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[_DivideByZero_]

((Well, technically there are internal batteries that are charged over time for active scans of the more energetic spectrums and for some of the more power hungry implants like the hacking suite. Nerin's sensor suite specifically could likely scan a significant portion of the station (if not all) in low to mid energy wavelengths and a smaller portion in high energy such as gamma and xray. He can easily see already existing light in all spectrums to make up for the lower output of gamma/xray/UV, and his suite is designed to incorporate data taken from ambient light passing through things))

((Radio is actually a fairly low energy form of light, high energy are lower on the spectrum. Gamma is by far the highest energy. Radio is super low energy. Microwave just can be absorbed by a lot of stuff and it shifts into infrared when doing so, which is why it's so dangerous.))

((Nah, this station is huge. You can't possibly emit that much radar without frying your brains, unless you do it over a long time. And remember that active scanning needs to both emit and receive waves. Radar works because microwaves bounce, but x-rays are absorbed afaik.))
((High energy radiation is also harder to produce, as well as much more dangerous. You can make x-rays... but subjecting everyone to doses of it sufficient to scan at long distances would probably give people cancer. Gamma radiation is straight up out of the picture, though you can still see it.

How about the following:
-You can see in gamma, x-ray, ultraviolet, infra-red, and microwave. You can pick up some radio waves by using your entire body as an antennae, but the most you can pick up is cell phone comms, wireless, and small radios. No communications from large vehicles, submarine communications, or FM radio.
-You can emit microwaves, but since the average human consumes an avg 100W worth of energy constantly (based on a 2000 calorie diet), and a microwave oven uses ~700W or so, you would much rather prefer to use one of those since it also heats your own body up, unless used sparingly.
-You can emit x-rays, but only enough to observe things at close range, and only if Valrak is standing on the other side of the target. You need both an emitter and a receiver.
-Anything between micro and x is fair game, and you can emit them in intensities of about a car's high-beams.))

"Nerin wants to know if we can open a microwave oven in the room so he has more spectrums to scan on. He would rather not drain his internal batteries producing microwaves. He knows what to look for and currently there aren't any bright enough skin permeating sources of light on the station. He says a standard microwave should work for fixing that. Juuuust stand away from it while it's on."

"Also, tis just a shirt."

Nerin takes a look at the small data upload while he scans.

Valrak: [3] "Well a microwave doesn't penetrate skin too easily. How are you going to test people's skeletons?"

Nerin: The data upload doesn't seem like much, just some feedback data used to relay to the AI what your next command is.

"Can use milliwave scanner. Capable of detection at 50m."
"It's also monodirectional and bolted to the floor."

[~Neri]

((Was estimating the station as being fairly small. We never had a specific size for it.))

((I understand how active works. There's a reason Nerin isn't doing active right now.))

((Radio is overall, fairly easy to detect. A larger vehicle just means a larger emitter/receiver. So not being able to detect from larger vehicles makes little sense. On a battlefield, vehicles likely would be using widebeam and be easy to pick up. Most spaceships would use narrowbeam and be considerably harder to intercept. Submarines make since due to the whole underwater and being difficult to be in position to pick up the beams, and the fact that subs use narrowbeam to avoid getting detected by other subs, FM radio is the same as the larger vehicle thing, fairly easy to detect. The difficulty is being in position to pick it up if it isn't a widebeam transmission.))

((Restrictions on sensor pickup of radio should be more of a positioningbased. If it's widebeam like most cellphones and wireless devices, easier to detect. If it's a targeted narrowbeam then gotta be in the path of the beam to have any chance of decrypting it, if it's a shitty transmitter, might be able to tell there's a beam, but unlikely to have any chance of reading it.))

((In general, narrowbeam would be harder to pick up no matter what.))

((Other stuff makes sense.))

((Also shouldn't passively, the absurd amount of radio from all the wireless devices work for scanning?))

