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[Tami] Designs of the Wicked

MissingNo

MissingNo

Inactive Member
The asteroid field near Tami was a wealth of resources for Nel. Spending the next sixty-eight hours hollowing out an asteroid and gathering enough matter to convert to fuel so she could build the reach where she needed to go was a daunting task, but she went about it with a calculated efficiency. She had to: One wrong move and she would find herself launched out into deep space with nothing to stop her. Meanwhile, constructing a basic, but efficient, fusion engine from scratch wasn’t as difficult as she thought it might be. It just took a very, very long time. She only needed it to get up to speed anyway, it didn't need to be complicated.

Being what she was, Nel was unconcerned about the customary comforts such as chairs, air, or even interfaces of a normal spacecraft, only the goal of getting to her destination undetected. Accelerating the asteroid to speed, she set course toward Tami. Of any of the Mishhu-held planets, it was the furthest away from NMX reinforcements without being out of Nel’s current travel capabilities. It didn’t hurt that it was also surrounded by Yamataian-held worlds, further isolating Tami from support.

On the way, she reviewed what she had learned. Nel had discovered just how badly the war – of which she had only heard whispers of back on New Kohana – was going for Yamatai, and rumors of Nepleslia’s famed Funky City even falling to the NMX. It was beginning to make her uneasy: the Mishhu were not her typical opponent; she had never been involved in a full-out war. The IPG had trained her in infiltration, and so had the Sha’nai on New Kohana. However, arena fights were not guerrilla warfare…

What really piqued her curiosity was how much this enemy could test her abilities. More and more, Nelew was finding that she had to hold back in her fights. There were times where showmanship was more important than a quick finish at the arena; there would be no such restrictions here. If her opponent made a mistake, she could capitalize on it without reservation.

-----

The landing on Tami was a rough one, but Nel made it through any NMX patrols in orbit. No one was interested in a rogue asteroid impact, if it was small as that one was. Nel charged the plasma engine and directed its final blast to slow the asteroid down enough that it didn’t wipe out the ecosystem; the impact still made itself a fairly generous crater. After impact, Nel was able to dissolve the artificial parts of the asteroid and get moving before any patrols arrived. Asteroids: Not unusual. Asteroids slowing down before impact: Strange, and probably worthy of investigation.

It didn’t take long for her to find a place to hide so she could finish healing. While her body was being restored from the damage she had taken in the impact, Nel considered her tactics. She knew nothing about her enemy except the vague notes given to her, so the best thing to do would be to gather information, of course. Before even that, she needed bases of operation.
 
Nel had landed in a particularly mountainous region of forest, about half-way up an exceptionally tall hill, about a kilometer and a half above sea level. It was winter in this particular region of Tami, and a thin layer of snow coated the ground, slowly growing from a gentle snowfall from the dark clouds overhead. The tall, thick deciduous trees spread rather thinly at this altitude had lost their leaves to the late season.

There was little wind blowing through the area, making it all the easier to hear a Mishhuvurthyar Shredder Gunship rumbling through the sky over the hills to the west, approaching from a faint light on the horizon, most probably a settlement. The gunship slowed as it reached the sprawling cluster of hills, and began to orbit the area. The NMX had apparently noticed the asteroid's strange behavior after entering the atmosphere and were hunting for the crater. A searchlight poured over the area, searching through the trees. It settled on the crater after several minutes, and then sped towards the top of the hill Nel had touched down on, stopping above the plateau. The cargo doors opened, spilling out a faint red light over the trees. 20 NMX Nekovalkyrja Infantry rappelled onto the hill, and slowly advanced towards the impact site.
 
The crater was comparatively small for a meteor of that size, littered with fragments of the asteroid that were left after Nel had removed the evidence of its use. The impact crater carved out a gap in the hill, with the center of the impact site just over half a kilometer away from its edge.

---

The rumble of the Shredder Gunship caught Nel's attention quickly. She looked up from her healing, trying to get a lock on the position of the gunship. Several of her toes popped back into joint and the bones of her right forearm slid back into alignment as the skin pulled itself together behind it while she listened. The Shredder was just under two kilometers away yet, and on the other side of the hill. Not far enough, not if she wanted to have no contact until she desired it.

