#Laserbolt

[savage-kult-of-gorthaur]

"POWER: POWER TO SEEK, SEIZE, & CONSUME THE ENEMIES OF SKELETOR."

PIC(S) INFO: Spotlight on the original painting of Skeletor's evil man-eating Landshark assault vehicle VS. He-Man's Laserbolt one, illustrated by the late, great Earl Norem (1923-2015), plus the same illustration published as poster art in the Spring 1986 issue of "Masters of the Universe" Magazine.

"Skeltor rides his snapping transport, Landshark. He challenges He-Man, who guides the heroic assault vehicle, Laserbolt."

-- "MOTU" MAG, Spring 1986

Resolution at 1200x1648 & 896x1200.

Sources: www.rediscoverthe80s.com/2014/08/throwback-thursday-tbt-masters-of.html & Comic Art Community.

[saphronethaleph]

Revolt

Finn swallowed.

“Are we ready?” he asked. “Are you sure this is going to work?”

Maz looked up from the assemblage of comm gear she’d patched together, one of her lenses retracting, then they all swayed slightly as the Falcon did a three-sixty spin.

“Careful with the old girl!” Lando shouted, from the dorsal turret.

Chewbacca shouted something back from the cockpit.

“It’ll be fine, so long as Chewie keeps the violent manoeuvring to a minimum!” Maz snapped.

The sound of rapid firing guns pulsed up the turret access ways, as both Lando and Rose fired out a cascade of laserbolts from their respective turrets at TIE fighters following them.

“Aaaaa!” C-3P0 yelped. “Mister Chewbacca, please don’t do things like that!”

Another roar in Shyriiwook sounded in reply.

“I know we’d be shot down if you didn’t, you don’t have to rub it in!”

“As for how long it’ll work…” Maz added, glancing at the code cylinders. “You’ve definitely got a minute. Maybe two. What do you think the chances are of three?”

R2 whistled.

“Three is possible,” Maz agreed. “But I think the biggest question is one I can’t answer, Finn. Are you ready?”

Finn took a deep breath.

Everyone was depending on him. The whole Resistance was out there, fighting to buy him time, as the defences of Exegol spat fire up at them and as dozens of TIE fighters tried to pin them down.

Poe and BB-8 were very specifically flying cover for the Falcon, but everyone was out there.

“Let’s do it,” he said, picking up the headset, and Maz flicked three switches.

“I don’t know what you think of me,” Finn began. “I don’t know who you know me as, but… I’m pretty sure you know who I am. You’ve heard me described as FN-2187. As a member of the Resistance. As a traitor. A stormtrooper. A sanitation worker… as a failure.”

He paused.

“Maybe that’s true,” he said. “Maybe all of it’s true. I don’t know. But there’s something more important than that – something I learned from a friend. From the first friend I ever made-”

One of the sublight engines crackled and died, then Rose shouted something and Chewbacca slewed the ship away from the rest of a volley of laserbolts. Only the first few hit home, straining the shields but not overwhelming them, then Lando called advice and R2 rolled over to do something to the fuel pump.

Finn didn’t hear any of it.

“Because I am not a slave,” he said. “I’m a person, and my name is Finn. And – and I’d never really realized that before. I was a stormtrooper, and stormtroopers have been the face of the Empire, of the First Order, for decades – but we’ve always been used! We’re taken to fight, trained from childhood, and that’s wrong, and we’re made to think it’s the only way things can be – that we don’t even deserve names, just numbers.”

The shaking of the Falcon made him nearly fall out of his chair, and Maz steadied him. “The only jobs of a stormtrooper are to scare people into obeying, and to kill, and to die! The people who make us don’t care about us, they don’t care about what we do, anyone who hesitates gets reconditioned and you’re not allowed to leave. We’re made as slaves, as they try to force us to be clones, even though the original clones wanted more than anything else to be individuals. To be people. And – and, ask yourself, what do you want? What would you do with your life?”

The words were pouring out of him now, and Finn didn’t know if they made any sense. If they’d do what he wanted, what he dearly and truly hoped.

“I’m not sorry I left, because I deserve more with my life than a code,” he said. “And so do you. I have a name, and so should you. I was just a little different and they wanted to destroy me, and they’d do the same to you. They didn’t care about me, and they don’t care about you…but they care about me now. They recognize me now. They know who I am, now. And everything they’ve built depends on your willingness to be content with nothing. With obedience. With slavery. With being replaceable and anonymous.”

Maz waved at him, and Finn saw that the displays were flashing in what looked a much more urgent way.

“Listen to me, brothers, sisters!” he pleaded. “You deserve to be more! I am a person, and my name is Finn – and you are people too. I want to know your names.”

