Ex_Libris

[ QUOTE ]
So, to bore you a tad more, I went to PP at 7. I found smaller groups of 7s until I leveled. I lvled and came back. At this point, I was able to take out 15 -1 groups w/ 1 lt or boss per. The fight would be me lining up a cone, hitting the cone, throwing caltrops, picking off baddies who skirted them or the boss, then lining up and casting breath again as soon as it came up. Unless there was a runner, all dead. Total fight time, about 20 seconds. XP per group, usually 100, which was about 1/20th of level I think. Down time between groups was about 45 seconds as I found another and waited for endurance. Slots? Max possible in ice breath until I got 6, with ice blast trailing w/ a few less (5 in breath at 7, 4 in blast).

So, now that I have some DOs (more if I xfer some influence from my mains), I will have to reevaluate my tactics. I also have Ice Storm, which may turn this into a breath/caltrops/storm battle or some crazy alternative.

So what I am saying... is that my ice blaster can lvl just as quick as my fire (who used to pull buildup/breath/ball/rain combo to take out -1 groups). Same result. Almost identical fight duration. Only difference is lining up the cone 2 times (which fire only did once per battle), which can be a pain sometimes.

[/ QUOTE ]

No offense, but how exactly is this the same duration fight? You have to wait on the ice breath to refresh while the fire does fire breath followed by fireball and then moves on to the next group.

Just as the wolfbot was about to close distance, Lady Deth's surroundings flashed a brilliant white and she found herself standing in front of a large man in dark body armor with a large black cloth loosely wrapped around the lower half of his face. A force field immediately coalesced around her body, humming the familiar whine of dispersion that most heroes could recognize in an instant.

"What the..." She said, looking startled as she saw Sly Fox smiling at her from beside the black armored stranger. "Fox?! Thank god, I thought I was..."

"Names Nathan." the stranger replied, nodding curtly, cutting her off in mid sentance. He pointed a large black armored hand over her shoulder, motioning for her to look. As she turned she saw the black uniforms starting to gather on the far side of the hallway, weapons raised.

"Now... can we please get the bloody hell out of here?!" Nathan said, looking over at Sly Fox with desperation in his eyes.

Thanks for the info on swarms. I will use that tactic and will steer clear of higher swarms.

As for the other guy who says his ice blaster does more dps than his fire, that's pretty funny. I see you didn't get either too high, a shame because that's when fire really pulls ahead.

Nah, I'm not gonna continue to put fire on a "higher ground" but if any ice blaster gets higher DPS than I do I gotta see this! Check that, I probably wouldn't care even if it was true, fire blasters do too much damage as it is and I'm fine with what I got. No, really.

lbutton is the same thing...

I use lbutton in my bind and it works just fine.

*Tips fedora in respect* A rousing tale indeed. Looking forward with great anticipation to the next installment.

Nathan paused, absently touching the plastisteel plate that had replaced the right half of his face as he stared at Sly Fox.

"Look... I know this is kind of sudden, but you saw what we're up against didnt you?" He said, glancing nervously in the direction that they had come from. "I dont like leaving people behind though... Your friend, where did you see her last? Maybe if you can give me some kind of approximation and her name i can lock on and teleport her to us..."

Just then, a black helmetted head poked out from around the corner at the far end of the hallway they had just ran down.

"Oh crap..." Nathan muttered, flipping open a panel on his wrist to check the status of his sheilding systems. "We're spotted guys, need to think fast, i can get us out of here but if you want to get your friend we will need to locate her in the near future."

The helmet dissapeared for a moment and a few words were shouted in the familiar broken english used by the fifth column before it re-appeared, obviously a scout signaling to the rest that the heroes were nearby.

"Preferably in the very very near future..." Nathan said, shooting a violent burst of energy out of his palm, cleanly sniping the soldier's head from down the hallway before he could pull back.

invincibility is strong, but look at the name lol. I mean I saw a 27 tank take on 4 35's and not take damage. Is that balanced? no. Is it fair? probably not to some classes. Is it ok? of course, you don't make a skill set called invunerability and not make the player invunerable! I didn't like the nerf to provoke, smoke, and many other powers, but I don't think altering invincibility is the key.

We are super heros after all! And it's not cheap

"Damn Vaz!" Solaron swore, as he flew across the steel and concrete forest that was Steel Canyon.

