XCAS Roleplay

Loonie · April 6, 2003

Kacur couldn't believe how hard all of this officer business was. First the darn paperwork, then the training with Ghost to improve his own ratings and thus neglect his Psionics and finnaly three rookies and three sick people to deal with to top it all off. Though Ilyuschenko definately showed some improvement this last training mission the overall, the squad did not do good at all considering the entire team effort. Martin looked at the 6 people of Alpha Squad that were seated in front of him, pacing up and down in front of them and not satisfied apparently.

"Not good at all! No damn good! Our primary mission when we got in there was to exercise our tactics and strategies effectively in hunting down small forces. Instead you, you and you" he said as he pointed sequentially at Howardson, Necro and McCarthy "get food poisoning from betting on how much Ascadian Agh'hak'ha one could eat before passing out. I'm appaled! Do you know what we're up against here?! The aliens are right in our damn solar system and we sure as hell won't fare well against them poisoned, much less without constantly practiced strategies and tactics! You WILL show up these next few exercises no matter what your health condition or I'll have your keelhauled"

Martin straightened his shirt now as he looked across the room at the silent fellow squad members. He never knew that he could be this harsh as well as quite emphatic to people. It was kind of terrifying to him at that moment, but he had to do it, otherwise his authority was going down the drain. Ilyuschenko's insubordination instance was a clear statement of that. Sleep whilst he gives a briefing will he?! 'Not on his watch' though Kacur.

"Okay. Now for the people that were present. Jacko. Of all the people you surprised me the most. I know what your reputation stands out as and though it even enabled Ilyuschenko to take out Ghost, here's a reminder. We might be an assault squad but we're not bloody reckless in making loud noises and exposing ourselves to the enemy line of fire. This is the only time I'll tell you this, because the next time I'll see to it that you see mashed potato daily, despite my emphatic sessions with you."

That made Jacko cringe a bit and Kacur saw that he made a good enough point. He then continued...

"McBurke. I haven't seen what you were preforming as but from the report I saw that you handled yourself quite well considering the amount of fauna crap that you recieved. A word of advice though. When Jacko, or anyone else for that matter, asks for your position you give him the exact location of yourself as soon as you are able to do so. Unless you do so then the people to whom you are calling out to do not know where you are and you will die. Understood?"

A quick nod was enough to re-affirm that the Kabron wouldn't repeat this mistake, though Kacur wondered for a second if he would repeat it, seeing as how he was just about the rudest soldier in X-Com with swearing being quite constant in his vocabulary...

"Okay. Ilyuschenko. Overall your combat potential has definately risen. No doubt about that, especially after seeing your moves during hand-to-hand combat with Yorke and pinpointing Ghost's position, using Jacko as the diversion. HOWEVER. There are still points on which you need to work on. You made a lot of noise when Ghost was pinpointing you and I don't know why you continued to after you already noticed it. Whatever the reason do it a lot LOT less when you suspect you're going to get noticed. And one more thing. The next time I see you snoring and sleeping in front of me or Ghost is the time that I'll put a little sign that I'll keep in my pocket around your neck and have people use you as a punching bag. Do you get me Private?"

Ilyuschenko made an indignate short snort, but Kacur didn't bother to re-affirm his point since he knew it wouldn't make any sense on the stubborn Private.

"Okay. Overall I am not happy. Although we prevented Kappa and Support from reaching their primary objectives, we ourselves have lost 2-3. Alpha was supposed to diss out more damage than it would recieved and that has obviously not happened. We will however be working on it the next few days. I can promise you that! Diss-missed"

Martin now headed back to his own quarters to listen to some music. This was hard work allright, but now was the time to relax, if only for a short time...

<<The insinuation to Necro, Howardson and McCarthy is translated into "show up at sims". Just so as to make sure you understand the reason behind that."

Ghost · April 25, 2003

A quiet night in the X-Com NAO base...

The security guard stood at his post at the door to the med bay, looking left to right boredly. He so hated having to do the nightshift in a place like this. At least in the days there were still troopers and other people coming by to watch or to have a chat with. He yawned and looked on his watch, only one more hour to go. It was going to be a long hour.

He thought of his wife, that he had left at home on earth, far far away, and closed his eyes a moment.

That one moment proved to be exceptionally bad timed, and as he opened his eyes again at a faint sound he heard, someone seized him from behind and he felt a metallic thing press against his head. No doubt the barrel of a weapon. He almost let out a yell of surprise but restrained himself, his unknown assailant might kill him if he did that. He felt that he would not be able to run away, or use his weapon, his arms were held in a position he couldn't move them, even if he would be stronger than the one that held him.

"Alright, listen up, I am only going to ask you this once. What is the security code for the door here? If you do not answer or provide the wrong one, you're in for a world of hurt."

The unknown attacker spoke with a soft voice, but one that had a venom in it that made the guard realize that he really didn't have much of a choice, and to back up the words said, his arms were pushed in an even less comfortable position. No doubt it would not take much effort to break his arms like this.

"A...alright, alright... the code is 593021... just... let me go and don't hurt me... okay?"

"Let you go? So you can shoot me? I think not"

And with those words he felt a sharp pain in his head and sank to the floor, his thoughts went slower as he fell down. The last thing he saw before he sank to unconciousness, was his assaillant... he had been struck down by a woman of all things... and with that thought his world went black.

She looked at the security guard one more time and shook her head, they really should make these guards tougher.

As she turned to the keypad she entered the code. 5..9..3..0..2..1. A bleep and a green light on the keypad confirmed she had indeed entered the right code, and the door hissed open smoothly.

The medbay was dark, there was nobody there at the moment. She turned around and dragged the security guard's unconcious body inside with her. She looked around as the door closed behind her. When the door was closed she opened an encrypted comms channel.

"Lead, this is Three. I'm inside, looks empty here. No hostiles present, no activity for as far as I can see."

After a moment the voice of 'Lead' replied to her message. "Three, this is Lead. Excellent, now look for a small metallic case, containing tubes with a purple transparent liquid."

She looked around. No metallic cases immediately apparent.... she walked further in the medbay and started looking. A few minutes later she'd found a small metallic briefcase, which after opening proved to indeed contain the tubes specified.

"Lead, this is Three, I have acquired the package. Heading out to extraction."

"Copy that Three, I have the exit covered, and Two and Four will rendez-vous with us at the extraction site."

She nodded to herself and closed the case again, picking it up, and opening the door. Fortunately for them, the base was in night mode at the moment, which also meant most lights were off, to simulate a sort of dusk or darkness. Moving through the shadows she managed to evade a good deal of security guards and finally she reached the large doors that guarded the exit. They would be guarded by camera's but she had the access codes to those doors, so she wouldn't draw unwanted attention. As the smaller door inside the large doors opened she sneaked out into the open night sky, closing it behind her again.

"Lead, Three here. I'm outside, with the package."

"This is Lead, I have you in sight. I am 300 foot straight out from your position."

As she confirmed his message she headed out, slightly bent to minimize her profile as she sped across the clearing, into the woods, to the point indicated by Lead, where she met up with the large man. When they met the man nodded at her in approval and acknowledgement of her presence. Then he spoke up again, "End sim", and with these two words the surroundings faded, and eventually the man as well until everything went dark. Then a small crack of light appeared that grew larger as the VR-tube opened. And she smiled faintly.. it had felt good to be back in action again, even if it were simulated. Lying in bed all day was nothing for her.

Corporal Kaitlin Stone stepped out of her VR-tube, while Lieutenant Schmerjchanikov stepped out of his and walked over towards her.

"Excellent job Corporal, I see you're still in good shape, and I'm glad to see you're back able to come in action again. You are certainly good enough to come join our Kappa squad."

Ghost shook Kaitlin's hand and smiled. She'd passed the test excellently, and even though he hadn't expected any less, her injuries might've worked against her. He was pleased to see she was recovering so swiftly and just about ready for real action again. He had tested Ong last week and he too had passed his test excellently.

It seemed like Kappa was ready to go, though at this time they'd probably need a good deal of secondary support, as they only had the infiltration team at the moment, while they most likely would need an engineer, and perhaps a medic on some of their missions. For now however they were all set to go to action when- and where-ever needed.

Loonie · April 25, 2003

Meanwhile Lieutenant Kacur was in his office, reviewing Alpha Squad's personnel roster. Things were not progressing as he had wanted them at all. The fact that the Ascadians had to cancel the exercise was no good news and his team was slowly growing more and more complacent without learning or achieving almost any point in Alpha Squad's tactics except for getting used to the equipment and having their combat skills raised slightly. This made the team quite certain that they were doing just fine, but Kacur knew that without tactics things were going to turn against them when they went back out against the aliens.

People began forgetting what they were training for since the Ascadian step up of active patrolling forces in the system was initiated, thus ending any direct alien attacks against NAO. His soldiers were forgetting that if the X-Com team should fail in their objective, then NAO and then Ascadia will be wiped out by the aliens, bringing them swift victory for sure. Kacur did not need that. Nobody did except for the aliens themselves.

He reviewed the personnel files once again. "What am I gonna do with these people?" he asked himself. He hoped that the Ascadians would restore their fort and that they could preform the training mission, but were that not to happen, Kacur had a good idea of how to shift his team out of complacency. If THAT didn't work, then nothing would. It went against Kacur's principals, being emphatic to other people, but his command rank would not allow him to take the route that he wanted. He had learned that by now. He simply wondered if his team would too...

Loonie · May 10, 2003

<<Does anyone remember this thread? Think we can get it back to activity? I hope so. :blink: >>

The anesthetic needle attached to his arm did not even seem to be there. So powerful was the drug that was slowly being put into Martin's body and was circulated around his body, numbing his senses and making him forget the ringing pain that he would otherwise still experience in his head. His head fell to the side of his pillow as he tried to think through the last mission. It was indeed a most chaotic one, and one where luck had favoured X-Com quite a bit, or he wouldn't be in this world anymore to contemplate it.

So many variables. Had Jason McBurke's shots not have been so lucky the UFO would've escaped. And had it been a plasma rifle shot that hit Kacur squarely in the head and not a plasma pistol shot, Kacur's head would no longer exist in one concentrated place. It was indeed fortunate that the Light Feronioum Suit was enough to absorb the brunt of the plasma shot...

Not only that but after he went down and Howardson took over, Ilyuschenko had stepped out of line. Though Samuel had took care of the problem in a suitable manner, Kacur had to remember to remind the Sergeant to give out short ultimatums in the heat of battle, otherwise lives could be lost during the long conversation he would have with the insubordinate. He was indeed quite more skilled, but still dead set on going his own way and not following orders. McBurke was in a sense the typical rookie. Hotblooded and rash, not considering informing the team before opening fire and so forth. Indeed, Kacur still had to rely on the veterans in the team, but hopefully through time that would change...

But that wasn't the only thing that was bothering him. He had spoken with the Ascadian in charge of scouting out the are where they had done their first training exercise. That goat possesing an internal and unnatural shield left for a lot of answers and Martin highly suspected that someone within the Ascadian ranks planted that beast there, hoping that the first training exercise would go awry. As it turned out it was a boon for X-Com, but still, one that only revealed the presence of infiltrators within Ascadian ranks. A thought which deeply troubled Kacur.

He rolled with his body to the other side, still feeling half braindead because of the anasthetic. He was afraid of its effects on his psionics, since their efffect could be quite determinetal seeing as how Martin acutally relied on his psionic abilities to keep him from becoming mentally handicaped. He felt a small tingle from his scar again before he finnaly went back to sleep, trying to get enough rest before he would be let out of med-bay tommorow. He would have to be ready and not fail on his team, even if they had failed on him, causing the injury from which he was recovering...

