LAST EDITED ON Jan-13-07 AT 06:44 PM (EST)
 
2422 Koriand'r paraphrases Def Leppard lead singer Joe Elliott's introduction of drummer Rick Allen during the 1988 concert video In the Round, In Your Face. Between the 1983 release of Pyromania and 1987's Hysteria, Allen lost an arm in a car accident and had to basically figure out how to be a drummer all over again, with the aid of what was for the time a very sophisticated suite of electronic drum equipment. Elliott's dubbing Allen "the Thunder God" led ReRob to call his modified Beta Legios bomber Thundergod One back in the UF Core.

Real-world note: I saw Def Leppard in concert before they hit the big time, when they came to my alma mater (East Carolina University) in 1981 as the opening act for Southern-rock group Blackfoot. Now, I remember reading in several spots that the boys joined the WDF early on (presumably as part of Project Hero) and formed one of the fleet's most famous fighter squadrons. I see from this and from at least one other note I can remember - I don't recall right now whether it was here in the forum or in one of the stories - that they're still alive and kicking as the 25th century dawns (from which I infer that they're now Detians). Has Rick Allen gotten his arm regenerated? As gutsy a drummer as he is, I imagine it's way difficult to fly a starfighter with only one arm.

1037 Naturally, Sumire is talking about the Kanzaki Studios in-house orchestra, one of the best on Ishiyama.

By the way, I get an almost maternal vibe here from the way Sumire interacts with Kate in this scene. Of course, she is basically offering to take Kate under her wing as a professional protege...

1878 Corwin has just finished the preliminary design for the FNR-5 Fafnir assault 'Mech, as seen in MechWarrior 4: Mercenaries. A heavily-armored, surprisingly mobile 100-tonner with a pair of heavy gauss rifles, the Fafnir is not something you want to see coming after you.

No doubt he entertained idle fantasies of chasing Frey all over Asgard with this 'Mech while he was designing it...

2025 Maria originally comes from Novaya Rodina; she fought on the wrong side in that world's 2350 Bolshevik revolution and had to flee to her father's homeworld, Ishiyama, to escape the Neo-Soviet death squads. In the event, she didn't quite manage to outdistance them - but by the time they caught up with her, Peter Moreau and the Hanagumi were there to make their jobs a lot harder than they expected.

Did UF-Maria also spend some time as a bodyguard/hitwoman for organized crime before falling in with the Hanagumi?

-Joe-