The red and black costume, woven from a metalic compound that fit as close to his skin as spandex, was no longer the envy of the superpowerd circles he traveled. It was smeared with dried gore (damn Vaz puke), blood (damn Vaz guts), and scorch marks (oops).

It also smelled.

His condo came into view, spiking into the sky alongside the other buildings, just blocks from the massive statue of a lone hero, saluting. Solaron gave the silent giant a casual wave. That's going to be me one day. I'll have one of those statues. Got a spot already picked out too. But he intended to be around to see it.

Like most of the silent guardians that littered Paragon City, they where the icons of the fallen. Solaron was not dead yet. I will be if I don't take a shower

A touch of his belt, and the large balcony doors opened outward as he flew in to his living room. The condo was spaceous, with a mixture of japanese and african decor. A large plasma screen TV occupied a space on his wall, in front of cozy, yet expensive, couch. A simple glass top coffee table sat before it. Laying across the coffee table a newspaper lay open. On it, a tall grey skinned man with long hair, two cybernetic arms and wearing armor of green and black stood glaring at him. Beside the grim armored figure a moderatly handsome blonde male in blue and white tights looked off to the left, his eyes hidden behind blue goggles, a knowing smirk was playing across his face.

Black Atom and Blue Migraine, his teammates in the Project, just cleared of all charges against them. Solaron was of mixed feelings on that. He was happy that they where off the hook, for assault on a known criminal, but he lost 10 bucks. Also his whole reason for watching the trial was to see Black Atom snap and irradiate the whole court. It didn't happen. Instead it was a long and boring trial. Only thing of real note was the particuarly captivating Caios. She was a bit cold, but if he saw her again he intended to make a better impression. He heard a rumor that she was actually a zombie or vampire of something and he was sick of dealing with corpses. It wasn't that he didn't like them, he liked all the members of The Project. Even though he rarely worked with them.

"Damn Vahzilok!" he yelled, as he took a look in the mirror, one of many, in hallway to his bedroom.

He was covered in everything disgusting known to man. He stripped right there on the spot. He considered the pile of stinking mess, that was once his shining costume, and with a focus of will he channeled a focused flame that cosumed even the fire retardent material of the suit. When it was but ash, he released his will, and watch the ash drift to the hardwood floor. Need to call the Housekeeper. He stepped into the bathroom, and the room wavered.

He felt tired, drained of energy and slightly nauseous. He took a few deep breaths, and felt his head clear.

With that over with, he jumped in the shower and went to work. He scrubbed until he was sure he stripped the color from him his mahogony skin. Leaving the shower he toweled himself dry and got dressed. He was going out tonight. The nurse working for his doctor, asked him out. Once he donned suit and all he looked at himself in the bedroom mirror. His eyes where still glowing, and his goatee was still red. He released the energies that did this with a slow exhalation of breath. Brown eyes and black goatee looked back at him.

His mom was right. Tyrell Baines was one good looking man. But he was tired looking as well. Dark circles under his bright brown eyes, and sagging face where the more visible signs. He was just plain tired.

Since day one of registering as a super hero, he worked the Vahzilok cases. Always the Vahz, and he was well and truly sick of the whole lot of them. He was sick of the sewers, sick of the exploding corpses, and sick to high heaven of the damn puke. That was the most disgusting part. It was the puke. It always, ALWAYS got him in the face. They just shambled up and puked in his face. What the hell kind of villain uses puke as weapon!? Of course the puke was more prefferable then the Eidolons. The Murks or the Mire where the worst. They ran up and just pummeled you till you cried. They too went for the face.

He once again considered a helmet.

He sniffed the air. Something still stank. He considered taking another shower, but thought better of it. He remembered he tracked sewer gunk in his apartment. Mistake.

His headache was back as well, and the chills. He went into the medicine cabinet and took some painkillers and more antibiotics. He couldn't miss another day of work. The slave drivers at Crey would get pissed, and his department supervisor, Helen, was looking for an excuse to nail his ***. Never again will I sleep with the boss, too many complications.

He checked his watch. No time for another shower, so he slapped on some more cologne and dashed off. He didn't notice the small fly swirling in his wake.

Well, I have taken 2 characters to lvl 18, not very high I know. Both Eng/Eng. First I rerolled because I wanted to take ET. The second I enjoyed so much more because of ET. But being Eng/Eng it was my only AOE if a cone could be called that early on. I have never played uber type characters in MMORPG's, but darnit, I want to this time. Love my blasters, but in the context of AOE blasters and power lvling to some degree which of these offers the most. Ice/fire, I figure you get good single target, a cone attack and then I would attempt to use fires secondary for additional AOE power. Fire/Fire, massive AOE's, even if I took the secondary melee AOE's would I find I never used them? Or should I merely go with what seems most min/maxy and get Fire/Device and just lay waste because with fires mass damage and devices utility, it really makes the control of Ice or the additional AOE's of fire secondary slightly less powerful?

