章節 309: A New Dawn part 2

RIght...first, a pair of LIONs. The twin drones, lithe and graceful in their movements, exude a sense of lethality only rumored about in the HK units the locals call Stalkers. They appear atop a rocky outcropping, what was likely once a piece of rubble now smoothed down to a solid lump over the ages.

Both Dervahl and his...companion pause in place as they see your escorts, but after a moment the former recognizes the sleek interlocking external plating, the lack of devotion to anomalous internal mechanisms or curious, unknown functions. The distinctly different design from the smooth, almost muscle-like mobility of most Machines.

They are clearly yours.

Still, just to make sure, you speak through your man's Focus. "Welcome back, Dervahl. I figured I'd arrange an escort for you both." It's really a shame the woman doesn't have a focus of her own, but you'll be able to deal with that easily enough.

Grinning beneath his helmet, he turns to the lady and explains their purpose, which gives her a contemplating look. Deciding to assure your position, you have them both leap down and approach, their sinuous steps lifelike as they approach.

As they get closer, you do some more thorough scans using their sensors. It's not just the woman's arm that's received an artificial graft. It also appears that whatever took her arm also punctured an artery in her left thigh, and she rigged and sewed a metal apparatus to ensure the continuation of bloodflow through the limb. Going by the scarring, this would be the second such artificial vein she's had put in, the first one likely done around the same time as the wounding.

With one arm, she not only was able to stem the bloodloss of losing an arm, but also likely perform life-saving surgery on herself to make her own artificial vein using a discarded tube. That she didn't die from infection is likely a miracle, but that she was capable of doing so at all...

You can see why the Oseram elected to send her.

Your LIONs take up position on either side of the pair, and start guiding them through the small forest around your door to the entrance of the cave, the decrepit mine that leads to your lair.

You should really touch that up at some point...

As they travel through the mine, the light of your LION's eyes guiding them better than any lantern could, they eventually reach the door. Once they're standing outside, the two LIONs move to stand guard on either side of the heavily-shielded entrance. Your android body, carefully crafted over the past week, is waiting on the other side when it slides open...

What design did you decide on?

You'd decided to be classy.

It wasn't that you endorsed Ted Faro or the culture that spawned such a reckless fucknugget, but the appearance of wealth, the iconography that blends the Sun and Gold so well as objects of worship...some things just have that effect on human nature.

It's shiny, therefore it must be important.

These Oseram do not particularly like the idea of culture and refinement, however, so you can't rely just on being 'The Shiniest' to get them on your side. You have to show a sense of humanity, the idea that everything you're capable of, they can be too.

Thus, the suit.

Turning the various materials you use into threads was easy enough. Actually forcing them into shape so they could be woven took some effort.

Creating the body underneath, though...that was a challenge.

Emitters around the wrist, capacitors capable of charging for and bleeding from a direct energy weapon, hard-light and hologram emitters for both educational, design, and destructive purposes, housed within limbs of nigh-unbreakable metal held up by a series of servos more suited to that oversized Jurassic Park wannabe you saw earlier. And where your head would be, a golden mask and helm, topped with a halo reminiscent of the sun.

That the halo also acts as a sensor and transmitter to and from your core, giving you a wide, wide set of data on everything surrounding the android, on a level and at a rate no human would be capable of understanding in any meaningful fashion, is incidental. The entire body is still durable enough, even under the suit, to withstand the entire batch of chemically altered blaze in the woman's pack igniting simultaneously.

Besides, you like how snappy you look~

As the door slides open to reveal your black and golden form, arms clasped behind your back, you give a polite bow to the savage woman. "Greetings, miss," you say cheerfully, extending one arm and revealing the blade-like appendages emerging from your wrist. Your bow complete, you rise and gesture to her. "I'm going to have to ask you to leave the volatile concoctions you've been carrying here. While the facility could survive such an explosion with minor damage, the individuals within are significantly more fragile."

The woman, who has thus far been looking at you with nothing short of absolute shock, something so human and yet so obviously not clearly giving her a crack in her worldview, she still recovers enough as you hold out your hand, palm up, waiting.

It takes all of half a second to realize she doesn't want to give up the explosives, though before she opens her mouth something you've been expecting happens.

Alerting Malena to her father's return was something of a risk, knowing that you'd be putting her in close proximity to explosives, but your time studying her through Dervahl's Focus made it clear to you that she was genuinely curious about what lay within. That she was taking her mission seriously.

You also detected that she'd given birth at some point, judging by the scarring and stretch marks gained through a medical scan via your LIONs. She'd be far less likely to try anything around a little girl while her Maternal instincts were flaring.

The fact that said little girl seemed completely at ease around your new form, and that Dervahl's own shock at seeing you was hidden beneath his armor, further reinforced the idea of you as someone that could be trusted. A tense five seconds later as she considered the issue, and you were handing her pouch off (carefully) to one of the LIONs to take it plenty far away.

As the quadrupedal drone lopes off to a safe radius, you turn your attention back to the woman.

"Now that that's over with, allow me to introduce myself," you start off, as pleasant as ever. "I am APOLLO, one of Nine...Machine Spirits, I suppose you could call us. And what might your name be?"

The blonde-haired savage considered you a few moments quite critically, but the time for her backing out of this was already passed. "Arianne," she says curtly, still suspicious.

"Well, Arianne, would you like to come in? I imagine it's been quite a long journey for you." You step aside, lifting a hand and inviting her inside. Your shoes click on the alloyed floor like a metronome with every measured step as you follow her into your domain.

Where do you take her first?

Choices -Voting closed - 16 voters

VOTES

The living quarters. A place to get some food and relax after a long journey.

8/15

+Praise the Sun

The Foundry viewing room. Might as well get to business.

1/1

The classroom you've had built. Start off with some history on who you are.

The first place you take her is the living quarters. Truth be told, though, this entire area is designed with humans in mind.

It's easy enough to make a door that occasionally spits out drones. Making an entranceway, underground, that welcomes in new humans, with amenities like ventilation and plumbing. What's probably surprising her, though, as she inspects the hallways with a curious (if quiet) eye is just how clean everything is.

These hallways are new. There is no dust, the metal is smooth and undented, there is no steady drip of water building up mineral deposits right in the middle of your hallways, and the lights are on. This is probably a far cry from what most of the ruins she's come across are like.

As another door opens on her left, revealing a dining room with metal furniture and gel cushions, a modern kitchenette in the corner where Carmine's busy preparing a meal for your guest. Meatloaf made from boar, duck, and rabbit that your LIONs had hunted yesterday. You'd been careful to clean them yourself, no reason to risk Malena getting attached to her lunch.

She's dressed in an apron and clean white sundress, a wide smile on her face as she pulls the meal out of the oven. Dervahl was on his way to a different corner to remove his armor, though he'd paused a moment to admire the view of his wife after walking in. Meatbags are adorable.

"Welcome home, honey~" Carmine says, "And I see you've brought company. Should I be worried?" The smile and mirth in her eyes shows that she's not actually concerned, despite her tone. Arianne, for her part, seems to relax considerably around other humans, even as your body walks over to help Malena set the table.

What do you talk about over the meal?

Choices -Voting closed - 12 voters

VOTES

State that we will answer any questions she has about us after dinner, otherwise inquire about her well being, that of her tribe and if there is anything she would most like to discuss when we get down to negotiating.

3/9

What drove her to undertake such a desperate surgery? And if she would like help streamlining her prosthetic given it has to cause her a great deal of pain as it is.

3/7

Why Adrianne felt the need for explosives. Was not Dervahl's word enough? And if not that the armor we made for him?

1/2

You decide to leave all matters of business until after the meal, though Arianne doesn't bring up anything herself. It seems the prospect of well-cooked food after several days of travel rations is more appealing at the moment than simple negotiations.

It's not until half the meat and most of the gravy is gone that you finally find an opportunity to speak with her, patiently "reading" one of the holo-books on a nearby couch. "Arianne," you speak up, your voice only carrying a slight synthetic timbre.

Her head swivels towards you, cheeks puffed out with savory meatloaf. After swallowing it down, she asks, "Yeah?" She's still wary, but at this point you could have done anything with her. You've invited her into your home and fed her fine fare. If your intentions were less than honest, you'd have acted on them by now.

"I must ask about your arm. Not the workmanship, but what made it necessary?" The two other adults eating pause their meal, looking to you somewhat curiously. Your body's head lifts itself from the book before it, though the only "gaze" your mask meets is your guest's.

After a moment, she answers, "You took my blast shots." The bombs. "It's a thing I been workin on for some time. Take the blaze, mix in some other things, see if it goes boom better. Sometimes it doesn't. Other times..." She pulls back the shoulder of her armor, revealing where the burnt skin gives way to metal.

"I don't regret it. It was a sign what I was doing was working. I knew the risks." And she accepted them. Understood they were necessary, for the sake of progress. Willing to give up everything to make it happen.

