“Well, I would if it wasn’t for that damn board jumping all over my ass saying that I’m going to blow up the shipyard,” Edwards, who was still connected to Xue’s headset via the Mirror of Communication, mumbled.
Xue felt awkward, being in the middle of the conversation between these groups.
“Malsour, am I forgetting anything?” Dave asked.
Malsour had been watching all of them, studying their actions and their gear. He seemed like a reserved man, but in his eyes; he looked like a wise old man, even with the appearance of being in his late twenties.
“Most of the people you will see here are not military experts. They haven’t been in battles. Most of the people here are actually researchers and those we have taken on in order to lighten the load of the work we have been placed under. So please don’t react with hostility. There are a number of children about as well in Ice City. Everyone has been informed that you are coming, so there might be a number of people staring and talking to one another,” Malsour said as they stepped out of the hangar and into a main corridor.
They were now deep in the asteroid’s side. Runic lines ran through the walls. A strip of them created light; the others connected to the various ships.
They passed a corridor where people were walking up and down, some of them on carts. There were various workshops and different rooms, all with runic lines going into them.
“Ask what those lines are,” Edwards said.
“What are the lines on the walls and floor?” Xue asked.
“They’re called runic lines. The magical coding for this place, if it was to be all laid out, would need something like fifteen times the size in order to just fit them all. The AIs compressed down the magical code, thought it didn’t work when carving it out. We found that with the soul gem constructs, it is possible to create runic lines. They can carry information, power and even be turned into light sources,” the dwarf said.
“That’s Sola,” Dave said.
She grunted to them all.
“I never thought of magical coding being compressed down to such a state. If that’s possible, then I could tear out those old cannons and replace them with the modified cannons we’ve been working on!” Edwards said in a rush.
“Edwards, we’re here to watch what’s going on. Make a note of it and stop dancing around.” Sato sighed.
Xue kept silent as he listened to the byplay.
“That’s impressive,” Xue said.
“Well, it certainly makes things easier,” Malsour said.
People looked up from their work and stared at the party. All of them wore magically coded clothes but didn’t seem affected by the fact that there was no atmosphere within the asteroid base.
“What’s this?” Xue asked as they walked toward a hardened-looking building that stuck out of the asteroid. There were rune-covered machines patrolling the area.
“This is a portal location. We have automatons on staff so that they can deal with any threat that comes through these portals. If one of the portal locations is found out, we can shut down the network and make sure no one else comes through,” Malsour said, his voice somber.
“We didn’t have the manpower to hire not only people to help with the projects but also those who could help with defense. We don’t have much room here and the more people who are helping out here, the more who disappear from Emerilia. Too many people and then the Jukal and the AI might start paying attention and then bring everything right down on top of our heads,” Dave said.
Malsour sighed and shook his head.
“What? They know we’re here and they’re seeing us, so what? We have a low defense force right now—but we have enough grand workings to blow up a sun,” Dave said.
Malsour stared at Dave.
“Shouldn’t have said that?” Dave asked.
“Probably not the best idea,” Malsour admitted.
“Sorry, dude,” Dave said to Xue. “Just got a lot of firepower here. We’re working on upgrading our automatons and we have a bunch of people working out our offensive abilities.”
They stepped past the automatons standing guard around the hardened portal location. People who were walking out of the portal location stopped their conversations upon seeing Xue and his people.
Xue stared at them. It was hard not to, seeing them up close and finding out that they were real. It made his heart beat faster to know that Deq’ual was truly not the last human group in the entire universe. They were so different from him but they had been all grown from human DNA. He had seen people in weirder styles back on Deq’ual at times so he didn’t pay too much attention to the different forms that they came in.
Carts raced past the groups in a near constant stream, passing through special doorways built into the building holding the portal. Carts were constantly moving, piled with storage crates or towing storage containers like the ones that the shuttles carried back and forth from the miners. They passed through a number of open hatches before coming in front of a portal. The room they were in was filled with automatons that watched the other side. The room that they could see through the portal looked identical to the one that they were in, complete with runic lines and guards.
Dave and his party led the way, the carts pausing to allow them through.
Xue stepped through the portal, expecting to feel something. Instead, he just found himself on the other side.
They quickly stepped off to the side. Carts came out behind them in one direction as other carts entered the portal in the other direction.
“Welcome to Ice City, currently the home for the development team of the Pandora’s Box Initiative,” Dave said as they weaved through armored doors once again and battle automatons before they reached the exit.
Dave and the group continued on but Captain Xue stopped. Even the security detail paused in shock as they looked out over the true city.
Carts raced through the air, moving people and materials to and fro.
A massive sprawling industrial complex was growing off to the side of the city. The city was still undergoing growth as miners and excavators mined out sections around the city.
