An Expansive Forge (Celestial Forge V3/The Expanse.)

[Juwon Oh]

Those aren't accents. That's Belter Creole. It's a language unto itself.

Click to shrink...

I think he's not an expanse fan, or he would've known.

 

[Logos01]

I think he's not an expanse fan, or he would've known.

Click to shrink...

It's hard to imagine but it's /possible/ that someone might be a book-only fan of The Expanse still. Belter Creole was invented for the show.

Mind you, as conlangs go it's a valid example, and is one of the things that put meat on the bones of the setting, what with a couple centuries of linguistic drift and cultural intermixing as one could only imagine isolated profit-driven international colonies would develop in that kind of timespan.

And yeah, you're likely correct. That's why I pointed to the citation.

 

[Xlerons]

Actually, as a long running fan of the show who just recently began reading the books (Having finished Leviathan Wakes, Caliban's War and being halfway through Abaddon's Gate), I can tell you that Belter Creole very much does appear in all 3 of them so far, as well as a host of references to Belter unique body signals via their hands in order to be better express themselves whilst out in space and in space suits, where a head tilt, shoulder shrug or eyebrow movements, for example, are much harder to actually see or detect.

 

[Logos01]

Actually, as a long running fan of the show who just recently began reading the books (Having finished Leviathan Wakes, Caliban's War and being halfway through Abaddon's Gate), I can tell you that Belter Creole very much does appear in all 3 of them so far, as well as a host of references to Belter unique body signals via their hands in order to be better express themselves whilst out in space and in space suits, where a head tilt, shoulder shrug or eyebrow movements, for example, are much harder to actually see or detect.

Click to shrink...

The concept of Belter Creole was in the books, but Belter Creole itself was created for the show. What appears in the books isn't a language, but a hodgepodge of aesthetically chosen loan words from multiple languages without a grammar or syntax structure or even in many cases awareness of the specific meaning of the words used.

 

[Xlerons]

I stand corrected then. You learn something new every day. So it's similar to how, for example, the Dothraki language was expanded upon for the Game of Thrones show as opposed to how it appeared in the Song of Ice and Fire novels then, yes?

 

[nordgard]

Oh heck yeah! I just finished rewatching all seasons of The Expanse, and then managed to stumble upon this.

 

[saugo]

I really like this, there isn't that much expanse fanfiction and throwing the forge on top of that is just pure gold. Really looking forward to reading more and I hope you got better from that flu of yours!

 

[Reece]

You know what's 'funny' about cancer? Cancer is seen by most people as a 'rogue cell cluster'. Something that has mutated, gone wrong and gone rogue in the body; an error that affects the cell replication cycle, which in turn disables the cells 'off switch'. The cells replicate out of control, use up the bodies nutrients and slowly destroy us from the inside. It's not an incorrect way of looking at the whole process, but vastly oversimplified. Or rather, it was not an incorrect way of looking at it. G-cells were cancerous, there was no doubt about that at all. If I did an assay on them with even my 'old' tech I'd find telltale signs of the cell cycle being broken, they sequestered resources from the body, and they created the hypoxic environment that characterized immune system evasion that cancers were known for. But they did so intelligently.

G-cells were a cancer that seemed to be able to 'think.'. I had taken a sample of the injection site from the rabbit and moved it to a slide for observation. What I found was breathtakingly beautiful and pants shittingly terrifying at the same time. The blood sample had all the hallmarks of fighting an infection. There were high concentrations of lymphocytes, neutrophils and monocytes all present; with increasing concentrations around the small clusters of G-cells. A simple way of understanding the way the immune system attacks an invasive organism, is to think of a hill. The body doesn't 'know' where an infection is, but the cells near to the foreign body will release chemicals that notify other cells around it of an infection. The immune cells circulating the body will then come across those chemicals; they follow that chemical trail, moving from the low concentration to the high concentration. That then brings them into contact with the invasive body.

The difference with G-cells, is that they were using that chemokine trail to draw in immune cells for what can be best described as 'conversion.' I was watching macrophages - in real time! - approach the G cell cluster, attempt to phagocytise the offending cell; only to be 'spiked' by an extension of the G cell and injected with what I assumed was G-cell DNA/RNA. Then the macrophage would visually change. At first I thought they were dying, the nucleus collapsed into itself, vacuoles ceased to exist, and clusters of what seemed to be supersized fragments of a chromosome leaked out of the shrunken nucleus. Except the cell didn't split open and come apart; they just went dormant for about a minute. Then they came back to life, not the same as the G-cells, but not macrophages anymore. A cell engaging in the forceful override of another cell is creepy and new, but not entirely out of the realms of sanity. That same hijacked macrophage then swallowing a nearby erythrocyte and spitting out as a similarly changed cell? Yeah that was nightmarish. The G-cells were actively hijacking the body they'd been injected into, and somehow maintaining the function of the original cell. Platelets were still clumping like they should. The injection site still looked oxygenated, and muscles seemed to be working fine.

