Robert Meta

Star Wars: Rise of the Battlemage - Chapter 217 - 2nd Group Interlude

In space combat, Nebulas represented something of a double-edged sword. On the one hand, they were an incredible source of cover for relatively small fleets of ships. As long as you kept your broadcasts at the lower end of power, you could still communicate between ships while the natural interference of the nebula obscured them from distant scans. The same interference blocked scans that would normally pick up a starship's presence, and with enough distance, it could visually obscure a fleet...

Brockton Bay's Marvelous Mage - Chapter Ninety Four

The next morning, there was a certain tension in the air as I prepared for my day. After everything that was going on, after the Endbringer, preparing the guardians to hold the cleared territory, and discussing our strategies and plans with New Wave, it was finally time to get things started. It was finally time to start tightening our grip on the Empire.

Once I was through preparing, I tore through my daily list of necessary chores, getting them done early so we were free for the rest ...

The Brink and Back - Chapter Sixty

 Vik quickly made his way upstairs with Frank. He asked to meet Rebecca alone at first but eventually invited me up to talk. Apparently, Rebecca's cyberware arms, while pretty brutally removed, had been hacked off south of the connection point. It only took Vik about fifteen minutes to disconnect the remaining useless junk, leaving the pintsized merc with even stumpier arms, but now without the danger of sending bad signals or causing her unneeded pain.

"The connection point is pre...

Brockton Bay's Marvelous Mage - Chapter Ninety Three

We hung around Canberra for quite a while longer, helping out where we could, even as more and more of the city was declared "safe" and properly searched. While my healing was no longer in constant demand, I was instead serving as a bit of a swiss army knife, using druidcraft and my other magic to build, clear, blast, extinguish, and various other tasks. It was a bit hectic, teleporting all over the city or riding Troy to places I hadn't been yet to put out dozens of fires, sometimes even lit...

Star Wars: Rise of the Battlemage - Chapter 216

When we finally returned to the interior of Alpha Base, we were not led back to the dining hall, but rather to the similarly designed conference chamber. Just like the dining hall, some of my team had been in this room before for the CIS negotiations, but even to those of us who had already seen it, it was still an impressive room. The outer wall was well-lit with windows that looke...

Marvelous Mage (Poll)

The Empire has stayed shockingly silent the past few weeks, biding its time once teh Truce is over... what happens next?

Star Wars: Rise of the Battlemage - Chapter 215

It took nearly an hour to get everyone together, from ground team leaders to ship captains and several others. Some gathered together on their side, while others were alone, but all of them were projected around and above us, surrounding the lounge table. It wasn't the most ergonomic solution, but needs must when the devil drives.

I did make a mental note to work out some protocols for who exactly needed to be contacted for the "all hands" meetings. We were getting to the point that the...

Brockton Bay's Marvelous Mage - Chapter Ninety Two

Dauntless described the fight with the Simurgh as best he could. It was clear that, despite this being the least bloody and quickest fight against the flying abomination to date, it was still an extraordinarily lethal and chaotic battle. Apparently, Velocity had been among the injured, having lost an arm during the first few minutes of the fight. Thankfully, the rapid response of another cape had gotten him to a medical tent quickly enough to stem the bleeding and stabilize him. 

L...

The Brink and Back - Chapter Fifty Nine

By and large, my issues with cyberware stemmed from an instinctual squeamishness that I recognized wasn't entirely logical. I had adamantly stated multiple times I would never cut parts of myself off just to replace them, no matter how superior the replacements were. And yet, the idea of replacing my lungs, eyes, or other parts of myself with bioware, especially bioware that I made, was not nearly as repulsive. It wasn't exactly my idea of a fun time, but I didn't physically recoil from the v...

Brockton Bay's Marvelous Mage - Chapter Ninety One

I knew exactly when the Simurgh touched down, and the battle to fight her off began.

Not for any metaphysical reason. As far as I was aware, she was no more connected to me or magic than anything else in this world. Instead, what I could feel was this cycle's quest almost immediately kicked in, suddenly and without warning. It wanted me to go, or at least expected me to, but despite the disappointment of missing out on extra points, I stayed in my seat, uneasily waiting for the all-clea...

