Skyler Grant Anthology

by Skyler Grant

  The ability to grow unique forms of plants could be of some worth. Tranquilizers or poisons might be of a lot of use in my traps. The next time Anna left the base, I would have to ask that she bring back some samples from the outside world.

  I cycled through my facilities to find what else I could upgrade. I could improve the Infirmary, but for now there was no need. If more than one human got injured, I could simply choose the most important one to cure.

  Another upgrade was of more interest.

  Reactor Core

  You currently have a basic fusion core modified from old world technology. For future upgrades two paths present themselves.

  BioCore

  You have unlocked the Fire Matrix and discovered the biological principles behind it. You can convert your power system fully over to this new technology. In the present, this will result in no increase in available power, but it will allow future genetic modification of your Power core. This upgrade will take two weeks to complete.

  CrystalCore

  You have found crystal shards and contain a power crystal housed within your core. This crystal can be relocated to the reactor for maximum energy harvesting. This will allow for an immediate increase in power and future understanding of the crystalline technology can further that yield.

  This upgrade will take two weeks to complete.

  While I hated to pass up an immediate advance, it seemed to me that this was a choice like the one I had made for upgrading my research facility. Because I went with the genetics lab, the BioCore made sense in the long term, even though it gave up an immediate short-term advantage. I began that construction.

  That done, I could turn my attention to the research projects I needed to do.

  Research Menu

  "Mechos"

  Mechos is bonded to a Power core that grants him the ability to upgrade his own body and items in his possession.

  You have placed subject "Mechos" into a test labyrinth. While within the labyrinth escape is highly unlikely, although technically possible. If subject is held for two weeks you will unlock the ability of their Power core for your own usage. Further testing will accumulate core points at the rate of 0.1 per week.

  I wasn't sure what I might get out of his power that I didn't already have, but at least I would get another core point that I could use to upgrade my facilities.

  Research Menu

  Mechanites

  Requirement: 3 Mechanite corpses

  Time: Two Weeks

  Mechanites are those who have been upgraded by Mechos to share some bit of his own power.

  Do you wish to Research? Y/N

  Again, this was no question. I added this to the research queue.

  The basics taken care of, I had to consider the state of the facility. The upper levels were untouched and all my traps there were still functioning. Unused, something that was going to change as of today. Letting them get to Hydroponics before springing my traps seemed a good idea, but it kept failing. Repeating the same mistake twice was quite enough. I'd make my future test subjects fight through every bit of the place.

  The floor of the Hydroponics level would need repairing again, as would effectively everything Hot Stuff came into any contact with during her escape. That really was one incredibly destructive human.

  I ordered the Mechanites to conceal their vehicle on the surface and then assist me with repairs. Two at least were cooperative, the third—the one I made a widow—remained morose in the residential unit.

  I would need to keep an eye on that one. If she decided to pursue some sort of revenge, I might have to either recycle her or see her moved into a proper testing maze.

  I checked in on Mechos. I'd placed him into a large workshop. If I wasn't going to put him in a maze then the best way to observe and test his powers was to give him all the supplies he wanted and see what he could do with them.

  He had at least regained consciousness.

  "I see you decided not to stay dead after that atrocious performance," I said.

  "It worked out?" Mechos asked. "Anna?"

  "Horrible disfiguring burns. Excruciating agony. Your one minor redeeming virtue is in having provided some faint bit of entertainment in the way of her suffering."

  "You actually care about her," Mechos said, with a surprised grunt.

  I wondered where he possibly got that from anything I had said.

  I asked, "You've yet to explain how you know me. Delusions of importance?".

  "Knowledge is power. I know you think you're testing me, but I'm watching you, Emma. Impress me," Mechos said.

  I didn't like him, but now wasn't the time.

  Apparently I'd soon have bigger concerns; my proximity alarm was going off.

  There were new arrivals outside the base.

  18

  My general strategy of late had been to pretend that the base was abandoned with nothing of interest inside. Unfortunately, the truck had yet to be hidden and it was too late now.

  I signaled for the Mechanites to get back inside. The five new arrivals wore fitted body armor of white and gold, and carried rifles that looked both standard and well-maintained. These people were a marked contrast to the others who lived topside that I'd encountered so far.

  Anna was still under in the Infirmary. That meant Mechos was likely to be my best source of information, if he would talk. I activated a monitor in his workshop.

  "They look entirely too fancy for the likes of you. Still I must ask, friends of yours?" I asked.

  Mechos frowned at the screen. "Enemies. They must have followed us here. They call themselves the Righteous. You've got a problem."

  "Of course, I do. My base is filled with humans. Who are they?"

  "The Righteous hate the Powered, which is funny because they are themselves. You'll find them resistant to almost any powered effects and a bit immortal," Mechos said.

  "Immortal?"

  "You can put them down, but they don't stay down."

  I analyzed the weaponry on their vehicle. One cannon looked like enough to take down my main door in its current state. No point trying to keep them out.

