2. Two AT-4s which may or may not work (they were INSIDE the Greene Humvee)
3. 1 days' worth of water for the team - a 60 pound tank in the floor of the .50 caliber-equipped Humvee. 3 days' worth of MREs.
4. 1 Mk.19 automatic grenade launcher with 100 rounds of 40mm explosive ammo. Weights 70 pounds unloaded, ammo belt/hopper adds 70 more pounds - if you stripped all your equipment, it could be humped around by two men. The Mk. 19 is still attached to the Humvee.
5. 1 M2HB .50 caliber machine gun, 240 rounds left in 3 hoppers. M2 by itself weighs 80 pounds, ammo weighs 40 pounds per 100 round hopper (and I'm fairly certain that's really generous with ammo weight). The mounting has been ripped off the vehicle - you'd need to A-Team together a tripod or something for it.
6. The rolled Humvee is not really drivable. No front tires, twisted alignment, slivergun holes through all the rubber hoses and fuel lines under the hood. Its gas tank is practically full, however.
7. The Greene/Taylor Humvee has several blast craters in it, no doors, and the interior has been shredded down to bare metal by grenade cook-offs, but it's drivable. Its fuel tank is likewise OK.
8. The majority of the scientific equipment and samples were in the rolled Humvee. The samples are fine, but the more sensitive equipment is smashed. The science team can make do, however. My science knowledge approaches make 'em up technobabble at best, so we'll say that although the equipment won't give you any bonuses, you at least have the basic necessities to MAKE spectrograph rolls and diagnose alien shit and whatnot.
9. A big ol' tent with some burn marks and some holes in it.
10. All your personal equipment, whatever that might be. iPod, teddy bears, guitars, books, whatever.
11. The second generator truck can be driven, if its fuel leaks are patched and it gets refueled (like from one of the Humvees). The generator itself is gibbed, so you can clear out the junk to use it as a flatbed truck.
The alien salvage is as follows:
1. 5 of the short swords. They are very sharp but do not appear to be powered in any way.
2. 4 beam rifles, apparently intact.
3. 3 sliverguns.
4. 1 frisbee-thing.
5. You could piece together enough of the armor to fit (rolls randomly) - hell, it'll fit Max. You're a lucky bastard. As for the surviving Other, I'll get to that in the IC thread. There are other gadgets which I'll get to ICly as well.
Alternate campsites: On your way to the Whiirr village, Luis marked some caves on the UAV map. They might prove to be a useful hidey-hole. Other than that, what kind of terrain are you looking for? It's all generally jungle. The problem with the caves is that they're about an hour's march from the Gateway.
Also, remember your briefing. The Gateway is charged by energy, and it doesn't care where that energy comes from. Light a campfire underneath it, and it'll charge off the heat energy. Drag it out of the wreckage into the sun using a Humvee and it'll charge on solar power. Tie a lightning rod to it and juice it up in the next thunderstorm, Doc Brown-style. Brave the manta wreck for alternate power sources (or survivors) and ask THEM how they charge their Gates.
-Salvage all the working pieces from the fragged Humvee (back tires, battery, etc).
-We can (and better) A-Team ourselves a tripod for MaDeuce. If anything, we can bury it for future use. Same goes for the Mk.19.
-Turn the big tent into small tarps for lean-tos.
-As for new camps, we could detonate a few of the Mk.19s and make ourselves a nice clearing just about anywhere. That said, I'd be game for anywhere that included the words "would not permit air vehicles landing/hovering room". The dense rainforest is looking really good for keeping the Others ships from wantonly strafing us.
-As for charging the Gate, I'd say rigging a Doc Brown 1.21 Gigawatt contraption would be the easiest route. We get storms every night and all we need is a rod high enough to extend over the treeline and a cable capable of handling that kind of wattage.
Well, the charging cable from the generator truck to the Gateway is exactly what you're looking for. It'll handle the juice, and you can strip as much/as little off the insulation as you need. There's enough twisted metal that you could Monster Garage up a Doc Brown Gate Charge Mk. I in about 15 minutes. Your skill roll determines not if it'll charge the Gate, but if it'll hold up in high winds/somehow attracts predators.
a) Close to Gateway
b) Close to drinking water
c) Easy to defend
I say we hide the heavy guns for now. Once we're settled in, we can send a team to retrieve them, Robinson Crusoe style. Heck, maybe we can get help from the Whirr. They seem to love the Others gadgets - so we offer them a few of the ones we have multiples of in exchange for some help with the relocation.
Concur on the lightning. We should have enough twisted metal to make a cheap & nasty lightning rod.
