Chapter 77

The Dark One’s Respite 7

-:-

2 days later

Theo’s Lair

“Wow… this is just… wow….” said Nichola as she observed the fruits of her labor.

Theo was equally impressed with the results. Cutting classes for the last 2 days was totally worth it.

9 naked individuals stood at attention in front of Theo, Juno and Nichola.

All of the 9 had their limbs replaced with cybernetics that were built for combat. As such, they didn't look pretty, but they were powerful.

The same could be said to their spine and a portion of their brain.

The brain cybernetics were particularly noteworthy because it was the first ‘Technosorcery’ Theo and Nichola has ever made.

The Anterior Cingulate Cortex, the part of the brain that are involved in attention allocation, reward anticipation, decision making, impulse control and emotion, was replaced with a cybernetic version of it.

These cybernetics was filled to the brim with Mind Slave Runes etched by Nichola.

Based on Nichola, the Mind Slave Rune was normally etched directly onto the brain using the caster’s blood as a catalyst.

The blood itself was not important. What mattered was that the caster’s mana/life force/metasignature be imprinted to the rune itself.

As such, the cybernetics produced by Theo’s midas alchemy was an extremely effective replacement.

The effect of the Mind Slave Rune was surprisingly tame compared to its menacing name.

The receiver of the rune would be predisposed to trust the words of whoever’s mana was applied in the rune.

Quite simply, it turns ‘I don't trust this guy’ into ‘We’re friends right? Don't hesitate to ask!’

And just to be sure, Theo’s cybernetics monitored and controlled these impulses to some extent. It cant achieve complete control, but it was good enough for now.

More importantly, Theo could access their minds, look through their experiences, directly control them or even kill them by completely shutting down their brain.

Sadly, Theo couldn't do these things wirelessly over long distances. He needed them to connect directly into the internet in order to do that.

Anyways, the product of Theo and Nichola’s collaboration was right in front of them.

Juno was also there but wasn't particularly interested in the technical aspects of their achievement.

“Theo, you can access their minds right?” asked Nichola in excitement.

“Yeah. Let’s see what they’re thinking about.” said Theo as he accessed the 9’s mind.

The males were calm to a certain extent. They were checking out Nichola and Juno but understood that they are the property of ‘the Lord’ AKA Theo, thus decided against even entertaining lustful thoughts about them.

The females on the other hand were a maelstrom of emotions. They were throwing insults at Nichola and Juno and firmly believed that they were much more worthy to stand besides the Lord.

As such they burned with erotic jealousy against the 2 women

Apparently the cause of this was seeing the Theo trio having glorious copulation in front of them.

However, they knew that Juno and Nichola were the Lord’s favored lovers. As such, they held back their murderous jealousy and stood at attention.

“Holy crap…. No… This is expected. They do have most of their free will after all. Such thoughts were expected.” said Theo with a wryly smile.

“Dont keep my in suspense here. Tell me what they’re thinking” said Nichola

“The guys think that you and Juno are hot. The girls want to kill you 2 because you are hot.”

Nichola flinched at Theo’s words.

She threw a glance at the 2 women, and was surprised to be at the receiving end of scorned eyes.

“F-for real? Jealousy? I know I cranked up the Mind Slave Rune quite high…. Did I make a mistake?” Nichola asked Theo.

“Oh no no no. This is perfect. They know their place, and more importantly, they know your place.” said Theo as he caressed Nichola’s butt.

“Jeez…. You pervert” complained Nichola, though she did nothing to push Theo away.

“Hey Theo. I have a good idea. Let’s allow the girls to speak their mind” said Juno as she hugged Theo from behind.

“Eh? Why?”

“I’m curious what cyborg women think of me.”

“Sure, I guess. I registered you 2 as sub-masters. They’ll follow your orders well enough” said Theo.

“Fufufu! Nice! Then allow me!” said Juno as she turned to the women. “You 2. State your name and I allow you to speak freely.”

A woman in her late 20’s stepped forward.

“I am Reformant 8 or R8 and I thank you for allowing me to speak, you filthy white haired hussie. My body is better equipped to satisfy our Lord’s sexual desire. I humbly suggest Lady Juno to remove herself from our Lord’s side and go hang herself.” said the woman named R8

R8’s words were quite shocking to say the least.

Then, the other woman in her mid 20’s also stepped forward.

“I am R9 and I agree with R8. I also find it hard to believe that Lady Nichola, a teenage brat with barely any breast or thighs, is worthy to receive the divine seed of our Lord. Kindly throw yourself off a bridge and turn into a smudge on the pavement.” said R9

Pretty much everyone was speechless.

Theo and the male Reformants made the ‘God I’m so embarrassed for them’ face.

Nichola hid behind Theo and was shivering in fright.

“W-what the hell! They’re scary damn it!” said Nichola

On the other hand, Juno was quite pleased.

