and change your name to Mordre

>>190924
What options do we have here? Obviously SOME kind of weapon is needed.

>>190929
>>190936
Suffice to say, I need some weaponry. It's a hostile world out there. My new arm comes with a similar laser than the one my old one had, which will work in a pinch, but probably won't work against anything too big or the like. Besides it, I can choose from some pistols, rifles, machineguns, and other standard weapons.

Sadly, there are no Bladelaunchers around here, and the largest cannon we have here probably wouldn't even put a dent on a golem. Let's hope there will not be golems.

That's for guns, then. I probably don't require anything to eat or drink, but there may be something else besides guns that I need nonetheless. Can't just strut in there without preparing. So, what else?

A crowbar would be nice

>>190944
A rifle should be good for stronger enemies. Your arm laser is best for small fry. I suppose you could carry a backup pistol too but it seems a bit redundant.

A rope and grapnel is always handy.

Well, shotguns are great at close range, have a lot of power. Submachine guns arn't super-powerful, but they're useful at close range and for putting a lot of bullets out. Assault rifles are your jack of all trades, and machine guns are heavier assault rifles. Sniper rifles are your go-to for long range.

So. The situation we're in is pretty much close range only, yes? Go with a shotgun, submachine gun (Silenced, if possible), and a pistol (Again, silenced if possible). ...If they'll allow you that much, at least.

For other stuff... Knife and/or a taser for melee, multitool, body armor if they have it, maybe a flashlight and/or some flares, a grenade or two, annnnnnnd a backpack. That's aobut it, off the top of my head.

Vic 2010/06/09(Wed)13:31 No. 191009 ID: 1177ca
File 127611549047.jpg - (58.39KB , 648x972 , Crowbar1.jpg )

NEW HARDWARE FOUND. SEEKING DRIVERS... DRIVER PATH?
C:\
DRIVERS FOUND. INSTALL DRIVERS? [Y/N] Y
INSTALLING... 22%... 41%... 68%... 100%... COMPLETE.

I sit up on the operation table, and flex my new fingers a bit. It tingles, the same way my first arm was installed. I check out all my equipment: my laser is still there, as are my hacking tools and wires. I shoot a couple targets with the laser, and find it pleasantly accurate.

It is the second day after the day I was given this new task. I am still doing inventory, packing, and receiving upgrades and maintenance. I should be ready in six more days.

>>190978
Ah, yes. Crowbar: useful for opening locked places, bashing in some heads, and it's stylish to boot! I feel pretty amazing when I wield one of these. It's like it did all the speaking for me, leaving me no need to ever open my mouth.

For some reason, it makes me feel a bit nerdy, too.

>>190983
>>190988
I add a shotgun and a SMG to my list, and a pistol for backup. There are no silencers, unfortunately, which may become a problem later on. I'll also pick myself a knife, some rope and a grappling hook, a multitool, a flashlight (can't be too sure: even my night vision could fail), some flares, a few granades, and some body armor to cover me with. And a backpack to carry those things in.

These items are all added to my list. Anything else I should pack, upgrade on myself, or otherwise take care of around here, before I go? I'll have a whole week for all that. But for now, excuse me, I have a hammock to install...

>>190465

Cold fusion devices use a durable crystalline matrix that facilitates dt-dt fusion. The crystals are hideously expensive to dope, and have to be grown in a zero-g environment for positive power generation (crystals grown in gravity are appropriate for neutrino generators but you won't ever be able to use them to get more power out than you put in). Aside from the expensive involved in manufacture, a cold fusion generator needs a source of deuterium fuel and all the machinery that goes with power generation.

Most cold fusion plants use the heat from the fusor to create steam, which drives a turbine in the traditional fashion. A few, notably ones for use in naval submarines, use solid-state thermoelectric differential devices to general electric power. These are expensive, slightly less efficient than steam, and difficult to repair if problems arise, but they're completely silent and very durable. The best-case scenario is that the corporation funding this effort went for broke on the generators and went with one of the military designs.

That still doesn't account for where the fuel is coming from though. There may be an automated dt refinery on-site. If there is, it's a wonder it hasn't failed yet. 60 years is a long time to not service the pumps required to move water for the Girdler process.

