- Pronouns
- That/Thing
Snow can we get an update maby? I mean on progress.
I'll do you one better I think
Fabricated Hazards (factorio fanfic)
I'll do you one better I think
Interlude - It's just fluff, all fluff
- Pronouns
- That/Thing
The engineer lessened his glare as the startup sequence on the device began without any notable errors, it'd be more annoying that it had any right to be getting the dampener's programming to work and the small device had caused him no end of problems in the hours he'd spent building the thing, not even designing it, actually building it had taken hours. It was absurd and infuriating and if he didn't need to test the thing he'd smash it out of spite.
Once he added in the constant sensation of bugs tearing down his factories, things in the deep magma chewing on his drills and the constant sensation of androids walking through his factories he wasn't in anything approximating a good mood. The humans walking through the streets of his cities were just the icing on the cake, acting like he couldn't see it when one of them pocketed small items. They didn't even have the decency of being subtle with their espionage, and he was just waiting for one of them to 'get lost' somewhere they shouldn't.
Balistraia just looking at him with visible concern didn't make it any better either, and the way she looked ashamed as he thought that only twisted that particular needle in deeper. Minor grievance after minor grievance, still he took in a steading breath and silenced the majority of the thoughts. They were unhelpful, and once he'd made sure the dampener worked and brought it to 2B he'd be able to sleep again, the closest thing he'd get to a break. Even if every destroyed outpost threatened to wake him.
The machine was set to half power and began to spool up and the engineer felt it radiating out, visibly making a blurry zone in his area perception for a few seconds before clearing up, and as the energy enclosed him the sensation of skittering legs and organic flesh became distant, and the factory as a whole. Still noticeable, but a conversation in another room rather than right next to him.
He was so engrossed in the odd sensation he didn't notice Balistraia walking up behind him, something he wouldn't have even been capable of not noticing without the contraption, the same device she swiped off the table before him. Her form was only four meters tall at the moment, but it still towered over his own as he looked up at her. "What exactly are you doing" He could have kept the vague frustration out of his voice, but she'd have felt it regardless so he didn't bother. The wide smile on her face however turned that frustration into a vague concern as the engineer noted a few things, he wasn't in his armor, and there were no androids in the room, and with his dampened systems it'd be difficult to control a drone if Balistraia didn't want him too.
That worry grew as she turned the dial to max, and his sense's shrank as low as they'd ever gone, barely past his own reach, the sensations of the factory outside rather than just a room over. Only the strongest sensations reaching him, shattered command tanks, new ships coming online, bugs rampaging inside outposts, and even that was negligible and harder to notice than they were to ignore.
His senses were as mortal as they could be, and it was as jarring as having a bag over his head. Balistraia's words only confirmed what he already knew. "We were talking, and we think you need a break" how had…. They'd only started talking about it after the device was on, that's how he hadn't noticed the oncoming betrayal. The minds had known if they'd voiced the thoughts he'd have prepared countermeasures, and he should have done so regardless.
The scathing glare he leveled at the mind was ignored "I have things I need to do, and I was going to rest soon regardless." Balistraia only smiled wider as the device disappeared into one of the myriad compartments within her body, he wasn't getting it back. "Yes, you'd have 'slept' for two hours. Very restful. No, your stress levels are well outside of acceptable limits, and if you don't care about the mental health aspect you should be more than aware of your faltering efficiency."He didn't bother to lessen his glare or respond, It was noticeable yes but once his normal rest cycle could begin again it'd mitigate the majority of it. He already knew the optimal rest work cycle, and he'd be getting back to it… eventually.
He didn't bother to resist as Balistraia pulled him to the floor and into her lap, if he was in his armor it would have been futile, without it it was just laughable. She'd made her form soft and he sank into it as she wrapped her arms around him and pressed him into her chest, it radiated warmth and she used her control over her body to make it grab him, applying gentle pressure everywhere they touched, which was most of him given just how much give her flesh could have when she wanted it too. The pressure started to move and squeeze as she massaged his entire body at the same time, keeping him trapped.
Even without her strength he couldn't have escaped, her body was frictionless and he was stuck without any leverage.
You know it wasn't intentional but Balistraia's body is just the best for hugs
He let out a tired sigh as he leaned back "just how long do you plan on keeping me here." and pretend to ignore the giggle and hand playing with his hair, he had some dignity. "Until you feel better" That was both vague and not a time frame. "You have one hour and then I'm getting out" The admittedly soothing massage immediately stopped and the strength of the 'hug' increased causing him to sink even deeper. "And you'll be enforcing that how?" ….He was clever, he'd figure something out, eventually.
Still he needed to suppress the urge to flail his limbs in an attempt to escape, or at least his legs as his arms were well trapped, did he actually just entertain the thought of throwing a tantrum? And only not do it because it wouldn't work? He really did need a break.
He was stuck with the sensation of her hands running along his scalp as the warmth from her systems radiated into him. His body didn't ache, nor was it sore, but the sensations coupled with her …flexing? Of her internals was soothing nonetheless, even if he'd never actually admit that.
The drones in the room and within his inventory ignored his attempts to control them, even when he felt the connection and commands send. Traitors one and all. Which closed off the easiest avenue to escape, leaving him with only his internal storage and deconstruction aura. Neither of which seemed immediately useful for his situation.
Trying to exert any control over the materials of Balistraias body was an exercise in futility, given the sheer potency of her shielding systems and the fact she was technically speaking partly organic, but that meant nothing for the material around her. With the dampener reducing the engineer's senses however… it'd be like doing it in the dark.
Still he reached out with that metaphysical muscle inside his head, trying to find the nearest material he could control, the air was well within his grasp already. The sensation of his powers hold on it was diffuse however, more a medium of conduction than something he could actually affect given it was already a gas but well.. He'd never actually tried to pull the air within himself. It was matter so there was no reason he couldn't, and with a flex of intent the engineer started to pull in the air around him, slowly.
It took seconds for him to realize that wasn't going to lead anywhere, perhaps he could gather enough to launch himself with a burst of air but it'd take hours to gather enough to move his weight any significant distance. Intentionally stretching his reach out let the engineer reach the floor Balistraia was resting upon, and the wall she was leaning against, and though it should have been well outside the range of his diminished view his vision spread to whatever his power touched.
Which was…. Maybe new? He'd never actually tried to effect something outside of his awareness bubble but if the energy was causing his view to expand…. And in order to store things he needed to know their shape and composition… had his awareness bubble always just been a low intensity wave of Projector energy? If the dampener was reducing or absorbing his output then he could just increase his own output. It wouldn't reconnect him to the factory network, probably, but….
Immediately the floor underneath them fell as he rapidly increased the intensity and softened the material around the floor Balistraia was sitting on, causing a circle of still stable matter to fall free. And more importantly causing Balsitraia to remove one of her arms to try and grab onto the lip of the hole. With her dangling while still pressing him into her stomach he no longer had to fight gravity and the absence of friction, only her grip which given said absence of friction was actually feasible. Wiggling frantically side to side he started to escape, but Balistraia's artificial mind rapidly figured out his admittedly flawed plan and she took a firmer grip of him, sacrificing her grasp on the lip of the hole and letting them fall into the storage room under his auxiliary lab. He made to try the same trick again, but found that she'd turned the projectors lining the walls on, having figured out what he'd done. "Are you done now commander?" The engineer still didn't care for that title, he'd made Balistraia so he didn't have to command. "....for now"
It'd take awhile to make a new plan after all.
AN-
Sorry for the long wait, I'll post another Chapter to both make up for the short length and time between updates.
Just trying to figure out what I want to do with this story, and life getting steadily busier. Most of what I've written for this story recently either feels like it doesn't mesh well or just hasn't had much substance to it, much like this one.
Patreon is a thing, and has a fair few chapters that are dubiously canon
Comments and reviews fuel me
Once he added in the constant sensation of bugs tearing down his factories, things in the deep magma chewing on his drills and the constant sensation of androids walking through his factories he wasn't in anything approximating a good mood. The humans walking through the streets of his cities were just the icing on the cake, acting like he couldn't see it when one of them pocketed small items. They didn't even have the decency of being subtle with their espionage, and he was just waiting for one of them to 'get lost' somewhere they shouldn't.
Balistraia just looking at him with visible concern didn't make it any better either, and the way she looked ashamed as he thought that only twisted that particular needle in deeper. Minor grievance after minor grievance, still he took in a steading breath and silenced the majority of the thoughts. They were unhelpful, and once he'd made sure the dampener worked and brought it to 2B he'd be able to sleep again, the closest thing he'd get to a break. Even if every destroyed outpost threatened to wake him.
The machine was set to half power and began to spool up and the engineer felt it radiating out, visibly making a blurry zone in his area perception for a few seconds before clearing up, and as the energy enclosed him the sensation of skittering legs and organic flesh became distant, and the factory as a whole. Still noticeable, but a conversation in another room rather than right next to him.
He was so engrossed in the odd sensation he didn't notice Balistraia walking up behind him, something he wouldn't have even been capable of not noticing without the contraption, the same device she swiped off the table before him. Her form was only four meters tall at the moment, but it still towered over his own as he looked up at her. "What exactly are you doing" He could have kept the vague frustration out of his voice, but she'd have felt it regardless so he didn't bother. The wide smile on her face however turned that frustration into a vague concern as the engineer noted a few things, he wasn't in his armor, and there were no androids in the room, and with his dampened systems it'd be difficult to control a drone if Balistraia didn't want him too.
That worry grew as she turned the dial to max, and his sense's shrank as low as they'd ever gone, barely past his own reach, the sensations of the factory outside rather than just a room over. Only the strongest sensations reaching him, shattered command tanks, new ships coming online, bugs rampaging inside outposts, and even that was negligible and harder to notice than they were to ignore.
His senses were as mortal as they could be, and it was as jarring as having a bag over his head. Balistraia's words only confirmed what he already knew. "We were talking, and we think you need a break" how had…. They'd only started talking about it after the device was on, that's how he hadn't noticed the oncoming betrayal. The minds had known if they'd voiced the thoughts he'd have prepared countermeasures, and he should have done so regardless.
The scathing glare he leveled at the mind was ignored "I have things I need to do, and I was going to rest soon regardless." Balistraia only smiled wider as the device disappeared into one of the myriad compartments within her body, he wasn't getting it back. "Yes, you'd have 'slept' for two hours. Very restful. No, your stress levels are well outside of acceptable limits, and if you don't care about the mental health aspect you should be more than aware of your faltering efficiency."He didn't bother to lessen his glare or respond, It was noticeable yes but once his normal rest cycle could begin again it'd mitigate the majority of it. He already knew the optimal rest work cycle, and he'd be getting back to it… eventually.
He didn't bother to resist as Balistraia pulled him to the floor and into her lap, if he was in his armor it would have been futile, without it it was just laughable. She'd made her form soft and he sank into it as she wrapped her arms around him and pressed him into her chest, it radiated warmth and she used her control over her body to make it grab him, applying gentle pressure everywhere they touched, which was most of him given just how much give her flesh could have when she wanted it too. The pressure started to move and squeeze as she massaged his entire body at the same time, keeping him trapped.
