Network Omni News

taalismn · Unread post by **taalismn** » Thu Apr 12, 2007 6:16 pm

NUmber 342 of the Artifacts of Thog...The InnerTube of Reeeme...this rather beat-up looking rubberoid ring actually renders its rider invulnerable to ALL harm and keeps them alive effectively forever...this thing could float on molten rock and the passenger wouldn't be harmed...
The downside is that the inner tube is completely without propulsion...it's wholly at the whim of currents, tides, winds, and whatnot(the field negates the rider kicking or pushing the ring about, or even tying a lineto it and something outside the field).

taalismn · Unread post by **taalismn** » Thu Apr 12, 2007 6:51 pm

You can take the greatest of river-tubing trips without fear....

9voltkilowatt · Thu Apr 12, 2007 7:57 pm

Darkmax wrote:but you can't know where you'll end up?!

I can't count the number of times friends and I would fill up the gastank and just drive until we would get lost, destination didnt matter ...it was all about the trip. :ok:

Number 444 of the Eight Hundred Legendary Relics of Thog: Sprocket of Marblarkar, when placed into a broken machine (any machine, even if it normally doesnt use such things) the Sprocket of Marblarkar will allow the device to function at its fullest potential. The device will continue to operate for as long as the sprocket is in place.

NOTE: The Sprocket of Marblarkar does not repair nor prevent damage to the device, sorry, a half vapourized tank just isnt going to work even if you had a dozen Sprocket of Marblarkar' handy.

Aramanthus · Unread post by **Aramanthus** » Fri Apr 13, 2007 12:30 am

Hmmm Some more fun ideas from the creators of OmniNews!

taalismn · Unread post by **taalismn** » Fri Apr 13, 2007 5:53 pm

Darkmax!...like you said...it's all about the trip, not the destination...

9voltkilowatt · Fri Apr 13, 2007 10:38 pm

taalismn wrote:Darkmax!...like you said...it's all about the trip, not the destination...

Thats it Librarian, attribute one of my quotes to the Singapore Monk again and theres going to be an @$$-whoppin' of biblical (unabridged version) proportions! :lol:

Network Omni Newsflash
Dateline: 04/1589456/785113
Three-way Gimp Fight underway!

"Masters seers everywhere are reporting heightened tension
in some backwater part of the Multiverse, this as yet unheard of
conflict threatens to amuse many with large amounts of poorly
thrown punches and not so manly screaming!"

"If this battle actual every resorts to some real violence we here at
Network Omni News promise to bring you the belly-laugh inducing
results."

Aramanthus · Unread post by **Aramanthus** » Sat Apr 14, 2007 3:47 am

LOL

Good one!

taalismn · Unread post by **taalismn** » Sat Apr 14, 2007 9:18 pm

Network Omni Newsflash
Dateline: 04/1462634/4623678467

Stolen Cursed Relic Mysteriously Returned to Museum
----Babalona, Secqua VII, Sqec System, Murma Sector, Corkscrew Galaxy. Curators at the Babloc Institute of Antiquities are amazed(and aghast) at the surprise return of the infamous LocTorrac('The Black Bane of Rac and Life') a year after the statutette was stolen.
Just over a year ago, the LocTorrac, a statute of jet-black ren-marble and blood-cooled Xammi tribal silver, and said to possess both incredible magical powers AND a terrible curse, was stolen from a secure vault dep underneath the Babloc Institute, where it was held under lock, key, and ward. Despite an extensive search and investigation, nothing conclusive was proven, aside from the fact that the theft was meticulously carried out with incredible planning. The artifact essentially disappeared for over a year.
....Until yesterday, when the statute was found rudely thrown through a plate glass window at the Institute.
"We're rather puzzled by the surprise return of the LocTorrac, but we're confident that this time we'll have some answers as to who's responsible," local law enforcement authorities stated. "We're following back a trail of physical evidence...whoever threw that statute was bleeding, and apparently dropping off pieces of necrotizing flesh...a trail of which we tracked back to a crashed hovercar that had plunged through a hole in a collapsed overpass at the end of a trail of damaged utility poles, a succession of meteor craters, a tanker car blaze, and a gang war with the highway in the crossfire zone, leading all the way back to a garage structure that apparently imploded, next to a house that seems to have burnt down, over a sewer access tunnel that flooded and backed up...we're still working our way back..."
"We're amazed that the LocTorrac was returned to us." Institute officials admitt."But now that we've got it back...well. we were kinda hoping it had stayed stolen...."

taalismn · Unread post by **taalismn** » Sat Apr 14, 2007 10:52 pm

There's a funky sci-fi story I read eons ago (of course, its author and title elude me) about an insurance adjustor who discovers that one of his clients, a physicist who has set up shop in a high crime area, is not being shaken down by the local organized crime group...since all of their enforcers and shakedown men meet with disasterous accidents before they can do any harm...turns out the mad scientist has devised a device that protects him like a demented version of a Sanctuary spell, making viokence against the protected person and/or property impossible...the greater the threat of violence, the bigger the backlash....an arsonist on his way to torch the workshop has his gasolone bomb go off in his back pocket...a shakedown crew with baseball bats end up breaking each OTHERs' knees...

taalismn · Unread post by **taalismn** » Sun Apr 15, 2007 8:22 pm

It's why I like Ludicrous Mages so much...there's something about protecting yourself AND humiliating your enemies by getting them to do the worst damage to themselves.....

taalismn · Unread post by **taalismn** » Mon Apr 16, 2007 9:33 pm

Y'know...a little mind control magic, we can change that attitude for yah...
Make you a more generous guy, too!

