by Pal, J
“Once we bring in all the meat, we’ll have enough to feed a family of ten for almost a year,” Kitty said. “Given we don’t go crazy, of course. The challenge will be eggs and grains. The Farm will be great for vegetables, but things like rice and flour take a lot of space.”
“Once security is no longer a concern, I’ll look into investing in the Farm heavily,” I told her, clinging onto Morpheus as we looped around the hill. “If the Menagerie can help improve beasts, there has to be a way to do the same with crops. Planting doesn’t have to be traditional either. We could look into vertical farming and stacking things up to the ceiling.”
“What we need is Timelord technology so we can make things bigger on the inside.”
It took me a second to get the Doctor Who reference. Was Kitty a secret nerd? She had gotten the inspiration for Miley from the Terminator franchise.
As we approached home base, I spotted movement on the roof. It wasn’t just Liam’s drones, but Fin and the wingless platyhawks too. Then I spotted a hole on the fourth floor’s outer wall and the little guys milling around it. In the few hours since they hatched, the creatures had almost doubled in size. Fin and I needed to have words. He and his followers were supposed to raise the animals and keep them in check, not let them damage the Hub and run amok.
Liam climbed down the wall in his spider mode and made a beeline for the hole. When he got close, the two wingless platyhawks milling around the area screeched at him before hurrying up and away from him. Fin seemed to have gathered the rest on the roof, and they appeared to be heading for their siblings. As soon as they had cleared the area, the hole closed up.
Once we entered the building, I went straight for the stairs, but Kitty stopped me. She pointed at Miley as her liquid metal body opened up, releasing a bag of flour and several vacuum-packed sausages. She must have done a quick raid on her way out.
“She can’t transport much, but everything looks undamaged,” Kitty said. “We can use her for transporting a decent volume.”
I nodded. “That’s great. I’ll look into building Morpheus’s trailer soon. Let me find out what’s going on up there first.”
Kitty nodded and headed towards the kitchen. The bike golem transformed into his humanoid form, gathered the foodstuffs, and followed her. Miley stayed on the ground floor while Winnie followed me. I was pretty sure it wasn’t Kitty who’d instructed him to do so. The stuffed bear appeared to have taken a liking to me. The feeling was mutual. It was a cute little murder-hobo. The damage to his neck had been fixed during our journey back, and he looked no different from before.
When I got to the roof, Fin and Liam were still struggling to reign the critters in.
“What the hell are you lot up to?” I asked. “Hasn’t your family been doing this for dozens of generations, Fin?”
“I’m sorry,” the leader drone replied, his giant-eyed face remaining expressionless. He looked down at the floor though, so I took it as a genuine apology. “Variant creatures are unpredictable. Platyhawks love sharpening their beaks, and that appears to be amplified in this lot. They don’t like being cooped up and managed to wear down the wall and break out. We’re trying to figure out what to do with them, because containment isn’t an option.”
I sighed. Taking a negative tone with people wasn’t my thing. But things had changed. We were facing the end of the world, and I was responsible for the Hub and its current and future residents. The last thing I wanted to risk was security. As the man in charge and considering what was at stake, I’d need to be harsh and short with people. The thought didn’t sit well with me, but perhaps fairness and occasional rewards would balance the scales.
“What do you think we should do, Liam?” I asked.
“Let the creatures roam free,” he said. “We need to install a door on the Menagerie’s outer wall so the residents can exit the building more easily. As the Hub’s owner, you determine how far they can get from the building, from what I gather. By keeping the nourishment indoors, you can ensure feeding and bedtime brings them back in the Nurturing Field until they’re fully grown.”
“I suppose that’s our only option. Perhaps we can do exits through the elevator shaft as well. That way the beasts can exit through the roof and basement too.”
Then I told Liam about the auranthers and showed him the parts we’d collected. He was ecstatic to get his spider hands on the biometal glands. Liam took one of the glands gladly but rejected the rest of the auranther parts.
“Drones take a fair amount of brainpower to manage unless they have some degree of artificial intelligence,” he told me. “The last thing I want is to split my attention between my modules and mini-drones. I’d suggest you use it in conjunction with the Hub Core for security or make yourself a new device. With your growing technopath powers, you might find a better use for it than me.”
Good. That’s what I wanted. Since Liam had more experience with drones, I’d offered the device to him first. I wasn’t sure yet what function or role I wanted the machine to fill, but I had plenty of ideas: scouts, kamikaze bots, bladed-flyers, and a lot more. Thanks to the Menagerie, the Hub Core didn’t need mechanical drones. Besides, due to its inclination with biomatter, beasts would probably synergize better.
Liam snapped me back to attention and told me about what Recon had seen. There were close to a dozen platyhawk nests littered around us. One in the buildings below us was massive and the source of the almost-boss monsters. These creatures had established nests and transitioned past the elite stage. However, only two of these could count as real nests, and most of them were in a nascent stage similar to what we’d discovered on our arrival.
