Alina - part I Alina Martin grew up in the mega-city of Neo-Tokyo, one of the six hubs that link the three concentric rings that wrap around the radioactive blue-green gem that was the birth-place of humanity. The Earth-Ring Station was as good a home as any a young girl could hope for and she had a normal childhood.Her father worked in the rings, loading and unloading freight from the thousands of ships that docked there on any given day and her mother worked as an actuary for T.R.I.P. (Technological Radiological Industrial Pharmacological) and she wasn’t allowed to talk about most of what she did on a daily basis.Her father on the other hand, wou
Alina - part II Consciousness crashed down on her like a heavy weight, shocking her out of a sleep filled with recurring images of her father being shot down in the street by Conglomerate soldiers. She at bolt upright, gasping for air and screaming out, “Daddy!”“It’s OK. You’re safe.” A man’s voice that was distinctly not her father’s said from the shadows of the dimly lit room she found herself in.“What… where…” she stammered, trying to get her bearings in the semi-darkness. She was in a bed, definitely not the couch she had been sleeping on for nearly a month, and the contours of the room were
Alina - part III The next few hours seemed to pass in a blur as Alina got up, got dressed (she couldn’t remember if she had done it on her own or if she had been assisted), ate a small meal, and then was rushed off through the narrow corridors of the innermost parts of the Earth Ring Station where she quickly lost her bearings and would surely have disappeared for all eternity had she not been guided by Turin’s strong grip on her hand.Finally, she found herself squeezing into a shipping crate that was barely large enough for her and Turin was explaining the functions of a couple of tubes that protruded from a small box on the wall of the crate, on
Darren - part IIa Consciousness returned in successive waves, each one pounding against his mind like a fully loaded garbage scow. The first sensation he was aware of was the blood coursing like high voltage current through his brain. Next came the sounds, dozens of them all blended together in a single cacophony that washed over his senses like he imagined a waterfall might pummel the body of someone unfortunate enough to stand beneath it. He tried to push it back, to keep the wash of sound out of his mind, but it kept pushing incessantly against his skull, eager to break in and make a bigger mess of things.He still couldn’t quite figure out what was g
Darren - part II As if the three day trip from Venus to the Tyconderoga, nestled snugly in the Earth-moon Lagrange point, wasn’t bad enough, almost the instant they had landed and the shuttle bay had been pressurized, Darren had been rushed off to the medical bay, where he continued to sit and wait some three hours later. He thought he would go mad from the simple act of waiting for someone to come and see him. The bright, white walls of the waiting room were antiseptic in their finish, glowing brightly with light reflected from the illumination panels around the room.The throbbing in his shoulder had turned into a dull ache more than a day ago, but in
Darren - part III Swimming his way back to consciousness seemed to require a Herculean amount of effort. His mind still felt as though it was being held down by massive weights. Down in the quagmire that boiled up from beneath, belching and spewing toxic fumes that confused and dulled his reawakening senses.He had no idea how long he had been swimming in his black sea of uncertainty and confusion before he started to surface, ever so slowly. The first sense to return to his control was the ability to feel. It started as a tingling sensation rolling up and down his body and quickly turned into a bevy of sensations he had never experienced before. He could fee
Jumah's World Part 1 Jumah sighed heavily as he looked out the window into the dimly lit expanse beyond the room he had been forced to stay in the previous night. To say that he hated the city of Talanor would be, at best, an understatement. However, he would never use the word 'hate' to describe his feelings about the city. Not because of any need he might feel to use more complicated words, or because he was afraid some lover of the subterranean city would over hear him disparaging their home. No, he would not use that word because that was a word he felt should be reserved for those things in life that were generally worse in nature than anything else one had
Jumah 2 As they moved into the mine Jumah's claustrophobia began to settle in on him. He forced his apprehension into the back of his mind and focused on the road ahead. The small party worked their way deeper into the mine with startling efficiency considering, or perhaps because of, their small stature. The entire time they were moving through the dark cavern, lit by the half-dozen small glow-stones hanging from their equipment, Gimbobble was carrying on about how she expected to find the lost Dwarven capital city of Kal'ek T'nal that had been buried since the great ware eons ago.She went into great, GREAT detail on the architecture and craftsma
