UN Special Forces Vietnam Forward Research Base

[albatross]

The scientists look distinctly uncomfortable, muttering "ums" and "ahs" except for one who seems to be thinking with his mouth open.

Of course the thought has crossed all their minds. What else could the demons be? Perhaps this exact same experiment gone awry and beserk.

One of the scientists moves to take Jeckle to the spec library, while they walk one says, "We've all wondered if maybe this technology might be related to the demons, but if it is, the demons are very different. You'll see when the pilot's start working. The demons radiate death constantly for hundreds of meters. We can barely get these generators to light up with the pilots we had last week. Unless the new pilots you brought are light years ahead of the old ones the idea of killing someone with these generators..."

"These units are designed for shielding. A death radius would kill a human pilot if we understand the effects.... I think the brass turned to these because theoretically they can shield from anything, literally anything. Its like the polar opposite of the demons that kill everything...."

Sounding only half convinced they bring Jeckle to a big room with huge projection screens on three sides. Some of Tiger's diagrams are on two walls, and on another a spec from the original work team.

[albatross]

"Maybe I like big guns?" Tiger says softly. "Perhaps if you're too shy here in front of everyone we could go somewhere quiet and I could show you some new tricks with your python?" She winks.

[dakota]

"Put your ear protection back in." Was Khris' only reply as he drew both of his revolvers, the trip switch for the laser sights activating as soon as they cleared his holsters. He stepped in behind Tiger so she was facing him and bent in to kiss her with his arms outstretched around each shoulder and he began to ventilate the ajacent targets methodically placing shots with the laser targeting.

[albatross]

"I'd distract you, but I'd hate for someone to get shot. I was hoping you'd skip target practice in favor of getting some work in with your... other gun." Tiger blushes slightly as she glances away and back.

[dakota]

"I was hoping you'd say that." Shroud replied, holstering and then drawing her tight," I hope you have something in mind, this place is crawling with cameras."

[albatross]

"Hopefully they didn't put any in the showers," Tiger responds. She slips her arm around Kris and says, "You want to tell me about your recon while we walk?"

[dakota]

" Sure." Khris replied, only really thinking about one thing now. " They rely mainly on electronic surveillance. There's a token force on display, but they aren't the hardline defenders a place like this has so there has to be a concealed barracks somewheres. Did find where I think they store the bots, but security there is much higher and I didn't stick around long."

[albatross]

"According to my sources the US Special Forces 1st Power Armor Cavalry unit has troops here. They are probably in a seperate barracks close to the surface." Tiger shares, her mind half preoccupied with anticipation.

[dakota]

"Well, the yankee troopers can find their own showers to use. " Khris slid his arm around Tiger so his thumb was in a suggestive position. " I think ours might be unavailable for a while."

[shiivster]

*Jeckle moves along and listens and ponders the next set of questions.

'odd, huh? they radiate death . . and these ones radiate shielding. odd. got any demon footage at all? if not, ask for some please, need to compare the old specs to them

*she would point out the obvios differences, but unknown to the scientists, her brain has already copied parts of hte schmatics. 'wow that is some fancy work. can't believe that you got the parts built and constructed like you have. you have any idea if the other teams got their testers built? it was hard work to do, but i got mine done and completed

[albatross]

"The Gates Foundation, Century Station and USA SCRET all 'completed' testers.... But the Gates Foundation didn't finish until the week before the trials and the Century Station and SCRET testers don't work properly. We might be able to recalibrate the SCRET one, and the Gates tester is Ok I guess...."

They call up the footage of the demons. Most of it is from Satellites, or telescopes. The demon is huge, even bigger than the bots.

There is some depressing footage from when the China team went up against the thing. They are doing their best to fight it and then they just keel over dead one after another.

[shiivster]

'right . . lemme at a computer then. maybe i can run a few comparisons. i'll need the specs and a second screen . . maybe one to pull things up. well lets go people, we got work to do. i wanna know ifhte demon is 'real' or some 'old project' that got commondeered by bad guys

'other questions. electrical devices near those thigns. how long did they work? range of interference? *asks various other specific questions tht deal with how close things need to be and if EMP's had been tried*

'oh yeah, readings from the oceans. lets hook up with sats to track the radiation flows. if they're deadly on land, whats the best way to kill a planet? . . damage the water supply . . and where does it come from? . . the biggest bodies of water in cycles. come on . . lets get info flowing, . . . *she starts delegating scientist assistants to start doing similar things in their fields, but is usitlizing the staff so the ones that had nearly finished or were standing about without something to do, now are occupied

[albatross]

At first, the research goes quickly for Jeckle, but as they get to more complicated questions, things get tougher. Much of the raw research material about computers, machines and EMPs is in several different languages.

Fortunately or unfortunately, the demons seem to be focusing on attacking humans on land. They leave a trial of death in the oceans of course, but they simply walk along the bottom in order to get to land. One is trying to cross the Pacific after devastating Japan, and on is in Austrailia and one in Russia.

It will take a few more days of translations and reports to sort out the electronic devices research as some of it seems contradictory.

The next morning the kids go to their training and Kris and Jeckle have more opportunities to investigate.

[dakota]

Once everyone else was gone, and Khris was left to his own devices, he decided to check out what the defense really were like. His first stop would be to check out the power armor division Tiger had mention yesterday, then smirked to himself as he thought back to his private debriefing.

[shiivster]

Jeckle will do what she can to aid and decypher the incoming reports. she checks and double checks the routes they've taken so far to see if she can discern any pattern and if there are any isolated spots that were protected.

the images, she comapres to the Robot they have now and compares to the Demon.

'any way to get the satellites to give me access to get a 360 of the demon? otherwise i'll have to extrapolate and guesstimate on these formulas. need to access . . . ' *turns and double checks the various ratios on a laptop not hooked up to the system. she's inputted her information on her CG suit and will compare the sizes she's put in about the Demon's to see if they are 'really humanoid' or if they are constructs. this is the only thing she can think of to check.

*she's enjoying the challenges and almost gets sucked into the old 'oh i can help out and do this and that . . and . . and . . and . . '. she blinks a few times and realizes that she's exhausted and looks at the scientists and states 'i gotta go to sleep. i'll be back after a rest . . ' *and will try to exit the area . . to return to the surface and the team