Posted by Vice Admiral CockRoach (GM) in Main Sim - Team 1 Planet Surface - Civilian Life
[snip]

Rachel finished her examination of the young woman She hasn’t answered yet, probably in shock She thought to herself as she followed her slowly. “Donnae put pressure on yer leg, lass.” She told her with a crooked smile “Here, lean on me” The tall Scot said.

Dr. Grey - CMO

El, following behind, was looking between her scanner, the path and the limping woman ahead of them. She had been shot. Her mother had been slaughtered. And yet she was walking. El developed a new respect for her with each block they walked. The doctor was near, though she was ready to step in quickly and help her along as well. “She took some food,” she snapped, perhaps harsher than intended. “And was nearly killed for it. You’re wanting to interrogate her now as the offending party?” At least that was how it sounded to her, that the woman was a commodity, that she was rescued so now owed them.

Ari frowned and glanced back at El. “You act like I am going to put her in a cell and beat information out of her. We need her help to survive, and to save our ship.” She paused and turned to look at the others. “We need to talk to everyone we meet, that doesn’t want to kill us. How did this war come to be? Who are the players? What are the sides? And how can we discover the power source, or lack there of, that’s creating the anomaly that’s keeping us here and them as well. Yes, she stole food, ran and we saved her. We are asking for information, that’s all. I have no plans to beat the info out of her. But if you have trouble with asking the locals for help when we get the opportunity, then perhaps you should go back to the ship. We need to find answers, and quickly. Do you have a problem with that?” She wasn’t mad, but frustration was a bit of the coloring in her voice.

El blinked at the rebuke and retreated into her hoodie, scouring her thoughts. She was not happy with the ‘tone’ that came from security and nothing from the Captain. Sure the woman could talk, but so could that newspaper that Roger still had in hand. She glanced at the woman hobbling in front of them. She didn’t look much younger than El was. Would she have had any political interest to speak into what happened? Maybe. Hopefully. It was counterproductive to pursue it, but she heard what she heard from security and it sounded more like an desire to interrogate rather than have a quiet talk with someone recently shot, could still be in shock, and likely traumatized by all of this and her world suddenly coming to Armageddon. Should she toughen up, put on her big girl pants, swallow her emotions and, like the security people push the answers out of the girl? If they wanted better answers they could have taken one of the soldiers; they’d know better and security would be in their element with one of their own kind. “No, Captain,” she said, knowing she wanted an answer, resolving to watch more and say less.

Isaac looked at Asam “I know I was thinking two scout teams we can check the building from the out side I still have my scanner and we can check for life signs” he said passing his scanner to her.

He turn to the group “Who feels up for a some recon” he asked

Lt. Isaac Black (AC)

There were whispers about structure and which to go for. El looked at each and one was as good as another, though they would likely be able to get some good information from the cafe with the computers. The fact that they survived and some still online after a nuclear attack and likely EMP effects was impressive. Sites would likely be limited but as an engineer she was good with computers. She’d let the boys play soldier. She’d do what she was there for. “Scanning for structural faults in the buildings.” She said, leveling her scanner at them checking for power, structural issues, gas leaks and the like .. not to mention a quick scan for life signs.

• El, Eng

Lt. Sanks stood beside El, now finished with his library for the language, and given to the CO. “I’ll help, however I can.” he responded to Lt. Black.

Lt. Sanks, Linguist

As they arrived at the computer building, she frowned. “Let’s see if the building is secure, first. Then see if it has the power to get us the info we need. If not, there really isn’t a reason to stop here.” They had barely been gone from the ship an hour. At this rate, they’d never learn anything before night fall. She had no desire to remain on the surface at night. Not with transporters to bring them back in the morning. But she planned to have at least something to mull over by this evening. And hopefully the XO and Intel officer would have something by then as well.

