“Yes, that’s about how it looked…” Marlon said as he looked over the metal remains of the monster that assaulted the town.
It was less than one-fifths remaining, but enough had been recovered to show a fragmented picture. Two large head-like pieces, a chest, a leg and a half, and a strange twisted metal weapon. There must have been more from the explosion. Yet, no one with the Empire had wanted to stay to piece more together with the looming threat of whatever attacked them would return to finish the remaining humans off. It was clear they had the power to do so, and Marlon was sure that them capturing the beastwoman had been enough justification to throw that much at them.
Arrogance had lead to this situation.
“What’s your take, Magus?” A blonde woman in her upper years said as she gestured to the fragments on the wooden table.
Marlon felt out of place at he looked at her – Governor Tiffany – and then to the several fancy robed people who stood around the table; eager hands picking at the remains with an almost child-like wonder, despite the blood still staining the obvious metal. He had only been summoned since he’d been pointed out as the only person known to have seen them and be alive. Or rather, in a easily reachable place.
“Their make up suggests they are artificial. Higher intelligent maybe…” The Magus murmured as he picked at a half-blacked green board that was either attached to the back of the headpiece, or was a fragment of their equipment. Marlon hadn’t given it a moments thought when they’d been killing them.
“I’d say it’s a golem,” Another robed person said. Their voice child-like – height suggested a teenager. “See how there’s no blood anywhere but on the outside. It has internals in the way a clock would.”
“But clock internals would be too delicate to have in a fighting golem. It’s why we only use magic internals and bulky gears. Such a build would enlarge its carapice.” The Magus commented. “Given the rough outline this soldier made for us., I can see either we’re fighting a whole new civilization, or these were remote-piloted golems. Maybe that secret research project the Kingdom had been working on we were looking for?”
Lady Tiffany spoke. “Keep classified information classified, Magus, or you won’t like what comes next.”
The magus seemed to ignore her. “Look here…”
He pried the internals out once he found what looked to be screws and undid them.
“Fascinating…” Another mage spoke up, this time a woman. “It looks similar to the prototype at the —”
“Tongue,” A blade appeared from behind the speaker. It’s metal shimmered as it slid silently across the woman’s left shoulder, flatside wise with the sharp end pointed towards her neck. This time, it had garnered the effect the Governor wanted as all three mages stiffened.
Lady Tiffany spoke again. “Might I remind you three that we have uninitiated personnel in the room.”
Marlon looked to the person who appeared behind the woman, blade inches from her throat. He retracted the blade, which appeared to have appeared from under his wrist, and his figured shimmered into nothing.
“If I may… I think I’d like to help out in anyway I can.” Marlon said and placed the magic weapon he’d secured from the now dead mage. “I doubt I’ll just be allowed to retire back home… Well.. Even if you did allow that – my home is in ruins since it was no-mans’ land for months in the first months.”
The govern appraised him with a look for several seconds before she nodded. “Give me two days. I’ll have to bring this to the Circle before I can. But since you’ve shown initiative from all accounts, I’m sure we’ll have use for you. Go, have leave for next two days and report at noon in three day’s time. Also, before you leave, what’s your opinion on the girl you picked up?”
Marlon looked down to the strange fragments on the table. The mage’s enthusiasm slowly came back and they began to disassemble the pieces now that they knew it was but a machine.
“In my honest opinion, I don’t know her well enough, but I can say she’s got courage.” Marlon said before a certain woman came to mind. “But a woman who calls herself a mercenary came with us. She’s the one that sets me on edge.”
The meeting ended and Marlon exited the Castle as a night storm swelled above. The smell of rain and ozone told him a thunderstorm was here, it wasn’t until the distant rumble of thunder that those around him began to pick up their paces.
He stood beneath the cover of a nearby restaurant as he nursed a bowl of soup. It wasn’t until the crackle of thunder overhead did he notice he’d lost himself in thoughts. Rain pattered on the cobblestone next to him. Its pelting only intensified as a figured took a seat next to him much to the annoyance of what he saw was an escorting soldier.
“Marlon,” Opal greeted him.
