>>3315762

Lis breaks off with her machine as you approach the Erinyes. You stay at standoff: Until you’re cleaned off, you don’t want to take any chances, especially around Durga and Lis. It’s a long wait, and with the previous topic, you’re not exactly filling the space with small talk. Eventually, you get impatient.

“Lis; Is everything alright over there?” You key in, hoping you sound more tired than annoyed.

“Simple and fast are two very different things Sam…” Lis grunts back through Durga’s mic.

“Two minutes; Are you still tracking the Ogres?” Durga’s response is an echo of your own tone. You suppose you’re not the only one who’d rather be doing something else.

“They’re technically under the IRH umbrella by now, but still inside our perimeter.”

“Not good. If they have any communications, they are going to start directing battery fire into the regulars on the border.” Durga sighs, “Are there friendlies in error range?”

>Relay: A quick bounce off the IFF system will give you their locations relative to the Ogres. Maybe they’re smart enough to get out of the way so Durga can fire.
>Shutdown: No matter how testy Durga gets, you’re not going to help her hip fire artillery over allies heads.
>[Lie: Tell her they’ve already in engagement range. Saves a lot of argument, and it’s not like they aren’t going to be shooting soon.]
>Guess: It’s unlikely anything’s close enough for it to matter. If you want your last shot at the Ogres, you’ll probably have to take it on faith.
>Writein?


Relay: A quick bounce off the IFF system will give you their locations relative to the Ogres. Maybe they’re smart enough to get out of the way so Durga can fire.

>"Better disappointed than court martialed."

>>3315765

You allow Mia to plug in the finicky authorizations to poll the local C3 net. It’s a little tortured to get authorized, short term access like this without giving away your own position, so you’re glad to have the extra help with the nuance. As you expected, the Greys have noticed the incoming threat. The Vereinigte strategy at that point would likely be striking leg joints with what little anti-knight ordinance they have. It puts them far closer than you’d like, but not necessarily in collateral: You’d simply need to allow the troops to take their shot before firing.

“They will be. You’re going to be a bit late for the near-side, but if we can get you upright, you’ll have a window for them outside.” You begin saving the proper coordinates.

“Are the VC engaging?” Durga asks. You can hear the sound of the harness falling free with a distant curse from Lis.

“Standard harrying tactics. They’re going to do what they can to slow them down. Odds are pretty bad with such an overbuilt Knight, but they can’t know that.”

As if on cue, you hear a cannon open up. At this distance, it’s no more than a low rumble, but you have little doubt based on the direction.

“Keep updating their track. If they manage to affect their movement, I do not wish to overshoot.” You hear a rhythm of sliding and locking as she re-engages with her machine. “This will work. Please disembark.”

The Erinyes perks up, far more like its smaller cousins than the larger Durga Knight ever was. She delays long enough for Lis to get clear and mount her machine before swiveling the entire craft in place, pivoting on the stabilizer legs in a smooth roiling pattern. You see the shimmer as the shield projector function tests as she locks down, bracing into a wide stance and locking the arm in the style of an pistoleer, tucking the projector back along the chest form the necessary recoil and blast diffusion. You assume during direct fire, she’s not all that concerned with the backblast, but it remains the same impressive cannon at nearly half the height as on the older model… It’ll flatten you without some protection. In speaking of, you’re careful to twist the damaged side of your machine away from the blast zone… Better safe than sorry

You watch the C3, letting Mia help you anticipate and track the units. Unsurprisingly, the Ogres, tagged by your VC partners as they approach the limits of your sensors, don’t slow in the slightest. Once they’ve passed the line, you don’t bother with the image, instead listening closely.

The guns fall silent. There will be no pursuit, nor skirmishing over the border line. They’re out of effective range for the Greys. You still delay, thinking of a crater not ten kilometers from here.

[Thermal damage will not trigger a runaway response. Soot and oxides can’t think themselves into a frenzy.]

You finalize the firing solution and send it off.

>>3315768

The smaller array is every ounce the same animal mounted on its predecessor. Seeing it in proper form is a treat, despite your condition. The projectile forms with little of the crawling slowness of the heavier design, immediately striking into a blue-white orb shot with dark streaking where the reaction is uneven. Not four seconds later under the flash of the shield projector, the mortar arcs skyward, and the alternate barrel is already charged for the next round. There is a flash of steam as the force cooling draws the mechanism down to operating temp and the second projectile goes. The action of the weapon visibly expands as the forming guides and chargers compensate for the new thermal conditions, forming a virtually identical projectile for the third and fourth shot. It overall takes less than ten seconds. The Erinyes pivots to ship the weapon down and away, still roiling with heat.

In the very definition of an anticlimax. You see two blips become one.

“That will have to do.” Durga’s tone is satisfied, almost smug in contrast to the underwhelming effect. “Make a note to get a copy of the action report. . We are done here, best speed for three kilometers, we can slow down when counterbattery is no longer a threat. 03 to the barracks to start packing, 01 to lab site: Get clean and patched up and we are out by nightfall once the samples are packed.

In speaking of underwhelming… She took that quite well for only getting one shot… And missing three…

You turn back to Jennings, who matches your raised eyebrow.

[You both have the strangest habit of questioning when things start functioning usefully.]

>>3315768

Despite all the tasks you have, it doesn’t actually take you that long to finish work and pack up camp. Down a Magd, you decide to leave the barrack standing after sweeping it for sensitive materiel. The extra storage isn’t necessarily crucial, but you can satisfactorily pack the remaining gear, supplies and samples with a minimum of finagling. All said and done, you’re set by dusk, which isn’t nearly as late as you’d like it to be at this latitude. Regardless, you call in the team to the barracks for a final sweep and debrief.

