Slavegear - Part 2

(Twilight, Moon, Radiance, Wyvern)


"..I've never heard of anything like that.." Kaylee looked down, thinking: ".....I'm not sure I understand why Marek would need magic, for the Slavegear incident.
I'm not completely sure, but I always believed that a direct line of sight is required, to levitate an object with telekinesis.

But Marek and his followers were never caught on camera, during the Slavegear incident. They were never seen following us in the halls, directing our movements.
They're also batponies, so I don't believe thay can cast magic..



And making Slavegear disappear after the attack... I suppose you can use magic to levitate it away, but it is a massive machine, weighting hundreds of tons. You would need a hundred unicorns to cast a levitation spell on it, in unison. And even the slightest mistake on their part, or a brief loss of concentration, would send the robot loudly tumbling down.


It just sounds needlessly complicated. If I wanted to move a large piece of machinery, I would use a train or something similar"


She fell into thought again: "... batponies cannot cast magic. It was never seen or heard of before"












(Tarmikos)


Eva and another soldier, slowly led you through numerous halls, then left the building you were currently in and walked under the morning sky, across a bridge, toward another facility.

No one really said anything. Eva was just looking directly ahead, concern written all over her face.

As you slowly entered the medical wing, you noticed Dr. Riza Voronov already helping the local staff to organize and sort through the newly arrived medical equipment.


One of the nurses nodded to you and motioned you to lay down at one of the beds.
Eva and the other guard remained relatively close by, giving the medical staff enough space to work.

Twilight shakes her head slightly. "As far as I've heard, Neither have I seen documentations of batpony spellcasters, at least in a traditional sense. But magic is something that can be studied, analyzed, understood, documented, and most importantly, replicated."

She holds her chin. "We've arrived at this base by helicopter, a vehicle that can move ponies through the sky. A realm that should've been only possible to reach by winged creatures. But with technology or magic, one can defy gravitylong enough to reach hereif they know the location. How technology and magic replicate it is not exact, but the effect is close enough."

"It is rather difficult, but with the setup Marek had he might've made a technological replication of a domination spell. Whatever was in our bloodstream couldn't send the impulses through the nerves at our blood, but they could through the chip planted directly into our spine. And from there, steer us like a remote control car. But since this isn't perfect, it can be discovered with a very sharp eye."

She looks a bit downward, her gaze sharp. "I'm very sorry I've had to put us all through the horror of reliving our most painful moment together, and then run off while I said so to analyze it, but after my mind cleared a bit now, I can say that we didn't walk entirely natural. And more importantly, we never said a coherent word while inside the Slavegear, even though such an action would require proper communication. At least, I didn't hear them."

(Radiance)
"Especially with someone like me," Radiance added "With my lack of sight I would need someone to be verbally communicating directions to me. But I also didn't hear anything, the drug may have blocked out all sounds." he paused "I didn't even hear Kaylee scream"

(Tarmikos)
Tarmikos lays down as instructed cathing Eva's eye, returning the same concerned expression for a brief moment before directing his attention to the nurse.

(Twilight, Moon, Radiance, Wyvern)


Kaylee rubbed the back of her neck: "..we're just stumbling in the dark at the moment. We need to go back in the field and find the clues to connect this all together.

The trail is getting colder by the minute. Come on, we should go. The helicopters probably ready for us"


Elisabeth slowly rose from her seat and nodded: "I'll get Rain. Please head for the landing pads. We'll rejoin you shortly"












(Tarmikos)


The nurse lowered some sort of device and placed it over your chest. Her hands lit up with magic and she began waving them over your body:

"Please try to relax. The medical exam may take several minutes" the nurse quietly said.

(Tarmikos)
"Whatever you find, and whatever needs to be done. Just do it." he closes his eyes relaxing.

(Eva) "Is there not a doubt in your mind... That tarmikos is truely crazy?" a voice whispers in her left ear, "You understand that he cannot be saved..."

(tarmikos) "look at Eva." Fire says looking up at the batpony girl, "she thinks your actually crazy... At this point you might as well be..." she chuckles, "Somebody as mad as you... Will never get any love from someone as lovely as her..." she tilts her head and laughs, "because you want Eva..." she leans down and whispers in tarmikoses ear, "She wont live long enough to have those feelings back... As if she ever would in the first place..."


