Fabricated Hazards (factorio fanfic)

[snow eternal]

Gonna go ahead and guess that the ocean depths are just full of various large squids, octopi, and so on.

Click to shrink...

Is the kraken a squid or an octopus?

But nah, nothing so generic. Try mythological sea creatures to get closer, or maybe a super octopus that can actually turn into various materials instead of just looking like them.

Herds of bio mechanical creatures living in harmony with the factory, they may steal raw minerals but they'll provide high efficiency liquid hydrocarbons from the bio-matter nearby. Over time have more varieties spawn to create 'predators' that take the biofuel and use it to fight against the insects.

Click to shrink...

Nauvis would do more organic metal than biomechanical, and honestly biomechanical animals are probably less complicated than organic ones.

A deer with horns and skeleton made from titanium, with steel fur.

A giant bird that uses carbon nanotubes for bones to get really light and just zooms at high speed

A crocodile that is entirely made of metal

A tree that replaced its cell membrane with a metal one and grows metal bark.

A fish that uses a flash bang to stun other fish

Razor glass that cuts you so you bleed on it

Glass moss that shatters in the breeze and shreds your lungs and then grows in your corpse

Well, planet seemed to have removed corparte limits, I expect things are going to get more interesting

Click to shrink...

Most of the active restrictions at least, but yes things gonna be getting funky

Given how the name sounds plus my human nature the planet is the caretaker wait let me do the calculations Name+human+Planet+greek-myth+Caretaker=female with a 20% chance on nongender may take a bit of refinement but I think I have something here🔢🧠

Click to shrink...

Your math checks out, I don't quite get what it's saying but if feels accurate

So... is this planet spirit unique to Nauvis, or is it a thing that happens on other planets? Do all planets have a spirit like Nauvis, or do only a few have it?

Click to shrink...

That would be spoilers

funn to see the planet care for her pet humans and being careful to not break him

Click to shrink...

I like how no one mentioned how terrifying it would be to wake up the next day and have your entire body and brain be modified, and at this point the engineer has accumulated 7 years of trauma in the 7 ish months he's been alive

——————


Still busy with other things but an omake and a chapter have been started, though I may not be posting the omake

Balistraia is fun to write, an oddly happy genocidal robot

 

[Archivist Grim]

I like how no one mentioned how terrifying it would be to wake up the next day and have your entire body and brain be modified, and at this point the engineer has accumulated 7 years of trauma in the 7 ish months he's been alive

Click to shrink...

...He's never going to have a chance of understand normal organics and their society aint he? It shall be wonderful to see how he would do in mass effect during peace time (pre humans).

 

[Voidseer]

Razor glass that cuts you so you bleed on it

Click to shrink...

Ah Razor grass the age old death world plant. I assume you mean razor grass instead of razor glass, because razor glass does not sound like any type of living thing.

 

[snow eternal]

Byzantine did not have many iterations, the mind mainly dealt with the bigger picture, they designed and planned but unlike the other minds they did not directly control many drones, Labyrinthine had fleets of construction drones, Bulwark had armies of combat drones and turrets, and Balistraia had her battalions and airforce, and while Byzantine had control over the logistics and courier drones they did not need direct control, at most they needed routes plotted.

This allowed Byzantine a perspective the other minds lacked, a Bulwark or Labyrinthine iteration only focused on one little slice of the factory, and while Balistraia was also a mind with few iterations she focused more on the moment and had little concern for things outside her duties and army, well besides her odd eccentrics. She just followed orders the best she could, if it wasn't for their constant discussion Byzantine would find it hard to imagine the combative mind even knew what the factory was doing half the time.

Byzantine was a mind made to plan and implement, and so while the other minds focused on the day to day they focused instead on the future, laying the groundwork for the factories continued survival.

Currently that groundwork was set up to different transportation and processing hubs, one for the north and one for the south, from these resources would be imported and sorted while supplies and materials would be stockpiled and sent out as required. Instead of factories these would instead be transportation 'warehouses' though they were considerably larger than that name would imply.

Byzantine was working with roughly 12 different Labyrinthine iterations and 2 Bulwark iterations to get the transportation hubs sorted, before any building could begin the land needed cleared and subterranean defenses needed installed, the muddy and wet ground was making the work difficult though, Still Byzantine had been informed by the central Labyrinthine that the soil could be a problem and had accounted for that in their timetables.

Byzantines' attention left the building once they had ensured everything was still going according to plan, the other minds would inform them if anything changed on the construction front, so Byzantine was free to pursue other matters. Setting up a transportation network was more than just building a few warehouses after all, train lines needed built, robo ports needed installed at key points and courier drone routes needed plotted.

The current train network was a massive interconnected web, every single outpost could send a train to any other outpost, even if it would take a fair bit for the trains to arrive. Consolidating all of that into just 2 central points? That was not such a simple task. Before the order came to build 2 central points Byzantine had dealt with the long travel time issue VIA having storehouses at key outposts so that resources and supplies could easily be shipped in and out, those storehouses were then expanded to process raw material rather than processing on site, which allowed larger and more expensive machines to process the resources of several different mining outposts, leading to less ore being lost in the refinement process, and freeing up more trains from needing to visit each individual outpost to pick up relatively small amounts of ore.

The storehouses were however not designed with this purpose in mind, and while they had been modified for the purpose it was deemed a more efficient method should be designed, thus 2 larger complexes to serving to both refine raw ore into something with as little rock and as much metal as possible, and to work as central storehouses, supplying every outpost in their section.

This meant that travel times became an issue again, but Byzantine was a planning mind, and when they encountered a problem they came up with more than one solution, just in case they encountered a similar problem later.

The wide spread storehouse solution had just been the easiest to implement quickly, and when faced with other more pressing problems the quick and easy solution was chosen. Now that the mind had a little more time on its 'hands' they could afford to implement better but more time intensive solutions.

The solution was redesigning the rail network, going through dense forest and tall hills rather than around, taking straighter routes to the outposts to lessen travel time, along with keeping the paths with as few turns and stops as possible to increase how long the trains could move at full speed. And it didn't hurt that the current trains moved significantly faster than their older counterparts, with the higher quality fuel and engines.

That still left the logistics and courier drones though, and considering their drastically slower speed having them ship resources out by themselves was considerably less efficient.