Even without her strength he couldn't have escaped, her body was frictionless and he was stuck without any leverage.
You know it wasn't intentional but Balistraia's body is just the best for hugs
He let out a tired sigh as he leaned back "just how long do you plan on keeping me here." and pretend to ignore the giggle and hand playing with his hair, he had some dignity. "Until you feel better" That was both vague and not a time frame. "You have one hour and then I'm getting out" The admittedly soothing massage immediately stopped and the strength of the 'hug' increased causing him to sink even deeper. "And you'll be enforcing that how?" ….He was clever, he'd figure something out, eventually.
Still he needed to suppress the urge to flail his limbs in an attempt to escape, or at least his legs as his arms were well trapped, did he actually just entertain the thought of throwing a tantrum? And only not do it because it wouldn't work? He really did need a break.
He was stuck with the sensation of her hands running along his scalp as the warmth from her systems radiated into him. His body didn't ache, nor was it sore, but the sensations coupled with her …flexing? Of her internals was soothing nonetheless, even if he'd never actually admit that.
The drones in the room and within his inventory ignored his attempts to control them, even when he felt the connection and commands send. Traitors one and all. Which closed off the easiest avenue to escape, leaving him with only his internal storage and deconstruction aura. Neither of which seemed immediately useful for his situation.
Trying to exert any control over the materials of Balistraias body was an exercise in futility, given the sheer potency of her shielding systems and the fact she was technically speaking partly organic, but that meant nothing for the material around her. With the dampener reducing the engineer's senses however… it'd be like doing it in the dark.
Still he reached out with that metaphysical muscle inside his head, trying to find the nearest material he could control, the air was well within his grasp already. The sensation of his powers hold on it was diffuse however, more a medium of conduction than something he could actually affect given it was already a gas but well.. He'd never actually tried to pull the air within himself. It was matter so there was no reason he couldn't, and with a flex of intent the engineer started to pull in the air around him, slowly.
It took seconds for him to realize that wasn't going to lead anywhere, perhaps he could gather enough to launch himself with a burst of air but it'd take hours to gather enough to move his weight any significant distance. Intentionally stretching his reach out let the engineer reach the floor Balistraia was resting upon, and the wall she was leaning against, and though it should have been well outside the range of his diminished view his vision spread to whatever his power touched.
Which was…. Maybe new? He'd never actually tried to effect something outside of his awareness bubble but if the energy was causing his view to expand…. And in order to store things he needed to know their shape and composition… had his awareness bubble always just been a low intensity wave of Projector energy? If the dampener was reducing or absorbing his output then he could just increase his own output. It wouldn't reconnect him to the factory network, probably, but….
Immediately the floor underneath them fell as he rapidly increased the intensity and softened the material around the floor Balistraia was sitting on, causing a circle of still stable matter to fall free. And more importantly causing Balsitraia to remove one of her arms to try and grab onto the lip of the hole. With her dangling while still pressing him into her stomach he no longer had to fight gravity and the absence of friction, only her grip which given said absence of friction was actually feasible. Wiggling frantically side to side he started to escape, but Balistraia's artificial mind rapidly figured out his admittedly flawed plan and she took a firmer grip of him, sacrificing her grasp on the lip of the hole and letting them fall into the storage room under his auxiliary lab. He made to try the same trick again, but found that she'd turned the projectors lining the walls on, having figured out what he'd done. "Are you done now commander?" The engineer still didn't care for that title, he'd made Balistraia so he didn't have to command. "....for now"
It'd take awhile to make a new plan after all.
AN-
Sorry for the long wait, I'll post another Chapter to both make up for the short length and time between updates.
Just trying to figure out what I want to do with this story, and life getting steadily busier. Most of what I've written for this story recently either feels like it doesn't mesh well or just hasn't had much substance to it, much like this one.
Patreon is a thing, and has a fair few chapters that are dubiously canon
Comments and reviews fuel me
Interlude - Inventions
- Pronouns
- That/Thing
The Engineer-droid held the metal bug in his hands, restraining the urge to cackle madly. The thing was barely three inches long and shimmered a metallic blue, two sharp sickle like appendages on the front of its body, six fairly stubby legs behind that, and a large (to its size) gem-like growth on its head.
This small unassuming thing was the answer to a number of problems the factory was facing, but its original purpose had been to solve the issue of the metallic growth not being capable of making complex machinery.
If he couldn't get it to grow machines like fruit he just needed to make something that could make machines from the substance. Which still really needed a name, perhaps The Bailey? It'd fit the naming theme. Regardless, the issue with making smaller drones had always been a power concern, they just couldn't run the necessary systems to actually be useful.
But the Bailey was a conduit and capable of keeping the drones charged while they worked. And what work they did, in a fit of brilliance he'd figured out how to make the drones function as an assembler when they worked together. Two of the drones could use the Bailey to make another one of themselves, and enough of them could functionally build anything. So long as most of it was crafted from the Bailey. They would also be capable of maintaining all of the machines they built, obviously.
There were limitations, for one they couldn't build 'factory' tech, all of it would be fairly mundane machinery without any of the inherent bonuses normally imparted. They also needed to be in contact with the Bailey restricting where they could be used. And the power they drew meant the area around them would be under an active current, which was only a problem for people who shouldn't be out on the Bailey regardless.
It wasn't harmless either, being made from the same material as the Bailey it was harder than diamond and each one would have razor sharp talons, largely used to carve through said crystals but more than capable of carving through chitin and flesh just the same. And at their small size they were practically impervious to physical harm, you'd just press it into the ground like a nail trying to smash it. And the gem could channel an admittedly weak laser, used for melting and welding metals as needed, but a few thousand of the beams lined up? Not as good as a specialized weapon but more than capable of putting the hurt on something and giving the …Murmurs? A much needed ranged option.
Not that they were impossible to kill, not in the least. Excessive heat and potent acids would kill them by the score, and while they were as frighteningly fast as all insect like things are they weren't particularly agile above ground, nor were they flight capable.
Still they would serve as a potent active defense and symbiote to the Bailey, which as of now could only really enclose subterranean intruders to suffocate them or try and electrocute and crush them. Now however the murmurs would enter the closed off pocket or just outright intercept the intruders and carve them to shreds, or melt them. And given how capable of tunneling through the Bailey they were they'd have a significant home field advantage.
And if he had his way they'd also serve as the basis for an entire ecosystem based on the Bailey, making subterranean thermal generators, hydroelectric dams and extensive solar arrays to increase the spread of the Bailey, while fending off outside threats and expanding the factory as they went. Larger machine creatures, more specialized for defense or other roles would feed on the Murmurs as a sort of replenishable battery, letting them range out further the more Murmurs they'd eaten in their lives. Not quite efficient, but fascinating regardless. Perhaps the larger creatures could serve as Bailey seeds, and when they died serve as the start of a new Bailey ecosystem with the previously eaten Murmurs using the larger creatures 'corpse' to set up initial power generation, likely simply burning combustibles or solar arrays if no combustibles were available.
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Most people focused on the larger inventions, the super weapons or new vehicles, which was fair. They were visible and relatively important, and they were partially made to draw attention regardless. But they weren't really the most important inventions, better armor wasn't flashy, more powerful batteries wouldn't draw many eyes, a conveyor belt with reduced power consumption didn't seem like much. But they made an overall larger impact than the bigger, flashier, inventions.
Which was the main reason the engineer-droid didn't complain, much, when he'd been told to make a more efficient battery. The drones' newer systems drained the batteries faster, and handheld laser weapons needed more power to actually harm bugs. Not even mentioning that more power meant the lasers could be fired for longer at said higher powers.
That and the factory didn't have very much in the way of purely mechanical tools, equipment, or weapons. Batteries served an important role in most of the factory's functions.
But the work wasn't glamorous, nor was it very rewarding mentally. Technically speaking Android Earth's batteries were on par with or better than the factory's armor batteries, just based on magical principles. That meant that even making a better factory battery wouldn't mean he'd made the best battery, given that if he decided to incorporate magic, or even concepts, it'd magnify the base product's capacity.
Just at the cost of rapidly increasing cost and production time, magic items were slow to make and didn't mesh well with fabrication, and conceptual fluids were resource and logistically intensive. No, it needed to be cheap, effective, and easy to produce.
Which was a decidedly annoying combination of things to balance. It also ideally needed to be durable and non-vital so as to not add any notable weaknesses to equipment. Couldn't have it overheat, or break if it charged too long, or have too short of a service life.
The various requirements meant he couldn't use plasma, yet. Though his attempts had resulted in some fascinating ideas for Plasma grenades. Honestly the progress he had made had been significant, but it was so boring he had to find other projects just to not go insane.
Which is why he was currently holding a completed plasma vambrace, well a vambrace that projected a torso sized sheet of plasma. Which had many uses, and had actually been fun to use and make. He'd even ended up using his battery designs to power the thing, so it wasn't absurdly expensive and could be rolled out in mass. Though given it was basically a sword without a hilt there'd probably need to be some mandatory training for it…. And that meant he needed to make training simulations….. Balistraia could probably just copy one of his weapon tests and use that.
It served as an adequate light source, a very potent weapon in both close quarters and short ranged combat. Though it only served in the latter role if you discharged the plasma and there were decent odds your arm would melt if you did that, but well, wear your damn armor and you'll be fine. It's main role however was a defensive one, mostly against liquid projectiles and melee weapons admittedly, but if you were fast enough you could burn off most of a solid projectile if it wasn't overly large or fast.
Really it was a tool with a very high skill requirement before it became anything other than a safety hazard, given the static/dumb plasma shield that couldn't move itself or turn itself off before you touched it. But well if an android did lose a limb training they could just get a new one, even if it'd hurt in the meantime.
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One issue the factory had been having for most of its life was the fragile nature of its materials compared to the enemies it fought. Attempts had been made to rectify this, but each attempt had flaws, mostly relating to cost and weight. You could make a suit of power armor with two thousand pounds of armor and be as durable as a bug half that size, at least before taking shields into consideration but even that only gave you a slight edge without prohibitive energy and production costs.
The Bailey had been yet another attempt, but well it was still absurdly heavy, and it wasn't that much more durable than what armor platings they already had. It was just cheaper to make, which was a massive boon and plates of it were already being added to ships and vehicles instead of more mundane armors. Add in the ability for it to heal itself with enough electricity and it was only more useful.
But it wasn't really applicable to light and medium armor, which admittedly wasn't much of a concern for the factory. Only drones really used light armor, though some androids wore light armor outside of combat. But if a light enough material was made it would drastically increase drone speed, and perhaps allow the things to actually withstand a single hit without turning into a cloud of metallic dust.
Not likely, but one can dream.
Almost all armor derivatives were carbon based, it was both a common material and a material that liked forming rigid and durable bonds, with other less relative but still useful properties. And this plate was no different.
It had taken an hour for the assembly machine to make the prototype armor, barely the size of a dinner plate and only half a centimeter thick. Relatively flexible and a dark brown color that failed to shine in the harsh lighting.
