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[Mr. Palau]

We should go Loot all that remains of those bioreactors, and start increasing our defenses we fought those Gene Raiders off once, we might not be as lucky next time.

Also send word to Rome A threat like that can't be Ignored.

If the trailer is finished by next week, we can send the expedition out then. There would be no real reason to send them out without a trailer though, since they wouldn't be able to bring much back.

Also yeah, if we almost got our ass kicked by raiders why are we sstill working on the trawler?

[Wayward Device]

You decide to investigate the hauler and the bioreactor. You head down to the trading plaza where its parked. You investigate the reactor first. The main section is a cylinder with spheres at each end, approximately 10' tall and with a 5' diameter. There are many sockets and ports for power, data and material feeds. Along with this main section there are a number of smaller units which presumably relate to the sockets. There is also a computer stack and a relatively large screen. All this is neatly stacked on the crude trailer. They even took the time when disassembling it to mark with chalk what's supposed to go where. You order the parts unpacked and set up next to the workshop. 

You then examine the hauler and trailer in greater detail. The trailer is relatively small and crude, much like a scrap metal farm cart. Its about 12' long, and just about managed to hold all the bioreactor parts. The hauler itself is much more impressive, if a little crude. As stated in the report, the chassis and engine are of Ancient manufacture but the body work is all crude steel plates, some of which have been just recently welded in place. It has six wheels and is about 18' long and 8' wide. A cab sits over the frontal engine block and extends to the rear of the vehicle. Examining the actually technologically interesting parts of the vehicle, the fusion powered engine, you decide to order two of the more intelligent apprentices to make technical drawings of all the components so as to form a design blueprint and give them a little theoretical engineering practice. Although most of the advanced parts are beyond you ability to manufacture at present, their functions are clear enough and similar to those in your beloved hover trike. Basically, the microfusion plant generates power which turns the electric motor which moves the vehicle, in this case by wheels.

You decide that an expedition to get the rest of the bioreactors is of great importance and the obvious course of action is to fix up the hauler to be more of an APC with a trailer for cargo. Upgrading its bodywork and adding a simple large caliber linear accelerator rifle turret mount should be relatively easy. Likewise, building a sturdy trailer large enough to remove the remaining 5 bioreactors should be simple enough. Something about 30' long, 8' wide and 12' tall should do the trick.

You check on the progress on the trawler, intent on freeing up your workforce. As it happens, the trawler is right in the final phases of construction, the winches and nets are in place and the tinkers are teaching the fishermen the basics of steam engine management, focusing mainly on the horrible scalding death that is the reward of those who let any of the needles go into the red. They tell you that it should be ready for launch in a day, with only one or two of the tinkers needed to work out the final kinks. That means that of the dedicated workshop you have 4 Tinkers and 35 apprentices available for work on the hauler and trailer and those apprentices have just had almost a months experience welding stuff together. Also, the 4 uninjured Tinkers from the expedition (who are the ones who have preferred to stay as small merchants and scrap hunters) and their 12 apprentices are also eager to help. This impressive combined workforce means that construction should be done by the end of the week.

With the work underway, you look to your other duties. The bioreactor is set up next to the workshop without problems and hooked up with a power line. Some of the more weld-happy apprentices build simple corrugated iron walls and a roof to keep the weather off the equipment. Once its powered up an easy to understand UI pops up on the screen. It shows the following:

Status: Production Halted
Current Build: Neo Alga_Minamalis 3345A
Power: OK
DNA/RNA Coder:OK
Reaction Chamber: OK
Primary Material Feeds: Empty  
Secondary Material Feeds Empty 
Output Feed: Warning: No pipe or container detected

Three flashing messages also compete for your attention, "Refill Primary Material Chamber Yes/No?", "Warning: Primary Material Chamber is not connected to an external material source. Manual loading may be required. If you receive this message in error, please update your drivers to the latest versions." and "All Primary and secondary compounds and organisms empty, please refill the Primary Material Chamber and run REPLISHSTOCK1.exe".

