Subj: [ffml] [MW] And To All, A Good Night
Date: 99-12-04 16:47:42 EST
From: magus@cyberverse.com (Daniel Polcari)
Reply-to: ffml@onelist.com
To: ffml@onelist.com
The mildly smoking hull of Vollstrecker had begun to drip several different
fluids from its joints now, most likely fluids which helped it move or keep
its balance. E'ris only took a moment to remove a small, antenna-like prong
from its back as a keepsake. He returned his sword to throwspace and began
once more to look around the now-secured hangar. Immediately, the gear he
stood closest to caught his eye. It was, in a word, perfect. Its sleek yet
well-armored form was wrought from blackened steel plates with red trim and
elongated blade-like drives jutted from its shoulders. Its left hand was
gloved and held a bit which he comprehended must be part of some kind of
energy-whip. In the right hand was a psychotically huge cannon or rifle..
He could tell at a glance that it must be the
(Omnigear it is)
hangar's Flagship. !! Omnigear?
He heard the voice again. Before he could finish the thought, the gear made
a series of clicks followed by the sound of capacitors charging and the low
buzz of high-voltage electricity. The gear's legs broke free of their sleep-
induced atrophy and moved, bringing the machine down on one knee.
It had knelt down. A panel in the center of its chest split and opened in
three directions, revealing a chair inside a cockpit surrounded by displays
and lights of all kinds.
"Who are you?" E'ris called out to the Gear. Silence. Instead of responding
verbally, lights on the gear's torso and shoulders began cycling through
odd patterns -- a light show which would likely by hypnotic to humans.
He stood in front of it, arms held in a defensive posture which would protect
him from a sudden laser blast or other such attacks.
"I am Schlechterstern, an Omnigear." The machine bellowed. This name would
translate to "Evil Star.." The ghost in the machine.. It was an old concept,
but not one which was ever pursued. Machines which break down faster or
remain viable longer due the interference from a spirit entity. This gear was
clearly the most well-kept one in the whole hangar. This, in addition to the
overall grandeur of it, left him curious. Was the voice he heard INSIDE the
Gear? He stood a moment and comprehended as far back as he could.. To a time
before even he was born. Only smallest inklings of memories came to him, but
they were discreet. He saw this place bustling with men building new gears,
servicing older ones, and warriors coming and going through a long gangway
which fired outbound gears off by way of a magnetic levitation\acceleration
ramp. That ramp, along with its launching tube, was now buried beneath
innumerable tons of rock and dirt on the opposite end of the hangar from the
door he entered. Another vision came to him, this one of several short gears
which resembled Pot-bellied stoves entering through the launch chamber and
combatting the confused, unready soldiers in the hangar. Crews ran along the
ground dodging the feet and bullets of the enemy gears in attempt to reach
their mounts, but in the end the conflict was ended by several men which spun
a huge wheel which opened a door on the north wall of the hangar. Out stepped
a much shinier and more heavily armed Vollstrecker. The Guardian began firing
on the enemy gears, but they left as though they had accomplished their
mission already. Moments later, another Gear entered the Hangar bearing
only a thin, nondescript blue sword. It deftly drove the non-physical blade
into Vollstrecker's chin and left as quickly as it entered. The Guardian
at once opened fire on anything and everything within the hangar which moved.
Some of the people within escaped its wrath by entering the missile silo, but
the majority were killed within 20 minutes. The long, spiraling scaffold
inside the silo must have been constructed by the survivors to allow them
to escape from the insane Guardian. Looking in the dark corners of the L-shaped
hangar, E'ris could now see neat little piles of scrap metal in several places.
The Guardian's last non-human victims, he supposed. The hangar had been kept
relatively clean.
E'ris was roused from his memory trance by the Gear's loudspeakers again.
"Site 3 checks out as secure. Please board the Gear for reinitialization
tasks. Total shutdown time amounts to 264738060 hours, 12 minutes."
