WoAF - Game Session 29

...unfortunately the recording of this session has been lost and there is no way to recover it.  So this episode has to be transcribed from memory, which means that some of the details will be missing and it will be a relatively brief recap, without dialog.  Oh darn... 

Speeding in incredible zig-zags near the surface of the moon, Jacob was piloting the commandeered Nazi UFO, dodging the giant Robots that had taken off from within the hidden silos of Eisenhelm.  Each one was actually a protective automated machine surrounding a massive interplanetary nuclear missile.  After a series of feints, they disengaged the phalanx of 50 that was heading towards Earth, and instead engaged the ten that had taken up positions standing on the surface of the moon above Eisenhelm.  These metal behemoths were using enormously powerful plasma rays to bore molten holes into the surface of the moon.  It looked as though they intended to puncture Eisenhelm in ten locations, possibly destroying the entire fortress... or perhaps specific quadrants.  Our heroes presumed this was part of "Plan Delta-Zee" which one of the Nazi Officers had proclaimed triumphantly, before dying a cruel death at the hands of one of his own men.  Vallnam had taken charge of the weapons controls, and managed to bore a hole through the knee of one of the Robots with a perfectly aimed plasma beam.  It it fell into its own magma pool and disappeared beneath the fiery slag.  Shortly thereafter, three of the giant robots launched into the sky and engaged the heroes with an array of attacks.  One of them landed a direct hit with its plasma beam, searing the bottom of their ship into bubbling slag.  This shot took out several key systems, including the weapons targeting system, their communications antenna, and all of their lower sensor arrays.  They were flying blind and unable to target with their weapons, so any shot would have to be eyeballed, and the ship pivoted accurately to position the weapon towards the target.  The three Robots circled around for another pass.  They decided to beat a hasty retreat and land near the same hanger door that they had infiltrated on their first foray to the base.  It was inside that hanger that they discovered the UFO fleet, and managed to liberate the vessel they were currently flying.  Meanwhile, Linda was speeding there on her rocket bike from Aristarchus Crater, and expected to arrive in another 45 minutes.  Their plan at that point was to infiltrate the base, find their way to Control Room Sub-4-M3, overcome any obstacles in their way, gain access to the Robot's control Console, and enter the their Self-Destruct Sequence Codes.  Otherwise, the 40 Robots on route to Earth would deliver what could be the final blow to human civilization - 40 massive nuclear missiles landing on top of the last three major cities of Earth would be the end of it all for sure.  Our heroes were determined to prevent that at all costs!

Back on Earth Pita and Linda were speaking with the stranger from outer space.  As they were speaking, the mysterious silver haired stranger with the dark glowing gem in his forehead announced the arrival of horsemen from the north, and so retreated to his teardrop-shaped space ship and vanished without a trace.  Pita and Linda took  to their rocket bikes and quickly landed among the eastern hills in order to get off the Salt Flat where they'd have been easily surrounded.  They hoped to gain some cover among the canyons and rills along route 101. The horsemen arrived and negotiations began, with Pita directing pointed questions towards their leader.  They were told that the Salt Flats were off limits to all strangers, that they were trespassing and had to leave the area.  Linda conveyed that she had been compelled to come to that location by a recurring dream, and refused to leave without finding out why.  The Brigade commander communicated this by radio to someone unseen, and so a higher authority sanctioned Linda and Pita to be brought to meet whomever that was.  Pita noticed that the helmets appeared to include some sort of breathing apparatus, and speculated that the horsemen might not be able to breath normal air.  Pita and Linda were left to decide if they really wished to follow the mounted warriors into the unknown.

Meanwhile in Panguitch, good Captain Samwise and his trusty crew made their way into town, and rescued the team of doctors from their laboratory on Sub-Level 4 at Garfield Hospital.  Bruin Hilde had been promoted to Captain and was given the task of conveying the refugees further north on Route 89.  Dr. Rogers and Penelope remained in control of the Brain V Mech, while Samwise, Guns and Fred remained in the AGV.  It would take about four to six hours for the scientists to evacuate the facility with their equipment.  While they worked on that, Samwise  stationed himself in the AGV and spied out the southern front, discovering that Major Sekston had been battling the Lizardmen forces with "the Rhino", her personal Mech.  A column of tanks under the banner of the Shadow King were driving north towards Panguitch along the road from St. George.  The Western Militia had begun digging trenchworks along the south-most section of the town, and had come under heavy artillery fire.  Meanwhile it looked like Lizardman brigades were trying to outflank them along the hills to west of the town.  Sam was left deciding whether or not to bring the AGV there help Sekston fight the Lizardmen forces, or shepherd the scientists north.

And that was were we left things that night.

WoAF - Game Session 28

Having successfully warded off all of the skull spiders, Linda and Pita stared out at the raging radiation storm from the entrance of the cave.  They were still a bit shaken up by the frightful encounter, and decided that would likely be best to continue on towards Black Diamond Mountain.  After all, they had no guarantee that the cave wasn't crawling with hordes of the skull spiders in the tunnels below.  

As Pita stepped outside into the fierce rain-drenched winds, he focused the full power of his mind on a spot in the sky just above where he judged its center to be.  A brilliant crimson lightning bolt flickered down and struck the peak of a nearby hill, shattering an enormous bolder into smoke streaming shards.  He let all his thoughts and fears go and focused on that spot until he began to feel merged with it.  His goal was to align his will with the storm and guide it away further to the west.  This was a very special, very high level Mentarian Power that he had recently acquired, but had not yet used.  As he concentrated he felt the storm center in his consciousness, and he felt his hands gain synchronicity with the great winds of which the storm was composed.  He began to flow his inner self with the titanic forces of the storm, feeling its power course through him. When he felt as though he and the storm had merged into one, he began attempting to nudge it westward.  But his concentration was distracted for a moment, and while his effort was not entirely in vain, and there would come good of it, the effect was not exactly as potent or clear as he had intended. He soon lost touch with the storm's center, but he could tell that it's course had changed slightly. Nevertheless he walked back into the cave somewhat disappointed.

"The storm should move westward soon, and I think it will dissipate after a while.  I'm not sure.  Once we gain some distance we should have clear weather for a few days, I think."

She didn't know how he would know such a thing, but the way he said it made her have confidence, and so she believed him.  They geared up their gear, hopped on their Rocket Bikes and took the dangerous jump into the sky.  At first it was quite rough, as they were buffeted wildly as they ascended, but once they gained 1200 feet, the sky above suddenly opened into a crystal clear blue.  Below they could see the dense dark gray cloud swirling, and at is center scarlet flashes flickered ominously.  Indeed Pita's radar showed the storm had begun to move west, and was already beginning to dissipate, albeit considerably more slowly than Pita had hoped.  However, he felt confident that from that point forward they were bound to have clear weather, and that was a consoling thought.

The two flew their Rocket Bikes north west along the route that was mapped on their Nav-Screens.  Black Diamond Mountain was about a eighty miles north west.  They'd be there in no time as the bikes were very fast, especially at that altitude.  However, once they had gone about 50 miles a thin dotted red line appeared on their screens about 10 miles ahead and nearly parallel to their course.  The line read "Restricted Airspace - No Trespassing".

"That's odd," commented Pita mentally to Linda.

"Indeed, it is.  How can there be a Restricted Airspace this far west?  There's nobody out this far.  Hell, Federation Command until recently didn't think anyone could even be alive further north than Phoenix.  Maybe it's a glitch?"

"Strange.  Lieutenant Brisbane, you still listening in?" asked Pita into the ethers.

"Yes, I'm here," replied the Lieutenant instantly.  

"What do you make of it, dad?" asked Linda.

"Do you get a reading on the source?" asked the stalwart Lieutenant.

"Hold on, let me check," answered Pita as he flipped a switch.  "Yes, ... interesting.  It says the source is Proximatics Industrial, Inc."

"Well now, that is interesting," replied the Lieutenant.  "Proximatics Industrial way out there in the middle of nowhere, and yet not a peep from Mr. Musk on that?  Strange.  I wonder what it could be.  And yes, Linda, perhaps it is a glitch."

"Could be, sir.  Do you want us to investigate?" asked Pita.

"Given Proximiatics Industrial is a privately owned corporation, we don't really have a direct interest in their proprietary affairs.  But let's just say I'd be mighty curious to know what they're up to.  Unofficially, of course.   So I'll have to leave it entirely to your discretion, you two," answered the Lieutenant.

"Ok," replied Pita.  "I think we should continue on to our main objective at this point, and circle back around to this mystery afterwards," knowing as he did how anxious Linda was to arrive at her destination. And so they continued north west on towards Black Diamond Mountain.

After a short while they passed the edges of the storm below, and came down on a patch of desert road, very much in the middle of nowhere.  A dilapidated and peeling metal sign read "101 North".  It was hot enough so that the air caused heat waves above the floor of the desert.  Linda scanned in all directions with her binoculars.  She saw nothing but desolate hills, and the white sands stretching out for miles to the west.

"Part of my dream was in this salt flat somewhere," she said.  "I have a feeling that something waits for me out there.  But I'm... afraid to find out what it is." 

"I'm with you, wherever you go.  I've got your six. You're the best view in the desert right now, anyway," he added sheepishly.

She put her hand on his cheek and smiled.  "Thank you, Pita," she replied making him blush.

