TakunuvaC01

Just a quick update from me: things are relatively hectic right now (mad rush to the end of the semester), so I'm not sure I'll have time to repost the old draft (well, I could repost it now, but I also want to edit it a bit to make the character limit thing make much more sense, actually write the missing faction pages) until Tuesday- i.e. Thanksgiving break. Assuming there's still interest in that game, and assuming I haven't managed to alienate everyone with petty arguments about vehicles and so on in this thread... I'd be able to start it running anytime after Thanksgiving. (Depending on when we reach a rough consensus on it probably not being terrible?) Now... we are down to two active RPGs at the moment, and I know there were people with other ideas even though the development of Mars Mission dominated the last ~2 months of the channel- there was an aquatic-themed RPG being tossed around that would combine all the ocean-based themes? Any other ideas, or people interested in developing / running games?

Dimensioneer and I talk regularly. We don't have any comments regarding those topics other than that we feel the security vulnerability used in this instance has been patched. One thing often done after such incidents is to release a detailed post-mortem of how the attack happened, how it was noticed, what was compromised, what is being done to fix the issue, etc. (The Ubuntu one I linked impressed me for its honesty and thoroughness at the time).This sort of thing goes a long wait to maintaining faith in security after such an incident, and also helps to reassure users that the same thing cannot happen again.I would highly recommend this- being open and honest about what exactly happened can only be a good thing*.* Unless, of course, it would reveal details about the site that might allow an attack. But honestly, this would mean that whatever vulnerabilities used to gain access potentially haven't been patched, but you've said they have been. And in general, trusting security through obscurity is a really bad idea.

I understand the basics behind how security works: namely, that it's always easier for someone to penetrate the system than it is for you to keep the system secure. To put it in terms of statistics, a black hat hacker / attacker only needs to be lucky once, but the site staff need to be lucky every time. It is always easier to break things than to keep them safe.So I understand that, of course, and I understand that you guys are hardly professional sysadmins doing this for a living, so I can sympathize with your position... but, with all due respect, none of that excuses things like:-Not keeping software up to date that runs the site-Having an automated system to make regular offline backupsFrom other comments in this thread, it sounds like you're not doing the former; from your own post, you don't have the latter.With an automated backup system, you would be able to spend those twenty hours a week doing other things (like keeping the site up to date?), because backups would be taken care of. Meiko already talked about this a bit, but let me add the following statement: you don't need to store years worth of backups if you don't have enough space, you just need to keep your backups isolated from the machine that the webserver is running on, so if the server gets penetrated the attacker does not have access to the backups. Automated, regular backups are more important than years worth of backups made irregularly over month-long intervals (assuming you can protect the automated ones).I'm sure you know this- after all, we recently suffered from the deletion of the old database precisely because there were no offsite backups. But I feel the need to say it anyway...Disclaimer: I'm a hobbyist programmer and university student. I rarely have time to work on any of my projects, so I completely understand the staff's position. I don't mean to lecture you guys on security, or try to take the moral high ground, or anything like that- other people have already done that in this thread. And I completely understand the impossible position that is maintaining the site against attack- people are going to be angry when something goes wrong, but it's unrealistic to expect that you can stop everything from going wrong.But I confess to being a little frustrated, perhaps even more so because I'm aware of some of the underlying technical issues- I don't expect perfect security but it honestly sounds like there are some fundamental things going wrong (if I believe all the comments in this thread, at least).Apologies if I've crossed a line. I'm grateful that the staff does keep BZP running- for fun, as you said- because I do still enjoy the site (after, what is it now, eight years?) but without new Bionicle content I now primarily see the site as a place to produce, showcase, and collaborate on content (RPGs, stories, etc- I'm not personally involved in art or other media or MOCs or anything like that, but all of that too), and whenever a significant amount of data is lost it means that content we worked on or showcased is (partly) lost, which is painful. Hence my frustration.

A full discussion about this probably would belong in another thread (and I'm sure it has been the subject of many), but- I did not know most of the city was automated with a minimal staff of caretaker Matoran. Not that I'm doubting you or anything, but I assume this comes from Greg quotes? For most of the Metrus I suppose it makes sense that either everything is automated or a lot has been accomplished over a really long period of time by a small team of workers. (The Sculpture Fields might be an example of the later). The only thing that I still am uneasy about is the Ga-Metru school system, but even that I guess I can explain away if there are enough subjects of study and enough possible degrees that take sufficiently long to achieve. I mean, if you wanted to get a doctorate in every possible subject in this world, it'd take you a very, very long time. You're right about the phrase "bustling city", I probably made that up.

