Welcome to Gaia! ::

Private Hyoji nodded as he recollected to never solute an officer in any hostile areas. "My appologies ma'am." He uttered silently as he removed the helmet to reveal his short black hair and brown eyes. He walked to the stands and took a seat, mentally kicking himself for drawing attention to the GNG.

A man he sat beside was mouthing off about how he wanted to see Sentaku get torn to bits after seeing Talon speak to Eileen on screen. "We need to make that piece of $--- from the ADSF pay!" The man seemed to pay no attention to the fact that he had his back turned to that very soldier in battle plate.

Talon tapped the man's shoulder trying to be as plolite as possible. "Sir, if you would please calm down, I'm sure that she has no idea what's happened in Aekea." "Oh yeah, what do you know, smartass?!" The man said becoming more irritable it would seem.

Talon refused to disobey orders by losing his temper and hitting a civilian, so he checked himself and returned his attention to the ring. "Hey! I'm not done talking with you yet!" The man continued. Talon clenched a tight fist, but restrained the gauntleted hand from flying out. "Sir, please just calm yourself and enjoy the match."

"Aw son, I can't enjoy watching this fine bit of destruction with a military dog like you sitting beside me." The man seemed to be looking forwards to having his face beaten in by the powerful soldier. Talon stood and moved to another part of the stands.

Talon cheered loudly as the match came to a close and practically ran to Patterson when he saw her in the crowd. "Great job up there ma'am," He said, "Although I'm not sure some of the spectators would agree. I"m sorry for drawing attention to you." He bowed his head slightly. "I was out of line in saluting as well." He bowed again. "Please forgive me for any harassment you recieve from these people because of my actions." He slipped his helmet back on and turned the polarization up to full on his visor, eliminating any sign of his face behind it. "I should return to my patrol, it was a pleasure watching your match ma'am."

Airman Raven Moon
Health Status: 100% Normal
Weapon/s Status: NA
Ammunition: NA
Location: Aekea Medical R&D facility
Action: Readying for duty

Shortly there after, Raven arrives at quartermaster’s supply room. He places his left hand on the scanner and waits. “Hand print acknowledged, voice print required,” the computer stated. “Tinman. Bravo. 32.” He grumbled at the idiocy of that codename. The door swooshed open and Raven entered the armory. The technician, who left the cryo-lab early, stood with various items and equipment on a near by table. His name tag read Jimmy. “If you would have a seat right over here,” Jimmy points to the empty chair next to the table. It was quite clear Jimmy was not a military man, his actions, and mannerism screamed nerd. “First off Bravo 32, do you mind if I just call you 32?” the technician asked. Raven glared at him with his one good eye, and though clenched teeth growled “Sure, fine by me.” This was, however, lost on the other man, who started rambling about the equipment. “Ok, even thought we do not have your new cybernetic upgrade for your body, we do have your combat ocular insert ready for you.” The technician held up the dull silver insert. “Go ahead, try it out.” Raven reached up to the black insert. With a mechanical whine, the black insert extended and he removed it showing the open artificial eye socket. Raven then reached out and grasped the new insert and brought it to his eye. There is a similar mechanical whirl as the insert is locked into place. Raven winced as the system linked to his nerves. As he raised his head, the large main optical flashed and the two smaller lenses flashed. Raven turned his head back and forth testing the weight. “Well?” Jimmy asked impatiently. “It is working with in specs.” Raven replied dryly. “Ok, here is the integrated transmitter headset. It links into the insect just like this.” Jimmy stood and hooked up the headset. This headset wrapped all the way around Raven’s had and ended in the visor over his left eye. “Now, the left eye piece transmits data directly into your eye, to help stabilize the feed. The sensor ear here, houses the transmitters and receivers for the TALON, SHABA, and MULE robots.” Jimmy wiggled the antenna. ((Think Briareos from Appleseed.))

Port De Gambino; Incident +7:47 hours-

"....G..." The rumble came between gritted teeth. "G-Guy-Ah." Yellow, faceted reptilian eyes squinted. "Shhhhhip...yaardzzz." The ordeal of reading the sign over, the obsidian Monolith grumbled to himself further. "Shipsss. Gaia. G. N. G."

A moment of brilliance struck the giant. "G. N. G. have ships!" A massive hand reached up to shield his eyes from the sun. There were ships that he'd seen, then the ones that looked like the thing that had landed on his back one day. "Back...itch...G-N-G fault too?!" Obviously the militaries of Gaia were up to no good. He would ask them what they were doing.

