Akari.OS
I smiled a little as we grabbed a duffel bag and started stuffing it with parts and scrap material for the molecular deep fryer that I’ve become acquainted with at the bunker.
“Huh…so that’s how they’ve resisted previous attempts to fight them conventionally.” Xeriko observed as he looked at a piece of steel.
“How do you figure…?” I asked Xeriko looking at the same piece of steel he was.
He pointed to the edges of the piece where I saw a scuff that chipped off some of the outer layer on the steel.
“There, they coated their steel bodies with diamond composite refraction steel that lets them resist laser fire and they use a plasmaspheric hiss shield projector to resist against targeted plasma fire, of course with it being limited to targeted projections using a total plasma weapon meltdown overwhelms the shielding.” Xeriko lectured as I looked at the piece of metal.
It was amazing seeing how there were so many different kinds of tech out there that earth could only dream of in fiction or those isekai novels people were writing like it was going out of style…what? I wasn’t judging. Looking around at all the holo-projectors, prefab building techniques, and of course, energy weapons. It brought a tear to my eye at how beautiful everything was from a technological standpoint.
“What I don’t understand is…if they are undone by plasma weapon meltdowns, why don’t people use more... erratic plasma ordinance?” I asked, trying to avoid a plothole.
“Its because making plasma weaponry is a voidy proposition at best, and making plasma weaponry by purely mechanical means would require constant careful supervision and safety measures that were-” Xeriko started before I cut him off.
“Best left to the AI which isn’t possible right now unless I can find a Plasma Weapon Manufacturing for Dummies book and find a way to make a plasma ordnance factory.” I groaned, running my hands over my face. “So it looks like those kinds of countermeasures are off the table unless I can get pretty creative with a weapon factory and I highly doubt that even with my abilities I could even begin to do something like that.”
“Exactly Malware, and I doubt the Lylat Quadrant government would even tolerate your existence let alone give you the keys to one of those.” Xeriko chuckled with his trademark nickname for me.
“Whatever Meatbag, go grab those scanner arrays before I tell Ria-” I started with an evil grin.
“Hey now, no need to go that far!” He cut me off with a yelp.
I chuckled as we picked up more parts that I could use to reverse engineer upgrades for Xeriko’s suit.
“I gotta ask, how does your energy shield recharge?” I queried as I thought about our battles through the shopping center.
“Ancillary function of the power core, when I’m not engaged in battle some of the energy is diverted into the shield projector so I can regain some of its charge that gets used in battle, but the only way to fully recharge the unit is to have it in standby and be outside of it.” He explained.
I nodded my head looking at him through the visor and I sat on top of one of his readout boxes while smiling. “Well, after I can get my mitts on some more parts I can probably fix some of those issues.” I grinned as I started sketching frantically in a notepad.
“Well that’s good for you-” He started.
“Oh and get that drill from the Back Alley Doctor, I need that.” I cut him off while still sketching.
“Fine whatever Malware.” Xeriko griped at me while rolling his eyes.
I sat in silence as we picked our way through the usable loot and scrap and we finally exited out of a side door and were able to slip away after covering our tracks regarding how they were killed and with what.
“If we can get a transceiver on this thing I could probably get Ria on coms.” I muttered to myself.
“Why would we do that?” Xeriko asked.
“Just in case things go sideways, we need a third person to make sure we won’t get ourselves killed, or the mission is sensitive regarding other people and how we handle ourselves could reflect on how others see us, like if we think a politician is colluding with the AI and we need to keep our actions cloak and dagger.” I explained rolling my eyes to the obvious, but then again, I supposed I was an outsider looking in so my perspective was fundamentally different to everyone else’s.
“That scenario is horrifying.” Xeriko remarked as he shuddered.
“Hey, I know its a bleak thought but where I’m from people were plenty cruel without laser arms and AI fueled wars.” I said while I looked away from Xeriko. “Just get us back to base.”
