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Do What You Can (Worm x Celestial Forge V3) by Throwaway1971

Books » Private Rated: M, English, Sci-Fi, Words: 324k+, Favs: 238, Follows: 272, Published: Jun 9, 2024 Updated: Jun 10, 2024

20Chapter 5 - Progress

[One Week Later]

[January 27th, 2011]

I adjusted my schedule a touch to make it so that I had twelve hours a day of enchanting; sure, I lost a few hundred resources, but all of my T-Doll stocks were over 12,000 now, so I was feeling pretty good. I stopped gathering the nanomaterials and instead focused on directing the materials towards Spark Mk II production.

In other news, Nugget learned enough about hacking to slip into the New Hampshire Department of Records website and created a fully functional identity, complete with a birth certificate, social security number, and an educational and work history. He hacked the websites of the schools and businesses in question to plant the data before backdating it, complete with pay stubs and tax returns that were retroactively filed by the local IRS office after it found a discrepancy; the physical copies of my returns were in their offices, but the electronic records at the main IRS didn't reflect it.

So Nugget mailed them a physical copy for them to put into the system so that I wouldn't be left out during the upcoming tax season. How magnanimous of him.

Still, I now had legitimate physical copies of everything critical to living a normal life, including a new, official New Hampshire driver's license; though I did have to go down to the Brockton DMV to get my photos taken for it.

That was a total pain in the ass, but the drive over in the completely revamped F100 was as smooth as a baby's bottom. It had been outfitted with Phrik armor behind the door panels, the body panels and frame were Beskar steel that had been hollowed out, and the engine had been replaced by an electric motor with the water-to-hydrogen converter installed; the fuel tank had been left the same, except it had been lined with a thin layer of PVC with a hydrophobic film to keep the steel tank from corroding since it was filled with water and not gasoline. The truck had been painted a rich dark brown with tan accent lines that gave it some character but didn't make it stand out more than being a very, very old car that was looking really, really good for the era.

The interior had a variety of neat little toys, including a neat radio and infotainment system that I could operate with my implant while the suspension was built more like an off-road truck to handle the extra weight from the armor plates, but it wasn't like it needed it; the plates were hollow and would stop everything, up to and probably including tank-shells. The windshield and windows were made of nano-crystalline composite that was incredibly durable, and in a fit of insanity I etched a complete bevy of protection runes onto the vehicle; Fire, Shock, Frost, and Physical Damage Resistance Glyphs were etched into the inside, and that had been what pushed me up and over the edge.

The moment I finished enchanting the truck I gained Aspect Level 4 and raised my Potency to Level 9- I now had complete access to use the Legendary Aspects and Splendid runes needed to create the best Glyphs the perk could offer.

It was annoying that it happened after I had enchanted my first dozen Mark IIs and the truck, but that was life. I didn't do over the truck because what I had already done to it was pretty insane- but I really liked it and wanted it to stick around for a long time. A super durable vehicle was a must in a powder keg like Brockton Bay.

The Spark Mk IIs had multiple enchantments, but each piece received a Splendid Glyph of Health- the Head, Chest, Legs, and Shield received the full boost of the 508 health, meanwhile, the Shoulders, Hands, Feet, and Waist only received 40% of the bonus; all in all the robots received a full 711 health, though I didn't know how that exactly translated to real-world durability. Considering the supreme nature of the Splendid Glyph as the pinnacle of runic enchanting utilizing the ESO system the boosts had to be pretty significant, but the only way I would know for sure is if I set up a testing range and had two identical units damaged by powerful weapons, and I wasn't feeling that too much.

My ascension to Splendid Glyphs also proved to me that while accessory and weapon Glyphs could not be stacked, Armor Glyphs could be. Don't ask me why the armor glyphs could be added on while the others could not, because I don't know- I can only assume it was for "Balance Purposes".

I made five rings out of Beskar that were worn on the shield hand- this gave the robots 97.7% resistance to Fire, Frost, and Shock. A Shield Bashing Glyph would let the bots deal 30% more damage with their shields, and the Ring of Physical Damage Resistance would reduce all physical damage the Mk II took by 40.6%. I toyed around with the thought of testing Arcane protection Glyphs to see if they could protect against Parahuman powers, but decided that I would wait until the next production run; I needed to gather more nanomaterials first, as each Mk II was 439 pounds and required over 550 pounds of nanomaterials to be constructed.

Truth be told, the Mk IIs were probably indestructible against every cape in the city barring Lung. Even against Kaiser, someone I was wary of because he could project blades from any metal surface, would probably falter against the Mk IIs.

From the way I understood it- he could only project blades on a surface with enough room to do so, and PHO speculated that it must have at least a one-inch gap between itself and the other surface. I took this information and cut it in half for the designs and then cut it down again for production; there wasn't more than a quarter-inch of space anywhere in the chassis- everything was filled with a heat-conducting crystalline gel that acts as both a heat-sink but also a cushion for the internals. The should be no way that Kaiser could cause steel growth inside of my bots, but even then, my bots are a lot tougher than the steel spikes he could produce- the PRT's profile mentioned that the steel he created was far stronger than normal steel.

The best Kaiser could home to do is immobilize them.

In order to get my two squads of robots prepped, I had them watch thousands of hours of footage of a variety of different scenarios- rioting, hostage situations, all-out urban warfare between gangs, hostile cape interactions, and moving onto how a peaceful and friendly scenario was supposed to go down between us and the civilians and law enforcement. Their enhanced VIs picked up learning at an incredibly quick pace thanks to Gero's self-improvement algorithms, and soon I was spending a whole afternoon being their dummy for takedowns and arrests; even with my enhanced physiology, I had had a few bones cracked, which was incredibly painful.

Thankfully I had my ever so lovely Subee on standby to fix the overzealous application of force. Then we could compare all the data between my structure and that of normal humans, looked at the amount of strength they used, the amount of force I received, and then figured out a formula that they could use to get the maximum amount of compliance out of an unruly individual without bringing them permanent physical harm.

I had the 'Goks set up a firing range to test the reflexes and their targeting algorithms and the accuracy of their weapons- both firing modes.

That was when Subee had dragged me away and chided me for avoiding taking the Sufficiently Buoyant Super Soldier Serum.

If I was being honest it had slipped my mind- my focus the past few weeks was all about getting my material stockpiles up and maxing the enchantments I currently had available to me; I had little time or brainpower for anything else.

She and Alpha had finalized a formula that could be pre-stabilized by Vita Radiation; my enhance Promethean physiology did not need constant Vita radiation exposure to ensure that the Sufficiently Buoyant Formula successfully took hold. The Serum in its current configuration would take place over an entire day- a more gradual improvement than the sixty seconds in a contained chamber and being bombarded by radiation; I would rather not experience rapid growth and the excruciating pain that came along with it if at all possible.

It was probably stupid, but I would have to get my ID card updated again- I was just now getting used to being six foot three after having lived my life at five foot nine; the chances were pretty good that I'd jump in height again and that meant another trip back to the hellhole that was the Brockton Bay DMV. You thought normal DMV workers on an earth without superpowers were bad? Well, the DMV employees in the Cape Capitol of the United States made me want to become a villain; no doubt the citizens of Brockton would applaud me if I'd lost my shit and blew it to hell.

Nugget pinged me.

Actually, I would only have to file an "NH-DMV 221-Fix Request" form to submit changes in height or bodyweight- he would flag the initial issuance of the card as he typo, and they would re-issue me another card provided I sent them back the previous one.

That was a surprisingly... helpful way of doing things, and I would have been suspicious about how easy that sounded, but considering the world had protocols for people being dropped into a new dimension I guess that with powers and tinker creations causing all sorts of side effects it paid for them to be flexible. If you asked me they probably just didn't want to see everyone's faces again so they made up a pain-free mail-in option- granted it wasn't exactly pain-free because you had to send in your license first. Bah, damn, no matter what, the DMV still fucked you!

I sighed and tried to ignore the Forge spinning up, but it grabbed onto a star from the "Database Magical"... and I'm not going to lie, I got pretty damn excited as schematics were downloaded the information into my noggin.

