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Post by Vaughn Logan on Oct 4, 2012 23:27:06 GMT -5
Vaughn strode down the main pathway of the compound in casual wear. He wore a dark gray shirt with a grungy logo on the front, dark denim jeans and a pair of brown work boots. His hair was still dampened from a recent shower he had taken in the after working out in the downstairs gym. He nodded at a few of the hunters passing him by and continued on his way.
The electronics ward was filled with high-tech gear and filled with the sound of Hobbs' choice of music as well as the sound of metal being welded. Vaughn opened the doors and walked in slowly, searching the room for Hobbs. Computer screens flickered and beeped, machines were turned on, but still no sign of Hobbs.
Vaughn had wanted to speak to Hobbs about latest gear he wanted to try out and use to become more efficient. It had been an idea that he had always wanted to try out, but it had never been a reality until he met Hobbs. Vaughn knew int he back of his mind the equipment layout he wanted probably wouldn't be exactly on the dot, but he was interested to see what Hobbs could come up with. Between her brains, creativity, determination, and insomnia he knew she would have something spectacular waiting for him; plus her email sounded very promising.
Hearing some shuffling and bangs in the back closet, Vaughn strode forward, stepping on a few handing wires he looked down and treaded towards the door carefully. Vaughn opened the door, "Hobbs, you in here?"
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Words: 265
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Post by Hazel 'Hobbs' Yeung on Oct 5, 2012 6:03:08 GMT -5
The lower levels were her territory. So much so that the lab was colloquially known as ‘Hobbs country’ and the lower levels were referred to as ‘those parts’. Hobbs had her own name for it, of course, fondly named and protectively defended. Down here she was master, and everybody knew it.
In the workshop, through clusters of wires and past monitors on extendable brackets, if you managed to squeeze past workbenches and toolboxes and gadgets with their backs cracked open and innards spilling out you’d be able to find the woman herself, sitting in a side room of a side room, welding mask flipped down as she worked on the door to the chamber of the security system that she’d designed for the Compound. Sparks flew as Black Sabbath blasted Iron Man out of the speakers. If you wanted to have a conversation down here at normal speaking levels, you were gonna have a bad time.
At the sound of someone’s voice barely penetrating the din of pure noise, Hobbs stopped welding, and kicked back away from the workbench on the wheeled office chair. She rolled backwards out through the door and lifted her welding mask at the sight of Logan looking rather out of place in her den. She spun the chair around, grabbed the speaker remote, and paused the music.
"Hey Logan. Welcome to Candyland," she said, standing up and kicking the chair back into the side room as she stripped off her welding mask."What can I do for ya?"
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Post by Vaughn Logan on Oct 5, 2012 16:57:44 GMT -5
"I was worried for a moment you wouldn't be down here," Vaughn said as he eyed the corners of the room. Occasionally sparks would fly from machinery, and plumes of dust would shoot up from the ground. Health inspectors weren't a problem, not in the Compound at least.
"I'm here about that equipment" Vaughn said as he eyed her for a moment. In truth, Vaughn wanted to hunt Lycans and Vamps with a more stealth approach that would be to his advantage. He came up with the idea of being able to hide and maneuver around like they do, while having enough protection to take a few blows. Although, the problem Vaughn faced was being able to detect Supernatural (which could easily be fixed with nightvision or some sort of vision) and masking scent as well as possibly dampening the sound of the heart beating. Vaughn knew it was a lot to ask for, and considering his position with Hobbs he even felt guilty for asking. The only real authority he had on her was that he was her commanding officer, otherwise he still hadn't proven himself yet.
"My father drilled me on stealth," Vaughn said as he remembered his first encounter of Hobbs; nearly scaring the shit out of her as he spoke out from a dark corner. "I didn't think I'd be able to fully apply those methods until now. Also I'll need some ideas on a new weapon layout, I don't know if my crossbow will be able to be of much use if I want to be able to hug onto walls and move freely." As much as he enjoyed his crossbow and the amount of kills he has had with it, he knew it was time for a bit of an adjustment. It did it's job, but Vaughn wanted to even out the battlefield; and he knew this equipment could do just that, especially since Hobbs is the engineer behind the whole project.
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Words: 330
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Post by Hazel 'Hobbs' Yeung on Oct 5, 2012 17:35:50 GMT -5
Hobbs grinned as he mentioned needing a new weapon. Hadn’t she told him that the very first time they’d met? There was a reason as to why crossbows had fallen out of favour. Instead of saying ‘I told you so’, Hobbs was content with merely knowing she had been right. She stripped off her welding gloves with her teeth one by one and peeled the fireproof jacket away from her bare shoulders where underneath, her skin glistened with a misty layer of sweat. Welding was a boiling task.
"Honestly, chief, I’ve been working on the stealth tech way before you emailed me." She went over to her laptop and took a sheet of paper from underneath it. On the paper was a design for a contact lens camera, showing multiple views and a cross section of a camera that would sit against the eye, recording everything the viewer looked at, allowing instant visual communication, material for teaching simulations, and, in her wildest dreams, email access and various modes of infrared thermal, and x-ray vision. She was still working on that. As usual, the notes were in Chinese, but the illustrations did all the talking.
