Chapter 17 - Firepower

Note : My deepest apologies for the extremely late upload.

This is probably going to be the last chapter of that streak, as I'm dealing with a rather severe case of writer's block. Things have also not be going all that great irl, with my girlfriend catching COVID and being bedridden.

Chapter 17

Starborn Mountains, Starfire Valley

Crash Site

"Sweet stars this thing is loud!" Shouted Sapphiria as the machinegun unloaded round after round into the cavern, the sounds of the new shots overlapping with the echoes of the previous ones. Maybe deploying firearms into such an enclosed space wasn't such a good idea after all, though at least she could dial back her audio receptors and she certainly didn't intend to get the squishies down there again.

"Indeed. Highly inefficient. Most of the energy is wasted." Said Cia, with something approaching a sneer.

"Well, it is a chemical propulsion weapon." Sapphiria gestured, and the gun fell silent, the assembly holding it -which someone might very charitably call a 'turret'- returning into its stand-by position. "Comes with the territory."

She stepped forward to the construct, and began inspecting it. Unfortunately, for all that it was infinitely cheaper and faster to manufacture, it was also a lot more complex than her DYI laser turret. That one had required three things: a sensor system to see the target and aim, a robotic arm to do the aiming, and a cable to her pod to keep it all powered up.

Here she had to do that and: feed it ammo, be able to replace the ammunition cannister, clear jams, and have all of this machinery be able to handle the slight problem of being constantly hammered and shaken by recoil.

Her first attempt...had fared poorly. There were now a few bullet impacts on the ceiling, though thankfully everything had just been quickly popped into the fabricator for a new iteration, including the busted robotic arm that hadn't been made to hold something like that.

The second attempt had been worse, in a lot of ways. The attachment system had failed and the gun had more or less flown off as it was in the middle of retargeting. Positive point: her hauler bots' ore bins were actually fantastic armor when filled! A few bullets had stuck her pod but it was made to eat nukes for breakfast.

That had convinced her to move the whole experiment into another place. One of the nearby hallways lead into a kind of intermediary room that she swore reminded her of a damned reception office of some kind. Just with no furniture or markings. It was just proportioned oddly.

Once again it had brought a kind of formless sense of familiarity she couldn't quite pin down. AI she may be, but she had no more control over her subconscious nor its deductions than the average human did, and attempts to change that had gone extraordinarily poorly for other AIs. Some mysteries were still beyond the Federation's science, and quite frankly its ruling AIs weren't particularly interested in people tinkering with their innermost thoughts and feelings. Even her mom wasn't that keen on it and she was as curious as she was creative. As well as completely crazy, depending on one's view on the subject.

"They could be made quieter. There are schematics for suppressors in the database."

Sapphiria snorted.

"We want the enemy to be drawn to them and the flashy, dangerous firearms. Those modifications would kind of defeat the purpose. Besides, those come with their own issues do they not? Overheating already might be a seriously problem, no need to add more."

"Affirmative. Are the weapons satisfactory?" The simulacrum sounded vaguely dubious, but she was also clearly making an effort to not be impolite, and Sapphiria had to remind herself again that non sapient didn't mean she wasn't intelligent.

"It'll do." Confirmed the AI, slapping the apparatus. "Let's get a couple more together and we'll set up shop at the hub."

"Isn't three turrets...overkill, ma'am?"

"Honestly I expect a high failure rate." Which was putting mildly. "Plus...if there's a large group of these things returning at one point, I'd like to at least have a shot at taking them out. Especially a long way away from here."

"A sound plan."

"Thank you." Sapphiria wondered how tempting it would have been to make the simulacrums sycophants, and wondered if that was why it wasn't a setting and they tended to be smartasses. Knowing Ciel, the AI who had originally designed them and one of her code donors, the answer was probably 'yes'. "Alright, I'll start disassembling and stowing this one."

"Affirmative. Will...will you construct them yourself?"

Sapphiria looked at the tunnel leading into the chamber she'd crashed into and grimaced.

She only had a single construction drone, outside of the one she kept inside her pod, just in case, but she could bring out the other...

The safety of her pod was very much in doubt, with magic in play there was no telling what would be able to bypass or damage the armor. And she was starting to run out of recharging and maintenance space. Yes, she could build stations for both but she could easily double her capacity by just releasing her drones from their cradles. Of course she'd have to be nearby to use the construction drones, given the environment didn't lend itself to great communications and her only viable relay was her android, but still. The simulacrum clearly believed having her android construct them manually was both a spectacular waste of resources and beneath her station, and the aide was right.

Well, mostly. Sapphiria couldn't give less of a shit about her rank right now, and like any daughter of Arcadia positively relished the chance to get her hands dirty from time to time. But even if she didn't really need the android to be doing anything in particular it took a surprising amount of attention to build things with it, taking up mental capacity that would be better used on other, more productive endeavors.

"I will. But once we have those defenses set up, I think it'll be time to get the rest of the drones out, maybe even make a construction bot. The semi-autonomous kind." She had drones because, well, in the vastness of space there wasn't exactly anything to impede communications and they were more compact than semi-autonomous bots. She wasn't going to have notes for command when she came home, she was going to have a damned thesis. With notes, sources and quite possibly a rant about the minimum allowed height for the ambassador. She had to admit, her pride was a little bit stung with that last part, but let it not be said she wouldn't warn other AIs about the mistakes she made. "We'll be much more secure then, and we can use them and their craddles."

