Science club meeting!

[i_speak_softly]

Who: Anyone who's interested (regardless of what Don says).
What: First meeting of the Scientists, Hypothesizers, and Engineers of Luceti League.
When: An announcement at about 10:00 this morning, with the meeting occurring at 3 PM.
Where: At the barracks.
Summary: A bunch of nerdy brainiacs get together to talk Science.
Rating: Science is for Everyone!

Voice | Filtered to People Who Were Interested in SHELL * | Unhackable

First meeting of the science club. 3:00 today. The barracks. Please keep it secret.



Action

[Don will be at the barracks early, staking out a room and frequently peeking into the hall to make sure everyone finds their way to the unmarked location. When everyone seems to have arrived, he'll gather them in a loose circle for a brief round of introductions. Once that's done, he'll encourage them to mingle and talk about whatever interests them. At later meetings they can focus on specific topics; today they'll just get a sense of the group's dynamics, their areas of interest, and what physical and intellectual resources they can pool towards their various goals.]


((* Including the Elric brothers, because Winry vouched for them, but excluding Eggman, because he's a little scary.))

((Just to be clear: the character exclusions are IC only. OOCly, if you want your character to attend, then go ahead and assume they found out about the meeting despite the invitees' best efforts to be stealthy.))

Comments

[daisy023]

She is a little surprised that her intrusion is nonetheless welcome. It probably helped that at least Robert knew her to let her within the group. She can't help but notice him a little uneasy despite his happiness to see her.

"Thanks."

SPARTAN-023 makes a quick scan of the people in the barracks. She quickly notices Ami, and is a little surprised by her presence. Though then again, the Chief knows of another Doctor that masters both medicine and technology... One person she'd rather not mention, however.

And Donatello.

Her bigotry is kept in check. Apart from a quick look at him, she reminds herself that race and origins should not matter in Luceti. Every resident is together in this... That, and while Donatello is a visible non-human, she has very close friends here that, she reminds herself, are only human in appearance.

The Spartan makes another check before she speaks to Robert, this time to see if there were more ears than those she saw right now: She hears nothing else in the area, and all of the journals are shut closed. Good. She'd have to ask later who of them had a laptop or equipment to pass video logs.

"Sorry for not coming with invitation. I didn't want the Malnosso listening." She sets the tube on the table. "Robert... Remember I told you back at the park that it wasn't the best time to talk about the droids?"

[semper_cogitans]

Robert, of course, doesn't notice any of these things; he is ignorant of what that look at Don means, being, of course, mostly blind to speciesism himself when it isn't blatant. All he knows is that Daisy is here and she has a very interesting red tube with her.

"Yes... I do remember that," he says, nodding - as if he would ever forget. "Why do you ask?"

He pauses to give the test tube an almost longing glance.

"... And what have you brought, if... I may ask about it?"

[daisy023]

"The reason I didn't want the Malnosso listening."

She opens the tube. From it, there are sketches and notes of the insides of the droids.

What happened out there in the park was not paranoia. It was caution. The problem was that Robert Hastings had asked the right person about the droids in the wrong place. He asked the first person in Luceti to have ever got her hands on the insides of the machines of the Malnosso.

The figure raises its' head. Might as well explain how she found this. There is a pause before she explains to the group what she had just found.

"There was an incident two months ago. The Malnosso sent droids to capture Trafalgar Law, but they messed something up with the capture order. Programming, orders, numbers." She regrets it may probably be the only chance they'll ever have at getting closer to the droids. "Law and Bepo destroyed the droids, and there was a pause before the Malnosso returned to take him and the parts back."

Too close to the droids. One opportunity she could still not waste.

"I knew what would happen. Even if I didn't get much from that... I took the chance to study them. To record their insides. To see how they work. But I can't do it alone."

[notshadowfever.livejournal.com]

Eggman interjects, highly interested in the workings of the Malnosso's droids and surprised someone here had even obtained information on them.

"Information about the Malnosso droids is absolutely priceless!" He takes a pleading tone. "Please, as a robotics expert you must let me see what you found!"

[daisy023]

The golden visor turns to Eggman, but she addresses the entire group.

"Only with the condition that none of this will be spoken or written over the journals. This is not to hide this from the residents, but from the people that are holding us captive. Word comes out, they could upgrade, change the models too soon for us to act.

Worse, they could find a way to erase this knowledge."

She remembers the Malnosso had that power. They used it before.