Well, that's quite a lot of very specific information. Seems it needs some stuff before it can make stuff. There is also an icon which brings up a sort of CAD/CAM interface and a list of available organisms.

You decide to investigate this in greater detail once you've dealt with you other tasks. You go and check on the wounded as it has been some weeks since your last visit. The news is good. The militiaman who had been in a coma has woken up! He actually started to talk yesterday but with everything going on, no one sent you a message. He has no memory of the battle and some muscle wastage from over a month in bed but apart from that he should be fine. The other militiaman is pleased to have a companion with a similar injury and they are both he and the Tinker are cheered by your visit.

With the work on the hauler and trailer going well, you decide to try and gather more people for the second expedition. Although it will be capable of carrying a large number of of passengers when empty, with the trailer full the hauler will only be able to carry ten or so with the trailer fully loaded. Obviously, the answer is to have the additional people that will be needed for protection as much as for dissembling the reactors and hauling them down the cliff bring their own transport. With the  volunteering of people and animals you soon have 12 townspeople with horned horses to carry them, all eager for a grand adventure.

As the week draws to a close progress on the hauler and trailer is completed in record time! The large caliber linear accelerator rifle turret is in place, the bodywork has been strengthened with thick steel plates, firing slits cut and a wedge-like dozerblade installed in the front. The trailer is relatively simple affair of steel. Nothing fancy, but it'll hold plenty of stuff. However, all this construction has depleted your stocks of scrap metal a little.

Another thing that has been weighing on your mind is the Gene Raiders. You consider warning Rome, but which faction? Perhaps you will send a message when the Technocratian caravan arrives with news from Eric Twiceiron. 

A week has passed the expedition is ready to leave at your command. All you have to decide is who, apart from the volunteers, should go in it and what equipment, if any, you should give to the volunteers. The militia from the last expedition would probably like a break but the Tinkers would like to go for another round. They also know the hauler pretty well by this point. The volunteers are all currently armed with bows and crossbows, except one who has, for some reason, a three shot musket. What do you do now?

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Alcide Brunelleschi: Family Armor, Laser Rifle, Hover Scout Trike (currently on loan to the Roman Embassy)

Sala-Zione:

Population:996

Major Official Buildings:

The Main Building (water desalinization and machine shop), the Control Room (computers that control important stuff), The Reactor (a Sony AFIC MK23.a45 civilian Light Industrial Fusion Reactor) currently at 33.68% of fuel capacity and generating 14.92% of potential full capacity, the Control Tower, once a large comms relay unrelated to the plant but within its walls, now missing its dish and the seat of your government.

Minor Official Buildings:

A small steel barrel and chain dock, painted white.

A communal workspace with some machine tools, a power line, small simple greenhouse and a small prototype steam engine, three prototype launchers, some prototype mortars and a nearly complete steam engine. 1 Bioreactor in working condition, currently lacking materials. 6Tinkerers and 35 apprentices available for work. 
                                             
Citizen Owned: A variety of houses, from rich to poor. Many small industries. A dozen tinkerers workshops, A large Solar Forge operating bellow capacity.

State Stores: 3 large caliber linear accelerator rifles, 900 6mm nickel cored Alloy tipped rounds, 19 Kalash Rifles in a poor state of repair, 4850 rounds of ammunition. 37 Arbalests in good repair with 20 pig iron bolts each. 11 crude iron muskets with 20 rounds and powder each. Three satchels of pipe bombs. A large pile of assorted Alloy. A small pile of composite plates. A medium-large stock of basic spare parts and scrap metal. A small stock of essential advanced parts and 24 spare laser power packs. 53,721 L of pure water. 20 Composite rods, three crates of electrical parts. 12 barrels of preserved fruit. A compact and efficient computer unit. 1 pressurized container holding 5kg of HE-3. An ☼armored exosuit☼. A small pile of knives. 6 simple HE rockets of unknown design. Some assorted trade goods (nails, bolts, torches etc). 5 large spools of copper wire. A strange gyroscope.