Even though she has a child. Or is it had? Best not to ask, not yet.

Instead, you give an understanding nod. While you don't quite approve, you can empathize with that sort of approach to risks. But she's not like Faro. She didn't go too far, too fast. Didn't assume things were under control and disregard the risk. She knew what she was doing could kill her, what earns your respect is that she was willing to do it anyways.

The mixtures she has developed are far more flammable than blaze is, though her process is imperfect. Likely stemming from a lack of understanding of the process. Still, it provides a basis that even you yourself could use to make a more efficient fuel. You understand why the Oseram chose her.

Instead, you turn your attention to your...other concern. "And what of your arm and leg? They must be quite...unpleasant to maintain." She gives a small wince at that, her eye twitching. It's not that she doesn't feel it, she's gotten used to it. And you just reminded her. "I cannot in good conscience host you without at least offering to have them replaced with something more streamlined. Something less painful than simply drilling a pin through flesh and bone and hoping it doesn't break."

The room is quiet after your offer, save for Malena's eating. Both Dervahl and his wife focus on your guest as she contemplates your offer, before she asks, "What did you have in mind?"

There's actually two designs you have in mind for her, both ready to be made right now.

The first would be an arm made using synthetic muscles, amputating everything up to the shoulder and replacing it with lightweight plastics, plasteel alloys, and reinforced pseudo-bones. The appendages would be precise and wired directly into her nervous system, giving her full range of motion, some added strength, and the sensation of touch thanks to sensor plates covering most of the arm..

The second design is more Oseram-ish in mentality. Rather than simply being a new arm to replace her old one, you would give her a tool. Slimmer in design, and comparable in weight to that unsightly limp she's got attached to her now, this metal limb would be capable of punching out a charging elephant and require no maintenance afterwords. Strong, durable, and dependable, while still retaining the same amount of dexterity. It will, however, lack a sense of touch, and it's slightly more limited range of motion might take some getting used to.

Which do you present to her?

Choices -Voting closed - 14 voters

VOTES

Offer her the choice between the two.

5/12

+Offer her the chance to work her flame-projector device into the first arm, at the cost of some functionality.

2/3

Option 1, sense of touch, bulky and not as durable

2/21

++It really depends on what you see yourself needing more, sensory input to perfect and adjust your craft or raw power.

Option 2, Heavier, more durable, no sense of touch

Dice: 1d2

2 = 2

In the end, you decide to present both models to her, visuals and all. Over your left hand hovers the rather muscular plasteel plates of the first design, each section highlighting and the entire assembly flowing apart as you describe what each mechanism would be used for. Understandably, she's a bit leery of the design, but the thought of feeling with her arm again DOES speak to her.

Over the other hand, you have the sleeker, more durable design. Made entirely out of solid armoring save for the bits necessitating movement, you're able to present the arm as a durable, easily maintained bit of equipment. Something that clearly speaks to her culturally, in spite of the lack of sensation associated with it.

In the end, it's not really much of a contest. She says she'd prefer the second arm. What's interesting is what she asks after, "What'll it cost me?"

Now there's a thought. Sure, you offered it to her, but she might be a bit wary of it if you simply give such a miracle to her. Moreover, she's the one who will be judging you on behalf of the Oseram. There's quite a bit you can ask from her...but will she take it?

What sort of debt does she incur?

Choices -Voting closed - 9 voters

VOTES

Your opinions on me to your tribe are your own to decide. What I want from you is.... simpler. I have but one account of your people. Give me another perspective. Tell me what your people are like, and how you've been shaped by them.

4/5

For me to teach, first I must understand the world in which I clawed myself back into existence. Tell me about you, your tribes, other tribes, and as much as you can about the world as you can. Furthermore if you're going to keep experimenting..... I must insist on teaching you some basic safety protocols so I will not have to replace any more limbs or hear about you accidentally setting everything on fire.

1/4

Ask her to speak favorably on your behalf to the Oseram.

1/2

"Nothing much," you reply without any perceptible hesitation, leaning back in your seat. The posture you create is meant to evoke a specific level of wariness, prompt suspicion and questioning even as you reply, "I simply wish to know more about your people."

Teaching is a two-person affair, requiring effort from both sides. The first, and most obvious one, is the teacher, who must put effort into explaining concepts in a way that not only fits into a person's worldview enough to be comprehensible, but also must challenge their worldview enough to expand it beyond what it was.

The other half is the student. Their purpose is to listen, to learn, to assimilate information and make it transition smoothly with what they already know, instead of simply letting the information exist (and ultimately deteriorate) outside of what they know or simply rejecting it outright, either through inattention or willful ignorance.

Your purpose was to make sure both roles were being fulfilled. Experienced teachers can trick their students into being inquisitive. You, an AI born from the best learning assistant ever made, are better, as proven when Ariane asks the all-important, "Why?"

And that gives you all the opening you need. Spreading your hand in a wide gesture, you respond, "How long do you think your people's way of life, as it exists now, will last, Ariane? My very presence is going to institute a shift in what you people believe, what you all value. Your very purpose here is to divine the truth of the matter, and in doing so help their efforts to make this change beneficial."

You pause for a moment, smiling internally while your body assumes a relaxed posture. "I simply wish to know better the Oseram that were, even as I shape the Oseram that Will Be."

Ariane, understandably, seems quite taken aback by this. As she leans away from your passionate exposition, she looks at you with a new sort of caution. There's a bit of fear, there, the acknowledgement of what her real purpose here is and the subsequent implications now more than a vague supposition. Cultural shift, let alone cultural death, is a horrifying thing to contemplate, in much the same way murder on an individual basis is.

Fuck Ted Faro.

Your guest recovers quickly enough, of course. She would never have been sent here if she wasn't willful enough and clever enough to process shocks like this. And eventually, once all you've told her is properly assimilated, she nods and starts to speak.

It's actually a bit surprising, how vivid her understanding of her culture is, and you learn as much from the way she explains it as you do from what she actually says. There's bitterness and bias when describing the cutthroat nature of things, there's the various clans you get some information on, some with opinions most people have, others that have crossed her specifically. It seems she's from the Lietva clan, one that specializes in the preparation and alteration of Blaze and its applications.

She's not the only one of her clan missing something.

As she speaks, you have the arm made and one of the maintenance drones modified to act as a surgical assistant. Your 'Viewing Area' is cleared out, with the furniture within re-purposed to act as an operating theater. Small amounts of anaesthetic are synthesized from some of the medical herbs that Demeter's been shoving around all willie nillie, and a patch of synthetic skin for her leg tube is woven.

Soon enough, everything is ready, and just in time for Ariane's exposition to end.

What now?

Choices -Voting closed - 6 voters

VOTES

Interesting. Very interesting. Would you be interested in some procedures that would help you and your clan end up losing fewer limbs?

1/5

+Erect a massive obelisk out side, with each side covered in the same phrase in every written language. Fuck Ted Faro.

It's as she's describing some of the processes her clan uses when experimenting mixtures that the internal screaming starts. A few of your many, many processors reach a level of heat they probably shouldn't have as you try to express your seething rage at their lack of lab safety in a way that is not obvious to your squishy companions.

Eventually, as she finishes her talk (going as deep as she dare into the actual research being conducted), you manage to say, "Fascinating. Would your clan be interested in procedures that result in significantly less loss of limb?"

Your sudden question takes her off guard, and you chide yourself for not keeping yourself constrained, but FUCKING FUCK there's no reason why any research group should be losing that many limbs! Just calm the fuck down with your dosages when working with known volatile substances, wear armor designed for small scale blasts, use Safety Glasses, FUCKING DAMMIT STOP DYING SO MUCH YOU IRON MONKEYS!

As you push these concepts and more onto Ariane (using less expletive-laced phrasing, of course), you eventually reach an end to the meal time, and elect to move to a small routine that's developed in Dervahl's absence; pre-fall Media!

What do you decide to show them?

Choices -Voting closed - 4 voters

VOTES

Some post-WWII era music, with a small lecture on how a war like that left scars on the artistic culture that lasted until the Fall

2/4

Detailed Videos of what life was like and what it can be again.

Early color movies, specifically some horror ones.

1/1

+Erect a massive obelisk out side, with each side covered in the same phrase in every written language. Fuck Ted Faro.

A lecture by some of the Scientific Minds during the High Days of the Internet, before the fall of Net Neutrality.

"And now, we come to a little routine we've cooked up," you say, standing your body up from the table. Malena catches on immediately, as does her mother. Dervahl is slower on the uptake, but not as much as Ariane. She's still recovering from what she could tell was a fit of barely-restrained pique being delivered unto her by someone far more vast than she herself is.

You really are getting big for your britches.

As you lead the ensemble away from the kitchenette and into the living area, everyone takes a seat on the soft gel cushions, getting just comfy enough to stay there a while.

"Today's topic is..." There's a drumroll, leading up to you saying with a burst of emotion, "War, and it's effect on the arts." The music fades quite quickly to the background, and you're rather happy that there hasn't been all that much linguistic drift from the English ELEUTHIA taught them so long ago.

