# A d20 modern/future story hour



## A Crazy Fool (Dec 25, 2005)

I would apreciate any comments and sugestions on this story

first before i post the story i ought to give some ammount of background on the campaign setting. The technology in the campaign ranges from 2050 naval and aviation tech to 2010 for computing, firearms and medical tecnology. Most other technology is at about 2020 (all years are relative to our world not the campaign world) 
The world may use the names of places like, say cuba, except the place called cuba isn't cuba in our world tough it may be in many ways similar. The world does not have true continents, it is instead made up of large islands, usualy ranging from the size of maine to the size of california. Nations are very similar in power, there are no nations that are truly poor, though their citizens may be. The world has amuch higher and more evenly distributed metal content in it's crust. Nations don't need to trade foor iron, bauxite, or titanium, meaning all nations have a strong navy and, to a lesser degree airforce. Piracy is still an extremely serious concern. Many nations employ privateers and mercinaries, partly to harrass enimies without (hopefully) starting a war. Military ships and subs are much cheaper, and ownership is not restricted exclusively to the military. The world is occupied and has been since known history, been occupied by the "creatures of shadow" who are regognized as their own races universaly, a mind flayer walking down the street isn't an uncommon or disturbing thing (thanks to chemical technology mindflayers no longer need to eat brains, though they sometimes do). Magic and psionics are well known secrets in the world, most people simply atribute a fireball to a hand grenade, though.



(And now for our feture presentation)