A heavy hauler with large trailer, fusion powered electric engine, Alloy chassis and heavy steel plate steel bodywork with firing slits, wedge shaped dozerblade.

A steam powered steel fishing trawler.

Health: No diseases of note, an immunity to genetic plagues.

Defenses: Large Circular Pored Stone Wall, in reasonable Repair. 11 breaches filled with crude stone blocks and Alloy plating on the outside, some minor damage near the gatehouse from a recent raid. 30 dedicated Militia with Old Composite Armor and Laser Rifles, 3 out of action due to injuries. 10 town watch armed with truncheons. 2 Rocket launchers with 2 HE and 2 incendiary rockets remaining.

Food Supplies: Adequate. A sudden shortage could cause problems

     
If you notice stuff that should be here but isn't, please tell me. Likewise with any suggestions I may have missed.

[10ebbor10]

1. Good. Has it got sails and such, provided. If yes, ceremonial launch. If no, get sails and such. We don't want to lose the ship to a minor engine failure.
2. Good, it appears this thing is even capable of making it's own genemodded organisms. Attach the computer to it, and try to find the help files. If unable to do so, I think we should experiment a bit. Several apprentice should squish fruits and filtrate it, in order to prevent pulp from clogging up important mechanisms. Even if it's the wrong resource thingy, we'll easily get it out.
3. Try to give it water first. Filtered water. That might be the primary compound
4.If they can get it to work, they should watch out with wath comes out. For all we know it's some kind of bioweapon. (Though the name relates to minimal. Maybe a type of algae with stripped Dna, ie nothing but the core functions. Those would die out rather quickly(any mutation would be near fatal) but can be usefull for research)
5. Investigate the list of availble organisms.
6. On the other hand, send the expedition*. We don't now if another raid will accompagny the caravan. However, I would propose to send 8 armed militia, give them Some preserved food barrels and water as supplies. The civilians can use the muskets if they want. (The arbalasts are too precious, and the Kalash rifles too unreliable).
7. They should also check the amount of fuel the hauler's generator has.**
8. We should fix up the holes and cracks from the recent raid. Don't want water seeping in.

*Technocaratia doesn't need to know whe have haulers and bioreactors.

** It'd barely use any fuel. Not that it matters anyway, as a fusion engine so small is a technical impossibility. Fusion gets less effecient as size decreases, in order to go above break even, you'd need to increase pressure and temperature so much that an engine failure would give a movie style nuclear explosion. (Because, as pressure and temperature increase, fusion energy output would temporally spike). The magnetic containment fields should probably attract all iron in town.

[Mr. Palau]

1. Construct 5 basic containers for the bioreactors. Make sure the have a pipe compatible with the output pipe on the bio reactors.
2. Dispatch the expedition!
4. Tell the expedition to bring back some scrap metal if at all possible.
5. Have the remaining tinkers begin construction of the electrolysis machine, and a prototype mortar.

List of things that were to be built in the tinekrworkshop but are not being worked on now, in order of the order we were going to construct them. (for reference, and so that I don't forget.)

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

1. mortar construction
2. electrolysis machine construction, and afterwards explosive production utilizing aforementioned machine.
3. Improvements to the workshop, in order to increase the workforce and workforce productivity.

Things we have basic designs for, and that required research to come up with designs for. (also for reference)

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

1. Basic steam enginge.
2. Trawler (trawler engine too, or just trawler?)
3. simple greenhouses.

[/quote]

[10ebbor10]

Fyi: A bioreactor is simply a simple lifesupport system for small aquatic beings, like microbes and algae. What's good about this one is that it has it's own cloning system, allowing us to choose from a variety of beings, each engineered to do a given reaction. This includes to production of food and biofuels, but also more specialized reactions, like H² production.


If we're lucky, we can use them to produce H², and probably quite a bit more efficient and safe than an electrolysis machine. (Downside is that there wouldn't be any O² production, but we can have dedicated bioreactors for that too.) Nevertheless, the tinkerers ain't doing anything, so they can do that.

