Hearthstone Fan Fiction

[jpholding]

Oyez, here ya go JSD. :smile: Back later.

[Sir-Think-A-Lot]

hmmmmm...I usually dislike writing fan-fiction, but maybe I'll give it a shot once I finish the story I'm currently working on. Which may not happen for a while depending on how much time writing the screenplay for Zombies Ate My Neighbors takes up.

[Spheniscine]

(With apologies to J. P. Holding.)

(Idea based on Book-A-Minute (http://www.rinkworks.com/bookaminute/) and Movie-A-Minute (http://www.rinkworks.com/movieaminute/) on RinkWorks.)

Hearthstone-A-Minute

Let's face it. J. P. Holding drew a lot of stuff but you have very little time to read it in. Well sit back and relax, because your troubles are solved! We here at Hearthstone-A-Minute have come up with a solution. We've taken the Annals and extracted the important stuff, cutting out all the filler. (You'd be surprised how much filler there is sometimes.) With our ultra-condensed versions of your favorite comic, you can read entire episodes -- entire series, even -- in just one minute! And it costs nothing!

"That's nice," you say, "but I don't believe you." Yah hah, skeptical soul! We've got every episode ever published here! See for yourself!

Range Patrol #1: "Cold Reception"

(Sheila FINDS Annabelle. Annabelle HATES Sevrin. So Sheila and Annabelle KICK Sevrin's BUTT. Brett FINDS Annabelle and everyone is HAPPY again.)

(The End)

Shrike Team #1: "Fruits of Redemption"

(S'nay SAVES Felicity. Felicity CURES S'nay's plant. Brom EATS plant. S'nay reveals that plant is EVIL. Brom now has SUPERPOWERS. Von Lucre CAPTURES Felicity and S'nay.)

(To be continued...)

Range Patrol #2: "Invasion Praxis"

(The Range Patrol building is BOMBED. Nullabor gets overrun by EVIL ROBOT SOLDIERS. EVIL ROBOT SOLDIERS seem to have the upper hand.)

(To be continued...)

Shrike Team #2: "Seeds of Rebellion"

(Brom and Eidolon KICK Von Lucre's BUTT. S'nay DIES, but Felicity is RESCUED. Von Lucre DIES. Brom and Felicity get all chummy. Brom SAVES Felicity again, but Felicity is traumatized. Felicity EATS evil plant seed and becomes POSSESSED.)

(To be continued...)

Range Patrol #3: "Invasion Resolution"

(The good guys KICK the bad guys' BUTTS.)

(The End)

Shrike Team #3: "Roots of Contention"

(Brom KICKS some RANDOM criminal's BUTT. Evil Felicity has cool SUPERPOWERS, but instead of taking the direct approach, decides to fell trees instead. Brom KICKS her BUTT, but Felicity is still evil.)

(To be continued...)

[{Tim}]

:lol:

[Spheniscine]

Rewrite - ST#3 should read:

(Brom KICKS some RANDOM criminal's BUTT. Evil Felicity has cool SUPERPOWERS. She tries to KILL Brom, but FAILS, twice. Brom KICKS her BUTT, but Felicity is still evil.)

(To be continued...)

[jpholding]

I've really made it. Hearthstone has been subjected to CLIFF'S NOTES! :lol:

[Leonhard]

I'm almost done with the first two chapters of a fanfic. Where do you want it?

Should I post it here at full length? Send it to Sheila's email address, or post a link to it here?

[jpholding]

I'm almost done with the first two chapters of a fanfic. Where do you want it?

Should I post it here at full length? Send it to Sheila's email address, or post a link to it here?

You can post here. :thumb: I may not comment for a bit. Got Net connectivity problems this morning...

[Leonhard]

You can post here. :thumb: I may not comment for a bit. Got Net connectivity problems this morning...

Ok, I'll do that!

Now I'm warning you I'm not good at this stuff, I only have a smallish plan as to what to do. The first chapter has nothing hearthstonian about it, but chapter two will. This just to start it out.

Here goes...

First, I would like to thank Mr. Holding for his fine efforts in apologetics, helping me and other Christians find answers to difficult questions and in our pursuit of truth.

