Aileron

1) The American political system is irrelevent. 2) Bush won about 50-50. If they had the same election the next day, he might have had the majority. Don't whine about a handful of votes. 3) That whole black people with names similar to felons is BS and you know it. Where the heck did you get that? Dateline? 4) The American government has good reason to be influenced by the oil industry. Its a staple industry of the economy of any country. To ignore it would be to hurt the economy. Sorry, the American government shouldn't be out to ruin the American economy. That's one of your criticisms of Bush, btw. Make up your mind. Do you want a good economy or do you want to keep the government from catering to industry. You can't have both. 5) The Bush administration didn't cause the US to use oil. The geography of the US caused it, long before he was elected mind you.

[OOC-This font will help you read faster. Something I learned in Technical Communications class.] Aileron awakened after his sleep. He did not wake up in a bed, but rather on the floor next to an engineering panel. Long ago, most of his vital organs were unable to function after a particularly painfull torture session. They were replaced by robitc replacements made out of a Neo-Kevlar. The power packs on this system could go 90 years, but Ail found his luck was better if he recharged before every battle. He walked up to the bridge were the team was ready for the mission. The Ithkul agent was safely in stasis, and would be unconcious until the mission was over. Just then, Mr. Smith handed Ail a report from the base. It had been captured by the Ithkul fleet, but managed to inflict massive casualties in the process, more than the base was worth. "Don't worry about that, headquarter undoubtedly has already launched a rescue mission of our prisoners. We have to focus on the mission at hand, or the sacrifice of the fallen will have been in vain." On the planet below was the center of Ithkul intelligence as well as the storehouse of the Arms of Justice. The main facility was a few miles underground. There were three entrances. Each of which defended by a wide array of defensive guns. Attacking from the air would be suicide. On top of this, there was a blast door that would come down in an attack. It could withstand a L9 impact. However, the SE had to get in there, or the whole galaxy would be overrun by their hated enemies. However, first they had to get on the ground. "Your clearence is good Three Juliet Niner. However, the starport is closed due to quarentine. You are to wait in orbit until further notice." "Crud! We can't land, sir" "Don't worry Mr. Smith, we brought the Nightwasps for a reason." "Sir we can't sneak down, they have X-Radar all over the place." "A little old lady told me their radar frequency, we can pretend to be one of them." "They will still not allow you to land, and would probably want to talk to you on the way down." "Military craft are allowed to land. Also, if we have stealth engaged, they will think we are a covert ops mission with radio silence." A minute later, five Nightwasps flew down to the surface with stealth engaged. They dropped Ail, Lt. Cage, Cougar, Vince, and Bubba on the surface near one of the entrances, before returning to the transport. Mr. Jones, the SE's best hacker, oversaw things from the ship. A few minutes later, the five commandoes were hiding in an abandoned building looking at the entrance to the passage. Four guards were standing in front of the gate, and two autoturrents above them. "Those guys are nothing, but if we raise the alarm, that gate goes down, and we won't be able to get in!" said the Lt. "Mr. Jones, how well has the hacking gone?" "I can get the turrets to attack Ithkul instead of us, but an't do anything to the gate." "Hold on the turrents until my mark." "Or until we get a plan." A few minutes later, the Lt. had a plan. "Sir, I got a plan, hold this please." she handed Ail her plasma rifle and started taking off her body armor. "Luetenant?" "I'm going to distract them, and you can sneak behind and keep the gate open." "Shouldn't you have your armor on to draw fire?" The Lt. handed Ail the armor, and started untying her boots. "Oh, its one of THOSE distractions. You think thats really going to work?" "You got a better plan?" asked the Lt. as she handed Ail her boots. "Yeah, we wait hear until we come up with a better plan." "Not good enough." The Lt. start taking off her shirt. "Hey, Cougar, check out the new SE uniforms." Vince joked. "Corperal Vincent, Lt. Cage is an officer and your superior. You will not make jibes about her." The Lt. was now loosening her belt and pulling her pants down. "Lt., I would advise against this. If it doesn't work, you will be captured, and they will be alerted." "This will work. Men are pigs. Look, Cougar is already distracted." She was now down to her underwear. "Yes, but he isn't completely oblvious." Aileron caught the Lt.'s bra. "Its worth a shot isn't it?" The Luetenant was now completely undressed. The word 'shot' reminded Ail of the whiskey. He grabbed what was left of the bottle, and poured it on top of the Lt. "If this doesn't work, pretend to be drunk." The Luetenant then walked over to the base. Should stood the side, jumping and shouting to get the guards attention. The guards did not move, but only glanced out of the corner of their eyes. A few minutes later, six more guards came out of the base. Two grabbed the Lt. carried her inside. The other's stayed by the gate. "They doubled their guard! She gave us away!" "Don't worry, Cougar. This is just standard protocal. Great, now we have to rescue her." "Why do you tolerate her, sir?" "She gets a good idea once in a while, this is one of her off days." Then, an armored ambulance drove down a nearby street. Ail got the idea he was waiting for. He handed all of the Lt.'s equipment to Bubba, who put it in his pack. The commandoes secretly walked to a parking lot. They hotwired a car, and Bubba started driving down the sidewalk, until he hit a man walking down it. The rest of the commandoes hid nearby. With remarkable timing, an ambulance arrived to take the man to the hospital. Bubba pretended it was an accident. When the parametics left the ambulance, the commandoes came out of hiding. Ail got in and started driving, the other three hung on the rear bumper. He drove to the base. The commandoes jumped off, and Ail started a mad rush for the door. The guards shot at ambulance, but did not stop it. Ail drove it at full speed and crashed it into the frame of the gate. The gate came down, but the ambulance wedged it open. The autoturrents came on, but instead of shooting Ail and his lackeys, they shot the Ithkul guards. The four of them regrouped, and entered the undergound base.

