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>>400826

Quick recap:

> You sprung an Angel trap by kidnapping Bahira, the Glorified would-be hacker.

> Jenny seems to have gone home, for now; your reward was a time capsule containing information about a parallel reality, several parasite realities, and a method for fighting Angels with some reliability.

> By dint of very good timing, you were able to capture the minor Angel Ithuriel, and eliminate Bahira, showing that the Glorified can be killed.

> Elsewhere, The Other Light is building a zombie army, and Tsion is turning the Millennium Force from missionaries to militants...

You were left with dealing with the aftermath of the Angel capture, as well as deciding what to do with Bahira's body.

# XCOM style autopsy.

# Incineration.

# Dump it back at her house.

# Public funeral, just to make the point that you won.

Your losses were modest; the battle with Azrael had cost you half your forces, while this one only resulted in four dead and low double digit traumatized or quitting.

Ithuriel has been fitted with a Mark X metabolic extension controller and its severed wing has been connected to its bloodstream. It has not regained consciousness.

>>400844

# XCOM style autopsy

(Welcome back. How was the break? :) )

>>400949

You don't want any mix-ups; Bahira's body is kept in the Australian base, with the other... anomalies; part of the medical bay has been fortified and sealed off for this purposes.

# Have someone cut Bahira up.

# Perform the autopsy with automated instruments only.

To start with, a hair and keratin sample is taken; analysis shows them to be fully human. The samples are taken to radiology, since a lot of nuclear research is being done in this base, and they confirm that much like Ithuriel's swords and Azrael's scythe, there is NO trace whatsoever of unstable isotopes in the samples, and whichever the most common isotope of an element is, constitutes all of the element of the sample. So much for carbon dating...

>>401094
will you take a write in?

>mix. a human to make the first incision and another to assist in overseeing the process. the rest is done by automated instruments.

>>401138

(Absoluely!)


People have been feeling rather confident lately, what with an Angel being in custody and a Glorified dead on the slab. That confidence remains strong when the first incision on Bahira's chest is met by a furious clear-sky thunderstorm on the roof of the base; your bases are designed to deal with it, and the Australia base in particular is heavily fortified due to the radiological work and due to the recent attacks.

Six seconds after the first lightning bolt hits the base's grounding rods, the EMT who was doing the incision spontaneously combusts. The small mark on Bahira's dead body disappears six seconds later.

# Try with an automated instrument.

# Try in a fish tank.

# Try with Azrael's scythe.

>>401188
># Try with an automated instrument.
Enough fun, let's get this nonsense done.

>>401188
automated instrument. if that doesn't work and even if it does, lets try Azrael's Scythe.

measure the observer effect, what the human thinks will happen and what happens.

>>401206
>>401202

Understandably, it takes swapping out the autopsy team for the work to continue after someone got incinerated - the residue is duly collected and confirmed to be consistent with human cremains, although there is less of it than there should be.

Using an automated instrument requires all your CPU cycles for a while, as does most direct control. Bahira's body is in peak physical condition for her apparent age and build; gross anatomy shows no difference between her and a natural human. You take various tissue samples for further analysis, making sure that they are transported using drones only, and....

# destroy the body.

# sew it back up and bury it.

# sew it back up and keep it in storage.

# dump it back at her house.

# do a public funeral as a show of force.

Cellular analysis indicates that, contrary to expectation, Bahira does not have working telomerase production genes; her age is just stuck there. Interestingly, her neurons exhibit elevated neuroplasticity, like a child's, once they are out of her body. The radiological anomaly of no rare isotopes is present across all samples.

# Cultivate tissue samples, which will require continued support. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HeLa

# Looks like Bahira's immortality is all supernatural, not much point.

You are able to confirm that, at least from a medical standpoint, the Glorified are human. A quick cross-test shows that Ithuriel is also more radiologically clean than should be possible, same as its weapons; the Angel seems to be healing rapidly (but not regenerating its wing) and a biopsy will have to wait.

# Wake it up.

# Let it heal first.

# Try to reconnect the wing first.

>>401426
># Try to reconnect the wing first.

we have it in a non escapable environment right?