[Mr. Palau]

Fyi: A bioreactor is simply a simple lifesupport system for small aquatic beings, like microbes and algae. What's good about this one is that it has it's own cloning system, allowing us to choose from a variety of beings, each engineered to do a given reaction. This includes to production of food and biofuels, but also more specialized reactions, like H² production.


If we're lucky, we can use them to produce H², and probably quite a bit more efficient and safe than an electrolysis machine. (Downside is that there wouldn't be any O² production, but we can have dedicated bioreactors for that too.) Nevertheless, the tinkerers ain't doing anything, so they can do that.

Oh ok, I didn't know that. Well then, have the tinkers and the apprentices that are not going to be working on the bioreactor just work on the prototype mortar. Once that is done have them build more advanced machine tools for the shop, so they can get things done faster. Milling machines, blast furnaces, casting machines, etc.

[Wayward Device]

You organize the final details of the expedition. After all, the Technocratians will be arriving soonish and they don't need to now about your new equipment. You send 2 of the Tinkers from the last mission and 8 of the militia in the hauler.They are accompanied by 12  volunteers on horned horses armed with the crude iron muskets from the state stores. You give them some barrels of dried food and clean water. You also check the hauler's fuel supply. You see that it contains 2.345 L of HE-3 out of a possible max of 3. You note that it should last basically for ever and marvel at the handiwork of the old people, who could make such a thing and avoid it becoming a very small, very powerful bomb.The expedition departs without any problems and should be back in a few weeks. At the last minute, the Eastern Nomad decides to accompany them.

Since the trawler is ready you decide a ceremonial launch is in order. This takes the form of you saying a few blessings, asking for the Builder's Sun to guide the ship and for its mechanisms to be true and a huge feast when they land their fist catch. The mood in the town is jovial and people are pleased with that progress has been made. The fishermen crewing the trawler seem to be getting the hang of the new ship as well. Well, nothing's exploded yet and they haven't had to use the emergency sails.

Worried about water damage, you order the cracks in the ring wall sealed up with mortar and this simple task is soon complete.

You also spend some time examining the bioreactor and you have the two apprentices who made the blueprints of the trawler take notes on your discoveries for future reference. You worry that the Neo Alga_Minamalis 3345A that the unit had been producing could be some form of biological weapon and so you investigate it thoroughly in the database. There is quite a lot of data on the subject, as well as scrupulous records of earlier versions, going down into the 1100A's. It seems to be adapted to a saltwater environment with a low mineral content. It has an extremely quick life cycle, absorbs CO₂ at an incredible rate and has a death trigger related to whether its heavy enough to sink. This all seems fairly harmless. At least you can't find any reference to kill ratios or effective radii.

You also examine what other organisms are available. The range is huge. You can sort the list by any number of factors, including organism output, organism input adaptation, desired output... it goes on. You see that the reactor is capable of producing a wide range of chemicals, from basic hydrocarbons to some huge, complex molecules who's utility escapes you. On the Input and actual workings side of things you discover that the main required materials, apart from water, are either vegetable biomass or animal biomass. It seems that once the subsidiary mechanisms are loaded and a desired output chosen, it should select the necessary  organisms and start production. As an experiment, you fill the related mechanisms with water and pulped, strained fruit. You also have some large containers and pipes set in place and order similar parts constructed for when the other reactors arrive. You select ethanol as the output. It seems that this one is a relatively simple reaction and the feed mechanisms fill the main reaction chamber, mostly with the fruit. The DNA/RNA Coder creates some seed organisms and injects them and only a few hours later a thin stream of alcohol strong enough to be used as fuel is poring into the output container. By the end of the day the container is full. Well, that all seems simple enough. The possibilities these machines offer seem to be limitless.

