Aaryanna_Mom

[quote name='Anomaly']I love the idea of keeping with our team name, and being a rebel band of mercenaries out to retrieve the jewel for our own benefit of gaining the reward. We could even play tricks on the other teams to get ahead, hehe.[/quote]Now that appeals to me. And since it seems like everyone likes this idea I say we go ahead with it. I'm going to put a brief profile here and then I'm going to get things started by posting. I have an idea that I think will be fun. ;) [B]Name:[/B] Kathy Mercer [B]Gender: [/B]Female [B]Age: [/B]35 [B]Special Skills:[/B] Kathy is skilled with twin swords having been taught by her father who was also a mercenary. In addition to that she knows the most basic of healing spells as well as what types of plants and herbs can be used for various wounds. [B]Description:[/B] Kathy is on the tall side nearly reaching six feet high. With short brown hair and eyes. [B]Personality: [/B] Kathy lives for finding treasure or for hunting down criminals, though as a mercenary she'll take just about any job. Though she's appears to be fairly easy going, when it comes to getting the job done she can be rather ruthless. Though she never expected to be the leader of a band of mercenaries she takes her role very seriously since in many ways she thinks of them as her family since other than her father she has no living relatives. [B]Short Bio: [/B] Once her father retired Kathy who until then had been one of the members of the mercenary group took over as their new leader. Since then they have been making a name for themselves by surprising the competition with their cunning and wit as they've won many challenges and completed jobs that no one thought they could. All right, in a little while I'll have my first post up. It will be a bit short since I will be setting the stage for the rest of you to post. ;)

Well if Kiva's pretty much finished with her investigation, maybe it would be easier if things happen a day or two after she has finished? So instead of it happening as she finishes the investigation it could happen shortly after she's already talked to the High Council and has already set a course for Earth. Especially since I only just got on today and though I know what I need to write to get things started it still depends on Rachmaninoff and indifference finishing it up. Seems like that would work just fine since it's going to take her character time to get back to Earth. And that way Takuya doesn't have to wait on us to post. Or for information from you for their post. :catgirl: And speaking of posts...I'm going to get started on mine. So expect it to be up today.

Well if we are talking about what I actually wear, for the most part it's plain old boring white socks. The type that are like ankle socks only they come up a bit further and you fold the cuffs back down. But if we move into what my favorite type is, I love decorative socks. Even though I have so few of them. The ones done to reflect a holiday are wonderfully cute, even if they don't go with anything you actually wear. But by far the best are the decorative ones that are fuzzy inside. They're great for wearing in the winter when you don't want to be barefoot in the house (I have hardwood floors which can be quite cold to walk on in the winter) but don't want to wear shoes either.

All of those suggestions sound good to me. So shall we get a profile of our characters up so we can start? Also, if there is a specific theme you want to follow just let me know. We can do serious, funny or the mercenaries questing to recover the jewel and obtain the prize money, or the group helping the questing hero. So what do all of you prefer since any of the ideas presented so far sound fun to me. :catgirl:

It didn?t take much for Daniel to know where Kiva had been sent. Once William informed him of the blackout that had been issued in sector fourteen at the nearly the same time the Transcendence had left Earth, he would have been surprised if she had been sent elsewhere. He had no doubt that she would expose the agent. Once it was known that there was an agent for the resistance in a place like that, finding them was unavoidable, especially when an Elite Specialist was called in. An agent?s biggest weapon was total secrecy. Once that was gone, the best course of action was to make a run for it. But in a top-secret project, that wasn?t always possible and the military had issued the lockdown before the resistance even knew they were aware that there was an agent there. Even William wasn?t completely sure how they had caught on to the agent since he was not the one who prepared the release; it had been the agent at the research facility. William had merely written the program to hack it into the system and then for it to replicate like a virus to keep it from being eliminated from the database to quickly. In the end it didn?t matter. The knowledge as to the third project was going to remain a mystery for now. And attempting to take Commander Crystal?s hand held from her again would be pointless. The High Council would have made sure to provide even better security for her replacement, and even though his agents had reported that she was working in the US, Crystal was guarded by a security team at all times. There was also the fact that Commander Crystal was addressing the need for medical facilities and treatment for the population in the US. Once Daniel had realized what she was up to he had issued strict orders to all agents to leave any construction she was involved in alone. Stopping construction of medical facilities only hurt the people of Earth and did little to hinder the invasion. And better medical treatment was something the people of this world were in desperate need of. No, there was no need to interfere with what she was doing. For now the two projects had been exposed and due to the lock down in sector fourteen, the research had been halted. Later they could worry about finding out just what was going on in the third project. Daniel finished what he was doing and turned the workstation in his quarters off. It was almost time to put the final touches for what he had in mind in place. He stood up and then opened up his hand held computer, entering the special codes to activate his most guarded secret. A moment later, in spite of the shields a transport door opened inside his room, but then the generator for this door was deep below the actual base and it?s construction had been carefully done to allow a door to open in this one spot only when the program briefly opened a tiny spot in the shields. A moment later he stepped through, the lights to the underground storage facility turning on as he entered the command. The huge underground cavern was full with the illegal goods Williams had gotten from sector one before his source had been caught and dealt with. It was here that the two pulse cannons used to take down the transports had been stored. William ignored the carefully placed and stored items as he turned and immediately entered the small room with the computers and systems for the storage facility. He sat down at the main console and turned on the interface for accessing the information. William was the one who had set the storage facility up, long before he had ever joined the resistance. And now that it was nearly time to get things started he needed to verify just what he had available for the resistance members to use. None of the information for this place was in the main computers, not even a code name or a reference. William had been firm on that detail. And Daniel understood it just fine. They had been fighting the military with second hand goods and the same goods that had been stolen from the troop encampments for the past couple of months. By now the military was thinking that the best they had to offer was what they had stolen as even the pulse cannons were not a serious threat. But to suddenly switch to high grade weapons and explosives would completely catch the military off guard. By the time they realized just what had happened, the damage would be done. It was why Daniel was glad the Specialist was gone. It would have been pointless to issue the weapons only for the safe houses to be raided and the members and weapons seized. Especially since he wanted to initiate a concentrated strike by all agents in the US and any remaining ones in the UK and Australia at the same time. The resulting confusion would be well worth it. Daniel finished checking what he needed to and shut the equipment and the main lights off. Then he transported back to his quarters. Once he had the list of what went where on his hand held, he would set a date and then see to getting everyone the equipment they needed Just a little more time to get everyone into position, the proper teams assembled and everything would be set.

