<> < us and Kyle begin work on that, while Zeke and Lexi, with the help of Termite and Galia, and almost certainly under Tia's watchful eye. begin assembly of the tone generator. Tomas, along with Stephen, work on getting dinner for everyone, as it's getting late.>> < is, who goes first, and what will you do once you get there? (Go!)>> (As a warning, Cham, we have a bad, hailing thunderstorm going here.) (Last time this happened at this time of night, we had a blackout that lasted until morning.) (Oh good. It's hailing again) (._. Well, stay safe either way) (Wow, a whole night of not being stabbed in the face?) (Everything's coming up Zekehouse!) * Tomas is off to the side running the omelet bar. (Make me one with everything. :D) (ZEN BEAM *zaps Cham*) ( * Tomas repeatedly stabs skyward.) (What is this, Zelda 2?) (Arwen's feeding the cat. She forgot) (Also this storm is getting worse. But hopefully it'll just blow over fast like the one earlier) <> (I'm making omelets.) (step 1, kidnap chickenbot, step 2, tone-based rock band, step 4, profit) (With flamethrowers) (A TRULY OUTRAGEOUS PLAN) (I have bacon and sausage and green peppers and tomatos and earthworms and onions and cheddar cheese and vanilla pudding and all sorts of other yummy mixins.) (Oooh, do you have ice cream?) * Zeke spent the night outside, his drones deployed. It was a fine night to be a young and available chainjumper. As people organize in the morning, he sits down at the Table of Planning, manipulating his pad before he even got there. (I can't imagine any plan going forward until we know what the tone does/might do) (Yeah, that's kinda a big unknown: all we think right now is that it's a big Duekti repulsion field.)( (Or something like that.) (If only we had a pocket duekti to try it out on.) (Well, there's two places you're likely to find them right now, and one of them is known to be stocked with nukes.) (Three places! We could revisit our favorite 5 planets.) (Also true.) (Well, or try to and find out they're interdicted.) (ANYWAY.) (How long do we estimate to run up the chain?) (You don't actually know how far it goes.) (Yeah, we can't really know that.) (But given known star charts, you'll run out of time after hitting seven planets.) (If it's going to be 15 hours to go up the chain, we can't very well make a pitstop.) (Well, we don't _need_ to go up the chain first if we can successfully assault the Duekti ships, and there's no guarantee that going up the chain would yield positive results.) (We've just kinda got to pick one.) (But there's no way to really know which is the better idea. I guess we could split our forces or something. XP) <> (I think we should just turn the stupid thing on, first. If the Tone melts everyone's faces off, then there's not much point.) * Amadeus walks to the planning table, because there's precious little IC action going on! He also has a datapad, and he eyes Zeke briefly before sitting down. It's Zeke, but Zeke is a bug, and bugs are suspicious pretty much no matter what. <> (Tomas, go ahead and melt your face!) (Tomas has been cooking omelettes with it.) (PS not really.) * Zeke's holoface looks up to Amadeus, then back down. "We have significant resources available. Victory is not infeasible." * Amadeus looks around at the others, scrambling to get ready for who knows what. "It's best to assume that." * Tomas deftly flicks his wrist, flipping his current charge. * Hestia is leaning against a wall. That is what cool people do to show how much everything bores them. "What is 'victory' anyway? PI chickens go home, all is okay? Ugh. The whole thing is nonsense to begin with." * Lexi shrugs. "Since when did things make sense?" (Hestia von Lastname: Nihilist. Tuesdays on NBC.) * Kyle idly taps through some of his files of cats doing funny things. "Nothing ever makes sense. Or maybe it makes too much sense?" That sentence sure as hell doesn't make any sense. * Amadeus puts his head in his hands. "I almost wish I'd stayed at the university." * Kyle smirks. "Almost? What changes your mind?" * Lexi shrugs. "If he stayed he wouldn't have realized how much better it would have been to stay?" * Zeke looks towards Hestia. "I assume victory is continued survival of a significant portion of the race." <> The alternative is akin to genocide. * Zeke finishes that statement as his drones start heading towards the tone generator. * Amadeus looks up, because he wasn't looking at cat pictures, and he tends to see things. (It's effing Lenin.) <> Well, I'm glad we have a genocide expert here to see us through this. * Zeke's holoface frowns for a moment, then he replies, "I am fairly certain, Hestia, that we have several." * Amadeus stands up and walks over to the drones. And the bird. And the tone generator. He frowns for a moment, then looks at Kyle et al. "Has anyone tried turning it on yet?" * Kyle glances up from his cat pictures. "Nope, not yet. Wanna give it a shot?" <> Better now than later, I'd think. * Amadeus lets the bird be a bird - hopefully it won't poop on him. And he flicks the on switch. * Hestia narrows her eyes at Zeke, and though she gives some