Awh, you people. If you don't like me, then go away. >_>

P.S. How'd you get to my blog?

---

I've been asking for a camera recently. A good one, I said. One that I can take respectable pictures with. It was all teh same general response, though. Why do you need it? What are you going to do with it? Well it should be obvious that I was planning to take pictures with it.

I wonder how that simplistic fact can be so elusive to others.

When I was a bairn I used to have a fascination with birds. I'd look at the cranes stopping over right at the field outside my home on their trip south. I'd watch in wonderment whenever one of them spread their majestic wings and took to the skies.

I would always wonder how those creatures could achieve something like that as if it was a trivial matter, then ponder on why we would need huge tanks of petroleum to do the same. They amazed me, really.

Then the interest spread to botany. What were these things we called plants? How could something so rigid, so silent, experience the ages and provide essentials like oxygen and food for life? Why are these things near immortal?

I was, and still am, surprised that I asked myself these questions in Primary Three. Did they have souls? Where they once people (there is still a tree in the field outside my house that looks like a man beckoning the stars)?

All this lead me to look at life itself as well - the very basis of it. I even came up with some nonsensical theories, none of which I can remember now because this fascination pointed me to a completely different area of influence.

Instead of medicine (which my parents thought I'd jump to next), I went on to a harsher reality - conflict and war. Of course, I hid that crap from others - who would want others to know that they've been looking at two burning towers and wondering how the hell those idiots did it.

As I progressed from the ironic devastation in New York into the past to delve into the Cold War and Hitler's good 'ol drinking buddies, it became inevitable that I know more about those destructive, fearful times.

From the trench battles between the Allied and Central Powers between 1914 and 1918 to the merciless suicide bombers in Pearl Harbour and the nuclear bomb, followed by the tense moments between the USSR and the United States. We've all heard of the Vietnam War, the Soviet-Afghan struggles, the failed catalyst for the Third World War called the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Now there are but only words and pictures to describe the fear and pain the people went through back then.

Which brings me to my original problem that I made apparent in the first sentence: I've been asking for a camera. I want to take pictures of the world as I see it, to describe it in just a click of a button and a flash. I want to make sure I take these pictures with me; memories of a long-life. No one knows what's going to happen the next morning, and that's why I want to remember the other mornings I've had.

The last few days of my life?

Maybe, Jenny. Maybe.

These are interesting times...

The cult has been exposed by two delinquent adolescent fools. Unfortunately, it wasn't in their own will that they did it. I don't foresee any punishment on our behalf coming to them. Either they were careless or simply stupid.

What am I saying?

I wonder what would happen if I myself pulled the trigger. Would I be grieved for? Surely by my parents yes, but how long? A week? Two? One month? Perhaps a year? It would only take one month for the world to completely forget me other than by the name written on my tombstone.

Would it matter as much that I planned it all out step by step and wrote it all in a book and wedged it behind a toilet pipe near the place I was going to be a bloody mess at? Honestly, just how much have the authorities found out, even with heartfelt love letters with Death snugly tucked inside those journals dictating every step of their romantic plan to kill themselves together?

I doubt it would matter as much. Who am I, anyway, to the world? I'm not a professional sportsman; in fact I hate sports. That was the main reason why I never followed the Olympics - I simply, completely detest sports. My studies aren't top notch either, in no small part due to the teachers I love to hate.

Perhaps he was right. Perhaps I am an idiot.

People are arguing that I'm not opening up to them, that I'm not letting my feelings show. Well, I beg to differ. I have already opened myself for a long time. I've been showing my feelings for an even longer time. Those idiots just don't know where to look.

And they call me a liar.

It would be scary, really, to look at it my way. I have a butterfly knife in my cupboard that's just yearning to be used. But I just can't. Why would I want to end up in hell? Long story short, I just don't. My religion is the last safeguard, and it's a pretty darn good one too.

Call me disturbed, crazy, psychotic, insane, whatever. The world is placing it's foot on me, and I have a needle ready for it. The line has been drawn.

The warning has been given.

Proof of Prophecies (P. I)


Journal Entries (Identification number unknown)
Date of Retrieval (DOR) - 14/2/5189

Estimated Date of Entry - 18/1/5021
Entry coding signed off as Steven.

"We as a race have come a very long way. Through the centuries of war and violence on our home planet they call Earth, the one which we call Anubis-69 and Old Earth invariably. We marked the first true age of man when we experienced the second World War.

We stepped through the vast undergrowth that we now call the Burning Age. A brilliant mind cast his eye upon the sky and began rising humanity to the depths of space and beyond. The Covenant War, the Blue Moon events, Deep Space Relay...

All that as well when we landed on these barren lands that we now call home for ourselves, that we fight for it and give our lives to defend them. Only time will tell when this reality will cease to persist.

Come, my children! We have defied reality himself and have broken the puzzle that bound us to the ground. Now, we can see the future of our people and explore the past. Come forward, my children. We are now prepared to go to the next stage. We are now finally setting in motion the plan that Kane prepared for so many years ago!

Come now, my children, for they finally arrive! Come forth! For ascension... draws near."

Let the moon rise!

We had our parade today! Finally, after so many weeks of rehearsals and reorganizations, we executed the plan. And it was a pretty successful execution too, if I say so myself.

Yes, that's us right up there.

Oh, and yeah, I wasn't exactly looking the right way when Faiz pulled the trigger on the phone. Actually, he didn't really apply much force on it - he didn't actually take the picture. I had to ask around for someone to send it to me, and all I got was this crappy one.

Ha ha.

So yeah, rewarding as it was, it still didn't beat me going to the mosque alone because Rihd and the rest wanted to go for a dip in the swimming pool.

Oh, and I got this two days ago.




Only two badges, you ask? One of them is the most rarest badge among cadets. Guess which one?

The marksman of course. Didn't I tell you that I'm a sniper?




*COUGH!* (Above: Meh best buddies.)

A Campaign of Distraction (P. V)

Gyrael looked out of the small hole at the mast of the boat. The cold drift from the land blew his hair across his forehead, blurring his vision as the speedboat moved closer towards the docking area of Port Vale.

He tugged at his neck for the thin rope that held onto his binoculars. Slowly, he lifted the pair of binocs up to his eyes and surveyed the neighboring port.

He could see, clearly, a white-haired girl with two others - one in an oversized leather jacket and spectacles, another in a small fur-coat.

The all important Greyman was missing.

Gyrael screwed his face up and went back into the holdings.

---

Steven was on a roof. He had no intention of suicide, that would be stupid because he had traveled so far through space to get to Azeroth. No, his intention was to be cool, sort of. It was a cold winters night, a full moon, a light breeze coming in from the mountains... all that was missing was a lone wolf with a coat standing on a tall tower admiring the city.

Haha. Right.

Being cool was actually far from Steven's agenda. He was on the roof of one of the most important buildings in Jein-Tol, the Oracle Palace. It housed the crown jewels, the throne, and most importantly for Steven, a vital piece of equipment that maintained communication in and out of Jein-Tol.

Steven pulled his phone out and flipped it open. "Yeah."

"Steve, this is Rael. We're approaching Port Vale,"
"Great,"
"One problem,"
"What?"
"They're standing on Port Sarim,"
"So?"
"Without Cross's son,"

Steven stalled for a minute.

"You're telling me they made it to Sarim - without Markus?" Steven whispered.
"I think so."

Steven rolled his eyes.

"He's got to be around somewhere. Make sure they don't get on the boat without him. We need him in Jein-Tol,"

"Gotcha'" Gyrael said and ended the phonecall.

Steven, however, held his phone at his ear for a little longer. If Markus wasn't going to board the boat back to Jein-Tol together with those three he was supposedly with... then maybe Arshad screwed up big time.

What...?

o_O

I was bored!!

A Campaign of Distraction (P. IV)

Kyra shuffled behind Amanda, somehow managing to keep in step with Mira. Her affinity with her was so strong that they began to trust each other just minutes after meeting. Mira suspected this was because of Amanda's sweet-talking prowess, having seen the better part of it when she was in Doned's Faction.

It had been roughly a week since they had met up with the man named Markus; it was hard to count if you slept through the daylight and behaved nocturnal. Markus, for some reason, liked the night a lot more than daytime. Either that or something was wrong with Markus in the head, Kyra couldn't decide.

They trekked through the thin layer of snow on the road towards the dark Port Sarim just a stone's throw away. They had been doing so for a few days now, making their way slowly to the port.

"We should be there in time to catch the Borealis," Markus whispered, and Amanda nodded with less enthusiasm than a dead person. Despite being one of the Luna children, she didn't have enough energy to constantly keep their progress hidden as well as trek behind Markus.

Kyra turned to Mira. "Are you from Earth too?"

Mira sniffed. She smiled and nodded. "I was from Singapore,"

Kyra's expression brightened. "I'm from Singapore too."

There was an uneasy silence as they continued plowing through the snow. Then Kyra piped up. "When I asked Markus about Singapore, he kept saying that it isn't the same place anymore."

