IDGM4 - 09 - Working the Problem (Patreon)

“Easy, now,” Maya called out as she detached the last bolt. There was a massive shudder as the bolt plinked off into the darkness, lost forever in the maze of wires, components, and machinery. “Dang.”

“We’ve got it,” Tender said, there was a burst of static as the thermal shielding interfered with their comms.

Maya wiped the sweat off her face and watched as the large piece of machinery began to move. Metal ground against metal, but that was fine. What was a little scuff marks on refurbished materials?

The small video window showed a dozen Tender drones pulling on chains and ropes as they struggled to move the five tons of machinery from its home. Hooks, cables, and pulleys were strung about the temporary work bay and the bright harsh work lights filled the area with illumination. Tender stood behind the drones, controlling and watching their progress.

A burst of cold air wafted into the hole left by the machine as it was pulled free. Maya fanned herself and slid on out after the machine. She grabbed a chain and rode it down to the metal deck.

Above her the machine was lowered and settled with a dull boom. The drones began to quickly disconnect the chains and ropes, allowing Tender and Maya to approach it.

“Looking good,” Maya said, slapping the metal housing of the machine.

“It’s an interesting design,” Tender said.

“A Rogue AI Category 5 Mana Core,” Maya said, looking up at the rectangular box. “These rogue AIs are learning new tricks. I haven’t seen one like this before.”

Mana cores were the staple of large system tech machinery, from starships to bases to mining machines. Everything needed a way to pull in ambient mana, process it, and then get it to power their stuff. As system tech had been around for nearly as long as the System itself, the designs for mana cores were standardized; organized by Categories that determined how much mana they could process and how large of a machine they could power.

The most common mana core sizes were C5 or C6, which were used by starships and the like. Rogue AIs, like system tech, needed mana to power their systems; therefore they used mana cores like anything else.

In the RSH, ambient mana was on the low side, which made mana cores a thing of high value and importance. Although mana cores powered system tech, it required actual crafters to make the most important component of mana cores; system grade, Tier 1 conductive gel. A gooey substance that was the heart of mana cores; one that could only be made by SIL crafters.

The Overlord contained five mana cores, all C5. Which was a wealth in mana that would really hamper the rogue AIs war effort. Although all five cores didn’t come near to producing the power of one tesseract pack, they were still a very welcome addition. The need for mana was always constant thing, the more one obtained, the more was needed.

“Mo’ mana, mo’ problems,” Maya said as she began hooking up diagnostic tools to the core.

The standard core was a tall cylinder covered in a material that prevented the harmful work mana from destroying SIL biological cells. Maya had come across many cores in her time in the RSH, but this was the first time that she had seen this type of design.

The rectangular mana core was an oddity, but it seemed to do what it was designed to do. Produce mana for machines to use. Maya ran her scans and tried to tease the design specs of the machine. She sighed and closed down the tablet. It would take some effort and study to figure out why the core was a different design than all the others she had seen.

“Weird looking, but it seems okay,” Maya said.

“Talking about me?” Chu asked as he walked into the work bay.

“Always,” Maya said, giving him a grin. Maya paused and looked him up and down. She whistled as she noted his new clothing. “Looking less like a post apocalyptic refugee and more like a person.”

Chu preened in his new ship suit. The coveralls had slowly become the standardized work clothing used in the Cage. The material was cheap, durable, and offered a bit of protection that normal clothing didn’t, in addition to its simple useful design.

Salvaging the Overlord had allowed them to gain a material maker that provided much needed basic clothing for everyone. It wasn’t the specialized system tech wear that would allow better handling and usage of skills and abilities, but it kept everyone from walking around bare assed.

“Whoa, easy there,” Maya said as Chu walked up to the mana core. “That thing is not shielded very well, as AIs don’t get their genes scrambled by them. I’d suggest backing off if you don’t want any weird growths or tumors. Be a shame to mess up a nice ship suit.”

Chu backed off quickly, glancing at her and then at Tender.

“She is not joking,” Tender said. “Although you are mid-grade, the emanations of work mana can still cause gene damage that requires extensive cleansing. Currently we do not have the ability to do so.”

“And you?” Chu asked Maya.

“I’m Tier 2, baby,” she said. “My genes don’t change unless I tell them to.” She leaned against the mana core to emphasize her point. Chu snorted, but backed off a bit more. “So, what’s up?”

“People are worried,” Chu said.

“About?”