I'd stained the slide to kill the cells, then packed them away in a wooden slide box, that I'd found in a lab drawer to kill time while the G-cells did their work on the rabbit. At the speed that the half dozen on the slide had worked, I didn't have to wait very long. The results were ... unpleasant.

"Heart rate is elevated, pupils dilated." I turned away the penlight, and stroked down the shivering creatures back. My hand came away covered in clumps of dark fur; I moved my hand away, underneath the balding patches, clusters of new veins were clearly growing underneath the skin. Spreading up it's spine towards the head. I rolled the rabbit onto its stomach and stroked down there as well, clearing the molting hair with a sweep of my hand. Like it's back, more veins were webbing their way under the skin.

"Subject one is showing extensive angiogenesis throughout the abdomen, back, and hindquarters."

The rabbit suddenly turned and tried biting me, I only just moved my hand out of the way in time to avoid it. The aggression wasn't that out of the ordinary for a scared and cornered animal, the mouth full of shark-like teeth however, yeah that was new. "Subject one shows extensive mutation to the mandible and maxilla. The premolars, and molars seem to have been replaced with homologous blue shark upper teeth." I reached back into the cage and pinned the rabbits head to the floor of it, then used my gloved fingers to - as gently as I could given its squirming and attempts to bite me - lifted the lips up to view the rest of the mouthy. "Incisors remain the same...Secondary rows of upper and lower shark teeth have begun to form behind the current teeth, and what appears to be needle like shark teeth have formed behind the incisors."

I let the thoroughly mutated creature up and withdrew my hand - fast again, to avoid the snap it lunged at me with - and closed the cage lid. The rabbit stared up at me with what can only be described as 'hunger', it's beady eyes massive in the now distended looking skull. I kept my pad camera aimed at it while I observed the hairs I'd collected under the microscope. They seemed structurally standard for rabbit hair, except at the base. The base of hair - where the actual follicle was attached - had a ring cluster of G-cells and G-mutated normal cells. I didn't know what that meant. It could be that the G-cells were unable to deal with the already dead hair cells, or it could be that the stress the mutations were putting on the body was killing the hair follicles. All that I could tell for certain, was that these cells were not something I wanted anywhere near me.

"Hnnngg, Hnnngggg, Hnnnnggg!"

I was drawn up from the microscope by scraping and grunting from the cage. The rabbit was having what looked like a seizure. It's body was shaking and twitching madly, and the legs were kicking out, slamming into the bars of the cage. It went on for a good minute, while I fumbled around looking for anything that I could use to restrain the thing; then it stopped. The rabbit rolled back over and sat on its hind legs like nothing had even happened. Most of the hair was now completely gone, and the veins were everywhere under the skin, forming a thick web that gave it the look of bright red marbled with the pale white of sweaty flesh. But there was also something off about the front legs. Walking closer I peered through the bars at the odd looking front legs, the rabbit stilled completely as I got close, watching me with what I would easily call 'anticipation'. When I got close enough to press my nose into the cage bars; it showed me what had changed with its front legs.

"Jesus!" It suddenly leapt across the cage floor, straight for my face. The front 'legs' unfurled and three wicked looking sickle shaped claws slid out with a wet sucking sound. I fell back just as the claws swept through the space my eyes had been. Both of its legs were heavily changed; the forelimb had lengthened to nearly double what it was before, and the joint had rotated one hundred and eighty degrees. It now resembled nothing less than the hook of a Praying Mantis. I lay on the floor as the rabbit scrabbled around, slashing at the bars, the air, the floor of the cage, everything. I only stood again when the claw withdrew, and it pressed its head against the cage bars, staring at me with a - now shining red - eye. I kept my distance from the cage, circling around the feral looking creature. Aside from the immediate - and hellish - changes to the actual anatomy, the thing was also clearly getting bigger. When I put it in the cage, I could have held the body in one hand, now it'd be a struggle to heft it up with both hands. It had gone from the size of well, a rabbit, to the size of a toddler. That sort of growth should have been impossible, and it definitely came with some significant downsides.

"You hungry, huh." I muttered, looking it over from by a lab bench. The G-cells had mutated the hell out of the poor thing; but the calorie cost must have been insane. I could easily make out each rib on the rabbit, and the outline of its spine and leg bones. I couldn't just leave the thing alone though to go grab it a meal from the land outside; I'd seen far too many horror films to fall for that little trope. I could however, secure it properly, then go get it food. There was no secure live storage in this lab, and was I fuck going to move the thing out past the sealed bulkhead at the entrance. That left either trapping any exits from the cage with runs to stun or kill the animal; or, make a better cage. I opted for the latter, primarily as a time saving measure.

