UN Special Forces Vietnam Forward Research Base

[albatross]

The graduate student looks confused for only a moment and says, "We were expecting guests for a tour today, the Omega Team. But I'll bring you to the research lab... er.. Dr. Jeckle. Right this way...." Her hand shake was the confident grip of a straight A student, and Jeckle can tell by the way she instinctively added the word 'doctor' to her name that she is mostly book smarts. The smarter students probably aren't on tour guide duty. And the fact she doesn't introduce herself suggests a humble person.

The grad student leads Jeckle to a large lab with all kinds of fancy equipment. In the middle is the original field generator. It is twenty feet tall and eight feet in diameter. A couple smaller models are nearby, one the size of a car, and one the same size as the ones Jeckle worked on.

The research scientists are deep in their work, bent over computer models or the generators themselves. It looks like they are trying to discover if any of the design features used to assemble the portable tester would be worth engineering into the full size version. It takes a moment before one of them notices the grad student, actually the notice their own assistants noticing someone. An old man with coke bottle glasses and a large hooked nose raises one bushy eyebrow, but before he says anything a potbellied guy with a well kept beard steps forward. "Are you with the pilots?" He looks at the student, "The tour is supposed to stay out until we've left for the day." She says, "This is the person from Omega who worked on the testers."

The fat man and the other scientists perk up, "The inventor? Sullivan?"

[shiivster]

*thinks to herself . . . o 0 ( Dr Jeckle? oh Heckle would love that one. odd you didn't name yourself )

'nah . . do i really look like a young kid? and no . . not Sullivan. i'm Jeckle. the Omega team builder that went nuts building 3 of those dang testers. some of the components really drove me buggy'

'figured to get the drop on the team and get the low down on what you guys thought ofit and this place. i'm sure they're gonna stick me with more stuff to build'

*offers the hand again to the scientists. she figures that if she comes across as the brainiac, that's tired of mundane inferior minded people, she might get a better reaction

[dakota]

Khris lets out a bit of a huff, " So much for Heckle's help. I'll see if I can get a look around those tunnels. I know the Vietnamese have a history of using them effectively, so if there's any dirt to dig up, it's probably down there. I'll be in touch." He hesitated, wanting to give more than a verbal parting, but decided against it and started out of the lift.

[albatross]

"Ahh, the technician, of course," the potbellied scientist muses. He seems impressed the three scientists nearby introduce themselves, the pot bellied one is an American, the one with coke bottle glasses is from Spain, and the third is from India. They all have obscure names, and they quickly rattle off half a dozen more scientists that few people have ever heard of. They wave the grad student away to get everyone coffee, tea and soda and continue introductions. The scientists at the UN lab tend to fall into three disciplines, though there are literally hundreds of specialists in all sorts of diverse fields just in case, like chemistry, psychology, biochem, bio physics, cybernetics, and dozens of brillant inventors.

The three main disciplines are advanced theoretical phyics (the fat one), experimental physics engineering (the Spainard builds experiments and is a fancy engineer), and the man from India is a medical physicist.

[albatross]

Tiger watches Kris go wistfully and then walks to the base headquarters to report in.

Kris notices that though there doesn't seem to be many guards (the inactive nuclear reactor is one notable exception), there is a great deal of high tech security. Cameras, including fancy nightvision models, and the tunnel hatches, while unguarded and unlocked, are all monitored by video.

[dakota]

Making note of security, Khris continued looking around, at the same time reaching out with hismetasensing and his implanted sensors.

[shiivster]

Jeckle listens to all the introductions and her mind now compartmentalizes them into their various groups. 'so how do you like working here dr *insert name*? don't you wonder what the sky is like?' *observes what he's working on, scans the schematic. pointing at it she asks, 'that's a . . ?'

*she nods and 'i'll think it over. might have an angle for you later. it'll come to me, but i think that circuit is leading nowhere . . . ' *points out what she spotted . . '

*once done, she'll snoop about at other places and ask questions. its clear that she's got smarts, just never took the time to go to 'school' for the required paperworks

[albatross]

Soon Jeckle is emersed in discussion with the scientists. They love talking, especially about their experiments. All of them have worked on the portable teaters and they know how tough they are to assemble, so they address Jeckle as an equal, curious about her opinions and eager to share and discuss their own.

Evetually one of them asks, "Well, I suppose you want to see the full size generators?" Jeckle knows these are the huge heavy things... the portable testers are meant to replicate them on a smaller scale, but the big ones can only be moved by a crane, a train or a ship... and they require more expertise to use, more difficult than the portable versions. Tiger mentioned a couple times that the full size generators are supposed to be able to deploy a field strong enough to counter the aura of death that seems to surround the demons.

[albatross]

Kris finds that the tunnels serve several purposes. There are utility tunnels everywhere, this place is wired with enough electrical transformers and cable to power a city. But the plumbing and sewer systems looks barely large enough to handle a small town. Even the utility tunnels have all kinds of sensors, even more than the other tunnels.

The other tunnels lead to a borg barracks with a dozen full conversion borgs resting or off duty, there must be more out on patrol. Kris is able to avoid the borgs and other soldiers in the tunnels, but they don't seem particularly alert.

Besides the barracks the tunnels lead to another cave which is filled with four huge multistory windowless buildings made of concrete and steel.

[shiivster]

' mm . . ? the full sized one? oh most definately. the portable one was enough of an issue. you been having any issue with the *insert tougher part*? i found the reactor tricky, not impossible, just tricky. dealt with a ton of things i've never tried before

'so Dr. *insert name*, you worked on teh ractor yourself. what was you opinion on it? you lucked out with more help. i was alone on mine . . . '

[dakota]

Keeping to himself, Khris continued to wander, taking in details. Nothing had overly impressed him, but then he hadn't expected it to either. The four huge buildings did however pique his interest

[shiivster]

*she tags along with the scientists. 'so . . what do you guys do for fun besides work?'

*she suspects that there wont be any difinitive answers to that question, but she tries

[albatross]

The scientests banter with Jeckle over all their technical problems with various parts and they laugh aboit some of their failures before discussing their solutions.

They lead Jeckle along a hallway in the lab. Jeckle notices the hall is unguarded, but motion, heat and video sensors are everywhere. Of course they might have been installed when the full size device was the only prototype.

"Free time? We've been working round the clock," the fat scientist exaggerates. "We've had to build three micro examples, three macros, all the while accelerating the research timelime on the original device."

"Here it is," they bring jeckle into a room with a pillar as big a semi truck trailer. It vaguely resembles the portable testers, but it is much bigger. Jeckle can see just by looking at it that some of the engineering problems are still present in the big one, maybe a couple issues of scale, but a third of her design headaches would disappear in something this big.

"The others are all installed."

[albatross]

Kris finds that the tunnels leading to the four huge containers are all blocked and locked. Each blast door has heat, motion and video sensors.

[shiivster]

Jeckle looks at the speakers 'wait wait . . . three micros and 3 macros? . . more units like the 3 testers i built? what are the others for? and you said installed? where. would love to see how you got them hooked up'

*she looks at the various sensors her glasses studying various currents that give off heat compared to the walls about them. she has a bad feeling about something.

'so in regards to these security devices, how many times to they get triggered with no one there?' *she knows the suit her brother was testing could beat the heat sensory units.