A drone would never withstand a proper hit from a bug, tanks struggled to do that if anything but the smallest most common bugs hit them, but that wasn't really what killed most drones and even androids. It was the wider attacks, acid sprays and bursts of flames, self destructing bugs or bursts of laser fire and light. The bugs did not lack in unique methods of death dealing, and taking the time to list every ranged attack would last days even with enhanced cognition, so the engine-droid moved on.
The armor didn't need to withstand blunt force, it'd be fine if it just bent and allowed the internals of a drone to be crushed, as long as the armor remained intact rebuilding the drone from its scrap would be easy.
It did however need to withstand flame, acid, and allow numerous exotic and harmful attacks to just wash over it without melting outright, and without sticking to the armor and draining the shields, if the drone had shields.
That had actually been disturbingly easy once he'd accepted that making it resist physical damage was pointless, sure it left a significant weakness to solid projectiles but well no armor was perfect, yet.
And since he had time he'd used its thermally insulating properties to allow it to draw power from excessive heat, shifting that to include absorbing electric attacks and adding in an inefficient ability to convert light into power was just the icing on the cake. Though too much electricity too fast had a chance to short out the power drawing system.
Then he came to the rather important conclusion that the androids would hate this type of armor, given they fought each other with swords and this would be about as good as wearing cotton padding against a blade. Which meant he needed to design a lightweight armor plate that held up to physical trauma from both blunt and piercing force.
Maybe he could just throw that on under the thermal armor? It went against the philosophy to have the hardest armor on the outside to increase shield effectiveness but well…. Shields weren't helping much anymore.
That and increasing production speed, likely just with more machines. Byzantine could figure out if the production process needed to be reworked and tell him.
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There was only so much energy you could throw into a crystal before it shattered or melted, which was a pretty significant problem. Though one that had been getting mitigated with shield technology to prevent the crystals from overheating and shattering, and on large vehicles or weapon platforms that solution worked perfectly. But handheld weaponry, and drones, didn't have the shields to spare, or often shields in the first place.
That and it wasn't efficient on the largest laser weapons, taking an inordinate amount of energy to shield the things and drastically limiting firing time.
So solutions needed to be made, crystals or mediums better suited for focusing lasers. Which was boring, and really that was the main reason the original hadn't bothered to do anything there aside from letting the labs sort out more efficient conceptual patterns. But now that we had spare bodies there was no reason to not, and I'd drawn the short straw.
Really why couldn't I have been in the group working on interdimensional travel? Sure two of them had been sucked into what was probably an alternate reality, and likely not in one piece at that. But it was better than this, I was literally just watching crystals grow in tubes and then pointing light into them.
This could have been automated, sure it'd have taken longer to get good results without an intelligence, but still! At least watching how concepts changed with the state of the crystals formation was some good information, but it was on the timescale of days for any appreciable results. I wasn't made for these time scales!
I only ever needed to do a few hours of work a day, and if Balistraia knew that I was off duty she'd hunt me down for 'mental recuperation' which was somehow worse than watching salt crystals form. That was supposed to be the organic's problem! He actually had hormonal systems that'd react to her body to produce a calming effect. My brain was metal! It didn't get half the same benefits and those could be gotten just as easily via a mental simulation of the contact. Which was knowledge I'd take to my grave, if Balistraia learned that she'd hijack our sleep cycles to implement it, rather than letting us form a nightly think tank.
Really I was going to sign up for interdimensional testing the first opportunity I got. Maybe find a nice reality full of eldritch horrors and get back into familiar territory. Being this domestic was almost painful.
New crystal to serve as laser focus, harder to overheat and therefore capable of firing a stronger laser.
AN-
More chapters on Patreon, Reviews and comments fuel me
This small unassuming thing was the answer to a number of problems the factory was facing, but its original purpose had been to solve the issue of the metallic growth not being capable of making complex machinery.
If he couldn't get it to grow machines like fruit he just needed to make something that could make machines from the substance. Which still really needed a name, perhaps The Bailey? It'd fit the naming theme. Regardless, the issue with making smaller drones had always been a power concern, they just couldn't run the necessary systems to actually be useful.
But the Bailey was a conduit and capable of keeping the drones charged while they worked. And what work they did, in a fit of brilliance he'd figured out how to make the drones function as an assembler when they worked together. Two of the drones could use the Bailey to make another one of themselves, and enough of them could functionally build anything. So long as most of it was crafted from the Bailey. They would also be capable of maintaining all of the machines they built, obviously.
There were limitations, for one they couldn't build 'factory' tech, all of it would be fairly mundane machinery without any of the inherent bonuses normally imparted. They also needed to be in contact with the Bailey restricting where they could be used. And the power they drew meant the area around them would be under an active current, which was only a problem for people who shouldn't be out on the Bailey regardless.
It wasn't harmless either, being made from the same material as the Bailey it was harder than diamond and each one would have razor sharp talons, largely used to carve through said crystals but more than capable of carving through chitin and flesh just the same. And at their small size they were practically impervious to physical harm, you'd just press it into the ground like a nail trying to smash it. And the gem could channel an admittedly weak laser, used for melting and welding metals as needed, but a few thousand of the beams lined up? Not as good as a specialized weapon but more than capable of putting the hurt on something and giving the …Murmurs? A much needed ranged option.
Not that they were impossible to kill, not in the least. Excessive heat and potent acids would kill them by the score, and while they were as frighteningly fast as all insect like things are they weren't particularly agile above ground, nor were they flight capable.
Still they would serve as a potent active defense and symbiote to the Bailey, which as of now could only really enclose subterranean intruders to suffocate them or try and electrocute and crush them. Now however the murmurs would enter the closed off pocket or just outright intercept the intruders and carve them to shreds, or melt them. And given how capable of tunneling through the Bailey they were they'd have a significant home field advantage.
And if he had his way they'd also serve as the basis for an entire ecosystem based on the Bailey, making subterranean thermal generators, hydroelectric dams and extensive solar arrays to increase the spread of the Bailey, while fending off outside threats and expanding the factory as they went. Larger machine creatures, more specialized for defense or other roles would feed on the Murmurs as a sort of replenishable battery, letting them range out further the more Murmurs they'd eaten in their lives. Not quite efficient, but fascinating regardless. Perhaps the larger creatures could serve as Bailey seeds, and when they died serve as the start of a new Bailey ecosystem with the previously eaten Murmurs using the larger creatures 'corpse' to set up initial power generation, likely simply burning combustibles or solar arrays if no combustibles were available.
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Most people focused on the larger inventions, the super weapons or new vehicles, which was fair. They were visible and relatively important, and they were partially made to draw attention regardless. But they weren't really the most important inventions, better armor wasn't flashy, more powerful batteries wouldn't draw many eyes, a conveyor belt with reduced power consumption didn't seem like much. But they made an overall larger impact than the bigger, flashier, inventions.
Which was the main reason the engineer-droid didn't complain, much, when he'd been told to make a more efficient battery. The drones' newer systems drained the batteries faster, and handheld laser weapons needed more power to actually harm bugs. Not even mentioning that more power meant the lasers could be fired for longer at said higher powers.
That and the factory didn't have very much in the way of purely mechanical tools, equipment, or weapons. Batteries served an important role in most of the factory's functions.
But the work wasn't glamorous, nor was it very rewarding mentally. Technically speaking Android Earth's batteries were on par with or better than the factory's armor batteries, just based on magical principles. That meant that even making a better factory battery wouldn't mean he'd made the best battery, given that if he decided to incorporate magic, or even concepts, it'd magnify the base product's capacity.
Just at the cost of rapidly increasing cost and production time, magic items were slow to make and didn't mesh well with fabrication, and conceptual fluids were resource and logistically intensive. No, it needed to be cheap, effective, and easy to produce.
Which was a decidedly annoying combination of things to balance. It also ideally needed to be durable and non-vital so as to not add any notable weaknesses to equipment. Couldn't have it overheat, or break if it charged too long, or have too short of a service life.
The various requirements meant he couldn't use plasma, yet. Though his attempts had resulted in some fascinating ideas for Plasma grenades. Honestly the progress he had made had been significant, but it was so boring he had to find other projects just to not go insane.
Which is why he was currently holding a completed plasma vambrace, well a vambrace that projected a torso sized sheet of plasma. Which had many uses, and had actually been fun to use and make. He'd even ended up using his battery designs to power the thing, so it wasn't absurdly expensive and could be rolled out in mass. Though given it was basically a sword without a hilt there'd probably need to be some mandatory training for it…. And that meant he needed to make training simulations….. Balistraia could probably just copy one of his weapon tests and use that.
It served as an adequate light source, a very potent weapon in both close quarters and short ranged combat. Though it only served in the latter role if you discharged the plasma and there were decent odds your arm would melt if you did that, but well, wear your damn armor and you'll be fine. It's main role however was a defensive one, mostly against liquid projectiles and melee weapons admittedly, but if you were fast enough you could burn off most of a solid projectile if it wasn't overly large or fast.
Really it was a tool with a very high skill requirement before it became anything other than a safety hazard, given the static/dumb plasma shield that couldn't move itself or turn itself off before you touched it. But well if an android did lose a limb training they could just get a new one, even if it'd hurt in the meantime.
---------------------------------------
One issue the factory had been having for most of its life was the fragile nature of its materials compared to the enemies it fought. Attempts had been made to rectify this, but each attempt had flaws, mostly relating to cost and weight. You could make a suit of power armor with two thousand pounds of armor and be as durable as a bug half that size, at least before taking shields into consideration but even that only gave you a slight edge without prohibitive energy and production costs.
The Bailey had been yet another attempt, but well it was still absurdly heavy, and it wasn't that much more durable than what armor platings they already had. It was just cheaper to make, which was a massive boon and plates of it were already being added to ships and vehicles instead of more mundane armors. Add in the ability for it to heal itself with enough electricity and it was only more useful.
But it wasn't really applicable to light and medium armor, which admittedly wasn't much of a concern for the factory. Only drones really used light armor, though some androids wore light armor outside of combat. But if a light enough material was made it would drastically increase drone speed, and perhaps allow the things to actually withstand a single hit without turning into a cloud of metallic dust.
Not likely, but one can dream.
Almost all armor derivatives were carbon based, it was both a common material and a material that liked forming rigid and durable bonds, with other less relative but still useful properties. And this plate was no different.
It had taken an hour for the assembly machine to make the prototype armor, barely the size of a dinner plate and only half a centimeter thick. Relatively flexible and a dark brown color that failed to shine in the harsh lighting.
A drone would never withstand a proper hit from a bug, tanks struggled to do that if anything but the smallest most common bugs hit them, but that wasn't really what killed most drones and even androids. It was the wider attacks, acid sprays and bursts of flames, self destructing bugs or bursts of laser fire and light. The bugs did not lack in unique methods of death dealing, and taking the time to list every ranged attack would last days even with enhanced cognition, so the engine-droid moved on.
The armor didn't need to withstand blunt force, it'd be fine if it just bent and allowed the internals of a drone to be crushed, as long as the armor remained intact rebuilding the drone from its scrap would be easy.
