December 27th, 2048

Early in the morning, I drove to Vanguard Enterprises to test the first Attoscale Architect, the Class II Matter Reconfiguration Machine I had purchased the blueprint for a few weeks ago.

I moved the thing to an empty office and set it up with the help of a maintenance drone. A dozen more would follow it. One Architect was not the fastest at printing stuff, but due to its modest size we could set up quite a few in that office alone.

From the doorway, Wendy’s voice interrupted me. “Hi, what’s on the agenda?”

“Testing the Architect. I’m making a few Nano-Regenerative Suites.”

”Great. From what you have told us, these might sell for a very nice price.”

“Yes, but I don’t think we should squeeze our customers for everything they’re worth. These little inhalers could improve the lives of many people. I’d feel bad if they were only available for the rich.”

“How noble of you” Wendy grinned. I was not sure if she was serious or just snarking. She added “It will take a while to get it to the patients though. Clinical tests are still required before we can sell any kind of medication.”

“You have a point. I’ll finish printing this batch anyway. If nothing else, the things can go into my personal first aid kit.

“But this is not the only project I have in mind. At Styx Base I have some Mack tech lying around I want to take a closer look at. Such as the little creation engines for the nanites the Mack MGs are using.”

I had reverse engineered two types of Mack nanites before, but not the tiny nanite factories built into the Dark MGs. That promised to be a more difficult endeavor, but I wanted to tackle it anyway.

Wendy promptly signaled that she wanted to come along. “I’d like to watch, and maybe Elya can explain things for me. Also, I finally have my pilot license and I want that air taxi you promised me.” Obviously she referred to the Variocopter that was still sitting at Styx base.

Soon we were on our way in the Explorer, my armed aircar. Below us, the waves of the Salish Sea glittered in the morning light. Before us, the snow-covered silhouette of Mount Olympus peeked above low-hanging clouds.

Wendy mused “This is so beautiful. Without the Macks, it could be a paradise.”

“You won’t find any disagreement from me.”

Ten minutes later we landed on the helipad at the base entrance. Wendy had already greedily ogled her new ride from the air. It sat on the smaller secondary helipad on top of the tower that held my apartment.

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“Business first!” I reminded her. Soon we were in the lab where I had stored the Mack bodies of Arina and Wendy. As I started to dig out the Mack version of the nanite-producing organs, I realized that I needed some additional tools to prepare them for proper reverse engineering.

“Elya, I think I need some precision tools for this. I want to cut some really small pieces out for analysis in the Scraper, but my fingers are too clumsy. Pick something suitable for me.”

Unlocked: Class I Precision Manipulators

Price… 50 points

Purchased: Mark II Midget Multitool (blueprint)

Price… 100 points

Remaining balance: One token and 11704 points

You can make the “Midget” in one of your Class I fabricators.

A print job I immediately started. After only a few minutes, I was presented with a small box that contained a workbench of a size suitable for a mouse. Surrounding the workbench were several tiny robot arms with either grippers or tools mounted to them. Such as a tiny cutting disc a centimeter in diameter or a milling tool that seemed appropriate in size for dentistry. At the front of the box there were much larger manipulator controls suited for human hands, and in the lid of the box was a screen that showed the work area in considerable magnification.

As I slowly dissected one of the miniature creation engines, I noticed Wendy being obviously bored. But that could be fixed. “Elya, we need a second of these tiny workbenches.”

Print job started.

Minutes later Wendy made herself useful at a second Midget Multitool, and soon we had some of the most mysterious components extracted and fed into the “Scraper” analyzer. A 3D map of molecule-sized raw material feeds, microscopic data paths and what looked like molds for casting nanites unfolded on the display of the Scraper.

“Elya, what are these?” I pointed at the mold-y things.

Highly specialized manufacturing blocks for one pre-designed type of weaponized nanites. This creation engine can make only these, but at a surprisingly fast rate.

“And could we reproduce the creation engine?”

With the Attoscale Architect, yes.

Eventually, we had blueprints for two types of matchbox-sized creation engines. One could make the nanites for the Fire Arrow attack, the other those for Vaporizing Blast. But I wanted more and started digging into a device in the Mack’s left forearm.

That is a shield device. It projects a protective shield in front of the user.

“Yeah, Captain Obvious. But what can you tell me about how it works?”

It builds a two-dimensional grid out of specialized nanites that are spatially locked to the generator. The nanites work together to create an energy field that stops energy weapons and kinetic weapons alike. Its weakness is that the nanites last only a few seconds.

“Even a few seconds can be useful. Let’s analyze how it works.”

I was unsure if I could pull it off, considering Elya had once teased me with a Class III requirement for shielding systems. But it certainly was worth a try.

Two hours later I sat on a crate with a growing headache. Even the Lorekeeper Tome of Field Technology (100 points) did not clarify things sufficiently. Did I perhaps need a brain upgrade to get anywhere with this?