Turn 70- Fire, Armor, and Minions

--- Maya ---

(Ugh, this is such a waste of time…) Her inner child groaned.

(If we wish to build some of our more advanced ideas we require more funds, and this is the easiest way for us to acquire those funds at the moment.) Her inner logic argued, as they led another group of excited children through the M.A.D. club’s halls.

(Still this is so boring…)

(Just suck it up.) She told herself, mentally due to the number of nearby witnesses if she were to let her madness leak. (And this is a complete waste of time, some of these guys have fairly decent ideas.)

(Like Jimmy?)

(We don’t talk about Jimmy.) She snapped. (Bad things happen when we talk about-)

“Uh, is that supposed to be smoking?” One of the group’s parents asked.

“No… no it is not.” She sighed, pulling one of the kids back as a nearby display caught fire.

---

(Is this truly the wisest of decisions?) Her inner reason couldn’t help but ask.

“Well, desperate times equal desperate measures.” She grimaced, still a little on the fence about this herself.

(Quit being wussies.) Her inner passion told them. (It is always time for more dakka!)

(Still giving the children weapons?) Her inner logic asked, as they outfitted DM-2 with her own little stabby knife on top of her head. (I repeat, is this a good idea?)

(Pfft, let’s see someone try to steal my kid’s lunch money.)

(You know I worry if we ever actually have human children.)

“Look, given how we’re dealing with monsters here, I want to make sure the DMs have at least something they can defend themselves and the LCMs with.” She tried to justify.

(Ooh, speaking of LCMs we should probably get them weapons too. Maybe upgrade those catapults or something?) Her inner madness suggested.

She glanced at the LCMs and frowned as she had to actually consider it, given the circumstances. “Given their size we won’t be able to give them anything too heavy, which means at our current tech level we can’t really give them anything that can do real damage.”

(Unless we build them mechs.)

She wasn’t sure where that idea came from but it was one she found extremely awesome, (and impractical.)

(Buzz kill.)

(Given what we’re working with it might be easier to give them something more stationary, such as a turret they can man.) Her inner reason pointed out. (Or something that the DMs can carry for them to operate.)

“I don’t like the idea of making the DMs pack mules.” She admitted, watching the DMs play with their new upgrades.

(Like you said though, desperate times means desperate measures.)

“I’ll… think about it.”

---

(You know, armor was probably something we should’ve added when we first made this thing.) Her inner madness pointed out.

“There were time constraints.” She reminded herself as she welded down another piece of metal. “I mean, I made a management program, the base frame, and a power source to run the whole thing. There is only so much I can get done in a single day.”

(True… But power armor without armor is just power… uh…)

(That didn’t work out the way you wanted did it?)

(Shut up!)

“Okay, ignoring our inner idiot.” She began, setting her tools to the side.

(Yeah, see we’re ignoring you now!)

“...”

(...)

“Ahem, we’ve now got a basic set of plating and padding over our entire power armor frame, which should let us shrug off the worst of anything those Bloodhounds do to us.” She finished.

(Well, unless their claws get lucky and crit us.) Her inner paranoia pointed out. (In that case we’ll probably end up bleeding out.)

“Which is why we are going to use our Healing herbs.” She nodded, refusing to let that morbid thought get her down. “Them plus a few bandages to hold them in place should let us heal any bleeding that slips through the armor fairly easily.”

(Speaking of, haven’t the Bio-Pods been finished for like a week now?)

(...)

“...”

(Who’s the idiot now, huh? I knew you fuckers were talking about me!)

---

Taking her more psychotic self’s advice -(fuck you very much)- she began going through her bio-pods. Both of which she had left sitting for just a little too long if the over-sized herbs she pulled out of the first bio-pod were any indication.

“Well, we’ve got half of what we need to build the med-bay at least.” She noted, while harvesting said herbs.

(Yeah, yeah. This isn’t the part everyone’s excited about. Fast forward.) Her inner madness told her.

Rolling her eyes with a sigh, she set the herbs to the side to be better preserved later, and instead made her way to her other Bio-Pod before opening it.

(Aw, I was hoping for another set of twins.) Her inner passion whined.

“Honestly, I’m just glad they’re coming out alright.” She admitted, as slowly her newest LCM… (LCM-2)-

(...)

“What?”

(You have no sense of naming conventions.)

“Shut up.”

Her inner logic gave a mental sigh.

Slowly, her newest LCM, -(I hate this name.)- LCM-2 woke up from the grogginess of her growth stasis, before blinking and looking up at Maya curiously.

“Well, hello there.” She greeted her newest minion by offering a finger.

The LCM looked at her for a moment, before latching onto her finger and using it as leverage to start the climb up Maya’s arm and onto her shoulder.

“Huh, you’re a precocious one aren’t you, LCM-2?” She told the little critter before frowning. “Hmm, that’s a bit of a mouth full and I can’t just shorten it to 1A and 1B like I do the other LCMs… How about we call you M2 for short?”

M2 tilted her head to the side before nodding as she accepted that name.

(DM-2 and M2, don’t you think that’s going to get a bit confusing at some point?) Her inner reason asked.

(Pfft, what kind of mother mixes up her children’s names?)

Briefly she remembered the numerous times her own mamá had stuttered through her and her siblings names before landing on the right one when she was angry.

(I actually believe that’s quite common when a parent has numerous children and is angry.)

“I’m pretty sure Seamus spent a few months thinking his name was ‘V-T-M-Iz-Seamus’.” She agreed.

(Well, if you run down the list of names one of them's got to be the guilt party.)

“Still, ignoring our family dysfunction. We should introduce M2 to the rest of the minions.” She reminded herself.

(That way they can get started on their dysfunction!)