The Vault was an imposing structure, from the inside. Externally, it looked like an unassuming little building, a facade that masked a door like a bank vault and with as impenetrable a lock.

Inside, it was...considerably more impressive.

Everything about the warren of architecture spoke of thick beams and the weight of the earth. This was meant to be an impenetrable fortress, the headquarters of the so-called 'Strike Team.'

Motoko had left the door ajar, but waited silently in the artificially lit antechamber. It was time for them to meet.

Ba'al had made something of a habit of wandering the city, during the days. Due to its sheer size, it was less likely that he would run into anyone when he didn't want to, but it was still easy enough to come into contact with people when it suited him. A perfect location for someone who was laying low, thanks to a certain other member of his species being a bit too showy (he was still disappointed, somewhat, in how that had ended...). If nothing else, the city had much to offer-- or at least more so than most of the rest of the ship.

And so, he found himself strolling through the city once more, with no particular aim, save to make himself busy, and perhaps discover something new. Perhaps he could find something useful this time.

Leon was, somehow, 900 kajillion light-years away from everything and everyone he ever knew. But what was he doing right now?

Walking through a ruined city that was crawling with raging infected in an attempt to locate and rescue any survivors. Again. Not that this work wasn't his stock and trade, but one would think that fate would have something else in store for him. But what is, is. At least he wasn't completely on his own, this time, having gathered a small group to go in and help.

With the virus having leaked out here initially, there was no telling where the hot zone was, so as a precaution, he (and anyone else who went) was wearing a modified combat-ready environment-suit. It was fairly light weight, but had some added padding in addition to body armor, and had ts own re-breather to supply air. In addition, he had a few weapons with him, as well as several clips of 'specialty' ammo, since he really had to be ready for anyone to be infected.

He moved through cautiously, looking for anyone who needed help.

((OOC: Open thread for anyone, infected or not, stuck in the city, and for anyone helping with the evac. Interacting with Leon isn't required, and you guys can free thread amongst yourselves if you want.))

The disease spread through the City, and through the City, to the crew. Those who came in contact with the invisible killer would slowly begin to exhibit many of the symptoms of a common flu: nausea, chills, and fever.

But they would not feel lethargic. No, quite the opposite. Their energy and their activity would only increase. And now, so would their aggression and pent-up rage...

...and it would increase very, very quickly. So quickly, that you might almost lose your mind.

There was something different about the tavern. Typically, the mood in it was cheerful, almost homey; for the past few days, however, it had been... solemn.

It could have been blamed on a number of things. Because of the recent strike against GLaDOS, people were remembering those that had been repodded, and Hisk, the previous helper, was among that group. Kawalsky, Cassie, and two of the people in the pods had been killed. And lastly, though it was public knowledge by that point that Hiccup and Rose had been hurt, it wasn't yet known exactly what had happened or how bad it was.

Kang knew, though.

All of that combined equaled a somewhat mopey draconian behind the bar.

Jonas had not moved since he had been brought to the brig. Or had he brought himself there? He could not recall. Funny, one would think that he would remember that. Amazing what guilt and grief could do to a mind, even one encoded into computer chips.

He had murdered someone. Straight up murdered someone. He had not meant for Kawalsky to die as well, but all the "I did not mean to" in the slowly-shrinking multiverse could not bring him back.

And, to add to his sin, he had murdered someone in Cassie's memory. She would not have wanted that, would not have approved, but he had done it anyway. What sort of memorial for a hero was that? For the girl he loved?

No kind of memorial at all.

His lips parted just the tiniest bit, allowing a single accusatory word to slip out.

"[Monster.]"

[[OOC: Read this before tagging.]]

Shiva was about to scream some more at the council’s representatives when he heart the sound of his devices powering down. The force field flickered and shut down, which meant the power dampener was also inactive. The “god” had suddenly become very much a mortal, very much vulnerable…

And oh so very screwed.

