Fighty

IC: Captain Tanakus finally roused himself from his stupor and took his eyes off the strange creature, riveting though it was. He turned to Valaticus' hologram, which gave a stiff nod of approval. Tanakus reignited his comm-link and hailed the foreign vessel once more. "The Supreme Consul has heard your proposal and has agreed to it. Please give him a few moments to prepare." Tanakus deactivated the comm-link and went about preparing the teleporter, readying it to transport Valaticus and the three other party leaders to the ship's bridge. Using the teleporter would cause the Jump Drive to go offline for a short while, but it wasn't as if they were planning on running anywhere. After a few minutes of careful calculations, the teleporter was ready."It's all clear, Supreme Consul," Tanakus motioned to Valaticus' hologram. The hologram gave another anxious nod to Tanakus and then vanished. A few, tense moments followed, and then all of a sudden the teleporter roared to life. A fierce blast of light and sound filled the bridge, disorienting all on deck. It took a few moments for their crew-members to regain their senses, but once they did, they saw Valaticus Kh'ronos, Calameus J'rhonikus, H'rushan Vartik and Ju'das Hi'shar standing there in their midst. "Tanakus, hail the ship and let them know that we are ready. You will be joining us for the negotiations." Tanakus gave a solemn nod and picked up his comm-link once more. "Osaelili vessel," Tanakus dictated, without much surety. "The Supreme Consul has prepared himself and is ready to board. He, three other consuls, and I will be boarding your ship to engage in these discussions."

1-46. And it's not a skirmish, per se. More like a less-than-congenial prelude to negotiations.

OOC: Disregarding the fact that I'm a moron, you did move closer when I asked you not to. I think a little warning shot is forgivable. =P

IC: Sweat began to emanate from Captain Tanakus' pores as he saw the foreign craft beginning to descend towards the planet. Unwilling to initiate fire, he simply watched with his mouth agog as the massive flagship and its accompanying frigates came to rest beside them. "What should we do, Consul Kh'ronos?" Tanakus mouthed, his voice a hoarse whisper."You know the routine. They've disobeyed express orders. Send a missile across their bow and order them to move away from the planet until they reveal their intentions." Valaticus's voice faltered, realizing that he could very well be signing the crew's death warrant. Tanakus nodded, the fear evident in his eyes, and aimed a t'sukai missile right across the flagship's bow. With a deep breath, he pulled the trigger.The missile soared from its resting place in the starboard gunwale, barely missing the prow of the alien flagship. Tanakus picked up his comm-link, roaring into it at the foreign vessel. "Unidentified spacecrafts, revert to a higher altitude until you have made your intentions known. Failure to comply will result in lethal engagement."

It was Lloyd beaming into one of my systems with five ships. Yes, not a massive fleet, but compared to the one ship I have patrolling the system, it might as well be the whole god-darned Swiss army.Plus, Lloyd isn't "invading" my system, but if you were a ship captain and all of a sudden five unidentified ships beam into your general vicinity, what would your first reaction be? Better to be prepared for war than expect peaceful compliance.

At first I was like "oh okay bland intro comic whateva."Then Deadmau5 came in and I was like "oh okay random use of supporting characters whateva."Then Deadmau5... got on a horse... with a Bionicle head...And I was like "oh my gourd I love you so freaking much right now."

Throw caution to the freakin' wind and pump out whatever semblance of a coherent narrative comes to my mind. Then I edit it later on.

Yeah, just a word of advice, new players: Don't take up one of your three power slots by having a Tryna or a Zatth. Seriously, that's a complete waste.

