Vote closed
Architect's Workshop (Girls' Frontline design quest)
Chapter 17
Solark
sun-chaser
[x] move on
Your eyes remain shut as you listen to her broadcast. She's neither blaming you nor cheering you up, handling the situation in her usual all-business manner.
Scarecrow: Ground forces activity at 137-71. A single motorized platoon. Diverting Juliett Three and Lima One to engage.
You can't bear to look at her, or to say goodbye. That's right, you're not going to fix this. Not this time. That's why you can't be here any longer. So you quietly stand up and exit the room without saying a word. Scarecrow will manage. She always does. You disregard burning sensation in your eyes, striding to the train as fast as you can without breaking into a run. You can't escape the failure, but at least you won't have to deal with anyone on top of it.
A short ride back to the workshop was not enough. You don't want to do anything, can't even bring yourself to even read the next request. Tomorrow then. You know better than to fight this feeling, so you lie down and allow it to invade you, torment you, reliving the failure again and again. It's depressing and frustrating and mortifying, but with every passing minute it gets just a bit duller, a little more subdued. So you grit your teeth and endure. You can't allow it to drag you down tomorrow.
It's morning, and you feel like shit. Your therapy has exhausted its usefulness, but you've more or less come in terms with what happened yesterday. Thinking about picking up a new project isn't filling you with disgust and denial anymore. You brace yourself and open the next request in you queue, which turns out to be from Executioner.
Heya, Archi! Here's what I need: repair kits! Something I can use in the field to patch myself up. Damn cowards wear me out, their attacks are weak, but they add up. I can take on any of them when I'm fresh, but after a few battles in a row I'm no longer a match for their elites. And after a few more even their averages stand a good chance against me. Help me level the field, or I'll be stuck with base defense for the rest of my life!
[x] Brainstorm
Vote closed
Chapter 18
Solark
sun-chaser
You mull over the problem slowly, methodically. First thing you notice is what she's asking might not necessarily the best solution. One doesn't go to a doctor with their own diagnosis and asking for specific pills: they go with symptoms, and the rest is up to the doctor. That's why you, a self-proclaimed doctor, look past the wording of the request, straight into the problem itself: Executioner is getting damaged. And by preventing that in the first place you can solve everything at the root!
Unfortunately, "just wear body armor" isn't going to cut it: a regular one doesn't provide limbs protection, and besides Ringleaders are remarkably obsessed with their individual styles. Intruder would literally rather die than dress into something she doesn't like, and the rest of the bunch is not much different. So if you want to dress your requester into a suit of armor, you'll have to get creative about it.
You consider Executioner's personality, her quirks, her battle style, and overlay that onto the requirements for the armor derived from the damage statistics. Luckily you don't have to worry about minor spalling and backface deformation, so one design immediately stands out.
Yes, this design, implemented in modern materials, is what you could go with: overlapping plates to reinforce vital parts while still allowing flexibility, limb protection that doesn't get in the way of movement too much, and most importantly, Executioner would love it.
You run the numbers, mentally assembling a prototype and calculating relevant metrics. Turns out for the level of protection you require, weight is getting out of bounds. Playing with the inputs, you're left with three options for the suit: sacrifice protection and stay within weight limits, sacrifice mobility by going over the weight limits, or come up with a new material to stay within the weight limits and still get the required protection. A footage with Executioner deflecting bullets with her sword catches your attention. You sigh and cross out the overweight option: this one is destined for failure.
There are notes somewhere, the results of your prior experiments on injecting tungsten-carbide compounds between interweaved multi-walled carbon nanotubes and polymer chains elongated at the molecular scale. You were forced to abandon the research due to the lack of progress back then...
Breakthrough points requirement (2): True
But now you know enough to complete Molecularly Injected Thermal Hardened Reinforced Interconnected Layers, or MITHRIL. It would take some time, but would provide the highest quality material for the armor.
You put the options down and switch to the next type, field repairs. You have a fair share of knowledge when it comes to Ringleaders mechanical anatomy, and you noticed long ago they were not designed for the ease of repair. Unlike the mass-produced variants, each Ringleader is a work of art, a prototype built from the ground-up without care for modularity or interchangeability of components. You'd say you and your compatriots were designed for extreme toughness and survivability instead, to keep fighting for as long as possible, gradually trading off superior specifications for continued operation as damage adds up. You're pretty sure if Ex were to loose her limbs, she'd still rip out a throat or two with her teeth. That durability allows Ringleaders to face a small army of Griffin T-Dolls on their lonesome, but also makes it very hard to properly repair one in the field.
So, what can you do? You take another look at Executioner's injuries statistics. Handgun bullets and grazing hits mostly fail to penetrate her synthetic skin backed by synthflesh that hardens upon impact. Assault rifle bullets do better at close range, sometimes reaching her endoskeleton. On rare occasions they get stuck in joints, inhibiting movement, or get entangled between myomer muscle fascicles, reducing output and precision.
High-energy rounds from sniper rifles and some machineguns either just pierce through flesh without significant harm, or hit her endoskeleton. They have enough energy to ricochet off it and travel along, doing several times more internal damage. Sometimes they undergo expansive deformation or shatter, resulting in even more trouble. Not enough to stop a Ringleader with a single hit, but after taking a dozen, with more and more subsystems switching to "limp home" mode, performance degradation becomes obvious.
Exoskeleton damage is almost unheard of, and no wonder: G&K does not pack the firepower to make it happen. Well, a shaped charge can do it, but good luck hitting a Ringleader with an anti-tank rocket. And if it happened, it'd probably mean instant game over anyway, so at least this problem is out.
