* Friday, August 29, 2008 *
Going through the rest of the school day had been an exercise in mental torture.
Washu, the whatever-she-was that had apparently built or connected this Celestial Forge thing to her, had gotten directly involved and had sent a techbase to her Auto-Factory as a way of resolving some issue with duplicate/non-stacking rolls on whatever accessed omniversal data sources.
To say she was curious was understating it by a ridiculous factor.
That apparently Washu had glanced over everything that had been done so far and come to a quick conclusion that she needed SOMETHING was concerning.
A techbase, some sort of highly advanced technology database. It could be a magical techbase, she supposed, but didn't think that likely. She could make a guess and they were RELATED blueprints from a single source, much like the "No Man's Sky" techbase she'd gotten the last time Washu had run into this problem.
The idea that there was something in there that addressed some perceived need? Yeah. Concerning.
[Patch applied. Rerolls will occur in future instances of this error.]
[Thank you for your continued use of Celestial Forge v3.51]
"What's up, Taylor? You looked like someone socked you with a fish," commented Lucy.
"Tell you later," mumbled Taylor.
"Taylor?" asked one of the guys in the hallway. "Did you know you're levitating? Just a bit."
Taylor glanced down, realized that the boy was right, and made a show of patting a pocket as she cancelled the flight.
Lucy followed her friend out away from the crowd, hoping for an explanation.
"Well, I..." Taylor's voice trailed off as one of her shadow clones investigated and then dispelled to share the findings. Huh, she'd forgotten about being able to do that. Oh. That was what it was?
"Taylor?" asked Lucy.
"Merp?" asked Smaug, looking concerned.
"Oh, just something for me to build that might be interesting," said Taylor.
"I'm sure it'll be interesting if you build it," said Lucy. "Can I see it when you've finished it?"
"I guess," admitted Taylor. It would be hard to hide it unless she did it in a different dimension or out by Saturn after all.
"Can you give me a hint?" asked Lucy, and from his body language you could tell Smaug was curious as well.
"Ships ahoy?" hinted Taylor.
* Warehouse *
The source material was not one she was familiar with. She suspected that these were variants from the series or movies or novels in that they obeyed laws of physics from the real world and not some "what looks good in a movie theater" sort of physics.
But yeah. This was big, and did indicate that the SysAdmin has spotted the latest Perk and had come to the conclusion that she could use some alternatives to the tech of the Star Kingdom of Manticore.
This wasn't the Necron tech, or even the stuff of that Supply World. No, this had a spread of vehicles where they were designed for specific purposes and then afterwards could be shifted around to do more.
And she had the robots and synthetics that she could use to build the things. This changed so much behind the scenes that she couldn't make public.
One of the other clones came running up. "Hangar! We have to see this!"
"We got a freebie?" asked the second to begin chasing after the first.
There was no answer, but there really wasn't a need for one, because they went through the door to find three other shadow clones all staring at the newest addition.
Like the others, it was a personal craft that could be operated by a single pilot.
Also like the others, it was built for a specific purpose. The Leo mobile suit was basically a trainer model. So was the Veritech fighter, it being the first step up from an actual training-specific vehicle. The VW Beetle had been basically a "rust bucket" on arrival but had been upgraded significantly since then.
This was an obvious shuttlecraft, it even had a superficial resemblance to the ones from Star Trek TOS in the color scheme and blocky shape.
"FTL capable?" asked a Taylor clone.
"I'm checking," said the clone that had already been there. She looked up from the computer access after another minute with a smile that gave the answer.
"Ident is of a Type II Colonial Shuttle." The clone continued to access screen after screen rapidly. "Lower cargo compartment, big enough to put a monster truck in it. Upper compartment could seat up to 20 in relative comfort, with the possibility of four crew. One pilot was enough to operate it but four would be considered optimal. 24 passengers if you didn't mind a little crowding and you could have two attendants as needed."
"I'm sure we could get a couple of Bar-Bees for that if need be," noted one of the other clones. "Looks like a civilian transport. If it was military I'd expect more places to stash or lock down gear."
Another clone stuck her head up through an access hatch. "Hey, there's a vehicle in here. Looks like a passenger van with treads. It has a turret on top with some substandard lasers. We're gonna have to upgrade those."
"Always something to upgrade," noted several clones simultaneously, followed by a shared giggle.
"Great minds think alike," proclaimed all the clones present.