"Okay fella, if this works, you get to eat. If not, I'm either going to go splat, or nothing happens." I said, drawing a transmutation circle around the cage. I wasn't trying for anything fancy; just a standard construction circle that any first year alchemist would learn from a decent institution. That in turn was still a wild concept to me, I had knowledge on the theory of the science of alchemy; and it really was a science. I could grab any random guy off the street, sit him down and eventually I'd manage to get the understanding how alchemy works through their skull. Then they'd be able to go out and do it on the street as easily as I could. It was something that I hand't dwelt on until now really, I hadn't had the time; but thinking about it, it was a real game-changer. Earth doesn't extract mineral resources from the ground anymore; it takes them from the belt. That way, Earth can be allowed to heal from all the damage we did to it for the past thousand years; and production can still be done 'locally' on the home-world. Alchemy offered the closest thing to a perfect recycling system - and that was with just my own knowledge, and not with any extensive experimentation - which would change the dynamic entirely. Shipping copper, iron, gold, platinum and other materials in from the belt made sense when the supply on Earth was exhausted. It would make significantly less sense if the UN could build a transmutation circle and turn any random crap they had into anything they want on demand. The knowledge of how a Megas XLR worked was also pretty revolutionary, but it wasn't as immediately accessible as Alchemy was. Hell, in theory a drone swarm could build city sized or larger alchemy circles if you wrote a program for it.

"This better work." I pressed my hands to a transmutation circle for the first time. I was addicted; instantly and without recourse. This was something I'd be doing again, over and over; whenever I got the chance. I was a scientist at heart, I love to study the world around me; learn how it worked and what it was made of. Using the transmutation circle, I could 'feel' the composition of every molecule of metal inside its boundary. I could separate the white sterile tiling from the metal plating underneath, which in turn was different from the grout binding the tiles to the metal flooring. It took nothing more than a gentle push from my mind that lit the spark to begin shaping the material. The circle drew energy from the floating island, sapping away some of the potential energy from the gravity, the magical sunlight, and even the air currents generated by the elementals. I began the first of the three parts of a standard transmutation; I understood the composition of the material I was working with.

The sun symbol at the furthermost point of the circle from me took the energy and split it; feeding an equal amount out to the script on the inner edge. The script in turn began to shape the flooring, geometrically aligned lines folded steel up from the ceramic, shaped tiles into a chute and rose the four walls of the metal flooring to form a solid box on four sides. Reconstruction. It was over with a flare of blue light and a seconds worth of roaring sound. The once smooth floor had been formed into a metal box with an angled ceramic feeding chute at the top. Inside, the caged rabbit peered out the feeder with a glare, it's burning eyes seemed to asses the size of the exit. It gave a low chuff and moved back into the shadowed area of the cage, still glaring at me, but far enough away that I could reach in with little danger. Seemed the thing knew it wouldn't be able to fit through the feeding hole.

"Alright then, lets get you some food." I left the lab - covering the feeding chute with a heavy metal plate just in case - and collected handfuls of grass, strawberries and a few apples for the monster in my lab. I briefly considered feeding it one of the rats, then immediately dismissed the idea. Just because it now had claws that looked like they belonged to some alien insect; didn't mean it actually craved flesh. It might have just wanted to gore me while I was within reach out of spite for what I'd injected it with. While I was out foraging for food; another pulse rocked through my skull. No images, or visions, or even a flash of light. Just a sharp stab of pain that reminded me of being caught out by a particularly bright flashbulb. I didn't get any new knowledge, or any impressions of new material in my tower. Instead, I got a blunt indication of what had just arrived.

"Interesting, an archaic form of the Dulce Fructus. Note, I haven't seen this particular genus since my time in a Martian Agri-dome."

There was a woman in my cupboard. Wait, no, there was a woman, in the forest that was in my cupboard. Bold as brass, and just as garishly coloured. She was waving her red robed arm at one of the apple trees closest to the tower entrance; her back was to me so I couldn't make out much beyond the obvious curve of her rear and trim belted waist. That, and the skull and cog symbol on her back; that at least was uncomfortably familiar. Maybe it was the shock of seeing someone violate my - previously assumed - secure workshop, or perhaps the clearly fictional symbol on her back had me confused enough to not respond by shooting her; or maybe I was just a good person. It didn't really matter why I said what I said; only that I said it.

"Who the fuck are you?"

"Ah! I apologise for the intrusion Magos Sutler." She jumped slightly when I announced myself; turning swiftly to stare at me. I was finally granted a view of what she actually looked like. A short crop of sandy blonde hair poked out from the sides of her hood, her skin was extremely pale, as though she'd spent her entire life inside a cave away from sunlight; and there were two glowing blue pricks of light shining in her eyes. Bright enough to make the colour of the iris completely invisible. She was cute in a 'grad student you should really avoid spending time alone with' sort of way. All wide eyes, clear skin and gentle smiles. I felt a sudden urge to be much nicer to her, maybe even apologise for the swear word from a moment ago.

"Please, allow me to introduce myself Magos. I am Engine Sister Felicia. Here to fill your under-worker lab role." She bowed slightly at the waist, then did a strange movement with her hands; putting them in a 'V' shape, with the thumbs wrapped in the middle.