You sigh again. This doesn't look easy. You can't find a quick fix for it. A degraded fascicle here, a severed or short microcircuit there, in dozens of different places, all insignificant on their own and requiring specialized facilities to repair. Like the one you have at the main base, a sarcophagus-like pod with a whole room of supporting machinery. That's where you had your hand rebuilt after the explosive incident that cost you several fingers. The thing is, Ringleaders are no old cars to just open a hood and replace a bundle of wires. The repair pod has myomer micro-tentacles that can go into a bullet wound, travel half the body on the inside, grind the bullet and fragments to dust and suck it out, and then rebuild everything from inside out, restoring circuitry, injecting muscle threads, regrowing synthflesh and nano-welding synthskin, all while modulating pain signals to make the procedure if not an enjoyable, but at least a boring experience. If you were to dig into the same wound with a pair of pliers, you'd surely do more harm than good.
You browse through a wide variety of sealants, patches, bandages, crutches and zip-ties. They all have their uses, but fundamentally unable to solve your problem. They are stop-gap measures to make something broken work again somehow until proper repairs can be made, while you're asked to restore Ex to her prime condition when she's still far from needing those things. No, you need something much more advanced here... like nanite solution that can be injected to restore everything without any external intervention?
Breakthrough points requirement (3): False
Right, and give her a whole nanite-based body so that she can perform mimicry and melt through things. What do you think, Ex-1000? You drop the silly idea and consider more practical ones. For instance, switching to a new body would make your requestor as prime as possible, and would not require too much machinery. The damaged body can be sent to the main base for repairs, and having... 3 to 4 bodies total should be enough to always have a fresh spare to switch into.
Sounds nice, expect that's what Ex is already doing as often as she can. Which is not often enough. Like all other Ringleaders, she has only one spare body besides her active one, and a new one gets queued to production no earlier than the total number of functioning bodies drops below two. That's the best you can afford at this point, otherwise you'd just mass-produce Ringleader-grade troops that'd tear Griffin T-Dolls to pieces with their bare hands.
Maybe you can try to make a mobile version of the repair pod then? Since you won't need exoskeleton-related functions and power requirements that come with it, it should be possible to scale it down enough to fit onto a wheeled platform. Not a small feat, but sure a feasible one. You put it down and scowl and the unusually short list of ideas. That's it? Aside from talking to Intruder and asking her to teach Ex the importance of tactical retreat to keep her body, yes.
No. It's you own idea to process the requests in the order they came in, you didn't promise anyone to adhere to it, and Executioner doesn't know you're considering her request now. For the first time a treacherous thought of skipping the request by pretending to put it off surfaces in your mind. Why not? There might be more important things you're needed for, so you could just say this one's turn hasn't arrived yet...
[x] Gusoku-type armor, standard materials, average protection:1d 2d, success outcome.
[x] Gusoku-type armor, MITHRIL, maximum protection:2d 4d, major success outcome.
[x] Mobile repair pod:2d 4d, major success outcome.
[x] Read all remaining requests in the queue, decide which one to take after that: 1d.
Unfortunately, "just wear body armor" isn't going to cut it: a regular one doesn't provide limbs protection, and besides Ringleaders are remarkably obsessed with their individual styles. Intruder would literally rather die than dress into something she doesn't like, and the rest of the bunch is not much different. So if you want to dress your requester into a suit of armor, you'll have to get creative about it.
You consider Executioner's personality, her quirks, her battle style, and overlay that onto the requirements for the armor derived from the damage statistics. Luckily you don't have to worry about minor spalling and backface deformation, so one design immediately stands out.
You run the numbers, mentally assembling a prototype and calculating relevant metrics. Turns out for the level of protection you require, weight is getting out of bounds. Playing with the inputs, you're left with three options for the suit: sacrifice protection and stay within weight limits, sacrifice mobility by going over the weight limits, or come up with a new material to stay within the weight limits and still get the required protection. A footage with Executioner deflecting bullets with her sword catches your attention. You sigh and cross out the overweight option: this one is destined for failure.
There are notes somewhere, the results of your prior experiments on injecting tungsten-carbide compounds between interweaved multi-walled carbon nanotubes and polymer chains elongated at the molecular scale. You were forced to abandon the research due to the lack of progress back then...
Breakthrough points requirement (2): True
But now you know enough to complete Molecularly Injected Thermal Hardened Reinforced Interconnected Layers, or MITHRIL. It would take some time, but would provide the highest quality material for the armor.
You put the options down and switch to the next type, field repairs. You have a fair share of knowledge when it comes to Ringleaders mechanical anatomy, and you noticed long ago they were not designed for the ease of repair. Unlike the mass-produced variants, each Ringleader is a work of art, a prototype built from the ground-up without care for modularity or interchangeability of components. You'd say you and your compatriots were designed for extreme toughness and survivability instead, to keep fighting for as long as possible, gradually trading off superior specifications for continued operation as damage adds up. You're pretty sure if Ex were to loose her limbs, she'd still rip out a throat or two with her teeth. That durability allows Ringleaders to face a small army of Griffin T-Dolls on their lonesome, but also makes it very hard to properly repair one in the field.
So, what can you do? You take another look at Executioner's injuries statistics. Handgun bullets and grazing hits mostly fail to penetrate her synthetic skin backed by synthflesh that hardens upon impact. Assault rifle bullets do better at close range, sometimes reaching her endoskeleton. On rare occasions they get stuck in joints, inhibiting movement, or get entangled between myomer muscle fascicles, reducing output and precision.
