PROCESSING BAY

Transforms materials into Essence, which can be then used for more advanced constructions.

Type: Facility

Construction Details

Skill: Advanced Production Facilities

Facility: Internal Processor or Constructor

Materials: 4x Pipe Joiners (Tier 2), 2 Metal Ingots (Tier 2), 8 Floor Segments, 8 Wall Segments

The Processing Bay is the key to opening up additional, non-traditional routes of construction. Once you gain sufficient proficiency in Essence generation and refinement, additional forms of crafting will become available. These other forms can be accessed more easily by other paths, and indeed seem to be reflection of certain mystical rather than industrious traditions.

These individual practitioners may be good guides, but the factory will outshine their output a thousand times over.]

ADVANCED PROCESSING CENTER

Binds refined Essence to equipment, giving them additional abilities above normal.

Type: Facility

Construction Details

Skill: Superior Facilities

Facility: Internal Processor or Constructor

Materials: 4x Pipe Joiners (T3), 2 Metal Ingots (T3), 18 Floor Segments, 12 Wall Segments

As powerful as this facility is, its true purpose is more of a delaying tactic. If this facility is activated and used to maximum efficiency, then it will be a relatively easy task to keep ahead of the horde of monstrosities that the system has prepared. This is the less likely of the two potential ends, but it must be defended against.

This facility is unlikely to aid with the other potential end.

The basic descriptions of the two facilities were interesting, sure, but the really compelling stuff was in the notes. The materials listed also helped to offer a guide for the unlocking; I definitely needed to unlock the Processing Bay soon and maybe save the Center for the very end of the process. That said, being able to apply end-game enhancements relatively early in this unfolding of the end of the world had some appeal to it.

Of course, the other options were enticing as well. An entertainment center would do wonders for morale. A pharmacy should be able to aid in the production of medicines, which would be vital considering the dangers of injury in this new world. A gym might be able to help me and the others to enhance our physical abilities, which had fairly obvious advantages. It was a big question, ultimately, and probably should be answered by everyone.

A thought suddenly occurred to me as I entered the research lab, and I tapped my comms unit. “Hey, Jen, Artemis, you remember the survey chamber? I was able to spot, albeit at some distance, the people in your town. You might be able to track Chuck and his men from there without having to be exposed to trouble.”

A crackle and Artemis’ voice emerged. “Got it. Coming in now. No signs so far.”

“Good,” I replied. Then after another consideration, I added, “Some of the folks around here might look to you two for advice regarding combat paths. I recommend being open and honest with them. No need to deceive them, but also don’t discourage them unless they need discouraging.”

With that, I turned my attention to the main device at the center of the Research Lab, taking in a deep breath as I approached. I recalled the pain of its usage the previous time, and reflected on Teldin’s words about humanity’s incompatibility with erg. The pain must derive, at least in part, from this incompatibility, from the changes that the system had to impose in order to get us to cooperate with the use of erg. I glanced briefly at my hand through the erg sight, seeing the swirls and flows of the energy beneath and through my skin.

Just how much has erg changed us?

I chose not to dwell on that deeply concerning thought and instead gripped the edge of the drafting table. My consciousness opened to the design space, the concepts of creation floating around in my head. I felt at the schema I had learned, the skills that I gained from the system, and the knowledge that I had possessed before integration. I tugged on all three components, pulling them into order, arranging them like a crystalline formation unfolding rapidly before my eye.

The enormity of the possibilities became aware to me and my head throbbed and the world pulsed as unbidden conceptualizations half-formed then dissolved into mist, the totality of my world becoming nothing more than a moment hung between decisions. The structures of my thoughts and my capabilities ground against each other in a metallic shriek, growing and plunging and twisting around in this space before me.

The moment it became too much, everything stopped. It was like a safety switch had been pulled, bringing the procedure to a hard halt. I breathed out the tension in my body and floated there, allowing the pain to recede from my body. Part of me wanted to just play in this space, to see the things that I could make if liberated from the pressure of necessity. The rest of me knew that I needed to get to work.

I started with the rifle. Artemis had shown the effectiveness of the weapon, though she also likely had skills and perks to upgrade said effectiveness. Still, compared to the nothing that my spikethrower managed against Chad, I’d rather start with this. The auto-loader was an easy addition, snapping into its cylinder in the design of my mind. To fully run the thing, I added Automated Tools to the design and its complexity exploded further.

