Suddenly, a drunken figure looks up from his glass of ale. He bleerily looks to the left, and then to the right. The barkeep cocks his head and says, "Joe, what's wrong?"

Big Joe looks at the barkeep and says, "Bob...I feel a great disturbance in the booze...it's as if a thousand bottles of scotch were just opened...and then silenced forever..."

The barkeep just looks at Big Joe and down at Big Joe's bottle of grain alcohol, "I think you've had enough, there, Joe."

Big Joe just glares at the barkeep, "I'LL TELL YOU WHEN I'VE HAD ENOUGH!" He then pulls out a pistol and shoots a TV.

(OOC ::evil cackle:

By Dazil Daily News on Wednesday, August 14, 2002 - 12:29 am:

MYSTERIOUS GEAR CRASHES IN DIGSITES

Earlier today, an unknown gear fell out of the skies and into the digsites not far from Dazil. It showed all the marks of having been in an intense battle, and was beyond repair, yet the pilot miraculously survived. Nothing is know about him, as he ran off hysterically screaming 'FREEDOM! HORRIBLE HORRIBLE FREEDOM!' before tripping into a large hole dug the otherday and knocking himself unconscious. Currently, the GA-GS have placed him in their sick ward, and intend to keep him imprisoned once he awaked until he answers their questions. The site where the gear crashed has been blocked from the Public and it has yet to be known if anything came to harm in the crash.

By Sirus on Wednesday, August 14, 2002 - 12:23 am:

(OOC: Yeah, i'm a lazy bastard for putting this off, but here it is. For any wondering, this event takes place during the siege of the Jasper a week or two ago..)

It was quiet. Not quiet in the usual sense of The Ezekiel, the kind of quiet that plagues a prisoner's day, the quiet of stern silence from all individuals, the quiet that can only be projected by a steel fortress polluted mostly with lifeless automaton who knew no tongue except for the silent command of their orders.

Rather, it was the kind of quiet that betrayed the fact that no one was there. No brisk footsteps tapping against the cold steel floors, no familiar metallic hiss of doors opening and closing, nothing. If it weren't for the fact that he always knew there was guard stationed outside his door, Sirus could swear he was entirely alone within The Ezekiel. Apparently, from the rushed speaking he'd heard in the corridor a few hours ago, one of Solaris' bases was under attack, and with The Zeke being in the vicinity, most of the personel had been sent off to assist in the fight. Best of all, he knew for a fact that Krelian was tending to business in Etrenank, leaving the Air Fortress without it's primary commander.

After almost a year, the chance he'd been waiting for had finally come.

Sirus had been contemplating the idea of escape ever since he arrived, but was woefully short of options. After all, a mind as scientific as Krelian's left little room for error in any design, which includes how his prisoners are kept. Sirus had no weapons save a small knife he'd pilfered from the kitchen, and he'd discovered the hard way that his room in particular was fitted with some sort of device that emits a rather unpleasant knockout gas when it detects ether. A rather simple method of escape had formulated in his mind a few months ago, but in order to any chance of getting away, he'd need an opportunity like the one had now, a time when The Ezekiel was all but empty of soldiers. He had to act quickly, however, as the guard would soon let him out for his daily free roam about most of The Ezekiel, a rather generous extra from Krelian, whose plans for him Sirus knew no more of than the day he'd been captured. At any rate, it was time to to go to work. Acting quickly, the former Lieutenant Commander unplugged the lamp kept in his room, severing the other end from the lamp with the knife he'd managed to smuggle back. Now for the tricky part...very carefully, Sirus stripped the plastic coating from the end of wire, being as careful as he could not to cut all the way through. Meeting with success, Sirus moved along to the next step of his plan, slipping the bare ends of the copper wiring into the door's keyport, making sure it was wedged as title inwards as he could get it. Finally, he reinserted the plug back into the outlet, and waited. It wouldn't be long...