Back on the station, the Captain was nearly visably shaken. Ail shouldn't have left him with this command if this Ithkul project wasn't so important. Here he was, an underqualified commander facing the biggest battle in SE history. If he survives, he is going to demand a council position for this. However, he didn't disagree with either of Ail's decisions. The destruction of this project was more important than this outpost, and the Commodore's mistakes cause the deaths of many SE fighter pilots. Estimates from the battle came back. About 25% of the SE and 40% of the Ithkul pilots did not make it back to their hangers. While the SE won, the Captain new that if this battle were repeated several times, the SE would run out of forces before the Ithkul. The Captain put these things aside. He quickly sent a message to the section of the station drifting in base. All breathing defenders should make for the escape pods and rejoin the rest of the base. The androids should keep the invaders busy in the mean time. As the last person leaves, ALL of the escape pods should launched, and until then, they should require a genetic sample to operate. He also ordered the deployment of a giant mine field around the base. That way, when the Cruisers undoubtedly use their ZTT drives, they will warp themselves on top of some mines. Aileron, meanwhile, was pacing back and forth. The Ithkul s-*BAD WORD*- had set up base on his childhood home, and thus the battle must be there. Ail looked at his robotic arms, just one of many reminders of the tortures he endured growing up. Ail then turned on the news report. The Ithkul has quarentined all of their systems, and all civilian starports are closed. All other factions were mobilizing their fleet, all claiming to help combat the SE. Ail new better; Except for the Kanatis who survive off of the Ithkul presence, everyone would rather simply conquer Ithkul space in their weakness than strike at the SE for no profit. The Luetenant entered the room. "Sir, the android's chip gives no information on the base itself. We will be walking in blind." "That facility is also the Headquarters for Ithkul Secret Operations. All we need to do is talk to an Ithkul secret agent." "Where are we going to find an Ithkul secret agent?" "The last place we saw one, ofcourse." Ail walked up to the pilot's room. "Mr. Smith, take us to 17th Parallel bar." This was strange, but the pilot was used to Ail seemingly erratic thinking. "Yes, sir" Since they were not far off, it only took them a few minutes to reach the station. They stopped a good distance away, and out of their cargo hold came two of the five Nightwasps well hidden inside the ship. They landed outside the bar, and four disguised people came out of the ships. Two of them went into the bar. One reached acrossed the bar, and grabbed four bottles of whisky. The other paid Manus. He gave Manus twice as much as the whisky was worth, but did not stay long enough to collect change. The other two crossed the street. There was one old woman walking down the sidewalk. They snuck up behind her, put a pistol to her head, and dragged her back to the Nightwasp silently. Just then, the other two were running out of the bar. They got back in their ships, flew back to the transport, and continued their journey. When they got on the transport and were off, they removed their disguises. Then, Ail walked up to the old woman, and took of his mask, revealing him to be an Ithkul Secret Intelligence agent. "You were stupid enough to use the same disguise in the same place twice. Now, we will learn all that you know." "You expect to torture the information out of me? I won't do as much as give you my name!" "No, I'm not Ithkul. All those who have evolved beyond animals regard torture as a barbaric practice. However, you are not high enough on the evolutionary ladder to understand that." Ail then grabbed one of the bottles of whiskey. He opened it and poured the entire contents into the agent's mouth. Then Lt. Cage took him to the brig, where he proceeded to sing like a songbird. It only took her a short time to persuade every piece of information she needed out of him.