High-energy rounds from sniper rifles and some machineguns either just pierce through flesh without significant harm, or hit her endoskeleton. They have enough energy to ricochet off it and travel along, doing several times more internal damage. Sometimes they undergo expansive deformation or shatter, resulting in even more trouble. Not enough to stop a Ringleader with a single hit, but after taking a dozen, with more and more subsystems switching to "limp home" mode, performance degradation becomes obvious.
Exoskeleton damage is almost unheard of, and no wonder: G&K does not pack the firepower to make it happen. Well, a shaped charge can do it, but good luck hitting a Ringleader with an anti-tank rocket. And if it happened, it'd probably mean instant game over anyway, so at least this problem is out.
You sigh again. This doesn't look easy. You can't find a quick fix for it. A degraded fascicle here, a severed or short microcircuit there, in dozens of different places, all insignificant on their own and requiring specialized facilities to repair. Like the one you have at the main base, a sarcophagus-like pod with a whole room of supporting machinery. That's where you had your hand rebuilt after the explosive incident that cost you several fingers. The thing is, Ringleaders are no old cars to just open a hood and replace a bundle of wires. The repair pod has myomer micro-tentacles that can go into a bullet wound, travel half the body on the inside, grind the bullet and fragments to dust and suck it out, and then rebuild everything from inside out, restoring circuitry, injecting muscle threads, regrowing synthflesh and nano-welding synthskin, all while modulating pain signals to make the procedure if not an enjoyable, but at least a boring experience. If you were to dig into the same wound with a pair of pliers, you'd surely do more harm than good.
You browse through a wide variety of sealants, patches, bandages, crutches and zip-ties. They all have their uses, but fundamentally unable to solve your problem. They are stop-gap measures to make something broken work again somehow until proper repairs can be made, while you're asked to restore Ex to her prime condition when she's still far from needing those things. No, you need something much more advanced here... like nanite solution that can be injected to restore everything without any external intervention?
Breakthrough points requirement (3): False
Right, and give her a whole nanite-based body so that she can perform mimicry and melt through things. What do you think, Ex-1000? You drop the silly idea and consider more practical ones. For instance, switching to a new body would make your requestor as prime as possible, and would not require too much machinery. The damaged body can be sent to the main base for repairs, and having... 3 to 4 bodies total should be enough to always have a fresh spare to switch into.
Sounds nice, expect that's what Ex is already doing as often as she can. Which is not often enough. Like all other Ringleaders, she has only one spare body besides her active one, and a new one gets queued to production no earlier than the total number of functioning bodies drops below two. That's the best you can afford at this point, otherwise you'd just mass-produce Ringleader-grade troops that'd tear Griffin T-Dolls to pieces with their bare hands.
Maybe you can try to make a mobile version of the repair pod then? Since you won't need exoskeleton-related functions and power requirements that come with it, it should be possible to scale it down enough to fit onto a wheeled platform. Not a small feat, but sure a feasible one. You put it down and scowl and the unusually short list of ideas. That's it? Aside from talking to Intruder and asking her to teach Ex the importance of tactical retreat to keep her body, yes.
No. It's you own idea to process the requests in the order they came in, you didn't promise anyone to adhere to it, and Executioner doesn't know you're considering her request now. For the first time a treacherous thought of skipping the request by pretending to put it off surfaces in your mind. Why not? There might be more important things you're needed for, so you could just say this one's turn hasn't arrived yet...
[x] Gusoku-type armor, standard materials, average protection:
[x] Gusoku-type armor, MITHRIL, maximum protection:
[x] Mobile repair pod:
[x] Read all remaining requests in the queue, decide which one to take after that: 1d.
Vote closed
The view from downrange
- Location
- madison
The view from downrange
Intercepted message, secure email to forward G&K operating base, subject flagged for high priority review due to key words "rampancy, Threat, Singularity, Connor"
Text decryption at 23%, eta 1:43:02 for full decryption.
Video file attached to email, existing compromised decryption keys accepted, decryption at 100%
Video presentation from Dr Connor, senior Ai threat consultant.
Playing file: Presentation_final_3_for_real_this_time.MOV
The file runs, revealing a portly man in a stereotypical lab coat who seems to be sitting down in front of a laptop webcam.
"Good evening everyone, Now, as your higher ups only paid for so many of these presentations, I'm going to be trying to do several things at once with this one. So if this feels too detailed, or not detailed enough you know who to complain to."
He pauses and shoots a grin to the camera, apparently hoping to make at least a few members of his audience laugh, noticeably the grin does not reach his eyes.
"As you are no doubt aware, the idea of rogue digiminds has been my team's area of study for some time, much work has been done to predict what a rampancy event would look like. To sum up a great deal of academic arguing and theory crafting, the expected greatest threat of such an event was the much feared hyper-adaptability of a rampant digimind. By design, high end Ai vastly exceeds human cognitive abilities, and thus it was predicted that a rogue Ai would be capable of rapid technological and tactical innovation, leading to a foe that would rapidly outstrip our ability to contain."
Dr Connor pauses for a second as a sheepish expression comes across their face. "So you can imagine how foolish we all felt when Sangvis Ferri was all but defined by their lack of adaptability. Now, we came up with a great many face saving theories, ranging from still existing safeguards, to some form of deception, to asserting that the rampancy event left their AI crippled. Unfortunately for everyone involved, it turns out the answer was simply a lack of time. The handful of malfunctioning masterminds were simply too busy commanding troops to do anything else. As they shift to a more defensive posture, this seems to be changing."
