UMI CRISIS AVERTED BY ALERTFORCE!

From the New York Times:

Sweden's Ministry of Defense building erupted into flame amid several explosions yesterday, finally collapsing to the ground, and apparently ending the military and geopolitical crisis which has become known as "the UMI war." Shortly after the blast, world communications, electronic traffic, and satellite control, all returned to normal, pre-crisis status. Only when the smoke began to clear, and American Superhero Mantis appeared from out of the rubble, did the connection between the two occurrences become clear.

AlertForce spokesman the Mantis met with reporters on the steps of the neigboring Parliament building shortly after the destruction, and announced that the Swedish government had been overtaken by machines, and had been controlled by the rogue machine entity known as UMI. AlertForce had discovered the plot, which had resulted in thousands of deaths worldwide, as UMI had closed down the flow of information, launched clandestine attacks on most who could oppose it, killing many, and secretly built up military presence in Sweden, with the intent of taking over the globe.

It appears now that world leaders from many nations had been paralyzed by UMI's efforts at preventing information getting to them as to exactly what was going on. The full ramifications of these events remain unknown, but Mantis also indicated that AlertForce had found and destroyed UMI's core systems, and although some of the 5000 might still be operative (and likely innocent of wrongdoing, in light of UMI's control over them), UMI's malevolent activities should be at an end.

Shortly after the Mantis' press conference, announcements from both the Swedish Parliament (called into emergency session) and the United Nations confirmed most of Mantis' account, and established that global normalization of relationships is underway, and steps are being taken to prevent any such occurrences in future.

For months henceforth, authorities will be working to determine exactly how and why this crisis occurred, and the full extent of casualties and damage, but for the moment it appears that the worst of the UMI crisis is over.

One must wonder what might have happened if not for the efforts of a select few "supers" who had previously been branded as vigilantes and likely criminals by many. Speculation is beginning as to how nations, police, and other authorities may view such "supers" from now on.

IRONIC

Once Bryan becomes GM, this is Chad's new character...

MILITARY BUILDUP IN NORTHERN EUROPE AS GLOBAL SITUATION DETERIORATES

From CNN:

This is Linda Ross, finally back on the air, at least for the moment. Our on-the-ground sources from around the globe report a deteriorating worldwide situation, as satellite communications continue to fail, and land line switchers have become overloaded by the massive influx of calls over old land line systems. Those systems are now beginning to see intermittent cascade failures as a result of this situation. This is especially problematic, our government sources in South America and Africa tell us, due to the heavy reliance on land line communications in getting food supplies from coastal shipboard delivery sites to inland famine and drought areas. If land line communications systems fail, only localized radio and short-wave radio systems would be available as backups, and it is unclear whether these systems could handle the load, should they become the only viable means of reliable extended distance communications.

The continued uncertainty in the global geopolitical situation has resulted in severe downgrades in global stock trading markets, with the New York Stock Exchange having fallen approximately 17% in the last three weeks, which qualifies as a national recession. It is feared that if the situation with world governments and UMI does not resolve itself soon, global markets will crash, resulting in a worldwide depression the likes of which has not been seen in almost a century.

Finally, governmental tensions took another ratchet upwards yesterday as UMI's so-called representative SOLOMON again appeared before the UN's closed-door emergency caucus on Machine Rights, and emerged with a statement that no progress had been made. SOLOMON cited the United States and Great Britain as heading up an anti-machine rights coalition of nations that are acting as a block to global recognition of machine rights and "a favorable resolution of the matter." SOLOMON left the building with his entourage, which included the former AlertForce member known as PAL, with no further comment.

Meanwhile, military buildup in northern Europe continued, with a near complete closing of Sweden's borders to its neighbors, the closing of Swedish airspace to all foreign air traffic, and rumors of some kind of electronic jamming field being utilized to prevent communications in or out of Sweden. Concomitant buildup in other scandanavian, north atlantic, and northern european nations has also been reported. The British naval fleet was also spotted in the north atlantic, conducting maneuvers.

All this amid continuing reports of attacks by so-called UMI "constructs" across the globe -- in France, the United States, Australia, Russia, and even the Pacific Islands, time and time again verified and unverified reports of attacks by robotic warriors, presumed to be using some kind of teleportation to travel undetected, against global infrastructure -- attacks on STAR LABS (a prime defense contractor in the US), on both American and British intelligence operatives, attacks on the American PTA and the Australian SuperShockTroop Squad.

There have been, to be fair, some reports of Human representatives striking back or defending against such attacks, including some reports of conflict in Mexico, Australia, and spots across Europe. However, without reliable internet communication, it has been difficult to either verify or gain specific details regarding these situations.

In short, the World is preparing for war, and the outlook seems all too inevitable.

This is Linda Ross, reporting for CNN.

FRIDAY NIGHT ONLINE GAME FOR ALL!

This upcoming friday night (April 28) we will be having an online game to tie up any loose plot threads (UMI) and hand over GM duties to Bryan for his month of taking over GM duties.

