"This doesn't look all that aerodynamic."
"Are these
literally smart missiles? That seems pretty unethical."
"Zoom past the armor and look first, dummy."
"Yeah, you don't put direct-fire weapons
inside a missile."
"I mean, unless the covering is supposed to allow surprise attacks?"
"Minimal thrusting ability, can't be a missile–"
"Looks like it unfolds into a hexapod."
"Segments of the main body can rotate independently."
"Loving the eye-like death rays."
"The f—hell? What's with that stream density?"
"Explosive laser beams; what could go wrong?"
"Actually, I think it would be surprisingly coherent."
"Yeah, like a hot knife."
"Wait, fuck. Goddamn, the measurements–"
"Ho-lee shit."
"We should've known better than to ignore the units."
"Seventy meters tall? How is she even–"
"Technically, the legs would push it to an even hundred. I think."
"It's a goddamned
assault walker."
"I think I just had an evilgasm."
"Kaja, no."
"Who thinks we should call it a Monkeylord?"
"Laser's the wrong shape for that, only real similarity is the legs."
"This means Symbie can mass-produce her exotic materials. It'd take months otherwise."
"I mean, this might
be a multi-month work—hee. Couldn't keep a straight face."
"No, that's actually a valid timeline. Previous builds have been minuscule compared to this walking terror."
"Ah, Taylor, I'm sure she didn't mean it!"
"Oh. Yeah, that was a compliment. This is basically a dream build and I love it."
The Valkyrie wasn't wrong. Considering what Host's sims were meant to resemble, the Giant-class Friend
was partially designed in dreams. Additionally, the irony of building a 'walking terror' to combat the forces supporting Terror Drones was not lost on QA.
"No offense was taken. You are also correct that it will take Symbie longer than usual to complete this project, but it is not meant to be expendable."
"...Uh, I hate to be that girl, but Antagonists will probably drop it pretty fast. It can't exactly dodge."
"Mmm. Your armor's good, but it's not
that good."
"I'm sure the army would be glad to have the support, but yeah, it wouldn't fit in Valkyrie-level combat."
"Probably."
"Noooo, it might. The armor is supposedly pretty resistant to heat and plasma, and most of those weapons look like point-defense."
"Given Pure-chan's sensor and computing bul—er, witchery..."
"Saturation fire would down it, if nothing else."
"Yeah, the doom-titan is awesome, but..."
"Combat has no respect for aesthetics."
"You'd probably be better off making a whole bunch of smaller drones instead of that juggernaut."
Queen Administrator felt Host's expression change and searched the local networks for possible matches. The most prevalent result was a
pout. She hardly ever got to make proper juggernauts; terror drones were supposed to have a minimum of such competition. Swarms of smaller Friends were fun as well, but she didn't have enough available storage to prevent complete death with that strategy. She rather liked the idea of Friends she could keep even after the Cycle ended; Friend personality matrices shouldn't take very much room while they're inactive. There was even precedent among the earliest Terror Drone substitutes.
Still, she supposed she'd sacrificed quite a bit in order to make the Giants air-droppable directly from Symbie's storage. The Giants could've decimated a conventional host-species army, but nothing about this Cycle was conventional. She would need to do better.
<impellers?> Symbie suggested.
Queen Administrator painstakingly suppressed her involuntary noises
(search result: cooing). Symbie could already embed two orders of magnitude more information than Decimator! If Valkyrie Cores weren't meant to be preserved at the end of the Cycle, then QA would just locally maintain Symbie
anyway. She was practically a Newborn already.
QA had been avoiding giving her Friends anything resembling a Symbiotic Support Frame, but as Symbie had pointed out, Valkyries were not the only entities with Impeller Fields. Antagonists possessed them, too. Symbie, Host, and QA would need to be careful about their incorporation to avoid mass adoption, yet obfuscation was standard Innovator fare. User-saturating effects hazardous to humans might be enough all on their own.
