StarDestroyer.Net BBS

"Good to know. But I'm probably going to get the firing squad after this."

Fax Modem leaves the hangar and goes to Jon B's office. Once there, he drops several memory devices on the desk.

"The complete research files of SHADO."

I was aware that Fax Modem had returned. I had ordered the Firebird out of the hanger when Barnest2 was a few minutes out. Right now the Interceptor was getting refueled. I had also given explicit orders that as long as Fax was coming to me, he was to be unharrased. He took one step off that path or interacted with anyone or anything else? Well, we do have flamethrowers and rifles.

I waited, going over the latest dull and dreary status reports from the various bases. Long, silent minutes passed.

"SHADO? Now, how would you know to call them that? I gave them that name when I came back from my captivity for use in our reports. And what could possibly be that important that you would risk a 9mm retirement to bring them to me?"

Fax looked at the director, looking sullen and tired.

"Among those files is some recordings of interrogations of some people. One of them is you. Keep in mind, I was a member of that group for only one reason. I thought they were humanity's last hope. We had to use a nuclear weapon to destroy their armada after all. They approached me, showed me what they could do. And warned me what would happen if amateurs got in the line of fire."

Fax made a grunting noise as he put one of his hands to his ribcage. After a few grunts of pain, he continued.

"I tried to keep my two jobs overlapping as much as possible. I didn't want anyone to die. I wasn't a killer before, and I'm still not now. I've hurt people, people that might've been friends, but I made my choices. Anyway, my life isn't important. SHADO is. They receive quite a few of the same reports you send to your superiors. While you focus on the alien research, they've been focusing on weapons. Which is good, but they're not using it for alien defense."

He started catching his breath.

"This is nothing more than a profitable venture for them. Highest bidder gets defended, everyone else is left in the cold. Billions could die and they wouldn't care. But that's just their first phase."

He coughed, noticing that blood caught on his hand.

"Once they have the aliens beat, and the rest of the world is in flames or taken over, its going to be a coup. They want the Aliens to wipe out everyone Else's infrastructure, so they don't have to. But you've been making too much noise and ruining their plans. They're going to be coming after you. That's why I brought those memory devices, they contain all their weapons research, all of their plans, some of their funding notes and rosters."

Fax coughed and then smiled.

"I'm the freaking Deep Throat. That's why I came and risked it all. You can go ahead and shoot me, I don't care. But I'm not going to let them continue. I thought I did the right thing then, and that's what I think I'm doing now."

Fax stopped talking, and just sat there, waiting for what would happen next.

Fax Modem was watched quietly. SirNitram was angry. He wasn't meeting the return. All his datafiles stolen, then, he comes back with theirs. Standing in his lab, the scientist seethed. "Deep Throat.. Yea right." A moment to spit. A button was pushed. "Barnest2. Sorry.. I've been using your eyes." The connection broke.

REQUESTING PERMISSION TO LIQUIDATE TRAITOR

UNPREDICTABLE AND ERRATIC BEHAVIOR, CHANGING LOYALTIES MAY LEAD TO FURTHER SECURITY BREACHES. ALREADY ALL CYBERNETIC AGENTS AND COMPUTER SYSTEMS MIGHT HAVE BEEN COMPROMISED DUE TO THE TRAITOR'S HIGH SECURITY CLEARANCE.

Fax noticed the murderous looks from the PHALANX members passing by. He leaned back in his chair, knowing that this was only the beginning.

I didn't move. There was far too much at stake here. Too much between PHALANX and our shadow to throw it all into the fire on a whim. Fax left us. He came back. But he wasn't the one who attacked me. And now he came with a peace offering.

This was bigger than me.

And yet, his actions meant that he still didn't know the truth.

I had to buy time.

"I will open the floor to questions from the whole of PHALANX as I consider our future actions. Please keep your questions civil in tone and content."

