I am not yet dead, I can dance and I can sing. I am not yet dead I can do the highland thing. I am not yet dead, no need to go to bed, no need to call a doctor I am not dead yet!
0 0 0
Star Wars Galaxies
"So this is Courisant." Holly said, stepping out and looking around. "It's… cooler than I though."
"Yeah… It is." Nick said, following her. He had never seen Courisant so cold. There was even snow on the landing pads.
"Is it always snowing like this?" Sean asked.
"No, it isn't. Something must be wrong with the weather control system," Anthony said.
"Rawwrarrawrar" Sarge said.
"Master Sarge says that he is cold, and hungry. Is there anywhere to get any food?" K-5PO translated.
"Uh… yeah. I'll take you guys up to my suite. I need to talk to someone." Nick said.
"Yeah. I'll go with him." Anthony said, checking his blaster pistol, making sure that the safety was on. "You guy's will need to make sure your weapons are either de-activated or have safeties on." The rest of the group checked their weapons. Courtney had one of Nick's lightsabers, Sarge had a bowcaster, and Sean had two silver blaster pistols he had found in the small armory in the Falcon II. Nick walked back over to the gangway, and pressed something on the hull. A small pad dropped out, and Nick put his palm on it. The gangway closed.
"What was that?" Courtney asked.
"Thumbprint lock." Nick said, "Follow me." He walked off the landing pad, kicking his way through a snowdrift, and activated a repusorlift. He waited until everyone had gotten in, and then scanned his thumbprint on the available pad. The lift started to move upwards.
"So why are the PvP-ers so… determined." Holly asked.
"Well, Modman and I aren't sure. They showed up after Black Sunday."
"Black Sunday?" Sean asked.
"Back in the beginning of the game, a bug was discovered that allowed people to gain ridiculous amounts of money by exploiting an item. Unfortunately, some people to abuse it to the extreme. The bug lasted only a day, but by the end of it many people had amassed credits upwards of billions. That caused a sharp inflation, which caused all newcomers to be even poorer than intended. In an effort to spread the wealth, a raffle system was set up. Unfortunately, people got so addicted to the games that they bet the very things they loved the most."
"Their navis?" Holly asked.
"Yes. They bet their navi to stay in the game, in order to gain at least some money to pay off the debt that they owed for the subscription (You can pay it in zenny or new republic credits. Unfortunately this subscription fee in NRC is directly influenced by the in-game economy) A lot of people lost, and their navis were trapped in the game. We think that the navis were corrupted by being in the game, fighting against each other as almost a sport, which is televised on the net, that they forgot what was a game and what was a reality. Thus, the fanatical devotion to defeating an immortal team."
"But you and Modman obviously exploited the bug." Sean pointed out.
"Yes, explain to me your reasons why." Anthony said.
"Well, we are a major player, with connections throughout the galaxy, as well as being a major Jedi authority with direct ties to the Senate and Speaker.
"Whoa!" Holly said, "You are that important?"
"Yeah, those who still play know my name. I was a direct apprentice under Master Skywalker due to the fact that I reported so many bugs and errors that they allowed me to gain 'custom items', and this." Nick said, gesturing to his penthouse that was being reveled as the doors opened. It was in a dome that was completely glass. The room was designed to be outdoorsy, but not too much. It was set up like a circular field, with fruit trees and such on one side of a six foot wide stream, and beds and a small house on the other side. The total area was about a half an acre.
"This... is… AWESOME!" Holly yelled, running out in the field.
"Everything's edible on the trees, and don't be afraid to go fishing in the river." Nick said, stepping back into the lift with Anthony.
0 0 0
"So you're telling me that I need to grant you a carte blanche?" The head speaker Borsk Fey'lya said, slamming his fist down on his desk. Nick and Anthony were standing in front of it, with Nick slightly forward.
"I just need access into the records of the Old Republic, and the command of a six man commando squad." Nick said.
"If you weren't serious that would be the funniest joke I've ever heard." He said, sitting up and giving a stern look at Nick, "No, you may not, unless you find someone that can convince me otherwise."
"Anthony, let's go." Nick said, turning and leaving.
"So why does Borsk hate you so much?" Anthony asked once they were in the repusorlift.