Then I would thank him for his funny soundbites and cartoons. I must confess that they are part of list of favorite online webcomics. Not only does he manage to churn out more pages pr day than the average webcomic. He also avoids many of the common clichés and repetitive themes of other comics.

And now, since your comic is still a fanfiction virgin, may I (to use a bit vulgar expression) pluck the cherry and submit the first fanfic.

Btw I would appreciate comments since I'm this is one of my first fanfics, if you find any grammar errors and such please let me know by private message. I'm from Denmark so my english is not perfect.

Daft Runners
BY LEONHARD
Prologue: Somewhere in another dimension


Leon smiled to himself as he studied the vault before him. Taken together the full level of protection of the facility was a bit overkill and yet he had managed to foil it within the space of an hour, but then again he was probably the only person on this particular planet, who had the convenience of working with extraspatial technology.

He walked up to the small pad in front of the glowing a row of laser beams; a small blue glowing holoscreen was floating in the air in the same height as he. However, instead of going through the standard procedures of placing his hand in the blue circle, and getting his entire body scanned for his identification, he merely extended his right arm into the air.

"Only God can break this system," He stated with an evil grin in his eyes and snapped his fingers.

There was a moment of silence as if someone considering the words. Then the massive vault door swung open with a silence and ease that didn't reveal the heavy nature of its unobtainium armor. "Or me!" He added with a grin. Knowing one of the architects of this place had certainly made this easier. A smart hacker allways had a backdoor, a statement that was universally true.

Despite of the large door, the room inside off the vault was surprisingly blank. The walls and floor where totally a smooth white. The only item inside was a little sphere about a foot in diameter. It was floating over a pedestal, which was holding it in a weak magnetic grip.

One would have a hard time explaining the appearance of this sphere. If you looked at it, you would swear it had a certain color and a certain texture, however as you watched it would change so subtly, like a cloud on sky, that its appearance was impossible to fathom. It barely even seemed to exist, slightly translucent as it was.

“Heh… and zero mass too” Leon said as he took the sphere between his hands, this just adding to the unreal feeling of the sphere. As he held it in his special magnetic gloves he could feel a slight vibration coming from it.

However weird the object, he didn't have time play around with it. He ran off as fast as he could back through the security facility, passing through a most surrealistic setting of frozen security bots, suspended in motion by the tau-fields, his grenades had let off. He ran through doors he had melted. Having carefully step around a glob of molten steel, which had slowly floated down from the top off the door, slowed by the tau-fields as it was.

“Ten seconds to realtime” The disembodied voice of his neuro-com told him inside of his head.

“Curses” He yelled.

He passed a group of guards still starring with a shocked expression at the huge gapping hole he had blasted in the lobby of the building. They had hardly moved an inch, yet the left guard’s cop of coffee was in the process of shattering with the contact between itself and the floor.

“Five seconds to realtime” His comp told him as he ran out of the hole and towards his vehicle.

Sending a mental note to its computer to prepare for an emergency flight, he jumped through a circular opening in its side, which promptly melted away. “Tau fields decayed, we are now at Realtime”

“You don’t say so,” He muttered under his breath as he took out the sphere and placed it in its receptacle in the back of the plane.

Outside he could hear the alarm starting up. Though he had practically frozen the entire building in a tau-blast, so that he would have free hands to work his way through its many layers of security, leaving the personal and computers completely confused. He had must have forgotten all about time. He made a mental note too drop the theatrics the next time. Though the guards where most likely confused they would still respond quickly to this.

He jumped into the pilot seat and turned on the main viewer. He had been wrong; they had reacted instantly.

“Surrender, come out and return the stolen artifact or we will open fire, you have twenty seconds to comply” The imposing group of ED-209's warned in their booming electronic voices.

'Stolen artifact! They where the ones took it from me' He thought he rapidly checked his options. Having no times for take off and no tau bombs to fire, he wondered for a moment whether to give them a taste of his twin tachyon beam cannons.

Then a dark figure stood out amongst the mechs. Though it seemed forever since the last time they had meet Leon instantly recognized him. He knew he had no other options left now, other than the panic option.

“Computer emergency override, fire gadget” He yelled. It was not a good move, but never the less the only move he could make. He braced himself in his chair and hoped for the best.