Just for fun, what is your favorite time of year or rather season and why? For myself it is definitely spring. I love it when winter ends and everything begins to turn green. I love it when the flowers start to come up and the trees bloom as well. But most of all I love it when it finally warms up enough for me to head outside and start gardening. Even if I don?t do a lot, I still love it. I always have a bunch of new flowers that I plant along with different vegetables, as there?s nothing I love more than fresh veggies that I?ve grown myself. Now on the other side, if I were to name the season I like the least, it would be winter. I grew up in East Texas and compared to Utah, the winters though cold were quite short. And I definitely miss some of the trees and flowers that just don?t do well in the harsher climate here in Utah. Still I do love the beautiful look of snow-covered mountains so I guess it?s not too bad. I still wish the winter was shorter though.

[quote name='Drix D'Zanth]Aaryanna_Mom, thank you for your reply. I respect your opinion even though we disagree (and I don?t think we disagree on [i]too[/i] much). I?m interested to hear your solutions to the problem our country faces![/QUOTE]If I knew the solution to the problems our country faces I assure you, I would have already presented it. Now as to my response, It took me some time since I had to go and figure out where I got my information from. Some of it came from this site here in the heath section: [URL=http://www.aflcio.org/index.cfm ][B]Site[/B][/URL] and the rest most likely from reading various articles in different health magazines while waiting to see the doctor since my health requires regular visits. So if some of my information is off, it is unintentional. ;) [QUOTE=Drix D'Zanth]Fair enough, but who decides what a reasonable price is? I think we both agree that families who are without the means to afford drug payments should receive some sort of help. I don?t necessarily think the government should, nor [i]can[/i'] help them as well as the private sector. When Medicare began working with private insurers to cover prescription drugs in the early 70?s, over 80% of the senior patients received proper coverage. Within a decade, the coverage dropped below 50% because of both market changes and the development of new, better drugs. The government, completely inadequate (because they aren?t held accountable for anything) couldn?t keep up with changing insurance rates, new science, and a changing market.[/quote]A reasonable price to me is one that doesn?t increase by thirty percent each year. To give you an idea, say I have a medicine that costs $100 a month. Next year it?s $130 and then the next $169. I?ve come to expect a three to ten percent raise in prices, but for it to have gone as high as thirty percent? That adds up quickly and I see it as unreasonable. As for your last bit about the government being inadequate, we are in complete agreement. [quote name='Drix D'Zanth'] The leading causes of death are heart disease, cancer, cerebrovascular disease (stroke), and chronic lower respiratory diseases according to the CDC. I?ll address these one at a time and take a look at the most prescribed drugs in turn.[/quote]I hope you?ll pardon if I skip quoting the information you provided, since you seem to have missed the point of my statement that not everyone smokes or is overweight and doesn?t exercise. In the United States, an estimated 25.1 million men (23.4 percent) and 20.9 million women (18.5 percent) are smokers. That still leaves a huge percentage of Americans who do not smoke. Also: Today, 65 percent of American adults over age 20 are overweight or obese. There is still a good percentage of Americans who are not overweight. I was trying to point out that even those who do not smoke are not overweight and do exercise and eat healthy end up with health problems. [quote name=' Drix D'Zanth]Looking at these numbers is only to demonstrate the point that if we wish to improve our healthcare system we need to be willing (as a population) to adjust our habits and lead more healthy lives. We cannot continue to expect people to pay for our irresponsible behavior.[/quote] Please don?t keep coming back to the same argument of blaming it on people when in spite of actually taking care of themselves people still have heart disease, diabetes and all sorts of health issues. No amount of exercise or not smoking will keep your body from getting old. Also, I won?t argue that a huge percentage of people do neglect their health and do smoke. But it?s annoying to those of us who do take care of ourselves don?t smoke and still ended up with serious health problems anyway. So how is it irresponsible behavior when one doesn't smoke, exercises, eats healthy and actually tries to take care of themselves? [QUOTE=Drix D'Zanth]This is a misleading statement, and I read it twice to be sure. I don?t think it?s fair to characterize drug companies as trying to keep drugs from being ?affordable?. Again, this depends on ?affordable?. What [i]is[/i'] ?affordable? anyway? Some citizens think that gas isn?t affordable, but the pack-a-day is. We have affordable food, but don?t invest time in exercise (which happens to be free!). To paint a picture of drug companies as robber barons who wish to keep drugs too expensive is simply sensationalism and totally subjective.[/quote]It was not my intent to be misleading. And I?m going to have to call you on the carpet for the gas comment. It?s not a complaint about affordability when it?s true. ;) Just last year in Utah the gas prices stayed high while the rest of the nation?s prices dropped. It wasn?t until the state investigated and found out that the stations simply chose to keep the higher prices instead of charging less when the price of oil went down. Then and only then did they finally dropped the prices to reflect the change in what it cost them to get the oil. I paint them as ?robber barons? because I have been around long enough to remember hearing cases of finding out later that we were indeed overcharged for a product, whether it was gas, drugs or something else. Do I think all companies are like that? Of course not. But like I mentioned earlier, when the yearly price increase changes from about three to ten percent to thirty, one starts to wonder why such a huge difference. Now I apologize that I am not going to address the remainder of your response, for the simple reason it must have been in an article I read, but I do not remember where as I have looked through the stuff I have read online. I was quoting what I remembered from memory. And I do not wish to continue it if I don?t have it in front of me to make sure I am accurate in what I claimed. Except for the ads, I just do not see the point in advertising a medication to control high blood pressure or some other use. When I go to see a doctor I do not ask him about some ad on TV. He or she is the one who went to medical school and It seems counter productive to try and tell them what you think would help. Yes I know ads make money and get attention, but honestly, the sheer amount of advertising these days is rather annoying and that applies to more than drug ads.

