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Old Guard / IF Central Command Post / Out of Character / Only 96 Days Until RPG Maker 2!
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[quote][b]Remus (Jul 08, 2003 04:17 p.m.):[/b] [b]THE STORY[/b] [i]Chapter IV: Seeker[/i] At the starport, Xan and party run into Eulik, captain of the Wetakkan, the ship which brought Kariis to Calera. Eulik agrees to take them with him to Roth for a small fee each, so long as they help out onboard. Half way to Roth, Xan and Kariis are wakened by a klaxon. They rush to the bridge, and Eulik tells them that a power core glow was just detected (though there are no ships on sensors, meaning a cloaked vessel). Xan, using his spacial awareness, helps in locating the cloaked ship. It decloaks, and Eulik's enthusiasm for battle dissipates; the enemy ship is three times the size of the Wetakkan. The crew assume battle stations, and the ships begin to pummel each other. The enemy ship scores a hit on the main power core, and grapples with the Wetakkan. Inside, on emergency power, Eulik advises everyone to prepare to be boarded, and issues weapons. Xan and party sweep the ship, fighting the invaders back, and then board the enemy ship, fighting their way to the bridge. There they encounter and battle the commander of the mercenaries, Khet. After defeating Khet, Eulik sets to locking down the remaining mercenaries. Xan detects a shift in the air behind him, and turns in time to dodge a bolt of psionic energy, which hits the conn. The ship shakes and surges, and Xan battles the grey-cloaked figure (Rook) which materializes on the bridge. After a difficult battle, Rook vanishes again and flees, but Xan (sensitive to the faint trail left by the assassin) follows it to the door of an escape pod, which closes and launches before Xan can stop it. Xan is recalled to the bridge. The ships are plummetting together toward planet TC-6313. Eulik does what he can with the ruined controls to bring the ships down lightly, but the mercenary ship is ravaged in the crash, absorbing the damage while leaving the Wetakkan relatively intact. Xan and party get to their feet, standing on what had been the ceilling in space. They comb both ships and recover all survivors (most lived, though several wounded). Everyone gathers outside the ships (mercenaries restrained). Eulik decides that the merc ship's power core must be salvaged and made to work inside the Wetakkan, which will then be able to lift off. However, the core is huge and not enough crewmen are well enough to do the lifting (no one wants to trust the mercenaries). Eulik leaves his first mate in charge and leaves with Xan and party to search for locals. When they come upon a camp, Xan acts as interpreter for Eulik. The natives make a big show of bowing and worshiping, and the chieftain, Kree'ek, greets them as "gods from the sky". Kree'ek begs them to go to the village to the east and destroy it, so that the curse placed upon them by the evil barbarians there will be lifted. Eulik breaks in and tells them that none of the party members are gods, they just need help fixing their ship, and to drop the act. Sullenly, the natives get up from the ground and mill about. Kree'ek tells them that he will help if they smash the village, but not unless. They leave and go to the second camp, where they meet slightly different-looking natives. Here they are greeted with scorn, and when they speak to this camp's chieftain, they learn it is because they are males. They learn the story of the schizm between the sexes, and are told that they will receive help only when vows of fidelity are taken by each and every native male. Eulik tells the party that he has an idea involving pyrotechnics by Xan. They return to the male camp, and report that the other village is destroyed. Distrustful, Kree'ek brings his hunters with him, in case of an ambush. When they arrive at the female camp and find it standing, they are outraged. Eulik addresses them all, telling them that he will cast magic which will dispell curses from the land for a thousand years, so long as the covenants set today are followed. He cues Xan, who discreetly creates and illusionary special effect orgy, wowing the natives. All the natives take the oath of the covenant, and Eulik is looked upon with true reverence now. Many natives come to assist in the extraction and installation of the power core. Though Eulik is opposed to it, the mercenaries are brought onboard the Wetakkan, and the ship lifts off from TC-6313. The mercenaries are released at the first starbase they find, but Khet stays, determined to pay back the debt owed to Xan (ysarii cannot leave a debt unpaid). The Wetakkan continues on to Roth. There, Xan and party find the monument complete: a towering black spire, utterly alien in shape and archtecture. Xan feels compelled to ascend it. At the base they are greeted by mai'Roth templars, who bar access to all but Xan. Xan ascends the tower, observing the strange mechanisms and systems at work within. When he reaches the top, a woman materializes, with familiar features. She introduces herself as the voice he has been hearing, and invites him into her mind for an explanation. There, in a construct depicting the ruins of a castle, Xan meets little Jaelis, alive within this mental space. She leads him to a throne room, where a dark figure taunts Xan with riddles. Jaelis leads Xan through a door in the wall, which leads to a representation of Xan's home village, in the midst of the attack which destroyed it. Jaelis points out the peculiar fashion in which her represented self seems to make a second jump in mid-air. She leads him through another door, into the same scene. When Xan asks why they are still here, she tells him to watch. Xan observes a similar (but different) scene, in which Jaelis' leap is not fast enough, and Xan is killed by the bolt. Confused, Xan follows Jaelis through another door, which leads into a house whose windows show different scenes from the alternate reality. Finally, at the far end of the house, Jaelis indicates a door he must pass through. Xan enters, and experiences a POV-view of little Xan being killed, and then, after a dizzying, disorienting transition, looking down at his own dead body through Jaelis' eyes. A door closes over this scene, and Xan is back in the throne room. Xan demands to know who the dark figure is. The figure reveals itself to be a slightly different image of Xan. The Dark Xan then reveals that it is time for him to return to his rightful place, and battles Xan. Though Xan cannot win the battle, if he survives long enough, we see a cutscene in which Rook ascends the last steps of the tower, and sights. A POV shot portrays the enhanced senses of Rook: Xan glows white, and adult Jaelis is enveloped in roiling blackness, which is starting to coil around Xan. Rook hesitates, and fires. We see Xan battling his dark counterpart, and losing, when suddenly he is ripped back into his own mind. In a POV shot we see adult Jaelis (wounded) vaporize. The POV then tips back wavily and falls to the floor. Fade in and out on the grey sky, and then Rook's hood, and then Rook's revealed face. Fade to black.[/quote]
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