The reactor in the back of the vehicle, which was abnormally large (and powerful) for a frame this size fired up to its maximum. Through a large series of superconducting conduits, enough energy to light up the sky was force fed into the mystical sphere. The sphere reacted under the enormous energies, glowing bright white. It suddenly grew fast, engulfing the entire vehicle a few seconds and collapsed with a huge explosion back into nothing.

The dark figure took a step forward, looking at the empty landing pad, which was suddenly missing a huge spherical chunk of ground.

"Sir, we managed to get a fix on the warp alignment, but you're not gonna like this..." The voice of a young officer told him, through his neurocomp.

"Finally..." A smile appeared on his face, as he ignored the officer. It had been along decades since he had gotten this close in his chase. "Finally I'll get you brother!”

"Prepare the Rejzen for travel," He barked through his intercom.

The hunt was on...


---------

I know this was a bit short, chapter two will be alot longer, plus it will actually have something to do with Hearthstone : ahem :

I might get up tomorrow.

[jpholding]

Cool. I'll have to comment later, still got the same problems, with forums like TWeb especially taking forever to load properly.

[Darth Executor]

Do you know what the problem is?

[jpholding]

Do you know what the problem is?

No. There are times when it is molasses-slow, other times when it works normally. Right now it's at normal speed but 20 minutes ago I couldn't even get my FTP screen up.

I have a drawing for you BTW, still need/want it?

[Darth Executor]

No. There are times when it is molasses-slow, other times when it works normally. Right now it's at normal speed but 20 minutes ago I couldn't even get my FTP screen up.

Do you use a router? If you do, you could have someone stealing your connection. :teeth:

I have a drawing for you BTW, still need/want it?

Sure.

[jpholding]

Do you use a router?

Thank Zeus, NO!


Sure.

OK, I'll color it and get it to you later this week. I have to admit I didn't care for the results. Just not my cuppa tea.

[Darth Executor]

OK, I'll color it and get it to you later this week. I have to admit I didn't care for the results. Just not my cuppa tea.

:rasberry:

Drat, and I figured you'd like drawing it since you don't like Freud that much. :teeth:

[jpholding]

:rasberry:

Drat, and I figured you'd like drawing it since you don't like Freud that much. :teeth:


Humans are lousy subjects in general AFAIC. :thumbd:

[jpholding]

Turns out the Net problem was a system issue, not something with my personal connection. :thumbd:



Leon's got a good start here, and now I'm guessing someone's about to show up on Hearthstone... :wink: Could be interesting....keeping in mind that I've established from the Flemming toons that Sheila is about 6 feet tall.

[Leonhard]

Six feet?!! Wow, she's a big girl.

by chapter three/four I think I'll have the story proceed somewhat parallel to the main storyline, but maybe I'll go off on a tangent and create an alternate universe. Hmm, Annabelle as an evil villain anyone?

By the way I apollogise for this overdue chapter. I had some parties to attend too, since I've finally graduated and this had to take second place.

As all ways please PM me about any grammar/spelling/whatever errors and I'll correct them as fast as possible.

I hope I hit Sheilas character as close as possible. And now with no further delay.

Daft Runners
BY LEONHARD
Chapter One: Somewhere in Nullabor, Hearthstone...


In another dimension, a new day was dawning.

The sun rose slowly over the dunes and cliffs in the Nullaborian desert. Golden beams of light searched out over the cold and dark country, slowly hunting down the shadows of the land, spreading them and warming the frosty chill ground. The land glowed with an orange-red aura as the suns light filtered through the morning fog.

One of the beams climbed over a hill as the sun rose ever higher and fell in through a window on a wooden building. It lighted up the room of range patroller Sheila Rangslinger as it hit opposite wall. She was sleeping peacefully in her bed, her ears lying flat on her pillow. Slowly the spot of light traveled down the wall and settled peacefully on her face. The sleeping figure stirred a little.

And suddenly Sproing!!! She launched into the air.

"Good morning!!!" Sheila exclaimed while still in midair. She did a flip and landing on her feet.

"Haven’t slept that well for a while" She said as she stretched out.

She quickly put on her clothes, and speed out the door. Breathing in the air, she felt as fresh as a 'are there something like sea hawks in Hearthstone', anyway she felt the equivalent of that.

