Alien Pop-Up
Suzanne Blom
residential neighborhood. It can attract people from a certain but as yet
unknown distance away and absorb/eat them. Electronic devices do not work
in its vicinity. Obviously, you want to get rid of or at least contain it
as quickly as possible, but, to do that, you're going to need to know what
it is and how it reacts to whatever. What equipment are you going to bring
to the site to study it?
If you need to visualize it, you can imagine either slowly spreading grey
goo or big plants putting out runners---but, of course, whatever you imagine
is seen from a distance and may well be only part of the, uh, picture.
R.L.
Well, to begin with the obvious. You'd want to keep people from approaching
it, which would mean using whatever crowd control stuff is handy. So how it
reacts to that stuff will give you some immediate clues.
One priority will be to find out how it is attracting people and try to
counter that, so your investigators won't be distracted by urges to jump
into it - rationalized as need to study it up close.
R.L.
J.Pascal
An old Marine combat artist.
-Julie
R.L.
Hm?
In case it is a plant or plant-like, an early keep out barrier might be an
opaque tent to shade it out.
Something else handy would be the guck that is dropped from planes in
fighting forest fires.
R.L.
Sea Wasp (Ryk E. Spoor)
> In your city, an alien something has "popped up" in the middle of a
> residential neighborhood. It can attract people from a certain but as yet
> unknown distance away and absorb/eat them. Electronic devices do not work
> in its vicinity.
Satellite imagery, ranged bombardment. I'll study what's LEFT, if
anything, after I subject it first to incendiaries and then corrosives.
And if that's not enough, thermonuclear weapons.
I do not f*ck around with invading consuming alien mind-controlling
things. it won't have the opportunity to spread. After I *THINK* it's
been taken care of, send in staged groups of scouts in full ABC gear to
examine the area and verify the thing's obliteration, make sure there
isn't some of it underground where the attack didn't quite reach, etc.
The staged groups will be to determine the control range of the thing if
it turns out that its method of control is not screened out even by
military protective gear (i.e., it's something like psionics rather than
a wide-spectrum pheromone, radiative-based signal, etc.).
--
Sea Wasp
/^\
;;;
Live Journal: http://seawasp.livejournal.com
Dorothy J Heydt
R.L. <see...@no-spams.coms> wrote:
>On Sat, 26 Dec 2009 11:54:39 -0600, Suzanne Blom wrote:
>
>> In your city, an alien something has "popped up" in the middle of a
>> residential neighborhood. It can attract people from a certain but as yet
>> unknown distance away and absorb/eat them. Electronic devices do not work
>> in its vicinity.
What about electrically-powered mechanical devices? (Do vacuum
tubes work?) If electrical power won't work either, what about
steam-powered? Would an ordinary mechanial camera, that uses
old-fashioned film, work? Your guys need at least to find that
out.
Obviously, you want to get rid of or at least contain it
>> as quickly as possible, but, to do that, you're going to need to know what
>> it is and how it reacts to whatever. What equipment are you going to bring
>> to the site to study it?
>>
>> If you need to visualize it, you can imagine either slowly spreading grey
>> goo or big plants putting out runners---but, of course, whatever you imagine
>> is seen from a distance and may well be only part of the, uh, picture.
>
>
>Well, to begin with the obvious. You'd want to keep people from approaching
>it, which would mean using whatever crowd control stuff is handy. So how it
>reacts to that stuff will give you some immediate clues.
>
>One priority will be to find out how it is attracting people and try to
>counter that, so your investigators won't be distracted by urges to jump
>into it - rationalized as need to study it up close.
Cf. the Great Unknown in Turtledove's _Earthgrip_: in the shape
of a huge tower, built millennia ago by the losing faction in an
alien civil war, it attracts members of the winning faction.
If they get close enough, they are seized by the idea that
somewhere inside the tower is the Answer to Life, the Universe,
and Everything, and they will run toward it, over or through
anything (anybody) that stands in their way. If they can
actually get to it or near it, they permanently lose their wits.
Short of that, they are perpetually tormented by the feeling that
the Answer really was in there, and if only they could have
reached it....
--
Dorothy J. Heydt
Vallejo, California
djheydt at hotmail dot com
Should you wish to email me, you'd better use the hotmail edress.
Kithrup is getting too damn much spam, even with the sysop's filters.
Bill Swears
samples. If the something can control somebody in an entirely sealed
environment suit, then you'd begin thinking true mind control instead of
some chemical lure.
