FloatingFatMan

Cara turned back to Pitcher and the others, a snow cone which she was munching on now mysteriously in one hand. "So... wait a sec, you're wanting us to start fighting your monsters now? Well, OK, though I thought this was initially meant to be a recon type thing?"

"Yeah, yeah. yeah. What you want, what they want. Yadda yadda yadda." Cara's dimissive tone and irreverant grin spoke volumes as to her personality and easy confidence, but it was also pretty apparent that she was sincere in wanting to help out.

Sniffing dismissively, she took a few steps closer to the power suit and peered up at it. "So, Fangy... What's this thing, huh? Looks like it's gonna spend most of its time stuck in the snow. And what the hell's an oblivion gate anyway? Sounds kinda unfriendly."

She shrugged and stood up straight, turning towards the Colder Earthers and floating lightly into the air again. "Oh well... What time do we get this show on the road?"

Cara grinned back at Holmes. "I read the crib notes on the briefing you gave these guys a few days ago... Gotta say, the way everyone seemed more interested in getting what they could outta you guys in exchange for help -really- stuck in my craw, y'know? Talk about selfish, sheesh!"

She took a few steps back as the air around her had been getting colder and colder, despite the flames flickering around her body. "Well, we don't work like that in the Vigil. My boss wants me to check the real situation out, especially the dealio with these monsters of yours. If it turns out that it's some goon causing all your problems, well... I got orders to ferret that out so we can figure out just what help you guys really need, y'know?"

"Wow, you guys in red are seriously gonna freeze your butts off!"

The light feminine voice, followed by a peal of giggling, echoed down from the top of the rampway into the portal chamber, and a second later, a slight figure appeared from behind the railing, hopped over the low barrier, and floated down towards the others, causing several of them to blink in surprise.

It was a girl, surely not much more than 17 or 18, but that was hardly the most surprising thing about her. The big surprise was that she appeared to be made entirely of ice! Her body was entirely transparent, a distorted view of the room clearly visible through her frozen form, and surrounding her was a flicking nimbus of red/blue flames. As she landed, circles of ice immediately formed on the floor around her feet and the ambient temperature in the room dropped even further.

The newcomer grinned broadly. "Hi, I'm Cara... Or Burned Ice if you prefer. I won't shake hands, I'd probably burn it then freeze it off. I'm with the Unity Vigil, the New Vigilant branch. We figured we should send someone along to check this whole thing out, and seeing as you're from a pretty cold place, they figured I'd be perfect for the job."

Cara glanced around at the assembled heroes and mercs, appraising them thoughtfully. "Wow, you've assembled quite a bunch of mooks here... I hope you guys haven't bitten off more than you can chew... Some of these look like reeeeeeaaaaaaaal niiiiiiiiiiice guuuuuuuuuys... y'know?"

Finally, she turned her attention back to Pitcher and his colleague. "So anyway, which one of you guys is in charge?"

I say we treat the devs spanky new event with the same level of consideration they do to the game continuity, and ignore it; at least ICly.

Gah! Bloody devs! *shakes fist*

Thing is, he's still IN the game, so this event MAKES NO SENSE!

Devs, sort your friggin' timeline inconsistencies out, please

Praetoria declared war on Primal, CB... Not the other way around.

Anyway... Generally I don't have a problem with presuming things have happened, but what about the attacks on Kings Row and Steel? Both were heavily damaged in the task forces, but nothing has happened to the game world...

TBH, though I wouldn't mind animated hair, the one thing I'd like above ALL others, is new character meshes and new skin texture maps.

The current ones are way old and horrible, and REALLY let down the overall look of the game when compared against newer content.

Animations are handled client side, and really, any graphics lag experienced would be no worse than the same number of people having capes. The game handles that just fine, and it would handle head capes just fine too.

Time the devs stopped worrying about low end machines. If necessary, enable it only for rigs running in ultra-mode.

Nope, that's very much how things still are.

Unity Station

Tessa Rolando watched the events in Astoria unfolding on her monitor, a small smile of relief on her face. Dozens of reports were coming in over the com system, including a personal message from her wife, Zorielle.

“We did it.”

Three simple words, but words which lifted a great weight from the woman's heart. All their preparations, all the difficult work of readying the station for the mass evacuation, none of it was needed now, and for once, Tessa didn’t care that the effort had been wasted.

They’d won. The monster had been defeated and the world was safe again. For now.

A screen on one side of the visual array suddenly flickered and shifted to a relief map of Astoria. At the left side, not far from Moth Cemetery, a red light suddenly started blinking.

“Tessa?” BODICIA’s voice came over the hidden sound system. “We’re getting a signal from Astoria.”

Immediately returning to business, Tessa turned to look and rapidly tapped commands into the console, enlarging the map to fill the almost the entire video array. “Identify.”

“It’s Ellie. I’m getting a strong locator beacon and vital signs status. On screen.”

A side screen flicked, showing a life-sign status, and Tessa frowned. All the readings were at minimal levels, heart rate barely registering. Immediately, she slapped an alert signal on the desk, setting off an alarm in the medical unit and opening a comlink. “Medical emergency, prepare to receive one Peacebringer, condition critical. BODICIA, lock on to her signal and teleport her directly to the med-bay.”

“Energizing... hmm, I’ve always wanted to say that... Teleport complete, medical staff are working on her now. Shall I notify Zorielle and the others?”

Tessa glanced at the screen still showing the celebrations at Moth Cemetery, and shook her head. “No. Let them celebrate, they’ve earned it.”

****************************


Unity Station, Medbay 1

All was quiet in the main medbay, the earlier frantic activity now several hours in the past. A small group of people were gathered around a bed at one end of the bay, a bed surrounded by monitors and support equipment, and off to one side, Zorielle was speaking to the chief medical officer.

“Prognosis, doctor?” Her tiredness was plain in her voice, but she refused to give in to it and rest.

“Good, I think. It was touch and go for a while, someone had been using her for sword practice going by her injuries; but as you know, she has remarkable restorative abilities. Once her sister arrived and transferred energy to her, it seemed to jump start her healing factor.”

Zori turned to study Ellie as she lay sleeping in the bed. She was pale and still, and terribly thin, but at least she was alive!

“How long until she wakes up?”

The doctor shrugged, “Right now, the best thing she can do is sleep. She’s been through an incredible ordeal and it’s going to take time for her body to repair itself. I doubt she’ll wake for quite some time.”

Nodding slowly, her expression softening to one of glad relief. It really was surprising how much she’d come to care for the young woman on the bed. She was a pest, frustrating and hard to deal with at times, but her personality was infectious and it was almost impossible NOT to end up loving her one way or another. She was glad she didn’t have to make the call to her parents after all, or worse, to Ellie’s wife, Jess.

She looked back to the doctor. “What about Jessica?”

He smiled and gestured towards a small room to one side where the sleeping form of Ellie’s wife lay curled up on the bed. “Exhausted. We put her in a side room so she could get some rest. To be honest, I don’t think she even stirred as we moved her...”

“Thank you doctor, please keep me informed of any further changes. Right now... I have rather a lot of work to do, she’s not the only one to return after Mot’s defeat.”

“Of course Ms Rolando.” The doctor smiled and moved off, heading towards the nearby coffee machine and a much needed caffeine boost.

So, what time tomorrow are we concluding this for?