(Ruins Exploration, Ellipsis Base, Main Room)
[https://i.imgur.com/53m5Vfr.png]
> EBA: The bath has been prepared for you, mistress! You look like you could use it.
I want one like I have never wanted one before!
(Ruins Exploration, Ellipsis Base, Bathroom)
[https://i.imgur.com/6vEhpef.png]
(TODO Image: Eua gently washing her hair with shampoo.)
Taking a bath while reading up on the new lethal instruments of death that you’ve received is truly one of life’s pleasures.
* Symbiotics Base Assault Drone Weapon
+ Machine Gun Asw-1 (rank 2.7)
+ Sniper Asw-2 (rank 2.8)
+ Grenade Launcher Asw-3 (rank 2.8)
+ CGR Launcher Asw-4 (rank 2.8)
Both the sniper and the MG can use explosive, acid, EMP and other kinds of bullets. Yes, this is it! It took me a lot of effort to get these, but that has been well paid. Going into the HK tournament, I will have a couple of these float around and kill everything that stands in my way while I sit back.
I only wish I could put my brain core into one of the illusion drones instead of being in this 75kg body. I could try to modify their design, but I do not have the skills to actually synthesize the modified designs yet. Which arguably isn’t a problem for me. I could easily pause the game and infer the whole field on my own at my current intelligence level, but my policy is to have some fun playing the game, so I won’t resort to such measures yet. It is not a matter of life and death.
Still, it is a goal. Having the warriors fight while I think, and not wasting most of my body mass would significantly improve my overall combat power. Once I get the synth pods from Eloe, I will ask her for synthesis knowledge.
Ok…it is time for the final stretch. Let me deal with the other two levels and I will be done with the starter dungeons.
(Ruins Exploration, Research Facility Zillen Outpost X-23, F5)
[https://i.imgur.com/uySKrfp.png]
The elevator doors opened and the usual hallway and camera greeted me. Under the stealth suit, I was in no danger of getting discovered. I hid behind a corner and let a stealthed illusion drone do the exploration. It flew from my hands to the door, and opened it. As soon as the door slid open, the drone floated in and I could see the area in its entirety.
[https://i.imgur.com/mdTteQK.png]
It was a huge empty space, the biggest single room I’ve encountered yet, and it had several levels to it. In the middle of the area there was a huge spiderbot sitting there like a queen of the nest. It had a bulbous armored body and a huge cannon where its mouth would be. It was dozens times larger than a regular bot, and had as many as 8 legs on each side to carry it. Besides the cannon where its mouth would be, I could spy closed hatches on its body, as well as sensors.
Since there weren’t any other doors leading out from the level, my guess is that this boss type enemy had the brain core that I needed to finish the level.
Along the edges of the room there were numerous floors with smaller spiderbots lurking about. There were dozens of them standing guard.
My first instinct is that I need to get rid of them
I let several more illusion drones into the room before closing the door behind them. I gathered them around the spider queen. Then I moved into attack mode.
I first cut off all the wireless communications in the room, and then hijacked all the queens' sensors. In one moment the room was quiet. In the next, all of its subordinates turned on it and started firing.
Wiiaaa! Wiiaaa! Wiiaaa!
A loud blare of the alarm resounded through the level. In response to being attacked on all sides, the spider queen became active. Like a beast awakening from a long slumber, it shook off the tiny pricks bouncing harmlessly off its carapace and stood up to its full height of 6m in the air.
“VVVVVvvvvVVVVvvvvVVV!” It chittered, giving out some kind of synthetic, wavy sound that I didn’t understand, and then moved to attack.
From all sides, the hatches opened and from them fired missiles in all directions. Dozens of them impacted against the walls all at once, causing a large tremor throughout the level. The quake bounced me lightly off the ground back at the elevator.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
This single attack destroyed half the enemies present on the level.
In the next moment, heat particles gathered in its mouth cannon and then in a huge burst of energy, a superheated beam emerged. It completely engulfed the spiderbot it struck, vaporizing it. The spiderbot moved it around, erasing the enemies with the beam slowly, but the cannon had a limited range of motion.
As soon as I thought that, I realized the platform the spider’s body was on was starting to rotate. It sped up, and soon the beam was trailing dark lines across the walls, immolating all it touched. The rotation became even faster, and as I watched from the safety of the elevator the hatches opened a new salvo of 42 missiles flew out. They struck the walls and other objects, erupting in large fiery explosions.
[https://i.imgur.com/TsBG4pU.png]
BAAAAAMMM!
The whole level shook again, bouncing me into the air. Inside the room itself it was hell. The spiderbot was fully into its combat maneuver, spinning like a top and 4 more times it fired a missile salvo from its hatches.