"Not much is better then not at all. And Nerin's sensors are effectively military grade when compared to standard human tech, although they're nowhere near something a dedicated Scoutform or Infiltrationform can field. His implants and training are more oriented towards Command and Control of Mechanized Assets and coordination of Combatcore Units in a tactical hotzone. He's a Logitactiform with a couple deviations in standard skillset and implants. Last time I checked, he's rated for simultaneous direct control of two hundred forty seven lowtier drones, forty six midtiers, and twelve hightiers in either an atmospheric or void tactical theater without any secondary processors. This isn't counting terrestrial drones. Although he's less skilled with those. Currently he's not stationed in a KX9 designated tactical theater and therefore no KX9 Mechanized Assets are allocated to his CnC dronenet."

"If you have extra scanners and a very specific set of parts and tools, it's plausable for Nerin to increase the range of the milliwave scanners and make it have a wider beam."

"If not, microwave is always an option. Currently the target is masking its thermal signature, so unless it tries nomming someone, it isn't likely to be detectable in infrared. xray active scanners aren't plausible without a large number of receivers or a large number of outputs, I can function as a receiver, but not plausible without multiple. Gamma is a bad idea, and not enough ambient to really detect anything with it. UV same problem."

[~Neri]

((Also just realized. Shouldn't Vakrak be getting a +1 diplomacy bonus due to being shirtless?))

[WillowLuman]

((Sorry for lack of replies, was in the car all day yesterday.))

Atlos figures that the police have their efforts focused on the riot, and thus not too much mind to pay to the flying WARDEN they'd probably just seen, but nonetheless it would be prudent to change location at this moment. He sets off in the same general direction as the "assistant," though not in such a way as to be obviously following.

[HighEndNoob]

Moments like these remind this unit that a cable dispensing mechanism, like that of conventional spiders, would be useful. Maybe not now, but later.

Break through the hatch and hurry through it to follow the employees.

[_DivideByZero_]

Moravia Orbital Colony, Ulysses | 237d/3008AD | Von Hapsburg System

Moravia Mall, Floor 3
Heated Combat! (All initiative rolls default to a [1])

Moments like these remind this unit that a cable dispensing mechanism, like that of conventional spiders, would be useful. Maybe not now, but later.

Break through the hatch and hurry through it to follow the employees.

[3] You burn through the hinges on the hatch and slip through, welding it back together using your laser at half power.

Then, you slip through the crawlspace unbothered, in the direction of the lobby.

You find a section labelled "PRIMARY" on one side and walk around it, reading "ELEVATOR" on the other side. It has a hatch as well.

You also find a large machine gently humming, fed by hissing pipes. It has several tanks of liquid O2 attached to the side, refrigerated by a small module.

((Sorry for lack of replies, was in the car all day yesterday.))

Atlos figures that the police have their efforts focused on the riot, and thus not too much mind to pay to the flying WARDEN they'd probably just seen, but nonetheless it would be prudent to change location at this moment. He sets off in the same general direction as the "assistant," though not in such a way as to be obviously following.

Well... your assistant is simply gone. The individuals he is supposedly following, however, have taken a side-path through the mall. The mall is still inhabited by regular, non-revolting citizens, so it's not out of place for you to follow behind, although not closely. You round the corner and see the stranger and SpaceInc's traversing long hall/stairway leading to the level below, to Floor 2. It seems that the majority of the trouble is on Floor 3, and the elevator spans all five floors of this particular section of the station.

They disappear into the revolving doors into the main lobby. The problem is... your tank is too big to fit into the revolving doors. There are no alternative doors, save for a single set of radar-controlled double sliding doors, which don't seem to open when you walk into view.

...

Primary Elevator Control Room
High Security (-1 Stealth)

Megacity Time: 7:03

((Is he asking my "name" again?  If not, ignore the first line.))

Deuce smiled.  "Dooby Greene, with an E on the end.  Gotta be right for the ID, right?"

He rubbed his chin.  Hmm... where could he cause the most havok?  Probably not enough water around to flood the station, and not enough... waste to cause a real poopocalypse.  Life support and oxygen is probably less damage and more death; not what the bosses wanted.  It might be guarded more, but better stick with... 

"I think I can best serve the station in electronics and machinery.  Got to make sure that's working so everything else can run right.  I can start right now."