Ion Mage · May 11, 2003

<<time to get posting!>>

Shortly after the rough operation, the X-com team and its ascidian friends docked at a nearby Ascidian cruiser to jump back to NAO (Save the transport, which went wherever it was going)

While on the cruiser, the wounded were immediately brought to the med-bay, though the ascidian medical technologies were, obviously, meant for ascidians, not humans.

Standard procedure on board Ascidian cruisers was that all corporal and private ranking soldiers must turn over all sidearms to security, for safety reasons.

"Ok, everyone. This is what they do, hand over your' sidearms, i doubt we'll be running into any opposition over here." Howardson stated. He was left in charge, as Kacur, the primary team leader, was unconcsious at the time.

The corporal-and-lowers turned over all weapons. Necro and McBurke did so 100% willingly, and Jackson and Biohazard also complied, but most likely only because they were in no position to complain; both were too injured to resist.

"God, What was up with Biohazard back there?" he complained.

"Well, i guess rookies arent the best when it comes to taking orders" Necro stated.

"but back there he was unbelievably insubordinate! ANY military from ANYWHERE can train more loyal troops than that! He even refused to do something he should have done so easily" Howardson said, referring to the case where bio refused to even attempt mind-controlling the Mutons. "Whats worse, hes forgotten our purpose; he seems to think killing the aliens is more important than anything"

"Well, isn't it, sir?"

"Negative, it was secondary, and now its tertiary. Our primary objective is the defense of humanity. Now, our new secondary objective is the protection of our new allies, the ascidians. If destroying the aliens was primary, we might as well start kamikazeing the enemies, since our lives wouldn't be as important." the sergeant replied.

"Well, i guess that is true, sir. Maybe you should write a report to the commander that we need to be reminded of that."

"Good idea, i'll do that now"

Howardson went into the command room of the transport, which was presently docked and being refueled and serviced. It was there that commanding officers would write their' combat reports to be given to the commander. Though the job was kacur's, howardson wanted to leave a message to kacur. He found a voice recorder, which was capable of recording sound onto mini-disks <<Think the gamecube disks>>. He activated it, and said;

"Hello. This is sergeant Howardson speaking, second in command of operation 'escort duty'. Kacur, i wish to say a couple of things here that i believe you should mention on your combat report to weindhoven. First, i belive we need to discipline Biohazard a bit more, as he was clearly insubordinate beyond definition last mission. Though i dont want our soldiers to become lifeless robots (otherwise we arent too different from our enemies), we should know when to follow orders. I didn't mind his not following orders too much, but the fact that he thought getting kills on his record was more important than winning the mission. I believe he must be reminded that if a mission is failed, and he is the direct cause of the failure, it would look horrible on his resume regardless of how many kills he got from it. Oh well, im ranting, and i dont want him to feel unwelcome here. ::laughs:: heh, maybe im being a bit too hard on him, these are among his first times in actual combat i guess. These things can make people do wierd things, but i digress. Disciplinary action needed, but i'll let you or the commander decide on this."

"Also, i think it was just a bad idea to use our quarry as a shield; arent we supposed to defend it? Way to launch our civilians out of the artillery cannon. Totally defeats the purpose. I understand you did it to help accomplish the secondary objective, but doesnt primary mean more important than the secondary? I won't complain too much, you did it to put us less at risk, but i still found it quite wierd."

"Lastly, we need to go over how we handle insubordination. It is apparent that giving out a speach in the line of fire is not a good idea, but that seems to be the only feasable means of handling the situation. The only other solution, is, well.... ::Short pause, then saying, reluctantly:: ....shooting him. but that would only make a dead soldier, and we dont want that around here, when those are so hard to find. ::sighs:: well, i gotta get going, running out of.... ::Click::

The disk ran out of room, entire thing taken up by the report. Not much to do, save for keeping everyone under control until they reach NAO. Yorke was busy tending to the wounded, while Necro was lifting large cargo boxes around, helping load craft and such. McBurke was busy piloting things like ascidian fork-lifts and arming ascidian fighter craft. Everyone else was in the med-bay. He stayed in the transport, keeping track of whats going on outside, just so he would know right away if anything bad happened.

<<And we'll just say nothing bad happens, and we arrive at NAO>>

Loonie · May 13, 2003

<<That's it, keep it rollin' :blink: >>

"Lieutenant, this last mission of yours has gone over the board! I can understand your previous one to hide behind our transport so as to draw the enemy into a disadvantageous position, but this last one goes over the top"

Martin half-snorted in Colonel Cyriacuses office chair as he leaned forward towards the monitor, intent to make the Chief Ascadian Commander of the Ascadian system forces understand X-Com's point of view: "Commander, we warned you in advance that urban fighting with an elite alien force was going to get messy and bloody. Despite this we had managed to clean our sector faster than any other team in the city and yet you are not satisfied. Why, may I ask?"

"Your team did not save the first civilian you had encountered from injuries and he had to be hospitalised, not to mention on how you had handled the hostage situation that arose." Kacur tried to speak opening his mouth, but the Ascadian Commander did not permit him and continued: "Furthermore I am most appaled that one of your soldier decided to lob a grenade at the base of one of our buildings, thereby demolishing it almost completely."

Kacur didn't have to keep explaining the last accusation nor the previous ones forever and decided to immediately counter the Commander so as to end this thing as soon as possible: "That action was perfectly warranted on Corporal Jackson's behalf. He was faced with two Sectopods at close range whilst he himself only possesed effective long range weapons. Were it not for his actions he would be dead by now AND also quite possibly many more civilians those two machines would've taken out before we could check them properly. In regards to the first civilian I cannot stipulate over and over that he simply did not understand English. Had that been otherwise he would've ducked and avoided injury, but as it was I am proud of my team that they actually managed to save his life considering the opposition we faced. And the hostage situation? Commander, I think you know just as well as I do what would've happened had we complied. The aliens would've escaped together with the hostages and they would most likely be on an operating table somewhere and we would not be in possesion of the large UFO as well. One of the Ethereals was missed on the first strike which resulted in the death of a civilian, yes. But to be perfectly frank I believe that the Ethereal would've eluded even had we posted three snipers to target him. He had to plan ahead for our reaction somehow."

"And you should've anticipated it. Besides, what you believe on the last mission is hardly relevant as it concerns the Ascadian people primarily."

Martin felt like he shouldn't join the Commander's dirty game of pointing fingers, but then again it would also reveal to him an important fact about the Commander. Was he the traitor or not.

"Oh is that so? To be perfectly frank I think it in the long run concerns us just as much as you. And what about our first training mission? That "goat" with a shield generator has yet to be explained. It certainly didn't grow that way in the wild and the coincidence of it being present at the exact time of our training session is practically impossible. So tell me Commander, who can I trust of the Ascadians?" Martin gazed into the Commander's eyes deeply with that last statement, watching what would be his reaction.

The response was somewhat delayed as the Commander looked away briefly and responded in a heavy tone: "We are in the midst of finding that out Lieutenant. And we will relay information about it the moment we have something of a useful lead. But I can't point fingers openly since the suspicion would drive my forces apart, something we definately don't need right now."

Martin interrupted him, hoping that he could end the conversation on friendly terms: "I know that Commander. The point of my question was not the answer. The point was in making you remember that even the best officers make mistakes in anticipation. It is the way of life. So please respect the way I cope with this in the same manner as I have just respected your way of coping with it."

The Commander paused for a moment, thinking at the words and after a deep sigh he responded: "Very well. I will be in contact about the infiltrator. I hope you will do the same about all your actions."

Kacur gulped a bit at that last sentence. He would have to break that rule in the following mission right away, but he had no choice. Things had to run smooth during these hard times: "I will Commander. Now get some rest. I think you really could use it. Lieutenant Kacur out."

He leaned back on his chair and did his best to relax, closing his eyes momentarily. The Commander was definately not the traitor. He then just remembered the disk that had come from his Sergeant. It was still on his desk, not reviewed by the Lieutenant as the last mission came up as an emergency in-between. He sighed as he plugged the disk into his computer interface and listened to the audio recording.

Howardson did have more than a valid point. All the talks about his attitude that Kacur had with the Private so far had been almost completely fruitless. "Maybe it's time to do something more than just talk, even if I won't like it. But I must. It is my duty as Lieutenant and head of Alpha Squad." He thought as he headed towards Ilyuschenko...

Ilyuschenko was at that time practicing his telkinesis with a Psi-Amp on a small packet in the training area, which was devoid of any other person. He was getting a bit better at it, albiet quite slowly, and as Kacur walked in his concentration was broken as he faced him: "G'day to you sir."

Martin noticed the lack of any military salute or such or even a proper greeting from someone who has been around a lot less than he might think he was: "I'd say "At ease", but I see you've just helped yourself Private."

A grin came back from the other Psionisist, something that Kacur hoped would change soon enough: "Private, would you mind extending your left arm towards me for a second?"

In a completely lax manner Ilyuschenko did as he was told, not suspecting much in paticular to happen. All the way until he felt his bones being bent in the arm in quite an unorthodox way for normal movement, the result of which was a hefty dosage of pain. Martin was holding the still somewhat extended arm in an almost 360 degree fashion turned around, a useful grip that Sergeant Ong had taught him before transferring to Kappa Team. The Lieutenant then proceeded in a harsh tone of voice, intent on Ilyuschenko getting the point as he was struggling to release himself from the grip: "Believe me Private that this really does hurt me more than it does you. You have no idea, but that is exactly why I'm doing this to you. If I'm not mistaken you payed a visit to one of our captured Sectoids some time ago and did something similar to this to the alien, though with less precision. Now I'll overlook the unauthorized access part of the thing, but I won't overlook what you did to that Sectoid. This is how he felt when you twisted its arm. Feel every bone out of its place as the pain grows stronger and stronger until it brings you quite close to madness."

Ilyuschenko struggled and thought that his commanding officer had just gone crazy, but even were that to be true he could not get out of the grip Martin employed on him. Ong's tehnique was just too thurough. He responeded in a strained voice, cringing at the pain: "Sir,......what the heck...."

Kacur turned the arm slightly more at that point and continued: "I want you to remember this moment and the pain you feel as well as you can. When on your next mission you kill an alien, you remember this pain in your mind. This is how the alien felt when you put a bullet in its head and worse! Every single time you take life I want you to remember this pain and think if it is a pleasant experience that the lifeform is going through and would you want someone else do the same to you."

Martin then released the arm, allowing Ilyuschenko to break away and relax it, still in pain from the bones being twisted. Kacur then resumed: "What you have done in the holding cell is the first and only time that you will do whilst under my watch. Believe me that this is so, since the next time I might decide to brake your limbs completely and have Yorke install you mechanical ones so that the only thing that will be truly you are going to be the torso and the head."

He then slowly sat down on a crate as he looked into the Private's eyes: "Do you know what the main difference is between a warrior and a psychotic? Despite all the horrific events around him a warrior will always do his or her best to preserve life if at all possible, be it from a friend or foe. A psychotic doesn't give a damn about life and will kill without considering his actions - in essence he is not a man, but a machine that is abusing the power that it was entrusted with. You, Private, are going to be a warrior under my watch. Remember that as you have remembered the pain that you have just experienced."

Kacur then left the room, knowing that this is the "last call" for the Private to shape up or ship out. And here, 60 light years from Earth, "ship out" would NOT be pretty.

Loonie · May 19, 2003

"I never thought I'd see this day come." said Ong, his voice filled half with disbelief and half with contempt.