Ironically, that is a viable solution. We might have enough land for alchohol. We currently have an overabundance of food, have to pay farmers not to farm or burn harvests, and have constant problems with urban sprawl. If we impliment alchohol, all three of these problems will be solved. In addition, if we use genetically engineered crops, we might be able to produce enough alcohol to meet demand, especially if we find ways to reduce car use around cities. Alcohol could work. Seriously though, you are forgetting that all of these things are either available now, or in development. The problem isn't that alternatives don't exist, the problem is that the alternatives are expensive and impractical. However, soon oil will become expensive and impractical. When this happens, consumers will shift to whatever technology is least expensive. When money starts flowing into the new technology, it will bolster a new industry and help the economy. Yes, energy will be expensive. However, when it does, the economy will be better off enough that we will be able to afford the expense.

I dunno, I think Nuclear is in for a comeback in the electric power industry. Hydrogen does look good, but so does alcohol. The only reason alchohol didn't work was mostly because of pressure from the oil industry. That pressure will not exist if oil corporations need to spend all of their money drilling to the bottom of the ocean. Still, my money is on hydrogen.

[OOC-Aw man, I was hoping for a breather, so I could go over history for a little bit.] Ail gave a sigh of relief. The threat to the outside of the station has ended. Then, Lt. Cage entered the bridge. "Sir, we've analysed the data we could access from the chip. The Arms of Justice is on Parsimony." "Parsimony?!? The Ithkul have the gall to use the Terran's old tunnels!" "Terrans?!?" replied an Ensign, "but Parsimony was origionally colonized by the Ithkul and is deep within their space." "I'll explain later. What is the Arms of Justice, anyway." "Its a device that can warp L4 bombs over long distances. They could strike any target anywhere in the galaxy." "L4s?", interputed the Ensign, "Some doomsday weapon! A fighter could almost wield that." "You don't understand. They can warp these things ANYWHERE. An L4 can take our a whole battleship if it blew up, say from inside the bridge, or just past the shielding on a reactor." responded the Lt. "Okay, !@#$%^&*emble Aileron's Eleven. We'll leave in the captured Kanatis transport." Aileron was about to leave the bridge. Suddenly, he recieved a com from the Warp Drive area. "Sir, they infiltrated the base, and deactivated the Hyperwarp Drive!" Aileron then got on the overhead com, annoucing to the entire station. "Congradulations, pests, I didn't think you would get this far. I think I'll use this moment to enlighten you as to who exactly you are fighting for. You see, many years ago, when the galaxy was still being settled, there was great tension amidst the Terrrans and the Ithkul. In anticipation of war, the Terrans set up a secret colony in Ithkul space as a possible foward refueling point for their fleet if they managed to invade Ithkul territory. This colony was Parismony, and it was manned by both military and civilians, and soon a whole secret city was built. However, years later, the Ithkul intelligence learned of this facility. Soon after, 'settlers' came to 'colonized' the officially empty colony. The Terrans, ofcourse, could do nothing but disavow all knowledge of the colony. The Ithkul captured the colony, and many settlers with them. Soon, they had in their hands a bunch of colonists with no idea where they came from, but officially didn't exist. They resorted to torturing the civilians. A few years later, they still had no idea where the settlers came from. However, those who oversaw the tortures became sadists, and began to torture us for no reason. Decades later, the Ithkul government decided to release the colonists and try to follow them home. However, we successfully managed to dissappear into deep space. The bible compares crimes to double edged swords. One edge hurts the victim, but the second edge returns the pain to the criminal. The Terrans were guilty of setting up a colony in Ithkul space. Their punishment was already given to them by the loss of their men and resources. However, the crimes of the Ithkul were not punished in return. That is, until we, the Second Edge, gave them vindication for their crimes against the settlers of Parsimony! But their crimes so not stop there! As we speak, they are building a secret weapon. This weapon will be so powerfull as to disrupt the balance of power and put the whole galaxy under Ithkul rule! They are the threat to galactic peace, not us! Mark my words, this crime will not go unpunished!" At the end of the speech, Aileron's eleven, a group of commmandos, he usually worked with, were !@#$%^&*embled. Ail order the jettison of the section of the base. He, his commandoes, including Lt. Cage. Left the base in an unmarked Kanatis transport, LEAVING NO TRACE AS TO THEM BEING GONE. [OOC- pay attention to that plz] He left command of the base to the Captain, leaving a recommendation that the base be abandoned. The section of the base with the Hyperwarp Drive was jettisoned into space. Those aboard still had life support, but had no access to the rest of the base. Suddenly, from around the corner. A new threat appeared to the Ithkul infiltrators. Mr. Ious II, the second Terran guardian android, had allegience with the S.E. and was on the base. It joined the battle, and quickly blasted five of the invaders with its powerfull fusion cannon.

