The Reaper’s Legion

Chapter 76

Echoes

There weren’t many times were I found a day off so refreshing, but after everything that had happened, I found that yesterday had been immensely needed. Still, there was plenty to do now that we were setting up our new facilities in New Damond.

As of now, we were looking at having nearly two thousand members in the Legion, a not insignificant portion of the population that would have been living in Gilramore otherwise. Granted, not all of those individuals would strictly be combatants, any force needed a considerable amount of logistics personnel to keep things going. Though, we needed far fewer than what would have been needed in the past, given that robotics were quickly replacing the need for any kind of grunt manpower, which was just as well to our people.

I was worried that, perhaps, we would be too reliant on robotics, but in all I couldn’t manage to find a reason to be overly concerned about it. This wasn’t the old world where people would be complaining about lost jobs because of robots. There were plenty of things that still needed to be done that required a more personal touch, and beyond that, our approach in Gilramore, and New Damond, was more along the lines that people would be looked after by the governing entity presiding. Things such as housing, food, clean water, access to healthcare were a given, considering that the population shrinking further would hinder us far more than just making these things accessible. Of course, the way we executed this was a localized form of currency from the Obelisks that used matter energy as something of a federal reserve.

It was useful, and moreover it was a system that we could grow infinitely, so long as biotics were around. Given their rate of spread, I’d definitely say that we could reliably expect to come into contact with biotics for the foreseeable future.

There were caveats of course, exceptions to the rules put into place, but for the most part the system was proving to be useful. I’d seen the change over time in people, the stress of living reduced bit by bit until we were seeing happiness, satisfaction in life, among people as a regular, rather than the rarity.

It was uplifting in a way I hadn’t expected to feel, seeing it. Knowing that I was a part of what made that possible warmed my heart.

The Ogre trundled to a stop in front of a six-sided building, appearing to be much more modern and space-age than most of the pre-fab structures around it. It was designed to be a fortified position, both from within and without.

Reaper Research and Development had come and made a new home here. It was a dedicated facility, rather than an additional component like in the previous fabrication yards. Already, most of our facilities had been moved over to New Damond, at least for the research division. They were interested in the new setup, albeit it was nowhere near complete yet. The building might have looked impressive from the outside, but several compartmentalized metal boxes existed in the area surrounding it, almost like someone had dumped many cargo containers haphazardly.

Robots and workers came and went from the building, the back portion of the structure having been left open as excavations continued. Oddly enough, the spherical shape of the building was being used to support the digging operation at the same time. On site fabricators continued to churn out support beams and construction materials, and seeing the skeleton of the structure as it burrowed down into the earth, I couldn’t help but realize that this might well be one of the most durable buildings we’d seen.

It might even be the most durable building on earth when it was finished, given the specialized construction we were performing. The structure would be deep, and expandable under the ground for our continued research opportunities. There would also be the ‘Yard’ as it was being called for now. An open area that was outfitted with all manner of equipment for open-air testing.

I questioned the necessity of the area, though, given that I highly doubted much of what we were doing would require that. There were hangars already being made underground for such eventualities, not the least of which bore massive elevators that could bring them topside into the yard itself. But, then, having an area for testing mundane things or the like wasn’t an issue either.

It wasn’t like we needed to consult anyone else for where we built things.

A refreshing breath blew from my lips at that; no politics out here so far. At the very least, we didn’t have to worry about stepping on anyone's toes while we built ourselves up. New Damond was a hive of activity, Reaper-based construction swarming over the city. Not having to deal with politics during this period was a blessing, and allowed our progress to speed along considerably.

The only thing we had to make sure to be wary of was to plan the city construction, but that in and of itself wasn’t too difficult. Public transportation on demand was the main push, we still didn’t want the streets open to anyone to be driving on, given that we might need to have armored mech suits running through them, or convoys of Ogre’s trundling through. That said, there was a rail system running through the bulk of the city. It was, all told, surprisingly inexpensive in terms of resources.

The rails hosted anywhere between single-person rail cars, to something that could hold multiple people. Larger ones for moving larger groups or objects could be ordered to the location as well, of which there were many stations. There were even some that brought the rail-cars straight to living locations. It was powered at least partly off of solar, and due to our proximity to the ocean a larger portion of hydro-cell power generating facilities were being built and utilized.

As I walked the labs, I couldn’t help but shake my head at the fact that there were several researchers bustling back and forth between cargo containers. Wires protruded from most of them, save for those that were strictly for storage. So far, no one was allowed to do any kind of explosives testing, but in the absence of some of our more ordinary tests, the RR&D were busy with engineering theoretical answers to some of our more recent problems. This was, after all, an opportunity to completely reimagine how an infrastructure should be run, and there was no shortage of ideas coming from them.

