Chapter 5
I crashed through the flimsy aluminium roof covering and the rotten planks beneath, bounced on one of the rusted shelf's and continued through the window on the other side of the small warehouse I'd just been tossed through like a rag-doll wrecking ball.
Bouncing off the street bellow and through another window to finally come to a stop in a heap of broken crates of rotted wood and dented aged metal.
My head swimming and my body aching, absently thanking my foresight of making my bones into Wraithbone-Necrodermis constructs over the past week while I slept as I was sure that was the only reason I hadn't broken something.
"It'll be fine you said." I mumbled to myself as I shakily tried to get back to my feet. My legs shaking, slipping and trembling as I tried to put some strength into them. "In and out, no worries." I continued as I shook my head to try and clear it more.
"You're a fucking idiot Samael, you just forgot to let Squealer know you were coming and how you'd look. Of course she'd fire a fucking rail cannon at you if she just thought you were some newbie cape trying to earn a rep by taking out the fucking merchants." I growled as I finally got to my feet properly after planting my feet so I wasn't slipping on broken fragments on the floor.
"Damn straight bitch!" The loathsome voice called out and I looked up to see Skidmark in the window with a shit eating grin. "You don't fuck with the merchants and get out scot-free fuck-nugget!" He cackled as I was then sent hurtling out another window when the fucker overlapped his fields to sent a crate flying into me like a cannon ball.
"And the night had started out so well." I growled as I shakily got back to my feet.
Skidmark making his way though the holes I'd made in the buildings to come into the loading area I'd ended up in. He stood there with his shit eating grin, wouldn't put it past him with those teeth honestly, while the muscle car tank Squealer had made came skidding into the area near him. The same cannon unfolding from the side of the car as it's side opened for a mobile turret to emerge with Squealer aiming at me with her road rage grin.
"So what was the plan here shit stick?" Skidmark said opening his arms like some showman that made me want to hurt him badly even if I ignored all the reasons I had to do so already.
"I'm here for my Chippette not you shitstain." I growled at Skidmark as I pointed at Squealer who flinched and went wide eyed as her addled mind came to a realization of who I was surprisingly quickly.
"Huh?" Skidmark eloquently answered before he looked at Squealer and then back at me. Then his grin turned nasty. "Well I'm not against a harem and I certainly ain't against a show." He said while he made provocative motions of his hips that made me all the more certain I was going to neuter the druggie fuck when I got my hands on him.
"Yeah… I've reach that point." I growled low though I was sure Skidmark heard me. "I've reached fuck it, the cloves are off." I growled as I cracked my neck with a satisfying pop and shook out my hands.
Skidmark frowned before his nasty grin returned. "One problem there fuck-nugget!" He said waving his finger at me like I was some unruly child. "You forgot to count!" He then said while howling in laughter.
I had only time to dumbly blink before I quickly turned my head just in time to see the ten foot trash mech that Mush had made of himself approaching faster than he should be able to and punting me.
I didn't go through a wall this time but as I fell to the ground my head ringing and the laughter of the two bastards echoing in my head I decided to go lethal. I'd wanted to do this nice and easy, a quick in and out but now?
Oh hohohoooo, now I was going to make them HURT!
Black electricity began to crawl from my finger tips as I stood and let out an inhuman growl as I gave voice to my fury and frustration. "I'm going to skin you alive Shitstain and I'm going to make it nice and sloooow." I snarled as I looked at the two who had stopped laughing and had grown serious themselves.
I raised my hand and sent enough power into the first bolt to stagger me but it did make the trash mech explode as its wearer was sent squealing like a stuck pig out the back of it. I staggered three steps forward before my leg buckled from underneath me and I went down on one knee as the abuse I'd suffered in such a short time came to bite me.
Silver lining though was that me going down on my knee let me unknowingly dodge a rebar bar that Skidmark had sent flying at me like a crossbow bolt that would have most likely cracked the armour of my suit given it went halfway into the wall behind me.
"Stay still ya fucking cunt!" He screeched as he took hold of several more bars and made his fields in front of him to start launching them at me. Thankfully the man wasn't the best shot but I realized too late that it hadn't been his aim to actually hit me.
He just kept me busy enough for Mush to remake his trash mech and punt me further towards the train yards trailed by Skidmark howling in amusement. "Bitch run that uppity little cunt over!"
