Chapter 06

While walking out onto the street Vesta noticed two things. First, she noticed that there was a new set of bars in her view that indicated the power level of the city as well as the percentage of delivered water and transported waste. Each of the meters were in the good except for the power which was barely readable it was so low. Upon focusing on the selection of informative bars she also noticed that there were inactive happiness and productivity of the people in the city. The second thing that she noticed was that the city was far better on the eyes since she had used the Back to day Zero ability to clear out all of the old buildings.

“Cassi?” Vesta asked stopping in the center of the six-lane street in front of the main building.

“Yes mum.” She said from a small window that appeared in the corner of Vesta’s vision.

“Can we redirect resources and a few of the maintenance robots to repair the main building?” Vesta asked. The building was constructed of a light-colored stone or concrete and dark shaded glass. The base was a square and the walls began to spiral up about twenty feet up and did so until it reached the peak where it came to a narrow roof that supported a tall antenna.

“It will take two hours for the robots to complete the assigned task.” Cassi nodded.

“Excellent! Keep up the good work.” Vesta said with a nod. Cassi’s window closed vanishing from her view.

The first mission that Vesta decided to focus on was the powerplant. That was probably the most important system that they needed to get back to one hundred percent or at the very least, better than it was currently. The plant was located to the north east of the main building outside of the city limits, but still within her domain.

Vesta opened the map that she had of the city in her HUD. A flat 2D representation hovered in her view. She followed the road with her gaze to where it converged into a small two-lane road that went to the power planet that was little more than a dirt packed path. Large power transmission lines hung over the road leading back to the city, but Vesta noticed that they also lead off away from the city as well.

It would have been an easy, almost free teleportation to go straight to that road, but the route took her past the robots that were current constructing a factory building in the industrial zone that she had designated. Given that these robots were currently her only citizens she thought it would be cool to go see them do their work.

With a practiced blink of her eyes she vanished from where she stood in a whoosh and a crack. She reappeared outside of the construction site. Teleporting was a million times easier when you weren’t dragging someone with you on the trip and the vomiting had stopped after the first hundred or so trips that she had taken. When she appeared, her energy had almost completely regenerated given that the trip was so short.

The site of the construction was a fine-tuned orchestra of activity. There were three different types of robots working diligently to get the job done. One was a humanoid whose head was actually shaped like a hardhat. Looking closely at them a small window popped up which indicated that they were the construction robots. The other were half human from the waist up, but their lower half were tracked like a tank. These were identified as the maintenance robots. The last of the group of working robots were the general-purpose bots. They were sophisticated flying robots that used a set of six wings that each was equipped with a rotor blade in order to be able to fly around. They were powerful enough that they could lift heavy objects and deliver them to the other robots as they worked.

The building seemed to grow from the ground up, skeleton to skinned, before Vesta’s eyes. The robots worked in perfect sync moving within nanometers of each other, but never making a mistake. She smiled as the building seemed to come to its completion and the robots began to spill to the lot next door and began to erect the next building in the que.

After the second building she watched was nearly completed in only ten minutes, she resolved to herself that it was time for her to get some work done too. She turned in the direction of the powerplant and took a step appearing in a flash at the plant’s main road. There was a large sign affixed to the fence that surrounded the facility.

Summerrest Nuclear Power Facility

Vesta took a deep breath as she approached the gate to the building. She wasn’t one hundred percent sure what exactly she was about to do. Granted she knew nothing about nuclear power, but she would give it the old college try. The entrance road was flanked by a simple draw gate and guard house. Obviously, there was no one there, but she still leaned her head into the building to have a look.

It was as expected, empty. She ducked around the gate and casually walked towards the front door. She had her guard up, but the only sound in the immediate area was the wind. There were two cars parked in the parking lot and the wind kicked around papers that flew freely. They could have been flyers or maybe someone dropped a folder in the event that befell the city. Vesta didn’t know.

The nuclear power plant facility was fairly large. There was a huge main building and to the east there was a secondary building that was three stories tall. Behind the main building there were three cooling towers of which only one was producing just a small amount of steam. She walked towards the front of the building where the entrance was set into an alcove that was recessed back into an inward curving wall.

