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The Brute Squad



When the Ixthula Coalition formally created the Hunters and created the position of the Caab Eeblus, they decided that the holder of such an important position should be provided a security detail. The former Caab accepted this as a part of the job and made little fuss over being watched over almost constantly. When the Old Man took the position, his first and loudest complaint was the security detail. He felt that the title didn’t prevent him from still being a Hunter, and while a Hunter may be a member of a team or squad they could protect themselves and each other far better than any security detail.

The Old Man went about reading all of the official paperwork and found that the Caab Eeblus was allowed to name his own security detail, and so long as they were members of the Coalition’s fighting forces and had at least two years experience the appointments would go uncontested. The Old Man set to creating a new Hunter squad whose sole purpose would be the protection of the Caab. He decided to name this new squad Birjaagah, meaning “protect”, and began recruiting his former squad mates or those Hunters who were close to him. The Coalition was less than pleased by these developments but had little choice but to accept it.

As the Old Man grew older and became less able to go on Hunts, he began filling empty spaces on Birjaagah Squad with more powerful, though perhaps not quite as intelligent, Hunters. When the Old Man decided that he could no longer go on Hunts, the few remaining Hunters who could be classified as the best and brightest members of Birjaagah Squad were “demoted” to Dreks Squad. The members of Birjaagah Squad are now some of the largest and strongest of the Ixthum Set. They are also fiercely loyal to the Old Man willing to follow any and all orders he gives them and lay their lives down to protect his.
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Apologies for the guys in the picture having very little Brickforge goodness. All of my BF armor and such are currently tied up (mostly in the rest of the Hunters). Further, as much as I may love BF, the armor styles just don't quite portray "hulking mass of destructive insanity" quite as well as these did.

Primary Challenge:



I hate the medical wing of The Facility. It’s just too...clean. Despite my father being a doctor here, I never could get used to how pristine it was, or the overly sanitized smell. Even though I had been in here for a few weeks, I could still smell it. I don’t care what they say, it doesn’t really go away and you don’t get used to it. At least Lok was nearby to keep me amused.

“Hey Kaal, you think they’ll let Cid go back and open his bar? I could sure go for a drink or several. And I bet there’s a certain green Caab’ekur* hanging around that would love to see you again.”

“Shut it. I love you like a brother but if you continue that line of thought I will have to stab you.”

At that the medical staff in the room all tensed up, and I’m fairly certain I saw one of them reach for the little button that would bring in the guards that were just outside our door. Lok must have seen it too, because he started laughing.

“Everyone just calm down. Kaal isn’t going to stab me. If she does that they’ll lock her up and then how will she see the Penari again?!” He continued to laugh while sitting in his bed. He was mostly healed, save for a few cuts and bruises.

I swung my legs off the bed and started to move towards him and sighed. “Yep, I have to stab you now.”



Just as I got to about the middle of the room, the door opened up and two members of the Brute Squad walked in the door.

“Hunter Sengbaat, good to see you are up and well. The Caab has requested you and Hunter Varroosh meet him in the Research Wing.”

Lok looked at me, then at the two Hunters in the doorway and settled himself more in his bed. “That sounds great and all but we’re not technically cleared and still have some healing to do so...”

“This is not up for discussion. The Caab says you are to come to the Research Wing now. You can either go on your own or we have been authorized to persuade you.”

At that lovely bit of news, Lok swung his legs out of the bed he was in and made his way towards the door.



“Alright guys, so you got Kaal and I out of the White Room, which I’m pretty grateful for, but since when do we have the clearance to enter the Research Wing?”

After a brief pause that seemed like an eternity the Brute behind us decided to answer. “Don’t know. The Old Man said to go get your lazy butts out of bed and to the Research Wing, so that’s what we’re doing. Don’t like it, you can always question him and see how well that goes.”

The Brute in front just chuckled at that and kept walking. Lok turned to me and shrugged. The rest of the walk to the Research Wing was spent in silence. We followed the green line on the floor for quite some time, going into parts of The Facility that were barely used. Finally we arrived at what looked like just another steel door in this less than pleasant part of The Facility. The Brutes stood on either side of the door and the one who had been in front motioned for us to go inside.



No sooner had we walked through the door than Lok felt a need to speak his mind. “Sir, not to be ungrateful but since when do we have clearance to be here? I always figured if I found myself in this part of The Facility I would be the subject of someone’s experiment.”

The Old Man gave Lok a harsh look for a moment, then chuckled a bit. “Glad to see you’re back to being an insufferable sil’fen#, Lok. You don’t technically have clearance to be here, and this meeting never technically happened. Understood?” Lok and I nodded our heads, though I’m sure the looks on our faces said far more. “Good. This man here is on loan to us from the Confederacy. He is a scientist with the Kattaare Gas Mining Corporation who specializes in the research of the substances they come across in their mining near Oresh-Mador.”

We walked towards the man hunched over a table, though he didn’t seem to notice we were nearing him or that others were even in the room.



We were able to stand within arms reach of the man and he still hadn’t noticed us. The Old Man decided to alert him to our presence and cleared his throat in a manner that sounded similar to the call of a seritan. Lok and I both shuddered a bit, but the little scientist jumped up and away from the table and spun to see us standing around him.