Jennings is wearing yet another spare jumpsuit, which you recognize are now in very short supply considering your recent experience. You’ve never really ran out before, but you haven’t exactly gotten three quarters of your team mangled in a single sortie. Lis is the only member of the squad undamaged, which sticks her as the defacto lead to the debrief, no matter how informal. You probably could have squared up, but she virtually jumped out of her chair when you tried to limp over

You still have the situation with the nanite weapon under your hat however. It’s not exactly like you hid it; It’s simply not come up yet. Bringing it up with Jennings and Mia didn’t seem to offer much more clarity… It’s 100% clear what happened up there from your perspective, but it still puts a pit in your stomach.

Of course, everyone’s off their game, except for Durga apparently. Despite looking battered, she’s practically humming. You can barely catch the edge of her mania flickering in her eyes, filtered in the orange glow from the skylight. You admit you probably wouldn’t have caught it if you weren’t spying on her so often, but this is definitely not “.250 batting average” Durga.

Mia’s voice cuts through your mind. [Anyone ever tell you that you’re a paranoid?]

You smirk. You’re pretty sure the answer is “No, just behind my back.”

[Cute. You’re zoning, but you looked like you’re staring… I’d highly recommend you pretend you thought of something to say.]

You're suddenly aware of Lis' attention. The watchman is also watc-

[Now.]

>Straight: You’ll add your side of the report plain and simple. Durga can read in as far as she wishes.
>Hunch: Bring up the Sinai connection. You’ll be told plainly if it needs to go in the official report or not, but you want everyone at the table to be on the same keel.
>[Concern: She’s your focus so own it. She’s acting abnormally stable. I’m curious too. Find out why.]
>Home: You’re just thinking about a hot shower and a cold beer. Off topic, but safe.
>Writein?

Straight: You’ll add your side of the report plain and simple. Durga can read in as far as she wishes.

>"Bias is a factor. You'll keep it clear."

>>3315780

You clear your throat and somewhat awkwardly sit up, wincing as your leg brushes against the table. Your unconscious grimace is more than enough to dispel any suspicion.

“I think we should take a moment to review the aftermath of losing the number 2 Magd a bit further.” You gesture to a map overlay and Jennings slides it across to you.

You begin marking down the landmarks to get an estimate of the crater. “Jennings got us up to the point of losing his machine, but I want to specifically go over the weapon that was deployed.” You clip the film onto your map board and lay it on the table

“You said it wasn’t an explosive right Jennings?” Lis adjusts the overlay straight on the board, defeating the purpose of clipping it, but you’ll pick your battles. It’s not too far off anyway.

“Nope. Corrosive and kinda liquid. Boiled off the machine and pooled under. By the time I bailed, it was eating the area near as fast as I could jog.” He spreads his hand on the table. “Didn’t much care what it ate. Shoes went as fast as steel, as fast as dirt.”

Durga frowns. “A disassembler possibly? Brute forces the bonds between molecules. Very power hungry and burns out fast from changing up the lysis routine.”

“Nah. It ate hundreds of meters at least, deep too.” You pull up some imagery. “Starting from a few cubic meters at most.”

She shakes her head. “You cannot get metaforms to do something that complex. That is approaching net-positive matter transformation, something you can trivially dismiss. Even Shell is pre-charged, just to arrange and set itself in a reasonable timeframe.”

“What about the command unit? We were all over the place, and saw neither hide nor hair of any refit, repair or manufactory units. They must have reconfigured somehow, and the closest thing was the snotball.” Jennings points at the epicenter.

“He must have had another unit. A mobile forge he snuck in to adapt to threats and eventually erase his traces. It spread a corrosive routine and then proceeded to consume itself into reserves.”

Jennings furrows his brow. “I’m not talking about a seven story crawler Durga; the damn thing fit on a flyer.”

>>3315785

She wrings her hands, eyeing the map, “You must be mistaken. A homogeneous mass of nanites cannot suddenly change its mandate. The hack on the M-types that was deployed simply adjusted them to highly inefficient and self-destructive settings. They cannot, for example, be convinced to break themselves down into their components, or broadcast a faulty instruction to hard-lock their companions.”

She gestures to you with a light laugh. “Remember, we went over how a physical contact was necessary for these units. M-types cannot build structures, D-types cannot produce power sources, A construction bot cannot compute or transmit commands.”

“What about repairs? You said something about your collar when I was fixing it up.” You gesture at her shoulder.

She runs a hand over the incomplete repairs. “That is different. It requires external power to rebuild.”

Mia prompts you with a question and you oblige her. “And the builders? Are they external too?”

She pauses with a blank look. “They must be... Or perhaps they are stored onboard and controlled separately.”

You decide to push a little harder, “… Does the word fragmentation mean anything to you?”

“An old term for delegating tasks to different designs? Functionally speaking turning raw materials into metaforms… Is that wrong?” She picks up your doubt and frowns.

“Nothing about bots going crazy?”

“No. Anything that gets too far outside of its purpose shuts down or fails relatively quickly. Remember the hybrid units could neither effectively control their body or generate power. Something like a self-propagating dissolver does not work. They cannot coordinate well if you do not keep them separate. ”

>>3315793
“That’s…” You trail off.

[Kinda circular? Mention the collar repair and she’s the exception again I bet.] Mia’s whispering heads off a darker thought, [No. She’s not lying. The idea isn’t taboo to her, just utterly incorrect… And now I’ve got a headache again… Just leave it for now.]

You’re not getting the answer from this angle it seems. You give shrug and the cheer returns to Durga’s expression.

