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Iron Dawn [Horizon Zero Dawn, Marvel CU]
- Thread starter Cereburn
- Start date
Cereburn
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Reposted Chp 5.
As someone suggested I keep the original and fixed version, the original is hidden in a spoiler if you'd like to compare.
Mostly this fix is addressing the plot hole of the sensor left by the village earlier.
As I've been told I could typo for America should the event be sportalized, I also fixed some of those.
Cereburn
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I find myself trying to world-build in a world someone else already built. Some of this is because we are in a non-canon area, but I think I'm also just getting distracted by writing down how I think this part of the world and its people got to where its at.
I bring this up because I remember in other stories I've read, I've felt a few times that the author was stuffing too much unneeded stuff between the action. I've felt the same about some stories documenting long conversations that don't really show off anything new about the people or what is happening. It seems to be unhelpful filler.
The closest I think I've come on what I've posted to this was in the last chapter were I spent a lot of time figuring out ways for Tony to make stuff.
What do y'all feel about that? Too much? Maybe show the method once, but then assume it happened again later without details?
I bring this up because I remember in other stories I've read, I've felt a few times that the author was stuffing too much unneeded stuff between the action. I've felt the same about some stories documenting long conversations that don't really show off anything new about the people or what is happening. It seems to be unhelpful filler.
The closest I think I've come on what I've posted to this was in the last chapter were I spent a lot of time figuring out ways for Tony to make stuff.
What do y'all feel about that? Too much? Maybe show the method once, but then assume it happened again later without details?
Tzeentch
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Considering Tony's legendary intellectual and engineering prowess, access to nanites, and now has F.R.I.D.A.Y., an A.G.I., to help him out, I'm DEFINITELY looking forward to seeing what tech he might acquire from the Machines, Cauldrons, Focuses, etc, and then rapidly improve on them over the years!
STARK: (looks at Far Zenith) Flight, personal shielding, shapeshifting weaponry, Immortality? Is that all you've got? Come on, I basically figured all of that out AGES ago! I mean, even the Cauldrons I've personally Overrode and then upgraded now have better nano-assemblers than what you've got! However, I will admit that I DO like the "white and gold/everything's an I-Pod" look your architecture and machines have. Gaudy, yet tasteful, VERY "Nouveau Riche".... but I'm guessing that, lazy as most of you are, you probably had your A.I.s do most of, if not ALL the work in building this complex. Am I right? Of course I am.
STARK: (looks at Far Zenith) Flight, personal shielding, shapeshifting weaponry, Immortality? Is that all you've got? Come on, I basically figured all of that out AGES ago! I mean, even the Cauldrons I've personally Overrode and then upgraded now have better nano-assemblers than what you've got! However, I will admit that I DO like the "white and gold/everything's an I-Pod" look your architecture and machines have. Gaudy, yet tasteful, VERY "Nouveau Riche".... but I'm guessing that, lazy as most of you are, you probably had your A.I.s do most of, if not ALL the work in building this complex. Am I right? Of course I am.
Last edited:
Chapter 6: Not Lake Placid
Cereburn
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Chapter 6
Nialo worked with the fishers to pull the floating bridge back to the shore. Every pull of the rope felt like the walls of the world were being pulled back in on him. Now he would be trapped with his mother, her friends and their unending gossip.
Earlier this morning, one of the other patrollers spotted the snapmaws coming back into the lake from downstream. Usually they were not a threat as long as you did not attack them, but they would always tear apart any logs blocking the waterways, including their bridges. Boats in the water would also be targeted, but if you rowed to the short fast enough, they'd ignore you. From this, they had learned years ago that if they made the bridge on floating logs and pulled it out of the way before the maws came, they would ignore them. Any logs that ended up floating away from the shore would get frozen and shattered by the snapmaws.
He recalled the story of the one explorer that thought he could explore the world by floating down the river. He was not fast enough to get to shore, so the snapmaws ate his boat and supplies. He jumped from the boat and tried to attack, he managed to knock loose a piece of armor, but then the eyes of the snapmaw turned red and it rolled over, swung around then caught him and they say he shattered after it froze him like any other log.
He hoped this would be one of the times where they took a few laps of the lake then proceeded up stream. Sometimes, they could be seen digging out the bottom of either the river upstream or downstream or the lake in certain spots or just float, as if asleep. Sometimes after sleeping for more than a day, they'd randomly wake up and move on. Either way, right now they were leaving him stuck on an island that seemed to become smaller and smaller every time he was trapped on it.
---
As Tony walked back down the trail, he waited on updates from their sensor and spared some time to imagine improvements to his travois solution. It was working, but the single wheel only worked right when he held both poles, trying to one-hand it while trying to clear anything in front of him left the travois trying to twist its way out of his other hand. He continued to distract himself from the time required to move such a short distance on foot with the options to fix his design.
A few miles later, Friday fed him images of the snapmaws finally crawling over the downstream lake bridge/dam. He looked incredulous at the clearly robot alligators on a pre-historic scale. Going through the sensor overlays, he observed they were a little over 30 feet long each, appeared to have similar Musculo-skeletal features as the eye-dino he'd found earlier and were definitely the source of some of the short-range beacons they'd picked up previously. Infrared images showed part of the machines appeared much colder than the surrounding body, some kind of sacks around the neck. Also shown were some of the panels on the back appeared to be multifunctional, they looked like photovoltaic panels, but thermals showed they were also being used to radiate heat, the delta was nothing crazy, about 40 degrees C above ambient. In his world, mixing solar power and heat did nothing for you unless you were in arctic temperatures.
He wished he'd tested cutting the metal of that one carcass he'd found, or even tried shooting it with his hunting gauntlet. From what he found, unarmored sections should be vulnerable to both, but he did not want to be in a position where he needed test on a robot alligator that could scare the crap out of the monster from Lake Placid. If Betty White's character were here, what would she feed it? He had no handy cows.
Judging from the sensor feed, the alligators were splitting up and patrolling the lake in opposite directions; one moving south then east, the other north then east to meet back up on the other side where the upstream feed of the lake was likely at.
As long as no one did anything stupid, they might even just move on upriver before he could get there. He and Friday both pondered the creatures as Tony walked, looking at possible weak spots and what other things they might learn.
---
Another hour of walking and observing showed the alligators repeated their patrol of the lake a few more times then came to a spot on the south side of the lake and sat floating with their solar panels just above the surface of the water. He could now see them for himself as he'd just arrived back at the spot he'd been at before.
"Friday, any progress with the signals you're getting from these guys?"
"No Boss, they're being pretty quiet right now, no new broadcasts since they stopped moving."
Tony stepped away from the shore and put down his travois behind some nearby trees then returned to watch. He then shifted his sight to the right and looked at the island village.
"Anything new from our village friends?"
"The few conversations I've picked up were prayers for them to proceed up river soon. They seem to be praying to the 'Mother of the Waters'. I've heard mention of The Mother before, but this is the first time they've apparently started calling on her with the full name since we started recording."
"Anything interesting conversations about her?"
"Not so much Boss, so far the times it comes up are in greetings, goodbyes and pleas for various character improvements."
"Let me know if any of the kids start getting a lesson about their water mom, that sounds like an interesting lesson. So nothing about taking any action about these guys?"
"No Boss, although I did hear someone telling a teenager a horror story of a guy that tried to fight one and got frozen and broken into pieces. The teenager is now reconsidering how to prove his manhood."
"Frozen and broken into pieces? Are these guys are using cryogenics as a weapon?" Tony began scanning back through the recorded video again, but found no examples of these guys even opening their maws.
Looking around, he decided to see what they'd do if presented with some trash in the water. He looked through the underbrush and found a few branches after a short walk; apparently these village guys do clean up around here occasionally. He walked back to the shore, took another look at the alligators to see if they were facing him, they weren't; he tossed in the sticks as far as he could, which ended up being about 30 feet from the shore then he retreated into the woods to watch through the sensor.
Nothing immediately happened for a short while, about 5 minutes later though one of the robo-gaters turned to look in the direction where Tony through the sticks then began swimming towards them. Tony rechecked the feed from the sensor, as the angle on the swimming machine wasn't a direct line to the woody trash, but on a trajectory to where the current was taking it. So these guys could anticipate target positions. Definitely good to know.
When the snapmaw intercepted the trash, the eyes turned yellow then it opened up its big mouth, but then something unexpected happened, it sprayed the branches with liquid that was clearly very cold, the branches turned white with ice frozen to them from the river. After the spray stopped the machine snapped its jaws and frozen shards of the branches exploded around it. The snapmaw refroze and snapped any pieces larger than about foot then proceeded to swim upstream, its eyes still yellow and, he assumed, looking for the source of the trash. However, after it passed his previous position on the shore, it did not stop, just kept swimming on its previous patrol around the lake. Finally, it stopped next to its partner and resumed its floating vigil; the eyes returning to their previous blue color.
I definitely need to report these guys for not posting a no swimming sign.
"How do you think our holo-shields would do against that spray, Friday?"
"The shield itself would be fine, but the emitters would likely freeze up after a few hits and short out. What're you thinking Boss?"
"I'm thinking I don't want to test how well the shields will work against that while I'm wearing them."
"Lets go north around the lake and see if we can find where they've got their tied up bridge at, maybe we can find a good spot to wave at them and talk."
"Ok, Boss."
---
After walking a little more than a quarter around the shore of the lake, they were relieved that the snapmaws took no notice of them and they finally got a look at the other side of the village.
This side was much closer to the shore than the downstream side, it appeared they were only about 70 feet from the short of the lake. Hanging above the water was a pair of ropes fasted about 5 feet above the water level from what looked like a large log post on the shore supported by a cairn of rocks surrounding it and further re-enforced by the ropes continuing down into another log buried at a 45 degree angle and covered with a pile of rocks anchoring it to the shore. The other side was attached to a pillar of rock jutting from the cliff near a path leading up into the village, from this angle, they could see it was about half slope and mixed with hand carved steps.
Along the shallow shore below the cliffs were several floating flat top barges pulled up on the shore and tied down to rock anchors in the dirt. Each barge also had poles on the ends about 6 feet tall with what looked like wooden J-hooks clearly meant to ride on the ropes and keep the bridge in place when in use.
Tony briefly considered the rather girthy ropes and wondered what they were using to make them. They looked like hemp ropes, but he'd not seen that plant so far. They also looked strong enough to support someone's weight by themselves and made a note to himself to look at rope tools he might use.
Continuing to walk around the lake, they also spotted the upstream feed of the lake, this did not seem to be a fallen bridge like the other side, just a wide creek leading west and a bit of a curve northward, likely leading back to the Hudson. It was southwest of the bridge anchor, about 50 yards. Around the bridge anchor was a fairly wide, cleared area of beach with evidence of fire pits, some grass roofed rain shelters and places to sit and likely work. Tony could see an area with flat stones that might be for threshing wheat and some large hollowed out stone bowls likely used to grind it.