The repairs finished and Nel started moving again, taking to the trees to avoid the snow on the ground and heading east, away from the impact site. These were similar enough to the forests surrounding the city where Lenwe's compound was and where she was trained by the masters of invisible movement; the environment would serve her well despite the wide spacing of the trees. As she moved, Nel's clothes shifted around her, changing from her customary Kohanian fighting garb to a loose, single-piece jumpsuit made of tight-weave, undyed wool cloth and gray leather. With the blotchy cloth, Nel would blend well into snowy shadows of nearly any hour. The leather was hardened on the outward-facing surfaces with softer buckskin on the interior surfaces, attached to the inside of the cloth jumpsuit at likely contact points such as knees, elbows, chest, back, and the outsides of the thighs and forearms, leaving the cloth as one piece on the outside. There were no seams anywhere, and the neck and cuffs at the wrists and ankles fit close around the neck and limbs. As her clothes were changing, Nel's sandals closed up around her feet and became something closer to buckskin moccasins, foot coverings that wouldn't hinder the grip of her toes while keeping her feet from the ground.

She was getting better at altering the material composition and form of things around her. Things she could touch, that is. It still required a sizable amount of concentration/processing ability to do the more complicated stuff, which was why most of the jumpsuit was merely rearranged fabric and leather that was already present, but Nel calculated a high probability that ability would be very useful in this place. Her clothing, for one, could probably use some upgrades that she didn't know any cloths or materials that would provide the properties she wanted. But that was another purpose for this trip: To gather templates for materials that were unavailable to her on New Kohana.

The snow was a slight problem as far as escape and avoidance went, but, by picking her steps carefully, Nel avoided leaving any but the faintest of tracks, if anyone knew or bothered to look in the trees. She was a flickering shadow in the bare branches; as it was, Nel was impossible to follow by IR traces; she had no body heat and so left no heat trail. There was only a faint, faint signature in her ribcage area, with even that being dampened by the leather over it. Wanting a good view of the surrounding area and a possible visual of the landing party, Nel looked for the next-highest point away from the hill, which was now hosting a sizable group of curious NMX neko soldiers.

Pausing behind a tree trunk and crouching on a branch, Nel looked back, around the tree. Her vision range broadened further than usual to include deep into the infrared and ultraviolet bands, trying to see what the search pattern was. Her visual resolution was high enough that she could "zoom in" without actually losing field of vision (like one would if using binoculars) and get a rather clear, but not detailed, view for up to a kilometer now...so she could count the number of troops, if she was in line-of-sight, but not see what they were or what they doing. As she looked, her mind set about making the calculations to further optimize her vision to increase distance via physical modification or mental processing of the image gathered.

As it was, the hill was still between Nel and the impact site, and she was three kilometers away, so it wasn't likely she could see anything, yet. That was fine with her.
 
The NMX Nekovalkyrja had, for the most part, descended on the far side of the hill toward the crater. Of the 30 deployed, only about five stayed at the top, one of which seemed to be barking orders. The Shredder had flown out over the crater, its searchlight flashing away as the twilight faded.

After about twenty minutes, the Shredder returned to the top of the hill to land, followed in short order by the twenty other Neko who had followed it down. They began to load back into the transport at a leisurely pace.
 
Nel watched the NMX nekos on the hilltop for the twenty minutes they stood there, then counted the soldiers that returned when the Shredder landed, noting the size of the landing group. Counting the sets of vibrations passing through the ground and up the tree as the nekos dropped onto the ground and began their investigating, the original twenty had added ten more to their number while in the crater, probably scattered around to broaden the search pattern.

As the NMX completed their investigation, Nel started back toward the crater. She circled wide to the south as the group boarded and stopped at a kilometer distance, waiting for the Shredder to move.
 
The Shredder quickly loaded its charges and ascended, giving the immediate area another quick once-over with its searchlight before pulling a wide turn and jetting back towards the lights in the distance, brighter now with the setting of the sun. The snow also began to pick up, as did the wind.
 
As the Shredder left, Nel trailed behind. The gunship pulled ahead fairly easily, as Nel was on rough terrain and was still trying to avoid drawing attention. She calculated its vector before it crested the hills to the west of the crash site between the impact crater and the settlement, taking her time getting up the hills and keeping to the trees the entire time. The heat signature left by the Shredder's aether drive confirmed her calculations when she reached the peak.