Im not a kid, just a 42 year old who has a bit of time between work and kids who is not interesting in role playing, being innovative, playing a weaker class cuz no one else is or avoiding the the popular class on principle. This time I want to be the guy with the cookie cutter power class wreaking havoc upon the game. So experts, what do you think?


Ack, I didnt read your added thoughts, and it answered my questions mostly.

Devices is excellent not only because of the drone, but the Smoke Grenade as well. With smoke grenade, it's like giving your group a great +DEF bonus! I could smoke grenade a group of lvl 35 werewolves (8-10 of them), and with combat jumping and cloaking device, I would get hit once before FA/FT would finish them off. I have no fear of death to melee, and if I die, I learn from my mistakes and I go back at it, this time smarter. With the new hasten DEF, it should be even nicer for those who take these defensive skills. We're not tanks, but it is nice to be able to stand there and take the heat when your tank's provoke hasn't recharged and you're laying down a massive AE on 20 pissed off mobs.

Ok, long post but I wrote a progam to calculate the max distance based on enhancements and a full END bar. So here's the raw data:

Enh Count: 0
(Gen 0 END, 0 RNG) Total Distance: 1800.0
(DO 0 END, 0 RNG) Total Distance: 1800.0
(SO 0 END, 0 RNG) Total Distance: 1800.0

Enh Count: 1
(Gen 1 END, 0 RNG) Total Distance: 2100.0
(Gen 0 END, 1 RNG) Total Distance: 1890.0
(DO 1 END, 0 RNG) Total Distance: 2100.0
(DO 0 END, 1 RNG) Total Distance: 1980.0
(SO 0 END, 1 RNG) Total Distance: 2160.0
(SO 1 END, 0 RNG) Total Distance: 2400.0 (Best)

Enh Count: 2
(Gen 2 END, 0 RNG) Total Distance: 2100.0
(Gen 1 END, 1 RNG) Total Distance: 2205.0
(Gen 0 END, 2 RNG) Total Distance: 1980.0
(DO 2 END, 0 RNG) Total Distance: 2400.0
(DO 1 END, 1 RNG) Total Distance: 2310.0
(DO 0 END, 2 RNG) Total Distance: 2160.0
(SO 2 END, 0 RNG) Total Distance: 3300.0 (Best)
(SO 1 END, 1 RNG) Total Distance: 2880.0
(SO 0 END, 2 RNG) Total Distance: 2520.0

Enh Count: 3
(Gen 3 END, 0 RNG) Total Distance: 2400.0
(Gen 2 END, 1 RNG) Total Distance: 2205.0
(Gen 1 END, 2 RNG) Total Distance: 2310.0
(Gen 0 END, 3 RNG) Total Distance: 2070.0
(DO 3 END, 0 RNG) Total Distance: 3000.0
(DO 2 END, 1 RNG) Total Distance: 2640.0
(DO 1 END, 2 RNG) Total Distance: 2520.0
(DO 0 END, 3 RNG) Total Distance: 2340.0
(SO 3 END, 0 RNG) Total Distance: 3900.0
(SO 2 END, 1 RNG) Total Distance: 3960.0 (Best)
(SO 1 END, 2 RNG) Total Distance: 3360.0
(SO 0 END, 3 RNG) Total Distance: 2880.0

Enh Count: 4
(Gen 4 END, 0 RNG) Total Distance: 2400.0
(Gen 3 END, 1 RNG) Total Distance: 2520.0
(Gen 2 END, 2 RNG) Total Distance: 2310.0
(Gen 1 END, 3 RNG) Total Distance: 2415.0
(Gen 0 END, 4 RNG) Total Distance: 2160.0
(DO 4 END, 0 RNG) Total Distance: 3300.0
(DO 3 END, 1 RNG) Total Distance: 3300.0
(DO 2 END, 2 RNG) Total Distance: 2880.0
(DO 1 END, 3 RNG) Total Distance: 2730.0
(DO 0 END, 4 RNG) Total Distance: 2520.0
(SO 4 END, 0 RNG) Total Distance: 4500.0
(SO 3 END, 1 RNG) Total Distance: 4680.0 (Best)
(SO 2 END, 2 RNG) Total Distance: 4620.0
(SO 1 END, 3 RNG) Total Distance: 3840.0
(SO 0 END, 4 RNG) Total Distance: 3240.0

