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[piecewise]

"It seems we'll need to dig around for space construction equipment, because frankly the requirements and safety precautions make it sound scarier than giving Grate his pill machine back."

"That happened once, it's not happening again. Stop treating me like a dumb kid!"

Yeah, treat him like a dumb adult!~

Grate glares through the fourth wall.

Inside the box is a Gilgamesh action figure, fully articulated and everything! It's got a note attached to it.

Dear Grate,

Remember that weird pill machine you had some time ago? Well, I gave that thing to Simus. After talking it over, we decided it'd be best this way. You may not remember, but last time you used it... very bad things happened. So we decided she should keep an eye on it. She said you might still be allowed to use it, but you'll have to talk to her to find out the details.

To make it up to you, I give you this Gilgamesh doll. I made it nice 'n sturdy, so you should be able to play with it without it breaking apart. I hope you'll have as many awesome adventures with him as I did with the real one.

Stay safe kiddo.


Was signed,

Miyamoto De Bergerac

Grate stares at the action figure and sighs.
"Why does everyone treat me like a kid? And a little kid. 'Oh, it's nice and sturdy, you can throw it against walls and chew on it and everything and it won't break.' If it's the thought that counts, this gift sucks."
Grate throws the action figure at a wall and lies down on his bed.
"I'm supposed to be a member of the team. I'm supposed to be helping, I'm supposed to be doing stuff. But everyone's treating me like I'm someone's little brother. Keeping dangerous stuff out of my reach while they toy with the laws of physics. Giving me an action figure, as if that could replace the one useful thing I have. All I've got now is this stupid toy, mediocre shooting skills, and immortality. What am I supposed to do with that?"


Seriously. What the heck?
Sorry, Cael, but until I figure out how to weaponize a freaking action figure, I'm gonna need to keep that alien power source.
What else do I have? Grate's got decent technical skills, but as the pill machine, the action figure, and basically everything so far has shown, he doesn't have any respect.

An action figure. What the heck?

Only problematic things would be the following:
1. Weight.
2.Recoil
3. Lack of barrel would mean the thing is highly inaccurate over anything more then a few feet, since it would be firing in sort of a rough cone rather then a tight cluster.

Neat. Um. I'll get back to that project, once I get over the fact that Grate's teammates evidently think that an action figure is a suitable replacement for a highly versatile and potentially game-changing Nyars artifact.


Grate fiddles with the action figure for a bit to figure out if there's anything special about it. Hidden compartment containing another note? Secret lasery functions? Anything?
Yeah, I didn't think so. Grate's probably going to be tossing the action figure away before getting out the power source thingy.
"Hi. I heard you were sentient. Can you understand me?"
If this fails to do anything, Grate sticks his hand on the thing before repeating his question.

The Toy is indeed has a secret compartment, accessed in the same way you would normally open the entry hatch. Inside, where the pilot should be, are three shards of a bright, silvery material.

((Respect is something to be conquered GWG.))

Does the core look something like this?

Spoiler: Horrible drawing (click to show/hide)

It's a low quality picture of a quick drawing taken from my phone. Sorry about the quality.

EDIT: Photobucket doesn't display it for some reason. Will wait until photobucket stops having errors or use another image hosting thing.

EDIT2: Fixed.

Something like that, yeah.

"It seems that examining people for a changling mask would be very, very simple.  You don't even need medical skill- just grab their face, and look for strange angular bits.  Although, come to think of it, cameyes would work for scanning heads for amps, and you are the only person we have with cameyes, Simus.  We could simply have everyone walk through a particular hallway with you watching, and the operative would be quite obvious.  After that we could quarantine the workers in a particular section, and tell aresteve to watch for any movement anywhere else in the complex.  If we block sight of you with something transparent to X-ray the operative won't even have a chance to see you."