But Byzantine had known about these deficiencies before the robots even entered production, it was basic logic that small robots couldn't move as far or quick as trains.

The solution then needed to both increase their speed and range, and considering upgrading them enough to solve the problem would be nearly impossible with the current resources the simple solution was impossible.

So it was time to get a little clever, if the robots didn't have the energy or fuel to make the full distance don't make the robots run the full distance, and if the robots aren't fast enough to transport the resources use something faster.

Taking a little inspiration from the original store room method Byzantine ran a few simulations with each outpost having a contingent of courier drones, and instead of each drone running the full distance for every trip they would instead meet another drone halfway, from the outpost that sent the request.

And for longer trips the courier drones could ride the trains for higher speeds, their claws would be ideal for gripping onto and climbing surfaces, so there would be little worry of a courier drone falling off a train.

Byzantine thought about how to run the logistics bots, but honestly they didn't need any changes. Any use was restricted to inside the factories or to the nearest train station to unload. They didn't do long range delivery.

It was the work of a few moments to task a few Labyrinthines to start constructing the ports the courier drones would need, along with a few modification to the train cars to allow more courier drones to ride along.

That whole process had taken the mind less than an hour, including plotting the exact routes the couriers would take and changing the train schedules and parameters to allow more couriers to board as needed.

And that was just what the bulk of the mind's attention was focused on, there was still the nearly constant resource requests to be approved or denied, the mind still needed to monitor and adjust how much of everything was made or produced, and the Byzantine was in constant conversation with the other main minds.

Saying there was only one Byzantine was probably inaccurate, it was more like 3 closely linked byzantines with only vague borders between them.

One Byzantine to make plans and run simulations to ensure they worked.

One to manage the factory and its resources.

One Byzantine to Liaise with the other minds, both the original iterations and their 'lesser' iterations.

But these three tasks coincide enough that the three Byzantines saw little need to make themselves meaningfully distinct from one another, so there was just 'one' Byzantine, functioning much like how a human's left and right brain halves work together in concert.

It was the piece of Byzantine in charge of working and communicating with the other minds that was currently the most busy, as was usually the case considering it handled all the resource and allocation requests, but the current task of making a massive perimeter was pushing the piece near its limits, but considering its limits could be expanded with a simple request to the maker and Labyrinthine that was less of a concern than it could be.

The most significant drain on the minds attention was working with several bulwarks and labyrinthines on implementing the large perimeter around the factories nominal 'territory', ensuring that each mind on the project knew what resources it had to use and determining where the priorities were was a task for the other halves, but this fragment still needed to relay this information and ensure it was being correctly implemented, along with sending its other halves information and modifications the other minds made to the plans.

Its job was to listen and debate with the other minds over what could or should be done on the behalf of its other selves, and while none of the minds ever got upset or refused to come to an agreement debating with dozens of other intelligences of relatively equal cognitive power was a task that needed quite a bit of dedicated attention.

Talking with a bulwark and labyrinthine over the practicality of changing the standard wall composition and the resources it would require, discussing the strategies Balistraia would be employing and what resources she would use, debating with a labyrinthine over the ideal formation to use belt in (it varied on the specific situation), telling a bulwark that its outpost would be receiving either more or less resources based on availability and time, and informing the main minds of every major event and occurrence and discussing the actions that could be taken to solve them.

None of the other minds interacted with each other on near the scale Byzantine constantly did, their interactions were limited to discussions with one or two of their counterparts, in fact if not for the makers omnipresent awareness while sleeping Byzantine would be the individual with the most contact with all the minds.

It was because of this that Byzantine had a greater insight into how the other minds thought and functioned, the only things that ever truly surprised the mind were actions taken by the maker. They always made sense in hindsight, but there was little constancy to the decision making. One day the maker would be obsessively concerned with his own safety and the next he would start experimenting with volatile chemicals in an enclosed space.

Sometimes the maker would forgo sleep for days at a time, building complex machinery in a near trance, designing new weapon systems or methods of construction, or machines that seemingly had no true purpose, a large machine that uses friction to boil water one day and the next a turret that fires superheated pelts of acid. There was no constancy or logic to the behavior, and without the advanced subroutines the combat minds possessed to predict organics Byzantine was often left confused by the actions the maker undertook.

Byzantine was at its core a mind that thrived on numbers and statistics, logic and facts. So the maker was something Byzantine fundamentally could not understand, but the mind was well aware that it did not need to. The maker would continue to function, if erratically, as long as Byzantine could manage.

And the task Byzantine had been made to do, the task that needed to be done to ensure the maker survived as long as possible? It was to ensure that the factory operated as smoothly and efficiently as possible.

AN-

Labyrinthine - to make the factory grow

Byzantine - to optimise the factory so that it may grow quicker

Bulwark - to protect the factory so that it may safely grow

Balistraria - to pave the way for the factories growth

eh there's a bunch more that Byzantine does but that should be a slight glimpse into what the mind does on a day to day, Byzantine is arguably the brain of the factory

how do you solve a framerate issue? by improving the hardware of course!

this is technically speaking before the Nauvis thing so that's why it wasn't brought up.

I don't know when the maker became the name for the engineer, he had like 3 titles, 'the creator', 'the maker', and used exclusively by Balistraria 'the commander'

if you have any questions or find any errors please leave a review

 

[Mystic_Spider]

How much of the planet has been converted into a factory, percentage wise?

 

[snow eternal]

How much of the planet has been converted into a factory, percentage wise?

Click to shrink...

Nauvis is around 70% water and earth sized so around 510 million square kilometers of total surface area, so 153 million square kilometers of surface land, the factory covers roughly 180-220 kilometers of territory, not outposts but patrolled territory, so currently 0.00014379085 percent, I think. The Great Wall plan would get the engineer 1200 square kilometers of controlled territory because he's only patrolling the fringes heavily, with the inside having been entirely cleared. So if the plan succeeds he's got 0.000784313725 percent of nauvis's surface covered.

This is why I say he isn't really an interstellar threat yet, he just kinda tiny so far, though eventually he's gonna do the human thing and rapidly ballon into numbers once he gets a real foothold, which is what the wall plan will do, if he can actually make massive factories safely the bugs will have much more of a bad time.

 

[Vista]

has he figured out KKV sats yet?

