I would like to thank
Alex Warlorn for reviewing this story
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Going back in time a bit as shortly after Regina had entered what no one knew was built to be a city wide roboticizer...
"Are you sure it was a good idea to only immobilize them as this" a black hair technomage asked?
"No, I am not as this is unknown ground we are now in" Regina father and commander said with a sigh
They had been swarmed by robians and roboticized Overlanders on all sides. They could not see them thus they just tried to overwhelm the general area seemingly under orders to cover it completely. After all, if they can not see where their target is then just cover the area they told and that should work in theory. After all, they are merely invisible to their sensors but not intangible though, thus coming in contact with them is still possible.
These were highly skilled and well trained technomages that were better than Regina when it came to experience and combat knowledge. Things her raw talent and limited knowledge could not make up for. Sure it allowed her to do things she can not as a result of it being limited thus unaware when she is doing something unheard of.
"Is this why you decided to let her go into this thing alone then?" a short technomage asked
"What!?" their commander asked
"You let her go in alone because she would not have been able to handle herself out here" they replied
"Are you implying that I put Regina's safety and the mission endanger merely because she is my daughter?" her father asked?
Another reason was that Regina was not a combat technomage but a mid range supporter scout instead. She knew frontline/close range combat but her training left her a more general magitek user. She was still growing after all no one wanted to confine her to a single style at the moment like they were. Those that were technomage now all had a specialty that they focused on more than the others even if they could be considered all rounders. There was no master jack of all trade as everyone started a one but over time became a close, mid, or long range technomage. Mid range supporters were what everyone started out as and slowly as they grew and learned more they move towards being close or long range. Even those that decided to stay as mid range supporters were closer to close range or long range themselves. No one stood in the middle as a true mid range master though if raised properly some thought if she wanted Regina could be the first one to be that.
"Of course not as that was probably the right decision to make given the choices we had at the time. She was able to get in and could probably do a better job at remaining hidden than we could in such an unknown area. Look we can not budge this thing yet she was able to make her way in" the black hair mage told him.
Though no one in the group wanted to mention they noticed how Regina reacted when she saw roboticized Overlanders for the first time. She might have thought she hid her reaction and shock but even if her commander did not catch it. They did and they were not sure at the time that immobilizing them would be possible if they needed to do so. Regina was mid range supporter scout at the moment that meant she did not engage directly in combat with anyone in a serious manner at least not at this level. She was able to spar with the best technomages around but that was sparing not fighting at least not in the truest sense at least.
Controlling robians was not anything new to her either as she did that almost all the time during her scouting duties. However, could she control a person that had been roboticized though? It was one thing to do that to a robian but a completely different story to do to Overlander, at least for her. She was still a kid after all and she was not sent on any combat mission that leave her dealing with other Overlanders. She was not alone in this aspect as many others did not do combat missions like that it is Regina was unknown to her not given a choice in the matter.
Surely it was possible that she would have to do such a thing inside the machine and even if one of them was with her. It might be likely they would be depending on her as their main attacker. Given that they had a bad feeling about how effective their ability to use magitek would be inside this thing in the first place. So better they take the chance of her running into a few on the inside then facing the swarm that they had on the outside where one mistake would spell the end for them. Something they learned as they created some decoys that all them dogpile onto thinking they had managed to capture on their invisible targets.
Things were settled here rather quickly after as they used not be able to be seen on top of them falling for the decoys allowed to immobilize all the roboticized Overlanders at least. The robians and robots though were put down seeing the robians were considered too far gone to be helped. Thus taking them out was considered putting them out of their misery in this sense. For all they knew they were still in there but trapped unable to do anything on their own anymore...or worse their minds were reformatted along with their bodies. Maybe because they had tried and failed countless times before to help a robian. That it was considered not possible to help them anymore thus current stance on them (They never had any hopes of deroboticizing them at all). There might still be hope for the Overlanders though thus they were spared as a result of things.
"Guys I think there something going on as this thing just started hummed really loudly," the short technomage said
"It's activating did that mean something happened to Regina then," black hair one said.
"It's too early to say as this thing might be bigger and/or complex than it looks on the inside" their commander stated "Create cover against the blast!"
They all did as he commanded using their magitek to create a shield to cover themselves with so that the blast should not affect them. However, once the blast had blown by them their cover did was not dropped though.
'This is Unit 3185113. To those that are outside of this roboticizer drop whatever cloaking you are using and go about freeing those you immobilized' a voice said
However, this was not a voice that could be heard out loud but one over a system that only those tuned in could hear it. That tune was those that were roboticized.
'Affirmative' came numerous replies as the now roboticized version of Regina's father and his troops stood up to carry out their orders.
Their attempt to shield themselves was decent but futile as it did nothing to protect them from the blast that left them no different than those lying around them at the moment.
'Also use your magitek to repair those robians that you have damaged. Their systems are still functioning just repairs are required' she ordered.
Thus attempts were made to do so yet there was a problem as their new metallic bodies were getting in the way of using their abilities properly anymore. A bulk of them was being used to move their bodies at all seeing as roboticizing a technomage result in slightly different than the average Overlander that had been so thus far. For some reason, the same metal that the roboticizer itself was made happened to be the same that the technomage were made of as well. So their abilities were nerfed as controlling their bodies properly took the usage of their magitek so less of it was available to be used on anything else.
'Affirmative. Calculating damages done and reworking objectives to align with available resources on site' Mecha Cream announced 'Processing done these are your new orders as you will now defend this place from all threats to the completion of our master's plan'
'Affirmative' the group of now defenders of the roboticizer said.
Given that their abilities have dropped, the hold they had over the other roboticized Overlanders was released and they were allowed to return to what they were once doing now having proper defenders to ensure they could carry out their own given task. It was like this that those meant to stop the roboticizer to instead became its defenders.
Since they spend so much time worrying about the Overlanders they saw here as roboticized. They never reported this back to anyone thus knowledge of this was never broadcast to anyone and Regina now became the only one left aware there being roboticized Overlander that were not just metal statues basically.