Geronimo_69

AV you've been a great friend, a great teammate and coalition-mate, and an awesome source of information and inspiration. Before the lights go off next week I look forward to one last run for old time's sake.

I know it's kind of becoming cliche to post farewells here, but with this being the final days of our beloved city, I felt it was time for me to add my preemptive "So long."

I haven't been here as long as some of you, and I have lamented that numerous times over the years, so I won't rehash that since that isn't the point of this. When I finally became a citizen of this amazing City, I was on Freedumb. I was encouraged to come over to Liberty by two members of a SuperGroup known as Heroes Helping Heroes. That group, from my understanding, has drastically dwindled in membership as time has gone by. I don't recall what led me to depart from HHH, but I left due to the membership decreasing. I moved onto another SG, Heavy Metal Heroes, and stayed there until I deployed to Afghanistan in '08. When I returned in late 2009, I found out that I was a hero without a home, so I started my own SG, Team Veritas, as a tribute to my time in the sandbox.

For some reason, after returning to the game I enjoyed so much in '09, I became more acquainted with some of our more storied heroes and was welcomed into coalitions and friendships that I have valued immensely. Too many are the heroes I knew I could count on to help me when I needed it, or those who were just fantastic to talk to, whenever and about whatever. Heroes like American Valor, Gel, Tax E, Mystic Fortune, Ukase, all the members of the amazing Sisterhood, Energizing Ion, Camo Fire, and so many others whose names, unfortunately, I cannot remember (getting older sucks!), made the last 5 years absolutely incredible.

When I heard that my beloved Paragon City would be shuttered like an old house prior to demolition, I was in shock and disbelief. Given my choice in professions, I have had the unfortunate experience to lose friends and colleagues due to real life bad guys, but I was always fortunate to be able to come here and find solace and comfort teaming up with people here that I counted among my friends. Now, with the end in sight, I am faced with a feeling that I have felt before and it sucks!

This is not something I ever expected, as I know it wasn't for many of us. I thought the City would last forever. It's a shame that it won't, and I'm angry at how we were told about it.

I will miss my City, this game, and most of all, my friends. If anyone is looking for me after the lights have gone out, I'll be fighting my way out of "Imperial entanglements" as Link'oln on the Red Eclipse server, but in my heart, I will always be Geronimo 69, and I will always be a citizen of the only City of Heroes!

If I can get myself up that early on a Saturday, I'd like to get in on one, if not both, of these Ukase. Just a few more badges to stack up on Geronimo before the axe falls. Been having a hard enough time coming back to play when I know the end is in sight, but it's nice to see that there are still some iTrials that are still being run by some of the folks here. Even better to see that someone's willing to run a trial that I haven't done at all. Missed out on quite a few of the "newer" trials so I think I need to set my alarm for this one, as long as you don't mind a semi-coherent player. (What am I saying? Most people become semi-coherent on these things at this time of night anyway. )

With everything going on recently, and all the signs that the end of the world is coming, like the *sniff* imminent silencing of our beloved City, the events in Egypt and Libya, and the general chaos that seems to be increasing as the year draws ever closer to an end I thought I would share a bit of good information with the denizens of Liberty who I have been fortunate enough to count among my friends for the better part of the last 5 years. My wife and I found out on Thursday that we will be the proud parents to a baby boy!! The future member of our family is expected to arrive in mid-February. We have decided to name him Grayson Drake. At the time we just thought it was a great sounding name, but, as I'm sure some of you may also have noticed, those are two relatively famous last names in the world of comic book genre. I haven't mentioned anything about this to my beloved since she'll certainly roll her eyes at me, but in my defense, I wasn't thinking about comic books when we came up with the name. In light of this, and even though I have limited time, I think young Master Drake may make an appearance in my beloved City.

Anyway, I thought I would share this awesome news with you, my Liberty friends! May the wind be ever in your face to billow your capes!

Laser, I'm over on SW as well. Since we're losing our home here, might as well try and find one someplace else. It's not quite the same, but I'm there if you ever get bored. Just let me know which server.

-G

It was a great time, and I'm glad to see that so many were willing to help a solitary hero not only get through this, but get the shiny badge for it as well. Not a bad run at all.

So awesome to see familiar names willing to help out with this! I am talking about this Saturday at 0300 EDT, which would be 1000 CET for me. To allay your fears Ukase, I have brought my main back to full hero, so I'm quite literally good to go there. AV, you are definitely not going to be the weakest link on this COP. I'm so out of it, the last trial I did was a Lambda, and I've just barely scratched the surface of the new Dark Astoria. I'm looking forward to hopefully being able to pull this off.

What are the odds that someone might be interested in running this really early Saturday morning, the 19th? Like, sometime around 3 in the morning-ish EDT? I know it's a really long shot, but I thought I'd ask since I've yet to run this. (I know, it's been going on for a while, but I just never managed to catch a team that was running it.)

If I was ever on at the same time as any of these MoUGT, MoTPN, MoLambda, MoAnything runs I'd love to get in on them. As it is, I'm feeling a bit left behind in regards to my beloved Liberty server, but I have no one to blame for that but myself. If anyone decides to stay up late enough on a Friday or Saturday night, to compensate for the 7 hours I'm ahead of EST, I'd love to run any, or all, of these. If not, I'll wait until I get back to the US in 18 months and hopefully still be able to find enough interested people to run them.