[quote name='Rachmaninoff']So implying things would work just as well. ;)[/quote]I'll hold you to that young man. Especially since I'd rather not be gory and graphic. It's one thing to read it but to actually write it? Anyway, having said that I have sent you the required information.

[QUOTE=Drix D'Zanth]I have a few issues with your arguments so far. First is the sense of entitlement most people have when it comes to drugs. I don?t think anyone here would argue that they ?deserve high quality computers and high speed internet? or accuse Bill Gates of price-gouging. No, he?s established a product and marketed it successfully to become the richest man in the world, he?s earned his money relatively legitimately (except for the whole Steve Jobs, OS scandal back in MicroSoft?s founding, let?s not digress). Let?s face it, computers have improved our quality of life in many ways and have facilitated a huge economic boom because of their vast networking and organizational abilities. Don?t you think it?s fair that drug companies who develop sometimes life-saving medications deserve the profits they earn? [/QUOTE]I can understand what you are saying here, but on the flip side, don?t you think it?s fair to expect to pay a reasonable price? It?s not so much a sense of entitlement but rather one of expecting the amount of profits to be within reason. [quote name='Drix D'Zanth'] Drug companies don?t ?stumble? upon their products. Antibiotics, anti-retrovirals, and other high-quality drugs simply don?t exist for drug companies to happen upon like a gold vein. Instead, Drug companies have to invest millions of dollars in R&D, marketing, and testing. They provide the material for scientists and a tentative time scale developing drugs that always incorporate a large investment risk. Then the drug needs to undergo a rigorous testing by our government (the FDA, and sometimes the EPA or USDA depending on the application of the drug)- which guarantees that it will take longer-than-necessary and be bogged down by our endless (useless) government policy. [/quote]No they don?t stumble upon cures, but at the same time studies have shown that as much as 50% of the money spent on a new drug actually goes to marketing and other things such as paying their employees where about 15% of that cost is actual research and the remaining is estimated to be actual profit. Not so much of a cost for R & D as the drug companies would have you believe. [QUOTE=Drix D'Zanth]I know what you our thinking, ?it?s all important! We don?t want another ?Thalidomide?, right?? Sure, that would be terrible. Nevertheless, the reality is that double-blind testing doesn?t always work. Couple that with the fact that even if the government is responsible for the mistake, the Drug Company is held solely accountable. Take Vioxx, for example. Our litigation-happy nation may put Merck into bankruptcy because of research indicating a likelihood that Vioxx increases a risk of heart-attack. That?s right, ?Risk?. So, even if Uncle Joe lived a sedentary life, was as overweight as much of our nation, smoked, drank regularly, and ate a high-calorie diet; the Vioxx caused that massive coronary. So, let?s sue Merck, get away with it because we have a relatively science-ignorant judiciary, make millions (because everyone deserves a million dollars to replace our loved ones) and screw over the other millions of people that depend on drugs [i]made by Merck[/i]. You want reduced drug prices? That?s great, invest between 250-800 million of your own dollars and a solid decade of research in developing a drug that may or may not work. If you cure something, great! Give it out for free![/QUOTE]That still doesn?t change the fact that there was a risk with the drug, though that?s true of any drug and I won?t argue that people are sue happy over things that they can control. You want increased drug prices? That?s great! How about increasing pay, improving health coverage for employees, then you won?t need to give it out for free as people will be able to afford it. [quote name='Drix D'Zanth']Here?s the bottom line: If you want to solve the healthcare crisis in America we need to stop smoking and start exercising. [/quote]Here?s the bottom line as well, what you are saying here is a fallacy, not everyone is smoking or doesn?t exercise. Doing things like this only reduce the risk of having health issues, it doesn?t guarantee that one won?t. ;) I can understand what you are saying but the drug companies have not made any form of regulation and price control easy. A great deal of time and money is spent keeping drugs from being more affordable here?s just a few of the things they do which have nothing to do with R & D costs. - Tweak? original drug formulas to create a ?new? version with a bigger price tag. - Charge individuals the steepest price, big purchasers the smallest. - Set prices higher in huge unregulated U.S. market than in nations with price controls. - Claim new uses for old drugs and extend patents and monopolies to keep inexpensive generic versions off the market. - Spend the most of any U.S. industry on lobbying to keep government at bay. (In the 1999-2000 election cycle, drug companies spent more money to influence politicians than did insurance companies, telephone companies, electric companies, commercial banks, oil and gas producers, automakers, tobacco companies, food processors and manufacturers. More, in short, than any other industry.) - Saturate the media with slick ads, create new brands and generate new demands. I could continue even more along this line since it?s not a simple issue and it?s one that hits close to home for me. There are better medications out there for my own health needs and yet some of them more than doubled in price, forcing me to go back to older medications that though not as effective, are at least affordable. I won?t argue that we have excellent procedures and hospitals, but I will argue that for the 46 million and increasing number of those who do not have insurance something that the percentage of Americans who are uninsured rose largely because the percentage of people with employer-sponsored coverage continued to decline, as it has in the past several years. The high prices for drugs just make it even worse. Imagine seeing the doctor, paying for it only to realize you can't even afford the medicine you need! I guess I?ll stop here since I?m getting off into other areas of how the medical system in the US is quite the mess.

I have a question for you, since this is rated mature I am assuming that like the previous one the deaths will be quite graphic. However, if one should choose to join, do they have to make the deaths graphic? Or can you write it in a manner indicating the character died without going into all the details?

