Deviation Actions
Literature Text
Early morning
Work on Hotwire's old Fire Hammer was finally complete. The heavy-duty Cosmotronic Ray underneath the left headlight needed some minor adjustments, but had come through surprisingly unscathed. Once this was complete, there was only the matter of painting "Talon II" along the side of Larson's T-1 ("Though what we really need is a Renaissance II," Larson had pointed out). Within minutes, agents began pouring into the hangars and garages. Shiller, jogging past with Wright, called out, "O'Neal! I better be seeing you tomorrow!"
"Count on it!" Hotwire yelled back, as he followed Larson and Kat up into the T-1. When he reached the deck, Larson was already strapping himself in, but Kat, noticing the difficulty of climbing a ladder with only one real leg, stopped to help him up.
"Listen, I just have to say something." Kat spoke quickly. "Ever since we first met, I've just felt like we understand each other somehow. I think...znap, I don't know how else to say it. You're the best friend I've ever had." She paused, seeing the look on Hotwire's face, and added. "Sorry if this is weird. I just had to mention it, given that we might all die today."
Hotwire smiled. "I don't think it's weird. I could have said the exact same thing to you. Whether or not either of us see the sun set again, it's been really splendid knowing you."
With that, they embraced for the briefest of moments, and then strapped in.
*****
Naming a Fire Hammer was undoubtedly even more unconventional than naming a T-1, but that didn't stop Hotwire from christening his old and unintentionally amphibious vehicle, especially in light of the agent he was giving it to.
Helm stuck a small photo of April and Jason in the dashboard, then revved the engine of Tracer's Vindication as the charge began.
------It had been too long since he last sat at the controls of an Iron Predator. The last time he drove one of these fearsome tanks, he helped defend the Dino Attack Power Station with Reptile. Before that, he had not used one since his original Iron Predator was blown to bricks by Kotua. But now, Rex felt at home once again.
Rex glanced over his shoulder at Amanda Claw, who was manning the Iron Predator's cannon. She nodded, with that same expression of grim acceptance of their fate, and gave a thumbs up. Rex returned the motion, then turned his attention to Frozeen, whose hands gripped the Iron Predator's Z-1 Kinetic Launcher. Frozeen nodded similarly, managing a slight smile.
"No matter what happens," Rex murmured, "we're together, and that's what matters." With that, the Iron Predator rolled out of the garage, ready for battle.
Truth be told, Rex was extremely grateful that Semick was a strategist and understood that, despite all the acclaim he had gathered from his fellow agents, Rex was not. Therefore, when Semick instructed Rex to oversee the Iron Predators' line of defense, Rex did as he was told, despite Greybeard's wishes that he would join the Fire Hammers at the front lines. Still, Rex told Greybeard to keep him updated via radio; the use of telecommunications would also help keep Hertz updated on the Mutant Dinos' activities.
Thunder rumbled ominously, and the earth shook, as though the LEGO Planet itself was on the verge of destruction. There came a sound, a single chime, like a church bell tolling. Rex's heart raced, and it wasn't the rain which chilled him to the bone.
Dawn of
The Final Day
-24 Hours Remain-
Greybeard sat outside his Fire Hammer, as did many of the other Dino Attack agents on the front line. They were waiting for their doom, and Greybeard had taken advantage of the moment to share one last Cup of Yo Ho Ho with his old friend King Joseph Race and his son Sam Race. As a pirate, his senses were finely tuned to the weather, and he could tell from a single breeze when a storm was about to hit.
And as the thunder shook the earth, Greybeard inhaled a fresh breath of air and immediately knew that the calm had ended. Climbing atop his Fire Hammer, he grabbed a spyglass and pressed it against his good eye. Several other agents mimicked his motions, but with standard issue Dino Attack binoculars.
"What do you see, Greybeard?" inquired Sam Race.
As Greybeard lowered the spyglass, his look of undisguised horror spoke louder than words. King Race and Sam Race traded glances in disbelief. The other Dino Attack agents were already shouting:
"I've never seen so many Mutant Dinos before!"
