Prelude: REMs gone wild

 

"A couple of hours ago, a heavy explosion has shaken the Hills near north of the city. Representatives of the city have announced that the site of the excident is supposed to be an old mining facilit. They declared, an unauthorised depot of chemcials seems to have caught fire and exploded. >>Do you want to know more?<<
 
Breaking news. Sektor 5 of the city has been evacuated. Two Remotes with the Xin TI Branding have emerged out of nowhere and have been on the loose. Authorities have ordered the evacuation, since the Remotes have withstood all attemps to gain back control over them. Xin Ti officials claim, thaat they are not missing any REMs and said, that these drones are none of theirs. Since their task is unclear, noone should approach them on their own. If you see the drones, please report to the authorities.>>Do you want to now more?<<

Operation: Golem

 
"Team Nam in position. We register a little activity, but nothing serious"
 
"We are closing in on the designated areas, Team Nam is splitting up."

"Okay, Team! The CSUs take the left flank, try to locate the LHost near you position. Bagh Mari squad, you take the right flank. There should be an elevator near the LHost, maybe we can use that later, check it out. Irregulars! We take the middle! Move with caustion!"
"Affirmative!"

++Okay Team, we are in position. Run the scans...++
**Range sscan complete. The objectives seem to be free of any lifesigns.**

''Shouldn't there at least be some random scientists running about?''

**I got a baaaad feeling about this...**

++We have located the elevator. I send a trackpoint to you comlogs. If anything goes bogus, retreat point is there.++

While the DEC units carefully crept forward, using every cover they could find, skipping from shadow to shadow, watchfull eyes were observing their approach...

Team Nam slowy advanced, when suddenly hell broke lose.
++Take cover! We are taking fire!++
**So much for "All clear", eh?! Lokks like we gotta do this the dirty way...**
''As if that isn't you fav way...''
++Shut up and concentrate on the objectives! We take the middle and keep 'em busy.++

++Left flank! How's your situation?++
//We are pretty much pinned down. Nothing much we can do here.//
++Alright. Keep your position. Don't let them surprise us from that direction.++
//Roger!//

++Team Hai! Can you give us some visuals on the enemy?++
``Team Hai here. We have trouble with the security system. We have only limited access to the security cams, so, this is the best we can do atm.``

++Team! We have visuals on HIs and REMs and an umbrella! Prepare for heavy resistance!++
**These are not the scientists you would expect! We seem to have a third party here...**
++Right flank! How is your situtation?++
´´I am approaching the objective. Little resistance here.´´
++Let us know, when you got the LHost. We need to take the room ahead. There are two LHosts in there, that is big booty."
The Irregulars, acompanied by a REM and some Bagh Mari moved into position, aiming their guns at the labs door. They were about to jump out of their cover, when a banging sound was to be heard from within the room ahead. For anyone could react, the smoke trailing projectile blasted towards them and exploded in their mids. The com erupted in the agonised screams of the hit. From one second to another the Kaplan Doc hand both hands full of wounded, she immediatly started to attend to.
´´Sil here. I have freed an LHost. He is already fully active. I have send him your way.´´

++Roger that! We are going to pick him up!++
\\Jenn here. When they have to reload, I am going in. It is time that we move... the next rocket will be our last.\\
With these words, the Kaplan Doc gave the Bagh Mari, she just had fixed up, a slap on the helmet and jumped over the boxes, they had been hiding behind. With feline movements, she sprinted towards the laboratories door. A few leaps later, she had reached the console next to the LHost tank.

 
While she was furiously hacking on the consoles keyboard, a shadow in her back became alive.
**Sil! Watch out! There is someone behind you!**
But the Kaplan was not the target of the mysterious shadow.
**Oh no! It is a Killer Haaaaargh!**
With a gurgling sound, the Irregular Hacker fell over, blood pouring from his eyes, ears and mouth.
\\You son a ... \\ The combi rifle kicked in the hands of the Kaplan, while she was unloading a whole magazine in the shadow. WIthout a further noise, the shadow fell to the ground and the ninja was dead.
\\I got another LHost, sending it your way.\\
++Affirmaative. We got two of four. That should be enough for today. Time for the next stage. We need to cover our tracks. Look around, anyone got a terminal near by?++
´´I got one rather close...´´
\\Me too!\\
++Then get there and upload the worm. That should erase all our tracks.++
//No second to soon people. We can't withstand any longer, they are just ma....agh!//
++Left Fank has fallen, we need to move!++
´´Good thinks take time, boy!´´
The Bagh Mari Paramedic started from the box she had been kneeling behind. She quickly reached the terminal and started to work on it feverishly.