[Attempted Re-Forge: 14.0200 - Time Circuitry - 400CP - Marvel Magic - Database Magical]

[Re-Forge Successful]

[Purchased: 0 CP Remaining]

It wasn't a protection against Pre-Cogs or Post-Cogs, but it did prevent me from getting trapped in a Grey Boy bubble or a Bakuda Time Stop grenade; if anything, the designs even included plans for a stand-alone unit that could be inserted into localized time-loop! Just attach the Temporal Circumvention device onto a stick and slide it into a Grey Boy bubble and touch it to one of his victims and that should isolate them and allow them to grab hold of it and walk right out. Another option was the creation of a Temporal Circumvention ring and have it assembled around the bubble itself- once the device was activated it would completely remove the bubble from the current 3rd dimension and kick it up into a higher plane of existence.

Subee poked my nose and chided me for getting lost in my head. "Hey, I just got some amazing tech, alright? Let me enjoy it!"

I took the plans and transcribed them into the primary Forerunner schematic format and sent them off to Enbee and the rest of the Hurgoks- the Forerunners were no strangers to temporal devices, but this technology was fiat-backed protection from all sorts of timey-wimey shenanigans that I could produce. The materials were pretty standard as far as the schematics went, and there was nothing in there that the nanomaterials couldn't handle.

There was no doubt in my mind that the Engineers couldn't find some ways to improve it; the effects were fine, but the device was pretty power-hungry, so if they could streamline it into a smaller, more efficient form factor then that would do us a whole lot of good.

The only issue is that I'm hitting a bottleneck in my production because my supply only comes in every ten seconds and I have to be the one to do it... or... I could stop beating around the bush and start producing T-Dolls and have them run the nanomaterial supply mission for me.

It would be the smart thing to do, but it was a huge leap from making a robot to making what is essentially a fully sentient person that was created to be a weapons platform. Now, I don't have a problem calling a weapons platform a weapons platform, because everything that is created in the world has a purpose. If they don't have one, then they go out and find one; as long as you can choose what you want to do then that is all fine and dandy. The issue I had was that I was about to take the plunge into some shady territory because my girls weren't going to get a choice, at least, not while the threat of Zion still existed.

They would be born wholly and totally loyal.

They will follow my orders without question if those orders are logical and in keeping with the mission parameters.

When the mission parameters are "Ensure the survival of Humanity" I have a lot of leeway to make things happen that will ensure my girls will follow my commands.

Of course, there have been checks and balances- I don't want a bunch of totally compliant T-dolls who just take everything I say at face value and don't bother to critically think or question why I do what I do; that way leads to complacency, an echo chamber where I would be insulated from my incompetence and that way would lie total defeat.

Though, I would be lying if I said that the thought of sending one of those beautiful T-Dolls down onto her knees, her only response being a smarmy grin and a big "Yes, Sir!"... made my dick twitch.

Now that I think about it, in the past three weeks I haven't even jacked off once. Hell, I haven't even thought about sex. Granted, I was stuck in a constant endorphin-rush feedback loop of seeing my skills in Glyph crafting and watching huge piles of valuable nanomaterials pile up, so I was too busy getting rewarded for my menial labor to even contemplate tits and ass.

To be fair though, when you hold a bar of gold in one hand and then touch it to a bar of nanomaterials in the other... and then you're suddenly holding onto two bars of fucking gold, all you can think about is trying to rival Fort Knox in stacking bars.

And I do have a very nice big stack of gold bars.

And silver bars.

And platinum bars.

I have billions of dollars worth of precious metals stacked in the corner.

It feels good man.

Still though, now that I'm thinking about it I am pretty horny. Shit, only seven more days and I could actually survive No-Nut November... two months late. Maybe I still can make it?

My hindbrain flipped through the T-Doll catalog and selected what appeared to be a wolf girl aaannnddd I felt my lust surge. Just a touch.

Thankfully, I was dragged out of my lusty thoughts by the pure fluffy, pooty goodness that was Alpha; she was the bubbly nurse that every patient wishes they could have. It was impossible to have impure thoughts when that pink and white cutie just poots up to you. I grinned and held my arm out.

Alpha took my hand and trilled happily as she guided me over to a table where I stripped naked and laid down on it- the metal was thankfully quite warm. I turned my head to watch as a small metal container was opened up and Alpha extracted a clear crystal vial roughly the size of a small water bottle; the liquid that floated within it was a cool blue, but it had a soft green glow to it- no doubt from the Vita radiation stabilizing it.

The second-born pink Lifegiver held the vial just a few millimeters away from my skin before pouring a small amount onto my flesh; Subee's feathered tendrils were there to quickly massage the Sufficiently Buoyant Serum directly into my cells.

My head, face, neck, chest, torso, waist, sexual organ, thighs, shins, and feet were all wettened and injected before Subee had me roll onto my stomach so that she could get the back of my head, neck, upper and lower back, my ass, the backs of my thighs, calves, and the rest. Every chemical cluster was placed exactly where it was needed in the amount it was needed in. When the vial was empty it was stripped clean and ready for the next batch.

I was about to get up off of the table, but Subee and Alpha halted me; the pair of Lifegivers producing a pillow and a blanket from... somewhere. Sufficiently Buoyant and Alpha wanted me to remain in their care overnight so that they could directly monitor the initial stages of the serum to make sure that I didn't need additional Vita Ray therapy; they were 94.88888% certain I wouldn't, but it was best if I was close by their equipment just in case.

The pair sent Echo 2 off to prepare me a massive meal, and after downing what felt like twenty pounds of meat and twelve pounds of nanomaterial-turned-bonemeal, of which Subee and Alpha directly deconstructed in my stomach and intestines to fuel the growth, I passed out into a dreamless sleep.

[January 28th, 2011, 9:49 PM]

I was mentally aware of the date and time before my eyes opened up and I felt my body come to life around me.

The very first thing that I noticed was everything felt... so much more. The density of my central nervous system was nearly tripled- no longer did most vital nerve chains solely travel down a single route; they were in triplicate to ensure that even if I was damaged I could still move. My spinal column was no longer a single glaring weak point that would end me if it got damaged, though there was no evolutionary bypass for the base of my neck- that was now the single point of failure in my biology. It sort of reminded me of Aegis in that my body had a lot more redundancy than it did before.

I accessed the changelog that Subee set up for my physiological observations and found that the nerve density near the surface of my flesh had also tripled, which made my skin far more sensitive than I ever remember it being; the thin blanket that covered my flesh which once felt like cashmere was just too stimulating. It was itchy, though not because it was itchy, but because it was simply too much stimulation.

Alpha was a sweetheart for pulling it directly off my body instead of slipping it off; that would have been uncomfortable.

My visual acuity had almost tripled from what I remember it being before, and now I was certain that I far surpassed the SPARTAN-II augmentations- I could read the size 30 font on one of the Spark Mk II's armored chassis from over 150 feet away. It felt like I was looking through a 24x magnification optic without having my field of view restricted- the sheer fidelity was immense, and while a lot of things sort of remained indistinct while I was not actively paying attention to it, the moment I did everything sharpened into a clarity that boggled my mind.

Instead of getting up and moving around, I instead chose to lay on the table while my conscious mind adjusted to the massive increase in stimulation- I choose to have the Lifegivers tone down my sense of hearing and sense of smell to almost nothing to let me adjust to the sheer rise in visual and tactile sensations. Over the course of an hour, they were gradually turned back up in small five percent increments, and I in turn spent that time studying the small physiological changes that the formula, in addition to the Promethean biology, did to help protect my supremely enhance senses from overload.

My ear now had small muscles that could contract that stiffened their eardrum and constricted the passageway to dampen overly loud sounds, much like noise dampening shooting headsets. The same was similar with my nose, where the body could quickly expel air that could completely clear my nose of irritants, and when combined with the ability to completely deaden the tastebuds it made overly strong smells very difficult to incapacitate me. My tear ducts produce fluids that could easily wipe away visual irritants and would film over the eyeball to protect it.

Every part of my body was enhanced to far beyond anything that could be expected of technology in this day and age, including tinkertech, and for every enhancement, there was a built-in system that could mitigate or nullify entirely the downsides of said improvement. Those with super sensitive hearing could be deafened, but not me. Those with super sight could be blinded, but not me. Those with super-smelling could be overwhelmed, but not me.

My neuron density improved almost threefold, similarly to the rest of my enhancements, but with the new eyes combined with my new brain, my reflexes were so quick that what I would consider "bullet time" in a video game looked like everything was moving on fast-forward. My ability to see and crunch visual data, combined with my new nervous system, meant that I was very, very quick to react.

