[F-10] Water Worm

[mccoyed]

Somewhere in the equatorial ocean...

Arium Major - 3185

Having hit a dead-end on Lesser Direstan, Koro was called back to his safehouse on Orinshi to receive new instructions. The brass have issued a recall of all planetary probe memory chips from certain unclaimed planets such as Arium Major, [REDACTED] and [REDACTED]. Some kind of IT slip-up had [REDACTED] and left the chips with a [REDACTED[ sensitive [REDACTED] , and are thus considered military [REDACTED] to be recovered by operators with extreme priority. Looked like the Dust Demons and their mysterious Commodore would have to wait.

Of course, it wasn't like Koro was going to have it easy. His HUD pinged in the equatorial ocean and he piloted Less Than Zero to a safe place before navigating the treacherous rocks that may once have been some kind of island. Suddenly, the signal was moving rapidly toward him and he got a funny feeling.

"This better not be another trap."

And that's when he saw the giant water worm, rising up out of the ocean like, well, like a giant water worm. Koro crossed his fingers and said prayers to anyone listening, but it was useless because that pinging was definitely coming from the inside of the water worm. Of course.

And of course, now is when Narbilu would message for a status update.

"Koro. Please report."

"Narbilu-sama. Are you aware that the memory chip has been ingested by one of the local fauna?"

"That doesn't sound so bad. Can you retreive it?"

"Uhhh... I can try?"

"You'll do just fine, I'm sure. Narbilu out!"

"Sure. What could go wrong?"

Koro, being a loyal servant of Kawashita Group, did his best to attract the worm's attention. It must have been hungry, because he didn't have to try very hard. It dove at him, its tendrils tasting the air for the unfamiliar, but surely delicious new prey.

Koro's last thought before it swallowed him was that he hoped he gave the beastie indigestion...

...

...

...

...

...

...some time later...

Because Koro did in fact give the beastie indigestion, it thrashed around with a great deal of ferocity as he sliced up its innards, searching for the memory chip's signal. Finally, he got his hand around it just as the creature tore its flank open on the same spike of rock Koro had been standing on. This left him, rather worse for wear, deposited on the broken shards.

He was assessing his line of work and life choices when he heard a familiar tone in his ear...

"Koro. Please report."

"Narbilu-sama. I'm here. More or less."

"You recovered the chip?"

"Yes. Remind me to tell you about it sometime. It was a lot of fun."

"You sound... a bit strained. Everything okay?"

"Everything's great. I lost some fabric, a sword, my dignity, and an arm."

"Oh. Sounds like you'll need to see The Mechanic. I'll make him aware that you'll be visiting. Can you make it to your extraction vehicle?"

"I guess I'll have to. But... Narbilu-sama?"

"Yes, Koro?"

"Please stop trying to kill me, Narbilu-sama."

END.

BUILDER'S NOTES:

-The lengthier story and injection of more humor is definitely owed to MANTIS's team and their tendency for funny, story-heavy builds. You guys are stepping up everybody's game.

-This is my first time making a "tire-beast" but I've seen a lot of them out there on Flickr and this is my take on one. I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out.

-Had a lot of problems with light this time. Hopefully it didn't mar my photos too badly.

-Oh look, first look at Koro's hair!

-Can someone tell me why, on Eurobricks, hitting backspace after enabling bold or italics causes my cursor to bounce back a bunch of characters and otherwise behave oddly? Been an issue for a while. Getting sick of it.

Edited June 18, 2015 by mccoyed

[WickNole]

The build and the story are awesome, as always! And I especially like how you construct your shots... the angle, POV, etc.

-=-=-

Notes on builder's notes - please check the rules on "spying outfit" and on "what is considered a spying build", it seems to me (I may be wrong, of course - and in this case, sorry for raising this issue here) that:

- a "spying outfit" allows only "spying" activities on distant planet

- an activity is considered as "spying act" "

if it depicts your sigfig gathering intels, hacking computers or sabotaging any other corporation equipement

"

Your story can be easily changed to that, i believe.

[narbilu]

Cool build Koro... good thing I had some sort of saying in this all

[Commander Turtle]

You do some very cinematic MOCs, I like it!

[Mike S]

Nice build and story! Also cool use of those tires for the worm!

[SpacerSteve]

Great story. I enjoy your posts about your ninja robot/cyborg overcoming impossible odds.

[aeralure]

Another worm build! Totally different approach too. I really like how yours turned out. I think my favorite thing about the build is as Commander Turtle said - the cinematic quality. That first shot with your minifig standing on the tip of the rock before an awesome beast and the waves crashing below sets the atmosphere perfectly. I also really appreciate the attention to story and effort involved there. I need to get on board with that as well. Good job!

[Graham Gidman]

Fantastic work!

[rodiziorobs]

Great story, and fantastic posing/building techniques on that worm!

[Kai NRG]

That worm looks like one dangerous parasite! The story was quite amusing too!

[Kodan Black]

Glad I'm not the only one to notice MANTIS' story game being so strong. You definitely wrote a good one too, some nice humor in there.

