Mutants & Masterminds: StarGate Freedom - Prologue: Mark Sterbenz and Ryan Hawke

[z-Servant of Ra]

"It might work, but manufacturing them would be difficult at best," Carter said. She frowned and said, "You'd think that a civilization advanced enough to create a beam weapon would understand the advantage of a grip and stock."

Carter began to attach the crystals to the sensors, silent as she worked. "The liquid does seem vital," she agreed as she straightened from her task, her voice thoughtful. "We'll have to get it through a spectrometer soon, to see what it's made of."

They fell into the rhythm of working together in the swaying van, the hours slipping by as they struggled to make the crystals integrate with the computer. The systems were completely different, and it taxed all of them to build a program that could even read it.

The vans had been stopping on and off, but they were surprised when the engine stopped. A moment later, Sumner opened the door. "We're here," he said.

At first they thought it was night, but once they stepped out of the van, they realized they were in a cave. "Where are we?" Carter asked, looking around.

"It's a repository for sensitive documents. We're in the Rockies, still," Sumner told her without actually answering her questions. Not as secure as Cheyenne Mountain, but less well known as well. We'll be holing up here for a while. You guys should get some sleep; you've been at it for several hours. Want me to show you to some berths?"

[Rorx]

Mark pondered Carter's initial point for a while, "From what I've heard of the troops description it is almost middle age, or perhaps earlier in appearance. Perhaps the troops are not particularly advanced themselves but simply fight for this being claiming to be Ra who provides them with these weapons? In which case he may not care for the weapons accuracy as he simply throws more fighters into the fray?"

He turns to Ryan, "You've seen these troops in action, what is your opinion?"

[Ryan Hawke]

"They fight ithout fear, and seemingly without pain. Wounding them short of taking off both arms did not stop them from attacking. They could be brainwashed or chemically enhanced, or maybe that's just how this race is."

There's alot of respect in his voice as he continued. "They fought as if all the flames of hell licked behind them, I never once saw one retreat, and with the singlemindeness of a well oiled machine. It was awesome in a way, but also truly terrifying to be on the receiving end."

[z-Servant of Ra]

"Regardless, it's much more sound tactically to have experienced fighters," Carter said. She stifled a yawn as she continued. "Different cultures or not, surely a 'god' would see the advantage to having efficient troops. Otherwise, it wouldn't matter how good your tech is - you'll still be wiped out by enemies with minor technical inferiority. And you'd be defeated by anyone on par with you." She shook her head. "We need to know more. I think that your assessments are accurate, we just need to know why they operate like this." She looked troubled.

[Rorx]

Mark smiles and nods to Carter, "That's always the problem getting the information. But as Ryan says, if they were more scared to go back than to go into a firefight then perhaps they were simply treated as cannon fodder by thier leaders. Indeed there is nothing to say that their leaders, this 'Ra' for example, are even of the same race."

He shrugs before continuing, "But lets go find some beds, you never know by the time we wake up they may have somemore info for us."

[Ryan Hawke]

Ryan sighed. "That's probably for the best. It would be nice to actually capture one alive, we could learn abit more that way."

[Rorx]

Mark yawns, nods and heads for the door and hopefully a bed.

[z-Servant of Ra]

They were led to bunks, Sumner sticking doggedly with them. Food and drink were also procured, and they were pointed to showers. Most importantly they were shown to bunks and allowed to sleep for six hours. That was when a corporal woke them to let them know that their tests on the composition of the liquid was back, and that the general wanted a report in a couple of hours.

The spectrograph had choked on much of the reading, but they had gleaned some useful information from that and other tests. The element was very heavy and had some similarities to both metal and crystal. It was also highly conductive. "No wonder they use it in their weapons," Carter mused as they looked over reports and grabbed a quick, bland breakfast of MREs. "This stuff is powerful."

[Ryan Hawke]

Ryan nodded as he finshed his MRE. "Yeah, but we're still not sure what it is, other than a barebones understanding of it's structure and properties."

"What about the reports on the weapon itself?"

[z-Servant of Ra]

Carter flipped to another file folder and parsed through it. "Again, not much. Whatever this tech is, it's unlike anything that we've seen before," Carter said, her voice enthused. "We're going to have to tear one apart to see how it works," she added. "For that, we need an undamaged one, but we can start on this one now."

She popped the last bite into her mouth and pulled out a toolkit. "Shall we?" Together, they started to tear the weapon apart - not just opening it like they had been, but a full-scale pulling all pieces from all other pieces.

Click to reveal..

Please give me Craft: Mechanical: Earth Tech rolls

[Ryan Hawke]

Ryan nodded and began to carefully disassemble the staff weapon.

Click to reveal..

(20:04:42) ChatBot: (Ryan_Hawke) rolls 1d20 and gets 13. +12 = 25

[Rorx]

Mark gets some tools out then pauses as the Sgt efficiently sets to work.

"You're much better at that than I would be, how about I just pass you the tools and take the photos?"