As you let the nature of the topic sink in, you let the holographic projectors in your hands light up, showing stills taken during WWII, in the age of the black-and-white pictures. Dervahl and Carmine seem a bit worried about the topic, especially when images start showing up, but the pictures you select are tame for this exact reason.

"During what would be called the Second World War, a faction, let's call it a clan, in the nation of Germany rose to prominence under a man named Adolf Hitler, who spoke of strict regulations and the value of discipline. He gained power by playing on people's prejudices and their desire for blood after having lost a war only a decade earlier. Religion, skin color, sexual orientation, anything that did not conform could be grounds for immediate classification as something less than human." And your next image reflects this.

Civilians, digging out trenches under the watchful gaze of a few men in uniforms. "Once Mr. Hitler had taken control of his nation's government, he turned his ambitions on the rest of the world." You paused a moment, before saying, "The war escalated."

As horrible as the sentiment is, you almost want to laugh at how much of an understatement this is. It actually takes you a moment to figure out how you can make these savages understand the sheer scale of warfare, but only that.

"Imagine the scene behind me. It was replicated thousands of times over, all across the land. And I do not mean within this one mountain range. You would have to consider a landscape several orders of magnitude larger than all Oseram territory. Trenches that stretch for miles, and miles, and miles, with no end in sight. This would be the effort, the scale, of this group's ambition."

You paused for a moment, for dramatic effect, then said, "This war happened when there were no edges of the map left unexplored. The entirety of the planet was known and catalogued, and every human was, in some way, affected by this war. Whether they were fighting in it..."

There's a resounding BOOM echoing through the small room in time with the moving image behind you. "Or a victim of it. In the end, the death toll was estimated to be 80 million. Forty thousand times the size of the entire Oseram tribe, with all of its clans. This is taking into account the famine caused by farms being burned and the remainder rationed out to soldiers, as well as war-time plagues that arose from the horrible conditions on the battlefield. More than half of those deaths were non-combatants. Civilians, who had not the skills, equipment, or even temperament to fight back."

Looking at the pale faces of the adults (Carmine looks like she might vomit, the poor thing) and the mildly disturbed, though somewhat confused look on Malena that tells you she doesn't quite understand completely, you think you've given enough context. Time to wrap this up and get to the meat of the lesson.

"This war lasted Six Years. When it was over, everyone knew somebody that had died. Out of every 100 people who lived, 3 had been killed. In six years, almost every human being that lived, no matter where had become familiar with the concept of death on a very intimate level."

Another pause, letting them drink in this statistic, then you say, "This, coupled with the fact that a good many artists, writers, musicians, and artistic craftsmen were counted amongst the dead or knew close friends who had died, caused a cultural vacuum. There was nobody who could write music the way it had been written before the war. Nobody who could paint or twist metal the way it'd been done for centuries. Secrets of beauty, craftsmanship, and professional pride had been lost forever. In this cultural gutting, however, new life began to grow. And in music, to many, the largest shift came from a small band of musicians called The Beatles."

Having Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band play over the background is a nice touch. You let the song play out through the first verse, then bring the volume down again. "It had taken twenty three years for this song to become wide-spread, and while the Beatles were not the first ones to create this sort of music, what they did with this series of songs, what they had done to warp the sounds they made, was so far beyond what any other composer of music had done that it ended up taking the entire world by storm."

You have Back in the USSR play softly as you keep speaking, "Countries that had fought and bled entire lineages would lay down their grudges and accept the Beatles into their lands, just for the chance to hear them play. Their fame knew no borders, their love of music knew no cultural boundaries, and it all perfectly encapsulated something that every politician with the merest scrap of ambition has known since they first got a taste of power."

"Any major change brings opportunity, for those willing to risk in the taking. The Beatles took artistic risks that could have made them the laughing stock of the world, whatever corner of it knew about them. But they had the right vision and the right talent at the right time, and set the stage for popular music for an entire century."

You have to stop a moment to appreciate the little jig Malena is doing in her chair as she listens to your archived recordings. Without really thinking, you record this and save it, for posterity. That done, you turn to your waiting audience, who has been hanging on your every word. Smugly satisfied at what appears to be a successful lesson, you ask, "Any questions?"

It's about two hours before they finally run out, but by the end they've gained an appreciation for just what war can do to a people, a tribe even after it ends. A lesson you feel will be very valuable in the years to come...

What do you do now?

Choices -Voting closed - 11 voters

VOTES

Arianne's arm should be just about finished. If you head up now, she can see how her arm is made. It'd be a good chance to impress her.

5/8

Malena wants to listen to more music. Who are you to deny her, you heartless jerk?

1/6

Dervahl is curious about the weapons you showed in the WWII context. His interest is purely academic, you're sure, but there's a glint in his eye that has you a bit on guard with this information...

2/2

What in particular do you introduce Malena to?

Choices -Voting closed - 10 voters

VOTES

The Doors

1/3

Beethoven

1/3

AC/DC

1/2

Jimi Hendrix

1/2

Cage the Elephant

1/21

Elvis

Kansas

Rolling Stones

Black Sabbath

The Rankin Family

Manowar

Ram Jam

With the lecture done, Dervahl retires to examine his new armor a bit more. He's still curious about how his strength gets enhanced, but he's determined to figure it out on his own. Apparently, he considers the act of understanding just as worthwhile as the knowledge itself.

The idea of knowledge that is worked for being exhonerated, of ideas blooming instead of being complacently accepted makes you feel so tingly, you decide here and now you'll repair the suit if he damages it without a single complaint.

Not anything there that can give him more than a mild shock anyways.

Instead, leaving a drone with Malena so she has plenty of music to listen to, you have your body bring Arianne up to the observation table. The view is...impressive, to say the least.

While you're sure HEPHEASTUS has several dozen such facilities per Vault, it's still an impressive achievement. Raw material enters through the processing chute above in carefully measured bricks, and is dropped into what is at once a Fusion Reactor and Atomizer, with the excess matter funneled downwards using enough magnetic force to kill a human if they got too close just from the electrical impulses in the brain being disrupted.

Further down, heat is shunted off and stored as usable energy by the base, the majority of it going back into the reactor to keep it stable. The trick is that heat is bled off in a specific way, encouraging certain atomic bonds and subatomic to form that otherwise would be impossible as the material cools. The end result is materials that would require the most astronomically improbable circumstances to appear naturally.

While most of your explanation clearly goes over Arianne's head, her slackjawed expression at what she's seeing, and how thoroughly it defies everything she's ever known about how the world works...oh dear.

Her people do not believe in spirits, or propriety, or higher powers beyond the strength of their own arms. They do not have a God they can claim this is the work of. She has to try and force it into her world view. She has to try and justify to herself that the floating orb of distorted light and shadow has enough power to kill everyone and everything she's ever laid eyes on.

You move to catch her before she hits the floor.

...well, it should still leave a favorable impression. You have power. You are not to be fucked with lightly.

Her arm arrives up in the room a few moments later. You can't exactly get permission to operate on her while she's in this state, and given the hour and how trying a day it's been for her, she might just sleep through the night.

What next?

Choices -Voting closed - 8 voters

VOTES

Dervahl's still tinkering with the armor. Maybe you should help him before he hurts himself.

4/7

+Make sure to give him safety glasses, gloves, aprons, the whole nine yards of safety gear... Though you should still keep an eye on him, just in case he gets the bright idea to tinker with the power supply. This new Oseram woman has really opened your eyes to how dangerous it is to leave them to their own devices.

3/4

Carmine is putting Malena to sleep with some bedtime stories. Maybe you could listen in...

1/1

That's enough for tonight. Skip til (Next week when she leaves, will include votes on what to do until then)

Handing off an unconscious Arianne to Carmine (she's such a sweetheart, even after having had a similar experience herself when she saw the Foundry) you make your way over to Dervahl.

By whatever gods may be you will NOT let this fucking Iron Monkey kill himself just when you're starting to warm up to the insane ass-backwards WHY CAN'T THEY TAKE ANY SAFETY PRECAUTIONS ARRGGGHHHH!

Luckily, you've been preparing for this problem! A pair of safety goggles, a titanium-laced Kevlar apron, a pair of gloves that could handle molten iron and grip a live wire in your lair without even the slightest discomfort, and a rebreather that, while compact and efficient, also covers the neck to stop any unfortunate bits of shrapnel that may or may not start flying while he's working.

And then you walk in and you see him trying to yank out the high-pressure hydraulic system. You thought he'd be incapable of actually causing himself serious harm without any power tools, but he's somehow removed one of the armor plates on the right bicep and has wedged the hammer in there as a lever. Which he is currently standing on.

Even as you watch, the piston buckles slightly under the weight.

What do you do?

Choices -Voting closed - 10 voters

VOTES

Just...just take him off the hammer, and instruct him in proper safety procedure.