\\Okay then, my turn!\\
The Kaplan was pretty much in mid air, when a hulking shadow covered the door right in front of her. She landed on her feet, fell to her knees, rolled over her shoulder and dodged the first shots, the hulking figure fired at her. She came up to her feet again and kept running, ignoring the swooshing ball of fire that was racing towards her. A millisecond before the shockwave took her off her feet and slamed her into the wall, she had plugged the little stick with the computer worm on it into the console.

The last thing she registed, before darkness engulfed her, was the little window that had popped up on the screen saying "Upload Complete".

TMC - Prelude OP: Golem

"Well, well... if this isn't Jonathan "The Lizard" Cassidy!" The disgust was clearly recognizable in the womans voice. Moments ago, she had entered the asigned waiting area of the DEC-Shop and had approached the wallmounted plastic seats with long, striding steps. One of them was occupied by a man, who was wearing a long leather coat, with had looked probably pretty handsome, years ago. He looked up with little interest, a cold cigarello changing from one corner of his mouth to the other.
The woman shook pitying her head. "Yack, if the hire scum like you, they are either pretty desperate or it is going to get really dirty." "Aaand a good day to you too, Jen!"

The air didn't get stale, it was so thick, you could cut it to pieces. And the cigar, someone was smoking, wasn't helping to make it better. A felt eternity ago, the air conditioner had came with a screeching sound to a halt and had taken the last breeze of breathable air with it.
More than a dozen persons, that were cramped into the tiny container, were staring motionless onto the little transportbox in their mid. On top of the box, next to a couple of papers, was a white, ovalshaped object lying. A small diode on its side was constantly emitting a lazy flashing red light.
Suddenly, the lights color turned from red to green, the flashing grew quicker, until it turned into a constant light impuls. The object started to hum softly and the Holo-Projector jumped to life...

 

At first there was only a yellow, octagonal Logo, rotating in mid air. Then, in the middle of the octagon, a face appeared, that was plainly a computer generated face. Without any movement of the lips, a voice was to be heard...

 

 

"Ladies and gentlemen, I am really sorry for the inconvenience of this place." Somewhere in the shadows, someone shallowly coughed in agreement. "But the order situation presses for the highest degree of discretion and who would assume such an illustrious group as yours to be in such a place? Well, I figure you all had time to get to know each other. As you can see, this assignment won't be carried out exclusively by our personel. This assignment, I will illustrate in a minute, is asking for the higher expenses.

But before we carry on, I would like you to check your bank accounts and verify the contract I have send you via your ComLog. Since you have stayed put in this place for such a long time, I assume, that all of you are highly interested in this assignment."

The silence came abrupt. Then, hesitatingly at first, ComLogs of all shapes and kinds were activated. After a few moments an appreciating murmur filled the chamber.
´"Apparently you like what you see. Well then, let's talk about the buisness.

The Company XIn TI is working secretly on an improvement of the LHost Technology. It is not confirmed, but most likely, that ALEPHs research section is involved in this enterprise.

As we havel learned from trustworth sources, the research has reached a point, where the company was able to build a couple of prototypes and they are said to be only steps a way from mass production. Our employer has already put quite some efford and resources into gaining these data and has already tried to obtain the plans of these LHosts himself, with little success.

 

In the end, we could win a employee of Xin Ti for our cause and know now where these LHosts are produced. Since ALPEH can't have a O12 sanction for this enterprise, we assume that only a really small range of individuals outside Xin Ti know about this. We are not sure, how much, if anything at all, of the Yu Jing government knows about this.
 

This is an advantage for us, since we can predict the military resilience of the laboraties, which can't be very high, compared to what it would be, if Yu Jing would be involved to full extent.

 

Your mission, ladies and gentlemen, is to infiltrate the facitlity and brng back as much LHosts as you can. There will be a bonus payment for every secured LHost. Other squads, similiar to yours, are already in place and working on fullfilling previous steps of this plan."

 

 

With this, that face dissapeared and was replaced by a holographic projection of something, that looked like a christmastree upside down. The projection was pale blue and rotated in midair. Two red, blinking octagons appeared on the map and seemed to move slowly, on at the trees trunk and on somewhere further down.

"As you can see, we have already two teams on-site. Team Mots task is to let you in into the complex, without much trouble. Team Hai has switched places with a couple of employees and has infiltrated the security network days ago. Should any alarm ring, they will make sure nothing leaves the complex.

Team Ba, Team Bon and your team, Team Nam all have the same task: get to the designated positions, get the LHosts and bring them to the elevator in the middle of the complex. Team Mot will assure that you will get back to the surface and reach your pick up.

 

For any questions, please turn to SYRA or check your detailed mission briefings on your ComLog.

 

Good hunt, everybody."

 

With a almost unhearable click the projection turned off. Then there was a zisching sound and a thin trail of smoke came from the projection, indicating that all traces had been wiped away.

