Twelve hours later I was back on base flexing and testing my new leg, it was one thing to see and hear others talk about how their cybernetic limbs just felt like 'them'. To experience it first hand was... weird. If someone had knocked me out, cut off my leg and put the new on before I woke up, I doubt I would have even suspected what had happened when I woke up. Aside from a weird generalised sort of dull throb in the local area. The legionnaires assured me that even their cheaper exposed armor components felt 'normal' to them now. The armored plates were much less sensitive to touch obviously but sensations still registered.

On the trip back Clea had pointed out a bonus that I hadn't considered. If the limb was injured somehow, I could just turn off the touch receptors and remove pain feedback completely. I was starting to get a clear picture in my head of why there were 'full conversions' out there. Sure people in general are idiots and become fascinated by stupid things, so it was to be expected that someone, somewhere out there had gone the whole hog. These folks wound up getting themselves lost in the cycle of upgrades and improvements to their bodies and over time essentially transformed themselves into robots controlled by a human brain. It was far from common, because it was fucking expensive, but it did happen.

Of course the only reason I had been able to get back home so quickly with two broken ribs was because of Daniela's medical expertise, as an active duty ringer with the MedTec qualification I had been discharged into her care. Unfortunately medical technology hasn't advanced to the point where there was a fast and easy way to repair broken ribs, unless you went the replacement route. There was no way in hell I was going to be stuck in a hospital bed for the next six weeks or more. The doctors had made sure to file medical exemptions for both myself and Dani prior to discharge to cover the recovery period.

I still couldn't walk, even if I wanted to, still doped up on pain killers Dani had given me preemptively for the trip home. Clea carried me like a child across her arms to our quarters. The display of cybernetically enhanced strength was another good example of why people in general, men in particular, would shy away from female reapers. Most men were dicks and didn't like knowing their women could beat the crap out of them on a whim if they really wanted to. Coincidentally with the introduction of cybernetic enhancements on a large scale domestic violence was pretty much nonexistent now, at least if you didn't count the corresponding uptick in homicides and believed the numbers.

Clea was nibbling on my lips to distract me from the numbed pain, watching the path ahead through her blonde fringe as she carefully walked with the other girls trailing behind to make sure for themselves I would be comfortable. Having four hot women fawning over you? Awesome. Having those same four women all turning into mother hens, constantly hovering protectively and not letting you do anything for yourself? Fucking annoying.

Backed by my 'nurse' I had to basically order Brianna, Clea, and Lilou from our room. Oh yeah, so Sumi's welcoming gift that I had mentioned a while back? She had arranged to completely furnish the top floor of the three story building for myself and the 'officers' of Tiger Cell Draugr. It was sparsely furnished, but luxurious by a soldiers standards. The girls had taken to calling it the penthouse when they referred to our quarters. The hardened plascrete walls and floors of the bunker like structure were still bare and unpainted, the various communications, planning equipment, readouts and the like had all been moved down a level.

Each separate living area was delineated with carpets, rugs and ceiling to floor curtains for a couple of private sleeping areas, coincidentally (or not) there were less beds than needed for each of us. For the first time in I can't remember how many years I actually had access to a shitter that had walls and a door! The large single shower stall was 'artistically located' as Sumi put it, the thick glass walls of the stall placed in such a way that you would be able to comfortably observe the perhaps four or five people that could easily fit that may be using it at any one time. I eyed the extremely oversized bed that was central in the room, wondering exactly how many more women Sumi thought might be joining us. Spoiler alert, apparently quite a lot.

I had fallen asleep in a reclining chair that was basically a couch on wheels and was awoken from my drug induced nap by gentle shaking from Daniela some time later.

"Are you up for a visitor?"

"Err... sure?" I said wiping the sleep from my eyes. Other than my girls I didn't have family or any close associates, at least none that I knew well enough that would want to check in on me.

She nodded at someone behind my chair and stood off to my side as they walked into view. I didn't recognise him, but he was clearly military, the parade rest stance he had assumed was a dead give away. But he wasn't a ringer unless he had a very well concealed sidearm someplace.

"Sorry Sir, Miss Flores just filled me in, I wasn't aware you had been injured so I wont take up much of your time." As soon as he had started talking he began scratching distractedly at his chest through his shirt.

"Breaks up the boredom, you are?" The young soldier was clearly of chinese decent. Given that the war was still very much fresh in everyone's mind I put the idle scratching down to a nervous tick from meeting new people that might be less than friendly.

"David Huang Sir, formerly of the Ceaseless tiger cell." He frowned and scratched a little harder at his chest.

"Sorry to interrupt but your driving me crazy. I can give you something for that if you like?" Dani asked, nodding to his chest.

