Blues Brothers:
((I love the autonomy! We've managed to organize ourselves, so there are no problems there. And the planetoid! It's like somebody locked me in a toy store, I've only barely explored the first stall and found some of the most interesting toys in the world. If all the zones (and what lies beyond the border) are as interesting as the ones we've seen so far, I'm afraid we may not explore them all in time.))
@Simus:"Hey, Nest, you saw that? Looks like anything accelerating can't safely enter the fast zone. Could you remind everyone to watch their step, just in case?"
Keep mapping around the fast zone.Throw a chunk of rock in it about the size and mass of a mapping drone and see what happens. Check the drone for a way to acomplish this: throw it in the zone, have if activate once it touches the ground (or after some time passes) and then return to the border and shut down its thrusters before passing the border (I'm assuming drones can survive a small fall). If Bishop goes somewhere else follow him instead. EDIT2: And rocks, don't forget to throw rocks where I'm going.
"Anybody has any idea on how to send a mapping drone inside the fast zone? Maybe set it on a timer or something?"
((And if you guys back at base are bored you can always repair the morgue or refuel the shuttle or take a look at the vehicles or try to improve our equipment or prepare our equipment for the next expedition or try to build something helpful. No need to stare at screens all day.))
((Edit: And I just thought of a method we could have used to check the effects of zones on living things. We could have gotten the doctor to give us some guinea pigs that can survive in zero atmosphere (or alternatively sow some cute little spacesuits). Damn it, why didn't I think about this on ship?))
You follow the fast zone around, carefully mapping it using stones. You try chucking in a larger stone. It seems to pass through without problems, slamming to the ground very fast, and, you think, maybe a little harder? Hmm. As you map you come across another zone, but this one is rather different. At first it appears to be another fast zone, just faster, but as you play with it, throwing rocks in, you notice that the rocks go significantly farther then they would normally, as well as faster. Hmm.
The drones don't appear to have time delay settings, but you figure that you, or at least someone technically minded, might be able to install such a thing.
Zephyris Haizea - Team Blue - Sector 3
"Let my try something first, just a minute"
Go to the slow-fast border, line up a shot with my crystal projector alongside the border (assuming it's a straight line, who knows) a few meters into the anomaly. Back off a bit and observe. Then follow Bishops orders
Hmm, it's hard to tell the exact border, but you think you've got it. You fire into the border.
[con:4]
You miss by an inch and the shot flies straight into the slow zone. Strangely, rather then just continuing through it, the crystal shot immediately activates as though it's struck something and attempts to grow, straining out a tiny amount of growth before crumbling away.
((This is only the beginning of our stay. The REAL fun comes when we're trying to map out the insides of the anomalies and not dying/mutating/getting mangled/etc. Right now, it's pretty cool just checking out weird stuff like this over such a long span of time while doing so at our own speed. It's an interesting change, to say the least.))
"Listen to Simus, she's got the right idea here. We're not really meant to explore these things right now, just mark out where they are first so we can get around to them later. There's no need to waste resources or time doing in depth experimentation right now, we're on the clock here and we need to get moving.
Also, we have a limited amount of drones, so let's not waste them all so soon, ok?"
Bishop stands up and stretches a bit before turning to the others.
"Break's over. Let's go map out the other end of the distortion first before coming this way."
Get the team moving away from the normal end that we've just found and keep mapping and exploring.
You map some more, including the edge of the new zone flint found and some of the less dangerous areas around it's edge. You find another slow speed effect zone directly next to the extremely fast one Flint found. These effects seem like they may take up a large part of the zone.
((Completely second Parisbre's impressions of the anomaly. And I believe I have already mentioned that I am very enjoying the level of the organisation here.
Just noticed "Team Bue", "Team Gern," and "Team Rud". Funny. In other news I have finished the macromist mission, and am on page 870/900 on the On-Ship Thread. So very soon megaprojects, so very soon. And then I will probably begin a short series of commentary regarding the interesting phenomenons I have noticed and my opinions on them. I you have enjoyed my treatises and my speculations so far, you mind want to wait for it.))
"How to send the drone inside? I think the solution is actually quite simple in fact. I mean, we can activate it remotely, right? I suggest we just throw the drone in, and activate it from inside. The problem was that the drone was caught flying in on it's own. If it's an immobile object, nothing bad should happen.
Alternatively, we could hack something like a stretcher or simply something long and flat, put the drone on it, and slide it inside instead of throwing it. Then we activate it. Or we can't remotelly activate it, we activate it but don't give any commands, and then slide it in. Then we give it commands once it's inside. Is that what you meant by a timer?"
Continue mapping out the anomaly.
You tag along with the rest of the group and in the rather thankless task of throwing stones and watching to see if they fall right or not.
The Green Giants
"The math related to the area seems electrical and radiation based, but I ain't no math whiz, so I have no fuckin clue what is going on.
Follow lars, scan countryside, don't walk into an anomaly. Try and copy the math to my wristpad and send it back to base.