IC: Captain Tanakus paced the deck of the I'ako anxiously, his mind still on edge after the encounter with the aliens. What agonized him more than anything was his forced silence; Valaticus had warned him not to tell anyone in an attempt to dispel a possible panic. It was hard beyond belief to look his wife in the eye when he hologrammed her and tell her that everything was going well, when at any minute a possibly superior race could fly in from the heavens and exterminate them.As Tanakus roamed the hallways restlessly, he gathered that he wasn't the only nervous one: engineers, medics, and pilots alike were twitching at the thought of a possible holocaust. They had thought of extraterrestrial contact before, but they hadn't expected it to arrive so soon. One day, roughly a fortnight after the first contact, the ship was torn asunder as a massive alien fleet suddenly flooded into the system. "Prepare for enemy contact; soldiers, man your battlestations. All arms to the ready. Initiating preliminary contact interface now!" Tanakus' face was grim as he fired up the ships' outward communicators. He hoped to heaven that these aliens were friendly; if they weren't, he probably wouldn't be breathing in an hour. Tanakus keyed the Consulate and the four Colonies into the comm-feed, and then sent the second message."Incoming spacecrafts," Tanakus declared in his best attempt at a confident voice. "You are entering territory that is property of Valaticus Kh'ronos, Supreme Consul of the Sanshoran race. Please identify yourselves and your intentions. Do not move to come any closer or we will be forced to open fire."OOC: Alright, the proverbial ball has begun to roll.

These guys are so dang good. Their legendary cover of "Carol of the Bells" is one of my favorite songs of all time. "Wizards in Winter," "Wish Liszt," and "Christmas Jam" are definitely worth a listen as well.

1. Not really.2. Aesthetically? No. Content-wise? Definitely.3. Well, it's not super amazing but it doesn't really need to be. The forums function just the same whether or not they have a cool logo.4. No.5. I don't really see how a skin could be Bionicle-y without explicitly featuring Bionicle characters, and I'd personally rather not do that.6. Kind of, but is that a bad thing? Bionicle isn't current anymore, and I think we, as fans, are moving on. The changes in BZPower reflect that mindset and that's something I don't mind in the slightest.7. Probably. =P

Calvin Johnson is amazing, js.

Paint + GIMP.

Where George Takei and the car do the Carlton in a sushi bar.A wild Wobbuffet appears!

Suddenly Sir Lancelot intervenes to save Sir Gallahad the car from almost-certain peril.The car then runs into the infamous Knights who say "Ni", who demand a shrubbery!

Price Tag - Jessie J (feat. B.o.B.)Gosh, why is pop music so addictive?

Party in the USA - Miley Cyrus.

Homeworld: Kalmara (1-48)Territories: Kalmara (1-48), Colony 1 (1-46), Colony 2 (1-45), Colony 3 (1-44), Colony 4 (1-47)Navy:I'akoi x5 (1 posted at 1-46, 1 docked at 1-46, 1 docked at 1-47, 1 docked at 1-48, 1 docked at 1-45)Under Construction:Nothing

First off, I love that you didn't give the Matoran names. It reminds me of some of James Fenimore Cooper's work, when he takes whole chapters to reveal the actual names of characters, preferring to call them "the preacher" or "the scout." Admittedly, when I read 'Tall and Shorty' I immediately pictured Laurel and Hardy, and that doesn't apply at all considering the differences in personality.I like the way you convey the dissent that Tall has toward the Turaga. It feels wholly natural, and it's interesting to think that maybe not all of the Matoran followed the Turaga blindly. The dialogue in general is well-written and enjoyable to read.I also love this story because it hearkens back to the '01-'03 Makuta. The Big Bad. The Source of all Evil. The Treacherous Brother. The Voldemort of Mata Nui. This story reminds me of how awesome and menacing Makuta used to be, before we realized that there were dozens of beings just like him and they really weren't that hard to fight.Overall, great work. I really enjoyed this story and I hope you do well. 4.8/5

First off, I have to say that it was well done for being such an early entry. You obviously didn't have time to proofread it much, seeing as there's still a handful of grammar errors, but that's forgivable considering how well-written the story is overall.I do have to complain, however, about the basic premise. Takua is basically climbing down a cliff's edge on a rope in Ko-Wahi, reminiscing on past events in his life. So, it's basically a frame story with an extremely simple, overarching plot. It's okay, but I was never very engaged. The memories, while well written, didn't convey very much action to me. Likewise, I wasn't very emotionally involved with Takua's plight, mainly because there was no conveyed sense of peril. I didn't once expect that Takua was going to die, so obviously there wasn't a whole lot of tension to the main narrative.The descriptions and word choice were superb, though. You obviously have a very good vocabulary and you employ it to great effect here. I got a very vivid vision of everything you described; you have an excellent talent for painting pictures with words. Overall, I'd give it a 3.5/5. Not bad, but it wasn't really extraordinary.

