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 Posted: Wed Jan 18, 2006 6:53 pm
"Uh Alright." Marcus caught the block as Tika threw one at him. He watched Tika curiously and he muttered the words to himself quietly as Tika said them, trying not to forget them. Marcus continued to watch, the little show didn't surprise him much as he's gotten used to Tika's strange 'toys' by now, no matter whichever he hasn't seen to date.
Marcus felt disappointed, not by Tika's new suit but by his own Cornelian suit. He gave a smug smile and thought, "At least mine has guns.. sort of." Mark looked down at his block and focused. It was a pretty little block.
"Heh.. 'Oiranake tes lekon'... I mean. 'Oiranoke tes lekan'" The block began to mimic the ripples that Tika's block had just a couple of seconds before. Marcus stared at the ripples a bit shocked, but continued. "Er. Automould user body. 80% translucence faceplate. Aqua."
The block continued its mimic act of Tika's block, as the block began to liquify in a sense and began to consume his hands, wrists and soon up to his elbows. The material began to pick its pace as soon as it made it past Marcus' shoulders then down the rest of his back and front. As the liquid-like material went down his back, the material began to consume Marcus' head and he began to panic a little. But before Marcus could remember what Tika said about the faceplate opening, the material had consumed him completely. Soon enough a muffled sound could be heard if one were to have keen hearing and the faceplate opened horizontally. And Mark began to calm down. If one were to guess that Mark wasn't a happy claustrophobic, they would have guessed right.
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Posted: Thu Jan 19, 2006 4:25 am
But of course, the Aastaian suits could mould a wide array of basic weaponry. 'Basic' meaning anything but antimatter or gravitic weaponry.
Tika smiled politely at Marcus' first nanosuit experience, then gestured toward the port-side cockpit entryway, which led back along the port-side of the ship to the ladder which descended into the cargo hold.
"After you. We'll go down into the hold, open the main cargo door, and jump out." Assuming Mark moved, Tika then followed him through the ship to the cargo hold, just to save some time and posts later on.
Ocarina took this opportunity, and began to slowly ascend the ship as the two left the bridge. The ship moved silently and with no sense of motion, so the two wouldn't know, and it would be fun when the main cargo door opened only to reveal one thousand feet of air in between the suited guys and their destination; the surface of the ocean.
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Posted: Thu Jan 19, 2006 4:02 pm
Marcus was busy for 2.3 seconds with the suit as he stretched. He grinned at the flexibility of the suit, but snapped out of this as soon as Tika broke the silence. "I like this thing..." Mark muttered to himself as he began to follow the path that Tika had designated him.
"Wait. How exactly are we going to get oxygen from this thing? And I thought Ocarina was going to -dive- down and leave us -by- the ship. Not at sea level so we can go down to the Ocean's floor, man." Mark finally reached the hatch/cargo door and opened it, but Mark didn't look outside of the opening to realize that the Nostalgia was ascending. He turned to look at Tika and grinned. "I'm guessing we'll be communicating through telepathy the rest of the way."
Mark shook his head slightly and spoke again. "Faceplate close, horizontal." Mark then gave Tika a little salute as the faceplate closed and then jumped out of the ship. Gravity taking over Marcus' action.
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Posted: Thu Jan 19, 2006 4:39 pm
Tika took a moment to register Mark falling away with no sign of sea on the horizon, and concluded that Ocarina had ascended the ship to such an altitude that one couldn't see the surface, on the horizon or not.
"Oh very funny." He said blandly, then followed Mark to the edge.
"Faceplate close." He commanded, then "Engage minimal control link to nearest deployed NABA suit, function deployment only. Designate suit B. Activate Suit B intersuit communications. Activate Suit B morphology. Aero."
Mark's suit would begin to shape itself into something vaguely resembling a plane. The legs moulding together and a tailfin rising up from them, arms pulled gently apart, then flattenening around Mark's arms to form stabilising wings, and the body becoming more wind resistant.
"It's a good job neither me or Mark are particularly afraid of heights. I hope."Tika commented, then stepped from the cargo bay and began free fall.
"Activate suit morphology. Aero." He told his suit, and it assumed the same shape that Mark's had.
"Activate intersuit communications. Mark? You readin' me?" Tika enquired after the suit had established a link to the only other suit within communications range.
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Posted: Thu Jan 19, 2006 5:35 pm
Mark was screaming at the top of his lungs as he was dropping from an unknown height, but of course noone could hear him since his faceplate was closed. Soon enough Mark ran out of breath and just decided to freefall. What Marcus didnt realize is that the suit was moving by it suit and changing its form. His arms spreading and his feet held together, he began to pick up speed as he fell. Then Tika's voice interrupted Mark's freefall session. "This thing has radios? Nice... Yeah I can read you. Question: Apart from saving my butt with this... isn't this going to throw us off for about a quater of a mile or something. Considering the height and since we can glide, now...?"
