Program loaded. Press any key to continue.....

File 0006 -- "Lost"

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*********************KXKB://2633-6863/LOGFILE--GENESIS-XII0006/[initiate]*********************

[3:16 AM -- OCTOBER 29 2012 -- A CANYON SOMEWHERE NEAR AMBRIEL]

This is day 12. I still don't know exactly where I am, but the enemy has boxed me into this small corner of the canyon. There seems to be no soft spot in their patrols; it'll be impossible for me to get out alive. And alone.

Still no sight of The Descent. I guess they didn't look too hard once they thought I was dead.

I'm starting to run out of food. The location of enemy forces has caused most of the wildlife indigenous to the area to run and hide. I've already eaten most of the rest of them.

I can't shake the feeling that I've already been found. That my continued life is just some kind of experiment. These people are smart. They wouldn't be oblivious to the fact that one of the very people they're fighting has been camping out in their backyard. Not even for a day, never mind twelve.

I have found the rainforest, after quite a bit of looking. It would be impossible for me to get there on foot, but at least I know where it is. I believe that there's something... special about that place. Not only has nobody ever heard of it, but it's impossible for a canyon -- primarily dry, mostly rock -- to exist almost directly next to a jungle -- entirely wet, with lakes covering most of the place. Then there was that mist thing that came after me. And the chatter I'm picking up on my radio suggests that enemy teams are being sent in, but never coming back.

Yesterday, I found a hidden cave. It stretched for at least a mile, but I reached a dead-end. It didn't seem like a natural formation, yet it didn't have the same look of an army tunnel. It was pretty weird. There were several forks, and they all led to the same room. The floor of that room was made out of some kind of glass, but all I could see below was white-speckled darkness; like a starry sky. It was very strange. Then, there were around a hundred numbers etched in the wall. I wrote some of them down.

934-4334-6752-467-4448

267-76933-8463

843-242-6437

266-7747-229

328-324-452

There were a lot more, but way too many to count. Some of them were done differently than others. It's hard to explain how, just... different. I think they might mean something, but I don't what.

I don't know what's happening, but this is no life. I'm planning to try to make a break for it. Not to Ambriel, but to somewhere else. Where else? Who knows. I'm basically dead. No sense in postponing it. To the rest of the world, I died in a smouldering wreck, like a hero. To Rachel? Dead. To my unborn son? Dead. If I make it out alive, great. But if not, I really don't care anymore.

Once again, this is Lieutenant Jack Hendrix of The Descent. If anybody should find this post-mortem, I hope it inspired you to be smart and don't fight for your country.

But I guess soon enough, people won't still have to worry about thinking for themselves.

END TRANSMISSION

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initProg= "logfile02.exe".....

Program loaded. Press any key to continue.....

File 0005 -- "Extra, Extra"

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*********************KXKB://266-7747-229/LOGFILE--GENESIS-XII0005/[initiate]*********************

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[establish= signal_unknown]

[read: extract_FeedToBoot:/Y]

Initiating.....

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011011001010100010010101011101010101010111011100001100101--

[executeprotocol://0m6w7fh4x0rz-- allowPassStatic_true:/Y]

working..... please wait.....

>>--ash-- th_re-- in t_e s_y--

>>>--we're rep__ting a m___ive ex--

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>>The amo__t of c alties is y-- [lost_transmission]-- unk__wn--

--

[signalToFeed00x01]

.....

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[8:15 PM -- JUNE 12 2012 -- LONDON, ENGLAND -- AFTER THE ISI EVENT -- MEDIA REPORTS]

Much of the town is still on fire, and radiation levels are too high for emergency services to reach the scene. The amount of casualties is yet unknown. One thing we still don't know for certain is what is happening to the survivors; they seem to be reacting to the events in an unprecidented way. They are trying to actually go further into the debris, in what appears to be an attempt to get to the location of the incident. It's almost like they've all gone crazy.

>>Tom, do you have any further reports?

Well, Cassandra, we still can't see directly into the convention center, but there appears to be some kind of explosive aftermath. Objects are flying all around, blasting out of this -- what is virtually a tower of fire -- in the middle of town. I have the preliminary death tolls with me, and they're already into the multiple thousands. This is the worst disaster since the World Trade Center bombings.

>>Tom, have you been able to get ahold of--

[cutfeed_true]

--

This is starting to bore me.

>>Five, this is a serious problem. One said that the past events didn't include any kind of...

Every iteration of this event has had different variables. This is just one of them.

>>Multiple thousand deaths is not a variable.

... in the end, it won't matter. Sutner is assured of his target, and by that point, a few thousand deaths won't be an issue. He'll be done soon.

>>But what if he isn't?

You question fate?

>>You don't?

It's never happened before.