"Right." I said, standing awkwardly with a sack full of rabbit food in one hand, and the other clutching the pistol in my pocket. After a minute of absolute silence; 'Felicia' gestured towards the tower behind me.

"Shall we enter the laboratorium Magos?" She wanted to come inside? Inside my tower? my tower with a collection of - to her - ancient, evil, and most likely Heretikal technologies. Sure, why not. She'd managed to get into my floating island without the air elementals or invisible servants doing anything about it. Could mean that she was going to be on my side, or she'd been able to completely no-sell them. I had nothing on that; nothing at all. So fuck it, she can come in the lab and chat.

"... Right." I turned on my heel and walked back inside, the Engine-sister hot on my heels; gesticulating idly at the workshop equipment. She was enthused with the 'artfully preserved examples of human workmanship' that I had dotted around the place.

We were both in the lab with the mutant rabbit, I was sat on a bench stool. She opted to stand; the stools weren't fragile, but she apparently weighed a lot more than she looked. A tangle of twisted metal that used to be a lab stool could attest to that. I got the distinct feeling that she was both at ease and incredibly nervous somehow. It reminded me of myself from when I'd stood in front of professors and took questions on research papers I'd written: excited for the opportunity, absolutely dreading the action itself. Eventually - as the silence drew on and became more and more awkward - I broke first and began to speak.

"You called me Magos, outside. Why?" I knew what the title meant; Magi were the endpoint of a lifetimes work studying the sciences. Each of them effectively encompassed an entire highly specialized subject, and was responsible for the research, development and production of everything from planet destroying weapons of mass destruction, down to the most simple MRE's for soldiers. At the very lowest rank they'd be considered a multiple PhD doctor, and at the highest ranks would be comparable to multiple universities full of academics. To be compared to even the lowest rank of Magos was a compliment to be sure; the only problem, was that the Magos didn't exist. They were a fictional rank, for a fictional faction in the fictional world of Warhammer 40K. So either the heavily modified woman in front of me was insane, or she was from another universe. The former was concerning because an insane woman had just broken into my private island; the latter was concerning because it would mean a few things. None of them good. She could be like me: plucked out of her home universe and tossed into this one without so much as a 'by-your-leave'. Since she was calling me 'Magos' I doubted that was the case. She could also be the same as the lab itself, or the knowledge I was being given, which was an objectively better scenario for me, but also intensely creepy.

"Because you are, Magos." A pale, dainty hand emerged from her robe, clutching a thin metal datapad. Accepting it from her, I could tell immediately that it was painfully outdated by the standards of even the oldest 'modern' pad. A solid state power pack set into the base gave just enough juice to run the word program and the encryption for it. The specs weren't that important though, it was what on it that was. The datapad held orders for a full transfer from the Forge World of Hydra Cordatus, Engine-Sister Felicia Markos was to be remanded into my care for the foreseeable future, for assistance in my research and development program. Below the succinct orders, there were several dozen paragraphs of flowery religious script essentially wishing me well, and hoping for my luck on the 'Quest for Knowledge.' It also did address me by name, and designated me as a Magos Prime Biologis. It effectively granted me absolute authority over the nervous woman awkwardly looking around the lab - pointedly ignoring the occasional banging of the mutant rabbit testing its prison walls - and trying to look as small as possible. Said nervous woman's credentials were also included in the orders as well. It gushed mechanically precise praise about her skill with logistical management; and her uncanny ability to bring down enemy structures and vehicles. That of course, was on top of the already impressive skills of a trained sci-fi mechanic, and medical researcher. Even better, she was apprenticed under a cabal of Hydra Cordatus biologists; effectively turning her into an unofficial Magos.

"I am eager to begin assisting you in your research, Magos." She gestured her head to the hitherto ignored rabbit prison; her pupils shone an electric blue again. "The already induced changes are fascinating. It's exactly the sort of research I was hoping to pursue. Do you mind?" She asked, waving a mechandendrite from underneath her hood. I wordlessly gestured to the cage, too busy reading her vast list of previous projects to really pay attention to her words or actions. It was impressive, very dammed impressive. She'd been involved in the extraction of gene-seed, the observation of controlled Tyranaform evolution, integration of chemical glands into a regiment of guardsmen that removed the need to sleep. That was just the tip of the report as well; it barely even touched onto the biomods she'd grown and integrated into herself. The 'cute science girl' look she had, covered up enough slice and dice power to tear down a Carnifex into bite sized chunks. Where a normal techpriest would be buried in steel and cabling, she'd systematically gone over her own body and replaced huge swathes with synthetic organs, and blended organo-techno composites.

"So, it says you're a Master of biology? Specifically when regarding techno-organic synthesis." I asked aloud, almost as much for my own benefit, as for the sake of hearing her confirm it. The datapad, I put down on the lab bench, transferring the entire report to my own personal pad with a casual tap. She was leaning over the rabbit containment unit, peering down through the feeding chute, and jabbing clicking mechadendrites down at it. From the hissing shrieks emanating from inside, it really didn't appreciate the attention.