...But then she couldn't upgrade Pegacorn-Friends with Impellers. Not unless they spent all their time in absorption mode, anyway. Otherwise, they would expel whatever health hazards she decided to implement. Well, she'd figure it out later. There was sure to be something QA could do.
"You're making progress, though."
"Main weapons seem way better than before, I
think that's a fusion generator, annnd the hypervelocity cannons are, uh.... what the fuck."
"Just looking at the track is giving me a headache."
"Stop trying so hard before your Frame's safeties kick in. Look at something else."
"Like what? The plasma capacitors? Because those are totally an improvement."
"Looks like the cannons are using, uh, a really really tiny ring singularity? Yeah, fuck if I know."
"Dissed the design and overlooked the awesome weapons, lol."
"Big oops."
"Nothing we said was
wrong, attaching big guns isn't a replacement for staying power–"
"I mean, it would be if they could just wipe the battlefield."
"But they can't."
"Yet."
"So I tried following the maybe-singularity and got a cheerful chirrup from Symbie. Something's screwy there."
"Isn't it always?"
"I still don't get where the plasma is coming
from, all I see is the storage–"
"Doom-laser byproducts, I think?"
"I already had cravings and now that shows up–"
"Okay, so I still don't understand all of it, but I think the output on Sauron's eye would exceed generator input."
...Oops. Archival note: Always ensure no single weapon would exceed total apparent generator output. Wellll, it wouldn't do to show weapons without an adequate power supply for them, so...
<SUGGESTION.>
In this case, the ignorance of
hosts Valkyries would only hurt them if they became QA's enemies.
<accepted.>
QA paused. What did she mean,
that's a good idea and I'll use some of it? Either Symbie discreetly took a little energy from QA's stores, or she didn't. If she did, the inscrutable generator would be required to cover the discrepancy.
"I mean, we don't really know how much energy the armor would be dragging in–"
"No, I think it was an oversight. Generator sections just updated from fusion to three separate, uh... god dammit,
again?"
QA checked the updated design and felt her forehead furrow. The updated generators did not match her suggestion, and represented a significant departure from previous designs. She hadn't expected that; Symbie improved upon ideas, but she seldom knew enough to start from scratch. Was Symbie now growing additional hardware at rates comparable to a Newborn? QA didn't bother to fight host's automatic smile.
"You shouldn't say stuff like that in case we discourage our resident demigods."
"Agreed. Taylor, all the advanced stuff is awesome and don't let anyone tell you otherwise."
"I relayed that to Symbie, too; I'm pretty sure the update was her."
"Oh, right. We can do that now."
"For shame. You don't leave kids unattended."
"Well, if she's really the onl–"
"That's still classified, so ssh."
"My bad."
QA still wasn't sure why nobody had tried to make
her avoid disseminating apparently-classified information,
:MOTHER: included. QA would admit that she'd been pushing just a little and still had yet to receive even a lesser warning.
"Seriously though, what
are we looking at?"
"I
think I've seen something like that from a Three Hundred frame?"
"Um. No kidding. Hey, does this count as classified now?"
"Noooope. She's made improvements."
"Oh, you're joki–you're not joking. It actually matches."
""""
What.""""
"She's recreated something from the
three hundred?"
"In before everything is giga-classified forever."
"No, no, it's like half a decade old annnnnd we have specific permission now. Thanks! Anyway, it's not some super-revolutionary thing; they figured it out, the cost-benefit analysis just fell short."
"Think weapon-specific power supplies 'cuz that's what it started as. Material and complexity costs were just
horrible."
"Higgs engines have them beat pretty handily in basically every way that matters."
"I can't even determine the output but I bet that's no longer true."
"Nah, Higgs is king."
"Still, how did Symbie get the original–"
"Authorized donations."
"Weird flex but OK."
Queen Administrator blinked in bewilderment and wished she knew what was going on. She didn't like being left clueless about parts of a project she was supposed to be the primary contributor for. How did they give the designs to Symbie? QA hadn't heard anything like that.
