[Story][RFC --PLEASE!!!]The Gauntlet

[Cobalt Greywalker]

You know, sometimes you just get fed up with a story? I'm there now. And it's giving me that most cruel of conditions, Writer's Block. So screw it.

I hereby present:

The Undying Fic

I've mentioned it a few times here and there, when frustration hits hard enough on an unrelated reply. Right now, I can't seem to either complete it (due to writer's block) or kill it (it's been hanging around on my HD for 3 years at this point). So I'm hoping one of these things will happen by posting this.

One reason I hadn't posted it earlier is the fact that I felt the fic had to be finished before I did so, because of the concept I ended up going for. I'll explain after the first segment below.

Notes:
- Radio communications

---

It wasn't until late April 2014 that the Prometheus Forge crew managed to get back to working on their own projects. With the massive increase in bandwidth available from the improved Interwave system (for which they'd assisted) A.C. decided to work on something fun and planed an update to the KoFen system.

The original system was based around fixed units with limited interworking and expansion. They took this and used the greater bandwidth to move the server units (the part of the system A.C. felt had to be as secure as possible) back to fixed (and guarded) locations and allow the smaller and easier to sell interface units out to the general public.

Removing the servers allowed easier maintenance and upgrading, and allowed Lebia to introduce a public 'sandbox', an area with a published interface that people could create and run their own games in. The most popular of these would be voted on every six months and converted to native code (with the commiserate increase in speed, detail and sensory input. You could, of course, pay to have the conversion done).

Somewhat unsurprisingly, when the Cyber Confederation opened the new servers at the beginning of June the huge demand brought the majority of Fen-net to a crawl.

At the beginning of July, the Forge unveiled a new feature to the KoFen fighting system; this was the ability to win upgrades to your character. The first and most public way was to win competitions announced few hours in advance for a specific server. The gifts here were highly specific to the competition, and provided a reasonable boost to capabilities.

The second and more common way was to hit the Dungeon. The user would face a multitude of monsters in a never-ending stream (in a particularly gruelling version of Space Invaders) and at significant milestones (one million points or an hour of survival, for example) would earn a random power-up object as designated by the semi-sapient AI monitoring the environment.

For Class 1 combatants, the Dungeon was considered too easy. They got a variant called The Gauntlet.

**1**

Green Team 3 arrayed themselves in a defensive ring, watching their motion detectors closely.

A third said, looking up into the gloom of the chamber they'd entered.

[Dartz]

I like the writing... it has a clipping, high-speed energy to it that really brings it along nicely.

I'm not sure what I can add to it, mind. Sort of drawing a mental blank.
________________________________
--m(^0^)m-- Wot, no sig?

[Warringer]

I'm sure that one can track down the videos on UseWave. :p

alt.rec.kofen perhaps?

[robkelk]

I'm sure that one can track down the videos on UseWave. :p

alt.rec.kofen perhaps?

If not, then there's always WaveTorrent.
--
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

[Cobalt Greywalker]

I like the writing... it has a clipping, high-speed energy to it that really brings it along nicely.

I'm not sure what I can add to it, mind. Sort of drawing a mental blank.

The idea I sort of had was a little scene setting (how the vid was obtained, who's watching, etc... It doesn't need to be too detailed.), then some character reactions to what was seen (include speculation as to what's going on, rumours as to the people taking part, general chatter, things like that).

[robkelk]

The ringing of his desk phone actually brought a relieved sigh from Noah. He needed a break from the paperwork, even if the paperwork in question was to get people hired to take care of the paperwork. Running Stellvia and Artemis was taking its toll.

This line is responsible for http://drunkardswalkforums.yuku.com/top ... 2-Workload]this story. Just thought you might want to know.
--
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

[Cobalt Greywalker]

This line is responsible for http://drunkardswalkforums.yuku.com/top ... 2-Workload]this story. Just thought you might want to know.

Well, at least something's come out of this.

[Dartz]

Right so... I'll try something. Even if it might not be exactly what you want.

----

The mill at Ford's garage had been waiting patiently for an operator to change out a tool for nearly 20 minutes.

"Hey Jet," Ford called out. "Did you see this yet?"

"What?"

