Defender_16

http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h293/Defender_16/Motivational/planb.jpg http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h293/Defender_16/Motivational/planc.jpg http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h293/Defender_16/Motivational/poster-ninja.jpg Don't think that'll pull a car and two cranes out of a harbour though.

(EDIT: Work please you stupid link.) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gryphon_(parachute_system) The Gryphon parachute system!

(It's time for my favourite word.) Indeed. Most of the ones you've posted so far Budious are ones I intentionally chose not to post. http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h293/Defender_16/Motivational/nuke_the_site_from_orbit.jpg http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h293/Defender_16/Motivational/motivator-planning.jpg http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h293/Defender_16/Motivational/motivatorCropcircles.jpg

I meant to post a link to this.

I decided at long last that this DID belong in the motivational thread more than the animated gif thread. http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h293/Defender_16/Motivational/Motivational-TokyoDrift-anim.gif EDIT: S.O.B. photobucket shrunk the picture.

Uh Budious let's try to keep things PG-13 here kay? *Cough*Change image to link*Cough* Attack of the Minesweeper Good idea, Bad idea Speak Friend and enter EDIT: I had to post this or I'd forget to do it later. The Two Towers for NES

In response to your earlier question Mad, most pirates go for whatever they can steal. They're even more opportunistic than Rebels in that regard. Most groups seems to gravitate towards either a Dreadnaught or Nebulon B Frigate as the largest ship in their fleet and then bulk up with heavily modified freighters and perhaps a Corellian Gunship or Corvette. Though that was that one pirate that had a Carrack Cruiser... Sorry Mad, Pirates just don't normally have the support necessary to build their own ships from scratch. Hey... what about those Taipani Assault Frigates though? (Spelling is off, have to go to work or I'd get the the Wookiepedia link.)

it's ok Tofu, I hadn't posted that last one yet. I was saving it for a sufficiently epic situation. http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h293/Defender_16/Motivational/motivator_python.jpg http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h293/Defender_16/Motivational/motivator_math.jpg http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h293/Defender_16/Motivational/Napalm.jpg

Division by zero

http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h293/Defender_16/Motivational/Motivational-1180589254635.jpg http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h293/Defender_16/Motivational/motivatorPA-Sorceror.jpg http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h293/Defender_16/Motivational/motivaterule34.jpg

http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h293/Defender_16/Motivational/motivator931c879e7bd2465820d95.jpg http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h293/Defender_16/Motivational/motivator6499ba87fc359c788925a.jpg http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h293/Defender_16/Motivational/motivator3ce6db8bd75c7c671f07d91ff6.jpg

Oh man! That was on my list of classic ones to upload but now must not. I misplaced my jump drive and realised earlier today I hadn't added anything to this thread in awhile. http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h293/Defender_16/Motivational/l19467vl.jpg http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h293/Defender_16/Motivational/motivateadventure0ki.jpg http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h293/Defender_16/Motivational/motivatevin2hc.jpg

This could definitely come in handy.

That 11 year old girl was tall enough to drive? lol Not everything switched over to metric properly. Accidental breakage