Getting into the small kitchen area, she reached into the refrigerator, getting herself one of the sandwiches from yesterday. Placed herself in front of the window and enjoyed the sunrise while eating her breakfast.

"2:12, Golly... Even I rarely get up this early," She said as she checked the clock. "I've got a whole cycle before my morning patrol begins"

Sheila decided to get some workout done before her schedules started. She went outside and picked a spot in front of the house with a good view of the sunrise. It was a beautiful morning, but then again it probably is hard to find a bad morning on Nullabor, or on any place on Hearthstone.

”And One, and two, and one, and two…” She chanted, as she worked through her warm up and stretching exercises. She really preferred doing these workouts in morning with the cool air feeling good against her fur, plus it helped cool her down. She could also do them in the evening, but by then she was usually too tired. Finishing her stretches, she continued with her pushups.

"Garh!?" A deep and friendly voice came behind her.

"Oh good morning Bimf! I slept well too" She said in the middle of a one hand pushup. "Could you go check on Beamer for me, I wouldn't want him too sleep in late again."

The huge sanslorian turned and walked back to the house in a slow pace. Beamer was hard getting up on the right times these days as he often pulled in many extra hours working with what he complained was a 'vastly under funded and utterly crapuloulicious equipment'. However, somehow his creative genius was always able to create quite incredible pieces a work. Sheila didn't quite know what she should do with her growing armament of rangs, some of them she found to be a bit overkill. When it came to it, she actually preferred the simple wooden rang. It felt better in her hand and she was rather comfortable with it.

As she finished her push-ups and went down on her back for some sit-ups, she looked up at the sky. The stars were still visible.

"Huh," She exclaimed as she saw as a bright light flashing over sky at great speed. Her eyes quickly followed into as it went out of sight behind some dunes. A few seconds later, the dull roar of an explosion reached her ears.

--Let's go back in time about a minute--

Location: About ten kilometers in the air and thirty kilometers south of our hardworking Elapine.

The cold air in this region starting glowing a bright blue as a large electric potential starting gathering in this region. In a short time the small area lighted up to, a bright white and suddenly <insert loud explosive-like soundeffect> a fireball was sent hurdling across the sky at hyper velocity.

It wasn't a fireball though. The only reason it burned bright was that airmolecules where heated up as they where compressed by against its energy shield as it moved across the sky. Inside a frantic person was struggeling get control of the aircraft.

Where the in the name of spam am I?" Leon cried out as the as his mind was bombarded with warning messanges by everything in the vehicle from the reactor to the coffee maker. He remembered doing an untargeted emergency jump, but that didn't help clearing up where he was.

'Computer; Status short bring, vehicle; spatial relations!' This would be the best attempt one could get as to how he said to the computer. Controlling computers had on a certain world evolved far beyond written or verbal commands. It was much quicker this way; the command issued had taken about ten milleseconds. He had however made the computer reply in audio, since having the computer answer the same way felt far too creepy.

"The vehicle is currently traveling at the speeds of 3718 kilometers an hour at a minus 12 degree declination. Estimated impact in 42 seconds" The computer replied as he saw the rocky and sandy surface approach faster than the speed of a bullet.

"Awww... crud!!!" Was all he could say.

--We traverse back through time back to Sheila--

Sheila didn’t quite know what to think as she walked back to the headquarter. She was sure it couldn't have been a Cartel attack. Their pressure rockets didn’t have that range or speed. She decided that she needed Beamers opinion before proceeding.

She entered the room next to the workshop. It was smallest bedroom in the headquarter, but then again Beamer didn’t spend much time here; his real room was the workshop. The only things in the room where: a bookshelf cluttered with technical books of everything from neutron generators to the aerodynamics of rangs, a small chest with his earthly belongings and his little bed which was actually a pillow from an oversized sanslorian sofa. Bimf stood next to the bed looking like a huge question mark.

"Uhh, he won't wake up!" He said as he saw Sheila entering. Actually, he hadn't uttered as much as single verb, but his stance and expression told this just as easily to one accustomed to the sanslorians.

"Beamer! Rise and shine, little guy..." Sheila sang as she gently rustled him, trying to wake him.

"Come on mom, just a little while more" He mumbled as he clinged to the covers and continued snoring at full pace.

