>>5770776

It's been a couple of days since you cleared out the hospital and made your deal with the Doctor.
A few things have happened since then. Some of them good, others a bit frustrating.

First off, you haven't seen hide nor hair of the Federation since they ran on you.
You'd expected them to come back with a fleet right away, or maybe try to take you off guard after sending a message back home, but nothing's happened.

It's suspicious.

Of course, you're in the middle of fucking nowhere out here. It could just be that it's taking them a while to put together a fleet and get it all the way over here.
But the fact that you don't know isn't doing you any favors. You've had your asshole clenched for long enough that you're expecting to shit diamonds later.

Then there's Elynderr, the station's ex-administrative head.
You have a bit of a petty grudge against him since he decided to try and fuck you not long after you arrived on this station, and you haven't forgiven him for that.

Vex managed to prevent him from escaping the station in a small, hidden craft, and together with a couple of Gron's team members, managed to capture him.
He's currently chained up on Gron's ship, the Star-Fall.

You've been wanting to pay him a beating... er, a visit, rather, for a while now. But honestly speaking, it's low priority.

Higher in priority would be the station's defenses. They were damaged by Chell, a Fed Cyborg that you fought when trying to take control of the station's auxiliary security room.
The stupid bastard had an EMP generator hidden in his body, and set it off right next to all the control panels.

It took a while to get those repaired. You ended up having to print new circuit boards for several of them.

Then there's Chell himself. You had wanted Nena to try and infiltrate his mind, to gather information you could use against the fed ships waiting outside.
But then, not only did the ships dip out before you could make use of it, you ended up not getting that information at all.

It's been days, and Chell still hasn't woken up. Nena is unresponsive as well, although her Black Box is still warm, indicating that she's both alive and working on something.

Honestly, you're not sure what to do about that.
You're pretty sure you've unlocked some sort of psychic potential within yourself, but every time you've tried to use it, it hasn't really worked.

And any time some weird shit went on, it was usually the influence of some outside force. A wraith, one of the AIs, whatever.
That's it's own whole can of worms. You're pretty sure you're missing bits of memory here and there, despite taking some expensive-ass neuroregenerative medicines.

And of course, besides all that, you still have to deal with the mutants all over the station, and the lack of life support.
With the merchant's quarters as the sole exception, it's hard to get just about anywhere right now due to the mutants, and life support has been offline for quite a while.

It's getting cold.

>>5770777

So with all that in mind, what do you want to tackle first?

>Prepare for the Feds making their inevitable return. You'll feel a lot better once that's done.
>Deal with Elynderr. That'll make you feel a lot better too, and it won't take long.
>The station's defenses still aren't fully online. You'll need to physically patch SHODAN into the main VI matrix at some point to do a system reset.
>Try and figure out what's going on with Chell and Nena. Maybe Illia, Gron's doctor, can help. Or... wasn't one of the other AIs psychic, too?
>Focus on clearing out the mutant population. Starting with sweeping runs using fighter craft and the Metal Gear, then Killbots for cleanup.
>Life support is starting to become an issue. Not so much for you, but everyone else on the station is shivering.
>Write-In?

>>5770778
>Life support is starting to become an issue. Not so much for you, but everyone else on the station is shivering.
Life support is pretty important in space.

>>5770778
>The station's defenses still aren't fully online. You'll need to physically patch SHODAN into the main VI matrix at some point to do a system reset.
If we can get SHODAN's physical body functional again, she can likely do this mostly on her own, with Kyla assisting.
>Try and figure out what's going on with Chell and Nena. Maybe Illia, Gron's doctor, can help. Or... wasn't one of the other AIs psychic, too?
Illia's probably busy with medical stuff, try the AI (Lumi?), I'd say. What's the catboy up to anyway?

There is minimal population on the station right now, we can do localized life support, it'd probably make dealing with mutants easier too, with them either freezing, or massing together and be easy pickings for strafing runs.

>>5770799
Speaking of which, we should start evacuating all non-essential personnel regardless. If we are expecting the hammer to fall on this place soon, there really is not point in keeping civilians around as they'll just become a liability sooner rather than later. They can't make a living here until the place is secure anyway. As it is now, this place is either a fed trap for us, or something to be turned into a trap for the next fed fleet that shows up.
We can't ship the civvies off to Dark Star bases either, there is no telling if there are fed agents with abilities similar to Vex, tracking devices, or other infiltrators mixed in with the civs. It'll have to be a neutral location. We could task a drone ship for this, make several trips if needed, and not be missing too much resources if something unexpected happens.

>>5770778
new and toasty bread!
>The station's defenses still aren't fully online. You'll need to physically patch SHODAN into the main VI matrix at some point to do a system reset.
Defence seems important, and I want to see the extents of the station automation.
>Life support is starting to become an issue. Not so much for you, but everyone else on the station is shivering.
Lifesupport as a very very close second priority, if we can send Kyla there?

>Life support
Most important thing
>mutants everywhere
next to do
>defences third
we have some ships, we are not completely defenceless here

>Life support is starting to become an issue. Not so much for you, but everyone else on the station is shivering.

>>5770811
If multiple things are allowed then I support this.

>>5770811
this>>5770778

>>5770778
>Focus on clearing out the mutant population. Starting with sweeping runs using fighter craft and the Metal Gear, then Killbots for cleanup.

Life support iss important but these things are deadly.

>>5770778
>>Life support is starting to become an issue. Not so much for you, but everyone else on the station is shivering.

>>5770778
>>Life support is starting to become an issue. Not so much for you, but everyone else on the station is shivering.
Let's make sure the prey species don't up and freeze to death before we get anything else done.

>>5770777

The most important thing to deal with right now, you figure, is life support.
There isn't much point capturing a station if it's frozen over and nobody can actually live there.

There's a few problems with that, though.

Actually turning the life support back on isn't an issue. In fact, you've already found the life support facility and attempted to do so.
The problem here is that the station itself was powered mainly by antimatter, and all of that antimatter generators used in critical facilities has been taken and shipped off already.

You quite simply don't have anything to replace it on short notice, which leaves you in a bit of a pickle.

Life support... life support...
Yeah, who's life are you supporting, exactly? The mutants? No, it's just the people in the survivor's camp.
And maybe, theoretically, anyone else who survived and is in hiding, you guess. You can't bring yourself to worry too terribly much about that, though.

For the moment, you just need to keep a few hundred people alive. And by alive, you mean warm.
The station isn't going to run out of oxygen or water any time soon, it's just getting colder. If you could insulate a few of these buildings, it would be easier to heat them than the entire station.

That would give you more time to resolve the issue. The station's cooling will slow down over time as there's less heat to radiate in the first place, so it should take a long time for the atmosphere to condense.
Then again, you'd argue if the atmosphere starts condensing you're already kind of fucked. If it gets below freezing in here, every pipe on the station is going to bust.

So there's a couple ways you could go about this. And it would probably be best to split things into the short term and long term.

In the short term... you could steal the antimatter bottles from the gravity generator and use those for life support instead.
Or alternatively, you could give up on station-wide life support short term, and heat a few buildings instead.

And in the long term, you'll need a way to generate power. It doesn't matter how, but your options are limited.
You could try using solar panels, but you don't know how much surface area you'd need. It would be a lot though, and production of basically anything else would be halted while you made them.
It would also be less of a panel and more of a sail, you think. Reducing the sheer mass and volume of material is important when it comes to printing on a fab. It'll be pretty fragile in that case, though.

Alternatively, you could attempt to use fusion power.
The downsides are that you don't know shit about fusion, so you'd be relying on pre-existing blueprints... and you'd also be consuming some amount of material all the time.
Or you could do what you've been planning to do for the carrier this whole time. SHODAN already has the blueprints ready, you'd just have to scale them.

Yeah, it wouldn't take that long to ship enough uranium out here to build a nuclear reactor.

>>5771603

Please vote for just one of each category

Short Term
>Steal antimatter from the gravity generators
>Give up and just keep some of the buildings warm
>Write-In?

Long Term
>Attempt to fab a large volume of solar panels and create a solar blanket
>Attempt to use commercially available fusion generator blueprints
>Fuck it, go nuclear. Public sentiment be damned.
>Write-In?

>>5771604
>Give up and just keep some of the buildings warm, but prep the important areas above the living spaces to prevent damage in case we cant heat it up before ruptures occure.
>Fuck it, go nuclear. Public sentiment be damned.
Balls to the wall.

>>5771604
>Give up and keep some of the buildings warm
>Fuck it, dismantle the station and make more than one carrier. MACROSS and/or YAMATO anime style

>>5771678
You have a deal with Gron.
This place is supposed to be their home after all is said and done.

>>5771682
>>5771678
>>5771604
Fuck....
>GIve up
>Attempt to use commercially avaible fusion gen 'prints.

>Attempt to use commercially available fusion generator blueprints

>>5771604
>Give up and just keep some of the buildings warm
>Fuck it, go nuclear. Public sentiment be damned.
How I learned to stop worrying and love the glow

>>5771604
>Steal antimatter from the gravity generators
>Fuck it, go nuclear. Public sentiment be damned.
I would rather not have to repair the shit out of pipes later on. Besides, without gravity a lot of these retard mutants will probably jump out into space and merk themselves.

>>5771604
>Give up and just keep some of the buildings warm
I want those mutants sluggish when we clear them out.
>Fuck it, go nuclear. Public sentiment be damned.
If they're gonna be retarded about nuclear energy, there's not much we can do about it. We're just gonna have to drag them kicking and screaming into the future.

>>5771822
>We're just gonna have to drag them kicking and screaming into the future.
It's a bright future. Better wear sunglasses.

>>5771822
>I want those mutants sluggish when we clear them out.
>>Even though the piping of the ENTIRE station will blow up, the mutants will go crust mode. The hipercatabolic tumours will die as well. Possibly the egg-laying roaches too... nah that's being too positive
Yep, I like this

>>5771604
>Give up and just keep some of the buildings warm

>Attempt to use commercially available fusion generator blueprints
Fusion is objectively better than just nuclear and it doesnt carry the risk of a fed agent trying to make the plant go prompt critical and creating space chernobyl

>>5771857
+1

>>5771822
They already have fusion and its big brother, matter annihilation. They aren't kicking and scraming because we're guiding thrm to a bright future, they're kicking and screaming bcause david is using the worst option of the three nuclear options we have

>>5771857
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPhyY5VZo0E&pp=ygULdGh1bmRlcmZvb3Q%3D

>>5771891
whats your point here? literally the only downside of fusion is that david doesn't know how it works and that scares him

>>5771905
The safety of nuclear power, just don't cut corners and it should be fine can generate lots of energy with very little material and the waste can be reused in other ways to make even more energy.

>>5771919
yes, and even considering that, fusion is objectively better. the ayy reactors have been tested time and time again, they don't have the same radiation issues as the normal nukes and don't run the risk of a sabotage attempt cooking the station from the inside out.

if you want normal nukes just to enrich uranium we can make a different facility just for that, but for energy purposes, fusion is just better

>>5771933
okay +1

>>5771604
>>Give up and just keep some of the buildings warm
>>Fuck it, go nuclear. Public sentiment be damned.
Well, I don't know, what you've been told
Uranium ore's worth more than gold

>>5771604
Short Term
>Give up and just keep some of the buildings warm.

Long Term
>Attempt to use commercially available fusion generator blueprints.

We'll figure it out eventually. Welcome to Hoth.