"Don't tell me you've never heard of hang gliding before?" "Never came up in conversation before. Why is it dangerous?" Dian spoke up from the back seat. "Well you two have a good time with that I'll just climb out this back window." The green haired hacker started looing for ways to detach the piece of Aluglass that made up the rear of the vehicle. "Stop that!" Velsa shouted over her shoulder. "This is a rental, and hang gliding on Esson is very safe. I tried it durring one of my first tours of duty." "I still have no idea what it is." "You'll see in a second." They turned onto a high speed roadway headed south west of the main city. This entire resort was built on an enormous extinct volcanoe that had mostly sunken into the ocean hundreds of years ago. The main resort was built on the North Island which curved arround to the East and West. As they picked up speed they could see that this roadway followed the curve of the island for the most part. The furtheur along the curve it went, the highter the road seemed to go. The gentle slope curved up and then almost straight to the top a tall hill... where the road seemed to end in mid air. Instead of slowing down Velsa increased speed. "Ah Velsa?" "Yes sir... er Alex?" She didn't seem in the least bit concerned. "You do see that gap at the end of the roadway right?" "No. There isn't any gap." Alex looked back at Dian, who seemed frozen with fear. "Ok Lieutenant, jokes over you can stop the car now. " The road narrowed to two lanes. "If I did that we'd be hit by the car behind us. " Looking first to Velsa and then the end of the road speeding closer he said over his shoulder. "Better strap in tight Dian." Then matched actions to words and tightend his straps. The car flashed past the end of the road way but didn't fall. Seconds later Velsa adjusted a control knob on the dash and a bluish almost crystal looking structure appeared beneath them. "Sorry I forgot to set the windows to show the roadway." Dian inhaled loudly and Alex felt his breathing return to normal. "Holographic roadway." said Velsa guessing his question. "It leads to a floating platform a few thousand meers up. See it over there?" Looking to the left in the direction she was pointing he could see a large platform hovering some 3000m above the submerged southern section of the crater wall. "What is it?" "It's a jump platform. You jump from the outer edge of the platform and glide down to water level. If you can find out where the thermals are you can stay aloft a whole afternoon." "Thermals?" "They'll explain everything when we get there." She glanced back. "Dian are you going?" "No I think I'll watch from the ground. You two can go ahead." "Nice try mister but you are staying under survielance." Quipped Alex. "I'll keep an eye on him while you try it out then sir." The roadway began to curve toward the platform. Up ahead could bee seen several large spirals underneath the platform as the roadway continued upward. "Just wondering but what happens if the roadway fails?" "The local cars have a built in emergency repulsor system that will lower them to the ground at a safe speed." "I should have noticed that." Grumbled Dian. "If I had, I wouldn't have gotten scared over the road ending." Minutes later they followed the spiral up and into the parking garage, then headed off towards the main entrance. The large indoor area was bustling with people of all walks and species. Vesla signed Alex up for hang gliding lessons then returned a moment later with a ticket and a thick square of folded material. "Here's you ticket and a personal effects bag to put your stuff in. We'll meet you up on the deck before you jump." Wishing him luck the two younger pilots headed off in the direction of the heaviest traffic. Checking his ticket, Alex headed off in the direction of the orange coloured gate. The attendant cheched his ticket and he was allowed to step through a size scanner to beore being handed a rescue orange colour jumpsuit. Next along this hall were changing stalls of varrying size which he took the opportunity to use. A few minutes later he walked through the next door while tightening some of the adjustable arm straps. An attendant was waiting and directed him furthur into the room toward the left side. Both sides of the room each had several small slightly raised platforms. When no one else entered after him the attendant walked over. "We might as well start, it's the slow part of the day right now." Alex put down his personal effects bag by the wall. "Don't you want that in a locker, or put on a transit shuttle to take it down to the recovery area?" "No." he responded "I want this in sight until it's time to jump. A uh.. friend of mine is going to pick it up before I jump. " "Ok." The attendant shruged then moved off the the laft a bit. "This is a forty minute flight training tutorial system to familiarize yourself with the standard hang glider. " The attendant gestured toward one of the three circular raised platforms on this side of the room. "Please step