Jacks

Right, that's included within the four factions.Glad to hear you're looking forward to it. Zero Makuta's a bit busy with Real Life at present, but I think we might have another draft ready within the next couple of weeks.

Do you mean factions, or character ranks?EDIT: Because it'll have both of those. You will be able to play as any faction of the Nexus Force, and we're adapting the ranks from the MMO to work in a text-based form.

IC: Blue-person coming up fast! Have to make him stop.Taken human still has a weapon. Will use. Don't knowing how it works, but human's body remembers. Arm grabs, lifts,poionts, and squeezes.ZAP! Surprising. Feels powerful. Feels...good. Make human body shoot more. Running, ducking, jumping, shooting, shooting, zap! zap! zap! Blue-person will not be a bother.

OOC: Only glad to help. I was actually planning to keep Hotwire with Osprey and was already halfway through that post before I changed my mind and decided to send him in with Hertz. That whole maelstrom-reveals-your-deepest-fears has given me an idea. IC: This was, without a doubt, a terrible day.Helm had already made it through almost all the corridors, and could hear the sounds of the battle right around the next corner, when some...thing had dropped from the ceiling. No, not just a thing, but a nightmare.He'd seen the Ice Snakes in Antarctica; that hadn't been easy to handle, not by a long shot. But those were sapient beings, and their king had allied them with the DA team, and, well, their word was better than nothing. So, at the time, he'd clenched his teeth and swallowed his terror, even though the Ice Snakes' massive size alone scared him more than the prospect of a world overrun by stromlings and dinosaurs.The serpent that surrounded him now was at least as large as an Ice Snake, certainly not a sapient being, and therefore quite likely to kill the sailor where he stood any moment now. It had to be some sort of jungle snake -- how else could it have grown to such a prodigious size? Helm didn't know one species from another, because they were all equally frightening.Well, perhaps some were more equal than others, especially when the venom that sizzled upon hitting the ground was dripping from a pair of fangs that were easily two feet long.Helm tried valiantly but ultimately futilely from preventing a small whimper from escaping his throat.------------------------Surprisingly, Hertz and Hotwire managed to proceed through the temple with little difficulty. Occasionally a Stromling Explorer or three would burst from the ground, walls, or ceiling, but Hertz's sharp eyes and Hotwire's reflexes, honed to a razor-sharp point over the course of the war, managed to render any attempt at surprise on the part of their purple, smoky adversaries useless.After a while the two agents became aware of sounds of movement behind them, accompanied by the soft chatter of multiple Stromlings."Following us?" Hertz ventured cautiously."Not sure," Hotwire muttered. "All of the others attacked us instantly. Why would they..." He stopped, as the same idea entered both their minds simultaneously. There was a moment of awful, heavy silence."They're sealing us in," Hertz said at last. "Nobody in this temple can get out without wading through hundreds of Stromlings.""I wonder if that's the army Trigger was wailing about," Hotwire mused. "Keeping us out on pain of pain would be one thing, but keeping us in..." The hypothesizing was interrupted by two Stromlings popping out of the ground just ahead. Hertz peppered one with bursts from his Cosmotronic Ray, and Hotwire dropped the other with a steady blast from the laser rifle."Whatever's behind us," Hotwire growled, "we can't do anything but keep going forward." They continued on their way down the corridor, and just around the next corner was a sight that could only be described as...odd------------------------Helm heard footsteps. He'd decided about twenty seconds ago that it wasn't worth it to keep his eyes open, but even were that not the case, he would not have been able to see who or what was coming up the corridor behind him, as the only thing he could see with his eyes open were the thick coils of the snake piled up as high as his shoulders."Helm?" That was Hotwire's voice! He tried to answer, tried to sound brave, but found that he couldn't speak."What's going on? You okay?" And that was the agent he'd pulled up from the cliffside...Hertz, that was it."Take a look," Helm finally managed. "Does this look okay?"There was a pause. Then Hotwire spoke up, sounding very uncertain. "Well, from over here, it looks like you're standing rigidly still in the middle of the corridor all alone."Helm's eyes snapped open. But Hotwire was somehow mistaken -- there were the coils of the snake, the venom pooling at his feet..."It must be the Maelstrom," Hertz said. "It's messing with your mind.""Still...a snake this big? And I'm just supposed to assume it's not really there?""Helm, earlier today you jumped out of a helicopter!" Hotwire said. "If you could ignore your aversion to heights enough for that, why let a lump of ophidiophobia stop you now? Especially since, when it comes to the question of the snake's existence, you're outvoted. Come on. We've got a battle to win, and you're coming with us."Helm took a deep breath and looked up into the massive serpent's wild, ravenous eyes. It reared back, ready to strike. The mariner summoned every ounce of determination he had, gathered his strength, and with a shout leapt over the coils. He felt the striking snake's head woosh past his foot as he hit the ground. He stood, panting, and turned. Where the giant snake had been, there was nothing but a blank stone floor. The puddle of venom was gone as well, with no evidence that it had ever existed to begin with."An illusion," he said. "You were right."Hertz grinned, and Hotwire clapped Helm on the shoulder. "Don't let it get to you, he said. "Happens to the best of us." Not realizing, of course, how true those words would turn out to be.OOC: Good heavens, that ended up being considerably longer than I expected; I got carried away, I suppose. I should just write all my ICs at 2 AM. :PAnyway, that wasn't the idea I mentioned. Not yet.EDIT: Also, that guy, what is Hertz's age? I'd thought, based on his wiki article, that he is 23, but I've just noticed that the Agent Database lists him as 27.