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Posted: Thu Jan 19, 2006 6:12 pm
"They have whatever you ask them to have, within reason. You're in the current pinnacle of Aastaian suit technology, mimetic nanotech alloy, and I took the courtesy of overriding the no weapon routines installed, then gave the suits some schematics on basic weaponry.
We won't glide too far off course. Hold on. Ocarina? Send the suits co-ordinates for the ship, would you?" Tika asked, just about the time that Mark would have slipped underwater, momentum dragging him under at a fast rate. The suit would, however, morph back into the aqua form as soon as it registered water."Sure thing. Co-ordinates relayed." Ocarina replied. He'd had his fun, and was back in 'serious' mode again."Thanks... " Tika said pointlessly as his own suit hit the surface, or rather, sliced through it.
His suit then altered it's morphology to the aquatic form, simply increasing the outward pressure exerted by the suit to keep the occupant nice and safe.
"Suit B lock on to and proceed to supplied co-ordinates. Adjust structure to aqua. Mobile." Tika commanded to Mark's suit.
"Suit, engage aqua mobile structure. Proceed to supplied co-ordinates." He then said to his own.
Both suits again adapted their morphology, fusing the legs once more, then extending excess material far back from the main body, into a whip-like extension some ten feet in length.
The main bodies became more sleek than in aero form, water being more dense than air and thus needing an even more streamlined shape to easily sluice (not slice) through.
All at once the whip-like extensions, mock-up versions of the flagellum found on bacteria, began to rotate at dizzying speed, instantly propelling the suits forward at somewhere close to 30 knots. As they did so, the suits slowly altered their vector, beginning a spiralling descent.
"I hope you don't get sick easy." Tika murmured to Mark, remembering the episode on board the Nostalgia where Mark had had to run to the toilet.
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Posted: Fri Jan 20, 2006 6:40 pm
Mark was disinterested towards Tika's control over his suit, mainly because, once Mark slipped into the water and plummeted down several feet, he began to scout out the Ship, less to know where it was and more to locate the airlock Mark had suggested. His concentration was lost as soon as the suit began to morph. Mark was about to ask if he could access his guns, which apperantely were still strapped to his waist, without causing some sort of disruption within the suit. Then that thought slipped away, seeing as how Mark just remembered from where he came from and how there were things as -energy- weapons. Then Tika added another bit to Mark's stroll down memory lane and rolled his eyes. "I only get sick when I fly, ironic as it is, but not sea sick. Anyway, why is it that you're helping me again?"
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Posted: Sat Jan 21, 2006 5:40 am
"Hm?" Tika first responded, caught off-guard by the question.
"Ah, multiple reasons. I like little adventures. I want to see this ship for myself and see if it's worthy of salvage for either of us, and most of all; I know how it is to have to wait to get things done. I was the fastest way of you getting here, Mark, and I didn't want you having to wait to fulfill your goal."
"Guys." ocarina's voice came through the comms suddenly. "There's a submarine, military, near your position. Just thought you should know."
Tika knew this script. "Just how close is that, exactly?"
Ocarina scowled, as much as he could without a face, anyway. "Yeah ok, I forget. About ten miles off. No, they won't be able to see you. I just forget they don't have long-range underwater sensors."
Tika smiled to himself, it was all he could do, actually.
"So Mark. You're here to get crystals for a suit, crystals that take a while to synthesise. You said a couple weeks, minimum. Didn't you think of asking me if there was some kind of alternative?"
He altered his tone quickly. "I mean, I know you said that the crystals are more efficient, and until I see and study one, I'll take your word for that. But when it comes to what you'd refer to as 'toys', I always prefer to examine all the options."
"Oh leave him alone, Tika. You always try to muscle in on other people's machines because you think you know better." Ocarina's tone was scornful, and annoyed.
"Ignore him, Mark. He thinks that just because he comes from a technologically superior race, he knows more about anything machinated."
Then "Is that a word?"
"..." Is all that is needed from Tika at this time.
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Posted: Sat Jan 21, 2006 1:58 pm
Marcus laughed quietly as Tika and Ocarina argued, but soon stopped when Tika mentioned the crystals. "The crystals take 6 months to synthesize. But I have someone who managed to reduce that number to a couple of weeks. Which is worth it, since I don't need a synthesized crystal every month, if not a year. And yes, Ocarina, its a word and thanks." Mark looked down below as it was getting darker the more they reached their destination.
"Anyways, I did think of asking you, but I prefered not to seeing as how synthesizing the crystals wasn't an exact urgency. I won't be using the suit much. But back to the mission. Tika, can these suits provide some sort of light? And Ocarina, how much further 'till we reach the Pegasus?"
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Posted: Sat Jan 21, 2006 3:57 pm
"Only a minute left until you reach the ship. Your sonar should be showing it clearly enough."
