Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[PyroDesu]

Well, if there's an Urban Executor or Shadow Walker hiding amongst our workforce, we might be able to rat them out by medical examination. If there aren't too many workers here, at least - otherwise it might take a long time to do it.

[syvarris]

"That's a good idea.  I'll head to my room to store the skin-suit, and then go to the medical area and start familiarizing myself with the equipment.  Unless, of course, I can use one of the workers to test the suit."

[PyroDesu]

No, you may not, Saint. We'll get some proper test subjects in a bit, but we're not just using random workers.

[syvarris]

"Ah, I only meant that as a joke.  Even if it were morally fine, conducting tests on the workers would likely incite a strong resistance.  Sorry, I'll try to restrain my black humor in the future."

[Sean Mirrsen]

Anton Chernozorov

Aresteve points across the room and the holodisplay for the node lights up and begins displaying a map of the Hephaestus system. It zooms in near the planet and highlights several objects.

>Hephaestus has several large bodies orbiting it. I believe this one

The display zooms in on one of the highlighted objects until you can see it as a large asteroid.

May be what you are looking for. It is in a Trojan orbit around the L5 Lagrangian point of the planet. The object is of a large enough size and mass to allow the creation of a facility without fear of interrupting the orbit.

"I... was thinking more along the lines of a free-floating structure, but asteroid seems good. Once we have a semblance of heavy lifting and space construction capacity again, that'll probably be the first real project. Can you compile the data on the asteroid and the proposed schematics into a VR scene? I'd like to review it more visually later.

More short term, we are also looking into solidifying our internal security systems, and you're the most familiar with the layout of the complex. And also the most capable to monitor said security systems. Please compile a report on distribution and efficiency of existing automated surveillance, alarm, and any active security systems throughout the complex, at least the key production areas and the command center if everything can't be covered. I'm interested in fixing any gaps we might still have after the damage the complex sustained, as well as any deliberately unmonitored locations. We're on the lookout for a potential infiltrator with mind control powers, and any extra chance we have at spotting weird activity of our personnel will help. Might as well be looking for a black cat in a dark room, true, but get enough people looking and, if it's there, sooner or later someone will step on its tail."

Anton listens to Ares' response and turns to leave, but stops at the exit of the chamber and turns around again. "By the way, Aresteve, why are you..." He thinks for a moment, and reconsiders asking. "..nevermind. See you... later, I guess?"

Request a VR recreation of the hypothetical future amp-manufacturing asteroid facility to be made available in VR for review.
Request a report on the state of passive and active security measures around the production complex and the command center, including any detectable gaps in security and possible areas of improvement.

Leave Aresteve's chamber, go to production area or anywhere a complete set of tools and a workbench can be located. Sit down with the synthoid arm and carefully disassemble it, noting its construction and design tolerances. Determine how much can be added to the arm - hand, shoulder and all - without affecting its outward look or performance too much. Look for potential internal spaces to install devices roughly the size and shape of: A cutting torch, a hand laser emitter, a small set of tools, a small power generator, a field manipulator sans conventional keyboard, a monofilament blade in a sheath - in no particular order and not necessarily, but preferably, all at once or in any given combination.
((No need to actually try and procure any of those parts, and I know we can neither produce nor modify the manips yet, not to mention I don't think anyone of us has one - I just want to see what I can theoretically build into an arm without giving away that something is installed. As for why I'm not doing it in Tinker... well, IC reasons. ))

[GreatWyrmGold]

I got the pill machine, right?

Retroactively have spent several turns in the Hephaestus databanks, figuring out what the differences between SotA UWM weaponry and current ARM weaponry are.
As for the present...

Dear Ms. Simus,
Would it be possible for me to have some test subjects so we can investigate the possibility of large-scale pill-modified sod production? I would only need a few.
Sincerely,
Grate.
P.S. No space magic thingies will be used.

P.P.S. Unless the pill machine counts as a space magic thingy. That will be used.

[piecewise]

I got the pill machine, right?

Retroactively have spent several turns in the Hephaestus databanks, figuring out what the differences between SotA UWM weaponry and current ARM weaponry are.
As for the present...

Dear Ms. Simus,
Would it be possible for me to have some test subjects so we can investigate the possibility of large-scale pill-modified sod production? I would only need a few.
Sincerely,
Grate.
P.S. No space magic thingies will be used.

