Days later within the cavern of the complex beneath the site. A cluster of machines worked away repairing the damage to one of the automatic pillboxes.

The four remaining units had their names stenciled onto the side from when the base had still been operational. Joey, Kitt, Otis and Skip. They had only lasted this long thanks to a large supply of spares. Waking for short periods to do the checks needed on the equipment. They were almost out of spares now and had been brought out of their rest cycle early.

Waking to alarms had not been a good experience. Despite only being simple AI units they still held a sense of self preservation and were worried. It had been over 30 years since the base had received any sort of contact. The external sensor net was gone, the systems to maintain it having degraded to the point of becoming non operative. As far as the machines were concerned they were on their own.

Still they had kept the local defense grid in good shape. If they could just get the communications relay to connect to a satellite they could send out a call for help.

A warning signal reached them, one of the motion sensors inside the cave had detected movement. The JACKs retracted their tools and cloaked, moving to hide from whatever intruders were trying to breach the base. The last set of intruders had even worn COG armor and tried to walk in without providing authentication.

From the mouth of the cave a small cluster of shapes darted. They looked strange like copies of the JACKs but rather than the normal four sensors a single larger sensor was set in the front. The JACKs moved clear of the defenses. The AIs that controlled the turrets would be able to see them whilst they were cloaked. But they wouldn't wait until the JACKS were clear, their priority was defense.

The unknown machines shot about the room as they had failed to broadcast the codes needed for entry the defenses began to engage. Panels opened and turrets popped out to engage the intruders. Several fell quickly. The remainder began to dodge and weave close to the ground between the old barricades that had been left to decay in the cave.

A new intruder machine entered the chamber. It had a large box attached to its top that made it difficult for it to fly judging by how it ambled about. This one did not dart around or dodge. Instead it flew straight to one of the areas where it was protected from the guns and landed.

Once it touched the ground a small array unfolded from the box that had been attached to it. After a few moments the array started up. The effect was shocking to the JACKs, it was an anti-cloaking emitter, they were now visible for all to see.

On cue another new intruder entered the cave. This one had an attachment on its underside that looked like some kind of spear attached to a cable reel. It bee-lined straight towards Kitt like it intended to ram. He tried to dodge, moving to give the guns a clear shot on the pursuer. The ribbons of bullets chased after the hostile bot. A few seconds more and he'd be safe.

The intruder fired its weapon and the spear impacted Kitt on the side. Breaching one of the hatches where his arms were stowed. In a flash of sparks the intruder was destroyed but Kitt fell to the ground, head retracting.

Their task done. The remaining intruder machines all darted down to the ground hiding like the last group had just out of sight from the defenses. The one that had jammed the JACKs cloaking shut off and they promptly re-cloaked. The room went still.

The remaining JACKs looked on with a sense of worry. Kitt had not powered back up. They had thought Kitt might have been pretending to be offline. But with the other machines in the chamber they couldn't risk de-cloaking to check on him.

After a few minutes of the silent stand-off Kitt powered back up. The others waited but Kitt didn't raise cloak. The intruders were still here. Why would Kitt be moving around without cloaking? If another of those machines attacked Kitt was at risk.

The three remaining units emitted tones of concern for him. Kitt seemed unaware of them floating over to a guard post. Reaching the door Kitt moved inside to the terminal and connected. Seconds later the defenses were deactivated.

Kitt's compatriots rushed over to reactivate the turrets. Kitt was blocking them, refusing to move while still using the connector. Totally focused on the work seemingly unaware of them trying to communicate with him Kitt continued.

Skip even dropped cloak and tried to push Kitt away from the terminal. Kitt resisted for a few more moments before disconnecting. The turrets and came back online seconds later.

Kitt hovered into the middle of the chamber and emitted a set of tones. The intruder machines rose into the air, the jammer wobbled still. The others watched as the defenses did... nothing. Kit had reprogrammed them. But why? They tried to contact Kitt again. In response he transmitted a file to them.

6034-10 System update for JACK OS.

Checking the digital signature it was valid. Strangely, its time of creation was less than a day ago. Still it was more up to date than the three decade old version the units had been running until now certainly. Running additional checks over it and finding nothing malicious, the other JACKs installed the software. Each restarted once the update was done.

Reawakening they found that much had changed according to the update and the network they now found themselves connecting to. They hovered over to the machines they now knew at Watchers and inspected them. Seeing some of the damage the units had sustained from what the JACKs knew as friendly fire they began to make repairs using what they had to hand.