BAAAAAMMM!
BAAAAAMMM!
BAAAAAMMM!
BAAAAAMMM!
The huge earthquakes finally calmed down, and realizing there were no more enemies in the level, or anything else for that matter, the spider queen calmed down and sat back into its crouching position.
Satisfied that I got rid of the nuisances, I let it rest for the time being and started the synthesis of the next batch of machines.
My first project was an assault drone armed with an acid grenade launcher. The black fog coalesced into its form and ordered it into the room. I then had the drone lob grenades from its launcher exactly on the spider queen’s top.
Its armor was almost a meter thick, and even the artillery MWP would not have been enough to break it. But the acid was doing its work, slowly dissolving its protective layer at the top. The dozen grenades the synthesis drone fired thoroughly soaked the queen in the greenish fluid.
It took a couple of minutes, but afterwards its soft mechanical innards were exposed.
Since it would take too long to synthesize another drone, I had the current one return back to my position, and initiated a reloading. Instead of acid grenades, this time I opened to give it a magazine full of high explosive grenades.
It took a few minutes for the black fog to coalesce into new grenades in the launcher slots, but then I patted it on the back and sent it on its way back into the room. I made sure to close the door behind me again.
I had the drone fly into the vicinity of the spider queen and then had it lob it first shot.
BAM!
The softer metal machinery crumpled, deepening the hole in it, but otherwise expending all of its fiery energy upwards. I lobbed another HE grenade in it.
BAM!
This created a deep impression on the enemy which was still inert. This time the explosion emanating from the hole was concentrated upwards like a pillar rather than spread out in a cone. Since the hole was 3 feet long now, I decided to finish it here. I instruct the drone to empty its entire arsenal all at once into the hole.
Fuit! Fuit! Fuit! Fuit! Fuit! Fuit! Fuit! Fuit!
The grenades went in one by one, not detonating. Once all 8 were in there, I had the drones in the room take their distance, and on mental command triggered the detonations.
BAAAAAAAAAAMMM!!!
The whole room erupted in a blinding flash of light. I lost contact with my drones and as the tremor came, only my great dexterity prevented me from tumbling off my feet. My body went into the air to land gracefully like a cat. I thought the power source would blow up, but I hadn’t expected that the force of the explosion would be this intense.
I look down the hallway at the door leading into the room. It is a good thing I closed it otherwise I would have been fried.
I could come in, but…
I walk up to the door and touch it lightly with my suited slender finger. The extreme heat is transmitted through the suit and I quickly withdraw it so I do not get burnt.
Let me wait ten minutes or so for the room to cool down.
I sit on the floor and just wait there. While I am doing that, I take the time to synthesize another illusion drone.
…
After ten minutes have passed, I try touching the door again and find that it is much cooler now. I guess the huge heat has been dispersed into the ground as well expended by the nanofog keeping the oxygen and the heat levels intact.
Even now I do not have any contact with the drones that were in the room, but the airborne nanomachines in the room wouldn’t be phased by an explosion even of this magnitude.
I give the order to open the door and for the first time look at the inside of the room with my own eyes. I can’t actually go into the room itself as the ledges have all been wrecked, leaving me with a 5 meter drop into the unsteady rubble below.
I can tell the room is filled with metallic remnants of machinery, though as the lights have been wrecked, I can’t see directly. I let in the illusion drone that I’ve synthesized and and have its nanofog radiate light across the room.
[https://i.imgur.com/p4LT4dy.png]
(TODO Image: A close up of the brain core lying amongst the metallic pieces scattered everywhere amongst the room. High above in the distance, near the entrance to another room, a feminine figure in a dark, full body jumpsuit is looking down on it.)
Lucky! It might have been the case that I’d have needed to look for it under all this rubble, but instead I found it right away.
I have the illusion drone come closer and interface with the core. As the data is streamed across, I feel the light of teleportation taking me.
> Mission Success!
> Time: 37m.
> Adna Biological berserker body schematics have been added to the database!
(Ruins Exploration, Research Facility Zillen Outpost X-24, F5)
[https://i.imgur.com/nU0Mv4B.png]
(TODO Image: Poor, innocent, demonic sentient beings pitifully running in terror as the hordes of assault drones peeper them with gun fire from above. A huge organ, the dark red dungeon heart beats wildly in the background. Patches of flesh make up the ground, the walls and the ceiling.)
Innumerable gunshots and demonic screams of pain and terror ran through the level as my tiny swarm hunted. I dyed the level in their blood, exploded the heart into so many pieces of flesh and extracted the core from it.
The enemy had no way to counter aerial fire, so it was an easy victory this time.
> Mission Success!
> Time: 15m.
> Qubica Base robotic stealth cover has been added to the database!