XCAS R&D and Engineering Roleplay here

[Mouse Nightshirt]

This area is for the roleplay of research. Idea by Count_Vikernes

[Vikernes]

<< First of all, I'd like to thank my parents, who have support me all the way, the Commander for letting post here, Jacko for saving our ass about 10 times everysim because he is the magnet to the lobsters that are the enemy shots... and this is all bullcrap so let's get one with it! >>

 

Lying on the table before McBannok was an Ascadian Sniper Rifle. Next to the gun, on the same table, was a computer system. McBannok could see one picture of the weapon, with lots of colours and legends. The scrolling bar was near the end, so was the text he was reading.

 

A couple of minutes later, McBannok lifted himself from the chair, and he hear a bone-crack from his leg. The kind of crack made because of movement inactivity. He moved a bit arround, scratched his eyes, and drank a glass of water.

The Lab was well equiped, the computers were top-notch state of the art R&D weaponry. From the testing room next door, he could hear Derrick Ko shouting "GRENADE" from time to time, and a loud bang was heard. They were testing grenade efficiency.

As he walked back, he tryed to remember the whole report, which he had read three times now. The Ascadians had a very simple way of explaining things. They went right to the point, using basic language whenever they could. Instead of the hundreds of pages he was used to, the Ascadians had a twenty page report on the whole fun, and explained it perfectly well. Some parts did need a bit more thought, but, in general, it was much, much easier.

 

Pulling the chair forward, fitting it below the table, McBannok removed the Rifle from the computer table and moved it to the TechTable, left of the computer table. Once there, he turned on the lights above the table, and focused them on the gun.

 

Using two different gizmos, one for removing screws, and one LaserCutter 0,1mm he removed the plate covering the security sytem, the last remaining part to R&D before completion of the project. The Ascadians were nice enough to give us a little challenge for free...

Walking back to the computer system, McBannok grabbed a cable, which he plugged in the monitor, then, back at the weapon's security system. A bright green light went on at the end of the cable.

As he sat down in the chair, he opened an alien program emulator and translator (the translation part being done by the Commander himself):

 

"Haved access the ASR-110 program secure"

 

McBannok grinned as he saw the rest of the translations. Funny, and understandable, not quite gramaticaly correct though!

 

He plunged into programming and in-built "help manuals", which never actually helped much, since they were in graphical format, and the translation didn't work.

 

 

<< Sorry for the long post. The first ones usualy are! >>

[DragonHawk]

Captain Derrick Ko frowned as the computer showed yet another bank of results. Not quite yet... The explosion's characteristics were not quite the way he wanted. The energy being generated just wasn't enough... to suit him. It was good enough, but Ko was interested in getting the greatest bang he could get out of the material.

 

Sighing, Ko closed the file and moved onto a different project. Sitting down an his terminal, he brought up the data gathered from the activation of Ascidian fusion weaponry. The Ascidians were, understandably, somewhat hesitant to hand over their technology to X-Com. However, the Commander believed that if the technology could be made usable, if not perfect, then it would benefit the X-Com soldiers more than the pursuit plasma weapons.

 

Glancing over at the table with the sniper rifle, Ko called out, "McBannok, how are things going over there? Progress?"

 

*With this, I flee to Toronto for the weekend. Good weekends to you all!*

[Vikernes]

McBannok heard Ko, he turned and nodded, then, moved in to the firing range, sniper in hand, where he looked at McBenneth. McBenneth was gearing up... as soon as he was ready, McBannok gave him the weapon. Showing McBenneth 2 fingers, McBannok warned him that he should be firing in about two minutes, then he headed to the safe grounds. The Commander was already there, standing up, looking outside.

 

McBenneth had all the information he had on removing the security system and reseting it so that he could use it. First miss, one little electrical shot, second miss, a bigger one, third miss, unconscious for a couple of hours...

 

McBannok was ready, McBenneth was ready, and the Commander was ready. He pressed the big bright red button, and several red lights throughout the firing range went on. McBenneth looked at the gun, and started the procedure immediatly. Suddenly, he jumped. First miss...

After glancing to the safe grounds, he tried again... After a couple of minutes, he picked his ammo magazine, and plugged it hard into the Rifle. He proned, and started aiming. The target was as far away as they could manage, which still wasn't much for a sniper. It was a solid rock, of somewhat diminute size, to make it harder. Ten seconds aiming, and McBenneth pressed the trigger. The rock, suposedly very hard (a normal sniper would only rip a few miligrams of it), exploded.

 

The Commander let out a "Yes" and McBannok smiled. McBenneth couldn't handle himself and shot a couple more times at other targets, which practicaly desintegrated, but that was no problem, they would be taken from his salary.

[DragonHawk]

Ko stood by the Commander, watching the testing. A couple of observations needed to be made at this point...

 

First, too much time had been spent installing a security system that was unnecessary for a test piece. Still, the principle under which it worked was worth investigating... The briefing papers issued for the test mentioned a "miss" and a "hit" but made no reference as to whether this referred to the accuracy of the bullet or some form of jargon for the security identification. Ko made a mental note to ask McBannok later.

 

Second, the rock that was the target was not particularly uniform... The testing was not done properly, as far as Ko was concerned. Essentially what they did was to shoot an object off a post. The range was not particularly long, nor did they have any means of determining the variation caused by wind and environmental factors. The test hadn't really showed that much, other than that the rifle actually worked for three shots. Nothing about accuracy and (arguably) power had been determined. Kitat might be a good person to ask about such testing procedures.

