My story

[-Luke-]

Well, background first. The basis of this story is the PSO universe, but I have changed stuff. We had to write a short story for school, and I found it to be great fun, and I thought it would be even more fun to write something based on my favourite game. Yes, some stuff is changed, but I did it for the sake of the story, so please don't get pissed if it doesn't fit in with the game. Its more realistic, for example, the C Dome explosion is not done by Falz... http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_wacko.gif Anyhoo, yes I am aware that my main characters name is Donoph, I am aware his rivals name is Darvant.
Enjoy...more as a piece of writing as opposed to a PSO fanfic...
Luke

[-Luke-]

Chapter 1:
As I lie here, my life ebbing away, I look back at my past. My life was wasted, full of violence and cheap thrills. The end of my life was worthwhile, but as I look around at the wreckage of Pioneer 2, the dead all around, I realise it was all too little, too late. The entire ship is falling apart, the falling scrap like the last strands of order. Everything I believed in is gone, blazing in the wreckage of so many dreams. My life is bleeding away from me, my life ended by my own hand. My comrades have betrayed me, and all hope lies in ruins. My name is Donoph Baz, and I am a Hunter for the Fighter's Guild. We take contracts to kill, protect, fight, we are nothing more than expensive mercenaries. How I came to be like this, is a long and agonising tale, but the last moments of my life should be in reflection.

The planet Earth was a desolate wasteland, resources spent and the environment shattered. It was the year 3014, nine years after Pioneer 1 left Earth to go to the new planet humans were to colonize. Earth was desecrated, and the Pioneer plan created to find a new planet to live on, the one found was Coral. It was several galaxies away, but they had no choice. In retrospect, I suppose the entire Pioneer plan was flawed from the beginning. We destroyed our planet, so moving to probably do the same to another seemed natural. All the engineers, doctors, nation leaders and almost all of Earth's army left on Pioneer 1 with most of the Fighter's Guild. All that was left on Earth were enough people to complete construction of Pioneer 2, and all the civilians not taken on Pioneer 1. Pioneer two left 9 years after Pioneer 1, so the civilians would have some civilisation to live in when they arrived. Pioneer 2 would arrive 9 years after Pioneer 1.

I was on Pioneer 2, as the behemoth slowly floated into the dark emptiness of space, engulfing the ship. I was bored, away from the fights on Earth, where a strong arm was always needed. There was always a fight to be resolved, always some reason to flex my muscles. Now, here, in the vast void of space, there was nothing to do. Everyone was in cryo-tubes, to be woken up on arrival. The ship was silent as the grave, I was one of the only people not frozen. I then resolved to go back to my chambers to browse the enemy data archives and check my weapons again.

I had scanned the archives hundreds of times, memorising all the known species on Coral, how they could be fought, their behaviour and temperament. The planet was unique in a very strange way. On the surface, a number of species existed, mammals, usually with similar body builds. Under the surface, in the maze of caves, there were similar creatures, but reptilian. The creatures had evolved, while some had not, and the ones that had not still lived. I shut down the window, and looked at my weapons. I had brought the only weapons worth using, the katana I had crafted myself and a long barrelled pistol. Because my weapon was made of metals and did not use conventional photon technology, most other Hunters thought it was a weak weapon. I knew how to use it though, and it suited me fine. The pistol however did use photon technology, but I used it rarely.

Sighing, I left my quarters to wander the empty decks of the ship to kill some more time. I holstered my katana, deciding to make my way to the training room to practice. The shortest way there was by way of the engine room, so I made my way there.

When I reached the door to the engine room, I was greeted by clanks and muffled yells from inside. The door slid open, and I went inside. Many of the pipes had been ruptured in places, steam bursting from the holes in the pipes. A wrench lay discarded on the ground, blood splattered on the ground. I raced forward towards a man hunched in the far corner of the chamber, rocking back and forth, muttering angrily to himself. I grabbed the handle of my katana, holding it tight in case of trouble.
"Are you ok? What happened here?" I asked him, as I cautiously moved forward. He shuddered upon hearing my words, and staggered up, waving a wrench in front of him like a shield.

"Ha! You think I'm jes gonna let you muck around with the engine huh?" he wheezed at me.

"I am not going to touch the engine, I'm just passing through. What happened here, are you ok?"

"Don't patronise me, you sonnuva gun! I have been watchin' over this 'ere engine fer over 30 hours, don't think I'm gonna let you destroy it!" he screamed at me, waving the wrench at my face while stumbling forward.

"Look, I don't want any trouble, but I think that you should take a rest, before you hurt anyone or yourself." I held up my hand to stop his advance.

"NO! NO ONE IS GONNA TOUCH THIS ENGINE! I WON' ALLOW IT!" he yelled, knocking my hand aside and running towards me with the wrench raised above his head. There was nothing else to do.
He swung the wrench in a downward arc at my head, I batted it aside with my hand, pain shooting up my arm. Holding the wrench down with my left hand, I clenched my right into a fist and hit him with the palm of my hand in the face. He staggered backward, clutching his face, blood streaming from the gaps between his fingers. I wanted to end it as soon as possible, so I moved forward with my fists raised, hoping he would give in. He had a mad glint in his eyes as he grinned and ducked, charging towards me. I sidestepped, elbowing him in the back as he passed. However, attack was not his purpose. He lay on the ground, coughing blood, fingers welded to the wrench he clutched. He flipped onto his back, throwing the wrench at my head. I dodged, but was off balance. He leapt up, punching me in the face, I reeled backward and he continued his berserk assault. I had wanted to end this with both parties having minor injuries, but I saw that was impossible.

I twisted out of the way of his blows, grabbed his head in both hands and twisted. His neck shattered with a sickening crunch, and his lifeless form crumpled to the ground, a gentle trickle of blood escaping the corner of his mouth.

I hit a com-button, opening a channel to the medical centre. ?We have collateral damage in engine room 3, over.? I would deal with the paperwork later.
I walked to the training area.

Isnt Donoph a prick? Inne Great?



<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: L_evans on 2004-01-18 11:37 ]</font>

[Zebulan7]

Yay!!!

(looks for story)Found It!



<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Zebulan7 on 2004-01-16 11:05 ]</font>

[-Luke-]

Read it?
I can add Chapter 2 if people want to read more...
Luke

[Zebulan7]

it reset... http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_rant.gif

Things to know
Double space manually while typing on a word processor
Once you post, go back over and redo all ' and " so they aren't ? . Thank you, that makes it easier.
Please put a paragraph during the conversation, I didn't know it had switched!

