High above the ground, a huge blimp was floating through the sky. Below the blimp was a large enough compartment box to set up base in. Sentinel was staring out the window, pondering about tonight’s assignment. He stared at the sky above him. It was pretty dark, considering the fact that their mission had to begin at night. It wasn’t exactly the most dangerous, but there was still the chance that they could be PK-ed.
After all, his superiors didn’t allow Code Warriors the use of god-mode cheats or mods. It would have made the job a whole lot smoother, but to be honest, Sentinel would have hated it if the job was easy. He preferred a challenge. A hard one. One that he expected out of most video games he plays. He adjusted his staff, his hooves stiffened from the tension.
The inside of the blimp compartment was a bit decked out. It had a nice ballroom theme to it. A wall of television-like screens covered one side of the room. The displays were filled to the brim with an ocean of codes and information, and they were constantly updating every few moments. The screens glowed brightly, basking the area around it in a ghostly blue.
Sentinel heard somepony come up from behind him. He turned around to be met with a familiar face. The slender stallion known as Rough Diamond swept a hoof across his jet black mane, which complemented his creamy white, wool coat. He had a grin on his face, and his twitchy wings showed he was obviously excited for what’s to come.
“So, what’s the battle plan,” Diamond asked.
He was a fellow Warrior that he could rely on, Sentinel thought with a smile. Diamond’s utmost accuracy with the deadly bow and arrow proved to be really useful in most of their raids. He had a couple of leather pads guarding his shoulders and shins. The confident guy always did like to travel light.
“The battle plan has always been the same Dia,” Sentinel said. “We go in, PK them, and get out before anypony notices we were here.”
A completely orange mare by the name of Pumpkin Fest looked at him with concern on her face. Her braided mane swayed with the wind.
“Sir? I’ve wanted to ask. Why have you choose me for this mission? I’m not even good at the game yet!”
“Don’t worry about it!” Sentinel confidently complied, wanting to assure the earth pony. “You’re gonna do great!”
Her face blushed into a deeper orange, and her blue eyes sparkled with admiration. “Are you sure? I mean really. I always messed up during our game nights,” she confessed.
“Totally sure!” Sentinel winked. “I wouldn’t want to have any other pony by my side. All of you!”
Diamond, Pumpkin, and a few others in the room eagerly nodded. They smiled gratefully for his inspiring words.
“Okay everypony, gather around the table.” Everypony did so. Sentinel then gestured towards the map on it. “Okay, let’s review the mission so we’re all on the same page. We’ve recently caught wind of a guild leader using abilities that are not specific to his class.” Sentinel brought out a photograph of a pony using a staff. He also had a bow slung across his back. “Even more so, this guy has been PKing players outside of the PvP arenas. Remember this face, and this operation should go smoothly”
A hoof rose from among the team. “Um, sir? Permission to speak freely, sir?”
Sentinel recognized him as one of the newer stallions that were hired last week. “Go ahead. What’s your name?”
“Target Code, sir!” the lean stallion responded. He ruffled his chestnut brown mane and coat, looking nervous as a jumpy rabbit. “Um, why couldn’t we just go ahead and ban the leader from the computers? Is it necessary to go in and PK him?”
“Target- may I call you Target?” The newbie nodded. “You see Target, the game of Equestrian Earth is really huge. I mean really really huge. The servers house a large number of players. We have about five of them dedicated to just storing everypony’s data, and we’re always buying new ones. Also, the game mechanics doesn’t house identifications. In fact, we don’t have actual game id at all, just nicknames.” Sentinel referred to his own nametag above him, which stated Chaos Galore. “These nicknames can be changed at any moment, and uses up less megabyte than permanent identification names. If we were to use them, this game would lag as if it was being covered in honey. Does that make sense?”
Target Code nodded, understanding the situation. Sentinel turned his attention back to the flat sheet of paper that housed information of the guild leader’s stronghold.
“We have a couple spies in there keeping an eye out for his arrival. When he logs in, Beta team will activate the lock-down perimeters, preventing anypony from logging in or out of the area,” he continued. “Everypony in there is a Celestia damned cheater. Our spies have confirmed that. Don’t let your guard down, and take out anypony you see. Don’t worry about the spies themselves. They’ll log out after giving the signal.”