BTW, the cat wasn't evil. (Well, all cats are evil, but this one isn't unusually evil.) It was just constantly pushed around by the evil wizard. So what I then, "Ugly Smurf"?

I'm in agreement there. However, it isn't that bleak. When oil goes down, something else will replace it. Billions of dollars will be invested into research and implimentation of the new technology. A new industry will be born, and money will flow into the hands of the working class citizens who work in that industry. The growth cause by the emergence of this new industry will counter the decline caused by the death of the oil industry.

[OOC-I'll assume the second post won't be changed much. I'm guessing Recoil will find another means of getting basically the same ship.] Deep Space - Outside S.E. Mobile Station "Theta Seven". Aileron approached his base. Suddenly from behind him, many com signals reported an attack from a single unknown target. Then, he recieved a pm from Lt. Case. "Sir, should we turn around and engage?" "No, that android's memory chip must be analyzed." The three wyverns continued towards the fighter bay, as swarms of SE Wyverns and Nightwasps scrambled out of it. Apparently, that one fighter was a scout for a large Ithkul force attacking the base. Ail and Lt. Case landed and entered the base. Then the Luetenant lost her patience again. "We led them right to us!" "The information on that android's chip is more important than this base." "What is the deal with it?" "That chip was in on of the four Guardian androids for Terran space. The android had found the location of the Ithkul secret weapons project known as the Arms of Justice. We don't know what this weapon is, but when its completed, the rest of the galaxy will be overrun. The Ithkul learned of the Guardian, and stole the chip to see what the Terrans know. Your mission was to steal it for us. Now, this chip will be anaylized for the location of the project." "And this "Arms of Justice" is more important than the secrecy of this base?" "It is more important than even our MAIN headquarters. Take the chip down to the hacking departement. See that the data is analyzed ASAP. I'm off to the command room" Ail headed up to the command room. As entered, he was greeted by the commodore. "Counsilor on the deck!" "Greetings Commodore." "Congradulations on Operation Retribution. The citizens of Parsimony have finally been avenged." "Now is not the time for celebrations. Now tell me, why the -*BAD WORD*- are the L9 guns not blazing!" "Well sir, the #8 cannon got a large amount of static buildup. I had them all shut down for maintenance." "You shut down all 20 guns because one had static buildup?!?" "I thought others might have buildup as well." "I can't take any more of this..." Aileron raised his right cybernetic arm. Hundreds of wires shot out of his arm and wrapped around the commodore. Then, they tightened, and sliced their victim apart. "The fool may have doomed us all. The Counsilor has the con. Activate all guns except #8." "It will take five minutes to charge them, sir." replyed an Ensign. "Pray that we have five minutes." Ail turned to the second in command, "Captain, free advice for you future career. First off, you don't have to worry about multiple cannons getting buildup, so the Commodore's reaction was unecessary. Secondly, never deactivate all of the cannons at the same time. I usually forgive people for their mistakes, but that level was too much." The battle continued outside. The S.E. forces had the upper hand, using large straffing hit and run attacks against their slower opponants. Then, the Ithkul Cruisers arrived. "Sir, I'm picking up a fleet of Ithkul cruisers on radar." "We have to run, did the commodore deactivate the hyperwarp drive?" "No, but the last cruiser has Anti-Warp activated. Our drive is too big for the fighters' anti-warp to affect us, but the cruiser's system is too powerfull." "How long until the L9s are back up?" "One minute." "Can you target that cruiser?" "Out of range" "Alright, charge up the hyperwarp drive. Withdraw all the fighters!" "Sir, the fighters are our biggest defense. Without them, all we got is the light battery guns! They will close in and blast us at point blank range." "The batteries should hold for one minute. We need to get them closer anyway. Recall the fighters." All of the SE fighters turned from the battle and returned to the fighter bay. The Ithkul fighters then closed in and attacked to station directly. "Station shields an 90%!" A robotice drone came in and started cleaning up what was left of the commodore. "%" "L9 guns online sir, target is still out of range!" "70%" Suddenly, the station started shaking "whoa, 30%" "The cruisers are now firing on us, sir" "20%" "Target in range, sir" "Fire all guns!!" A barrage of L9 guns shot out from the station, and instantly cut through the rearmost cruiser of the Ithkul fleet. Then, Ail sent out a message on all coms. "This is Ailius Judkovsky of the Second Edge. I am truly impressed by the bravery you Ithkul have shown today. I apologize, but I must leave you with a hollow victory. I will close with a little 'magic trick'. Abracadabra. Now you see us..." The station then activated its hyperwarp drive. The entire station then warped to another location acrossed the galaxy in an instaneous flash of light, leaving no clue as to where they went. "...now you don't." The Ithkul fleet was left alone in the middle of deep space.