E'ris did as he was instructed. Before he was fully comfortable with the
chair, the cockpit door closed and its smoothe, black texture became first
a milky gray and then semi-opaque white before it faded into transparency.
E'ris saw no hand controls, but all around him LEDs and bar graphs were
flashing and adjusting. The seat began to change contour and suddenly felt
much more comfortable, and the armrests adjusted their height to suit him.
"..This.. Is this a--" His question was answered halfway through his asking.
The speakers were silent, however. It spoke to his mind.
::This gear is an All-Environment encounter model intended for use by the
Base's commander. It was discovered in Sargas Basin and refitted in shop DrGb32
by Arephal Team. Weapons systems are contemporary, however they are able to
access the gear's energy during Hyper Mode. For records, however, this gear
has never entered Hyper Mode.::
He attempted to ask it where the controls were, but immediately felt foolish
and understood as he realized he was not asking out loud, but in thought.
E'ris moved the gear somewhat clumsily at first, but after several minutes
he was able to control it quite well. Practice, he assumed, would make perfect.
Next he attempted to use the Gear's weapons. All throughout his flash-training,
the gear was uploading information to him. He learned the languages of this
world along with local names for chemicals, machines, materials, and phenomena.
What came into his mind next, however, confused him. The Gear began feeding him
data about what it referred to as "Your personal life." It told him about his
house, about his car, about his favorite foods.. Lastly, it told him "his name."
The Gear referred to him as Gear Batallion Commander Seger Gelarm.
It did not mean to reinitialize itself, it thought it had found its previous
owner and figured he had amnesia. E'ris quickly attempted to disengage himself
from the psychic link with the Gear to no avail. He heard laughing.. distant,
yet it was inside the cockpit. He looked around and saw no one, but he sensed
another being -- a human consciousness, inside the gear.
"You must be.. Gelarm." He spoke in a low voice. The laughing ceased and was
replaced by a sound which resembled applause.
::You're inside my machine, purp. I don't know who you are, and you certainly
did a number on that fucked-up Guardian, but this one's mine. You don't wanna
be in here.::
"You've been dead since 8000 years before I was born. This world is no longer
meant for you to interfere in."
::8000 what? I didn't wake up this morning to see some moron talking shit and
sitting in my Gear's cockpit! Now get the hell out, or I am going to have you
carried off and shot!::
"Who will carry me off? Who will shoot me? There isn't a living thing within
this base except me. You and everyone in this base were killed by the Guardian
which I just brushed aside. *I* didn't wake up this morning to jump down an
abandoned shaft, skin my knees on the scaffold your cowards build, almost get
crushed by your paranoid self-destruct mechanism, have a chunk of my arm
shot off by your foolish, malfunctioning automaton, and leave without a good
deal of presents! This gear is mine now."
::Listen, punk! You're obviously fucked in the head, so I'm giving you until the
count of three to get the hell off this base before I shoot your brains onto the
walkway, and THAT is generous! One.. two.. the--
"No, I think I've had enough of that boring old shit."
E'ris reached out with his consciousness and his drana, crushing the weak
spirit of "Gelarm" like a grape. In doing so, he inherited the memories of
the misplaced soul..
Killing. This man had been as bad as the Guardian E'ris just slew. Prisoners from
the enemy army that were brought to this base were escorted to his research lab.
He had many outfitted with devices which would convert their blood and organs into
explosives while simultaneously taking over their minds. Others, he fed to the
grotesque masses of tissue on which he had grown misshapen limbs and mouths..
He had ventured out in his lone gear many times and burned border villages, most
of which were more than 100 miles from one of his enemy's soldiers.
This man would make the perfect battle program.
(Long post.. to be continued.)
