by Skyler Grant
"She is a ruthless sociopath to her allies and shows an unsettling loyalty to her one time superiors," I said.
"If you think she is a sociopath to her friends you should see what she does to her enemies. But then, I suppose that you are," Crystal said.
"Enough to convince me that it would be reckless to do even more to earn her ire. At least in exchange for nothing but friendly words and empty promises," I said.
Crystal closed her eyes for a moment and I received a data connection from her district.
I opened the feed. It was surveillance.
I'd been observing the other districts enough to recognize most of them at once.
Hot Stuff was in some sort of cell, the wolf head on the wall outside meant she was a captive of James Wolf. Mechos was toiling away in a workshop in a ruined building, only one district had that style of architecture and it was rune by Jade. Ratticus was on a laboratory table in a high technology lab that was distinctly Zora. Batarius was working in a lab that looked far more dated, it might almost have been one of my own except it wasn't. That district was run by a gentleman named the Professor. Tara the one time Righteous captain flickered in and out of existence which meant she was held by another District leader named Flicker.
"My crew are alive and captives," I said.
"They are. The question is are you going to do anything about that? Are you stronger alone with nothing to hold you back?" Crystal asked.
I didn't know.
4
Sylax did not approve of me showing up for council meetings with a human host. It was a sign of her weakness that she thought a mechanical me was a lesser me, she would learn otherwise.
We were gathered around a large table, James Wolf wearing heavy battle armor and the only one armed was seated to Sylax's right while a sulky looking Crystal was seated at her left.
While these meetings were in theory so we each could report on our progress and coordinate with each other, in truth they were Sylax's opportunity to chastise us.
"Emma, your clone production continues to lag behind targets. Is it incompetence or bitterness?" Sylax asked. Unfortunately she looked none the worse for wear for my one time efforts to kill her, form-clinging black and red body armor showing she still didn't trust those in this room. At her feet was Anna, the real one, dressed in only a ragged and dirty shift with a collar around her neck. Anna showed a number of bruises and cuts, with her accelerated healing they either had to have been inflicted recently or Sylax had some way of dampening her abilities.
"The incompetence of a supervisor who can't set proper targets. I gave you a timetable of when my production facilities would be online. It was not some fictional document," I said.
Sylax didn't like that, people rarely liked the truth. Sylax lashed out with her foot and caught Anna in the midsection sending her tumbling across the floor. Human ears wouldn't have detected the fracturing of a rib, my sensors did.
"Do better or I'll find a way to kick you as well. Wolf, I weary of you holding back your forces," Sylax said.
I had little desire or need to watch Wolf be berated and instead focused my attention on Anna and worked to pull up her stats. I normally was able to keep track of all my agents and allies but since waking up here I'd been unable to do so.
Anna
Age: 23
Height: 127.7 cm
Weight: 64.6 kg
Physical Stats
Values out of 10
5 is the Human Average
Allure: 8
Endurance:7
Strength: 5
Agility: 7
Health
Subject shows signs of recent torture and severe malnutrition
Upgrades
Accelerated Healing
Temperature Resistant Matrix
BioArmor
Teleportation
Subject is upgradeable
You have 12 upgrade points available
Physical stats can be upgraded at a cost of 1 upgrade point per statistic point up to 10
You also have the following options based on research
Fire Matrix 5 points
Pack Authority 5 points
Energy Control 5 points
Enhanced Senses 5 points
I could use the research points I'd been stockpiling from Mad Science to upgrade her. Any physical changes might be noticed by Sylax if she decided to look more closely at her beaten pet. Both the Fire Matrix and Enhanced Senses had some serious drawbacks in addition to the abilities they granted, the Fire Matrix rendered almost all weapons, armor, and clothing useless as it would simply burn off the body while Batarius had to wear specialized goggles because of the sensory overload granted by Enhanced Senses.
I couldn't be as subtle here as I'd like. I didn't know when I'd see Anna again and if I wanted to keep her alive I had to give her every edge I could, otherwise I had little doubt Sylax would eventually kill her. I upped each of her stats up to ten and then gave her Pack Authority and Energy Control. The results were immediate, Anna's muscle tone shaping and sculpting as she went from average to ripped.
Whatever Sylax had done to her it hadn't broken her mind. Her eyes caught my drone's sensor and she nodded imperceptibly before curling herself into a ball and beginning to sob.
It concealed the bulk of the changes and if it drew glances it was only for a moment before people looked away from an uncomfortable sight.
"Unacceptable," Sylax said as she had continued to berate her way around the table. Currently the focus of her Ire was Crash. Crash was a heavy-set man in garish colored shorts and a tee shirt, a tablet computer always at his side. I gathered he had a command core that granted him some sort of specialized control over complex systems.
"My control is growing exponentially. Weak now, big later, you'll have all the city systems," Crash said.
"Promises," Sylax said.