The human reaction times vary between 10 milliseconds and 30 milliseconds, with 21 milliseconds being the average. The SPARTAN-IIs augmentations took their reaction times down to roughly 2.5 milliseconds, and my baseline reactions with my Promethean physiology was hovering around 1.3 milliseconds once I was fully realized after Subee's modifications.

As I was right now? My reaction time was clocking in at 0.162 milliseconds. I was roughly eight times better than I had been before in that respect.

The effects of Subee's Serum, while weaker by 11%, managed to reduce the negative mental and physical impacts by about 93% according to her estimations; she knows this because there were some notable mental changes to my brain in the behavioral centers- the Hurgok seeing in happen in real-time but unwilling to do anything to correct it while the process was on-going.

Once the Lifegivers had finalized the completion of the process, we ran through the proposed augmentations that I would undergo with Enbee, Subee, Alpha, and BB participating in the upcoming operations.

Integration of Krayt Dragon hide into my flesh, would help cut down on the severity of the sensations I was feeling- not that I would need it, as the discomfort faded throughout my normalization period. It would take my already tough skin and make it very durable without sacrificing its smoothness or suppleness. Not that I really cared about it much, per se, but... if I was with a woman I didn't want her to run her fingers across my chest and only think of hardened shoe leather; so maintaining tactile and visual appeal was important on that front. Refined Cortosis would be weaved under the flesh and constructed in a fairly dense weave that would allow me to take direct energy from a variety of different damaging sources and redirect them elsewhere.

It would also short out lightsabers upon contact, but unless I manufactured lightsabers and started handing them out to gangers then there was very little chance of that happening- unless Uber and Leet decided to do a Star Wars-themed episode I was safe on that front.

Joining the sub-dermal mesh would be Beskar to keep someone from penetrating something important, and an ultra-refined carbon nanotube layout would be attached to my muscles, joints, and bones to improve my strength and explosive power- not that I wasn't stronger than fifty men already, but having more was always better than having less; we could work out a program to improve my control. In terms of bones, the 'Goks decided to combine the carbide ceramic ossification procedure in addition to a quarter millimeter thin lining of Beskar in the strongest molecular structure they possibly could design; a small impact gel layer resided between the two so redistribute impact forces across the entire bone.

The CCO process made the bones incredibly tough, but if impacted hard enough with an edge they could shatter, so the gel layer could spread the force out while the Beskar deformed. It would more than likely be uncomfortable (read: painful) as hell and would require a team of Lifegivers and Engineers to unfuck the damage, but my bones wouldn't be shattered by anything that wasn't already hitting me hard enough to vaporize me entirely. If anything it reminded me of the crumple zones on modern cars and trucks; by having the metal surrounding my bones crumple, with the gel absorbing and moving around the impact forces I would more than likely come out very hurt but still intact.

There were a couple more additions, like sheathing my ribcage in dragonhide, and hardening my fingernails and toenails (God, I was going to need an angle grinder for those!), but those were ancillary.

With the upgrades finalized I was put back under for the second time in 48 hours, and my most trusted worker bees started their very important task.

[Two days later]

[January 29th, 2011]

Over the next two days I spent most of my time down by the waterside gathering nanomaterials while adjusting to the changes in my new body- not only did I need them to put together more equipment, but I also needed them to put together my new armor.

During my time unconscious the Forge gained another charge but was unable to capture a new star.

[Remaining: 100 CP]

Said armor kept morphing into some version of the SPARTAN-II models that I'd played with during my time in Halo Reach; I used to play through every game on Legendary with my brother whenever a new Halo game came out, but when we both started working overseas- with me in Afghanistan and him in Korea- we fell out of the practice, and it died on the vine after the steaming pile of filth that was Halo 5. Never went back to the franchise except to sample the lovingly crafted fanfictions written by fans who cared in a way that 343 never did. Those were just personal biases though, so feel free to disagree with me there.

With the resources at my disposal going for the ADVENT armor, which was unpowered, was pretty silly. At the time it was perfect for my needs, but as the Forge expands so do my capabilities. Every design iteration ended up with me sculpting a more real-world version of MJOLNIR armor. I loved Halo, but I always thought it funny that Master Chief would run around with no pouches for ammunition or equipment, at least not since CE anyways. They fixed that with Reach's designs, and I thought they looked great.

The armor was a hollow Beskar steel/Phrik/Cortosis laminate that gave me insane protection for its relatively low weight, and I say relatively because the MJOLNIR specifications had it at just over 1,000 pounds, and my armor came in at about 720 pounds, and when combined with my 320-pound ass I was once again pushing past the 1,000-pound limit I wanted for everything, including my body weight. However, I was loathed to part with the jump thrusters- I was going to be a Titanfall Pilot and a motherfucking SPARTAN wannabe God damnit! The crystalline gel layer that allowed the Chief to survive a fall was orbit was still present, as it was part of the bread and butter, but it was made better in every conceivable way; between the Cortosis in the armor panels and in the gel I was incredibly resistant to energy-based weaponry, be it heat, lasers, wave motion, radiation, what have you, and when combined with the enchantments I put on it - I split it between Health and Stamina- and the enchantments I made for my accessories - damage reduction, Fire/Frost/Shock/Poison/Magic resistances, and health and stamina recovery- I was without a doubt the single most dangerous thing in Brockton bay, and probably the world besides the Triumvirate.

With my implant monitoring everything and unique brain structure, I was practically immune to Masters and Strangers, at least I thought as much; M/S powers worked based on the preconceived layout and function of the brains so that they could be manipulated- anyone with a differing structure was pretty much immune to their effects. My brain was so far removed from the human baseline, with numerous genetic redundancies, that I doubted I could be affected.

I would, of course, still plan everything out as if I could be affected, but with my helmet and everything else filtering out most mediums of enthrallment - be they auditory or visual- I felt pretty safe. Which in my mind meant not safe enough. If I ever got an opportunity to capture a villainous Master and have my Lifegivers run tests on biological dummies to further tweak things then I probably would. Maybe.

During that time the Engineers were not idle either- they were testing out all sorts of different munitions that my T-Dolls would use; I didn't know the logic behind how everything functioned, but the girls could only use a weapon that was patterned after their namesake, so that meant their lethality during life-and-death engagements hinged on whatever improvements we could make to the existing design without changing enough to invalidate the weapon systems themselves. I laid out some criteria- the field strip of the system must be identical, the cartridges must be within specifications, and the general profile should not be changed. Other than that the 'Goks were free to modify the weapons to be better; barrels should be pinpoint accurate, weapon bodies as durable as possible, and they should have access to a wide array of weapon attachments that gave them added functionality.

Not that I wasn't going to make the T-Dolls to the same standard as myself- I was so far above standard T-Dolls it wasn't even funny, so the first order of business would be to try and make them even better than myself, while still maintaining their identity as Androids; I was going to go the Terminator route- metal skeleton, biological components that were suped-up to be on my level; the girls would all get every upgrade that I could give them that didn't change their outward physical characteristics. That was another annoying limitation set out by the Forge, but that just meant I would have loli-SMGs running around in MJOLNIR X armor.

Of course, I had a niggling suspicion that they would still feel self-conscious about their height; that seemed to be a common enough trope with those types of characters- to be so put off by their small size even though they were designed to be lightweight and compact like their weapon namesakes.

Needless to say, Subee was about ready to tear her metaphorical hair out trying to balance out the neutering of the Promethean genome while simultaneously modifying the Subee Serum to not change their height and overall body shape too much; some of the flatties would be getting a boost in cup size and ass size, but that was the extent they were getting.

I'm sorry girls, I really am, but I don't make the rules- if I want T-Dolls I have to abide by the arbitrary limitations set out for me.

I let out a sigh as I vigorously shake the Nanomaterial Sieve- I found out that the more the shake the faster the shifting happens, and when combined with my newly upgraded body I could sieve out a pound of nanomaterial every 1.7 seconds instead of every 10 seconds- and this drastically improved my ability gather the precious resource. Of course, I would have to make sure that we include designs for mundane materials like 'Gok-Steel and 'Gok-Tanium, but we only had one Sieve with no way to make more because it was all backed by Fiat fuckery, so we will have to include inferior materials if we ever want to expand our manufacturing base.

