when the two combatants set their differences aside for a few seconds to deal with them in concert.

[ECSNorway]

By the time the Marines took the doorway, several of Jess were down, and I was sporting a 'wound' on my left arm. We'd forted up behind two ranks of collapsed tables and were prepared to make a fighting retreat when Jess announced that the back doors out of the room were locked.
A paintball from one of the marines (loaded with buttercream frosting, yum) splattered on the chest of a redshirt I'd taken cover behind, and the semi-conscious Trekkie groaned. I zatted him again to keep him quiet and ducked as another hail of frosting-balls zipped by my head. "Anytime now, Lufy!"
-------------------------------------
Benjamin checked the combat web harness once more. He'd taken passengers on impromptu rides before on a Shell-Bullet Jump, but that had been in only the most extreme do-or-die situations. Her Royal Highness, Serenity I, came to mind. However, this time he was actually thinking about it and counted himself lucky that they'd been able to hold onto each other.
This time, it was going to be thought out, but there were complications. Gina was going to be holding and firing her Barret 50-Nerf sniper rifle - a weapon with so much punch, even in the nerf version, that even she needed to handle it with two hands. Benjamin had rigged his and Gina's combat webs to in an improvised manner to hold them together through the rough flight, but Ben had his doubts.
"Okay, you sure you ready for this, Gina?" said Ben, a bit uncertainly. "It's a pretty intense ride."
"Hell yeah I'm ready! Just do it already!"
"Okay then, M'Lady, you asked for it! ANIHILATING FINAL BULLET!!!"
--------------------------------
Lufy tucked away another round in her auto-grenade-launcher and gave the rest of her team one last glanceover. "Alright, team, are we ready?"
"YES!"
"Are we set?"
"YES!"
"Are we gonna mow down those Marines like they were kiddies on pixie sticks?"
"FUCK YEAH!"
"Right, then, let's go!" And up the stairs they charged, the map leading them directly to the same back door that was refusing to let Chris and the rest out. Catty's latest gizmo went through the lock in question like snails on speed, and for the ten second-longest seconds of her life (the first ten had passed while she watched Marsden's reaction to the destruction of Crystal Osaka), Lufy tapped her foot and waited.
Then the door opened.
--------------------------------
Suddenly, there was an explosion somwhere overhead. Everyone looked up and were treated to an awe inspiring sight: Benjamin Rhodes, his Shell-Bullet arm active and trailing dust and smoke as he flew overhead... and Gina strapped tightly to his midsection. She had a snarl plastered on her face as she took aim and set the Berret to "AUTO" and pulled the trigger.
-------------------------------------
Eight Marines came through the door in the first wave. Gina caught four. Rei and Amy both plastered the same one, making sure he stayed down. (He twitched. Rei shot him again.) Then Lufy's squad plastered all eight with key-lime-pie grenades.
The rest of the Marines barrelled through the door, firing on full auto as they saw their comrades cut down. Frostingballs, pie grenades, zat sparks, and nerf bullets flew wildly across the room.
Out of somewhere, a dozen busty blondes appeared, thoroughly distracting several of the Marines.... and several of the other people in the room, too. Those who had time to pay attention might have noticed the way shots kept going through them... if anyone had had the time to notice. Some did, and kept their concentration...
-------------------------------------
Gina was a machine inteligence and a very quick one at that. Her body had reaction times that could keep up with her mind when she removed certain safety locks. And, fortunately, she was not distracted by the holographic nudes that kept popping up. By the time they reached the other side, Gina had nailed every single Marine still in play on the head.
After Ben and Gina disapeared on the otherside, all of Jess suddenly sprung up, punching her fists in the air as they all shouted at once, "Seventeen consecutive headshots! UBER BITCHIN' BONUS!"
-------------------------------------
"Thank you for the assistance, Pilot Langley," murmured Rei as Ben and Gina landed. "It was quite timely."
"Uhm... you're welcome?"
--
Sucrose Octanitrate.
Proof positive that with sufficient motivation, you can make anything explode.

[Cobalt Greywalker]

A.C. paused as her enhanced hearing caught two rather erotically charged moans coming from the med-bay. A quick query to Frosty showed that Utena had been eliminated a while back and she and her wife were taking advantage of one of the massage drones (Greenpeace, as per her sense of humour, had nicknamed this one Taro of all things). Their enhanced physiologies were obviously giving them far more than they expected.

Resisting the 'Darkeyes' side of her's desire for a look, A.C. moved up to the command deck to drop off her things before returning down to the galley.

"Hello Roberta." The raven-hared cyborg greeted the maid.

"Mistress." Roberta acknowledged, a faint blush as always on her cheeks as she replied. A.C. wasn't sure why the android was so shy around her, but figured if it became a problem she'd deal with it then. She'd given up on getting Roberta to call her by name.

