Five days later...
I stood proud on the concrete shores of the artificial drydock as I took in the completed form of the Intrepid. Her shining metal hull had been coated in a fresh layer of grey paint with black accents, and she had been given the numerical designation CV-01, accompanied by a painted depiction of her name featuring several fighter jets flying through clouds, courtesy of Ruby's unsung artistic talents.
Intrepid was the first to be completed by a narrow margin, as despite being started later, both the Johnston and Texas were set to be finished within the next few hours. Normally I would've waited and brought all 3 online at the same time, but the Intrepid was special to me. She was my first 'Big project', and one I've spent a lot of time and effort on, and I wanted to be the one who woke her first.
A hop, skip, and a jump as if I was in Super Mario 64 saw me jumping fairly high into the air, well enough to grab onto the railing on the back of ship, where the jet engine testing zone area was. I climbed onto the back maintenance area of the ship, noting all the stored and ready equipment and the various construction spectres and engineering operators that were powered down and put in their charging racks.
The ship was silent and dark aside from a few emergency light emplacements as I walked through the dark corridors, up a few staircases and onto the bridge where the inert form of Intrepid's Specter unit stood. The room was dark, yet still lit from the lights in the cove beyond the bulletproof windows, shading the room in grey. I walked past Intrepid, giving her a small pat on her shoulder before moving to a panel in the back of the room where a set of keys and analog dials were.
I checked the dial showing the state of the reserve power, verifying it's level before grabbing ahold of one of the two keys, taking a small, excited breath before turning it with a clunk of finalty. At first, nothing seemed to happen, but then, lights started coming on as a small whirring seemed to thrum through the ship. First the overhead lights, then the lights on computer systems, and then all the screens in the room, flicking on one after another as the three reactors provided power for the entire ship.
Gaining a massive grin, I watched as Intrepid herself stood upright, blinking twice before turning to face me. Her electric blue eyes were firm yet respecting as she saluted me, posture perfect and straight as her black hair lightly fluttered in the wind of the air conditioning that just came on.
"CV-01, Intrepid, reporting for duty! Reactors online, Sensors online, All systems Nominal." Seeing her up and running, and having the final sense of fulfillment hit me, I couldn't help it. I smiled and went up to hug her, causing Intrepid to falter in surprise. "Ma'am?"
"It's great to have you, Intrepid." I said, patting her back before pulling away some, grinning at her slightly confused eyes. "You have no idea how good it feels to finally see you up and running."
"...Thank you, Ma'am." She said, obviously unsure of what to do. I chuckled a little before patting her shoulder.
"You're welcome. I have a feeling we're going to do great things together." Intrepid nodded seriously.
"Affirmative, Ma'am. Whatever your orders are, I'll be there to carry them out." I smiled at that, but thoughts of a few possible "what if's" struck at the back of my mind. Missions were important, yes, but I'm beginning to realize some things are more important than the success of my goals. Ruby must be bringing out some feelings in me I hadn't felt in a long time.
"I'm glad, but first I want you to promise me something." My expression sobered some, and I looked at her. "You are the first true AI I've ever built and brought online. To say you're something special to me is an understatement." I paused, gathering my thoughts. "This will go for your siblings as well, but... If there ever... seems a time, that you're going to sink, or your reactors will fail, or really any number of bad situations, promise me you'll find a way to get back to me. You may be the ship, but the ship is not you. I can replace the ships." The 'but not you' went unsaid.
Intrepid's eyes seemed to soften with realization. "Yes Ma'am. I promise." I patted her shoulder again, giving her another hug that was thankfully returned before looking out the windows of the bridge to the other two ships.
"Your brothers should be online in a few more hours." I told her, looking over the frame of the Texas in its near completed state. "I've got another two sisters for you in development still, but they should be built and completed in another two weeks." I looked at her again. "Then we can start getting some work done."
Intrepid nodded again silently, looking at the two frames of her brother ships before I took her hand and started pulling her out the door. Seeing her confused expression I rolled my eyes.
"Come on, you're more than just a ship, you can walk on land! I need to show you off to Ruby and Dell still!" Without waiting for a reply, I continued dragging her by the arm down to a gangway.
}x{
Two hours later...
I found the other two humans of the base in the kitchen of the living quarters, starting their day with some southern food. As expected, Ruby was absolutely fascinated with Intrepid, asking questions in a rapid fire I was sure only the AI carrier could keep up with until I got Ruby to simmer down, promising to teach her how to make her own AIs as long as she kept up with her studies under Dell, who had become her new tutor in recent, much to her delight. Dell himself was more subdued in his reaction, but I could tell he was fascinated to see the results of my work on AI, and was probably watching Intrepid the entire time, noting her reactions to things.
Intrepid sat close to me like a bodyguard the entire time while I joined the other two for breakfast, multitasking between using a tablet to work on my designs for Intrepid's sister cruiser and talking to the other two. Our conversation was mostly just Dell and I talking about designs for the steam locomotives I would put into service around Baharuth, but Ruby, ever the curious one, soon sidetracked that and we delved into how they worked, since apparently Steam power was never a well explored branch in Remnant.