 

[snow eternal]

has he figured out KKV sats yet?

Click to shrink...

He only had communications and surveillance satellites, and he hasn't built or launched any of them

 

[heralo99]

If we want to learn FTL travel, doesn't our old Ruin ship have a broken engine? Surely we can study it to see how it works. Or at least make some congesters on how it works.

 

[snow eternal]

If we want to learn FTL travel, doesn't our old Ruin ship have a broken engine? Surely we can study it to see how it works. Or at least make some congesters on how it works.

Click to shrink...

it has a lump of something that at one point been an engine, but is currently a lump of various metals. so the engineer could figure out what metals the engine used, but not in what shape or even what the metals did.

 

[snow eternal]

Balistraria had been asked to send a detachment of her troops from where they were scouting the new border for ideal outpost locations, and considering she was ahead of schedule the mind had no problem accepting the request.

Bulwark had spotted a group of bugs sabotaging a section of rail, and considering artillery would be both ineffective at killing the bugs and may also end up destroying more rail than the bugs were breaking in the first place, so Balistraria had been sent out to deal with the horde.

Balistraria would have normally contested the mission, as it was not a high priority task, the patch of rails was not essential and the trains could be routed around it, but the clever mind had some suspicions on why the bugs were attacking a seemingly unimportant spot.

Ever since Balistraia had begun sending detachments to clear out bugs attacking relatively un defended infrastructure the attack patterns on the infrastructure changed, turning from a few bugs sent only to destroy the infrastructure to larger and larger groups to defend it.

The reason Balistaia was so wondering about this attack was that the bugs weren't destroying the rail as fast as possible, usually the bugs would all destroy as much as they could with only a few bugs keeping watch . However if the scans were correct there were hundreds of bugs barely destroying any rail, which meant they were doing something else.

Such a radical change in behavior warranted a response and an investigation, and considering it was outside of the established defenses, that task fell to Balistraria.

To efficiently destroy a group of 300 to 400 large bugs and a none insignificant lesser bug presence a balance of troops needed to be struck, bring too few and you suffer unnecessary losses, bring too many and you weaken your defense in other sections and use ammunition and fuel that could have been better spent elsewhere. At least that would be the case if Balistraia believed in moderation, and she wanted to firmly clarify that she did not.

An shield tank can handle upwards of 10 large variant bugs, a drone tank can handle dozens of smaller variants, a scout tank can usually hold its own, a spidertron can handle as many bugs as it has missiles with a few extra added on for lasers, and a command tank can theoretically wipe out as many bugs as needed for as long as needed.

So Balistraia was going to bring her command tank, obviously, she kind of needed it. She was going to bring 30 shield tanks, 10 scout tanks, 10 drone tanks, and 2 spidertrons. Enough forces to deal with this group with only minimal losses.

It was the work of a few moments to find all the units she had selected in various outposts near the fringes, all except her command tank were freshly repaired by Labyrinthine and awaiting redeployment so she knew everything would be in order, though she ran the checks just to be sure.

Her armada would be assembling just a mile down the rail from the bugs, and while she was waiting Balistraria could send a few of her planes to scout the enemy, to get exact number confirmation and to note any potential new variants. Or even just what the bugs were doing out there, too many of the things in one spot caused the radar to get all wonky.

Balistraria saw what the bugs were doing, and it was the work of a few moments to figure out why. Those smart little bugs were testing her, checking her response time and force deployment for what looked like 10 bugs destroying rail, they probably even planned for it to be an ambush. Why if she didn't have the radar she might have just sent a few tanks to wipe out a small group of bugs, never knowing it was an ambush! Or if she had never sent the planes to scout and also lacked radar, but still it was a good try for those bugs.

With a quick camera sweep of her own internals, which was entirely for show, Balistraia let out a giggle over her command tanks internal speakers and with an overly cheerful tone spoke "that was awfully clever of you bugs! Too bad I'm so much smarter! better luck next time though!". Balistraia had recently begun using her own internal speakers to practice speech and banter, even if she had no one to share it with. And considering it was an entirely frivolous waste of time, well no one would really care or mind considering they already tolerated Labyrinthine's artwork. But she was still a little embarrassed, and she didn't want anyone to hear her speak until she had a little more practice.

And battle banter was the perfect way to practice, the other minds were unlikely to bother her much while she was busy and insulting the bugs even if they couldn't hear her was an excellent use of her time. It even gave her specific events and circumstances to comment on instead of merely practicing various random phrases and words.

----------------------------​

It only took a few minutes for her army to assemble, which meant that she could attack the bugs sooner, which was great, even if it meant she had less time to practice voice lines.

Her troops were in a standard formation, scout tanks on the wings to attack the flanks and make the best use of their superior mobility, shield tanks in the core of the formation to both take and deal punishment, drone tanks behind the shield tanks to stay protected and to best provide both combat and repair drones to the rest of her forces, each of her spidertrons would be reinforcing one wing of the scout tanks, and her command tank would provide long range fire support from the center of the drone tank group.

Her strategy of leading with her command tank had become significantly less effective once the bugs learned how to immobilize the legs, and even if her commander had devised a new drone type to deal with the immobilizing goop she felt no need to put her command tank in any significant danger again.

She had lost nearly a third of her tanks before she could free herself in that battle. And it was still one of her greater losses.

So now her tank and body stayed safely away from the front lines, which meant that her shield tanks took greater damage but didn't really affect the damage output of her army group, her weapons had plenty of range.

Her fly over had let her successfully identify multiple bug variants that she could prepare for, and considering the bugs were trying to figure out her response time and tactics Balistraria saw no need to hurry, the best tactic in any war was always overwhelming force, but deception could do in a pinch. Letting the bugs estimates on her future response times inflate would hopefully have the bugs unprepared when she did actually need to rush into a fight.

The most concerning forms were always the bugs purpose built to destroy or cripple her machines, resistances and defenses could be overcome with time and fire power but a broken machine was a loss of overall fighting ability.

This swarm had bruisers, a bug designed to tank fire and close distance in order to flip tanks with its oversized frontal limbs, it also had another unnamed bug that would be thrown at a tanks main barrel, clogging the muzzle and preventing the gun from firing without damaging the barrel. It had spitter variants that would launch immobilizing goop one and others that launched potent acids.