Thats all. It was enjoyable! You did change a lot, but its your fic.

(ps-read my fic by clicking below! then you might know where I'm comming from!)

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Zebulan7 on 2004-01-16 11:33 ]</font>

[odie2088]

thats a good fic! you should post the rest!

[-Luke-]

Chapter 2:
We arrived at Coral several months later. The time in between was uneventful; I simply trained and walked around the ship in boredom. Towards the end of the journey most of the other passengers aboard woke up from the cryogenics chambers.

Once we were in orbit around the planet all Hunters were called assembly room to be briefed about what would happen once we landed and what role we would play in the colonisation. It was a waste of time, we had heard the drill countless times before, we all knew exactly what we could and could not do. Unlike on Earth, we could no longer take missions or payments from civilians; everything would have to go through governmental offices for clearance. We were expected to follow orders from the soldiers stationed on Coral and on Pioneer 2. I looked around the huge room, looking for familiar faces. I saw Darvant, standing in the corner in his black and scarlet power suit, twirling the handles of his daggers in his hands. He was not supposed to be carrying the dagger hilts in this area, but being Darvant he did anyway. I had helped him make those daggers, long ago.

We used a rare variant of the usual photon crystals as the power source, but what was unusual about these daggers is how the crystal was used. Normally, the crystal is refined and suspended in a glass chamber to contain and channel the energy, but with the daggers, using a unconventional form of binding the crystals, got them to bind to each other and now, on each dagger there are 2 larger crystals orbiting a central crystal, the only one bound to the dagger. The attraction between the crystal fragments meant that the orbiting two would never stop spinning round the central one. In battle, this meant the daggers were brutal. If he stabbed them into anything, the shards would continue to rotate, in a disgusting gory fashion. Just how Darvant wanted them. He also, against my advice, made the bottom of the hilts into a socket, so they could be set into one another, forming a double edged pole, and the energy would combine, increasing the size of the crystals, but it was unstable, and couldn?t be used like that for long.

I looked away from Darvant to look at the planet below through the massive windows behind the Captain. The Central Dome built by the colonisers from Pioneer 1 was visible from space, a large grey-black blob surrounded by greenery of the forest. As I watched, small dancing particles began to swirl round the Dome, glittering in the night.

"Sir! The Dome! I!"

Before I could even finish my sentence, the particles suddenly stopped in mid air, spun and impacted on the Dome. Everything seemed normal for a split-second, then the Dome exploded into bright light, a pillar of incandescent light blazing past Pioneer 2 rocking the entire ship and throwing many to the ground. The window shaking violently began to crack in several places as the light gyred upwards, pushing Pioneer 2 aside like a pebble in a tidal wave.

Then it was gone. The light faded, and everyone staggered to his or her feet. The pain was tangible in the air as all eyes were on the vast crater left of the Dome. The Dome. The main living quarters for civilians and base of operations for the entire Pioneer Project on Coral. Most of the Dome was part of Pioneer 1, a section detached.
The silence echoed through the room for several minutes before the Captain broke it.

"Battle stations! All Hunters suit up and get your weapons; you will join the military forces on Deck 3 in 10 minutes! We gonna be hot-dropping in 15, so if you're not there, you ain't gonna be down there! Go on! Scramble!"

I ran down the corridor, punching in the access code to my chambers and throwing myself to the closet. I grabbed a combat suit and got changed. I would need the extra armour I built into the suit. The suit was a skintight kind of membrane, that would mold itself to your form, and then the extra pieces of protective armour are attached to sockets in the suit. Because the suit was made of the membrane, it would follow every bodily movement as smoothly as if you were not wearing armour. A chest plate with suspensors to absorb impact, and it was the core of the systems in the suit, such as the speed and strength augmenters in the joints of the suit. There was a bracer to put on the dominant hand of the Hunter for blocking and to increase strength in the arm. The dominant arm was usually more armoured, but Hunters with ranged weapons preferred to use more suspensor units to absorb recoil than added protection. I then grabbed my katana and gun to holster them quickly. This was the moment I was waiting for, that I had trained for. I raced out to the corridor and made my way to Deck 3, the launch deck.

"Hey Donoph, what's the rush?"

I knew that voice; it was Darvant, coming to annoy me again.

"You damn well know Darvant, so if you want to go planet side you should hurry too."

"Ah c'mon Donoph, you know me, I would never pass up an opportunity to crack some skulls."

I ignored him and kept running. When I arrived at Deck 3, the Captain and several Hunters were already there. As well as some nervous looking soldiers and officers. I guessed they would sadly be in charge of the reconnaissance force, but I kept quiet. When more Hunters arrived, the Captain looked up from the document he was reading, drew himself up to his full height and began to speak.

"Ok, you will be taking launch pods down in squads of 10, 1 sergeant, 6 soldiers and 3 Hunters. You will take orders from the military personnel under all conditions. If they are unable to lead, the chain of command will be followed. Now move, move, MOVE!"

The Captain pointed at me, a skinny Hunter in red called Kase and Darvant, and indicated we board Pod 5. I strapped myself in, the tiny pod making me feel uncomfortable already. 10 people in such a tiny space was ridiculous, and there was so much that could go wrong with the pod, all meaning sudden death.

A click echoed in the pod as the clamps were released, and the pod tumbled into space. The thrusters fired and we sped towards the surface of the planet. Once in orbit, the brakes fired and gouts of flame arced down past the porthole. The pod was shuddering and creaking, when we hit the surface. At 70 kilometres per hour.

edit, more material added! enjoy


eeeeeeeeasier to reeeeead http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_wacko.gif

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: L_evans on 2004-01-18 11:42 ]</font>

[-Luke-]

Chapter 3:
The suspensors took the body of the impact, but my vision still danced in front of me, refusing to focus for several seconds. Every bone in my body was jarred, and my elbows and knees were blazing with agony, but I was alive. One of the soldiers was not so lucky. His safety harness had ripped in three, the metal horribly twisted, imbedded in the chest of the soldier, who lay peacefully with his head slumped and shoulders sagging, contrary to the hole ripped in his chest.

The others began to stir, Darvant being the first, smirking at the dead soldier as he unbuckled his harness. The soldiers stared at their dead companion, alive only minutes ago. The sergeant made as if to say something, then remained silent for a while.

"Ok, he was a fine man, and we will give him the honour in death he deserves. Set charges around the base of the pod. It will be his grave."