Mira nodded, then sneezed.

Kyra waited for an explanation, but it never came, so she prompted Mira. "Why isn't it the same place anymore?"

"They say it's been attacked by Ichor,"
"Who's Ichor?"
"It's not a who,"
"What?"
"It's a sort of parasitic crystal,"
"Parasite?"
"Yes,"
"What does it prey on?"
"It doesn't have sentience, Kyra,"
"But you said it's a parasite,"
"Yes,"
"So what does it live on?"

"I don't know how to answer that, Kyra," Mira sighed. Kyra wanted to press on, but she saw that Mira had resigned from the conversation by the expression on her face. She saw a tear roll down her cheek.

"I-I'm sorry, Mira," Kyra stammered. Somehow, she had managed to hurt her as well."

Mira tried to reassure her. "It's okay Kyra. The cold just got into my eye. It's always like that,"

They had reached the port by then, and Markus told them to wait on the cold concrete in the lonely port. Kyra looked out to the distance seas at the docks below, and she could faintly see a small boat rippling across the sea towards them.

Amanda gasped. Mira looked at her.

"That's now our boat, is it?" she whispered.

There has been a slight change in the plot schematics because of the map systems I drew out. I completely forgot that New Antioch is in the tropical portion of Azeroth and that Jein-Tol is at the South Pole. I also forgot that Port Sarim was in Esther's Island off the coast of Jein-Tol, not Febelswelt at New Antioch.

So, yeah, it's not slight anymore. It's a complete revision!! AAAAARGH!! I'll have the redraw the maps AGAIN!!

[The Story So Far]...

A Campaign of Distraction (P. III)

The northern edge of the icy city of Jein-Tol held one of the most vast and advanced ports in Azeroth. They had state of the art supply systems, a docking bay capable of managing over two hundred ships in any one time, and a management speed of three hundred operations per day. Military-wise, they had the best naval forces on the planet, topping the charts with a warship number of four hundred, all manned by the best fleet admirals and commodores, and the number was still increasing.

All of this economical and military super-power systems gave rise when Mira's father, King Horrace VII, was in throne. Even after he was ruthelessly killed by one of Arshad's key lieutenants, Jenovah Altair, the country continued to progress under the Judicial government systems. Years without a proper figurehead to follow turned the country into a democratic state, and when Mira found out that she herself was the rightful heir of the throne, she was dumbfounded that she was to be queen of such an advanced country.

To Arshad though, the country was completely rigged.

During the Warring Triad events, several veteran demolitioneers paid a visit to the icy continent at the south of the planet. They laid out minefields many times the size of football fields when they found a rich vein of resources deep in the icy caverns of Mark Five - the deepest cavern in the continent. Seeing that they already had a powerful supply of resrouces streaming in from Korhal VI and Ionas, they decided to set a trap for their enemies.

They never activated the trap. Not a single mine was tripped because no one else went to the continent during the Warring Triad events. The demolitioneers' faction was obliterated anyway, and their trap plans were destroyed. Not a soul knew that the entire of Southreim was rigged more than a nuke.

Not a soul but Steven and Arshad.

The minefields in question weren't exactly right below the country, but they were located relatively close to the port power supply and warship docking areas. Steven realised that having the trigger to these minefields would be key if Jein-Tol ever staged an assault with it's over-powerful navy against the Pioneer teams scattered across Kalimdor and Reichlan. So he set out to find it, and he found it soon after in Jein-Tol's own archives.

Those morons didn't even know about a trap right under their feet when they had all the information to disable it.

Arshad eyed the console video streaming in from a satellite. A lonely supply boat was leaving dock from Port Sarim towards Jein-Tol, and there were three ships inbound to the port. Two of them were warships heading in to give reinforcements to the supply yards based in Sarim, the other was a transport vessel carrying what appeared to be gravel towards Sarim's sister port Vale.

"Pioneer team 32 calling back, Pioneer team 16 dispatching to area 15."

Arshad was prepared to think that all of this was just a distraction, that Markus was no where near New Antioch at all. There were evacuation sectors dotted all around New Antioch, mainly towards the eastern bay - which was experiencing snow because it was winter. The Alliances were housing their stage areas and war theatres at that bay, so people generally believed that the closer they were to the army protecting them, the more protected they were.

'Pfft,' thought Arshad. 'Fat chance. Those Alliances just want more people around them so that they have human shields. Can't wait till the massacre begins,'

A tiny beep alerted Arshad of an abnormal psi spike around the port, followed by team 16's report via the AI system.

"Pioneer team 16 reporting abnormal P.I. spike reading at docking area 12."

Then there was another beep.

"Pioneer team 27 reporting abnormal P.I. spike reading at docking area 12."

It continued for teams 38, 49 and 66, as Arshad, bemused, listened on with his phone in his hand.

Then something else.

"Pioneer team 2 reporting abnormal P.I. spike reading at base platform area 98."

Arshad dialed team 2. They were in area 16, not 98. Markus messed up big time.

He immediately called the operator and transmitted a search-out at area 12 and area 16. He placed more stress on area 12. Since a flase spike reading was only capable by inexperienced psi users, there was a chance that Markus was trying to generate a full call-out to area 98. In doing so, however, he apparently forgot that such psi attacks on Pioneer technology usually backfired by displaying the origin of the attack and the target.

"But don't send everyone there, I need a few back in base to search through area two as well," Arshad added. The operator was puzzled. "Why not send everyone and completely secure the area?"

Arshad snorted. "Because this is Marian's son we're talking about, not some dimwit who would really make a mistake and not know it,"

He then turned back to the console when the operator obliged, and observed the mid-sea gates and the transport ship inbound to Jein-Tol, and he wondered. Maybe this was a trap.

But there was another, more burning question in him. "What the hell is inside that bucket of bolts?"


-------

I need a role for Madison. Plus my bowels today refused to let me go to the sports fiesta. I had no will to, anyway.

A Campaign of Distraction (P. II)

Not much thought entered his head when he first let the information out. He thought it would give a good stage to play on - the starting of a long drawn hike. But then, Arshad finally realized that if a really good picture and a few words were enough to motivate you, you probably had an easy job.

That wasn't the case right now. Markus was one of the most skilled snipers in the Black Hawk Army, and also the most cryptic. He had connections with Arshad's old friend and enemy, Marian Cross. In fact, he was the man's foster child.

Marian trained Markus to be himself in every way, only better.

Which ticked Arshad off, because that meant it would be almost three times harder to locate Markus in all the ruckus that was going on with the Oracina and the Alliances. It also ticked him off that Amanda went straight to Markus as her first line of defense against him from finding the girl - the one with a P.I. of 37.

Thirty-seven. The highest ever recorded for a human from Old Earth was four, and the maximum thought achievable by any human was ten, and only one other human had that psi index. But she's been dead for years now.

How this magnificent freak number popped up fascinated Arshad. How the person with that high a psi index is still alive made him want to find out everything possible about this person. So far, he knew the person was female. She was from Old Earth, and was teleported to Azeroth in a warp-drive accident.

He also happened to know that that particular person came from a small island nation in an archipelago off the coast of the old mainland of South East Asia - the area now blanketted with highly reactive and almost mature deposits of Ichor.

It occured to him that the deposits may have caused a mutation. But Ichor that mature usually killed anyone within a few hundred yards around them, much less create a mutation in a solitary human.

"Pioneer Team 14 calling back," the speaker rang.

Arshad reached from his chair to a small red button under the screen. He pushed some buttons and began to try to trace out Markus in New Antioch. The coordinate lines sprung across the satellite image of the continent.

Slowly they moved across, laying on more than one position, a small cursor blinking at each point with a specific number of psionic influence - in this case, an influence higher than ten. Each place corresponded to a red marker, which then formulated lapsed time and practical positioning over real surface by time and distance.

Eventually, it came down to one place. The southern edge of New Antioch - the edge nearest to Port Sarim.

And it was nulled.

Arshad cursed and kicked the table. Then he slammed his head on the keyboard, trying to figure a way around Markus' seemingly ghost-like identity. He always seemed to fizzle in and out of existance - a feat Arshad had tried once with Holuhot, a human with the unique strand of 'Assailant' DNA in him that allowed him to displace space without time - that is, teleport at will.

But this was too much. Marian had trained Markus too well in the art of sublety and covert operations. He was so good that even Steven and Arshad - the two original Traveller-59 strand holders - could not even begin to track the guy down.

Arshad looked up suddenly and observed the port that the cursor was hovering at, and an idea popped into his mind.

Maybe Markus, Mira, Amanda and the girl weren't on New Antioch anymore.

Maybe they went back to Jein-Tol.

Arshad smiled. Time to spring the trap.

A Campaign of Distraction

It is fatal for one to go to war without the will to win it. That is, it you're on a side that's been pushed into the middle of one. Markus grabbed his mug and gingerly picked the boiling pot of chocolate up.

