unforum

[Nighthawk]

[Agent Lex]

I finally went and transcribed the two Nate and Gough vids. Big quote box warning, the first one's 10 minutes!

Dr. Gough and Nate chat

[redct]

[OwnD]

[tygr20]

So... do... do we hit them? For closure? Or extension?

[celina63]

Just for giggles, I emailed Nate today to see if I can goad him into putting down the pina colada and giving me an update Will post if anything comes from it...

[Nighthawk]

My point of contact - the person arranging the Miami thing - is now not answering my emails.

[Kayberry]

I've been running a few scenarios about how this could lead to some closure.

First - We act to make the Holomove IPO sound like a scam to potential investors by distributing the incriminating footage and suggesting the technology doesn't work. Nate then contacts Erik, telling him that he can make the technology work but wants the hit called off, his job back, and equal ownership to Erik of Holomove. Eric agrees in order to preserve his investment and the IPO. Then, before the stock goes public, Gough appeals to Eliza out of nostalgia to get back some ownership in the company, which may or may not work. Failing that, Gough uses his connections to gain financial backing to buy up a large percentage of the public shares when they go public.

The plan is to have Nate and Gough gain controlling interest in Holomove, so that they can successfully remove Erik, send proof of the exchange fraud to the SEC, then force a buyback of all public shares, including the private shares that Erik owns, and possibly those of Eliza if she was involved in the IPO scam. This would leave Nate and Gough with private control of Holomove, with working technology thanks to Nate's ingenuity. And, with exchange fraud on Erik's name, he'll likely lose all investment he has in Freyja as well, plus there's fines, penalties, and damages that would eat away any remaining money Erik would have gained from the sale of his ownership. Erik loses, Gough wins, all is well with the world.

Or, Gough has another, even more cunning plan at work, involving abstract, complicated puzzles for us to solve while Nate examines the intricacies of a Rubik's cube. You can't take the stickers off this time, Nate; but you can take the thing apart and rebuild it.

[Nighthawk]

Closure? How 'bout this method?



Part of me is thankful to not have been a part of this.

[intersect]

*fizzle*

[OwnD]

sweet! Gough is alive, teamed up with Nate, and theyre going to get back at Erik and...and...END

[konamouse]

So much potential....so much disappointment at the end.
That was a climax? That was not a proper ending. We didn't save the world (or at least get Erik tossed out of Holomove).

No one got the girl.

And the fat lady never sang.

The approach was good. The tricks in the middle good to great to "huh"? Moderate degree of difficulty (you know, if you had given us about 24 more hours, I'd bet we would have solved that last puzzle for Nate, but I guess they felt they were too much in a hurry...next time just nudge us, don't have Nate do the solve). The dismount was, unfortunately, a huge mistep. 1 point deduction for the stumble at the end.

[Kayberry]

Okay, let's try this thing again:

First, Erik pins the whole IPO scam on Nate and Dr. Gough, whom had faked his own death to escape liability for technology that apparently would never work. Nate was hired because of his background and his apparent capability to make the technology work, but alas he was working for Dr. Gough the entire time and meant to stall progress in discovering the technology's fatal flaw. Erik passes on the information he has to the SEC and FBI, then guts Holomove for whatever he can recover. Since other businesses like IBM and Microsoft, and perhaps Google would buy the various technology components and hold exclusive patent rights to it, Gough would lose the ability to make derivative works legally, and will have to spend the rest of his life, along with Nate, on an island paradise, locally, never arousing suspicion of who they were and always paying in cash.

Meanwhile, one of the buyers of Holomove's technological components manages to develop from it a crude type of force field, which they promptly sell the the department of defense to make our aircraft, ground vehicles, ships, and even individual soldiers invulnerable to conventional attack. Another acquirer of said Holomove technology develops it into a weapon unlike anything we've seen, able to penetrate all forms of physical armor, which they're also compelled to sell to the department of defense. For a time, the United States reenforces its role as the world's strongest superpower and polices the world; however it's in a lack of forethought to the consequences that the U.S. secretly gives both technologies to Israel for the purpose of self-defense. When a response to a terrorist bombing leads to a brief, one-sided conflict where self-proclaimed "freedom fighters" are slaughtered, Iran calls foul against both Israel and the United States and launches nuclear warheads acquired in an arms-for-oil deal with North Korea towards Israel. The attack is a spectacular failure, as the Holomove technology repels the blasts and radioactivity towards neighboring Jordan. The deaths related to the fallout prompts the entire arab-muslim world to unite against the western powers in what will be known as "World War III," or the "Holomove War." There's a rush to provide the EU and China with Holomove technology, but they end up being the easiest targets for the Arab Coalition and bear the brunt of nuclear attack, courtesy of Pakistan's nuclear program. France's population drops to near-zero; western Europe and China suffer a large population loss. But this early victory for the Arab coalition only fuels America's own ambition for victory. The Arab Coalition is quickly reduced to a tenth of its original population, despite their devout belief that God will intervene and save the primarily Muslim population, call for an armistice followed by unconditional surrender. 2.7 Billion lives were lost in the conflict, including those from collateral damage.

After the war, OPEC is completely gutted and reorganized under U.S. control, leaving the U.S. with the largest oil security in the world. They gladly repay their national debt to China and the world's financial unions in oil, and for a short time the world's energy problems are completely eliminated as fossil fuels are burned at an even more accelerated rate. However, the result is significantly accelerated climate change, leading to widespread drought, flooding, frequent winter blizzards, widespread crop failure, and sealevel increase. A lack of freshwater resources throughout the globe lead to regional conflicts over water, which destabilize local governments leading to widespread rioting, famine and disease, and an extraordinarily virulent strain of the common cold which leads to a pandemic that kills another 1.4 billion people. This actually comes as a life-saving measure, as the world can more easily support a smaller population at this point in time; governments worldwide institute a one-child policy to ensure that rampant population growth will not cause resources to deplete so quickly as to become a problem.

Then, in an even more intriguing twist of events, the Rapture occurs and it turns out that Islam was right, and God's pissed. Luckily, Holomove technology works against even God, and God ends up being killed. At that precise moment in time, the universe can no longer exist, since its existence is dependent on God, and immediately blinks out of existence. Luckily this just works as a reset button for God and the universe, and is immediately proceeded by a new big bang. Of course, we're no longer around to see this occur.

Thanks, Microsoft. You just destroyed the universe. Happy now?

[Nighthawk]

Damn, that's actually not bad! You should PM something!

[Rogi Ocnorb]

And, as usual, the UN is nowhere to be seen. Excellent synopsis for the apocalypse, Kayberry.