The soldiers stepped outside into the light, their heavy boots crunching on the scorched earth. The ground was burnt black, bare earth showing through in patches, the ground strewn with burnt twisted metal. Charges were set around the pod and the soldiers stood far away and knelt as they enveloped the pod in flames.

We moved away from the burning pod into the charred undergrowth, the soldiers and sergeant leading the way. Darvant unslung his daggers; they hummed quietly as he twirled them in his hands absent-mindedly, leaving a faint evanescence of scarlet energy in the air. Kase whipped out two photon machine guns, holding one in each hand as he advanced. I concentrated on the surroundings, but I couldn?t see anything, no survivors, no local creatures, nothing.

"Sir, we have movement, four Oh clock. Orders?" One of the soldiers said in a hushed whisper as he gestured towards a clearing ahead.

"Lets get closer first, we don't want any more casualties." Said the sergeant as he motioned for the soldiers to fan out and move forward, his fingers drumming nervously on the barrel of his rifle.

The soldier closest to the clearing was creeping forward, shuffling on his stomach to get a closer look, rifle swaying before him.

"Sir, avian bipeds, 2 metres tall, looks mammalian, and the databanks say they are non-aggressive, even at close proximity. Do we proceed?"

"Ok men, move forward, but be careful, these things could be just as shocked by what happened as us?"

I moved forward, catching a glimpse of the creatures. They were huge, with shaggy brown fur, matted with dirt and caked mud, with massive digging claws hanging at their sides. Their eyes glinted in the dusk, and their heads swayed uneasily as they watched our progress past. Suddenly, one of the larger in the group, with lighter fur, raised its claws, and unleashed a guttural roar. They began to shuffle towards us, a furious gleam in their eyes as they bunched their arm muscles to strike.

"Fan out and attack! Keep your distance, regulated fire, conserve ammunition, we don?t know how many there are around here!" The sergeant yelled, slinging round his photon shotgun, slamming in an energy cartridge and blasting round after round into the masses of the creatures.
Darvant ran into the side of the mass of creatures, a malicious grin as he flipped the blades downwards in his hands and flicked the left blade across the face of one of the creatures. It howled in agony, stumbling backwards. Darvant deftly ducked under a swipe for his face, ramming both blades into the stomach of the attacker. He grinned manically as blood flecked his face. He tore the blades free, turning his attention to the injured beast. He threw one of the daggers into its face, and it stuck there, a faint glimmer of scarlet revolving over the face of the creature. He convulsed with repressed laughter, and jammed the other dagger into the back of another creature. Kicking away its body, he walked over to the carcass he had defiled, whipping out the embedded dagger swiftly. He slammed the dagger hilts together, twirling the new twin blade, arrogant smirk still plastered on his face. He twirled the twin blade as adeptly as a master, slicing and spinning through the enemies, but always a little cut, never instant killing. He made me sick.

Kase was slowly advancing, pushing back the creatures with a constant hail of bolts, the air in front of him a haze because of the extreme heat. I was impressed at how he could aim with such blurred targets, but I had to fight as well.

I ran towards the larger lighter furred creature, drawing and cutting it down in one fluid iai movement. As my blade slipped out of its body I was already faced with another adversary. I dodged backwards to avoid its massive claw swipe at my head, ducked under it, and rammed the blade straight up through the bottom of its jaw, its last sound a gurgle as blood trickled out of its maw. Pulling the blade free I turned to face another three of them. One fell back with a huge hole smoking in its chest as the sergeant rammed another clip into his shotgun behind me. The beast on the right leapt at me, jaws wide to rend and tear. I swerved to the side, stepping past it, slamming my katana hilt deep into its back, then pushing it down and off the sword with my elbow to bring the blade up and crashing down into the next one's skull.

I wiped the blood off my katana on a clean patch of fur, and then put it back in the hilt to look around at the area. The sounds of battle had died down, and none of the creatures stirred. Darvant stood smugly by one of the larger corpses, his daggers still humming, embedded in the back of the creature. Kase further back, nursing a wound on his arm, one of his machine guns lying dented on the ground, and one of the creatures lay a foot away, with a caved in skull and bullets riddling its corpse. The sergeant was examining the carcasses with disdain, kicking over the body of the lighter furred one, his faced contorted in disgust. The soldiers were standing back, shouldering their rifles, none injured, but obviously shaken. One of them had seen what the Darvant's burning daggers could do to soft flesh and vomited. Great I thought, sent down to fight with a bunch of greenhorns. One not able to fasten his own damn harness in the drop pod, these punks almost vomiting at the sight of the blood staining the earth. Darvant was the first to speak.

"Well gee sarge, although I am loathe to disparage your men's fine military training, but were these kiddies ever taught the controversial ideas involved in providing covering fire? I am in the fray, doing my thing, and half the time when I kill one of the damn things, two come up behind me, because those damn greens of yours are incompetent!"

"Stow it hunter! I outrank you and you know it! I will not have insubordination from you stuck up Hunters! I can have you reported and back on Pioneer 2 in the brig in hours punk, so if you wanna try your luck go ahead."

Darvant glared at the sergeant, I knew he wanted to stay and fight, but his arrogance made him want to fight the sergeant like he often tried with me. He grabbed his daggers and pulled them free of the carcass, holding them at his side as he glared at the sergeant, swaying from side to side, debating whether or not to act.

"Ok then Hunters, if you have no objections we will be moving onwards towards the Central Dome. Holster weapons and move out. Jones, take point."


easier to read




<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: L_evans on 2004-01-18 11:48 ]</font>

[odie2088]

oooh post more, thats a good fic! i like it a lot...

[-Luke-]

Erm...I have done some revision, and Darvant now uses Lavis blades... So that will be different. Should I repost the first and second chapters, because I added a lot about the Lavis Blades and redid Darvants fight scene...
Anyhoo, heres Chapter 4

Chapter 4:
Following the sergeant's orders, one of the soldiers moved forward, and we followed. We walked through the forest towards the shattered Dome the loomed ahead. The ground became more burnt and the rank stench of charred flesh wormed its tendrils inside my nostrils, nauseating me. The soldiers and Kase were also disturbed by the smell, one of the soldiers emptying his stomach when the wind brought a fresh wave to assault out senses.