 

Third, Ko made a note to talk to Ghost and Ong about the absurd lack of discipline displayed by Private McBenneth. His fire discipline was extremely poor... It would have to be remedied quickly.

 

Ko turned to McBannok. "McBannok, could you explain how the security system works?"

[Mouse Nightshirt]

Weindhoven looked upon the testing with some displeasure. He could sense that Ko wasn't all too happy either. He then walked off towards the door to NAO and entered.

 

A few minutes later, he was reading the breifings of progress so far by the research squad. He looked through the progress of the Inproved Grenades, in which his team so dearly wanted. Weindhoven sympathized. They'd been using Jury Rigged grenades from day one, and it was time that they had some Hi-Ex grenades on them. He then walked off to the initial stage project cabinet, and looked inside. Noting that Mobile Tracks was still in there, he took it out and moved it to the Current Project cabinet. After smiling to himself about some unknown topic, he left the lab.

[Vikernes]

McBannok was about to jump in happiness when he saw the looks on the Commander and Ko's face. He wondered what was wrong, but after a bit of thought, he assumed it was indeed the testing "hardness".

He wanted this test just to show if it actually worked, the problem was really the security system, the rest was Ascadian tech, what could go wrong?

 

Several weeks later, more tests had been made, outside, in storms, in space, and most possible conditions. Results were most satisfying, and the project was considered successful.

 

In the meantime, tests had been made on grenades. Physical perfection had already been handled by Ko, but it still needed a bigger blast. McBannok was sleeping one night, when he dreamed. He saw two golden masses, one glittering much more than the other. They slowly came closer and closer to each other. Then, something like lightning struck down, both the objects touched, there was the brightest light McBannok had ever seen, and he woke up, lying on the floor of the Sleeping Quarters, with a couple of other guys looking at him and laughing. He immediatly ran off to the lab. Currently, the grenade's explosion was done with Elerium... McBannok opened up a grenade, carefuly, left it on the table, got safety equipment on, grabbed a bit of Zrbite and prodded it inside the grenade, he looked arround... a lighter...he needed a lighter...

Miracle of miracles, there was one on the table. He picked it up, threw it on the ground, and jumped on it for a couple of times. He looked at it, grabbed the electrical shock maker, and put it inside the grenade too, linking it with a wire to the detonator so it would work. Good ol' lighters! I don't think Ko'll be very happy he left his here...

 

He rushed to the testing lab, turned on all scanners, whispered "fire in the hole", primed the grenade and threw it in... *tick tack... tick tack... tick tack... BOOM*. Red alert went off...

 

McBannok looked at the sensors... they went 20% over the normal Elerium Grenade... not bad for a carelessly handmade improvement.

 

Suddenly, the troopers blew to the door, and screamed... McBannok looked at them and: "Whoops..."...

[DragonHawk]

 

Also, marvel at the uselessness of X-Com engineering. It looks like Ko died at the appropriate time. McBannok is going to solve all the team's problems.

 

I need a person to roleplay... Think of this more as a short narrative, than a roleplay post. >>

 

Prior to the grenade testing and this wonderful time acceleration...

 

Anne Rallwell studied the test results of the sniper rifle test. The results looked very promising. Accuracy looked very good, as did power, although the tests were far from conclusive. More testing was in order, for sure. McBannok was certainly brilliant in terms of new inventions, but his analytical ability was a bit poor. Well, the good with the bad thought Rallwell. McBannok was a genius in his own right... very stereotypical of the mad genius - silent, brooding, and wild. At least he's working with X-Com instead of against.

 

Rubbing her eyes, Rallwell sighed and leaned back. The last mission had been a disaster, as far as she had heard. A number of the Kabron prisoners had been given a chance to prove themselves, but that particular experiment had proven to be unsuccessful. The idea of executing the prisoners was distasteful, but Rallwell couldn't think of anything else.

 

Rallwell regreted missing the last mission. X-Com had gotten lucky... with the amount of crap that hit the proverbial fan, the injuries sustained were nothing short of miraculous. Well, Jacko... But that was exceptional.

 

What had kept Rallwell in the base was something that had happened prior to the last mission. The Patton had been escorting a transport convoy en route to another Ascidian star system, but had fallen under attack by some Kabron Pirates. How they had gotten there was unknown, but they attacked quickly and managed to send the Patton down to Arkunis IX.

 

There, the X-Com team had succeeded in capturing many of the Kabron raiders, but not without cost. In the blinding white of Arkunis IX, Captain Derrick Ko had been killed.

 

No, Rallwell reminded herself, he's not really dead. But it was a bit of a technicality - he wasn't dead, but he couldn't be removed from stasis because of his rapidly deteriorating condition. Yorke had sent the body a secret location after his attempted surgery. Rallwell suspected that he had sent it to an Ascidian controlled medical facility somewhere else... For what reason, she did not know, but certainly the facilities did not exist at NAO to restore Captain Ko to life. Not a good trend, and in the back of her mind, Rallwell wondered if this was to be her fate as well. (Note: See the story where Elson Richmond is put into stasis)

 

With Ko's "death", Sergeant Ned Yorke had become the commander of the NAO's Department of Science. He himself took care of the administrative duties pertaining to the medical issues. Corporal Kitat Chung continued to take care of scientific research, delegating the appropriate duties to Yorke's medical personnel or to the engineering sub-department. Rallwell, herself the most senior engineer, was in charge of trouble shooting base issues as well as development projects within her team's realm of expertise.

