Over the next two weeks, I worked like a fiend. I popped Overclock Self every chance I could get, pouring over all the currently available schematics.

I made hundreds of small adjustments to all the Khalai units and buildings. Primarily integrating larger crystal cores for better processing and expanded shield capacity.

Going over both the Shield Generator and Shield Recharger led me to reject their baseline models and go with a much larger combined structure. I even managed to incorporate a small Pylon into the design. The final product could generate a very solid, quick recharging shield. Without the support of the Psifield, when under the effect of the field the shield was almost impossible to penetrate, with any of the weapons I used to test the prototype. Even when it did fail, which happened when I used my new Laspistol with it's overcharge feature, it rapidly recovered.

They might not last under sustained barrages from multiple sources, but it was better than the individual shields of most Protoss buildings. Never mind the Lordaeron buildings with no shielding at all. Those rolled out on the 3rd day after my isolation began.

Next I rebuild the Power Armor from the ground up, using some of the ideas from the Kriegsmen armor for internal padding. A denser version of the crysbronze for the most vulnerable areas, led to increased weight, offset by embedding extra crystal nodes to act as regulators for more efficient power draw. Then I integrated psiblades into both forearms for in close work, or if they were divested of their SORs. Lastly, I expanded the programing of the onboard V.I. including some protocols for locking down the armor and even self destruction if the user was not on a approved genetic list.

These rolled out on the 5th day. I had an idea to try Wisp integration with the Armor, but decided to wait until we could do thorough testing.

Weapons were next. I was torn. There were advantages to both Las weapons and Ballistic models. The modified SORs had perform exceptionally well, so I was loath to change to the different platform now. However, later I had a crazy idea.

First I shortened the SORs another couple of inches, improving handling when indoors. Decreased the now insane recoil by including a micro field generator to sort of push against the recoil from the gauss weapon. That took hours of programing work to get the timing right. Might require further adjustments later.

I also added a Psibayonet module. Because you can never have enough utility. Heh.

Then I spent a day designing many new ammo types, from armor piercing to explosive, EMP to Psiburst rounds. Psiburst rounds were my answer to the fear that a Daemon might shown up again. They were a compressed Psicrystal shard with a nanoscale explosive core. This resulted in a violent release of Psienergy and throwing out crystal dust.

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I required our troops to have a mag of Psiburst ammo available at all times. Just in case.

All of my experiments to include mana into ammo failed.

On the third day after switching to ammo testing I remembered the movie Predator. Which gave me my crazy idea.

I mounted a redesigned version of my Laspistol on the Power Armor's left shoulder. I linked it in to the V.I. for better targeting. The first two versions blew up, but persistence paid off, and the third version worked like a charm.

I did have to remove the overcharging option though. Bummer.

All of these improvements rolled out on day 9.

I was pretty happy with all of that so far. So I turn my attention to combining Mana and Psienergy. The initial tests resulted in a high energy event. I had to switch to a different Forge while the Probes replaced the now totaled one.

Too much, too fast. Probably.

Well, lets try... nope. And how about... uh, that looks like a portal. Oops a tentacle. Let's just detonate a mound of Psicrystals, right about there.

On day 13, I had a small break through. By mixing a very small amount of each type of energy very slowly a new mineral was formed. Pure Mana with Psienergy resulted in a bright neon blue metallic mineral. Life Mana resulted in a dense seemingly nonreactive light blue gas.

I had no really idea of the utility of each as yet, and I had run out of time to test.

I decided to check up on my messages. Just reports from Jaina.

Jaina's reports only had a few events of note.

Back on day 4 Alina had finished her study of human anatomy and adaptation of Khalai Cyberware. As much as I wanted to play with that I felt I was too busy, so the first trails were conducted by Jaina with a volunteer from the new footmen.

He quite enjoyed the increased speed and strength. Roughly a 100% increase for both. Adjustments were needed but were nothing requiring my intervention.

We didn't have time to run all the tests, so full integration of Khalai Cyberware would have to wait.

On day 8, Ingrid regained full consciousness and promptly killed herself. Nobody had been paying attention to them by this point. I didn't know how to feel about that, so I buried my feelings for now.

Velma remained in a coma.

Back on day 10, there was a fly over event by several different Corporations' AVs. Both and forth they flew over our area. They didn't stop and no scanning was detected. So we did nothing. It did however negatively impact the nerves of many of the Lordaeron folks. They had led simple lives before being brought here and were unused to the sights of AVs.

Maybe the Corpos were trying to bait us into action? That would give them a good idea of where to hunt for us. though they were already too close for comfort, probably due to the agents reports.

Day 12 had a small snafu between some of the Aldecaldos and some of the New Lordaeron folks. Supply orders for sales were going out with Amanda on a run to Dakota. The orders got mixed up. I didn't get the full details but some heated words were exchanged. Thankfully, Amanda kept it from escalating to violence.

I spent day 14 tweaking my own Power Armor Design. I tricked it out with a a heavier shielding module and two shoulder mounted Laspistols. Also I removed the V.I. and added a clone of Alina so I could rely on her to defend me if I needed to heal people.

When in came out of the Assembler it I patted the Armor. "Take care of me, alright?"

The best part, it fit like a glove.

My excitement grew by leaps and bounds. I wanted to bring the pain.