He rolled up the map and stowed it away into a pack. He then took out a small pack out of his inventory. He opened it to reveal a small bundle of glowing, purple potions, enough of them for the entire team. He hoofed one bottle to each of them.
“Drink these potions, guys. We’re going to drop onto their base without parachutes, so these will prevent any unnecessary fall damage.” Sentinel uncorked his bottle and raised it in the air. “Good luck everypony.”
They all bumped their potions to his as if they were celebrating a night of drinks. Sentinel then quickly downed the entire drink, letting the violet liquid wash his throat. It tasted like a sour grape that was forcibly dried underneath the sun in the middle of a desert. He grimaced as the unpleasant swig landed in his stomach. It wasn’t exactly a mug of butterbeer, but at least it’ll prevent any untimely death in the next few hours. Everypony apparently shared his opinion.
A buzz was heard from a nearby radio. Everypony looked towards it, giving the little box their full, undivided attention.
“Hello, Alpha team? This is Lt. Sparky reporting in.”
Sentinel went over and pressed a small button on it. “This is Moderator Sentinel. You’re clear to report. What’s the update?”
The Code Warrior in the radio’s voice crackled a little, but it was still comprehensible. “Objective has arrived in the enemy base. I repeat. Objective has arrived in the enemy base. We’re clearing out now. Good luck Alpha team.”
The buzz died as the speaker hung up his end of the line. Sentinel went over the other side of the room opposite of the computers, with the others walking behind him. Another voice buzzed in, this time from the intercoms.
“This is your captain speaking. We’re about to let the bay doors drop, please stand clear.”
Sentinel equipped a couple of earphones to his ears. He turned up his handy I-Pon to his preferred soundtrack. The rock was sound to his pleasure. The walls then suddenly transformed as it parted, revealing a set of iron walls beneath the faux surface. The iron walls then dropped down, hanging by the hinges in the cold air. Sentinel turned around towards his team.
“Okay everypony, remember to equip your wing suits. Course correction only! You don’t wanna end up like Haybale,” he said, going through his inventory at the same time to equip the armor.
“What ever happened to Haybale?” Pumpkin asked, looking a bit scared.
Sentinel ignored that question, not wanting to freak her out. Diamond, however, was willing to try to answer.
“Nopony knows,” he grinned. “The poor bastard wouldn’t speak. Whatever happened to him probably scared him shitless.”
The time for small talk was then suddenly cut short. Sentinel Quill dove head first out the door, with all of others jumping out with him into the freezing wind that awaited them.
Hooray for Insomnia, I dont need Sleep! More Equestrian Earth to read? Even better!
Yay more GMs! Though I do agree with one thing, it is rather short.
Yay!
So the GM's are a elite counter cyber sabotage team who ensure that any and all players who are cheating don't ruin EE for everypony else? (What I pulled from this, also that last line was priceless.)
a intermission so soon? well, least it gives spotlight on the GM
What DID happen to HayBale? O_O
spread your wings and fly /)-_-
1956831 Night Runner, did you see your pic yet? :T
Why does Diamond seem like my character, only different colors and thinner?
1957002
I came up with it on the fly.
I swear, I have the worst OCs.
1957014
At least yours isn't red and black to be called a Gary Stu
1957049
Lol, you should get your mane dyed.
1957073
I would, but my computer has no Internet, so I can't do anything about it. Also, I don't know what color to make it
Interesting little chapter. I like this little glance behind the scenes about how the game is run. Little bit worried about something, but I'll keep my prediction to myself.
Also, good Red vs Blue nod there.
Err, gotta be honest with you here, the explanation for why the guild leader can't be banned makes about zero sense from a programming & database perspective. If there's no permanently fixed identification for a player then there would be no reliable method to look up their character data when they log in and play.
Take Fimfiction for an example. You can change your username, but there is a dedicated user ID number (viewable in the URL when you look at your favorites or stories listing) that will never change unless you register a new account.
If I might make a suggestion, with the hacking issues established so far, you would be much better off technically by declaring it to be a distributed system instead of something centrally located. Have your character data stored locally at the client with some already cracked encryption to explain the cheating.
At the very least, nix the description of having five servers, that is a very unimpressive number.
Some things I noticed:
What does this mean exactly?
"Recently" was repeated. I just pointed this out since I am a stickler about repetition.
Harry potter Reference? AWESOME!