"Ah." She perked up, looking over her shoulder at me again; the glow of her eyes brightening, then dimming down. She gave a slight, bashful smile. If I wasn't near enough in shock from the utterly bizarre turn of events, I'd have probably thought it was cute. "I wouldn't say I'm a master of anything, Magos Sutler."

"It's what the 'transfer' says."

"Yes ... Magos Aurelia was very appreciative of my assistance on her Orkoid chemical susceptibility." She turned away, hiding her face in her hood, like a bashful schoolgirl. A bashful schoolgirl who just got embarrassed at being praised, for developing anti-bunker defoliants. "My training in the rites of knowledge is truly nothing special. Not when compared to your work, Magos." She gestured to the rabbit containment, clearly trying to shift the topic away from her. I obliged, for the moment. Realistically, if the datapad was accurate, then she was a gifted biologist armed with enough wargear to rival a heavy weapons team. If she was lying, there was dick all I could do about it; and if she wasn't then I'd just gained a very useful ally on a station where I had previously had none. I walked over, adopting my 'lecturer' pose. Arms loosely crossed, face blank, body subtly leaning on the bench.

"What can you tell from here?" I asked, nodding at the top of the chute. She was instantly in 'student' mode. I'd met enough nervous first year lab students to tell. She then did what every nervous first year does, she absolutely dumped her entire understanding of a subject in one long word salad. It was made even more impressive by the fact that she didn't seem to actually need to pause for breathe. It was a continuous spewing of information about the screeching rabbit monster I'd accidentally made.

"... And the way the synthetic fibres mimic the structure of the vegetal cells, it's indicative of some sort of in situ-hybridization. Amazing really, I've only ever seen the use of those intracellular fibers to deliver metabolic resources in Tyranforms." She was gesturing with sharp, mechanical precision. Pointing out snaking fibres that were gently swaying inside the cytoplasm of the G-cells and G-converted cells. They reminded me of spindle fibres; but according to her, they served a similar function to micro-tubules. It would explain how the G-cells were so rapidly overcoming whatever other cells they encountered; using the fibres as a vector for aggressively targeting individual cellular 'organs' for conversion. It didn't explain how they were so easily integrating what should be foreign body cells, but as with all science; that would likely come after more thorough observation and analysis.

"So, you think that's how the body is capable of handling the rapid mutation? The G-cells are forming intracellular fibers to rapidly move material around the body." I questioned as her ramble petered out. A lot of the words she used I was unfamiliar with, but the way she described them and their function tickled my knowledge of my own education enough to keep - relatively well - up with her speculation.

"G-cells? Of course! How foolish of me, this is a hybrid creature isn't it? That would explain this." A mechandedrite snaked out from behind her ear, it beamed a second hologram of what I'd already seen under the microscope. Clusters of normal cells and G-modified cells in the rabbits body; she highlighted the pure G-cells with a red circle. "I was wondering what these cells are. They don't seem to serve much function at first glance. But they are the hybridization vector aren't they?"

"They phagocytize natural cells, and rewrite the genetic structure. Almost like a form of non replicating stem cells. I have some prepared slides already if you wish to see?" I nodded towards the slide box on the tabletop. She, however didn't seem interested.

"Non replicating?" She asked, then awkwardly looked away from me, peering down at the tiles like they held the image of the Omnissiah for her. The awkward staring was at odds with her previous confidence; jarringly so. Perhaps she had some sort of bionics that handled emotional compartmentalization? It wouldn't be the most outrageous thing that a member of the Mechanicus has ever done, some of them went as far as completely castrating their emotional response. So in comparison, a quick and dirty 'ignore emotions until switched off' wasn't particularly out there.

"What?" I asked, knowing full well she was going to try and correct me on something. It was an irritating trait of students when it was their first time in the lab, but if she actually found something, I wanted to know.

"The cells are replicating Magos. Specifically the ones in the stomach, intestines; and the neurons of the insular cortex." The hologram flickered and showed off a three way split of the mentioned areas. Like she said, I watched G-cells envelop free floating material, digest it, then shudder and split in two.

"What are they enveloping?" I asked, gesturing to the stomach and intestinal readouts. It just looked like cellular debris, fragments of when other cells had died and dissolved. The hologram flickered again, showing off a very thorough readout of the molecular structure of what the cells were consuming. "Fructose? It's a big molecule though, bigger than fructose." I wondered aloud after reading the results of the scan. Felicia bobbed her head.

"Yes Magos. It's fructose bound up with various other molecules. Mostly seems to be three-hexenal and dimethylhydroxyfuranol. The scanning process typically doesn't note those bound up molecules, as they are considered 'noise' rather than real data."