I'd try some very powerful electronic field driven in by some very
simple mechanical device, see if you can overload whatever is turning
off the electronics.
If the effect range isn't too much greater than the outer diameter of
the something, Rube Goldberg an entirely mechanical device, run it using
long cables, to go into the plant/goo zone and retrieve samples/closeup
imagery.
Aerial photography and satellite imagery should provide necessary
imagery. Both can develop more detail than you'll probably need prior
to attaining actual samples.
If this thing is growing, and using mind-control, and can't or won't
communicate, kill it with a distance attack, assuming non-sentience in
absence of communication. Since it is killing people and eating them,
not coming to some form of immediate agreement is adequate reason to
kill it even if it's sentient. Mortar barrage, drop bombs, etc. Start
with anti-fungals/herbicides delivered by mortar round, or pushed out as
a foam by fire-trucks.
Bill
--
Living on the polemic may be temporarily satisfying, but it will raise
your blood-pressure, and gives you tunnel vision.
Peter Knutsen
> In your city, an alien something has "popped up" in the middle of a
> residential neighborhood. It can attract people from a certain but as yet
> unknown distance away and absorb/eat them. Electronic devices do not work
> in its vicinity. Obviously, you want to get rid of or at least contain it
> as quickly as possible, but, to do that, you're going to need to know what
> it is and how it reacts to whatever. What equipment are you going to bring
> to the site to study it?
Non-electronic still and moving-picture cameras, with zoom lenses. Those
are the obvious things to bring.
--
Peter Knutsen
sagatafl.org
Sea Wasp (Ryk E. Spoor)
I seriously think that getting pictures and studying it would take a
huge back seat to blasting it out of existence if it had exhibited the
described capabilities AND appeared to be growing.
Dorothy J Heydt
Woth strictly mechanical remote controls (VERY long cables?).
And, if electromagnetic motors won't work, steam-powered
transport, as I said somewhere upthread.
In fact, it may start looking like something out of Girl Genius.
R.L.
> In article <4b36af45$0$269$1472...@news.sunsite.dk>,
> Peter Knutsen <pe...@sagatafl.invalid> wrote:
>>On 26/12/2009 18:54, Suzanne Blom wrote:
>>> In your city, an alien something has "popped up" in the middle of a
>>> residential neighborhood. It can attract people from a certain but as yet
>>> unknown distance away and absorb/eat them. Electronic devices do not work
>>> in its vicinity. Obviously, you want to get rid of or at least contain it
>>> as quickly as possible, but, to do that, you're going to need to know what
>>> it is and how it reacts to whatever. What equipment are you going to bring
>>> to the site to study it?
>>[...]
>>
>>Non-electronic still and moving-picture cameras, with zoom lenses. Those
>>are the obvious things to bring.
>
> Woth strictly mechanical remote controls (VERY long cables?).
> And, if electromagnetic motors won't work, steam-powered
> transport, as I said somewhere upthread.
>
> In fact, it may start looking like something out of Girl Genius.
Interesting thread. It all may boil down to what kind of story you want to
write.
R.L.
Joy Beeson
With regard to destroying the monster, as suggested in several places
in this thread, explosions and anything else that might splash it
around are absolutely out.
--
Joy Beeson
joy beeson at comcast dot net
J.F.Cornwall
Get the photos first, then blast it while your recon guys are developing
the film :)
If you do take the time for study:
For sample acquisition, you could use hollow-tipped harpoons to get your
alien punch biopsy. Fire them in from outside the control range, haul
'em back out with a cable attached to the harpoon.
Send in volunteers (or draftees...) with various types of jamming setups
(sonic, electromagnetic, optical, whatever the bright boys can think of
and create) to see if there's something that disrupts the control.
Send in a vehicle for sample-taking with hydraulic/pneumatic control
systems rather than electronics.
Jim
J.F.Cornwall
>
> With regard to destroying the monster, as suggested in several places
> in this thread, explosions and anything else that might splash it
> around are absolutely out.
>
High powered industrial or military lasers? The USAF has some
experimental anti-missile systems that could be brought down off their
airborne platforms and used, the Navy has some expermental systems as
well. Industrial lasers might be usable if you can adjust the beam
focus far enough out.
How about smaller projectiles? Something small & fast to penetrate it
but not explosive? Machine gun fire, non-explosive penetrators from
artillery? White Phosphorous incendiary rounds fired into the thing's
interior? Napalm?