NOTE: WE WILL BE USING A DIFFERENT VOICE PROGRAM FOR THIS GAME, TO ACCOMODATE MORE THAN FIVE USERS. IF YOU DO NOT ALREADY HAVE IT, PLEASE DOWNLOAD VENTRILO (www.ventrilo.com) BEFORE FRIDAY. WE HAVE TESTED IT AND THIS IS NOT BLOCKED BY BANE'S SYSTEM, SO WE CAN NOW HAVE ONLINE PLAY WITH MORE THAN FIVE!

Please post here if you will be online friday.

SEE YOU ALL FRIDAY NIGHT!

ANNOUNCEMENTS

1. For the month of May, 2006, we will have a GUEST GAMEMASTER! Bryan (a.k.a. Mantis) will be taking over GM duties for the month.

2. Final wrap up of plotlines for April -- I am considering doing a quickly-announced-whomever can show up gets to play LIVE GAME on Saturday, April 29! Post here or email me with your comments and/or availability.

EXODUS

A few months ago, Loup Garou left AlertForce Mansion, to return to his homeland and live with his family. His departure was under bad circumstances, occurring just after Loup had been forcibly ousted as leader of AlertForce. His leaving ended the era in which Loup was living at AlertForce mansion, and presumably opened a new chapter in his life (we now know it led directly to his discovery of another level to his powers -- the feral wolf form). I felt the moment deserved a dramatic parting shot of Loup looking back over his shoulder. Here is is.

BACK ISSUE

BY POPULAR DEMAND

APRIL 1, 2013: HERE COMES THE CAVALRY

That's right AlertForce. You were rescued by... Number 10. Say thank you to Iceland.

BANE IN PERIL

Her secret meeting with NOMAD foiled by the Construct, Bane makes a desperate choice to leap into the inter-dimensional portal after the Construct drags NOMAD in...

BLAST FROMTHE PAST

This was a special image created for the AlertForce Campaign's 15th anniversary, in 2001. It depicts every member of AlertForce prior to 2001. Enjoy the trip down memory lane!

GLOBAL CHAOS!

From the CNN evening news report, the first broadcast from CNN in five days:

Good evening, this is Linda Ross, reporting on a state of global emergency. We do not know now long our satellite and other infrastructure will hold out to make this live feed, so we will keep our report short and stay online for as long as possible.

In short, the global information infrastructure of planet Earth appears to be deteriorating, and is operating only intermittently. The ability of the media and news organizations to gather and report information has been substantially impaired. It is believed that satellites and internet information traffic have been degraded, by causes unknown. It is widely speculated that this situation results from the recent "machine rights" movement, and may be caused by the so-called Universal Machine Intelligence known as "UMI."

In conjunction with massive information infrastructure outages worldwide, we have also been gathering reports of violent confrontations, with substantial loss of life. For example, we can now report that within the last two days, there was a massacre at the Los Angeles offices of STAR LABS, with at least 25, and possibly up to 40, scientists and staff killed and dismembered. Details are sketchy, but it is believed that an attack by persons unknown, possibly androids, resulted in the deaths. Police have thus far been investigating cautiously, as some of STAR LABS' defensive and security systems remain active, even with the building deprived of power. In addition, police helicopters were summoned to the building two days ago, just after the attack, in response to a break in by a masked and black-costumed man. It is unknown who the suspect was or whether he was connected to the killings. Reports are unclear as to how the suspect got away, but apparently another unmarked helicopter appeared on the scene and interfered with police efforts at apprehending the suspect, and the AlertForce's Green Lantern was also spotted on the scene, although it is unclear whether he was assisting the suspect or attempting to help the police. In any event, the suspect was not apprehended and police are still unclear as to the details of the STAR LABS attack.

Other reports of violent confrontations, likely between supers and androids, have been reported from around the globe. Specifically, we have learned of reports from near Eagle Butte, South Dakota of a massive explosion and confrontation with unknown loss of life. Other reports have been fielded from Canberra, Australia, Cairo Egypt, Rome Italy, and Urville, the famous island city located just off Cannes, France.

While the PTA is notoriously absent from the scene to investigate these occurrences, police representatives struggle to cope with rising reports, including now some reports of looting and panic as people flock to grocery and food stores in anticipation of the possible collapse of societal infrastructure altogether. Los Angeles Police Commissioner Paul Rymer hand delivered a message to CNN, indicating that the public should remain calm and in their homes, and that Police in the area are in full control of the situation.

No word has been issued from the White House, and Washington DC bureaus have indic..............

The screen goes dead at this point.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

1. The winner of the blog posting contest for March was JURGEN. There was very light voting, and utilizing the rules which did not expressly disallow voting for one's own page, Jurgen snuck in there for the win. 10 hero points to Jurgen, and congratulations.


2. Please check out the MAP ROOM for a new feature, a download just under the banner which is a GOOGLE EARTH file containing a tour of many relevant AlertForce Locations. I will update this file from time to time with new locations. If you want to add a location, email it to me (you can do this right from GOOGLE EARTH), and I will add it to the index. After you download the file, in GOOGLE EARTH, the folder will be in your temporary places folder on the left side of the screen. Right click on the folder and save it to "my places" to keep the marks permanently in your GOOGLE EARTH map.