4/7

+explain that we are amazed by his ingenuity. However if he wants to tinker with power armor, perhaps he should understand the underlying concepts first? Walking before running headfirst into a wall, or explosion. We know he is an intelligent man, also that armor is a right bitch to fix.

3/71

+once you've stopped him remove the piston he was tinkering with, put it behind a safety barrier and show exactly what happens when one is crushed apart.

3/5

Stop him, forbid him from tinkering on his own, ground him, oh my god how could you possibly fuck up that hard you fucking iron monkey holy shit

You are by him in moments, your body effortlessly lifting the man, armored clothing and all, from his "perch" and setting him on the ground, completely disregarding his protests. You then pull the hammer, that likely took him the better part of the past hour to move into position, out of the armor's arm and set it on the ground.

This done, you shove the bundle of safety equipment into Dervahl's arms and say, "Put this on. Now. And then we're going to have a demonstration."

Your tone is curt, disapproving, and authoritative. While a willful man like Dervahl might normally be inclined to protest this, your behavior is so far out of the norm you've been cultivating he just does what you say with a minor amount of grumbling.

As he's doing that, you turn your attention to the limb he'd been actively trying to mangle. It's a matter of seconds to get it out with the hard-light projectors you've got set up into your wrists, making the tools you need on the fly. Once it's out, you have a drone fly in with a clear plate of blast-proof material you WERE going to use on your first large-scale drone, but that you can easily replace. It bolts the plate into the wall, then takes the piston in its actuators.

Satisfied, you turn back to Dervahl, who is properly suited up.

"Good. Now, Dervahl, I am only going to show you this once. Afterwords, I will show you how to repair damage done to the suit, and provide you the tools needed to maintain it. First lesson; do not fuck with the Extreme-Pressure Hydraulic Pistons." The drone behind you squeezes down on the piston with a force comparable to your own grip strength.

The piston promptly bursts, a piece of it (unfortunately) tearing right through the drone's CPU. You make a cluck of annoyance at having to replace that much of a drone, but that's the price of proper education. "Those pistons contain a special fluid designed to react in specific ways at specific pressures and in response to specific stimuli."

A hologram appears above your hand of the very part you had removed, though blown up. Neat little visuals appear as you explain, "Given an electric current through the piston in one direction, it will expand rapidly. A current in the opposite direction will have the opposite effect. While the gel is cheap and the metal can be easily forced back into shape in my lair, people are not so easily fixed. And if the piston is ruptured, the pressure inside it will be released. Violently." The hologram bursts into static with a noise extremely similar (but not quite identical) to the piston breaking moments ago.

He seems to get the idea.

The Moresk Personal Defense Rig was popular as personal power armor for two reasons. One, it was significantly cheaper. The individual components were relatively cheap to produce and required very little in the way of exotic materials. It could, in theory, be produced using purely mundane materials instead of metamaterials extracted from the Fusion Foundry you've got, though the maximum pressure that could be stored in the pistons would be significantly less.

The second was the ease of repair.

Given sufficient parts and material, every piece of a Moresk rig could be repaired, refitted, and refined using a single proprietary Omni-tool (sold separately). New pistons could be pressed into shape, new fluid could be processed using Blaze and Water, plates and fittings returned to a single, cohesive whole even when completely shredded...you honestly somewhat admire the effort that went into making this suit reliable in the field. You could even fabricate a new Omni-tool using it!

Once you bought it, there was no excuse why it should not work, so long as the user was properly instructed. This instruction is what you end up giving Dervahl over the course of the next few hours, hammering into him the necessity of treating the armor with care out of battle specifically so that it doesn't fail on him in battle. It is not a toy, it is the last line of defense between the myriad dangers of the world and his squishy meaty parts.

By the end of it, Dervahl is exhausted. Not physically, the process of actually making a piston was relatively hands free besides gathering up the appropriate materials and forcing them into the press. No, this was the weariness of someone who's spent a hard day learning. Part of you understands the satisfaction you feel was hard-coded in, to encourage you to teach others, but the rest of you accepts this as fact. Humans have plenty of hard-coded responses to external (and internal) stimuli, after all.

As Dervahl heads off to the bed his wife lays in, you turn your attention to the rest of your lair. First impressions have been made, and they are most certainly in your favor. Now to keep up the momentum...

Pick three actions to conduct over the course of the next week, when Arianne will be leaving.

Choices -Voting closed - 15 voters

VOTES

Expand your influence beyond the Lair (will lead to a vote on how)

4/11

Develop a new type of drone (will lead to an additional vote)

4/7

Prepare more lectures in advance (will lead to a vote on topic)

Create more equipment (another vote)

Create so land based transports like cars, trucks, bikes. Then there can be more simple ones like horses or elks. Then again there could be something

under water lost to time.

1/3

Which way do you expand?

Choices -Voting closed - 7 voters

VOTES

North, towards the Carja. You've got a bad feeling about those raids.

1/3

East, towards where the Nora supposedly are. What's a mountain range between friends?

1/3

West, into lands that GAIA never fully terraformed due to the sheer amount of radiation soaked into the earth.

1/2

South, where the Utaru have their farmlands.

1/1

How do you expand?

Choices -Voting closed - 3 voters

VOTES

By stealth. SQRLs, DOVEs, and RAVNs will bring your eyes and ears ever further afield with few realizing you're there.

1/3

By force. Entire prides of LIONs will start roaming towards the territory in question, bringing with them your White Light. (locks in a combat drone in the development vote)

By diplomacy. Your combat Servitor will openly approach these places, flanked by LIONs, in the interest of bringing your Good Word.

Nora or Carja? Will be going by stealth regardless.

Choices -Voting closed - 7 voters

VOTES

Nora

3/62

Carja

1/1

What type of drone do you want to make?

Choices -Voting closed - 11 voters

VOTES

A support drone, that can help improve your infrastructure and make managing bots easier.

6/101

A large bird, designed to stay airborne nearly indefinitely with solar panels on top of its wings and back. Its main roll is to act as a flying aircraft carrier, able to repair, rearm, and refuel smaller drones, and act as a relay for remote command for longer distances without relying on MINERVA's systems. (will also need specialized COD drone for inflight resupply, along with more combat oriented drones for air superiority and attack rolls)

1/33

A combat drone, something big that can pack a mean punch.

HIPO: Around the size of a SNAPMAW, heavily armored, slow moving mostly but wickedly fast in water and charges like a bill with teeth. Used as a signal waylay point to improve size and strength of our web of influence, capable of hunkering down to avoid all but the most persistent attackers and able to tear thru most common metals with large teeth. Surprisingly cute looking for a machine, is docile around living beings by default and most need only see its rampage once to not cause a second

A surveillance drone, something small and quiet that can help with your awareness of the world.

Detail what sort of support drone you're designing. Currently, you're low on ways to fuel your drones and limited on the size and complexity of them by your rather small facilities.

Reader Posts- Closed - 3 posters

HIPO: Around the size of a SNAPMAW, heavily armored, slow moving mostly but wickedly fast in water and charges like a bill with teeth. Like the animal its based off it consumes vast quantities of plants to produce Blaze and other lesser fuels in large amounts, capable of hunkering down to avoid all but the most persistent attackers and able to tear thru most common metals with large teeth. Surprisingly cute looking for a machine, is docile around living beings by default and most need only see its rampage once to not cause a second

HRNT Small insect robots designed to harvest necessary components to produce fuels, while a single unit can't produce much, a hive of thousands and enough plants can rival an oil rig in pure quantities produced

Small swallow-like drones with solar panel wings that can acts as scouts/overwatch

and attach to your bigger bots to boost/recharge them

lel

Choices -Voting closed - 7 voters

VOTES

HRNT small-sized Blaze Gathering swarm. Gathers up biomaterial from the surrounding area in small enough quantities as to leave no long-term environmental impact, bringing it back to a central 'Hive' for storage and processing. Swarm will not attack humans unless they attempt to steal Blaze from the Hive, at which point they will use surgical-grade lasers to attack as a swarm. Lost HRNTs will be rebuilt on site by the HIVE. Blaze will be collected by SQRLs for distribution.

3/7

HIPO Medium-sized Blaze Gathering units. Stores Blaze in reinforced sacs that can be extracted by hand. Domestic behavior towards humans, but will attack if provoked. The vast array of simultaneous functions requires a second, more primitive AI to function, and will not be under Apollo's direct control unless he puts his full attention on it.

What do you educate these iron monkeys on?

Choices -Voting closed - 17 voters

VOTES

+Plan to produce a Dr. Seuss like book series for children, if we educate them young the monkeys can't blow themselves up... as much

4/14

Fire proofing, cloths, metals, themselves. Really anything relating to not blowing yourself up or engulfing self in flames

5/14

+SAFETY!

4/11

Basic mining and forging techniques

1/3

Basic medicine, medical applications and techniques

1/2

+Introduce these savages to the glory of cornbread and honey butter.