The next hit sent the Falcon rolling through a complete spin like a top, throwing Finn out of his seat, and the mixed-up pile of comm equipment flew out of place. Some of the cables snapped, parts of it caught fire, and electrical arcs snapped out into the rest of the main room.

Some of the lights went out.

“What the hell was that?” Lando shouted.

“Torpedo!” Rose replied, from the ventral turret. “I nailed it just before it hit us!”

R2 rolled calmly into the room and doused the flaming equipment with his fire extinguisher, putting out the flames, and Finn patted out some of the ones on his clothes.

“Did it work?” he asked. “Maz – did it work?”

“I don’t know, Finn, but you did all you could,” she replied. “Quickly – to the cockpit. My boyfriend could do with another pair of hands!”

“Got it,” Finn decided.

It took him only a few seconds to reach the cockpit, and he used the time to swap out earpieces.

“Poe?” he asked. “How are we doing?”

“You certainly got their attention, Finn!” Poe replied. “Half the fleet is firing at you, specifically! Chewie’s a damn good pilot, I’ll tell you that much – so far he’s dodged more than a dozen turbolaser shots! They’re using the main batteries on you, too!”

“Great, really good to know that’s happening,” Finn said, wincing. “What happens if one of them hits us?”

“Well, good news is, you’ll probably never realize it,” Poe said, then his X-wing rolled past the Falcon and did a weird kind of inverted flip before firing behind them. “That’s two more down!”

“What do you need me to do, Chewie?” Finn asked.

Chewbacca waved over at one of the banks of switches with a mumble, and Finn saw that the whole power system was straining badly to keep up with the demands being placed on it by everything that was going on.

He diverted some power from the front screens, sharing it out to everything else that needed attention, then one of the Star Destroyers closest to the superlaser refit facility blew up.

“Whoa!” he said. “What was that?”

“Don’t know, Finn!” Poe called. “I don’t think we did that!”

“Boys, listen to this!” Maz instructed, then their commlinks crackled.

“-destruction of the Forceful was a warning!” an Imperial officer said, in harsh tones. “Any attempt by Stormtroopers to launch a mutiny will be met with overwhelming force! This is your only warning!”

“That’s the First Order Allegiant General,” Maz told them.

“Well, if this doesn’t work, we can ram the Falcon down his throat!” Rose suggested. “What ship’s he on?”

A moment later, one of the other First Order Star Destroyers opened fire.

On a fellow Star Destroyer.

“This is KL-1138!” a man’s voice called out, over the same frequency. “I am a person, and my name is Kyle! Everything Finn has said is right!”

“I am Brell!” another voice declared, this time a woman. “Starting now, I am not a slave!”

The comm frequencies began to dissolve into overlapping shouts, and Finn felt like slumping over backwards.

They’d done it. Somehow-

No.

It wasn’t a mystery. It wasn’t an unknown.

It wasn’t even something he’d done, mostly.

He’d just reminded them all. They were people.

[blueskyscribeupdates]

Secure Own Oxygen Mask

Part 19

"Again."  

The cassettes leap into action, dodging blasts from the training drones. Their reflexes are improving.  Ravage reaches the target first, naturally, his four feet landing on the pressure plate before bounding over it with easy grace.  He prowls over to leap onto your shoulder, not even winded.  Frenzy shields her optics with her arm and manages to get close enough to swat the target with her guitar.  She strums a triumphant chord and runs to your side, grinning.

The birds are having more difficulty, getting in each other's way as they veer to avoid the onslaught.

"Faster," you encourage them. "Work together."  Buzzsaw gives an indignant squawk as Laserbeak's wing clips hers.

A ping pops up on your telecomm suite.  Another comm from Starscream, this one demanding to know why you have "encroached" on "his" training time.  You delete the message without replying.  Anyone can book the training room.

Inevitably, he will comm you again.  A sour thought.  If only you could block him.  If only you could get rid of him.

In a technical sense, you could.  So many owe you favors. But the dreary truth is Starscream is necessary.  The Seekers follow him, and air support is necessary to the Cause.  Still, it is a pleasant daydream . . .

"I've had enough of this!" Buzzsaw dives straight through the holographic bullets, unmindful of them splattering against her plating, and slaps the target with her wing.

You pause the simulation, the laserbolts hanging in mid-air.  "Buzzsaw."

"Cheater!" Laserbeak crows, dodging the static projectiles to tap the target.  "I win!"

"Laserbeak."

"What?" Buzzsaw ruffles her golden feathers.  "If I were on the battlefield and I figured out the bullets didn't do anything, I'd act accordingly.  I'm just being logical."

Starscream pings you three more complaints as the birds bicker.

"Buzzsaw, Laserbeak, Frenzy. Run exercise again."

"What about me?" Ravage says.

"Operation: Distract Starscream."

"Awww, I wanna go too," Frenzy says as Ravage slinks out. "I wanna prank Screamer!"

