December 24th:

The Night Before Part 1: Ghosts of Christmas Past
It is Christmas Eve and Death Star finds himself with out cheer as the death of Slash continues to haunt him. Dwelling on past Christmases, he finds the true meaning of Christmas within the city in the Fury when a little girl helps him through his problem with Slash's death. But, meanwhile, Garland continues to wear himself down in his rage, training harder and harder, much to Elayne's dismay. Death Star, however, reinstates to becomes a Hunter again, thanks to Drake. Getting his personal room, he moves in and then heads out to buy the little girl a gift, since she gave him a bear, and comes across a woman who catches his heart for a moment, before the two head on. Is this true love again? But when he arrives to give the girl her gift, he finds she has been taken by a burgular who was after money, hoping the girl will be his ticket off of the ship. But tragedy will strike DS, like always. And when he arrives home, Elayne confronts him to finally talk with Garland, which he had been putting off for too long. But can even Death Star help Garland?

The Night Before Part 2: Ghosts of Christmas Future
Garland is still reeling from the death of his daughter, Sharlena. And it seems even Death Star cannot snap him out of his utter depression. Out of everyone's reach, Garland sets up his next level of training, much to the distress of Elayne, and battles out a training program of Xevil, who manages to kill him. But on the void between life and death, will Garland see the true meaning of life...before it's too late? And what would the world be like if he never existed?

The Night Before Part 3: Oh Unholy Night
Gravedigger is up and about on a case to find a missing child during the early morning of Christmas Eve. But can he over come the hardships of being a detective, find the missing boy, play Santa, and get into a sewer system all before he clocks in for his next assignment? This is one night that is certainly anything but holy.

The Night Before Part 4: CipherMas
Everything is nice and quiet..and boring for Cipher, on board his ship, floating in space. Lucky for him, the Fury picks him up and docks with him. But what Drake, Diamondback, and Grave encounter is beyond their imagination...a hyper little sphere that takes them all by surprise. Before Drake can evem realize what is going on, Cipher has sweet talked himself past training and is now a Hunter. But will the bored Cipher and his ship Viper fit in with everyone this Christmas Eve?

The Night Before Part 5: The Enigmatic Side
...it's, uh, the adventures of the blind Dias and his "father", Slasher. Can X2 restore Dias' sight? Who knows! Will Dias ever be mentally right again? No way in hell! But, hey, it's Christmas, enjoy this totally non-related Christmas story and be scared.

The Night Before Interlude 1: Yes Virginia, There Is a Santa Claus
When your dream of Christmas is destroyed by your seven year old brother because he tells you there's no such thing as Santa, what would any normal five year old do? Try to figure out the meaning of Christmas, and hope, with that childlike faith. This is a story of love, family, Santa...and bad seven year olds.

The Night Before Part 6: Rare Blessings
Deaths in the Hunters have seriously damaged the morale of the team. But in the air on the Fury there's a feeling of Christmas, and Paladin definitely isn't feeling it. He sets out wandering around the Fury looking for something, but he isn't quite sure what. All the while buying gifts for his fellow SU officers, he keeps seeing a familiar face. In any case, he finds a bit of Christmas and a slice of happiness to enjoy during the holiday season.

The Night Before Part 7: The Spirit of the Season
Its Christmas Eve once again, although this Christmas is not going to be a very good one... Ripple, still mourning Slash's death and with all the events that have happened to the Hunters' fresh in his memory, Ripple commits a drastic choice.... only to be snapped out of his blue streak by Spirit.

The Night Before Part 8: Tsivre Xver
Christmas Eve and Xrileshr is lost in thought as he does his duties of the ship, trying to figure out his place on board the Fury and if the Hunters are really cut out for the upcoming war, or are they hopelessly screwed? And who is trying to kill him, taking whatever means necessary to see him dead? A look into the past and perhaps the future.

The Night Before Part 9: A Little Piece of History
A travel through time when Avalon collapses into a deep sleep from working on Shade Man, recovered from ground zero on the meteor after the battle with Talon. But can he get a special insight on the past and learn to pass it on to the future, and what would have happened if he had been working next to Mega Man? An interesting outlook into the realm of Christmas.

The Night Before Part 10: Under the Mistletoe
A strange story taking Snipe along his Christmas Eve day in search of a woman to spend it with. But will his hormones win and what strange trials will he have to face? But with Santa Claus lurking around every corner and having roommates like Gravedigger, this isn't going to be an easy feat. Has Snipe really lost his style with the women or is it just beginning again? And what role does Lara Croft play in it?

The Night Before Interlude 2: A Maverick Christmas
How does Sigma spend his Christmas days? Well, can the cold hearted Maverick find some Christmas cheer on his ship? And where has he been since Session 49?