"How's the competition going?" She asked as Roberta turned back to the stove. "I know Utena's out. I heard her in the med-bay as I came in."

"Master Adonis is also out, however it seems the female fen did not want to see him go, so they have retired to the dance club Infinity."

"Those camouflage suits are tightly fitted." A.C. agreed with a smirk. Roberta's blush deepened.

"Mister Eddie is still picking off targets of opportunity, but has otherwise gone into hiding."

"And Lebia seems to have taken out Nagato and Kyon with a goop grenade." Fawn said as she walked into the galley.

"Hello Fawn. Any particular type?" A.C. asked as her administrative assistant came up to her side.

"A type 17." Roberta replied.

"Well, that'll explain the uncertainty. The safety foam is opaque and hardens quickly, and they won't WANT to escape until someone sets up a screen." A.C. scowled. "Andy still can't find out why it dissolves clothes. I'm surprised Lebia didn't call it in though."

"Yes, well." Fawn demurred. "Lebia was a little distracted by Gina Langley's Yggdrasil Bug attack on Atropos."

"She WHAT?" A.C. growled, causing Fawn to jump away in fright and Roberta to reach for her knives. "Von allen dumm, unverantwortlich, idiotisch... Live auf Ihren Ruf, warum nicht Sie." [Of all the stupid, irresponsible, idiotic... Live down to your reputation, why don't you.] She muttered under her breath, before taking a deep breath. "Right. So, besides the imminent slap down Gina's going to be receiving?"

"Madam Kasumi and her companion have been dark for a few hours now." Roberta continued, now that it didn't look like A.C. was getting mad.

"Kas rarely gets to go full Kunoichi," A.C. pondered, pulling Fawn into a reassuring hug to calm her down, "So she's either waiting for the right moment or engaged with another ninja of her level."

"Wait." Fawn reluctantly shrugged out of the hug. "I thought all the S-Class Ninja were out?"

"There's more than Hidden Village out there Fawn."

"Madam Greenpeace is in the TV room with Miss Akisato and Miss Safety. They were watching Undercover Blues, but that would have finished a few hours ago. Miss Sakuragi is in her room relaxing, however she did ask if she could have a meal at this time. I have no information on Mr Scott's or Miss Mishima's team." Roberta finished her report.

"I do." A.C. leaned back against the counter. "Noah's team encountered The Jason. That 'Adorable Puppy' grenade had a stronger effect on Leda, but nothing serious as she recovered as Noah and I were talking." A.C. mock-pouted. "Which is a shame, as I'm sure Noah would have liked the treatment of having to give Leda a rather thorough snogging. Or the more effective treatment of having Yayoi do it. Anyway, The Jason's walking wounded at this point."

"Honestly A.C." Fawn huffed. "You're such a bad girl."

"I'm HARDLY a girl." A.C. said archly, before sighing. "And now I've got to do paperwork."

Fawn stuck her tongue out as A.C.'s back as the latter faux-stalked off muttering good-naturedly under her breath about slave-driving admin assistants.

---

If you're wondering about A.C.'s reaction, she doesn't know about Gina Nerfing the attack. Gina better be careful from now on though, as she still used something that can easily be construed as a lethal assault on another AI. I can easily see Lebia doing the following:

"Regardless of effect, you still used what can easily be considered a lethal attack on another of us. The Space Patrol doesn't like it. Metropolis doesn't like it." She turned and pinned the other android with her gaze. "WE don't like it. Be glad A.C. and Fate talked me down, otherwise I'd be joined by a F.E.S.W.A.T. team to take you in. Watch yourself Gina, cause WE will."

Lebia has a deep affinity for machines, so assaulting an AI pushes her hot buttons.

[Ebony]

Tonka and Booster were, on record, two of the largest Blue Blazers. Both men massed somewhere near 300 pounds each, with Tonka just below and Booster just
above. They hulked by second nature, and used their mass with great effect.

They could, however, be outmassed by sheer numbers. Throw a suitable number of Browncoats, or Senshi, or Catgirls, or even other Blue Blazers at them, and
they'd go down. Not without a fight, though, which was why Booster was covered with assorted goop, darts, paint, pies and other Phobos
Invitational-approved ammo as he blocked the hall full of pursuers and Tonka scrambled out a window and dropped the single story to the street below. It was a
brief respite, unfortunately, since their attackers had sentries who sounded the alarm even as Tonka's pump-action paintball shotgun took them down.
Booster watched his partner take off down the street as he heard the mob retreat behind him, sighed, and set off in search of a shower, a clean shirt, and a
margarita, preferably in that order.

