Then I'll leave it as it is. It can be a bonus reference for those who pick it up, and just a name for everybody else. If it helps, that one was made with the assistance of both Google Translate and Webster, so it wouldn't have naturally come to me. ^^
Then again, I've had to look up words in English, Spanish (though I'll be changing 'huelgaccino' to 'golpeccino'- 'huelga' does mean 'strike', but in the sense of refusing to work, not hitting something (which is what 'frappe' means)), German, and Welsh (I still think naming the Burger King-analogue 'Rex Brechdan' is one of the biggest signs I could've given that history here is kinda screwy). It's easier to be a clever writer than a clever reader- writers have references.
**********
This time, my arrival in the Valle del Sol was blessedly free of baking and glare. The coordinates I'd transferred to were on the edge of the environmental shield, inside the mining crater; when I appeared, it was in the shade between two ore processors. Much better. Now to business.
During one of our (seemingly innumerable) planning sessions, I'd managed to skim through a list of known Syndicate agents and allies. I was quite surprised to find a pair of familiar faces- Sickle Lada and ZIL the Hammer- on that list; back when Daimler had sent me after them, his dossier had suggested that they weren't connected. I didn't question it- I just volunteered to take
care of them... well, Lada... and requested all the info that Uno'd dug up on them.
Info, I should mention, that included an address.
When I arrived, my first act was to fire off an area search spell at the lowest power level I could manage. I kept seven of the spheres hovering around me, and sent the other two off towards Lada's usual haunt- a warehouse, right where the mining and service districts of the city intersected. This should be safe enough. This is old magitech- not fully maintained, at that. It can't hide me, but I should just look like another anomalous spike unless Lada's looking for me directly.
...aaaaaaaaaand there she is! In her warehouse, with four other people. Judging by my scans, they're all looking in the same direction- I should be able to just ease a sphere up, and look in the window.
Crapcrapcrap! One of them was a dextrocardiac- what are the odds?! Have I... no. No scans, no movement. Unless one of them's an illusionist, I haven't been made. Wow.
Positive ID on the dextro- a minor Syndicate thug, nobody important. The rest match 'known associate' descriptions... and the four of them and Lada are the only living beings in the building. Perfect.[Arcane Blast. Confirm non-lethal, set target telemetry via WAS, set target size from WAS data. Double detonation.]
[UNDERSTOOD. NON-LETHAL DETONATION CONFIRMED. PARAMETERS SET.]
[Fire.]
[FIRING.]
Malleus spoke... then again, shortly after. The two beams flew high into the air, seeming to hang in the sky for an instant, and then slammed down through the air at ridiculous speed. A mental command backed my WAS spheres up and away, and fed me visual data just as the first shot bulldozed its way through the roof of the warehouse.
The explosion that resulted, shortly after, was quite gratifying... for the half a second before it and all the rubble were sucked back into the ex-building. I couldn't help but smile as I looked over the result.One destroyed building. Good. One grav-compressed ball of debris? Better! No collateral damage? Check, and I'll have to use the dual explosion/implosion technique more often. Four unconscious bodies, battered by flying debris? Yep.
...wait, four?
My Unitarian Jihad Name is: Brother Atom Bomb of Courteous Debate. Get yours.
I've been writing a bit.
Then again, I've had to look up words in English, Spanish (though I'll be changing 'huelgaccino' to 'golpeccino'- 'huelga' does mean 'strike', but in the sense of refusing to work, not hitting something (which is what 'frappe' means)), German, and Welsh (I still think naming the Burger King-analogue 'Rex Brechdan' is one of the biggest signs I could've given that history here is kinda screwy). It's easier to be a clever writer than a clever reader- writers have references.
**********
This time, my arrival in the Valle del Sol was blessedly free of baking and glare. The coordinates I'd transferred to were on the edge of the environmental shield, inside the mining crater; when I appeared, it was in the shade between two ore processors. Much better. Now to business.
During one of our (seemingly innumerable) planning sessions, I'd managed to skim through a list of known Syndicate agents and allies. I was quite surprised to find a pair of familiar faces- Sickle Lada and ZIL the Hammer- on that list; back when Daimler had sent me after them, his dossier had suggested that they weren't connected. I didn't question it- I just volunteered to take
care of them... well, Lada... and requested all the info that Uno'd dug up on them.
Info, I should mention, that included an address.
When I arrived, my first act was to fire off an area search spell at the lowest power level I could manage. I kept seven of the spheres hovering around me, and sent the other two off towards Lada's usual haunt- a warehouse, right where the mining and service districts of the city intersected. This should be safe enough. This is old magitech- not fully maintained, at that. It can't hide me, but I should just look like another anomalous spike unless Lada's looking for me directly.
...aaaaaaaaaand there she is! In her warehouse, with four other people. Judging by my scans, they're all looking in the same direction- I should be able to just ease a sphere up, and look in the window.
Crapcrapcrap! One of them was a dextrocardiac- what are the odds?! Have I... no. No scans, no movement. Unless one of them's an illusionist, I haven't been made. Wow.
Positive ID on the dextro- a minor Syndicate thug, nobody important. The rest match 'known associate' descriptions... and the four of them and Lada are the only living beings in the building. Perfect.[Arcane Blast. Confirm non-lethal, set target telemetry via WAS, set target size from WAS data. Double detonation.]
[UNDERSTOOD. NON-LETHAL DETONATION CONFIRMED. PARAMETERS SET.]
[Fire.]
[FIRING.]
Malleus spoke... then again, shortly after. The two beams flew high into the air, seeming to hang in the sky for an instant, and then slammed down through the air at ridiculous speed. A mental command backed my WAS spheres up and away, and fed me visual data just as the first shot bulldozed its way through the roof of the warehouse.
The explosion that resulted, shortly after, was quite gratifying... for the half a second before it and all the rubble were sucked back into the ex-building. I couldn't help but smile as I looked over the result.One destroyed building. Good. One grav-compressed ball of debris? Better! No collateral damage? Check, and I'll have to use the dual explosion/implosion technique more often. Four unconscious bodies, battered by flying debris? Yep.
...wait, four?
My Unitarian Jihad Name is: Brother Atom Bomb of Courteous Debate. Get yours.
I've been writing a bit.