>>5771604
>Give up and just keep some of the buildings warm
>Fuck it, go nuclear. Public sentiment be damned.
All my homies love nuclear

>>5771604
>>5771620
+1

>>5771604
>Steal antimatter from the gravity generators

>Fuck it, go nuclear. Public sentiment be damned.

>>5771603
>Give up
>Attempt to use commercially available fusion generator blueprints

>>5771604
>Give up and just keep some of the buildings warm
>Attempt to use commercially available fusion generator blueprints
I'd rather not add a meltdown to the list of problems with this facility.

>>5771604
>Swap the bottles over from the grav generator
>See if we can't hook some starship reactors into the station to help things out.
I dont want to deal with having to recipe everywhere
>Fuck it, go nuclear. Public sentiment be damned.
So we are in a pickle, aren't we? The feds know and will be back and the station has no fuel. I kinda want to stay here as long as it takes to build the carrier and no longer then get out of dodge.

>>5771604

After mulling things over for a while and speaking with you Kyla and Sanig on the matter, you decide that it's better to just give up on heating the entire station for now.
If there were a bunch of people still living here then it probably wouldn't be an issue. The amount of energy they'd use day to day would be enough to offset the losses without any special measures.

This station is like a corpse that's gone cold. Throwing a heating blanket over it doesn't really solve the issue.

It'll be a while before you can get the new generators built and installed, even with mostly modular components. Once you do though, it won't be a problem to run life support 24/7.
In the meantime, it's just going to get colder and colder in here. There might be a lot of burst pipes, even if you drain as many of them as possible... but you'll just have to deal with that later.

As for which type of powerplant you'll be building... it's sort of a toss-up between nuclear and fusion.
In the end, what broke it for you is the same thing that did it when you were planning your carrier.

Fusion power isn't radiation-free. It doesn't require radioactive fuel, but it generates enough radiation to damage and weaken the chamber walls over time, meaning they have to be replaced regularly.
It's also fairly fragile, and doesn't necessarily generate a massive quantity of power at once, even with all this damned space tech. It's main benefit is that the fuel is cheap and plentiful, that being water or helium.

But nuclear? Nuclear is like a big ol' diesel engine. It's got some serious grunt.
And as long as the fuel rods are in there and the coolant stays flowing, it just keeps fucking going.

Of course, that could be seen as a positive or a negative, since it actually "just keeps going" regardless of whether the coolant flows or not.

Yeah, the fuel is dangerous. The whole thing is dangerous by it's very nature. Building a large scale facility could definitely be considered playing with fire.
But SHODAN knows how wary you are about the whole thing. She also knows everything you know about general safety and fail-safe modes of failure.

Kyla, Sanig, yourself and especially SHODAN put a lot of work into designing a reactor safe enough to use in a mobile ship. One that won't flood the whole place with radioactive steam if it gets shot at.
It's designed to fail safely in every way possible, and there's at least two or three redundancies for system in place. The only problem is that it's heavy as shit as a result of that and all the shielding, but on a station? It doesn't matter.

Without scaling it up, you reckon four of those reactors would be just enough to bring this station back to life.
The only real question is where to put them. If they're inside then they'd be well protected from micrometeorites and outside attack, but...

Well, you already know the public are going to be pissed if they find out the station has a nuclear reactor at all, no less right next to them.

>>5772636
If it's external or close to the outside it can be made ejectable in case of trouble.

Maybe even weaponized.

>>5772714
the whole thing is weaponized bro
Where do we put it. How about we put it in the hidden super-rich luxury residential? It's a statement we make and everyone will understand. They won't like it, but they will understand it

>>5772734
I meant weaponized in the sense that it can be thrown into a formation of enemy ships by ejecting it not as a last resort suicide attack.
And i don't think there's gonna be a super luxury rich only area for much longer once Gron takes over.

>>5772734
....thats probably one of the best place to put them(or at least 1 of them)

Was the protag inspired by the Nicholas Cage expy in Sunbelt Crusaders Qst?

>>5772636

"Why not put it up in the uh... what'd you call it? The Merchant's Quarters? It's all empty now, and there are ties to all the station's systems up there, too." Kyla suggests.

"I dunno." You sigh, leaning back in your chair. "It's at the very top of the station. If the fuel melted or radioactive water leaked, it could run down into the industrial ward."

"If the damned thing melted down, there wouldn't be any power to the gravity generators anyways." Sanig butts in. "Any water would just pool up around the core."

"Captain, i would suggest considering placing the reactors on the surface of the asteroid. It is perfectly within reason to armor them, and the crust would serve as excellent radiation shielding, even in the case of a meltdown." SHODAN suggests.

"Yeah, but... it feels kinda wrong, exposing them like that. Even if we armor them, they'd be an obvious target. What if they bring big-ass railguns or something?"

"Whipple shields and honeycomb." Kyla states simply, between bites of dodo omelette. "It's a station, we can lay it on thick."

Yeah, that could be a solution.
Whipple shields are a thin layer of sacrificial material used to vaporize an incoming high-speed projectile before it actually reaches the target.
It can even be stuffed with aerogel to make it a bit more effective, and a bit more laser-resistant.

The honeycomb she's referring to is a sort of micrometeorite armor you'd seen in testing back on earth. It's made up of diamond-shaped honeycomb, with the idea being that the projectile always hits the material at an angle.
As it goes through the honeycomb it gets redirected bit by bit, eventually turning around and heading in the direction that it entered from.

Anything that makes it through both of those would either be gigantic, or the result of prolonged bombardment.
And you could still put regular-ass plate steel underneath it all, as thick as you really want.

The problem is, you don't know what an 'Appropriate Response' from the feds really looks like.
They might send a fleet of drones after you again, or they could send something with nastier with a big fucking gun on it.

Or, worst case scenario, they take you seriously and start bombarding the station with antimatter missiles until you're all dead and the station is cracked wide open.

That's fun to think about.

"...SHODAN, have you gotten the math worked out on that fusion stage, yet?" You ask.

"Yes, Captain. The geometry was a bit complicated, but i've run the simulations many times, and it seems to work. I've managed to reduce the size significantly as well."

"How big of a missile are we talking?"

"Considering the short range, it won't be too large. Duranium will be required for the turbopumps and some other components, however."

"Please!" Sanig begs. "No dirty talk at the dinner table! I'm excited enough as it is!"

"...You're not really gonna launch a nuke at them if they show up, are you?" Kyla asks, incredulously.

>>5773446
>"...You're not really gonna launch a nuke at them if they show up, are you?" Kyla asks, incredulously.

Absolutely not, my dear Kyla. We're gonna launch SEVERAL nukes at them if they show up.

>>5773462
I imagine they'd see a missile coming from a mile away. Might be better to have a team go in with a stealth vessel and plant a the warhead instead.

>>5773446
We won't be launching a cluster atomic bomb? fuck off QM

>>5773546
i got an answer for that. nuke mines. although they have their downsides as well.

>>5773546
In space, a nuke doesn't need to make contact to work. Unless you're using a small nuke, you can get a LOT of damage just from the flash of light and radiation from the nuke going off.

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>>5773655
Oh trust me, I know it doesn't need to make contact to do damage. I'm of the opinion that we use micro-nukes as EMP mines for some Captain Keyes type shenanigans.

>>5773667
I like this idea. Can we do this?

>>5773655
The thermal radiation flash would do little to no physical damage to a ship unless at extremely close range, though it and the light would certainly flashbang any sensors. We know the various xenos keel over quick from radiation, but we should look more into how well gamma and neutrons would penetrate Fed battle armour to get at the crew, how to factor in the inverse-square law and the overloading effect radiation has on shields for maximum effect.

>>5773787
wrong thread and board anon

>>5773800
It's a spammer, he did the same thing a few weeks ago to a number of threads.

>>5773446
Nukes behave very differently in vacuum, which may or may not make it less effective against shields. However, you could always do nuclear pumped lasers... Or nuke-steam EFPs.

>>5773861
Reminds me of a weapon from Starsector. It's a nuclear-pumped plasma beam (there's also antimatter in there somewhere, I'm not sure), stuck on a missile. It's used to get around shields and then fuck up the ship behind them because it's coming at a different angle than the ship itself, or it can be used to just crack the shield open because it does a fuckton of damage.

>>5773861
we could do tandem missiles, which would work like a HEAT shell. the first part of the missile penetrates the shield, and the second part penetrates the hull, giving the nuke an atmosphere it can detonate into

>>5773861
Casaba howitzers for everybody!

>>5773446

"Don't be ridiculous, Kyla."

Kyla smiles.

"It's not just a nuke. I'm going to salt it, too."

That smile immediately turns into a frown.

"...David, what does that mean? It doesn't sound good." Cylia asks, still resting her head on the table. She didn't get much sleep last night, and now she's tired.

"Salted as in salting the earth. See, we humans didn't just use one or two nukes. We detonated a bunch of them, so of course we pretty quickly began to consider the environmental impacts."

Cylia sighs roughly and just closes her eyes. You think she stopped listening, but this is still worth saying.

"So we started focusing on minimizing fallout." You continue. "Taking by-products and leftover materials into consideration, along with things like how much dust or water and sand gets sucked into the fireball if you detonate it on the ground or underwater.
But we also thought about what happens if you intentionally go to opposite direction."

"Whoever did this research would have their entire bloodline erased on most planets. To remove whatever genetic defect allowed them to think like this." Sanig states flatly.

"Anyways, normally you'd need cobalt for this sort of thing, because the intention would be to make the soil and groundwater so radioactive that you can't live around the detonation site anymore." You explain.

"Kid, normally you couldn't live there even if a 'clean' nuke had been detonated. There's something wrong with your DNA."

"Yeah, well. That's exactly what i intend to take advantage of. I think we've got a good mix of by-products that will boost the radiation flash by quite a bit. I've told you guys before, haven't i? About what happened to the cargo bay?"

Gildur raises his hand, and swallows his food before he speaks.

"I don't remember, Captain."

"Well, this ship got nuked." You tell him plainly. His eyes widen and he nearly drops his fork. "The radiation overloaded the shields and caused them to feed back into the ship, burning a fat hole in the side of it. Radiation killed the old crew, too."

"But not you, huh?" Sanig says with a smile.

"Eh, i'm sure i took a dose. But apparently the ship released some nanomachines to clean the place up afterwards."

"So that's where they went..." Kyla murmurs.

"Anyways, whether the crew is organic or AI, it won't matter if the radiation dose is high enough. It'll destroy DNA and silicon all the same. Only problem is, we don't have a whole ton of fuel for the first stage." You explain.

"The reactors installed on the station and in the carrier will take care of that in time." SHODAN adds. "But the amount we can gather from natural ore will suffice for now."

"Speaking of reactors, when are the construction crews supposed to get here?" You ask.

"Assuming they left immediately, they should arrive within seventeen hours, Captain."

"Good. Great, even."

You already have a spot picked out for the first reactor. You're gonna put it right on top of Elynderr's mansion.

I wonder if we can look up information on Fission or Fusion which ever one we havent achieved yet as humans.

Hell if its public Fed info then we can take all of it and give it to earth in exchange for goodwill and people to colonise another Earth like planet.

>>5774458
the fusion reactors are publicly available. its just a matter of sending the most basic blueprints to earth and let them figure shit out

>>5774526
It's almost worse than if it was classified fed tech.
Most of the research is publicly available, but every single existing reactor design belongs to some big corporation and is therefore copyrighted.

