>>171692
Aww. It's probably illegal to have Ashley (kiss her neck) assisting you from outside the arena anyway.

>>171692
How about getting a cheap repair drone and hooking us up to that? That way we can't really do all that much damage.
It would be a good trial run in case you wanted to install a defense system at home, since we're at least more reliable than a basic facial-FoF driven system.
Besides that it would also set us up for, say, controlling some construction drones to construct a very deep sub-basement and relocating sensitive equipment there.

>>171697
To be bluntly honest? I don't trust you guys anywhere but in my head.

I gently kiss the back of Ashley's neck and she murmurs happily.

Argh, I can't get that woman outta my head!

>>171699
So you'll trust us to give you combat advice, design your mech, and make major life decisions for you, but not to stumble around in a harmless drone?
You have issues, man.

>>171700
No, I don't trust you enough to give you the ability to do anythign with a body of your own, no matter how humble. How stupid do you think I am?

>>171699
What? You're thinking about the nameless supermodel? Anthony... You really are male.

>>171701
If you don't see the logical disconnect here?
Pretty damn stupid.

We make life-or-death decisions for you on a regular basis. You quite literally trust us with your life, because if we screw up you die. However, you don't trust us with a basic drone which is physically incapable of causing any more damage than knocking loose objects over?

You're not making a lot of sense there, chief.

>>171702
@Ashley I think his mind is starting to wander. You might want to show him that wandering eyes are nothing but a distraction~

>>171703
You tried to make Ashley and me into a single being without my consent.

Enough of this.

[subject filtered.]
>>171702
I... I can't help it! I mean.... Her... She...

Argh, normal woman wear something under those suits!

Ashley rises and smiles at me, catlike, then kisses my lips.
I hold her close, and she giggles.
"You really are naive... being distracted by something like that."

Yeah, it does seem like our mystery challenger is using her body to distract you so you don't fight as well.

...has Ashley seen the picture? May as well show her.

>>171707

When did that happen? I don't remember that.

>>171640
..or she is all of the above and bored.

And in the spirit of TGchan
Well Anthony whatever you do, try not to think about a threesome with her and Ashley.

>>171707
dont forget that you just had an argument with the voices in your head... and barely won.
...
if mystery woman is driving you that nuts, either A) think of Ashley, or B) stick out your tongue and stare at it in the mirror until you realize exactly what it is; a disgusting chunk of flesh hanging from your mouth.

>>171760
...!

[A]Heeeheee.

"You're so adorable like this..." she murmurs, kissing my neck, "And you know, I wouldn't let you go alone if I didn't trust you."

>>171869
Perhaps you'd better keep your mind on the attractive, willing lady right there in your lap, kissing you. Touching you.

@Ashley: Hmm? What was that about~?

>>171904
@Ashley Tony has no objections if you want to hit on this girl. It could be fun~

@Ash and Tony: Hey you wanna swap senses for a little?

...

Time passes. We discuss further plans with this mystery beauty, and come to an... agreement. We put the sensory swap to the utmost test. and, as the night comes, we rest in the cockpit, too tired to move much further.

...

Day breaks, and I awaken first on a bed of clothing, Ashley laying atop me happily, her mouth turned up in a catlike grin.

>>172020
so we're gonna try to somehow still have her helping us out for the match then? cool. also, well done dude, well done.

>>172020
Good morning, Lord Tyrant Tony. How may we slave for you today?

>>172027
Hush, you. I... Understand what you meant. I just don't trust you enough. I'll set aside the money for when you earn the privilege, alright?
>>172026
...
Thanks, I guess...
Yeah. So long as I have her in reach by you guys, I feel like I can do anything!

I think this has got to be the most interesting love life I've ever heard of.

Whyyyy is Ashley grinning? Ask her ask her. While copping a feel.

>>172029
She's asleep. Let her rest.

>>172040
I smile, slipping out from under her with care, covering her with my coat. She curls up in it happily as I slip out of the 'pit, and get dressed for the day after a shower.

... Well, I'm free for most of the day.

>>172048
We need to do SOMETHING about that lab.

