Seibertron.com Energon Pub Forums

[Psychout]

Heavy Metal War is SEIBERTRON.COMs online battle between good and evil. Choose your side, create a team of soldiers and join in the ongoing war against the heroic Autobots or evil Decepticons. HMW can be played whilst you are surfing Serbertron.com, and is a low-fi but highly addictive game with hundreds of players globally.
If you are interested in joining in the war, come visit the community here or pick your faction and dive right in.

The Silent Night - 22 December 2011 to 2 January 2012
As many of the forum regulars will already know, the staff have been planning something special for the players over the Christmas season, well, its time to unveil the first part of it... Enjoy!

I now hand you over to our studio in Darkmount for an important message:

This is
WARPORNNEWSNETWORK

making a profit out of a crisis.

Premièring tonight with your hosts, Nemesis Wheelie and Zombie Cheerleader!!

- Good evening, I am Nemesis Wheelie.

- And I'm Zombie Cheerleader, and you are tuned to WPNN, the premier news broadcaster of the Heavy Metal Wars. Tonight we will be hearing from Intelligence officers from both factions on brand new developments within the war and how they will affect commanders in the battlefield. We now take you live to Autobot security commander Prowl briefing his security teams

...called a Neural Utility Transfer System. Perceptor and Wheeljack both claim that this could be the turning point in the war. Applying it to the cortex of a stasis-locked enemy will allow us to download, decrypt and collate enemy tactical data as its disseminated to the troops, and its hypothesised that if we can capture enough of a commanders troops we can neutralise that commanders effectiveness for a short period. These will be issued to the front-line troops and using the confusion over the Decahex Mine-4 explosion we can live-test these units as soon as possible. This should allow us to press the advan... Wait! What's that? Red Alert, get in here!! You said we were on a secure cha*BZZZZT*

- *Ahem* We appear to have lost the feed there, so we pass you across to Starscream, Chief of pizza delivery Operations of the Decepticons for this statement...

Decepticon drones, did the Autobots really think that they can develop a weapon that reads our minds and we would not know about it? I have created my own prototype that you will also test. You have the next 10 mega cycles to report for upgrading where you will prepare to hunt down teams of Autobot weaklings and test these devices and report back to Soundwave. We shall take these fools own device and turn it upon them, giving us the advantage in this war and finally showing Megatron that I, Starscream, should be the rightful lea*BZZZZZ*

- And he's off again...

- So, what does this mean for the commanders in this war, Zombi? We have no idea. What we do know, however, is that there has been extreme frustration at the apparent stalemate over the last few years. Neither faction has really pressed its advantage and, frankly, its getting boring so whatever our command is planning I hope they do it soon!

- Luckily for us Decahex appears to be at a turning point. This inhospitable region of Cybertron had contained its last active energon mine, but it was destroyed in an act of blatant terrorism earlier today. With neither side willing to accept responsibility for its destruction it looks as though this could be the required spark in the powder keg of stalemate currently bringing Cybertron's lucrative weapons industry to a grinding halt.

- Under these dangerous circumstances, we strongly advise all commanders to report in to their main barracks to ensure that, when Decahex goes up like a Kremzeek on heat, their respective faction is able to seize the advantage before their enemies use it to crush them. This could very well be the upgrade that wins you the war.

- Well, that's all we've got time for tonight, we leave you with this thought: Intelligence? huh. What is it good for...?

So, what are we planning then? I can now reveal... the tourney details.
This is a war that will be fought on two fronts. First, the land war, will involve all players, forum posters or otherwise who will battle it out in the 'WarMissions', ending in a 5 or a 0. We will announce the mission where it begins and the mission where it all ends, so keep an eye on the boards for these dates/times/numbers.

The second battle is where the forum posters can make the difference. Those who sign up will be issued a Neural Scanner by their command. Using this they will capture enemy commanders and 'steal' military intelligence from them, giving their faction an advantage in the war. A factions ability to hold on to that advantage will make all the difference as the victories stack up.
Only commanders who have signed up can partake in the test, and only signed up commanders' soldiers can be captured. This game is open to all commanders from all levels of the game.

Here are the rules in detail:

Battle 1) Land War. (general game population)

• Only mission links ending in 5 or a 0 count towards the factions total.
• Missions with less than 2 on either side are discounted.
• The War lasts for 12 days, 22/12/11 to 02/01/12
• All players regardless of Forum involvement are included in this game

Battle 2) Faction Special Forces missions. (Forum posters, sign-ups required)

A team-capture game, in the style of a 'scalphunt'.

