"We'd finish a lot faster if we could just take a few trees back to base and chop them up," grumbled Cpl. Michaels.

Sgt. Greene just stared squarely into the mildly defiant eyes of the grousing soldier until the corporal shrugged and quietly resumed collecting fallen branches. "Yeah, you do that, and then when it comes to the choice between dragging your broken body or a cord of firewood, I know which one I consider more useful."

As realization dawned upon the Klik, the pair soared quickly until the blue sky faded into black. 7UM-832 could now look at the planet as a single perfect orb, suspended in the inky void. The continents drifted lazily in an endless game of chase. The moon emerged from behind and spun, its pale light bathing the space-bound travelers. Without warning the planet shot away from them, curving slightly as it vanished. Following its path, the Tripod saw the Earth vanish behind the sun. With indescribable clarity, it could see three smaller spheres, spiraling closed to the sun. Suddenly, 7UM-832 felt pulled higher above the vibrant orb and gazed down at the planet.

Haltingly, but losing hold quickly, the Klik extended something, perhaps only the idea of an appendage, out to grasp the proffered hand. The instant they touched, 7UM-832 lost all sense of space and time. Guided by the firm pull of the Speaker, they soared high above the ground, covering vast distances with a speed 7UM-832 had never seen, not even from the fastest Roller. At first, the Klik saw the forests closest to its gear, and marveled that it suddenly knew the word "forest". As the pair flew across different terrain, 7UM-832 could feel comprehension seeping into its consciousness. Oceans, mountains, and other natural features became known, and then, familiar.

Aliases: Black Forest Ghost, Spirit of the Woods
Race: Klik Tripod
Aspects: Body 4, Soul 4
Sex: Neuter; Ht: 6' 4"; Wt: 700 lbs

"Scree-eeeee!!!"

Character Description/Notes: //Status: Flux-storm has terminated.\\--//ALERT!: Entire Node has experienced inter-dimensional displacement!\\--//Status: Preliminary scans indicate 87.2% probability of transference to primary Apoc biosphere.\\--//Directive: Dispatch all scout units to investigate, identify threats, and locate resources.\\

//ALERT!: Contact with scout unit 5C-233 severed!\\--//Directive: Reestablish contact.\\

//Status: Attempt to reestablish contact failed.\\--//Conclusion: 99.6% probability that Scout unit 5C-233 has been destroyed.\\

When a Flux-storm transported a small Klik Node to the Rocky Mountain Region of North America several months ago, 5C-233 ("Scree") was among the scouts deployed to explore the area. Scree was traveling to the southeast of the Node, toward a dense forest (known to the local inhabitants as Black Forest). As he neared the edge of the woods, he was attacked by a pair of Flux horrors. Retaliating with null pulses and relying heavily upon his weakening displacement field, Scree managed to drive the creatures away. Disoriented and severely damaged during the encounter, Scree stumbled off into the woods before collapsing.

As 7UM-832 felt several internal devices slow and stop, it knew that it would fulfill the Directives no more. When its ocular regulators failed and light flooded its vision, 7UM-832 suddenly felt no compulsion to obey the Directives, and it stopped straining to force motion from unresponsive actuators. It felt free from all obligations, unable to affect things outside itself.

Then the Voice washed over it, full of energy, "Why are you here, machine?"

With all vocal mechanisms reporting as non-functional, 7UM-832 thought at first it could not respond. But something in the Voice compelled it to speak. Although nothing moved within its body, 7UM-832 could hear its response, "The Great Machine needs my help to function."

"Find. Capture. Carry."

For 7UM-832, the Directives were paramount. Anything else was not worth thinking about, so it literally never thought about things outside them. The details might change: what to find, how to capture, where to carry. But the Directives provided the Klik with order and guidance. If 7UM-832 had known the word existed, it would admit that the Directives provided comfort.

Fanonical? What?

Fanonical posts are a new thing here at Untoldthegame.com, and as far as we know, something new to RPG's in general. We've talked about our Open Campaign Setting from "Day 1" around here, but we've not made much fuss of it so far. Well, that's about to end...

Basically, "fanonical" is a word we've coined based on the term canonical. Something that is canonical, or canon, is something that is accepted as being the truth or the "way that it is". In RPG's, something that is "canon" is something that has been "blessed and sanctioned" by whomever owns the IP. For instance, if you know anything about the Dresden Files RPG, you know that Dresden is a guy, not a girl - stuff like that is "canon".