>>191046
Yes... it is weird, but it is also rather a lucky thing for us. If the power had failed when it should have, everyone here would have died a long time ago. But yeah, considering how low I'm going, I might as well check out the generator. It is at the very bottom, sure, but hey, I'd already be going a lot deeper than any human ever, so what'd a couple dozen more floors do?

Right?

>>191009
>Anything else?

Isn't it obvious? You need companions! You're going on a dangerous mission, and cannot survive alone.

Press-gang Jeb and Namad into joining you. They cannot refuse such an important job.

Six days later I rise up from the operating table, where finishing touches on me have just been completed. I flex my newly improved body.

My bones have been reinforced with some light yet durable metals, rendering me much more resistant for the wear and tear of regular daily strain, although I still could hardly take a bullet or even the claws of one of those beasties outside. I have an actual nervous system now, as well, backed up with crude but fuctional mechanical muscle, letting me work with quite some dexterity and strength. Not to the level of what a full physical body could do, but... well, closer. My central processing unit has been upgraded, my internal "organs" replaced for newer and less-used models, letting me function for quite a while now without a fear of crashes or shut-downs. My old system could have crashed at any minute and not ever turn back up again.

I take my new body on a bit of a test drive, jogging across the hallways and checking out the forest. I experience a certain amount of weariness, something I have not felt at all since dying, but it passes by very quickly, my cybernetics being quite good with this stuff.

Packing up my things and wearing my body armor and other stuff, I start to consider whether there would be anything else left I would like to do...

>>191394
Hmm. Some company would be nice, both helpful and so that I wouldn't go mad all alone in there. With this in my mind, I head over to Namad's workshop, finding her in front of her computer as usual. She smiles as I enter: "Hey, how's it going? Do you like your new stuff?"

"Yeah. It's good. Thanks."

"Don't thank me, I didn't do anything. So what can I do for you?"

I explain her the business I am in. Crazy as it might sound, I really wouldn't want to head in there all by myself. Namad frowns at my words. "Hey, I can understand if you're scared or whatnot, but I'm not of the fighting type at all. Couldn't do much there but be a burden and drop dead. Sorry."

Her words ring true, sadly. Guess I'm being silly about this. "Should I ask your brother, too?"

"Doubt he'd want to come. He can fight, sure, but we've never gone that deep before, and I wouldn't want to lose him there either. You're on your own on this one, lad."

Sigh. I wave my hand at her in goodbye and leave the room.

I head downstairs, to the lower guard station. It has been a relatively calm week, with not much sighting of any kind of an enemy during it, which is never a bad thing. The guard robot is there, vigilantly going around the floor, knowing no rest from the job. I guess it's pretty cool.

I... think I'm ready. At least, as ready as I could ever be. I have double-checked my equipment, I am (relatively) heavily armed, my cause I just (I think), my will is strong(ish). I am heading into hostile territory all by myself...

Give me an excuse to stay, brain.

>>191432

Ask if you can have the robot to help you.

You're going deeper than they have in the 60 years, you don't know why, you don't know what you're expected to do, and you don't know who you'll be meeting at the end.

Ask for the robot.

>>191432
Don't be a pussy. What about weapons? Did you get everything?

>>191433
This.

>>191433
>>191436
With this sudden, very last-minute idea, I rush back up and find the Elder, asking for his permission to take the machine with me. My logic is sound: it is relatively safe up here, humans alone can keep the city secure very well, while down there a whole new, dangerous world, awaits, where I can never be sure to expect, and I have an important task to do.

To my great relief, he agrees! The supreme command of the robot has been given to me. I should give him a name.

Mere minutes later, I stand at the very edge of human-controlled territory. Beyond this step, naught but danger and death await me. I have a map, but I must not expect it to be accurate or true, for even in the upper floors things have changed more than they would have any right to: who knows what awaits me in the lower reaches of this accursed place?

My map, more or less, tells me to always take the nearest stairs down. During the first five floors, it notes several blockades and collapses where I cannot go further but must find a different path, of which they suggest many as well. In other places, I could use holes in the floor or walls, perhaps even make my own. After the fifth floor (or floor 32, as it's called), however, all advice ends, and it's pretty much just red line going down across a commonly known staircase: everyone I spoke to admits that it's likely to have blocked at several places as well, but nobody really knows anything about it.

