Monday, November 23rd, 2048
Arina was back at SHOCKS for some Very Important Meeting she had not wanted to tell me about. I had avoided prying, but I hoped she would trust me with the results of the meeting.
In the meantime, Wendy and I started printing several units of the small fabricator model I had at the shelter. We would be able to deliver the first ones to our customers this week. Which was a good thing, as Vanguard Enterprises was running low on money.
In a quiet moment, I thought of how much Arina had enjoyed little snacks and figured I should give Wendy a chance at snacks too. So I said “By the way, I managed to give Arina a sense of taste and a multi-fuel cell that works as a small stomach. She cannot eat a lot, but really likes to nibble at something for the taste.”
“Oh. Yes, I would like that. And I don’t want to sound greedy, but you mentioned backups? I have thought about these for a while now, and I’ve come to like the idea.
“Even if it is just out of spite towards the Macks. Kill me, you stupid toasters, and I will just come back stronger and meaner!”
While waiting on the fabber, I resumed my Salvager-Mack project. I commanded some of our maintenance drones to cut the head of the repairable Type 21 open. With Elya’s help I quickly had them clearing out the area of the future shredder-mouth. As there was some leeway in the exact form, I made it into a laughing smiley. A smiley with red eyes and a shredder for teeth.
Next the two top arms went and were replaced by upscaled Type Four tentacles, each with an omnicutter at the tip. I did not do much in the second segment of the Twenty-one where the reactor sat, except for sneaking a conveyor for the shredded material from the head through. Finally, I reworked the rear segment that used to be the receiver for teleported Mack units. Now it would contain the sending part of the Tele-Chute.
The final part was yellow flashing lights as you might see on an oversized truck and painting the whole thing in yellow and black. I was just done when Arina and Major Allen of HANAF logistics showed up. Major Allen’s eyes fell on my modified Mack. “What the fuck is this? It looks like an unholy mix between Pac-Man, a caterpillar and Mecha Chthulu!”
“That is our latest salvaging unit. Salvaging as in rendering stuff into raw materials and sending it to a receiver here.” I waved at our building.
“You might need it soon. We have a lot of equipment we want…”
“Also, I’m joining the regular army!” Arina interjected. “I will be away for a few weeks of basic training, but then I’ll work in logistics.”
“Meaning you will be my problem pretty soon. And Miss McCallan’s. Once past specialist training you will be our liaison to Vanguard Enterprises.”
“Give me problems like that anytime!”
Wendy interrupted our banter by ushering us into the meeting room, where she had prepared some refreshments.
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Major Allen soon got to the point.
“We agreed that HANAF can use up to fifty percent of the manufacturing output of Vanguard Enterprises as consideration of our investment. Now we have a list of things we want. For starters, we will introduce the Shiv railgun at HANAF.”
I had no problems with that. “Certainly. In fact, I have already made sure it can be manufactured on the Mack type printers we have here.”
We quickly hammered out the details, then Major Allen was on his way. We suddenly had more work than we could handle in the short run.
I realized that we needed more raw materials. So I called a recycling company that specialized in Macks and asked if they had some scrap to sell. They quoted me a rather cheap price. Apparently the extreme strength of Mack steel made it difficult to work with. Even if you just wanted it to melt it down, sometimes you had to cut the scrap into parts so it would fit into the oven.
So I climbed my new toy, got a grip on the fixture of the warning lights and fourteen meters of steel caterpillar went marching through the streets of Victoria. Left and right, the more impressionable people started screaming and running away.
Halfway to the scrapyard, I was accosted by a group of Magical Girls. Team Battle Bug to be exact.
With a scowl, Longhorn asked “Couldn’t you take the time to make it look less Mack-y? And where are you going anyway with that thing?”
“Um, I wanted to whip up something quickly. So I only did some minimal remodeling. And I’m on my way to the scrapyard. This is a salvaging unit, and I’m paying the scrapyard guys for permission to devour some of their scrap heap.”
“That I gotta see”, Longhorn responded. The Battle Bugs followed me to the scrapyard where they observed my bot for a while scarfing down the remnants of smaller Macks. On occasion, it used the pair of Omni-Cutters on its tentacles as cutlery to cut them down to size.
Finally the part of the scrap that did not hold valuable parts anymore was gone. It was late in the afternoon, and most of Team BB called it a day. Only Crystal AKA Mantis accompanied me back to Vanguard Enterprises. On the way she started to ask questions about my bots.
“So, you are still building stuff based on Macks? Where does this one put all the scrap it eats? And how do you control it?”
“It has a small teleporter inside and beams the scrap directly to a recycler at Vanguard Enterprises. Control is partly through augs, partly it can operate autonomously.”
“Cool. Can I ride it for a bit?”
“Sure.” I got off the Mack and continued “Climb on it, get a grip on the flashing lights and I’ll send you some software for controlling it.” Subvocalized, I asked Elya “I need some easy to use controller software, compatible with an MG’s augs.”
Certainly. For a measly 10 points there is a remote control software available in your Class I Basic Drones catalog. I will adjust it to mimic the mount controls of a popular MMORPG from this world.
“Done!”
Purchased: Remote control software, control scheme compatible to WyrmRiders Of Pyrn
In the meantime, Crystal had climbed on the modified Type 21 and shot me an impatient look. A few moments after I sent her the software, a chuckle came from top of the huge metal caterpillar.
“What’s so funny?”
“The controls are like in the old Wyrm Riders game, down to the graphics details in the UI. I loved that as a teenager. Ahem, before I became a Magical Girl.”
We continued with me on foot and Crystal riding. I so needed to add seats on the thing, or at least a saddle for more than one person.
As we reached Vanguard Enterprises, Crystal asked “That was fun. Do you have more of these projects going on?”
“In the not so distant future, I’m planning a big brother for Herbie. A combatant this time.”
“I call dibs on being one of the test pilots! And I’ll tell Ladybug so she can pick a cute name for it!”