• Only players who have signed-up in the forum can be included.
• All missions are legal in this game.
• Collect 6* members of an opponents team and they are captured, becoming 'The Prisoner'.
• Only 1 player can be 'The Prisoner' at any one time.
• The capturing faction gains an extra point for each WarMission victory whilst they still hold 'The Prisoner'.
• 'The Prisoner' can still enter any and all WarMissions and hunt whilst captured.
• The scalphunt continues until the land war ends with any newly captured players replacing the existing 'Prisoner', counted from the mission number in which the 6th head of their team was posted.
• 'The Prisoner' can be replaced by a prisoner of the same faction.
• 'The Prisoner' can escape in one of 2 ways (whichever happens first.)
  
  [1]Another player is captured (including one the Prisoner catches themselves) which then replaces them as 'The Prisoner'
  [2]'The Prisoner' makes 50 kills in non-WarMissions (1-4,6-9) and escapes.
• The Staff will track who is the current prisoner in the first post of the Scores thread. We will try to update each time it changes as soon as is possible.

(tl:dr Scalp hunt. Collect half an opponents team and your faction gets +1 to WarMission wins.)

The overall winning faction will be the one with the highest score when the staff end the game on 2nd January 2012.

* This number is open to revision depending on faction balance.


Sign up for the battle in this thread here and put any questions/queries/banter in this thread here.
You have until the 19th December to sign-up.

Let the countdown begin...

[Psychout]

This is
WARPORNNEWSNETWORK

making a profit out of a crisis.

- Good evening. I'm Zombie Cheerleader

- And I'm the other one. Tonight we bring you a special report on Decahex, and the increasing levels of violence in the region that may or may not be as a result of the collapse of Cybertrons last remaining energon mine. We now pass you over to Hazard, our expendable reporter who we only send to the really dangerous places:

did I do to deserve this? Last time I sign anything Psychout tells me t-*Gah! That was close!* What?? Oh, I'm here on the outskirts of Decahex mine 4 which, until last week, was the last remaining active mine on Cybertron. Accident investigators have now fled the scene, but their initial findings point to a deliberate act of sabota*AAARGH!!*. Phew. Despite the mines extensive security and the region being demilitarised many centuries ago it is certainly clear that whoever was able to get in here had high level clearance and good knowledge of explosives. Naturally, both factions want to ensure that whatever remains of the mines ore is taken for their purposes and so there has been fierce fighting all over the zone with many casualties, mostly accident investigators. Outposts from both factions have now called for reinforcements and the way tensions are escalating it would appear- *WOAH!! that was too close! Someone tell these idiots to stop shooting at u-* Ahem. Now, nowhere is safe in this region. Both factions have fortified various entrances to the mine and have dug in deep in preparation and are heavily armed. It is going to be a long battle, and *HEY! WATCH IT, JOURNALIST!!*
...I'm getting the hell out of here!

- Hazard there, reporting bravely from a long way way behind the front lines.

- With the destruction of Mine 4, most supply routes across Cybertron have been heavily disrupted so we decided to check in on Iacon's barracks, where various Autobot commanders have reported in after last weekends neural upgrade request. We now go live to Prowl as he gives his soldiers another briefing on the situation...

As you all know, the field test will in Decahex next week and these units will be fitted in the next few days. You will relieve the security and investigation teams, allowing them to establish exactly who is responsible for the mines destruction, hopefully by recovering the real security tapes and not the faked one those idiots at WarPorn News have been broadcasting. No one here thinks it's a coincidence that only a 'senator' would have access to the mine schemat

- Ah, we'll just leave that there.

- And finally, we have a statement from Starscream, who has taken time out from his usual deliveries to bring us this message:

Decepticons, you have 4 days left to to upgrade your Neural Scanners before we head out to take what's left of Decahex for the Decepticon empire. I don't need to tell you how important this mine is to our cause. So remember, Megatron does not tolerate failure and neither shall I!

- So there you have it - 4 days left to report in for the upgrade, and reinforcements will be deployed in a week. Hmmm. Does any one here think that not broadcasting all these details publicly might prevent a lot of the bloodshed and violence or could maybe help bring peace to our crippled planet?

- Nah.

[Burn]

IT'S SATURDAY NIGHT, DO YOU KNOW WHERE YOUR CLONES ARE?

"I'm baaaaaaaaaaaaaaack!"
"Don't you mean we're back?"
"This is my show, you were always just a guest"

FREAK SHOW PRODUCTIONS
in association with
AMALGATED PRETENCE

PRESENT, THE RETURN OF SEIBERTRON.COM'S HOTTEST LATE NIGHT TALK SHOW
"Yeah so hot it got cancelled after two episodes"
"That'll teach me for having an uncharasmatic bore like you for a guest"

LATE NIGHT WITH MINI-MAXIMUS PRIME

"Yes, that's right, we've sent the midget off to the farm and taken over!"
"Clones superior, midgets inferior"
"HAHA ... you're alright Sounders. But seriously, Psychout's away so we've hijacked the WarPornNewsNetwork©® to bring you this special offer."