Spray it with acid or a strong base? With countering agents used around
the area to reduce any impacts on the surroundings?
I guess the options are going to depend on why explosive and splashy
methods are not allowed.
Jim
R.L.
> Joy Beeson wrote:
>>
>> With regard to destroying the monster, as suggested in several places
>> in this thread, explosions and anything else that might splash it
>> around are absolutely out.
/snip/
> I guess the options are going to depend on why explosive and splashy
> methods are not allowed.
However if you could have an airbourne oil tanker handy for an oil
spill....
R.L.
Eric Ammadon
>In your city, an alien something has "popped up" in the middle of a
>residential neighborhood. It can attract people from a certain but as yet
>unknown distance away and absorb/eat them.
Do you know for sure that's a bad thing? The thing might be fixing
them up and ready to start spitting them back out at any moment.
> Electronic devices do not work
>in its vicinity. Obviously, you want to get rid of or at least contain it
>as quickly as possible, but, to do that, you're going to need to know what
>it is and how it reacts to whatever. What equipment are you going to bring
>to the site to study it?
I'm going to want to find somebody smart enough to do the job, but who
maybe is sitting in the middle of my path to promotion (someone I
wouldn't mind seeing absorbed/eaten), and send that person in to
collect whatever information can be collected before s/he's
absorbed/eaten. I damn sure won't be going close to it myself unless
I'm feeling suicidal, in fact I might be renting a U-Haul for a
one-way trip to the next state. (Of course if I look in the mirror in
the morning and my first thought is "Dude, you look like lunchmeat!"
maybe I'll go myself.)
>If you need to visualize it, you can imagine either slowly spreading grey
>goo or big plants putting out runners---but, of course, whatever you imagine
>is seen from a distance and may well be only part of the, uh, picture.
Gosh, my mother-in-law just loves that kind of thing, I wonder if
she'd be interested...
--
arggh, is it priate day again?
Eric Ammadon
>I do not f*ck around with invading consuming alien mind-controlling
>things. it won't have the opportunity to spread. After I *THINK* it's
>been taken care of, send in staged groups of scouts in full ABC gear to
>examine the area and verify the thing's obliteration, make sure there
>isn't some of it underground where the attack didn't quite reach, etc.
<flutter> You are such a Real Mayun! <g>
When somebody new moves into the neighborhood, do you send Welcome
Wagon or the Bomb Squad? Ever consider sending your local IRS agent
over to check things out first, maybe fail to come back?
Eric Ammadon
I wonder if you could modify one of those hand-held rocket launchers
to shoot a "dud" rocket through the thing, something with a cup shape
on its business end, to capture a chunk of goo. Of course you might
end up with a second alien thinger at the spot where the captured goo
lands, but it might tell you something.
Nah, I still favor sending in my worst enemies first, let them (those
who survive) have all the glory, after all Number One comes first and
that's a win/win for Number One.
Sea Wasp (Ryk E. Spoor)
>
> With regard to destroying the monster, as suggested in several places
> in this thread, explosions and anything else that might splash it
> around are absolutely out.
>
Depends on explosions. Get your nuke to within the primary detonation
radius, there is no splash, there's plasma, unless the thing is made of
Unobtainium from Krypton, at which point you wouldn't need to worry
about splashing it anyway.
But if I'm not trying to destroy it right away, procedures would be to
first evaluate the area around it.
1) UAVs to determine the exact radius of the "electronics fail" (and to
see if the failure extends in a sphere or is flatter than that by trying
it at different altitudes.) Very small and relatively inexpensive UAVs
would be used for this.
1a) If radius/minimum altitude permits, might be able to do regular
overflights with visible, acoustic, and radio transmissions trying to
make contact with the thing.
2) Test to see if the failure is an electromagnetic effect by seeing if
it interferes with transmissions such as radio/cell phone going THROUGH
its range.
3) If it's attracting all sorts of animals to it, test whether
biohazard will protect against it using trained dogs in staged
approaches in NBC gear.
3a) If no protection works, you are in much, MUCH more dire straits
because you're dealing with something utterly out of our experience, in
all likelihood.
4) From the above, determine if electronics interference radius is the
same as attractant radius.
5) Determine if radius is increasing as thing grows. If not, you at
least have some time to analyze it. If it is, you are in a much more
urgent situation. If (3) indicated that protective gear is of no use,
it's even worse.
