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 Post Posted: Fri Apr 01, 2016 3:35 pm 
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"It's been about two days since they left. One Knight bound for the Capital to head off the Primate Raven should he find out about us, and the rest of the group to the University to try and find a cure for their Queen," Felix replies. "They travel by horseback so I imagine they don't make good time."

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 Post Posted: Fri Apr 01, 2016 7:57 pm 
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"If we can get a LATRAAV up and running with a gassifier, I figure we could catch up to him in about three hours, give or take."

Nate picks up Piper.

"If you don't mind, why do you ask?"

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 Post Posted: Sat Apr 02, 2016 5:52 am 
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"Because I need to know exactly how soon we can expect the fecal matter to hit the rotating blades," says Captain Argent. "Consider. From what you're telling me, this country is nominally in the hands of this Raven fellow. But his power is insecure - these knights work against him, there's rumours that he poisoned the Queen. He's going to want to affirm his control in some way, unify the people under his rule. Squash any rebellions. In the midst of all this, a city-sized building comes out of nowhere, containing people with unknown motives, unknown loyalties, and unbelievable capabilities, and the first people we run into are a group opposing him. And we know he's ruthless enough to poison someone - or at least he projects the image of being ruthless enough to poison someone."

"Do you really think he's likely to welcome us with open arms?"

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 Post Posted: Sat Apr 02, 2016 6:24 am 
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"I very much doubt he will, whuch is why it's important to tie his hands."

Nate pauses for a moment and frowns.

"We thaw out the best diplomats we have and send them to run this Raven fellow in circles. We pretend to play nice with him, and keep him busy with meaningless platitudes. Meanwhile we get our hospital up and running and start treating people. We also send out groups to teach people about modern agriculture techniques and technology. Think what the introduction of the printing press would do in this culture. Now think what it would do in the hands of those who had just been miraculously cured of a fatal illness or taught to make a barren land fertile. Hearts and minds, Captain, hearts and minds. We win the people over, and keep ourselves from appearing to be a threat, and this Raven won't be able to attack us without further alienating his own people. And all the while, we keep building. We play our cards right, by the time he gets fed up with the endless rounds of diplomacy, we'll be in a position to stop any army he cares to field against us, and we'll have the backing of the people and the knights."

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 Post Posted: Sat Apr 02, 2016 7:19 am 
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The Captain nods. "That might even work," he says, "if this Raven is an incompetent idiot. Look, there's no diplomat in the world who's good enough to keep someone going in circles without that person figuring it out pretty quickly, and this Raven has a reputation for, at the very least, attempted murder to get his way. And if his country's mobilising for a war, he's got an army that he can march to our doorstep with if we irritate him enough. Now, what's that latrav thing you mentioned a few minutes ago?"

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 Post Posted: Sat Apr 02, 2016 12:33 pm 
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"Don't discount what a good diplomat can do, Captain. You might be suprised."

"Now then; LATRAAV: Light All Terrain Reconnaissance And Attack Vehicle. It's a military term for what is essentialy a dune buggy. They go fast and far and don't need roads to do it. Good for hit and run tactics."

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 Post Posted: Sat Apr 02, 2016 3:59 pm 
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"We'll eventually want to establish a base in the Capital anyway, once we've gotten ourselves set up nice and pretty where we are," Felix says. "An embassy to communicate with the local leaders if nothing else. Another hospital to serve the more diverse market forces there at the very least. Once we've learned more about the situation we could use that opportunity to suck up to the powers that be, including the Primate Raven. By the time we're in a position to make that move our intelligence efforts will likely have netted us a firmer grasp on his personality and whether or not such actions would even be worthwhile."

Felix shrugs his shoulders and thinks for a moment.

"I suggest we take our time and talk to the local populace and get their opinions on the local leaders. Everything moves a lot slower here, so we have at least some time before things start dipping precariously over into the aforementioned fan. We have a number of vehicles of various types in storage. If I can get them operating again that would extend our capabilities and let us work much faster than our enemies. All I'd need to do is find some way to power or fuel them."

