Examine door to the armory. Figure out if there's any way to manually open it through clever manipulation of door technology. Failing that, try to remember or figure out how the door mechanism might work.
"Dang doors, why do they have to be locked all the time? It's almost infuriating how everything around here gets locked in case of an emergency. I mean, how are peace-loving, Steve-fearing men and women of the people supposed to get around in this substandard situation?"
Rant loudly to vent frustration at increasing lack of reasonable ways to convey myself anywhere meaningful.
((I wonder if the field manipulators are automated to a limited degree or Steve just runs them all on his own.
Also, one of my very favorite things about Einsteinian Roulette - the layers upon layers of fun lore.))
You begin yelling about how shitty doors are and how terrible everything in he universe is when the door opens, seemingly of it's own accord. YAY! The power of petulant whining!
Lars jumped backwards. Okay, this isn't Steve, because Steve was just talking to him. Why would he be looking at his dead self?
Steve must be testing him. Logical.
Briefly freak out, then try to deduce the purpose of the illusion and test.
The world around you distorts violently, tearing itself apart and reforming moments later. You're standing, or more accurately floating, inside a great black expanse. The only light comes from in front of you, the powerful lantern of a man in a Second Expansion era suit, floating through the dark. His lantern illuminates the world in front of him, as though calling forth substance from the void. Trapped in that light, like an insect in amber, is a degraded and badly damaged section of a space ship or space station; a slice out of what appears to be a sleeping quarters with old style zero-g beds.
"Hey Steve, any news on the lockdown? I'd check my pad, but I'm kinda tied up at the moment. And you stop giggling. Creeps me out. Less than me not knowing when I last took a breath but still. Stop it."
Try to breath. Any more pain incoming? If not, shout for the Doc.
"Hey Doc! I stopped breathing, is that normal?
You take a breath. It goes just fine. Huh. You take another and start to feel almost light headed. Odd. You're about to take a third when your shoulderblades decide the want to go for a walk and don't invite the rest of your body. AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!
Watch what's on TV. Try and take in every detail. Keep an eye out for Floki, with standing reaction orders still in effect.
"Hey everyone, the picture on the telly's changed. We can see the guy from the side now. Wow, it's amazing. It's like he must have two friggen handy cams and a uni-grad cinematography student putting this stuff together. "
(( Urrrgggghhhh. So hungover, and planning my next one shortly. The next few turns might be a little incoherent, even more so than normal. I'll try and keep it short and to the point. ))
The camera man touches the body and it slumps over, revealing a strangely familiar looking mummified body. Huh. The signal goes into incoherent static for a long moment before it becomes the image of another spacesuited man floating through darkness comes into focus.
((@GM: Milno has all his armor all the time, and as soon as he leaves VR, he puts the helmet back on.))
Free at once...He stared at the mysterious frayed wire. It was not too hard to deduce what had just happened and what it had to do with his situation. He grinned before chuckling and finally roaring animalistically through the comms.
"rrrrrrRRAARRRRRRRRHHHHHHH!!!!!"
After touching the door, Milno confirmed: he was trapped. He suspected the damn wire would not leave him alone for much time, and he had to get his message across before it tried something once again, flaring his comms to the team whilst simultaneously typing into his wristpad, keeping an watchful eye at the wire and all the area around him, wary of further threats.
"Milno here. I'm in the airlock, and after I got inside, it trapped me in. There is a wire which came out from behind one of the ceiling's panels, got to my neck and started to screw with my mind. I was the man in the television, the guy in a heavy suit. I saw everything through his eyes until I snapped out of it, but I think these wires may not give up so easily. Stay together or these blastdoors may close down on you and try to mess with your brain as well."
Stay aware of any wires. Try to dodge their approach and burn them with the MkIII's rocket pods if they get too close. Check if there is a way of opening the airlock.
The air lock opens without resistance and allows you out into the hanger.
"Milnos right, one of the blighters just tryed to get me in the armoury, didn't put me down though, should i try and cut it down?"
