...Hey, Stephen. It's been a while.

>>229460
We don't even know where we are! I appreciate the sentiment though.

HELLO GREAT CHOSEN ONE, HOW IS YOUR LOVE LIFE? also good job in getting yourself busyed. now quit for then we may go prancying about the dome and get you booty, freedom and a trailer vehicle that can survive outside.

now how is your situation, your fundings and have you ever met a strange blue crystal orb, maybe shattered, maybe sharp?

>>229473
Stephen's face would emerge from his hands, a big grin plastered on his face. "That it has! That it has..

"Knew they couldn't 'cure' me of you folks."

Stephen pushed himself off of his bed and back onto his feet.

>>229511
"Really? You don't?" he pauses and reflex upon this new information. All he could offer was, "Then I guess we'll discover where you folks are.. together."

>>229516
Stephen would bust out laughing upon hearing this voice speak. "Don't start with that chosen one crap again. Remember what happened last time? That whole 'your destiny lies underneath your teacher's dress?!' I admit, Mrs. Galloway had a nice bush, but there was nothing worthwhile about being grounded for a month by Big Ma and Mom. They were so pissed...

"As for my love life? Well, I love my hand pretty regularly, if that's what you mean!" he laughs again at his own crude joke. "But naw, my last relationship ended pretty badly. She um... offed herself two years ago. Overdose." he sighs, "That's the nature of this place, I suppose." Stephen got rather quiet for a moment before stating, "No worries, though. I'm over that now."

Stephen would then remark, "Tapping some ass before I leave would be nice. I haven't went deep dickin' in months."

"As for my situation, personally? It's.. pretty bleak. I found out my biological dad, Keith, took a bullet to the head trafficking some drugs to Badside. Big Ma died of natural causes a few months back and Mom has been in hysterics ever since. I never realized how much my Mom loved her until the screen outside of her autodoc tube read 'Patient 4,475 -- Status: Dead.'"

He paused briefly before continuing, "Only one I got left is my friend Trey. Good guy. Little weird, though. May take him with me. Maybe not. He doesn't know my plan yet or about you guys."

Stephen would then answer, "My finances are pretty good. I have 300 in on my checkings, 50,000 in savings and a credit limit of 250,000 dollars. Definitely better than getting a welfare stipend and surfing the supranet all day. I could probably quit, max out my credit and live like king for months before I was sent to debtor's prison."

Would pause, ".. Orb? Like, a floaty, fantasy crystal ball? Naw. I met a guy name Orbo one. He's one of those HuMods that took his body alterations a little too far. Looks like some freakish monster."

"You all got other questions?" he'd inquire as he made his way out of his bedroom and into his kitchen. "If not, I'm going to get my a glass of OJ and go to bed."

I got one. How do you hope to find us? We may be outside the dome (we are definitely outside your dome), but finding us is a far cry from that. It sounds more like your plan is "have the voices help me leave the dome".

>>229862
even if that is the plan we can work with it. you will need a heavily armored vehicle with a large fuel capacity. one thing we know about places like this is that there will be bandits, lots of them. having a machine that they can't stop and raid is important.
what skills does trey have?

>>229864

You're just guessing. Shooting in the dark, even. Let's reason this out, then ask for confirmation.

American Welfare Bloc Ci-O-16. That in itself is very telling. Ci may stand for City, and O being a geodesic design code, and 16 being this particular dome's number. Then again, the serial could mean something else entirely. In any case, the dome itself has to be a geodesic dome design, as that is the only design an engineer would pick for a city dome. There were many variations on the basic dome design even in the early-atomic period (particularly during the cold war). The first domes were built in the pre-atomic period, but the important math on them was done in the post-atomic era.

Stephen, your little timepiece there doesn't mention the year, but if you're using the Gregorian calendar, and we're still in the 21st century, then this is 2029 at the earliest. That seems too early. 2040 or 2046 seems a little more likely. 2099 even more likely, if we're still in the 21st century. If it's the 22nd century, then the year could be 2105 or 2116, or possibly later.

From an engineering point of view there are a few good reasons to cover a city in a dome instead of build a proper dedicated arcology: 1) Utilization of existing infrastructure. 2) Maintenance of the existing city's cultural and land value. 3) Aesthetics. 4) Lack of time to test dedicated arcologies in the face of an environmental crisis.

Each of those has an issue, too. Existing infrastructure had better be pretty good, or you're going to end up replacing most of it anyway, and this time with all the complications that a dome adds to construction and demolition (none, some, or many depending on how close to the perimeter the work being carried out is). Cultural value is great, and land value keeps the taxpayers happy, but American cities of that era were built mostly for personal vehicles, with few exceptions. Those tend to be incredibly expensive for a municipality to accommodate. If you take into consideration how valuable protected land would become, leaving large chunks of your city footprint dedicated to vehicles makes little sense. Aesthetics are nice, but honestly how many people will look at a dome from the outside?