Well... no point angsting about that. Down we go...

I get almost to the second floor when the growling begins. My night vision sees nothing, although something clatters in the darkness. It begins.

So why ARE you being sent down? What's your mission?

inb4 IT'S A TRAP

Sounds like they discovered some survivors on the 14th floor, and you're being sent down to evacuate them from Hell.

heh... "discovered" "survivors"

>>191468
They didn't tell me. I'm not sure why: don't they trust me, or what? Do they think the enemy is going to catch me and torture the information out of me? Or that I will defect? What? I don't know!

>>191469
This would sound logical, although I have no idea how they could have survived for that long.

There is no more growling. I continue on forwards, and get to the next set of stairs before I see something jump at m-

>>191582
Vic? Vic! VIIIIC!

>>191582
Shoot it! Whatever it is!

Shake it off and shoot it!

>>191810
One of those big dog creatures again. As it knocks on to me, I lose my balance and fall towards the stairs, but manage to stop my fall by catching the railing. The thing is dislodged, falling to the staircase behind me, and I aim my arm laser and fire.

With a pleasant THWIP, the thing yelps one more time and falls to the ground. Another like that tries to get a jump on me, but it is stopped by my robot buddy, who simply catches it from the air and casually smashes it against the wall, again and again until it doesn't move.

I regain my footing and examine myself. My newly reinforced body withstood the assault much better than the last time. There are no real injuries, only a bit of an ache. The guard robot looks at me: if it had facial features, I could perhaps claim it looked worried. "I'm fine," I tell it, and it stops.

We carry on downstairs. The scenery around here is getting all the more shattered, the floor uneven, the hallways broken and collapsed in many places. I find a light switch, and try to turn it on, but only manage to produce a quick shower of sparks from the ceiling. There is some red on the walls, dried and rust coloured, which I assume to be blood. But there are no bodies anywhere, not even skeletons. It worries me a lot.

To my dismay, I soon find the pathway blocked: according to the map, this should be an open path, and the collapse does look quite recent. I do not know of its severity, nor whether we could together clear it up. There were several passageways and doorways going both left and right quite recently, and there is a door on my immediate left as well. I should hope one of them will lead me to the other side, so that I may continue.

>>191832
... Lets name him Mordre

>>191832
Go left!

Go right!

>>191832
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AP3H_Tz8WXk

>>191939

I can't contest such a heavy argument, I'm changing my vote to left.

>>191859
>>191939
Well, no reason to try and go a long route, if there is a perfectly viable way here already. I head left: the door falls down on the floor with a loud clatter as I pass.

Judging from the old, torn posters on the wall depicting human anatomy, and the few very distinctive tools on the table, this was once a medical room, probably for routine inspection. No complicated heart surgeries done here. An old computer lies on the table, possibly functional. There is a crack on the right wall, large enough for a human like myself to enter.

From the glint of my eye, I almost see something glowing in the drawer, but when I look, there is nothing. Mordre (yup) walks in with me, and seems quite interested about the crack: he lurches close to it and looks to the other side for some moments, before straightening up again and looking at me.

There is a faint noise in the distance, from where I came from. It tells me I should not tarry around.

>>192004
If you think you don't have time, take the computer. Otherwise, fiddle with it. But fiddling with it seems like a bad idea, and I would probably hold off on that for now.

>>192004
Maybe it's radioactive?!

>>192011

Radioactive! That can't be good.

When we get back we need to put lasers in Mordre's eyes.
Ignore the computer, we need to press on.

>>192069
I wouldn't much like hanging around when all that clattering ald growling and howling gets until here, so yeah... one last glance on the computer, which probably wouldn't hold anything inportant anyway, and through the gap.

But it is a good thing I gave it a bit of a look before, or I would've been in for some surprise.

Much of the floor is gone. There is nothing but void, an endless fall to the seemingly black abyss. I look above, and spy a similar massive hole through the ceiling. Metal bars prod out of the remaining floor, wires and powerlines hang from then and rock gently in the air, giving an occasional burst of sparks. Apparently, whatever collapsed the hallway outside did some damage all around.