In World War II, 11.2% of the nation served in the military in four years. In Vietnam, 4.3% served in 12 years. Since 2001, only 0.45% of our population has served in the Global War on Terror. These are unbelievable statistics.

Over time, fewer and fewer people have shouldered more and more of the burden and it is only getting worse. Our troops were sent to war in Iraq by a Congress consisting of 10% veterans with only one person having a child in the military. Taxes did not increase to pay for the war. War bonds were not sold. Gas was not regulated. In fact, the average citizen was asked to sacrifice nothing, and has sacrificed nothing unless they have chosen to out of the goodness of their hearts.

The only people who have sacrificed are the veterans and their families. The volunteers. The people who swore an oath to defend this nation. Those of us in uniform.

We stand there, deployment after deployment and fight on. We’ve lost relationships, spent years of our lives in extreme conditions, years apart from kids we’ll never get back, and beaten our body in a way that even professional athletes don’t understand. And we come home to a nation that doesn’t understand. They don’t understand suffering. They don’t understand sacrifice. They don’t understand that bad people exist. They look at us like we’re a machine – like something is wrong with us. We are the misguided ones – not them. When we get out, we sit in the college classrooms with political science teachers that discount our opinions on Iraq and Afghanistan because WE WERE THERE and can’t understand the “macro” issues they gathered from books with our bias. We watch TV shows where every vet has PTSD, and the violent strain at that. Our Congress is debating our benefits, our retirement, and our pay, while they ask us to do more.

But the amazing thing about us is that we all know this. We know our country will never pay back what we’ve given up. We know that the populace at large will never truly understand or appreciate what we have done for them. Hell, we know that in some circles, we will be thought as less than normal for having worn the uniform. But we do it anyway. We do what the greatest men and women of this country have done since 1775 – WE SERVED. Just that decision alone makes us part of an elite group.

Never in the field of human conflict has so much been owed by so many to so few.

We are the 0.45%

On this 11th day of the 11th month, 93 years after the ending of the "Great War," let us remember those who have come before us, and those who serve now, who strive to keep our homes, our countries, and our world safe from all who would seek to do harm to others. Take a moment out of your day to honor all who have ever worn a uniform and know that we have done so so that those who choose not to don't have to. We have done this so that others may live in peace and safety, and so that people don't have to worry about the things that go bump in the night, because we hunt those things.

Lastly, before I step down from my soapbox, just remember, freedom is never more than one generation from extinction. To all who came before me, I salute you. To all who are currently serving, you have my thanks, and I am proud to serve alongside you.

Geronimo 69, out.

Do you have any time in particular you might want to do this Ion? Or at least a rough estimate? Just trying to see if this is something I might be able to join in on.

When were you planning on starting this up Laser? Since I've only picked up a few of the new badges on Geronimo, I'd love to get in on this.

This is the build that I'm currently tweaking on my Scrapper. He's got a ways to go IO-wise, but I also just dinged 50 with him and opened up his Alpha Incarnate slot. I'll update this as I continue to mess around with what I think works best for him.

http://www.cohplanner.com/mids/downl...0CEDFF6C04C1D9

And now, without further ado, I present the little one!

Numina: 15
Synapse: 43
Back Alley Brawler: 61
Manticore: 38
Positron: 41 - 1 = 40
Sister Psyche: 42 + 1 = 43

Statesman: DEAD
Citadel: DEAD

I just wanted to post here that the newest member of the extended Liberty family was born Monday, August 2nd at 9:09 Helsinki time, which is 2:09 EDT. My newest daughter, Piper Quinn, joined our family weighing in at 7.3 pounds and stretching a whopping 16 inches long. (I know that's not really all that long, but she got upset when I said something about making her nickname "Peanut" so no tiny comments from Dad from now on.) Mother and daughter are doing excellent, currently still at the hospital, due to standard hospital procedures, and are expected home tomorrow afternoon.

This has gotten my head spinning though, since I realized that it means, between my oldest daughter, my step-daughter, and now this Padawan, I've got three weddings to possibly pay for in my future, not to mention all the nights I'll be up cleaning shotguns and sharpening knives once they start dating (if I let them date that is []). Anyway, I wanted to share the good news with my friends and fellow Libertines. So if you don't see me around a whole lot for the next few weeks, now you know why.

I'll help out if possible. I've gotten Geronimo somewhat prepared for this, so as a fire/TA 'troller, I can hopefully bring something to the table. I'll do what I can to make the time work for me, but I'm available whenever I'm on.

I like the sound of this! Especially since Saturday ended up as a false alarm. I'm tentatively throwing my hat in the ring for any/all of these with any character I've got that's within the level range. I only say tentatively because if things work out right this week, I may be working on my newest character, a level 1 human, whose namesake heroine got in on Saturday's fun.

Numina: 30
Synapse: 29
Citadel: 29 - 1 = 28
Statesman: 25 + 1 = 26
Back Alley Brawler: 32
Manticore: 31
Positron: 32
Sister Psyche: 32

I know there are people who want to see Statesman's self-righteous butt put in its place, but I'm a true believer that the main guy should stay alive. Besides, wouldn't it be kind of fun to watch him fight himself?

I've got a brand-spanking new arc that I'd like to submit for this month's contest since I've still got a few days left.

Arc # 509494
Title: Missing Girls
4 Missions in length
First three missions are level 1-54, with the last one being the only one that's 45-54 due to an AV at the end.

This one's so new, it still has that new arc smell to it. Hopefully you enjoy playing it as much as I enjoyed writing it. As always, any feedback is welcome.