>>1436365
“So what do you plan to do?” Artesia asks. “You and Carya came to an agreement this morning, right?”

That's right, Carya suggested that this time she could mind the ship. She's been overexerting herself lately, and with her eyepatch... she cuts something of a distinctive figure. And when trying to ferret out information in unfamiliar territory that sort of notoriety isn't always constructive. So you came to an agreement: this time Carya would be the one to stay behind with Sericea and you would get to handle your business here in Von Braun.

“I have some business,” you admit, not yet willing to commit to saying what you want to deal with first.

>There may be a plot at work here on Luna. I want to contact the police to that end.
>The military was acting strangely last time. I want to know why.
>I have business to sort out with Anaheim before we head to Jupiter.
>Other?

>>1436368
>>The military was acting strangely last time. I want to know why.
>>I have business to sort out with Anaheim before we head to Jupiter.

>>1436368
Stepping into the shoes of Rosse now are we?

>>The military was acting strangely last time. I want to know why.
Can't keep going around loops just to berth the ship into a space port.

>writing

>>1436400
Test.

>>1436434
Forgot your trip, mate.

>>1436439
Trying to post without it. For some reason it won't let me post the update.

>>1436442
...How odd. Spamfilter maybe?

>>1436446
If so then that's a real solid fuck you from /qst/ itself.

>>1436452
Well, I think it would be more 4chan in general, not board-specific, still, haven't seen a spamfilter hit in a while.

>>1436452
"The local military acted strangely last time we were here," you remember. "I want to know the reason why."

"The intercept?" Artesia asks, remembering with you. "You have a point. How are you going to pursue it?"

"We have business with Anaheim anyway, and it was their prototype that they intercepted," you recount, beginning to work out a theory for yourself. "There are two possibilities, that the Lunar military wanted to procure something Anaheim developed, or they learned something about them that they are trying to investigate."

"And that they're not sharing with Lunar intelligence?"

You nod quietly. "There is a chance."

Artesia seems skeptical. "Are you going to frame it as investigating the individual incident, or as fitting it into a wider situation? Depending on how you proceed you may end up making an enemy out of a friend."

"We need to know what sort of friend it is we have," you persist. "If I find a problem I suspect it will be similar to the other cases."

"An internal division?"

"If not that then an independent program," you add. "Anaheim has always been a company that compartmentalizes its activities. Who can say what each individual cell is up to?"

"The CEO might know," Artesia observes with a frown. "Maybe some of the other big money investors."

"Then we should start with one of our initial points of contact," you determine.

It takes about a half hour to travel by light rail from your berth in the spaceport to the main office of Anaheim Electronics. The building looks almost unassuming considering the company that has its administrative base here, but on the inside the reception area's marble floors and exotic potted plants dispense with any doubts you may have had that you have the right address. The gilded AE logo on the wooden front panels of the reception desk sort of seal the deal.

"May I help you miss?" the receptionist asks in a sweet voice.

>Get me Matsubara, with the Test Team.
>Get me Saran, Production Chief.
>Get me the highest rated executive you can.
>Other?

File: 1443596296670.jpg (110 KB, 600x1000)

110 KB JPG

Hm, not sure where to go here...Have an Anaheim Electronics logo in the meantime.

>>1436474
>>Get me the highest rated executive you can.
Welp, I can only go for broke.

>>1436474
>>Get me the highest rated executive you can.

>writing
>hopefully /qst/ doesn't lose its shit at me this time

Also,
>dice+3d10, DC 18, Crit 21
Best of three.

Rolled 9, 6, 2 = 17 (3d10)

>>1436530

Rolled 1, 8, 1 = 10 (3d10)

>>1436530

Rolled 9, 7, 6 = 22 (3d10)

>>1436530

>>1436554
A savior has come!

Okay, so it thinks all my updates are spam. I'm going to have to try entering it to reply field manually again.

Sorry for the delays.

Now it's just not letting me post updates at all.

Give me a half hour or so to try and resolve this bullshit, otherwise I may have to cancel.

>>1436591
>>1436617
Here's to hoping it works out on your end.

There is resorting to pastebin links for the story post, but that just seems kinda iffy to me.

all of my mod/admin team contacts aren't responding/are offline, so I can't do any mod-whispering.

Okay, I tried doing it on a different connection and I still got a "connection error". I'm going to try a few more things before I call it a loss though, so hang on.

So here's the deal, 4chan won't let me make a full update post anywhere. Not in SSQ, not in the old SoZ threads, not in this thread. Because archiving would be a serious pain in everyone's ass if I link through pastebin, and I've already wasted a shitload of time trying in vain to find any other workaround, I'm calling it off for the weekend entirely. That means this quest and SSQ are off for the time being.

Apologies for wasting your time folks.

>>1436778
That's fucky. I'll reach out to some of my mod contacts and see if anyone has any idea what's up. Catch you next weekend, I guess?

>>1436791
Guess that's what it's going to have to be.

Just trying this out of curiosity.

This woman... it's always a little difficult to talk to strangers, even still, and so you end up having to force yourself to address her in as calm and professional a manner as you can manage.

“I need to speak to the highest rated executive of the company you can find for me,” you tell her. “Official business with the Colony Transit Fleet.”

“And what exactly am I to tell them, Miss?” the receptionist asks. Though she maintains an air of affability you can tell the mood has changed. Nobody ever strolls through that door asking for a drop-in meeting with an executive officer, and the fact that someone just did exactly that is both strange and a little frightening. She hasn't been trained for this. There's no protocol.

“I'm here to discuss a recent event that concerns all involved,” you insist sternly. You don't need to raise your voice to intimidate this woman: a quiet confidence and a commanding presence will do that for you. “The military intercepted a test flight last time we were here and I'm following up on it.”