"Can't help it Sarge. That Sectoid is the only thing that can unlock the mystery of what happened to the Arkunis V Space Station. If he dies then we'll be up against a very powerful and unknown thing that is on the side of the Aliens. I'm sure you'll agree that we can not afford that right now." replied Ghost in a low tone of voice as he looked through the Med-Bay's window, observing Doctor Yorke treating the so-called "Osiris Sectoid" which was lying in its bed with its eyes closed and its body limp.

"Kacur. What do you make of all this?"

The Psionisist sighed whilst scratching his moustache and replied in a heavy tone whilst still looking at the Sectoid through the window: "Well, I'm no Intelligence Agent, but I can give you some possibilities as to what happened on that mission. A) Exactly what we presume has happened, meaning that this Sectoid does indeed belong to Osiris. Or B) That this was a setup to get this Sectoid amongst us as an infiltrator."

"Given your combat report Lieutenant I severely doubt that. Perfecting that story with plasma weapons is one thing. But critically injuring your spy with a Blaster Launcher so as to conceal his intent......that's damn risky. And the Aliens are not known for riskyness."

"Exactly what I was thinking Ghost." replied Kacur just as Yorke was beginning to exit the room into which the three men were looking. Yorke came to the three and began to speak in a distraught voice:

"I managed to stabilise him. There are still however severe concussive traces along with some of his limbs going weak. Lieutenant," he said as he turned to Ghost "I might be a Doctor, and a pretty good one, but even I can't predict exactly what this Sectoid needs. Sure we have the autopsy reports, but it was never considered that a living Sectoid might need our medical assistance."

Ong then raised his left eyebrow as he came up with an idea: "Do you think you could do some test surgery and medical work on one of the live Sectoids that we have incarcarated in our prison cells?"

"Yes that would be possible, but the pacients would almost definately die in the first few attempts."

Kacur quickly shook his head when he heard that: "Then that's not an option. We can't afford to descend to their level."

Ong inquisitevly looked at the Lieutenant: "Sir? We need every chance we got! If that Sectoid there dies then we'll have just that powerful unknown factor you told me about earlier. We have to make sure that he'll live by sacrificing some of our Sectoid prisoners."

Kacur then turned to Ong, his eyes suddenly filled with determination: "Sergeant, don't you think I know that? If this thing dies on us we will have no way of knowing what it was that hit that space station and it could just as easily break through the Ascadian forces and destroy NAO for all we know. But I will NOT sacrifice more lives, Human, Ascadian or Alien, so as to achieve our goals. Besides the Sectoid isn't in that critical condition, right Doc?" he asked as he turned to Yorke.

His reply was laced with uncertainty: "I cannot say really. The symptoms that I see could be unimportant, but who knows. What looks as unimportant on Human bodies could be critical for Sectoid ones, especially since they are such a fragile species biologically."

"I cannot believe this" Kacur exclaimed as he went off to a corner to think the situation through. "Ghost, look....., what do you make of this."

The senior Lieutenant really couldn't say. Kacur's addition was most useful to the team and indeed he was most wise, but Ong's point of view could not be discarded either as he had served with Ghost since X-Com's arrival into this mess. He just couldn't say:

"I'll consider it." he said as he went to his office to think about the problem. Kacur hit a wall with his palm, infuriated not at Ong for his opinion or at Ghost's indecisiveness but at the whole problem instead.

"Dammit" he exclaimed.

Loonie · June 13, 2003

Martin was pacing nervously up and down in front of Ghost as the two had met in NAO's cargo area. The reason as to why the meeting took place was soon to be more familiar to Ghost, who sat down on a crate just as Martin began to speak:

"Dammit! I knew it! I knew there had to be an infiltrator somewhere close on Arkunis IV and Black Spear is definately a possiblity. But a Sectoid being present as well?"

"Actually I'm not too surprised about that. The GPS sattelite didn't detect any ships lifting off from the location of that base, but it did however detect an interdimensional distorsion."

"A cloaking device? Valkyries?"

Ghost lowered his head and replied in a sombre tone: "I'm afraid so..."

"Terrific! Now we can say it for sure. The aliens have access to the engineering specs of the Valkyrie fighters. Soon enough they'll not only upgrade their UFOs with greater manuverability and speed but also start fitting them with their own cloaking devices. Superb" Kacur concluded in a sarcastic tone. He stopped in front of a crate and looked into it half-absently whilst turning slightly to his right with his head and asking Ghost another question:

"Were we at least capable of tracking to where the ship was heading?"

"No. Once it left our orbit the GPS obviously could no longer track the distorsion. But one thing is for sure. Even our latest GPS sattelite tracking systems aren't that good that they could track the distorsion, meaning that the cloaking device must've been somehow damaged during the Valkyrie's escape from that base which was flooding. That means that other systems are almost certainly short circuited. With such a ship they can't go too far so I'd say that they're heading to some place in the Arkunis system where they could seek refuge."

"Yes but where?" Arkunis V-b has been sealed up relatively safely and the Ascadian fleet around Arkunis VI has been doing a pretty good job cordoning off the Aliens. The outer planets are inhospitable for Ascadians and the inner ones are under the High Council's control. So where the heck is it going to go?"

A voice informed the both of them that the answer to that question was soon going to be answered:

"Ummm......sirs.....this is Jackson, um. I *could've* been playing around with your computers or something, but you got a message.....I think..."

Chrysalid_zombie · June 14, 2003

<< Post set a little bit before Kacur's post >>

Jackson woke up in a medical bed at NAO again, his head fuzzy and unable to feel his leg... The one he could normally feel at any rate. He thought to himself for a few moments, wondering if Yorke or anyone else would be present... "Maybe I could customise the bed... I seem to be here a lot, my own personal bed could be cool... I could paint on go-faster stripes for when it gets wheeled around the base! I'm so smart."

"Ah, you're awake at last. Anything apart from the leg causing trouble?"

Jackson: Yorke? No, just the leg. I can't feel it. You haven't taken it off have you? It would be pretty slow to get around with two mechanical legs...

Yorke: Don't worry, it's just numb with the cold. Should heal in a couple of weeks, but you need to keep it warm and moving around. Until you can use it again I've got you a wheelchair.

Jackson: Cool!

Yorke: I can safely say that's the oddest reaction to being told you can't walk I've ever heard. Oh well, you can go whenever you want, your clothes are in the draw beside you. Shout if you need anything.

Jackson: Cheers. This is gonna be so cool.

Yorke: Riiiiight...

Yorke walked into the next room to let Daniel get ready and just kept walking when he heard the *thud* of a large mass hitting the floor. It was Jackson, if he went running every time he had an accident no research would ever get done in the biology department, and that muton wasn't cutting open itself. Yorke just hummed loudly to himself and tried to forget the Hippocratic oath.

Jackson: Mental note, next time I get out of bed, remember that one leg doesn't work.

-------

<< 10 minutes later, a random NAO corridor >>

Necro: So then I was like "Swim you idiot" and he was all "Trying to" and it would have been hilarious if you know... The almost dying part.

Howardson: Oh well, wish I could have been there, but I needed to do more tests on the MK III... You're gonna love it, you point it at stuff, and then all the stuff around the first stuff gets totally nuked.

Necro: Cool! ...What's that noise?

Howardson: What noise? That faint clicking noise and high pitched whine?

Necro: That's the one...

Suddenly from around the corner zoomed a madman on a wheelchair doing at least 25mph and screaming "Weeeeeeeeeee!" at the top of his voice.

Jackson: Outta the way! Cripple coming through! Weeeeeeeee!!!!

Necro and Howardson: ******!!! ::Dive sideways into the walls::

Necro: Was that...?

Howardson: The new Heavy Weapons Platform? I hope so! Look how fast it was going! And the battle cry... No alien would stand up to that!

Jackson: Weeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!

Necro: No, I'm pretty sure it was Jackson.

Howardson: Oh well... I don't think R&D will ever top that as a terror weapon.

Necro: Should we put this in that little 'suggestion' box thingy they've got? Maybe they could make an android version.

Necro and Howardson: ::Shudder::

Howardson: Let us never speak of that idea again. Especially not to any R&D person.

Jackson: Weeeeeeeeeee!

-----------

<< Communications area >>

Scott: What the hell is that noise? Sounds like a computer fan breaking down and a high pitched hard drive spinning up...

Jackson: Weeeeeeee!!!! ::Hits the door to the communications room with a loud *Clong!*:: Ouch... I thought these opened... By themselves...

Scott: Oh thank God, it's just Jackson, the computers are fine.

Jackson: Let me in! I want to show you my cool new stuff!

Scott: Press the button next to the door, the one labelled 'open'.

Jackson: So that's how it works! Now I can get in the communications room!

Scott: *to himself* I get the feeling I wasn't meant to tell him that...

Jackson: ::wheels inside the room quickly:: Look at my neat new chair! It has wheels! And I've put go faster stripes here! ::points to a small painted line around the sides of the chair:: And I found some Clickety-Clacks! Listen! ::Moves back and forth a little, making a clicking noise:: It's great!

Scott: So is your leg going to be okay?

Jackson: Yorke said in a week or so I'll be able to walk on it. Should be back to normal in a couple of weeks. In the mean time I got this cool chair! Weeee!!! ::moves backwards and forwards quickly:: I'm trying to learn how to do this trick were you tip back and stay up, but I always fall down. Watch!

Daniel tipped the chair backwards, but instead of the desired action, which would be to stop at around 45 degrees of tilt and then stay there, he just plummeted back and hit the floor.

Jackson: I can't quite get it right...

Scott: Right... I'd stop trying that if I were you, let me help you up. ::pulls the chair back upright:: There. Now try not to mess up the comm room by crashing into everything.

Jackson: Don't worry! I'm the chair master! I've got all the sleek skills I need!

Daniel again started moving around in circles and lines very quickly, eventually (and inevitably) smacking into a console and falling forwards onto the buttons. The sound of bleeping could be heard.

Jackson: Erm... I didn't do it! I only pressed four or six of the buttons! Honest!

Scott: I'm starting to understand why the door wasn't automatic... Hey a message! But you've messed up the dish alignment! Tell Kacur he's got a message while I get this sorted... ::presses buttons quickly::

Jackson: That I can do! +com+ "Ummm......sirs.....this is Jackson, um. I *could've* been playing around with your computers or something, but you got a message.....I think..."

Strong Bob · June 14, 2003

<<Just a short one to get me started. :blink: I hope nobody minds me roleplaying other people's characters.>>

Jackson: That I can do! (Flips on his comm) "Ummm......sirs.....this is Jackson, um. I *could've* been playing around with your computers or something, but you got a message.....I think...

Kacur's voice echos from Jacksons communicator.

Kacur: Uh, Thank you Corporal. I'll be right there.

Scott was still at the console, trying desparately to properly realign the satellite dishes. Becoming slightly frustrated at their working.

Scott: 30 degrees to the left... Yes that's it! (Flips a few switches and hits a button. Some static comes from a speaker with a faint intelligible voice in the background.) Damn, must move the south dish...

Jackson: WEEEEEE! *Thud!* Ow...

Scott turned around to find Jackson on his back in his wheelchair again, likely because he tried his little 'maneuver' again.

Scott: Ugh... For cryin' out loud Jackson... (Walks over and helps Jackson back up.) Please... Take that thing outside! I'm trying to work.

Jackson: Aw okay... (Turns to the exit and launches his chair full speed towards it.) WEEEEEEEEEE! *WHAM* Ow! Oh right, the button!

Scott smacked himself in the forehead as he watched Jackson finally exit the room. He went back to work on aligning the dishes, still hearing Jackson's squeal of glee slowly dissipate behind the door.