[QUOTE=Sandy][font=Century Gothic]The instrumental version worked just fine [I]technically[/I], but it was nigh impossible for me to insert the lyrics you wrote into it while I was listening. It must've lacked a few important instruments or something... The melody of it was just so vague. Keep in mind that I'm not the most musical person in the world, though. ;P[/font][/QUOTE]No worries, I understand exactly what you are talking about, I do teach piano lessons after all! So for me to know when the lyrics will occur is easy. But then I've been involved in music for quite some time. The problem was getting the silly video program to put things where I wanted them to go. Thanks for answering the question though since I was worried that the actual video didn't work! ;)

Congratulations indeed! All of you did such a fantastic job! From the lyrics to the graphics and even our [I]disaster[/I] video! *pokes Sandy* :p It will be nice to take a break while the other teams vote, but at the same time I know that I am looking forward to what the next challenge is. :catgirl:

[quote name='Sandy][FONT=Century Gothic][COLOR=DarkRed]There were some problems with rhythm, some of the longer lines didn't quite match up with the melody, and the instrumental version was a disaster, so it was good that you had a link to the music video as well. Great performance, anyhow![/COLOR'][/FONT][/quote]We knew that some of the longer lines didn't quite match. We decided to go with consistency instead of matching the song perfectly. I didn't mention it since it was possible you wouldn't notice. ;) I am curious about one thing though, when you say the instrumental version was a disaster, I assume you are referring to how we were not able to insert the lyrics? Or did it not work for you at all? I'm hoping it did work since we threw in some very simple graphics just for the fun of it and because you had stated that you wanted an instrumental version. Plus there was a tongue in cheek reference at the very end that I thought was kind of fun. In the end, we actually tailored the lyrics so you could have the music video playing in one tab while reading the lyrics as the song progressed. :catgirl:

It had been over four days since the Elite Specialist had left and Daniel had not wasted any time in taking advantage of their absence. He didn't know how long they would be gone, but it didn't matter. There was no telling if he would get another chance to finish setting up some equipment that would help to keep them hidden even longer should the Transcendence be sent back to Earth. It wasn't that hard to actually move the abandoned relays and sensors from Australia and the UK to the US. But the necessary window needed to synchronize them before setting up the permanent stealth shielding was something that the Transcendence would detect. Out of the eighteen relays and sensors that had been set up in the UK and Australia, seven had not been found and getting them moved and set up to work with the ones in the US would only help to strengthen the signal security and enable Celestia and Jason to make the program even harder to trace. Now that they had written a new hacking routine to take advantage of the daily update system the fleet used it was time to have them work the five relays into the current system. As well as the two grade B sensors that had been missed. Daniel had already sent them the information on what to do and Jason and Celestia had assured him that in a few days they would have all the transfered equipment online. Once they finished that he had a new programing assignment for them to tackle, though he wasn't sure if they could. It was something that William wanted them to work on. Finding a way to improve the warp drive program to increase the speed. Especially since the specifications for the Transcendence indicated that William would no longer be able to outrun them. The new ship was faster. Once the Elite Specialists were all equipped with the newest model of Messenger Ship, the resistance would lose the edge of being able to simply run. It wasn't a huge difference, but it was still enough. Daniel just hoped they would be able to find a way to re-write the program to work with existing equipment to increase the speed without needing better equipment. The Transcendence operated on perfect crystals where other ships did not. That was going to be very difficult to out do since the resistance did not have enough or rather enough perfect crystals that were actually large enough to use in a hyper drive system. Daniel finished putting the necessary information into the system for Jason and Celestia to use. Once they were done he would give them the clearance codes to access the file. And since Kiva had already hacked into their system many times in spite of the security he was careful to avoid listing the specifics of the new Messenger Ship. Instead he merely gave generic listings as to what the equipment was and the hyper drive program that needed to be improved. [I]Maybe I should set them up on a separate computer system, one that is independent of the base? That would make things easier since even Kiva would not be able to hack into that. [/I] He shook his head,[I] no, then I'd have to rig them to be destroyed as well should the base be taken. And I don't want to waste what little explosives we have on something that can be done on their hand held computers. [/I] Daniel finished preparing the information and then transfered all of it to a data chip to give to them when he was ready. Deleting the files out of the main system. Now all they needed was for the Specialist to stay gone for a few more days and things would be set. Then since the day was far from over, Daniel started going over the reports and information as to things being done in the US. For now, he had everyone keeping a low profile. The military was mainly focusing on the UK and Europe anyway, and it would be far more effective to wait until they started focusing in the US and then initiate massive strikes across the entire US. Such a tactic would catch them completely by surprise since the lack of activity would fool them into thinking that the destruction of the last base had severely crippled their ability to resist. All Daniel needed was two to four weeks to set things up, and then even if the military had not finished over in the UK, it would still give Stevens quite the surprise. One that had Daniel wishing he could see Steven's expression once he realized just what had happened. Now if only the Specialist would be gone for several weeks as well, since Kiva was too damn good at her job and having her around hunting down safe houses and catching resistance members would have really interfered with what Daniel had in mind.

Good work everyone! Our entry is up! I love what you guys did with the lyrics and how the graphics turned out. And even the music video though pretty basic turned out nicely. I've never made a video before so that was rather fun! :catgirl:

[COLOR=DarkRed][CENTER][IMG]http://img301.imageshack.us/img301/5310/songintroer1.jpg[/IMG][/CENTER] First we present a link to the music video should you need a reminder as to how the song should sound. ;) [B]Music Video:[/B] [URL=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNO6vp4V8L4][COLOR=DarkRed][U]Music Video[/U][/COLOR][/URL] Second we present a link to our music video with the instrumental version of the song. [B]Instrumental:[/B] [URL=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DcfEcc6qLME][COLOR=DarkRed][U]Instrumental Music Video[/U][/COLOR][/URL] [B]Third we present the lyrics to go along with the music:[/B] [CENTER][IMG]http://img120.imageshack.us/img120/2236/songtemplate04rh4.jpg[/IMG] [/CENTER][/COLOR]