"He doesn't hate me, he hates what I am." Nick said, "He's so afraid that the Jedi are going to take control of the Senate, and kill everyone who opposes them."
"That's ridiculous." Anthony said.
"I know." The repusorlift shuddered, and then came to a complete stop at a few levels above the landing area.
"We are sorry for the inconvenience." A voice said over the speakers. "The repusorlift is not designed for this usage. Please wait until assistance arrives."
"What the hell?" Nick murmured.
"I think I know the problem." Anthony said, pointing at something. "The power supply had been shut down."
"What? Why would they do that?" Nick said, looking out. All of the buildings were loosing power to everything that wasn't a necessity.
"They didn't. That did." Anthony said, pointing at a cloud line far off, which seemed to be extending, covering the sky. It seemed to be snowing an unreasonable amount extremely fast. As it passed over a building, the windows seemed to frost over. Then the windows shattered outwards.
"Shit!" Nick said, grabbing his comm.
0 0 0
"I'm bored." Sean said, flipping a stone across the stream. It had barely hit the water when a large fish jumped up and swallowed it. "Whoa!" he said, falling back.
"Ah, it's not so bad." Holly said, dropping out of one of the fruit trees.
Yeah, I like it here. The fish are good. Want one? Sarge growled, popping out of the stream and offering Sean a half eaten fish. K-5PO translated from the bank.
"No thank, I don't eat raw... something." Sean said, pushing the fish away from him and started walking towards the house. "I'm getting something to eat. Want anything, Holly?"
"No thanks."
"Okay," Sean turned back towards the house as he walked towards it.
Gosh Sean, Could you be any ruder, Axl asked him.
Probably, just shut up. I'm going to get some food. Sean responded. He turned around. "Actually, I'm going to hit a cantina. Anyone want to come?" He tuned to the repusorlift and hit the button. As the door opened, he was hit in the head with a fruit. "Who did that?" He yelled, looking around.
"Gosh, cheer up." Holly said, walking up.
"Just leave me alone. I'm out." Sean stepped in and hit the button to go down to street level.
0 0 0
Look's live someone's grumpy. Tex said to Holly.
"Tex? Is that you? Where are you?" Holly said, looking around.
I'm you. Well, it's weird. You and I are contained in the same body, due to something called full synchronization. I'm talking to you in your thoughts, so only you can hear me. You can do the same thing, so you don't have to look crazy.
Oooh. So that's why Nick was always stopping in the middle of our training and thinking.
Yeah... That's why Tex said, hoping that Holly couldn't tell that she was hiding something.
0 0 0
"So now, we're stuck in here." Sean slurred. He had found a cantina and had immediately gone to work, drinking a large quantity of spicewater.
"Well, it can't be that bad," The bartender said, "Would you like another?"
"Yeah, and yeah, it isn't. I mean, if we end up being stuck here forever, I could have fun. You know, going on adventures. Like in .HACK, just less wordy an monotonous."
"What did you say?" A man walking behind Sean said.
"Uh….HACK sucks?"
0 0 0
"Yes, we found him in the middle of a cantina fight." The officer said. Holly had answered the door ((the repusorlift is separated from the dome by a small room.)) to find the officer there, holding Sean by his collar.
"Oh my! Is he okay?" She asked. Sean seemed to be only half conscious, with bruises and cuts all over him, and a black eye.
"Yes. From the holo, it looked like he had been drinking heavily. Then he said something to the bartender, someone overheard, and asked him something. He answered, and was immediately punched in the face." Well, that explained the black eye, "The fight started right after that."
"Well, thank you for bringing him home. Do I have to pay a fine or anything?" Holly asked, digging around in her pockets, trying to find that credit chip that Nick had given her.
"No, I'm letting him off with a warning, since he didn't mean to start the fight and he sure didn't win it." The officer said, gently shaking Sean to wake him up.
"Hey! Screw you! I was just totally wasted! I could have taken all three of him." Sean said drunkenly, slumping down against the wall of the dome, returning to his stupor. Holly's comm beeped.
"Yes?"
"Holly, it's me Nick. You need to close the shielding over the dome." Nick said.
"What? Why?"