The most important reason is #4. If the engineer's masters needed a fast solution to the environment turning hostile, and no one had the time to try doing anything as unconventional as an untested arcology design, they would be willing to go with a dome instead of something that was designed to hold lots of people comfortably.

Domes would have gone up initially in response to the climate changing in one way or another, and would have been temporary housing for entire cities. Later, when it was apparent that the climate wouldn't be returning to normal, is when new cities would be built and planned from the bottom up to be arcologies instead of dome towns. A planned arcology would be great to live in, and I'm willing to bet most of the wealthy live in such arcologies now. Existing domes are used to house immigrants, refugees, unemployables, and other people who can't afford better but whom the state has not yet abandoned.

Am I right, so far?

Your a monkey type less.

>>229862
"Well, I still have that neural transmission locator I built. The device itself is pretty vague, as it's just a compass that's currently pointing somewhere south-west of here."

Stephen pulls the carton of orange juice out of his fridge and quietly pours it into a plastic glass. He takes a sip before continuing, "Well, my immediate objective is getting out of the dome, while my long term goal is eventually finding you guys."

>>229897
"There is a method of travel between domes--a bullet tram--but its suspended pretty high about the ground. It's mostly use for freight, but once in a blue moon, a government-approved passenger gets to ride. It takes months of paperwork.'"

"There is an old door somewhere in Badside. I remember seeing it once when I went to visit my dad. If you get to close though, those damn robots will just grab onto your arm, pull away a safe distance from the wall and recommended a long defunct shop you can go to in Commerce. I was going to try it again, but then my Dad showed me where he got tasered when he insisted on going out the door. Of course, if I did have a big enough vehicle, I could just roll out... but I'd have no idea where I'd get one I could operate manually."

"Trey Gerber's a 10th grade teacher at Consolidated High School: North here in Goodside. He teaches History from the 1920s to the present. He's particularly enthralled with the post-modern period between the late-1960s to the 2020s.. What he calls 'The World's Last Great Huzzah before everything went to shit'." He'd pause to take long drink from his glass, setting it down, "He's also a HuMod too and his body modifications make him stronger than me. Weird looking, but a cool guy none-the-less."

>>229897
Stephen would allow this voice to speak his piece, finishing off his glass of juice in the process as the voice postulated and made conjectures. Once it finished, he'd state with a sigh, "I knew you'd folks would ask something like that. You were always pestering me about it when I was little, but I didn't know how to answer your questions.. or how to ask others. Luckily, I did some studying before I stopped taking my pills."

"Basically, the code after the American Welfare Bloc is this. The 'Ci' stands for city, though some of the older folks are convinced it stands for Cincinnati--probably because the next letter, 'O' stands for 'Ohio'... The designated region where dome is, which encompasses most of the old state. The number sixteen's states that it was the sixteenth city to have a dome built over it. Sorry if it wasn't as complicated as you thought it was."

He blinks a little about the question involving the exact year but goes on to say, "If you're really curious about the year, its 2521 CE. I wouldn't blame you for thinking its the late 21st or early 22nd century. Most of this technology hasn't been updated in a long, long time. They just make different design changes and a few tweaks every few decades or so."

"As for why this city is domed and we don't have this.. archology you keep speaking of? Yeah, it's because there was a great catastrophe that happened sometime in the mid-21st century. They taught me in high school, but I wasn't really paying attention at the time. My tenth grade teacher was really, really hot. I mean... Impossibly so. She was a Fakie and a lesbian, sure, but damn! It didn't help because she loved wearing low-cut shirts. My imagination couldn't help but to run wild."

"I'll ask Trey tomorrow, if you're curious. He'll definitely know."

get a giant automatic vehicle and then shred it's computer nav thing and add a steering thing of some kind.

>>230209

Oh, the authorities must have switched calendars at some point. April 12th this year should be a Saturday. No matter, the year is probably close to right.

>>230212

You know, a conversion isn't quite that simple. He'll want to pick a vehicle that's common everywhere, and he'll want a manual control system that's easy for him to get replacements for. He may want to try something like wiring the drive-by-wire system up with a game controller and driving the vehicle like that. He's got money and time to mess around with it though.

>>230259
Stephen would blink at the statement and walk over the large, more expensive holographic entertainment center in his living room. It's screen-saver read Saturday, April 12 2:33am.

"Oh, what the fuck?" he proclaimed into his living room with befuddled rage. The HEC reply back in a gentle, female voice, "You seem angry. Be mindful of your blood pressure, Mr. Yates. Would you like me to load.." Stephen would reply quickly, "Turn off helpful hints, set off as default," with a grumble. The machine complied promptly, "Helpful hints off. Helpful hints now set to off by default."