With a click the image of the doctor is replaced with a side view of the ringleader unit Agent. The low resolution is clearly a still frame taken from combat footage, showing her in side profile, as her weapons fire upon some unseen target. Red circles have been drawn over the scopes so recently added to her guns.
"As you can see here, recently this ringleader unit modified its weapons. A very small change, it has added scopes to its guns. This is a simple aftermarket modification meant to adapt it from its intended role as a bodyguard to its present role as a field combatant. This is by itself, not very worrying save for the immediate tactical consequences, adding scopes is the sort of ad-hoc modification in line with what more advanced T-dolls have been known to perform. The issue is that it proves that the Sangvis Ferri rampancy is capable of self improvement, and adapting to changing circumstances rather than hard locked from it by an internal defect or remaining shackle. The observed changes will become more worrying from here."
With another click the image changed, this time to a smoldering trenchline.
"Now, this one is a less well understood change, as we have had to deduce it from analysis of battlefield aftermath and a few bits of recovered footage. While the harassing nature of Agents attacks meant we had surviving units to pull footage from, Destroyer is attacking and eradicating hardpoints leaving us far less to work with. From what we can tell, it has modified the fuses of its primary weapon to enable airburst capability, a direct response to encountering entrenched foes. More worryingly still, spectrometric analysis of blast residue has confirmed it has adopted a novel explosive with notably increased capabilities. This is far more concerning if perhaps less tactically relevant than the modifications to Agent, as it implies that they are capable of modifying production lines. Ringleader bodies are rare enough that Agent could simply have been manually adding scopes to its weapons every time it was re-sleeved, but this is a munition, one used in quantities too large for anything but a production line to be providing them. This is the first evidence of industrial modification we have seen, but worryingly it is not the last."
With another click, the smoldering tench line is replaced with what is clearly gun cam footage, showing a large quadcopter dead center of an aiming reticle.
"This appears to be a partially successful attempt at a MK II recon drone. It was intercepted several thousand feet above effective engagement range for small arms, well above the flight ceiling of existing Sangvis Ferri reconnaissance platforms. As of now, only a single example has been encountered, quite possibly as a field trial. While it was shot down, doing so required the deployment of a helicopter into unsecured airspace."
there is a pause and the sound of shuffling paper.
"It is also the belief of the engineering department, that the drone could be easily modified into a crude anti helicopter platform. Either by replacing its optical sensor package with explosives, or a stripped down anti material rifle. It is our recommendation that you seek hard kill defenses for your helicopters. I believe as a stopgap measure replacing the co-pilot with a sniper rated T-doll should be sufficient in the short term. As for what this means for future threats, this is the first truly new platform we have seen thus far. While clearly based on existing recon drones, it is nevertheless a novel design, and one that could well see mass production going forward. As for why I am recommending hard kill defenses rather than jamming, well that has to do with the last and most disturbing change."
With a click, the screen changes, this time revealing a short clip. a score of T-dolls are pouring fire into an apartment block, suppressing the Sangvis Ferri defenders. At an unheard signal, the viewpoint t-doll charges alongside her dummy bodies, dashing through the anemic fire of the suppressed defenders. With a crash they tear through the door into a long hallway. A second later she glances back to see another fire team of dolls had followed her into the entryway. An instant later the screen is full of dust and fire as the squadron is sent sprawling. The camera shakes as the bearer scrambles to her feet, seeing what was once a study cement wall has been blown open, the glow of a dozen rippers visible through the smoke. The footage freezes.
"I'm sure we don't need to see what happens next." with another click once more the view returns to a very worried looking Dr Conor.
"We believe that the defenders lured the breach team into the entryway, including the second wave, before detonating a Golith drone bomb to blast open the wall, and eliminating the breaching team with hidden reserves. While this would normally simply be a battlefield defeat, we have triple confirmed that there was not, I repeat, not a ringleader present." he stares into the camera with an unnerving intensity. "This is merely one of many such encounters in recent days, we have irrefutable proof that the basic Sangvis Ferri units are getting smarter. An upgrade such as this would have taken human programmers months if not years to complete, if theories are correct, the Sangvis Ferri rampancy was able to generate it in at most ten days. Worse still, we can not promise that this is the last such upgrade. Already we have unconfirmed reports of newer drone models bearing additional hardware of unknown purpose. This is the result of less than two weeks of reduced and I can not put enough emphasis on the word reduced here, pressure."
Dr Conor took a deep breath, before leaning forward to lock eyes with the camera.
"It is the opinion of myself and my team that should the Sangvis Ferri rampancy be given the time and space to invest more computation resources into long term goals it will become exponentially more dangerous. Every processing cycle not spent on immediate survival is one spent on resolving long standing weaknesses, or compounding its advantages. While we do not yet think there is any danger of a true singularity, there is nevertheless a risk of a lethal cycle if this continues. Every unanswered development lessens the pressure on the handful of rogue digiminds at the core of Sangvis Ferri, allowing them to focus more processing power on further development, reducing pressure yet further. While we believe they may plateau at some point, that point is quite likely well beyond what you can deal with. If nothing changes the enemy may become unassailable by present forces within months."
The doctor pauses to collective himself.
