Thursday, September 3th, 2048

SHOCKS had readily agreed to use their own printer to build the artificial brain. Perhaps to make sure I actually gave them the blueprint, but it would also make sure my own printer would not be blocked for a month.

On my visit today they had even officially given me some documentation on the Nanite Annihilation Field. Which Elya had already nabbed for me, but this way it would not be obvious I had raided their network again. The documentation was extensive enough for my purposes, and the field emitters were buildable with Herbie’s fabricator.

My points, though, were also raided. To put it in a table:

Item

Point cost

Description

Class I Computation devices

50

Computers, computers

MindSim Mk IV (software)

200

Emulation software for brains, parameter set for one species included in purchase.

GhostShell Mk II (blueprint)

4000 points

Application specific hardware for running the MindSim Mk IV

Total price

4250 points

I agreed of course, a promise is a promise.

Purchased: Everything in the table

New Balance: One token and 501 points

I gave the SHOCKS guys a copy of the GhostShell blueprint, so they could start building. Before I left, I asked to visit Arina. She was still off duty and would remain so for weeks at least, so nothing got in the way. We had to meet in the food court though, as the MG’s quarters were off limits for visitors.

Arina greeted me with a hug, then she looked wistfully at the pastry shelves near the coffee machine. “Right now, these are the things I miss most.”

“I can imagine,” I replied. Real food in generous quantities was one of the privileges of being a Magical Girl. On overcrowded Victoria Island, most people had to make do with the synthetic crap provided by Sanctuary. It was non-perishable and had all necessary vitamins, but tasted rather bland. Only the rich could afford real food most of the time.

I wanted to know more about Arina’s new life and if she was really accepted back as a full SHOCKS member. So I asked ”How’s life treating you these days, and especially, how do your old friends treat you?”

“My old team is still good friends, and they are what keeps me going. From others I get a lot of suspicion. And Richard, my former operator, took it hard when the Macks captured me. He started drinking and eventually lost his job at SHOCKS.”

With a sniff, she continued “I met Rick again lately, but he called me a fake and said I could never replace Arina!”

I did not know what else to do, so I gave her a hug. Arina hugged me back, once again hard enough that I feared for my ribs. We held each other for a while until it was time for Arina’s next therapy session.

For me it was time to get back to Styx base. I wanted to complete my domicile there before the winter, and I had ideas for another round of Mack farming. With an improved trap. The next days were given to cutting granite blocks for the house and tinkering with my Type 21.

At its rear where units exited the teleport gate, I added an armored chamber where incoming Macks would be trapped. Only when they were under control in some way, the heavy steel door to the outside world would open.

The chamber was equipped with a Mack zapper, a beefier version of what I had on my armor. It would be remotely operated by Elya. The chamber also had a net to immobilize Macks in, made of strong ropes. The final touch was a nanite annihilation field, in case I caught another Magical Mack. Now I had to wait for the next emergence.

Stolen novel; please report.

Monday, September 7th, 2048

For a few days, nothing had happened and I was working on my house. Progress was at the point where the roof was complete and watertight. While preparing to install the windows, I was interrupted by an emergence warning for Victoria. I strapped my armor on, grabbed my rifle and a special tool for getting at the circuitry in the spine of a Mack girl’s body. Surrounded by my bodyguard of captured and subverted machine invaders, I jogged down to my Type 21. Its ass was already orientated in line with the Mack base the latest invasion was coming from.

After starting the reactor and a few minutes of warm up, I began to pull Macks from the ongoing incursion. One Mack per minute, as the gate system in my Twenty-One could not do it faster without overheating.

The first Type Four came out of the gate and seemed to be baffled by finding itself in prison. Through the observation camera in the chamber, I could see it turning left and right, searching for an exit. Then the lightning from the Mack-zapper raked over its surface, and it collapsed.

Oops, that was a bit too much current

“No problem, we can use scrap for recycling too. Next one!“

We captured the next fifteen Macks without any difficulty. Only three needed putting down because they somehow resisted hacking. The chamber made it ridiculously easy, almost boring.