onto the Holo pad." He stepped up onto the pad and was instantly in open air several thousand meters above the ground. Atleast that's what it looked like. What he assumed was the hang glider appeared above him. "Let me give you a hand with that." The assistant appeard out of thin air, stepping through the holographic illusion. "There is an attachment point on the back of your suit that hooks onto the frame about one meter back from the handles." With help he attached himself to the unlikely looking contraption. "Ok good. Now, put one hand on either side of the handle bars and try to straighten your legs out so that they point out behind you." "Like this?" Alex asked leaning forward and pointing his legs straight back letting the attachemnt in the back of his suit hold him up. "Good. Ok, you keep your legs out behind you for two reasons; Balance and wind resistance, or drag. You can shift your weight from forward and backward to adjust your flight angle. Lean left or right to bank and turn. Sound simple enough? " "About as straightforward as I like it. " "Now, do you know what thermals are?" "A friend of mine was telling me about them a bit." "Well here on Esson we have both natural and artificial thermals. Thermals are columns of rising hot air that allow you to climb to higher altitudes. The natural ones are erratic at best and vary through the seasons, so we made several of our own using the Holo technology that is so abundant here. "There are artificial ones at various altitudes that allow you to climb back up to the same altitude as the main Platform. Some of the staff here use both types of thermals to get above the platform some times." The attendant unpaused the tutorial program and allowed Alex to fly arround the simulated skies for a few minutes and every now and then would ask him to turn the glider this way and that to make sure that he had the basics down. After awhile Alex turned to where he guessed the attendant was behind the projection and asked, "Can I do a barrel roll in one of these?" She chuckled and smiled to herself. "I think you should just keep to the basics while you're out there. Don't overdo it on your first flight in one of these, just enjoy the flight." +++ "I think that you are ready for the real thing. Remember to stay alert for wind gusts." "Thank you that was a really helpfull tutorial." They headed up a set of stairs that ended at two swinging doors leading out onto one of the main jump decks of the platform. As they stepped out the doors another person wearing an instructors outfit handed Alex an armband marking him as a jumper, not one of the many tourists on deck. Off to the left were Dian and Velsa leaning against the railing of a deck over looking the jump area. Waving to them the pair descended a nearby ramp and came over. The attendant pointed Alex over to a parked hang glider where another instructor was waiting. "So this is your first jump?" Asked the thin, weathered looking man. "Yep." "Ok. I see you have your personal effects bag with you. Do you have anything else to put in it before giving it to your friends?" "Yean just a couple of things I didn't want to get lost." He then proceded to remove a half dozen concealed weapons and placed them in the bag, followed by a thin but heavy looking flack vest. "I have permits for those weapons before you ask." Alex turned to Dian. "Here could you take this bag for me? Oh and-" Alex leaned in close, "You are not to open that bag unless there is a serious emergency, hear me?" "Yes Sir!" Shouted the green haired young man and tried his best to stand at attention. He picked up the bag and moved off, clearly muttering "Dear God what all does he have in here, it weighs more than my ship..." "We'll see you on the ground Commander." Said Velsa, throwing a mock salute and heading off after Dian. "If you could come over here I'll get you hooked in an ready to go." said the old instructor. He attached the connection to the back of his suit just like in the simulator than walked over to a clear wall facing out into air. Touching a button the wall became a platform extending out a handful of meters over open air. "This is one of the actual jump platforms. The idea is that you walk out onto it, and I turn it off causing you to fall and immedialy begin gliding." "Oh... is there another option?" "Well what some people do is extend the platform enough for them to run and jump off the end." "I thinking I like the second option. Atleast that way it feels more like I'm doing it intentionally." The instructor took a moment to get hold of an overwatch flight to let them know a novice jumper would launch soon. Seconds later he gave Alex the all clear. "Anytime you're ready kid." Alex started thinking to himself that 'kid' was ususally how he addressed most of his pilots. Lifting up the glider by it's handle bar he started walking out onto to platform. In the last few meters he picked up speed and jumped at the very end. "Here.. I.. GOooooo!" (Written and © Aug 2nd 2005. Revised Sept 12th 2005 )