P.P.S. Unless the pill machine counts as a space magic thingy. That will be used.

No. Simus does.

You do, however, have a nicely wrapped present that someone left you.

"Hrm.  This suit seems to have no discernable effect, at least not on this body. Oh well.  Simus, do you have any suggestions on what I should do to help your security operations?  If not, I'm just going to work on some programs and try designing something in VR."

Take off the skinsuit .  Put my MK1 and sub-exo back on, then head to my room and store the suit.  Afterwards, head to our medical area and examine what equipment we have available.  Charge an AUX bonus.

Actual VR stuff to come later today when I have more time.

Spoiler: Ignore this.  Just leaving it because eh. (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

((Remember, Saint's our only fleshtech at the moment.  MRI might be a med or AUX roll.))

We'll say you have basic hospital equipment. Everything needed for surgery and the like, but none of the fancy diagnostic machines.

Don't worry about it - I'm sure we'll get test subjects that aren't robots at some point - it might react better to them. As for anything you can do, you have medical experience, yeah?

Aresteve, how many workers are left on the planet, that you can tell?

>93 by my count.

Search instead for hallucinations seen by multiple people.

Most of the stuff you get is about tulpas and various other oogie boogie crap. There are a few links to some sort of clinical trial for an anti-psychotic drug, but thats about it.

Anton Chernozorov

Aresteve points across the room and the holodisplay for the node lights up and begins displaying a map of the Hephaestus system. It zooms in near the planet and highlights several objects.

>Hephaestus has several large bodies orbiting it. I believe this one

The display zooms in on one of the highlighted objects until you can see it as a large asteroid.

May be what you are looking for. It is in a Trojan orbit around the L5 Lagrangian point of the planet. The object is of a large enough size and mass to allow the creation of a facility without fear of interrupting the orbit.

"I... was thinking more along the lines of a free-floating structure, but asteroid seems good. Once we have a semblance of heavy lifting and space construction capacity again, that'll probably be the first real project. Can you compile the data on the asteroid and the proposed schematics into a VR scene? I'd like to review it more visually later.

More short term, we are also looking into solidifying our internal security systems, and you're the most familiar with the layout of the complex. And also the most capable to monitor said security systems. Please compile a report on distribution and efficiency of existing automated surveillance, alarm, and any active security systems throughout the complex, at least the key production areas and the command center if everything can't be covered. I'm interested in fixing any gaps we might still have after the damage the complex sustained, as well as any deliberately unmonitored locations. We're on the lookout for a potential infiltrator with mind control powers, and any extra chance we have at spotting weird activity of our personnel will help. Might as well be looking for a black cat in a dark room, true, but get enough people looking and, if it's there, sooner or later someone will step on its tail."

Anton listens to Ares' response and turns to leave, but stops at the exit of the chamber and turns around again. "By the way, Aresteve, why are you..." He thinks for a moment, and reconsiders asking. "..nevermind. See you... later, I guess?"

Request a VR recreation of the hypothetical future amp-manufacturing asteroid facility to be made available in VR for review.
Request a report on the state of passive and active security measures around the production complex and the command center, including any detectable gaps in security and possible areas of improvement.

Leave Aresteve's chamber, go to production area or anywhere a complete set of tools and a workbench can be located. Sit down with the synthoid arm and carefully disassemble it, noting its construction and design tolerances. Determine how much can be added to the arm - hand, shoulder and all - without affecting its outward look or performance too much. Look for potential internal spaces to install devices roughly the size and shape of: A cutting torch, a hand laser emitter, a small set of tools, a small power generator, a field manipulator sans conventional keyboard, a monofilament blade in a sheath - in no particular order and not necessarily, but preferably, all at once or in any given combination.
((No need to actually try and procure any of those parts, and I know we can neither produce nor modify the manips yet, not to mention I don't think anyone of us has one - I just want to see what I can theoretically build into an arm without giving away that something is installed. As for why I'm not doing it in Tinker... well, IC reasons. ))

>I'll have those in the VR system soon.

Here's the thing about standard robotic arms; They're wildly less powerful then they could be. They were specifically made to mimic human motion and capacities. So you could easily replace the toned down artificial muscles with some stronger ones and have huge areas to fit stuff. Admittedly, doing so would mean those few muscles you do have would be more susceptible to damage because the load isn't spread out like in the weaker arm.