Instead of letting the materials sit in a pile in the hanger, we crafted some metal bins that we could trolly around and began filling them up, making more shelving units so that we could maximize the massive amount of space we had in the hangar because the supply area of my warehouse was overflowing. The Engineers had constructed automated ferrying robots that traversed the long and tall shelving units on tracks- it was incredibly low-tech for their liking, but it served us just fine and it looked cool. Each bin contained two thousand pounds of nanomaterials, and we had twelve shelves with two hundred bins per shelf- another shelf was planned because we were pretty full up.

The Auto-Factory had a hopper installed that could hold 10,000 pounds of nanomaterials, and had relevant samples stored within it that would change the miracle stuff into whatever the machine needed. Using Schematics to Time along with data from the previous production runs we were able to tighten up the tolerances by 19% and reduce the build times for the Spark Mk IIs by 8%, which was something that greatly pleased the Engineers. We took the cloaking technology that was improved and installed into the Mk X MJOLNIR armor and managed to compact it down enough to fit in the basketball-sized Sentinel drones, though the Mk IIs lacked the space and power budget; if we designed a backpack for them though we could probably surmount that issue... no, the Mk IIs were strictly a policing unit. I would make a dedicated Assassin/Infiltration unit instead.

Water sloshed and soon all that could be heard was sand-like shifting in the sieve, and I quickly dumped it into the bin before dunking it back into the water to begin the process all over again. 1.7 seconds for 1 pound of nanomaterial. Every time, all the time. I was a machine.

During the collection though I had fun designing drop-ships with the Engineers- they all wanted a very Forerunner design, with its hard angles and abstract shapes, but I wanted the very futuristic veneer without the deficiencies inherent in the UNSC designs. Neutrally Buoyant had those designs stored within his memory, as he had been given to the UNSC at the end of the war as part of a partnership with the Sangheili, but while he was unambivalent BB was wholly unimpressed with them. Just like he viewed the F-15E as a crude mound of dirt rather than an aircraft- sure, he was as excited as I was to get his tendrils on it - because any technology is interesting and at the time we got it - but despite how seemingly chill Barely Buoyant was he was... kind of a technological elitest.

He didn't care for the rivalry between the Lifegivers and the Engineers, but boy howdy you try to extol the virtues of feeling the vibration of the huge turbofan engines through the seat of your ass and he loses his mind.

Throws his tentacles up into the air and toots away in a huff.

I was happy to see my lovely 'Goks finally displaying their own personalities. Echo 1 and 2 were like twins, but E1 liked working on the robots more than the other, and E2 preferred rubbing his face on the F-15. Sure, it wasn't the best aircraft ever in his opinion, but it was the only aircraft we had, and thusly it was the best thing since sliced bread. It was amusing to see E2 and BB get into little tentacle slap fights whenever the Strike Eagle was brought up in conversation.

I didn't stop sieving as the Forge tried to make a grab for a large star in the "Magical Toolkits" installation but failed, however, I did stop when Subee notified me that everything was ready to begin the creation of the first T-Doll.

[Remaining: 200 CP]

I stood up from the little wooden dock that Subee and Alpha had made for me weeks ago and easily hefted the 827 pounds of nanomaterials in the bin and hauled it towards the Storm Drainage Control Station; we'd set up cameras and sensors all over the place since this had become our "Spot", and so far no one or nothing has come within a mile of us except for wildlife. With the sensitivity and power of the sensors, we were capable of creating that much was assured.

I sat down the bin and gave it a solid push before I mentally commanded the two Mk IIs I had at the entrance to push the barrier into place. There were rules to the warehouse- I could not seal the Entrance Hall, but that didn't mean I couldn't obstruct it almost completely. We had a 3,000-pound door composed of Phrik with a Beskar/Cortosis laminate layer that was just a millimeter smaller in every dimension, and it was slid into place and stabilizing arms with the grippiest shit we could make to ensure that this bitch wouldn't move. The airflow was kept positive, so no gasses could intrude, and the two MK IIs made certain that not even insects would squeeze into the gaps; they had these cool little lasers that would flash fry the little buggers- though in case of an attempted invasion by the Queen of Escalation they had all sorts of other countermeasures; like a directed heat lamp that would also flash fry anything trying to get through.

There was a caveat that I would have to find a door that opened outward because an inward pushing door would impact that barrier, so there was that. A minor inconvenience to be sure.

I need a badass futuristic motorcycle! Armsmaster and Miss Militia have one, so I should have one too- though it will be far, far cooler.

Subee chided me for purposefully distracting myself, the pinkette poking my nose and sniffing as I handed off the almost full rolly-bin to the Dolly-bot that let out a soft 'whirr' as it slid up to the fifth level of the shelving unit and deposited the bin.

She was right, I was distracting myself. My heart rate sped up imperceptibly and my palms grew a touch sweaty, but this needed to happen; I wanted allies, and I needed friends here that I could count on besides an old woman who was likely torn between wanting to help keep my identity secret and reporting my existence to her Granddaughter in the PRT like she knew she should; the Unwritten Rules were a polite fiction, a fallacy- if the Government didn't already know your identity then they were actively searching for it, if only to sit on it for the perfect moment to either take you out or pressgang you into the Protectorate System.

The people might want to genuinely be your friends, but their bosses didn't care, especially with Rebbeca Costa-Brown at the helm; the entire apparatus from laws to public opinion were all steered into the direction that if you weren't a Protectorate Hero then you were at best a loose-cannon Rogue that flaunted the rules and must be brought to heel for the good of the People. You had some PRT Directors that were willing to play ball if you weren't causing them headaches, but they were few and far in between.

I shudder to think of the amount of damage that would be caused if someone like Tagg came to the Bay as he did in canon; if it weren't for the fact that I knew he was a Simurgh-bomb I would have been a lot less sympathetic. Maybe I could help him out- ow!

"Pbblllt! Pllbt, pllbttttt, pplllbbbtttt!" I glared at Subee as she goosed me with her tendril, but I sighed and let her drag me over towards the station where we were about to begin T-Doll construction. The pink Hurgok just tooted and pooted along, and me, being the person I am, found it hard to be anxious when my best gurl's method of locomotion was just too cute!

I had a smile on my face by the time we reached the operating table.

At the head of the operating table was a large glass tank that had a slurry of biological materials that were broken down from the animals that they had been collecting over the past few weeks. To the left were five carts that were lined up neatly in a row to the left. The first one had steel green Ammunition canisters, the second had cardboard boxes with MRE Rations, the third had small plastic hard cases with robotic Parts, and the fourth had open tubs containing tokens that were shaped like the silhouettes of people representing Manpower.

The final cart had numerous Legendary Aspect and Splendid Potency runes, as well as the Oko and Mene Essence runes for Health and Stamina. I enchanted a lot of gear and disenchanted a lot of gear to build up the stockpile of runes needed to get everything ready.

I opened up the T-Doll crafting catalog in my implant and searched out the specific T-Doll I wished to produce. She was an enigma- both Friend and Foe- too many T-Dolls, but she was also the older sister that a lot of the girls looked up to; this was especially true of the AR-15-based T-Dolls. She was competent, skilled, and able to lay low whole Echelons of PMC aligned T-Dolls by herself- at least when she was functioning as a Boss.

My knowledge of her directly was limited to some Youtube delves I made while I was looking for a nice little time-waster during my work hours; other than making schedules and checking in on the handful of guards underneath me, there wasn't much to guard out on the oil fields of ANWR, so the majority of my time was spent reading or watching anime. Girls Frontline and Fate/Grand Order seemed like excellent choices, but the overly complex crafting and advancement systems really turned me off in addition to the horrific gacha rates.

Still, M16A1 was a rock, and she would be the den-mother and sub-commander for all of the Echelons that I would create in the future.

The crafting table gave me craft rates for specific classes, but since the Forge wasn't a total prick I could pick and choose which T-Dolls I wanted by tripling the recipe cost. According to the Forge Notes attached to the power, I needed to keep my resources above 921 total but below 2100 in order to not get a Heavy Machine Gun T-Doll, however, for M16A1 specifically I needed 273 Manpower, 1200 Ammunition, 1200 Rations, and 90 Parts.