"Math," Crash said.
"If you miss your deadline I'll start subtracting body parts. Zora, I still don't have my crystals," Sylax said.
I still hadn't put together how Zora had hooked up with Sylax after we'd abandoned her, expecting her to take the blame for the killing of a coworker. Anna had declined to buy her services, but Zora hadn't let that stop her from finding a new opportunity. I admired her persistence and ruthlessness, a shame I was certain she was an enemy.
"If you weren't devoting all our resources to this idiotic war we'd have them. You just took this city and we've had no opportunity to establish ourself," Zora said.
I respected her honesty as well, especially when it angered Sylax.
Sylax snapped her fingers and gestured sharply with one hand and Zora went flying across the room to smash into a wall. This time it required no specialized sensors to detect the snap of bones breaking, it was obvious when it happened to so many at once.
"Ophelia, save her. Professor, I still don't have my shields," Sylax said.
Ophelia rose from her chair and went to kneel beside Zora resting a hand on her frame. Ophelia possessed accelerated healing and anyone in her immediate vicinity gained some semblance of those same abilities.
"This city had sat for a very long time before we claimed it and its energy reserves are empty. Get me crystals and I can get you your shields," said the Professor. He was a dapper looking man in a tweed suit, Doctor Batarius sat at his side silent.
Zora screamed and twitched as bones began to snap back into place. The sound brought a smile to Sylax's lips, I'd noticed that suffering usually did.
"We're preparing for the siege on Kartikus soon. The next time we meet I'd better hear some good news," Sylax said.
The meeting dissolved quickly after she got to her feet. Nobody wanted to linger. Time away from our districts was always dangerous, less so for me than the others as I could be two places at once.
5
It was a risk to build up too many defenses. Sylax might see it as a challenge and I really didn't want her to see it as a challenge. I also wanted to be prep
ared in case she or any of the others tried violence. I did have my defense drones but they were still in limited numbers, my stolen biomatter only went so far.
The question was what to build. We were a city at war, but I felt that my greatest threat might come from those who were supposed to be my allies.
Sylax's war was one between Scholar factions and that was unfortunate as it meant we might be facing almost anything. Scholars quested far in search of power crystals and therefore represented a diverse threat. That wasn't something specific I could cater to.
The local threats were more specific.
Jade had a history of stupidly rebelling against Sylax and that meant that if anyone was going to brave a first strike on another district head it was likely to be here.
From what I knew of her powers Jade was a powerful telekinetic capable of both projecting waves of kinetic force as well as erecting kinetic shields. Energy weapons would be the key if she attacked again. I needed to make sure I always had a stockpile. I'd studied the Righteous designs well enough to duplicate them, and while materials were in short supply I could make do with my growth vats. I also thought that I might be able to do something similar in plant form, they already effectively stored energy from light in chemical form and with a bit of tweaking I believed I could effectively make that process work in reverse.
I'd have to assign one of my research teams to seeing what could be done there. I rather liked the idea fields of sunbeam flowers planted in public areas. They could have utility against more than just Jade, for all that they were tailored for her weakness.
Zora was the next obvious threat and unfortunately she remained one of the biggest mysteries. Like Anna had been she was a crystal hunter, responsible for acquiring crystals that her superiors could make use of. I suspected that to seize a district at all she would have had to have bonded with a powerset but unfortunately I had no idea what that might be. I didn't like that ignorance.
Ophelia had once been a member of the crew although after bonding with a source orb and fusing with an alternate if overly friendly version of my own personality she had stolen the Graven and claimed a district for herself. Sylax trusted her about as much as she trusted me, which didn't mean that we were allies.
I knew that Ophelia had accelerated healing, and the source orb inside of her seemed to have only magnified that effect. In addition in Amy, my alternate aspect, she had a tactical and scientific genius at her disposal.
The best option to neutralize Ophelia was to get her inside a grinder, deal damage so quickly to her body that she couldn't put it back together in time to respond. That way she could be suspended in that state indefinitely, I'd done it before when harvesting building supplies from her body. I'd need to specially construct one now and have it empty at all times, just in case.
Flicker was a woman who seemed barely in touch with our reality at all, mostly resident in some entirely different one with only brief visual indicators that she was here. It effectively made her nearly impossible to harm, although it also meant her ability to interact with items here was nearly nonexistant.
I wouldn't worry about her at all except that the fact she had claimed a district proved her abilities to interact here were at least somewhat under her control and could be intensified. I didn't have a good solution to deal with Flicker, I thought it possible that with teleportation I might be able to lock on to her and force her to appear at a location at a time. It was all just theoretical though without a chance to test or a research lab. I would simply need to remember and be prepared.
Crash and his ability to subvert systems and programs was a problem given I really was a computer. I knew that I had no particular immunity to mind control, and might be subject to his control more than most. I thought my best option there would be the autonomy of some of my units. I could assume direct control, but they could also act on their own. For all I might create them my humans were, humans.
