The Return to Liten (Game Over)

[SpyreX]

Nero would be on the short list.
Twomz as well.
Thor would be acceptable.

I'd give APC a pass for the moment.

[Twomz]

Nero would be on the short list.
Twomz as well.
Thor would be acceptable.

I'd give APC a pass for the moment.

How about SpyreX and APC on the 'short list'?

See, I can make no sense as well.

[SpyreX]

No sense there true story.

Just be glad -I- dont have a bullet

[Nero Cain]

No sense there true story.

Just be glad -I- dont have a bullet

Its not like I get super townie vibes from you either.

[SpyreX]

You, too, will be knelt.

[Thor665]

@Nero - re-read Day 2, Spy is town or *really* hates his scum buddies.

[SpyreX]

Shhhh Thor, SHHH. Let the vipers all come out of the nest before you strike.

Although that does move you off the list. For now.

[Furry]

Yeah NC needs redeathification over Thor again. Shortlist still is short, and really similar to my D1 list, and by really similar I mean the same just no CES. Also the addition of Thor depending on a few alignments.

[Nero Cain]

Yeah NC needs redeathification over Thor again. Shortlist still is short, and really similar to my D1 list, and by really similar I mean the same just no CES. Also the addition of Thor depending on a few alignments.

If I'm vigged and you see my town flip should we (the alive town members) go after you?

[SpyreX]

Jesus he might be town.

Ffffff

[Nero Cain]

Yeah can someone tell me what that is? I see it all the time.


ffffffffff what is that?

[SpyreX]

An expression of distaste and irritation in its purest form.

Like you just NEEDING a bullet and then saying something that makes me hesitate.

[Thor665]

Jesus he might be town.

That's what I've believed since yesterday - and even I can't be wrong all the time Even if scum only had night talk you don't think they would have been all over him for his play yesterday? And yet it remains identical and with the same reads.

Ffffff = Frazzled findings feel faithfully factual forecasts - it's a way to say you have reached a decision and yet are feeling uncertainty and frustration about it.

[SpyreX]

fffffffff is everything to everyone. In all times.

FFFFf is the Alpha and the Omega word.

I'd safely say after that I'd definitely shove a bullet somewhere else tonight.

[SaintKerrigan]

Ok, working on game stuff now. Stand by...

[Slaxx]

The cruel cruel suspense.

Wait lol.

[Slaxx]

I've had the mental image that we're all wearing some sort of body armor. Being called SOBs in the flavor has that badass space marine feel to it.

Meh, he claimed protection, not armor. Even with armor I'm pretty sure there is such a thing as more armor. Don't support hammer talk based on flavor synopsis.

Also, no explanation for why he was so concerned about being vig killed.

This seems the best energy I've seen yet for SO scum. That said,

Unvote: Nero Cain
Vote: Untrod Tripod

I feel much more confident with this one and feel it is the actual other wagon that bears some consideration. My read on Newbie Cain is still that and I don't understand a lot of the fluttering there - his actions seem to bespeak more unoptimal play than scummy play. He's a vig option, not a lynch option.

After reading, I think this might be scum getting onto the second biggest bandwagon thats not his buddy. I just want to throw this nugget out there before night.

[SaintKerrigan]

(sigh) Somebody up there hates me.

Most unfortunately, something came up unexpectedly that will likely consume the rest of this night, which means I can't do flavor until Thursday afternoon at the earliest. I'm really, really sorry about this!

A lynch has occurred, however, and although I hate not putting flavor on a lynch scene, the twilight has gone on long enough. Therefore, I will announce the flips now, and fill in the flavor later. In the future, if I don't have time to write the flavor for a lynch scene, this will be my policy for handling it.

I'll make sure to bedazzle all of you with vivaciously vicarious flavor at the earliest opportunity, don't you worry! Until then, aditot!