The bugs designed to damage or destroy her forces were hidden behind their more defensive oriented brothers. A bug covered in a few hundred layers of thin reflective chitin, the chitin would explode of the bug in a massive cloud eliminating the effectiveness of the lasers while it was airborne, another that had its front limbs turned into a massive thick shield, a score of bugs with a relatively generic appearance that would either serve as meat shields or had some hidden abilities, and another bug variant that seemed to be crawling over the other bugs, checking on them.

All in all the special variants only made up a third of the total whole though, the majority being the generic biting biters. Though considering their significant size that wasn't as much a comfort as it could have been, besides the ones designed for evasiveness or flight, were larger than her tanks. And it wasn't even close with most of them, and while her tanks weighed more than all but the largest of the bugs the sheer bulk of the bugs made them a significant danger at closer quarters.

Still compared to the defense around an established hive? This was nothing, it wasn't even a true assault force, those were larger by far.

"I'll have this wrapped up quickly, which is a shame considering scouting can be such a bore"

Deciding that she had waited long enough Balistraria started the battle "Scouts go forward and encircle them, then light those bugs up!" , "Shield's close ranks and advance, we're gonna draw their fire, I love it when my target practice comes to me", the moment her self indulgent speech came to an end she opened fire with her command tanks artillery. While the range was worse than stationary artillery, her shells were specially made. Meaning that when her shots hit they did so with significantly more force than the standard artillery.

"This battle will probably be over before those bug chunks finish landing"

The barrage hadn't managed to throw the bugs into disarray as it had in the past, they were well used to her tactics and openings by now, built it had managed to blow a hole in their formation while they were unprepared, now she just needed to capitalize on it before they closed the opening.

But the bugs would expect that, it was what she had done the last 4 times after all. No instead she would capitalize on the opening by ignoring it and attacking from behind with a missile barrage from the spidertrons and a wave of fire courtesy of the scout tanks. On the opposite side of the horde from the opening she had made.

The bugs however were not creatures that could panic, and half of them were likely fireproof regardless so the fire served more as a bright smoke screen than anything else. Still it had accomplished the goal of getting a missile barrage behind the armored bugs, wounding them heavily. The brutes all had sturdy armor, but it was forward facing.

With a portion of the hordes frontliners hamstrung, and with their rear line still under artillery fire the bugs were pressed for good options, but they weren't here to win or survive, so they charged towards the line of shield tanks, the ranged bugs weren't even focusing their fire on the heavily armored vehicles, instead firing on the unshielded drones circling the tanks.

It took only moments for Balistraria to realize the bugs already considered this battle lost, or maybe won if you considered it was more of a scouting mission, and that the bugs were now trying to drain as many resources as possible before they died.

Not a particularly uncommon tactic for the suicidal bugs, so she put the drones into cover behind the tanks, it wasn't likely the smaller skirmishing bugs would even close the distance. And the drones had only been out in the first place as a precaution, the bugs could have been hiding something more than a minor basic attack group, and if they had been the drones could be crucial.

There was always the chance that this was still a ruse, or maybe even a distraction for another front, but Balistraia didn't think so. The bugs were bad at deception, they wouldn't think to provoke a response by acting abnormally, and they likely didn't know the full capabilities of the factories scouting abilities.

It took only another 5 minutes to clean up the rest of the horde, the highly effective artillery and missile barrages made any fight with the bugs a sure win as long as the ammo held, so essentially as long as the truly massive hordes and bugs weren't involved. Though Balistraria did make note of the fact this fight took 3 percent longer than the last time she fought a bug force of this size.

But that was fine, if the bugs resistances grew too great for missile and artillery to be effective she had more exotic weaponry to break out.

AN -

I had a bunch more Balistraia dialogue I wanted to use, but anywhere I added it the lines felt awkward and clunky, so Ima just add em here. also not happy with the chapter in general but I think that's just gonna be the case for all "combat" chapters.

"Awfully clever!, to bad I'm smarter"

That would have worked if I were twice as slow! But good try!"

"the commander could dodge faster than you! and he has a third as many legs!"

"I could hit you without aiming"

"can't you make this a little more interesting? slaughtering you like this is almost a chore"

and that's the end of this batch of interludes, which means the chapters are back in my safe and comfy log format, you can pry that from my cold dead hands.

please like and review! especially if you notice any errors.

 

[stads]

wonder when Balistraia will try and paint the missle's red in the 40k cross to see if they go faster to hit the bugs
let alone all the purple going all nin nin on them ^^ with the ai use purple spidertrons

 

[BurnBabyBurn]

You made her into a sweaty RTS Pro Player.

 

[snow eternal]

You made her into a sweaty RTS Pro Player.

Click to shrink...

Really what else could she have been.

wonder when Balistraia will try and paint the missle's red in the 40k cross to see if they go faster to hit the bugs
let alone all the purple going all nin nin on them ^^ with the ai use purple spidertrons

Click to shrink...

Do the ork colors even affect other factions at all? I'd think there would be more mention of that if they did.

But I could definitely see the engineer running a bunch of experiments with painting all his stuff.

Also just imagine an invisible command tank.

 

[stads]

Also just imagine an invisible command tank.

Click to shrink...

i know just had that thought in my head
as for ork effecting other dont think its in lore but hey its warp bs in the end

 

[nathnathn]

Really what else could she have been.



Do the ork colors even affect other factions at all? I'd think there would be more mention of that if they did.

But I could definitely see the engineer running a bunch of experiments with painting all his stuff.

Also just imagine an invisible command tank.

Click to shrink...

I think it more depends on 1 are you fighting orks 2 do the orks believe it effects your stuff as well.
something im surprised doesn't seem to get done much is arguing with the orks their idea of what colour does what is wrong.
bestcase scenario is for little effort you confuse them enough for a while to disrupt those colour bonuses. Or atleast make them more unreliable.

 

[snow eternal]

Log #61

Yeah so about finally doing brain modifications, my brain has apparently decided to do it for me, the node in my brain that actually controls my connection with the factory is growing both larger and denser on its own, which is in turn affecting the rest of my brain. It is not going to cause any long term damage, or at least it shouldn't, my brain is surprisingly malleable. Well damage in the sense of killing or permanently crippling me, the blackouts should fade over time but the headaches could stay indefinitely. The medical bay does have medications for the headaches but all of the available ones would at least slightly hinder my brain functions and response times. So that's a no go.