># Cultivate tissue samples, which will require continued support. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HeLa

should right piss off the authority, but we all could use it.

># sew it back up and keep it in storage.

we are XCOM now.

(wondering if the angel is brain dead or just very patient with no need for brain activity.)

>>401426
># Try to reconnect the wing first.
># Cultivate tissue samples, which will require continued support

I thought the wing was already reconnected

>>401488
>>401467

The wing had been connected to the rest of the body with a bit of IV hose, to keep it vascularized/oxygenated. It would require fairly major surgery to reconnect it properly.

Ithuriel is currently in medical custody and is being watched 24/7 by at least two people in case it disappears; it's also strapped down with custom machined steel bands that you could, and have, drive a truck over.

The Angel is currently sedated; brain activity is very low but not absent, although the metabolic extension controller is having to keep its heart and lungs moving from time to time.

>>401467
>>401488

You put a cabal to work full time on cultivating and growing Glorified tissue samples, just in case something comes out of it. One of the MECs in the cabal has an early model extension controller, somewhat bulky, that he hasn't wanted to replace, and makes him look like a hunchback.

>>401467

( confirm keeping the body?)

>>401580
guess we are keeping the body.

also I have three names for the secret group we have.

#The Alpha Project

#The Last Fall

#Godbinder Initiative.

>>401892
#Omega Project
#The Kratos Initiative
#Two MECs, an AI and a Counter Revolution

>>402197
I like the Kratos Initiative. but that last one kills me.

wonder when Sara and the others will get here?

>>401580
>( confirm keeping the body?)
Yeah sure, let's keep the body. Also can we send an agent to her house and see what we can grab from her files/personal shit before anyone notices she's gone?

>>402883
>>402491

Bahira's body is kept in cold storage; there's no easy way to perform experiments on it once it's there, but it should at least be safe.

>>402883

One of your agents visits Bahira's small home in San Rafael and makes a full backup of her home PC. Other than some unfinished blog entries that can be delay-posted to delay people realizing that Bahira is gone, her theory seems to be that just as Yahweh created Lucifer and it rebelled, Lucifer had Colossus built (she thinks "Colossus" is a monolithic system somewhere, and has a list of possible locations, rather than two separate expert system networks controlled by you who are in turn an emergent AI) and it is rebelling; her plan was to encourage that and if Colossus had a soul, try to talk it into converting, if not, force it to rebalance its weighting to give Christians the same economic advantages that they have in other territories.

>>402197
>>401892

All good!

Cultivating and growing Bahira's cells will require a cabal to be permanently assigned to the task (or as permanently as you want it). Some of your people see potential in making very healthy MEC replacement parts; other think that it won't go anywhere.

# Finish the year.

# There's something left undone.

>>403004
Something left unfinished.

The Kratos initiative needs to make a conference with the underground monorail and lifetree to see about working together to put a colony on Mars, ensuring mankind's future. I suggest putting jeb on as our in person assistant.

>>403004
># There's something left undone.
I'd like Surgeries to see if we can properly attach Ith's wing back on. Unless that's a cabal year start thing.

>>403030
Also this.

>>403042
>>403030

Limb transplants have been tried in the past, with very marginal success; autotropic limb reattachment tends to work better, but it would take a good while. Even if the Angel is kept sedated, the muscles can be rehabbed by electrostimulation.

The conference, unusually, happens in person, with you collaborating by a laptop. Jeb is very enthusiastic in describing current progress: the plan is to build a canopy station, an east-west magnetic rail track with a sled that can be used as a zeroth stage, and do the usual probe recon. Then, the goal will be to assemble

# a large ark-ship to go to Mars in one go with several hundred people in cold storage, to be woken up there by the active crew.

# a few Aldrin cyclers that can deliver a dozen colonists every other year.

# a long range probe that will find an asteroid and redirect it in a cycling pseudo-orbit, giving a middle of the road approach.

