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[Gentlefish]

And here is Ryan, ready to perform some quantum nuclear leaps using the Gaussian distribution.

Take care of orangutan. She is -not- a test subject. However, tie a rabbit to an iron leash. That is a test subject.

[piecewise]

Dester remains busy, guiding the efforts of the interstellar barge brigade as we make our way to Hephaestus with our precious, precious cargo. On our way to adventure, fate, and certain doom. Why, he barely has time to be surly or brood at all. But he makes the time. Some things are important, after all.

Let me know when we reach Heph, so I can hassle the management. Also, whenever we get IC knowledge of the universe hopping bit, so I cna start proposing SOPs

Lets assume we're here. You can assume you've been given IC knowledge of what I've told you already, or if you want I can actually write all that out. Kinda pressed for time but either way is fine with me.

Did we bring Gus' mini-army along? If so:

Gus will do his best to bring the former security guards up to speed on the mission, as he understands it (however poor his understanding may be).

[1]
You tell them something about going to feudal japan to fight demons. Most of them are confused, but a few of them are REALLY into it.

You all get your technobabble and mathematical nonsense over to the ooc thread! Grrr.

Ptw. All tech becomes sexier if it contains the words gauss, quantum or nuclear.

This Nuclear Gauss rifle fires Fractalizing Quantum rounds!

And here is Ryan, ready to perform some quantum nuclear leaps using the Gaussian distribution.

Take care of orangutan. She is -not- a test subject. However, tie a rabbit to an iron leash. That is a test subject.

An iron leash? What is that? I'm envisioning this:
But with a rabbit hanging off the end. Are you just gonna jam that into the portal? How mean.

[Gentlefish]

That's... Hilariously accurate. It doesn't have to be a rabbit; any small animal that is not Tang will work. The stiff handle will make it easy to shove them inside.

Also, find the medbay. I need the PK amp out of my head for a refund. Store it if I can't immediately get the tokens.

PROPOSED MEASURES FOR TESTING SAFENESS OF UNIVERSES:

1. Open portal (duh)

2. Shove small animal through portal. Pull back after 1 minute.

3. If animal is alive and wholly intact, have brave soldier hop through quickly and report findings.

4. If soldier survives brief encounter sanely, send him back in with a small box that takes physics recordings.

5. Analyse recordings.

6. If recordings are within survivable limits, mark universe for extended probing.

7. Probe.

8.

9. Profit

10. Rinse, repeat.

[Egan_BW]

((Depending on just how many rabbits you have, it might be a good idea to stick something nonliving in first, to see if the place is just totally hazardous to our matter in general.))

[syvarris]

Hello, this is Admin of Production Steve Saint.  I will be assisting you with this project, primarily to ensure everything remains safe.  We've had severe incidents relating to cross dimensional portals before, and it is not pleasant to deal with them.

What are your current plans on how to proceed?  I highly recommend we reach consensus on any plan before acting; It is trivially easy to cause a small scale apocalypse if you rush things.

Also, remember that we have thousands of disposable sods ready for use.  I recommend that before you send any humans through the device, you make sure that sods can survive the trip without damage.

((Gentlefish, I'm looking at you.))

Questions for PW:
1.How does the reality ripper machine operate?  Does it open a portal that we can stick things through, does it just teleport a particular area, like the contents of a room?

2.How much can we know about the destination before initiating travel?  Can we know if we'll be put into hard vacuum, the center of a sun, or the surface of a planet?

3.Do I still have admin privileges (Command of sod army, use of QEC-bots, arbitrary access to items, etc.), or should I assume I only have access to what I own as a standard player (just a robobody, a couple pieces of junk from before I became an admin, and whatever I can buy with tokens)?

4...Can I possibly respec my stats and skills?  They were meant for admin duty, and I never got to use any anyways.

5.Lastly, can we use the apocalypse lab for this mission, rather than risk the surface of Hephaestus?

[Ozarck]

After pondering the information he has received for a day or two, and receiving Mr. saint's message, Dester replies

Greetings. Please forgive our excitement. It's been a long journey, and we have been under a bit of stress, what with the apocalypse and all - a subject on which I have many questions. I hope you are satisfied with our manpower efforts on your behalf? our collections went surprisingly well, not even considering the whole "end of the world" snafu. Thank you for your assistance in this new endeavor. I wonder, might I have a meeting with you? I would like to understand WHY this happened, and WHY we are now evacuating the universe. Clearly, some in this organization have some knowledge that apparently even the UWM does not possess concerning events of great magnitude. I will be glad to answer what questions I can as well, of course, though my information is likely to be limited to our recent mission.