Why did you think I am using a smurf name?

Oh, I forgot to give specs on the Wyverns. Generally, they are a large fast model of ship with poor rotation speed. They are equiped with powerfull weapons with L1 bombs (as a gun) and L5 emp bombs. Also, they have a very high energy bank (twice as much as a levi), and a wide array of specials. They come equiped with Stealth and X, but no Cloak. They are used exclusively by the S. E. One major setback with them is that the complicated systems require direct attention from a copilot.

All eyes in the bar were on the moniter in the corner. ...already the death toll on Antilles Sentile Minor is in the millions from the mysterious virus. Ithkian officials believe this to be the work of the Second Edge, a terroristic organization which has attacked the Ithkul several times in the past. Genetic evidence obtained from the captured ship matches that of Ailius "the Aileron" Judkovsky, one of the five council members that lead this... Suddenly, there was an explosion outside, and an HD space bike came flying in through the window sideways. It flew accrossed the bar and crashed into the back wall. Smoldering metal litered the ground. The rider was nearby lying on the ground with his coat on fire. Almost immeadiately, Ail stood up and took off his jacket. Underneath was a bright red body armor which looked to be a kind of formal military uniform, adorned with the symbol of a double edged sword in the center of the chest. At this moment, four men and one woman who were seated in the corner of the bar took off their coats, the men were wearing black, the woman red. "Get down!" he shouted. Moments later, a barrage of plasma bolts came flying in from the outside of the bar. Quickly, Ail kicked over a ferro-steel table, and all of them used it for cover, and were quickly pinned down by weapon's fire. One of Ail's lackeys pointed a plasma rifle at the shocked patrons of the bar. "If one of ya'll move an inch, I'll blast ya to pieces!!" The woman, the bars on her arms ranked her as a Luetenant, started to argue with Ail. "Sir, I thought this was supposed to be a SECRET meeting" "Tell Ithkul secret service that! Theres seven of them outside!" "Were you followed?" "Had X on the whole time, and no ships as fast as the bike is anyway!" "You mean as that bike WAS. How did you not notice them for the ambush anyway?" "Between all these 'mysterious' people running around, I overlooked the guy masquerading as someone's grandmother acrossed the street. Do you have the android's memory chip?" "Right here sir," she taped her pocket. "Any suggestions on going out of here?" "Where are you parked? Are you parked outside." "No, I'm parked a few blocks away. Unlike some people, I follow the plan." "Now is not the time for that. I figure we exit by the back way." The Luetenant looked at solid wall in the back of the room. "There is no back way!" "You just need the proper key!" Ail's left arm then transformed into a fusion blasting cannon. A bright beam then shot out of his arm and towards the back wall. Steam, smoke, and sparks filled the room for a few seconds. When all of that settled, one could see that the wall was badly damaged, but intact. "What the -*BAD WORD*-?" "They seemed to have changed the lock, sir" "Stow it right now, that's an order!" Ail was running out of ideas. Then the fire alarms turned on, due to both the bike wreckage and the fusion blast. A deafening alarm sounded throughout that section fo the station. The Ithkul secret agents, having artificial hearing enchancements, covered their ears. At that moment, the Second Edge soldiers stood up and returned fire, killing three of the Ithkul and routing the rest. A moment later, the six of them ran out of the bar, down the street a few blocks, and into three SE Wyverns waiting for them. They took off and headed for the Second Edge secret base. A few minutes later, automated station repair droids cleaned up the wreckage and repaired all the damage to the bar.