"Interesting fuel cell here, not very efficient though," said one of the clones that had been concentrating on examining devices. "We can do better."
"So, anyone recognize the source material?" asked a Taylor.
Nobody did, hardly a surprise there as they were all Taylor, though JARVIS was able to find a series from the 70s that sort of matched.
* Saturn L-4 *
Space Engineer Barbie checked and found she had access to a bunch of new blueprints. The Manticoran Dreadnought was underway, but that mining ship and the refinery ship certainly looked both higher priority.
Fortunately, like all Operator-class synths, she could multitask very well.
Once those two ships were made, they could gather more materials and process them normally. This would be important later, as such technologies had to exist outside Celestial Forge refills of used materials.
By combining Necron technologies with these "Colonials" they ought to be able to address the shortcomings in each other's ships.
Oh, agricultural ships? Farms in space. Yeah, getting something like that going was probably going to be a Plan B necessity.
Plan A? No, nobody talked about Plan A. Operational security. She could make some guesses but wasn't going to.
Plan C? Well, there was a Plan C, but there was a pretty damn good reason it was the third plan in the queue.
Huh. These 'Cylons' were kind of stupid. Sapient enough to rebel against their "masters" but otherwise just Worker A as far as individuality was concerned.
Thankfully, of all the various types of synth and robots that the good Doctor created - nobody was going to go Terminator on the human race. Specific examples, maybe. There were a few in their mass media who could at the very least use a good talking to.
* Brockton Bay *
"WOOHOO!"
Leet (or L33t or various other spellings of the name) readied the hologram projector as Uber drove like a veritable maniac.
Turn a corner at high speed, duck into this alley, change a 1984 lime-green Impala into a baby blue 1978 Camaro, drive at a more sedate pace out of the alley and watch the police cars go past.
"I told you," said Leet. "'Grand Theft Auto' was perfect for our Brockton Bay debut. And YOU wanted to go with Burger Baron!"
"Yeah, well, as long as we don't end up on the major villain list around here," said Uber. "If we can avoid that we might be able to work with ForgeTech and don't tell me you don't want to get a better look at that mobile suit they've got."
"I'm sure I could build better," said Leet. "Though I wouldn't turn down a look at that or one of those Astartes armors. Though I still think they're not very authentic."
"They couldn't be authentic as the people wearing them aren't genetically engineered cyborgs," pointed out Uber, sounding as if he'd pointed this out repeatedly. Because he had. "You really think you can jam them?"
"Power armor always has a weak point, and mass produced armor is going to have the same weak point," stated Leet with considerable confidence.
"So, we've stole a car, robbed an ATM, mooned the police, did a getaway. What's next on the agenda?" asked Uber.
"Beat up and rob some prostitutes," said Leet.
"You sure about that, in THIS city?" asked Uber.
"Holoprojector works. What could go wrong?" countered Leet.
"Don't tempt fate. Can we go with 'Zombies Ate My Neighbors' next? We can probably get some viewer participation on that," said Uber as they turned onto another street.
* Not far away *
Honestly, she enjoyed her work. Most of the time. Sometimes there were customers who were just a right pain - often in more than one meaning of the phrase.
She was a "Case 53" by the PRT parlance, an amnesiac with an exotic appearance and a weird tattoo, but she had lucked out by whatever metric was considered as far as powers and appearance were concerned as she could control her "cut through nearly anything" claws to within 1cm of length and others certainly found her appearance more exotic than monstrous.
"Panthera" was her chosen name, as far as working was concerned. Because of her fur she tended not to wear much, but she had the assets to flaunt anyway.
Due to ForgeTech and the military presence, Brockton Bay was where she'd chosen to work. While her fees ranged from Paid Escort to the sort of per-hour one would expect from her profession, a surprising number of individuals just wanted to stroke her fur or "pet" her in a nonsexual manner. Which she didn't charge much for, considering the amount of effort on her part was extremely limited.
She'd even started carrying around a set of brushes for that sort of customer.
A car pulled up, a window rolled down, and a whistle. One of THOSE customers then.
Pity, she was in the mood for a good brushing.
"What's yer pleasure there?" Panthera asked.
"Wait, what?" asked the driver. "You're a 'Case 53'?"
"Yes," said Panthera, rolling her eyes. "Photos are 5 bucks unless you want nudes, then they're $25."
"Uhm, nice to meet you," said the guy behind the wheel.