They got back on their Rocket Bikes and sped northward along 101 at 160 mph. Pita kept a continuous lookout for anything on the horizon, flashing his binoculars around every few minutes.  After they'd gone about 40 miles or so Linda stopped and pointed up into the sky at a low angle. Pita stopped behind her and followed her finger and in the sky.  He spotted what looked like a dark tear-drop shaped object with a very thin plasma trail tracing a long straight line behind it.  It was distinctly tear-drop shaped.

"I've never seen anything like that," he said.  "What do you think it is?" 

"I've never seen anything like it either.  It's extremely high up, I think."

Pita spot checked his radar, and the object was too far away for them to pick up.  Very high indeed.  It was barely noticeable except for the plasma trail, which glowed a faint iridescent purple against the dark blue sky.  Barely visible at all.  In fact Pita was amazed that she's spotted it at all.  He'd likely never have noticed it.

"Let's keep going, and I'll keep an eye on it.  If it looks like it's coming our way, I'll let you know," said Pita.

They continued northward along 101 for another 20 miles until Linda stopped, again in the middle of nowhere.  Pita came up and stopped next to her.  She pointed to a barely noticeable dirt track that ran straight west out into the desert. He checked his Vizi-screen and noted it's location as 39.94135542202808, -115.87300300611828.  Yup, just as he thought.  The middle of absolutely nowhere.  His map showed nothing at all at their location, nor anything in the vicinity.  He scratched his head, and took a swig of water from the canteen and passed it over to her.  She took a swig, and splashed some water on her face and neck.

The track was barely discernable, but formed a rough line of somewhat discolored dirt heading off into the distance due west.  When they scoped out the line with their binoculars on full magnification, but they saw nothing out there.  In fact, it appeared that the track simply ended at a distant spot in the middle of the desert, but they couldn't be sure.  Maybe it continued on but the track was hidden by a rise in the elevation of the desert floor?  Could be.

"I think I remember this place in my dream," she said, sounding a bit unsure.  "This intersection.  But I don't see anything at all out there, do you?"

"Nothing at all," replied Pita putting his binoculars down with a raised eyebrow.  "Shall we?"

And so they sped westward towards the center of the desert.  The road went straight for quite a ways, then curved north and then curved again to the west, but aside from the curves the track itself was perfectly straight.  Definitely man made.  They passed a rough patch of ground with black sand and rocks, but there was nothing to see there.  

After another stretch they finally arrived at the end of the road.  And there they found another rough patch of land that had flat some gray stone blocks scattered around in vaguely discernable patterns, such as a circle here, and a partial square there, maybe a triangle over there, all forming a large rectangle that spanned 180' by 360'.  

The rectangular area was spotted with dark green bristle bushes, while a number of the flat stones were laid in the ground so that their tops were above the sand line by only an inch or two.  The stones and vegetation seemed to form patterns in the ground.  Some circles, and squares, maybe a triangle?  Perhaps there were buildings here once long ago.  The entire structure seemed rather out of place.  Who would ever have come here to build anything?  Or why would there be only flag stones remaining?  Linda, however, noticed something that she was about to remark on, when something else caught her eye.  What she was going to point to was a half horse hoof print in the sand next to one of the flag stones.  But what she spotted just then seemed far more interesting.

Just beyond the rectangle of stones was a small tree with yellow flowers, seemingly very much out of place in the middle of the barren salt flat.  The branches waved a bit in the slight breeze.  The color of the flowers and the bark of the tree tended to blend in against the sand and yellowish hue of the distant hills, and so it was in fact quite difficult to see it at first. Linda got off her rocket bike and began walking towards it.  The tree looked very withered, and very old.

"Do you know what kind of tree this is?" asked Pita as he dismounted and followed her until they were both standing in the tree's thin shadow.

"Yes, it's a Hawthorn tree," she said. "I've seen this tree before.  It was in my dream.  It was also on the card that the old man at the house in Panguitch withdrew from the tarot deck.  The one that nearly pulled us, and the entire town, into itself."

As he had not seen that bizarre event with his own eyes, he said nothing.  On a whim, he reached out to pull off a flower, planning to give it to her as a gift.

A voice spoke.  A male voice.  A deep resonant male voice. It came from behind them.

"Don't touch that tree."  

Pita and Linda whirled around to see, quite close by, a 6'6" man with a gaunt face, wearing a black robe and silver sash.  He had long silky white hair that draped down past his shoulders.  In his forehead was an embedded black gemstone that seemed to be glowing ever so slightly, and ever so darkly with a dim shadowy radiance.  Behind him by about 30', was a jet black space ship that had silently landed on the desert floor just outside the rectangle.  The ship was so black that it was impossible to see any details, except for its silhouette, which was distinctly tear-drop shaped.

His eyes conveyed a noble yet quietly sinister look.  He walked slowly towards them.  Pita grew tense as he sized him up.  The man stopped ten feet in front of Pita, who stood between the man and Linda.  He looked towards Linda and stated as a matter of fact, "I don't believe in coincidence."

It sounded to Pita by his intonation that he had answered a question that she had silently asked.

"I am Zord-Iak," he replied as if he'd been asked.  That name... range a very distant bell in Pita's mind.  So distant that he could not for the life of him remember where or when he'd heard it before.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Meanwhile, a hundred miles southeast, just north of Panguitch, Fred was staring out the AGV windscreen at the enormous cloud of giant mosquitoes that had descended on their location.  The pulsating green light from their eyes had receded, and he felt his mind had begun to clear to some degree.  He'd just given Captain Samwise a jab in the arm, and expected him to wake up from the knockout gas momentarily.  He gave him slap on the face to facilitate the process.  

Samwise, groggy but glad to find that he was still among the living, took the hit and opened his eyes slowly.  

"Hark and a'vast ye lumbering snot-whistle!  We're under attack, Captain!" shouted Fred at the top of his lungs.  He starred down at Sam fiercely, glanced up at the massive cloud of mosquitos outside, looked past them for an instant to spot the incoming ship, and took the opportunity to slap the good Captain again.

"Ok! I'm up, I'm up," grumbled Sam through a foggy haze as he tried to catch his bearings.  His eyes cleared and he took stock of the situation. The pulsating greenish light of the mosquitos swarm was almost gone as they had been pushed out 240' by the Acoustic Anti-Insect Shell.  He took a look behind him, but Guns was not to be seen.  He looked at Fred, who gave a nod with his head up towards the turret where Guns was still quite knocked out (and tied up for good measure, because Fred was pretty thorough when it came to this sort of thing). The best news as far as Sam was concerned, of course, was that he felt in control of his mind again.  The mosquitoes had been pushed far enough away that their hypnosis was tremendously weakened.  And this time, even if they did get closer somehow, he knew what they were up against, and it'd be quite a bit less likely for them to fall into any such Happy Trances again.  He hoped.

The radio was squawking. Lieutenant Kerrington was on the other end requesting confirmation that the team in the AGV was ok.  

"This is Captain Samwise", he spoke slowly into the microphone.  "We're ok in here right now.  But I have to warn you, do not allow that mosquito swarm to get anywhere near you.  That pulsing light you see coming off the swarm is hypnotic in nature, and, well, just steer clear of the swarm at all cost.  Over."

"Roger that, Captain.  Will do," replied the Lieutenant.  They chatted in staccato briefly to catch up, and then Sam went back to work.

Sam hopped back into the driver's seat and began backing up the AGV southward along route 89 trying to get out from under the swarm.  The mosquitoes, however, had other ides, and stayed 240' distant, just beyond the reach of the acoustic shell, but kept pace with him as he rolled back in reverse.  And so the tunnel of swarming mosquitoes surrounding the AGV and still threatened to surround it completely.  The jeeps that were further south along the road also backed up as they saw the swarm following the AGV.  The Lieutenant planned to keep at least 1200' between the lead jeep and the swarm, for certain.  

Meanwhile, the red flashing radar indicator caught Sam's eye.  He glanced at the screen.  Yes, there was a red blip flying in at 2000 mph on a low curving trajectory from the north.  That's mighty fast.  According to the Trajectory Tracking System the object would intersect with their position in 2 minutes 45 seconds.  Sam peered at it through the thick glass window of the AGV.  he could see it intermittently between the mosquitoes as a distant white dot with a long thin plasma tail behind it.  

"This is Captain Samwise of Federation Command.  Unidentified Vessel, come in.  Unidentified vessel, come in," spoke Sam into the microphone, while switching frequencies on the radio board.  But to no avail.  It was likely, he thought, that their listening frequencies were not going to be on the lucky guess band he was operating on at the moment.  Had Linda been there she would have known how to execute a broad band broadcast, which took a bit of technical savvy, but she was occupied elsewhere at the moment.

"Fred try to zoom in on the Vizi-Screen to see what this thing looks like," ordered Sam.  Fred was already on it, and was zoomed in at 80x.  In between the large brown mosquito blobs that were intervening in his zoomed in view, the could make out the object.  Fred landed a targeting lock on it so they could track it.  He focused the zoom.  And there it was.  It was one of the Mechs from the Black Wind V Facility, cruising in towards their position at Mach 2.6.

"Huh," said Sam finally.  "That is not what we were hoping for."

The cloud of mosquitoes was piling up around the AGV forming a darkening sphere.  He thought about the weapons they might be able to deploy.  There was the flame thrower.  The knockout grenades.  And the Nerve Gas Bomb.  The last option was one that tempted him.  But the nerve gas could potentially kill people if the wind blew it in their direction.  And there was no guarantee that the wind direction wouldn't shift.  He checked the Acoustic Insect Shell, taking note that it was on power level 7.  That was quite sufficient for shattering their wings and frying them mid-air.  He had Fred tuned the radio in on the Panguitch frequencies, and caught the war chatter.  Things were getting quite intense at that point.  