Aramanthus · Unread post by **Aramanthus** » Tue Apr 17, 2007 12:08 am

Mages can be a lot of fun to play! Nice story!

taalismn · Unread post by **taalismn** » Tue Apr 17, 2007 8:19 pm

Optruc Medium Transport/Mobile News Station

“Ouch....”
“Hmph...pop-up fiberglass antipersonnel mines....nasty and crude....hardly able to punch through real body armor, but hell on soft targets...”
“Not everybody can afford to, or cares to, deploy weapon-sensor equipped disposable ordnance...and this planet’s dirt poor to begin with.”
“That girl out there who just stepped on a landmine...We got a data-uplink in two hours.....You’ve got on your Serpent; wanna go out there and get her? Preferably before she bleeds to death? We’ll pop her in the regen tank long enough that she doesn’t mind losing everything below her waist and then interview her about how she feels about her planet going to hell in a carry-all between the biowarfare and the civil war.”
“Sounds like a human interest story angle. What then?”
“Ah, we’ll fob her off on those DirtPeace activists over in the sanctzone....We’ll do it at the same time we do the ambush-interview about them not doing their self-professed duties and the failure of the humanitarian aide organizations to get their act together...Now, you wanna get moving before she croaks? I want to go live at eight and still-raw wounds are SO photogenic...... ”

When a particular environment is especially news-rich, just sending one or two small ships to cover the situation just isn’t enough...To areas of special interest, especially warzones, Network Omni News may feel it necessary and more cost effective to send a large complement of reporters to cover the story. For such field work, NON deploys such craft as the Optruc Mobile News Station.
At a glance, the Optruc would appear to be little more than a scaled-up Insecton Land Rover, complete with articulated robot legs, but the Optruc is more than just a larger-sized robot land crawler; it is a full-equipped starship and data-collection station, carrying a staff of several dozen media specialists and attendant security and support staff into the heart of the storm. Besides the difference in size, the Optruc differs appearance-wise from the much smaller Insecton in having a different set of protrudances and vanes, a much more built-up aft end, and a set of large multi-celled ‘wings’ overlaying the hexagonal launch bays on the sides. The Optruc retains the forward pincers of the Insecton, though on the larger craft these giant claws are used primarily to assist in docking and in maneuvaring cargo around in zero-gravity.
The Optruc isn’t particularly fast in normal space, but it does have a better than average turn of speed in FTL, to get it into, and out of, galactic hotspots in a hurry.
To compensate for its slow speed out of hyperspace, the Optruc acts as a carrier for dozens of smaller drones and robot surveillance platforms. Rather than launch power armors, the side hexagonal bay hatches serve to deploy an onboard force of nearly a hundred remote surveillance drones, though they are alos large enough to launch the small fleet of newsflitters, hovercycles, and scouters that are also carried for the reporter complement.
The Optruc carries a substantial weight of armor, shielding, and a hard-hitting array of weapons to make sure that it can continue to do its job in the face of fierce opposition. Cybssynthcryth especially wanted the forcefield shielding, normally weak in Kittani designs, upgraded as high as it could go, the better to insure the survival of the vessel in the hotzones it is expected to operate in. Thus, the Optruc mounts cruiser-class variable shielding capable of turning aside even a battleship main battery shot. Most who have had the occasion to weather its counter-fire have likened the Optruc to a ‘pocket destroyer’. In addition, the Optruc carries a complement of well-armed security troopers(typically a mix of Kittani in power armor, bioborgs, and other minions) as standard, and several dozen ground robot drones for surveillance, maintenance, and security.
Like most NON spacecraft and vehicles, the Optruc is festooned with sensor antennae and communications gear allowing it to remotely gather tons of data, and transmitt it back to NON’s main facilities around the Three Galaxies.
Accommodations on an Optruc are better than on a smaller Raktor-class scout, but are still rather spartan. However, because the Optruc is often in the field for months, more space has been apportioned to life support and quality of life facilities. Among its amenities are a small studio and interview room, fully-equipped med-bay with two auto-med regeneration tanks, repair shop, and lounge for staffers to ‘decompress’ after a hard day’s work. Of course, they can tap into just about ANY galactic and local broadcast feed for updates and entertainment.
Optrucs typically carry a mixed crew of personnel, usually 1-6 veteran reporters, a dozen or more security, the ship’s staff, and a complement of less-experienced cub reporters getting their first taste of action.

Type:SK-CBssNON-017
Class: Medium Transport
Crew: 18, plus 1-50 passengers
MDC/Armor by Location:
Main Body 3,800
Bridge 800
Launch Hatches(14) 60 each
Sensor Arrays(2) 320 each
Sensor Fins(8) 280 each
Communications Arrays(2) 400 each
Engines(2) 1,000 each
Crawler Legs(6) 400 each
Tri-Laser Turrets(2) 120 each
Point Defense Pulse Laser Turrets(6) 80 each
Particle Beam Cannon Turrets(5) 180 each
Medium Range Missile Bays(2) 250 each
Variable Forcefields 24,000 total( 4,000 per side)
Height: 200 ft
Width: 120 ft
Length: 350 ft
Weight: 2,000 tons
Cargo: 20ft x 40 ftx40 ft room(roughly about 500 tons)
Powerplant:Advanced Fusion Nuclear w/ 55 year energy life
Speed:
(Ground) The robotic landing gear actually allow the Optruc to walk/run at a modest 55 MPH
(Atmosphere) Hover to Mach 7; transatmospheric capable
(Space) Mach 8.5
(Kitsune Values: 60% of light speed; Accelerates/decelerates at 0.85% of light speed per melee)
(FTL) 5.5 light years per hour
(Underwater)---The Optruc is perfectly at home underwater, propelling itself via its thrusters at 70 MPH, or crawling along the bottom at 10 MPH. Its reinforced hull can survive depths of up to 1.2 miles.
Market Cost:A fully equipped Optruc would fetch 200 million credits or more on the Black Market, provided the sellers weren’t talking to an undercover Network Omni News investigatory crew.

