*(mood song: "Paul McCartney - New")

As they all walked down a dark tunnel with the hacked security bots at the front, they continued talking, their steps and the creaks of the machinery resonating in the silence.

Erik: "so... is it over with the lizardmen?"

Rose bot: *...probably not... there's thousands of facilities all over the ark... if those bastards survived then others will as well*

Erik: "well, I doubt their technologies would last without your help, any nearby bases you can still detect?"

Rose bot: *I feel one to the south but... there's no power and no sensors, only the position beacon is active... without the life support systems terrestrial beings like them wouldn't survive anyway...*

Erik: "well... if I was them I would make big rafts or floating cities I guess..."

Rose's bot shook her head: *no, that wouldn't work, in summer the abyss beasts would go up to feed in the northern regions, as for the central warm areas... maybe in places without much depth... anyways, but we will worry about it at another time, it seems we are already here~*

In front of them was a dead end, but at that moment, the cube in Rose's bot hand glowed in a green color, and right after the wall trembled and started opening horizontally to the sides with a creaking sound as the metallic wall slid over the dirty metallic floor.

Rose bot: *impressive... I couldn't detect that was there... hah... those bastards... they even developed things like this, wasting time and effort on this instead of fixing their own planet...*

Erik: "well... can't really talk that highly about humans either but we kinda stabilized climate change and it's reversing, a key point was using geothermal energy, like the Yellowstone volcano that's been providing all of North America with cheap free electricity, and that allowed for lot's of other things to improve, but... we did make it late so... the flooding and overpopulation became an issue in the end... well what I was trying to say is, that even if a race knows what needs to be done, most individuals prefer complacency and keep on with their lives, only the universal basic income gave people enough free time to start caring about the planet in the case of humans for example, but... that's probably not that feasible if they were overpopulated".

Rose bot: *I could do so, and you... probably could too*

Erik: "hey..."

Rose bot: *are you saying you can do better than me?*

Erik: "no..., just hey..."

Rose bot: *yeah..., anyways let's go in*

As they were going in, Inky whispered to Erik "what were you talking about... I didn't get it... what's global warming? like volcanoes? or overpopulation... how do you overpopulate a planet?"

Erik: "well... global warming is when the average temperature of a planet increases, it can be due to lot's of natural factors or due to an organism on the planet-"

Inky: "like... summer?"

Erik: "jaja no... imagine all seasons becoming warmer-"

Inky: "so... an eternal summer?" her face paled "that's really terrifying..."

Erik: "No, not an eternal summer, it would also change the oceanic currents so winters, summers and all seasons would be warmer in general but if a cold current is redirected it could get colder, do you get it?"

Inky: "...not really..."

Erik: "oh well you don't have to worry about that here anyway... oceanic worlds dissipate heat pretty efficiently... as for overpopulation... that's when an ecosystem in this case an entire planet can't support a population that big... lets see... imagine billions of octopeople as far as the horizon, Earth's optimal natural population was around 2 billion, but this Ark should be able to support way more than that... that's overpopulation, when there's so many people there's no resources for everyone..... Inky? are you listening?"

Inky was murmuring to herself "...octopeople as far as the horizon..." her eyes dreamy.

Amanda: *She's not listening anymore comander...*

Erik: "sigh..."

Rose bot: *ejem ejem! if you are done with the explanations... let's go in already!*

Erik: "ah yeah... sorry, let's go"

They crossed the doors and got inside a dusty but ample laboratory, the lights in the room only a couple of them activating and revealing a gruesome scene, in front of them a really big football field sized laboratory full of at least eighty mummified lizard people most of them lying down and other's covered in blankets while a pile of bones occupied one corner.

Erik: "wow... they really kept this place hidden from that monster..."

One of the Rose bots grabbed a bone from the floor and discovered bite marks on it *seems like they ate each other...*

Erik: "well... not like they could do much else with that monster outside and no power... they didn't plan this well, not at all..."

Inky: "in what way?"

Erik: "easy, just look at my base, I have food available growing inside at all times"

Rose bot: *yeah but you are an omnivore and they were carnivores so... it wouldn't have worked*

Erik: "of course it would, just process them into powders so their digestive system can digest them and that's it, or just keep cattle like I do too"

Rose bot: *a farm undersea big enough to feed hundreds of carnivores?*

Erik: "yeah"

Rose bot: *without me noticing?*

Erik paused: "well, if they do it secretly enough like raising the cattle with cloning pods inside here then maybe... and harvest the nutrients for the nutrition fluid from plants... it seems feasible to me"

Rose bot: *kekeke~ I was way more strict in those times... believe me they wouldn't be able to pull that off*

Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

Erik: "...then what do you call this gigantic place then humm? were you taking a nap?"