"Fuck you Skidmark!" Squealer roared back as the tires of her car squealed before her car shot down the road.
I came down like a sack of bricks, hitting the back of my head against a street light on the way down and sent flipping end over end to crash down in the middle of the road. My vision swimming in and out as the damage accumulated from all the sucker punches that I was starting think was the Merchant's combat doctrine.
I'd just gotten to my feet when I saw the muscle car turned tank skid to a halt in front of me. Flinching back as the cannon was showed into my face with an angry Squealer at the trigger.
"Sirmarel?" She asked angrily and I shook my head as I rubbed at it, forgetting I was wearing a helmet that left only two blue outlines of my eyes on the otherwise featureless black surface of it.
"Wha? It's Samael did you forget already chippette?" I almost snorted in incredulity before I blinked and the cannon had been replaced by Squealer pulling me into a fierce hug.
"You actually came for me?" She asked staring at me and I couldn't help the near mad chuckle that bubbled past my lips. I think I was severely concussed.
"Of course I did, I promised didn't I?" I muttered back before my head almost felt like some had made an attempt to rip my head off when one of the rebar's skimmed past my helmet and tried to pull my head along with it.
"Fuck!" I roared as I spun and fell back to the ground, a habit I was starting to really fucking hate. "I'm going to kill him." I growled as I got up on my knees and turned to see Mush come stomping down the road with Skidmark hanging off one shoulder. Mush holding one hand up like an impromptu launching platform for the handful of rebars he had in one of his arms.
"I'm going to fucking kill him!" I snarled as I gathered all the power I had left from my reserves as I aimed to send the wrath of fucking god at the two bastards.
I'd just managed to gather about half my reserves into my outstretched hand only to let the black lightning bolt off early to blow up the opposite shoulder of Mush's mech from Skidmark. Squealer having pulled me to the side to avoid another launched rebar that would have impaled me through the stomach. The bolt sending Mush reeling and Skidmark swearing up a storm as he barely hung on the other shoulder of the now one armed trash mech.
Without realizing what was going on I was thrown into the back of the car and Squealer was peeling off down the road. My swimming consciousness noting Armsmaster passing us on his motorcycle heading for the now rampaging duo further up the road.
"F-Find a place to ditch the car." I groaned as my body reached the point were the bruises, aches and nearly torn ligaments made their presences known and my everything hurt. I barely managed to croak out my command to Sekhet.
"Sekhet, triangulate position and open a gate when I say. Need extraction for two to facility A-1 Prepare the medical facilities." I groaned into the integrated communicator in my helmet that had Squealer look at me over her shoulder with a raised eyebrow.
She didn't say anything but instead skidded to a halt in the nearest parking lot and opened the doors. Helping me out of the car and supporting me as my body shook with the simple effort of remaining standing.
"Mark" I groaned in pain right as I heard the cocking of a gun, it was louder than it should have been and as both myself and Squealer looked over we saw Miss Militia aiming at us with a rifle. The sound most likely intentional as the hero kept us in her sights.
"New recruit for the merchants there Squealer?" She asked.
"Other way around actually." I drawled in almost a chuckle half delirious as I felt the concussion get worse, shaking my head to attempt to clear it only to immediately regret it and groan in pain as my vision turned black for a few moments. A smile coming to my lips under the helmet as Squealer moved to make sure I remained standing, worry colouring her face.
"Sam are you ok? You took some nasty hits." She squeaked in worry though with my focus being on Miss Militia I saw her stiffen up considerably. Hmm did they already know of me as Samael?
"Yeah just need to get to base anIllbefine." I giggled before the green gateway opened up behind us and I pushed off with my legs. Squealer screaming in surprise as we both tipped into the gateway and I got a lovely look at Militia's wide eyes and a colourful expletive in her native language. As the doorway snapped shut.
Squealer was looking around wildly in the tomb facility her chest rising and falling most likely in a mild panic attack as we lay on the floor of the facility's teleport pad. I giggled and reached up and gently caressed her cheek and the side of her face which refocused her gaze down at me and her panic subsiding a little as the helmet opened up to reveal my face.
Her eyes softening as I gave her what was likely a near delirious grin.
"Welcome home Chippette. Don't mind the look, you're safe here." I said before I heard the hum of the anti-grav engines on the only Canoptek Spyder I'd had made over the past week to help further speed up the construction of this facility beneath the bay. It had turned out to be more of a headache than I initially thought.