Systems of Note:
Standard Ship Systems, plus;

*Stealth Design----This prevents clear identification by enemy sensor systems from beyond 2,800 miles. Close-in jamming systems give a -6 to enemy weapons systems, including smart missiles, to lock-on. False transponder signals can also identofy the ship as a neutral merchantman or assistance vessel.

*Military Grade Sensors---Can detect vessels/objects moving in normal space up to 250,000 miles away, and pick up fine details on a planet’s surface from 100 miles up, on a par with CCW and TGE spy-sats.

*Advanced Targetting System-----The Kittani advanced targetting systems come as standard; +4 to Strike w/ lasers, +3 w/ missiles.

*Long Range Communications---The Optruc boasts a complete FTL communications suite, with auto-encrypt, burst compression, and frequency jumping capabilities, as well as counter-EW screening. The Optruc’s array can actually broadcast on six different hyper-bands simultaneously. Even more irritating to locals, is the fact that the Optruc’s arrays can also listen in on local radio traffic, with AI-assisted channel-surfing, looking for keywords and transmissions of interest.

*Long Range Deep Space Sensor Arrays(2)---Actually a Kittani copy of a CAF design. The sensor system allows the ship to monitor FTL traffic up to 25 light years away. Because the two arrays are already in deployed positions, they need no set-up/take-down time.

*Self-Destruct System---To insure that NON’s technological secrets and journalistic sources remain secret, the Optruc has been fitted with a self-destruct system that completely destroys the ship and does 2d6x1,000 MD to a 1,000 ft blast radius.

*’Spoiler’ Data-Dump System----Taking inspiration from self-destructing fusion-pimp-powered X-ray laser weapons systems, Cybssynthcryth’s KIttani designers have modified the Optruc’s self-destruct system to power a one-shot FTL transmitter that dumps the ship’s data-logs in a last, highly compressed, picosecond, encrypted, brute-force hypercomm burst-transmission. It is intended and hoped that this last data-burst will preserve the ship’s data and reach NON, allowing them to know who killed their news-crew. This is in keeping with Cybssynthcryth’s directive that reporters, if they can’t evade trouble, can’t fight past trouble, should ‘make sure to splash your enemies’ names and faces across the galaxy!”.

Weapons Systems:
1) Forward Tri-Laser Batteries(2)---Similar in configuration to those on the Insecton Rover, but more powerful. They are mainly intended for anti-missile defense.
Range:2 miles in atmospheres; 8 miles in space
(Kitsune Values: 8 miles in atmosphere, 8,000 miles in space)
Damage:3d6x10 MD per single-barrel pulse-shot, 9d6x10 MD for all three lasers in a cluster firing simultaneously.
Rate of Fire: ECHH
Payload: Effectively Unlimited

2)Point Defense Pulse Lasers(6)----Mounted about the hull, covering all arcs of approach, are six small rapid-fire pulse laser turrets slaved to the targetting sensors. These weapons are tasked for anti-missile point defense, but can be set for anti-personnel duty when the ship is grounded.
Range: 5,000 ft in atmosphere, 4 miles in space
(Kitsune Values: 4 miles in atmosphere, 400 miles in space)
Damage: 1d6x10 MD per pulse-shot
Rate of Fire: On auto-gunnery, each turret can fire up to six times per melee.
Payload: Effectively Unlimited
Bonus: +2 to strike(in addition to other system bonuses)

3)Particle Beam Cannon(5, 1 forward dorsal, 1 forward ventral, 2 lateral rear, 1 aft )----These powerful weapons turrets are the ship’s main defense against enemy fighters and light starships.
Range: 1 mile in atmosphere; 4 miles in space
(Kitsune Values: 4 miles in atmosphere, 4,000 miles in space)
Damage: 1d4x100 MD per blast
Rate of Fire: ECHH
Payload: Effectively Unlimited

4)Medium Range Missile Launchers(2)---Concealed under armored hatches on the sides are two medium range missile batteries, one each flank.
Range: Varies by Missile Type
(Kitsune Values: 160 miles in atmosphere, 80,000 miles in space)
Damage:Varies by Missile Type
Rate of Fire: Volleys of 1-24
Payload: 50 MRMs per launcher, 100 total(additional missiles may be carried as cargo, but it will take at least 20 minutes to carry a missile through the ship’s corridors to the loading bay).

5)Hand to Hand Combat---The Optruc is actually capable of limited close quarters combat with its robotics.
Stomp (objects 12 feet tall of smaller) 2d4x10 MD
Kick 1d4x10 MD
Body Block/Ram 2d4x10 MD
Pincer Crush 2d6x10 MD

Auxiliary Craft:
80 ABS-3 Basic Security Drones
15 ABW-4 Basic Work Drones
25 ABSS-2 Simple Security Drones(for ground security/recon)
50 Misc. drone vehicles(can include Eyes of Eylor)
4-12 Light Vehicles(Land Skimmers, Hovercars, Jetbikes)
6-20 Power Armors

taalismn · Unread post by **taalismn** » Tue Apr 17, 2007 8:23 pm

Darkmax wrote:but they are nicer to skewer with....

There's an old 'Dragon' magazine cartoon for D&D that has a monster army advancing on a small band of adventurers, a mage in the middle...the rest of the band is looking at the mage with looks of confidence that the spellcaster's going to pull a hat-trick for them with a spell to reverse their fortunes...
Barbarian Warrior(thinking): 'Fireball'
Paladin(thinking): 'Wall of Protection'
Mage(thinking): 'Teleport'

Aramanthus · Unread post by **Aramanthus** » Tue Apr 17, 2007 11:34 pm

That is a very cool idea! I could see there being many of these stations ther out the 3G's.

taalismn · Unread post by **taalismn** » Wed Apr 18, 2007 10:13 pm

Well, simultaneous work on twenty or more ships/projects caught up enough that some of the stuff was actually ready to post...aside from a few niggling details , I couldn't find any REAL reason why I couldn't launch 'em and let reader feedback catch any gaffs or suggest any improvements I didn't catch/think of.

taalismn · Unread post by **taalismn** » Thu Apr 19, 2007 6:01 pm

No, I just have the attention span of a fruit-fly...WITHOUT the mate-before-I-die compulsion...

taalismn · Unread post by **taalismn** » Fri Apr 20, 2007 5:20 pm

Ther's precedent for this....the idiot who burst into a gun shop looking to rob it, apparently not noticing the police cars parked outside or the on- and off-duty police officers hanging around inside...
End result? One very well-ventilated bozo criminal.....

