Chapter 47 - Into The Depths

Note :

Okay, I was planning to have that discussion about the security measures, but I got sidetracked. Next chapter !

...Provided I don't get distracted again.

Chapter 47

Starborn Mountains, Starfire Valley

Mining Hub

The return trip was odd, to say the least. Sapphiria wasn't used to having squishies with her into the tunnels, and she almost just sprinted out of reflex, stopping at the last second when Ramina yelped as she vanished into camo.

"Sorry." Said the AI sheepishly, as she reappeared. "Force of habit." A couple of militias ran into the tunnel whose mouth they'd entered a few seconds before, and she waved them off. "It's fine, just a bit of a surprise."

"Yeah. And then some." Ramina tore her gaze from the armor -which Sapphiria could only describe as 'hungry'- and looked down into the depths, squinting. "I can sort of see into the dark, but I probably should have brought a lantern."

"Oh, that's fine." Sapphiria triggered her armor's illuminators. Basically spotlights built into the chestplate, though she left the ones in her helmet off, to avoid blinding the artificer. "Sorry, I keep forgetting people can't see into the dark as well as I do." She took a few steps before it finally hit her, though thankfully she kept walking, Ramina in tow. "Wait, you can see in the dark? Somewhat?"

Back in the Federation cybernetic augments for low light vision were common. There were also some old genemod packages that enabled it as well, which still ran through the genepool and technically could be legally installed, but it was discouraged. Not officially of course, but after the more spectacular failures and the horrors the Theocracy had unleashed on the Federation and its own people it wasn't a good look.

"Yeah." She pointed at her eyes. "It's an arcane enhancement the Magistracy developped. Well, more like improved. We call them the eyes of magus. It was pretty widespread for mages at home. Though the Kingdom doesn't approve of them. We offered them to Malry when she came in, but she turned them down. Ah, less than politely." Ramina smirked, gazing off into the distance as they walked down into the tunnel. "I think it's when I fell in love." She coughed. "Sorry. Anyway, yeah. They let me do a bunch of stuff, and one of them is seeing in the dark. Sort of. It's not great when there's, you know, no light."

Sapphiria nodded.

"Yeah." Light amplifiers required something to amplify to work after all. Though it was interesting that her eyes still worked somewhat in close to absolute darkness. "So...Arcane enhancements?"

The artificer stumbled, and Sapphiria caught her.

"Thank you." Ramina gazed at the AI's helmet. "Uh...I thought they'd been a thing since forever?"

"...I was always more into the mechanical enhancements side of things."

Ramina's eyes went wide, and she immediately put herself in front of the AI, before stepping aside as the spotlights briefly blinded her.

"Mechanical enhancements? You mean augments?!? You have cybernetics?!?"

Sapphiria stopped.

Okay. So they knew about power armor, and cybernetics.

Oh boy.

What should she say? She was piloting an android, did that count as an augment? Did some of the modules within? Her aunt referred to them as such, but she'd been a squishie, a long time ago.

"...Yes" She finally said.

Ramina squinted.

"That was a suspicious pause."

"Look, I mean no offense, but I'm a very private person. Also, you tend to get very excited."

The artificer grimaced.

"I suppose that's fair." She fell back to Sapphiria's side. "But can you blame me? You told me you're teach me, and you're...well, you're a honored high elder!"

"Pro-tip, if you're trying to get into a lady's good graces, calling them 'elder' isn't a good way to go." Said the AI, and Ramina blushed.

"I didn't mean, I...Gah! I meant it as an honorific, not a comment on your age. Like you're a mistress of our craft."

"I'm not. I merely know a lot." Thanks to a sizeable library core and a pile of schematics.

The artificer snorted.

"Yeah they all say that." She cleared her throat. "By the way, I wanted to ask...would it be possible to get more golems? They're super useful, and we really could use the extra hands."

"Mmmhhh." Sapphiria pulled up the fabricator schedule, Cia highlighting some sections of it. "Maybe? But that would delay other projects."

She saw the artificer shiver.

"So you're making them, right? Like, you can just make golems?"

"Of course." Wasn't it obvious? Did they think everything she'd showed until now was stuff she had tucked away? "Can't you?"

"No! Good artificers can, but they're time consuming and expensive. You just seem to summon yours out of thin air!"

"If only it were so easy..." Sapphiria shrugged. "Look, I can make them. Easier than others, I don't really have a frame of referrence for the world today." Or this world at all. "But they're not free. I can get you some more though."

A few utility bots wouldn't hurt too much, and they had a lot of tools. Actually...

Did they even know that?

Sapphiria coughed.

"By the way, you do realize the ones I already gifted you, the first two, that they have their own tool kits, right? And they know how to do a bunch of stuff. You can even teach them anything they don't know, so long as you demonstrate." They weren't truly adaptative, as in they couldn't learn on their own, but they could replicate actions shown to them and integrate them into new protocols. That was pretty critical when working with squishies who couldn't just code in new behavior on the fly as needed. That went triple for a fledgling colony on an alien world, where a lot of situations might arise far beyond what the original programmers could have possibly anticipated.

Ramina almost walked into the wall as they arrived at a bend in the tunnel, only stopped by Sapphiria steering her sideways by tugging on her arm, causing her to stumble again.

"They can?!? Why didn't you-" She closed her eyes. "Nevermind. It's obvious. You sent them to take care of the very complex machines you gave us."