And dont forget those Merc's in Sin City. The part with Clive Owen in it. http://imagecache2.allposters.com/images/pic/PF_NEW%5C08_22_2005_A/PF_1178816~Sin-City-Clive-Owen-Advance-Posters.jpg Hey, I'm half Irish and I've got the temper to prove it! (I'm also half Dutch, that means I'm stubborn and short temperd... not that both halves of my family didn't already have those things in addundance.)

Double post for the agravation. ...ok it was working for Php based forums but now it's doing the exact same thing as before... but in my windows programs! I can't write stories like this! *Inarticulate scream of rage*

*Guy at work singing a slightly familiar tune* Me: What.... just what are you singing now? Guy: It's the holly dolly song! duh! Me: .... Me: are you sure thats not Loituma you're singing? Guy: wtf is a Liturarma? http://eddddie.googlepages.com/facepalm.jpg Random Facepalm

( Setting: Deep space, some 9 years after the start of Dyson: Journey ) http:// 2kinds. com/ forum/ viewtopic. php?t=1337 Hey, you checked here? Then look at my topic number for that forum! IT was Leet! muahaha. Dyson: Third Dark War: Shore Leave on Esson A tear in subspace opened above the planet of Esson sending out a rainbow of colours in all directions. Thousands of meters worth of metal and armour flashed out as a massive starship reverted to real space. Two seconds later the planetary defense net detected the ship and hailed it. "This is Esson planetary defense to incoming super heavy cruiser, please identify yourself." After a moment of delay the ship responded to the query. "This is the ACC Storm Hawk inbound. Permission to enter orbit. We would like to request military leave visas for the crew." Several second passed then they recieved a data stream from the planet directing them to enter geostationary orbit. Captain Jed Enright, a Terran in his late thirties, turned to his first officer, a Kavarian woman who looked older than most mountain ranges. "They didn't ask very many questions before letting us into orbit." "Do you blame them? We're less than a days travel from the border. If it wern't for all of the ships that came here for leave they would have been wiped out years ago." "True." The captain sighed to himself. "I suppose we had better get to it then. Begin organizing leave parties Commander. I wan't all of our secondary personnel taken care of first then the primary." "Aye sir." + + + It was a day later and the captain sat in his office reading performance reports. The moment he'd been dreading since they entered orbit was fast approaching. The door to his office chimed right on cue. "Come." The door parted to reveal the heavily scarred face of Major Alexander Valient. The commander of three of the Carrier's corvette squadrons was a well known workaholic who could turn the worst squadrons into line units in weeks. Rumor going arround the ship had it that he had been in special forces before becoming a pilot. "Welcome Major, I was expecting you. " "Sir?" The Major also tended to be conservative with words unless it was something he enjoyed talking about. "You're here to try and convince me not to send you on leave." "Yes sir. I was hoping to spend the time setting up some new simulations for my pilots when they return." Enright sighed to himself and called up the Major's record. "It says here that in the two years since you joined the pilot corps you've barely taken a day of leave time. The only extended period away from the ships or simulators was two weeks in a medical ward after an assassination attempt." "That's part of the reason tha-" "Major Valient." "Yes sir?" "Major you are going on leave and that is final." When the major seemed to hesitate a moment he added, "Do I have to make that an order?" He didn't look happy. That wasn't his problem. The only other option he had was to disobey orders and according to his record that wouldn't happen any time soon. "No sir." Both saluted and the Major let himself out. + + + Three hours later in civillian dress Alex sat in the passenger seat of a ground vehicle with the other two pilots of his flight; Velsa and Dian. The palm trees and fancy looking hotels of the beach resort flashing past on either side. Dian leaned forward from the back seat to talk to Alex. "Aww come on Commander, it can't be that bad going on a vacation." Dian had joined the service arround the same time as Alex but had gotten into trouble hacking into secure databanks. Fleet Intelligence had eventually caught him washing huge sums of money though false accounts, landing him in the brig for six months. As part of his probation he was to be kept under survielance by another member of the squadron at all times. His long hair seemed to be dyed a permanent emerald green, which, combined with the pointed ears, made him stand out in any crowed. "Yes it can be that bad. Every time I try to go on leave somone tries to assassinate me!" "That's what happens when you've got an enemy death mark on you boss." Said Velsa, who sat at the wheel of thier vehicle. "They send people to kill you. " Velsa was a veteran pilot and had been first assigned to the front before Alex even joined the Military. She was something of a hero figure in her homeland on one of the worlds of the Dominion, as evidenced by the gold metal band she wore on her forehead. Her career had taken a turn for the worse after geting shot down three years ago, ending her lucky streak. Eventually she had ended up in his unit of misfits. "You could always tell US what you did in Black Ops to get an enemy Death Mark." "I was NOT in Black Ops you two. That's just rumor going arround the ship." "Well anyways don't worry, because today we are going some place enemy spies would never look for you." said Velsa with a certain level of confidence to her voice. "Really..." Alex was intrigued. "Would it be a movie theatre?" "No." "Hiding at the ground side military base?" Dian offered. "No." "Getting into a bar fight?" "No." She grinned, "but you can still do that later." "I give up. Suprise me Lieutenant." "Hang gliding!" Silence filled the car. Finally Alex coughted into his hand. "...I'm afraid I don't follow. Hang... what?" (Written and © Aug 2nd 2005. Revised Sept 12th 2005 )