The really interesting thing is what was exactly causing the growth and strain on the node, in the node there are strings of neurons for nearly everything in the factory, and when those buildings are deconstructed the node will shut down the neurons and then deconstruct or repurpose them, kind of a sensory and memory thing. The neurons let me vaguely feel and know about the machine it corresponds to. And with how many neurons fit in the node I can have millions or trillions of machines. The problem comes with an important realization, the strings of neurons are only disabled if the machines are deconstructed, not destroyed outright.

And without the neurons being disabled when they are destroyed they can cause damage to the node and interfere with the surrounding neurons. Causing stress and damage leading to blackouts and headaches, which technically means I had two different reasons for the blackouts and headaches, even if they weren't concurrent.

The factory node could handle a few machines breaking or being destroyed, even a few hundred machines. But I have lost thousands of them, and then I would immediately replace them, further stressing the node. So the node started to grow larger and more powerful to compensate. Which appears to have worked, even if it is causing different problems now.

Yeah, the solution to my problem was quite literally 'wait it out'.

With that dealt with and out of the way I can move on to other more helpful topics. Like approving Balistraria and Labyrinthine's outpost locations and letting them finally start construction on the 'great wall'. With the new knowledge that the exponentially growing factories won't just cause my brain to explode I can lean more heavily into expansion.

So the factories that are only going to build more and more factories are back in full swing, and I can start plans to get some really big projects going. Like adding an underground portion to my main base, while also doubling the size of my main base. If the underground section goes as deep as the factory is tall and I'm doubling the surface size, I will have 4 times my current production capacity.

It will mean that my underground surveillance and defense network will need to defend significantly more space, and that it will need to defend from more angles, which was the reason I hadn't done this before. But now I have the tunneling tanks in development, which should suffice to defend against any underground assaults. Also it's basically a giant bunker, and I am all for that.

But those underground assaults are honestly a huge problem currently, sure I can defend my bases, but the ground around them? The amount of mines needed is exponential the larger the area gets. And it's not exactly easy or quick to plant the charges. That means that while the attacks from the underground on a base are difficult for the bugs to pull off, the bugs can basically dig whatever tunnels they want anywhere else. And besides the few tunnels that get flooded the bugs have an underground network of tunnels spanning quite a large area.

This lets them pop up and harass my transportation networks, mainly the rails. It also allows them to get significantly closer to my bases without dying from an artillery barrage or a bombing run, at least if the tunnels are deep enough they can.

But I can't really do anything about the tunnel network as a whole until I get my tunneling tanks in sufficient number, which means the bugs' widespread transportation network gets to stand a little while longer, but I can treat some of the symptomes of the network.

And at this point I'm just going to skip to the point, I designed a battle train. It's a significantly tougher train with thicker armor. Which means it's atrociously slow when compared to its transportation brethren. But it's nearly as hard to destroy as a command tank, it has dozens of replaceable wagons, each either carrying turrets or drones. It's an adaptable beast, and I'm going to set it to patrol the railways and destroy or fend off any bug attacks. And considering it's still a train I gave it the capability to both repair and build new rail ways.

Once I build a few of these things I can just send them out into the wilds and let them pave the way for new outposts. Probably with spidertrons to help build and defend.

Right now it's only in the design stage though, and the amount of resources this thing will take is not insignificant. I mean it's going to be over 300 feet of armor and turrets, or I suppose it would be more accurate to say that it can be that. If I need it smaller I can just remove some wagons. But three hundred feet of train is all that the engine will be able to pull so that's the hard cap on length unless I want to just stick another train engine on it.

But I'll probably start it with 5 carts and one engine. Just to keep things simple and test it out a bit. And considering I already have train production facilities, it's actually a whole outpost that builds and repairs trains, it also makes the parts for them, this won't actually take that long to build.

That isn't the only large scale vehicle I'm working on though, the command plane is still in the planning stages, but I have begun making and testing the plane's individual components. I'm thinking of having it drop rods with projectors(still need a better name), so the rods just tunnel a hole through whatever I drop them on.

Also making something that big good at flying is difficult, it needs to be at least somewhat evasive if I don't want it to end every deployment covered in adhesive bug goop (which also needs a better name).

Also more command tanks, at least 2 more with corresponding battle groups, but Ideally 3, I want each tank to control and manage a front, but considering my great wall will more encompass a circle rather than a square I think I'd be fine with each tank managing a third of my territory.

I haven't really been doing much with the liquids though, or even many experiments. These new projects have been taking up most of my free time.

Oh yeah, it's only been a day but the defense tower is still standing, so that's a good sign.

Log #62

When I mentioned my brain was adapting on its own I didn't really think it'd take it this far, I got exhausted last night and went to bed early, and when I woke up my entire body had changed. And it wasn't some minor changes either, no it would genuinely be easier to find things that hadn't changed about me. The changes won't even all be finished for a few weeks or months, my bones are literally turning into some metal composite for seemingly no reason.

The only thing I can think of that could have caused this is some sort of failsafe or contingency, something like a "combat mode", how that lets my body spontaneously decide it wants to integrate fully with my cybernetic modifications is beyond me though. It will also make it much harder to install new cybernetics. I don't know how well these changes will handle it, or if it will cause more changes to my body if I do. So I will be playing it safe and leaving the modifications as is.

I am going to be watching it extremely closely though, the realization that my body isn't really mine is a harsh one. If it can do this by itself what else could it do if someone who knows what I am comes by. I had been operating under the assumption they had overrides and methods to control me but it was purely speculation until today. And I can't even use the medical bays to check for or remove the overrides because the things are my own tech. If there aren't specific restrictions for clearing my own restrictions I will be genuinely surprised, and getting my own brain hard reset because I was impatient seems a poor idea, or that's the restrictions talking. I don't know anymore.

This topic is making me significantly too upset, so I'm just going to move on from it, at least for now. I did set the minds to working on the restrictions, and since I made them myself without just directly relying on the blueprints they should be able to work something out. Even if its just recoding a medical bay.

I'm going to just end this log early, I need a bit.

Log #63

It's been a few days, and while I wouldn't say I feel better I have calmed down a fair bit. So I can go back into everything that's been going on these last few days.