Clearly, somewhere around here were some harvestable grains, so these weren't just fishers. Something to ask about later. Speaking of asking, Tony looked across the lake back to the island and found not only the bridge, but a few people hanging around the top of the stair/slope to the village and he waved hello at them. One of the kids waved back while an older woman clearly told another kid to go tell someone about the guy waving at them.
"Ok, Friday, time to setup a show; I hope we can do better than the cable shopping network."
Nialo worked with the fishers to pull the floating bridge back to the shore. Every pull of the rope felt like the walls of the world were being pulled back in on him. Now he would be trapped with his mother, her friends and their unending gossip.
Earlier this morning, one of the other patrollers spotted the snapmaws coming back into the lake from downstream. Usually they were not a threat as long as you did not attack them, but they would always tear apart any logs blocking the waterways, including their bridges. Boats in the water would also be targeted, but if you rowed to the short fast enough, they'd ignore you. From this, they had learned years ago that if they made the bridge on floating logs and pulled it out of the way before the maws came, they would ignore them. Any logs that ended up floating away from the shore would get frozen and shattered by the snapmaws.
He recalled the story of the one explorer that thought he could explore the world by floating down the river. He was not fast enough to get to shore, so the snapmaws ate his boat and supplies. He jumped from the boat and tried to attack, he managed to knock loose a piece of armor, but then the eyes of the snapmaw turned red and it rolled over, swung around then caught him and they say he shattered after it froze him like any other log.
He hoped this would be one of the times where they took a few laps of the lake then proceeded up stream. Sometimes, they could be seen digging out the bottom of either the river upstream or downstream or the lake in certain spots or just float, as if asleep. Sometimes after sleeping for more than a day, they'd randomly wake up and move on. Either way, right now they were leaving him stuck on an island that seemed to become smaller and smaller every time he was trapped on it.
---
As Tony walked back down the trail, he waited on updates from their sensor and spared some time to imagine improvements to his travois solution. It was working, but the single wheel only worked right when he held both poles, trying to one-hand it while trying to clear anything in front of him left the travois trying to twist its way out of his other hand. He continued to distract himself from the time required to move such a short distance on foot with the options to fix his design.
A few miles later, Friday fed him images of the snapmaws finally crawling over the downstream lake bridge/dam. He looked incredulous at the clearly robot alligators on a pre-historic scale. Going through the sensor overlays, he observed they were a little over 30 feet long each, appeared to have similar Musculo-skeletal features as the eye-dino he'd found earlier and were definitely the source of some of the short-range beacons they'd picked up previously. Infrared images showed part of the machines appeared much colder than the surrounding body, some kind of sacks around the neck. Also shown were some of the panels on the back appeared to be multifunctional, they looked like photovoltaic panels, but thermals showed they were also being used to radiate heat, the delta was nothing crazy, about 40 degrees C above ambient. In his world, mixing solar power and heat did nothing for you unless you were in arctic temperatures.
He wished he'd tested cutting the metal of that one carcass he'd found, or even tried shooting it with his hunting gauntlet. From what he found, unarmored sections should be vulnerable to both, but he did not want to be in a position where he needed test on a robot alligator that could scare the crap out of the monster from Lake Placid. If Betty White's character were here, what would she feed it? He had no handy cows.
Judging from the sensor feed, the alligators were splitting up and patrolling the lake in opposite directions; one moving south then east, the other north then east to meet back up on the other side where the upstream feed of the lake was likely at.
As long as no one did anything stupid, they might even just move on upriver before he could get there. He and Friday both pondered the creatures as Tony walked, looking at possible weak spots and what other things they might learn.
---
Another hour of walking and observing showed the alligators repeated their patrol of the lake a few more times then came to a spot on the south side of the lake and sat floating with their solar panels just above the surface of the water. He could now see them for himself as he'd just arrived back at the spot he'd been at before.
"Friday, any progress with the signals you're getting from these guys?"
"No Boss, they're being pretty quiet right now, no new broadcasts since they stopped moving."
Tony stepped away from the shore and put down his travois behind some nearby trees then returned to watch. He then shifted his sight to the right and looked at the island village.
"Anything new from our village friends?"
"The few conversations I've picked up were prayers for them to proceed up river soon. They seem to be praying to the 'Mother of the Waters'. I've heard mention of The Mother before, but this is the first time they've apparently started calling on her with the full name since we started recording."
"Anything interesting conversations about her?"
"Not so much Boss, so far the times it comes up are in greetings, goodbyes and pleas for various character improvements."
"Let me know if any of the kids start getting a lesson about their water mom, that sounds like an interesting lesson. So nothing about taking any action about these guys?"
"No Boss, although I did hear someone telling a teenager a horror story of a guy that tried to fight one and got frozen and broken into pieces. The teenager is now reconsidering how to prove his manhood."
"Frozen and broken into pieces? Are these guys are using cryogenics as a weapon?" Tony began scanning back through the recorded video again, but found no examples of these guys even opening their maws.
Looking around, he decided to see what they'd do if presented with some trash in the water. He looked through the underbrush and found a few branches after a short walk; apparently these village guys do clean up around here occasionally. He walked back to the shore, took another look at the alligators to see if they were facing him, they weren't; he tossed in the sticks as far as he could, which ended up being about 30 feet from the shore then he retreated into the woods to watch through the sensor.
Nothing immediately happened for a short while, about 5 minutes later though one of the robo-gaters turned to look in the direction where Tony through the sticks then began swimming towards them. Tony rechecked the feed from the sensor, as the angle on the swimming machine wasn't a direct line to the woody trash, but on a trajectory to where the current was taking it. So these guys could anticipate target positions. Definitely good to know.
When the snapmaw intercepted the trash, the eyes turned yellow then it opened up its big mouth, but then something unexpected happened, it sprayed the branches with liquid that was clearly very cold, the branches turned white with ice frozen to them from the river. After the spray stopped the machine snapped its jaws and frozen shards of the branches exploded around it. The snapmaw refroze and snapped any pieces larger than about foot then proceeded to swim upstream, its eyes still yellow and, he assumed, looking for the source of the trash. However, after it passed his previous position on the shore, it did not stop, just kept swimming on its previous patrol around the lake. Finally, it stopped next to its partner and resumed its floating vigil; the eyes returning to their previous blue color.
I definitely need to report these guys for not posting a no swimming sign.
"How do you think our holo-shields would do against that spray, Friday?"
"The shield itself would be fine, but the emitters would likely freeze up after a few hits and short out. What're you thinking Boss?"
"I'm thinking I don't want to test how well the shields will work against that while I'm wearing them."
"Lets go north around the lake and see if we can find where they've got their tied up bridge at, maybe we can find a good spot to wave at them and talk."
"Ok, Boss."
---
After walking a little more than a quarter around the shore of the lake, they were relieved that the snapmaws took no notice of them and they finally got a look at the other side of the village.
This side was much closer to the shore than the downstream side, it appeared they were only about 70 feet from the short of the lake. Hanging above the water was a pair of ropes fasted about 5 feet above the water level from what looked like a large log post on the shore supported by a cairn of rocks surrounding it and further re-enforced by the ropes continuing down into another log buried at a 45 degree angle and covered with a pile of rocks anchoring it to the shore. The other side was attached to a pillar of rock jutting from the cliff near a path leading up into the village, from this angle, they could see it was about half slope and mixed with hand carved steps.
Along the shallow shore below the cliffs were several floating flat top barges pulled up on the shore and tied down to rock anchors in the dirt. Each barge also had poles on the ends about 6 feet tall with what looked like wooden J-hooks clearly meant to ride on the ropes and keep the bridge in place when in use.
Tony briefly considered the rather girthy ropes and wondered what they were using to make them. They looked like hemp ropes, but he'd not seen that plant so far. They also looked strong enough to support someone's weight by themselves and made a note to himself to look at rope tools he might use.
Continuing to walk around the lake, they also spotted the upstream feed of the lake, this did not seem to be a fallen bridge like the other side, just a wide creek leading west and a bit of a curve northward, likely leading back to the Hudson. It was southwest of the bridge anchor, about 50 yards. Around the bridge anchor was a fairly wide, cleared area of beach with evidence of fire pits, some grass roofed rain shelters and places to sit and likely work. Tony could see an area with flat stones that might be for threshing wheat and some large hollowed out stone bowls likely used to grind it.
Clearly, somewhere around here were some harvestable grains, so these weren't just fishers. Something to ask about later. Speaking of asking, Tony looked across the lake back to the island and found not only the bridge, but a few people hanging around the top of the stair/slope to the village and he waved hello at them. One of the kids waved back while an older woman clearly told another kid to go tell someone about the guy waving at them.
"Ok, Friday, time to setup a show; I hope we can do better than the cable shopping network."
Last edited:
Cereburn
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Chapter 6 is up. I hope you enjoy it.
No teaser for Chapter 7 ready yet. I"m currently traveling this week, making time to write has been resource sparse.
No teaser for Chapter 7 ready yet. I"m currently traveling this week, making time to write has been resource sparse.
It occurs to me that I forgo tot have Tony temper the steel of the knifes, so they will be a bit soft and bendy. hmm...I think I'll have to write around it. Quenching in water isn't as good as quenching in oil for this, but it is still better than no tempering.
Now I'm worried about what else I forgot.
Now I'm worried about what else I forgot.
Cereburn
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Teaser Chapter:
Chapter 7: Fire Sale
On the beach opposite the village, Tony found a well used firepit dug into the ground. Deciding on making a show of tempering the blades, he started looking for the things he'd need to make a quenching vessel. A sheet metal tub being unavailable and not wanting to "magic" one out of what looked like nothing, he decided to something similar to when he made molds earlier, just on a larger scale. The cutting laser, he was going to blame on re-making what he saw one of the machines doing. Tony, as always, wanted his reputation to be earned for stuff he made not mystical hooky-pookism. He mentally pushed back inconvenient thoughts of Clark's law; hoping his tech wasn't too far removed from other stuff they'd seen that they'd believe it too was magic.
He walked about a bit looking for any fallen trees, not finding any; he assumed the villagers already cut any of those up for firewood, he instead found a tree about 50 feet back from the shore on a small rise that appeared to be dying, it looked like a previous storm had pushed it over about 40 degrees, pulling up part of the rootball and damaging the taproot. Some quick work with his cutting laser and a few trips with his unloaded travois brought several logs near the fire. First, he cut in half a log that was about 12 inches in diameter and about 3 foot long. As before, he then built a fire and set those two longs to lean over the fire to start burning out the heart of the logs.