The rest of the trip was made in silence while I considered designs for a mode of conveyance that wouldn’t stand out if I was able to fabricate the pieces for it with the molecular deep fryer. I looked at the other vehicles on the road as we were walking back to the base. The megatropolis we were in was a beautiful neon jungle that I couldn’t help but stare at in wonder. We moved in silence, I guessed my revelation about how someone could willingly side with the AI was a prospect Xeriko didn’t want to discuss.
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I worked on the schematics for the power core upgrade while comparing the designs from other ones on the market with the datanet. As well as the other items I was cooking up for Ria. Thanks to the lobotomy drill I came up with an idea for an electric saw for her medkit. I wanted to change her class from surgeon to medtech so she could do field work if needed so I looked at some medical technology and there was a lot I could work with. Of course we would have to bootleg some of the restricted medical equipment as I couldn’t exactly buy surgery drones on her dime and credentials, especially since we were basically in a war.
I sighed as I continued working on Ria’s new kit, and I was hoping that it would help save more lives. After making a quiet getaway back to base I hopped onto the network and decided to check on the medtech in question. She was in the medical wing checking on various materials.
“Hey Ria.” I said smiling to her as I sat on a text readout on one of the monitors she was consulting.
“Welcome back Akari, how did it go?” She asked, smiling slightly as she cleaned a handheld autoclave.
“The suit got a little dinged up but nothing a little polish can’t fix, and the shopping center went well…” I replied not looking at her.
She seemed to catch on to where I was mentally at that moment.
“A lot?” She inquired and I knew what she was asking without her having to elaborate.
“Piles…just…piles of them…women, children, the elderly, the healthy…” I sniffed. “Just piles of corpses like they were just junk in a scrapyard!”
The admission sent something through my kernel that I didn’t like. I felt all this rage that was then killed in a back alley by despair. They weren’t emotions I wanted to deal with right now. Given my own situation was so fucked, I’m just a soul the Goddess digitized into this new world of technology. Why me though…why was I chosen…was I so cruel to someone that I deserved this digitized hell?
I cried…I cried, and cried for the dead even though I didn’t know any of them. I couldn’t help the dead with anything except for taking their vengeance on machines that were being poisoned by a race of whoevers for whatever reason. Ria didn’t interrupt, she didn’t try to console me, or offer cheesy self help book advice. She just let me cry out my rage and despair for the departed.
“I know you’re human now…without a doubt, an AI would never be able to shed tears and shout to the heavens like that…” Ria said to me straightly.
“Thanks Ria…” I sniffed. “I want to be able to save more people…so can you help me?”
“Within my power sweetie.” She said, smiling a little.
“I want to add more tools to your kit so you can do field medicine and still defend yourself with the perforator…I want to help more people so we don’t have another shopping mall incident.” I explained while bringing up the new loadout I had in mind.
The loadout included a Hypodermic needle gun which could either deliver poisonous or medicinal compounds. The other thing was something I called the toolbox, which had a circular saw, a cranial drill, and a weight shifting hammer.
“This toolbox looks less like medical equipment and more like very very dated construction equipment.” Ria told me flatly.
“Just hear me out, if we find a civilian under debris and we need to get them out we should have the tools to do so, also I made sure if you were in a close combat scenario you had tools to help.” I explained. “Each tool has a medical mode and a kill mode, the saw is for wide sweeping attacks, the drill is for precision strikes in tight corridors, and the hammer is in case you run out of power, the power tools are made out of AIndroid parts so you know they’ll do the job.”
“Fine, I trust you made them well and within spec.” She acquiesced.
I nodded and she smiled a little.
“Thank you Akari, I’ll try and get used to carrying them.”
“I have to get back to the molecular deep fryer to work on a project for Xeriko and then something for me.” I said pointing behind me.
“Of course, happy building.” Ria waved me off with a smile.
I then went to the device in question and dragged the suit into the bay with me thanks to a drone with Xeriko griping at me the whole time.
“Look I said I’d make you new stuff for the suit and I will, but I actually need the stupid suit meatbag.” I groaned.
“Uuuugh...fiiiiine.” He said surrendering the point.
I then smiled as I had a drone pop open the suit and I saw the power core housing.
“Hmm…this might be a bootleg job but I’ve also used a manufactory to make a tachi so its not like this will be much different.” I chuckled as I compared design philosophies for types of Bodysuit Armors.