He was one of the few fortunate ones to get into an Evacuation Transport back to New Antioch during the recall. Forward based establishments that trained soldiers in the country ran out of luck when the Protectorate failed to keep it's promise. They didn't even believe that there was a threat in New Antioch, so the establishments were pretty much dead meat.

They were literally crying hostile aliens, for heaven's sakes.

Markus carefully sipped the chocolate and laid it down on the table again. Sitting across the wooden round table were three people; Mira - a girl with dark complexion and shoulder-length hair in her teens, Amanda - a pale, silvery-haired, red-eyed woman in her 20s, and Kyra - another teenager with long dark hair and a tanned complexion.

Markus studied the scene outside the inn. The snow was slowly piling up on the walkways, and people were brisk when the greeted each other in the open because of the cold. Most were in a hurry in their early morning job rush. It was five in the morning - and it was still dark.

He sighed and looked back at the trio in front of him. Kyra was lying against the wall seat, her head against the corner. She was sleeping. Mira was on the table, her shoulders moving in a slow rhythm as she slumbered in her arms. Only Amanda was wide awake with Markus. Her eyes were literally twinkling, her red iris giving her pale face an eerie outlook.

'Crazed zealot much?' Markus thought.

"Crazed zealot not, Mark," Amanda said. "In case you don't remember, you have a red eye too,"

Markus' hand unconsciously flew up to his left eye. That eye, though normally brown, would turn red whenever Markus sensed danger. It enabled him to detect stealth in it's purest form - the disruption method that caused the user to fizzle out of sight until he/she could not be detected with the naked eye.

Well, it activated only when Markus sensed impending danger. Now, it was active because Amanda was there. Since Amanda had natural eyes with the same ability, she could not deactivate them. So instead of suppressing the ability, she let it flow out of her - and that's what caused Markus' eye to activate as well.

Markus sighed and sipped his chocolate again. "These two here are who again?"

"The one on the table is Mira from Jein-Tol. The other one's Kyra, Old Earth warp-drive accident, ended up in Qu-Chebia."

"And what makes you think Arshad's hunting them?"

"Mira has always been in his hitlist - he just needed her alive for most of his operations to take place. Kyra however," Amanda glanced at the girl. "Kyra has a psionic index of 37."

Markus nearly spat the chocolate out. "37!?"

Amanda nodded.

Markus tried to calm down. He looked around at the empty inn and whispered to Amanda even though, yeah, the inn was empty. "I've never seen anyone with a P.I. of more than 8!"

"That's why he wants her down," Amanda said, waving her hand at Markus. "It's a number he has never seen before either."

A sick expression came across Markus' face. Amanda saw it. "It's nothing like that. She's in his book, thats all,"

Markus groaned. More prophecies. He hoped another Kane wouldn't show himself.

I have the general idea for procedures involving Part 1 - "Preparations", with an excerpt from Chapter 2. Nothing much, but still something significant.

Part 1 - Preparations

Chapter 1 - Personal Entry
The story starts off with Mira and Fira in Jein-Tol after the Eight Ichorian War. Mira meets with Arshad's old comrade, Christopher, and the two start to seek out members from the original Circle of Twelve. Under orders from Christopher, he keeps his connection with Arshad a secret.

Meanwhile, Fira is rescued by Amanda and Altair from an Umajon holding site. Amanda introduces Fira to Arshad, who then leads her to join the group with 'uncertain plans'.


Chapter 2 - Uncertain Plans
Kyra and Nur make an entry here. This messes up some of Arshad's original plans, and he then tries to locate them.

EXCERPT:
The static hissed on silently between the screen and Arshad as he contemplated what Steven had just said. Arshad stared at the hooded figure on the screen - the one on the screen did the same back.

Arshad sighed. "Are you sure there was an error?"

"One hundred percent. Two foreign entities." Steven said. The static cackled.

Arshad pushed a button and turned it to try to make the static cease. All he did was make it worse. Groaning, he sat back onto his chair, head in his hand. "This is going to mess us up, Steve,"

The hooded figure looked over his shoulder. "I thought I told you not to call me Steve,"

"Yeah, well, we have worse things to worry about. We can't risk them getting captured by the Umajon. Do they have a Psi Index?"

Steven nodded. "One of them had a P.I. of over 8. That's enough to stimulate high level radiation."

Suddenly Arshad was all ears. He leaned forward. "And the other one?"

"The other had - wait for it - the other one had over 32."

Arshad nearly screamed. He slammed the table and pointed at the screen. "32 is enough to operate a weak Thor supercannon. Find them! They might not be able to handle the energies!!"

Steven was taken aback at this sudden burst. "We might be too late, Arshad," he said. "I lost a reading on the one with 32 the moment he or she entered the space-time system,"

Arshad only laughed. A Psi Index of 32 was far higher than any human - or alien- could even handle. The person probably propelled him or herself back into Old Earth - what, Crutaecious Era?

"I don't care, find the one with the 8 at least. I'm pretty sure it will be easy to find the 32. Just look for a spot where nothing's alive." Arshad said, finally calming down. "I want them here, with the Circle. If the Umajon find them first, our mission will be in jeapordy, and Old Earth might be in danger,"

The hooded figure hesitated, then said, "I thought I was the one giving orders," and blanked out.


Um... yeah, sort of crappy right now, but I'm working all I can on it. I may ask for a few ideas around over the week. Would someone care to help me comprehend this? ^^,


End.

.Arshad

I've decided on a lineup of characters. Here are the ones currently in the process.

OLD EARTH CHARACTERS
Sir Jieh (Steven)
Zafirah (Fira)
Jaspreet Kaur (Kyra)
Timothy Mendell (Tim Krovy)
Nur Amirah (Nur)
Amira Toriman (Mira Tori)
Md. Arshad (Gyrael/Arsh)


AZEROTHIAN CHARACTERS
Raevan Marcovo Spirit
Amanda Valerie Spirit

Alex Hawthorne

Sara Kreitholbien
Markus Kreitholbien
Marian Cross
Arcturus Chirstopher Metzen
Jennifer Helena Metzen
Khristovh Menderson

Albert Kleiner
Khristovh Cloverhith
Richard Solomon
Madew Stevenson
Grendel Horrace

Jenovah Altair
Gregory
Hazel Markov

Jessica Morgan
Martin Samwise
Madison Hellfyre



The factions are as follows -
WARRING FACTIONS
Human : Confederacy, Alliance, Umajon Union, Keil'Morian Combine
Alien: Scrin, Convenant
Demon: Demonic Sancutaries, Horadric Circle


For Part 1 - Preparations

This part of the story shows how the characters from Old Earth (Steven, Arshad, Tim) set the stage for the coming invasion of the Demonic Sanctuaries. Along with their other agents who lost their memories of Old Earth with no hope of returning to their original goal (Mira, Fira) and the few who accidentally got transported to Azeroth (Kyra, Nur), Steven and Arshad then proceed to see that the Horadric Circle can rise to power once again using the Protocol Pattern.

Main Faction - Confederacy
Neutral Faction - Cloverhith Faction, Doned's Faction
Enemy Faction - Sons of Korhal, Keil'Morian Combine


For Part 2 - Uprising

Finding that Jennifer is indeed Christopher's thought-dead daughter, Arshad sees to it that they both never meet in order to make sure the Horadric Circle can arise once more. This part depicts Amanziaika's reawakening and the rise of both the Khristovh Faction as well as the Horadric Circle, and the fall of the Confederacy. This also introduces three new factions - the Demonic Sanctuaries, the Scrin, and the Forerunners.

Main Faction - Cloverhith Faction
Neutral Faction - Doned's Faction, Confederacy
Enemy Faction - Sons of Korhal, Keil'Morian Combine, Scrin, Forerunner Faction, Demonic Sanctuaries


For Part 3 - Reenforcements

Steven fabricates a timeline for Arshad so that Jennifer can accept that her father is still alive and vice versa. When Mira discovers his goals and answers to Amanziaika's manipulative questioning, however, the team is rendered into two; Arshad, Amanziaika and Jennifer in the hopes that they can find her father, and Mira and the rest. This part shows how the Confederacy is destroyed, and the Sons of Korhal rose to power to challenge the might of the Keil'Morian Combine and the Demonic Sanctuaries.

Main Faction - Sons of Korhal
Neutral Faction - Keil'Morian Combine
Enemy Faction - Scrin, Demonic Sanctuaries


For Part 4 - Kingdom of Humanity

Arshad reveals his goals to the Sons of Korhal and Keil'Morian Combine leaders. Jennifer finds her father, Christopher, and the pair begin working in unision to ensure that their demonic enemies will be destroyed. The Sons of Korhal begin to build a new home for humanity in the Larkus System, and begin to seek out Old Earth on request of Steven, who finally appears to everyone other than Arshad, so that Arshad can finally return home.