The Night Before Part 11: Christmas, With Pepperoni and Sausage
It's a story. Yes. About Christmas. No, but hey, gotta love the ending line. But, hey, Diamondback and Spectre finally will get out of their little predictament of sharing a body, but how will they do this? A reploid, hm? And who is trying to kill all the Enhanced? And on top of all this, can Chris make his pizza deliveries?

The Night Before Part 12: O' Christmas Tree
It's Christmas Eve and Drake is busy with his duties as Admiral and the boss of the Fury. But through all his duties, meeting people throughout the day, and trying to come to reckon with his own past problems, can he make this a Merry Christmas for the others?

The Night Before Part 13: Perchance to Dream, Perhaps to Die
Back on Earth, when spirits are at their lowest, Dominator and Wiendigo talk about the past.

Session 52: The Night Before The Conclusion - It's a Christmas Matter
The Hunters are finally gathered together to have a surprise Christmas party by Drake, but things begin to grow strange. How does everyone's stories begin to meld together to form the conclusion to this? And how does Christmas go from normal to zany by the evil Santa Claus, who is an old foe from the past? Can the Hunters save Christmas?

December 31st, 2199

Session 53: The Night Before Epilogue - Countdown to the New Year
The countdown to the new century and year begins with a horrible start as a mad killer plans on blowing the Fury up when the timer hits 0 for the new year. He sends the Hunters through a series of hoops and loops, luring them around the Fury and making fools of Gravedigger and Dias. And when they manage to defuse the bomb switch with only seconds to spare, they head to his base, the store Grave played Santa Claus in and learned that it was the store manager behind it all, wanting revenge on Grave for ruining him. The quickly lock him up and head out, feeling a bit miffed at being out smarted by someone who can only rant "HE RUINED ME!"

January 7th, 2200

Session 54: Who Gives a Rip?
Ripple is attacked at the cafeteria and sent into a coma. The Hunters split into two groups, one hunting down the attacker and the other entering Ripple's mind to save him from whatever his father shot him with. It seems Ripple's father wants him dead, and isn't going to stop until he is. Snipe, Diamonback, and Gravedigger tackle his father and manage to take him down, but he dives into the airlock, exploding in space. In Ripple's mind, Spirit, Garland, and Death Star aid Ripple in the battle against the virus, restoring his emotions as best as they can. In the end, they bring Ripple back.

January 14th, 2200

Session 55: Wien's the Mystery
Snipe calls forth a meeting to help establish the remains of the short lived Alliance. Sigma argues the point that force is the way to make people join, while others express wisdom, such as Avalon. Finally, after ignoring Death Star's attempts to add something to it, Snipe brings the group to the meeting with the Alliance members and he uses Death Star as his tool to get them to rejoin, showing how he beat the aliens before. However, someone in the balcony above fires a shot off that Drake dives in the way of and takes the shot, falling to the ground in a coma, dying from a virus eating away at him.

Diamondback and Snipe fight a shadowed figure who wears an overcoat and visor, but vanishes into the shadows. The two head back and join Death Star on the balcony and Ripple discovers the butt of a cigar. The kind Gravedigger has, Snipe points out. Sigma takes the moment to insult them, but they ignore him and race to the prison area to talk to the Manager of the store who hates Grave so much, thinking he might be trying to frame him. However, once there, they discover the manager is too much of a loony to be causing the problem and they are attacked by the figure again, who Gravedigger and Death Star instantly recognize. Garland throws out some light and reveals it's Wiendigo the team's fighting.

The fight breaks out with vigor and Wiendigo stabs both Ripple and Diamondback through the guts before launch a series of bombs all over the Fury, which blows the insides up. Gravedigger follows the manager through a tunnel, only to be buried in, with a dead manager, and the others warp out of the prison block before it collapses in. They arrive on the main level to see the entire area destroyed, the dead scattered about.

Session 56: Never Give Up, No Matter What
The mystery's aloft but Death Star can't figure it out as the team is sent through hell in their own home: Fury.

As he, Snipe, Gravedigger, Garland, Dias, Ariel, Cheryl, Spirit, Ripple, Cipher, and Diamondback struggle to save the lives of the people on board, they come across challenges that not even brute strength can save them from - - - but only their own emotional stability can. The question is can they mentally survive the attack on the Fury, not physically. And as they progress through the halls, one of their own, Diamondback, falls to the hands of death, along with hundreds of thousands of people. Snipe's emotional state begins to falter and Gravedigger's quest for vengence against Wiendigo, the one behind all this, grows until they hit a climax point in the engine room of the Fury, where they manage to trap Wiendigo at the head of the engine core, right before it blows - - - but alas, no one dies and they awake in the cells of the Fury, where Wiendigo reveals to them that they were under a drug's influence that he had hoped to destroy them by taking away their emotional side and leave them with nothing. Hoping to gain something from the loss by killing Death Star, his goal, he challenges him to a fight and Death Star easily breaks free of the cell's force field, ready to meet Wiendigo head on.