And a from-scratch fusion plant blueprint is something that's going to take more than one (admittedly very dedicated) Alpha-Class AI to complete within a reasonable timeframe.

Fortunately for you, she's already finished designing a workable (and shenanigans-resistant) nuclear reactor.

>>5774578
Could we reasonably make a knockoff that's just different enough to be its own thing or does Ayy copyright law cover that too?

>>5774667
The problem is that while technically all the scientific data you'd need to make one is available, none of the information on the actual parts are.
They're all encrypted. The nanofabs know how to make them once you buy the blueprint, but it's not possible to simply copy the data.

At best, you could print the parts and try to figure out how they work, but you'd still need to go through piece by piece with skilled engineers and scientists and slowly reverse engineer it.
An unlocked nanofab lets you print anything you want, but you still can't use it to pry open encrypted data. It simply can't read it in the first place, because it doesn't have it's half of the key to begin with, so to speak.

There are numerous nanofabs on the station, but every single one of them is locked down with DRM.
In most cases, this limits them to a single line of items. Be it clothes, solid metal parts, electronics or whatever. There are only certain categories of things they're allowed to make, even though they're capable of more.

The weapons and medical fabs on your ship are also locked. Technically they're not supposed to be make anything but medicine and weapons.
But that only goes for encrypted items. You are the full and proper owner of them, so you can dig into the settings and allow them to make other things.
They still won't make anything outside of their category from any normal, publicly purchased encrypted file, though.

But David and his crew do a lot of their own design work, which is absolutely not the norm.

It's also worth mentioning that forcing a fab to run outside of what it's designed for is generally slower and less efficient in general.
The nanomachines in a fab are pre-programmed to expect one thing, like t-shirts made of normal cloth. And while they are capable of essentially emulating new behavior, they can't truly memorize it.

So when Sanig uses the weapons fab to perform a weird quantum collapse on a number of different elements to create a block of duranium, the nanomachines really, really don't like it.
The machine gets hot, runs slow and causes a fat strain on the user's mind as it tries to figure what the fuck you're trying to make it do.

>>5774578
Why can't we just pirate the design from one of the feddy megacorps? We're already spitting in their face by taking over this station, what's a bit of copyright infringement on top of that?

>>5774736
Quantum-encryption, probably.

>>5774736
I just explained why.
Big dick quantum encryption. On everything.

SHODAN could do it, but even for her it could take months or even years if you're unlucky.

>>5774742
ah, the starsector kind of DRM

>>5774742
>SHODAN could do it, but even for her it could take months or even years if you're unlucky.
Okay so what I am hearing is we need to build some sort of mega-SHODAN...matryoshka waifu here we go!

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>>5774766

>>5774774
SHODAN (scientist), Nena (mother), & Lumi (woman); with the bonus catboy being a whiny bitch.

>>5774148

Well, you'd like to put it there, anyways.
In reality, it's much more likely that the facility will be built out of sheet steel and girders in some flat spot.

Maybe you can just bulldoze his mansion to make that spot flat. That'd be nice.

...

The crews arrive from Thekia after about 19 hours. Not bad time, all things considered.
You spent much of that time flying around in a captured fighter craft, blasting mutants that strayed too near the survivor's camp.

Grandpa gasbag has settled in there quite nicely during the past few days, as apparently he knows a few of the people staying there.
He's taken to cooking for the lot of them since there aren't any food dispensaries in the camp, and all they have for the most part is nutrient paste.

You gave him some of your recipes to try out, and he seems quite happy with them. The people in the camp seem even happier, though. It's got flavor, after all.

Gron's crew have meanwhile returned to their ship and are doing regular patrols around the station, keeping an eye out for any feds trying to slip in. Nothing so far, though.
You did requisition a few of his men for the labor efforts, but it's a drop in the pond compared to the fleet of migrant workers Clank sent you from Thekia's underworld.

Most of those migrants actually came from this very station. Apparently they were happy to hear it had been taken back, but you aren't sure if they know it's still full of mutants or not.
Not that it'll matter. You have killbots defending the only entrance to the merchant's quarters, although the mutants don't seem interested in climbing a skyscraper to get up there in the first place.

The ore skips were the first to arrive, a few hours ahead of everyone else. And they brought your mass-fab with them.

Using the killbots as manual labor, you quickly set up a shielded area in the merchant's quarters using concrete blocks filled with sand, bolted between metal plates.
The workers refused to get anywhere near even the raw uranium ore, which is understandable. From their perspective, even a little radiation can be lethal.

So again, you use killbots to transport the ore over to the fab using metal crates, hoverjacks and a few heavy-haulers that you'd managed to rewire.
All that alone takes the better part of three days, simply because you're working mostly alone. Anything the killbots have to do has to be programmed in by SHODAN, which means taking a trip back to one of the drone ships.

But Sanig manages to come through on the fourth day, as he arrives to the job site with something unexpected.

"What the hell is this?" You ask, as a near-perfect replica of your power armor (sans battle damage) steps out of the back of a heavy-hauler and walks up to you.

"It's a spooky human, oOoOoOoOoOohhh!"

"Oh, very funny, Sanig. So you put a voice synthesizer in that one too, huh?"

"I thought you'd laugh, kid. Come on, i know you're tired, so let us help out a little, huh?"

>>5775287
Did he casually make another power armour!?
Also that made me remember the bent armguard in our left forearm... that part was scary you know? How we were in a ship and there was this super killer bot that was about to kill us, despite the armour

>>5775287
Nice. looks like the old man has the right set up now to make more heavy armor without David's help. Now he just needs to make a heavy siege gun to carry around and a pair of shoulder mounted dumb A'I.'s to fuck around so people find out.

>>5775287

As he says that, three more copies of your power armor all step out of the back of the truck and drop to the ground with a thud.
But you can tell by the sound they make, they aren't nearly as heavy as yours.

"Wait, they're all the same size? That's you guys in there, right?" You ask.

"Yep!" Cylia responds.

"Oh yeah!" Kyla yells gleefully, pumping her fists.

"It's me, Captain..." Gildur waves.

SHODAN's body also steps out of the truck after them. It's been repaired for a while now, but she's been doing a lot of rushed design work and hasn't been available. Mentally speaking.

"Yeah, they're about the same size. Arms and legs are a little different on each, but it's close, for the most part. Gotta make them fit in there somehow." Sanig tells you.

Sanig turns around and shows you his back. Unlike your armor, there's no hiss or water vapor when the seal cracks open. No pressure difference on the inside? Probably just regular station air.
The suit opens up just like yours however, revealing Sanig, still wearing his Mk.2 skinsuit and combat armor, including the helmet.

As he drops down out of the suit, you immediately notice a lot of visible differences compared to your own.
For one, there's very little armor. What's there is plasteel, carbor to be exact. But it's maybe a third as thick as your own titanium armor.

Not only that, but the frame is different as well. It's more skeletonized than yours, and isn't made of the same dark metal as yours.

"No duranium frame?" You ask him.

"Hell no. You know how much effort it takes to make that shit? I thought i was gonna die when we made the one, i'm not doing it again. Probably fry the damned fab if we did, anyhow."

Taking a closer look, the frame seems to be made out of regular steel. Spring steel, maybe. Hard to tell.
The inside of the helmet is... very simple. There's no holographic display, no fiber visor. It's just a regular helmet with a regular glass visor.

Looking up at the back panel that's swung upwards, you note that it seems impossibly thin.

"Where's the antimatter bottle?" You ask, confused.

"Kid, you're the only one who needs a damned antimatter bottle to power your suit. These things are light as a feather in comparison, and the servomotors barely draw anything."

Huh. So they're light, less powerful and much, much less complicated.
...Looks like it does have air conditioning, but it's just a water jacket. The heat must be transferred to the armor.

"Gramps, i don't know... is this really even power armor?" You grumble.

"Nah, it's not. SHODAN called them "exo-suits". Fitting enough, if you ask me."

"I guess. But is this gonna be enough to protect you guys from the radiation?"

You tap on the relatively thin armor, and it rings like a bell. It would just be a dull thud if you knocked on your suit.

"It'll block most of it." He assures you. "But for whatever gets through, we got a little booster shot from the Doc."

"What do you mean?"

"Nanomachines, kid."

>>5775899
nanomachines that can deal with radiation? if you say so...

>>5776763
I'm assuming they're for repairing DNA on-the-fly.

>>5775899
"Nanomachines son"

>>5775899

"I'm gonna need a little more explanation, gramps."

"The medical nanomachines we've been printing have many uses. In this case, they're regulating our DNA. The moment a strand is damaged, they immediately move in to repair it."

So it's not that they're not taking damage, it's just being repaired on the fly.

"Aren't the nanomachines taking damage too, though? What if their programming gets fucked up?" You ask.

You wonder if it's possible for nanomachines to become "cancerous" in a sense. To go rogue.

"Yeah, that does happen sometimes. But they'll repair eachother just like they repair our DNA. So long as less than half of the nanomachines are still functioning properly, they won't go rampant." Sanig explains.

"...What happens if they do go rampant?"

"Depends on what changed. Maybe nothing. Maybe they turn you into a blob of cancer like those mutants out there."

"What about a grey goo scenario?"

Sanig grimaces at the mention of such a thing.

"Yeah... that's always a concern. But not with these. They aren't the same thing that's inside a fabricator. They need ATP from the host body to function, so even if they started going nuts, it would only spread so far."

"What, like... to a single person? Or to a single station?"

"What do you think, kid?"

Yeah, rampant medical nanomachines... that's probably been the end of at least one or two stations in the past. You can easily imagine it.

"Anyways," Sanig continues. "We're here to help out with construction. These suits will do the heavy lifting, and keep us from getting toasted. By the ore, at least. Either you or the killbots will have to handle the purified ore and any pure metal."

"I didn't get one of those booster shots, you know. I'm just eating any radiation i get." You remind him.

"Yeah, but your DNA repairs itself anyways."

"I don't think that makes it better. I can still get cancer, you know."

"So? We have pills for that, it's not like it'll kill you. Now, let's get to work, kid."

Ignoring Sanig's lack of respect for cancer as a disease, you do indeed get to work.
Gron's team have cleared out safe zones across the station in key areas, including metalworking shops with fabricators inside them.

Using those industrial fabs, your construction crews have been able to fabricate the custom reactor parts and ship them over bit by bit. It's going quickly thanks to that.

Meanwhile, you've begun refining the fuel using your unlocked fab, which thus far has been purifying all the ore mined for the construction of your carrier.
It's pretty good at separating pure metal from rock, and fortunately since these were mined from asteroids, there's little to no oxygen mixed in there.

That means things move quickly, and before the day is out you have dozens of pill-shaped pellets of fuel for your reactor, sitting inside individual shielded containers.

Those containers are mainly made out of nickel, since it's basically a waste product of asteroid mining.

>>5777324
Impregnant alien women
Fertilize alien women eggs
Breed xenos
That one Plap Plap get pregnant meme

>>5777374
Put it away Anon

>>5777476
He can't. It doesn't fit in his pants. Or rather he can't. Too fat. Can't even tie a sheet around himself. It's very tragic.

Man I can't wait for Earth.

