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Arcane
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 Posted - May 03 2003 : 21:19:18
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Fiery red hair swirled through the air as two slender arms spun drumsticks in unpredictable directions as if being thrown out by centrifugal force. This was not the jazz man on sabatical in the New Mexico dessert. (Know who it is yet?) This was the Ginger Baker of the late 1960's. Not your typical metal drummer, but Arcane was a lover of the classics and Ginger Baker was one of Aged's best holographic projections. Besides, you could get a holo drummer to play anyway you wanted.
As for Aged, he rarely wore his dress whites and this was no exception. Standing next to Arcane, he looked rather plain. Aged's fashion statements were usually pretty subtle - his only concession to fashion, on this occassion, being his Ray-Bans. With more notice, he might have been wearing his rattlesnake boots, but, for now, the Ray-Bans and rolled up sleeves would have to do. Besides, to a guy born south of the Mason-Dixon line, rolled up sleeves were a fashion statement.
Peering through the crowds, Aged sees Festus "moving in for the kill". So, as "For whom the bell tolls" ends, Aged strikes up another tune aimed at "helping" Festus in his quest. Arcane, recognizing the song immediately from the intro, joins right in...
"You're working in bars
Riding in cars
Never gonna give it for free ...
Your apartment with a view
On the finest avenue
Looking at your beat on the street
You're always pushing, shoving
Satisfied with nothing
You bitch, you must be getting old ...
So stop your love on the road
All your digging for gold
You make me wonder ...
Yes I wonder, I wonder ...
HONEY... Whaddya do for MONEY?....
HONEY ... Whaddya do for MONEY? ...
Where you get your kicks?
You're loving on the take
And you're always on the make
Squeezing all the blood out of men ...
They're all standing in a queue
Just to spend the night with you
It's business as usual again ...
You're always grabbin', stabbin'
Trying to get it back in
But girl you must be getting slow ...
So stop your love on the road
All your digging for gold
You make me wonder ...
Yes I wonder, ... yes I wonder ...
HONEY... Whaddya do for MONEY?....
HONEY ... Whaddya do for MONEY? ...
Yeah, whaddya do for money honey, how you get your kicks?
Whaddya do for money honey, how you get your licks? ... "
Aged and Arcane loved adding their influence to Festus' romantic pursuits when they could.
As Aged's hand slid up the neck for the final note, he reached up with his other hand grabbing the guitar near the head and swung it wildly down on the platform - sending bits of wood, wire and plastic flying in all directions.
"WTF, ARE YOU DOING?", screams Arcane.
"huh? What's the prob? It's just a holo guitar."
"No! That one was REAL! It was over a thousand years old!!!"
"@#%$! Sorry man." Aged now knew what he'd be spending his paycheck on. "You know", thought Aged to himself, "they say the makers of Persian rugs always intentionally put a flaw in their work since only Allah was capable of perfection. Maybe that would be a good idea for me too with my holo programs. ... well, except for the girls, of course."
Posted by: Aged
(5/24/01 1:03:39 pm)
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Arcane
Administrator
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Posted - May 03 2003 : 21:22:12
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As planet fall was approaching, Medicare was tending to his duties as Chief Medical Officer as well as practicing in the simulator to keep his title as Doctor Death. Unknown to the other shipmates was that he didn't even carry a medical degree. He always thought it was cool to wear the white coat and get to use all the cool medical gadgets and one day got recruited out of the blue.
Medicare was heading back to the sick bay and rounded the corner bumping into Ginko. "Oops", said Ginko, "I always seem to do that, sorry bro". "No problem Ginko, at least I'm not in my mech this time" chuckled Medi. Upon entering the medical quarters, Medi notices that Arcane is helping out in the Green Lab. The green lab is where the ships supply of "Medical" marijuana is grown for medicinal purposes in these long space flights. Normally Medi wouldn't think twice about the extra help, heck at times he had to almost chase "helpers" out of the green lab like a scare crow would back on earth. Not surprisingly given his tendency to fantasize, one of the most frequent visitors was Festus. "Arcane", shouted Medi through the glass wall into the green lab. "Ummmmm, lemme guess, you working out your frustrations with a little gardening, right ". Medicare figured that with planet fall would come formal dinners and receptions. And Arcane would probably be putting on another impromptu "concert". Heck Medi remembered no concert would be complete without a little ......
Leaving the Sick bay for a quick visit to the head, Medi bumps into ....... you guessed it! "GINKO!!!" "damn dude, are you patrolling the halls looking for your next mark, or what?", Medi's response being a little short, he quickly responded so as not to hurt Gink's feelings, "Just Kidding, bud. I am making for the head, do you know if Festus is done fumigating the somofabitch?". "Sorry again Medi", Gink said, "I'm not sure if Festus is done in there, needless to say, it's a big job" "No problem, bro, I'll check you later at the reception, See ya" Medicare secretly thinks to himself that perhaps some glasses might help ginko to stop running into things. Ginko would probably benefit more from laser eye surgery, but Medi, knowing hes not a real doctor, figures that maybe that wouldn't be a good idea.
