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Showing results for tags 'MANTIS'.
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Location: F03 (Forring) Tags: Military Building (prison) As Jex was guided down to B Sector of the MSS Strata, she wondered what the claim ticket could be for? The claims agent said it wasn't what she expected. She couldn't puzzle this one out. Looking around, she guessed that B must be on the other side of the prison compound--she recognized the slavers Agent Blond had caught that she had read about. One of them tried to reach through the energy barrier and got himself shocked, while the other made rude gestures. Why would they build the ship so you had to go through the prison? It just didn't make sense. "Here we are," said the guard. "B Sector, cell 68. Ms. DuBois, meet prisoner #C04-k2." "Wait...what?" **************** I'll try to add links in to refer back to other stories, since this post ties together a lot of loose threads. More photos below, C&C welcome!
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Location:F03 Forring Tags: Military building - Welcome to my lab Hawk. At last I have you in my grasp... - Remember Sebastian, If you want to be a part of this organization, you have to be more ominous and use lots of spidery terminology. - Oh right. I meant to say the Hawk is now like a fly caught in my web. How was that? - - Much better. There is something I need to check on. I will leave you to whatever it is you do in here. - Very well. So Hawk, do you have anything to say before we start? - What do you want with me? - Oh thats simple. Revenge. I want to make you suffer like how you made me suffer under the rubble of that base on Jurrin 2. The Zoids had abandoned me and left me for dead. Luckily for me, Spider found me and rehabilitated me into what you see today. They truly appreciate my genius unlike those fools at Octan. - So Spider wanted you to build Hybrid soldiers for them to sell to those dust demons? - Not exactly. My work is a little more subtle this time, but it still has the power to topple an entire corporation if I so desired. - So what was in that cryo-tube - It's a mystery. Well that's enough chit chat. lets get started shall we. How about I perform a laser arm amputation. All the cool executives in Andromeda have been loosing limbs. -Computer: Arming laser. Amputation will begin in 5 minutes. - Excuse me. - - Wait what? You aren't supposed to be here. Explain yourself at once! - We are here to transport the prisoner. - What is this madness! I made no request. - No you didn't doctor. We are here for you. Thrugg, would you mind taking out that laser? - It be Thruggs honor to save birdee man. - - What do you want from me? - Alien has put a rather large bounty on your head for crimes you had committed against the zoids. How are you doing Hawk. - Took you guys long enough to get here. I almost lost an arm. - - We wanted to make you sweat it out a little. Just because you are Dax's friend doesn't mean we can't have a little fun at your expense. - Thanks. Do you still have the cryo tube? Do you know where the Spider agent is? - We lost track of her. We better get to the ship asap before they realize whats going on. Thanks for looking, C&C welcomed.
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Obstacle courses in the Andromeda Olympics are a lot more challenging than ones one earth. For one thing, these races have very low gravity. For another it's in an asteroid field. Imagine running through a sand storm, but instead of sand, it's boulders and small mountains. And there's no solid ground to be found anywhere. All existing pieces. C&C welcome!
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Location: E01 - Donwarr. Tags: Civil, Spaceship, Spying. Previously on Andromeda's Gates: The mark, Uplink, Pay dirt. Departure, The Gyrocube, Darksight. Chapter 7: Jade Sun. Octan, Kawashita, MANTIS… In the year since they arrived in Andromeda, they’d swept across the Galaxy taking control of anything… everything, one way or another. They call themselves pioneers but to those that were already here, grafting the space-lanes, running the boxes, working the Galaxy, they’re nothing but poachers, using their influence to buy what they cannot earn and steal what they cannot buy. Yseult had never run freight for one of the big three, That was all taken from me before they arrived… And now I’m working for one of them… Doing their dirty work. Silently, Yseult had manoeuvred Darksight around to the far side of Donwarr, a world on the edge of the Galaxy in a contested region of space that some now called ‘The Quarrel’, a block of six worlds from Donwarr to Illustria that MANTIS and Octan had fought bitterly over. It was currently under MANTIS control but all of that Octan activity didn’t just go away; planets are big and the space around them is bigger. For Octan, this region was now about what you could do without MANTIS seeing or stopping. I guess that’s why I’m here she thought. At the appointed time, the recorded mission brief played. “Yseult.” The voice began. “This is Riddaeon. You have been selected for this mission by senior executives who are concerned about the loyalty of other operatives. A new form of refined liquid mythril has been manufactured on Freegate. It is transported to Mynderis via Donwarr on a super-freighter called Jade Sun but it arrives at Mynderis without the mithryl. Our sources believe that Octan is using planted operatives inside MANTIS to intercept the shipment but we have not been able to ascertain how. We believe Donwarr may be the location of the intercept as it will be easier for Octan to get it across the border through The Quarrel. Darksight was designed for silent pursuit and surveillance. Your mission is to observe the arrival of the freighter and covertly record its orbit of Donwarr before it re-enters the anomaly for the jump to Hunston. You are not to interfere with any transfers to or from the ship. Your data-file contains all of the information we have on the Jade Sun and its schedule… Good luck.” The recording ended and the data-file opened for Yseult to digest. Once she knew all she needed to, she began recording the activity of traffic between the anomaly and Donwarr. One hundred and thirty-eight minutes later, precisely on schedule, the MANTIS ore super-freighter Jade Sun emerged from the Donwarr anomaly. Thanks for reading. C&C welcome on both the build and the writing.
