I stare at the door to my prison. Wondering how many door-balls I've crunched attempting to leave this stupid room. The only thing I have no control over, and my only distraction from the growing mountain of corpses and hardware Thena keeps warping in. Replacement panels for the ground based nanofactory -to repair the EMP damaged bits- sit atop half digested cyborgs fresh from spinoling maws. Why did she let them chew the Novans first?! Technomancy armor, with bodies inside, lay stacked against the nanofactory for repair, alongside Singularity gear, rations, and more shovels than I can shake a stick at.
>Executrix Alaea: Ladies, I’m full, like actually seriously full! Don’t warp anything else in here without warping something out!
>Matriarch Hygieia: Oh shit! You have biomass! I'ma need that in a few minutes
>Terran Thena: aight, we’re hunkered down anyways. Need ammo. Can factories produce power cells? Wait. Spare reactors would be better. OOOOH OR something to charge our weapons off suit power!
I tap directly into the nanofactory’s software, unsure how it’s possible to psychically interface with electronics, especially Novan hardware built specifically for cyborgs, but going with what my memories suggest. Millions of options appear,, quickly narrowing down to the systems and equipment we have access too. Tulverian weapons are already scanned and coded into the database with suitable modifications for power cells and possible adaptations on how to integrate them into Juggernaut systems. Some are ingenious, like the modification to graft solarium reactors into a power cell, turning a finite capacitor into a bottomless magazine. The only two downsides being additional weight and having to wait for a reactor to recharge your cell instead of reloading. The design is filed under 'improvements for anti-tank overmatching'.
“Where am I going to get Solarium?”
Another of the Azhurai sculpted-battle-bots warps into the heap, eyes ablaze with yellow light. Claws on one paw extend, ready to tear into my flesh. Alaea's body reacts before I can, a simple psionic burst slamming the creature like a tidal wave. Instantly sheering limbs and head from its reactor. Golden light fills the room as raw solarium tempers a fusion reaction. By -nameless- standards the design is cruder than getting power from a shake-weight, but to Athena this small reactor could power a country. It follows a standardized design as well, one popular among the Novan Technocracy.
“Lucky bitch.” I mutter, tossing the solarium reactor into the nanofactory's hopper.
Thin arms reach out of it, no more than mobile wands of steel, pulling the reactor into itself.
>Executrix Alaea: How many scouts have you destroyed? Oh, they happen to have solarium reactors. Standardized reactors. We can power just about anything you want.
>Terran Thena: Reactors? Wait. REACTORS!
>Terran Thena: CLOAK GIVE ME CLOAKING DEVICES111!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
“Ah, yeah, shoulda guessed that’s what she wants.” I laugh, searching the database for solarium based cloaking devices.
Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.
A preposition that is a bit like steam powered motorcycles. They exists, but do you really wanna melt your balls off for some steampunk vibes?
>Executrix Alaea: Bullets or cloak first? Cloak is bad version, very limited, easily detected.
>Terran Thena: … fucking hell. Bullets first. If you can send us a reactor to recharge the cells without warping them out that would be best. How long will a cloak take? Please, pretty please with a cherry on top tell me you have human portable cloaking.
I wince. Our shared vision of what cloaking devices are is based off ghosts in starcraft. While in reality they're piss poor shower curtains.
>Executrix Alaea: cloak will take 24 hours to cook. Is 200 pounds, and has 10% uptime. Thermals detect it. To get a worthwhile cloak I’ll need a week and no weight limit.
Maybe it was my imagination, but I could swear to hearing distant screaming.
>Terran Thena: Fine. I’ll think about it. Can you upgrade our guns first?
>Executrix Alaea: Girl, I'll give you the interface. Merry Christmas. Now please, clean my room!
With a thought I pass access codes to Athena’s warp HUD, granting her full access to the nanofactories. A minute later one begins retrofitting a plasma rifle with a solarium reactor and thrice reinforced coils. While the other starts making a general purpose solarium reactor. In practice that general purpose reactor is just ten individual reactors stuck together and connected with various ports and induction coils for charging various devices.
>Matriarch Hygieia: hey
>Matriarch Hygieia: we landed but the hive mind got scrambled
>Matriarch Hygieia: NO BIOFORMS ARE FRIENDLY
>Matriarch Hygieia: plz send biomass
>Matriarch Hygieia: got an angsty engineer with no legos
>Matriarch Hygieia: he keeps asking to borrow a few of my legs so he can evolve them or some nonsense
A laugh escapes my lips, vibrating through the room as psychic waves convert to sound. This body is going to take some getting used to. I turn my attention to escaping this prison. Scrolling through my memories Alaea guides me, explaining how Kaalra locked the door.
As far as locking methods go, it’s a simple psionic riddle, like playing a game of flappy bird. There is a prismatic maze I must move an orb through without touching energized walls or crushing the fragile orb. Air jets and varying gravity add variables to complicate the lock. Straightforward but quite impossible to bypass without telekinesis.
“This ought to be easy.” I say, intoning the second most famous last words.
I point a claw at the crystal orb and psychically order it forward-
-the ball explodes into dust. Crushed by excessive force. Repair systems automatically warp the dust away replacing it with another orb.
“That’s cute you sonofabitch!”
Until I escape this room I’ll be limited to the local warp engine, the -nameless- castes’ version of a microwave. As plant based organisms we need little immediate sustenance, but a warp engine is included in each residential room of our ship. Even the stasis chambers.
On the other side of that door lies an entire ship full of technology I am authorized to use. If only I can get through the lock! A chime interrupts my thoughts. The solarium railgun is complete and ready for combat. Before I can second guess myself the rifle is in my arms and aimed at the door. A shot of yellow energy burns the atmosphere, splashing across the door as shielding negates the blast.
Of course it wouldn’t be that easy.
>Executrix Alaea: Hey Athena, got a new toy for you.
The infinite pulsar warps out of my hands, across the stars to my other third.
While I sit, beginning the long process of training my psychic powers, one crushed ball at a time. All while I know Kaalra is sitting in Earth's orbit, plotting unpleasantries for my return.
So, for obvious reasons I can't 1:1 starcraft units. But what do you want next? (2 votes each)