She handed over to Logan as she beckoned him further into the workshop. "That’s a concept, really, I’m having trouble making the camera small enough. I’ve been able to develop some awesome spy cams though."
Hobbs led him into a side room, pausing to flick on the lights and duck beneath a web of wires that hung across the doorway. "I’ve also developed a GPS tracking implant, so that if any of our people go missing we can find them immediately. I don’t expect it to catch on though, understandably." The implant was about the size of a grain of rice and would comfortably fit under the skin in the crook of the elbow. Hunters, however, tended to be quite precious about their privacy being breached.
"But here is my pièce de résistance," she said, beckoning him over to a workbench. She picked up a foot by foot square of what looked to be cloth. Under closer inspection, it appeared to be quilted slightly, made up of many tiny pockets and interlocked so tightly that it felt like leather. She picked it up and handed it over to Logan, but she didn’t expect much of a reaction from him.
"That’s liquid body armour," she said. "A prototype. The material of the suit is layered, allowing a layer of oil to occupy the space between layers. The suit is made of a slightly updated version of the old Kevlar-reinforced nanofibre with magnetorheological gel inside. The gel consists of small iron particles suspended in silicon oil, which prevents the particles from rusting. The fluid transforms from liquid to solid in just milliseconds when a magnetic field or electrical current is applied to it. The current causes the iron particles to lock into a uniform polarity and stack on top of each other, to create an rock-hard defence. How hard the substance becomes depends on the strength of the magnetic field or electrical current. Once the charge or magnetic field is removed, the particles unlock, and the substance goes back to a fluid state."
She stuck her hands into her pockets. "Of course, being in layers it’ll allow me to have a bit of fun with it. I could design it to adapt to the wearer’s body temperature on the inside and mimic the external temperature on the outside to be undetectable to thermal imaging. I could also adapt the scent masking spray I developed to make it erase scent entirely."
Hobbs watched his expression for his reaction. "And wait until you hear the best bit," she said.
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Post by Vaughn Logan on Oct 5, 2012 23:00:19 GMT -5
Vaughn followed her around 'her country', looking at different gadgets and do-dads that did everything and anything he could possibly imagine. Hobbs was amazing and fast at what she did. Although when she spoke to him about the equipment it was almost foreign to him. He understood, but there was no way in hell he'd be able to remember each and every detail for the future.
"Good work again Hobbs." Vaughn followed her around even more, staring intently at the objects she was describing. Finally she came to the armor, which really stuck out to Vaughn. Although, he had to admit it needed some more flare. Flare meaning ammo compartments, shoulder pads, things of the sort. Hobbs reminded Vaughn of a classic movie gadget creator who would aide the protagonist in his journey.
"And wait until you hear the best bit"
"There's a best bit" He replied quickly with his head cocked towards her. Arms crossed, he responded almost immediately, "When will this be ready for field testing." Vaughn didn't want to sound too eager, but he could feel the child behind him wanting to test out the new gear as soon as possible. What could she possibly have that would be considered the "best bit".
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Words: 209
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Post by Hazel 'Hobbs' Yeung on Oct 6, 2012 5:08:28 GMT -5
Across the surface of the liquid body armour was a sheet of fabric so thin that it would appear to be a film or membrane if viewed on its own. Across the surface of the ‘fabric’ however, it was practically invisible. Which was fitting, really...
"All of this has been built with a metamaterial covered in tiny gold structures, each a tiny spiral known as a ‘split ring resonator’ or SRR," Hobbs said, going to another work bench to pick up a nine volt battery. "SRRs can absorb or reflect all the light at a certain wavelength, or bend that light around an object. The metamaterial has ten thousand SRRs per square centimetre, rendering the fabric invisible at will, leaving behind only a sort of glasslike shape." She put the battery tips against the surface of the fabric, and as soon as the small electrical current was applied, the fabric seemed to vanish from thin air, seemingly erasing Vaughn’s hands from existence as he held it. In essence, Hobbs had made an Invisibility Cloak. "I call it the ‘Predator effect'," she said with pride, before removing the battery. The nanofibre blinked back into existence again.
Her face, fell, however, when Logan asked when it was ready for field testing. It was only a foot by foot square of nanofibre; it wasn’t even a full suit yet. She rubbed the back of her neck. "Well, of course, the drawback is the sheer cost. I won’t make you blow your ticker by revealing how much it took just to make that, but let’s just say that to make a single suit of this stuff, let alone many... it’d cost more than we have."
Hobbs dropped her hands and pocketed them. "Sorry chief."
Hey, Hobbs was incredible at what she did, but even she had budget limits. |
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Post by Vaughn Logan on Oct 6, 2012 13:16:32 GMT -5
Vaughn dropped the piece of suit on the desk in front of him and looked up at Hobbs, arms crossed, "So what is it you are suggesting then Hobbs?" He knew she had probably already came up with a solution, or at least a list of possible ideas. She wasn't one to drop a project so easily, especially a project that she could definitely call her own that would no doubt boost her ego when used on the field.