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Torresta M.A.N.T.I.S. CEO Spacer Steve was visiting one of the new M.A.N.T.I.S. secure storage facilities on Torresta Inside: SpacerSteve: So what can you show me here? Facility Manager: This here is a room where we store over-size crystals of awesomium until a use for them is found. Manager: We're currently still transferring mithril and copper to storage here, so I can't show you any of that. And I was going to show you the gold room, but I can't for..... reasons. SpacerSteve: Specifically? Manager: Let's just say an anthropomorphic duck is swimming around in it like a porpoise, and he won't leave. Yay, Tech build done! C&C Welcome! And you can check out the model in 3D on Mecabricks!
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Location: C04 - Aeristus Tags: Military, Building. Previously on Andromeda's Gates: The mark, Uplink, Pay dirt. Departure. Chapter 5: The Gyrocube. Gedron Briskett rapped the fingers of one hand irregularly on the table while he scanned the details on the digi-page he held in the other. Yseult sat, arms folded, opposite him getting increasingly impatient. Being in M.A.N.T.I.S., she thought to herself, seems to involve a lot of sitting at tables waiting for people to think of something to say to me. She shifted her position in her seat, as loudly and obviously as she was able to. Briskett briefly looked up from the digi-page, then promptly ignored her and went back to looking over whatever report they’d compiled on her for his benefit. “The Brawling Beauty.” He finally said with a half-raised eyebrow. Yseult tensed at the name. The Beauty was something she thought about almost every day, but talked about… never, and she didn’t like to – especially not with some ‘full of himself’ desk pilot she’s never met before. “You’re a freight pilot then?” he continued, laying the digi-page on the table in front of him. “who got caught pulling short cons on that swamp-infested mudhole…” he paused for a moment in clear belief that he was about to say something clever, “…without a ship”. He tried to let the irony hang for a moment but her ability to look unimpressed got to him before his increasingly annoying personality got to her. “Box Runners are ten-a-credit.” He continued, “What does that mad scientist think we need the likes of you for?” ‘Box Runner’ was a slang term for small independent freight operators. Hearing it brought back memories, the briefest moment of nostalgia. Don’t go back there, it was a different time, you were a different person. “How should I know?” she responded, dismissively. “You made a deal, I got you the credits back, you owed me a new bike… Now I just stick around until you give a reason to leave.” She knew that prospect would please him. “Fine.” he said, as if trying to out-scheme her, “We’ll put you though our usual pilot assessment and see where it spits you out.” A cocky smile had developed upon his face. The gyrocube was a full-rotation simulator designed to test a pilot’s ability to separate visual, auditory and gravitational sensory inputs and decide which to trust and how to react. The program’s scenarios mostly involved being in a spacecraft that was wildly out of control and dangerously close to hitting a planet, or something to that effect. Yseult sat in the pod at the centre of the device, intense concentration on her face. She’d flown through the ‘principles of spaceflight’, ‘astro-navigation’ and ‘Gate dynamics’ tests, that was expected, but freighters weren’t known for their manoeuvrability and rarely got into unstable high-G situations. This is where they expect me to fail, she thought as she felt the grips of the controls in her hands… But they never flew with me. Dragging the rear of the simulated ship round and down, the imitation ‘gravitational anomaly’ put her in a flat yaw spin with an edge of pitch climb. Her feet had countered the spin a little, reacting immediately with rudder thrust but it would never have been enough. It feels like roll but it isn’t, don’t fall for it. She countered intuitively, using the rudder and bursts of opposing roll control in time with the rate of rotation to halt the spin. Now she was cartwheeling down a rapidly decaying orbit. Briskett stood beside the operator in the control booth, a look of annoyance already on his face. “She’s arresting the decay.” The operator announced. “She’ll maintain orbit at this rate.” “I can see that!” Briskett retorted. He thought for a moment. “Blow the starboard nose thrusters.” He ordered. The operator hesitated. “Those are the one’s she’s using to stop the spin” he informed. “I know.” Briskett snapped back. “Blow them”. With the ship gently rolling on its axis, Yseult had to wait to be facing the right way every time she used a thruster