Daniel looked over the notes Celestia and Jason had given him. Though it was possible to change the routine for part of the security for the shielding to be more selective in detecting the disturbances in the surrounding rock and dirt, it wasn't going to be possible to really put it into practical use. It was unfortunate but in order for it to work they would have to switch out some of the equipment, something that wasn't going to be possible. There just wasn't a way for William to get the necessary stuff to them. So he had done the next best thing, he sent the program to William should they ever need to build a base underground again. Not that it mattered, at the rate the military was going, it wouldn't be long before the base in the US was found as well. Of all the scenarios he had discussed with William when he first asked him to command the resistance here, it had never occurred to them that an Elite Specialist would be called in. It just wasn't done. Though at the time they had not known about the labor shortage nor had they anticipated the High Council deciding to use one to hunt them down. Originally they had hoped to hold out for several years, making a nuisance out of themselves by interfering with operations. But that had not happened, two of the bases had been found, and in both cases hundreds of resistance members had either been killed or captured. Even with moving a good portion of the members from the UK to the US, Daniel was still short handed, so much so that he had pulled both Glen and Sara from minor missions and had them working on training new recruits as well as other ones from the UK in basic hand to hand combat. Only using them for the more important operations. Once this base fell he would have to find a place for Celestia, Jason, Sara and himself to hide. They would have to wait for the terra forming to begin, for the military presence to die down before they made an attempt to get off world. And he would also have to instruct other members to lay low or to work in independent cells. Because even though the two attacks and the release of the information about the part of the research that was illegal had caused problems throughout the empire. The High Council had kept things under control. And they had not gotten the information on the third project in sector fourteen. Daniel sighed, he certainly hoped William had something up his sleeve, since it was looking like things were going back to normal. It was going to take a lot more to get serious support for the resistance's statements from the general population. [CENTER]-------------------------------------[/CENTER] Kim had given up trying to figure out just where she was. She had thought she was on the Catalyst, but if that had been true, she couldn't think of a single reason why they would move her. And even she knew that Messenger Ships only had one interrogation room. So if her captor had been trying to play mind games, the cell would not be newer nor would the new place have what appeared to be more advanced equipment. So moving her via transport door to a new cell on the same ship would be pointless. In the end, she had no clue as to her whereabouts. Kim had heard of political prisons, but why would they transport her to one? The only thing she could think of was that Stevens had handed her over to someone to get every little bit of information she knew from her. Though the few times she had tried to pry information out of her captor, he had merely laughed at her, reminding her that it was his job to break her, not answer her questions. Hell, she didn't even know his name or what sector she was in! Nothing at all. And her original thought that he could have been the Elite Specialist, was flawed. Both him and the woman she had seen when Australia's base was taken could have been part of a special squad. What if she had it wrong from the beginning? What if neither one was the Specialist? What if Stevens did intend on eventually breaking her as he was known for doing? He could have easily handed her over to someone to get more information before handing her back over to him. [I] I should quit resisting [/I]Kim thought. [I]What's the point? I can't stop the drugs or the disruptor's from eventually forcing it from me. [/I] Though she had already gone over this in her mind many times. And yet she still kept snapping at her captor. Foolishly making it worse. Kim sighed. Exhausted and yet too restless to fall asleep as her thoughts raced in circles. Circles that lead to no where.

Daniel watched Sara leave and then turned and headed back into the side room. In a way he could understand why she was frustrated. She had approached him the other day, looking for more information on Kim. But he had given her nothing and when she had candidly asked if Kim was even alive he had honestly answered that it was standard procedure to execute traitors. Daniel had never heard of prisoners being transferred to an Elite Specialist before. He couldn?t tell her that Kim was still alive and currently on board the Transcendence. Should Sara ever be caught they would want to know how she knew that. Besides, there was no way they could rescue Kim, she was beyond their reach. In a way it was pointless for Sara to even know that she was still alive and being subjected to interrogations, since the only reason Daniel could think of for transferring Kim to the Elite Specialist was to nitpick her for details on every person she knew here, to get any scrap of information that could lead to the base in the US. Daniel sighed as he sat down and pulled up the information on the transfers from the UK. At least that seemed to be going well. In only a few hours nearly everyone had been moved. There were still people at the base though. It had been one of the hardest command decisions he had ever made. It was a decision that would haunt him for a long time to come. Knowing that for those people who were still there, it was his fault they were going to be caught, interrogated and eventually executed for treason. It helped that he had been able to evacuate so many, but the bases they had built could hold close to three hundred people. Even with following standard ?silent mode? that would still leave around one hundred of them there. Daniel looked at the update as to how many had been transferred. It was nearly complete. In less than an hour it would be finished. In addition to those who were stationed in the base under London, those who operated outside the base had all been accounted for. Some had been caught, but now, no matter how hard the troops searched they wouldn?t find anything. Daniel apologized silently to those he had left there. Since at this point, there was nothing else he could do. He couldn?t even make sure all the information in the computers was destroyed. And though the actual location of the base was not in the computers, there was enough information that someone with Kiva?s skills would be able to piece it together to realize that the base was in the western part of the US and not the eastern part. Though finding them wouldn?t be that easy. When Jared had destroyed the first transportation facility in Denver, he had told Jason and Celestia that the bases would pick up disturbances that were within one hundred and fifty miles from it. A fact that Kim knew as well, but what none of them knew was that the range was actually closer to a thousand miles. William had gotten him better equipment than they had originally planned on and he had never bothered to let anyone know. He knew people would get caught and if the information they pried out of them was inaccurate it would make things even harder. Though he had been careful to only have a few misleading facts like that in use. Still at first it would have them searching the wrong area. And that was what really mattered. [CENTER]-----------------------------------[/CENTER] Kim just lay listlessly on the bed in the cell, staring at nothing, trying to forget what had just happened. She had thought that it was finally going to end. And a small part of her had wished for it, if only to stop the interrogations. But that wish had been shattered. Not too long after she was transported to her new cell, the door had opened. She had been expecting it to be a squad to take her before the High Council, for her to be publicly stripped of her command, declared a traitor and then executed. But that had not been the case? [INDENT]Kim had woken to the sound of her cell door opening. It didn?t seem to matter how soundly she was sleeping, that always woke her up. But this time she just kept facing the wall, if they wanted her they could drag her before the High Council. But instead a familiar voice spoke? ?[B]Come with me Kim.[/B]? Startled Kim scrambled off the bed, shocked to see the person who had been interrogating her instead of a squad. His side arm drawn and pointed at her. She couldn?t help it; she just stared at him and finally stammered stupidly. ?[B]What are you doing here?[/B]? He just raised an eyebrow at that question, ?[B]What am I doing here? I told you that you weren?t on a transport to sector one. That you would be here for quite some time.[/B]? He laughed at her. ?[B]I?m not even close to being done with breaking you.[/B]? He gestured with his sidearm, ?[B]Move it.[/B]? Kim didn?t even try to fight the tears as he took her down the hall and into yet another interrogation room. One that though similar to the one they had been in before was different in a few ways. [I]What more can he possibly want to know?[/I] She thought with despair as he secured her in the chair. [I]Why can?t they just execute me and get it over with?[/I] ?[B]Now, I want you to explain to me the differences in a resistance bases? security level. Starting with the ones on Earth.[/B]? Something inside of Kim snapped and in a flash she went from feeling despair to feeling furious. ?[B]That?s easy.[/B]? She snarled in anger. ?[B]They?re all designed to keep people like you out.[/B]? A statement that as soon as she said it she regretted it. [I]Why do I keep doing this? Why do I keep resisting? [/I]She bit her lower lip trying to hide her fear as her anger faded to ashes. [I]I?m such a fool.[/I] ?[B]I guess you?re still not smart enough to not resist pointlessly. Oh well. You know you?ll tell me what I need to know.[/b]" Kim choked back a sob as she watched him walk over to activate the equipment. "[B]By all means keep resisting though, that just makes it more fun for me.[/B]?[/INDENT] And in the end he had been right, just like he always was. He had gotten the information he wanted, even to the specifics of the shielding that had been used for the bases on Earth as well as all the security measures that were taken. Including the fact that since the base in the US was the resistance?s headquarters, it had the best shielding out of all three. Kim finally shifted so she was lying on her left side exhausted from the interrogation. If only they would just execute her. She had been afraid of dying before. Now she wanted to die, she wanted it to finally end. With a sigh she closed her eyes. [CENTER]----------------------------------[/CENTER] [B]OOC:[/B] I think I got Daego's responses right, but if I'm off Takuya, just let me know and I'll fix it.