"Look, something's wrong. There are these clouds that are covering the planet, and everything that they cover seems to be subjected to subzero temperatures."
"What?"
"If the clouds cover the dome, you'll die, if not from freezing, then being pierced by the pieces of the dome if it shatters."
"Oh. Where are the controls?"
"In the kitchen, along with the temperature controls. My thought is that you close the shielding as you raise the temperature to the max, so that even if the dome does break the heat should lessen the effect of the cold."
"Ok. Where are you and Anthony?"
"We're…. You….get…..shelter." Nick's comm was breaking up. Holly returned the comm to her belt.
"SEAN! SARGE!" she yelled at the top of her voice, "We need to get in the house! And hurry!" She turned around and helped Sean to his feet, dragging him towards the house. Sarge climbed out of the stream and picked up K-5PO, running towards the house, knowing that Holly only yelled like she did when it was an emergency.
"C'mon, c'mon…" Holly said, looking at a wall of electronic controls. "Aha! Dome shielding." She pulled the lever down. She looked outside. There was metal slowly closing over the dome. Outside, though, she thought she could see the clouds Nick had talked about.
What's the matter? Sarge asked, with K-5PO translating.
"I'm not sure... Sarge, go get some food from the pantry and bring it in here. K-5, are there any controls for the temperature in here?"
"Why yes, they are right over there." He said, pointing at two dials. Holly looked at them one was labeled 'outside', the other labeled 'house'. She turned both of them until they stopped at 110. She was about to turn away when a small button caught her attention. It was labeled 'lockdown'.
"What's that?" she said, looking at it.
"Why, that completely seals the house, isolating anyone inside from the outside conditions. Unfortunately, it has never been tested-" K-5 was interrupted as Holly pushed the button, causing the house to shake. The doors slammed, and the windows were covered by metal, completely blocking out all light.
"There are lights… Right?" Holly said.
"Yes, they should come on in a few minutes automatically, if no-on turns them on." He was illuminated with a gold glow as Holly activated her lightsaber. She held it up, careful not to touch anything, and looked at the control bank.
"Lights… there!" She said. The lights flickered on, dimly.
"Oh dear. It seems that we are using backup power."
"Great. So now we're stuck here. Is there any way to look outside?"
"Yes. Here." K-5PO hit a button on a wall and something lowered from the ceiling. "I do believe Nick called it a periscope."
"Thanks." Holly said, grabbing it and looking outside. The shielding was almost shut, with a small circle. As Holly watched, the shielding stopped with a horrific grinding noise.
"I do believe that the mechanism for the shielding has frozen over…" K-5PO said, looking at the control bank.
Why'd it get dark? What's happening? Sarge asked.
"What did he say?" Holly asked, glancing over at Sean. He seemed to be breathing, which was a good sign.
"He asked what's happening. Here, take this. It will keep me from having to translate." K-5PO held out what looked to be a yellow fish,
"What the hell is that?" Holly said, taking it and looking at it.
"It's a Babel fish. It makes you able to understand an language."
"Cool. So do I eat it or something?" Holly said, holding it by its tail.
"You put it in your ear. It may feel weird at first. Nick uses one, if that helps at all…"
"Okay, here goes nothing." Holly tipped her ear to the side and put the fish in her ear. She felt it slither deeper into it, and then settle down so easily that she couldn't notice it.
"Rawrarwar- Nick gone?" Sarge said.
"Excuse me?" Holly said, looking at him.
"I said, where's Nick- wait, you can understand me?"
"Yeah. Look, something is causing the planet's temperature to drop to subzero temperatures. I sealed us in here until…" Holly stopped. She had not really thought of what to do. She was just about to tell Sarge that everything was fine when there was an enormous crashing noise. She grabbed the periscope and looked outside. The dome had shattered at the top, leaving a hole that was about a hundred yards wide. Snow stared to fall through it. "Well, I guess we're stuck here."
0 0 0
"Hey, you okay?" Anthony asked Nick. Nick had managed to cut through the repusorlift doors with his lightsaber. He had cut his leg on a piece of metal, and was limping slightly.
"Yeah. I'm fine. We have to get to somewhere warm." The building that they were in was mostly abandoned.