[SaintKerrigan]

Final Vote Count Day 2

(8) Feysal: SpryeX, Furry, HackerHuck, Cogito Ergo Sum, apathyplusCUPCAKES, Slaxx, MagnaofIllusion, Twomz

Not Voting: ThAdmiral, AlmasterGM, LynchMePls, Untrod Tripod, Thor665, Feysal, Nero Cain

With fifteen people alive, it takes eight votes to lynch.
The deadline is Sunday, November 21st, 2010 at 9:00 a.m. CST.

- A lynch majority has been achieved! -

Three kilometers west of the extraction point
Colonized Sector 2, UTP Planet Liten, Tynnfred System
December 4th, 2486 SC (Day 4, Month 15 LC)
1608 hours SST (0310 hours LLT2)

A lot of the threedees tended to picture dropship crashes as being explosive and fiery affairs; in truth, modern engineering was such that the fuel cells were rarely ruptured by impact crashes, and there were very few flammable materials utilized in a dropship's construction. Thus, while there were electrical sparks coming from severed wires here and there, and a notably deep trough had been plowed into the ground, it was hardly the apocalyptic vision presented by the entertainment industry.

Sara sent Kestrel and Geordi ahead to check the area around the wreckage, while she and the rest of the Megiddos stayed back at a safe distance and covered their approach. It wasn't long before Kestrel gave a thumbs-up to give the all-clear.

"All right, move in, Meggidos," Sara ordered. "Wes, Pal, stay with the colonists and keep close to the main group. Simona, Ingrid, Dylan, and Black Cat, patrol the outer circumference of the area and keep an eye out for Arkons. Bill, you're with me. Jezzy, take everyone else and salvage everything you possibly can from that wreckage."

"Aye!" barked a chorus of voices. The team members split off to fulfill their assignments. Sara began to walk slowly toward the shuttle, with Bill at her side.

"Bill, are you sure you don't know a way to counter that Arkon comm jam?" Sara asked.

He shook his head. "I'm afraid it's not possible. The only way to beat a jam is to overpower it, and we don't have nearly enough power at our disposal to break a jam of planetary scale."

Sara stared at the

Apollyon

debris thoughtfully. "Could we cannibalize the fuel cells and use them to break the jam?"

"It wouldn't even be

close

to enough. I'm talking something akin to a dreadnaught's fusion core, and even at that I'm not sure that would cut it."

"What about the IED?"

"Even

if

we knew how to hook it up to our instruments, our circuitry would melt long before we reached the necessary power levels."

Sara sighed. "So, we can't break through the jam. What if--" Suddenly she stumbled over a small pothole in the ground, and she grunted. "If I remember correctly, the Arkon planetary jamming technology is based on a network of individual jammers. Right?"

"Correct," Bill assented. "They use a grid of jammers to provide a collective whole, the numbers used being dependent on the size of the planet."

"So...if one of the jammers were to be taken offline, would it make a hole in the jamming blanket?"

"Well...not a complete "hole", per se, since the other jammers would still have an influence over an area. However, it

would

severely weaken the strength of the blanket in the area the defunct jammer used to cover."

"Enough to establish contact with the

Deborah

?"

"Most likely. But if your plan is to go out and destroy one of these jammers, there's one big problem: we don't have a clue where any of the jammers are."

"Can't we scan for it?"

"Hello? It's a jammer, Sara. If it can disrupt our comms, it's definitely going to play havoc with our scans."

Sara arched an eyebrow. "Wait a minute. How come our tacvisors work, then?"

"It's a complicated story," Bill explained. "But essentially, tacvisors don't work the same way as a transmission or a scan, so they aren't affected by the same things."

"Okay, then. Could you possibly estimate where the optimal positioning for a jamming grid would be?"

"Not really. You can technically place the grid wherever you want, as long as you maintain the correct spacing." He looked off in the general direction of the Kehvit mountains. "A mountain location would be quite an ideal spot for a jammer, though..."

"So you think there's one up there?"

"Well, I don't

know

that for certain, but if I had jammer and a mountain, I'd put it up there."