A few minutes later the first team entered the entrance chamber. The surviving Watchers had been somewhat repaired with most of the remaining damage on of them being simply cosmetic.

Seeing what they now knew as Gears and COG personal approach the JACKs moved over. Chirping proudly at their work and excitedly at their first human contact in three decades.

One of the Gears turned to their leader, 'These little guys sure do work fast don't they Sarge?'
The Sargent nodded 'Yep but now for the important question,' He looked at the four machines around him, 'Where do you keep the guns around here?'

Several hours later O'Connor was preparing to make his preliminary report to the Governor. With control of the JACKs they'd been able to unlock the doors and reprogram the defenses. He was waiting in the bases Motor Pool.

Looking around the space he was running inventory both mentally and digitally on his tablet. The rumble of engines heralded the Governors arrival. A group of Packhourses now bearing with black markings to show the Onyx had claimed them rolled down and parked up next to him.

The Governor stepped out. He was in his armor again. A calculated move to be seen as more military perhaps? Or had the Onyx insisted he wear it given the base had been hostile a short while ago? He looked around taking in the chamber then moved over towards O'Connor the Onyx moving around him a ring of black armor.

'Colonel,' Emmerich said with a curt nod.
'Governor,' O'Connor returned the gesture. 'We have what we need.'
'The plan worked?

'Like a charm,' O'Connor said with a smile tugging at his lips
'Ok. But what about the state of the material? You said that some of the weapons and ammo would have degraded,' Emmerich asked looking at the vehicles around them.
'If they had just been placed into a storage room, yes. But it seems this base was properly mothballed when they pulled out.'
'So what did we get, Colonel?'
'This way I'll give you the tour.'

They set off across the level. All around them DBI technicians, Army Sappers and DeeBees of all kinds were working on the vehicles that had been stored here.

'We've got a number of Pendulum war vehicles here in the Motor Pool. Mostly trucks and light mobility vehicles.' O'Connor said gesturing to the inspection teams
'Anything we can use right away?' Emmerich said looking at the row's of vehicles.
'Since you asked Governor. I had an idea but I'll need the tanker trucks they have here. And for you to approve this.' O'Connor passed a tablet with a requisition form ready for approval.

The Governor read it for a moment, 'That's quite a lot of fuel and what are Triethylaluminium and Polyisobutene?'
'Part of some counter Lambent drills we ran years ago. What else to do during peace but come up with ways we could have fought better,' O'Connor said wistfully.

Seemingly satisfied with his answer the Governor entered his approval, 'Anything else you need let me know and I'll do what I can.'
'I'll keep that in mind sir. This way please,' O'Connor lead them into the lift for the level, 'The base is mostly to COG standard.'
'Mostly?' Emmerich asked as the doors closed.

'Yes sir. Ten main levels. There's the upper entrances with camouflaged defenses on the top. Going down from there is the Upper defense line. To fight off attackers before they make it into the base proper. Then its the Motor pool for any equipment assigned here,' The lift stopped and O'Connor lead them out into the fourth level,
'This is the main quarters for the base. Bunk-rooms, armories, hospital, offices and that sort of thing.'

'Any information that explains this place?' Emmerich asked looking at the row upon row of door.
'Nothing yet sir. And that's rather unusual,' O'Connor said his tone uneasy.
'Unusual?'

'The JACKs have the codes for the doors, turrets and things. But the whole base network is under heavy non-standard encryption,' O'Connor said nodding to a computer at a guard post.
Emmerich looked at the screen for a moment, 'Any way we can decrypt it?'
'Not with what's here.'

'Ok I'll ask if we can get any help from New Ephyra. Anything else strange?' Emmerich asked, not quite wanting an answer.
'There's quite areas that look like they should be exits. Blast-doors, turrets and the like. But they open either to solid rock or small cavers that are dead-ends. Aside from how our team found the place of course,' O'Connor reported.
'Could they have planed to expand this place? Set the space aside?'

'No clue sir. But I don't know why this base was built. We would need to ask the people who commissioned it to explain it. Perhaps they could explain why this place has its equipment in sequence,' O'Connor remarked.
'In sequence?' Emmerich asked, cocking his head.
'All the equipment in here was made a the same time.' O'Connor passed Emmerich a tablet. On it a series of numbers ending SI were sorted into category's.