Talks about Steam power led to a sidetrack on steampunk, then dieselpunk, and then cyberpunk, all genres which seemed to fascinate the young red reaper. Things like gas or diesel engines didn't really exist on remnant due to both the rarity of oil and the existence of dust, and so instead- devices that burned fire dust were commonplace, and electric dust was used almost as commonly as batteries. Honestly it was a fascinating conversation, trying to figure out the differences between humanities as while Ruby wasn't well versed in regular history, she knew a lot about machines and their developments.
One fun fact about Remnant- they never had regular propeller planes or jets, not even helicopters. Bullheads with their vertical takeoff and landing and the airships with their anti-gravity fields powered by gravity dust were all they had. It seems space was a premium in cities, and during the development of air vehicles they never really considered the design of a traditional wing, or threw it to the side since a runway required a fair amount of space.
Ruby was fascinated with my tales of how flight was developed on a world without Grimm, and even Dell became interested in the more modern stuff I knew, so I spent almost an hour straight showing designs and telling short tales about flight, from the early biplane to the later fighter jets and drones, showing how weapons developed and what reigned king at the times.
It was understandably a bit upsetting for Ruby to hear about the world wars, but since there were similar wars on Remnant she wasn't too surprised. She was mostly just upset about how things like Nukes were brought about. The thought of a bomb powerful enough to wipe one of Remnant's kingdoms off the map was probably unsettling.
"You don't have any of those... nukes, do you?" Ruby had asked me once I had finished. I made a sound as I tilted my head to the side.
"Mmm, if you mean built, no, I don't, but I do have the designs for several, including the tactical nukes the Russians had developed for the Mig 21s. Rest assured, I have no plans on using them, but Intrepid here," I pointed a thumb at my quiet but attentive companion, "will carry the parts to build a few on her ship should we ever find something than warrants it's use. Personally I don't like them due to the fallout they create, but until I have a few other equivalent weapons up and running, that will be one of my last resort options."
"What kind of weapon would be as powerful as a nuke?" Ruby asked. I began to grin.
"Tell me, have you ever heard of the concept of an OKKS?"
}x{
Three hours later...
"Atten-shun! Texas, ready for duty, Ma'am!"
"Johnston, prepared to fight to the end, Ma'am!"
I stood next to Intrepid and Dell as I met the newly awakened Texas and Johnston. Texas had the energetic and patriotic air of the Soldier down to a T, while Johnston had the serious and determined look I had hoped for, both standing at attention with a salute on the drydocks in front of us.
"At ease gentlemen." I said, focusing on the two in front of me. Clad in their own uniforms of similar look to Intrepid's, they cut a professional figure, with their peaked caps and intimidating looks, and Texas's cigar. "Good to see you two awake. All systems looking good?"
"Affirmative! Ready to make some pain at your command, Ma'am!" Texas replied, a slightly eager look to his eyes.
"All systems green, Ma'am. Ready when you need us." Johnston answered professionally.
Well then, perhaps a day at sea is in order. A bit of fresh air sounds fun, and after all that talk on aviation, Ruby wanted to see what it was like to be in a fighter jet. I looked over my shoulder to the girl in question, who was drooling over the many visible weapons on Texas's ship.
"Ruby!" I called. She snapped out of her daze and looked at me. "Did you still want to take a flight with me?" Her eyes lit up.
"You were serious? Can we?" She smiles widely in hope.
I give her a grin. "Of course, as long as you don't mind some time out at sea." I return my gaze to the trio of ships. "Well, Gentlemen, Madam, lets give you your first shakedown runs." Amidst a chior of answers, I looked to Dell as the ships went back to their respective vessels. "You want to come? I'll give you a flight if you're interested."
"I'll come along, but I think I'll keep mah boots on the ground, so to speak." He answered, and at his smile I got the distinct feeling I would see him relaxing in the sun on the flight deck of Intrepid with a beer in hand, rancho relaxo style. I shrugged.
"Fair enough. Should I do some stunts for you? Maybe put on an air show?" He grinned.
"If you want, I ain't gonna stop ya, but maybe not when the little miss is on board. I don't think she'll find it very fun." I gave him a look.
"We talkin bout the same person here? Little miss speed demon? I think if I gave her the controls she would be running Mach loops before the end of the day!" We both laughed as Dell shrugged in defeat before heading off to board Intrepid, Ruby tagging along as she managed to tear herself away from ogling all the naval weapons. We boarded the carrier and walked to her flight deck as the ships began maneuvering out of their docks, the sounds of churning water beginning to fill the cave.
The hatch opened in the side of the cove, revealing daylight as the warships began pulling put of their docks. The Johnston led the formation as they carefully maneuvered through the lane of water, until the gleaming sun began pouring down on their metal forms at the exit. Intrepid was last in formation, and last to exit as the wind from the open seas blew in, cold and biting, reminding us of the winter in effect. Maybe Dell would have to settle for some time relaxing on the bridge instead.
Regardless of the cold and choppy waters though, the three ships sailed easily, mostly unbothered by the moderate waves as their weight and size nullified a lot of the effects, combined with how their bows were shaped to cut through and ride the waves. Dell went to go visit the much warmer bridge, while I pulled Ruby down to look at the fighter jets and strike aircraft stored in the hangar deck beneath the runway.