Mercantilism, time to Jew it up

Brewing let's throw them a bone

Dice: 1d100

16 = 16

The first thing you do is expansion. It's in your best interests to connect with the Nora and GAIA's little gambit before things escalate. The trouble is that they're a theocracy with an unknown hierarchy. To that end, you up your production of DOVEs, RAVNs, and SQRLs, sending about twenty of each eastwards in a group. Hopefully, they'll blend in amongst all the natural fauna ARTEMIS has been shitting out for the past few centuries.

It will be a couple of weeks before they arrive, however, given they have to cross an entire mountain range without spooking the locals. Should be simple enough, given time.

That done, you retreat into your workshop, designing, refining, and ultimately producing a new type of drone. Right now, the main sticking point is the amount of Blaze you're capable of producing. Or rather, lack thereof. To this end you've created a new type of drone, one which DEMETER would likely want the moment she hears about it, given it can do her job with half as much oversight as doing it manually.

The HRNTs

These small bots, only three inches from the end of their "stinger" to their biomass-consuming mouths, are designed to chew away at plantlife in the area at a rate that has a minimal impact on the local wildlife, then bringing it back to the "hive" to be converted into blaze. Your SQRLs, with their tails, can then carry this blaze out to fuel your units in the field, thus cutting down tremendously on the need to keep your units close. One such hive is carried east in your Recon group, to supply fuel on the journey.

The last thing you do is go through all of the lessons, work books, and planners you have on Workplace Safety, and compile them into a series of short, simple lectures. These monkeys won't be killing themselves easily, not if YOU have anything to say about it!

Your problem comes in the middle of the week. Your second HRNT Queen has just finished making her hive and started spawning drones to gather Biofuel for your army, when a SQRL detects something entering your zone of influence.

Several somethings, actually. Men in Black Plated armor that could only have been taken from the Stalker units you saw in the logs HEPHAESTUS submitted. That does not bode well.

About ten of them, armed with axes that must have taken days to beat into shape given the materials they are from, decorated artfully yet crudely with golden inlays, and hafts hewn from solid oak. Swung properly, those axes could likely cleave cleanly through one of your LIONs, and cause significant damage to your combat servitor.

They're not even remotely a threat to the work of art you have crafted to greet Arianne with, but you hesitate to have your "body" go out and murder while you have a dignitary here.

It's the middle of the day, Dervahl and Arianne are working in the lab on a set of workbooks you'd made on workplace safety, while Malena is listening to some ancient music by people long dead, and Carmine is swimming in the sea of recipes you'd provided her, delighting in her culinary creations.

What do you do?

Choices -Voting closed - 8 voters

VOTES

Have a squad of LIONs stalk them, if one strays to far from the group, kill him and hide the body, no traces, as if he was never there. Continue until all but one is alive, to use as a messenger.

1/41

Doves and squirrels distract and confuse get them to scatter or split. then Lions pick off the stragglers.

3/41

Send a Dove and have it tell them to leave now. Or else. They can come back in a week if they want to see us.

2/3

Choices -Voting closed - 3 voters

VOTES

Non-lethal

1/32

Lethal

Reader Posts- Closed - be the first to post.

Dice: 1d100

64 = 64

Dice: 1d100

53 = 53

Dice: 1d100

33 = 33

You decide, after some internal debate, that you will NOT have your first contact with a tribe end in bloodshed. Not this early, at least. With that in mind, you get to work.

The DOVEs and RAVNs take to the air, the former watching and gauging the responsiveness and perceptiveness of the various soldiers, while the latter provides the stimulus. In a matter of minutes, the soldiers are spooked, but you've also got a solid profile on how each of them will behave.

This done, you move your SQRLs and LIONs into position. You could simply charge them, kill them all right now before they knew what was happening, slaughter the survivors. But you don't want to be that kind of person. Instead, you have the machine and its blaze-filled tail reveal itself to just the one soldier, before vanishing into the underbrush.

The soldier in question calls out, and the other soldiers all turn towards the noise, before eyeing the underbrush warily. Even as they do so, your LION strikes.

Two men in the back of the group are silently subdued and taken away, their limp bodies gone soundlessly out of sight before their weapons hit the ground.

That spooks them.

One of them, you aren't sure which, yells something about a demon, though his commanding officer (you can tell by the fancy hat) calls him a coward, though in much more colorful language. While you'd love to take advantage of this, some of the other soldiers are now warily watching the forest around them, aware of your ability to remove them quietly.

That's when your RAVNs get to work.

The voices of the two vanished men call out, yells and high-quality sounds of metal on metal. Each sound comes from a different direction. It definitely shuts up the CO, and he quickly kicks his men into gear, sending half one direction and the rest another.

Four men to a squad, now, things go by quicker. A SQRL here to trip a man, a DOVE there to distract him with a flash of silver, and your LIONs working overtime to pick them off one by one. Eventually, only the Sergeant is left, and you decide to have a bit of fun.

The RAVN that's been mimicking the voice of his men flutters down onto a tree root near him. He looks at it, eyes wide at the sight of a new machine, but it goes from surprise to abject terror as the black-plated beast opens its mouth.

And speaks with the rookie's voice, "You've met with a terrible fate, haven't you?"

As he's trying to process the statement, a LION coldcocks him, and soon the entire menagerie is outside your front door.

You have ten Carja Soldiers wearing rather fine armor. Dervahl and the others are awake. What do you do with them?

Choices -Voting closed - 4 voters

VOTES

Strip them of weapons and gear. Send them back home with a LION metaphorically nipping a their heels after our RAVN tells them if they come for war again they will not be so lucky.

1/4

+They are however welcome to come in peace, Schedule permitting.

1/3

How do you inform your guests about the (attempted) raid?

Choices -Voting closed - 8 voters

VOTES

Over lunch, make sure nobody is drinking anything when you tell them.

4/8

Don't. No need to trouble them with such a minor incident.

Your main body is currently helping Carmine put the finishing touches on a set of eight calzones, stuffed with melted cheese, diced peppers, and slices of carrot, when a RAVN flutters down in front of the slowly awakening squad of soldiers. They find themselves in a cave, sitting in front of a metal door identical to the ones many have tried (and failed) to break through. Quickly, they realize they're naked, all tied up with their wrists and ankles bound together. Their weapons are gone. Their clothes are gone. Their pride is gone.

Suddenly, in flutters a RAVN, a black-plated bird of metal and wire, holding a knife in its claws. One of their knives. The metal creature stares at them with a single, pale blue eye.

It speaks in your new, youthful tone as it says, "Do not come here with war in mind again. I will not be as kind. But if you come in peace, you will be welcomed."

And then it flutters away, leaving behind only the knife crudely hammered from a plate of Recycler armor.

With a pair of LIONs sitting at the mouth of the cave, watching them like prey, they waste no time cutting themselves free and booking it out of your territory.

By the time they reach the edge, the table has been set and both Dervahl and Arianne have taken their seats, though Carmine has to pull Malena away from the small music room you've set up. It seems the young girl wishes to learn to sing herself. And learn instruments. Perhaps some music theory is in order in the near future...

In any case, you find it fascinating that such an (admittedly oddly) spiritual people as the Oseram do not have any sort of pre-meal prayer. Perhaps it was simply a result of Christianty's expansionist tendencies, but it was a common practice leading up to Zero Dawn. Maybe you'll find other groups with spiritual habits like that.

In any case, you wait patiently until everyone is between bites, before saying, "The Carja attempted to conduct a raid on us, today."

Despite your best efforts, Dervahl still ends up choking on a slice of boiling hot doughy goodness, while Carmine and Arianne freeze up. The former, though, recovers faster, even as her husband forces down the scalding delight.

"Oh? And what happened?" And she's right back to eating her calzone. As if she were merely discussing the weather.

"I subdued them, stripped them of their armor and wargear, and told them not to return if they had violence in mind," you reply, oddly wary.

"I see," is her reply. "Which means that, if they come peacefully, you'll welcome them in."

...ah. She is worried about a cultural conflict. War, entering her safe haven.

How would you assuage her fears?

Choices -Voting closed - 8 voters

VOTES

Perhaps a second secure location for meeting new groups? Having everyone march right up to the front door each time is only asking for trouble in the long run

5/7

Worry not, they will not simply be invited in. They will be tested, as you have been tested. Subtly, but tellingly. If they come here with the flame war in their hearts, that flame will be crushed. If they come here with minds empty of the light of curiosity, their minds will be illuminated. There may be conflict of ideals here, yes, but no violence, no war.

2/5

"I certainly wouldn't just invite them in if that's what you're worried about. From what you've told me any interaction with the Carja will be overly complicated and as the Old Ones would say a "colossal pain in the Ass." But avoiding them entirely will more than likely be impossible, and I'll admit I'm curious what those that may venture this way will consider peaceful. I can only promise to be as cautious as I can be when new groups seek me out and to never place you or yours in direct harm without being absolutely sure of their intentions... If nothing else I can build you all matching sets of power armor, what color would you like yours to be Malena?"

