Day 2 | Evening | ElectroBOOM

[Ambrose Pantazis]

It was a relief that he didn't have to deal with the missing alleged planetologist. Duty called and his currently was to go scavenge parts so they could get at least one thopter operational. Everyone seemed so focused on cannibalizing one for the other for a chance at escape, they didn't bother to consider or wouldn't voice the fact that there were more on the ground here than could fit on a single thopter. In the end however, once the Duke's son and their Swordmaster was found, they needed the ability to quickly remove them from the dangers of this jungle. That was the priority. At all costs.

The evening brought about a unique beauty of this jungle with it's blue ambiance. Even having been at the receiving end of it's volatile nature, Ambrose found it soothing. There were many abstract theories out in the universe, one of them being about the effect colors in your environment had on your mood and on your mind. The green of House Atreides brought concentration and focus, the red of its hawk brought passion and courage. The blue of this jungle brought peace and serenity, a clever trap of nature to lure in its prey before striking with lethal power.

Following the trail left by Bernard, they neared the downed thopter when Ambrose spotted some of the older markings on the trees. Following the trunk up to the leaves bearing their blue lines of power, he figured this was his best chance to try his little experiment with the shield.

"Sir, if we could pause a moment here, I'd like to try something here with these trees. Won't take but a moment."

[Kannon]

The first step would be to cut the tree deep enough to make it ooze not the sap, but the electrofluid, and prevent them from mixing with each other. Or to find a hollow, like the one the eye had been torn out of.

[Ambrose Pantazis]

Just as electricity flowed to ground, Ambrose would follow the path of least resistance. He didn't fancy making it a trifecta and getting a third shock trying to dig into a tree. He leaned on the work of those before him and followed the example of eye, looking for a tree with a hollow to gain easier access to the harvest he sought.

[Kannon]

[Average Education first]

[Ambrose Pantazis]

[Average Education first]

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D2, Evening, ElectroBOOM, Education: 1eP+2eA+2eD 1 success

[Kannon]

The outer trunk did not zap.The primary candidate for insulator was the brownish sap.

[Ambrose Pantazis]

Clever, of course the tree would have its own natural defenses against the power. He was more than a little chagrined that the cartel members had figured it out before him. Although, there was no knowing how long it'd taken them or how many injuries they'd endured for that bit of knowledge.

Taking out a pair of flight gloves, Ambrose marred the surface of another nearby tree to extract some sap and slathered it over his gloves in hopes it would offer some protection. He set the gloves aside and pulled out the eye to look for more tricks the cartel might've been so kind as to have already paid the price for learning.

[Kannon]

The biological parts, still revulsive but not so shocking like before, were slowly atrophying. They needed to be regenerated somehow, and the electrofluid might or might not prove sufficient. The bioadapters and biotransisors, likely vat-bred, were key to moderation of tree's raw current.

[Medicine Average w/ Challenge]

[Ambrose Pantazis]

Seeing the state of the eye, the intricacies of its design and implementation. This was sophisticated beyond what a simple drug cartel could muster, beyond what was called for. Hands reaching across the known universe to meddle in Atreides affairs. Meddling that had led to the death of his brother and many like him.

He would use their own machinations against them.

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D2, Evening, ElectroBOOM, Medicine: 2eP+1eA+1eC+1eD 1 failure, 1 advantage

Adv to not kill the thing? Give another chance to use it?

[Kannon]

Justifiably or not, he got the conviction that this had been custom-made by the Tleilaxu for its very specific purpose on this very specific world. With all the consequences this line of thinking was bringing.

Medically, he wouldn't know how to regenerate it. He could always use traditional regrowth injections from his medpac and hope for the best. Or maybe the bio-components would self-regenerate when power was restored to them.

[Ambrose Pantazis]

The corrupt flesh was not responding to his treatment. He had one last resort, a precious regrowth injection. He reserved these for soldiers wounded in combat needing to get back into the fight, sparing one not even for the heavily wounded Sinsei.