While the fire was going, he went back through the logs and started cutting a few more into some sized for sitting on and put those around the fire on the opposite side of where he was going to be working. A clear invitation to the villagers to come over when they decided it was safe.
Although his ego pricked him a bit here so he did not resist making a rough stool for himself using a 2 inch log slice, he then cut four holes in a rough square and began searching through the branches of the fallen tree for appropriate sized legs. After a little careful work to cut round two inch long tenons in the legs, he put them into the holes, then trimmed the branches down so it'd sit level. Giving his stool a test, it worked fine. He set the laser to a lower power to burn instead of cut, then burned his initials into the chair, "A.S."
F.R.I.D.A.Y., deciding to be a bit cheeky chimed in, "Boss, you forgot an S."
Chapter 7: Fire Sale
On the beach opposite the village, Tony found a well used firepit dug into the ground. Deciding on making a show of tempering the blades, he started looking for the things he'd need to make a quenching vessel. A sheet metal tub being unavailable and not wanting to "magic" one out of what looked like nothing, he decided to something similar to when he made molds earlier, just on a larger scale. The cutting laser, he was going to blame on re-making what he saw one of the machines doing. Tony, as always, wanted his reputation to be earned for stuff he made not mystical hooky-pookism. He mentally pushed back inconvenient thoughts of Clark's law; hoping his tech wasn't too far removed from other stuff they'd seen that they'd believe it too was magic.
He walked about a bit looking for any fallen trees, not finding any; he assumed the villagers already cut any of those up for firewood, he instead found a tree about 50 feet back from the shore on a small rise that appeared to be dying, it looked like a previous storm had pushed it over about 40 degrees, pulling up part of the rootball and damaging the taproot. Some quick work with his cutting laser and a few trips with his unloaded travois brought several logs near the fire. First, he cut in half a log that was about 12 inches in diameter and about 3 foot long. As before, he then built a fire and set those two longs to lean over the fire to start burning out the heart of the logs.
While the fire was going, he went back through the logs and started cutting a few more into some sized for sitting on and put those around the fire on the opposite side of where he was going to be working. A clear invitation to the villagers to come over when they decided it was safe.
Although his ego pricked him a bit here so he did not resist making a rough stool for himself using a 2 inch log slice, he then cut four holes in a rough square and began searching through the branches of the fallen tree for appropriate sized legs. After a little careful work to cut round two inch long tenons in the legs, he put them into the holes, then trimmed the branches down so it'd sit level. Giving his stool a test, it worked fine. He set the laser to a lower power to burn instead of cut, then burned his initials into the chair, "A.S."
F.R.I.D.A.Y., deciding to be a bit cheeky chimed in, "Boss, you forgot an S."
Cereburn
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I'm trying to remember to write in the flaws that Tony has; even in Endgame where he was older and a bit more chill after, what I assume to be a crap load of therapy after his return from Thanos' world Tony was still plenty ready to toot his own horn and be in control of whatever it was that he was involved with.
I've also done more edits to chapter one and reposted that. The old version has been put into a spoiler if you want to compare.
I've also done more edits to chapter one and reposted that. The old version has been put into a spoiler if you want to compare.
I'm also thinking, due to having teenage hormones again, at some point he's going to see a pretty girl and perhaps backslide a bit into his playboy ways.
Keep in mind, Aloy isn't even incubating yet - there will be no slash content with her and Tony.
Thoughts?
Keep in mind, Aloy isn't even incubating yet - there will be no slash content with her and Tony.
Thoughts?
Last edited:
Chapter 7: Fire Sale
Cereburn
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Chapter 7: Fire Sale
[h2][/h2]On the beach opposite the village, Tony found a well-used firepit dug into the ground. Deciding on making a show of tempering the blades, he started looking for the things he'd need to make a quenching vessel. A sheet metal tub being unavailable and not wanting to "magic" one out of what looked like nothing, he decided to do something similar to when he made molds earlier, just on a larger scale. The cutting laser, he was going to lie and say he re-made something that he saw a rare machine doing. Tony, as always, wanted his reputation to be earned for stuff he made not mystical hooky-pookism. He mentally pushed back inconvenient thoughts of Clark's law; hoping his tech wasn't too far removed from other stuff they'd seen that they'd believe it too was magic.He walked about looking for any fallen trees, not finding any; he assumed the villagers already cut any of those up for firewood, he instead found a tree about 50 feet back from the shore on a small rise that appeared to be dying, it looked like a previous storm had pushed it over about 40 degrees, pulling up part of the root ball and damaging the taproot. Some quick work with his cutting laser and a few trips with his unloaded travois brought a pile of logs near the fire. First, he cut in half a log that was about 12 inches in diameter and about 3 foot long. As before, he then built a fire and set those two logs to lean over the fire to start burning out their heart wood.
While the fire was going, he went back through the pile and started cutting a few more logs into some sized for sitting on and put those around the fire on the opposite side of where he was going to be working. A clear invitation to the villagers to come over when they decided it was safe.
Although his ego pricked him a bit here, so he did not resist making a rough stool for himself using a 2 inch log slice, he then cut four holes in a rough square and began searching through the branches of the fallen tree for appropriate sized legs. After a little careful work to cut two inch long tenons in the legs, he put them into the holes, then trimmed the branches down so it'd sit level. Giving his stool a test, it worked fine. He set the laser to a lower power to burn instead of cut, then burned his initials into the chair, "A.S."
F.R.I.D.A.Y., deciding to be a bit cheeky chimed in, "Boss, you forgot an S."
"Very funny Friday, how're you doing with the signals work, any news from the robo-gators or GPS?"
"The snapmaws, as the villagers call them, are still chilling in the south side of the lake. The GPS decryption sub-processes are still working on it. "
"In a while, I'm going to need the induction heater from the smelter to heat up some things to temper them. Also, whenever I need to grab a tool, I'm going to go to the bag for it, assemble the nanites there after I stick my hand in the bag when needed please."
"Gotcha Boss"
---
A few hours later, he had completed his quenching vessel after carving out the charred insides coating the edges with some clay then clamping the two sides together and tying them with some of the spare wire from earlier. He then filled it with water and was satisfied that it did not immediately start dripping.
Next, he emptied out the catchall module of his back pack and reclaimed the nanites from that and re-assembled the induction heater but without the smelting section nor wire die. Setting the heater on a log, he then reached into his bag and pulled out a set of nanite made tongs, then held one of the un-handled blades into the heater. When it came up to a glowing orange on the edges and more cherry red in the middle, he pulled the knife out then plunged it into the water.
When a short burst of steam puffed out, he heard through his sensors a few surprised gasps from the islanders watching him work and he grinned knowing he had their attention.
After a few minutes, he pulled the quenched blade out and set it aside in the sand to finish cooling then started on the rest of the blades without handles.
"Boss, the snapmaws are on the move!" said an alerted Friday. "They're heading this way, but don't' seem to be in a rush."
"Ok, might be they're moving on. Let's shut down the heater and pretend we are putting it away in the bag."
Suiting action to words, they did that and by the time Tony turned around, he saw and heard that the islanders had also seen the snapmaws. Families herded their children back up the stairs and followed, keeping a wary eye on the mechanical creatures from the safety of the village height.
Over the next 10 minutes, the robo-gators swam upstream under the rope line for the bridge and past Tony's impromptu smithing show; their eyes stayed blue the entire way then they were into the river on the northern side and out of the lake.
With a thoughtful look at the machines leaving the area, Tony asks Friday "If those two are doing a patrol of the river from it's head to the ocean, how long do you figure till they come back this way?"
Cautiously Friday responds, "There's a lot of assumptions there Boss, how many obstacles do they need to clean up, are they going to pick a spot to linger in again, are they the only ones doing the patrol or are they the only two on just this section of river. The villagers haven't said much about how frequently they come by, just that they sometimes go through the lake quickly and sometimes they linger a while before moving on."
"Boss, I think the best bet here is to ask the locals."
Tony looks back at said locals, still watching the river and not prepping their bridge yet and impatiently replies, "I'd agree if they'd get off their butts and get here."
Walking back to where he'd been working, he saw that he still had two untreated knife "blanks" left along with the knives he'd put handles on but had not treated.
Reaching into his bag again, he pulled out some pliers and began loosening the wire wrapping on the handles, removing the wood then setting them aside in preparation to re-fasten them on treated knives. He next picked up one of the treated knife blanks and checked the edge, the edge felt a bit dull, it appeared to have curled a bit in the tempering process. Sub-vocally speaking with Friday, he put the tongs and pliers away and pulled out a medium sized pull saw. With the saw, he selected another log, about two feet long, put it on its end then cut a groove into the other end, about three quarters of an inch deep and just wide enough for a knife blank to fit in; which he then did with one of the treated blanks. After a little wiggling to make sure it would not slip out, he put "away" the saw and pulled out sharpening tools and went to work realigning the curled edge and re-sharpening the blade. Once it was decently sharp again, he put it into a set of handles, re-wrapped it and then stabbed it into a log then he continued working on the other knives in the same pattern until the ready handles were used up. He left the remaining treated blanks without handles after he sharped them.
Next, Tony pulled out the heater again, this time using pliers to fold over a six inch piece of wire from the middle to form a loop then twist the remaining wire into a one-inch two-sided hook, then treating and quenching it so the wire would stiffen up. He next used a file to sharpen the hook ends and cut shallow barbs behind those tips.
After about an hour and a half, as he finished his fourth set of hooks, Friday let him know that the islanders were finally messing with their floating bridge. They hooked the first "link" of the bridge to the guide rope with a hook carved into a vertical log post at the bow and began pushing it into the river, as the stern came to the rope, a similar hooked post was there to meet the rope along with a smaller looped rope around the stern post and the bow post of the next link, tying them together; this link by link bridge building continued for nine links covering the gap between the island and the shore.
---
Nialo was, as usual, the first to get across the bridge, although this time he was with a few of the other tough men from his village and had the chief behind them. He and the others were curious about the crazy man that had returned after passing through before. Also wary, not all traders were honest in what they sold or who they claimed to be.
As they crossed the bridge, the trader stood up and oddly put his back pack back on, although leaving his wares down. Looking to his Chief Hul'ka, he gave a sign to give the man some space.
The Chief approached and called out, "You are not someone we have met before, why have you come to our lake?"
Tony noted the chief was a well sized guy, but clearly not as big as he used to be, he still held himself up with strength, but he recognized a fighting man gone to pasture, he'd met many before. Unlike some of them, the eyes on this one said he hadn't suffered too many concussion over the years. He decided not to embellish too much, such men had called him on it in the past and right now, he did not have the money and resources to back up his bragging. Not that he wouldn't brag at all, but maybe turn it down to 6 instead of 11.