Did I get to write that program that links our video feeds?  Also, puppet Charles into charging a dynamic speech bonus, and looking for a good section of the facility for quarantining civvies.  Then go head to my room and get into Tinker:

Spoiler: Tinker things (click to show/hide)

First things first, set my VR body to be my old fleshy self, with nerves and everything.  Spawn into a kitchen.

Construct a sandwich using two large sugar cookies drenched in syrup, with deep-fried ice cream and butter between them.  Dub this a 'saintly sandwich'.

Now spawn myself into a regular tinker environment, with a bag full of saintly sandwiches.  While munching on the sandwiches, spawn a few Piezoelectric shard launchers, in various stages of deconstruction.  Examine how they work- If I understand it correctly, the gun feeds a liquid solution into the firing chamber, and then channels electricity(?) through it which instantly solidifies it into the crystals.  Then it... uses some form of electrical repulsion to propel the round out of the barrel?  I'd like a better description, if you have one.  Also, at what RPM does it fire a charged volley?  Can you fire charged volleys in quick succession?

For now, just spawn little mini-sods armed with mini-PSLs that fire rounds at the below sizes.  I want to see how well they do against full size mk1 dummies, and full size battlesuits for the heck of it.

Test 0: 24 inch shards (Yes, this is a standard PSL.  I still want the description.)
Test 1: 12 inch shards
Test 2: 6 inch shards
Test 3: 4 inch shards
Test 4: 2 inch shards
Test 5: 1 inch shards
Test 6: 1/2 inch shards

Yes
Puppeted
There's a big empty store room reasonably near the civilian living areas. That should work.
I'd get right on that crystal info but I'm afraid you've fallen into a diabetic coma.

Actually, yes, that could work. But it will have to wait a moment - I need to see to the fourth member of our group.

Simus heads down to Grate's quarters and stands in the door.

You forgot something in your list. You've also got a large amount of freedom to do most things on the largest manufacturing planet in known space. And I don't mean just using it like a playground, which is about as far as most people would probably let you - I mean using it as what it is. I didn't pick you just to let you be away from the front.

Now, about that pill machine. I know that, by all rights, it is yours. I also know that used wrong, it can cause a lot of destruction. And when used right, we have no idea yet - we've not gotten the chance to find out, have we? However, considering what has been done with it already, I'm considering it a kind of semi-hot lab item. Meaning, you can still use it, as can all of us, but you have to ask and tell me what you're putting in it, and it has to be done under supervision. And those rules apply to all of us, not just you.

((So... did my message get through, PW?))

(I dunno, what message? Was it bolded? I don't remember a message. Who are you? Where am I? Who said that?)

And I'm sure the others here will respect you as well. I would expect no less from them - and from you.

Now, I have to go. I'm no micro-manager, but I can tell you the priority for work right now is securing the base - we had an incident during the space battle that I would prefer not repeated. Think you can find something to do to help out?

Go to where Charles quarantines the civilians and look at them in X-ray vision mode.

You go around scanning skulls and poking faces. Hmm, nothing out of the ordinary that you can see.

"...Yeah, guess that couldn't hurt. Hopefully. Maybe. It has a better chance of helping than hurting. I think. Just do it."

Go to an isolation chamber before talking to the alien artifact.

You head to one of the subject chambers, but how do you want to try and talk to it?

Anton Chernozorov

"'If this is wrong, you'll all die'. Not ominous in the slightest. You know, just looking at this I am starting to have some vague understanding of how this whole manufacturing process works... and I'm not liking it at all. An asteroid at the L5 point suddenly seems not far enough. Maybe L3?"

Anton exits VR and contacts Simus.

"XO, this is Chernozorov. I've reviewed the security report, and it seems we have a little problem. Well, besides some spotty surveillance coverage in the older parts of the complex. We've had an anomalous breach inside a normally isolated industrial section underground, and whatever it is the automatic repair systems are failing at restoring integrity and the damage is spreading. We might need to take a closer look, and I suspect we're going to need some footsoldiers, robot or no."