"I guess there's a minor glitch with the HEC in my bedroom. I'll fix it tomorrow," he spoke aloud before sitting down on the sofa.

>>230212
>>230259
"Look, I like to think of myself as a smart guy, but I'm not 100% sure I can even find a vehicle conditioned to whatever exists outside."

"Hacking into its anti-theft subroutine is an uphill battle faced with layers of encrypted, redundant parameters and arguments... and this? Well, it's would be in a significantly older vehicle with stagnate code. A newer vehicle would probably have evolving code, in which case, I'm fucked."

"In theory, I could program another computer to transmit false data to the police, put the vehicle's computer in a transmission proof box of some kind, set the vehicle in a 'complete-off' state before removing said computer and putting in some manual controls based off a HEC's interface." He thought over it before adding, "I could pull it off, but I'd need some time. And money."

He'd grin, "Luckily, I have both. Like you said before."

>>230269

Spoofing the system like that could work, but isn't there a manufacturer-approved way to lombotomize the car's computer? There must be some protocol that's been designed so that the proper authority could declare a car non-operational, leaving the vehicle in a state where it could be parted out and recycled, right? That's the state we want it in for installing a manual control suite, because any anti-theft sabotage measures would be disabled by the vehicle's computer in preparation for being parted out and recycled by authorized mechanics.

As for dealing with conditions outside the dome, well, we need to know more history. Trey's the man for that, obviously. Still, we can guess some stuff. The only thing that would have forced the society of the mid-21st century to dome themselves in would be massive climate change.

Domes are for climate control. It's cheaper from an energy investment point of view to enact climate control on a city-wide scale than try to pay for upgrading the climate control systems on every building in the region. Domes could survive massive windstorms, huge snowdrifts, hurricanes, and pretty much anything else short of a dedicated conventional bombing campaign or a direct hit by a nuke. Geodesic domes are insanely strong.

Given the latitude of your current location, big snowstorms may be a real possibility. The raised rail system may need to be raised high to stay in continuous operation.

About 100 miles south-west of Ci-O-16 is the old city of Louisville. A little south of that is an old military site, Fort Knox. Fort Knox was a training site for military tank crews. Both seem like likely spots to find other people. Do you know if Louisville got a dome?

Fort Knox, even if it is abandoned, may be interesting for other reasons. Military-grade composite armor, for instance.

What sort of power storage do most vehicles use? How is power generated for the city?

Just stealing a vehicle isn't good enough, since you are going to be living in the damn thing. You need to make some modifications to the vehicle yourself.

i had huge post but somehow a cutebold stole it
if it is that difficult to get a vehicle, why not making one from scratch? it would have what you need and not even a single worry that the theft system would fail.

we would need at least 2 power sources. it would be interesting to make it solar powered. we will problaby need weapons too.

so what dangers are we talking of? radiation, biological, mutations, climate, lack of atmosphere?

>>230276

Stephen's not talking about actually stealing a vehicle. He's talking about replacing the computer in an off-the-lot vehicle so that he can run it using a HEC, an entertainment console and navigate it manually. A vehicle's computer would see any attempt to tamper with it as a possible theft attempt, since manual navigation is illegal and generally undesirable in a dense urban environment anyway. It's like DRM for your car.

Building from scratch is a job for a machine shop, which Stephen doesn't have. Building from OEM parts may be possible though. The frame and body would be the hardest parts. Whichever vehicle he chooses, off-the-lot or original design, would need to be able to cope with conditions outside the dome anyway. I suspect an off-the-lot design would need reinforcement and improvement.

Stephen, can you use a welder?

>>230278
you did raised a good point, we would need adaptations anyway. if we can get to a workshop we can make alterations and adaptations to the outside enviroment.

it would need to be big since its possible we wont be able to sleep outdoor anyway.

what models do you already have acess to?

Exactly how dangerous is the environment outside the dome? Is it just normal desert or is it a toxic air type situation?

Just what sort of survival problems will you face outside the dome?

>>About the Vehicles<<

"Probably..? I know for a fact when HECs and Workstations and whatnot goes beyond a repair state, it'll send out a signal to a recycling center in IMC. If its too FUBAR to even send out a signal, people usually just drop it in a recycling box."

"If that's the case, we'll need to see if there's a recycling garage of some kind somewhere in 16."

"The more we talk about it though," he states with a reflexive pause, "The more we need a third person to become a part of this. Someone with a working knowledge of mechanics, welding and the social mechanisms surrounding the mechanics' world."