I'm in favor of moving everything we can out of it and blowing up the rest.

>>172049
I find myself actually agreeing with the one rather... disagreeable voice here. All we need to do is hide it a little better...

>>172052
You want to undermine it and try to smoothly sink the entire room down deeper underground? That's going to be tricky and require a noticeable amount of resources.

Granted if we can figure out a way to do that safely, and even move it laterally... well, that would be optimal.

How would we fill in the empty space in a way that looks natural? That's one of the easiest ways to detect an underground facility: the disturbed ground above it.

>>172052
That's one of the reasons why I want a drone.
We need to see how capable we are of controlling something in order to find out how viable this plan is, but we could have construction drone stay in the cabin and dig out a bunker underneath.
You couldn't work on a project like that without attracting attention, but we could.
Maybe Delarosa could handle the transactions required.

>Underground robot malarkey

Why not just tunnel this way, and we hide it under the house or something? or... I dunno, seperate it into two labs, one for maintenence and one for creation?

>>172061
If you go under the bedrock then it's not detectable that way.

>>172071
You know what? I'm sold. We'll split you in half, put one in the 'bot, and send you off in whatsisface's care.

I'll call Delarosa after I finish with breakfast.

Thank you

>>172073
I will try to remain deserving of this trust you've placed in us.

>>172087
>>172101
After making breakfast for Ashley, and waking her, we agree that it'd be best for you to work on this project alone. You'll be given materials and equipment to improve your own capabilities, but beyond that, we'll send out the drone and simply forget about it until we have need of it.

Are you alright with this?

>>172435

We'll need some contingency instructions too, boss. What do you want us to do, in general, if the dig site is found? What about if we cause a tunnel collapse and lose our digging tools? What about if we find another tunnel while we're digging?

Just general instructions to tide us over if we can't reach you. Remember, we're going to be under a lot of rock.

>>172441
The first order of business will obviously be to run wire to a relay in the cabin so we'll have an emergency communication line. That's enough.

>>172442

If the line or the relay are damaged in an emergency, we ought to have a general idea of what we're allowed to do to deal with the problem.

Our anchor point is still inside anthonys skull though, if the drone gets destroyed we'll just have a backup of the chunk of us that went with it in your head come back online

Very well. I'll find some way for you to handle yourself alone.

In the mean time, I'll call up Delarosa...

"Yes?"
"This is Anthony. I have... an idea."
....

....

....

"Are you sure about this?"
"Yes, I'm sure."
"Alright... I'll gather the parts needed for the processor. You can handle the body, right?"
"Yeah."

I hang up. Looks like this will cost about half my current bank.

>>173347
Is that a lot? If you think it's worth it...

>>173356
Of course it's wor-

The phone's ringing.

"Yes?"
"It's me, kid. Listen, this isn't... Look, I know I was the one assigned to..." there's a heavy sigh. "Come out to the lab. You have to see this for yourself."

I hear a muttered motherfuckers as he hangs up.

>>177172
So go out to the lab.

>>177172
I don't like the sound of this at all. Let's get down there quick. Try not to attract attention though.

>>177198
We get into the car as fast as we can, and I drive hard and fast. I'm worried. That tone didn't sound good.

We arrive...

And the hut is gone.

"What..."
I get out of the car to see Jack standing there, looking it over with a frown. "What the hell!?"

"Like this when I got here. Swear to god. The lab is gone, too. Just a hole in the ground. No idea how they managed it under my own nose, I mean, fuck, I practically lived here. Then one day, the place was burning, and the lab was gone. The tanks, the parts, everything... stolen."

He takes off his hat and runs his fingers through his hair.

"All I found was this." he finishes, handing me a manila folder.

I turn back to look at the car, and Ashley...

Has fainted, leaning against the window.

>>177215
I knew this was going to happen.

Open the folder.

Shot!H508X.HbJ6 2010/05/14(Fri)11:16 No. 177225 ID: e31d52
File 127386096926.jpg - (44.71KB , 600x480 , Akaba.jpg )

>>177223
I open the folder, and a black feather falls out, along with a picture and a note.

