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[piecewise]

We incinerate all sods killed by interaction with other universes. We use robots to gather the corpses and place them in incinerators. Particularly troublesome test rooms - rooms we fear to enter to get the sods - we simply send to a particular null universe and left there.

Orgyverse: (testing automanip use at normal, high stress, and overload levels)
send a ship carrying a probe with an automanipulator (oh, a gravity one, I guess?), to a spot several billion light years from the normal spot. Launch the probe, and have it run the automanip at ordinary levels.

send a second to a second point several billion light years from that one and from the origin, and have it run it's automanip at the high and low edges of its standard capacity.

Send a third to a third billions of light years distant point and set the probe at a safe distance from the ship, and have it overload its manip.

Probes to new universes:
0, 0, 9
0, 9, 0
9, 0, 0

Hopelessly pragmatic, the lot of you.

Several billion light years eh? It still works out there. Just like you would expect.

In fact, all these gives results the same as you would have expected them to in the standard universe. Before things got fucked.

All Nulled.

What was the saying? Speak softly but carry a big stick? I think we have bigger sticks than these guys. Using "prepared" materials from the excavation, offer them one of the smaller creatures we hunted, and have the linguist say something like he's trying to calm down an angry dog.

You throw a dead animal to them. They Look at you in confusion though they do seem a bit less nervous.

Probes to new universes:

36,36,36
37,37,37
-49,-49,-49

First one appears to infect the sods with what can only be described as lycanthropy.

The second causes purple mold to start growing around the room at a rather frightening rate.

The third...oh dear.  The moment it appears back the room is consumed. From outside cameras you can see something spreading out like silver halo'd roots made of shadow. They look almost animated, like each instant in time they are redrawn with a shaking, scribbly charcoal sketch appearance. They spread like roots too, organic, branching and splitting at high speed, searching, feeling the world around them, extending and retracting. They begin consuming near by testing rooms and flowing towards the nearest planet.

[ZBridges]

((Umm... no idea how to fix that.  Is it another alien god?  Will leave to smarter people to figure out.))

Could you please describe the lycanthropy in a bit more detail?  Also, do the infected sods still follow orders, or do they appear to be completely mindless and aggressive?

Also, previous turn please, if it is not too much trouble, and the alien entity issue gets ironed out:

((Thanks!  Yes, this is 4/Nunzillor/whoever.  I understand the current mission, and would like to help however I can.  I'd also like to do some stuff on the side though if that's okay.  Again, feel free to veto any stupid or dangerous actions.))

A few questions for you, sir:
1.  What is the exact biological or mechanical mechanism that allowed Gordon Freeman to exhibit telepathic abilities?  I'm familiar with the empathic gland, but this soldier was able to extract precise knowledge rather than vague information from others' minds.
2.  If the mechanism is biological, can it be recreated mechanically?
3.  If the mechanism is neither biological nor mechanical, then what exactly is it?
4.  Would cloned brains of Freeman retain his unique psychic ability?
5.  Are you familiar with "wishing" orbs of seemingly alien make?  If so, what problems (if any) arise from the use of these orbs long-term, and what are their limitations?
6.  What is the safest way to cause the crystalline projector to create crystallized soldiers?

Ask the Doctor.

I'd like to attempt to reproduce Freeman's results.  Using my character's charisma, can I telepathically extract names or other information from the minds of NPC Hephaestus personnel?  Try 100 times.  What is the rate of success?

How many ghostships do we have?  Do they remain viable?

Are the cloning facilities functional?  If so, how many minds can be produced per turn?

May I please purchase a crystalline projector?  If so, attempt to integrate crystal into 5 spare minds using crystal bayonet micro-incisions at the brainstem.  Do this remotely in a testing room, using aux-controlled medical equipment.

[piecewise]

((Umm... no idea how to fix that.  Is it another alien god?  Will leave to smarter people to figure out.))

Could you please describe the lycanthropy in a bit more detail?  Also, do the infected sods still follow orders, or do they appear to be completely mindless and aggressive?

Also, previous turn please, if it is not too much trouble, and the alien entity issue gets ironed out:

((Thanks!  Yes, this is 4/Nunzillor/whoever.  I understand the current mission, and would like to help however I can.  I'd also like to do some stuff on the side though if that's okay.  Again, feel free to veto any stupid or dangerous actions.))

A few questions for you, sir:
1.  What is the exact biological or mechanical mechanism that allowed Gordon Freeman to exhibit telepathic abilities?  I'm familiar with the empathic gland, but this soldier was able to extract precise knowledge rather than vague information from others' minds.
2.  If the mechanism is biological, can it be recreated mechanically?
3.  If the mechanism is neither biological nor mechanical, then what exactly is it?
4.  Would cloned brains of Freeman retain his unique psychic ability?
5.  Are you familiar with "wishing" orbs of seemingly alien make?  If so, what problems (if any) arise from the use of these orbs long-term, and what are their limitations?
6.  What is the safest way to cause the crystalline projector to create crystallized soldiers?