“There must be hundreds - maybe even thousands of them!"
"How could there be so many Mutant T-Rexes?"
"One of them - the one in the lead - was wearing silver armor!"
"I think I saw some Hybrids and Space Marauders in the front lines!"
Very quickly, Greybeard watched as the reports gave way to hysterical cries of panic:
"We are going to die!"
"I'm never going to see my wife and kids again!"
"I'm never going to see my husband and kids again!"
"Game over, man! Game over!"
"We are doomed!"
"What the MegaBloking Znap, how are we supposed to defeat those sons of 4+ Figures?"
"Well... that's it."
"It's no use! We're never going to win! It's over! We've lost!"
Greybeard glanced around at his fellow teammates. While some of them, most likely elite agents, were trying to maintain order, most of them had not realized the gravity of the situation until now. They had been confident in a Dino Attack victory, but how their morale was so quickly shaken! And, peering into his spyglass once more, he could see the army of Mutant Dinos drawing closer and closer to the river which served as their side of the perimeter. With the front lines in such utter disarray, how could they hope to defeat the Mutant Dinos when they arrived?
Greybeard had a brief flashback to a time near the end of the Skeleton Pirate War. He had been made captain of the Black Seas Barracuda... before the mighty ship had been pulled to Davy Jones's locker by the Kraken and the Sea Serpent, killing most of his crew... including Blackjack Turner, a young lad that Greybeard had grown fond of.
An' I be determined not t' let that happen again! thought Greybeard as he gritted his few remaining teeth. Raising his cutlass to the sky, Greybeard called upon the years he spent on the deck of a pirate ship, shouting orders over hurricane winds and the crashes of waves against the hull, and spoke as loudly and clearly as he could muster.
"Belay that!" announced Greybeard. "Here we be, wi' th' Mutant Dinos nearly upon us, and ye cowardly bilge rats be panickin' an' screamin'! What? Do ye fear death? Do ye fear that dark abyss?"
"Greybeard," murmured King Race, "I don't think that's the best-"
He was interrupted by the voice of a Dino Attack agent who shouted: "Well, excuse me for not wanting to die, pirate!" A couple of other Dino Attack agents shouted in agreement.
A young red-haired Dino Attack agent stood atop his Fire Hammer. "Enough!" he ordered. "As an elite agent, I order you to listen to Greybeard! Greybeard, please continue."
"Not wantin' t' die?" repeated Greybeard. "Aye, I can understand. But remember somethin'... we be members o' th' Dino Attack Team. We signed up fer this! Ye all should 'ave known that, by joinin' this team, ye be goin' t' die. But what be we goin' to die fer? After all, we didn't join this team t' be snivelin' cowards, but neither did we sign up t' die in vain. And tharfore... let us not die in vain. Ye shall listen t' me!"
Greybeard pointed his cutlass in the direction of the Mutant Dino army, which was drawing nearer with every second. "Right now, our doom be on our doorstep. But th' rest o' th' Dino Attack Team... nay, not just th' rest o' th' team... th' entire population down in Antarctica! They be lookin' t' us t' ensure that we stop doom in its tracks! They be lookin' t' us t' lead the Dino Attack Team in battle t' victory! They be lookin' t' us t' ensure that we look Death right in th' eyes... an' we tell him... 'Ye shall not pass!'"
Now pointing his cutlass towards Dino Attack Headquarters, Greybeard continued: "An' what shall they see? Frightened bilge rats? Nay! They shall see that even in th' face o' total annihilation, we remain resolute... brave... free! An' th' enemy," he pointed his cutlass back at the advancing Mutant Dinos, "shall only see th' firin' o' th' Xenon Launchers an' th' Cosmotronic Rays... they shall hear our battle cries as we fight fer freedom... and they shall know that we will never fall! Fer as long as our Creative Sparks remain strong, never shall we die! An' if our lives must be sacrificed... then we sacrifice 'em proudly, wi' th' knowledge that we stand here, today, on th' brink o' destruction... an' we die fer th' freedom o' th' entire planet! That be what we shall die fer!"
