Chapter 269
[PAGING KYLE MAYHEW. PLEASE EXIT THE FORGES AND RETURN TO THE MAIN MANUFACTORY. REPEAT; PAGING KYLE MAYHEW. PLEASE EXIT THE FORGES...]
Kyle sighed as the message continued to ring out, slowly standing and walking out of the massive forge that Marcus Kulhavey set up in the middle of his “Smelting District.” This was where Marcus would have rare ores and materials shipped for refinement and processing, and Kyle discovered some… alternative uses for the space.
The temperatures throughout the district were high enough to be dangerous to most unawakened humans, with the heat surrounding the smelters and forges enough to kill them outright. While he hadn’t dared to spend time inside the major blast furnaces, the large forges had enough control that he could reliably stay inside while it kept temperature.
Giving himself a quick Healing Impetus to touch up the remaining burns, Kyle slowly allowed his Ferric Augmentation to recede while Synaptic Barbs reemerged. When he first started this training nearly six months ago, he’d made the mistake of not suppressing Synaptic Barbs, which led to many of them being singed off.
They’d blessedly regrown, and Kyle finished putting his clothes back on as he rushed to the nearby Service Transport Unit, S.T.U., which waited for him outside the forge. The moment he jumped into it, a gruff voice came over the intercom. “You’re late.”
“By my count, there was still at least another five minutes,” Kyle countered.
“Which would have gotten you to the Manufactory four minutes late. I’m not going to pretend to understand why you choose to meditate in strange places, I trust that you find it helpful. But the least you could do in return for using my facilities is be punctual when we’ll need you.” Marcus’s voice was stern, and Kyle sighed. This wasn’t the first time they’d had this discussion, and though Kyle’s grasp of timing had improved, there was still a lot of work to do.
We, in this case, referring to Marcus and C.H.A.D.D. It came as no surprise that a dedicated Creator like Marcus would have high-quality sensors, and he made it clear early on that he knew C.H.A.D.D. was harboring a World Tree Seed. He also made it abundantly clear that he wanted nothing to do with it, and that as long as Kyle and C.H.A.D.D. remained on his planet, he would keep it in confidence.
“Items like that are too unpredictable to work with,” he’d said. “So long as it doesn’t make a mess of my Manufactory, we won’t have a problem with it.”
Surprisingly, that made their work together much easier. From everything Kyle could tell from the old man, he was about as direct a person as he’d ever met. He was a single-minded craftsman, and his focus was machinery. After just a couple of days, Kyle and C.H.A.D.D. had agreed to leave the drone with Marcus in his workshop for easier access. Not that C.H.A.D.D.’s upgrades were the only projects the Originator was working on, of course.
“I’ll do better. Would it help make up for it if I slotted in an extra few hours of drone training over the next couple of days?” Kyle asked.
For a moment, the only sounds in the S.T.U. were its whirring propellers and the distant thumping of machinery below.
“That would be appreciated,” Marcus finally said.
Kyle tried to suppress his grin, looking at the large complex below as S.T.U. started its descent.
Marcus was working on a new line of smaller D Grade security drones, and Kyle proved to be the perfect test subject for them. His mobility made tracking difficult, and his resilience stopped most of their attempts to stop him.
Some designers may have found that disheartening, or written Kyle off as an anomaly. Not Marcus Kulhavey. While his work on C.H.A.D.D.’s upgrade designs took most of his time, any other waking minute was spent inputting data from the tests to refine the system further. Between increases in the drones’ coordination and some hardware upgrades, Kyle found himself hard-pressed to make it through the various obstacle courses that Marcus established for testing.
Stepping into the Originator’s main workshop, Kyle walked up to Marcus Kulhavey, who was tapping his booted foot impatiently while holding a small metal device in his gloved hand. He wasn’t wearing his usual button up shirt, instead wearing a simple tank top. Angry white scars and burns stuck out against his dark skin; a familiar sight to Kyle. From what Marcus had been willing to share, most of his remaining scars were the work of the other Originators before their truce. Some of these were earned in the same encounters where his grandfather received his injuries.
The C.H.A.D.D. pack was on the workbench nearby, where the drone was projecting a super-sized image of itself. Two nodes on the side were highlighted, between some of the mana collection runes Kyle inscribed back on the Corthian Mining flagship.
[DR. MAYHEW, WE NEED TO WORK ON YOUR PUNCTUALITY,] C.H.A.D.D. admonished. [THE NEXT UPGRADE MODULE WAS READY FOR INFUSION SEVERAL MINUTES AGO.]
“That’s what I’ve been telling him,” Marcus added, throwing an annoyed look Kyle’s way. “You know, if you keep this up, I might have to restrict access to the other facilities on infusion days. It would keep you on track.”
Kyle just sighed as he stepped up and took the small metal device out of Marcus’s hand. It looked like a simple triangular metal bar, barely longer than Kyle’s palm. Each edge was perfectly straight, with the exception of a gentle contour on the ends which Kyle knew would perfectly match the slope of C.H.A.D.D.’s hull. The metal was covered in thousands of painstakingly precise inscriptions. Moreover, the plans Marcus showed them indicated that there were dozens of layers within, each carrying their own sets of runework.
Kyle reached out to C.H.A.D.D. with a tendril of Parasitic Resonance, and felt the golden energy of the World Tree Seed flow through him like molasses, slowly infusing the small metal component. They stood in silence for nearly an hour, until one by one, the miniscule runes began to glow golden. Soon, it looked like Kyle was holding a miniature sun in his hand, the light emitting from the device almost painful to look at.