Scott: (Thinking to self.) I've gotta put in a request to have that door barred, chained, and sound proofed... Or better yet, Jackson proofed!

Scott continued working at the computer console.

Jackson: WEEEEEE! Oh, hi there Kacur, what's u... *WHAM* *Thud* *Thud*

Scott: *Sigh* Don't think about it Joseph... It'll only make things worse.

Scott ignored the rustling just beyond the door and realigned the dishes. The door opened up and in walked Kacur.

Kacur: So what do you have for me Private?

Scott: (Turning from the console.) Not entirely sure just yet. All I know is that there's a message for you from... Somewhere. There was... One great big whale of a technical difficulty, and I had to realign the dishes, so I really couldn't divulge much.

Scott turned to the console and restarted the message from the beginning.

Scott: Here you go sir.

He hit the "play" button and the, somewhat distorted, message sounded from from the speakers.

Loonie · June 15, 2003

<<Not a bad one. Keep it up. Heheh :blink: >>

"Thank you Private. You are relieved." was the sentence coming from Kacur just as Scott managed to realign the dish. He knew that it sounded rather ungrateful to just whisk the guy away like this, but still there could be anything possible coming in. Could be something about more infiltrators spying on X-Com, something which wouldn't do too well for morale had Scott heard it and then told the others about it. Martin saw him throw a salute and exit the comms room at a slow pace, hoping to catch at least a bit of the conversation. Martin continued looking towards him and it was apparent to the Private that his superior officer would not activate the message until he left. He turned his head and walked out of the door. A thud was heard shortly after along with three voices:

"ARGH!!! Goddamit Corporal! What the hell are you doing?"

"....um.....sorry sir, I didn't mean to honest! The Fairy God-Commander decided to channel the bad karma of a guy who almost became an invalid to us through me I guess...or maybe not? Maybe his Fairy Drill Sergeant has a score to settle with me and...."

"Oh be quiet will you?! Scott, escort him to anywhere where there isn't any sensitive equipment will you?"

"Yes sir, right away..."

The doors of the comms room then opened just as Martin pressed the transmission to begin playing. A slightly concussed Ghost with a bruise on his forehead came through the door and Martin smiled at the scene: "Jacko sure is proving to be a devastating force. I'm seriously considering taking him on our next mission in spite of his injuries."

Ghost moved his limbs around a bit as he made his way to Martin. He didn't say anything and just shook his head in mock disbelief. The two then refocused their attention to the incoming message:

"As you are currently both apparently unavailable I, Du'ran'us, have decided to leave this message for you. I only hope that you recieve it in time since we are currently in the middle of a crisis situation. Just around 5 Earth minutes ago we found your escapees from that base which you discovered in your last mission. They had gone to the Arkunis IV moon where they are holding the local governor and his family hostage. Their ransom demands are a safe passage to Alien controlled territory or they will kill the hostages. I will have none of this. I am therefore authorizing your forces to replace our special forces unit which would otherwise preform the rescue. I have provided you the coordinates of the main city on the moon along with other data attached to this communique. You will learn the plan of incursion into the structure from the local police upon your arrival. Be warned Lieutnenats! This mission I feel will be the decider about wether or not Ascadian trust in Humans is well founded and I cannot stress the importance of it enough. Do your very best to rescue every member of the family. Your Commander and Colonel are doing well on our other front and I'm sure you can match them if they had enough confidence to put you in command. Make haste! Du'ran'us out...

Both Lieutenants then quickly checked the bottom of the screen. The message was sent some 15 minutes ago already. They knew they would have to hurry before the Black Spear terrorists got impatient with their demands. Ghost activated the PA system in the room and spoke into it:

"Alert! Alert! All available soldiers collect your standard gear, weapons and armour in the armoury and proceed to board the Avenger immediately"

Loonie · June 23, 2003

+com+ Um.....sir? What are all these lights on the bomb?------*ulp*

The words just didn't seem to stop repeating to him.......he sighed deeply as he lowered his head, being completely slumped in his chair.

Tim

He still remembered the camaradarie between the two of them as they both came out of cryo at the same time. Both of them had a position which would make them a bit more unwanted in the social life, since both of them could learn more about people than they might like. But they stuck together. They had been roommates for a very long time, right until Kacur got promoted to Lieutenant. He still admired his courage to stay there and diffuse the bomb, not panicing as Kacur knew now that he himself quite probably would've.

And it was that which had cost him his life.

Now all that Kacur could do was look at an Ascadian broadcast in his office of one X-Com Corporal waving his gun around the News crew that took the video footage. That same Corporal was now standing in his office, sweating at the prospect of what Martin might say to him.

"Not a very good way to let the Ascadians know that X-Com is their friend, is it?" Kacur enquired.

"Sir, your orders were to keep the news crew back so that's what I did."

Martin thought about countering but now.......without O'Conner it seemed all so pointless. He didn't have any strenght left in him.....and to think an offensive was to be executed by the High Council and X-Com soon and here he was without any energy. He decided to change the subject to an even more thorny one.

"Corporal......forgive me for being so brash but...JUST WHAT THE HELL WE'RE YOU THINKING WHEN YOU MADE A "YO MOMMA" JOKE WITH THAT BLACK SPEAR LEADER?!?!?" he shouted slumping back in his chair after moving back and forth in it with a burst of anger.

Silence prevailed. Martin knew it would. There was no other alternative. He began speaking again.

"Corporal, you have served well and hard and have taken in a heavy dosage of pain for X-Com. I should know since I've seen you go through a lot of deep shit. But with this action you've just put yourself onto reviewal on wether or not you should be demoted."

He moved in his chair and faced Jackson, his eyes fixed on him: "Do you know that if you had just kept your mouth SHUT, that O'Connor might still be alive and the Ascidian might not have triggered the explosives? Did you ever think about that?" he asked rethorically. "Well, I sure hope you do now. I just hope you don't feel the guilt that I do about losing him. Because that is one helluva truckload of guilt luggage to carry around let me tell you"

<<Okay. I'm feeling tired right now (as it is 4:15 in the morning!!!) and will leave it to CZ to continue this conversation. Unless a reply is gotten from him or anyone else on this roleplay post then I am done posting here myself. End of story (see the topic "The Facts" in this forum to find out why)>>

Chrysalid_zombie · June 26, 2003

<<Ooh! Angsty! I live to RP this sorta thang! >>

~~~~ A few minutes before the call to Kacur's office, Mess Hall ~~~~

Necro: What's he doing?

Scott: Nothing, he's just been sitting there for like... ten minutes looking at the bowl.

Necro: Was he holding the spoon too? The spoon looks important.

Scott: Yep. Spoon, bowl, everything, ten minutes. Just staring into it. Do you think he's damaging his hand? He's gripping the spoon kinda hard.

Necro: I'd be shocked if Jacko didn't hurt himself with a spoon... But I don't remember him doing it deliberately before... Not had any sugar or anything?

Scott: He hasn't eaten in hours. He hasn't even got treated for that burn... Just came straight down here, grabbed the bowl and spoon, sat down and... stared.

Necro: Wanna speak to him?

Scott: You crazy? He's got a spoon, he could do anything with that thing and in this mood. I'm gonna avoid him until Kacur or Yorke diffuse him or something.

Necro: I'm gonna try. Try to save my eyes if he goes for my face.

Scott: Good luck man.

Necro walked over to Jackson's table, towering over him as he stood to his side. He could see the bowl was empty, it was amazing it had a bottom with the force of Jackson's stare on it. Daniel didn't even acknowledge his old friend was stood nearby.

Necro: Erm... Jacko. You all right? You seem tense...

At that moment Jackson's grip on the spoon seemed to tighten more, which shouldn't have been possible. His knuckles were white as a sun's core. A trickle of blood ran from his palm down the spoon handle onto the table.

Necro: Dude. What the hell are you doing... Scott! He's bleeding or something!

Scott:: *runs over* What? With a spoon? *sees blood gathering on the table in a small pool* Holy crap!

The two grab his hand and try to unclench it. All Daniel does is continue to stare at the bowl, but his hand won't budge a millimetre, even with the heavy weapon expert pulling on it with full force.

Scott: Let go! For God's sake let go! *gives up* Christ, is he some kinda cyborg or something!?

Necro: *trying to get the spoon away still* Get Yorke or something, he's mad but this isn't Jacko. Yorke'll be able to speak some sense into him, or knock him out, either way, go get him.

Scott: Okay. *Runs off to the infirmary*

+com system+ Jackson, report to Kacur's office asap.

Daniel slowly looked up into Necro's eyes as he tried to wrestle the spoon away and spoke in a cold, almost alien voice.

Jackson: I could've saved them... All of them... The children... The troops... All of them!...

He stood up and threw the spoon at a wall, where it bounced off without incident, and then swiped the bowl sideways. It smashed on the floor and Daniel looked down on it. Speaking in the same cold, detached way.

Jackson: I never liked mashed potato anyway...

He walked off down the hall towards Kacur's office, leaving a small drop of blood every few steps as it fell from his hand. Necro could only watch in stunned silence. Daniel had once been tortured almost to death by sectoids and he woke up like he hadn't a care in the world... Now he was... Necro didn't know what he was like, this was new.

~~~~ Kacur's office ~~~~

Daniel walked in and stood to attention in front of Kacur's desk, his hand clenched tight behind his back, leaving a gathering pool of blood drops where Kacur couldn't see them on the floor behind the corporal.

Kacur: *turning away from a news broadcast featuring Jackson* Not a very good way to let the Ascidians know that X-Com is their friend, is it?

The hand clenched some more. Inside his head Daniel could only think of what he'd like to do to the news crews now in the same position. He'd fire, he'd fire until he had no ammo left and then he'd club them with whatever weapon he was holding. Until they did what they should have done and got the hell away.

Jackson: Sir, your orders were to keep the news crew back so that's what I did.

Kacur slumped in his chair, looking into his hands.

Kacur: Corporal......forgive me for being so brash but...JUST WHAT THE HELL WE'RE YOU THINKING WHEN YOU MADE A "YO MOMMA" JOKE WITH THAT BLACK SPEAR LEADER?!?!?"

Daniel clenched again. The blood pool was about a foot across now, soaking into the floor and the rock it was on. He stayed silent as the pain coursed through him, replacing the blood that was once there.

Kacur: Corporal, you have served well and hard and have taken in a heavy dosage of pain for X-Com. I should know since I've seen you go through a lot of deep shit. But with this action you've just put yourself onto reviewal on whether or not you should be demoted... Do you know that if you had just kept your mouth SHUT, that O'Connor might still be alive and the Ascidian might not have triggered the explosives? Did you ever think about that? Well, I sure hope you do now. I just hope you don't feel the guilt that I do about losing him. Because that is one helluva truckload of guilt luggage to carry around let me tell you!

Daniel clenched his hand harder than muscles should be able to, and a clear 'snap' would have been audible had he not begun shouting with a fury that left the LT unable to speak or react too. This was not the Jackson he knew, it was some kind of monster, made entirely out of hate and rage. He could do nothing but sit open mouthed as Daniel slammed his hands onto the desk and leaned forwards, leaving a bloody hand print across it.

Jackson: Guilt!?!?! Guilt!?!? THIS is guilt!!!

He grabbed hold of his glasses with his bloodied, damaged hand and threw them into the corner of the room, revealing his damaged pupils and somehow managing to keep eye contact with the surprised, almost terrified LT. He could sense the LT's eyes, he didn't need to be able to see to look into them.

