Loonie

<<Actually this isn't such a bad idea Ion. It's just that most people in the sim don't use the forums lately (as you have already pointed out). And so I am once again ready to put a reply, although I really am getting tired of seeing just Howardson's posts along with mine >> Kacur headed towards med-bay to check how everyone was doing. The scene that he encountered was however most wierd. The wounded were hitting some balls across the floor using poles, all the while staying in their beds. Yorke was finding it a bit hard to dodge them (since he was already a bit wounded ) and also had to jump from time to time in order to avoid a pole that had almost tripped him. This along with the classical music in the background seemed very peculiar indeed. He soon found out how the game is played and wanted to join in. But of course that would be unfair as he could hit the balls across the floor far more easily than those people with injuries. So he decided to just leave them to their own devices. "Sure hope Yorke can survive in there though." <<Allrightey. Now it would be about time for some of the wounded to respond.>>

<<Hmmm. I might have put you all in a difficult position to respond with the med-bay, so if anyone feels like getting better sooner so that he can post a reply, then I guess I won't complain THAT much. In the meantime though I'll just have to post another one here.>> Kacur was walking along the corridors of NAO. The situation was not good at all. Six soldiers wounded and a base full of pirates that have certainly not proven themselves as trustworthy. The pirate that tagged along with the X-Com team was definetly willing to do only one thing: Save his own skin. Unfortunately for him that gamble apparently didn't pay off since there wasn't that much left of him when Kacur saw his dead body. Although he might have done this in spite of the pirate commander's orders, Kacur didn't have much hope for that. He could predict what the pirates were going to do. Just stay neutral as much as possible until an opportunity, that could get them home, comes up. Then they will pursue it without any regard for anyone be it friend or foe. Currently X-Com didn't have much to fear from them, since a way home was far from being discovered. But the pirates still could have been building up to it, namely by stealing supplies and equipment, maybe even weapons. That's why Martin decided to patrol around the base, since it was currently quite a bit undermanned. The pirates weren't the only thing that troubled him. On the last mission he also experienced two events that he considered impossible until that point. The first was an Ascidian scout that managed to resist his psionic attack almost outright. The Ascidians were generally very weak in PSI-Defence, but this one actually smiled at Martin before he imploded some explosives that he had strapped on himself. Kacur did all that he possibly could to prevent him, but it was of no use. Even if he had focused his mind on nothing but the scout, he still felt that the results would have been the same. The second one was even more disturbing. Only seconds after the explosion another Ascidian actually managed to psionically take control of Jackson. Not only did some of the invaders have good PSI-Defence, but even good PSI-Attack! But fortunately the team managed to capture him for interrogation. As he was escorted back for Grey Skull interrogation, Kacur could only feel, that compared to an average Ascidian soldier, his mind was very warped indeed. Kacur feared that the API have somehow discovered a way to activate the psionic abilities in Ascidians. This was certainly not good, since they could have removed a major Ascidian disadvantage. They could continue to use this ability in battle or invent a much worser scenario for X-Com. They could offer it to the Ascidian council in exchange for X-Com's elimination! But Martin refrained from thinking about these things even more. He had already informed the CO's about the previous two events, so that all he could do now was to wait. As he neared his quarters he felt tired. He wanted to continue his patrol, but then he decided to forget his responsibilities to the team for at least a while. Since he donated his music collection to the med-bay, he decided to read his favourite comic: "Dogodivscine Zvitorepca, Lakotnika in Trdonje" <<Sorry for the confusion but that happens to be it >>

The last mission had taken a heavy toll on the X-Com team. Out of the 9 soldiers only Ong, Kacur and suprisingly Jackson, didn't suffer any serious injuries. Since music has been known to help the body recover and since Kacur apparently had the only extensive music archive with him, he decided to put his Holographic Disc Player in the infirmary and turn it on to pleasant classical music. Maybe now Yorke will stop his constant bellyaching <<Remember that except for Ong and Jacko you are all in sickbeds so don't try anything impossible (like walking )>>

As he was passing by the stand Kacur saw Howardson dragging Jackson to the infirmary, whilst his entire body was being bombarded with clips. Trying to take a bit of Jackson's bad luck on himself, Martin placed himself between jacko and the rest of the soldiers that were playing the game. But to no avail, as the clips started to bounce off the wall next to Kacur and richoched right into jacko's head. Poor jacko.

