I eventually am released from the hug and Seraphina smiles weakly up at me. She then says,

"I need to go rest and think about all that has happened. Thank you for telling me. I hate you for it, but I at the same time absolutely am grateful for you telling me this and sharing the last moments of my father with me.

I never got to meet him. I was only shown the public side of him, the gold-wreathed god-emperor... you showed me the side I've never seen. The side that was my true father and I thank you for that... I have to think it over for a bit... but please, don't stop all that you have done. "

I smile and reply,

"I wouldn't dream of stopping. Mostly because this whole thing has become a personal crusade but..."

She just shakes her head lightly with a smile before bidding me farewell and heading back to the room she was given.

As soon as she leaves my sight my face drops to a stoic, determined expression. I have work to do, I have to meet with the head priest soon, and I must be prepared to make that fat fuck suffer. People like him in power are those that continually cause problems, even after you break their skull a little. People like that only stop being problems once they are killed.

I then begin walking towards the AMS production wing of the foundation building. There I can see about arming myself some. Maybe getting a compact gun or something to hide on me for the meeting. That and I need to see if we have enough AMS to arm an army that I know Freddie and the others are attempting to gather. I am dropped information on that subject from Wendigo.

From what I can gather they have recruited around forty willing combatants. Fifteen are older and very salty veterans. Not all from the AMS corps, but those that are willing are old marines. Just what I need. the rest are either low-level gladiators or somewhat are political extremists. For the last ones, I'll have to... fix some things, but overall we will be fighting zealots, some fodder troops of my own may come in handy.

I enter the production floor and see all the robotic arms containing welders, cutters, and fabrication arrays are hard at work building AMS from the ground up after having cannibalized all the others that once were in the giant hangar.

The speed and efficiency at which the robotic arms work is impressive, every cut, weld, or fabrication is spot on and from what I can tell, perfect down to the millimeter. I let out a long whistle just taking in the incredible industrial work.

[Pretty cool huh? Yeah, I'm working on a few dozen mass production prototypes, all are completely different from one another and I'm trying to figure out which one will be best for our little army to have.

I also am currently expanding the industrial capabilities of this place, turns out human error was terrible here and everything is rather inefficient, but I'm working on that now.

Give me four days and I'll have everything ready for mass production, as well as a new AMS for us, along with any you request I make. The only downside is the material I have to work with. I, unfortunately, cannot make amazing super-duper weapons like the Solar Empire has, and I cannot order them either, so basically if you want some bullshit overpowered stuff you'll have to take over an imperial fabrication plant.]

(Wow. This really is awesome, and I plan on taking them all over so I hope you have designs ready.)

[HAHAHA, that's what I like to hear. Hop on that mobile pallet, I'll take us to our new body.]

I listen to the disembodied voice and step up onto the moving platform that I rode on when I woke up a year and some ago. Once on it starts moving. It silently moves along, past dozens of production bays all with new and exotic-looking AMS being created. All have a similar shape, humanoid and very angular. Little to no rounded surfaces and absolutely no forward-facing flat surfaces. They were clearly designed with pragmaticism and efficiency in mind as well as reducing weight by avoiding the need to layer on large quantities of armor while instead making it nearly impossible for a shell to get purchase on the armor.

The platform stops in front of a production bay with a large curtain in front of it.

[Drumroll please!!!!]

As synthesized drums play in my head the curtain is cut revealing a terrifying sight, awesomely terrifying.

The Wendigo AMS I had gotten used to is no more. Standing before me is a monster made of steel. It is taller than the older Wendigo, and now equal in height to the Solar models. The chest is a large diamond-shaped pyramid facing forward giving no chance for incoming munitions to penetrate. The frontal armor on the legs and arms is wedge-shaped to perform the same angular role. It's painted mostly in army green with thin tiger stripes of gray running across its body. Then there is the head. The head sits on top of course but the fanged skull is no longer a paint job, the faceplate of the AMS is the skull with small jet black antlers branching from the top while the two eye sockets of the bleached skull faintly glow bright red. While from the direct front the skull looks flat, but from the side, it becomes clear it is built in a wedge shape to help defend from frontal attacks.

I let out a long whistle while looking at the new hardware I get to play with.

(Badass. Alright, what cool features do we get to play with?)

[AH! I thought you'd never ask.

First are the ablative layers of aluminum and ceramic for the skin of the AMS. These thin sheets of metal should disperse heat from energy weapons and they will fall off to pretty much negate quick flashes of heat or other energies. I'm not sure exactly how it would fare against HEAT shells, but any sizeable HEAT shell has enough high explosives in it to fuck us up anyway.