Enh Count: 5
(Gen 5 END, 0 RNG) Total Distance: 2700.0
(Gen 4 END, 1 RNG) Total Distance: 2520.0
(Gen 3 END, 2 RNG) Total Distance: 2640.0
(Gen 2 END, 3 RNG) Total Distance: 2415.0
(Gen 1 END, 4 RNG) Total Distance: 2520.0
(Gen 0 END, 5 RNG) Total Distance: 2250.0
(DO 5 END, 0 RNG) Total Distance: 3600.0
(DO 4 END, 1 RNG) Total Distance: 3630.0
(DO 3 END, 2 RNG) Total Distance: 3600.0
(DO 2 END, 3 RNG) Total Distance: 3120.0
(DO 1 END, 4 RNG) Total Distance: 2940.0
(DO 0 END, 5 RNG) Total Distance: 2700.0
(SO 5 END, 0 RNG) Total Distance: 5100.0
(SO 4 END, 1 RNG) Total Distance: 5400.0
(SO 3 END, 2 RNG) Total Distance: 5460.0 (Best)
(SO 2 END, 3 RNG) Total Distance: 5280.0
(SO 1 END, 4 RNG) Total Distance: 4320.0
(SO 0 END, 5 RNG) Total Distance: 3600.0

Enh Count: 6
(Gen 6 END, 0 RNG) Total Distance: 3000.0
(Gen 5 END, 1 RNG) Total Distance: 2835.0
(Gen 4 END, 2 RNG) Total Distance: 2640.0
(Gen 3 END, 3 RNG) Total Distance: 2760.0
(Gen 2 END, 4 RNG) Total Distance: 2520.0
(Gen 1 END, 5 RNG) Total Distance: 2625.0
(Gen 0 END, 6 RNG) Total Distance: 2340.0
(DO 6 END, 0 RNG) Total Distance: 3900.0
(DO 5 END, 1 RNG) Total Distance: 3960.0
(DO 4 END, 2 RNG) Total Distance: 3960.0
(DO 3 END, 3 RNG) Total Distance: 3900.0
(DO 2 END, 4 RNG) Total Distance: 3360.0
(DO 1 END, 5 RNG) Total Distance: 3150.0
(DO 0 END, 6 RNG) Total Distance: 2880.0
(SO 6 END, 0 RNG) Total Distance: 5700.0
(SO 5 END, 1 RNG) Total Distance: 6120.0
(SO 4 END, 2 RNG) Total Distance: 6300.0 (Best)
(SO 3 END, 3 RNG) Total Distance: 6240.0
(SO 2 END, 4 RNG) Total Distance: 5940.0
(SO 1 END, 5 RNG) Total Distance: 4800.0
(SO 0 END, 6 RNG) Total Distance: 3960.0

Have fun!

P.S. Reorganized by level instead of enh counts.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
and no, I don't play the lets see how slutty we can make this look game.

[/ QUOTE ]

My test for whether a female character is actually being played by a male: Does the char look like she pays for her super hero gear by streetwalking?



[/ QUOTE ]

As a male player who occasionally makes a female character, I somewhat take offense to that.

regardless of the changes to burn/provoke the issue I have is with Geko's statement that mistakes with patch notes are "RARE" when the last 3 major patches were NOT TESTED, and NOT POSTED with patch NOTES, and I dont know about the rest of you, but even in FANBOI-dom

0-3 is NOT rare, it can now be considered COMMON PRACTICE.
NO testing, No patch notes = Stealth nerf, I understand the apologies, but the fact that the DEVS continue NERFs rather then fix the NEW problems they have INTRODUCED, such as the mob difficulty, and the accuracy/recharge enhancements in provoke etc...

you didn't even point out the best thing about fly, which makes it hands down far above the rest


you can just put the thing on auto-pilot and alt-tab out and read the web, browse the forum, whatever you wanna do .... just point your nose up and towards the yellow dot... bingo... you dont have to do any work and you dont have to watch it just check back in a bit you'll probably be there... if not just alt-tab again... its so painless

fly is just too good to pass up

[ QUOTE ]
Electricty and Ice secondaries, in my opinion, just don't cut it.
They have nothing going for them.