THat's on my Top Ten of Stupid Criminal Stories...

But to add color to the Center story....

"I'm tellin' you, Cal, an eighty-eight millimeter shoulder cannon on a cyborg frame is freakin' ridiculous! You'll never get it to work, let alone HIT anything with it!"
"EVERYBODY! THIS IS A STICKUP!"
****BBBBBBBBBBBBOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMM****
"You wer' saying about HIT, Jez?"

Aramanthus · Unread post by **Aramanthus** » Sat Apr 21, 2007 5:03 am

This place is still a huge amount of fun! I love this thread!

taalismn · Unread post by **taalismn** » Sat Apr 21, 2007 8:30 pm

Network Omni Newsflash
Dateline: 04/2223263/34242423

Holovision Celebrity Caught Stoned on Camera!
---Center, Phazeworld, Alphod Sector, Corkscrew Galaxy. Famed Holovision superstar V'Reng Udang was caught on multiple surveillance cameras getting stoned after an altercation with a Gorgon in a tavern at the famed interdimensionak hub.
"It started out as a drunken argument and sorta went downhill after that dude in the holoplex skinsuit called that medusan a 'worm-headed hasbeen'" A witness reported, "Then she just HAD to bite him, and he went all stiff....Not exactly a handsome pose either."
This wasn't the first brush with trouble for the holostar once named the 'sexiest and most provocative humanoid male on mass-media' by popular acclaim; back in 3424242418 Udang shocked audiences whan at a live performance of his famed series "The Love God", he singled out audience members and proceeded to insult them by species, calling one Wolfen a 'stink-sponge' and several humans 'bipedal bacteria'...While Udang wwent immediately into rehab, blaming that a mis-adjusted nueral painblocker for a dreeng-ball injury he was suffering from at the time, for his 'unconsidered remarks', he never officially apologized for his 'lapse'.
After network minders stopped an attempt by a local Phaseworld peddler to sell Udang's petrified form off as garden statuary, attempts to reverse the petrification at the scene proved futile. Attempts to get the gorgon responsible to reverse her bite have thus far proven equally futile, as the gorgon in question has gone into hiding, but released the statement that she'd only consider it in return for a formal, galaxy-wide apology to herself and her kind, and eighty million credits for 'emotional duress'. Press agents for Udang have not announced whether or not this incident will lead to production the ninth season of 'The Love God' being cancelled, but reportedly screenwriters are hurriedly altering scripts to allow Udang to play a statute of his character in the upcoming season....

Aramanthus · Unread post by **Aramanthus** » Sun Apr 22, 2007 3:39 am

Nice news story.

what about another one with say a special forces attack taking something from say pirates? What do you think of that...........

taalismn · Unread post by **taalismn** » Sun Apr 22, 2007 10:03 pm

As soon as we find some pirates worth reporting....
Just about everybody's knocking them off, including adventurers from dirtpoor little backwater planets....