The build is really good and nothing was wasted. Very compact and everything has a purpose. The photography is really strong, your vantage point choices were flawless -- they perfectly captured the feeling and sense of motion. That last shot is beautiful and fits the story so well.

[pombe]

AWESOME!

Brilliant story! That Koro is something else!

Excellent build, as always, and fantastic photography and presentation, as always!

[Jody Meyer]

Wow, love the build and the story. Humour is always needed, great job

[LittleJohn]

Fantastic story and excellent build to accompany it! I really like the rocks

[mccoyed]

The build and the story are awesome, as always! And I especially like how you construct your shots... the angle, POV, etc.

-=-=-

Notes on builder's notes - please check the rules on "spying outfit" and on "what is considered a spying build", it seems to me (I may be wrong, of course - and in this case, sorry for raising this issue here) that:

- a "spying outfit" allows only "spying" activities on distant planet

- an activity is considered as "spying act" "

if it depicts your sigfig gathering intels, hacking computers or sabotaging any other corporation equipement

"

Your story can be easily changed to that, i believe.

Thanks for the compliments but...

I think you're misunderstanding something with this build/story and how it fits into "spying". The whole idea is recovering intelligence, which is part of spying, to keep Kawashita secrets. It's not just literally showing your sigfig eavesdropping on people... that's an incredibly narrow understanding of what spying or espionage activities consist of. I'm certain Bob just listed a few easy examples and won't have a problem with this build, since it literally is Koro gathering intel. Part of the reason I added all the [REDACTED] bits was to reinforce the idea that Koro's Arium Major mission is a sensitive, secret one. In other words: espionage.

That said, I totally forgot to add the "Spying" tag.

Cool build Koro... good thing I had some sort of saying in this all

Where would Koro be without Narbilu?

You do some very cinematic MOCs, I like it!

Thanks Turtle. That's an awesome compliment to receive.

Nice build and story! Also cool use of those tires for the worm!

Thanks Mike.

Great story. I enjoy your posts about your ninja robot/cyborg overcoming impossible odds.

He's a real trooper.

Another worm build! Totally different approach too. I really like how yours turned out. I think my favorite thing about the build is as Commander Turtle said - the cinematic quality. That first shot with your minifig standing on the tip of the rock before an awesome beast and the waves crashing below sets the atmosphere perfectly. I also really appreciate the attention to story and effort involved there. I need to get on board with that as well. Good job!

Yeah I noticed the other one before I posted. Different enough that I didn't feel bad posting this. Thanks for the kind remarks, Aeralure. I think your stories are good.

Fantastic work!

Thanks GG!

Great story, and fantastic posing/building techniques on that worm!

Haha thanks, that was tough to do. Ended up using incredibly low-tech solutions.

That worm looks like one dangerous parasite! The story was quite amusing too!

Koro is also a dangerous parasite. Do not swallow.

Glad I'm not the only one to notice MANTIS' story game being so strong. You definitely wrote a good one too, some nice humor in there.

The build is really good and nothing was wasted. Very compact and everything has a purpose. The photography is really strong, your vantage point choices were flawless -- they perfectly captured the feeling and sense of motion. That last shot is beautiful and fits the story so well.

Thanks Kodan. Check out my flickr for some of the scrubbed angles I could have used. I think I took 10+ alternate pics for each stage of the build.

AWESOME!

Brilliant story! That Koro is something else!

Excellent build, as always, and fantastic photography and presentation, as always!

Thanks Pombe!

Wow, love the build and the story. Humour is always needed, great job

I always said Koro was funny. Might be a bit gallows, but still!

Fantastic story and excellent build to accompany it! I really like the rocks

Thanks LJ. Those rocks drove me crazy. I don't know how you and SK and others do such great rockwork with seemingly little effort! Making something look easy is a sign of mastery!

[aeralure]

Yeah I noticed the other one before I posted. Different enough that I didn't feel bad posting this. Thanks for the kind remarks, Aeralure. I think your stories are good.

Thanks as well. Different enough to be sure. No worries at all even if not. The way I look at it, let's have the worms take over this week! I'm eagerly awaiting another!

Edited June 18, 2015 by aeralure

[kabel]

Great story, great beast - fun to to read and watch this, mate!

[WickNole]

I think you're misunderstanding something with this build/story and how it fits into "spying". The whole idea is recovering intelligence, which is part of spying, to keep Kawashita secrets. It's not just literally showing your sigfig eavesdropping on people... that's an incredibly narrow understanding of what spying or espionage activities consist of. I'm certain Bob just listed a few easy examples and won't have a problem with this build, since it literally is Koro gathering intel. Part of the reason I added all the [REDACTED] bits was to reinforce the idea that Koro's Arium Major mission is a sensitive, secret one. In other words: espionage.

For the sake of mutual interest to the question, I think i should continue.

1. Koro is recovering Kawashita's own drone data from unclaimed planet. Furthermore, there were yet no activity in the sector other than Kawashita's.