The Spartan looks at the sketches of the droids once again. She blames herself for not having gotten more time or tools for the task, or someone way more knowledgeable than she was for that incident.

She passes a few of her notes to the large man, along with a transcript of her footage.

"I found out only a little. Functions, properties, and theories of mine. It was like reading hyeroglyphs without a Rosetta stone. But if you have a computer, I have the footage."

[i_speak_softly]

Don isn't happy about Dr. Eggman being here or seeing this, but if the man really is a leading roboticist, then he's the one most qualified to analyze Daisy's findings.

He nods in agreement to Daisy's stipulation, then watches Eggman closely as he takes the notes, looking for any sign of deviousness or dishonesty.

[semper_cogitans]

Robert is watching too, anxiously. Part of him wants to believe that Eggman might be capable of working good with his abilities instead of evil. They did have discussions along those lines; is there maybe some way to have those things truly come together in a setting like this?

Still, he seems to be behaving himself so far. But this knowledge is extremely important and cannot be risked.

[notshadowfever.livejournal.com]

Eggman takes the notes eagerly, skimming through some of the notes and taking interest especially in the sketches, marvelling at the bizarre technology that must have been used to build these machines. In some ways the circuitry looks familiar and in many places it's completely alien. He concentrates on the notes for a minute or two and then speaks up.

"Unbelievable! This might not be much but I'm impressed at how much you got down before the droids came for you." It's true. He really is impressed. Which is rare. "If I, that is to say, er, we can analyse these findings further..." He grins, looking up a little. "Imagine the possibilities. We could create a weapon to disable the droids... even re-purpose them!"

[daisy023]

"Our objective, is to stop these kidnappings." Her voice turns solid. Everyone in the room knows what she is talking about, though for Daisy, it is something that has given her nightmares.

A pause. Even these outbursts of emotion had to be controlled.

"I won't deny the things we could use that tech for." Hell, if they managed to safely get droid parts for research, she'd love to use that technology for the MJOLNIR. "But know that this is important. This is something you will have to use and study responsibly. This is for the residents. For all of us."

"If we could repurpose those things... We'd have a hand against the Malnosso."

It's a distant possibility. But if it ever were to happen, this man was right. The possibilities would be endless.

[no-use-running.livejournal.com]

Ami nods, lending a subtle emphasis and support to Daisy's words. "It's true that all of this is interesting in its own right. The breadth of what the Malnosso have been able to do. But that same knowledge has been used against us, against everyone here. Our first priority is to end that. That's why we're studying it."

[notshadowfever.livejournal.com]

"If we're going to put a stop to the oppression and kidnappings then we need to put a stop to the Malnosso altogether!" Eggman stands up, clenching a fist. He's feeling passionate about this. "We can't think in the short-term! There are only two options, destroy the Malnosso or force them to surrender!" He looks around the room to everyone listening, lowering his hand. "But despite that, we can't think too far ahead for now. We need to study these droids and any other Malnosso technology we can and find out just what we can do with it."

[no-use-running.livejournal.com]

It wasn't, really, surprising in the least that Ami would be here, the princess and heiress of the civilization that advanced technology to such heights that humans called them goddesses and called the technology magic - even today. Of course, few people knew much about that side of her.

"Amazing!" Ami didn't bother to hide her surprise, or her admiration. "I'd like to look at them as well, please. Perhaps copies could be made for distribution, sometime soon."

After all, this room was full of precisely the people who'd be interested. "We could look the plans over our own, and share our conclusions the next time we meet."

[daisy023]

She nods to Ami.

"Of course, ma'am." It was her intention, and why kept tabs on this group as soon as she read about it on the draft... and did not answer. Both the droids and Malnosso were watching her.

"I also have high-definition footage of the analysis of the droids, along with heat readings and other things." She taps her helmet. The source of all of that information. "I need to know if there's someone here that has a computer, or something to study the footage in detail."

[no-use-running.livejournal.com]

"I do," Ami volunteered immediately. "However, I'll need to make some changes for security; it was given to me by the Malnosso. Until I've had a chance to completely clean it out, I don't trust it to be secure."

She had, of course, already done this; but with the importance of the task ahead of them, she was taking no chances.

[i_speak_softly]

"Do you need any help going over it?" Don asks. He trusts her medical knowledge but isn't sure how expert she is with computers. "I'm pretty good at wiping drives."

[no-use-running.livejournal.com]

"I can make sure the computer is secure; but I'd like help reviewing the data once I can start utilizing these schematics."

3-D models could be quite effective.