"AC on the Gauntlet. I managed to get the neighbour's stream,"

She sounded inordinately pleased with herself for guessing that the neighbour's password was, well, 'password'. For a mechanic, it felt like the greatest, most nefarious hack in the world.

Jet gave her a wan smile. "Not right now," she said in a tone that clearly meant 'not fucking ever'.

Ford watched another team go to pieces... yes that was a dirty euphemism.... It was also blackly funny. She turned back to Jet and saw the strangest look in her partner's eyes, as if she'd fallen right back into herself for a moment.

"Jet?"

She snapped clean out of it "What?"

"....nothing." Ford said after a moment's thought. Again.

----

Not sure if I got that right.... trying to hint at Jet getting a little 'flashbacky' without outright saying it, and trying not to be too cliché.
________________________________
--m(^0^)m-- Wot, no sig?

[robkelk]

**3.1**

"Excuse me, Your Majesty..."

Tanith looked up from her interwave conference call, putting the microphone on mute. "I left orders that I wasn't to be disturbed, Erin. This trade agreement with the Galacticans is a very delicate matter - I can't afford to annoy the Colonists or the Cylons if we're going to complete the Victory on schedule."

"I'm sorry, ma'am. But Sailor Mars is running The Gauntlet."

"I see. Thank you, Erin. You may go."

She turned back to her call. "Excuse me, gentlemen, but a matter of some internal importance has come to my attention. May we continue this discussion tomorrow?"

"Actually, I was just about to propose we recess, Queen Serenity" replied the ambassador aboard the Pegasus. "I've just been informed of something that I should look into, as well."

The ambassador aboard Colony grinned. "Likewise. Do you think she'll win?"
--
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

[Cobalt Greywalker]

So, one new fic and a couple of scenelets. Ah well.

Have some more.

---

**4**

A.C. figured the Op-For had fallen back to regroup. This gave her a little time to recover.

She'd gone hunting for the fallback point instead.

Ever since Jusenkyou, she'd become far more accepting of her nature. Or, as she thought in her darker moments, she'd become less human.

She shook off those thoughts, multitasking brain or not, as they were inappropriate when running The Gauntlet. It was time to take stock.

She had an assault rifle and 115 rounds in 3 and a half clips. There was nothing special about the rounds and worst come to worst her armour could take them for a bit. It'd hurt like hell though (especially since she'd got proof positive that her body self-upgraded, something she'd suspected since the Accident anyway). Besides, juggernauting wasn't her style. Two M1911A1 pistols in .45ACP with 6 full clips, 3 in the left, 2 in the right. A.C. missed her Whistler Glock 18s, and although a part of her wanted paired .50 calibre Desert Eagles she didn't think Whistler would laugh if she asked for selective fire on them. Three red-band grenades, have to save those. Eight WMAs, although how they got a Mirage grenade in here meant she'd have to have a serious chat with Lebia later. One USAS-12 with 15 slug shells in a drum magazine, which was unexpected. Seven Ka-Bar knives (which were not very good as throwing knives, but needs must). Her monomolecular single-crystal carbon ribbon sword. About twenty shots in the reservoirs to her gauntlet wire launchers.
The map her tactical processor was building up was next to useless, given the variability of her environment (and she wasn't about to try cracking the Op-For tac-net, even if she COULD net-dive now). Her senses were muffled slightly by her helmet. No EVA pack to use for jump assist (it was too heavy. The main reason she hadn't gone to Hardsuits before now was the fact they'd slow her down. Hum, force-field actuated power suit? Tricky, have to talk to Katz. Rig it? Probably). Fatigue wasn't a problem for now (although the fact it wasn't DID worry her). No rations WERE a problem (maybe an oversight in the scenario design?).

So, incredible speed, superhuman strength, worryingly high endurance, surprising toughness, sniper-like accuracy and range with thrown weapons, a decent array of guns, and her sword.

What else? One spare wire reel. A hundred-pack of zip-ties (useless as she wasn't capturing anyone.). A couple of med-kits. A small egg in a spiral (which she recognised, but doubted she could use). A sword pendent on a necklace chain (which she didn't, and thus couldn't unless she was REALLY lucky). And something she was going to kill Lebia for.