Tonka, in the meantime, was mildly regretting being one of the heavier members of the Blazers. Despite his mass, he was in good shape, but it had been a long
day, and he was getting tired. He rounded the corner at a lope, fully aware that the mob was closing. As he looked around for somewhere to take cover, he saw
another Blue Blazer, sitting on a curb and taking a break while chowing down on a sandwich.

"Thag! Incoming!"

Thag nodded, chewed, swallowed, and put down his sandwich. Thag was many things. He was the largest member of the Blue Blazers that was human, standing
6'3" tall and massing almost 400 lbs. Prior to joining the Institute, he had been largely sedentary, and while his activity levels had increased, he
still maintained much of his girth. Despite his size, Thag was not brutish; in fact, he possessed a keen sense of wit and common sense, plus a business savvy
that made him a valuable contributor to many of the Institute's projects. And finally, Thag was a Rugsucker, and Rugsuckers always believe in carrying the
Right Tool for the Right Job.

As the mob pursuing Tonka came around the corner, intent on their quarry, their attentions were drawn to the massive, red-haired man who stood in the street.
Moreover, their attentions were drawn to the dangerous whirring noise that the large weapon he was carrying was making. Thag shifted slightly, smiled broadly,
and depressed the trigger on his custom-made, battery-powered, rotary paintball cannon, lovingly nicknamed "Rosie."* The whir erupted into a roar,
and the street was filled with purple-colored doom.

Tonka walked over to where Thag had been sitting and eyed the rest of the sandwich. It had been sliced diagonally and Thag had only eaten half of it.
"Hey, Thag?"

"AHAHAHAHA! CRY SOME MORE! CRY SOME MO-What?"

"You want the other half of this sandwich?"

"Nah. You can have it. *ahem* CRY SOME MORE!!!"

(* - Sascha was taken.)
Ebony the Black Dragon
http://ebony14.livejournal.com

"Good night, and may the Good Lord take a Viking to you."

[robkelk]

We used the mirror from Leda's compact to look around the corner, and saw a lone woman in USN whites trying desperately to blend into the corridor's wall. She looked familiar for some reason.

"Ginny!"

Ah, yes - she was Yayoi's girlfriend from the Stingray. (I'd only met the ensign once before.) She looked happy to hear Yayoi's voice, and dashed over to us. But I didn't expect any of Dodge's team to be out on their own; was this a trap of some sort? "Nurse Kittredge, what happened to your group?"

"Mr. Scott, I believe my team was taken out by Marsden's team from Rockhounds. I saw Lt. Lake escape down one hallway while I headed in the opposite direction. Captain Dodge was in the middle of the Rockhounds' nerf claymore field when it went off."

The same tactic I had tried against the Jason, except it worked against Tom. It sucked to be him. (But why did she volunteer that information to me? We weren't part of the same alliance for this game.) "Are you trying to hook up with whoever on your team made it through the ambush?"

"No, I've been ordered to act on my own initiative."

Oh, dear. That didn't sound suspicious.

"Would you like to join our team, Ginny?" asked Yayoi quickly. (Possibly too quickly.)

She smiled. "Sure!" She gave Yayoi a quick hug...

...and both of them backstabbed the other with nerf knives. While I expected Ens. Kittredge to fight dirty, I didn't think Yayoi had it in her. "Wonderful," I announced with a hint of annoyance in my voice. "You're both dead. Yayoi, you should have known better than to trust her."

"I did know better. Don't wait up!" And the two of them headed for the docks. I thought they were headed to the Stallion, but then I saw Yayoi get the key for the 'Blade out of her pocket.

Damn. My chief pilot's an AI, and her hormones are still more powerful than mine. Mind you, that stunt did leave Leda and me alone... Once again, I counted myself lucky to have such a good friend as Yayoi.

Too bad we were in no position to enjoy being alone - a couple of Warsies chose that moment to march around the corner. Leda and I pulled out our nerf DH-17s - they seemed appropriate - and started blasting as we ran at them. It took all our ammo to take them all down.
--
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

[Black Aeronaut]

Cobalt, I give you Gina's response...

---

One thing that could be said for Gina: when the cards are down and nobody's playing games, she was something to be reckoned with. She had weathered Lebia's warning without batting an eyelash and took it all in with a calm and cool air. Once Lebia was done, though, she spoke her turn. What was strange was that it lacked the usual sort of Teutonic rage that Asuka was known for. After all, she was not Asuka, but Regina Langel instead.
"Lebia, I knew exactly what she was doing despite it being in the heat of the moment. And if or anyone else wishes to really make anything of it, then you'd be would be welcome to. A warning, though. I do not take such threats idly. You've seen my code. You have a small sample of I am capable of. The moment you or anyone else trespasses on Roughrider server space, you'll not only be up against me, but Ruri, Zephram, and Jessica as well. It would be a hacker war that makes Auka's Last Stand look like a badminton tournament by comparison."
"That's enough, Gina," said Ben in a firm, yet gentle voice. She complied without any sign anoyance. Benjamin went on, his voice still calm and firm, but with a dangerous undercurrent to it, "Lebia, I admit that it was a bit extreme, but I saw what she did myself and I know for a fact that it was not her intention to off-line any AIs. However, if anyone ever attmepts to do so with any of my AIs, especially Gina, they'll be off-lined by myself personally when I take their core system apart with my bare hands. There will be no attacks whatsoever on Roughrider personnel and that includes AIs, otherwise it will be taken as an act of aggression. These are not my own words, but those of everyone at 36 Atalante, including Sailor Atalante and her Sammy's and the NASA-Kinders."