>>What Happened?<<

Stephen would pause and lean back, rubbing his eyes a little bit as he looks up the ceiling and tries to think back to tenth grade. "The most I can remember... There was something about a.. supervolcano, I think. Anything with the word super in front of it has to be a big fucking deal..."

>>Environment Outside the Dome<<

"If this supervolcano did go off, maybe it spilled toxic ash everywhere and made life a general mess? Maybe it blocked out sun light and made things colder? The latter makes a little more sense, as it would allow some time for construction of domes and would explain the elevated train system outside."

"Then again, I also remember something about a nuclear war. That could have made things... problematic, to say the least.

"All I can do is speculate. No one's been outside of the dome nor seen the outside in centuries. Hate to sound like a cheap parrot, but we will need to see Trey."

>>About Weapons<<

"Guns are pretty expensive. They also transmit a signal back to police HQ very time you pull a trigger, so if you're not inside of a shooting range, they send out people to investigate. Strangely, hacking a gun is going to be a bit easier than hacking a car. Some of the more intense criminals in Badside have one or two and I can do a lot better than those armchair computer scientists."

"It would be cheaper to get some melee weapons, but dealing with robots can be pretty tough, unless we have a really strong bludgeon. Killing one means you have kill more though, until it reaches an 'x' number of robots, which is dependent on the nature of the crime involved verse the number of robots needed to catch the crook. The good news is though is that robotic cops will only attack one through non-lethal methods. Only human cops are allowed to have guns, due to the lingering fears of out-of-control AI."

"Now that I think about it, would cop guns have any control on them at all? Might be the place to get guns..."

>>Power<<

"Vehicles are powered electrically, usually at the home but there's a few QuickCharge stations around in case you're some kind of dumbass that forgot to charge it at the house."

"Me though, I like taking the bus. It's a fine place to get some breakfast and its cheap too."

"The power for the dome is done through some wireless energy transfers using microwaves, with the receivers attached to the top of the dome, and then its hardwired to the central pillar that sends the electricity to homes and businesses. To be frank though, I have no idea where this power comes from. Perhaps its nuclear."

>>Fort Knox, Louisville and Other Domes<<

"I haven't heard of a Louisville dome or Fort Knox military instillation. The only dome I know of is the Ci-NE-2 Dome... That's where a co-worker of mine came from. She's a big bitch though."

"Since you're certain I'm heading that way, I'll check to see if there's a Louisville dome and a Fort Knox."

>>230984

Beamed power is only worth the trouble if you have massive amounts of power being generated, or if you want to have the ability to turn the power off remotely if a dome misbehaves. Perhaps a remote nuclear power generation site, with power bounced off a geosynchronous satellite, or maybe even an orbital power collector. Perhaps several.

Microwave power transmission works best on a large scale. We're talking a scale of kilometers for the rectifying antennas. It's likely that the entire top of the dome is designed to be a radio power receiver.

Power will be a problem. Going the distance, the 120 or so miles to Fort Knox, will require power. Either you'll need a murderous amount of power storage (seriously), or you'll need a portable powerplant of your own and the fuel for it. There aren't too many good options in that area.

Burning organic matter is one way. Coal, charcoal, ethanol and other longer hydrocarbon chains in liquid or gaseous form can provide the energy you'd need. You'd still need to get the fuel from somewhere, though. You may be able to scavenge wood or stored hydrocarbons from the rural areas. A wood-gas engine would be able to operate on most of the fuels you'd likely encounter. The fumes alone from it could kill you though, if you were careless.

Another option would be a radiothermal heat source. All the ones existing at the time of the crisis would have gone through at least five half-lives by now. Considering that they would have been designed to produce 30 to 90 kilowatts, depending on the particular radiothermal battery design, and that they were not in common use anyway, you won't be able to count on salvaging one. You'll have to have one made, or learn how to make one yourself. Just getting the raw materials for it would be a challenge; you'd have to get access to a medical nuclear reactor somehow, and then configure it to make strontium-90 or plutonium-238 instead of iodine-131. Several grams of plutonium-238 would leave you set for around fifty years. More if you design the radiothermal generator and your vehicle to have power requirements that are significantly less than two-thirds the generator's output. Making the radiothermal generator's fuel would be the hardest part. Do that wrong and you get radiation poisoning, or if done only mildly wrong, cancer.

Transmitted power may be possible. Even though rectennas work best at large scales, they can be designed to work at much smaller scales. That would mean you'd have to leave a power transmitter here, tied into the grid, and managed either remotely or by friends. It would be line-of-sight only, unless you had a statite or satellite that could bounce the power beam. Seems risky.

We need to know when the nukes were dropped. Please be sure to ask Trey about that. If it has been long enough, the residual fallout won't be too terrible. Still worth protecting yourself though. At the very least you'll want lots of dosimeters.