First, the rifle gained a power requirement. I could run its erg through a person, but another option was presented; it could be powered via the erg grid that the condensers had created. I had an instinctive understanding of the power levels required, and if I wanted to deploy more than two of these, I would need a third erg condenser. Of course, deploying more than two of these “autorifles” as the system labeled them would greatly expand the territory we could safely control. I wanted these to be truly automated, so I switched them to functioning off of the grid.

Second, targeting options opened up. The basic option was to have them manually targeted by an user, which seemed in opposition to the whole “automation” aspect of things. It did briefly occur to me that with the right perk from The Forge That Walks, I could mount several of these onto myself, and benefit from automated fire even if I had manual aiming. That wasn’t the purpose of this particular iteration of the autorifle, though, so I pulled up the other targeting options. To my chagrin, they were currently blank, but that blankness was a space that I could work within, where I could sub-design a targeting system.

None of my current existing schemas worked here, so I pulled on my skills. Automated Tools slotted in naturally, I wanted automated targeting after all. After that, I had to consider my options, not seeing any of my skills from my paths that really lent themselves towards this task. Then inspiration struck and I pulled Erg Sight in, which mixed and shifted with my pre-existing knowledge of thermal tracking. These components combined to form an erg tracking lens, which then slotted into the targeting option, locking into place for this design.

Sweat rolled down my back from the exertion of the sub-design, but the autorifle schema was nearing completion thankfully. The stress was building and if it took too much longer, well, I didn’t want to think about it.

The next step was the activation mechanism. The two base options were to require manual authorization to fire or to be able to freely target incoming erg signatures. Neither of those were appealing and I’m pretty sure the second was a war crime. So, instead I probed into the blank option once again. Automated Tools was the only basis I had to work with here, until I caught a lingering thread from the targeting system. I tugged on that and pulled up the ability of my erg sight to offer deeper analysis, that scanning ability that I so rarely used.

With a grin, I combined that analysis system with the Automated Tools and then looped in an understanding of priority mechanisms. Pain flared, but it didn’t keep from continuing as a command prompt appeared in front of me. I typed in the air and my fingers moved with the speed of thought, processing my conception into a proper list.

AUTORIFLE ACTIVATION COMMANDS

1: Neutral or friendly human sighted in line of fire: deactivate

2: Monster sighted - activate

3: Manual override - deactivate

4: Manual override - activate

5: Neutral or friendly human sighted: deactivate

6: Enemy human sighted: activate

This way, so long as no one was in the way of the autorifle, it would automatically open fire on any approaching monsters. In addition, it would also open fire on any incoming enemy person, but only if they weren’t accompanied by a non-enemy. How the system could tell who was an enemy and who wasn’t seemed slightly in the air to me, but the programming accepted it with ease. Finally, I could turn the autorifles on or off as needed.

With this script uploaded, the autorifle was essentially complete, I could finish the schema and begin creating them now. Yet, it seemed like there were still some missing parts to it being finished. First, I put a bit of shielding in front of it, just slightly altering the armor plating schema to fit around the barrel of the rifle, making it harder to hit the main body, which had swelled far larger than the rifle I had made for Artemis.

Finally, I wanted to place the whole thing on a swivel, so that it would act as a proper turret. This proved slightly more difficult than I anticipated, but ultimately resolved by combining Automated Procedures with Mobility Boosters, slotting in at the base of the rifle and providing a full 180 degree rotation both left to right and up to down.

After reviewing the design, the schema, the details, I finally hit complete and the knowledge of the schema flooded into my brain, weaving its way through the circuits there, which I now realized had to be made of erg, that was the only way that it made any sense. As the schema fully completed and locked into place, I collapsed backwards, panting and sweating more than I realized. I glanced at my skin and realized how pale I looked. I needed to eat, but I didn’t want to take from the dwindling supplies of the others.

I returned to my room for some protein bars. There, a thought occurred to me and I looked in the mirror, examining myself once again. To the naked eye, I didn’t look too much different, other than the haggards of exhaustion and stress. I needed a break or I was going to break, but the needs of this new community couldn’t be ignored, nor the lasting threats around me. That wasn’t why I wanted to look in the mirror though.

I activated erg sight.

My whole body was lit up in those blue pathways, tracing through my entire frame. The torso had the least amount of erg in it, interestingly enough, though some twirled around my heart and lungs and spread out through the rest of my body. Legs and arms had some, but my hands had a high concentration, heading down into the fingers. Finally, there was my head. My skull was riddled through with erg veins, leaving it incandescent.