DarthTex

The battle on base was over, but Mitth was in a sorry shape. The corpsman just patched him up with some bacta and painkillers, but he was still determined to organize the evacuation of the base. I was now in charge of finding casualties and ferreting out spies and stragglers. "General", the Sergeant called lowly while looking over his shoulder, "the Admiral just gave the order to shutdown the YVH's, but your painted YVH's are still operational. Do you think they've been taken over?" "It's OK Sergeant. The Admiral's orders only affect the YVH's assigned to his base. The 'Tex' YVH's are under my command. We can't have every single YVH controlled by a single person, or the enemy may find a way to take control from us. When we get back to the hangar I'll shut them down there. I don't want to leave my YVH's sitting around collecting dust. Let's work our way back to the maintenance hangar and then we'll organize our task." Several minutes later the Admiral contacted me; I'm now in charge of the base evacuation as the Admiral is going to meet with some Grand Moff of the Empire. 'The Empire' ... I hate those words. They equate to deceit, jealousy, arrogance and pain. This I've personally learned; they're not to be trusted. But I've got a task to accomplish, and quickly. My thoughts are starting to become pre-occupied with the future ... "Control. This is DarthTex, what's your status?" "We're still secure here, sir. Shuttles are arriving for the evacuation, and they should be complete before the base becomes un-inhabitable since Life Support is out." "Very well. Stay put until I personally come to relieve you. Get ready to put all systems into "maintenance" mode when I arrive. I want everything ready to button up in a moment's notice." "Yes, sir. Control out'" ************************************ Once at the maintenance hangar, I sent out score's of teams to sweep the base for casualties and enemy forces. Bringing in the wounded and base personnel were top priority. Enemy forces would be eliminated as necessary. I've sent several combat engineers out with the teams; after each room was searched for survivors or adversaries, the room doors were spot welded shut. I didn't want any enemy forces hiding in previously searched areas. All YVH's and their parts were being collected and piled up in the maintenance recycle bin, where they'll be slagged down into raw material. All corridor junctions had manned checkpoints, and the base was quickly coming under complete control. Several engineers had temporarily "jury rigged" Life Support giving us some extra time if needed, but it requires constant fixing. The unit was a mess and needs a total replacement. Things were moving like clock work, and I felt superfluous. I estimate it will take another hour for the evacuation to be complete. It was time for me to head out. "Sergeant", I called. "Get a couple of men and some of the combat engineers. We're heading over to Control." "Yes sir General." The corridors were a hive of activity as personnel, wounded and YVH droids and parts were moving down the corridor. A light smoke hung in the air with the smell of burnt metal and such. Most was from the base doors being welded shut, but there was also the tint of blaster burns from combat. We moved aside as another group of corpsmen with wounded went by. It was then I had this nagging itchy feeling. "Corpsman, halt. What's happened here?" "Uh, this is Corporal Greene, sir. We found him bandaged up, waiting in the corridor for transport off base. His blaster overloaded and blew up in his face. His identity checks out with Control." "It does, does it? OK. Corporal Greene, how are you doing?" "Alright sir", the corporal responded from the bandaged head. "It feels like I had my face sucked off by a Mynock though." "How long have you been a trooper son?" I asked subtlety moving my fingers. "Just over ten years, sir." "That's nice, a career man it seems. Since the training academy was destroyed on Carida, where did you do your training?" again my fingers were subtlety in motion. "I was too young to go to Carida, sir. I trained on Bastion." "Thanks Corporal. Corpsman, make sure you get a DNA or retinal ID on all personnel who can't be visually identified by several other legitimate base personnel. And lock up 'Corporal Greene' as a Zoot spy." The 'corporal' was being escorted away by a couple of troopers as we made our way back toward Control. I tried to contact Mitth to give him a status on the evacuation, but he was still meeting with the Grand Moff. I left a message with Captain Harsh. It didn't take too much longer before we were outside the secured entry of Base Control. "Control, this is DarthTex. I'm just outside the entry, open the door." "Yes, sir. Just provide your clearance identification first." "OK. Which would you like, my lightsaber through the door, or TX1836 Rusty Spur?" "Yes, sir. I prefer the latter, sir." The doors parted open, well actually it was several layered doors. Control was on top of things, and everything was ready to go. "Set base shutdown for one hour fifteen minutes, that should be plenty of time. Have the base warning sound off for 10 seconds after an hour, then twice more at five minute intervals, and every minute thereafter. Tell the engineers down at Life Support to head out at the first warning." "General, we have a message from Captain Harsh that the Admiral's meeting has finished." I went to one of the secure comm. stations and contacted the Admiral. After a brief conversation, my task here was complete, and I was to be on my way to meet with Mitth. This next task would prove to be more challenging. "Is everything ready to go?" I asked. "Yes General. Anything else?" "Yeah, make sure the Control door is secure when we leave, and don't forget to turn off the lights." ***************************************** The way back through the base, and the trip up to Home Two was uneventful. The ship itself was something else, like a typical Mon Cal design, just on steroids ... lots of them. There was an escort waiting to taking me to Mitth's office, using the Admiral's private lift no less. The Admiral and I had a brief meeting regarding upcoming events with The Empire; then it was off for Mitth's training with "The Force". The training room was round in shape, approximately 15 meters in diameter and 5 meters high. The floor and ceiling were concave shaped, with recessed lighting in concentric circles. There were no windows, and if there were any other doors they were concealed to look like the walls. The room was very quiet, sound and vibration isolated from the rest of the ship. The Admiral led me over to a small control console built into one of the wall panels. I brought up a setup screen and quickly browsed the training room capabilities. "Admiral, if you would take a seat in the center of the room on the floor. Get as comfortable as you can. This first exercise will be about using the Force to explore and probe your environment. Your eyes can deceive you and the enemy will try to confuse you, but the Force sees all. Close your eyes." With that all of the lights went out. "Feel the Force inside of you and focus on it. Use it to see through your 'mind's eye' what is around you." After a push of a button, several training drones floated through the room. "What do you see here in the room Mitth?" "Other than you, I sense five drones flitting about the room" "Very good. Now, push your view further out, out into the ship. The further you look out from your location, the more your mind will see. The information grows exponentially. At some point your mind will become saturated with the amount of information you have. Use the Force now as a 'filter' to look for specific items, people or things. What is Captain Harsh currently doing?" "The Captain is standing with an ensign, reviewing damage reports and such." "Good Mitth. Now, focus your thoughts on 'danger'. Don't go all paranoid, as you'll be completely blinded by everything around you. You know you're safe on your ship, so just concentrate on the here and now." After a couple of minutes, one of the training drones made an attack near Mitth with a stun shot. This was followed by several other shots, all coming close but never hitting the Admiral. "Did you 'see' the training drones attacking you Mitth?" "Yes. Even before they shot, I knew which drone would shot and where. It was like … watching a re-run of a show, knowing what's going to happen before it even happens. Almost sort of like … déjà vu." "Good. Let the Force guide you, filtering out the non-important and focusing on your immediate needs. Now, stand in the center of the room and open your eyes." I manipulated the room controls dropping the floor. The room transformed into a pit of concentric rings, with 1 meter wide rings 1 meter below the next; Mitth stood at the bottom looking up. "Your task is to make it to the top ring without being shot by the training drones. You may only advance up 1 ring at a time, and with each hit you must descend down 1 ring level. I'll time you … begin." It took Mitth several tries before finally making it to the top. After a brief rest at the top, and between breaths he asked, "So, … how long … did I … take?" "I didn't bother with timing you Mitth. The 'time' wasn't important, but it served as a motivation to get your best performance. I know you're still quite sore and in need of some rest, so just a few more exercises before we call it the day. Now, this time work your way to the bottom. But this time, with the lights out", I said with a smirk as the lights flicked off. "Oh boy", was the only words muttered before the discharge of stun bolts began to fill the air. The lessons continued on for the next couple of days starting out basically the same, but progressing with advanced techniques and more complex tasks. Mitth was proving to be an exceptional learner, but unfortunately there would be no time to hone his skills. They would more than likely be put to the test in direct combat. He would survive or he would die; my bet would be on the former. The next coming lessons would be more complicated and more intensive than before, and … much more dangerous. I carefully had to plan these, Mitth's life and many others depended on it.