“Good,” Marcus said, stepping up and gently taking the glowing metal with his gloved hands. From what the Originator told him; the gloves were designed to ensure that none of his own energy accidentally infused the component.
A pair of goggles materialized over Marcus’ bald head, and Kyle watched as the man slowly extended the part into its determined space. Auric Perception alerted him to a subtle flow of mana, and the curved edges of the component flowed seamlessly into the metal of C.H.A.D.D.’s hull.
“Another one done,” Marcus said, stepping back as the gloves and goggles disappeared into his spatial storage. “Four more to go, and our little project will be wrapped up.”
They’d completed their first installation a month and half ago, and Marcus’s design involved a total of six separate devices that he would install into C.H.A.D.D. After more than a few failures with the initial tests, Marcus was moving at a much faster pace. Kyle expected that the next installation would be in less than a month, with even shorter windows of time in between.
“Is there anything else you need from me today?” Kyle asked.
“Nope,” Marcus replied. “Time for me to get back to work. I’ll want to keep C.H.A.D.D. under observation for the next day or so to ensure the component has integrated appropriately with the collection arrays, and then I’ll get the specifics fabricated for the third installation.”
He looked at Kyle, meeting his eyes for just a moment before looking back at the drone. “I’ve already got Obstacle Course C prepared for you, if you’d like to get some of your extra hours in this afternoon. You’re welcome to come by for dinner after.”
“That works for me,” Kyle said. “C.H.A.D.D., how are you feeling?”
Through Pack Leader’s Instinct, he felt the drone’s elation, but still felt it was appropriate to ask.
[I FEEL WONDERFUL, DR. MAYHEW. I WILL CONTINUE THE ARCHIVING PROCESS ONCE THE MANA FLUCTUATIONS STABILIZE FURTHER.]
“Sounds good. Don’t cause too much trouble for Marcus while I’m away.”
[IN THIS CASE, I BELIEVE THAT YOU ARE THE ONE WHO IS CONSISTENTLY CAUSING PROBLEMS. TRY NOT TO BREAK ANY OF THE DRONES.]
Kyle grinned as he stepped outside and hopped into the waiting S.T.U. The obstacle courses weren’t far away, and it would be good to stretch his legs a bit. He felt as though he was approaching the cusp of another level, and this training session would probably be enough to push him over the edge. It wasn’t as beneficial as spending time inside the various hazardous environments present around the massive industrial operation, but it was a lot more fun.
Obstacle Course C was a large, dark warehouse. The inside changed every time, though it was always designed to factor in both the approach to a target location, as well as containing a smaller interior structure. The goal of this obstacle course was to prevent Kyle from infiltrating and escaping with an item that would be somewhere in the compound.
The lights inside were dimmed, casting long shadows throughout the room. This time, what looked like a research lab was waiting for him in the center. Kyle closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and activated Ignition.
A feminine robotic voice rang out across the warehouse. [OBSTACLE COURSE C – YOU MAY BEGIN WHEN READY.]
Kyle usually avoided using his boosting skill to begin these training sessions, but decided today would be a good opportunity to mix things up. Auric Perception helped Kyle get a general sense of where the drones were patrolling, and there was a clear path available along the far right hand side of the warehouse, near the wall.
He dashed toward it, and felt the drones’ movement shift the moment he got too close to the interior structure. Dozens of dog-sized drones came at him as an alarm rang out over the course of the compound. That’s new, Kyle thought, wondering where he’d made a misstep.
Regardless, he wouldn’t be deterred that easily. Pushing himself to increase his speed, he left many of his pursuers behind. Synaptic Barbs showed him that they stopped pursuing, but Auric Perception warned him of mana building from the drones.
He reflexively jumped to the side as the space he was just standing was crushed under a massive amount of pressure. He risked a quick glance backward, and saw that eight of the drones had connected to form some type of array, which was rotating to point at him.
He dodged again as the earth beneath his feet was flattened, and had a moment of realization as he recognized the familiar mana. They’re using gravity-based skills. Duroc was the only other person he’d met that used concepts related to gravitation, and from what he’d read it was a pretty rare type of skill to have an affinity for.
Still, he was confident as he weaved through a handful of hidden traps and buried drones. Even as a second and third set of drones took up the formations, Kyle’s superior mobility allowed him to bob and weave around the gravitational blasts. Where is all the fire and electricity? He wondered, remembering the previous trials. It was clear that Marcus wanted to test out the new additions to his drones’ repertoire, but Kyle would be disappointed if this whole session would be nothing other than dodging the larger blasts.
Soon, Kyle found himself at the door to the laboratory, which he blasted open with a quick use of Repel. A couple of drones were waiting inside and lunged for him, but swift strikes with his forcehammer batons were enough to knock them back. Using Synaptic Barbs as a guide, Kyle easily avoided the traps and drones lying in wait, disrupting the occasional pursuers with blasts of Repel to give him space.
As he turned a corner, he saw his prize; a red flag with golden letters on it that read “OBJECTIVE.” Grabbing the flag from its podium, Kyle evaded a set of swinging arms from a drone hidden above in an air duct, then rushed out of the house. He felt pretty good about himself, with this being the easiest extraction he’d managed in weeks. Marcus needs to go back to the drawing board with these -, he began, but stopped as he felt a huge amount of mana gathering. His eyes widened as he looked up and saw all the drones he’d evaded in the exterior creating a larger, linked formation in the air above the laboratory entrance. Never mind, he thought, as the mana was released.