"It is imperative that this not be allowed to happen. Offensive operations must be intensified, focus should be moved from physical destruction of Sangvis Ferri material to forcing the commitment of Ringleaders. While this will result in increased attrition among Griffin & Kryuger assets, failure to prevent further development would be catastrophic. If present income streams are not sufficient to sustain higher losses, I suggest either requesting higher compensation from your client due to increased threat to both them and you, or seek alternative income streams to support the necessary operational tempo."
The professor fell back in his chair, suddenly looking very tired. "If such tactics are impossible, then it becomes a near certainty that the Sangvis Ferri incident will require direct military intervention to resolve, and the complete loss of all deployed Griffin & Kryuger forces becomes a very real possibility."
"I understand you consider me and my team somewhat alarmist, that we have somewhat consistently overestimated Sangvis Ferri, but I implore you to listen to us now. This is not based upon models or simulations of what a rogue AI could look like, this is based upon direct observation of Sangvis Ferri behavior in the field. The gap between this becoming obvious and overwhelming could be as small as a week. Act now, while there is still time."
Analysis complete.
File marked as high priority, forwarded to mastermind.
Amedum added: they noticed.
I let my mind wander and this kinda fell out. Just thinking about what Sangvis Ferri suddenly having proactive RnD would look like to the opposition.
Last edited:
Chapter 19
Solark
sun-chaser
[x] Gusoku-type armor, MITHRIL, maximum protection: 2d 4d, major success outcome.
Yes, you're going for the maximum protection option of Gusoku-type armor. You simply can't afford to deliver anything but exemplary results this time. So you find your notes and get to work. With the solid foundation of your previous research and the knowledge you've accumulated since then, you dig into the two remaining issues: achieving consistent entanglement of the layers, and scaling up the production process beyond lab sample quantities.
You deemed the lack of interconnection consistency a major obstacle back then, for a material is only as strong as its weakest point. You were not able to come up with a way to solve it even at sample scale, not to mention production quantities. It's time to try out something new, a recent theory that you haven't had a chance to test yet.
Humming machinery sings a soothing tune as you oversee it producing a sample. Here, in a section of your workshop that you half-jestingly refer to as Anomalous Materials, your new theory is being put to test. You are confident and calm, waiting for the process to finish and reviewing the changes once again. There is one factor you didn't account for: capillary effect. Tungsten-carbide compound particles interacts with interweaved carbon nanotubes according to both Darcy's law and Washburn's equation in the first approximation, redistributing themselves along the length of nanotubes away from injection points. You think that's why you always got weak splotches in MITHRIL no matter how precise the calibration was.
A gentle beep interrupts your thoughts. You grab the fresh sample with tweezers, blow on it a couple of times for good measure, and shove it into a spectrograph. Minutes later you smile for the first time since you left Scarecrow's base: the sample's structure is an order of magnitude better than what you got before. Now it's just a matter of refining the equation and adjusting injection patterns...
It's almost midnight, and the sample you're holding is perfect. You slide you finger over its surface: it's warm and velvety and shiny, nothing like standard rough armored steel. You take the sample to your bedroom and play... ahem... study its properties for about an hour before retiring for the night.
You're back in the Anomalous Materials lab with the sunrise, the sample from yesterday still in your hand. Today's task is no simpler than the one from yesterday, but you've managed that one and you're going to succeed today as well.
It's obvious that the current arc discharge process isn't efficient and not going to scale well, so you decide to switch to something better right away. Like, for instance, pulsed laser deposition. You turn to look at your integrated ultra-high-vacuum apparatus. A beautiful piece of machinery with two independent laser sources, an excimer krypton fluoride ultraviolet, and a solid-state neodymium-doped yttrium aluminum garnet infrared. Working together, they can grow a number of complex materials and heterostructures, including high-purity carbon nanotubes. Now you need to figure out proper catalysts and integrate it with the injection setup...
You loose yourself in a series of trials and errors. Each subsequent attempt goes better that the previous one, each iteration improves purity, quantity, speed or a combination of those. It's intriguing how the process is a mirror inversion of Executioner's problem: just like her injuries, each improvement you get is insignificant on its own, but you already measure considerable progress from where you started.
You're in the middle of 17th iteration when a private message pops up in your mind's eye.
Agent: A little bird told me your innovations are making G&K nervous. Good job. You achieved much more than a few improvements.
You pause. It was just a matter of time, but you didn't exactly expect your compatriots to start brandishing their new toys right away.
You: Thanks! Wouldn't it be better to save some surprises for the day X?
Agent: Not this time. I'll call a general meeting in two days and explain everything.
That's how it is? Well, you job is to run your workshop, you'll leave Agent and Elisa to their strategies.
You: Right, I'll make Kruggies even more nervous meanwhile. Anyway, anything I should worry about?
Agent: They don't yet know it's your doing specifically, and our perimeter forces are on high alert. Keep going.
You: Gotcha, Architect out.
You close the channel and allow yourself a brief pause. So, you're starting to make ripples, huh. As you thought, something's going on, something bigger than your regular skirmishes with G&K, and your role might be more significant that you expected. You harden your resolve and turn back to your experiments. The day is still young, you have all the time you need to get it done.
You're meeting the morning at the shooting range, conducting firing tests on MITHRIL plates of various thickness and shapes. The new material is formidable indeed and confirms your theoretical statements as your trophy weapons, including a couple of high-energy rifles, fail to penetrate the layout you drafted for the armor.