Posted by: MedicareOMO
(5/25/01 8:15:28 am)
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Arcane
Administrator
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Posted - May 03 2003 : 21:24:23
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Now guitarless, Aged looks down at the crowd below and notices that he's finally gotten the attention of Festus' mark. Thinking quickly, Aged decides to go for broke ...
You let me violate you ...
You let me desecrate you ...
You let me penetrate you ...
You let me complicate you ...
Help me, I broke apart my insides ...
Help me, i've got no soul to sell ...
Help me, the only thing that works for me, help me get away from myself.
I want to @#%$ you like an animal.
I want to feel you from the inside.
I want to @#%$ you like an animal.
My whole existence is flawed, you get me closer to god ...
As Aged gyrates around, Festus' would-be companion for the evening gives Aged a look of total fascination - one that lets him know she's his for the taking. In response, Aged gives her a look of feigned disinterest - a sort of "Are you sure you're up to it?" kind of message embedded in the expression on his face.
Sensing the challenge, her curiousity piqued, she works her way up to the side of the platform where Aged and Arcane and their holo band were playing. She's willing to do whatever it takes to get close to Aged and he can sense it.
Looking down at Festus, Aged now sees that same expression on Festus' face that he saw earlier on Myopic's. But, it's far more intense and desparate. Aged returns the look with a half smile. He knows he'll give her back in a while - after he's through examining every inch of her body. One of the secrets of Aged's prowess at holo sculpting "companions" was maintaining a thorough program of investigation of real, live subjects. Many of his girls were identical (down to the last detail) to real ones. Occassionally, they would be a composite of features integrated together out of Aged's imagination, but there was something about staying close to the real thing that was special. Anyway, collecting the "raw data" was a lot of fun.
Disappearing through the bulkhead back into the ship, Aged and his "research project" made their way back to the holo decks where Aged dialed up a lavish beach house. He wanted to get things just right and the holo deck was just the place to do it. There you could set the perfect mood and had access to all the sensor equipment you could ever want. (to augment your own, of course) "Jackpot!!", thought Aged, "We needed more red-heads in the inventory." As if on cue (and it was), sunset began to fall at the beach ...
Posted by: Aged
(5/25/01 11:38:24 am)
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Arcane
Administrator
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Posted - May 03 2003 : 21:26:50
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The clean up done, Festus had rejoined the party.
He had been chatting up quite the attractive local gal, when his cochlear implant "pinged" him.
Few people had cochlear implants, less than 1 in 500, due to their expense and the risk of surgical complications. Up to 10% of patients developed a permanent inner ear imbalance that left them with poor balance and perpetual vertigo.
Needless to say, such problems would prematurely end a mechwarriors career.
Festus had had his inserted over 20 years ago, and now only had to download software upgrades bi-annually to keep it updated.
These implants allowed the user to interface remotely with just about any neural-net driven equipment. This obviously included the semi-sentient AI of Mechs, computer and communications systems.
The ping he recieved was from an AI subroutine he had set up on the way to St. Ives. It was a monitoring program, one that had been customized to collect any data it could, thru Com-Star eavesdropping, news-nets, and local traffic.
Black market decryption programs used by the AI were able to read almost 98% of what it encountered. Given enough time, tho there frequently wasn't enough of that, it cracked what many houses considered their most secure links.
He turned away from his companion, tipping his head and placing a hand to his ear as the AI informed him of several priority intercepts, that it now believed needed urgent attention.
Firstly, there had been a sudden, and still un-annouced change in power in House Liao. Sun-Tzu Liao has abdicated the throne of the Capellan Confederation and married Isis Marik. Control appeared to have been seized by the Iron Brigade, a veteran Battle group within House Liao. No further information was available at this time.
The next data feed was from another AI, a surveilance intelligence Festus had doing a review of St. Ives news-nets, emergency groups (fire, medical), infra-structure, and insurance organizations.
The AI had had been collating and analyzing information from these sources, going back 6 months to present day. Seemingly random accidents, power grid failures, lost shipments, temporary blackouts in surveilance nets, production drops, were all noted and assigned a value.
Taken individually, none of these occurrances appeared to be anything but random. But when combined and analyzed with the sophisticated AI and processing power available thru the Geriatrix, a pattern had emerged.
A fire at a key military post, resulting in a temporary gap in the surveilance net, followed by a train derailment and the loss of replacement parts for the post. The system was running, but backup parts were not going to arrive for 2 weeks.
A flitter accident, one that just so happened to involve the chief systems engineer at the same base, resulting in his replacement with an inexperienced junior.
There were others, events and accidents that did not seem connected, but that the AI had analyzed and concluded were. While the odds of each and every bit of information not being what it seemed were small, less than 3%, the odds of all these things occuring within a given time frame, in the order they did, where and when they did, the odds of it being "NON-RANDOM and PRE-MEDITATED", in the stilted words of the AI, increased to over 75%.