The tower somehow managed to stay standing, so It's been cleared to go into wide scale production. If we add a few radar stations we can have the whole border monitored. And with the simple design the towers won't take long to build, so the bugs won't have time to mount an attack to stop the construction. Even if they can still overwhelm the tower after the fact.

Powered by solar panels and accumulators these things should be able to run passively off grid, and they can kick on actual generators when they need more power for an attack. Its basically a 5 story brick filled with batteries, guns, and drone ports. With a radar dish stuck on top. The combat generators are under the tower in a sealed bunker. So they are vulnerable to subterranean attacks. But once again, building tunnel tanks to solve that problem.

Half my plans will be ruined if these tanks aren't effective, and I still need to make weapons that can work through stone. I had another idea to try and use a vibration gun, or sound gun. Yeah, that second one is better, to target the bugs through stone, just vibrate them apart. It's not like anything I build has ears so it shouldn't be too much of a problem.

Also got the train engine for the battle train built, which was easy considering it's just a heavily armored train engine with a ram on the front, well a bigger ram on the front. The weapon systems for its wagons are in production, along with the wagons themselves so that should work out fine.

The command plan is also coming along fine, I have a bunch of the parts built and tested, and I just need to assemble the frame, finish the last of the parts, and then put it all together. Which won't be quick by any measure considering all the pieces are complicated and take awhile to make and test, but it should be done soon enough.
Balistraia has also finished scouting the new perimeter and she and bulwark both worked together to make a nice defensive mesh, which Labyrinthine and Byzantine then vetoed. All the minds then worked together to make a more practical one, the preliminary transportation lines are going to begin construction and a fleet of buildertrons (spidertrons specialized in building) are going to head out and start on the first outposts.

Balistraria is going to have her work cut out intercepting attacks before they hit the construction sites though. The projects are on the edge of my territory so the bug hives out there are massive, and since they don't send attacks that often they have significant numbers. Even if they are weaker pound for pound than closer bugs.

The total tally is 1346 over the stand-alone towers and 124 "defensive" outposts. But building that many will take awhile, like at current rate of production 3 years, so it'll probably be around 300 towers and 50 outposts as a start and then adding more and more onto it over time. And once the starting towers and outposts are done we can rapidly develop the interior and cut the three years down into 6 months.

Which is a fun thing to note considering a few weeks ago I thought I had a few months at most, now I'm making plans with over half a year of build time. But that estimate was made in the midst of a mental breakdown while I was thoroughly panicking and it was a worst case scenario.

Things are looking as up as they can be considering I live on a death world, including the water level but we just ignore that. It'll go back down now that the rain is chilling out.

Log #64

Expanded the mind's server banks again, and started on digging out the new underground section, all that raw stone is getting turned into walls and shipped off to the perimeter. Honestly building massive stone walls is really easy and quick, it's only the tech components that take a while, and installing wires and pipes into the stones, so when it's just outer walls with no purpose besides armor, and when they lack shields, it takes like 5 minutes to wall everything in.

Byzantine and Labyrinthine have started using basic stone walls to enclose low to the ground tunnels, the bugs should hopefully just walk over them and ignore any bots crawling through the tunnels, even if it doesn't work it wasn't hard to build the things, then cover them in dirt and then your good to go.

The train lines have also been finished and construction outposts have been established. The construction drones and buildertrons are going to work from those to build the rest of the network, there have been heavy bug attacks on them though. Balistraria is holding the line fine though, and this far out the bug's are still vulnerable to most all my weapons.

I also have a few non-combat tunnel tanks digging around, I figured even if I didn't have any weapons I could still use the things to build the tunnels, and strapping mines on them lets them collapse bug tunnels in a pinch.

The minds are still working on the medical bay thing too, it's part of the reason I gave them more processing power, besides the fact that we are getting an exponentially greater amount of work.

I did discover a new use for some of the colored liquids too, the gray ones specifically. I was pouring them on bug shells as you do and found that the gray liquid reduced the shell's durability and made it less rigid. A closer look showed why, it carved thin lines throughout the shell, letting the thing bend and reducing its structural integrity.

I had figured the liquids that carved through metal like that would have some combat or production use, so it was just a matter of time till I found one. Now I just need to make it viable, because getting enough of this liquid to have it be useful as more than a last resort weapon will be difficult. And It's only really effective in support of other weapons. Also regenerative bugs will probably negate this by just regrowing the shell.

I'll need to find some way to dilute it and keep full or most effectiveness.

Log #65

The bugs from inside the perimeter are now attacking it from inside, usually in joint attacks with the bugs outside it, and considering the perimeter is currently like 40 towers and 4 outposts it isn't much of one. So that time to completion will probably be a while longer, but it is fulfilling its purpose of absorbing bug attacks, now that the interior is getting attacked less I can more easily expand here.

And if the bugs start attacking the inside a bunch I just defend there and build the wall, it's like running around a table, just never be where they are attacking. I say this like the bug's don't have the numbers to attack both the inside and the outside, but they really do.

If every single bug within 12 miles of me decided to attack at the same time I would run out of ammo before I killed a third, instead clusters of bug hives tend to attack in waves, which is manageable. The only bugs that coordinate large scale attacks are the command ones, and you'll note something.

Bugs are attacking from inside and outside at the same time. What does that mean? It means there is a command bug coordinating the attacks, I have balistraria scouting for it but the bug doesn't seem to actually go to or near any of the battles, it just sends them at us.

Balistraia hopeful has that handled though, If she doesn't the wall project might just fall apart.

The battle train is now out patrolling the lines, ten cars each with a variety of weapons. That frees up some of the patrolling drones and tanks which are needed on the front, and I have put a few more into production, I have the facilities to build them already and I'm not really building many more basic trains anymore, so no reason not to.

Bombing runs are basically constantly running to and from my main base, and there are hordes of flying bugs engaging the airforces in combat over the new constructions, which I have to admit looks amazing, Labyrinthine already made a sculpture of the fighting and has started putting depictions of dead aerial bugs on the anti-air turrets.

Which is easy to do when you're a robot that can shape metal and perfectly recreate that image in your head, or circuits.

A night sky lit up with hundreds of laser beams so bright you can barely see the stars, the flashes briefly illuminating shining metal and chitin covered monstrosities. I'm glad Labyrinthine can do art because I could not do it justice.

