The ability to copy and build a blueprint simply by looking and dissecting machinery was something closer to fantasy. Even to most brilliant engineers and scientists in Arasaka. Militech and Biotechnica too.
Ask the people sticking to the streets, and they'd think it's easy if you know your way around tech. They'd think that, with enough books and hands-on experience attempting such a feat was possible.
If that really was, Arasaka wouldn't need an entire team of engineers working together to research a subject. Biotechnica wouldn't need to set up an entire project just to finish a blueprint. And Militech wouldn't need a group to reverse engineer whatever new-technology they managed to steal off of other Corps.
It wasn't as simple as people thought. You wanted to replicate a motor? You needed to know what every pistons and cogs and gears looked like. You also needed to understand why they were shaped like that - the strengths and limitations of what you were looking at.
You can't just give an artist a brush, give them a picture of Mona Lisa, ask them to perfectly replicate it and expect a perfect result in a day.
At best it would take a month or two, nearly a year on average.
Spartan Cell and Ram could look at any tech that wasn't from the Forerunners, and crack it down within half an hour. Basic Forerunner tech would take around 3 days to crack.
They weren't just an artist. They were Leonardo Da Vinci himself, split into two. If they wanted a challenge, they would be focusing on works specifically done by Forerunner Lifeshapers and Master Builders. And also researching traces of Precursors and the mechanism of their Neural physics technology.
All they needed to do was take it apart and have a look at it for 10 minutes - they'll be able to replicate the exact blueprint of whatever machine they were given.
Down to the last, minute, detail.
These guys were more akin to Space Wizards than standard Engineers working under Arasaka and Militech.
Spartan Cell looked at the several cars and weapons the team had dismantled.
The other engineers were all huddling together, pointing at some of the still- intact engines and laughing at the lack of evident advancement.
In the eyes of UNSC engineers, Even the fastest cars with the latest Engines were primitive Horse-carriages.
"Look at this engine! This thing is still running on gas!"
"Hey Cell, check what these guys are using for fuel!"
Cell looked up from his screen to see the holograph his engineers had brought to him.
A 3D model of their fuel's chemical configuration.
Cell let out a shrill laugh the moment he laid his eyes on it.
He hated it.
He hated everything about Earth's engine and the fuels they relied on.
My god, they still rely on something like this.
Cell ran his hands across the spectral nodes of his helmet. Even if his Mjolnir hid his face, his immeasurable disappointment was still visibly showing.
CHOOH2. They still had to rely on organic compounds as fuel. No doubt harvested from plants modified specifically to produce them.
It was written all over the chemical structure.
"These motherfuckers still using compounds!"
They were over complicating the whole process.
Growing mass crops to fuel something like this.
UNSC had already equipped Warthogs and Mongoose with Hydrogen-injected internal combustion engines.
They didn't need some rough mixtures of Carbons and Oxygens.
They only needed Hydrogen. That thing was just one proton and an electron. Had some neutrons if it was deuterium or tritium - but those were used for fusion drives and pinch fusion reactors. The ones that would replicate the conditions of a star's core.
And they've been using that even before the start of the Human-Covenant War.
Agent Washington had to walk into a room full of laughing scientists and engineers.
If he was new, he'd think that he just walked into them telling a good joke, or they were raving mad.
This wasn't Agent Washington's first rodeo.
"Alright, we get it- we landed on a planet full of cavemen. Now stop laughing at them and tell me we can control ourselves. Please?"
One of the engineers couldn't stop laughing, and had to ask the Spartan in the midst of a fit.
"Comman- Commander… Commander Washington, sir… we- we ne-" The engineer let out a wheeze " We need to let us give them a Hydrogen-injected internal combustion engine, please… I'm begging you. I can't- You honestly cannot expect us to make some primitive engine like this and be fine with it!"
"I say we slap a pinch fusion reactor on our cars and call it a day!" Cell quipped to his Engineer's plea.
"Oh- no, no no! Stand down Cell, I'm not letting you slap a dying star as a fuel and let the natives carry them around. We need this City intact if we want to profit off of them, and we can't do that if these people are given hydrogen bombs!"
"But- my god, I seriously can't be expected to go down to their level. We just can't!"
"I mean, Cell! That's fine! You don't have to go down to their level. Well, not fully… I just need you to make an engine that runs on the standard fuel of Night City… for now.
And exclusively. On the standard fuel. Please."