"That's at least a hundred clicks away." Sara sighed. "I guess it's better than having no direction at all, though--"

"Sara!" Sara looked and saw Jezzy standing just outside the cockpit section of the wreckage. "Jordy's still alive! Get in here, quick!"

What the hell? How did he survive the crash?

"On my way!" Sara called. Quickly turning back to Bill, she concluded, "Try to figure out where those jammers are. If we can contact the

Deborah

, then our chances of survival go up dramatically."

"Saying something earnestly won't change the facts," Bill answered, "but I'll see what I can do."

She put a hand on his shoulder. "That's all I'm asking, Bill." She took her hand off and briskly trotted the rest of the distance to the debris.

The cockpit section of the

Apollyon

wasn't actually the furthest forward of the dropship chunks, and it had flipped upside down, with the sundered end facing the forward side of the trench. Apparently the nose had caught in the ground, and subsequently the cockpit was rent apart from the rest of the dropship. How was it possible for anyone to survive a collision of that magnitude?

She reached the cockpit section and climbed up the thick outer shell and onto the ceiling--which was technically the floor at the moment. Near the front of the cockpit, illuminated only by the glowstrip stuck to the floor--currently the ceiling--Jezzy sat crouched. Next to her was Jordy's body, bleeding badly and appearing to be partly smashed in. Every breath came in wheezing, painful gasps, accompanied frequently by virulent fits of coughing.

"Dear god..." Sara whispered.

"I already sent Psycho and Chuck to get the medical equipment that wasn't blown up during the air raid," Jezzy reported as Sara came up to the cockpit. "Frankly, though, I doubt he's going to last long."

Sara nodded. "Did you find anything else of note here?"

"Not yet, but I haven't finished searching--"

"Jezzy, come here!" Kestrel's voice called. "I found a Nutcracker case, but it needs officer authorization to open it!"

Jezzy laughed bitterly. "That would be great--except we don't have anything that's worth using a Nutcracker on. Anyways, I'll finish searching the cockpit once I get this dealt with." She tramped out towards the dropship section that Kestrel was calling from.

It suddenly clicked in Sara's head:

A Nutcracker! If there's actually a working one in there, it'll definitely devastate an Arkon planetary jammer. Now we just need to find one...

She set her laser rifle aside and knelt down by Jordy's body, and her elation immediately sobered. It would definitely be a pain to have to carry a wounded person on their travels, but she wasn't about to leave one of their own behind to suffer the torture of the Arkons.

She touched his left hand, one of the few parts of the body that wasn't pulverized in some form or another. He groaned, opened his eyes. "S-Saahr-Sara-a--" He coughed, and dark, crimson blood splattered on Sara's uniform; she ignored the discomfort.

"I'm sorry, Jordy," she said quietly. "I wish there was something I could do--"

Suddenly, Jordy's right hand reached out and seized her by the throat. "Domka hitoslik," he growled, smiling.

Sara gasped, and not simply for lack of air. She grabbed at the hand, but her efforts to pry it loose were futile. On her chest, the blood was morphing color, from red into blackish-purple.

It can't be...

"Majy krynash dieza magriki tamvir vershowen kondit charutji, enk kondit strydbaruwed," Jordy--only it wasn't really Jordy, was it--continued, as its grip on Sara's throat continued to magnify in strength. The other hand began to reach for Sara's forehead slowly. "Enek skichik kryy enzaket kondit ichmeer shas--"

Sara made a move for her laser pistol, but the Arkon was faster, using the free hand to grab her right arm in an instant. "Slegijirak. Majy gozee igskinpok hitoslik." Elongated fingernails suddenly grew out of the Arkon's hand and raked Sara's arm. The nails dug deeply through the uniform and into her flesh, leaving behind oozing trenches of scarlet blood. Sara tried to scream, but lacked the air to do so. "Kigedaara enek ozeg Arkon," the Arkon concluded. Deep, guttural noises came forth from it, sounding akin to human laughter.