of her attention to the generator, one eye's definitely still on Zeke. <> <> (i am not calmable, beep) (Even Zeke's metal murder circuits are calm.) (But I need those for murder.) <> (And this sounds like the same Tone we're familiar with?) * Zeke tilts his head, then states, "It is odd that this would affect the duekti-bots in a negative manner." (It does.) Well, it's working. It sounds pretty much the same. (Lexi is a little more familiar with it than most, and it sounds Right to her.) (Additionally, Tia can hear it now.) * Hestia just... stares. That's about as calm as she gets. (o_o) * Tomas looks up from his omelets and at the machine, "This is supposed to explode the chickens?" * Lexi nods. "Sounds perfect to me. Now what?" <> "Now what indeed. You will hold a rave party, perhaps?" A... test firing would be best. * Lexi shrugs at Fernando. "Never a bad idea, Donny." Great, you got a test bird robot to throw it at? No, although we do know of Duekti planets that would have some. Unless they all decided to go to Mars. Even if we know what it's going to do to a single one, how do we broadcast that to every duektibot over Mars? Does that even work over comm channels? Couldn't they just turn it off even if it does? * Amadeus frowns. He really has no idea. <> "So perhaps testing would be wise. Even with time being limited, no?" * Zeke is silent a moment, then states, "Based on my research on Duekti ship metal, they would be resonant, if you could manuver solid vibrational devices onto their ships' hulls." * Kyle shrugs. "Totally?" * Zeke looks over at Kyle. "Yes, but we still lack information on the actual effect." * Amadeus sighs. "Well. We know where a few Duekti planets are - the question is how do we test it without dying in the process?" Wait, are you saying we should mass produce these things and chuck'em at their ships like... sonic missiles or something? * Zeke looks at Amadeus. "I am fairly certain that we have overwhelming numbers compared to their structures on the 5-planet system." (Whatever the fuck it was called.) (It didn't get a proper name.) <> "That might be a suitable test platform, no?" That is the proposal, yes. "Then we should begin immediately. The time, she is a-wasting." (HOORAY) * Amadeus shrugs. Once more to almost die! (Poor Amadeus. He wasn't even supposed to be at work today.) (I know, right. :/) <> (Zeke's good with it! I was expecting more resistance.) * Zeke's drones scuttle under the tone generator to grab it and move it into the ship as he stands and begins to move shipward! (I am not up to arguing!) * Tomas flips off his mini-burner and begins untying his Kiss-The-Cook apron, "Let's go cook some duck." A'ight, we can do that. ( wak ;_;) (testing woo) (woo testing) (And hey, Hestia already knows it won't work on Zeke!) <> (TONE IT UP) (KYLE! HIT THE TONE!) (The real problem being, you know, all that space.) (It's true.) * Kyle tones it up! (Okay, seriously, are we supposed to launch this thing at them or what?) * Hestia stands outside the ship with magnet boots on, and plays the Tone as a power chord on a guitar, because sound in space is a reality. (YES.) (Hestia's got it.) <<*BWOM* When Kyle hits the button, the ship reverberates with the Tone. Oddly enough, what seems to happen is that reality itself seems to ripple slightly. When the rippling hits the Duekti ship, the strange spinning motion which precedes their jumps into nullspace tapers off, and the ship spirals off, seemingly dead at the helm.>>>> * Zeke seems surprised. * Amadeus stares. "Okay then." ...that's not... normal. <> The Walphin spoke of the tone as more than noise... this... supports their supposition. I wonder why. Amadeus, Hestia, can we detect the effective range of that... ripple? ... <> By all means, that shouldn't work at ALL. * Zeke frowns, then says, "We can test whether speakers will effectively carry the Tone, and need to examine the Duekti ship's level of disabling." (WOO EEE EE OOO) Speakers have to have carried it. It's not as if it playing in a vacuum will do anything * Amadeus nods. <> * Zeke and the drones are ready to deploy into the ship once they're docked, and goes for it! Woo exploring! <> * Kyle whistles. "That's... impressive." * Amadeus huhs. That's some wacky stuff. * Lexi shrugs. "I say we don't question it. If it works, it works." * Hestia starts threading her way through KOed duckbots, glancing at a few. "And if this is how we fulfill the prophecy of ultimate doom on accident?" No, I think the ultimate doom part is already happening. * Zeke looks over at Hestia. "Do we have an alternative plan?" I am simply saying, a weapon you hold and don't know how to use belongs to your opponent. * Zeke nods slowly and says, "A... reasonable metaphor. But that is why we tested." His drones move to grab a Duekti. "We should examine the effects." * Amadeus sighs and goes about looking over the busted duekti bot as well. Is it really just a robot? <> <> (It's alllllllllllllll robot.) (Awwww yeah.) (Woo!) (IT'S A ROBUT) (Okay, so we ending now?) (I think so.) (HAVING CAST LIBRA ON THE DUCKS, WE FOUND THEM WEAK TO SOUND.) (EXCELLENT) <>