The room went quite in response to Commander Washington's request.
The Spartan Commander knew that these folks were capable of doing that.
But whether they could, and whether they would, was mutually exclusive.
Sure, they had the ability. But what about their pride?
"Washington, You know what I do?" Cell finally spoke after a moment of silence. Everyone turning their gaze to Cell.
"… What…?"
Spartan Cell pointed at the engines they gathered from the now-dead Raffen Shivs.
"Not. Fucking. That."
And there it goes. Another outburst from Cell that caused a chain reaction of laughter from the engineers.
Washington shook his head. He had a hard time getting his mind to understand the thought process of these Engineers and Scientists.
Perhaps he never will. Perhaps the very fact that they could never be understood is the reason why they were so capable of making something like Cell-matter, or a near-perfect replica of the Forerunner Assembler Vats.
"Look, you can make it however you want, just make it strictly run on petrol, or diesel, or whatever the natives use for their cars. We need to ease them in. We just got here, and we just started to make some products before we get further intel from our black ops unit. We don't need MegaCorpos suddenly trying to take a jab at us because we decided to make them obsolete. Okay? Let's take it smooth and slow."
One of the Engineers raised his hands, and Washington had to sigh.
He already knew just how much of a headache and a half these guys were to deal with.
"Yes, Frederick?"
"Does that mean we can't make our cars with Cell-Matter?"
Spartan Cell groaned at the name. And Spartan Washington groaned at the question itself.
"What the fuck did I just tell you guys!? Of course not! Make it some… new alloy. Nothing that contains nanomachines in them."
"Yo, Frederick, I need you to stop calling it Cell-Matter. I thought I was clear that we decided on Proto-Smart Matter."
"Honestly, I think I say on behalf of your engineers that Cell-Matter sounds better." As soon as Agent Washington added in his own opinion into the mix, Cell held up a finger.
"You, shut the fuck up. I'm already feeling like my god complex is acting up after we made the Assembler Vats, I don't need anything more that'll make me feel narcissistic."
"Too late for that, when you decided to laugh at our new neighbour's engines."
Cell's head bobbed a little as he slightly nodded. He wanted to object, but Agent Washington was right.
"… Alright, fine. I'll make it work only with the CHOOH2 fuel. But I'm taking creative liberty in how it's processed."
"Thank you, that's all I ask for."
"Also I'm making the body of the car with nanolaminated alloys."
"I… that doesn't contain nanobots, right? I'm scared cause it has the word nano in it."
"Well, it's assembled by our Nanomachines. It's just alloy composed of nanoscale-thick alternating layers of different materials. It'll make our car better."
"… Just remember, we're-"
""- easing them in."" Cell raised his arms and shrugged his shoulders. "Yeah, I get it. I heard you the first time. Besides, what we need to worry isn't easing them into our presence, Wash."
"Then what is?"
"It's making sure they don't steal whatever technology we give them. We do that wrong and we'll basically be giving them baby steps for them to use to develop weapons that might be huge pain in our asses down the line. And you, me, and Captain Church both know that a lot of those MegaCorps are going to act like Insurrectionist parties."
"Cell?"
"Am I wrong?"
"Do you really think that they'll be capable of replicating nanolaminated alloys and umm… whatever engine you'll build under creative freedom?"
Cell instinctively opened his mouth to object and explain… until he saw what people on Earth was working with.
It was like worrying that Troglodytes would replicate a pistol when they haven't even found copper and invented bronze yet.
It would be a miracle if these Corpos saw whatever UNSC Was printing out of this newly built factory and not worship it.
"… No." Cell finally answered. "No, I don't think so. Now that I think about it. They'd have to engineer an assembler vat first before they can replicate whatever we're going to build."
"… Well, glad to hear the good news. Thank goodness you answered your own question. Now that that's settled, I also need to ask you to try and get one of those corpses and have a look at their cybernetic augmentations. We could make another sale off of that."
"Actually speaking of another sale - I need you to know there's a bit of difficulty in terms of food sale."
"What's the problem?"
"DNA samples. For agriculture, I don't have much of a problem. We have an entire seed bank back in UNSC Revenant that we can use for Crops, Fruits and Vegetables. Grow natural, genuine fresh fruits stable and quick. The problem is protein."
"Protein?"