Complex was relative. Actually, no, that wasn't exactly fair. The colonial batteries and the nutrigel vats were wonders of technology and immense feats of engineering by most standards.

It was just hard to keep that in mind when she'd commanded a carrier group that could wipe out a whole planet. Actually, just her carrier could do that, if she took the time to turn an asteroid into kinetic impactors.

That sent a pang of sadness through her. She wasn't as attached to ships as some of her colleagues, but she still liked the Starprism. It had been her home after all.

Well. It wasn't the first ship she'd lost. And it probably wouldn't be the last. So long as she got to command another ship to begin with anyway.

"Yes." She finally replied. "I thought it came as a matter of course, but I now realize I should have been more specific. I apologize."

Ramina shook her head.

"No, that's fine. I understand. We simply didn't ask the right questions." She looked around as they moved deeper and deeper into the galleries. "Man this place is huge. I know they were extensive but damn..."

"You don't know the half of it."

Ramina smiled.

"Probably not, no. But it should be expected. What were they thinking, trying to mine Mount Nebula like that?"

Sapphiria blinked.

"Mount Nebula?"

"The mountain?" Ramina gestured. "The one we're in right now?"

"Oh. That." She hadn't asked, out of fear of them realizing how little she did know.

"Did you seriously pick your home without knowing the name? Wait, was it named back then? I know many of the maps were done by the Empire, but still..."

Sapphiria sighed, trying to sound annoyed, while her mind raced.

"I just knew it as part of the mountain chain. Not everything needs a name."

"It's the tallest mountain on the continent!" Exclaimed Ramina. "Man, people lacked imagination back then."

Sapphiria stared at Ramina. The tallest on the continent? Interesting. That might explain the presence of the PDC there. More armor. Then...wait, was Starfire Valley where the previous tallest mountain had been, before it was blasted to pieces, or was it some kind of subsection? Mountain ranges were weird, and she was no geologist, but it seemed odd. She'd have to look into that.

TO-DO LIST UPDATED

She wasn't sure if she should thank her aunt or disable this damned thing.

Ramina clearly saw her silent staring as an accusation, and she backed up, raising her hands.

"I-I meant no offense! To you o-or your people!"

Sapphiria smiled, and then realized the artificer simply couldn't see her face through the helmet, instead opting to wave.

"It's fine. To be fair, not everyone gets to put things down on a map, and explorers aren't usually poets."

"That's true." Ramina sighed, nudging one of the minecart rails on the ground with her foot. "This is gonna take a while isn't it? The descent."

Sapphiria shrugged.

"Well...usually I can go faster."

"Yeah. I saw you sprinting during the battle. Sorry for slowing you down."

"That's alright." She gazed speculatively at the artificer. "Say, we could go faster."

"Oh? How so?"

"How do you feel about being carried?"

*****

Sapphiria sprinted out into the mining hub, and came to a halt, before putting down a shaking Ramina.

The artificer had screamed the entire way down. In glee, though it hadn't seemed that way at first and Sapphiria almost stopped at the beginning.

She'd had some bizarre moments in her life, but carrying a squishie screaming 'WEEEEE' at the top of her lungs while sprinting through a mineshaft had to be up there, next to 'I walked in on my aunt and mother building a pigeon catapult because of some piece of twenty-first century media'.

"Are you o-"

"LET'S GO AGAIN!" Shouted out Ramina, pouncing on the AI.

Sapphiria tried to dodge, and failed to get out of the way in time, causing them to crash onto the floor. Thankfully she was on the bottom, and her armor absorbed the impact like it was nothing, though it seemed to have hardly been comfortable given the 'oof' that let out the artificer.

"Are you okay?!?" Asked Sapphiria quickly raising the artificer to get a look at her face.

Ramina coughed, clearly having had the wind knocked out of her, but she nodded, before moving herself up into a sitting position.

"Yeah." She coughed again. "I'll be fine." She looked at Sapphiria below her, and smirked. "I guess it's a good thing we're alone." She stood up, dusting herself, offering her hand to boost the AI up, which she took. Sapphiria didn't need it, but it would make the squishie feel useful. "People would talk, and our girlfriends might get upset."

"Our girlfriends?" Said Sapphiria, confused, before blushing madly. Was she being that obvious? A lot of the looks and comments she'd gotten made a lot more sense now. "I don't- Kalia and I, we're not-"

"Oh, of course! Sorry." Ramina coughed. "So, where are those crates you needed help with?"

It was a transparent attempt to change the subject, but the AI pounced on it.

"I stored them in some side galleries, to avoid setting fire to them again. Follow me."

"Sure. Wait, what do you mean again?"

Sapphiria patted her plasma gun.

"The Hand came in without an invitation, and I had to...convince them to get off of my lawn." UIS style. Well, the UIS had stopped existing in a meaningful capacity before reliable infantry plasma weapons became available, let alone fusion guns, but still.

"I see. Well, you could say you gave him a warm welcome, eh?"

Sapphiria rolled her eyes.

"Sure. Let's go with that." She turned around, and she heard Ramina swallow as the beams of light moved over the mouth of the tunnel the Bane had used to access the mining hub.

"Okay...more than a warm welcome. I knew hands were tough but holy shit."

The AI smiled.

"Not tough enough." Or they wouldn't have retreated.

"Yeah." Ramina frowned, looking at the mine supports. "Why didn't they burn down? Isn't this place dangerous? Won't it collapse?"

"Aaaah. See, this is where it gets interesting about those crates' contents..."