Looks like it's going to be the second graphics after all. And I agree, it does fit our team better than my idea. As for the music, I pestered my other daughter who has a copy of the instrumental Nsync bye bye bye. Which she brought over to me today. I've copied it onto the computer and I'm working on figuring out how to use Window's Movie Maker so I can upload the instrumental to a place like YouTube. I've already figured out how to at least put the plain song into a movie video. Though I have not tried uploading it to YouTube as I want to play with it to see if I can add the lyrics as they are suppose to occur. Our lyrics of course. Though seeing that I've never done this before, it is turning out to be a very frustrating trial and error process. However, if the upload to YouTube works, we at least will have the instrumental version like Sandy wanted even if I'm not able to add the lyrics to the video. There are a few spots of static since the CD is worn, but for the most part it plays beautifully. All in all, great work team! :catgirl:

[QUOTE=Takuya]Yeah, I like how you've been doing Kim, too. I was hoping you'd post as her again so I could see (read, whatever) Kim's reaction when she saw Daego again (and he did question her more, remember? In particular, he asker her about diferences in the bases' security levels). And I'll get my next post up within the next couple days.[/QUOTE]Thanks. :catgirl: As for posting about Kim and her reaction to Daego, I intend to. My post ended up being longer than I expected so I was going to include it in my next one. I do have one question though. Would Daego tell Kim his name? Or would he leave her guessing? And by telling her his name I only mean his first name not the rest and I'm assuming he would not enlighten her as to where she actually was. Anyway, I intend to include it as a type of flashback when I post again. I've already started working on the dialogue since I want to make sure I get Daego's responses correctly.

Thank you. I'm glad you guys like how I'm portraying Kim. Even if I think it's sad too. I'm glad I do not have to actually write up torture sessions though. I'm not sure if I could! I don't mind implying it though since it does make sense that they would do it. Anyway, thanks for setting up the motive for Daniel to move the troops indifference. I figured a lock down would be a good reason and you worked that into your post so beautifully. I really liked the part how Jared instantly went after them as it fits how his character is. Especially the part where he took out the cannon first in spite of the risk to himself. And though it's going to be a blow for the resistance, I'm looking forward to seeing what Daego has in mind. :catgirl:

