Sunflash is still dozing on his bench, seeming to have settled into a slightly
deeper sleep than he started out with.

Atolla was, much to Selan's dismay, up and about. He had a rather heavy bandage
over the top of his head, but other than that... well, he wasn't happy, but he
looked healthy. And when he spies Sun, he settles into a nearby bench. Just to
wait.

Milo wanders in from the north at a lazy pace. The sun is just rising and it's
an ordinary peaceful day, aside from the earthshaking roaring last night. No
worries.

Sunflash groans slightly as the sun's first rays hit his eyes, almost rolling
over before he realises that it's morning. He grunts, and then struggles into a
sitting positon on the bench, shaking his head.

Atolla grins a bit as he watches the mage get up. "Morning, sleepyhead. Thanks
again for the assistance yesterday. That... what do you call them? Replons?
That Replon would've killed me for certain."

Milo walks up to the two. "So, fun party here?" He takes a look at Atolla's
bandage, clearly having noticed it, but makes no comment. Well, no sane
comment.

Sunflash groans, holding his head for a moment before letting a chuckle escape.
"A party indeed, General... We had a visit last night..." He groaned again,
looking over at Atolla. "You're quite welcome, by the way. Have you debriefed
the troops yet?"

Atolla nods a bit to the tiger lover, saying, "There was a breach at the Rabite
gate. A rogue Replon climbed over it, attempted to attack civilians, and
injured me rather badly. And then it self-destructed after being tossed into
the forest by my friend here." Atolla finishes by shaking his head at the mage.
"I've been in Selan's all night. I shouldn't really be up now."

You say 'A what did what now?'

Sunflash grunts, recovering from his headache enough to answer: "A reploid that
matched that description of the one that went on a rampage apparantly attacked
the West Gate."

Sunflash says 'Afterwards, Atolla here was sent to Selan, I had the guard change
for the night, and told them that we'd be debriefing them in the morning.'

You say 'I see. And what happened in between those two?'

Atolla quirks an ear at that. "Which do you mean, general? The reploid and me,
or in-between being sent to Selan and him giving orders?"

Sunflash rolls his eyes. "I didn't give -orders-. I gave suggestions, and they
happened to be followed, since their Captain was occupied, and half of them know
me anyway."

You say 'Nice we're all keeping sharp on the formalities. I meant to ask about
the attack.'

Sunflash motions towards Atolla. "He was there from the start, I came in late."

Atolla nods, scratching at his ear with a paw. "Mm. A reploid climbed over the
gate, hissing, and without responding to anything that we said. He refused to
give his name, or reason for being out. When he -charged- over the gate, I and
two soldiers there on duty took action against him." Atolla winces a bit,
deciding to lick his wounds later. "Melee ensued. He charged at civilians,
though fortunately none were hurt. And then reinforcements showed so that we
could contain him... and he tried to surrender. Until I couldn't 'prove' my
rank, and he self-destructed. In the forest instead of the city, thanks to our
friend over there, like I said." Atolla pondered that another moment, adding,
"One of the little bears brought back proof that they'd found it. Most of one
shoe." Atolla grinned widely at -that- little bit, oh yes.

You say 'How hard was it to deal with?'

Atolla says '...It would've killed me if Sunflash hadn't stepped in. And took
about six regular soldiers and five marksmen besides to have it surrender.'

You say 'Sounds pretty nasty.'

Atolla nods.

Sunflash grunts. "It wasn't exactly fun, seemed to just shrug off a Lucent
Beam... but at the same time, I noticed it -was- sparking pretty badly, and
having trouble moving after we had it surrounded."

Sunflash says 'Not that it didn't try, of course.'

Atolla says 'Mm-hm. I'm going to take it into my hands... er, paws, to put the
soldiers through regular training regiments of my own. I had some trouble with
soldiers not following orders last night.'

You say 'Well, we're a volunteer army. Not everybody has as much training as
we'd like.'

Sunflash says 'Still, he has a point. If you're going to be an army, you need to
do as your told.'

You say 'But this reploid worries me more. It took a dozen soldiers and a
wizard to stop it?'

Atolla says '...I wouldn't say that's a minimum. But yes, it did.'

Atolla says 'It reeks of a probe. Something designed simply to test our
defenses.'

Sunflash says '...Something didn't feel right tho.'

Milo listens.

Atolla says '...Like what?'

Sunflash says 'That was the entire -wrong- way to do a test. You only attack
one part of the town, then every grunt awake is going to run over and try to
assist, giving us numerical superiority.'

Sunflash says 'Therefore, you wouldn't really -know- how we react to a real
attack, because all it was was one reploid breaching the wall and going on a
rampage.'

Atolla says '...Then perhaps it wasn't a test of -us.- Perhaps it was a test of
the reploid.'

Sunflash shrugs helplessly.