Standing and speaking clearly as the chief was still about 10 yards away, "Hi, I'm Tony, yes I'm new here, unfortunately most of my trade items and companions are somewhere else, so my selection is a little light at the moment, but I'm certain you can judge the quality of my wares for yourself. Please join me." He finished waiving at the seats.
The chief looked at the logs available to sit on for a bit, making it clear he would sit himself when he chose too, not when told. He then turned to his men and signaled them to let the other villagers get about their usual chores although Nialo stayed to guard the chief. Seeing that his folks were about their business, he then went over and sat down across from Tony; taking the time to look over the wares Tony had set out. "I see you have knives, is that all?"
By this time, the fishers of the village had come out across the bridge and were setting up lines to fish from while other villagers kept moving across the bridge and into the forest to, assumedly, forage for other things.
Tony reached out and picked up a pair of his finished hooks and handed one over, "You might find your fishing improved by some of these. Notice the sharpened hooks on both sides made of tempered steel. Once a fish goes for the bait on one of these, there's twice the chance the hook will catch and it will stay caught until you reel in the string."
Then, picking up one of the knives, "and then you can easily scale and filet the fish with one of my steel knives." He said while mimicking the actions of filleting a fish.
The chief was interested, but doubtful. He held up the hook and asked, "I'd like to test it before we discuss any price."
Tony looked conflicted, thinking of the ways this could fail then asked, "How deep is the river under the bridge where you usually fish?"
Remembering when he was a bit younger and had liked to swim around the bridge himself, the Chief recalled, "About twice as tall as a man. Why do you ask?"
Tony had not done much actual fishing as a child, it took Barton to get him to sit still enough to try it, but he remembered what Barton had showed him. Of course, there was no rod nor reel, but he could make do. "I'd be happy to show you a bit how we do it where I come from, but I'm out of fishing line, can you give me about 30 feet to use?"
It did not seem an unreasonable request to Hul'ka, but the length was longer than they usually used for fishing, so his curiosity was even more piqued than before. He looked over towards the bridge, looking for a specific face, and seeing her on the near side of the bridge, teaching one of the younger fishers, he called out, "U'nia! U'nia, bring me one of the spindles of fishing line."
She looked up and waved back an acknowledgement, then hook the line of her young fisher and sent him to run up to the village to get the requested spindle. Not long later, strung between a stick with two forks on both ends was a length of string in the hands of a young boy about ten running back across the bridge. As he got near to U'nia, she waved him on to the Chief and told him to return to his line after he dropped off the spool. The young boy kept running until he reached the chief and handed over the spool. The Chief looked at him, "You might make a better running than a fisher, but that will be for U'nia to decide. Thank you."
Sensing his dismissal, the boy ran back to the bridge and the nod of approval from U'nia when he got there.
Back at the trade seats, Hul'ka pulled off the requested length of line, coiling it neatly at his feat as he pulled it off the spindle which he then cut which is own knife that appeared to be a piece of metal recovered from a machine Tony observed.
Tony took the line and measured ten feet of it where he tied a knot. He then reached into his backpack for 'his last bobber' and slid that onto the line and tied another knot after the bobbin so the line would not slide either way through it. He then tied on the hook at the end then baited it with some of his turkey jerky. Standing up, he started walking to the shore; but was also subvocalizing. "Friday, find me some big fish please to drop this hook on."
The display in his googles took on an overlay allowing him to see through the water like polarized lenses, but then Friday started highlighting spots where fish should be, or highlighting the actual fish when she found them. Before tossing the line he made a loop of the other end and put it around his wrist, then spun the hook weighted with his bait and tossed it out in the direction of the big fish towards a set of broken trees by the shore and not into the river from the bridge as the others were fishing.
This had many with their eyes on him instead of their own lines; however, not long after casing, the bobber ducked under the water once, twice and then Tony jerked the line and started pulling it back in with a clear fight on the other end of the line. Not long later, he returned to the Chief with much larger than average fish. He then showed how the both sides of the hook had actually caught this time, near the side of the mouth in the top and bottom jaws. With a bit of wiggling, he got the hook free and on an unused seat, cum table, he started butchering the fish, but instead stabbed the fish through the head with the knife and pushed the table back to the Chief, "Please try out my knife."
Impressed, the Chief took up the knife and began to expertly take apart the fish. Tony was secretly relieved, he was never good at filleting a fish, he always ended up with bones all over everything.
As he was working through separating the fish into edible and inedible parts, the Chief started the discussion on price. "So what would you like to trade for your hooks and knifes? Would you also trade for the floating balls?"
"Um, actually, the bobber is my last one, but you can make them from wood or anything else that floats. As far as the price, what I'm after right now is a bit of travel food and information. As I said, I'm new to the area and I was separated from the rest of my, uh…caravan. The maps that I remember are a bit different from what I'm seeing, I'm hoping you can help me get to where they should meet up with me." Tony hoped his lie was close enough to the truth expected to not get called on it. Suddenly Tony remembered something else he needed, "Oh, also, certain metals, if you happen to collect some, I'd be interested in those."
Cereburn
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Long time no post - sorry for the delay - have been fighting writers block on dealing with the conversations with the villagers - mentally getting stuck on the other end - Tony getting clues about the area instead of thinking through where Tony is at that moment.
I don't have a teaser for the next chapter either - I am considering dumping this visit into a summary along the lines of "Tony visited a village and they told him to go to yada yada way." instead of building up actual interactions with Tony and people of the time. I want Tony to get an appreciation for folks as they are in the now of the story. I'm struggling to internalize why that is important, but I know it is for later story telling.
Sorry for the lateness, thanks for your patience.
I don't have a teaser for the next chapter either - I am considering dumping this visit into a summary along the lines of "Tony visited a village and they told him to go to yada yada way." instead of building up actual interactions with Tony and people of the time. I want Tony to get an appreciation for folks as they are in the now of the story. I'm struggling to internalize why that is important, but I know it is for later story telling.
Sorry for the lateness, thanks for your patience.
GeekGod_of_Speed
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I agree with summarising plot like that, it's hard to sympathise with the natives when I don't recognise them and I'm under the impression Tony isn't going to interact with them after this, only way I could see avoiding these issues is a character like Sylens or Aloy that seek knowledge and act as an interface between tony and any tribals while acting as an apprentice or getting tony to set down roots and start building infrastructure
Cereburn
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There are some key plot points that Tony needs to get from the locals before I can connect Tony to reasons to move West towards GAIA Prime.
So far we are still Pre-Nemesis signal --Gaia is alive and Aloy is only a protocol that Gaia is sitting on because she doesn't have a critical enough failure to need her(Light Keeper protocol).
Some of the things I want from this story are for Tony to meet pre-signal Gaia, develop a relationship enough with her (and Hephaestus sub-function) that they can exchange ideas and see where tech goes after the NS when Hephaestus runs with some of those ideas. Additionally I'm wanting to plant Tony and Rost together (not slash) and see how Aloy's life changes.
Some of the things I want from this story are for Tony to meet pre-signal Gaia, develop a relationship enough with her (and Hephaestus sub-function) that they can exchange ideas and see where tech goes after the NS when Hephaestus runs with some of those ideas. Additionally I'm wanting to plant Tony and Rost together (not slash) and see how Aloy's life changes.
Something else that I'm struggling with a bit is the canon mcguffinry which is their power systems. How much power do you put into a magic battery that lasts for a thousand years with a constant draw on it? Aloy can see them in her focus, so they give off some kind of bleed off power, so if they are bleeding enough juice to be detectable for 1000 years while still being used, again, how much juice is in those suckers. Following on - a part of the Horus line rebellion was power restriction - they were blocked from their normal fuel source so they went into bio-conversion mode. What was their normal fuel, how long did that last?
Also, the corrupters/scarabs had to have some smaller version of this battery storage in them, with enough juice to be reactivated and run around for a couple of months after being buried for a thousand years. I'm assuming the death bringers/khopeshs had a full sized battery. Also- spoiler for HFW - the Horus' have even bigger batteries in them. In Burning Shores one of the Zenith's reactivates a horus on "manual" control. It is not clear in the story if this guy re-charged the battery, but at the very least he used the body of the horus as a power conduit for a shield and then maintained power for the whole dang thing. Which does open a large plot hole for the canon story - why not just use the bio-conversion mode to kill Aloy? Per canon it's an AoE weapon and would have saved him stomping all over the place and catching fire.
Ok, I think I'm ranted out for the moment.
<Thus endeth the rant>
GeekGod_of_Speed
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I think it was less a battery and more a tank filled with bio energy or biofuel or whatever exactly it was
Based on the focus we can deduce that their tech either has a battery powerful enough and small enough to store energy for thousands of years and still have enough charge to keep operating as if nothing happened and it fits on a forehead or it uses some sci-fi bullshit to be powered by contact with life and uses so little power that there's enough excess energy generated by the human body for it to not affect the growth of aloy thus shown when she becomes a healthy adult
I feel that if there where that many batteries out there that they would of all been drained/captured by the faro plague for even just a decade more power so I always thought that there was something special about bio energy for Gaia to still use it as a power source
Because you have a crossover going with marvel you can do some bullshit juggling and have average ki levels be higher on this version of earth or something to help explain some of the feats of strength and why bio energy sources are so good, and becaUse tony was de-aged he could pick up some of that
Cereburn
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The miracle batteries I'm talking about are not the blaze biofuel, but the glow-y blue ones that you end up moving around in a few puzzles in game, along with some having to be charged up because the batteries short out in water or one or two that would drain when not in their receptacle. There is also a larger version that you can get from Horus' during the later part of HFW then drop it from the air and it suddenly becomes an IED EM pulse bomb with no modifications whatsoever in game plot. It leads me to think the mcguffin batteries aren't batteries at all but some kind of super capacitors. Still ridonculous, but maybe less so than chemical based batteries that usually make fire when they die, not booms as I've seen capacitors do. Again, no EMP from most capacitor failures, but it feels more like myth busters when they get a positive on the method, but not on the scale, so then they just add more boom.
As to Tony picking up the biofuel tech, he's already been exposed to it in my story, so that is already percolating around. In canon we despite blaze being explosive, we don't see evidence of internal combustion in the machines that use it so I think its design use is more of a chemical/catalytic electron cycle vs chemical heat/expansion or maybe some mix of both. I'm still tossing up ideas on how the machines are working internally.
This conversation also reminds me of something I forgot to write down. How does a glow-y cloud hold an AI? The idea occurred to me it ight be inspired by St. Elmos fire, essentially an ionized cloud of air, usually attracted to something that acts as a capacitive charge with a slow bleed off.