Yes, it is looking like you'll need help for this. At least one other person, preferably three (with the second and third persons having medical training).

Police weapons would have controls on them. They probably aren't just remote controls though. I would expect a police weapon use a local verification system, such as a transponder ring worn on the gun-hand, or a transponder implant in the same hand, that authorized policemen would have. The purpose of the transponders would be to prevent a weapon lost in the field from being immediately turned on its owner by a criminal. It's simple to implement and a pragmatic precaution.

As to a supervolcano, there were only a few that could have gone off. The Yellowstone caldera would have been the worst, since it is (relatively speaking) geographically close (about 1200 miles away). Cincinnati would have been beyond the edge of the kill-zone for volcano ejecta, if it was that particular one, but would still have gotten showered with heavy ashfall due to being east of the site, thanks to the prevailing winds. The other potential sites are far away enough that they would not merit consideration besides the effect their ash would have had on a global scale.

How difficult would it be to ask your co-worker about conditions in the other dome? Would she be likely to mention that you were asking to other people? Would getting her to agree to tell you in the first place be difficult? This may well be a red herring, but understanding how the infrastructure differs between domes could be important for understanding the level of danger outside them.

How good are you with electronics? A wireless power system could charge a heavy duty battery that could run a vehicle with all the things you'd want. The setup would require someone with a basic knowledge of electrical engineering, but it'd be a huge boon to your efforts not to need any kind of fuel. That is of course, assuming electrical car parts are commonly available.

>>230984
well you may be able to make the vehicle if you hire a couple dozen of specialized workers. the hard part will be to receive the shipments and assembling the vehicle by yourself, and obviously, maintaining it.

oh wait, you may need a engineer to design it. you know, a vehicle to survive in the outside may not work if the terrain is too difficult to transverse. and if it is big enought for two to live, it will get stuck easier. do you have someone that trustworthy? preferably of the oposite gender?

>>231151

You would seriously be surprised at the sort of things a single person with some training can do. He doesn't need dozens of people, he's already shown he's intelligent and can work with the system. There's an entire body of work on automobiles, stretching back over 500 years. There's no reason for him to reinvent everything when he can take stock parts for the majority of his vehicle (either as an original frame and body design, or as an adaptation of an existing commercial design).

The hardest parts of adapting a vehicle to his needs will be defeating the computer controls on a commercially available vehicle, and solving the power supply problem. He can manage both, either on his own (if he spends a good deal of time training) or with the help of one or two people who are trained mechanics.

There are other problems too, it has to be able to go over rough terrain. If people don't leave the domes, then all transportation infrastructure will be completely destroyed.

How available would an old army APC be? It'd be big enough to house a small place you can live in, would be good on rough terrain, and would be heavy duty enough to carry the modifications you'd need to be able to survive on the road.

>>231207

We need to talk to Trey to know conditions outside. There may be some infrastructure that's still being maintained, especially around the train line. We'll see, eh?

Heck, there may be a way to leech power off the train line, if they don't have their own self-contained power. But that would limit us to going where the train lines go.

>>Powering the Vehicle.<<

"The most probable answer is building an engine from scratch that burns organic matter. The dome has plenty of biomass briquettes that are used by grilling enthusiasts practically all year around. It also has the advantage of sounding simplistic enough in design that I could build it myself from instructions and study, if need be. Of course, we don't know how much organic material exists in the outside world. It's been centuries, after all."

"Using radio-thermal would help out with this problem, but as you stated, getting one is going to be impossible. Navigating all the social and illegal nature of obtaining the nuclear material from a medical reactor would be a task in and of itself, but not impossible. Still, building a radio-thermal battery from scratch is best left to some specialist."

"Using the transmitted power outside of the dome may be something to consider, but it does seems a be sketchy. I don't know where I'd purchase or reconstitute an old rectanne and the prospect of hacking into a government computer to gain control of whatever statites or satellites that may or may not exist in space or elsewhere seems... daunting, to say the least."

"Leaching from the train system could work. I'd need to study up first to see if the train runs on its own batteries or whatever. Either way, the read should be enlightened and may even get us closer to my goals."

"Of course, there's always the prospect of simply loading my vehicle down with a fuck-ton of batteries. It probably won't have room for much else, except a driver and maybe two other people, depending on the size of the vehicle in question."

>>A.P.C.<<
"You're probably right about the infrastructure being FUBAR. I remember that door from my childhood being rather old. It looked like it hadn't been open in a long, long time."

"As for the APC? I only remember seeing one in my entire life. It was a Stryker from the Zealot Wars. It was at the All-American Museum in Commerce. Perhaps we could 'borrow' it or bribe the curator."