Sara gritted her teeth and swung up her left hand, which held the vibration knife Sara had unsheathed while the Arkon was occupied with her other arm. The vertically-oscillating impervium blade shot upward, its finely-honed edge cutting cleanly through the Arkon's hand like a laser through butter. Red blood gushed all over Sara's face and body, rolling in streams down her combat suit; even before the blood hit the floor it was changing color. The severed hand, however, remained clamped onto Sara's neck, and she reached up and ripped it away from her with her right arm, screaming in agony as she did so.

The Arkon stared at its missing hand, then back at Sara. Pupils literally narrowed into vertical slits. "Hylesk!" it exclaimed. The blood stopped gushing forth from the Arkon's arm, and indeed a new hand seemed to be forming at the end of the shortened arm. At the same time, its body began to transform into Arkon form. Sara tried to push herself to her feet, but her wounded arm gave out on her and she collapsed onto the floor.

"Arkon!" she tried to scream, but all that came out was a hoarse, raspy whisper. She tried to get on her feet again, but the Arkon leaped and tackled her. Her forehead smacked the ultrasteel ceiling violently. She stabbed at the Arkon, but it grabbed her hand, twisted it sharply, and the vibration knife fell from her hand and onto the floor, where it vibrated noisily.

Pinning Sara to the floor with the shortened arm, the Arkon grabbed the back of her head. "Domka, izhylesk hitoslik!"

"Fuck you too, asshole!" Sara hoarse-yelled, pushing on the floor with all her strength. Her right arm screamed a litany of pain, but she succeeded in disrupting the Arkon's balance, sending it toppling to the floor. Desperately she scurried for the vibration knife. She reached out for it with her left hand, but the blade suddenly spun in her direction, so she hastily jerked her arm back. She made another attempt--but the Arkon darted around her body and seized the knife from her outstretched fingertips. Then its foot stomped virulently on her left arm and continued to stand there, pinning her arm to the floor.

It knelt beside her, holding the vibration knife just over her captive arm. "Laatky ekto tamvir giaseb dieza majy yuuaan opzuk ekto, majy izhylesk, muskin hitoslik!" it declared.

Sara's eyes widened and she tried desperately to squirm out of the Arkon's hold, but all her efforts were in vain. Horrified, she watched, as if in slow motion, as the oscillating blade began to drop, lowering itself slowly closer to her arm. Every sound around her drummed out of focus, save the voluminous, rapid beating of her own heart. Time inched slowly forward, as the blade was nearly close enough to touch...

The first bite. Arcs of pain raced through her body as the blade kept slicing through her arm. Blood

my blood

spurted from the wound, onto the ceiling-floor, all over the Arkon, onto her face

never stopping oh god oh god the agony

. The knife made contact with the bone, and it offered as much resistance as the skin and muscle had. The entire width of the blade was inside

my arm is being severed god help me FUCK YOU Arkon bastard

and nearing the end of its journey...

In microseconds, the deed was done, and Sara screamed as shrilly as her hoarse voice would allow. Bright red blood gushed out of her severed arm, pooling all over the ultrasteel plating. Still keeping her arm pinioned to the ground, the Arkon picked up her severed hand and looked at her.

"Enek dinkae majy gozee izkusonkar steisuk..." It tossed her hand directly in front of Sara's face, and it took all of her mental willpower to stop herself from passing out due to shock and blood loss.

The Arkon now leaned forward and grabbed her hair with its short arm, yanking upward to pull her head off the floor. "Enek hankeerd majy, hitoslik," it said in a rumbling bass voice. It jerked her head up again, but Sara didn't even grunt. "Majy gozee ichmeer verdikak tamekry taikompesen yoas enek dinkakae, enk majy bekiver ichmeer yoas aeo kogee valbatsu." Slowly it brought the vibration knife close to her throat. Sara stared at her severed arm, surrounded by a pool of her own blood.

