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This thread is for Maurice and his group of Anomaly Explorers. If you are not one of them, then your thread is elsewhere.

The team enters stasis as per normal, a few urged on by Nyars, but the awakening is different. Instead of being kicked out of the pods in the familiar environs of your individual rooms, you instead find yourselves kicked out into a small circular room. Standing at the center of that circle, in the midst of your slimy, coughing bodies, is Maurice.


Welcome aboard.

Now, before we proceed to our destination, a few issues have to be addressed. First, chain of command. Second, mission objectives. Third, mission equipment and software. Fourth, mission roles.

For the duration of this mission, I will be your mission commander and leader of Team I. However, in case of my demise, debilitating injury or... unresponsiveness, mission command goes to Pancaek Nilys, leader of Team II; Team I command goes to Morul Migrurkeshin. If all of us get taken out simultaneously, mission must have gone completely awry, casualties are ramping, and it might already be impossible to complete it; look out for the most determined person among the survivors, and follow his lead.
Requiescat in pace, Mesk.

The ultimate mission objective is to record data around the rift to a pocket dimension, if there indeed is one here - on both sides of it - and return that data back to Hephaestus for study. The secondary objectives are as follows:
1. Investigate the pocket dimension, if there is one, and acquire samples
2. Investigate the anomaly around the college, try to find its source and cause, and acquire samples
3. Acquire any artifacts we might come across
As you can see, acquiring artifacts is ranked lower than acquiring samples, mostly because while both can be equally rewarding, artifacts are usually more difficult to study and make use of, and they are almost always guarded or trapped in some way. Samples are guarded or trapped only occasionally.

You will now be given out the free mission equipment that might come in handy, as well as installed the new software developed on Hephaestus. We cannot go in blind, and a solution was found: a suite of reality-augmenting real-time 3D mapmaking software, "Mad Hatter". Those of you who are acquainted with "Cartographer" would find very similar, save for one feature that is most important here for us: it is a deliberately imperfect reality-mapping software. Since the 'invisibility' of the college apparently comes from the data-patterns in perceived images, we have developed a way around it by giving the user slightly incorrect data-feed. The effect can be increased and decreased, in the settings, and, of course, turned off.

To facilitate the effectiveness of this software, each of you with just one camera - those wearing Mk and MCP series suits - will be installed additional cameras. Furthermore, there is a special sensor equipment, complete with a 3D camera, that is required for the completion of the primary objective, but that will also help with mapping the place around you and your teammates. A QEC unit also comes as part of the research equipment, to test if it works from the inside of a pocket dimension, but if it does it can be used to contact Hephaestus. Finally, there is a kiloton-yield nuclear bomb, in case we encounter something far beyond our ability to deal with - oh, and it's set to detonate a few hours after all life signs of the mission teams go dark and don't return before the end of the countdown. A gift to whatever force might wipe us there. Maurice chuckled.
The same life signs and, in general, medical sensor data will be monitored by the two team medics for easier diagnostics and treatment via one more piece of software.

Now, Han Thren is the dedicated Team II medic, so he gets the medical supplies I procured for this expedition. I also happen to be the dedicated Team I medic, but I already have all I need.
Bartolomew Markov, as the person most skilled in Unconventional warfare and explosives on Team I, will be be handling the bomb; consider this special assignment as a gesture of trust, Bartolomew.
Konrad Curtz will be our Auxiliary Tools specialist; you will help others interacting with the programs, if the need arises, and oversee the correct work of the software we are using, just in case.
There will need to be a volunteer to take the 3D camera and sensors. They are somewhat fragile, so it is better for you to be careful with them.
And finally someone will have to take that QEC backpack.

Questions?

[AoshimaMichio]

Ulrich Leland
"I suppose I can carry the QEC."

The Painsuit design is in Tinker thread. Don't shoot me yet, I'm not going to continue with it until mission is over.

Also suit up and be ready.

[Pancaek]

"If conrad is going to be our hackerman, why not have him carry the special camera as well? He's good with electronics from what I've heard."

[Egan_BW]

((PTW M21))

[Dorsidwarf]

Eddie:
"Hey people. It's ghostbusting time, I guess."

Get suited up, check suit to see if software is working okay

[Nikitian]

"I suppose I can carry the QEC."

"If conrad is going to be our hackerman, why not have him carry the special camera as well? He's good with electronics from what I've heard."

Both are fine by me, though I'd like to check if anyone else volunteers, just in case.
Also, Pancaek, I recommend that you assign someone in your team to be your second-in-command, like I did - in case you get incapacitated or worse. I trust you judgement, so I left that choice to you.

Oversee the equipment distribution, ensure proper installation of the software and additional cameras, then check the updated data on the planet. Do we have orbital view of the site? Has anything significant happened on that planet, in regards to that anomaly and in general?

[Pancaek]

"Hmm? Oh, right. Yo, Konrad, you seem like a good kid. If I were to die, you get command of team II."

[Execute/Dumbo.exe]

Stand there looking intimidating.
Very intimidating.

[Gentlefish]

((Anomaly watch GO))

[Corsair]

"Hmm? Oh, right. Yo, Konrad, you seem like a good kid. If I were to die, you get command of team II."

"Understood sir. I am proficient with electronics and will happily take the 3D camera. Although I am having difficulty understanding this image-dependent invisibility, how do you define "image"? for example, is it an image in the mind or a specific pattern of electromagnetic radiation if so then could we use non-electromagnetic sensors such as radar and ultrasonic to distance map rooms? Furthermore if the feed is incorrect why have it or is it the difference between having a bad map and no map?"
Accept 3D cameras, ask questions. Begin setup of "mad hatter", read any available documentation

[Nikitian]

Apparently, the image is in mind - or, well, in brain; we had tested this on human brains, including both humans, sods and AIs.
It appears that there is some certain invisible - literally - pattern to the data we perceive there, be it electromagnetic radiation or not. However, when sufficiently broken down from that pattern, as in case of orbital scans circumstantially offering info that something there still is, data can be perceived and registered by our brains - by our minds. As such, we are merely introducing an understandable margin of error into the data feeds, to get at least some understanding from those rather than none.

To be frank, I am not even sure it will be needed; for all I know, the moment we cross the even horizon of this anomaly, its effect could be completely 'turned off'. But if it is not, and we do have to rely on this 'imperfect representation' to navigate there all the way in - well, let's say, I don't expect us to go in with open faceplates. We would be perceiving everything through that distortion filter - to be able to perceive and see anything at all.

[kisame12794]

"Great. That'll be fun. Right, when we go in Maurice, I'll go first."

[Dorsidwarf]

"Great. That'll be fun. Right, when we go in Maurice, I'll go first."

"Uh, with all due respect to your mental fortitude sir, perhaps it would be wiser for the first person in to be someone incapable of slaughtering the rest of the team in an instant with his mind alone.  "
"Y'know, just in case."

[Pancaek]

"Great. That'll be fun. Right, when we go in Maurice, I'll go first."

"Uh, with all due respect to your mental fortitude sir, perhaps it would be wiser for the first person in to be someone incapable of slaughtering the rest of the team in an instant with his mind alone.  "
"Y'know, just in case."

"True, we should use the new recruits to test potentially dangerous anomalies. They're expendable."

[Execute/Dumbo.exe]

"I don't think I should go in first, I'm packed with explosives."