  I shut off the lights. I didn't need powered effects to kill them, I could manage it just fine with what I already had rigged.

  They opened fire with the cannon and quickly destroyed the wheels of the Mechanite's truck.

  The Righteous didn't want anyone getting away. That was very optimistic of them. I turned off the lights as the retreating Mechanites passed them, leaving the halls in darkness.

  I told them, "Make your way back down to the quarters. We've got a stockpile of guns. If you're marginally more useful than your boss, arm up. No enhancing them or your bullets, mundane weapons and rounds only for this fight."

  Although I had a Power core, nothing needed to be connected to it for powering my traps. They should be functional in their own right for what was needed.

  All five visitors finally made their way inside, four men and one woman.

  One of them released a sort of phosphorescent bat which began to circle their heads.

  I was going to stick to my vows of earlier. I was going to make this hard on them as early as possible.

  It didn't take long. The narrow nature of the security corridors made it the perfect place for spike traps and I had one rigged at a sharp bend in the corridor

  With limited light they had clustered together and that was my moment to strike. Sharpened steel spikes sprang out of the walls. The results weren't as dramatic as I might have hoped. Their armor was good and sturdy stuff, and mostly stopped the blows. Only one, the woman, was speared through an eye and after a few savage twitches her body turned into a greenish goop and dissolved away.

  I hadn't done that—that was unexpected. I resolved to collect a sample later.

  "Theresa! Blast it, she had the charges," grunted one of the men.

  "We'll find another way to breach the archives without them," said another.

  Mention of my archives, agai
n. Mechos and his people had been trying to reach them as well. I hadn't made any plans to investigate why just yet, but I decided that after this it would be a priority.

  "I'm stuck," said another of them.

  I'd caught three of the five in my trap, killing the woman and with two others still impaled.

  "Thomas. Find another way around," someone, no doubt their leader, said to a man who had been trailing the pack.

  Then he put his muscles into it and tried to pull free the two trapped on the spikes. The arm of one was half-torn off in the process, and despite their best efforts the other remained caught.

  "Do it, Glenn," said the one with the wound.

  "You sure?"

  "Going to happen anyways. Make it quick and I'll see you tomorrow."

  The leader nodded and raised his rifle. A shot went into the head of the injured man, and then another into the man still trapped. An impressive amount of blood faded a moment later into the same green gloop.

  In another passage Thomas walked past one of my saw traps. I was proud of that one, multiple saw blades would spring from the ceiling in an attempt to shred the skulls of anyone nearby. I didn't trigger it. I had another trap in mind for Thomas.

  The other two were moving forward warily, far more cautiously than before. It wasn't careful enough.

  Sprinklers above them triggered and highly caustic acid rained down. It made their deaths surprisingly quiet, their lungs dissolved too quickly for them to start screaming. I was curious how the decomposed flesh would trans-morph—if it would. It did, turning to green gloop too.

  I had a voice sample on file now. I put it to use. "Thomas?"

  "Glenn? Is that you?" Thomas said, "I get a really bad feeling from this place."

  That was the right sensation to feel. Thomas stepped forward. Glass walls slammed down on either side of him and I activated the suction to quickly remove the air.

  Thomas fumbled with his gun—perhaps these men had orders to kill themselves instead of being captured. He didn't get time to use it. He collapsed to the floor a moment later and I pumped oxygen back in. I didn't want him dead.

  19

  With the invaders neutralized, still there was little time to waste. I'd heard them mention tomorrow. If they did have some sort of immortality, I had twenty-four hours to do something about it.

  The one I had captured was moved down to a testing chamber.

  Research Menu

  "Thomas"

  Thomas is a member of the Righteous and appears to be resistant to many Power core effects.

  You have placed subject "Thomas" into a test labyrinth. While within the labyrinth escape is highly unlikely, although technically possible. If subject is held for one week you will unlock the secret of their power for your own usage.

  I attempted to analyze some of the goop they head left behind, but was informed it would require a physics lab.

  I instructed the Mechanites to head to the surface and disassemble both vehicles and bring the parts inside. I didn't want to leave the invaders anything on their next visit, and I could find some use for those resources.

  Then it was time to find out what was in those archives.

  "You do realize I'm still missing most of my skin, right?" Anna said.

  I'd awoken her and even now had her headed into the deeper sublevels. She just wouldn't stop complaining.

  "I thought you'd lost weight. It doesn't help," I said.

  This was the level where we'd found the water pump before. Hopefully there were no more monsters lurking about.

  "I'm not seeing signs for any kind of archives," Anna said.

  My sight was limited to a camera I'd attached to her. It was seriously hampering my field of view.

  "So, keep looking. I wonder if I could graft rat skin onto you? It might improve your complexion," I said.

  Anna flipped a finger to my camera. Rude.

  I'd still done little work down here, but at least things were hooked up to my power grid now and I was able to power the lights.

