City-21 “Kyiv”, UNSA Protectorate, Avril Dominion
Object “Wall”, Sector 359
Julia Drozdova and Vratislav Shvets, August 13, 2049, 5:39 AM
The infernal roar, more akin to continuous explosions that had been shaking the Kyiv Ring Expressway since two in the morning, finally ceased. The heavy flying construction machine, resembling a fifty-meter mechanical squid from a distance, printed the final segment of the Watch Tower. Raising its manipulator tentacles, it ascended into the sky and wearily headed towards the Protectorate’s Bastion.
Julia Drozdova, a little flighty, gray-eyed brunette, clad in a black-and-blue engineer’s uniform, craned her neck upwards, shading her eyes with her hand. Yeah, she was watching the construction ship depart. Then, leaning over the metal railing, the girl shouted:
“Slavek, I swear they’ve mastered antigravity! A hundred percent sure! Nothing else can fly like that. It would be simply impossible, see? Slavek? Hey, are you even listening to me? I tried to pry out of the curator how their tech works, but she, the meanie, didn’t answer. Only uttered, ‘At your current level of training, it doesn’t matter,’ and blah-blah-blah… But I’m so curious!”
image [https://i.imgur.com/7D28crM.jpg]
Vratislav Shvets, a blond, tall, and lean guy who usually goes by “Slavek,” just waved his hand dismissively. He had gotten used to his girlfriend’s character back in their first month of living together, and her overly emotional reactions to everything around completely suited him. Besides, the question of how the Protectorate’s antigrav technology worked was indeed very intriguing. Though, if he were honest, Julia had already buzzed his ears off about the “why it flies” thing ever since their arrival at the site.
“Stop shouting from up there, I’m coming!” he grabbed the yellow handrail. Having climbed, Vratislav suddenly grabbed and lifted Julia, thus stopping her endless stream of comments.
“Hey, what are you doing?”
“Calm down, Jules. The construction is finished, you can relax now.”
“How can I relax when we have seen something like this? It’s…”
The guy silently held her even tighter.
“Okay-okay, I’m quiet now. See, even stopped talking. So, put me down!”
Vratislav understood his girlfriend’s feelings perfectly. Actually, he felt the same awe at the Protectorate’s power and technological perfection. And, of course, there was a certain pride that they, too, had a hand in the construction marvels of this long night.
The first “ring” of Watch Towers around Kyiv was complete now! Each of them, averaging thirty-five meters in height, was fully armed, from machine guns to missiles of various calibers. Of course, there were numerous drone catapults as well. Inside there were kilometers of electronics, heaps of high-precision sensors, weapon control drives, ammunition supply systems, and drone hangars.
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The work had been non-stop since the beginning of the curfew and didn’t pause for a minute. The brunt of it fell on the young engineers of the Blue Class of Public Efficiency. Based on the results of a major test, the best of them were pulled to work on the first night, so they had to combine initial training with field practice.
The Protectorate used one of the ring roads surrounding the Polis as the base for the future Wall. It turned out to be an excellent construction site, over fifty meters wide. Yes, a significant part of the city was cut off from the center, but the “new authorities” weren’t about to abandon the remaining citizens to their fate.
The curfew went into effect at 7:00 PM. While the future builders underwent initial virtual reality briefings, columns of military patrols and rapid response group flying machines moved out from all “collection centers.”
Most of these armed forces, distributed around the ring expressway, moved to clear the ten-kilometer zone adjacent to the future mega-construction. Two hours after the operation began, the military confirmed the complete safety of the entire area. It was time for the engineers to step in — by then, the briefings and VR training were over.
Moreover, super-heavy space transporters had arrived from orbit. Right on the road, the deployment of sixteen “mobile complexes” for the nanotechnological disassembly and synthesis of building materials for the flying builders began.
Each such factory, resembling a titanic trilobite monster, ten meters high, forty wide, and a hundred and thirty-five long, settled firmly on the road and opened its insatiable maw, ready to receive materials.
The mission of the newcomers was to “feed” these techno-beasts. Each was given control of a group of drones, the number depending on their experience. Of course, most of the work was done automatically, but in emergencies manual intervention was required. Well, the engineer cadets had already practiced this in VR, so there were no difficulties.