6) If radius is not so high that overflight is impossible (over 10
miles), do spy-plane overflights for the best imagery you can get;
satellite otherwise, but a well-equipped spyplane at 60,000 feet will be
able to get better imagery and other information. I am assuming at this
point since you appear to be able to see it that it doesn't interfere
with visible light and probably not with ultraviolet or infrared, even
if it's (possibly) messing up the radio/microwave/etc. section of the
electromagnetic band.
7) If the above assumption is correctly, FTIR and other remote method
spectroscopy can be used to get some idea of composition and if it's
emitting any materials we don't know.
8) If NBC gear is shown to be effective, then you can send in vehicles
that don't use electronics (older-fashioned cars, etc.) and men with
physical tools to examine the thing, take samples, etc. You can gain a
LOT more data that way, including the structure of the thing, close-up
photographs, see if samples (small pieces) exhibit the same
characteristics as the larger thing, and so on. Also verify the action
of attempted methods to destroy it.
9) At this point, barring any analysis of the data showing that there
is a reasonable possibility of communication or containment, you will be
forced to attack. Likely effective methods would be fire, acid, caustics
like NaOH, lasers, all of which could be delivered quite accurately by
methods which would not require electronic direction inside the radius.
Depending on the analysis you may have determined other likely methods.
Alcohol, cyanide, and chlorine gas have good track records of killing an
awful lot of things and might be usable. After any attempt to destroy it
you'd of course check to see if the thing's effects were still present
BEFORE sending in a mop-up squad.
Sea Wasp (Ryk E. Spoor)
> "Sea Wasp (Ryk E. Spoor)" <sea...@sgeinc.invalid.com> wrote:
>
>> I do not f*ck around with invading consuming alien mind-controlling
>> things. it won't have the opportunity to spread. After I *THINK* it's
>> been taken care of, send in staged groups of scouts in full ABC gear to
>> examine the area and verify the thing's obliteration, make sure there
>> isn't some of it underground where the attack didn't quite reach, etc.
>
> <flutter> You are such a Real Mayun! <g>
>
> When somebody new moves into the neighborhood, do you send Welcome
> Wagon or the Bomb Squad?
If they move into the neighborhood and cut my power and eat my dog, I
send in the Marines.
Eric Ammadon
>Eric Ammadon wrote:
>> "Sea Wasp (Ryk E. Spoor)" <sea...@sgeinc.invalid.com> wrote:
>>
>>> I do not f*ck around with invading consuming alien mind-controlling
>>> things. it won't have the opportunity to spread. After I *THINK* it's
>>> been taken care of, send in staged groups of scouts in full ABC gear to
>>> examine the area and verify the thing's obliteration, make sure there
>>> isn't some of it underground where the attack didn't quite reach, etc.
>>
>> <flutter> You are such a Real Mayun! <g>
>>
>> When somebody new moves into the neighborhood, do you send Welcome
>> Wagon or the Bomb Squad?
>
> If they move into the neighborhood and cut my power and eat my dog, I
>send in the Marines.
<flutter><sigh>
Reminds me of the fellow who, at his neighbor's barbeque, to which
he'd been invited as an apparent peace offering after trouble over his
dog, remarked on the fantastic flavor of the very tender meat, and
wondered what had happened to woofy. <g>
Suzanne Blom
"Suzanne Blom" <sue...@execpc.com> wrote in message
news:JbCdnVhedtB80KvW...@posted.localnet...
> In your city, an alien something has "popped up" in the middle of a
> residential neighborhood. It can attract people from a certain but as yet
> unknown distance away and absorb/eat them. Electronic devices do not work
> in its vicinity. Obviously, you want to get rid of or at least contain it
> as quickly as possible, but, to do that, you're going to need to know what
> it is and how it reacts to whatever. What equipment are you going to
> bring to the site to study it?
>
viciousness, Bill Swears, and Joy Beeson. I will even have to think a
bit.--And thanks to everybody I didn't mention as well.
Sea Wasp (Ryk E. Spoor)
> "Suzanne Blom" <sue...@execpc.com> wrote in message
> news:JbCdnVhedtB80KvW...@posted.localnet...
>> In your city, an alien something has "popped up" in the middle of a
>> residential neighborhood. It can attract people from a certain but as yet
>> unknown distance away and absorb/eat them. Electronic devices do not work
>> in its vicinity. Obviously, you want to get rid of or at least contain it
>> as quickly as possible, but, to do that, you're going to need to know what
>> it is and how it reacts to whatever. What equipment are you going to
>> bring to the site to study it?