Examine the door, watch my back.
The door opens before you have a chance to look at it. Huh, thats helpful. You promptly leap through the door while cursing the armory and all who worship it's false glory.
Evil electricity, maybe?
Think about the situation, stay away from the wires.
[int:6-1]
Hmm it seems to have some sort of control and connection to the ship, but is it inherently tied to the ship or is it just using it as a tool? Regardless, it's probably best to keep an eye on everything around you. If it's in the ship it might have control of everything from lights to oxygen. Hmmm. Thats a good point actually; assuming it has control of the oxygen, that could mean it could kill a lot of you all at once. Why isn't it doing so? What does it want?
Solve problem again. With logic!
[Int:Error: May trying to be logical. Negative modifier overflow]
"It was just a test. Calm down Faith"
Travis leads Buckler to the VR machines and examines them. Power source, memory storage, etc.
You can't see anything like that as the machines are: You can't see any power cables or anything; it must be coming up from beneath the machine.
Update.
The lights in the Rec room flicker suddenly, the television screen distorts with static and the vr simulations echo with a eerie sound, a whisper from far off.
>It appears that your section of the ship is experiencing anomalous events. Beginning lock down. Electromagnetic shielding in place. Radiation shielding up. Locking down labs, Infirmary, and armory. Shutting down power, deactivating LS-GFM. Power systems switching to internal back up. Severing all connections to inmate section and periphery. Automatic venting timer in place.
Find the source of the interference and eliminate it or I'll be forced to vent the prisoner section and all of you into space. You have until (Oct 31st). I'll be monitoring you remotely.
Good luck.
The VR systems, television and other electronic systems flick off as the lights change from bright white to dully flashing red. Armored shutters clamp down over the armory kiosk and the door to the back of the infirmary. Everyone's wristpad activates, displaying a countdown. This isn't good.
> The Anomaly has presented itself through the TV. Warnings about low oxygen and fuel. Contrary to Irony's belief that we're seeing a ship. The Tv ran on it's own accord(?), getting it's plug pulled killed the message.
> Toaster//Brother Lars and Caellath//Milno cannot respond to any of our messages//wristpad or radio comms. Assuming we all know where each other are, Lars and Milno are both out of our signals and we know it. [See: Tv link]
> Suits can always communicate with other suits. They have faceplates hiding emotions -- except for Feyri who has yanked her own faceplate into a permanent face-viewable position.
> EVIL ELECTRICITY! The wires serve as a vessel for the anomaly! Hence the reason why Steve turned the main power off! Now the problem is, how do we get to it?
> The statue Azthor saw earlier may not be linked to this, somehow(?)
"It looks like we can't go to the red areas..."
For brevity, all items listed are [EQUIPPED] and [FULLY LOADED] and [MK I SUIT] unless stated otherwise.
> 3 tokens
> A Metallic Arming Sword [with some kind of Str Modifier]
> Scoped Camo Gauss Rifle [+1 Long Range as only benefit]
> Laser Rifle
> Tesla Sabre [-15 seconds from a full battery]
> 5 tokens
> Personally made robe, including casual outfit
> Pendant of the Most Holy Steve
> Not suited
> 1 Gauss Rifle
> Microwave Field Manipulator
> 11 tokens
> 2/3 of an emergency kit
> The Instrument[?]
> 1 Microwave Field Manipulator
> 1 Kinetic Amplifier
> 1 Sledgehammer
> Not Suited
> 1 Cybernetic Monoatomic Wristblade
> 1 XGL [Grenade Launcher]
- High-Ex x1
- Frag x1
- Chem/Incendiary x1
> 1 Microwave Amp
> 1 Manipulation Amp,
> 1 ExoWep Decompensator (1/3 chance of turning six or above into a five)
> 1 Cutlass
> 1 Long reiterpallasch
> The permanent painkiller
> 2 Tokens
> 1 Katana, probably named 'Legacy'
> Not Suited
> 1 Microwave Psychokinetic Amplifier
> 2 tokens [?]