Ok - so what if in future land someone invents a way to add particles to gas and ionize them such that Ions themselves become organizable, able to create electronic structures and hold data? The particles would need to have some capacitive component to hold the energy without unwanted discharge. Not sure about the firefly bottle lantern thing, putting that kind of gas in too much of a pressure change would be like bending old fiber optics, you get some wiggle room, but not much. This idea also kicked around for me that the big round processing cores we see are essentially empty with various interfaces for data and ionic maintenance.
The idea fails in two places - 1) is the sub-functions(except Hades) all end up hiding in what look like old server racks. Maybe each server has a very small ionic chamber in it and the AIs can split up as long as their are enough? 2) Hades can magically fly through regular air and into a bottle without being destroyed. If Sylenz had another core and instead of a glow-y cloud they gave us a clue that Hades was transferring via some other high bandwidth connection (ala Gemini) somehow from core to core and then converted back to a glow-y cloud I'd have less WTF reaction that someone tossed the sci-fi rules out of the pram again.
I'd appreciate thoughts from anyone that has ideas on how to make glow-y bits of gas into a plausible data storage medium.
Ok - so what if in future land someone invents a way to add particles to gas and ionize them such that Ions themselves become organizable, able to create electronic structures and hold data? The particles would need to have some capacitive component to hold the energy without unwanted discharge. Not sure about the firefly bottle lantern thing, putting that kind of gas in too much of a pressure change would be like bending old fiber optics, you get some wiggle room, but not much. This idea also kicked around for me that the big round processing cores we see are essentially empty with various interfaces for data and ionic maintenance.
The idea fails in two places - 1) is the sub-functions(except Hades) all end up hiding in what look like old server racks. Maybe each server has a very small ionic chamber in it and the AIs can split up as long as their are enough? 2) Hades can magically fly through regular air and into a bottle without being destroyed. If Sylenz had another core and instead of a glow-y cloud they gave us a clue that Hades was transferring via some other high bandwidth connection (ala Gemini) somehow from core to core and then converted back to a glow-y cloud I'd have less WTF reaction that someone tossed the sci-fi rules out of the pram again.
I'd appreciate thoughts from anyone that has ideas on how to make glow-y bits of gas into a plausible data storage medium.
GeekGod_of_Speed
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In my head they were basically just fuses, or a gimmick to collect for something
Cereburn
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Hello folks, sorry for the long delay - have been having some health issues with my eyesight. I'm on the mend.
Here's the teaser chapter for #8
Getting to Know the Neighborhood
The kids in the village laughed at Tony's red face when he tried their spicy fish stew. Apparently cayenne peppers and others made it through the apocalypse. After nearly draining his water reservoir and sampling some of the local hooch, he got his burning tongue under control. The adults, while amused, were at least kind enough not to openly laugh. That did nothing to stop Friday from remarking about three different times they'd actually walked past several pepper bushes on the way south and that he shouldn't have been surprised.
Over the meal, he also learned that they traded dried fish and other dried peppers to traders that came through the area every few weeks. Apparently most of the traders went back north then west over an old bridge that crashed, but folks had turned back into a bridge by filling in around the pile with more stones and wooden bridges over the gaps made by the Hudson.
South were some more people, but they were less welcoming, the Emmers were very concerned at keeping intruders out of their area although they did also let in traders and scavengers if you brought enough pay a toll to go through.
South of the territory of the Emmers was what the locals called the Big Rot. It was an area popular with scavengers, but very few chose to live there. The area was full of many more machines there roaming and chewing up scrap. The ruins themselves were not safe, many tails were told of them falling on the on, or out from under, the unwary.
Tony had mixed feelings about continuing to what was clearly the ruins of New York. Considering his experiences with the leadership of that area, he found it honestly amusing that it was now known as the Big Rot instead of the Big Apple, but he wasn't sure what it would be like to see one of his favorite places brought low. Rebuilding after the Chitauri was bad enough, but that was after they'd won. This would be seeing New York ruined and defeated.
Hul'ka, as Tony eventually learned was the Chief's name, remarked on Tony's thoughtful look, "You look like you are not sure if you are going to meet a friend or their grave. Why is this?"
"Sometimes I remember that great ruins were not always ruins, that once many people lived and worked in those places. I'm curious, what are the stories your people tell about how those places became ruins?"
The chief rocked back and looked away in thought before looking back to Tony and replying, "We had a great woman that loved to tell the histories when I was younger, but after she died, the younger folk that had tried to learn the stories were also killed in raids when we spent more time off the island so many of the stories are not well remembered."
He leaned slightly to the side and back, his eyes now closed as he tried to remember. "We believe the Mother of the Waters brought life to the oceans first a great long time ago. After a time, she caused some of that life to leave swimming in the seas and to learn to swim in the skies and finally she made life to crawl and walk on the land. This is when she made men with the parts of all three, eyes that see a far distance, like the bird, soft fingers and toes like the sea snails but with small shells like the crabs and then noses and lungs like the boars, hands like the racoons and finally legs and arms like no others. The first men were made to care for all, but were led away from the mother's shores as they learned to crave power over things as they learned more and more how the Mother made the world. Eventually they made their own creations, machines to serve them but the machines were not made to serve the world and instead cause death and hurt. Eventually the Mother made her own machines that destroyed the machines of men and all that they had built and then drowned the makers of those machines. Eventually the Mother made men again, but this time kept her own machines to keep watch over the men so that they would not do as they had done before." The chief paused in his story, turning his head from side to side, "That is what I remember of the stories she told us about how the world came to be as it is. Her version was much better though."
Tony took this in and lied, "That isn't far off from what my people believe. Uhm, but do you happen ot know if the machines would stop me from going to the Big Rot to explore anything worth scrapping?"
The chief, puzzled, "Very few are dumb enough to attack the machines, they do not live long. You have seen how the snapmaws will destroy what doesn't belong in their waters. I think this is mostly true of all the other machines I have seen. Usually we only come into conflict with the scrappers and glinthawks, if we try to pull salvage parts from their metal piles and get caught, they will try to drive us off."
Looking at Tony more directly in the eyes, "But I am curious, what is it you are wanting to find in the Big Rot?"
Tony relaxed into the truth, "Honestly, I am hoping for a few rare metals that I hope traded there in the past and anything that will help me see their history as they recorded it."
The chief, remembered what Tony said earlier about metals, "What kind of metals are you looking for?"
Tony, now keen for any information on where to get the materials to rebuild his suit expanded from earlier, "Quite a few actually, but right now I'm mostly concerned with finding gold and titanium, but scandium, yttrium, neodymium, among many others would also be very useful to me. The first one can often be found in certain ancient areas, the others are hard to know when you find them as many do not look like metals, but different colored dirt."
Hul'ka's interest faultered over most of the unfamiliar materials, but leaned over to Nialo and whispered something to him, then he turned back to Tony as Nialo left, "I think we can help with that first one, we sometimes fish up things that are not what we expected."
A few minutes later, Nialo returned with what looked like the remains of a gold watch band, but with just a shallow gold bowl attached on one end of the band. With permission from the chief, he took a closer look at it and saw that the other side of the watch had the band brackets sheered off and in the sheer spot, he could see it was indeed a solid gold piece, another look in the bowl where the watch innards would have been and he found faded marks that looked like they said 750, 75% gold weight or 18 karat gold. He could not help smiling before he looked up and asked, "This is good, do you have more?"
Here's the teaser chapter for #8
Getting to Know the Neighborhood
The kids in the village laughed at Tony's red face when he tried their spicy fish stew. Apparently cayenne peppers and others made it through the apocalypse. After nearly draining his water reservoir and sampling some of the local hooch, he got his burning tongue under control. The adults, while amused, were at least kind enough not to openly laugh. That did nothing to stop Friday from remarking about three different times they'd actually walked past several pepper bushes on the way south and that he shouldn't have been surprised.
Over the meal, he also learned that they traded dried fish and other dried peppers to traders that came through the area every few weeks. Apparently most of the traders went back north then west over an old bridge that crashed, but folks had turned back into a bridge by filling in around the pile with more stones and wooden bridges over the gaps made by the Hudson.
South were some more people, but they were less welcoming, the Emmers were very concerned at keeping intruders out of their area although they did also let in traders and scavengers if you brought enough pay a toll to go through.
South of the territory of the Emmers was what the locals called the Big Rot. It was an area popular with scavengers, but very few chose to live there. The area was full of many more machines there roaming and chewing up scrap. The ruins themselves were not safe, many tails were told of them falling on the on, or out from under, the unwary.
Tony had mixed feelings about continuing to what was clearly the ruins of New York. Considering his experiences with the leadership of that area, he found it honestly amusing that it was now known as the Big Rot instead of the Big Apple, but he wasn't sure what it would be like to see one of his favorite places brought low. Rebuilding after the Chitauri was bad enough, but that was after they'd won. This would be seeing New York ruined and defeated.
Hul'ka, as Tony eventually learned was the Chief's name, remarked on Tony's thoughtful look, "You look like you are not sure if you are going to meet a friend or their grave. Why is this?"
"Sometimes I remember that great ruins were not always ruins, that once many people lived and worked in those places. I'm curious, what are the stories your people tell about how those places became ruins?"
The chief rocked back and looked away in thought before looking back to Tony and replying, "We had a great woman that loved to tell the histories when I was younger, but after she died, the younger folk that had tried to learn the stories were also killed in raids when we spent more time off the island so many of the stories are not well remembered."
He leaned slightly to the side and back, his eyes now closed as he tried to remember. "We believe the Mother of the Waters brought life to the oceans first a great long time ago. After a time, she caused some of that life to leave swimming in the seas and to learn to swim in the skies and finally she made life to crawl and walk on the land. This is when she made men with the parts of all three, eyes that see a far distance, like the bird, soft fingers and toes like the sea snails but with small shells like the crabs and then noses and lungs like the boars, hands like the racoons and finally legs and arms like no others. The first men were made to care for all, but were led away from the mother's shores as they learned to crave power over things as they learned more and more how the Mother made the world. Eventually they made their own creations, machines to serve them but the machines were not made to serve the world and instead cause death and hurt. Eventually the Mother made her own machines that destroyed the machines of men and all that they had built and then drowned the makers of those machines. Eventually the Mother made men again, but this time kept her own machines to keep watch over the men so that they would not do as they had done before." The chief paused in his story, turning his head from side to side, "That is what I remember of the stories she told us about how the world came to be as it is. Her version was much better though."
Tony took this in and lied, "That isn't far off from what my people believe. Uhm, but do you happen ot know if the machines would stop me from going to the Big Rot to explore anything worth scrapping?"
The chief, puzzled, "Very few are dumb enough to attack the machines, they do not live long. You have seen how the snapmaws will destroy what doesn't belong in their waters. I think this is mostly true of all the other machines I have seen. Usually we only come into conflict with the scrappers and glinthawks, if we try to pull salvage parts from their metal piles and get caught, they will try to drive us off."