Sheila sighed, looked at Bimf, and gave him a quick nod. The huge sanslorian took Beamers bed in his right arm and turned it upside-down. This didn't do much, as Beamers instincts had him clinging to the bed as a child tilkrieg to its mother. However after a little (at least to a sanslorian) shaking on Bimf’s behalf, the little tilkrieg finally regained awareness.

"Arrghh, the Cartels are bombing us"

After calming him down and after Sheila had explained what she had seen to Beamer, they went out to the place she had been exercising.

"Hmm, I'm no expert on the subject, but I would wager on a meteor strike. It’s a rare occurence were a chunk of material from outer space enters and burns up in the atmosphere." He said as he calculated an approximate location for its impact sight based on her descriptions of its path. "Got it, about a hundred and eighty fiewars from here in the plane of The Prince. You should be able to find slightly east of the cliff of Mua'dip"

"Any readings?" Sheila asked as mounted the steambike, its internal heating systems still working its way towards a sufficient pressure for driving.

"Nah, nothing conclusive, there seems to be some weird energy readings, but they are way off the scale. I think this piece of junk has had its running." He grumbled as he dismantled the spectral analyser.

"Anything I should look for" She said as the temperature of the pressure tank in the bike reached operational levels.

"Bah, some valuables, or at least a sizable hunk of pure polarium, we could seriously need the cash. Piece of drovinian junk." Beamer roared as he finally gave up on disassembly and went ahead on stress relief. "Just look for a crater of some size, there should be some marking from the impact. By the way hurry back, I've just finished a new rang for you and I want you to test it out!"

"Look forward to it" She said as she put the pedal to the metal and blasted off into the dessert.

[jpholding]

Six feet?!! Wow, she's a big girl.

Before you came I asked TWebbers here what size they figured Hearthstone natives were compared to us: If we went there, would it be a world in miniature, or....? Most seemed to see Sheila and Annabelle as 5 feet tall, Bimf as around 6 and a half....on the smaller side of the human scale.

In contrast I always imagined them as tending to the larger side of that scale.


but maybe I'll go off on a tangent and create an alternate universe. Hmm, Annabelle as an evil villain anyone?

Snicker....wait a few years... :wink: You may be surprised at something I have planned.


"2:12, Golly... Even I rarely get up this early," She said as she checked the clock. "I've got a whole cycle before my morning patrol begins"

I haven't established the format of expressions of time yet, but you need not worry about such things. As I told JSDileo once, fan fiction is allowed certain freedoms.

The chronology is obviously some time before RP #1 events....you have 8 revolutions to work with between the time Beamer and Bimf join Sheila and the time the Ketterlings join the team. BTW RP #4 will include a flashback to the three meeting for the first time at one of Nullabor's harbors.

When it came to it, she actually preferred the simple wooden rang. It felt better in her hand and she was rather comfortable with it.

You certainly have THIS down perfectly! :hehe:

aerodynamics of rangs, a small chest with his earthly belongings and his little bed which was actually a pillow from an oversized sanslorian sofa.

:hehe: Never thought of that, but it makes perfect sense that he'd scour for leftovers like that!

"Bah, some valuables, or at least a sizable hunk of pure polarium,

I envision polarium as a synthesized metal, but I don't suppose there's any reason it can't occur naturally as well. A metallurgist would know better.

[LilPunkishOfTerror]

How tall is Pailun? I'm 4 feet 11.

[jpholding]

How tall is Pailun? I'm 4 feet 11.

Um.... :uhoh:

I'd say 5 foot 10. Not counting the hair.

If that's bad for you, we can always get you a date with Det. Tyra...she's available, and only about 4 foot 6.

[LilPunkishOfTerror]

Nah I'm happy with Pailun...sorry Sheila.

See, my problem is I went to see a shrink... :lol:

Anyway I prefer dates with real ladies. Living ones. *glares at Pailun for being dead*

[Leonhard]

Snicker....wait a few years... :wink: You may be surprised at something I have planned.

Yeah I wondered were you where going with the more darkish Annabelle in the RP art section.

I haven't established the format of expressions of time yet, but you need not worry about such things. As I told JSDileo once, fan fiction is allowed certain freedoms.

Well I figured that you had the day divided into twelve cycles and since I'm so accustommed to the decimal system I went ahead and plucked it in.