Epic Wii manuever Soviet Loituma

No spell check available at this time. Will correct later tonight. +++ Four Jedi pilots working in concert cut a path through the Imperial fighters and toward the Imperial Command ship. The Rebel Elite squadrons were taking losses fighting the Imperial advanced ties but it seemed that most of the pilots on both sides were spending more time dodging than killing. Corran, out of torpedoes and missiles began transmitting missile lock data to other Rebel ships and fighters. A handfull of A-wings and some EZ-95 Uglies fired their last concussion missiles from maximum range. The missiles hit the starboard shields of the damaged Super Star Destroyer as it began it's turn. Meanwhile the Corvette Flight Stream edged toward the outer sections of the battle and began to launch it's heavy rockets. +++ Blade of the Empire was finally far enough into her turn that the portside batteries had a clear field of fire. The deck plating under turr Phennir's feet vibrated slightly as every weapon emplacement on the port side of his ship fired simultaniously. The barrage struck the re-enforced shields that the Mon Cal cruisers were putting up, turning the energy defenses a bright green. The MC-90's ceased firing their turbolasers for a few heartbeats as they sent more power to shore up the shields. "Weapons, use the concussion missile batteries to keep the starfighters away if you can." The General looked over the displays. Things were looking pooly. While the Imperial fleet had still lost very few Destroyers, most of the smaller support ships were drifting hulks. Except for a few places anti-starfighter cover was drying up and would soon leave more ships vulnerable. The converted freighters were concentrating their attention on the mainstay of the Imperial fleet, but almost a third of the Rebel fighters were starting to break free of the starfighter duels that had held them since the opening shots. Something on the order of five squadrons of Rebel starfighters were already making their way toward the command ships. Anguish was starting to move in to cover his ship's flank but he knew it would still take a few minutes. The bridge shook from new impacts as explosions blossomed on the Port side shields. "Report on those explosions." He asked as the portside guns fired again. "Heavy missiles sir. They're being launched from a corvette on the far side of the battle. We don't have anything free in that area to attack it." The bridge shook as more missile and turbolaser fire struck the Port side. "Increase power to the portside shields and try to repair the forward ones." A pair of X-wings flashed past above the bridge, continuiously firing into the Dorsal shields. A flight of A-wings streaked in from near the Mon Cal cruisers using turbolaser fire for cover, also firing non-stop. "Flight Control, where is our starfighter cover?" "They're too heavily engaged with the Rebel Elite squadrons sir." Another rocket exploded and the portside shield indicator went from green to yellow. The Forward shields still wern't up yet. Some of the Turbolasers were attempting to track the Rebel fighters that the Missiles couldn't hit instead of concentrating on the captial ships. The two Mon Cal Heavies at last dragged enough power out of their reactors to fire another full turbolaser volley. His command ship was being endangered, and the Imperial forcces needed to regroup, repair and reequip with starfighters. "Com... issue orders to withdraw from battle." "...Sir?" Asked the Com officer? Phennir lifted his comlink to his lips and triggered it. "This is General Turr Phennir. All Imperial capital ships and vehicles are to make best possible speed to rally point Delta and prepare to jump to hyperspace. Blade and Anguish will cover the rear guard action. All available Droid fighters remaining will immediately