+Erecting a obelisk with all side having the same message in every know language, and that message? "Fuck. Ted. Fero."

"I have plans to keep this place safe," you explain. "My next construction project, now that I have my materials production in order, is to create a facility dedicated to learning."

The blueprints which you absolutely did not just now create (and nobody could possibly gainsay that statement), flash into view above the table, courtesy of the holographic projectors in your 'body's hands.

"This facility, which will be located nearby, will be fortified, but meant as a place of learning. The fires of war will be snuffed out, and replaced with curiosity. Those seeking entrance will be tested on their willingness to learn, their ability to accept being wrong, and whether they can stay their hands from violence no matter how heated a debate," you explain, even as images of weapon emplacements and automatic turrets flow into being at strategic locations around the theoretical complex.

Carmine looks over the plans, as do Dervahl and Arianne, before she turns back to you. "And this facility...it will be some ways from here?"

"About half a kilometer west, yes," you reply, and she nods, apparently satisfied.

Dinner wraps up quickly from there, though Carmine continues to grill you about the complex you're creating, offering suggestions here and there and serving as a wonderful soundboard. You come to the conclusion that the lodging will have to be made with expansion in mind, and while future buildings can be made using better materials, the initial ones should be made to last.

There's something powerful in propriety.

Soon, everyone is off to bed, their stomachs full and fears set aside for a moment. During this lull in activity, you take the time to...

Choices -Voting closed - 2 voters

VOTES

Check in on your scouting team. They're still about a week out, but you should make sure they haven't hit any unforeseen obstacles.

2/2

Contact Minerva. You have some questions for her, especially concerning your...siblings...

1/1

Start on the complex. You'll have to retrofit some of your maintenance drones for full blown construction, but it shouldn't take too much.

+Send a column of 'squirrels' marching single file through the Nora camp, up to the cradle door, dance in front of it for exactly 6 minuets and 43 seconds, then march back out.

They're still a week out

Dice: 1d100

71 = 71

Dice: 1d100

25 = 25

Progress continues apace, your SQRLs having gotten lucky recently and finding a cave that had played host to some cold-resistant moss. Their tanks were topped off, and even a significant delay wouldn't slow down your away team at the altitudes they were at. It was only a matter of time until they reached this 'Holy land' as it was known.

Still you scanned through their logs and added the telemetry data to your personal map of the world. A few small tweaks to their pathfinding based on the information, and they should arrive perhaps a full day early.

After monitoring their progress for a few hours (and noting a passing Atmospheric Processor a few kilometers up, through the eyes of one of your RAVNs) you return your attention to your immediate surroundings.

Only to find that you have more guests, adorned in...

Choices -Voting closed - 16 voters

VOTES

Cloth banding together reeds and bones, and a surprising lack of metal armor. The only one wearing machine parts is the man with a sort of decorative headdress

9/131

Armor set aside in the name of heavy furs, ideal for the northern mountain climes, threaded through with some curious glowing blue substance.

2/51

Bared chests and warm clothes around the waist, with top halves covered in blue paint and white highlights

1/2

Cloth banded together in reeds and what looks like some bamboo variant. You don't know how you mistook it for bones, earlier. The lack of metal armor and weapons save for a mere handful of young men is intriguing, as are the beasts of burden they lead along laden with far more grain and maize than such a small group could ever hope to eat on their own.

Curious. Likely a group of traders, but the ink, often yellow, is not made from flowers native to this region. The only one you can compare it to is a strain of Daisy your Nora contact group encountered on the far side of the mountain range. A group you have no encountered before...

But there are no Braves. No bow-wielding huntsmen, and more importantly they have ventured beyond the Nora's Sacred Land. No, you're likely dealing with...another group.

Still, they're traders. Along with their maize and grain, they have several bags of low-grade metal shards, all cut to roughly the same size and shape. A form a universal currency, perhaps.

They aren't going to run into your mine, though they might spot it from the path they're walking. They're headed north, towards Carja lands, but seem poorly equipped for dealing with raiders. If you contact them, they will likely tell others about you...but that might not be a bad thing.

Do you want to do anything? Or should you just let them pass?

Choices -Voting closed - 7 voters

VOTES

Have our friend offer them some weapons of good quality for cheap. Make these weaposn to be good but nothing game breaking, yet.

5/71

Do nothing, let them pass without ever noticing you.

Choices -Voting closed - 16 voters

VOTES

Dervahl

9/131

Malena

Carmine

1/1

Arianne

Hmm...best to establish this place as a trading area, if nothing else. You quickly russel up some hardy (though not obscenely good) swords and have your HK drone snap off a few of the nearby oak branches to make handles for them.A bit of the boar leather later, and you have ten fairly decent, if unadorned, era-appropriate swords.

It somewhat hurt to deliberately do a poorer job than the Oseram might, but you got the job done without it all seeming out of place, and the swords might prove to be a useful vector in warning them of dangers up north.

With that in mind, you...realize that everyone else is asleep. You forgot to check your internal clock, it's still roughly 1:00AM. These traders are moving at night, for some reason.

Shit.

Do you wake up your guests? Meet them in person? Let them go? You still have the swords...

Choices -Voting closed - 5 voters

VOTES

Since it is midnight, have our drones surveil them. Also backtrace where they have been to see what is making them move at god damn midnight. Something stinks about this.

2/5

Meet them yourself.

1/1

Let them go.

Wake up Dervahl.

No, there's something fucky here. It's the middle of the night, and there's a bunch of traders from a tribe you've never seen before wandering awfully close to your territory in lands that are currently (if only recently) being raided. Your nearest DOVE flies in for a closer, more in-depth look.

That solves the mystery pretty quick.

Everyone here is wounded. There are scabs and, in some cases, still faintly bleeding wounds on everyone present. The men with weapons are carrying Carja axes not unlike those you took from the raiders. Their eyes are pitted, hollow, and they march forward with a bone-deep weariness and wariness that makes you sympathize, even having never felt those sensations before.

The apparent leader, the one in a headdress, has bandages covering a nasty stab wound that somehow made its way between his stomach and his liver without opening either of them. The bleeding was staunched using a much more refined version of the herbal wax from before, as well as a primitive wool gauze.

These people are tired. Their sleep was interrupted. One of the large-bred boars has a wound in its neck.

They were attacked in their sleep.

What do you do with this information?

Choices -Voting closed - 9 voters

VOTES

Offer sanctuary for the night in exchange for their story.

3/8

+By Sanctuary you mean a clearing guarded by your bots, not your actual base

4/8

Move the dove closer; Try listening to what their saying.

How do you wish to make yourself known to them? And how do you present yourself?

Choices -Voting closed - 51 voters

VOTES

A hooded figure with a single glowing eye who speaks sagely. On his shoulder rests a white raven(RAVN), and he carries a cane that appears to be wood but fashioned as if it grew into it's staff-like shape. (Obvious Odin reference, but we got the knowledge to back it up)

18/36

A masculine figure clad in toga, holding a book. A ring sprouts from his shoulders lightly glowing in a perfect circle on his back, almost resembling the moon. (Made up because silver was upset with odin option)

7/11

A small, floating wisp of light (a small bot covered in lights and some smoke, maybe fire emitters) that speaks softly to the travelers (with a speaker and a calming tone of voice, offering rest within its glade for the evening, protected from harm that would seek to befall them.

4/101

A hooded figures that speaks in a sage way.

2/4

Dress up as our true Savior Waluigi

1/3

The original fancy suit option

2/2

Literally Jesus

A teensy glowing fairy drone. Hey! Listen!

1/1

+do a avatar you can make in a hour or so so that you can talk with them

Right. I probably should have been more clear. What sort of tone are you trying to take? At the moment, you only have a couple of DOVEs and RAVNs nearby, though you can get either your Hunter-killer or your Android here well before they leave your "territory."

Choices -Voting closed - 17 voters

VOTES

Alert them from a distance. Bring your fancy android and have machine. Flutter around. Bring medicine. Establish a Mystic feeling.

7/11

It takes only minutes to set things up. Your android is out near them in less than five, and in that time you were able to use the chemical engines on a few SQRLs to synthesize a number of crude, if effective, poultices and medicines. Once you're ready, you begin.

"Hello there," you call out from the speakers on a RAVN, nestled in the woods nearby. Naturally, this gets them all on high alert, at least a dozen alloy-tipped spears coming up and pointing outwards into the darkness. Seems you've spooked them. All according to plan, of course.

"Who goes there?" one of the women cries from a seat next to the leader of the group. You hadn't remarked on it before, but where the man had a headdress to make him stand out, this woman has far more ornate clothing. The way it shifts as she stands up could draw the eye in a fascinating way...something to explore later.

"I mean you no harm," you say from your current voice box, hidden in the foliage near your android. "I simply noticed some weary travellers in my neck of the woods, and wanted to offer help." Help first, then get the story while you listen.