Inform Simus of the strange damage to the underground sections. Go to Production and see what items on the standard list can or can't be produced. (can't is probably a shorter list) See if we have the capacity to produce two squads of regular Sods in Mk3 or other light exoskeletal armor in short order. (i.e. how much time it will take)

Try to patch into a video feed from one of the drones working inside the damaged area, if available. Ask Aresteve to do it if I can't.

You can produce all the standard stuff for the amps and manips already. It's really quite mundane, technologically.

As per sods, they take a few months to make. They're organic after all, you have to grow them, and the growth cycle can only be accelerated so much.

Robots on the other hand, could be manufactured fairly fast. Though they would be rudimentary.

[GreatWyrmGold]

((L3 may not be stable, but a station can still be parked there with some minor stationkeeping required. And it's the furthest from the planet - not that it'll help much, if Steve's estimate on the containment breach of the artifact from mission 4 is any indication.))

((At that point, is there even any reason to putting it at a Lagrange point? Seems like it would be cheaper, Δv-wise, to just put it on another planet.))


Like I said in the previous post: With my vocal cords.
First, replace the silvery material for later investigation and store the action figure. Then, head to the isolation chamber.

Once there, say the following:
"Hi. I heard you were sentient. Can you understand me?"
If this fails, stick my hand in it and try again.

[Sean Mirrsen]

((L3 may not be stable, but a station can still be parked there with some minor stationkeeping required. And it's the furthest from the planet - not that it'll help much, if Steve's estimate on the containment breach of the artifact from mission 4 is any indication.))

((At that point, is there even any reason to putting it at a Lagrange point? Seems like it would be cheaper, Δv-wise, to just put it on another planet.))

((It needs to be shielded from everything, including gravity. Less gravity around = less chance of catastrophic failure should something go wrong. Not much less, but still. Plus "no sentient beings around" is kind of easier enforced out in space.))

[PyroDesu]

No amps in our workers, nor changeling implants. I suppose we can be reasonably sure that none of the workers left here are operatives in disguise, since those two items would be unbelievably difficult, if not impossible to get rid of without a full surgery bay. Still possible there is one, but the obvious - and most far-reaching - option is out.

((This one:

Message the Armoury Master:

I need a bit of advice regarding Organochemistry or Neural Connector amps (much more likely the former) - during the space battle, a member of ARM came into the control room and attempted to detonate a nuclear device. He was subdued, and is imprisoned, but we can't be sure whether or not he was acting of his own free will. Is there any way, without the use of amps (as we have nobody to use them, nor even the means to manufacture them yet), to determine whether someone has had their mind manipulated?

))

[Radio Controlled]

((You guys considered putting it in deep space instead of in or around a nearby celestial body? Not ideal, but safer. A bit. Maybe?))

[GreatWyrmGold]

((Who cares what happens to an uninhabited chunk of rock?))

[Radio Controlled]

((Who cares what happens to an uninhabited chunk of rock?))

((Nobody, but if that chunk of rock happens to be near something important (like, say, a planet) then it's important.))

[Parisbre56]

((I think the catastrophe is more on the scale of loosing the solar system, as described by Steve during China-9. So you'd probably want it as far away from anything as possible. Probably somewhere in the Oort cloud would be nice.))

[GreatWyrmGold]

((Who cares what happens to an uninhabited chunk of rock?))

((Nobody, but if that chunk of rock happens to be near something important (like, say, a planet) then it's important.))

((Why are planets important? They're just chunks of rock. Just make sure it isn't Hephaestus and we're golden.))

[syvarris]

((I had actually considered turning that off to be part of my action, but decided against it in case it forced a roll or something.))

Respawn.

"Why must these VRs be that realistic... I still feel sick..."

No amps in our workers, nor changeling implants. I suppose we can be reasonably sure that none of the workers left here are operatives in disguise, since those two items would be unbelievably difficult, if not impossible to get rid of without a full surgery bay. Still possible there is one, but the obvious - and most far-reaching - option is out.