I spent probably well over an hour in there as we headed out to sea, showing her various jets and their weapons before reaching the one I would be flying with her, an F14 Tomcat. As a two seater, Ruby would be sitting in the back where the Radar and radio controls were, while I would be in the pilot seat in control of the flight itself. In all honesty, the Tomcat was very outdated for my taste, but I had at least one unmodified version of every plane built so that I could fly them myself before I spent the time to upgrade them.
I showed Ruby where she would be sitting in the plane, what most of the controls were, what they did, and what to do in the event of emergency, just in case. I doubted there was anything that would happen, or anything that could hurt us when we were traveling around Mach 2, but it never hurt to be prepared. Once Ruby felt well versed enough, we changed into flight gear and took our seats. I qued up the automated towing mechanism I had built into the floor, and the jet was pulled by the nose wheel around the hangar deck to one of the elevators on the side, showing a grand view of the passing ocean as our fleet was doing easily 50 knots on the water.
Since the canopy of the jet was still open, wind whipped through the open air around us and the sounds of the water reached our ears as we were raised to the flight deck, before getting towed to a ready area near the citadel of the ship where a few specialized maintenance spectres came out to service and power the aircraft, since the F14 required an external source of power to be started. I walked Ruby through the startup procedure, making sure her oxygen worked and she was secure in her seat before starting the engines one at a time, soon filling the air with the high pitched whine of the turbines.
I gave a signal to Ruby and she closed the cockpit from her side, the maintenance spectres now pulling away as they were no longer needed. Checking over the systems, I made sure everything was correct and functioning before looking into the mirror at Ruby.
"You ready?" I called, my voice sounding slightly muffled and low quality through the mic of my helmet. Ruby gave a thumbs up but I could tell she was a little nervous about it all since she was rather quiet. "We don't have to do this if it makes you uncomfortable, Ruby, we can do this some other time if you want." I offered. Ruby shook her head.
"No, no! I'm fine, we can keep going. Just... a little nervous is all." She said, slightly fidgeting with her hands.
"If you're sure then." I turned on nose wheel steering and gave the jet a little throttle, pushing it forwards as I taxied to one of the two catapults on the front of the flight deck. Using a series of light indicators I had designed into the runway, I lined myself up and caught the front wheel on the launch rail before turning off the steering, preparing for a takeoff. A blinking yellow light appeared on the runway to my right and I began spooling up the engine throttle, filling the air with their roar and the craft with vibration as all the thrust was held back in preparation. "Remember, hold onto something for this! You're going to get pushed back into your seat hard!" I called out, watching Ruby clutch the sides of her seat tightly.
A series of three lights on the runway counted down before flashing green, and we were suddenly shoved back into the seat as we rocketed forwards, accelerating over two hundred miles per hour in two seconds. Ruby let out a startled gasp behind me, and within an instant the deck disapeared beneath us, leaving the jet airborne. Pulling up on the stick, we rose out into the air, climbing quickly as we accelerated. I could hear Ruby's labored breathing as she recovered from our sudden and quick flight and grinned, pulling the landing gear up from beneath us as we kept gaining speed and altitude.
"So, how was that for fast?" I called back, taking care to watch the trim as we rapidly approached 10,000 feet.
"That... pant, pant, was... AMAZING! Can we do it again?" She asked, bouncing in her seat. I laughed.
"If I train you up on how to fly, and you can prove to me you can be trusted with this kind of equipment and responsibility, I'll let you do this on your own, how about that?"
Ruby cheered, looking out the canopy glass in awe as she saw how high we were getting. "Wow... I've never been this high before... Everything looks so much different..."
"And we're still going to go higher before we can get some real speed on this. We're reaching around 15,000 feet soon, I'll be bringing us to around 40,000 before we have some fun." I told her. She made a noise of amazement but her attention was solely on watching the rapidly diminishing size of the sea around us. It was fun being back in the seat of a jet, I always liked driving, but never had the real opportunity to do much flying. Certainly never with performance jets like what I have now. I'll have to rectify that in the future, because being in the air was fun.
It took several minutes, but we rose into the sky and above the clouds all the way to 40,000 feet, and everything looked so much smaller from up here. I could see for maybe even hundreds of miles, and the fleet was nothing but a dot on the sea from up here. I could see the shore of the Re-Estize Kingdom from here, maybe even Re-Ulovale if I squinted, and the Azerlisa mountains. The view was fantastic, and I could see what I suspected was a cold front, or a storm off to the north where I would be venturing in a month or so, where the reported pirates were, but the cloud cover kept me from seeing anything. Ahh well, it didn't matter yet.
While I had the fuel to spare, I wanted to fly around the lands a bit, do some recon. I should be high enough to be beyond visual range of regular humans, and nobody ever looks up anyways so I should be fine. I angled the nose to the south and leveled off, adjusting my trim and letting the Tomcat cruise. I looked back in the mirror to check on Ruby, who was still glued to the canopy window.
"Enjoying your flight?" I asked. Ruby looked at me in the mirror and grinned so sweetly it could give someone diabetes.
"Yeah! I've never seen something fly so high before! Everything looks so much smaller, and I can see for so far!" She exclaimed, almost bouncing in her seat from excitement. I smiled at her enthusiasm.
