((Oh god.))
"Hrmm. It should work, but I don't really want to test it. It could blow up in my face, or it could work, and piss of Steve. Who would either zap me, or send the Armory Master after me. Well, seeing what happened to that poor sod back there, if she does come after me, I'm jumping out an airlock. Fate worse than death indeed. Well, I could always use Tinker to test it."
Enter Tinker program, and disassemble a laser rifle and replicate mine.
You enter tinker and select a laser rifle. You take it apart and put it back together in exactly the same way you put your real life rifle together.
So be it. Take a note: on a real mission, I want you, comrades, all armed and ready to fight from the beginning. Now... may the Magisters have mercy on us, for comrade Milno certainly doesn't - we're moving out. Oh, and we're those damn sitting ducks here, if someone missed, so I want us to find potential cover ASAP.
Wait a bit for the rest of the team get armed (no longer than half a minute), then cautiously lead the way towards the 'diamond'. If it moves, or reacts to our presence, shoot it. If, as we approach it, I feel something mess up with my mind, or one of the comrades suddenly starts behaving differently (such as screams 'John, WHY are there tentacles growing out of you?'), shoot it (The Most Obvious Cause - that hovering 'diamond' over there in this case) - and let it be known as the Second Maxim. Apply the First one as well (shoot anything, which is not a comrade, moving into my field of vision).
Good. All right, people, let's move!
Fry the metal diamond if it reacts towards us or a teammate starts acting odd.
Thomas prepares his drill ((If I still can have it)), and prepares to tear anything to bits.
The team, half crouched and weapons at the ready, begins to advance down the hall. The diamond doesn't budge as they walk closer and finally stop directly in front of it. It's taking up enough of the hall that they can't easily get around it; the only way around it is ducking or crawling under it. Well, the only way that didn't involve touching it.
Is there a library or some thing. I want to learn sign language. its currently the most silent form of communication I know of.
Well, you could look on the computers, ask the armory master, or, considering your metal body do something entirely different, like rig up a small screen on your chest that translates your thoughts into simple images or videos. You'd be pictionary bot.
Faith pondered the Arbiter's answers for a moment. They were certainly... interesting. The fact that it called itself a simulation was particularly bizarre- did it have meta knowledge of being a VR construction, or was that supposed to refer to something else?
Well, whatever. Time for something a little more practical.
Begin duel mode. Faith w/MkII and those shock gauntlets vs Milno with his MkIII and laser rifle. Abandoned city, starting around twenty feet apart in the middle of a street.
On duel start, attempt to shock him into submission.
[faith dex:6]
[uncon:6]
[Milnobot con:2]
Milnobot fires a burst of laser fire at Faith but misses her entirely as she extends a length of wire from the tips of her fingers and begins swinging them above her head, building momentum until she unleashes them like a great whip, arcing out and entrapping milnobot. Unfortunately she greatly overcompensates with the length of her wire and, in addition to wrapping around milnobot, wraps herself up as well. The electric shock kicks in a moment later.
[milnobot end:2]
[faith end:4-1]
Both faith and milnobot collapse in convulsions as current surges through their suits and the flesh beneath. Faith manages to rise to her knees after the shock subsides, while Milnobot remains prone.