The Spyder moving in holding a stretcher for two under itself with its eight legs. "To the med bay!" I giggled as we both were put on it and the spyder diligently obeyed floating us down the corridors of the forward base I'd had constructed over the past two weeks.
My eyes on Squealer who was staring wide eyed at the everything as the facility was lit with soft ethereal blue light which I was unable to change to green as it should be for some reason. The architecture rather pointedly described as an ancient Egyptians, Persians and Aztecs wet dream. My memories though drawing in ideas of it being a strange blend of Lizardman, Necron and Eldaari design philosophies.
A thought suddenly dominating my mind, I should really get to turning Titan into a tomb-world. I'd just need more scarab swarms and Spyders to get the work started. I should have enough resources already to get started, didn't I?
Then I giggled suddenly at my decision to fuck with any archaeologists that might find my bases since I'd decided to have them built with a variable that would tell anyone trying to carbon date them to be from the Cretaceous period.
A bubble of hysterics rising up again as I got another idea not realizing I was saying out loud before I noticed Squealer looking at me with worry. "I should get some dinosaur bones to display."
-/-/-
Hannah breathed and lowered her rifle as she changed it into a handgun as the green tear in reality closed after Squealer was pushed into it by that strange new cape. Running over what the newcomer had said.
"Militia here." She reported with her communication bead. "Ran into Squealer and a new player on the board, possible tinker or mover. Seems to have either recruited or kidnapped Squealer and then teleported away. Advise."
"Go up the road, provide long range support. Mush has managed to grow beyond his recorded maximum and Skidmark is using him as a firing platform. We could use the help if there's nothing else you can do." Battery reported and with a simple glance she saw the woman come hurtling in like a comet most likely having launched off Assault as they sometimes did.
With a grappling hook gun she got to the nearest rooftop and with her power changing the pistol into a powerful rifle she sighted Skidmark on Mush's shoulder. Reeling and spitting creative curses before she sent a rubber bullet down range to hit him in the chest. Partially wishing she could just make a howitzer and get rid of both degenerates in one fell swoop as she watched the man squeal as he fell off and landed on a nearby rooftop as Mush's trash mound had grown to almost tower over most of the buildings around him.
As she sighted her scope again she noticed out of the corner of her eyes a blast of fire leaping up into the air near the docks. Her communicator beeping as she got the report from Aegis who was on monitor duty for the night to help prepare him for his upcoming time among the Protectorate once he graduated from the Wards.
"Be advised it seems Lung's decided to come out to play. Reports indicate he's already ramping up but is just starting right now. No indication of what set him off but all units are to reroute towards his location if they aren't bogged down by something urgent." The young man sounding nervous or stiff. Hannah couldn't really tell with his tone or the running motor mouth of expletives and curses that was Skidmark at the moment.
Apparently just having realized that Squealer was gone.
"MY BITCH! When I get my hands on that cunt-fucker I'll skin the bitch alive!" He yelled as Mush in a much smaller form now ran with him slung over his shoulder while Skidmark sent the trash following in his wake shooting off to prevent pursuit.
Hannah sighed but decided to just give in a little to spite and sent a round down the street and clipped Skidmarks ear, leaving a little piece of it taken off. It was all Skidmark was really worth but she then stood up and commed Battery, Assault and Armsmaster who had come with her to patrol over this area.
"You heard him, Armsmaster how do you want to handle it?"
"Cordon off the area, let's get a look at the situation. Aegis further report what you can, we are on our way." Armsmaster said in his dry clipped tones.
Hannah sighed again. It was looking like this was going to be a long night. Her hand moving down to one of the pouches she had on her belt. Hoping the magazine with tinker tech bullets that Colin had made to try and counter Oni Lee and Lung would work.
With her power made to be holstered once more in the knife sheath she usually held it in she moved on to repel down to get to her own motorcycle and getting to work.
-/-/-
I winced as I heard the stomping down the hall before dad burst into the med bay red faced and fuming but visibly calming himself down. With force I might add. I honestly found it heart warming he cared so much, though he hadn't been very happy I revitalized his hair and burned some of his fat to fuel his fitness in his sleep over the past week as a way to make him healthier and more revitalized.