Since your workforce is free, they get to work on various jobs that have been on hold. They finish construction of three prototype mortars and a sturdy electrolysis machine. Although rendered somewhat superfluous by the promise of the bioreactors, its good practice for the apprentices both in constructing and operating heavy machinery. It does deplete the stock of electronic parts somewhat though. They spend the rest of the week putting serious effort into improving the workshop, striping down their now defunct private workshops for machines. They also remove the last of the advanced machine tools that don't relate to armor or laser repair from the Main Building's small workshop. When the are done the communal workspace has been expanded and filled with more useful equipment than ever before. The benefits of expanding your workforce are really shining through. The new, improved workspace now contains two laser cutters on robotic arm mounts, a bank of well ventilated furnaces for small jobs, some smaller furnaces and forges for custom work, a sheet cutter, two milling machines and three medium casting machines. There are also carefully laid out workbenches and tool racks.

There is also much talk of constructing a blast furnace next to the communal workspace. This causes some some tension with the de Fiero family, who have still not had their Solar forge returned to full working capacity and consider the smelting of metals on a large scale to be their thing.

A week has passed. What do you do now?

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Alcide Brunelleschi: Family Armor, Laser Rifle, Hover Scout Trike (currently on loan to the Roman Embassy)

Sala-Zione:

Population:996

Major Official Buildings:

The Main Building (water desalinization and machine shop), the Control Room (computers that control important stuff), The Reactor (a Sony AFIC MK23.a45 civilian Light Industrial Fusion Reactor) currently at 33.68% of fuel capacity and generating 14.92% of potential full capacity, the Control Tower, once a large comms relay unrelated to the plant but within its walls, now missing its dish and the seat of your government.

Minor Official Buildings:

A small steel barrel and chain dock, painted white.

A communal workspace with two laser cutters on robotic arm mounts, a bank of well ventilated furnaces for small jobs, some smaller furnaces and forges for custom work, a sheet cutter, two milling machines and three medium casting machines, carefully laid out workbenches and tool racks, a power line, a small simple greenhouse and, an electrolysis machine, 1 Bioreactor in working condition. 6 Tinkerers and 35 apprentices available for work.

Prototypes and theoretical:  three prototype rocket launchers, a small prototype steam engine, three prototype mortars. Blueprints for a fusion powered hauler, steam powered fishing trawler.
                                             
Citizen Owned: A variety of houses, from rich to poor. Many small industries. 6 tinkerers workshops, A large Solar Forge operating bellow capacity (owners slightly annoyed).

State Stores: 2 large caliber linear accelerator rifles, 600 6mm nickel cored Alloy tipped rounds, 19 Kalash Rifles in a poor state of repair, 4850 rounds of ammunition. 37 Arbalests in good repair with 20 pig iron bolts each. Three satchels of pipe bombs. A large pile of assorted Alloy. A small pile of composite plates. A medium-large stock of basic spare parts and scrap metal. A small stock of essential advanced parts and 24 spare laser power packs. 76,128.26 L of pure water. 20 Composite rods, one crates of electrical parts. 9 barrels of preserved fruit. A compact and efficient computer unit. 1 pressurized container holding 5kg of HE-3. An ☼armored exosuit☼. A small pile of knives. 6 simple HE rockets of unknown design. Some assorted trade goods (nails, bolts, torches etc). 5 large spools of copper wire. A strange gyroscope.

A heavy hauler with large trailer, fusion powered electric engine, Alloy chassis and heavy steel plate steel bodywork with firing slits, wedge shaped dozerblade.

A steam powered steel fishing trawler.

Health: No diseases of note, an immunity to genetic plagues.

Defenses: Large Circular Pored Stone Wall, in reasonable Repair. 11 breaches filled with crude stone blocks and Alloy plating on the outside. 30 dedicated Militia with Old Composite Armor and Laser Rifles, 3 out of action due to injuries. 10 town watch armed with truncheons. 2 Rocket launchers with 2 HE and 2 incendiary rockets remaining.

Food Supplies: Adequate. Stocks slowly rising due to new trawler.

