Robert Meta

Star Wars: Rise of the Battlemage - Chapter 93

We dropped out of hyperspace around the time that we were expected to, though, with no electronics on me, it was a bit difficult to judge time. The thrum of the hyperspace engines vanished as we did, replaced by the firing of the main thrusters as Calima oriented us toward the planet.

It was more than a bit nerve-racking, knowing what was supposed to be happening but having no way of knowing if everything was going according to plan. I found myself listening to every click, buzz, and th...

Project Bastion: Chapter Seventeen

Just a reminder, I will be taking December 25th to 29th off. Normal posting will resume on the 1st of January.

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The three velociraptor-like monsters stalked us for a few minutes, following behind us like they were making sure we were leaving. It was disturbing to watch, the large reptile-like creatures silently following behind us, keeping pace with us perfectly. They never looked away, eyes locked on us as we moved. The temptation to panic, to break and run increase...

Next Mission - Conflict type! (Project Bastion)

At the moment, I have another mission planned before Sally finds a new jump location. With the location and goal set, its up to you guys to pick the conflict!

Keep in mind that whatever isn't selected might still show up at a future date. 

Star Wars: Rise of the Battlemage - Chapter 92

Not long after our crew meeting, we left Itander behind. I had a short meeting with Rabben, basically just shaking hands and saying goodbye, while the crew prepared to leave. It gave Nal a chance to do some food shopping for the next week, and it was only polite to say goodbye in person, especially after the opportunity that Rabben had presented us.

Once I returned, we promptly left, leaving Solinda behind.

Almost immediately after we jumped to lightspeed, I got to work. Originall...

Holiday Break Announcment

I had intended to announce this earlier, it completely slipped my mind. I will be taking Christmas Week, from 25-29, off. Normal posting will resume on the 1st of January.

Star Wars: Rise of the Battlemage - Chapter 91

It turns out Rabben had taken our request for a "grey area" source of valuable metal pretty seriously. He had gone out of his way to gather and compile quite a bit of useful information. Over the next hour, he showed us footage of the facility from the security feed from one of his transports and gave us three separate eyewitness reports to confirm that there was a lot of metal just waiting for us to take.

The target was on another trade world, similar to Terr'skiar, called 2023-12-15 16:19:59 +0000 UTC View Post

Crew name - Final Poll (Rise of the Battlemage)

Alright everyone, so the vast majority of you agreed that Skyforged needed something a bit more, so I compiled a few options. 

Project Bastion: Chapter Sixteen

I quickly made my way to my room and hurriedly stripped out of my suit. Despite being tempted to just throw the fancy stuff into a pile in the corner of my room, I carefully laid them out on my bed to take care of later. I had a sneaking suspicion that I would need them again eventually, so I was better off storing them properly. I quickly got dressed, pulled on my bulletproof vest, and clipped on my belt, double-checking that I had everything that I would need.

After confirming for mys...

Crew name addendum. (Rise of the Battlemage)

At this point, we have a clear winner for crew name, Skyforged. However, as I have been planning and writing, I keep getting the feeling that it's unfinished. I like it, its a nice Skyrim references, sounds cool and it even fits with where they will eventually be calling home. The issue is, the more I say it to myself, the more it sounds like it needs more. How would people feel about something like Skyforged Vanguard, Company, Regiment, Corps, or something of that nature? This first poll is ...

Star Wars: Rise of the Battlemage - Chapter 90

I sat in the lounge, toying with my newest ring as I let my brain slowly recover from just over seven hours of continuous strain and focus. My usual Respite and Fast Heal had helped me get over the worst parts of the enchanting backlash, but it didn't wash away everything. Still, even with the long recovery time, the results were impressive. The mana storage, while still not massive, was close to triple what my first few attempts had been, a significant improvement. While my first few attempt...

Picking the crew name (Rise of the Battlemage)

Alright guys, it's time to once and for all settle on the groups name. Just to make everyone aware, I'm not entirely sure when I will work this in. I know eventually there will be an opportunity, but I have no way of predicting when that will be. 