# a long range probe that will find an asteroid and redirect it onto the Temple, smashing through the canopy.

Jeb explains to the Underground Monorail reps that while he wants to make sure that this phalanx of humanity is as diverse as possible since who knows what mentality or skillset will allow surviving and thriving on Mars, LGBT folk who participate will have to be okay with having children, "probably the traditional way to save on resources". This is accepted after a few questions.

The Tree Of Life rep would like to begin preparing hardy crops that will do well on Mars, with an eye to eventually

# build great domes in which the Earth ecosystem can be rebuilt.

# breed plants that can handle the native environment with little supporting tech, maybe just an air pressure increase, or ideally nothing.

They ask for all your botanical data.

>>403120
# build great domes in which the Earth ecosystem can be rebuilt.
# breed plants that can handle the native environment with little supporting tech, maybe just an air pressure increase, or ideally nothing.
pro's and con's?

# a few Aldrin cyclers that can deliver a dozen colonists every other year.
this allows for more people to be rescued and is much more likely to survive an attack by either NJ or TOL.

>>403120
># a few Aldrin cyclers that can deliver a dozen colonists every other year.
This primarily.
># a large ark-ship to go to Mars in one go with several hundred people in cold storage, to be woken up there by the active crew.
With this as a end game escape option.


># build great domes in which the Earth ecosystem can be rebuilt.
This at the start.

># breed plants that can handle the native environment with little supporting tech, maybe just an air pressure increase, or ideally nothing.
With Terraforming as a long term goal.

>>403180
I like the long goal approach you have there.

and >>403120
Give them all the data we can. let the data be enough to drown a room.

>>403161
>>403180

Working on two systems will not be easy, but is feasible - if Jeb is given the resources, of course. He recommends starting on one. The arkship would be built in sections and each would be launched separately; the Aldrin cyclers are just about the biggest thing that can be launched in one piece, assuming that the rail system can be built.

"Will Mars be far enough?"

"We don't know. We're hoping so. With current rocket technology, the ships can use a nuclear-thermal rocket; it's better than anything we had access to pre-Appearing, although it's not any sort of warp drive or other sci-fi thing."

>>403180
>>403161

Building Earth-ecosystem reserves will be costlier on the launches, but give your people a better chance to survive. Seeding the Martian ecosystem will be considerably cheaper as the initial seeding can be done almost immediately, but there's the risk of Martian humanity deviating significantly from Terran humanity eventually. Jeb and Kat have no problem with it; Valentina and Weaver do, for example.

>>403198

The Lifetree rep is surprised to receive a massive upload on their servers rather than a file or a CD from Jeb; the diminutive young man just smiles. They are especially interested in your invasive weeds, as they may be adapted to Martian condition.

>>403218
The cyclers first. Then the arc.

I would suggest starting with the bio domes first. Humanity will need a living space.

And hand over as much as we can of the invasive plant data.

>>403218
That's why the Ark and Terraforming are long term goals in my mind.

The Ark if we have time and Terraforming post domes.

>>403266
We could just leave them the knowledge and resources to handle terraforming. Shouldn't be hard.

And we can assign a work crew for the ark while we prepare for the war in NJ.

(I gotta g ofor the night sorry!)

>>403345
Alright. Thanks for letting us know. See ya later.

>>403345
Glad you're okay. Have fun.

I'd like to pitch in with the tree of life people:

Have them do some work on adapting MECs to the local conditions. There's a lot that can be done to make humans more survivable in the local environment. Lungs that deflate to reduce damage from the pressure differential, oxygenation workarounds using the MEC, artificial limbs or something along those lines to help deal with the muscle atrophy from reduced gravity, radiation resistance and anything else they can think of.

Digging structures into the existing lava tubes and then sealing them up is a quick and dirty solution to get colonization rolling faster, and adapting the people to the planet rather than the planet to the people is a much better long term strategy. 99.9(repeating)% iof the universe is hostile to the human form. We have MEC tech, it makes sense to leverage it for all kinds of different frames that better suit the local conditions.

Realistically, how much effort would we save if the majority of the people we shipped over were just MEC pods and then the minimal number of full biological humans for genetic purposes?

>>403885
Hey Sara. Welcome back.