For armor, we have a composite layering system where we have ceramic, steel, aluminum, carbon fiber, and any titanium I found lying around. It is done in interconnected layers so that a penetrating shell will have lots of fun while digging through our front. Then aside from that, we have gaps inside the frontal armor to hopefully stop any HEAT shells that aren't strong enough to obliterate us on the spot. Plus good angling on the armor to hopefully cause incoming fire to glance off of us.

We have a new sensor package. Full 360-degree view, all kinds of special vision, and some micro-drones to do some recon for us. A pretty decent radar that shouldn't microwave you to death... but it also comes with a jammer bit too! This makes us and those around us a bit harder to see.

Our shield got an upgrade too. It's another cold shield like before that eats up extreme thermal and light energies. I don't have the resources here to test it so please just don't get hit by anything that looks dangerous. It still can't stop kinetic and other physical projectiles but that's what armor is for. The regenerative ability of the shield is much better. It can go from zero to one hundred percent in twenty seconds, of course, it will make us run hot.

To defend against missiles we have a trophy system of sorts. Basically, a few 40mm shrapnel shells embedded in the skin to hopefully detonate missiles before they send us to the promised land. From testing, it works a good sixty percent of the time, guided missiles are bullshit so hopefully, the embedded IR smoke grenades can keep us from being painted and slammed.

As for some armament, I put a few vertical launched AT missiles on the back. Five to be exact. We have a laser designator in the head so just look at a target and then fire, then the target becomes dead. Simple as that.

Then this is all powered independently from external sources with a small little fusion reactor I managed to design and make. Basically a very small version of the ones the Solar Empire uses. The only problem is, we start cooking if we over-exert it. So, just don't over-exert and we should be fine in nearly all possible combat situations. Just don't try to solo fight twenty enemy AMS, we have the hardware to do so, but you may come out a little crispy. I have all kinds of pilot protections put in place, but this fucking thing can reach temperatures wayyyyy past the melting point of steel so be careful.

Well aside from that there are some random software upgrades, and other unimportant things so... wanna go for a spin?]

(Fuck to the yes!)

I climb onto the mechanical arm with a basket on it and am lifted up on top of the AMS. A hole forms just behind the head. When I say forms I mean the metal looks like it just disappears before my eyes. I slide down the tight hole and end up in a one-man-sized chamber. I remove my shirt and sit on the chair which flows around me like liquid and holds me firmly. Somehow it feels incredibly soft and makes me feel safe. I sigh and kick the pedal preparing for extreme pain.

But it never happens. I feel the spines enter the metal sockets of my body, but the transition is painless. Then the systems boot up. I feel the energy flow through my metal limbs like blood through my veins. I take a moment to feel out my new body. The arms feel beyond powerful and with the well-tuned legs, I feel as if I could leap over the empire state building. Feeling out every synthetic muscle made of steel cables I gather my bearings. Without the visual sensors on, I still can somewhat see the world around me with my sense of touch. It feels muted as the metal skin normally does, but at the same time I can feel the air pressure around me and from it can sense the location of everything around me. Then I turn on the sensors.

I feel the breath leave my body as I exhale sharply. Everything is so much clearer than normal. I can focus on an object and zoom in on it, able to notice details down to the minor imperfections in the concrete wall around me, and that's nothing compared to the field of view. I can see all around me in an omnidirectional space all at once. My head doesn't need to move but I can still see behind, above, and below me. I can focus in all directions as well. I don't feel overloaded or anything, Wendigo is dealing with most of the information processing, resulting in me receiving easy-to-see visual data. It's truly amazing. I release a small drone which I can see through the camera. I fly it to another room just by willing it to do so, and its vision meshes seamlessly with mine. No cutoff or window, it just becomes part of my eyes. This is amazing. Absolutely beyond my comprehension, but the ability to see, feel, and overall sense everything around me makes me feel safe as if nothing can ever catch me off-guard again. Now time for a moving test.

I unhook all the cables attached to my back and take a step forward. I have to catch myself as the strength of the step is far greater than I anticipated. I try again and this time it's far easier. I begin easing out of the hangar towards the now opening doors. I stop eight massive steps past my stall and stop in front of a rack with cool new weapons on it. I notice three guns that catch my eye. The top one looks to be a lightweight 25mm bushmaster autocannon like the old standard issue from back in the day, but with a new frame making it vaguely look like an old M16 rifle. Below it is a larger weapon, it looks to be a huge battle rifle of some kind. The frame is related to the AR platform in some way with the carry handle visible, but the bolt is side-charged. Comparing the bores between it and the 25mm it looks to be a 40mm. Then below everything is the weapon that causes me to salivate a little and feel a warmth in my belly.

