I planned to finish this 2 days ago, but my cold didn't agree. Anyways, here it is. Also congratulations, now you can wall-jump as long as there are 2 walls close enough. You are one step closer to basic competence.
*Fistpump*
Now we only need to carry around a filled energy tank, just in case.
[X] Check the building the pair entered from the outside, but don't go in yet. Memorize its location so that you can go later, or even send someone else here.
Following them inside to what could be a den of terrorists and/or anti-government fighters is suicide.
[X] Check the building the pair entered from the outside, but don't go in yet. Memorize its location so that you can go later, or even send someone else here.
Is late night. The streets around this zone are almost empty, the background noise is coming mostly from adjacent sectors, and the buildings around this one show little signs of activity.
All of that meaning, of course, that you should be careful stepping down this building, unless you want to be noticed by the noise you would make.
The building itself is a relatively old residential edifice, with metallic concrete exterior and small single-hung windows.
At roughly 30 meters of height, you are not sure if jumping from the top of the building would be safe, and you are certain that it would be noisy.
So you go down using one of the service ladders on the back of the building.
Once you are down, you take a look at one of the windows. There is a piece of cloth impeding your vision, but you can distinguish a pair of figures working on something on top of a table.
Then, one of the figures grabs a handful of something from whatever they are working on, shows it to the other, and then both start to... celebrate? They appear to pat each other's back, and laugh.
After that, they move to some room and you can no longer see anything, unless you decide to enter.
At that moment, a though strikes you. What they were doing was clearly illegal. If they are an organized group or worse, getting inside without armor or experience would be little more than a fancy way to suicide, and ruin all you've worked for in the process.
So you must leave them be, for now.
At any rate, you make sure to know where is the building located for future reference, and start to head home.
There are still a few hours until the sun rises, more than enough time to walk to the place you leave your stuff.
...
Is almost four in the morning by the time you reach the wall. Security is still lax, with only a few pantheons patrolling here and there, and the odd flying mechaniloid passing by.
In an instant, you jump the wall and grab the ledge, then you use your arms to jump again, landing with 2 feet and a hand on the other side.
It takes you a minute to find and dig out your armor and helmet, and after using the cloak to clean them up a little you put them on.
Now you can enter the Tower without being detained or raising suspicions.
...
You are currently in your room. It was an interesting visit to the outside world and you obtained a disguise, which can always be useful.
But you are tired, and tomorrow you have work to do, so you put your clothes on their place, clean the dirt off your armor with water, and go to sleep.
For the next week you will have many things to do. Study, do your paperwork, attempt to train. But besides that, there are certain things you'd like to get done, like...
Shortest update ever, of all time. This will be a short time-skip, and unless something occurs there should be others, to bring the quest closer and closer to the plot. You can always derail, of course, but your butterflies can only fly so far, so fast.
[X] We've asked Ciel for help with the energy problem, but we must have people in charge of finding new solutions or managing the power grid. Call a meeting with them and the military and see if a solution can be found to Neo Arcadia's energy problems, or at least try and find a way we can improve and expand our current efforts.
-[X] Seeing those criminals in action reminded us we don't know a whole lot about how the civilian population is doing. Get reports on criminal activity, schools, economics, and the current quality of life in Neo Arcadia.
Your pod sounds. You don't really want to wake up right now, maybe the pod is damaged? Having a few hours more of sleep sounds so nice right now...
Your pod sounds. Grumbling, you wake up and check the time. 6:03 am, local time. No, the pod isn't damaged. With some mental effort you step out and prepare yourself for the day to come.
...
Is mid-morning already, and you are currently making heads and tails of the document you are supposed to approve. All in all, the bulk of the papers they send to you are just for approval, not needing a lot of input on your part beyond a digital seal, and in rare cases a signature.
On one hand, that causes you to do far more things you should be doing, for a mostly figurehead. On the other hand, having control of what goes and what doesn't in the city is not something you are sure you should relinquish. Master X always kept that kind of power in his hands, and if he had a good reason perhaps you shouldn't touch it?