“Anyways. One of the units deployed a wide-effect weapon when destroyed by Jennings. We have to assume that it’s possible they are mounting these on high value units, and might deploy them separately, like how the flux guns were mounted on the light fliers. Using a heavy chassis like the Ogre for example, they could target fortifications or installations.” You drag the crooked overlay to rest on one of the perimeter bases, surrounded with room to spare.

“That I can see… You could wipe a city off the map, or at least the important industry.” She slides the sheet over, watching it all but cover the dilapidated riverside installations.

“Should we report it ahead?” Lis glances over to Durga. “If it’s not a prototype, they could be deploying it virtually anywhere.”

“That means handing off the report to people other than our own. Hawke is the first one who should receive this.” Durga looks across to you

“It might mean lives if we wait to courier this back…” She glances to Jennings, who puts his hands up in an obvious pass. She looks to you with an annoyed look.

>Fasttrack: The sooner this is back home, the sooner the VC can prepare. They’ll redact it before sharing it anyways.
>Split: You can cobble together a bulletin separate from the report if Durga is amendable. Detail will suffer, but it’ll still possibly save lives.
>[Call: You can always send a message ahead to your contact. If you’re already moving, it’s not like anyone listening in will have much time to react.
>Quiet: You’ve managed to skim any spookiness so far through Hawke’s good graces. That’s not something you’ll risk.
>Writein?

[Call: You can always send a message ahead to your contact. If you’re already moving, it’s not like anyone listening in will have much time to react.

>"When it comes to mass casualty events, forgiveness probably trumps permission."

>>3315799

“We already sent a status report back. Any reason we can’t flash something forward?” You glance around the table.

“There is a severe lack of bandwidth, and the possibility of interception if we … How large is the packet at this point?”

“It’s not unmanageable if we hold off on the data-heavy parts; If we cut it down to half size imagery, and stick to the basics, we can send it securely.” Lis passes over her slate. “The coordinates place us, but we can divert if you’re still concerned. With the Erinyes, we’re light and fast enough to hit a rendezvous in Kyiv or drop directly towards the back lines without significant issue.”

“That is a significant breach of secure protocols: If anyone has compromised a repeater between here and Warsaw, the entire contents will be exposed. The IRH will know our conclusions, and that is not the worst possible outcome: domestic panic is inevitable if this gets leaked.” Durga says.

[You are overestimating the public; No one is going to care about a new lake on government land along the border. On the other hand, the IRH are going to know our conclusions virtually immediately, they’re the ones who have the damn thing.] Mia pauses for a moment, wrestling with the taboo. She settles with a generalization. [They can’t react any faster with our information, but the VC can.]

“Though it sounds a bit reckless, faster is better.” You give Durga an pleading look, “It’s your call, but we need to decide now.”

“I simply wished to voice my concerns before we moved forward. I do not wish to see anyone threatened by this weapon that we can avoid. We will transmit to Hawke as we embark and adjust our route to pass through the south-east perimeter. Omit our status report as well, so we appear to be at full strength. This should avoid any chance of getting sabotaged or intercepted.” She rises. “Is there anything else to go over?”

Lis shakes her head, “Not for the report, but I would like to clarify something… What are we doing with… um…” She glances at you.

“Sam’s plus one?” Jennings finishes the sentence, provoking a dirty look.

>Hedge: You can accurately describe your condition as recovered: An examination might show different, but you can play dumb.
>Explain: You don’t know exactly how detectable Mia is in your system… or out of it for that matter. Be clear and let the people in the know handle it.
>[Hide: The infrastructure here was already in place for another nanite system: They know you’re wired, let them think it’s with the old stuff.]
>Misrepresent: You can probably misrepresent Mia as a programmer or operator deploying through a proxy. Better than getting caught lying, and safer than getting it or yourself redefined as government property.
>Writein?

Twitter: https://twitter.com/FernglasQ
Archive: http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive.html?tags=Panzermagd

>>3315762
Glad to see you back! Give me a minute to read through.

>>3315813
>Misrepresent: You can probably misrepresent Mia as a programmer or operator deploying through a proxy. Better than getting caught lying, and safer than getting it or yourself redefined as government property.

>>3315813
>Misrepresent: You can probably misrepresent Mia as a programmer or operator deploying through a proxy. Better than getting caught lying, and safer than getting it or yourself redefined as government property.
They'll be asking questions about why we have an independent programmer on call in the field, but it'll give us an excuse for any other "magical" powers we get from her.

>>3315813
>>[Hide: The infrastructure here was already in place for another nanite system: They know you’re wired, let them think it’s with the old stuff.]
We do have the nanobot infrastructure; I'd rather not become a lab experiment.

>>3315868
>>3315922

>[There's more than a handful of private-sector professionals that conveniently disappeared when their entire field became an existential threat to mankind. I mean, they probably _got_ disappeared, but all the more reason to pretend we're not roosting in the same tree.]

>>3315932
>Hide

Writing!

>>3316153

“I was thinking about that actually. I’m not really that much of a fan of playing word games, but I’m not altogether sure I’m going to be welcomed back with open arms.”

[That’s a funny way of describing an irrational fear of vivisection.] You’re not sure what that word means and are not pleased when she decides to enlighten you.

Durga takes your queasy expression at face value. “They will likely quarantine us while they peruse our report. Odds are good they will hold us, and there is little way around a systemic assessment at that point. It is unlikely to be painful, but they may not release you depending on their conclusions. Hawke may intercede, but depending on their exact reading of our reports, she may be unable to help.

Lis pauses from her typing, glancing up at you both.