taalismn · Unread post by **taalismn** » Sun Apr 22, 2007 10:05 pm

NON-K-80 ‘Shotgun Cam’----Aka ‘Sweatgun’
This weapon, exclusive to Network Omni News, is all too familar to subjects of NON’s ‘gunsight journalism’, since they’re most likely to encounter it shoved in their sensory organs. This ‘sidearm’(roughly the size of a submachine gun, and JUST balanced enough to be used single-handed) is typically issued to veteran reporters (6th level or higher) going after ‘big game’, and has become something of a signature weapon of NON ‘commando reporting’. More than a weapon, the NON-K-80 is a combination multi-media recording device, handheld sensor package, and portable lie-detector all in one.
Cybysscryth’s Kittani tech-nerds put a lot of effort into designing what they thought was the perfect ‘reporter’s persuader’, freely borrowing/stealing ideas from other designers whose wares they encountered in the galactic markets. The NON-K-80 has the heavy-metal look and feel of a Kittani weapon, but has the massive gaping muzzle more familiar to Naruni weapons, and carefully designed appearance meant for maximum psychological impact....With its daunting business end, gleaming and unblinking Eye sensor, glaring red holo-cam laser-scanner, and shotgun mike pointing right at them, few beings have managed to maintain their composure...weaker-minded beings have been known to soil themselves at the sight.
The NON-K-80 also raises more questions than answers among Cybysscryth’s Splugorth rivals....The weapon seems to incorporate an Eye of Eylor into it; it looks like an Eye, and it BEHAVES like an Eye, but as far as anybody knows, it’s far too SMALL to be an Eye of Eylor. This has raised considerable questions about an already controversial and disliked (at least by other Splugorth) Splugorth and his organization...Is Cybysscryth somehow getting access to a variety of Eyes nobody else has, abusing his supply privileges, somehow cloning and shaping Eyes to his own particular needs, or has he gained access to another, and different, Eylor(in another dimension) for his own exclusive use? Not knowing is driving other Splugorth mad....
Weight: 7 lbs
Range: 1,000 ft
Damage: 6d6 MD per blast
Payload: 22 shots standard e-clip, 32 from a long e-clip
Features:
*Barrel Shock---The NON-K-80 effectively has a Horror Factor of 12 when pointed in a person’s eye , similar to the New West’s ‘BigBore’ weapons.
*Retractable Buttstock---The weapon has an extending wire arm/shoulder brace for more accurate aiming/steady camera shots.
*Laser Sight---+1 to strike
*E-clip Adapter---Reloads aren’t always easy to get in the field, so the prepared reporter goes into the field with an adaptor kit...The standard adaptor in the Three Galaxies can accept Splugorth, CW, TGE, and Golgan-manufactured e-clips(the Naruni reliance on plasma cartridges has thwarted efforts to use theirs).
*Holo-Camera---High performance holographic audio-visual recording system with both still- and holographic-image capability, telescopic lens, wide-aperature ‘fisheye’, low-light, light filtering, ‘fuzzy logic’ image stablization, and shotgun directional mike.
*Voice-Stress Analyzer---A sine-wave register that picks up on changes in volume and steadiness in a person’s voice, and registers aberrations from what might be efforts to conceal secrets...In order for the system to properly work, the interrogator must get the interrogatee to answer a few questions for answers they already KNOW to be correct to establish a baseline, then ask steadily more probing questions to look for telltales of growing stress and strain(use Read Sensory Instruments skill for correct interpretation of readings)...adds a +5% to Interrogation rolls.
*Internal Clock-Calender---Allows for accurate recording dating.
*Encrypted Holo-Mem Card---Hidden in the buttstock of the gun is an EM-shielded solid-state memory card that can only be recovered, unlocked, and played by a NON code-key, protecting the reporters’ recorded info from tampering. The holo-mem card holds up to 180 hours of footage.
*Safety Keying---The NON-K-80 can be keyed to operate only in response to specific sets of PPE/bio-electric field signatures unique to a person, specifically the reporter assigned the weapon. Anyone else attempting to use the device or access any of its special features will find the trigger locked and the sensors unresponsive.
‘*Eye’ Sensor---What looks and behaves like a golfball-sized, golden-irised, Eye of Eylor and acts as both a magic/psionic supplement to the technological systems, and as a backup. Can see in the ultraviolet spectrum, nightvision 400 ft, polarized vision, and sees magical energy.
Psionics: See Aura, See Invisible, Sense Evil, Sense Magic, and Total Recall. Has 50 ISP.
Magic: Six spells typical; Words of Truth, Tongues, Detect Concealment, Eyes of Thoth, Globe of Daylight, and Blindlng Flash
Has 70 PPE.
Market Cost: Rumored to cost something in the order of 50 million credits for its technology alone(though obviously it costs NON a lot less per unit to produce these things if they're issuing them to reporters...).

taalismn · Unread post by **taalismn** » Mon Apr 23, 2007 9:43 pm

Yep....let'em know you're SERIOUS about getting answers to your questions...TRUTHFUL answers....And it works pretty well at dissuading overzealous bodyguards, too!

taalismn · Unread post by **taalismn** » Tue Apr 24, 2007 9:39 pm

Darkmax wrote:What bodyguards?.....

The gun-camera footage ets edited out of the aired interview and seconded to 'C-Clips: The Online Multi-Media Magazine of Modern Combat' on NON's Combat Channel.

taalismn · Unread post by **taalismn** » Wed Apr 25, 2007 10:20 pm

Example: "Look at those two idiots trying to take our cameraman down! You don't hold grav-guns that way! Only idiots hold gravity-guns like that! Why waste an extra two-thou for custom balancing and sighting if you're going to hold it sideways and throw the aim off?! These guys bodyguards or zip-ridders?! Any merc or Runner worth their creds will know that emulating the holos doesn't make you look cool or scary, it makes you look like a yutz and a maggot-steak!"
"Our cameraman seems to agree with your assessment...that joker just got lazed and plasma-glazed...."

taalismn · Unread post by **taalismn** » Thu Apr 26, 2007 6:21 pm

Real Men use field-portable X-Ray Lasers.... :bandit:

taalismn · Unread post by **taalismn** » Fri Apr 27, 2007 6:23 pm

Munchkins just use anti-matter warheads...

taalismn · Unread post by **taalismn** » Sat Apr 28, 2007 8:45 pm

Network Omni News Op-Ed:

Hey!
I find being a mage(and admittedly I don't play them oftem because of it) much more challenging in a high tech environment....Mercs and Runners can load up on the latest model Kill-o-Zap arm cannons and tacnukes...a mage in Palladium has to wait for his next level of experience for his Lightning Bolt to increase in power, and few (lower level) spells start out with 'Level a city block regardless of how dumb the user is' levels of power....

The mages are usually cowards because of the amateurs out there playing Rambo with x-ray lasers....And there are a LOT of amateurs out there...

taalismn · Unread post by **taalismn** » Sun Apr 29, 2007 2:30 pm

Darkmax wrote:perhaps its me, but the mages I used to play with hide behind me and shoot from there.... what annoys me is they will cast a spell behind my back, control my character and use him as a block.

The other one that I hated (really) tried to kill off my character without ever appearing. Fortunately I found him.

That tactic's straight out of Knights of the Dinner Table!...and yes, it has happened to me as well...Fortunately my mystical throwing blade had a limited mind of its own and used its return flying action to alter course a BIT....

But it's curious...I wonder if the United Worlds of Warlock has a seven-day waiting period on scrolls, amulets, and potions...maybe a psionic/mystical background check to prevent hotheads from abusing magic?

taalismn · Unread post by **taalismn** » Mon Apr 30, 2007 5:56 pm

And do magic academies ever have to worry about disgruntled undergrads setting loose demons?
This must be a MAJOR problem with any school educating Shifters(of course, it can be argued that Shifters are apprenticed by individual senior mages, rather than educated in groups...but still...).