The title grabbed my attention and implored me to read, and I'm glad I did. Firstly, your use of the stanza format was instantly engaging for me. I expected to find some sort of identifiable meter or rhythm, yet found none. Despite that, the words do have a "bouncing" rhythm. I like your extensive use of words with lots of consonants, making for some very fun sentences to say aloud. Seriously, you don't know how much fun I had saying, "Flickering like a beacon to a bobbing junk" over and over again.The word choice in general is brilliant here. I can tell you have an extensive vocabulary and you use it with stylistic aplomb. You also have a good economy of words; that is, saying a lot in a few words. The characters of Arav and Carr are surprisingly well-developed after only eight stanzas.The only criticism I can draw for this story is that it wasn't a story in the typical sense. There was no conflict and resolution. It was still a fun and interesting read, but the lack of an actual plot kept it from being engaging and outstanding. Something that would've been cool is to have these stanzas interwoven into a story about the Toa Regmar, similar to a songfic. Having an actual story about Arav's betrayal of Carr would have lent so much more weight to the final stanza.But still, good work. Unless some other brilliant stories surface, this is, in my opinion, one of the top contenders in the contest. Overall I'd give it a 4/5.

... What. On. Earth.That has to be the strangest Short Story I've ever read. And that's hardly an exaggeration.From a grammar standpoint, there are no glaring errors. Everything seems correct and in-order in that respect.However, the romance here is hardly believable. For one, it's barely alluded to at the beginning of the story, and it's simply thrown in the reader's face and barely addressed at the end. There's no build-up, no tension, and no payoff. There's simply a linear narrative featuring two-dimensional characters that have no weight or emotional impact. This is a very interesting concept you have here, but you didn't really take the time to flesh it out.Plus, the story has a stark lack of descriptions. I realize that descriptions aren't entirely necessary, but they can add a lot of immersion when they're used effectively. Your story painfully lacks immersive qualities: deep characters, vivid descriptions, intriguing plot, etc.There is one saving grace, however, and that's in the dialogue. Vezon's lines are punchy and, at times, quite humorous. Things get a little cheesy and unrealistic near the end, but most of the dialogue at the beginning is well-written.Overall, I'd give this story a 2/5. It's a quirky little one-shot, but it's too discombobulated and it fails on a number of levels.

Tahu Mata: 15Onua Mata: 15Kopaka Mata: 16Pohatu Mata: 16Lewa Mata: 15Gali Mata: 14Turaga Vakama: 10Turaga Whenua: 10Turaga Nuju: 10Turaga Onewa: 10Turaga Nokama: 10Turaga Matau: 10Jala: 5Onepu: 5Matoro: 5Huki: 5Maku: 5Kongu: 5Takua: 5Nuparu: 5Kopeke: 5Hafu: 5Hali: 5Tamaru: 5Kapura: 4Kotu: 5

@Toa Kethyre: What are you looking for? My gas pistol was only $35, and it works great.@Beal: Dude, that's hilarious.

This is the MAC11 that I was considering purchasing. At $80, it's a lot cheaper than an electric assault rifle, but I'm wondering if I should spend more money and get something that's a little more durable. Plus, its ridiculous rate of fire means that I'll either have to be really good at reloading quickly or invest in a few extra mags.Oh, by the way, what's your opinion on airsoft grenades? Are they worth it, or are they pretty useless to you?