"Is your neural scanner out of date? The answer is of course, yes. Like all good technology it was out of date the moment it was installed. But don't worry, we here at Late Night with Mini-Maximus Prime have received word from both Autobot and Decepticon camps"

"Both camps? You were stealing underwear again weren't you?"

"... shut up Sounders ... where was I? Oh yes, word from both Autobot and Decepticon camps"

"No i'm sorry but we really need to talk about this. Dynamax bought me g-string for our wedding anniversary!"

"... both camps that the latest upgrades are available, before deployment into Decahex, but will only be available up to Monday 19th December. No upgrade means no deployment. No deployment means you're going to miss out on a lot of carnage!"

"He said I looked sexy in it"

"If you want in on the carnage, then remember to sign up before the closing date!"
...
...
...
"What do you mean there's a really ticked off Zombie in the production booth? Sounders? Didn't you say this hack of yours couldn't be stopped or traced?"
"Shouldn't have stolen my underwe***********"
/END TRANSMISSION

[Burn]

"Let me tell you a story kid, a story that happened so many cycles ago there's only a few of us left that even remember".

"There was a bar, even after the war broke out, it remained neutral. Both sides would set aside their differences just to knock back a few."

"Met a few 'Cons there ... could have called them friends if we weren't at war"

"I remember one Autobot, he and I ... we would often drink together. We could have been best friends if it wasn't for the war".

"But this isn't a story about old friends."

"It's a story about a bar ... a barkeep ... and how both sides of the war made a terrible mistake which lead to a break in the war to remember ..."

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

And so begins the Silent Night.

Starting today begins the latest in the history of HMW Tournaments, The Silent Night.

The HMW Staff have put together, for you, the playing public, a tournament with a couple of different games, backed up by not one, but two stories.

Our first story will be tournament driven and involves both Autobots and Decepticons racing to obtain technology that could change the war.

Our second story will be told out over a number of days, it's a story told from the future about the past.

The HMW Staff encourage as many of you that are active HMW players to join in, and if you're not an active HMW player, then we hope you enjoy our stories we've put together for you. Everyone is of course welcome to join us for smack talk, feedback, or just a bit of insanity in the Silent Night banter thread

But for now, The Silent Night begins from Mission #122500!

[Psychout]

This is
WARPORNNEWSNETWORK

making a profit out of a crisis.

- Good evening. I'm a Cheerleading Zombie femcon, go figure.

- And I'm the most irritating robot on the planet. Except maybe for Carganous. And most of Phaze's team really, but I'm at least in the top 10.

- Tonight we'll be talking about rummaging around in the heads of your enemies; do you really want to know what goes on in there? WarPorn is not a organisation that would recklessly attempt to use a brand new technology without any kind of proper testing... oh, wait, Yes it is, but we decided that we'd forcibly attach one of these neural scanners that we stole from Starscream to one of our team and see just what happened. Here is Mal Practice with a full report:

Well, it was quite a simple procedure really. We took one of the teams loyal minions - in this case our resident savage Hard Wired, bludgeoned him into unconsciousness and hooked his limited brain up to the 550" Plasma screen TV on the far wall. *here we go, ah...* So, as you can see the results are quite-

What the??!

<<<'HARD WIRED' MEMORY RELAY UPLINK COMPLETE>>>
<<<MEMORY STORAGE FOR 3 DECACYCLES RETRIEVED>>>

<<<END OF MEMORY FILES>>>

Ah... ahem.

Um, back to the studio..?

- Well, who didn't see that coming? So the moral here wait, we have morals now? is to always be careful when you are rummaging around inside another mechs head, you may not like what you see.

- Quite, Wheelie, remind me never to use those things on you. In today's other big news, reinforcements finally began to arrive in the beleaguered region of Decahex where fighting has already intensified. Initial (and by initial we mean invented) reports currently state that its still at a stalemate, and the mine remains closed to all visitors, including press. The Autobots reinforced accident investigation team is slowly making its way towards the explosion site, but the Deceptions -who really couldn't care less who blew up the mine as long as they get to steal all the energon and kill the Autobots whilst they are at it - are doing all they can to stop the fun.

- It may be some time before we can actually be sure who has the upper hand, but the one thing we can be sure of is that these neural scanner upgrades are adding an extra dimension to this battle that definitely brings a bit of excitement back to this war.