I respect everybody's opinion J (I might not necessarily understand it though ). Please remember the United States of America is a "republic" and NOT a "democracy" in the true sense of the word. Let me put down a little foundation work: I believe Republicans want a small, but strong central government. The Federal government should be responsible for items that affect the nation as a whole (i.e. national defense, national transportation regulation, etc), and all other matters should be governed by the states (i.e. legal drinking ages, drivers licenses, etc). Basically people should be responsible for themselves (as much as they possibly and legally can) and NOT have the Federal government be their legal guardians (for lack of a better term, not exactly as "wards of the state" so to speak). The Democratic party (which believes in BIG government, with lots of bureuacracy) wants to give away tax dollars to "help" every single citizen live their lives exactly equal to everyone else (or as close as possible). They want to "help" everyone, so then "everyone" will then vote them back into office (so they can continue to "help" the people). Which sounds nice, at least on paper; because really all Democrats want is power, and money! They are really doing it for themselves and NOT for the people (that's just an excuse). If you check, there are more millionaire Democrats in office than Republican; with most Republicans being millionaires before they got into office and more Democrats becoming millionaires while in office. Sounds like something pretty fishy is going on if you ask me As an appropriate example, the US Social Security system is a gigantic ponzi scam that should be totally reworked from the bottom up. Basically it gives away taxes dollars of future generations to pay for those here and now (retirement funds and disability funds). They expect Social Security to "payout" more benefits than money "coming in" in ~20 years, and go broke" in 35 years. So, poor ol' Tofu is going to be paying about 8% of his future gross earnings until the day he "retires", but in all likely hood will never collect a cent back. That really sucks (especially if I was Tofu, which I'm definitely glad I'm NOT ). Social Security has generated a whole generation of "welfare" families. Consider: if you were "disabled" (even temporarily, let's say several months long) you can collect Social Security disability benefits. If you could get half your pay, and NOT have to work again another day in your life, would you go back to work? When poor income families receive welfare benefits based on the size of their families, is it right for the mom's to "pump-out" more kids just to get a bigger check? How on earth did America survive prior to Social Security? With hard work, and strong family/community ties, that's how. They fended for themselves as much as possible, and would only ask for "help" begrudgingly (some will even refuse help because of their pride). So basically that's why I'm a Republican. I like alot less government interference with my life (especially my tax money), and I want my "local" representatives to make good decisions for me, instead of some "local" in another state when that law gets plastered on everyone whether or not is acutally applies. Stand up on your own two feet people! We're human beings, not pets! I guess that's the end of my conservative rant. I'm sure I missed several things, maybe gotten others confused, and ... there all always exceptions. Everything needs to be looked at on a case by case basis, because there isn't a one single "fix-all". Presidents never say "never" - Ronald Reagan