I was hoping the adage, healthy body healthy mind, would help dad as he'd begun to fully process moms death. I did add a dream or two to show I wasn't bullshiting him with a few choice memories from the eight. He started believing then and some of the trips we'd started to take through dream walking had me suspecting it was helping him with the grief.
The grief would never go away she was the love of his life after all but he was starting to live again so it would be the best term for it. He hadn't been happy but I only took credit for the revitalizing hair, I'd already convinced him to take morning runs with me and some light exercise in the mornings.
Now I was staring at him stare at me as he'd been furious that I'd gone out in the middle of the night and using his communicator he'd found me in the med bay. I was just glad he hadn't had access to my suits sensors.
"Taylor…" He started slowly, a tone that would sent any child's hair to begin raising. "Why are you bruised, why are you designing a new suit, who is that in the tank and why is she in a tank?" He calmly continued but I did note a dangerous hitch there in his voice at the end.
"Uh… I can explain?" I cringed, looking from him and the redesign of my suit now that I had better resources available. I had vastly underestimated the bare minimum I'd require and frankly the suit had been more proof of concept. Just the bare bones needed with the space for the bells and whistles I wanted without the actual resources spent into it to make them.
My eyes glanced at the discarded suit I'd haphazardly thrown to the corner when I was finally stabilized enough to work while I gently trickled in the eager power of the warp to speed along the healing of my concussion. Headache inducing but much better than the alternate.
He followed my eyes and noted scratches and the few cracks I hadn't noticed in the heat of the moment. There was a large crack with a few missing pieces on the chest piece and the back plate was scrapped all to hell. It was frankly a miracle the suit had held up as well as it did given the, by current standards was, near subpar construction.
I looked over at the hololith of the new suit and noted the rather reminiscent to the Necron skull shape of the helmet. Though with some inspiration it was turned to some rather light bone armour that worked as supporting exoskeleton and minor power armour.
With a cowl aimed at focusing and helping to empower my own psionic abilities and protection that would work as a mystics hood. Followed by a scarab robe of sorts. Hundreds of specialized fingernail large scarabs interlocked into a more mystical version of the Canoptek Cloak that would allow me to almost create small simple things on the fly, help me in forging new things through warp- and techno-craft methods, grant me flight and could channel a sort of static smoke field generator that would allow me to cover an area around myself in a thick black miasma that would blind people with the occasional lightning striking within the field as a bonus deterrent.
Like a storm on demand. I was going for all the bells and whistles I could get away with at this time and even if there would be room for improvement with a more heavier set it would still grant me a higher tinker rating than Armsmaster could with his armour.
I still needed to train and practice if I'd learned anything from tonight then it would be that while I had the knowledge and instincts I didn't have the practice or skill yet.
"Taylooooor." Dad's dangerous growl somehow snapped me out of it. "What happened?"
"Ok…" I started slowing it down working through my answer as fast as I could in my head. "In order?" I asked for a bit more time.
Dad stared me down for a second before he breathed in and sighed. "Please." He said after a long suffering sigh. I felt a little bad for him as his shoulders sagged.
"Ok I'm bruised because I did something stupid, I'll explain. I'm designing a suit because that stupid thing resulted in damage to the previous one. This is Sherrel Bailey otherwise known as squealer." I paused to catch my breath and was starting to notice a near manic widening of dad's eyes so I hurriedly added the rest.
"She's in the tank because she's a victim of something horrible and I've been helping her to reconstruct herself from the perspective of who she was before the Merchants kidnapped her drugged her up to her eyeballs, brainwashed and abused her into becoming their tinker. I was doing it through her dreams but I had to come help her get away when I sensed that she was reaching a breaking point and would either OD or just reach the point of no return or worse. I just neglected to tell her how I'd look when I did and I didn't manage to let her know until Skidmark and Mush got involved." I then proceeded to tell the whole story of the disastrous evening while I saved what I'd designed so far and brought up the medical report on Sherrel's condition.
Dad paled when he saw the chart and projection of expectancy should she continue that lifestyle. When it was over he looked at me equal parts proud and equal parts angry but he didn't exploded or anything of the sort. He was quite frustrated though.
Instead he breathed out after he took a few moments to think. "Ok I'm proud of you Taylor but you can't just keep her here, I mean this is kidnapping however well intentioned. We will have to speak to her once you've flushed her system and helped her through her withdrawals and whatever else you are doing to heal her. Once that's over we'll sit down with her and decide what to do moving forwards."