Jackson: They took everything from me!! EVERYTHING!!!! My family, my life! My EYES! They stole MY EYES! They killed Ryan! They killed Tim and Elaine!!! They killed ALEX!! He was only Eight!! I could have saved them!!! All of them!!! They died because I... I... I don't know!!! I did something! And they died! And now they've killed O'Conner!!! I still can't do it! I'll never save them! They'll never stop torturing me and I can't see them doing it!

Daniel tries to look at his hands, but he can't see them, so he rubs them across his eyes, smearing his face with his blood. He no longer looks at Kacur, but at the floor, through his hands.

Jackson: *almost jabbering* Useless... Can't see... Can't save them... I'll show them useless... I'll show them all. I'll not let them ruin here too, they screwed up my stinking, god forsaken planet but I won't let them destroy this one! They won't get this one. I'll stop them!!!

Daniel began walking out of the room, feeling with bloodied, outstretched hands for the doorway, covering the wall around it with red and staggering down the corridor that led to the armoury.

Jackson: Guns... I'll stop them... Just need a big enough gun... Or lots of them. Lots of big guns. I'll show them who's useless.

Kacur was still sat, jaw wide open, looking at the blood on the floor, walls and desk in front of him. What in the name of anything was going on? Where was he going? The... Armoury?

Kacur: *hitting comms* Howardson and Necro to the armoury, stop Daniel Jackson. Repeat, take Daniel Jackson into custody. Consider him dangerous. Yorke, for God's sake get down here NOW! Bring a stun rod or something!

~~~~ Three hours later, Kacur's office ~~~~

Daniel hadn't put up much of a fight, a blind, exhausted, bleeding man can only swing his fists so many times before he passes out. Yorke had him in the infirmary, secured to a stretcher like a scene from 'Silence of the Lambs', apparently as well as the burn to his arm, he'd broken several bones in his hand and cut almost down to the bone with only his fingers. He was keeping him sedated while he healed. Kacur just sat, going through his mind what the heck Daniel could have been going on about. He decided to look in Daniel's service record for clues, maybe past events had done something. He always hated the Cult of Sirius and clear parallels had appeared here. Martin pressed his keypad and looked down the long list of missions Daniel had been in on Earth. He wasn't a rookie. Daniel had seen a lot of action for an X-com soldier recruited after a war, all of it dealing with the Sirius in some way, usually in 'riot suppression'. That was X-com's polite way of recording 'Shoot at them until they stop rioting any more', and blanks were not standard issue. Yet... About fifteen of them were classified, even the Commander would need another Commander's permission and a link to X-com central command to access them directly. One stood out, because it had a name instead of a mission number; "The Deep". This was scary.

The phrase "Remember the Deep" was often seen in and around X-com troop haunts in graffiti, Martin assumed it was about the second alien war and no one ever knew who wrote it. He decide to do some research.

~~~~ Three hours later ~~~~

The lights in his office were off, but his face was lit by the almost painful light of the computer screen, casting an eerie glow over the room. The door slipped open to reveal an almost unconscious Yorke slide in and jump back a little when he saw Kacur.

Yorke: Oh! Sir! Didn't know you'd be up this late.

Kacur: *rubbing face and stifling a yawn* Nor I good doctor, lost something?

Yorke: Seeing if you *yawns* had seen Daniel's glasses in here. *yawns*

Kacur: Yep, on the desk there *points an outstretched arm to the device sat on the corner of the desk, on top of the bloody hand prints that still remained*. He still asleep?

Yorke: I wish I was, and yes he is. *yawn* I don't know about you, but I'm hoping he mellows out while he's dreaming. I've not seen him almost kill himself before, not without others' help I mean.

Kacur: I can vouch for that sentiment *yawn*. And I wouldn't want to see his dreams any time soon, his mind seemed bad enough when conscious. Nice seeing you doc, but I've got this to do.

Yorke: Night night sir. And get some sleep at least.

Kacur: Will do Doc. *gets back to his work*

After hours of searching old newspaper reports a limited amount of stored material and old mission reports he had pieced together as much as he could about 'The Deep' incident. As he had feared the slogan was not referring to AW II, but this mission, which was very quickly covered up. Not that it took much work, only one survivor, and he didn't want to talk.

From rumours, bits of hearsay and other unreliable stories it appeared that there had been a hostage situation at 'The Deep', an aquarium in Hull, in the North East of England. The town was underwater, but the aquarium was water tight and had been upgraded to really earn it's namesake of 'worlds only sub-marium'. Some Cult of Sirius activists had taken some tourists, many of them families, hostage. Kacur couldn't find any demands in the rumours, and it seemed that X-com had gone in stealthy and well equipped for a 'riot suppression' mission again. Daniel was a corporal back then, only a lower member of the team. The only other piece of information about the mission, other than its outcome, was the unreliable assertion of 'Cult Sources' that X-com fired first, or provoked them. Only Jackson came out alive, and that was on a stretcher with torso injuries. The rumours got a little incoherent and weird at this point. They agreed that inside was filled with carnage, but some of the reports... No one could believe that surely? Horrific, gruesome acts. Corpses strung up, some of the suggested findings made Martin want to vomit from disgust at the idea some one could think them up, never mind accuse any human of doing them. From that day onwards the phrase "remember the deep" had been used by both X-com and Sirius as a morale statement, each of them citing the other for the crimes. X-com suppressed the mission as much as possible, and as usual did a very nice job. Could Jackson...? Did he?... Martin felt he was almost going mad reading the rumours. He fell asleep at the computer desk, his dreams filled with questions and scenes that would have made anyone less tired wake up screaming.

<<I apologise if I RP'd you a bit too much Kacur, but I needed to get the whole research thing out of the way before you all came up with your own ideas Proceed as you wish, after a good night's kip, although I have no idea how I'm going to recover from this one... Any ideas anyone?

Man I love playing an insane guy, it might not top Oasis at Sluggy Freelance, but I'm close :blink: (note: Oasis - a brainwashed female assassin who was accidentally programmed to be in love with someone and as a result kills anyone he expresses feelings for, and she goes really insane at one point) Vital info for the none- sluggites out there>>

Loonie · June 27, 2003

<<great work! Response incoming >>

Kacur's dreams never were based on one thing only. They almost never managed to be overtly horrific either, something he counted as an achievment and as proof that he is content with who and what he is. "That's the most important thing anyone could ever hope for. To be who you are." he thought to himself slightly before slumping at his desk and falling into the worlds that his brain had in store for him.

He loved the start of it all. A simple cartoon drawn girl was standing in front of a microphone and was singing a lovely tune with rythm in the background to boot. Martin's musical side immediately responded by dancing to the melodies and not singing as his voice wasn't the best of contenders with that of the girl. He felt great and somewhere in the corner of his mind he thought that he should arrange more such dancing events in NAO, since they'll really boost morale and relieve the stress.

Then he thought about that last word. Stress. With that word, and the thought that it automatically carried, the girl vanished, Martin saddened by her departure. Instead he found himself in a blurry slow motion sequence where Daniel was opening his mouth addressing to a powerfully built Ascadian.

"No!....Jacko....you're my friend....no......." he thought. He would like to scream those words to stop his friend, but it was of no use. His mouth was glued shut! No matter how hard he tried he couldn't scream. All he could do was watch the mouth move in slow motion! When it stopped moving finnaly Daniel lifted his gun towards the Ascadian. As the bullets were fired he looked at the Ascadian. All of a sudden he didn't seem so powerful. More helpless. And Kacur could only watch with a heavy heart as the bullets connected. Martin looked away not being able to stand the scene and then looked back to see something much nastier! O'Connor's mutilated body! It was there, looking blankly at him, no life present whatsoever. Martin then thursted himself towards Daniel, punches flying. He seemed to be crying.......They..........Winning...............something........red......gory.

.....again

Who were "They"?

MARTIN!

"WHAT?!?" was Martin's response as he lounged from his sleepy position forwards grabbing the person who woke him up by the tight shirt and looking at its eyes. He then released the person apoligetically looking.

Sorry Ghost. I apologise. I just.....have this thing about hating people waking me up whilst I'm dreaming. But.......It's only natural....sorry sir."

Ghost looked at him with uncertainty and was ready to speak until Martin shouted.

"Of course! That's how "They" had tricked him! He hated "Them" so much that he screwed up somewhere along the lines and that resulted in "Them" killing the civvies. Exactly what had just happened right now. He had provoked that incident because he couldn't constrain himself, since "They" had taken away his entire life. So he wanted payback but in doing so "They" tricked him so that they killed the hostages first, thereby throwing the horrible guilt onto him! I gotta see him." Martin shouted as he sped out of the office, leaving Ghost to contemplate wether or not his fellow Lieutenant needed some time off in a padded room.

<<heh heh. I wonder if I got it right CZ :blink:

EDIT: Now we know just how 'right' I was. See the Story "The Deep" from Jacko in the Stories section - Saga 6 >>

Strong Bob · June 27, 2003

<<This takes place just before the messhall situation.>>

Scott opens his eyes, finding himself in the soft comfort of an infirmary bed. His chest and arms had a mild tingling burning sensation, but it was significantly more tolerable than before...

Doctor: Ah Joseph, you're awake.

Scott sat up, choking back a sharp pain that just surged through his chest, and saw the doctor approaching his bed with a syringe.

Scott: Jesus... How long have I been out?

Doctor: (Tapping and testing the syringe, filled with some sort of liquid) Oh not long... A few hours at most. Corporal's Jackson and Necro carried you in here as soon as you got back. You had quite an injury there private... Three XJB wounds... You're lucky you survived that, the basic armor you Privates are assigned aren't supposed to withstand that much damage.

The doctor pricked Scott in his left shoulder, emptying the contents of the syringe into his bloodstream. The burning sensations had disappeared, and Scott felt like a million bucks.

Doctor: Corporal Jackson sure was acting strange when he came down here though...

The doctor withdrew the syringe and placed it on a mobile tray with other medical tools. As he did so, Scott recalled Jackson spouting words of near gibberish about the Cult of Sirius as he was shot.

Scott: (Showing concern) What do you mean by "strange"? The guy's a complete lunatic, how could you tell?

Doctor: l.. He was awfully serious. Didn't crack a single joke or comment of insanity. He looked very... Distracted in thought...

The doctor didn't seem at all interested in continuing the topic, he slid the mobile tray into a closet and came back with a roll of bandages. He started wrapping them around Scott's bare scabbed chest and arms, where the gigantic wounds resided.

Doctor: Please try not to do anything physically intense for the next few days. These should heal by the time the next mission comes around...

When the the doctor was finished bandaging Scott up, he got off the bed and retrieved his clothing from a table across the room. He felt a grumbling sensation in his stomach that was the unmistakable feeling of hunger.

Scott: (Turning to the doctor) Thanks doc... Now if you'll excuse me I'm feeling pretty famished.

Doctor: That's alright, but be sure to come back here if you start to feel any chest pains or some light headedness.

Scott left the infirmary and made his way into the mess hall...

SOME TIME LATER, IN THE MESS HALL

Scott was sitting at a table alongside Necro, they had already finished their meals, but they could leave just yet. They stared in concern as they watched Jackson lost in thought staring at a bowl and clutching a spoon as though his life depended on it.

Necro: What's he doing?

Scott: Nothing, he's just been sitting there for like... ten minutes looking at the bowl.

Necro: Was he holding the spoon too? The spoon looks important.

Necro wasn't at the right angle to see the spoon, but neither of them wanted to alarm Jackson to their staring by trying to get a better look.

Scott: Yep. Spoon, bowl, everything, ten minutes. Just staring into it. Do you think he's damaging his hand? He's gripping the spoon kinda hard.

Necro: I'd be shocked if Jacko didn't hurt himself with a spoon... But I don't remember him doing it deliberately before... Not had any sugar or anything?