There is a bit of a floor right on the other side: I carefully get through the crack, and stand on it, taking support from the wall. I see a door on the right of me, leading back to the original path, and I think I can reach it with a couple easy jumps. I also consider using my rope and descending right into the black depths of this place, but then I would be hopelessly lost. It could even lead straight past my objective. Or on the way of whatever did this.

The voices following me approach swiftly. Mordre looks back to the door I came from for a moment, and if I didn't know better, I would say he looks rather anxious.

>>192524

Better take cover and get ready for a fight. If you can hear them already you don't have time to escape. Get yourself situated behind cover and then listen to them. If they're speaking a language you know and they seem non-threatening, call out to them and demand they identify themselves. If they speak a language you don't know, or they seem threatening in their speech, don't challenge them. Just kill them.

Jump into the gap.

FIND 105 HORSE POINTS

>>192524
Hop through the door to the original path. NOW.
If you can take Mordre with you, that is.

>>192814
I turn, I watch, and I wait for the whatever show up and enter the room. I can hear their footsteps now, as well, swiftly approaching my hiding place. Mordre is next to me, hiding behind the crack as well as I am, but getting increasingly agitated.

Soon enough, I see the creature follow me on the room. It seems vaguely human, although it has dirty, ragged clothes and dishevelled hair, is swooning around like a drunkard, and talking to itself: "It smells no delicious man-meat, but it sees something, it follows... it followed a guard? Where did guard go?"

Whatever creature this may be, it would seem to be out for blood. As it turns around ("It sees them!") and prepared to attack us, I raise my artificial arm and take aim. I think I can take it, but I need to be careful not to fall in the pit behind me or anything.

>>194058
Shoot it then try moving sideways so you're not in front of the pit anymore.

Do you have any hand to hand combat skills? You could try to toss it into the pit using its own momentum against it.

>>194079
Become an expert in CQC
Change name to Snake.

>>194079
>>194167
The thing swoons, then suddenly lurch towards us with unexpected speed! I open fire and hit the creature in the shoulder, but it barely flinches, instead jumping straight through the crack to our side. Although I manage to dodge the worst of it, it catches me on the side and takes me along with it as it falls down to the abyss...

Mordre, bless him, is right there to save me. He catches me by the arm and manages to stop me from falling down. My assailant grabs my leg in an attempt to stop itself from falling, or at least take me down along with it.

Think fast!

>>195289

Shoot its arm! Shoot its arm!

>>195289
KICK! KICK LIKE A MOTHERFUCKER!

>>195289

Scream like a frightened little girl!

>>195289
This is what we have the bullet-based guns for. Shoot the shit out of him.

>>195345
>>195587
>>195586
"Gah!" Instinctively, I draw my pistol and shoot the creature in the arm, but it manages to keep its grip of me. I need to shoot twice more before it finally releases me and falls, screaming, into the void. Some seconds later I can hear an echo of something clattering.

So much for that little episode, I think. Unless it can climb up walls or something.

Mordre pulls me back up, and I catch my breath for some seconds - figuratively speaking. There would not seem to be anyone else following us for now, so we can decide our next move in a relative peace.

Check the computer and plot several other possible routes in-case we run into another cave in.

That was a close call. Check the computer and then move on.

Also thank Mordre for saving your ass.

>>196397
Thanks, buddy.

>>195742
>>196196
The computer contains mainly medical details of this place, examination reports and such. They have all been signed more than sixty years ago, and seem to not contain too much of interest. I see no weird disease outbreaks or anything like that.

I do see, though, the very last report, from fifty-nine years ago: it consists of Doctor Alchrekt Kelm, his condition listed as deceased, and reason of death as massive blood loss and the missing of both lungs. That is disturbing.

With nothing else to find, I shut down the computer and consider my options. I still have the two routes: one down through the pits, the other jumping over them back to the main path.

>>197331
First, figure out how far you can jump. You should be pretty light on your feet, considering you're not much more than a skeleton at the moment. If you're confident in your ability to get across, do so.

Wait, can Mordre jump too? Depending on how stable the floor is and how heavy he is, him going first might be safer for you.

>>197341
Mordre could throw you, however if you don't think he can jump it he should just stay and guard our back.
I don't want to lose our bro. He's pretty chill.