Project Boussh: A Step In The Right Direction?
by Nick Coghlan

"Recommend you Shout now."
"Recommend you retreat now."
"Recommend you make a Leap Attack... now."

Nick struggled to keep up with the stream of commands Piggy was issuing.
He had to admit, the Gamorrean had learned more about the game in a week
than Nick had learned in a couple of months. The Gamorrean's necromancer
had already completed the game on all 3 difficulty levels - Nick's
barbarian hadn't even made it through to the second half of the first.
Piggy had somehow managed to make the game run on his NRI computer -
Nick still wasn't sure how - and played it at a speed Nick could barely
even follow.

After a particularly fierce battle - won through Piggy's timely
suggestions - Nick paused the game and said "Time for a break I think.
This game's addictive."

As the pair got up to head for the kitchen, Nick's mobile started to
ring. With the activities of Project Boushh, the ordinary phoneline was
almost constantly tied up by the modem.

"Hello."
"Hey Nick, Josh here. We've got something you guys might find
interesting."
"You do? Whaddya got?"
"A name, or 'Net handle rather - Bill Skywalker. I guess it could be
real, but I doubt it. Apparently, he knows a guy who was involved in you
know what."
"In-ter-est-ing... no other info?"
"Not really. The guy who put us on to him said he first met him a few
months back on Imperial Center. Since then, they've kept in touch over
ICQ."
"Not much to go on... I'll see what Piggy can do with it."
"Fair enough. Ooryl's gone all Findsmanny on me, so we'll see what else
we can turn up."
"He's gone what?"
"Findsmanny - you know, like when he took off with Luke to find Corran,
so they could find Mirax. Sudden obsessive impulses, that sort of thing.
It's how we found the info I just gave you."
"Riiight. If he starts getting sudden impulsive urges to go swimming at
midnight, tell him to keep an eye out for sharks."
"He's the Uber-Gand. What the hell is a shark going to do to him?"
"You might have a point there. Anyway, thanks for the heads up. I'll see
you when you get back to Brisbane."
"Yeah - we should be back sometime tomorrow."
"Got it - see you then."

Nick terminated the call and turned to Piggy - "Finally we have
_something_ to go on! Apparently, a guy who goes by the name Bill
Skywalker claims to know someone involved in the kidnapping. He's been
seen on Imperial Centre and ..."

"He's been to Coruscant?"

Piggy's question derailed Nick's quickfire summary. "What? Oh no, not
that Imperial Centre. Imperial Centre's a website where a few people
with Imp sympathies hang out on the message boards, kind of like I do on
AFW."

"Ahh, so this Bill Skywalker used to post there?"
"That's right. Apparently he's on ICQ as well."

"Well, let's go see what can be found with some real computing power."

"Fill Brad in. I'll be along in a sec, I just want to shut the game
down."

Nick quickly exited from Diablo II, and started up Netscape
Communicator. The program was an almost constant fixture on his taskbar
these days. Before following Piggy, he clicked on the button to retrieve
any new email from the server.

Scanning the few messages that popped up, he found one from Vickie. As
he continued reading, he unconsciously started sucking air in through
his teeth.

This didn't look good.

It didn't look good at all.