+----------------------+
| Daniel Steven Polcari|
| magus@cyberverse.com |
| Nemesis^ on IRC |
+----------------------+
--------------------
The mildly smoking hull of Vollstrecker had begun to drip
several different
fluids from its joints now, most likely fluids which helped it
move or keep
its balance. E'ris only took a moment to remove a small,
antenna-like prong
from its back as a keepsake. He returned his sword to
throwspace and began
once more to look around the now-secured hangar. Immediately,
the gear he
stood closest to caught his eye. It was, in a word, perfect.
Its sleek yet
well-armored form was wrought from blackened steel plates with
red trim and
elongated blade-like drives jutted from its shoulders. Its
left hand was
gloved and held a bit which he comprehended must be part of
some kind of
energy-whip. In the right hand was a psychotically huge cannon
or rifle..
He could tell at a glance that
it must be the
(Omnigear it
is)
hangar's Flagship.
!! Omnigear?
He heard the voice again. Before he could finish the thought,
the gear made
a series of clicks followed by the sound of capacitors charging and the low
buzz of high-voltage electricity. The gear's legs broke free
of their sleep-
induced atrophy and moved, bringing the machine down on one
knee.
It had knelt down. A panel in the center of its chest
split and opened in
three directions, revealing a chair inside a cockpit
surrounded by displays
and lights of all kinds.
"Who are you?" E'ris called out to the Gear. Silence. Instead
of responding
verbally, lights on the gear's torso and shoulders began
cycling through
odd patterns -- a light show which would likely by hypnotic to
humans.
He stood in front of it, arms held in a defensive posture
which would protect
him from a sudden laser blast or other such
attacks.
"I am
Schlechterstern, an Omnigear." The machine bellowed. This name
would
translate to "Evil Star.." The ghost in the machine.. It was
an old concept,
but not one which was ever pursued. Machines which break
down faster or
remain viable longer due the interference
from a spirit entity. This gear was
clearly the most well-kept one in the
whole hangar. This, in addition to the
overall grandeur of it, left him curious. Was the voice
he heard INSIDE the
Gear? He stood a moment and comprehended as far back as
he could.. To a time
before even he was born. Only smallest inklings of
memories came to him, but
they were discreet. He saw this place bustling with men
building new gears,
servicing older ones, and warriors coming and going through a
long gangway
which fired outbound gears off by way of a magnetic
levitation\acceleration
ramp. That ramp, along with its launching tube, was now buried
beneath
innumerable tons of rock and dirt on the opposite end of the
hangar from the
door he entered. Another vision came to him, this one of
several short gears
which resembled Pot-bellied stoves entering through the launch
chamber and
combatting the confused, unready soldiers in the
hangar. Crews ran along the
ground dodging the feet and bullets of the
enemy gears in attempt to reach
their mounts, but in the end the conflict was ended by several
men which spun
a huge wheel which opened a door on the north wall of the
hangar. Out stepped
a much shinier and more heavily armed Vollstrecker. The
Guardian began firing
on the enemy gears, but they left as though they had
accomplished their
mission already. Moments later, another Gear entered the
Hangar bearing
only a thin, nondescript blue sword. It deftly drove the
non-physical blade
into Vollstrecker's chin and left as quickly as it
entered. The Guardian
at once opened fire on anything and everything within the
hangar which moved.
Some of the people within escaped its wrath by entering the
missile silo, but
the majority were killed within 20 minutes. The long,
spiraling scaffold
inside the silo must have been constructed by the survivors to
allow them
to escape from the insane
Guardian. Looking in the dark corners of the L-shaped
hangar, E'ris could now see neat
little piles of scrap metal in several places.
The Guardian's last non-human victims, he supposed. The
hangar had been kept
relatively clean.
E'ris was roused from his memory trance by the Gear's
loudspeakers again.
"Site 3 checks out as secure. Please board the Gear for
reinitialization
tasks. Total shutdown time amounts to 264738060 hours, 12
minutes."
E'ris did as he was instructed.