 

 

With a slight rumble, the freight container was lifted into the air and disappeared next to numberous other containers in the gaping belly of the freighter ship.

 

The Makrinos Chronicles - The Protagonists

Let's have a look at the Protagonists.
The opponents of the story so far have been my H-Logs (follow the lik to the painting thread) against the haqqislamic NOD-Biotech.
With the release of Tonie's Eduardo, I had to start a new army, the DEC (again...linky to paint thread), while my favourite opponent switched to Yu Jings Imperial Service.
 
As a sort of prequel, here the fluff for my DEC

"The Dynamic Execution Corps is two things in one:
A mercenary regiment and a agency.
As a mercenary regiment, we can provide our customers with a wide  range of our own units. From all ranges of Infantry up to our very own TAGs, when simple man power is just not enough, we have for almost any need a suiting answer. Due to our vast transportation system and our numerous supply centres, these units are highly flexible in their use.
If our own units are not the answer to your probelm, one of our many contractors surely will. As an agency, we have a wide range of different contractors in our portfolio, that should cover your every need. All your dealings with the contractors will be done by our agents, so that you simply tell us what you need and we will see to it, that it is done. This way, we can achieve the high degree of anonymity, we are so proud of. The contractors themselves profit from our supply and transportation system, so that they are best equipped for your demands.
For more information, please click here."

Excerpt from a information pack

Available on Arachne and Maya

 

"The DEC is rumored to have connections to the nomad nation. For sure is only known, that it has been hired quite a lot by H-Logs. The origins of the company lay officially in a joint venture of different investors. If you look closely, atleast one of the following names appears  every investing conglomerate: Castor and Pollux.
There is a rumour about these two, whispered in the darkest reaches of arachne. A couple of attemps to uncover the truth of these rumours have lead to nothing, but it still occours in wardriver chats and hacker hangouts: Castor and Pollux are said to be the result of a retribution venture of the black hand. The Balck Hands Hackers were tasked to create a virus, that, injected into an Deva Aspect of Aleph, would seperate the fragment from Alephs consciousness and there destabilze Alephs Immunesystem.  Castor and Pollux are rumoured to e a result of a test run of that virus. The served aspect formed an own identity and fled into the Arachne Net. 
But if this is actually true or just a rumour spreaad by who ever will probably never reach the surface. But one thing, I can tell you for sure... something is reaally wrong with these two and you should pay your dept to the DEC, because they will find you and when they do,  "seperation" might be one of the words used..."

Chat in "Tonie's Badabing"

Silas Ark 

The Society of the Jade Door

 

 

“When there is no desire, all things are at peace.”

― Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching

 

 

The Jade Door is a splinter group of YuJings Imperial Service. All Agents of the Service strive to fight crimes and deviations within YuJings Population. The members of the Jade Door however are believers that in a population of billions with free minds massive deviations from the will of the dragon emperor are inevitable on a scale where only the most extreme can possibly be corrected by the service. Most deviations however, cannot be corrected and will undermine the unity and harmony of the state. Therefore, free minds are by definition unable to from a harmonic state without weakening struggle within and must itself be corrected into a mind that follows only a common will of the society as a whole. Towards this goal, the Jade Door focused on developing advanced brainwashing techniques, cube manipulation and even the construction of own Lhosts with modified brain activities, all to create the perfect citizen for the Yu Jing empire.

 

 

Other groups and officials within the YuJing government declined the beliefs of the society and saw its growth with envy and anxiety. When the Jade Door eventually started experimenting with looted Sepsitors, its enemies allied and started a political cabal to bring the society down. It was accused of deviating from the emperors will themselves, neglecting their primal mandate to hunt down criminals and betraying humanity by using alien voodootech. Only the reluctance of the emperor to publicly expose the service as divided and quarreled saved the participating agents from dishonorable discharge and prosecution. The Society itself however was prohibited and its activities ceased.

 

 

 

In the following months, several officials within the governemtn who accused the society disappeared without a trace or died in tragic accidents. Those who remain only dare to whisper an outrageous suspicion: That a part of the Jade Door still exist in the shadows, using confiscated funds, roque personnel and hidden black sites to continue their quest for ultimate power over the human mind.  

The Makrinos System

Before we start, I want to fill you in about the system our story takes part in.

The Makrinos System
This small start system was found in the human edge, widely considdered as unimportant point on the star map. Next to some unmapped planets of little interest, the system has 3 habitable planets, Dagan, Silas Ark and Ereskigal. Further more the suns gravitaion keeps a rather thick asteriod belt around the system.
Though being rather out of focus, the hyperpowers and their little challengers all have their hands in this system.
 
