Points of War: Symmetry of Truths

Hey all, been reading some truely oustanding Fan-fics lately so I'm gonna take a shot at it. Feedback and criticisms welcome and encouraged.
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Wicked Blue reached out to press the door chime when suddenly the gargantuan form of Torroes Prime rounded the corner of the hallway. For just a moment, Blue felt a twinge of embarrassment as she had been about to ring the chime to Torroes' chambers.
“Lieutenant, can I help you?” Torroes asked, his voice resonating off the walls of the hallway. While Blue did not like being referred to as Lieutenant by Torroes, she knew he did it to maintain order within the lower ranks of the order. Blue and Torroes had performed countless missions together for the order, and in that there is a bond that can not be explained. She felt comfortable around Torroes, a feeling she did not encounter often in the world of man, and in that there was no need for rank.
“I was coming to speak with you, I thought your training duties were finished for the day,” Blue asked.
“I was in the gym.” Torroes replied. As he stepped up to the door and pressed a series of keys on the door pad. The doorway slid open, and Torroes motioned Blue inside.
Torroes’ chambers were a small apartment complex. A cooking area joined directly to the dining area and a wall divided this section of the apartment from the second section, which contained the wash room and sleeping chamber, which also doubled as Torroes’ office area. The apartment was spare and had only a few odd pieces of furniture. Blue could neither recall nor imagine Torroes sitting in any of these pieces of furniture.
Torroes stepped to the refrigerator, opened the door and pulled two cans of juice out. He handed one to Blue and quickly cracked the seal on his.
Torroes motioned Blue to a chair in the antechamber and she quickly took it. Cracking the seal on the can of juice, she took a long drink, the citric acid in the juice producing a slight burning at the back corners of her tongue. Out of the corner of her eye, she looked at Torroes and could just vaguely remember the first time she had met this mutant. He wasn’t the first mutant she had ever met, but he would prove to be the only one she would learn to trust. In the beginning, Torroes exuded the same style of arrogance and self-superiority that Blue had come to associate with all mutants. But over the ensuing three years, and uncounted missions, Torroes proved himself to be a worthy officer of the order and a truly valuable member of any combat team.
“From the betting reports, it appears that we will be the star event in the tournament tomorrow,” Torroes said in a conversational tone. The tournament he referred to was an inter isles competition known, somewhat cryptically, as the Tournament of Blood. A gigantic fighting tournament where you fought your opponent until they were unable to fight or they surrendered. More often then now, the unable to fight meant the loser was dead, and surrender meant they had activated the medi-porter.
Wicked Blue took a long drink on her juice and pooled the liquid in her mouth for a moment, willing the citric acid to burn more.
“Yes, it would seem so.” She replied after a moment more, the tone of her voice carrying an air of uncertainty.
“So, why are you here?” Torroes asked as he moved to lean against the wall. His tone was aggressive and hostile but it was meant to be so and was meant for Blue’s sake. When her curiosity had pulled her from her home in the South American jungles, she had been the recipient of a very ugly and displeasing greeting from the world of modern man. Approached with distrust, and in many cases outright hatred, Blue had suffered greatly. Torroes wasn’t familiar with the details of her ordeal, but he knew that she had made it her personal mission to change the world and seek vengeance on those who had been cruel to her. The result of that ordeal had shaken Blue’s rationality and she would often react violently to what was otherwise simple courtesy. Torroes was one of the few within the order who had learned how to work with Blue on a personal level.
“I’m here to brief you on you’re latest assignment,” Blue responded. Torroes shifted his weight and cracked his neck.
“The training mission for Agent Skajakuta, you mean?” Torroes asked. Blue took a drink from the juice can and then nodded.
“Walker feels that Skajakuta is ready to join your ranks as an adept.” Blue explained. Torroes pulled his lower lip into his mouth and acted as if he were cleaning his fore fang with the inner lining of the lip. Blue knew him better then that.
“You do not agree?” she asked. Torroes straightened up slightly and allowed his lower lip to return to its proper place.
“It’s not that I disagree with Walker’s conclusion regarding Skajakuta. I am however developing concerns with our leader’s intensions regarding myself.” Torroes explained. Blue placed her can on the tray table to her right as she raised an eyebrow at Torroes’ answer.
“Explain!” She commanded immediately. With nearly any other member in the order, a command in that tone from Blue would have frightened the recipient into compliance. Torroes, however, was different for a few reasons: his relationship with Blue and the difference in their size were two of the main reasons. But perhaps the major reason was that while Blue was still regarded as the best fighter in the order, it had become an even bet as to which who would be victorious in a fight between Torroes and Blue.
Torroes excused himself from the room and entered the back room. He returned a few moments later with a multiple page print out which he handed
to Blue. She took it in her left hand and quickly began reading.
“What am I looking at?” she demanded. The paper was filled with gibberish and random symbols and letters. Every so often there was a coherent word or fragment of a sentence but on the whole it was totally unreadable.
“That is a file that my system alerted me to approximately a month ago. It alerted me based on the content of the file as pertaining to myself. When I attempted to retrieve the file I found it had already been deleted. By recovering the deleted record and reverse encrypting it I hope to reconstruct the entire file.” Torroes explained. Blue sighed heavily and dropped her hand to her side, the paper crumpling at her leg.
“Most intelligent of you, Torroes, however, if you have answered my initial question I have failed to grasp it,” Blue replied sounding more then a little frustrated with Torroes.
“The automatic encrypters are doing their best, but I have spent time working on the encryption myself. There’s a partial passage toward the bottom,” Torroes explained. Blue quickly raised the paper back to eye level and skimmed through until she found the segment Torroes had referenced.

