"Okay. Triple check your heat guns and what else you have. It's time to supply the host with heat. Three night watch shifts of four, at least. I'm going for first watch."
Check. Do we have fuel for fires, as Gorat has asked previously?
Str 3; Dex 3; End 3; Cha 10; Int 6; Wil 15//Spe 0; Int 1; Han 0 (-1); Con 4; Unc 0; Exo 12; Aux 3 (+1); Med 0
Mk II Suit; Microwave PK Amp; Mass manip PK Amp; laser rifle (fired once); 0 tokens: normal cigarettes; blue smokes; datapad (with platformer shooter); nanoghosts; shock trigger (with Morul); white skin-tight node-covered black-shell stasis suit worn under Mk II.
Appearance: 5'11'', 170 pounds in a rather unmuscular frame, shoulder-long brown hair, short goatee, brown eyes, a rather long chin that earned him his nickname. Age 32
Half a robot foot. Robot right arm. Wears basic clothes when not in the Mk II.
We'll assume you have some of those chemical logs. Things burn well for a few hours. Don't breathe in the smoke.
Set Raduga to wide angle infrared, low power (maybe around 2% or so), and keep her warm.
"Let's go with the fires for now, though if we could have a heat gun covering her while we build them, that would be nice. I'd rather not risk triggering any defensive responses until we're at the pit."
Assist with fire-building.
You offer your aid in lighting a highly flammable substance on fire.
How many ARM members does it take to
screw in a lightbulb light a fire?
Well, that train of thought led to a load of bollocks.
Try to consciously resist the heat with an effort of will. Shouldn't be difficult if such an effort is applicable, given my lack of attachment to modes of inefficient thought.
Also, try turning on the suit lights and pointing them at the Eater of Cold at all times.
You find it surprisingly hard to will heat out of existence. Clearly you need to try sitting on a hot stove and ignoring that. Work your way up to alien fire elementals.
You point your suit lights at the Eater. She seems...unaffected.
"Right, I'll join you on watch Chin. Anyone with cameyes, set them to thermal. It's gonna get cold, and anything hot is gonna be trouble. Just remember to flick back once in a while. Assuming that everything here gives off body heat is going to get us into trouble. Hrmmm. Steve, how hot does it get inside a Mk1 when the heat exchange is broken, or disabled?"
Keep an eye out around the camp, and beyond.
You do a nice goose step around the camp, keeping an eye out for anything odd in the desert.
Cecil eyeballs the rocks. The evil, evil rocks. They look like they need a good punching.
What kind of evils do these rocks want to commit? Does it feel like they want to hinder us?
You left the rocks back several miles ago. And they don't seem to be stalking you in the dark. You don't think.
"I'll take first watch as well. The next bugger can borrow my laser and backpack to keep her warm afterwards. It's got a dial on it. Don't turn the damn thing up unless you want to punch a hole in her. I've got plenty of stuff that'll do that anyway.
Temp-boy. Keep singing out those readings so we know if she's getting too cold."
Sambo turns on his suit lights and stands on the other side of the woman from the Chief, so no shadows are cast (or at least, his lights will nullify the shadows cast by her's). He stands out of the way of the raduga beam though. He keeps his laser rifle pointed at the woman, but doesn't fire it yet.
Ever play Alan Wake? I'm having flashbacks.
"Right, I'll join you on watch Chin. Anyone with cameyes, set them to thermal. It's gonna get cold, and anything hot is gonna be trouble. Just remember to flick back once in a while. Assuming that everything here gives off body heat is going to get us into trouble. Hrmmm. Steve, how hot does it get inside a Mk1 when the heat exchange is broken, or disabled?"
Keep an eye out around the camp, and beyond.
((Already answered by PW at some point; without the heat exchange you will boil yourself to death with your own body heat))
"If anyone has some sort of laser heating device that can run for the whole night I can just lock my joins on the exoskeleton and sleep in it"
if given such a device lay down in relatively comfortable position and lock joints so that the woman is heated then go to sleep, otherwise keep watch as required
Dunno if you've got something like that that can run autonomously the entire night. We'll see if someone gives it to you.
Help build fires (on different sides of the Eater, so that they cast less/weaker/shadows). Also seperate our motley crew into 2 about-equal watch shifts, if there are no objections. Finally, try to determine how much fuel we have for the fires.
We're up to 3 people for lighting a fire.
You've got 15 logs. Each log has a burn time of 5 hours, or thereabouts.
"I'll take second watch too."
Volunteer for second watch. See if I can intuitively sense any danger or bad ideas.
Tons of them. But nothing you can do anything about.
Set Raduga to wide angle infrared, low power (maybe around 2% or so), and keep her warm.
You miss.
YOU MISS.
DATS A GOOD ROLL MANG
"Yeah, I was about to start heating her anyways" Turn on gun, procede to heat eater of cold
You miss too.
These are good rolls. I like these rolls.
So our two heaters fire helpfully into the sky rather then at the lady, though I'm sure they don't notice it since the beams are invisible. That good old fashion campfire it took a handful of people to start is sorta warm but...not as much as concentrated laser fire. Still. Everything seems fine. Until the beginning of the third watch, when the woman who has, until then, been totally silent, suddenly tilts her head back and starts making noises. Not normal noises either, the kind of noises that you can feel rattling the bones in your chest and vibrating the sand under your feet. The kind of noises that have barely any audible cue, just a dull roar, but that make your ears ache like you're standing next to a 50 foot speaker playing "Nails on a chalkboard: Remastered Anniversary edition". The watchman looking out into the desert with his cam eyes, because I assume thats still happening, sees pinpricks of light showing up across the thermal spectrum, hotspots amongst a sea of bluepurple sand.
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Topic: Mission 18: The final sunset (Read 171517 times)