Given that the facility was on lockdown the front doors were, well, locked. She tapped the panel next to the door which came to life at her touch. The screen flashed the word lockdown appeared with a pulsating line around it. She tried to access the command system on the screen, but it was no good. She just kept getting errors.

“You want to do this the hard way?” She asked out loud to no one in particular. Standing directly in front of the double doors she reached out and placed her hand on the handle. She coated her fingers with plasma using her pyro-kinetics ability. The metal handle never stood a chance. Liquid red-hot metal seeped down the door and with a gentle push it swung open.

“Knock, knock. Is there anyone home?” Vesta asked as she stepped inside. Holding up her hand she ignited a blue/white flame for light.

She wasn’t surprised in the slightest that there was no answer. The main entrance came into a nice reception area that had a dusty counter and a handful of very dusty chairs. The plants in the corners were fake and looked dull. Vesta stepped through the area shining her blue light throughout the room quietly.

She came to a set of doors that were magnetically locked. It wasn’t hard for her to turn one set of hinges into soft metal and push the door out of the way. She walked down the hall with only the sound of her dust muffled footsteps ringing through the hall.

That was until she saw a faint light coming from around the corner. She quickly waved her hand which caused her own light to flicker away. With her back against the wall she crept down the hall until she could peek her head around the corner.

In one of the rooms behind a wall of glass there was a small area that was flooded with dim light. She could see that there were two bedrolls on the floor and what looked like a makeshift cooking set. The fire was doused at the moment, but there had been one under the pot within the last few hours as a small amount of smoke was still billowing.

She lowered herself to the ground and moved in silence thankful for the thick layer of dust that almost completely muffled every movement. She got as close as she could and still, she could see no one in the room. Without warning the door to her left opened.

Vesta’s instinct was to jump into attack mode and throw her fists up. Her balled weapons of flesh and bone burst into flames. As it turned out this was an overreaction. A middle-aged bald man walked out of the room wearing a towel around his waist and a separate one around his head. When Vesta’s hand burst into flames the man screamed like a little girl throwing his hands into the air and dropped to his knees. The toiletries bag he had been holding flew through the air and exploded all over the floor upon impact.

“Wh…what…i… is it?” A second man asked in exacerbation as he came running from the room where the bed rolls were.

“Oh god please don’t kill me!” The man in the towel said holding his hands over his head.

Vesta realized the threatening nature of her fists and allowed the flames to die out. She lowered her hands and took a deep breath.

“Who the hell are you guys?” She asked crossing her arms. She pressed a button that would open the top half of her mask so that she could see them with her own eyes. It still kept her mouth hidden in an effort to conceal hear identity.

“Umm. My… My… Na… Name is Ernie.” The second man said forcing down a stutter, Th… This… is Bert.” He pointed to the cowering man.

“Let me get this straight.” Vesta chuckled hardly able to control herself, “Your names are Bert and Ernie?” She asked from confirmation.

“Yes.” The man on his knees said looking up at Vesta in apprehension.

Vesta burst out laughing. She couldn’t believe what was happening. When she was a child the educational system presented them a show from old twentieth century television footage recovered from before Regan as a comparison to old educational ways. Two of the characters were named Bert and Ernie and they were her favorite part of watching the old show.

“I don’t understand what is so funny.” Bert said standing up from the floor.

“You wouldn’t get it.” She said shaking her head. She tapped her knee and whipped away a tear of laughter.

“Who ar… are you?” Ernie asked.

“My name is Vesta,” She said coughing away the laughter, “I’ve inherited lordship of Summerrest and I’m here to investigate the power situation.” She didn’t laugh any more, but it was an active battle to keep the giggles from starting back up again. Seeing the bedrolls reminded her that she needed some sleep sooner rather than later.

“Wha…Wha… What…” Ernie tried to get the words out, but they wouldn’t cooperate.

“What’s happened out there?” Bert asked instead patting his friend on the shoulder, “Forgive him, the stutter wasn’t this bad until the monsters came.”

“I’ve cleared the city of monsters. The Nanowork-Zombies are no longer a threat. And there is no need for apologies.” She said shaking her head.

“Tha… Thanks.” Ernie said with a nod.

