"The zealots spot the pimp squad about two-thirds of the way to the Terran Main, and like the zealous warriors that they are, the zealots run like heck."
-YourRoleModel
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| Contingency Plans | | | Author: | | | IP: | frazers.XXXX | | Date: | 03/04/01 08:03 | | Game Type: | Other | | Labels: | none | | Report Rating: , # of Ratings: 1, Max: 5, Min: 5
Lifetime Rating for Robert Frazer: 6.7273 |  |
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The party may be over, but the Dream is far from gone
Citadel Sega, February 4th 2001
He sank back heavily into the command chair, his well-worn island of consciousness in the dark sea of silence in which the rest of the cavernous chamber had been smothered in. Lights and runes glowed and flared into being across the globes orbiting him- his craggy features were thrown into harsh, painful light by the multiplicity of scenes flowering in the air before his cold, hard-set eyes. Cyclones of fire tore across heat-baked wastelands. Collumns of thick, sulphrous smoke billowed upwards towards an ochre sky. Bulky figures shrouded in shadows stalked through rubble-strewn testimonies to bitter, bloody conflict, tongues of flame licking at their boots.
Yu Suzuki sighed heavily in despair as he watched the vile paraody of his great work. The threads which he had so painstakingly woven had been torn loose, the dazzling colours bleached. His life's testimony, his promise to the world, his drive, his ambition, his very life lay broken, twisted, and battered, shattered at his feet. But he did not weep or bemoan the affronting sight. He would not stoop so low as to surrender now, after so much had been fought for. His mind was set. He would pick up these pieces, and reforge them again. Bowing out now, with the vile blemish on his cause's reputation, was tantamount to blasphemy. He would never end the fight- honour and principle had him bound in a debt of blood- until he had cleared his name and raised Sega to the throne that it had once occupied, and had now been deposed from. Sony would have to wrest his sword out of his cold, dead, grasp.
His morbid reverie was interrupted by a quiet, pleasant chime. A soft, unemotional voice called out to the air: "Presenting Robert Frazer, Duke of Emerald Hill, General of the Royal Sega Army"
With the near-silent hiss of hydraulics Yu Suzuki swivelled round to face his agent below him. A bright collumn of whight light winked into being, and into its radiance a yong man stepped. He was dressed all in black, a stark contrast to his pale skin and blond hair and the honours adorned him- a simple blue spiral, a blue sphere entwined in a grey 'S', the bold initials 'MD', and a blue Sonic bust- all pinned proudly to his otherwise bland uniform. A long, straight power-sword's scabbard hung lightly from his hip.
"Greetings, my friend." Suzuki began, tiredly. "I am glad that you could come here from the front line at such short notice. How does our cause fare there?"
"Admiral-Colonel RazorClawX is overseeing dismantlion of the Dreamcast Defence Fortresses and evacuation of our equipment to the Citadel, my lord." Robert answered. "The Sonic Team and AM2 are fighting a rearguard action against the-" his words stumbled, unwilling to utter the curse- "casual gamers of Sony. Microsoft is still harrying our every step with their accursed 'Unknown X-Cannons'. I did requisition elements of Smile Pit to sabotage Sony's primary Ad-Cannon batteries, so it is likely that the majoirty of our men will make it out."
"They are like carrion worrying a corpse" Suzuki whispered savagely.
That appeared to startle Robert. He remained silent for several seconds, appearing to contemplate how to reply without offending his master, or at least to Suzuki's observant eyes. Admirable, but was it true reason or merely blind faith?
"Suzuki-san" Robert spoke slowly, lower, less honour-filled and more like a link between equals, "you know as well as I do you needn't have dragged me from the battlefields to find out this. What is the problem? Are you having doubts? We cannot go back now. The die is cast, the bridge is burned. The Otemachi Conference has given us a choice- we either change our ways, or fall." He punched his chest in beration. "My heart bleeds to abandon the Dreamcast, Suzuki-san, and I know it seems like a terrible blow, but we've always bounced back up in the past. By becoming multiformat we can transcend this wasted plane and infiltrate the Foe's very cartel! We may be giving them some cash now, but the poor buggers at Sony Computer 'Entertainment' haven't got the foggiest on what they've let themselves in for. If we do not sacrifice our quality over quantity, we can crush Sony's own development teams from within. They will be Sega's in all but name! Remember, Sega was founded multiformat- that wasn't strange then- and now we've come full circle. Our cycle began with domination, and it domination's turn once more!"
Now it was Suzuki's turn to be silent. Robert was young, energy filled, zealous- not stunted by the bitter cycnicism that had himself in a stranglehold. He was becoming old, bogged-down, and Robert and RazorClawX had, were, and always would fight the good fight. Worthy successors- but he still had some lessons to learn.
Suzuki breathed deeply. Now it was time to test to see if that mettle was as strong as it seemed. He blurted "Robert, why do you support Sega??"
Robert staggered back in surprise, caught quite literally off balance by the vicious attack. "Wha..? What? Why? Are you questioning my loyalty?" he replied incredulously.
Harsh, but mentors cannot afford compassion. "Just tell me, General!" Suzuki snapped.
Robert bowed his head meekly, trying to regain his composure. He looked up, staring into the light.