---

Of course, this is all an aside that takes place after the Port Phobos Invitational - something I think could make for a exellent side-story that illustrates how easily tensions can develop, and be resovled in Fenspace.

[Feinan]

The battle was ended, and I stopped the blond holograms that I'd been using as a distraction for the others. I was starting to get a bit tired -
I'd been going pretty much non-stop except for food breaks, and a long hot shower to remove the effects of the Kawaii grenade followed by a long nap were
starting to become real temptations. Might as well consider wrapping it up soon. It's not as though I'd come to win the thing - just to have fun.

I had my kids put a thin, invisible forcefield shell around myself, or most of myself. It left my joints free, and most of my head. What it SHOULD do would be
to limit the Kawaii effect I was giving off...at least for a few minutes, since there were far fewer areas exposed to radiate the pheromones, or whatever was
causing it. I hoped. There were a lot of Jesses in there still. A quickly whispered conference and a bit of setup, and we entered the battlefield.

Eleven copies of myself, me included, entered the room on Kinto'uns. Only a few of my clones were solid, to give Iris more flexibility in creating the
larger number of holograms. We all grinned and waved, and one of my clones greeted Ben and Gina. "Hey there. Having fun yet?" A second clone
chuckled. "You like our new tricks?" All of us grinned then, and went into full distraction mode. Now...given Ben's arm, this should
be...amusing. Especially since Gina was still hooked up from the trick they just pulled. "Harem no jutsu!" My clones and I disappeared into puffs of
smoke...to be revealed a moment later as female adult versions, long dark hair partway down our backs, and clothed only in mist. Mind you, the mist was
probably more erotic than simple nudity would be, just because it kept offering tantalizing glimpses while not really revealing anything. I spoke up then, for
the first time. "We've been watching Naruto again. Can you tell? Picked up all sorts of interesting clone tricks." We all grinned....and then
split into pairs - and one trio - and started to make out - cuddling, nibbling on earlobes and necks...putting on a show. Fortunately, monkeys have no shame,
and neither did I.

We'd probably go down...but not without taking others with us. There were other clone jutsu in Naruto, after all...and three Maple Marshmallow grenades
inside the solid clones I had scattered around meant I could do my own version of the Exploding Clone. Let one of them get hit, and it'd explode in a gooey
mess. And of course, if I 'died', the remaining ones would go. I grinned inwardly, making out with the hologram in my arms. Now...given how much of a
pervert Ben's arm was.....

---

I'm actually off to one side, not with the clone trio in the middle that had the clone that spoke first. The idea was to make people think that was me,
while I stood off to one side...and out of range of the marshmallow messes soon to follow. We can't afford to stick around too long - the forceshield
coverings I've got up will only delay the Kawaii effect, not stop it. It will hopefully last long enough for my final hurrah and then to get out of range
of the Jesses first, though.

And with regards to Gina and Lebia...

---

A frosty voice spoke off to one side. "Lebia!" A very annoyed-looking Fate stood in the corridor, having obviously arrived soon enough to hear the
exchange. She stalked over, staff in her hand. "What part of 'it's a personal problem and we will handle it ourselves' didn't you
understand? We told you to butt out and tend to your own knitting." She actually growled. "You might consider it a lethal attack. WE consider it
annoying as hell and potentially damage-causing, but not lethal. And since it was directed towards US, your opinion in the matter is neither relevant...nor
asked for." The last bit was spoken in a tone that could have frozen helium. Fate glanced over to give Gina a hard look, then turned back to Lebia.
"While we think Gina overreacted, we can handle it just fine, thank you. Quite frankly, you're making a situation we could have handled quite easily
far worse..." She glared. "And know this...if you had gone after Gina when we told you not to, you'd find us siding with her...and you'd find
Father calling a convention to have limits put on what the Space Patrol and others can meddle in. He's a libertarian, and we tend to follow the same
beliefs. A space patrol to take care of threats to Fenspace as a whole - that's fine. One that interferes in personal interactions when told to butt out -
that's something different."

[Black Aeronaut]

Oh yeah, this little aside is definitely starting to look worthy of a short!