Pony Express Issue 91: Sep. 7 - Sep. 14, 2009

The lightning streaked across the sky, causing ripples in the air, before striking the fire blasted land below. All around the wind swirled, sending the nauseous fumes in the air in all directions. Animals nearby tried as they might to retreat from the ravaged plains they had once called home, but as the wind brought its disease ridden currents to them, they slowed, and collapsed. But through it all, the sound of movement could be heard. The pounding of feet charging across the dead landscape the men in yellow drew their arms back, and with a single thought, blades of shimmering energy grew from their arms. “For adun’ the humanoids cried as they threw themselves forward at a mound of breathing tissue. As they drew closer, the ground erupted around them, as four legged creatures and giant reptiles came with a roar from the ground.
The two groups intermixed, and blades sliced the creatures in half, and talons and spines turned the yellow warriors into blue vapor. After moments it was over, the vapors dissipated, and the creatures moved off to wherever the yellow men had come. The only sound left was that of the breathing of the organic mound.
After a time the storm subsided, and all was quiet and calm, with only the pulse of one giant heart to remind all of what had transpired here.
After awhile within the silence an explosion could be heard. The sound was of the creatures rampaging an oddly constructed settlement, with giant archways, and obelisk like structures. Towers rose from the ground and pulsed blue orbs at the creatures, which caused them to explode, but soon the monsters dispatched the devices. As the destruction continued, a small group of mechanical spiders charged from around a giant archway, with a slow moving man behind them. The spiders launched spheres of power from their backs, pushing the creatures back, while the man stopped and concentrating, launched electricity from his hands, striking the entire hoard of invaders, reducing them to nothing. As the man surveyed the damage, he heard the cries of bats, and gazed upwards. Streaking from the clouds came large leathery wings and a monster that appeared to be a bat and an insect merged. The flying beings then launched green barbs from their stingers, striking the spiders and destroying them, before they landed on the buildings and began to rip them apart. The man gazed at them and moved to a nearby hill. As he gazed down at his ruined fortress, he moved a hand to his wrist and vanished.


The nameless warrior gazed at the screen, “GG he had typed” and with a remorseful sigh; he moved his mouse to the menu and exited the match. Again the warrior had let his protoss friends down; again he had let them be overrun. But he was determined to be a better general, one worthy to be called a Templar. The warrior turned his attention from the game list, and turned his attention to the cyberspace, a land he hoped would give him an insight on how to improve the command over his alien army. He thought of Google, and made it appear, and entered his search term into the program and let it run. He gazed at the list of names that had been returned to him and the first one he gazed at. It simply read Teamliquid, without any additional information. The man moved his mouse and clicked on the link, letting it bring him onward. He was then brought to a screen asking for his username and password, or if he didn’t have one, to register. He tried to move back to his previous page but an error message appeared “sorry, that function has been removed from your browser”. The man was angry; he moved his cursor to the close button and initiated it. His browser closed and the error message disappeared. He smiled, and then opened his eyes in shock, the browser had reopened but a new message was displaced.
“Not allowed, Insufficient rights”

The option for registering slowly began to bold and highlight itself. With no other choice, the man clicked the button, and it prompted him to create a username and tie it to an email. He sat there and thought of a name, and typed “VayeshMoru.”
The man hit return and the name was accepted. From his speakers he heard the beating of hooves, and the splash of waves. He looked around for the sound, then gazed at his computer, as horses seemed to be charging at him, growing bigger and bigger, with a large wave splashing down behind them. He watched with interested as the horses grew larger, and larger, then ripped from his monitor, they crashed behind him, bringing the waves of water down upon the man drawing him into the waters cold embrace.
He struggled with the current, but pushed, fighting for his way back to the surface, to air. Fight as he did, he barely made any progress, but he finally pushed to the surface, breaking waters hold of him he inhaled the air he craved, and then looked around in disbelief. He was now kneeling in a large fountain, with a large four-sided horse statue in the middle, water pouring from each mouth to keep the water levels knee deep. He then gazed around, he was in a large courtyard, and with oddly dressed people moving in all directions, some vanishing down hallways, others into doorways, but no one seemed to pay him any attention. As he drew himself from the water he gazed at a large archway with a sign labeled welcome to AoE, VayeshMoru. The man then moved towards the archway, wary of the strange place he was now in, and peered through it. All he could see was a void of darkness, and as he peered into it more deeply, the darkness pulsed, causing the air around him to fly inwards, drawing him into the void.
He floated for a time, before with a flash; he was deposited on a marble floor, at the feet of a large man. He gazed up, and noticed the man was wearing red boots, red jeans, a red jacket, and had a red beard.
“Greeting Vayesh, and welcome to Teamliquid, and thank you for joining our ever growing community” said the man with a small smile on his lips. “My name Is manifesto and here at Teamliquid, we have our new members join a new institution we have just developed known as the Academy of Esports, which is run by a few colleagues of mine. They are known as Chill and Kennigit. If you have any questions, all you need do is ask TLB, which is our robotic helper. She will bring you to your room to settle in, and tomorrow will be the first day here, we hope you enjoy your stay” finished manifesto.
Before Vayesh could speak, a robotic woman materialized from thin air and above its head a bubble appeared

Follow me young Vayesh

With that the woman snapped her fingers and the room changed. Vayesh was now standing with her in a small room, which had one window, a bed along the wall beside it, and a desk with a laptop on the other.
This will be your room while you are here, and if you wish to leave, moving from your personal gateway to the general lobby on that laptop will let you move around in the Academy, if you have any questions, I can be reached via the search bar also located on that laptop.
The woman then vanished and Vayesh, left standing in his room, turned and sat down on the bed in pure confusion.