***

One of the features of the Dungeon and Gauntlet was something Greenpeace had sweet-talked Leonard into inserting.

Called the Toy Chest, it was basically a web-board on to which anyone could post ideas and models for useful gadgets and objects to be won in either game.

When A.C. found out, the green-fingered pixy got made to take care of it.

While some of the suggestions were taken for use in other games, the vast majority were left in the 'Daydream' area. There were some notable exceptions but, like the infamous BFG-100K Gatling, the majority of these were officially rejected. (The BFG-100K-G itself actually made it back...in the animated opening titles for the Dungeon as the reason for all the monsters. A cleverly disguised but obviously parodied individual is seen working at an almost complete version when it blows up in their face. The resultant explosion on the purposely non-descript planet still gets an appreciative 'Coool' from those who see it, and is made out to be the cause of the mutations that made the monsters the Dungeon contestants face.) Given the nature of Fen, there was an awful lot of information about the objects given during discussions on the board. Eventually, after repeated requests, Greenpeace gave in and set up a wiki for the objects, which saw a lot of activity and was frequently cross-linked to Wikipedia.

Still, out of all the chaff some wheat was found, and after a second vetting by Lebia or occasionally Eddie a pool of weird but useful items based on those ideas built up.

Which just sparked more interest when the Gauntlet came around.

***

Unlike the majority of her subordinates, Utena Ten-Joh was in fact still working. Where they were pretending to work but were actually watching the video from the Gauntlet server, she was writing her latest investigation report.

Hey, crime didn't stop just to watch someone put their computerised ass on the line in a game.

A knock on the door got an idle look up to see Sergeant Walters pop his head in.

"Ma'am? I've got the forensics back on the Greenline sabotage."

"Thank you Sergeant." The Chief Inspector smiled wanly. "It's nice to know some people can ignore distractions in this station. Anything interesting?"

"It looks like someone put oak-flour in the transmission fluid. When the fluid heated up under motion it reacted and froze the entire system solid. Of course as soon as it stopped it began to re-liquefy..."

"And suddenly restarted." Utena finished. "Well, at least it gives us some new suspects."

"That it does Ma'am." Walters agreed. "I'd get right on it, but everyone seems to be busy."

The pink-hared woman rolled her eyes.

"Why they don't just wait until after work tomorrow when it'll be free I don't know."

Whatever the sergeant would have said in reply was cut off when someone else knocked on the door.

"Come in." The senior officer called, admitting a slightly nervous uniformed officer. "What is it Officer Nakajima?"

"Ma'am, I was wondering, can we use the projector in the briefing room to watch?"

Utena Ten-Joh hadn't gotten to her position by being dumb, so the sudden dread that settled into her stomach at that request was well earned.

"No, I'm afraid you can't." The Chief Inspector said in a much put-upon voice. "That equipment is for official use only. So are your desk computers technically." She raised her voice for the last sentence, causing people to duck back down.

"But-"

"Please don't make me call I.T. and have certain servers barred from access. Now, I believe we all have work to do?"

"Yes Ma'am." The disappointed officer saluted, and closed the door.

Sergeant Walters watched his superior let her face sink into her hands.

"There's not going to be a lick of work being done virtually anywhere right now." The woman groaned. "For Serenity's Sake, why my shift Rei?"

The sergeant couldn't help but agree with the sentiment.

**5**

At the fallback point, the five teams (Red, Blue, Green, Purple, and Grey) tried to work out strategy. The catacombs complex would normally be their bread-and-butter environment, only the target was too fast and too skilled. Their best chance had come when she'd been put into the open. The auditorium complex might be a good place to set up, but it didn't have enough cover. Forcing her through the underground industrial complex up to the wrecked town/village would be better. Sure it gave cover equally, but right now they couldn't muster enough force quickly enough to pin her down. The keep on top of the tunnels was too confined. While they'd be able to thoroughly sweep it, the advantage would be with her. They needed reach on this target. Plus it was right by the magma pit. The garden with ruins they were currently in would only serve as a quick hiding spot.

The first indication that their time was up was the Mirage grenade going off in the middle of them, providing them with HUNDREDS of targets. Fortunately only fifteen went down to friendly fire. Unfortunately it led to people bunching up.