“You break it I will personally make sure you never see the light of day again Malware.” Xeriko glared at me.
“Yeah yeah, beat it.” I said while having the drone nudge him out the door.
“No, I’m staying so you won’t hurt my suit.” He snapped, crossing his arms.
“I won’t break it Xeriko, I have a home in that suit too you know, fortunately this suit is designed for modular part replacement and upgrading, there’s enough space in the suit for the core upgrade, the other thing I’m doing with the mechadendrite will be a home job.” I said analyzing the suit in my scientist outfit on the monitor.
“Fine, just don’t break it…” He said with less heat than the first time.
“I promise Xeriko.” I said holding my hand up in the gesture for a promise.
Xeriko just nodded and stared at the suit while I used drones to take out the power core and the battery to put them in the deep fryer. I kept watch of the upgraded power core’s fabrication, after that process I smiled as I held the binary core with a drone and it slotted back into the housing in the suit with a thunk. I went back to the molecular fabricator with the mechadendrite and I tossed it in with my design. After more time passed I was able to make a grappling hook rig.
“Now that’s what I’m talking about.” I grinned as I affixed it to the arm with some spot weld and a recoating of paint.
I threw in the scanning array chip in the helmet after looking at its internal processor and found out its just a plug and play.
“There we go, the Xeriko Original Mk. 2” I said happily as I took a look at the new machine in front of me. “Just needs some field testing and maybe a tweak on the power distribution matrix but beyond that she’s operational, and the new Scanning Array should help with map making and data collection.”
“Not bad Akari.” Xeriko said as he hopped into the suit.
“Um…please don’t test the grapnel indoors.” I commented as he was sighting it in.
“I’m not stupid Malware.” He groaned. “I was just checking the action to make sure it worked.”
He then triggered his scanning array and whistled. “That is useful.”
I fired up the machine again and fabricated a roller drone with a holo-projector for myself so I had more stage presence on the base. Once it came out I smiled at its simple design, just a pair of caterpillar treads with the Holo-projector mount on top. Of course the insides of it are much more complicated than that but from a design standpoint alone …its stupid simple.
I connected it to the network and dove in before getting holo-projected out of it and I stretched my arms and legs as I now finally occupied meatspace.
“That’s better, now I should probably go check on the others and make some dinner.” I said smiling as I walked down the halls with my projector rolling behind me.
I saw Ria and Xeriko in a sort of war room with something that looked like a kitchen of a kind with an Automat style of affair that you just ordered and the food would be food fabricated using schematics. That wouldn’t do at all so I just queued up ingredients such as chicken, breadcrumbs, eggs, that sort of thing.
I hummed as I was cooking and the two scifi people just looked at me curiously as I enjoyed the simple art of cooking.
“What are you doing?” Ria asked me.
“Just cooking, well as close as I can without a body.” I explained looking down at my holo-projector self.
“We have a food replicator.” Xeriko said, gesturing to the soulless food facsimile maker.
“And I think its a soulless hunk of metal that doesn’t deserve my notice, I’d rather have a conversation with a coffee maker.” I said glaring at him. “So while we’re together we’re going to enjoy home cooked meals as close as I can get to fresh, if you guys can source ingredients off-planet that aren't printed, that’d be lovely.” I noted.
I turned back to my job of cooking the ingredients and humming a song from earth letting a single tear roll down my face as I’ll likely never see my family again, so the best I have will be making Japanese food for my new friends, even if its bootleg food…its something. I pushed the thoughts of earth aside for a moment as I kept cooking before serving chicken katsu over rice for my friends with chopsticks.
“This is chicken katsudon…from my homeland, enjoy you two..” I commented sadly before rolling away to sulk in a corner.
They took bites of the food and their eyes widened as they looked at the food.
“Guess my mother was right…cooking the raw ingredients does make a difference instead of just printing a finished dish.” Ria said as she was eating my food.
“Malware really did a number on this, its pretty good.” Xeriko added.
I tried to smile as I leaned my head against the wall silently crying for my home and the people I couldn’t save.