Ari CO

Looking into the computer based building they found the power was coming from a bank of small nuclear powered generators, and a small wind turbine up on the roof. Many of the systems were blown out, unresponsive or the like, but two sets in the back of the shop protected from the nuclear EMPs by case shielding were online and had a blank ? query prompt waiting entry from a mechanical primitive keyboard like setup

El was dumbfounded. She tried to parse the set up in her mind but that was so hard to gauge. A nuclear generator. A wind turbine. And DOS computers. What a mess of technologies. At first her hope of a still connected internet highway was crashed down to a flashing ?, the equivalent of a rutted dirt road. Shops don’t have nuclear generators. How does a nuclear generator run off of DOS computers? Her mind trailed back to the early nuclear power plants. Dials. Needle Gauges. Okay, old style DOS computers did help run earlier power plants, but this was so much more. Mini’s. Unconsciously she chewed on a nail, tension rising. She wheeled around looking at the blown out systems. A bank of generators? How wide an area did these power? She knelt by one, trying to make sense of any controls. If these were damaged this was more of a time bomb waiting to blow and would take out the town. Her fingers shook as she scanned it for leaks or irregular power levels and output. Someone else could figure out the computer; she could do it but it wouldn’t help if they were vaporized.

Interfacing by their scanners was possible but entry of commands from translation would have to be done manually into the computer itself. Thankfully the computers were primitive compared to their own, perhaps by about 50 odd years. No signs of security controls were present.

GM CockRoach

Rende wasn’t a computer person, she could use them, and this system reminded her of the basic computers she and Eldorin used when they lived on Earth the last time, but it was never her strong suite. Hopefully someone else could make the system work. She moved through the building making sure it was clear and there were no nasty surprises waiting for them. Dropping her voice again as she made her rounds she whispered into the earbud, “Eldorin, they seem to be using an old DOS like system. I was never much good at it, but you on the other hand…”
2nd Lt Asam, MACO

El spoke, a bit absently, but at least it was in her element. “Reference the library files on your scanners. They might have data on DOS and some basic commands you could try. With all the similarities some might work,” she called over. Her engineering instruction was all of a single class on earlier computer operating systems and that included the OS’s up to the wars.

• El, Eng

Isaac looked at the old computer and smiled it looked like a mix of and old Apple Computer with high ram. He knows computers he was a hacker in his earlier years so he knows computer codes very well. “So are we safe are the generators time bombs or not he asked”

Lt. Isaac Black (AC)

Rachel stayed with the group but kept a close eye on the young woman. She hadn’t said anything when the argument about questioning her started but they seemed to have moved on. No questioning would happen without her permission and she wasn’t sure the girl was ready to answer any questions yet.

Dr. Grey - CMO

The unknown woman slumped against a chair almost falling out of it but catching herself at the last moment, her face was pale probably from blood loss and the shock that still rang through her. She mumbled something but not in English that the group could understand.

As for scans on the generators they seemed stable, no likely to go melting down anytime soon.

GM CockRoach

El let out a small breath of relief. No undue overloads messed with them. It looked stable. Still squatting she rocked on her heels as she looked at the unit and tried to fathom this. She glanced at the computers and the tech. Everything seemed so odd. Wind power back up. Mini-nuclear unit. Computer cafe more common decades after they even appeared on Earth, but with an operating system that was decades earlier than what a cafe would sustain in a general architectural that was before both. This was a patchwork of technology that was starting to give El a headache. Who could even build a miniature nuclear generator with a DOS program? Yes they made it to the moon but they didn’t have a mini-nuke-gen installed or even conceived of! Absently she answered Black. “Looks fine.”

El began looking for readouts and some kind of display or control panel. Was it like the old Nautilus on Jules Verne’s story? That was such a romantic and tragic tale. Was she in one of those now? And where was Nemo to explain it all? She let out a long sigh. How much power was this baby putting out? Surely more than was needed to power a few computers. This kind of thing could power whole neighborhoods and more, she suspected, but hoped to find out more. IF things were in even broken english. Otherwise she would hope that Roger would have learned enough to try to help translate.
- El, Eng