Click to reveal..

(02:51:07) ChatBot: (Mark) rolls 1d20 and gets 6.+7 = 13

[Ryan Hawke]

"That's fine." Ryan continued dissassembling the weapon finally setting the last peice on the prepared cloth.

"There." He could see the damaged portions. "If only we could get an undamaged one."

[z-Servant of Ra]

They spent hours locked away with the weapon. Mark and Carter took turns assisting Ryan as he carefully figured out how the gun came apart. Bit by bit, it gave up its secrets, revealing the alien components inside. Of course, they still didn't have any idea of how it worked. On an Earth gun, they'd have the chance to make a reasonable guess. Now, this was very different than anything they'd ever seen before.

After several hours, they had the gun in pieces. Now came the hard part - figuring out how it worked.

Click to reveal..

I need Knowledge: Mechanical: Earth Tech from you all

[Rorx]

They placed out the pieces in the order that they had inside the device running from the emitter end back to the power source.

Mark looked at the various crystals and odd looking bits for a while occassionally picking a piece up to turn it over and examine it, "If it was an earth particle accellerator I could tell you what the sequence would likely be from beginning to end, but I'm just not sure about this thing."

Click to reveal..

Not the sort of roll I was expecting for this, but nevermind

(19:01:25) ChatBot: (Mark) rolls 1d20 and gets 3.+11 = 14

[Ryan Hawke]

Ryan did his best. "I could tll you anything you want to know about our tech. This, this I can only guess."

Click to reveal..

(15:49:00) ChatBot: (Ryan_Hawke) rolls 1d20 and gets 18. +12= 30

[z-Servant of Ra]

Ryan's guesses were pretty good. Carter got a few herself; only Mark was unable to add much. The alien tech was just too alien for him, and he resolved to examine it more when he had the time.

General Wilson swung by and got an update, but other than that and short breaks, they worked on to the point of exhaustion. By that time, it was late in the evening, and the weapon was largely dismantled. As they stood looking at the pieces, a lieutenant came into the room. "You guys aren't going to guess what we got," he said.

"An undamaged enemy weapon?" Carter guessed.

"No, better!"

Better turned out to be the still smoking hulk of an enemy fighter. "Well, it's bigger," Carter said softly. "You seem to have issues with getting us undamaged ones."

The lieutenant shrugged. "Tell that to the boys shooting them down. We're just getting them dragged here for you."

Carter turned back to the wreckage. "Wow, this is going to take a while.

[Mark Sterbenz]

Mark was a bit embarrased at his lack of help on this project. He knew he was a fine physicist, but so far this had called more for mechanical skill than actual science and that had never been his forte. He knew enough to help out putting stands together to support experiments at the proton accelerator and to do a bit of DIY around the house but that obviously wasn't going to be enough here. He resolved to do better and seek out any engineer texts he could amongst the people here and what he might be able to access of the remains of the internet. Optical electronics and some of the research that had been done on optical computing

looked tobe the best areas to have some relevance to understanding the alien technology they had encountered so far.

Mark visibly cringed at the state of the fighter, then started walking towards it, "Carter's right. It would be better for us if you could get smaller but intact items than bigger wrecks, but we'll work with anything you can get us at this stage."

Waving the smoke and fumes away Mark starts to circle the fighter as close as he can, trying to see what if any areas might be intact.

"Sgt, I believe you said that the weapons on the fighter seemed to simply be a bigger version of the Staff weapons? So if one of these is intact it would help us to understand the staff weapon as well."

Straightening up he heads back towards the others, "Well thank you for this Lieutenant. If you could have a word with the guys fighting these things, it would be good to have some actual footage of these things in action. It would help us to get an idea of their capabilities to assist with coming up with ideas as to how they are doing it."

[z-Servant of Ra]

"I'll see if I can get some footage," the Lieutenant told him, nodding. "There may not be anything to get. But I'll ask them."

Once he'd gone, Carter turned to them. "Suggestions on where to start? This still isn't really my area, but I'm game." She turned to them. "Are either of you aeronautics experts?" At their blank looks, she smirked. "Guess it's time to learn."

Click to reveal..

Guys, make tech rolls again - if you want to do something besides this, please let me know what you'd like.

[Mark Sterbenz]

Mark shhok his head, "No, but I don't think we need to be straight away. It might be best if we take this a piece or system at a time. I'd say our most immediate concern would be what state the weapons and power plant for this fighter are. If the weapons are intact then they will provide supporting information." He starts back over to the wreck.

"The aeronautics is a matter for another time

[Ryan Hawke]

Ryan nods. We've been working on the weapons, lets stick with that, maybe this thing's are actually intact."

Click to reveal..

1d20 + 12= 32

(21:15:46) ChatBot: (Ryan_Hawke) rolls 1d20 and gets 20.

[Mark Sterbenz]

Mark nodded then went inside to grab some tools. Returning to Ryan he handed them over before going back to their lab to get the camera gear in order to record the processes as they started to take the weapon pods apart.