 

The whole scientific division was a bit hazy. Really, there were only four people who were totally within the Department of Science. Yorke, Chung, Rallwell, and McBannok pretty much attempted to hold most of the research, because Silvermoon and Del Rodriguez were subject to more training with the rest of the troops. The loss of critical personnel such as Drake, Mordor, and Ryan were starting to take their toll as more and more demands were being placed on research and maintenance.

 

McBannok's research into the rifle technology was going reasonably well. His grenade project was just beginning. Kitat was focusing more on the complicated fusion weaponry that the Ascidians were using, as well as making a more in-depth study of the sniper rifle developed by McBannok. Yorke, as usual, continued to study the biologies of the aliens... Snakemen this week. Rallwell was currently attempting to merge her research duties with her new administrative tasks, but it was slow going. While they had tried to prepare for it, Ko's plan for seamless integration of Rallwell into the command structure left a bit much to be desired... And there was no way of doing anything about it now, other than to work as hard as possible.

 

"Hellllooooo?" The intercom buzzed to life.

 

"Yes, Daniel? What do you want?" Knowing him, he probably managed to break something...

 

"Yeah, the water cooler is clogged again... send someone down to fix it."

 

Rallwell sighed. The bloody water cooler... if they would just stop pouring their coffee there... "Again? Coffee?"

 

"Err... not this time. Actually, I think SFC has a hairball in there..." Jackson began.

 

"OK, enough. I'll send someone down." Rallwell cut the intercom and paged Kyle Silvermoon. It was his turn for to take the crappy job.

[Loonie]

Private Martin Kacur went over to the NAO Laboratory to see how the research was progressing. The lab looked quite empty as only two people were operating in it on a daily basis: Ki-Tat Chung and Yorke. Although he was glad that the engineering department was relieved, since the recent Cryopod gamble was a success (see Role-Play, my last post for info) and Rallwell finally completed her tour of duty with the Ascidian High Council, the Laboratory still looked rather empty to him.

 

"But in a while that would change..." he thought to himself as the Commander was at that very moment reviewing Kacur's position for a possible switch from secondary Scout to secondary Scientist.

 

<<Just a little narrative to inform Mouse of DHs and my request >>

[DragonHawk]

Private Anne Rallwell sat petting her friend, Chris Drake. "You know what I'm thinking, right?" The bunny nodded, wandered off towards the drinking bottle.

 

Drake was still a sentient, just in rabbit form. He was still of some use... Sometimes he delivered messages, or tried to point things out to scientists, but most of the time (when he wasn't around Rallwell), he tended to sulk a bit. Not that anyone could blame him.

 

Giving Drake a final pat on the head, Rallwell stood and walked back towards her office. Paperwork was eternal... How that could be, with so few engineers... Still, everything had to be organized, and Rallwell now had to handle all of it, including Medical and Research departments.

 

As she sauntered across the engineering bay, she saw Private Kacur passing by on his way to the laboratory.

 

I wonder where he's going...?

[Loonie]

<<Well, now that I'm a secondary Scientist.................hehe >>

 

Kacur entered the laboratory so that Ki-tat Chung could familiarize him with the entire resources at their disposal. It was now official! Seeing as how the X-Com team desperately needed scientific personnel, Kacur's request for a position change went almost without any complaints by Richter and so he was quickly placed into secondary Scientist position. "At least now following all of those school lessons and reading all of those books is going to pay off." he contemplated. Although he was obviously not a fully trained Scientist he would nevertheless prove invaluable as Ki-tat's assistant.

 

"Okay. For now the best solution would be that you just learn from what I do. I have already managed to fully research Fusion Weaponry and a large part of the Psionic Probe, so lets just finish on that one, shall we?"

 

"Sure, have we gone to the stage of beta testing it yet?"

 

"Actually we have even managed to reach alpha, but we still need confirmed readings from a Psionisist, so that you really could help out quite a bit more.

 

-----------------

 

A few hours later Kacur was sitting in a dark room. Seated in a room besides him was Jackson, who was chosen specifically because of his low Psi defence. As Kacur activated a button on the device in his hands, he felt as if his consciousness was moving through space with perfect ease. He quickly looked inside Jacko's head and examined his feelings, his memories,... He suddenly heard Ki-tat's voice calling "disengage" and he released the button on the device.

 

Chung went to one of the monitors and looked: "All mental signs look good, your brainwaves were fluctuating at the predicted level. Are you feeling a bit nauseous in any way?"

 

"No I feel just fine, although I think I could have gone deeper, but the probe didn't allow it somehow. I still think it can be perfected, but otherwise it's looking pretty solid."

 

Kacur felt quite proud of himself at that moment. Now he wouldn't just help X-Com in battle but in the hard support work as well.

[Loonie]

<<This event takes place just before we left NAO>>

 

Kacur entered the interrogation room - a small room located in the alien containment section, where the Kabron Pirate Commander was seated.

 

"Oh blimey! Look who they've sent to scare me! So what are you sonny, a bell boy? You certainly have the build of one, HAH"

 

Kacur didn't say a word as he slowly seated himself in the chair opposite of the pirate. He gazed very deeply into the Commander's eyes, trying to sense his most primal fears, even though his anti-psionic implants were not making it easy.

 

"Quiet type eh? Well your high minded tricks won't do a damn good against my implants, matey."

