Firetruce *WARNING* Strong language Ahead!

[Spinning Hat]

Ok, here's the first part, been working on Plot stuff for a while, and got some of it hashed out. Please post all comments in the Firetruce Comments thread to keep this more coherent. Enjoy!<br><br><br>It was an unusually cold night on the Lush planet of Chalice. Spinning Hat and Timmain stood on top of the Holdfast wall, smoking a cigarette, and staring out over the small settlement chosen to hold the tenth Firetruce.<br><br>“What the hell are we doing here?” Timmain’s teeth chattered, as he threw his cigarette butt over the wall onto a sleeping tribal’s warharness.<br><br>“Whatever the Children of the Phoenix want us to do. Put down a revolt? Fine. Defend Chalice from the ‘Derm Hordes? Fine. I get paid the same either way.” <br><br>“Yeah, but it’s so damn COLD! I wouldn’t have signed up had I known that it was gonna be this way. I took my first wife here on our honeymoon, and it was hot, and humid, and the scenery was beautiful.”<br>&nbsp &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp <br>Spinning Hat shrugged Timmain’s complaints off as a result of being cold, and lit another cigarette off the one he had just finished. Usually, he would have casually thrown his cigarette butt over the wall and let it fall where it may, but he felt a strange connection to this planet, so, out of respect, he simply dropped it onto the holdfast wall for the sanitation crew to clean up in the morning.<br><br>Despite the cold, both warriors of The Order of the Talon, or Dragon Talon Mercenaries, as they were more commonly called, remained ever vigilant in their duties, scanning the horizon for an invasion force of BioDerms, or for the exiled Harbingers of Phoenix, who, at the ninth Firetruce staged an uprising against the Keepers of the Phoenix, inciting riots and bringing much shame to the proud Phoenix. <br><br>“Hey Tim!”<br><br>“Yeah?”<br><br>“Check out our 12 o’clock, I think we got some trouble brewin’ down there by the stadium.”<br><br>Timmain turned from staring into the darkness with his thermal sensors, and adjusted his zoom to max on his modified sniper optics, and as he zoomed in, a small explosion blinded the warrior for an instant as his optics struggled to adjust to the burst of light, and he had to ultimately disable his thermal sensors so they didn’t burn out.<br><br>“Holy @#%$! Holy @#%$ @#%$ man! We gotta get down there now!” Timmain exclaimed, as he readied his Spinfusor for battle.<br><br>“Not yet, we need to receive the order to leave our post first, let the fire suppression system take care of the flames, and let the local security and medics deal with the rest. We’re here to guard against invasion, not to settle gambling disputes.”<br><br>Just as Spinning Hat finished speaking, the encrypted Q-reed comms that the DTM used came to life. <br><br>“Attention all mercs, this is Jester. Ready all weapons, and head immediately to the Stadium, set a perimeter around the bombsite, and use any force necessary to quell the situation. Jester out.”<br><br>A grim look came over the two mercenaries, as they saw people running from the flames screaming in agony, and bits of plasma mixed with stahlplast and flesh dripping off the screaming forms. As Spinning Hat turned to Timmain, another, larger explosion rocked the Grand Hall, where the Council is held, as well as where the main contingent of local security is housed.<br><br>“Well, are you ready to earn your pay SH?” Timmain asked grimly, double-checking his equipment before they undoubtedly entered the fray to subdue an unknown enemy.<br><br>“Ah @#%$ me, this was supposed to be an easy assignment, ya know? Thirty days of guard duty, and a chance to get a tan… I guess a little combat practice can’t hurt, ayia?”<br>With that, Spinning Hat and Timmain leaped off the wall, towards the initial explosion.<br><br>**********<br> <p><map name="SHMAP"><area href="http://xmenclan.org" target="_blank" shape="rect" coords="169, 72, 193, 143"><area href="http://dragontalonmercs.com" target="_blank" shape="rect" coords="0, 78, 25, 141"><area href="http://pub1.ezboard.com/uspinninghat.sh ... anguage=EN" target="_blank" shape="rect" coords="22, 3, 172, 30"></map><img border="0" src="http://www.xmenclan.org/sh3d2.gif" usemap="#SHMAP" width="194" height="144"> <br>Why Do I always Die?!?!</p><i></i>