"Alright." He gets out a tablet and starts making gestures on it. "You want your shift to always start now, or do you want to negotiate later? I'll sign you up right now and get you a badge. Just head on over to the... primary elevator, and meet up with our manager there."

The primary elevator is, in fact, the elevator that leads to the headquarters. However, you are not being asked to board the elevator. Rather, you are brought to the control room where you can control various aspects of the elevator, including operating speed, tube pressure, temperature, and alarm systems.

There is also a camera feed, and you notice something in the corner of your eye on one of the screens: a small, black robot spider

Got Technician Organizer's badge.

Moravia Lab
High Security (-1 Stealth)

"Not much is better then not at all. And Nerin's sensors are effectively military grade when compared to standard human tech, although they're nowhere near something a dedicated Scoutform or Infiltrationform can field. His implants and training are more oriented towards Command and Control of Mechanized Assets and coordination of Combatcore Units in a tactical hotzone. He's a Logitactiform with a couple deviations in standard skillset and implants. Last time I checked, he's rated for simultaneous direct control of two hundred forty seven lowtier drones, forty six midtiers, and twelve hightiers in either an atmospheric or void tactical theater without any secondary processors. This isn't counting terrestrial drones. Although he's less skilled with those. Currently he's not stationed in a KX9 designated tactical theater and therefore no KX9 Mechanized Assets are allocated to his CnC dronenet."

"If you have extra scanners and a very specific set of parts and tools, it's plausable for Nerin to increase the range of the milliwave scanners and make it have a wider beam."

"If not, microwave is always an option. Currently the target is masking its thermal signature, so unless it tries nomming someone, it isn't likely to be detectable in infrared. xray active scanners aren't plausible without a large number of receivers or a large number of outputs, I can function as a receiver, but not plausible without multiple. Gamma is a bad idea, and not enough ambient to really detect anything with it. UV same problem."

((I actually removed the shirtless modifier in the last roll. I'll interpret this as you wanting to take your new shirt off.))

((I may have confused radio reception with transmission. I know that to transmit a radio wave with a huge wavelength, you need an equally huge transmitter. Since subs can pick up wavelengths much longer than their length, I suppose it's false that you need a bigger antenna just to see them. I'll give it to you.))

((The station is a megacity with hundreds of thousands of people if I remember the figure right (I mentioned it a long time ago), though no direct size was given. It's probably smaller than a big city on a habitable world in terms of area, but still large due to the life support requirements, commercial sections, higher living standards, etc.

And since it has artificial gravity its radius is pretty big. It's not a station for hardened travelers and ship crew, it's for regular people who are born and die on the station with few interests outside.

If we give it a surface area similar to the city of Seattle (600K residents) spread out over 10-12 floors, with each floor being a cylindrical strip at radius r, we could use a figure of 8 km outer radius and a 250 m inner radius for the bigger torus. The headquarters is a smaller torus, probably 1 km across.))

"Unauthorized modifications unrecommended. May inhibit functionality."
"I think the AI is right here, if you make changes your throw its calibration off."
[6/3-1] -1 overshoot from Diplomacy
"Ehh, I think he can go ahead. We'll repair the scanner if it doesn't work again, and he's not making changes to the AI, just the scanner to make it wider. We can interpret the data ourselves. What's the worst that can happen?"

[1+1] +1 from Intellect

Nerin, given a toolkit and some capacitors when requested, is able to make some changes to the scanner and put it back together in one piece, albeit leaving it unbolted to the floor.

The AI activates the scanner, and uses it to generate a low-resolution panorama. The problem? The display is scattered, with vertical bars randomly shifted across the display. Individual people have entire sections of themselves scattered in multiple places on the screen, making it nearly impossible to use.
"Severe outbreak detected!"

[~Neri]

"Err.. Let me recallibrate that..  Forgot to code a protocol for patching the new datarange together. AI can't properly read the data without a protocol. It thinks that person's torso is floating fourteen feet away from him. On the plus side, the hardware works." Nerin recalibrates and attempts to fix whatever software glitch is happening, glitchy detection of this manner is the result of faulty software, not hardware. He did probably forget to include a way for the AI to understand the new data.

((He had a new shirt? I thought it was more of a waiting for shirt after the whole blob thing.))