or it would only make things worse. With the flat spin almost under control, she made one final burst… The simulated explosion set off every alarm and for the briefest moment, she lost track of which way she was facing. Red warnings lit up on her displays. The entire nose thruster assembly was inoperable. She checked the flight gyro. Now she was spinning in every direction. She tried to counter it but with so little control now, nothing seemed to work. A new alarm sounded “RE-ENTRY, RE-ENTRY.” the verbal warning announced. Air. Something I can work with. She reversed the controls and stopped trying to recover the spin. She put the engines into full reverse and opened the aerobrakes on one side at the ship’s rear; as they caught the increasingly dense atmosphere, the additional resistance encouraged the ship out of the tumble. With less air resistance than the rear of the ship, the nose stayed pointing down and the ship slid into a whirlpool-like spin. Opening the aerobrakes on the other side and increasing the roll, the ship soon became a spinning top of reverse thrust. Inside the pod, Yseult was trying hard not to throw up, or pass out. She watched the flight gyro as the rotation steadily settled into a rolling nose-dive. Just a little longer. She was still descending way too fast but arresting the roll, she finally began to pull up. In the control room, a small crowd of pilots and techs had gathered behind Briskett, watching the unknown pilot handle the ridiculous sequence of events she’d been handed and were responding far too positively for his liking. “Fail engine one.” Silence fell. He didn’t wait for the operator to hesitate this time. “Fail it”. Yseult felt the drop at the rear immediately but in an already desperate situation, using every Newton of thrust to halt her descent, it slipped away so quickly… There’s only so much you can do, but I won’t give up this time. She fought it to the end, every metre. The gyrocube came to a gentle rest and a tech helped the disoriented pilot out of the pod. She felt them holding her under an arm as she fumbled down some steps. She felt someone remove her helmet to see a fuzzy image of a man with a sickeningly wavy smirk stood before her. He said something but she didn’t hear it, she was busy convulsing as her body wrenched free of the tech and she fell to her hands and knees, vomiting when she hit the floor. She noticed some boots, splattered with sick, turn and walk away… Then she wretched and threw up again. Additional images: Environment. Closer view of backdrop. Control booth. Removable fold-down steps. Thank you for reading. Luc.
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Location: F03 (Forring) Tags: none Another week that's story-heavy despite being light on build. Enjoy! **************** After weeks of searching, Jex was no closer to finding Scorpio's sister than she had been at the funeral. She had to make sure that his remaining belongings reached his next of kin. It only amounted to a few books and journals, along with some claim tickets for some things still in MANTIS' possession, but in Jex's mind they weren't legally hers, and she sure as heck didn't want them, anyway. Because she was technically still on medical leave, Jex was able to go anywhere in Andromeda that was currently under MANTIS' control; her search had led her through several gate jumps to here, Forring. She was after the MSS Strata, a supply ship that was engaged in an operation in Forring's atmosphere. MANTIS supply ships were versatile, designed to reinforce a number of possible MANTIS operations in any circumstance, including mining, spying, piracy, troop and material transport, and war. Jex wasn't exactly sure what she would be finding here, but one of Scorpio's claim tickets stated that he had a possession that was currently held aboard the Strata. Maybe whatever it was would hold the clue to help her continue her search. After some asking around, she found the claims desk--or at least, the closest thing to it. "I am here to redeem this claim stub, and pick up whatever it is for. Says here the location is MSS Strata B68 #P-C04-k2." Minifig(s) on a Plate. by rodiziorobs, on Flickr "B68, you say?" "Yes, #P-C04-k2. Do you have it?" "Yeah, lady, but if it's down in B-block then it ain't what you seem to think it is. That ain't no normal claim stub you got there." "What do you mean?" "Come down with me and see for yourself. We'll have to call them to let them know we're coming..." (...to be continued...) **************** I should have done this earlier, but I got a new photo setup. Bought a Daylight LED and poster board at WalMart for less than $5. I always thought it would be so much more expensive, which is why I put it off The above photo hasn't been altered at all. C&C welcome.
