Animorphs: A New Beginning

[Yarin]

"I believe I can help with that.  My ship can replicate very powerful weapons." Yarin said.  "What weapons do you require? I have small hand held energy weapons and large scale ship based armaments.

[traycon3]

"So, you think you can boost the signal on this?" Nichole asked Kelran, pointedly ignoring Cody and the conversation. "That'd be great. I just need to connect for a few minutes to finish up my math. Oh, hey Emily. How are you?"

[Chad32]

"Oh, I'm fine. I just got done running around a piping system as a ****roach." Emily said dryly. "Not a very wondrous second date."

"You, Hu, and Kelran are the only ones that have hands while in battle. My croc and Emily's buffalo can't hold weapons." Cody said to Yarin. "We'll be fighting inside a building with small rooms and narrow halls. I say we go in with light firepower, and once we get to the generator we'll use some kind of explosive to tear it apart."

"Anyone who wants to go, can." Cody said, looking at Nichole and Kelran. "I won't be leading this mission, though. I need as much help as I can get, and acting like I'm the big honcho around here just built up friction. So no more boss. No more orders. We'll have..something else. Um...something like..."

"A democracy? Where the people vote, instead of just obeying one person." Emily said.

"Uh, sure. A demo-thingy. We'll go with that for now."

[Kelran-Isthinar]

Kelran smiled slightly, acknowledging Codys efforts to rectify his mistakes.
"Cody's suggestion is likely the wisest. In a confined space agility and precision will serve us better than brute force. of course that doesnt mean it should be left out of the equation either.
Speaking of which, you two were there, how big an explosion would we need to not only damage the generator beyond repair, but if possible, make removal of the wreckage and installation of a new one more difficult?
A rough guess will do fine... we just need to know how many iso-krens (one is about half an iso-ton) of charge to push for."

Kelran spent the time he was talking working over a coil of leftover copper wire from his bi-to-trinary converter, and some bits of quartz and excess aluminum from the golf cart roof.
He coiled the copper wire into a triple helix shape, then used his tools to apply delta radiation until it stiffened and turned a faintly luminescent blue. Then he melted the aluminum into a cylinder around it, packed the quartz loosely into the cylinder with the helix of copper-turned-niobium, melted the alumin into a cap, then applied intense gamma radiation to the whole thing until it glowed white hot.
"I really need a water basin for cooling my projects. Well have to wait ten minutes for it to return to room temprature, lets see what kind of connection jacks you have on your computer."
The new antenna only needed to be wired to a conductive part of the computer that produced electricty in order to work. No special drivers software or complex hookups necessary.
Kelran settled on the USB ports since they produced power according to Nichole, and he quickly fahsioned a crude but workable connector.

[Chad32]

"The machine is about twenty by twenty feet square, with plating two feet thick. I'm guessing if anyone got to it, they wouldn't want to make it easy to wreck it. We will want some explosives that can easily punch through the best Yeerk steel. Since Yarin has fought Yeerks before, I'll let him be the judge of what we'll need to blow it. If we want to take the whole building down to make it harder to set another up, then we'll want to lay some bombs along the inside of the foundation. It won't need to be as powerful as the stuff we use against the generator, but we'll likely need more of them. They will need to be able to break Human steel and condrete, though"

"It would be best if Yarin and Kelran place the bombs, and possibly go in two teams. One goes up and one goes down. Yarin and Kelran will be in separate teams, with Me, Emily, and Hu backing them up."

((Cody doesn't really mean to leave Nichole out. He just thinks she won't want to come because she quit earlier.))

[Kelran-Isthinar]

Kelran nodded. "We also need to use shaped charges if possible for the auxiliary devices. If the building implodes as its underground support explodes the resulting mess will leave even the best Yeerk engineers scratching their mucus for at least a few weeks.
The building will be the trickiest since we want to cause an implosion. I can do an overflight and make some guesses."

Kelran snapped the new antenna into a USB port and 2 dozen wireless signals, about half of them unsecured, appeared.
"Ah. there you go. I dont suppose that computer was very cheap was it? not that I have any human currency at all...."

[traycon3]

"Thanks. It was...kinda expensive, I guess. My parents bought it for my graduation present. Why do you ask?" She looked at the computer, frowning. "I don't like the odds," she said suddenly. "You only have two people to place a bomb and three for back-up. What if it takes both of them to set it up? You should really consider sending at least three in to set up the bomb, especially if one team's going up, while the other's going down. You'll need people to guard whomever's setting up the bomb, and even if it only takes one person, one other person as a guard just isn't enough." She bent over the computer and began typing in the website she needed. "Plus, you guys'll need to provide a distraction to buy them some time, which depending on the distraction will depend on the number of people." She clicked a few times, picking up her calculator. She plugged in a few numbers and frowned, typing in the answer and smiling triumphantly. "Six probably the minimum you'll need."

[Chad32]

"Well, you could come along if you want." Cody said. "That would make two teams of three. We can go check the place out, and should designate a rondevu point for when each team completes their assignment. Under no circumstances, though, are any of us to be seen before we strike. We need surprise."

[Kelran-Isthinar]

Kelran nodded. "I would go so far as to say that if we are somehow detected that we abort immediately no matter what, as for the bombs, a larger charge like the one for the machine usually needs two people to set at optimum speed. For the small charges it will take the setter less tjan 30 pings a charge"

[traycon3]

"Exactly how big of a bomb are y'all talking? I know ants can carry ten times their own weight, but...I don't know if that'll do the job y'all need," she replied, neither affirming nor denying her intentions to go. The statement was again followed by a few clicks on the calculator.

[Chad32]

"We won't be going in as bugs. We'll need to use battle morphs to rush in, do the job, and rush out before reinforcements get there. Actually, maybe someone should go in and do something to make sure they can't call out. We could cut the power to ensure no phone calls, but that won't stop cell phones and possibly not Yeerk transmissions. Maybe if we built a device that could scramble calls and frequencies going out of there."

[Kelran-Isthinar]

Kelran interjected, "Jamming is a very exact science. We need to know everything there is to know about the frequencies and carrier waves employed by any Yeerk or Human communications devices they might be using. Such a device would get exponentially larger, heavier, and more difficult to build with each type of band it has to supress."

[traycon3]

"So you'll need a distraction," Nichole said flatly. More clicks on the calculator, followed by pensive typing. "I've always wanted to pull the fire alarm." She clicked on the "submit" button and stared at the computer.

[Chad32]

"What kind of distraction? One or two of us might go to the pool or something, but that would mean fewer people at the tower. Two teams of three is a safe number, but we don't have a seventh individual. What kind of distraction could we make, that doesn't require any of us to be away from the tower?" Cody said.

[traycon3]

Nichole looked at him, arching an eyebrow. "Are you really that dense? I just told you. Pull the fire alarm. It'll case enough of a panic to take advantage of, which'll buy us a few minutes. At least until the fire department arrives. We just need to make sure that the bomb goes off before then. Plus, that assures us that we have minimal loss of life."