"Hey, the hallway ends up here." Anthony said, running ahead an opening a door. "Nick, I think we're in luck." He stepped aside, letting Nick look inside. They were in the back of some type of store's back room, filled with cold weather and sports gear.
"Thank god. Quickly, I'll pile all the clothes and tent fabric over one tent. You go find something to keep us warm."
"Okay." Nick grabbed a small disk and hit a button on it, before throwing it on the ground. It expanded into a medium sized tent. He then reached out with the Force and started picking piles of clothes off of nearby racks and stuffing them into other tents that he deployed. Then he stacked them up around the empty tent, making a large igloo shaped structure, with a long tunnel to the main area. Anthony rushed back in, carrying a few boxes.
"What did you get?"
"An self powered heater, and three boxes of rations bars." Anthony dropped them on the ground, and started to open the heater.
"Here, get in here. We've got about…. Five minutes after the clouds cover us." Nick grabbed the rations and started dragging them into the tent-igloo. Anthony noticed he was leaving a rather large trail of blood.
"Uhh… Nick, you should get a Bacta patch on that or something." Nick looked down.
"Whoa. I didn't know it was that bad. He paused and sunk into deep concentration. Before Anthony's eyes, the skin seemed to stitch itself back together, leaving no sign of the gash. "Well, that should take care of the blood-loss. It still need time to heal. There's some bad damage in it." He stood up, and walked over to a shelf and grabbed a cane, and tested his wait against it. Satisfied that it would hold him, he hobbled back over to the rations and started pushing it into the tents. Anthony followed, dragging the heater, which was warming up.
0 0 0
REAL WORLD
"Good. I have to say, you are one of the smartest people I have in my organization." Nikolai said, addressing a Figure onscreen. It was standing in front of a large machine, obviously in the core of Courisant. He was wearing an old set of white Clone Trooper armor, missing the helmet. Instead, a white helmet with a mirrored orange flash guard that covered the person's face was on his head. He nodded, and then canceled the transmission.
"Who was that?" Josh said, walking in.
"That, was our new operative." Nikolai said, "Uhh… why are you covered in dirt?"
"It's not dirt. It's Smoal."
"Smoal?"
"It's cheap imitation coal that releases an extraordinary amount of smoke when burned, without creating heat. It's part of my new plan." HB said, peeking around Josh.
"And what's that?"
"Well, I bout all the Smoal from the people that sell it, and now I'm re-selling it for a five dollar profit. And, I'm such a good bargainer, I only have to keep four out of five tons of it here!" HB said, grinning widly.
"Which brings me to my point. Nikolai, tell HB that my room is not a storage closet." Josh said, looking at HB sternly.
"You heard him." Nikolai was sick and tired of having to solve all of his henchpeople's quarrels.
"Fine, I'll move it." HB said, stalking out of the room.
"So, how goes the project?" Josh asked.
"Eh?" Nikolai said, engrossed in the computer. He was playing Star Wars Galaxues, using what looked to be a Sith character.
"Never mind, I'll just ask Wily," Josh walked over to the isolated computer, and turned on the webcam attatched to it. "Hey Wily, how's it goin'?
"Well, the maniacle machinery seems to be agreeing with Gregar so far." Wily said, motioning to the now subdued Cybeast. The back half of it was encased in a cube of machinery, leaving only the body starting right behind his front two legs exposed.
"And the attempts to raise the Gospel Beast?"
"Actually, they're pretty good. We've gotten large responses. I mean, look at jimmy over there." 'Jimmy' was a blue commercial navi. He was lying in a pool of blood with what looked to be a skull laying near him. "The Gospel Beast possesed one of our other navis and attacked Jimmy. Ripped his skull out and beat him to death. Very creative, I think."
"That doesn't seem physically possible!" A disgusted Paladin said.
"Actually, that's what he said as he was being killed."
"So you're telling me that we're close to creating what was planned?"
"Yes! Muahahahahaha"Wily dissolved into a fit of laughter.
"You're going to take it too far..."
"-Hahahahahahah-"
"Yup, too far."
"Hahahaha-" Wily stopped short as he started to cough.
"You okay?"
"Yeah, just swallowed my breathmint.
0 0 0
So, what do you think? Review, please!