Kodan Black

Location: F08 Raduon Tags: Science, Octan, Civil, Land Vehicle // PERSONAL DIARY // My droid from last week found ... something. It had sent back images from an area we had dubbed "the white zone" that our analysts looked over but they weren't sure what they were even seeing. So Dr. Long decided to send me out to have a look at it. It was clearly technology, but from whom and for what purpose? I found ED-208 and told him we had a mission from Dr. Long. I showed him the pictures and he said it looked like a trap of some sort and that we should just blow it up from orbit. I told him that we needed to better understand what it was and who put it there so the two of us were going to check it out. He said: "Just the two of us? To check out some random technological thing in the middle of nowhere? Surely you can't be serious." I told him that I was entirely serious and that I was a bit insulted he would call me Shirley. Before we left Dr. Long sent us a nice message saying: "I just want to tell you both good luck. We're all counting on you." Encouragement like that is what makes her clearly one of the best. Filling her people with the confidence to do a good job, knowing she has our best interest at heart. We drove out to the mystery thing and discovered something very odd. It was some sort of small electronics shack made up of parts from Octan, Kawashita, and Mantis. I could recognize bits from all 3 corporations and it seemed to be set up to pull in any signals any of the corporations sent and since it had our equipment it was able to gather even encrypted signals. Since it had parts from all 3 corporations it either was created by someone else or a corporation trying to cover their tracks. ED-208 seemed very nervous and insisted that there were "bad signs". ED-208 scanned the equipment information and we called in to corporate for instructions. They told us to return to the Axle for now and that they would handle things. I'm not sure exactly what that meant but ED-208 commented that those "smug flowers would get what they had coming." I guess the building did look a bit like a flower. Extra pics:

Please transfer my 43 credits to Bob. Thank you.

Very nice work integrating it so smoothly into the landscape. You've done a fantastic job bringing such a powerful image from the trailer to Lego form.

I had (and still have somewhere) quite a few of the navy ships from Tente. My brother and I would have big naval battles with them. It was totally hit or miss if you would ever find them in the toy stores though.

I'm pretty anti-asymmetry myself, but I like the AWACS feel to this. The crash site is . Great dialogue too. I love the landscape with the beach and the scattered parts... kinda reminds me of LOST a bit.

I suspect the last week for Cat B is going to have low participation simply because it is the biggest MOC. I'm 50/50 on being able to do a Cat B, I guess we'll see what time/parts allow. But I'll be posting my weekly for the foreseeable future.

Nice pod and I especially liked the scene of Jeb waist deep in water. Very cool idea.

I like the narration and the fighter has a great heavily armored feel to it.

Good feedback, alas my supply of green is quite limited. I need to get some more, but the stupid PAB wall has yet to cooperate. The 1x1 light green rounds are a new addition to my collection. I probably overdid it with them.

The dual level with rocks sticking out is fantastic. The boat with drone has an official set feel to it, I'd buy one! I like how you included the little internal bay on the sub too, a very nice play feature. Overall this is one of the best water scenes AG has seen.

The little alien dude with the faces is really a brilliant parts usage. Hombre is great too. Is pombe going to be permanently in Mitgardian garb? Oddly, I think I like him better in his Speedo.

This is like 3 builds in one! The jeep is really cool and rugged looking, matches the rockwork terrain really well. But the building with so many cool features that were clearly well thought out! The locking mechanism with their stands is cool. And all those scifi crates full of ... stuff! Amazing build, just a treat to look at and find all the cool things you did.

Reminds me of an OV-10A Bronco mixed with a VTOL drop ship. Cool design and good you are getting into the backstory of your full crew.

Some nice complex curves and nice extendable gear.

Very sleek design and quite the surprise with those weapons!

Ok, so I love the boat, love the building and rock work but the Octansoft thing with Clappie was amazing. You are the best storyteller in AG IMO and this is the best story yet!

Wow, the outdoor scene is incredible. Love the robot stenographer! What a scene and I actually really like we've seen some scenes back in civilization this week!

Jacques has good taste! Love the Jag, really looks the part. Reminiscent of the classic E-type.

Wow, I really like it. The back seat setup reminds me of Airwolf! Great color scheme and it looks very aggressive and Mantis like.

Nice little ship, good sparing use of color for Octan. I like the greebles in back, but a rear 3/4 view would have helped.