Okay, I did a little fooling around with this same file (CMUNEFTB.DAT), which generates the Imperial starting fleet at Coruscant, and I have made some interesting progress. I have figured out how to add more ships (all of the same type though) and more units on them (starfighters and troops). Basically I used a hex editor to change numbers here and there, started up the game and checked on what happened (or not). Check the image below for details ... http://img340.imageshack.us/img340/4383/dataforcmuneftbiq7.th.jpg (to actually read the info, click to enlarge) I hope this helps out some people, it'll definitely make the game more interesting now The next item I'll try to find out (about this same file) is if it's possible to add more than one type of ship PS Thanks to Terran for piqueing my curiosity

I thought Gingrich (sp) was dead!!! Nope, he's alive and kickin'

I was thinking the same thing Rob Dose Sinco That's a better laugh than the comic! Thanks for the laughs Tofu! I will give you that; and keep up the work on the comic

Rob got it, John McCain. McCain is a retired Navy pilot with experience from the Vietnam War. Unfortunately I think he's a bit "touched" in the head. He's probably the most liberal Republican you can get without actually being called a ... Democrat Even Rudy has liberal tendencies . Maybe Newt will drop his hat in the ring; that would be more favorable to me. Oooww, even better ... Ollie North Hoozah!! just my two bits worth

I don't see a problem with that

Get your Hillary 2008 bumper stickers here! Both Democrats and Republicans will want this one! Please make sure you read the installation instructions! http://img133.imageshack.us/img133/5356/hillary2008su3.jpg I'm a Republican

Yeah, like this ... http://img67.imageshack.us/img67/8205/balrogscreenshotgp3.jpg Too bad that real life isn't exciting enough for Hollywood