>>First time for everything.

Not this.

>>Why not?

Because, Twelve, if Sutner doesn't succeed, he would have never succeeded, and we wouldn't be alive. It's a loop, Twelve. There's no way he can fail.

>>Are you sure?

... sure enough.

[END TRANSMISSION]

ENTER COMMAND.....

initProg= "logfile02.exe".....

Program loaded. Press any key to continue.....

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File 0004 -- "Behind the Wall of Sleep"

*********************KXKB://843-242-6437/LOGFILE--GENESIS-XII0004/[initiate]*********************

We're approaching the target. ETA: five minutes.

[12:21 PM -- DECEMBER 6 2012 -- THE AMBRIEL RAINFOREST: ABOARD THE DESCENT, IN THE "NECK OF THE WOODS", APPROACHING THE WALL OF SLEEP]

>>Lieutenant, can you explain what you think we're approaching?

Seven hours ago, we picked up an unidentified object on our radar. Upon further investigation, we learned that, whatever it was, it was blocking any satellite footage. Six hours ago, we set a course for the... obstruction.

>>Your reports state that it should only take approximately thirty minutes to reach the target, based on your location when you first made record of the find. Why did you take six hours to locate the target?

... well, sir... that is to say...

>>Lieutenant.

Uh... we got lost.

>>What? You "got lost"?

Sir, as we made our course, the ships generators were deactivated. We believe that it had to do with a well-reported high level of electromagnetic activity in the area. After about three minutes, the power came back on.

>>And?

When we finally checked the maps, uh...

>>Lieutenant, I might remind you that you are being recorded.

... permission to speak candidly, sir.

>>Granted.

... the (expletive deleted) hit the fan, sir. Our maps were completely topsy-turvy. It was as if we had moved by several hundred knots. We couldn't locate our previous standings on the radar. And sir...

>>Yes?

... well, when our systems were out, there was something else. We figured it was either a by-product of, or the cause of, whatever knocked us offline. There was a sort of shaking, and some things got thrown around. This shaking was visible outside, as well. Trees, miles away, they were batting around like golf clubs. And there was a kind of... mist cloud. We couldn't explain it, but it was like a... a...

>>... cloud of mist?

Yes, sir, exactly. It passed by our vessel, and when we lost sight of it, our systems returned.

>>So, you're saying that a cloud of mist caused your system damage?

Sir, I know how it sounds, and we're not saying that it was definitely the cause. But it was there.

>>>Lieutenant Emmerich, Admiral Staunton, I'm sorry to interrupt.

>>Not a problem, Private.

>>>We've almost reached the target. The Captain requests your presence in the deck.

Thank you, Private. Sir...

>>You're dismissed, Lieutenant Emmerich.

[endFeed#1206_true]

[cutTofeed#0001_true]

Captain...

>>Have a seat, kid. At ease. What did I tell ya about my name?

Right. Sorry, Carl.

>>I'm havin' a beer. You want one?

Nah, I'm OK. But... well, shouldn't you be...

>>What? "Captaining"? Lemme tell ya somethin', kid: my entire job could be done with autopilot. Besides, it's just around that bend.

Alright.

What in the...

>>Wow.

What is it?

>>It looks like some kind of... geez, I don't even...

I think it's a cove. Yeah, it's like a rock plain, covering a...

>>It looks like a... gap. It's a big black hole.

That's what trashed our systems?

>>I thought it was ol' misty.

What's that across the divide?

>>I can't see i--

[transmission_lost]

ENTER COMMAND.....

initProg= "logfile02.exe".....

By the end of the story you'll know, unless you're thick as a brick. And my heart was really more into A, but it's cool. Just so long as you didn't pick D :lol:

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Before you was probably the most depressing sight you'd ever laid eyes on. The haunting call of the open sky was silenced by the impossibly dark clouds which filled the air, yet the rain around you was not actually so heavy as to make you feel miserable -- just light enough to give you a sense of foreboding -- an ominous sign of things to come. At your foot were three steps which led down to a large, rain-slick metal bridge. The bridge crossed over to another door, identical to the one behind you, but leading into a high-tech tower, winding into the clouds. If not for the darkness which severed the tower from view, it wouldn't be hard to believe that it went on forever.

Sweet Mary, mother of f***.

You were in a state of shock from the world around you. You pushed forward a few steps, down the stairs, and looked around, standing in the middle of the bridge.

Currently, you were standing in the center of a large valley. The rock wall stretched beyond view, but far to the distance you sighted a mammoth city -- a lone construct in the Gothic scenery around it -- a beacon in the night. The city was made up of towers and skyways, lights cutting through demonic fog, and evil-looking spikes, spines and jagged points. It managed to make this scene, a true portrait of sorrow, all the more awful.

