<strong>PFC Nortan 'Gizmo' Law</strong><br/><br/>"Roger that, sir." Gizmo immediately went to work. "Signal equipment setting up in 3 minutes."<br/><br/>Setting himself down in the relative safety of the fall back point, he dropped to a low crouch, shotgun placed onto a rock next to him, shouldering off the reinforced plasteel pack strapped to his back. Thumbing in the code to the minuscule looking keypad on its side, the pack clicked open to reveal an array of medium sized computer equipment, an organized mess of dark colored casings, cables and foldable dishes. His arms reached in, a quick and precise blur of motion were his hands, the clock counting down his set up time second by second. A minute passed and he had put together the compact main unit with his pack acting as a makeshift stand. Half way through another, he had plugged in all the necessary cables. Half way next, two dishes were up on a nearby rock. The last minute taken to power up, set parameters and check all connections. Just as the last second passed, the signal and comms equipment was hot and ready.<br/><br/>His personal computer. Powerful. Multipurpose. Customizable. Water and shock proof. Reliable in any electronic based tasks and objectives. Easy to set up and easy to pack. If given the chance to, he could patch in anywhere, see anything, basically play administrator as long as he was allowed access and was given enough concentration time. Took him 8 weeks to draw the plans and get the parts he needed. 2 more to put it together and test run it. 1 more to compact the design to fit into a metal reinforced backpack, much to his satisfaction and the awkward delight of his superiors. The whole thing ran on a compact external 16 hour rechargeable battery he retrofitted, which he could hotwire into any stable power supply to syphon off electricity for direct A/C or recharge. In most mobile situations, he would only need to pull out the light weight main unit, carefully stowed for easy access, which ran on a standard 8 hour rechargeable battery, but as the situation called for a signal sweep, he had to whip out the extra equipment from the lower compartments. He was only been able to dream of playing around with such a computer years ago. If it were not for military and government backing, such a computer would only be a dream.<br/><br/>The most he could do now without a direct access to the colony's mainframe was try to go wireless into any system he could find. Could be difficult without the main long range colony scanner array and this damn rain, but he could try with the local secondaries scattered about the colony. TV antennas or anything with a decent transmitter. He set his computer to search mode, checking for signal strength, bouncing his encrypted signal back to the Mitchum in space to act as a satellite.<br/><br/>Once he gets something, he would be able to start scanning for life signs and radio waves that weren't theirs. If the LT wanted him to, he could try to patch into security cameras, individual consoles and whatever others systems that would be available to him. With his current setup, that should be possible if access was unrestricted. He would be very busy in front of his screen and he needed someone to watch his back in the meanwhile. Looking around, he could see that the whole of Alpha was still around, more than enough protection with so many heads to look about. After turning back to his screen, he concentrated on his work, tapping away at the keys, blazing through all the numbers and text.<br/><br/>It would have been much easier on him if he could have asked Bravo to look for the main communications center. It would definately help to check the condition of the place, and the equipment in that building could take a load off his back, making it easier for him to access places where his own computer could not. He could also assess the extent of any damage on the main dish and its systems, wherever it magically went. If it was repairable, they would have communications back online, probably a vital objective to look forward to. However, it was a little too late to holler after them, and the order for radio silence he stuck to diligently. He hoped at least that once they found that building, they would let him know.<br/><br/>He also made sure he plugged in his motion tracker to a port in his computer. With a bit of tinkering in the past, he managed to be able to directly monitor his XV35 through his screen with the thing plugged externally. In mind of this, his thoughts suddenly turned to a certain WY tech that he had heard about but never seen. An improved version of the marine issue motion tracker, able to range its signal to a full 360 degrees over a 50 meter readout. He was unsure about its existence since no one in mind was willing to talk to him about it, either not willing or genuinely not knowing. As he was in the zone, part of his brain started piecing together plans for tinkering around with the concept, an improved prototype of the XV35, of which he would have to worry about later once he got the time.