Go for it, and best of luck to you.

IC: Must get human back to ship. Masters always needing more humans. Walking is wonderfully fast.Things are hitting the ground by feet. Looking around; what happens?There, on top of tall thing. Blue-person with weapon doesn't want human taken back to ship. Wants to kill. Must evade.OOC: That's Vigil, why the heck not.

IC: The T-1s flew almost as a single unit, so when Semick gave the order to fire, Osprey had his pilot hang back to avoid getting in the way; with so many forces inside the temple, the last thing the captain wanted to do was get in the way and throw someone else's aim off. Instead, the Aerial Defense Unit stood guard over the ziplines on the shore of the mainland. With more agents than would fit in all the helicopters in the attack, those ropes could be the only way out when the operation concluded.However, when Hertz sent a call for backup over the open comm channels, Osprey responded immediately.--------------------Hertz heard a helicopter descending through the mists, and was slightly surprised to see that it was not a T-1, but rather an ADU. As it settled to the ground, the door slid open, revealing Captain Osprey standing in the doorway with Hotwire sitting further in. "Here for your prisoners," Osprey said.The techie nodded his assent. "Thanks." He turned to Klopowitz and the other scientists, who climbed aboard. Hotwire, meanwhile, climbed slightly unsteadily to the ground and hobbled over to Hertz as Osprey's ADU lifted off the ground again."As one invalid to another," the elite agent said, "you look like you could use some backup. I've got one leg, you've got a busted arm, I guess that make us even.""Are you sure?" Hertz asked uncertainly. "I heard you passed out cold on the other side of the gorge.""I feel much better now," Hotwire said. "Even military-grade painkillers have nothing on Agents first aid." He walked over to the pile of weapons discarded by the XERRD scientists and selected a laser rifle with a whistle of appreciation. "Haven't used one of these since the Goo Caverns. Still, it got me through that mess." He glanced over to Hertz with a grin. "Here's to staying alive." And with that the two DA agents, injured but no less determined, strode -- and hobbled -- into the temple.OOC: Sorry if this messes with your plans for Hertz, that guy; if that's the case I can change it.

Zero Makuta and I have been brainstorming for almost two weeks now, so the LURPG draft he posted here earlier is not exactly up to date. Don't worry, we're taking all the worlds into account.

OOC: On that note, is Helm still with Hertz? that guy's post near the top of the page said he left, but one of Atton's posts said that the XERRD scientists were surrounding two men.

OOC: avmatoran- My bad, I read the first paragraph of your IC too quickly and got a bit mixed up.PeaSam- Thanks, I've spent most of the day coming up with fridge logic to explain Katerina's adoption. And I've never actually read The Colour of Magic, but since Discworld isn't one single linear narrative, the fact that I read them in whatever order I find them causes me very little trouble.that guy- Minor issue. You pretty much nailed Bart Helmutson's personality, but he's been going by Helm since arriving on the island.

OOC: @Chaos -- I was formulating bits of a plan myself, but we'll see what happens. Perhaps we can merge our respective plans.IC: Fighting happens. Blue people are enemy. Suddenly human-ship comes fast. Strange thing, crawling across ground on four little round arms. Ship flies over, shoots human-ship, human-ship crashing. Blue person falls out.Crawling over to enemy. Still alive, but not moving.I take.Wrapping arms around enemy-head and shoulders. Head-cover already cracked. Break and throw away. Have person now. Make stand. Walk. Walking much faster than crawling.Must get back to ship.

OOC: Yannow what, I think I'll try this out, as long as folks don't object to me being a tad unconventional. First, though... Calvin & Hobbes?Anyway...Name: N/AAge: 27 minutesSkills: Capturing and manipulating humansCaste: ClingerBackstory: Spawned approximately half an hour ago in an incubation pod aboard an Alien Mothership.IC: Hear 'Beam down!' Then no more ship. On ground. Ship above, big and round. Crawling now. So rough and uneven here. Everything smooth at home in pod.Must find humans. Don't know why. Need humans anyway.Will make masters proud.