My own pool of blood...

The blade was in position under her neck. "Sientadsu, hitoslik bubensol."

Mustering every iota of willpower within her body, soul, and spirit, Sara pulled back her left arm as hard as she could. As soon as the blood got under it, it slid across the floor, and the Arkon fell forward. As soon as its foot was off her arm, Sara rolled out of the way, narrowly missing the vibration knife with her neck. Her body shrieked in agony, but she willed herself to skitter-crawl to the forward section of the cabin as fast as she could. Where her laser pistol was...

"Hylesk majy, muskin hitoslik!" growled the Arkon. Sara didn't even bother looking back, but continued her hellish half-scramble toward her weapons. A loud thud behind her suggested that the Arkon had slipped while trying to get up. She pressed on, despite her anguishing body all but set to give out on her.

Oh please, c'mon, just let me get that pistol...

She heard rapid thuds coming from behind her...

just a little further...

she heard growls and hisses getting closer and closer...

almost there...

she stretched out her right hand toward the laser pistol...

I can feel it on my fingertips...

An alien hand grabbed her left foot. "Sittow yobo, hitoslik!" the Arkon yelled.

Her fingers clenched the laser pistol--yanked hard on her leg, pulling her back--fist formed around handle, finger inserted into trigger--grabbed her head, held it fast--pointed the laser pistol blindly behind her, only hoping--"Kierf, muskin hyleska, kierf! Kierf--"

She pulled the trigger.

The Arkon loosed the grip on her foot and head and grunted loudly. Quickly Sara spun around on her back, aimed the laser pistol at the Arkon's face, and pulled the trigger. The shot only grazed the left side of its head, but it was enough to make the Arkon release her completely. She pulled up her legs, her knees against her bloodied chest.

"

Fuck

you!" she screamed hoarsely, kicking the Arkon squarely in the upper chest area. It flew backwards and collapsed onto the floor in a heap. Wasting no time, Sara aimed between her legs and put a red beam of light straight through the Arkon's torso. "You like that, you fucking motherfucker?" Another blast went into its abdomen. "You think you can just waltz in our star sytems and fuck with our shit without paying for it, is that it?" At that point, Sara didn't really bother with precision aiming, pouring bolt after bolt of energy into the Arkon. "Well, guess what, you motherfucking dickwad? You just got your own shit fucked up, asshole!

Your own fucking shit!

You think you're better than me, but guess what, bitch? I'm alive!

I'm fucking aliiiiiiiiiiiiiiive!

How you liking that, you goddamned, fucked-up dickshit from hell? Oh wait, I'm sorry, you can't tell me.

You know why?

Because

you! are! fucking! dead!

Fuck yeah, bitch! You're dead and you can't do anything about it, so kiss my soft, human, lily ass!"

Panting, she stopped firing. By that point, the Arkon was clearly inert, and the smell of seared Arkon flesh filled the air. Wearily, Sara kept her pistol trained on the body, ready to fire at the first twitch. Her vision started to become blurry, and the searing pain hit her again.

Dear god, I lost my fucking hand...I need to get help, and fast...

She tried to push herself onto her feet, but no sooner was she on her feet than she lost her balance and tumbled to the floor again, her head impacting the ultrasteel forcefully. Yellow and white static began to flood her vision.

No...I cannot have survived this...only to die shortly afterward...

She heard a faint voice. "Sara, what the hell's going on? Geordi's missing and I've been calling you for-- Oh my...oh my god!

Someone get the fucking medical equipment to the cockpit, stat! Sara's dying...

" The voice faded into obscurity as the static began fading into black.

I'm...sorry...Margaret...I wasn't...good...enough.

Then she felt a lightness, and suddenly she saw a young girl, playing in a field of daisies. It wasn't long before she recognized the child's face as her own...

Feysal, Geordi Moss,

Arkon Infiltrator

, had his shit seriously fucked up on Day 2.

