98 lines
5.3 KiB
Plaintext
98 lines
5.3 KiB
Plaintext
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Underground eXperts United
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Presents...
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[ The 'Land ] [ By Hollywood ]
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____________________________________________________________________
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____________________________________________________________________
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-----> The 'Land <------
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(by Hollywood, (c) 1994)
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The atmosphere inside the tiny cockpit was fetid, oil and slime glistening
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vitriolically on the walls, as the operative leant feverishly over the
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glowing screens. Co-ordinates, occurrences, near-misses, disasters, flashed
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in front of the screen in front of him like so many fireflies buzzing around
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a marsh-embedded corpse. He looked away in disgust and wiped the sweat from
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his shaven head. His time would come soon, inside this putrid dome. He could
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survive, but was survival really worth it, if it was as this? Endless
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readouts flashed ethereally across the monitors, showing the casualties of
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the folly, screaming deaths endlessly replayed from a multitude of
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unemotional camera angles.
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The operative shifted uneasily in his seat and checked his exterior camera.
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All he could see was the blackness of Doomsday, his Doomsday. He flicked off
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the display and put his head in his hands, shielding his eyes from the glare
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of the screens. The enemy was getting closer, he must be. The final reckoning
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might be painful, but at least it would be swift. He had heard stories, long
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ago, of those who had challenged the enemy and won, pushing them into limbo,
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running them over in their transport. Running them over? The operative smiled
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wryly and wondered just who had designed the damned transport. It all seemed
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so inefficient.. why not use a good pulse gun or a tracked attack vehicle,
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instead of this quadrupedal scrapheap which could only eradicate anything in
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its way? It was the rules of the game, it seemed. Perhaps it stopped a
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greater conflict to allow only prearranged enemies to meet in battle at
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prearranged times, but he longed for the element of surprise. He could do
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little, only walk around and try to catch his enemy unaware. How could he
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win? He shrugged at the nonsense of it all, the sheer futility, and flicked
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away a blob of grease that had landed disconcerting on his shoulder.
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..suddenly, the monitor screens flashed urgently, and the operative tensed.
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He would be coming out of the blackness soon, perhaps any moment, and he must
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be ready to do something unexpected, most of all. He knew that people before
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him had tried to over-ride the controls, and had failed, but, if he could
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only get to the central control panel... As he tore at the steel supports
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holding the electronics, the operative became aware of a countdown on one of
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the chittering monitors.. 5.. 4.. 3.. 2.. 1.. viciously, his sense were
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assailed with primary colours as the cockpit monitors exploded in light,
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echoing the view from the external camera. The angles of scenery seemed so
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grotesque, so simple, yet, so twisted. Who had invented this unearthly
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battleground? He tore with renewed force at the control panels, as he saw,
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little more than tens of yards away, the enemy, the myth, the reality, the
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bedtime story now animated. The vacant, bright, supremely evil grin on the
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face of the foe stared at him through the multitude of monitors. The
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operative screamed, long and piercing, and wrenched a final time at the
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control panels, finally sending something askew. The transport gave a
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shuddering jerk and climbed high in the air, jumping desperately over the
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enemy, bouncing off primary-coloured pipes and finally, sickeningly, catching
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the edge of one and plunging down, faster and faster, until the operative`s
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scream was little more than a whisper in the infinite nothingness.
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But, above him, high above, on a cloud over the whole of this grotesque land,
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hung a sign, neon-blazing and unmissable in its undeserved glory, a depraved
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monument to the infinitesimal dead..
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..it read, simply: marioland (tm)..
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Jon reset his Nintendo and turned to his big brother..
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"Hey, did you see that turtle? I tried to stamp on him and he jumped
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right over me and fell down the hole.. They can`t do that... can they?"
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His brother smiled, and said nothing. Jon was only a kid.. what was he to
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know about war, suffering, and death?
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---------------------------------------------------------------------------
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uXu #247 Underground eXperts United 1995 uXu #247
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Call PEGASUS -> +41-71-715577
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---------------------------------------------------------------------------
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