"That's good to hear, we'll be taking a quick trip down south for a while to go look at something, then we'll have some fun on the way back. Ever seen something break the sound barrier?" I asked. She looked at me with wide eyes.
"We're going to go faster than the speed of sound?" She asked. I gave her a smug grin.
"Twice as fast, actually. We're cruising around 575 mph right now but we'll be going over 1,500 on the way back. You excited?"
Ruby had stars in her eyes. "Wow... I've never seen anything but bullets go that fast!"
"Maybe I should build an SR71 then, that plane could go over Mach 3. It's not a stretch to say it could go around the entire world in a straight line in less than 12 hours."
"The entire world? Wow..." Ruby looked lost in thought as she tried to imagine that, peering out at the horizon. Getting into the mood for flying a Tomcat, I quietly qued up some classic rock tracks through my system's music function and sat back for the ride.
I wanted to go and see the floating castle where Tsain stayed, and a brief overview of the Theocracy so I could get a lay of the land before heading back, just to satisfy my curiosity and for my future preparation. Whenever I get satellites I'll have much better maps, but until then recon flights will suffice.
As fast as we were going, the trip over the Kingdoms only lasted about twenty minutes until we began seeing signs of the Theocracy in the towns we could see from high up, the faint signs of churches and slaves almost impossible to pick up with the naked eye. My eyesight was still better than a humans' though, so I could see it much easier, and what I saw made me curl my lip in distaste.
Ruby noticed my expression and tried to find what I was seeing, looking out in the same direction. "What is is?" She asked, unable to find what I could.
"The Slane Theocracy." I said lowly. "It's probably for the best you can't see it, but I'm just barely able to pick out one of their slave auctions in a town." Ruby gasped. "Yeah, I know. It's one of the nations I plan on taking down in the future. Such a vile practice backed by their state religion, they view anything non-human as beneath them, and enslave elves and demi-humans, people like the faunus of Remnant."
"That's horrible..." Ruby said, looking in the direction of the town with sad eyes.
"Yeah." I sighed. "It's why I plan on robbing them of everything valuable in the future." I shook my head before returning to look at my flight path.
"Normally I would say stealing is bad, but maybe those guys deserve it." Ruby said, a little bit of steel in her silver eyes.
"Here here."
The next ten minutes were rather quiet as we flew high over the greens of the land until it turned brown and yellow, the plains breaking away to a sandy desert where I finally saw my goal in the distance, hovering probably around 5,000 feet in the air above a ruined city. I kept a fair distance of around 20 miles from it to prevent the roar of the jet from reaching it, but I started to fly in an orbit around it, taking note of the structure, handing Ruby a pair of binoculars from my inventory so she could take a closer look.
"It looks beautiful!" She commented, and I had to give her that. The floating guild base was still a marvel of architecture and luxury even after hundreds of years, and even despite its former owner's indiscriminate savagery. It was like a mix of a castle and cathedral, square and blocky yet with finely detailed structuring and architecture, and beautiful design. I found myself a tad envious if I was honest. I held little skill in architectural design, but it seems the players of Yggdrasil poured their heart into these bases, because I've yet to hear of an ugly looking guild base.
It had towers, it had artful stained glass windows, it had endless waterfalls that plunged off and into the abandoned city below. Truly, it was a sight to see. Maybe if I decided to build any lasting structures I should hire a bunch of designers and let them go nuts, because marvels like this should be used for something amazing, not left to gather dust.
We circled around the castle twice, and I noted a few potential entry points before I decided to head back, once again facing north before looking in the mirror at Ruby. "Well, ready to go supersonic?" I asked, grinning. Ruby eagerly nodded, and braced herself. "Well alright then, full burn it is!"
I slammed the throttle forwards and the afterburners kicked in, pushing us back into our seats as we sped up. The airframe shook briefly as a cone of air formed behind us and we broke the sound barrier, rapidly gaining speed as we passed 800 mph with ease and kept going.
900
1,000
1,100
1,200
1,300- Mach 2 hit and passed.
1,350
1,400
Our speed kept climbing closer to 1,500 and beyond. All the brand new parts allowing better performance than any worn service craft the US navy had. We were absolutely zooming now, and the speed dial was showing us exceeding Mach 2.5. I grinned in satisfaction, keeping a careful hold on the stick to prevent excessive movement. We were burning through fuel extremely quick, at least 33 pounds a second, but we were traveling at over triple our original speed, and the land was passing by quickly beneath us.
We had maybe five minutes of fuel left at the rate we were burning it, but we would probably make it back out to the fleet in less than three. Nothing quite like having the speed to fly over an entire state in the time it takes to microwave a meal.
I looked back to see Ruby with a smile on her face watching the world beneath us pass by, and I grinned. Seems she was liking the trip. I honestly couldn't wait to see if she took to flying as easily as she did running, because I had the feeling she would be an incredible pilot.
Soon the sea of the north was shown on the horizon, and within a minute we were once again out over open water. I let off the afterburners and the airframe briefly shook as the friction of the air began slowing us down again. I checked my map and maneuvered the aircraft on an intercept course for the fleet as we started to slow down and lose altitude.
"Enjoy the flight?" I called back, looking at Ruby in my mirror. She grinned at me and nodded furiously.