We saw more shrapnel, and huge mechanical or computer units thrown clear by the blast, all littering the path, lying broken and strangled in the undergrowth. Some of the other scout parties had already been through; we saw more carcasses strewn beside the road, riddled with bullet scorch marks. The stench of blood and burnt flesh was revolting, sending shivers up my spine and goose bumps down my arms.

As we rounded a corner, the remains of the dome lay in ruin before us. The Dome was massive, and even now, three quarters of it blasted away it was still imposing. The edges of the Dome were intact except for the south side, the roof vaporised in the initial blast that gyred past Pioneer 2. Even now, after the first blast there were still burning leaves smouldering and falling piecemeal off their scarred branches. The dome was built out of durable hybrid metals, with reinforcing solid steel struts on the inside of the outer shell. Now, with the shell torn away the mangled struts jutted out like ribs from a wound. We moved forward to the Central door, blasted off its hinges. It was roughly several metres thick, but it still lay battered and broken, torn in two like tissue paper, the metal scarred and twisted. All the control consoles were destroyed so we had to force open the door ourselves. The main entrance was blocked by the mangled door, but there was a small space in the corner where the metal looked like it had been bent inwards instead of outwards like the rest.

"Looks like someone's been here before us" the sergeant murmured under his breath as he unholstered his shotgun and held it before him in one hand and moved towards the gap. He switched on a shoulder lamp, and began to move through the crawl space, swinging the barrel of the shotgun in back and forth in front of him, as he checked for signs of movement.

"Well? You lazy maggots gonna follow or what? C'mon now, we?re burning daylight here."
The soldiers moved forward first, with one staying behind. Then Darvant and Kase went in, then me, and then the soldier came behind me. I thought it stupid that one soldier stayed behind to make sure we went in and didn?t do try anything, as if he could stop me if I tried to escape or start a fight I thought to myself.

Kase got to his feet in front of me, and straightened up as he emerged into the vast open space inside the Dome. He moved to the side and I moved forward, making room for the soldier to come forward as well. The inside of the Dome was massive, the huge crater in the middle adding to the impression of grandeur. Everywhere we walked the concrete crunched under our boots, the extreme heat shattering it everywhere in the Dome. The residential blocks, once towering in the North side, now razed to the ground, the foundations completely obliterated by the blast. The oval shaped towering laboratory, shielded by the residential blocks, still had the top half blown out of existence most likely when the residential blocks crumbled. But where had the explosion originated. The centre of the Dome? It must have been the power block!

"Sergeant, shouldn't we see if we could find records or any clues as to what might have made the reactor blow? What happened here? The reactor is blown, half the Dome is missing and all we are doing is wandering round here seeing how wrecked this place is." I said, turning to face the sergeant as he surveyed the wreckage.

"Ok wise guy, you Darvant and I will check out the reactor or whats left of it. Kase, you Jones and Wedge go to the Lab, see what you can find. Biggs, Smith and Bry, you look for escape routes then guard the tunnel we took in. All teams, radio in when you find anything. Move out."

The sergeant started walking towards the rim of the crater looming ahead, unslinging his shotgun as is wary of enemies ahead.

"Ok sarge, lead on oh fearless leader" said Darvant loudly, striding in a mock military fashion, saluting ridiculously.

"Shut up Darvant. We have a job to do, and it does not involve you deluging me with stupid insubordinate comments."

Darvant grinned fiendishly at the angry response he elicited from the sergeant, but did nothing more. He followed the sergeant normally, and then I followed. I noticed Darvant was still twirling the handles of his daggers; he had not put them in his belt.

The rim of the crater loomed ahead, the concrete heaved up and broken into dust by the impact. As we walked the ash and concrete dust swirled around our feet, the only sounds the crunching of our boots and the faint hum of Darvant's daggers. The sergeant arrived at the cusp of the crater, looking down into the abyss. He lowered his shotgun and spat, but no sound returned even in the silence. Darvant walked up next to the sergeant, whistling as he looked down into the crater. A faint crackle of static was heard as the sergeant's radio burst into life.

"Sir...sir...do you copy? I...damaged machinery...we found some bodies...beaten by some kind of...sir...Do you..."

The radio went dead, and the sergeant cursed, looking like he wanted to break the radio in his hand. "There's too much static in the air. The damn radios won?t function properly. I'll send a text message over the military server to them. I want them here now." The sergeant strode off and sat on a lump of molten slag.

Darvant looked around with a disdainful face, kicking small pieces of debris as he paced around bored. Just as I knew he would, he soon flicked the switch on his daggers and began practicing, spinning them so fast they became a blur. He strode over to a fallen block of reinforced concrete, and began flicking the twirling blades at it, scoring crisscrossing lines across its surface with the blazing tips of the daggers. I turned away, looking back to the sergeant. He got up and walked towards us.

"Ok, they're on their way, so get out ropes and holster weapons. Fasten the ropes to your beautifully etched block of concrete and wait. Get ready to move fast."





done

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: L_evans on 2004-01-18 12:03 ]</font>

[-Luke-]

herm...yeah, I edited chapters 2-3 with the new changes, mainly regarding Darvant and his not being a nice guy-ness. But, just so you know, plot wise, Donoph is also meant to ba a bit of a prick. Less so than Darvant, but still.
Luke

[odie2088]

cool, you can change the first 2 chapters, if you want...i would, but thats me. good fic, if you dont already put a link to it in your sig!

[-Luke-]

Herm...good idea. but one question, seeing as I haven't written Chapter 5 yet, if this topic goes off page one, then I post chapter 5, bumping it, does that count as bumping an old topic?
Luke

[-Luke-]

Chapter 5 is done if anyone wants to read it...?

[Sonic098]

This is so good i can't wait for the next one. this is alot better than what I could do. Keep up the good work.

[Hikosaka]

On 2004-01-18 01:20, L_evans wrote:
Herm...good idea. but one question, seeing as I haven't written Chapter 5 yet, if this topic goes off page one, then I post chapter 5, bumping it, does that count as bumping an old topic?
Luke



Not really. As long as you are still adding content, I'm pretty lenient. Just avoid bumping just for the sake of bumping, (i.e. just posting "Bump!").

[-Luke-]

Weeell, to make it easier on the eyes and so more people read it I'm going to follow advice and go back to change the ?s into ""s. Then, with that done I will post Chapter 5. K?
Luke

[-Luke-]

Chapters 1-4 are edited, I'm going to post 5, then edit it as well...enjoy, I think it really does make a difference to reading it now...
Luke

[-Luke-]

Chapter 5:
"Here sir. We...Bry, we couldnt! Sir I’m so sorry..." stammered Biggs, one of the soldiers with a torn sleeve, matted with blood. His arm hung limp at his side and he clutched his bicep to staunch the bleeding. He stepped back startled when he saw Darvant and I, Darvant still twirling his daggers.