Some people need this more than you.

>>177225
Looks like we're gonna have to get cozy with Raven's Nest to get access to the lab again.

>>177227
It certainly seems that way...
"You know who that is?"
"Akaba Shintari." Jack replies, lighting a cigarette. "She's a genuis engineer. Supposedly killed in an accident involving a rig and a lift. Looks like they were... ah, a little off."
"So Raven Nest did this?"
"Yep. Or at least it seems that way. Just wait a while. If they want to contact you further, they will. And keep the feather. You might need it later."

>>177687
Rush home. Something's wrong.

Also, send them a very strongly worded letter telling them that their actions were rude and unnecessary.

>>177691
"something's wrong" you say? I don't follow you. There isn't even anything at home we have to worry about, aside from Burns. Let's go home in the usual speed. Don't waste any time, but there's no reason to get reckless. Tell Jack thanks for what he's done and it's not his fault. We were mainly worried about GILB anyway.

We have no idea where to send the letter, you know. Although I agree that we should yell at them. They could've just ASKED to borrow/relocate the lab.

>>177736
There's nothing for us here, but there's plenty back at home.

Really, the worst part about all this is that if they had given us the picture FIRST we could have worked this out amicably. Specifically, worked it out without losing our vacation home and Ashley's maintenance supplies.
Contacting them should be easy; just tape a message to your door with a raven feather drawn on it, and have it complain about them pointlessly blowing up your cabin and ask that they pay for the rebuilding costs.

>>177759
Now that I look around... there's something about some of the trees. There's also holes in the ground...

"Jack, was there a battle here?"
"Does it smell like one?"
"What?"
"Look, no matter what weapon you use, there's bound to be a smell, with few exceptions. Sulfer for gunpowder, ozone for heavy directed energy weapons, hell, the smell of blood or burned fat... stuff like that."
"I don't smell anything..."
"Yet half the trees are missing branches and..." he leans down, picking up one of the rocks in a grey glove, turning it over. "Charcoal. Not wood. They only made it look like it was burned down." he sighs. "I'll do some more investigating and let you know. Get home. Look after little Ash there." he puts his hands in his pockets. "It's gonna be one of those days, Anthony. One of those fucking days."

I get in my car and shut the door.

...My cheeks... I...

I'm crying.

>>178166
Looks like they used hydrogen torches, or something similar.
Then again, they could have just dumped chems on the site that attenuate scents. Human noses are crap anyway, so it would be damn hard to notice.
Yea, leave a strongly worded complaint on your door with a sketch of a raven feather on it. They'll probably try to contact you shortly afterward.

>>178172
You weren't paying attention.

They faked the scene. The cabin wasn't burnt, it was moved and a fire was put in its place.

Anthony, calm down. It's okay. They just did what we were going to do. All we have to do is talk to them. Where's Ashley? Hug Ashley.

>>178181
That doesn't explain the trees or the random holes in the ground. That would also leave behind a scent of its own.
There was a fight here.

>>178208
>>178172
I will. I'll see what I can do...

I hug Ashley tightly, and she hug=s me back, then whimpers and sobs into my shoulder.

I don't care what the circumstances were. I'm punching whoever thought this was a good idea.

>>178210
That requires that you get within punching distance, which requires that you get in contact with them, which requires that you have a way to contact them that won't draw scrutiny to you.
Actually, call Delarosa and talk to him about it. He probably has a contact.

I wouldn't be surprised, but we shouldn't actually mention what happened over the phone. Heck, we shouldn't even say anything over the phone. Just ask to meet somewhere private.

@Ashley: It's okay, GILB didn't get it. The lab, and apparently the cottage, are both intact. We just have to talk to Raven Nest.

>>178235
I'm pretty sure the cottage is gone since we saw the wreckage. We know that at least the lab is intact. What's interesting is that they left that picture, which seems to be a bid for sympathy.
Ok, lets talk tech. Ashley, the radio links between the cockpit and remote systems are all linked, right? How hard would it be to jack their encryption keys so we could listen in on their movements? Or, even better, rig a directional transmitter that allows us to drown out their control signal so we can puppet their parts?

