((Sorry about taking so long - it's just that there's mastahcheese and piecewise's new game
Mainspring, and you see, it requires Photoshop-fu, and my Photoshop-fu is not only actually GIMP-fu, but also inferior. Spent a crapton of time on it.))
Implant the eye then run.a.couple of tests to make sure it synced up properly.
Will is standing leaning against his desk smiling as Chester walks in.
"I did in 30 minutes what the combined scientific community of earth failed to do in the last 70 years.
They need a new word for me.prodigy just doesn't cut it.
Anyway ego stroking aside, your new eye has both thermal and.night vision capability and will sync up with your human eye, however if you try to use either of them settings keep the human one shut until your done unless you want the mother of all headaches. Trying to look in.both normal and thermal will confuse your brain and cause a lot of pain.
Understand?
((Oh. Right then.))
Go find Will, get a new fancy eye, then go pay a visit to Matveenko. Say my apologizes for broken Izhmash, toss him this new rifle as an excuse. Request shotgun. Given or not, go find McGaw, or Al-Radi, or anyone in charge for further instructions.
Will requisitions the surgery room for himself, then gets to work installing Chester's eye. The surgery involves opening inserting a probe into the eye-socket, rigging up the optic nerve processor, then setting the base for the eye's rather extensive sensor suite, then the sensors themselves. After everything is installed, the eye is covered with a plate of mirror glass, which is raised when the thermal sensor is in use. All in all, it's pretty neat.
Chester wakes up. For a moment, he is unaware of any changes: he sees as he normally would. However, there seems to be something new in his brain: the sensation is like having an extra limb, that is, difficult to describe to people who have the normal set. Remembering the advice, he covers his left eye with his hand, then flips the imaginary switch.
Suddenly, the whole room is light blue. Will is an orange-ish red color, and his breath forms orange clouds and swirling currents. For that matter, your own breath obscures your vision somewhat - not fatally, but using the thermal sensor while holding your breath is easier.
Chester turns on the low-luminosity module. OW. Owowow. No, better try that somewhere that isn't brightly lit.
Then Chester tries rolling his eyes, looking at his nose, rapidly looking from one corner of his vision to the other, shaking his head, blinking (the eye still has an eyelid, despite not needing to blink; visually, the whole rig looks like Chester has an eye made of quicksilver when the glass on it is lowered, and like an eye-socket full of wires and cameras when it's raised. But when Chester has his eyes closed, it's impossible to tell one of his eyes is prosthetic) and other vision-related actions. Everything seems to be in working order.
He thanks Will and descends to the armory, where he hands the quartermaster the Japanese rifle, explaining that the original one got destroyed.
"Not the only thing you lost, I see," -he says, pointing at your eye.
"I'm not gonna dock it against you." As for your request of a shotgun, he shrugs and hands you a short-barreled gun with a drum magazine holding eight rounds, plus a small case of shells.
"Forgot to add it to the registry. Sorry about that."Then, there is a voice in Chester's headset.
"Mr. McLafferty? You speak Russian, if I remember correctly? A task has come up: we need somebody to visit the SC settlement of Yermakov Ostrog and try persuading them to aid us. Would you agree to go?""How could we get the Russians to help? And why would they? It seems they've nothing to gain-whoever wins or loses is one less competitor for them. They'd be more like to wait it out and attack the weakened party left after we're done...
That said, we have nothing to lose by trying. I can't speak much Slavic, unfortunately-I'm only fluent in Arabic, French, German, Afrikaans, and Spanish..." She said with a note of self reproach.
"That being said, I could go with MacLafferty and see the Russians-rather than stay here and be generally useless. I'm not built for combat or physical labor, literally. Though I suppose we'll all be exceeding our design specifications soon enough.
Two people can read a situation much better than one-and frankly, my enhanced intelligence is an advantage. I suppose there might be a small advantage to having a pretty face to negotiations, as well. Do you think it a wise course of action, Al-Radi?"
"Yes, I believe so. McLafferty is a soldier, after all. I'm not insinuating that all soldiers are stupid, it's just that they may find one of our scientific staff more convincing. As for why we should help us... You see, we are not a military threat to the Russians, while the Cybersun guys are, and have already proven it. I expect that the Russians aren't willing to murder us just because we're sharing some of their uranium, and they might mind sharing it with Cybersun. Yes, I know there are a lot of ifs and mights in that plan, but I don't see another viable choice in the situation."Markus moves backwards, observing the bugs. He didn't know much about these bugs yet, but it wouldn't hurt to try more fire. Actually, it might hurt to do so.
Whatever, it's not like he had many choices at this time.
Shouting at the top of his lungs, Markus called out: "Hey, hey! Everyone, look out! We need incendiary weapons right now, on this front!"
Ask for incendiary weapons and get the nutjob inside the camp.
[6]You get a few confused looks before people get what is happening, and then Moshe is here. With a mining laser. Good old Moshe. He opens fire on the stretch of river the bugs are currently on, and it explodes in a cloud of steam, which expands to titanic proportions. After a while, the steam clears. The ice on the river has melted, and the bugs are gone. You are still uneasy, however; if just one got inside the camp...
You walk over to the armory, carrying the nutter over your shoulder. Matveenko asks you what it's all about. You explain that the unconscious man will probably need to be restrained when he wakes up, and that he is poisoned. [tgh:6] Your vision blurs slightly, and you sway a bit.
"Are you okay? Should I get the docs?"Chuck the sillybuggers into the brig, dump Fowl in medbay and look to see if any new guns showed.
You enter the armory a few seconds after Markus, and throw your prisoner flat on the floor. He rolls his eyes at Matveenko and screams,
"Traitor! Filthy communist whoreson!" You give him a kick, and he shuts up.
"Restrained. All right. I see." When you ask if there are any new guns in stock, he shrugs.
"Well, there's the Doorbuster shotgun which I missed in my inventory log, and a Japanese XMT rifle McLafferty brought from their little excursion."((It has been brought to my attention that not having a shotgun on an expedition into a place with a possibility of dangerous wildlife is stupid. I concede. There is now a shotgun.))