Ask the Doctor.

I'd like to attempt to reproduce Freeman's results.  Using my character's charisma, can I telepathically extract names or other information from the minds of NPC Hephaestus personnel?  Try 100 times.  What is the rate of success?

How many ghostships do we have?  Do they remain viable?

Are the cloning facilities functional?  If so, how many minds can be produced per turn?

May I please purchase a crystalline projector?  If so, attempt to integrate crystal into 5 spare minds using crystal bayonet micro-incisions at the brainstem.  Do this remotely in a testing room, using aux-controlled medical equipment.

They essentially become feral bipedal creatures that seem to be something akin to baboon wolf things. And they don't seem happy to be in the presence of anything living, including each other.

[Gentlefish]

[orange]Well. That worked about as well as I could hope.[/color] Time to channel first contact.

With my extremely human hands, poke at the ground and do:

| + | = ||
| + || = |||

also draw a rough symbol of stick figures standing next to each other.

then step back and motion at the ground. If guards aren't already standing down, have them stand down. This isn't a time to appear hostile.

[Ozarck]

Launch the infected test rooms back to -49, -49, -49 immediately and with extreme prejudice. Order all Ships back, and all weapons fired at the halo'd blackness.

Send probes immediately to any universe that contains our people and order them to return, except for permanently established colonies (This is primarily to get the player characters here). Begin immediate evacuation of Cavernverse for relocation to another universe.they have an eue apparently)

During any time that can be spared, send probes to OrgyVerse, well outside the range of the civilization that is there, looking for suitable planets to colonize. If we have any autocolonies prepared, send one to the first viable planet we find.

Edit: Lyra is planning to cross to Heph this urn in order to test origin tech in orgyverse. Provided that we have a reasonable timetable to do so, I wold like to outfit her with whatever amps she wants and synthflesh (she has a Haebi Implant, so if that affects amps or synthflesh she can decide which to go with), and send her to the location of the functioning gravity probe in Orgyverse (the probe I sent last time that operated at normal capacity). I intend to send her in the largest ship we can cross over, with a crew compliment of humans and sods. She is to test her abilities over there and report back. I expect this to take a couple turns oevrall, but with the current situation, I am not sure we have time , so I wanted to get the plan laid out so you could give me a feel for whether that will work or not.

What is the rate of expansion on that stuff? It expanded across space pretty quickly to infect other test rooms and head noticeably toward a planet. How large has it gotten so far? How long will we have to evacuate heph, should the need arise?

We've got another breach!

[ZBridges]

Excuse me, sir.  Could we keep at least 2 lycanthropes?  Perhaps we can create ARM super-soldiers through post-transformation brain transplantations.  If the danger is too great to allow them to exist, I understand.  I also understand that there are far bigger issues that require attention currently.

[Ozarck]

Excuse me, sir.  Could we keep at least 2 lycanthropes?  Perhaps we can create ARM super-soldiers through post-transformation brain transplantations.  If the danger is too great to allow them to exist, I understand.  I also understand that there are far bigger issues that require attention currently.

if you can safely transport them away from the situation at hand, do whatever. Just don't get anyone else infected, and be prepared to destroy them immediately. Like you said ... bigger issues

[syvarris]

Somewhere, deep within the bowels of a massive warship, a cyborg brain mentally sighs.

1.Send a message to Dester saying not to waste time evacuating people from other universes.  They're better off there, as if we can't stop this then most people in this system will die.  Especially don't evacuate the cavernverse, as they have a EUE.  Don't waste time fighting with Dester about this, though.

2.Hephaestus is about one AU from its star.  The apocalypse lab was about fifty AU away.  We ended up spacing all the testing rooms out, at unspecified locations around the system.  I won't ask for actual locations and distances, since they're useless anyway, but assuming the anomaly continues spreading at the same speed, how many turns until it contacts the planet it is heading for?

3.Same as above, but assuming immediately after it contacts that planet, it starts heading for Heph, how many turns until it reaches Heph?

4.What planet is it heading for?  There's eleven, though most of them are just glorified asteroids.  Is there anything valuable on that planet, like the EUE, or is it just worthless mass?


5.Ask the Doctor if the EUE might function if it is rapidly disassembled and moved somewhere else.  Emphasis on might--It's worthless anyway if a god eats it.  Quickly have someone competent with portals set up a portal from the EUE's area to somewhere safer--maybe Heph, maybe the Sword--and get ready to deconstruct the thing and move it.  Don't send the order to do so until there's a risk of the anomaly reaching the EUE if we don't.

6.Rig one of our largest, fastest ships up with lots of automanips, and lots of spare nukes.  Send it towards the anomaly, but preferably keep it a safe distance away.  Make sure it's ready to overload on my command.

7.Ask The Doc if overloading the above contraption and ramming it into the new anomaly is conceivably not a terrible idea.