Session 57: Masks
Death Star goes head to head with Wiendigo, but cleverly frees the trapped Hunters, who haven't passed out due to the exhaustion of the drug Wiendigo has induced upon them earlier. As they head to the bridge to save Drake from death's door and stop the incoming fleet of Tsivrixsh battleships, Death Star and Wiendigo battle along the halls of the Fury, going at it further and further, even into space as the ships open fire on the Fury. However, Wiendigo sidetracks Death Star and heads to the bridge, carrying the fight to the other Hunters, who leap into hyperspace, almost destroying Death Star, who's out in space - for anything in hyperspace is immediately ripped to shreds.

The entire group goes after Wiendigo, which conflicts with Death Star's battle and causes him to have to watch out for the others, giving him a harder time, and in the end resulting in a battle wound when he saves Snipe, sending Wiendigo and himself spirling into the core of the Fury. However, that's when it's learned that Wiendigo is really Digo, who managed to survive his last encounter with the previous Hunters twenty years ago. Death Star manages to blast him down into the core, leaving him for dead. Plus conflicts spread, as Spirit no longer seems interested in Ripple, Diamondback has been missing, Snipe is growing weaker, and Cipher is not your average hero.

January 18th, 2200

Session 58: Leap of Faith
As the Hunters repair the damaged Fury from the previous battle, a space shuttle bearing old Hunter codes arrives, claiming to have news from General Death Star. As the alien, Jordus Calri, lands and pleads his case, Garland begins to lean towards him, since he has all of Death Star's records. Snipe and Dias calls up Death Star, who arrives with Gazer, having been working on a simulator like the old ones on Earth. The inner conflict begins as both of them answer all of Garland's questions correctly, and finally Death Star decides to leave them to their fate, knowing they will die if they follow Jordus. As Garland is about to get Drake to head off to the Jordus' planet, Grave remembers that Death Star's data banks were robbed blind and Snipe detains Jordus, who pleads to Garland for help. But seeing all but Garland is against him, he transforms into his true form, a Tsivrixsh Warrior, and attacks, being destroyed by Garland. Garland then runs off, upset for not trusting Death Star, who follows after him.

Garland and Death Star: Step by Step, Day by Day
Death Star and Garland finally have it out - talking. In Death Star's simulator, can Death Star and Garland finally reach an understanding that will ease Garland's pain over Sharlena's death and his "betrayal" to Death Star? And will Garland learn the truth of "the future"? AND will he learn about Death Star's increased power? Well, some of those are answered. Also, they go back over all their times together back in the Year Long War and learn things about each other, and memories, they had buried. But in the end, at the place of UO's death, will Garland stand up to his fears and defeat them? This marks the beginning of Garland's new path.

January 21st, 2200

Session 59: A Houdini Trick Part 1
The Hunters have been being hit by the weirdest challenges since the battle with Talon. Running from the Tsiv. Empire, fighting off clones inside the Fury, defeating Tsiv. Warriors posing as Death Star, and now they come across a station out in space with a distress signal. Heading there, the Hunters discover it's residents is full of...slugs, which can capture even the strongest of them and drain their life. As they battle their way through the hordes of slugs, they reach the transporters, and have to work together to jump-start the teleports into getting out of there. The squirrel, who rode with them there, is all to happy to escape, and they all leap on. However, it has disasterous effects. Gravedigger switches bodies with the squirrel; Ripple switches bodies with Garland and Garland switches bodies with Spirit, making a three way cross; and Snipe and Death Star switch. They arrive in one of the station's shuttles, which starts up and flies away, forcing Dias and Drake to chase them in the Fury. Death Star and Snipe are seemingly dead until the confused Hunters manage to revive them. But once back on the Fury, they are faced with a dangerous challenge: controlling each other's powers. And will Snipe, in Death Star's mighty body, prove to be their?

Session 60: A Houdini Trick Part 2
In X2's MedBay, the Hunters face confusion and chaos when they learn X2 can't switch them back. However, that's the least of their troubles, as the squirrel, posing as Gravedigger, goes around pissing off the underworld of crime on the ship, who then try to kill him. Unfortunantly for Gravedigger, the squirrel frees the manager, who is all too happy to hunt down what he thinks is Grave. Gravedigger, finally pissed off beyond all means, attacks the manager inside the elevator while X2 captures the squirrel. However, Gravedigger gets carried away and knocks the manager down the elevator shaft, almost killing him in the process, leaving the man crippled on the bottom. Diamondback returns him to the prison block as the other Hunters follow the computer's advise to move back onto the station - seeing as it's plunging into the nearby star.