The snow was becoming a problem, as was the dropping temperature. Nel observed the lights of the distant settlement and mentally mapped the terrain between her current position and the settlement, then added the terrain surrounding her as far as her vision allowed, supplemented by ambient sonar. With the mapping complete, she followed the hills, seeking a thicket or cave system to take shelter in. It was time to plan a first encounter.
 
The hills were begrudging in providing a hiding place. The trees were still sparse, and not quite rough enough to provide caves or ravines. As Nelew followed the Shredder towards the lights, the hills began to lessen, and eventually simply dropped into a long, flat basin stretching for dozens of kilometers, with the lights still quite far in the distance, seemingly in the center.

The snow on the ground was thicker here, covering most land features. To North, the hills stretched on into great mountains, the source of a wide, branching river that flowed through the basin, the closest branch just a kilometer out. The south seemed to look much like the direction Nelew had come from in terms of terrain, with any distinguishing marks being lost to sight for the time being.

The intensity of the snow steadily increased, now making even what was now apparently a very bright source of light quite dim, although the forest continued to stretch for quite a ways, from what Nelew would be able to see.
 
With the snowfall increasing and no nearby source of shelter, Nelew decided to try to make one.

The trees were fairly large, so it didn't take her long to find the tree she needed. Putting her hand against the bark, Nel dissolved a hole in it, about fifteen feet off the ground, then continued pushing into the tree, hollowing it out as she went. The dissolved tree matter was converted to a form of mass she could store, with some of the matter further converted into energy for her body and the KINESI System to use.

Almost an hour later, she had hollowed out the entire trunk and begun digging into the ground beneath the tree, carving out a single, large room about ten meters below the surface, lined with wood. Then she stopped and began to plan, making refinements to her new temporary home as she did.

---

Five hours later, Nel climbed up to the original hole she had put in the tree and opened the little camouflaged door, which matched the rest of the tree, to check on the status of the blizzard that had been brewing when she started on the tree.
 
The intensity of the blizzard had subsided for a time. The snow still came down, albeit far more lightly than it had a short time prior, falling straight down. An occasional gust of wind blew large flurries across the ground from the fresh powder that had accumulated over the past several hours.
 
The snow was going to make things difficult, especially where hiding her presence was concerned. Or...maybe not?

Nel retreated back into her cave and looked down at herself. How far could she change her form? She had already completely changed her appearance as far as humanoid features went: Facial features, hair, build, gender, color. Could she change her species? Assuming she had a species, that is.

It would be best if she could find a native animal, then. And she would need a genetic template to work from. There were only a few genetic templates stored in the device that had made her (Nel hadn't recognized what they were for at the time, but saved them to herself anyway); none of them were what she needed. The NMX had shown themselves hostile to fellow sentient lifeforms that were not allied with them, according to the information Nel had gathered, so masquerading as a feral species might be her best chance at getting around unhindered. At the very least, they wouldn't be curious about any tracks she was unable to hide.

Her next step in mind, Nelew burrowed another crawl tunnel out to emerge under the snow in a hillside some hundred meters away. She was becoming more adept at the matter absorption, so the "digging" only took about an hour. Trying to keep her energy signature low was the primary slowdown, the technique requiring her to physically touch the material she was absorbing. That signature was quite small to start with, so it was not going to be dangerous unless they were specifically searching for it; the NMX didn't even know she existed, so that was impossible. For the time being, Nel's activities would appear as only a bloom of background radiation, a pixel-sized dot among similar pixel-sized dots on a high-resolution monitor. The thermal signature of a rabbit warren in a distant field would be more visible.

But Nel desired total invisibility, if that was at all possible. Being ignored was alright. Once they knew she was there, however, if she left any trace then they would track her. Additionally, leaving no trace could have a psychological effect: The Sha'nai had taught her the advantages of your enemy believing you to be a ghost, an intangible phantom. And, once she acquired another form, she would leave no trace that was her own.

Once she emerged from the ground, Nel measured the snowdrifts to determine whether walking on them or through them would be better, taking a thermal scan as she did so to seek out any medium-sized wildlife that might be hibernating in the area.
 
The area was devoid of everything but trees and snow. The only sign of any sort of civilization was whatever was producing the bright lights on the horizon.
 