The Old Man had to quickly hide the smile on his face. “Lok, Kaal, this is...was the term “doktor”?... Jored Silar. Doktor, these are the Hunters who found the substance you’ve been studying for us. Speaking of, do you have any news for me?”

The little scientist looked at Lok and myself and nodded in greeting. His gaze seemed to linger a bit longer on me than Lok, but he soon turned back to the Old Man. “Well sir, yes and no. I’ve never come across anything quite like this substance and I can’t seem to find any information in any database. Which is disturbing considering in this facility I seem to have access to every database I could think of and a few I had never even heard of.”

The Old Man smiled. “Yes, you will find that working in The Facility has it’s benefits. But please, continue.”



“Right, well as I said, I haven’t found anything in any databases. But, I have found some interesting properties of this substance. The first is that it seems to have no reaction to fire or heat in any way. I tried everything from placing the substance in a flask and heating it over a flame to having a Hunter bring me some industrial flame spitting device and aiming the flame at a large puddle within arms reach. The substance didn’t change in any way, it wasn’t even hot to the touch.”

The Old Man’s expression barely changed, though knowing him the way I did, I could see this news was unsettling to him. Lok seemed more interested in the device.

“The second observation I had about this substance is that when an electrical shock is introduced, it seems to take on semi-solid state but does not work as a conductor. Perhaps the most disturbing observation, however, is how the substance reacts with water. It seems that when the substance is in any way introduced into water, it instantly dissipates.”

All eyes in the room got wider at this bit of news. I couldn’t help myself and started talking before I knew it. “It just...dissipates? Regardless of the amount of water? How is that possible?!”

The doktor got a bothersome look on his face. “Lovely and inquisitive. How... alluring. No, no Miss, let me explain further. It seems that if you have a certain amount of this substance, and you introduce an equal amount of water, you almost instantly end up with what appears to be just the amount of water. Visually there is no way to tell the substance is in the water, and even most conventional tests were unable to detect the substance.”

The Old Man was clearly dismayed by this information. “Doktor, I’m not sure how much you saw of Ixthula on your way to The Facility but the majority of our population lives near or on marshland. Please, tell me you’ve figured out what this substance does, especially once it is mixed in the water.”

The doktor gave a dejected look. “Sadly sir, not yet. It clearly has no effect on glass beakers or the metal table-top, but I have yet to test it on living tissue. In fact, it seems that I need some sort of clearance to do such. Who do I see about that?”

I thought the Old Man’s good eye was going to pop out of his head at that. “Me, and I say you’re cleared. I want you to begin tests immediately and inform me as soon as you find out anything. We’ll leave you to it. Lok, Kaal, come with me.”



The Old Man turned away from the doktor and began walking toward the door. Lok and I followed without saying a word to the doktor. Once we were a few steps away the Old Man began talking. “Until we know more about this substance, it’s business as usual. You two and the rest of Dreks are to continue trying to find out what you can about this substance and the man Cid told us about. Kaal, the doktor seemed rather...interested in you.”

I shuddered at the thought but Lok seemed all too amused, choking on laughter. I punched him in his rather large arm. “Keep laughing buddy. He may have officially taken your top spot on my stabbing list for today, but you can always move back up.”

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*-tail-head; less than friendly term for the Penari, a species known for the long tentacle-like appendages that grew from the back of their head.
#-still not translating that in respect to the rules of these here forums
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Sorry for the length of this. I started writing and just kept having fun with the scenes and such. If anyone has actually read all of that, I award you one internet cookie.

Secondary Challenge

Name: Jored Silar
Age: 32
Height: 5’6”, with hair 5’10”
Weight:160 lbs
Race:Oresh-Madorian
Occupation: Scientist/researcher for Kattaare Gas Mining Corporation
Homeworld: Oresh-Mador by way of Kattaare

….joi eakjio LAafowi poe... Encryption disabled...

Jored Silar was lent to the Coalition of Ixthula by the Confederacy once it was realized that the substance that Hunters Sengbaat and Varoosh had stumbled upon could not be identified by any of the researchers on planet. Upon arrival on Ixthula he was taken to the Research Wing of The Facility and was given access to most any resources he could need. Though granted the highest of clearances for research, an escort was still required for Silar if he attempted to travel anywhere within The Facility or on Ixthula. Often this was not much of an issue as The Old Man spent quite a bit of time talking with or checking in on his work.

Though a dedicated academic, Jored still thought of himself as something of a lady’s man. He often tried to “chat up” his female coworkers or the girls at the local drinking establishment. Unfortunately for him, he was a bit awkward in his attempts and often his advances were shot down. When he arrived on Ixthula, he continued his antics around The Facility and at least once made his way down to Sard Ixthula.

hehe, Very Nice! I like the Brute Squad.
The 'clean' setting is great, especially to keep those guys on their toes. And it does make me wonder ... what does that substance do?

Nice on all accounts. I want my internet cookie The Brute Squad looks good with that armor and I think you made a good choice. I have to admit when I saw the Confederate character and read about his antics, I thought of Napo

Thanks all!
@minfigCharmed: That is the question, isn't it?
@Quickblade: You definitely deserve one if you read all that. As for the Doktor reminding you of Napo... :oP