PowerSWAT's Ranger Promotion
By
Crossfire_EU,
Posted on: 2006-02-17 22:34 in Multi-Media Fan Creations
What a great story SWAT 
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What a great story SWAT
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Indeed!
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Thanks Sun Beam, this is really a great honour. Thankyou. He cleared his throat, adopting his stern, bad cop face. As my first official action Im delegating all my armoury shifts to Beet and Devi.
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*groan*... 
serious tho, good story, now to get back to me shift
Great stuff mate, I think I liked this one the best.
Nice one 'SWAT!
UNION @Flitz 50, Lead Hose 50, Red Rag 50
DEFIANT Rose Bloodthorn 34
VIGILANCE Captain Caledonia 20 - Yeah, I made toons on the French server coz we only had 4 back then (might have to transfer/recreate them on one of the US servers)
..and many more!
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J. Brute had publicly slated me for the massive knock back the suits AoE blasts caused.
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OI!
It's not just JB, it's any toon of mine!
Nice one Power 
It took you this long to notice read it and you didn't even moan about the blatant insult?
Why do I bother slagging people off in stories if they won't even rise to the bait?
Bit late in coming, Rangers, but here's the tale of SWAT's promotion. Featuring and with the approval of Sun Beam.
I love you really and you're a great bloke, so I know you can take a little taunt 
Note to Jiaozy - it's not MY opinion mate, rather a little fluff for the story
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PowerSWAT stood at the podium next to Frozen Rogue. The blue skinned Ranger was still seemingly just a kid, but standing there behind the lectern his voice filled the room, easily commanding the attention of the Rangers assembled before him in the Bases main hall.
Only freshly promoted himself, the new Commander was still reeling from the death of his mentor, Doulos. A round of Squad-Leader promotions was due, but with the passing of the former commander, nobody felt the need to press his replacement on the issue. Among the Rangers, Doulos had commanded astounding levels of respect and loyalty, having achieved an almost mythical status amongst the newer members - and from SWATs point of view, it looked to be almost certain that Rogue would follow on in that regard.
Beyond Rogue, the petite form of Sun Beam stood, hands clasped behind her back. They both knew why there were there - the formalisation of a moment theyd shared and thats not to say an in-group wedding. Aside from the fact that Pete Baker had a wife and children already, Sun Beam had become every bit the big sister figure in these last few months.
Hed not been paying attention and was startled as Rogue and SB switched places. She winked as they glanced at each other, wiping her brow in an exaggerated gesture that brought a grin to SWATs face. As she began speaking, he thought back to the origin of that shared joke
------x------x------x------x------
Back then, Id been in a bit of a state. I hate to admit it, but Vicky - thats the wife - had been threatening me with divorce. Things are better now, but it really got to me at the time.
My Security rating was only 31, not even licensed for a nuke, though the armours Nova Device was already installed and worked fine in test scenarios. At that time for some reason I was still mostly stuck between Talos Island and Steel Canyon as far as assignments went. Occasionally helping out the PD or lower level Rangers with anything that needed some extra juice.
Id not seen too much team action in a while, since that lumbering egotist J. Brute had publicly slated me for the massive knock back the suits AoE blasts caused. He and I are cool nowadays (though we dont see too much of him) since that the techs tuned down the Explosive blast. He still always wants to be the centre of attention though handy character trait in a Tank.
Anyway, as I was saying teams had been few and far between aside from aiding Stainless Steel, Sound Blaster and the like. So it was a bit of a surprise when I got a private comm-call from Sun Beam.
SWAT, its Sun Beam. How you doin? More importantly, can you lend me a hand? Like NOW? Remembering the tone of her voice still makes me grin - authority, wisdom and a little desperation combined with her own irrefutable charisma.
Of course I responded in the affirmative, and she told me how to get to her - only requiring a quick flight to the nearest station and a creative abuse of my Hero Status to coax the train driver into dropping me (literally) in an unusual location.
Jumping from a moving train is not normally something that I enjoy, but the anti-grav systems in the armour caught me easily enough, lowering me gently to the floor. I flipped up the HUD toggle in my helmet activating the full D.C.S. suite - thats Data, Communications and Scanning for you non-technophiles out there.
The semi-autonomous software knowbots sought out and captured the passive signal from Sun Beams communications beacon, displaying her vital statistics for my on-screen amusement and activating the auto-update map-share function. Suddenly I was enlightened as a black screen was criss-crossed with the paths shed taken, a tiny green triangle showing exactly where the boss-lady was holed up.
Be very careful SWAT, theyre not cheerleaders and they definitely dont want to date you
That much was obvious. The area where I stood was clear but in the distance toward SB, my little targeting drone showed me the enemy.
Biometric data was combined with the limited visual information and submitted to the TIM database - again (to help out with those TLAs) thats the Target Identification Matrix. Within the blink of an eye I had all the available information which was next to nothing. Group Affiliation: Knives of Artemis.
So, these femme fatales were out gunning for Sun Beam then? With all their little tricks and gadgets?
Well, it takes one to arrest one, or so they say.
Sun Beam and I engaged in a brief discussion as to exactly why I could teleport Perps but not team mates. After a lot of verbal shrugging, we resigned ourselves to just taking the Knives out of action.
Im sure Sun Tzu mentions it in the Art of War. Its not a new tactic. But Im still PCPD at heart, so rather than Double horn of Wildebeest or something Ill just call it a Two-Pronged assault. Sun Beam came in from the north, me from the south, with a big bunch of these psychotic women in the middle.
I laid down mines. Lots of mines. And threw down lots of caltrops. The Drone circled my head, fritzing and fuzzing in my ear that he could barely keep track of them. Moaning like a baby he was. Whoever heard of a targeting drone with an AI anyway?