Greybeard's last words echoed through the night, but he saw the other Dino Attack agents staring at him, motionlessly. As Greybeard's motivational speech was met with silence, the old pirate faltered. Perhaps he couldn't motivate the Dino Attack agents... not now, not like this. Sighing in defeat, Greybeard sat down, resigning to his fate.
And so, he did the one thing he could still do. "Yo... ho..." he sang softly. "Haul... together... Hoist... th' colors high!"
King Joseph Race stepped up onto the Fire Hammer and looked down upon his old friend. "Heave... ho..." he continued. "Thieves... and beggars... Never shall... we die!"
Greybeard looked up at King Race, who smiled in return. Together, they repeated the verse. "Yo... ho... Haul... together..." It was an old pirates song sang by Captain Roger Redbeard to rally up his men before a big raid. Since Greybeard was the only pirate present, he was the only one who knew the lyrics by heart.
But whether it was that the lyrics were easy to learn or it was that the song might have possibly been played on L.E.G.O. Radio once or twice, the other Dino Attack agents began to pick it up. Starting with the elite agents, including that red-haired individual: "Hoist... the colors high!"
Then picked up by the standard agents: "Heave... ho... Thieves and beggars..."
And finally, everyone was joined in: "Never shall... we die!"
The Dino Attack agents repeated the verse over and over, growing stronger and louder every time. As the lyrics grew in power, so did the confidence of the Dino Attack agents. Greybeard couldn't believe his one good eye, and he grinned as he stood during the third refrain.
By now, the Mutant Dino army was nearly upon the river. Laughing, Greybeard pointed his cutlass at the lead T-Rex, who was indeed wearing silver armor, and bellowed: "Me friends, me mateys, me hearties! Raise th' colors high!"
Already, Dino Attack agents were climbing back into their Fire Hammers and manning their Xenon Multi-Mode Launchers. They sped towards the river, giving the Mutant Dino army a proper welcome.
And so, the end has begun.
------
Huh, a "Dawn of the Final Day" warning smack-dab in the middle of a post! Granted, it fits, but it's a bit out of the blue. What can I say though, PeabodySam's a big Legend of Zelda fan.
As you can take a guess from some of my comments in earlier stages of the RPG, I've had my grievances with some of the darker/cynical aspects with some of my co-writer's tackling of the circumstances, from considering Stromling Monkeys litteraly tearing Minifigs apart a bit overkill to questioning why Pharisee had to be beating up French Fries in front of a "lynch crowd". It's always a matter of taste and different writing styles, and I accept that, but this commentary would be a lot less interesting without me ranting and snarking about everything, so I'm doing it anyways.
Here we get the situation of the start of the attack, and the jaw-dromming numbers of the Mutant Dinos at the start of this attack is established as collectively making the
It was my original intention at one point when I joined the Dino Attack RPG to put a closer lense at the masses of Dino Attack agents, to get a peak at characters across the battlefield and the relatively normal struggles they experienced compared to the stories of the other player characters. That was forgotten rather quickly, but I think I always kept it in mind when it came to giving reference to the greater Dino Attack team. It meant that with scenes like this, where massive, sudden and nigh-overwhelming enemy forces came to attack the team, be they Mutant Dinos or Stromlings, where sometimes my co-writers jumped to showcase the horrors of battle rising to the point of agents at the brink of inconsolability or defeat by sweeping the entire team of non-player characters under a blanket label, I took issue. I never objected vocally, but I always tried to rebuttal it in-character by spinning the scenes under my style, putting a more optimistic, determined, and LEGO-style humor to the behavior of the greater Dino Attack team.