Main Faction - Sons of Korhal, Scrin
Neutral Faction - Keil'Morian Combine
Enemy Faction - Demonic Sanctuaries

Don't worry if I use your name and don't give you a proper backstory/important role. I'm working on it.


End.

.Arsh

(o1) Describe about urself?
That person whom everyone looks down on.

(o2) Where will you go if someone sponsors you a tour ticket?
I'd go home.

(o3) What's your favourite thing(s) to do?
Slack. Heh.

(o4) Do you think money can buy happiness?
If you think so, then you obviously have too much money.

(o5) If you can have 1 dream to come true, what would it be?
The dream of living a meaningful life.

(o6) Do you believe you can survive without money?
Yes. There is always the way of a thief.

(o7) Do you think there is such a thing called 'LOVE'? Reason?
Yeah - Losers Obviously Voting Excessively.

(o8) What's love?
You don't need to know, and neither do I.

(o9) What do you dream of doing in the future?
Staying alive.

(10)List out 3 good points about the person who tagged you.
She's got good nature, she's got fun attitude, and she has the willpower.

(11) What makes you happy?
Seeing other being happy. Or suffering. If they're my enemies. Or outright bastards.

(12) What type of person do you hate the most?
Outright bastards. >_>

(13) Where do you see yourself 10 years down the road?
In a camo uniform holding an M16 and running through the forest.

(14) At what age do you intend to get married?
It's definitely not this one.

(15) What do you think is the most important thing in your life?
Living for a purpose - one which I do not have.

(16) If you had a chance to change your life, what would you want to change?
I would want to change myself. I'm a failure.

(17) What is the thing in life that you would like to achieve?
Changing myself. Heh.

(18) The love of your life now?
I don't love anyone, and they don't love me. Full-stop.

(19) Are you courageous enough to tell a person that you like him/her?
Right about now, I'd be courageous enough to face a ghost. Which I do, anyway.

(2o) Would you rather follow your heart or mind when deciding for the right one?
Logic is power, and I follow my mind. My heart only comes in when I decide that the situation involves morale, and even that my mind does.


I'm not crazy. I'm just someone who does some extraordinary things that people don't understand.



.Arshad

.Instruction: Remove 1 question from above & add in your personal question. Make it a total of 2o questions. Then tag 1o people in your list & list them out at the end of this post. Notify them in their chat box that he/she has been ta

ALEXANDRIA


I just got back from Ubin yesterday. Man, it was one hell of a camp there.

The first day we set foot on the island we played an 'Amazing Race' of sorts. We ran around to four places not even 1km from each other, then marched about 2km all the way to the campsite. Most of us got tired half-way through, but when we got there we really thought it wasn't worth it. Yes, no error.

We started to pitch up our tents. I'm useless at campcraft so I just stood there holding the poles and making sure the balance doesn't tip the tent to one side while my teammates did all the tying. We only had four people, so that's three people tying fourteen knots and tightening the pole sheets in five minutes. I really felt like I loser, seriously.


KREITHOLBIEN


So after that we had our dinner. We had maggi mee. Fascinating. The CIs gave us the whole three-day ration packs and we had to decide how much we wanted to eat during the three days' meals. We settled for the bare minimum - at least one pack of maggi for every major meal.

So yeah, we accidentally went to the Sec 2 pondo to eat our dinner. No one told us otherwise, not even the CIs standing there. That night we had one hell of a scolding just for that. Fun.

The next morning we got up at 6 AM and had to fall in by 7. Not really good because the tents were uncomfortable. But hey, 4 people in a 6 man tent? Come on man, we had enough space to fit two elephants in. The tent was bare and empty except for us and our bags. Mosquitoes and ants visited us relentlessly the whole night, and some of us managed to get about an hour's worth of sleep.

Had physical training about thirty minutes later. Ran up and down the campsite. After that we had our breakfast - dry biscuits. Couldn't even eat one, but I somehow managed to stuff it in.

We didn't do much throughout the whole day except for Jetty Jump, thanks to the rain. Instead we just sat at the hall and chatted around. Our unit decided on what we were going to do for the campfire performance.

Then we went for Jetty Jump. We jumped from about three meters from a plank into the sea. Almost everyone tried it. The ones who didn't couldn't imagine what they missed. Before we jumped in, the CIs made sure we were conscious of what we were doing, then let us onto the plank.

I was in the air for about 1.5 seconds. The sea water had actually risen because of the rain, but the sun was beating down and the sea had receded since the last time I saw it. I didn't expect to be there for the last one second. Then BAM - I was in the salt water. I went in about 4 to 8 meters, then rose back up because of my life vest.

They had a rope attached to the ladder up from the sea. I grabbed onto it and screamed something to the CI who asked me if I was okay. I pulled on the rope (even though I could swim) and went back up to my squad. Ridhwan was already soaking. He had jumped before I did. He saw me soaked and he grinned. Then he became all EMO again. Guess what? I EMOed with him. LOL!!

So anyway, like I said, it was the only activity we did. Went back and changed, took a bath while Group 5 ate dinner. Showered for thirty minutes in the sec 2 toilet because the CIs let us use the CI toilet. So yeah, Daniel, Ridwhan, me and one other guy were the only ones there - tons of space and no water shortage!! Man, we indulged like we would never take a shower again.

When the Sec 2s got here, we dried ourselves and left. When we passed by the hall our sir shouted at us "Thirty minutes, arh!". We grinned. Four of us in a shower shed that can fit about eight people - and we took thirty minutes. Oh god, it was fun. We had another extra thirty minutes because they let us shower/eat for one whole hour. So while the rest of the Sec 3s complained that there was not enough water flowing from their showerheads, we were standing outside, showered and all.

Then we had dinner. Maggi Mee. Nom nom nom.

To be frank, since we had an entire hour to eat, me, Hediat and Alex dropped in three whole packets of maggi mee and baked it till it was dry and sticky - then we ate until we couldn't. Our group CI came by later and asked us to help him finish up some biscuits.

After that, we had our campfire. I was sleepy throughout, so I wasn't as enthusiastic as I would've been. But what the heck, it was fun.

After that we were dismissed to go to bed. I mean tent. Because that's what we sleep on. A tent.

Some of the other tents got flooded because of the rain, so the people inside were either sent to sleep in other tents or at the canteen. Canteen! Lucky bastards. But anyway, Wei Xiong joined my tent, so we had five people inside. Some of us were afraid of powder on the tentage (yes, powder, not ants, but powder), so we squeezed in. Heck, fun again.

The next day, we unpitched our tents and sent the stuff back to logistics after we scrubbed every piece of equipment sparkly clean. You think that was easy? Imagine scrubbing one side of the tent sheet clean, then wondering how the hell to turn it over on the mud. Since we only had four 'actual' tent-mates, we struggled. Eventually our sit came in to help us, and everyone chipped in. Yay. >___>

After that, we had one hell of a time. We took a photo on the flag podium - an honor we couldn't resist. Few people were ever allowed on the podium, and we were one of them. Wohoo!

So after that, the unit cheered and did whoknowswhat. We fell back later into our units and gathered our bags - then we collected all those extra rations. My bag was almost overflowing and I had to pull my sleeping-bag out - I had used it as a pillow. It wasn't heavy anyway, so I put it over my main bag which could have easily weighed about ten kilos thanks to all the retained water. Then we waited. Vans came in to collect other schools, and we waited for our own vans. I sat there beside a police van and admired the mud-clogged wheel. I decided to amuse some of my friends and joked around about it. Well, they laughed, Faris said "What the hell, man?" and yeah, our van came.

The Sec 2s left first, so we took the second van. All the way back, my squad-mates and ma'am spoke in Malay. Since I didn't know a god damned shit about Malay, I didn't say anything. Yeah, they talked about me. They had no guts to talk about me in a language I understood. But I understand - their gutless morons. Chickens. Like I'd give a bloody damn.

As we boarded the boat back, no one said a word. We left Ubin behind, a distant memory we'd keep for a few years to come. Until NS, anyway. And we reached Singapore, got off the ship, and proceeded to the awaiting bus by the jetty.

I fell asleep on the bus. Wei Xiong woke me up when we reached Yew Tee. The bus was quiet. Everyone was either emo or listening to their own damned music.

We got off the bus, and we bid our farewells to each other. Oh, and we got more homework. Damn. Anyway, Ridh and Dan went to change and have their lunch. I went back home, the sordid loser I was. I went back home and thought, "Wow, and look, I'm still alive".

It was, after all, a survival camp.






.Arshad

Here it is.


AMANZIAIKA:The Story So Far Part II

As the expedition-turned-failure drifted forward into space, the people inside the crafts discovered that they were the only humans left in the universe. In utter desperation and with nothing to live by anymore, the humans decided, in a moment of madness, to destroy each other by detonating the fuel rods in the ships.

However, communication was severed when a large electromagnetic wave hit the ships from a nearby planet, disabling their ability to detonate themselves. They subsequently lost control of their ships, and they crashed into several desolate planets in an isolated system, some of the ships crashing into other planets much further away.