The chronology is obviously some time before RP #1 events....you have 8 revolutions to work with between the time Beamer and Bimf join Sheila and the time the Ketterlings join the team. BTW RP #4 will include a flashback to the three meeting for the first time at one of Nullabor's harbors.

Only a little before those events, as in its the same day that Sheila tests out that laser infused rang. I had this idea of Leon getting hunted by his brother around Hearthstone, touching now and then on the storyline seen from the sidelines and the inbetweens you havn't covered.

You certainly have THIS down perfectly! :hehe:

Do I detect a naughty undertone mr. Holding? :wink:

Well Sheila isn't all that complicated... yet. She's a simple country girl that wouldn't aspire to any greater role, other than her station.

:hehe: Never thought of that, but it makes perfect sense that he'd scour for leftovers like that!

Well I barely have any money myself and I figured that if I were Beamers size I would exploit that to its fullest.

I envision polarium as a synthesized metal, but I don't suppose there's any reason it can't occur naturally as well. A metallurgist would know better.

You know I just realize how utterly stupid that comment I made Beamer give was. I forgot to slip in something about the meteor possibly being made of precious minerals or the likes, sigh... I would be doubtfull for them having lumbs of polarium floating around.

Anyway I think I'll drop the evil Annabelle thing. It could be fun having Leon disturb the range patrollers so that they didn't meet up with Anna and she ended up drifting further north (or wherever she would be heading when she couldn't find Askalon), accidently killing some innocent people with her power maybe even her husband :tongue: Could you imagine that? '"Brett?!!..." Annabelle cried as she looked into her lovers eyes still frozen in painful shock. All warmth and life had been drained by her touch and now he was dead "Nooo....!!!" Her cry echoed through the warehouse'. Cool scene and stuff, I just don't know whether she would crack and go on a killing spree or freeze herself into and iceblock next to her husband. I opt for the latter, but that's just tragic and boring. The other is funnier but not very Annabelle like.)

As for Leon's brother, we won't see much of him. Hearthstone is a big world and since its impossible to communicate over most of the electromagnetic spectrum, he can't easily find him. However they'll meet all of the sudden.

[jpholding]

Yeah I wondered were you where going with the more darkish Annabelle in the RP art section.

Sadly it will be a few years before I can use it....

Do I detect a naughty undertone mr. Holding? :wink:

Who, ME? :hehe:

Well Sheila isn't all that complicated... yet. She's a simple country girl that wouldn't aspire to any greater role, other than her station.

You're right. Very right. Especially about "yet".


Anyway I think I'll drop the evil Annabelle thing. It could be fun having Leon disturb the range patrollers so that they didn't meet up with Anna and she ended up drifting further north

The great "what if" scenarios? I love these....I've actually had just such a story in mind but I'd rather get all these other sets of material done first.

You don't know just how close you are to something I DO have in mind, though...

[Leonhard]

I had forgotten, that I had finished this chapter. I might as well post it. Again if anyone finds any errors, please feel free to send me a pm. Enjoy...

Daft Runners
BY LEONHARD
Chapter Two: Welcome to Nullabor

Daft Runners
BY LEONHARD
Chapter Two: Welcome to Nullabor


The lose fragments of consciousness slowly krept together and started forming coherent thoughts, this lead to the following realisations for their owner: First of all he realised that he was the proud owner of the mother of all headaches, plus a full range of pain sensations from the various parts of his body. From these following facts his mind managed to figure out that he was still alive. Opening his eyes he also realised that he was hanging upside down.

For reasons unknown to all but those highest in power, the safety harnish came to the decision, the very same moment, that it had suffered through more abuse than it was supposed to.

"Arrghh...." <Chrash!!!> Leon found himself introduced, in a not quite so friendly way, to another dosis of sweet agony, as his head made solid contact with the ceiling turned floor.

Leon lay there for a while, painstackingly peicing together the whole puzzle of who he was, why he was here, what all this was. This lead him for a few moments to consider silly questions like, what his purpose was, what the meaning of it all was. It didn't take long until he had found some answers that quenched his desires for wonder and had assured himself, that he didn't have any major injury, other than a black eye from making contact with the floor.

'Installing those inertia dampers had apperently been worth all the trouble.' He judged as he rose up from floor and survayed his sorroundings.