Jumah's World vol 3 "Are you sure this is a good idea Master Wataru?" Gimbobble's voice was near cracking up as she spoke from behind Jumah's leg where she apparently felt safe and secure from the terrifying Kobold."Gimbobble, I asked you to call me Jumah." He smiled to himself as they followed the Kobold through the darkness of the ever deepening mine shaft. His small clawed feet handling the terrain with amazing ease as the rest of them struggled to keep pace with him. Jumah was sure the creature would have bolted by now, if it weren't for the thin rope he had tied about its waist."Oh." She said in a suddenly hurt voice. It seemed obvious that she was now
Jumah's World vol 4 They had been traveling quickly down hill for several hours before the steep decline began to level out again. Finally the Kobold came to an abrupt stop and seemed to refuse to go any further into the mine. Jumah leaned down and seemed to have a fairly intense conversation with the creature in its native tongue before finally producing a small leather pouch from one of his larger belt pouches. Turning the pouch over in his hand several small, brown objects fell into his open palm, each looking like a tiny wooden spiral. The Kobold's eyes went wide in amazement and its bat-like wings fluttered with uncontained excitement. As Jumah carefully po
The trouble with Goblins The rain poured down around her, forcing her heavy mage robes to cling tightly to her body and weigh down her slender limbs. Lightning streaked across the sky in an angry flash that made her violet eyes shine in the darkness of the cool autumn night. The sound of a snapping branch behind her alerted her to the presence of her quarry and she tightened her grip on her weapon as she whirled around, sending a spiraling arc of water out from the hem of her drenched robes. Her long, pointed ears perked up as she tried to get a fix on where the sound had come from, but the thunder clap that followed the lightning a moment gone tore through the glad
Trouble with Goblins -revised- The rain poured down around her, forcing her heavy mage robes to cling tightly to her body and weigh down her slender limbs. Lightning streaked across the sky in an angry flash that made her violet eyes shine in the darkness of the wet autumn night. The sound of a snapping branch behind her alerted her to the presence. Her quarry was near. She tightened her grip on her weapon as she whirled around, sending a spiraling arc of water out from the hem of her drenched robes. Long, pointed ears perked up as she tried to get a fix on where the sound had come from, but the thunder clap that followed the lightning tore through the glade and jarred her
An Orc is an Orc... Riana dropped to the ground so quickly that her long platinum hair hung in the air for an instant allowing the razor sharp blade to shear off several inches of her thick tresses before gravity could pull them out of the way. She threw her weight to the right, twisting her svelte frame around as she rolled away from the heavy boot that was now moving swiftly toward her head. "Kat! Now!" She hollered as she rolled clear of the orc.Stepping out from behind the large tree she had been hiding behind, Katrina's long, tapered elven ears swept back in concentration as she uttered the spell and a gout of flames lanced from her extended hand and th
Be Careful What you Wish For The explosion shook the lab despite its magically indestructible walls. Students gathered in the hall around the laboratory as professors dashed bravely into the thick, acrid smoke billowing out the door. It seemed like an hour before two of the Academy’s professors dragged her unconscious body out of the stinking cloud. Her robes were a tatters, blasted to shreds by the concussive force of the explosion and her face was black with soot and bore streaks of various other colors radiating out from her nose like a kaleidoscope. Her hair was thick and matted with ash and soot, its normally fine, platinum strands frozen in some parody of the
Vincent Torres: Vol I The ship stood on end as he yanked back on the stick. To the outside observer it looked as though the sleek craft lifted it's nose up into the air, mere feet above the landing strip, and then as he slammed the throttle forward a column of fire erupted from the ass end of the ship and catapulted it straight up and out of sight so quickly that witnesses would have said it happened in an instant.His instrument panel screamed out at him to stop the maneuver, but reeked of hypocrisy as his proximity sensors screamed at him to loose the missile that somehow managed to follow him through the break-neck aerial feat. Yanking the stick to the side a