Well, now...this was disappointing. Nel stared at the mental "zero return" result for a while, her version of 'disappointment', as the emotion itself had no meaning for her yet. So she was truly on her own, then.

She almost wanted to simply march up to the outpost and bust her way in. "Almost", because she was held back by a very strong impulse to gather all information she could first. There were too many variables left un-defined, nearly all of them, in fact. Prodding their defenses could turn out disastrous if they caught her off-guard. But it may be the only way.

More preparations were needed than she first supposed.

---

One hundred kilometers from any sign of settlement, Nel set up another base. This one was similar to the first, but deeper, much deeper. She needed further testing, and this would allow her to do that testing without setting off any nearby sensors.

So she tested within her lead-lined vault. What, exactly, could she do on a practical scale, not just in combat? Nel could see energy, and her downloaded information said she could emit it. What was her range, both of detection and emission? How precise could she manipulate it? Likewise with matter: She could change her body's configuration, to sub-molecular levels, but how far could she change it? And why did her 'native' body have the traits that it did? Using the knowledge she had gleaned during her time with the IPG and the information she requested while under Guiding Stars’ tutelage, she compiled a list of tests and theoretically-possible traits.

After a week, her testing resulted in the following list:

Code: 
PSI APPLICATIONS

Primary State Interaction: Enhanced Sensory Perception (DETECT, passive)
-Tactile: Composition analysis
-Tactile: Electromagnetics (tactile impressions of all frequency ranges)
-Tactile: Pressure
-Visual: Composition analysis
-Visual: Electromagnetics (visual representations of frequency ranges from X-ray to radio)

Primary State Interaction: Energy (CONTROL, active)
-Internal: Convert, energy-to-matter
-Internal: Projection, electromagnetic (full frequency range)
-Internal: Projection, plasma (varied pressures and thermal qualities)
-Internal: Projection, kinetic (shock pulse)
-Internal: Shield, dispersal field (energy only, no effect on matter; will leech energy from matter)
-Internal: Transfer (chemical)
-Internal: Transfer (mechanical)
-Internal: Transfer (radiative)
-External: Absorb (ambient or directed)
-External: Contain
-External: Convert
-External: Disperse
-External: Return/Reflect (delayed or instant)

Primary State Interaction: Matter (MOVE, active)
-Convert: Element
-Convert: Matter-to-energy
-Convert: State
-Integrate: External
-Integrate: Internal
-Shift shape, inorganic
-Shift shape, organic

AUXILIARY APPLICATIONS
-Detect: Motion (sense)
-Control: Dissipate (hide)
-Move: Avoid (dodge)

NOTES
Visual "Composition analysis" is defined as determination of direction, frequency, and strength of visual detection medium as well as objects detected via that medium.

Visual electromagnetics operate on detection only. Data stream decoding unavailable.

A kinetic shock pulse requires a material medium to travel through.

"Control: Dissipate" is, similar to "Move: Avoid", linked to the "Detect: Motion" sense and is activated automatically without conscious input. Like the other two, "Dissipate" is a defensive maneuver, reducing detectable energy signature to zero regardless of form, as a reaction to unexpected stimuli.

Her senses were divided into two categories: Tactile and Visual. Apparently, her body didn’t have specialized sensory organs for anything requiring touch, just the appearance of such. Even a fingertip could analyze composition of whatever touched it, as well as sense radiation and detect pressure changes through any medium that allowed them. The result: four out of the five senses were available through any portion of her skin.

Her eyes were the only truly specialized sensory organ. While her skin could sense electromagnetic radiation, her eyes were the only thing that could interpret that information into a detailed visual representation. There were some things she couldn’t see, though, such as gamma radiation and long-wave radio, but those were the extreme ends of the range, and her skin could sense both. It wasn’t the same as seeing, but at least she wasn’t completely blind to them.

Speaking of radiation, Nel had discovered that the entire EM spectrum was hers to emit. Lining her test vault with lead was a good idea, it seemed, especially when she tested into the gamma range. A bloom like that would have definitely drawn attention. Beams were out of her ability to create, though. Bursts seemed to be her only means of emitting, but Nel did find that the closer her emissions were to visual range, the more control she had over them. Over time, that probably meant she could create holograms, and she put aside an idea for a way to alter her ocular organs for a…somewhat ‘unconventional’ purpose. Cat eyes seemed to hold some clues for that goal. Meantime, apparently she could not generate beams of anything, though she had an idea for plasma beams that involved holding a contained plasma sphere and opening electromagnetic "barrels" for plasma to funnel through to the target. It was extremely energy-intensive, though, and would likely not see much use, if any, without an immediate recharge option available.