Now was not the time for dithering. The benefits of getting this working could be just as impactful as getting another fighting man back on their feet. With admittedly some hesitation, Ambrose took out a regrowth injection and slowly administered the drugs, watching for any positive or negative reactions.

[Kannon]

Slowly, it seemed to be working, though no idea for how long, what drove Ambrose to another horrifying realisation: this flesh was human-approximate.

[Ambrose Pantazis]

That this wasn't a mimicry of the human body but a corruption of it was in so many ways revolting and obscene, but in others a relief. The taboo of creating a machine in the likeness of man was so ingrained, so deeply rooted, that to go against it was to go against the very core of his humanity. But, to turn human flesh to other purposes, that was merely depraved. There were even acceptable instances of training man to the likeness of a machine. None but the most fanatic would find fault in the training of a mentat or a navigator.

Quickly, while it was lively and responsive, Ambrose donned his sap coated gloves and began working the vein like tendrils of the eye into the hollow of the tree, trying to capture it's lifeblood for the eye to feed on.

[Kannon]

The tendrils slithered gently in proximity to the phloem, perhaps needing another regenerative encoragement. Still, if he succeeded now, he would simply restore the eye's primary function, not turning it into a charging port. And further manipulations under voltage could be something even sap gloves could not bear.

[Ambrose Pantazis]

Right, seemed the divine inspiration he'd received was panning out and he'd achieved some level of proof of concept. All he needed now was to retrofit an interface to channel the eye's converted power into his shield and maybe more.

The easiest solution would be to use a fuel cell port compatible with their equipment. The question was, how compatible would it be with the eye.

One of the earliest lessons he'd learned in his medic training was when it came to the human body, close enough tended to be good enough. The body wants to heal, wants to be whole again. If you got most of the parts in mostly the right place and kept them from dying, the various systems would pick up the slack and do the rest. It may not be the prettiest job, and some things might be a little off, but it was generally good enough to get back in the fight and survive until someone who knew more and had more time could worry about the little details.

Hopefully, this little abomination inherited some of that resilience in its design. That and another valuable regrowth injection to help it adapt to its new modification while interfacing with the tree.

He got to work surgically removing the now unneeded visual receptor to replace it with a fuel cell port to pass along its converted energy.

[Kannon]

Portable fuel cell might do, but the industrial ones on the thopter might have a greater capacity to accomodate a potential surge.

[Average Mechanics]

[Ambrose Pantazis]

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(OOC) If I could, I would like to mark this tree and rush over to the thopter for the industrial port. I went ahead and rolled to save some time, but can reroll or do other stuff if necessary.

D2, Evening, ElecroBOOM, Mechanics, Industrial port?: 1eP+2eA+2eD 1 success, 3 advantage

3adv banked

[Kannon]

[It is fine. You could have reported stuff to Razar as an extra. Roll valid for installation. Now to switch on power. Choose a logical approach and a correspondig skill: Hard with a Challenge, Average if after another regrowth shot.]

[Ambrose Pantazis]

With the larger fuel port installed, all that was left was to actually connect his shield and flip the proverbial switch. It was actually an rheostat controlled by a dial.

Ambrose gave the eye turned fuel port another regrowth injection to help it cope with the initial surge it would likely experience in a moment. The port side handled, Ambrose donned his gloves and seated his personal shield before slowly working the dial to let the power flow.

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(OOC) I had thought Razar might be here, but he probably would've continued on to the thopter to get that work done.
D2, Evening, ElecroBOOM, Mechanics, 2adv for Boost: 1eP+2eA+1eB+1eC+1eD 2 successes, 1 threat

Last adv banked to counter that threat?

[Kannon]

[No. You got mildly zapped for 1 Strain. It was the final proof it worked.]

After a jolt, it looked like the shield started recharging rather quickly. At this rate, it could restore critical energy threshold for the Holtzmann effect to be sustainable in minutes... but the flesh inside the eye was struggling. It might not hold without regenerative reinforcement.

[1 more Stimpack to complete the Shield, 4 per thopter. That's the tradeoff.]