Location: F08 Raduon Tags: Science, Octan, Civil, Land Vehicle // PERSONAL DIARY // After my recent issues with vehicles I decided to let ED-208 select and pilot our vehicle for our latest mission. Dr. Long assigned me to create a drone to explore Raduon and send back data. It was great that I got to have a brief meeting with her about the mission, though she did seem like her mind was elsewhere. Probably still worried about the reports of activity in unexplored space towards the core. During the meeting I updated her on the status of my work with flowers and awesomnium. I wanted to make sure that the work I had done wouldn't be lost while I was gone. She assured me that it would be handled. I guess she must have asked ED-208 to look into it because he mentioned to me that "There won't be any problems with THOSE flowers", so that was good to hear. It was nice having my companion watching my back as always. My original design for the drone was unarmed, in fact I'd never integrated weapons into any drone before. However, Dr. Long was quite insistent that after the numerous robots and drones we had lost lately the drone should be capable of self-defense. Not that I could argue with such a wonderfully smart and strong woman anyway! Being a bit unfamiliar with weapons in general I asked ED-208 to help me with the gun. I wasn't sure we needed one capable of piercing a foot of armor, but ED-208 pointed out that we have no idea what kinds of flora or fauna the drone might come across. It was weird though he was oddly specific about "sneaky white flowers", but he had a point that we don't know what alien species or even other corporations the drone might face. The gun on our vehicle was even more of a surprise. ED-208 said it was merely a precaution, but I'm not sure we needed a gun capable of destroying a heavy assault mech on a purely scientific mission. I guess that is why I'm no weapons expert! The vehicle itself was pretty barebones, but really we just needed it to get the drone out into the field. I had invited Dr. Long to accompany us on this mission to see how the drone performed in the field, but she said she was too busy. I figured that would be the case but wanted her to know that I would be happy to have her along any time. I'm sure the drone will do good work and hopefully with the attached armament it won't be abducted by any of the other corporations. I can't believe they would steal our robots, but then again it seems like most of the other corporations make their employees do lots of the manual labor we've delegated to robots so I can see why they would want to. ED-208 said there was no worry about him being captured. Even if they managed to disarm him, he has a self-destruct that would wipe out a small city. I asked him about what the parameters were around when it would go off though since I'm always with him, but he said while he couldn't discuss the specifics for security reasons that I shouldn't worry. I'm sure Octan did a great job with his programming so I should have nothing to worry about, besides he is here for my safety! Extra pics:

Challenge 2: Category C // PERSONAL DIARY // In addition to flying a Mosquito, Dr. Long had requested that I go with ED-208 on one of our heavy hauler vessels during a trip near the core of Andromeda as we continue to monitor the situation. Understandably, she wished to have a top tier scientist available should the crew of the ship encounter anything out of the ordinary that required study. Upon my arrival the crew was surprised to learn that I would be going with them. I informed them that Dr. Long must have told them about my mission, but they insisted they were unaware. Clearly not all of our crews are performing up to the typical top notch Octan standards. They tried to explain that there simply wasn't room on board for extra people (I didn't correct them to say person and robot), that this was a cargo ship and not some luxury cruiser, but I informed them that if Dr. Long wanted me on this ship that I would be on this ship. The captain clearly didn't want to talk to Dr. Long, knowing she would chide him for his poor performance and failure to read his messages. I happily suggested that they address their failure to adhere to Octan regulations so that these sorts of problems wouldn't present themselves in the future. The crew had a brief meeting on the other side of the room to try and figure out a solution. After a couple minutes the captain informed me that they had come up with a berthing as per required by Octan corporate specifications and that a junior officer would show it to me. I told him that would do and that I was glad he was able to resolve the matter. Upon being shown to my "berthing" I was quite ... aghast. The junior officer who showed us to it left quickly and wouldn't even look at me. ED-208 said he would stay outside during our journey, but I told him that no one had studied the effect of gate travel on robots outside the confines of a ship. He said he'd risk it. I told him that I couldn't lose him and that he was to report to the bridge and alert me immediately of any anomalies. I'm not sure, given that he is a robot, but he seemed happy that I'd ordered him to stay on the bridge. As I lay on my cot and listened to all the various machinery noises around me I wondered what we would find when we reached the disturbances in the core. I hoped it would prove scientifically interesting and that perhaps it would present an opportunity for me to collaborate in person with Dr. Long. What an exciting possibility! Extra pics:

One thing the home planet would offer over others is civilization. If you want to build cities or roads, pretty much you are talking your home planet.

Ok, how is LDD not easier. You want a red brick... done. Wanna make that green... done. I've had so many times where I needed just 1 more of a piece and I didn't have it. I can't take a white part and make it blue with real bricks. LDD decreases the degree of difficulty because you've removed a limiting factor. Much like in many sports there should be a degree of difficulty factor applied. LDD makes larger builds much easier in numerous ways.

The vast majority of the Kawa/Mantis points come from A06. Drop that planet from consideration and all 3 corps are suddenly very similar in point totals.