When Daniel had first realized what was contained in the message from the Elite Specialist he couldn?t believe what he was reading. He had quickly pulled up a reading from the sensors they had and it still was hard to believe. Other than being slightly bigger, there was virtually no difference in the readout. The Grade B sensors they had were not up to the task of seeing that there was a difference between the Catalyst and the new Messenger Ship Transcendence. The signal was so identical that the deviation was not enough to even register that the ship was slightly bigger. And the specifications as to its abilities were hard to believe as well. Daniel had never heard of any ship being designed and fitted with perfect crystals. Not only were they expensive to produce, but the time frame was lengthy as well. But according to the report, there was a research facility on Mars just for doing research on the process. [I]I wonder how long that facility has been there? [/I]Not that it mattered. Even if it was within transport range, they lacked the equipment for getting around a class X shield. The best he could do was to let William know just what they were up to. The new Messenger Ship though that was another matter, it was a serious threat. Based on the information, the only ships it couldn?t take on were the flagships. Even the Crimson would not be able to stand up to it. But more importantly, it was faster than the older ships. Daniel didn?t know the exact capabilities of William?s ship, but it was possible that even he would no longer be able to outrun them. Even if Celestia and Jason had doubled the transport range, it would do them no good to attempt to escape if the Transcendence could catch them. William had been considering getting them off of Earth now that a third of the fleet had left. It was a good thing he was too busy elsewhere. Otherwise, it could have been a disaster. The part of the report about how Kiva and her crew had been responsible for raiding the safe houses and rescuing Crystal did not surprise him. Daniel had kind of expected it. The way they were raided without even the base finding out until later had led him to believe that they were responsible. But the part of the report that had chilled him the most, enough that Daniel had actually felt himself start to panic was that the Transcendence had detected the location of the base under London in the UK. He had read that part twice to reassure himself that it did indeed state that the base in the US had not been found. Daniel resisted the urge to rip his hair out from frustration. He wanted to move everyone from the UK to the US. But he couldn?t think of a single reason to justify moving them. If he evacuated everyone, it would be clear that someone had snitched. Putting Kiva?s position in jeopardy. He was torn, knowing logically what he should do and yet racked with guilt over the thought of knowingly leaving them there to be caught unawares. It was similar to when he had decided to attack the transports. In spite of carefully targeting the engines to avoid a full crash, they had still done so. Killing not only the pilots but the troops on them as well. Daniel had known the chance of the pilots surviving was poor, but he had hoped to avoid killing the troops. Even if targeting the military was considered acceptable by the Resistance. He still hated doing so. Daniel put the thoughts aside to answer an incoming message from the base in Europe. Once again it was the officer there. ?[B]What is it?[/B]? He asked, concerned by their panicked expression. ?[B]We?re got a problem sir. The military has issued martial law for the city of London and the surrounding areas. They?ve transported quite a few troops here and they are combing the city. Anyone found with Versilan based technology is being arrested on the spot. As well as anyone who is a Versilan since they are scanning everyone and every building as well.[/B]? ?[B]When did this happen?[/B]? ?[B]It started an hour after the transports were shot down sir. I?ve moved everyone to different safe houses and some of them here to the base, but there just isn?t enough room to bring everyone in. What do you want me to do?[/B]? Daniel hid a smile; he knew just what to do. ?[B]What were are going to do is go into silent mode. Other than the bare minimum of personal needed to run the base, everyone is going to be moved to the secondary safe houses in the US immediately. I?m going to open a transport door and I want you to start sending people here. Once you?ve finished other than the shielding you are to turn off absolutely everything that isn?t needed for the base to run.[/B]? ?[B]Yes sir, I?ll get started immediately. Once we are done how long do you want us to stay in silent mode?[/B]? ?[B]We?ll start with a week, possibly two. Once things settle down I?ll start sending people back so you can continue operations there.[/B]? [B]?Understood.[/B]? Daniel waited until the transmission was done to breath a sigh of relief. As much as he regretted that the troops in the transport had died, the resulting lock down had given him the perfect excuse to move almost everyone to the US. He got up to go and oversee the transfer of personal from the UK. Now he just had to hope they were able to finish before the base was attacked.

Daniel sent the final report off to William. Though Jason and Celestia had done an excellent job of hacking into Crystal?s hand held computer, they had not been able to get into the final level. In time he was sure they would have cracked the security, but their last attempt had triggered yet another routine designed to erase everything. One that Celestia and Jason had not been aware of as it was hidden behind the final security wall. By the time they realized it was there, it was too late. The data had been erased. Celestia had been pretty frustrated in spite of him telling her that they did an excellent job. But then the pattern of the security they had encountered was very high level, at least Grade Alpha. He was surprised that they had even managed to get into what they did. And even though they didn?t get the rest, they were still able to confirm what William wanted to know about. And that would have to do. Daniel was not going to attempt to force the information from Crystal. But then the chime of an incoming transmission sounded and somehow he just knew what it was. Daniel was not surprised to see the face of the officer running the base in the UK. ?[B]I?m sorry sir, but they found Crystal.[/B]? Daniel just sighed a bit, ?[B]Tell me what happened.[/B]? ?[B]I sent some agents to check the safe house that Kajo was in as well as the one where Crystal was being kept since Sako and Kajo did not check in this morning. Both of them had been raided and everyone, including Commander Crystal was gone.[/B]? He shook his head. ?[B]I?m really sorry sir.[/B]? ?[B]Don?t be, just keep moving all the agents to secondary houses and abandon the other ones. It?s not worth the risk of them getting caught.[/B]? Daniel ordered. ?[B]What about Kajo?s hand held? Was it gone as well?[/B]? He nodded, ?[B]Yes sir. I had the computer specialist change the access code to the bases?s transport door immediately. Even if they manage to hack into it they won?t be able to activate the transport door to the base.[/B]? He winced a bit before continuing. ?[B]The computer specialist did say that if the military does get into it, if they are skilled enough it is possible that they will be able to use the information to determine that the base is located in the UK.[/B]? ?[B]It can?t be helped, at least you got the authorization code for the transport door changed in time and the UK is still a big place, they won?t find you that easily. For now just continue with your assigned targets and get everyone to the secondary safe houses. Once you are finished, let me know.[/B]? The officer bowed slightly, ?[B]Yes sir.[/B]? Daniel went back to reviewing his own notes in regards to the reinforcements that would be arriving soon. If the information William had gotten was accurate, it was time to finally make use of some other special items that he had. He had been waiting for the right moment and hopefully this would be it. [CENTER]---------------------------[/CENTER] The only thing Kim was sure of anymore was that the interrogations had not ended. She had thought she was being taken to sector one, but the person she had been handed to had made it clear that she was not. Stevens had been very through with his interrogations but this man was even more so. And after a while it made sense. Stevens was the Fleet Admiral for the entire Versilan space forces. To go into the sheer detail of breaking down how standard Resistance procedures worked, to how they were organized was something that Stevens probably did not have the time for. There was nothing that her new captor did not break down until there was nothing left to be known. If he was not the Elite Specialist, then there was no doubt in her mind as to why he would have been chosen to serve with one. Somehow Kim got the feeling that there was nothing this man would leave undone. She had not asked, but she was fairly certain she had to be on the Catalyst, and every time he came for her, every time the questions began, it reinforced just how good Elite Specialists and their crew really were. Even when she had served as a Sub-Commander and had been required to assist Daniel the few times they had been required to conduct interrogations, they had never been as good as Stevens or this man was. Kim was not ruthless, nor was Daniel. And though she got the impression that the man meant it when he gave her the chance to simply tell him what he wanted to know to avoid doing things the ?hard way? as he put it. Kim just couldn?t seem to help herself. Every single time she always started out by being stubborn and answering his questions as unhelpfully as possible. Though when it came to taking the nourishment provided or personal care, she did not argue and simple took what she was given and used the facilities to clean up and change into clean clothing every day. Before Crystal had given her food and supplements, but Crystal was a doctor and she didn?t want to find out what his methods of forcing it into her would be, so she didn?t fight him over that at all. Kim was just too damn tired as most of her energy went into resisting the questions when in the end he always got the answers he wanted. How long had it been since she had been transferred? Nearly two weeks if she had her timing correctly. Though for some reason he had not come to question her today. Something that had Kim puzzled. Until she was startled by a completely different man?s voice that came from the two-way speaker, ordering her to stand up immediately and then to step through the transport door that appeared in the middle of the cell. Something that Kim simply did without complaint. The new cell she was in was once again virtually identical to the one she had been in before, though it was the cleanest and newest looking cell she had ever seen. [I]Where the hell am I now?[/I] She wondered as she sat down on the new bed. [I]Did they lie to me after all? Was he merely getting information out of me while I was being transferred to sector one?[/I] The timing was right, if she wasn?t on the Catalyst like she had originally thought, a transport would have arrived in sector one by now. Kim settled down on the bed on her right side as tears started flowing down her face. [I]So I'm going to be executed after all.[/I] She thought miserably. Not that she expected otherwise, but before there had always been that tiny little bit of hope that somehow she would get free. So long as she was near Daniel who she knew, if give the chance, would rescue her. It had been part of what kept her going, that hope of rescue, even though she knew it was no hope at all. But if she was in sector one, there was no hope. She couldn?t help it; something inside her finally snapped and great tearing sobs wracked her body as she sobbed hopelessly for a while. Kim pulled her legs up, wrapped her arms around her knees, curling into a fetal position and then wished with all her heart that she were dead. A wish that once she was exhausted from crying and she finally stopped sobbing, she regretted, but it didn?t alleviate the despair she felt. And then, totally spent, Kim fell into a restless sleep.