8.Have whatever warship Saint's on fly away from the new anomaly, away from Heph, and towards a rendezvous point with a ship that has a portal generator and someone capable of using it.  Invite any M26 members who are uninterested in death, but pick them up with a different warship.  No reason to put multiple eggs in one basket.

9.Prepare to send a message to the leadership of M27, shown below.  Only send it if the anomaly does not respond positively to nuclear weapons (by dying).

Unforseen consequences have arisen during the course of M26's universe exploration efforts.  An entity similar to The Lurker in the Angles has appeared, and standard emergency containment protocols have failed to significantly impede it.  A full scale emergency evacuation of the Hephaestus system is currently being considered, and if it is enacted, it is very likely many of the refugees will be left to their fate on Hephaestus.

I recommend you temporarily pause all evacuation efforts, as the flow of refugees may soon reverse.

((Edit: Nun, you didn't CC Saint, but he would point out that rescuing the lycanthropes is a waste of time and effort.  Even if we can't rescue either EUE which exists in this universe, we have a third one in the cavernverse, which can send a probe to the lycanthrope 'verse and then into our 'verse, carrying with it the horrible disease.))

[ZBridges]

((Ah, thanks.  I tend to have terrible judgement, so I appreciate the veto.))

Escape on one of Saint's warships.

Where is the Doctor's lab?  If it's somewhere safe, that's my destination.

If Heph NPCs make it onto the ship, attempt to reproduce Freeman's results by telepathically extracting names or other knowledge from crewmates using charisma.  Try 100 times.  What is the rate of success, as verified by the target NPCs?

For reference, here is where Freeman used telepathy:

"Ugh, this is a mess, why should I bother?"

Take cover from ensuing stupid fucking friendly fire laser fight.

March on over to the rioting crowd and start beating thieves and troublemakers senseless while using Charisma to still appear heroic.

While doing so, speech roll this rant at Auron's Id. Try to demoralize it so it stops committing mass-murder.

[5]
You walk over the the nearest group of people that have somehow avoided auron's molten gold bombardment. You stand in front of them and loudly berate them with your hands on your hips. You call them all by their entire name, first and last. You tell them you're not angry, you're just disappointed. And then you tell them to sit down and think about what they've done.

You get a group of about 150 people to just sit down on the beach near the slums and feel bad about themselves.

[DoctorMcTaalik]

Order all three of the testing rooms to self destruct. Probably futile, but there's not much else for me to do. Escape on one of Saint's ships.

[Ozarck]

It'd robably be wiser to send a probe to this monster's universe and then bring it back within Lurkert space than it would be to overload an amp and invite the Lurker here. Ts one is still nascent, while Lurker is firmly established. To distract this one by sending it far away, or at least giving it a challenge somewhere else would probably be preferable to inviting Eldricht warfare right here. Assuming, of course, that the overload wold draw the Lurker to this point. I understand that Lurker uses people as conduits generally.

[syvarris]

That is a creative idea, though dangerous and unreliable due to the inherent inaccuracy of long distance transfers.  I have not checked to see how far the Lurker's influence has spread, but if it has not significantly sped up its growth, it would be exceptionally difficult to accurately place a probe within its domain.

An alternative plan, which would be more reliable, though likely less effective, would be to send a probe from the anomalous area to universe (3,4,5), or vice-versa.  The Lurker has influence over (3,4,5)'s origin point, assuring accuracy, though it is possible that (3,4,5)'s Lurker is weaker or stronger than the one which inhabits our own universe.

Finally, yes, the Lurker does seem to prefer to use living beings as conduits.  This is why automanipulators are so dangerous; after all, they rely upon human wetware.  We know a nascent Lurker can be stopped if its conduit is destroyed by nuclear weapons, so rigging the automanipulators with nukes allows us to end its local influence at our leisure.  With luck, the Lurker would be able to destroy or delay this new entity before it grows too strong to be eliminated by nuclear weapons.

In the event that the Lurker is not attracted by several warship-grade automanipulators overloading, well, few things are capable of withstanding such destructive power.  Nuclear weapons are quite trivial in comparison to the death throes of reality itself.

[Ozarck]

"At our leisure" is a bit of an overstatement, considering M21 dropped an entire warship on Lurker within mere minutes of it's advent here. Nevertheless, if the automanip oveloads, that does seem plausible enough to prevent Lurker fro mcoming here immediately, whereas this new one is expanding already. just try to keep us out of the blast range.

you think we couldn't hit the solar system in which M21 found Lurker, or hit near enough to be within Lurker's influence? That system, from what I have heard, has probably completely been subsumed long ago, with Lurker growing quite big in that region of space by now.

[Empiricist]

((Distracted by mid-semester assessments, quick summary on what just happened please.))

[Kedly]

((We dont have an EUE in Caveverse. The Vr test runs didnt go well, plus the universe was causing gravity cancer, so all colonists where evac'd and quarantined on Heph... I'm all for sending the testing chambers to a lurkerverse))

Was my action of sending my testing chamber to its universe permanently, missed? Or did the new Universally Transmitted Infection make my action not important?,