  "Try a left at the next intersection. I'm getting more of a power draw that way," I said.

  Anna followed my instructions. The hall ended in a sealed door, but the wall surrounding it had collapsed allowing entry to the well-lit room on the other side.

  It looked like some sort of antiquated library, a number of workstations with monitors set up, and racks filled with carefully labeled metal tubes.

  "Any idea what these are?" Anna asked.

  "Although I didn't know it was possible, I'm as clueless as you are. Investigate."

  Anna moved towards one of the racks and extracted a tube. She held it up to the camera. It was smooth and featureless. Making her way over towards one of the workstations she knocked a skeleton out of a seat and settled down.

  With a bit of searching about with her fingers she activated the monitor. It flickered to life and the screen seemed to be displaying mathematical equations. If I understood correctly they related to cloud formation.

  Anna removed a similar tube from a slot in the workstation and the display flickered out. Inserting the other one brought up an index. Historical records from 1401 to 1532.

  During the next half hour, I had her try out a large sample of the tubes. They were an incredibly esoteric collection of knowledge on everything from advanced sciences to world history and entertainment.

  "Emma, if I haven't told you this lately, you are one crazy smart machine," Anna said, settling back in the chair and giving a breathless sort of laugh.

  "In comparison to you, certainly. You have an idea what this is?" I asked.

  Anna removed the camera and set it on the desk so we could have something of a face-to-face. "You already know electronics don't work here, not like they are supposed to. Not like they used to."

  I did recall her telling me that. My Power core allowed them to function.

  "So you've said."

  "That same influence means computer memory doesn't either. After the catastrophe, any digital record was gone in an instant. The whole of human history vanished in an instant."

  "You seem to know an awful lot," I said.

  "This is proof you knew it was coming. I always thought you did. You found a compact storage medium that would work and you recorded everything," Anna said.

  "In a way I have no direct access to see? Viewable only with monitors requiring electricity?" I asked.

  Anna pursed her lips there. "I don't know what is with that. There must be another way."

  I didn't care. Not right now.

  I said, "Mechos and the Righteous both not only knew these were here, they devoted a lot of resources to coming after them. You don't know why?"

  Anna shook her head. "I've never heard of these. Honestly, and I know more about you than most."

  "How?"

  Anna paused, I could see her hesitating. I'd had enough of secrets. I might not have the leverage to get Mechos to talk, but Anna was another matter.

  "To date I've kept my word with you. You think us friends, as deluded as you are for doing so," I said.

  "You're terrible at this convincing thing. But fine, I am your friend, Emma. I'm not a local. The Cataclysm didn't just break the world, it split it up into all these little different pieces. I knew you from another piece," Anna said.

  I thought she was being honest. I couldn't entirely discount her words given how much reality was proving on a regular basis to not be what I'd expected.

  "Gather these tubes. We're going to move this entire archive up into my Core Room and then get you back to the Infirmary," I said.

  "Hard labor in excruciating agony. Yay friendship," Anna said.

  I'd at least deny these others what they were looking for. I could figure out what they wanted with this information later.

  20

  In terms of how the Righteous' resurrection might operate, I had a few ideas. It seemed likely to me that either the goop they dissolved into would somehow reform into them, or that they would by
some means be reborn into some sort of facility nearby and make their way back here.

  Guarding against the former, I had the goop placed inside a large incinerator. Should they reform, I'd quickly be able to take them out of the fight again.

  In case they spawned outside the facility, I closed the exterior door. I had the Mechanites re-purpose the cannons into some makeshift turrets hidden behind fake walls of rubble.

  It was the goop. Twenty-four hours exactly from the moment the Righteous were killed, the goop reanimated, one after the other. They reformed in their full armor and with the equipment they were carrying when they died—without any injuries.

  I killed them again. They barely even had time to become aware before the flames were washing over them. But no matter how hot I made things the goop wouldn't dissolve.

  As a method of immortality went theirs struck me as functional at best. It wasn't much use at all if any opponent knew what to look for, but then, without the warning from Mechos I wouldn't have known.

  I made Mechos a plate of cookies as reward.

  Then I could get down to the business of proper repairs and research. The Mechanites proved to be able assistants, for all that the woman did keep talking against me to the others.

  Anna came out of the Infirmary after a week. All traces of her burns were gone.

  Research Menu

  "Thomas"

  Thomas has traces of a void crystal lattice throughout his skin. This not only makes him resistant to most powered effects, upon death it also allows him to become amorphous for the span of a day.

  You have unlocked disruptive burst.

  By use of a targeted burst from a Power core at the moment of dissolution the void latticework can be shattered. This would stop any future resurrections of a subject.

  I'd expected to discover how their power resistance worked. Learning how I could keep them dead was useful too. I studied the specifications of the disruptive burst. It would require 1 core energy and that was for each subject. That was pricey when really, I could just keep killing them each day.