He ran into the ocean with a splash, and kept going, pounding the ocean floor with an odd 3-legged gait: Left leg, Massive Granite Club, Right leg. There was no buoyancy to him at all it seemed, just an endless stream of bubbles coming up from all the little nooks and crannies dotting the rugged, irregular chitinous terrain that served as his 'skin'.

Radar on the closest large Gaian Navy ship would pick him up easily as a slow but steadily moving object headed for a location directly underneath it. Then it would pick him up as an object moving more quickly, projecting up from the sea floor towards their hull. The ship rocked hard.

Monolith had jumped, and had grabbed onto the bottom of the ship's hull, scrunching the armored plating enough to gain hand and footholds. He began his ascent, and he would ask why they had killed that nice girl.

---

Eileen watched Talon go, a perplexed look on her face. It had been weeks after the weird events that had culminated at the Barton Town fountain, and though things had been settling back down to some sense of normal, this had to come up again. She hoped Talon would be ok... it was clear he had to patrol only because of the recent news.

---

Ah, there was the one in the armor. He wasn't with the little girl lieutenant, but it would work out just as well. He clapped his hands together, and closed his eyes.

ASDF Headquarters Control Tower: Incident +8 hours-

Corporal Lop Bundermunny tapped his pencil to his clipboard. The news had died down, and now there was nothing to do. He glanced over at his sensor board, which relayed satellite imagery taken from all over Gaia. Nothing...ah well. He was about to turn back to the carrots he had been munching on (mmm, they were so good with bleu cheese), and had even set down his pencil and clipboard when the monitor showing Isle de Gambino showed something unusual: All the lights seemed to be flickering. Then the area in front of the Casino blacked out. The blackout rapidly expanded to cover the top half of the Island.

He steered the camera to the top of the Casino. There was a light up there. The camera zoomed in. "Holy!" Corporal Bundermunny leapt out of his chair, and slapped the Red Alert button.

Atop Gambino's Casino: seconds later-

Thick cables of lightning writhed around Vic Voltage. The greenish-gold power danced about him, illuminating his face harshly, giving the man probably a more horrific countenance than he possibly deserved. He pulled his arms apart slowly, Seeming to concentrate the electrical power of half of Gambino Island within the palms of his hands. His amplified voice rang out,



The off tune singing made the glass in most of the surrounding area want to shatter. Billy Joel probably would be rolling in a grave if he had been dead. He at least probably rolled over in his bed.

Talon's helmet adjusted to night vision as the lights around the casino blinked out. He tapped the visor once, shutting off night vision and allowing his biologically modified eyes to do the work instead of his armor. What the hell is going on? He looked up to where a large amount of energy was being gathered, his helmet's display went to static and then shut down. "Dammit, this is not good..." He said, unslinging his rifle from his shoulder.

Private Hyoji stepped out into the middle of the street to get a better look at the being causing this chaotic surge of energy. "Attention Gaian! I am Private Talon Hyoji of the GNG special forces. I am ordering you to cease your actions at once." He leveled his rifle at the man's shoulder in preparation to shoot to maim if needed. His mind was racing as his muscles tensed at the thoughts of every possible outcome of this conflict. Just don't kill him. Talon told himself over and over, remembering the standing orders.

The helmet display may have been down, but his armor's com system was still operational. "GNG command, this is Private Hyoji reporting from outside of Gambino Casino. I have come into contact with one hostile downtowner. He seems to be controlling the electricity in the area and has shut down most of the power grid. Requesting Green light to suppress said hostile unit." He clicked the com off and waited...