“HAHAHAHAHA! They’re awesome! Perfect! I approve!” said Juno as she slapped R8 and R9 on the shoulders.

“Are you insane?! Didn't you hear a single word they said?! They want to kill us! How is that ‘perfect’?!” exclaimed Nichola

“That only means that the ‘Loyalty’ ingrained by cybernetics was strong enough that it developed into a form of ‘Love’. And Love is one of the most powerful means of shackling another person to your will…. Or I think that’s how Miss Samantha said it.” replied Juno with a bright smile. “Anyways, I like them. Please keep them and all the future additions to the Reformants this way.”

“Hmm… You do have a point. I guess we’ll keep it this way.” said Theo

Nichola groaned in annoyance, but decided to go along with it.

After making one last check on the 9 Reformant’s bodies, it was time for some combat tests.

For that, the Reformants were provided with a surprisingly cutting edge loadout

First up was their power armor: the Z61 Scout Armor.

It was 2 generations beneath the latest model but Theo’s additions made it just as good.

FYI: Theo’s Z49 Scout Armor vastly exceeds the current cutting edge models.

Now, why did Theo choose to equip them with Scout Armors?

It was because the Scout Armor was the cheapest variant of military grade power armor in terms of mass production and maintaining.

The heavier Assault Armor was a walking light tank, complete with built in weapons, thick armor and high tech ‘headquarters’ systems. It was also big, bulky and can't go through the front door of a normal home.

Naturally, it was also just as annoying to mass produce and maintain.

Lastly, there was Theo’s Terminator Armor.

Let’s just say there was absolutely no way he’ll be giving that to some mooks.

And besides, both of his Terminator Armors were still too damage to even walk. Fixing that would take too long and Theo has more pressing things to do.

As such, the Terminator was put on hold for now.

Anyways, back to the Reformant’s load out.

Aside from the Z61 Scout Armor, they were equipped with AR-15 assault rifles, Sig Sauer P938 pistol and a simple dagger. These were the most commonly bought weapons in the Commonwealth at the moment.

The combat tests were fairly straight forward.

Frist, hit a target at 200-1000 meters.

Most of them capped off at 500 meters.

An understandable result given how the AR-15 was not a sniper rifle and none of them had Theo’s terminator eye for increased accuracy.

Next was the 200-1000 moving target.

The result was so eratic that Theo couldnt get an accurate read on their abilities in this category.

After that was the actual combat…. And boy was it an eye opener to say the least.

First up was a one-vs-one gun duel with Theo.

He thought that he and Nichola has done a fairly good job overwriting the bad habits they had in combat via the cybernetic implants forcing muscle memory information into their brain.

While it did mitigate their amaturish movements, some of the stupid habits were still there.

Reloading while the magazine wasnt empty, aiming the gun like a gangster, firring at full auto among other minute problems.

None of them were able to come close to beating Theo.

And then there was the melee combat against Juno.

The result was just about the same as Theo’s. A complete and one sided beatdown.

Truth be told, Theo hoped that his cybernetics would increase the Reformant’s ability enough to somehow reduce the massive gap of skill and combat experience.

While Reformant’s cybernetics were nowhere near as powerful or as high quality as Theo’s, it did boost their strength and speed above a normal human.

At the very least he hoped that they could make Juno break a sweat.

Unfortunately, Juno was simply that good.

And to think he ordered the Reformants to kill Juno.

R8 and R9 were particularly determined to end Juno’s existence. Unfortunately, Juno made them eat the floor quite a bit.

The takeaway from this exercise was the painful fact that the main material used to make the Reformant Units were mediocre at best.

While their cybernetics could bump their combat effectiveness, the humans themselves were still subpar.

Could Theo make them better?

Yes he can.

The main component they lacked was training and combat experience.

Theo was not a skilled teacher in the fine arts of killing people, thus he needed to hire someone to train his mooks.

After that, he could outfit them with more tech such as drones and maybe some built in cybernetic weapons.

The list of improvements he could do was endless

However, there was a big problem….. Just like all of Theo’s drones, the Reformant Units were meant to be a disposable meatshield unit.

The odds of these 9 dying sometime in the near future were quite high.

As such, using resources on soon-to-be dead individuals was wasteful.

But then again, their current armaments was strong enough to dominate the thugs of the Hellhole district.

Maybe the original 9 might survive long enough to gain the right to be trained properly.

Anyways, the first 9 of the Reformant Unit performed as Theo and Nichola expected.

They were probably above your normal police unit but below the standard army grunt.

And once Theo adds the equally disposable combat drones to their arsenal, he was confident that they will be a meatshield force to be reckoned with.

With that out of the way, the next phase of the Reformant Unit can finally start.

What was the next phase?

Persuade (abduct) more criminals and convince them to turn from their evil ways (turn them into ‘loyal’ Reformants)!