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[GreatWyrmGold]

((Alright.))

If I haven't, gather critters and materials for Metamorphosis Device* testing. Specifically, ten of the little native bug-rat-things (which I called cabeiri) and (if currently available) four rats/guinea pigs/whatever Terran rodents we have on hand; if we don't, figure out how we would get some. Importantly but simply, some gauss bullets and spoons, seven of each if I got the rodents and five of each if not, for turning into pills. Also get small cages or boxes or something, one for each subject (so 10 or 14). Finally, locate some kind of pistol capable of accurately striking and killing a rodent-sized creature at close range.
*That's the technical term I've given the pill machine, in case you missed/forgot that.

Once I've brought all this stuff into the isolation chamber, make pills with the Metamorphosis Device. Specifically, five or seven made with a single gauss round and a pinch of Grate's hair, and the same number made with nothing but a spoon. Make sure I keep the two types of pill separate.
Having made the pills, feed them to the subjects. Five of each go to five cabeiri, such that each gets precisely one pill. Once the cabeiri have all gotten a pill, if I have rodents, give each of them one pill, two getting bullet/hair pills and two getting spoon pills.
Note results. In particular:

-Did all members of a given species given a specific type of pill receive the same abnormalities? If not, how different were they?
-For that matter, what abnormalities were they? How similar were they to the results of equivalent pills on humans (tentacle-hair and metal-scale club-arms for the hair/bullet, pseudohelmet for the spoon)?
-How easy was it to get the subjects to consume the pills?


If the subjects refuse to consume the pills, cover them in some sort of foodstuff appealing to the subjects (we did some research on what the cabieri ate, right? Or it's in a database somewhere?) and try again. Like how you get pets to do the same, except with heartworm pills or something replaced by heavily mutagenic compounds.
If the subjects turn violent after ingesting the pills, or otherwise appear to be too dangerous to keep, execute them with the pistol as quickly as is possible. If they merely appear to be in distress from the transformation, do not execute them unless they turn violent or otherwise dangerous. (I don't expect this to happen, but hey--doesn't hurt to be prepared.)


Record all observations and results. Compile into a report and submit it.

[Toaster]

((Since you need to wait for the setup of a breeding colony, why not just set up a full-featured isolation room for your test subjects?  It should be easy enough to include some sort of execution device so Grate doesn't have to get his hands dirty.))

[GreatWyrmGold]

((Once we figure out what's going into the isolation chambers? Sure. That seems like an important detail, though. And I like details.))

[Parisbre56]

((You could simply take some VR cuffs or exosuit control cuffs and combine them with robot body arms. Then put them in a small Armoured Isolation Box along with sensors like cameras, atmospheric sensors, etc.

Essentially an Isolation Glove Box but more secure, since it's armoured and you're not putting your hands anywhere near the test subjects. And probably make it larger too.

Add a purge button to remove test subjects and maybe some plugs inside the box (make sure they can be armoured when not in use and isolated if a test subject manages to unplug them before you can purge it) to allow you to connect more specialized sensors and you're done.

EDIT: Now that I think about it, you could simply remote control a robot body and put it in the isolation chambers for some safe first-hand testing. Just make sure the chambers are armoured, isolated and offer all of the above capabilities.

EDIT2: Oh, and an airlock and an air pump, don't forget those two.))

[Toaster]

((Just flood the chamber with magma, or install a drawbridge.))

[Hapah]

((All hardware now powered by microscopic dwarven water reactors))

[GreatWyrmGold]

((Regardless of ideas for protective measures, what we need more is a way to keep the subjects alive.))

[syvarris]

What size & shape is the PSL?  Do you have any pictures of something that's kinda similar?

Where is the magazine/tank of crystal fluid, and how big is it?

Does the PSL have any secondary secret functions like all the other guns?  ((Hating myself for not asking this earlier))

Actual project stuff:

This is pretty simple.  Remove the magazine, electrical stuff, and power supply from the PSL, then shrink it to a twelfth of the size, so that it would fire two inch shards.  Lengthen the barrel, and reorganize how the entire thing is put together so it's more in a traditional rifle shape, or submachine gun if it's small enough.  Then re-add the electrical things, at a size that they'll draw 4 TPU.  Don't truly re-add the generator & mag to the design yet- just attach them wherever works for the basic operation of the gun; I have plans for them later.