"Easy Biggs, what happened? Explain slowly. Smith, you ok? Tend to Biggs' wounds if possible." Said the sergeant, placing his hand on Biggs' shoulder to comfort him. Darvant rolled his eyes.

"Whuh...well sir. We went to the North exit, and it was blocked, and the emergency tunnels nearby were also caved in. When we came out of the tunnels, there were three Hunters waiting for us. One short guy with a big sword, a chick in sunglasses with a rifle and a tall guy in black with a black pole. They...they said we would have to be killed, that we weren't needed anymore...The short guy swung his sword at us, and we managed to get out of the tunnel, thanks to Bry. Bry blocked the swing with his rifle, giving us time to start shooting. The short guy swung his sword up and...but Bry he...stabbed the guy's leg with his hunting knife, then I dunno. The tall guy came up behind us and thwacked us both in the back of the kneecaps with the black pole, and we were on the ground when they ran off. Bry he's...it was HUNTERS! THEM DAMN HUNTERS SIR, IT WAS THEM!" he screamed, pointing a quivering finger at Darvant and I.

Darvant returned a cheeky wink as the soldier lurched forward, levelling his pistol to fire before Smith restrained him. As they struggled, Kase and the other two soldiers turned up. None of them were injured, but Kase had put away his machine guns as they were damaged and now used photon gauntlets.

Photon gauntlets were simply several interlaced sheets of tough metal that fit over the fist, and depending on the variant we would have to seen what this one did. I have seen some that had a band of burning photons on the knuckles, to burn whatever the gauntlet came into contact with, and some with sonic blasters. Sonic blasters simply unleash a blast of concentrated sound vibrations upon impact. All nasty weapons, this is why I chose a katana, and to learn the ways of the samurai.

Biggs stumbled backwards, head swinging erratically to watch both Darvant and I and Kase. He holstered his pistol, but his hand twitched, never straying far from the handle of the pistol.

"Stow it Biggs. We all lost a friend, but it had nothing to do with these guys. We're moving out, let's go!" yelled the sergeant, waving the soldiers onwards to the rope into the crater. He walked over to them as they stopped at the ridge.


"And ladies? Do we have an issue with my order?"

"No sir, just, why are we going down here instead of finding those punk Hunters?"

"Because I want to see what the hell is down there, and there's some crazy energy readings pulsing from there. So, we investigate."

The sergeant motioned for the soldiers to move down. Biggs went down first, barely suppressing a snarl at Darvant and I. Smith and Jones followed, then Wedge. The sergeant waited for us to move. I slung my scabbard over my back and started to climb. Darvant slammed his daggers into his belt, and then swaggered over, fingers fiddling at a loss for his daggers, climbing down after Kase. The sergeant went down, scanning the ground we left as he descended.


heh...I'm gonna work on Chapter 6 now, I hope you enjoy readin the REVISED version of the story, I think it makes more sense now...

[Jaks]

Biggs and Wedge? Sounds like Final Fantasy 8.

But this is cool, keep going!

[-Luke-]

7 actually mistah, but hey, theyre only soldiers, gonna die anyhow, not important, only objects in the plot...
Luke

[Jaks]

No, I'm sure it was 8

[Sord]

I've only read the first 2 chapters, gonna take a break, then read some more later. You seem to be doing great so far.

[-Luke-]

links faulty, anyhoo, do an image search for FF7 Biggs or Wedge. Its 7, not 8. C'mon people support me here...
Luke



<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: L_evans on 2004-01-18 13:34 ]</font>

[-Luke-]

Ok, Chapter 6 is done if anyone wants to read it, this story is gonna go on for a looooong time. But in the mean time, does anyone have any suggestions?
Luke

[Sonic098]

one thing you could do is combine your edit posts and the story into 1 like hv the edits before then hv the story. A friend of mine had done the same thing when writing his story Released which he will be posting it on here in a few days as well as its follower Preparations. so maybe he could help and you should take a look at his when he comes. anyway keep it up.

[-Luke-]

Chapter 6:
The rope was only 20 metres long, so when Biggs got to the bottom he had to clip on his rope, then continue down. Once everyone was on the second rope, the sergeant would clip the second into the burnt rock, unclip the first and lower it to Biggs. This continued for over an hour before Biggs called up having seen a floor to the shaft.

We heard the resounding sound of rubbing gravel as Biggs leapt to the ground. Once we were all down I looked around. The floor was all ash, burnt into oblivion; everywhere we walked we had dark smears over our boots. We were in a underground cavern, with small lava streams inching their way down the blasted path. We were in what appeared to be a rounded cavern, but it sloped downwards into a path at the other side. The ash had been pushed aside, and there were footprints in the ground. The heat given off by the lava, even though there wasn’t much was dizzying. I unzipped the chest and arm sections of my suit, letting it hang loose at my waist. Kase and Darvant did the same, the soldiers tying their shirts round their waists, but keeping on their protective vests.

We strode along, following the path in the ash downwards. The ash swirled round our feet as we walked, angry at the disturbance of its rest. The light dimmed as we continued until we couldn’t see were it not for the small stream of lava emitting a faint radiant glow. As we entered the tunnel at the end of the chamber, we saw how small it was. Kase looked around uneasily, evidently unsettled by the smallness of the dark space. We could all just about stand upright, but the walls closed in on us, leaving barely enough room to have one arm outstretched. The heat from the lava in the tunnel was unbearable, but it got worse.

Further ahead we saw dark shapes moving, not human, larger than the mammals above ground. Huge, hulking figures, with a large fin on their backs, and scythe-like claws hanging at their sides. Their scaled bodies shimmered in the haze of the heat as they moved, the only sound being the soft scraping of the scales. Their eyes were pure black, a shiny little black jewel, swallowing all the light around it, glinting in the gloom.

"They're in our way, and we will not be surprised again. Men, raise rifles and fire, aim for the eyes. We will draw them here, Hunters, you wait untill they are here, then we fall back and engage in the chamber back there" the sergeant growled, motioning for the soldiers to spread out and assume firing positions.

Darvant snorted with indignation at having to wait to fight, but offered no verbal opposition. He spun on his heel and strode back to the large chamber, not willing to wait in the heat. Kase followed, flexing his gauntlets. I stayed with the soldiers and the sergeant. I knew how fast these creatures were, these idiots would need the help.