"Animals, Wash. Meat. I know that meat was heavily rationed within the UNSC, but Earth had it worse. We've at least managed to make proper protein farms where we would clone pig, chicken or cow stem cells and culture them in the UNSC Revenant. Grow steaks and pork-chops like they were 3d printed. Hell, we've managed to modify a chicken cell so that we can get eggs. Other Colony planets might have domesticated animals farmed for meat. Not really here though. From the resources sent to me, I found that they've essentially farmed bug protein to substitute meat."
"We could at least try selling protein cultures."
"Yeah, we could. Probably taste more genuine than whatever worm meat they decided to season liberally to trick buyers into thinking it taste like anything but. Alternatively - if you get me a chicken, a pig and a cow - I could make us an entire food farm. Flash clone them with artificially modified variety in their DNA. Make their population diverse. Then we can patent our newly produced animals to Food Corporations. Sell the licence cheap but limited so that we can standardise natural, genuine meat as food. It's a quicker way to establish political importance on the agricultural business on Earth than just selling cell cultures."
"Ok, yeah. You got a point there. So what do you want me to do?"
"Steal animals."
Agent Washington did a double take.
"… Excuse me?"
"Steal animals. I believe there was some farms in Night City that contained cows and pigs. Chickens will be a problem. Night City banned distribution of avians due to fear of influenza."
"You want me, to send people out and steal… animals for you."
"I don't care if they're sick and overfed with chemicals and drugs. You get me at least one live animals of each kind- I'll bring them back to excellent health with 3 kids, and their population from extinction."
"… Do you even have a proper facility to do that?"
"I will by tomorrow. If you can get me those animals, Commander Wash."
"… I'll let the boys in black ops know. But don't get your hopes up, I doubt we'll be able to get any of those animals for at least a month."
"That's fine. I'll focus on mass agriculture of naturally grown crops and fruits in the mean time. And I'll have to settle on creating protein cell culture for now."
"What you're going to focus on is making vehicles, Chief Engineer. I don't want you jumping from one unfinished project to another. Finish this one, then you can focus on food."
Cell stood there for a minute, his spectral node blinking red for a few seconds.
He then turned to his smart AI Kyle. The holographic model of a Sangheili, born from the brains flash cloned from Cheif Engineer Khyl 'Suhom (Khyl was more than happy to volunteer as a donor. It wasn't everyday when you could see your mind copied to become software closer to the forerunners) was fiddling with a holographic replica of a Plasma rifle on top of Cell's table.
"Hey, Kyle?"
"Yes?"
"Get the blueprint I was working on, and add an atmosphere filter system I made a blueprint in the File named [Get fucked, Air] into the chamber. We're going to be completely combusting the CHOOH2 using air. If we do this right, we could potentially make a car engine that can travel twice the speed and distance for half the fuel. That's nearly a quadruple in efficiency."
"Won't it be just easier if we installed a hydrogen-injected internal combustion engine instead of overcomplicating it with CHOOH2?"
"That's what I'm saying! But Wash wants us 'easing them in'!"
"… I see. I'll get onto installing the atmosphere filter system to the current engine blueprint."
"… Thank you." With a huff, Cell turned back to Agent Washington with his hands outstretched, showing the 3D blueprint of the newest engine being finalised.
"Get fucked, Wash. I finished what you wanted in just an hour."
Washington responded with a dry clap, shaking his head a little.
Guy was a genius. Annoying sometimes, but a genius.
"Now, I'll leave the rest rest of this job to the engineers here. I'm moving onto agriculture."
"What about the weapons here?"
"Primitive. Might as just well be using two sticks and a stone. And they're sharing the stone."
"You're not going to be working on weapons?"
"Nah, not yet. Got no real use for them right now. I think one of the engineers wanted to have a crack on weaponry anyway. I'll leave it to them for now."
"…. Well, alright. I guess you can start making… a farm. I guess."
Cell started to pack his datapad and Smart AI the moment Washington finished his sentence. A fickle Spartan, he was already raring to move onto his next project.
The UNSC soldiers that came down to Earth was getting hungry anyway. It was good incentive for Cell to change his interest, and was certainly good timing - none of the UNSC personnels were against the idea of getting stable supply of food.
"Great. I'm making a water filter system as well. The water here is toxic as shit. I'm also taking one of the assembler vats, don't stop me."
"I… why would I? You go on… ahead. I'll just contact the Black ops about the animals."
"How's my brother doing anyway?"
"Ram's doing great. Fireteam Baba Yaga managed to get in contact with a fixer and got their first job as a mercenary."