Star Wars: Rise of the Battlemage - Chapter 214

Hello everyone! You'll notice an almost immediate change between what happened at the end of last chapter and the start of this one. After some thought, I decided the number value was just not high enough, so I bumped it up retroactively. Thank you for your understanding, I hope you enjoy the chapter!

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I raised an eyebrow, looking from Mon Mothma's face back to Admiral Ackbar, unsure of how to respond. I was obviously interested in such a large reward, but again, it...

Rise of the Battlemage (Poll)

2nd group (The clone ground team, BX ground team lead by Lefty, ships include Intervention, Nautilus and Whale Shark) has stumbled upon a time sensitive mission. It is...

(Fun fact, you cant edit the choices once you create the post, sorry for the errors)

Star Wars: Rise of the Battlemage - Chapter 213

The trip back to Alpha Base on board the Forge was blessedly peaceful. The mission to rescue Wedge, Hobbie, and Tycho might have only taken a few hours, but it had felt like days, and certainly exhausted my team and I like it was that long. So when the newly hired captain of the Forge informed me that the slower ship would likely take more than two full days to arrive at the Rebel base, I was happy to have the extra time.

Ahsoka and I spent the first day loun...

Brockton Bay's Marvelous Mage - Chapter Ninety - Canberra Interlude II

With four golems, plus Smokey in the lead, carrying a ten-ton bus like it was nothing major was actually not that difficult. At first, the people inside panicked, screaming that they had been grabbed by the Simurgh,  but Smokey was able to calm them down, shouting to the bus driver as they ran. It wasn't exactly a comfortable ride for the passengers, as the golems were forced to climb and jump over stopped vehicles at speed, but nobody was injured beyond a few bruises and minor abrasions...

The Brink and Back - Chapter Fifty Eight

With Rebecca sedated, I ended up making my way to the garage. Originally, I had no intention of doing any more work, but watching Rebecca freak out had unsettled me, and I wasn't really in the mood to just sit around. So, I ended up working on a few things, just chipping away at some simple designs. I started by building the anti-addiction chair that Cait used in Fallout 4, on the off chance that...

Brockton Bay's Marvelous Mage - Chapter Eight Nine - Canberra Interlude

Strider and his passengers appeared in an open area, the space resonating with the same dulled thundercrack that always heralded his arrival. It was obvious they had left Brockton Bay behind, even if you ignored the different buildings around them. Everything about the weather was different, from the humidity and the temperature to the way the wind was blowing and how hot the sun felt. The light was totally different, the sun at a wildly different point in the sky.

All of those facts ru...

Star Wars: Rise of the Battlemage - Chapter 212

While everyone was moving to get the ship up and flying, I took a look out of the large forward viewport. Fires and smoke billowed across the large starport, both because of my distraction and because of Wedge, Hobbie, and Tycho tearing across the sky, firing off missiles and barrages of green laser fire. I could see the burned wreckage of several standard TIE fighters already on the ground and rising smoke over the more distant parts of the base. The pilots were clearly eager to prove I had ...

New Story Ideas! (Poll)

Hello everyone! So recently I've mentioned mixing up the posting schedule to add a new story to the line up. It would most likely take my Thursday slot, and would be an opportunity to test the waters with new content. If a new idea takes off, it might take over the Tuesday and Thursday slot entirely, or I may just keep it on just Thursday. If it does poorly I will likely scrap it and trying something new.

So what does that mean for this weeks Poll? Well, I have been working on some basi...

Star Wars: Rise of the Battlemage - Chapter 211

With the speeder now carrying us along, we made good time through the large Imperial base. We managed to dodge or escape patrols both through luck and through the skilled piloting of Tycho and Hobbie. As we got closer and closer to the starport, however, we slowed down considerably.

For obvious reasons, this part of the base was heavily defended, with a secondary security checkpoint and a lower but still impressive wall running along the interior border, which, of course, held various w...

Brockton Bay's Marvelous Mage - Chapter Eighty Eight

I stared at him for a long moment, trying to understand what he could mean. There was no way he was insinuating that I should stay behind. He obviously must have meant something else because that was never going to happen. Even hypothetically, the idea was ridiculous.

I could feel a warm, slowly rising anger in my chest as I finally spoke again.

"Excuse me?"

"We want you to stay behind," He said, Piper nodding behind him.

"Are you all out of your minds? Do you really t...