"Hmm." It looks like the G-cells are only enveloping the bound fructose though. The cells even engaging with fructose was already strange, if they were hybridizing with the existing rabbit cells; then surely they'd use glucose for energy? Unless they could adapt and switch freely to whichever sugar was most abundant? But then, there shouldn't be any reason to use fructose in the neural cells. The rabbits digestion should turn the fructose into more easily accessible sugars, yet the neural G-cells were clearly prioritizing the bound fructose. I didn't make any sense, unless...

"They're tasting them." I realised out loud. The G-cells weren't interested in the fructose, they were interested in the molecules bound to the fructose. The small bound molecules didn't 'cause flavour' by themselves, no one molecule did. However, they were considered some of the key 'hallmarks' of what made a strawberry taste like a strawberry. Seemed the G-cell wanted them as well. "Have you observed any other types of material being 'eaten' by the G-cells."

She shook her head, then closed down the hologram. "No, Magos."

"So it seems like the G-cells seem to react to the 'taste' of the strawberry then?" I posited, joining her at the side of the feeding chute. Down inside the container, the mutated rabbit glared up at us, waving its Mantis-esque forelimbs menacingly. Felicia cocked her head and turned to face me fully. When she spoke, it was once again in the pained tones of a student trying not to offend a teacher with a correction.

"Possibly? I couldn't truly comment, not with my own lack of data compared to what you must have, Magos."

"I have no data." I admitted breezily, waving off her concern. She was right, it was far too little data to draw an actual conclusion; but I definitely did get the feeling that I was on the right track with the idea of the cells being drawn to the flavour. The molecules she'd highlighted weren't truly useful in any sense; and the fructose even less still. Nothing else I could see would make sense, as to why the G-cells would be preferentially taking them in. By now, I'd moved past my knee-jerk disgust with the mutated rabbit; now I was just fascinated by what it was actually becoming. Something as mutagenic as the G-cells should have killed whatever they were inserted into, but the changes seemed to be near enough 'directed'. As though they'd been intended to be injected into the rabbit. I did wonder idly at what they'd do if introduced to human cells, then immediately disregarded that thought. Medical ethics was never my strongest module, but I did get the basics, and the basics included 'Don't inject potentially mutagenic cells into anything that can think'. That 'deep' appreciation of the ethics of experimental design - however - didn't preclude mutating the rats, though the limited supply of cells may.

"No data? Is this the first production model test?" Felicia asked, producing another datapad from inside her many robe pockets. I nodded, and gestured behind me to the cold room with the G-cell syringes in it. While I did so, she was typing away with a single, many tipped mechadendrite; and at the same time pointing another three - each equipped with some variety of scanner - at the contained rabbit.

"Of sorts, I'll show you." I hedged my bets, from all that I'd seen so far. Felicia seemed like a perfect lab partner. Which indicated that she - like everything else so far - had been a 'gift' from whatever bizarre forced was handing out advanced scientific knowledge, floating island forts, and mystical sand. I assumed that I could probably trust her, after all, I didn't really have a way of getting rid of her even if I wanted to. She was significantly better armed and armoured than I was. So with that decided - for now - I began showing her around the lab.

As though sending my acceptance of my 'lab assistant'; whatever force was granting me power, decided to add another one. It was a big one as well; enough to trigger a sharp throbbing pain and a starburst in my eyes. Big enough that I didn't even feel that pain, or see that flash of light because I was too busy absorbing the enormity of the knowledge base I'd just received. It was the entire - and entirely mature - technology base of what seemed at first to be an alien civilization. However, as I worked my way through the knowledge base, it soon became apparent that it was a human civilization under brutal occupation by an alien one. A nasty one at that, cruel and vicious; with a real 'fun' habit of using various forms of mind control when dealing with dissidents and their own forces. But their technology was as fascinating as it was cruel. Compact plasma weapons, rapid cellulal regeneration; Psychic powers! I could make all of it. The only bottleneck was - in theory - the harvesting of some extra-solar material called 'Elerium'. But that bottleneck didn't exist with me, I had alchemy. The atomic structure of Elerium was simple enough to create a transmutation circle for. Making one that could be used to mass produce the wonder material would take maybe a few days of tweaking to get the best yields; but it was a very simple case of messing around for a few hours at a time to check what gave the best results. In one moment I'd been given the knowledge of how to mass produce actual superpowers.

"Huh." I finally exclaimed after what felt like hours, but was closer to a few seconds. My little jet pistol now felt significantly more under powered compared to the beam or plasma weapons I now knew how to make. Hell, I could pretty easily build something that looked like it was from Warhammer now. Maybe just with less skulls on it.

"Magos?" Felicia queried.

"I er ... Nothing, yet. Come on, here's the alchemy lab." That was for later though, gotta get her settled, then I needed to work on securing that Earth spy. After that - and warning Holden - I could think about settling down for a bit and actually using all the terrifyingly advanced knowledge I'd been given. Hopefully.