"But Charles hasn't even... eh, okay.  I've written a program that links our video feeds, although it seems to already be purposeless."

TINKER!  AND CHARGE AN AUX BONUS!

Spoiler: Tinker things (click to show/hide)

First things first, set my VR body to be a dex synthflesh body with an MK.III.  Examine what my stat bonuses are.

Now spawn myself into a regular tinker environment.  Spawn a few Piezoelectric shard launchers, in various stages of deconstruction.  Examine how they work- If I understand it correctly, the gun feeds a liquid solution into the firing chamber, and then channels electricity(?) through it which instantly solidifies it into the crystals.  Then it... uses some form of electrical repulsion to propel the round out of the barrel?  I'd like a better description, if you have one.  Also, at what RPM does it fire a charged volley?  Can you fire charged volleys in quick succession?

For now, just spawn little mini-sods armed with mini-PSLs that fire rounds at the below sizes.  I want to see how well they do against full size mk1 dummies, and full size battlesuits for the heck of it.

Test 0: 24 inch shards (Yes, this is a standard PSL.  I still want the description.)
Test 1: 12 inch shards
Test 2: 6 inch shards
Test 3: 4 inch shards
Test 4: 2 inch shards
Test 5: 1 inch shards
Test 6: 1/2 inch shards

And puppet Charles into making a nice speech about how the civvies better get into a particular living section, and lock all the doors once the civvies are inside.

[Empiricist]

Saint starts speaking into general comms, seemingly unaware of Grate and Simus' conversation "Hey, Charles, you're here for speechifying the civvies, right?  Why don't you start working on something to get them moving to a quarantine area?  Simus, since my medical skills turned out to be unneeded, I'm gonna go design stuff in VR."

((Edit'd my original action.  Also, I'm pretty sure Empi said we could puppet Charles for speech related stuff, but if I'm wrong I'll edit that out.))

((Yeah, and I'd rather him follow orders so that he gets inspiration for the plans I have, seeing as it would be OOC for him to suddenly decide to see if the facility can produce speech sods.))

[Sean Mirrsen]

Anton Chernozorov

Genau das, was wir brauchen. See if you can get some kind of video on the area, by scout drone or similar. We can determine what we do then - and I hope that we do not find what I expect. And if it is, we'd probably be better off making a strategic-yield nuclear device than any number of footsoldiers.

"Much as a sympathize with the notion of blowing things up, I would rather not slag any more of our own facility than absolutely necessary. Let's leave it as Plan B - first we should see what actually goes on in there, and try to resolve the situation with less destruction. Or at least better focused destruction.

Anyway, it seems we won't have a Sod strike group anytime soon. Don't know about "flesh is weak", but it certainly takes some time to make. I don't know if we can wait a few months either, and I certainly don't want to go down there without backup - or at all, really, at least until I know what's down there. Wasn't there an organochemistry amp overload that resulted in a creature that fled underground?

I do have an idea of what we could do in the meantime... but it needs some discussing. And I'll need Saint's help."

Anton pauses for a moment, consolidating his thoughts into as coherent a mass as he can.

"Basically, remember the RT unit? One of its features are the "zombie functions", where two support CPUs drive the body when the brain is not around. Well, we can't make RTs now, but we can probably hammer out a set of programs for a regular synthoid body with its own support CPUs, and a powerful comms unit instead of a brain. Tie the sensor feedback into a VR scene, and we can pretty much drive a body around in place of the brain. Instant remote control avatars. And best part, we probably don't need any new production lines to make any of it."

Talk to Simus.

Try (again) to get a camera feed from the damaged area underground, see what it is.

Ask Aresteve (or Steve, whoever is more qualified) on the feasibility of the proposed RC Synthoid - can a robot body be controlled with a comms unit and a CPU block plugged into where its brain should be?