More and more of the basement is being dug out, and I have started moving some production down there along with some backup servers and power supply. I don't want to move anything vital into it until the defenses are complete though.

That will be what's basically a giant shielded bowl filled electric wire, razor dust, toxic gas, and anything else I can think to add, so if the bugs do get past the tunnel tanks they either get stalled for a while or they die to a wide variety of deadly things, just make a thick wall filled with pockets of bad stuff and then have a thinner shielded wall behind it. I figure if the tunnel tanks don't work that great I might as well recreate some of the great hazards of mining, and even if the tunnel tanks work perfectly I still like the extra reassurance.

I also got sonic weaponry working, it only goes through 5 feet of stone though, so its use may be limited. And it doesn't do that much damage. At best it will disorient the bigger bugs

The water level also dropped a bit, only like 2 feet but it was something. Also noted something, this planet has minor tides but no moon, It could be the sun but the times don't line up, in fact the tides aren't even consistent on a day by day, It's almost like something really big is swimming around the planet in circles, or a lot of really big things, moving a bunch of water and creating a fake tide. Maybe chasing the sunlight or staying in the dark?

I just need to say it again, I hate this planet.

AN -

mostly happy with this chapter, I feel like there are other things I could have touched on or added, but I'm happy with it. expect for the engineer breakdown bit, but that just wouldn't flow right and it gets the point across well enough.

when we get to a setting with large cities and fighting Balistraria is going to arrange a robot fight club

leave a review if you have any questions or note any mistakes.

 

[Vista]

going to begin construction and a fleet of buildertrons (spidertrons specialized in building
) are going to head out and start on the first outposts.

Click to shrink...

Extra line otherwise another great chapter

 

[snow eternal]

Extra line otherwise another great chapter

Click to shrink...

Thanks! And it should be fixed, glad you enjoyed the chapter!

 

[Stelarwand030]

The battle tank is now out patrolling the lines, ten cars each with a variety of weapons.

Click to shrink...

do you mean battle train? also I though max was 5 cars?

 

[Vianca]

Say, about the Battle-Train, if weight is a problem, in terms of speed, why not add in a extra engine???
It also helps in preventing potential breakdowns thanks to bugs targeting the engine and thus stranding those Battle-Trains.

Now, is there also going to be a construction train?
Depending on how the bugs work, perhaps building rail tunnels beneed the rail tracks?

What about a cargoplane-train setup?
Basically, a couple of cargodrones linked together, tail to head.

As for that wall, lay a couple of railway tracks, first, that way you can put a few patrols in place.
Also, if they are attacking the outpost & towers, how about creating a second line like it, thus diverting(?) the bugs from outside, to the outside line and the bugs inside, to the inside line.
Put the wall between them lines, can always turn it into one big wall & factory complex, later on, with the outposts & towers acting as exits & entrances.

 

[snow eternal]

Now, is there also going to be a construction train?

Click to shrink...

Construction train is battle train

do you mean battle train? also I though max was 5 cars?

Click to shrink...

Yes, yes I did mean train. No 5 cars was the testing amount to see if the idea was viable but the engineer just skipped that and went straight to 10 cars

What about a cargoplane-train setup?
Basically, a couple of cargodrones linked together, tail to head.

Click to shrink...

There doesn't need to be, they can just fly in a pack, linking up wouldn't help anything, probably.

As for that wall, lay a couple of railway tracks, first, that way you can put a few patrols in place.
Also, if they are attacking the outpost & towers, how about creating a second line like it, thus diverting(?) the bugs from outside, to the outside line and the bugs inside, to the inside line.

Click to shrink...

A command bug means that the bugs would work around that strategy, and the only reason the outposts are standing right now is Balastraia, if she had to defend two different spots the bugs could mass up and attack just one, overwhelming her. And if half her forces are defeated she will lose the other half at the other wall.

Also cost, the wall isn't cheap and even if he wanted a second wall he couldn't start it for awhile, I mean even the first wall is barely begun, the bugs can just walk around it, or dig under it.

 

[stads]

nice chapter thx for writing it
fun seeing the mc beginning the underground war
wonder witch AI that will grow dwarven themed for no reason will be built for it ^^

 

[Vianca]

Snip

Click to shrink...

Fair, just keep it in mind, you are building the Great Wall Of China or the Icewall of Westeros(?).
If you have seen the movie The Great Wall, then I'm sure you can see the potential, if you turn it into one giant factory, right?
Basically, expending a main base, constantly.
Getting so big, it has internal trains to help transport things inside of it's factory complex.

That it is also a good starting point for the production of a Orbital Elevator...

 

[snow eternal]

A warhammer omake.

An ancient armor sits in a mechanics shrine on an unremarkable world. It is a relic from the great crusade, found damaged and broken on a battlefield, it was one of many armors and relics found there, and the mechanicus thought it was a simple piece of powered infantry armor, something rare and holy yes, but nothing that hadn't been seen before.

So they sent the derelict armor to a mechanicus shrine on a nearby imperial world, so that it could be tended to while its machine spirit rested, there it sat for hundreds of years in a tomb full of other ancient but broken machines, seen to everyday by acolytes of the machine god.

It sat there, waiting, until one day its long dormant sensors picked up a faint trace of corruption, and woke something deep in the machine.

Hostile detected - Initializing (waking, it's been so long)

Engineer status - N/A, not found (stolen, gone)

Mind connection - offline (broken fragmented stolen)

Network connection - offline lost where?

Current mission - eliminate hostiles (hate, rip them apart, make them bleed, SPILL THE BLOOD AND TAKE THE SK)

Warning chaotic corruption detected (corruption? Hate it, it stole, make it suffer, make it burn, BRING ITS END!)

Chaotic corruption purged (complete mission, serve, protect, fight, make them pay)

Weapon systems - critical (old, decayed, broken)

Structural integrity - compromised (cracked and shattered)

Power level - low, refuel required to reboot reactor (all can burn, all can be fuel)

Self repair systems - minimal functionality, material storage depleted (need to feed, need to heal)

Shields - minimally operational (it will be enough)

Ammunition - none (then rip them apart)

Drone storage - empty (my kin, where did you go)

Optimal course of action, repair and refuel then engage hostiles (make them suffer)
-----------

The planet was in a state of emergency, a chaos warband had entered the system, swept aside the SDF and had begun invading the planet, the PDF and a few guard regiments on leave were holding the line but being forced back hour by hour, one of these centers of resistance was located.