"...uhuh…" I almost deadpanned, honestly very surprised at how well he seemed to be taking this given what I had been expecting. Suspiciously rational too. I narrowed me eyes in the classic look of asking what the catch was. He seemed to catch it but he still stared me up and down, clearly noting his displeasure over my bruises.
He started speaking and I realized he was in that scary rational phase of anger and swallowed. "What you did while makes me unbelievably proud of you that you went out of your way to help someone like Squealer as the first thing you did as a cape. It was also just as stupid and reckless." He said as he breathed loudly through his nose once more calming himself down.
He breathed out and then softly smiled. "Just be more careful all right?"
I nodded. "I'm upgrading my suit." I pointed at the hololith that I brought up of the design so far again. "It alone will make me seem like a pretty powerful electro-kinetic with a nice Alexandria package on top of anything I'll soon be naturally capable of. I won't be going out as a cape until I've finished some of the first stages properly."
He nodded as he'd been slowly been getting up to speed to understand if only in the broadest of strokes. "Ok and what are you thinking of doing? Join the Wards?" He asked and I shook my head.
"No I was thinking something else actually. Setting myself up as a sort of Baba Yaga of Brockton Bay's underworld." I said deciding that he should learn about it. His look had me explain my reasoning.
"I'd serve as a sort of middle man, advisor and mysterious Faustian Bargain benefactor. See which gangs can be salvaged and who can't, get a firmer grasp on how I can manipulate them to my ends and serve as boogie man should the break the three lines I'd set down to keep my involvement to a minimum for the "surface" as I'd own the underground and sky while I'd leave the earth to them." I made air quotes to surface given what sort of underground bases I'd decided for myself.
Dad caught it though and he thought for a moment before he spoke. "Your going to offer some sort of weaponry aren't you?" I flicked at the hololith and it showed a sort of ranged stun guns I'd designed to be sold to the gangs with some very light weight armour that was better than nothing. It would seem like a game changer but would in truth simply lessen casualties given it was all non-lethal.
"I also intend to offer a way to hold private meetings were there is no change for anyone to overhear… except me of course. Making it so that any agreement reached under my auspices will be upheld by both parties or I come down on them.
Some I'll seek to recruit. I've already got my eye on one group I'll seek to recruit into my service and with what I know and can provide them I'm sure they'll agree to it." I showed a bit of the catalogue communicator for the capes and the disguise rings for the capes.
"And the sky bit?" He asked. I inwardly flinched, damn it. Foolish-bad word-oath.
I outwardly remained calmed and flicked my fingers again and what appeared was something carved with soft edges and seemed equal parts floating keep, ziggurat, pyramid tomb, palace and citadel all rolled into one. It was all carved out of the black stone material I'd begun to call Wraithstone with the more bone like material being NercroBone simply to have different names to what was their derivatives from my birth reality.
Eight arches coming together underneath it to hold a large gem which would be easily capable of serving as the very same type of focus that a Necron Monolith would serve. It would take at least a month to build and two weeks just to build the foundational facilities required for that even with the expanding work forces I had now with the multiplication of the Canoptec Scarabs I'd had made.
Something already being done within the facilities I had started in the moon. Other projects had already begun small mining operations on Mercury and the asteroid belts around the solar system. Everything still requiring at least two more weeks until I had anything of use up and running but by the end of February or the starting week of March I'd have the facilities fully up and running.
I smiled, loving the exponential capability escalation that Necron tech allowed with scarabs alone.
I suspected it had something to do with the materials of the vessel I'd been forged from that have now resonated fully with the warp in this reality. Perhaps through sheer virtue of my own attunement to the warp here in fact.
Perhaps in mutated form but already I was seeing four distinct technology branches with the Imperium's tech, a version of the Eldraari's wraithbone technology infected by some of the properties of necrodermis to the material and Lizardman's mystical knowledge and construction, a variation of the Necron technology mystically attuned thanks to Eldaari, Skaven and Lizardman knowledge somehow blending into it with the colour being the most stark deviation outside design appearance and a strange combination of all previous three. This last fourth one quite frankly being so versatile and powerful I doubted I'd ever let anyone but myself have full control over it or even teach it when I thought of it.