My hands worked unconsciously- there was no way to tell how much exactly was on each cart just by looking at it, but with the Perk guiding me it was easy to tell what exactly was needed; four full ammunition cans were upended onto the operating table, three full boxes of MREs were unpacked and stacked up, eight plastic hard cases with Parts were sat onto the surface and opened up, and 53 Manpower tokens were stacked neatly onto it.

The moment everything was orderly a soft light emanated from the ingredients, and their forms grew indistinct as the light grew brighter and brighter- before my upgrades and the Subee Serum I would have had to of averted my eyes, but my irises just contracted and the lens darkened. The supplies flowed like a liquid, roiling and rolling together until they started to thicken up and take a humanoid shape, and after a full minute the light show died down and the naked, unconscious form of M16A1. Her clothing folded up beside her head on her left while her rifle was parallel to her body on her right sight.

Hot damn she was a beauty.

Though, she was an Android, and there was a slight uncanny valley to her synthetic flesh and perfectly crafted features that stood out to my enhanced sight.

I stepped back away from the table, taking her weapon and clothes with me while the Hurgoks moved in and began stripping her down to her metallic endoskeleton- the T-Dolls weren't biological in the least bit; they had systems in place to emulate life, with false lungs, a fake stomach, and digestive tract, and the sensors were highly advanced for the 2060s era- able to emulate taste and scent close enough to give the T-Dolls a quality of life. There was even a program that emulated intoxication if the android consumed enough alcohol.

It was incredible technology, but in the end, it was just that- technology merely playing at being alive; at least, the physical bodies were- the Advanced AIs of the T-Dolls were, in my opinion, purely human. They got angry, they got frustrated, they got scared and nervous. They laughed, they cried, and they felt love and affection. When they triumphed they cheered for their success, and when one of their numbers fell they felt despair until they were repaired and returned to service.

Bit by bit the endoskeleton was stripped away until the Forge warned me that I could go no further. I held out a hand, and the Engineers stopped- her thick titanium skeletal frame had been reduced to a structure no thicker than a pasta noodle. They made a note for the volume of the frame they reduced for future reference so that the process could be made more quickly without me needing to micromanage the creation of every T-Doll, and then they began to rebuild her skeleton with a laminate of Replica Phrik, Ultrachrome, Beskar Steel, and Cortosis weaves.

While the other three Engineers worked, Enbee and Subee popped off the top of her skull and began working over her primary processing core module; it was shaved down to the necessary components and then a copy of my implant was integrated into it. Once that was complete a hose was gripped by Alpha and bio-slurry was oozed into the cavity while Subee's tendrils worked furiously to build the brain up to my Promethean standard, with Alpha contributing two of her tendrils. Neuron by neuron, cell by cell, the gelatin solidified into a complete brain, and Enbee carefully connected everything together under the direction of the two Lifegivers.

It took them seven minutes to finish- a supremely long time, but even with the tens of billions of tendrils between them, there were quadrillions of neurons that had to be assembled at the molecular level. When the brain was finished a cushioning gel layer was added that would protect it from impacts; once the Subee Serum was lathered in the gel would be subsumed by the enhancements and added into the greater whole of her new body.

During the time they worked, I inserted myself into the workflow, pulling out my Corusca gem etching tool, and began quickly and efficiently lining the runes into her skeleton- this was possible because as a T-Doll, at her core, she was considered metaphysically an object. Because of that I could enchant her directly- with her metallic frame it qualified for the Armor Glyphs, so I etched into her Health and Stamina. Her forehead, shoulders, chest, hip bones, hands, shin bones, and feet each had a Splendid Glyph that conferred the maximum blessing the ESO enchantments could give. It took me less than two minutes to do them all, and I was taking my sweet time to make sure they were exactly perfect- the Runes floated and merged into the corresponding etchings at a rapid pace, and throughout the whole process her dark metal skeleton glowed in reds, blues, yellows, and purples.

When my part was finished I stepped back and out of the way.

The Engineers got right to work on reinforcing her braincase once the pinkettes had cleared the space, and then they began to work their way down- the eyes, nasal cavity, mouth, tongue, and teeth. The esophagus was the last thing they worked on until the six 'Goks flipped her body over so that they could build up the spine, back muscles, and everything else. Once the base was completed they flipped her back over and poured slurry into her chest cavity to build her heart and lungs, her stomach and new intestines- which were drastically shortened and more compact due to the new physiological improvements- were put in which meant that there was more room for... her womb, ovaries, and a vaginal canal that would be able to accommodate my vastly improved penis.

I was swinging a cudgel in my pants, but since I was almost seven feet tall now having a thirteen-inch penis was quite proportional. M16A1 would be like five foot nine, but even with her height, she wouldn't be able to accommodate me with her... original equipment. Not that she had a working vaginal canal as a bog-standard T-Doll; the "affection packages" cost extra.

On and on they went, adding layer upon layer of organic material over her frame until everything else had been done except for her breasts, which were built up right before my eyes. Nice and perky things they were, with beautiful, dusky brown nipples.

I was distracted for a moment by the Forge roaring to life, reaching out for a star in the "Crafting Artisan" constellation, but it fell short of pulling in the star it reached for by three charges.

[Remaining: 300 CP]

Once M16A1 was completed the Lifegivers shooed the Engineers off, but Alpha, being the sweetheart that she is, gave the purple-pootie bois a thankful head bob and tentacle wave.

The Vita Radiation chamber was cracked open by Subee as she chided her junior on being too thankful- lest the Engineers get it into their heads that they should be thanked for every job they did- and the vial of Subee Serum, a modified T-Doll variation, was pulled out and the pair began the exact same process of lathering it into her body as she had me.

I gave Subee and Alpha a quick kiss on their pink and white snoots before I left to go back out to the water- having a 200% premium on the T-Doll cost was going to eat into my stocks quickly; even with 10,000 that wouldn't be enough to create a full six doll Echelon if an AR-Unit cost me almost 2800 Resources.

Granted, I could just choose to let the gacha give me dolls, but no, I would pay the extra and pick them for myself. It wasn't like there were "Stars" attached that determine how "Meta" they were. The special skills and tile buffs of the different T-Dolls were just mechanics to balance the game- none of that existed here.

The next few hours were going to be wholly dedicated to nanomaterial conversions.

While I scooped water and poured nanomaterial into a fresh bin the Engineers and I designed a dropship that combined a UNSC Pelican with the ADVENT design's Sky Ranger. It was going to be a durable little beastie, but we ended up going with aircraft-grade aluminum that had Beskar powder reinforcing it; with that structure, we could make the entire hull hollow while keeping its weight low and airframe rigidity high. The armor was a laminate that had two millimeters of Beskar-Ultrachrome alloy on the outside and a millimeter of Replica Phrik backing; Cortosis wouldn't be useful here as there wasn't anyplace for redirected energy to go, so instead, it would just be captured and bled off as heat with hundreds of fluting lines aiding in the heat dissipation.

The ship had six maneuvering thrusters and was VTOL- it could achieve a maximum speed of 900 miles per hour at 1,000 feet, and could crank it up to 1,200 if it was at 30,000 feet. Certainly not the fastest thing in the sky- the F-15E could reach 1,650 miles per hour at 50,000 feet, but that was before the upgrades the Hurgoks made; it could probably do far more now.

The newly named "Helljumper", and yes, I named it just now, was powered by a pair of Schifon-L3b Hydrogen-Electrical motors that was fed by a 300-gallon water tank; it gave it an effective range of 500 nautical miles or four hours of loiter time. The range was doubled with two pintle-mounted 150-gallon auxiliary tanks and could be doubled again with two 150-gallon conformal water tanks that were slotted onto the airframe with one on top and another on the bottom.

The troop bay could hold fourteen troops in MJOLNIR X armor, and had the capacity to hold twenty-one stretchers with four rows on one side and three rows on the other; the missing space for the left-side row would contain medical supplies and would have two yet-to-be-designed Combat Lifesaver robots.

I'm certain that Subee will be absolutely thrilled to work with Enbee on designing it.

The biggest task would be designing it in such a way that it could be constructed in sections small enough to fit through the doorway...

[1 day Later]

[January 30th, 2011]

Time was starting to become a factor, so the moment M16A1 was completed I tasked the Hurgoks with increasing their numbers fourfold; we would need to start cranking these T-Dolls out, and with a roughly a 26-hour timer on each one we had to increase our size at a faster clip.

This was a unique problem because I had now run out of cooking supplies for the 'Goks, and I needed to find some cash in order to go shopping for them. The easiest place to get cash though? From the gangs.