1) That would require a map update, which judging by the comments made by pessimists, isn't going to happen. 2) I don't know if bigger bases would be that good of an idea. Most ships already can't make it through the base without dropping the ball once. Now NEW bases would be a great idea, but refer to statement 1. 3) For the gates, I like to use my lucky rabbits foot. If I get stuck, all I have to do is rub the rabbit's foot a couple of times, and the gates usually open up. Seriously - do not play Continuum without some kind of lucky charm within hands reach.

I was thinking you should name the unnamed ship the "Wyvern"

(OOC - I guess its time for me to shake things up a little. BTW, if this post doesn't seal it for you, from now on just consider my character from now on to be the intergalactic villain.) Ithkul space, two light-minutes from the colony Antilles Sentile Minor... Ail was approaching his destonation. He did a final check on all systems. Then, he turned around to look at his canisters behind him. Each metal canister almost glowing in the dark of space, all of them ready for their final voyage. Suddenly, a large blip appeared on Ail's radar. It was an Ithkul Light Carrier, each capable of lobbing L7 bombs at targets and carrying 5 Weasels. It hailed Ail. "Unidentified aircraft. We are sorry for the inconvenience, but your transponder does not match any scheduled flights for today. Identify yourself and state your purpose." said the Ithkul captain over the com link. "Ithkul Carrier, this is Whiskey Ice Cream Niner on approach to Antilles Sentile Minor. I'm carrying a shipment of medical supplies to Antilles Sentile Minor. I thought I filed this flight in your database." replied Ail. "What the? This doesn't make sense. Antilles Sentile Minor is the Ithkul's main industrial center for medical supplies, why would they need to import..." "But you don't understand! There is a pandemic of the Ithkul DISEASE on that planet and I have the only known CURE right behind me!" Over the com link, Ail overheard an ensign in the background. "Holy $|-|][7!! That guy has enough biological weapons on that ship to..." Ail closed the com link. Moments later, Orange L7 bombs were wizzing by his ship. The Nightwasp easily dodged them and superior speed left the carrier far behind. Suddenly a crimson flash flew in front of Ail's eyes. Ail turned on X-radar, to see that all five weasels were attack his vessel. Ail turned his ship around, and fired two L3 bombs. The saphire bolts ripped through space, tearng one weasel apart and destroying two more with the shockwave. Ail then activated a repel. Launching the two remaining ships away from him. The light ships flew just outside radar range. At that moment, Ail dropped 5 decoys. The fast weasels easily closed, but each found 6 blips on radar, making them force to guess. They guessed wrong, and Ail was recharged and fired two more shots, destroying both f them. A minute later, Ail was in orbit around the defenseless colony, and dropped his deadly cargo on the surface below. Ail then abandoned his ship, and flew back to Kanatis space in a HD space bike. By the time the Ithkul carrier caught up, Ail was long gone, and civilians on the surface were already showing signs of exposure.

Not in every case. In most cases, plastic is easy enough to replace. Plastic bottles can be replaced with gl!@#$%^&* ones. Plastic lunch boxes replaced with metal. However, there are some devices that can only be made out of plastic. One example, a medical IV tube. (If you can think of another thing to make IV tubes out of, you still aren't damaging my point, there is most likely some device that must be made out of plastic.) The thing is like several people mentioned is that oil is not going to run out suddenly like that, but slowly and gradually. When this happens, those products that can easily be made out of other materials will shift. This will slow down the rate of consumption, buying more time. Those products that must be made out of plastic will hold off until new technologies are developed. Overall, it is a serious problem, no more, no less. It shouldn't be overlooked, yet it shouldn't be made out to be the end of civilization.