> Brother Lars [Toaster] -- Mindfuck Central Station
> Milno Enedrasi[Caellath]
= Probably affected by the anomaly. I will not divulge their locations.
> May [TCM] > Feyri Nirel [Tiruin] > Faith Valentine [IronyOwl] > Thomas Harrison [Spinal_Taper] > Mesk Vraite [Remalle] > Gorat "Chin" Ivanos [Knight Otu] | > Jim [SeriousConcentrate] > Empyrean [Skyrunner] > Ashley Oak [Objective] > "Little Timmy" [Harry Baldman] | > Mason Kervech [anailater]
| > Cog Anrizkalur [kisame12794] > Lukas Stark [Prosperus]
|
"Milno here. I'm in the airlock, and after I got inside, it trapped me inside. There is a wire which came out from behind one of the ceiling's panels and got to my neck and started to scew with my mind. I was the man in the television, the guy in a heavy suit. I saw everything through his eyes until I snapped out of it, but I think these wires may not give up so easily. Stay together or these blastdoors may close down on you and try to mess with your brain as well."
Well, now we know why Steve hit the main power on the Sword. Everyone, keep watch for electrical circuits and search for the fusebox, if the ship keeps any.
Hey now, here's an idea. Hows about we improvise into the VR machine. Hook up ourselves to the thing so we can fully interact [y'know, that reality needle and whatnot] to try to search for that anomaly there?
I have a Tesla Sabre by the way.
We've still lost Brother Lars' signal!
Now, everyone, bear with me. The anomaly is surely physical in nature, or Steve wouldn't have closed off our sector -- putting it with us, to fix or to die trying. Second, I believe it has some kind of medium for movement, not omnipresent, per se. Everything electrical doesn't work that is connected to the ship, except for the Tv which we're going to find out.
Well, let's see what my intuition could derive from everything on what we know.
Intuition, in giving a helpful clue on how the wires affected Milno's mind! He was armored, judging from what he said, and if something hit the spinal cord directly...How did it pass through metal?
[intuition:5+1]
Maybe it wasn't the wire that was causing the hallucination. Maybe the wire was some sort of opportunistic attack while he was incapacitated.
Hm, I can't find anything about linking suit feeds, might want an actual technician for that, Feyri.
Keep watch of the image on the TV.
((...
These are pulsed lasers of the "blaster" variety, which emit rapid bursts of ultra-short pulses to drill through their targets. They primarily emit in the near infrared at around 1 micron wavelength, but can frequency double their beam color to green if desired. All these lasers are 50% efficient at turning electric energy into beam energy. The beam parameters are fairly flexible - they can emit lower energy beams for a higher sustained rate of fire, for example.
The battle laser is a heavy hitting weapon designed as an infantry longarm to emit high energy beams for light anti-armor and anti-personnel roles, although it is also popular with sportsmen hunting large game. The beam energy is 10 kJ per shot, made up of 50 pulses of 200 J each, spaced 10 microsecond apart. This puts each pulse in the range of a big firecracker. The total beam energy is about the same as a .460 Weatherby magnum bullet - a bullet for the Weatherby elephant gun and the most powerful sporting cartridge in existence.
It can sustain a rate of fire of up to 2 full energy pulses per second, or safely handle overheating by up to 8 full energy shots. It has a mass of 4.5 kg and a 6 cm primary aperture. The beam causes full damage out to about 350 meters. It is commonly powered by a 1.7 kg high capacity power pack, with enough energy for 100 full energy shots and enough power to supply 2 full energy shots per second, although the laser can be hooked to a power backpack via a power cable to allow higher rates of fire and ammunition capacity. 6 cm lens.