Looking at Tony more directly in the eyes, "But I am curious, what is it you are wanting to find in the Big Rot?"
Tony relaxed into the truth, "Honestly, I am hoping for a few rare metals that I hope traded there in the past and anything that will help me see their history as they recorded it."
The chief, remembered what Tony said earlier about metals, "What kind of metals are you looking for?"
Tony, now keen for any information on where to get the materials to rebuild his suit expanded from earlier, "Quite a few actually, but right now I'm mostly concerned with finding gold and titanium, but scandium, yttrium, neodymium, among many others would also be very useful to me. The first one can often be found in certain ancient areas, the others are hard to know when you find them as many do not look like metals, but different colored dirt."
Hul'ka's interest faultered over most of the unfamiliar materials, but leaned over to Nialo and whispered something to him, then he turned back to Tony as Nialo left, "I think we can help with that first one, we sometimes fish up things that are not what we expected."
A few minutes later, Nialo returned with what looked like the remains of a gold watch band, but with just a shallow gold bowl attached on one end of the band. With permission from the chief, he took a closer look at it and saw that the other side of the watch had the band brackets sheered off and in the sheer spot, he could see it was indeed a solid gold piece, another look in the bowl where the watch innards would have been and he found faded marks that looked like they said 750, 75% gold weight or 18 karat gold. He could not help smiling before he looked up and asked, "This is good, do you have more?"
Chapter Eight: Getting to know the neighborhood.
Cereburn
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Chapter Eight: Getting to know the neighborhood.
The kids in the village laughed at Tony's red face when he tried their spicy fish stew. Apparently cayenne peppers and others made it through the apocalypse. After nearly draining his water reservoir and sampling some of the local hooch, he got his burning tongue under control. The adults, while amused, were at least kind enough not to openly laugh. That did nothing to stop Friday from remarking about three different times they'd actually walked past several pepper bushes on the way south and that he shouldn't have been surprised.Over the meal, he also learned that they traded dried fish and other dried peppers to traders that came through the area every few weeks. Apparently most of the traders went back north then west over an old bridge that crashed, but folks had turned back into a bridge by filling in around the pile with more stones and wooden bridges over the gaps made by the Hudson.
South were some more people, but they were less welcoming, the Emmers were very concerned at keeping intruders out of their area although they did also let in traders and scavengers if you brought enough pay a toll to go through.
South of the territory of the Emmers was what the locals called the Big Rot. It was an area popular with scavengers, but very few chose to live there. The area was full of many more machines there roaming and chewing up scrap. The ruins themselves were not safe, many tails were told of them falling on the on, or out from under, the unwary.
Tony had mixed feelings about continuing to what was clearly the ruins of New York. Considering his experiences with the leadership of that area, he found it honestly amusing that it was now known as the Big Rot instead of the Big Apple, but he wasn't sure what it would be like to see one of his favorite places brought low. Rebuilding after the Chitauri was bad enough, but that was after they'd won. This would be seeing New York ruined and defeated.
Hul'ka, as Tony eventually learned was the Chief's name, remarked on Tony's thoughtful look, "You look like you are not sure if you are going to meet a friend or their grave. Why is this?"
"Sometimes I remember that great ruins were not always ruins, that once many people lived and worked in those places. I'm curious, what are the stories your people tell about how those places became ruins?"
The chief rocked back and looked away in thought before looking back to Tony and replying, "We had a great woman that loved to tell the histories when I was younger, but after she died, the younger folk that had tried to learn the stories were also killed in raids when we spent more time off the island so many of the stories are not well remembered."
He leaned slightly to the side and back, his eyes now closed as he tried to remember. "We believe the Mother of the Waters brought life to the oceans first a great long time ago. After a time, she caused some of that life to leave swimming in the seas and to learn to swim in the skies and finally she made life to crawl and walk on the land. This is when she made men with the parts of all three, eyes that see a far distance, like the bird, soft fingers and toes like the sea snails but with small shells like the crabs and then noses and lungs like the boars, hands like the racoons and finally legs and arms like no others. The first men were made to care for all, but were led away from the mother's shores as they learned to crave power over things as they learned more and more how the Mother made the world. Eventually they made their own creations, machines to serve them but the machines were not made to serve the world and instead cause death and hurt. Eventually the Mother made her own machines that destroyed the machines of men and all that they had built and then drowned the makers of those machines. Eventually the Mother made men again, but this time kept her own machines to keep watch over the men so that they would not do as they had done before." The chief paused in his story, turning his head from side to side, "That is what I remember of the stories she told us about how the world came to be as it is. Her version was much better though."
Tony took this in and lied, "That isn't far off from what my people believe. Uhm, but do you happen ot know if the machines would stop me from going to the Big Rot to explore anything worth scrapping?"
The chief, puzzled, "Very few are dumb enough to attack the machines, they do not live long. You have seen how the snapmaws will destroy what doesn't belong in their waters. I think this is mostly true of all the other machines I have seen. Usually we only come into conflict with the scrappers and glinthawks, if we try to pull salvage parts from their metal piles and get caught, they will try to drive us off."
Looking at Tony more directly in the eyes, "But I am curious, what is it you are wanting to find in the Big Rot?"
Tony relaxed into the truth, "Honestly, I am hoping for a few rare metals that I hope traded there in the past and anything that will help me see their history as they recorded it."
The chief, remembered what Tony said earlier about metals, "What kind of metals are you looking for?"
Tony, now keen for any information on where to get the materials to rebuild his suit expanded from earlier, "Quite a few actually, but right now I'm mostly concerned with finding gold and titanium, but scandium, yttrium, neodymium, among many others would also be very useful to me. The first one can often be found in certain ancient areas, the others are hard to know when you find them as many do not look like metals, but different colored dirt."
Hul'ka's interest faultered over most of the unfamiliar materials, but leaned over to Nialo and whispered something to him, then he turned back to Tony as Nialo left, "I think we can help with that first one, we sometimes fish up things that are not what we expected."
A few minutes later, Nialo returned with what looked like the remains of a gold watch band, but with just a shallow gold bowl attached on one end of the band. With permission from the chief, he took a closer look at it and saw that the other side of the watch had the band brackets sheered off and in the sheer spot, he could see it was indeed a solid gold piece, another look in the bowl where the watch innards would have been and he found faded marks that looked like they said 750, 75% gold weight or 18 karat gold. He could not help smiling before he looked up and asked, "This is good, do you have more?"
The chief smiled, now he had more to haggle with to get the hooks and knives. "I don't know, do you?"
In the end, the needles that Tony had forgotten about had got him more of the stash of gold in the village than anything else. Once the village stitchers were asked to test two of them, Tony new he had a bigger winner than the hooks had been. He was still disappointed the knives were bigger sellers, but these folks had been getting metal cutting tools from scrapped machines they'd found like he had earlier and were used to using those bits. Tony knew from experience, some tools you used because you knew them better than your own hand, not because they were the best tools.
After his trading, he had about 2 pounds of various purities of gold, almost all in old bits of jewelry pulled from the river or, in one case, found in what he decided had likely been a lock box that had finally lost the test of time and popped open where a forager had found the shiny bits inside.
He would need to put the gold through some work to purify it, unfortunately he had no strong acides to do that with so he'd have to work it through heat and a few other tricks he'd learned to help encourage the gold to separate from everything else.
After asking to setup camp for a few days on the shore, Tony setup a hammock to sleep in. This brought more attention than he'd expected as they'd not seen the type of cloth-like material his nanites had assumed for the hammock. Tony, as usual, glibly lied and said it was a remnant of a broken sail and that he did not know how to make more. Turning aside from that disappointment, the villagers instead watched as they came and went on their various tasks as Tony then spent a few days working through the last of his iron rebar to make some more hooks, needles and knives for the next time he had to do some trading.
Once that was done, he switched gears to prepare to make more nanites. This started with running the gold through his smelter, first melting all the gold together to homogenize it, then working to pull off the dross a bit at a time. The AR glasses were very helpful for this so he could monitor closely the temperature strata as he poured and scooped and then applied a small current as it cooled to further encourage movement of the separate aloys in the gold. It took a while, but he finally got the gold above 90% purity with just heat. This still would not be good enough to make new nanites with, but he'd had some thoughts about pulling the gold into thin wire and sending the nanites he had along the wire to see if he could identify the gold with the highest impurities and physically snip out those bits of wire then re-melt and re-test.
Another day later and that worked surprisingly well. The gold was now at 98.8% purity. The likely failure rate on new nanites made with it would be very high, but he figured he could get some working nanites out of it then recycle the ones that did not work a few more times. The problem would be the impurities still present interfering with the nano-circuits in the nanites. At least he'd be re-using his materials instead of tossing it out like other nano-scale makers he knew.
Late in the day on the fourth day, he finally ran through the titanium ring valve he'd recovered and pulled that into wire then ran the gold wire and titanium together to make one gold-titanium alloy wire spool. He still had quite a bit of gold wire left when the titanium wire ran out, but, at this point, he was confident he'd find more valves later if not other scrap with titanium in it.
Next he reconfigured his nanites into his nanite forge config and fed it the alloyed wire. It was very slow and acted more like a nano-scale 3D printer at this scale, but for every 20 nanites printed, he'd get 11 working ones. The non-functional ones were collected in a hopper as what looked like a fine powder. The working ones were used to pad the lining of the forge as they came out. He let that run all night and slept fitfully, waking up every few hours to check on the printer. By the late morning, the spool was empty and he ended up with nearly two hundred, twenty thousand new nanites and one hundred, eighty thousand worth of busted ones waiting to be recycled; which he promptly did that night when folks weren't watching him switch his forge back into a smelter/wire die to pull the alloy back through again then re-feed it to the printer. By the end, he had added another one hundred, forty thousand nanites from the dross of the first printing, the remaining was just too contaminated to re-use. He made those into wire again for storage and hopes of eventually getting enough new material to go through this again.
Sadly, with a total of three hundred, sixty thousand new nanites, in a collective of what had been several billion nanites, his capabilities were not significantly enhanced; but it was still a step in the right direction. He let the Oosine folks know he'd be leaving the next day after this.
Finally rested after a night with no forging and a last breakfast with Hul'ka, he packed up his travois and continued down the road towards New York.
---
The road south, had it been an actual road and not the washed out ruins of one would have have gotten him to New York in good day's walk. Instead it was a broken path of overgrown concrete, fully grown trees in almost every pothole imaginable and many sections missing altogether, undermind by former floods or current streams that needed to then be forded. As it was, he had been walking for about six hours and had only made it about half way to Poughkeepsie. He decided to take a break off the trail and eat some of the dried fish he'd also traded for in the last week. After a snack and a two hour siesta, he got back on the road. Finally after another four hours of walking, he came upon the what his old time map told him were the ruins of Poughkeepsie.
