Comstock frowned and rubbed his head.  "Doc, it's not like we can ..."  He stared, frustrated and obviously concentrating.  "I'm missing the point.  Our focus is the ships."

His voice became flat and mechanical.  "We head to the submarine.  The crew could suffocate down there.  I'll correct the greatest hull instabilities and modify the ballast pumps using one of Gravitas' designs to ensure rapid buoyancy.  Solitaire will lift the submarine from the ocean floor and take it to the sinking oil tanker wreck.  Once adjacent, I'll patch the damage to the tanker, bond the two craft together and use the additional buoyancy of the tanker to keep the submarine afloat.  Meanwhile, Impetus will see to the crew and work with them to use the communication's equipment aboard the submarine to reassure the government of the United States or Russia, whoever owns the submarine, that their weapons are not compromised and that there is no cause for worry or conflict.

"This part of the plan relies on either the submarine crew speaking English or Impetus being able to work with Russian.  Naturally, the nation with the nuclear submarine is a higher priority since they are more likely to be the aggressor.

"Stage two: Impetus will have to persuade the crews of the tanker and submarine to evacuate to safety to prevent radiation or toxin exposure.  I will perform similar modification to the pumps aboard the tanker that will allow us to draw the spilled crude and nearby sea-water back into the tanker.  Solitaire will give us the speed, moving heavy equipment and helping me keep an eye on the overall integrity of the vessels.  If any ships from the local nation's navy come to investigate or take charge of the situation, it falls to Solitaire to dissuade them before they can upset the delicate situation.  The effectiveness of this relies on one of those fluid dynamics model things that Gravitas was showing me.  Ideally, we arrive within an hour or two of the impact, and something like 40-50% of the spilled crude could be drawn back into the vessels within the first hour of our operation.  With time and sufficient quantum, I could probably increase the overall capacity of the vessels, but they would not be very seaworthy for quite some time.  The best solution would be to moor them on a sand-bank or something.

"Stage three: If the second nation is still hostile, or if they are interested in imprisoning the crew of the submarine, then ... I don't know.  I guess the easiest thing would be to let Impetus speak with local authorities as Utopia's Ambassador while we tow the vehicles out of the nation's waters.  Under the law of the sea, I think once we get out to international waters the incident could fall under the UN's jurisdiction and thereby become an officially Utopian matter for the higher-ups to resolve as they like."

"Utopia repairs and returns the vessels and crews to their rightful owners, offering full medical screening to the crews as a test for new techniques and a PR move, and uses the situation to simultaneously push our improved, safer tanker designs in the UN and advocate for a greater degree of maritime security transparency to prevent similar incidents in the future.  The services of Dr. Antaeus' terraforming projects are offered to speed the recovery and cleanup of the remaining crude oil.  I'll use some of the scrap to construct a monument to the incident as a backdrop for media coverage."

His analysis finished, Comstock gave a thin smile, still serious but sounding a bit more like himself.  "I might have made a mistake, and there's a chance that my engineering skills are insufficient for this whole thing, but I ... I think that cleans most of the problems up.  Anyone have a problem or a suggestion?"

Dr. Bharati pauses, then shakes her head once.

"No, that sounds good... Very good job.  Are you feeling well Comstock?"

He looked a bit concerned.  "I don't know.  More ... damn I don't know.  Clearer?"  He ran a hand over his head.  "Probably just hanging around the brains too much. But I've been reading too."

Solitaire stares at Comstock a moment, then grins enormously and claps him on the back. "That's our Leader."

Imp snaps out of his reverie, "Sorry guys, was just thinkin about the last time is was in the middle east.  I think Dillon's right.  He and Sol should focus on the ships while i deal with the various governments.  I don't speak Russian, but I do speak all the romance languages, and for some strange reason both varieties of Tolkien elvish, and Klingon.  Anyways, I'll reassure the various governments that their tech won't be compromised then I'll get to work trying to talk with the regional powers, make sure that they don't do anything drastic, or at least give Dillon and Sol some heads up before varying navies show up to cause trouble.  I'll spin it as hard as I can that this is an unprecedented opportunity for the nation to benefit from the infrastructure that Utopia will surly need to build to help with the cleanup.  Some questions though, Doc. How much power do I have as a member of T2M?  Do I have full diplomatic immunity?  How much of what I promise will the Project follow through on?  How many of our resources can I commit without going to a higher up?  What happens if they open fire on us? I'm pretty sure small arms won't do anything, but a cannon would probably kill me outright."

In reply to Rydi (msg #37):

Even though it was a light punch Suzukaze staggers a bit. Slowing down to a halt she takes a couple steps back and bows to Solitaire.

Comstock nodded, took a few steps back, and drew back for a devastating punch to the guts.

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
Two successes on the attack.  The perpetual problem of accuracy rears its head again.  We're going with Mega-Strength 3 on this one, for a grand total of ~17 bashing levels on contact.