[/ QUOTE ]
Can't argue with you there.

[ QUOTE ]
You should only take Flight if you are already taking Hover since
Flight is so slow that it barely qualifies as a travel power.

[/ QUOTE ]
4 - 40++ SO Fly enhs' in Fly make it as fast as or faster than an equally slotted superspeed. Tested last night There is a speed cap, but there are zones where flying will getcha killed . It's a trade off, the precision flying you can do allow for interesting tactics, as opposed to just running around on the ground. All said, when respec comes i'll probably take superspeed and keep fly, for when running is preffered.

You didn't even touch on ice primary's 2 hold powers. These give us a unique advantage to keep 3 villians held down throughout a fight, or 1 boss and 1 villian. Or, if you can survive the encounter, you can hold an archvillian/monster by yourself. No other blaster can do this as easily and I look forward to pvp . There are plenty of 'optimal' ice threads out there.

Other than that, solid post. Good way to tear it apart and make sense of it all. In the end tho, only do what makes ya happy. No point running around all the time when you always wished you could fly or jump.

In a city, superspeeders cannot run through building walls. Therefore they are forced to run around streets. Not to mention once in a while overshooting and running into stuff by mistake. I have the advantage here, and if they do get to one side first in a race I am a mere few seconds behind.

In a straightaway with no obstacles, sure they can beat fly. But how many times does your team end up going from one end of a city to another? A whole lot. I'm not talking miles per hour, I'm talking keeping up in the city limits. At 32 with 3 35 SO's it is no longer a hindrance for me, it is even too fast indoors.

With that in mind, fly is excellent for me and I don't regret not having Superspeed.

Very good post.

This explains a lot better than I could why my Fire Blaster doesn't avoid melee, I just don't start off with it (of course).

At 31, I was killed twice by orange Freak bosses. Yes, I killed them before, but it gets tough when they lob a grenade then run up and try to wack you and annoying when they get down to half HPs and start to run. My mistake was letting the boss get too close. I am avoiding them for the most part now, not worth the trouble.

At 32, I can kill a single red minion easily in 3 shots. (Build, Aim, Fire Bolt, then finishing with Fire Blast or Breath.) A bunch (3-10) of white, yellow and orange minions are np 2-shot killing assuming I have the right angle and position.

Crey's is a nice place to solo. Be careful of those darn packs of yellow bees. They wittled me down fast and are easy to underestimate, but they are tempting one shot kills of 100+ xp per mob. It's just hard to get more than 3 at once in an AOE because they move around too much.

My weakness is toggling targets using tab, I don't use it and it's probably gotten me in trouble a few more times than needed so I have to force myself to get used to tabbing it.

I disagree with skipping Hover and Fly, but at least you gave applicable reasons why. I like Hover myself. I was able to kill large packs of Wolves just by hovering and nuking. I have Fly 3 slotted with fly speed SOs and I can keep up with a friend who has superspeed. Gave him a head start as we went across town to the green tram, and as he was arriving there I was close behind. Before the SO's he'd always beat me and have to tp me, not anymore. Remember, with Superspeed you have to run around buildings and take streets, fly is more convenient for me. Your mileage may vary. I just like having the diversity when I want it and I'm not interested in even being slightly compared to a power gamer.

I like Aim because (like this guide indicated) coupled with Buildup I can solo orange bosses. Buildup, Aim, Blazing Bolt, Fire Blast, Fire Breath (or Blast) all can hit at max. After that it's just whittling it down. I only had to ask for help on a mission once when a purple vampire appeared at the end.

Overall though a good guide for many players because it seems that a lot of you want to race to 40 as fast as possible, then make an alt and race him to 40 too. Too much of a vicious cycle for me. But with the current fixes (and nerfs) it is harder to get in a group. 31 has got be be the ********* level ever because you are too high for TF groups and 2 low for higher groups. The patch forced me to solo. I can no longer group against purple mobs 5 levels above me because I can't hit (when I do) for higher than a whole 3 damage. But that's another story.

Lobe began to look as if he'd been on a monster rollercoaster for the past hour while it's velocity governor was on the fritz. Looking slightly green from all the motion and powers being used on him, he shook his head trying to get his bearings. "Oh boy, Lobe is lost. Where is Lady Deth?" he asked Sly as they trundled down another hallway, following the new addition - Nathan.

