Chapter 26

“How?” Daniel asked, wondering what method Cindy had come up with to test a ramp designed to be dangled out the side of the building.

“Stairs,” she told him simply. “We’ll use the space in the stairs to set it up and confirm it all works. Everyone, it’s ready.”

Almost three full squads of fighters milled outside of the room.

“That’s a lot of people to do testing.”

Cindy giggled. Daniel had noticed that when she was sciencing, she acted girly. “I told them I needed volunteers and I need sufficient people to test it. Everyone offered to help.” She laughed again. “I think if they’re using it to walk down the outside of a sky scrapper twenty floors up they all wanted to make sure it got extensively tested. I think they’re worried about it being made of plants.” She finished her sentence in a conspiratorial whisper.

“Not at all, Daniel,” Alex said loudly. “It’s not you it’s her. Unfortunately for us, Cindy designed the ramp. When she was building model bridges out of matchsticks in year ten, hers were the first to break.”

“Dad!” She looked annoyed. “And it was the first only because it was the first of the three that made the finals to be tested. I actually got second.”

“Pointless detail..” Alex grinned. “Volunteer rate improved after I told everyone that.”

“Dad.”

Amused, Daniel followed them into the stairwell and he attached the support vines where Cindy told him to do and made a couple of minor adjustments to allow the ramp to fit in the cramped space. The result was a ramp that was almost a metre above the steps that went from his level up to the next one. The only issue is that because it was suspended above the stairs, there was insufficient headroom to walk upright.

“Ok, everyone on.” Cindy yelled.

There was a rush, and about thirty people stampeded forward.

“You to Daniel.” Cindy said, while making no moves of her own to get on.

“Aren’t you?”

“I’ve seen my creations fail before. Plus, someone needs to monitor.”

He rolled his eyes.

She grinned at him. “Have fun.”

He followed the mass of fighters and was standing packed in at the very end of the bridge.

“Are we all on!” Cindy yelled.

“Yes.”

“Hurry up.”

“It’s two squishy.”

“OKAY on the count of three I want you all to jump up as high as you can without hitting your head.”

“That won’t work.”

“My head’s already on the roof.”

“Do your best.”

She counted down.

“And Jump.”

Daniel did as instructed. He was crouched down so he sort of did a jump from a crouched position, but the roof was so close that his back slammed into it. There were suspicious creaks and what sounded like vines snapping.

“Jump again,” she yelled.

Daniel compiled. This time, thankfully, there were no noises that indicated supports breaking.

“And again… jump…”

Someone fell above and a moment later bodies crashed into him.

“Reset and keep your balance this time and jump… jump…”

Something broke and the step he was on shifted down an alarming hand width. It hadn’t slipped all the way to the stairwell, but the slip caused thuds and curses from above.

“Perfect. Everyone off now.”

Daniel complied and none of the fighters exiting appeared to be angry upset. In fact, most of them seemed almost euphoric. He guessed this sort of testing was a lot less stressful than fighting ferals.

The juggernaut tank was passing him, and Ingrid bumped into the bigger man for absolutely no noticeable result. “I can’t believe you fell on me.”

Daniel smiled amused, and looked away. It was good to see everyone relaxing a little. Once the crowd cleared. Cindy went over to the ramp and examined it. He could observe spots where some vines were a little frayed.

Cindy stepped on the first step. “Daniel, stay around. I’m going to get you to release the safety switch in a minute. But first I need to get a feel for how all the supports held up.” She disappeared up the ramp, which responded by swaying a lot more with one person than it had when all of them were on top of.

She returned and looked very pleased with herself. “Collapse it.” She ordered.

Daniel reached forward a single hand touched the top rope and sent a thought through it. There was a whoosh of air and the whole thing fell with a dull thump to lie on top of the stairs. Even not set up properly, the shape of the ramp was clear.

“Perfect.” Cindy proclaimed. “Rock solid.”

“But bits broke?”

“We were stress testing, plus nothing important failed. It’s damn impressive to be honest.”

“So you want me to make the other two.”

“Yes.”

Daniel walked away without offering to help move the ramp back into position. There were less than three hours of sunlight left and they were running out of time if they wanted to attack today.

Luke was waiting for him at the door to his growing room. “Before or after dinner.”

“I’ll be ready in forty minutes. Maybe get everyone a light snack first.”

Daniel sat and constructed the second ramp and lost himself in the crafting.

Zach tapped his shoulder, interrupting him. He half jumped before realising that there was no danger. The kid held two sausages in bread out to him. The end of one sausage was missing. Daniel looked at it pointedly.

“It broke off.”

“I didn’t say anything.”

Zach refused to make eye contact, which made him look both ridiculously guilty and cute. “Thanks for bringing them down.”

With wide eyes, the boy sprinted away.

While eating the food, he completed the improvised ramps. Then Daniel turned his attention to the job of preparing for the attack.

Luke and his team of heavies who had helped created the tension used in the one shot rockets had hung around in case they were needed.

“Our job isn’t done guys,” Daniel declared loudly.