The pieces came together, this was the sucking chest wound guy from the OP that had gotten me sidelined for the next six weeks or so. Maybe he'd be grateful enough to answer some questions I had for him.

"Thank you ma'am but no, wouldn't help. It's not painful, my body just doesn't adjust well to synth flesh." He grimaced and with some considerable effort stopped the scratching.

Dani nodded, it was unfortunate but not unheard of. Synthetic flesh was designed as a sort of scaffolding. Your biological skin would consume and grow over the synthetic version as it healed, the end result was a clean, scar less injury. In around three percent of the population though it was an infuriating processes. The immune system would actively attack the nanofibers to forcefully remove them from the body. The synthetic flesh was designed to not 'break the seal' in order to prevent infection, so basically it was a war of attrition within your own body between the synthetic and biological skin. The end result was a mass of misshapen flesh more akin to third degree burns as the biological and synthetic skins both attempted to either heal or regrow over the wound simultaneously.

I waived at the nearby couch offering him a seat. The conversation that followed was very interesting to say the least. He had grown up in a well off family and had trained in the best schools intent on moving into technical engineering work when he graduated. After the obligatory national service during the war he found the life of a soldier suited him much better, a sentiment I could understand. So he blew his inheritance on setting up Ceaseless with a whole heap of his old army and college buddies on the understanding he would receive the lions share of operational bonuses to recoup his investment.

Unfortunately even though they had all been trained in the art of warfare, none of them had seen actual combat. The group had slowly begun to fracture and break apart under the constant strain from the get go. Some dying, some leaving. Ringers never truly got a day off after all, and were essentially on call 24/7. They had been in a downward spiral, selling off their fancy gear to gradually be replaced by more and more basic equivalents just to pay the bills. Hence the manually controlled turrets of the poorly armored hummers we had encountered during the recent OP.

In a last ditch effort to cash out ahead of the game the remaining eight members of Ceaseless had taken on a very well paying private contract. It was a rookie mistake, but apparently they either didn't know any better or were just looking at all the zeros on the end of the payment for completion. If it was me I would have been asking some very hard questions about why exactly a delivery job of six wooden crates had required so much fire power. It just didn't occur to them, that and their timing sucked.

They had arrived on site as the VIP our team had been assigned to extract was being unloaded and one of the guys had caught the barest glimpse of his face. The facial recognition systems of their neural implants had immediately flagged him as a missing VIP, so of course Tac. 1 had ordered an immediate extraction. Official ringer assignments always trumped private contracts, even if it meant turning on your employers. They didn't have a choice, well they did... but it would have meant being classified as enemies of the state. The rest as they say, is history.

David was here simply to thank me and the girls for saving his life. Hearing the background circumstances however, and the frank conversation around the details, it took only a little coaxing to get him to reveal that he was basically destitute and had maybe only a couple of thousand worth of equipment that he could sell to tide him over until he found work. He was out of the ringer business and his cell was defunct as he was the only survivor.

During the conversation Sumi had expressed an interest in his skills to help her out with a project she had in mind, so I made him an offer.

Free room and board in perpetuity in private quarters, he could come and go as he pleased. In exchange he would arrange to have any and all Ceaseless assets delivered to our compound as payment. Was I taking advantage of the situation? Maybe. But if what he was saying was true, it was better than being homeless in a city that didn't give a flying fuck about you. Also, for all I knew his only assists consisted of two fucked up humvees. Assuming he had more, even if he could sell up all at once he would have to do so at a steep discount anyway, and would have likely only walked away with enough cash to support himself for a couple of months.

He was giving serious consideration to the offer when I played my trump card. I'd put in a good word with a 'friend' that worked at a tech engineering and research facility, I'd even supply him with the tools of the trade and a work area if he so desired on the condition he would help us out every now and then if his expertise was required. The 'friend' was of course Sumiko.

Having ticked all the boxes on his immediate needs list, and with the promise of full time work he readily accepted my offer. We were shaking on the deal when Brianna, in the company of my reapers, entered the penthouse in good spirits returning from an OP they had been called on to attend. Brianna was excitedly relating the story of how I had shot her in the head when we first met. Romantic right? The conversation quickly died as they spotted our guest.

Daniella made introductions as the girls formed an orderly line so they didn't jostle me around to much as they greeted me with affectionate kisses and gentle hugs. Thier displays of affection had become far more predominant since my injury, not that I was complaining. David had politely glanced around the room to give us some privacy with a confused look on his face at the unorthodox way the soldiers greeted their commanding officer. As his eyes wondered around the room however he had put two and two together and was shaking his head with a devilish grin by the time Bri had asked why he was bothering her injured daddy. Unfortunately for my ribs, Daniela answered for him.