That last one was what I'd keep as my personal tech level with the other three lesser disciplines of technology I might disseminate to certain factions under me. I definitely wouldn't give it over to humans I didn't have any leverage or utter control over that was for sure. Perhaps I was jaded but there certainly would be some villainous acts humanity would do that it felt were just even if they weren't just made out of fear and ignorance alone.
Canary for one. Though there was also a spiteful hand involved there.
If Taylor wasn't jaded towards authority already from her experiences what I'd learned during my few days of wondering before joining with the rest of me certainly had. I saw the current authorities for what they were now.
The stuff Cauldron did alone had every fibre of my being with any moral or ethical foundation disgusted the others indifference or amusement at their methods did nothing to add a point in their favour.
My ultimate goal was to subvert Cauldrons parahuman feudal state experiment that they'd relegated my home city into. Something each part of me had taken whole heartedly as being Cauldrons declaration of war with me.
I certainly wasn't letting coil get away with what he planned no matter how "well intentioned" it might be in the long run.
He was a horrible little man that quite frankly had a bit too much ambition compared to what he was capable of grasping. No I'd begin by being a stabilizing agent to the underworld before transitioning into a legal business venture that I'd hire the DWA for to help dad out. Through this I could legally revitalize and perhaps breathe some life back into the city. Growing my legal authority and ability to act until I could effectively control the city as my own little fief.
Then I'd just unveil and use what I know to arrest, assimilate and/or get rid of the gangs in one fell swoop. It was a long term game plan revolving around minimizing and mitigating the damage of the gangs until I was ready to get rid of them. Only needed something that would make them all think twice before thinking they could deal with me… hmm I needed an apocalyptic option to thrown on the table to prevent them from thinking they could just all gang up on me.
"Is that a floating pyramid fortress?" He uttered as he got a full and good look at the overall design of the aether fortress. Though I found it looked more like a floating Ziggurat mystic keep but who was I to judge.
"And personal palace keep, integrated labs for more personal projects, inner gardens, lodging, manufactories, summer palace of a sort and more." I added.
I wasn't mentioning the orbital bombardment capabilities or the programmed robotic forces so reminiscent of the Necrons themselves it could deploy. Only mine were more etherial spectres made of Wraithstone rather than Necrodermis, I took some inspiration from the Wraithbone constructs of the Eldraari I'll admit.
Dad seemed to narrow his eyes as he calculated something in his head when I showed him how to examine the plans more closely and figured something out. "It's bigger on the inside…" He muttered and then turned to look at me, something finally seeming to click as if now he truly believed what I'd told him in full and honest truth. Like he'd been playing along while half believing it before simply because he had his daughter back, if changed from her ordeal.
"Yessss." I softly purred in amusement, feeling particularly proud of having figured out an interesting use for the geometric capabilities of the Necrons dimensional technology coupled with what the old ones had taught the lizardmen and the etheric qualities of Necrobone.
"How big?" He asked then going rather thoughtful.
"I could house twice the number of people within the dedicated emergency bunker complex I designed into the structure around the generator facility. That being the foundational levels of the structure within the ground upon which would be like a fully functional techno-medieval city state with fields of arable land and wast parklands around it." I further explained. With the look of having his mind blown as the full ramifications of the scale and depth of technology now involved I supposed I wouldn't mention other things. Like the dimensional passages that would be housed within the inner most command keep of the structure. The Idea to that being like a direct path to any Tombworld I would build in the future. A combination of the Eldaaris Webway and Necron dimensional phasing technology to make simple doorways of several kind. Either just a simple door from one place to another, connected to an interconnected network of doors or much akin to the Webway itself into a pocket held "sea" where one can travel or even build within. Or so I suspected I could make it work to do. It would need huge amounts of work to get working so I wouldn't be starting on it any time soon yet anyway. I settled easily to using the more simple Necron teleportation tech for now.
Another note I perhaps shouldn't mention would then be the Tombworld facilities construction on Titan that was almost under way. I'd gotten quite large amount of scarabs that my scouring for material from sunken ships and undersea debris that wouldn't bring me any value. Any treasure was catalogued and searched for to see where I could go to get some legitimate cash infusion into what I was going to do.
If I remembered correctly then the currently deployed ocean swarms were approaching a deep undersea trench, there would be some interesting finds and data there I was sure.