Flying automatons were pulling out metal structural pieces, adding it together as if they were parts of a jigsaw, creating the inner superstructure of multiple buildings.
Soul gem constructs across the city were growing up these support members. As they traveled upward, they expanded outward to meet up with one another, creating floors, then walls and then ceilings, complete with room for elevators, stairs, and the rest.
The refineries and factories were a buzz of activity as raw materials were taken in and finished products shuttled outward. The soul gem constructs all took on a bluish appearance, with flares of silver and transparent areas. The soul gem constructs were easily able to mimic any possible color.
The light was delicate on the eyes instead of overpowering. All around the city, there was ice. The city looked as if it belonged to some realm of old.
Even though they were surrounded by ice, the temperature was comfortable and there was an actual breathable atmosphere. In various buildings, plants could be seen growing and people walked around and talked to one another.
These were gardens and places to sit down for food. Apartments rose here and there; a sprawling complex of offices with all manner of different facilities connected to the industrial complex and also expanded into the city.
The portal facility was off from the city and had multiple automatons on it.
Xue’s eyes fell on a similarly armored structure a bit away from the city with heavy runic lines and an automaton force that must have been three or four times more than the portal facility that they were at.
“It’s something, isn’t it?” Dave paused as well as he saw that they were looking at the city.
Xue could only nod, left speechless by this city.
“He didn’t just mine the ice planet—he made a city within it,” Adams said in a whisper.
“It doesn�
��t look like there’s enough residents to fill the city yet, maybe he’s still recruiting?” Edwards asked.
“Or maybe it’s a fallback position if something happens to Emerilia,” Sato said.
“It’s incredible. Even with everything that’s happening, you’ve been able to carve out a place to live here,” Xue said.
“Well, this isn’t anything compared to Terra, only about a sixth the size and with twenty-four times less usable space. But here we have room to expand easily, unlike Terra, which is a pain in the ass to mine out and then form into a livable area.” Dave looked out over the city.
This isn’t much. I know from what people have been saying that Terra is supposed to be a massive facility on Emerilia, but then I never really thought it would live up to what they were saying.
After a few moments, Malsour cleared his throat. “Shall we proceed to the testing facilities?”
“I’m game. Xue?” Dave asked.
“Certainly.” Captain Xue regained his composure.
“Sola, Draculs, if you want to go back to whatever you were doing, that’s fine,” Dave said.
A man in a black cloak and similar features to Malsour clapped his hands and grinned.
“Gravity coding, here I come.” With a run and a leap, wings tore out of his back. His body elongated and turned scaly, forming into a massive Dragon.
The other humans also changed and flew away—some toward the offices, others toward the city proper.
“Damn Dragons showing off,” Sola complained under her breath. “See you later, Dave.”
“See ya, Sola. Let me know if you need any help with the mining,” Dave said.
“I’ll let you know. Malsour, if you’ve got any free time, I’d be interested on your input into the processing asteroids and refining asteroid plans,” Sola said.
“Once I’m done here, I’ll find you.” Malsour smiled.
“Later!” Sola threw out a metal plate under her feet that connected to the floor and rushed off.
Xue was left in shock at what he’d seen. His security detail also looked at the Dragons, who were now landing in the city.
“Never seen a Dragon before, huh? You’ll get used to it.” Dave chuckled, sharing a look with an amused Malsour.
“Uh, no,” Xue said.
“Don’t worry—we’ll try to be gentle.” Malsour’s eyes turned into vertical irises as he smiled.
“You’re a Dragon too?” Xue asked. It took him a moment in order to make sure that his voice wasn’t trembling.
“Yes, I am—since the day I was born. Don’t worry, you’ll get used to it,” Malsour said.
“In here, we have people from all manner of races from mer people to Beast Kin, demons, humans, dwarves, and elves of every variety. The kinds of races that were made on Emerilia at first only grew with time. There are hundreds of races and sub-races, with thousands of creatures littered all over the place. Which can be a real pain in the ass when you go adventuring and you run into fifteen types of creatures you don’t recognize,” Dave grumbled.
Malsour chuckled a bit as they walked toward the city.
Xue and the rest of the security detail were left in shock as they continued after the duo, looking over the city as people walked past them with interest in their eyes as they talked to their peers.
However, even as they were talking, Xue couldn’t pick up what they were saying, even with his amplification cranked all the way up.
“Why is it that we can’t hear anyone talking?” Xue asked.
“Most of them are using the private chat feature. The Jukal can’t hack it and well, we told them about the Jukal and all the measures that we use on Emerilia to stay under their radar. They started to adapt over some of the ideas we had and now they use them in their everyday lives. Think of it as conditioning. If they do it here, then they’re bound to use it in places where the Jukal’s network would pick them up and they can listen in,” Dave said.