I've actually always thought a thousand Matoran was rather small- the scope of Metru Nui seems really large, to me, at least based on the books and pictures in the movie. The sheer size of the chute network, the number of knowledge towers, furnaces, the whole existence of the school system in Ga-Metru- it seems like there should be more than a couple of hundred Matoran in each Koro. I'm sure the same is true, that the size of Metrui Nui is just scaled up for dramatic reasons just like it's scaled down in the games, but it's mildly disappointing for me that the city must be small enough that a thousand Matoran can make it a bustling metropolis.

This sounds like it could be a pretty interesting game. I probably wouldn't play (haven't touched a forum RPG in ages- though you never know), but I'd definitely support its creation.One general thing to keep in mind (not for this, as it'd replace an existing game, but for other people considering designing RPGs) is that LGD was never really able to support more than 6 or 7 RPGs at a time... and it seems like we're kind of at that cap.Though maybe things will be better now that we have our own forum? And I've never really liked the idea of artificially imposing a limit on the number of RPGs that can be around at a time anyway.

I suppose, looking back on it now, MNOG was probably a "better game" than MNOG 2.But at the time, what I enjoyed about MNOG 2 was all of the chores and so on, the fact that it felt more like you lived in the world than you were just the hero on an adventure. The rest of Bionicle was "the hero on an adventure", and I didn't really want more of the same, or to be the hero, necessarily- I wanted to know what life was like on the island. Which was what MNOG 2 offered.MNOG 2 tried to be an open world game, and I enjoyed it because of that. I realize I'm probably the exception though, since it seems most people in this thread would rather have been the hero.Not saying it was perfect though. Others have already pointed to various flaws, and it is true that even though I enjoyed the chores system at the time, it might get tedious quickly for me today. But I liked the overall idea.I recall my biggest disappointment with MNOG 2 was that every village outside Ga-Koro and Onu-Koro seemed very lacking in stuff to do. In Ga-Koro at least I could contribute to the economy in a fairly significant way. But it seemed like more and more content was cut as the other Koros were added over time. Which hurt the game a lot, I think, and reduced the "open world" feel of it.Still though, one of the things I preferred about 2001-2003 (and 2004, I guess) to later years was the emphasis on how the Matoran lived and how their societies were structured, and it occurs to me that it's thanks to the MNOGs we got to see a lot of that (even if they are semi-non-canonical). The second one just seems to try and emphasize those elements more.

...maybe we could get a backup copy of the database from "them"?In all seriousness, though, this is very depressing. I understand not caring about discussions and so on- frankly, I don't either- but what about content that was produced by content-producing members and posted here? Epics, stories, comedies. RPGs. Games. Stuff we didn't think to back up ourselves, or stuff from members long gone. Most of my newer short stories I have saved on my own computer, but how many people really write and archive all their posts to a forum RPG or something like that?I understand that there's really nothing you can do if the data just isn't there anymore, though.

So I know nothing about Ninjago, as well as many other newer themes, but here's a few thoughts:-Is there a reason you are forcing players to restrict themselves to one weapon? I mean, yes... a warrior who favors the bow over the sword is going to primarily fight with the bow, but that doesn't mean they wouldn't switch to a sword, or dagger, or something else if someone charges them. (Just as a general example).-If you do want to restrict players to one weapon, you should have a list of possible weapons they can choose, rather than saying "whatever is used in the sets is acceptable".-The perks section is a little confusing to read, although I'm not entirely sure how it could be made better. Links to the actual sets would be one thing. Maybe break it down by elements -> ranks rather than ranks -> elements, and use a bulleted list or something?Jacks sorta already mentioned the main thing I noticed, but from a different angle- from a brief perusal of your RPG, it seems like there is only one faction to join, yes? What's the point of letting people have two player characters, then, if they can have ten NPCs? (Unless you are allowing players to join "The Enemy" faction- in which case this should be expressly stated).When Peasam and I did the Alpha Team (Ogel's Last Stand) RPG a while back, we allowed two characters, but that was so one could be in one faction and the other in the other faction.Also, and this is a bit more general- on placing limits on the number of NPCs one player can control / create- I'm not really sure I like the idea. I mean... in general, yes, you don't want to have too many NPCs running around the place. But what does that limit actually apply to? NPCs who are common members of "your squad", characters who generally go on missions with your primary character? Or any and all NPCs you need to create for the purposes of storytelling?By "for the purposes of storytelling", I mean cases like: let's say I want to add a conversation between an engineer servicing my vehicle and my main character so I can hint at some detail or another, or I need to introduce a redshirt NPC so I can kill them off later, or I want to write about a character in some other organization for some story (this may not be an issue in this setting, but it would be in, say, Dino Attack).So... onto what class of NPC does this restriction actually apply?Also, I can't tell from the rules, but are you expecting people to fill out the character form for their NPCs?