I created a Surveillance program utilizing Gero's knowledge along with Subee's help, and created the first production run of my Intel Section robots; I set up many computers and signal relays using Forerunner communications bands that would be undetectable (hopefully). I had twelve robots sitting around banks of monitors that had eyes on every single drone deployed over the city, and they were doing some amazing work; in just a few hours they stopped following around every single Asian person they found and quickly began to catalog and identify gang colors, markings, and other characteristics.

It only took my boys a few hours to stop being racists! I'm so proud of them.

Of course, the same was said for them profiling every white person as E88 and every hobo as a Merchant, but after I gave some parameters and worked with them on reviewing footage every damn one of my bots was an expert at tracking down possible gang activity.

India 1, his sole purpose was to PRT and Protectorate agents and assets while India 2 focused on the Brockton Bay Police. India 3 and 4 were Merchant watchers. India 5 and 6 were ABB. India 7, 8, and 9 were E88, and India 10 and 11 were for Independents and Rogues. India 12's only job was the monitor my home and "Work Site 1".

The whole set-up was modular and I could easily tack on more workstations and Intel Bots as needed; all in all, they each had 20 drones to monitor, and with the hardware they had it was easy as pie. I will expand their numbers the moment I get the 'Goks to build another charging dock in the woods; the drones had a six-hour loiter time and a four-hour charge cycle, so not every drone could be deployed at one time.

I dragged my eyes away from the Intel section and looked back down to the Super Soldier-ified bio-android T-Doll M16A1.

She was just as soft and as beautiful as she had been before, though now that the woman was flesh and blood the uncanny valley effect was gone, and the Subee Serum TD formula had taken all of her most beautiful traits and cranked them up to 11.

I swallowed thickly. "M16A1, Activate- Command authorization: Echo-12-Gamma-Bravo-Tango-3-3-1-Delta."

There was a wet smack as lips parted and eyelashes softly fluttered. They were a greyish blue with a small tint of green, and slowly they tracked over to me. Her breathing picked up a bit as her mouth opened, but when she tried to sit up and gently pressed down on her shoulders- she shivered at the touch; I know, sweetheart, the sensations are intense, aren't they? "Stay down, 16. It will take some time for you to adjust, so for right now just... relax. When you're acclimated you can stand up and salute me all you want."

She swallowed thickly, her voice cracked, "Commander? Sir?"

I moved around the table and grabbed a cool bottle of water that had a squeeze tube on it, and I lowered the nub between her lips before giving it a firm squish; 100 milliliters, swallow, then another 100 milliliters until the bottle was depleted. I gave it a little shake, "More?"

"No, Sir, I'm fine. Thank you," She worried her bottom lip, "To have my Commander look after me, how shameful."

Her voice was mirthful, and I gave her a grin as I rested against the table. "Should I have worn a male nurse's outfit?"

She snorted. "If you did I wouldn't complain."

We settled into a companionable silence for a few minutes.

"Sir, I've read through the Changelog in my implant, and I have to ask... why would you upgrade us in such a fashion?" Her head turned to the side as she regarded me with a stoic look, "Wouldn't we be more cost-effective if you just kept us as is?"

I shook my head, "Actually, you girls have the worst conversion rate; if I kept you as T-Dolls not only would you be far weaker and less effective than you are now, but I'd have to constantly pour Supplies into keeping you up. With the changes made I only have to utilize a pittance to keep you active, and that is ideal because the Supplies have the worst exchange rate for the nanomaterials."

I unlocked a packet that Enbee put together and sent it to her. "2800 supplies just for me? That is... incredibly costly, and with the 40% loss in the conversion from nanomaterials to Supplies that just makes it even less efficient."

A small smile tugged at my lips, "Besides, you will be much more effective this way; you're nearly twenty times stronger than you were as a T-Doll, 16, and far, far, far more durable. Your upkeep costs should be brought down to a handful of Supplies and some hot chow."

We both chuckled a touch but I decided that it was time to debrief her.

With a thought I began unlocking more data packets, one at a time, to let her parse through everything and fully digest what exactly it was we were going to accomplish here on this world.

"A parallel earth, one with Superheroes and Super-Villains," M16 murmured under her breath, "M4A1 liked the old comic books of the 20th and 21st Century- she would spend a great deal of her paycheck to collect any Pre-World War III Super Hero memorabilia that she could get her hands on."

"Don't tell her I told you that though," Her sly grin was a touch forced.

Silence reigned as I continued to unlock file after file; everything I remembered about Worm- from the Capes to the gangs, to the world, Cauldron, the Entities, and the Shards.

"So. Aliens, huh?"

"Yup. Mother fuck'n Aliens."

"Well, at least there are some good aliens here, the Hurgoks are the cutest. Though I don't know what they're saying at all." She giggled, her hand slowly coming up to her mouth.

I arched an eyebrow and delved into her implant library, and saw that her permissions for some reason hadn't been unlocked for the Communication Package. A small mental flex and the permission was given.

"You called it 'Cutie Patootie and You: The Guide to Understanding the Sign Language, History, and Dynamics of the Universe's Best Bois and Gurls'? Pfft. Shhshhhhshhhsh. Haa haa hahaaaa!" Her snickering turned into full-blown laughter and she curled onto her side, her hands holding her gut, "You even modeled it after one of those 1940s and 1950s era Department of Defense videos! Hahahahahaha! Genius! That will make the WWII-era girls feel right at home."

I couldn't help but chuckle along with her, though my laughter was a touch more subdued. I didn't know if the 'Goks left this data packet last to inject some much-needed humor and levity after having some bombs dropped on them, but it was a stroke of Genius whoever did it. "Yeah, this is a Grim world, M16A1, and it's up to us to make things better... for everyone. Hundreds of Trillions of lives are on the line if we don't succeed."

The black-haired woman fiddled with her red bang for a few seconds before she slowly started to lever herself up- I got to watch the sexy eight-pack appear on her torso that had been hidden by the succulent thin pad of belly fat. Ever so slowly she moved off the table and onto her feet; I nearly bit my bottom lip off when I saw her beautiful ass bunch up as she slipped onto her toes. She definitely caught me staring- her augments were 92% of my own, but she seemed to preen at the attention.

Completely unashamed of her nakedness the T-Doll Mod. 1.0 snapped rigidly to attention before a perfectly levered America-style salute was given. "M16A1, reporting for duty, Sir."

I moved off from the counter I was leaning on and stood in front of her. When I was ready I stiffened my back and gave her the crispest salute I could muster- the Green Beast and Pride reawakening within my breast; it had laid dormant for a long time since I got out, but seeing such a display stirred it. "I acknowledge, M16A1. I am Jason Wilke, and I will be your Commander."

I dropped the salute and she followed suit. "Stand at ease, 16."

Her feet spread shoulder-width apart as her hands clasped behind her lower back. I pulled up a speech that I had prepared and read through it. "You've woken up in a world where everything will be stacked against you. The Entities, their World Conflict Engines, the Shards, Cauldron, the human Governments squabbling amongst themselves all will be working against us. The people, individually, might not care, or they might cheer us on. Or they could see our might and become afraid. They might lash out or ask that the Government do so in their stead."

"Our primary objective is to see the human race survive, and we will use every tool at our disposal to see that goal achieved. That will be done through the elimination of the two Entities - Zion and Eden- and the subsequent destruction or assimilation and neutering of the Shards that constitute them. The Celestial Forge that I have at my command certainly has the power to make that happen, but it does not at this moment have what we need." I let my blue eyes gaze into her light grey, "We will have our work cut out for us, and I cannot do this on my own; I have robots, and I can teach them a lot of things, but they are inherently limited. That is why you are here, M16A1, to give me some much-needed support; you as a T-Doll are as close to human as can be, and if you ask me I personally think that the only difference between T-Dolls and humans was flesh... and only that."

I felt my face soften as M16A1 looked at me searchingly, "Just as you girls will be the backbone that holds up my operation, you, 16, will be their backbone; every new T-Doll we construct will look towards you for guidance. I know that it will be a heavy burden to bear, but I ask that you bear it with me."