OOC: avmatoran, I'm not entirely sure what just happened. Were Provencal and Glados unaware that Dr. Cyborg had defected?IC: Katerina motioned to the synthfigs and they charged at the Space Marauder who currently had the Maelstrom Crystal clenched in his fist, dodging around Stromlings as they tried to grab it from him. Two Stromling Explorers tried to block Katerina's path, but the two Loops took them down. She charged forward--And stopped short. Two minifigs stood in her path. One was a broad-shouldered man dressed in an old-fashioned brown suit. His cravat was immaculate, his short hair was a stately gray, and his face was stern and stony. The other was a statuesque woman with dark hair save for flecks of gray at her temples. She wore a long, high-necked dark blue dress and had a cold, haughty look in her iron eyes."No..." breathed Katerina. "Impossible." But it was unmistakable. Standing before her were Hendrik and Ariane Schattenberg.Her parents."Quite disappointed," her father said gruffly. "How could you do this to us? Squander the fortune we made on trivial, unprofitable pursuits?""The profit is the benefits I will bring to the minifig species!" Katerina protested.Her mother tilted her head back and looked down imperiously at Katerina. "After all we did for you, too. Taking you in when your biological parents could not support a second child, providing you with shelter and a proper upbringing...Hendrik is right. You are a disappointment. You could never measure up to Rainer, my only true child."Katerina tensed suddenly. Rainer Wolfgang Schattenberg. Her brother. How many years had it been since she had spared him so much as a thought?Her father was speaking again. "You may as well have killed him yourself," he accused. "He at least had the decency to keep the mines in the family. But you? As soon as Rainer succumbed to tuberculosis, you sell them?""It was necessary!" Katerina insisted. "The funds for my research had to come from somewhere!""THOSE MINES WERE THE MOST PROSPEROUS IN ALL OF BARRON!" Hendrik Schattenberg roared. "And they have been part of this family since my great-grandfather first broke that ground with no more than a shovel and only three pence to his name!" He shook his head. "And now you have brought that name to disgrace. We should have known that one who did not share our blood would lack our honor.""You are no daughter of ours, Catherine Alexander," Ariane spat.Katerina sank to the ground, almost giving in to the despair that was suddenly flooding her being. Then a thought crept unbidden into her mind. My parents have been dead for nearly half a century. And immediately she realised the truth. She looked up, matching her mother's glare with her own. "You are correct," she said, "because you are not my parents. And you have failed, because I will never stop fighting as long as one breath remains in my body." She gestured her synthfigs forward. They raised their Cosmotronic Rays and fired. 'Hendrik' and 'Ariane' fell, and the Maelstrom's illusions dissipated, revealing two dead Stromlings.Katerina placed her hands on the shoulders of the three-eyed minifigs she had created. "Rainer, Wolfgang," she said, "thank you both." And with that, they charged back into the fray.

crazylegoman's working on a Minifig Defense Force RPG, which will have aspects of Alpha Team in it. Scroll back up the page a bit for a more detailed description from crazy himself.

IC: A stromling suddenly struck Rex in the back and he fumbled, dropping the crystal. Katerina dived forward, snatching it as it bounced toward another waiting stromling. She tossed it to one of her only two remaining synthfigs. "Drain it!" she cried.The synthfig glanced at the crystal in his hands, looked back to Katerina, and shook his head, all three eyes filled with fear. "Too much."Katerina heard he Darkitect chuckle. Didn't you hear what happened to Loop?--------------------Everything shook. That was the first thing he noticed. Then there was the vibration of the surface he was lying on. A T-1? Hotwire opened his eyes. No, not a T-1. Smaller, and more heavily armored by the look of the bulkheads. And there was a minifig in an ADO uniform sitting nearby."Ah, you're awake again," he said. "You'll want to brace yourself. Those pteranadons outside are coming in thick.""Sorry, where am I?" Hotwire replied, sitting up and wincing as his stump leg cried out in protest."Aerial Defense Unit. I'm Captain Osprey.""Wonderful to meet you. Thanks for the Stromlings."--------------------Helm had spent a bit too long weighing the pros and cons of both the bridge and the ziplines. The bridge had initially seemed the lesser of two evils, as he would at least be standing on something, On the other hand, the zipline would get him across the gorge much faster. Better to get it over with, he'd decided. So he'd clenched his teeth, slung his Sonic Screamer over his shoulder, and stepped into the open air.Unfortunately, the initial stab of terror that went through his gut turned out not to be initial at all, but constant. He fought the urge to shut his eyes as he whizzed along the zipline. When he was about halfway across, the bridge snapped.Well, thank goodness I came this way, he thought. It only took a few more seconds before he hit the ground on the other side. Immediately, a stromling charged at him and he whipped the Sonic Screamer around and shot it in the chest. Now this isn't nearly so frightening. The mariner grinned and ran towards the entrance.

