The Sixth Announcement

[Namira]

Late at night at the terrorists' HQ, Dorian Pello sat in the base's rec room, trying and failing to doze off. He had to have slept no more than six hours since this entire thing started. The fitful nights had started in the immediate preparation for V4, and steadily worsened, far more severe than ever before. Dorian was haggard, pale, dark circles etched underneath sunken eyes. He was running on fumes, and they were barely halfway into the game. What had happened to Achyls hardly helped matters. All of the technicians were on edge, watching out, straining for every little sign of another loophole. Not only that, but they had to ensure that the replacement cameras were up and running as the ground team installed them. All of this on a team two members down.

It would have been stressful at the best of times, and for Dorian, this most certainly wasn't that.

A hand fell on Dorian's shoulder and he started, sitting up on the lounge's sofa to turn and see...

Dark sunglasses. A severe buzzcut.

Steven. Wilson.

Wilson's expression was absolutely stoic, one hundred percent unreadable.

"A minute of your time, Pello."

It wasn't a request. Dorian nodded.

"This doesn't leave this room. A couple of your associates are in the loop, but it's unnecessary for you to know who," Wilson tipped his shades down his nose, regarding Dorian with dark, dark brown eyes. "I've been monitoring the radio chatter from Greynolds and our ground team, and there's been some very odd background noise. Nothing I could trace or figure out, but..." Wilson's eyes narrowed. "It seemed like somebody was piggybacking on our signal. I don't know if we're being listened in on, or there's some kind of broadcast going out, but I want that sucker nailed to the damn wall."

"W-where do I come into all of this? ...Sir?" Dorian added that last hastily as a response to Wilson's frown.

"Keep an eye out for any unusual interference across our channel. If you notice anything, track it. This is outside of my capabilities, but I'll be damned if I let this slide. It's sure not us causing that noise, and if it were an outside power, then we'd have squads of Navy SEALs up our asses right about now. That leaves some kind of third party, and third parties make me uneasy," Wilson pushed his sunglasses back up and turned away. "Stay sharp, Pello. If something slips through the net, it's ALL of our heads."

Dorian watched Wilson go. Where the hell had he been!? He hadn't even known that Wilson was on the base! Thinking on the cryptic instructions the Big Four member had given him, Dorian shuddered.

There went any chance of him recovering his sleeping pattern, that was for sure.


~*~


Mr. Danya was not in the best of moods. By all reports, the repair work was going well, or at least as well as could be expected without doing a comprehensive sweep of the island to find EVERY busted camera. Greynolds had been in touch for much of the day, and of course there had been the helicopter trips back and forth, ferrying fresh camera units. But... for all that, the squad had been on the ground for more or less an entire day, and whilst they were closing up some ground, they hadn't managed to kill any of the troublemakers. Apart from that stupid Martelli girl, Greynolds' team had been very low key so far.

Not that he wanted them to disrupt the game... but there was a disruption that needed removing. Hopefully that was an issue that be dealt with swiftly.

Sighing gently, Danya reached for the PA, paused, then extended his hand past it, picked up an object. Danya brought it back, held it up close. A picture frame, within which... a Danya who was a little less stout, had a little more hair. A smiling woman was standing next to him, and Danya had his arm around her shoulder, looking down at the bundled up baby she held in her arms. Lilly had aged too since that day... but she was no less radiant to him. Between the two of them stood a teenager, hands in his pockets, his face neutral, but his eyes bright. Tracen never did like posing for pictures.

For a minute or so, Danya sat in his chair, staring at the picture. Then, with a little smile, he set it back down on his desk and keyed the PA system.

"Hey kids, it's Uncle Danya! You'll be very happy indeed to hear that in a few short hours, you'll have officially have survived until the halfway mark of the game. That's provided, of course, that you aren't one of the three unlucky souls that have to die for you all to reach that point. Keep it up folks, I can't tell you how proud I am of your spirit.

"With no further ado, let's get on to the juicy details. No fewer than twenty-two of your classmates were struck down yesterday. I must say that your rates have far exceeded our expectations.

"Our first man down was Alexander Seymour, who was stabbed by Remy Kim. The danger zone clock might have won the race with blood loss, but we're certainly crediting Mr. Kim for that one. At round about the same time, Feo Eleri Smith decided to go the way of her boy toy, stuck around the Ranger Station for too long, and got her collar detonated.