It is now Night 2. The deadline is Saturday, November 13th, 2010 at 6:00 p.m. CST. (Unless I'm meeting my project group then, in which case, the deadline will be pushed back to Sunday morning at 9:00 a.m. CST.

[SaintKerrigan]

????
????
????
????

I open my eyes.

Am I dead? Where am I?

Starry blackness is all that is in front of me. I look down and realize that I have no body. What's happened to me? Is this heaven? Hell? Nowhere in particular? I begin walking toward the starry blackness...

"I'm telling you, there's nothing we can do!" an echoing voice exclaims behind me. "She's as good as dead!"

Jezzy...

I turn (

how is this possible with no body

) and see Jezzy, standing on the ground behind me.

I'm not on the ground?

At her feet sat Wes, and lying on the ground adjacent to him was...

my body?

Yes, it was my body, albeit with a blood-soaked pressure cap on the end of my left arm instead of my hand.

The thing cut my fucking hand off...

Pal is on the other side of my body, wiping my face with a damp cloth and removing the concoction of human and Arkon blood smeared on my face, while Kestrel is bandaging the lacerations on my right arm.

Am I dead or not? How can I tell the difference?

"She wouldn't leave us to die," Wes counters, "so I, for one, won't abandon her."

These four are all I see nearby.

Where are the others?

"Nor I," Kestrel concurs. "What's been with you anyway, Jezzy? You're usually good with the chain of command. Why so quick to abandon your commanding officer?"

Jezzy sniffed. "Look who's talking. Isn't it damned convenient that your gut just happens to fail when we need it the most?"

"God, would you lay off that shit already?"

Already chaos has reentered the ranks of my Meggidos. What am I doing, floating up in the air simply looking on? I need to get involved, retake control of the situation. I start moving closer to my body--only to realize that I am not actually moving closer. Why? There is so much I do not understand...

"Why should I, Kestrel? It's that kind of shit that we need to look into, dammit. You saw what that Arkon did to Sara, what they've

been

doing to us. If we don't get rid of them, there is

no

chance that our mission will succeed!"

"Who the fuck are you to tell us that?" Pal growls bitterly.

"Because I'm your new C.O., that's why," Jezzy barks.

"By what--" Wes begins, but Jezzy interrupts with,

"SOB protocol handbook, article thirty-six, section two, regulation nine, part one: 'If the commanding officer is killed, seriously injured, or in any other condition that critically impairs the commanding officer's ability to lead his command, the second commanding officer may assume direct command, effective immediately.' Look at her. That's looks pretty fucking impaired to me."

She's not even trying to save me...

Why, oh

why

must I remain a spectator to these events?

Suddenly, something begins to pull at me from behind. I look, and see nothing there. What new deviltry was this?

"Her pulse just went erratic!" Kestrel screams faintly. "Get the--"

"Leave her," Jezzy orders, her voice cold and severe.

The three of them stare at her. "Jezebel, you can't--"

"We don't have any time to waste with failed revival attempts, dammit! The Arkons could be upon this place at any moment, and we need to be far away from here when they arrive." Jezzy frowns. "I don't like this, either, but there's no other choice."

"That's bullshit," Pal grumbles.

"And Pal, you will shut the fuck up and

properly

address your superior officers! Seriously, I don't know why the fuck Margaret and Sara put up with your shit."

"Jeez, I'm sorry! I meant to say that's bullshit,

sir

!"

I strain to see them as the mysterious force pulls me further and further away. White light begins to seep into my vision, and I think I can hear voices. Lots of voices, and with each passing moment they crescendo louder and louder.

I barely hear Wes' voice. "She's dead..." And then I am completely surrounded by white light, with the sound of voices, of every sound, reverberating everywhere. There are so many voices; I am unable to distinguish what any of them are saying. It is chaotic, and I find the disjointed rhythm...strangely comforting. The temptation to succumb to the turbulent maelstrom is strong--

No! I refuse to die! I refuse to give in!

