Yeah, late I know. Work's been...well, work. Life is life. That and I forgot something.
Once more into the breach...
“…” – Normal Speech
- Radio communications
… […] - Foreign language [Translation]
… – Device Speech
~ … ~ - Thoughts
… – Spell casting
**32**
Frowning at the tricorder, A.C. turned back to the stripped down Lambda Driver equipped landmate she’d stolen. Putting together what she’d learned of the modifications to the mech to fit and use that device with what she had planned came up with several serious shortfalls in energy production and transmission, computing power and control, and thermal flow.
~ Damn it, looks like I’ll have to start raiding them again. ~ The cyberneticist thought glumly.
***
The Forge Crew watched (along with everyone else) as Team Peters went to a raiding strategy, hitting groups all over the map and stripping what the Mad needed for her project. Several times the left-overs were used to bait traps for further groups.
Every now and again, A.C. would let the rest of her team distract the Op-For as she worked on the Lambda Driver, modifying it to be worn by herself, before moving again to prevent the Op-For catching her.
***
It had been a long time since she’d needed to kludge together something like this, what with A.C. having the Forge at her disposal. On the other hand, finding this equipment dump was something she’d not expected from the stolen map.
Besides the ammo (prefilled magazines in boxes even) and enhanced weapons (smartguns as far as the eye could see), there were spare mage and Goa’uld devices (very useful), boxes of GEMs (not very useful at the moment), Covenant energy blades, grenades of various types, what looked to her as armour deployment pods (all empty, giving her a hint at the current thoughts of Op-For command), power packs, and various unopened boxes.
It screamed trap to her.
Of course they’d hide the bomb, but given that the jamming to hide that would also interfere with radio signals they’d either use lasers, or direct command via wires. Unless the monitoring A.I. was playing silly-buggers, the continuous small earthquakes would affect vibration triggers so those were out.
This meant surveillance.
She scanned around the area, looking for likely places for spotters, cameras, relays, passive sensors, or the disarm switch. There was nothing on the Op-For’s frequencies to indicate coms relays. In fact there was a general lack of radio signals, even if they’d completely changed their crypto schemes.
That didn’t make things any better. If the Op-For had upgraded to coms equipment that didn’t use the EM spectrum like some of the weirder ‘wavetech out there… Thankfully Interwave equipment was still FAR too large for individual use.
A.C. blinked as her neural interface’s wireless transceiver picked up distinctly artificial clicks in the background. Nodding to herself, she moved off towards where the clicks had come from.
***
Several minutes later, a pistol appeared from behind a wall. Underneath its barrel was a Smartgun system, allowing the user to take a look around without exposing themselves.
Satisfied they were clear, the pistol was withdrawn. Then a figure in a complete FESWAT armoured spacesuit emerged, long barrelled rifle at the ready. Sweeping cautiously for any sign of a counter trap, the figure moved forward, letting anyone experienced enough in martial arts watching to realise the figure was female from the way their weapons hung.
Carefully she kept to the edge of the clearing, using what cover there was available.
Deimos ploughed into the ground at their feet, sending the sniper flying.
Directly in to the middle of the trapped supply dump.
The female figure scrambled to get up and dashed at a rock to deactivate the bombs. Slumping in relief as she disarmed them, she felt a tap on her shoulder.
Turning her head, she saw a grinning Deimos floating at head height.
“Thanks!” The blue-clad fairy said cheerfully before slamming a roundhouse kick into the side of her helmet and tossing her to the ground. The guardian senshi then dropped a literal flying kick into the sniper’s gut, folding the larger figure around the blow and allowing the fairy to grab hold of her helmet with both hands.
“SLEEPING!!!”
The armoured figure slumped.
“HA! How’d you like them apples, huh?” Deimos crowed.
A load explosion sounded in the distance.
***
Natsuko woke up and growled at the memories as she sat up, given her internal clock said she’d been out for fifteen minutes. Then she noticed her lack of dress, being wrapped in packing cloth and automatically holding the fabric up.
The fabric crumpled in her hands as the Chief Inspector controlled her emotions. She’d selected Privacy Mode when she joined the Gauntlet, so she was using a generic female model as her appearance. A.C. didn’t know who she was, and wouldn’t even know she’d participated unless she looked up the records.
Given how messed up this Gauntlet was turning out to be, that was more than likely.
As she shifted, she felt something under her rear click.
“FU-“ She got out, then the universe filled with fire and noise momentarily before she hit the waiting room.
The holographic clock counted down like a stopwatch to the side of her load-out screen, but she didn’t notice as she turned the virtual air blue. It was just after her vocabulary, and just before the timer, ran out that her attention was caught on the message floating in front of her.
‘Congratulations! You have WON!
You have lasted longer than any other Opposing Force Member before dying. For this remarkable achievement you will now receive an upgrade!
May the rest of your game be enjoyable!’
~ Upgrade? ~ The android wondered as the respawn timer expired.
came the answer as a message in her head.
As I said to Rob when I asked permission to use Natsuko, now do you see why I though I needed Psi-Shields?