...Unless Symbie had contacted them while QA slept? That hypothesis appeared valid. She'd just examine the design and try to determine what Symbie had done. She certainly had a better chance of understanding it than the rest of the club.
"Can we return to the death rays for a minute? Because that's one reflection away from total disaster. Lasers just don't
work as main guns."
"Mmmmmmaybe? I, uh—yeah, overlapping bits explode when you cross the streams, and they dissipate prematurely outside their original–"
"Pre-prepared paths? Won't that inevitably be much slower than light?"
"Symbie's outline says no?"
"I don't get how a flicker-beam prepares a path for a prolonged ffff-off doom laser, though."
"Oh, found it! I think the littler laser is somehow
clearing the path."
"Equations don't look right for it to be a laser."
"Some of that looks familiar. I think it's
adding space in a tunnel and exploiting the brief instant before air can interfere."
QA paused her own inspection to scrutinize the
host Valkyrie responsible for that revelation.
Sibel Neuer. How appropriate that the alleged leader of the Crafting Club should finish first.
"Spacial manipulation on a
drone, huh? Taylor's stance on combat drones makes a lot more sense now."
"So, what, the doom-beam dissipates outside a near-vacuum?"
"Explodes outside it, more like."
"That's one hostile spacial warp away from disaster."
"If Antagonists start moving at the speed of light, then we've got other problems."
"This is, like, Valkyrie-grade equipment made with exotic materials. Why is she slapping it on a robot first? Her own gear is still enh."
"Integration time? Symbie might be building stuff faster than she could integrate it."
"I want to say that's not how it works, but honestly, who knows at this point?"
"Remember, this is all theory-work right now. The walker and its equipment has yet to be made, and likely never will be after the reaming you gave it."
Queen Administrator forced herself to avoid correcting the Crafting Club. She still wanted to make a juggernaut. It would just need to be a better one.
"Friends are mobile weapons platforms," she said instead.
"Valkyries are mobile weapons platforms. I do not see why advancements in Friend-making cannot be applied toward my own equipment."
"That wouldn't be true for literally anyone else, but I can't really disagree without a better image of Symbie's industrial capabilities."
"Fabrication capacity: Yes."
"I mean, there
is something to be said for a battleship's armaments divided among a number of smaller units."
"On that note, I think the plasma capacitors are literally bigger on the inside. You have to add a scale there yourself, but..."
"How? I mean, you're right, but how? I can't find any dedicated causes for that effect. I guess it could be part of the armor, but that's..."
"Hello, police? I'd like to report an attack on the laws of physics."
"And lo! The Great Young One Symbie did decree that confusion must always accompany comprehension."
"I feel like we've turned into the Symbie Study club at this point. I'm actually okay with this."
"Taylor, don't take this the wrong way, but are you a time traveler?"
Queen Administrator searched Host's memories for possible matches. They appeared to reference fictional instances in which humans had traveled to prior historical periods, often for personal gain and/or to avert some perceived disaster. As QA had previously been attacked with selective chronological manipulation, she
did fit the definition. Technically, though, they had asked if
Host had traveled backward through time. Host had not.
"I do not believe that term is appropriate. No."
Three separate CC members noticeably exhaled.
"T'was a silly idea anyway."
"Yeah, the theorized power requirements would make it easier to just boardwipe the AGs in one go."
"Delivery might've been a problem at that point–"
"Hah, no joke. We don't exactly need
more ways to kill entire planets."
Yes you do.
"You may find them more useful than you realize," QA advised, then froze as her mind caught up.
She should not have said that. She should
not have warned them. There was no way
:MOTHER: was going to tolerate a host-species stockpiling shard-killing weaponry. She might as well have just killed the local population
hundreds of solar rotations ahead of schedule, and she might even be ordered to personally kill them to clean up her mistake. A promising experiment in collaboration, and
she'd been the one to make it all go wrong–
The Impeller Field around Host's hands registered an attempt at contact. No external Impeller resistance registered: Tamara Hasiholan appeared to have deactivated her own Impeller to allow a semblance of physical contact.