Vincent Torres: Vol II "Holy hell!" Vin spat as the body of the woman spilled out on the deck of the cargo hold.Immediately he knelt down beside her and touched his fingers to her neck, checking for a pulse. As he touched her, she rolled over onto her back and Vin reflexively shrank back from her as she came into full view."What the frig?!"As the light streamed down on the form before him he curled up the edge of his lip in distaste. The body was not that of a young woman after all, at least not completely. Most of the left side of the figure bore the soft, shapely curves of a young woman with athletic, toned muscles and the appearance of a strong youth about
Vincent Torres: Vol III In a flash Vincent redirected the ship's auto-pilot toward a friendly berth in the dregs and as the vessel came about to its new heading he jumped out of his seat and dashed toward the aft cargo hold.He rested a shoulder against the door as he slipped his pistol from its holster and clicked the safety catch off. Quickly he used his personal computer to interface with the ship's surveillance systems, angling the camera around the cargo hold once more to see if he could locate the strange figure."Figures. No sign of'em." He mumbled to himself as he switched off the display and returned his attention to the door where he tapped out a series
Vincent Torres: Vol IV As he made his way around the last corner, leading to the hanger where the Neophyte Serendipity was berthed, he knew he was in for a long day. The sound of the emergency alarm rang out from his hangar and the pressure door appeared to be bent into the hallway, having been forced open from the inside. Silently he cursed to himself as he drew his pistol and dashed down the hallway, sliding up to the door with his back to the wall.The thick, alloy pressure door was bent up so badly that it would probably be good for nothing but recycling and he spied what distinctly looked like knuckle prints in several places on the distended surface of the a
They Grow Up so Fast It happened at the temple of Marr in Freeport. I had gone away for almost a year, but it turns out elves take longer than humans. Too bad they're who I learned about such things from.More than five years had passed since I left, and life had gotten back to normal for the most part (aside from the occasional odd cravings for stew or rye bread). Then one day while I wandered the Plane of Knowledge, it started and my water broke.Right away I headed to the Temple where I had been born. No one there remembered me, but they saw my need and didn't turn me away (especially after a generous donation to the poorbox. They are humans after all).Dur
A day in the life volume two. Hearing the word love slip from Kilishandra's lips, Ambrai softened thinking that something odd had come up and perhaps she was upset at her for choosing Vargrus."Kilishandra," she whispered, soothingly, "I do love you..." But that was all she got out before..."Hey! Cool knife!" Ezrina said, snapped from her hysteria by seeing something shiny.Ambrai's glare shot back at the gray elf. "What have you been eating that's made you so...GAH!" Failing words in her frustration, Ambrai's glare rested on Ezrina."Pie," she responded innocently. "...triple fudge mint with extra coffee and cocoa beans for an added kick. Haven't slept since I had a
A Day in the life volume three "Think you're so bad, don't you?"*ping ping ping*"You're a big evil cursed dagger. Ooh, scary."*ping ping ping*"Let's see you being evil when you're all broken into tiny pieces."*ping ping ping CRACK*Ezrina shifted to another large rock and continued stabbing. With each stroke an eerie purple and blue aura flared around the blade, and the runes flashed red. Boredom raged in the evoker, but this was important. 'Try hitting it with something' she thought. 'No, this is working, just wait it out.' 'Maybe if you heated it up in the forge and beat it hammer to anvil...' 'That is a pretty good idea, but where can you find a forge that do
Shira-Ou-Saya Shira-Ou-Saya stood stock still, awaiting the inevitable attack. It had been years since she began her training in the shadowed art of the ninja. She still had yet to tell her family because she knew that her father, Lord Hujaku would be destroyed by her decision to pursue such a violent way of life. She couldn’t help it though, from the very first time she saw Takanosuke’s father in action on that fated evening so many years ago, her lot had been cast. The sight of him moving gracefully from shadow to shadow, making a dance of the destruction of his would-be assassins in the courtyard outside their modest home had set her desires a
All Hallow's Eve: II As the woman tried her hardest to make herself comfortable on the moist, grassy ground of the cemetery, the leader of the group and the other three slipped loose of their backpacks, tossing them to the ground at their feet and crouching around them in a small circle.As the three silent men opened the tops of their respective packs and began removing numerous small, folding shovels and flashlights, the leader of the group slipped a weathered sheaf of parchment from his own pack and spread it out on top of the crumpled container.He ran his fingers across the parchment, forcing the seemingly permanent curls flat against his pack and squintin