"Open fire! Single shots, aim for the eyes, take down as many as possible!" The sergeant bellowed, tossing a small detonation charge onto the path the creatures would take. The soldiers began firing in unison, with Biggs leaning against the wall and taking shots with his pistol. The moment the first volley crashed into the ranks of the monsters, they turned towards us, claws raised and eyes glinting with the same fervour and blood lust I saw in Darvant. He would have fun fighting these things.

They lurched forwards, moving fast for their large bulk, photon gouts hitting and leaving smoke where they hit, but the monsters paid no heed. The sergeant swore. I knew this would happen.

"Fall back! Full auto, get clear of the charge!" the sergeant yelled over the cacophony of rifles firing. However, the monsters made no sound, only the shuffling of feet as they strode through the ash.

As the first couple monsters walked over the charge, the sergeant flipped a switch and it detonated. The first of the creatures fell to the ground, its body blown away from the shoulders down. The second lost only an arm, and continued. The sergeant growled, furious at how ineffective the bomb was. Twenty or more of the creatures were moving forward, murder in their eyes.

I drew my katana, and walked into the clearing of the chamber.

"These scales are thinner under the armpit, the jaw and behind the knees. Anywhere else will require excessive force to do any damage." I said to Darvant and Kase, they nodded, Darvant grinning as the sergeant stared in disbelief.

"You should have told me dammit! You could have killed us all!" shouted the sergeant, waving his shotgun in my face.

"You should have reviewed the local fauna data files sergeant. You would have known. Anyway, you wouldn’t have been able to do anything even knowing. Did any of you have clear shots of the armpits, under of the jaw or back of the kneecaps? No. Because their arms were not raised, they were not staring at the ceiling, and they were not walking backwards towards you. You couldn’t have done anything anyway. You never stood a chance."

The sergeant growled before he spoke again gruffly. "Fine then teacher, anything else? Anything else your expertise can tell us?"

"Yeah," Darvant laughed, "Stay out of the way."

The monsters shuffled into the clearing, blinking at the increased light. I leapt forward, kicking the closest in the chest so it toppled backwards. I rammed the katana blade into its skull. Kicking free of the body and dodging a blow, I spun behind my assailant, cutting the backs of its legs. It fell the ground gurgling in pain.

I saw now what Kase's gauntlets could do now. He delivered an uppercut to one of the monsters, and I saw a momentary haze as sonic waves blew the creatures brain out the top of its skull. Disgusting. Kase ran and dived to slide on the ground, flicking his knuckles out at several pairs of legs. Bone splintered and blood spattered on the ground as the animals fell, howling in agony. He sprang to his feet in front of one of them, thrusting his fists under the armpits of the creature, then the sonic waves burst out, liquefying the bone, leaving the arms hanging by a thread of sinew.

Darvant was doing his usual twirling and spinning style of fighting, and he actually listened to me for once, attacking the weak spots I had pointed out. He no longer fought as cockily as he did above ground, as these creatures were faster and there were more of them. I was impressed to see Darvant duck sidestep past a claw aimed at his head, then stab two of the monsters at once under the jaw, one with each dagger. As the blades rotated blood and ichor spattered onto his gloves.

I wasn't paying enough attention to my own fight, and as I turned away from Darvant's fight as a howl erupted in front of me, I only saw a claw swipe across my stomach, droplets of blood flecking my face. I flew backwards. My katana fell out of my hand as I held my stomach, the blood flowing over my hand and arm. I felt no pain, I lost control. I grabbed my pistol from my belt with my left hand, holding the barrel under the assailants jaw. I fired several shots into its brainpan, and its limp carcass thudded into the swirling ash. I grabbed my katana with my bloody hand and ran forward. I couldn't control myself any longer, the burning rage inside me gyring up through every sinew of my body, energising me. I sliced through one of the creatures bodily with my katana, my arms drenched in blood. I was a whirling daemon, cutting through all in my path, my katana running slick with blood. In my rampage, I saw Darvant move back as I passed, hacking into a already dead animal. I ignored him, he was unimportant. These creatures had to die. I cut the legs from under one, then sped up its descent to the ground by smashing it down with my crimson blade. As its body thudded into the ash, it was over. No more stood. The burning rage evaporated away, slipping free of my bones. I felt cold, and weary. I looked at my katana, slick with scarlet life force, dripping silently into the ash. The fabric on the handle stained with my blood.

My katana fell without a sound to the ground, ash swirling round the desecrated blade. I looked down at my stomach, a sudden cold pain drawing my breath sharply. My anger had burned itself out, and now pain returned. I felt cold, and lifeless. I, like my katana, fell to the ground, bloodstained and an empty husk of a man.


Hehehehheh. Ownzorz...
Luke

[-Luke-]

Chapter 7:
The world spun before me, perception taunting me. I saw Darvant, looking sceptically at me. I saw Kase, always following Darvant. The sergeant mumbled and muttered at me. The pain in my stomach was dizzying. Bouts of excruciating hot gouts of pain, searing every nerve in my body.

A few hours later I awoke again, the world slowly focusing back. I was still in the caves. I felt my stomach. It had rough stitching on the wound, and I convulsed in pain at the touch of my own hand. The blood was washed away, and as I gently probed I could feel dried blood round the edges. The cut went from roughly the far edge of my right ribs, to the space in between my two sets of ribs.

Darvant was the first to notice me sitting up, and him talking got everyone else’s attention.

"Hey sleeping beauty. Decided to join us again in the land of the living?" he drawled, swaggering, but I noticed he was eyeing me suspiciously. The sergeant walked over, holding his shotgun, but the soldiers hung behind, with Kase sitting leaning against a wall, tossing pebbles into the lava stream.

"What happened there Donoph? You went crazy, you damn near attacked Darvant, you almost killed yourself getting in the way of the rifle fire, then you get injured. You need to control this. You went nuts. You slaughtered those monsters. We're worried. You can't flip out like that, not now. What we are doing down here is too important. Get a grip, or go back to Pioneer 2." The sergeant growled at me, striding off through the ashes to talk to the soldiers.

"Whooooooeeee Donoph! You are crazy! A lunatic! I loved it! You obliterated them things, tore em apart! Great fun to watch man, top marks."

"I'm not proud Darvant. I lost control. I have brought dishonour to myself. My skills failed me."