“That’s all well and good about the Nanowork-Zomibes but what about the Tech-pires?” Bert asked.

“Come again?” Vesta said leaning her head closer as if she hadn’t heard what he said.

“We went into lockdown because the city was attacked by Tech-pires. The lord, Captain Exilar, fought them with a contingent of supers.” Bert said.

“I’m still not getting this Tech-pires, like tech vampires? How the fuck does that work?” Vesta asked.

“They feed off supers’ energy. They can also integrate technologies into their body to become stronger.” Bert said.

“Ok…” Vesta said she began to pace in a half circle while she thought, “I haven’t seen anything like that maybe Captain Exilar was able to deal with them?” She said.

“That could be the case, but we never got the all clear signal.” Bert said and Ernie nodded his agreement.

“Alright how about we circle back to that particular nightmare. Who exactly are you two?” She asked vying for a more specific answer.

“I am a nuclear physicist and I was in charge of maintaining and operating the powerplant. My best friend her is a mechanical systems engineer and was responsible for designing several of the robots in the city’s systems.” Bert said patting Ernie on the shoulder.

“I’ve seen your work.” Vesta said with a nod, “Freaking brilliant.” She finished.

“M… M… My Ro… Robots live!” He said clenching his eyes shut and forced out the last words.

“Indeed, they do. I have them working right now.” Vesta said.

“I’m surprised that they were able to get past the Nano-work Zombies. They like to integrate with every piece of technology that they can get their hands on.” Bert said with a smile.

“I don’t know how many there were, but there are forty plus now.” Vesta said.

“Oh, well then only a small portion survived.” Bert said his smiled fading a touch.

“A shame. So, what are you guys doing here? How long have you been here?” Vesta asked changing the subject after seeing the downtrodden look on Ernie’s face.

“We were sent here by the previous lord to keep the power flowing at all cost. We’ve managed to do so, but not without having to make some concessions.” Bert explained.

“So, what seems to be the issue?” Vesta asked.

“Reactor one and three are completely out of fuel.” Bert said leading her into the glass encased room where they had been sleeping. Near the back of the room there was a panel of control systems. There were holographic screens hovering over the table where they displayed several readings from the plant that were almost complete gibberish to Vesta.

“Alright and what about reactor number two?” She asked.

“It’s operational, as I’m sure that you have figured out, but operating at ten percent of maximum capacity. We have lost most of the coolant flow for our main cooling system. We’ve had to resort to using the auxiliary which was only supposed to be used in emergencies for a short period of time.” Bert said. He brought up a diagram of the coolant flow for the system. Water was being pumped out of the lake for use in the system. She could see that the flow had stopped at reactor one’s pump station.

“Why haven’t you fixed it?” Vesta asked.

“We aren’t going outside.” Bert said flatly.

“W… w… we can’t do…d…do it.” Ernie said with panic on his face.

“Alright you need someone to do it for you?” Vesta asked crossing her arms over her chest.

“It might be something as simple as resetting the pump or even priming it, but we simply can’t go outside. We’ve stayed alive this long by sticking together and in this building.” Bert said shaking his head.

“I get it.” Vesta said throwing up her hands to stop him, “I’ll take care of it.”

-Mission Update.

-Power Plant Lockdown

-You’ve discovered that the problem with the powerplant has been caused by a faulty cooling system and also a lack of fuel. In order to get the system back online one of these two problems must be solved.

-You have automatically accepted this mission by accepting the original mission.

Vesta sighed as she looked at the two men. She walked over to the diagram of the power plant to get the exact location of the primary coolant pump. Once she had copied it to her own map in her HUD she turned and looked at the two men.

“Its safe outside. You guys should think about getting some fresh air.” She said with a sigh. Before they could say anything, she vanished in a bright blue light.

Night time was in full swing as Vesta reappeared outside of the pump station. She held her hand high and ignited her light. The building was built of dark grey block and sat on the edge of the lake north west of the powerplant.

She walked up to the door, dull steel, and grabbed the padlock. She didn’t even have to use her ability. With her strength score she was easily able to break the cheap lock. She pulled the door open and leaned in fire hand first. Something lunged at her from the darkness.