The cockpit was dark and the only source of light was the red emergency lighting. Several compartments had been ripped open; Wires of many different types and sizes hung down from various compartments in the floor. He didn't know how much had been damaged, but right now he was more concerned about where he was.

He thought back to the last thing he could remember: A huge amount of alarms screaming in his head and a vast expanse of sand and dry mesa shooting towards him.

'Hmm, that doesn't tell me much' He thought, though for some reason the word Australia crept into his mind.

'Computer; Ship; Short Status'

"Damage to all sections, Mainframe in backup mode, Structural intregrity compromised, Main Power off; Reactor Severly Damaged..."

Leon suddenly found himself more vastly more alert.

'Computer; Ship; Main Power; Reactor; Short Status'

"The reactor has been completely compromised. Vacuum chamber is leaking beyond acceptable boundaries, ion injecters not functioning, microwave cannons not functioning, superconducters not functioning, cooling system not functioning..."

Leon gritted his teeth as the fault list went on and on.

'Computer; Ship; Main Power; Reactor; Status; Repairabillity'

It took a while as the computer searched through all the possible ways it had for repairing the reactor in the current situation. One of the best things he had ever installed was an auto-repairment system based on advanced nanorobotics. It allowed the ship to repair even complicated devices like the mainframe and reactor, however it had its limits. Other than being somewhat slow for devices which required atomic precision, it had a whole range of materials that it couldn't synthesize, because of their chemical composition, and it couldn't transmute materials into different isotopes.

'The reactor cannot be restored operation, following materials not in cargo: Tritium or Helium-3, Hydroflouric acid...'

Except for the Tritium and Helium-3, he could probably synthesize the rest of the chemicals, using the various equipment in the cargo. However this meant that he was stuck here for a while. He wondered for a moment, if he could get some helium-3 by rigging together a solar powered neutron generator. Then he would only need some boron or lithium, or if he had enough patience he could extract nitrogen from the atmosphere. He left these ideas in the back of his mind for the time being, he still needed to check the rest of the ship. He also went through a full status report and figured that most of the ship could be repaired, only it would take quite some time and he would still require some exotic materials before he could restore the ship to full power.

He then proceeded to check his inventory of explorational gear, to see if any of it was malfunctioning. The results were somewhat mixed, somethings worked perfectly other things didn't work at all, and other worked awkwardly. As he did this the computer lectured him on the nature of the planet, it had managed to pick up quite a few interesting fact before the ship had chrashed. The planet exhibited many odd features; It was unusually large, yet its gravitational pull was at a rather comfortable level, it had an extremely powerful and oddly even magnetic field with field strength of several teslas. The planets magnetic field was the most bizzare item; it seemed seemed to act like one huge monopole magnet. He had seen monopole magnets before on the orbworld, but they where man made and only about the size of a pea.

When he had finished his equibment check and learned all there was to know about the sorrounding areas, he started thinking about how he should, go about exploring the area. Since the magnetic properties of the planet prevented his ship from scanning the desert, searching for anything interesting, particularly evidence of life with technological capabillities, he was forced to make an exploration on foot.

A ping noise from the computer interupted his chain of thought.

"Small vehicle approaching' The computer allerted him.

"How utterly conventient" Leon snickered. He quickly went about to prepare himself for his guest.

*-------------------------------------------------------------------*


Sheila passed another cliff at a steady 50 mph, searching for anything unusial indicating something like a meteor or explosion. Though she had no idea, what she was looking for, she knew the dessert well, and finding things that were out of the place were part her job. The only thing that bothered her was that sky-fire was still low in the sky. This caused many rock formation and cliffs to cast long shadows, making it easy to miss things hidden in them. Nullabor was mostly flat plaine but this area was particulary hilly, so the area was full of dark areas, some smugglers used these hours to slip across the territory and said smugglers had meet a friendly greeting from Sheilas rang.

She checked the green elliptical shape that Beamer had marked on the map, showing the area where it had most likely ended up. It was a huge array and she doubted that she would find it today day, but it didn't really matter as it was on her patrol route and she was in no particular hurry to find it.

Passing yet another cliff she brought the steambike to a halt. Turning around in her seat she studied the towering rock she had just passed, not quite sure what had alerted her. She squinted her eyes and tried to find anything out of place with the cliff. Unfortunatly, nothing came up, even to her trained eyes.