Attached please find an initial plan for exploring universes with potentially dramatic physical differences from our own.

Dester sends this plan to all teammates. Hey guys! Look here!

Spoiler: A more thorough plan for Standard Interuniversal Exploration Operating Procedure (click to show/hide)

Phase one: unmanned drones containing a sample of each element and a simple program: enter universe, wait one minute, return. if nothing explodes, dissolves, grows into an abomination, or otherwise becomes useless, move to phase two
Phase two: sensors. Cameras, EM, radio, sonar, motion detectors, etc. Poke around for a minute or three, then return. Examine all evidence. If nothing seems terrible, move to phase three.
Phase three: life. Send samples of cellular life: microbiology, plants, animals, and that human fleshball thingy PW designed. Remain for five minutes, return. if everything lives and functions properly, move to phaze Four
Phase Four: 'volunteers.' Strap a few conscious humans and perhaps roboticised humans into an autonomous drone and send them in. Five minutes then return. If they haven't gone immediately mad/dead/abominable, record their experiences and analyze. after careful analysis, if acceptable, move to phase five
Phase Five: Actual volunteers. Time to start exploring. Go in (or send a team) for one hour, then eight, then a full day, then a week. This is the point at which we will probably have to go in personally as well, though having a crew of grunts along will be acceptable. Explore, record, and report. We're getting closer to something human habitable now!
Phase Six: Evaluate options. have we found something survivable? Suitable? Idyllic? Should we send people to one or more of these universes to prepare short term and long term colonies? Do we have enough time to consider any more carefully, or need we gtfo now? if the latter, which option should we gtfo to?
Phase Seven: Begin the process again from a new universe, just in case this one is being eaten by a thermophage, universal black hole, cosmic entity, generic madness, or grues.

To the Doctor
You seem to know a significant amount about all this. What is going on? Why is all this happening? I think I understand what I have to do, but I'd like to understand the why, also. What brought all these events to pass? How did we get where we are?

We talked about pay for the troops to keep them loyal. I think, at this point, that pay may be meaningless. Currency might be of no value, what with the universe being eaten and all. I think a different tactic might work better here. Loyalty asked for and offered. Mutual benefit, obedience for protection, that kind of thing. Like the Feudal period, or Sovereign/vassal treaties.

[syvarris]

A meeting?  Of course, I'll be along shortly.

((I'm assuming Dester is planetside.  And that I can use QEC-bots for RP.))
A minute after Dester recieves that message, a standard robosod approaches him with its Spektr slung behind it.  It pauses a moment, before the holographic letters 'SS' appear in front of its face, and it begins speaking.

"Hello Dester, I'm Saint.  I'm using this body for convienence; I'm currently in a bunker about forty miles in that direction." He lazily gestures to his left, then offers a handshake.  "Firstly, yes, I am quite satisfied with your efforts, especially considering the circumstances you had to deal with.  Honestly, I didn't expect you to even survive the mission, let alone exceed our requirements, while simultaneously depriving a valuable enemy planet of any method to get supplies or food!  Excellent job, and I look forward to working with you."  The SS is replaced by a smiley face for a couple of seconds before reverting back.

"As to your request for information, well, I don't believe I can help you significantly."  He shrugs.  "I know one of my coworkers, Admin Maurice Sanctor, led an expedition to investigate an anomaly.  I don't know what actually transpired, but I'm told his team apparently woke up something very powerful, and as I understand things, it either infected or destabilized the laws of reality that traditional space magic devices utilize.  Since all the other admins are either missing or unconscious, I've been too busy with damage control to research exactly what happened.  I suggest you talk to the other Steve if you want a better explanation, although he might decide the information is to dangerous to share.  You're black ops, so you understand that some information is inherently dangerous."

"Lastly, I like your plan, although I think it can be improved slightly.  My first suggestion is that we send some sods before or alongside the first humans.  Sods are more vulnerable to mind altering effects than regular humans, so they serve as more reliable canaries.  Secondly, we should make sure that any equipment we plan to bring with us is sent and returned safely before we enter personally.  It wouldn't do to wear armor in, only to find out that a particular section is highly radioactive there.  Aside from that, everything looks fine.  Just make sure not to bring anything that would be described as 'magical'.  Mixing such things is typically a very bad idea."