"Train," you say firmly, not looking up from the control console. A small twist of a knob increases the haptic density of the projectiles.  You crook your finger through a frozen laserbolt and consider the unpleasant prickle against your plating.  The laserbolt flickers around your claws as you turn the knob down a bit.  Then up a bit. Then down a bit.  Finally you restart the simulation.   "In your places.  Begin."

Starscream does not bother you again; Ravage is dependable.  And you are confident that Starscream is none the wiser (or at the very least unable to prove) the cause of his current tribulations, whatever those might be.

You often wonder why the Seekers follow him so loyally.   Starscream drills them to exhaustion, belittles them, and shows favoritism to his trine.  The Seekers complain about him, constantly, but their resentment is twisted up in a perverse sort of pride.  What would it take to shake their loyalty, to drive them from his shadow?

A pained squawk returns your attention to the simulation; Buzzsaw has discovered there is now a 'logical' reason to avoid the blasts. 

The training is going well.

[omegas-spaghettios]

I love Hunter's fall

While heartwrenching, it makes me happy that the showrunners are keeping in mind that he and the other protagonists are just clones and not jedi.

In TCW we see Anakin, Obi-Wan, and Ahsoka do all sorts of insane stuff. They literally never get tagged by laserbolts unless they want to, they put Cad Bane on his back foot, Anakin is the best pilot in the show and debatably all of Star Wars, they hop from starship to starship mid-flight to help each other, and when Ahsoka fails her jump in Victory and Death she recovers and literally runs down the Debris before catching Rex's Y-Wing.

In comparison, Wrecker has been tagged multiple times by bolts and Gregor got shot this episode, Hunter got obliterated by Bane, the Batch are competent fliers but by no means are as daring or flashy as most Jedi pilots, and when Hunter failed his jump he fell HARD and it's very visible he is not okay after it, he's very disoriented. It's weird to be happy that TBB heroes fail where Jedi succeed but it keeps the internal logic of the universe going and I just live for this stuff

At the same time their failings speak to their strength. Wrecker and Gregor take their shots very well, they are out of the fight but they are still conscious and present which is incredibly impressive. And while Hunter's fall was hard on him he still stands up and issues orders while I would be sobbing on the ground. They're clearly battle hardened and tough as nails, I just love that the show keeps in mind that they are not jedi and that scenarios TCW's trinity come out on top of nearly every episode are things that are huge threats to this show's squad

[bigfan-fanfic]

Clark comes home late to find Jon, Connor, and Superdad setting up some blankets and pillows in the living room.

Superdad: Clark honey, me and the boys were setting up for a movie night. Come and join us.

Clark: That sounds fun.

Superdad: Great, I'll get some popcorn ready.

*heads into the kitchen*

Clark: So what's really going on?

Connor: Dad saw a spider in your bedroom and freaked out. He said to stay out until the roomba to gets it.

Clark: Did he give Murdertron that laser again?

Jon: Yeah, I heard some shots fired earlier but it's a bit quiet now.

*laserbolt shooting starts up again*

Connor: The roomba's not a very good shot.

Clark: Ugh.... *goes to kill the spider before movie night*

[gflaserbolt]

Call of Duty Modern Warfare CREATE A CLASS GUIDE - How Create a Class Works https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06giAjJDLcA 

[batuuprincess]

Three Nights on Yavin 4

Chapter 21 - Now on the archive!

Poe dodged another laserbolt, blowing up its originator for good measure. That would teach ‘em. Almost instantly, he had another on his tail. Or not. “What’s the objective here, Black Leader? I’m coming in blind.” He slammed his stick to the side, narrowly avoiding a couple of bolts from his newest friend. Gods, these guys were persistent.

“See that big octagonal building down there?”

“The one everyone keeps hitting to no avail?”

Another barking laugh. “That’s the one. It’s called an oscillator, and we need to blow it sky high. If it goes, it takes the whole planet with it.”

“Sounds easy,” he said, sarcasm dripping from every word. “Shields?”

“Down. But we can’t seem to break through the plating. Too thick.”

Poe tore through the air, taking out a couple of TIEs that were bearing down on an X-wing. “And I take it we’re racing against some kind of clock?”

“How did you know? As soon as the star is gone, we’re toast.”

“So what you’re saying is as long as there’s light, we have a chance.”

Karé’s barking laugh came through the comms. “You always fancied yourself a poet, didn’t you? Let’s see if your flying’s still as pretty as your words.”

Or click here to start from the beginning.

[rise-above-the-grave]

STAU Sneak Peak 1

aight, so I don’t know for sure how I’m structuring my Sequel Trilogy AU yet, whether it’ll be a bunch of shorter fics tied together, one massively sprawling fic, three long fics, a shitton of oneshots and drabbles, or what... but here’s a sneak peak of it! 