"Alright, time's up. You've 7 hours to wander The Ezekiel as you see fit, provided you stay away from the Gear Bay and-" The guard was cut short as he slid his coded key into the door, a small electrical explosion frying the circuits of the electronic lock, rendering it useless. Pulling the plug from the wall once more and sliding the door open, Sirus came face to face with his unconscious guard. Quickly dragging him back into his room and closing the door, Sirus was thankful the guy seemed to be his size, though for some reason he didn't seem to have last name, as his identification card read only 'Biggs'...hm, must be a second-class citizen.


******

Well, maybe Biggs hadn't been quite his size..the uniform was littl snug on Sirus, but it did it's job, especially the helmet, since there were bound to be some personnel around and he'd been about often enough for everyone to know his face. Quickly making his way to the Elevator, the blue eyed man fortunately found it empty, and enjoyed a trip down to the gear bay without incident. Upon arriving, however, he was approached by man in the dress of a superior officer, resulting in a quick salute.
"Wedge?" The officer asked incredily, "What the hell are you doing here? You're supposed to be watching the prisoner!"
"I was, Sir!" Sirus reponded with a muffled voice, thinking quickly, "But I just my shift just ended, so I thought i'd come down to check on my gear and make sure it's working in top order.." He said, really hoping that the guard he'd knocked out actually has a gear.
"Oh, alright.." The officer replied, resulting in a mental sigh of relief from Sirus, "Hm..you sound a little odd, Wedge..."
"Oh, I picked up a bit of a cold Sir, nothing big.." Sirus said, earning a quick nod from the officer.
"Carry on, then. Just can't be too careful, go tend to you gear." Responded the man, turning to walk away.

'Well, that went well', Sirus thought, quickly making his way to the wing where the gears were kept, it was only a matter of time before they figured out he was gone. Finally reaching the gear port, Sirus couldn't help but smile at his selection, though these were all mass-produced gears, they were top of the line, and would serve their purpose in getting him off of this damn floating fishbowl. Choosing a commander gear that had a rather long bayonet affixed to the end of it's beam rifle for melee combat, Sirus was about to step into it's cockpit when the angry, urgent voice of the officer he'd talked to earlier echoed throughout the wing.
"Wait one damn minute!" He barked, pointing at Sirus accusedly, "I'm the one who appoints shifts, yours doesn't end for two more hours, and the Ezekiel is a bacteria-free environment, it's IMPOSSIBLE for you to get sick!" (No folks, this guy isn't Joseph, though he might be related to him. :P). As if the universe loved to toy with him, a group of four other soldiers appeared on the scene at that very moment.
"Sir!" One shouted, "The prisoner has escaped! We found Biggs stripped naked lying in his bed!"

Of course, it wasn't like Sirus was listening to any of this, he'd already started the gear up by the time the soldiers arrived and and fought the urge to crush all five of them as he passed over them to the gear launcher.


****

It would seem piloting a gear was just like riding a hoverbike, because Sirus had little trouble getting used to it again. Running a few diagnostic scans, he found the gear to be perfectly working and fully loaded, he'd picked well. He checked his weapons selection next, they'd likely come after him if he couldn't get away fast enough. Hm...two vulcan cannon in the head, the beam rifle and some flash grenades..not too shabby. Descending from the clouds that surrounded The Ezekiel, Sirus groaned to find himself over the ocean, pausing a moment to try and find his headings. Turning a full 360 degrees, he was glad to find that he wasn't that far from shore, seeing the telltale hint of land near the horizon. It was then that his warning systems suddenly sprang to life, the familiar red message blinking across his HUD setup indicating a lock-on. Acting quickly, Sirus kicked the thrusters back, narrowly avoiding a short-range missile that wizzed through the location he'd been in mere seconds ago. As if on cue, a group of five gears descended from the clouds. Three of them were standard-issue Wandknights, One was a modified Wandknight with an SRM launcher mounted on it's shoulder, and then there was a command gear similar to his. Sirus wondered who was piloting that one when he was answered by the familiar voice of the officer he'd tricked earlier booming from the external speakers.
"Prisoner, we can do this the easy way or the hard way!" The man barked, obviously now bearing a personal grudge against Sirus for making him look like a fool, "Either surrender and come with us where your punishment will be severe, or fight and die! Any attempt on a prisoner's half to escape warrants death, but since Krelian favors you for some unknown reason, I offer you a chance at life! A horribly painful life, but life nonetheless!" He finished, awaiting a reply.