Click to reveal..

Knowledge (Earth Tech) +11

(00:24:29) ChatBot: (Mark) rolls 1d20 and gets 14.+11 = 25

[z-Servant of Ra]

It was a long drive and the sun was coming up as John pulled into a driveway. They rattled along a gravel road for a while, with Monique softly whimpering at each bump and jolt. Finally, John stopped in front of a cliff face, the brush growing thickly at its base.

John pulled a radio from under the seat and clicked it on. "The canary has a cat," he said. Sudden amusement curled through his tone as he added, "And a kitten."

"Roger that," the radio said. "Give us five to verify friendly skies."

"Roger." John turned off the radio and glanced at the females. "It'll just be a moment."

Yseult nodded to him, content to wait in silence. Monique sat quickly, her eyes large as they fixed on John. She was still shy around the man, which was normal. Yseult smiled as she considered that Loric would be trying to become John's new best friend.

A rattle in front of them caught her attention. The bushes shook suddenly, and Yseult watched as an opening was revealed behind them. Two soldiers carrying guns appeared in the entrance and waved John forward.

Yseult found herself in a massive cave; Monique had fallen into her withdrawn self at all the activity and noise. Yseult guided her forward gently as a man approached him, his eyes narrowing at Monique. "General Wilson," John said, catching up to Yseult with a quick two-step, "this is Yseult. She's a Canadian who came down here looking for her family. She's a scientist, and she has important information for us."

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Carter, Mark and Ryan began to pull and poke at one of the guns. Frustratingly, they didn't have the right tools to pull these things apart. The bolts which secure it to the ship had triangular heads, and they had to wait for the machine shop to emulate the right shape. Every step seemed to be met with a setback, which only emphasized the alien technology they were using.

"Finally," Carter said as they heaved the gun up on the table. They began to tear into the gun, pulling the pieces off and putting them on the table.

"Look at this," Ryan said, pointing at revealed component. "I think that liquid is the same power source.

Carter nodded. "Agreed." She glanced at them. "We have the power source - now, how does it go from power to outputted destruction?"

[Ryan Hawke]

"Excitation by high voltage electricity perhaps." He frowned. "Still poses the question of what they use to generate it."

"We really need to pull the whole thing apart, recording each step, and with any luck how to put it back together."

An idea hit him. "Do we have a weapon that fires?"

"Perhaps if we could remove the outer casing, we could watch the process in action."

[Dr. Yseult Langlois]

Yseult's own dark eyes hardened as she noted the General's frowning gaze on her daughter. Keeping Monique comfortingly pressed close to her side, the petite, unusually attractive scientist gave General Wilson a sharp nod, acknowledging John's comment.

"General Wilson, I am have seeing one of these alien... parasites. I was able to perform some tests on the organism, as well as conduct an autopsy on one of these 'Jaffa', yes? There are some rather intrguing - and disturbing - results."

Yseult gave a tired sigh and stretched her back. It seemed ever since the Goa'uld had arrived, she'd been unable to get a full night's rest. There was always one more thing to do, and then another after that. A tightness was being permanently etched into her slender shoulders.

"If you are being able to provide me with a cot or such for my daughter and an adequate computer system, I will begin to convey all that I am knowing of the aliens and their soldiers. It is little enough, I am knowing, but it was being a hasty examination of a single specimen."

[z-Servant of Ra]

Carter shook her head. "Not yet we don't," she replied, looking as disappointed as he felt. "I suspect we'll have one soon, though, as soon as one of our soldiers find a working specimen." She took a sip of coffee and said, "But tearing it apart sounds like a good idea. Let's get that set up and do it."

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Yseult was given more than a cot; she was given a small 'office'. A laptop was brought to her for her to work on. She couldn't start immediately; she had to wait for a couple of hours for them to get the programs she needed to run her files. Then she was able to present her findings to the gathered Generals.

It was a small start, but it was progress.

[Rorx]

Mark looked up from his analysis, "They are obviously more advanced in the use of optoelectronics given their use of crystal blocks for most of the working onf thier devices. That would suggest to me that some of teh stages along the barrel here act as a lasing medium with amplification. However, from the descriptions we have had the effect seems to be more like what I would expect from a particle accerelator. So they must have a conversion stage at or near the end of the sequence."

He indicates the relevant areas of the opened up fighter weapon as he talks."It looks very similar to the staff shaped weapon in its general layout and even down to the relative position of some of the same shaped and coloured cyrstals."

[Ryan Hawke]

"That it does." They began the process of tearing down the craft's weapons, cleaning each part and laying it out on a canvas tarp. They'd finally managed to get the outer weapon assembly broken down and Ryan decided it was time to tackle a bigger task, removing the burnt and charred armor over the internal mechanisms. It took him some time but he got the entire plate off, and then began to carefully explore the semi-ruined inner workings of the ship, recording everything and moving very carefully.