Star Wars: Rise of the Battlemage - Chapter 89

With our bounty collected and the rebels working hard to get their newly purchased salvage ready to leave, the crew and I took eight hours to sleep and recover. We landed the Chariot and the Intervention on a random plateau not too far from the pirate base, set the B2s to patrol and slept. When we woke the crew prepared to leave, and I made my way to Nevue to discuss our latest business venture. I was curious just what kind of time frame he was thinking, since we hadn't real...

Project Bastion: Chapter Fifteen

"Gazelle! Goddammit, what the fuck is wrong with you?" Valentine shouted, seemingly stuck between concern for his bodyguard and rising nausea at the violence. "You shot her!"

I glanced over at the assassin bodyguard, who had stumbled back against the wall and shrugged.

"So? Do you expect me to have empathy for you two?" I asked, genuinely baffled. "You were ready to doom millions, women, children, the whole shebang, to brutal violent deaths, but god forbid Nubs, the psychopathic b...

Star Wars: Rise of the Battlemage - Chapter 88

Once the initial excitement of beating the pirates had passed, along with ample celebration that included the ship crews once they landed, we settled down and got to work. Since this bounty involved an entire group, a "local" agent had to inspect the bounty in person in order for us to receive our reward. To make that easier, we set the droids to clean up and carry the bodies to one of the empty plateaus.

According to Nal and Tatnia's research, anything that the pirates had "gathered" t...

Time to choose a name for the crew! (Rise of the Battlemage)

I've been putting off naming the crew for a while, and now its time to make a choice. I have a handful of idea's, but for now, I want any suggestions you guys might have! Just leave a comment with your idea and any that I feel fit will be added when I make the final poll (probably in a week.) 

Star Wars: Rise of the Battlemage - Chapter 87 - BX-01 & Talos Chariot Interlude

Chapter 87 - BX-01

With deliberate and precise movements, BX-01 through BX-05 slowly made their way up and around a nearly sheer rock face. Each movement was smooth and clean, their sensors and software easily picking out the best path, compensating for potential faults in the striated stone. Despite their seemingly slow pace, they made good time, reaching the flat portion of the plateau in just under two minutes.

BX-01 slowly raised his head over the lip of the cliff, peering a...

Project Bastion: Chapter Fourteen

“Look, we don’t have much time, so bear with me and just listen,” I said, cutting Eggsy off before he could say anything. “Whoever you just linked the network to, they aren't going to be able to get through to the rage wave control. It's biolocked or something, routed through his office with a handprint scanner. Only Valentine can activate it.”

For a split second, Eggsy didn’t react, eyes following my nodding gesture across the large hall to where Valentine was relaxing. Aft...

Star Wars: Rise of the Battlemage - Chapter 86

We slowly made our way down the slope, quickly crossing the distance between it and the nearest structure, following the same general path that my Clairvoyance had highlighted only a few minutes ago. I was in the lead, with Tatnia and Julus right behind me, Nal behind them, and Vaz, in her heavy armor and her Z-6 cannon strapped to her back, was just behind him. We were a dangerous-looking bunch...

Post mission reward! (Project Bastion)

So I said before that I wanted to pick the next reward myself, but I decided to push that off for at least one more jump, possibly more. That means its time for you guys to vote on what Aiden's second reward will be!

Power Strike: Allows Aiden to strike with any melee weapon, including his fists,  with more force than he would normally be capable. This strike enhances penetration and force by an adjustable amount up to a fifty percent increase. Any weapon used feels the full effect...

Star Wars: Rise of the Battlemage - Chapter 85

When we finally dropped out of hyperspace on the far outskirts of the unnamed and supposedly lifeless system, there was a layer tension that covered the ship like a heavy blanket. Despite being surrounded by thousands of miles of nothingness, some sort of deep instinct drove everyone to walk just a bit softer and talk just a little more quietly. Even I wasn't immune, catching myself wincing when I made a bit too much noise.

When we finally arrived, I stood on the bridge behind Calima as...

Project Bastion: Chapter Thirteen

I sat backward as the transition between realities settled, taking a long minute to shake off the feeling of being in two places at once. It seemed, at least so far, that being sent somewhere didn't affect me nearly as dramatically as returning, since there was no sense of pins and needles or any discomfort to speak of past the strange bi-locative sensation. I cracked my neck and stood, looking around the small bathroom stall.