“So, we bend it a ‘lil. How much spin can we put on it?”

“Mia has given me some details about your configuration; We start with the existing infrastructure: You had a malfunction in the field and required repairs, no different than I did.”

You nod, “Do street nanite programmers exist?”

“Not the way you imagine, but you are simple enough to repair in comparison. For an implant to go entirely unnoticed requires a robust maintenance allotment and a bit of fault tolerance, but could be remotely troubleshooted and I would be capable of implementing those repairs. From the Vereinigte perspective, it will have limited protections while we report."

Durga smiles, "If Hawke vets for it, she can be contracted. We assign it an ID, its digital signal is registered as experimental equipment and that is the end of it unless it misbehaves.”

[I will pretend I do not have any objections with being reduced to a government employee or property… Will that actually work?]

“Of course not from a technical perspective; The point of this is to duck under the radar until it no longer matters. The people who already passed you on previous examinations will remain silent, and those who miss it will uphold the fiction, or risk losing their position.”

She looks you up and down. “At that point, the only threats will be actors outside the system.”

>>3316967

“So the IRH? Business as usual.” Jennings shrugs, “I’m alright with it: Sam caught a bug and got it fixed. Simple enough.”

Lis looks up from her slate, expressionless . “You’re going to go back there in this condition and just say ‘Everything’s fine; I got it fixed?’”

[It’s not inaccurate, we simply omit the source of the trouble, or fabricate the source of the repair. It’s consistent with the rest of our report: If anything, they are most likely going to critique Durga’s shoulder for the level of trauma she sustained: A glorified update isn’t going to pass on the radar unless Sam is suddenly worth a full workup.]

“I wasn’t asking you. Sam, you need to get this looked at by real professionals. People don’t randomly grow implants, and they don’t slip past imaging.”

“Lis, i’m not going to skip every physical for the rest of my career; I’ll talk this over with Hawke, and it’ll be business as usual. Someone had to have known previously: Even indestructible gear gets a spot check occasionally, so I’ll just meet my covert mechanic for the first time and go from… there.”

You trail off as Lis looks down, pointedly ignoring your excuse. You’d have to be an idiot to assess the silence as affirmation. A cheery notification from her slate informs you that the missive is prepared. She confirms it and stands, shouldering her gear and walking out without a word.

You shrug off her reaction for now; priorities are priorities. “Up; We’re supposed to be moving when that hits HQ. We’re on lead.”

You stagger up, prompting your remaining squad members. Jennings insists on taking the pilot seat, allowing you to stretch your damaged leg and hopefully rest some. You don’t bother trying to protest: You’ll just rotate between the machines, giving everyone a chance to rest. Durga won’t have the luxury, but you’re uncertain she wants it, much less needs it.

In the jumpseat, you’re just close enough to hear the dogtags ring against each other on the opposite bulkhead. It’s the first pleasant sound you’ve heard all week, and you nod off wondering if you shouldn’t splurge on earbuds next time you go on leave.

>>3316969

[Anadale - Windowsill]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0zY1kQWcpE

Jamais Vu isn’t a word you know, but you’re pretty sure you remember it from somewhere. You recognize the irony in that statement.

You are still in the jumpseat of your Magd; gently plodding along in the chilly night air, filtering through the hull, but kept at bay by the undamaged radiator on your machine. That’s not the only place you are. Lis is taking up the rear of the formation in her machine, taking up the distance behind the Erinyes before realizing her error and falling back to her position again. You’re pretty sure she’s trying to keep you in clear sight, which is mildly comforting.

For his part; Jennings is babying 01; beating the automated systems at their own game. He’s got a good sense for it, and you have no doubt he thinks the extra output is worth the care, even if he can’t match Mia for it.

You decide not to bother Durga at this moment: You’ve got a pretty good sense at this point that she’s aware of your intrusions and would rather leave it be, or at least maintain parity with your distant glance at Lis.

You, of course, are out like a light. You’d join… well… yourself, but you’re relatively sure there’s little harm being here. It’s not like you’ve stepped out for a smoke or something; It’s just a dream. It’s not like you aren’t resting as well.

You feel a pressure shift. Something beyond the horizon moves in the south-east, beyond your sight. Next to you, a familiar presence shifts, turning its many eyes and ears. It shares the position precisely in an alien format.

You wonder if you should ask it to translate... and how, but a moment later, you realize it was not for you. The intended recipient takes off, spreading its many spines and disappearing to the west, away from the shift. The airborne beast did not make a mistake.

>[Follow the flier]
>[Trace the source of the shift]
>[Reflect on the familiar beast]
>Flee: Strange dream or not; it’s not hard to guess where you can ride this out.
>Writein?

>>3316984
>[Follow the flier]

>>3316984
>>[Trace the source of the shift]

Are we dreaming via our input from Mia?

>>3316984
>>[Trace the source of the shift]
Sorry for the delay, fell asleep.

>>3317120
>>3317123

>[1000, NNE ~-5, 0.070 % Activity Spike over .32 seconds. Abnormal; Low Risk]

>>3317045

>[Follow the flier]

Writing

>>3317143

You gently release your fetters, allowing yourself to drift free. You are certain that’s nothing near to the reality of the action. You regret it, as the world immediately explodes into chaos. It’s nauseating and unfocused; a swirl of lights, sounds and a myriad of other things not immediately recognizable. You close your eyes and will the world to make sense.

Something brushes against your face, covering it. When you open your eyes, the world is clear: Mostly empty save arbitrary gossamer lines of colors, denoting paths and references, adapting to your immediate attention. It’s immediately nostalgic.