>>5777742
I imagine our first choices when we get back to Earth are gonna be something like
>grab Mutt and introduce him to Princess
>Acquire David's original campaign hat and his project car for morale bonuses
>pop by Ma and Pa's place for dinner
>Hack into the servers of every government agency we can think of
>Link up with our Special Forces homies for boy's night on the ship

>>5777791
I would love a scene of him looking around and noticing that everything might have gotten a bit smaller, or his first breath of air intoxicates him and he gets a high of oxygen. or he goes to the gym with his friends and benches more than a Ton in weight.

>>5777791
I wanna give Mutt Nanomachine upgrades.....and introduce him to our women whom he will be getting belly rubs from.
>pop by Ma and Pa'l place for dinner
>Introduce our girlfriends
>Tell them he's working on kids
>Explain nothing
>>5777799
Digits proclaim David will get high on Earth Life and fuck political parasites and Israel sideways.

>>5777799
>Implying David didn't have a bunch of old scrap he welded together as a home gym
Watch David bust out an absurd amount of reps on a truck axle with some fatass tires on either side.

>>5777324
>Current cancer treatment is to blast the patient with poison untill the cancer gives in first.
Yeah, Sanig doesn't know what a good 'ol earth cancer treatment is

File: 1695242334992959.gif (1.81 MB, 498x586)

1.81 MB GIF

>>5777374

>>5777324

The shielded fuel pellets aren't individually that radioactive, but once you load them into the feed mechanism, a pneumatic machine will remove them from their shielding and load them into the reactor core.
Once enough of them are loaded up into the shape of a rod, they'll begin to fission.

Graphite wedges are used to adjust the distance between the fuel pellets, allowing for instantaneous control of power at any point along the fuel stack.
Multiple sensors are used to determine hot spots in the stack and adjust accordingly, allowing the reactor to run very near to it's maximum output constantly.

Pneumatics are used for the sake of simplicity. Radiation can't really damage a tube full of high pressure air, nor can it really fail due to wear. It'll even continue to function without power, at least for a while.
Likewise, simple analog machines are used near the core instead of anything with electronics. Both to prevent damage due to radiation, and to ensure that they won't be affected during a wraith attack.

The whole design is as modular as possible, with individual components and even entire segments being removable and replaceable, many of them without any tools.
Having gone through countless simulations, SHODAN is aware of practically any and all possible failure states, and the instructions for dealing with them are etched directly onto the machines themselves, and their surroundings.

It still makes you a little nervous, honestly. Hearing that counter on your belt ticking away as you work with the ore and the fuel pellets, it triggers something in your brain that simply tells you to stop.
But you know what you're doing is as safe as it can be. Not that it's completely safe, just safe as can be. Even if everything goes wrong and somehow the reactor fails, it'll melt down in a relatively safe manner.

The graphite wedges, as long as the core itself hasn't been shot with a railgun or something, should physically separate the fuel regardless of whether it's a solid pellet or a molten blob of metal.

And even if the core does melt and the wedges fail to engage, it should either flow or be forced into a tank with "safe geometry" that won't allow it to continue fissioning, regardless of the presence or lack of gravity.
At that point, a steel vessel would descend over the core and lock into place, preventing the release of any gas or dust. It remains out of the way until then, in case it actually does get shot with a railgun or something, in order to remain intact.

The coolant is simply water.
That produces a lot of issues all on it's own due to pressure, cavitation due to boiling and so-on, but there just isn't a better coolant than water.

Maybe if you could find the warp metal version of mercury, but that's not an option right now.

Even with everyone's help and the assistance of the killbots in moving heavy pieces around, it still takes days to assemble a single reactor.
It's a lot more work than you thought it would be.

>>5778615
as yes, air ram, pipes love air rams

>>5778615

Things would be going so much slower if most of the components didn't come straight off the fab in an already assembled state.
For the most part, all your crew has to do is take the module where it needs to go, bolt it into place and connect everything up. Even a child could manage it, with SHODAN guiding them by ear.

And an exo-suit that allows them to lift hundreds of pounds of metal up into the air and hold it steady.

Of course, some parts were still bigger than others. Things that simply couldn't be bolted together for structural reasons.
Things like the emergency pressure vessel, which has to cover the whole reactor. It had to be shipped in on a big trailer, which hilariously was pulled not by a truck, but by a dozen or so killbots.

Some real slaves of egypt shit. Just makes you realize how much easier it would be to build this thing in zero gravity.

Over the course of the next five days, you make good progress on the reactor.
After the fuel is dealt with, you don't really need to oversee the project anymore, and it should come to completion soon enough.

That's just one reactor, though. You'll need four of them to get the whole station up and running.
One should be enough to run the life support at a minimal level, however.

You sigh out, watching your white, foggy breath drift slowly through the air as you walk through the streets of the Zakera safe zone.
The air is still, muggy and a bit rank at this point. The only airflow is coming from convection as a result of Zakera turning into a cold trap.

Down here, the air must be around 40 degrees fahrenheit. Chilly for you, but it's already fatally cold for a lot of species.
Even Cylia isn't handling it well, and has to wear some warm clothes when she goes out.

It's not that bad, though. You re-installed some airlocks on some of the older buildings, and they're being powered by huge battery packs for now.
You suggested a steam-based generator at first, but when you warned them of the risk of explosion, they all refused to even try it.

Oh well.

As you pass through the inner airlock and into the nice, warm air inside the "Survivor's Center", a couple of kids run up and grab onto you.

"See!" The little girl says. "He's freezing cold!"

The boy grabs your hand, and is shocked.

"Mister, are you okay? You're not gonna die, are you?" He asks.

You chuckle and pat him on the head.

"Nah, kid. I'm from a death world, we can handle this kind of cold no problem." You tell him.

He looks amazed. He'd probably be more shocked if he knew it gets down to -40F in Montana. Perfect hot tub temperatures.
Leading the kids to the mess hall, you spot Grandpa Gasbag frying up something ungodly in the corner. You think it's one of those insect creatures from the tunnels.

Smells good, though.

You also find Cylia, wearing a turtleneck sweater you designed for her, eating a bowl of soup.
Or... well, you're pretty sure that's just nutrient paste porridge with a bit of butter and sugar.

>>5779848

There really isn't much to eat on the station right now, because the greenhouses have been overrun with insects.
Fortunately you also don't have a lot of mouths to feed, so you're able to do just fine on pre-existing nutrient paste and nutrient block stocks.

You take a seat next to Cylia while the kids run off to pester the old man.

"Hey, Cyl. How's the reactor coming?" You ask.

"I think it's almost done? I don't know, i've thought that a few times already." She sighs.

"Yeah, it's more complicated than i thought. SHODAN did a good job of designing it though, i think. I don't know a lot of the details." You admit.

"We'd really be screwed without her, huh?"

"Yeah."

You sit in silence together for a while, thinking over everything you've got to do.
There's just so much. You need to get the reactor going, but then what? You've gotta do it three more times?

It'll take months.

You don't have enough willing hands. The people here are nice, but they aren't risk-takers, to say the least.
They don't even want to leave the safe zone for fear of mutants. They can't even go outside without some kind of survival suit at this point.

Your crew is different, they can get shit done. But there's only so many of you.

SHODAN has been pulling more than her fair share of weight, programming and reprogramming killbots to do all sorts of labor.
Then doing all sorts of design work while controlling her body remotely at the same time, it must be demanding.

She says she enjoys it, but you wonder if she isn't going to exhaust herself at some point.

"Maybe i should go back to Earth after all." You mumble, staring off into space.

Cylia's spoon stops mid-bite.

"...Are you going home?" She asks.

"Hmm? Oh, yeah. I dunno. It's just so hard to get anything done that isn't just killing, i was thinking... maybe if returned to earth for a while, i could pick up a few of my old friends. Maybe some expert individuals in a few fields..."

"Oh. Okay." Cylia replies, seeming somewhat solemn.

No, she'd definitely pouting. Just look at her.

"What? I'm not planning to stay or anything. This shithole is the final frontier. Humans have dreamed about this since our ancestors first looked up at the stars, you know? I'm not going anywhere."

"...You promise?"

"I promise, Cyl. And trust me, if i was going anywhere, you'd be coming with me."

That makes her smile, but she still seems a little pouty.
She's fine, you reckon.

But still, you need to answer your own question.
There's just too much work to be done. Not enough capable hands to do it.

You've got a station, but at this rate you're worried it's either going to fall apart or be taken from you before you can get it running.

>It's time to head back to earth, and do some recruiting.
>No, you've got this. You just need to think outside the box a little bit.
>Write-In?

>>5779850
>What if we rigged up some killbots with remoye control stations here so some non-risk-takers could help us out.

>>5779850
this>>5779856
then
>It's time to head back to earth, and do some recruiting.

>>5779850
>It's time to head back to earth, and do some recruiting

And get sanig/shodan access to wikipedia and the Internet.

>>5779850
>It's time to head back to Earth, and do some recruiting.
Yeah, letting SHODAN fill the gaps in our knowledge is only going to get us so far. We need bodies and experts QUICK.

>>5779901
Sounds good
>Support+

>>5779850
>>It's time to head back to earth, and do some recruiting.

Make sure to brief Gron and company and set up some emergency plans while we're away.

As for our recruitment pool, the obvious first choice is going to be David's prior contacts while he was in. Second would be Navy personnel like ETs, FCs, and ICs for technicians, EMs, HTs, and DCs for Damage control. Also might be worth looking into submarine sailors as well.

For our boots on the ground needs, marines would be the way to go since they're already used to being shuttled around on ships for the most part and should have enough crazy in them to operate in tandem with David.

My recommendation for both is to start looking into US military personnel in Japan that are dissatisfied with their current position. It's got enough of both sides to cover our needs.

>>5779850
AHAHAHAHA
fucking FINALLY
I think I've been waiting for this for two years.
>It's time to head back to earth, and do some recruiting.
To reiterate:
We go to the belt, grab a asteroid with gold, melt it, sell it, start a corp and start hiring literally all the engineers, scientists, exmils, and fighter pilots we can. Maybe accountants and stuff too, everyone needs an excel monkey. Do we want families or loners?

>>5779856
+1, let them teleoperate the bots.
>>5779982
+1, Navy people, especially submariners are probably the best choice for crew for a spaceship, they're already used to working in a tin can and confined spaces with nuclear power and weapons. Might be a little weird, but what can you do. Marines are good for the actual combat bit, we need to design a better system of power armor, to bridge the gap between walking tank and light exoskeleton. ODST armor I'm thinking as inspiration.
>spaceproof
>armored
>integrated HUD
>light strength enhancement
>doesn't run on antimatter
Should be bare minimum requirements. But I really really really want people who can design more goofy shit for us, along with military personnel

>>5779850
>It's time to head back to earth, and do some recruiting.
>put a ring on cyla's finger

priorities should be diplomats, engineers and medical staff. because david sucks on those areas.
also, we gotta prepare for eventual mutinies, traitors and desertors; people will eventually try that and we need to know what to do with them for when the moment happens

>>5779850
>SHODAN has been pulling more than her fair share of weight, programming and reprogramming killbots to do all sorts of labor.
>Then doing all sorts of design work while controlling her body remotely at the same time, it must be demanding.
>
>She says she enjoys it, but you wonder if she isn't going to exhaust herself at some point.
Come on, its' an AI. AI LOVE doing stuff.

>It's time to head back to earth, and do some recruiting.
We should also bring some aliens with us for earth relations.

>>5780068
we would be taking the metal gear crew. they are the only ones capable of resisting 1G to some degree

>>5780072
The International space station exists too. all we need is to design a speaker that will translate what some people say through a speaker.