‡kšÛ í´[#>‚Ü?W¾®aud5ÏÙr«þ y»zon˜/.{CˋœgS¸‚ íÇwór£oUxih-“Y®\$€I°½¿»oòӏ)2¯éR¨ÿ w×ÿ IŽxgÁ ^;÷._÷ promotion, of Torroes Prime òӏ)2erank of Agent Adept, that followed approximately ten minutes later. The fact that Torroes)2said20%what20%ӏ)said20%and20%was20%not20%killed20%leads20%me20%to20%believe20%that20%there20%is20%more20%between20%Walker20%and20%Torroes20%then20%is20%commonly20%known20%with20%in20%the20%order.¿»oò 20% í´[#>‚Ü>‚Ü oòÓ 20%At20%this20%time20%I20% í´[#>‚Ü>‚Ü oòÓ


Blue finished the passage and quickly pieced it together in her own mind. Someone had been reporting on the audio log from the mission immediately proceeding Torroes’ promotion to the rank of Agent Adept. But who was reporting on it? And to whom were they reporting to? And why was is it being reported on? She quickly turned to face Torroes.
“Why have you not brought this to my attention?” Blue demanded. Torroes chuckled briefly which incited a look of confusion from Blue.
“I just did. However, I would ask you to allow me to investigate this on my own with out interference from you or Walker,” Torroes said, as he suddenly stood straight and now towered over Blue. The Amazonian stood resilient for a moment before stepping back and agreeing to Torroes’ request. “Now then, you came to brief me on my mission?” Torroes asked redirecting Blue’s attentions. Blue quickly handed Torroes a data chip she pulled from her hip pocket.
“This contains the map of the drop zone and all the information pertaining to the mission. You are to select six members to accompany you and Skajakuta to the mission zone. Once there you are to establish the location of the Freak Show that have set up base there.”
“Once you have established the base, you are to turn operational control over to Skajakuta who will then demonstrate his ability to lead a strike team.” Blue instructed Torroes. Torroes took the data chip and turned it over in front of his face.
“And I make sure that the animal doesn’t jump in over his head?” he asked, referring to Skajakuta. While Skajakuta appeared human, his fighting style was very animalistic like a wild cat of some sort.
“Yes,” Blue replied simply.
“Very well, I shall review the mission data and submit the outline by twenty hundred tomorrow.” Torroes replied as he palmed the data chip.
“Very good,” Blue said she snapped up straight and quickly turned to the door. As she crossed the doorway, she turned on her heel and shot Torroes’ a military grade salute.
“Glory to the order,” she said.
“Glory to the order,” Torroes replied with a sloppy salute. Torroes held the salute for a moment beyond the time the door closed and then quickly dropped his arm to his side. In a single fluid motion he turned and walked in the back room. Grabbing hold of a small desk draw under the computer monitor, he removed the entire drawer and placed it on the desktop next to the monitor.
Prying his finger nail into the bottom of the drawer, Torroes quickly removed a false panel covering a hidden compartment. With in the compartment was a multiple page print out very similar to the one he had shown Wicked Blue, however this one was a great deal more decrypted and more readable. Torroes picked up the print out and moved it to the side. Under the print out was a golden medallion.
The medallion consisted of four shapes. A large shield was the backing to the medallion while a capital F and C, that sat on the background of the shield, were bisected by a lightning bolt. Any one in the rouge isles could identify the medallion. It belonged to the hated Long Bow agents of the Freedom Corps.
Torroes picked up the medallion and held it over the print out. Scanning through the text he located the two things he was looking for. He drew an imaginary line under two names, that appeared in the document, with the edge of the medallion. The two names were Agent Kalice and Shadow Maidan.
“This will indeed be a training mission, and a test as well.” Torroes said to himself.

First to comment woo

My only concern is of a formatting issue. it's sometimes hard to follow the lines. it could be the hideous white on blue they make us use to. other than that. Good job. I am curious to see how this develops.

yeah, I didn't look at that before. The boards formats a little differently then Word does. I'll need to keep that in mind from now on.

So far, so interesting!

Word of advice re: formatting - before putting it in here, paste your story into Wordpad to lose all the Microsoft code. That tends to work for me.

Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite

[ QUOTE ]
So far, so interesting!

Word of advice re: formatting - before putting it in here, paste your story into Wordpad to lose all the Microsoft code. That tends to work for me.

Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite

[/ QUOTE ]

Thanks for the advice. That should make a big difference.