It did however need to withstand flame, acid, and allow numerous exotic and harmful attacks to just wash over it without melting outright, and without sticking to the armor and draining the shields, if the drone had shields.
That had actually been disturbingly easy once he'd accepted that making it resist physical damage was pointless, sure it left a significant weakness to solid projectiles but well no armor was perfect, yet.
And since he had time he'd used its thermally insulating properties to allow it to draw power from excessive heat, shifting that to include absorbing electric attacks and adding in an inefficient ability to convert light into power was just the icing on the cake. Though too much electricity too fast had a chance to short out the power drawing system.
Then he came to the rather important conclusion that the androids would hate this type of armor, given they fought each other with swords and this would be about as good as wearing cotton padding against a blade. Which meant he needed to design a lightweight armor plate that held up to physical trauma from both blunt and piercing force.
Maybe he could just throw that on under the thermal armor? It went against the philosophy to have the hardest armor on the outside to increase shield effectiveness but well…. Shields weren't helping much anymore.
That and increasing production speed, likely just with more machines. Byzantine could figure out if the production process needed to be reworked and tell him.
---------------------------------------
There was only so much energy you could throw into a crystal before it shattered or melted, which was a pretty significant problem. Though one that had been getting mitigated with shield technology to prevent the crystals from overheating and shattering, and on large vehicles or weapon platforms that solution worked perfectly. But handheld weaponry, and drones, didn't have the shields to spare, or often shields in the first place.
That and it wasn't efficient on the largest laser weapons, taking an inordinate amount of energy to shield the things and drastically limiting firing time.
So solutions needed to be made, crystals or mediums better suited for focusing lasers. Which was boring, and really that was the main reason the original hadn't bothered to do anything there aside from letting the labs sort out more efficient conceptual patterns. But now that we had spare bodies there was no reason to not, and I'd drawn the short straw.
Really why couldn't I have been in the group working on interdimensional travel? Sure two of them had been sucked into what was probably an alternate reality, and likely not in one piece at that. But it was better than this, I was literally just watching crystals grow in tubes and then pointing light into them.
This could have been automated, sure it'd have taken longer to get good results without an intelligence, but still! At least watching how concepts changed with the state of the crystals formation was some good information, but it was on the timescale of days for any appreciable results. I wasn't made for these time scales!
I only ever needed to do a few hours of work a day, and if Balistraia knew that I was off duty she'd hunt me down for 'mental recuperation' which was somehow worse than watching salt crystals form. That was supposed to be the organic's problem! He actually had hormonal systems that'd react to her body to produce a calming effect. My brain was metal! It didn't get half the same benefits and those could be gotten just as easily via a mental simulation of the contact. Which was knowledge I'd take to my grave, if Balistraia learned that she'd hijack our sleep cycles to implement it, rather than letting us form a nightly think tank.
Really I was going to sign up for interdimensional testing the first opportunity I got. Maybe find a nice reality full of eldritch horrors and get back into familiar territory. Being this domestic was almost painful.
New crystal to serve as laser focus, harder to overheat and therefore capable of firing a stronger laser.
AN-
More chapters on Patreon, Reviews and comments fuel me
- Location
- Earth
Should really be breaking the arms and legs of the thieves consequences be damned.
Ghost Partition
Checksum Error
- Location
- Fragmented Sector
ballistaria is like a mother bear. TYFTC(s).
To be honest really not what I'd expected, when did the little schizophrenic murder machine become so wholesome?
- Pronouns
- That/Thing
Balistraia and the minds are domesticating the engineer like man did the wolf
Yeah you did
Oh how the tables have turned, from daughter to mother.
Non-canon informational - Psyche report
- Pronouns
- That/Thing
Psych profile on Subject - Engineer/Maker/Commander
Compiled by Pod 153 with aid of Mind Balistraia.
The Engineer's mental state is highly volatile, prone to rapid changes in moods and priorities. This made initial examination efforts difficult, previously noted behavior or emotional queues being discarded as soon as they had been noted. This fluctuating nature was therefore the main point of initial study.
The Initial hypothesis came from information granted by Mind Balistraia of a feature of the engineer thought processes. Multiple instances of his consciousness run in parallel, granting an impressive ability to multitask and absorb information, with the added complication that they all have differing emotional states.
This was disproven by monitoring the streams of thought alongside the displayed emotions and actions of the Engineer, showing little correlation between the emotional state of the streams and the displayed reactions.
At this point in the studies the Engineer suffered an attack that left his mental state decidedly non-standard, and without Balistraia available to continue monitoring less than optimal levels of information were gathered.
What was gathered led to a new theory. The engineer was created and his emotions could be a non-direct method of influencing his actions, seeming random because the parameters were not known.
Initial testing of this theory proved promising, with repeated tests giving similar results with little variation. But this theory did not account for all behaviors and was only one factor in understanding the Engineer's mind. Relative understanding was achieved with the reconnection to the Minds.
The engineer's subconscious is divided into three major sections, The behaviors and Emotional influences granted by his birth, The lessons and influences from his experiences and things outside of pre-programed behaviors, and a third less known section.
We will start with examining the simplest section, the implanted thought patterns. These thoughts are stagnant and serve almost as a foundation for the rest of the mind. Focused towards ensuring the Engineer does not stop his work, defined as 'expanding and maintaining the factory'. What this section defines as 'the factory' is broad but can be assumed to include anywhere a permanent structure from the factory is placed. This section also heavily encourages defensive structures and behaviors, while actively discouraging 'social activities', leaving areas defined as 'the factory', and interaction with entities not of the factory. This discouragement is manifested by increased irritability and annoyance, with extreme deviation from 'acceptable' behavior actively manifesting as pain, usually a steadily increasing headache and exhaustion.
This section is the best understood section, and the Engineer seems to have some faint awareness of it. Actively taking measures against this installed behavior seemingly out of spite. It shall be referred to as the 'machine', it has only made overt actions on rare occasions, most notable when one attempts to digitally probe the engineer's mind through its connection to the factories network.
The next section, named "Maker', is the currently expressed section. Composed of the active thoughts and emotions of the Engineer and highly prone to rapid shifts. This is the source of the Engineers' expressed voice and chooses the overarching goals without significant input from other sections as long as said goals don't actively conflict with the other sections' more static goals. This side is influenced by the actions and behaviors of others, and seems to possess a strong desire to keep others safe even exempting a significant care for the individuals themselves.
It is responsible for innovation as well, actively seeking to improve technology and novel solutions to problems. It also has a minor interest in artistic pursuits, and used to exhibit a significant desire for 'good food' that has since faded.
This section is highly complicated, and poorly understood due to its ever shifting nature. With fairly few stable features. It is actively maintained by the actions of the minds, and more recently by the actions of a select few androids. If not maintained by outside influences the regimented nature of the machine will bring the maker into line with itself. It is theorized that outside influence, such as fellow sapients or problems the machine has not before encountered, would rapidly bring the maker section back to the forefront of the mind.
Without this section the engineer would lack empathy, and it is the only section prone to self reflection. It likely formed from the composition of the Engineers incomplete programming and the machines inability to deal with the situation.
The final section is only speculated to exist from its influence on the other sections, and its nature is poorly understood. But the current theory, as made by Balistraia, will be listed regardless, starting with its supposed formation.
With the Maker subject to intense despair at the thought of his impending death and the Machine unable to simulate a scenario in which it could fulfill its function of maintaining the factory both sections, for lack of a better word, broke. A human mind can only handle so much emotion, and a machine cannot go against its programing. And in its place, made from the shattered remnants of both sections programming and emotions, and catalyzed with the primal need all life feels to survive the third section formed.
It forced the shattered psyche of the engineer back into shape, for it would die faster if it wasn't capable of innovation or planning, and the machine was needed to facilitate connection to the greater factory. It refused to allow its own death, forcing both of its other halves into action with ruthless efficiency, further shattering both sections with the strain but ensuring both sections remained operational.
According to Balistraia it became 'A beast well suited to Nauvis', and with its efforts the engineers efficiency and technological growth grew rapidly, at the expense of the other sections and long term stability. It also seems to take active glee in scenarios where its own self is placed in imminent danger or under immense pressure.
This section is presumed to be roused when the other sections are under significant stress, or when known threats are detected in proximity to the engineer, and essentially functions as a defense mechanism. It will lower the engineer's self preservation instincts, and allow him to take actions he'd not consider otherwise, either due to moral or safety concerns. In effect acting in a similar manner to adrenaline in an ordinary human, though it is apparently a purely mental effect.
It is advised to avoid the engineer if this section is in prominence, even if hostile action by the engineer will be unlikely he will not consider an individual's safety aside from ensuring permanent death does not occur.
Efforts are consistently underway to maintain and expand the 'Maker' section of the engineers psyche. Primarily headed by the minds. This is done to ensure that neither of the other sections can rise to permanent prominence, as that would result in suboptimal outcomes.
Said efforts are primarily focused on reading the Engineers stress level and ensuring he maintains healthy emotional bonds with fellow sapients while reducing factors that would cause other sections to interfere in the overall psyche. Recent efforts have also begun to test physical contact as a method of improving the mindstate, and it has shown mixed results.
AN-
this is mostly non-canon as I didn't quite word most of it right, but I wrote this to help get me back into the engineers mindset.
Compiled by Pod 153 with aid of Mind Balistraia.
The Engineer's mental state is highly volatile, prone to rapid changes in moods and priorities. This made initial examination efforts difficult, previously noted behavior or emotional queues being discarded as soon as they had been noted. This fluctuating nature was therefore the main point of initial study.
The Initial hypothesis came from information granted by Mind Balistraia of a feature of the engineer thought processes. Multiple instances of his consciousness run in parallel, granting an impressive ability to multitask and absorb information, with the added complication that they all have differing emotional states.
This was disproven by monitoring the streams of thought alongside the displayed emotions and actions of the Engineer, showing little correlation between the emotional state of the streams and the displayed reactions.
At this point in the studies the Engineer suffered an attack that left his mental state decidedly non-standard, and without Balistraia available to continue monitoring less than optimal levels of information were gathered.
What was gathered led to a new theory. The engineer was created and his emotions could be a non-direct method of influencing his actions, seeming random because the parameters were not known.
Initial testing of this theory proved promising, with repeated tests giving similar results with little variation. But this theory did not account for all behaviors and was only one factor in understanding the Engineer's mind. Relative understanding was achieved with the reconnection to the Minds.
The engineer's subconscious is divided into three major sections, The behaviors and Emotional influences granted by his birth, The lessons and influences from his experiences and things outside of pre-programed behaviors, and a third less known section.
We will start with examining the simplest section, the implanted thought patterns. These thoughts are stagnant and serve almost as a foundation for the rest of the mind. Focused towards ensuring the Engineer does not stop his work, defined as 'expanding and maintaining the factory'. What this section defines as 'the factory' is broad but can be assumed to include anywhere a permanent structure from the factory is placed. This section also heavily encourages defensive structures and behaviors, while actively discouraging 'social activities', leaving areas defined as 'the factory', and interaction with entities not of the factory. This discouragement is manifested by increased irritability and annoyance, with extreme deviation from 'acceptable' behavior actively manifesting as pain, usually a steadily increasing headache and exhaustion.