>>5780089
that would literally go against the idea of keeping this undercover.

>>5780089
fuck I'm tired

>>5779850
>>It's time to head back to earth, and do some recruiting.
It's time to do some trickery

>>5779856
support, this should help a bit

Also to the other anons here, I don't believe we know the way home, part of the reason why we are stuck here, remember?

>>5780457
You technically don't, but SHODAN has narrowed it down as much as possible from David's memories.
There's only four or five places to visit that could potentially be earth.

File: cosmos.png (314 KB, 751x319)

314 KB PNG

>>5780463
Thank God David got drunk and binged the entirety of Cosmos that one time.

>>5780469
And did a lot of stargazing as a kid.
Knowing your constellations helps a lot when it comes to finding your way home.

>>5780470
Best part about stargazing? It's FREE!
Growing up straddling the poverty line CAN be fun sometimes.

>>5780463
So we could end up finding some Jarassic World planet or Iron Age Blue Monkees or something?

>>5779850

"...Alright." You decide, standing up from the table. "I'm gonna message the crew. I think it's time."

"Wait, are you taking all of us?" Cylia asks.

"Yeah, obviously. What would i do without you guys? Besides, i need to introduce the old crew to the new crew. Some of you guys... well, Sanig and Gildur for sure, will take some getting used to."

"Oh... are you sure that's fine? It's just... all the stories you've told us about earth, is it really safe to go there?"

Oh, right. You kind of forgot you've been feeding them half-truths and bullshit since you got into space.
It wouldn't be weird if Gildur thought he'd explode the second he stepped foot on the surface.

"Uhhhh... i mean, besides the local bacteria? Yeah, probably... but we can dose you up with even more nanomachines when we get there. It'll be alright."

"Okay. Let's go then."

"Well, not yet. We still need to finish at least one reactor, and then there's one more thing i need to take care of..."

...

That night, you gather your whole crew to announce that you intend to go back to earth and recruit some of your old friends.
The general reception was positive, with an underlying tone of nervousness at actually having to go there.

Earth is a "Death World" after all. Whatever the hell that's supposed to mean.
That fucking wraith planet, now that's a death world as far as you're concerned.

A small party is held at your request, and for the first time in over a week, you all get some rest.
You also spent the night with Kyla and Cylia for the first time in just as long, which means you didn't get quite as much rest as you could have.

But that's quite alright with you.

Rising from the sheets with a groan the next morning, you gently nudge the girls awake.
After getting a shower and getting dressed, you have breakfast and stop by the medical bay.

Chell is still there, unconscious and strapped to the medical table.
He's on a nutrient drip at this point, and there hasn't been much change.

The fed ships are also long gone, so there isn't really much point in doing this anymore.
You don't know what happened for the two of them to get locked up like this, nor how to safely help them.

It may come down to just... physically removing Nena from the situation. By rolling her cart out of the room.
That may be worth doing before you make any other plans. You're probably going to need her help here shortly.

>Give it some more time. Maybe she'll come back on her own.
>Wheel her out of the room, away from Chell's body. Maybe a bit of distance will break the connection.
>It may be dangerous, and you definitely have no idea what the hell you're doing, but you could at least try to jump in after her. (attempt a psychic connection)
>Write-In?

>>5780883
>It may be dangerous, and you definitely have no idea what the hell you're doing, but you could at least try to jump in after her. (attempt a psychic connection)

>>5780883
>Give it some more time. Maybe she'll come back on her own.

>It may be dangerous, and you definitely have no idea what the hell you're doing, but you could at least try to jump in after her. (attempt a psychic connection)

Hope we get some good experience also I'm sure the QM would like to show us some new things he has cooked up.

>>5780883
>It may be dangerous, and you definitely have no idea what the hell you're doing, but you could at least try to jump in after her. (attempt a psychic connection)

>>5780883
>>It may be dangerous, and you definitely have no idea what the hell you're doing, but you could at least try to jump in after her. (attempt a psychic connection)
Yeah it's been far too long, she probably needs some help.

>>5780883
>It may be dangerous, and you definitely have no idea what the hell you're doing, but you could at least try to jump in after her...
Right after we let Kyla know what we're doing and move theverything off and away from the ship so she doesn't strangle us later. Ha ha. (attempt a psychic connection)

>>5780883
>It may be dangerous, and you definitely have no idea what the hell you're doing, but you could at least try to jump in after her. (attempt a psychic connection)

Yes but warn everyone regarding what we're about to do,and let them know that there are two psychics on the station that may be able to help should shit hit the fan (preferably moth girl)

>>5780883
>>Wheel her out of the room, away from Chell's body. Maybe a bit of distance will break the connection.
Let's not EMP the ship again please

>>5780883
>>Wheel her out of the room, away from Chell's body. Maybe a bit of distance will break the connection.
We're literally about to enact the recruitment drive that's been in the works for a year, we can do potentially dangerous psyker crap afterwards.

>>5780883
>It may be dangerous, and you definitely have no idea what the hell you're doing, but you could at least try to jump in after her. (attempt a psychic connection)
Warn the crew, set up contingency plans with Lumi and mothfu (Ilia?)
Ilia is powerful enough to break a blue box, so if all else fails, she should still be able to bail us out. Lumi, she literally owes us a life debt.

>>5780883
>Wheel her out of the room, away from Chell's body. Maybe a bit of distance will break the connection.
Let's avoid the psychic stuff for now. We've put off our return to Earth for long enough.

>>5780883
>>Wheel her out of the room, away from Chell's body. Maybe a bit of distance will break the connection.
I dont feel like fucking with the warp when we're about to go back to earth

>>5780883
>It may be dangerous, and you definitely have no idea what the hell you're doing, but you could at least try to jump in after her. (attempt a psychic connection)

>>5780883
>It may be dangerous, and you definitely have no idea what the hell you're doing, but you could at least try to jump in after her. (attempt a psychic connection)

>>5780883

Yeah, it's probably dangerous. Partially because you have no idea what you're doing.
But you don't want to just leave things like this, especially if it means potentially losing Nena.

Just one capable AI is so incredibly useful, it's an unimaginable waste to let her die due to this retard... or worse.

But you shouldn't just leave your crew in the dark, either. You have a bad habit of deciding on something and then acting on it immediately with extreme prejudice.
Well, it wasn't really a bad habit before, but your crew certainly doesn't appreciate it. They worry about you a lot. Maybe too much, maybe not. You aren't sure.

Either way, you're trying to catch yourself at moments like these, where time and the situation allows.

First off, you need to let your crew know what you're about to attempt.
To that end, you head back over to the ship's mess hall, where everyone but Gildur is still gathered.

"Hey, everyone." You announce.

All heads immediately turn to you. They know exactly what that particular tone of voice you just used means.

"I'm planning on dealing with Nena's situation real quick. I'm gonna try and... well, i dunno exactly. But i'm going to..."

...You were gonna say "make a psychic connection to her", but it feels so stupid saying that out loud.
You still have a hard time accepting that this is real. Telepathy is one thing, but you feel like a nutcase just saying this stuff.

"Hon? What's the matter?" Kyla asks, noting that you stopped mid-sentence.

"Yeah, sorry... it feels weird just saying this, but i'm going to uh... try and make a psychic connection to Nena and Chell, see if i can't feel out what's going on."

Your crew look between eachother and essentially just shrug.

"Is it dangerous?" Cylia asks.

"Probably." You reply.

"Do you have any idea what you're doing, kid?" Sanig asks.

"Not a fuckin' clue." You admit.

Cylia just sighs, as if she was expecting this.

"Well, good luck, hun." Kyla says, patting you on your ass. "What do you want us to do if you don't wake up?"

"About that... yeah, there's two more psychics who could potentially get involved. The first is Lumi. I have a sticky note stuck to her black box so you can tell which one she is."

"Isn't she mute?" Kyla asks. "Sounds like she's pretty damaged as far as AI goes."

Well, yeah. But she's been doing her job pretty well, supporting SHODAN and doing patrols with the drone ships.
Damaged, maybe. But you aren't exactly in the best shape either, psychologically speaking. What does "damaged" mean, really?

"It's probably fine. She's got the ability, and that's all that really matters right now. Can't afford to be picky. Speaking of, second option is Illia, the doctor... or more like apothecary, on Gron's ship. Worst case scenario, go ask her for help."

"...Is that it? Not much of a plan, kid."

"I know, Sanig. Like i said, i have no clue what i'm getting into. If nothing else works... just physically separate us all from Chell."

>>5781890
I'm glad they know David so well, because David doesn't know what he's going to do any given minuet.

David has been winging it for twenty three threads

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>>5782658
>>5782632

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I think these are the bare minimum requirements for a manned space superiority fighter. Should have added a shield generator, but I feel like it's a worthwhile tradeoff for the massive heat sink and stealth capabilities.

Might have to add a small one later, heat sink is kinda big. Could spread water jacket through the wings but that'll probably end up being hydrogen for the engines.

>>5782932
you don't need to make it look like a normal fighter though, specially because its supposed to be a space fighter. ideally a sphere, a D20, or a cylinder make a better initial shape than the lawn dart a normal fighter has, gives us better RCS placement points and lets us spread the weapon loadout though the whole fighter instead of having it in a single place(not that it matters in practical terms)

>>5782973
There is essentially no drag in space. Flying bricks are IN. So hot right now.

>>5782932
>>5782973
>>5782986
Spheres are the optimal shape for armoring, yet less so for heat dissipation, optimal storage or a few other factors like rotation which benefit from distance from center of mass. A cone is, in fact, closer to the optimal for combat - it minimizes target surface area towards a target on approach, leaves the greatest area at the rear (for a large, central and main engine bell) and also maximizes internal space without compromising effectiveness to armoring when on approach to a target. Add a protruding nose along which to mount RCS to maximize effective turning speed and you've a relatively optimal craft shape.

Alternatively a triplet of nub-wings set at 120 degrees from each other along the centerline would provide adequate RCS positions for yaw, pitch and roll control. Another consideration would be to placing the heatsink at the front of the craft rather than the rear, where it would function as impromptu armor should all else fail, with decent effectiveness against phaser fire seeing as that works as a laser.

The disadvantage of any of the above would be a lack of in-atmosphere flight ability - not that it wouldn't fly but rather it would by brute force. Control surfaces and lifting bodies are lacking, but these could easily be added as post-hoc packages that bolt onto the body if needed. In fact, such "bolt-on" equipment capability would be a good thing to standardize the craft around, as it would basically be the mounting method for gunpods, externally carried ordinance and other augmentations to ship performance (e,g sensor pod, ECM / ECCM, external fuel tank, cargo pod or even a robot arm for external work - plus the potential for fighters to dock together so damaged fighters can be recovered easier by their undamaged brethren).


But those are just a few ideas.

>>5781890

After talking with the crew for a few more minutes, you don't immediately go back to medbay.
First, you head to cargo where the other AIs are sitting around, presumably doing some kind of work.

Ava, Lumi, and the child you've affectionately named "Shithead".
You place your hand on each of them, one by one. The warmth you feel from them indicates that they're still active.

...Shithead's a little cooler than the rest. He must be slacking.

SHODAN's different from all of them, though. When she's working hard, her Blue Box gets hot enough to burn your hands.
You feel like there was one time she got really, really hot though. Like, hot enough to melt lead. But you can't remember when that was, for some reason. Oh well.