Atolla says 'Perhaps there's someone managing to produce ones like that one?'

Sunflash says 'That would make more sense... and I sure as -hell- hope not. It
didn't seem like a real reploid. Like it was just one of those robots you hear
about: All orders and no emotion.'

Atolla says 'Like a golem...'

Sunflash says '...which would explain why it was so hard to take down, now that
I think about. Don't most reploids have pain sensors?'

Atolla says 'Don't look at me. Where I come from, the most advanced we ever got
was hot-air baloons.'

Sunflash shrugs helplessly.

Sunflash says 'But anyway, that's pretty much the gist of it. It shrugged off
my lucent beam, if only because I couldn't see well enough to pinpoint it while
it held Atolla.'

You say 'Okay. Point is, that's not likely to be the last we saw of it, so we
should prepare to take it on more efficiently next time.'

Atolla nods.

Sunflash nods.

Atolla says '...Is there any way to short-circuit those things effectively?'

You say 'Water? No idea.'

Sunflash says 'I wouldn't have a clue. We'd have to check with Spider... tho on
second thought, Aile would probably know more, or at least be more sober.'

You say 'When I face reploids, I just bash them in with a hammer.'

Atolla says 'Right. If we're going to face multiple versions of them, we'll
either want something more effective... or a bigger hammer.'

Atolla says 'Speaking of bigger, we also need a way to alert the rest of the
city to an attack.'

Atolla says 'I had to rely on roaring last time.'

You say 'Well, maybe start by telling me what it's capable of? Sheesh.'

Sunflash says 'I think I can inquire with several townsfolk: There's bound to be
people that have -something- we can use.'

Atolla says 'Retractable claws. Ran on electricity. Metal plating, but nowhere
near as armored once you puncture a joint. Felt no pain... and apparantly,
could self-destruct.'

You say 'I see...'

You say 'How did you take care of it?'

Atolla says 'Several people with spears. Boxed it in on all sides. And when it
threatened to blow up, telekinesis.'

Sunflash says 'Tractor Beam spell, actually. But close enough. I threw it
towards Boosters.'

Atolla nods.

You say 'Notice any weaknesses?'

Sunflash says '...Well, it seemed to dislike non-logical things, if that helps.'

Atolla nods.

Atolla says 'It lacked long-range capabilities...and once you punctured the
shell, it seemed rather weak on the inside.'

You say 'So, problem is puncturing the shell in the first place. And it would
be good to keep it at a distance.'

Atolla says 'A few cannons and ballista would be nice. But I doubt it's in the
budget.'

Sunflash nods.

You say 'If we had any, they'd go to a shore battery on the pier.'

Sunflash says 'Before I forget, if you still want to, you could go ask the
soldiers at the gate.'

Milo shrugs. "Would they have seen any more than Atolla did?"

Atolla nods.

Sunflash shrugs helplessly.

Atolla says '...They might remember more. I got knocked around quite a bit.
Note my stylish headwear.' Atolla tilts his head to emphasize the bandage.

Sunflash says 'Not to mention they ended up doing most of the melee, so could
tell more about what worked and what didn't.'

Atolla says 'In addition to the fact that I focused on keeping it occupied, and
away from civilians. I don't want casualites.'

You say 'Of course.'

You say 'You said it's armored and feels no pain. Just how much effect did our
attacks have?'

Sunflash says 'Like I said, I wouldn't really know, I only did one shot. Your
best bet on that would to be confer with the troops.'

Atolla says 'Mine had none at all, and I'm sure I broke a wrist. However, it
seemed to register that it -was- in bad shape...'

Sunflash nods in agreement to Atolla.

You say 'Well, I'm just thinking that against one who does not feel pain, just
shaking weapons in its direction randomly would not be very useful.'

You say 'We would do best to make coordinated efforts at damaging its important
parts, not just draining its stamina. Limbs and eyes are probably a good
starting point.'

Sunflash nods.

Atolla winces and sighs, nodding his agreement. "Likely. And the arms."

You say 'Arms counted as limbs, last I checked.'

Sunflash chuckles politely.

Atolla says 'Specifically, its arms.'

You say 'I think anything that reduces its mobility would be good. Perhaps some
whip and chain experts to entangle it without having to bother with the armor?'

Atolla says 'Nets...'

You say 'If we have those. Not sure we do.'

Atolla says 'I'm sure we could pick up at least a few...'

Atolla sighs.

Sunflash shrugs helplessly.

Atolla says 'We need funding.'

Sunflash says 'That pretty much sums it up, yes.'

You say 'Whips are for sale in most weapon shops around here, so I'm sure we
have some people skilled in using them. I'll look around.'

You say 'And yes... any idea where to GET such funding?'

You say 'I doubt people would like if we started taking taxes.'

Sunflash says 'Hah. Indeed not.'