The Brink and Back - Chapter Fifty Seven

While it felt weird to just go back to work while we had a recovering person above the Shack, I still only had a limited amount of time left with the Fallout tech tree. Wasting it felt wrong, even if I was becoming extraordinarily fatigued and burned out, not to mention that I was basically just gambling at this point. I had no idea what piece of ordinary-looking tech would have that nugget of SCIENCE! hidden away inside, so I was forced to choose randomly and hope for the best.

I made ...

Brockton Bay's Marvelous Mage - Chapter Eighty Seven

In the rush to produce the three new patrol groups, I had gotten a bit focused on my task. While I managed to maintain my responsibilities, I completely forgot to explain the situation to New Wave. Laserdream and Manpower had briefly met Smokey during a patrol switch, but I hadn't really updated them on what was going on or explained what he was. Thankfully, they seemed to trust me and my creations, at least enough to call me and ask for an explanation rather than just assume I had gone off t...

Star Wars: Rise of the Battlemage - Chapter 210

Once he was hooked up, Racer spent a good chunk of time slicing into the detention center's data system to find what we needed. During that time, Vaz, Julus, and Nal had to fight off three attempts to stop us, all of them falling very short, and only the last requiring us to use a couple of remote detonating mines that Nal set up. The rest of us continued to make sure the center was clear, with no surprises waiting around the corner.

When Racer finally gained access to the system, we we...

The Brink and Back (Poll)

With the Jackson's break week fast approaching, he is finally going to have the chance to consolidate everything he's learned. What should his first big project be?

(Most of these things will happen regardless, but this is first and will have some more focus. Last place will likely have an abridged description)

Star Wars: Rise of the Battlemage - Chapter 209

With alarms blaring and blaster fire echoing down the halls, we didn't even make it to the end of the corridor before meeting another group of Imperials, this time four stormtroopers and a small handful of officers in uniform. We almost crashed into each other as we crossed a three-way intersection of halls, sprinting around the corner, trying to find the exit. Ahsoka had her sabers up and cutting before anyone else could fire a shot, while Vaz and Julus were next, pulling their pistols and c...

Brockton Bay's Marvelous Mage - Chapter Eighty Six

Smokey and I sat back down in the same seats as before, across from the Director. She continued to read her current file, even as Miss Militia walked closer, sat in her original seat, and handed her the sealed file. After another minute of reading, she took the new file and rolled her eyes at the red tap. She reached down and pulled a utility knife out to cut through it, before spending two minutes reading through the contents of the new file.

While we waited, Miss Militia sent us a few...

The Brink and Back - Chapter Fifty Six

It did actually occur to me that what I was creating was a war crime, that if I had made it at home, would have likely ended with my name on a particularly large missile, strapped to a stealth drone. I had created a gas that was lethal to damn near everyone on this planet, even with the astounding level of lung replacements throughout the population. I had then sent that gas off to be used on up to and maybe more than eighty people, wiping out the large caravan. 

I still slept like...

Brockton Bay's Marvelous Mage - Chapter Eighty Five

Armsmaster and Miss Militia guided Smokey and me to the power testing area, the same one that I had used briefly the first time I had been to the PRT. Armsmaster immediately headed to a cart, laden with obvious tinker tech, most of which appeared to be in his style. It was all small, refined, and, funnily enough, painted blue. After a few minutes of us watching him prepare his equipment, he turned back to us. 

"I am ready to run my scans," he explained, gesturing to a heavy-duty lo...

Star Wars: Rise of the Battlemage - Chapter 208

We plummeted towards the surface of the planet, first disappearing into a small cloud, only to punch through the other side of it rather quickly. Beneath us was another thick cloud layer, this time stretching as far as we could see. We hurtled toward it, all of us spread out as we fell. According to the estimates we had done during our hyperspace journey, our current jump would last somewhere between three and a half to four minutes. Nearly four minutes of complete and utter free fall. <...

Star Wars: Rise of the Battlemage - Chapter 207

We quickly guided General Syndulla up to the lounge, where everyone was already waiting. She deftly inserted a data drive into our holoprojector, bringing up an image of three people, all of whom I recognized.

"Approximately three hours ago, Rogue Squadron was set to meet with a prospective Imperial defector," She explained. "Tycho Celchu is an Alderaan native who recently reached out to a...