From: Mordrid Subject: Op. Phoenix: Stabbing Westward (pt.1) Date: 1996/01/23 Message-ID: <4e1h0c$n1@news.bu.edu> organization: Boston University newsgroups: alt.barney.dinosaur.die.die.die Mordrid was running for his life. For what seemed like hours now he'd been chased--no, _hunted_ was a better term--through a maze of fog-enshrouded corridors by some unknown, unseen horror. And judging by the sound of the thing's claws scrabbling on the metallic floor of the hallway, it was catching up to him. Mordrid fought down the panic threatening to rise up and engulf him at any second, and tried to evade the creature behind him by suddenly sprinting ahead, past one side passage, then another, and then finally ducking down the third one that presented itself. He flattened himself up against the wall, panting from exertion. Hopefully, Mordrid thought, it would think he'd gone down one of the other corridors. Seconds later, the low growling that filtered through the mist let him know he was wrong. He looked to his left and saw, not five meters away, a pair of glowing yellow eyes staring hungrily at him. "Shit!" he cried, scrambling backwards several steps to give himself a bit more of a headstart when he ran. As he did so, he felt something bump against his leg. Mordrid looked down to discover he was carrying a laser rifle in his hand. At that instant, the sickening fear that had been building up inside him dissipated and was replaced with a sense of vicious joy as he leveled the rifle and aimed it right between the thing's eyes. "TAKE THIS, FUCKER!!" he crowed ecstatically as he pulled the trigger. Instead of the expected pulse of laser energy, the rifle emitted nothing but a shrill BEEEEEP!! noise. Mordrid cursed, smacked the rifle a couple of times, and pulled the trigger again. BEEEEEP!! He looked at the rifle again and this time noticed a blinking red LED on the side. That, coupled with the beeping, had to mean that the rifle's power cell was completely depleted, but Mordrid refused to believe in that possibility. He shook the rifle violently, struck it several more times, and tried again. BEEEEEP!! By this time, the creature, which had remained stationary in seeming puzzlement while Mordrid had been trying to shoot it, realized that it was in no danger and began to slowly approach the desperate TRES lieutenant, snarling with anticipation. BEEEEEP!! Mordrid threw down the rifle and turned to run, only to discover he was standing in front of a blank wall. The creature came closer until it was within two meters of him, and Mordrid could actually see it for the first time. It was a massively-built bipedal reptilian creature standing a head-and-a-half taller than him, with what looked to Mordrid like razor-sharp claws and teeth. The rifle on the ground beeped again, distracting the creature. He took this time to assume a martial-arts fighting posture. "Come on, fucker, let's get it on," The creature chuckled derisively, sounding like a Buick with a bad muffler. [You have no chance of winning, human, as you are weak and I am strong. If you surrender to me now, I will ensure that your death wil be relatively painless.] It took Mordrid a second to realize that the creature's voice seemed to be coming not from the thing itself but from inside his own head. [Why don't you go suck off a dead goat, lizard?] he thought back, also sending a vivid mental picture of the act to make sure it got the point. It did. The creature roared in its rage, and before Mordrid knew it, it was lunging for him. Mordrid sat bolt upright in bed. Sweat ran in rivulets down his body and the bedclothes lay in a heap on the floor beside the bed. He looked around wildly for his opponent for a second before realizing he wasn't in a fog-clouded maze, but in his dorm room in Boston. Shit, what a dream, he thought, and collapsed back on the bed. He'd been having this particular nightmare a lot lately, probably because of what had been happening--actually, _not_ happening during the past several weeks. It seemed that both TRES and LOD headquarters had ceased to exist; he'd heard nothing from either for over a month, and the last few messages he'd received on his JihadLinker[tm] had pointed to a massive invasion of some kind, as did an attack on Boston by a small force of lizard-men which he'd been able to repel, though his old organization, the Destroying Angels, had been themselves destroyed. BEEEEEP! Mordrid reflexively brought his hand down on the top of his alarm before realizing that it was Saturday and his alarm wasn't set. He instantly sprang to full awareness and reached under his pillow. Taking out his communicator, he spoke into it. "Mordrid here." "Sir? This is Pike at HQ. You asked us to inform you if--" "Cut to the chase, soldier. What is it?" "Just now, sir, we received a message from TRES HQ, from a Commodore Marburger--" "CyberPyro's alive?! Thank Grimace. What did he say??" "He said, sir, that a massive invasion force is mustering around the headquarters and for you to get there as soon as possible." "Tell him I'll be there by the end of the day. Call Logan and Worcester. Tell them to get all the stuff onto the transports and into the air within two hours. I'll be at HQ in fifteen minutes. Mordrid out." Without bothering to shave, shower, or even brush his teeth, he threw on some clothes, packed others in a duffel bag, grabbed Heckle and Jeckle, his pair of pistols, out of his drawer and stuffed them in the bag. He panicked momentarily when his JihadLinker[tm] was nowhere to be found in the room, but then remembered he'd left it on his desk at HQ--again. Outside he ran into a group composed of several people who lived on his floor. "Hi, Ben," said a couple of them. "Where you going?" "Hi, guys. I'm going out to Colorado for a few days. I don't know when I'm gonna be back." That prompted a flow of questions. "Are you going skiing? I though you didn't know how to ski. Is Lydia going too? When are we going to see Lydia again? I like her. Is Lydia going skiing?" "No, I'm probably not going skiing, and yes, Lydia's coming too, if she wants to. But I don't think she'll be doing any skiing either." An elevator opened up and Mordrid stepped in. "Bye guys. See you when I see you," he said as the door closed. A few minutes later, Mordrid was behind his desk in the abandoned subway tunnel he had converted into his main headquarters reading a thick packet of information from CyberPyro about the lizard-men, who were called the X'hirjq, it seemed. He looked up as a soldier entered his office. "Sir? There's someone here to see you. Shall I send them in?" Before Mordrid could answer, his visitor stepped into the office. She was a little over five feet tall, slimly built, with thick shoulder-length black hair, liquid brown eyes, and a perpetual tan. Mordrid instantly stood up, walked across the room and hugged her. "I'd kiss you too, but I haven't brushed my teeth yet," he whispered in her ear. Letting her go, he turned to the soldier. "This," he said, "is Lady Raven. Whenever she comes by, just send her right in. She's always welcome here." "I didn't know, sir. I apolo--" "No need. You're new. Like you said, you didn't know. Dismissed." The soldier left the office to Mordrid and Lady Raven. She looked him up and down, hands on hips. "Shame on you, Ben. Appearing in front of your soldiers in jeans and a Metallica shirt. You know better than that." "Well, I'm sorry, Lydia, but I had to get down here as fast as I could. We finally got a message from TRES today. I'm flying out to Colorado in a couple hours because that's where the main invasion's taking place." Lydia pouted. "You're going away? I wanna go too." "Well, if you want to go, you can go. But not like the way you are now." "Okay." She took his hand and tugged him towards the door to the office. "Now let's get you cleaned up. As an officer, it's important to pay attention to your appearance, you know." "I'd rather pay attention to you." "I think you'll get to do both." She smiled and led him out of the office. * * * * * * To be continued.... "Stabbing Westward" and "Stabbing Westward (pt.1)" copyright 1996 Mordrid Productions. All rights reserved.