With the coming chapters, we'll see a means of comic relief as the Dino Attack comn chatter is heard throughout the battle, a habit that started with my posts, and one that started in direct response to the beginnings here. While you'll see our main characters struggle through massive onslaughts, horrific losses, the occasional drama from family, friends and personal enemies throwing a wrench into things, you'll still get a glimpse of the greater team as a whole, fighting the good fight the way dedicated soldiers out to save their planet that also happen to be minifigures from the whimsical world of LEGO building are always fighting: With serious play.
And that's all I have to say about that (for now, anyways). Welcome, my 3 not-part-of-the-original-writers readers, to the Final Battle for Dino Attack.
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Arc thumbnail made by me with the imagery of official LEGO artwork with thematic edits by me. No copyright infringement intended.
The entire RPG can also be read in collected MS Word documents through this link here, if you want to read all this now in one go!
Come check out our Wiki for in-depth details about the world of this adventure! Or our TV Tropes page if you want to kill a lot of time!
Dawn of the Final Day - the final battle begins
As usual, TIMING! is thrown out the window. Fortunately, we can just largely ignore the word "months" and it works just fine. But, at least, nobody is forced to act out-of-character in order for it to work... okay, okay, fine, I'll stop beating the "Specs's office" dead horse!
Hah, it's funny you should say that I'm "a big Legend of Zelda fan", considering that at the time of this writing (summer 2012), I had only played a single Zelda game (and I had only started playing said game a few months prior). Still, when an opportunity for a very appropriate Majora's Mask reference presents itself, don't expect me to miss it!
Speaking of Majora's Mask references, there was a meta OOC reference around this time. I concluded one of my posts with the cryptic message, "> \/ A \/ > /\". This is the sequence of N64 buttons to push to play the "Oath to Order", the song that summons the four giants to stop the moon from falling during the third day's final hours. Very shortly afterward, TakunuvaC01 returned to the RPG. This was not a coincidence; immediately after writing that post, I sent a PM to TC01 letting him know that the final battle had come and requesting his return.
That was not the only "Oath to Order" PM I sent out. When I sent that PM to TC01, I also sent one to another old DARPG vet... Chronicler of Ko-Koro. When AWE started, I actually got in contact with him via PM and let him know that DARPG was starting again on the new forum, and he actually responded! He expressed interest in Databoard making a Big Damn Heroes return during the final battle, flying his T-1 Typhoon one last time. Unfortunately, when I sent him the "Oath to Order" PM letting him know that the final battle was here... he did read it, but he never responded. It's really such a shame, in my opinion... his return would have been the cherry on top.
In defense of the early comm chatter, even in its darkest moment it was still meant to be somewhat silly. One person is quoting Indy, another is quoting Hudson. And the "husband and kids" was intended as an amusing subversion of the more cliche "wife and kids" line that immediately preceded it (and I'm sure Atton's quite happy that the genders of these two comm chatter-ers are never revealed, which could subvert it even further). There's also the "vocal minority" principle; while Dino Attack no doubt has plenty of brave and resolute volunteers, it's also got plenty of conscripted civilians who just aren't ready for a battle of this scope, so they're the ones who will be the loudest even if they aren't the most common.
However, with all that said, I did want to strongly establish the feeling of "this is a battle like none other we've been through before", "this is a scenario where the odds are very much against us", and "this is something that will decide the fate of a world on the brink of apocalypse", even in the context of a LEGO world. I know you don't like your non-BIONICLE LEGO stuff getting too dark, but then again Dino Attack really is LEGO's darkest non-BIONICLE theme. This RPG is only reflecting that fact.
For that matter, I think I was more of a "mediator" when it came to the darkness levels of the RPG. On one hand, you had yourself, you preferred a light and comical approach to the LEGO world. On the other hand, you had Atton, who insisted that everything be as grim and realistic as possible. I fall somewhere in-between; I do play up the darker and dramatic aspects of the story, but I also frequently poke fun at the very story I'm writing.
But hey, at least it's not Victor Draven's short-lived Dino Attack fanfic, which portrayed the theme on gruesomely realistic levels.