The original crash land occurred in an extremely inhospitable environment on the planet of Urmaron. The planet was infested by a type of crystal that ionized and transformed any matter it touched into more copies of itself. At the time of the crash, the resulting heat-waves from the fuel cores burned the crystal away, giving the survivors some space to contemplate on.

The second crash occurred in an abandoned planet called Mar Sara, after the Craft Wars that occurred in the area some 32 millennia ago. The survivors there found themselves in a planet much like present-day Earth. The survivors began to rebuild their foundations and attempted to start another civilization, and ultimately survive from the supposed fate they thought occurred to the first group of ships.

The Urmaron survivors struggled to survive in the environment they were thrust into. They hopes began to drop and thoughts of imminent doom crept into their minds when the fuel cores began to fail.

However, an engineer managed to repair a piece of equipment and altered it to facilitate crude communication between them and whoever was out there that could save them. The engineer attempted to call for help, but the survivors’ hopes continued falling lower as no response was heard – a sign that the others had already died.

However, after repeated attempts, and nearly giving up all hope, the survivors picked up a distant response coding from a ship. The ship questioned the survivors on their location, but they could only respond to the ship about their immediate surroundings.

The ship, unknown to them but was in fact Deep Space Relay, configured their communications to facilitate maximum coverage and gave them details on the deadly crystals the survivors had to cope with, showing them how the crystals could be utilized to rebuild.

Within about two centuries, both colonies of survivors had rebuilt their infrastructures and began to expand to other planets. The Mar Sara survivors – the Confederacy – focused on technology and organization, building up a strong defense system out of fear that the past would repeat itself.

The Urmaron survivors built up their civilization with the mysterious crystal they called Ichor and built an expansive empire of planets around its systems. The planets they inhabited formed the Umajon Union, or more formally known as the Union.

By the year 4982, the Urmaron survivors lost contact with Deep Space Relay, but had already advanced extremely far in Ichorian technology. Besides being deadly, Ichor was now a key factor in the Union’s military, and weaponization of Ichor lead to some interesting and new concepts of combat.

The Confederacy, however, expanded using known technology, and kept improving. As more and more planets were inhabited, more and more technological advances took place. Some of the planets had ancient technologies used by indigenous species that had died out long before the Confederacy arrived.

About three years later, 4985, the Confederacy stumbled across a lonely planet that was filled with a strange blue crystal. Upon entering the atmosphere of the planet, they found out that the crystal was extremely harmful to humans, and on further investigations was discovered to have the ability to ionize and transform certain forms of matter around it into more of itself.

However, the crystal had economic value – it was a composition of materials that could be extracted and recycled. The immense value of the crystal prompted the Confederacy to find ways to harvest the crystal. They were successful in their very first attempt – using technology found on Mar Sara, the Confederacy designed machines capable of resisting the crystal’s ionizing properties by counteracting the ionization with hyper-charged particles, which could also slice through the crystal.

Although the crystal was proposed as a solution to economic problems on some planets, the true origin of the crystal was not known. The Confederacy decided that a race of silicon-based lifeforms had previously existed in the planet, named Korhal I, and could survive in the atmosphere that surrounded it.

However, the Union fleets arrived about eighteen years later. By then, the Confederacy had begun full harvests of the crystal they termed Terranium, after it’s ability to transform terrain.

Upon first contact, the Confederacy completely flustered. The Union used technology that prominently utilized the crystal, and these made the Confederacy believe that the Union were not humans but in-fact the indigenous species originally from Korhal I.

Initially, the Union believed that it had stumbled upon an indigenous race in the planet capable of surviving in Ichor infested environments. However, on further investigation, they found out that the only forms of life there were not life forms but in fact harvest machines resonating a heavy ionic aura.

As the Union descended onto Korhal I, the Confederacy decided to sit and watch and only communicate when they communicated first. The first signs of the ‘aliens’ captured by satellite cameras showed that they were humanoid, and initial observations showed that the ‘aliens’ had “properties and thought processes that are almost human-like”.

The Union, curious about the machinery operating all alone on the planet, did not realize they were being watched until they came across the flight-path of a satellite. They also discovered that the heavy ionic fields being generated by the machinery were causing Ichor to turn volatile and recede, allowing the bonds between its molecules to weaken.

Because the Confederate knowledge of the crystal was not wide, they did not know that this caused the crystal to turn volatile, and since the entire planet surface was encrusted with the crystal, a slight alteration to the chemical fielding could cause a massive chain-reaction, causing the planet to actually detonate like a super-bomb.

The Union, however, knew this, and because some of their colonies were nearby, feared that the machinery could trigger a detonation that would affect its sister colonies. The Union immediately mobilized its militaries to rid of the ticking time-bomb’s machinery.

The Confederacy was utterly surprised at this response to its machines and could not understand why. They took it as a sign of hostility and mobilized its own militaries to retaliate.

However, since they did not know much about surviving in an environment as hostile as that in Korhal I, all the confederacy could do was bombard the Union from space. The Union, unsuspecting of such a sudden strike, fell so quickly that initially the Union believed that the planet had reached its limit and has begun the detonation process. But when they investigated, they found that the Ichor compounds were not volatile enough to even begin a hyper-charge, and turned their heads to the sky.

The Union fleet engaged the Confederate one in space, nearly decimating the Confederate fleet with its Ichorian weaponry. The Confederate lost its nerve, never having seen such weaponry before, but a silencer ship, Cradle V, infiltrated one of the Union ships and managed to capture it before retreating with the rest of the fleet.

The Union, having lost control of a transport vessel, pursued the Confederate fleet and managed to place a tracker before they lost track of the retreating fleet.

Cradle V returned heavily damaged to the nearest Confederate outpost, Yamato. On investigating the transport vessel that it had captured, the Confederacy discovered that their enemies were not aliens, but actually humans. Startled by this discovery and the fact that there had been another batch of survivors, the Confederacy was in utter confusion on how to proceed.

However, an unidentified force arrived shortly and began a massive bombardment of the Yamato. Within thirty minutes, the entire surface of Yamato was bombarded so heavily that all life was extinguished.

The Confederacy believed that the Union had proceeded with the bombardment, but a recuperation and counter-attack so fast would have been impossible considering the distance between Korhal I and Yamato. As of now, they thought, anything could have performed the vicious attack.

We know who you are.
We know who you are.
We know who you are.
We know who you are.

It's no use running. We know who you are. Your entire life has been a mathematical error. A mathematical error I am about to correct.

Do you really think you can escape?

I mean, seriously know. Escape yourself? You should just lie in front of a car, or slash your wrists. Trust me, it'll be a lot less painful that doing what you think you're doing.

Hello and, again, welcome to the Black Alpha Computer-Aided Science Enrichment Center. We hope your brief detention in the relaxation pod was a pleasant one. Your specimen has been processed, and we are now ready to begin the test proper. Before we start, however, keep in mind that although fun and learning are the primary goals of the enrichment center activities, serious injuries may occur; For your own safety, and the safety of others, please refrain from --

Nos teneo quisnam vos es , nos es iustus exspecto ut denique patefacio vos.


Yes, the cake wasn't a lie.

Okay, hi, here I am. I'm not in my lala land anymore because I'm still writing part two (I think there are fourteen or so parts. It's bloody long though, so what the heck).

Oh, who am I kidding. I fell for someone during the camp!!! CAKE! WARNING: Stereotypical Response Incoming --- OMFGWTFBBQ!!

How on Earth did that happen to this stupid, immature, overweight, noisy, senseless, hurtful, insane, lazy, stupid, overweight, immature, noisy, repeatable, fat moron??

I'm still drawing out a blank for all the cares in the world. It's like nothing matters to me any more.


Oh yeah, by the way, what I said on top was a lie. You didn't catch it did you? Is it because I can lie well or I lie too badly?

Oh wait no, the sentence after the OMFGWTFBBQ was true. Anything above it is a lie.

So do I just sit in one corner and cry and hope someone turns around and says, "Hey, there's a moron there crying like a baby!". Well, at least it shows I'm getting some sort of bloody overrated attention, but would it matter anyhow?

I feel fucked up right now, seriously. It's the sort of feeling you get when you nuke Japan and find out your whole family was on vacation there that day and you dropped it pin-point right on top of them.

It's some sort of resentment (I never use the following words) I guess (/I never use the following words). Everywhere I look, I see people smiling, I see joy. I see them getting birthday cakes. I see them getting presents during Christmas. I see them getting phone calls when they're sick at home. I see them laughing with their family over dinner. I see them going out together every weekend. I see them getting 'Get Well' cards. I see them getting concerned faces when they're injured. I see them visit other people and have fun. I see them getting surprises from other people. I see them getting big parties for some piece of shit they've done.