"It was awesome! I wonder how fast it looks when flying low over the ground?" She pondered.
"You keep up with your courses and I'll teach you how to fly a jet yourself, then you can find out!" I reminded her. We were closer to 10,000 feet again and I could spot the fleet in the distance, slightly ahead of my predicted intercept.
I flew by in a lazy arc around it, slowing down and descending further to line myself up for the runway on Intrepid, letting the wings extend some to make up for the lack of speed.
"Brace yourself again, this will be a quick stop." I called to Ruby. I paid attention to the landing indicator lights on the left of the runway, showing me how I should adjust my approach, or if I was going too fast. Landing gear down, flaps prepared to land, approach looks good...
I touched down hard on the deck, getting pushed forwards into the harness as the arresting wire snagged the hook on the back, slowing us down for a very quick stop. Less than ten seconds later we were once again parked on the deck, the plane rocking as it settled. I swept the wings back to normal and reset the trim, looking back to see Ruby recovering from the stop, clutching the harness.
"Sorry about that, I promise it's much nicer to land on an actual airstrip." I commented, watching as a few specters came out to unhook the tail. I started shutting things down, letting the engines die out as I unhooked myself from the harness, reaching over to Ruby's side to open the canopy. Cold air blew in to greet us as it rose up, and one of the specters came over with a ladder for us. I assisted Ruby in unbuckling herself before we exited, though Ruby's legs seemed a little shaky from nerves.
I ruffled the hair on her head, much to her annoyance. She pouted at me but I grinned because it largely settled her nerves.
"Let's get out of this weather, I'm sure Dell will have some hot coca for us or something." I beckoned her to follow and we exited the flight deck through a door in the Citadel of the ship while the specters took care of the Tomcat behind us.
Two weeks later...
I looked over the final construction of the last two members of my fleet, nodding in satisfaction as things were finally coming to a close on my Naval fleet. My last two members, the Submarine and the Missile destroyer were now in the last stages of construction, with the Submarine named Stingray after an old military comedy movie I liked, and the Missile destroyer was named NorthStar, because the last thing the enemy would see is a twinkling light in the sky.
Their command units were somewhat different in design from my others, as it occurred to me I didn't need to worry about making everything look human when demi-humans existed, so Stingray took the appearance of a brown haired energetic young woman with an aquatic tail similar to a shark, and some armor plating disguised as small scales on her outer limbs. She wore a more subnautical theme for uniform, with a modified wetsuit and tactical gear should she ever need to swim, and her body was reinforced to deal with the pressures water would cause should there ever be a hull breach on her Submarine.
By comparison, Northstar was slightly more demonic themed than her sisters, with a singular and incredibly sharp black horn on her forehead, paler skin, and two eyes that had bright red targeting crosshairs for pupils that would narrow when she was focused. She had bright red hair and sharper canines, along with retractable claws. In keeping with the demonic theme and the more technological look, she had a visibly mechanical tail of segmented black metal, with a spaded tip that was sharp enough to cut through steel. Her personality too would be more reminiscent of a demon, slightly teasing and aggressive with some latent bloodthirst, but to make her a bit more wholesome, I made her an absolute sucker for adorable and cute things. I imagined she would spend a lot of time with Ruby once I woke her up. NorthStar also had a slightly more tactical and armor plated variant of the uniform the others had, being built as more of a fighter than the others.
Due to some work with GLaDOS I had managed to fit small QECs, or quantum entanglement communicators to each of the ships and their respective units, allowing them to seamlessly control either part of themselves regardless of distance, something the original trio were thankful for as they seemed to not want to leave me alone whenever I did anything involving danger. Personally while I liked my peace and quiet sometimes, I didn't put up a fight because I liked them and I liked being around them, and I was perfectly happy stacking the deck in my favor when it came to combat.
Also it was quite amusing when I took them with me to an instant dungeon and Texas decided to punch everything to death, and then Johnston got in on it, and it became a competition of who could kill more things with their bare hands.
I didn't even have to do anything that run! I only got to kill the boss because I managed to shoot it before the other two could punch their way through the trash mobs, and even then it was only by a few seconds. And, as amusing as it was for them to prove their macho by going Saxton Hale on the mobs, their strength was devastating and the resulting bloodbath was a bitch to try and clean from their uniforms. I ended up burning the old ones and redoing theirs to add a coating that would cause blood and other such... fluids to slide off if they decided to get down and dirty again.
I was brought out of my musings as a notification flashed in my view.
[Construction of- "Stingray" and "NorthStar" complete!]
[Congradulations! Class- Engineer has reached level 100!]
[Please choose a new Production class.]
Finally! It took so long for the last ten levels of that. I've been thinking about what the next production class I'd take would be for a while, but only one comes to mind that I truly want. I need to start branching out beyond solely technology, and this might combine things to great effect.
[Class Chosen! Runesmith- 1/100, (0%)]
[Items Gained- Basic rune carving tools, Basic book of runes.]
I'd wanted to branch into magic for a while, since I'd been neglecting it for far too long, but now? Not only are runes a predictable and consistent branch I can research and reproduce, but it's also one that I might just be able to integrate with my technology in the future! Just think about it! Laser engraved runes boosting the strength and efficiency of everything! It was a promising field that I was going to start practicing with very soon, along with more research on magic itself.