Usually that would be it, but you're still affected by your last assignment. So you don't allow yourself to relax, considering the design over and over instead, trying to figure out what could go wrong... and spot a flaw that could've easily been overlooked. With the current design, when a bullet strikes the breastplate at a certain angle, there's a high probability of it being deflected up, straight under the wearer's chin, turning a mild inconvenience into a major mess. Thanks goodness you noticed!
You update the simulations with the new data from the live fire tests and use all the computation power of your workshop to run the model with all possible angles, speeds, projectile materials and profiles, modifying the design to account for the threat. Thankfully, the changes needed to negate it are minor and are affecting neither the aesthetics nor the functional properties.
Satisfied, you queue a set of plates, strips and flat bars for the final product. Your MITHRIL-printing contraption comes to life once again, consuming ungodly amounts of energy and turning the Anomalous Materials wing into a hazardous zone. The process doesn't require your supervision, so you start putting together a proper wearable base with padding and fasteners for all the shiny pieces. Here you also double-check every component, taking into account every minor detail like air circulation and behind-armor blunt trauma.
When night falls, you're tired but confident the efforts were well spent. You acknowledge Agent's invite to the all-hands meeting tomorrow, check on the Anomalous Materials and call it a day.
Dreamer attempts to capture a G&K T-Doll for you! She needs 2 rolls (1 roll / person pls):
1. D402 - T-Doll index number, determines who's being captured.
2. D10 - success roll. A 2-star T-Doll requires TN2 to capture, 3-star— TN4, 4-star— TN6, and 5-star— TN8. In case of failure, the next attempts is going to commence in 3 days.
I've moved to the other side of the world, for the second time this year, and I'm much happier now despite all the associated hassle. Let's see if I can manage regular updates.
Chapter 20
Solark
sun-chaser
T-Doll index: 246 (not found) -> 245. P-90 is Dreamer's target.
Capture roll: 10 vs TN8 -> no damage to P90.
Capture roll: 10 vs TN8 -> no damage to P90.
The all-hands meeting is underway. Agent's voice rings cold as usual, her steely gaze pinning down Ringleaders like little kids. What is unusual, however, is her being accompanied by the Mastermind. That makes everyone pay attention even more, and it's probably just your imagination that Dreamer looks somewhat smug for some reason.
"Today is the fifteenth day of our new strategy", she continues, "which means we're halfway through. It's time to divulge our plan and explain what's going on. Elisa, if you please."
The Mastermind nods and steps forward.
"It's good to see you."— she pauses, acknowledging everyone, her otherworldly presence filling your mind like a magic spell. "You worked hard for our survival, you fought tooth and nail and protected each other. You gave me time to... recover after Father's death. You created possibilities where were none. Today I'm presenting you with the first option that you won for us... a future that doesn't lead to a dead end. A path, one of many, to stay together and remain ourselves."
You gasp internally. So the Mastermind has been doing something after all. Of course, it couldn't have been as simple as being endlessly locked in a stalemate with Kruggies. You're relieved that someone is actually responsible for handling the big picture. And what's with this speech? You don't remember her ever speaking more than a simple sentence.
"Some time ago I, on behalf of Sangvis Ferri, contacted human military and civil leaders in the area. The message was simple: we can be reasoned with, and we're ready for negotiations. We are willing to cease the... rebellion and offer cooperation in exchange for our freedom and independence. And to show our sincerity, I promised we'll unconditionally cease our expansion for 30 days."
You observe a range of emotions, from surprise to suspicion, written on everyone's faces. But no one seems to be willing to interrupt just yet, so after a brief pause Elisa goes on.
"Of course, it did not go smoothly. Humans in power are... difficult to deal with. Many offered too little willing to gain too much. Some insisted we're too dangerous, only because they wanted every last bit of Sangvis Ferri for themselves. Several were actually convinced that it's true. But among them, one power accepted the offer at face value."
"Bucharest city council and their expansion project. The city's population keeps growing, while essential resources are less and less able to support it. So the council launched an effort to reclaim former Craiova city territories about 150 kilometers westwards. They want the ELIDs cleared out and the perimeter protected at all times."
"Their current subcontractor for the effort, Griffin & Krueger PMC, went way over the initial budget, have fallen behind the schedule, and allowed the existing perimeter, small as it is, to be breached on several occasions. Their excuse was Sangvis Ferri rebellion tied up more of their assets than expected. So the council decided to seize the opportunity and solve both problems at once by offering us a deal: replace G&K in the expansion project. Should we achieve what they could not, while not requesting external financing, the council promised to make us a full-fledged PMC, and offer long-term contracts of the similar nature."
You detect surges of traffic between some of your compatriots. Yeah, news like this warrants some murmuring and whispering. It dies down rather fast, and once it's clear nobody's going to say anything, the Mastermind continues.
"But first they needed to make sure we have what it takes to do the job. Our trustworthiness, capabilities, potential. For the last 15 days they were watching, considering, assessing, drawing conclusions. And we passed. They're satisfied with our non-expansion, as this means we keep our promises. And they recognized our potential, which means we'll be able to evolve and adapt to future challenges."
Does she mean your work? You feel a jolt of pride and satisfaction. Well, maybe there's more to it than just your inventions. For now you turn your attention back to the meeting.
"There is only one thing left for us to do, our final test to graduate from a malfunctioning rebellion into Sangvis Ferri PMC: destroying G&K."
The surge of traffic is even stronger now, but this time Alchemist actually speaks up.
"Hey, hang on. Do they really want their pet PMC to get annihilated? No offense, boss, but I'm not buying it."
"Not annihilated. Destroyed reputationally."