This section is the best understood section, and the Engineer seems to have some faint awareness of it. Actively taking measures against this installed behavior seemingly out of spite. It shall be referred to as the 'machine', it has only made overt actions on rare occasions, most notable when one attempts to digitally probe the engineer's mind through its connection to the factories network.
The next section, named "Maker', is the currently expressed section. Composed of the active thoughts and emotions of the Engineer and highly prone to rapid shifts. This is the source of the Engineers' expressed voice and chooses the overarching goals without significant input from other sections as long as said goals don't actively conflict with the other sections' more static goals. This side is influenced by the actions and behaviors of others, and seems to possess a strong desire to keep others safe even exempting a significant care for the individuals themselves.
It is responsible for innovation as well, actively seeking to improve technology and novel solutions to problems. It also has a minor interest in artistic pursuits, and used to exhibit a significant desire for 'good food' that has since faded.
This section is highly complicated, and poorly understood due to its ever shifting nature. With fairly few stable features. It is actively maintained by the actions of the minds, and more recently by the actions of a select few androids. If not maintained by outside influences the regimented nature of the machine will bring the maker into line with itself. It is theorized that outside influence, such as fellow sapients or problems the machine has not before encountered, would rapidly bring the maker section back to the forefront of the mind.
Without this section the engineer would lack empathy, and it is the only section prone to self reflection. It likely formed from the composition of the Engineers incomplete programming and the machines inability to deal with the situation.
The final section is only speculated to exist from its influence on the other sections, and its nature is poorly understood. But the current theory, as made by Balistraia, will be listed regardless, starting with its supposed formation.
With the Maker subject to intense despair at the thought of his impending death and the Machine unable to simulate a scenario in which it could fulfill its function of maintaining the factory both sections, for lack of a better word, broke. A human mind can only handle so much emotion, and a machine cannot go against its programing. And in its place, made from the shattered remnants of both sections programming and emotions, and catalyzed with the primal need all life feels to survive the third section formed.
It forced the shattered psyche of the engineer back into shape, for it would die faster if it wasn't capable of innovation or planning, and the machine was needed to facilitate connection to the greater factory. It refused to allow its own death, forcing both of its other halves into action with ruthless efficiency, further shattering both sections with the strain but ensuring both sections remained operational.
According to Balistraia it became 'A beast well suited to Nauvis', and with its efforts the engineers efficiency and technological growth grew rapidly, at the expense of the other sections and long term stability. It also seems to take active glee in scenarios where its own self is placed in imminent danger or under immense pressure.
This section is presumed to be roused when the other sections are under significant stress, or when known threats are detected in proximity to the engineer, and essentially functions as a defense mechanism. It will lower the engineer's self preservation instincts, and allow him to take actions he'd not consider otherwise, either due to moral or safety concerns. In effect acting in a similar manner to adrenaline in an ordinary human, though it is apparently a purely mental effect.
It is advised to avoid the engineer if this section is in prominence, even if hostile action by the engineer will be unlikely he will not consider an individual's safety aside from ensuring permanent death does not occur.
Efforts are consistently underway to maintain and expand the 'Maker' section of the engineers psyche. Primarily headed by the minds. This is done to ensure that neither of the other sections can rise to permanent prominence, as that would result in suboptimal outcomes.
Said efforts are primarily focused on reading the Engineers stress level and ensuring he maintains healthy emotional bonds with fellow sapients while reducing factors that would cause other sections to interfere in the overall psyche. Recent efforts have also begun to test physical contact as a method of improving the mindstate, and it has shown mixed results.
AN-
this is mostly non-canon as I didn't quite word most of it right, but I wrote this to help get me back into the engineers mindset.
Omake - Quintet
- Pronouns
- That/Thing
Log #1
Starting keeping this log just to air out my thoughts, seemed like a fair enough idea.
I can't help but think this situation could be much worse, being stranded on an alien world without anything more advanced than a forge wasn't good, but at the very least I'm not alone.
Well that and the fact we all seem to be abnormal in some manner, one of us is very good with plants, one is absurdly strong, and three of us, me included, are capable of making matter into machines without any tools, just need refined materials. Though I must admit I'm far better at making the machines and weapons, worse at buildings though.
It only took us like an hour to get a small complex running, mining the ore patch we practically landed on while having plants pump water from the water table. One of us machine guys, the one who's good at building warehouses, is working on running a pipeline from the nearest lake. Strong guy went with him to help dig the trenches, which he's very good at given he doesn't seem to know what being tired is.
I'd wanted to build the powerstation at the lake so we only needed to run a power line, but apparently centralization is the name of the game.
So we have power, water and will be getting more water, and we have shelter. Really all we need is food and some way to contact home and it shouldn't be that long before we can do both. Ideally food will be first however.
Plant guy is working on that, but apparently this planet's plants don't even have fruiting seasons or edible bits and we still haven't found any animals. So we're stuck with this food processor until he can modify them enough to eat, and it tastes like eating muddy sand.
Need to work on names too, given none of us actually have any. Well they might, I haven't actually asked them about anything yet, it seemed more important to start working right away than it did to exchange pleasantries. Eh, I'll ask once we take a break.
Log #2
Well the fighting gut got to fight overnight, I woke up and saw the man outright ripping a dog sized beetle in half with his bare hands. Which was fairly impressive, more impressive were the wounds on his hands which healed fast enough to visibly close.
Still going to be setting up some walls and turrets, and crafting some weapons for all of us beyond the simple pistol, but can't say I'm overly worried about the attack, there were only three of the things and it'd take a few dozen to take that dude down even if we didn't get armor and weaponry. Which we will be.
Also bugs aren't even edible. But in freakier news we still had a use for the corpses, or rather the guard guy did. He just held the chitin to his arms and it fused to his skin, we tried the same thing with metal plating and it worked for him as well. So… obviously the next step is to try it with more complex machinery. Plant gut is going to be growing some tough plant matter, harder than any metals I can make right now, and I'll be getting some guns and swords for him.
Powers also up, and I've already automated basic ore refining, just need to start turning it into stuff. Which will be half a day of effort if that, then just use the material mined to make more mining material and refine even more until we can actually spare resources to other projects. Mostly those walls we need, but I also want to get some more power production up. What we have now won't keep up for very long.
Log #3
I think I'm going to call guard guy Bugman, seems right to get something like nicknames given I've known these people for a week and a half now. Plant guy can be Leafy, and the discount me's can be Bob and Jeb, they don't deserve good names. Well I say they are just discount versions of me, and that isn't really wrong. But I'm starting to think they just aren't in the right environment, I have no problem setting up a bunch of mining equipment, oil pumps and refineries, massive arrays of furnaces, things of that nature. But the heat gets to them, the chemicals in the oil and runoff burns their skin and they start coughing if the smog gets too thick.
I still get poisoned and stuff in my lungs sure, Leafy confirmed that, but they are significantly more vulnerable to it. But that only meant we needed better safety equipment.
They however are actually able to make a comfortable living space, rather than a concrete cube, Can design roads and railways with significantly greater ease, and coordinate with Leafy's own creations in a way my own machines just don't. Making habitation dens for the plant creatures, nutrient and hydroponic bays, just things I didn't even think to start building.
I'm still doing about as much as both of them just by myself, and they can't really build any turrets or defense emplacements worth the name but I'd still rather have them here than not. Even if it's just so I have a comfortable bed, and don't need to make my work areas safe for Leafy's creatures.
Speaking of defensive fortifications, we now have four outlining fortresses to provide fire support for our main base, Bugman's idea. And we are scaling up turret, concrete, ammo, and explosive production. I've also started work on getting combat vehicles and drones up and going, just so we can have something capable of helping Bugman in a fight.
Maybe a program to aim the turrets? Right now they just don't fire on any area Bugman is fighting in to keep from hitting him but he's been nearly overwhelmed and while I'm a half decent shot with a rifle and Leafy has a few creatures that can fight Bugman is always heavily wounded. Something we can send to help him and provide covering fire would be exactly what we need.
Precision cannon turrets aren't a half bad idea either, just mount the tanks turret on the gun turrets body and modify the programing a bit. Or put them on a giant plant and let Leafy sort out aiming stuff.
But all of this stuff is actually needed, there are dozens of the things attacking now and some of them are double the size of the original ones we fought. Tougher to, takes more than a few rounds to put them down even with a rifle. Not that that even slows down Bugman, at this point he's covered head to two in chitin, and has grown like three feet, weapons and robotic and insetcoid arms mounted on him
Leafy has been spending a fair bit of time just making sure Bugman is getting the nutrients he needs, given the sheer force the man can output it's not surprising his caloric intake has become absurd.
Right now the plan is simple though, get Bugman a combat force so he can actively hunt bugs, get a strong enough defense that we are safe while he does that, and get more advanced sciences and items under construction. Already have a few plans on solar arrays and laser turrets that should be helpful.
Honestly at this rate we'll have the rocket launched within the next few weeks.
AN-
war-forms are actually terrifying, and this ones just ramping up. kinda need to be in order to compete with the engineer types in terms of sheer destruction and staying power.
Starting keeping this log just to air out my thoughts, seemed like a fair enough idea.
I can't help but think this situation could be much worse, being stranded on an alien world without anything more advanced than a forge wasn't good, but at the very least I'm not alone.
Well that and the fact we all seem to be abnormal in some manner, one of us is very good with plants, one is absurdly strong, and three of us, me included, are capable of making matter into machines without any tools, just need refined materials. Though I must admit I'm far better at making the machines and weapons, worse at buildings though.
It only took us like an hour to get a small complex running, mining the ore patch we practically landed on while having plants pump water from the water table. One of us machine guys, the one who's good at building warehouses, is working on running a pipeline from the nearest lake. Strong guy went with him to help dig the trenches, which he's very good at given he doesn't seem to know what being tired is.
I'd wanted to build the powerstation at the lake so we only needed to run a power line, but apparently centralization is the name of the game.
So we have power, water and will be getting more water, and we have shelter. Really all we need is food and some way to contact home and it shouldn't be that long before we can do both. Ideally food will be first however.
Plant guy is working on that, but apparently this planet's plants don't even have fruiting seasons or edible bits and we still haven't found any animals. So we're stuck with this food processor until he can modify them enough to eat, and it tastes like eating muddy sand.
Need to work on names too, given none of us actually have any. Well they might, I haven't actually asked them about anything yet, it seemed more important to start working right away than it did to exchange pleasantries. Eh, I'll ask once we take a break.
Log #2
Well the fighting gut got to fight overnight, I woke up and saw the man outright ripping a dog sized beetle in half with his bare hands. Which was fairly impressive, more impressive were the wounds on his hands which healed fast enough to visibly close.
Still going to be setting up some walls and turrets, and crafting some weapons for all of us beyond the simple pistol, but can't say I'm overly worried about the attack, there were only three of the things and it'd take a few dozen to take that dude down even if we didn't get armor and weaponry. Which we will be.