[daisy023]

A request. Even then, Ami and Don are on the right track. The Chief wouldn't trust equipment from the enemy, either.

"Good." In her mind, there is nothing such as too many precautions. In her mind. "I didn't get to know more about the mechanisms working inside it, but I can try guiding you guys through it."

How the material felt to her touch, how much it weighted, what was behind it... Approximations, but better than nothing.

[semper_cogitans]

"I also have my nanocomputer," Robert adds. "As a quantum computer, it... may not be possible for the Malnosso to infect as easily, and I have so far noticed no abnormalities in its usage..."

He wouldn't store sensitive data on it without checking, after all. And this is definitely sensitive data - it's far too useful to leave it up to chance on whether the Malnosso might have seen it.

"This is absolutely fascinating, Ms. Daisy... But, unlikely to occur again, I surmise?"

It was a mistake... a mistake that they could take advantage of.

[whydidisaverick.livejournal.com]

Whuh whuh whuh whuuuuuh! He was there too, but ultimately he had failed to bring back any samples. He hulked out before he had a chance to really get away. Bruce just awes at it for a second.

"Wait--" compose yourself Bruce. Compose yourself. "I-- I remember that. I was there." He pauses before he speaks again. "I wasn't able to get away with a sample though-- how did you do that?" And why are you built like a truck.

[daisy023]

There is a pause when the 7ft figure in red listens to him. She remembers a handful of the people that got to help. Admittedly, she was too frightened to recognize a few of these faces, and she was there for a time too short to see all involved in the incident... Not to mention all she was able to get were her helmet and her tools.

"When I was out there with Law, we knew the odds weren't good, so we tried something else." A small tilt of her head, and she smiles inside her helmet. She wouldn't have this information here if it weren't for Marco.

"A friend of his that could fly offered to take me to my quarters to get my gear, and transport me throughout the village to get me more time to study the remains. We left the battle with the remains of the droids and my equipment, and did all I could with the short timeframe I had while the Malnosso were trying to capture Law.

When the droids started to spread out, and by the time I found that thing," she points at a strange alien artifact in the center of the chest, drawn in one of the notes... With abnormally high numbers. "I had no choice but to toss the droid parts back to the forest. Before they reached me and my escort.

I couldn't keep the parts of the droids. But I got to record everything I studied."

[whydidisaverick.livejournal.com]

He was kind of hoping she had managed to actually keep a piece of the droid, but, the fact that she even got sketches was accomplishment enough. "Well still. Even if you didn't manage to keep any of the parts, what you did here was still ground breaking. I'm not sure if anyone has ever managed this before." That all being said, he looked as if he was still deep in thought however.

"Can I ask you a question though? Based on your experiences... would you say it's possible to keep a part of a droid without the Malnosso taking notice?"

[daisy023]

It is still an incident for which she wishes she could've gathered more help. She shakes her head.

"The Malnosso keep track of both the barcodes and the droids. They're a secondary objective, but as far as I know, they get the CPU's and the pieces back every time a droid is destroyed."

The Spartan hopes she might be mistaken about minor parts and limbs. But otherwise, upgrades and shifting tech made by the residents could have been accomplished sooner.

"But if parts do remain..." Needless to say, both this group and the Malnosso would keep watch for the droids from now on.

[whydidisaverick.livejournal.com]

He leans back in his chair and just stairs up at the ceiling a second, thinking. He was actually kind of afraid of that. It's not really all that surprising to him. They wouldn't want to risk the villagers discovering their technology afterall.

"I actually have a theory about the barrier..." Before he speaks again he'll lean forward, his elbows resting on his legs. "Usually it's believed the droids are teleported inside right? I won't deny that's a possibility but-- what if they're actually capable of penetrating the barrier itself?"

[no-use-running.livejournal.com]

"It's possible," Ami said, giving her full attention to Bruce with the thought. "However, unless we can capture one again, and somehow question it, we still won't be able to make use of their methods, unless it's as simple as a mechanism we could study to figure out."

[whydidisaverick.livejournal.com]

"Well I was actually thinking perhaps they were made or coated with something that could directly go through it." And then as he thinks about it he closes his eyes tightly and pinches the bridge of his nose. "But even if they were, it would probably take weeks or months to get enough material to build something capable of covering a whole person's body with it. So it might be a lost cause." Not to mention the fact that they would have to do that completely undetected by the Malnosso.

He's pretty sure they're efficient enough to notice when a few dozen of their droid parts are missing.