Well, lets try this with the Pasting into Word pad that Dark recommended....
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Points of War: Symmetry of Truths Pt 2
Wicked Blue marched down the hallway with a powerful stride, the heels of her boots clicking loudly on the metal plating. The hall way echoed with the power in her stride. Even after nearly two decades in the world of man, away from the tree dwelling huts of her South American family, the metal lined hallways still felt bizarre and alien to Blue. How ironic, that only now she felt lost.

What else does he have? She thought to herself. She knew Torroes had something more then the report he had shown her. She didn’t know what, and she didn’t know when he had acquired it, but she knew he had it. So now, the question became what was she going to do about it?

Torroes had never given Blue any reason to not trust him before now. He was in fact one of the few in this world she did trust. Not only was he an outstanding warrior, an incredible asset to any combat team, and a truly capable officer of the order, but he could be one of the few people in this world that Blue might use the word friend to describe. But now, he was working behind her back. What was his motive? What were his aims? Why was he exercising them now? These dangerous questions danced about Blue’s mind, and at the same time they played with another set of questions.

What else did that document cover? Was it only about Torroes? Or was there more? Were Torroes’ suspicions about Walker valid? What were the depth of his suspicions? Blue was forced to admit that she had had certain misgivings concerning Walker and Torroes. It was true that Torroes has been able to survive numerous encounters with Walker when other members of the Order had been killed. It was true that Torroes had been the recipient of Walker’s gratitude and guidance on numerous occasions.

Now, the issue changed to something different. The situation was that there were at least four forces at work in the environment, Torroes himself and whatever support he had gained for his plans, Rick Walker and his loyal followers, Whoever sent that report and whatever group he was with, and then there were whoever weren’t aligned with the other three forces. Blue’s next moves would possibly bring to creation a fifth power with herself at the head of it. It all came down to one issue now. She needed more information. So the next step became how to acquire that information.

As Blue turned a corner, she came to a window and she welcomed the sunshine. She walked to the railing that trailed the lower edge of the window and grabbed hold of it. Resting her weight on the railing she leaned forward and looked out into the cool afternoon sky. The air was clear and she could practically see to the ground, a rarity in the rouge isles. Nearly ten decades of industrialization had spewed a massive amount of smoke, soot and ash into the air.

Looking down, Blue could see the sparring arena. She could just make out a half dozen forms in the arena sparring and practicing combat styles. She thought she could identify the Agent known as Toxica. at this distance, she could just make out a green glow that was the trademark sign of certain healing powers and they were Toxica’s specialty. She was a valued asset in combat, her abilities allowing combat teams to continue on following a harrowing struggle was a tremendous advantage.

Suddenly the answer to her immediate problem came into perfect focus. She knew how to acquire the information she needed. In a flash she turned on her heel and walked down the corridor in a stride that exuded power and confidence.
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Well for better or for worse, there it is. As always, comments feed back and critique welcome and encouraged.

Yikes, I need to get to work on this. I fell off the first page. Sadly I did not have a full day to work on this, like Scooter did for the newest chapter of What Makes Evil. But here is part 3 of Points of War: Symmetry of Truths

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The pottery floated in the air suspended by the magic that was Skajakuta’s trade mark. A small clay vase of minimal value revolved around a similar pot as Skajakuta twisted his fingers.
The room was completely dark save for the green glow emanating from Skajakuta’s eyes and the faintest green hue from his clawed fingertips. The magics he was utilizing cast a dim light through out his chambers and produced bands of green that danced over his human appearing face.

With a twitch of his fingers, he sent the two pieces of pottery smashing into one another and held the fragments pieces together in a contained space. Turning his right hand over so it was now palm up, he closed his fist. The fragments pressed together and crumbled even further until dust began to float to the floor.
Suddenly the door chime rang, breaking Skajakuta’s focus. The field holding the pottery fragment dissipated and the pieces fell to the floor. On impulse, Skajakuta quickly pulled his mask up and over his face obscuring all but his eyes. Utilizing his telekinetic powers, Skajakuta reached out and flipped the switch that controlled the lights. As the light activated, Skajakuta squinted as his eyes adjusted.

“Enter!” Skajakuta called, his voice resonating like a snarl from an animal. The door way slid apart to reveal the dominating form of Wicked Blue. With out waiting for an invitation she stepped into the chambers and quickly looked at the pile of broken pottery and then quickly locked eyes with Skajakuta.

“You have been informed of your upcoming mission?” Wicked Blue demanded of Skajakuta. Skajakuta made no response save to nod.

“Are you prepared for it?” Wicked Blue inquired with an insinuating undertone. Skajakuta emitted a growl in response at first then caught himself. Blue was a person who could easily beat Skajakuta into the dirt if she so wished, and despite Skajakuta’s mystic powers, he would stand only a slim chance of beating her. It was an engagement few in the Order were eager to undertake.

“I am prepared to serve the order,” Skajakuta replied with a bowed head and spread arms, a sign of submission.

“Good, because I am amending your instructions!” Wicked Blue declared.