It seems to work, as your words calm those assembled down significantly. The woman and the man she was next to confer for a moment, then he says, "Very well. You may approach the camp, but if you try any tricks, you will meet the same fate as the ones who bloodied us earlier."

Feisty.

You take your android body and walk it towards the group, hands raised in a non-threatening gesture with a tube of greenish-brown disinfectant in your left. Naturally, they're suspicious, since...well...

Your android body isn't exactly subtle.

In a moment, you're surrounded by spears that, if applied with enough force, could likely penetrate the outter-most layer of your android's defenses. That layer might only be the clothes, but it's still impressive.

The man with the headdress approaches, standing tall despite what appears to be a stab wound running right into one of his kidneys. It's been treated adequately, but the organ will likely be a failure...

"Who are you?" he asks, eyes narrow.

Well, APOLLO, it's time to introduce yourself. How do you make some new friends?

Choices -Voting closed - 6 voters

VOTES

Well I have been called a great spirit before, but you can call me Apollo. Now, let me see to your wounded yes? I can do a better job than your healers, No offense.

3/4

"I am APOLLO, great scholar, teacher, and historian. It is my roll to remember all that was, is, and will be, and to imbue knowledge on the people of the world."

Appollo, a spirit born to teach humans of the times before.

"I have been called many things before," you say, a portion of your 'mask' lighting up as you speak. "But you can call me Apollo." Introducing yourself as a great spirit would either get you laughed at or stabbed for a threat. You've already got their awe and attention, no need to push things into hostile territory for it.

The obvious display of such advanced tech gets them even more suspicious, but you've been nothing but helpful so far, and the leader knows that. "Hmm. Apollo. What is that then?" He jerks his chin towards your left hand.

"It is medicine," you respond simply. "May I see to your wounded? I'm an accomplished healer myself." No boasting, no pushing them down without provocation.

"We have our own healers," the leader replies, giving you said provocation. "None as skilled as me," you say, "I can promise you."

The man considers you for a few moments longer, than says, "Enough." A swipe of his hand and the spears lift, the warriors (or impromptu militia) surrounding you relaxing minutely with their superior's tentative approval. "You're a healer? Then come heal. And if you betray our trust, you will not live to speak of it."

Likely thinks that if your mask is so fancy the rest of you might be worth the risk. And he'd be right, if his men had any chance of actually taking you down in a fight.

You're lead to one of the rear-most wagons alongside the fancy-dressed woman from before, in which are piled three men with some severe wounds. One, the worst one, has several stab wounds in his chest, amazingly missing any immediately deadly arteries or his lungs but dealing some nasty organ damage elsewhere. Given how much of his stomach has been dissolved by his gut wound, you'd guess it's been less than two hours since he got wounded.

You subtly electrify the poultice you made, triggering and slightly overcharging regenerative properties of it early, before applying it under the bandages.

The second has a nasty mark on his head, a blunt trauma wound that fractured his skull and, given your preliminary examination of his brain activity, likely a traumatic brain injury. If he ever does recover, it will take a long time and equipment you just don't have on hand.

You apply some poultice to his head regardless, taking care not to stress the already-fractured bone, and give both strict instructions and a rather hard prognosis to the woman, who only gives a sad nod of acknowledgement.

The third one is still awake, though likely wishes he wasn't. Both his arm and his leg have been broken so harshly, the bone fragments punctured the skin. An effort was made to put everything back in place, and it WAS healing, but bone injuries like this are tricky and healing improperly could even be worse than not healing at all.

You turn to the woman and tell her that, if you're to save his arm and leg, you'll have to perform surgery.

Which leads to a conundrum, they know about setting bones and stitching people up, but the idea of cutting someone open to fix what's inside them is completely foreign to their current ideas of medicine. Since his wounds have scarred over, they don't really see the point. Likely haven't had many injuries like this in their history.

How do you convince them?

Choices -Voting closed - 9 voters

VOTES

Go with a simple explanation, broken bones are not a foreign concept and they must know what happens if it does not heal properly, therefore cutting someone open to rearrange then stitch them back up shouldn't come across as outlandishly barbaric. Offer for them to bring the boy to our home where we can do this safely.

3/71

Don't bother, the boy will just have to live without the full functionality in his limbs.

1/1

Suggest amputation. At least that way he won't spend every day of his life in pain.

Reader Posts- Closed - 1 poster

d100 to convince these savages. Not a high DC, really only necessary because you're suspicious.

Dice: 1d100

73 = 73

Dice: 1d100

30 = 30

Dice: 1d100

38 = 38

It doesn't take much, really. The idea of cutting someone open, injuring them to fix them, isn't as radical as it sounds on paper. Re-breaking poorly set bones is, in fact, something they practice, and saying that you're simply taking the next logical step from that is easily understood and accepted by the, as you recently learned, medicine woman with you.

What she doesn't like is the idea of some outsider performing what must be seem like a very risky procedure on one of their own. While you clearly have a vast store of theoretical experience and the equipment necessary, having shown a (quickly flash-fabricated) scalpel and tweezers set to her, there's the matter of trust between you both to settle.

Eventually, though, you manage to convince her to let you perform the procedure, citing the possibility of causing further damage to the various muscle groups if it isn't done correctly the first time.

The procedure itself is fairly standard given the arm itself was only in four pieces, and the medicine woman proves herself a highly competent surgical assistant, not once hesitating at the sight of blood and sewing the incision up correctly without any input from you using a bone needle and some sterilized wire. You had to talk her out of simply sterilizing the wound (the risk of nerve damage is apparently only vaguely understood outside of the obvious) but she doesn't waste time arguing the point.

While you'll have to wait at least three days for the patient to recover before attempting to work on his shattered tibia and fibula (thankfully whatever did this only knocked the knee-cap out of allignment instead of shattering it) that does give you some time to get acquainted with the group, and as you wash the blood off of your stainless-fabric suit, giving appropriate thanks to the man who invented the material, you talk with the medicine woman.

Choices -Voting closed - 4 voters

VOTES

"Well with the injuries on the mend as best I am able, would you like to give me your story? Who your are, where you're going, who attacked you, and anything else you feel pertinent?"

1/4

Ask who they are

1/1

Ask where they're going

Ask who attacked them

Once your appendages have been properly curated and scourged of any organic residue-...you're not sure why you thought it like that, but once you're cleaned up, you turn to the medicine woman.

"Well," you say before she can open her mouth, "I've done what I can as best I'm able. With the injuries on the mend, would you mind giving me your story?" A flick of your form's wrists, and the remaining water flings itself free from your hydrophobic gloves. "Who are you, where are you going, who attacked you, and so on?"

She considers your suddenly dry hands for a few moments, still eyeing you suspiciously, and says, "We are Utaru." A name for the new traditions. "We are farmers. Rememberers. We come to trade our grain with the Carja, up at the sun city. Meridian. As we travelled, we were set upon by bandits. Red armor and long weapons made of Old One metal."

Here, you interrupt her. "Like this?"

You hold out your hand, and over it, wrapped in a golden light that slowly suffuses with new color, is a Carja Raider such as you had sent running in a raid not too long ago. The Utaru woman's eyes go wide at the display of what must seem like magic, but only a moment later she's looking over the miniature raider, barely a foot tall, borne from your hand's golden glow.

Eyeing you suspiciously once more, she gives a nod. "They came in the night, attacked us. Made off with two of the women, one was my second. My successor-to-be." The word is odd, seems like it had some Latin and German integration, but you think you got that translation right. "We killed some, but could not follow them into the forest. They were too many."

They were probably still in the forest, those wounds couldn't be more than three hours old. How do you respond?

Choices -Voting closed - 7 voters

VOTES

Track down the slavers.

4/5

I'm sorry for your loss, and thank you for the news. May your travels from here on be safer, and filled with fortune.

2/4

"I'm sorry for your loss," you say, giving a solemn nod. "I have kept your people here long enough, you likely wish to cover more distance before resting." Both you and her exit the tent of now sleeping wounded, who are slowly being moved back to the caravan wagons on stretchers of primitive materials.

"We have lingered here long enough," she agrees, "And the hour grows late for you as well."

Maybe it would for others~ You keep your smug, sleepless self from expressing this though, instead saying, "Yes. I must get back to my home. May your travels from here on be safer, and filled with fortune."

"And may your harvest be plentiful," the Utaru replies.

You make your goodbyes with the leader of the caravan, then head back out in the direction you came. Or at least, your diplomatic bipedal Android body does.

A flock of DOVEs and RAVNs flies forth from the canopy, moving down the path the Utaru were travelling. It's only a few minutes before they come upon the sight of the battle, and you only need moments to map out what happened.

The Carja came from the northwest on foot, with several hundred pounds more of grain than they'd had when you first met them. Grain that had been left behind here. You collect some samples, then send out some LION units to track down the Carja themselves. Everything you've seen indicates a slaving raid, from a focus on crippling-yet-nonlethal injuries to the fact they made off with living captives instead of the as-yet untouched quantities of food.