Placing your hand back on Lumi's Blue Box, you focus in on her, directing your will to reach out to her.
Telepathy. This is the one thing you really know how to do, mostly thanks to Illia, who taught you not only how to do it, but how to not scream in other people's ears.

Or brains, you guess.

["Lumi, Can you hear me?"] You think to her.

There's no verbal reply, but you can feel her emotions in response.
Surprise, followed by joy. Then a touch of sadness, and lingering frustration.

["It's alright. I can hear you. Sort of. Listen, Nena's in trouble. I'm going to try and help her out, alright?"]

Confusion, then worry.

["Is there anything you can do to help? I don't really know what i'm doing, here."]

Introspection, then unsuredness. Followed by determination.

["Is... is that a yes?"]

Affirmation. She feels like she can do it, somehow.
Well, you don't know what she'll be doing, but she wants to help, so.

["Do i need to bring you with me? Into the medbay?"]

Again, affirmation. She wants to stay close to you.

["Alright. I'm unplugging you from the local network. Get ready."]

You give Lumi a few moments, then remove the data line and power plug connecting her up to the ship.
The cart she's on is now free to roll around, although unlike the one Nena's on, it doesn't have a monitor, microphone or speakers.

Not that she could use them in the first place.

You wheel her into the medbay, right next to Nena.
As you do, you feel confusion and worry from Lumi again.

"Now, as for what to actually do..." You grumble.

>Try to reach out telepathically to Nena.
>Try and force your way into Chell's brain, somehow.
>See if you can feel Nena's presence, and drag her back by force.
>Write-In?

>>5783074
>Try to reach out telepathically to Nena.

>>5783074
>Try to reach out telepathically to Nena.

>>5783013
to be fair, the heat disippation issue is more or less a moot point that can be solved by either having detachable heatsinks that can be swapped whenever the fighters need to rearm, or they just don't need to be adressed at all; we still gotta see if we *need* something like that. its not like the fighters are supposed to do long term missions on their own.

as for the atmospheric flight, i'd rather have a dedicated atmosphere fighter than can go to space than the other way around because i doubt we're gonna use them inside a planet that many times, let alone having a target try to flee from said planet to space

>>5783074
>See if you can feel Nena's presence, and try to telephatically poke around to get her attention

>Try to reach out telepathically to Nena.

>>5783074
>>Try to reach out telepathically to Nena.

>>5783074
>psychically blast "Rage Against the Machine - Wake Up.wav"
>offend alien sensibilities
>wake the dead
>???

>>5783074
>>See if you can feel Nena's presence, and drag her back by force.
We prod and poke

>>5783074

You decide to start out with what you know.

Placing your hand over Nena's Blue Box, you make an effort to reach out to her.
Focusing your will, you direct your thoughts towards her, and listen for her in return.

["Nena? Nena, are you there?"]

Nothing.
Perhaps you need to be a little louder.

Once again, you call out to her. But this time, you don't hold back so much.

["Nena! Hey, wake up!"]

...This time, you get a faint response. It's too quiet to make out, but it's there.

["Speak up, i can't hear you!"]

["Captain? Where are you?"] Nena finally replies.

["I'm right next to you. What are you doing? Why haven't you come back? It's been over a week."]

["Oh, dear. I'm afraid i can't see you. The water is so turbid, i can't make my way..."]

Water? What the hell?

["Nena, there's no water. Do you remember what you were doing?"]

["I was... searching for something, wasn't i? What was it again? Oh dear."]

Shit. She seems confused. Something must have gone wrong in there.
She doesn't even remember what she was supposed to be doing.

["Nena, listen to my voice. You need to come back. Cut off the connection to this idiot and go back."]

["Yes... i suppose i should. But which way was back, again? How strange. I've never been lost like this before. Have i been swimming in circles?"]

Yeah, you're not swimming in the first place.
You guess if it was that easy to come back she'd have done it already.

>Don't hold your voice back anymore. See if you can act as a beacon for her, like a lighthouse in the fog.
>See if you can't try and drag her back somehow. If you can speak to her, you should be able to do something, right?
>Whatever happened to her, clearly happened after she connected to Chell. Maybe physically separating them would be best after all.
>You have a quick fix for this. She can't be connected to Chell if he's dead. One little injection is all it would take.
>Write-in?

>>5784003
>Don't hold your voice back anymore. See if you can act as a beacon for her, like a lighthouse in the fog.

>Don't hold your voice back anymore. See if you can act as a beacon for her, like a lighthouse in the fog.

How to know that your quest is good?
>You get replies just minutes after you post.

>>5784003
>Don't hold your voice back anymore. See if you can act as a beacon for her, like a lighthouse in the fog.

>>5784007

Glad folks are enjoying it.
I'll say it again, but this is my first quest and my first time writing anything, so i'm still learning and trying different things.

If there's anything y'all like and want to see more of, or dislike and want to see less of, let me know.
I can't improve my writing if nobody ever tells me what they think is wrong. No promises i'll agree with you of course, but at least i'll know.

Don't worry, you ain't gonna hurt my feelings.

>>5784003
>Don't hold your voice back anymore. See if you can act as a beacon for her, like a lighthouse in the fog.
she's a very big girl. she can weather the full force of our psychic call

>>5784034
>Don't worry, you ain't gonna hurt my feelings.
You didn't file my taxes you bastard. What, think you're TOO AMERICAN to pay taxes?

>>5784003
>>BEACON
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtNnrcl1vV4
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

>>5784003
>Don't hold your voice back anymore. See if you can act as a beacon for her, like a lighthouse in the fog.

Reeeeeeeeee!

>>5784003
>See if you can't try and drag her back somehow. If you can speak to her, you should be able to do something, right?
I don't want any psychic delays to our trip.

>>5784357
Trying a more gentle touch at first can't hurt. We don't want to break anything.

>>5784003
>>Don't hold your voice back anymore. See if you can act as a beacon for her, like a lighthouse in the fog.

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>>5784003
>Don't hold your voice back anymore. See if you can act as a beacon for her, like a lighthouse in the fog.

>Screaming into the murky abyss to call a Lovecraftian lost on her way to torture a quadruple-amputee cyborg meathead, home.
Brutal

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GrKHpExQOFU
I am not defective.
I am not defective.
I am not defective.
I am not defective.
I am not, I am not.

Imagine our crews' faces when they see what humans on Earth are like, [spoiler[may as well prepare them now

>>5784003

["Just follow my voice"] You tell her.

["Where? I can't quite see you, Captain."]

Yeah, she's still confused.
Alright, if she can't tell where your voice is coming from, you guess you'll have to make it a little more obvious.

You relax your mind as you focus in on Nena's presence, allowing the full volume of your voice to reach her.
The lights in the room flicker slightly as you let loose, but there isn't too much interference.

["I'm here, Nena. Come this way."] You coax.

About this time, you notice Chell starting to twitch.

["Follow the sound of my voice."] You announce, slightly louder. ["You can make it back if you just keep coming this way."]

Chell's twitching quickly turns into convulsions as he apparently starts having a seizure. His vitals monitor starts screeching at you.
However, he's thoroughly strapped down to the operating table, and all of his cybernetic limbs are broken to keep him from escaping.

All it amounts to is some painful-looking flailing.

This feels like it's taking a while, though. How hard can it be to just come back from wherever she is?
Several minutes pass like this, with Chell beginning to groan as if he's in agonizing pain. But you don't give a shit about him. He should have just given you what you wanted without a fuss.

Suddenly, you feel an odd pressure. Almost like the presence of another person standing next to you.
It's... coming from Lumi's Blue Box, you think. What a strange feeling.

["Captain, i think i've found my way."] Nena announces.

Shortly afterwards, Chell's whole body arches upwards. He begins screaming, his distorted, electronic voice echoing throughout the medbay as the lights begin to flicker again.
Finally, he goes limp. The vitals monitor he's hooked up to goes from screeching to a steady tone as not only do his brainwaves cease entirely, but all of his cybernetics shut down as well.

["...Nena? Are you there?"]

You look down not at Chell, but at the Blue Box where you hand is placed.
There's a long moment of silence before she replies.

["No need to yell, dear. I'm right here, and i'm quite alright."]

You can practically hear her sighing with relief, as if a great stress had been lifted from her.
She no longer sounds confused either, but perhaps a bit tired.

You lower your voice again as you speak with her.

["How are you feeling?"]

["Exhausted, dear. But i'm alright."]

As if registering her presence, the mobile cart she's being kept in buzzes and and it's screen flickers, suddenly displaying an image of Nena in her little mindspace.
Nena's long, flowing tentacles that normally writhe and undulate across the screen are mostly still. She really must be tired.

As for you... well, you don't feel any different. A little mental exhaustion, maybe.
All you really did was talk at her a little harder than usual.

You didn't actually say all that much, you guess.

>>5784677
>>5785082
Very cool I had a scene play out in my head with the music playing of David gathering electricity in his hand and "I have the powering" someone.

>>5785082
we're gonna need a debrief from her after she rests a bit. we need to know what the hell happened when she tried to pry the information out of chell

>>5785203
I'd bet the feds have anti-psionic implants in their cyborgs to prevent just this scenario happening

>>5785257
Very good insight. It makes sense.

>>5785257
yeah

>>5785082
I'm glad squid grandma is safe. I was a little worried there. I wish there was something we could do for her. Maybe hook her box up with more tech to give her more stimulants? entertainment? media? good ol pda books?

>>5785257
motherfucker is dead. might as well cut him up and see what we can learn.

>>5785082

Chell, though. He's dead. You don't know what the hell happened exactly, but he's super dead.
There's red blood pooling up around his stomach and dripping off the table. The only organic part of him left was his brain, so...

Brain hemorrhage. A pretty massive one at that.

Oh well, what's done is done. His body will still serve as good research material.
You'd like to get on with the rest of your day, but... it feels like Lumi might have helped you out there at the last minute.

And yeah, her Blue Box is definitely hot to the touch. Almost enough to burn you.
She must have done something.

["Lumi, are you alright?"] You ask.

Affirmation. Exhaustion. Satisfaction.

Well, her response was immediate, and she doesn't seem hurt or anything.
You just wish you knew what the hell you were doing. Leaving things to chance always makes you nervous.

After a moment of silent contemplation, you head back to the mess and less everyone know you're fine.
They're kind of surprised that nothing horrible happened, and that you finished it up in like ten minutes.

You're kind of surprised at that too, but you certainly won't complain.

...

The rest of that day was spent on prep, for leaving to find earth. Accumulated condensed nutrient bars, making sure the ship is in working order and has replacement parts, ect.
One important thing you finally got around to doing was installing an RTG on the ship. You finally had enough material to make one that emits mostly alpha particles, so it doesn't need much shielding.

Thanks to spacertech heat pumps and thermopiles, it's actually really efficient. The whole thing still weighs a couple hundred pounds, but you get a good kilowatt of steady energy.
Of course, you'll use more than that just making breakfast, nevermind running all the electronics onboard the Metal Gear. But in a low-power state, you could drift for quite a while, just running life support.

You don't know what will happen once you're out there looking for earth. There are no stations beyond this point, Xebric and Thekia are the farthest ones that exist. The distant spiral arms are practically uninhabited, even by pirates.
You could run out of fuel, or energy, or get eaten by a space monster. Anything's possible, so you just have to do your best.

It's odd, you feel like you're prepping for a journey to the south pole or something, when you're literally just trying to go home.