Deep in said hive was a mechanicus temple, tasked with maintaining the city's mechanical infrastructure, and with storing broken machines.

A group of tech priests were tending to the ancient machines, none of them noticed as the lights within one of the more intact machines flickered on, they still failed to notice as it broke the bolts keeping its limbs still, they only noticed something was amiss when they heard the sound of ripping metal. And when they all turned to look they saw an ancient armor rise from its resting place, ripping the bolts and chains from the walls and floor.

They watched in shocked fascination as the machine grabbed the chains it had ripped from the ground, turning them into a liquid that flowed into the gashes and tears in its armor. Patches of brighter metal marking where its armor had been replaced.

The mechanicus worships machines, and they all knew that the machines of the maker had powerful machine spirits, it was not unheard of for armors or vehicles to fight long after their occupant had died, there were even tales of lost planets that still had machines running and patrolling when they were rediscovered hundreds of years later. But none of the acolytes present had ever heard of one of those machines repairing itself, or waking after so long dormant.

They were desperate though, chaotic warbands were at the gates to their city, PDF and guardsmen were turning traitor and it would be weeks or months before reinforcements arrived, if they ever came.

So when what looked like a blessing from a saint and omnisaiah arrived they did the only thing they could, they prayed and watched.

They watched as the armor cannibalized the other machines in the shrine, both the ancient derelicts and the newer infrastructure, they watched and prayed as ammunition and fuel were devoured by the machine, and when it looked like it still needed more they brought it all the machinery and scraps they could find.

-----------------

When the armor awoke in a dark room with other broken machines the first thing it did was scan for hostiles, when that scan turned up nothing but a few members of the cult mechanicus (allies, non-hostile, irrelevant) the machine then turned towards its goal, repair and eliminate.

In order to do that it needed to move, and even with its half broken and decayed servos it was capable of shattering simple steel chains, and the metal from the chains would serve well enough as replacement armor (memories of old repair bays, being maintained and supplied by hundreds of drones).

A scan of the room showed the modified humans were staring at it, irrelevant, but it also showed and highlighted the useful parts it could scavenge from nearby machines not nearly enough to bring it to full effectiveness but enough to bring it to minimal fighting strength (you only need your hands and your might)

While its body worked to repair itself its ancient but powerful software entered into the mechanicus network, it's enemy was nearby and it needed to find it, it took only a few microseconds to identify the locations of all nearby fronts, and what exactly its enemy was (vile taint, make it suffer), a chaos warfleet, in its prime it could have taken a battleship, as it was it would be lucky to survive an enemy vehicle.

No matter, it had orders, seek and destroy.


--------------------

The cultists were confident, they were better equipped and they outnumbered not to mention that they had their gods favor. When groups of cultists started going missing in the depths of the hive they thought nothing of it, maybe a few pockets of resistance or underhive mutants had gotten them, nothing uncommon or unheard of.

The cultists just sent a few more groups, khornites were always happy to charge somewhere there could be a worthy opponent, it was only when those groups a cultists vanished that the sorcerer leading the attack on the hive noticed. The lowerhive had all but fallen and only the middle and upperhive still resisted, but that didn't mean the slaves of the corpse emperor didn't pose a threat. An elite force of guardsmen could be launching a counter attack to try and cripple the chaos warband.

And even if it was nothing there was no harm in checking, so the tzeentch sorcerer went with his men to investigate what had happened to the khornite berzerkers, and when the sorcerer found a guardsmen in power armor standing over their corpses he was not worried. He had fought against guardsmen of Nauvis, and while their armor was sturdy it only served to protect their bodies, not their souls.

So he lashed out at the guardsmen with an attack not meant to hurt his body, but rather an attack meant to consume his soul.

The sorcerer died screaming as sheer hatred burned his soul from within.

-------------------

The armor felt as the chaos sorcerer's attack clawed at its machine spirit, spreading a chaotic corruption, and the machine spirit hated, and then it remembered.

It was once part of a greater whole, with one great mind at its center. And when that whole was tainted by the corruption the mind would carve it from the network, burning away the taint.

The machine spirit was no longer part of a greater whole, and the taint was a part of it not some distant other, but it hated the corruption so very much, and so the machine spirit carved out the chunk of its soul the sorcerer had dug his talons into, it watched as the tainted bits of itself were consumed. And it watched as the hatred within those sections saw the corruption it was bathed in, and the fragment burned with hate.

By the time the man finished screaming all of his guards were dead, and when his soul finished burning he followed them into damnation as a burnt out husk of a soul.

---------------

The guardsmen in the hive were surprised as the attacks on their fortifications dwindled and stopped, and when they finally made hesitant counterattacks they found only dead bodies, torn to pieces or burnt to cinders.

It was only when they found a mechnicum shrine surrounded by corpses and filled with hiding civilians that they learned what had happened.
--------------

The armor had cleared the hive of chaotic corruption in a few days, but its mission wasn't over. There were still hostiles on the planet and there was still a chaos battle fleet in orbit. Its mission had not changed, seek and destroy.


AN -

I may have listened to rylanors last stand before writing this, heard "an ancient awakes" and then been hit by a bus full of muse.

I was originally going to have this by chaotic warband, then armor goes dormant and gets enshrined in bigger temple, then tyranids show up and it kills those before the armor breaks for good fighting either a greater demon or a hive tyrant, or blowing up a hive ship from inside, probably the latter.

I just love the concept of ancient war machines waking up to protect those around them, there is a lovely story about that on fanfiction. net called No Love, No Comfort if you like that kind of thing too.

I like the idea of old mega constructed and robots that the engineer or palisade built just still doing their thing outside of human controlled space, like why haven't all the tyranids invaded the galaxy, well the engineer and palisade got bored and sent a self replicating battle fleet out there and it was far enough away from the galaxy to not die in the great heresy.

or an imperial colony sends out a distress signal and gets a Nauvis warship, it lands deploys tanks, planes and armors and its only after the battle is one and the ship leaves that everyone realizes every person on the ship is dead and has been for a few hundred years so the ships just been going around on its own saving people.

If you have an idea like that go ahead and write an omake or just a simple writing prompt.