E-=-X​

This one was literally like pulling teeth out with a pair of pliers. I'm not a fan of companions in the celestial forge; as I find dumping in a completely new and out there character is a lot harder to compensate for than just throwing in a new power. This one I've been rewriting almost every three days after Jan 11th. But I'm determined to not just 'lol no' an entire category if I can try and make it work instead. I also kept changing the Magos designation. I kept wavering between a Magos Biologis, and a Magos Reductor. Eventually biologis won out on the grounds that being able to kitbash together a photon thrust weapon is kinda fine. But It'd get pretty absurd far too fast when you scale it up to warships and heavier weapons. Plus biologis fits more right now.

This entire part is cringe and trash tier to me. I hate the dialogue, I hate the way it flowed, I hate the way it introduced the new character and followed on from the old one. It's is purely bad; but also If I keep rewriting it, I'm going to end up up bringing in the year 2023 by french kissing a fucking tree at 200mph out of seething frustration at this part. So, I admit my weakness and unleash utter shit, just to get through it.

Things bought this chapter.




-Engine-sister (Warhammer 40k - Adeptus Mechanicus) (100CP)

Voluminous red robes cannot hide the curves beneath, to this woman's eternal embarrassment. Friendly and perky in conversation to both man and machine, she is torn between her desire to be closer to the machine and her attachment to humanity. The possibility of a harmonious union between the two has inspired her to follow you. She has all 100, 200, and 400cp enginseer perks. She also has 'subtle bionics' 'artisan' and one pick of 'magos designation.'

-Peak ADVENT Technology (XCOM 2) (200CP)

Before you defected you were working in some of the most top secret black projects any human had access to. You have an encyclopaedic knowledge of all ADVENT technology, minus some of the genetic manipulation techniques and basically anything that would give away ADVENTs dark secrets.

Total banked points this chapter: `100 (100 total)

EDIT: Housekeeping edits done.

 

[Potato and Chip]

How often is the main character going to get new powers? Because as it stands right now I think he could do quite a lot with what he already has on hand.

 

[hyperspacewizard]

I felt the dialogue was fine I enjoyed the chapter. The tech priest being a biological specialist seems more useful in the long run though I wonder what crazy she'll come up with when she learns alchemy

 

[Reece]

How often is the main character going to get new powers? Because as it stands right now I think he could do quite a lot with what he already has on hand.

Click to shrink...

Every two thousand words do a roll was the starting rule. But for the next chapter it'll be four thousand. If a power comes from that, another four thousand, if not another two thousand.

 

[Potato and Chip]

Every two thousand words do a roll was the starting rule. But for the next chapter it'll be four thousand. If a power comes from that, another four thousand, if not another two thousand.

Click to shrink...

You could make it exponential? 2 thousand, 4 thousand, 8 thousand. That sort of thing. That way you don't have to change your story plans every couple updates or so because your character just gained a new useful superpower that replaces or renders an old one as inferior.

Other then that, nice chapter, I look forward to seeing where this is going.

 

[woodzrox]

This seemed fine to me, but I'm not a writer. Thanks for the chapter!

 

[davelll]

it lives

 

[Kris-71854]

I was sort of rooting for the experimental test subject to kill the idiot. He just made the decision that he didn't want anything of that nature in him. He then sees his test subject behaving very violently and getting stronger visibly.

Let's put our face right next to its cage. That's perfectly safe! Moron. I'd have loved for him to be dead with a spike through his eye and his assistant having to figure out what to do. Meh, she could fix him up and make him better!

The assistant and character interaction came out of the left field. I know. random CF rolls suck. I rather dislike that entire category, to be honest. Some of the AIs or robots weren't bad, but anything else? Nope don't want those folks just suddenly appearing and having to use them as a sidekick.

Finding out that the closest things to the G-cells are the Tyranids, why is that experimental subject still alive? Break out the plasma torches and make sure not an atom of it is left alive.

MC wants to save another colony? He seems more likely to doom those he is with long before than.

Sadly, I bet his test subject is more likely to free itself than he will be able to kill it. Could you imagine it loose on the station? And then the MC just trying to pretend it doesn't exist. Gotta avoid being eaten. Don't go searching for it!

They could claim that the spy was smuggling bioweapons for some odd reason.

 

[Silverwing15]

Peak advent tech?
Huh.
Thats actually kinda rare.
(I mean this is a second story where someone even got it)
Though adeptus mechanicus member is actually really popular and used by quite a few stories.

 

[Travisplo]

"... Right." I turned on my heel and walked back inside, the Engine-sister hot on my heels; gesticulating idly at the workshop equipment. She was enthused with the

We were both in the lab with the mutant rabbit,

Click to shrink...

Something got cut off here.

 

[Inbetweenaction]

It wasn't that bad, it was hard roll.

And he did need an ally, and the expanse is a hard one to figure out whom to ally with, everyone has downsides. So now he is a minor faction that can supply thong to aid his allied factions

 

[Reece]

I was sort of rooting for the experimental test subject to kill the idiot. He just made the decision that he didn't want anything of that nature in him. He then sees his test subject behaving very violently and getting stronger visibly.