Battle ensued. I have to confess, I didnt think that Id last it out without ending up ported to Talos medical centre, but after blowing all my power and reserves twice over, as well as all my emergency booster packs and nano-stimulants, I managed it. Hell, I even used a web grenade or two in the battle, something Ive not done since the fourth week of the test program. At one point, the suit was so strapped for go-juice that I was running up to these women and just hitting them.
Yeah, with my hands!
After the battle for the clearing was over, I was pretty spent. The armour was blackened and scorched in places, marring the prestigious ranger colours I sported, and there were caltrops stuck in my boots - impressive since theyre entirely of a Rikti Alloy.
As the Zigs teleporters got to work on the unconscious perps, I joined SB over at this thing they had been defending. She looked closely at it, prising off a stone plate, revealing glowing crystals beneath. With a frown she began to delicately touch each crystal in sequence, sending little jolts of energy down their length from her dainty fingertips.
It all meant precisely squat to me, so in the respite from combat I removed my helmet, laying it on the floor as I peered over her shoulder. Leaning forward to see deeper into the recess, I could discern moving parts which jumped and jittered as she supplied those miniscule jolts of power to them.
I didnt know what this machine was meant to do, but as I crouched there a drop of sweat must have fallen from my brow onto some sensitive part - suddenly everything went chaotic! Maybe the presence of water, or salt, or bio matter had triggered some arcane guard on whatever it was, or maybe it was a technological device busted by the water content alone, but the crystals began to hum loudly, coursing through with colour, even as the moving elements started to dance before our eyes.
I could see from the look on her face that Sun Beam considered this to be a bad thing. Sparks of energy shot from her fingers, aimed at the parts of the machine in motion, trying to still them, but to no avail. The energy that was normally so accurate in aim was being siphoned off into the general aura of power within the device. As the pace increased, I could see only one course of action.
Those of you familiar with the tale of how I became the man I am today will know that man isnt necessarily the best term. Part Synthetic human maybe? Cyborg even, though I dont like that term too Sci-Fi-Nerd. Regardless, fate and circumstance blessed me with synthetic parts to replace those lost in an encounter with some less than pleasant gang members. Hopefully that would prove to be my advantage here.
I quickly removed the gauntlet from my right hand - the focussed crystals in the energy emitters wouldnt like what I had in mind. The dark metal of my hand caught little sparkling reflections from the machine.
I held my breath, ushered Sun Beam aside and thrust my arm inside the machine, grabbing hold of whatever I could. The actions of a desperate mind.
The great thing about all this is that there was no pain involved in the action. People have said that it was brave to do, but I didnt care about the arm. I couldnt feel anything much - only sensations registering pressure and temperature, but only in the most rudimentary, detached of ways. My arm began to smoulder in the energy field and the last two fingers of my hand were torn from their moorings by the frantic race of the mechanism, but I felt not a thing.
Slowly, the pressure began to decrease, eventually ceasing altogether. I felt drained as the adrenaline rush abated, sitting down heavily.
You okay? SWAT? Pete, are you OKAY? I looked around at Sun Beam, wearily regarding her.
Yeah. Yeah, I think so. What just happened?
Long or short version? she asked.
I was intrigued, but still too tense to sit through a lengthy tale. Short please.
You just put your hand inside a techno-magical hybrid explosive device with a yield roughly one eighth that of the bomb that hit Hiroshima
Oh.
I couldnt think of much else to say on the matter. Then I thought back on the sequence of events, wiping the sweat from my brow as I was faced with a realisation: I suppose its only fair - I made it go all fritzy what are you laughing at?
Sun Beam knelt on the grass near me, giggling like a schoolgirl, covering her mouth with a delicate hand. The tension of the moment had obviously made something funny.
Wrong hand, SWAT! She picked up my discarded helmet and showed me my reflection in the visor. Grease, soot, and melted rubber stuck to my brow and hair, making me look like some half-baked Freak experiment. Of course I was right handed and therein lay the problem of unconscious gestures.
Oh. I said again.
Sun Beam helped me to my feet, swabbing my brow with the hem of her cape like some kind of fussing parent. Nicely done. Id say thats a pass.
Pass?
Yeah. We have something to discuss.
Does it involve me getting a new hand?
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Sun Beam was shining like her name sake on the podium, addressing the Rangers. As one of the most respected and experienced - an Elite Mentor - she held their attention with ease.
So, it is with great pleasure that I announce the promotion of PowerSWAT to the rank of Squad Leader, with all the responsibilities and privileges of that rank.
SWAT took the centre spot amidst a round of polite applause. He was far from knowing all of the Rangers by name - even by face - but that would have to change.
Thanks Sun Beam, this is really a great honour. Thankyou. He cleared his throat, adopting his stern, bad cop face. As my first official action Im delegating all my armoury shifts to Beet and Devi.
Many in the crowd got the joke and a chuckle spread amongst them. A classic get-out in the whole unaccustomed as I am to public speaking game. Seriously though, it is a great honour. Id like you all to know that Im here for any of you at any time. Also, although Im not active in the PD anymore, theyve given me the rank of Lieutenant in Absentia, which means I get all the juice with none of the work, so I should be able to pull more strings than before, to avoid some of the problems weve had in the past. Male Rangers under arrest indeed Now I can be the semi-official liaison between us and them.
Us and them? SWAT thought on the phrase as he said it. He wasnt a cop anymore, and hadnt been fro some time, but it hadnt really occurred to him that the Rangers had become like a real family to him.
His new home.
Rangers, HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!