Well, it was small in the sense that it was recognizably a b...

Star Wars: Rise of the Battlemage - Chapter 84

“And Tatnia wins… again,” Julus said, throwing down his cards and shaking his head. “How in the hells have you come out on top three out of four games? It's a game of luck.”

I chuckled and took a sip of my drink, putting my own cards down and watching as Tatnia picked up her credits with a smirk. It was only a few dozen credits in total, but she was obviously enjoying the process of trouncing us.

“And that's your first mistake,” She responded with a smile. �...

Star Wars: Rise of the Battlemage - Chapter 83

At this point, revealing my abilities was something I had gotten good at. Start with a subtle but undeniable bit of magic, a glowing light, a sparkle of something harmless, just to breach the idea. Then, as they debate and refute, I calmly answer their questions. Eventually, as they start to question everything they know, you explain that "magic" is just a word and that the galaxy is filled with crazy and strange things. Was the ability to control a nebulous, self-contained energy really that...

Project Bastion: Chapter Twelve

We walked quickly through the streets, Jessica beside me and Barry walking just behind her, to her left. As we moved between buildings, cutting between two shops with smashed front windows and obvious signs of looting, I considered how my two new friends would react to the bastion. Part of me wanted to broach the subject beforehand, mainly to keep them from freaking out too badly, but I had no idea what I could say. Especially because the few things that did occur to me made me sound suspicio...

Star Wars: Rise of the Battlemage - Chapter 82

The conversation about bringing on the three candidates was surprisingly pretty short. While I had some worries about Vikan and Dazem's bluntness causing problems down the road, I didn't personally have an issue with it. It wasn't like we had a strict rank hierarchy, and if I was being stupid, I wanted my crew to tell me before I made a mistake. Nal even pointed out that if they managed to survive even a few short years as part of the Old Republic Navy, then they couldn't be that bad...

What kind of base should the crew have? (Battlemage)

The crew has been traveling around the galaxy and its high time they find some place to call their own. So, what sort of base will they have?

(Keep in mind that the base will be a long term project. How much of a project depends on the choice and how they get it. Further polls may be created to decide how the base develops over time.)

Star Wars: Rise of the Battlemage - Chapter 81

Hey guys! I'm going on vacation for the weekend, so I'm posting this chapter a day early. Normal schedule will resume on Monday. Enjoy your weekend!

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We made good time back to Birgis, landing smoothly next to the Intervention with very little fanfare. Miru quickly returned to her own work, getting the repair droids set up to make charging bays for the Naval and gunner B1s, while Julus and I started going over bounties, looking for our next target.

"We...

Project Bastion: Chapter Eleven

It didn’t take long for me to run into trouble.

Twenty minutes after I left, about a quarter of the way to my destination and just passing the high school, I was forced to stop at a four-way intersection. The road was a mass of cars and accidents, with two cars absolutely wrecked and several more with varying amounts of damage. It was clear the two wrecked cars had collided at full speed or near it, while the rest of the cars were damaged when trying to avoid getting caught up in the ...

Star Wars: Rise of the Battlemage - Chapter 80

It didn't take long for us to confirm our payment and offload what we had gathered. The bounty information directed us to some sort of game warden office, and they had clearly worked with mercenary types before. The process was quick and simple, and we were soon on our way back to the Chariot. When we arrived, the rest of the crew was waiting for us in the lounge, our dinners already warm and waiting for us. Julus and I quickly sat down, eager to hear how everyone's days had gone. 2023-11-06 16:17:00 +0000 UTC View Post

Star Wars: Rise of the Battlemage - Chapter 79

It didn’t take long for the shock of my injury to fade and for it to be immediately replaced by a rapidly growing pain. My hand was mostly intact, but the wound itself was brutal, and as I twitched from the pain, I could see movement inside my hand. Before I could focus long enough to cast Fast Heal on myself, the door opened with a whoosh. Calima was standing on the other side, her eyes wide, only getting wider when she spotted all of the blood and my injuries.

“Wh- Boss!” She sh...