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Location: F03, Forring Tags: Spaceship, Military Building - -Welcome back to Forring Hawk. -Thanks General. I was just plotting out my next supply run. How can I help you? -Well, we are delaying your supply runs. We have a new assignment for you. Recently some of our armored scouts have gone missing on patrol. A few days ago one for them sent out a distress call with coordinates before loosing contact. We want you to investigate. -Sounds dangerous. Do we have any idea what took these scouts out? What will I be flying. The only ship on this outpost is the Turkey Mk2. -We don't know what took them out. Your shuttle will be enough. We will be assigning a group of special forces to be working with you. I would like to introduce you to Captain Mira. She will brief you on the mission. - -I'm glad I finally get to meet you Hawk. I have heard much about you. We will have 4 spec ops soldiers with us and we will start our search at these coordinates. Are you ready to go? -I just have a few questions. shouldn't we have a more backup then this. Something capable of taking out scout mechs should have no problem with a few spec ops. Couldn't we just send some unmanned drones? Plus an unarmed shuttle isn't the best choice for a situation like this. What if it is some kind of subterranean super predator? -Right now the mission is to observe and report. Our supplies have been cut a little short recently so this is all the soldiers we can spare at the moment. The CEO himself requested for you to go on this mission. We would never had any drones to do our work for us on Ice planet. - -Dont' worry Hawk. One MANTIS spec. ops. soldier is worth 100 of another corporations soldiers! It looks like your ship is unloaded and my soldiers are ready to go. We will meet you out on the landing pad. -Ok. I will be out there shortly. I hope you are right about all this Dax. - Thanks for looking. C&C is welcomed as always.
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Location: A06 Guinevere Tags: MANTIS Double D's log 49: If I was going to be chased around by this alien, I was going to do it my way - underground.
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Location: F04 (Terrial Minor Illustria) Tags: Spying Agent Blond's mission against the Zoid slavers had been a complete success. At least, right up until the point he got knocked out. Perhaps "MANTIS' best spy" was a bit of an exaggeration... He awoke and found himself strapped awkwardly to a table. He tried to regain his composure and assess his surroundings for escape, but at that moment one of the Zoids burst through the door. Then, to Blond's horror, the Zoid began taking off his head. Why, he wasn't a Zoid at all! "Good evening, Mr. Blond! I see you are finally awake!" "Who are you? Where am I? Blond inquired. "In our secret base on Illustria! But ah-ha! I already tell you too much. You should not be the one asking questions here, Mr. Blond! That's my job!" "Do you expect me to talk?" "No, Mr. Blond, I expect you to die!" This was not spoken by the first man, but by a second as he entered the room. Blond could see he also wore a Zoid costume. "So much for our 'secret base' Gib," he added. "Sorry boss," the first fake Zoid replied. As he came in the second man grabbed a controller hanging from the girders above, and with a cruel chuckle pressed the button. Blond felt the room suddenly get noticeably hotter. He looked down towards his feet, and knew he had to act quickly... Although his hands were bound, he was able to reach out his MANTIS™ Death Ray Blaster© Pocket Edition™, and fire a beam at the laser. Nooo! The slavers cried. Blond then shot off his restraints, turned on his captors, and said, "Now, sirs, I believe it is you who will be doing the talking, and unless you cooperate, the dying as well." **************** This was a build I did a couple of weeks ago but missed the posting deadline. It's been on my Flickr for awhile, but never posted anywhere. Been itching to do a Bond reference for awhile C&C welcome! Edit: I got the planet name wrong. It is supposed to be F04, Illustria. That's what I get for using the dynamic map on mobile
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Location: F04 Illustria Tags: MANTIS, exploring Double D's Log 44: I was sent back to F04 so MANTIS could test their fighter ground tracking. We went to a more dry spot on the planet up on some rocky plateau. I also inspected some water condensers. Nothing exciting. End log. ------------------------------------ Making the minifigs was definitely the most fun part about this week's build! Hopefully I'll get a chance to use them again! So yeah, I have tons of ideas and no lack of motivation, but since August of last year I've only been committing a small amount of time for MANTIS building (and some weeks less than others). It's actually been a bit of a challenge having to build things quickly. Though it makes my stories boring and unconnected, and to me, uninteresting. I'm glad to have been able to post a build for almost every AG "week" though. Oddly enough I've only built for the first AG challenge. Those extra "weeks" for the challenges really just turned out to be breaks for me! Still going strong here, even if small! Small and steady wins the race! And as MANTIS member Mr. Greeble put it, "Or large and steady. That works too...." Maybe I'll put a post up recapping some of my AG builds in the anniversary thread....we'll see!
