Chapter 5 - Friends in high places

"fffffffffttt...BOOM!"
We all ducked as an RPG slammed into the monster's chest. The blasted beast let out a moan and stumbled around a few feet before hitting the ground like a sack of potatoes. As i ran to help Hans up I looked at the remains of what was the beast. The rocket ended up blowing a hole clean through the chest from one side to the other. I looked over to see Thunder wielding what appeared to be some cannon.

"A little gift from our friends at Omegatron" He said, marching toward our rattled but still alive unit. "Figure you girls were all dead by now so I can to drag your corpses back to base."
"Thank you sir" Hans gasped. "Besides...why you alone with no backup?"
"The rest of the teams that return to base AS THEY WERE TOLD..." He glared at us. "Have been planning a rescue mission to Fort Fury. Latest intelligence reports tell us that a scientist who came over before we did has not communicated with us yet. He was supposed to have radioed in from a town called Atlas Haven at about 20:00 hours, but no signal. Thus, in two days we are sending a group of about 30 men to investigate the area and find Dr. Baltar. Hopefully it's not too late..."
My hope raised up a bit. "So when is our briefing for the mission then sir?"
"YOUR mission? That's not your mission cadet. Your unit will sit back and listen to the reports from the command center, where you hopefully can't mess that up too bad." Dangit, all the other guys were going to have fun while we did radio calls.
"Sir, with all due respect, you will need every man out there. We don't know who or what is out there and..." Jared started.
"ENOUGH!! All of you!" Thunder rowored. "Don't make me have you scrubbing toilets!"
"yes sir..." Jared sheeply let out. Needless to say, it was a long trip back to base.
------------
"Get up Bunny!"
hmmm...too early...keep sleeping I told myself...maybe he'll bug off...
"Come 'on, up and at 'em!"
Suddenly the nice comfortable bed that was once below me disappeared, and the hardwood floor met me next.
"Dam it Sean, can't a guy get some sleep around here..?.."I trailed off. I look at my watch...02:00?!?!
"What the heck are you waking me up at 2 A.M. for?! The horn blast is at 06:00 newbie!" I grabbed a nearby towel to clean up the blood spill from my nose hitting the floor.
"Come on Bunny, got to see this!" Sean whispered quickly. "It's awesome!"
"I'm sure it can wait till dawn" I hissed.
"No, now!" Jared burst into the room. Without notice, Sean and Jared picked me up by the arms and legs, and carried me out of the barrack’s door.
They must have carried me at least 100 yards away from base camp until they put me down. Along with them were a small crowd of people all huddled around an octagonal shape arena. Inside were two people who were boxing each other. I noticed that one was about a foot taller than his opponent, but the smaller fighter was built. They were was almost pure muscle, thus that would explain why the stronger one was beating the crap out of the tall guy. Though I didn't know why, I started to join in on the fun, yelling for the victor.
However, the next part I was not prepared for: I was picked up and, though I struggled profusely, was put in the ring with the built fighter. I ran for the door but it was bolted shut from the outside.
"Come on, big boy, show me what you got." I turned to face my opponent. Not only was she built, but she had either her blood or the other guy.
Now, as a general rule of thumb hitting a girl was going against everything I went for. I would have kept debating it if she didn't start punching me in the gut. I really never hit anything before, but I just swung half through instinct and half through sheer anger, and knocked her butt on the floor of the cage. Now, whether it was her being surprised I could do such a move or me knowing I had five years of wrestling and sword fighting back at my old high school, I felt good for once. The crowd cheered, she looked PO'ed, and came back for more. We fought for what seemed like 30 minutes until she threw in the towel. After we both exited the arena, she grabbed my arm before I could go further.
"What's your name?" She asked through panting and sweating.
"Call me bunny. Yours?" She paused for a few seconds, as if in deep thought.
"Cat." I stood still. That name sounded familiar. Where did I remember that name...?
The place was still full until the sun started to peek over the horizon, then we all scrambled from the place knowing we would have our heads on plates if the CO didn't find us in bed.

