Scan the fruits one more time, to be safe. Mark the location of the tree of possible and continue to the institute.
One more scan to be sure...they seem stable enough, even detached from the tree. But anyone whose studying them would have to be careful...if you didn't know any better, they seem almost tamper proof, not unlike an actual explosive. You mark the area on your internal positioning system. If you needed to find it again, you'd know exactly where it is.
...
You hover up through the skylight of the institute, carefully deposting the fruit on a lab temple.
Dr. Flannery is drinking coffee, tapping away on his mundane computer. He's the sort that doesn't really like Cyberspace travel.
"...hmm, what have you got there, Fox?" He asks, scratching his grey beard.
Well, on to making something useful out of those robo materials. Then visit the address, if I still have time.
You decide to work on your materials to get your mind off of...well, horrible things. You take a seat, and bring out your tools.
...
You pluck the skinny, heavy body of the Oidwyrm that was fluttering around the zone a few days ago from it's pile. It looks like a small Dragon, which makes you think it's not a Mechanimal but some sort of exotic Animoid. Either way, it attacked you-shot fire out of it's nostrils-and you had to put it down. Which was suspiciously difficult-it had tough, energy resistant armor for such a little thing.
You begin to take apart whats left, hoping you find something useful.
Engineering Roll 18+5=27 vs 15...
An hour later, you've managed more or less to extract the flamethrower system from it's nose, and identified it's component systems-it's oddly elegant and inobstrusive, designed to break down hard metals like an industrial furnace to produce clean energy. Two large blue sacks near the stomach contain what you assume is close to Jellied Plasma, a material designed for melting down Oid Chassis-this is much lighter and more stable, a weaponized form even. Adhesive magnetic properties-difficult to remove if it sticks to an Oid. Highly combustible. You wonder if it was designed for disposal work or...
You quickly run the unknown chemical through your scanner, identifying it's base components. You feel you cold easily reproduce it for your own purposes, with some grunt work. It's a horrifying weapon, sure, but war is supposed to be horrifying.
You also manage to take out and modify the things subtargeting chip-an artistic little program designed to calculate the spread patterns and ejections rates of incendiaries for maximum dispersal and damage. Nasty.
Got Parts!
~Organic Flamethrower Schema
~Weaponized Jellied Plasma Formula
~Incendiary Chip V.1 (Increases the recurring damage caused by Burning weapons by +1)[3]
You've done good work, and not damaged the Oidwyrm too much. There's still parts you could extract from it.
...
Placing the work in your safe locker, you head over to your VR hookup. Time to see what the address will lead you to...
((Read below))Striker could have cried if he had tear ducts. They clearly meant to take away his flight to leverage him into joining active combat duty again. It's not that he didn't sympathize with their plight. But it just wasn't fair. Feeling down on shifted the thoughts on if he should look into joining the hounds to a lower priority, then pulled up the local news feed to see what had happened recently. All of it was bad news. A ACS outbreak and the economy still tanking were the most important ones to him. Near the end of the feed he noticed a article that talked about a Defender. DEFENDER 8 sacrificed himself to save some humans. How noble. Now it was getting a comfy retirement. Striker allowed himself a small amount of jealousy as he wondered if they would try to restrict the Defenders flight privileges, before he reminded himself that defenders did not fly. And that the defender had basically killed itself. Striker wondered if he would have the courage to do something like that. To turn oneself fully off, not sure if one would ever wake back up. To be frozen as nothing but a black box...
He pulled his cord out of the wall, suddenly cutting himself off from Cyberspace. He turned away from the HardLink and surveyed his mess. Frustration mounting at not knowing what to do he walked over to the work bench, planning on working on the hawk more. Two steps in though his optical sensors noticed the note that was put on a pile of junk. He paused for second before giving a mental shrug and grabbing it. Maybe it was something, although he doubted it...
Go to the CyberAddress on the note.
You spin through cyberspace, fear and grief and frustration clouding your senses. A FIO starts to follow you with a look of concern of her tiny face, but you 'fly' faster, not wanting to get into a conversation. Not that you can actually fly in here. It's more like being on an escalator that never ends until you get off.
You can only hope that what you'll find at the end if something you'll want to do.
((Read below))"You be right. So what your offer, miss Yen?"
Yen nods, turning to another point of light.
To your surprise, two beings step into the room-one, an Oid composed of gritty looking wireframes. She looks very serious, but you can't tell what model she is-she's keeping that information secure from you. The other one is a small, round bot with a sad look on his face, despite him not being able to show emotions-it's a STRIKER unit, you recognize from your history lessons. Those are still in operation?
"Welcome, Septima and Striker." Yen says kindlly to the newcomers.
"Clair, this is Septima and Striker-another two of our candidates. And I'm glad you could all make it...""...Now, I suppose we'll get straight to the point then? Very well. I doubt I could handle five introductions in a row...er, three...
You're all here for an opportunity, and I'll lay it out.
...
Do you know the best way to keep a war from starting is not to choose a side? It's true. Of course, it only takes one side to start a conflict, and two to perpetuate it...but, if enough people refuse to fight, by logic-no war could take place.
Consider me the representative of a collective of concerned citizens who refuse to fight for either side-we simply call ourselves The Gray. We see what is happening in Paradisum, the drums of war beating their endless march-and we're going to try and stop it. Perhaps it's impossible, but...we've come to the belief that the day we're forced to choose a side is the day we've failed.
We're only going to protect the people of Paradisum as long as we can-for them, we will fight. From anyone or anything who seeks to harm innocents.
In short, Clair, Septima, Striker...we're going to serve the greater good-try to keep our little paradise from crumbling in the wind. And, you three are uniquely positioned to help us achieve this. We have resources, we have contacts, we have influence. All we need is the will and the strength to enforce our beliefs. In this, you will be our guide-our arm. When words and peaceful action fail...we'll have all of you.
What do you all think of my offer? Is this something you'd be interested in? I assure you-the pay is quite good, and we can offer...incentives, of varying degrees. But, if we thought you were all merely mercenaries, we could not have contacted you."