"How much for $150?" asked the guy in the passenger seat.
"That's a starting rate for an hour," said Panthera. "You pay for the room."
"Dude," said the driver. "She's a parahuman."
Guy came out of the passenger side, with a baseball bat. "This'll be quick."
"You have no idea," said Panthera, showing teeth. Claws came out.
Her first swipe reduced the baseball bat to wood shavings. Then she shredded the guy's clothing, leaving him with crisscrossed red cuts all over his exposed skin. He stood there for a few seconds, wearing only a pair of blue-striped boxers, before screaming and getting back in the car.
The driver just held out a wad of bills. "For your time."
Panthera took the money, nodded, and decided to go to that taco place a few blocks away. It had smelled like fresh marinated beef to her sensitive nose and that would settle her down quite nicely.
* Uber *
"Leet."
"Don't say 'I told you so'," said Leet.
"I will say that. Repeatedly. As it is, we're stopping at Rite-Aid and getting some bandages and wound care stuff. We are not doing any other streams until you've healed."
"Ah."
"And you are NEVER going to tempt fate with those words again."
"Ah."
"Right."
There was silence between the two until after they'd gotten the bandages, at which point Leet asked a very salient question. "Is that rubbing alcohol? Doesn't that stuff sting?"
"Yes, yes it is. Yes, yes it does."
"Oh."
* Dallon residence *
"Okay," said Lady Photon. "We're going after the... Incredible Five? Are they really calling themselves that?"
"It's the sixth time they've come up with a name, all incorporating the number five," said Brandish. "Just roll with it."
Lady Photon shook her head but continued. "They're originally Empire 88 aligned villains, but lately the Empire has been..."
"Reluctant to associate with them and calls them the 'Incompetent Five' or the 'Inferior Five'," said Brandish. When even the other Nazis didn't want to associate with you, you had to be pretty much rock bottom.
"I'm not familiar with them, what crimes have they committed?" asked Manpower.
"Muggings, smash and grabs, torching Max Anders car - though I'm inclined to ignore that one," said Brandish, the last bit almost under her breath. "Defacing public property, destroying a chicken ranch in the Southside..."
"A chicken ranch, or a chicken ranch?" asked Manpower.
"The kind with actual chickens," answered Brandish. "That mink farm upstate, they freed all the minks and tried to extort the owners if they wanted to see them again. Except they'd already let the minks out of their cages. They tried to do the same with an ostrich farm except the ostriches attacked them and drove them off."
"So... basically, they're idiots?" asked Manpower.
"Yes, but they keep making a mess so there's some incentive to catch them and put them behind bars," said Brandish.
"What are their powers, do we know that?" asked Flashbang.
"One has superstrength and durability but only if he moves slowly," said Brandish. "The girl is superhumanly strong and durable, but has a reputation as an idiot. Yes, even among the rest of them. The... rotund guy can levitate. The guy with the bow has some Tinker ability in that his arrows can do various things. Flashbang, you take him on if possible because apparently he has some aversion to loud noises. PRT says the guy in the jester outfit has a Blaster 3 ability - apparently he can cause physical damage through insults."
Lady Photon looked around her family/team. "We have a pretty good idea where they'll hit next because they've been choosing their targets reverse-alphabetically."
"You're kidding," said Manpower.
"No and there's only a few businesses in Brockton Bay that start with the letter 'Q', so we're going to monitor those tonight and be ready to strike the moment they show up." Lady Photon sighed. "We get them off the streets, there's a reward out. Not much of one, but there's a reward."
"And yes - the first place they tried to rob was 'Zero Rez' - a carpet cleaning service," added Brandish. "Followed by Yellow Cab, Xavier Photography, and Waffle Burger. Which was before the Vallejo Mink Farm."
"We're really going to stake out 'Quick-e-Lubes'?" asked Manpower.
"And the Quick Mart on Ackerman Street," said Brandish.
"No, not that one. It starts with a 'K' as 'K-W-I-K'," stated Lady Photon.
"I'm surprised Grammar Nazi didn't go after that one," remarked Manpower.
* Saturday August 30, 2008 *
Armsmaster was, in many ways, quite content right now.
He was in frequent consultation with Dragon, with whom he enjoyed a rare friendship.
He was able to access the patents and designs from ForgeTech that were not restricted military technology, which was most of it.
Just the optronics and superconductive materials were very helpful.