They all looked annoyed.

“But my arms,” Karolina complained.

Daniel walked over to the nearest window. “This bit’s easier. I’m going to pop out the window and then we need to carry it,” he waved at the wall. “To somewhere out of the way.”

They came forward even as his plants explored the edges. Daniel frowned.

“What is it?” Luke asked.

“It’s not what I was expected.” Daniel pushed a finger into the spot where the window went into the frame.

“What were you expecting?”

“To be able to degrade this seal and pop it out but it’s harder than that. The glass is too big for the frame.” The thin trenail that he had put through the seal was telling him that the glass extended centimetres below the solid window frame. There was no easy way to push it out. “The glass goes this far down.” He indicated about five centimetres between his thumb and forefinger.

“I’ve seen a video of this.” Karolina said. “Sometimes the frame is part of the unit that is installed.”

“What do you mean?” Daniel asked curiously.

She looked embarrassed. “I don’t actually know. The glass comes from the factory with the metal already around it.”

“Let me see.” Daniel’s club was now extending its tendrils to the outside of the frame, digging into the space below it. Plaster exploded outward, revealing the large bolts that secured the frame to the building structure. Daniel put his hands on his head in despair, before forcefully pushing them down.

“Tell me, can your plants unscrew them?” Luke asked.

Karolina glowed at him. “Don’t be mean.”

“We can break the window.”

“Luke, give me a moment to think.” Daniel asked. He had lifted the club to explore the top of the window frame. He was hoping the result would differ from the bottom edge. There was still a chance that the glass was separate from the frame. If the glass was not part of the frame like Karolina thought then what would that look like. It would need to have gotten into the frame, which meant. He looked up, and a conduit grew immediately to give him access to the space above the window. The tendril wiggled its way up into the seam.

His mind interpreted what it was sensing. The glass above went a centimetre above the edge and it was not flush against the metal. Instead, there was a void beyond the glass edge. Hope went through Daniel and he focused on keeping the plant growing into that empty space.

Please, let there be a room.

“Give me a moment,” Daniel ordered excitedly. His plant kept growing, exploring the space. There was a lot of room above, eight or nine centimetres. Daniel considered exactly how the window had been installed initially. First, they would have to push the glass up into that upper space. Then drop the glass down into the bottom area. Put in seals and after that you had a firmly secured window that was not breaking no matter how much force was launched at it because the hard thick glass was for all intents and purposes embedded in the building. He could definitely reverse engineer that. “We can pop it out!”

Daniel, rather than using his power directly pulled a pot plant over. The soil was rich and wet and he wished Trudy was there to keep it that way.

Luke coughed behind him and when Daniel turned, he was holding a bucket filled with water. “Boss.”

“Thanks.” Daniel focused on the pot, and the tendril grew out immediately. First thing he needed to do was to remove the seals. His magic swept up the side and both on the inside and outside the seals were forced out as the plant matter replaced them.

Second task was to winch the glass up. This was both more complicated and required extra power. Roots slid under the heavy window and then they started growing and thickening. Soon he had purchase under the entire two metre long window piece. Then it was a matter of expanding the roots and the window raised millimetre by millimetre. It burnt through a large amount of his power, but everyone could see the glass rising. “Outside or in? In means the ferals don’t know what we’re doing. Outside is a better test.”

“Outside,” Luke said definitely. “They’re not going to know why the window dropped.

“Yeah, you’re right. I sort of agree with that. Well, if that’s the case I want the process to go quickly.” Mentally, Daniel rehearsed what he was doing to do and then he pumped magic out in a quick burst. With a screech, the glass pane was lifted a further centimetre and then the roots pushed the bottom of the window outwards even as the plants that had briefly forced out the seams and then replaced them were sucked away to nothing by his power.

The bottom edge was out of the frame and then the plant grew to push it toward the outside. It bent wobbled and for a moment Daniel thought it was going to collapse inward and then it slipped faster.

There was a screech and then the huge pane of window slid down as gravity reclaimed it. There was a whoosh, and it vanished even as the hot wind from the outside buffered them. Luke, Daniel and Karolina all dashed forward and stuck their heads out the window. The glass had crashed down on top of the story building that shared a side with there’s.

They heard the bang from twenty stories up. To everyone’s surprise only the edge pieces broke with some fragments flying up to ten metres along the rooftop. The bulk of the window, however, remained in a single piece.

Karolina whistled. “I would not want that landing on me.”

Daniel examined his mana reserves and then shook his head disgruntled. Absolutely terrible that the effort on a lone window had sucked most of his power away. “Five more are going to take a while. I’m going to need Trudy and half an hour to prepare.”

Daniel sat down the problem with having a unique ability is that he had to do the work. Trudy arrived and with her help he popped the floor twenty windows inwards. It was a little more complicated because the inside window still edge was longer, but with a convoluted vine crane system they could manage. Then he focused downstairs. His conduits were in place and all he had to do was to prepare each of the windows to fall without alerting the feral sentries. Luckily, there were no sentries assigned to be in the rooms they were targeting. Under each of the three floor nineteen windows, he inserted his roots. Then, ever so slowly, while tracking the ferals on the floor below he inched the glass up till the bottom was above the window stile. Then he went further, pushing it out till it was perched on the point of falling entirely. If a feral lent on it, then it would come loose and fall there was no doubt about that. It was however a risk that he had to take.