 

Suddenly the Psionisist smiled as he had gotten his information. If the pirate closed his eyes and concentrated on not showing his fears, Kacur doubted that he would have achieved much. But such an over-confident person always falls prey to a simple psionic probe. He remembered the recent Psionic Probe project as being complete, however several units were still to be manufactured. But it did not matter at the moment as Kacur got up from the table and pointed a Psi-Amp at the Commander.

 

"Shall we begin?" he asked with a wicked smile on his face. The pirate fearfully looked at his scar, which suddenly began glowing brightly. He was not in for a pleasant experience.

 

--------------

 

"So what did you retrieve from the Commander's interrogation?" asked Ki-tat

 

"Well, I think it's pretty safe to say that the psionic implants didn't fool me. He honestly believes that the current date is January 8th 2067. I managed to break him enough to even get the precise time: 15:52 at the time when I questioned him, which is 3 hours and 2 seconds ahead of our time. I also sensed no special anomalies in his brain, meaning that he couldn't have been made to believe this information, either by entering a coma or being brainwashed in any way. I think that it is pretty safe to say that the date truly is three years ahead of what we thought it was."

 

"I couldn't argue with that, since their Avenger logs indicate the same date. There is also a strange anomaly that is logged in the Avenger's computer that seems to coincide with your story. I've already calculated the time difference and there is something very peciluar. At the Kabron's date, which would translate into our date of 23rd of November, the computer logged the time perfectly normally. However at exactly the time difference of 3 hours and 2 seconds ahead of our time, the computer seriously slowed down the time counting for a moment, but after a second or so continued to record the time normally. The difference was EXACTLY 3 hours and 2 seconds, just what you've told me."

 

Ki-tat raised an eyebrow at Kacur, who began to realise what this meant.

 

"Time compression?"

 

"Exactly."

 

"But how? I thought it was only possible in parallel universes and even that was unconfirmed."

 

"To be perfectly honest I don't know exactly how either, although it could have a relation to Sol's distance to the galactic core and our distance to the core. Anyway we'll continue onwards regardless."

 

Kacur felt very intrigued at this phenomenon, as various thoughts began to spark inside his head. Although intense research of this anomaly would certainly bring new laws in astrophysics and cosmology, he knew that him and Ki-tat would have to restrain themselves from going too far, as the team needed their research expertise in other areas at the moment.

[DragonHawk]

Privates Anne Rallwell, Gael McBannok, and Duke McCarthy stood in the middle of the engineering bay, gazing silently at the three piles of metal heaped on the floor. Two looked like hi-tech scrap, but the third "pile" was easily identifiable - an Alien Sectopod.

 

Rallwell sighed. "At least we have one good sample - the other two are not particularly useful..."

 

McCarthy nodded vigorously, but McBannok shook his head. "Not true, there's still a great deal we can get from those parts. An in-depth study of materials, function... It might aid the remote tank chassis project, and get it off of that dusty storeroom shelf..."

 

"Good point Gael. Duke, you think these are reconstructable?"

 

McCarthy shrugged. "I don't know, but I would hazard to guess that it's not very likely, considering the condition that Necro and Howardson left these in..." He gestured to various fragmented parts.

 

"We might be able to reconstruct certain pieces. For example, the legs on both Sectopods seem to be in reasonable condition... or we can at least use parts from one to patch the other. We might even be able to reactivate and reprogram the more intact unit. But that would be a project in itself," stated McBannok confindently.

 

Rallwell sighed. These projects were so involved. How am I expected to accomplish this stuff when I've got other things to do? Granted though, this work would be far more interesting. However, matters of survival were starting to make themselves known. Someone (Rallwell suspected it was Necro) had clogged the toilet again. One of the engineers would have to supervise that. Then, the ammunition line in the engineering bay was starting to act finicky... As far as Rallwell could tell, one of the parts that was acquired from the Ascidian supplier was not as tough as was thought previously... the hydraulic fluids for the system were also not really sufficient to do the job. The reactor needed more material. The third reactor was starting to get a bit inefficient. The armoury stock was unknown, someone needed to count that. Lots of jobs, little time.

 

Sighing again, Rallwell walked up to the intact Sectopod, studying it carefully. Analysis for this machine was going to be tough. Lots of parts... Surprisingly, not much in the way of electronics, at least, not as much as she thought there should be. Housed in a single location probably.

 

"It would be nice if we could get some help," said McCarthy. "Jackson maybe? The Captain could help, if he was around."

 

Rallwell and McBannok both grinned. "Absolutely not Jackson," McBannok said. "We want to keep this one intact. And forget Ko, he's pretty fargone, even if the rumours of him being alive are technically true. Besides, his computer skills and mechanical skills were proficient, but probably not as good as any of ours."

 

McCarthy gaped. "How could you say that about a superior?"

 

Rallwell laughed lightly. "It's true. He took care of the chemical systems. By their nature, yes, a great deal of mechanical knowledge was required, but there are some specialized things that he doesn't know. Look, in X-Com, we don't BS each other. Respect is first and foremost, but each person has to know their strengths and weaknesses. The Captain encouraged this free expression."

 

McCarthy just shook his head in wonder.

 

McBannok walked to the first pile of 'scrap'. "Cataloging first... shall we start?"

[Ion Mage]

<<for more info on this, check my recent RP post>>

 

 

Howardson walked into the engineering department. He couldn't get very far into it, with his lack of security clearance. Therefore, he just dropped a little note onto Anne Rallwell's desk, thinking she was most likely to read his message.