2. If there's no Octan or M.A.N.T.I.S. activities in the sector - and the probe was gathering intel from the unoccupied world - that's "intelligence", not "espionage".

3. Bob listed an exact example of "spy action" being "espionage" (i.e., gathering data on other corporation, in any way possible).

4. In addition - recovering own intelligence data is not espionage as well.

Had you mentioned that the probe had detected M.A.N.T.I.S. or Octan probes or vessels (i.e., possible "spying" on other corp.) a few moments before the contact was lost - that would instantly added a tiny bit of exact "spying act" to the story.

[mccoyed]

For the sake of mutual interest to the question, I think i should continue.

1. Koro is recovering Kawashita's own drone data from unclaimed planet. Furthermore, there were yet no activity in the sector other than Kawashita's.

2. If there's no Octan or M.A.N.T.I.S. activities in the sector - and the probe was gathering intel from the unoccupied world - that's "intelligence", not "espionage".

3. Bob listed an exact example of "spy action" being "espionage" (i.e., gathering data on other corporation, in any way possible).

4. In addition - recovering own intelligence data is not espionage as well.

Had you mentioned that the probe had detected M.A.N.T.I.S. or Octan probes or vessels (i.e., possible "spying" on other corp.) a few moments before the contact was lost - that would instantly added a tiny bit of exact "spying act" to the story.

I think you're wrong, WickNole, and I think you're being selective about how you define "spying" and "espionage" and "intelligence" for the purposes of making your point (which even Bob doesn't agree with). Still, I do think some discussion of the nuances of certain activities has merit. My philosophy on this, which you should be clear on, is that interpreting these categories creatively is ideal because it will keep builds from becoming stale or just being figs eavesdropping on each other (for example). But on to your specific points.

1. You don't know what's on that chip. It's [REDACTED]. I kept the purpose of the probe secret, but you should try to remember while you split hairs about definitions that all the Companies sent initial probes/exploration into Andromeda prior to settling with actual colonies, and thus "before the game began".

2. Are you serious? Intel is literally a short form of "intelligence". This is what I mean about splitting hairs. Gathering intel, of any kind, is part of espionage if it's context is a sort of corporate cold war. The kind of intel or where it's from is just a detail. You don't think that gathering information about a planet, perhaps the aliens that live on it, etc is relevant when Faction A predicts that Faction B will eventually try to occupy it? I think you need to use your imagination a bit.

3. Your previous reference to Bob's examples including "gathering intel" which is what Koro is doing in this build. That's pretty straightforward to me. I don't have to say what's on the memory chip and whether, perhaps, the probe on Arium Major was a long-range listening device spying on Octan communications. Information like that might be important to another build later on. The "gathering intel" and doing stuff like recovering assets is part of espionage.

4. Yes it is, especially when it's sensitive data you don't want falling into enemy hands.

Wick, it seems like you need to watch a couple of spy movies or something. You would also benefit from a less rigid interpretation of Bob's rules. He himself doesn't agree with you, but what's more is that you aren't the authority on what constitutes espionage in the abstract or practical sense.

Edited June 18, 2015 by mccoyed

[Zepher]

Great build! Koro is a ton of fun, glad we got to see some of his roboticness shine through - the electricity leaking out of the arm is great. Love the choppy water too. Don't know how the bit of the knocked off rock is floating, but, you know, physics. Who needs them!

[mccoyed]

SHALLOW WATER.

[WickNole]

...

The main difference in our discussion is the definition of espionage itself and whether "intelligence" and "spying" are to be distinguished or not.

I'm totally fine with if your approach is similar to the judges' approach on the matter.

My personal opinion is that such broad definition of "spying" activities makes builds and stories much easier to "fit" into the description.

And, after all, the comments to the builds are for expressing the opinions and making suggestions while the build is officially a WIP. Comment given, comment rejected.

[Commander Turtle]

A lot of the roles can (and should) be flexible. Explorers can do many things near the surface. Engineers can make buildings or be testing prototypes of stuff. Scientists can also be testing prototypes

The only restrictive role IMO is driver, that could do with an additional thing to make it more versatile, personally I would have liked it to have included all types of water vehicles. But even that's not so bad, there's a lot of vehicle activities that can be built.

[mccoyed]

A lot of the roles can (and should) be flexible. Explorers can do many things near the surface. Engineers can make buildings or be testing prototypes of stuff. Scientists can also be testing prototypes

The only restrictive role IMO is driver, that could do with an additional thing to make it more versatile, personally I would have liked it to have included all types of water vehicles. But even that's not so bad, there's a lot of vehicle activities that can be built.

This. An overly literal view on these roles and what constitutes an activity within them is unhelpful. It will hamper creativity and discourage interpretations and encourage endless hair-splitting arguments about what counts as "driving" or what have you.

[mrcp6d]

The robot ninja strikes again! Sweet beastie, really like how you did the partially digested Koro.

SHALLOW WATER.

Nah, clearly in AG, the "floating rocks" actually float rather than fly!