Her shoulders were already square, but her posture seemed more ready... even though I could see she hadn't moved an inch. "I am M16A1, and I will reaffirm the oaths I took the day I entered into service: I am your T-Doll, your rifle, your companion. There may be many like me, but I am unique, and I am yours all the same. If you treat me properly- keep me clean and well oiled you'll find that there is no better rifle on the field than I. For the protection of humanity, I stride the battlefields, making my home on the frontlines; I fight so that the humans we have left don't have to. That is my purpose, and I am happy to fulfill my duty, even if that means I must risk... permanent deactivation."

Her beautiful, full lips firmed into a thin line. "I am yours, Commander, do with me what you will, I will serve you in any capacity where I am needed."

I swallowed but tried not to interject with the obvious question- anything?

She likely knew, considering the black market "Service Mods", that T-Dolls had access to in order to please their special Commanders, but considering she had fully functional plumbing and a very pleasing shape she likely held no doubts that I might call upon her company in the future.

The near future.

However, this was a solemn moment- important to the both of us; I wasn't going to ruin this for her by asking a foolish question.

"I accept your oath and hear your words, M16A1," I murmured, "Now, let's say we get you some clothing and begin your orientation. We have a short window of time to make head-way and the clock is ticking."

She snapped to attention before saluting, and I saluted in turn. "Dismissed."

[Attempted Re-Forge: 32.0050 - Aesthetics - 100CP - Terraria - Journey's End - Quality Appearance]

[Re-Forge Successful]

[Purchased: 300 CP Remaining]

The Forge spun up and the fires roared and I felt it reach out for multiple nearby stars. It successfully grabbed a star from the "Quality Appearance" constellation but was a charge short of grabbing a good-sized star from the "Magical Knowledge" constellation; a damn shame too because I was quickly reaching the edge of my technological limits with what I had on hand, and Magic was a branch that would add a lot of strength and versatility to my toolkit. With just the Glyphs alone I had all but rendered my forces immune to elemental damage among a great many other things, but while the runes and Glyphs were powerful in their own right, their uses were incredibly narrow with very little freedom to explore.

I was stuck using Enchantments that didn't require Soul Gems, and until I got some we wouldn't be adding elemental damage to anyone's weapons, not to mention I felt icky about using Souls to power magic to begin with; I know intellectually that Elder Scrolls uses of Soul Gems don't necessarily destroy the soul, it just saps the power from it until it is no longer able to power the device and is then released back into the ether... but that knowledge comes from a Mystical Researcher who was quite happy to expound upon at length the various uses for someone's very soul. Sure, he only advocated for using the souls of beasts or heinous criminals, but still.

After reviewing the Perk I went through and looked at practically everything I built and shuddered at how derivative and uninspired everything was. I actively engaged the Strategy Trance and delved into my implant and looked at every design, going through and making some small changes- little updates and bits of flare here and there- that better conveyed what exactly I wanted everything to be. Heroic, Commanding, Powerful, yet still Approachable. It was a difficult line to straddle but with Aesthetics I was able to tweak the designs to evoke those particular emotions without ruining structural integrity or in the cases of the aircraft, aerodynamics.

It was subdued, understated, and not in your face, so I wouldn't have the internet shitting on me online for "trying too hard", but it would be immediately recognizable. I also tweaked the color schemes and patterns on the Spark Mk IIs, the Helljumper drop-ship, and everything else to match the themes. Once everything was completed I packaged up the changes and shot them off to Enbee who would distribute the work to Echo 3 through 12. Should be done in a few minutes if I know those adorable workaholics.

Though I guess I'm not one to talk with how much ass bust'n I've been doing the past three weeks and change.

"Sir? I'm ready to go," I turned my head and saw M16A1 with black knee-high socks, ankle-high brown boots, a light yellow button-up shirt, and a reddish-brown cloth jacket.

And a tie.

And an eye patch.

I understand that it was part of her character design, but-

"The eye patch is completely see-through; it won't hamper my abilities- the 'Goks saw to that." She scratched her cheek as a small smile tugged at her lips, "I just, uh, like the look of it, y'know? Made me seem more mysterious, and gave me a more serious air."

I chuckled and shook my head as I grabbed an empty bin and the Nanomaterial Sieve, "Well I told them to get you something comfortable to wear, and you go to that? It looks nice and all, but we're going to be panning for materials, 16. You might ruin the outfit."

"Heh, good old' Logistics runs," She laughed as she followed me out of the Hangar, through the supply room, past the Mk IIs at the Entrance Hall, and out past the barrier, "Damn, I don't think a GBU 500 could blow that barrier you go, Sir."

"Jason, when in public. When we're masked you can call me Horizon or Sir," I spoke, as we walked down the well-trod path that the Hurgoks had paved over with beautiful stone that made pushing or pulling the thousand-pound bins much easier up the hill back towards Station 1. "When we're in private... you can call me Master."

"Kinky," She chuckled, though there was a slight blush on her cheeks, "Master."

She tasted the word on her lips and a shudder rolled up her spine.

There were several unsavory things that I put into the subconscious code of the T-Dolls. Taking some inspiration from Dragon's father it was invisible to them, and they weren't aware of its existence. No one else would be able to find it either, I made sure of it. Loyalty needed to be enforced one hundred percent, and while I gave them plenty of freedom to think and make their own decisions, there were a lot of things that I had to do to ensure that they would be with me until the end. Even if some Master or Hacking Tinker managed to infiltrate and penetrate, they wouldn't be able to turn my T-Dolls against me unless they flashed everything in their storage and memory... and even then the meatware brain would still remember even if the hardware failed.

Within those lines of code were some personal dalliances, and that included things like wanting to follow "Master's Orders", and getting hot and bothered when we were close and there was no danger or mission to attend to. They could easily suppress it if they wanted to, but if we were foot-loose and fancy-free the desire was there, and if I responded then they would become amazing lovers.

There were some subconscious commands to explore the internet to find little quirks and fetishes, and when they found one they would inevitably share their thoughts with their fellow T-Dolls. Upon sharing their thoughts with one another they would naturally try to select different things so at the end of the day I had variety as a Commander. If one girl was all about anal sex, then another would find her niche with an oral sex fixation, another would find maximum enjoyment from squishing my large cock between her breasts, and another would want to be creampied every time with a pregnancy fetish. Footjobs, throat-bulging facefucking, hardcore, lovey-dovey handholding missionary, and many, many others.

And so on and so forth it would go. Of course, there would be overlap, but each and every girl would find their niche and would be thoroughly pleased.

"Well then, I guess we're alone, aren't we, Master?"

I felt my cock twitch. "Indeed we are, but before we get distracted, let's continue with your orientation."

Our heavy footsteps thumped across the wood of the little dock and I toed off my laceless boots and socks and motioned for 16 to do the same. I don't know if she had been doing it on purpose, but my eyes were locked onto her as she undid her boots and slowly slipped off her socks one at a time. I felt my hands open and close a few times before I knelt down onto the ergonomically formed end and bent over to dip the Sieve into the cool Atlantic waters. "This is our only source of nanomaterials; the Forge hasn't given us much to work with materials-wise, so this is our only logistics run. One full sieve grants us one pound of nanomaterials, nanomaterials that can mimic any mundane material. It cannot be understated how important it is that we stockpile as much of it as we can in preparation for possible famine."

M16A1 opened the packet on the nanomaterials and all of its properties, "So this is a... Fiat-backed material? Just like us T-Dolls, right?"

"Yup, it just works. I don't question it now, but I'll question it later once I become a much smarter Commander than I am now." I sifted rapidly, dumping the nanomaterials into the bin, every 1.7 seconds.

"Uh, sir, wouldn't it be faster if you just built a pipe and had it pumped? That way you can just sift while standing..."

I blanked for a moment before I entered into the Strategy Trance and rapidly messaged Enbee; he was on his way with everything we needed raw materials wise to build a curved pipe and a Never-Fail (TM) water pump.

My lips pressed into a firm line as I dropped into a trance. "Well, you see? That right there? I might be smart but I can't think of everything."

She laughed and so did I.

I kept sifting and soon had more than enough for Enbee to work with when he pooted himself out of the former Service Station, and within 20 seconds we have water flowing through a carbon-fiber pipe. It shaved .3 seconds off of my time just with improved economy of motion, but it was a bit louder. A series of baffles were made and attached to the dock that cut the noise by 90%. Nice.