There are main-page news articles for the Bionicle RPG contests, right? (Or at least there were, once upon a time).Perhaps the creation of new LGD RPGs could be submitted as news.

I guess, since XERRD wasn't something you created... in this particular case, yeah.On the other hand, you could probably do something with a splinter group of them, or something like that.

[endquote] I thought I'd chime in here, with some other historical perspective: DA was written deliberately to be set in the same universe as MDF- or more specifically, PeabodySam used everything he'd come up with MDF to get DA up and running. The return of familiar characters (PBB, Frozeen, etc.) made it obvious the two RPGs were in the same universe, so it was natural for other people to import things as well. This only worked though because Victor Draven was long gone, and so wasn't in a position to do anything with MDF that contradicted what was being done in DA. Also, I don't really know whether he had planned any kind of overall arc for MDF at all- I suspect he hadn't. Then again, I could have said the same about the DA up till about page 40 or 50 or so. But the point is that after not too long a time most of the canon in MDF was written by Kotua, CoKK, PeabodySam, and probably a few other people whose names I can't remember anymore. So it was natural for DA to continue their work. What I think I'm getting at here is- if this is an RPG being run by a lot of ex-DA veterans, it's natural to pull a lot of canon from DA and set this in that world. On the other hand; you may only want to pull things that you yourself came up with or had a large hand in developing.But I don't know that this is something that should be done in general, because if someone new starts an RPG and has their own ideas for a story, they may not explicitly say their RPG is not in the same universe of some RPG they never played, and while at first it probably won't make a difference eventually it might. It's better to say "all RPGs written by the same people (broadly) are set in the same universe unless otherwise noted", I think.Alternatively, you could always do what we used to do- which was not worry about it and reference whatever. Though this ended with the whole "portals to Metru Nui" thing so maybe that's a really bad idea...

OOC: Now you've just inspired me to write a story where Magma and his companion steal Time Cruiser technology and install it in the ship and use it to go around all of space and time fighting bad people wherever they appear....I don't know if you've casted an actor to play Magma yet, but if you haven't, he's Christopher Eccleston. And Covert is Alex Kingston. Or... well, any of the other actors who've played a companion over the years, I suppose. But Magma is definitely Eccleston-as-the-Ninth.(Not because I specifically liked the Ninth Doctor- I'm a Fourth + Tenth fanboy- but because the Ninth's angst and depression and violence and all that is a crucial part of Magma's character. Plus he kind of looks like how I imagine Magma. I guess alternatively Magma could be the Seventh, who was manipulative and could be cruel as well... nah, the Ninth it is).And don't be surprised if I actually try to write this story now.

OOC: I suppose when I said "I'd never really considered" the design that wasn't quite accurate, but you've mostly hit what I've imagined- I like the general design. Kind of aerial Star Destroyerish, just as Peasam said.The only thing is I've always written the ship as being a bit bigger than that*. For instance, in the final battle it deploys a wing of 6 or so Blue Eagles, and Magma and Zed commented that they haven't had time to fully rebuild the cargo bays and so are sending this ship into battle with less than the usual complement of vehicles, and I know I used to have her fly around a small attack force of Fire Hammers and maybe even an Iron Predator.Even revising some earlier ridiculous size estimations downward, she should still dwarf the T-1 Typhoon model by more, I think.Alternatively, the fact that the ship was rebuilt from ruins by AT without the full cargo bays provides a nice cop-out. If all the ship could hold was 6 Blue Eagles, that's not too much extra cargo space, so then we simply say that it's a bit bigger than suggested by the scale model, has more cargo space, and is is a representation of the ship as it most recently appeared in the Final Battle, before Magma stuck a warp drive on the back but after the original larger cargo bays were blown up.I like this idea. It's canon!*The only size benchmark I'd come up with and tried to stick to, over the years, was that it was around half the size of the Voltage. Which raises the question of how big the Voltage is, of course. I do know Kotua used to deploy large swarms of his robotic Ice Blades (I think they were called Voltage Blades? Vulture Blades? My mind is failing...), and they were housed in the airship. So I always assumed it was really, really big.