>>Bitch from work<<
"I dunno what Kathy's deal is, but we're not on the friendliest of terms. We can work together to solve a complex problem at my job, but outside of that she isn't very personable. Its as if she doesn't want to open up and talk to people at all."

>>History Time with Trey Gerber<<
"Yes, yes. I need to ask Trey all sorts of questions. You folks are in luck. April is one of his three 'off' months. Any other time, he would have been teaching."

Stephen would yawn and look at the clock on his living room HEC. The time read 3:03 AM. He moved to his feet and announced, "Of course, now's the time for bedtime, especially if you guys want me to talk to Kathy. I'll need to pretend like I care about working to get close to her. It will also be a good time to give a two weeks notice."

He made his way into his bedroom quietly, taking off his clothing and slipping into his pajamas. "Now, I know you guys probably have more questions, but I am genuinely tired and I will need sleep for the long day ahead. So, just be quiet. I don't need you keeping me awake at all hours of the night asking questions."

He pauses to look at the broken HEC in the bedroom that read 'Thursday' as opposed to 'Saturday'. He made his way over two it and quickly fixed the glitched that caused it, wondering why it would have said anything like that. He sighs and made his way to his bed, commanding "Lights off!" into the room. The lights complied and the black male climbed into bed, sliding in between the comforter and the sheets and resting his head against his fluffy pillow.

Within a few short moments, he was fast asleep.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

You fine guys and gals can influence Stephen's being for the upcoming day tomorrow by bombarding his subconscious with suggestions.

Doing so allows you to pump one or more pseudo-stats. Of course, if you pump more than one pseudo-stat, it will be taken from another p-stat at my discretion.

A pseudo-stat is basically one that you folks make up on your own accord. The p-stat can be anything, as long as it isn't too vague (like "dexterity" or "perception") or too specific (like "building a nuclear bomb" or "wooing ladies out of their panties"). Examples of a good pseudo-stat would be hacking, cooking, gambling, etc. If you need another example, think of the "Skills" subset from the Fallout series.

Of course, you can't make Stephen take a nap just to give him a boost. He needs legitimate, six hours or more sleep. Luckily for you, tonight he's getting six hours in before his alarm clock will remind him to wake up.

It should also be noted that if Stephen stays awake for more than sixteen hours, the p-stat pump in question will be negated and he'll revert to normal. For every four hours he stays awake after that, his abilities will start to diminish. After thirty-six hours of being awake, he'll barely be functionable. At fourty-eight hours, he'll fall asleep, regardless of your wishes.

Of course, you can use drugs during the day to give him yet another boost. Inversely, there's a chance he may become addicted to it in some manner.

Either way, Stephen is a pretty average guy when his stats aren't toyed with, the only things that are above average intelligent-based p-stats dealing with programming, hacking, computers, electronics, robotics, etc. The only things that are below average involve charisma, like leadership, intimidation, seduction etc.

So yeah, have fun!

>>232220
not posting to not screw up

how possible is it to build a APC like vehicle from scratch?

also if we are dealing mostly with electric engines and batteries, solar could be one of the few reliable means if recharging. we would need infrared and to travel at night.

Stephen, you are going to wake up tomorrow and be the most charming motherfucker there has ever been. Since tomorrow you are going to be gathering information you are going to be prepared to charm the pants off anyone who can help, while asking lots and lots of questions. I don't care if you are normally a social moron, you are going to use your smarts to make the people you pump for information tomorrow want to help you.

>>232220

Stephen, you're going to be a charismatic and charming guy tomorrow. You've got people to talk to, and you want them to have a favorable opinion of you when you do it. Even if they're already friendly, there's no reason not to make the experience enjoyable for them. And if they're not friendly, you'll need every little bit of help you can get.

>>232326

Start with a small bus for your frame. Strengthen key parts of the frame like the engine compartment and the wheel wells. Improve the firewall between the engine compartment and the passenger compartment. Rebuild the bottom of the frame for better waterproofing and a tractor tread. Get tractor treads as replacement parts for a farm or construction vehicle, and install them on the frame. Install the engine. Use the transmission, drive shaft, and other parts that goes with the tractor treads, and join it to the engine. Since the engine is going to be serving as the power plant, make sure you hook an alternator up to it to charge your batteries.

If you're using a wood-gas engine you'll want to make sure that the firewall for the gasifier is more than adequate. You may want to armor the gasifier, even if you don't armor anything else. The gasifier should use a heat exchanger to leech heat from the engine, so that you're not just wasting energy that could be used for gasification.

If you want to armor your bus, you should be able to get some from companies that manufacture industrial centrifuges. Big centrifuges are armored to prevent too much damage to the room they're in if they suffer a failure while they're operating. If it can stop a centrifuge part, it should stop a bullet.