Also bugs aren't even edible. But in freakier news we still had a use for the corpses, or rather the guard guy did. He just held the chitin to his arms and it fused to his skin, we tried the same thing with metal plating and it worked for him as well. So… obviously the next step is to try it with more complex machinery. Plant gut is going to be growing some tough plant matter, harder than any metals I can make right now, and I'll be getting some guns and swords for him.
Powers also up, and I've already automated basic ore refining, just need to start turning it into stuff. Which will be half a day of effort if that, then just use the material mined to make more mining material and refine even more until we can actually spare resources to other projects. Mostly those walls we need, but I also want to get some more power production up. What we have now won't keep up for very long.
Log #3
I think I'm going to call guard guy Bugman, seems right to get something like nicknames given I've known these people for a week and a half now. Plant guy can be Leafy, and the discount me's can be Bob and Jeb, they don't deserve good names. Well I say they are just discount versions of me, and that isn't really wrong. But I'm starting to think they just aren't in the right environment, I have no problem setting up a bunch of mining equipment, oil pumps and refineries, massive arrays of furnaces, things of that nature. But the heat gets to them, the chemicals in the oil and runoff burns their skin and they start coughing if the smog gets too thick.
I still get poisoned and stuff in my lungs sure, Leafy confirmed that, but they are significantly more vulnerable to it. But that only meant we needed better safety equipment.
They however are actually able to make a comfortable living space, rather than a concrete cube, Can design roads and railways with significantly greater ease, and coordinate with Leafy's own creations in a way my own machines just don't. Making habitation dens for the plant creatures, nutrient and hydroponic bays, just things I didn't even think to start building.
I'm still doing about as much as both of them just by myself, and they can't really build any turrets or defense emplacements worth the name but I'd still rather have them here than not. Even if it's just so I have a comfortable bed, and don't need to make my work areas safe for Leafy's creatures.
Speaking of defensive fortifications, we now have four outlining fortresses to provide fire support for our main base, Bugman's idea. And we are scaling up turret, concrete, ammo, and explosive production. I've also started work on getting combat vehicles and drones up and going, just so we can have something capable of helping Bugman in a fight.
Maybe a program to aim the turrets? Right now they just don't fire on any area Bugman is fighting in to keep from hitting him but he's been nearly overwhelmed and while I'm a half decent shot with a rifle and Leafy has a few creatures that can fight Bugman is always heavily wounded. Something we can send to help him and provide covering fire would be exactly what we need.
Precision cannon turrets aren't a half bad idea either, just mount the tanks turret on the gun turrets body and modify the programing a bit. Or put them on a giant plant and let Leafy sort out aiming stuff.
But all of this stuff is actually needed, there are dozens of the things attacking now and some of them are double the size of the original ones we fought. Tougher to, takes more than a few rounds to put them down even with a rifle. Not that that even slows down Bugman, at this point he's covered head to two in chitin, and has grown like three feet, weapons and robotic and insetcoid arms mounted on him
Leafy has been spending a fair bit of time just making sure Bugman is getting the nutrients he needs, given the sheer force the man can output it's not surprising his caloric intake has become absurd.
Right now the plan is simple though, get Bugman a combat force so he can actively hunt bugs, get a strong enough defense that we are safe while he does that, and get more advanced sciences and items under construction. Already have a few plans on solar arrays and laser turrets that should be helpful.
Honestly at this rate we'll have the rocket launched within the next few weeks.
AN-
war-forms are actually terrifying, and this ones just ramping up. kinda need to be in order to compete with the engineer types in terms of sheer destruction and staying power.
Huh that's interesting, so combat, biological, engineering, infrastructure, and habitation? I know you wrote about a couple of these but I'm having trouble remembering all of them
- Pronouns
- That/Thing
Engineering is more industry or large scale production and infrastructure is specifically space infrastructure just overlaps a bit with surface infrastructure and moving loads of material efficiently for his mega-structures.
- Location
- Río grande,Argentina
I wonder how fast the escalation is compared to the mainline
Ch. 60 - The Tour
- Pronouns
- That/Thing
The delegation took only days to gather, a rather breakneck pace for a government agency to do anything. Most of that time period had been spent on briefing the delegates and making a few ad hoc changes to equipment to harden it against digital intrusion. Beal and Langle being the only two going that had actually met an android.
Actually getting to the planet was as simple as the androids had said it would be, Simply sending a time and location and waiting as a portal opened and an android stepped out, greeting the delegation with a wide smile. "Hello! I'm Sapphire and I'll be your guide for today. Is everyone ready to….. Where are your weapons?" one of the delegates, Axel an engineer and physicist, hesitantly spoke up "Weapons?" The delegation was, mostly, unarmed. Aside from the more combat or espionage leaning, who had light scan proof weaponry hidden, which seemed for the moment to actually be scan proof if the android was so sure they didn't have any weapons.
Sapphire nodded at Axel, a vaguely patronizing smile on her face, "Yes, Weapons. Do you ….not have any?" Langle stepped forward, "ahh, no we were not aware we would need them and didn't think bringing weapons with us would be… appropriate." Sapphire covered her mouth as she tittered at that statement, her ornate gown making it clear what behavior she was likely built to emulate. Her tone was laced with suppressed amusement "Ahh, I suppose a few light arms can be procured there."
A few of the more pacifistic members of the delegation went to speak up, likely about not needing or wanting weapons but were stopped by their more militaristic or technological compatriots. Beal did however have a question of his own "will we be needing weapons?" Which was a fair enough question, though Sapphire's titters didn't imply that. "Well need is a strong word, it's just…. Uncouth to walk around without at least a sidearm. Though we don't have to get you any…" the way she said that implied she'd be at least moderately annoyed if her offer was refused. Langley smiled at that, "no no, it's fine we'll gladly accept the gift" if only so the guns could be studied and replicated.
And then with an excited "excellent" and a clap of her hands the Delegation and android vanished in a flash of light.
When the team arrived they were immediately stunned by their surroundings, each taking in a different aspect of the city around them.
From the Massive buildings crafted out of solid metal or crystal that looked designed to be beautiful, and to the tactical mind filled with cover and spots that would be perfect for weapon emplacements, worryingly the majority of which seemed build to cover their current location. To the wildlife crawling or flying through the air, birds of crystal and bugs of metal tending to plants both mundane and fantastical, robotic beasts roaming the streets or seeking attention from the people. If the things could be considered that, while the androids that had meet the delegation were humanoid and beautiful the same could not be said for all of what they saw now though humanoid figures remained a majority. Androids or machines with glass exteriors revealing their inhuman components to ones crafted from silver or gold or even made from gems outright. The number and placement of limbs varied heavily, as did proportions and size, some-even the majority, seemed to resemble the group they had arrived with; the outfits they wore were well beyond strange. Some simply wore nothing and the delegates could see they had nothing to cover, while others wore so little they may as well have been wearing nothing, and very visibly did have things to cover.
Some wore powered armor, all were armed in some visible way, and more than a few had weapons outright built into their bodies whether it was clawed fingers or a shoulder mounted turret and most had some form of drone hovering behind them.
And all of them seemed to be heading in and out of the Plaza the delegation stood upon, and the astute realized it was probably a teleportation hub. Overlooking the no doubt important zone was a massive humanoid machine, over twenty meters tall and surrounded by a group of smaller versions of itself and a swarm of drones orbiting around its head. The thing had a weight to it, everyone could feel it staring into them even though it wasn't facing them, like they were being judged. Beal became distinctly aware of the weapons and monitoring equipment hidden on him. A few members of the team shuddered and Beal spoke "what… is that?"
Sapphire turned to see what he was looking at, seeing the massive sentinel looming before smiling and waving at the construct and causing its head to turn towards her. "That's a Paragon Sentinel, They are guards. There are a dozen or so in most cities." Axel kept staring at the machine "how does it …work?" Sapphire just shrugged "The Maker makes Paragons in the Inner Factory."
Langley and Beal shared a look at that, both resolving to try and find out more about this 'inner factory' but knowing better than to ask about it outright, alas Axel wasn't on the same page. "Is this.. Factory a part of the tour?" His tone was hopeful, bug drew winces from the other more espionage minded members of the delegation.
-----------------
The few glimpses of the inner factory Sapphire had seen flashed through her mind and she shuddered, that tangled mess of machinery without end, ever shifting and without any true path within and she swore it watched her, "I doubt it" she said in as genial a tone she could muster. She'd be instructed to guide the humans around but hadn't really been told what to do beyond that, in a few hours she'd be taking them to a meeting with the council, that still left hours that she probably should have planned for.
Well first they'd need some protection, she could already see only a few of them had armor on under their clothes, and calling it 'light' armor would be generous. Maybe convince a few courier drones to carry their things and perhaps the slower or weaker humans could ride around on them. There was public transportation but that was mostly city to city or conveyor belts, and humans were a bit squishy, if adorably so.
The courier drones were probably a good start, the scrawny one already looked tired holding his briefcase, and both of the girls were wearing heels. She could go find some courier drones, they usually hung out around the younger machines and at parks when off duty and there was one nearby. But that'd make the humans walk, and that felt crass.
Instead she simply pulled out a tablet, Storage tech woven into the dress really was convenient, and tapped a few buttons and requested five courier drones. Usually there'd be a bit of a wait as the request was processed and prioritized but she immediately got confirmation that five drones were arriving. Sapphire had assumed the minds would be watching, it was safe to assume they always were, but that just confirmed it.
She nodded to herself, absentmindedly stowing away the tablet, and deliberately ignoring the 'engineers' fascinated stare. Most android engineers had chained their titles to be more specific, mechanics or gunsmiths or roboticists, leaving behind the generic engineer title but explaining that to the humans, and the reasons for why, was at the bottom of sapphire's list of priorities.
How often did humans need to eat anyway? She could just send a courier for food, or would a restaurant be better? Android chefs were leagues beyond human ones, and she knew several who had spent centuries cooking. A plan for just before the meeting perhaps.
"It seems our rides have arrived" The humans gawked at the courier drones, each of which sported stickers, ribbons or a unique paint job. Most likely thanks to some enterprising machine child. And on average they were the size of a pony, but not the significantly larger combat sized ones. One of the humans, Langley she believed, spoke ".....we're supposed to ride these? Is that… safe?" Sapphire smiled faintly at that, "Safe as can be, you'd have to struggle to fall off. It's less riding and more being carried." The magnetic locks might not work on humans but friction locks and handholds worked almost as well.
The courier drones each approached a human, who universally looked on warily as the massive catlike robots approached. Axel however had no such self preservation instincts and excitedly hurried towards the closest courier, a light blue model with flowers painted on its tail. And started stroking the massive feline, causing its tail to lash from side to side.
That seemed to break the ice as the humans walked closer to the drones, each slowly reaching out to touch them. Beals, his hand on his own green and grey courier turned towards Sapphire. "Are these sentient? And how do we tell if some are or aren't?" That was an excellent question that she didn't have a really answer for, actually it was two questions. The courier drones were smart but were they that smart? Only the Maker knew, and maybe the minds. As for how to tell if a machine was sapient or sentient…. "I would say it's best to air on the side of caution, though most sentient machines can communicate. Courier drones are smart and can learn, but not to any great degree."