“DO NOT COME ANY CLOSER!” This time when he yelled he was not smug or disdainful. He was terrified. “I WILL KILL THEM! I WILL—”

It wasn’t clear if it was planned. With the way Kawalsky’s body was twitching, with the way the sweat poured down his face, it could have been a mistake. Or it could have been intentional, if misguided. However it happened, it was a profound mistake, one the goa’uld would pay for with his life.

He pressed the trigger for the bombs. He had no way of knowing they had all been deactivated. All but one.

And though he was voiceless, though no one could hear him save for two telepaths, Kawalsky screamed. He had tried to help the crew. Communicating to the engineers any advice that could help them disable the devices. They wouldn’t have been able to deactivate them without him, not for a while. So many months after he had broken, he thought he could stop the goa’uld from killing.

He was wrong.

[[OOC: READ ME FIRST]]

Shiva was still in the city, surrounded by nothing but rubble. If here were not holding a hostage, he would be pacing. He was tired of waiting. He was tired of his hostage. Above all, he was tired of hiding.

"Where are you! Show yourselves to your god!" He yelled.

Shiva spoke through the comms (not the omnicomms) directly into the minds of the crew.

«I am Shiva. I am the destroyer of all that you know and the creator of a grand new empire. For months you thought of me as my host, Charles Kawalsky, but now you shall see me in all my glory. I have positioned bombs throughout this vessel, including the pod caverns. I need but press the trigger and they will explode. I also have one hostage of my own, Sheryl. You will not be able to stop me. I am fully equipped with a power dampener, and a forcefield. I am untouchable. You have one hour to surrender yourselves to me and begin your new lives as my slaves.»

His eyes flashed gold and he held his hostage firmly. He did not wish to wait, but if he tired of this he would amend his demands. For now he stayed in one of the areas in the City hidden from Stacy’s view, in the middle of a pile of rubble, with not a landmark in sight.

Still, he knew they would come.

[REMINDER, GUYS. No one is required to tag to have learned anything in these classes. This is why we have the handwavey thread, and we keep you updated on what was covered. We'd at least LIKE you to tag the handwavey thread just to say your dude was there, so that if it comes up in conversation in other logs, everyone knows, but you don't have to tag in to the other subthreads. <3]

The atmosphere this time was vastly different than it had been for the past couple of weeks. The most noticable difference was that it was outdoors; the sun shone brightly, beating down on the military parade ground. Several hundred feet away, a massive wall could be seen, at least twenty feet tall, and the sounds of a city emanated from behind it. Occasionally, a pair of draconians would be spotted walking the ramparts.

The shooting range off to one side looked very out of place in the obviously medieval setting, but it was a necessity; that portion of the training was all Ronon's, and Kang let him have complete control of it.

An interesting addition to the piles of wooden weaponry was a wicker basket filled with strips of multi-colored cloth.

Ronon turned to his scaled friend. "Everything on your end is ready, right?"

"Yeah. Hopefully this won't go as badly as I fear," Kang sighed, squaring his shoulders and raising his voice so that everyone else could hear him. "We've got a few surprises for you all this time. Those--" he pointed at the basket "--are blindfolds. You can probably guess what they're for. Admittedly, I myself don't have much, if any, experience fighting while blind, so you all won't be the only ones learning something new over the next few days. The rest of them, you'll find out as the day progresses."

( Handy-dandy cut to save your f-lists! )

It had been a month since their last Warfare Training session and both teachers were worried that their students' progress would have suffered for it. But with everything that happened on Zokez II, Ronon and Kang were both certain that everyone could see the importance of learning how to fight and defend yourselves properly. Stacy had also a lot of new crew released from their pods not too long ago. Numbers for training were sure to increase.

One major change to training from this month was the venue. Previously it was held in the Drunken Dragon Tavern but now they were standing in a Sensorium replica of Atlantis' Mess Hall without the tables and chairs but instead benches to the side. As students made their way through the Sensorium doors and the lower, lobby part of the mess hall, they could see Kang and Ronon waiting on top of the 4 steps before the main part of the mess hall. Ronon was going over today's lesson contents in his mind when Kang leaned towards him, indicating to start.