I struggle once more against the invisible force, with renewed vigor. The conflict is intense, and it isn't long before the only thing on my mind is breaking free of this force. Pressure threatens to tear whatever I currently am to pieces--

--and without warning, the whiteness vanishes, along with the harmonious discord of voices. I find myself once again above the surface of Liten, staring at my body.

Lying in a freshly dug grave...

The others stand around my grave, some with tears streaming down their face. I hear Jezzy saying,

"While our time with Captain Sara Gaints was short, I think we can all agree that she was taken before her time. It is truly a shame for the Meggidos to lose such a valuable member such as Sara. Rest in peace...wherever your soul abides after it leaves the body." She nods toward Psycho and Chuck, and silently they take their collapsible shovels, dig into the mound of dirt adjunct to the grave, and begin softly lowering the soil onto her body.

It's now or never, Sara. You can do this!

Taking a deep breath--metaphorically speaking--I plummet toward my body as fast as I can. The resistance shows itself again, but not nearly as strongly as before, and I plow through it easily. Closer and closer I draw, and suddenly I am within my body

!tear violent a

and I see white and black mix together

coalesce!

and I hear a loud ringing noise--

Dark silence.

[SaintKerrigan]

Night 2 is over. Day will break once I have resolved actions

and written flavor

.

[SaintKerrigan]

About three kilometers west of the extraction point
Colonized Sector 2, UTP Planet Liten, Tynnfred System
December 4th, 2486 SC (Day 4, Month 15 LC)
1705 hours SST (0520 hours LLT2)

Sara's eyes shot open, and she gasped sharply, arcing her back in the process. Something flew into her open mouth and down her throat, causing her to cough virulently. Her vision was too blurry to be able to see anything.

Did it work? Am I--

A larger something impacted her belly, partially knocking the wind out of her.

"Oh my god!" she heard a voice exclaim. "She's still alive!"

"Stop shoveling!" someone else hollered. "Get her out of there!"

Hands grabbed her armpits and her feet and hoisted her out of the grave. A pinkish-white blur appeared in her field of vision; as the blur gradually dissipated, Sara was able to identify the owner of the blur.

"Sara, can you hear me?" Jezzy inquired. "Nod your head once for yes, and twice for--"

"I--" Sara exhaled sharply, and a small clod of dirt flew out. "I can hear you fine, Jezzy."

"I'll be..." Wes breathed. "A miracle from God!"

Chuck whistled. "Damn, Sara, but you're one tough SOB."

Sara chuckled and pulled herself up to a seated position. From there, she put her right arm on the ground and slowly pushed herself to her feet. Her head felt woozy, and she wobbled around a bit. Dylan put his hands on her back to steady hear, and soon the wooziness dissipated.

"Thanks, Dylan," Sara said. Looking around, she soon realized that not everyone was present. "Where's Simona and Travis Knull?"

"They're dead, man," Pal moaned. "Fucking dead. The colonist dude got brain-fried by Arkons, and someone used a skitter mine on Simona. Can you believe it?

A fucking skitter mine!

"

"There wasn't even enough left of Simona's body to be buried," Ingrid said sadly. "So when we buried the others, we just turned up some dirt for her."

"On a side note, we did find some of our recon equipment on Travis's body," Kestrel answered. She looked at Furry pointedly. "Didn't know you had anyone on Liten that knew how to use that stuff."

Furry shrugged. "He didn't want us to mention it. He never looked fondly on you guys, I think."

"But it was something we should've--"

"Kestrel." Sara stared firmly at Kestrel, and she stopped. "It doesn't matter now. I don't know how long we've been here, but I'm sure it's been way too long. We need to clear out, and fast. Our best shot at contacting the

Deborah

and getting a second dropship down here is to knock out one of the jamming towers--"

"I told them that already, Sara," Jezzy stated.

"She ignored the alternative option suggested by Dr. Gordon, though," Bill protested.