Scott: He hasn't eaten in hours. He hasn't even got treated for that burn... Just came straight down here, grabbed the bowl and spoon, sat down and... stared.

Necro: Wanna speak to him?

Scott turned to Necro with a "What the hell is wrong with you!?" look.

Scott: You crazy? He's got a spoon, he could do anything with that thing and in this mood. I'm gonna avoid him until Kacur or Yorke diffuse him or something.

Necro: I'm gonna try. Try to save my eyes if he goes for my face.

Scott: Good luck man.

Necro got up and moved to the other table where Jackson was sitting. Scott didn't think things would get ugly, but Jackson was unusually dark right now. Necro started speaking, but Scott couldn't hear a word. All he saw was Jackson's face tensing up as though he were about to pop like a balloon.

Scott: (Thinking)Jesus... I've only known the bloke for a couple weeks and even I can tell this is unusual for him...

After a few moments Necro turned back to Scott.

Necro: Scott! He's bleeding or something!

Scott immediatly shot up and ran over.

Scott: What? With a spoon? (Notices Jackson's spoon-hand dripping with blood) Holy crap!

Scott and Necro grabbed their comrades hand trying to force Jackson to release the spoon, but it was all in vain. He was surprisingly strong, even for a heavy weapons expert.

Scott: Let go! For God's sake let go! (Releases Jackson and exhales, giving up) Christ, is he some kinda cyborg or something!?

Necro: (trying to get the spoon away still) Get Yorke or something, he's mad but this isn't Jacko. Yorke'll be able to speak some sense into him, or knock him out, either way, go get him.

Scott: (Thinking) Yorke? Damn, he wasn't in the infirmary earlier... But that other doc could maybe try something! Okay!

Scott started for the exit, but he was interupted by a booming voice from the intercom...

Comm: Jackson, report to Kacur's office asap.

Scott halted in his tracks and turned to Daniel Jackson as he threw the spoon and smashed the bowl. He paused for a few moments before slowly passing Scott leaving a trail of blood from his hand. As he passed by, Scott could swear that a cold feeling shot up his own spine.

Necro and Scott stood motionless for several moments before Scott broke the silence.

Scott: You think he'll be okay?

Necro: I sure hope so...

Scott and Necro returned to their quarters, still taken aback by the strange occurance.

<<Apologies for the unoriginality in the Mess Hall scene. Couldn't resist roleplaying Scotts view of the situation. :blush: >>

Andrew_175 · July 3, 2003

::watching as the body of jacko left the room::

God, that was not like him! Scott, did he say or do anything to you?

::Before Scott could reply, he shot out the door to follow his friend to make sure he didn't do anything stupid, like eat a grende or try and put his head in the washing machine.. again::

Jacko, wait up! Whats the matter with you?!?!

Loonie · July 4, 2003

<<Heh, okay. The trick is that the roleplay posts should've been about our stay on Arkunis VI's moon as we have already finished the previous mission but....okay. :blush: This is the first entry coming in quite late. Hopefully more will follow after it.>>

The smell of synthetics was prevalent in the small tent that had just become Kacur's and Ghost's new home for the two days, during which X-Com would have to stay on Arkunis VI's moon. The Ascadian fleet was now about halfway through the gap that they had managed to cause with their last mission, though it had indeed been luck mostly that allowed the entire operation to proceed. Yorke's team got rid of a Floater rather noisily and almost tripped the alarm in the base, not to mention that a transmission from Arkunis VI came in, enquiring about the situation there. Fortunately enough the team somehow managed to fool them into thinking that the comms array was temporarily experiencing difficulties. Just long enough for the Osiris Sectoid to arrive and start reporting in on a regular basis.

"Ugh! Those latrines really are annoying." said Ghost as he approached Martin who was lying on his inflatable bunkbed, trying to sort out the Ascadian reports he had in his hands. "Heh, that may be, but we best get used to it. I hear that the soldiers have been fidgeting about the packed frozen food that these tents have also, but I guess they'll just have to rough it."

"Yes...So, what's the status on the Ascadian fleet's movements?"

"Currently we have the major ship's pretty much through the gap and are still awaiting the corvettes and other smaller classes to pass through. The Osiris Sectoid has been doing rather well I might add and there doesn't seem to be any indication that the Aliens know of this. In short everything is proceeding as planned, except for a few nauseous reports due to the lousy food these tents have from Private McCarthy and of course Jacko. Somehow it reminds him of mash potato quite a bit, even if it is cold."

Ghost nodded and continued himself: "As long as we manage to get through and into positions without incident we still have a chance of pulling this off. Once we're inside we'll converge on that mothership. It has got to go. If it continues to function it could wipe out the whole fleet on its own just like it did with the Arkunis V Space Station."

Martin looked with a sense of seriousness towards Ghost and replied: "Don't worry sir. The inside specifications that the Osiris Sectoid had given us will no doubt be of help, especially since he himself will be leading the sabotage team."

"Yes but what about the other one? Not only will they have not guidance but will also have the brunt of the Alien force attacking them. I'd be much more relaxed if we had a primary plan on what they should do other than act defensive all the time."

Kacur looked rather disheartened, since he realized that the possibility of casualties was quite high. He wondered about how this could be solved but alas one major part of it all just didn't allow him to solve this issue. They were at war where people get hurt: "I wish I had one too. But unfortunately I don't." he concluded.