begin screening actions for both SSD's." The general lowered his com and went back to watching the battle through the viewports. "This is just a temporary setback. I mean to keep it that way." Out in space some four full squadrons of rebel fighters broke upon the ship's port side like a wave. +++ Captain Nalgol heard the order but didn't want to believe it. He'd already fled from the system once before and now again?! "Helm what's currently our best possible speed to Rally point Delta?" The Helmsman looked up from the crewpit. "Fifteen minutes sir if we continue towing." The sensors officer looked up. "Dreadnaughts launching from the planet's surface." "We'll be left behind if we try to bring the Vic's along any farther." Nalgon looked over the sensor screens at some of the Rebel ships still taking cover behind the towed ships. "Com issue orders to those Destroyers with Vic's under tow. Reverse beams and push the Vic's back at the rebels hiding behind them. That should buy us time to get away." +++ Kre'fey was watching the sensor screens when the Disabled Victory Destroyers suddenly began to reverse direction. "What are they... oh no." He lifted his comlink. "Kre'fey to bombardment persuit ships, begin emergency maneuvers. Change course to avoid the Victory Destroyers!" A corvette and a modular transport were both too slow to get out of the way and were crushed by the drive sections of the Victory Destroyers. The atmosphereic stabilizers on Arril Nunb's ship caught and were torn completely away when they scraped against the gunwells on a Vic's Starboard side. Nunb's wounded Destroyer spun, nearly out of control, and fired a broadside into the aft shields of the fleeing Imperial Destroyers. "Sir." Called the Ralroost's sensor operator. "All Imperial ships are making best possible speed for a point just past their command ships. They've ceased all towing operations." "What are their starfighters doing?" "Enemy droid starfighters remaining are converging on their command ship, all others are taking up escort roles for the Destroyers." "Good. All available ships, concentrate fire on the Super Star Destroyers, they'll take longer to jump away." +++ Phennir watched the sensor screens as the confused melee became an equally confused attempt by both sides to score parting hits. The remaining I-7 Howlrunners and droidfighters swept past the bridge and engaged the growing numbers of Rebel fighters attacking his ship. Anguish had at last closed enough to intercept fire from the Mon Cal cruisers. The two ships were now putting out very little fire but they did act as a point for more arriving Rebel ships to rally arround. Smaller Rebel gunboats and fighters were starting to strafe the other SSD as they made for Blade. The Bow shields were still down and some of the Turbolaser turrets were beginning to take hits. It was a miracle that none of the Rebel starfighters had gotten under the shields. Not long after he though that, Phennir spotted an A-wing speeding towards the bridge just above hull level but below the shields. "Increase power to bridge deflectors!" "A-aye sir!" A pair of X-wings chose that moment to finish blasting apart one of the sensor domes above the bridge. The resulting explosion dropped the bridge shields by more than half. The A-wing fired a pair of concussion missiles and pulled out, but before it could strike the outer layer of transparisteel the warheads impacted the still operating shields. The shield indicator for the bridge continued to flicker for a moment then came back up to full. "Operations, status of the shields." "We had to drop power for the port and starboard shields to save the bridge but we should have those back up at about half power in a minute sir." "Good job. Now let's get this fleet out of here before the Rebels really decide they want us to stay." 073