OOC: I do still vaguely frequent this thread, so if you want to just post the link here I'll notice it.Or PM me instead, if you prefer.

I tend to think of them as a bit like the Time Lords from Doctor Who. The Time Lords were capable of extraordinary things, but they had very few naturally ingrained abilities- some telepathic power and awareness, the ability to regenerate, some natural affinity for time and other dimensions... but that was, basically, it. And yet they were arguably the most powerful race in the universe, even though all of their power only came from technology they'd mastered achieved over the eons. Their ability to control and manipulate time was derived from ancient technology, some of which was apparently half-forgotten even to them. Like the Great Beings, the Time Lords made plenty of mistakes and had plenty of problems fixing those mistakes. (I could pursue this analogy further with some specific story references but I don't think it's necessary at the moment). Or, to express this a bit more generally, it's the old "any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic" adage. That's what most of the other powers we've seen in Bionicle are anyway; protodermis-based technology that is so clever it may as well be magical. Since we know the Great Beings were creators, inventors, and tinkerers, it seems a reasonable assertion that all, if not most, of their "powers" are derived their own science as well. Science which may very well be so alien to us that it appears magical, or at least completely impossible.

OOC: I'm going to "amen" this, because it's also exactly how I feel. :PHOWEVER... if you are looking for movie characters for my characters, you may want to get someone to play Magma, Tail, and Coral in addition to Reptile.EDIT: Um, has something broken quote tags or something since I last posted? They look really weird now... I can barely tell what's being quoted and what isn't.

OOC: Well, a: it's almost over and pretty much awaiting us to wrap up what's left of our respective storylines to be finished, and b: It was some sarcastic commentary at the way there hadn't been an IC for a week or so and the thread had been taken over by this OOC debate on science fiction.

OOC: I would agree- I like Asimov a lot. As... "hard sci-fi" writers go, he's one of the ones I find actually enjoyable to read. I'd use more words to explain this, but I agree with pretty much everything Jackson's said so far. :PThen again, I don't actually like most "classic" hard science fiction writers at all. I prefer people like Neal Stephenson (especially Anathem), or perhaps Jack McDevitt or Joe Haldeman. That's probably because I don't want my science (or perhaps "speculative") fiction to be realistic, I want it to make me think. And no offense, but Clark simply doesn't engage me intellectually.Might I suggest that we take this conversation to a thread in COT, though? This is still an RPG- in theory anyway. You should consider doing what I did -- stress the heck out for months on end because you can't decide on a college, then in March discover an obscure little state school that nobody has never heard of, apply late there because why not, visit and fall in love with it, and then tear up your original list Or... you could do what one of my friends did, which was to start all of his applications around 7 or 8 PM the day they were due, and be frantically editing his 100 to 200 word responses around 11 PM (with some help from me and others).Impressively, he got into some rather decent colleges.

OOC: Oh my, another oldtimer!Don't know if you remember me- I believe I remember you, though. I'm pretty sure we shared at least one period of activity back in the day.

And if so, should we link our old stories again, and/or repost them here?