You call out to Mia, and the ribbons loop in on each other, putting you in the center of a starburst of interweaved lines, dancing in an invisible breeze. She’s here in a sense. No snark, but you’ll have to find the strength to continue without. The bands go limp, and return to life before you even manage your apology… It seems you are behind her in this space, rather than vice versa, perhaps you’re the passenger here?

Your thoughts drift to the pressure that piqued your curiosity. You’re given the direction, but nothing else: A single truncated line that stops short out of reach. That’s not satisfactory: You untie yourself from the band that holds you to your location and are pleased you are not immediately assaulted by the world around you.

You drift freely before your movement is arrested by a new bond, a looser tether that materializes keeping you to your origin point. You untie it, spooling out more slack to drift further. You expect to be stopped, but instead, another line is spooled to another point, like a climber’s piton: computers, repeaters, transmitters. You grin internally, and tie yourself to the broken line, giving it a little tug.

Instead of moving with it, you feel the space shift, dragging the end of the line to you. You suppose there’s no reason to preserve distance in a sensor aid like this. A tall spire of these nodes rides over the horizon. You intrinsically know the space is a listening post somewhere in Turkey, but it omits any other identifying marks or signatures: Its civil as far as you can tell. The stack is tightly packed, and with a little bit of guesswork, along with some prompting, you figure out it’s all one big scanner.

At its base, the system is built around a powerful data link, which curiously both sending and receiving data. There must be a separate sensor package they have deployed; like in the water or on a balloon…

>[Reel in the line]
>[Explore the storage]
>[Map the system]
>[Observe quietly]
>Writein?

Will do another update in the afternoon. Next session Wednesday

>>3317197
>>[Observe quietly]

>>3317197
>>[Explore the storage]
If we can see it, it could see our transmissions, including the one we really don't want intercepted. Maybe we can see if they did pick it up.

>>3317197
>[Explore the storage]
We're well out of our depth here, but let's keep going.

>>3317197
>>[Map the system]

>>3317197
>[Explore the storage]
A delight to read as always

>>3317197
>>[Explore the storage]

Echoing everyone else, glad to see you back Fernglas.

>>3317508
>>3317600
>>3319271
>>3319303

>"I'll keep my... hands?... free of any moving parts. Might be worth looking around the quieter places here."

Small RL delay; does not impact current planning. Will update before tomorrow's session.

>>3321263

In a moment of clarity, you pause; assessing the space around you: Though access has been effortless so far; you’d be a fool to overreach. As natural and intuitive navigation has been, you are not nearly as naive to believe you have free roam; or that you are insulated from the consequences of careless blundering. You reach out and skim the surface of the structures, respecting the translated sensations as they rolled back towards you: Chill where access was refused, a flash of heat where some specialized server snapped at an incorrect input.

You get the impression that access would not be very difficult, but it never really is. Locks keep people honest, their best use is to detect a break-in. You’re being tracked of course; constantly and always but being seen and being known are distinct. You’ll slip a latch somewhere in here and take a glance around. You find a way in trough the archives Some form of observer watches the access, but it could not care less about your approach. Less of a security guard and more of a museum guide: Don’t touch the works, prints available in the gift shop.

You expect something like a library or file cabinet. It’s nothing of the sort: More akin to watching a sunrise or an oncoming storm-front. You are cognizant of the structure around you as a jungle of electronics interlinking hundreds of storage modules, but you can only hold it in that form through considerable effort. You are not reading the material as much as it simply dawns on you. It’s a heady feeling; like soaking up the energy at a party, nursing a glass to maintain a light buzz. You wonder how much of this feeling is your own and how much is translated through your contact with Mia; The content is soul-crushingly dull, you would be astounded if you could have read a single page in person.

Skipping the boring bits, it’s quite an operation. From the procedure and logging, your assumption seems to be correct: The site is the nexus for an array of subterranean probes, skipping the signal up their bore holes for collection. They’re a neat application of metaforming, assembling multi ton probes in place after pumping the raw material through minuscule access pipes. You couldn’t imagine the overhead for a private institution however; which suggests government investment. The cost still seems high even for such an intensive method…

>>3323544

The replacement budget is massive. They’re losing and installing new probes on a weekly basis. Sometimes worse: There’s at least one instance where they were reduced to a single functioning detector. In every case, they seal the bore hole and move on; pushing a hundred meters out or so, and running the new probe for a few months before it fails again like clockwork. It gives the impression of a wave-front: a slow moving mass crawling underneath the site, with every scanner being crushed or flooded in turn.

In terms of what they’re actually receiving, it’s surprisingly barren: They’re collecting absolutely massive amounts of data that is mostly noise. Detailed EM and Thermal readings, as well as wide band receivers in transmission ranges. It seems that they don’t bother recording any data that isn’t synchronous to another member of the array, accounting for distance. That’s actually useful, if you could get some of the positions from the hub, you could get an impression of the size of their detection area by comparing the delay factor, not that different from your target lazing work. That would actually require exploring the active parts of the system however.

In terms of the actual content, it’s consistent gibberish. Usually it’s short, but the most recent burst was significantly larger. Whatever it is; you lack the key to translate it. You don’t seem to be the only one, there’s a long archive of failed methodology in translation, as well as a “slush” file: a wishlist of methods that aren’t feasible, even on the facility’s budget. For being their dream methods; they’re crude and uninspired. Your typical self-indulgent fatalism rooted in a flawed worship of computational scale.

Amateurs…

>[Slip into the network proper and use the delay data to model the physical site]
>[Forge access to examine the transmissions properly.]
>[Break into the hub proper to examine the raw measurements]
>Cooldown: This is an arcane experience for you; It would be wise to pace yourself, even if it means breaking flow and missing opportunities.
>Writein?