Darvant rolled his eyes and walked off, twirling his daggers as he went. He whispered something to Kase, and then nodded his head at the sergeant and the soldiers. Kase nodded, and looked at me until I looked him straight in the eyes.

The sergeant turned away from his conversation with the soldiers, and stood up facing us to talk. "Ok, get ready to move out. This tunnel doesn't go far, so we are gonna see just where it goes. We move out in 10 minutes, so hurry up. Donoph, if you can't walk you're gonna be carried got it?"

I snarled, pushing myself to my feet. A surge of pain wracked my body, but I exhaled and contained it. I wrapped another bandage over the wound; tight to staunch any bleeding that might happen while walking. I saw my katana, lying in the ash, black and dark scarlet from dried blood. There was no way to clean it, perhaps for the better. The tainted blade would remind me of what I had become. I could no longer wield my katana in battle until I regained my honour and control.


w00t, btw thanks Hikosaka
Luke

[-Luke-]

Chapter 8:
We continued down the tunnel, with the sergeant leading. We encountered no more groups of the shark-like monsters as we progressed. The walls opened up as we went further down, but now we saw occasional wires running along the ground, connected to various generators scattered along the path. All of the generators were shorn in half or torn asunder, but still erratically emitted sparks. Something was still powering them. We saw signs pointing down the path, but they were to scarred to be legible.

The journey down was uneventful, and we saw so sign of the creatures until we had been walking for several hours. We found seven carcasses, several brutally beaten, their skulls caved in by a large blunt object. The broken scales and dark bruises were found all over the bodies of the creatures, they had taken a voracious beating before they went down, and by the looks of it that was when they had their skulls smashed in, to kill them. One or two of the bodies had a large wound burned through their skulls, obviously done by an overcharged rifle shot. The rest of the bodies were shorn in half or cloven in two. This had been done by a massive photon blade, obviously photon because of the ways the wounds were burn wounds and cauterised by the energy emitted by the blade. The blade had been swung in huge arcs, cutting deep gouges into the walls of the tunnel. It was clearly not wielded with much skill, but the strength of the wielder and the size of the blade made skill redundant.

"This…this was done by those Hunters" Biggs stammered, finger shaking at the lifeless forms. "I told you sir…its them! Those Hunters! We can't trust em sir, we can't!" He glared at Kase, Darvant and I, then looked plaintively at the sergeant.

The sergeant looked from Biggs to us, before shaking his head sadly. "I’m sorry Biggs, but it wasn't these guys. They had nothing to do with it. Anyway, if we meet those Hunters we out-number them, we can take em out easily right?"

Darvant raised an eyebrow quizzically, but stayed quiet. I hoped I was right about where his loyalties lay. He twirled his daggers as he looked at the corpses disdainfully. He walked over to one of the carcasses shorn in two, and kicked it on its back to see the cut. He whistled appreciatively, and Biggs snarled. Darvant turned, and looked down the passage curiously.

"Let's go then, I want to see who did this kind of whuppin." Said Darvant grinning, his face glowing scarlet in the ghostly light from his twirling daggers. He walked down the passage, an eerie scarlet glow dancing on the walls as he walked, dagger crystals spinning quietly at his sides.

I walked after him, holding the stained hilt of my katana, the congealed blood sticky in my hand. Kase walked after us, and the sergeant motioned for the soldiers to follow. Biggs took out his pistol, but held it at his side as he walked.

As we continued, we found more carcasses piled by the side of the passageway, all killed in the same ways as the ones found earlier, however, these monsters were bigger than the ones we fought and killed. They had larger fins, and darker scales. It looked as though they had taken a severe beating before they could be killed, with the ones killed by the sword sporting several not very deep slices before they were killed, and only one was killed in one blow, from head to midriff, with a gouge in the ground from where the blade hit the ground after passing though the target.

At the end of the path we saw a huge metal door, operated by a control panel and several pistons. The door was half open, the panel smashed by a blunt object, sparking randomly. Inside was a dark room, lighted by photon lights, illuminating a metal floor. Lights set in the metal lighted up a path into the area.

"Mines," breathed the sergeant as he read a sign pointing towards the entrance. "Those Hunters have been here. No doubt. We will set a beacon, and report back to Pioneer 2. We'll inform the Captain of what we've seen. Let's go."

[-Luke-]

Chapter 9:
We returned to Pioneer 2 with a drop ship that landed in the forest by the central Dome. We were back on Pioneer 2 in several hours; so different to the 3 minutes it took to get down. We had been gone 37 hours, arriving in the evening and exploring through the night. When we got into the Dome we lost track of time.

Back in my quarters I slept to regain my energy. When I woke up, I winced at the site of my tainted blade, lying on the table in my quarters. I went to the Medical Centre to have my wound examined. The claws of the creature had sliced straight through my skin, lacerating a good deal of muscle in my torso, but hadn’t hit any organs. The muscles were repaired with a synthetic tissue spray that would aid the healing. The gash was simply stitched. I was permitted to go and stay in my quarters, but I was banned from the training area and lost surface privileges for 2 weeks.

All I could do was pace my quarters and the rest of the ship, making my bad mood clear to all. The ship was much busier than when we left, the ship general areas bustling with civilians, going about buying supplies. I wondered why none were upset about the explosion on Coral. Until I was called to speak with the Captain.

He had several things to tell me, none of which I liked. In order to preserve order and peace on board the ship, no one on board who was not awake at the time of the explosion was told about the explosion. Even engineers who didn’t see the explosion were told the rocking of the ship was a steering fault. No one except the military and Hunters knew about the explosion. I disapproved of withholding information from the public, but I was eager to get back planetside so I didn’t disagree. Secondly, there was no report other than ours on the mystery Hunters. There were no Hunters on Pioneer 1 officially, but there were a lot of conspiracy theories about that.

Supposedly Pioneer 1 held only 30,000 passengers, 10,000 military personnel, the rest were civilians. However, the food consumption rate was much higher than it should have been for the amount of people on board, and there was a huge area in the cargo hold that had no cargo assigned to it. Illegal people, refugees people said, people who wanted to be taken to the new planet, so they bought illegal tickets.

The entire system was corrupt. The civilians oblivious to what happened down on the planet, illegal passengers on Pioneer 1. All of this made me think about something, something that had never occurred to me before. Both Pioneer 1 and 2 were designed to carry 30,000 and 40,000 respectively. However, even with the grossly diminished population because of disease and pollution, the world's population was far more than 70,000. I was appalled. What happened to the rest of the world? Why had no one thought of it? Did no one want to think about it? The rest of the world had been left there, to die with the planet.

