Jul 16 05:24:12 109 PA Tek starts to Teach Sithik to Read Sensory Equipment

From Chronicles

The bay doors to Uncommon Mechanics are just opening up the beautiful Tuesday morning. A tow truck is just pulling in with a big conversion van. In the First bay Tek is sipping a cup of steaming coffee with a tow truck up on the lift. His jumpsuit is actually clean for the very first time from what you have seen him in.

Sithik arrives early, a recent catch of rabbits on a string carried over his shoulder. "Hello Tek." he calls out while still just outside the bay doors. Following along behind is the reptilian companion that is typically not far away from this hunter.

Tek smiles and waves to the hunter, "Hey there Sithik. Top of the morning to ya. Care for a cup of joe?"

Sithik gives a shake of his head, "Thank you, no. Do you like Rabbit? I have plenty to share." holding the string of dead bunnies up to show off his morning's catch.

Tek shrugs, "I have never had rabbit to be honest. They have never offered it on a menu well at least not openly. I am afraid I don't have a way to cook such a thing, but I appreciate the offer." he nods to the girl mechanic at some unseen question and she hurries off to the back of the shop.

Sithik gives a nod to the declined offer, "It is very tasty. Easiest way to cook it is over an open fire on a spit. They are very easy to find in this area. Are you free for some instruction?"

Tek looks around and nods, "Yea Kaylee can manage by herself. The Rover is around back we can take a ride and I around and I can show you how to use several different systems that it has for a start if you like?"

Sithik nods to the invitation, "That sounds good to me. Perhaps you could drop me in Little Russia when we are done? that is my next destination after the lesson with you."

Tek hollers over to the other mechanic as she makes her way back to watch the shop while he is gone and lock up if she gets a call for a pick up. And then as he leads you around to the back he says, "Little Russia? Where is that?"

Sithik replies, following the mechanic out to his vehicle, "It is in the Northeast Dregs, a relatively peaceful section of the Dregs compared to the rest. The Russian people have made it their home and have done quite well for it."

Tek nods as the two approach the large tired vehicle, "Alright you climb up into the passenger side. Your pet can sit in the back since we will not be coming back here." with that he starts climbing up into the drivers seat."

Sithik gives a nod and lets his pet hop up into the vehicle first which he chases into the back as he climbs in. The first thing he does once the door is closed, is check out the vehicles controls and interior.

Most of the navigation, radio and radar are on a swivel type console between the drivers seat and the passenger seat with a few spread out on the dashboard, "Alright so her let me go over the basics of what is what first off. If you see this symbol here on equipment it shows that is to turn it on and off. This is the radar screen and this..." Tek goes through each piece of equipment one by one.

Sithik follows along as things are pointed out and told what they are. Taking note of the symbol of the on/off switch, "Is that symbol universal on all electrical equipment?"

Tek nods to the question, "If it is marked it will usually be marked that way though not all devices are so clearly marked. Now lets start with the radar since we do not have to move to demonstrate just track flights coming in and out of the landing strip. Now after you flip it to this screen here using that icon there" he shows you slowly and makes sure you see well before moving on, "now those blips there show the flights. Now you see those numbers next to each of them?"

Sithik watches everything Tek does as he turns on the radar. His eyes on the screen to see the blips pointed out, instinctively he looks out the window of the vehicle and back to the screen as if comparing what the screen shows to what his eyes see outside. He does nod when asked of the numbers, "Yes, what do they mean?"

Tek shows a secondary button with a finger, "Well if you press this switch to the left like this it brings up this screen small on the bottom while leaving the other one up so you can see both at the same time which is usually how I leave it while tracking new or multiple targets. But if you flip it the other way it brings up this screen with the maximum amount of information. Each of the numbers on the blips refer to a line which shows the statistics of that object such as speed, altitude and such."

Sithik blinks when the screen changes, taking note of the differences between the two views. Again he looks back outside the vehicle and then back to the screen, though the multiple blips are not comprehended yet to figure out which visual target the blip could represent. "So the paired screen is more appropriate to use first or does it matter?" He looks to the numerical notations of the different blips on the screen, "And which number is which? Is there an order to how they are displayed?"

Tek nods, "Well if you mean first as in once a target shows up then yes. When it is empty I usually leave it on the larger image of the radar itself. And each number has a slightly different color but you have to get used to seeing them for a while before that becomes obvious. They are numbered and appear in the list based on which ever is closest at the moment will be at the top. Everything closest to the center is closest to us. The center is actually the truck."

Sithik nods, pointing to the top portion of the screen, above the center dot, "So when looking at this, anything in this part of the screen is in front of us and the lower part is behind us and so forth regarding left and right?" Again looking outside and back to the screen, looking for that visual reference to the blip.

Tek smiles and nods, "That is exactly right. Now if you touch one of the blips it will automatically display all known information right down here. So go ahead and try out what you know so far."

Sithik chooses the closest target blip to the vehicle, giving the screen a light poke to bring up the information on that specific target. Once the information is displayed, he scans over it and again looks outside the window of the vehicle for that visual reference the blip represents.

Tek smiles but remains silent as he lets Sithik go through what he has shown him.

Sithik continues to switch between the different blips and looking outside and then Eureka! "There it is!" finally confident he has found the actual vehicle zooming by that is represented by the little light on the screen. Continuing this for the next few moments, catching sight of some, but not all of the targets chosen. Some were just too far for any real visual confirmation just yet. He seems to be getting the direction in which to look correct at least.