Her mature sultry voice only made the hair on his neck raise.
“Miss,” He greeted weakly.
“You mentioned me, why?” Opal stated.
His eyes widened slightly, and for a split second, wondered if she was omnipotent or if listened for instances her name was uttered. It was quickly dismissed and he took a sip of his now cold soup. The empty street gave little to distract him from her beautiful, unnaturally vivid eyes. “I did.”
“Sir, you don’t have to answer her questions,” The soldier said as he reached for her. “Miss, you were —”
Without looking, her hand snatched his before it touched her and brought him down to his knees as she bent his wrist in a painful position.
“While I’m fluttered you remembered me, I’d like to know why your mentioning of me led to me being summoned by the authorities.” Opal said. Her tone unwaverinly monotone despite the fact she had rendered the soldier out of action with how he whimpered. Her body an unmoving stone.
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
In fact, he felt as if he was staring up a wild predator. The way her eyes sharpened themselves on him. A challenge? A threat? All of which was unknown given that she had no concernable tells. Rather…
Something cold pressed against his knee as he watched her free arm move under the table slightly. It felt like a tube with thick walls around it.
“This… is iron?” A Hikari man named Roe asked.
Onyx confirmed it in his Spyder body. “Mixed with other materials, but yes... My composition scan has confirmed it.”
“Great,” Oki nodded. “You want us to load it all onto the Helicopter?”
“Yes,” Onyx said. “But discontinue mining. We will need to rethink our current path…”
Opal had been clear in what she was attempting to do but given the distance between the Omega and here, the infrastructure, and the Original’s report on monsters on her position; Onyx didn’t see a point in continuing to look here.
In 4 days, they had only managed to collect what amounted to 10.35 lbs of mixed material. Several Spyders had entered the mines and scanned what they could. The mine was dry. It wouldn’t serve the Omega’s goal, and Opal had pulled the plug an hour ago. The total pre-pull was 9.98 lbs. It took a final total of 150 lbs of steel to fully complete a Light frame, 45 for a Spyder, and a minimum of 20 tons for a Heavy frame.
The Omega had a stock of less than 200 tons after the last project. More than 2000 tons could be scavenged from the Omega, but that would require dismantling it. The Original Warmind did plan to recycle the Omega once she’d agreed on a new location and a new auto forge and its support facilities were constructed.
In fact, Onyx had constructed prefabs. Four in total. It would take a total of 4 days to move them all at a rate of 1 a day. Most of it was charge time for the Seaking’s batteries. The batteries would be enough for 1 roundtrip. The full estimated total would have been 1.9 trips, but Onyx over-estimated higher drainage should they have unexpected weather – similar to a hurricane-level wind. They weren’t going to fly in such severe weather. He simulated in the event they to fly.
On the topic of flying, today was the delivery date set by Opal.
The odd order to create primitive pumps was unusual. He had decided that it was a good piece of information in the context where their civilization stood. However, he failed to see the point of doing this. Fortunately, her delivery would consist of more items than just the 10 pump assemble.
Onyx boarded the helicopter alongside the tribesmen as night began to fall, silhouetted against the horizon. The AI was aware of the low morale. He had informed them of their situation. Showed them. He hadn’t expected this to be a dead end. Plans. Contingencies. Reaches. The last piece on the board was to create an actual scout unit dedicated to finding minerals. That… Would take time.
An optimistic view of the project saw a turnaround time of 3 weeks and most of their resources depleted in constructing the supporting functions of mining. On the other simulation, the more realistic one, was a turnaround of 3 months and their resource stock snuffed.
During this period, neither Opal nor himself would be able to fabricate units or facilities. All their capabilities would be focused solely on this plan as each pound of material would be reserved. Granted, this would be exclusively aimed at their ferrous metals stock; not their non-ferrous metals, notwithstanding plastics, and other lesser materials…
[ONYX: Iron Mine not sustainable. I have a suggestion.]
[OPAL: What is it?]
[ONYX: Scout human settlement for locals capable of detecting iron. Hire and direct contractors to coordinates.]