Some would be adopted - some already had - while others would be tested on a smaller scale until the cost to effect scale could be estimated. Renewability of resources was a big topic among them. And as I listened, both with my ears and with my electronically augmented senses, I had to admit that there were some topics in which I was utterly out of my depth with.

But, as I listened, I noticed something else. It was like a quick, sharp tone that I could almost call a ping. I focused, listening for the tone again, wondering at the reason for it.

Another ping, this time a touch louder as I walked further among the mass of containers.

“Matthew,” Dr. Ross greeted me as he was walking, looking up from a digital holographic display, “It’s good you’re here. I wanted to run some things by you in regards to some fundamentals for the building. I think it’d be best if the more dangerous experiments occurred on the bott-”

“Yes, yes, that’s fine.” I answered quickly, distracted, “come with me, I’m looking for something.”

A quizzical look crossed his face before he shrugged, “Well, sure. I don’t have much else to do until the next Main-Line Mech is put together.”

He followed me as I prowled through the containers, feeling the ping grew louder. Idly, I pinged it back, sending a digital packet much like a signature to it.

The deluge I received in response stunned my sharpened senses. I flinched, putting a hand to the side of my helmeted head.

“Are you alright?” Ross asked, frowning as he watched me, “Headache?”

“Yeah, and yes,” I answered, looking up sharply to him as I filtered the wall of information I’d been hit with. “Doctor, I have a question in regards to your Reaver’s.”

He visibly swallowed, perhaps sensing the tenseness in my voice, “O-of course. What do you want to know?”

“How did they come about?” I asked, trying to keep my voice neutral as the information began to unpack itself, a recorded litany of events that transpired around the recording device over the course of several weeks.

“Well, that was the… Sickle.” He paused, “Sorry, did that never come up?”

“Must have slipped your mind,” I ground out, “And what, then, has happened to my Shade in the meantime? From what I’d been reported, it was deceased.”

His eyebrow rose marginally as I mentioned that it was deceased, rather than destroyed, “Well, it’s been in storage. It hasn’t moved hardly at all since you… well, since you died, really. It’s barely responded to us, but there was a rather prominent impression of its structure. Truly, the data we received when we connected to it was like a gold mine. I had no idea the Shade was modeled off of your own psyche, but that made it make sense that it was devastated by your loss.”

I blinked in confusion, “What? No, the Shade was an independant A.I. that was smart and learning, but…” I paused, “You got that information from the Shade? You’re sure?”

As we walked, I could see Dr. Ross growing increasingly confused, and with a frown said, “I’m positive that’s where we found it. Yaga and I were the attending scientists for the event.”

There was something nagging at me about that, aside from the obvious. Shade was never that kind of system, and shouldn’t have even had access to something like that. If anything, it should have remained active as well, my demise withstanding or not.

But, the more information I parsed through, the more I grew wary of what I might discover. Had the Shade somehow evolved and become semi-sentient? Was it mentally stable after being effectively in some manner of box, alone, for several weeks on end?

As we reached the box, I could feel the Shade within activating more fully, a strange impression almost like a happy pet coming across.

‘So, definitely semi-sentient.’ I mused, feeling sensations like happiness and dialogue similar to an excited greeting coming from it.

Dr. Ross opened the container, eyes wide as he heard the Shade’s engines operating. “Well, I’d say that it’s awake now.”

The Shade was different from what I remembered, “Did you upgrade it?”

“Mmm? Oh, yes, we decided that we could retrofit it with more advanced technology. Regrettably we could never get it moving again, and… then we may have forgotten about it?” A supremely apologetic look fell across his face, “I do apologize for that. It’s just been so busy that we didn’t remember to tell you.”

The Shade inched forward out of the container, a series of wires and sensors pulled off of its many ports. It looked much more sleek, but also far more lethal.

“Good to see you, too.” I murmured, and then felt surprised when Shade’s engines thrummed that much louder.

“Yours is less vocal than the Reaver’s are, we could never figure out why.” Dr. Ross chuckled, walking up and giving Shade a friendly pat, alarmingly close to one of the bladed wings of the vessel. To my surprise, it angled itself gently towards him, ensuring that it wouldn’t accidentally cut him.

“Usually it’ll only stay active for a short while, but now that you’re here,” he smiled broadly, “I think we can safely say that Shade won’t be such a bump on a log.”

A sputter from one of the engines blasted a brief puff of smoke at Dr. Ross, who coughed in response. “Rude!”

The antics were amusing, but also distantly concerning. Quickly, I extended my will to the Shade, which allowed my searching without complaint. If anything, it seemed eager for the attention, and I couldn’t help but equate it to a puppy.

Then I hit upon the data that Dr. Ross had been talking about, almost exactly like a how-to manual on creating a co-pilot A.I.

More importantly, though, was the data embedded deeper, harder to access and yet bearing a familiar feeling like a thumbprint.

“Smith?”