 

<<no, its not a love note . More info in the RP thread >>

[Loonie]

Walking towards the laboratory, Kacur was thinking through the problem at hand that was recently assigned to him: How to effectively improve the Patton's shielding? The ship was otherwise pretty resilient, but times were changing quite rapidly. When the Commander went through the recent missions, he noticed how often the Patton had crashed or had been disabled. First the mission when the X-Com team encountered the Kabrons, then when it was almost destroyed by a UFO headed by Floaters. Apart from that there were other incidents in the past and he must've felt that it was about time to give the team better protection whilst they were transported to the target area.

 

As Kacur went to the lab access door he noticed a note from Howardson being on Rallwell's desk. Being an honorable person he decided not to poke his nose in things that weren't his bussiness, although he still did wonder what it was about. He noted that Rallwell recently started hitting on Howardson with names like "Howie", but it didn't necceserally mean that Howardson is sharing her feelings.

 

As he accessed the lab door with his card, he stepped inside to meet the somewhat bruised Chung. Apparently the recent throw from Cu'rag'us was still apparent to the naked eye.

 

"Hiya, Chung. C'mon lets get to work, I've already finished several likely approaches to our work and I would like your opinion on them, okay?"

 

Ki-tat slowly sat down on a chair. "Sure, go ahead."

 

"The first is the simplest of all. In order to improve our shield we would require a larger generator using the same principles as we already have. So we would simply enlarge the shield generator room and add the new thing. This is the simplest method and won't take us much time..."

 

"Well it might not take us long, but it would definately take the engineering team a hefty amount of time to re-adapt the Patton. And since we're already over-worked that one can therefore be scratched. Next?"

 

"The second possibility is to request permission from the Blue Skulls to view their latest shield designs. Based on them I am certain that we will be able to develop a similar design to fit it on the Patton."

 

"That would be possible, though I think that it should be used as a last resort. We are currently quite indebted to them as it is as far as tech is considered."

 

"Well then the last option is my favourite and also quite possible. It is to try and base it on alien technology. During the mission Hazardous Recon we have managed to recover from those data disks a hefty amount of info, not just about the alien's biological experiments there, but also about their latest Electro-Plasmic shields. The info is quite complete, in fact so much, that the research difficulty would be only medium. If we preformed several experiments to test those conclusions and completed the missing gaps, we would have a very useful peice of technology indeed."

 

"That sounds the most agreeable option. Well then let's get to work"

[DragonHawk]

>>

 

Private Rallwell yawned as she walked into the engineering bay. The previous night had been a bit hectic. The third reactor had started to act up, so the engineers had spent a good six hours troubleshooting, and hopefully, trouble-solving as well. Their fix had worked, but there were always more problems.

 

Frowning, Rallwell walked to her desk, and picked up the sheet of paper on it. Howardson's neat handwriting was on it. Scanning it, Rallwell sighed. Another equipment modification request. This one was interesting though. Howardson had requested that the autocannons be made more powerful. He suggested the use of an explosive shell.

 

Rallwell massaged her temples. It was only 11:00, but she could already feel a headache in the works. More tasks, always coming, never stopping. Rallwell thought, It's all well and good that those lazy buggers in the Research division have loads of free time, but what about us poor souls in Engineering? She grinned, remembering that line to use on the next scientist she saw. The rivalry continued. Poor McBannok, he was pretty much caught in the middle. Rallwell laughed quietly to herself and then sat down.

 

More power... What was the request actually asking? Overtly, yes, more power, but what drove that request? Something was in Howardson's mind. Something he thought was not right. He didn't make requests without thinking about them.

 

His request for explosive tipped ammunition was an interesting one. Could it be done? Yes, it could be, but maybe not with a useful amount of force. That could be investigated. Could the existing shell be thrown out with more force? Possible.

 

Rallwell grinned as some of the Captain's advice came back to her. It was not actually advice, but it had been from one of his peptalks (Rallwell and Silvermoon had thought of them as rants). "Why the f*** does everyone want more power these days?" Ko had said, giving his engineers a fishy stare. "Power, power. We want more umph. We want to go faster. Farther. Everyone wants more umph."

 

"Who says this is the best solution? The problem: More power. The solution: more force? Nonsense. Utter bulls***. Any punk with a skunk can utter that, but we aren't around to give them more explosives to play with. Remember, we are here because resources are LIMITED. Anyone can buy a new part, but we as engineers are required to find EFFICIENT solutions. We do NOT use some 'brute force' method for solving problems. We are engineers, scientists. There has to be eloquence in our solutions. Investigate everything INTERNAL to the system, not just the outside factors. You want your car to go farther? The solution is not to give it more gas. You look at streamlining, you look at weight, you look at efficiency, but by no means, do you only look at the fuel it can carry. We must do the same here."

 

So, what was the solution here, other than to put more powder into the shell? Certainly, that could be done. Indeed, it may be possible to move to a caseless ammunition, thus saving other material costs. Alternatively, they could use a harder material, reshape the shell to resist more impact before crumpling, and spin the shell on entry to increase the lethality. Odd that it wasn't done now... As Ko had said, humanity was relying on brute force methods as technology advanced.

 

Other solutions... Rallwell sat down to do some hard brainstorming.

[Mouse Nightshirt]

Weindhoven walked into Engineering, and looked at all the engineer hard at work. He stood there for a second before walking over to Rallwell to ask for an update.