Finally, several jump signatures from neighbouring planets in Davion space had been detected. While everything appeared legitimate, flight profiles, lading bills, and shipping contracts were are scrupulously in order, they did not fit within historical patterns for the region.
Festus didn't need long, standing there with his back turned to the revelry, to come to the conclusion he did. As he turned back toward the crowd, his face intense and desperate, he glanced at Aged.
Aged had taken up with his companion and was on the "move", but that could wait. Festus kept surveying the crowd, trying to find Arcane and Myopic.
St Ives was about to be attacked,in all likelyhood within 2 weeks or less, and they had just gotten advanced warning..............
Posted by: FestusOMO
(5/25/01 3:20:35 pm)
Edited by: FestusOMO at: 5/25/01 6:32:35 pm
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Arcane
Administrator
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Posted - May 03 2003 : 21:28:20
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Festus came around the corner at full tilt and about took Buttcrax out.
"Whhoooaaa! Festus, whats going on."
"If you see Myopic or Arcane send them to my Ops com. I need them fast." barked Festus.
Buttcrax could see a look that ment something was moving, and all things trivial had been stowed.
"And start gearing up the ration synth mods, and stock MRE,s in every ones mech. I want all the unassigned platforms stocked to. It could be protracted so make sure the ejection pods all have emergency food and get sick bay to get the med kits in order."
He keept putting his hand to his ear and looking down and to the left.
Someone was talking to him. Was he patched? He must be. Buttcrax never suspected that Festus had an Implant. The only balance problems he saw in Festus were when he had been sober to long.
Buttcrax almost forgot what Festus could do to a commode when duty shifted him into the focused warrior, and Butt had a grudging respect for the man as such. Times like this made the respect a little less grudging but Buttcrax was sure that Festus would destroy that as soon as the battle was over. Again.
"roger, ......Whats Up "
"Ifin I could tell ya, i'd do it. Yess sir I would. But I can't. Not this here Minute anyways."
"Just help me out here and start your battle station duties real qiute like and unofficial."
Festus turned to walk away and again put his hand to the side of his head an looked down.
Thats when he saw it.
The mark at the base of his skull.
The bumps sprang to attention on Buttcrax flesh.
Normaly it would have been under his hairline but it looked like he singed the hair on the back of his head. I dont even want to consider how.
It was a spoked wheel inside a circle. The pie piece formed from 4:00 to 6:00 was darkened.
This was not the only mark like this on the ship, not by a long shot. but now it was more than coincidence.
Ginko, Aged, Arcane.....Now Festus, all with the mark of the most infamous covert cloning vat experiment ever to distroy political careers and bring down and entire government.
But how, This was so long ago. these guys were old but now Buttcrax new that they were really old, older than anyone could Imagin. Myopic had to be in on It. They would all requiere special meds to prevent thier DNA fade. These guys were over 170 years old. What excuse was Myopic using to get the meds into festus.
Festus' side line in the low budget porn flicks was now doubly impressive. And the Others penchant for ancient music made a little more sence.
Ginko must know something, Hes been rummaging around in the ships records for days and he's sullen as hell. Does He know? The date? Has he put it together?
Buttcrax needed to contact his conduit
Joey Bag-o-donuts.
Buttcrax was here for a reason. He was originaly sent to watch Aged.
Buttcrax was determined to atone for the sins of his ancestors and the monstrosities that came out of the cloning vats at Rockyflats between Denver and Boulder. He grew up with a view of the inconspicuous complex out side the dinning room picture window. Its amazing how much congressional support you can get with the front of a nuclear fuel plant. Security, Public fear, enhanced by a strategicaly placed stories about radiation venting into the atmosphere. His Greatx4 Grandmother actually sprinkled small amounts of radioactive material for the press to detect with their geiger counters and draw protesters. It was a great distraction.
Originaly, Buttcrax thought he was protecting society from the likes of Aged. And the Genetic engeniering ethics committee still thought that was his mission. But now Buttcrax saw differently. He wanted to protect Aged from the geec's.
Then he encountered Arcane. Buttcrax thought it was a coincidence. However strange. He didn't think th GEEC's knew about him
Ginko was Infamous in the GEEC and Buttcrax was blown away when he was assigned to the Geriatric. In fact the GEEC launched an investigation into Buttcrax when it happend because they thought he had something to do with the assignment. Buttcrax wondered if his memory block would hold, and wether myopic wanted it to? Or was he trying to break it?
And now Festus.
Buttcrax was sweating ice cubes and he was positive nobody knew of Festus' Origin. How could he have slipped through.
Myopic was high on the suspect list, but Buttcrax didnt know what he suspected him of. He was in on it somehow.
Myopic surly doesn't know what he has on his hands and the genetic link they all share.
Joey Bag-o-donuts has a little assignment and Buttcrax had to make contact.
Now Buttcrax had four to protect form a black agency That wanted to erase the results of its past, and had no understanding of what they wanted to distroy. Or the hell that would be visited on them if these MEN were to make the connection and take out what many would consider justified vengance.
Posted by: ButtCrax OMO
(5/26/01 11:43:06 am)
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St. Ives Compact
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