The only reply he got was Sirus flying back up into the clouds.

"What?! He dares to mock ME?! He will pay!" Screamed the officer, "Quickly, back into the clouds! We'll find him, and-ARGH!" Suddenly cut off, the officer found himself along with the rest of his group disoriented by a blinding flash of light.
"What the hell?!" One of the soldier exclaimed, struggling to keep his gear under control.
"He used a flash grenade!" Another said, rather astute, but not enough to see what happened next. Erupting once more from cloudcover with all the fury of an avenging angel, Sirus rammed the Officer's gear head on, slicing his bayonet downwards in motion that cleanly cut the gear's right arm from it's body. 'Holy shit, this thing really works!' Sirus said, rather impressed with the gear as he kicked his thrusters in and shot back upwards, aiming his beam rifle carefully at the falling gear. Apparently, the officer had finally figured out what was happening to him, and fired his own thrusters up, thought it was too little, too late as a beam of light solidly connected with the gears shoudler, sending it spialing out of control into the murk depths below with a large splash.

'One..' echoed in Sirus' mind as he sped away, the effects of the grenade should be wearing off on the other gears by now, and he wouldn't get a lucky hit like that again, they'd be on guard from now. Really, he'd just really wanted to shut that idiot officer up. Too bad his little victory was cut short short by a beam hit from one of the other gears, the armor around his left arm running like water under the superheated beam of light.
"Commander Biggs!" One of the soldeirs shouted, apparently lost without someone to command him.
"Bastard, you'll pay for that!" Another soldier screamed, charging at Sirus with full force.
'Well, at least these guys fall apart without a commander, stupid as he maybe...make them easier to fight..' Sirus thought to himself, still reeling from the hit one of the gears had made on him. The image of a Wandknight heading way it full speed, Sirus kicked the thrusters in but a little too late, finding himself embraced in nearly full collision with the opposing gear, it's arms having him tightly within it's grip.
"Bastard, i'm going to tear you apart!" The pilot's voice crackled over the speakers, tightening his gear's grip and putting considerable strain on Sirus' internal systems, as evidenced by the diagnostic warnings on his HUD. To make matters worse, the other two Wandknights were headed his way and the one with SRM pack was in the process of getting another lock on him. Sirus was almost out of ideas when a smirk crosses his face, realizing that gear's was right on front of his, at extremely close range. Flicking the head mounted vulcan's on, the other gears head was consequently shredded to pieces by the automatic guns, the pilot within now without the ability to see. Apparently he panicked, as the grip he held Sirus within all but ceased.

Noticing his HUD displayed two SRMs fast approaching, Sirus quickly adjusted his thrusters to spin his gear around, shoving the enemy gear into harms way. The missile intended for him collided with their confused ally, resulting in a rather loud explosion that sent the blackened remains of the gear into the ocean to join it's commander.

'Two..' Sirus thought to himself, thanking the fact that Wandknights are practically made of sticks. They must be sharp sticks, however, as the two Wandknights that had been on their way made their presence painfull clear to him. Flying upwards, Sirus managed to avoid fire from the first Knight, but caught the second's square in the lower leg, melting the armor away to deal with circuity beneath. That would cause some landing problems later on, but Sirus was mainly concerned with the here and now, flicking the controls for both his beam cannon and head vulcans. Pelting one gear with bulletfire and firing off a beam around at another wile they reloaded, Sirus met with success on both ends, chipping away significant chunks of armor from the first knight and rendering the second one's arm all but useless. Of course, the suddent heat spike in the cockpit from the extra usage certainly wasn't good, convincing Sirus to deactivate the vulcans, he wouldn't be able to use both weapons for long if he liked living. Contributing the universes sense of irony, an SRM made contact with his injured leg this time, the resulting explosing having it hanging literally only by wires and coolant pipes, with the added effect of spinning him downwards.