"Fred, put this message through on all Panguitch frequencies and send it out on  the Repeater for the next 10 minutes:  'Warning!  Incoming Mech from Black Wind Facility'," ordered Sam.  Fred got right on it.

Sam rubbed his chin, wondering if the insects were being controlled by some greater intelligence.  It seemed plausible from their behavior, which seemed far more intelligent than one would expect from the average mosquito.  He wanted to try to make contact with whatever, hypothetically, was controlling the swarm.  Maybe he could reason with it.  Or find out its motives.  Or change its mind.  And to this end he wanted to use his Mind Reading skill.  Unfortunately, due to his limitations in this area, he would need to get within 20 feet of a mosquito in order to make such contact.  He looked outside at the ever darkening cloud.  It was still 240' away.  Irksome.  He considered that he could, possibly, step outside and go get close to them.  The entire mosquito cloud had by then swarmed around the AGV forming a thickening shell, in the form of a tunnel that hugged route 89 like a sleeve.  It was becoming difficult to see beyond the cloud.  He decided against chancing a jaunt outside.  Too risky.

Sam reached over to the Navigator controls and flipped the Plasma Cannon power switch.  A low hum began as a blue Charging Indicator light came to life with a single blue bar.  The next bar began to glow blue a few seconds later.  It would be fully charged in 30 seconds. The cloud, he could see, barely, had formed two independent masses.  The larger one was centered on the AGV, while the lesser cloud began moving south towards the line of jeeps.

"Fred, I think we're going to use the Nerve Gas Bomb.  Set the fuse to 10 seconds.  You're going to throw it out the hatch, and we'll lower the Acoustic Shield to try to raw the mosquitoes in and hope the gas takes them out."  Fred made his way to the metal chest in which the bomb was housed.

As Sam was waiting the few seconds it would take Fred to prep the bomb, ahead on 89 at the far end of the tunnel of mosquitoes, he spotted something disturbing. Up from the ground in the center of the road, some rocks began to push upward and roll over.  Out from a hole emerged a small dark gray mass.  It grew larger as he stared incredulously at it.  He knew instantly what this was and he didn't like it one bit.  Bore beetles.  They'd encountered these beetles before, and they had the uncanny ability to bore through stone, and even metal, and, when they got their ire up, the Acoustic Insect Shield, though at great sacrifice to their numbers.  What started out as a dinner plate sized mass, was now the size of a large dog.  He glared at it incredulously. 

"Fred, you got that Nerve Gas Bomb ready?" called Sam over his shoulder tensely.  He wished he still had some of the poison they used to ward off the insects when they'd gone on the expedition to the Great Insect Mound earlier.  But that was not to be.  It had been all but used up during their earlier fight with the insect horde.

"We've got Bore Beetles," said Sam, trying to keep a calm voice.  

"Oh darn," replied Fred anxiously as he lugged the chest across the floor.

"We have a Flame thrower.  That should help.  We have the acoustic shell, but we can't reduce the size least we invite another round of hypnotic pulsation.  This feels, I dare say, rather a bit like a coordinated attack," said Sam.  Fred grunted in agreement.

The red blinking radar blip indicated they had less than 30 seconds before the Black Wind Mech was due to intersect their position.  Fred had set the bomb's timer to 10 seconds and had hauled it over to the AGV airlock hatch.  The plan was to hurl it out the door and in 10 seconds it would explode, and 5 seconds later they'd respond to the incoming Mech.  Sam held his fingers tensely on the Plasma Cannon controls.  

"Fred, I think we're going to die, but this is what we're going to do.  On my mark, open the hatch, hurl the bomb, and close the hatch.  I will reduce the Acoustic Shell diameter, and hermetically seal the Mech and deploy the blast shields.  I will then switch back over to the Plasma Cannon controls and, well, let's hope for the best," said Sam with no great sense of conviction. 

"What if we just get captured by the Mech," said Fred.

"That could well happen, but it doesn't look like 'Capture' is on their flight agenda," replied Sam as he gave Fred the signal.

Fred opened the inner airlock hatch.  He dragged the bomb into the airlock bay, opened the outer door, and without any mishap, pressed the Start-Timer, and tossed the bomb outside.  About 30 meaty looking mosquitoes, some of them fist-sized, had been hovering near the door.  They must have been among those that were already so close to the AGV as to slip inside the Acoustic Insect Shell before they first turned it on, and so had been left inside its perimeter.  Very annoying, thought Fred. Very highly annoying indeed. Their eyes pulsated with an eerie green light. He glanced away, lest he find himself overcome by a hypnotic desire to go outside and joyfully lay down for them to feast on him.

He reached over to press the Door button.  However, as soon as the door had opened the mosquitoes instantly buzzed through the air directly towards Fred and were upon him before before he could react.

Although there were 30 mosquitoes outside the door, only six of them were in range to level their attack.  Except for his leather vest he was not wearing any armor. Fortunately, Fred was rather wiry and quick, and so he set about dodging the incoming attacks by ducking inside while slamming the Close Door button.  And as it happened two of the mosquitoes, in their zeal to get at those rich and throbbing veins in Fred's neck, slammed into each other in mid-attack and went spiraling into the metal sides of the AGV, no doubt greatly frustrated.  Another two couldn't get to him quite in time.  The door slid shut.  One mosquito got squished inside the door as it slammed shut, but one had managed to get inside.  Fred could hear the loud buzzing of its wings and see it by it's heinously pulsating green eyes.  He took a quick glance towards the inner airlock door.  It was closed as per the normal protocol. He looked at the mosquito.  It was the size of a small rat and its eyes pulsed brightly as it approached his neck.  He took his hat and grabbed from inside the rim a handful of 'hathash', a combination of dust, lint, little bits of grit,  and hurled it at the mosquito with a deft flick of his fingers.  The small cloud of debris sailed over its antenna.  It veered erratically away and spun into tight aerial circle.  In a moment it had landed upside down on the metal grate at Fred's feet, its legs wiggling in the air, and its antennae twitching frenetically.  Fred wrapped his hat around his fist and gave his knuckles a good spit for luck.  And with a fast and decisive punch, he smashed it into the grate. There was a dull thud, and the mosquito wings broke, and both antenna bent, and two of its little legs snapped off.  He pounded it again for good measure.  This time he splattered the hellish little creature into the grate, crushing its body so that it divided into several rectangular masses.  Its eyes dimmed to a dull gray hue, and Fred knew it was definitely dead.  He scrambled inside the inner airlock door and slammed it shut.

Sam, meanwhile, deployed the blast shields and pulled in the Acoustic Shell diameter to 10 feet, and lowered the Power Level to 1.  He hit the Lock Down switch which hermetically sealed the vessel and deployed the blast doors.  He slammed the breaks and stopped the AGV, leapt into the navigator seat, and acquired the targeting controls of the Plasma Cannon which he had left in position for fast adjustment.  However, he wasn't quite fast enough.  

As the Acoustic Shell shrank in diameter, he noted with annoyance that the insects did not come any closer to the AGV.  In fact, one of the masses was well on it's way towards the column of jeeps and the convoy of refugees who had positioned themselves some 800' to the south.  He saw a flash blue of light from the Nerve Gas Bomb which exploded next to the AGV.  The nerve gas was invisible, so he couldn't track it, but he hoped it would go where it would do some good, and not waft over the caravan.  Around the AGV a sudden rain of dark brown mosquitoes fell to the ground, causing an entire segment of the tunnel to collapse from the air.  He guessed about 60% of the tunnel had been affected, which was quite a bit more than he had hoped.  But it still wasn't enough.  40% of the mosquitoes still numbered in the tens of thousands.  And the second mass was halfway to the caravan as it was, their greedy horrible eyes pulsating eagerly.

Sam was focused, however, on the incoming silver-white Mech which was now in visible range.  It's speed was such that the air around it had turned into a white moisture shockwave cone.  It did not slow down. It was flying 15 feet horizontally above the ground straight down 89, directly towards them.  Just as it roared overhead it cut a sharp vertical curve straight up and flew at blinding speed into the upper atmosphere.  There was an enormous BOOM as the shock wave hit the AGV.  And this caused every insect in the entire horde to shatter into a trillion tiny insect parts.  Even the bore beetles could not withstands the force of the shockwave. Suddenly there was not an insect to be seen at all.  Just a cloud of grey-brown particles slowly falling to the ground.

Sam could have taken a potshot with the Plasma Cannon at that moment, as the targeting computer had not lost contact with it.  But he was in shock. He had no idea what just happened.  He was expecting to die under a withering barrage of plasma beams, or bombs, or sonic hammers, or radiation beams, or ... something!  Instead, the Mech appeared to have saved their lives.  He didn't know what to think. He took his finger off the firing trigger.  Sam got on the radio and wanted an update from Lieutenant Kerrington.  

"Lt. Kerrington.  What the hell just happened!?"

"I don't know.  I really don't know," replied Kerrington, equally perplexed.

"It's coming around for another pass, Captain," added the Lieutenant after a moment's pause.

"What?!? It is??" Sam nearly shouted.  He checked his radar and sure enough the Mech had spun around in the upper atmosphere and was bee-lining it for their position at Mach 2.

"Hold position.  Hold position," ordered Sam, not knowing what to expect.  His finger was on the Plasma Cannon trigger, and the Mech was locked on.  He could have taken the shot.  But he chose not to.  It began another low run, but this time it dropped speed as it came.  2000mph, 1000mph, 500mph, 150mph and only a quarter mile away.  Sam had a perfect shot at that moment, had he only pulled the trigger.