"It's takes way too long, and it's too risky," Jezzy countered. "Did I not make that--"

Sara stepped in. "Jezzy, while I value your input, I would prefer to hear all the options." She looked at Bill. "Do explain."

"I should probably let Dr. Gordon do the explaining," Bill said. "It's his idea, after all."

"You helped quite a bit," Joshua told him. He turned to Sara. "First, the nearest jamming device is one hundred and ten kilometers away, on Mt. Ivanova--"

"Wait a sec." Sara looked at Bill. "I thought you said the jamming prevented us from scanning for the jammers in the first place."

"True," Bill replied. "However, Dr. Gordon realized something that I completely overlooked."

Nearby, Psycho snickered.

"Yes, Psycho, it happens. Anyway, while we can't directly scan for the jammers, we can

indirectly

scan for them by passively measuring the intensity of the jamming signal at three or more locations, comparing the difference between the field intensities, and use that information to calculate where the strongest point in the field is."

"In other words, the location of the jammer."

"Precisely! Anyway, we took the relevant data from older scans that I'd made, and now we know precisely where the nearest jammer is located!"

"Which is where the next part of the plan comes in," Joshua interjected. "One hundred and ten kilometers is a tough walk, no matter what way you put it. The odds of us making the trek on foot and undetected are slim at best. The optimal solution is to jury-rig some form of transportation. I took a look at the

Apollyon

, and I believe that we have the necessary materials to MacGyver a basic flycraft."

"Which would be great, except it takes too much time to build," Jezzy snapped.

"Lieutenant Bahha is correct. It would take at least eight hours to make this flycraft, and that's if we ignore safety checks and the like. However, Bill assures me that he can modify the cloak generator to function as an electromagnetic field generator, which would effectively disable any Arkon machinery that came within twenty kilometers of our position. We'd have to keep our eye out for ground forces, but it will likely be awhile before it comes to that point. If all goes well, we can have the flycraft built and be long gone before then."

"And if they figure this out sooner rather than later?" Jezzy folded her arms across her chest. "Sara, this is just a pipe-dream born out of lunacy, and you know it."

"We don't have a chance going on foot!" Joshua protested. "They'll be swarming us long before we get to Ivanova!"

"And they'll be swarming us faster if we sit here and wait for them! You may be a scientist, Dr. Gordon, but that doesn't mean you have the smarts to know battlefield tactics!"

Sara sighed. "Jezzy, while knowing proper battlefield tactics is good, you also need to know when to go outside them. Right now, if we move out on foot, there's a very high chance that the Arkons will find us before we reach the jammer, and at that point we'll be dead no matter what we do. On the other hand, if we can build a flycraft, then we not only get to our destination faster, we also solve the issue of scaling Mt. Ivanova once we get there. Yes, they know where the crash site is; but we know the terrain. In this case, it's better to defend a known territory and hope we can build a better chance for survival versus moving into a plethora of unknowns."

"But--Captain, with all due respect, are you sure you're fit for command?"

Sara stared into Jezzy's fiery eyes. "My mental faculties are perfectly fine, Lieutenant. Thank you for expressing your opinion, but we're going with Dr. Gordon's plan. That is my final decision. Now please, do your best to ensure that this plan will succeed. Understood?"

"Perfectly...

sir

."

"Good." The first rays of dawn peeked over the horizon as Sara began giving her people orders...

SpyreX, Travis Knull,

Human Scout

, had his brains scrambled on Night 2.
Untrod Tripod, Simona Sanchez,

Human SOB Operative

, was blown to pieces by a land mine on Night 2.

Day 3 has begun. With 12 players alive, it takes 7 votes to lynch.
The deadline is Sunday, November 28th, 2010 at 11:00 a.m. CST.

You may post now.

[Slaxx]

Dumb vig kill is dumb.

[Twomz]

Woo! Lynching well, hmm, who next?

[Slaxx]

One of Nero Cain and Thor.

Vote Thor