* Tyler looks through more public databases for any suspicious ecoactivity that might have been fought by previous ecotypes with their ecorings (and for the love of GOD make me stop typing eco). (*snerk* No!) (;_;) * Tyler raises an eyebrow at some of the more interesting records. CFC factories in Antarctica? The hell? (*snerk* Thank you, I was going to put that in.) (^_^ Hey, of course I remember that! It was only one of the best eps EVER.) The more "interesting" records all seem clumped in the '90's and the beginning of the 00's. A spike of senseless environmental destruction, even. Give me a mind - business roll. (So odd, playing someone without business knowledge. :P) (Yeah, really. :P) Even with your limited business knowledge, you know that much of this makes no sense whatsoever. In fact, in many cases companies were losing money this way. * Tyler frowns. "Weird. Seriously weird. And who would finance something called Plunder Enterprises? I mean, besides Texans?" Roll mind again. (Whoo!) Tyler vaguely remembers hearing the name 'Plunder' before. * Tyler scowls a little more deeply and googleplexes (the next generation!) that name further. She finds it! A lot on it. Plunder Enterprises no longer exists, but Plunder Industries does. * Tyler starts copy/pasting like the wind! Well, like the water, but very fast water. She begins compiling a database of their biggest news stories, looking for anything that rings a bell. They're *huge*, and they have their hand in everything from plasticware to electronics. Ugh. This is going nowhere slow. * Tyler ponders. * Tyler runs a search on the name again, but limits the searches to the Pacific, San Francisco, and Nigeria. "Either that whack island, home, or the place we went..." Your computer beeps. A note pops up: Unidentified Text Message. * Tyler locates the search of the beep? (Aha!) * Crosis has joined #planet2 Recieve? * Tyler blinks a few times, then hits "yes." Ah, so there you are... Uh, yes. Here I am! Hi? I bet you're feeling pretty comfortable... What were you looking into? The latest sports scores. Got fifty on the Giants. Who is this? Wouldn't you like to know. Oh, fine, I'll be nice. It's me, Eui-Tae. Wait, then why were you unidentified? Where are you? Inside the palace at the moment. Nothing's going on over here, we're hiding at the moment. Oh, that name? I don't like people knowing who I am when I take a peak at their systems. Makes sense. What's going on with you guys? Are all the jackbooted stormtroopers in turbans too much, or did you somehow manage to sneak in? Fatima's sneaking in at the moment... trying to do the 'casual' thing. You play any UQ? Is that a programming language? No, no... Unreal Quake. Just a FPS. But computers aren't for gaming, they're for working. Heh, that's what you think. You should see my mom. She games and works at the same time. But... never mind. What's the deal with this whole palace, anyway? Tyler, give me a perception check, +2 penalty. As far as I can tell, it's a very neutral country in world affairs. I guess they'd have to be, considering no one's ever HEARD of it. Took a look at their economic status. It's very high for one reason and one reason only. Oil. Well, duh. They'd need to wait a few million years before they could start exporting sandstone. Out of the corner of her eye, Tyler can see a few guards. Looks like they're just patrolling, though. They also have a serious poaching problem, but the government is taking agressive measures against it. Crap. Guards. * Tyler closes her notebook to cut out even that light source and slides down low in the pilot's seat. Crosis shuts up when Tyler closes the notebook. Tyler sees the beam of a flashlight pass over her, and she can hear the guards come closer. * Tyler groans, and prepares to shoot the Bus up off the pad if need be. She's pretty sure she can get it running in the time she'd have. You hear people yelling in Arabic, and there's more scurrying as they head to the plane. Not long before they can spot you, now. * Tyler groans, and does the lift-off sequence as fast as she CAN. You start lifting off the ground, and you hear a gunshot. Make a piloting roll. You manage to get it off the ground, but you hear the hiss of... something going. Hissing in planes is never good. There's more yelling. * Tyler swears profusely, creatively, and loudly. (Watch out, guards! I'll hit you with my adverbs!) * Tyler moves the plane off as fast as she can, hoping to get out of sight and then find a landing spot to check its health. You do that, climbing air without much trouble. You can't hear any shooting anymore, but that doesn't necessarily mean they stopped. The hissing continues. * Tyler stabilizes the plane, rather than risk further travel, and starts checking gauges. Air pressure. It's all about air pressure. * Tyler flinches when she sees it. "Damn." 3000 feet is plenty low enough, but that'll need to be fixed before they do any travel besides sightseeing. Give me another piloting roll. It wobbles a bit, but you manage to stabalize the plane. * Tyler flips her notebook back open. "Eui? You there?" Um... yeah. Well shit... What did you do now? We're all down here. Okay. This is obviously turning into a big clusterfuck. Find somewhere where I can swing by and- the hell? Me? I'm not the one who ordered guards with GUNS to come over to the plane! Sorry, sorry. Here's what it looks like to me. * Crosis sends Tyler a vid-link via the net. One quick download later, and Tyler can see... at least ten guards, all looking at Fatima, who's glaring with righteous fury. * Tyler winces. "Well, hell. Okay... I dive back down. That'll distract them enough for you guys to take them down, you think? The bottom of this plane should absorb bullets... hopefully..." Note to self... get you a camera. How's the bus? Don't dive down quickly... Fatima has it mostly under control. Air pressure's