I wanted many things out of magic, and one of my main desires was the ability to control magic without the need for spells, to shape raw mana in a way that doesn't require calculations and formulas. I wanted it to be thought and intent. I wanted to fly under my own power without a spell or technology and manipulate elements by will. From what I expected, it would be a long and boring grind, but I wanted it, and so I would put time aside to practice on it soon.
For now though, I had two brand new members of my fleet to awaken, and then, it would be time to start making moves in this world.
Elsewhere...
A harsh and cold wind blew over the freezing deck as the ship steamed forth alongside several of it's brethren. Great plumes of black smoke rose in their wake as the ten ships sailed over the waters, leaving a frothing white trail. Atop the deck of the lead ship, a man in a furred coat with a captains hat stood vigil over the waves, watching the early sky, a frown on his face. Behind him, a man approached, holding two steaming cups.
"Morning, captain." The first man turned at the call to greet the speaker, gratefully taking the second cup.
"Morning Clint." He took a sip of the cup and grimaced. "Ran out of coffee again?" He sighed, returning to his watch. Clint shrugged and leaned against the raling next to the captain.
"You know how it is, sir. At least they try." They spent a moment in silence before Clint decided to ask a question. "Sir, if I may ask... what do you think we'll find, when we get there? This is the longest hunt we've ever done, and some of the men are starting to think it'll just wind up being a waste of time."
The captain let out a long breath. "If you mean our attack, things should work in our favor since the storms are blowing their way. If things go right they'll only have a day to try and move out before we're ontop of them, but if they manage to move again... I'll be frank with you Clint. I'm not sure how this is going to go. We're well beyond our supply lines, on a wild chase that may not amount to anything, but despite that I have this... feeling that something is going to happen. Something big. Something soon." He sighed. "What unsettles me the most is how I can't decide if it feels good or bad."
Clint looked at his captain, noting the man's weary posture. "Hopefully it'll be something good then." He consoled. "Lady luck is bound to show us some favor after everything else that's going on."
The captain made a noise, tightening his grip on the hand rail. "Hmm. Let's hope so. The sooner this goose chase is over, the sooner we can get back to the front."
Clint raised his mug in a faux toast. "Here here."
The captain mimicked him. "Glory to the Federation."
They both took a drink, before gazing out at the sea before them, to where their destination, and hopefully their prey, resided.
Cove base- later that day...
The worst of Winter was starting to fade, and the new year was kicking in. I had maybe six months until Nazarick was due to arrive and things needed to be arranged before then.
It was high time to start getting my bucket list done.
I walked through a portal on the wall of the cove, stepping through and out onto the windy flight deck of Intrepid, where the AI herself was standing next to a modified Osprey. Chosen for its speed and Vtol capability, along with its cargo space, it would serve as the transport that took me down south for my raids tonight. I decided that a helicopter was too loud and too slow, and I wouldn't be able to walk through a portal from inside a fighter jet, so this was a good middle ground.
I nodded to Intrepid and she nodded back, entering the cockpit of the craft to pilot it as I entered the back to find a surprise. Red cross shaped pupils flicked to meet mine, and Northstar waved a clawed hand in greeting from her spot in one of the seats.
"Hey there, boss!" She called, her mechanical tail swinging lazily to the side. I looked at her with a raised eyebrow.
"North." I said in greeting, nodding at her. "Wasn't aware anyone else was coming along tonight." Northstar waved a hand in dismissal.
"Don't worry about little old me, I'm just here to watch. I'm not built to sneak around like Stingray, so I'll just be hanging back here." She grinned lazily.
I made a noise close to a snort, sitting down across from her spot before trying to get comfortable as Intrepid began starting up the engines. "And you're not at all here because I might call on you for help should a fight break out?"
Northstar's grin turned sly as her eyes glinted. "Well~ I would certainly be happy to assist should our glorious leader need it..."
Of course she would be, but that's how she was built. Regardless, she would be valuable if things go wrong and I manage to get in over my head tonight. "I don't plan on any fights, but you might just get some action. We'll see what happens with the Theocracy, I might just decide to murder them in their sleep if the opportunity presents itself."
Northstar pouted at me. "That just takes the fun out of it though!" I stuck my tongue out at her and she rolled her eyes, crosshairs spinning. "Well, whatever, just let me take a few of them, would you? I haven't even had the chance to kill anything yet!"
"You're less than a day old, you can wait, you'll see plenty of bloodshed and fighting in time, trust me." I stated, speaking louder to be heard over the engines as the modified jet turbines that replaced the older propellers began spooling up, lifting the craft off the deck. I looked out of one of the windows, watching the fleet as we began rising into the cold air. The matte grey form of Northstar's ship joined the fleet from the rear, the fading light of day showing her more angular form, devoid of high caliber weapon mounts and sporting three CWIS turrets. All along her sides and deck were a bunch of closed missile tubes, almost indistinguishable from her angled hull except for the visible segments in the armor.