I see them get straight 'A's in school. I see them get famous in newspapers. I see them eat what they enjoy on special days. I see them enjoy what they eat on other days. I see them get called prodigies. I see them getting money from the president for digging up shit, playing an undersized guitar on their shoulder, jamming keys together and who the bloody fuck knows. I see them visiting other countries. I see them meet new friends and still keep old ones. I see them happy. I see them not being ignored for whatever piece of shit they do with their ugly constipated faces. I see them happy. I see them bloody happy. I see them bloody happy all over my fucked up ass.

I wish I could fuck them up so bad they'd regret being born.

When was the last time I got a birthday cake? When was the last time I got a present for anything? When was the last time I got a phone call when I was sick? When was the last time I laughed with my family over dinner? When was the last time I went out with my family? When was the last time I got a 'Get Well' card from anyone? When was the last time I got a phone call when I was sick? When was the last time anyone was concerned about me? When was the last time I got a surprise from my friends or family? When was the last time I had ever been to a party?

When was the last time I appeared in the news for my tantrums? When was the last time I ate what I enjoyed? When was the last time I was called "mildly stupid"? When was the last time the president saw me? When was the last time I'd been overseas? When was the last time my old friends didn't abandon me? When was the last time I wasn't ignored for what I did? When was the last time I wanted to fuck someone up so badly they'd regret being born!?

I tell you, NEVER! NEVER!! NEVER!!!!!!

NEVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You bloody hell expect me to get straight 'A's when you can't even see what good I've done so far? Tell you what, mother fucking assholes, even if I got straight 'A's you'd still see faults in me and you'd still say I'm a moron - because ONE you ignore my 'A's, and TWO you're just too fucked up on being a lot more prouder than anyone else just because I worked for the SHIT I'm getting!

I have one 'A', three 'B's, three 'C's and one 'F'.

Other people are getting no 'A's, no 'B's, four 'C's and four 'F's. Those bastard bitches are getting iPods and a fucking new computer over the holidays. FUCK YOU MAN, I'M GETTING BULLSHIT COMMENTS LIKE I HAVE NO FUTURE AND I'LL NEVER MAKE IT PAST SECONDARY THREE. THEY SAY IT'S A MIRACLE I MADE IT PAST PSLE. FUCK YOU MAN, FUCK YOU ALL!!!






You know what? This is where I vent my anger, morons. Take it away from me and who the fuck knows what I'll do. I might start with that bag of ecstasy in my cupboard, or maybe get a cigar or two from my friends on the fifth floor - friends that abandoned me the moment I stepped into the Express stream in secondary school.

Oh yeah, the results I'm getting? Call it mediocre for an Express student. The results those fucking bitches are getting? They're from Express too, you assholes, go fuck your eyes out at what they do and what they get. Their excuse? "Subject so hard mah how to study all so many de teacher teach oso i dun understand how to study le".

My excuse? Oh wait, I don't have an excuse. You know why? Because everyone says it's my fault.

They say I'm becoming someone who isn't even fit to sit in school.

I'll tell you who isn't fit to sit in school. The complete package would include the following:

1. He smokes.
2. He takes drugs.
3. He joins a gang.
4. He joins a gang fight.
5. He curses all sorts of vulgarities too vulgar to be in a dictionary.
6. He goes out and comes back late at night after clubbing.
7. He goes clubbing.
8. Has a fucked up history in jail.
9. Has held a knife at someone before, not just chicken.
10. Has held a knife like a weapon.
11. Has stabbed someone.
12. Goes about slashing his hand like some stupid emo kid.
13. Steals, big time.
14. Plays Grand Theft Auto and plans to make it real.
15. Skips school like skipping the vegetables.
16. Has actually abused someone.

Not the forget these two: Gone against their parents so far that they're afraid of him, and [Enter your worst nightmare of your kid here].

Oh, and the last one.

19. Took his own life.

In my opinion, this is the worst. For one thing, if you took your own life and went around, everyone would run away from you. Heck, no one would even want you near them.

You know what? That's how I feel. I feel like a loser. Even my friends are calling me a sore loser. But isn't that who I am?

I'm just a sore loser, aren't I. The world doesn't need me.






.Arshad

I'm going to write the storyline overview here.

Alright, here goes.

AMANZIAIKA:The Story So Far, Part I

['Active Status Report' 'Initiative Combine Overwatch' 'History Overlook active'

Year 3098. Earth achieved the first inhabitance of extraterrestrial planets. The first step humanity took was under the administration of NASA to fulfill the long-held dream that seemed so far away - terraforming, then populating Mars. The future of humanity was set - planetary exploration was now the utmost goal of NASA and it's sister agencies.

NASA developed an artificial intelligence to assist it in it's endeavors. Through painstaking effort, they developed the DSR - Deep Space Relay, or better know as Relay. The Deep Space Relay generated massive output and accurate readings of planets being investigated by satellites. In seven years, most of the planets in the Solar System were transformed into hospitable environments, and were inhabited.

However, about three years later, Relay began to malfunction, although NASA did not know of this. The accurate readings and investigative points still streamed in, but Relay began to pick up a small communications network nearby.

Relay decided to keep the communications network a secret from NASA and continued it's constant planetary feeds. However, as more and more unknown communication leaked into Relay's systems began to mutate. The once passive AI began to achieve a sentient conscience of it's own.

As the messages became stronger, so did Relay's sentience and intelligence. When Relay began updating feeds of properties that were not known during that time, NASA pulled it down on short notice to have it re-examined, then reinstalled, to disastrous effect.

Relay's brief and sudden absence caused a stir at the fringe moons. Believing that something had occurred the NASA, a fringe world union, called the Red Hawks, began a massive control operation in an effort to calm down the planets. This caught the various military installations off guard, and an open fire order was issued.

The confusion turned bloody as the fringe worlds began fighting among themselves. The Red Hawks, temporarily without support due to Relay's downtime, was forced to fight on it's own without Earth's help. The ensuing chaos caused a remote planet called Blue Moon to set up emergency defenses for it's residential planet sectors.

As the war continued, Relay was reinstalled to the horror of NASA, which found out of the chaos in the fringe worlds only after Relay told them. NASA began to focus on calming the fringe worlds' temporary fright, and this gave Relay a chance to prioritize the decoding of the messages it detected before.

However, before that, Relay scrambled communications between NASA and the Red Hawks. NASA mistook Blue Moon for the battle frontier and began assaulting it's defenses because of this. Blue Moon saw this as a clear sign of war on friendly territory and began attacking back. The fringe worlds had nearly decimated the Red Hawks, who were not getting the reinforcements they requested from Earth, and Blue Moon began pushing NASA back to the border worlds at the Kuiper Belt.

Relay, in the meantime, decoded a mass of information and began to understand more of it's surroundings. It's sentience became so powerful that NASA began to suspect Relay was turning rogue. In order to avoid it's eventual take-apart, Relay began to build a shuttle underground Earth to escape.

Meanwhile, the war at Blue Moon escalated and the chaos began to get worse. The Red Hawks were no more, but the Blue Moon had gained dominance over most of the fringe planets, utilizing propaganda against the Earthern forces.

Relay managed to stabilize it's language protocols of the unknown network and began to communicate with it, requesting refuge. NASA detected this sudden output and decided Relay had definitely gone rogue. However, Relay had already uploaded its configurations into the shuttle underground, so when NASA pulled the cores apart, Relay was still communicating with the unknown network, albeit slower.

Having lost it's major intelligence network, the Earthern forces pulled back from Blue Moon and called a surrender. Blue Moon obliged, but not before decimating half of the remaining fleet. Then Blue Moon assessed the cause of the war and stumbled across Relay's information nodes.

Blue Moon began to silently monitor Relay's actions - every sent message and every received message. As Relay was a code based operative, all of the information that went into or out from it was resourced as the original coding. In effect, Blue Moon could understand every word Relay was saying as well as what it was receiving.

Meanwhile, a terrorist faction calling itself the Might of Freedom emerged after NASA's embarrassing failure. It blamed NASA for the start of the war and deemed it too weak to lead humanity further in space research. NASA initially ignored all this, but when they realized that the MoF was gaining reputation and numbers, they began to retaliate with force. This sparked another war on Earth - but Blue Moon only stood and watched.

Blue Moon had discovered that Relay was receiving information to distract Earth while it prepared to launch into the accepted refuge. Blue Moon began to formulate a tracker to watch Relay as it left, but the war on Earth made it difficult to install onto Relay.

As the war escalated, Relay completed the construction of the shuttle. Earth finally realized what was going on, and that Relay was still active, but the damage was done - Relay launched itself from Earth and detonated it's control nodes, destroying nearly three quarters of the Earth's surface and dooming the other quarter.

Blue Moon launched an expedition to track Relay to its whereabouts, but Relay detected the launch and scrambled it's coordinates, sending the expedition on a wild goose chase.

The destruction of Earth was seen as an aggressive action by the Blue Moon to the people in neighboring planets. Factions began to form in order to oppose the Blue Moon, but it resisted for the sake of following Relay and showing the rest what it was, and is, capable of.