Rain closes her eyes and sits up before looking over to the person in the room, "I will do my best to assure that nopony dies... I cannot garentee they wont get hurt though... Should i try to extract your brother?" she raises het brow, "bring him back to the ship?"

Twilight stands up as well, with a confused frown. "Yeah, that's especially weird. How would a blind man even operate a vehicle?"

Velvet_horse wrote:Twilight stands up as well, with a confused frown. "Yeah, that's especially weird. How would a blind man even operate a vehicle?"

"They could put braille on the buttons?" Lord Wyvern suggests.

(Radiance)
"Perhaps, but you can't put braille on a computer screen" Radiance finishes his tea standing along with the others "I'm wondering if we should visit the armoury before we head off. Some light armour we can wear under our clothes may help us out in the long run"

"I want a sword. I haven't got one anymore." She mumbled "Twilights idea sounds pretty plausable, though I don't know enough about that sort of thing."

Tarmikos/Radiance wrote:(Radiance)
"Perhaps, but you can't put braille on a computer screen" Radiance finishes his tea standing along with the others "I'm wondering if we should visit the armoury before we head off. Some light armour we can wear under our clothes may help us out in the long run"

"On the contrary, you can get touch-screens made of smart liquid that automatically recognises text in documents and creates serieses of bubbles in the screen that form braille characters" Lord Wyvern replies "They're called tixels, or tactile pixels."

(Radiance)
"That is a possibility. But would The Union have permitted someone with blindness to operate Slave Gear?" Radiance places his hands into his pockets

"Probably not" she sighed before coughing "It's unlikely for a blind person to be allowed to pilot anything."

"I've heard people with colour blindness aren't even allowed to pilot flying vehicles."

"Hmmmm" Twilight takes a thinking position as she rubs her chin. "I highly doubt that. No matter how advanced the touchscreens become, even able to imitate braille, they cannot comensate for the need of sight to see through the glass panel in front, or the camera's on the outside of Slavegear. I don't know which. Touch and smell are negated due to the fact it's a closed off space, and sound I'm not sure."

She looks at Wyvern. "Unless you know something about this I don't."

(Tarmikos) "im not one to be ignored... Tarmikos..." Fires whisper fills your ears as she walks around you the world goes blury, and a white ghostely trail seems to track her eye movements, every time you try to look away shes always in your line of sight, "... I asked a question... I expect an answer because i will not leave until i get my answer... Your attraction to eva seems very strong, dont you think you should talk to Rain again? Im sure shes nice once she knows you... And she gets to know you..." she leans over tarmikos her piercing eyes looking into his, "Give up on it... Eva knows your crazy... Why bother..." she says sounding, deathly seriousm

(Tarmikos)
From inside his mind, he responds to Fire
"And I am not one to annoyed. I could destroy everyone here if I wanted. But that is not going to happen. So you need to give up your pointless quest to make everyone turn against another."

(Tarmikos) "Against each other?" she snickers walking around you, seeming to circle the trail still rolling from her eyes, "I dont need to TRY... Hell..." she leans over you placing a finger on your chin, you can feel her fingertip roll up your cheek and off the top of yoir head, "...oh Im not tryingbto turn you against each other..." she leans over you placing her hands on your shoulders, and leans over you, her white pupils looking into yours, "...you do that on your own, I just present you with more things to argue about..." she tilts her head, "...have you ever questioned why im actually here? Have you not just taken a moment as to why i do this..." she smiles at you her head slowly tilting the other direction, "...your truely crazy... You finally lost it..." she shakes her head and laughs, "believe me or dont... You've finally gone insane." she sets up and looks behind her as she walks to the door, "ill ask again... Is going for Eva really a good idea?" she stops and turns around, "do you really want her around right now? At your very worst..." she shrugs, "just a thought..." she dissapears.

Velvet_horse wrote:"Hmmmm" Twilight takes a thinking position as she rubs her chin. "I highly doubt that. No matter how advanced the touchscreens become, even able to imitate braille, they cannot comensate for the need of sight to see through the glass panel in front, or the camera's on the outside of Slavegear. I don't know which. Touch and smell are negated due to the fact it's a closed off space, and sound I'm not sure."