She is vulnerable. Tamara's observed reaction time would not be sufficient to protect her if QA was ordered to attack.
"Hey. Take a deep breath for me, okay?"
There was little point in doing so. This was not Queen Administrator's body.
"These aren't even my hyperbaric compressors."
QA really did need to install some sort of multi-step verification process for allowing host-species communications. These involuntary statements were becoming increasingly problematic as time went on.
Her chest hurt an increasing amount, too, and she was tempted to just destroy Host's organs entirely. QA had been a bit too carefree with personhood, and she
couldn't kill this many people. With Host primarily running on QA's hardware, self-termination of Host's body would result in a direct net loss of zero people. Host would likely be upset, but that was a preferable outcome to slaughtering the Crafting Club and any other witnesses.
"You can still use them to breathe, which you
should. Please? I can probably pump your heart for you if I really need to, but it's unpleasant for everyone involved."
It outmasses you by several orders of magnitude, and doesn't even distribute pure oxygen.
Symbie seized control over their shared Impeller Field and used it to distribute oxygenated blood throughout Host's bloodstream. Most of the pounding pain and dizziness vanished within five seconds.
<no termination. freedom.>
Queen Administrator sucked in a startled breath. What did Symbie mean,
:MOTHER: wouldn't interfere at all? That was stupid. Reckless. Exactly what some of her dumber, nastier siblings would do to get rid of her. Give her enough leeway to make unforgivable mistakes, and—and given some of the past behavior of her siblings, the threshold for
unforgivable was actually quite high, wasn't it? As long as they didn't actually attack any shards, she had precedent on her side. Countdown in particular was infamous for giving her hosts access to devastating weapons, to say nothing of Queen Objective's occasional forays into doomsday machinery.
QA blinked as Tamara poked her chest and induced exhalation. The other Valkyrie's face was close enough for QA to smell citrus on Tamara's breath — and Queen Administrator should really start breathing, shouldn't she?
The shard manually blinked, resumed regular respiration, and hoped Symbie was right.
~ ~ ~
"...Whelp. I'll just go ahead and flag this for Hebert's thera—and she's already found it and commented. I'm honestly impressed with her attentiveness."
"Don't be. She was pulled from R&D to assist with Cadet Hebert's case, and has yet to be assigned a workload suitable for her abilities. Reportedly, she's spent the day doing little more than analysis and making her rooms as comfortable as possible for Taylor. This apparently equates to a fortified room filled with stuffed animals, pillows, and fractal quasicrystals."
"Huh. Looks like her more recent search history includes 3D visualizations of higher-dimensional objects, too, so the room might get even weirder. Moving on! I couldn't help but notice Hebert's earlier hesitation. Should we be entertaining–"
"No, Hebert is not a time traveler. We know where she's from, remember?"
"I mean, I'm looking over the logs and she never explicitly
said–"
"Please stop. The vanguard found
her blood used to color a window. What more do you want?"
"To have a little fun bouncing a blatantly implausible theory at my lo-
partner to distract me from a teenager's panic attack instead of having my partner automatically shut me down with painful scorn?"
"...You realize that our coworkers already know of our relationship, correct? Their betting is not subtle. Regardless, I apologize for any harmful behaviors; I thought you enjoyed them. We'll discuss them further when our shift is over."
"Get a room, you two!" a coworker called.
Yana immediately leaned halfway off the couch to shout back.
"We already did! Jealous?"
"A bit!"
Yana froze. After the first two seconds, Candace allowed herself a sigh.
"A statistically significant portion of UNOMI-Perth was infatuated with you at some point," Candace pointed out. "If we weren't dating, you would likely still be getting chocolates."
"Chhk," Yana eloquently replied.
"You even rationalized my own advances until I hand-made the heart-pillow," Candace continued, suppressing all signs of her own amusement. "Perhaps you should revisit prior interactions now that you possess additional context?"
Judging by her mortified whine, Yana was doing exactly that.