Chrysalid_zombie · July 4, 2003

<< More roleplay I tell you! More!!!! :blush: Anyway, I'm back from a weeks' holiday and I now believe myself to be rested. By the way, anyone who hasn't, read my story! It's in the story part of XCAS! Go! Run to it now! >>

~~~~ Arkunis VI's moon ~~~~

Daniel sat alone in his tent, his legs crossed and his arms on the ground in front of him. He was alone. After the incident in the mess hall back on NAO no one was going to risk falling a sleep around him in an enclosed space. He stared at the food rations that sat between his hands. The damn thing looked just like mashed potato, no matter how hard he told himself that it wasn't; that it was standard X-com food rations and he'd eaten them a hundred times before. It was clearly mocking him for not being able to eat it. He glared at it with a mild hatred, a simple arrangement of protein was not going to beat him. If the entire Cult of Sirius couldn't do it, then he sure as hell wouldn't lose to a serving of mashed potato. Damn it. He'd thought about THEM again... THEY wouldn't win, HE wouldn't LET THEM.

Daniel picked up the spoon and sunk it into the strange food stuff, slowly raising it to his mouth and then staring at it in front of him for a few seconds. He glared at the Cult of Mashed Potato and its evil, and then placed it as quickly as he could into his mouth and swallowed. As it slid down his throat and into his stomach he had to fight to stop throwing up. That's what it wanted him to do, and he wouldn't let it win. His eyes shut tight as he battled to keep it down, to defeat the force of pure evil in his gut. He opened them again and looked at the bowl. It would be a tough war, and THEY were many, but that hadn't stopped him before, not at the Metro, not at the Deep, not even at the Good Friday Marches. THEY should have learnt not to try to fight him long ago...

The bowl sat empty, the spoon balanced on the side like a rifle propped up before and after action. It was still between Daniel's hands, which were back on the floor. He stared at the bowl. He should be feeling victorious; he had vanquished the potato trying to stop him. Instead only emptiness prevailed. Even through his misplaced hate and mental self-conditioning a small logical part of his brain told him 'it wasn't even potato, it wasn't evil and you almost threw up just to show an inanimate object who was boss'. He looked at the bowl with a feeling of total depression, the only emotion that can really accompany the hatred he had placed on the target in front of him. A tear rolled out from under his glasses and fell down his cheek to his chin were it stayed before dropping off into the bowl. Daniel began to chuckle, then to laugh, then it became almost manic laughter, he would have gone on for longer, but the zip to his tent unfastened behind him and he instantly stopped. A figure stepped inside a little.

Kacur: You... All right Jackson? Found something funny?

Jackson: *Turning around with his usual smile* Just laughing that these food rations are like mashed potato sir, it's sort of ironic. That's all. Well I thought it was funny... How is everyone else doing?

Kacur: Oh, we'll live Jacko. I'll check back later. See ya.

He left the tent and zipped it up behind him, outside the tent it was almost a frozen vacuum. Inside the tent Daniel looked back at the bowl and sat, thinking. Inside Daniel's head his subconscious groaned under the pressure of recent events and resurfacing memories, there was a limit to how long it could keep Daniel laughing at food rations.

<< Hhhmmm... maybe he'll snap, maybe he won't... Either way, do you feel like sleeping on the same moon as this guy? >>

Strong Bob · July 5, 2003

Du'Ganon: Private Scott! What do you think you are doing!?

Scott: My comrades are stuck on that damned rock.

Scott said as he walked down the hall to the NAO hangar. An Ascadion, Du'Ganon, followed close behind attempting to sway his decision.

Scott: I'm heading over there, whether you like it or not. If it wasn't for the hits I took from my last mission I would have gone with them before... I will not let them down now!

Du'Ganon: Doctor Zoy'De'Burg say you not in condition to aid X-COM on Arkunis VI moon. I forbid you from leave!

Scott stopped for a moment and turned to Du'Ganon, who also stopped.

Scott: No offense buddy, but the doc is no expert on human physiology. Save for a bit of a stinging feeling, I feel just fine. And besides, the last time I checked you weren't an X-COM Officer. So until you get an X-COM badge that's better than mine you have no command over me.

Scott continued walking and entered the hangar bay. Inside was the damaged Black Spear Valkyrie from the Terrorist mission along with other Ascadion craft that belonged to the current occupying residents.

Du'Ganon followed Scott into the bay, still trying to convince him otherwise.

Du'Ganon: Private Scott! You badly wounded, what if you make... things worse!

Scott: I told you! I feel fine! Now leave me alone or help me get my things together!

Scott opened the door to the stores and walked in to his locker and began decoding the lock.

Du'Ganon: If you really leaving, how you plan to get to Arkunis VI moon?

Scott: Well, that's the easy part. (Opens the locker and retrieves his X-COM standard issue pistol and rifle.) I'm taking that busted wreck of a starship we captured when I last got shot up. I'm sure it's useless to the rest of you, right?

Scott piled the weapons on a table and retrieved a backpack from a closet. Sticking the rifle into the pack, not planning to use it, and latching the pistol into a socket on the side. He proceeded to package other necessities and storing in the pack, quite serious about leaving.

Du'Ganon: Private Scott... If you go, you need this...

Du'Ganon pulled out a fusion pistol, one of the first manufactured since researched, and handed it to Scott. Scott hesitantly took the pistol, studying it a moment because of it's awkward shape compared to the standard X-COM pistol.

Scott: Thank you. (Straps the fusion pistol to his belt and grabs a Vacc suit from his locker, piling it next to the backpack) Du'Ganon... If you get into some kinda trouble for letting me out half baked like this, just tell them I beat you up. Okay?

Du'Ganon nodded at Scott, frowning and sighing as though he were allowing him to die, and gloomily left the storage room. Scott ignored him and threw on his backpack while carrying the suit under his right arm, he walked back out into the hangar and headed for the damaged Valkyrie. He boarded the ship, and with his amateur piloting skills, flew the Valkyrie out of NOA. Destination: The moon of Arkunis VI....

<<I'll be posting another roleplay about my arrival soon. And oh yeah, if I broke too many rules by bringing along that fusion pistol I'll change it if it's too big a deal. :blush: >>

Loonie · July 5, 2003

<<Heh heh heh. Well you did make quite a decision to just take along that pistol like that without consulting me or someone else first, but.....okay. You can have that little toy. Mind you there are two major problems with it: 1. Since the specs aren't up for X-Com's reviewal (as they are away from NAO and couldn't make them up in the UFOpaedia) you know practically very little on how to operate the thing. 2. Since this pistol was baked out on such short notice I wouldn't be surprised if it had some faults in it. And we all know how bad fusion explosions can be :devil:

But what the heck. You can have it in the next mission. Though you'll have to devote quite a bit of time to make sure you don't misuse it. :blush: >>

"Oh, we'll live Jacko. I'll check back later. See ya."

Kacur said as he stepped into the outer room of the tent and zipped up the entrance to the inside of the tent before sealing it completely at the sides. The outer room was the place which could depressurize safely so that no problems would occur and Kacur now began to seal his locks on the suit he wore. After he inspected the nooks and crannies of his outfit again he depressurized the sorroundings and proceeded to unzip the exit of the tent. He stepped through and remembered to close the zipper and seal it, before he looked around the place where he was.

X-Com had decided to camp out right on the side of the same crater which used to house the Alien outpost. There were still Ascadian reclamation units scouring the crater and collecting the Alien corpses, technology and weapons, all of which would be available later for X-Com's use as this mission was of course still executed by them. Though the truth was that they had little to do with most of the Alien 'junk' and usually just handed it over to the Ascadians as a token of goodwill.

Martin decided to have a walk along the rim of the crater and began hopping over to the side of it. He loved the fact that in order to get anywhere fast one had to hop more than run, a little thing discovered by those old space explorers...........mmmm....what were they?..........astronauts who explored the Earth's moon. Though it was somewhat annoying to some of the other soldiers and was certainly not too good in combat, Martin loved it since it reminded him of kindergarten, a most fun place indeed, no matter how much bravado the other X-Com soldiers might have that it's a place for sissies. As the climb became steeper and steeper he made a few powerful jumps upwards and finnaly landed on the rim itself, somewhat sweaty but still quite energetic. He sat down on the rim with his feet dangling and looked around the gray landscape. No more meteorites were falling like when the team had arrived, but Arkunis VI was visible in the black sky. Their objective. Martin could only wonder if it would take more lives to reach it and shook his head. A chittering voice snapped him out of these thoughts.

+com+Lieutenant, message came in from HQ on Arkunis VI. They becoming much more suspicious. Come here.

Martin sighed and got up, beginning to go down the crater yet again, somewhat grumbling. But as he was proceeding he slipped and began tumbling down in a bowl of gray dust towards the comms centre. After hitting it with a rather loud noise, he began to regain his balance as he stumbled about for a bit and went inside, soon facing the Osiris Sectoid:

"What's the problem?"

The Sectoid responded, being quite clearly nervous:" Well, the masters have just wanted a full report. I had managed to provide them with one, but not a fully complete one, since I am not an Engineer by my calling. I sense that they had become quite suspicious and the next time they call in I might not be able to act good."

"Not to worry. We have to wait only for some 10 hours in order for the fleet to completely pass through and the check-ins are every 12 hours correct?"

"That may be, but.....well I suppose you right. They quite thorough when following orders."

Kacur turned away from the Sectoid and decided to look towards the Sun, which was quite distant and with a more reddish hue than that of Earth's sun. It quite blinded him in fact since the moon hardly had any way of stopping the UV rays along with the other hazardous factors that had forced X-Com to wear the Vaccum suits.

He then started hearing a sound right from the Sun's direction and it was accompanied by what Martin thought was a black shape. He immediately turned around and checked the panels:

"Hey, what do you make of this?" he asked the Sectoid as he pointed a blip on the radar screen. The other one said with a rather disturbed sense

"It seems to be an Ascadian ship, but it happens to be a Black Spear Valkyrie"

"Oh crap! +com+ Ghost get here! We've got ourselves a situation. Those Black Spear bastards are starting again! Get Fox over to the Avenger and get her airborne now!

"But it's somewhat strange since it looks as if it is badly damaged. Why would such a vessel want to attack this place?" asked the Sectoid with a puzzled thought. Martin then relaxed as he realized that the ship was the damaged Valkyrie that they had recovered and he had a pretty good guess on who was piloting it as well:

"+com+ Belay that order Ghost. It looks as if the only person we've left behind has decided to join us." said Martin with a slight sense of annoyance.

He ran outside and followed the Valkyrie until it landed inside the crater, right next to the X-Com Avenger. "He might be a good pilot." Kacur thought "but going against orders to stay behind......that guy must really be asking for trouble or he must really hate being the only one being left out of the loop."

He approached the craft as its back door began to open. By now quite a crowd of X-Com soldiers, including Ghost, had gathered behind Kacur, who was heading straight towards the Valkyrie. Soon enough Private Scott exited the craft whilst carrying his assorted weapons and clips, being quickly greeted by Kacur on the foot of the landing ramp.

"Good day Private! I see that you had decided to join us despite my orders?"

Scott, knowing that it is best not to stir up a hornet's nest simply replied in a trained military voice: "Yes Sir."

"Private let's cut the sarcastic bull, since I know that you like things to be straight. When I say that you are to remain in Med-Bay on NAO because you had suffered three shots from the XJB-68 rifle what do I mean by that?"

Scott cringed only slightly and then replied: "That you do not want me anywhere else than in Med-Bay Sir."

"Then why in God's name did you decide to swipe one of our acquired technologies, pilot it without the Ascadians' authorization and head straight over here to join up the fight with the 3 wounds still not fully recovered?"

Joseph managed to keep a relatively calm face throughout the whole talk and responded, though in a tad shaky voice every now and then: "Firstly Sir, I did not swipe it. The Ascadians at NAO gave me all the authorization I needed and were kind enough to open the hangar doors as well as well as give me an approach vector to over here. Not only that but they do not have an X-Com rank and therefore do not have authority over me."

"But I do Private. I do." responded Kacur "and you did disobey my orders. May I ask why?"

Joseph continued rather shakily: "Because to be frank sir you did not have the knowledge of how fully recovered I was. If I were not fit for duty then I obviously couldn't have made it out here. As it is I did, and since I knew that I was capable for combat I made a decision from a perspective that you did not have. Now that you do have it I hope you will look favourably on it."

Kacur took another good look at him, circling the Private as he stood and noticing one paticular item he had swiped. He thought to himself for a bit. He had heard from Ghost that one Captain called Derrick Ko, whom he had only breifly seen during a single mission before his horrendus injury, was quite a bit like this Private. Making decisions in the heat of battle which went quite a few times against the preliminary order. The Commander also gave him some serious reprimands, but Kacur decided to lead his troops a bit differently, and less rigidly than his Commander did, or maybe does:

"You are to report to Senior Sergeant Yorke immediately. If he finds out that there is but one thing that could seriously hamper your combat effectiveness then you will be reprimanded and assigned extra duty when we get back to NAO. I also notice that you have acquired one of the Fusion Pistols and I agree to let you have it. It could be the most useful in your hands obviously. One thing though, if you foul up with it, if it fails on you in the heat of combat or if it endangers any of the soldiers, including you, in any way you will suffer the consequences from me again. Is that understood?"

Kacur decided to give him a stern look, but one that was more meant to make sure that the person to whom he was talking to got the point, rather than to humiliate or degrade him. The response was swift: "Yes Sir"

"Dismissed. And report to Doctor Yorke who will preform a minor exam, as much as it is possible in our limited condition, and assign you to a tent here."

The Private rushed off quickly and headed towards the group of soldiers who were observing the conversation till this end. Kacur looked towards him as he was running away: "He wants to make decisions and suggestions then? Let's just see how good his decision to come here was and if it happened to be better than mine. I'll check Yorke's report quite thoroughly though. That I will." he thought to himself.

<<PHEW! That's a loadfull ayup >>

Strong Bob · July 6, 2003

Some Time Later

Scott: Well... At least I didn't get reprimanded for this...

Scott sighed in relief. He had wandered away from the camp, taking nothing but his vacc. suit and the fusion pistol given to him, and into the private clearing of the center of a large crater. Everything was pretty calm, Scott felt good to be in perfect solitude for once as he was the type that liked to be alone. He drew the fusion pistol and studied it a moment. The shape was very different from a normal pistol, that was obvious, that combined with the thick armor of the vacc. suit didn't serve to help the feel either.

Scott: Well, little guy. Let's see what you're made of!

He aimed the pistol into the side of the crater, his index finger over the trigger, prepared to fire. Another sharp pain flowed through his chest momentarily, causing him to groan. The pain disappeared as fast as it came, so Scott ignored it and focused on testing the pistol.