Force Lord moved himself in front of FaxModem1, looking him straight in the eye. In a dark tone, he said, "Why should we trust you? You not only betrayed PHALANX, but also backstabbed SHADO. For all we know you could be working for a third-party." Pointing at Fax, he stated, "Give us one good reason why we shouldn't just fire you permanently. And by firing, I don't just mean 'kick out'."

Without breaking the stare, Fax answered.

"You shouldn't trust me, you're absolutely right, I'm a traitor, to everyone." Fax looked down at that. Then met Force Lord's eyes again.

"As for not shooting me, the SHADO files, if that's not enough, show me to the nearest wall so we can get this over with."

FaxModem1 wrote:Without breaking the stare, Fax answered.

"You shouldn't trust me, you're absolutely right, I'm a traitor, to everyone." Fax looked down at that. Then met Force Lord's eyes again.

"As for not shooting me, the SHADO files, if that's not enough, show me to the nearest wall so we can get this over with."

Force Lord stared at FaxModem1 for what seemed an eternity, though in reality it was only a few seconds. He finally sighed, and said, "Don't pull a stunt like that again, you heard me? Life doesn't give you one-ups."

Do you have a good idea of the professionalism of Shado? Even just an idea of the payscale of the ordinary grunts they have can be of use to me.

"They have dental, a lounge, good health plan, at least one base. Their weapons tech is more advanced than PHALANX's, but they don't know a thing about the aliens. They're associated with a few ambassadors in the UN."

((Hey guys, don't forget to vote on research. So far I have Academia's standing vote for Plasma Pistols, and Sir Nitram's vote for the Alien Mind.

Update on Monday.))

I'll go ahead and vote for Alien Mind, just to drive our favorite researcher further over the chasm of insanity.

FIREPOWER DEPLOYED ON THE FIELD SUFFICIENT FOR THE TIME BEING

MORE KNOWLEDGE REQUIRED OF ENEMY STRATEGY

SUGGEST RESEARCH INTO ALIEN MIND

Fourth for alien mind.

Add a fifth for Alien Mind.

Sixth Alien Mind

More laser weapons.

Edi had been preoccupied with a lot of things since his brush with death and his almost miraculous recovery. But now that he had had time to think, he was angry. Steaming, breathe somke and flame out of his mouth angry. He marched into the director's office, scattering the office staff out of his way and brushing past anyone who objected. He kicked the door open.

"Director! We have been at this shit for over half a year, so WHY THE BLOODY THE HELL DO WE NOT HAVE AN ALIEN CRAFT READY FOR STUDY? No facilities? Well, we have enough alien weapons to sell on the black market to fund a storage facility and then some, and we need to get on that ASAP!"

"We've been selling more than one intact ship off to who knows where and if we don't get a handle on that ourselves, we might even be going up against alien ships under SHADO control when we do take them out!"

"I'd rather not stack the deck against us anymore than it already is. Because chances are, the next time I'll have a bang on collision with Death rather than just a brush. And that's a steamroller I'd rather not get under, thank you very much."

"Thank you for your time, Director."

Edi turns on his heel and marches out.

I looked past FaxModem to Sir Nitram. “Begin research into the Alien Mind, the more we know about them, the better.”


“As for you, FaxModem. You are hereby confined to quarters. If you attempt to enter into any prohibited zone, including but not limited to the Workshop, the Command Center, the Power Plant, The Labs, the Hangers, Alien Containment and Storage, you will be shot as a spy and traitor. If you speak to anyone I, or the Assistant Director does not authorize, then the same will happen.

“I would let PeZook get his way right now, but you are more valuable to me as a living tool against PHALANX's foes than you are as a cooling corpse. You will be interrogated as I, or the Assistant Director see fit, and if you lie to us, well, you can imagine.

“And if you don't agree to these conditions, you won't leave this room alive.”

12:00, 10 July 2084
Barracks, Builder of Chinese DOOM
China, The Asian Republics

Cyber-PeZook appraised his new weapon with care. “FIELD TESTS ARE REQUIRED.”