Chapter 6 - Flashback

Pit stop

I know, I know...i left you all hanging on the points of your fingernails wondering what the heck will happen next.
As some know i've been working hard on creating a new PE Guide for everyone to enjoy, thus taking all my free time up. I hope to finish this soon so i can continue my story (yes i will continue).
Thanks for hanging on. New chapter next week, my word.

Chapter 4 – Conflict

Up to now: Bunny and Co. landed on the newly discovered planet Calypso. Bunny was assigned to team delta to protect supply routes to a nearby camp.

Sun. Slight breeze blowing on my face. Walking through tall grass. Just me and seven other guys taking a walk on a surface unknown to man. Even then, nobody spoke for a few minutes, and then I decided to break the ice.
“How’s the tight guards Hans?” I asked him. I was thinking I should have gotten a pair for myself, since they looked kind of cool. “They are good” He said with a slight German accent. “But it rides up in the groan area.” We all laughed. “Can’t say this chest armor is quite comfortable myself.” Soon all four of us were talking about stuff we left behind…home, family, friends, jobs, and the like. Hans ended up leaving his two kids who went to college at Harvard. Sean and Jared who were brothers came for the adventure when they both dropped from college themselves and left home for the army. Although they were considered troublemakers in their town, they were better off now that they were on their own. Crossed a river, put the cargo on the other side then took off everything except our boxers and splashed around for a bit. All they said was to get the cargo to the container by nightfall…they didn’t say when it had to be there before that. Unfortunately, the team’s radio buzzed in. “You got the supplies to your location yet?” Jared took the radio in his hands. Paused for a second, then said “Not yet sir”.
“Then get your $#@! ass moving! Everyone else is on route back!” Yelled the CO. Wow, we were late. So we quickly got our gear back on and ran with the suppliers to the camp. Just about that time I turned on my electronic pinpoint monitor.
“Wasn’t the camp supposed to send out a signal indicating where it is?” I said. “Bring it here” Hans said. He tinkered around with it; hit it with his hands, but still no signal. “Neh, we can find it without this junk.” Sean bellowed after many attempts to trying to fix it. So we continued about hundred footsteps to the northeast when I spotted something around the horizon. Putting my hand up to signal to the others to halt, we went closer to see what it was. Sure enough, we found our first mob. About the size of a dog, gray skin, and one ugly beastie bursting with green goop.
“Hey Hans, isn’t that what they called a snablesnot?” I whispered to him.
“Ya. Tis an ugly little porker.” He looked at me.
“Yeah. Looks like my great aunt Jackie.” We all laughed. “Target practice, anyone?” We left the four guys with the supplies behind a few feet incase it got bad.
“Head shots guys. Don’t want this thing to know what hit it. Nor do I want to touch that green crap. Fire at will.”
Within seconds the poor thing was nothing but a pile of bits. As we passed it Hans stared at it and pumped another round into it.
“Can never be too sure…”
We finally made way to the camp. Place was deserted. “Hey guys, looks like the receiver tower got knocked down. The container looked like it also suffered some damage. “Secure the parameter while I fix it.” I said. “And remind me to tell Thunder we need a new tin can.”
“A new what?” Sean asked. “A new container, newbie.” I laughed. “Somebody didn’t study the terms.” Sean cursed, and then went on patrol.
Was getting dark, sun was finally setting and the wind was picking up. Seemed the tower was taken out by something other than wind…it had a huge dent in it. Like somebody punched it or something. Finally repaired it, then I figured while I was at it I’d check the sensors on the defense turrets. Things were huge, like four stories high. I’d always wanted one as a younger person, wanted to take it apart and configure it to a hand held with the same power. Almost worked too, until it took out the kitchen wall...mom wasn’t pleased about that. As I chuckled to myself I was about halfway though the diagnostic when Jared yelled out in distress. I looked up to see our culprit: An eight foot, bulky piece of something that had huge fist and was coming straight for us. Our weapons were useless against the thing, the cells just seemed to bounce off it, and it was still seconds away from the turret to be reactivated.
“Come on, come on…stupid piece of crap” I yelled. The beast was about to take out Hans…I put the rifle on my shoulder; silently said a quick prayer and aimed…


Chapter 5 – Friends in high places

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Author’s Note

Thanks all who read and comment on my stories! I encourage everyone to post comments and tell other PE fans to read this.
While this is planning to be a continuing storyline, I will need fresh names. Therefore I’m picking about 5 people who wouldn’t mind having their names/professions being part of the story. Just post a comment with your in game name, what you do in PE (i.e. hunter, miner, tailor, etc), and what you want to see in the story. If more than 5 people submit entries, 5 will be picked randomly and the results will be posted in the next chapter.

