Peer Review

[highliber]

Who: Zarvora Cybeline, Varun "Banzu" Elmas, William Flemming, Ezreal
Where: A research lab in some Union government office somewhere.
What: Eggheads sharing the results of their studies on the devices found in the mountains.
Warning: Science.

The room had several tables covered in components of the machines, most in various states of disassembly. The center of the room was dominated by one that was still mostly intact, which was under several powerful lights and carefully disconnected from the battery. It was a familiar room to everyone who had been working on unlocking its secrets.

They'd had a few weeks to do so, and now everyone had assembled to share the fruits of their labors.

[No posting order. Everyone start your own thread.]

Comments

[highliber]

Zarvora was leaning casually on a table, arms crossed, while she stared thoughtfully at the device in the center of the room.

"The part that's most interesting to me is that as far as I can tell it's somehow actually collecting data on pokemon in our area. I can't even imagine how I'd make a machine that could do that, but whoever built this found a way to do so, because it clearly is."

[indy_wannabe]

Even more interesting is that it's transmitting it over a huge distance. Our own signal doesn't have the capability to go anywhere near that far, I'm not even sure where it's sending to.

[highliber]

Do you have any idea HOW far? It'd be good to know just how far the receiver is.

[outtahere]

"Thing is," Banzu interjected, "it looks like all the machines're networked together. Whoever made 'em'd only need to be in range of one of 'em. That makes the area the receiver could be in even bigger."

[myfedorarocks]

"Not to mention," Flemming added, nodding at Banzu, "I discovered that it emits a high frequency noise. It's above the range of human ears, even Enlightened, but pokemon can hear it just fine," he motioned with one hand, clearly annoyed. "It explains why the pokemon in the tunnels were whipped into a frenzy."

[indy_wannabe]

"I think it's safe to assume the noise and the data are connected," Ez said. "The range on it's transmission is insane. Easily over 100 miles, I've never dealt with distances that long."

[highliber]

Zarvora closed her eyes and focused on not sighing deeply. "First hint of human contact from beyond Union in centuries and they're antagonizing us from impractically far away. Wonderful."

[outtahere]

"The distance could be from the signal they're using." He flipped through a notebook. "It's around [Insert a fairly broad frequency range here. Neither of the numbers in the range are anywhere near anything that Union uses.]. Looked it up. Far as I can tell, no one in Union's ever even though of using frequencies like that for anything, let alone tried to make a transmitter for 'em. Bottom line is no one here knows if there's anything special about the frequency these things use."

[indy_wannabe]

"Didn't I hear some of the people saying that the Pokemon they encountered had recently evolved? I wonder if the sound had something to do with that."

[highliber]

"A device to artificially induce evolutions in Pokemon would be of huge practical benefit. Especially if we can isolate that from the part that drives them mad with anger."

She pursed her lips, thoughtfully. "I'm wondering if we can't use the anti-pokemon sound to create pokemon repellers. We could mount them by the city gates to use to discourage the wild ones from wandering too close."

[myfedorarocks]

"I suppose that might be the one advantage," Flemming said, thoughtfully. "But that would involve months of research. I'll talk to the other Engineers and see what they think, but..." he trailed off, folding his arms across his chest. "I can't say I trust anyone who would intentionally cause pokemon to riot."

[highliber]

"I was thinking less riot causing and more mild aversion or discomfort. Don't want to piss them off, just want them to stop stampeding anyone who tries to build outside the walls."

[indy_wannabe]

Could we control the sound dispersion? We wouldn't want to have it hitting the Pokemon in or on the walls.

[highliber]

Probably. Soundproofing. Directional speakers. Maybe even just leave them turned off when we don't need them.

[outtahere]

"There's the comm tech too. If it can be adapted to work with our frequencies then the Warp Transmitter could be upgraded and we'd get better range." He snorted softly. "Plus the Council ain't as likely to whine about boosting our range as it is about working on something that might hurt Pokémon if someone screws something up."

[indy_wannabe]

Upgrading our range would let us explore a lot more areas, I think that's a good thing to look into. If their network is superior, best adapt it to our personal use.

[outtahere]

"Not using the same frequencies if we can help it though. Don't wanna let whoever made these listen in on everything we're saying."

[myfedorarocks]

He's thoughtful. "If we can narrow it down to our own frequencies, it shouldn't be too difficult to adapt." Even though he's still not entirely sure how they could have such technology to behind with.

"Ezreal, if you were to give us any frequencies that aren't sensitive information, we'd be able to test out the information."

[highliber]

"We should see if we can listen to their communications. We could learn a lot."

After a thoughtful pause, she added, "We should PROBABLY assume they'll figure out how to listen to our communications in relatively short order as well.

[indy_wannabe]

"I'll look into it. Has anyone had any luck extracting any of the actual data from the machines?"