When the wingless platyhawks had launched their prison break, an elite had been circling over our building. On seeing the critters, the bone-crowned beast had flown away. Liam believed we needed to always have a couple of winged and wingless platyhawks outside the building. It probably made our monstrous neighbors think this building was still a nest and they’d keep their distance. In the meantime, we could focus on taking the nests down one by one. Not only did we have access to a lot of materials, but this would be great for Kitty and Liam too.
Kitty’s golems needed monster deaths to grow. We could accelerate Winnie’s transition into an independent golem and get Kitty another follower. Liam’s power upgrades came from killing boss monsters. He tracked it using a bar in his personal HUD. Three more boss monsters would give him enough energy to advance his technopathy and give him an Omnifabrication-styled ability. Paired with a McGuffin-powered 3D printer, he could make a ton of useful tools, leaving me to focus on crucial upgrades.
Even though the possibility of Liam taking a lot of work off my hands sounded great, I struggled to get excited about the matter. Despite Liam’s Mega Brain, he had a habit of underestimating people and enemies. In my opinion, the platyhawks were smarter than the average beast. How long would the Menagerie-bred creatures fool them?
“Where’s the closest nest?” I asked.
“Further up the hill,” he answered. “There’s an observatory up there. It’s a newer nest, and the creatures there are mostly infants.”
“And the bosses?”
We headed down the stairs together, helping Fin keep the chirping and yipping platyhawks in check. The lead drone wanted me to name the creatures, but I decided to hold off until they were fully grown.
“A mama-papa pair. Unlike the creatures we fought, it looks like the male doesn’t leave the nest often. I reckon he might be injured.”
“That’s our established target then,” I declared. “Kitty’s new golems are pretty badass and effective. As long as we keep the platyhawks in the observatory, it would be easy to keep them grounded and take them out swiftly.”
Liam’s dome showed a little thumbs-up image. “What’s on the agenda for the rest of the day?”
“Food. Then I’m going to try to whip together a trailer for Morpheus. First, we need a better method for retrieving large quantities of fo
od and materials.”
“Dimensional storage, mate,” Liam told me. “You need to get to the drawing board and start whipping up your crazy ideas. Consider contacting Knurven too. Now that we have a permanent roof over our heads, it’s time to focus and prioritize.”
Chapter Twelve
Armed And Ready
Building Morpheus’s trailer was no trouble at all. I dismantled a few cars for the materials, then used the creation command’s design function to build a chassis around the best axle I could find. A pair of large truck tires and independent suspension ensured obstacles and terrain would prove no trouble. Lastly, I added a sliding shutter that curved over the top down to the front. With the two sides left open, the trailer could house bulky objects or act as a chariot of sorts.
When I showed Kitty the Creation, she was ecstatic. Much to my surprise, she didn’t leave it aside to attach to her golem whenever needed but had him assimilate it. The axle broke into two and attached to the bipedal golem’s back, while the metal added to the armor. The change made him grow in size and become bulkier. The wheels joined the other two on the back.
“If needed, he can detach the component,” she said. “We’re going to need more armor for the auranthers, and the axle halves are solid enough to use as weapons.”
“Do you even need me for such components? The trailer has no tech behind it. It’s just an inert mechanical hunk of parts.”
“I can only create living parts for my golem,” she said. “Modules or additions like these would take away from what’s connected to the central core. Your trailer is an independent component that Morpheus has assimilated for convenience right now.”
Her reasoning made sense. The auranther had done enough damage to the bike golem to hurt Kitty inside. When not in trailer mode, the heavy chassis had enough plating to give her decent protection. I worried about bulk though. Wouldn’t Morpheus have maneuverability issues when going through tight spaces? I supposed we’d deal with the matter when we faced such challenges. Making the trailer didn’t cost a lot of time and energy, but I’d still be annoyed if we had to ditch it mid-battle.
I wanted to take some time to design a new device using the auranther parts, but I visited the Hub Core first. We had plenty of materials and biometal still lying around and, much to my surprise, the core happily accepted it as biomatter. The interface created a separate tab displaying how much biometal it had to work with. Making three biometal doors would use up most of what we had in stock, but thanks to the glands, it was no longer a limited resource.
I first installed a sliding door to the Menagerie wall. It sat close to where the wingless platyhawks had opened their little escape hole. I added one on either end of the elevator shaft too. As for the elevator, the platyhawks had destroyed it. The core’s interface let me get away with adding a flat platform that would move up and down the shaft. It would lay flat against the back wall when the beasts were using the vertical passage.
Fortunately, the core didn’t ask for too many materials to reactivate the elevator. Most of the pulleys and chords were already there; it was the carriage that had been damaged. The core had absorbed the wires and circuitry from the previously wrecked top two floors. My power synergized beautifully with the core’s interface and let me design exactly what I had in mind, and I couldn’t be more pleased with the results. Liam would most likely be annoyed that I’d taken this long to get something so simple done.
Finally, I moved onto designing my next project.