Rose bot: * (◉-◉) that's mean Erik*

Erik: "Y-yeah... sorry, let's search for that machine, what size it is?"

Rose bot: *...hmm... around the size of a car*

Erik looked at the enormous dusty and poorly illuminated place and said "well... this is gonna take a while..." and they started looking around.

Amanda was examining one of the mummies and discovered one with a weird necklace with a green prism crystal *hmm... is this something important?*

A Rose bot got close and examined it *oh, that's a storage device* the left hand of the bot grabbed the necklace and a laser from her palm hit it, dividing into three rays of light *it works by registering the angle at which each ray reflects to store data using different small defects included during the creation of the crystal, see?* the rays splitting as the bot's right hand enveloped the other side, reading the rays.

Erik: "oh, kinda like optic fiber... did you read anything?"

Rose bot: *hmm... seems to be a goodbye declaration bla bla bla... his life bla bla motivation... bla bla asking to bury their corpses... careful with the monster outside... oh here, the machine he used to make this crystal is what we are looking for... apparently in the beginning they started changing their organs for synthetic ones and eating them... gross... and also highly inefficient... well and as I suspected they ate each other by the law of the strong... eating females, old and those weaker first... ugh this is disgusting, then there's lots of excuses bla bla bla and oh... a code to contact their planet... hmm... that could be useful I guess...*

Erik: "so? where is the machine?"

Rose bot: *follow me, it should be at the back*

They walked to the back, going around the broken down tables, machines and other things thrown around on the floor, along with bones and mummies, a thick layer of dust covering the floor.

And at the back they found it between the other machines, a rectangular capsule machine with gray metallic color.

Rose's bots surrounded the machine and started checking it.

Erik: "does it work?"

Rose bot: *yeah, I will repair the small problems in a little bit, now can you do me a favor and rip off organs from those mummies? artificial organs don't rot so it would be a waste to leave them when we can reuse the materials, they probably replaced all their organs except their brains*

Erik: "you can't replace a brain?"

One of the bots paused: *well, I CAN, but they can't, at most they would be able to repair brain damage, replacing a brain is a complicated process after all*

Erik: "...we will bust their heads open just in case... it would be a shame to leave behind something valuable"

Rose bot: *yeah yeah, you go do that* the hand of the bot shooing them away.

So Erik, Inky and Amanda gathered the forty dusty mummies, and placed them in a line, and Erik proceeded to take out his vibro-knife to open up the first.

The knife easily cut open the thick old leathery lizard skin and revealed metallic organs inside with dry flesh stuck to them.

*( https://www.pinterest.es/pin/295056213066360933/ )

Erik: "well then... they are for melting so..." he grabbed them and just ripped them off the dry corpses, and then looked at Inky and Amanda "well, get to it too, we should get enough materials out of them"

Inky and Amanda nodded and got to it too, chopping the dessicated corpses open and extracting anything not organic.

Meanwhile, Erik grabbed the skull firmly and busted it open using his power armor's strength but just found a desiccated brain that crumbled to dust "hmm... the environment at least seems sterile... well, to the next one~"

Took them almost an hour but they finished extracting all the organs and parts for Rose, including some entirely robotic arms and legs. When they got closer they saw the machine already clean and powered up.

Rose bot: *put it all into a pile by the side, I will add it to the materials input when needed*

They did as told and saw one of the bots pick several organs and throw them into an opening in the machine.

Rose bot: *well then hehe~ let's start this!*

The machine powered up with a low humming noise as it seemed to be vibrating, Erik and Inky waited expectant but nothing seemed to be happening.

Inky: "hmm that's it?"

Rose bot: *I can't do magic, it will take five hours at least ¯\_(´_ゝ`)_/¯*

Erik then cleared a nearby table, throwing to the floor everything on top as he laid down with his power armor on it "well it's been a long day, I'll take a nap, wake me up when it's over-"

Inky got closer "what about we have some fun while we wait~?" her finger drawing a heart on his visor.

Erik gulped but shook his head "I would love to but... this ain't a safe place and we need to be ready to fight at any time, I can't risk your safety just for a horny moment, you understand right?"