The solar system’s sun rose over the lip of the planet far below, limning the horizon with a spear of light. Far in the distance, stars glittered and gleamed in the inky blackness of the far reaches of space, while far nearer comets and asteroids hurtled through the vacuum, careening with surfaces covered in ice and glittering ores.

Standing on the bridge of the Star Destroyer, Kylo Ren surveyed the planet before him and his fleet. A black mask covered his pale face, hiding his dark eyes from view, his black hair beneath a net of durasteel and plasti—hiding the gentle curve of his lips, the flash of his gaze, the confident tilt of his chin. A lightsaber hilt hung at the belt on his waist, just visible beneath the hanging, black tabard that cloaked his shoulders and hid the leather tunic that covered his torso and back. Leather boots laced up his calves to his knees, over skin-tight leggings, both equally dark as the heavens beyond the viewshield.

“Your shuttle is ready, my lord,” came a voice at Kylo Ren’s shoulder. The young man turned to see a man half-cowering behind him; though he stood straight, the silver-haired man’s shoulders were hunched and his gaze was downcast, as if he was afraid of making eye contact with Kylo.

Beneath his mask, Kylo smiled.

Without a word to the cowering officer, Kylo turned and strode from the bridge of the Star Destroyer, not sparing even a second glance for the way the man’s shoulders lifted and fell with a sigh of relief—without even a second thought for the air of terror he left in his wake, but to revel in the Dark Side as it swelled behind him.

His shuttle was a sleek, dark thing, with angular wings that lifted to reach a point above the cabin. It was a newer model of the old Imperial Shuttles, fashioned after the dead Emperor Palpatine’s shuttle itself, and Kylo Ren took every pleasure in flying it.

He settled into the pilot’s chair now, feeling more than seeing or hearing the Shock Troopers filing into the main cabin behind him. He toggled the engines to life, and their power thrummed through the floor and walls around him, filling the air with gentle vibrations that sang to his blood and mind. For half a moment—half a breath, half a heartbeat—he allowed the ship to simply sing to him, to croon a lullaby of soft remorse and gentle reminder.

“We have the blood of the Skywalkers and the Organa-Solos in us,” his father said. He was perched on his father’s lap at the helm of the family’s small planetary hopper, his fingers and palms itching to touch the controls. “Flying is as natural as breathing to us,” Ben’s father went on. “Now, turn on the engine—and remember, don’t tell your mother that I’m teaching you to fly just yet. She doesn’t understand…”

Kylo Ren shoved the memory from his mind and, gripping the controls, lifted the shuttle from the hangar floor. Behind him and to either side of him, a dozen other shuttles lifted as well, their wings unfolding as they followed him through the hangar doors and out into the empty vastness of space.

The planet swelled below them, huge and inviting, waiting, warning. The coordinates beeped on Kylo’s monitor, guiding him down through the burning atmosphere and toward the southern hemisphere. Beneath him, rugged mountain terrain opened up onto rolling savannas, jungles to crashing oceans. He soared lower, farther, faster, until the belly of his shuttle was sprayed with sea foam, the TIE fighters that roared before and behind and to every side trailing plumes of ion dust through spray and wave.

They came upon the small village fast and hard. A cliff rose up from the ocean floor, cresting one hundred, two hundred, three hundred feet above the lashing waves. Lights peeked out from the tongues of stone that capped the cliff: small porch lights, colored lamps strung up from one building to another on wires, yellow glows from living rooms and dining halls and bedrooms on second and third floors.

“Strike Force One, awaiting orders,” came Kylo’s TIE commander over the comm unit.

Kylo grinned. “All units,” he said, voice ringing hollow and metallic through the vocoder, “attack.”

The TIEs ripped up the side of the cliff and over the small village, releasing a spray of green laserbolts into the building edifices. Wood crumbled, shingles burned, shutters exploded in a symphony of splinters and spinning fragments.

In the streets, dressed in festival colors, the people screamed and ran.

Kylo guided his shuttle down to the fields just outside of the village proper. The landing gears hissed as they descended, then the air compressors spat as Kylo released the door behind him. The Shock Troopers lined up, metal boots clacking on the floor, blasters heavy and gleaming in their gloved and gauntleted hands.

Rising from his chair, Kylo summoned his ‘saber from its hook on his belt to his right hand, then turned and strode out of the shuttle, through the compressed smoke billowing from the struts, and out into the night.

“Fan out,” he ordered his troops. “I want the villagers alive.”

The rest of the shuttles belched forth their Troopers. They lined up in their squadrons, their squad captains at the front with the red sleeve on their left shoulders, then began to move forward in arrow-straight lines.