"Do not open fire, Lieutenant," ordered Sam again. "I want to find out its intentions." 

The Mech landed 90 feet in front of the AGV.  As the steam wafted off its smooth white and silver exterior, a hatch silently slid open.  Out stepped Penelope Monroe, and then behind her Dr. Rogers.  They walked towards the AGV with smiles and out raised hands. Sam stared at them incredulously.  Fred, who also saw them coming, and leapt up the ladder into the turret, pushed the unconscious Guns to the side, and manned the flame thrower.  There was absolutely no way that they were going to trust two people who had just come down south from Brain V, whether they saved their lives from the insect swarm or not.  Sam was fully aware that this could easily be some horrible trick on the part of Brain V, and he was ready.  But then again, there was absolutely no evidence at all that Penelope and Rogers were anything but... well, their friends.  The two of them were smiling happily and waving their hands at the locked down AGV as they walked towards it.

Sam stared at the Vizi-Screen watching them with squinting eyes, more perplexed than he'd ever been in his short, eventful life.

And that's were we left things this game.

WoAF - Game Session 27

Having returned to the warehouse warren with the supply of Acoustic Insect Shields, Captain Samwise surveyed the road ahead.  It was getting hot, and the wet air was shimmering over Route 89.  He stared north.  A cloud of insects had moved over the road and were swarming in by the hundreds of thousands from the great insect mount.  He ordered the soldiers to mount the Shields on the jeeps.  The long line of refugees lined up along side the jeeps clustering around them so that as many could stay under the shields as possible.  The caravan began to slowly move north, the AGV leading in the vanguard.  Samwise kept a careful watch on the cloud with his binoculars.  It was composed of mosquitoes, some as large as a man's fist, and most the size of a finger.  

"Captain, are you seeing what I'm seeing?" asked a lieutenant from the forward jeep. "I'm at 1200 magnification.  Copy?"

Samwise zoomed in and took a closer look.  He noted that the collective mass of mosquitoes had formed a massive column over the road, spanning it lengthwise for about a half mile, forming a kind of tunnel through which the road passed.  But more surprising was the fact that the eyes of the creatures glowed, and pulsated with a greenish light.  And that they all pulsated in unison, such that the entire cloud created a pulsing pale green light in its shadow.  This was something the good Captain had never seen before.

Meanwhile, Fred was on the radio rig, having taken over for Linda who was away on some sort of secret mission with Pita.  Over the static he heard the voices of military men engaged in fierce firefights and running battles.  This fight was taking place just south of the town they were fleeing, Panguitch, Utah.  From what he could tell the Lizardmen forces had moved up with artillery, while the 2nd Army's brigades were trying to occupy the southern sector of the town and dig in.  It didn't sound like it was going well for the forces of men, and occasionally there were screams and the audio would suddenly clip off. Fred flipped frequencies with one hand as he stubbed out a cigarette on the sole of his shoe.  

Guns was up in the Perch wiping the sweat from his eyes as he swapped out the machine gun for the flame thrower.  He expected a wall of fire would be a heck of a lot more effective against insects than bullets.  He aimed to find out. 

They drove up slowly about a quarter mile.  Sam stopped the column and took the AGV ahead alone.  They came within 25' of the mosquito cloud.  It hovered over the road, the tunnel quite apparent, the green glow pulsating rhythmically. Sam stopped the AGV there.  Something about the pulsating light bothered him.  He felt he saw some sort of undulating pattern in the pulsing.  It became more clear the closer they got.  Having never encountered anything like this before he wasn't at all sure what to do.  He looked out the windshield and noticed suddenly that the cloud had begun moving towards them, but he didn't recollect exactly when it had started to move.  His hands were sweating.  In fact he found his entire body was sweating, though he had no sense of heat in the AGV.  Fred also noticed that he felt unusually upbeat.  Like he was on the beginning edge of a really mellow stoner-high.  He noticed his heart rate was increasing, despite the unnaturally calm disposition of his mental state, given the circumstances.  The swarm was now 20' away, at the very edge of the Acoustic Shield.  They seemed to be staying just far enough away to avoid the shield, and began engulfing the vehicle within the tunnel.

The good Captain's thoughts had become rather slow. He reached down to turn the dial of the Acoustic Shield.  He wanted to increase the radius but found that his hand simply wouldn't land on the dial the way he expected.  He looked down.  Sweat dripped from his palm.  The control panel wavered in front of his eyes, a greenish haze enveloping the the dashboard.  

"We're being hypnotized," he thought... slowly.

Fred sat up.  He suddenly had a really good idea.  It was stuffy in the AGV, and it occurred to him just then that it would be much nicer to be outside in the open air.  He looked towards the inner airlock door.  He felt a strong urge to go to the door and open it and go outside. Realizing that something was very wrong with all of this, he slid his mind into one of the other two Mental-Zones he had set up for himself when he first met Dr. Rogers.  At the time he wanted to create mental honey-traps to thwart unwanted visitors.  One Static, and one ongoing insults, with the third compartment containing his normal mind. He forced the pulsating sense of euphoria to drift into his Shakespearean Insults Zone, and so he was being buffeted by endless strings of bizarrely phrased affronts.

"Thou soulless beef-witted scut... scutt... scutt... scutt!" he thought loudly, the words echoing away into darkness.  "Thou craven guts-griping horn-beast... beast... beast... beast!"

This Mental-Zone was probably better than the alternative, which was the Full-Throttle Total-Static Zone that would have likely crushed any thoughts he might have had at all.  And so, in between appalling affronts to his dignity, he plotted his next course of action.   The euphoria, on the other hand, was being rapidly whittled away by the corrosive effect of the insults, which was fortunate as with it also diminished his urge to step outside into the open air.

Guns, feeling quite groovy himself, and suddenly discovering a strong hankering for a stroll, climbed down the ladder from the Perch, and made a fast little bee-line for the airlock.  Once outside he was sure he'd feel positively delightful. He was quite enthusiastic about it.  No sense in wasting time.  Just open the door and enjoy the fresh air!

Fred, seeing Gun's on the way to the door, tore off his leopard speedos and threw them at Gun's feet in an attempt to entangle his legs, and then threw himself onto the big man.  He was trying his best, in the friendliest way possible, to prohibit him from gaining access to the door.  This worked, to some degree, and Guns, being in a fine and happy mood, took it lightly and laughed as he continued to try to dance his way around his little friend.  He had every intention in the world of going outside to enjoy the beautiful sunshine, as soon as he could get this silly octopus off of him. Fred, for his part, was trying to hang on for dear life, but he realized it was only a matter of moments before Guns would push him off.  Guns was a hefty fellow, and strong like an ox.

Sam was also trying to break out of the happy little fog he found himself in, but to no avail.  He stared helplessly as Fred attempted to grapple with Guns in front of the airlock.  He turned his attention back to the Acoustic Insect Shield and tried to maximize the radius setting again, but that didn't go so well.  His fingers felt very clumsy, like wads of soft clay at the ends of cotton candy hands, and so instead of turning it up as he intended, he accidently turned it to the lowest setting.  Not quite off, but so low that the mosquito swarm now hovered in a darkening mass just outside the steel-glass windows of the AGV.  The wavering green glow of their rhythmically pulsating eyes filling the cabin.

"Captain Samwise, thou tottering onion-eye'd whore-master!", burst out Fred from across the compartment, "Assemble the gas of nerves that kills those who breath it, and set it at the flying demons out yonder window! Thou pragging tardy-gaited flirt-gill, have at it before we're all sucked dry to the bone!  Let them smack of my break-wind after a mushroom salsa!"

Samwise raised an eyebrow slowly, trying to take in that long winded instruction.  He thought it over, and eventually came to the conclusion that he didn't have the coordination to execute such a maneuver.  It was a dilemma.  If he failed to get the nerve gas tank outside then he could inadvertently kill them all.  That would be a bad thing, he concluded finally, and rested a bit.

Suddenly the radio blared through the static. "AGV.  Come in.  AGV Come in.  This is Lt. Karrington.  Is everything ok in there?  Over."

Fred was still trying to hold on the Guns but the big fellow was making quite good progress extricating himself from his grip as he guffawed frivolously and reached for the door panel. 

In desperation, convinced that their only chance lay in pushing the mosquito swarm as far away from the AGV as possible, Sam again lunged at the control panel.  But his luck was even worse than the last time and he managed to turn off the Acoustic Shield instead.  He glared furiously at his playdoh fingers as the mosquito swarm landed full contact all over the AGV.  The windshield turned black, and now all that could be seen inside was by the glowing green pulsations.  The sense of euphoria at the idea of going outside was becoming overwhelming. All of them felt that the fresh clean air outside, with the glorious sunshine and cool breeze would be so wonderful to enjoy... it was such a lovely day out, and so stuffy and horrid inside!  

Fred pulled out a Knockout Grenade from his backpack.  He contemplated pulling the pin and knocking them all out.  After all, that surely would be better than opening the door.  The pulsing green light filled the cabin.  It was getting harder to concentrate by the second.  Fred let go of Guns and reached into his backpack and pulled out his gas mask and put it on.  

"Guns, Thou dankish rough-hewn haggard!" he exclaimed as he donned the mask.  "Sam, that befouled pimple-rogue has eyes for Ilene!" he yelled at Guns.  "You shouldn't leave her alone in your perch with him, you bat-fowling witless fleck!"