Aramanthus · Unread post by **Aramanthus** » Mon Apr 30, 2007 11:31 pm

I like that new device! I think it would be a nice entry for those who work for Omni News!

taalismn · Unread post by **taalismn** » Tue May 01, 2007 2:10 pm

Network Omni Newsflash
Dateline: 5/0104231/4483284748

Altess Post Reward for Missing Teenagers
---Center, Phaseworld, Corkscrew Galaxy. Representatives for the Altess Dynasty on Phase World have announced a reward for information leading to the whereabouts of five missing Altess youths who went missing in a field trip to the famed interdimensional hub and transit center.
Authorities with the Altess Embassy located on Level One have issued a request for information on Semias De'Lantree(Male), Hadaron Pochowskzec(Male), Hamia Dedali(Female), Gomorria As'Varon(Female), and Wesiori Aubomn(Female), five 'teenage' Altess who were visiting the arcology/port three days ago when apparently the five slipped past the attention of their minders and disappeared. Despite extensive search efforts by Phase World security and several other organizations on planet, no substantial information on the five youths has turned up, and authorities are now appealing to the public for assistance.
The five persons involved were last seen boarding a hoverbus on Level 2-B, shortly after breaking away from their tour group....Witnesses report that they may have been accompanied by two or three other beings, identity unknown, but did not appear to have been coerced. No record has been turned up of their leaving the spaceport via ship, or going through any of the dimensional gates in Center, but authorities are not ruling out anything.
The Altess Embassy is offering a 40 million credit reward for information leading to the location of the missing youths, and/or the detainment/arrest of any parties involved in their disappearance. Anyone with information is urged to contact the Altess Embassy's special com-board to report their input. Details of the five missing Altess are also available from the same com-board.

Greyaxe · Unread post by **Greyaxe** » Wed May 02, 2007 1:59 pm

taalismn wrote:Network Omni Newsflash
Dateline: 5/0104231/4483284748

Altess Post Reward for Missing Teenagers
---Center, Phaseworld, Corkscrew Galaxy. Representatives for the Altess Dynasty on Phase World have announced a reward for information leading to the whereabouts of five missing Altess youths who went missing in a field trip to the famed interdimensional hub and transit center.
Authorities with the Altess Embassy located on Level One have issued a request for information on Semias De'Lantree(Male), Hadaron Pochowskzec(Male), Hamia Dedali(Female), Gomorria As'Varon(Female), and Wesiori Aubomn(Female), five 'teenage' Altess who were visiting the arcology/port three days ago when apparently the five slipped past the attention of their minders and disappeared. Despite extensive search efforts by Phase World security and several other organizations on planet, no substantial information on the five youths has turned up, and authorities are now appealing to the public for assistance.
The five persons involved were last seen boarding a hoverbus on Level 2-B, shortly after breaking away from their tour group....Witnesses report that they may have been accompanied by two or three other beings, identity unknown, but did not appear to have been coerced. No record has been turned up of their leaving the spaceport via ship, or going through any of the dimensional gates in Center, but authorities are not ruling out anything.
The Altess Embassy is offering a 40 million credit reward for information leading to the location of the missing youths, and/or the detainment/arrest of any parties involved in their disappearance. Anyone with information is urged to contact the Altess Embassy's special com-board to report their input. Details of the five missing Altess are also available from the same com-board.

40 million is high, who are these kids? For forty million you could hire a substantial army to find them. I call the com-board to inquire if they will keep me and mine on reatiner for 2 million in our continued effort to search for the missing teenagers.

taalismn · Unread post by **taalismn** » Wed May 02, 2007 5:31 pm

Altess average an income of 6-18 million credits starters....they're also pretty darn cagey about recovering their own as a matter of keeping their DNA secret...
Obscene wealth is the hallmark of the Altess...they typically buy off invaders and pirates, or pay others to go deal with the problems for them...I figured the reward posted might actually be TOO low, given the mind-boggling wealth the Altess can bring to bear on a problem...but too low or too high and the fact that the normally aloof and snoddy Altess are actually publically asking for assistance(though for all we know they might only be posting this to elite bounty-hunters and finders and NON simply picked up on it) means something's up...the exact details of the what and why I leave to your sufficiently depraved and demented imaginations).

Aramanthus · Unread post by **Aramanthus** » Thu May 03, 2007 12:57 am

That is a cool news story.

taalismn · Unread post by **taalismn** » Thu May 03, 2007 3:59 pm

Well, the popular rumor is that each Altess's DNA sequence contains part of the puzzle to finding the Cosmic Forge...pure huuwah IMHO, since I don't subscribe much to the Forgewar....but like an aborigine's true name, a perosn's(or a race's) DNA can be valuable beyond words(we already have controversies in the modern day about proprietory DNA....)...Besides developing products from particular strains of DNA, it can also be used to develop individual- or ethnicity-specific bioweapons...

I laugh when I remember the old Buck Rogers TV show episode where the 'Galaxy's MOst Genetically Perfect Woman' is menaced by criminals out to carve her up and sell her parts to the highest bidder(rather than just follow her around and swipe cells from her drinking glasses or discarded tissues)...besides the glaringly dumb phrase "Most Genetically Perfect", I had to wonder if the scriptwriters ever considered the emerging realm of genetic licensing...or if they just wanted a flimsy excuse to menace a fashion model with a James Bond-esque cutting laser?

ANYWAYS.....The Altess probably don't want any secrets of their longevity/immortality nosed around, sinceif everybody became so, the stellar neighborhood would become that much more crowded and boorish, and the Altess themselves would lose much of their mystique...

taalismn · Unread post by **taalismn** » Thu May 03, 2007 8:01 pm

gadrin wrote:
taalismn wrote:
ANYWAYS.....The Altess probably don't want any secrets of their longevity/immortality nosed around, sinceif everybody became so, the stellar neighborhood would become that much more crowded and boorish, and the Altess themselves would lose much of their mystique...