They were half a hundred yards from the village when the first blaster bolts ripped into their ranks. Red fire gleamed as it spat through the night, erupting from the muzzles of farmers’ rifles, from women’s holdout blasters, from hunters’ bowcasters. The villagers clung to the walls of their homes and to the shadows that lined their alleys, firing from behind crates and booths that had been erected in honor of the spring planting.

“Forward!” Kylo Ren’s commander called, and the Troopers moved forward as one, firing bolt after bolt at the defense.

Kylo himself stood behind, lightsaber in hand, waiting. Waiting. Waiting.

The Troopers reached the edge of the village, and the villagers fell back, back, back, away from the oncoming lines of faceless, white-armored, white-helmed foes. Kylo followed ten steps behind, twenty steps, eyes piercing behind his mask as he scanned back and forth across the street, a shadow amongst the shadows.

A shifting movement. A breath. Darkness slipping through darkness.

Kylo whirled and extended his left hand, gloved fingers in claws. A man gave a grunt, then a cry, then came the scuffle of hands and feet scrabbling against dirt as the man was drawn from his hiding place between two close-sitting buildings.

He was an aging man, with pale hair that was graying at the temples and flashing, golden eyes. His skin was New Alderaanian dark, wrinkled and deeply tanned by long days and months and years in the sun.

Kylo grinned.

“Hello, Lor San Tekka,” he said into the silence that had fallen between them. The old man knelt on his knees half a dozen feet from Kylo, a hand at his throat, eyes bulging wide, but all else still and silent. He did not struggle, did not fight any more—merely sat and watched as Kylo strode toward him. “Come,” Kylo said, “shall we go see the rest of your village?”

Raising a hand, Kylo lifted the old man to his feet, then to his toes, and dragged him down the road toward the village square without so much as touching him. Behind him, at last—at last—the old man began to struggle once more, fighting the invisible bindings holding him tight, clawing tooth and nail against the iron bands dragging him forward inexorably.

[thedarkreborn]

AN EPISODE VII FANFICTION: THE DARK REBORN

The Galactic Empire has fallen. After forty years fighting a lingering but inevitable defeat following the Battle of Endor, the Empire has agreed to surrender. In a show of good faith, the New Republic has pulled all but ceremonial remnants of their fleet away from Coruscant, their galactic capital, for the treaty signing. Now dignitaries from the two governments meet to usher in a new era of peace and freedom for the galaxy, unaware of the dark threat approaching from the unknown regions…

CHAPTER FORTY-THREE: THE SKIES ABOVE CORUSCANT, 40 YEARS ABE:

The red laserbolt that streaked alongside the Imperial shuttle came close enough to make its shields glow as it glanced off. The shuttle juked sideways, dodging as the two pursuing snubfighters unleashed a fresh hail of turbolasers through the empty space where it had been flying moments before.

The pursuers were X-Wings, their paint worn but the blue streaks on their sides vibrant against the void.

The port fighter was being flown by Jaen Vao, his injured arm now freed of its sling but still encased in a narrow bacta cast that prevented him from wearing the sturdy gloves usually donned by snubfighter pilots. He seemed at home in his cockpit nonetheless, his bare blue fingers tight on his piloting yoke as he spun his ship up on its side for a better shot at his target--or a better shot at the empty space right next to his target, anyway. His knobby hairless brows drew low over his eyes in concentration as he squeezed the firing trigger again, narrowly missing the stolen shuttle.

It might have seemed counterintuitive, but any trained pilot knew that not shooting a target was more difficult than hitting it. There was always a certain amount of luck involved in snubfighter combat and in order to hit what you were aiming at, you only had to be lucky once. When trying not to hit something at which you were shooting, you had to be lucky with every shot because missing could be deadly for the people whom your missed shot hit.

In order to convince the Imperials towards whom they were chasing the Lambda-shuttle that the vessel and its crew were trustworthy, Jaen and his wingman had to make it look like they really were trying to shoot it down. Jaen just hoped they didn’t try a little too hard, and convince everyone via a fatal explosion.

“I hope you know what you’re doing, Bail,” he muttered into the silent void between them.

READ MORE.

[esamastation]

Lightsword, 18  - Independence

Down in the training salle, a young Padawan is working against four training droids, a massive, heavy hilted lightsaber in his right hand, and a light club in another. He's got a blindfold on and is weaving through the rain of weak laserbolts with – well, not quite grace. It looks more like mad, wild flailing, how the boy throws the weight of his weapons around, deflecting the bolts every which way.

He's not being hit, true. He's reflecting the bolts, true. There is skill and precision in his movements and he is obviously very perceptive in the force. Never mind physically strong. It's not just visibly obvious – the boy's arms are bare and the muscle definition is clearly visible, and it's there obviously due to the massive lightsaber.

Qui-Gon had heard the thing weighed guide a bit. Certainly more than the standard half-kilogram maximum of a regular lightsaber. Wielding that thing around would by it's nature enhance the boy's physical strength by leaps and bounds.