Zyrik the Dragon Slayer Zyrik the Dragon SlayerZyrik was forged by the dwarven masters in the mystical forges of Talek'Tinal untold ages ago. The weapon was created with the singular purpose of laying waste to the scourge of dragons that had befallen Kalijor and crushed the will of its people beneath their scaly might. The weapon is imbued with the power to do incredible amounts of damage to beings with draconic blood coursing through their veins but its most devastating power was not even conceived of by the greatest craftsmen and mages on Kalijor until the day it was invoked by its wielder.The greatest Weaponmaster in Kalijor's history was given charge of Zyri
Zyrk Name: ZyrkAge: 23Gender: MaleHeight: 5 feet, 9 inches standing tall. Usually slouching or hunched over so he looks to be closer to four feet, 6 inches.Skills/Talents: Zyrk is an accomplished brawler, having learned the hard way how to defend himself and get what he needs. He is by no means a master martial artist or heavy-weight pugilist, but he can hold his own in a fight and is not at all opposed to ‘cheating’ in order to win. Additionally, Zyrk has practiced the arts of pick pocketing, palming, and picking locks to the point that he can ‘make ends meet’ with little to no actual ‘work’ taking place. He
Space Travel Space TravelSpace craft are now fairly commonplace with models available for prices that the upper middle class can begin to afford. Space travel is still not tightly regulated, although flying in or near an inhabited body (Meaning planet, moon, asteroid, space station, etc) requires a pilot's license and all of the appropriate clearances from ground control for the air space in question.There are a myriad of different types and designs of space craft available, ranging from sleek, sexy two seaters to family size six to ten passenger ships, then up into cargo hauling and mobile home sized vessels. Typically anything larger than a yacht is
Hand to Hand Combat Hand to Hand Combat ClassificationsClass 1 Hand to Hand combatants are the top echelon of martial arts experts. These individuals have dedicated their entire lives to the study of the martial arts and associated philosophies. Class 1 combatants are typically fifth degree or higher black belts and have studied extensively in multiple forms of martial arts. Through decades of devotion and constant practice they have become masters of their art, although they still constantly seek to hone their skills and develop new techniques. Class 1 combatants are typically able to defeat any other classification of combatant with relative ease, but they w
Weapon classifications Weapon Classes and descriptionsWeapons are broken down into classes based upon several factors. Range, Ammunition type (Where applicable), damage potential versus organic materials (People), Damage potential versus inorganic materials (Structures and vehicles), weight, and Legality.Class A weapons are weapons with limited or no range, blunt or sharp edged designed to cause damage through various forms of Bashing, smashing, slicing, chopping, piercing, etc. Examples of Class A weapons would include Swords, Staves, Axes, Knives, Maces, Clubs, Cudgels, spears, Pole-arms and so on. Also included in this class of weapons are various high tech
In Search of... Riana’s fingers screamed out at her to stop as she held onto the rock ledge with all her strength. Her long platinum tresses were matted about her finely featured face and her mage’s robes were tangled around her thin body and long athletic legs as she dangled from the precipice with one hand.“I… told you… this was… bad idea…” Katrina huffed, half in tears as she dangled from Riana’s other hand. Her own platinum tresses were better restrained behind her head, her long, tapered ears laying back from her head in fear. She looked from the ground far below them up into her sister’s Violet eyes,
All Hallow's Eve XII John stumbled from the chapel, his head swimming in a surging sea of confusion and uncertainty. Could he do this thing that he had been tasked with? Was he capable of delivering others to their end so that his friends could go free? He stumbled down the path leading to the cemetery gates, barely keeping his feet on the uneven, steep descent that wound its way down the hill to the wrought iron gate that stood between himself and the small town full of unsuspecting people who, by all rights, should be getting ready for a good night’s sleep even as their doom crept closer with every breath they took.Was there another alternative? Could he
Vin and Ree: Conclusion Riana’s eyes went wide at his statement. “I left the ship locked up…”Vincent cut her off with a smile on his face, “I know, don’t worry about it.” Then he flicked the comm. to life and addressed the small shuttle that was pulling up alongside them. “Good morning. What can we do for you?”“You can disarm yourselves and prepare to be boarded.” A harsh voice came back across the channel.“I don’t think THAT’s going to happen.” Vincent replied coolly. “We have you outgunned even if you are twice our speed, which is a very nice trick by the way, I thought I had som
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