You can answer that some other day. Today you are tired, and figuring out what "secondary counter-rotating shipment clausular" means takes priority over work philosophy.
...
It has been a week and half since your arrival, and in that time you have insisted in acquiring the basic knowledge a reploid should have. You are currently studying history of robotics and biology.
Reading about the huge variety of plants, both organic and bio-mechanical fascinates you a little. Trying to imagine the world 300 years ago, with forest extending beyond the horizon and plains of grass bigger than many cities, it must have been nice.
From what you read, in that bygone era there was also conflict. The robots of then, primitive by modern standards but fierce all the same were used by mad humans to fight battles against well-intended people and their own robots.
But even then, from what you read such battles were minor skirmishes, nothing compared with the wars fought against the mavericks.
You keep studying, slowly gaining the knowledge everyone thinks you already have.
...
Today, you are going to practice your aim, since among your combat skills it counts as the worst, maybe second worst.
Yesterday, you also practiced your aim, and you are probably going to do the same tomorrow. In lieu of proper training machines and such, you have made heavy use of the metal crates around the cargo bay.
This time, and because there is only so many empty boxes, you try to aim at the space between the crates, increasing the distance between each set of shots.
Your aim is not what people would call "acceptable", but you should slowly improve over time, as long as you keep training.
For now, you limit the training to stationary targets, and without moving yourself.
...
You are currently reading dossiers and such on everything currently happening in the city, when you notice a letter by the security chief.
We analyzed the pantheon unit as you ordered, and found the cause of the anomalous behavior.
Our scientist realized a detailed electro-neural pathways scan and several memory downloads, and found that the decision made by the pantheon unit was because of his interpretation of priorities and time constrains.
The pantheon unit was ordered to find several disks, and since he was unable to request one of them in time, he opted to grab the first disk that contained the information he was looking for.
At the moment of the theft, the pantheon was located inside a disk store, so it's probable that he decided that requisitioning for a civilian was preferable than stealing from the store.
Behavioral integration agrees with that conclusion, and mentions that such decision-making is intended to help in the capture of criminals, since the pantheons could find themselves in need of a vehicle, or a weapon while on duty.
The pantheon unit is currently on hold in room 3, in the laboratory. Viral analysis were done, all returned negative. The pantheon is due to be reactivated in one week, unless you consider it too risky.
So that was that. You get the gist of the letter, if not the details. And is always good to know that there's no sign on viral attacks, if what you read on the history disk is true.
...
6 days ago, you were traveling on the streets at night when you were witness of what was probably an illegal action.
From that, you can conclude several things. The first, you would really like to know the amount of crime in the city. All the dossiers and news you receive talk about city-scale threats, the movement of mechaniloid swarms and possible terrorist groups.
The second thing, is that you would also like to know how is the quality of life in Neo Arcadia at the moment. Crime doesn't grow on vacuum, and knowing one thing leads to the other.
And so, yesterday you requested that on top of the general reports on the city situation, you also get to get reports of crime rates and life quality. It may cut your time by an hour or so, but knowing that sort of things is important to lead.
Today, the first of such reports came to one of your desk monitors. You read it carefully, and by what it says crime rates seem to be slightly rising since 2 years ago. The situation is not serious by any measure, but petty thievery and illegal grid use is on the rise.
On the social situation, everything seems to be going fine. Both humans and reploids carry lifestyles equivalent to what modern nations allowed hundreds of years ago, and the 2 principal worries are the mechaniloids outside and the silence of the Neo Arcadian Tower over the situation of Master X.
Economically speaking, production is on the rise due to the slow increase in population. The government is the principal provider of employment, seconded by several groups of raiders and explorators.
Over the decades, the amount of goods obtained by those groups has been reduced, because of the increasing difficulty on accessing the ruins left, and the fact that those ruins also tend to be the most fiercely protected.
...
You are currently on your room, thinking things.
The armies are preparing themselves to reorganize, making inventories and audits. In 1 month new leaders will be appointed, in 6 months cross-training exercises will begin, and in 8 months the biggest operations done by the city in a century will be carried by the reforged armies.