"Strong in the Force is he," Yoda comments beside him, leaning both hands into his gimmer stick. "Unorthodox, yes. Excitable, perhaps. Some beliefs he has that the Masters of his old Creche troubling find."

"You're not really selling this child to me," Qui-Gon says wryly and folds his arms, eying the boy's form. It's not like any lightsaber form he's seen – because it's not. He'd seen Obi-Wan Kenobi fight with the shotos and normal length lightsabers – the boy knows his forms and can switch between them with speed that is remarkable considering his lack of experience. But here, with these heavy weapons, it all flies out of the window.

"Strong in the Force is he," Yoda says again, frowning a little. "And a powerful warrior is he. Set him aside we cannot – to a support position, he will never fit. A knight he will be – or leave the Jedi Order he will."

Qui-Gon frowns, glancing at him. "That's really not a point to his favour," he says slowly. "You think his attachment to the Order that thin?"

"Independent is he. Need us he does not. Survive anywhere he could, thrive he could. But a Jedi he should be," Yoda says. "Know of his visions, do you?"

Qui-Gon shakes his head.

"A past life he sees," Yoda says and smiles a little. "Strong influence it has on him. From it strength of character he draws."

For a moment Qui-Gon says nothing, turning his eyes back to Obi-Wan Kenobi. A past life? Yoda wouldn't have mentioned it if he didn't believe it, so he must think it's true. "You think he is… what, a reincarnation?" he asks slowly.

"A great warrior he was," Yoda says, and glance up at him, a little bit sly now. "And remember it he does. Strong in the Force is he and strong was he, in his past life."

Qui-Gon hums and runs a hand over his chin. Now that… that is something else, isn't it? And if he's not entirely mistaken… Obi-Wan Kenobi was that little initiate, who once upon a time talked to ethereal voice over a pond in the Room of Thousand Fountains, a voice that came from Force itself.

Qui-Gon takes the boy in again, this time a little closer.

Obi-Wan Kenobi is not a very graceful creature. He has discarded the tunics of a Padawan and is wearing only a single tabard, bound around his waist by his obi and utility belt and around his vest by the slanted straps of his lightsaber holster, which settles between his shoulder lades, an angular piece of metal. His movements are wide and wild but precise – he knows what he's doing, it's only his body holding him back. His young, still small, body.

What kind of Jedi would he make, with care and dedication? And if Yoda is right…

"How very interesting," Qui-Gon murmurs, and ignores the smug satisfaction radiating from the old Grandmaster.

- - - 

Prompt by skitscratched: Independence

Prompt next one?

[claiirvoyantjedi]

｡･:*:･ﾟ☆  OPEN || v; The clone wars ｡･:*:･ﾟ☆

She couldn’t help it. The insistent trembling of her hands. The weak sensation in her legs.The unpleasant clenching and churning in her gut. Adrenaline was nothing new, but this was different. A horrifying kind of different.

It was so easy with droids. So incredibly, deceptively easy. They were not truly alive. No spirit. No connection to the force. Their ends didn’t cause even the slightest tremor at the back of her head. But this had been a life. 

 The churning was creeping up into her throat. 

 She really wasn’t sure if it was even his life she’d seen flashing before her when taking it with the blade of her lightsaber through his gut, it could have been anyone. The vision has passed as quickly as it had appeared, the faces now a blur in her memory, but she couldn’t help but place his face there, still contorted with pain and anger.   Somewhere around her there were sounds of people shouting, a last round of stray laserbolts being fired. A voice at the back of head told her to look away, to focus, to calm down.

She didn’t. Kyrra ignored the voice. It was easy when the blood was rushing through her ears, staring down at the dead man like she expected him to suddenly spring back to life.

Until she finally threw herself to the side and onto the ground, vomiting, as her body curled and shook violently. 

 Calm down.

[mindctrlaltdel]

124 Days of Empire: Minute 26:00 of 124:00

A Star Wars Countdown

During the 124 days before the release of The Last Jedi, I’m reviewing all 124 minutes of the theatrical version of The Empire Strikes Back. Join me and together we will watch Star Wars…. 

*** ***

In today's minute, an Imperial ship turns into a nightclub and the Rebels have gun envy.

The Rebels finally reveal the full firepower of that Ion Cannon. It still looks like it was slapped together with foraged scrap metal, but damn - when they open the shields, this laser is strong enough to disable a Star Destroyer. If you saw this outside a prepper's house, you'd say they were compensating for something. Seeing this at the Rebel base, you have to wonder why they didn't just strap this baby to any one of their ships. Well, someone was smart enough to ask this question on Quora - "If ion cannons are strong enough to take out star destroyers, why didn't the rebels have one on their battle cruisers?" 

The short answer: that would make things less dramatically interesting.