The tasks set by the Protectorate during the work included dismantling structures with the highest metal content, ensuring raw materials’ delivery for processing, and waste disposal. Plus, they had to prepare pits for the foundations and underground spaces of the future towers. To implement their job, the engineering and construction corps had got a wide range of equipment.
Drones called demolishers and disassemblers, capable of breaking down valuable resources at the molecular level or dealing with particularly strong structures, handled the quick and efficient demolition of buildings with sorting and partial processing of materials on-site. The prepared materials were stored on-site and transported using flying cranes and heavy-lift cargo drones.
Of course, ground equipment was also used in the form of various bulldozers, tractors, excavators, and the same heavy disassemblers in their non-flying form. Additionally, the Protectorate employed much of Earth’s equipment — not as efficient, but still capable of accomplishing the tasks.
To manage this diverse equipment, the newcomers had a special deep-VR environment created specifically for construction, along with adaptive virtual AI agents. The UX design principles used by the Protectorate were very similar to Earth’s and intuitively understandable, so there were no issues.
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Julia and Vratislav thoroughly enjoyed everything they were taught and shown on the simulator — the entire process really felt like an advanced strategy game. And since any modern person already has the necessary meta-skills “leveled up” through thousands of gaming hours spent in virtual reality, mastering the Protectorate’s construction technologies was just a matter of a little practice. Moreover, they found that they could team up in small groups or pairs, which generally increased efficiency.
In the end, the construction crew supervisors held a VR exam to test their ability to control processes at their section, coordinate actions with neighboring crews, make and justify decisions in unusual situations, and propose tactics for joint work. Successfully passing all the tests, those willing were offered a late dinner, stimulants, energy drinks, and a chance to rest for twenty minutes before being sent to the construction sites at one in the morning.
However, the “young engineers” already understood the importance of erecting the defensive structures as quickly as possible, so no one complained. After all, the survival of the entire Polis depended on it — the monsters could tunnel under the city and descend from the skies. Of course, the towers were just the initial phase, but their significance couldn’t be underestimated! Especially since — this information was classified and accessible only to Blue Classes and above — the towers effectively blocked the opening of most shaiszu portals within the controlled territory.
Moreover, according to intelligence, the next major attacks of monsters on the city could begin as early as the middle of the next day!
A final detail, perfectly illustrating the Protectorate’s social system, stood out. Although the construction was carried out exclusively by VR-controlled machinery, each builder still had to be physically present. They had to work, eat, rest, and even sleep in special barracks near the towers until all defensive structures, and most importantly, the Wall, would be fully built.
Additionally, alongside their uniforms and electronic equipment, all novice engineers of the Blue Class of Public Efficiency received personal combat kits. Brand-new individual cases, secured by a fingerprint and digital PIN code, were delivered from the Bastion by a special cargo drone. Each of them received an automatic pistol, maintenance tools, a holster, and a belt set for convenient carrying. As for ammunition, the kit included four fully loaded spare magazines and two boxes of fifty rounds each. There was also a knife in a sheath and four small explosive drones.
In case of a Red Alert, instructions were to proceed to the pre-designated points and take control of reserve combat drones, artillery, or construction equipment as required by the situation. They were also required to follow other commands from superior officers; during combat, all engineers were considered privates. In the case of a severe escalation, each individual had to be ready to engage in combat themselves with the issued weapons.
As a military instructor from the Red Class, who conducted their training and safety instructions on the use of weapons, said:
“Yes, you are not a warrior class. But among the higher categories of the Protectorate's citizens, there are no soft-handed people or someone afraid to handle guns. Get used to it! Regular combat readiness checks and periodic training, including weapon skills, will now be a constant part of your life. Once again, we are a high category of citizens, enjoying excellent living conditions, many benefits, and decent pay. But for this, each of us must be ready, if necessary, to give our life in battle for the safety of others!”
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By the time the engineers arrived at the construction sites, everything was ready. But no matter how hard they tried, loading the Factories fully – was completely unfeasible. The “voracity” of these giants was simply monstrous. It seemed they could grind through much more raw material!
