Festival of Firepower Xiii - "Nerf Herders"

[Chopper]

Loot, Invention, Discovery

Some time ago I looted a Drone Head... The CPU, data transmitter and receiver were all still intact, and occassionally it would emit a burst of static. Now and then these static bursts would clearly contain a definite pattern, as if it was still receiving and transmitting messages...

A Technician helped me amplify the signal... Basically we hooked the head up to a power source, a signal booster and a Xlite Display Screen. For some time now I have been able to observe data transmissions between Akbal-Cimi and the Robot Forces on Calypso...

Most of the Data is pretty non-descript... Standard operating codes, software upgrades, repair and maintainance, mostly the basic data link reasserting itself repeatedly to maintain contact with the Drones here. Routine stuff is always in Hexadecimal. I've had no trouble translating it, but there's never been anything of any use.

Occasionally I see what must be important messages... I can tell because they are usually one-time messages, of a paragraph or more, instead of the usual constant repeated "chatter". These messages are invariably deeply encrypted and I have never yet managed to break the code.

But this morning I stumbled across something extraordinary... It was a message in the "One-time Data-Chunk Must-be-important" style, only it had not been encrypted, it was just in standard Hex. It looked like this:

46 72 6F 6D 20 43 61 6C 79 70 73 6F 20 49 6E 66 69 6C 74 72 61 74 69 6F 6E 20 55 6E 69 74 20 74 6F 20 41 6B 62 61 6C 2D 43 69 6D 69 20 48 69 67 68 20 43 6F 6D 6D 61 6E 64 A 41 73 20 69 6E 73 74 72 75 63 74 65 64 20 74 68 65 20 69 6E 63 72 65 61 73 65 20 69 6E 20 53 74 61 6D 69 6E 61 20 61 6E 64 20 52 65 67 65 6E 65 72 61 74 69 6F 6E 20 6C 65 76 65 6C 73 20 6F 66 20 46 65 66 66 6F 69 64 20 4D 61 66 66 6F 69 64 20 41 74 72 6F 78 20 41 6D 62 75 6C 69 6D 61 78 20 41 6C 6C 6F 70 68 79 6C 6C 20 45 73 74 6F 70 68 79 6C 6C 20 61 6E 64 20 41 72 61 6E 65 61 74 72 6F 78 20 73 70 65 63 69 65 73 20 6F 6E 20 50 6C 61 6E 65 74 20 43 61 6C 79 70 73 6F 20 68 61 73 20 62 65 65 6E 20 73 75 63 63 65 73 73 66 75 6C 20 61 6E 64 20 4D 65 63 68 20 69 6E 76 6F 6C 76 65 6D 65 6E 74 20 68 61 73 20 67 6F 6E 65 20 75 6E 64 65 74 65 63 74 65 64 20 55 6E 69 74 20 32 20 68 61 73 20 63 6F 6D 70 6C 65 74 65 64 20 69 64 65 6E 74 69 63 61 6C 20 6D 6F 64 69 66 69 63 61 74 69 6F 6E 73 20 74 6F 20 74 68 65 20 41 75 72 6C 69 20 70 6F 70 75 6C 61 74 69 6F 6E 20 6F 66 20 43 72 79 73 74 61 6C 20 50 61 6C 61 63 65 20 57 68 65 72 65 20 77 65 20 68 61 76 65 20 66 61 69 6C 65 64 20 6D 61 79 20 74 68 65 73 65 20 6D 6F 62 73 20 73 75 63 63 65 65 64 20 44 65 61 74 68 20 74 6F 20 61 6C 6C 20 48 75 6D 61 6E 73


Something told me it was worth translating... So I ran it through a basic Hex Decoder. It wasn't difficult, try it yourselves. I didn't really expect to find anything interesting, since there was no encryption. How wrong I was.

The message content chilled my blood...... Here it is:

From Calypso Infiltration Unit to Akbal-Cimi High Command
As instructed the increase in Stamina and Regeneration levels of Feffoid Maffoid Atrox Ambulimax Allophyll Estophyll and Araneatrox species on Planet Calypso has been successful and Mech involvement has gone undetected
Unit 2 has completed identical modifications to the Aurli population of Crystal Palace
Where we have failed may these mobs succeed
Death to all Humans



The awful truth became shockingly clear to me...

The Robots Engineered the recent Regeneration Nerfs! It does make a sickening kind of sense. They have repeatedly tried and failed to overthrow us hardy humans. So now they look to other ways of getting the better of us, by turning the Mobs of Calypso against us, and genetically enhancing their ability to hurt us.

Only blind luck has brought this discovery to us... Had the Unit on Calypso encryted this message I would never have found it. We have indeed been fortunate to stumble across a glimpse of the enemy's plan.


They cannot be allowed to get away with this... I don't know about you but I am proud to call myself a Citizen of Calypso, and will happily fight and die (repeatedly) to protect my home and my friends.

As a GloryHound I can think of only one possible response...

We Fight!

[Chopper]

Solution



People of Calypso, I'm afraid I must call on you once more...

We thought the Robot War was over, we were wrong...

Regeneration rates of the Mobs YOU love to hunt have been Boosted...
And it's the scheming cowardly tin-cans who are responsible.

We must show them we're stronger than they are.
We must show them their plan will Fail.


Hurrikane and the GloryHounds have no choice but to organise...

Festival of Firepower Xiii :

Nerf-Herders!

