What if you took your most advanced weapons system out for a field test, and the enemy blunders upon it by nothing but pure dumb luck?

That is a question that is being explored in this chapter. That, and a few other things.

The technological slant continues, with an introduction on Mole Research (hey I have no idea if this is canon, but those guys *got* to have some place to think about, and develop stuff based on all their alien tech, don't they? And I don't really think the Rebs can do all their thinking while driving their Emans at the same time, eh? :)

Play of words on the Imtrax brand name. Take the top, oh I don't know, three? four? leading processor brands in the market now (cmon you know who they are), combine them together, and... voila!! I got an "I", an "A", "M" and even an "X" somewhere. "Cyclone" doesn't mean anything - just thought it sounded cool. "Tempest" came to mind too.

Oh yes, and the timeline thing. Well, I did some research (by finishing the Human campaign all over - one more time), and sort of tried to identify where this particular SKChron chapter would fit into the Starsiege storyline - without stepping on anyone's toes (feet, hands, or fingers for that matter). Also managed to figure out the Starsiege Timescale (10,000 units == 365 days).

Everyone knows about Harabec's Super Predator, right? It's the original. The aliens built it. It carries a shieldgen, twin MFAC's, Quicksilver armor, and probably has an anti-grav unit that shaves fifteen tons off the vehicle weight.

Okay, now we try to rebuild it. Oh, we can't mount those MFAC's, we couldn't get the AG to take out more than five tons of weight, and the anti-grav control sux big time! Oh yeah, now, that sounds a lot more realistic, and what may well happen if we try to copy the form and not the entire function of an entirely alien construct. Ah well.

Okay I confess - I made up the stuff about the AG vs Force thing. But IMHO, it's a good-enough explanation for our Predators bouncing around in-game. Ties in well with the storyline too, heh.

The chapter was originally meant to revolve around the last part, but I couldn't write about that battle without explaining some background, so, well, you get to read the background. If you've wanted action-only, you could try skipping to the last part. But that probably won't apply every time. Ahem.

Stay tuned. Whatever happens to Roger next, after turbo-boostin' his precious Pred for miles? Does he get lost? Does a shock wave from nowhere take him out (again!!) ? Did his friend Max Kayne make it out alive? Well, actually, some of that, I'm not so sure myself (!!) right now. But I'll think of something.

Comments? Suggestions, bitter complaints, sweet kudos, and any tastes or flavors in between, pls. send them to louie@stormkeepers.org.