>>
> You guys are great. I especially applaud Sea Wasp for his thoughtful
> viciousness,
It's the American way! :)
Did you see my more detailed and not immediately destructive post?
R.L.
Your description suggests it's mindless. But the characters in the story
don't have the benefit of those suggestions.
On the one hand it's slowly spreading and (presumably) absorbing locals.
Otoh, some forms of attack would splash and spread it. And attack might
draw retaliation, from it or from whoever dropped it.
Keeping locals away, and relatively harmless containment, would preserve
options. Looking for UFOs still flying around might be worthwhile. What it
is and what it's doing now may be less important than where it came from.
An ice cream cone dropped near a hornets' nest is attractive and absorbing
to the hornets, and spreads as it melts. Hornets attacking the ice cream in
force -- may attract pest control.
R.L.
James A. Donald
> > In your city, an alien something has "popped up" in the middle of a
> > residential neighborhood. It can attract people from a certain but as yet
> > unknown distance away and absorb/eat them. Electronic devices do not work
> > in its vicinity.
On Sat, 26 Dec 2009 14:07:12 -0500, "Sea Wasp (Ryk E. Spoor)"
<sea...@sgeinc.invalid.com> wrote:
> Satellite imagery, ranged bombardment. I'll study what's LEFT, if
> anything, after I subject it first to incendiaries and then corrosives.
It becomes obvious that there are no individual people in this story.
A story without people is boring.
So, the attraction cannot be irresistible. A viewpoint character has
to get close enough to the evil, resist, and flee or fight, or both.
One solution is the standard trope for demons - that demonic
possession is always in part psychosomatic. Someone sufficiently
determined to eject a possessing demon can always do so, due to his
home field advantage, so demons always in part seduce, rely at first
on telling lies that the victim wants to believe and willfully refuses
to see through, though the victim eventually becomes completely
dominated, a mere meat puppet.
Since your evil is a material being, the meat puppet stage could be
visibly manifest by coils of spore emitting fungus coming out of the
victims ears, nose, mouth, anus, and primary sexual organs. Victim
in the meat puppet stage does not eat or drink, and slowly shrivels
up.
Michael R N Dolbear
> In your city, an alien something has "popped up" in the middle of a
> residential neighborhood. It can attract people from a certain but
as yet
> unknown distance away and absorb/eat them. Electronic devices do not
work
> in its vicinity. [...]
Actually "Electronic devices do not work in its vicinity." is in itself
a fasinating mode for investigation (it's a classic, like "unknown
element" and "does not appear in mirrors/ photographs"). Send remote
controlled vehicles, land and air, to investigate, eg, local
electrical and magnetic fields. Remotely move mobile phones and TV
cameras, say, to closer and closer distances. Try different shielding
methodstoo.
Many modern munitions use electronics so if any of the Boomenstuff
suggestions elsethread are to work you may need to know better what is
going on.
--
Mike D
Suzanne Blom
"Sea Wasp (Ryk E. Spoor)" <sea...@sgeinc.invalid.com> wrote in message
news:hh882a$udf$1...@news.eternal-september.org...
I'm going to go check out wind-up toys, which weren't mentioned, but did
come to mind upon reading.
Sea Wasp (Ryk E. Spoor)
Unless the radius of mind-control or whatever is roughly the length of
a living room, you're not doing much with those. The same basic
technology could be used to effect, but it'd take quite a while to
cobble together an effective, controllable spring-powered sampling or
whatever vehicle.
Dorothy J Heydt
Don't forget the steam engines!
Ric Locke
OTOH there are already the compressed-air cars made in India. There are
many different kinds of springs.
Regards,
Ric
Gerry Quinn
sue...@execpc.com says...
> In your city, an alien something has "popped up" in the middle of a
> residential neighborhood. It can attract people from a certain but as yet
> unknown distance away and absorb/eat them. Electronic devices do not work
> in its vicinity. Obviously, you want to get rid of or at least contain it
> as quickly as possible, but, to do that, you're going to need to know what
> it is and how it reacts to whatever. What equipment are you going to bring
> to the site to study it?
>
> goo or big plants putting out runners---but, of course, whatever you imagine
> is seen from a distance and may well be only part of the, uh, picture.