Tek smiles and says, "Alright keep it going I am going to drive around the strip to give you a feeling for how it works in motion then we will head out and work on a different system." with that the rover starts out onto the road that loops around the air field.

Sithik continues picking blips to try and locate visually after scanning over the display's information. The more he attempts, the more accustomed he becomes in finding the actual target from the screens display. The movement makes things much more difficult to do however. Between the movement of the vehicle and the movement of the target, blips change direction quite quickly, when he goes to look, its too late and he must search for it out another window. He seems able to adapt to it without any frustration.

Tek smiles even wider as he sees Sithik seems to get it. He heads out of the landing strip and out of town. As they are cruising at a relatively slow speed he starts flipping through a couple other screens showing you how to do so, "So here you can see the map of this entire area from way up. This blip here is us."

Sithik blinks again as the screen changes drastically from the Radar screen, but the image of a map is much more familiar to him than the Radar was.

Tek shows you a few other buttons on the side of the screen, "This lets you zoom in or out. And if you go into this screen this way you can set up a route which will then display and track your progress showing it on the main screen, like this here." he flips through the screens slowly showing you each option a couple times and going back over anything you might have difficulty with at first.

Sithik plays with the controls of the device to take note of all the differences and options each screen offers. Toying with the options of zooming and panning to familiarize himself with how each thing works. "There is a lot to remember with the options available." Its at this time he toggles a switch that changes the view which causes him a some trouble in getting it back to the navigational screen right away and when he does get it back the map is not centered on the vehicle its panned off somewhere far off in the Dregs, by the map anyway. "What happened? Where are we?"

Tek chuckles, "The screen is sensitive, but if you hit that green one down there on the bottom it will recenter it. Feel free to play around with it for a little longer and then I will show you another system."

Sithik successfully re-centers the map with the bit of instruction from Tek, continuing his toying with the controls of the device to test out his own comprehension of the machine. He gets lost and before Tek can correct him he holds up finger to indicate allowing him to figure it out, which after a moment or two he does. In the end he looks to attempt programming in the location they are driving to. Marking Little Russia on the display map, well he thinks he has it, so far it is leading in the correct direction. Just waiting for the call of, Recalculating!

Tek smiles and lets the hunter use his reasoning skills, "So when you are ready we can play with some fun stuff. That looks right and we will use it to get there once we finish up here." Sithik gives a nod ready to move on to the next sampling of high tech devices. "How many more options are there with this device?"

Tek chuckles, "Well as many as I choose to add but there are several more. We will only do one more for today's lesson though. Here when you turn this on then you will see in this screen cross-hairs like... this... and then you can take this here controller and you can see it move around. Now that there on the screen is that tree right there," pointing out of the slits which are the wind shield, "and when you press this here the top mounted weapon will fire like this." with that a full burst comes out of the mounted heavy weapon which cuts through the tree like butter. Then passing the controller Tek says, "You try."

Sithik takes the controller using it to move the cross hairs onto a target, though he hesitates in firing. "Now how do you know if this is a safe target as opposed to the tree you just annihilated?" and in fact when checked, the target is not something he should be shooting within the city with a heavy weapon. He decides on his own with a sigh, "It is too early to be firing live weapons based upon a reading on the screen. I will try weapons outside the city if you don't mind." If he would have fired, he would have tore into the corner of a building that stood out just beyond another which confused the readout slightly to look like the corner was just a pole or tree by itself. He still continues to move the cross hairs across the screen and visually inspects his target to compare with what is displayed on the screen to determine validity between electronic and real.

Tek chuckles, "The city is a ways behind us. So long as all you see is green like that you are good. If I see you swing it a hundred and eighty degrees I will stop you before. Go ahead squeeze off a few."

Sithik nods trusting in his instructors judgment, the small building past now. Carefully he chooses a new target that he is sure is safe to fire at and lets it rip shredding a tight cluster of trees. He goes again moving the little cross across the screen picking another cluster of trees, ripping them to hell like a weed whacker on steroids. From there he does not fire, but scrolls over targets to see how things change when the target is indicated, quickly moving to another randomly, assessing, then moving to the next. Some have him hesitating before moving on, some are crossed over either getting a verbal Bang, or quickly moving on to the next without the bang. This one is a bit more enjoyable as more is actually interacted with and takes real reflexes to target in a moving vehicle.

Tek points to a button, "That one will zoom in. That one there will switch to thermal, and that one night vision which all will move with as you aim."

Sithik plays with the varying optic options provided, still moving from target to target quickly making an assessment, bang or no bang. He doesn't get them all right, a couple bangs would have hit inappropriate targets, basically non-trees. Showing the inexperience with such devices, he still seems to rely on visual cues as well, frequently taking a peek out the window slits as a confirmation giving that slight bit of hesitation that would turn a good shot into a bad shot. A habit he will need to break for this type of thing.

Tek smiles and nods approvingly, "Alrighty lets head into town. That button there will safety the weapon up top. Go ahead and navigate for me. I will get us turned around."

Sithik does as instructed, the weapon is made safe. Then turns to the controls on the center console, taking a moment to remember where to turn the navigational aid on, which he is able to figure out without too much trouble, though the Radar is the first to come up, quickly corrected. Once turned around the device is already programmed with the destination and for now, things look on course. "

Tek heads into the city without a problem only stopping once he gets into Little Russia, "Well there you go my friend. I think that was a good first lesson. Practice what I showed you whenever you can get by the shop and we will get together again here real soon."

Sithik nods, "I will come by in the mornings to practice while you work after I check and set my traps. Thank you for taking the time to teach me."