Kacur was just walking away from the debriefing. He had wished that he could proclaim Richter's ranting simply as a result of the new pirate problem. But although it probably was in a small part just his tension, the fact still remained that the team, including Kacur himself, had made several quite nasty mistakes. He could count his own faults right away. Trying to establish contact with the pirates before the order was given, coercing Jackson to start sniping out the pirates without permission and not asking the commander if he and Howardson could go and help B team out. Things were not progressing the way he wanted them at all. In his first mission he had proven himself to be perhaps even better than some of the corporals on the team. Now it was as if his skill was slowly deteriorating. And no matter how hard he tried to focus, it was never good enough. It was as if the scar on his forehead was somehow determining his preformance. As he went back to the personnel quarters, he could already sense that many minds were at unease inside the place. As he entered the room he found most of the team in the middle of a heated discussion. "These Kabron pirates have absolutely no honour. They do not care for anything but profit, therefore they will betray us and the Ascidians as soon as we do not serve their needs any longer" exclaimed Ong. "Yeah, but can't we just tell this to Richter? He could change his opinion to put some of these guys into our next mission" "Trust me he already knows this and besides do you think we could possibly change his opinion considering the mood he's in these days?" "Well if we are gonna have some of these guys with us on the next mission then I suggest we keep a close eye on them." "The gits will be doing that for us." "Yeah but they don't know them that well now do they?" "I agree. We should get each of those pir..." Kacur just phased the voices out so that he could think to himself. Just what we need! Instead of the group trying to improve their preformance on the battlefield, they are going to use that time to be suspicious of the pirates! He was certain that if Richter happened to hear, that they are going to be secretly watching the pirates, he would pull a stripe or two right away! He just hoped that this thing would settle down before the next mission. Fortunately Howardson butted in and changed the subject from Kabron Pirates to the API. But as Kacur heard someone's statement, that the only reason for the API's hostility was racism, he could not help but jump in. "Actually there is quite possibly a better reason. From what I've read in the UFOpaedia the API openly proclaim racism, but that doesn't neccesarily mean that they believe in it. The Nazis may have believed in racism, but I assure you that their true leaders simply used racism as an excuse to take money and property away from the Jews. Why wouldn't the API be trying to do the same, only that in this case the aliens and ourselves have taken over the role of the Jews?" Not wanting to get into an argument, Kacur just left the personnel quarters. As he left the room he could sense that a few of the soldier's minds were contemplating the new possibility, a few were just perplexed by what he had just said and one or two were even angry with him. Most likely because they found the concept hard or even impossible to grasp or because they mistakenly thought that Kacur was actually defending the API. But no matter what he said, Martin knew that his words would have little impact on the crew since he had been around for quite a short time. He didn't want to think about this anymore since it could interfere with the target practice that he was going to have. <<Just so as to give you a new perspective on the API (and the Nazis too for that matter) >>

Private Kacur was just going on a little tour of the base when something caught his attention. A rather unique stand with heaps of Sectopod parts and a few clips was apparently right in his path and already a crowd of three was all around it. Along with other strange things such as the SCFs the point of this peculiar thing escaped him at first. But upon passing the stand he couldn't help but mumble to himself: "Hmm. Either those things are for sale like souvenirs or the commander decided to make a visual statement that our clips are strong enough to blow the Sectopods into peices (which would of course insult our grenades vastly)".

The Patton descended into the atmosphere of Arkunis IV. Already confused by the sudden arrival of several SFCs and somewhat shaken from the coaxial warp private Kacur was in a state of confusion. After being thawed out of the deep freeze on the way back to the NAO he found it rather shocking that what was supposed to be a mission involving only scientific personel had turned into a bitter battle for survival 60 light years away from Earth! Still after some initial observations of his fellow soldiers he decided that, at least for the time being, it would be best to focus on his orders and abilities rather than converse with the rest of the team. The pilot landed the craft in the hangar and Kacur was quite curious about the base and even more about the alien race that called itself the Ascidians which was apparently allied with the X-COM band of soldiers. However this would regretablly have to wait as Kacur suddenly detected an extremely hostile presence somewhere in the base. It seemed that despite his long stay in the cryo pod his psionic skills were nevertheless quite sharp. Quickly he recognized that the team could be in serious peril and informed them of this insidious presence. However many of them found it hard to believe that the enemy could be nearby but Kacur kept on concentrating always trying to find the source of these hostile beings. He might have found it if a group of Ascidians had not bumped into him and broken his concentration. Then another nasty thought raced through his mind. Could these Ascidians be part of an enemy faction? However the answer to that was quickly obvious when all of them suddenly dropped to the ground. And that was when he had finally established the hostiles. Only the Ethereals could possess such awesome powers and sure enough several of them appeared at the hangar doors and began firing on the team. After some fighting and serious PSI attacks that almost left everyone blown to bits by their own grenades, several Sectopods charged in and the Ethereals retreated to other parts of the base. Soon enough the commander ordered a retreat towards the armoury where the team would be issued plasma rifles. After some hard fighting the Sectopods were destroyed but soon enough another wave arrived. It took a long time to wipe out every last one of them but finally they were all blown to bits with the last one critically injuring three senior officers. Soon after the alien robots were wiped out, the base was deemed clear of hostiles as the remaining Ethereals had also been hunted down. And with that Kacur's first mission was over. Whilst the others were all around the base or in the infirmary Kacur instead decided to find the Living Quarters where he could recollect his thoughts. His first mission being much harder than any of the sims back on Earth gave him quite a shock and soon he began to wonder if they would ever return back to Sol. Still he had to admit that if you are part of a team which has a somewhat comic but nevertheless very efficient way of doing things you could bet your life that anything was possible.