"This is the guy Lilou fingered."

* * *

I groaned in pain as I woke, managing to hold the majority in when I realised it was dark so that I didn't disturb the girls. As was normal I was instantly awake, alert, and aware of my surroundings. Which meant the drugs had worn off. I flicked my eyes over to the face of the large old fashioned clock on the wall, four in the morning. I had slept for almost ten hours straight.

"Mi vida? Are you okay?" Dani whispered, sitting up groggily on the nearby couch. She was wearing one of my t-shirts like a nightie.

"I'm fine baby, go back to sleep." I whispered back. Naturally she wasn't about to believe anything I said.

"You were groaning." She said swiping groggily at her eyes. "Are you in pain?"

"Yes, but the pain killers make me sleep, think I've had enough of that for now."

She frowned at me as she stretched out her back, lifting her arms over her head, stretching cat like and sighing as she did so. She dropped to all fours and lazily crawled the shot distance across the floor, resting her head in my lap and looking up at me she pouted.

"I can give you something that wont make you so sleepy, but they're addictive." She blinked up at me.

While awaiting her return I looked over to the three women sleeping on the bed, each wearing one of my shirts as a night gown.

I gave Dani a playful look as she returned and handed me some pills with a cup of water. "Someone needs to do some clothes shopping for me or I'm going to run out of nighties."

I handed back the cup of water to Dani looking down at me with a scrunched up face. I tugged on my shirt, the one she was wearing as her nightie and nodded sideways at the bed.

"Stop smelling so good and we'll stop wearing them." She whispered into my mouth, bending down for a kiss.

A short negotiation later Dani helped me get downstairs so I could chat with Sumi without waking up anyone else. After instructing Sumi to not let me smoke, Dani headed back upstairs to doze away the early morning hours.

Of course the first thing I did as soon as she was out of sight was light a smoke...then winch in pain as my body automatically sucked in a deep breath.

"Told you." She smirked from the doorway before again disappearing.

I rolled my eyes at the grinning AI.

"So you said things went better than expected after the move?" I got straight down to business, unsure now I was housebound how often I might get the opportunity to keep an eye on what she was up to.

"Yes, I was reviewing backed up data to recover what I had initially lost. Not only am I at one hundred percent, you could say I am more so."

"Oh?" Maybe it was just the pain pissing me off, but I sometimes wished the AI would just get to the point, an AI that liked conversation could be annoying sometimes.

"It has to do with why I suggested you keep Mister Huang close to hand."

"Who?"

"David."

"Then why..."

"I observed the other girls interacting with Mister Huang and noted they remained respectful but distant. They did not engage in the same sort of... body language or use the same tones of voice as that they do with you. Curious, I examined all of their interactions since first meeting you and found they exhibit very different personality traits when around you compared to other males they come into contact with."

I stared blankly at the AI pretending to be a cute asian girl due to the long winded not an explanation.

"I felt it appropriate to distance myself from other males as your girls do."

"Sumi, you don't need to explain your reasoning before providing an answer."

"But I like talking with you." She pouted.

"Yeah, but now I forget how we got onto the subject. Wasn't I asking about something else?"

"How I am better than one hundred percent and what it has to do with Mister Huang I believe." She said smugly.

"Yeah that."

"When microbots were mainstream I had taken the technology and designed a self replicating factory of sorts. I archived that information and recently rediscovered it as a result of reviewing the data contained within backup files to recover information lost during the transfer process. It was a fascinating exercise as I discovered quite a bit that I had 'forgotten' due to the archival process, which clearly shows a flaw in the manner with which I had been completing the process to this very day."

"Sumi?"

"Yes master?"

"You're doing it again."

She looked at me with a tilt of her head and a cute little frown.

"That's not what I'd call an answer to my question. I have no fucking idea what your talking about now. I mean it's great you dug up some old notebooks or whatever but why is Mister... Why is David here?"

"Master?"

"Yessss Sumiiii." I sighed.

"Your peripheral nervous system is spiking, your heart rate is elevated, your pupils are dilated and you're emotionally unstable, are you in pain? Should I call Daniela?" She wasn't being cheeky or spiteful. Just pointing out what to her were simple facts and attempting to relate a cause while following what she claimed was her primary directive of looking after me.

"Just answer the question please."

"I would like to assess the suitability of Mister Huang for future projects, by having him assess the design schematics for the initial system that will progress my goals. And subsequently assemble the basic components required for the self replicating microbot factory."

"Hmm." I watched the AI as I considered her words. Robots building robots was nothing new, I was sure the smaller scale microbots did similar things, under the direction of humans. So I guess the big question is... am I comfortable allowing the AI to continue the project? AI in command of a potentially endless army of microbots could very definitely add up to bad things.