Chu snorted again. “About? Everything. It’s been two weeks since we set up camp here, two weeks where you’ve been basically crawling around in the bowels of the Overlord. You’ve just dropped all responsibility into Anisa, Emilia, and my hands. No one knows what the plan is besides surviving and digging in for a defense of the valley. They need to know if we’re going to ever make it home.”

“I’m mulling things over,” Maya said. “The plan right now is to sit tight and let me figure something out.”

“That’s the plan?” Chu asked.

“It’s in its embryonic stage,” Maya said. “Soon it’ll be squalling and pooping all over the place.”

“That is not going to make anyone happy,” Chu said. “We’re all holding on by a thread here. Sure, the System makes people more resilient to depression and PTSD, but we’ve been ripped away from the people we love and our home. They need to know you’re working the problem and coming to a solution. Right now, you’ve been hidden away for two weeks salvaging and barely talking to anyone besides Tender and the drones.”

“I’ve been building as many defenses as I can,” Maya said, defensively. “We’ve already salvaged all the weapons off the overlord and have them ready to repel attacks. Does last week ring any bells?”

The week before there had been a rogue AI raid on their position. Scores of dog sized spider creatures had made it overland across the trash piles and attacked their small settlement. The weapons salvaged from the overlord had shredded the attack easily, with no loss of life.

“You need to show your face more,” Chu said. “People are scared and worried here. They need to know you’re out there, working the problem.”

“I am working the problem,” Maya said. She sighed and pulled up window to share with Chu. It was a map that they had managed to pull out of the many captured AI core’s memories. It showed the vast region that made up the Rogue AI Utopia, hundreds of settlements that spanned thousands of square kilometers.

Looking at it, Maya was struck by how tiny they were in comparison. If the rogue AIs really wanted to destroy them, it would be a cakewalk. The same went with the Fleshies, as the map they had gained showed an equally vast area they controlled.

Currently, the only reason Maya figured they hadn’t been wiped out was that two armies had basically be destroyed. One Fleshy army and one Rogue AI army. The constant fighting between the Fleshies and the Rogue AIs made the Trash Mountains a difficult place to lay siege to.

It would require a major concentrated effort to push through into the valley. That would require a lot of resources and risk; exposing an army to potential attack by the opposing forces. Both Fleshies and Rogue AIs might not like Maya and her band, but they disliked each other with equal animosity. One born out of centuries of warfare between the two factions.

“I’ve been ranging outside the valley for the last week, pushing my dimensional teleportation as far as it can go.” Maya gestured to areas that she had scouted out, including a small band of rogue AIs she had managed to destroy. “I need to level the damn ability as fast as I can, but we’re also in desperate need of defenses and new gear, so it’s a crappy balancing act of time.”

“What’s Dimensional Teleportation have to do with anything?” Chu asked.

“Eventually I’ll be able to teleport others just besides me,” Maya said. “A passenger or more, a group of people, who knows.”

Maya pulled up another window.

“These are inventory transfers that the rogue AIs have been doing. They’re moving processed goods from one location to another and they keep detailed reports on everything.” Maya highlighted an section of the inventory and zoomed in on it. “These are high grade, Tier 2 components, salvaged and manufactured in Advanced Manufacturing Station JVR-4142Z.” Maya brought the map back up and highlighted the speck on the map where the station was located. “That’s fairly deep into Rogue Territory.”

“You’re going to raid it? By yourself?” Chu asked.

“No, I need someone to back me up.”

“I’ll be there, boss,” Tender said.

“You sure will, buddy,” Maya said cheerfully. “But I need someone to shield me when I go in for an attack.”

“Emilia,” Chu said.

“Yup,” Maya replied, “ she’s the highest Bulwark Mage we have and she’s only growing stronger. I haven’t asked her to come with me yet, this is all still in the air as I don’t know if I’ll be able to teleport someone with me when I reach level 5. It’s all guess-timation right now.”

“This is a crazy plan,” Chu said. “You’re risking not only yourself, but also the only protection we have against long range strikes.”

“There are the other mages, they’re not strong, yeah, but they’re getting there.”

“Not fast enough,” Chu said. “Not at the same level as Emilia.”

“Just as we needed the mana stones and biomass, we also need these Tier 2 components. I have absolutely zero idea how to make them and they appear to be a major component in the creation of a Cage.

“We can try salvaging some Tier 2 components among the Trash Mountains, but it’ll take decades to find enough to begin creating a Cage. These Rogue AIs are creating them in this station and from the looks of it, they consider it in a secure area.”