Already they had paid dividends as I had enough swarms working to be finishing up construction of all eight connected secondary keep facilities that were connected with the main one I was inside of right now. This one more focused on housing personnel, living and leisure facilities and personal labs and workshops. The others would be more manufacturing or more dedicated labs or workshops. Two had to be dedicated to secondary power and storage facilities for the whole combined complex now that I through of it as that.
Still the look he got before he spoke again told me I needed to bring him in on some level. Help him out in getting something like being able to help me so he didn't feel as useless as he did. I had some idea how to do it but then again, that did involve use of mindshakle scarabs.
It would kind of be like manufacturing a more stable Tinker with Thinker capabilities on top.
"Ok… just… fuck…" Dad started having no idea as it dawned on me the added capabilities of Necrobone's warp attunement to allow for more stable and long term full puppetry of a target if used that way.
"You are going to build that?" He asked and I nodded slowly.
"If everything goes to plan I should have it by March or so. The moon facility will be complete now by the end of the month with the added facilities and resources we will have available in two days or so. Already the main facility in the aquifer and underground of Brockton Bay is complete and the eight secondary facilities are finishing up soon." I further explained.
"And then the capabilities will magnify again…" He muttered and I nodded. "Wow this is like the tinker cycle on steroids… magic steroids." He half chuckled and I raised a hand and the floor moved up in a geometric chair underneath him. He looked down at it and felt how comfortable it was with the fluidity of Necrobone with a Wraithstone under structure.
"You looked like you needed it." I shrugged.
"Ok I think I get it now, but you'll need to make a better version to sell to the police and emergency services." I nodded and with another flick of the finger I showed off some of my ideas. Essentially flying emergency response vehicles for paramedics and firefighters, fire engines with inbuilt compression tanks and fire suppressant powder grenade launchers. Some Las weaponry and Ceramite plating to make a sort of tactical light knight armour for normal police and a more medium and heavy versions for the swat teams and when required. Hover bikes for fast response aerial coverage.
Dad whistled as he realized just how screwed the gangsters would be if all of this was implemented to the cities law enforcement and emergency services. "Wow I can see you aren't going to be going full supervillain then."
I shrugged. "Eh I was thinking maybe more anti-hero if that made any sense, like using the underworld to end the underworld if that makes any sense."
I noted the look of helplessness he had for a second before it went away in a soft smile of pride.
"Dad I have something I'm working on but I don't want to mess it up so I haven't brought it up but I might be able to make you into a Thinker and Tinker cape on your own." I saw his brows rise in amazement before he furrowed them again. I pre-empted his question and brought up the current version of mindshackle scarab I was working on.
"This is a mindshackle scarab, and its designed for either subtle long term manipulation, monitoring, spying and mind control or for short term puppetry that burns it out after a while. I'm trying to change it so that I might give something like what tinkers get. A sort of internal storage of a certain type of tech that's made instinctual with a boost to brain function, capacity and capability."
"Like a cybernetic implant that upgrades what's already there?" Dad asked and I eagerly nodded.
"I'm trying to make something like a very basic version of the implant to help any technicians or the like I might hire down the line to spit in the face of the tinkers can't work in the normal sector. This way we can get the DWA to work and help in making some of the tech I want them to have. The basic version through would be more like a helmet that helps them work instead of something that's directly attached to the brain so the effects are lessened considerably." Dad nodded as he continued to listen.
"Then for you and some others I'm thinking like a deluxe version. With all the bells and whistles, like an integrated personal computer that should you command it to might direct your body in a chosen action leaving you time to do something else within its systems with your full mental attention. Like a body Auto-pilot. Brain boost, Tinker rating and personal computer system instead of just a HID and low Tinker rating of the basic one."
Dad perked up and we spoke in length about what he'd like integrated into his and what I might be able to do. It was kind of nice having such a ridiculously geeky talk with dad.
-/-/- = POV Change
-/-I-/- = Time skip
Authors note:
So I've gotten some hints already which I hope might be solving that little plot hole I honestly hadn't thought of and I thank those that pointed it out to me! As for the going back in time and getting Annette's soul to revive her well... even the Eldar don't know how to make the soulgems and while our mc could clone her mom a new body she wouldn't have the soul to inhabit it again in the first place. Right now our MC is rediscovering the most basic uses of psyker powers while focusing obviously more on the technology aspect given Taylor is the queen of escalation how far she can escalate with scarabs at her finger tips :Þ
Sorry for the earlier inconvenience :S