- Excitement until they try look at the inside of Soundwaves head, that'll be like listening to Aphex Twin played backwards...*shudder* NO ONE wants to see that.

[Burn]

The war had really just begun and while most of Cybertron was engulfed in it, there were a few pockets which the war hadn't touched. The bar was one of them. And the barkeep ... tough as nails, both sides wanted him and tried to recruit him many times. But he stayed neutral. He understood both sides but also knew what was going to happen to Cybertron. So he stayed neutral, and made sure that everyone knew that as soon as you stepped into his bar, differences were put aside.

The bar had it's regulars, and I know for those of us Autobots who were there on a regular basis, we were always hearing about "dereliction of duty" from our superiors. I can only imagine how hard it was for the 'Cons.

There was one time, this new kid walked in, bit of a hot head, very cocky. Had heard all about "the bar where the war doesn't exist" and thought he could throw his weight around.

We had our share of idiots though, thought they could find themselves some easy targets.

As soon as he pulled his gun out, the barkeep was on him. Never seen a bot so old move so fast. One minute the kid was reaching for his gun, the next he was strung up against the wall and being made an example of.

There were no easy targets, the barkeep made sure of that. Those that tried to cause trouble, well the barkeep made short work of them.

For the most part though, the place was neutral, we drank, we set aside our differences.

That barkeep, we should have put him in charge of the damn planet. Would have sorted everyone out.

Of course, good things don’t last forever.

Should have put him in charge … but of course, the war had a habit of consuming everything.

[Burn]

There were two Commanders from either side. Use to be good friends before the war, but when the war began they found themselves on opposing sides. The war quickly twisted their friendship into hatred.

Us Autobots may have believed we were fighting to preserve what was so great about our society, but there was always going to be some who fought for their own reasons. One bot in particular, well he just signed up because he just hated some other bot.

No one knows who really fired first. All we know is that their hatred reached a point both were blinded. So they ordered their forces to attack. They knew where they were, that one small pocket of Cybertron that had been kept from the war, they knew … but they ordered their forces anyway.

I know a number of us opposed the order, and from what I heard, there were a few ‘Cons as well. Those of us who resisted were left with no choice but to join in just to save our own comrades, that’s how vicious the battle was. Both sides were able to withdraw … but it didn’t matter, the damage had been done.

We pulled back, but it didn’t matter. The bar was destroyed.

Once we’d fallen back to a safe distance, we were without a Commander. So a few us headed back in. And that’s when we found him.

We’d pulled back, but our idiot Commander and his former friend had found each other on the battlefield, blinded by their hatred they had kept fighting even after their troops had withdrawn.

He was laying there, no light in his optics. The barkeep. We were all so shocked we didn’t even realise we’d been surrounded by Decepticons.

We found them … they had fought each other to the death. But we didn’t care, we saw him. The barkeep. Or rather the Autobots had found him first. Initially we saw this as an opportunity to finish them off.

Figured we were done for. But then something strange happened.

This happened because of two Commanders, blinded by their hatred for each other. This place had been neutral, he had been neutral, but their hatred had destroyed the place and him.

They joined us. They helped us carry him from the ruins. And even though the bar was destroyed, what it represented still stood. And for a while, the war stopped. Autobots and Decepticons, we gathered together, we put aside the fighting, we put aside our differences.

[Burn]

That day on the battlefield, a part of Cybertron was destroyed, but we could keep a part of it alive. It was on that day that Autobots and Decepticons put aside their differences and came together, as we had done in the past, and we remembered the barkeep.

Some how some of the bar’s energon supply had survived, so we all sat there. Drinking, remembering the good times.

It was the first time since the war began that both sides had set aside their differences. We drank, we even played a few games. It’s almost as if the war had never happened.

But the good times were a thing of the past. We were at war, and this truce couldn’t last forever.

Eventually word came down from both Autobot and Decepticon Command to withdraw. We were ordered back to the war.

The orders came through. Return to Command for redeployment.

Right there on the battlefield, the remains of the bar, we laid the barkeep to rest. And we shook hands. It would have been easy to resume fighting at that point but instead both sides departed peacefully.

We remembered, we honoured the barkeep, and we honoured his bar. The fighting had ceased and both sides returned to their command posts.

On my next deployment I saw some of the ‘Cons from the bar, but our differences could no longer be set aside. We fought, and any chance of friendship died along with the barkeep.

Over time some of us who were at the bar on that day encountered each other. Only a few of us from that day still function.

And that kid, is the story of Ypres Salient, and how one bar’s destruction brought a temporary truce to Cybertron.

But we will remember him.