Ronon straightened up and looked at the crowd, his task master mode on. "Welcome back to Warfare Training. I know some of you are new to this. I'm Ronon Dex," He then gestured to Kang. "And this is Kang and some of you may know him as the owner of the Druken Dragon Tavern and one of the Council members. We'll be your main teachers for these sessions."

Kang's wings rustled slightly, and he grinned. "I mentioned this already, on the channel, but I'm going to say it again: this is not going to be easy. You will get hurt. You will be sore for days on end."

He crossed his arms over his chest, "Remember, this class is voluntary. If you can't handle it, then leave; we don't tolerate whining or half-assing. We also won't tolerate any sort of discrimination based on age or sex, so be respectful to your fellow classmates, and to your instructors." There may or may not have been a pointed look at Grif with that last bit.

"Because we haven't met for a while, and we have newcomers, the next few days are going to be more about review. I know some of you continued training on your own, but not everyone, and we won't ask why. We know there were injuries.

"Let's begin."

[Things to be covered!

Revision of hand-to-hand, sword, knife and axe combat and firearms!

Previously!

April 26 - May 9: Basics of hand-to-hand, proper knife and sword handling. Important points: Eye contact with an opponent at all times, prevention of telegraphing moves, breathing, learning to read an opponent and spot weaknesses. Most of it so far has been defensive rather than offensive.

May 10 - May 23: More hand-to-hand, basic offensive moves with knives and swords, basics of guns.

May 24 - June 6: Basics of hand-to-hand, shooting practice with handguns and knife and sword training. It was the start of more offensive training.

June 7 - June 20: The beginning of Ohm training. Hand to hand as always. More Sword training. More shooting practice and gun maintenance. Gotta keep those guns clean.

Notes!

From now on, Warfare Training will come with a hand-wavey thread so characters can sign in and everyone knows who was there even if you don't reply to the main threads. Don't forget to tag yourselves in if you use the hand-wave thread too. Hope you enjoy~]

Riddick's the sort of man who likes to know everything he can about where he is, all f the time. Unfortunately, on Stacy, this is impossible. That doesn't mean he's not giving it the good old paranoid try, however.

He's found himself in the cafeteria, examining the nutrient mush. He's seen worse -- Hell, he's regularly eaten worse. The idea of edible trays ain't a bad one, either. It's really pretty practical.

He sits down at a table with a graceless sprawl and starts prodding at the mush with a utensil. He's a little entranced by its near-solid state, but it really doesn't smell too bad and he can't detect any hints of poison. It's not protein waffles, but hell, it ain't Necro cooking, either. He'd handle it just fine.

He even went so far as to take a bite, discovering that, well...It didn't really taste like anything. That was pretty reassuring, really.

"Not bad."

Hisk is throwing a party in the Drunken Dragon.

She just hasn't told Kang about it.

It's a general purpose party for the election, for winners and losers (and voters!) alike. EVERYONE is invited!There's beer and real food for all, what more could you ask for?

(OOC: If your character wants to help waiting on people/cooking/what have you, go for it. :D And this is a mingle post so feel free to thread about!)

The sensoriums made for a convenient training ground for all the right reasons, but most of all because they allowed Motoko to cheat. It hardly seemed fair for the world around to be controlled by whatever constituted the strongest mind, or the most established, but on these proving grounds, as ever, fairness was not part of the equation.

The world was a sleepy summer day, warm with cicada song and dry, ragged grass, knee-high in places, scorched to the earth in others. An abandoned, decrepit skeleton of a Soviet military base dominated the landscape, dotted here and there with holes like dark hollow eyes among the crumbling walls and roofless, exposed innards. Once, this place had been alive, and now it was as bleached as bones in the grass, as nature retook what man had conquered.

Here and there the rusted-out remains of tanks slumped where they had been abandoned. Red paint, incongruously fresh, marked a series of them as targets at the far end of a carefully 'makeshift' firing range, though most sat aimlessly, unmarked and unattended. The place nearest the door was dominated by one such tank, perhaps in slightly better repair than the others, and perched upon it was the reason for all the fuss and trials. Major Kusanagi folded her arms and leaned her back against the treads, casting a sidelong look at what was left of Section Nine.

