Week #:4
Being the third part of the Node Wars.
In which the shields come down...
Issue #4
To perform this issue's lottery:
Digital Warfare: Requiem
The War of the Node draws to its close, the Node commander imprisoned within the specially crafted Node Wards. Diligently, Hunter Lerris strives to crack its shields. The Data Nodes appear to be gone, but much is left to be done. Casualties are heavy on both sides, but it is the NMRC that is left with the clean up. Even now, they toil to clear the digital forests of the RDLP, trying to patch together their interrupted lives...
<Hunter Lerris> ::sighs:: 4 combinations down, 154 to go. Fagubaxulu, bring me the rest of Steve's combinations, please.
<Pidedis> Hey! Lerris! Earth to Lerris! Stop fiddling around with those shield combos! We've got work to do! Man, can you get obsessed.
<Hunter Lerris> Am not obsessed. Just you wait. I'll get these shields down yet! Prepared to die, 'Node!
<Data Node 1> Conveying lack of any fear whatsoever....
<Hunter Lerris> ::kicks Data Node, only to be stopped by its shields:: Ow!
<Pidedis> Yo! Come on, Lerris, get with it! You forgot to even announce who was hosting this issue! You left it blank.
<Hunter Lerris> Give me a break, Pidedis. The war wasn't exactly easy, and it's a lot harder to clean up after it! And having this 'Node sitting in the middle of our base camp is rather unnerving.
<Pidedis> No body said you had to do anything, just tell us who's in charge this issue. And Higijuzedi reports no further deaths, but Crimson* is absolutely swamped!
* The name assigned to the Medical squad.
<Hunter Lerris> Good old Higijuzedi. He's good with Miracle Cure^. How's clean up coming?
^ A very nice healing move.
<Pidedis> Not sure. Let me check…. Joc?
<Joc> Huh? Oh… 183 still in critical condition, 294 still wounded, and survivors coming every other minute.
<Hunter Lerris> Hmmm....... Shield Sphere-Coolant Fuse-Antimatter Cable-Processor #4... No, shield still up...
<Pidedis> Lerris! Cut that out! At least tell me who's in charge!
<Death Angel^> ::clicks metal claws impatiently::
^Yes, Steve. THAT Death Angel.
<Pidedis> ::turns around:: Wha………..? Uh… Lerris?
<Hunter Lerris> Yes? ::turns around:: What's she doing out of her cage?!?*
*NetMonsters are kept in "cages". The cages aren't these terrible boxes, or metal barred cages. It's more a cage in name than anything else.
<Pidedis> Beats me, but she's totally freaking me out. Hey, you! Yeah, Death Angel, what is it you want?
<Death Angel> ::folds arms and taps foot::
<Pidedis> Very vocal, isn't she?
<Hunter Lerris> Kind of. She doesn't talk. I wouldn't recommend irritating her too much. She's not exactly sane....
<Pidedis> What do you mean by that?
<Hunter Lerris> You know how your title is 'Sky Valkyrie'? Hers is
'Psycho Killer'. That's why she has her own cage.....
<Pidedis> So what does she want?
<Hunter Lerris> I think she wants to host…
<Pidedis> You've got to be kidding.
<Hunter Lerris> Do you want to try and stop her?
<Death Angel> ::grins maliciously and flashes claws::
<Pidedis> And how is she going to do the lottery if she doesn't speak?
<Death Angel> ::scratches the letter 'A' on a stone, making the terrible nails-on-chalkboard sound::
<Pidedis> Very well then. Lerris, you can go back to playing with the shields and you'd better have her cage checked and fixed by next issue.
** Okay, first thing, Death Angel is a screwed up lady who is indeed a psycho-killer. She's from a game called, ta-dah ta-dah, Death Angel (also made by White Mask*^). How is she a NetMonster? Well, she's what we call a cross over. She's managed to migrate from her original game to others. This one, Steve's D&D adventure, and probably others. Eowyn found her lurking around the White Mask page, and that's how she got here.
*^ White Mask Productions: free games and cool stuff. NetMonster, Death Angel, and Empires to name a few.
<Death Angel> ::starts scratching things in to a cliff face::
Ice
Human-Mech-Mage
Level: 110
::scratches off incorrect entries::
<Hunter Lerris> Got it!!! #26: Shield Sphere-Fuse Grid-Antimatter Cable-NetMonster Grabber! Thank you, Steve!
<Data Node 1> ***Error: Shields are now offline**
<Data Node 1> Intruders are not authorized beyond this point.
<Data Node 1> Initializing internal security program...
<Hunter Lerris> Alright! One last step… Bring it on!
The walls are falling. Everybody say "Bye bye Data Node". Before the curtain falls on it, I'm afraid, there's one more contest. Here's the deal: The defense program it's running is "NetBomber". It's kind of like battleship, but it involves bombing Common Mages. It runs on a 7x7 grid. You pick a coordinate (i.e. 1,7), and then there are three possible outcomes. 1) Miss! 2) Adjacent (close to mage! One of the cardinal directions (see diagram below. o = mage, lines=adjacent squares)).
diagram
|
-o-
|
Any way, find the 5 mages on the grid, win 10 MP (2 MP per mage). Congratulations to Steve! Winner of "Guess that level" and the shield combo contest. Your prize is forthcoming...