The citizens are currently living fairly comfortable lives, by at large. The clubs are open at night, the dome simulates sunlight at day, and the salaries are enough for people to buy nice things from time to time.
All of that, on top of a decaying foundation of old generators and ancient machinery.
You have already asked Ciel about that. But, as smart as your creator is, she is but one person, and her specialty is not industrial-scale energy generation.
So, you grab your ear-piece and make a call to the science department. They are currently busy with tens of minor projects, but if you order it a meeting could be appointed on 2 weeks, motive being alternatives to the current energy systems.
The call to the military forces is a little less successful. With the heavy restructuring they are currently in the middle of, there is little time to assist the meeting. Still, some representatives can be sent and some analysis could be squeezed in between the administrative hell they are through.
[X]Write in what to do. Take into account next update will include 2 weeks of activity, unless something happens, or you wish otherwise.
For such short update (in content, if not in words), this took longer than I expected. I blame procastination. As always, corrections, comments and such are welcomed and appreciated.
Well, it would help us if you offered some standard choices about what should be our following course of action, if only so that voters have an idea of what to do right now. By the way, that speech announcing our return was already done, right?
My thoughts:
[X] Carry on with your duties and training.
- [X] Allow that Pantheon Unit to leave. There doesn't seem to be anything wrong with it.
-- [X] Search for more information about these possible terrorist groups and/or dissidents of any kind.
Well, it would help us if you offered some standard choices about what should be our following course of action, if only so that voters have an idea of what to do right now.
Is kinda hard for me to find what to put as options, without making it seems like is the optimal choice, but I can try. As an example, you can specify if you want to focus studying something in specific, or if you want to train some ability.
[X] Carry on with your duties and training.
- [X] Allow that Pantheon Unit to leave. There doesn't seem to be anything wrong with it.
-- [X] Search for more information about these possible terrorist groups and/or dissidents of any kind.
[X] Carry on with your duties and training.
- [X] Allow that Pantheon Unit to leave. There doesn't seem to be anything wrong with it.
[X] Okay the meeting for 2 weeks out
Terrorists would have made it onto our crime rate request, I'm not worried about that yet.
As for the energy... we need something we can produce the parts for. Even if its less efficient and such... well, we still have the old generators. And they'll still be there for a while. So we could probably build a couple of less efficient one's soon-ish an let the research teams take apart one of the old one's and hopefully get enough out of it that they can either improve our new designs or make the old ones once more.
We could also try supplementing with some solar energy. *Shrug* Maybe. Need to re-figure it out first.
[X] Carry on with your duties and training.
- [X] Allow that Pantheon Unit to leave. There doesn't seem to be anything wrong with it.
[X] Okay the meeting for 2 weeks out
[X] figure out if our buster has any elemental capabilities or if they'll have to be integrated.
The only thing that worries me is that we don't have any armors to help out incase of a emergency
[X] Carry on with your duties and training.
- [X] Allow that Pantheon Unit to leave. There doesn't seem to be anything wrong with it.
[X] Okay the meeting for 2 weeks out
[X] figure out if our buster has any elemental capabilities or if they'll have to be integrated.
You have continued to diligently carry on with your duties, checking all the documents they send you to approve, reading the dossiers and assuring ministers over video calls that all the problems they send to you are being analyzed by the right people.
You heavily suspect that most of the work you do is to assure people that the city is running correctly and approving things already pre-approved, but nonetheless is still a tiring job.
...
You also have been training with your buster, between afternoon studies. In the last several days you tried to make your buster emit elemental beams. Your first try was to concentrate on the meaning of fire, to focus on your inner temperature and shape your shot with the essence of flame and combustion. What came out from this was an incredibly hot, yellow-white ball of concentrated plasma, surrounded by an electrical force field. The same as every other shot you have made before.
Your second try was to search at your own schematics, hoping that either Ciel had left comments on the weapon, or that your mechanical capabilities are advanced enough to understand the components. No such luck.
It would appear that you either lack innate elemental capabilities, or you don't have the slightest clue on how to access them.