[Psychout]

This is
WARPORNNEWSNETWORK

making a profit out of a crisis.

NEWSFLASH!!


And we can't get a chair that's any bloody higher?! A cushion even? Bah, Someone is going to get fired for this!!

Good evening Minions. I am Psychout, member of the Cybertronian Senate and WarPorn Industries Head Entrepreneur. I appear before you personally today to bring you what can only be described as terrible news.

For most caught up in the ongoing civil war, there has only ever been a single point of safety. A beacon of peace amongst all the violence and a place where, above all else, neutrality was upheld and those who would normally be on opposite sides of the war could sit together, reflect on their lives and take a break before they are forced back into the endless, profitable, conflict.

At approximately 11:45 cycles last night, a megaton fusion device was detonated as part of a skirmish on the outskirts of a well known district which, due to an extremely hostile vendetta between two opposing commanders caused a catastrophic chain of events that led to the destruction of the bar, killing its famous bartender instantly.

It is currently unknown exactly which commander is to blame for this unspeakable act as both were also killed in the blast, but as eye witnesses stood in silent horror at what had been done, we at WPNN now stand with the whole planet in mourning for what was the last outpost of peace on Cybertron.

This incident, coming on a special holiday dedicated to peace that the fleshlings call ‘Christmas’ has given both sides a reason for thought, and the field command on both sides of the war have suspended all military activity for a megacycle to reflect on exactly what this means for the Cybertronian race – not just on the loss of any friends and allies who were enjoying its hospitality at the time, but also knowing that there is now no escape from this war, not even for half an hour to sink a nice cold one.

We would like you all to join us in a toast to the unnamed Bar and Barkeep, the last harbingers of peace, and hope that wherever his spark has gone, the Bartender of Tranquillity will be at rest.

And as both sides lay down their arms and the planet falls silent for the first time in most mech’s living memory, even if it is for just one night, we ask you to remember that Bar and it’s brave keeper, who fought for his right to neutrality until death.

Stubborn old bastard. Guess I don't have to pay off my bartab now, silver lining and all that...

A merry Christmas to all and to all a goodnight.

A Christmas truce has been declared, as of the end of mission #124469.

There are many who will continue to fight and the war will continue today, as always, but for 24 hours the contested region of Decahex will fall silent whilst we pause to remember those who laid down their lives before us, both in this war and any other, and the innocent who have been caught up in the fighting.

The hunt and the battle will resume at mission #125000. This is in memory of the barkeep, and the tragic loss of the last neutral place on Cybertron as this moment is etched in history.

Freak Show, Amalgamated Pretence and WarPorn Industries will return to their scheduled broadcasting tomorrow, as will the battle, but for now...




We will remember him.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas_ ... stmas_1914

[Psychout]

This is
WARPORNNEWSNETWORK

making a profit out of a crisis.

Tonight with your favourite co-hosts, Nemesis Wheelie and Zombi Cheerleader...

- Good evening Minions, and the breaking news of the day is the resumption of the hostilities planetwide leading to what many expect to be a further increase in violence, general mayhem and other kinds of fun.

- Thats right Zombi: footage from the ruined city, Decahex districts looking sh-

- ...footage appears to show that, due to what we like to refer to as a 'spilled pint scenario', the previously peaceful region has continued its descent into violence and bloodshed. Our man at the scene, Evil the Car brings us this report...

...that idiot cassette that if I wanted a trailer that small, I'd be a prime clone- *ahem* Eye witness reports at the scene vary, but initial accounts state that running skirmishes have broken out all along the Proton highway between the more idealistic and junior members of the Autobot and Decepticon forces. Damage is still contained so far, but should be spreading into the more densely populated areas as soon as possible. Local law enforcement are warning trapped civilians that they should probably get their affairs in order and make funeral plans sooner rather than later as its kicking off good and proper here and now the faction army generals are involved, this entire region is pretty much fu-

- ...Evil the Car ladies and gentlemen.

- Meanwhile in business news, the increase in factionwide hostilities has seen a growth in the commodities exchange mainly in the regions of weapons development, funeral arrangements and fortified energon dependency. WarPorn Industries stocks blasted through the roof as a result, so we contacted its its founder, exalted leader and CEO, Senator Psychout, for comment and his office sent us this statement in reply: "Tell those idiots to leave me the *bleep* alone, this energon won't swim in itself you know!"

- Classy as always. Well, that's all for tonight, the weather report, as always, has been cancelled due to all the satellites being shot out of the sky by the Autobots, but as temperature is irrelevant to a robotic race, who cares, right? This is WarPorn News Network - making a profit out of a crisis - signing off for tonight-