That's one of the nice things about wired control; no remote jacking.

>>178258
The wreckage is fake. Charcoal.

>>178329
Maybe. I'm still uncertain as to what was real and what was fake.

[A]
>Or, even better, rig a directional transmitter that allows us to drown out their control signal so we can puppet their parts?
While it's possible, each cockpit has a seperate signature, and also has equipment that recognizes where and how far away transmissions come from. So unless the device you're thinking of is exactly the same distance from the arm as the arm's reciever is to the cockpit, for instance... it probably wouldn't work, or would be simply interfered with by the real signal.

I mean, it's a cool idea, but it'd need more working or else someone else would have come up with it already!

For listening, you'd need a translation system to make sense of it, abd by the time the data was readable...

We arrive as home, and I post the letter you suggested. It's about 5 pm.

>>178344
That could be faked, but I suppose it would be easier to just jam the mech's communication. One tightbeam disruption targeted at a mech's leg while it's moving and the entire thing would go down in a twisted heap.
Even better, we can work out the length of the wires they would have to use in order to prevent jamming. Then we find the frequency we would need in order for that wire to work as an antenna, and use a high-powered directional beam to fry those wires in any under-shielded mech.

Also, next tier we're going to invest in lasers with unmitigated bloom and a teravolt AC power supply. Plasma-channels, ftw.

>>178352
Trust me when I say this: if these things could be made reliably, there'd be more of them.

Also, the main weapon at middleweight is the H.K.M.L., or the Hyper-Kinetic Matter Launcher. Expensive as hell, long charge time, but it puts holes in damn near anything.

Yeah, I suspect there's electromagnetic shielding and various backup systems preventing jamming. Besides, it would be BORING to just shut down enemy mechs to win fights. This is the Entertainment Circuit for crying out loud! We need explosions and shit.

That gun sounds like a railgun. How does it work? How deep do the holes go?

>>178376
>That gun sounds like a railgun. How does it work? How deep do the holes go?

It's hard to explain, but...

Basically, it's an arm replacement that energizes particles in a small iron sphere. Most of these are air, but you can customize shots with whatever you like. Anyway, after a certain amount of time that the particles have been bouncing around in there hyperkinetically, the sphere becomes full of them, and the front opens up.
Some laymen think it's a super laser or something.

Others call it a wave motion cannon.

>>178385
A charge-up weapon? That doesn't sound so great. How long does it take? Also uh... what happens if it gets shot while charging?

What advantage would you get by replacing the material inside it? I mean, with the energy involved it's basically superheated WHATEVER. Would it affect chargeup or impact damage?

>>178386
No, there's no heat involved. The particles are charged to be hyperkinetic, so that when they leave the sphere, they reach near-relativistic speed. Air is the normally used 'ammo', but you can fill it with actual material to add more oomph.

It takes about ten seconds to charge (two posts).

>>178389
wh... no heat?

I... that...

**DOES NOT COMPUTE**

it doesn't heat them it just makes them go fast. think of a mini hadron collider.

>>178402
I know. That's how I reacted at first too. The friction caused by the extreme kinetic force does cause heat, though, upon firing.

We can get a laser with a heavy bloom effect, right?

>>178411
It's... I'm sorry, that's not my area of expertise...?

**Reboot complete**

If I understand what is being suggested correctly, the 'bloom effect' is from when the laser superheats the air so that it starts unfocusing. This would normally be a bad thing but if you want to transmit electricity through that superheated, ionized air then it's an advantage.

So it sounds like the point is to get a laser powerful enough to ionize air so that we can send an electric shock through it.

>>178418
Oh... because electricity is really hard to launch horizontally, you'd need to... ah!

Yes, I could do that. It might take a little longer than a normal attack, but it might be handy to, say, pen an enemy in or something. It would also make for a really fantastic finisher if you wanted to change your theme.