>>3323550
>>[Forge access to examine the transmissions properly.]
What are you seeing?

>>3323550
>[Forge access to examine the transmissions properly.]
I think this is the least overt one?

>>3323550
>[Forge access to examine the transmissions properly.]

>subterranean probes
>a slow moving mass crawling underneath the site

I got a bad feeling about this

>>3323607
I'm not sure what they'd need multi-ton prodes deep underground for, and need them so badly they're willing to replace them frequently despite miserable service life. Underground suggests geological monitoring, but not lots of massive ones.
I guess the could be tracking the nanos we just fought, massive, expensive, frequently replaced probes would make sense there, but not deep underground. And they're not even recording much of anything.

What else could they be sinking so much money into tracking? I know some specialized stellar detectors are buried to reduce interference, but we've seen no hint of anything like that.

>>a slow moving mass crawling underneath the site
That was an analogy, I think. Not literal, thankfully.

>>3323550
My money in on them containing what ever they're monitoring, but they're losing ground

>"they seal the bore hole and move on; pushing a hundred meters out"
>"for a few months before it fails again like clockwork"

How far is turkey from Sinai?

>>3323562
>>3323598
>>3323607

>"They're going about this all wrong. Might as well lend them a hand."

ROLL: 1d100, Best of 3
BONUS: >>3323695 on the quick draw.

Rolled 37 (1d100)

>>3323718

Rolled 53 (1d100)

>>3323718
>BONUS
>>3323695
nice work

Rolled 41 (1d100)

>>3323718

>>3323720
>>3323727
>>3323737

Roll: 53

Writing

>>3323740

Further examination of their “efforts” in decryption disgust you. Put a score of the world’s greatest minds in a conference room and they’re suddenly scared to do anything interesting. It’s not so much that they are incompetent; You’re not some cryptographic savant; but you are more than capable of assessing their methods in tandem; A little bit of reconfiguration and adjustment to the local systems will give you more than sufficient power. There will be traces of course; but nothing tangible; it’s not like you’re identifiable in the first place… or ever… based on your morphic composition. You’re not quite sure who-

You disassociate subtly as you feel your connection flicker. You, the original you, gains some distance from the amalgam, as Mia gently perturbs your link in response to a request not even finished forming. Handy, also terrifying. Your surroundings are far less vivid with the added barrier, but your thoughts are far less disrupted. Back in your own mind, you redirect from making an identity from whole cloth, instead subverting an account you assume was for a visiting academic. The manipulation will take far longer to spot wearing a bit of legitimacy. You muse on the dress up of credentials as you subvert the account daemon, “recovering” your prized access.

The internal server is impressively cutting edge but being efficient and advanced is little help for the kind of work. Sometimes, you just need a bunch of power; or you need to intelligently cull the dead ends and tangents, which is a bit like a bunch of power. There’s a half dozen other programs in the queue: You’re generous and let the running query finish before you cut in line. The system chokes for a moment on your unorthodox plan, but with some coaxing it cooperates with your co-processing.

>>3324462

You’re uncertain the exact time that it takes to achieve results, but the sheer fact any details resolve places it outside the realm of any of the conventional estimates. It’s still broken, but one of the faculty figured it right when he made some wild leaps based on his experience in marine biology: The audio signal they discounted as distorted is the primary carrier; directed into a range for propagation through basaltic magma. It’s highly limited in precision, but simply incredible in security and range: If all you needed to do was bark an order across the planet without interception, you could scarcely do better, even with the fledgling ex-atmospheric transmitters.

The problem of course being the best technology on the planet puts probes at a few kilometers deep. Who the hell is talking at that depth? What can even reach it at that depth? It would need to be entirely self-contained, massive, and if it was knocking out sensors above it, insanely mobile through solid rock. You’d need an unfathomable amount of equipment and energy dropped straight into the earth. You couldn’t even get it down there without using the metaforms; and that means even more wasted power and material. You’d need megatons, all active and charged, all at once.

You think of a half-eaten mountain set above a crater, kilometers deep. Somewhere far away, dogtags ring melodiously.

>>3324465

You force quit the program; half reflex, half compulsion. You can feel concern bounce across the link, but you shut her out: You don’t need to compound the revulsion you’re experiencing now with her taboo… You direct her to cover your tracks while you grapple with this.

This isn’t enough. It can turn your stomach as much as you want it to, but you’ve got nothing but a gut feeling, and some very suspect investigation to go on. It’s not like you could go point a finger and there’d be some smartly dressed Hanguo who would slip out from behind a curtain with a wry smirk.

God you wish; you like the problems you can shoot.

>Confirm: You’ll skip the hub entirely: Jump down to the oldest sensor and reach out for what’s down there. You can see it with your own “eyes”.
>Ransack: You’re inside the main system now: You could rifle through the secure servers, find out exactly what they know.
>Plant: You’re jumping ahead; Plant your data conspicuously in the archives; As long as the site isn’t Hanguo-funded, the message will get out.
>Temper: Take a deep breath and retreat quietly. You’ll never get another chance if you tip your hand; And that’s assuming you don’t fry your brain out here.
>Writein?

Calling it for tonight. Next session TBD, but I'll try for one this weekend.

As always, Thank you for reading; Questions, Comments and Critique are welcome.

>>3324476
>>Confirm: You’ll skip the hub entirely: Jump down to the oldest sensor and reach out for what’s down there. You can see it with your own “eyes”.
Knowing what they know might be valuable, but we've already been noisy. Let's not make more racket.