There was a highly effective technique she devised while playing with her pressure wave generation. Using hypersonics was troublesome, unless she cut herself off from "hearing" the frequencies she emitted, so that would probably be used in short bursts. They could be useful in device form, to disorient an enemy and damage their equilibrium. However, ultra-low frequencies had the most promise, especially at the sub-sonic range in the form of intense pressure waves. She could use them to augment her blows, sending kinetic shocks ricocheting throughout whatever she hit. The mess that could make of someone's soft tissue and organs, even through armor, would be significant. Best of all: It barely used any energy. Just needed a couple taps to find the resonating frequency of a particular surface before landing the deciding blow.

Another problem she encountered was stress-testing. There were no enemies in her testing chamber, so Nel was unable to gauge how much concentration she required to perform many of the applications. Past experience told her that shapeshifting was impossible during battle, even something as small as growing armor plates, as were most conversions. Matter-to-energy conversion was only available because it involved breaking down already-present material; not the most exacting task. Converting energy into matter was much more involved, as was transmutation of one element to another. Nel's calculations supposed that mass shifts performed by force on a minimum of ten kilograms of matter, were possible, but she could do nothing requiring detail without concentration. Again, theoretically, she could create “presets”, but those would be incredibly complex to create, requiring her to mentally "program" a stage-by-stage construction order directing the element and location of every atom within the object being created. Nel currently didn’t have the time to go through all of that; just performing her tests were time-consuming enough.

So, if she changed anything on the battlefield, she would be required to touch the object and she had better be sure that she didn't need to change it back any time before the battle's conclusion. To that end, there was a maneuver she could try: destabilize an object’s atoms enough to induce an energetic loss of cohesion upon the next impact to that object. The technique would require her to “charge” an object, but that could save her energy by using the object’s inherent energy with devastating effect. It was only a theory; to use it now without practice would be a last-ditch gambit on her part.

In summary, she wasn't able to perform everything that she listed, but might be able to develop and refine the theories she had into usefulness once this mission was completed. Combined with the various energy shielding and absorption techniques she was able to use "raw", as it were, Nelew was calculating that she had a fair number of offensive options and was in far less danger than before from energy attacks, but still not invulnerable to damage of any sort. And, though damage was not immediately deadly, Nel did know that her body had its limits. She also knew there were materials that would allow range of motion with protection, and even something called "powered armor" that provided even more combat superiority, but she had no schematics on how to build anything to that effect. So until the armor situation was solved, dodging would be her best bet. And, if the arenas back on New Kohana were any indication, Nel was quite practiced at dodging.

As far as what to do next, Nel knew that if she put herself out there and devastated the NMX outpost, the Mishhu would merely continue attacking her until she was destroyed. So her plan remained the same: Find out what she was dealing with. To do that, she needed samples. To acquire those, she would need to bring them to her.

A meteor strike was worth sending thirty and a gunship. What would be interesting enough that they would investigate, but small enough that thirty would be overkill? Would they bother if it wasn’t worth overkill? Her newfound sense of innovation set to work…

Sometimes, not needing to sleep was very useful.

---

Making her way back to the ridge where she had first spotted the settlement, Nel circled along the outside edge of the basin, looking for a good place to watch from.
 
The snow was falling lightly by that point, but it, along with the forest stretching several kilometers between the ridge and the settlement was enough of an impediment to vision that Nel would be hard pressed to glean any meaningful data from so far away. The best she would be able to ascertain would be a general estimate of size, roughly four square kilometers.

As Nelew traveled along the ridge, she would be able to see the features of the basin's western area, which stretched into a thin, steep valley that stretched far into the distance. A path seemed to have been cut through the trees in a straight line from wherever the valley led to towards the settlement in the basin's center. Several signs written in Yamataian along its sides denoted it as a road, although the thick, undisturbed snow covering it gave testament to its lack of recent use.
 