It was going to be a long day.

[ OOC: Wait for Subthreads, please. OKAY, GO GO GO GO! ]

Another day, another class. Just more than a month and a half had gone by since Ronon and Kang had started their classes. And it's taken them this long to notice slight improvements as a whole.

Ronon and Kang stood at the front of the gathering crowd while looking out for new faces from the latest 'pod pop.' There was a lot they had to get through today, especially for the new folk. Turning to his scaled friend, he sternly nodded ready to start the class. It looked like everyone who was interested had made it on time. Latecomers beware. Mind you, class has started 10 minutes early.

[Things to be covered!

Hand to hand as always. More Sword training. More shooting practice and gun maintenance. Gotta keep those guns clean.

Previously!

April 26 - May 9: Basics of hand-to-hand, proper knife and sword handling. Important points: Eye contact with an opponent at all times, prevention of telegraphing moves, breathing, learning to read an opponent and spot weaknesses. Most of it so far has been defensive rather than offensive.

May 10 - May 23: More hand-to-hand, basic offensive moves with knives and swords, basics of guns.

May 24 - June 6: Basics of hand-to-hand, shooting practice with handguns and knife and sword training. It was the start of more offensive training.

Notes!

Ronon's pissed with the news of a Yeerk running free on board. Don't. push. him. on this if you know what happened the last time there was a Yeerk incident or your face will make friends with the floor. And Kang is still pissed by what the Ohm did after getting his memories back. Good luck unsuspecting students >:D

Also there is an OOC post here about the warfare classes.]

With his bugout location secure, and now stocked with some food John decided it was time to get some weapons. Carefully he made his way to the armory making damn sure this time that no one else was around. He wasn't going to slip up again like he had at the Vatican.

Scrolling through the weapons in the armory computer he was impressed with the selection. Hell, some of these hadn't even finished being developed before Judgment Day occurred. If he wasn't god only knows where being ordered around by an AI, and it's slave crew he'd almost be happy about it. In a few minutes he had quite the list assembled. Double checking it one more time he submitted it to the computer.

[Access to that quantity of weapons is restricted. Please see the command staff for authorization. Any furthers attempt to retrieve weapons will result in you being locked out of this system until your access is reauthorized by the captain.]

He glared at the machine, and pulled out his computer. Interfacing it with the omnicomm he started searching for an access panel. Finding one he spent several minutes methodically prying it open enough to get to the console's guts. Patching in he began to run through sub systems one by one looking for a way in. Whoever had designed the security hadn't counted on someone for who information warfare was a way of life. Finally he found a crack in the armor. It wouldn't be pretty, and they'd know he'd been here but he didn't have a choice. It was act now, or let this opportunity slip by.

Running the program the computer began to send out the weapons to the caches John had designated. Now all he had to do was move them again so the crew couldn't track them down by just following the digital trail. Hopefully that would keep them guessing long enough for him to slip back to Grand Central unnoticed.

After another couple of hours he'd managed just that. Already he was prepping the weapons, and loading magazines just in case someone was smart enough to pick up his trail.

[ooc: Once again in case anyone wants it the list of weapons John has stolen is here. Once you see the sub-thread you want your pup in go ahead and tag it. I'll leave it to each thread to sort out their posting order. Have fun everyone!]

Another day of training, which meant more bruises and more aches for everyone involved, even the instructors. Kang was looking more stern than usual, arms crossed over his chest as he watched the students practice using their opponents' momentum to their advantage; his wings rustled as one was flipped onto their back, something they could have easily avoided if they'd been paying attention and covering their openings like they were supposed to. They should have known better after a month of having it drilled into their head.

[Aaaaugh I fail. This should have been up Monday.

Just like last time, Erii. I wanted to get it up ASAP so it wouldn't be too late. D:

Previously!

April 26 - May 9: Basics of hand-to-hand, proper knife and sword handling. Important points: Eye contact with an opponent at all times, prevention of telegraphing moves, breathing, learning to read an opponent and spot weaknesses. Most of it so far has been defensive rather than offensive.