The long answer, thanks to Quora guru Jeffrey J. Stables, chronic thinker:

"The ion cannon on Echo Base was far too large and consumed too much power to be of use on any of the ships the Rebel Alliance had available to it. Some Rebel ships did, in fact, have ion cannons; but none was large enough to disable a Star Destroyer like the one on Hoth did. An extremely large ship and large power source (roughly twice the size of the largest Rebel battlecruiser) would be required to deploy an ion cannon of such power in a starship..."

--Thanks, Jeffrey!            

When the cannon hits it marks, it performs one of the few laser light shows in Star Wars history. We usually see red or green laserbolts; red, green or blue lightsabers; but a rainbow malfunction? That's different.

Let's just say that Captain Xamuel Lennox didn't know what hit him. You know, Xamuel. Of course you do, he's the "our first catch of the day" guy - and yes, they named him Xamuel because "X's" make everything more science fiction-like.

Anyway the Star Destroyer, the Tyrant, sinks like an interstellar Titanic and since it's 1980, it goes all disco and turns into a Saturday Night Fever-dream fit for John Travolta to dance all over.

"Gentlemen, it's been a privilege playing with you tonight. How about one more song while we go down - perhaps 'Last Dance' by Donna Summer?"

Rebel extras cheer, wives of Imperial officers receive holograms informing that their husbands have been lost at space and pilots ready for battle.

Then we catch up with Luke amid all the Rebel troopers running to their stations - he joins Dack his gunner. I get that this makes the flying situation of the Battle of Hoth similar to the vehicles you'd see in a World War 2-era skirmish, but it seems a little backward to confine two perfectly good fighters to one speeder. Especially since the men of Rogue Squadron fly and shoot all the time in their X-Wings. Well, maybe Dack is all thumbs when he flies, so they need to let him down easy and just have him point and shoot.

They also do a straightforward job of setting Dack up for big things in the future. Dack is a person we've never met, has no unique traits to speak of and is super optimistic about the battle ahead? Oh, shell out the big bucks for that action figure, folks, he's definitely the breakout character of this movie!

Awww, Dack... you dead.

Following the exchange between battle partners, we get reminded of the threat ahead. They're not too threatening... yet.

Easiest special effects shot.... ever.

Best Performance by a Human: Dack, soon to be deceased.

Best Performance by a Non-human: Ion Cannon.

Best Line: Dack’s fatally optimistic ��� “Right now I feel like I can take on the whole Empire myself.”

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 AT-AT Walkers in the distance.

{Richie Pepio is a writer and performer in New York City who tumbls @mindctrlaltdel and tweets @RichiePepio.}

[symbianosgames]

This messaging helps players to figure out, “okay so I need this shield to go into the room and secure the Annihilator Totem.” Once they realize they can stand there without dying two more things happen. First, another player might try to stand in the shield as well. This is because there are multiple shields throughout the game (Like the titan defender class or the Relic shield in the Vault of Glass Raid) which multiple players can take advantage of the benefits. So they might try it. The other is that the “Brand of the Weaver” timer will run out.

When the timer runs out the player holding the shield loses it. “Brand of the Weaver” is replaced by “Deathsinger’s Power x10”. At this point if the player is alone on the Annihilator Totem, they will begin to lose health. Any player’s gut reaction at beginning to die is, “I need to get the hell out of here.” Unfortunately, they can’t leave the Annihilator Totem or the entire team wipes. They will call someone else over to try and take their spot for them on the totem while they get the heck out of there. If the new player who is heading over to the totem is paying attention, they may notice the black Orb respawning. Typically, then they attempt to grab it and go to the Annihilator Totem. If they get there before the player with “Deathsinger’s Power x10” dies, then the player with Deathsinger’s Power will notice they are no longer taking damage while in the shield. So, if the players don’t already know that more than one of them can be in the shield at once, they will now.

Side note: If they don’t make it there in time, then the player with Deathsinger’s Power will die and lose Deathsinger’s Power. Often times the second player will die not long after because it takes 30 seconds for a player to be available to be revived again, and the shield only lasts 30 seconds. As you can see, if the player dies right after the second player grabs the shield, they are not going to get revived in time. Resulting in eventually everyone dying.

If a player chose to save their own skin and try to get back to the center where they wont be killed, the Annihilator Totems will activate after a time and kill everyone. But, if someone can make it over there to stop the Annihilator Totem from wiping everyone out, then the player with Deathsinger’s Power will have a few seconds to experiment. When the player with Deathsinger’s Power accidentally or intentionally reaches the center plate they begin to get feedback. The plate lights up, “Deathsinger’s Power x10” begins to go count down, and the runes on the sides of the portal begin to glow.