The pale one circled until she reached the trees. Coniferous took over for the deciduous type that Nel had encountered nearby, the two mixing together. The leafy trees were bare, and firs had weaker branches, so she would have to stay to the ground, if she decided to move closer to the settlement.

Her senses were on alert. This was awful terrain to rely on one's eyes, really. Nel had altered her clothing again because of this. Removing the hardened leather armor underneath the cloth, she had lightened the cloth to white and attempted to smooth out the weave so it matched the snow texture more closely. She had also created a scarf of the same cloth to wrap her head in, covering everything except her eyes. As far as heat, her body already thermally matched the ground; the clothing was more for hiding than keeping her warm. Even if someone did see her, if she wasn't moving and close to the ground, it would be difficult to tell her from the snow...

If she wasn't moving. That was the first problem. If she wasn't moving and laying on the ground, someone could walk right past her. But she had to move, which increased her chances of being seen if they were looking her direction. The chances that were low to begin with, but had to be assumed possible. There was no other way to be where she wanted to go without moving. If only she had the time and test subjects to learn how to create thermoptic camouflage...but she didn't.

Crouching with a tree between her and the settlement, Nel extended her sensing range. Tremors through the ground were the most reliable, those could travel for miles, and she would be able to refine her interpretation calculations every time she sensed something and confirmed it visually to determine source, number, activity, and direction. For now, it was only as good as a motion alert and could only tell her that something was there and how close it was.

Scent was a little better, but was highly vulnerable to airflow. Unfortunately, neither nekos nor any of the Mishhu forms had scents of their own, but they did have smells from what they worked with. Weak smells, though, so Nel couldn't rely on that. At least they were on level playing field there: Nel had no scent either.

Audio was alright. Nel's ears were at least as sensitive as a neko's, possibly more once she refined that sense too. Her skin could also sense sonic stimuli, but most of it, save her hands, was currently covered, dampening that sense.

Sight was up there with her geo-vibration detection as far as usefulness. In the current situation, she limited herself to the visible light and IR ranges, with occasional dips into the radio bandwidths. Without knowing what frequencies the NMX used, it wasn't really worth it to add the equivalent of white noise to her vision field. Her tactile sense could alert her to any radio emissions nearby anyway, she didn't need to see them yet.

Moving away from the tree, Nel continued making her way along the basin rim, toward the valley, keeping alert for any patrols that might be posted on the way, both along the ridge and inside.

Code: 
Active Sensory Range: Absolute Territory defined at 1.00 kilometer radius. Soft boundary defined at 1.50 kilometer radius. Blind limit defined at 4.00 kilometer radius.

Active Sensory Settings:
-Tactile: Geosonic detection up to 3.00 kilometers. EM emission detection untested, estimated up to 2.35 kilometers distance. Minimum audio detection up to one kilometer: 0.50 Hz. Minimum audio detection up to five kilometers: 1.00 kHz. Directional analysis unavailable, distance analysis rated <90% accuracy.

-Olfactory: Detection untested. Directional analysis untested. Distance analysis untested. Composition analysis unknown, estimated <80% accuracy.

Note: All scent-based factors reliant on local weather conditions.

-Visual: All EM detection set at maximum resolution. Maximum resolution (6/3) ranged at =< 0.50 kilometers. Fifty percent reduced resolution (6/6) up to 1.00 kilometers. Seventy-five percent reduced resolution (6/9) up to 2.00 kilometers. Ninety-seven percent resolution loss at 3.22 kilometers. Maximum motion (movement distance of .5 meters) detected at up to 4.58 kilometers distance. 

Note: "Maximum resolution" humanoid equivalent = 6/3 visual acuity. Line of sight applies to all vision ratings. Line of sight variations determined by detection medium. All distances rounded down to the nearest thousandth of a kilometer.
 
Although Nelew wouldn't be able to see much of the compound that dominated the center of the basin, she would certainly be able to hear and feel it. The sounds of hundreds of personnel of one sort or another were audible, as was the sound of dozens of vehicles. In addition, she would be able to pick up the signatures of several armors and gunships close to the center of the compound, although they were apparently parked and not on active patrol duty.
 
A mental map, a three-dimensional basic topographical rendering of the local terrain to the extent of Nel's sensory range with appropriate loss of detail at distance, was created as Nel continued making her way into the valley, tracking the direction and distance of each sonic and vibrational source on that map.