Seven barrels cut down from the original 6.6 meters to a manageable 5 meters, with added frames allowing for an AMS to grab ahold of it and carry it on the hip to work as an insane squad automatic weapon.

It was too big to be called a gun. Massive, thick, heavy, and far too rough. Indeed, it was a heap of raw iron.

A Gau-8 avenger 30mm Gatling cannon designed to be used by an AMS, designated mostly for suppression of enemies, or ya know, obliterating enemy air assets. It is a weapon I was unable to use back in the day as I worked as a squad leader meaning I had to carry a standard rifle.

Unfortunately, I cannot use it at the moment, as it requires a huge ammo backpack to even fire it for a second. I take the 25mm and a few magazines loaded with training rounds and continue outside. Once out in the field, I let her rip. I begin bounding around moving the new AMS with far more grace than even my older one. I move almost as if I am in low gravity due to the extreme strength of the AMS. Each shot I fire is automatically stabilized and compensated by the systems of the AMS, and I can fire over my shoulder without moving my head or body with the same spot-on accuracy. It feels almost as if I have an aim-bot in a video game, all I have to do is think about a target, mostly random trees, and the AMS automatically targets leads or tails in compensation for my speed and gait, and perfect hits every time. While at top speed I can almost send a round through the same hole as my last shot.

Smiling I decide it's time to wrap things up. Every system seems to be working correctly, and with the new targeting systems, I doubt fights will be anything but one-sided in my favor. I'm still not sure if I should focus on using the 25mm or 40mm but either way, armor-piercing sabot shells are capable of killing all but the toughest of mass-production AMS. While the more custom ones may end up being tough nuts to crack, the philosophy of volume of fire may come in handy.

I turn back towards the hangar complex and notice something growing larger out of the sky.

[Incoming orbital contact. Seemingly unarmed. The pilot is hailing for landing clearance. They say for a diplomatic mission. No idea. I'm letting them land on pad number 5, it has the most overlapping fields of fire for foundation defensive turrets. I recommend going to greet them in person.]

I return to the stall I originated from and feel massive arms hold up the AMS and then I detach from the AMS. While attaching was painless, this was not. In fact, it was far worse than normal. I fall forward into the metal wall in front of me holding my head in pain as it feels like a white-hot poker is tearing through my skull while my nervous system is convinced that it is being ripped out.

[Good to know I need to work on that.]

(FUCK you honestly, what the hell?)

[Sorry. I think it's based on the 360 field of view. Your brain is rapidly trying to switch. As for the overall pain, that's just because it's a new system. During your little diplomatic visit, I'll work on some things.]

(Thanks... any idea who is here?)

[Oh yeah, it's the high priest. He's early... I sent him to a meeting room for you. Eloise is already there. Seraphina is in the dark, she is still sulking in her room... want a video feed?]

(Okay... and no, I'm not a peeping Tom like you. How the hell is a fucking AI perverse?)

[I'm joking. I give all the ladies privacy.]

(Good, or I'd have to find your robot nuts to kick you there)

[HAHAHA, oh well, get moving soldier!]

I right myself and climb through the small opening and climb onto the arm that carried me up before. Once on the floor, I hurry to the moving platform and zip back to the office section of the foundation building. Once there I follow a glowing blue line that appeared in my vision once more all the way to a conference room. Before I enter I see the next-door room is a security room. I make a quick stop inside and after convincing the lazy guard at the table of my importance I manage to get my hands on a compact pistol. I won't forget I need to kill that old fat fuck. Just... I don't have an elaborate scheme thought up as I wanted. I sigh and step through the door concealing my pistol, time to get diplomatic.

Inside is a very bland conference room with a six-man table at the center. There is no window for this room either, but there are multiple projection screens. At one head of the table, the High Preist sits, fidgetting in his chair. He looked old and fat before, but he looks like shit right now. I can see that something is really bothering him, and he hasn't had time to clean up. Rather than looking sixty or seventy what he is, I'd say he looks a solid ninety years old and ready to roll over and die. His weight also seems to be a major problem.

Upon seeing me he looks happy but doesn't stand up. I don't feel disrespected as he clearly isn't doing it to act all above me and whatnot, he just looks drained and sickly. I greet him with a pleasant smile, and I nod at Eloise who has an odd look on her face. She looks scared of her father as she should be... but it looks fake. Like a girl at a cheesy horror movie pretending to be scared and in danger for attention, but I also notice some guilt in her eyes. I hope this doesn't explode in my face.