But it wasn't like you to worry about what was coming next. You lived your life in the now, not the then. But something must have changed you when you woke up in that room, because now, you weren't like your old self. Now you were actually thinking instead of just doing. Now you knew that whatever you saw was probably going to play into why the hell you were there at all. But you didn't like that you knew that. You didn't like that you had to know that. You were still clinging on to the hope that this was all just some crazy nightmare. But by this point, I guess you know otherwise, right?

So you moved forward. You tried to lie to yourself, to hide the fact that you were questioning yourself, to doubt the obvious hesitation which plagued your mind. Because you just wanted to go straight, and not have to make a choice. Because in your normal life, all your decisions were made for you. You never had any need to think.

You crossed the bridge, hearing only the beautiful sound of the light rain against the heavy metal. You spent a large part of your life playing video games, so naturally you expected something big to appear -- a monster, probably -- which would kill you. But I guess you weren't that lucky, huh?

As you moved toward the other door, you had the strange feeling that you should check behind you, at the door from which you just came. But when you looked back, all you saw was a metal arch standing alone above the steps, with nothing to support it. There was no rock wall. There was no immense tower. And weirdest of all, there was nothing through the door. Though this was definitely the oddest thing you'd seen, it didn't seem to bend your mind in quite the way that even you would expect. You thought it was strange that you,yourself, didn't think much of it.

Walking up the steps, feeling the awesome energy of fearlessness, you peered through the incredible arch, and saw...

[A] ... absolute black. Nothing.

... that the walls of this unbelievable tower were made of stained glass, spiraling upward, the light filtering in creating an amazing rainbow effect on every surface of the room.

[C] ... a very memorable place for you, and something you didn't understand at all: your bedroom from childhood.

[D] ... a very clean-looking, high-tech room. A laboratory of some sort. There were computers and machines and tubes and fluids, and, you being quite a sci-fi (and Futurama) buff, you recognized the object in the corner -- a freaking cryogenic chamber, with an unidentifiable person inside.

You heard a noise. Reacting to your base instincts, you wheeled around on your heel, and saw that a door had appeared in the wall, almost magically. How convenient, you thought. You were just as shocked as you were somewhat glad, perplexingly elated by this door's appearance. You thought there must have been something more interesting that could have happened, at least three other much more interesting events. But this certainly seemed easier and less theatrical than say, you imagined, a gigantic mirror smashing to a million bits, shattering it's mass upon you, But oh, well. You've never been one to cry over un-spilled mirror. Or something.

Slowly moving forward, a million thoughts rushed through your head. There were the obvious ones; why am I here, where am I, how did I get here, etc. But then there were the other, less stereotypical thoughts: what the hell was in that booze? Was that pot spiked? Did the bed I passed on have a portal to Narnia?

Before continuing through the mystery door, you decided it would be wise to grab the weapons on the table behind you. Still not entirely sure what they were, you knew that they would be important, and that somebody wanted you to have them. I guess I should tell you, I was that somebody.

You picked up the weird-claw-looking gun first, and then slid on the glove, and finally you nabbed the big half-computer-half-gun on the right. They were all suspiciously light, so it was no problem for you to carry them all at once.

You now felt ready to continue on your coming adventure. But you were obviously scared. It would be... inhuman, not to be scared of this whole experience. Right?

When you arrived at the door, you were shocked at what you saw.

[A] Before you was a room of seemingly infinite size, dotted with flying platforms, mechanical gadgets, and conveyor belts moving enormous metallic crates of all different sizes. At the very end of the room was an open end -- no wall, just a sleek metal balcony under a vast sky of heavy clouds, from which the rain fell so heavily that it could almost be heard from across the humongous room, over the drone of machinery. The sunlight broke through the endlessly thick clouds and shone inside the room, illuminating it with a healthy glow, and the metal walls stretched above so high that they were chocked out by shadow.

Before you was a room almost exactly the same as the one you just came from, but in pitch black instead of blinding white. In this room, there was no door. It certainly seemed like another dead end.

[C] Before you was probably the most depressing sight you'd ever laid eyes on. The haunting call of the open sky was silenced by the impossibly dark clouds which filled the air, yet the rain around you was not actually so heavy as to make you feel miserable -- just light enough to give you a sense of foreboding -- an ominous sign of things to come. At your foot were three steps which led down to a large, rain-slick metal bridge. The bridge crossed over to another door, identical to the one behind you, but leading into a high-tech tower, winding into the clouds. If not for the darkness which severed the tower from view, it wouldn't be hard to believe that it went on forever.

[D] Before you was an expansive field of infinite white. No interruptions at all. It almost hurt your eyes to look at it, it was just far too bright.