By morning, when wide “clearings” appeared around the construction site and most of the closest buildings had been demolished, the main activity began. To the sound of a loud siren, large full-color holograms of the future Watch Towers appeared along the length of the giant construction site.
An augmented reality message instructed them to move away from the construction site to a safe distance of at least twenty-five meters. Illustrating the directive, black-and-yellow lines with the inscription “Attention! Danger Zone!” hovered in the air.
Meanwhile, new flying ships approached from the direction of the Bastion — huge, black, and intimidating flying “squids” with long, thick tentacles, each ending in a cluster of thin, flexible manipulators. One of these beauties floated and hovered almost directly over the site where Julia and Vratislav stood, giving them a close-up view of the machine.
The siren changed tone, and the “mechanoid” began to move. Its tentacles darted with incredible speed, gripping the large blocks of processed raw material placed on the construction site.
The “squid” bent impossibly in the air with its “nose” to the ground and plunged the “muzzle” into the prepared foundation pit while its tentacles, pulsating, literally sucked in cubic meters of metal and stone. A bright light flashed, and the front edge of the machine erupted with a million ultra-thin long “whips.” Soon, the construction was enveloped in an impenetrable glowing sphere, making it impossible to see the process in detail.
The machine, still facing down, rose into the air, stretching the shimmering area until it was the height and width of the future Tower. At that moment, the siren wailed especially piercingly, and the giant mechanoid slowly floated upwards, raising the material assembly area higher and higher.
From the bright misty oval emerged the Watch Tower, first the foundation and underground rooms, then the main structure! Fully equipped with weapons, all engineering systems, and drone catapults! The smooth movement was almost uninterrupted. The only disruptions were when a tentacle, having emptied a giant cube of raw material, jumped to another.
“Holy sh... f... oh, wow,” Julia finally managed to say, recovering from the shock and staring wide-eyed at the result of the work.
“Yeah, they will certainly finish ALL the Towers by morning,” Vratislav stretched and cracked his neck. “Shit, and here I bet Kamil ten sols they wouldn’t.”
“Seriously? When did you even find the time for that? We’ve been working butts off non-stop.”
“Eh… Stupid things are always easily done. At four in the morning, we caught up in DMs — I had a break, and so did they,” the guy stretched again and yawned. “By the way, they're still out there clearing the area...”
Slavek couldn’t hold back and yawned contagiously.
“Man, the Protectorate’s technological marvels are truly cool, but I’m utterly exhausted. It’s been a darn crazy day.”
“Just imagine for a second, this is so fucking epic! Only yesterday morning we were hiding from shaiszu in a uni room, trying to block the door with dumbbells, barbells, and all sorts of junk! Building some insane barricades and hoping for a miracle rescue. And now, here we’re both Blue Class engineers, and I just witnessed the most spectacular techno-show of my life! And there’s more to come! I couldn’t fall asleep even if I took a sleeping pill!” The girl jumped up from excitement, as if to demonstrate how much energy she still had at her disposal.
“Oh, well, nothing new here! As soon as your head hits the pillow, you’ll be out!” laughed Slavek. “If lucky, there is a chance to be undressed meanwhile. But most likely, it’ll be a dramatic crash landing in clothes still on.”
And, as if the Protectorate had been waiting for those words, all the engineers received a personal message.
# Engineer! The Protectorate thanks you for your excellent work!
# All working hours will be paid with a bonus multiplier of 1.35
# At 10:00, the primary systems will be launched. After debugging, the workday will officially end.
# Attention! After the completion of work, no later than 13:00, you must undergo a mandatory medical examination.
# The next two days are declared days off, which you can use at your discretion (excluding the time required for study and preparation for passing the first combat standard, as well as mandatory social events).
# It is forbidden to leave the City beyond the Perimeter or violate established rules for movement and presence in specifically designated areas.
# You can rest until 09:30. The list of nearby places to shower, change uniforms, eat, and sleep (expand).
Vratislav, knowing his girlfriend well, was right.
Julia knocked out as soon as her head touched the pillow. But, well, she did manage to undress.