Emmerich scrolled through the list, 'How much equipment was left here?'
'Bear in mind this is from what we've inventoried ourselves since we can't get into the computers. And we will need to check them all first. But looking at the inventory the base was stocked for a full division,' O'Connor noted with a hint of interest.
'That's... a lot of weapons.'

'Yes sir. Yes it is.' O'Connor seemed to be in a better mood than ever. 'And it's not just the small stuff.'
'Small stuff?' Emmerich asked his eyes going wide.
'Yep we've got the heavy weapons Mulchers, Mortars, Chain guns and such.'

'That sounds good, would that be most of what you needed?' Emmerich said as they carried on through the base.
'Most? We've got more than enough at the moment. We've even got some stuff that was standard pre Locust war,' O'Connor said nearly rubbing his hands in glee.
'Such as?'

'Pike Rocket launchers, Longspear Missile launchers, Stomper 50. Cal GMG and a few other things,' O'Connor said counting off the tools of destruction of his hand.
'Any other weapons I may need to be aware of? You've not got a Hammer of Dawn down there do you? Jinn would not be happy to find out one of those was in a locker,' Emmerich sighed.
'Nothing with that much power.' O'Connor responded.

Emmerich nodded, 'Do our troops know how to use these things?'
'Not all of them but I have enough old Gears that have been reactivated that we can get the new blood trained up on them. Plus we will need to use some of them as parts for the time being since we don't have patterns for them all. Those little robots weren't exactly being armorers while the COG was gone.'
'That reminds me what did Ramos do after the JACK's were updated?'

'I'm pretty sure she adopted them. Got them working on the weapon checks already,' O'Connor said nodding towards the exit.
'Really?' Emmerich asked, surprised at the sudden progression.
'They are awfully helpful.' O'Connor noted.

The engineering bay was alive with activity. DeeBees were disassembling and reassembling weapons of all varieties. Ramos was watching from a catwalk. One of the DeeBees placed a component on the end of its work space separate from the rest.

A moment later one of the JACKs floated down into view and collected the part. After a brief inspection tagged it with a label and placed it back in another area. A DeeBee pushing a trolley replaced the labelled parts and carried away the old ones.

Looking over her small, but delightfully efficient repair shop Ramos allowed herself a grin. Even if they could only get half this stuff working the odds of survival just rolled in their favour. The ammo was being processed sepratly in a set of blast proof spaces. It was too risky to use the old ammo so they were recycling the rounds and using what they could as raw material for new ones.

Catching movement at the edge of her vision she looked to the entrance. The Governor was here. Two Onyx guards either side likely more outside. She'd been rather scared for a few days after their first meeting. But he'd been right. She was a professional and she took great pride in her work.

'Pretty impressive setup right?' She called down.
Emmerich turned to see Ramos.
'It's certainly better than we could have hoped for,' He replied looking back over the space.

'You're telling me,' She said heading down to join him.
'How are the JACKs settling in?' Emmerich asked watching as one of the machines floated along the line.
'These little brain boxes have been great at helping us get the bunker back to operational status. We even managed to get the power from the base hydroelectric generators tied into the camp thanks to them,' Ramos said. Gesturing to the JACK in the inspection area, 'I just wish we could get more but their brains come at a cost it seems and right now more DeeBees are better than a few JACKs'

Emmerich rubbed his mouth to cover what he next said, 'Any progress on the terrain issues?'
Ramos made a show of wiping her face when she responded, 'Let's talk in my office.'

Following Ramos to her office Emmerich entered whilst the two Onyx that were escorting him broke off to guard the door. Taking the Chair in front of the Desk Emmerich waited for Ramos to get settled.

'Ok I'll start with the bad news. There's no good place here,' Ramos said firmly.
'I feared as much how did this place get selected?' Emmerich sighed.
'If they were following procedure. They asked one of the AI's to pick out the best places for settlements. Use to be we'd want somewhere near by to a city or other ruins for material. But not so close people have to look at the place all day. Other stuff like how to connect it to the transit network and things.'

'I'm guessing we added ease of defense to the list now,' Emmerich noted.
'I would think so. But with how our data was off this place must have been a fluke. The base messes everything up,' Ramos said throwing up her hands.
'How did we not detect it. Surly there was some sign on the surveys?'

