Chapter One

Remember that metaphor I told you about?

You speak in metaphors all the time. Remind me again.

Fair enough. Imagine the Red Army in 1946 - mightiest force in the world. They could have done anything they wanted, you know. Deep down, they knew that fact and so did everyone else. The funny thing is that in this version of the story, they weren't informed that they were to be pitted against the Galactic Empire.

That's pretty much a slaughter.

Yes, I guess it was. They could've smelted all the world's resources for all the T-26's they wanted, but the Empire had one of those nifty Death Stars. They didn't even have to get their boots dirty. It's funny though. This would have been just another one of those senseless ramblings, if it weren't for one fact.

And that would be?

They were fighting over Shambhala - metch kangmi and all. And the Empire brought planet crackers, so they didn't really have anything to lose. They cracked the entire Himalayas, then glassed the planet - leaving everyone left to pick up the pieces. Now that you know the story so far, you know why failure would really suck. Unless, of course, by some miracle a respec is made possible.

Which brings us to the eleventh hour.

More like the doomsday clock in my opinion.

Right. I'm at twenty seconds to midnight.

We're all at twenty seconds to midnight at this point. Do you have any suggestions?

I was hoping to ask that question.

Jeez. We're running blind again then. Just perfect.