The thoughts starting pouring into his head about cash-flow, which were few. The Hunters could do some dirty work--But that idea vanished quickly; Vaughn didn't want the Compound filled with felons. Vaughn himself had some bit of money, but by the way Hobbs presented the issue he assumed it was a lot more than what he had. The Compound could have a tax system on the Hunters...but Vaughn knew that would end badly very quickly. Looking at his boots now he questioned whether this suit would ever become a full-fledged reality at all.
Looking back up at Hobbs asian-featured face, smudged with grime and sweat. "There's got to be some way we can get some money without having to do any underground dealings..."
He knew there were probably honest ways of making the money, but not nearly enough for what she wanted.
Worse comes to worse Vaughn could always sell his home in order to help out the Compound. But even that idea, seemed a bit too drastic.
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Words: 250
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Post by Hazel 'Hobbs' Yeung on Oct 6, 2012 14:57:03 GMT -5
Hobbs laughed as she hoisted herself up onto the workbench and picked up the nanofibre that he’d dropped. She thumbed the cloth, admiring the technology for a few moments. She really was a genius. "Chief, this particular project’s a no-go," she said, laying the cloth back down. "We can’t exactly hold a bake sale or put up a lemonade stand and raise money for this stuff. I’m talking billions of dollars here; the nanofibre turns invisible for fuck’s sake! Do you expect to be able to afford it with a weekly allowance?"
She sighed, pulled her PDA out of one of the pockets of her cargo shorts. Opening a notepad function, she tapped out a few things, rolling a few ideas around in her head, trying to see if there was a comfortable middle ground between effective armour and affordability.
"But, like I said, it’s a prototype. If I take this initial idea, I could maybe manufacture something more affordable or with elements on the market," she said, looking back up at Logan. "I’m just throwing around ideas at the moment, but the liquid body armour can probably be replaced by Kevlar weave or something similar. Layers are still in vogue as far as armour goes, so there can be a thermal layer, Kevlar, waterproofing..." She talked with her hands as she thought through the ideas. "Invisibility’s out of the question, but I can do something with photon diffusion on the surface. It won’t be nearly as clever but it’ll be more within our budget range. Of course I can try incorporate liquid body armour elements, probably around the torso area, do a bit of designing with an exoskeleton, perhaps do a headset mock up with different visual modes, a heads-up display, headset interlinking, that kind of thing." Her brain was working now and her mouth was on autopilot, zipping through the options as fast as they blinked into her head. "But it all depends on how much you’re willing to spend on the department."
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Post by Vaughn Logan on Oct 6, 2012 17:40:17 GMT -5
Vaughn scratched at his chin as he listened to Hobbs speak. "Invisibility isn't really necessary anyway..." Vaughn glared off into the distance in his thought process, staring at something metallic Hobbs had in the background as he played through ideas in his mind.
"I just need something I can use to sneak around without Vamps or Lycans being able to easily pick up on my trace. If you can do something like that within the budget, then send me a financial report and we'll go from there. Our electronics department is obviously where a majority of our money is going anyway. The compound can survive on Top Ramen for a while. Hell, if they don't like it they can go out and get themselves a burger; most of us have outside jobs anyway."
Vaughn held onto his hands behind his back, resting them on his lower torso and looking over at Hobbs with his soft-hazel eyes. "While the idea of invisibility is cool, it's not needed right now. Hell we're only hunting Lycans and Vamps right? This is no damn Space Odyssey."
Looking around the room for a moment his gaze met back up with Hobbs', "So whats your ideas on weapons? I'll need something that can work well with this suit you're putting together."
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Words" 218
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Post by Hazel 'Hobbs' Yeung on Oct 7, 2012 15:48:14 GMT -5
Actually, as far as Hobbs knew, Logan was the only one with a non-Hunting job. Hobbs, Stark, Moore, and Cortes were all full-time Hunters, and even if Hobbs wanted to have a nice cushy office job or programming thing on the side she wouldn’t be able to find enough hours in the day. She was already using her insomniac hours to cram in constant work down here in the labs. Logan expected too much of her.
Hobbs frowned. “I hope you remember that I’ve already made a scent-masking spray,” she said. “It was one of the first things I worked on. If you wear black and cover yourself up with the spray you’re almost as good as you would be wearing hi-tech stealth suits.”
She pocketed her PDA. What she made down here in her Candyland was available for use as soon as it was finished. Thermal imaging glasses, radios, scent-masking spray, her new ammo types, she put up notices advertising they were free to all who could be arsed to trek down to her department and pick them up. Surely Logan hadn’t been going out on hunts wearing nothing but that ridiculous duster and hat combo and brandishing a crossbow? To say that he was their commander, Hobbs would be embarrassed to admit it if she saw him hunting like that.
“Honestly, I can’t say what kind of weapon would suit you best, since I don’t know what kind of Hunter you are. I’m not working on any fancy guns at the moment because pairing average guns with custom ammo is a perfectly acceptable practice. I have some fancy bombs that have been in circulation for a while, and I can hook you up with scopes, laser sights, all that cool stuff.” She raised an eyebrow. “What, were you hoping I had some plasma weapon or stun gun down here?”
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