Sparky is the name of my Main character OC in my story and I almost laughed at this. Just sayin cause it's funny.
1957110
Yeah, I'm just uneducated.
"...remember course correction only..."
was that a RvB reference?
1957123
Fixed with all occasions, and um. I might of did a reference or two.
1957141
Should I delete this then? or just spoiler it?
1957151
Spoilers.
Hah. Brilliant, that is.
Question; inside of the game, would there be any PvP areas, as opposed to PvP arenas? And if there were Player Killers running about, it seems like word would spread about them pretty fast, and people might turn Bounty Hunter on them.
So this is what GM's do with their time.
Reminds me of COD.
I'm seriously gonna read this (love mmo's)
...but serious question before I get too deep and die somewhere: How good was that shower when you came up with this? It's important...you know...science
1957258
It was a good shower.
Nice and warm. Obviously, it was also wet.
Very wet.
Um, the amount of water pressure felt just about right as well.
Are you writing this down?
1957260
Glad to know.
You are my favorite author after all.. *sly wink*
Your the author that I actually enjoy stories from. They make me giggle or cry or snort or anything else. Im glad you write stories for us,because if you didn't,I'd have to kill you.
For some reason, SAO just keeps screaming at me whenever I see this.
1956978
no actually, I didn't. I'll go check it now
at first, I thought you said the blimp had a bathroom theme to it. Not to slef, don't read fan-fics at 6 AM when done with procrastinated homework. Now to be a hypocrite and start reading again.
edit: well, I know that somehow, something will go wrong on their mission. While Murphy's law seems to aplly everyday, it seems more abundant in Mission: Impossible movies, and other stories about spec-ops missions. And don't tell me banning a hacker in a huge game isn't a special operation mission, it seems like that to me.
1957110 Two down votes for offering an opinion and advice directly from my professional area of expertise. Sigh.
Not sure why I bothered.
Best reference to best online show is best!
I still stick to the theory ths that Chaotic if evil/impostor/possessed/a evil program
1958245 I'm guessing because you ruined le moment. Not sure if accurate but the moment was ruined for me I must say. Though haven't used the up/downvote comment system yet. Waiting for just the right comment. Also, whenever I see a GM Sparky I always feel like I'm going to love that GM. Just saiyan.
1957195
In order to make the game as realistic as possible, all players are exposed to any kinds of attack from any players except their team members. For example: Dumb Bell can attack Twilight (fat chance that'll ever happen), but Luna can't attack Twilight because they're on the same team. The attacks can still hit your teammates, it just won't damage them. Because of this, teammates can intergrate some pretty hefty combination attacks together.
I feel like I've just spoiled part of the story, even though I mentioned this before.
1957302
stuffpoint.com/my-little-pony-friendship-is-magic/image/101461-my-little-pony-friendship-is-magic-rd-wat.jpg
1957362
My style of writing has been going tipsy for the last few chapters. Some of them are descriptive, some of then are not quite so. I would like to say that I'm exprimenting, but then that means I would be lying.
1958245
I thought it was good advice.
1958720
I won't confirm, nor deny that.
1958855
You should continue intermissions with GM badassery.
1958855 Oh and don't think that the irl you is off the hook. I'm not specifying which Chaotic I'm talking about you know... I've got my eye on you...
"They smiled gratefully for his aspiring words." I believe you meant inspiring.
Can't wait for the next chapter.
Ciao darling
All I shall say on the matter is that it is your story. As long as I see no problems with the story itself do whatever man
1960128
That works better, thanks!
images-mediawiki-sites.thefullwiki.org/10/3/9/9/9521722721785286.jpg "Will somebody please tell me what happened to Haybale?"
1961732
OHMIGOSH, IT'S YOU.
I'M SO HONORED!
I'm gonna pass out now.
iambrony.steeph.tp-radio.de/mlp/gif/my-little-pony-friendship-is-magic-brony-fashiongasm.gif
1961752
Didn't we go through this shtick in the first chapter?
1961767
Ye-yeah.
Um... for you.
i2.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/215/538/96663%20-%20animated%20kissing%20rarity.gif
I sense badassery is to come in next chapter
1961815 Wtf
1961877
There are two things I "worship".
RvB and MLP.
This guy combined two of them into one awesome story.
Get on his level.
1962138 First, I said "wtf" to your reaction.
Second, I follow this guy and LOVED the RvB fic.