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Location: F04 - Illustria Tags: This is a continuation of my main story. All right Aryna. Prepare to launch your phase of the Rescue mission. This must be perfectly timed to coincide with Bass' arrival. Copy That. Heading to the launch area now. A short addition to this story that I'll finish someday. I had hoped to post a special 1 year of AG build, but that will have to wait until next week. C&C Welcome.
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Dona Flor had heard the news and couldn't wait to tell everyone: the three biggest corporations in the galaxy were hosting a series of games, just for them! The Space Geriatric Games. Did I mention Dona Flor was a little hard of hearing? Anyway, it wasn't hard to put together a five-man rowing team from the local homesteaders, and Dona Flor herself would be the coxswain. When the team arrived to claim MANTIS sponsorship, the MANTIS agent was sure that rowing wasn't an actual event, but after checking the rules, it simply said "boat race" and had only a size requirement, not age. "Why not," he thought to himself. "At the very least, it'll give those NBC morons some more human interest crap for their broadcast," and he signed them up. Besides, he had learned not to ask too many questions. **************** "Did he say to put on our tuxedos?" "I want some taquitos!" "Look, ma! I'm on TV!" **************** Pictures to show size. The red buoys mark every 5 studs from the dock to the yellow buoys, exactly 20 studs, and there is a space of 10 studs between the rows. Boat Race by rodiziorobs, on Flickr Boat Race by rodiziorobs, on Flickr
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Hawk never cared about boats. He saw them as unnecessary and primitive devices that had long since been replaced by a common hover speeder. When MANTIS asked him to compete in the Andromeda games sea races he was already dreading the idea. - MANTIS gave him the new Wraith sea racer to compete with. He quickly fell in love with how fast it could travel over the water. It's ability to hydroplane reduced contact with the water and made it faster then most boats it size. He also loved how it's advanced maneuvering thrusters made it control more like a speeder. - - Thanks for looking. C&C welcomed as always. more pictures under the spoiler.
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Andromeda Olympics For the Water races at the Andromeda Olympics, the engineers over in M.A.N.T.I.S. have cooked up a fast craft with four engines. Unfortunately naming isn't their strong suit, so it got stuck with the name Quaddagger. They also botched the promo shot by using the wrong color for the upper windscreen (should be Tr. Clear) and using an egg piece that isn't in Mecabricks. Size Proof: C&C Welcome!
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Slipwave is a heavily modified racing boat constructed by a team of MANTIS marine engineers and special forces agents on Sorn. The need to ensure critical MANTIS operations could continue following the planet's capture by Kawashita, the team developed a craft both fast and quiet by levitating the rear engine section out of the water and propelling it with an extra pair of anti-gravity engines mounted at 90 degrees. Compared to more traditional aquatic propulsion methods, the anti-grav engines are less powerful than hydro-jets and less responsive than propellors but with such a small displacement, resistance from the water is minimised allowing them deliver comparable power-to-weight ratios. The overdrive boosters positioned amidships burn Nitronium Oxide to super heat the anti-matter in the repulsers and provide more power but the system overheats quickly, utilising two dump-valves on each side to expel unburnt fuel and heat when the anti-matter reaches critical temperatures. The rear is suspended by two angled anti-matter repulsers which also steer the craft. The front-end maximised aero and hydro-dynamicity by reducing displacement and air/water resistance. Technical cutaway of front-end. Scrutineering: Thank you for looking.