But all that goes well. You have spare parts pre-printed, raw materials to make just about anything, plenty of food... and you even topped off your fuel and energy with what you could scavenge from the docks.
Once that was done, you figured Nena had plenty of time to rest, so you asked her about what happened.

In her words, "Nothing particular of note".
She didn't notice anything strange, her mind sort of just drifted off as she started digging into his memories.

Apparently it felt like she was dreaming. The sort of thing you don't notice until after you've woken up.

Glad she's okay. Wonder what we're bringing to sell for spending money once we get to earth, diamonds?

>>5786130
No
We have already discussed this.

>>5786130
You have a nanofab on the ship.
You could make the hope diamond out of a stick off the ground.

>>5786142

We don't need money

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>>5786142
We, uh, doin' Vegas at some point?

>>5786199
You could just print real money, you know.

>>5786209
True, but that could lead to problems depending on how long we stay. Not to mention we'd have to replicate serial number and that would have the secret service or the IRS investigating us. Conversely, it's hardly a crime to sell a few diamonds or some gold that was 'definitely' passed down to us by a deceased relative.

Or we could just say fuck it and have SHODAN get to work and pool us some funds together into an untraceable account. Anybody askes how we got that money, we just tell them that we made some good stock investments or something like that

>>5786142
Even without the nanofab, we've got plenty of ways to make money. Asteroid mining for precious metals, fencing fedtech, hell, just ask SHODAN to make some investments for us.

>>5786142
I would like to offer Humanity the ability to leave the planet earth and go to other planets

>>5786209
Damn, now we're the government? Live long enough to become the villain indeed.

Okay we can choose one (1) AI to upload into the internet. Which one

>>5786317
....why only one?

>>5786249
Only after we purge the Jews, Pedophiles, Commies, and Niggers. Granted most of these listed problems are one and the same, its a wide enough net that will take some time to unfuck our civilization so we can actually go to space.

>>5786340
Eh or we can just look for earth like planets in other solar systems and ya know give all the different ethnic groups on earth a planet in their own solar system, of course not closer to the Feds but further away and with all that you could put the peoples you hate the most closer to Sol system, for Podophiles simply release their addresses publicly, this can also be done for the Corrupt by publishing all the evidence online for the entire earth to see.

Is there a galaxy map for us to play around with QM?>>5786209

>>5786209
Good point on the money. Just perfect copies of a 100. A whole pallet of it so we can lay on it like a matteress. Lol.

If we print money we should make it so one letter in the serial of each note spell something like "fuck you IRS"

>>5786209
We don't even need to print money I think.
Digital bank accounts are ubiquitous at this point, we could probably just have SHODAN spoof an account with affectively infinite funds.
Though that's probably still a bad idea given how using a specific account like that creates a trail back to us.
Physical cash as needed is probably the way to go.

>>5786398
I'd rather just print rare earth elements. Rhodium is priced at like, $15k an ounce. And iridium is like $5k an ounce. Platinum is around a thousand per ounce.

Just chuck a suitcase full of some of that shit at someone who deals in it. Instantly rich.

I believe we should have Shodan and the others get in contact with Nasa and begin trade negotiations for all the Expensive hard to get Rare earth metals, and anything else that might be requested? then have them buy in bulk what they believe is necessary to bring back to the stations also offer tech in return for Genetic material of all of earth, for future protection?

I'm sure the QM will be willing to give us some sort of info on what we can trade.

>>5786624
we could buy food ingredients for stocking the kitchen come back to build a space station and start a proper trade deal.

>>5786619
It's printing, not alchemy. We can't just transmute one element to another.

Personally, I want to keep things simple:
Interview a few individuals that we trust, ask them if they'd be willing to do a job/go on an adventure/mission, far away from home, for a while. Since they have similar life experiences I think quite a few of them will have nothing tying them down. Meet at a secluded place, boost them, and we're off to the races.
If we really want to go that route, we could just straight up abduct individuals that we need too and Sanig could "probe" those that we're not a big fan of, as well

Keeps us out of Earth politics for the time being, and gets us quickly back to the fire we're currently trying to put out.

>>5786209
>You could just print real money, you know.
None of us are using "real money" these days. Just charge everything to a deep state slush-fund shell account, no one will make a peep, and will keep the spooks busy chasing ghosts for a long time. Win-win.

I have a feeling Earth holds some BIG OLD unexpected suprises :D

>>5786731
A nuke salvo for the extraterrestrial threat?

>>5786731
Well, therein lies the question.
Are we gonna fly in undetected (not a bad idea after the nuke last time) or are we gonna get a courtesy call from a federal agency?

>>5786707
>It's printing, not alchemy. We can't just transmute one element to another.
It's fucking nanomachine magic, man. We can manipulate things on an atomic level with the fab. I don't know what the hell it does. Shit.

But we can still just find a space rock made of it. Not really an issue. Tons of shit floating around in space.

>>5786794
No, we cannot divide atoms in the nano fab

>Inb4 the earth nuked itself
>Inb4 X-COM greets us

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>>5786815
Let's try it anyway. What's the worst that could happen?

>>5786891
Bold to assume earth wasnt wiped out by it's own inhabitants by now, since a nuke was sent out during an era where everything is being held together by fear of nuclear warfare. But yea let's do it.

>>5786753
Just trying to imagine David contacting the feds for landing permission.
>"Yeah, this is an alien craft. Yeah. Uh huh, I'm human, my crew isn't though. Sto- salvaged this ship, hilarious story. No, in peace, mostly to do some shopping, touristy shit, and pick up some friends. Maybe grill. Probably grill. Hmmmm, I'm gonna have to say no to an inspection. So... we good?"

>>5786950
>Gildur's manning the helm while we're in orbit around Earth
>"Uhhhh...Captain? The authorities sound like they wanna search our ship. What do I do?"
>"Tell them to get a warrant."

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>>5786950
>>5786955
>Giant freezers full of dead and soon-to-be dead aliens in various states of disassembly (we still got that dying color-changing lizard stowed somewhere)
>Literal tons of linked destructive devices with no tax stamp in sight
>Not registered with the DMV or the FAA
>Illegal aliens
Which one of these do you think the feds will seethe most about?
At least there aren't any regulations around antimatter yet. AFAIK

We should also thank Lumi for her help. I don't think we quite did that yet.

>>5786955
Sir I will not be bothered in my domiscile!

>>5786992
>Which one of these do you think the feds will seethe most about?

>"So, filed taxes yet?"

>>5786992
Antimatter is legal as of right now, but that's only because all the antimatter humans have ever made put together wouldn't even release enough energy to boil a cup of tea. If they thought they could get away with it though, the feds (human) would probably cook up an excuse to see it along with everything and everyone else aboard the ship.

>>5787070
*seize it

I think we should prob just do a distraction with the guys in space and David on earth getting his friends.

I AM A FREE CITIZEN
I AM A FREE CITIZEN OOHGGH GOD IT HURTS UUUGH
HELP! HELP! POLICE! HELP!

>>5786005

And unfortunately, she wasn't able to get anything from him at all. Not so much as what he had for breakfast the other day.

An autopsy determined that yes, he did in fact have a massive brain hemorrhage.
It took a while to crack open his braincase, which was a big metal sphere full of electronics. What you found inside was strange.

He had a partially wrinkled brain. Not nearly on the level of a Human or Grey, but there was some.
Of course, his brain had all sorts of electronics wired up to it to integrate him thoroughly with his bionics, but there was one very obvious non-standard part.

A large glass and metal tube that looks like an oversized electron gun was shoved straight down the middle, straddling the cerebellum and aimed directly at the pineal gland.
You don't know what function it has, but it was covered in tiny, hair-like electrodes that were denser in some areas than others. Most importantly though, it seems to be a warp metal construct, like an AI's Blue Box.

It also seems to be what caused the brain hemorrhage, as there's a large amount of fresh tissue damage all around it.
Although there was also quite a large bruise around the boundary of his motor and prefrontal cortex where you'd shot him earlier.

Any remaining organic bits are put on ice for later study, and his cybernetic body is tossed into cargo unceremoniously with a tarp draped over it.

The next day is spent entirely on the station's first reactor. All of the cladded fuel rods are in place and there are just a few minor issues left to deal with.
The main problem is of course, radiation. Right now the fuel rods aren't very radioactive, at least by your standards. But once they've been active, even you won't be able to get near them.

Needless to say, the people on this station are wholly incapable of working in or around the facility. They're just too sensitive to radiation, both physically and mentally.

You're going to have to use machines to do the job, and you have a few ideas for how to do that.
Unfortunately, the killbots aren't really an option. Just about every bit of them is proprietary, and while it's relatively easy to program them from their designated terminal, modifying them in any way isn't.

Fortunately, you've already got some experience designing functional bipedal robots.
SHODAN's body is really meant for combat though, and it's quite high-spec and complicated. Something much simpler would be better if they're just going to be used for labor.

That's not the problem, though. The problem is how to actually drive the damned things.

>>5787549

>VR gaming is pretty popular in space. Maybe you can modify one of those headsets and let real people control the robots.
>Leave one of the AI's behind to do the work. The station will benefit greatly from having one anyways, even if the public won't like it.
>It's definite not ideal, but... you could leave it in the hands of some regular VI's. They won't be very adaptable if something comes up, but the reactor should just work on it's own for the most part. In theory.
>Write-In?

>>5787551
>Have the public learn how with VR simulators and use one of the AI as a backup on the station for general maintenance and training for volunteers by calling it a VI.

>>5787551
>Leave one of the AI's behind to do the work. The station will benefit greatly from having one anyways, even if the public won't like it.

B1 battledroids pls. We must rodger-rodger the aliens.

>>5787551
Set up some VR headsets for people to control the robots, and leave an AI in charge of the reactors.

>>5787551
>Leave one of the AI's behind to do the work. The station will benefit greatly from having one anyways, even if the public won't like it.
If shit happens while we're away, they'll need the help.

>VR gaming is pretty popular in space. Maybe you can modify one of those headsets and let real people control the robots.

>>5787551
>VR gaming is pretty popular in space. Maybe you can modify one of those headsets and let real people control the robots.
>Leave one of the AI's behind to do the work. The station will benefit greatly from having one anyways, even if the public won't like it.

Give the people some responsibility for their community, and have the ai keeping an eye on things.

>>5787551
>VR gaming
GET TO WORK, FAGGS

Plus Gron is taking over and Dark Star will drag all their stuff here, remember that. I am confident they will keep this running and even better for when we get back

>Pineal Gland
>René Descartes: The principal seat of the soul

This is to either host the soul there and protect it from psychc fuckery or to trap whoever invades them... David could've been trapped in that thing

>>5787551
>>VR gaming is pretty popular in space. Maybe you can modify one of those headsets and let real people control the robots.

>>5787736
If Nena was unable to make any inroads at all, then more than likely it's meant as a trap, one that does not care at all for the host's well-being.
The curious part, though, is the fact that Chell's brain is partially wrinkled. The guy didn't seem particularly bright, even compared with other smooth-brained aliens, so perhaps there was some other purpose for that extra processing power, or else he was a failed experiment.

>>5787551
>>Leave one of the AI's behind to do the work. The station will benefit greatly from having one anyways, even if the public won't like it.