Inky sat on on a nearby oversized table too "sigh... fine... I will keep watch so sleep"

Amanda: *ehmm I... can keep watch so both of you can sleep if you want*

Inky: "...true... thank you... I will sleep now..."

Erik: " just sleep Inky, we will have fun back at the surface" he then looked at Amanda "thanks Amanda"

Amanda: *no problem commander*

Erik closed his eyes and time passed untill he was woken up by a loud laugh, he drowsily opened his eyes and then they dilated, in front of Amanda's bot and seemingly arguing with her was a beauty with long silver hair and eyes, pale skin and bulging muscles with blue lines glowing under the skin, a big bust and... a big horse cock with lots of blue lines like veins and a blue tip.

"hehe~ like what you see?" her voice melodious and alluring.

Erik's eyes dilated "Rose? is that your new body?!"

Rose: "yeah, do you like it~? I finally have a decent physical body hehe~ (๑˃̵ᴗ˂̵)ﻭ"

Erik: "eh? ah y-yeah... nice body Rose"

Rose: "jeez you are almost salivating~ but..." the big power armor came close and she got inside "this ain't a safe place yet~"

"Ejem!" Inky then scoffed from behind Erik, making her presence known.

Erik: "o-oh Inky I didnt see you..."

Inky frowned as she elbowed his side "we will talk later"

Amanda: *Hey Rose! I wasn't done talking! I want a body too!*

Rose: "oh but... I was about to take the printer home... can't you do it then?"

Amanda: *there's enough materials, I also want a body! it's not fair!*

Rose: "fine, but design it yourself, I'm tired"

Amanda: *that's a lie... you know what, I will do it no issue* and she advanced and her bot's hand connected to the port of the machine, instantly millions of data packages and options occupied her vision *okay... it ain't easy... can you at least give me a package with how to operate the machine?*

Rose: "fine... sent, download that into your memory and it should be enough"

Amanda did so and the previously unknown characters now made sense to her *oh, now I get it... thanks*

Rose: "yeah yeah, just hurry up" she then turned to the others and sighed "I will keep watch, go to sleep again"

Erik: "well, more than sleepy I'm hungry, and gotta pee..."

Rose: "well here there's no food, and no one will care so just pee anywhere"

Erik shrugged and walked a bit away, to where they had left the chopped mummies and opening the lower part of his power armor took his dick out and peed on them.

At his side then came Inky that took her dick out with a hard boner and took her a while to start peeing too, her eyes glued to Erik's dick.

Erik: "sorry can't do"

Inky: "...I didn't say anything..."

Erik: "yeah yeah, I'm hungry but let's take a nap"

Inky: "then... what about some milk~?"

Erik: "you would use much more energy and become hungrier, so not a good plan sweety"

Inky: "hmph! fine!" she then struggled to put her hard boner inside her power armor, taking a while to make it fit inside.

They then laid down in the same place as earlier and fell asleep, Inky taking way longer to fall asleep than Erik that went asleep with his new railgun in his arms, ready to fight at any time.

--- Octopeople city ---

Meanwhile, back at the surface Timberly was in her room's pool as lots of empty smoothie jars were laying around, as well as lot's of plates with still some meat left.

Inside the pool she was rolling in the water as her body painfully changed, her body becoming more firm and compact as she experienced changes similar to Inky but on a bigger scale than her, her now firmer muscles and bones brimming with strength as she kept rolling around in pain, her body so painful and itchy that it was almost unbearable.

Timberly: "gah...huhgh.... almost..."

--- Back at the secret lab ---

Eight hours had passed and everyone was bored looking around as Amanda suddenly shouted *Done! I'm finally done!* making everyone sigh relieved.

Out of the machine then came a woman's body with copper colored hair and blue glowing eyes, a medium bust, and metallic arms and legs while her lips and exposed pussy had a blue tinge, with blue lines flowing beneath her fair white skin, but Erik couldn't stop looking at her face and murmured "Sara...".

Amanda: "oh yeah... I thought you would like it, commander... I can change it if you want..."

Erik: "...sigh... It's fine... let's go back already..." and started walking to the door with a confused Inky.

Rose came close to Amanda as she picked up the big machine with the big power armor and said "couldn't you choose another face? it shouldn't have been that hard"

Amanda: "I...I just... I just thought it would make him happy..."

Rose: "...sigh, this is why... inferior models... let's go back..." her loud footsteps crushing bones and everything they landed on.