The Scarlet Angel took ruthless advantage of this to drop some of the grenades she'd purloined during the confusion (and adding another eight kills to that tally) into the two largest groups, before raising both her rifle and one of the few .50 calibre machine guns they had and laying down a brief blizzard of fire to cause the rest to duck and cover.

Then there was silence, before a scream and a crunch brought their heads up. One of the Purples had popped up to try and surprise her, and had gotten the barrel of a red hot .50 calibre machine gun thrown through the face for their trouble.

Of their opponent, there was no sign.

Not until a well placed sniper shot hit an exposed grenade at least.

***

"Yeah, she's scary." Katz commented, as though this was a fact along the lines of water being all wet, Space having no atmosphere to speak of, and gravity being slightly sucky.

"BWAHAHAHA! Glorious! Such deviousness! Such vicious brutality!" Trigon sighed lustily. "What an Empress she would make! I was particularly impressed with her last move. Crushing their hope and filling them with fear with such effortless bloodshed!"

Across the bottom of the screen a banner was scrolling.

***ALERT*** - New Record!: Most Kills in a Re-spawn period at 52. New Record!: Most Kills in a single attack at 45. - ***ALERT***

[Dartz]

Where did I read that it took 2 days fighting to finally take down Jusenkyou? i had a bunch of Jet's background set around that... why Jet thinks/fights in a certain way . My thoughts were that the Kunstler were used badly by Tango shoes... sticking with individual teams and going slow through the rock as heavy support against Berserkers, forced to work against their natural speed advantages, which got some killed (And explains why Jet avoids KoFen combat missions) until they were finally able to open up and strike with speed.

I had some random thoughts typed up on GDocs about it, but GDocs just barfed in the last hour or so and I can't get to it. It might've been for that Steelyard thing, or a quiet project that was being mucked around with among those of us in IRC

I'm not sure what if any relevance/help that is, but it's stuff I've been monkeying around with.

Speaking of which, I'm surprised OpFor hasn't thought about slowing down their enemy and negating that big advantage (Goop Gun? Obstructions?).... being out in the open means they're just going to die faster. How incompetent are these morons?
________________________________
--m(^0^)m-- Wot, no sig?

[robkelk]

Speaking of which, I'm surprised OpFor hasn't thought about slowing down their enemy and negating that big advantage (Goop Gun? Obstructions?).... being out in the open means they're just going to die faster. How incompetent are these morons?

They're probably the people who got taken out by Kohran's "kaboomite" bomb in the Second Port Phobos Invitational - the ones who take their ideas of tactics from most anime. [size=smaller](Yes, including "Lyrical Nanoha" - while our favourite befrienders show some tactical ability compared to most magical girls, they'd still get their heads handed to them by a trained squad of infantry.)[/size] But they don't have to have decent tactics - they re-spawn.
--
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

[robkelk]

Submitted for your consideration...

---

Team $foo$ had an outrider - a combatant who wasn't working with the rest of the group, because their combat styles were too different. This suited both the group and the outrider just fine.

The outrider wasn't fazed by the Mirage grenade; she was expecting something of the sort. "What took you so long?" she muttered from her hiding place as she started assembling her sniper rifle.

She made the mistake of looking down to ensure the rifle was assembled correctly - a good habit in real life where a misfire could be fatal, but the habit meant that when she looked back at the ruined town square, the Scarlet Angel was gone.

That's what the binoculars were for, though. She looked through them at maximum magnification and spotted A.C.'s tracks, incompletely erased in the dust. This wasn't the first time she'd had to track a perp - "no, in the game it's a 'target'," she thought - by using those techniques. A.C. had either gone to ground or gone through the ruined church, and out of any effective line of fire from the position the outrider was in.

She picked up the sniper rifle in her off hand and drew one of her pistols for emergency use, and made for a position that provided line-of-fire to most of the landmarks in the town. "If I find you there before me, I'll shoot you and win this game ... Peters."

