Log #74

Finally got a shower installed in my own room, along with a few other things like a new bed. I had gotten used to using a few bots and just using wet rags to clean myself, whether or not I was actually controlling the bots or if I just left that to the minds varied on a day by day basis. There isn't really a privacy barrier when the minds are partially in your brain at all times. And Labyrinthine liked to brush out my hair and would occasionally add ornaments to it. Needless to say, actually using my own hands to clean myself in the shower was a bit of a learning experience, thankfully my arms bend enough that I can wash the small of my back.

The guests finding my room on the radar hadn't really been in the plan but they didn't see anything confidential, Balistraia made sure the radar didn't show weapons systems or defenses, well not the hidden ones, it'd be suspicious if no defenses showed up when they could see a few turrets with their own eyes.

And the girls had apparently gotten distracted by both the armor and the hydroponics bay, one of which was partially meant to distract them and the other was a sterile environment that they shouldn't touch or enter. Both because they would bring in germs and contaminants and that there were carnivorous fish nearby and anything with meat that enters the hydroponics bay riles the fish up enough that they start trying to break containment.

You can guess what they did next.

They started planning a plant heist, with the forewarning watching them gave me I could prepare, by making an entirely separate sterile hydroponics bay so my whole crop wouldn't be contaminated. I had needed to expand anyway and letting them figure out how to get to the hydroponics bay was really one of the less destructive things they could be doing.

Like just for example, walking into the nuclear power section of the main base, just an example though, definitely hasn't already happened.

Anyway the minds hacked the tablets the girls had brought with them and they managed to decode the written language, and a few bits of the spoken one via audio logs, we also now have at least a minor understanding of their planet. The tablet didnt have specific detail on anything downloaded to it but I will summarize what we learned.

There are 5 main powers, none of which are capable of space flight, nor did we find any info about weapons of mass destruction, doesn't mean that they don't have them or that the nations aren't a threat but the weapons not being common knowledge bodes well.

There are 2 "races'' of sapients that are actually just the same species, one just has modifications. They also seemingly have high tensions because the standard humans think the modified ones are lesser. This might be because I'm arguably less human than both of them but that really doesn't make sense. Extra appendages can only really help and it doesn't seem like cognitive abilities are impared by needing to manage another limbs sensor input, at least not in the example I have. Also the scans on the cat eared one are something I will touch on more later, they were interesting.

The fauna on the world are also hostile to intelligent life, and apparently negative emotions. Specifically the smoke monsters that tried to blindly charge an entrenched position. The fact that they attacked the bugs implies something I have long suspected, the bugs have emotions. Or they at least developed them at some point while fighting me.

The world has a resource with borderline magical properties called dust, this is fascinating and I may have stolen some of the girl's ammunition to begin testing and experimenting with it. Even just adding a variety of effects to the bullets my turrets fire would be helpful.

The inhabitants of the world can use their "souls" to provide a personal shield and occasionally a special ability, considering I have both I should fit right in. I was about to disagree that such a thing was possible and then I remembered I can pull a tank from my arm. I have no room to judge.

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The fact that the entire population could have the ability to varying degrees implies quite substantial gene therapy. At least I assume it would as I have no idea how my own abilities work, for all I know someone just grafted a pocket dimension to my soul and that's how it works.

Accept the world as it is, nonsense and all and move on, digging deeper just gives nightmares and headaches.

And yeah that's the gist of what we learned, really wish that had been sent with the minds on the other side of the portal but nothing we can do about that now. Besides, wait for the third one to open and then send a data packet.

I'm mainly just hoping that they don't manage to start a war or something.

Balistria has been exploring the tunnel networks that the bugs attacked from, and they are extensive, going down over 400 meters and stretching a few dozen miles already. And tanks really aren't made to work in tunnels, vertical walls that the bugs can scale just fine leave tanks stuck.

Drones work better but it's still not ideal, if the tunnel tanks couldn't just drive down or up through the stone the counter attack would be a bust.

That doesn't mean that progress has been bad though, we are now up to 60 tunnel tanks hunting the bugs through the tunnels, along with collapsing everything we've explored so the bugs can't use them without digging new tunnels.

And I upgraded the radar again, increasing the range and detail the things can see at. The tunnels still don't show up but that doesn't mean they can't be spotted. The new radars can pick up finer detail, making abnormalities like repeating mineral structure or areas that have too few details stick out to anything that can look hard enough, and the minds can handle quite a lot of information.

We have already spotted 34 potential cloaked tunnels, and while a few of those are likely nothing but a red herring I imagine that at least one or two will turn out to be bug tunnels.

With the command bugs busy waging an underground guerilla war the construction of the perimeter has picked up even more speed, there are still attacks but they are less coordinated. Watching the circle of towers slowly form around the factory is wonderful, like a net of safety.

The bug front hasn't needed my actual attention since I established the first outpost, the minds really can just handle all of that on their own.

I had scans taken of all the girls while they were asleep. And they are basically human standard, even the cat eared one. There are a few nutritional and genetic flaws but those are found in anything not vat grown, a few changes to diet and some gene therapies should sort that out. Gives them the maximum lifespan and cures any genetic diseases or hereditary illnesses, also makes cancer and other mutations much less likely.

The really interesting thing is the cat girl, she genetically grows cat ears, as in not added after birth. But the actual modification is just added onto a human genome. They are human but with cat bits added on from birth. She even has the genetic coding for claws and a tail, so her kids could have those features. The odd part is the blocker allowing only one of those to happen, you can't have claws, ears, and a tail. Just like how the average person will be born a boy or a girl, but instead of reproductive organs its animal traits.

I cannot overstate how odd that is. It's just a weird design choice by whoever made them. And made is the right word, this wouldn't happen naturally unless a human like species evolved from cats and then selectively breed until they looked human but with a few extra features, and that still doesn't explain the blockers.

I am also very curious to see what would happen if I turned the blockers off. If I tried to tamper with my own inbuilt features I'd be surprised if my DNA structure didn't just self-destruct, but this would essentially be flipping a genetic switch. It'd be easier than rewriting someone to a new gender and that's a standard feature on my med bay already.

Probably shouldn't though, I can only imagine that randomly growing a tail and claws would freak someone out.