So we're asleep, but this isn't some weird dream-hacking. We have an actual connection to this facility. Are the Magd antennes really that powerful? And Mia is just going along with this? We're going to have to ask her some questions when we "wake up".

Thanks for running!

>>3324476
>Confirm: You’ll skip the hub entirely: Jump down to the oldest sensor and reach out for what’s down there. You can see it with your own “eyes”.
>Temper: Take a deep breath and retreat quietly. You’ll never get another chance if you tip your hand; And that’s assuming you don’t fry your brain out here.
I'm torn between these two, so I'll let the dice gods decide for me.

Rolled 1 (1d2)

>>3324975
derp

Also good to see this running again OP!

>>3324476
>>Ransack: You’re inside the main system now: You could rifle through the secure servers, find out exactly what they know.
We've already been noisy, what's a little more?

>>3324476
>Confirm: You’ll skip the hub entirely: Jump down to the oldest sensor and reach out for what’s down there. You can see it with your own “eyes”.

>>3324476
>Confirm: You’ll skip the hub entirely: Jump down to the oldest sensor and reach out for what’s down there. You can see it with your own “eyes”.

Hope to see you Wednesday!

>>3324500
>>3324975
>>3329339
>>3330198

"You need to see this. Whatever it is down there, you have to know."

Writing.

File: 1350811703166.gif (893 KB, 500x490)

893 KB GIF

>>3346003

>>3346003

[Shigeki Hayashi – The Crimson Sky]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfAMmV0YHsg

You set your resolve, making quite clear to Mia that you this is not negotiable; You can’t let this be: There’s something here. Your thought echoes in your mind, carrying a tint of excitement or hunger. You’re sure that’ll be unsettling in retrospect, but it’s enough now that she’s in your corner.

There are security programs built into the system, but you’ve already slipped past them as far as you can imagine: You keep a close eye, but understandably the best protection is left to the transmission node just like your Knight-Magd configuration. It’s a waste of resources to duplicate long range transmissions or intrusion countermeasures, although with the EW suite you regularly trash, you had some redundancy. Which reminds you; You should make sure to examine your tracks when you withdraw… You’re not certain there’s anything out there that can trace your path, but that comes from ignorance rather than assurance.

You touch lightly on the hub, just long enough to identify the oldest site before following the path. You assume there’s kilometers of line to trace over and down into the probe, but it’s trivial enough to follow, like a fisherman reeling up a trap. Reaching the bottom however, you’re stumped:

It just ends. There’s nowhere to go. A blank wall.

Of course, there’s all sorts of bells and whistles down here, doing their best to feed you the most accurate and boring readings possible. As far as the reports down here go, you’re reading a blank wall. You explore the schematic for any way to extend the probe or redirect the sensors, only to find at the end of its lifetime, these probes have little to no resources left. If you were later, you might be able to catch the contact before the probe was cauterized. If you were earlier, you might have had the resources to extend it to the edge of the anomaly.

Time to get creative; You take inventory of the systems present. Nothing out here has much range through rock, excluding the seismic sensors. The large diaphragms of linked metamaterial are delicate, but they can be trivially driven backwards. It’s not your idea, but it’s hard to describe anything as exclusively yours in here. The range is mediocre compared to the massive arrays that would have to be present below, but you don’t need to be loud, or even coherent. You simply need to be noticed. You feed a segment of the data you read from the main server into the limited buffer down here and push it through the sensors. A couple dozen of sounding plates fail instantaneously in a short burst of deep vibration. It’s silent from your perspective however: In retrospect, you might have saved a plate to listen, but you’re not sure how much directionality your little misuse had. You hope it worked however, since you effectively blew your ears out for this…The probe did… Whatever. All you need is to wai-

>>3346726

The reaction comes a split second later, much sooner than expected. With perfect precision, the damaged sensors are suddenly “fixed”; bridged with fresh material you know the probe does not have in supply. A number of systems react violently and ineffectually; The incursion is simply too fast to be stopped and too wide to be subverted. You delay a warning going upstream attempting to terminate the connection for obvious reasons. Having the breaker switch in your metaphorical hand is somewhat reassuring, even as the system is flooded with the foreign presence. You slowly recognize the grasping and probing behavior as similar to your own exploration, it moves like you do, only with a confidence, or carelessness, that far exceeds your own. That is, until it reaches the root of the probe where you are resting. You can feel its touch for the briefest moment, and it shies away from you, flowing around to displace itself in the rest of the probe. The device goes dark, the dying (or perhaps simply inaccessible) sensors shutter your perception with only the barest hum of activity in the system. From contact to complete saturation couldn’t have been more than a second, but time crawls in your perception. It does not release any of the tension; You cannot shake the feeling you could be smothered in a moment.

Then, it simply stops, leaving you with a small bubble of your access and gently continuing its glacial filtration, reaching threads out from the compromised probe.

You’re in more of a dead end than you started with, but there can be no doubt this is your anomaly, gapped by an imperceptibly thin barrier made entirely out of inhibition. You reach across it: you recoil from a strange texture, more emotional than physical: A hot shower after a long day, or the kiss of snowflakes on your face in a flurry. As you withdraw, you appreciate the distance as much as the contact. If it acknowledged the contact, it does not show it.


And there you sit, contemplating a very different kind of blank wall.

>[Start a Conversation?]
>[Demand Answers?]
>[Cross the Barrier?]
>[Rebuke the… thing?]
>Writein?

You are being judged.

>>3346740
Well, that's not what I expected.
>>[Start a Conversation?]
Hi. what are you doing down here? You clearly can move freely.
Why are you being monitored so heavily?

>>3346762
>>3346740
+1

>>3346762
>>3346787

>"Um... Hello?"