"Tyler Franklin tangled with the wrong cripple, and as a result, got a tire iron upside the head, compliments of Simon Telamon. Colin Falcone went down and out to injuries inflicted by Liam Brooks, although he did get a wonderfully romant- ... tragic? Romantic moment with his best buddy, so it's not all bad.

"We had a real mess at the infirmary after Sebastian Decartes decided to crash the slumber party that had been camping out there. He managed to do for Kayla McArthur, whilst Johnny McDowell... well, he practically did for himself, but Kayla WAS holding the sword the moron managed to impale himself on. Anyway, Mr. Decartes fell victim to Felicia Carmichael and at the end of it all, that infirmary wound up looking more like a charnel house.

"Maxwell Lombardi continued his red hot streak by taking out Cassidy Wakemore. Quincy Jones also notched up another kill, though he's got an awfully long way to go to make up the ground. Joshua Krakowski was the poor unfortunate. Charlene Norris was the next to get in on the action, shooting down Kyle Portman, who was dumb enough to take the bullet for Hayley Kelly... which means that particular love triangle just got a whole lot simpler.

"Yet another massacre ensued, this one once again in the Hall of Mirrors, meaning that yes indeed, it can now be officially classed as a graveyard. Bill Davis showed Logan Reynolds how not to go about killing players, then gave Marion Summers a quick math lesson before Rhory Anne Broderick did for Davis as well. Remember kids, glass is sharp. That's a building full of weapons waiting to be picked up!

"Moving on, Mike Jeffries made the mistake of turning his back on Nick LeMonde and took a - man I've always wanted to say this - hunga munga to the back of the head. In the big shock of the day, Aislyn McCreery's daddy did not turn up at the eleventh hour to save her from Kimberly Nguyen. Not long afterwards, Sofia Martelli opted out of the game after tangling with somebody she REALLY shouldn't have done and then realising the extent of her screw up.

"Hayley Kelly clocked her fifth kill onto the board by shooting Andrew Mitchell. Courtney Bradley then pulled what we at HQ like to call a Garraty special. AKA she blew herself up in a dangerzone. Intelligent. Next up, and after a short hiatus, we had a return to form for Kris Hartmann, who made messy work indeed of offing Janet Claymont.

"Maxwell Lombardi's run continued with yet another kill, this time knocking off Kevin Harding. Jamie Li was stabbed by Ericka Bradley, and to round off proceedings for the day, one of our resident bible thumpers, Jessie Anderson, fell foul of Peter Siu. In a church no less. You can almost taste the irony."

"That's it for the deaths. For the danger zones... steer clear of the Southern Cliffs, Mansion, and the North Beach.. For the time being, you can also give The Docks some healthy caution... as our best kill award winner, Rhory Anne Broderick, will be collecting her prize there in a short while! Oh and Rhory? Do please come collect it. Our last winner made a horrible waste of her reward and left it sitting in the town center. Her loss is somebody else's gain, I suppose!

"This is Danya signing off. Stay safe... although not TOO safe. That'd be bad for ratings."


~*~

Our winner of this month's BDA is Betaknight, congratulations, you gets a roll null. It is shiny.

Also, ZULUS! THOUSANDS OF THEM! Rolls. A bunch.


#1. Marty Lovett (Fioriboy)
#2. Ricky Fortino (D/N)
#3. Will Hearst (Dr. Nic)
#4. David Matson (nowave)
#5. Kari Nichols (Rattlesnake)
#6. Isabel Guerra (Ruggahissy) - (Ruggahissy, Roll Null used)
#7. Stacy Hart (Zabriel)
#8. Steven Hunt (Nadir)
#9. Roland Harte (Little)
#10. RJ Lowe (Stark) - Vivien Morin (Hollyquin, Hero Card used)
#11. Raymond Dawson (Outfoxd) - Rena Peters (CaseyNuge, Hero Card used)
#12. Aileen Borden (Kamikaze) - Remy Kim (KamiKaze, Swap Card used)


3 days for cards means you have until midnight on the 6th to get your stuff done. A further week makes your deadline the 13th.

Let's look lively.