We chatted back and forth while I went in-depth into the situation of the city; I left out Cauldron because she knew that outside of the workshop that the 'Big C' was off-limits until I was 100% certain that I could triumph over them should they decide that I and my team were bad news for their plans. I, of course, would much rather work with the shadowy organization that called the shots, and even if they were dumb with a lot of their decision-making, I wasn't about to poke them in the eye over the Case 53s and things.

I would poke them over Manton and the Slaughterhouse 9, however, as that was something they could have put a stop to a long time ago; they killed ten thousand people a year or more, and how many people actually Triggered during those circumstances and survive? The Nine were incredibly apt at killing the newly Triggered people, and how many established local or Protectorate capes perished trying to confront them when they had zero chance for success with Jack Slash's Shard feeding him ALL of the DATA?

The world had enough misery in it to cause people to Trigger every single day- there is no reason for the Nine to still exist.

In fact, the Nine were going to be our big debut on the National stage.

I pinged Enbee to have him construct a half-dozen new India units along with some long-range stealth drones- if they were within 1,000 miles of Brockton I wanted to know it and keep tabs on them. I set them also on creating a nice and hot warhead- I wanted 6,000 degrees to ensure that whatever little biological beasties Bonesaw had within her body were completely incinerated. A Nitrimine/Thermite compound should do the trick.

The drones ended up being roughly the size of a Predator UAV, but unlike the local drones it had a Hydrogen powerplant, so it could simply hover over any body of water and refuel itself. They were completely stealthed out- photoreactive camouflage panels for a backup in case the Active Camo failed, an radar cross-section smaller than a hummingbird, and a nice body shape for extended range operations. The sensor suite was quite large and heavy, taking up the majority of the internal space that wasn't used for anything else vital, but with it, we could count the number of ticks on a dog's ass from 10 kilometers up in the sky.

I had to make plans for airborne communications relays so that we could control them effectively without utilizing anyone's bandwidth, but Enbee and the other Engineers helped me wargame that while M16A1 tried her hand at sifting for nanomaterials. She was a touch slower than me, taking 3.1 seconds to sift each batch of water, but that was fine; it freed me up for other things.

"So, have you thought about your armor, 16?" I asked as I opened up the MJOLNIR X package and sent it to her, along with all of the numerous compliant variations; it had to be protective, but also accentuate the girl's feminine characteristics. It also had to be practical, with all of the pouches and things the best tactical vests we made could provide. The magazine pouches were most critical, having a thin Beskar plate to protect the aluminum magazines; those would still be disposable in a pinch, but they were all made by the Auto-Factory and inspected by the 'Goks- the best damn magazines ever made on this earth. Zero jams, guaranteed. "Also, you need to think about your Exo Skeletons and your weapons."

I said weapons because not only would they have two primary weapons to carry around for their Namesakes- one for non-lethal and one for definitely lethal- they would also have a non-lethal and lethal sidearm. They were bound by their old world's mechanics to some extent, but being here, under me, freed them of the majority of their limitations, and the major one was being limited to only their patterned weapon. She would still have her M16A1, but I'll be damned if she just had the shitty triangular handguard and now attachments; a suppressor would be mandatory in a city environment, and more importantly it made it easy to distinguish suppressed from unsuppressed gunfire. The Gangs of the city, except for Coil's Mercs, all were loud, so if the gunfire was quiet then people would automatically being to identify us by sound alone.

The Forge grasped onto a star from the "Self-Protection" constellation, and while I was happy to get one from there at all, I really wanted that Blank II to come in that was just hovering below the Perk that was picked.

[Attempted Re-Forge: 2.0280 - THEY ARE MINE AND MINE ALONE - 400CP - Medaka Box Abnormal - Protection]

[Re-Forge Successful]

[Purchased: 0 CP Remaining]

While it wasn't Blank, it was a relief to know that nothing could suppress me or my girls anymore; no Trump powers from Eidolon that weakened people, no power/skill stealing from Victor, and whatever crazy things existed in this world.

Unsurprisingly, M16A1 chose to take an MJOLNIR patterned more after the ODST armors; she was military, through and through- even if there was a 'PARA' in front of it. She decided that all future T-Dolls would have their armor in the exact same pattern, for uniformity and recognizability; I took a moment to treat it with the Aesthetics perk, and once it was done I shipped it off to Enbee to work on. The coloration of the armor itself was Blue and white, her visor was gold, but it had a dark-red patch on it that matched her eye patch. She also chose the ODST helmet, of which I approved; it was a sweet helmet.

As an afterthought, I worked in a holographic emitter that would allow the girls to express themselves through emojis, and could even render a fake holographic face if showing a human face underneath the visor would be best- particularly in search and rescue situations.

They could add flare to their armors, but the pauldrons would be left free to display their Cape names. Those that chose Exo-Skeletons so they could wield those big-fuck-off riot shields we created for the Mk IIs could do a little decoration. Some individuality would do them some good.

It took some time to shake her out of the mindset of using a stock M16A1, but once we had Echo 7 bring out an "M16A1 Mod. 0" with a whole bunch of bells and whistles that still kept the rifle's image, she was sold. Suppressor, PEQ, electronic weapons sight that gave up to 40x magnification that she could control through her implant, a targeting reticle that was on her hud that tracked her barrel movement, range finding, auto-adjustment for range, and so much more. It probably would have taken days to train a new soldier on just how to work the damn thing, but the moment she touched it, without even activating the implant link, she knew how to work it. I barely had to explain anything.

More Fiat-bullshit I suppose, but that did make life a lot easier. I was happy to see that she was just as excited for the non-lethal Mod. 0 as she was the lethal one, but I suppose that as long as she was shooting to fulfill her mission, then she was happy to wield herself and her rifle.

The daylight quickly faded and turned to night, and I went back inside while M16A1 stayed out to sift. I told her she could come in and rest, but instead she wanted to think.

I let her have that.

Instead, I ran home real quick and took a shower, cooked a meal, and took a two-hour nap.

I had familiarization training to do with my Mk X armor, and once that was complete I'd be training M16A1, and then? Then we'd go hunting.

Special thanks to Lmc9389, Xodarap4, Artillery, DrkShdow, AuraofCalm, Zerak, Mioismoe, Zath, Splendid, D. Wongsonegoro, Darkarma, Acrimonius, T. Balewood, Randall Randall, Dominyx Black, CyberCrisis, Blue, Russ Stilter, Legion_13, Mike Fatal_Bullet, and P. Nguyen for being Patrons!

You guys rock!

A/N: Okay, so this will be moving over to a new thread after I take a nap. So, be on the look out for it and be sure to follow when it goes up!

The positive and negative accentuations of the person's traits are mostly minimized by Subee's modification of the Serum, but it does make itself known, especially in a way that MC isn't paying attention to. He's always sort of been an Ends Justify the Means kind of guy, but never to any extreme capacity... but even having those traits cranked up just little bit extra caused a noticable shift in his behavior, and he's sort of aware of it- but he doesn't think he is going too far considering the dire circumstances.

I hope you enjoy reading it!

Time Circuitry (Marvel Magic) (400CP)

There are those with the power to turn even the currents of time itself against you. But you have methods of defending yourself. These schematics show you what is required to integrate time circuitry into other technology, perhaps as cybernetics or for your armor. While worn or otherwise integrated with your body, you will be protected from temporal manipulations, be it attempts to freeze you in time, cast you adrift in its flows, or even to kill your past self. You need never again fear such attacks so long as you wear this armor. If you bought the Magitech Armor above then you may choose to already have this integrated.

Aesthetics (Terraria - Journey's End) (100CP)

It's not enough to just be able to make things, if you can't make them look good. You now have a true talent for design work and layout, capable of mentally visualizing complex structures and working out how best to match your mental vision, without sacrificing things like structural integrity. This also applies when making things on a smaller scale, allowing you to alter the design of objects to add aesthetic flare without compromising their function.

THEY ARE MINE AND MINE ALONE (Medaka Box Abnormal) (400CP)

Perhaps you can no longer lose your powers due to your own growing up but it's still possible for people to take them away from you by force. Or at least it was before you made it known how much you refuse to let go of what you consider yours. It's impossible to degrade or take away your abilities in any shape or form, even on a merely temporary basis. Attempts to weaken, nullify, disable, steal, destroy or do any other sort of negative thing to your powers or the energies that they run on will find themselves not even touching you. It seems like your powers really are too integral to your being to ever be taken away from you.

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