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Message: <blockquote data-quote="tadk" data-source="post: 2344957" data-attributes="member: 32497">Story inspired by Ceramic DM images June 2005 Round 1"Titanium and Nets"CW Kelson III (Tad)Copyright © 2005 Started 06.15.05Finished on 06.20.05For the Ceramic DM Contest round 1 June 2005 edition Practice RunStone please explainWhy your silence makes more Noise than thunderBones, is it saneTo obey me and the flesh you're under"Iron Flower" by K's ChoiceThe stones glowing as a furnace, in the heat of destruction, they are testimony to fear and greed. The swath across the meadow backed down into the rocks slowly cooling from reentry flames. The gutted remains of research facilities and housing complexes targeted from beyond their sight bore the witness of no survivors. Mop up crews circled, crows in black and gunmetal, waiting for the temperature to descend to life sustaining levels.Brick, mortar, steel, glass and asphalt all mixed and scattered across landscape made desolate with multiple Kinetic Kill impacts. Iron missiles, medieval in construction, dropped from high enough causing One Hundred Percent Fatality among the researchers, families and bio-constructs in the target zone. The local government officials were playing it safe. By their taking the road of least confrontation, minimal risk to their own personnel, and using artillery to wipe out the illegal, by their rule books, facility. Once the bombardment was over, a matter of milliseconds for the simultaneous arrival of the projectiles, and the area cooled sufficient to preclude the necessity of life support gear. Then and only then did the armed and armored troops move in to ensure total eradication of the threat to the status quo.Across the continent, on a last minute junket, the brains behind the now smoldering ruins sat in a coffin hotel, watching the activity as it unfolded. Alerted when all the mainframes went off line, her Loa Ochosi Vee, informed her of the attack as it was unfolding. Brought into the linkage as the projectiles unfolded in the troposphere heading for her home and life dream she watched it happen. Taking in the action and noting the encrypted signals from the circling aerial forces, if it were not for this emergency meeting to arrange additional funding avenues she would be watching her own death fall towards her at murderous velocities. The scant minutes it took for the attack to occur was over and shock set in. Everything and everyone at her facility was obliterated. All of them turned into vapor along with the reinforced buildings. Now there was only her, Ochosi Vee and the few others on the trip with her. With a sigh, and a request for mild sedation to hold the tears at bay for the death of her lovers, friends and colleagues, she gets back to her business at hand. It is even more important to arrange for positive equity flow with the physical research gone. Were it not for the protective aegis of Ochosi Vee all would be lost. But in the time it took the attack to unfold he had stripped all the systems of data, wiping them more surely than the attack could have. As well as transferring them into off site alternate holding platforms. With that action they were set back, not devastated in an total information loss.Leaving details to Ochosi Vee to pass along to the others in the local retinue, she climbed out of the tube, straightening the dress outfit as well as her hair. Long, straight, black as night so unlike the trends for wintry pale in complexion and hair tone, then again the sheer height a factor in standing apart of masses. As well as being taller than the majority of city dwellers. That coupled with singular intelligence and will to drive made her an enigma in these time. But now she has no time to waste in sentimentality. Trusting to her Loa to track her moods and adjust her hormones as necessary via the implants she headed back to the venue where the meetings were taking place. It was time to get a move on and make things happen to ensure her survival from this point on.-----The distant lights from the port shone meekly on the overhanging clouds. Reflections from spots, clubs, entertainment and establishment districts adding their neon and argon energized contributions.The Box, four cornered parasail inflated with ground emplaced gas lasers, started to lift off. The acid like hiss and ache of oxygen vaporizing under the heat and glare of the lift off lasers that are filling the air around the pad area covers the ambient nose levels. The Box, a squat and ugly conveyance, grumbled its way up into space while terawatts of energy were used to boost the payload of a grand of souls up towards the distantly geosynchronous station where their trips would truly begin.The near space craft had lifted away from the flat pad it had been loaded on. Residual heat devils danced in the dust and trash swirled around with convection. Two figures scurried across the inner edge of the walls enclosing the space. Ducking into recessed doors, the laden shapes shed outer clothing and moved deeper into the complex. Making their entry after illicitly disembarking from the Box, they had a window of opportunity to which they intended mischief. They were there striking at the heart of the local regime responsible for the destruction of habitats as well as the death of innocents, guilty of only being born in the blighted nation. One male, one female, flit from corridor to corridor, their guardians watching over them, diverting attention from monitors, spoofing electronics and confounding potential observers. They went so far as to start adjusting the orbits of surveillance satellites when they would come to long halls with open glass and expanses. Long minutes pass during this imminent structure hit that time seemed to stand still. Only soft padding tabi accentuate the severity of the situation. If found out death or worse was the only good result they could hope for. With many things much worse than death being the most likely outcomes, still risk was worth it to bait the lion's within their dens. Far past where people tread, down into the labyrinth that the upper floors all supported, they came upon the magnetically safe and sealed vacuum locks. With quick looks around them, and at the far limits of their protectors reach of influence, they placed the specially designed explosives along the door frame. Once in place they moved around the nearest corner and waited for the timer to count down. The blast shocks through the enclosed concrete halls. When the two infiltrators looked around and saw the massive metallic door swinging out and open. Dashing inside they see the wreckage caused by the explosion. Still by timing it for a slack period only a few people had been inside and luck had it, none had died. Obvious concussions and disorientation visible in the staggering technical expertsInside the two got to work, liberating data that longed, in their worldview, to be free. Linking freestanding cellular connections, the mainframes were opened wide to all the peoples of the world who were able to get a connection. Once in place, the entire series of storage mediums was ripe to being plundered by the still sovereign peoples of the world while the technicians could do nothing about it in their dazed state. Once it was in progress the two saboteurs made a hasty retreat delving deeper into the structure to outrun the certain to arrive enforcement arms of the government.