"Oh gosh that's true!" laughed Guns with delight, and turned to head back up the ladder to get his favorite Springfield rifle.  "Ilene will like it outside a whole lot, on account of it's such a nice day!  She sure will!  Ilene I'm coming for ya!"

As Guns ascended Fred sat down at the radio console, pulled the pin, braced himself behind the steel casing, and tossed the grenade into the stairwell.  There was a very loud bang which made everyone's ears ring violently.  Knockout gas filled the cabin.  Sam and Guns both passed out within seconds.

Fred swiveled around and got on the radio.  "Hey thou paunchy puke-stocking wagtail!  Fred here!  We're surrounded by winged blood-knaves and my greasy giglits have dropped!  Don't approach, ill-bred bugbear!  The danger is is too great!"

Fred listened to the confusion on the other side of the line.  He looked around for something to restrain Guns with.  He figured they'd be out for at least an hour.  He found the Smart Rope and trussed up Guns with it.  He then went to the front control panel where Samwise was slumped over, and turned on the Acoustic Insect Shield. Thousands of mosquitoes were instantly fried, or buzzed upward into the air. He turned the radius up and began pushing the swarm away.  He stopped.  He went back to the smallest radius and lowest intensity.  He tried luring them in and blasting them but they didn't respond the way he expected.  It seemed to him that for insects these mosquitoes were smarter than the average bugs.  The swarm acted in unison, and intelligently. He turned the power to maximum with a 50' radius. Many a mosquito shattered and fried along the perimeter of the sonic sphere that day.  As the Shield pushed outward he he felt the mental effect of their pulsation lessen.  He pushed it to 75'.  The influence lessened again.  He continued to increase the radius until he reached the maximum of 240 feet.  The effect was still noticeable, but not nearly as strong as the bulk of the cloud was enormous and still formed a tunnel over the road ahead.

On the radar he saw a red blip suddenly appear.  He checked the readings and calibrated the controls.  There was something large flying in from the north at 2000 mph.  He looked out the window but it was hard to see through the mosquito cloud.  He caught a brief glimpse of a gleaming shape in the sky, coming in on a long low curved arc, but he couldn't make out what it was.  He switched to the Vizi-screen, locked the targeting computer on it, and slid the magnification to 80x.  Now he could see it, though intermittently between the mosquito bodies.  It was one of Brain V's Mechs from the Black Wind V Facility.  It was on track to arrive in 2 minutes 43 seconds at its current speed.  He looked around.  He needed to wake up his friends.  He found Sam's stash of Modafinil II syringes in his shoulder bag and gave Sam a jab.  Within a few moments his eyes opened and he roused himself. 

"Hark and avast, ye lumbering snot whistle!  We're under attack, Captain!" announced Fred to Sam.  

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Meanwhile, far off in space, speeding in zig-zag patterns over the moon, UFO #01 had successfully caused untold mayhem down below.  Jacob gave Vallnam an awkward, yet heartfelt high five.  The two considered their next course of action.

Through the bronze rimmed porthole they could see Mare Frigoris.  Beneath it, they knew from prior experience, was the secret Nazi fortress, Eisenhelm.  In the fortress the two heroes had managed to ignite a civil war using copious amounts of psychic trickery, as per their Mentarian powers.  After several furious rounds of brainstorming, they decided to use Jacob's newly minted skill, speaking German, to contact the base by Radio, and pretend to be members of one of the warring factions of Nazis.  He would do his best to intimidate them and take a few more whacks at the hornets nest.

"Achtung!" shouted Jacob into the microphone.  The radio was still set to the same frequency as when he contacted the Nazi radio officer earlier.  That guy they'd managed to influence to kill his commanding officer.  He was already dead, but someone else had taken his place at the controls.

"Comrads!  Now is the time to rise up and show the world the true face of Facism!  The Commander is dead.  Now is the time to strike!  Do not hesitate!"

"What is your security code!?" squawked the terse response over the speakers.

"We don't answer to you, fool!  You will be swept under the tide!" snapped Jacob  into the mic.  He then gave a big grin and wink to Vallnam who responded with a hearty thumbs up and snicker.

"Who is this?!" demanded the officer on the other side of the radio.

"I am your doom!" responded Jacob grimly and switched channels.

For the next ten minutes he scanned frequencies but none responded. He eventually landed back on the original channel.

"Have you learned of the death of your false leader?!" sneered Jacob.  There was a long string of curses in German as a reply.

"Now you understand how powerful we are!" crooned Jacob insidiously, goading the officer into vein popping fury.

"You putrid piece of refuse!  I am going to destroy you!" shouted the officer, having slipped beyond the point of no return.  Jacob and Vallnam had the impression the man was frothing at the mouth and slamming the furniture with his fists.

"At the end of the day, you will be dead, and I'll be alive," stated Jacob matter of factly.

"You will die very soon!  I am going to execute... Plan Delta-Z!" shouted the officer.  

"That Base will be your tomb!" rejoined Jacob with a mocking laugh and flipped off the mic.  He flipped furiously through the thin brass plates of the UFO's schematics looking for any reference to Delta-Z.  None.

Meanwhile, Vallnam noticed sixty red blinking dots suddenly appeared on the UFO's radar screen.  He tapped Jacob on the shoulder.  "Um, check this out," he said pointing to the screen.  Jacob took a look.  He handed Vallnam the schematics.  "Look for Delta-Z, and see if you can find anything."

He glared at the radar.  It appeared that the sixty red blinking dots were located on the surface of the moon, in and around Eisenhelm.  He flipped a switch and turned a dial which caused the radar screen to alter its readout into a Vizi-screen mode which he could direct with controls.  He zoomed in on the location of several of the blips and saw that they were large rectangular openings in the surface of the moon. 

"Looks like they've pulled out the big guns, Vallnam," said Jacob.  "Oh my.  It looks like they're going to launch their nuclear arsenal at Earth."

"Yes, that could be a problem.  My question though is why would they be attacking the Earth, when their conflict is internal?"

"It could be their last gasp - the old 'We're taking you with us' option," replied Jacob.

"Yeah, that could be," said Vallnam thoughtfully.  They both were trying to think of what they might be able to do to forestall the threat, but it seemed like a runaway train at this point, and neither of them could contrive what to do.

As they watched the Vizi-screen, they observed that the dark rectangles had completed their opening sequence, and now began emerging gigantic humanoid robots.  They were dull grey metallic behemoths that looked to be the size of an apartment building, with dome heads and glowing crimson dots for eyes.  On their arms were assortments of auxiliary accoutrements: missile mounts, laser batteries, and cones with sparkling orange surfaces that made them distinctly nervous.  Jacob zoomed out and scanned the entire scene.  Indeed sixty of the of the behemoths were emerging around Mare Frigoris.  As soon as they made egress the robots launched into space on bright flaming rockets.

"Well, I doubt they're going to use the Robots on themselves, so they're either going to send them after us, or they're going to send them to Earth," said Jacob.  "Man the weapons!  Prepare for battle!" shouted Jacob.

"Do they even know where we are?"

"What they know is that their stolen UFO has returned to the moon after all, and that we've been stealthily lurking in space over Eisenhelm causing all kinds of chaos for them.  Flying Robots could be just the thing. On the other hand, as far as we know, maybe they're going to send the Robot Army to Earth for a final hurrah before they implode into full scale civil war down there."

"Looks like we're about to find out what Plan Delta-Z is after all," said Vallnam as he put the schematics back on the loop poles.  "Damn."

And that is where we left things that game.

WoAF - Game Session 26

So there they were, roughly a thousand refugees hunkered down north of Panguitch, Utah, watching the thunder storm through thick glass windows from within the six fortified warehouses they were holed up in while the storm passed.  A dark gray tornado touched down about 1500 feet to the south, shredded a dozen or so trees and splintered an old barn before dissipating and vanishing into the sea-green clouds swirling monstrously above.  Sam hopped on the radio from inside the AGV.

"This is Captain Samwise from Federation Command.  Airport HQ, can you read me? Over."

[Static]"This is Airport HQ.  Roger that, Captain.  You're coming in poorly.  The storm is causing ionic interference.  I can barely hear you. Over," came the reply through heavy static.

"We're holding up in the warehouses at the intersection of Airport Road and 89, waiting for the storm to pass over before heading north.  Over."

[Static]"Copy. How can we help?  Over."

"We want to send a jeep over to pick up any Acoustic Insect Shields that you might be able to spare. Over."

[Static]"Acoustic Insect Shields" [Static] "... available and ready for you.  Over."

And with that the radio communications fritzed out.  One of the problems with Radiation Storms is that they tended to eliminate radio Comms in the area. Samwise decided to wait the storm out before taking a chance on traveling the two miles east to the airport.  In the meantime, he ordered Bruin Hilda to go with him through the warehouses and help anyone who might need medical attention.   The two of them geared up in survival armor.  The storm was so severe that they would need to tether themselves with ropes, drive the AGV to the hatch-lock doors of each warehouse, and try to leap the gap to get inside.

Bruin Hilda

As the AGV rolled up on the closest warehouse Captain Samwise switched frequencies on the radio and contacted the military leader within the shelter.  At this short range the Comms were still working.  He found out that there were a few injured people inside, in particular one fellow who had been badly gouged on a jagged iron railing while crossing a ditch on the way out of town.  