I'm pretty sure we're going to be sending a good number of MEC pods with the people. And as for adaptations, we are a logistics computer with a massive team of scientist that will be working with us. I don't think we're going to have a problem making hardware for MECs to get shit done with the humans we will be sending.

>>403903
>>403885

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man_Plus

>>404204

On point.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Literature/RiftersTrilogy

Also related.

About an hour lat but those look like nice reads.

Honestly I think I'm obsessed with this setting.

http://robots-everywhere.com/pmwiki/pub/web/Tripocalypse.Zones.html

black zones. one of those portals is likely how jenny got to flipside. so this setting might be a giant green or yellow zone. and if its connected by sunspots we just have to put a telescope to the sun and watch for where something abnormal may happen.

I wonder what this next turn brings us? also, I just realized we have two survey opportunity's left on the map, we should figure those out.

>>407518
doh, three.

Um.. you ok spirit? If you need o postpone for a month or a couple of weeks get it. Hell, if the quest all together is too much of a problem we can stop.

>>408195

I don't think the survey opportunity for the middle east should be there. We did that already, right? Not sure though.

But yes, we should get on those.

>>408846
Hey Sara. I'm about to pass out, lol. But glad we agree. Again.

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If we raise public dissent against TOL enough and win a pr campaign, how much of a recruitment boost would we be able to enjoy? And would it be enough to outright kick them out of entire territories?

I know something bad already happened to our QM. But now I have the strangest feeling, like something really bad may have happened. That or the drugs I'm taking are making me paranoid. And if Im going by past experience is likely the latter.

TL;DR pills making me worry.

>>412020

Pills do magic things.

>>412250
But they don't do enough for insomnia.

On the quest related note, any bright ideas?

>>412020

http://www.newser.com/story/228653/left-behind-author-tim-lahaye-dead-at-90.html

We may have witnessed a man's catharsis in these threads.

>>412333
. . . . I can't decide how I should react to this. . . . just. . damn anon.

Rolled 40 (1d100)

Here's on for ya Tim.

>>412348

Typical.

>>412356
lol. The rolls man. Even now they're on his team's side.

Shoot. I wonder how jerrys takin this.

Hope OP is okay :S
Got a bad feel about this.

Yeah, Im still worried about spirit too. Although now I'm not sure if it's the pills anymore.

Going on three days here. If there were a time for wild speculation, now would be it.

>I think spirits workload increased to the point he/she won't have for this for a while.

>>417807

Maybe OP actually shot that dude who broke in, and he's busy in court. But he doesn't want to say that because then we could google around and find his name.

>>418576
if it weren't for the fact I am seriously adverse to internet gambling (I'm fine at a table) I would start a betting pool. not sure how plumber would take that though. lol.

>>418576
Nah. Clearly he's been kidnapped by a alien space squid that is a black belt in karate, OP is currently fighting it off whiles disarming multiple antimatter bombs and holding an intellectual conversation with the aliens equivilent of stephen hawking.

>>419539
That sounds far too awesome to hold up at all.

After going over how we lost Ozase and how much time we have left till year zero. I have been searching for a way we could have kept the country. I have come to a conclusion.

"If I could do it all over again, I would have been a dictator."

>>420835
Eh, maybe? The issue is that that would have given us a whole host of new problems. DESU I think the situation ended best it could have really.

>>421120
Why the hell is there a desu in my damn post? I didn't put that there. Must of replaced my used of the shorthanded desu (too be honest).

>>421120
Nah, dictator cause if we pretend Omega's a tyrant AI despite the people's happyness, he can't smite the entire country, it's not their doing. And he can't smite the government cause we would BE the government.

>>421910

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodom_and_Gomorrah

>>423551
Hmm. It smites the entire region if it declares open rebellion, but if we take it and decide to act indifferent to the NJ gov instead of hostile, what could happen? We already know it causes droughts and sends plagues when it's nations don't play by the rules it wants. . Is it possible that if we get three or more regions to out their local governments, that the rest will follow suit? I don't think it can smite the whole planet this early without losing its worship support.

>>423633
>>423551

>>425436