Buy industrial LPG gas tanks. Those should be able to store wood gas without any trouble. Install them in the lower cargo compartments of the bus, behind the treads. Armor them.

The living area will need a place to sleep, water tanks, storage for food, clothing, and other gear, lights, a good shortwave radio, and maybe a chemical toilet. You can tie the heater into the engine using an off-the-shelf heat exchanger. Traveling in this won't be much fun, but it will work.

The cockpit will mostly be a virtual cockpit, thanks to Stephen's idea to use a HEC and a computer to take advantage of the existing drive-by-wire systems instead of a mechanical steering column.

There's lots of little details, but that's it in broad strokes.

>>232679
using a combustion engine to generate electricity may not be a option but it will sure be nice. im hoping we can supplement our input needs with forms of energy that would not rely on organic matter.

we should add a periscope and/or specialized long range lens/radar. im pretty sure he will use cameras anyway. how about them electrified hulls for self defense?

(Sorry, but I don't know how to spoiler stuff)

How about a hybrid engine. We could have a battery that could leach wireless energy (and by the way, if it's the same kind of wireless energy Tesla imagined you wouldn't have to access any kind of satellite network to get it, it would be accessible everywhere that wasn't heavily shielded), could be plugged into existing infrastructure for a faster charge, and when that's not available burning fuel would still work.

I like the bus idea. An APC is still a better choice due to less work required to modify it, but I really can't see us getting one without some really obvious criminal actions. A bus will give us space for all sorts of things, like a small hydroponics setup for food, a large storage tank for water, etc.

>>233031

Spoiler tags are [ spoiler] [ /spoiler] without the spaces.

We could probably rescue an appropriate bus frame from the recyclers.

Those Spoiler Messages that you fine folks have left are now considered conversation for the next morning.

MEEP! MEEP! MEEP! MEEP! MEEP!

A old time, turn of the century digital alarm clock was displayed inside of the HEC, demanding some kind of attention. The little display read "9:00 AM".

Stephen grumbled and pushed himself out of bed. His HEC continued its consistent, annoying beep. The sound was practically drilling into his ears, feeling as if each noise only grew louder and more demanding.

Stephen finally pushed himself out of bed and walked over to his machine, balling up his fist and sending it through the two planes that allowed it to generate a holographic display. His fist would collide with the opaque clock and it would go flying outside of the two panels and thus disappearing. While it would have been more satisfying to smash the HEC, punching the clock had to suffice and boy, did it suffice.

He then muttered to the voices, "Morning, assholes."

Stephen pulled his fist out and the HEC would go back to displaying its floating text and numerals time display. He stripped himself out of his clothing stepped into the bathroom, turning the knob and waiting for the water to heat up.

Soon after he stepped inside the, the voices immediately began their speculations and conjectures. As before, Stephen took the time to address what he could.

>>232326
"Building an APC from scratch? Not impossible, but very difficult and definitely beyond my expertise."

He would briefly pause to expel last night orange juice before continuing, "Getting solar panels is going to be a task, but not impossible. Various toys and some hand held devices are charged via solar (albeit the irony is, the dome doesn't let any natural sunlight in). There's probably bigger ones somewhere around here."

>>232679
Stephen would scrub his body down with a disposable soap-bar sponge as he listened to this one's idea. He'd nod his head in agreement, "That's actually... a damn good idea. Getting a bus, while out of character for 99% of citizens, isn't illegal. Of course, we may raise suspicions, so we'll need a large space to work on it in, probably an old garage or an abandoned parking complex or something. I'm sure that whenever we find our mechanic to help out, they'll have the space to work on it."

>>232768
"I hope so too. Going straight organic worries me, but if the conditions are right outside to allow sunlight, then we'll probably use solar too."

"And yes, I was going to use cameras to reduce any weak points windows often portend. Luckily for us, most vehicles, including buses, are made without windows and with cameras on one side and a flat panel screen on the other, so one can see everything as they drive down the road."
"
A periscope for catastrophic power failure is nice and if there's the cash, the time and the know-how, a radar system would be fantastic."

>>233031
"Hrm. While I'm not certain how the wireless power works per se (all I know is what I've told you folks before), I doubt it works off of Telsa's system. It might, but I doubt it."

"Of course, what we can and can't add to the bus depends on its relative size. The bus that I use to go to work has two floors, which would allow for much more space, but the thing is top heavy and unless we expand the base, it wouldn't be good for off-road. It would also be more difficult to power, but it could be worth it with all that space. We'll probably end up with a one-floor model, like the one's they use to transport students to school."