While she wouldn't admit it even to herself, Chief Inspector Natsuko Aki was having the most fun she'd had since the Port Phobos Invitational.
--
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

[Cobalt Greywalker]

Speaking of which, I'm surprised OpFor hasn't thought about slowing down their enemy and negating that big advantage (Goop Gun? Obstructions?).... being out in the open means they're just going to die faster. How incompetent are these morons?

They're probably the people who got taken out by Kohran's "kaboomite" bomb in the Second Port Phobos Invitational - the ones who take their ideas of tactics from most anime. [size=smaller](Yes, including "Lyrical Nanoha" - while our favourite befrienders show some tactical ability compared to most magical girls, they'd still get their heads handed to them by a trained squad of infantry.)[/size] But they don't have to have decent tactics - they re-spawn.

There are two main reasons why the OpFor isn't as good as people expect. First, they're Gamers rather than military men. Who else would respond fast enough to fill the OpFor positions? Second, there is no prescribed command and control organisation for the OpFor . You can see this in how they arranged themselves (roughly Five 'platoons' of four 'squads' of 5 men).

RE: Rob's snippet. Heh, but you'll need to watch the further scenes.

[Cobalt Greywalker]

Here we go, some more.

---

- Radio communications
... [...] - Foreign language [Translation]
~ ... ~ - Thoughts

**6**

~ OK, ~ A.C. thought to herself as she hid herself in the rubble of the town. ~ I won't be getting that lucky again. And of COURSE the helmet would disappear when its wearer re-spawned. ~

Whilst the cyborg was primarily thinking about the attack she'd just pulled, she was also thinking about the TWO new special items she'd picked up because she'd glanced at where the helmet had been. One was a box of twenty bullet-less rifle cartridges in what looked like 7.62NATO (In that they were roughly the size of AA batteries). What they were good for A.C. didn't know, and testing them may prove hazardous. The other was a key ring with no actual keys on it. It did have a bunch of key fobs on it though, and A.C. particularly liked the little book shaped LED torch/Laser pointer. She wasn't sure about the funky cube-shaped and prism-like clear plastic charm with a tiny translucent Rubic's Cube in its centre and attached puff-ball, or what use the folding micro-tool, spirit-level/compass, or the mini tape measure would have in here. The USB drive with built in fingerprint scanner and the security token were practically useless. Two of the remaining fobs looked like alarm remotes, but given the setting were worthless as well. There were a few RFID tags, again useless. The last one was the closest to a key and looked like an Isolinier rod, but a bright blue in colour and etched with semi-stylistic grooves.

At this point the monitoring AI, having not really contributed until now, had the magma pit erupt. A huge geyser of molten rock exploded into the air behind the keep (and the image was promptly ripped from the video stream and turned into wallpapers by several people), with attendant earthquakes.

When you're hiding in a ruined town/village with unstable walls, this is a bad thing. Still, A.C. was almost fast enough to get clear. But besides the factor of walls falling down on her, fireballs of magma started falling down in her area.

Auto Wächter aktiviert. Armour gewährt. [Auto guard activated. Armour granted.]

Finding yourself floating at roof level is a bit of a surprise, especially when you have reactions like A.C.'s.

"What the Hild?" A.C. asked herself as her innate tactical sense dropped her back down to the ground. Whatever had happened had completely changed her look. It had also vanished her armour and weapons, which left her feeling frighteningly naked.

It was primarily a form fitting (sleeveless she could feel) purple long semi-dress fastened at the front Mandarin style, with a long split skirt belted over it. For some reason they had metal plates fastened to them in a way reminiscent of armour. All of this was over something like a spandex version of a sleeveless short-legged bodysuit. She had a crop-top style jacket on her shoulders, with sleeves just long enough to hide the top of the opera-length fingerless gloves. Vambraces and armoured ankle boots rounded off the combination.

It was the sword that took up most of her attention. It was a simple, straight, drop-pointed, single edge long sword. However its guard was remarkably technological-looking.

Grußworte mein Meister. Ich bin Laevatein. [Greetings my Master. I am Laevatein.]

~ I really MUST have some words with Lebia about this sort of thing. ~ A.C. thought drily.

"Laevatein, mein name ist A.C. Peters. Ich glaube, Sie sind verantwortlich für mein neues Outfit, richtig?" [Laevatein, my name is A.C. Peters. I believe you are responsible for my new outfit, correct?]