It would be wise then for me to give one of them full control of themselves and the tools they needed to neutralize a threat. I'd assign that to Bernard, I'd given him the teleportation ability in the past and as a scout he would be well prepared for observation. Ideally I would also have a supply of Righteous, when killed they returned after twenty-four hours but their bodies when dead turned into a sort of goo that neutralized powers. I'd used it before to insulate my core from mind control.
Sadly the only Righteous I knew of that was in the city was Tara. Rescuing her would have to become a priority, and for more than an effort to reunite the crew.
Crystal I was prepared to cautiously call an ally now, still as threats went she was perhaps the largest. Another upgrader which meant she was capable of nearly anything.
The Professor was supposed to have a core that allowed him to understand and speak any language instantly. It was of little direct threat, although I would need to be careful not to let him have a look at my code. His scientific genius stood apart from his crystal granted abilities, although his emphasis seemed to be on mechanics and physics. My biological systems were hopefully something more mysterious to him.
James Wolf was strong, brave, and a leader of a pack of soldiers capable of working together with extraordinary skill. I thought in any fray they would be his weakness, kill or threaten his men to control the commander.
Sylax of course was the greatest threat of all, and I'd already thrown everything I had at her and she just kept going. I needed to learn more about her.
For now I'd have to settle on armoring my buildings, I further placed explosive charges within the structure while doing so. Given my organic nature and gained abilities my facilities could heal damage done to them, including that which was self inflicted. Most of my foes were not as regenerative.
I was still concerned about the air vent vulnerability. I thought some sort of insect was likely the solution, another matter to turn over to my research teams.
6
I didn't have long to wait to put my defenses to the test. It was two days later an attack came, and just as I thought was likely it was Jade who was making the first move. A powerful telekinetic even before becoming a district head, her powers like mine had been amplified by taking control a portion of this city.
Jade hovered with a nimbus of green light around her body as she entered my district flanked by her lieutenants. She and they seemed a bit fond of black leather and a truly unnecessary number of spikes, they did take this whole playing rebel thing seriously.
The research team working on beam weapon flowers had made quick progress. A modification of sparkseeds they stored power in biochemical cells for specialized release through a focusing flower. It was the flower which was the problem, focusing that much energy was complex and the team thought the flowers might simply incinerate themselves. Still, there were multiple test fields planted. Jade was already splitting up her force into three parts and it looked like one of them be heading in that direction.
Jade was heading off alone towards my central core while she was dispatching one team each to my manufacturing and my research wings. The woman really was foolish, even if she were to avoid consequences for hurting me harming the manufacturing efforts would be certain to irritate Sylax. The same went for if I survived and lost them.
I'd only had the supplies to create six beam rifles but that would have to be enough.
Since taking the district some limits had been imposed on my abilities that were not there before. I and my agents each had a power meter now that had a limited supply and needed time to refresh. In the past I'd made use of some things like unlimited teleporting but that was no longer going to be an option.
Snipers were going to be my best option. Each team consisted of ten people, and then Jade alone. I'd focused on neutralizing her Lieutenants and then focus on her.
They didn't view me as a threat, that much was obvious by the teams laughter as they made their way along. With flicks of their wrists walls caved in. I made sure my support drones were out of th
e area before they arrived.
It was foolish of them, but powers made people overconfident and they were clearly used to destroying everything that came into their path.
I needed to take a few for capture. Normally I would use tranquilizer gas but with their abilities would probably offer them some defense against that, at least if they were able to focus. A combination then to disorient them and pick a few off the herd. I could time it with my main attack.
I positioned several of my human defense drones armed with the beam weaponry atop buildings in the path of the team heading for my manufacturing facilities.
When they entered an open square where my snipers had a lock I executed the plan. I teleported in a drone laden down with sonic grenades.
They were more prepared than I expected, the drone was being torn apart and flung into the air even as the first ones went off. Blasts of concussive and disorienting sound dropped them to the ground. Three drones materialized only long enough to grab hold and then it was off to a testing cell.
As soon as they were clear the snipers opened fire. Two targets were felled at once and one of my snipers was wrenched off the room in a blaze of green energy and flung toward the ground below. I teleported her away before impact to a different rooftop.
Another two down. Shields of greenish power had sprang up around the lieutenants but kinetic shields just weren't helpful against focused energy blasts. Two more buildings collapsed inward before the last of them were fallen. Fortunately, they hadn't yet gotten to my active facilities.
The fight in the research blocks wasn't going quite as well. The beam flowers were proving to be a horrible failure. The first field had briefly produced a pretty spectacle of scintillating beams before the entire field caught on fire.
Jade's people were sensible enough from that point forward to preemptively blast every field of flowers that they saw. They were rough on my vegetation.