08:13, 10 July 2084
Command Center, Builder of Chinese DOOM
Chine, The Asian Republics

“We have Aliens on the ground in Mongolia! Send the Firebird, and tell PeZook he can get his practice in now.”

3 Hours Later, Outer Mongolia...

Cyber-PeZook: “LASER RIFLE HAS GOOD ERGONOMICS.”


Cyber-PeZook: “XENO SPOTTED. IT APPEARS TO HAVE NO WEAPONS.”
OmniQ: “Is that a grenade in its hands?”


Eternal Freedom: “I've got two more Taman by the ship.”

Eternal Freedom: “That's a kill.”



Cyber-Vortex Empire: “Taking care of the Xeno that's flanking us. It seems these Xenos are under-equipped.”


Cyber-PeZook: “RIFLE LACKS ACCURACY AT EXTREME RANGE.”
((Screencapping the Lasers in action is hard as they are practically a 'zip' on the screen. This was the best shot I could get out of the map.))



Edi: “What the hell? Did it try to throw a grenade inside a building?”
OmniQ: “Yep. Dumb fucker fried himself.”
((Best moment of the map right there. It tried to 'nade a civvie, but it hit a wall and bounced back. Caught me by surprise, so I didn't get a shot of it in action.))



Vehrec: “Covering exit to Xeno ship. Taman down. Big Ugly down.”


Cyber-Vortex Empire: “And another one down in front of the ship.”



Hawkwings: “Site Secured.”


Cyber-PeZook: “INSUFFICIENT FIELD DATA ACQUIRED. MORE MISSIONS NEEDED.”

00:33, 13 July 2084
Command Center, PHALANX HQ
Turkey, GEU

“We have reports on the ground from a city on the southern point of Argentina.”

“Pull the Director out of bed and make sure he's equipped. That man needs to learn to wake up on a moment's notice.”

05:36, Same Day...
“Terror Attack in Saskatoon, Canada!”

“Shit, the Firebird is already on their way to The Revolutionary Countries. Deploy the Asian Team.”

17:00, 13 July 2084
Firebird Dropship, Southern Atlantic

I looked over the reports sent to me by Nitram and Academia.


I looked up to see the rest of the Dropteam looking over my shoulders at the reports. ForceLord was first to speak. “What the Hell?” I shrugged.

“We'll need a new research goal for now though. Maybe something will come up in time.”

---

Sorry about the shortness, but the timing was off for me to do the Ushuaia mission (which I have some fancy plans for as the MP match fell through on technical difficulties). Thanks be to Edi, for trying really hard though!

Also, you may have noticed that there is no Radar coverage around NA51. Weeelllllllll...... I may have not reported that the Xeno's attacked the base and destroyed it near the beginning of the month. I was hoping to hide it from you guys until it was built back up again, but I failed. Sorry. ;p

Next time should be fun though! I have big, huge plans! BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

If they're attacking our bases now, maybe some base defense lasers would be in order? Then alien autopsy.

Base Defense Lasers for everyone! We shall drown them in PHOTONIC DOOOM!

Yay, I didn't get killed this time! And I say we autopsy the Ortnok thing, the more we know about these bastards the faster we can kill them!

Hawkwings looks at the latest research report. "Wait, who's this crazy Yamamura guy? He wants to teach these aliens? But that's..."

Suddenly overcome by a wave of terror, Hawkwings spends the next hour crafting a strongly-worded email to Nitram expressing his views of what an outstandingly stupid idea this was.

Then, he placed his vote for Base Defense lasers. He didn't know any of the people at Not Area 51, but even then the PHALANX comraderie compelled him to vote for big huge lasers.

Kerr... kerr... kerr...

I wonder why it makes that noise...

(You should also put one researcher on Kerrblades)

Fax Modem sat in his quarters, bouncing a ball against the wall, hoping he made the right choice. He had been following his conscience the entire way through, and this is where it got him.

"Figures"