Ja. [Yes.]

"Was ist passiert, was ich trug vor?" [What happened to what I was wearing before?]

Gespeichert, bis Ihre armour ist freigegeben. [Stored until your armour is released.]

"I don't exactly know the capabilities of this outfit." A.C. muttered to herself. "And it's not like you could upload it to my WiFi Laevatein."

Suche. Niedrige Bandbreite Verbindung gefunden. Verhandlungsdirektiven... Zugangscode erforderlich. [Searching. Low bandwidth connection found. Negotiating... Access code required.]

A.C. looked at Laevatein in surprise, raising an eyebrow.

"You understand English then?"

Ich verstehe meine Meister. [I understand my Master.]

"Oh Kay then." A.C. concentrated a bit, and located the Bluetooth connection Laevatein had found. "457724."

Zugangscode akzeptiert. [Access code accepted.]

"Prepare to receive high bandwidth access key."

Bereit. Key erhalten. Neue Verbindung gefunden, den Zugriff. Verbindung aufgebaut. [Ready. Key received. New connection found, accessing. Connection established.]

A.C. felt the snarl of her barrier at the connection, but allowed the data in. It took her a few seconds to sort through the information.

"Well, I feel a bit better now. Sorry Laevatein."

Meister verstanden. Neue Armour-Modi eingerichtet. Storage-Modus Upgrade abgeschlossen. Sperren von Verbindungen. [Understood Master. New armour modes established. Storage mode upgrade completed. Locking connections.]

"Upgrade?" A.C. asked, now feeling better. Laevatein told her via burst transmission on her WiFi link. "Righty-oh. This should be interesting. Sensors?"

Jawohl. [Yes.] Laevatein sounded eager.

"Careful my friend. Those rounds I found won't fit in your cartridge chamber."

Anpassung möglich. [Adaption possible.] Laevatein told her, sent the details via a data burst, then connected the sensor feed.

~ Interesting in the faux-Chinese sense then. ~ A.C. thought. ~ Still need to 'chat' with Lebia though. ~

And they were gone.

***

Op-For command was trying to figure out what the hell was going on when teams all over the map were eliminated in rapid succession. Given no natural threats existed (or were mitigated by their real time map), either their target had picked up something to speed themselves up (NOT a good thing for them) or gotten a helper (ALSO not a good thing for them). The only good thing was they were so spread out to try and encircle her that she was only picking off a team at a time. They'd learned THAT lesson. (Although they were trying to work out what would happen when or if they cornered their target.)

Things got weirder when they got a message from FLAGCOM.

**7**

Down in the wrecked industrial sector, A.C. was working. While not her forte, A.C. had more than a passing knowledge of Gunsmith techniques. With Eddie around that was a practical certainty. She just preferred to let others (like Whistler) do the work.

Given what she had to work with, she felt she was doing pretty well. The chamber assembly was practically a no-brainer, field-stripping a spare rifle provided that and a few careful modifications had sorted that out. It was the feed assembly and magazine that was a pain.

You try building a brand new semi-automatic weapon using key-fob micro-tools and a mono-molecular sword out of salvaged gun parts for an otherwise unknown and sapient device with multi-dimensional components (even if you DID have detailed plans and the assistance of said sapient weapon) in the middle of a seismically active volcano whilst being hunted by a company of well equipped SWAT personnel.

And no, A.C. didn't think it was a coincidence she just HAPPENED to find all these useful things. When she got out she was going to take a good long look at the system.

Eingehende Einheiten. [Incoming units.] Laevatein warned.

A.C. let out a hissing sigh of frustration as she fitted the latest piece into the framework before triggering Laevatein's storage mode and hid it and the tools away again. All the while making another mental note to look at the hyper-dimensional physics from the WFC and see if she could at least 'Wave a similar device together.

Using the data from Laevatein she quickly dropped back through the facility and circled around to the patrol's backup unit. She was unpleasantly surprised to find them waiting for her, with .50 calibre machine guns mounted on gyro-stabilised weapons harnesses.

Her attackers were unpleasantly surprised when she vanished from sight to reappear behind them before putting two very sharp blades to their necks.