Never! Never! Well, not until at least Vista is in full bloom and XP is on the road to obsolescence

I believe if you hold the key while "right clicking" your nav points, this will create a "trail" the ship/fleet/fighter(s) will follow. But, just one word of warning when using the nav points: according to the manual, ships enroute using the nav points won't fire on enemy ships until they complete their maneuvers! So, don't make them sitting ducks

Actually it was the Persian army (the Prussians come two thousand years later..finger error Rob? ) at Thermopylae, and the all the Spartans were killed along with their king standing steadfast against 400,000, fulfilling a Delphic prophecy that either a Spartan king would be killed or their homeland laid waste. Film looks entertaining Exactly what I thought .... Prussians? What's next the Red Army vs the Incans? Thanks for the (typo) laugh Rob I've already saw the movie The 300 Spartans (made in 1962 ) The 300 looks like the original movie remade by The Matrix. It still looks interesting though

Did you do the full install? This uses up more hard disk space for storage, but has all of the files neatly placed for access by both RebEd and Rebellion. Also, I believe there is a known bug of trying to look at new imported 3D models using RebEd, which causes it to crash. So, don't do that Good Luck!

I remember using some of them on my Win95b machine I used that until just a couple of years ago when I finally switched over to 2000. I wonder if those would work for 98?

I uploaded several cards last year for my Rebel Uprising game, but all was lost in the Great Crash. One of these days I plan to re-upload them, but I guess I'll wait until everything is up and running (correctly?). Some of the cards I uploaded last time were: John Wayne Mr. Spock Gandalf the White Snake Plissken (Kurt Russell-Escape from NY) Jack O'Neill (Stargate SG-1) Peter Quincy Taggert (Tim Allen-Galaxy Quest) James T. Kirk Tom 'Iceman" Kazanski (Val Kilmer-Top Gun) These were all cards I made, plus I swapped out another dozen or so characters for others for my game.

Well, first of all: I think the clones have the same thing only because Boba Fett had it (you know, copy the original trilogy stuff, and backward place it in the prequels, for continuity without any real reason). Second, I think it's a periscope like R2 used in the swamp on Dagobah. The picture you show with it "lowered" in ESB, is actually a blooper when it got knocked down. Good find! just kidding. My guess, it's some kind of sensor, but who knows. Anybody have one of them techno-babble books describing SW dohickey's and thingacombobs? (and yes, those are technical terms )

Sorry to hear that Rob, but my transportation can go just about anywhere, anytime; mostly because it has four hoof drive (I didn't say it was fast though)

I take it you understand the allusion, Tex? It is good to converse with you fellows again. Yes SOCL, I understand I like it when people are witty and an old coot like me can relate

Of course they have a cure for AIDS Tofu, they are a fanatical fundementalist Islamic state headed by a whacko (NOT Waco: way-co, as in Waco, TX ) : the cure is called - decapitation Not quite the cure the rest of us would think of, or want As for North Korea ... I'll believe it when it actually happens (permanently).

On the contrary SOCL; it was more important than you realize. First you got to express your opinion (which many people in this world can't or won't); secondly nobody berated you, beat you or killed you for an opinion not the same as theirs (there are some that will contradict or argue with you though. Right Tofu?). I'd say that your comments are worth more than the sum of the words you ... typed Have a good day, everyone!

After that Mad, try Spanish; it should be a breeze since it's similar to Italian

Here you go K ... http://img125.imageshack.us/img125/6041/darthvadercookieslu1.jpg Enjoy!

Another problem for hydrogen ... fuel storage in the vehicle ... remember the Hindenburg! The number of fatalities due to car accidents would skyrocket! Electric vehicles are the way to go; there just needs to be an infrastructure to support it, and some way to get rapid recharges or rapid battery swaps. Of course all of the increased electrical use would have to be generated by fusion power. Of course that's proving to be a bit elusive too, although it is "clean" power (there are no highly radioactive wastes).

(*** sounds of foot tapping on floor & fingers drumming on table top, as I think to myself ***) Hmmm, it's been a whole week ... no response from Def. Not even an "Oh, I totally forgot. Give me a couple of days, whatever". Well, he did say something of nothing in the "Movie Theatre" thread ... sorta. Waiting ... Waiting ... Come on Def, where you at? ... Waiting ... ...