I'm just checking in quickly, but I say we head 'em up and move 'em out. Clear out the junk from the truck, stick the gear and salvage into the drivable Humvees, load the Gate (if we can) onto the new flatbed, along with whatever else will fit, and head for the caves. If we have time, we can come back for a second load. It's convenient to the Whirrs, if we can convince them to help us, and it'll be more devensible than anything else. Plus, they're garunteed shelter and might even (maybe) have underground water sources for bathing, drinking, or even a water-powered generator, and all with less chance of Jaws II showing up. I agree with the lightning rod idea, and I sugest were see if we can start experimenting with the more basic aliens guns. Hey, out of curiosity, any chance we can "Gallileo 7" the beam rifle's charge into the Gate? We really only need one charge, and that could give us a start. As for Taylor, let's do him (and my WD a favor), and leave him KO'd.
All right, then. This throws a monkey wrench into the works. still, it doesn't change the basic facts, so here's some tthoughts I've had:
1. We still want to move out, and we want to mov to caves, as I explained earlier.
2. When we move out, we take the Gate with us. Unlike a Stargate, it's able to store a charge, so any energy we can devote goes to it.
3. Generators are suprisingly easy to fasion, given a few basic things: a wire coil (we can salvage from the generator truck), a magnetic metal bar (probably ditto), and something to turn the bar inside the coil. I think, if the engine from the trashed Humvee is salvagable, we might be able to convert it to running a kluged generator. If not, we could link it into the driveshaft of the duece-and-a-half, a waterwheel, a stationary bicycle, whatever. The amount of power would depend on the new source of movement, but it can work.
All right, then. This throws a monkey wrench into the works. still, it doesn't change the basic facts, so here's some tthoughts I've had:
1. We still want to move out, and we want to mov to caves, as I explained earlier.
2. When we move out, we take the Gate with us. Unlike a Stargate, it's able to store a charge, so any energy we can devote goes to it.
3. Generators are suprisingly easy to fasion, given a few basic things: a wire coil (we can salvage from the generator truck), a magnetic metal bar (probably ditto), and something to turn the bar inside the coil. I think, if the engine from the trashed Humvee is salvagable, we might be able to convert it to running a kluged generator. If not, we could link it into the driveshaft of the duece-and-a-half, a waterwheel, a stationary bicycle, whatever. The amount of power would depend on the new source of movement, but it can work.
-I'm vetoing the cave idea, that is to say...ya'll can go there, I'll take the nerd herd elsewhere. Mainly it's because I'm not one for getting bottled-up nice and easy with a few explosive charges or a turret gun. Truth is, the Whirr know about the caves and are subservant to the Others which means if the Others don't already know, they will. I'd rather be in the rainforest where we can have mobility, concealment, and shelter from more Mantaships WHEN (not IF) they come. Also, I don't think moving the entire camp to the Whirr's area is a good idea for the above reason.
-ADS, is it even feasible to take the Gate with us? It's my impression these things weigh quite a bit and we don't exactly have (or at least used to have) the equipment to move it.
-The jury-rigged generator from the humvee engine is a good idea.
Paint me paranoid; but we're currently trapped on a hostile planet, surrounded by evil, and (literally) low on gas.
Cave Pros:
- hidden from satellites/overflights
- protection from weather/elements
- one (?) assumed entry point, easily defensible against cloaked infantry
- distance from Gate site means it may not be apparent that you're there
Cave Cons:
- One of those sunball things fired down a tunnel could make Dietrich look like the lucky one - or cave you in for good
- Potential for alien cave bears
- Far from the Gate if you can't figure out a way to take it with you
As for transporting the Gateway, it's a fine idea and you could drag it behind the 2 1/2 ton truck, IF you weren't in a jungle. There are too many trees for the Gate's 15-foot wide diameter. In fact, I'd be interested to know how you plan to drive out of the clearing in anything bigger than a dirt bike. Those stinger handguns could probably clear you a path lickety-split, as could the Mk. 19, but you couldn't get very far without expending all the grenades at least. It remains to be seen if the handguns even use ammo.
Shit, I forgot to list two broken alien attack drones among your assets as well. Plus an unknown amount of manta ship wreckage.
I vote we stay nearby the gate, but out of sight in the trees.
BTW, the Whirr HAVE to have heard the fighting and will likely come to investigate. We should be ready to meet them, and let them know just who won this fight. Might gain us a lot of respect from the savages.
Moving a little ways might be good, but we if we do, we ought to stay within about a five or six minute walk of the site, we're going to have to move a good bit of stuff by hand. And the Whirr are probably coming in soon, just to see what the heck the noises were, if nothing else. Were their "painted ones" onboard the Manta when it crashed, or had they been offloaded. Either way, we need to secure the wreckage by the time they get here.