[Toaster]

Deuce shrugged.  "This time is fine with me, but really whenever you need me.  I'm flexible.

While waiting for the manager to show up, he took the time to study the controls in the room.  Where all did this elevator go?  What could he do from here?  How many elevators are there that go to the HQ?  Does the elevator work for anyone or is a pass required?  Could I override this?

Look around and see if these questions can be figured out.  Probably better not to ask these.

regular, non-revolting citizens

((But the citizens are revolting!  I can barely stand to be around them.))

[WillowLuman]

Atlos drives into the door, perhaps bumping it will help. That always worked with the Relexian ones...

[_DivideByZero_]

"Err.. Let me recallibrate that..  Forgot to code a protocol for patching the new datarange together. AI can't properly read the data without a protocol. It thinks that person's torso is floating fourteen feet away from him. On the plus side, the hardware works." Nerin recalibrates and attempts to fix whatever software glitch is happening, glitchy detection of this manner is the result of faulty software, not hardware. He did probably forget to include a way for the AI to understand the new data.

((He had a new shirt? I thought it was more of a waiting for shirt after the whole blob thing.))

((I did it right away so I didn't forget later. You have the shirtless modifier again, but you can put it on whenever.

I imagine they just grabbed a shirt from a random store in the nearby mall and brought it over.))

[3+1] +1 from Intellect

The code base is encrypted, so you don't know if it can accommodate a larger input image. Instead, you create an image virtually and squeeze it to fit within bounds, although that might still throw off the AI.

You start the scanner again, and surely enough it shows a bunch of skinny people. This scanner is quite capable, though, and can identify muscle layers, skeletal layers, and a number of different tissues based on size and absorption. However, everything appears blurry because the scanner was not designed to work accurately this far out. Limitations are limitations.

You spot a number of humans in the Vacuum Cleaner section who appear odd on the scanner. The scanner is unable to see through their clothes, although their skulls are visible and look like regular skulls for the most part, at the distance being measured.
The AI also blurts out: "Cancelling previous alert state... Alert, anomalous circumferential dimensions found. Severe outbreak detected!"

Deuce shrugged.  "This time is fine with me, but really whenever you need me.  I'm flexible.

While waiting for the manager to show up, he took the time to study the controls in the room.  Where all did this elevator go?  What could he do from here?  How many elevators are there that go to the HQ?  Does the elevator work for anyone or is a pass required?  Could I override this?

Look around and see if these questions can be figured out.  Probably better not to ask these.

[3] You find more goodies in the form of an uplink to the greater security network, although the HQ feeds are permission-locked. Good to know that guards from outside the HQ won't be able to see what is going on inside the headquarters.

You spot several mands of revolting citizens marching through the halls. Unkempt and uncouth, they topple light fixtures and decorations while pushing over guards and beating them. A large riot bot is currently clearing a path through a mob, although they just keep coming, it seems.


As for the elevator controls:
-The PRIMARY elevator leads to the VIP docking bay, and also leads to the HQ. It connects these to the lobby, and can be operated from here if you have a manager's keycard. You're not a manager yet, only an organizer. You find a few locked drawers in the control room, however, and assume that these are used by the managers.
-There are other elevators which can be controlled right now quite easily. You troll a few families unloading from the docking ring. This is how ships dock and undock with the station--at least small ones. They match speed with the docking ring and maneuver into place to park with their noses toward the center of the station, the clamps distributing forces evenly across their hulls to prevent them from buckling under the station's gravity. Tiny shuttles don't have to dock this way, and can simply fly into the docking bays at the lowest (outermost) levels of the station, taking the elevator up to the main lobbies.
Larger ships moor at the nonrotating structures near the station, and then send shuttles to land traditionally.
-There are three elevators to the HQ, and you are next to one. You cannot control the others even with a Manager keycard, but they are evenly spaced out across the circumference of the station and far from you anyway. You assume the technicians on the other sides operate those. An Administrator can operate them from here, though.

You see a party of two SpaceInc employees and one oddly-dressed individual wearing a gas mask waiting in front of the Primary Elevator entrance. You also notice Atlos, one of your teammates, spying on them. Maybe you should contact him over Guild comms.