The more Xue learned about the people within the Nal system and the things that they were doing, the more he felt as though he were losing his grip with reality.
“Growing lab?” Dave looked to Malsour.
“That works. I’ll message them.” Malsour opened his interface. A few moments later, his mouth moved but no noise came out. Xue wasn’t able to truly focus on his lips to read what he was saying.
“Dragons, real life Dragons,” Adams said.
“To build all of this... We underestimated them again. Who knows how long it will be before they’re able to mobilize a fleet? Emerilia is surrounded by enemy forces and they are waging a massive battle on the surface, but still they have all of this behind the scenes. If they were to pull out even a tenth of the strength that they had hidden here, they could turn the battles on Emerilia on their heads,” Edwards said.
“Look at the citadels—are they not turning the world on its head with those?” Sato asked.
Chapter 16: Inventions and Progress
Dave and Malsour had taken Xue through the different parts of the city and showed off their normal apartments, which were a shock to them. It seemed that they were living rather cramped back wherever they came from.
The growing towers and areas were an eye-opener for them. They had been experimenting with making their crops grow faster but here they were used to not only create food, but also supply organic materials needed for experiments and to convert a mix of chemicals into breathable atmosphere that was pumped out into Ice City.
They’d gone through the refinery and looked upon the massive mines that were constantly harvesting materials from the ice planet.
Now, for the last part of their trip, they were paying a visit to the automaton workshop.
Dave was excited to take a look. It was his hope to work here; and help in making automatons that were better than what they could get from the Aleph and were purposely built to help in the creation of the warships and other projects, as well as the mining and refining.
They entered the workshop of the automaton group. Machines were all over the place and a number of them were in assembly stages or, for the Aleph creations, were actually disassembled. There were piles of metal ingots, various smithy workstations, soul gem constructs and tables all over the place.
“Dave!” Dwarven Master Smith Quino called out.
“Hey, Quino. Where’s Kol at?” Dave asked.
“He’s hammering out a central support member for our newest project—well, spreading it out, I guess, with his skill,” Quino said.
“I thought that he was supposed to go back to the smithy in Terra?” Dave asked.
“Jesal is covering for him, though she’s demanding more time over here because of it.” Quino grinned.
“I give you lot one place to play around and you all jump on it.” Dave sighed as the corner of his lips raised in a smile.
“You brat! You’re in here all the time!” Quino said, also with a smile on his face.
“Hey, I built the damn thing,” Dave complained.
“This must be Xue and his people from the Sprite?” Quino pointed to Xue and his armored people.
“Yep. Captain Xue, meet dwarven master smith and member of the Council of Anvil and Fire, Mister Quino.” Dave waved to Quino.
“Calling me mister—only my father’s called mister. You’re making me sound old,” Quino said in a disgruntled voice.
“You’re nearly two hundred years old!” Dave said.
“Exactly—in the prime of my life! Nice to meet you, Captain Xue and armored dudes.” Quino waved to Xue and the others. “They got runes on their armor?”
“Yes, they’ve got runes on their armor,” Dave said in a defeated voice.
Quino rubbed his hands in excitement.
“And you’re not to start asking them about how they made them inside the armor panels.” Dave waved his finger at Quino.
Quino’s face fell. Watching him, one wouldn’t think that he was a two-hundred-year-old dwarf but rather a mischievous kid getting
told off by his mother.
“Though you can show them around and let me know what you’ve been up to. Just got free from portal development with Ela-Dorn. Hopefully the first portal will work—take a week till it’s complete but if it works then we can put that into the big ones,” Dave said.
“Come to join the dark side, eh? You just want some of my fine aged dwarven whiskey!” Quino said.
“Now that you mention it, that doesn’t sound bad.” Dave tapped his chin thoughtfully.
“Quino, tour?” Malsour said in stilted words.
“Right, oh scaly arse from above! Welcome to my workshop.”
“Our workshop!” Kol yelled out from a back room that had been converted into a smithy.
“OUR workshop,” Quino amended, giving that back room a dirty look. “Here, our main idea is to take the various automatons that are used throughout the bases part of the Pandora’s Box Initiative and improve upon them or to make more types that are able to speed up the process of building the various projects that we have underway.” Quino’s attitude turned to that of a teacher instead of his normally childish behavior.
“We have worked with the miners and the excavators to improve them from their base designs. But now we’re looking at creating various automatons for specific jobs.
“We’ve got haulers to move items to and from storage chests across places that have a gravity and those that don’t. We’ve also got welders that can fuse metals together, speeding up the process of building large metallic structures. This is good for the creation of superstructures as well as the building of armored panels. There are extruding automatons—these have soul gem limbs that allow them to work in smaller places, work with soul gem constructs as well as create different tools with their soul gem limbs.
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