Re: the painted Whiirr "Chosen". The manta lifted off and then came back down some time later. They COULD have offloaded them somewhere (either on the planet via suborbital flight or in space somewhere) and come back, but nobody's offered to check out the burning manta wreck yet so I have not expounded.
As for your new camp, I take it everyone is mostly agreed that the caves are not a sure enough thing to be feasible at this time?
So:
1. Bury heavy weapons at crash site for later transport
2. Strip Humvee 2 for parts, load onto Humvee 1
3. Question: If you can't get the Gate through the dense jungle, will you still need to fix up the flatbed truck, or will you save time by leaving it as-is?
4. camp in the jungle with some good canopy above you. A quarter-mile or somewhat less from the crash site, which would put your near the river for drinking water (15 minute walk, let's say- less as the path gets trampled down)
5. set up the lean-tos made from the large tent
6. Profit!
Disregarding the massively weird discovery you've just made re: the Others, will Max still mostly lean towards deciphering the alien equipment?
You needn't check the living Other in too much detail - there are enough of his dead buddies around that you can just open up what's left of them.
I kinda had an idea, maybe a possible alternative to making camp. I'll phrase it IC as Andy-speak.
And just so you don't think that Andy-speak means "we should do that!", here are some challenges with the raft idea:
1. Making the raft'll take time.
2. You probably won't be able to bring the Humvee.
3. You don't know how wide or narrow or waterfally the river gets past, oh, a few miles downriver. You can rectify this with a UAV flight and risk more avian attacks. It's all a tradeoff.
4. It'll use a lot of ammo that could be put to use blowing up xeno-humans in shiny costumes.
And just so you don't think that Andy-speak means "we should do that!", here are some challenges with the raft idea:
1. Making the raft'll take time.
2. You probably won't be able to bring the Humvee.
3. You don't know how wide or narrow or waterfally the river gets past, oh, a few miles downriver. You can rectify this with a UAV flight and risk more avian attacks. It's all a tradeoff.
4. It'll use a lot of ammo that could be put to use blowing up xeno-humans in shiny costumes.
1. The raft sounds last-ditch.
---Also, do we have any solar power chargers for our laptops and such? I'd argue we would given that they are readily available on the internets and we would have been remiss for not bringing them.
2. The humvee is a liability. It's big and we don't exactly have roads or even a clear path to drive it on. Camo it for later use.
3. We also don't know how deep the river is. There is also the fact that there are monster crocs and who knows how many other flesh-eating creatures in that water.
4. As of right now, we're cut off from Earth. We need to conserve ammo and all other supplies we can't get here, because (as of yet) we haven't run across the local Cabelas Outdoor Store for resupply.
Not to mention that the Gateway is presumably pretty fucking dense and will therefore not float. Heck, wood barely floats - most modern rafts I've seen incorporate some sort of lightweight container for air to have decent cargo-to-size ratios.
Dieter makes a good point about the Humvee. It won't even fit the 1/4 mile to a new camp. Since you're not bringing the Gate, perhaps you should rig up that makeshift generator (which is entirely feasible), with the lighting rod for backup, and just let the thing run.
Hang on a sec. The Gate's circular, right? Could we fit two of them together or an outrigger stabalizer so it'll roll upright? Like this | instead of this --? It a long shot, but it'd allow us to move the Gate over land without a fifteen-foot-wide trail.
Anyway, crazy idea off the table for the molment, I'm really starting to favor staying where we are. I realize that we'd be less defensible, but if we have to sacrifice as much of our assests (the working motor vehicals, extra supplies that we can't carry, explosives and ammunition to create paths, the Humvee-engine generator idea, possibly even the Gate itself) to get to safer ground, is it really worth it? If the Humvee thing works, we might only need to hold this ground for 24 hours or so. Rig a generator to the truck's drive shaft, and cut that down more. Empty the beam weapon's charge into the Gate somehow (maybe), that's more time off the clock. It'll take longer than the six hours it took with the one generator truck, and way longer than the three with two, but still...why not stay here? We don't need a permanent stronghold, just a place to gaurd long enough to charge the Gate.
Alright, for-the-molment stuff. First, can Luis bring the Unknown back to concioussness without him being able to move? A muscle relaxant, a nervous system inhibitor into the main nerves beyond the trunk. Leave him able to breath and talk, move his head, but not lift a finger. Second, whoever has the free time should go and check the Manta wreck, ASAP. Take a pair, buddy system, but we need to check that for possible assests. Third, we should check on the trashed Humvee's engine and the wire and magnet from the original generator. Here's the page on the concept from wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamo
Getting the gate upright to roll wouldn't be too tough. However, rolling it and keeping it upright while rolling is bound to be a challenge - especially over uneven ground.
Admiral Duck Sauce