>>178425
Well, I suppose you could call it a finisher. I mean, you would basically be shunting almost the entire output of the engine into the relatively poor conductor of the enemy armor with the natural result of causing that armor to heat past the melting point and liquify while the electronics inside are charred to a crisp due to the effects of the AC current passing through the structure.
I mean, it would certainly finish a mech off. As long as the beam passed within a few meters of the mech.
Also, no charge time since you're basically turning the enemy mech into a resistor and shorting your engine through it...

>>178425
If the laser is strong enough, the ionization would only take a fraction of a second. This is a very quick and powerful weapon.

I guess you're right about it being... different from our fire theme. I don't really want to change that. Also, an electrical shock attack wouldn't do much if the opponent has some sort of lightning rod.

>>178428
>>178432
Hurm...

Some mechs do have insulation, though. Especially other electrically themed ones.

Remember, there's no such thing as a perfect weapon.

>>178454
yes, but if we have to super weapons that use opposite methods of attack only captain paranoia would have protection against both.

>>178454
I wonder if we can make some magma caltrops or something.

>>178498
Thermite mines? Why not?

((Oh, and that Plasma thinger? It's an Expensive Custom part. Name it and it'll be on the next shopping list.))

>>178532
So anyway, you know that HKML thing that I'm trying not to think about? How well does it punch through armor? Can we develop a defense to it somehow?

>>178537
Most of the time, the only saving grace is that it's hard to aim and the affected area is pretty small. You essentially have to dodge it or stop the charge process.

okay then, so it has HUGE attack but low accuracy and speed. so a boost to bring you into melee range before they finish charging to disrupt them or a strafing quickly would work.

>>178532
WE could name the super laser finisher the:
Electro-Eradicator, mount it as a chest beam maybe?

Hm... on the subject of lasers, what about photon displacing lasers, I.E. cold lasers?

>>178787
Photon who to the what now?

>>178898
i... think he wants a negative laser or something.

>>178898
lasers that displaces photons from objects that are in the path of the beam, rapid displacement of light forcibly stills atoms as light is emitted omnidirectionally to get out of the path of the laser, effectively freezing what it hits.

Have the Electro-Eradicator to fry and heat up, the Crystal Cooler (name could use work) can then rapidly cool whatever was just heated, for HORRENDOUS metal stress.

>>178910
i think you failed physics, lasers are MADE of photons.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laser_cooling

Well there is something like that but doesn't it require more than one laser at a time?

yes, you need at least two coming from opposite directions.

>>178920
Hurm...

What if you were to make a sort of weapon that was like... No...

Sorry. I don't know.

>>178929
Easy:

Remember the multi-part missiles? Make a model that houses a projector, you line up foe between you and laser anchored wherever multi-stage drill missile hit. Yeah, will make the drill-shotgun missile package EVEN MORE EXPENSIVE, but it would mean we have a means of making the electrolaser even more devestating with rapid cooling after rapid heating. Even heavily heat sheilded equipment will have SEVERE problems with this.

The only downside is that you need to get a traget lined up just right, but since this is something to use if the Magma drill AND elctrolaser don't work, then you probably have a large, heavy and heavily armored target anyway, so the laser setup becomes less of a hassle.

Mostly, this is about making sure you always, ALWAYS, can kill it dead.

Well, we could set up something to be deployed on the battlefield but it would have to be a stationary trap of some kind.

Not really worth it. How about some kind of superheated claw or sword? I guess we already have the spikes. Wasn't there something about using them to inject thermite?

...I'm getting antsy. Is there anything we can do right now but wait?

>...I'm getting antsy. Is there anything we can do right now but wait?

Sorry, I've been tinkering with Burn the whole time. Kinda bor...
Wait. Aren't you supposed to be primarily in Anthony's mind?

...uh

Anthony: Wait are you okay? Speak up!

>>178988
[404: conciousness not found]

A-anthony?!

I stand up, and then... woah... Dizzy...I nearly fall over, but I'm caught by a metallic arm. I look up at a very fuzzy face.
"S--ry we --ve to -- th-- to yo-..." he says gently as I fall unconscious. The last thing I see is a black, silvery pin on his sleeve. In the shape... of a feather.

okay then, looks like a standard 'pick them up without letting them know where they are going' scenario.