"Ah, what sorta gun is the XMT? And do you have any GZ-3's lying about?"
"It's a multi-purpose sniper rifle. A bit lighter than the GZ-3, but less powerful and it holds less ammo - 10 rounds versus the GZ-3's twenty. The barrel is shorter, though, and there's a burst fire mode which allows it to fire three rounds at once - makes it handier in close combat.
As for the GZs, yes, I have a few yet."Markus puts a hand on his forehead and breathes through his mouth.
"Please restrain this idiot," Markus said heavily while gesturing towards the psycho on the floor.
"Put the camp on alert. Exterminate any bugs you see, get the docs to check this guy and the other nutjob. Also, medical attention would be a great idea right now," Markus gets out while stumbling.
((I assume you're going to the medbay, yes?))
You stumble out onto the stairs, and climb up to the medbay, swaying slightly with each step. There's a portly man wearing glasses there, filling an autoclave with shiny surgical equipment.
"Yes? What is it?" -he asks, adjusting his spectacles.
[tgh:6] You grit your teeth and ask what the hell does he think it looks like, not bothering to conceal your growing irritation. You are explaining the whole thing about people going insane and weird bugs following you and being bitten and burning up and having this strange urge to just
strangle a motherfucker, when he motions you to lie down in the surgery module (which also does x-ray scans and whatever) and takes a few blood samples, then runs a brain scan. He gets a portable NMR spectrometer and inserts the sample. The screen of his computer fills with spectre graphs and suggested formulas for the sample. He blinks in surprise.
"Weird... the venom is not a single organic substance. What I'm seeing resembles the products of nanomachine metabolism, in fact. And your brain waves are weird. Like, short directed pulses of activity in the lobes...Why, I think...No." He rubs his forehead with the back of his hand.
"You say the bugs are following you? My only hypothesis is that they arrange themselves into a sort of radar-net, so that when one of them bites someone, the rest of them can find that someone. Plus, the victim becomes aggressive, intentionally seeking out other potential victims... You should be out of range, though - the radar is a sort of grid, you see. Requires a bug to three sides of you to home in." He lowers a semicircular array of tools over your head.
"Yup. New organ right in your brain - kind of like a beacon. Signals them with radio, also overstimulates parts of your brain to, in theory, produce violent hallucinations... It hasn't settled in yet, so I can stop it from driving you insane, but shutting down the beacon is beyond my abilities - it's like a decentralized net spread through your brain. If only we could get one of those bugs for research..." After a surgical procedure, he lets you out, still muttering to himself.
"Have you experienced problems with radio communication while in the forest?"Through the commlink:
- Sure thing. Will be in auto-bay in 15 minutes, being ready-to-go.
Back to Matveenko:
- Thank you for shotgun. You know, it looks like we are going to visit Yermakov Ostrog. Maybe there is anything we should now before going there?
"Well...Be on your guard. It's a rather large settlement, guessing by our orbital photos - walls and all. It being quiet gives me the shivers.""Let's waste no more time." McGaw says with finality.
The Doctor seems to pause a moment, as if hearing something, somewhere. She turns to him, running her hand through her copper-red hair in an odd nervous gesture.
"Also, Al-Radi...thank you. I don't think we'd have a chance if you weren't here. And...I know this isn't the time, or the place, or anything close to that, so...if we all get through this alive...would you mind sharing a cup of coffee with me? Don't answer now if you don't want to. But, it might be something to look forward to. We do have a future here. I know this all...sounds ridiculous...coming from me..." She say, stammering.
Action: We're off to see the Russians...
Al-Radi looks slightly off-balance: there might even be a bit of a blush on his face, but his naturally dark skin tone makes it difficult to determine.
"Why...I certainly wouldn't mind. So, after you return..? Make sure you do, alright?"McGaw, Chester, and Sean load up into the new hover, time being of the essence, and set off for Yermakov Ostrog at the highest possible speed. You're going west over the river this time, right along the line of the forest. The jethover skims along smoothly, and soon, the settlement comes into sight.
It's quite magnificent, really - an actual ostrog, meaning a Cossack fortress-town. It has a tall wooden palisade, more than thrice as tall as a man. Inside, you see the ship the SC group arrived in, a solitary silver spire standing in the middle of the town, like the tower of a town hall. There are two sturdy wooden gates in the palisade; they appear to be closed. The forest to the north of the town has been cut down.
((Hope I haven't forgotten anyone. Sean still has the trophy battlesuit, and Will has the antimatter bomb.))
((Edit: Will's turn))
Design a leg out of parts I have available. Make it very strong as well as agile and add a pair of blades to the feet that extend out the front, back and sides. No limiters obviously.
If I finish in time then boot up my computer and start work on designing an AI that can control a human shaped robot. It needs to be capable of functioning at full capacity in control of said robot which has no limiters and needs to be capable of thinking for itself. (( Basically I want the AI to have every scrap of combat programming I can come up with and be capable of learning and adapting. ))
[4+1] It's easy, really. Humming to yourself, you assemble a variety of bits, and start putting the leg together. Soon, you're done. The result is a long, grey plastic-plated limb with an extension system in the sole. The system pushes the sole down, and extends a set of whirring, slicing blades at ankle-level. The lack of limiters is slightly disconcerting. Hehe. Hehehe.
You recover from your fit of the giggles and get to designing a combat AI. Unsurprisingly, you don't get very far: the problem with situation assessment remains, and adaptation by randomization of actions isn't going to work out: you need it to survive on its own, and not as a population. Though you do manage to write a rather useful program for storing tactical data for future use.
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Topic: Trailblazers in a World of Winter - Chester crashes the party. (Read 58631 times)