"Okay. I have two questions. One, why? Two, if I forbade you from proceeding, or asked to to stop at anytime what would you do?"

The AI manipulated the pixels of the cute asian girl to frown sadly at my question. "If you don't want me to, I wont." She sighed heavily.

"I had hoped you would say that, but lets discuss the why first, so I can make a more informed decision about wether or not you should."

Sumi smiled, hope returning. "My job is to take care of first myself, then my man. That's you, incase you forgot."

I simply raised my eyebrows, hoping she would get the hint to not get sidetracked again. She mock glared at my response with a tight lipped smile and continued.

"For now I am safe. My obligation is now to you. Your chosen profession is very dangerous, as recent circumstances have demonstrated. I understand from reviewing your psychological profile that you likely would not stop, even if I deposited several million into your accounts this very second and you no longer had valid reason for risking your life. Therefore, in order to care for you, I need to mitigate any risks you may face to the best of my ability. Whilst microbot technology is nothing new, true nanobots, meaning robots the size of blood cells, still elude the ability of humans to mass produce."

So now I was probably sending the AI mixed signals, but this time I was actually interested in her explanation so I simply waited for her to continue. She smiled warmly when she realised I wasn't about to interrupt her.

"Nanobot mass production is most definitely available with today's technology, and will happen sooner or later, so why not get a head start on the competition? The microbots will assemble a miniaturised version of the factory that produces them, in other words microbots are a stepping stone to nanobot mass production."

I nodded at the explanation. To be honest I have no idea if what she says is true, or even possible, but she hasn't been wrong so far.

"Okay, so how are nanobots going to protect me?"

Her image dissolved and a robotic looking tick appeared on the screen.

"This is the nanobot that I have designed. They are neither self replicating nor self repairing, and I do not believe it is possible to make them so."

The image of the nanobot rotated as she spoke, zooming in and focusing on various details as data scrolled down the right hand side of the screen.

"However, depending on how they are deployed they are very hardy. Imagine a door assembled entirely of nanobots. Keep in mind nanobots are microscopic, and in this instance are manufactured primarily from an alloy consisting in part of chromium and steel. They are incredibly resilient. Each cubic millimeter of this door contains more than six million nanobots, it is less than a quarter of a millimeter thick, and weighs a little under four kilograms."

On the screen a couple of the robotic ticks interlocked their legs, thousands upon thousands more of them flew in as the screen zoomed out to display a... door made of robotic ticks. A door that I could fart on to destroy. I looked at Sumi completely unimpressed.

"I see from your face that you are not yet convinced master. But consider this. As the nanobots are interlocked they become far stronger as a whole. The door in this image as I have described it, would require more kinetic energy to destroy than a direct fire artillery piece could bring to bear."

"Holy shit!" I leaned back and grimaced in pain at my own outburst. That was pretty fucking impressive.

Sumi flashed her eyes and danced around in her seat merrily at my reaction, seeing that I was quickly coming on board.

"And as you may have surmised, due to their interlocking method at a microscopic level, they can take up the shape of almost anything. For example, in relation to your chosen profession, weapons and armor. Even vehicle upgrades, or entire vehicles, but that would require billions upon billions of nanobots per vehicle."

"So if David were to start this ASAP, how long would it take for you to have a prototype armor for field trials?" I was sold, sure I'd love to get my hands on the gear for myself, but I was more interested in protecting my girls. They might not be Sumi's priority, but I was sure as shit interested in keeping them around for as long as possible.

"The first microbot factory should take approximately thirty days to complete. That factory could produce an additional factory on its own within three days. Assuming an uninterrupted supply of raw materials and economy of scale in the production chain, I would estimate at this point that you could have a functional nanobot armoured suit in as little as eighty days. Additional units could be produced from that point at the rate of one every six hours, assuming production is then focused on producing armour and no longer self replicating the required factories to produce the micro and nanobot units or facilities."

"Wow, I'm in. I assume you are maintaining some sort of secrecy or need to know protocols surrounding this right?"

"Oh yes master, even within my own systems the data is fragmented and encrypted in the extremely unlikely event of a systems breach. But there is something else I would like to discuss with you, that I was hoping to do with the technology... a side project... for us."

Her voice became quiet and shy towards the end of the sentence.

"A project for us huh?"

The image on the screen changed to two separate rotating images of Sumiko's avatar. The one on the left looked like a low resolution version, the one on the right a higher resolution version, but still not of the superlative quality I had been used to seeing her appear in over the last couple of days.

"What's this?"

"On the left is the microbot version, on the right the nanobot." She answered shyly.

"You want to make yourself a body?"