Dagan
Dagan was the second planet to be colonialised. Due to the short distance to the sun, icecaps never appeared, so that almost 85% of the planets surface is covered in water. Geological examinations on Silas Ark give a hint to a cosmological catastrophe, that have on the one hand provided Silas Ark with enormous amounts of minerals and metals and Dagan with all the ingredients you need to get an impossible amount of water.
 
Silas Ark
The planets name originates from its explorator Akely Silas. The surname "Ark" came later and is actually misleading. What is meant with the Ark is the geostational space station that lies like a ring around the planet. If you are staanding on the planets surface you can't see the ring, you just see half a ring, an ark, spaning from one horizont to the other. This space station was build by the mining factories, that raided the planet of its minerals and metals. In a "gold-rush" all these companies fell upon the planets surface, dug into it like maggots into a ripe apple. The Ark was build to speed up the logisitcal processes. The ores, minerals and metals could be easily loaded up to the vast space ships, that hurried with swollen bellies out of the system.
When all the riches had been harvested, the companies pulled back as quickly leaving as they had come. With all the money and aall the wealth gone, Silas Ark was left to its self. Mining is still an important factor on the planet and has become part of almost any cultural, political and social aspect. But with the Mining Companies loosing their impact on everything, other branches of commercialism took root.
 
Ereskigal 
Ereskigal consists of the extreme of light and shadow. Since it is the last in line of the planets, its surface is cast into deep shadows most of the time. There are only short periods of light, when non of the other celestial bodies hide it from the systems sun. Due to this, farming is not a big thing and most of the food has to be imported from the hydro-farms of Dagan. In exchange most of the systems tertiary sector houses on Ereskigal. Banks, Servervaults, Labs and their likes bath the cities in their neon lights and create days without night.

Photobucket f*** Up

Hey everyone!

In chase, there are still people craashing here...

you might have noticed, that all the pictures liked to the photobucket host, have gone.

That is due to Photobucket being a massive "yerk" and the work of ages has gone for good.

I will try to relocate all the Images to another host and repost them, so the posts work again.

If you don't want to wait that long, shoot me a mail @ gorsky83 (at)  googlemail.com so I can provide you quicker witht he images.

Until then!

Silas Ark Bases

Greetings everybody!

Today I have a shorty for you.


When I left the grim dark skull-encrusted future, I also left the sand-glued-on bases basings. Not that there is anything wrong with them, but I felt the change should be also seen on the ground. In addittion to that, I left 40k for Sedition Wars, which was coming with loads of beautifull pre-done bases. SInce I didn't stop with on set of the game, but several, I had plenty miniatures I didn't actaully need for the game and plenty of left over bases.

So, when I switched to Infinity, I didn't had to worry about cool base design, I already owned loads of them. But even the biggest depots come eventually to an end and so did my SW bases. 
There fore I have started to look for alternatives and one of them I want to show you today.
This shall not be a review, so, no tentacles today, but I hope to give you a little insight on this product.

I am talking about the Warsenal Tunguska Bases

  Since I haven't found any unpainted pictures of the bases, I was really excited to learn on how theres are going to work.

And I was quite surprised to find this:

On the one side, you have the bottom plate, including a neat Idea, I will show you later. The other side is textured.

To give you a better idea on how they are, I have put them next to a standard base from CB, a base from Sedition Wars and a Lazaretto Base from Antenocities Workshop , bases, I have already used. I really like them, but they don't give much of variation.

As you can see, the clue with the Tunguska bases is, they have pretty much half the height of a normal base. So when you glue the two parts together, you get the height of a normal base.

And here we have the only problem I am having with the bases...

Even with sanding, it is close to impossible to get the glue line gone, without using putty. I have applyied super glue gel richly and tried to cover up the gap with that a bit, but it still stands out pretty much.

I decided to accept this minor nack, since you get quite a lot for it. As you can see the details don't stand out that much as they do on the other bases. On the other hand, the texture suggests that more of a space ship feeling anyhow, where flat surfaces are to be expected. Another bonus is, that you get 10 different designs. I was expecting that they had made 5 designs and sold them just twice, but, no sir... 10 individual bases.
And...
The hole in the bottom layer of the base...

...is perfect for the 3mm magnets I am using. Surely there are magnets out there that fit completly. But I am happy with what I have here :)


So, now the real test was on: Would the lasered in lines would disappear under to much paint?
As with my other bases, they got a coat of brown from the can.

And, tadaaa, the lines are still there. If you were going for a clean look, you could add some highlight, pick out the details and would be good to go.

As I have shown elsewhere already, I apply a mix of watered down orange and orange pigments...

soak them in that mix...

apply some liquid mask with a sponge...

add the blue I am using (the three on the left side) and rub away the mask (on the right side)

...and get some bases that only need some details and are good to go.

Put aside with other bases, you hardly see the difference.
All in all I have to say they blend in really well with the others, as you can see here:

See you next time!