     
   
If you notice stuff that should be here but isn't, please tell me. Likewise with any suggestions I may have missed. 

[10ebbor10]

Ah, seems like it's an artificiall algae bloom thingy. There were/are plans to dump fertilizer in deep ocean sections, causing algae blooms that should absorb large amounts of Co². And kill the local ecosystem, so let's not let those loose in the wild.

1. Store that ethanol somewhere safe. Mark it as poisonous(which it is).
2. See if you can set the bioreactor to produce H². This should not require any inputs exepts air and water, at least not for the reactions, the plants themselves might need it.
    a)If we can't, because that would be dangerous to the machine. (H² is explosive after all), see if we can get some simple compounds for explosives
    b) Try to see if we can use this to create pure oxygen. Try to find out if the lab has some sort of compressor. Liquid oxygen is kinda needed for most rockets. (Though rpg use more stable fuel)
    c)Ethanol can be used as rocket fuel to, but not whitout oxygen 
3. Set up some sort of enclosed pond/basin in a small greenhouse and fill it with water(seawater, if it's not acidic or something). Then let those minimalis thingies loose in it. That'd give us a steady supply of biomass, which we can use as fertilizer or for something else. At worst we got ourselves a crude sewage plant.
4. Run the electrolysis machine. Take care to keep the oxygen and hydrogen apart and away from other air .
     -A bit of cloth, a line and a parachute and we got ourselves a crude weather balloon
5. Make a design for a buoy, which the ability to attach many ropes/chains to them. We can use this for a multitude of things:
       - Farming mussels and oysters and such at sea (Since fish is fine, they should be to, more or less). (Mussels like to attach to the ropes or chains
       - Harbor chain, if we connect some of them.
       - Another deep sea port
6. Prepare for the merchants.
7.What to do about the smelter, what to do about the smelter. Delay the desciscion, maybe our diplomat will have the answer. We should get that thing repaired someday though.
8.We should maybe start improving our defenses. What about finishing those breach repairs and converting them into watch towers?

Things to think about:
- Lighthouse construction (I'd delay this till we get better defenses)

[Gotdamnmiracle]

Do you think that our eastern friend could rally some of his tribes members that possibly escaped? I think we need to start recruiting more people. With the new food source and our now standing as one of the few water providers for Rome I wouldn't be surprised if we had some guests soon. I don't think we can rely on childbirth alone for to long.

[stabbymcstabstab]

Yes, get some of the nomads if I understand they are feared quite a bit, so a few of them stand guard when the traders come will increase our standing.

[Maldevious]

Definitely look to increase our size via nomads. Offer to provide them water if they settle in the area around our city. They'll make a buffer for defense and give us some more manpower, as some of them will certainly be tempted by city life.

[10ebbor10]

Remember that the nomads are raiders, so inviting them might not be a good idea. They'd either raid us or the nearby cities/ trading caravans. In both cases it would net us quite a lot of enemies, in exchange for possibly unreliable friends.

[stabbymcstabstab]

Why raid people when, theres more reliable supply source right next to you thats offering protection and and the ability to fight even more enemies, if they are one of those cultures.

[10ebbor10]

Why raid people when, theres more reliable supply source right next to you thats offering protection and and the ability to fight even more enemies, if they are one of those cultures.

Why not raid the more reliable supply source and take it for yourself? It's not like we have huge defenses or something, they could easily overpower us.
Also sealing a deal with those nomads will certainly get us the enomosity of various other cultures.

Let's also not forget that the Nomad was banished/ defeated, I think.

[Mr. Palau]

Why raid people when, theres more reliable supply source right next to you thats offering protection and and the ability to fight even more enemies, if they are one of those cultures.

Why not raid the more reliable supply source and take it for yourself? It's not like we have huge defenses or something, they could easily overpower us.
Also sealing a deal with those nomads will certainly get us the enomosity of various other cultures.

Let's also not forget that the Nomad was banished/ defeated, I think.

'tis true, 'tis true, that would anger other people and they might kill us themselves.