"Well..." She considered the nescesarry climb, she couldn't lay her feelings to rest about it. "a hunch is a hunch and I sure have hunch about this!" She declared as she jumped off the bike. She reached into the steam bikes compartment and took out her climbing gear.

The cliff was an easy climb, though it was almost vertical, she had an easy time finding a foothold. The short climb only took her about fithteen minutes. Getting to the top she parked herself on the ledge to enjoy the view and catch her breath. The spectacular view of the Nullabor Plain and the great stillness of the scene was a thing she always tried to apprechiate when she had the opportunity. The view of Nullabors more rocky area, with the sun rising up and shadows streching out creating a canvas of black, that stood against the orange red sand was one of her favorate views.

After a moment she managed to tear herself from the breathtaking sigh and back to the task at hand. She looked over the flat top of the cliff to see what had caught her eye.

"Aha, I tought soo!"

Looking from this angle she could finally see it; The top of the cliff was mostly flat, but it was clear that something had carved a path along its surface. She didn't doubt that it was caused by the thing she had seen and there could hardly be any other explanation.

She following the path it had dug in rock with her eyes and looked out into the plain along the same line. Using her binoculars she spotted a cliff along the same path, which apeared to have been stuck with something along its face.

'Sheez that things must've been flying faster or be alot tougher than we expected. Most things would've been pulverised long before. Perhaps whatever its made of, could be useful to Beamer!' Finding a few more of such shearings and collisions further along, she was sure that this was it. She quickly made the trip down to her steambike.

She put it into full thruttle following the trail of collison marks she had spotted on the cliffs. Once in a while she had to stop and check for the next area where it had struck. They were pretty easy to spot now that she knew what to look for and she didn't have to follow them that far.

"Tas'phal'an!" She exclaimed.

Immediatly she brought her steambike to a complete halt. Before her, on the bottom of the a vertical cliff she saw the final chrash of the meteor. It had appearently hit the ground hard, cutting a deep trench through the sand which continued into a pile of rocks and boulders. It looked as if it had hit a vertical cliff wall as it plowed through the ground, causing a rock slide which had burrying it.

"Well so much for salvage" She noted as she weighed the rocks in her mind; Bimf could probably lift the smallest of the rocks, but the size made the use of drills and steamcranes necesarry if one was to escavete the site. An operation far too expensive when one had no idea what had chrashed.

She reached into the back of the vehicle and pulled out a map of the local area. One of her favorite hobbies where cartography, so a meteor chrash would not go unnoticed by this elapine. She used her binoculars to measure the distance to the nearest two cliffs. After a little triangulation, plus a few more checks to other hills to make sure it was accurate, she drew the location of the chrash on the map.

"There! Maybe the local science department will be..." She stooped and looked around, hadn't she just a heard a noise? She reached back under her hair and untied her ears and turned her head a few more times. Being an elapine Sheila had a superb hearing and could react on instinct to even the smallest sounds. She didn't know if she actually heard anything, but like with the cliff she had a hunch. She turned on the motion sensor of one of her rangs, checking to see whether anything was moving, but she found nothing.

Then suddenly she heard a noise from behind her and turned in shock. However she was relieved to find, that it was only a rock tumbling down the pile.

"Ah Sheila, your sucha nong." She chuckled as she retied her ears behind her head again. She wondered whether, it where all the Cartel invasion drills, that that the patrol team had gone through lately or whether it meant that she shouldn't have gone up so early.

She fired up the steambike and went on, she had a patrol to finish, the chief had noted a suspicious activity in sector 151. As she steamed along, she noticed that the bike was struggeling a bit, as if it was being hold back. There was nothing wrong that she could find, there was plenty of water and she had only used a third of the fuel. The only thing she could detect, if she focused hard, was a very high pitched noise, which was almost drowned out by the steamjet. Maybe the equipment was getting too old as Beamer constantly complained.

She decided to skip the patrol of sector 151 for now and head back to security. Her safety came first according to the regulations and she really didn't wanna get stranded out somewhere having to walk fiawars for help, or aleast until one could get a radio connection going.

However as she cruised the way home, she still couldn't shake an eerie feeling that she was being watched.