I'm getting short on buffer now. Hopefully I'll manage to stay ahead...
Once more into the breach...
“…” – Normal Speech
- Radio communications
… […] - Foreign language [Translation]
… – Device Speech
~ … ~ - Thoughts
… – Spell casting
**32**
Frowning at the tricorder, A.C. turned back to the stripped down Lambda Driver equipped landmate she’d stolen. Putting together what she’d learned of the modifications to the mech to fit and use that device with what she had planned came up with several serious shortfalls in energy production and transmission, computing power and control, and thermal flow.
~ Damn it, looks like I’ll have to start raiding them again. ~ The cyberneticist thought glumly.
***
The Forge Crew watched (along with everyone else) as Team Peters went to a raiding strategy, hitting groups all over the map and stripping what the Mad needed for her project. Several times the left-overs were used to bait traps for further groups.
Every now and again, A.C. would let the rest of her team distract the Op-For as she worked on the Lambda Driver, modifying it to be worn by herself, before moving again to prevent the Op-For catching her.
***
It had been a long time since she’d needed to kludge together something like this, what with A.C. having the Forge at her disposal. On the other hand, finding this equipment dump was something she’d not expected from the stolen map.
Besides the ammo (prefilled magazines in boxes even) and enhanced weapons (smartguns as far as the eye could see), there were spare mage and Goa’uld devices (very useful), boxes of GEMs (not very useful at the moment), Covenant energy blades, grenades of various types, what looked to her as armour deployment pods (all empty, giving her a hint at the current thoughts of Op-For command), power packs, and various unopened boxes.
It screamed trap to her.
Of course they’d hide the bomb, but given that the jamming to hide that would also interfere with radio signals they’d either use lasers, or direct command via wires. Unless the monitoring A.I. was playing silly-buggers, the continuous small earthquakes would affect vibration triggers so those were out.
This meant surveillance.
She scanned around the area, looking for likely places for spotters, cameras, relays, passive sensors, or the disarm switch. There was nothing on the Op-For’s frequencies to indicate coms relays. In fact there was a general lack of radio signals, even if they’d completely changed their crypto schemes.
That didn’t make things any better. If the Op-For had upgraded to coms equipment that didn’t use the EM spectrum like some of the weirder ‘wavetech out there… Thankfully Interwave equipment was still FAR too large for individual use.
A.C. blinked as her neural interface’s wireless transceiver picked up distinctly artificial clicks in the background. Nodding to herself, she moved off towards where the clicks had come from.
***
Several minutes later, a pistol appeared from behind a wall. Underneath its barrel was a Smartgun system, allowing the user to take a look around without exposing themselves.
Satisfied they were clear, the pistol was withdrawn. Then a figure in a complete FESWAT armoured spacesuit emerged, long barrelled rifle at the ready. Sweeping cautiously for any sign of a counter trap, the figure moved forward, letting anyone experienced enough in martial arts watching to realise the figure was female from the way their weapons hung.
Carefully she kept to the edge of the clearing, using what cover there was available.
Deimos ploughed into the ground at their feet, sending the sniper flying.
Directly in to the middle of the trapped supply dump.
The female figure scrambled to get up and dashed at a rock to deactivate the bombs. Slumping in relief as she disarmed them, she felt a tap on her shoulder.
Turning her head, she saw a grinning Deimos floating at head height.
“Thanks!” The blue-clad fairy said cheerfully before slamming a roundhouse kick into the side of her helmet and tossing her to the ground. The guardian senshi then dropped a literal flying kick into the sniper’s gut, folding the larger figure around the blow and allowing the fairy to grab hold of her helmet with both hands.
“SLEEPING!!!”
The armoured figure slumped.
“HA! How’d you like them apples, huh?” Deimos crowed.
A load explosion sounded in the distance.
***
Natsuko woke up and growled at the memories as she sat up, given her internal clock said she’d been out for fifteen minutes. Then she noticed her lack of dress, being wrapped in packing cloth and automatically holding the fabric up.
The fabric crumpled in her hands as the Chief Inspector controlled her emotions. She’d selected Privacy Mode when she joined the Gauntlet, so she was using a generic female model as her appearance. A.C. didn’t know who she was, and wouldn’t even know she’d participated unless she looked up the records.
Given how messed up this Gauntlet was turning out to be, that was more than likely.
As she shifted, she felt something under her rear click.
“FU-“ She got out, then the universe filled with fire and noise momentarily before she hit the waiting room.
The holographic clock counted down like a stopwatch to the side of her load-out screen, but she didn’t notice as she turned the virtual air blue. It was just after her vocabulary, and just before the timer, ran out that her attention was caught on the message floating in front of her.
‘Congratulations! You have WON!
You have lasted longer than any other Opposing Force Member before dying. For this remarkable achievement you will now receive an upgrade!
May the rest of your game be enjoyable!’
~ Upgrade? ~ The android wondered as the respawn timer expired.
came the answer as a message in her head.
As I said to Rob when I asked permission to use Natsuko, now do you see why I though I needed Psi-Shields?
I'm getting short on buffer now. Hopefully I'll manage to stay ahead...