He got up and the babble of conversation in the corridor ceased.

Daniel looked over at the fighters who had gathered, Finigan at his side. Priscilla was down below, keeping watch. He had killed the octopod almost twenty-four hours ago, and it had taken this long to get in a position to strike out at the enemies below. He had delayed despite that bit within him that was driving him to hurry to ensure they had the best chance of success. That moment had arrived.

The plan had come together. The ramps were ready and in position. The windows below were primed to fall. Steely resolve met his eyes instead of terrified faces. Fighters who walked with an easy hand on their weapons and almost everyone was dressed in some form of armour, even if half of it was crude.

They were like a barbarian horde, dangerous but with mismatched gear and weapons. Ivey and he had built a powerful force.

Daniel smiled proudly. “We’re going to do this.”

There were cheers.

“Do we know the plan?”

“Yes,” Luke answered for everyone.

There was no point in delaying any further his mana was full and they moved to their battle stations. They gathered a third in each of the rooms.

Waiting patiently for the signal.

It felt like a momentous moment. The event that signified the start of human dominance. A clever, organised and deadly raid on the enemy that would let them win against monsters far stronger than anything pre-event. Then again, so were humans. He would be part of returning humans to being the alpha species on the planet..

“It’s time to show the world who’s boss.” Daniel called out.

Ivey rolled her eyes and Tamara gave a thumbs up while her other hand held Mystic Explosion. They had the tools they had the plans.

“Let’s kill some…” Mentally he hesitated. “Zombies!”

A roar of support answered from all three rooms.

Log report 5 - Entry 13

These bipeds, humans, whatever they like to be called are incredibly frustrating. I’m not going to mince words.

My host did something ridiculous.

Fancy being squishy and having something to be squishy in your stead and then driving said sacrificial victim away.

Preposterous.

And I confronted her. She responded with words that individually made sense but collectively were complete nonsense.

For like the fiftieth time, I reminded her yet again that I’m a computational entity without material possessions and no matter what she might think I do not have any beeswax to mind!

Anyway, she drove the co-wobub away when he was proving to be a useful pet.

If I was a biped, I’m sure I’d be so distressed that I would be falling over all the time. (I mean falling over even more than usual.)

Thank god I’m not.

I like my clean existence.

Have I talked about my host’s biological functions? No, I haven’t which is probably a good thing. I couldn’t imagine spending pages and pages describing something like that. It’s funny sure, in a juvenile way but so are bipeds and I don’t talk about them that much… on second thought maybe at some point I might as it could be amusing but not today and definitely not when I’m annoyed at my host.

Just because she keeps inexplicable referencing biological functions regarding me doesn’t mean I need to use the same words.

Her reactions and word choice are awfully embarrassing for her.

On the eighth time that I pointed out how immature driving off the co-wobub was, she went crazy. She showed her love of biological functions and potentially a fundamental misunderstanding of what they are at the same time. She told me to do reproductive functions multiple times combined with words like ‘Off’, ‘Pig’, and Go ‘reproductive function’ yourself.

When I pointed out the whole computational entity bit making that impossible well that set her off again… and get this she kept saying the same stuff that I had already informed her was anatomical unreasonable.

My only conclusion is that she must be deeply distressed at her own decision and is acting up as a result and lashing out at innocent bystanders… I’ve read that bipeds can do that.

Beyond that, everything seems to be progressing appropriately from what little I can observe.

Because of the whole driving the co-wobub off thing, I have no firm knowledge of what is on the levels below. I keep asking my host to hold the pet’s hands to let me check, but she told me that was inappropriate. I wanted to suggest maybe she would repeat the biological function thing because they both seemed to have enjoyed it last time but something tells me she would have taken that the wrong way.

And by something, I mean Ivey told me that both the first and second times I mentioned it and ordered me to never say it again.

While I can’t check his memories, the details he told the group worry me. We already know about the nearby mana storm and the lizard, but sapient deconstructed forming organised hives.

That’s bad news.

There are two upsides. The first is that they’re attacking immediately and doing it sensibly. Who would have thought that idiotic pet would have managed that.

Idiotic pet and smart decision… that doesn’t sound right.

It’s possible that someone is coaching the pet when my host isn’t around.

Actually, I don’t think possible is the right description. I would instead like to correct that and describe it as a certainty that someone is coaching the moronic co-wobub. It is the only way to explain his behaviour.

Anyway, props to the mysterious intelligent person. I will have to find out their designation number to congratulate them.

The second upside is that I might get to see ‘Something accidentally attacked me, and I responded with claws of shredding blackness and boiled them alive, oops.’

That’s certain to be exciting.

*blushing*

My host has already prepared the way.

I’m spinning my calculation routines excessively.