17888/Mutants and Master Molds - Forge Figuring
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
| Mutants and Master Molds - Forge Figuring | |
|---|---|
| Date of Scene: | 09 May 2024 |
| Location: | Science and Medical Lab |
| Synopsis: | Forge makes plans to track down the Sentinel network to it's source via the power of SCIENCE. |
| Cast of Characters: | Emma Frost, Forge |
| Tinyplot: | Mutants and Master Molds |
- Emma Frost has posed:
They had many pieces of busted up Sentinel parts taken from various fights and incidents. But they were just that - pieces. Electronics and circuits all burnt out and deep fried. Small EMP's even bulit into them to ensure nothing was left. From a variety of more diverse models. Hover drones, wheelers, insectoids. A much wider array of weapons. Different styles of armor composed of different alloys. The last fight could best be classified as a.. Test run.
To throw things against the wall to see how well they did in combat. To see what worked and what didn't. The X-Men had been able to tell that a remote unit had been broadcasting the recordings of the fight to somewhere else along the data-cloud, but had not been able to intercept it in time before the rest of the trail had been wiped.
Currently spread out were pieces of a dozen or so Sentinels from a variety of types that had been engaged.
Emma was looking at one idly, in her diamond form while holding up a circular vibro-saw built into a reel and winch. "So much scraps, springs, and junk."
- Forge has posed:
Forge chuckles, and mmmmmms, "Everything's scraps at some point. Much of this stuff is slag, but even so.." he pokes at soimething. "Some of it comes from thefts that were documented. Some of it doesn't. If the communications trap doesn't turn out, well..." he points at some scrap. "I'll be digging deeper into where some of the components came from. Even if they're fused inside, they can still tell a story. It's just up to us to listen."
Forge seems confident that he can locate the Sentinels, but he always projects a calm air of confidence. It takes a very bad day indeed to fluster Forge.
"This one..." he motions to the saw/reel/winch. "Is using parts from an older model saw than.." he motions to another device. "I suspect there's a junk yard involved somewhere, possibly as a primary source for raw materials."
- Emma Frost has posed:
Emma Frost would glance over at it, "But of course. We have such /amazing/ security when it comes to disposal of all these things. One can purchase just about anything for the right price and knowing where to look. Or simply steal it. That would make sense if they're getting things from many locations." There probbly was a flea market for slightly used supervillain technology after all.
"So just what are you thinking we might be able to backtrack then? And money or resources for them isn't going to be an issue. Money's rather easy to launder through shell companies and the stock market."
- Forge has posed:
"Hopefully we won't need any money laundered." Forge looks over Emma again, watching her for a moment before shrugging. "As for what I'm hoping to trace... Almost all Sentinels come from a central Hub. Even as detached and disconnected as these seem, the Sentinels are almost always controlled by a central creator. Master Mold, or who ever is creating them, likely gets data back from them at some point. Be it in a burst transmission as they fry themselves, or in a steady stream, they'll have some sort of communication."
He taps a head unit, which actually has burn marks around its eyes where the unit fried itself. "This has what could be a communications array in it. If they have communication with their central hub, we can track it. Normally, that would be too spread out, too masked through the usual signals in the city, but.." he hefts a small sphere that He and Hank have been working on. "Once I've made a few dozen of these.. If we can get them spread out over the city, and get one into a fight with the sentinels, we should be able to detect and track their communications network."
Forge hums to himself, and then shrugs. "And if not... well.. there's still the Junk to sift through. If it's purchased, then there's a trail of money. If it's stolen, a trail of thefts. Everything's a story."
- Emma Frost has posed:
Emma Frost would nod and frown, "Lovely. Another one of those gargantuan things. no matter how many seem to be obliterated, there are always more. One must be impressed by humanity's stubborness. If at first you don't succeed a dozen or so times, try, try again." She would take a moment to tap at her cheek.
"So you're saying put down as many of those throughout the city as possible and hope you pick up something?" Simple enough. "So what's the catch over to it?" Because it was never quite that simple. Emma would look over and give Forge her full attention now.
- Forge has posed:
"Well. The 'catch' is that either the signal origin or terminus needs to be fairly close to the signal station. Basically..." Forge smiles as if rather amused by something. "This is a phasic resonator, combined with some spectrum analyzers, and a signal decoder. If we can get a grid of them over the city, that's a start, but we can guarantee the signal origin being near a device if we get them to send a communication burst when we have a device close. Within, say, a hundred feet or so."