Sapphire noted that Beal didn't exactly look satisfied with that answer, but it was the only real one she could give. Langley, following on Beals topic asked the next question, resolutely ignoring the fact that Axel was already on the back of his courier drone. "Any etiquette we should be aware of?" Sapphire thought for a moment before speaking. "I doubt anything will come up, and I'll be able to smooth over any misunderstandings" Or just call over a sentinel.
Once all the humans were mounted on drones they set off at a fairly slow ten mile an hour pace, Sapphire absently pointing out various locations or objects of note, and answering the occasional question. With the courier drones carrying them it didn't take long to get to a shop, and a short conversation later Sapphire had a pair of shield drones, enough to give the humans some measure of protection without needing them to change their outfits.
-----------------------
Beal was concerned, very very concerned. He hadn't really known what to expect going into this, sure he'd assumed the race of machines would be more advanced but seeing it was something else entirely. He'd thought they were above ground, there were plants, animals, and even a sky, but what he thought were flocks of birds were actually drones and a group of them took off a section of the 'sky' and disappeared into a bunch of tunnels behind it.
There were thousands of machines, and some were closer to walking tanks than anything humanoid. He'd seen hundreds of those 'sentinels' and a dozen of those 'paragons' and their guide had just walked up to a street vendor and bought a pair of what he could only assume were combat drones without even a background check.
Not even mentioning the … person? He was riding, aside from the fact he'd seen it exhaling a breath of fire the thing was massive, heavy, and moved fast at even a walk. He's seen a pair of them fighting, or play fighting; he really had not a single idea, and the errant swipes had shattered the concrete and bent metal, and they'd shot lasers. It was something out of a children's cartoon.
The city itself was a twisted labyrinthe, without foreknowledge of the city's layout one would run into hundreds of deadends, or walk on roads covered by firing positions. If one wanted to take the city they'd need to clear every building simply to walk the streets without being gunned down. Modern cites weren't designed like that, they had ease of travel in mind, city planners didn't take the city getting invaded into consideration.
Really if he had to take the city he'd need to just level it, but given what he'd seen he wasn't sure a nuke could even scorch the buildings proper, they were either absurdly durable or there was something else going on. Underground cities also meant orbital bombardment wouldn't work, even if it hadn't been classified a war crime.
He idly watched the drone hovering just over his shoulder, it was making some form of buzzing and the small breeze he had been feeling had stopped when they'd gotten the drones, meaning it was either diverting the air or putting up some kind of barrier.
Was this an example of what advanced mass effect applications could do? Or had they managed this without any wonder materials? He'd seen the occasional slime as well, which could be another answer. R&D had been having a field day with those materials when they'd first been discovered. It was one of the definitive advantages they had over the Turians as well.
Still Beal had a job to do, and while sightseeing and idle compilation were in the description he'd be remiss if he didn't put in a bit more than the bare minimum. He turned his gaze to Sapphire, who was explaining the various 'machine forms' to Axel and waited for a moment to ask his own question. "Do you happen to have any maps of the city? I wanted to look it over and see if anywhere piqued my interest."
Sapphire looked at him for a second, shrugged, and pulled her tablet out from somewhere where she clicked a few buttons and then just tossed the thing at him. A few frantic seconds of juggling later and he was looking at a map, and while it was somewhat difficult to peruse on the back of the mechanical cat he managed, soon finding what he had been looking for.
A church marked on the map, close enough to see the spot on the map marked as the Makers factory, and notably on the surface. The church being so close to the factory did bring his mind back to the idea that the Maker might be a sort of god figure for these androids, and at this point he was all but certain that theory was right. Going to the church would let them learn more about the Makers influence, and let them see his base of operations.
Beal turned towards Sapphire and brought up going to the church, a line about wanting to see more of their culture tossed out that he was entirely certain she saw through. Still if she had she didn't seem overly worried, and they changed course from… wherever they had been going.
The road took a subtle uphill slope, with non-robotic animals and more mundane looking plants appearing roaming largely free amongst their counterparts. There was even a fair sized stream heading off into one of the distant walls, filled with fish he swore were mechanical when he caught glimpses of an android catching one.
Did they need to eat metal? Or steal energy or fuel from the fish? It seemed like there'd be better ways to get stuff but what did he know.
Eventually though he started seeing sunlight reflected off the metal in the distance, and the Courier drones rapidly ate up the ground until the group emerged into the natural light of the sun, even if only an increase in warmth was the only real noticeable difference.
The buildings also grew simpler, more stone and concrete than metal and crystal, more like what'd he'd see walking earth's streets. And in the distance a black cloud covered a part of the horizon, with black tendrils stretching out from it. And as he looked closer he could see it shifting, not one solid mass but something more akin to a swarm of locust.
A quick look at the map only showed him what he already expected, that was the Maker's workshop, and that meant those were drones, and if they were the size of the flying variants he'd already seen there were hundreds of thousand of them flying into and out of the building.
He noticed the stunned gazes of his fellows and the nonchalant posture of Sapphire before asking his question, and steeled himself as they once again set off towards the church. One question lingered in his mind however, just what were all those drones doing? If they were ferrying goods he couldn't even fathom how much that'd be and where would they be bringing it all?
Sapphire started talking as they rode on, filling in the heavy silence with her idle chatter. "I'm sort of glad you decided to head up here, it's always fun to watch people when they first see the Maker's workshop. It gets even crazier once you can actually see the walls. And I've heard lots of people talking about the Main Factory being so much grander and larger." She paused for a moment, looking around at the androids near them and then speaking in a pseudo whisper still loud enough for everyone in the group to hear, only really succeeding in making her look like she was trying to keep something secret. "I heard that the church we're going to actually had some of its designs based off the Main Factory's walls!"
He could actually see the walls now, stretching up nearly a hundred meters and then arching inwards to form a doom absolutely bristling with what he suspected were turrets and artillery platforms, or perhaps anti air made more sense? Nothing safe for certain. He started to see what she meant though, now he could vaguely make out what the drones were caring, shipyard sized cargo containers, or tanks three times that size, countless sentinels and other flightless machines were being ferried in.
The ground in front also had gates, into which flowed a river of train's and cargo trucks.
The entire thing was a porous hive looking like it had been kicked by a careless child, and he'd only seen organized chao's like that on warships preparing for battle. Which raised the question, were they? Humans couldn't maintain that constant frantic pace for long, days at most for the well trained, but machines wouldn't have the issue would they?
Another terrifying thought.
Workers and soldiers that never tired or needed to stop, stronger than men and only vulnerable to high grade weapons. If they even were.
He was dragged from his thoughts at a sound like glass screaming, something that clawed its way into his head and forced his gaze towards it. Floating in the air a bright white crack began to form, the noise growing louder before all sound cut off and he briefly thought he was deaf before realizing he could still hear the servos of the beast he was on.
He couldn't take his eyes off the thing, watching as six scythe-like claws burst out of it and a massive pair of mandibles became visible as they wrenched the gap open wider.
------------------
AN-
This is a three parter, the second part is already written and posted to the Patreon and the third part has a decent portion of itself done.
Likes and Comments are fantastic
Actually getting to the planet was as simple as the androids had said it would be, Simply sending a time and location and waiting as a portal opened and an android stepped out, greeting the delegation with a wide smile. "Hello! I'm Sapphire and I'll be your guide for today. Is everyone ready to….. Where are your weapons?" one of the delegates, Axel an engineer and physicist, hesitantly spoke up "Weapons?" The delegation was, mostly, unarmed. Aside from the more combat or espionage leaning, who had light scan proof weaponry hidden, which seemed for the moment to actually be scan proof if the android was so sure they didn't have any weapons.
Sapphire nodded at Axel, a vaguely patronizing smile on her face, "Yes, Weapons. Do you ….not have any?" Langle stepped forward, "ahh, no we were not aware we would need them and didn't think bringing weapons with us would be… appropriate." Sapphire covered her mouth as she tittered at that statement, her ornate gown making it clear what behavior she was likely built to emulate. Her tone was laced with suppressed amusement "Ahh, I suppose a few light arms can be procured there."
A few of the more pacifistic members of the delegation went to speak up, likely about not needing or wanting weapons but were stopped by their more militaristic or technological compatriots. Beal did however have a question of his own "will we be needing weapons?" Which was a fair enough question, though Sapphire's titters didn't imply that. "Well need is a strong word, it's just…. Uncouth to walk around without at least a sidearm. Though we don't have to get you any…" the way she said that implied she'd be at least moderately annoyed if her offer was refused. Langley smiled at that, "no no, it's fine we'll gladly accept the gift" if only so the guns could be studied and replicated.
And then with an excited "excellent" and a clap of her hands the Delegation and android vanished in a flash of light.
When the team arrived they were immediately stunned by their surroundings, each taking in a different aspect of the city around them.
From the Massive buildings crafted out of solid metal or crystal that looked designed to be beautiful, and to the tactical mind filled with cover and spots that would be perfect for weapon emplacements, worryingly the majority of which seemed build to cover their current location. To the wildlife crawling or flying through the air, birds of crystal and bugs of metal tending to plants both mundane and fantastical, robotic beasts roaming the streets or seeking attention from the people. If the things could be considered that, while the androids that had meet the delegation were humanoid and beautiful the same could not be said for all of what they saw now though humanoid figures remained a majority. Androids or machines with glass exteriors revealing their inhuman components to ones crafted from silver or gold or even made from gems outright. The number and placement of limbs varied heavily, as did proportions and size, some-even the majority, seemed to resemble the group they had arrived with; the outfits they wore were well beyond strange. Some simply wore nothing and the delegates could see they had nothing to cover, while others wore so little they may as well have been wearing nothing, and very visibly did have things to cover.
Some wore powered armor, all were armed in some visible way, and more than a few had weapons outright built into their bodies whether it was clawed fingers or a shoulder mounted turret and most had some form of drone hovering behind them.
And all of them seemed to be heading in and out of the Plaza the delegation stood upon, and the astute realized it was probably a teleportation hub. Overlooking the no doubt important zone was a massive humanoid machine, over twenty meters tall and surrounded by a group of smaller versions of itself and a swarm of drones orbiting around its head. The thing had a weight to it, everyone could feel it staring into them even though it wasn't facing them, like they were being judged. Beal became distinctly aware of the weapons and monitoring equipment hidden on him. A few members of the team shuddered and Beal spoke "what… is that?"
Sapphire turned to see what he was looking at, seeing the massive sentinel looming before smiling and waving at the construct and causing its head to turn towards her. "That's a Paragon Sentinel, They are guards. There are a dozen or so in most cities." Axel kept staring at the machine "how does it …work?" Sapphire just shrugged "The Maker makes Paragons in the Inner Factory."
Langley and Beal shared a look at that, both resolving to try and find out more about this 'inner factory' but knowing better than to ask about it outright, alas Axel wasn't on the same page. "Is this.. Factory a part of the tour?" His tone was hopeful, bug drew winces from the other more espionage minded members of the delegation.