OOC: *salutes, raises glass in turn*

OOC: Alright, I decided I should go for it.Here is the Backpost of Doom. It is not as long, admittedly, as that guy’s Backpost of Doom, but even so.(Speaking of that guy’s work- I second Jackson Lake. I love sequences like that, told from the perspective of an interview with a psychologist or interrogator or what have you, and you did a great job pulling it off).Enjoy!If you find a part of this ridiculous and terribly out of character, note that I intended to drop more hints about that in many an unwritten Covert or Magma scene. I, obviously, failed spectacularly at this. I also am awful at romance. My apologies if this is extremely cringeworthy.IC:Past – A few hours after the Final Battle (December 2010)ReptileReptile blinked owlishly at the reporter, and then nodded firmly.“Certainly, what would you like to know?” he asked Scott.“Well, let’s see… our reports say you led the aerial defense of HQ during the opening stages of the battle. How did you feel about that, and the ultimate outcome of the battle?”Reptile blinked again. “I felt like I had to pay attention to everything at once to keep our T-1 lines from crumbling. And ultimately my leadership, and the leadership of the other Elite Agents who I was working with, wasn’t enough to keep our T-1s in place… at the time I was afraid we were finished. Now I’m just relieved we survived.”“You are a well-regarded scientist by training, not a soldier or special agent. Why did you join the Dino Attack Team, and end up commanding wings of T-1 Typhoons in combat operations?”“I joined… because I wanted to know about these Mutant Dinos. I wondered where they came from, I wondered what technological or biological cause resulted in their presence on our world. I wanted to know more.“I think I found out more about violence and combat and war than I’d ever have wanted to know- and I found that I was a pretty good leader of warriors- but the science is why I stuck around.”“What are your plans now that the invasion is over? Will you stick with the Dino Attack Team or go back to your lab?”Reptile sighed. “As you said, I’m a scientist, not a soldier. I think I’m going to work on some of my long-neglected research. Probably for whatever the Dino Attack Team has become at least for a time, but in the not-so-distant future I’ll probably retire back to the lab of my mentor, Dr. Formula.”“But surely you have some thoughts about the future of the Dino Attack Team, and the future of the LEGO Planet now that this invasion is over?”Reptile sighed again. Politics was never a favorite subject of his, but he thought he may as well make his views known.“Over there,” he said, pointing, “Is an Alpha Team craft. Groups like Alpha Team and the Agents have been, and continue to be, the first lines of defense for our world against villains, tyrants, demons, otherworldly invaders, dark armadas and evil armies- and they’ve served us pretty well.“Now, we were a special task force forged to deal with the unique threat of the Dino Attack. But now the Dino Attack is over, and I don’t see any reason we should complicate the politics of the world further. There’s some mop-up work to be done, of course“Though… who knows? Perhaps I’m wrong, and there is a role for us to play alongside Alpha Team, as a more scientifically-minded and perhaps more idealistic organization. But if you want to know about that, talk to someone like Specs, or Viper- or Magma or some other senior AT agent.”For as he was talking, Reptile saw Magma walking out of the Iron Predator. He waved over at the Alpha Team agent, but a distracted Magma did not wave back.Scott nodded. Reptile couldn’t tell if he’d annoyed the reporter or not, but he suspected reporters like this man did not get annoyed very easily.Or were just very good at hiding their feelings.“Well, thank you, Elite Agent Reptile. Best of luck to you in your future research or other pursuits,” the reporter said. He turned away and began saying something else into the camera, but Reptile didn’t bother to listen to it.He was already thinking about the contents of the next paper he was going to publish as soon as he got home on the DNA Device- he'd had a most interesting idea just now about how they might be able to reverse engineer some of the technology. He couldn't wait to get started.MagmaMagma had left the AT operation under the command of his friends, made his report to Specs, and then quickly left the ship for an urgent conversation.He needed to do this now, before it became much too late to do it. He’d been meaning to have this conversation for a few months now- but somehow it had never worked.He knew where his target would be- she would be with the Agents forces, who had set up a small command post in the shadow of the Iron Predator and DA HQ. Most of the tension between the Agents and DA HQ had dissipated over the past few months, but there was still some residual pride left.So while the Agents forces would happily join the DA and AT troops in the airship, it would simply not be proper for them to not have established some visible presence on the battlefield.And it would take a high-ranking Agents officer to man such a facility.It was true that the Agents had many high-ranking officers. But Magma had cheated, and after deducing all this had run a scan from his ship to determine that his target was actually here.He entered the command post, and for the first time in dealing with Agents for a long time, did not immediately find a gun pointed at his face.Instead, he found Colonel Covert of Agents Intelligence casually sitting in a commandeered desk chair, watching data on a computer terminal and, of all things, playing with her black hair. The rest of the room was empty- from looking at it alone, one would see no signs that a war had just gone on outside.