[Ozarck]

Dester frowns slightly at the mention of starving a population, but otherwise remains cordial, accepting the robotic handshake without hesitation.
"Sods? I am unfamiliar with the term. I went on mission shortly after awakening on The Sword. And it was a bit ... a bit odd on that ship at the time." Dester get's a faraway look for a moment, the snaps back into focus. "Well, if you think these sods are suitable human equivalents for testing purposes ... at least preliminary ones, then we'll do that, assuming the device we must use is capable of as many teleports as we intend, within a reasonable amount of time. What, really, powers 'space magic' anyway?" Again Dester frowns for a second. "Before you answer that, are we prepared with suitable countermeasures, should any of the realities we encounter have their own 'something very powerful'?  Out of the Lion's mouth, into the Tiger's, right?

Steve ... the voice of the Sword? I think he is out of communication at the moment."

[Kedly]

Vincent looks over the general plan, and reads Dester's message. After thinking about it for a bit he replies.

If we can get their loyalty, that would be the best course, but I think we should still offer pay, as most of our security staff, aka the ones we'll be relying on heavily until we set up a base of operations, are mercenaries. Money is what they respond to best, and we have lots and lots of money, that means absolutely nothing to us, and everything to them, that is very much an asset we should make use of. With your permission, I would like to address the staff about our current plan of action, I've noticed a few of them seem confused, and the ones who seem excited keep talking about something called Fyoo-dal Jah-pan. I think something may have been erronously passed off. I would also suggest that stage 4 use sod's, we don't need to use unwilling victims if we don't have to.

(Vincent doesn't know about the sod plan, but would totally be down for that plan)

[Ozarck]

Vincent looks over the general plan, and reads Dester's message. After thinking about it for a bit he replies.

If we can get their loyalty, that would be the best course, but I think we should still offer pay, as most of our security staff, aka the ones we'll be relying on heavily until we set up a base of operations, are mercenaries. Money is what they respond to best, and we have lots and lots of money, that means absolutely nothing to us, and everything to them, that is very much an asset we should make use of. With your permission, I would like to address the staff about our current plan of action, I've noticed a few of them seem confused, and the ones who seem excited keep talking about something called Fyoo-dal Jah-pan. I think something may have been erronously passed off. I would also suggest that stage 4 have ACTUAL volunteers, I'm certain I can insentivise some of our security staff to volunteer, and it would honestly make me sleep better at night if we didn't force anyone to go to another universe just to have their brains drip out through their nose. You're the boss though, and I realize this is both war, and species survival we're talking here, so you're call

(Vincent doesn't know about the sod plan, but would totally be down for that plan)

((sure he does, Steve Saint's message went to the whole group. He mentions the sods

[Kedly]

((Pretty sure he is speaking to you personally))

[syvarris]

((The first message, which said in the quote line "to M26 Black Ops Detachment", was sent to all of you.  This conversation (everything glowing) is directed at Dester, but it wouldn't be different if any of you retroactively happened to be standing next to him.))

"Oh.  Oh dear.  Hmm.  I thought you were more veteran than that."

Saint puts his hands on his hips and pauses for several seconds, before nodding.  He begins speaking slowly and carefully.  "Again, I have been busy with other matters, and do not have much more information on this subject than you.  The Doctor designed this device, and I value my life, so I make it a point to associate with that... thing,"  Saint's emoticon flashes for a moment.  "as little as possible.  However, if Steve decided to use its device, there should not be any great risk as long as we're careful.  It is probable that, at worst, we deorbit something--whether a warship into the lab, or the lab into the sun.  As ARM missions go, this should be a relatively safe one; I would not be joining you if I believed otherwise."

"Now, I can empathize with your rude awakening.  I awoke immediately after a large explosion which had severely damaged the Sword, and it was a very confusing period of time for me.  Of course, that was many years ago, and I have learned a great deal since then.  There are things you should know before we put our lives in each other's hands..."  Saint pauses for several seconds, before audibly sighing.  "You came from a planet with schools, yes?  They probably taught you about physics--atoms, light, gravity--and gave you laws which dictated how such things worked.  People are taught that the universe makes sense, that everything is explainable and consistent.  This is a blatant lie, told so that fear is kept at bay.  In truth, reality is fundamentally broken, and every day we chip away at it just a bit more.  This is a problem, and there are two concepts for how to deal with it: The first is that of the UWM.  They believe that we should cover our eyes and hope the problem will go away.  They say that we should not know the truth, and should not study it, in fear of cutting humanity's time shorter.  Our opinion, that of ARM, is that we should press forward, research and learn what causes reality to crack, in hopes that we can find a way to solve the problem.  Space magic, as people call it, is simply one particular crack in existence, a crack which we've figured out how to utilize.  ARM has found many more, and makes use of them as well.  We don't yet know how to fix them, but this project has apparently given us a different option; escaping through a crack into a different reality.  That is what we'll be doing."