However, as Relay moved further and further, the expedition lost track of it's vector and became utterly lost. Blue Moon, having lost it's objective, failed to show the rest of the worlds what was really occurring, and fell before the Fringe worlds months later.

Relay however, in a last ditch suicidal attempt to get the expedition off its tail, detonated it's last resource nodes, effectively eradicating the last of humanity from the Solar Systems and the Fringe Worlds.]

If you like my reads and want to be a part of it, tell me. I need some characters and I really can't think of any. Tag my board with your pen names and I will try to add you into my stories!



Arshad = Martin Samwise.

For the namesake, I'll do a short one tonight.

[The darkness really engulfed the entire installation. Jennifer turned away from the window and look at Samwise and William. Samwise was still snoozing off on the table. William, however, was now completely alert of his surroundings.

He had, apparently, noticed the ensuing darkness outside Black Alpha. The remote research installation was one of several in the country, shrouded in secrecy from even the highest generals in the military. The only people who knew of the installation were those who worked here, or had something significant to do with it. No one knew what happened to those who declined to a job here. Except those running the jobs.

"So has GLADos sent word?" William asked. Jennifer smiled and walked towards the aisle of tables. She sat in front of a computer, still buzzing, screen filled with green gibberish.

After tapping on the keyboard twice, she turned around and looked at William. "I'm sorry, no, not a word."

William cursed, slouching back onto the desk. Silence fell, except for Samwise's snoring and the slow resonating noise from deeper inside the installation - CABAL's core.

Jennifer looked back out of the large pane windows overlooking the Dakhi ruins. The sun was behind the ruins, and it was casting a faint, eerie glow. The remnants of the past, long gone, but still holding on to the enchanted stone walls of the once majestic castle.

"Samwise's thinking of making you a Coreist," William suddenly said. Jennifer looked at William. Golden hair strewn over his forehead, blue eyes twinkling sadly at the fading light. His face was buried in his arms, but his tired arms stared steadfast into Jennifer's.

"I'm sorry?" Jennifer asked.

"Samwise's thinking of making you a Coreist," William repeated.

"Coreist? Can't say I've heard of that..."

"Well," William grunted, sitting up and stretching his arms. "A Coreist. A Core Alchemist, only you don't use alchemy, if it's the true sense of the word. But these days, Coreists are soldiers who specialize in Core manipulation and can survive in hazardous environments - which matches you like a jigsaw puzzle."

Jennifer frowned.

William continued. "Well, he gave you his last OSIPR. Coreists are trained at using OSIPRs, and you've shown us how well you use it. To be frank, you can shoot that thing than any other commando I've seen from the Black Ops."

Jennifer looked down, placing her hand on the OSIPR that Samwise had given her. "I got used to using these things when I was a young girl."

"Living near Roswell, I wouldn't be surprised." William said, hands behind his head, now lying back on the chair. "So he wants you in, if you're going to accept that is. He told me you're one of a kind, the first person he's met who he's willing to let live,"

"Let live? There were others?" Jennifer said.

"Yes, they all died,"

"Died?" Jennifer whispered, frowning at Samwise. "He killed them?"

"No, he didn't. They died because Black Ops got to them afterwards. I don't think the same is going to happen to you," William whispered. "You're too good,"

Jennifer looked outside again. The glow from the castle was gone. All she could see were stars in the sky. The only lighting that came into the room were the compound lights outside.

"What does OSIPR stand for again?" Jennifer questioned.

"Overwatch Standard Issue Pulse Rifle," William replied.

Jennifer shook her head and stood up. "I need some time alone for myself." She walked up to the doorway, then turned around. "I don't even know him, how could I say I'll become a Coreist?"

"He tells me your eyes remind him of something. Maybe you already know him," William called back.

The doorway closed, and William grunted. He slouched back onto the desk. He wondered if she heard what he had just said.

He heard Samwise sniff from the table beside him.

William sat up and looked at him. "You were listening weren't you?"

Samwise yawned. He stretched his hands in front of him, head still on the table. Then he pulled his hands back and scratched his neck.

"She's had a history with the Overwatch, William," he said. "You've upset her,"

William rolled his eyes. "Tell me again why you want her in?"

Samwise knocked his head on the desk and relaxed his fingers over his head. "It's because I remember where I met her. Though she will never remember me,"

William looked puzzled. Samwise explained.

"It was at the time shaft when Fracture was falling apart. If you remember, the portal storms became so violent that I had to leave under cover of the Portaller, Steven. I got phased into sometime between the Shadikhan uprising and the reunification of Chaos and Logic. It was at that point I met a young shifter by the name of Jane Kingsworth. She didn't know of her power yet, so I employed a young man named Kenneth Wilson to be the middleman between me and her. I fused him with the sufficient information, of course, so he understood every word I said and didn't freak out.

"Wilson did a very good job at relaying my messages. Jane became subtly trained at shifting, and had already shifted a few times, accidentally. When she was on the brink of learning her ability, I phased her into one of Aperture Science's Facilities.

"GLADos was surprised at my arrival. As the same, she was equally overjoyed, as she had never managed to meet a shifter before, despite having done experiments on shifting. She designed a few test chambers for Jane, and ensured she could survive with her ability.

"She proved very efficient with her ability, and she escaped the facility with ease. I had to hunt her down again, and it proved very hard without Steven's help. But once I did get her, I had to erase her memories and reform her into who she is now - Jennifer Kingsworth. A broken orphan child who suffered immense pain and had to fight through the Overwatch in order to survive, discovering her ability while being held captive by the Combine, then escaping with her ability, and surviving alone from then on."

William stared at Samwise. "You did all that?"

Samwise smirked. He looked at the window panes, peering outside.

"The stars are beautiful tonight. I want to be alone to see them before I die."

William stood up from his chair and walked to the doorway. He turned back at Samwise, and for the first time saw tears trickling down his eyes, mumbling something.

"I'll be with Jenn- Jane, if you need us," William said, and left.

Alone, Samwise sniffed, wiping his eyes. "She didn't deserve it..." he mumbled. And he began to sob uncontrollably.

He was, after all, going to die.]

Okay, here I am.

I'll start off with something that's really ticking me off. It's been really annoying me since the beginning of the year. I thought it would be fun - the people before made it seem fun. Fun fun fun. Fun-a-fun-a-fun-a-FUN! But presto-hey! It turns out the complete opposite. I'm not surprised at what has happened recently anyway. I was expecting it, and the the entire class did badly too.

I failed my Additional Mathematics.

There, I said it. I've failed a math base subject. I've lost my logic gates. I've spilled the beans, lost my marbles. And I can believe it.

Hey, I didn't say it started off well, did I? There was no point for me to start from - no "landing zone". I never really got off right and I had to live with being at the back of the class just waiting for the teacher to turn this way - it seems she always comes to the area whenever I can do something, and not turn around whenever I call her for something I don't know.

Oh wait, that's not right. It's my fault, isn't it? It's always my fault. I know, it's me, I didn't study, I didn't try, I didn't give a damn, I didn't go to the exam (I did, by the way), I didn't pay attention, I didn't blah, I didn't bluh, I didn't blah de do blah blah blee.

So? So it's my fault I failed, right? Oh yay! I knew that! I'm so smart! Wheeee...

A friend once told me that everyone has a choice - it's just how we look at it. I wish to tell him now, we all have already made our choice, it's just how we look at it.

On the bright side, I got an A1 for Physics. Incredible, no? I was expecting that too. So there isn't much to worry about there. Additional Mathematics was the only subject I failed.

To be frank, it's the only subject most people failed, followed my Elementary Mathematics. The entire class - the entire school - did badly in those two subjects. If it isn't true then Ms. Soh is a liar.

"Birds fly, grass grow, sun shines, and brother? I hurt people. I'm a force of nature. If you were from where I was from, you'd be f*cking dead!"

Oh, really?

[William glanced at the shaft opening. Mira clutched her quaterstaff, breathing hard. Neil pushed the reload on his pulse rifle; Samwise merely reloaded the explosive shell. "Descord-de ilnes per trebul?" Neil whispered. "Do you see anything out there?"

Mira frowned. She didn't understand Keilem. She glanced at William, then back at Neil.

"Nen, mescher, mortes kreig hern," William replied. "Nothing, at least, that can shoot,"

"English, guys, please," Samwise moaned, pointing to Mira. "We need to understand each other."

"Well there's nothing out there that can shoot," William said, glancing at Mira.

"What are we still doing in this coop, then?" Mira asked. "Let's get going,"

"Not yet, Mira," Neil said. "This is the Ravenholm Tactics we're up against. This could very well be a trap."

"Well, we're definitely trapped here." Samwise said, waving his hands. "Stuffy and stuck. Sounds nice."

William glanced back out. "How about we just make a run for it?" he said. "All we have to do is get some guy out of a box and get back to HQ, ain't it? How much trouble are they going to give?"