 

"Rallwell, I've had word through that the aliens might be launching a ship offensive in the near future, and that the Black Skulls want the Patton for a week or so. When do you estimate that this shield project could be finished? I've looked over your work brief so far, and the increase in protection would be nice, but if this could be ready within, say two weeks, I'd be very pleased. So how about it?"

[Loonie]

<<Tut tut tut DH. Don't you know that I was roleplaying my CHARACTER hmmm? >>

 

After completing another set of tests with Ki-tat, Kacur finnaly left towards his bunk. On his way though he noticed Richter heading inside engineering and decided to follow in order to see if there was anything that he could help with. After he heard Richter request he heard Rallwell start:

 

"Well, currently the research boys, one of them behind you, are apparently taking their sweet time in drawing up and testing their theories. We would very much like to start implementing this thing, but until we get their designs we'll just have to continue refining our Sectopod corpse research <<curtesy of that still being on the current research roster >>."

 

Upon hearing this Kacur decided to respond quickly before the science department's reputation was noted as slow:

 

"Sir we are almost done with our designs on the shield technology. The alien's data disks, however, needed to be correctly deciphered in order to make sure that the shield tech wouldn't bring the Patton to yet another premature end. Ki-tat and me just have to preform two more experiments and we'll be done. Expect our research and plans to be done by the end of this week."

 

"Great. That gives us about a good week to fit this thing in. I've got a nasty feeling we'll be working overtime here."

 

"But not just the Engineering division Rallwell, Kacur you and Ki-tat are to scrap your free time in order to finish this project ASAP. After you are done you'll have some extra free time anyway, now find Ki-tat and tell him to get back to work."

 

A tired voice came out of Kacur's lips: "Yesss sir." and with that he left to find Ki-tat in the Personnel quarters.

 

"Just our luck"

[DragonHawk]

Too bad I don't have that log, I think.

 

Oh well, it's not like my experience with the females of our species is anything to brag about. Nerd alert, nerd alert! >>

 

Rallwell frowned as the Commander and Private Kacur left the engineering bay. The Commander had an agenda, that was for certain. Rallwell made a mental note to harass Ghost or Ong sometime later. They might know what was in store. Kacur's sharp answer to the Commander's question indicated to her that the Research department, if not Kacur in specific, was worried about the political angle of the whole deal. Unfortunate, thought Rallwell, but very human.

 

The shield tech would not be done in a two weeks, certainly. As optimistic as Kacur was, the reality was that there was always something unplanned. Maybe Research was doing a good job on the shielding theories, but Chung never mentioned the specific progress of the project in any of the meetings. He probably didn't want to make any commitments, which was fair; research was difficult and even though a path of research might look fruitful...

 

Rallwell massaged her temples and thought. She didn't want to unleash some half-baked shield model onto the team, but it didn't look like she had a choice. It wasn't a problem to boost the shield power. The current shielding could be boosted to the requirements set forth for the new system. There was some questions on how long it would last though. McBannok felt that the system would not break down easily, while Rallwell thought that the system could only last possibly twenty, thirty minutes. Rallwell's estimate was based on some unknowns and some assumptions though, including the power strain on the existing generator and the shield force projector system, which she believed placed some repulsive stresses on some of the ship's electrical components. Unknowns, of course, as the stresses were not related linearly to the power output and shield strength.

 

Her work on the bullet improvements had been somewhat successful. Schmerjchanikov's UFO assault team had reported that the penetration was significantly improved, but the resulting damage was less due to the lack of deformation of the bullet. Essentially, it was useful as an armour piercing round. Useful against the Ascidians and heavily armoured troopers, perhaps, but less useful against lightly armoured, softer targets. To damage those, the standard round did a better job - after impact, the bullet would flatten out and spin, creating a larger internal and exit wound.

 

She filed that project aside and opened the folder containing the shield tech documentation. Unfortunately, Kacur did not tend to record information on the system, making the documentation somewhat sketchy, but Chung's data looked promising. Another couple of weeks, and maybe this thing will be built.

 

Rallwell's mind drifted to the other members of the united Science detachment. Sergeant Yorke had been working hard on his Snakeman project as of late. Rallwell herself had helped him conduct some of the post autopsy experiments. Without the constant stream of flooded troopers, he had been able to immerse himself in his research.

 

Gael McBannok had immersed himself in the nearly completed Sectopod project. He had joyously (relatively speaking, of course) explored its various connections. His off-time was mostly spent with his old friend from training, Joey McBenneth.

 

Corporal Kitat Chung was working almost exclusively on the shielding theory. At heart, he was more of an experimentalist, so it seemed. He preferred testing and collecting data instead of deriving theoretical relations using obscure equations. In this particular case though, Chung and Kacur had opted for the theoretical approach.

 

Private Martin Kacur's mind was a rapid access file to much scientific knowledge. He complimented Chung well; Kacur's strength seemed more towards theory. Like Chung though, he had the scientist's viewpoint of perfection. The both of them were working on perfecting their theories, but since her usurption of McBannok for the sectopod project, she wasn't so sure whether the theory could be put into practice.

 

Private Duke McCarthy had not actually spent much time with the science detachment. He had spent more of his time with Corporal Paul, refining their hacking skills. The times McCarthy did show, he was mostly involved in base maintenance and trouble-shooting.