Tika fumed, then regained some composure. "Sure. Command your suit to provide lighting, in candlepower since the suits are working from English commands, and specify a range, a colour, and you can even tell it to display a thermal imaging overlay onto your faceplate. Hell, ask it for sonar, too, if you like."
In light of that, he commanded his own suit "Close comms." The suit promptly obeyed.
"Initiate lighting, five hundred million candlepower, range maximum five hundred feet, colour white. Overlay sonar imaging onto faceplate, tint red." The suit again complied, the water in front of his suit becoming dazzingly white, illuminating Mark's suit, a few fish, and... not much else.
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Posted: Sat Jan 21, 2006 4:14 pm
Marcus did as he was told, squinting his eyes a bit from the sudden light provided by Tika's suit. "Initiate lighting, three hundred million candlepower, range maximum four hundred feet, color white. Overlay sonar imaging onto faceplate, tint green." The suit followed the command and Mark went back to scouting the area. His job made millions of times easier with the sonar and lighting. "I thought they had sharks around this area." Marcus muttered to himself, just as he looked up to where the surface was. Leaving that thought behind, his attention went back to the Ocean's floor where the Pegasus II should be. Just then the sonar brought up an image, exactly what Marcus was looking for. "Hello, beautiful.."
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Posted: Sat Jan 21, 2006 6:53 pm
Tika spotted the ship at the same time, his sonar pulses having farther to travel than Mark's.
He examined the general shape of the hull, analysed the structure and visible points of interest as best he could, before having his suit highlight anything of interest; weapons, sensors... other stuff.
"Activate comms." He said. "Hey Ocarina, pipe that one song into my suit. Erm, Prodigy. You'll Be Under My Wheels." The AI presumably complied, as the track began to play. Tika gave a stupid looking grin as they closed in on the ship.
"Best tell your suit where to take you on the hull now, Mark." He informed Mark.
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Posted: Sat Jan 21, 2006 7:20 pm
"Yeah yeah. Suit direct movement with retinal-focused targetting. Follow the position I'm locking on to and prepare to grapple onto the ship's side to position beside the airlock once contact is made with the ship's surface." The suit followed the command, the faceplate switched the sonar back to its original state, as soon as that was done a moderate sized round crosshair appeared and moved to meet Mark's right eye. Mark blinked, surprised, and began to direct the crosshair to the where the airlock was. Once the crosshair locked onto the position, it disappeared and the sonar reappeared. "Nice... Ocarina can you check if the Ship's core is still active? That way I can manually open the airlock without causing anymore damage to the thing."
Soon enough, Marcus, sure that Tika was following behind about to give an order to follow Marcus, met the airlock and the suit began to morph back to its original state. The whip-like extensions retracted into the suit and then a grapple like extension extracted itself from the suit. The grapple planted itself firmly on a crack just a couple of feet above the airlock. Marcus turned his head slightly and called Tika over, "Heh, you know, Tika. From the time we've been 'working' together... I haven't gotten the chance to ask anything about you. Like, what's your home like? Never been to any other reality apart from this one and Gaia."
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Posted: Sat Jan 21, 2006 8:17 pm
Ocarina was silent for a few seconds. "Reading active power core, affirmative. Low power though, needs a transfusion of... lemme see, it has a plasma-based reactor, so it'll need some fresh plasma injected into it's matrix... I have no plasma."
"Suit, fade and end incoming audio from the ship." Tika commanded as they reached the airlock. "Engage suction grapple point five metres above suit B's grapple line."
The suit did as instructed, and the flagella were absorbed into the mass of the suit before it fired out a thin line of itself from the chest and began to reel in.
"Gonna open her up then?" Tika questioned Mark."
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Posted: Sat Jan 21, 2006 9:18 pm
Mark grinned, "Thank you, Ocarina. I can still open the airlock with that. And don't worry about the plasma." Just then, Mark adjusted himself against the airlock door and knocked around it, looking for the key-access port.
Marcus waited patiently as the suit followed the command. His index and middle fingers coming together as the suit extracted a blade-like form from the fingers, its length to about 5 inches and not too thick. Once the suit was done, Marcus began to poke around, finding exactly what he needed. He began to unscrew the shell of the system box and once done, he removed it. Just then, Marcus took hold of a great deal of wires, all color coded from red, blue, yellow and green. each set had four wires of the same color. Marcus simply cut one yellow, one blue and one red, and simply hooked up the yellow with blue, the blue with green, and the green with red. Once he was sure the wires were firmly connected, he put the shell back and tested the airlock. Marcus stuck the 'blade' in the keylock and forceable turned it. The mechanism of the airlock could be heard as it wired and hissed. Marcus finished the task by pulling the hatch and opening the airlock. "Done. After you, Sir."
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