Monday, October 5th

The legal trouble was on hold for the moment, and I was back at Styx Base. Wendy had accompanied me to evade the anti-robot hysteria boiling over in Victoria. People had stopped trying to distinguish between Macks and roboticized Mack victims. Which was pretty irrational, but right now people had apparently switched off their brains.

The only thing that remotely made sense was the fear of being attacked by a Dark Magical Girl, as the still enslaved Mack girls were called lately. The rest was pure paranoia.

Arina had insisted she was safe enough at SHOCKS, even if going out was too dangerous at the moment. It might have played a role that she disliked Styx Base.

Now I had a big fabricator to build, but that would not take up all of my time. While the building drones prepared the foundation and my small fabricators made parts for the big one, I dabbled in other things. Such as optimizing the close combat skills of my Macks. A glorious new fighting style lay ahead, such as the “Panzer Kunst” from the Battle Angel Alita manga.

The Type One was excluded for now. It was too fragile and even with improved combat moves, it would likely fail miserably against Fours, Battlecats and Dark Magical Girls. Which was the bulk of what the Macks sent these days.

So I started working with my Fours and Battlecats. Looking at various martial arts training and competition videos, I soon had a few moves under evaluation. The first series of tests involved blocking and deflection moves, such as the various -uke techniques from karate.

Soon a great clattering and banging erupted from the testing room. The defense was somewhat effective, but at the price of some broken tentacles.

The Battlecats did better because of their generally more sturdy forelimbs. They could stay as they were, while the Fours were earmarked for some design revisions. I briefly considered eliminating the Fours from my roster entirely, but there were still situations where I considered them worthwhile to have.

After a break to move some assembler parts around and a snack for me, I tried to teach my mecha-critters spinning kicks. Which mostly led to ignominious falls for the machines that tried it. One of the Fours completely lost its equilibrium and fell on its single eye hard enough to break it. One candidate for the recycler.

Wendy almost fell over laughing. “Are these trying to commit suicide by falling on their noses?” she gasped.

Spinning Kick Day was canceled after that. We proceeded to a frugal dinner of creek water and synthetic rations for me, while Wendy slaked her thirst for energy from the base’s power grid.

By the end of the day, we had one fifth of the building blocks for the new fabricator.

Tuesday, October 6th

Most of the day was filled with making more parts for the big fabricator. The building drones made good progress in preparing the foundations.

In the meantime, I did not want to give up on the Panzer Kunst yet. It was Grappling Day! I figured that the Type Four might be able to do well here with its tentacles.

Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

Soon a bunch of them were clanking across the floor like entangled tumbleweeds, only louder. Sometimes Wendy helped with disentangling machines that could not do it themselves for some reason, interrupted by fits of laughing.

Saturday, October 10th

The parts for the big assembler were complete, and we had started to put them together. But Styx Base was running low on materials, and we had another court hearing on Monday. So any big builds would have to wait.

Monday, October 12th

Early in the morning, we were back in court for a preliminary hearing about the Mack cult affair. The judge wanted to decide on the further proceedings for all people involved in one go. My lawyer told me this was somewhat unusual, but here we were.

Ladybug was first to describe how she got captured. “I was visiting the village fair at Esquimalt. It was already dark when I went home, and I must have missed the attackers in the crowd. Suddenly I felt a sharp stab in the back and lost consciousness a few seconds later.

“Next I woke up as I was dragged into a room with what looked like an improvised operation table. Some person with a robot mask was already preparing instruments. I managed to break free and punched one of the kidnappers in the stomach, then they got me again with some sort of tranquilizer.

”The next thing I remember was waking up again. Wendy over there was taking my chains off, and the people who had abducted me were a lot worse for wear.”

So that was how Blood Puking Guy died. A mid-level MG like Ladybug was usually strong enough to rupture someone’s intestines with a punch.

Next Wendy and I got to tell our story, which was a balancing act between being reasonably honest and trying not to look too bad in the process.

As I had dissuaded Wendy from more serious force (I avoided words that sounded more brutal) and beaten up only Shaver Girl myself, the judge decided my actions were reasonable defense of others. After all, we had rescued Ladybug. I would get off without prosecution and also get my bail money back.

For Wendy it was not so clear, throat punching and repeated stabbing did not sit so well with the judge. Even if it was against bad guys. Robot Mask was in stable condition by now, two weeks later, but still not in shape for questioning. The judge left it to the prosecutor’s office if they wanted to proceed with charges. If yes, there would be a trial for Wendy.

Next, it was Arina’s turn. She received rather favorable treatment by the judge, which was not surprising. First, she had been relatively restrained in beating up the kidnappers. Second, the judge was not immune against the general admiration Magical Girls enjoyed as defenders of Haven. And he still counted Arina as one. Like me, she was cleared of all charges.

As Chain Guy was asked to explain his actions, he did not say much and let his lawyer do the talking. But this time he would remain in jail. That he got out on bail the first time was surprising, but another major crime soon after? I doubted he would get free again for a long time.

Finally, Shaver Girl managed to convince the judge that she had only participated under pressure. Under tears she professed her regrets. Good acting or honest remorse, she got out on bail again.

Afternoon

I had an uneventful flight to Styx Base and back with Pete. We were transporting a kitchen range I did not want to spend points on, so I had bought it from a dealer in Victoria and hired Pete for the transport. My Variocopter could not handle such bulky items.

I had carefully hidden my combat Macks and used only a maintenance drone to move the items into the base, but even so Pete seemed a bit uneasy and expressed it. “Cait dear, this place gives me the creeps.”

“Well, it is a former Mack base. Most people might feel a bit apprehensive here.”

“Anyway, we have delivered your stuff. Let’s get out of here!”