He hefts the sphere. "Once it detects the signal, it'll latch onto it, and trace its transmission path, no matter what it's using for transmission. These will trace everything up to laser beam Line of Sight communications. If they've somehow found a way to entangle particles, I'll have to.. Hmmmmmmm. Maybe I should incorporate.." he begins to mumble to himself, reaching to grab a tablet, to tap notes onto...
- Emma Frost has posed:
Emma could follow the general intent of the conversation, tapping at her cheek thoughtfully. "You'd need a way of tracking the signal for awhile. I'd presume that as soon as whatever.. They're doing is done, they'd simply move. It's just data. It can always get more parts." Emma's thoughtful over. "And then we hopefully go in with something to actually get some information out of the wretched things?"
Emma was hopeful, at least. "I wonder, sometimes.." Her voice taking on an almost twisted yet philosophical tone as Forge planned.
- Forge has posed:
Forge comes back to the conversation after a moment of furious tapping. "Mmmmm. Hard to move a central hub, usually. Master Molds tend to be.. quite large. Even if it isn't a Master Mold, it'll have to have enough production equipment to build sentinels of broad categories. That much production equipment isn't usually small or mobile." Forge says, though it's clear he's thinking about how he'd make it small, and mobile.
"Once we have one of these at an attack, the network will be mapped back to their central hub. I hope. And then we go in and find out who reactivated the program. It may be a legacy program, left over. But if someone activated it on purpose... well, we'll find that out. If it is a mobile production base.. Mmmmm. Signs indicate it's mostly in and around New York..." he muses to himself. "If it is a mobile base, we'd need to tag the central hub and track it.. I wonder if I could borrow some time on a satellite..." he muses to himself, considering the usefulness of satellite time.
"Regardless. If we can find the Hub, I'll be able to put together a scraper to find out who is behind this, I'm certain."
- Emma Frost has posed:
Emma Frost would nod thoughtfully, "And at the very least, it lets us cross one thing off the list. And hopefully obliterate enough of it that the rest won't come scrambling back." Her lips would purse and sneer. "So let us hope that it's that simple. And just ends in another fight with us destroying a giant robot. And you're right, a Master mold is rather easy to spot as should a large scal emanufacturing plant. But we've seen no sign of any such thing.." They must be hiding it better. Or somehow finding an end run around the construction process.
"And.. How large would a mobile base be that could construct Sentinels at a large scale?"
- Forge has posed:
"Off the top of my head, you could hide a stationary production facility in warehouses, underground, or in an abandoned construction site." Forge muses as he taps on his tablet again, apparently doing some calculations. "I'd have to really think on it, to determine how much smaller I could get things, but.. At a minimum.. a train of shipping containers? Or maybe... well... that wouldn't even have to be all that much smaller..." he muses, and moves to set his tablet down, its feet extending, and he begins to type on a holographic keyboard that appears on it. "It could be in a cargo ship. One of the big international cargo ships can carry enough mass to easily hide a Master Mold entirely inside it.."
- Emma Frost has posed:
Emma Frost would furrow her brows, "I'm aware. I own a controlling interest in a few. And that would be perfect. move from location to location, hook up to the local power network, bring on supplies of whatever had been looted. In international waters beyond jurisdiction of local authorities and harder to track."
- Forge has posed:
"If it is on a ship, we'll definitely need Satellite time to track them. I'm pinging some contacts I have, and I'll get us a satellite." he says. Having 'ins' with the Government in general is useful at times.
"In the meantime.. Could you see if we could get a Hacker or two looking into ship registrations? See if there are any which came into port when the previous attacks occurred, perhaps." He ponders the diamond woman, "How hard would it be to run false names on a ship that you kept floating around in international waters?"
- Emma Frost has posed:
Emma Frost would nod, "Of course. Something that Douglas can handle. It should be rather simple for him. And if not.. Frost Enterprises is on enough shipping contractors that I can get the data. It might take a little longer. But if you can start trackin them next time we fight, then I can get to work seeing about their shell copmanies. And hopefully we can shut down most of them.." W ell, the smashing bit was more Scott's area of expertise and Logan's after all.
"And rather simple. You hav a shell company that runs a shell company within one. I'd expect there are several thousand layers which are constantly shifting and randomized as far as technical ownership goes."
- Forge has posed:
"Give me and Hank a few days, and we should have enough ready to get started." Forge says confidently, as he taps away at his keyboard, until he sends off an email to one of many friends he has in various departments of Nasa and other such agencies. "Once we have the devices deployed through the city, and the satellite access, we can take one into a battle, and perhaps begin to track this whole thing down."
