Brotherhood of the Machine (OOC) [PG/14] - Open - New players welcome!

[Ryudo Lee]

Ha ha!  Let down.

Edited my post to move on with the travel.

[Tapewolf]

(OOC: Josh and Dorcan are alone in the third van, right?)

Well the journey's over, so I'm assuming that people are actually getting out of the van rather than staying in them forever 

There was a missing word in my post, it should have read "said Dorcan AS they congregated outside the vans."

[techmaster-glitch]

Wha- we stopped already? I don't see that anywhere, I was thinking we were just about to pull out to find a good place to park our three vans in three inconspicuous spots, and deploy our 'mobile outposts'.

EDIT: Ummm, lucas? I think you got out of the wrong van. You were in the third van alone with Dorcan, because that was the only room left for you, and someone had to drive the third van.

But if I'm wrong, and we have already stopped in the same place and are clambering out, and Josh was in whatever van Bayie was in (which would leave Dorcan all by his lonesome in van #3, and I don't even think he knows how to drive, so that might be a problem), just tell me, Tapewolf or Ryudo, and I will edit my post accordingly.

[Tapewolf]

You were in the third van alone with Dorcan, because that was the only room left for you, and someone had to drive the third van.

It could have been set to follow the others like the autopilot in the C130 Hercules, but yeah.  If I'm jumping the gun about them having parked, I can edit that back to fit.

[techmaster-glitch]

Even so, who the hell is going to trust an 'alien' from another dimention entirely to be all alone in one of our very important "command post" vans? He is supposed to be on our side, but we've only just met him, and I can't imagine him earning anyones trust like that, especially the bots trust, namely Exo, who may be running or co-running this operation.

And while we are actually probably going to park in the same spot to get organized before settuing up, if we were indeed to skip straight to setting up in vantage points, everyone else would be in the groups, and while several of the characters are good enough to go it alone, Dorcan is definately not.

[Tapewolf]

Even so, who the hell is going to trust an 'alien' from another dimention entirely to be all alone in one of our very important "command post" vans? He is supposed to be on our side, but we've only just met him, and I can't imagine him earning anyones trust like that, especially the bots trust, namely Exo, who may be running or co-running this operation.

Quite.

While we are actually probably going to park in the same spot to get organized before setting up,

This is where I'm assuming we are.  The whole crowd in a car park to take some kind of lavatory break (not that Dorcan would need to) and regroup before splitting into their respective parties.

if we were indeed to skip straight to setting up in vantage points, everyone else would be in the groups, and while several of the characters are good enough to go it alone, Dorcan is definately not.

Indeed.  His current plan is to stick with Baiye, since there are a few things he wants to discuss with her.  Whether she knows that or not is unclear 

[techmaster-glitch]

Come to think of it, Josh was the only other guy who wasn't actually watched by the Rebellion and 'recruited'. There may be an initial trust issue there as well.
Why the hell wasn't one of the characters who are suited for partial command and could actually be trusted riding with them? Exo and Morgan and two characers, but who could work as a third?

[Tapewolf]

Come to think of it, Josh was the only other guy who wasn't actually watched by the Rebellion and 'recruited'. There may be an initial trust issue there as well.
Why the hell wasn't one of the characters who are suited for partial command and could actually be trusted riding with them? Exo and Morgan and two characers, but who could work as a third?

If it were me I would have disabled the controls in the van and got it to chase the second one.  That way they can't escape 
However, I must point out (again) that it was never finalised who was in which van.  There seemed to be enough room to fit Dorcan and Josh in the first one, so I left it open which one he actually used.

[techmaster-glitch]

Hmmm... if all of us fit into two vans..... yeah I guess that could work.
Ok. Problem solved.
Now we just need to figure out exactly where the vans are, looking for a parking spot to organize before splitting up, or already there and everyone getting out?
EDIT: aw, what the hell. I'll just edit my post and say we are already there. Another problem solved.

[bill]

"Let's go to the flowchart for this one."

[Azlan]

I'm assuming the general posting trend is that we have stopped... not a good idea, but it works, I wanted to scan the area anyways.

OOC: what is the general composition of Brotherhood towers?  Psychic, magical and any odd electromagnetic signals is what Morgan is looking for.

[techmaster-glitch]

We have only stopped temporarily (bathroom break, lol ) to organize ourselves, and figure out who is going in which of the three vans, then split the vans up and take them to vantage points, then go out in groups, pairs, or singles, whichever is best for a given character. I'm betting on all of us going in either pairs or singles, though. Groups of three are too big. Once all that is out of the way, we will do a big recon sweep of the city. Then from there...is partially up to Ryudo, and whatever we decide to do about whatever we find.

[Ryudo Lee]

OOC: what is the general composition of Brotherhood towers?  Psychic, magical and any odd electromagnetic signals is what Morgan is looking for.

Big black and red metal towers, usually adorned with antennae and sattelite dishes and power cables.  They'll give off radio waves, microwave, and other as-of-yet-undefined waves.  You can pick up the radio waves and microwaves.  The radio waves would be for local communication, and the microwaves for long distance communication, with other towers.  Or would that be the other way around?  I dunno.  But the undefined waves, you won't be able to see a purpose for, yet.