When the AGV rolled up on its massive treads in front of the opposing hatchway, they gave the "Go" signal and the warehouse hatch swung open on its heavy metal hinges.  Bruin Hilda, buffeted by rain drenched winds as she perched at the edge of the AGV hatch, checked her tether and took the leap.  A sudden gust swept her through the air, slamming her into the warehouse wall.  She slid down and impacted the ground a heavy grunt, mud splattering everywhere.  She scrambled  to her feet against the wind and began pulling herself along the rope.  A brawny arm emerged from the hatchway and pulled her inside.  She was soaked head to toe and covered in mud.  She thanked the soldier who helped her in, shook the cold rain off, and looked behind her at the open hatchway.  One down, one more to go.  Captain Samwise, seeing what happened, went to the AGV equipment stack, pulled out a Smart Rope, turned it on and tethered himself to it.  Consequently, he had no problem making it into the warehouse.  

Once inside they were taken through the warren-like corridors until the came to the makeshift infirmary. There they found the injured man. His leg had a deep gouge from the knee to the upper thigh. Bruin Hilda laid her hands on the leg and focused her Mentarian Healing power on the his leg.  At the time he was passed out, so no conversation was to be had.  The healing went well.  While nothing appeared to happen on the surface, Bruin Hilda knew that the healing process would be greatly augmented and would be far more rapid than it would have been otherwise.  The man woke up, opened his eyes, and smiled at Bruin Hilda.  

"You'll be ok, sir," she said quietly.  

The man's color came back to him, and the pain that he had been feeling had been greatly lessened.  Sam dressed the wound and applied bandages. To his amazement the wound already looked better.  His admiration for Bruin Hilda increased notably at that moment.  When they finished helping him they moved on to the next patient.  In a short while they'd administered medical healing to everyone who needed it and then moved on to the next warehouse.  They planned to cover the six warehouses that afternoon while the storm passed overhead.

~ ~ ~

A hundred miles to the north or so, Linda and Pita were holed up in their makeshift tarp-tent, also weathering the storm.  Their situation was both better and worse.  This far north the storm was considerably less severe.  On the other hand, their accommodations where far less secure than in the AGV.  Water was leaking in, and the wind rattled the tarps wildly.  Nevertheless, they were safe enough where they were.  Unfortunately, it was also the case that the storm was heading slowly northward towards them and so they realized they would have to find better shelter soon.  While they were discussing things, it seemed the storm had abated a bit.  Pita took a look outside and noted that a gap in the storm had opened up, and so they might have a half hour or so to look for better accommodations.  He took a look around with his binoculars and found that up on the hill above the gully there looked to be a small cave entrance.  They quickly disencamped, leapt on their Rocket Bikes, and flew a tight arc up the hill about 800', and landed the bikes on a ledge outside the cave.  It had a 15' entrance that was covered by an overhang, and then further in was a 5' tunnel that went about 8' and then opened into another small cave, about 20' long and 9' high, and 15' wide.  Enough for the two of them to sit in, and maybe even start a small fire if they could find dry wood.

They hauled the Rocket Bikes into the enclosure and settled in.  Pita looked around for drying kindling.  The cave had accumulated bracken over thee years and so after a few minutes they had a small but serviceable fire going in the inner cave.  It wasn't long before the storm tore through the region with unusual ferocity, blasting bolts of irradiated lightning powerful enough to split boulders, the two heroes chatted amiably in the flickering firelight.

As they went over Linda's recurring dream one more time, Pita stood up slowly.  Perhaps something caught his attention out of the corner of his eye, or perhaps he just needed to stretch his legs.  Linda didn't know.  But he looked towards the back of the cave and so she stopped talking.

"Say, you feel like taking a little look around this place?" he asked.  "Never know.  Might be something interesting back there," he added pointing towards the flickering shadows.

She stood up and pulled out her Lewiston Beam Pistol. "Sure.  Let's go," she said with a nonchalance that made him think "Now that's why I love this girl".  

They were equipped with XL-2600 flashlights. He adjusted his for 200 Lumens, which was quite enough for the inside of the cave.  He and Linda walked slowly forward, until the got to a small outcropping of rock jutting up from the ground near the back of the cave.  As he stepped forward he saw a skull on the ground just beyond the outcropping.  Beyond it was a dark three foot wide hole that descended vertically into another tunnel.  He put the beam of light on it.  It was a human skull.  It moved.

"Eeeee-eeeeee," he squealed and jumped back suddenly, nearly dropping the flashlight. Linda, never phased for a moment, took a shot at it with her Lewiston.  The crimson-orange beam blazed a nickel sized hole through the forehead of the skull, with a glowing hole in the rock four inches deep beneath it.  Long crab-like legs had emerged from the bottom of the skull and now curled up in a death spasm.  They backed away slowly, shining their flashlights in every direction casting dancing shadows everywhere.

"Pita, the bikes," yelled Linda pointing.  Pita spun around and saw three Skull-Spiders on the bikes, two small, one quite large.  The two smaller ones were crawling up the side of a bike, while the larger had crawled over the top of the other bike and was creeping slowly and carefully along the saddle.

He only had a clear shot on the large one.  The others were on the side of the bike, and shooting them would have burned a hole right through the machine's vitals.  Nope, can't have that, thought Pita.  He got down on one knee and aimed carefully, and for a brief moment a scorching beam sizzled brightly through the eye socket of the skull and out the other side.  The skull flipped up into the air, the spider legs curling inside of it, and then fell to the ground with a crunch, rolled out the cave and disappeared into a torrential brook gushing just outside the entrance. Pita and Linda very carefully inched forward towards the bikes, with Linda scanning the walls and ceiling and Pita keeping his light focused on the other two Skull-Spiders.  He tried to get to a spot from which he could pick them off without damaging the bike.  

Outside the wind was howling, and off some distance Pita could see through the gray darkness that a tornado had touched down, perhaps a quarter of a mile away.  A lightning strike landed blindingly near with an ear splitting clap of thunder.  The wind was so loud in the outer cave they would have had to resort to shouting, had they not been linked Telepathically.  At this point Pita wondered if the Skull-Spiders could jump, and judging by the stout black-orange legs that protruded out from under them, he figured they could.  He did not want to get anywhere near them.  However, having tried to circle around to get a clear shot, the creatures had moved over the bike's gears so that a clear shot was not possible.  He took out his broadsword, gulped down his fear, and inched forward.  

Suddenly a beam of blazing plasma shot past his shoulder, and Pita heard the sound of its ionizing crackle as it bored a molten hole in the cave wall.

"Got it!", shouted Linda.  He glanced over his shoulder.  A Skull-Spider was rolling across the cave floor behind him.  "Keep going!" she said calmly into his mind.  "You got this."

And so Pita crept forward towards the bike.  One of the spiders had turned its skull towards him so that it looked like a dismembered skull staring at him as he approached it.  Behind the black eye-holes he could see the glinting of the spider's many eyes.  It lowered itself into a crouching position as he came closer.  Pita lifted his broadsword in front of him and slowly inched forward. Suddenly the monstrous thing leapt with the skull's mouth flying straight at him, the creatures fangs extruding horribly where a set of human teeth used to be.  Pita, in a sudden spasm of panic, slapped it out of the air with his flailing arms as he staggered backwards. Since he was wearing a suit with armored skin the spider's powerful legs could not get a grip on his arm, though it surely tried.  It fell to the ground and scuttled quickly towards the shadows when Linda fried a hole through it with her Lewiston.  It curled up and died right there.

The third one, meanwhile, had vanished from view.  They turned their flashlights in every direction, but didn't see it. "Damnit!" cried Pita.  "I really, really hated these things."

"Linda, shield your eyes!" he ordered Telepathically. 

"Got it!" she instantly replied, and flipped the switch. 

Flipping on his suit's Eye Shielding to "Opacity 0", as well, he turned up his XL-2600 to Turbo-Lumens!  An eye blistering 2,600 Lumens of absolutely blinding light drenched the cave.  He waved the flashlight in every direction, walking with one arm out towards the rear of the cave, and after a good 40 seconds, turned it back down to 200 lumens and, lowering his eye shields, took a look around.  He saw Linda had crouched down in a corner and covered her eyes with both arms as well as used her helmet's eye shielding.  The blinding tactic worked.  The remaining Skull-Spiders were crawling around the floor and walls.  Two had been hiding in cracks in the ceiling, and were slowly distending themselves on webs and so were dangling in the middle of the air, reaching out with their long legs looking for the ground.  Pita walked around skewering them one at time with his broadsword and pitched them outside into the darkness where the furious winds swept them up into the sky and carried their double dead carcasses far, far away.  "Not nearly far enough," he thought.  "I completely agree," responded Linda.

~ ~ ~

Meanwhile and elsewhere, Samwise and Bruin Hilda had finished with their medical patrol.  Everyone who needed to get medical help had received it.  As the storm was abating at this point, the good Captain ordered Guns to commander a jeep so that they could get to the airport and pick up the Acoustic Insect Shields.  They had no problem securing one, and took off through the driving rain.  The Airport Road was straight for most of the two miles, until they got to the final bend that curved south at the airport tarmac.  As they were approaching the curve, on the north side, they saw a large mass, dark brown and gray, like a huge lump, moving ponderously through the jungle-flora towards the road.  Their impression was that the mass was about ten maybe fifteen feet tall, and maybe twenty to thirty feet long.  It had the appearance of an enormous slug.  Looking at the direction it was heading, he figured it would reach the airport within a twenty minutes or so.  If they drove fast enough they could pass by it before it got on the road.

"Captain?  You seeing what I'm seeing?" asked Guns.

"Yep.  I see it.  Why don't you step on it, and I'll get in contact with the base," he said as he brought up the radio.  "Captain Samwise to Airport Base.  Samwise to Airport Base.  Come in Airport Base.  Over."  Gun's hit the gas and they sped through the rain at a good 80 mph.