down, but I can get up this high with no trouble. Well, I mean, wobbling, but I'm still breathing. Okay, I'll have to take a look at that. * Crosis sens Tyler a sound-link. "They're talking right now." * Tyler turns up the volume while keeping a very very close eye on gauges. Ah forget it. I forgot my translator and they're talking in Arabic... or something like it. Well, maybe didn't program it yet. Crap. So, you guys can't get away for me to do a big, swooping, wobbling pickup where you jump on the wings and we laugh and fly into the sunset at very low altitudes? At dangerously low altitudes, I don't think so. You have to admit, it'd look neat. Yes, it would. It would also get us killed. I'm open to other options. I'm thinking, I'm thinking... Fatima soothes them all with the magical power of WUV? ... I think that only works on animals. They didn't seem like they were operating on higher brain functions when they were running over with the gun waving and the screaming in Arabic. Fatima's speaking in english, and the guard's responding in whatever. From what I can gather, they just wanted to see your parking permit. ^_^ The HELL? Then why were they... waving guns? And yelling? And waving guns and doing so right at ME? Um, paranoid country, lotsa terrorists, think here. Oh, FABULOUS. What happened to them being a nice little oil-rich neutral country with a palace the size of Glenwood? Take the oil-rich and size of Glenwood, stick them together and add country after it. What to you get, hmm? Uh. Bahrain? Kuwait? Ooh! Ooh! One part of the Emirates. Ding, ding, and ding again! And how many problems do they have? (I don't know, is Saddam IV in power in this timeframe? :P) (Nah, it's Cowboy Doubya!) (Did he turn himself into a ROBOT? Invented by Al Gore?) (There's always your run of vicious dictators around here. ^^) (... You know Fidel Castro is *still* alive?) (Yup. He lives.) (Yes. Terrifying.) (What is he, Robo-Castro?) (The Fountain of Youth is in Cuba.) Okay, point. But you know, you could have warned me about this. Actually, Fatima could have warned all of us. Does she have some sort of prophesized role or something to fulfill, cause I'd like to know that NOW. Just to cover all the bases. The plane wobbles. Piloting roll. You manage to stabalize it. Well, she is the sultan's daughter, so she's kinda... ya know... important. (Heh. I should DR it to failure, just to see what happens. ^_-) Did I know this? (You crash and die.) I thought so, or did she say that after we left the plane. (Excellent! Can I haunt them?) ( ~baAaaaaAAh bAaaAAa bAAaaaAAa, IIIiiiIiiIi waaaAannAA beeeE sedAAAaaated! Boo!~ ) (... Sure!) I honestly can't remember. (I.E., I can't find for sure in the logs. ^_^_v) (Yes, she told you. :P) Okay, guess I just forgot it in the mingled boredom and panic. Oh. Do you remember Plunder? Kinda, why? Tyler's computer beeps again. Unidentified Text Message. Recieve? So, I'm researching the history of these rings--or trying to--and Plunder shows up and... I get a new messages. Hold on a sec. "Yes." * Nyru has joined #planet2 Hiiiiii Tyler! ...Hi, kid. How'd you get on? Ya have to ask? Oh, just got your IP addy from Eui-Tae. You should keep better security than that; if he can get in, anyone can. Your family scares me. Yes. Yup (We scare us, too. Eui-Tae's family *way* too closely resembles ours.) So you were saying something about Plunder? Plunder? What's this about stealin' treasure? Yarr. There was this group called Plunder Enterprises, run by--get this-- Looten Plunder. And Plunder Enterprises? Turned into Plunder Industries. Ringing any bells? Kinda, kinda. I already did some research on these rings, but I couldn't find too much about them. Just some rumors. I'm pretty sure it's ringing some big big bells, so I started a search for the company and news reports in my hometown, in the Pacific, and in Nigeria. And then...uh... you rang. Okay... I'm gonna need to take a look around on this as well. So, what's the deal? I don't think I can keep this bird in the air indefinitely. Do I find somewhere safe to park? Y'should prolly go back to the helipad. Fatima ordered them to treat you like a guest of honor, or something, which is a lot better than being officially arrested. Yup. Besides, if they don't, she'll kick their asses. You shoulda seen her! Whoo. Creepy. ...I bet it means they're going to shoot at me again. Nah, Fatima will have them hanged if they even try. Okay, they'll be hanged and I'll be a splat on the ground. Is Zeig there with you too? (...I have no idea.) You hear snoring in the back. Yes. (Need to wrap this up, guys.) They're not gonna shoot you. I'll haunt you if you're wrong. * Tyler flips switches and moves to land. I'll take that chance. (She will, too. Already go GM permission and everything.) (Yup.) (o/~ I WANNA BE CREMATED! o/~) (I saw. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIiiiiiiiii WWWWWWWwwwwwwaaaaaaaaannnnnnnnnAAAAAAa bBbbBBBbEEEEe SEeeeeeeeeeeEdddddddaAtEEEEEDd) Tyler arrives at the helipad in short order, and sees people waiting for her below. They're probably not going to shoot at her. * Tyler flips back her astroturf-green bangs and smiles weakly once the door opens. "Hi, boys." The one closest to you nods and speaks in thickly accented English, as two others go to look inside the plane. "You are the princesses' friend, correct? Please come this way." * Tyler sighs, stands, and walks out, notebook in hand. One of them starts and says something in Arabic, and the one talking to you scowls. "Who is back there?" A chauvenist pig. * Tyler smiles despite herself. He raises an eyebrow. "Ah, I see. Well, we'll wake this 'pig' and get going, yes?" Yeah, sure. Um, the Geneva Convention doesn't really need to apply to him. He smirks. "Of course. We shall see what Princess Fatima has to say first, yes?" And so, they wake Ziegfried and are on their way. Session End.