“I thought I might find you here,” Magma said.Covert didn’t even look up, and merely replied, “I thought you might think you might find me here.” She sounded amused.“We’ve beaten Dr. Rex,” Magma said. “Our two organizations helped make this happen, in the end. We can agree, I think, that while when the Agents first showed an interest in the Dino Attack Team things did not turn out well.”“That would be one way to put it, yes,” said Covert. She still was not looking at Magma.“However, once… shall we say, certain Agents and Alpha Team personnel set their personal differences aside and realized what kind of a threat they were facing, they began working together much more smoothly and in a much friendlier kind of rivalry. Would you not agree again?”“I think I would,” Covert said.“So,” Magma said, and hesitated. “I owe you an apology. I still think your initial… ah, attempt to arrest me was arrogant and ridiculous and deserved some kind of retaliation. But I think after two years crusading against your interests, we’re even, don’t you? So… I’m… sorry for my initial overreaction.”“Apology accepted,” Covert said softly. She was staring at her computer screen now.“Before we get on to the next piece of business, I have to ask. Didn’t you realize that by… ah, attempting to thwart me at every turn I’d just make things worse between our respective organizations?” Magma asked sharply.Covert looked up and met his stare. She then laughed.“Because it was fun?” she smiled. “But even though it was… because I thought maybe if I could beat you I could gain your respect- if I could show you I was as good as you, if not better than you, you’d respect my organization and my own abilities?”“My… you wanted my respect?” Magma said slowly.“When I tried to arrest you, you humiliated my team and almost killed several of my men. You made us look like clowns, and… well, Magma- you, Zed, Dash, Subzero, Databoard, Frozeen- you’re all considered heroes in this business. We- I- may consider AT unprofessional and sloppy, but I know you have some extremely talented people. And you’re among them.“So if I was trying to show you up and establish some basis for mutual self-respect between our intelligence forces… maybe you can understand why?”Magma stood there, stunned.He had always assumed Covert must have hated him specifically for some reason, but… what was she saying?A terrible thought entered his head- a thought that he quickly tried to dismiss. As is the nature of such thoughts, this attempt failed, and instead sparked a few more.The first thought was: love and hate are the same sides of a coin.The second thought was: the only reason he’d hated her was because he thought she had hated himThe third thought was: now that I come to actually think about it, she is rather prettyThe fourth thought was: maybe I should stop trying to dismiss these kinds of thoughts.He shook his head, irritated. First things first.“Uh…” he stammered. Covert waited, smiling slightly.“Uh, well, in that case, I guess that makes this offer a lot easier. I’d like to propose an actual alliance between our two organizations,” Magma said, regaining a bit of professional dignity. “Specifically between our intelligence groups, that is.”“What would the nature of this alliance be?” Covert asked.“Well, for one, the two of us would no longer attempt to actually sabotage each other’s projects. For another, we’d share data and collaborate on covert operations and work together in fighting enemies rather than separately. We’d also work on locating the movements of villains, like Ogel, whose absence should really be investigated.”“I suppose one goal of this would be to avoid a situation in which one lone black ops agent is ambushed by a hit squad from the other side when both are attempting to eliminate some high priority target, and end up fighting each other instead of the target?” Covert asked innocently.“Yes, exactly like that,” Magma said, eyes narrowing at this reference to how the two had first met in 2008 when attempting to stop Dr. Inferno. He glared for a few seconds, and the Agents colonel continued to look innocent. Then they both chuckled for a few minutes.“But yes, that’s the goal. So, what say you?”“A question- are your superiors aware of this proposal?” she asked him.“Not yet,” said Magma.Covert hesitated, and then nodded. “Well, they will be soon- as I accept. Let’s finalize the details and then inform our respective superiors of our, ah, decisions.”Magma nodded as well, and the two quickly got to work.Present - LEGO City Park – Victory Celebration – One Week LaterMagmaThe orchestra finished their performance, and Magma nodded happily to himself- it had definitely been a worthy performance.He rose, and looked around the party. He paid particular attention to the three villains, Sinister, Vladek, and the Brickster.He dismissed them all one by one. The real danger was Evil Ogel.One of his first joint operations with Covert had been tracking down Evil Ogel, but all they had learned was that a rocket had launched from Ogel’s base in the Sagarro Seas. It was a fairly large rocket, and according to a source in the Space Police bound for the Nimbus System.It concerned him. He was working on an idea for dealing with Ogel, but he could already foresee many problems with the idea.Still, it was worth a try.On that note, he glanced around the party again. He found Covert- it was difficult to think of her as “Colonel Covert” anymore- speaking to a subordinate near the door. She glanced up and waved him over.