[Azlan]

OOC: what is the general composition of Brotherhood towers?  Psychic, magical and any odd electromagnetic signals is what Morgan is looking for.

Big black and red metal towers, usually adorned with antennae and sattelite dishes and power cables.  They'll give off radio waves, microwave, and other as-of-yet-undefined waves.  You can pick up the radio waves and microwaves.  The radio waves would be for local communication, and the microwaves for long distance communication, with other towers.  Or would that be the other way around?  I dunno.  But the undefined waves, you won't be able to see a purpose for, yet.

Radio waves are for long distance communication, microwaves are point-to-point and LOS as they are easily blocked and a host of other physics related stuff that is boring unless you are an RF Engineer...

[Ryudo Lee]

Okay then.  I'm not the most technical person here, so bear with me.  They'll use localized radio, centralized on the tower, each tower will have this capability.  The sattelite dishes will use microwaves to connect to sattelites in space for communication between towers.  Is that more plausible?

[Azlan]

Works for me!

[Tapewolf]

Works for me!

One minor point - you'll have a much bigger time delay on a satellite link than you would with microwave links between towers and it is likely to cost a fortune.  It's probably safe to assume that the Brotherhood have good funding, though.

[Azlan]

Works for me!

One minor point - you'll have a much bigger time delay on a satellite link than you would with microwave links between towers and it is likely to cost a fortune.  It's probably safe to assume that the Brotherhood have good funding, though.

Microwave receivers and transmitters would need to be built on very tall towers, to overcome the curvature of the planet or would require intermediaries to extend range.  The Rebellion could easily cutoff towers by taking down these intermediary units, giving a single point of failure for their primary communication.  However, if they did build large enought towers to give a clear transmission to the next, they would be dependent on towers within range to relay their transmissions across the globe.  Towers on the exact opposite sides of the planet would not be able to speak directly with one another.

[Tapewolf]

Microwave receivers and transmitters would need to be built on very tall towers, to overcome the curvature of the planet or would require intermediaries to extend range.

I was assuming the Brotherhood simply had a lot of towers, in some sort of mesh configuration.  That is how mobile phone networks seem to communicate, at least around here.

The Rebellion could easily cutoff towers by taking down these intermediary units, giving a single point of failure for their primary communication.

Or shooting down the satellites 

However, if they did build large enough towers to give a clear transmission to the next, they would be dependent on towers within range to relay their transmissions across the globe.  A tower on the exact opposite side of the planet would not be able to speak directly with one another.

Indeed - they're probably going to want a combination of both.

[Ryudo Lee]

For now, the characters can assume that the method of communication is via these sattelite dishes and the microwaves.  The subject will come up again later.

[Tapewolf]

For now, the characters can assume that the method of communication is via these sattelite dishes and the microwaves.  The subject will come up again later.

Subtle, yet forceful.  That's the way to do it 

[techmaster-glitch]

Umm, Tapewolf? Dorcan isn't going to acknoledge that Jexx actually answered his question about the cortex bombs? 

[Tapewolf]

Umm, Tapewolf? Dorcan isn't going to acknoledge that Jexx actually answered his question about the cortex bombs? 

Whoops, that shouldn't have happened.  Jexx has not asked him a question, though.  Or if he has it's very well hidden.  Scratch that, I can't read.

[techmaster-glitch]

Tapewolf, your missing what Jexx was doing (accidentally) with the surveilance points. He was suggesting putting the vans on roofs! He was inadvenrtantly thinking of where he would go. Instead of saying "the roofs are fallback points" say "You want us to put the vans on roofs?"

[Ryudo Lee]

Tech are you making a suggestion that he respond in that way or are you telling him to respond in that way?

[Tapewolf]

Tapewolf, your missing what Jexx was doing (accidentally) with the surveilance points. He was suggesting putting the vans on roofs!

I wouldn't have interpreted it that way, so there's no reason Dorcan should.  

[techmaster-glitch]

Hrm. I was trying to go for showing that this sort of thing is where Jexx would screw up, because he still is used to working alone. Maybe I should just have him bring out the map, then figure out a good way for him to say the people who know what they're doing should pick the points.
BrB, editing post....
Post edited. And I also was not going for the "I'm in charge here" tone, I just needed to have him bring the map out. And then I decided to just have him suggest places. But that didn't work, (in more ways than it was supposed to ) so it's gone now.

[Tapewolf]

He studied the map.  "Did I hear you right?" he asked.  "You're suggesting that we fall back to rooftop positions?  What if there are injuries?"

Since you've just rolled back the question, I've rolled back Dorcan's reply.

[techmaster-glitch]

If you don't mind, Ryudo, I've taken one or two liberties in "stocking" our vans...mainly just with stuff that we needed.

[techmaster-glitch]

"It seems however in fiddling with some gizmos I figured out a few things." He reached through his double and picked up an eliptical semi-flat object and turned it off

What is this Josh was messing with?