Onyx then marked on their limited map a location east of the twice abandoned mine. A new plan was outlined – first draft – which proposed a new base location was also sent. Both would be in the narrow valley on the other side of the mine’s mountain. While steep, it could be transversed on foot given per the Pathing Solutions Scans. And the PSS had an accuracy of 93%.
This meant the base would be less secure than their other options. However, security would not be an issue with a steady stream of resources. Particularly, ferrous metals. Non-ferrous was plentiful on the sheets when Autoforge’s manufacturing allowed nano-level precision construction. They could afford to create circuits or miles of wires. They could do the same with fiberoptics. Ferrous stock could not given the need for armored units.
That then pointed to the last suggestion in his plan… Move away from steel and use aluminum construction… Contingent on the fact that an Aluminum processing plant was created… Aluminum is made from Bauxite. If this plant was similar to Earth, then Bauxite would be a far more easier to obtain than Iron – given you could directly smelt Iron with minimum processing.
Aluminum would need to be processed via the Bayer process. This required washing the mined materials, crushing and digesting them via solution tanks, and then heating over and over again to end up with a final process with a white powder that will need further processing. Iron, on the other hand, could be directly smelted with a few easily created base compounds. He did understand that this plan would require heavy front-loaded investment and continual labor upkeep.
This left the end goal of continual and abundant material.
However, the drawback of using aluminum were steep. On top of the processing, Aluminum was weaker than iron. Steel was used to withstand impacts quite well during combat – internals notwithstanding. It was far more malleable than steel and didn’t hold to the temperatures that steel could.
They had Aluminum on the ship. It was used for all furniture objects, user-facing controls and all the non-critical machines such as vending machines, coffee machines, stoves, etc. Opal had piled all of it in a scrap pile in an unused bay for future processing. As it had already been processed, it could be re-processed and alloyed to fit their needs. It just couldn’t be replaced, but if you looked at replacement values, neither could any of their materials.
Iron was simply the easiest to replace in the grand scheme of logistics. Aluminum and plastics near the top. Ground samples showed there was a decent abundance of Bauxite around them…
Onyx, for once, became frustrated at their lack of logistical support beyond processing plans and counters…
His simulations and planning was interrupted as Opal replied.
[OPAL: Approved for new base location and out-sourcing Iron detection. Aluminum processing planet temporarily denied. Sending packet on local currency. Duplication required for hiring humans.]
Onyx only sent an acknowledgment of her request, diving in to see three different smashed metal coins. It was evident that they were supposed to be coins. 1 copper, 1 silver, and 1 gold coin. Copper hammer. Silver cross. A golden crown. Only the gold coin came close to what the AI considered an actual coin disk, and the copper coin looked more like a miniature pancake poured by a child learning to cook. The silver was the least consistent in that a few of them appeared to have been processed with care, where as several others were as bad as the copper coins.
Regardless, the dossier on the currency had more than 10 examples per currency except one exceedingly rare coin called a Star.
A summary of the currency put it into perspective.
Hammers for the commons, Silver for the Bishop, Gold for the Bank, and Stars for the King– or as collequially named: Hammers, Bishops, Crowns, and Stars…
There were additional historical context placed in to how the naming structures came to be, but Onyx struck it from the record given its uselessness. That done, Onyx tallied the final care package that was to be sent to Opal.
[ MANIFEST
—----------------------
10x Vil. Pump Assembly
100x Copper C
100x Silver C
100x Gold C
—--------
DELIVERY: HALO DROP
COORDS: XXX-XXX-XXX-XX (see scans)
TIME: 00:00
WEATHER: IMMINENT HURRIANCE, UNNATURAL FLUCTATIONS
… ]
The package would come in the form of modified frame drop pod, and the landing area was a rather shallow lake. All that was left to deliver it all…
[/// PRIORTY ALERT: Light Frame Squad (Northern Moutain Scouts)
—---------------------
LF SQUAD REQUESTING IMMEDIATE REINFORCEMENTS;
(Attachment loading…)
]
The image sent that came threw was of several winged reptile like monsters the size of sedans swarming the Light Frames he’d sent in advance, to the mountain location…