The Classic 6 hour Team Hunt Event
On Saturday 3rd January 2009
at 17:00 MA time
until 23:00 later that night
Start/Finish : Nymphtown Catwalk
24632 12608 Eudoria

That's just a little way NW of Nymphtown

Here it is, look


Click to enlarge

That's Nymph you can see in the background...

It served well as a starting point before,
It will serve us well again.

The Festival of Firepower is a Free to Enter hunting event that has run successfully for several years. It began as a celebration of the sheer firepower of a team of hunters with Big Weapons. Back then it was Bravos. These days there are many many fine death-dealing weapons to choose from...

Here is a link to the previous rounds... History of the Festival of Firepower

And here's how the results went...

FoF 1 "Bravo Owners Take Note" won by : No-one
FoF ii "Festival of Firepower 2" won by : Everyone
FoF iii "The Rig" : Absolute carnage, who knows Who won?
FoF iv "Ugly Cull" won by Gloryhounds
FoF v "Spidapocalypse" won by Hunters Extreme
FoF vi "Amethera Caper" won by Hunters Extreme
FoF vii "Beyond Mental" won by Hounds and Friends
Fof viii "Tundrageddon" won by Hounds and Friends
FoF iX "CND Day" won by The Disturbed Ones
FoF X "Insecticide" won by NotA
FoF Xi "Low Impact, Weird Weaponry" won by FoFW
FoF Xii "Mutant Massacre!" won by FoFW

Here's how it works:

Teams of up to 12, made up of anyone you like.. Friends, Soc-mates, Old WoF teams.. anyone..
The idea is to global as many times as possible from a set mob list, with points for the different mobs, just like the WoF, only you have 6 hours to do it in... The overall aim is to kill as many of the Nerfed Mobs as possible, and show the Robots of Akbal-Cimi that neither they nor their sick genetic manipulation can get the better of the People of Calypso!



FoF Xiii Mob List:


Feffoid/Maffoid....... 5 points


Atrox.................. 6 points


Ambulimax............. 7 points


Allophyl/Estophyl...... 8 points


Aurli.................... 10 points


And a "one time only" Bonus Mob:

Araneatrox....... 25 points
But you can only score ONCE on these...

The mob list for FoF Xiii is going to make for some important tactical decision from each team. The bulk of the main list should be no trouble. Aurli are another matter. You will need to decide whether to send a small contingent to Crystal Palace to deal with the Aliens, or to go there together, or to leave the Aurli out of your plans altogether...

The bonus mob, the Araneatrox, is a complete Bitch since the Bots messed with it's regen. I used to hunt them myself, using the time-honoured revive-return-repeat method. That is no longer an option for someone like me.
Fortunately you will only need ONE global on these leggy monsters for your 25 bonus points.

As with the WoF there are several other Bonuses available:

Any HoF is worth Double Points for that Mob

Any ATH is worth Double Points for the Entire Hunt

And the "Susan" - Any global of 113 peds is Double Points too

There's also the Variety Bonus:

The more different mobs from the main list of 5 you global on, the bigger the bonus :

2 Different Mobs........ Bonus 5 points
.
3 Different Mobs........ Bonus 10 points
.
4 Different Mobs........ Bonus 25 points
.
5 Different Mobs........ Bonus 50 points


The bonus mob Araneatrox does NOT count towards your mob Variety total...
(It's already worth 25 points, so all 6 mobs gets you 75 pts)



The "FoF Champions" Title goes to the highest scoring team
Currently held by : Federation of Free Wanderers

The "FoF Heroes" Title is also back up for grabs
and will go to the first team to global on all 6 mobs
Currently held by : Federation of Free Wanderers

Please, I urge all of you to get a team together, or just turn up alone, and be ready to defend your planet and your friends.

We will show the Robots that nothing they do can defeat us.

This time we will concentrate on culling the mobs they have Nerfed. Once this is successful we can turn our attention to the Mechanised Menaces. But that is for another time...

Those of you who have fought in the FoF and the WoF before will know what to do. The rest of you can look at previous FoF threads, or can post questions here and I will endeavor to put your minds at ease as best I can, under the circumstances.

It's time to take a stand once again

The Robots think they have us against the ropes

It's time to show them their efforts were in vain

It's time for Festival of Firepower Xiii

Nerf-Herders!


Who's With Me?

[Lee]

Unless the world has come to an end before then - I'm there this time to shoot the sh--e out of em all (while listening to the nerf herding Buffy theme song ofc)
Which team will benefit from my insane presense will be determined at a later date, or I may decide to make my own kick ass team for a change

Your storylines and humour just get better and better hon, thanks for sparking my interest and love for EU again and again when it most needed a spark

[Oleg]

I have just e-mailed myself so that I remember to write this down.

I hope I don't get stuck with blimmin' useless TDO again though

[safara]

ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh

Originally Posted by Oleg

I hope I don't get stuck with blimmin' useless TDO again though

FoFXII was a tragic (but momentary) blip on our otherwise impressive FoF credentials LOL

[Pirx Danford]

Awesome!!!!!

[AlphaGeek]

Who are you calling "scruffy looking"????

[Chopper]

Originally Posted by AlphaGeek

Who are you calling "scruffy looking"????

He he that took me a few secs...

Top marks for catching references, and running with em

[Chopper]

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Fs3CvQT63QQ




and here's a message for the Robots of Akbal-Cimi

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=_59lxt4ndwg

[Rayne Jade]

I will do my best to be there for the boring, but very necessary judging. On 3 JAN 09 I might be driving from Ohio to my home in Maine (returning from Christmas holiday). Hopefully I can make it, but if not best of luck to all teams!