He pulled the trigger and flinched as a bolt of fusion energy thrusted from the barrel and dug into the crater wall. All that could be seen was a large cloud of dust, very slowly inching it's way back onto the ground. Scott snapped off several more shots, attempting to hit the exact same spot again. But the combined discomfort of the suit and the chassis of the pistol hindered his aim a bit, causing his shots to group several feet to the right.

Yorke: I think it's dead Private.

Scott whirled around to find Sergeant Yorke walking down the crater in his direction. Scott immediatly responded with a salute.

Scott: Just testing out the hardware Doc.

Yorke walked up to Scott, wearing a similar type of vacc. suit as him. He had a concerned look on his face.

Scott: H-have the results come in?

Yorke: Yes they have. I'm afraid I've got a little good news and some bad.

Scott's heart began to pound, sending another brief jolt of tolerable pain into him.

Scott: Well... What is it?

Yorke: Well, as far as your physical capability you should be fine. Although I wish we had an extra day or two for you to heal... You should perform just as well as you have in the past.

Scott: (Impatiently) What's the bad news!?

Yorke: (Sighs, hesitant to mention) Your upper torso and arms still haven't healed fully. They're very soft and extremely vulnerable. It's not gonna take much to knock you down again. If you're shot even once by one of those plasma guns, the aliens use, it could possibly kill you. (Pauses a moment) You still don't feel any pain, right?

Scott:Right.

Yorke: Well that's good. That means it's healing nice and clean. I'll speak to Kacur about this... But I wanted to ask you first... Do you really, seriously, feel up to this mission?

Scott: Yes sir! (Smiles while holstering the fusion pistol) Couldn't be better. I'm ready.

Yorke nodded.

Yorke: Alright. Get back to your 'target practice.' I'm sure Kacur will overlook the problem. Just don't get yourself shot out there, and please be careful with that gun!

Scott made a salute and drew his pistol on the crater's side again. He began calibrating his aim with the unique feel of the pistol as Yorke walked back to camp.

Scott: Perfect... All I have to do is be careful not to get shot. Shouldn't be too hard if I stand next to Jackson the whole time.

He snapped off several shots into the moon's surface again, unaware of the gravity of his situation...

<<As you can see, Scott's definately digging himself into a big load o' shite for the next sim. :blush: >>

Andrew_175 · July 7, 2003

<<now that I have time on my hands>>

Necro sat in his tent meditating on 2 things at once, which was confusuin at the best of times, but needed to get it sorted so that he could shoot and get out of the way. He had been shot too many times in non vital organs not to.

"you know, me" he thought to himself, which was no-one inparticular "either I need to get promated back to Sarge, or get myself some better armour". He looked at all the patchwork on his vacc suit, each patch brought back memories of pain and a profound sense of 'why the hell didn't I get out the way'.

"I'm getting to old for this" he muttered "but then again, we've all had some good times". He thought of all the momma jokes Jackson had said over the years and all the beatings he had recived for them. He laughed "haven't done that in a while", it felt good so he did again. "ok, enough of that, don't want to wake people or make them think you are a krazee fool"

He laid down on his sleeping bag thing and began to contemplate.

Caster13 · July 14, 2003

<< Hello peoples! I'm just going to use this to take the opportunity to post my character's bio. As well as my first forum role play. Anyway, Terra FlÃ©che's bio:

Codename: Relm

Birthdate: April 5th, 2042.

Height: 5 feet 5 inches.

Weight: 135 lbs

Eyes: Green (left) and blue (right).

Hair: Shoulder length. Mix of various brown shades with vertical streaks of red.

Nationality: European Union (French)

Gender: Female

Primary Position: Trooper

Secondary Position: Medic

Distinguishing Characteristics:

A few light brown freckles on her nose, cheeks, shoulders and back.

Personal History:

At a young age, Terra FlÃ©che has always been a stubborn and somewhat rebellious person. She commonly had very radical and socially different beliefs and ideals such as atheism and communism. Many times her beliefs pitted her in debates and arguments with the authority of her childhood elementary and secondary school. Her beliefs resulted in her quick decision to join the Kabron Pirates very quickly after she graduated from the New University of Paris in an attempt to find a sense of freedom.

As a Kabron Pirate, FlÃ©che was one of the few to actually have any medical education. She was a primary trooper who took part in the more larger and more dangerous Kabron Pirate raids. She quickly gain respect among the pirates and climbed up their ranks at a moderate pace, while at the same time becoming involved in a romantic relationship with a commanding pirate named Shinji. During one skirmish with X-Com forces however, FlechÃ© was heavily wounded and Shinji was unfortunately killed. Since than FlÃ©che held a deep rooted hatred for all of X-Com.

One day however, the Kabron Pirate ship she was stationed on was mysteriously transported to the wrong end of the galaxy with a few others. There the pirates encountered a small X-Com organization along with the alien beings known as the Ascadians. FlÃ©che was one of the pirates who convinced the others to make an attack on the X-Com ships. This however, resulted in her capture along with the capture of all the other pirates. Realizing there was little else to do except stay stuck in the prison, she realized if she wanted to have a decent life, FlÃ©che has to forcely bury and subdue her hatred of X-Com to be an acceptable part of it.

Personality:

After losing Shinji, Terra became a very bitter and anger filled women. As well, she became strong minded and emotional because of the tragic lost. If at anytime Terra has a problem she lets others around her know through open displays of anger, antagonizing behaviour and sardonic sarcasm.

Prone to semi-wild mood swings, Terra can go from introverted to extroverted quickly depending on the situation and her comfort level. Among X-Com members, she tends to be extroverted and acts with mild annoyance or sarcasm because she still blames them for the death of Shinji. Only the people she feels comfortable with and truly trusts will ever see and feel her introverted and emotional side.

Picture: https://whatsalife.keenspace.com/images/galleryart214.jpg

And now, the sim. Loonie, if there are any problems just reply back or PM me through the forum or ICQ>>

Terra stepped out of the shower, water still dripping down her light-skinned body. Then suddenly froze still, holding the white towel around her body tightly. She looked around the showering room in Nova Omega Alpha's living quarters. Relieved that nobody else was around, she continued to dry herself off and began to dress herself. Two weeks into being incorporated into X-Com and Terra was still rather uncomfortable with the other "pure" X-Com troops. Thus far, very few other Kabron Pirates were fully incorporated into X-Com and none of the "pure" X-Com troops Terra would trust in a non-combat situation. Despite being sarcastic, cold, outright mean or a total bitch to the X-Com troops, Terra would still be shy in some little ways. She took to showering at night after the other troops feel asleep or extremely early in the morning before the other troops awoke. Just so she could be alone. She still had the train of thought in her mind that her naked body could only be shared with another person. One whom was unfortunately dead.

Terra thought about the irony for the millionth time as she pulled back her wet brown and red streaked hair into a pony tail. The group she worked with now was responsible for Shinji's death. He was another Kabron Pirate trooper and he was killed when the pirate ship they were travelling on barely escaped X-com star fighters with heavy damages. Putting on the rest of her clothing she travelled back to the general living quarters. Morning just barely broke, the other X-Com troops were waking up and Terra made her way to the nearest video game entertainment system to past the time till breakfast was served in the mess hall.

Despite playing the game in front of her, Terra's mind still wandered to the last X-Com mission, the first one she took part off. It wasn't that bad, she thought. They went in, captured some alien leaders and came out with no dead troopers, except for the ones they found. The troops were an odd mix. Some of them were definitely good at what they do. Schmerjchanikov, Scott, Paul. Good troopers. But Jackson was a complete f--king nutcase. Terra couldn't stop thinking how such a lunatic made it onto the X-Com team. And what the hell is with him and lobsters?! Kacur was an okay leader, she thought, not really sure how to evaluate a combat leader. Rallwell and Yorke were also good people, and some how, Terra felt as if she could genuinely like these two. Rallwell was one of the few and rare women in the base who was friendly, Terra had no qualms with her whatsoever. Yorke, on the other hand, Terra didn't know what she liked about Yorke. But she just did... Maybe because he looked like and reminded her of--

The sudden sound of spoons and forks spilling on the concrete floor broke Terra's concentration. She turned off the game and stood up, noticing the troops heading towards the mess hall. It was time for breakfast. She followed the rest of the them, keeping an alert eye for either Rallwell or Yorke. Strangely enough eating in Nova Omega Alpha felt a lot like high school, in one big room with a lot of other people. Socializing was a major part of eating in a school cafeteria, Terra didn't felt like being left out.

Loonie · July 14, 2003

<<Great work. Very nice roleplaying too, although I was actually counting on us still travelling back to NAO due to the mission that is about to follow, but nevermind. I'll manage. :blush: I'd say the next mission is going to provide you with quite some roleplay material but that's for you to determine when it's over. Now time to get cracking. Gather round boys and girl and let's get some fanfic done. >>

Martin felt miserable and leant back in his chair. After getting the full debrief from Ong he found out what had happened and why his and Ghost's team encountered those three dead X-Com soldiers. The assault on the main power station in the base succeeded but with severe casualties. McBenneth, McCarthy and McBurke were all killed in the battle along with numerous other Ascadian soldiers, including a Red Skull. By Ong's description it was a massacre as they tried to make it accross those open fields. In fact a lot of the soldiers were not in NAO and were still being treated by Ascadians aboard their starships. They would be transferred down to NAO soon though, presumably right after X-Com would be sent to oversee the recovery operation of the Alien base that was now in ruins. Accompanying them aboard the Ascadian starships were also the captives that were recovered from the Alien base - 1 Muton grunt, 1 Sectoid Navigator, 1 Sectoid Medic and an Ethereal Leader. Though the booty of captives was good Kacur just didn't feel that it was worth sacrificing 4 of his soldiers for 4 captured aliens.

Though the latest casualties weren't under his supervision he still felt quite the same as with O'Connor when he died. He should never have let him defuse that explosive. What a stupid idea! He got up from his desk and headed towards the mess hall, thumping the button that opened the door of his office before going through it. The team had just arrived back home, most of them just sleeping and resting in their bunkbeds. As he came into the mess hall he noticed several early arrivals, amongst them Scott and the newest addition Fleche. She really did turn out to be a darn good medic on the last mission, exactly what the much overworked Yorke would need. But he needed to focus on the other person and slowly approached Scott who seemed somewhat irritated with Kacur's presence as he got closer. When he stopped at his side he asked quietly:

"Mind if I join you?"

The response was very quick from Scott: "Yes."

And Martin's response was equally quick: "Good." he said as he sat down opposite of Joseph and examined him a bit. The Private began looking around nervously and then looked towards Martin: "Is there something you need to know sir?"

"Don't call me sir now. We're not on duty. For all I care you can insult me all you want right now. Or prefferably you tell me what your problem is with the rest of the team and me so as I can deal with it."

Joseph didn't need much more to get him started. He leant forward a bit and began: "You know very well that me coming over to the moon with a Fusion Pistol was more help that bad. Heck if I know anything it was thanks to that that we could take out that Ethereal at the beginning and that it helped a lot afterwards."

Martin replied in a steady voice: "I understand. But what you must also understand is that you could've easily injured someone when the gun went off at the end and overloaded. If it wasn't for your reflexes we'd have serious injuries back then."

"Yes I know, but the point is that it didn't do any harm. I knew how to operate the pistol and as a result no harm came to the team, only benefit."

Martin nodded. He knew there were some cases like that where the man on the field knew more than his superior officer and that in this case one should take the initiative. He slowly let the issue slide, but he wasn't going to leave this "dashing rebel" called Joseph Scott go unchecked:

"Point taken. But now you might want to take my own point about the unauthorized grenade you threw at the end. Necro's pretty pissed at you for that one and I can't really say I blame him. I know he's actually a bit jealous that you got a Fusion Pistol and he didn't but still he does have a good reason for being mad."

Scott looked downwards a bit and considered. He then replied in a lower tone of voice: "I know sir. I don't know what went over me. It was the damn Sectopod and everything that really got me irritated..."

Kacur stepped in quickly so as to make sure the Private didn't develop too big a sense of guilt: "It's allright. Just promise me that you'll spend more time practicing and also paying at least a bit more attention to orders. Try to focus on them in the middle of the battle more. Please, for all of our sake. Don't make me hammer you again like on the last mission." Martin concluded with a wink.

Scott chuckled lightly as Kacur rose and left the table. He hoped he had accomplished something, though only time would tell that...

<<Note: try to keep in mind that we're in NAO only for a short time. We'll leave again in the Avenger, though you do have the time to roleplay somewhat in the mess hall. >>

Strong Bob · July 14, 2003

Scott looked up as Kacur left.

Scott: Sir... Wait...

Kacur turned around, Scott was looking up at him. His tensions had obviously disappeared.

Kacur: No formalities Joseph.

Scott: Right, sorry. Martin...

Scott looked down at his bowl of oatmeal. He stirred it around a bit with a spoon. He had yet to take a bite just yet.

Scott: Back on Earth... I had very few friends. It's the price of being a police officer y'know...

Scott paused a moment.

Kacur: Yes, go on.

Scott: Well, back there all my friends... My family... My nickname to them was "Albino"... Sorta like my codename... They didn't know me by my regular name or rank. Not even my captain on the force.

Scott looked away from Kacur and stared down at the floor to his right.

Scott: Did you know... Not once, since I was pulled out of the fridge, have I even so much as heard that word? Always... "Private", "Scott", or sometimes "Joseph".

Kacur moved a couple paces toward Scott, a little concerned for the young Private.

Kacur: What exactly are you getting at?

Scott: (Snapping his attention back to Kacur) Uh... Nothing sir. I'm sorry, nevermind what I just said. Just talking out of my own ass.

Without another word, Scott picked up his filled bowl of oatmeal and walked to the garbage unit. He flung the contents of the bowl inside and placed it on a tray beside it.

Scott left the Mess Hall, he had other things to do... Other things to think about...

____

As Scott left the Hall, he spotted FlÃ©che in the corridor heading in his direction. Likely she was heading in for some breakfast. Scott didn't want to just pass her by and make himself look like a jack ass... He stopped beside her and turned to her as she walked by.

Scott: I'd just like to welcome you to X-COM. ... And I'd also like to thank you for pulling me away from that turret on our last mission. (Chuckles and extends his right arm for a hand-shake) I'm Joseph Scott... If you haven't known that already. I've been recruited just recently myself...

<<Yeah, that's the end. Just to wait for a reaction from Caster's character. :blush: Also, will somebody please tell me how to do that thing with the "E" in her name? I've resorted to the copy/paste maneuver here, but the mystery of the "E" taunts me yet! :dontgetit: >>

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