10:31, Today: Comstock rolled 2 successes using 7d10 with the Target Number system with a target of 7 with rolls of 7,3,4,5,2,7,1. (Str + Brawl) Punching Flare.

---

Flare is stoked, and totally ready to dodge as Comstock swings back.  And for a moment it does seem like she takes to the air in a rapid dodge, ten feet...fifteen feet...twenty...and as she falls a blast of fire propels her away from the ground.  She catches herself and gives a very cheeky grin.

"Okay, I was nearly lauched into orbit, but aside from that all is good."

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
Flare's soak, fireshield and eufiber (that she still wears normal clothes over because it looks weird) allow her to, barely, negate the blow.

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This message was last edited by the player at 02:38, Mon 07 Sept 2009.

In reply to Suzukaze (msg #45):

"Good job kid, I had trouble keeping up. I'll have to work on that." Solitaire grins, it had been a while since she had to push herself that hard, she was actually a bit winded. "Now, while not getting hit is a valid defense, you need to be a lot more careful than someone like Comstock or myself who can more or less just ignore small to moderate attacks. Keep that in mind, the problem with active defenses is that you can never let down your guard. But good work all the same.
This message was last edited by the player at 21:14, Mon 07 Sept 2009.

A portal opens up overhead and Quentin floats down through it. As he, like Solitare, wasn't able to use eufiber, he was dressed in camoflauged pants, a black, featureless tshirt and combat boots - clearly what he considered appropriate for training. "Sheesh, I'm like 5 minutes late and everyone's already gone. I'd have never found you all if it wasn't for that... like... firestorm thing a few minutes ago."

He settled onto the ground and observed the training already in progress.

"So, when you all are done with your punchy, kicky stuff, should I handle some ranged combat training?"

Comstock nodded, impressed.  "Good form!  Looks like you could take a bit more."  She didn't seem fazed, which was a good sign.



"Hey Quentin!"  Comstock called.  "Be my guest.  We've been covering some of the more basic topics.  I was about to push Flare here for a round two."  He shook his fist at Flare and grinned.

He brought Quentin up to speed on everything they had already done.  "Imp's been helping out.  Are you sure he's not in multiple places at once?  Always seems to get more done than me.  Anyway, Flare probably needs some instruction in the boom boom parts of artillery and the human condition.  You might want to trade notes with Slider: I know back in the day I would have loved to have a little window that could open to give me a firing solution on any position from any angle.  You guys might have a new tactic to put together.  Suzukaze ..."  Comstock gestured like his head was about to explode.  "She's fast like Solitaire.  I can't keep up.  Doesn't seem to shoot at anything either, just uses those swords.  She ... she probably just needs to know how to coordinate with fire so as not to get shot."

It finally clicked that Suzukaze's swords had managed to cut him but didn't appear to be damaged.  He reached his new sense out to get a "taste" of the swords and see what they were made of.

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
Yes, I ended a sentence in a preposition.  Also, can Comstock get a read on the composition and materials chemistry of those swords?  I don't have my book on me here at work, so I've forgotten the die pool I'm supposed to roll.

---

Flare landed again and wandered up to Comstock.

"So round two 'in which Flare gets flattened for surviving the first hit' or moving on to ranged destruction?  For my part, I think I'll be lobbing fire from a distance whenever possible, but I can see where the close combat training could keep me from getting pulverized if flight isn't possible."

Flare had killed her flame shield to conserve energy, but pops it up again as she expects some attack from somewhere.

"If I didn't need you sharp to listen to the professor here I'd flatten you, alright."  He reached out to put her in a playful headlock and give her a noogie.  "No, Quentin here's probably a better teacher for what you need to know about.  You come back to me when you're done and need to practice those non-lethal takedowns I mentioned.  We're going to drill them until it's second nature."  God Almighty, Comstock thought, when did I become the Sarge around here?

He saluted Quentin.  "All yours, man."

Comstock gave a smile and extended a hand for a fist bump.  "I do what I can, you know?"



"Dude ... freaking Klingon?  You kidding me?"  He had no idea what Tolkien elvish was, but he'd seen Star Trek.  "That's a real language?"

Imp smiled, slightly embarrassed.  "Yeah, well, when I was in high school I was a hard core trekkie.  Had a uniform, wore Vulcan ears to school occasionally.  Kinda helps to explain why I didn't get laid.  I studied Klingon so I could talk with my buddies and not have anyone around understand us on the woefully hubristic assumption that people would want to know what we were talking about.  Guess the eruption just made everything I studied fall into place.  Same with Sindarin.  I learned that to impress chicks at gamer conventions.  Of course, your usual gamer convention was a massive sausage party, so it sorta failed as a dating strategy.  Might be effective as a team code language actually, I'm betting you no evil mastermind worth their well kept mustache would have even the slightest idea what we were talking about."
This message was last edited by the player at 06:57, Wed 09 Sept 2009.

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Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)

They are Suzukaze's, she can tell you what she had them made from.  But you should be able to sense them easily enough.