Sunflash says '...But really, who around here -has- that kind of money to be
able to fund us in the first place?'

Atolla says '...Yes, but it's a necessity if they expect people to protect them
effectively. Besides, how many people live in this city?'

You say 'So unless one of you happens to know of some buried pirate treasure...'

Atolla says '...If I could get back to my world, I could -find- some pirate
treasure.'

Atolla says 'Lovely pipedream.'

Sunflash says 'Hah. Indeed. I suppose as a last resort we could always ask for
donations.'

Atolla says 'Hm... I wonder if we could ask some of the shops to sponsor us.'

Atolla says 'After all, they're the ones most at risk to lose everything if
we're attacked.'

You say 'I'm not sure what the people expect of us. We don't have many
demonstrable threats. One evil army bothered us a little and stopped showing
after a while, a single criminal causing some ruckus, and a dark god that few
people would believe anyway.'

Sunflash says 'Point.'

Atolla says 'Hrm. Which makes me all the more worried, honestly.'

You say 'If it came to a full war again, I'm sure we could garner some support.
But no-one wants that.'

Atolla says 'We are, to put it gently, easy pickings.'

You say 'We have to work with the materials available to us, not whine about
those that are not.'

Sunflash says 'So anyway. That's what happened last night. I'm pretty sure
that reploid thing won't be back at least for awhile.'

You say 'Dunno about how long, but I'm sure it WILL be back.'

Atolla says 'Mm. Wish I could be so certain.'

You say 'Atolla, there are only two scenarios under which a robot would
self-destruct.'

Atolla says '...Sorry, but one of the things I learned as a general is to always
expect trouble, especially when you should expect it least.'

Atolla turns an attentive ear to Milo.

You say 'One, it's a trick and part of it survives somewhere hidden. Or two,
it's merely a drone serving some larger force and there's more of them out
there.'

You say 'The second one sounds more likely to me, but who knows.'

Atolla says 'It could be both, as well.'

Sunflash shrugs helplessly.

Sunflash says 'The only thing we can do is prepare for what we can.'

You say 'In any case, we seem to have had trouble repelling it the first time.
Make sure we learned at least as much as it did from the encounter, and
preferably much more.'

Atolla says 'Right. I'll be sure to train the troops, and have as many of them
out there looking for information as possible.'

You say 'Another thing. If it self-destructed, it means being captured intact
would be contrary to its objective.'

Sunflash says '...but that goes against what it said. It -verbablly- tried to
surrender.'

Atolla says '...It did keep mentioning things about it's circuitry.'

Atolla says 'And it refused to surrender after every man there admitted I was
their captain.'

You say 'Did it suggest having any sensitive information?'

Sunflash says 'Well, it refused my offer of letting it shut down long enough for
us to contain it.'

Atolla says '...As far as I remember, with my brain getting fried and punctured,
is that it refused to allow us to examine its circuitry. Through cutting off
limbs or otherwise.'

You say 'So... probably means some sort of innovative design they don't want
their enemies to copy.'

Sunflash says 'It sprouted something about how since it couldn't confirm that
Atolla was infact commander, it would now self-destruct, have a nice day!'

Atolla nods.

Atolla says '...If another one comes up, we'll be sure to try and deactivate it
before it destructs itself, then.'

You say 'Indeed Whatever it wants, we clearly want the opposite. If it shows
up again, try to keep it intact. We can tinker with it if it shuts down but try
not to reduce it to scrap if it can be avoided.'

Sunflash nods.

You say 'Of course, safety of civilians goes above information gathering.'

Sunflash says 'Agreed then'

Atolla says 'Of course.'

You say 'So... summary. Don't just poke it, make a concentrated effort to
disable its movement, combat, and detection capabilities, try to capture one for
examination, and always, always, stay on guard.'

Atolla nods.

You say 'That's about all, I think.'

You say '...Hmm. We wouldn't happen to have a name or designation for it, would
we?'

You say 'Saying "it" all the time could get confusing.'

Atolla says '...Midnight. It attacked around that time, and was almost entirely
black.'

You say 'Midnight...'

Atolla yawns a bit, shaking his head. "Will that be all, general? My head is
starting to act up again."

You say 'Sorry, just reminded me of Jango for a moment there.'

Atolla says 'Hm. If you'll excuse me, I've a date with a nap. I'm getting a
funny twinge down my skull...'

You say 'Dismissed.'

Atolla wonders what Milo would do if he had a complaint with the lion walking
off... brandish a tiger plushie at him threateningly? Regardless, he heads to
Selan's.

You say 'Wish I could help, but I doubt my healing can fix up anything Selan
didn't.'

Sunflash simply leans back in the bench. "So, General. Did you have anything
in spefic for me to do anytime soon?"

You say 'Not really. Stay on guard, like everyone else.'