Or they could be looking for just any EM signal. They managed to jam the radios back in Gran's Hope, they must know the basic range that our radios work in, and if you know that, Hell, I could knock up some basic triangulation rig with a trip to any well-stocked amateur radio supply store. Considering we've moved from three-stars to five, you know they're pulling out the stops.
I'm assuming that the Delta radios work, but the range may be limited without satellites or whatever to boost the signal? I presume they were designed to work anywhere on Earth, so they would need a fair range to be able to be detected by the aforementioned satellites?
I doubt the Empirium has any concept of radio or the equipment to track the signals, so they should be pretty safe.
Knowing a thing or two about wireless communication, I'd say our best bet is to communicate by ULF (Ultra Low Frequency), the same way ballistic missle submarines communication with the mainland.
They may not know enough to intercept or decrypt your transmissions (not that they could understand English anyway), but radio is still a form of transmission.
What Punkey said, in other words.
As for the range of your radios assuming you need to chance a call, I actually do not know how far military radios work. The 'Nam era ones had a range of about 12 miles in good conditions.
Well, using my somewhat antiquated knowledge of amateur radio, I've clocked up transmission distances of a few hundred miles with a civilian hand-held cranked all the way up, a tall place to stand on and a favorable ionosphere. Realistically, 100 miles line-of-sight is doable.
Dieter, I think you're thinking of ELF, but the idea of using really low frequencies still doesn't quite work, mostly because of the power and antenna requirements. Antenna size needs to be at least the distance covered by one wave peak in one second, and stuff that big would require an antenna 100 meters long. We could do it with the Morningstar/Akamu, but I think that'd be a bit impractical to carry around.
At any rate, Max is under the assumption that all frequencies are being monitored so any sort of communication available is not being used under any circumstances. We have a Delta Operator skilled in evasion and I suggest we use him to find our way to some place we can communicate without fearing every Turai in the sector with an itchy trigger will come looking for us.
"Until we get back in contact with our people, we need to assume that there is no chance of rescue. We need to think survival. Take everything we can carry, leave the rest."
"Until we get back in contact with our people, we need to assume that there is no chance of rescue. We need to think survival. Take everything we can carry, leave the rest."
"Until we get back in contact with our people, we need to assume that there is no chance of rescue. We need to think survival. Take everything we can carry, leave the rest."
As far as Max and Arketta know, their suits are not broadcasting. They were worried Max had somehow figured out how to piggyback their signals and he was tracking their positions (and their spider-drones from earlier). They assumed better technology had foiled their drones, so they were falling back on fieldcraft. They did not know you simply outranged their drones.
The stinger and beamers are indeed keyed NOT to fire on Imperial forces, but those can be stripped. You just don't have time to do it on the move.
The spearbombs collapse down into 4-cell Maglite size and weigh about 2 pounds each. Slightly more than an Olympic javelin, about twice a hand grenade's weight. You can stab with them (Angel knows), throw them like a normal spear, throw them like a hand grenade, and if you are wearing Turai gear you can guide the throw and airburst them behind cover like Semo's XM-25. If you had your own drones, you could throw the spear skyward and its one-shot impeller would guide it down onto a target designated by drone. It's a portable Tomahawk missile, AT-4, and melee weapon all in one. Arketta would tell you that while they are useful, their indiscriminate nature makes them more common on wild worlds like Aikoro or Whiirr, and they are never issued shipboard or on station.
Seeing as I'm not there, this holds water about as well as a fishing net, but I don't really see a need to kill the guy. He's just doing his job, and that job is also predicated on having more guns, people, and the element of surprise. As of right now, he's just trying not to die. I mean, blindfolds and gags are still in order, but I don't see a need to put a bullet in his head. Just as an enemy let go will only grow larger and more difficult to defeat, a friend released will only spread good will towards us. Hearts and minds, and all that.
(Edit: Not to mention another person who we could potentially get a favor out of if things get tough.)
Seeing as I'm not there, this holds water about as well as a fishing net, but I don't really see a need to kill the guy. He's just doing his job, and that job is also predicated on having more guns, people, and the element of surprise. As of right now, he's just trying not to die. I mean, blindfolds and gags are still in order, but I don't see a need to put a bullet in his head. Just as an enemy let go will only grow larger and more difficult to defeat, a friend released will only spread good will towards us. Hearts and minds, and all that.
(Edit: Not to mention another person who we could potentially get a favor out of if things get tough.)
You're indeed not there and more importantly, I know how ADS plays his NPCs. He so much as twitches weird, I'm shooting him on the general principle. I'm not here to make friends, I'm here to prevent intergalactic genocide.
My inclination is the wrecked suit, the IFF gear and a corpse stays together and... repositioned ...to suggest a direction of advance other than the way we're going.
If Max or I fits in a suit properly, a quick uniform swap and creative wounding later and our decoy took one of us with him when he died.
As for the spears, Arketta bringing up their indiscriminate nature just makes Angel like them more. We're bringing them.
My inclination is the wrecked suit, the IFF gear and a corpse stays together and... repositioned ...to suggest a direction of advance other than the way we're going.
If Max or I fits in a suit properly, a quick uniform swap and creative wounding later and our decoy took one of us with him when he died.
As for the spears, Arketta bringing up their indiscriminate nature just makes Angel like them more. We're bringing them.
That sounds good. A lot of what we do will be dependant on what Mr. Nebbish is willing to do for us.
Max - how easy do you want to make it for Hugh & Semo to spot you? Hugh has a d10 Wits and Semo has d8. They are pretty observant. You will pick a difficulty die (from d4 all the way to eleventy-billion d12s take highest). Hugh and Semo have to beat that roll in a Wits check.
It'll also be the same difficulty for the Imperial search parties to spot you, so choose carefully.
I keep going until someone spots you. If both parties spot you, then it's a Driving contest for Semo to get there in time. I would assume that once you have Max/Angel's position, you'd haul ass whether you knew bad guys were enroute or not.
Max - how easy do you want to make it for Hugh & Semo to spot you? Hugh has a d10 Wits and Semo has d8. They are pretty observant. You will pick a difficulty die (from d4 all the way to eleventy-billion d12s take highest). Hugh and Semo have to beat that roll in a Wits check.
It'll also be the same difficulty for the Imperial search parties to spot you, so choose carefully.
I keep going until someone spots you. If both parties spot you, then it's a Driving contest for Semo to get there in time. I would assume that once you have Max/Angel's position, you'd haul ass whether you knew bad guys were enroute or not.
Hrm.
I'd like to make this fairly difficult for the Imperium to spot us, lest Max and Co. fall into the horrible task of single-handedly decimating the entire Turai population three at a time.
For some reason, 2d10 sounds like a good number to me. We have time to kill and I don't necessary want to make finding us easy.
IC post coming up, but the first try the 2d10 came up 9. Everyone failed, and it'd end up taking more wild dice than both Semo and Hugh have to finally open-end and get a 10 or higher.
Next try the 2d10 comes up 4. Horribly, it still takes a wild die from both Semo (2) and Hugh (4) before they open-end THAT and get an 11. Unfortunately, the chase is on - the Imperials got an 8. What I'll do is give Semo a 3-point advantage in the race because your Wits check was 3 higher so you spot them first, you're closer, whatever you want to call it.
I can play D&D and not roll double digits the entire session.
punkey
Dieter
Admiral Duck Sauce
fanchergw
Gatac