{Amount of damage caused by battle laser shot: 10 kJ per shot, made up of 50 pulses of 200 J each, spaced 10 microsecond apart} I use my damage calculator here which lays out all of my physical assumptions and approximations, but which I think captures the basic physical processes of crater gouging. Since stress is concentrated at the tips of cracks, you may get individual cracks propagating beyond the distances listed below in brittle materials, but severe pulverization should be limited to approximately the distances given (as observed in impact and explosive craters).
Incident on meat, the aforementioned pulse train will blast out a hole 53 cm deep and 2.2 cm across (this is probably reported to one more significant figure than is justified). The diameter of the temporary cavity will be about 10 cm, but since muscle is highly elastic this will probably cause only bruising beyond the 2.2 cm permanent hole. Adding gristle and bone doesn't change this much - you get the same permanent cavity and depth in gristle, while bone will be drilled through to a depth of 29 cm, a permanent cavity diameter of 1.2 cm, and shattering and fracturing out to 1.45 cm diameter. Note that a typical person will be about 20 cm to 30 cm through the torso (depending on orientation), so this pulse would not only shoot through a person, but through the guy behind him as well.
Incident on plastic - in this case high density polyethylene - the pulse train will blast out a 32 cm deep and 1.3 cm across hole, with possible plastic flow out to 2.43 cm diameter.
Incident on sandstone, you get a 25 cm deep hole, 1.1 cm across, with shattering and cracking out to 2.1 cm. On granite, the hole is essentially the same except that shattering and fracturing is limited to 1.5 cm diameter. On concrete, the hole is again about the same depth and width, but now you can expect shattering out to about 3 cm.
Against structural steel, you get a 16 cm deep hole that is 0.65 cm across, and possible cracks or permanent deformation out to 1.1 cm. The very strongest maraging steels have the same size hole, but will lack any permanent deformations in the vicinity of the hole.
A representative titanium alloy might get an 18 cm deep hole 0.74 cm across, with possible permanent damage out to 0.84 cm diameter. Aluminum alloys will get drilled to 19 cm and 0.79 cm across, with possible permanent deformation out to 1.5 cm diameter.
High tech armor is likely to be some sort of carbon, perhaps diamondoid, fullerite, or nanotube weave. Against diamond I get a hole depth of 6.1 cm and a 0.26 cm hole diameter. Expect permanent damage out to 4 cm in the form of shattering and cracks. Against fullerite and nanotubes, the hole will be 7.7 cm deep and 0.32 cm in diameter, with possible permanent damage out to 0.41 cm.
http://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/images/sidearmenergy/BattleLaser.jpg
Make of that interesting description what you will, though pretty much the only thing left out is the power source, battery, generator, micro-fusion reactor, whatever, and the actual lasing medium. Point is, it's a cool description of a potential real-life laser weapon, or, at least, a fictional one with realistic damage calculation.
You see pretty much what Sambo sees.
"Damn, my stuff's outside the lockdown zone! Ok... this'll do, I guess."
Grab the sharpest knife I can find in the mess area and head back into the air vents. Head in the direction that I saw movement.
"Hmm, wait... maybe I should make contingencies for if I die."
This is Mesk, I'm heading back into the air vents with a knife to investigate some movement. I'll be sending you status updates via the wrist pads, if my messages cease, please retrieve my body and kill whatever put me down.
-M.V.
You grab a knife from the slowly spreading cloud and head up into the vent. You don't see anything in there now and a cautious few feet of exploration doesn't reveal anything new. Hmm. You could keep going on your own...in this claustrophobic vent.
Jim attempted to get Mesk's camera feed put on his HUD, just in case, while he waited for Milno to respond about opening the doors.
I'm attempting to patch your suit's camera feed into my systems, so I can monitor your progress. Just letting you know that you technically won't be alone in those tunnels.
[aux:2]
You have no idea how to link his camera to your vision.
>Head over to the door to the research labs. Test its strength, evaluate the possibility of breaking it down.
Then move on to the next locked door and do the same. Keep an eye out for any suspicious stuff.
The "door" to the labs appears to be a solid armored shutter. You think that...perhaps you can't quite muster the strength to kick it down.