They quickly head for the station, only to be attacked by multitudes of slugs. Dias finally arrives in Slasher's latest project, which he had been working on for the past few days - a space mech, and holds the slugs off as Death Star crash lands them into the station, almost going through the entire thing and crashing out the other side. They manage to survive and are attacked by the slugs, who form into one giant king slug, which then attacks them.

Diamondback and Spirit, who is out of body herself, fights the slug. Spirit (the one who was Spirit, it seems that Spirit was replaced before all this by another, resulting in the conflict between her and Ripple) and the others power up the last bit of energy in the teleporters and teleport. Dias, in the mech, Diamondback, and Spirit battle the king slug in an all out battle in the hanger, thirty seconds away from the star, when the others arrive. Death Star and Snipe however, have not changed, and they lead the way to the abandoned shuttle from the previous trip to the station, powering it up and flying off as the station crashes into the star.

Back on the Fury, the group is distressed that Death Star and Snipe are the same - but the King Slug returns. Dias/Diamondback in the mech, Garland, and Spirit (the spirit Spirit, not the body spirit, confusing, eh?) head out to battle it while the others watch. With Ripple's aid, the four manage to throw the king slug into the star, destroying it, but Garland's blast hits the star, making it go irregular. Now the question remains - how to switch Death Star and Snipe back?

January 22nd, 2200

Session 61: A Shooting Star and A Burning Mech
Snipe and the others plot how to switch him back with Death Star, when it's decided to go to the planet near the station and investagate it. They find Death Star - learning that he's talking to Helen and he finally learns what she really feels about him - which is nothing, he's just another thrill. Sad, he leaves and heads with the others to the planet, stranded on it as the shuttle spins out of control from the immense gravitation and atmosphere. There they climb to the top of a nearby mountain to attempt to use Slash's warp blade to create a warp to get out there. Cipher, blind in the crash, is carried by Gravedigger, but they of course, hate each other.

Climbing the mountain, Death Star becomes sick in Snipe's body and is unable to help when a mountain slide threatens to crush them all. Snipe is the one who comes through, saving the group from death and helping them reach the top. Upon warping, amazingly since the blade shouldn't have done it, they arrive on the Fury to learn the planet is about to be destroyed by the star's irregular pulse and the computer has decided that the only way to switch them back is to go into the exploding planet.

Snipe takes off, leaving an angry Death Star, who thinks his body will be destroyed going into the atmosphere since the jetpack will burn up doing that and will kill him. He grabs Dias' mech and flies after him. Garland asks the computer if it'll work, and learns the computer just made the idea up while drinking coffee. Angered, the group is helpless and can only watch the two plunge into the planet. Using his special comm. with Death Star, Garland manages to get through and learns they both lived - and are back to normal. But how?

January 23rd, 2200

Garland and Elayne: Oh Child of Mine
Garland and Elayne talk - and the end results might surprise you, when Garland pulls out the adoption papers to make Elayne his own child. Also, Elayne is troubled and wants to learn more about her mother and her DEAD father. Ripple comes in, troubled by his own problems with Spirit, so he and Garland decide to train.

January 27th, 2200

Session 62: Beauty and the Beast
Trouble's on the rise when X2 comes to the Hunters with a case of a stark naked man raving about Adam and Eve. That's when the computer admits to there being case of love sick men zombies following a naked woman around. Snipe and Dias immediately take the case and all hell breaks out.

As Dias and Snipe become Eve's love slaves, they begin to attack the bridge to gain control of the ship. Death Star is missing and Slasher's two new mechs are useless inside the ship. Gravedigger, Ripple, Garland, Drake, the computer, and Diamondback are alone to face Dias, Snipe, and Eve when they attack. And soon Ripple joins Eve.

As the battle breaks out and Eve sends the good guys on the run, Garland contacts Death Star via the special comm. However, Ripple also contacts him via the normal comm. and tries to get DS to ignore Gar. Dias, transformed into Dark Heart, chases after Drake, ordered to kill him, and Grave gets smashed by the elevator to help everyone else to safety. Death Star comes to their aid and the battle tides turn on Eve, when Ripple comes to his senses. Eve and Dark Heart are quickly beaten, Snipe taken out of the fight earlier by Diamondback's ice attack, and Eve is actually understood by Gravedigger. He leads Eve off to be detained and help X2 to transform Dark Heart back into Dias. But now, with the team almost having destroyed each other, Snipe knows it's time for reforms.