Next, modify the firing mechanism so that it can be changed between several settings on the fly, with a simple fire selector.  I want five settings:
1:A 'true' automatic, in which it fires at 8 rounds per second.  Instead of firing a continual stream, I want it to just be repeating semi-automatic shots quickly, as long as the trigger is held.  The comparably massive electrical power should be plenty sufficient for this.
2:Semi-automatic.  Self-explanatory, with the only difference from the normal PSL being that if you hold the trigger nothing happens.
3:Safe.
4:4 'Burst' fire, fires four crystal's worth of fluid.  There shouldn't be too much of a charge time on this, again because of the massive power supply, and the small number of shards.
5:16 'Burst' fire, fires sixteen crystal's worth of fluid

Lastly, adjust the electrical repulsion thing to be able to use the additional energy it has, when firing in semi-auto.  Put a dial adjacent to the fire selector for this.  Minimum setting is equal to a shrunken PSL, and should do the same damage as one ("probably fatal or at least really damaging if you manage to hit someone in the chest"), but maximum should be, well, whatever you think maximum would do.

Now review the whole thing and look for what I F'd up.

"Saint, this is Chernozorov. I could use a hand here with rewriting the base AI of an Artee to work in a biped. I seem to recall you doing some work in a similar direction, and the thing I'm doing here is likely to go much better and much quicker with your help."

Saint replies with a happy tone "I'd be happy to help!  I'll pause my work on a crystalline light support weapon."

Pause the PSL work, and join Anton's VR session, then use the AUX bonus I charged last turn to help out with his programming.

[PyroDesu]

Hm. Hey Saint, up for an autopsy, when you have some spare time? Grate died when he tried to touch his orb artefact, I'd like to know how. Maybe that iteration of him can still give us some clues about it. Cause of death looks like some kind of seizure, from the recording.

Simus sends someone to fetch the body from that chamber into the medical bay (surely there's some sort of place to store bodies there), then bolts down that chamber.

Aresteve, please keep me up to date on this sensor blackout. I want to know if anything happens around it, or if anything happens with it itself - like it expanding.

Simus then leaves the control room (staffed, hopefully, with other workers) and goes into VR, and pulls up modern UWM military handweapons and compares them to the ARM's current arsenal. She also pulls up and sets aside the various videofeeds she had in the control room.

[syvarris]

"I would love to, Simus.  However, I'm currently distracted with a few projects, so unless it's urgent I might take some time."

((Do we even have other workers?  I thought we were the only ARM personnel on Heph, and all other workers were people who'd been here before.

Also, when are we going to be manufacturing the facilities required for robotic sods?))

[PyroDesu]

Like I said, when you have the time.

((I know I'm the administrator and all, but still, I want to work too, not just monitor stuff. And, I've been presuming it's been staffed anyway, and I was just at a console myself.

And once we take care of the current issue (it is a critical issue that we're losing parts of (or, at least, communications with parts of) the deep facilities), we can start building assembly lines and such.))

[syvarris]

((I just made a small Hephaestus page on the wiki.  Hopefully it'll be useful in the future, for keeping track of what facilities we have and making sure we don't forget projects.

Currently, it's somewhat barebones, and I probably forgot something or other when making it it, so it'd probably be good if other people reviewed and fixed it.))

[Parisbre56]

((I was reading it now, and a question popped in my head. Are you currently producing sods/Stevebots or rebuilding the ships from the orbital battle or doing anything at all with your production facilities? Because upgrading stuff is all well and good but like any Strategy gamer will tell you, the Trinity to victory is constant Resource gathering and expansion of Resource gathering operation, constant Research and constant Unit Production. Fall back on any of these and the pyramid collapses. (There are of course secondary things like Scouting and Commando/Superweapon operations but those are usually more rare.)

Or has piecewise said that time here is fluid and thus the turns you spend researching don't matter that much?

EDIT: Why kill the civilians? They know how to operate the machinery and the only reason they're here is because they were going on some other planet and had to work as indentured servants for the UWM to get there. They hold no allegiance to the UWM and as long as you keep them happy, they should be fine. They aren't that big a security risk. Killing them when they have done nothing wrong and while not on a mission sounds extreme.))

[GreatWyrmGold]

((Wait, who suggested killing civilians?))

[syvarris]

((I think he'd referencing the bit I put in about "Or we could just let them starve in the quarantine room; That would work too."  I meant it as a sarcastic comment referencing the fact that we'd probably just forget about them until someone says "Hey, whatever happened to those people we locked up a few months ago?  Did someone ship them off-world?  Or bring them food?"  "Uhh... no?"  "...Shit."

Pyro and I have joked about killing the civvies in the name of efficiency, but I don't think he meant it seriously.  I certainly didn't.))