Brother Lars: Green Team Lead, Zone 6
Lars looked at the incoming message and typed out a quick reply.
Dear Sister Simus, Executive Officer of Canary Base,
We are continually mapping this anomaly, and I will send updated maps to you. Please let me know if I can be of any service to you.
Your humble servant,
Brother Lars
Team Green
With that, he turned to Morul. "I see. Can you send the math to Simus?"
Keep mapping around.
((You know, it's a good thing you had that slingshot. Without it, one of you might have been ripped in half.))
Uhhh i was tyring to make a program that would enhance picture quality of recorded images once i have them, not trying to upgrade the drone to have better res whilst recording.
get approximate distance from edge of radiation bubble to glowy object in centre, set drone to fly at a slightly higher altitude then that or its max altitude, whichever is lower.
Send drone to take scans, write data enhancement program while i wait for it to return
Help Lars Map.
"Wonder how big this is?"
Auron sends up a drone and watches the footage as Morul keeps an eye on the math. The drone gets over toward the center of the zone but is rather suddenly Vaporized by a powerful electrical discharge from something in the center of the anomalous zone. Before it goes down, the footage catches a glimpse of something large and glowing near the center of the zone.
Before Auron can curse the loss of a drone, Morul informs them that something strange is happening. The magnitudes of the math are increasing and part of the glow from the center has "cracked" off and is drifting away. Specifically, it's drifting towards Home base.
Some red guys.
Finish exploring hex 7, then head back to base.
Through the comm link Simus set up for him, Miyamoto contacts Vich:
Vich, the reason I'm not letting you guys experiment just yet is because this is a preliminary exploration. This is to make sure there aren't any alien armadas or tornadoes or lawyers bearing down on us. If you want, I'll put you in the team that gets to experiment with this one.
((By the way, this is my current idea on how to continue from here on: I will assign two teams of four men to experiment with the time effect and the Flat zone anomalies, while sending out a third squad of 4 people with a MPV on a long recon mission (see Flintmap, but somewhat edited.) ))
-YOU SAW NOTHING!-
((YES WE DID! SHOW US WHERE YOU HID THE BODIES!))
((Its fun))
follow team
Red team wanders a good mile or two into Zone 7 before noticing something. The shadows aren't normal. Miyamoto's considerable bulk is casting 4 shadows, while Michael is casting two. Stones near by cast anything from 1 to 5 shadows, or sometimes even "half" shadows, shadows much smaller then they should be.
Team "safe"
Keep staring at screens all day.
You emulate the average life of a man in a first world country.
((I'm loving the autonomy, though being Mission Control and having mostly smartass advice to give at the moment makes me feel a tad Steve-ish.))
Yes, Flint, I saw it. Like I said, nobody go poking a finger or something in there, what happened to that drone was pretty much exactly as I thought would happen. Anyways, let's leave drone mapping for the in-depth exploration, all right? We're here for mapping boundaries only, at the moment.
All Teams:
Status updates and maps, please.
Integrate and redistribute the map stuff. Ponder about the time distortions.
You integrate all the most recent map data and lean back in your chair to think.
Map
You're not sure if the thing is really what could be called a temporal anomaly. Or if it is it's acting very strangely. Why would it be effecting time variably for different objects? It seems strange. Mesk slaps you out of your thoughts and points at something on the monitors. One of the long range senors is picking up a highly charged, highly radioactive object moving toward the base. It's still in zone 6 for now, but it's getting closer by the moment.
((I like the autonomy, though having so little to work with is kinda boring. I might have something interesting though.))
Anton watches the mapping drone's demise with some interest. "It seems physical momentum is carried through on connected objects. This is quite interesting. And gives me an idea." Turning on the spot, he walks out of CCR and heads into the Garage, typing a message to Simus as he goes.
I may have a way to map the area inside the fast-time anomaly, as well as the dangerous radioactive zones. But it relies on a few things I don't yet have, and some other properties of the anomalies. See if you can make the teams perform some experiments with pulling objects through the anomaly thresholds. There's also the question of whether light changes properties within the anomaly (when time is messed with, nothing is out of the question), but that may be difficult to establish. If anyone has a flashlight they can put on a stick and try to shine on themselves from within the anomaly, have them do that and see if its light changes in any way.
In the meantime, I think I'm going to try and fashion our MPV into a mapping rover.
Send message. Go to the Garage and examine all spare parts. Look for servos and electric motors, as well as any spare electronics and/or portable generators. Examine the MPV for means/possibilities of attaching electric engines to where manual power would be applied, including steering. Disregard need for driver or passenger space for now. Take a mapping drone and examine how it controls itself, and whether it would be within my ability to rewire its thruster controls to steer a makeshift RC buggy.
having so little to work with is kinda boring
You may have slightly bigger things to worry about then modifying those vehicles right now.
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Topic: Einsteinian Roulette (Original Thread: Rules, Armory, Misson archive 1-11) (Read 3986829 times)