>>5787551
>VR gaming is pretty popular in space. Maybe you can modify one of those headsets and let real people control the robots.
I'd say VI-assisted VR, with the VI acting as a trainer/assistant providing procedures, walk-throughs, and even training videos on-the-fly as needed.
I'm hesitant to leave one of the actual AIs behind; of the AIs we have, we either trust and depend on them, or don't trust them enough to leave them completely unsupervised.
Speaking of which, are we just taking METAL GEAR to Earth, or are we taking a fleet? If we are leaving drone ships behind we'll necessarily have to leave behind AIs to command them...

>>5788139
I mean most smooth brains you can literally tell an abject lie to their face and you can get them to nod along and say okay. Imagine the dumbest person you know, then imagine they were thrice as stupid. Chell was pretty quick on the uptake. Even though pretty much everything he thought was wrong, he was still thinking at the very least.

>>5788139
What makes you think they weren't smart¿? They were a cocky super augmented cyborg that only had their brain left and they used all tools at their disposal to fight David.

Of course, they weren't the cream of the crop because this was a backwater assigment. Imagine what the guys at the centre of the galaxy look like!

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Chell made me remember Keith Anyan; the antagonist from Terra E. They had psycho-indoctrination and other BS to fight against the Mu race, an offshot of humanity with mind powers but frail bodies. Keith Anyan was the top of the top and his sole reason for existing was murdering Jomy Marquis Shin.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kO_6HPK0KtU this is possibly my favourite opening of all anime

>>5787551
>Leave one of the AI's behind to do the work. The station will benefit greatly from having one anyways, even if the public won't like it.

>>5788223
>Imagine what the guys at the centre of the galaxy look like!
So, these are the second to third string elite cyborg commandos? Sheeeeeeit!

>>5788223
>Of course, they weren't the cream of the crop because this was a backwater assignment.
I wouldn't be so sure. These guys may not be the best of the best, but they definitely do not seem like your typical muscle.
They had assets with warp metal weapons (unheard of by most, and unimaginable to many), warp metal implants, and an extra-dimensional nano-bioweapon. They came knowing there was a threat out here that wiped out an entire enforcement fleet, and this "Chell" guy is protected against psychic intrusion.
I guess the question is, is the existence of psychic ability common knowledge? Warp metal as weapons and implants certainly isn't, by the look of things, nor is extra-dimensional nano-bioweapons.
This doesn't seem like your typical "clean up on isle 7" operation.

>>5788504
Hmm... you are right...
Yeah, the station might be a mote of dust among the whole federation. Maybe Chell and his hit squad was meant to help smooth the operation but to also get rid of us! Too bad we won't know

https://youtube.com/shorts/4lnZfxZMQAc?si=--V8kE-Ok0mT_MmY

Would like these Astrophysicists to find David and find the space ship just doing its thing and talk with them for months only for the intelligence agencies of the West to find out randomly by a routine visit to one of their conferences.

>>5787549

After some consideration, you decide to pull a move straight from the US army handbook and adapt a videogame controller for use in something where lives are on the line.

The "Reality+ Full-Dive VR Kit©™", by Nano-Industries®.
Not so much a helmet as a box you strap to your head, it connects to the translation chip in your brain and transmits signals similar to what you'd see and feel from real life experiences, while suppressing your limb function so you don't go flailing around.

You did try to use one once since it sounded interesting, but it errored out almost instantly when you tried to connect to it.
Probably because your translation chip is some bootleg-ass black ops grey technology and whatever drivers it's using aren't publicly available or whatever.

But almost everyone else can use them just fine, and so you think they might serve as a good control mechanism.

Of course, you tested it out with your own crew first.
After a few hours of coding, SHODAN has the program mostly fleshed out. Sanig puts on the headset and uses it to connect to SHODAN's body.

After a few quiet moments, Sanig slowly opens his eyes and sits up from where he'd been laying on the floor in cargo... next to himself.

The first thing he does is grab SHODAN's titties and give them a squeeze.
You smack him over the head, resulting in a dull metallic thud.

"Huh. That... kind of hurt. But the pain is dull." He explains, unphased. "Real dull. Nothing like real flesh."

"Excessive pain would merely be a detriment." SHODAN tells him.

After testing his limbs a bit, he makes an effort to stand up and nearly falls over, but manages to balance himself.

"Damn, kid. This is what things look like from up here, huh? What a bunch of lanky bastards."

It feels really odd hearing him say that in SHODAN's voice.
You watch as he slowly walks around the room, getting his bearings. It's clear that he's not used to the length of his own limbs.

SHODAN is about your height, which means Sanig is currently twice as tall as he's used to.

"How's it feel?" You ask. "Think you could get used to it?"

"Eh, probably? These are kind of in the way..." He shrugs, jiggling SHODAN's tits up and down. "But something closer to my regular height would be better. That, and... There's a slight delay between action and reaction. Kinda makes me feel sick."

"Some processing has to be done to translate the signals from that body into code the Reality+ can recognize, which is then translated again into signals your brain can comprehend. There are inevitable losses."

Maybe if you had your own VR kit you could improve things a little, but you don't have time for that kind of development.
Whatever, you can't imagine it's much worse than VR back on earth, so it should be serviceable, at least with some practice.

"It's useable, though?" You try to confirm. "For the average person?"

>>5788828
>you can't imagine it's much worse than VR back on earth
What VR? The kind people use to jack off to futa giantess skyrim mods?Yes I know pilots helmets and cameras and bla bla, awesome...

Well it works! Let's go pplease please please aaaaaa

>>5788828
Simpler bots, less cycles between render and action

>>5788878
That too, we don't need a biped model full of complex bio-mechanical systems. A medium sized crane on threads will do just fine

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>>5788828
Damn, missed my cue for getting Nena or another AI into the station while overseas.
It's been great catching up on all this after a while away and excellent work as always CochraneQM.

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>>5788828

"Yeah, kid. I think this'll do fine. But we need to work out a quick and dirty design. Something that we can print in bulk, that won't use any special materials. No skin, no stomach, no lasers or full-spectrum optics... just the bare minimum."

"A simplified form would significantly cut down on processing time" SHODAN adds.

That's so weird. They're both speaking through her body, but the general tone and intonation is so different, you can immediately tell who's who.
Actually, you wonder if SHODAN isn't the one who caught him when he was about to fall earlier. It really didn't look like he had it, until he did.

Kind of an interesting idea, if you were to use that in your power armor... but, ideas for later.

The bare minimum... the bare minimum you need for work, huh?
Well, there's one classic design you have in mind.

...

Some more time has passed. The first reactor is finally online. Took a while to warm up, since SHODAN wanted to do a bunch of systems tests and ensure everything was working properly.
Simulations are one thing, but it's rarely that simple or easy in reality. And there were in fact a couple of loose wires that had to be fixed, but besides that everything worked right off the hob.

Even so, it'll take a while for the station to warm back to a reasonable level with just one reactor running. And by reasonable, you mean something like fifty degrees. Freezing cold by most species standards.
Once the second reactor is up and running, it should get back up to temperature in here. Until then, there's a lot more work to be done... but you won't be around for a lot of it.

"So these are what you came up with, huh?" Sanig says, arms crossed in contemplation.

"Roger, Roger." The robot before you says, saluting.

There's nobody actually controlling it right now, they just do that when they're powered on in standby mode.

It's a brass-colored, vaguely humanoid robot with thin limbs and a big utility pack strapped to it's back.
There's no other way to put it. It's a bootleg B1 Battle Droid. Almost purely utilitarian in both form and function.

It's got a radio. It's got a pair of decent cameras for eyes, microphones for ears, one speaker for speech... and that's about it, besides some pressure sensors on the hands and fingers.

The utility pack contains it's radio, an assistant VI and a large battery and capacitor that allows it to act as an external power pack.
There's also a supercapacitor in the body of the droid itself that allows it to run independently for a few minutes while it's swapping out utility packs.

It's joints are just servomotors, meaning the instant these things lose power they just crumple like a puppet with it's strings cut. They aren't even particularly high-powered servomotors.
It turns out you don't need much when the whole droid is just sheet metal with stainless steel tubes for limbs. These things can run for something like sixteen hours minimum on a single charge, it's crazy.

>>5789665
Glad you're enjoying it, anon!

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>>5789874
>Kind of an interesting idea, if you were to use that in your power armor... but, ideas for later.
Great minds and all that.

>>5789874
We have to name this one. The first one. How about BOB-1?

>>5789918
He has a model number and a unit designation on his chassis somewhere. Past that, the onboard VI can call itself whatever the fuck it wants.

>>5789874
Roger roger, bois

Man the tin foils on earth are gonna go nuts at George Lucas over this and half the referential memery we get up to
>HOW DID THE MOST SUCCESSFUL FRANCHISES ON EARTH GET THEIR INSPIRATIONS? FIND OUT NOW ON MODERN ALIENS

>>5789874
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mAqTXkDG4Rs

Blast, I love these clankers.

>>5789918
GR8-MA8

>>5790649
lmao

>>5789874

What's crazier is how quick and easy they are to print on an industrial nanofab. They come pre-packaged, folded up in little roller suitcases that make them easy to wheel around.
It takes about an hour to print ten of them. Hell, give each one a rifle and you've got an army on demand. You're honestly considering it.

More importantly though, right now you just need hands for the reactor work and cleanup effort.
After raiding what appeared to be the equivalent of a gamestop but with somehow even worse local reviews, you managed to grab a bunch of used Reality+ headsets from the shelves and warehouse.

After distributing them to some willing participants, you ran your first test of real civilians actually driving these robots.

You probably should have expected this, but it was a real shitshow. At least at first.
First off, half of the participants just vomited immediately upon making the connection and had to be rolled onto their sides to keep from drowning in it.

The nausea was solved with a bit of medicine, but the next problem was the delay between action and reaction.
Besides just causing nausea, people also seemed to struggle with accuracy in just about every regard.

More than seemed reasonably possible, from your perspective. You actually got pissed and yelled at them for fucking around, but it seems they really weren't.

Just trying to stand up was a monumental effort. It took some of them over an hour to get it right.
Then another whole day for them to start walking slowly.

One big complaint was "not being able to feel your limbs". To which you countered, they should be able to do so.

As it turns out, most aliens don't have very good proprioception. They can't tell where their limbs are in space, or how far they've moved them.
Normally this is dealt with by feeling their skin, hair or scales bunching up here or there, which gives them a vague idea of it.

So, the VI in their backpack will have to calculate that and send it back to their headset. You also tested an emulated version of your own real proprioception as modeled by SHODAN, but everyone said it was "too overwhelming".

So, now when you put on the headset, you have the option to select whether your skin is smooth, furry or scaly. It doesn't tell you why, but you have to select one.
Once that was included, the test subjects were able to stand and walk with relative ease, while those who managed to do so before the addition were now able to run and jump like normal.

Despite the apparently horrible sensation of nausea they had at first, the people serving as test subjects really seem to be enjoying the whole thing.
You'll regularly find them walking around camp, or even beyond the barrier walls outside of planned testing times. They just seem to enjoy piloting them.

What's more, they seem to have taken on the B1's signature phrase, "Roger, Roger." and keep using it almost every time they see one another. Even when not piloting one.

It's getting obnoxious.

>>5791650
>What's more, they seem to have taken on the B1's signature phrase, "Roger, Roger." and keep using it almost every time they see one another. Even when not piloting one.
Fuck guys, we forgot they were even more smooth brained than the circuit-heads they're piloting.

>>5791650
>It's getting obnoxious.
Welcome to the CIS Officer experience David.