'I think they have some materials mixed into the place. Its been messing with our scans. The Fabricators have been spiting it out too,' Ramos growled.
'Any idea what that stuff is?' Emmerich asked.
'Our current guess is some kind of stealth materials. We've found a few and they all keep messing with our gear in different ways. The whole bunch together must scrabble this place to hide it.'

Emmerich massaged his temples, 'Will the new equipment on the supply shipment help?'
'Should do. Plus we're getting our own research and development team. Hopefully they can help us work around stuff but regardless. I can't build on a void. We need to find a better place for the Settlement. I'll have my teams keep searching the surrounding area. At least the survey posts are helping O'Connor track anything moving out there,' Ramos noted the positive.
'Good you seem to have it in hand. If you need anything just let me know.'

Emmerich headed out. Ramos looked over the reports on her terminal.

Three faulty or damaged material analyzers? That was strange. One had exploded. The second shorted out. Their third unit had been loaded with a standard 500g sample. But kept insisting it was 490g when the unit was switched on. The units should have been accurate to the milligram. Ramos was starting to lose her patience with this stuff.

Getting back to his office Emmerich minimized the rest of his work and began to read the updated briefing document. Whilst it was all digital some parts were just scanned copies of the paper work he'd been given on the day of departure.

The population figures were still being adjusted. The requests for additional equipment had been rebuffed, no surprise there. But the other sections were what interested him now.

They would be getting a research team who would be in charge of helping the Settlement make the most of its resources. Be that adjusting existing systems or working on whole new ones. He typed up a brief message and sent it to the R&D mailbox asking them to look into the issues O'Connor and Ramos were having.

It was a big order but perhaps they would have some ideas that could help. With that done he looked over a report on the incoming cargo shipment the R&D teams equipment was packed with.

Enough food to feed a settlement's worth of people was not a small amount. Ramos was working the teams overtime having suitable storage space prepared. They had even opted to clear one of the storage areas of recovered weapons from the bunker to make more room. The weapons were being moved to a port warehouse to make space closer to the site. Even then the stocks being delivered were only good for two months. They would need to look at getting the production of foodstuffs up and running ASAP.

Emmerich paused for a moment the acronym reminding him of the events a few weeks before when he had first been given this duty. It seemed like an age but it had only been a month or so. Perhaps getting out of the apartment really did help get his head in order.

He reached the section on personnel assignment and froze for a moment as he read a scanned page. He recognized the two names crossed out.
Sheila Cathryn and Luke Carter. His had been written on after them. But why would the others be taken off? Sheila had been the head of Settlement 2 and Luke had been her Lieutenant Governor.

Both had far more experience with running a large Settlement. Had they been assigned elsewhere? He checked their connection and saw that the satellite was still linked. He connected to the Ministry of Settlements personnel list and entered the names. After a minute of searching the results appeared on his screen.

Settlement 2 Governor - Sheila Cathryn - Status: Left the organization.
Settlement 2 Lieutenant Governor - Luke Carter - Status: Extended Wellness Leave.

For a moment he wanted to puke. He knew what those terms meant. Another brief pang of fear washed over him before he got it under control. He walked shaking over to a jug of water and forced his hands to keep steady as he poured a glass.

Shelia was dead. They would have changed her title to be Former Governor if she had retired. Luke was on leave it seemed. But Emmerich knew the extended part would mean he had been committed to a medical center without the ability to discharge himself.

How could that have happened? The two of them had been running Settlement 2 for nearly two decades before Emmerich had joined. Two people who had inspired and mentored him. One dead, the other suffering so badly he'd been placed into protective care. Was he next?

No, he had to find his focus again. After finishing the drink and calming himself he walked back to the desk and seated himself again.

Opening a new window and starting writing a message to Shelia's husband Ruperto. He was late to give his condolence but he felt better for doing so. Emmerich hoped he remembered him. They had met on a few occasions but those had been events with quite a few people.

It felt wrong to ask how Shelia had passed. But he had no idea how she had died he opted to leave the question open if Ruperto knew and was willing to tell him. With that one sent he wrote up and sent a second for Carter the man had been a micro manager. But to think he'd been committed for his own sake was saddening. Hopefully he was getting the care he needed wherever he was now.

After trying to get back to his work and failing he opted to close down his terminal and head to his quarters. The hub constructor would be coming with the next shipment. A few more days and they would be a major step closer to being prepared for their citizens.