Side note: The runes give players feedback on how far they are to completing this section. When the player brings the Deathsinger’s Power to the center plate, the Deathsinger’s Power number counts down slowly. While this is happening, runes are beginning to light up starting from the bottom runes on the portal doorway. Once all the runes are fully lit, the players can progress to the next challenge.

Though I admire this section of the raid because of the amount of teamwork and communication it promotes, it is not perfect. In order to actually win the, players need to figure out that they can pass the shield between each other. This is done by both players being inside the shield at the end of the “Brand of the Weaver” countdown. The messaging here is not as clear cut as in the rest of this section because the player who is in the shield with the player who is holding the shield has “Aura of the Weaver” displayed. While this is excellent messaging that the player is inside the shield, it doesn’t help them understand that anything is going to happen when the player holding the shield’s countdown ends. So this part really just comes down to trial and error and hoping the players can figure it out.

Side note: Perhaps making it say “Aura of the Weaver transfer 0:30” and having it count down as well would make it more clear as to what the players need to do.

Putting the pieces together and how to beat it:

Once the players have figured all this out it gets considerably easier. Players will need to split into two teams of three. One for right side one for left side. (For the rest of this explanation I’m going to talk about only one side to keep from confusing readers. I am doing this because both sides need to do the exact same thing.) Of the team of three, one player will stay in the middle to kill enemies who spawn out of the portal and surrounding doors. If left unchecked the enemies from the portal will rush the players on the totems. The Wizards which spawn from the doors will attempt to kill the players in the center room exclusively.

The other two will run to the Annihilator Totem collecting the black orb along the way. These two players will have to kill enemies and remain on the Annihilator Totem.

They must do this while both are also in the shield or the shield will not pass to the next player. When the “Brand of the Weaver” timer runs out the the shield will be passed to the player who was not holding it. It will begin to count down and a boomer will spawn on a ledge far above the players. They will have to kill this boomer. The player who was holding the shield needs to tell the player who was in the center room to switch. Upon doing so both players switch places.

So the player who was holding the shield now will be in the center room killing enemies while standing on the plate to charge the door and remove their “Deathsinger’s Power”. The player who was standing at the totem but not holding the shield now is the shield holder and must remain on the totem until they pass the shield. The player who started in the center is now standing inside the shield, at the totem, killing enemies and preparing to have the shield passed to them. This process is repeated 10 times until the Warpriest deems the players worthy and the portal opens.

A visual map I put together of what the area looks like: The gray boxes are pillars (or other visual obstructions). The Green arrow is the route two players take at the very beginning. The Blue arrow is the route the player with Deathsinger’s Power will take. The red arrow is the route the player who is in the center will take when they are told to switch.

There are two ways the difficulty increases over time:

1.         The shield gets a little bit smaller every time it is passed. So it is easier as time goes on for players to think they are in the shield when they are not. Thus resulting in the shield not being passed.

2.         More/tougher enemies spawn from the portal

The three most common reasons for players to lose in this section are:

1.         The player was not in the shield when the timer ran out.

2.         The players on the totems died. Usually, this is a result of not killing their boomer fast enough.

3.         Not everyone is on the same page/paying attention.

I like these rooms because it puts a huge emphasis on teamwork. While it is tough and many people believe it is impossible to win after a player dies, I know it isn’t. (our record is 2 players dying and we were still able to come back and finish it.) I particularly like how it isn’t difficult based on how much damage the players need to do on a boss or anything like that. Players lose mostly because of human error, they just missed something, or lost engagement for just a second. This style of design I enjoy the most because I don’t have to grind and then just cheese a boss. Regardless of how powerful my guardian will become this section of the raid will always be difficult because it is mostly based on players focusing, listening, and working together. Regardless of how skilled I am, our team is only as good as our weakest player and it really shows here.

I will continue my look into the King’s Fall Raid next week, when we look at another encounter. This time with a particularly nasty pair of sisters. I would like to thank KackisHD, his videos supplied me with the images I needed for the center room and the right room. (more of his work can be seen here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLM1eE8w_DZ89n4yIxVbffA ) And GF LaserBolt for the image of the left room. (more of his work can be seen here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5kbCDveYQUcxoOll5NKocA ) This post would have taken considerably more time if I had to capture the video myself.

I’ll see you guys next week,

Scott

Enjoyed this post? Part 2 is finally up! It can be found HERE!

More posts like this one can be found on Scott's Blog/Portfolio http://ift.tt/1LIAXFC

[gflaserbolt]

Division 2 YOU MUST GET THIS GEAR NOW! GOD ROLL AR, VEST, Holster https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6wEcvbWSvE

[grayskullwarrior]

When Vintage meets Classics. MAA on Laser Bolt. #motu #motuc #MastersoftheUniverse #MastersoftheUniverseClassics #pop #princessofpower #heman #shera #skeletor #hordak #adam #adora #manatarms #laserbolt #vintagemotu