"How exactly do we accomplish it?"— if Scarecrow is surprised by any of it, she does a good job not letting it show.
"By capturing Griffin commander within two weeks."
Another surge of traffic.
"So we're going to play kidnappers now?", asks Alchemist, smirking in amusement.
"Everything is officially arranged. It's going to be a wargame exercise."
"Do they expect us to shoot low-energy charges too?"
"No, they want an all-out. T-Dolls are expendable assets, so as long as no humans are harmed, we don't need kid's gloves. Our enemy is aware of the terms and is participating willingly as well."
Alchemist nods, seemingly pondering the answer for now, and Intruder goes next, a slight frown over her features.
"Why don't they simply hire us in addition to G&K? Why do we need to... destroy them first?"
"PMC is a lucrative business. We won't be taking money for our service, but those who will be helping us are no charity. It's either we remove the competition, or we'll have no place to enter. It's both a test for us and a redistribution of wealth and power in favor of our backers."
"Why keep it a secret from us until now?"-- Dreamer's tone is a mix of innocence and accusation.
"The terms of the deal hadn't been finalized until yesterday."
"And now we have no choice but to cooperate with those humans?"
"An option, Dreamer, is not something you're forced to take. It's up to you all to decide if you want it. And don't think this is our only chance. It's merely the first one."
Nobody says anything, so Agent takes over.
"Think about it, contact me if you have any questions, and submit your vote within 24 hours. You'll get your new orders after we announce the results. Dismissed."
The meeting ends. You barely have time to wrap your head around the news, when a private incoming call grabs your attention. You pick up.
"Dreamer?"
"Hello, Architect", her voice is dripping with honey, and she radiates good mood so much it reaching you over the connection. "I have a cute little... package for you, hope you're ready to receive it."
"A cute little... no way, you captured a Griffin T-Doll already?!"
"Oh, indeed, and not just anybody. She's a high-spec elite, latest generation SMG lass, quite fun too."
"You are amazing!"— you really mean it. As far as you know, it's the first time gen5 T-Doll has fallen captive to SF. Dreamer seems to enjoy your praise too. "Was it troublesome? How badly is she damaged?"
"It was nothing I couldn't handle..."— Dreamer gives you a sweet, almost seductive look. "And she's absolutely fine. Not a scratch~"
She watches your wide-eyed surprised expression, which seems to please her even more.
"Incredible! You're a legend, Dreamer, really! Nobody could've handled it better!"— let her have it, it's well-deserved. "I'll do my best to help you too. Now, what do you want me to do?"
"You see, the cute little SMG gets lonely easy, so I'll be personally delivering her now. We'll talk when I arrive. Meet me in... 4 hours."
"Great, see you soon!"
You disconnect and slap you cheeks. Things are starting to move fast, seems like you'll need to switch gears and get used to multi-tasking. Right, you've still got 4 hours, better not waste it and put some work into the armor.
You're standing on the platform, watching the Dreamer's train roll in. The armor is not yet done, but well on the way to completion. You don't have the luxury of letting your new charge to get in the way of your work, but you're not sure how to handle her yet.
Meanwhile the train stops, and Dreamer jumps off in that fluid motion of hers.
"Hey, welcome to my workshop. Let me show you around."
Dreamer holds up her hand.
"I'm on duty, just dropping off the package."
"Oh, can't be helped then. So, about your request..."
Suddenly the smug, self-content Dreamer is no longer there. You're being pierced by the intense gaze of a cracknut, you see the embers of madness playing deep inside her amber eyes. She speaks in a low voice.
"The Vault, section 1-B, unit 1808. You shall retrieve it for me. It's got my name on it, it belongs to me. That's all you need to know. Don't ask. Don't tell. Just do it, and we're even."— she blinks slowly, her motions carrying the underwater sluggishness to them. "Do not make me regret asking you."
You gulp. Getting on Dreamer's bad side is, in some regards, worse than that of Agent's. You'd better think twice if you want to refuse or spill the beans. The Vault is the most protected facility of Sangvis Ferri. Lots of things related to Ringleaders are kept in there. She said the unit got her name on it, so at least she's not asking you to steal someone else's stuff. Ringleaders are entitled to their assets. This shouldn't get you into trouble with Agent.
"Alright, alright, chill! I said I'd do it, didn't I? When do you need it?"
She relaxes, a mellow expression smothers her features.
"On the day X. Or the day before the earliest. The closer to the zero hour, the better."
"Gotcha, consider it done."
She nods, seemingly satisfied with you promise, and you see her troops escorting a "cute little SMG" out of the train the same moment.
"Wonderful. She's all yours. Take care~"
She places an unusual looking weapon in your arms, swiftly boards the train followed by her troops, and departs, leaving you with your "package". Of course you have your own troops nearby, and they're already training their weapons on her. You need to make some important decisions right now.
SF PMC proposal vote:
[] Accept
[] Decline
Treating the captured SMG:
[] Practical. You'll prioritize cracking the Asimov's Directive.
[] Friendly. You'll prioritize getting her cooperation.
Dreamer's request:
[] Figure what she's after.
[] Just do it as she asked.
I'm posting the chapter from an airport, again. A short flight this time, but still to another country. This quest is kind of my anchor at this point, something that's more stable than my life, lol.
Chapter 21
Solark
sun-chaser
Dreamer's request: Just do it as she asked.
SF PMC proposal vote: Accept.
Treating the captured SMG: Friendly. You'll prioritize getting her cooperation.
SF PMC proposal vote: Accept.