The floor creaked in protest with each of Lobe's steps, some of which left actual depressions, which Haunt and Sly had to navigate. As Lobe waited for Sly's response, or perhaps forgetting he'd asked the question entirely, he poked at the bubble surrounding him, "Ooh, pretty! Lobe likes bubbles, yup." Then, remembering, "Hey! Where's my OJ? I am awfully thirsty."

Thanks for depressing me about my electricity blaster.
I've not tried any of the other Primaries seriously, but have always felt that it lacked an attack.
However Tesla Cage is great for taking Lts out, or giving you the chance to fight single targets/smal grps more on your terms.
The end-drain is pretty hopeless 99% of the time tho, like you say, personally I'd like to see it replaced with the stun-like effect you sometimes see (but not often enough) with Electricity attacks.

Thanks for the info, that was very good reading.

Good stuff! I took Hover/Fly based on what I read from the boards and find it nearly 95% useless. I guess maybe if you didn't have Caltrops/Web gren.. it might be nice to space yourself.

Nice post. Very good info.

I fixed the problem with my website -- apparently something happened to rollback my previous httpd.conf config file...

You can grab the latest posted version of Wasabi's binds from here: http://www.the-kgb.org/~wasabi/fly_binds_v2.0.zip

You can view the "official" homepage for Wasabi's binds here: http://www.the-kgb.org/~wasabi/

I can probably write a script later to generate the desired functionality some of you all want from the binds based on whatever the latest binds he has posted on my website. For example, specifying what keys you want for each function, the ability to disable/enable mouselook, specifying which folder you want your binds to be in, and excluding other features you might not want. My plate's pretty full right now, but I should be able to write something up for that pretty darn fast.

Great Work, Wasabi Joe!

I got back from my trip this last weekend, and ended up with much the same binds as you. I am currently comparing them, so as to improve mine, and suggest improvements for yours. Mine use the other keys (ESFD) rather than WADS, but I'll translate here since those are standard and more popular.

Suggestions:

1) Add your autorun key, R, to FW and GW, and bind it so you go gracefully into Autorun/autofly. To do this, add a bind in GW.txt for R that sets autorun (no need to turn on sprint or mouse_look because they're already on) and loads a new file called GWR.txt. GWR.txt binds F to ONLY load autorun.txt, and all the other keys to NOP (no operation, same as your "$$"). This allows you to be holding down your W key, think "oh, I need to run for a while" so you hit R, release F, and you're still cruising. No big deal, but smoother.

2) I added fly modes for combinations of direction keys and the Spacebar/down keys. This allows you to go up/forward, up/right, down/back etc. It adds a lot of combinations and therefore files, but is nice. Going up and forward seems to be one of the more useful directions, and gives you a nice look angle (more towards the ground) even if you aim so that you're still flying horizontal. I think I'm going to add ++up to my autofly for this reason.

3) Unless I'm missing something, you should be able to get rid of some of your directions and files...like GAD, GSAD and GWAD.txt, and their flying equivalents. You can't actually move left (A) and right (D) at the same time, so does this mode/file have some purpose? In mine, I just put NOPs for the A key when D is already pressed, and vice versa. You did this for W and S, but not for A and D.


I like your Blastoff... pressing your fly toggle putting you immediately into fly, and holding it down moving you up. it's smoother than my way of hitting my fly key which puts me in hover, then pressing the space bar to "blast off". I'll probably incorporate that into my setup.

Cheers!

Gnarly

Swearing under his breath, Nathan leaped across the hole in the floor to keep Sly Fox in range of his dispersion field, landing with a dangerous creaking of flooring beside him.

"Tell the truth friend, im not really interested in explaining things right now" he shouted over the sounds of the fight. "You've got to trust me, this place is full of fifth..."

No sooner had he spoken the words than a new wave of soldiers flooded into the hallway a dozen yards away, raising their weapons in unison to point them directly at the heroes.

"You dont understand bud!" Nathan said, blasting an energy torrent into the midst of the soldiers around Fox, Lobe and Haunt, knocking them to the ground. "This is just a few of them... i saw more... and if my contact was right there are also..."

The loud sound of chaingun fire from the floor below cut him off as a regiment of Wolfpack robots clomped into view directly under the hole Lyle had made. Without stopping to hear a reply from Sly Fox, Nathan leaped back across the broken flooring, teleporting the three heroes back over the gap, pulling them bodily around the corner at the end of the hallway.

"Explinations later!" he shouted over the voices of the fifth column soldiers. "We dont have time! Youve got to trust me..."