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Tags: Land Vehicle, Fleet Location: F03 - Forring Previously: Part I Part II Part III Part IV Part V Part VI Part VII Inside the Mantrix Here is a MANTIS watercraft which has been hijacked by Octan. Take it Out using this Death Ray Blaster and Sniper Rifle. As long as they remain as such, that is. Begin. Take 'em out! Thanks for reading! I Mantisifyed 6049 into a bad*** vehicle with flames! Here's another angle.
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Location: Above Forring aboard the R-ABBIT Agent G: The door opened up into a shaft! It felt like I was falling forever, all while the walls around changed from the familiar cold metal to dark wood. C&C appreciated!
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Location- F03 Forring Tags- Airplane, Land Vehicle, Military Building, Spying With Hawks recent promotion to third branch executive, he was given the assignment by CEO SpacerSteve to inspect the military testing site code named Dragon Base. - MANTIS Guard: Welome to Dragon Base. We have been expecting you. I have already notified the commander that you have arrived. He will be with you shortly. Hawk: Thank you. - Commander: Welcome third branch executive Hawk. Hawk: You must be Tim. SpacerSteve told me a little about your work. I'm eager to see more. Tim: If you want to follow me, I can give you a tour of the base and show you the advancements we have made. I'm sure the CEO will be pleased to hear about the progress we have made. - short time later..... Tim: With reverse engineering Kawashita war drones, our drone technology has advanced by leaps and bounds. And our tour will conclude with the best part. Would you like to take our most advanced weapon for a test flight? Hawk: I don't see anything here. Is the ship cloaked? Tim: It's a drone, not a ship. To fly it you will need these three items, the Wand of Controlling, the Tablet of Commands, and the Helmet of Destiny. Hawk: These all look extremely dorky. - Tim: Now you need to sit over there in the controllers chair. I will open the blast doors and monitor your vital signs to make sure the drones AI doesn't take over your mind. Are you ready. Hawk: Sure. Wait, what! Tim: Oh, well remember when I was telling you about Kawashita war drones? Well MANTIS AI technology isn't as advanced as Kawashita's so we had to use a captured drone's AI core. That's why we need a human mind to control it. There is a slight chance the AI could fight back but as long as you have the Helmet of Destiny on you should be fine. It's perfectly safe. Hawk: Lets get this over with then. Tim: Thats the spirit. I will open the blast doors. - Hawk: Whoa this is cool! Tim: See I told you the risk would be worth it. - Hawk: It's so fast! I can see everything it can see! I feel like I am flying! Tim: If you would like, There are a few nearby Octan communication arrays that we have been meaning to destroy. You can test out the weapons on one of them. - Hawk: Buuuurrnn!!!!!! Tim: Alrighty then, It looks like the AI might be starting to take over a little bit. You should probably bring the drone back to base now. More pictures under the spoiler tag. Thanks for looking. This build was based off of the set 6076 Dark Dragons Den. It was my favorite castle set when I was young even though it was almost entirely made out of BURP's. Comments and criticisms are always welcomed.
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Location: F03, Forring Tags: MANTIS, Land Vehicle, Military Double D's Log 37: So since I've been around a while, some of MANTIS corp. wanted me to look at some new experimental vehicles. There were lots of excellent ones, but one in particular stood out to me. It looked liked an ancient battle wheel or something. Sure it could truck through just about anything, but its defenses were disgraceful. Any hover bike could zoom around it and immobilize the thing. Anyway, I gave it a grade of E (in the A-F scale). ~ DD out ----------------------------------------- So yeah, I'm not exactly happy with this, I had something cooler in mind, but I didn't have the time to do it. The wheels turned out pretty cool, and it's amusing to roll around and shoot at things, but it just doesn't look that good to be honest. Still, I had fun with the time I was able to spend on it, and that's all that counts right?