Well, if it can attract people, I would initially bring people and
chains, so I can investigate the means of attraction using tethered
people. If ethics are no constraint, I can let some of them be
absorbed and monitor the process.
I would also bring sampling devices, and various chemicals to throw at
it. I could also probe it with beams of radiation of various sorts,
lasers etc.
- Gerry Quinn
Bill Swears
on a motor, but with course set by a paper card. You would cut a path
around the outside of a paper card, and an arm followed the path you had
cut, the vehicle steered on that path. Combine that with a model diesel
airplane engine, like my dad used on his fly-by-wire model Fokker D VII,
and you have a fully non-electric transport vehicle. Use two paper
cards, one for vehicle path, and one to drive the sampler arm.
Suzanne Blom
> Suzanne Blom wrote:
>> "Sea Wasp (Ryk E. Spoor)" <sea...@sgeinc.invalid.com> wrote in message
>> news:hh882a$udf$1...@news.eternal-september.org...
>>>
>>>
>> The one with points numbered 1-9? Yeah, I did. All is printed out.
>> Think I'm going to go check out wind-up toys, which weren't mentioned,
>> but did come to mind upon reading.
>
> Unless the radius of mind-control or whatever is roughly the length of a
> living room, you're not doing much with those.
into google-dom.
Eric Ammadon
>In article <wN2dnf5xfdG9daXW...@posted.localnet>,
>Suzanne Blom <sue...@execpc.com> wrote:
>>
>>"Sea Wasp (Ryk E. Spoor)" <sea...@sgeinc.invalid.com> wrote in message
>>news:hh882a$udf$1...@news.eternal-september.org...
>>> Suzanne Blom wrote:
>>>> "Suzanne Blom" <sue...@execpc.com> wrote in message
>>>> news:JbCdnVhedtB80KvW...@posted.localnet...
>>>>> In your city, an alien something has "popped up" in the middle of a
>>>>> residential neighborhood. It can attract people from a certain but as
>>>>> yet unknown distance away and absorb/eat them. Electronic devices do
>>>>> not work in its vicinity. Obviously, you want to get rid of or at least
>>>>> contain it as quickly as possible, but, to do that, you're going to need
>>>>> to know what it is and how it reacts to whatever. What equipment are
>>>>> you going to bring to the site to study it?
>>>>>
>>>> You guys are great. I especially applaud Sea Wasp for his thoughtful
>>>> viciousness,
>>>
>>> It's the American way! :)
>>>
>>> Did you see my more detailed and not immediately destructive post?
>>>
>>The one with points numbered 1-9? Yeah, I did. All is printed out. Think
>>I'm going to go check out wind-up toys, which weren't mentioned, but did
>>come to mind upon reading.
>
>Don't forget the steam engines!
Saberhagen's _The_Golden_People_ (1964, his first novel) describes a
world "Golden" where there is a toroidally shaped field enclosing most
of the planet. Within this field all electrical and most mechanical
activity is mysteriously inhibited. Robots walk into the field and
fall over, watches stop ticking, etc.
http://www.berserker.com/bk_goldenpeople.htm
Daniel R. Reitman
>In your city, an alien something has "popped up" in the middle of a
>residential neighborhood. It can attract people from a certain but as yet
>unknown distance away and absorb/eat them. Electronic devices do not work
>in its vicinity. Obviously, you want to get rid of or at least contain it
>as quickly as possible, but, to do that, you're going to need to know what
>it is and how it reacts to whatever. What equipment are you going to bring
>to the site to study it?
>. . . .
Should we assume the alien menace is immune to bullets?
Dan, ad nauseam
Suzanne Blom
"Daniel R. Reitman" <drei...@spiritone.com> wrote in message
news:pbpqj55l60qa4va0d...@4ax.com...
> On Sat, 26 Dec 2009 11:54:39 -0600, "Suzanne Blom"
> <sue...@execpc.com> wrote:
>
>>In your city, an alien something has "popped up" in the middle of a
>>residential neighborhood. It can attract people from a certain but as yet
>>unknown distance away and absorb/eat them. Electronic devices do not work
>>in its vicinity. Obviously, you want to get rid of or at least contain it
>>as quickly as possible, but, to do that, you're going to need to know what
>>it is and how it reacts to whatever. What equipment are you going to
>>bring
>>to the site to study it?
> Should we assume the alien menace is immune to bullets?
>
Nothing should be assumed.