 

Rallwell absently looked over the shield tech files again... On second pass, it looked better. It actually looked plausible. Still, it wasn't likely to get done soon. Even if it was put onto her desk, the complete theory, tomorrow, it still wouldn't be fast enough. Rallwell doubted that the design would be an easy modification of the current system - McBannok had already explored those options that he had considered.

 

Smiling, Rallwell closed the folder and returned to the autocannon power upgrade. If there was anyone that could solve the shield tech problem, it was Chung and Kacur. They were co-operating well, and would finish up as soon as they could. No point worrying about it until the time came.

 

The Commander's words came drifting into her consciousness. "...you'll have some extra free time anyways..." Rallwell permitted herself a small laugh. Free time? What was that?

[DragonHawk]

Leaning back, Rallwell just gazed up at the ceiling. Twiddling her pencil, she closed her eyes and breathed deeply. It had been roughly a week and a half, since the Commander had ordered the shield tech project to finish. The first theory set had just been put on her desk. Great, Rallwell frowned. Three days to get the theory refined and workable, in addition to the time it will take to modify the generator... or build a new one.

 

The principles looked brand new, and Rallwell had some trouble following them. Fortunately, the pair had highlighted the functional formulas, so she paid more attention to those than the derivation formulas. It took her a couple of passes through the report to get an idea of how it was going to work.

 

Part of the shield generator could be conserved for the new system. It would have to be replaced eventually, but until then, the generator system would produce enough energy, if at a greater level of stress. The shield projector could be saved, partially, but some components would have to be replaced. Replacing the whole thing would save a lot of waste energy, but right now that wasn't a time-viable option. Field strength would be affected quite a bit, but it would be a small improvement, until the real thing were built. At least, she hoped it would be enough.

 

The energy transfer manifold would have to be replaced, as would the power grid arrangement on the projector. The cooling system was completely useless and would have to be replaced. What sort of cooling...? Some supporting machinery would have to be replaced as well... The current system utilized a fair amount of hydraulics, unlike the new system. Capacitors, computer interfaces...

 

The list goes on and on... Rallwell sighed again, and logged into the world infonet. She was going to have to find some contractors... she only hoped that the translator developed by Weindhoven and Howardson would be sufficient.

[Loonie]

<<

Oh well, it's not like my experience with the females of our species is anything to brag about.

 

Note the "females of OUR species". Makes you wonder... >>

 

Kacur was once again in the lab, though this time his scientific counterpart Chung was away, leaving him to review the Shield project once again. Shields, shields, shields.......he had the word ringing in his head by now. How long was the Commander going to insist on fine tuning this thing?? The Engineering Departement also wanted more thorough processing and verification of the theories, but it could only go on for so long. Rallwell had one heck of a time of making the thing work though and McBannok was also called in to assist her, having finally finished his Sectopod corpse research, whilst McCarthy was employed for solving hardware issues concerning the shields' connection to the Pattons' main computer system along with once again troubleshooting issues concerning the software. Guess his secondary Hacker position made him a natural at that task...

 

Yorke had also completed the Snakeman corpse autopsy and was currently completing collecting data and preparing another autopsy on an Ethereal specimen, though that would take some additional time as the venerable Doctor didn't want to risk another mind control incident. Kacur wondered how long it would take for it to show up in the UFOpaedia. He had requested Rallwells assistance once again during the Snakeman autopsy, which was quite predictable since she was the only other Medic in the group though even she was only a secondary one. In fact Kacur really wished that another Medic could be thawed out soon, since Yorke was truly getting more and more strained with his work.

 

"Ah well. I do wish that we'd move on from this shield tech though since we're really just repeating ourselves here. There are plenty of other projects that need to be researched badly, like the Small Launcher to give Yorke some extra equipment for a change..."

 

But still Martin knew that the shield technology would be essential in the long run and thus he regained his concentration as he returned to formulating yet another possible theory about the Patton shield design...

[Loonie]

<<per chance would DH like to start this topic up again? And Yorke has also gone back in swing (or so I think, correct me if I'm wrong, heh ) so he can certainly post about the aliens he researches and suchlike here too. >>

 

Kacur just scratched his head as he considered the events that had transpired. Command was really busy for him so he had little time to devote to psionics and science, still he did manage relatively well. The Stun Launcher had been researched and now was the time to look into the X-Terminator missiles that were currently under research.

 

Their demand had arrived from Jason due to the first mission in the campagin where he could've stopped a UFO that he was pursuing simply by locking on a missile and firing. As it was he had to use lasers to knock it out, but that would change soon enough, thought Kacur.

 

Now how should one approach this problem? The Ascadian missiles had a nice solution to this already, though Kacur thought he could certainly do better. For one thing X-Com craft had much better targeting suite than the Ascadians, which allowed for a more tenacious missile and one that could stand up to the latest Wraith class UFOs of the aliens. The electronics package could be derived from theirs and with Daedalus suggestions Martin was sure they could improve it for sure. The missile would not be too manuverable perhaps, but it would nonetheless track its target for a very long time, forcing the targeted craft to at least dodge it constantly, which would allow Jason to take it out using Laser or Plasma Cannons.

 

That was it, it seemed, Now they would just have to get to work on it, something that Kacur found hard to do these days. He even had to keep Ki-tat as head of the Science department since he just had too much work currently. The moment Martin got comfortable in his position though, he would gain more spare time and could afford to focus on this more and also on psionics. He just hoped it would be soon.