-----So quiet here, she thought, peaceful and placid. It is just the place to raise a new clutch of Ent-Tigres. As she looked around, slowly walking, her eyes noticed that there was plenty of room to hunt. There was more than enough space for them to fight, to breed and to have obstacles to aid the training in the purpose. There is time enough to raise a clutch or three before they would be needed on the front lines. Dr. PorTashia Wagonner, PHD, took her time surveying where she and her precious cats would relocate. Since the agencies opposed to them had located her previous facility and ensured no one survived that had been there. She was on the run, loose in the world at large and hunted for her views on biology and on evolution. Free to think any thoughts not caught up and rounded for evidence, the land was not free in spirit, or in body in the least. Tight controls back in the homeland had taken deeper and deeper root.  Eventually the intelligentsia and ecologically motivated had moved out. Some headed north, most went south and became the de facto economies of the many small islands. Some like her retreated to the depths of the woods, the few untouched places left since the melt down of boundaries in the years preceding her birth. Others like her had set up shop in foreign countries, or in disassociated portions of the mainland, or in small islands down in the sea to the south. But even being off the mainland did not guarantee their safety. Still the few like her fighting for her own life and to retain the ability to help others, rather than to be focused on the eternal here and now. Looking towards the future, since her past, and the past of her old comrades, was cut short by death undeserved. This was the hope she had deep inside her hearth as she looked out over the placid waters.------HeelSitStayGood LassGood OneNowSearch modeAcquisitionTarget, upload in progressWaiting, completeHunt Seek IntitiateBounding away the big she Ent-Tigres took off, hard wired and soft coded processes running in parallel to instinctual reactions. PorTashia riding along within the LoaNet linked to Comm. Nodes scattered through out the pseudo-feline's form. The target fled not knowing what form the pursuit would take. Armed and armored against most of the current SOTA attack forms, offline now to prevent worms and Trojans from getting a lock on his location. He was pleased with how the hit went off. No unexpected surprises, the target was soft compared to most that he had to infiltrate, simple in and out smash the lives and grab the bundles designated as Priority. That done in minutes, more muscled used that his usual. Once inside his Ablative armors; while reacting to incoming fire, easily took the low caliber retaliations from manned and unmanned sentry. Once he was inside the target location it was pathetically soft, no internals to speak of. Almost like taking on civilians in their native habitats of diners, stores and shopping complexes. No challenges at all.The large hunting female eventually started running the prey to ground. It had been a long chase for her. Mostly designed for static defense, her breed was best in close along with indoor situations. Pursuit over long distances is not a forte of large tigers, which were the stock from which the Ent-Tigres was evolved from. Still being able to run at Sixty KPH for hours at a time tends to suffice in short wet work actions. The time between infiltration and the target making it out of the complex and when she was on the trail was under ten minutes. While this was plenty of time for him to get several miles into the surrounding wilderness, but not near enough time to get out of her reach. Staggering along the waters edge, Desperation sending the hunted into the water. Hoping the giant thing after him could not swim.Down below the surface, titanium reinforced Teflon grown claws flickered in and out. As steel laced body weight carried the eager killing bio-machine to the now almost drowning victim. The last bubbles explode in atavistic fear and reaction as the giant cat opened wide and displayed nearly four inch long ripping and tearing incisors all the way back in the jaw. Oh loveForgottenLong time pastHunted DriftsInto the IronFloweringUnder the pickOf greedThe lyrics come from the speakers inset into the accessories. Fully accoutered in black and gold, like some prehistoric bumblebee given legs and made waif-emaciated with arms, legs and waist. The young lady made her way down the highway etched into the store fronts. Always the one encroaching on the other, in a constant struggle for domination and so far the streets are winning the war. She takes her time, searching for the exact location mentioned in the texts she had located. The directions, and signals, are not helpful. Interference exists even in this age and day as a factor. Still a touch of time spent, a moment of connectivity and she finds the entrance to her destination.A moment of checking, an overview look from her Loa, and into the entrance she goes. Massive stairs lead downward into the bowels of the cityscape complex. At least a dozen flights worth of rusted steel to navigate. Only one way to find out for certain the voice in her implants reminds her, only way to make sure is to go down there. Thankful for the company she has, her sure feet make their ways down the endless stairs, around the landings, and down still more stairs.  Until finally she had reached her destination. Located miles below the surface of the world, hidden from human and electronic surveillance.Here, farther underground than in any other place on Earth, save perhaps the oldest of mines, Dr. PorTashia Wagonner, PHD, looked at the handiwork of her people. A self-sufficient community, hidden from sight. The future of humanity, guarded with the mantle of Mother Earth.</blockquote>

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