"Of course ma'am." The simulacrum looked considerably more perky now. "Should I continue producing another chemical processor?"

Sapphiria nodded as she pulled out the toolkit she'd brought, and began disassembling the turret.

"Yes. These things are ammo guzzlers, and I wouldn't want to run out. Besides, there's a world of wonderful things we can make with those." She smiled, and she swore she felt the simulacrum mentally twitch. "Like explosives."

"I...Ma'am, are you sure that is wise?"

That was probably the closest the simulacrum could, or would, come to questionning her sanity. Not that Sapphiria blamed her.

Like all daughters of Arcadia she had a fascination with technology and energy, but her affinity for things that went 'boom' was one to make her aunt proud. One of the reasons she'd been given her carrier group command, and not a more prestigious posting, was because command feared what would happen if she was given a dreadnought, or at least that's the joke her mom had told her when she'd received her new orders.

It seemed like a millennia ago now...

Sapphiria shook herself. No time for that now. She had guns to set up, and the only route she knew of to her squishies to secure.

*****

"So?" Asked Kalia, as she sat down at the table, the rest of her little council assembled around it.

"Well if it's poisoned, it's the most advanced, sneakiest one I'd ever seen." Said Malry. "As far as I can tell, that 'nutrigel' is exactly what she said it would be: cheap, nutritious slop that'll keep you alive but certainly won't make you happy."

The mage-magistrate nodded.

"That's good to hear. Got any idea how it works?" She turned towards Ramina, who squirmed.

"I...You know I'm not comfortable delving into her secrets, right? Getting into the mecanisms of another artificer without permission is a great taboo."

"I know that, and I'm very sorry I asked you to break it." Said Kalia, smoothly.

The artificer took in a deep breath.

"Okay. Well, so far as I can tell..." She hesitated, and shrugged. "It's mundane. All of it. Except that powering mecanism. I just...it's like no other arcana I've seen. It just makes energy. Steadily. Some of it is thermal, other is...I don't know. I think it's similar to the arcane emanations of manastorms but I can't be certain. Whatever is making it was covered in warnings however, so I dared not delve further."

"So...what is it?" Asked Malry.

"I said I didn't dare delve in further, what didn't you understand about that?" Snapped the artificer, before mellowing as she saw the diviner's wounded expression. "Sorry. It's just...given how the warnings were and the effects a manastorm, or hell, a mana tempest can have on someone, I felt it prudent not to go further. Whatever it is she's using its emanations to gather energy and safely absorbing the rest. It's...kind of genius, honestly. It's like an engine that runs on condensate or on ichor, with no mana whatshowever." She shook her head. "Definitely not what I'd call a classical approach. I think...I think that's why we didn't sense magic from the rest of her equipment. I think she uses similarly shielded, infinite power cores to run everything."

"That sounds extremely expensive. And innefficient." Noted Teman, and Ramina smiled at Malry's brother.

"Is it? If you had to stay in isolation for millennia in the most remote corner of the world you could find, you'd either bring stuff that lasted forever or made some yourself after a few centuries. I think we're seeing a consequence of that." The artificer leaned back into her seat. "The power source is amazing, but the vat however...I'm going to be honest with you. I'm no alchemist, Malry would have a better shot at understanding what's going on. But I can tell you it uses no magic. Just...It just uses electricity, heat and mundane energy to make wood into food." She shook her head. "That's...I'm going to be honest, I know some of my colleagues who would have sold their souls for that secret. I know grandmasters of the Order who would give her their own damned scepters upon seeing that vat."

Kalia whistled softly.

"That big?"

"Kalia, we can, and have, done these kind of tricks with the arcane. But there's a reason why things like hydroponics are preferred. It's extremely wasteful and borderline criminal in how bad it is. Meanwhile she's made a mundane vat that can outproduce a small farming complex and it runs on less power than an autocarriage. Not to mention the fact that she's just left us two golems like they were spare change. I had one golem. One. I couldn't repair it when the Bane smashed it during the evacuation and it was a graduation gift from grandmaster Elaina."

"I remember." Kalia said softly. And she did. The mechanical contraption, however simple and litteral minded it had been, had saved Ramina from a vicious attack by a shadow. Clearly whatever passed for a command structure on the other side had realized their artificers were their biggest strength and instructed their troops accordingly. The young woman had been so distraught they'd had to bundle up the construct to carry because she wouldn't be separated from it. Besides, they'd thought she'd be able to get it back to work. "Do you still have it?"

"Of course I do! But I fear it's beyond repair. For anyone. She might appreciate the spare parts though."

"She just might." And a gift would be nice. Especially given how cunning she was. Her demanding a share to the ley line node had shaken the mage-magistrate badly. Clearly Sapphiria wasn't just some hermit artificer with a pronounced distate for people, she also could see the big picture, unlike many others. That made her an even greater ally...and potentially dangerous. But then again, that was nothing compared to her current combat capabilities. "Anything else?"

"Well...She did mention something about the Rolling Fortress."

Everyone perked up at the mention of her project, the armoring up of an autocarriage into a proper, what was it, 'battle tank' they called it in Eralion?

"Well, don't just tease us!" Finally said Malry.

"She, ah...proposed to turn it into a war machine. She...she seems to think she can use it to push the Bane out of the pass altogether."

Silence descended upon the room.

"She wants to arm it?" Kalia shook her head. "With what?"

"I have no idea. But she seemed sure of herself."

"Well, she seems to know what she's doing. We'll just have to wait and see."