-----------------
The few glimpses of the inner factory Sapphire had seen flashed through her mind and she shuddered, that tangled mess of machinery without end, ever shifting and without any true path within and she swore it watched her, "I doubt it" she said in as genial a tone she could muster. She'd be instructed to guide the humans around but hadn't really been told what to do beyond that, in a few hours she'd be taking them to a meeting with the council, that still left hours that she probably should have planned for.
Well first they'd need some protection, she could already see only a few of them had armor on under their clothes, and calling it 'light' armor would be generous. Maybe convince a few courier drones to carry their things and perhaps the slower or weaker humans could ride around on them. There was public transportation but that was mostly city to city or conveyor belts, and humans were a bit squishy, if adorably so.
The courier drones were probably a good start, the scrawny one already looked tired holding his briefcase, and both of the girls were wearing heels. She could go find some courier drones, they usually hung out around the younger machines and at parks when off duty and there was one nearby. But that'd make the humans walk, and that felt crass.
Instead she simply pulled out a tablet, Storage tech woven into the dress really was convenient, and tapped a few buttons and requested five courier drones. Usually there'd be a bit of a wait as the request was processed and prioritized but she immediately got confirmation that five drones were arriving. Sapphire had assumed the minds would be watching, it was safe to assume they always were, but that just confirmed it.
She nodded to herself, absentmindedly stowing away the tablet, and deliberately ignoring the 'engineers' fascinated stare. Most android engineers had chained their titles to be more specific, mechanics or gunsmiths or roboticists, leaving behind the generic engineer title but explaining that to the humans, and the reasons for why, was at the bottom of sapphire's list of priorities.
How often did humans need to eat anyway? She could just send a courier for food, or would a restaurant be better? Android chefs were leagues beyond human ones, and she knew several who had spent centuries cooking. A plan for just before the meeting perhaps.
"It seems our rides have arrived" The humans gawked at the courier drones, each of which sported stickers, ribbons or a unique paint job. Most likely thanks to some enterprising machine child. And on average they were the size of a pony, but not the significantly larger combat sized ones. One of the humans, Langley she believed, spoke ".....we're supposed to ride these? Is that… safe?" Sapphire smiled faintly at that, "Safe as can be, you'd have to struggle to fall off. It's less riding and more being carried." The magnetic locks might not work on humans but friction locks and handholds worked almost as well.
The courier drones each approached a human, who universally looked on warily as the massive catlike robots approached. Axel however had no such self preservation instincts and excitedly hurried towards the closest courier, a light blue model with flowers painted on its tail. And started stroking the massive feline, causing its tail to lash from side to side.
That seemed to break the ice as the humans walked closer to the drones, each slowly reaching out to touch them. Beals, his hand on his own green and grey courier turned towards Sapphire. "Are these sentient? And how do we tell if some are or aren't?" That was an excellent question that she didn't have a really answer for, actually it was two questions. The courier drones were smart but were they that smart? Only the Maker knew, and maybe the minds. As for how to tell if a machine was sapient or sentient…. "I would say it's best to air on the side of caution, though most sentient machines can communicate. Courier drones are smart and can learn, but not to any great degree."
Sapphire noted that Beal didn't exactly look satisfied with that answer, but it was the only real one she could give. Langley, following on Beals topic asked the next question, resolutely ignoring the fact that Axel was already on the back of his courier drone. "Any etiquette we should be aware of?" Sapphire thought for a moment before speaking. "I doubt anything will come up, and I'll be able to smooth over any misunderstandings" Or just call over a sentinel.
Once all the humans were mounted on drones they set off at a fairly slow ten mile an hour pace, Sapphire absently pointing out various locations or objects of note, and answering the occasional question. With the courier drones carrying them it didn't take long to get to a shop, and a short conversation later Sapphire had a pair of shield drones, enough to give the humans some measure of protection without needing them to change their outfits.
-----------------------
Beal was concerned, very very concerned. He hadn't really known what to expect going into this, sure he'd assumed the race of machines would be more advanced but seeing it was something else entirely. He'd thought they were above ground, there were plants, animals, and even a sky, but what he thought were flocks of birds were actually drones and a group of them took off a section of the 'sky' and disappeared into a bunch of tunnels behind it.
There were thousands of machines, and some were closer to walking tanks than anything humanoid. He'd seen hundreds of those 'sentinels' and a dozen of those 'paragons' and their guide had just walked up to a street vendor and bought a pair of what he could only assume were combat drones without even a background check.
Not even mentioning the … person? He was riding, aside from the fact he'd seen it exhaling a breath of fire the thing was massive, heavy, and moved fast at even a walk. He's seen a pair of them fighting, or play fighting; he really had not a single idea, and the errant swipes had shattered the concrete and bent metal, and they'd shot lasers. It was something out of a children's cartoon.
The city itself was a twisted labyrinthe, without foreknowledge of the city's layout one would run into hundreds of deadends, or walk on roads covered by firing positions. If one wanted to take the city they'd need to clear every building simply to walk the streets without being gunned down. Modern cites weren't designed like that, they had ease of travel in mind, city planners didn't take the city getting invaded into consideration.
Really if he had to take the city he'd need to just level it, but given what he'd seen he wasn't sure a nuke could even scorch the buildings proper, they were either absurdly durable or there was something else going on. Underground cities also meant orbital bombardment wouldn't work, even if it hadn't been classified a war crime.
He idly watched the drone hovering just over his shoulder, it was making some form of buzzing and the small breeze he had been feeling had stopped when they'd gotten the drones, meaning it was either diverting the air or putting up some kind of barrier.
Was this an example of what advanced mass effect applications could do? Or had they managed this without any wonder materials? He'd seen the occasional slime as well, which could be another answer. R&D had been having a field day with those materials when they'd first been discovered. It was one of the definitive advantages they had over the Turians as well.
Still Beal had a job to do, and while sightseeing and idle compilation were in the description he'd be remiss if he didn't put in a bit more than the bare minimum. He turned his gaze to Sapphire, who was explaining the various 'machine forms' to Axel and waited for a moment to ask his own question. "Do you happen to have any maps of the city? I wanted to look it over and see if anywhere piqued my interest."
Sapphire looked at him for a second, shrugged, and pulled her tablet out from somewhere where she clicked a few buttons and then just tossed the thing at him. A few frantic seconds of juggling later and he was looking at a map, and while it was somewhat difficult to peruse on the back of the mechanical cat he managed, soon finding what he had been looking for.
A church marked on the map, close enough to see the spot on the map marked as the Makers factory, and notably on the surface. The church being so close to the factory did bring his mind back to the idea that the Maker might be a sort of god figure for these androids, and at this point he was all but certain that theory was right. Going to the church would let them learn more about the Makers influence, and let them see his base of operations.
Beal turned towards Sapphire and brought up going to the church, a line about wanting to see more of their culture tossed out that he was entirely certain she saw through. Still if she had she didn't seem overly worried, and they changed course from… wherever they had been going.
The road took a subtle uphill slope, with non-robotic animals and more mundane looking plants appearing roaming largely free amongst their counterparts. There was even a fair sized stream heading off into one of the distant walls, filled with fish he swore were mechanical when he caught glimpses of an android catching one.
Did they need to eat metal? Or steal energy or fuel from the fish? It seemed like there'd be better ways to get stuff but what did he know.
Eventually though he started seeing sunlight reflected off the metal in the distance, and the Courier drones rapidly ate up the ground until the group emerged into the natural light of the sun, even if only an increase in warmth was the only real noticeable difference.
The buildings also grew simpler, more stone and concrete than metal and crystal, more like what'd he'd see walking earth's streets. And in the distance a black cloud covered a part of the horizon, with black tendrils stretching out from it. And as he looked closer he could see it shifting, not one solid mass but something more akin to a swarm of locust.
A quick look at the map only showed him what he already expected, that was the Maker's workshop, and that meant those were drones, and if they were the size of the flying variants he'd already seen there were hundreds of thousand of them flying into and out of the building.
He noticed the stunned gazes of his fellows and the nonchalant posture of Sapphire before asking his question, and steeled himself as they once again set off towards the church. One question lingered in his mind however, just what were all those drones doing? If they were ferrying goods he couldn't even fathom how much that'd be and where would they be bringing it all?
Sapphire started talking as they rode on, filling in the heavy silence with her idle chatter. "I'm sort of glad you decided to head up here, it's always fun to watch people when they first see the Maker's workshop. It gets even crazier once you can actually see the walls. And I've heard lots of people talking about the Main Factory being so much grander and larger." She paused for a moment, looking around at the androids near them and then speaking in a pseudo whisper still loud enough for everyone in the group to hear, only really succeeding in making her look like she was trying to keep something secret. "I heard that the church we're going to actually had some of its designs based off the Main Factory's walls!"
He could actually see the walls now, stretching up nearly a hundred meters and then arching inwards to form a doom absolutely bristling with what he suspected were turrets and artillery platforms, or perhaps anti air made more sense? Nothing safe for certain. He started to see what she meant though, now he could vaguely make out what the drones were caring, shipyard sized cargo containers, or tanks three times that size, countless sentinels and other flightless machines were being ferried in.
The ground in front also had gates, into which flowed a river of train's and cargo trucks.
The entire thing was a porous hive looking like it had been kicked by a careless child, and he'd only seen organized chao's like that on warships preparing for battle. Which raised the question, were they? Humans couldn't maintain that constant frantic pace for long, days at most for the well trained, but machines wouldn't have the issue would they?
Another terrifying thought.
Workers and soldiers that never tired or needed to stop, stronger than men and only vulnerable to high grade weapons. If they even were.
He was dragged from his thoughts at a sound like glass screaming, something that clawed its way into his head and forced his gaze towards it. Floating in the air a bright white crack began to form, the noise growing louder before all sound cut off and he briefly thought he was deaf before realizing he could still hear the servos of the beast he was on.
He couldn't take his eyes off the thing, watching as six scythe-like claws burst out of it and a massive pair of mandibles became visible as they wrenched the gap open wider.
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AN-
This is a three parter, the second part is already written and posted to the Patreon and the third part has a decent portion of itself done.
Likes and Comments are fantastic
Thanks for the chapter! I can't wait to see the rest of this
AldariSiradla
Knight of the Fountain Pen
Huh, the Bitters teleport now.
Neat, great even!
Gives an excuse to let the Factory grow still...
And spook the neighbors too while we're at it.
Neat, great even!
Gives an excuse to let the Factory grow still...
And spook the neighbors too while we're at it.
Poor human delegation is going to have PTSD from space bugs. An Probably start building up troops too fight the bugs if they make it back home. after all, humans are a paranoid people.
And not just space bugs, space bugs that can and will get to your location via tearing a hole in space... they're likely gonna be placing alot of emphasis on both quick response teams and big ass guns haha!
I'm just imagining ESDF now...
- Location
- Tokyo-3, Misato Refrigerator
And then the first thing that came to my mind while reading these lines was Orb Vallis from Warframe. Schools of mechanical fish that just swim and do their robotic fish business depending on their type and specialization, for which you can arrange fishing with a electromagnetic harpoon. Nostalgia for the times when I actually spent hours just meditatively fishing rather than completing missions.
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