I take a seat across from the old man and open the conversation,

"Well, it's good to see you. You're early to our meeting date. Why so?"

He clears his throat and wipes his brow before putting on a fake smile and filling himself with fake bravado,

"AH! Yes! I do seem to be early, but wouldn't you be early for your future son-in-law!"

Something is seriously off about the way he is talking. His heart isn't in it for some reason. Feeling nervous now myself I slowly grip the pistol in my pocket hoping to quickly draw and shoot him in the head.

He continues on with a very fake enthusiastic rant about how my marriage or ownership of his daughter will further an alliance bla bla bla, It really starts to piss me off.

I look at Eloise who keeps the same look on her face but is blushing a deep red. Her pale skin a bright strawberry red on her cheeks.

I feel incredibly nervous now. Something is going on. I have no clue what. Neither of them are acting right. Is this a trap? Have I been had? Wendigo hasn't reported hostiles anywhere in the building. Hell, he might be as confused as me. Every word out of the High priest's mouth is a thinly veiled perversion and utter vileness. It's starting to get to me. I feel my heart pounding in my chest I am growing more anxious and angry about the situation by the second. My casual posture slowly shifts forward and my grip tightens around the pistol. It's a six-shot semi-auto compact pistol chambered in 9mm. At this range, I won't miss, and from there I can rush to the security office and get some better weapons and then get to my AMS and see what happens from there.

Eloise looks at me for a second and sees my forward-leaning posture, and most of all she sees my crooked right arm with my hand clearly on my hip. Her eyes grow wide just as I begin sliding the pistol from my waistband and she cries out,

"WAIT MIKE STOP! DON'T SHOOT!"

I look over at her with wild eyes. Did she just ruin my plan? I get it's her father, but after all these horrible things how can she defend him? Maybe it's some kind of Stockholm or maybe there is some kind of Solar Empire brainwashing program. The Head priest asks hesitantly,

"Eloise... did I mess up?"

She nods and replies,

"I didn't see a gun on him when he entered so I didn't stop you from saying those things, but it's over. He really wants to kill you."

He looks at me tiredly and asks.

"Are you trying to kill me?"

I sigh and put the pistol on the table, still gripped tightly and pointed at the old man's chest and I reply,

"Yes. I am going to kill you with this gun here."

The old man shakes his head and slumps down further and covers his face with his hands letting out a tired sigh and then a stifled sob and then he says,

"Thank the Empress... I was so worried about the way you were stone-faced. I- I can't do that anymore... those words I was saying, those things I was describing... so horrible. I feel like dying just for saying them as empty as they were."

He remains like that for a minute longer and I look over at Eloise who is staring at the table embarrassed. Then the priest speaks again,

"I'm sorry young man... that was horrible of me to do... I made you believe I had abused my daughter and was willing to pimp her off as some other nobles might. I would never dream of such things. This all was a test to see what kind of man you really are... When you got murderously angry like that, aside from my healthy fear of death, I was so elated to see your righteous fury and would like to restart negotiations from scratch."

I lightly bang my hand on the table frustratedly and respond,

"Holy shit... All that was a test. Do you know how I've been preparing to fight every single faction in the Solar Empire? Why the hell would you do this?"

He shakes his head and uncovers his face revealing wet eyes and he responds,

"After you rescued my daughter from those horrible terrorists I took a liking to you. While you may have been right in your actions your morality in the situation was gray at best. The way you butchered the enemy and deceived them... was a little concerning.

When you were raised up to such an esteemed position I decided to test you to see if you are deserving to walk so close to our goddess. You have passed all my tests, when offered wealth you turned it down, when offered pleasures of the flesh you denied it and even went as far as to abhor all the offerings given to you. I have found you to be a very good man... a little brutal, but in these times that can be overlooked... I am sorry for all the emotions I may have caused you to have."

I look at Eloise who nods at me, confirming some truth to his words. I simply shake my head and say,

"Dammit... this really throws a wrench in any plan I had till now... but from the loss of one opportunity comes new ones. So, old man... what do you want to start with on negotiations."

I prepare for him to turn back to his vile self, to start being greedy, and I plan to catch him on his plan to try and control Seraphina. He then speaks after going back to a jolly demeanor, his life seemingly returning to him,

"Wonderful! While most of what I said earlier was a complete fabrication. Horrible, horrible lies. There was some truth. Since I care more for my daughter than anything else I'll start with this.

She has seemingly taken a great liking to you and I can see why... so would you please grant me the great honor of courting my daughter?"

My eyes go wide and Eloise buries her face in her hands out of embarassment. This is going to be a very interesting talk.