Many people had their doubts about the Pioneer project, saying the people of a planet should die with the planet, and the entire plan was cowardly. I never thought about it. I was going, they were not. I didn’t want to die, sitting at home as the world tore itself apart. The toxins in the atmosphere were sinking into the earth, killing off plant life, oxygen levels slowly falling until unless you were young and fit you simply couldn’t live in big cities. The toxins in the air slowly eroded weak lungs, resulting in cancer and often complete lung failure. Many older citizens refused to leave Earth, not wanting to betray their planet of birth. I thought they were being foolish, but I honestly didn't care enough to do anything about it.

I silenced my rambling thoughts. There was no point in wondering what could or should have happened. All I had to worry about was myself, and that was fine by me. It was a shame those people had died, and I decided to leave it at that. I would leave the worrying about the Pioneer plan to those who created and managed it.

I walked out of my quarters to kill some time, but I wanted to see the planet. I knew it was only possible half of the day, as the viewing screens were shut off as we orbited the side of Coral with the Dome, so that the civilians wouldn’t see the gaping maw of the destroyed Dome.

Darvant saw me leaving my quarters and walked over. "Hey Donoph, you bored? I am. Let's go to the training area, grab your lacquered katana, I'll get my training daggers." He ran off, not waiting for a response. I sighed, turning around to grab my lacquered wooden katana, called a bokken. Not a real weapon in my mind, but it was necessary for non-lethal training. I had learned to wield it lethally it was part of my training to be worthy of the steel katana. I thought that the black pole the mysterious Hunter who attacked Biggs and the others used such a weapon. If properly lacquered, the wood could be extraordinarily strong.

[-Luke-]

Chapter 10:
I walked back out again, and headed towards the Training Centre. I saw Darvant again, waiting round the corner from my room, twirling two one-foot long hard wood sticks. I approached him, sheathing my practice sword at my waist.

"Yo Donoph, lets go. I booked the virtual reality room, this should be fun. Hey, I was wondering what you thought about those Hunters, you know, the ones that wrecked the soldiers. They must have been on Pioneer 1, to be down before us, but everyone on Pioneer 1 was supposed to be in the Dome for our arrival." Darvant looked at me expectantly, as if I had the answers to his questions.

"I don't know. It's possible they were Hunters from Pioneer 2, but they must have landed sometime before the explosion. We didn't see any other drop pods. I think its more likely they were from Pioneer 1, but weren't around for the explosion for whatever reason. I also don’t particularly care."

"You know what we Hunters have to do now? We are assigned into kill squads, and all we are meant to do is go down and make it safe for the people who don't even know it's dangerous. We go down there and fight, and the civilians know nothing. Lazy, all of them. They know nothing of what's down there, and even if they did they would be just as useless."

I remained silent as we rounded another corner into the Training Area. Darvant strode over to one of the larger doors, punched in an access code and walked in, a faint shimmer dancing over his form as he went in. We would be fighting in a VR room, so the surroundings wouldn’t be real but you could make it seem like you were wherever you want.

I walked in, looking at a lush jungle landscape, with a thundering waterfall crashing at my left. The door hissed shut behind me and faded into the background. Several tropical birds flew past, chittering at our presence.

"I programmed the environment to be random and fluctuate, so this fight should be interesting," said Darvant as he turned from looking around to face me. I rolled my eyes. If the scenery was random and would fluctuate, that would mean every now and again the area would change to another setting, and in a fight it could be disconcerting, even if the surroundings were only aesthetic and not corporeal.

"Ready?" Darvant asked with a smirk as he twirled his daggers.

"Always."

He started to strafe around me, flipping his daggers from under to above his fists. I grabbed the handle of my bokken and drew it from my belt, holding it in front of me to fend of any attacks. As he had dual weapons I would have to be fast in defending, but he would be defending very little.

Darvant leapt forward, swinging the right dagger in a downward arc while holding the other back to sweep beneath the first blow. I stepped back to dodge the first blow, then swung my bokken up to knock back the second dagger. Darvant stepped to the side, thrusting a dagger towards me. I grabbed the upper part of my bokken with my free hand, and held it horizontal, waiting for the dagger to pass before I flipped the bokken up, smashing the dagger free from Darvant's hand. He growled, stepping backwards and grasping his remaining dagger with both hands.

The air shimmered. We were in a sprawling city, skyscrapers towering on all sides. Paper and litter blew across the background, caught up in a swirling wind. Shadows of people slinked past in the distance.

Darvant slammed his dagger down at me; I barely countered his attack with a diagonal parry. He leapt forward, raining blows on my defence. I was able to keep up blocking, but there was no time to attack. Remembering my fight with the crazed engineer, I ducked to the side, bringing my bokken round, to crack down on Darvants back. He fell forward with a grunt, sliding on the ground.

"You're dead. Donoph: 1, Darvant: 0 " I smiled, relishing the look of angry and repressed pain that was carved on Darvant's face. He snarled as he grabbed his daggers from the ground.

"Ok, lets go. You won't get me again." He said as he winced in pain getting up.

He dived forward, and as I sidestepped to avoid him, he spun on the ground, kicking me in the back of the leg. I fell forward to my knees, and he slammed one dagger into my back. A trickle of blood escaped my lips as he punched me in the face. I was on the ground, trying to bring up my bokken to defend, but the lancing pain in my legs told me it was too late.

"You know what Donoph, it should be us Hunters who get the credit for clearing up Coral. The military doesn't do anything, and the civilians are useless. We are the only one who can survive down there. We don't need them."

I couldn't understand what he was saying. Survive down on Coral? Without the military and the civilians? What was he talking about? My questions were answered by a sharp kick in the ribs from him, telling me to get up.

I flipped to my feet, swinging my bokken round behind him, to hit him in the back of the knees, so he staggered for an instant. In that time I ended the horizontal arc with the bokken, brought it about, and smashed it into his back. He fell to the ground, releasing his daggers. He got to his feet, brushing himself off as the background swirled, revealing the caves we were in before.

"Think about what I said Donoph. I'll see you later, when you're allowed planetside. See you later." He said as he walked out, dismissing me with a casual wave. I thought he was rambling, angry with adrenaline, but he was serious.

What can I say http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_confused.gif I've been busy, hope everyone enjoys the new chapters...
Luke