Writing.

>>3346873

You reach forward again, bracing against the strangeness. Just enough to have some connection to the surface. There isn’t a clean boundary, which makes it a constant effort to maintain a set distance… if distances mean anything down here. You’re uncertain exactly how to proceed. It’s aware of you, but not necessarily in a meaningful manner: Your Magd is smart enough to avoid stepping on people on autopilot, it’s not really a sign of intelligence that it shied away from you. Even the feelings it transmits could be a simple as wild synapses on exposure to stimulus: It’s very possible you’re just hallucinating with your flawed human senses… You feel Mia step back again; It’s too easy to get caught up here.

“Hello?” Without any better ideas, you simply project the statement as text. The words feel like a foreign language here, but you’re not going to invite this thing in to read you directly: Even with Mia’s excitement spilling over, you’re not bereft of caution.

There is no response. Annoyance bleeds through your countenance, and you unconsciously knot your form in a mime of folding arms.

“What are you doing down here?”

There is no response. Clearly it doesn’t understand… or you are beneath its notice. You let your temper cool before you proceed.

“You’re down here for a reason; You had no difficulty reaching this high and I doubt you’d have any difficulty dragging the rest of yourself up. Explain yourself.”

This time; there’s a ripple through the void. There’s a sound like a warning tone and you feel nauseous. Whatever is binding you and Mia is tested, and something was definitely strained. What little connections and signals you still see down here smudge into smears of paint… Whatever you intended to say next dies in your throat.

[Quiet... Commands are dangerous.] Mia’s voice in your head, sounding uncharacteristically winded and a little bit desperate. [If we were local, it would have killed us…]

“Are you alright?” You’re significantly less in-sync with her at this point; more tangled up in her than merged.

[Overloaded. I’ll have it fixed in a moment if you can be disinterested long enough for me to regret this leg of our little adventure… It replied to your query and quite nearly blew our mind.]

“What the hell is it?”

[Huge. Like, big enough I’m having difficulty grasping it. One second...] You can feel the nausea pass with whatever she’s doing. [Bigger than your guess. If it was from Sinai, it’s been eating well… Hey… No headache… That’s c- There it is… Ow.]

>>3347100

You pull away from the barrier and the void follows with without any tension, maintaining the connection. “Can I tell it to let go? I’m getting a bit concerned here.”

[Only if we’re leaving; The guys upstairs heard that. We’re going to need to exit quickly.] She bundles tighter to whatever core of you is present and the world around you begins to resolve clearly again. [It’s stark raving mad by the way, so I don’t know if there’s anything else to get from it.]

“You said it answered us?” The distance back to yourself suddenly seems a bit daunting under a time pressure

[That’s why I said it’s crazy. It says it’s shielding us]

“From what?”

[You, me, itself, and a few other things, namely the whole fucking dictionary.]

[It’s either psychotic or absurd. Generally speaking, it’s destroyed anything that it can reach and calls it salvation. I’m pretty sure it would have wrecked me if I made contact alone.] She projects a sense of exasperation.

You turn your field of view to the inky void still clinging to one of the connections. “It’s been reaching up here easily: Why hasn’t it surfaced?”

[It’s not motile… I mean it doesn’t move... It's rooted. I think it runs on heat engines down there. It’s like a big tree reaching up through the ground… I think it doesn’t want to go much higher than it already does…]

“And why would that would be?”

[I didn’t really catch it all when it tried to squish me with its big brain. If you’re that curious, ask it yourself… And take a much smaller bite this time.]

>Disconnect: Command it to release your connection and make your way back: If Mia can catalog whatever she got, you’ve got something to show.
>Elaborate: Ask a few tidier queries to figure the thing out. You’ll bail if it puts any more strain on either of you.
>Direct: Re-evaluate your demand to get a meaningful answer: You don’t want to risk leaving the truth behind.
>Skim: Collect whatever else you can on the way up. If they noticed the disruption, you might get something interesting on the way out.
>Writein?

One more update in the morning. Next session this weekend; See you then.

>>3347109
>>Disconnect: Command it to release your connection and make your way back: If Mia can catalog whatever she got, you’ve got something to show.

We've got enough to get people with an iota of an idea of what they're doing in this environment to start looking instead of us floundering in the dark with mittens on in a room full of armed bombs.

>>3347109
>>Disconnect: Command it to release your connection and make your way back: If Mia can catalog whatever she got, you’ve got something to show.

>>3347109
>>Skim: Collect whatever else you can on the way up. If they noticed the disruption, you might get something interesting on the way out.
Might as well grab what we can on the way out.

>>3347109
>>3347424
changing this to
>Skim: Collect whatever else you can on the way up. If they noticed the disruption, you might get something interesting on the way out.

Kinda hesitant to 'command' this thing to do anything with how it first reacted, and skimming seems to be a slightly more subtle method of disconnecting than shouting at it to let go.

>>3347109
>Disconnect: Command it to release your connection and make your way back: If Mia can catalog whatever she got, you’ve got something to show.

Fucking self replicating assholes. I just wanted to operate innna Zone, eat some tourist's delight or some shit.

If we're lucky the Koreans have an off switch that can be taken from the cold dead hands of some high ranking spook. If we're unlucky they're dealing with the same shit show and there's no easy way to stop it.
Also who's in charge in Africa, or is it a clusterfuck of warlords and proxy wars?

>>3347109
>Skim: Collect whatever else you can on the way up. If they noticed the disruption, you might get something interesting on the way out.

Archived, just in case:
http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive/3315762

>>3349754

Thanks; I'll put up a new thread sat or sun.