"Well HELLO boys." She said huskily with an inviting smile. "Mind telling me what's going on?"

"FLAGCOMgaveussomefielddropswithsomeenhancedgearwewerejustgiventhesepleaseohpleasejustkillusquicklywedon'tknowanymore!" The one on the left babbled as the one on the right went for a grenade.

"Hum." A.C. idly flicked her wrists, decapitating the two hapless attackers, then put her swords away and rapidly looted the bodies.

Eingehende. [Incoming.]

The RPG-7 was another unpleasant surprise.

Panzer Geist. [Tank Spirit.]

The shielding spell took the direct hit of the Anti-Tank warhead, but the second attack group didn't see that as A.C. used the explosion as cover to counter attack.

***

It took Lebia almost two hundredths of a second to realise what the particular alarm she was receiving was, then she paled and dove into the Gauntlet monitoring system. A frantic twenty seconds of activity followed before Lebia allowed her consciousness to disconnect from the system.

Then she took a quick look at the vid-stream.

"Oh, A.C.'s going to be PISSED."

[Warringer]

Just now had some time to take a look at this piece.

While better than most, you need to work on that German.

[HRogge]

Here we go, some more.

Some suggestions for the German parts... first your German/English line, then a suggestion which might be better.

Auto Wächter aktiviert. Armour gewährt. [Auto guard activated. Armour granted.]
Automatischer Ächter aktiviert. Panzerung erhalten.

Grußworte mein Meister. Ich bin Laevatein. [Greetings my Master. I am Laevatein.]
Grüße mein Meister. Ich bin Laevatein.

Ja. [Yes.]
Ja.

Gespeichert, bis Ihre armour ist freigegeben. [Stored until your armour is released.]
Gespeichert, bis Ihre Panzerung freigegeben ist.

Suche. Niedrige Bandbreite Verbindung gefunden. Verhandlungsdirektiven... Zugangscode erforderlich. [Searching. Low bandwidth connection found. Negotiating... Access code required.]
Suche. Verbindung mit niedriger Bandbreite gefunden. Zugriffsversuch... Zugangscode erforderlich.

Ich verstehe meine Meister. [I understand my Master.]
Ich verstehe mein Meister.

Zugangscode akzeptiert. [Access code accepted.]
Zugangscode akzeptiert.

Bereit. Key erhalten. Neue Verbindung gefunden, den Zugriff. Verbindung aufgebaut. [Ready. Key received. New connection found, accessing. Connection established.]
Bereit. Zugangscode erhalten. Neue Verbindung gefunden, greife zu. Verbindung aufgebaut.

Meister verstanden. Neue Armour-Modi eingerichtet. Storage-Modus Upgrade abgeschlossen. Sperren von Verbindungen. [Understood Master. New armour modes established. Storage mode upgrade completed. Locking connections.]
Verstanden, Meister. Neue Panzerungs-Modi eingerichtet. Speicher-Modus Upgrade abgeschlossen. Sperre Verbindungen.

Jawohl. [Yes.] Laevatein sounded eager.
Jawohl.

Anpassung möglich. [Adaption possible.]
Anpassung möglich.

Eingehende Einheiten. [Incoming units.] Laevatein warned.
Neue Einheiten.

Eingehende. [Incoming.]
.....

Panzer Geist. [Tank Spirit.]
.....

[Foxboy]

Funny thing is, the awkward translation would be in character for the source.

Ah, the production company that made the Nanoha series: Hiring native speakers of other languages to voice the intelligent devices then giving them awkward scripts to work from.
''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

[Ebony]

That would be an appropriate 'Wavium quirk: "Speaks Bad ." Which would include the third-person tense Japanese "baby talk" that pops up with some cutesy characters in anime (C-ko comes to mind, as does Mei from Totoro, and I think Chibi-Usa does it as well.)
Ebony the Black Dragon
http://ebony14.livejournal.com

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

[Cobalt Greywalker]

Well, given my School learned German has pretty much atrophied, I used Google to translate the english in the brackets. I occasionally fiddled a bit by breaking up the line if it seemed to need it, but that was pretty much it.