[syvarris]

Dynamic AUX bonus: +/-1

"Simus, there's an issue with your plan to scan brains.  Amazingly, we lack any advanced diagnostic equipment; We can't run any brain scans.  I'm going to head to the command center, and look at our camera coverage for now.

I suggest that, after our security affairs are over, better medical facilities be a top priority."

Head to the command center, and check out our camera coverage.  How complete is it?  Only important chokepoints and rooms?  Complete coverage over everything?  Something in-between?  Ask Aresteve for data on Urban Executor's changling masks, and how to easily detect them.  Will a small facial incision or needle prick reveal one?  Small electroshock maybe?

Also, use my dynamic AUX bonus to create a simple program which links all of our camera feeds, so we can see each other's activities.  DO NOT activate it, but try to design it so that it doesn't need a roll to be activated.[/b]

((FYI, the camera linking isn't my idea.  It was PW's the AM's method of dealing with the serial killer mission.))

[PyroDesu]

Who said anything about brain scans? Surely you'd be able to find an Urban Executor's Changeling mask, or Shade cloak - I'd go for the former, they can ditch the cloak if needs be, they can't ditch an implant, or whatever Shadow Walkers use to blend in through something a bit more routine.

Also, I can't help but think - if Leo were being controlled, or even just had something 'suggested' to him, then who or whatever did it isn't terribly bright, you know? We can build new command centres, so about the biggest actually permanent impact was a few permanent deaths. If I had control or the ability to 'suggest', I would target the AI core, or the Sword itself - sure, they're higher risk, but the person doing it is committing suicide anyway.

[GreatWyrmGold]

Open that, then. Also ask Simus for the pill machine back.

((Anyone care to share with me what's in the box? Or who it's from? Or anything like that?))

[syvarris]

"Oh, I hadn't realized that Urban Executors had an implant aside from the amp.  I had assumed you wanted to scan their brains, checking for amps.  As to Leo's poor choice of target, well, the Sword probably wouldn't be very damaged overall by a nuke detonated in the inmate section.  I mean, would you design a prison section for insane prisoners carrying nukes such that it wouldn't be able to survive a nuke detonating?  As to the AI core, they may have thought that it would be too difficult to reach, or that it wouldn't affect the space battle enough to justify it.  That is somewhat of a stretch, but assuming that our enemy wouldn't think like that is a risky assumption.

By the way, you're in the command center, yes?  How good is our camera coverage of all the facilities?"

[PyroDesu]

It was in a briefing we got at some point. Maybe just information volunteered to the group I was in, when we were retasked to hunting them. It's a rather... extreme implant - but it lets them change their face at will.

And that's assuming the Executor or Shadow walker was trying to influence the space battle. They could have blown a hole in the Sword's hull, and stopped it from leaving while we patched it up. They could have taken down our ability to do anything for a while by taking down this node of Aresteve - which would deal quite a significant blow, both to him and to us, since the facilities to house an AI or AI node are complicated, and massive.

As for camera coverage, ask Aresteve - I can only see so much at once, and not for lack of camera coverage.

((I'm not going to respond until you've opened the package, GWG - 'tis better that way.))

[Toaster]

((Or just blown it up in the hallway outside the command center where nobody was.))

[syvarris]

"*sigh* Yes, there's many reasons that Leo's target was poorly chosen.  I can think of several possible excuses- maybe they wanted to deal a more permanent blow, and thought there might've been valuable, irreplaceable personnel inside the command center.  Maybe they just made Leo want to damage ARM, and it was his idiocy that drove him to bomb the command center.  Maybe they thought we'd know that there's an operative planetside, and wanted us to underestimate them.  Maybe there's no good reason.  My point is, is that sufficient evidence for us to not search for an operative?  Are you willing to make that gamble?"

[PyroDesu]

I'm not saying we shouldn't look - I'm just saying it's unusual - either we've got one that went for a lesser objective for some reason, one that's smart enough to only use suggestion but picked a bad target, or Leo might have been acting alone - but for now, the only way to tell between the three is to catch the operative or to find some way to get absolute information from Leo - which would probably require another amp user or autopsy with someone who knows what they're looking for.

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?