---

In reply to Comstock (msg #50):

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Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
You sense that they are made from titanium.

---

"OK kids, today's lesson ought to be a bit more fun than yesterdays, for you guys at least." Solitaire grins from the hood of the old jeep she happens to be sitting on at the moment. They were all in the southwest corner of the base today, it was scheduled for demolition later this week anyway, and Solitaire figured she could kill two birds with one stone with today's exercise. Besides, consequence-free destruction was fun.

"Question: What do Nova's do best? Answer: Break things. Like So." Solitaire hops down off her perch, and to demonstrate, grabs the jeep, picks it up easily then spins around a few times and hurls it into a nearby office building. "See? Easy. That's the problem. Just about any of us could level a city block in seconds, with next to no effort. Oh, and before you ask, this whole area is both clear, and your free to destroy it. I also took the liberty of posting some guards at a safe remove to make sure it stays that way. Now, where was I? Collateral damage, right. Pax and 'The Book' She makes quotation marks with her fingers, and sounds as if she has nothing but disdain for 'The Book', "would tell you to do everything in your power to keep it to a minimum, blah blah blah responsibility. Now, while that's all true, its also completely unrealistic.  Its going to happen, and happen a lot.  So today I want to you cut loose, have fun and blow shit up. Learn how to break things, how much force it takes to topple a brick wall, shatter pavement, bend steel. Whatever you can think of to do.  Once you understand just what it takes to break something, you'll know how to not break it too.

"One last thing, we'll be keeping an eye on you, but keep an eye on each other too, I don't want any accidents. Too much paperwork. Now, are there any questions? I think this is pretty self-explanatory though."

Comstock dutifully stood behind Solitaire, backing her up and ready to march through the soon to be rubble.  He, Grav, and Sol were could safely and reliably walk or fly through explosions and collapsing buildings, dropping commentary and tips along the way.  He felt like smashing a few things himself since the business in Mexico.  It was a guilty pleasure that went against his better instincts, and he hoped no one saw him doing it.

"This sounds like fun.  Anyone ever play duckhunt?  Old nintendo game?  I bet I can give us some target practice, at least for a little while"

Slider opens a portal under a large piece of rubble, high in the sky.  If not blasted in mid air, it will demolish a small building upon landing.

"Some things I really want to learn to do are make my portals move, and learn to cut into an object.  You always see in shows how something will get cut in half by a teleport field... Kind of like that.  I think eventually I'll be able to do it, at least on non-living stuff.  They seem to resist it less.  But the real useful thing would be moving them around, even just changing the angle on them.  Buuuut... I've been working on it for a while and they just won't budge.  Maybe one day. Maybe one day."

Flare gives a slightly demonic grin as she takes off the ground.

"Nope, I think I got that.  Break stuff, check. I just wish we had a stereo system out here.  I have sooooo much appropriate music for this kind of thing."

Comstock watched Slider and Flare go to town on bits of debris and buildings and smiled.  "Looks like they've got a knack for this kind of thing."  He found a small building nearby and walked through it, shattering it in a series of heavy blows.  Pure stress relief.  After he crawled out from the debris, he set his arm down on a pipe and began drawing all of the useful metals out of the rubble.  Old pipe, rebarb, nails, and more slowly stretched and twisted their way out towards him before adhering together in a growing, jagged ball.

Productive day.  Seemed like they has the basics of being a Nova-hero down.  Now everyone would just have to meet Dr. Bharati's standards of grammar, punctuation and notation.

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
Just trying to wrap this up like we mentioned in the OOC thread.  If anyone wants to write more about breaking buildings or have a meaningful conversation around the backdrop of destruction, awesome.

---

Flare strafes a few vehicles to see if she can actually make them melt, she can.
Beyond that she pretty much uses all her quantum making fireballs and then putting them back out. Apparently the putting them out takes a great deal more effort.

"Alright, I think I've got the basics of destruction down, but if you guys (Comstock and Solitaire) wouldn't mind sparing me some time to work on physical combat in the future I'd appreciate it."

Solitaire chuckles slightly evilly. "Be careful what you wish for... But we can bring you up to snuff if you'd like. It'll probably be a little slice of hell though, bruises teach best, but it'll be fun once you get the hang of it."

After making sure everybody was present and accounted for Imp went through Grav's portal into the medical facility.  Every step he took left a bloody footprint, whoever'd stabbed him in the back had done a very thorough job of it.  Now that the excitement of combat and the chase was over he was also really starting to feel it, the wounds throbbed every time his heart beat.  He gratefully sank down onto a stretcher that was wheeled over to him by some medics they injected him with something that kinda sorta took the edge off as he was wheeled into surgery.
A couple hours later he was up and about again, not moving as well as he usually did but not too bad all things considered.  the blood transfusion had helped too.  He went in for debriefing along with everybody else, this exhausting day was almost over and all that was left was the paperwork, sigh.