As Raven adjusted the headband, the antenna bobbed back and forth. “You will love this one.” Jimmy stated, pointing at the end the antenna. Then he turned to a display screen, which shows a slightly fuzzy overhead view of the room. Jimmy turned again and pointed at the tip. A small camera tracked the technician’s finger. “This scout camera can be used to peek around corners, into windows, or be used to record a mission.” Raven focused on the camera and it swiveled around, showing him a 360° bubble view of the room. He then focused onto the display screen and watched himself on the screen. “I look like hell.” Raven rubbed his chin with his good hand. “Yeah that’s gotta suck. Moving onto the weapons!” Jimmy moved to a table farther back in the room. Spread atop a small table was an array of weapons. “Now since you are going out as a peace keeper, these weapons and armaments where chosen to best fulfill your mission.” Heaving a massive revolver looking launcher, Jimmy continues, “Here we have the MGL-140 grenade launcher. Just like your standard shoulder fire launcher. However it packs in six shots. For ammo, you have thirty-six rounds. Twelve of each: foam direct impact shots, net casters, and tear gas cartridges.” Jimmy continued, “Next we have the Atchisson AA-12. I think you will like this one. It is a fully automatic shotgun.” Raven quickly lifted the gun to his shoulder testing the weight and balance. “This is a sweet gun! Selectable rate of fire?” “I knew you would like it. Semi and fully automatic. Eight-round clips. With two clips of: rubber slugs, rubber shots, and beanbags. However only one clip of breaching slugs. We also got you a Springfield XD Tactical 9 mm, with three clips of nine. Just in case you need to do some wet work, huh?” Jimmy elbowed Raven slightly before moving on. “Standard issue taser, bottle of pepper spray and some assorted grenades. Also some field rations and a med kit.” Jimmy checked his watch, “Oh looks like you better lock and load, solider man. It’s getting late.” Raven eyed the cheeky technician while strapping on his gear and holstering his weapons. He slung the AA-12 on his back, the taser on his right hip, the 9mm his left, his small pack riding high on his shoulders, the spare ammo stored in pockets or pouches and the 40mm shells stored on bandolier. “Hey is there anything you want?” Jimmy asked. “Yeah, how about a combat knife?” Raven replied. “A knife? What do you need a knife for?” “That’s the point. You never know. Just get me one.” Jimmy headed farther in the quartermasters room, down to the armory section and started looking for a good knife.

[Port of Gambino - Nathan Richards and the Coming Storm. Time: 2:32 AM local time.]

Heh, big cities, huh? There's gotta be more bars than people.

Liquor licenses must be plentiful and cheap. Nathan, fresh out of training, on his first leave, hadn't even served the first day on his post, had decided to take in the sights of the big city.

He was young, he had a wad of cash to burn, and there were a lot of bars along this street. It didn't take a rocket surgeon to figure out that soon enough he was hopping from Bar to Bar finding fun, and just a little trouble. He was still out in his uniform, unawares of the troubles the GNG had been causing lately, and thinking it might be a good way to impress some of these city women. After all, his father had told him women love a man in uniform.

Still, it hadn't helped him out yet. But it had gotten him more than a few free drinks from uptowners as he skipped down from tavern to tabernacle.

He was completely enveloped in that warm glow of alcohol in his system, a faint, almost dopey smile etched on his face, and his steps unsteady and weaving as he made his way down the sidewalk. There, about a block down, another neon sign was calling out to him. He couldn't make out the letters, but it didn't matter to him, he was pretty sure it was a bar. Or maybe a theater. Well, it was open, whatever it was.

The sign drew him in like a moth. The drunk weave clearly giving him away as someone that had a bit more than he should. And his new, fresh uniform clearly identifying him as a member of the GNG. The lack of fruit salad (jargon for mission patches, by the by), or other decoration as a newly minted buck private.

He had that nice drunken haze going. So when it happened. Well, he didn't think it too suspicious. Ahead, up the street, towards the industrial centers of Gambino, a pair of headlights came up on him, and the rumbling thunder that could only be a heavy convoy of some sort. Sure enough, as he held up his hand before his eyes, blinking away at the blinding light, he was aware there was a lot of truck behind those headlights.

He turned his head, trying to count the pairs of lights as they were running past. Almost like ghostships, he thought, smiling as the trucks were nearly invisable in the darkness, just a pair of headlights, and running lights revealing their large frames.

One, two... four... six... ten...? And more were going by? He lost count, but he guessed at least 20, if not more. He stood by, blinking the light from his eyes as the trucks rumbled down, towards the Dockyards. Still, the large numbers, and the time of night, refused to let go.

The hell was that?

He remained rooted to the ground, staring towards the direction the trucks had gone, now out of sight, scratching at his chin. Had to be something big. Maybe... coming to scrap some of the GN facilities?

He shook his head, wouldn't he have heard of that? No. Ooo, racoon! His eyes locked onto what was actually an oil slick in the street, thinking it was one of those night bandit animals.

The occasional bar hopper walking down the street just saw a stupified looking marine, staring at a dark spot in the street.