Mini-Drone Launcher
backpack
biometal gland
mini-drone constructor
mini-drone carrier
camera
microphone
thermal scanner
sonar
transmitter
string
boomjuice Gland
McGuffin x2
The two McGuffin cost came as no surprise. I used Miley and Liam for inspiration when designing the drones. In their base form, they’d be spheres capable of rolling around for the sake of swift movement. When encountering obstacles or instructed to scale walls, they’d open up to expose mini spider legs.
There would be two types of drones and they would share several functions. They would each have a camera and microphone. They’d transmit information to my goggles and let me run reconnaissance without relying on Liam or Kitty’s golems. The string, paired with a biometal hook and boomjuice-powered launcher, would allow the drone to grapple up surfaces.
The two types of golems would be called Trappers and Boomers. Trappers would shape biometal into teeth, wire, and hooks. They’d weave trip wires or webs and would either bite down on my targets or pepper them with biometal shrapnel. On the other hand, Boomers would climb onto their targets and explode or turn themselves into mines or timed explosives. My technopathic link to them would serve brilliantly as an ignition switch too.
Unfortunately, the interface refused to let me bypass certain limitations. I wanted to keep the size and weight down to keep the Creation from getting too unwieldy. The carrier backpack would only house four drones at a time and would need an hour to create a new drone. The interface informed me that the Trappers and Boomers wouldn’t live long outside their carrier either. They’d live as an active drone for an hour at most and a passive drone for a couple more.
My interface failed to go anywhere when I tried to put together a dimensional storage device. First of all, how would you design such a device? I didn’t know where to start or how the physics behind such a machine would work. I made a note to ask Knurven or Delta about whether such a Creation was possible at all. Requesting them for the blueprint of one would make things a lot easier.
Finally, I made a new device using the auranther’s tail which I called a Grappling Belt. It replaced the belt I wore on my trousers, and the hooked mouth lay flat against the buckle. It didn’t have a whole lot of range but would give me some control over the Pogo Heelies’ launches. Once I was done and satisfied, I joined Kitty in bed, expecting to wake up in no less than five hours.
Kitty had to shake me awake the following morning. I had been up much too late sketching and tinkering, and getting out from under the covers was a bit of a struggle. In fact, I tried pulling Kitty back into bed so I could leech off her warmth. It wasn’t until she reminded me of our urgent need of McGuffins that I sat up. That’s right. Until Liam had his 3D printer and Kitty her Farm, I couldn’t start crafting my new toys. Besides, we suspected Winnie would be ready for his upgrade soon, so it wouldn’t hurt to have a couple of extra McGuffins at hand.
We freshened up and had a quick breakfast of cereal with long-life milk. Liam joined us in the kitchen with Fin in tow. He had brought a wingless platyhawk with him. The creature was almost twice as large as it had been the day before. Little bony protrusions peeked out of the bumps along its spine and tail. Jagged bone poked out from the top of its head, flaring backwards like little horns while the beak and claws were large and sharp. The creature looked more like a dinosaur than a bird now.
“I think we should call it an ankylopus,” Liam said.
“Holy shit.” Kitty looked it up and down, wide-eyed. “That thing looks terrifying. Is it fully grown?”
“Still a long way to go, Queen Bee,” Fin answered. After getting sick of “sir” and “madam,” we’d asked him to use our System aliases. It would take some time for us to get used to being called those. “We expect at least two meters length from nose to tail.” He looked at me. “I’m not sure how you feel about this, MAD, but these specimens seem to have rejected the biometal glands. We tested their bones—they’re extra dense and can absorb and project plasma. I suspect they’re going to have plating over most of their body by the time they’re fully grown.”
“Tank ground troops,” I mumbled. “Would their offspring benefit from biometal glands?”
“I suspect not. The bone insulates against heat as well as electricity. Biometal would make these creatures vulnerable. If you’
d like, we can neuter this batch and try again—”
“That won’t be necessary.” Fin’s shoulders relaxed on hearing my words. I suspected he got emotionally attached to the animals he raised—not that it was a bad thing, but I’d figured that after generations of running Menageries, his people would avoid getting too invested in individual specimens. “We’ve got ground troops. Try keeping them within the Nurturing Field as much as possible until they’re almost fully grown. Then we can have them patrol the hill.”
“That’s great!” Fin exclaimed. “As far as the power level is concerned, the ankylopus are already as strong as the standard beasts in this zone. By the time they’re fully grown, they’ll rival most elite creatures.”
“What about the platyhawks?” I asked.
“They still have a long way to go. However, we’re expecting a growth spurt pretty soon. Meanwhile, we’ve successfully put the remaining eggs in stasis. I await your instruction and any other parts you’d like included for their development.”
We bid Fin goodbye, leaving him and the platyhawks in charge of our new home’s defense. Hopefully, just seeing the platyhawks would deter most hostiles. My jaw dropped as I saw our new ride. Kitty didn’t think much of the chariot idea. Morpheus hadn’t just fused with the new trailer but with Miley as well, forming a four-wheeled vehicle. Kitty sat upfront under a protective glass dome. Behind her, the vehicle had a raised seat. It appeared like a perfect spot for a gunner, and I accepted it as my spot. Winnie climbed atop Morpheus. His lifeless, beady eyes focused on me.