I never thought I'd see this day, but Madhaha has taken a rational centralist view that I find myself in almost total agreement with. The solution is obviously a new source of power that replaces oil. Worse comes to worse, we could always use steam engines powered by burning wood or coal, which although not as efficient and clean, could function. Another source of power is alchohol based fuels. The only real problem with them is the lack of infrastructure, which will decrease in significance as oil becomes expensive. Hydrogen cell and electric cars may also happen in the future. While these are currently in development, they could easily be efficient enough down the line to work. The only current problem preventing the use of alternative fuel sources is that oil is cheaper. When oil is scarce and becomes expensive, alternative fuels will be cheaper. Don't worry about oil companies preventing the development of new technology. As oil becomes more scarce, these companies will get fewer and fewer resources to block new technology. Madhaha is right though about things getting really expensive. What I am talking about is oil coming up, not alternative fuel coming down. However, every time new technology is developed, the economy (world or regional) skyrockets. If we are lucky, the world or economy will increase enough to sustain the cost of the new technology.

(OOC-BTW, would it be a good idea to start another topic for actions outside the bar?)

A few hours later, the convoy was on the Kanatis-Ithkul border. There, numerous Kanatis ships were giving routine inspections to all ships passing through. One of these ships flew near Ail's Nightwasp, when the robotic pilot (which was designed with enough compatability with this ship to do basic commands) pmed the inspector in Ricebowl's voice. "This ship has been escorted all the way from the Terran border, and has already been inspected." With that, the Kanatis ship left Ail's Nightwasp alone. Ail then flew his ship into Ithkul space. He pmed the robotic pilot, giving it orders to return to the bar and self destruct (the pilot itself, not the ship.) The Lanxaster turned around, and flew back in the direction of the station. (OOC-OK, I gave his ship back, is everyone happy?)

Notice that now people are beginning to recognize this as a real problem. Gas has risen in price greatly in the last two-years, and the most recent trend in automobiles is to move away from the SUVs and towards smaller four wheel drives. If not for the planet, just to make it easier to withdraw from middle eastern politics. Face it, the less oil there is the more economic forces are going to push people away from oil use. Oil is going to get really really expensive before it runs out, and researchers have a lot of money and reputation to gain from an alternative. Society can and will adjust in time.

Aileron gets up and walks out of the bar, chuckling to himself. "I don't need a bodyguard, fool, I need a Kanatis Ship!" he thought to himself. Outside the bar, he roll up his right sleeve, revealing an arm made out of metal and covered with various gadjets. He pressed a button. "ill pass go find your own -*BAD WORD*- bodyguard. i've no use for such trivial !@#$%^&*ignments." replyed Ail's recording device in Ricebowl's voice. "Computer, analyze this voice." Ail then walked over to his Nightwasp. After scrounging around inside for a few moments, he took out two suitcases. Then he took a few moments on the ships computer remote hacking into the Lanxaster. Ail then got out of his ship. He then waltzed up to Ricebowl's ship, and pressed a button on his arm. "Ricebowl Pi Kappa" it said in a computer rendition of Ricebowl. All of the security systems on the ship shut down, and the door opened. Ail then placed both suitcases inside the ship. One immeadiately transformed into I robotic pilot. Another waited until Ail shut the door, and then released a genetically engineered virus designed to commadeer living ships. "Bio ships, pheh. All it takes is the right equipment, and they will turn so easily." Ail then felt sorry for leaving Rice without trasportation, so he left a Yugoslavian Space S-*BAD WORD*- in the parking space where Rice's ship was. A few minutes later, Aileron was in space in his Nightwasp, being escorted by Ricebowl's now robotically pilot Lanxaster, both heading for Ithkul space.

You forgot termites who build mounds and prairie dogs which dig their own burrows. The serious thing I don't get is why we use plastic so much. There is so many alternatives in a lot of cases. Here is a big one - polyester instead of fur. Here we have fur, a renewable cheap resource, and we are deciding to take oil, a nonrenewable resource thats bad for the planet in so many ways. It is a sign of environmentalist short-sightedness. They view it a preferrable to save a few creatures today than save the whole environment for tomorrow. Seriously, the minute a truly right-wing environmentalist group is built, this problem will be over.

(OOC-BTW, In case if you were wondering if I violated rule 1, note that I only said Swift and Lyta attacked me. Whether or not they actually did and why is up to them if they show up to this topic. All I am doing is saying they did.)

Good point, but putting effort into it will make the transition smoother.

Conclusion - XP sux. Geez, I can't even play NWN on by brand-new comp.