>>233059
"I was hoping to rescue a body as well as a frame from the recyclers, to eliminate as many cost factors as we can. I doubt currency will be useful outside of the dome, but on the off-chance it is, I don't want to be in a position where I'm completely broke. Of course, if I aim completely broke, then I hope the bus is completely stocked and some level of self sufficient, which leads back around to having a bigger bus over a small one and.. blah."

He steps outside of the shower and grabs a nearby towel, drying himself off. He wraps it around his waist and steps infront of the mirror, grabbing the needed toothbrush and toothpaste before he started to polish his pretty white chompers.

>>232467
>>232679
He spat out the minty goop into the sink, hitting drain the first time before running water over the brush to make sure it was clean. He couldn't help but to glance up at himself every time did so, noticing just how attractive he actually was.

He played in front of the mirror a bit, cocking one eye brow and brushing at his chin. He made passes at himself in the mirror, judging his own body language. He felt, well, charming. As if he some fast-talking lawyer that could weasel his way into and out of any situation.

He moved back to his bedroom and got dressed, choosing one of finer outfits that expressed his more socialible nature. He then spoke, "Alright voices, listen up. We got a few options about what we can do here. I can go to work and talk to Kathy. Since I'm quitting anyway, I don't need to be punctual about it and I can deal with that later. Of course, if I'm late or if I call off of work three times, I'm automatically fired and getting hired somewhere else will be next to impossible. Interestingly, this won't effect my credit score, which leads me to believe they want to send more people to debtor's prison."

"I could just go to Trey's. He's an early bird, mostly because of his work. It's April, which means he's on break and won't have to go back to work until May."

"I could also just stay in and search the supranet on my HEC to find a mechanic. Talking over the HEC isn't fully secure though, so we'll need to meet the mechanic in person. I don't think what we're doing is illegal, but better safe than sorry."

It's good that you are being careful. Modifying a bus probably isn't illegal, but that isn't necessarily going to stop them from locking you up. I doubt anyone in power wants people to think they have the option of leaving the dome.

We are still in the research stage of this. We've got a lot of great ideas but need information on the troubles we will face. Trey is your first target, since he will probably know the main issues were going to face with basic survival. You should plan who you'll be able to talk to based around their work schedules. I imagine you'll be able to check vehicle prices/availability, but probably won't be able to give twenty questions to any mechanic or electrical engineers about all this stuff until you've set up an appointment with one (which begs the question of how you are going to find one and then broach the subject of making all this crap that obviously no one who lives in a dome needs).

Stephen I don't think you should quit until you have a good estimate of how long building the bus will take. Simple prudence says that having the job to maintain your cover as a good citizen is important. And having the funds is nice.

>>233973
>>234018
"Both of you are right, but I'm going to have to side with the latter voice," he stated, "I doubt Trey is going anywhere and, as much as I hate saying this, its probably a good idea to keep up appearances."

He'd made his way out of his one story house and into his street. Stephen was standing in Goodside, named as such because its considered the good side of town. Most of these houses were anywhere between 500 and 600 hundred years but the meticulous work of robots made sure the houses stayed in working order--so long as its residence paid the upkeep bill or the house was deemed historically significant.

Stephen looked toward the ceiling of the dome. Today, it was set clear and blue in a vague attempt to mimic the skies of yore. It was obvious the sky was just an impostor, as there was the occasional triangle that was darker than the rest, frozen to a image of a piece of a cloud or completely blacked out. Stephen always wondered why they didn't send robots up their to fix the screens, but he figured that after so long, it wasn't even worth keeping up the allusion anymore.

Stephen sighed and made his way to the bus stop at the end of the street. He murmured to his voices, "Just in case you forgot since I was little or something, I can't respond to you while I'm in mixed company. You'll just have to sit on your hands and wait until I'm out of earshot of people."

Stephen was soon at the bus stop, where he pressed a button on the sign. It gently informed him that bus will be there within three minutes.

Stephen glanced around to see if anyone was going to join him before speaking, "I'm going to take a look around the bus when it gets here. Is there anything you want me to look for in particular or ju---"

Stephen practically jumped out of his shoes when someone tapped his shoulder from behind. It was a Caucasian lady, much smaller than him, with her red-head level to his pecs. She appeared to be somewhat younger then him, aged 26.

"Who are you talking to?" she inquires curiously, "I noticed you don't have an ear cell on or anything."

Stephen was going to need a good excuse, fast.

>>234937

You're taking a writing correspondence course and today's exercise was to practice descriptions in the second person. You normally don't speak aloud when you're trying to compose an exercise, but it's easy to forget when you've been seized by the moment.

Then introduce yourself. You've probably seen her around before, if she lives in the neighborhood. It doesn't hurt to be a friendly neighbor, and it'll let you direct the conversation so that you can get her to talk about herself. Most people like to talk about themselves. That way you won't have to invent some correspondence course name.