Tony was rather interested as he remembered that IBM had a logistics research warehouse in the area on his Earth; he was curious if any of that had both similitude and survived. He was also curious about the Emmers that Nialo had explained after Hul'ka had brought up the topic. Apparently they were a people fairly Xenophobic of other tribes, they'd occasionally let in traders, but they wanted no social interactions with other tribes. Fortunately, that meant the Emmers did not raid other folks unless in retaliation, but it also meant he might get a reception that was less not very welcome.
Friday was on high alert looking for spotters and ambushers. She still had not cracked the next level of GPS encryption which was frustrating them both. She was also tracking other machines from their sources, quite a few were using the river to travel and others on the other side of US-9 were roaming about, but he seemed to be moving through the gaps of their movements unintentionally. Friday also observed some signals being cut off on that side of US-9 rather abruptly, but she had no information as to the cause of the signals cutting out. Most of the ones cutting out were east of Poughkeepsie.
Friday finally spotted a lookout tower near the remains of a concrete wall as they had started moving through the former boundary of Poughkeepsie's city limit. Tony stepped back and behind some cover and reviewed what Friday had seen through her sensors, confirming the look out was manned and had been fortunately looking the wrong way to spot him at that moment.
Again, he made another remote sensor and planted that on the tree watching the lookout then, after having Friday keep him informed of when the lookout was next looking the wrong way, he came out and got a better view of the wall ruins leading towards the river and spotted additional lookouts as well as what looked like a gate.
Tony decided to wait here a few hours to let Friday snoop acoustically and to see if anyone was going to get through the gate. Not long later, they saw a patrol coming from the ruins of a road leading further to the river. Having a clear look at them when not behind fortifications was a bit odd, despite the heat they were clearly wearing jackets, with lapels as if they were medieval knock offs of business suit jackets yet their legs were more in line with what he'd seen at the Oosine village. Either bare legs up to loin clothes or wrapped shorts; about half also had greaves of what looked like leather and bits of metal. Their shoes were all black, so the details were hard to make out, but some seemed to be sandals with a cover resting over top that would flap about a bit if they moved too quickly.
They signaled to the gate guards and the gate lowered outward like a drawbridge over a moat. Tony wondered if there were things at the base of that section of wall he did not want to stand on. Just before the gate came up, another patrol left heading back towards the river, clearly a shift change. Tony carefully went back to the site of his remote probe and sat to review data with Friday. Through her audio pickups they found these folks were speaking the same language and had what sounded like some children much further back from the wall, barely audible. Almost all the conversations nearby were male and were related to the job of keeping the wall safe with some bits of gossip thrown in here and there. One of the lookouts was a woman who was apparently teased for her good eyesight, but fortunately she was on a lookout tower further down the wall where his area was not her section to monitor.
In the gossipy bits were the usual bits of human drama, but also some facts came through; they were having issues clearing machines from their new area to the east and apparently the head honcho here was called Director Ma'nan and he was wearing a new tie lately.
Having an odd idea, he asked Friday, "Have we got enough nanites to pull out the Armani?"
Cereburn
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Sorry it's not very long this chapter, still working through back log of documentation IRL. It tends to mute the muse.
Anyone who ever worked for IBM in the 90s will remember the dress code. I think they finally loosened that up after 2010? Anyone remember exactly when that changed for office staff?
Anyone who ever worked for IBM in the 90s will remember the dress code. I think they finally loosened that up after 2010? Anyone remember exactly when that changed for office staff?
Tzeentch
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Now just imagine what he'll be able to do with a Focus once he gets his hands on ond, and how it could enhance the BCI capabilities of Tony's tech.
Cereburn
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The closer I get to that time, the more I realize I don't have a very good list of what exactly the focus can do. Fun fact, there is a real Faro focus laser scanner.
From what we see in canon we see in gernal it has:
1)wireless synaptic interface to audio and optical nerves or brain centers where those signals are processed.(yes it has to be touching the head-but no direct synaptic cabling so I say wireless near field tech.
2) Bluetooth equivalent distance wireless computer audio/video/haptic interface.
2a) same thing for access control systems
2b) same thing for electronic warfare (hacking interface)
3) holographic recorder
4) holographic phone
5) General digital radio receiver with directional triangulation
6) mapping tool with GPS and satellite mapping imagery
7) digital Radio transmitter, line of site and probably satellite or atmospheric bounce tech
8) self destruct or remotely overidable power system
9) receive and interpret Gaia machine telemetry. (I think thisnis how it can show component info and patrol routes of machines.
10) non-visible light imaging
11) holographic scene reconstruction
12) data reconstruction/recovery
13) 3d positional / location tracking
14) AR interface for all above systems
15) indeterminate size local storage
16) indeterminate power source
I'm sure there is more, anyone else spot feature of the focus that doesn't fall into the above list?
Tzeentch
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If you think about it, a combination of these functions definitely explains the whole vision-moment with HADES Aloy had before she finally killed it off.
Tony being a perfectionist, I'd certainly like to see how he could vastly improve and build on the technology, and incorporate it into his work with nanotech and everything else.
And just think of all the space he has to work with in the desolate ruin of New York City!
TONY: I'm basically restoring AND gentrifying the whole of New York with Programmable Matter's great-great-grandfather: A big ol' bunch of nanites. Ain't that something?
Cereburn
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Till you spelled it out with capital P and M, I'd not considered Programmable Matter except in sci-fi context, but apparently someone has actually white papered it, essentially laying out a framework for the addressing the space where programmable matter would exist or something along those lines. There's a wiki about it I'd never read before today, so thanks for that.
Tzeentch
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You're welcome!
If you think about it, a lot of Far Zenith Tech is essentially Programmable/Smart Matter derived/based, a result of decades of development with nanotech and other technologies thrown in.
I say decades, because the majority of Far Zenith were canonically lazy, and clearly only advanced their technology to the point where most of their needs and desires were met, and no further, likely relying on A.I. to do most of the work for them to boot.
And goodness knows the "Old Ones" collectively would have reached that stage FAR quicker than Far Zenith did, and surpassed it, had the Faro Plague not wiped everyone out. Same goes for Tribal Humanity, if Faro hadn't deleted the APOLLO database.
Here's hoping Tony and his future allies and followers pick up the slack!
The Auditor
Cereburn
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Update: Currently fighting through a writers block after realizing I screwed up and forgot a rather important plot point.
I've almost decided on re-writing most of the chapters of this - still mentally feeling about for any mcguffin I can use to fix the problem easily without a re-write.
I'm reassuring myself it shouldn't be a complete re-write but I've not passed the will-check to let me proceed yet.
In other news: Here's a short crack-omake based on where I left the story at.
--------
Standing the gate watch was a duty and Chayden would not be found lacking in it it, no matter how boring it was. Luckily most of the river side patrols went through his gate, so he relished the opportunities to chat with them on what they'd seen while out. Right now, the latest patrol coming back through the gate have given their update of no issues found other than some more washed out areas near the river. This lead to further talk and eventually gossip. All agreed Director Mannan's push to the east through the machine convoys was trouble and more than a few thought his new tie might be a little too tight.
Sabal, the guard on the river tower passed asked this patrol to tell him there were some snapmaws she'd seen going up the river. He appreciated the news, although he still had no idea how she could see enough of the river through the trees on the that side. The gossip soon drew to a close and the patrol passed through again, it was as he was closing the gates that something rather unusual happened.
"Ah-Hem" faux-coughed a voice at the end of the bridge. Chayden and his partner Saith looked and were surprised to see a man standing there observing them. Even while gossiping with the patrol, both men had been dilligently watching the approaches, where had this person come from? He was an older man with an oddly trimmed beard, odd lenses over his eyes and wearing a business suit like no other they'd ever seen. It was immaculate, clean and crisp with sharp lines, and seemed to radiate power. In his hand was a clipboard and around his neck was a lanyard holding a badge that they both recognized and immediately stood to attention.
Unlike the other tribes of this area, the Emmers ancestors had not only found shelter in the ruins they occupied, but also the great Learning Center. In this center, ancient magical technology still worked mostly and one of the lessons that all guards had to take was the Security Loss Prevention courses that covered many topics to secure the people and property of this facility. It also made sure all graduates knew the badge color codes. Most badges were mainly white with blue letters, but there were some special ones, like what security them selves got, the light blue background with yellow letters. This man however had the Navy and Gold, the auditors badge.
The man, seeing them standing to attention gave a small smile that might have been confused for a small smirk. "I see you recognize what I am, now I will tell you who I am and why I am here."
The two guards tried to stand even straighter, the patrol that had recently passed through the gate finally heard the conversation, turned and also saw the badge and stood to attention.
"I, am Auditor Tony. This branch of the IBM Logistics Division-" Saith gasped. Chayden knew Saith was related to Mannan, he wondered what he knew that had triggered that, but the Auditor kept speaking as if the interuption had never happened.
"has not reported to the Ottawa branch in several hundred years, I have been sent to find out why and to get things straightened up." He paused to look them in the eyes to let them know they were already in trouble somehow.
"I need one of you to either take me to your Director or to bring him here. I will expect you to follow your security procedures, I will be watching." The menace of his last statement was knee weakening but somehow Chayden remembered his training and, hesitantly stepped forward.
"Uh..." his through was suddenly dry, he coughed and continued, "Sir, could I please verify your ID."
Again, the fractional smirk, he was sure it was a smirk now appeared. The Auditor looked at Chayden's badge, brought forward the clipboard and while flipping it open with one hand, he held out his own badge for Chayden to more clearly see. "Here you go Security Officer Chayden, my badge."
Chayden visualy inspected the badge, the coloring was deep and perfect, it had no defects like the blotches their own printer left on the corner of his own light blue badge. the IBM logo and the title and name, all perfectly printed. He stepped back, and nodded. "Thank you Auditor Tony"
The Auditor dropped his badge back to his chest and then began making notes in his now open clipboard. "Your observational skills were lacking, I was not impressed that I got this close before you noticed me, but I am reassured that you at least can verify badges. I have made note of this Security Office Chayden."
"Uhm, thank you sir." Chayden flagged one of the patrollers to come up. "This is Security Officer Hinger, he will escort you where you need to go."
Hinger looked at Chayden quickly and the glare let Chayden knew he'd not made his coworker happy to take on this duty before Hinger managed his face and smiled politely to the Auditor. "This way please sir."
Tony looked at Hinger, again came the fractional smirk and said, "Lead the way Security Officer Hinger" as he made more notes on his clipboard. Looking nervously at the clipboard, knowing he was being evaluated and graded, he spun about, ordered his team to stow their gear and stand down from patrol then he started walking forward into the building.