Atlos drives into the door, perhaps bumping it will help. That always worked with the Relexian ones...

[3] You pick up a little speed before entering... trapping yourself inside. Your treads leave marks on the inside as you force it to spin slowly, and eventually you catch yourself on the other side of the revolving door, trying to get out. A bit of treadwork later and you're out, although the door is in noticeably worse condition. You probably bent in, judging from the looks of it.

You observe the employees and stranger (heretofore referred to as the HQ party) heading toward the place where the docking elevators are. Fortunately, humans can't tell very easily if you are staring at them or not, since your mannerisms are quite different. Nobody notices you creeping closer and closer to them until they turn into the hall, where they stop.

E1: Is it still following us?
Stranger: I don't see it...
E2: Call the elites if the station is being infiltrated.
Stranger: I'd hold off on that, we don't know if it's a full-scale infiltration or just a small problem.
E2: Still wise to heighten security just a notch.
E1: I dunno... what were we running from again? A robodog? Could just be someone's pet.
Stranger: I have to apologize, I'm a bit traumatized by what happened on Franz...
E1: Hm, bring me up to speed.
Stranger: Security robots went loose. Killed off a good number of my colleagues. We were forced to evacuate. Then a pirate armada showed up, because they found what we were working on. Smelly bastards want to take it for themselves, but I'm willing to bet they can't beat the security drones. Not without specialized tactics and equipment.
E2: What would one of them be doing here?
Stranger: You'd be surprised what kinds of drones we had. Intel-gathering, interrogation, even torture...
E1: I see...
E2: Okay, I guess we're fine then. Don't call the others.
E1: What's taking the elevator so long?

[~Neri]

"Basically, due to the scanner not being built to read that wide of a beam, it's a tad blurry, so it thinks everyone is a tad odd looking. Still can see skeletal structure though. There are a few people in the Vacuum Cleaner section that the scanner cannot see through the clothes of. Skulls are visible though."

"AI, look for a lack of skeleton. The abnormal dimensions are due to modifications to the scanner." Nerin looks as the AI (hopefully) looks.

[Toaster]

((I'm assuming I'm alone in here.))

Deuce switched on his Guild comms and got out a quick word before the manager arrived.  'Everyone, quick update.  I've gotten myself a job here as a low-level manager in an elevator control room and have some security access.  Atlos, I see you- I'm controlling that elevator.'

Make sure the elevator is there for the HQ Party.  Hold it open a bit longer than protocol so that Atlos can get inside if he wants to ride with them.

[WillowLuman]

Atlos notes to himself: human doors not designed like relexian doors.

Atlos takes the elevator. These gents have no reason to connect him to the "robodog" at the moment. He'll strike up polite conversation if they acknowledge him.

[HighEndNoob]

An friendly insurgent. Useful in this situation.

Explore the parameters of the elevator. If it is suitable for riding on, attach onto the bottom of the elevator and ride it to the HQ.

[~Neri]

"Basically, due to the scanner not being built to read that wide of a beam, it's a tad blurry, so it thinks everyone is a tad odd looking. Still can see skeletal structure though. There are a few people in the Vacuum Cleaner section that the scanner cannot see through the clothes of. Skulls are visible though."

"AI, look for a lack of skeleton. The abnormal dimensions are due to modifications to the scanner." Nerin looks as the AI (hopefully) looks.

While Nerin is busy scanning with the Milliwave, Valrak takes control of Nerin's passive scanners and uses them to bolster his own, he then begins scanning using both passive scanners.

He also pings Warden through an encrypted channel and sends a few multispectrum snapshots that the AI gave Nerin. "Oi, it's Valrak, if you can, mind scanning for organics who lack a skeletal structure or exhibit similar heat signatures to the encoded sensor data? There's a class three biomatrix loose that some idiot let out and I'd rather not risk it getting the time to figure out how to assimilate technology or evolve into a class four, five, or six. Would result in a massive number of civilian casualties if that happened and that's not in the MO. Also Nerin hates biomatrixes and I would rather not have to amputate his arm again due to a partial infection. He was tramatized last time that happened."