“Magma! We have a situation,” she said briskly.“A situation?” asked Magma. He immediately began running through possible scenarios in his mind. “XERRD remnants? The Dino Aliens have returned? The DNA device is online? They’ve found Ogel? Vladek’s betrayed us and sacked Castle Cove?”Covert smiled slightly, but then quickly became serious again. “None of the above, but let’s walk and not bother the partiers. We should be able to take care of it ourselves with some careful planning.”Puzzled, Magma followed Covert away from the gathering and celebration. The noise level quickly dropped off, and soon they were alone.“So,” Magma said. “Just what is going on? Care to give me a situation report?”Covert laughed for a few minutes. Magma stared at her, frustrated. A crisis was going on and she was laughing about it?“Okay, here’s a situation report for you. I wanted to drag you away from all those people, and so fabricated a crisis!”Magma stared at her. She smiled mischievously.“Why?” he asked, aware even as he said it that it was perhaps a very dumb question to ask in this moment.“Why do you think?” she said, softly.The last time Covert ambushed Magma, he had not even stopped to think and reacted with deadly force.This time, he hesitated for a second or two, something that, if he had done in a combat situation, would probably have cost him his life.And then he kissed her.CovertIt was many hours later.They were now in Covert’s quarters in Agents HQ. Magma hadn’t actually lived in LEGO City for years.She could tell Magma had been quite surprised at her impulsiveness- and to be honest, so had she. She had been surprised to realize she had a crush on Magma, her adversary in many a game of secret agent cat-and-mouse chess over the past two years, but once she thought about it, it made sense.Magma’s sudden surprisingly willingness- nay, active desire- to “build bridges” between their two organizations had brought it to the fore, and, as they said, one thing had led to another.It was surprising, in a way, that it’d only been a week since their meeting after the Final Battle, but it had been a long week, and throughout it, the two of them had been working together almost constantly on organizing cleanup, on tracking Ogel, and on creating closer ties between their two organizations. So it wasn’t as surprisingly unlikely as it might have seemed.Magma had been quiet for some time now- Covert wished she knew what he was thinking.Abruptly, he spoke. “I’ve been… planning something work-related that I’d like your opinion on, if you’ll pardon my changing the topic,” he said quietly.“What is it?” Covert asked, curious. “And no, it’s fine- we can talk about whatever you like.”“I don’t like letting Evil Ogel get away- I’m sure you can sympathize,” Magma said, his face hardening for a moment. “And I’ve come up with a way that can allow us to ensure he won’t.”“What do you mean?” asked Covert, not sure she liked where this conversation was going.“Space Police say they’ll pursue him, but they don’t know him, they’re not experienced in dealing with him. But we are- you, me, Alpha Team, the Agents. So I think we should pursue him.”“Pursue him how?”Magma smiled. “Well, we have the ruins of a very large and very advanced vehicle sitting in LEGO City under guard. It’s true that airships like the Iron Predator aren’t really designed for spaceflight, but it can go suborbital. I’ve taken it into the upper atmosphere. So I was thinking… if we couple it with some spaceflight drive engines and generally do a lot of engineering work…”“You’re planning on putting a giant warship in space and sending it after Ogel?” Covert asked.“Yes, basically,” said Magma. “We have enough confiscated alien tech between us, and DA too- thanks to Reptile for that- that we can put together some powerful engines. Together, the Agents and Alpha Team can crew it and launch it, and with any luck we’ll be able to find wherever Ogel is next setting up shop and bring him down for good.”“You are thinking of leading this mission, aren’t you,” said Covert softly. Magma looked down, and nodded.“I was in charge of the last big offensive against Evil Ogel, and we had him on the ropes when the Dino Attack happened. I will not let him get away from justice this time!” he said softly, but with intensity.Covert sighed, and looked down as well. She was almost afraid of this intensity- what would Magma do once he captured Ogel, or if he was unable to capture Ogel? Would he break down for good, and become lost to even her?But there was something she could do to make sure that never happened.“Then I’m coming with you,” she said. “I’ll lead the Agents portion of the mission, you the Alpha Team. You can command the ship, I’ll just be there to ensure that the mission isn’t completely dominated by Alpha Team politics,” she said, and they both laughed.He looked at her then. “Are you sure?” he asked simply.She met his gaze.