[Spinning Hat]

Ok... Here's Part 2... I dunno If it's ready yet... but I'll post it here anyway. <!--EZCODE EMOTICON START ;) --><img src=http://www.ezboard.com/intl/aenglish/im ... s/wink.gif ALT=";)"><!--EZCODE EMOTICON END--> <br><br>“Have the necessary preparations been made?” asked a shadowed figure in Myrmidon armor.<br><br>“Yes sir, but this operation violates all the tenets of Harabec! For the record sir, I wish to say that I believe this operation to be wrong, wasteful, and needlessly endangering the lives of the soldiers in-“ Suddenly, a glint of hardened steel flashed in the dim moonlight and the shadowed figure stabbed Lieutenant Lewiston in the kidneys once, then watching the shocked soldier fall lifelessly to the ground.<br><br>“Your objection has been noted, coward.” Spitting onto the slowly bleeding soldier.<br>The remaining warriors stood, in silence as they watched their flame leader fall to the ground. With one deft move, Gaven Istivan al-Harabec sheathed his weapon, and gave the signal for his warriors to commence the assault on Holdfast 4.<br><br>**********<br><br>As the warriors evacuated the tent city within the walls of the holdfast, all 12 warriors activated cloaking packs scavenged from the remains of fallen Blood Eagle from a war not yet over. Remaining ever cautious, the Harbingers of Phoenix moved swiftly and silently through the shadows, each Flame of 6 warriors moving towards their intended targets. As Gaven Istivan al-Harabec reached the designated staging area, he clicked his comm-circuit once to signal his team being in position. All other warriors acknowledged, and they converged on their targets.<br><br>**********<br><br>The tribal merchants were sleeping in tents near their stands, when armored warriors stormed in, and took some of them to the stadium, and the remainder to the Grand Hall. The merchants dared not to fight back, knowing the strength of powered armor, and fearing for their lives. <br><br>At the Grand Hall, before they knew what was happening, the merchants were bound together, gagged, and had a strange device attached to the small groups. Immediately, the merchants began to pray to their gods for forgiveness, for they knew they would be going to meet their makers. The Harbingers slowly backed into the shadows, brandishing their plasma cannons to keep the merchants in line, and then, they seemingly vanished into the air with a boost of their jet packs.<br><br>Nearer the stadium, things were not going so well. The first flame managed to capture renegade merchants, and they were fighting for every inch of ground they crossed. The merchants tried screaming through their gags, running away from the Peltast and Hoplite clad warriors, or simply trying to kick the warriors off of them. Three warriors had to subdue their captives with shocklances, killing them instantly. The other three captives got the hint, and began to go peacefully. Once in front of the stadium, a satchel charge attached to a large nanite canister was placed on one of the dead captives. <br><br>Before the new blood that placed the charge was able to set the detonator, two of the merchants broke free of their bonds and lunged at their captors with knives. The newly appointed flame leader caught the movement and fired three plasma rounds into the mass of the shadows, and hit the attackers, and prematurely detonated the satchel charge, killing the remaining three captives and two warriors standing close by instantly, vaporizing their very existence in the galaxy.<br>The last four warriors were caught in the explosion, and were awash in plasma, and began screaming, and running in all directions, hoping death would come quickly.<br><br><br>I dunno... It seems.... Like a 5th grader wrote it... <!--EZCODE EMOTICON START :( --><img src=http://www.ezboard.com/intl/aenglish/im ... /frown.gif ALT=":("><!--EZCODE EMOTICON END--> <p><map name="SHMAP"><area href="http://xmenclan.org" target="_blank" shape="rect" coords="169, 72, 193, 143"><area href="http://dragontalonmercs.com" target="_blank" shape="rect" coords="0, 78, 25, 141"><area href="http://pub1.ezboard.com/uspinninghat.sh ... anguage=EN" target="_blank" shape="rect" coords="22, 3, 172, 30"></map><img border="0" src="http://www.xmenclan.org/sh3d2.gif" usemap="#SHMAP" width="194" height="144"> <br>Why Do I always Die?!?!</p><i></i>