As she 'formed' the map, Nel mentally rotated it about like one of the 3D models she had seen before, free-spinning it a little out of curiosity. This could be handy. Then she 'overlayed' it on her field of vision, taking a cue from the HUD idea she had also seen at least once in her time with the IPG. Tilting her head a bit, Nel let the overlay extend past her field of vision, which felt odd for a bit until she got used to "seeing" more than her normal field of vision usually allowed. Then she continued 'extending' the overlay until it had essentially created a full 360-degree field of view for her. It wasn't direct sight, which was always more detailed than her other senses, but she knew it would become handy once she refined her ability to interpret audio and tactile data for more accurate "views". For now, it was the next-best thing to having actual eyes...in the back...of her head.

Hm. Maybe later. Meanwhile, she could take the image of whatever she had just seen and skin it to the map. Though...that would take more processing/effort of attention, which could be better utilized in tracking more targets or extending her sensory range when she needed it. The basic topographical rendering with objects and source tracking was enough for now.

Nel began stalking some of the outlaying patrols as they entered into her one-kilometer sensory "Absolute Territory" and attempting to acquire visual locks on them as they passed while she hid, using the information to refine her geosonic data interpretation and adding notes and detail to her mental map.
 
The Mishhu seemed fairly secure in their location, and weren't doing much patrolling. Nel would be able to feel the units in the base weren't doing much patrolling outside the fence, which the kilometers of pristine snow gave silent testimony to. It seemed the majority of the ready defenses for the base came from a sparse perimeter of mounted energy weapons along the outside of the base, spaced about 200 meters apart.
 
The lack of patrols would be disappointing to anyone else. It may have been for Nel, but she didn't recognize it as such. The lack also made her approach more difficult, if she wanted to remain hidden. Unless the snow continued falling, she was leaving trails everywhere she went. Anti-gravity was still beyond her understanding for the time being.

The turrets became her next interest. She didn't detect anyone at them, so either they were remotely directed or on stimulus-response computer control. Stopping with another tree between her and the settlement (by now she had closed in to one kilometer from the walls, setting the walls themselves within the "soft boundary" of her active sensory range), Nel put her hands in the snow and flicked them, releasing four slim throwing blades from her sleeves and into her palms. Two consisted of synthesized iron and two of copper, each about five centimeters in length and three centimeters thick at their widest points, and all had single-strand silk lines tied to them, connected to Nel's palms; she was secreting it as it was needed. One of those things she could do now but likely wouldn't be able to in the middle of a fight.

Planting one copper blade in the tree she was behind, Nel moved on to another tree fifty meters away to plant the second copper blade. The first iron blade she planted in front of a rock under the snow, one hundred seventeen meters from the second blade, and the remaining knife she kept with herself.

After planting each blade, she had moved back from the one kilometer distance to put two kilometers between herself and the settlement and found a position to observe the three planted objects while keeping the lines clear of obstructions where she could leave the end of the silk lines that connected to the blades. This took the longest, especially finding a place with clear line-of-sight for the silk to travel.

After planting the third blade and retreating to her spot, Nel paused before continuing, checking to see if she had been detected. The planting process had taken as long as it needed for her to complete without being noticed, but one could never be too careful on this sort of mission.

---

When nothing seemed out of place, and the Mishhu didn't respond to her sneaking around, Nel tugged on the thread leading to the copper blade in the tree. The copper began emitting a standard radio signal, on a civilian wavelength, but only waste data was being transmitted.
 
When the radio waves began their emission, Nelew would notice a stir in the base. Several of the perimeter guns snapped in the direction of the signal, and several armors began to power up in the base's motor pool. Activity in the base slowed somewhat with the unexpected arrival of the junk transmissions, but not by much. It seemed most of the personnel weren't too perturbed by some wayward civilian survivor.

Two of the powered-up armors lifted off from the base and jumped to the tops of the trees above where the signal was coming from. They stopped in mid-air, hovering above the tops of the pines. Nel would be able to make out their models as Rippers. One of them quickly zeroed in on the knife, and without pausing to inspect it, fired an aether beam, vaporizing it. The two armors then began to circle, their sensors active and scanning the forest. They slowly circled outward, searching the area.
 
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