The thing is, a Zelda movie wouldn't be all that awful. It's just that, to make it worth watching, you would need to change the presentation quite a bit. And for whatever reason, fans of the game, no matter how generally rational, would never accept that it needed to be different.

Take Link, for instance. Link has never really had any kind of character at all, but that is his character. And any deviation from that would make the fans crap themselves. But if the writers kept Link just as he is in the game, it would be seen as a prime example of bad writing.

Metroid, on the other hand, would make a great movie. Tons of action, hot protagonist, and the main story (Metroid II, Super Metroid, Metroid Fusion, Other M by the looks of it) has always been pretty compelling, for a video game. The motherly "bond" between Samus and the baby was odd, yet strangely sweet. The Mother Brain is a freaky enemy, and Fusion showed us that Samus actually had some kind of character, unlike Mario or Link. And the thing Metroid always had going for it was that the story is different from game-to-game. Zelda, every single game is about the exact. same. thing. And with very little change.

Twilight Princess was the most theatrical and story-driven Zelda so far. Yeah, it was the patented save-the-princess story, but it had the wolf twist. It had the dark world twist (though it totally failed in comparison to Metroid Prime 2's dark world). And it was just generally a better game. I still think TP was a better game than OoT, but that's not really the question at hand.

My verdict: no, I don't think Zelda would make the greatest movie. But it's hard to imagine, because it's just so different from a movie, in it's very nature. Also, I might write a Metroid script. But that's for another Writers' Lounge topic.

I think it's making a statement more on how the idea of a "choose your own adventure" - in actuality - is less choosing the adventure and more choosing your reactions to the ongoing series of events. In this piece, it's reversed, so that the next "event" is chosen by the reader, as opposed to having a set-in-stone catalyst to your next action.EtherTwilight

Precisely! That's exactly what I was going for. And yes, waZelda, it's just the beginning.

Although, you guys were, uh... you were kinda supposed to choose what happens next.

You woke up in a small white room. You didn't remember how you got there -- the last thing you knew, you were at a party, with friends. Drunk, as usual for you. You were the party-animal, and nothing started until you got there. And that was exactly how you wanted it to be. Kind of a perfect picture for you, huh?

You looked around the room, each shocking detail slightly more horrifying than the last. Firstly, you saw that there was a table in front of you, with three small objects on top. Next, you spotted the lack of any kind of bed, or bathroom facilities. And finally, and perhaps the most unnerving: there was no door, no window, and no light. No light, yet you saw just fine. No light, yet the walls and ceilings and floors all seemed entirely bright. No light, yet there was a helpful glow from the ceiling above, beaming down to the table of objects.

Dazed, confused, and still a little drunk from before, you ambled slowly around the tiny room, trying to make sense of what was happening.

Your senses started to return, and you immediately realized the sad truth: yelling and kicking and screaming weren't going to get you out of here. Your first instinct was what it would have always been -- look at the objects on the table. Well, at least there wasn't much brain damage.

Upon examination, your confusion was not alleviated at all. The three objects before you looked like weapons, though not like any you'd ever seen. They were all strange, and they looked like they were pulled directly from a geeky sci-fi movie. The one on the right sort of looked like a claw, with a tiny hole in the middle of the three steel pincers. The device itself looked like it was made of some kind of heavy-duty metal, and like it was indestructible.

The one in the center of the table was a little sleeker, and smaller. It looked like a glove, and it had small veins of shifting, moving colors, changing from red to green to blue to yellow, and to every other color in the rainbow. Those veins reached from the tips of the fingers to the end of the arm socket, and you thought that they really gave that object some flair.

The final object was like something you remembered seeing somewhere. It was like the first object; an over-sized gun, but it looked less finished than the other two. There were red and green lights on the object, two sections of shiny black plating, and a long "barrel" of sorts, which had many uncovered wires, chips, computer parts and LED displays. The back of the gun was a little bulkier than the front, and you thought it probably housed a lot of "cool computer stuff".

All three of them were finished in a polished, shiny black. You thought it was cool that, even though things were insane right then, you had an assortment of wicked sick weapons in front of you.

You heard a noise. Reacting to your base instincts, you wheeled around on your heel, and saw...

[A] ... that there was nothing there.

... that a door had appeared in the wall, almost magically. How convenient, you thought.

[C] ... yourself, standing in a mirrored position, in front of the exact same table of weapons.

[D] ... a man, slowly walking toward you. It looked like he was coming from a mile away, and he appeared as a silhouette.

I don't know if you'd call me an insomniac, but whenever I need to get to sleep I use the patented (yeah right) method of just thinking about other things, beides falling asleep. Also, if I just want to rest my eyes, I think about nothing but falling asleep, and I never do.

Cruel trick, huh?