Invisible from above, the dark form of Stingray was currently patrolling beneath the fleet, collecting data on the sea floor, keeping a sonar watch for any large wildlife, and probably using the underwater recon drones to poke at the fish in curiosity. She was a bit more excitable and curious than I had expected when designing her, but I wasn't going to try and fix that. It felt wrong to try and modify the AIs after I had already built them. It would be changing who they were, and it felt like a petty move, as if I couldn't accept them as is.
Shaking myself from my thoughts, I looked to the distance and ran over my inventory of weapons and tools, ensuring I was prepared for the night. Instead of my usual armor I wore a newly fabricated stealth suit of my own making with help from the tailor bot in Aperture, taking inspiration from the color Vantablack and other ideas, where Carbon nanotubes were used to trap incoming light so completely it looked as if a piece of reality was missing. Looking down at my covered body that did seem to be the case, as the most you could see was my outline, since everything else was pure darkness. I also had a balaclava of the same fabric, and while I had figured out these might be harmful on skin contact to humans I didn't need to worry about it as a servant.
I didn't need tool belts as everything could be nabbed with a thought from my inventory, and I had a number of noiseless miniature drones with me to help scout out Tsain's castle and the Theocracy, since I didn't actually have a Floorplan of the places. Complimenting those drones would be a personal pair of Thermal goggles I had invented that would be capable of showing me the view from those drones, building a three dimensional map in the corner of my view as the drones explored, and keeping track of the location of me and any guards or enemies.
Ai was wonderful when you could just ask it to make a program that could do something, and then it did it, much faster and better than a human could.
It was all set, and now it was just the wait. First would be Tsain, where I would locate and steal The Nameless Book of Spells, and anything that caught my interest, and then it would be the Theocracy, where I would rob them of Downfall of Castle and Country, everything remotely valuable, and kill the Thousand Mile Astrologer on my way out, maybe plant some plastic explosives just to throw them into chaos. I was still a little conflicted about what I should do with Zesshi, but I figured if she was awake and I could abuse Not My Problem to talk with her before committing my robbery I could offer her the chance to kill her father, the Elf King, which might bring her to my side.
From the best of my memory Zesshi really didn't care about the rest of the Theocracy, minus maybe one cardinal, Raymond I think was his name, arguably the most sane of their leaders. I would probably leave him alone, but if I had the chance I might just kill everyone else. Some might consider it a terroristic strike since I had no nation I claimed myself to, but I considered it more of a critical strike against a worldwide threat, and a necessary blow. It wasn't smart to leave powerful items in the hands of a religious government.
With any luck, should I set enough explosives, the entire country will break down in a religious fervor believing it divine retribution for some perceived slight. I could see all too easily how without their leadership to interpret things, the lower priests and believers will all come up with their own reasoning behind the attack, and then fight over them trying to prove their view. Society might break down, maybe civil war would happen, it was all up in the air but very possible.
Time passed as we flew south, and I thought about problems on the agenda for the next few months.
First was the railroads in Baharuth nearing completion, and the young merchants from the guilds in Baharuth I had hired to run the stations. Surprisingly, many of the merchant guilds were interested in posting their apprentices at the stations to get them to learn how to interact with customers, and I managed a deal with a few of them to manage the stations. Most of those were now finally built, along with the one Arche and her sisters wanted to move to. I hadn't spoken to her in a little while since winter made people not want to travel around, but she was finally gearing up to make the move from what I had seen. She was too guilty to leave without paying off her parent's debt first, a tune of around 200 gold, but it was only a minor annoyance for me to offer her the money, citing it as a loan that would be paid back through a small cut of her paycheck.
She was grateful, and was set to take her family and the Butler out to their new accommodation in another month or so. I hoped she would be happy there, it seemed like a nice town she chose to be stationed at.
The only other major issue on my plate was actually one I hadn't thought I would encounter.
I was running out of materials.
Now, that wasn't to say the Material harvester wasn't working, but the fact is, building five warships and a fleet of aircraft takes a lot of metal, and now the harvester in the cove base was starting to run low within the range it could pull from.
I could move further into the mountains with it and get more, but that ran the risk of infringing on the Dwarves who lived there, so I wanted to move elsewhere.
So, where would I go next if I couldn't go to further in the mountains?
The answer was obvious, and exciting to me.
I would go to Space.
To be specific, I would go to the moon.
It would take about all the remaining materials the harvester could get, but I had enough to start a base on the moon where all my intrusion and resource worries would fade away. I'd build a base, build another harvester, and then turn it into a major research and development center where I could build my superweapons and launch satellites to spy on the entire world. Muhwahaha...
And I could play around in low gravity, which I was eager to try. Low G sports sounded fun as hell.
"Thinking about something fun, boss?" Northstar called. I pulled myself from my thoughts, realizing I had been smiling without realizing it.
I shrugged, keeping the smile. "Oh, not much, just wondering how much work it would take to build a starship body for you guys."
Northstar's eyes brightened and her tail began swaying as she thought of it, her expression becoming more pleased and predatory, probably thinking about raining orbital strikes upon ignorant savages. The idea did have charm, I'll admit.
"Ma'am," came a call from the front. I looked over to see Intrepid looking back from the cockpit. "One minute until we're in range of the target." I nodded and stood up, walking to the front to get a look at the floating castle through the glass. Northstar stood up behind me, coming close to hover over my shoulder as we looked out to the castle beyond.