...
There haven't been any new report on crime or economic events in Neo arcadia. Or rather, there were several reports, but all of them contained almost the same information as the ones you received 2 weeks ago. The most notable event would be a dataline being perforated, resulting in the water supply of Area M1442 being cut for 2 days. It appears than the perpetrators tried to hack an energy line using outdated wire maps.
...
The military reports indicate that several structural changes are already being implemented. Several troops from the Jin'en and Meikai armies are being transferred to the Zan'ei, who in turn is merging with the police forces of the city.
The Jin'en is receiving most of the ground troops of the Rekku army, which as an air force won't be needing, and at the same time the Rekku army is acquiring the air troops and vehicles of the Meikay army, a mostly patrol navy.
The explorer corps are being integrated in the Jin'en army, nominally if nothing else, and hopefully they will adapt to an stricter way of dealing with the command chain.
In other words, everyone involved is grumpy, overworked, sleep-deprived and stressed beyond any measure made in the last 30 years.
In any case, your request to hold a meeting in 2 weeks was deemed possible enough, and both the science department and the least busy military generals or delegates will be there in 2 weeks.
That was almost 2 weeks ago, and the small meeting will be tomorrow.
...
2 days ago, the New Arcadia Tower's principal laboratory called. Last time you spoke with them was to request the release of the pantheon unit they had under analysis, given that he scored green in all exams.
This time, the reason of the call is to inform you that in 9 days the 4 reploids they have in room 16 will be activated. After that, they will be designated as generals of the armies and put under a specialized training and education regime, to be able to lead said armies.
...
Right now, you are getting ready for the meeting. The pamphlet they sent you yesterday indicates it will be more of a list of tentative options and technologies, followed by a brainstorming session. It will also be on the morning, so you have only half an hour to get ready.
You intend to...
[X]Assist the meeting. You called it, you should go.
-[X]Actively participate. You are expected to say the final veredict, but you wish to give ideas, such as...
-[X]Stay quiet. Giving the final veredict is good enough, and they are the experts.
There is also the matter of the discourse. You intend to do it...
[X]In a few days (how many)
[X]In a few weeks (how many)
[X]You don't intend to do it righ now.
Also, there are certain matters you wish to do today, besides/instead of your routine, like...
[X]Call dr Ciel. It has been 3 weeks since you called her last time.
-[X]Speak about...
[X]Take a walk, maybe explore the tower a little
[X]Investigate some things you read while studying (specify)
[X]Adhere to your routine
[X]Write in.
Given that some of you wished me to recomend some courses of action, I put several basic options in there. Comments, corrections and questions are welcomed.
I'm thinking we should sit and listen during the meeting and for the second thing, wait 2 weeks so the 4 generals will already be up and running. I'm not really sure what to do for the final one. Exploring the tower could be cool, but digging up more information on people from the past who might still be alive today could be cool too. We could always ask Ciel about getting some armor and weaponry upgrades like X had seeing as how we didn't have much luck finding where he would have kept the ones he already has. I suppose we could always ask, but that would be suspicious.
You already tried that. The easiest way to obtain such information would be to ask, but as you said it would be incredibly suspicious. The oldest people you know to be alive are the 8 gentle judges, being as old as Neo Arcadia itself (you read that in one of the disks). Any serious search on historical figures requires field work.
You already tried that. The easiest way to obtain such information would be to ask, but as you said it would be incredibly suspicious. The oldest people you know to be alive are the 8 gentle judges, being as old as Neo Arcadia itself (you read that in one of the disks). Any serious search on historical figures requires field work.
Yeah, I meant chasing those leads. Since no one seems to have decided anything, I guess I'll vote.
[X]Assist the meeting. You called it, you should go.
-[X]Actively participate. You are expected to say the final verdict, but you wish to give ideas, such as...
--[X] Expanding research on developing new power sources.
[X]In a few weeks (how many)
-[X] 2 weeks
[X]Call Dr. Ciel. It has been 3 weeks since you called her last time.
-[X]Speak about obtaining armor that could help shore up our poor combat skills.