I suppose I could trim the translation on the more obvious phrases, which may make things neater.

As to the suggestions... Well I'll think about them a bit. I'll probably use some.

[robkelk]

"Oh, A.C.'s going to be PISSED."

In case you haven't decided what A.C.'s going to be pissed about...

"So," Natsuko Aki thought, "Peters has gone magical-girl on us. No matter - I haven't gone up against a Dark Senshi who wasn't vulnerable to a head shot, and I doubt Peters is any different. But just in case, I'd better switch the load." She exchanged the magazine in her sniper rifle for one loaded with 'waved-Teflon-coated ammunition (guaranteed by The Professor to probably break through almost any forcefield), adjusted her aim slightly higher, and pulled the trigger.
--
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

[Cobalt Greywalker]

NATSUKO > TECH > SNIPER RIFLE > Barrier Breaker > A.C.
Natsuko uses Barrier Breaker on A.C.
A.C. dodges!

Sorry Rob. Natsuko is going to end up frustrated.

[robkelk]

As expected (I put enough weasel-words in The Professor's guarantee to allow it, and I don't see a main character falling to a minor supporting character so easily), but she had to at least try... and now A.C. knows somebody's out there.
--
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

[Cobalt Greywalker]

ARGH!! I hate RL at the moment...

Anyway Rob, A.C. KNOWS there are people out there. One hundred of them, to be precise. It's just now she's got this annoying sniper floating around.

Oh, BTW Rob, could you check your email?

New scene coming up...

---

**8**

Her internal timer ticked over the one hour mark, but A.C. didn’t pay attention. She had more pressing things to deal with.

A FESWAT Landmate team tended to be like that.

Schlangenform.

With the use of one of his limited supply of fitting cartridges, Laevatein transformed into a chain-link whip as A.C. swooped down. The landmates scattered, but two went down as the sword carved off the legs of their suits. The remaining three kept firing, but it was like trying to hit smoke. The only reason they were surviving so well against her was the automatic fire avoidance feature, and even that had its limits (as evidenced by the two already down). A third was force ejected as Laevatein bit into the engine systems and threatened to detonate the fuel supply. This was unlikely, as A.C. had even better control over Laevatein than her normal ribbon-sword due to his intelligent nature (given that the raven-haired cyborg had once stripped a man to his skin at 3 metres with that ribbon-sword without touching any body hair, that was a frightening level of control) and A.C. knew the systems of the standard FESWAT landmates very well as she’d not only worked on them, but she’d been part of the group that recommended the model in the first place.

Dodging high with her flight ability, A.C. snapped out her ribbon-sword as well and with a whip crack simultaneously sliced the remaining two landmates in half. Length-wise.

The ejected pilot was just getting her bearings when she was yanked unceremoniously upright by the scruff of her neck and slammed into the inert form of her deactivated and stripped landmate. She barely noticed being zip-tied into it as she tried to blink her vision clear.

“Don’t go anywhere.” A.C. told her conversationally, before picking up the dropped Anti-Material Rifle and walking over to the two legless landmates, still moving although the pilots were in no fit state from loosing their legs and the medication the auto-med systems had pumped and were pumping into them (just because they didn’t really feel pain didn’t mean that simulated drugs didn’t affect them). Taking aim, she fired straight through the centre plates to kill the pilots, then dropped the now empty rifle and used her ribbon-sword to open the cockpits and strip out the black boxes. As the final pilot watched, A.C. also ripped out the survival kits and all but one of the remaining grenades in the shoulder launchers. She wondered why as A.C. strode back towards her, but then those last grenades detonated and destroyed the evidence of her work.

“Now then.” The raven-haired beauty smiled brightly at her prisoner. “What else was in that supply drop?”

“Go to hell.” The pilot snarled.

“Been there, done that.” A.C. shrugged. “Oh well.”

The last thing the pilot saw was the barrel of a pistol before A.C. shot her between the eyes.

“Figures this’ll be difficult.” The cyborg sighed, putting the gun away and grabbing the survival kit from the body.

Ja. Laevatein agreed.

They took off, leaving the final landmate to explode behind them.

[robkelk]

Oh, BTW Rob, could you check your email?

Checked and replied...
--
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