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Yes, folks, it's real.

A Conspiracy Sometimes, life has an odd way of working out. For starters, the final three storefronts in the strip bugged out, each one having been lured to strip malls elsewhere in the city. I bought them off of the owner, completing my ownership of the strip; Olympus Drive, as it would soon be re-named, was now entirely in my possession.A Conspiracy by ~Ironhold
And I didn't have to wait very long for a new tenant, either. It seems that the Simmons Corporation was looking to open up a used vehicle lot in the area, and the now-empty half of the strip corresponded exactly to where their site placement software predicted would be the best spot. The plan was that they would leas

A Mon-umental Mistake[23] A Mon-umental MistakeA Mon-umental Mistake by ~Ironhold
Although it might seem like a side-story right now, Maxwell related a story to me one Sunday, about a month after the incident with the cow and the reporter, that wound up setting the stage for later incidents. As such, in order to understand some of what was to happen, I need to go ahead and explain it. Fortunately, he left me a fair amount of documentation to back up what was going on.
Apparently, between the introduction of Terran animal species to the planet and the forcible changes to the environment from the centuries of warfare (warfare that included NBC weaponry – nuclear, biological, and chemical)

That's A Rap Back during Bulldog there was a rather famous (now somewhat infamous) group of mech pilots that operated within the Lyran ranks. The leader, whose trademarks consisted of his perpetual smoking and his wearing a beret no matter what his uniform, piloted one of the rare Avatar units that had been given to the LAAF. His henchmen consisted of a thug type that piloted a captured Thor and a mad scientist type that piloted a captured Loki.That's A Rap by ~Ironhold
On the surface, the three were legendary pilots who could just plow on through whatever enemy forces came their way, their only help being a fourth pilot that they would select to go with them each mission as a

red bird in the rainthe other day I saw a red birdred bird in the rain by ~Ironhold
bright against the skies so gray
but it only paused for just a moment
and then it quickly flew away
it's so easy to forget now
that when the skies pour down
if we'd only look about us
sometimes beauty can be found
[chorus]
a little red bird in the rain
a little smile with the pain
a little sweetness for the sorrow
a little hope before the morrow
you say your life is cold and lonely
you say the dark skies will not end
well I'm here if you would only
say you want to be my friend
girl, I've been around
I know that times are tough
it's time to leave the ground
we've got to rise above
just like
[chorus]
oh o, o