"My lord, people have always been saying that "Sega's crap" for years, but I would not be here if I was not loyal to the cause, and I do have my reasons. Sega have always been at the forefront of games development. Sure, Playstation games may look better, but Sega concentrates on the GAMEPLAY, and that is all that matters. Instead Sony 'Entertainment's development teams concentrate on mainstream graphical frippery and put very little depth into their productions. I've played a lot of Playstation games, and hardly any of them have been in-depth, original, or even DIFFICULT for that matter! Does it really matter if a console has 2347856890234578903204897569356890346590 bits to a byte power? Games are all that matters, and Sega I think there excels"
Suzuki waved Robert on. He breathed in deeply, and continued:
"Sega is always trying its hand at something new... take a look at Jet Set Radio, Ecco the Dolphin, NiGHTS, Panzer Dragoon, Samba de Amigo, Sega Bass Fishing Chu Chu Rocket... the list goes on and on. I find PSX games just wear on in the same rut over and over again, with only a few twists of the proverbial tail that are meant to make it 'new' and 'exciting'. Pah. Sega development teams are also much better than those of Sony, Nintendo, or any other gaming faction. the Sonic Team and AM2 dump so high on top of Sony that they're in geostationary orbit!" Robert let out a short laugh. "And I normally tell the POWs that before the slag Sega off constantly, how many of tem have actually played, properly, on a Sega console? You can't give something ten minutes on ONE game and then automatically declare that "it's crap", which the vast majority of Sega critics I have seen have done just so. The Sega Saturn, so often put down, was an excellent machine with many, many good games. I didn't see Quake appearing on the PSX, for one. Saturn was the much more powerful machine, but difficult to program, and third-party developers are lazy buggers who just can't be arsed to get up and LEARN!
With Sega it's always, always, always, always, always, ALWAYS quality over quantity. I have seen with my own eyes what Sega has done for us all.
If there was no Virtua Fighter, there'd be no Tekken.
If there was no Virtua Racing, there'd be none of the racing games we play today.
If there was no Virtua Cop, there'd be no Time Crisis.
Sega have always been innovating, and still do. Just as an example, the Dreamcast's Visual Memory System, now that's a brilliant piece of kit. We also innovated the 'plug-in' system for the game Sonic and Knuckles."
"And?"
"Some may argue that Sega has produced a series of flops- the Mega CD and the 32X- so surely the same must be true of the Dreamcast? Not so. The 32X was an experiment and, admittedly, the experiment failed. The Mega CD was too advanced for its time... the games market was predominently cartridge-based then and cowardly developers were unwilling to take risks with new, unused, technologies- this led to the console's demise. This is preciesly the sort of attitude I hate. If people constantly spout off "oh, it's going to fail it's going to fail" then it will fail then, won't it? If you actually gave something a try without being a cycnical bugger about it you might just actually enjoy yourself. It's that cynicism, my lord, which has been killing us. That has what has lead us to this position now."
Were those tears in his eyes? Suzuki implored Robert to continue.
"...And everyone who seems to be buying a PSX2 goes "Ohh! Ohh! IT'S GOT FINAL FANTASY ON IT!!!!!!!" like a little girl- I find it extremely hypocritical that you can buy a console on the strength of ONE game, yet immediately put down Sega consoles even when you haven't played on them properly.
Also with the Dreamcast, it comes Internet ready out of the box, and has lots of periaphels, digital cameras, keyboards, mice, microphones, DVD Drive... All it needs is a word processor and it would be a PC in itself! The Dreamcast only costs £150, and not everyone can afford £1000+ to pay for a top-spec PC capapable of handling the games many drool about. PCs are good machines, but how often have you seen the Blue Screen of Death?
I also find the 'backwards compatability' of a PSX2 no more but a sham. What is the point of buying a PSX2 for that, if everyone who wants to own a PSX2 already has a PSX1 at any rate? And anyone who didn't own the PSX1 will be to interested in new games than to bother with old ones. Also, for the PSX-philes, you can buy Bleemcast! (The PSX emulator for DC), those three or four PSX games that are worthy of mention, a Dreamcast, Some DC games and all for LESS than the price of one PSX2 and a game or two.
I consider myself a hardcore gamer my lord, and from what I've seen Sega sates my desire a ten-thousandfold, but also caters for that evil blight on humanity that is the consumerism-tainted cas... cas... 'casual gamer'." He gulped, and shook as if divine wrath would descend on him for uttering those two words. "That, my lord, is part of why I kneel to you" Robert did so, head bowed in obeisiance, and slid the power sword out of its scabbard. He proffered the hilt up to Suzuki.
Suzuki did not take the honour. Instead, he lowered his dais to Robert's level, and peered intently at his bent head. The windmills of his mind revolved. Valourous. Loyal. Reasoned. Suzuki realised what potential lay untapped at this boy's heart. But there was somnething more...
"If I may speak freely, my lord" Robert suddenly whispered, hesitantly, fearfully, "I have something else to say. Our marketing has been a pathetic disaster. If we are to capitalise on our new stance, we must improve it."
And his own critic! Excellent.
"Rise, General" Suzuki commanded. "Your trial is over."
Trembling, as if from a great exertion, Robert raised himself to his full height once more. He bowed. "Thank you, my lord" he whispered.
Suzuki was about to tell his officer to leave and return to where he was needed, but he was interrupted as Robert raised his hand in appeal. "Wait, my lord- I have my own request to ask of you." He drew a much-folded sheet of yellowed paper from a pocket in his uniform "May I have permission to initiate Operation CYCLOPS?".
Suzuki took the paper. His curiosity was piqued. What on Earth could this be? He scanned the closely-typed script, and a slow grin began to creep across his face.
"Yes, my friend- yes, you may."
Dark days may come, but remember that there can be no light without darkness to banish.
-Robert Frazer-
"Sorry, I can't betray the trust of my client. Bounty Hunter's Code of Honour I'm afraid...(K-CHAK!)...but then again, there are always exceptions to the rule."
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