Chapter 3 – Touchdown

Sun!

I jumped out of the craft to the glorious sign that hovered above the ground: “Welcome to Caplyso”. The only thing missing now was an Oscar Meyer truck. As the plane started to unload the passengers, they looked up to the sky. Blue sky, light breeze, and even the faint sound of what sounded like birds flying overhead. This was just like home. Perhaps this was just a run of bad luck…

“Everyone gather around!” Someone yelled into a microphone. The place got surprisingly quiet. “As I speak for all of the people here and back at home, welcome to the planet Calypso!” The whole place erupted in celebration. We finally did it. What our fathers and their fathers always dreamed about, we had finally made it. Even those who were quiet most of the time couldn’t help but smile.

“Yes ladies and gentlemen, we are all standing on history today. I’ll keep my words short so we can get unpacked.”

After a short time the speaker announced “We need two groups of people…we need strong bodies to carry the cargo to the different locations, and…” he stopped with a short pause. “We will need a group of brave colonist to help protect the cargo carriers from what we consider to call be monsters, or ‘mob’ in our terms.”

Hmmm…carry cargo or shoot mob…tough choice…

Soon I was on the way to a nearby ‘container’, which were supposedly spread throughout Calypso. As I walked up a short ramp the room was full of little machines hung around the wall. As I got near one it flipped open automatically, sending me back as a bit of surprise. I would have to learn to expect stuff like that…mental note to self. There were about 20 of us there, all looking around with our orange suits. Then we were each given a card with some symbol on it.

“I’m caption Thunder, and I will be your CO. What these cards are for is to store your PED on. Just put those into any of these machines and it will let you get equipment essential for your jobs. They have 10 PED each. Spend them well. And…before you ask…they do not dispense beverages.” He added with a stern look. Some of the bigger guys in the group laughed.

So, casually walking up to one, it opened as it did before and a screen popped up in the air as if there was a second screen there. A few buttons on the side of the machine let me pick out chest plate armor. Tried it on, perfect fit. Not bad. Then it spat out a big gun.

“Sweet…” I whispered under my breath. As a child I never had anything like this. A friend of mine had a pellet air rifle but nothing like this. As I got the feel of it down I almost forgot to get some ammo. Got some cell packs, then put a magazine in and loaded it. It felt satisfying hearing the click of the loading process. I was still thinking about it when a loud burst crack was heard from one of the nearby terminals. Apparently one of the hunters decided to pre-test his weapon before anyone else. The shot left a nice dent in the wall of the container.

His action was of course noticed by the CO. “Son, what’s your name?”

“Jason.”

“Well, not anymore. It’s now is now Trigger finger.” Everyone chuckled. “Oh, and by the way, you’ll have to fix that.” The CO reminded him.

“Damn. Just want to shoot something, sir.” Jason said.

“Don’t worry son, you’ll get your chance. Now, if everyone is done, come outside the room.” Doing as we were told, we split into four teams: two riflemen and two handguns.

It was me along with the other rifleman with the guy I met at the station, Hans, and the two pistol packers, Sean and Jared. “This is smaller than most I operated with back home.” Hans said. Hmm…had hard enough time trying to get around mine.