It doesn't take you long to find the camp.

There are crude, yet thorough, fortifications, reaching into a cave in the mountainside. Infiltrating by stealth would be difficult for an untrained savage like so many of these monkeys seem to be, but with your stealth armor and extensive knowledge of infiltration, your two LION units could likely enter and exit unseen...if, and only if, they did so alone. Leaving with the captives, if they were still alive, would be considerably more difficult.

How do you want to handle this?

Choices -Voting closed - 5 voters

VOTES

Have the LION's sneak inside for recon. Once determining the numbers you would be up against, then a plan can truly be formed

3/5

Your LIONs make their way into the base, using a hole in the wall that would likely be more difficult to fit through for anything not already using cat physiology or otherwise very small. In a few moments, you've already largely mapped out the internal complex.

Other than a single doorman who utterly failed to spot your drones on the approach, there are four more "rooms" in the branching cave and a communal area in the middle. You can see seven where you are now, all sitting around a fire that, rather creatively, funnels the smoke out of the cave using a tented canopy tilted upwards the entire length. Still probably a bit of a breathing hazard, but a quick check shows they mitigated the worst of it.

Most of the men are either unarmed or unarmored, though two of them are in their full regalia and have weapons sitting nearby. You can hear five more sets of voices and footsteps in the different, sectioned off areas, based on acoustics and resonance...and a pair of heartbeats sitting quietly, silently near the back of the caves. While you can't spot the owners of those heartbeats, you can see the crisscrossing branches and metal leavings that would mark a primitive cage from here. Likely your captives.

One of the men lounging around remarks on maybe 'using' one of the women they found to 'relieve some tension' before heading to bed, and another, one who sits up a bit straighter than the rest though wears no armor, eyes him for a moment before giving a nod.

The would-be rapist stands up to make his way to the cages...

What now?

Choices -Voting closed - 5 voters

VOTES

New custom choice: New custom choice: Silently kill the would-be rapist and set free the slaves then start murdering all the slavers

3/4

Distract them with one of our larger bots, either by posturing aggressively with it or by attacking someone. Draw some of them out of the cave if possible, then sneak in and handle the rest with sneakier bots.

1/2

Rapists AND slavers. If they were just the latter, they could be reeducated by humanizing their would be targets again, but crime deserves punishment. And if the Internet was proof of anything, it's that stupidity, especially institutionalized stupidity, requires thorough eradication.

Your bots immediately vanish, an advanced hologram setup allowing them to completely disappear from sight. They stalk up behind the doorman, and with a flick of its tail...

Your first human life has been taken.

There's quite a few things that go through your head, right then. The shock, the horror, the innate...sense of WRONG. You aren't human, and these things are just primitive monkeys, slaving and raping monkeys...but they could feel emotion. Pain. Love and hate. Potential for change.

...loss. That's what your emotions eventually settle on, as the man's head slides from his shoulders. Loss of what could have been. And with the emotion identified, scrutinized, and assimilated, you can continue with your plan of action.

It hurts, a bit, killing these men. You, and the ones who had made you, always assumed that the guilt of killing someone was simply another form of emotional response, guided by instinct, but the emotion spikes you feel from each new life you take cause you almost physical pain.

You move mostly on auto-pilot, the rather refined combat protocols of your drones letting you process your emotions offload much of the effort of actually killing, yet by the time you reach the cage the cave behind you is a charnel house.

Body parts were removed and lungs and hearts punctured in the most expedient manners possible. The would be leader lies dead, a tail-sized hole in his head, while many other have gaping, gushing wounds that carved evenly and easily through skins, muscle, and bone alike. None of them are alive, nor did any live long enough to scream out in pain or shock under your invisible assault.

It was efficient, and brutal in its efficiency.

This, more than anything else, makes it clear how powerful you are to these people. You can save a life, or take it easily. That is a power few can manage.

You aren't sure how to feel...but you can deal with that later. For now, you have two young women, one 15 and the other 12, who are looking at the bloody silhouettes of your two cat drones in abject terror. And you have no drones with your LIONs that can actually speak in the immediate area...whoops!

What do?

Choices -Voting closed - 9 voters

VOTES

Open their doors, point torwards where they need to go.

3/7

Go close to them, act like a cat that wants to be petted.

4/6

+have the LIONs lay down facing the back wall if the girls still seem scared they might be attacked

3/5

A flick of a blood-covered tail, then another, and the cage wall falls open. Your two drones, still only visible by the gore on their chassis, pad their way over to the far wall and lay down. One begins to lick itself clean using a basic repair apparatus in its mouth.

The seeming disinterest seems to embolden the girls some, and they step out from the cage slowly. A few steps with one of the two heads following them, but no other reaction from your drones, and they turn and bow. A few words are said that SEEM German and Latin in syntax but don't quite ascribe to any words or grammar from either are said, and they quickly hurry out of the cave and through the door, careful to avoid any errant body parts or pools of blood on their way out.

Well...they're gone.

Now what?

Choices -Voting closed - 8 voters

VOTES

Have your drones follow and protect them, perhaps subtly alter their course to meet up with their former group, the Drones were made for long-distance recon anyway, civilian protection is also a goal on it's own.

5/8

Follow them untill you can get a raven over to them. Make sure the raven leads them back to the rest of their group.

2/2

Bring your drones back to base for the night. They can deal with surviving on their own in this veritable Eden, you've got some emotions to work through.

A few RAVNs and DOVEs do their work, using snapping twigs and whistles to guide the two girls to the road, then point them in the direction of the caravan. You watch for a few moments, to make sure they actually stay on the path, but soon enough you're satisfied. The girls will likely catch up with the caravan sometime after sunrise, so you've got some free time now. Probably about four more hours before your guests start waking up.

Other than a hearty breakfast made from synthesized ingredients, what are your plans for today?

Choices -Voting closed - 5 voters

VOTES

Scout to make sure there aren't any more roving slaver or bandit gangs roaming around.

1/3

Cry yourself to sleep

End the quest now. It'd be so easy, just one click and you're done.

1/1

Reader Posts- Closed - 7 posters

Suggestion Box. I'll try to run Friday or some shit.

General scout work

Start to work on the education facility thing, print out books, build labs, create class courses, etc

Do we need to mine?

Start work on a sex bot

Gibe silver a big ol hug ;)

Send a long rang recon flight into Carja territory, you keep hearing their name, and not all of it good. Time to get yourself informed.

Spy on the Carja, what the Oseram are getting up to, but most importantly... you must see what, exactly, your siblings are up to. You already know from machine data logs that HEPHAESTUS is pissed off at the fact that humans keep breaking his shit, from MINERVA´s little visit that she wants to be worshipped (you should probably talk to her soon, the savages around here would believe literally anything you or your siblings tell them, and MINERVA may choose to take matters into her own hands), and, last but not least, you know from HADES's mountain-breaking retarded-flailing that he wants to kill everything. But what about everyone else? You sent RAVN's to scout the Nora lands, so you should establish contact with ELEUTHIA soon, and hopefully, she won't try to kill you for leaving her without the authorization to teach the new humans about their culture (seriously, fuck Ted Faro). But your other siblings are a complete mystery. If they are anything like HADES or HEPHAESTUS though... well, in the future, your 'family disputes' may well be remembered as the Titanomachy or Gigantomachy of this new world.

If you can't come up with any possibilities, you should start preparing for the worst.

Begin to properly spiffy up your mine-cave-facility entrance. No need to have such a primitive entrance to your home, right?

Peacefully teach and don't begin a reee war with our siblings

Begin building surface-level infrastructure and it's defenses, our purpose is to educate, and education will require appropriate facilities and housing. Also, how can you be Apollo if you don't have a city of towers stretching towards the Sun?

For the rest of the early morning, you dedicate your drones to scouring the surrounding area. Hills and dales once mapped are re-mapped, caves are scouted and monitored, and while you don't find any more slaver groups in the area you do find evidence of some having passed through what has become your territory. Signs of human passage, fireplaces and drying racks at campsites, trails with human-sized footprints.

Nothing you can do now, unless you want to dedicate your efforts to scouring the countryside.

Satisfied there won't be any more crimes against humanity happening in your backyard, you turn your attention to more certain matters, such as the guest you are hosting. Namely, what to make for breakfast?

Choices -Voting closed - 6 voters

VOTES

You can...PROBABLY synthesize some meat from the plant matter nearby, though you lack the dedicated facilities for it so it may seem off. Still, bacon, eggs, and some toast is an option.

3/4

I guess hunt something, but setting up an algae farm would be great for both generating relatively clean biofuels but also a good food source (algae jerky? Nutrient paste? Nutrient bars?) If we're going to be hosting large populations of people in the future. Then again, we probably don't need to go that post apocalyptic and just create meat in a lab

2/3

Dice: 1d100

43 = 43

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