Saint crosses his arms behind his back before continuing with a very serious tone. "I expect you to disseminate this information to your team.  If everybody remains cautious, and applies the proper degree of care, this mission should go smoothly.  However, if people act foolishly, this does have the potential to go very poorly.  Not from the lion to the tiger, but from the flu to the Altered."

((OOC note: Everything stated here is mostly plausible, from what I can remember, but it isn't actually what Saint believes.  He's giving a very bowdlerized interpretation.

Also, how's my RP?  I'm out of practice, so I'd appreciate criticism.  Saint just went from "Okay, these guys are the most competent troops in ARM; I'll just keep an eye on them and assist" to "Oh god they're completely green and got through by luck.  And now they're on my planet, messing with apocalypse tech D:"))

[Ozarck]

((good, good. He's in the right state of mind. The ARM state of mind. RP seems fine.))
Dicussion taking place at another time and place than that with the Doctor:
"Eh, I'm not a veteran of your ARMy or whatever, but I'm not exactly a naive child either. And my team is reliable. We wouldn't have gotten off that planet if they weren't. So the universe was cracked, and the UWM wanted us not to crack it further. We did anyway. Mkay. Huh. So, the Altered are related to space magic then? To this crack in the universe we got manips and amps and such from? They weren't just a genetic mutation or whatever other claim the UWM made about them? They weren't some crossbreed between humanity and her animals with the Haebi?"

Spoiler: A plan for Standard Interuniversal Exploration Operating Procedure Mk 2 (click to show/hide)

Phase Zero: Locate the interdimensional portal in as isolated a place as reasonably possible. Ensure all available countermeasures are prepared for potential backlash through the portal from other dimensions. Remove all space magic from the premises, including surgically installed amps and other tools.
Phase one: unmanned drones containing a sample of each element and a simple program: enter universe, wait one minute, return. if nothing explodes, dissolves, grows into an abomination, or otherwise becomes useless, move to phase two
Phase two: sensors. Cameras, EM, radio, sonar, motion detectors, etc. Poke around for a minute or three, then return. Examine all evidence. If nothing seems terrible, move to phase three.
Phase three: life. Send samples of cellular life: microbiology, plants, animals, and these disposeable "Sods". Remain for five minutes, return. if everything lives and functions properly, move to phaze Four
Phase Four: 'volunteers.' Strap a few conscious humans and perhaps roboticised humans into an autonomous drone and send them in. Five minutes then return. If they haven't gone immediately mad/dead/abominable, record their experiences and analyze. after careful analysis, if acceptable, move to phase five
Phase Five: Actual volunteers. Time to start exploring. Go in (or send a team) for one hour, then eight, then a full day, then a week. This is the point at which we will probably have to go in personally as well, though having a crew of grunts along will be acceptable. Explore, record, and report. We're getting closer to something human habitable now!
Phase Six: Evaluate options. have we found something survivable? Suitable? Idyllic? Should we send people to one or more of these universes to prepare short term and long term colonies? Do we have enough time to consider any more carefully, or need we gtfo now? if the latter, which option should we gtfo to?
Phase Seven: Begin the process again from a new universe, just in case this one is being eaten by a thermophage, universal black hole, cosmic entity, generic madness, or grues.

Notes: We should send any equipment, which we expect to use during our explorations, in one of hte earlier stages, as best befitting that set of equipment. information gathering items could go with the sensors. Complex electronics could go when we send robots. foodstuff and other organics could go after we send lifeform samples. Heavy armor and  other powerful equipment could go in phase four.

All feedback is appreciated. better to raise issues now than to have them raised for us by some monstrosity from the other side.

[/quote]

[Kedly]

((saw the sod post, updated my message accordingly))

[syvarris]

Saint rubs his forehead with a hand, causing the holographic letters in front of his face to flicker briefly.  He then speaks with exasperation "No, it's--it is an analogy.  We don't know exactly what the altered were, but as that was compared to the flu, is what we could accomplish compared to our current problem.  A massive threat on an extremely immediate, universal scale, instead of a potential worry that might not even kill us within our lifetimes if left alone.  I'm just trying to get the fact that we have to be careful across.  Far too many missions conducted by ARM have resulted in massive problems, because some fool decided to take a stupid risk."