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Location: F03 Tags: Land Vehicle, Spying Ok, but... just explain it to me one more time... Unbelievable! This plan is like spying 101, I don't understand how you're not getting it. I've hacked Octan's computers to trick them into thinking they’ve detected a prisoner transport. They’re going to come after you thinking they’re rescuing one of their guys. Right… Redsyn here is one of our best drivers – he’ll lead them on a merry chase but will eventually let you be ‘rescued’. By using the tracking device we implanted in you we’ll find out where their base is when they take you back there. Simple! Uh… ok, I think I understand now. But why not use an actual Octan prisoner? I have… other uses… for the real prisoners. Unless you’d like to trade places with them? No sir! I thought not… But won’t they realise I’m not actually from Octan? No, they’ll never suspect it. I thought you said this was obvious, like spying 101… Don’t worry, our forces will show up well before Octan has time to find you out. This plan is foolproof! Wait… To be continued! Didn't have time to do the whole story this week. The vehicles are based on my first castle sets, 6042 Dungeon Hunters and 6018 Battle Dragon. More pics in the spoiler. Thanks for reading, C&C welcome!
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Location: F03 (Forring) Tags: Land Vehicle, Military Building When Supervising Accountant Laszlowe returned to M.A.N.T.I.S. HQ after making a deal with the Zoid slavers, he was met by a special task force who immediately clapped him in irons. Agent Blond had been sent out to apprehend the data from the Zoids and put a tracer on their ship to follow them. Not returning from the mission, Blond had nevertheless been able to transfer a copy of the data Laszlowe had sold, as well as photographic proof that the Zoid ship was carrying slaves. The data in question turned out to be a detailed description of all Octan movements and known civilian locations across most of northern Andromeda. In exchange for this information--which the slavers had used to prey on helpless merchants and other civilians in those sectors, as corroborated in Octan documents--the Zoids had been paying Laszlowe handsomely. Unbeknownst to Laszlowe, his rendezvous with the Zoids had all been recorded by a D.O.R.I.S. (Drone of Really Irritating Surveillance), video evidence which will be shown in court today along with Agent Blond's revelation, on the illuminated panels seen below next to the guard station. With the overwhelming amount of evidence against Laszlowe--in addition to months of records uncovered this week by M.A.N.T.I.S. auditors--formal charges were brought against Laszlowe for his crimes against humanity, including 18 counts of human trafficking. It will be the Court Recorder's duty to keep minutes of the proceedings. He has not arrived yet, but his booth is shown below, next to the guard station. The trial has been scheduled for this evening the 20th of Marzn, 3816, at the M.A.N.T.I.S. High Court on Forring. Delegates from both Octan and Kawashita were invited to be present to witness justice carried out. After all, even if the three corporations squabble or even occasionally fight an all-out war over control of the resources the galaxy holds, no one wants there to be civilian casualties. Also, M.A.N.T.I.S. wants it known that it will not tolerate such atrocities committed under its roof, and will punish to the fullest extent those who perpetrate such crimes. The judge today will be a member of the Council of Five, and the case would be decided by a nine-member jury. All of the jurors and the judge have yet to arrive. Jurors' booth And here are the Octan and Kawashita representatives arriving on their speeders. The attendants will escort them up to the observation deck, where the respective corporations' colors are hung. The representatives arrive Octan representatives in their booth Kawashita representatives in their booth Here is the accused being led into the chamber as we speak. The military police maintains a presence on the ground level of the courtroom, should there be any need to enforce order during the course of the trial. In addition to the human trafficking charges brought against Laszlowe, internal audits revealed he had also embezzled funds from multiple employees of M.A.N.T.I.S., including Scorpio Starstriker, Scientist First Class. M.A.N.T.I.S. agents were trying to decide if there was any connection between these crimes and Starstriker's mysterious disappearance nearly two months earlier. However, at the present time these events appear to be unrelated. **************** This week's build is based on set 10223, the Kingdoms Joust, a set I wasn't quick enough to get when I came out of my Dark Ages, but I thought would be interesting to adapt into a courtroom. All of the smaller pieces of the MOC correspond to a part of the actual set, except that I couldn't think of any kind of parallel for the jousting list so I omitted it. Waiting for the judge and jury More pictures below, C&C welcome! Defendant's chair High Court judgement seat Jurors' booth Representatives from Kawashita Representatives from Octan Money shot of the M.A.N.T.I.S. logo--my best one yet!