OOC: The Lego Universe Wiki is a fantastic resource for those of us who never got the chance to play the MMO. I only just discovered it a few days ago, but I think it could be indispensable for preventing future misunderstandings such as this one. We all get that, but it doesn't stop our characters from being very irritated with him. I think what PeaSam and the rest of us are really wondering about is not the fact the Trigger was hired, but who would have hired him. And if you come up with/already have an answer to that enigma, that leaves you with a fantastic opportunity for making dramatic stuff happen. X)

OOC: I'm not arguing against dimensional shifting, I'm only arguing against the proposition that said dimensional shifting cuts off the dimension inside the temple from the rest of the world. It's like the TARDIS -- the inside is another dimension, but when the Titanic-in-space collided with it, it still smashed a hole into the control room.There's also the fact that this was not always a Maelstrom temple. From the descriptions PeaSam has given of the process, it sounds like the Maelstrom just infests and inhabits a preexisting structure, and under those conditions I'm not sure it would alter the interior quite so drastically.

OOC: If I might weigh in: I also agree that the temple is larger on the inside, probably due to reality warping, but Atton, you're making it sound almost like it's the Torn World all over again -- i.e., the inside of the temple is completely cut off from the outside world. I think that even if the inside is spacey-wacey, blowing a hole in the roof will still allow access to a significant part of the inside.And I have to confess, you are throwing a lot of stuff out here very fast. If you've cleared it with PeaSam, that's all well and good, but if not..well, like Andrewnuva, I am also finding some of this a bit extreme, even for the climax of a plot arc.

OOC: See, my mental picture the whole time had been something like this.However, I went back to page 6 and found the actual description. That doesn't really tell us much, but if Rex needed binoculars to see the temple, the truth probably lies between Atton's description and mine.

IC: Osprey had been fairly lucky in the battle at Hotep's Temple -- Phoenix and Cyrus had been the only disguised Stromlings in his crew, so he still had a pilot and a gunner, which was fortunate, given that he had very little experience with aerial vehicles. However, he felt a slight twinge of guilt that his luck had come at the expense of the unconscious DA Elite agent he had just hauled on board."Follow the lead of the T-1s," he called towards the cockpit as he sealed the side door of the ADU, "and concentrate your fire on the Stromlings on the island." His stomach lurched slightly as the helicopter soared above the crevasse and descended quickly to spray the Stromlings with its fire. By the dim glow of the interior lights, Osprey cracked open a medkit and began attempting to revive Hotwire.

OOC: And does so as arrogantly as he can. xD

OOC: Maybe we could just say that Trigger was overestimating. Or perhaps most of what he saw was an illusion by the Maelstrom to demoralize the team. In any case, we go...IC: "You can't claim absolute certainty on that, though," said Hotwire. "The Maelstrom has never been active on this planet prior to this war. Who's to say it hasn't adjusted its tactics?"It's chaos incarnate," Trigger said authoritatively. "Killing is what it does.""It's chaos incarnate -- so why should we expect it to work the same way all the time?" Rockford interjected. "Regardless, time's up," said Hotwire. "Our friends are dying over there, and we can't just stand by and let it happen.""You're really going to throw your lives away so thoughtlessly?" Trigger cried angrily.Hotwire ignored him, limping as quickly as he could to keep up with Rockford and Zach and the others as they jogged towards the bridge. Hotwire paused for breath, his stump leg burning in pain. Suddenly the day's events finally caught up to him -- the fight at the outpost, the battle at the temple, leaping out of a T-1 -- and he collapsed to the ground as the suppressed and ignored pain finally outweighed the adrenalin that had kept him going.Helm noticed the elite agent's sudden absence, looked back and swore. Rockford, Zach, and Minerva also paused. Helm grabbed his PDA. "Osprey, Semick, anyone, we've got a bit of a problem. Hotwire's just passed out. Think he might be in shock or something.""Acknowledged," Osprey responded. "I'll get him onto my ADU. We still have some fresh medkits, and he'll be marginally safer up here than on the ground."Within a minute, the Agents captain descended on a winch, grabbed the unconscious DA agent, and hoisted him up to the helicopter above.

OOC: I had a similar impression, which is part of the reason for my confusion concerning the location of Palmer's army.

OOC: Okay, so it's exactly what I thought it was. I should add as a disclaimer that, unlike Hotwire, I myself am not irritated by any of this. I'm just enjoying the rare opportunity to write him in a foul mood.

OOC: Ah, I'd forgotten about Palmer's army. So what you're saying, I assume, is that they are trying to stay hidden until the team actually moves in?And I completely understand everything about Stromling biology, etc. What I'm taking issue with is the fact that Trigger is essentially contradicting himself -- 'Don't cross the crevasse because you'll be killed instantly. Instead, destroy the Stromlings' source of power.' Destroying their source of power requires crossing the crevasse.