[quote name='Sandy][font=Century Gothic][B]Team Captains[/B'], please report the progress of your team in this challenge to this thread. Elaborate which team members are doing what, and in what stage your team song is at. Thanks![/font][/quote]Our team is close to being finished. Anomaly, Rachmaninoff and myself have been working on the lyrics. I am in fact going over them to make changes and then send them back to see what the others think. To get the final approval if you will. Aaryanna is working on the graphics, but hit a snag when the graphics program on our computer crashed, corrupting everything. I'm currently looking for the disk as it looks like we are going to have to uninstall and then reinstall the program completely. :animesigh However, if I can't find the disk, Aaryanna will make due with an older version of the program that we still have to redo the graphics. So with all that I expect that within the next day or two we will be completely done and ready to present it. :catgirl:

[B]OOC:[/B] Just to be clear, this is the same afternoon that Crystal is rescued, before Sako showed up at the safe house where she is being held. [CENTER]----------------------------------[/CENTER] It had been well over a week since Daniel gave both Jason and Celestia the hand held computer they had taken from Crystal. Both of them had done an excellent job in hacking into it but they still had not managed to get into everything. Every couple of days they would try again, obtain some more information and then be forced to quit in order to re-write the routine. It was rather annoying and yet surprising that there was so much security for it. And based on what Celestia had said, any attempt to force the information would trigger an unstoppable program that would erase everything. Still they were close, Celestia had told him that morning that she was certain that the next level of security was the last. Daniel only hoped that was true. A chime indicating there was a message for him sounded and he opened up the communication to see that it was the officer running the base in the UK. "[B]Daniel, as you already know the military has been finding and seizing our agents in the safe houses we had set up over here. What do you want us to do? We've been limiting the information each agent has but who ever is working on it keeps finding another safe house anyway.[/B]" "[B]They haven't found the one Commander Crystal is in have they?[/B]" He asked. The officer shook his head negatively. "[B]No, the last report I got indicated that she is still there. I've kept her there alone to avoid drawing unnecessary attention to its location. Sako will be checking up on her later this evening.[/B]" Daniel thought about it for a moment. "[B]If you are having that much trouble, start moving all agents to the secondary safe houses. The ones that aren't in the system yet. Once you've done that place a watch on the other ones to see just who is raiding the safe houses.[/B]" "[B]All right. Did you want me to continue with the current targets? Or can I broaden our reach to include other countries? Right now the military presence in the UK is pretty damn tight, making it hard to hit anything. If I move the operations elsewhere I think we have a better chance of being successful.[/B]" "[B]What did you have in mind?[/B]" Daniel asked. "[B]I was thinking of hitting the smaller troop encampments in other countries like Germany, Switzerland, places like that. Our activity in those areas has been pretty sketchy at best so I'm thinking they would not be prepared for it.[/B]" Daniel nodded. "[B]So long as you still hit the targets I assigned you, feel free to add on extra ones.[/B]" "[B]Understood sir.[/B]" Once the communication ended Daniel got up and left the side room to join Celestia and Jason who were working side by side. He walked over and peered over their shoulders. It made little sense to him, but they seemed to understand what was on the screen. Celestia turned to face him. "[B]Can I help you father?[/B]" She said with a smile as she looked up at him. "[B]No, I was just going to go and grab a bit to eat.[/B]" Celestia paused what she was working on and stood up. "[B]How about we join you then? Jason and I could use a break.[/B]" Jason stood up as well turning to face Daniel. "[B]Sounds good to me.[/B] "[B]Lets go then.[/B]" Daniel said with a smile. It had been a while since the three of them had a chance to simply sit down together for lunch. Lately he had been so busy that he had just snatched something and taken it with him to eat while working on reports. It would be nice to have someone to chat with for a change. Daniel had been meaning to talk with both Jason and Celestia to see how they were doing. They had seemed more relaxed after their break at the mountain safe house, but it wouldn't hurt to make sure. He made a note to himself as they walked down the corridor to check with the doctor and find out if sending them away was something he needed to do on a regular basis. Especially since Celestia seemed to be more relaxed and at ease. Well as much as anyone could be considering the situation. Then as they entered the mess hall he shooed them towards a table and headed over to where the food was to get something for all of them. Stifling a groan when he saw that once again today's menu would be plain sandwiches. [I]Maybe I should check into having more variety in the food here[/I] he thought. [I]I am sick of sandwiches.[/I] He sighed as he picked up a plate and got enough for all of them. Then he went over to join them at the table they had sat down at.