"follow that altess around and scoop up any kleenexes or drink cups they might discard"

actually that Buck Rogers title sounds like an adequate description of the Altess.

I remember seeing a Psi-ghost in one ep, and a shapeshifter with EE powers too...

"The Naruni Enterprises Plasma-Vac Personal Portable Sanitizer---Because You Don't Want to Leave Free Gifts From and Of Yourself For Strangers"
(image of a GeneSplicer holding up a hair-follicle, and leering at it through his eye-piece, while underneath are the words: WOULD YOU TRUST THIS MAN WITH YOUR DNA?)

Buck Rogers....1980's camp played straight...back when TV sci-fi was getting into the swing of things...So horribly bad we watched it anyway!

Aramanthus · Unread post by **Aramanthus** » Thu May 03, 2007 11:30 pm

It was still a laugh to watch even nowadays. so what is the next new interesting storyline.

What about a planet where some small group of people are holding the fates of their planets people with the small and dwindling resource they are holding the world hostage with. (I hope you are getting my not so subtle hint.)

taalismn · Unread post by **taalismn** » Fri May 04, 2007 3:48 pm

Aramanthus wrote:It was still a laugh to watch even nowadays. so what is the next new interesting storyline.

What about a planet where some small group of people are holding the fates of their planets people with the small and dwindling resource they are holding the world hostage with. (I hope you are getting my not so subtle hint.)

Working on it...only good thing about losing one of your part-time jobs is the extra time you have while 'hurrying up and waiting' for responses to your resume mailings :-(

Aramanthus · Unread post by **Aramanthus** » Sat May 05, 2007 3:53 am

I'm sorry to hear that Taalismn! I hope you find something quickly!

taalismn · Unread post by **taalismn** » Sat May 05, 2007 8:55 pm

Problem is , it was one that I did for over eight years...the last three of which I saw my value in the organization diminished, hours curtailed, increasing isolation, and mounting obstacles placed in my way by office politics...Thought I came to understand my days were numbered, economic conditions and a bad job market prevented me from getting better work elsewhere(hey, I needed the money)...And ultimately the conditions which ultimately forced me out particularly rankled...As much as I acknowledge it was a rut I was in, it still hurt to see my idealism and self-image in that position utterly torpedoed.

Now, in true heroic fashion)and more in keeping with the intent of the Palladium forums' purposes), I could say I went out and liberated a planet with my newfound freedom, or in dastardly fashion, declared to my late employers, "I foresee a day when -I- shall return and be in a position to sign YOUR paychecks, BWAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!", but instead I spent the day hiking....

I kinda now empathize with any Naruni Enterprises low-echelon smuck who gets to be too old a cog in the corporate machine, or CCW minor bureacrat who gets caught in the politics of public service...
Of course, those guys would either hire a bunch of adventurers to get the dirt on their (ex)bosses, or that themselves would wear a wire, look up some obscure piece of galactic/corporate law. buff up at some burb-level martial arts academy, and turn the tables on the bad guys in some suitably slick and cunning fashion...

Hmmm....maybe there's something there....

Aramanthus · Unread post by **Aramanthus** » Sun May 06, 2007 3:30 am

You'll be ok Taalismn! I know you will. I'll keep my fingers crossed for you!!!!

taalismn · Unread post by **taalismn** » Sun May 06, 2007 10:37 pm

Actually, 21 more days and it would have been 10 years(ten years if you count the fact that I did volunteer work for them previous to being hired)....that woulda been some nice symmetry...But I'm getting over it, just leaving on such a sour note rankled....

Network Omni Newsflash
Dateline: 05/06664623643/32342383

Last of Ceklestran Keepers Retires After 42,000 Years on Job
-----Emyodas Cataract, Omoli Sector, Thundercloud Galaxy. An era came to an end today when the last manned Ceklestran outpost was closed today, and its Keeper, on continous duty for 42,312 Standard Years, left for a long overdue retirement.
(Video of a stooped-looking Draconid in an archaic vacsuit going about the interior of a spacestation, checking monitors and equipment racks)
Gadalas Vorgcee was only 300 when he accepted an apprenticeship to work as an attendant and assistant technician aboard one of the Ceklestran 'space lighthouses' used for guiding intergalactic traffic between the Three Galaxies, and providing communications relay service and rescue of stranded ships through the adjacent Emyodas Cataract, a rotaing blackhole with wormhole properties. He rose to become a full station Keeper and kept watch over galactic traffic lanes for forty-two millenia.
In that time, Vorgcee, his aging slowed by his station's proximity to the event horizon of the Cataract, and ancient Vechree technology, has watched trade and technology advance through the Omoli Sector, seen governments rise and fall, has guided countless vessels through the galactic expanses and the turbulence of the Cataract, been involved in over a thousand rescues, and has on several occasions survived attacks by pirates and creatures of the void. Though Vorgcee has never married, he remained through his tenure as station-keeper a gregarious being, often engaging in friendly conversations with passing starships, and becoming known in the sector as 'Garrulous Gad'.
"More than the broadband beacon signals, Gadalas' voice had to be the most welcome sound anytime we ran into trouble running the Cataract." said one regular wormhole shipper at the closing ceremony:"His calm and friendly voice talked a lot of people out of giving up when they thought their ships were going to break up under stress from shooting through the wormhole...He'd even offer them a lay-over and a warm meal if they needed to gather their wits after a particularly bad crossing ...he's just that sort of being."
However, automation of the wormhole stations and robotic beacons have replaced the need for manned crews, and the decision was made to close down the Cataract Ceklestran for good last year. Despite calls to keep the station running longer, appeals failed and the station re-automation was completed just last month. Ironically, it was Vorgcee himself who calmed protests about the decision to close his station, when he came out to accept the advance of progress and his pending retirement.
At yesterday's closing ceremony, Vorgcee took one final tour of his Ceklestran base of operations, checked the systems one last time, then, a crowd of journalists and friends watching, closed the hatch as he left, escorted by a Second-Stage Promethean who once served as his supervisor when he first started working as a Keeper.
Vorgcee has expressed high hopes for his retirement, including doing some fishing('not easy to do in the middle of deep space', he admitted to reporters) and maybe part-time work as a customs screener on Phaseworld or a school crossing guard.

