Doug's Projects
XCOM: Gray Dawn#Current_Projects .... Doug
Contents
A Better Man
After the help I've given the civic authorities, I want copies made of as much of the civic maps as possible: sewer, power, roads, etc. Still trying to get the Expert: Elma skill (i.e., geography, demographics, infrastructure, roads, etc.).
--Melonberg 14:13, 3 October 2014 (MST)Since you have a clear association to the local white-hats, the records you want would be made available to you. County utility stuff that runs through Elma would require a trip to Montesano and their records office. Speaking of which, the county jail is right next door, where at least a handful of Pershings you have cataloged in your "Pershing Family Kudzu" (because calling it a "tree" doesn't do their fecundity justice) were incarcerated as of the Sweeps.
A New Base
Despite the righteousness of his Command Center, Doug's realizing that it's a little too vulnerable. Given his distrust for alien technology, he doesn't want to use the Construction Drones to dig him a new one. And he doesn't trust Lillian Kjelstad, so he doesn't want to move in to her secret base. Trying to use terrestrial methods of digging a new base will take too long and won't be very secret. Which leaves space (no shuttles and won't use alien ships), the air (same problem) or... underwater. Luckily, Elma has Huttala Lake and the Chehalis River, and Grays Harbor further west. Therefore Doug is working on designs for an underwater base. He's also looking for some shipping containers, industrial grade sealants, cutting and welding supplies.
Alien Machine Interface
Since Doug is able to stay at home for most of the missions, he wants to start reading Curry's notes and to try and puzzle out the "Man-Machine Interface" that allow greater drone control and flying of the ships. It's important to figure out how to protect ourselves from the alien mind-influence. Doug will continue Curry's work with the EEG machine and try various other diagnostic equipment.
Scout Drone
Now that there are some destroyed enemy drones to safely tinker with, Doug wants to get into their guts and start mapping all its systems and how it works. The goals are: How to repair damage, How to reload weapons, and adding more sensor & manual dexterity abilities.
--Melonberg 13:49, 3 October 2014 (MST)With initial research done on the Machine interface tech, Marie or Janice could probably whip up some additional manipulators. They could probably also swap out/add on regular terrestrial weapons to the assault drones, or very light weapons to the scout drones. The needler weapons on the assault drones can be reloaded with ammo stores recovered already (though the supply is somewhat limited for now). Rearming the heavier weapons will require research into those weapons, which might require Doug to talk Marie into researching stuff that kills people. Good luck. As for repairing damage, they will have to research each respective drone type (like completing the alien "autopsy" for the cyberdisk in the original X-Com).
Alien Fabric
Fabric, how dangerous could it be? Supremely! Everyone overlooks accidentally bumping or brushing against others, and that would be a perfect method of transferring drugs or tracking devices. Maybe even allowing for sense manipulation, like hiding alien bio-signs or warping light for stealth purposes. Doug wants to get his hands on some of the alien fabric and expose it to as many different kinds of radiation (electro-magenetic and otherwise) as well as electricity and various fluids and solutions, hoping to discover ways to detect it and what its powers are.
Resistance Radio Network
In an effort to find out approximately how fucked the world actually is, Doug has begun trying to make contact with other ham radio operators around the country/world. With the rise of the internet, ham radio use isn't as common as it once was in the days of the good 'ol Cold War, but operators are still out there, and many of them have certain commonalities with Doug. Many of them tend to have a survivalist streak in them, so fortunately the ham radio operators that existed before the Sweeps are generally still here now, and they are broadcasting like crazy!
Some of the stations focus on distress calls requesting assistance to a certain area. Others offer hazard reports advising of the dangers to be found in any areas they have received information. Some offer survival tips and information on how to survive in an unplugged world. Very few advertise safe places for any listeners to gather, and all of them report the threat of the mutant animal phenomenon, which recently took a turn for the worse...
Within 24 hours of the group's encounter with "The Diver" in Westport, stations all across the country have reported a new threat: swarms of quadrupedal spider-things running amok and attacking any living thing they can find. The first sightings of these creatures have often been in slums, hospitals and prisons. The on-air description of them is an almost exact match to the specimen the team brought back from Westport.
The "network" of radio operators is trying to get organized, to best get the most useful information to people, and get the most useful people where they are needed most. This part may be useful in the Elma Resistance Cell's upcoming endeavors. Because of damage to infrastructure and power outages, the internet is almost completely out. Cable television is also out. Satellite television is still somewhat operational, primarily broadcasting round-the-clock civil defense information, though based on the what Doug has gleaned from his own experiences in the fight so far and from what he's hearing from radio operators, the TV reports don't sound very reliable or...trustworthy. Cell phones are still mostly working, at least locally, and the land-line telephone network is largely down now. Independent UHF and VHF television broadcasts can be picked up in some areas (unfortunately not in Elma), and from what Doug has heard, the low-tech TV programming is vastly different from the "official" word being spread far and wide on "official" TV stations.
So, in Doug's efforts to find out approximately how fucked the country is, the answer is "pretty hard." Our nation's Emergency Response apparatus was never intended to deal with a nation-wide systemic catastrophe like the Sweeps. Nuclear war, maybe, but even then the plan basically boiled down to "hunker down until the bombs are done falling and see what you have left and try and make things work." And even then, Civil Defense manuals never made any provisions for what to do if mutant animals are attacking everywhere while you're trying to recover and rebuild. Judging by what Doug has found from talking to other radio operators, the Elma area is actually doing pretty well by comparison, and none of the other places have even been attacked by the Red Hand or Alien commando teams and spaceships...
