>>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.