May 10 - May 23: More hand-to-hand, basic offensive moves with knives and swords, basics of guns.

Things to be covered!

You guessed it. Hand to hand. Also, beginning to combine offensive and defensive moves with knives and swords, and more gun work.

Note!

Kang is. Uh. Going to be a little snappy and a bit rougher the next few days. He got his memories back and he's pissed at the Ohm. If anyone wants to call him on it, feel free~]

Two weeks of training had gone by already, and Kang and Ronon hadn't even gotten close to the hard stuff yet. The experience level of the students varied, making it somewhat difficult to keep everyone involved at times, but they'd managed it, and were seeing a good amount of progress. Injuries had also been to a minimum, something they were glad for; Kang had gotten lucky and found several wooden practice swords, decreasing the chance of serious injury, though he had made sure that everyone got to handle a real one at least once in the sensoriums. He really didn't want anyone to lose a limb or get stabbed in the gut.

They were also pleased to see that no one had quit the class yet, and that more than a few were quite enthusiastic about what they were learning. It boded well.

[Erii, if you've got anything to add for Ronon in particular, do it. If you want it in the post itself, and not as a comment, just IM me with it, and I'll add it in for you.

Previously!

Basics of hand-to-hand, proper knife and sword handling. Important points: Eye contact with an opponent at all times, prevention of telegraphing moves, breathing, learning to read an opponent and spot weaknesses. Most of it so far has been defensive rather than offensive.

Things to be covered!

More hand-to-hand, basic offensive moves with knives and swords, basics of guns.

Also, I have a request. If there are any characters involved in this that would be inclined to complain about the training (specifically about it being too harsh) during class where Kang could hear it, I would love to hear from you. I have... a scenario I would like to play out, so if you do have a character that fits the bill IM me. :D]

The turnout ended up being better than expected. Kang stood with his arms crossed over his chest in front of the bar of the tavern, looking over his and Ronon's students; he knew that several of them wouldn't stay, once they realized how brutal this training was going to be. He glanced over at his fellow instructor, and nodded slightly, getting a nod and grin in return.

Sons-of-bitches voice was go.

"Welcome to Warfare Training. For those of you who don't know us, I am Kang, and this"--he pointed at Ronon--"is Ronon Dex. We are going to be your instructors." His wings rustled slightly, and he grinned. "I'm going to tell you right now: this is not going to be easy. You will get hurt. You will be sore in muscles you didn't even know existed. We are going to make you give us everything you have, and more."

He placed his left hand on the hilt of the sword at his waist. "You will be learning hand-to-hand, various melee weapons with an emphasis on swords and knives, firearms, and for those interested, I will be giving private lessons with the axe. You will also be learning strategy and tactics, and will be facing off against many different types of nonhuman foes. Our goal is to make sure you have a chance of surviving, no matter what situation you happen to find yourself in."

Pointing to the door, the bozak's expression turned serious again, "If you feel that you can't handle this training at any point, the door is right there. We only want those who are serious about learning, and we won't put up with whining or half-assing. We also won't put up with any sort of discrimination based on age or sex, so be respectful to your fellow classmates, and to your instructors." He meant it, too.

"Classes will be Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 1600 to 1800, and mostly optional on Saturdays from 0900 to 1200. We'll let you know which Saturdays are required at least a day ahead. Questions?"

[Things to be covered!

Basics of hand-to-hand, proper knife and sword handling, and for those interested in axe, message me and we'll work out the private lessons. :3]

Welcome to the Unholy Cathedral at the heart of Escherville. It is here, in this place, that the Nightmare King has made his bid for release.

And he will not be stopped by the likes of you.

More monstrosities pour out of every angle, intent on ending this adventure. These monsters are every bit as horrific as the ones you all faced to get to this point, though you will quickly notice there is something drastically different about them.

Magic does not affect these creatures. At all.

Your spells do nothing. Your prayers are meaningless. The power of your God is useless against them.

No force in heaven or hell can affect them.

Nothing at all Magical can hurt them.