"This is Airport Base.  Over."

"Hello.  We're in a jeep on Airport Road heading to you now.  It's raining pretty hard, so I'm not 100% sure what we're seeing, but be advised - it looks like there is some sort of giant brown grey mass that is heading towards the airport from the north.  I estimate it is 15' high and about 25' long.  It looks similar to the mass of purple ants we saw on our first entrance to Panguitch. Over."

There was static on the radio, and then the sound of clattering and Sam thought he heard the Lieutenant on the other end gasp and say "Oh my god!"  As he had experience dealing with this Lieutenant before, he guessed the skittish young man had panicked and dropped his mic.

"Come in Airport Base.  Come in Airport Base.  Over."

"I'm sorry.  I'm sorry.  I dropped my mic," said the panicky Lieutenant.  "Did you say there's a giant mass of ants heading to the airport?!"

"It's difficult to confirm, but yes, I think that's what we're seeing.  Or something similar.  We're too far away to say for certain," answered the good Captain with as steady and reassuring a voice as he could.

"Oh my god!" sputtered from the radio speaker.  Contact was broken again.  Sam and Guns looked at each other, and shared a bit of eyerolling.  After a few moments another voice came over the radio speaker.

"Come in, Come in.  This is Major Sekston.  Who am I speaking with?  Over."

"Hello, Major, this is Captain Samwise of Federation Command.  What happened over there?  Over."

"My Lieutenant here is having a little trouble speaking at the moment.  Can you repeat your message? Over."

Samwise repeated his earlier message.  Major Sekston responded by confirming their ETA, and the ETA of the mass, and then signed off.  Guns floored it, and they got to the tarmac ahead of the mass.  They skidded to a stop in front of Major Sekston's HQ.  Samwise and Guns leapt out, ran through the rain and dashed inside.  They found the base was abuzz with activity.  Soldiers were manning vehicles, and equipment, and forming up a squad of jeeps hastily on the tarmac.   

"Hello, Major," said Sam with a salute when he saw her.

"Good to see you two made it," she replied with her salute.

"What is that thing?" said Sam as he observed the huge mass arriving on the north end of the tarmac through his binoculars.  It rose up to a height of about 25', and then began sliding down the black strip of asphalt towards them.

"Your guess was not far off.  These are a mutant combination of ant and beetle, and quite voracious carnivores.  We call this "The Brown Horde".  You'll see in a few minutes how we handle this kind of threat, Captain.  Just stand back and watch.

One of the jeeps drove halfway up the tarmac toward the mass, which had flattened out into a low wide slug shape again.  They threw several deer carcasses onto the center of the tarmac, and then sped back as fast as their jeep would go.  Six other jeeps were being fitted with Vehicle-Mounted Acoustic Insect Shields.   As soon as this was done they drove in a steady semi-circle formation up the tarmac.  The insect mound had reached the deer carcasses and formed a massive undulating bubble over them.  While the insects devoured the deer flesh the jeeps formed a circle around the horde. 

"Steady, steady.  On my mark," the Major was ordering through her radio Comm.  "Steady.  Everyone in position.  We can't have any gaps.  Jeep 5, line up.  Ok.  Steady.  Wait for it..."  

As they watched the mass of insects appeared to have finished its meal.  It began forming into the slug shape again.

"Now!" yelled the Major into her mic.

Every jeep flipped on their Acoustic Insect Shield, forming a large overlapping set of sonic bubbles that forms a continuous circle around the mass.  

"Maximum power!" cried Sekston.

All along the perimeter of the insect sphere they saw the thumb sized bugs begin to blast apart under the high-intensity vibrations of the sonic shells.  Chitin, antenna,  multifaceted eyes, legs, and mandibles all exploded and shattered into clouds of gray brown fragments.

"Ok, easy does it... close the circle.  1 mile per hour.  Easy... easy."

And with this the acoustic shells closed in, shrinking the perimeter and blasting the bugs into oblivion.  The entire operation took about ten minutes, and in the end, all that was left of the insect horde was a long gray-brown stain in the water covering the tarmac.  Not a single insect escaped the trap.

"And that, Captain, is how we handle bugs around here," said Major Sekston with satisfaction.

"Very impressive," answered Samwise, "very impressive, indeed."

Sam and Guns loaded up their jeep with six sets of Vehicle Mounted Acoustic Insect Shields and twenty personal units, which is all the Major could spare.  they mounted one of the units on the jeep. While the personal units had a diameter Shield of 60', the Vehicle mounted Shields had a diameter of 240'.  With these Sam felt a lot more confident that they'd be able to get all of the refugees past the giant Insect Mound when the time came.

They discussed the incoming war at Panguitch with the Major.

"Someone has to stay behind and protect the Hospital," the Major said tersely.  "I still have one Daisy Buster, and a handful of thermobaric shells. If things go well the armies will hold off from entering Panguitch and fight their war on the south side.  But if not, then it's going to come down to a fight.  One that we can't afford to lose. After all the Hospital is of critical importance to eradicating the virus, which ultimately threatens everyone, everywhere."

"Understood," said Sam.  "Good luck, Major.  We hope things down here will end favorably.  In the meantime, we'll try to get the refugees north of the Insect Mound.  Chances are, since there's nothing of strategic value north of Panguitch, the armies won't head any further north.  If they can be kept south of Panguitch, that of course would be even better."

"Yes, it would," she agreed.  And with final salutes, Sam and Guns mounted up in the Jeep and drove back to the warehouses post haste.  The weather was clearing steadily, and so they made good time on the return.  

~ ~ ~

And while all this was happening, somewhere in space, not all that far from the Moon, Jacob was piloting their stolen Nazi-UFO towards their intended destination:  Eisenhelm - the ultra-secret Moon-Nazi base beneath Mare Frigoris.  They had sailed invisibly passed their four pursuers at 48,000mph three hours earlier.  The moon had gotten much larger on their screens, and the view through the diamond-glass port hole began to fill with the brightness of the lunar surface.  Jacob and Vallnam had been keeping themselves occupied by doing light calisthenics, and thought hard about what might be useful to do while they were on route to their target.

Vallnam happen to be one of the few Western Warlocks that survived the Ultra-War, and in his travels he had acquired a tarot deck, which he was idly shuffling at the navigation console.  Whenever he was at an important cross roads in life he would take out the deck and do a reading to see if the cards had anything to tell him.  He decided he would do a reading for Jacob, and so he had taken out the deck and was shuffling the cards.  He knew Jacob didn't believe in such things.

"Jacob," he said, "I am going to give you a Tarot reading."

"Um, ok, I guess," said Jacob, having nothing better to do.  Vallnam had him touch the top of the deck, and then shuffled them again.  He had Jacob draw a card and lay it down on a smooth section of the control consol.  At the top of the card it read "LUNA". It was the Card of the Moon.  Jacob raised an eyebrow.  "Mm.  Well, that's like prescient and stuff," he said with a hint of sarcasm.

"Draw another card," said Vallnam.  Jacob drew a second card and laid it down face up.  "GORUND", read the card.  On it was a fiery image, showing the destruction of the Tower of Babel, the devil, and pandemonium.  Mars showed itself prominently at the top of the lower circle above Ares.  "War," said Vallnam.

"Draw one more card," he said.   Jacob drew a last card.  "MINVAR", the High Priestess of Virgo, Goddess who protects the Earth.

"The Moon Princess," they both said in the same breath.  They looked at each other in silence, and then stared down at the three images for a little while.

"The cards speak for themselves," said Vallnam, finally.  

"Indeed, they do," replied Jacob, rubbing his chin thoughtfully.  They said no more about it, but instead began planning their attack in earnest.  They had one hour of space flight before reaching the moon.  It was time to throw the Stealth Mode switch "Off" and attract some attention.

"You ready for this?" asked Jacob.

"Oh yeah," replied Vallnam strapping himself in at the weapons station.  Jacob flipped the switch, and almost immediately a red light began blinking on the Vizi-Screen.  He calibrated quickly and located the blinking light at Eisenhelm.

"They have noticed us," he reported to Vallnam.

"Yep," I reckon so.  Static suddenly erupted over the radio.  Someone was barking at them harshly in German.  They couldn't understand what he was saying.  Whatever it was, it sounded harsh.

Thus they made contact with their unwitting foe.  After all, the Moon-Nazis had absolutely no way of knowing who stole the ship, and had of course assumed it was someone among their own factions who was plotting a power grab, or some other (and typical) villainy.  Vallnam quietly focused his consciousness on a single point and using his Warlock powers reached out across the vast gulf of space to the mind of the German behind the barking voice.  While he didn't speak German, he could form a mental bond with him just the same.  And he did so.  The bond, having been created, linked their minds, and Vallnam sought to overpower the mind of his opponent with a single, decisive, and highly destructive suggestion.

"You want to kill your commanding officer," he intoned into the German Radio Operator's mind.  As it happened, by pure luck, this particular radio operator in fact had an unusual loathing for his commanding officer, a certain Captain Gunter Kruger, a man of incredible arrogance, deception and cruelty, under whom he had been chaffing for quite some time.  Furthermore, he coveted the Captain's position, and suddenly realized that all he needed to do was shoot him, and everything would suddenly go his way in life. And as it was, at that moment Captain Gunter was standing directly in front of him at a distance of 9 feet, staring at the Vizi-Screen upon which he tracked a mysterious red blinking dot.