Whenever a Mack resisted for more than a few seconds, Elya triggered the capture net. It was pulled down from the ceiling by strong, fast winches and pulled taut over the resistant machine. Then it was safe to open the chamber and destroy the recalcitrant metal pest. I did not bother to try and convert the common models, as we had enough successful conversions and Styx Base was always short on metals. Into the recycler they went.

Then an unfamiliar model showed up, quadrupedal, squat and larger than a Type One. It had two eyes like a terran predator, nasty looking claws and a tail reminiscent of a scorpion. But instead of a stinger, the tail ended in some kind of gun. When it found itself trapped, it started raking its claws over the walls of the capture chamber. The claws glowed in a sinister red and left deep gouges in the steel, leaving a trail of sparks in their way. But seconds later, Elya had overwhelmed its electronic defenses.

Target captured! 1 x new Mack type

Reward… 30 points

This one was more difficult to hack than a Type Four. Their defenses are improving. Due to the increased threat level you earn 30 points for each of these.

Great, the enemy were stepping up their game. But so was I. “Elya, I’d like to keep this one for analysis. Do you have solid control of it?”

Yes, don’t worry.

“Even so, park it a few hundred meters away and watch it with a few Type Four guards. We have plenty of those now.”

A minute later I pulled the next Mack out of my teleport gate and it was one of those four legged steel beasts again. It resisted hacking even more than the first one. Even the capture net could not fully immobilize it.

“Elya, go all out. Frying its mind is OK.”

The lightning in the chamber became brighter as Elya tried to batter her way through the Mack’s defenses. I grabbed my “Shiv” railgun and pointed it at the capture chamber, ready to shoot through its walls.

Seconds later, the first set of claws cut through the door with a shower of sparks. I peppered the chamber with railgun projectiles where I estimated the metal monster to be. Then it collapsed inside the chamber, oil leaking from where my bullets had penetrated both capture chamber and Mack.

I cannot detect any more activity from the Mack.

“Two Fours to the chamber, when we open the door send them in immediately. Any more activity from the Mack, they are to put it down!”

I set my railgun aside and grabbed the Omni-Cutter instead. As soon as the capture chamber opened, my Fours clattered into it and took position on the downed foe. I followed, set the blade of the Omni-Cutter at its massive neck and pushed down. It took half a minute to get through the metal, more than I had expected.

The head rolled out of the chamber and towards the river, but I was too shaken to care. That had been the most dangerous opponent I had to deal with in some time, maybe except Arina while she was still controlled by the Macks. My capture chamber and maybe my weaponry needed upgrading. Considering my limited points, I might need to kludge something together again. Either way, I was done hacking Macks for today. The chamber needed repairing and preferably upgrading.

After calming down, I collected the scrap and ordered the dozen Fours I had captured intact to reinforce my base guard. By now I had enough to start a small incursion myself, if I could find suitable transportation for the assault.

The intact Type(??), as it had no SHOCKS designation yet as far as I knew, went into shutdown for now. The broken one went into my workshop I had installed in a random unused room. My first probe was into its cyberbrain, which was broken almost to uselessness. But Elya and I could still derive some knowledge of its inner workings.

Next I had a closer look at the body of the dead steel beast. The overall weight was a bit lighter than expected, about a hundred and twenty kilograms. And it looked good in a retro Sci-fi way, like something from an old movie from the 1970s or 80s. The overall shape reminded me of a jaguar, sleek and dangerous. The gun-tail only added to the menace.

In short, it was a magnificent killing machine.

But I could admire my intact specimen later, now it was time to dissect this one.

The sparks from the cutter look like this is made from a titanium alloy, similar to the Duratitanium you used in your current body armor.

Once I had cut the torso open lengthwise and severed a few more fasteners, I could pull the two halves of the machine apart wide enough to get at the innards. I found a power source that looked similar to the one I had extracted from Arina’s former Mack body, but larger. That was one thing I had yet to analyze.

The claws looked more familiar though. I asked Elya “This looks like a variety of the omni-cutter. What do you think?”

I concur. These claws are the equivalent of the omni-cutter’s blade. But the performance is actually better than in your simple cutter model. Especially for short bursts. These claws can be overclocked, so to speak, to cut deep and long gashes very fast.

On another topic, the current emergence seems over. The weapons you provided to HANAF brought you 2442 points. You earned 380 points by yourself today.

New Balance: One token and 3323 points.