“Know your comrades. They are your only support in the open field. Never leave a man behind. Shall you find yourself with no ammo left get some from someone else. You will also be given a survival blade, in case. All else fails, call for backup. Team alpha, your assignment…”

After a day of training and rest at the port, our group, team delta, was assigned to cargo company C to transport medical supplies to a nearby camp. Go, escort them, drop off supplies, and come back to Port Atlantis…how hard could it be…

Chapter 4 – conflict

Chapter 2 – Resurrection

“Good morning Mr. Bunny!”
Morning?
I open my eyes to a different view than when I last closed them: a large room full of equipment, monitors viewing vital signs and other information, bright lights and a bunch of people in lab coats walking back and forth between corridors. I guess my first source of discomfort came when there was a large crowd that seemed to be observing me, and I had nothing on me.
“Would you mind!?” I yelled, getting into a cowardly position to cover myself.
“No, not really.” The head lab researcher said. The female lab assistances giggled as I turned red, both in anger and embarrassment. He got up and went to a cabinet of sort and retrieved a white boxer pants, then threw them to me.
“I’m Dr. Reynard. Congratulations sir, cheating death is our job. Thankfully there was enough of you left to replicate your DNA from the wreckage, and presto! Bunny is born. Thanks to modern day technology, there were no casualties in the incident.” He said. “However, not everything was able to be returned successfully. I wouldn’t look in a mirror if I were you.”
I quickly looked around. On a tray not far away there was a hand-held mirror. I jumped off the platform were I was kept and ran for it.
“The plastic surgeons did everything in their power to make your face close to the original…” I picked up the mirror and looked in it. Nothing had changed.
“Oh, got you!” Dr. Reynard said. Everyone laughed; I was fumed, as you could have guessed. I gave him a taste of a nice knuckle sandwich in the face. I would have given him more, but the guards made it otherwise.
“He is fine; take him to the prep with the others.” Dr. Reynard hissed, wiping his nose off with a handkerchief of the bloody nose.
The prep room wasn’t much better mood-wise than the lab was. Everyone was in the same boxers or clothes I was given, and was in a single file line getting other objects. So finally being released by the guards (but still under their eyes), I walked in the back of the line.
As I was waiting my turn a tall male who was in front of me turned around and looked down on me with his dark eyes. Not to mention a very built guy with a deep voice and a scar the shape of three claw marks on his back.
“Looked like you just crapped your pants.” He said in a loud but somehow smooth voice.
“Not so loud!” I hushed. I really wasn’t in the mood or place for someone else to be cracking jokes. “Sorry bud. Hans’ the name.”
“…Mike…just call me Bunny.” Hans just stared for a few seconds, but he said “Nice meeting you Bunny.” I stood there just understanding what happened when I was next in line.
“Mr. Bunny…1 pair of shoes, and one standard issue colonist jumpsuit.”
“That is some jeans and a nice shirt right?” I asked. I just prayed it wasn’t flannel shirt with bell-bottoms. The person shoves a pile of bright orange gym jumpsuit in my direction. Wow…I could sense all the fashion designers rolling in their graves if they saw them. Made me want to curse at the person for such an ugly suit but was forced to move continue in line. Soon after we all marched into another shuttle, where we would finally make our way to Calypso. Definitely not what I had in mind when I embarked on this journey. But there was still a buzz of questions swarming in my head: Who attacked us? Were we actually dead? Did this ‘Calypso’ even exist? As I looked out the window of the shuttlecraft I did a quick prayer not to let what happened that day to repeat itself.

Chapter 3: Touchdown

Chapter 1 – The pilot

“Come one; come all to the newest discovery of your lifetime! Be a part of history as a new era is upon us! Take on new adventures as a bold adventure on the newly discovered planet ‘Calypso’! “

That’s what the pamphlet said as I strode to the ship waiting on the runway. Of the two hundred thousand lucky participants, I was one of them. Sure, being a wealthy genius and having a job at one of the top corporations in the world helped me secure a spot, but most of it was luck. Only the best and brightest had a snowball’s chance in heck to get in. Twenty-four years old, two duffle bags of supplies, and a 1-way ticket to the planet. Colonize it, then just sit back and let the rewards reap themselves, so the instructor said. As I sat back in the leather plane seat, I closed my eyes and drifted off…