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Location: A06 Guinevere Tags: MANTIS, spying Double D's log 46: Before I could report about my findings and get a group of MANTIS operatives to explore the mysterious building on Illustria, I was sent to Guinevere of all places. I was to find out why MANTIS operations have been slow to the West of the volcanoes because Kawashita now has the competitive advantage of gold mining, and we aren't sure why MANTIS equipment isn't as effective as it should be. It's not like we're in conflict in Kawashita, even the CEO noted the planet's apparent peacefulness. So far the outposts we inspected were running at full capacity, and the employees had high morale, so we moved further West towards the GU-Labs and Weapons Center. From a distance it was immediately apparent is that there had been an attack of some sort on the facility! What's more, sand was beginning to dust the surfaces of....well, everything! That means it had been like this for quite a while now. There were flags of black, white, and azure blue, and canisters of matching color in various places, but MANTIS equipment seemed to be scattered around almost as if for survival. Then I noticed helmets used by Kawashitan forces. Before my rage could surface, I heard the distinct voice of the Kawashitan general whom I retrieved planned fleet paths from back on Crentium. "Be very quiet and cautious with your steps, or you will be found by the Alien." "Aliens?" "No, the Alien. This destruction you see, it is the Alien's doing. The azure canisters you see, it's the Alien. Now that you've entered the GU-Labs complex, you're trapped with us." "Us?!" To be continued! ------------------------------------------------- Woot! I finally have a story arc going!
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Location: B06 Sorn Tags: Land vehicle Note to judges: the landscape is reused and should not be judged. - More pictures of the speeder under the spoiler tag Thanks for looking. C&C welcomed
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Location: B05 Marphacia Tags: Land Vehicle, Spying So what information are we trying to get out of them sir? We need to know if they detected the massive explosion we caused the other day. If the Kawashita seismology lab didn’t detect the explosion, we’ll know the GATE field expanded ahead of the explosion and stopped the information leaking out. If so, we have a functioning cloaking device, we'll just have to fine tune the stabilisers. Couldn’t we just ask them if they detected it? No! If we just ask them if they’ve detected any explosions recently, they’ll know we’re up to something. We have to persuade them to tell us, preferably without even realising we’re from M.A.N.T.I.S. That’s why we’re in this Kawashita boat! Exactly. And it has to be a row boat so it doesn’t upset their seismology instruments. No point annoying them before we even get there. And you have to be here to do the rowing… I see the lab sir! Good work Stevens, bring us in. Now, this is probably going to take a lot of natural charm and quick wits, and you don’t have a persuadomatic spy suit, so let me do all the talking. It could be very difficult to get the information out of them, so prepare to witness some incredible spying. Yes sir! Ok, here goes. I guess I’ll knock on the door. This is going to be very difficult, so you’re going to have a great story about my awesome spy skills to tell your friends. Oh my… can it be true? Are you real? I haven’t seen anyone since I was posted here back in Julali! I’ve been so bored – there’s not been a single seismic event the whole time I’ve been here! Well… that was easy. Uh, sorry guy, we must have the wrong lab. Best be off! No, no, come in and have a drink, I insist! Do you like tea? I love tea! Wonderful! Come on in! I’ll just put the kettle on! This is so exciting! Damn it Stevens! Oh, I’ve been so lonely here. I’ve only had my plants to talk to, and they never say anything back. Guess that makes sense though. There are lots of sentient, communicative plant species in Andromeda actually! That’s what I told them! But they’re still giving me the silent treatment! Oh boy… Right, well, thanks for the drinks, we’d best be going. What?? No! Please don't leave, I’ve been so alone! And besides, I’ve made some food for us to share. It would be a shame if you had to leave before you try it… you could have all sorts of ‘accidents’ if try to you leave on an empty stomach… *Gulp* OK, OK! We’ll stay for some food, sure, no need for any 'accidents'… Oh, how wonderful! I’ll just go get it! Damn it Stevens, why couldn’t you keep your mouth shut?? This guy’s a lunatic! Sorry sir! Hopefully he’ll let us leave if we eat his food. I hope it’s not anything weird, or we might have to make a run for it. Fresh sushi! Made with local ingredients! … … ... Quickly Stevens! Come back! --- Thanks for reading! C&C welcome! I have to confess that I straight up stole the roof design from Bushido - Way of the Warrior by Disco86, which is one of my all time favourite MOCs. Hopefully Disco86 won't mind, as a fellow M.A.N.T.I.S. player