“An intercept, ma'am?” the receptionist repeats, having changed how she speaks to you. Good.

“An intercept,” you repeat. “Yes. As in they surrounded one of our pilots and tried to force her to land at a military facility.”

“One minute, ma'am,” she tells you, picking up the phone behind her desk and punching in a string of three numbers: an internal line just for the office? It's probably secure, though that much doesn't tell you that anything illicit is going on. Many companies use the same sort of setup, particularly in the technology and research industries.

After a few moments she sets the phone aside. “I can get you a meeting with the Vice President of Internal Affairs in one hour.”

>That's fine, but I want to talk with Saran in the mean time.
>Internal Affairs? I'm sure Research or Security would be better.
>That's fine... assuming you can make it fifteen minutes.
>Other?

>>1437138
... mother of fuck.

So is anyone still here?

>>1437145
yer, sup

>>1437138
>>That's fine, but I want to talk with Saran in the mean time.

>>1437145
Yep. How'd ya work out the problem?

>>1437138
>>That's fine, but I want to talk with Saran in the mean time.
Hmm. I suppose if Internal Affairs would be within the scope of, like, crisis management or such, something can be worked out.

>>1437183
I got the site to give me an extra verification window. Not sure what combination of things did it though.

I'll go one more update then continue next week, but I at least want to see if the problem repeats itself.

>>1437206
“One hour?” you muse sternly. “I wish to speak with Chief Saran in the mean time.”

“Chief Saran has a busy schedule,” the woman replies, finding some semblance of a spine again. “I can't just call him out here for you on a whim, I'm sorry.”

“Our arrival was noted,” you point out. “Saran and my crew have an arrangement. He designs things only we can test.”

“I see,” she replies, uncertain how to process the new information. “I'll call him.”

A few moments later she sets the phone back on the receiver again. “Apparently he's already on his way.”

You nod quietly, refusing to say 'I told you so' aloud even if the intent is obvious. It only takes about twenty minutes for Saran to arrive, and when he does he motions for you to sit in one of the chairs provided out in the lobby. He sits across a low table from you, leaning in slightly in anticipation of a full field report.

“So, Captain,” he begins, “I take it the newly designed machine was useful?”

“My partner reports so,” you explain to him. “She and her sister seem quite attuned to it in a way I have never seen before.”

“The psychoframe we installed in it is the very newest pattern, very responsive,” Saran insists proudly. “I assume its layout was to her liking?”

“It was.”

“And the support function?” he asks, suddenly more curious than eager. “It was not designed for manual remote control in that way, but the AI support subsystem would approximate such an ability. Would that even be useful?”

You consider the point carefully... as much as you want to give an accurate account of the results, you also find the concept of AI on the battlefield troubling. “In Catrina's hands yes.”

“But you still have doubts about the use of AI,” Saran guesses, the same question clearly on his mind. “Some of the suits are fond of the idea of course, say that automation is the way of the future. They point to your ALICE system as evidence.”

“ALICE had a childhood,” you explain, causing Saran to frown in confusion. “She was based on human neural patterns, and learned from our crew as a child would.”

“She is a living being.”

“And our AI aren't?” Saran asks.

You shake your head. “A person has loyalty and reasoning. A packet of coding does not.”
>1/2

>>1437295
“And so you would suggest that we terminate that line of research?”

You nod sternly. “I would.”

“Then I'll add that insight into my own report,” Saran sighs heavily. “Maybe they'll listen to you guys.”

“Perhaps,” you shrug.

“Now then,” Saran continues, trying to strike a different tone. “Now is there anything else you need?”

“What do you have for operations near gas giants?”

“Sericea was designed loosely around Nagato's propulsion schemes,” Saran explains thoughtfully, “so no difficulties there. However mobile suit operations will be substantially hindered if you are operating near Jupiter's gravity well.”

“I assume you have a solution?”

“It's almost fully developed,” Saran replies excitedly. “Since the current Viola, I think you call it? Since it's entirely modular, it should be no trouble at all to refit.”

“What is involved?”

“Actually we based it on an early design of your unit's... four large thrusters on pylons, with an extra fuel load.”

“Like the old Slattern?”

“Yes!” he nods. “Exactly!”

“How long?”

“About forty-eight hours to make all the fine adjustments,” he smiles. “With your permission of course.”

>>1437382
And that's going to be where I call it, since 4chan is still being kinda bitchy and it's already late. Sorry that the technical glitches took so much time to sort out, and hope that by next week shit's resolved.

>>1437394
No problem King. Thanks for pushing with the updates even with those posting difficulties. Keeping fingers crossed that it won't be a recurring problem.

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79 KB JPG

>>1437382
>continuing to test 4chan's spam filters
“And so you would suggest that we terminate that line of research?”

You nod sternly. “I would.”

“Then I'll add that insight into my own report,” Saran sighs heavily. “Maybe they'll listen to you guys.”

“Perhaps,” you shrug.

“Now then,” Saran continues, trying to strike a different tone. “Now is there anything else you need?”

“What do you have for operations near gas giants?”

“Sericea was designed loosely around Nagato's propulsion schemes,” Saran explains thoughtfully, “so no difficulties there. However mobile suit operations will be substantially hindered if you are operating near Jupiter's gravity well.”

“I assume you have a solution?”

“It's almost fully developed,” Saran replies excitedly. “Since the current Viola, I think you call it? Since it's entirely modular, it should be no trouble at all to refit.”

“What is involved?”

“Actually we based it on an early design of your unit's... four large thrusters on pylons, with an extra fuel load.”

“Like the old Slattern?”

“Yes!” he nods. “Exactly!”

“How long?”

“About forty-eight hours to make all the fine adjustments,” he smiles. “With your permission of course.”