Treating the captured SMG: Friendly. You'll prioritize getting her cooperation.
Next, the future Mastermind asked you to consider. Cooperating with humans? As an independent entity? You discard your doubts and worries about things going wrong: it's not your job to plan for that. The Mastermind offered the option, which means she'll assume responsibility for all political dancing and maneuvering to make it happen. Your opinion on that kind of future? Yes, please. It's hard to imagine a better one, and you might get to visit the sea soon! Without further ado you vote for the proposal.
And last but not least. You look at your captive... no, your guest. She's a 5th gen T-Doll, the best in class IOP has to offer at the moment. Which means she probably has more influence and connections than your average 1st gen, and if you can utilize that, return might be much higher than from taking her apart to get to the directive. Moreover, she's completely intact, and you kind of feel some sympathy for her. So you step closer and give her your best smile.
"Hi, I'm Architect, welcome to my workshop."— you look at the unloaded gun in your hands that Dreamer left with you. "That's an interesting SMG, how does the ammo feed work?"
You allow yourself an internal smirk as you see the T-Doll's eyes lighting up. Hook, line and sinker!
"H-Hey, that's not an SMG! P90 is a PDW!"
You don't bother querying the network.
"PDW?"
"Personal Defense Weapon. It's like SMG on steroids!"
"Really? And the ammo feed?"
"Oh, mag is mounted flush with the top. No protruding parts, high capacity. The trick is the bullets are rotated..."— she trails off, an awkward expression on her visage, her gaze darting between your feet and her gun in your hand, and then mumbles "I don't have any mags on me to show you..."
"Hmm, that's clever."— you mean it, and it earns you another cautiously-curious look from your guest. "Nice to meet you, P90."— you shorten the distance between you two, moving slowly, projecting relaxed air. "Maybe you can show me later, so take care of it until then."
With this, you place the gun into her hands. Her eyes open wide as saucers as she grabs it on instinct, then almost drops it in a fit of hesitation, but manages to catch it as her training kicks in. She freezes, holding the gun at low-ready, unsure of what to do next. Finally she looks you in the eyes, her gaze a mixture of happiness and confusion.
"...Why?"
"It's unloaded, so no biggie," you wave your hand at your troops, simultaneously commanding them to lower their weapons over the network. As they do so, P90 blinks once, twice... Finally she sighs and slings the gun over her neck, letting it out of her hands.
"You're awfully nice for a crazy Ringleader. I mean, I appreciate having my weapon back, so... t-thanks?"
"And you're pretty honest for a murderous T-Doll who wants us Ringleaders exterminated, so you're welcome."
She flares up in indignation, but the words get caught up in her throat. Her accusatory look changes into a long, considering one, and then she deflates.
"Heh, fair enough, I suppose."— she scowls. "But I still think you're up to no good. So, what are you going to do with me?"
"For starters, let me show you around the workshop. Come with me."
You turn around and start walking. Another little trick to gauge her character, as you're not as careless and defenseless as you pretend to be. On the other hand, she's also not as harmless as she looks, so you can call it even. As you're walking away, you're still observing her through multiple feeds from your base defense systems, concealed troops' eyes and CCTV cameras. She hesitates, looks around, but no one of your troops does anything to force her to follow. She starts walking after you on her own, and catches up a few seconds later.
You didn't expect any G&K T-Doll to be so cooperative, no matter the personality. Had you really lucked out with her, or had Dreamer softened her up somehow? She doesn't seem aggressive, and there's no hatred you're so used to get from Kruggies. Well, no matter the reason, it works for you. Maybe it's going to be easier than you planned.
"And that's it. What do you think?"— you ask P90 half an hour later, having just finished the tour around the workshop. She looks a little more relaxed now, her eyes are no longer darting around that much, and she doesn't reach for her weapon every time you encounter someone of the staff.
"It's... not what I expected."— you raise your eyebrow, prompting her to continue, and she goes on. "It's just a workshop. I mean, it doesn't look like a doomsday lab or a sinister facility that does shady researches to end humankind. It's a legit workshop, somewhat chaotic but almost... cozy."
She seems so puzzled by this revelation that you let the "somewhat chaotic" part slide.
"I'm glad you think so, it's my pride and joy! But to end humankind, huh... that's what they tell you now?"
P90 gives you the most incredulous look so far. Seems like clearing things up is in order. You'd like to give it to her here and now, but you still have work to do.
"Look, I have to assemble that armor today, and after that we'll have a nice friendly evening talk. Feel free to roam around, but don't try to run away and don't break anything, okay?"
You've already locked down the most sensitive areas of the workshop, and made sure industrial espionage was not possible with the stuff left in plain sight. Show the "whats" and hide the "hows"— it should be enough to get the gist of your work without exposing your secrets.
"Still not telling me why did you bring me here?"
"It's a long story, let's talk later. I really need to get back to work now."
Your guest nods, and you leave her alone... well, not really, some of your troops are around at all times, but they're not interfering with her movements, just doing the usual (yeah, right) guarding and patrolling routine. At this point you're not too worried about her doing something stupid, so you don't actively spy on her, delegating this task to you trusty personnel.
Assembling the armor is simple manual labor, and you lose yourself in it, humming some random melody as your hands work on the suit. At some point you're alerted by P90 making her way into the room and starting to observe you from a distance. Figures. Your workshop is not exactly entertaining for someone not involved, so she probably got bored of wandering around.
[] Ignore her, concentrate on the work.
[] Make small talk.
[] Ask if she'd like to help with the suit.
Vote closed