Let's put our face right next to its cage. That's perfectly safe! Moron. I'd have loved for him to be dead with a spike through his eye and his assistant having to figure out what to do. Meh, she could fix him up and make him better!

The assistant and character interaction came out of the left field. I know. random CF rolls suck. I rather dislike that entire category, to be honest. Some of the AIs or robots weren't bad, but anything else? Nope don't want those folks just suddenly appearing and having to use them as a sidekick.

Finding out that the closest things to the G-cells are the Tyranids, why is that experimental subject still alive? Break out the plasma torches and make sure not an atom of it is left alive.

MC wants to save another colony? He seems more likely to doom those he is with long before than.

Sadly, I bet his test subject is more likely to free itself than he will be able to kill it. Could you imagine it loose on the station? And then the MC just trying to pretend it doesn't exist. Gotta avoid being eaten. Don't go searching for it!

They could claim that the spy was smuggling bioweapons for some odd reason.

Click to shrink...

A CF companion arriving just as the CF SI gets killed, and then having to navigate their way through an unfamiliar world and deal with the remains of the CF's schizo tech is actually a pretty neat idea.

As for companians, yeah they suck. Sone are significantly worse though. R2D2 is just asupercomputer on wheels; a full 40K Magos is that, plus a weapons engineer, spacecraft designer, walking tank and biological genius. At that point unless I then rolled a Genius capstone; the SI would be pointless in the story. It'd just be 'Magos Mechadick kills everything that looks at him funny, takes over the belt and starts 30K early.

Something got cut off here.

Click to shrink...

Good catch! I'll fix that today, It wasn't anything important, just her liking the 'ancient' machine designs in the workshop.

 

[Tranquil Zebra]

Yeah, I think a big part of the difficulty of suddenly getting +1 companion is that in individual CYOAs, you select them and they get introduced in the "prologue" or soon after, in an organic fashion, while here you suddenly have a techpriest in a magical garden, with no idea how she got there.

 

[Keiran Halcyon]

It's what makes Expanse so awesome that you can't really point at any character and say 'Evil fu-manchu bad guy' or 'white knight hero'. Every character believably operates in a 'bandwidth' between those extremes, depending on circumstances and their choices.

Spoiler: Just in case. Haven't seen the Expanse? Want to? Don't click.

The only real enemy is the massive overarching enemy that was forcing the protomolecule civilization to destroy entire star systems, and presumably even they will have their reasons for having a beef with the proto civ.

 

[tizian.s]

Reece can we get a character page for the main character with all the perks he has ? You could update it after every chapter you upload so we readers don't forget any of his perks.

 

[Reece]

Reece can we get a character page for the main character with all the perks he has ? You could update it after every chapter you upload so we readers don't forget any of his perks.

Click to shrink...

Second post in. I forgot to index it. I'll update it for 4+5 today.

 

[highs2lows]

I like the thought process of the MC so far. I also prefer a human asisstant compared to the kerbals or an animated glove like the other CF fics. I'm looking forward to seeing where this goes.

 

[Aldrich]

Really liked this update, definitely enjoyed the in-depth knowledgable technobabble, it reminds me of BB's celestial forge, except more focused on cause rather then effect. Felicia's introduction was handled well enough, can't say there was any part where the dialog seemed particularly disagreeable. I do think that psy-tech from XCOM will be interesting, especially if Felicia finds out about it. Clearly she's got some kind of normalcy effect on her that stops her from realizing anything is wrong, but I feel like it's going to have to have a limit at some point, either when Mc does actual magic and doesn't get eaten by demons, or when/ if she leaves the workshop.

 

[Judge_Dragon]

Loved this chapter mainly due to the quite legible technobable and the dialog between the engine sister and the MC

 

[Miestwin]

Don't beat yourself over it. It's fine.
I too do not like "human" companions, especially if they're from that much different universe. If they don't have a normalcy+loyalty effect on them, it might go shitballs very fast, and then the story becomes a mess. That's why I, in general, prefer either pets, not fully sapient robots or magical constructs, like Garment Gloves from BCF.
Anyway, good to see you back.

 

[Hydraphur]

Well, in general, yes, from the point of view of balance, the current companion is far from the worst. And although Felicia is more than effective in combat in the current reality, the same Magos with the perks, improvements, and three (!) specializations assigned to him would be an unstoppable machine. Especially Reducto. It's strange that it costs the same as a tech-priest. No, well, you could fly away from him on a ship. Maybe. AI companions like R2 would have just hacked and captured everything in the signal's reach. I liked the chapter as a whole, I'm looking forward to continuing, especially trying to fix some broken trough and fly away to meet the main plot. By the way, will the squat perk be used? Converting mining tools into weapons is always a good thing. My inner Isaac Clark approves.

 

[Toguro]

She was enthused with the

Click to shrink...

End got cut off but other than that it's a awesome chapter

 

[Reece]

End got cut off but other than that it's a awesome chapter

Click to shrink...

Fixed homeslice