She looks at Wyvern. "Unless you know something about this I don't."

"Well sight could be provided using a small head-mounted camera linked up to a bank of electrodes on a paddle" Lord Wyvern says while stroking his chin in thought "The paddle would be placed on the tongue and with training, the electrical pulses can be interpreted as pixelated images."

Twilight raises an eyebrow. "How much training?"

(Twilight, Moon, Radiance, Wyvern, Red Eyes)


"..that sort of technology already exists.." Fluttershy said with concern and nodded to Wyvern:

"It is the foundation of Slavegear technology. Once you connect to the robot with your Neurochip, the robots body becomes your body.
You can 'see' through its sensors. Feel its limbs moving. The conventional use of computers in the cockpit, is possible, but not always necessary. Most functions are controlled through pure thought, and the robots sensor data is fed directly into your brain.

I doubt anyone ever tried it, but in theory, a blind man can still operate Slavegear. His new eyes would become the robots external cameras. The data from them is translated into signals that a brain can interpret, much like the data from our real eyes.


In a sense, you will actually 'see' through the cameras, as if they were your real eyes. The Slavegear developers thought it would help the pilots better orient themselves in the field"




Fluttershy waited a moment, then waved everyone to follow: "Please follow me, I'll show you to the armory"

She began quietly making her way through the mess hall, then through several corridors until she left the building and began walking toward another facility, located on a different platform.
You could smell the salty water as you walked under open sky. The sound of breaking waves and screaming seagulls became audible again, as you left the building.


The walk took around five minutes and Fluttershy entered some sort of a reinforced and armored structure.
"This is the armory" she quietly called: "We keep our explosives here, but also cold weapons and gear"
She walked a few more paces and stopped in front of a desk, with a pony sitting behind it:


"One sword and light vests for everyone please" Fluttershy asked and the pony behind the desk disappeared in the doorframe behind him:

"Is there anything else you want to take with you?" Fluttershy asked: "We have a rather wide selection"

















(Firewing)


Eva frowned and crosses her arms: "...I am not a doctor. Its not for me to decide" she turned away from Fire.













(Rain)


"It would make me happy, if I could be with my brother again, but.." Johan looked away:
"... Drasko is not like me... he's.. impulsive, rash, driven by emotion... he believes the only way to fix injustice in the world, is through his fists.

He wants to fight everyone, Artemis, the Masters, anyone who ever hurt us, or an innocent soul.

Marek is filling his head with lies and, I don't know if Drasko will want to cooperate with you.
If you try to bring him here against his will.. I fear he may attack you.


Please, just.. try to talk to him. If you can convince him that Marek is not the honorable man, he thinks he is, maybe Drasko will leave Vampite Unit on his own"




You heard a knock on the door and Elisabeths voice echoed from the other side:
"..Forgive me.. the helicopter will be leaving for the mainland shortly. If you follow me, I'll show you the way to the landing platforms"

~Hmmm, still not trusting the use of Slavegear piloted by blind people. But now is not the time.~

She speaks out loud.

"Make that one set less. Maybe a wand, but I am not proficient with a sword."

She then turns to Wyvern.
"Completely slipped my mind, but do you still have that defense robe from Wrecker?"

(Twilight, Moon, Radiance, Wyvern, Red Eyes)


Fluttershy released a shy smile: "..we don't have any wands actually.. ehehe..."

The armory pony returned with a large box and placed it on the table. Fluttershy opened it, revealing a pile of compact, tactical vests inside:

"Please take one. They will seamlessly fit under the clothing and provide some protection against cold weapons. You can also store a bit of your gear inside, though not much"

Rain nods and gets up, she walks to Johan and places a hand on his shoulder, "thank you... Ill try my best to save your bother... I havent failed a mission before..." she nods and starts her way out "an armory huh?" she says to Elisabeth, "sounds like fun." she follows beside her.

(Eva) Fire tilts her head, "Mnnnn but the doubt is there..." she smirks, "you dont have to be a doctor to see that theres somthing more in that head of his..."

"What is a cold weapon? Is it something that stabs? I dont do technical talk." She smiled, looking at the vests curiously.