Vesta threw her arms up in a cross over her face. The creature, winged, drug her back and slammed them both into a wall. The monster was humanoid, grey skinned, thin as bones and angry as hell. It attacked Vesta relentlessly.

She punched at it, but the creature roared loudly and as it lifted its head she could see a dull white energy being sucked from her body. It was her energy. The bar was dropping extremely fast fifty points per second fast.

The monster moved so sporadically that it was like it was having a seizure on top of her and she couldn’t get free. She reached down and grabbed ahold of her sword’s hilt. She drew it from its slumbering dimension. There was no way for her to swing in so instead she pulled it up and pressed the sharp edge against the creature’s neck. With her tiny bit of remaining energy, she ignited the blade in flame and shoved it upward. The tip sliced through the creature’s head landing her a critical hit.

The head split in two and the monster finally stopped moving. With a groan she pushed the body to the side where it dropped to the ground with a loud thud.

“Fuck you!” Vesta said kicking the monster in the head.

She was so exhausted. Luckily, she packed a few energy serums. She took one out and injected it into her arm. The new energy rushed through her body. She shook it off and refocused on the task at hand. She reignited her fire light.

The door still stood wide open. Leaning inside there was no other creature that lunged out at her. She walked inside where she found a massive pump. She found the control panel where an error was flashing. The communication panel a few feet away was flashing and when Vesta approached it she found that Bert was trying to establish a line. She activated the panel.

“I see you made it, what took you so long?” He asked.

“I might have found one of your Tech-pires.” She shook her head.

“I told you we didn’t need to go. We’d be dead right now.” Bert said shaking his head.

“Fair enough, you were right. There is an error on this pump, what should I do.” Vesta asked.

“Th… The… B,b,best thing to do is…is…i…is to turn it off… off… and back on.” Ernie said through a clenched jaw.

“Alright.” Vesta said with a nod. She walked around from the communication panel and to the main power junction. The system was simple. There was a power switch that you could flip to shut everything off, but the pump had to be primed with a large lever. The instructions on the wall were clear enough. The primer had to be pumped ten times and then activate the system.

She flipped the lever to shut everything off. The lights and pump all crashed instantly. There was complete silence in the small building. She took hold of the primer pump and wrenched the lever ten times. Each time the action became harder and harder until she was hardly able to move the lever.

She took a deep breath. With a long sigh she pressed the start button. All of the lights came on much more than had been on before. The huge pump in the center of the room came to life with a loud metal on metal screeching sound, but it went away, and the pump began to spin faster and faster. She looked at the read outs where she saw that the pump was operating at ninety four percent.

Vesta pulled the door closed and with a blink she reappeared in the reactor control center. Both Bert and Ernie jumped in terror when she appeared.

“You two are going to have to get little less jumpy.” She said shaking her head and crossing her arms.

“I think that’s going to take some time if you are just going to keep appearing on us.” Bert said with a growl.

“Well, I guess you’ll have to just figure it out. How’s the reactor doing?” She said with a sigh.

“Reactor number two is back up and running at seventy five percent.” Bert said bringing up a diagram of the power plant.

“Seventy five percent?” She asked. She had been hoping to get at least one reactor working at one hundred percent to get a third of the possible power.

“Unfortunately, you’ll need to work on the cities infrastructure in order to get one hundred percent.” Bert said.

“Yeah that sounds about right.” She said with a nod.

“Th…th…thank you for hel…hel… helping.” Ernie said.

“No problem. You guys going to keep hanging out here?” She asked.

“I think until the population of the city rises some we are just going to stay.” Bert said with a curt nod.

“Suit yourself. If you change your mind I have a nice new living spaces being built that you guys can have in the city. I need you to help me keep this plant up and running so I’m willing to help you.” Vesta said with a shrug.

“Thank you for the offer.” Bert said.

“Alrighty. I’m off, we’ve got other problems around the city that needs some fixin.” She said with a blink she reappeared on the road outside the powerplant.

“Cassi.” She said looking back at the plant.

“Yes mum.” She said. Her window appeared in Vesta’s vision.

“Could you task some maintenance bots up to the power plant when they’ve finished their current que?” She asked.

“Yes mum. Directives received.” Cassi said with a nod and her window disappeared.