(no subject)

[aluminumandash]

[ RE419S | TEXT | 001 ]

[ After the message (warning?) has blared two successive times, Rust waits about an hour and sends: ] Progress on locating unauthorized transport?



[ OOC: Threadjack to your heart's content! ]

Comments

[aluminumandash]

[ He gives it up to an hour, depending on how quick she was to respond. Time enough for another round of alerts. Then: ] Porous fucking transport.

Or did you turn up dry?

[cactusy]

[Her next comes pretty quickly - just a minute or so after his.]

I wish.

[Her poor soaked gun!]

East of the mountains, west of the beach, there's something mechanical. Sounds kinda like a helicopter. You picking up on that?

[It's likely not so easy to hear over the walkie, and certainly not prominent enough for the text transcription to pick up, but if he listens to her audio he'll find that there is indeed a thrumming sound audible in the background of her feed.]

audio

[aluminumandash]

[ No delays now; he brings the walkie closer to his ear, shuts his eyes a long moment. ] Mm. Yeah. [ Doesn't sound good. ] You feel it? In the air, your chest?

audio

[cactusy]

Way too far away for that. But, uh...

[She thinks it might be getting closer.]

I'll let you know if that changes. A helicopter might mean meeting our mysterious hosts.

audio

[aluminumandash]

Chopper'd need somewhere to land. [ Unless they're not out to meet anyone, but she's sharp enough he'll leave that to implication. ]

I'll be here.

audio

[cactusy]

[About an hour later, she finally resurfaces.]

It was a big-ass drone. Unmanned.

audio

[aluminumandash]

[ It takes him a second or two to realize she's not describing the sound. ] A what? [ A pause; a crackle. ] You alright?

audio

[cactusy]

I'm fine. Do you not know what a drone is? Like a-- mini-helicopter that's operated remotely.

audio

[aluminumandash]

Fancy. Any insignia? What's, ah, what's the range? [ And, well: ] What'd it do?

audio

[cactusy]

No markings that I could make out, but it was moving at a good clip, twenty, thirty feet off the ground. Hard to tell for sure. Could have been scouting, could have been a delivery drone - it had a claw attached to the bottom.

audio

[aluminumandash]

Be hell to maneuver in the jungle. [ Now he's just thinking out loud. He pictures a children's toy; pictures an oversized mechanized wasp. ] How'd it move, erratic? Or to a pattern.

audio

[cactusy]

Quickly, smoothly. Like it was on a mission. Definitely either moving autonomously or being controlled by someone who could see what they were doing - I'm guessing onboard cameras.

audio

[aluminumandash]

Seen cameras anyplace else?

audio

[cactusy]

Nope. I'm pretty good at identifying hidden ones, too.

audio

[aluminumandash]

Got any pointers? [ The edge to his voice is barely perceptible. ]

audio

[cactusy]

What year are you from?

[Sorry, Rust; this question is relevant, she promises.]

audio

[aluminumandash]

[ After several beats of disbelieving silence: ] '95.

audio

[cactusy]

[And she, in turn, just sounds wearied by that answer. Sure, okay. 1995. Whatever.]

They could be smaller than what you'd expect. Better battery life, or even solar-powered, so no need for actual cords and outlet plugs. Look for blinking lights at night.

Think about where you would want to mount a camera if you were trying to monitor an area, and go from there. Consider placement, height, vantage points.

voice | HO125E

[trialbyliar]

[He's been silently just stalking all these conversations – he heard those sounds in the distance, and he definitely doesn't mind getting some extra info before poking around potentially dangerous shit himself – but this news is intriguing enough for him to dig for details. In his own way.]

Ooh, like a big mecha? That's super cool!! Hey, hey, what'd it look like? Did it talk??

voice | HO125E

[cactusy]

... No, it didn't talk.

[Shaw, you are from a world with sentient AI, so maybe cool it on judging the folks who actually know they're from sci-fi canons.]

Not a mecha, not a robot, just a regular old drone. A yard wide, maybe a little more. Four rotors, one claw.

[trialbyliar]

[Well, the good news is it doesn't sound like any kind of Exisal. The last thing anyone needs right now is something like the fucking Monokubs.]

Boooring. So it's just got a claw like one of those crane games? What, is it pocking stuff up? Oh, or maybe that's for grabbing people...

[cactusy]

Probably too small to grab people.

[Probably. It'd be an unwieldy job, but if the crane were strong and could extend its claws far enough to wrap around a torso...]