“Would you like some cashews, sir?”
I lifted his eyelids. There was a waitress in a blue uniform and wearing a light blue hat. I grabbed a small package then went back to trying to get my mind off my work to come. There was quite the whispering and talking around the cabin as the other participants buzzed around the new cities and structures that were already built by the robots sent a few years ahead of them. This is going to be a long flight, I thought to myself. Already getting bored…dozed off again…

WHAM!
Wake up hitting my head on the nearest bulkhead and to the sounds of screams. People running back and fourth between cabins, lights flashing, shaking and stirring of the ship and voices on the loudspeaker yelling to the unruly crowd below: “Everyone get to your designated escape pods immediately! We are under attack! I repeat, everyone get to your designated escape pods immediately!”
Jack told an attendant what was going on. “Were under attack!” she yelled
“No crap, from whom.” I yelled back. But by then all the cabin windows lit up to a fiery orange then exploded, taking the craft with it. Wow, what a pain to be dead.

Day 52 - Getting desperate

Ok, this is sad. I went to the place i vowed never to return to until my avatar was a bit buffer, but I returned to the place where only hundreds of thousands have ran to and diead before..the rig. Sweating is no longer an opion, so now i'm either full of hope or full of something else. Off to the rig!!

TP'd to the nyphtown, then ran down south to the outpost about 250 steps north of the pvp zone. A small group there from a soc but wasn't going to bother them since their armor and blades were supior to my own, thus i didn't risk having them hack away at me in the zone. Reached the edge of the zone! Alright, this is it. I was going to make it! ...unless the atrox wanted a flippin' meal. I hate it how there's always a thick wall of mob circling the areas of the zone where it's impossible to penetrate by oneself unless you're from ck or something. Heck, even ridding of 10% of them would increase my odds. 10 attempts later (and much cursing and yelling), went back to camp phoniox to beg newbies for me to become their mentor. Lots of them interested, but they needed more time to think about it. Come on! Either a simple 'yes' or 'no' would be suffice. If they don't like it, they can pick someone else, fine by me. Because as of this point, my hunting for even a global has become a struggle, since i've neither a global or hof under my belt. Bah! Enough ranting!

odd 'sir odd' bunny

Day 51 - perfect solution

Little chart to solve all problems in PE. Few for real life, but first for PE. Follow it and you can't go wrong ;)

Step 1: Did you touch it? -- If yes goto step 2, if not step 9
Step 2: Don't touch it! -- Goto step 9, else goto step 3 or 4 if not solved
Step 3: Don't tell anyone -- No Problem! Done
Step 4: Did it break? -- If yes goto step 5, if not step 2
Step 5: Does anyone know? -- If yes goto step 6, if not step 9
Step 6: Will you catch heck? -- If yes goto step 7, if not step 9
Step 7: You poor newbie! -- repeat as nesseary until step 8
Step 8: Can you blame someone else for the break? -- If yes, step 9, if not, repeat step 7.
Step 9: NO PROBLEM!


lol...maybe a bit confusing but it's a good laugh.

Day 48 – W00t!

Best day yet. Finally became an ‘Unskilled Swordfighter’, thus ending my ‘unofficial’ training as a newbie. Not to say there is still a significant amount of things to explore, but I can have a sense of accomplishment to say I’ve done quite a bit. Now as a capable mentor, I look forward to the many rewards that can be reaped from PE, both for myself and others.

Firstly, I’d like to personally thank Dino, radical, Eric, and the whole gang of E.P for helping me out. I wouldn’t have gotten as far as I have since I started last November. Also for their guidance in-game and out, and for answering all of my many annoying questions and comments. Hopefully the ‘chirpy’ that did 99 damage will not encounter me for some time.

I’d also like to thank all of my hunting peeps, sox for most part, for helping me skill on difficult mobs and getting skilled on one of the more difficult skills of melee combat.

Also, for the soc that took me in, ‘Men in red pants’ under their wings. Still don’t quite have enough for red pants, but I will not rest until I do. GeoTermalCat, Blue and the others are good talkers with quite a bit of experience under their belts. As a just promoted private I look forward to doing more activates with those fellow soc mates.