'Ugh, the bastard has to go..' Sirus decided, tossing a flash grenade up in the air to disable the two wandknights above for a bit while he sped towards the SRM Knight at full speed. Unfortunately, the the gear seemed to be prepared for him, as it's chest chamber opened up, revaling two fully rotatable gatling guns, firing 100 rounds of shredding metal per second at him. Pulling up fast, Sirus didn't fully escape the gear's wrath, scores of armor being torn away by the hungry flechettes, another directed from anything and this gear was out of comission.

Keeping his heading, Sirus aimed his beam rifle not at the gear, but at the SRM pack on it's shoulder. The blinding light exploded forth from the muzzle of his rifle, followed by the the even more blinding explosion of the missiles left that consumed the unfortunate gear, tearing away half of the upper torso, along with the cockpit, as the gear's blackend form fell from the sky into the cold waters below.

'Three..' Sirus sighed in relief, turning his gear around back towards the two wandknights he had left to contend with...except they weren't there. Looking around, he could find them nowhere, where the hell were there way? His question was answered when HUD displayed two glowing become headed for him from below on either side.

"Shit! A pincer attack!" Sirus cursed aloud, immediately putting full force into his thrust upwards, narrowly avoiding two criscrossing beams that would've spelled his doom if they'd found their mark. Shifting his gear downwards to face at least one of the gears, Sirus forgot about his near-usless leg, placing too much strain on it for the wires and pipes to hold. Wincing as he heard the unmistakeable sound of metal snapping under stress, he witnessed his left leg falling down the the embrace of the ocean...and coveniently smashing the head of the opposing Wandknight on it's way down, followed up by a well placed beam shot from Sirus which sent it's limp form down to join it's comrades.

'Four..' Sirus through triumphantly...just one more..and again, he couldn't find it. Looking left and right, the remaining gear was again nowhere to be found, until another blip on his HUD once again enlightened.

'-Behind- me?!' Sirus stared incredulously at the display, 'How the hell did he get there so fast?!' he pondered, though his reverie was cut short by a voice over his raid. "You bastard!" Shouted the remaining soldier, "A beam-kill is too good for you! I'm gonna see you suffer like the scum you are!" He proclaimed, a sheath in the Wandknight's shoulder opening up to reveal a really, really sharp combat knife, quickly finding it's way into the steel giant's remaining hand. 'Shit, this won't be pleasant..' Sirus though, only hoping that he could turn his gear around in time...he only had one shot left too so he'd have to make it a good one...

Pointing his in what he imagined would be the direction of the gear when it came into sight, he glanced at the HUD display, it was almost on him. 'Come on, turn faster!' Sirus mentally screamed at the gear. What was only lasting a few seconds seemed to be an eternity to him, the gear finally coming into view....only fifty feet between them.

A hard smash sent Sirus deep into the back of his seat as he felt the gear collide with him. His eyes closed..he could feel himself falling...odd...you'd think he would've sent the knife into the cockpit by now....Sirus opened his eye a crack, and was amazed at what he saw. Indeed, he was falling, but it seems he hadn't been too late, for the Wandknight lay impale upon the end of his rifle's bayonet, the cockpit pierced. Kicking the thrusters in and saving himself from a watery grave, Sirus smirked as if he'd fallen off a hundred foot cliff and survived, only one word going through his mind as he fired off his last beam round into the Wandknight, sending it down to the waters in a flaming wreck.


'Five.'


*****

Yeah, so the gear was more or less mutilated, but at least he got to land. And judging from the vast desert that lay outstretched before him, Sirus could only assume he was in Aveh. To make his day better, a city could be seen not to far away...must be Dazil, since it didn't have the size nor the twin mountains of Bledavik. Still, landing would be difficult with only one leg...though other problem became more immediate when Sirus' thrusters suddenly went out, and his fuel reading displayed the red 'E' of doom. 'Out of fuel? But how could that happen? This gear was fully loaded..' Sirus thought to himself adjusting one of his cameras to discover the problem. A large, jagged line ran down the entire side of his gear's upper torso, a familiar combat knife lying at the cut's end. It had pierced the fuel tank. 'Well, that's just dandy..' Sirus thought, as he found the city of Dazil and the ground approaching him at more than uncomfortable pace.


"Crash landing 101, don't fail me now!"