X-COM: Aliens

[Shadani]

The Pale One stared in shocked silence for a while at the place where it had hidden their salvation.

"Soon, it had said," the creature mumbled psychically, almost as if to itself. "Soon, we would know more. Were we lied to?"

It shook its tiny head as it felt the weight of the situation descend upon its shoulders.

"There is no point to resistance when the Elder can disable us at will," it said. "No weapons will avail us so long as this is the case. We must either find the crystal or find another way, or else hope that some other opportunity will present itself."

A pause. A flash of hesitation, followed by a glance over to its siblings.

"I may have an idea. But it would require a volunteer, and tools that I do not have. And it is likely that the Masters will have encoded fail-safes into our flesh to prevent more crude forms of tampering with our implants. Further exploration of our biology would be required beforehand, and I do not know if we have the time."

((Physical Sciences: 14 for armor, unless someone is willing to subject themselves to 'examination'. In which case: Earth and Life 13.))

[Vanya Mia]

Nimble hesitated, looking down at the tools in it's hands. Tools that couldn't look inside heads without opening them, where Pale .... and there were many Floaters now.

It swallowed hard. "I volunteer."


((There's others who have my 12 in Craft Mech I think so if they step up to lead research. Switch me off and into a supportive role with Shad!))

[smartalec]

"At last you will be good for something, Nimble," snarked the Scowling One. "As for the rest of you. The crystal has disappeared from its hiding place and reappeared before... I do not know how this occurred, but it did. We must continue our work as if nothing is amiss, but if we stagger a series of breaks across the day, we may be able to continue our work and search for the crystal. Yes? Yes."

"Now get on with it. Quiet, you search this level first. Every crevice! The rest of us... besides Pale and Nimble... ready the graviton shaper."

***

((The Scowling One is set to help with the armor project. Earth and Life Sciences 11!))

[Gulfwulf]

Strong glared at Scowling with a "who put you in charge?" look about it before it returned to what it was doing. It waved a hand at Pale. "If the crystal has disappeared before and reappeared, it's likely to do so again. While troubling, we must still push our research forward less the Masters become suspicious."

//We have company coming in tomorrow so I may or may not be here. If I don't show up, don't wait for me.

[RogueZair]

The Quiet one nods at Scowling, "I will search, and I agree with the research on improving our armor. We have proven that we need all the protection we can get." The clone helps with the armor development with vigor.

After a while, Quiet nods to Scowling and then says to the group, "We need some data from the clone room, I saw information there on our physiology that will help when I worked on that console last..." The Quiet one leaves the lab to gather supporting information for the armor research. It moves quietly and observes the areas of the ship that it can, looking for signs of the crystal or of unusual activity, its stealthy movements a normal thing to the Mutons and others around by this point (Quiet almost always moves as quietly as possible).

// Craft Mechanical: 12 (helping with Armor)

[Lazybones]

Week 17

Project: Improved Armor 2 (50RP)

Research Points (RP) Needed: 18

Project Leader: The Fast One: Craft Mechanical 12, ROLL 5, Result 17
Project Support (all roll vs. DC20 to add +2, DC25 to add +3, DC30 to add +4, non-core skills subtract 1 from the bonus):
The Strong One: Research 5, ROLL 13, Result 18
The Scowling One, Knowledge Earth and Life Sciences 11, ROLL 14, Result 25 (+3 RP)
The Quiet One: Craft Mechanical 12, ROLL 4, Result 16

Side Project: Clone Experimentation: The Pale One Knowledge Earth and Life Sciences 13, ROLL 16, Result 29 (see below)
Supporting: The Nimble One: Craft Mechanical 13 (Non-Core Skill, Subject), ROLL 16, Result 29

Research Earned: 10 (base) + 17 (project leader) + 3 (support) = 30 points

Improved Armor 2 achieved! +2 Natural Armor for all clones. Replaces Improved Armor 1. +400xp for completing a Tier 4 project.

* * *

All results will be adjudicated in-game.

[Lazybones]

+400xp for research success.
+500xp for those who posted in-character this week.

[Vanya Mia]

((Server is up. Should be the same connection information.))

[Vanya Mia]

((Except some bugger reset the router. Gimme 5...))

[Gulfwulf]

((Except some bugger reset the router. Gimme 5...))

//Problems? I'm still not seeing you.