I look forward to continuing my adventures here on PE, and hopefully train many disciples to their successes.

- Odd ‘sir odd’ Bunny

Day 47 – the rigged rig

-Thanks whoever for reporting the broken link. It is now fixed!-

Well, I can’t believe I went there again, but things aren’t looking too hot. My sweating is getting close to expiring and hunting has turned up squat. I guess the biggest thing is the closet tp is about 4 minute run to the NW outpost. Finally get there, about six other guys there, all newbies. I figure if they can go I can have some bait for the mob to munch on while I head for the rig. So we went over the big hill north of the pvp zone, no mob activity which was strange. Finally hit the outer rim of the zone and made our way in. We were about little bit in when we hit another group of newbies trying to get there as well. So we had a dozen people, all weaving back and fourth trying to get to the rig. Next thing you know, there’s another guy. So we thought ‘hey, why not get this guy to help us?’

So we made our way over to ask him. He was quiet at first, didn’t say anything. We just stood there looking at each other. Next thing you know, he pulls out some long black weapon that I didn’t recognize. But I got the hint that this was about to go south. So in a mix of panic and excitement, I ran the opposite direction. At about that time I heard the ‘rat-ta-ta-tat’ of something fast going off. The bullets were flying, the death count was rising and things were looking ugly really fast. As for me I was running and jumping up and down like a crazy person or something, just hoping he didn’t put his sights on my butt. Thankfully a nearby atrox came by and occupied the person, so I made my escape…just as I ran into a mob of my own and dead was the verdict. Still have yet to find the %$# rig. Till next time…

Odd ‘sir odd’ Bunny

Day 45 – New year, new fun…

Yes, I haven’t written in weeks, and I disappointed people…but I return! Not only for today’s post, but few others as well to make up lost time. Let’s get this party started!

Day 41 – A changed odd

W00t! Bought some plain pants and finally got rid of my newbie clothes! Good day already. I was getting sick of the orange pants and shirt giving me a bad taste in my mouth. Got a goblin harness to go with it, so in a way I bought a shirt as well. Time to buff up! I’m sure chicks dig dudes in gray pants and goblin armor. Went to camp phoenix and strutted my stuff, flexing and what not. Got quite the crowd actually. Some booed, some taunted, but a few dropped PEC’s for grabs. Was having difficulty competing with the camp phoenix ‘bush’ that was supposedly giving out free PEC’s and dung to those who worshipped it. Hmmm…give PEC’s to a person or a bush…tough choice :P

Put a PED or two in the enblade and went solo on snobs and byceles (forgive my spellings). Sweated some more and hoped the price of sweat didn’t drop any lower L 1.2/bottle! Aiy de mi! (‘oh my god!’ for those who don’t speak Spanish). Started at 2 PEC’s and now it’s this and hope it doesn’t go to .5 L. Otherwise the large amounts people stored for a good price will be worthless soon if they don’t sell ‘em soon. Until next time…

Odd ‘sir odd’ bunny

Day 39 – The big hunt!

Ah, if my luck would have held on past today! Bagged 10 PED in a group hunt with some buds…most I ever got at a hunt. Started at camp phoenix then ransacked our way to the south through a thick herd of molisk and fefford. First five beast gave up 5+ Ped each divided by everyone then scattered loot here and there. I managed to repair my enblade with 5 PED from sweating before hand so I actually had a decent amount of damage to deal before being replaced. Man, we slaughtered the whole place! Emptied the radar of all red dots few times, then kept moving. Thankfully one of the guys had good healing chip so we didn’t die at all. Then after a while we went 20+ kills without a PEC. Man what a drag! Beasties were’nt even supporting us, while others elsewhere were scoring globals at least. Man, I REALLY need a global in my name, even if it was on a team. PED is taken for granted by most of the experienced players, and while others brag about affording supremacy armor and whatnot, it’s a fight out there everyday for us newbies, especially those who can’t deposit anything. We build ourselves from the ground up, we are tough, kick-as…enough of my rants…till next time…

Odd ‘sir odd’ bunny