taalismn · Unread post by **taalismn** » Mon May 07, 2007 10:14 pm

Hopefully soon....
About a year ago there was a guy who worked for the same bus company over 50 years; just kept slugging away at it....when he finally quit/retired, he died a few months later...some folks blamed lack of purpose...
Around these parts and along the West Coast, there's talk of selling off the old lighthouses to preservationists willing to pay the renovation and upkeep of the beautiful structures, now that GPS and shipboard radar/sonar are replacing even the automated beacons...Real mistake to let the lighthouses go to waste, because you KNOW they'll be needed again if our electronics ever fail us...
Plus I just happen to like lighthouses, though I've never been in one.

Aramanthus · Unread post by **Aramanthus** » Mon May 07, 2007 11:25 pm

That is very touching! I think that there is a little bit of personnel feelings in that one! It is very befitting your present feelings!

taalismn · Unread post by **taalismn** » Tue May 08, 2007 11:10 pm

Darkmax wrote:lighthouses tend to be haunted....

George Bernard Shaw said: “I can think of no other edifice constructed by man as altruistic as a lighthouse. They were built only to serve. ..."

He's right....Firehouses can be retasked, or are erected as part monuments to a town's prosperity(at least in my part of the world), civic centers are comemrical enterprises, and hospitals...well, HMOs and health insurance sez it all...but as far as I know, nobody ever managed to chisel an unfair profit out of lighthouse construction, and they're rather difficult to effectively alter to other purposes....

Advanced spacefaring species would have their forms of lighthouses in the forms of navigational beacons...but I like to think that the peoples of artistically-inclined powers like the UWW might fancifully construct theirs to resemble faire-built traditional lighthouses in space...

taalismn · Unread post by **taalismn** » Wed May 09, 2007 10:30 pm

Or you COULD just create an artificial pulsar...
BUt you'd wind up frying anybody unlucky enough to come too close to the high velocity radiation jets...which kinda defeats the benign purpose of a lighthouse....

Aramanthus · Unread post by **Aramanthus** » Thu May 10, 2007 12:04 am

you could still use things similar to lighthouses in space to prevent people from sailing their ship right into a space hazard.

taalismn · Unread post by **taalismn** » Thu May 10, 2007 5:17 pm

Network Omni Newsflash
Dateline: 05/1063373/2441416544169

Free Worlds Justice Escapes Trap!
---Camerac XI, Denazi System, Oberan Sector, Alludi Alliance, Corkscrew Galaxy. Alludian officials are still tallying the bodycount after a massive melee in the port city of Renex, but one thing is abundantly clear; Aburr Shayn, the famed and feared Justicer-Executioner of the Free Worlds Council, has managed to again elude a trap set for him by the TransGalactic Empire. The events witnessed in Renex are certainly the most ambitious attempt on the life of the feared rebel by his TGE nemesis, and, judging from an initial report of over two hundred dead TGE nationals, one of the most disasterous enacted outside the borders of contested TGE/FWC space.
Aburr Shayn Justicar has become a well-known, if seldom-seen, figure in the FWC's rebellion, as part of an elite assassination and counter-intelligence group charged with taking down the most heinous war criminals of the TGE's brutal suppression of the FWC and other rebel worlds. He came to prominence for being responsible for eliminating over three dozen high-ranking imperial officials, often in ways that made their punishments 'fit the crime'. Among Shayn's past accomplishments; the execution of TGE General Lorvv Beven, the 'Grinder of Genoda', whose demanted and creative use of armored vehicles killed over fifty thousand civilians...by jamming the controls of his own command vehicle and using it to crush the general, the death by hypothermia of the crew of the TGE special operations cruiser Hand of Discipline, for the mass poisoning of the inhabitants of the Revolianna D'Mrixx space colony, and the death of at least two Invincible Guardsmen for the irradiation of the Adyii hatchery grounds. Shayn and his FWC 'justice squad' have a bounty of several million Imperial credits posted on their heads by the TGE.
Local authorities are still at a loss as to what exactly happened in Renex, and have expressed surprise that Shayn was even on the planet, over a dozen sectors away from any significant TGE/FWC presence. Witnesses, however, describe an 'orgy of destruction' that spilled over from inside a portside warehouse building and into an adjacent scrapyard.
"Jojomi! It was even better than the holovids...there were like several dozen guys of all shapes and sizes running, leaping, and jetting around, shooting the snot out of each other...There might have been a gargoyle...maybe even a dragon too! Then this guy in a black uniform, eyes cold as ice, comes walking out in the middle of it, like NOBODY'S going to touch this dude, because he's walking like he's so totally unconcerned...a lot of folks thought it WAS a holovid at that point and almost got up...good thing they didn't, because somebody mighta gotten shot...then this cool black ship comes skimming in and blows the yerozzi out of a pair of skimcraft that were hanging around, comes down and lands next to the guy, who gets on, and then a bunch of other guys pile in after him, before they all take off...oh yeah, I think the warehouse exploded a coupla times after that, too!" one witness reported.
Other eyewitness accounts describe a similar humanoid, matching Shayn's appearance and trademark Justicar uniform, leaving the scene as well. Subsequent police investigation turned up multiple bodies in the area, wearing equipment consistant with a number of known bounty hunters and mercenary units, but at least one official attached to the local Sector TGE embassy has turned up as well.
THe TransGalactic Empire has declined comment on the incident, but only reinterated its denouncement of Shayn's 'terrorist activities and crimes against the innocent people of the IMperium'.