"Funker, befehle dem Schiff, in Hanger 2 zu landen!" he barked at the middle aged radio Operator without turning around.  The operator stood up and drew his Luger P08 and fired a single shot, which was heard by our heroes over the radio as a distinct "Pow!"

Jacob and Vallnam looked at each other.  Vallnam smiled.  Over the radio they heard some commotion, shouting, and then the connection was broken with a loud "Zzzztak!"

"Well, that settles that," said Vallnam.

Meanwhile, four flashing red lights appeared on the Vizi-Screen.  Jacob calibrated quickly and, as they expected, it was the four other Nazi UFOs, heading in their direction.  Jacob, understood from the schematics plate that the blinking red lights on the Vizi-Screen signified sources that were actively scanning their ship.  The four ships were however very distant, being still within one hour of Earth, and would require at least 7 hours to return to the moon.  And as it happened, having discovered that their prey was not on Earth anymore, but heading directly towards Eisenhelm, they had already executed the required maneuvers and were heading as fast as possible back towards the moon.  

"Lovely," said Jacob.  "Let's assault the base," he added cheerfully.

"Well," Vallnam replied, "there is the matter of all those UFOs that Bruin Hilda saw in the hanger when she stole this ship.  I think she said there were 18 of them, yes?  So that means there's likely 13 still in the hanger."

"True, but she also said that most, if not all of them, were covered in dust, except this one, which suggests that it was the only one likely to be in serviceable condition," said Jacob, scanning Eisenhelm minutely for any signs of activity.

"True enough, though it's been about 17 hours since we stole this ship.  So it's possible, if not likely, they've been jacking up their fleet in the meantime.  Maybe those other four were the only ones that were prepped and ready to fly at the time they followed us.  Otherwise, I don't see why they wouldn't have sent more," he added. 

"Oh.  Yeah.  That's a lot of ships.  Hmmm... less than ideal.  We had better hit them hard and fast, and take the initiative," said Jacob.

"We are still an hour away," said Vallnam.

"We could go back into Stealth Mode, I suppose," maybe that'll confuse them all.  He flipped the switch, to "On".  The red blinking blips all vanished. 

Unfortunately, the problem with flying in Stealth Mode was that they could not ping outward to see if they picked up any signals from incoming craft.  They decided to fly for ten minutes and then flipped the Stealth Mode back "Off".  In a few moments, the blinking red lights appeared back on the Vizi-Screen again.  They did not see any additional ships in the sky.  Just Eisenhelm and the four behind them.

"That's a good sign," said Jacob.  "Maybe they only have so many crews.  Or they're setting a trap.  Or they haven't had time to mobilize.  Either way, we seem to be doing good.  We're still too far out at the moment to do anything.  We can switch in and out of Stealth Mode every 15 minutes.  And we can zig-zag along the line on the way in to keep them off our track.  Fortunately, the red-mercury plasma engine allows the ship to pivot on a dime, so zig-zags we can do!"

"Let's keep an irregular zig-zag pattern," suggested Vallnam.  That was agreed.  They went another 20 minutes, zig-zagging at random as they went.  The trick was that they had to change course only while out of Stealth Mode, as they had be travelling at a steady velocity to flip it "On".  But they felt that was but a minor inconvenience, and they rolled with it.

On their screens the moon was now looming large.  They could see the dark edges of Mare Frigoris along the rim of shadow at the north pole of the moon.  In those shadows, deep in a canyon rift, was the secret Nazi Moon base that had been built there in 1943, and had been continuously operated and manned by an army of Moon-Nazis ever since.  In that base were perhaps 800 German loyalists who had devoted their lives to the cause of bringing the world under the control of their famous, albeit dead and generally despised, leader.  They had built an underground city there, and had every conceivable amenity, including subterranean agro-farms, laboratories, barracks, recreational facilities, and a massive arsenal of nuclear warheads aimed at Earth. Oh yeah. That.  And quite a bit more.  All waiting for the glorious day when His Imperial Lordship should finally resurface from his hiding place on Earth and transmit the long awaited order "Vernichte unsere Feinde mit totaler nuklearer Zerstörung!".  The Order that never came.  The order that would never come.

How the Germans managed to survive for so long on the moon, alone, and completely cut off from Earth, in absolute blackest secrecy, was a matter of very careful planning at the beginning.  They had imported fanatically loyal and perfectly conditioned pure German men and women, along with the necessary food, equipment, knowledge, and instructions so the Germans meticulously  procreated their way to population stability over the following 80 years, and the Germans running the base at this time were mostly of the 3rd Moon Generation, frantically loyal, and voraciously eager for victory.  Why they were very much like a hive of Screwtapes and Wormwoods.  And the even more secretive, even more cunning, even more cold, even more ruthless Modroni saw to it that it would remain that way.  And so it did.  After all, absolutely nothing at all could be allowed to stand in the way of the Modroni's mission.

Vallnam had another trick up his sleeve.  One of his powers was Clairvoyance, which allowed him to see into distant places so long as he had something to touch that would link him to that place.  And as it happened the place he wanted to see was inside the hanger from whence this very ship came from.  And so he touched the panel in front of him and focused his mind on the Hanger Bay in Eisenhelm.

For a few moments he drifted in darkness, wandering through space-time, drifting. However, it wasn't long before his mind emerged inside Hanger 2.  Vallnam saw a scene of commotion and chaos.  People were running.  There was shouting.  Someone looked like he was barking orders; a Commander holding a pistol.  There was a crowd of people at the main door of the hanger pointing guns into an inner tunnel.  There were short bursts of gunfire.  Ground crews, in teams of five, were frantically connecting conduits to the ships, while others were scrambling towards the ships in flight suits.  Everywhere were crisp Nazi salutes, and cries of "Hail Hitler!"  Some were pointing guns towards the inner hanger.  The Commander was climbing a steel ladder into the control room where two officers were manning the panels. They had sweat pouring down their faces, their lips taught, their hands shaking.  The Commander stood behind them and began to bark orders.

From his trance-like state, Vallnam described the scene he was seeing to Jacob.  Jacob slowly nodded with great satisfaction. It appeared that their first salvo was a spectacular success.  The base was in chaos.  What luck!

"Why don't you persuade the Commander to open the Air Lock doors to the outside?  That will blow the air out of the hanger.  I suppose that ought to mess them up something awful, don't you think?"

"Commander.  Your teams are ready to depart.  The enemy is near.  Open the airlock now, Commander," intoned Vallnam into the German's Officer's mind. "Open the airlocks!"

Unfortunately, the commander had a far more powerful mind than the Radio Operator.  He would not be so easily persuaded.  Vallnam knew that he had one shot at this, and if it failed he would not be able to try again.  So he bit his lip, clenched his fists and focused all of his might into the command, forcing it down the Commander's throat into his heart of hearts.  And as luck would have it, the command took root.  

It would seem that the Commander had long since become a jaded husk of his former vainglory, and as an older 2nd Generation Moon-Nazi, he had become tired, so very tired, of the constant low level warfare that was part and parcel of the culture of Eisenhelm.  He'd been backstabbed one too many times, and backstabbed one too many of his betters to gain position and power, and he'd lost one too many lovers to The Grand Power Play that dominated the social life of Eisnehelm's residents.  He was tired.  And so at that moment, for no reason that anyone there would ever understand, he walked to the control panel and silently began turning the dials and flipping the switches to open the airlock.  RED WARNING LIGHTS began flashing throughout the hanger complex.  

The Officers who had been at the controls leapt out of their seats, horrified, and began grappling with him.  He was not an especially strong man, and the two of them looked like they may have had enough of what it takes to stop him.

Vallnam, although by now quite low on mystic power, decided to throw one more gimcrack into the punch bowl.  He reached out with his mind to one of the men grappling the Commander.  The connection failed.  His power fading, he tried the other one.  He barely managed to make contact in the commotion, but the man's mind was weak, and  so he was not too difficult to overcome.  Another lucky shot.  The suggestion took root hard and fast.  

"Shoot the traitorous dog fighting your Commander!  Shoot him now!" Vallnam shouted into the man's mind. The man, stunned by this sudden revelation, let go of his Commander and stepped back. Out came the Luger P08.  Pow!  One shot, in the back.  His fellow Officer, someone whom he'd known for years, but not gotten along with all that well, but nonetheless didn't intensely despise, raised his arms in the air with cringing fingers clawing at nothing, and then with a final gasp fell down dead.  The Commander, now free, returned to the console and began finishing the job.  He reached his hand out to open the airlock.  The remaining Officer lifted the Luger and shot again.  The Commander went down on one knee.  A red splat of blood began to spread across his chest.  He reached for the Airlock control switch.  Another shot, and the Commander fell over, his hand running down the control panel leaving a streak of blood as his finger slid past the Open Airlock Switch without having the strength to actually flip it.  The Airlocks remained closed.

With blood spreading across the control room floor, and realizing that he just killed a fellow Officer who had turned out to be a treasonous viper, and then his Commander who had gone insane and was trying to suicide the base, the last standing Officer in the control room was overwhelmed by madness - guilt, fear and horror took out the last vestige of reason he had and he at last succumbed to the insanity that followed.  His final act was to pull the trigger and put an end to his  own agony.

The Modroni who had been observing all of this from afar nodded with a cold  scientific satisfaction.  The miniscule amount of psychic assistance he had provided at the two crucial moments had gone completely undetected by anyone.  Things were progressing according to plan.  He took note of the position of the space ship, the Nazi forces in the base, the four inbound ships, and motioned to the other Modroni to proceed with Plan B-5.

And that is where we left things that game.