I have no idea. It only does it on Php based forums, nothing else. EDIT: Testing.... {{[?/,.<>\| Someone on another Forum suggested I check IE View - Encoding. Turns out it was set for unicode or something? I dunno, it's working now though.

+++ Rima Tharen, probably my best friend ever told me about the events of that same day once. She woke from the sounds of the thunder like echoes and spotted the flying craft that had been droping hunters to persue me. Some of them had passed near the town she was staying in and were clearly visible from the hotel. Supposedly she cursed so strongly and loudly at the sight that the windows nearly broke. "Bail get the hell up!" she yelled at the man she'd been sleeping with. "What's wrong?" He asked. "We've got out-worlders at the edges of town that's what's wrong! They normally won't bother airships that are already in mid-launch. We need to get to the ship, and now!" The pair sprinted from the hotel they'd been staying at and through streets now filling with merchants. In the time I'd known her Rima had fought her way up from the streets of the outpost towns to become the Captain of an airship. The White Witch wasn't the fastest ship arround but she could launch quickily and had a slightly longer range. The Raven haired woman dashed ahead of her male companion making straight for the anchoring points at the north end of town. Once they were close enough she started shouting to the crew members still aboard. "Start the ship! Prepare us for takeoff! Somone get the dock attendants to loosen our lines or we'll cut them ourselves." Rima climbed up a rope ladder onto the deck of the large gondola attached to the underside of the airship. She grabed a magnesium flare from a rack and lit it before she threw it into the ship's furnace. Bail topped the ladder shortly after. "So does this mean I've found passage on your ship?" He asked while giving Rima a dashing smile. "Yes, but you've still got a lot to learn about women, or perhaps just me." One of the crew members yelled over from the furnace. "Power is coming up cap'n." "Good! Half power to drives when we get it." With that Rima ran to the ship's wheel and began checking for wind speed. +++ I'd given up the dirt road and opted for cross country shortly after the larger transport dropped it's squad's of hunters. I was still headed for the outpost town of South Reach, hoping that the alien's wouldn't burn it to the ground and that I'd be able to find a faster means of travel than on foot. South Reach was as far south as any airships from the Three Kingdoms ever traveled due to a number of reasons. Though I could almost never remember what any of them were. Despite having to run through the grasslands I still made good time towards the town, only occasionally having to dodge beam fire. As I neared the town, fences started to appear seperating crops that people had planted. After vaulting a few fences I was into the outskirts of the town and the hunters ceased fire lacking any clear shots. The small crowded streets were starting to fill with morning foot traffic. Startled people ducked out of the way as I ran past. I turned down an alley, cut across another small street and through a backyard. It was hard to tell if I was still being followed but I had enough of a lead to try something. I grabbed a thick red blanket from a clothes line as I ran through another backyard. When I reached the next alley I tied the blanket arround myself like a cloak and hood. After that I cut through a large market just filling with morning crowds. The hunters entered the market from another side street and spread out. The sight of the hunters drew the attention of many people in the market. Before long some of the town`s guards were pushing through the crowds in their direction. Meanwhile I slipped out of the square and onto the rooftops. The streets below were like a maze and I didn`t have time to navigate it. The distances between houses wasn`t too great so I started jumping from roof to roof. Most of the houses had been built using baked clay tile for their shingles which rattled as I landed on them. As I crested the top of a roof line I head the sound of propellers spinning up and saw a small plume of smoke from one of the airships in dock. I just needed to reach that ship. I leapt from roof to roof as quickily as I could, barely slowing enough to gauge distance before each jump. Finally I reached the airship docks and clambered onto one of the girders that connected the different docking pits. The Airship that has already started it's engines was begining to lift from the dock. I looked arround for a way to reach the ship before it could gain altitude and saw that one of the girders extended along the side of the pit. The construction of the girders made running difficult. A brick tower held up one corner where the metal supports connected so I jumped between the two. Running out of time with the ship was almost clear of the dock, I did my best to run along this longer stretch of girder. Thankfully workers had placed sections of wood along the top in some places to act as walkways. I sprinted to the very end of the girder and leapt at one of the mooring lines trailing from the Gondola. The red cloak almost fouled my grip on the line but I mannaged a solid grip at last. Wrapping my legs arround the line I began to pull myself up. The ship was a fair distance up in the air by the time I got a hand on the ship's deck. A pair or cross bows were trained on me by crew members as I brougt my head up. "Don't shoot!" I grunted out as I tried to drag myself onto the supprisingly smooth deck. Finally I rolled onto the flat surface and caught my breath. A familiar voice asked me, "Whoever you are, give me a reason why whe shouldn't toss you overboard once we reach altitude." As I lifted my head I noticed a very sharp looking lance poined at me. This was slightly worrying until I realised who was at the other end. I started to laugh and pulled by my hood revealing my face. The old ragged scar that ran from my left ear down to my chin is normally all anyone needs to pick me out of a crowd. My old friend Rima looked confused or annoyed by my laughter until she recognised my features. "Alex?" She dropped the her lance and rushed forward, grabbing me in a strong hug which I returned. "What are you doing here?" She asked at length. "It's going to take a little bit to explain I think."

I know, it's the last thing anyone want to hear; Def bitching about his new Vista system. ...but anyways I seem to be having a problem when using php based forums with my Vista Computer. Whenever I type - ? - it comes out as - É - I can still type the propler characters in any of my windows programs like notepad and copy them but it`s annoying. < = ' > = . ? = É / = é " = `` (only appears after hitting the button twice) ' = `` (only appears after hitting the button twice) [ = ^^ (only appears after hitting the button twice) ] = ¸¸ (only appears after hitting the button twice) { = ^^ (only appears after hitting the button twice) } = ¨¨ (only appears after hitting the button twice) | = < \ = > Should I be contacting tech support for my machine or what?

Granted as soon as a Mod sees it...probably, but you`re still accused of knowing what you were getting into. You had to look didn`t you? I wish... that my keyboard worked normally in the Forums.