“Yes.”Future – One Month Later (Late January, 2011)MagmaMagma and Covert had gathered the forces of their respective agencies and done exactly as Magma had wanted.They had elected to name the ship after the Voltage, because Covert hated the name “Iron Predator”, and in Magma’s words, “If we’re going to send a giant ship in space on a mission of vengeance and justice under the command of an special operations agent, there’s only one name that fits.”They’d wound up calling it the Voltage-B, though, as previous iterations of the ship had used numbers, and they weren’t sure how many numbers Kotua had gotten up to. Stil, whatever it was called, it was almost finished. They had both recruited volunteers, and were preparing to launch the ship as soon as they could.But that is another tale that, perhaps, someday will be told, if the Voltage-B ever returns home, whether in triumph or in shame.As for this tale, one last scene will hopefully bring some closure to it:“My name?” Magma murmured. “My name…”He sat up. “During the war in 2008, Ogel escalated things beyond anything any of us had ever seen before. Every theater of operation we’d ever dreamed of him threatening- he did. To make things worse, we were left contending with Dr. Inferno and the Agents- no offense, of course-““None taken,” said Covert, smirking. “Continue?”“Well, operations sprung up all across the globe. Black ops tactics were used much more often than they had been in years past. Fear and paranoia among Special Operations reached an all-time high.“In one operation, in Mission Red Planet- don’t even ask what we were doing on Mars, it’s a long story and would draw this conversation on for a few days- I volunteered to become a Skeleton Drone. Well, a Red Space Drone, I suppose, but in any case, that’s not really the point-““You… what?” said Covert, staring at him. “You became a Drone?”“Yes,” Magma said. “I became a Drone. We infiltrated a, ah, Droning facility and modified some of the Mind Control Orb technology- long story short, when I came into the presence of a specific smell my conditioning would revert and I’d awaken. The goal was to assassinate the commander of Ogel’s Mars forces- and good thing too, otherwise we’d have been dealing with a fleet of alien warships rather than just Space Drone shock troops-““Just how classified is this story if I’ve never even seen records of an AT mission to Mars?” asked Covert sharply.“I assure you it happened! It’s no more ludicrous than fighting an otherworldly force of Chaos embodying a giant airship and army of robots, and yet, Mission Deep Freeze happened, didn’t it?“Anyway, if they knew I was an Alpha Team agent they’d have killed me on the spot. If they happened to check my identity and realize who I was, or see something in my mind when performing the Drone process, we’d have been finished. So I purged my real name from every Alpha Team record. I deleted every bit of information I could find on myself. And then I underwent therapy in preparation for the Drone process… and then I became a Drone, and they didn’t recognize me, so it worked.“And the operation proceeded according to plan. I gathered intelligence on Ogel, destroyed his Red Planet operation, killed its commander, discovered new things about how Drones worked, and returned home, where I had to undergo more therapy-““I imagine so,” Covert said, staring at him concerned. Magma was secretly touched to see the concern in her face, but carried on talking.“In any case- my name, and identity, is classified beyond almost everyone’s security clearance. I’m one of a handful of people who actually know it now… my brother was one, and he’s dead. Zed, Dash, and some other higher-ups know it,” Magma finished.“But I have told you mine,” Covert said, with a smile. “And if we’re going off on this mission together,“True,” Magma said, smiling back. “And so… against all of my better judgment… ”He leaned in, and whispered two words in her ear.She looked at him, and he nodded.And as if it was a weight off his shoulders, Magma felt at peace for the first time in a long time. He knew it wouldn’t last, not as long as Evil Ogel was out there awaiting justice, but here and now, he was alive, and he was happy.OOC: It is now many hours later than when I started working on this, and I really should sleep.This Backpost of Doom ™ hopefully brings some closure to Magma, and touches on some things I wanted to bring up in the AT RPG that never really was.As for Reptile, the interview scene in a way touches upon what happened to him as a character too- but, interestingly enough, even though all of his scenes are better written than many of Magma’s, and he’s probably a better character than Magma for many reasons… his story is also less interesting.

Based on some of the patch files, it seems we may also visit Apocrypha- the realm of Hermaeus Mora.So there may be a new location that is actually new as well.

OOC: As usual, I manage to miss pretty much everything of the finale's finale. :PI was thinking, and still am thinking, about writing one last IC backpost of doom to finalize some stories. If that happens, it'll be posted tonight- otherwise, this will be goodbye.I said this before, but it was nice writing all these stories with you.Perhaps someday I'll post more stories of my own vision of the LEGO Universe- which over the years has evolved and diverged from that of this RPG- featuring some of my characters. Or perhaps not- I never seem to have the time to write all the stories I want to tell, and I'm a little burned out on that universe.I'm honestly uncertain what my already rather comatose activity on BZPower will look like in the future- hopefully I'll be about every so often just like I am nowadays- but I will say this: should you ever happen to run across a "TC01" on the internet (or on Steam or other such services), odds are that it's me.See you all around?