Before he was fully comfortable with the
chair, the cockpit door closed and
its smoothe, black texture became first
a milky gray and then semi-opaque white before it faded into
transparency.
E'ris saw no hand controls, but all around him LEDs and bar
graphs were
flashing and adjusting. The seat began to change contour and
suddenly felt
much more comfortable, and the armrests adjusted their height
to suit him.
"..This.. Is this a--" His question was answered halfway
through his asking.
The speakers were silent, however. It spoke to his
mind.
::This gear is an All-Environment
encounter model intended for use by the
Base's commander. It was discovered
in Sargas Basin and refitted in shop DrGb32
by Arephal Team. Weapons systems are
contemporary, however they are able to
access the gear's energy during
Hyper Mode. For records, however, this gear
has never entered Hyper
Mode.::
He attempted to ask it where the
controls were, but immediately felt foolish
and understood as he realized he was
not asking out loud, but in thought.
E'ris moved the gear somewhat
clumsily at first, but after several minutes
he was able to control it quite well.
Practice, he assumed, would make perfect.
Next he attempted to use the Gear's
weapons. All throughout his flash-training,
the gear was uploading information to
him. He learned the languages of this
world along with local names for
chemicals, machines, materials, and phenomena.
What came into his mind next,
however, confused him. The Gear began feeding him
data about what it referred to as
"Your personal life." It told him about his
house, about his car, about his
favorite foods.. Lastly, it told him "his name."
The Gear referred to him as Gear
Batallion Commander Seger Gelarm.
It did not mean to reinitialize
itself, it thought it had found its previous
owner and figured he had amnesia.
E'ris quickly attempted to disengage himself
from the psychic link with the Gear
to no avail. He heard laughing.. distant,
yet it was inside the cockpit. He
looked around and saw no one, but he sensed
another being -- a human
consciousness, inside the gear.
"You must be.. Gelarm." He spoke in a low voice. The
laughing ceased and was
replaced by a sound which resembled applause.
::You're inside my machine, purp. I don't know who you are,
and you certainly
did a number on that fucked-up Guardian, but this one's mine.
You don't wanna
be in here.::
"You've been dead since 8000 years before I was born. This
world is no longer
meant for you to interfere in."
::8000 what? I didn't wake up this morning to see some moron
talking shit and
sitting in my Gear's cockpit! Now get
the hell out, or I am going to have you
carried off and
shot!::
"Who will carry me off? Who will
shoot me? There isn't a living thing within
this base except me. You and everyone
in this base were killed by the Guardian
which I just brushed aside. *I*
didn't wake up this morning to jump down an
abandoned shaft, skin my knees on the
scaffold your cowards build, almost get
crushed by your paranoid
self-destruct mechanism, have a chunk of my arm
shot off by your foolish,
malfunctioning automaton, and leave without a good
deal of presents! This gear is mine
now."
::Listen, punk! You're obviously
fucked in the head, so I'm giving you until the
count of three to get the hell off
this base before I shoot your brains onto the
walkway, and THAT is generous! One..
two.. the--
"No, I think I've had enough of
that boring old shit."
E'ris reached out with his
consciousness and his drana, crushing the weak
spirit of "Gelarm" like a
grape. In doing so, he inherited the memories of
the misplaced
soul..
Killing. This man had been as bad as
the Guardian E'ris just slew. Prisoners from
the enemy army that were brought to
this base were escorted to his research lab.
He had many outfitted with devices
which would convert their blood and organs into
explosives while simultaneously
taking over their minds. Others, he fed to the
grotesque masses of tissue on which
he had grown misshapen limbs and mouths..
He had ventured out in his lone gear
many times and burned border villages, most
of which were more than 100 miles
from one of his enemy's soldiers.
This man would make the perfect
battle program.
(Long post.. to be continued.)
+----------------------+
| Daniel Steven Polcari|
|
magus@cyberverse.com |
|
Nemesis^ on IRC
|
+----------------------+