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 Post Posted: Sat Apr 02, 2016 4:18 pm 
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"Yeeeeesssss.... and given that we've got at least three days' lead on this, we've got time. But trading for food is something we don't have time to wait on. Gentlemen, you have your tasks. We'll delay the politics a day or two. Get to it!"

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 Post Posted: Sat Apr 02, 2016 4:42 pm 
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Felix attempts to get a read on the Captain's character.

Felix: Empathy: +2 Roll: +1 Total: +3
Captain Argent: Rapport: +3 Opening Up (with "Heart on my Sleeve" stunt) +1 Roll: +2 Total: +6


All that Felix can tell for sure is that Captain Argent is an expert at politics.

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 Post Posted: Sat Apr 02, 2016 5:01 pm 
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"Something to mull over, Captain," Felix says as everyone else files out. "The Knights are loyal to the Queen and thus far they've been quite fair to us. If we promise to try and use our medical knowledge to save their Queen, it could guarantee us all the protection we need. An alliance, even. We have ten months before the crystal holding her in stasis wears off. Enough time to get our medical equipment in place and our staff ready. It's an option to consider, and between Doctor Vanderbilt, Nathan and myself, we're pretty sure the poison is something that can be removed and the damage managed, given what we were able to learn from the Knights."

His piece said, Felix will make his way out to the warehouse to work on his assignment unless otherwise stopped by the Captain or anyone else for further conversation.

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 Post Posted: Sat Apr 02, 2016 6:32 pm 
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"Aye aye skipper. I'll see if we have a copy of rossetta stone somewhere aboard ship we can hack just as soon as I put Piper down for a nap."

Nate will go and put Piper in her bunk for a nap before hunting around in the ship's computer for a copy of rossetta stone or a similar program, and will start tinkering with it so it can be used to teach others the local language.

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 Post Posted: Sat Apr 02, 2016 6:39 pm 
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"We'll have to sit down and make a translation guide next opportunity we get, then stick it in a copier and print out a few dozen copies," Felix replies. "Here's to hoping that isn't too difficult, I've never had to do something like that before... You should follow me and we'll figure that out together. You can write notes down while I work on sorting out the supplies for the hospital."

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 Post Posted: Sun Apr 03, 2016 2:55 am 
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Captain Argent nods, just once, at Felix's "something to mull over".

Piper holds onto Nathan as he puts her to bed, and he has to extract himself from her grasp with some care to avoid waking her.

Felix looks around for translation software...

Felix: Science: +3 Roll: +1 Total: +4

Translation software, for some reason, is one of the few things not on the handy list of useful software that the system gives logged-in users. Felix eventually finds something halfway suitable buried in an archive of "stuff you almost certainly won't need but there was extra hard drive space". Rewriting it to teach a while new language will be a fairly major task, requiring several days (mostly consisting of recording vast numbers of individual words). There's no single Earth language with precisely the right grammatical structure, but it's easy enough to find one which will have no worse effect than leaving the speaker occasionally talking in a manner reminiscent of Yoda.

The software to teach English, on the other hand, is already there and can be used.


Last edited by CCC on Sun Apr 03, 2016 3:25 am, edited 1 time in total.
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 Post Posted: Sun Apr 03, 2016 3:23 am 
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Felix will grab a number of tablets and prep them to load the English teaching software, as well as a copy for himself to hack and reprogram to teach the local language. He'll find time for the reprogramming and rerecording later.

While the tablets are charging and loading software, he'll get to work sorting out the supplies for their field clinic.

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 Post Posted: Sun Apr 03, 2016 6:39 am 
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Nate sits down with a pencil and paper (he likes the feel better then a keyboard) and will translate a list of commonly used phrases as well as likely anwers, using his past travel experience as a guide. He also incudes a number basic words that would be useful, including directions, distances, times, and quantities, as well as more abstract things like "yes, no," and "help".

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