Chu mulled on the information and finally sighed. “You’re risking your life way too much,” he said.

Maya shrugged. “No one else can do it,” she said. “We’ve also destroyed one of their overlords and have repelled their attacks. It won’t be too long before they realize they need to bump up their security and lock everything down. If it looks like we’re just trying to hide and defend ourselves, they might not look at us as a major threat.”

“We’re already personae-non-gratae with the Fleshies, now you’re wanting to poke the Rogue AI nest,” Chu said.

“We already poked it when we killed their overlord.”

“If it came down to diplomacy, we could always say the Fleshies destroyed the AI army and it was just bad luck that the overlord ran into us,” Chu replied.

“Eh, it seems diplomacy is a skill I haven’t been able to level,” Maya replied. “If the talks I had with the Fleshies are an example of my diplomatic skills.”

“Regardless of how much everyone hates everyone, diplomacy still has it’s uses,” Chu said. “Don’t discount it just yet. Everyone wants something and everyone is willing to let even atrocious shit slide. Human, orc, crow, robot, fleshy, everyone wants something.”

“When did you become the diplomat?” Maya asked Chu.

“Dude, we got a bunch of different species working together. Half of them are mercenaries and the other half were eating humans for breakfast two months ago. I walk the fine line of keeping all those assholes from killing one another and training to fight against other assholes that want us dead,” Chu said. “I need a raise.”

“Technically you’re not even working for me,” Maya said. “The 3S that is. You’re an American Spy and you’re just volunteering as head of the combined army.”

“Shit,” Chu muttered. “It’s like what my old stripper girlfriend once said ‘cash in hand, then dick in hand’.” Chu continued muttering to himself for a moment. “Is raiding the rogue AIs with only Emilia the best option?”

“It is,” Maya said.

“It’s a really shit idea,” he said, “but what other ideas do we have? None of us know anything about Dimensional Abilities or how to get home anyway.”

“Y’know, nine tenths of the time my plans do work out, but everyone is always calling them crap plans,” Maya said, rolling her eyes. “When I come back with heaps of T2 components, we’ll see who the shit planner is.”

“As long as you also come back with Emilia,” Chu said.

“Toss up a few shields, protect everyone from death, suddenly she’s the queen of the ball,” Maya muttered.

“She’s also now the Head Harvester, climbed up those levels real fast,” Chu remarked.

“All because she doesn’t want to eat the Fleshies,” Maya said. “It’s a SIL eat SIL dimensional plane out there, bud.” Maya paused and sighed. “But she was right about the whole biomass thing. We don’t have to harvest the Tarvana, we just need to grow our own. If we get on the thought train of seeing Fleshies as nothing but biomass, it’ll make it harder for us to treat them as what they really are. SIL.”

“The girl’s smart,” Chu said.

“Right now, I just need her to be strong,” Maya said.

***

Maya skidded as she appeared on top of a trash pile. The ground wasn’t steady, but she managed to keep her balance and grabbed onto a length of metal jutting from the pile.

She breathed heavily as she heaved herself to an upright position and clamored back up the trash pile. She stood on the highest peak of Trash Mountain, two kilometers up and a hundred kilometers from the settlement.

The world spread out before her in its gloomy early morning light, one that never got any brighter. Back in the old days when she had been surviving by herself, she hadn’t been able to peer that much into the gloom of the RSH, her vision had been too poor to see more than a few miles ahead. Now, the world opened up before her, the dim light more than enough for her to make out details and spot distant objects.

This high up in the Trash Mountains, there was nothing much to see. The targeted Rogue AI settlement was two hundred kilometers west of the settlement, but there were dozens of fortified bases and resource gathering settlements scattered all across the region. Maya could make out the glimmering work lights from distant factories and buildings.  The Trash Mountains were a needed resource for the rogue AIs, not so much for the Fleshies.

Dimensional Teleportation V

You can teleport up to 50 kilometers in any direction.

You can teleport any SIL with you up to 50 km in any direction.

Maya grinned at the notification and took a deep breath. She extended her hand and summoned from her Inventory.

Tender appeared next to her, shifting as the ground beneath him gave a bit. He was followed by a dozen drones that popped into existence from out of her Inventory. It had been a long time since she tried carrying Tender in her inventory, being a rogue AI had the benefits of not dying inside of her Dimensional Inventory.

“How was the trip?” Maya asked as Tender righted himself.

“Instantaneous,” he replied.