The tapping and writing sounds behind him as they passed through the next gates and hallways inside were not encouraging, especially the occasional mumbles the Auditor made to himself.
Hinger's mind was remembering the stories of the Auditors from training, how they were sent to cull the unproductive and seal the breaches in security by any means necessary, including arbitrary termination.
As he passed through the halls and to the stairs going up to the higher offices, he tried to remember all he'd done wrong and was starting to sweat.
Finally, they reached the tall, cloudy glass double doors marked Director and the guard posted there.
"I've brought Auditor Tony to meet the director, please let us in." The guard on duty, an older man who wasn't as fast as he used to be, thus assigned inside the building startled, loosing his composure.
"Wha-" he started to say before Hinger harshly whispered, "Check his badge then let us in kriff-it"
The startled guards eyes quickly checked the badge, seemed to get even wider then turned to open the door and call inside, "Visitors sir, Hinger and an Auditor Sir" He looked back at them over his shoulder again, then pushed the door the rest of the way open, allowing them entry.
The months following the arrival of the Auditor were, to say the least, tumultuous. Very few knew that this branch was supposed to be devoted to Logistics - the training for that was damaged, but enough was passed down to the Directors, and a few who overheard them talking about it to know it was important. Legends had grown about what Logistics might be. Thanks to the Auditor they now knew they were supposed to be responsible for moving the life blood of the company around the world. The Auditor had found and repaired much of what the Directors never even knew was lost, even a set of lower levels into a vault beneath the main building where Big Blue still lived, the Logistics AI.
From there, new tools and supplies came out of the old vault and repairs thought impossible to the cracked building and it's systems started happening. Newly recovered training taught them that they were IBMers, not just Emmers and started teaching them how to use the tools and repair the systems that remained in the building. Eventually, Tony helped them bring online one of their greatest recoveries from the vault - the molecular foundry. It was a system that worked like magic, to take raw materials and make things of any complexity. It was huge, it could make whole pallets of supplies given enough power. With the training they were now getting, newly badged Systems Engineers were learning to bring back online the old solar arrays, the ancient black panels on the buildings as well as recovered and reconditioned power cells in storage in various places all over the campus. Chargers for those cells were repaired and they were rotated as even more, new panels and other power technologies were made.
Finally, one day Tony went into the workshop and locked it for a day, only communicating with Big Blue. When he came out, he had a brightly glowing light on his chest and armor around it.
He finally explained that he'd damaged his armor on the way there and he'd finally gotten the sites tools sufficiently online to make the repairs he needed and taught Big Blue how to make the replacement materials he needed, not just for the light, which he called a reactor, but for his armor as well.
Before he left, he setup a council, he said this site was meant to host more than one Director, but three, one for the facilities, one for Logistics and one for what he called H. R. Big Blue became the facilities director, making sure the Poughkeepsie branch of IBM was the best it could be, Mannan became the H.R. director, to take care of the people and make sure all were healthy and handle disputes. Logistics went to, unexpectedly, Sabal. She took to the new Logistics training and marketing with an incredible intensity and energy. She did not want to just see the area around her, but she wanted to see their new advantages being used to lift up all the people in the area, to make all the tribes new Divisions of IBM.
Ok- Crack over hope you found it funny.
I've almost decided on re-writing most of the chapters of this - still mentally feeling about for any mcguffin I can use to fix the problem easily without a re-write.
I'm reassuring myself it shouldn't be a complete re-write but I've not passed the will-check to let me proceed yet.
In other news: Here's a short crack-omake based on where I left the story at.
--------
Standing the gate watch was a duty and Chayden would not be found lacking in it it, no matter how boring it was. Luckily most of the river side patrols went through his gate, so he relished the opportunities to chat with them on what they'd seen while out. Right now, the latest patrol coming back through the gate have given their update of no issues found other than some more washed out areas near the river. This lead to further talk and eventually gossip. All agreed Director Mannan's push to the east through the machine convoys was trouble and more than a few thought his new tie might be a little too tight.
Sabal, the guard on the river tower passed asked this patrol to tell him there were some snapmaws she'd seen going up the river. He appreciated the news, although he still had no idea how she could see enough of the river through the trees on the that side. The gossip soon drew to a close and the patrol passed through again, it was as he was closing the gates that something rather unusual happened.
"Ah-Hem" faux-coughed a voice at the end of the bridge. Chayden and his partner Saith looked and were surprised to see a man standing there observing them. Even while gossiping with the patrol, both men had been dilligently watching the approaches, where had this person come from? He was an older man with an oddly trimmed beard, odd lenses over his eyes and wearing a business suit like no other they'd ever seen. It was immaculate, clean and crisp with sharp lines, and seemed to radiate power. In his hand was a clipboard and around his neck was a lanyard holding a badge that they both recognized and immediately stood to attention.
Unlike the other tribes of this area, the Emmers ancestors had not only found shelter in the ruins they occupied, but also the great Learning Center. In this center, ancient magical technology still worked mostly and one of the lessons that all guards had to take was the Security Loss Prevention courses that covered many topics to secure the people and property of this facility. It also made sure all graduates knew the badge color codes. Most badges were mainly white with blue letters, but there were some special ones, like what security them selves got, the light blue background with yellow letters. This man however had the Navy and Gold, the auditors badge.
The man, seeing them standing to attention gave a small smile that might have been confused for a small smirk. "I see you recognize what I am, now I will tell you who I am and why I am here."
The two guards tried to stand even straighter, the patrol that had recently passed through the gate finally heard the conversation, turned and also saw the badge and stood to attention.
"I, am Auditor Tony. This branch of the IBM Logistics Division-" Saith gasped. Chayden knew Saith was related to Mannan, he wondered what he knew that had triggered that, but the Auditor kept speaking as if the interuption had never happened.
"has not reported to the Ottawa branch in several hundred years, I have been sent to find out why and to get things straightened up." He paused to look them in the eyes to let them know they were already in trouble somehow.
"I need one of you to either take me to your Director or to bring him here. I will expect you to follow your security procedures, I will be watching." The menace of his last statement was knee weakening but somehow Chayden remembered his training and, hesitantly stepped forward.
"Uh..." his through was suddenly dry, he coughed and continued, "Sir, could I please verify your ID."
Again, the fractional smirk, he was sure it was a smirk now appeared. The Auditor looked at Chayden's badge, brought forward the clipboard and while flipping it open with one hand, he held out his own badge for Chayden to more clearly see. "Here you go Security Officer Chayden, my badge."
Chayden visualy inspected the badge, the coloring was deep and perfect, it had no defects like the blotches their own printer left on the corner of his own light blue badge. the IBM logo and the title and name, all perfectly printed. He stepped back, and nodded. "Thank you Auditor Tony"
The Auditor dropped his badge back to his chest and then began making notes in his now open clipboard. "Your observational skills were lacking, I was not impressed that I got this close before you noticed me, but I am reassured that you at least can verify badges. I have made note of this Security Office Chayden."
"Uhm, thank you sir." Chayden flagged one of the patrollers to come up. "This is Security Officer Hinger, he will escort you where you need to go."
Hinger looked at Chayden quickly and the glare let Chayden knew he'd not made his coworker happy to take on this duty before Hinger managed his face and smiled politely to the Auditor. "This way please sir."
Tony looked at Hinger, again came the fractional smirk and said, "Lead the way Security Officer Hinger" as he made more notes on his clipboard. Looking nervously at the clipboard, knowing he was being evaluated and graded, he spun about, ordered his team to stow their gear and stand down from patrol then he started walking forward into the building.
The tapping and writing sounds behind him as they passed through the next gates and hallways inside were not encouraging, especially the occasional mumbles the Auditor made to himself.
Hinger's mind was remembering the stories of the Auditors from training, how they were sent to cull the unproductive and seal the breaches in security by any means necessary, including arbitrary termination.
As he passed through the halls and to the stairs going up to the higher offices, he tried to remember all he'd done wrong and was starting to sweat.
Finally, they reached the tall, cloudy glass double doors marked Director and the guard posted there.
"I've brought Auditor Tony to meet the director, please let us in." The guard on duty, an older man who wasn't as fast as he used to be, thus assigned inside the building startled, loosing his composure.
"Wha-" he started to say before Hinger harshly whispered, "Check his badge then let us in kriff-it"
The startled guards eyes quickly checked the badge, seemed to get even wider then turned to open the door and call inside, "Visitors sir, Hinger and an Auditor Sir" He looked back at them over his shoulder again, then pushed the door the rest of the way open, allowing them entry.
The months following the arrival of the Auditor were, to say the least, tumultuous. Very few knew that this branch was supposed to be devoted to Logistics - the training for that was damaged, but enough was passed down to the Directors, and a few who overheard them talking about it to know it was important. Legends had grown about what Logistics might be. Thanks to the Auditor they now knew they were supposed to be responsible for moving the life blood of the company around the world. The Auditor had found and repaired much of what the Directors never even knew was lost, even a set of lower levels into a vault beneath the main building where Big Blue still lived, the Logistics AI.
From there, new tools and supplies came out of the old vault and repairs thought impossible to the cracked building and it's systems started happening. Newly recovered training taught them that they were IBMers, not just Emmers and started teaching them how to use the tools and repair the systems that remained in the building. Eventually, Tony helped them bring online one of their greatest recoveries from the vault - the molecular foundry. It was a system that worked like magic, to take raw materials and make things of any complexity. It was huge, it could make whole pallets of supplies given enough power. With the training they were now getting, newly badged Systems Engineers were learning to bring back online the old solar arrays, the ancient black panels on the buildings as well as recovered and reconditioned power cells in storage in various places all over the campus. Chargers for those cells were repaired and they were rotated as even more, new panels and other power technologies were made.
Finally, one day Tony went into the workshop and locked it for a day, only communicating with Big Blue. When he came out, he had a brightly glowing light on his chest and armor around it.
He finally explained that he'd damaged his armor on the way there and he'd finally gotten the sites tools sufficiently online to make the repairs he needed and taught Big Blue how to make the replacement materials he needed, not just for the light, which he called a reactor, but for his armor as well.
Before he left, he setup a council, he said this site was meant to host more than one Director, but three, one for the facilities, one for Logistics and one for what he called H. R. Big Blue became the facilities director, making sure the Poughkeepsie branch of IBM was the best it could be, Mannan became the H.R. director, to take care of the people and make sure all were healthy and handle disputes. Logistics went to, unexpectedly, Sabal. She took to the new Logistics training and marketing with an incredible intensity and energy. She did not want to just see the area around her, but she wanted to see their new advantages being used to lift up all the people in the area, to make all the tribes new Divisions of IBM.
Ok- Crack over hope you found it funny.
Richard6154
Getting some practice in, huh?
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