	The early dawn light glittered a red orange off the water; also off the glossy grey skin of Lieutenant Hui Longke. She was up early, as always, and it was nicer above deck with the salty ocean breeze and natural light. Hui was totally absorbed in the cleaning of her disassembled F2000 assault rifle. Unbothered by the rocking of the boat or the glare, she returned the barrel to its proper place on the cloth and reached for the grenade launcher immediately below it. The lieutenant was one of two people awake and on the upper deck of the boat; the other, in the pilot’s pit, was Shift Captain Ian Pike. He was a small, sun burnt British man with shoulder length brown hair; today it was held in a ponytail by a green shotgun cartridge with its brass base removed.  He had one hand on the wheel of the boat; the other held a steaming mug of Earl Grey tea. Neither paid any attention to the other. Hui finished reassembling her rifle and returned it to the holster strapped to her back. Pike had finished his tea, and was now using both hands to steer. 
	“Time?” Hui called over the scream of the boat’s two jet turbine engines, both taken from fighter planes and modified for underwater use.
	“Its two to six,” was the equally loud reply.
	On hearing the time, Hui reflexively covered her ears in anticipation of the grating sound of The Alarm that would wake the rest of the crew. The Alarm came, and she watched with relative disinterest as the crewmen on duty spilled out onto the deck, the ship’s crew wasn’t her responsibility, the ship’s marines were. Ears still ringing, Hui wandered back to the cramped (for her six foot plus frame) below decks to check on her three squads of marines (actually three squads less one person, Hui led C squad). Hui entered the room and looked to see how her marines had handled The Alarm’s rude awakening today. All of them were up and ready, but no one ever got truly used to The Alarm. The fourteen other marines looked up, acknowledging their commanding officer’s presence, though not saluting. Hui had made it very clear that she did not like the attention of so many people directed towards her, and had therefore insisted that she not be saluted. 
	She then walked hunchbacked to her bunk, reached into her personal locker and, after some rummaging found her Mp3 player, with earphones modified for her unique head shape, and a deck of waterproof cards. She dealt out a hand of solitaire, turned up the volume of her classical music, curled up and ignored the world and her responsibilities. In a day or so there would be no ignoring the world, or her responsibilities for that matter. In her experience, it was best to forget about a combat situation until it was time to plan; things were much less stressful that way; and stress killed people. 	
	Hui was wakened by her designated second in command and leader of B squad, Junior Lieutenant Monte Connolly. 	
	“Lieutenant, Lieutenant, get up.” 
	“What, Monte?” she asked, blinking. 
	“Umm, Lieutenant you were playing solitaire with your eyes closed, and doing quite well too.”
	“I was? I didn’t even realize I was playing solitaire at all.”   
	“O.K., so how do you see through your eyelids then?” 
	“I really mean it, I was sleeping.”
	“And playing solitaire too, yeah….”
	“Really, I was.”
	“O.K., just forget I said anything, it’s lunch time anyhow,” said Connolly in an effort to stop the rapidly degenerating conversation. 
	“Consider it forgotten,” replied Hui, gladly obliging.
While three of the marines returned with the MREs from the ships stores Hui wandered out of the room. 
	“Aren’t you eating anything, Lieutenant?” inquired Sergeant Eric Goss.
	“No thanks, I don’t want cardboard for lunch today, thanks anyway though. I’m going to make Ian stop the boat so I can catch something.” 
	“We eat MREs, you eat live fish, oh well, to each his own; but I really prefer the MREs”   
	As quietly as possible, Hui snuck up behind Pike and tapped him on the shoulder to get his attention, “can we kill the engines for a few minutes so I can catch something…edible?”
	“Alright, ten minutes, I need to eat my lunch anyway, but only if you don’t play with your food around me.” 
	“Sure.” 
The cool water around Hui gave her a sense of belonging that was missing everywhere else. The water was where she was meant to live, not on land, not even on the patrol boat. Here she could move freely and in three dimensions. Humans dreamed of flying, but swimming was really not so different. Hui let out a screech above the normal range of human hearing, and waited for the sound waves to return. “Seeing” a cluster of fish sized objects, Hui lazily swam towards a school of fish. She accelerated, hoping to catch a few stragglers. She quickly reached out and grabbed a fish by the tail and shoved it in her nearest zipper pocket. She then snagged another fish and shoved it into a different pocket. Then, in the spirit of catching fish without using an opposable thumb, she caught another in her jaw. Swimming back towards the boat with her still struggling lunch she kicked up and jumped out of the water. Looking down, she decided to cut short her jumping and climbed back onto the deck. Hui sat down at her favorite spot on the life jacket locker and began absentmindedly shaking the fish in her jaw until it stopped struggling so much, then she flicked it up in the air and swallowed it whole. The second fish met the same fate. Hui then took the third fish from her ankle pocket and bit off its head. A crewman looked away, disturbed at Hui’s bizarre eating habits. 
	She looked up at him and asked “What’s wrong? You kill your food too.” 
	No response came.
	Hui then finished her fish, except for the tail; it would serve another, higher purpose. She then lobbed the tail into Pike’s lap.
	As she jumped below decks she called mischievously “I didn’t play with my food around you, Sir!” 
	Still laughing, she returned to her bunk, pulled out a book on the history of modern battleships and curled up again. Killing things was what she was good at, especially killing time. 
	Hui dog-eared the page she was on and withdrew her vicious and well used carbon fiber combat knife, the only souvenir of the first half of her life except for her scars and began sharpening it. To make certain it was sharp she made a small nick in the support of her bunk; satisfied, she sheathed the knife and began cleaning the lenses of her binoculars. Then she tested the batteries in all her gear and changed any at less than half charge. 
	“You must be really, really bored Lieutenant.” Said Kevin Burr, “Cards?”
	“Sure.”
	In the middle of a hand of cards, Hui snapped her head around at the sound of steps in the crew section. 
	“Yes?” 
	“Lieutenant, we need you in the briefing room,” Said Shift Captain Pike. 
	Clapping her jaw in irritation Hui put her cards face-down on the table and stood up (hitting her head on the celling).
	The briefing room was situated on the second level of the ship’s command tower. The room had tinted, bulletproof windows and higher ceilings than the rest of the ship. The majority of the room was taken up by a utilitarian plastic conference tables with inset LCD monitors and keyboards. Hui took a seat in one of the swiveling chairs bolted to the floor and turned her monitor on. Only six people occupied the table built for ten. The other five were Shift Captain Pike, Shift Captain Whitaker, Shift Captain Hallis, Captain Hansen, and technical Lieutenant Mirya. 
	“Alright, listen up everyone.” Said Hansen, “Look at your display, the target is in our sensor range. They still can’t see us though.” “We’re going to hold distance until we decide on what to do here.”  “Suggestions anybody?”   
	“Yeah, we ought to wait till night and make a pass on the ship.” Said Hui, “I want to try my new toys.” 
	“Any additions. Anyone?” Asked Hansen, “Questions?”
	“Yup, can we survive a pass to drop Hui’s people off?” Inquired Whitaker.
 	“This would, I believe depend on the speed at which the boat was traveling,” Said Mirya quietly. 
	“Can we move fast enough to avoid a…” Asked Hallis.
	“As the engines are now, they would hit us, no.” Interrupted Mirya just as quietly. 
	“Can we…”
	“If I modified the engines, yes, we could, maybe survive a pass.”
	“Well now the question is can Hui’s people board safely.”
	“Of course we could, falling into water doesn’t hurt much, besides I’m the only person on this boat who would have any chance whatsoever of catching a moving destroyer swimming, and it’d be a stretch, forget tiring. It’s not like we have much of a choice unless there’s something all of you aren’t telling me.” Hui said.
	“All in favor vote aye.”
	“Aye.”
	“Aye.”
	“Aye.”
	“Aye.”
	“Aye.”
	“Aye. I’m a pírate, yarr!”
	Everyone rolled their eyes at Hui except Mirya who could not roll his/her eyes.
	“I’m offended, Lieutenant, we’re privateers, not pirates,” said Pike.


----------



## Bryon_Soulweaver (Dec 25, 2005)

Interesting concept of a world, you got my vote to keep writting. What kind of race is Mirya and Hui anyways?


----------



## A Crazy Fool (Dec 27, 2005)

Hui is a dolphin moreau (strong 3, helix warrior 9, tough 3). mirya is an NPC mind flayer (NG)   Hui is just the first of the charecters in the party next update will be about a new PC, it may take a while to connect every single one, though. for the future, it should be noted that my campaigns are very, very high powered, PCs have a 60 pt buy, npcs 50, classles monsters receive a bonus feat and plus two to three ability scores. This still favors the PCs but i give the PCs very long "adventures" with a lot of extremely well armed enimies. not many fourth level thugs fire RPGs _at_ the players, huh?


----------