Maya continued summoning more objects and the drones began working. They ripped out junk and began hammering away at the stacked trashed, creating a flat base upon which they began assembling a monitoring station.

Passive sensors and monitoring equipment were being set up along the highest peaks in the Trash Mountains. A network of sensors that would hopefully give the settlement a few moments alert of incoming raids or attacks.

It also gave Maya a good chance to exercise her Dimensional Teleportation. Maya stretched, feeling a wave of exhaustion as she watched the drones work. She had travelled nearly a thousand kilometers in a few hours. The strain was immense, but Maya could feel the slight tug of something behind the exhaustion.

It was similar to what she had felt when she had drained the tesseract to save everyone. The flow of mana that was tied to something bigger, essence mana. If she could keep tugging on it, perhaps she could grab hold of the essence mana and finally use it.

So far it had been elusive. It was just beyond her reach, a feeling that there was something more, but she was unable to touch it.

The System had promised her power in exchange for being their essence mana conduit, but they had never said gaining that power would be easy.

Maya looked to the cracked rainbow sky.

“We’re all done here, boss,” Tender said.

Maya glanced at the monitoring station and pulled out her tablet. It took a few moments to double check everything and she began placing the drones back into her Inventory.

A moment later only Tender and she stood atop of the trash peak.

“Nice view,” Tender said.

“Yeah, I keep expecting a breeze to blow or some kind of chill in the air,” Maya said.

“It would be alarming to see actual weather events in the RSH,” Tender said. “The cold, dark, and wind were all bad signs when Maintenance began.”

“I wonder how the rogue AIs survived,” Maya said. “They too should have been hit hard by the mana purge. With only the big guys surviving and the little ones going dormant.”

“Perhaps they were able to access a mana lake as we were,” Tender replied.

“Maybe they have liquid mana,” Maya mused.

“If the mana lakes were caused by the mana purge condensing ambient mana into a concentrated form, would not the end of the mana purge cause that mana to be returned to its ambient mana state?” Tender asked.

Maya shrugged. “I’ll look into the data we stole and see if they have stores of it,” she said. “We could always use more mana.” Maya grinned and slapped Tender’s back. “Might as well steal as much as we can while we can.”

Tender continued to look out upon the RSH expanse. “I have noticed a change in your overall disposition in the last few weeks,” Tender said.

“Uh-oh, am I getting a talking to? Who put you up to this?” Maya asked. “I figured with me being away from the politics of Earth, there would be less people telling me what I should be doing. Instead, it looks like everyone is still heaping on the things that I’ve been failing at.”

“You misunderstand,” Tender said, “or I misspoke. I meant to say, I’ve noticed a positive change in your overall disposition. You’ve been more active and less stressful.”

Maya snorted. “We’re walking a fine edge of either dying or being destroyed, with few resources, fewer people, and trapped between two nations that have no issues with obliterating us. And you’re saying I’m happier now?”

“Yes,” Tender replied.

“Oh.” Maya frowned and stared out into the RSH with Tender for a moment. “I guess you’re right.”

“I usually am, boss,” Tender replied.

“Although I wish I were home and with my family, I wish that humanity wasn’t on the edge of extinction, and I wish that I’d never even bothered with Asoltolia’s people. I can’t still but help feeling relief I’m not dealing with all the human drama going on back home,” Maya said after a while. “There was just so much going on. So many people needing things. So many horrors that it just became numbers and accounts, rather than the suffering that it really was.

“But we still have to get back. Roci is trapped on the 4S, Yosi is enslaved, and my family is in Texas on a world that’s going to be conquered by the Sword Union.” Maya kicked a chunk of metal and watched as it sailed into the gloomy void, clattering and bouncing far below them. “I also have to destroy House Revvena.”

“Revenge is great motivator,” Tender said.

“Keeps you focused,” Maya agreed.

“Just don’t take it too far. Extremes tend to not be considered justifiable.”

“I’m not going to raze their planets, defile their most sacred things, and then nail their screaming bodies to poles and line them up in the Cage for all to see and look upon with horror. So that all will know what happens when they fuck with House Sullivan,” Maya said.

“Yes, don’t do that.”

“I said I wasn’t,” Maya said defensively.

“Good.”

“Good.” Maya folded her arms and glanced to Tender. “But it would be cool, right?”

“No, boss.”

Maya groaned. “Whatever, man. I’m still going to wreck their shit up,” she said.

“That’s more acceptable.”