[DragonHawk]

>

 

Rallwell frowned heavily as she and McBannok looked up at their new shielding generator. The piece was a monstrosity. This was a test piece as well, for the most part. It could be wired into the ship, but it's durability was certainly in question, not to mention the valuable cargo space it would be displacing. It would probably do for a few months though...

 

Rallwell and McBannok were stationed in a Ascidian prototype facility, some four thousand miles away from NAO. The hangar simply did not have space to spare for the building of the prototype, nor the machines required to assemble the project. Parts had been manufactured and shipped into the facility from about a dozen different engineering and machine shops all over the continent, as well as a technicians, software analysts, and other tradesmen.

 

Each of the human engineers had two interpreters following about, helping them to issue instructions and otherwise interface with the Ascidian population. Rallwell felt she was picking up a bit of the language, but the pronounciation of most of the words still eluded her.

 

Rallwell looked over at McBannok and asked, "Well, the shield is running, any problems on the software side?"

 

McBannok's eyes were on the monitor in front of him. "No, everything looks according to plan here... A bit of extra heat up by manifold four though... Maybe it's starting to get clogged up? It's not yet critical though."

 

"OK, let's up the energy. Half way to full strength." Her translators shouted at the technicians half way up the machine.

 

The hum became more audible as the shield generator powered up. Rallwell could imagine the energy flowing through the system... She could also imagine something going wrong, but pushed that outside of her mind.

[Loonie]

*WHIIIIIIIIIRRRRRRR*

 

"Oh yes! This is phenomenal! The RPM is much smoother not to mention these new explosive rounds. They really will be a treat."

 

"Heh, glad you like it Howardson. Just remember, we have a limited supply of these rounds so you won't be getting them by the dozens. Most likely you'll get only one rack per mission usually, so remember to use them only when targeting either groups of aliens or aliens resistant to AP rounds. Tell Necro to do so as well."

 

"You got it Martin"

 

And with that the Heavy Weapons Expert left towards the practice range to try out the latest Autocannon version. Martin felt really good that he and Ki-tat had managed to come up with a solution to the problem of creating explosive rounds that perhaps even the legendary Derrick Ko would have found impressive. <<Hahah! >>

 

At first it was thought that zrbite could be used just as it had been when creating the improved grenades were invented by McBannok, however the zrbite demands were beginning to press a bit and a different way was more desired. Instead one of the simplest explosive units called nitroglycerin would take its place.

 

A healthy dose of this volatile element, which has been known to explode when subjected to rapid kinetic strains, was to be put, together with a tiny amount of zrbite for the explosion's amplification, in a specially designed casing made out of the softest material that X-Com could find, except of course at its base. When the round was fired the base, which was strong enough to withstand the explosive reaction and suppress it, would hold out and the bullet would be ejected as normal. However when it hit any target whatsoever it would hit it with its soft nose, which would always compress, thereby squeezing the nitroglycerin inside the shell. The result was an explosion that, amplified with the heavy zrbite, would be quite devastating for all but the most hardened alien foe.

 

Martin didn't like so much that he had made another instrument with which life could be taken more effectively, as he liked the ingenuity of the entire thing. He smiled to himself and returned back to work, sending the preliminary data about the Muton Corpse to Ned Yorke, who would properly process it later.

[Loonie]

Martin listed through an old thing which he believed people used to call a "blueprint plan". Such things were quite unneeded these days though, since computer pads and programs could nowadays quite easily simulate the design and all of the tiniest specifications to the best detail in full 3D. All one had to do was plug in the micro CD and he would have all the info displayed in front of him. But as it was Martin was forced to try and make heads or tails of this strange blue peice of paper. He didn't understand the markings at the sides completely and he thought just how hard it used to be a designer or an architect.

 

Rallwell just walked in rather cheerily and Martin turned in his chair rather embarrased towards her. It would seem that his old fear of the opposite sex was not quite gone, though it did get quite a bit better by then.

 

"Um,...do you know what the person who designed this meant? I can make the tails of it, but not the heads. Can you help me out here a bit?"

 

Rallwell glanced over the plans as she moved next to Kacur. She quickly responded: "Yeah sure. I know how to program this info so that you'll have it all in a micro CD in no time." she said as she swiftly took the plans from Kacur's hands and began to input the info into the computer.

 

"Quite interesting this concept of laser tech though, isn't it?" Martin tried to desperately strike up a conversation about the plans which she was right now typing in. He leaned on the table with his two hands right next to her as he watched her input the info into the CD.

 

"Mhm. It's interesting that all we needed was a strong enough and compact power source. The other things were pretty much straight forward. We've been trying to make a laser that could withstand the atmospherics and would not dissapate over time. This would allow us not only to make a laser beam that wouldn't lose its strenght over time, but also would enable us to outfit the Heavy Laser with a sniper scope, making it a most interesting choice for our snipers."

 

Martin listened in, though only halfway. He couldn't help noticing two half-spherical objects that he could see from his point of view a bit too clearly than what Rallwell would've wanted him to. He shook his head and did his best to regain concentration, trying to think about the laser tech. "The drab, boring and totally unprovoking laser tech" he said to himself out loud.

 

"Huh?" Rallwell turned to the side as he said that and stopped typing.

 

"Um.....nothing. Please continue."

 

"That's it Martin. I'm done."

 

"Oh! Well...okay thanks for helping out."

 

<<Tag DH. Develop this in any way you like. I promise though that I'll keep my next post more technical and scientific next time. >>