Perhaps they thought night time would bring them an advantage.

It wouldn’t.

Another group of 3 qilin approached us, but I wasn’t yet combat ready. My new legs were bare armor, visible circuitry and motors showing instead, and I was still down to one arm. I wouldn’t be joining this fight. I watched the feeds instead.

The qilin approached the door to the autofactories, sniffing at the ground. There was another flame qilin, this one with pitch black scales and pitch black fire to match it. 03 had shut the door. The monster made a face, showing teeth, then slammed the side of its body against the ship.

It howled.

The other two split away from it, heading towards the main hangar. They were an unseen type, bodies covered in short hair that clung to their body, so light blue they were almost white. Water swirled around them, hovering in midair.

There didn’t appear to be a single electrical qilin. It appeared as though the qilin that attacked us opposed each other. Hard metal versus ethereal ghosts, manipulators of fire versus manipulators of water.

Our five qilin, three FLAME, a GHOST and a CHROME, charged them.

Water manifested in midair, whipping out from the water qilin, dousing our FLAME qilin. They erupted with flame, filling the air with burning steam, causing the WATER qilin to wince back.

The HAMMERHEADs opened fire at that moment. One of the two qilin screamed as plasma slammed into its side, water seeming to pour into existence out of nowhere at its cry. Water flowed out of its wound, erupting into steam as it absorbed the heat and flashed from liquid to gas. The qilin staggered over, a bubble of water protecting it.

The headless CHROME slammed into it, undeterred by the water, cutting open its neck. Blood flowed out into the bubble of water. Then the bubble collapsed, falling to the ground with a splash. The second qilin ran around the others, whips of water lashing out. They bounced off the CHROME qilin, leaving minor scratches. But they took a leg from one of the FLAME qilin, the monster continuing to limp towards it on its remaining limbs.

The enemy WATER qilin cut our FLAME qilin to pieces.

The hangar door to the autofactories whirred open, 03 lifting rifles in each hand. As soon as the door opened a crack, there was a thump-thump-thump-thump, four concussive blasts slamming into the body of the black FLAME qilin trying to force the door open. It screamed, staggering back, glowing points on its body from where the laser rifles had impacted it.

Then 03 fired again.

The qilin charged inside, accumulating damage as it approached 03’s position. He threw one gun to the side, using the hand to push the approaching qilin, redirecting it towards the wall. Parts of his arm melted as the monster flared with black fire.

The WATER qilin outside fell as our GHOST qilin caught it, reaching through its head and ripping its brains out from the inside.

In the autofactory bay, 03 pointed 3 rifles at the FLAME qilin’s head, point blank, the oversized barrels pressed into it. The monster thrashed, staggering away from the wall. With 3 concussive thumping noises, it fell dead.

Everything was quiet and still for a moment.

We lost one qilin. But we gained 2 more. Hopefully, they wouldn’t be intelligent enough to send exact counters for each of ours. The main guns would be on-line before tomorrow — or at least one of them. Towers took shape as 615 spread her dungeon influence. But it wasn’t enough. We needed more.

“We will need to procure food rations while we work on getting a farm online. Creative food is a waste of DP.” 615 said.

/Query: Suggested solution?

“Bring the corpses in for butchering.”

The HAMMERHEADs dragged the qilin bodies into the ship. Severe burns covered them, and we would need to perform an analysis on the meat to guarantee it wasn’t toxic. Many top predators accumulated chemicals to dangerous levels over long enough spans, and we had no estimate for how long each of the monsters was.

Tavi stood across from me, skin gray, chalk in hand. We suspended the black flame qilin in the air, assembled working arms cutting it apart, leaving nothing but the outer scales and the bone structure as it freed the meat and organs of the monster. Whether we could turn the creature into food was still to be seen. However, the unnecessary body parts would help us gain DP faster.

They already dissolved, organs turning into motes of light that floated up and faded away, absorbed by AI615 as we converted the monster carcass directly into DP.

Tavi cut apart a piece of the meat, walking it over to a workstation at the side of the room and placing it down. 615 cut it into even smaller pieces, taking each section to test its chemical composition, especially for bioaccumulated mercury.

Cameras carefully recorded Tavi. The damage to his organic flesh made him less than useful as a foot soldier. That said, he was more than good enough to raise undead. The arms on the ceiling moved the now butchered corpse across the room, dropping it onto the ritual circle that Tavi had already prepared. Without a word, he dropped to the ground, raising the undead.

His skills and mana were intact. His body was weakened in undeath. We would have to see which parts we could replace. Steel wouldn’t yield. 615 drafted designs for semimechanical, undead soldiers.

The final autofactories whirred to life only hours ago, production spent bootstrapping the entire system and disassembly online. 03 had specced into an [Undead Ranger] class, boosting his proficiency with the weapons. It would be valuable in our defense.

The first main turret was online.

But no attack had come in 10 hours.

Batches of aerial drones hovered above the ship, more flying outwards to survey. Our information gathering went dark less than a mile in any direction.

We were in the dark in enemy territory and under constant attack.

But by the end of the day, we would start claiming this territory for ourselves.9