His motorcycle, which he sometimes jokingly referred to as his Armscycle despite that it wasn't actually named, was a case of Ship of Theseus when it came to how many times it had been overhauled and reworked as new technology became available.
This was completely necessary with the number of small-time crooks and criminal parahumans would show up in the Bay on an irregular basis.
"Armsmaster, parahuman disturbance on corner of Tezuka Avenue and Cherry Blossom Lane," went his helmet commlink.
"Roger, Console," responded Armsmaster. "Identities?"
There was a pause as Console checked something. "Description of individual one matches Hookwolf. Description of individual two matches independent villain Clock King."
"On my way. I'm not familiar with Clock King," said Armsmaster. Why Hookwolf was operating in ABB territory was a question for later.
"Small time criminal from Albany. Power is believed to be short-term precognition, ability to react to things that happen six seconds in the future. That's how he hasn't ended up shredded already. Rated a Combat Thinker-3."
"Surprised I haven't heard of him," said Armsmaster as he activated the anti-grav assisted jump function on his motorcycle to get past a slow-moving SUV.
"Basically a small-time player who hasn't operated outside Albany before now. One of those themed villains, all his crimes have a time or specifically clock-related motif," answered the Console operator.
"Is there a payroll company near their current location?" asked Armsmaster, his tone idle curiosity as he wove through traffic.
"No, but there is a company called Timely Transactions - an investment firm."
Armsmaster's mouth briefly quirked into what charitably might be considered a smile. "Ah." Theme villains were predictable like that and this Clock King sounded more of a nuisance than an active threat like Hookwolf.
"Update on the 'Incredible Five'," said Console after a minute of silence. "Captured last night by New Wave."
"I'm surprised they lasted this long," admitted Armsmaster as he arrived to see a wildly dodging and exhausted looking guy in a costume liberally sprinkled with clock faces. "That is one of the silliest looking costumes I've ever seen."
"Clock King? Yeah, for once the internet agrees with you," said Console. "Miss Militia is on her way, ETA 2 minutes."
* Resource System *
Taylor did a little barrel roll through the exploding pirate ship, the automated systems kicking in and collecting a beam focus upgrade and some fuel.
The feeling of the Celestial Forge kicking in gave her a momentary pause, which was long enough for her shields to shudder as the pirate's buddy tried to avenge the loss.
"Dang it," said Taylor, aligning the weapons to better focus on the remaining pirate.
The Forge made another connection, though Taylor's attention was understandably more on not getting shot too much.
When she got a few moments free of pesky pirates, Taylor growled at what the roll had given her. Not that it didn't make it easier, but she was already basically doing that!
* Perks This Chapter *
WASHU Database #2 - Colonial Tech (n/a) (Battlestar Galactica) (Future Tech):
Congratulations, you who seek the survival of humanity, for this database contains the technologies available to the Twelve Colonies at the height of their civilization. Designs, blueprints, technical readouts on a variety of ships that fulfill a variety of roles within your ragtag fleet. Don't be too confident in it, they created the Cylons who then devastated their worlds, but it certainly wasn't because their technology wasn't robust enough.
FREE: 1 Type-II Colonial Shuttle with Landram ground vehicle.
FREE: Uniform for a Colonial Officer.
23.37.2--Runic Spell Innovator(200CP)(World Seed)(Enchanting):
Considering that one simply needs to combine the runes for Blast and Fire to make a fireball, or use the do the same with the Reinforce and Mind runes to create a basic spell to protect against mind altering effects, one might think that runic magic is incredibly easy. Well, one would be wrong. Runes can be considered a programming language of sorts, affecting reality. They are used to program magical devices, and also for Runic Magic, an alternative to Arcane Magic that uses less mana and requires less control over your mana, but only does exactly what you program it to do. Now, as with regular programming, any schmuck can do the equivalent of writing hello world and throw a fireball or two, but anything more complex than that requires intelligence, creativity, ingenuity, and patience. Things that you now possess in spades. And with that and the knowledge of the runic language, infinite possibilities lie open to you: whether it's bashing someone's head in with the Force rune, setting up intricate spell diagrams and runic circles to automate even the most complex of processes, or creating spells of all magical disciplines for anything you can think of and more, someone who truly knows how to use Runic Magic is a sight to behold. And your true talent, the invention and creation of new runic spells and programs, applies to all of these avenues. If you keep at it, no magic will be beyond your reach.