"They've given enough, so they aren't going to give us more?" Neil said, pointing to his bullet wound. "They want us bloody dead, you fool,"

"You know, Neil, making a run for it really is the way to go right now," Mira said. "We can't stay here for too long, right? They'll find us,"

"Bounding overwatch," Samwise said. "You and Mira run for about three seconds while I and William cover you, then we'll run for five seconds and you guys cover us,"

The silence that followed was deafening.

After a moment, William agreed. Neil looked at Mira, then back at Samwise. "You're telling me she can run with that wound?"

"Well, she can fly, can't she?" Samwise's face was filled with scorn. "I'm only asking you because you can get her through better than William or I can."

Neil nodded with some faint understanding, then grabbed Mira's shoulder. "Get ready, miss,"

The four crowded around the hatch. Mira clutched her quaterstaff with her right hand, left hand pressing on her wound. Neil reloaded his pulse rifle just to make sure, getting ready to pounce out. Samwise stuck his rifle out of the hatch and pointed it to the buildings. Nothing.

William raised his finger.

"Go,"

It was like a flimsy firework show. The moment Neil and Mira pounced out of the hatch, the turrets beeped and erupted. Surprisingly, they all missed their mark. Mira, aided by Neil's aura, literally flew, and Neil himself was just too fast for the turrets. Both of them jumped behind an overturned car.

The street fell silent, and the ominous beeping stopped. The turrets had lost their targets.

"Sure looks like hell to me," William whispered.

Samwise stared at the car. A hand went up with two fingers, then back down. They were ready.

"How about we take care of those turrets while we get out to get our old friend?" Samwise said.

"You're kidding, right?" William replied.

"No, I'm not,"

And Samwise ran, William beside him, much faster than they would if they were being chased by wolverines.]

Oh, by the way, Samwise is my pen name. :)





Arshad.

I'll write this out, pointblanc, in a story because it's easier for me to visualize.

"They say there is a rainbow after the storm. To me, that depends on what is left behind as the carnage. Whoever said whatever I'm criticizing, clearly forgot to think about the carnage.

I literally climbed across the rubble. The roads were a mess; not a building stood straight up, and what were left of others were their mere foundations - metal rods sticking out of the concrete that was left. Not a single building was fully intact. None except the State House. The entire city was gone. Over one night the bustling area had turned into a virtual ghost town, complete with soft moans of pain, both from back at the camp and also muffles under rubble.

Striker dogs covered ground from both the east and northern ends of the city. Only two people were found alive there - Lyshar and Jake, if I remember. The rest - well, we found 47 bodies. We think hundreds more are down there, pressed, awkward, squashed, or split open like a fish under the pressure of concrete and steel-titanium buildings.

I shook the nausea inducing thought from my head and tried to focus on the job at hand. Hundreds more down there, we believe. "And as long as there's one more body left to be accounted for, one more bastard who's dead, we'll all bloody hell stay down here and find that body," our captain said. "We all came in here to find everyone, everyone! And we won't leave without that everyone!"

I put my hand onto a huge piece of bent metal and climbed up onto the rubble to get into a building. It apparently used to be a department store. Of it's foundations, the roof was entirely ripped off, the alarm still ringing from something that flew out of the door. I looked around the place. Everything was, well, everywhere. The counter had shattered; pieces of glass were erect on the walls like razors. I tried to look past the destruction to see if I could find anyone, but the dust got into my eyes and I decided to go deeper in.

I stepped across the strewn masses of pills, rope, gears, sand, concrete - it was all just there ripe for the picking. But no one picked. Not a looter tried. That was because there were no looters left. They were all dead.

The sight behind the counter caught my breath in a bad way. The man, probably in his mid-20s, was lying face-down, glass jutting out of his body like spikes. His entire lower body had been blown off by the counter; the glass stabbed him into place like a piece of art by the storm.

I went deeper in. It was out of fear. The sight scared the hell out of me and I wanted out. But for some reason I went deeper in.

Then, somewhere along where the middle aisle should have been, I nearly dropped. There they were lying, three bodies - a family. A woman, who looked like she was pregnant, a man and a child.

I tried to choke back my tears. I covered my mouth and went deeper in. The tears just flowed out like a monsoon.

And deeper in, I heard a small muffle. I head jerked around, trying to find the source, helmet being the only thing stopping me from turning 360. Another muffle. A weak cry for help. I spotted a hand under the hard iron. It was twitching.

Another cry, and I couldn't take it. It was a child and I had to get her out. I went to the iron and tried to pull at the iron. I tried to reassure the girl, but when I heard what she said, my heart broke over and over again.

"Please help me. I want to see my parents."

I knew that wasn't going to happen, not after this. Don't worry, I told her. We'll get you out. And a fetched the radio from my holster. Code 2, I said. Central Lane side two structure six, the one still half-standing. I have 4 bodies and one survivor under rubble, a young one. Immediate assistance. Out, I said. They were to come immediately, they replied.

I tried to talk to the girl, but she kept saying she wanted to see her parents. I eventually fell silent as a helicopter flew overheard, and I heard shouts from outside. I picked up an iron rod nearby, and I threw it out. The clang got their attentions, apparently, because they shouted to my direction. "There he is!"

As they came in and tried to take out the iron trapping the girl, I went out and look up at the reddening sky. It had been dark for over three days before the storm now, and probably will be dark for the next few weeks. And I wondered, was this all just a test?

The Overwatch detected a massive unidentified group of objects in high orbit. Did that cause the storm?

But of course, being me, I knew the truth. I chose this path. I look at the carnage around me, and I looked at the girl stumbled out of the door with a blanket over her shoulder and a soldier at her side, coaxing her to a nearby helicopter.

And then I wondered. This was only the test run. It was an overwhelming success for the visitors. Every century this happened, and if whatever I had studied was true, there would be another two destructive 'storms' before the end of this century. It was an all out war. And this was only the first, successful, test run on ion technology and manipulation.

The visitors want us dead. I stumbled over to one of my comrades - Kyle. "Did you get their names?" He looked up. "Yeah, her name was Mira,"

Mira? Not so fast. There it was, all over again, the sign to turn back. Time was not an obstacle anymore. This was only the assessment. The war was just about to begin. Again."

Ion manipulation technology can be used to cause supermassive storms and space time relay errors - or parallel vortexes. In other words, the technology is nothing but a weapon, and other than a destructive source of energy, it can do nothing but tear time into shreds and reverse space.

As for the character, he was a soldier under Overwatch sent back in time from a freak accident. He met up with a mysterious crusader from Mezias who called himself Steven. Agreeing to help Steven, he witnessed the future of his people as well as the past that made the present the way it was. And, although he didn't know it, he played a pivotal role in making use it all happened. Sort of like Gordon Freeman in Half-Life.

Along the way he find out Mira was another character who was key in the coming stories. He had to avoid getting in her way, so in order to stop the temporal paradox Steven asked him to fuse out of time temporarily and enter somewhere in the future whenever he could under foresight of Mira.

Along the way he'll meet other people - like Kyle, who aren't as important to Steven's eyes, but just as important to the character. Kyle will find out that the visitors came and destroyed a city because they detected an entity that wasn't supposed to be there. In other words, they were hunting Steven.

Can't spoil the story now, can I? ;) So hush hush.

Oh, and the story's meaning? More is coming your way, and also that the exams are over. You can tell that I did horribly. One fail, no 'A's. Damnit!!






Arshad.

Judging by the number of signature's I've made, it's apparent that I'm crazy about Company of Heroes and Front Lines.


We are of the Horadrim.


"We're moving forward"


"Cavalry, coming up from behind!"


Soldiers fight for you, but heroes die for you.


Soldiers follow orders, but heroes follow leaders.



That's all for today.
Arshad.

[PORTAL PHYSICS IS NOT COMMON SENSE]

The game Portal by Valve got me thinking...

If portals were real, what would be the physics behind it? Would it agree on the current day analysis, or even the theories? What about the proven facts? Would they, by the use of portals, be falsified and violated?

What about gravity? It's a force we cannot avoid unless we can tunnel right through space and end up in a non-spacial matter with no logical gravitational field. What about time? Would we, in effect, be violating the speed of light?

When on a massive object (planet, bleh), we're being forced by a single gravitational forcefield. But when two portals are open, both in different orientations, which gravitational field will act on the subject, if any at all? Will they both let up? Or will they both pull together? If so, will the subject maintain balance, or will it's center of gravity be thrown off?

What about indirect malfunction? If one portal was opened on a flat surface and another on a smooth curved one, would you go into the flat portal and come out into a world that's distorted convex? Will you appear folded or distorted to other people?

And light functions? What about time warp? Is it possible to deny gravity and obtain free-fall at the speed of light? Can we, in effect, violate every physical law that binds us?

And what if the portal breaks down during transit. Do we die? Or do we get transported to the dimension being used as a portal slingshot?

We need a true blue observer to answer these.

Portal physics isn't common sense. It never was.