The falling waterfalls glittered in the moonlight as the darkness of the night swathed everything in shadows, the faint glints of the glass windows reflecting what little light there was as the entire castle sat without a hint of life. I let out a breath, pulling my Portal gun from my inventory. Turning, I walked to one of the doors in the side of the cabin and opened it, letting the rush of air flood the vehicle. Using a modified gun mount, I slotted the ASHPD into place and flicked open a little screen and a scope designed for this very purpouse, hitting distant targets with precise portals.
Waiting for us to come a bit closer, I scanned for my target location before aiming, makng sure things looked good before shooting a portal onto one of the walls of the courtyard near the main entrance. The soft Thwip of the shot was drowned out by the wind as the portal smacked into the distant wall and stayed there, resolving into a murky blue oval a foot off the ground. Satisfied at the placement, I removed the portal gun and closed the door, returning the cabin to a much quieter state before turning to shoot the second portal on the floor of the cargo hold.
The orange portal manifested quickly, clearing from murky orange to a crystal clear view of the quiet and unkempt courtyard on the castle. I took a breath, putting on my balaclava and readying myself.
"It's go time." I said to myself, plunging through the portal and landing on the grass lawn of Tsain's Lair. Clicking a button, I dismissed the portal behind me, leaving the one in the Osprey intact.
"Time to go all sneaky beaky..."
A/N:
Well, I feel like I need to apologize for the wait, but then again three months isn't the worst time frame. I know I was pumping out chapters quick before, but all of a sudden I ran myself out of ideas, then I got back into reading, and video games, and it took me a while to get enough ideas to sit down and continue with this.
I needed some fresh spice of inspiration and imagination, so I turned to the Mass Effect fanfictions to read a few of the ones that completely rewrite cannon with their own versions of humanity and different advancements, and there is one in particular that's got me inspired for an idea set in RWBY but I'll need to flush that idea out for a whole before I can think on writing it, but if yall like the idea I might make a chapter for it soon.
Basically the idea was- an SI reborn in Remnant (I know, Self inserts aren't always that good), but instead of being a gamer or gaining powers, the main character wouldn't be a fighter, instead, the path of politics and business would be used to change things. You might consider it boring but it's not going to be full of meetings, double truths, and backhanded deals, though there might be a few. The main focus will be more about progress and scientific change. I simply rather enjoy the idea of a businessman using technology from our era to create companies that utterly demolish the most common uses of dust, and revolutionize science. I'll admit the idea of toppling the Schee Dust Corporation does entice me, and the possibility of hitting Salem's entire island with a Hydrogen Fusion bomb sounds satisfying, so those are potential plot points.
Hell, maybe He'll take over Vale after Volume 3 as well. Really, it could go anywhere.
Anyhow, in other news I'm considering opening a Pay Tree On to give myself more reasons to write, but I'm not sure if many of yall would even be interested in that, if you are though, I could look into doing it. It would certainly make it more worth my time to write than just doing this as a hobby for free.
Now- Onto the reviews!
NavyZero- As for why she doesn't always use swords, that's rather easy. Swords require you to get close to the enemy, and when she's farming dungeons or etc, she can do it rather lazily and easily if she just points and clicks with a gun. That's not to say it isn't satisfying to just hit things with a melee weapon, but for casual fights and dangerous fights alike she has no issue keeping her distance and choosing the easy route. You take less risk and get hurt less that way.
BBLeviathan- I'll admit, part of the reason I had Ruby arrive the way she did, (as problematic and haphazard as it is), is because I liked the idea of Ruby being able to travel between worlds all her own, becoming something similar to Jeanne with enough time. It would certainly be interesting, and maybe potential story material in the future.
Irish Layla- I'll admit you make a lot of good points, and some interesting ideas, I'll try to keep them In mind. And yes, I'll admit. NOTHING Beats the Titanfall 2 movement, except maybe Ultrakill. I really want to throw Jeanne into the Titanfall 2 campaign but I feel like it's been done so much I'll have to change it somehow, play it from a different angle, but I'm not sure how. As for the character sheet, I really can't be bothered to keep as good a track of that or the abilities, so if you want you can take what I have and work something better out, it really isn't my Forte.
Auxiliary Nexus- I'm glad you like how they get along, that was a goal of mine, and adding Leigon is an interesting idea for sure but I'm not sure It would work to add him yet.
Weredragon- You make a great point about the Capsule tech from Dragon ball, and if I had even the faintest theoretical understanding of how something like that could scientifically work, that might be an eventual add on, but for now I have other ideas of a similar vein to Hammerspace.
Zerospear- You have a lot of insight and knowledge on the Fate universe, more than I for sure, and you have some very interesting points regarding Aura and the Third True Magic, I'll have to think about that in the future, it might be a good high point of her power. As for Dark Souls, I've never played it, so I'd need to read into that lore a lot more.
Alright, that wraps it up for today. As usual, Follow, Fav, Review, all that good stuff.
Next chapter may be a few months away, as the weather decided to uproot a barn and break a window, so I've been busy with the cleanup and repair of that, along other things. I've got ideas though, and the next few chapters will get more interesting as we start making moves and committing crimes in the New World.
See ya later!