[Radio Controlled]

Ask Aresteve (or Steve, whoever is more qualified) on the feasibility of the proposed RC Synthoid - can a robot body be controlled with a comms unit and a CPU block plugged into where its brain should be?

((If the comms pack needs to be small to fit, you could make small comm stations you leave behind you and which act as relays for the signal. There'll be a big delay, but at least you won't suddenly lose contact.))

[syvarris]

"Basically, remember the RT unit? One of its features are the "zombie functions", where two support CPUs drive the body when the brain is not around. Well, we can't make RTs now, but we can probably hammer out a set of programs for a regular synthoid body with its own support CPUs, and a powerful comms unit instead of a brain. Tie the sensor feedback into a VR scene, and we can pretty much drive a body around in place of the brain. Instant remote control avatars. And best part, we probably don't need any new production lines to make any of it."

"Sounds like a good idea.  As far as the remote control part, I had a similar idea awhile ago, taking advantage of a robotic body's brain interpreters.  The program itself would be very, very simple to make, although making it work for a fleshy would be much more difficult.  I suppose I could rig an exoskeleton's sensors for it...

Anyways, the 'zombie' functions would be much more difficult.  While a basic movement library and AI is fine because I already have the former and the latter is easy, it has the same issues as any pure CPU AI; it deals with unforseen alterations very poorly.  If it loses a leg, it's even more crippled than a human.  You can program it to deal with many different wounds, but it's practically impossible to program it to deal with everything.  Although, a sod brain with a connection could 'teach' it in real time, as it recieves wounds...

What control method would you like me to use for it?  Brain translator, exo sensors, literal VR environment?"

[Sean Mirrsen]

"Basically, remember the RT unit? One of its features are the "zombie functions", where two support CPUs drive the body when the brain is not around. Well, we can't make RTs now, but we can probably hammer out a set of programs for a regular synthoid body with its own support CPUs, and a powerful comms unit instead of a brain. Tie the sensor feedback into a VR scene, and we can pretty much drive a body around in place of the brain. Instant remote control avatars. And best part, we probably don't need any new production lines to make any of it."

"Sounds like a good idea.  As far as the remote control part, I had a similar idea awhile ago, taking advantage of a robotic body's brain interpreters.  The program itself would be very, very simple to make, although making it work for a fleshy would be much more difficult.  I suppose I could rig an exoskeleton's sensors for it...

Anyways, the 'zombie' functions would be much more difficult.  While a basic movement library and AI is fine because I already have the former and the latter is easy, it has the same issues as any pure CPU AI; it deals with unforseen alterations very poorly.  If it loses a leg, it's even more crippled than a human.  You can program it to deal with many different wounds, but it's practically impossible to program it to deal with everything.  Although, a sod brain with a connection could 'teach' it in real time, as it recieves wounds...

What control method would you like me to use for it?  Brain translator, exo sensors, literal VR environment?"

"I've been tweaking the programming in my off time while we were preparing for the UWM counterattack. The zombie AI mostly knows how to do basic movement, and uses my drone OS for recognizing and navigating around obstacles. And of course locking onto and firing at targets, which is what it does all the time, at least with the RT's main weapons. Choosing targets is a tricky part, but so far it defaults to any large moving object that doesn't broadcast an ARM IFF. Which isn't all that great. I was thinking of building a library of shapes to let fuzzy logic recognize person-shaped objects and only firing at those, but that will take more time.

Anyways, you're thinking of it all wrong. I'm using a simulated environment with an inverse-kinematics rig to determine motion patterns by evolution. Sensors report the state of the body to the sim, and the sim determines required alterations to the movement cycles, in realtime. Well, whenever any changes are needed, anyway. Most basic situations are covered by default - I mean, the number of losable limbs is finite - but the sim can do corrections even for partial loss of function. All of it is for a quadruped though, so that's why I need your input.

And I was primarily thinking of VR scene recreated through onboard sensors, although if my drone OS is reused for basic movement we can make do with regular video feeds - at least until we need to examine something up close."