I was ready to show them my next idea, so I motioned for them to come over to the 3D display. I cleared the view of the compound so I could create on a blank canvas. I didn’t want to put myself in too much danger by entering the town personally and attempting to take it. So, I was going to create a force of my own out of drones to assault the town.

Recently, there have been leaps in the control of drones in swarms that act together as one unit. These were inexpensive units that could be deployed for little cost, and would still be able to operate if multiple were destroyed in the mission. The forces in town wouldn’t be equipped with any technology that could interfere with a major portion of them at once and this would throw a lot of them off.

They can be trained to search and clear buildings while analyzing threat situations. Once trained, they can determine the difference between nonviolent and violent forces easily. This should be perfect for searching the city to determine the enemy positions, and if provided the means to deal with attackers, they could take them out themselves.

I visualized a simple drone like the ones that had been commonly sold over the past couple of years. It was basically just a square frame with four motors for flight, one on each corner of the square. I would need to modify them heavily for what I wanted, but the cost wasn’t an issue with my abilities. I started by increasing the size of the motors, then doubled them to include one above and below the frame. This should provide ample lift and more maneuverability in tight quarters. With their flight taken care of, I moved on to the camera installed on each one.

Most models had a directional camera that pointed in front of the unit for people to see while flying. However, I wanted to go with a three hundred and sixty view for each of them. I wouldn’t be flying them personally most of the time and wanted the units to have a clear view of the situation around them at all times. I visualized one above and below the frame before making the connections for each a simple plug-in interface. That should make it easier for installation in the assembly phase.

Moving on, I applied an LRAD (Long Range Acoustic Device) to the blueprint. The use of sonic weapons has been becoming more and more prevalent in the past twenty years, allowing police forces a nonviolent means of disabling and preventing unrest. These devices can be configured to interrupt hearing, cause distortion of the eyeballs, and even cause headaches and nausea. You just need to adjust the frequency being used and point it directionally.

Hopefully, the drones can use the sonic weapons for most encounters and effectively disable enemies or interrupt others for long enough to disable enemies without loss of life. However, that won’t be enough for all situations, so I moved on to the lethal means available to these drones.

I visualized a small 9mm rifle blueprint and stripped it down as much as I could to fit it onto the drone. With a sixteen-inch barrel, consistently accurate shots at up to a hundred yards should be possible. With the power of the improved motors, I could load each drone with roughly four hundred rounds of ammunition while still maintaining roughly the same maneuverability and speed as the original drone.

For the battery, I went with a lithium-ion composition that could be ignited for a small explosion when recovery of the drone becomes impossible, or the situation is necessary.

Finally, I moved to the frame itself. The graphene compound I had come up with for my armor should be excellent to layer on the frame. This would allow the drones to stay lightweight and give them a considerable amount of armor protection.

Happy with my addons, I pushed everything back together on the 3D model and backed away slightly.

“So, what do you guys think?”

Both of them replied at the same time “Wow!”

“I think it will work well for what we need and can be used in the future as I expand. However, I don’t currently have the mana to create them all at once. Which is why I brought you here Tom. We have ten times the amount of time while we’re in the Library World, so I’m going to have you help me assemble these units. I created them with simple plug and play components so it will be easy for anyone to assemble them with basic instructions.”

Tom replied “Ok man, sounds like a plan to me. It should be fun, almost like the models I have at home!”

“Now, I need to see how much mana it’s gonna cost me to create each part of this thing so we can plan out the creation.”

I went outside and slightly away from the house to start creation. First was the frame, which actually only ended up costing ten mana. The motors themselves were roughly fifteen mana a piece, so I could create a full set for a drone per mana refill. The LRAD only cost me thirty-five mana, and the cameras came in at twenty mana each. The modified 9mm and its ammunition came it at twenty mana each.

Finally, the battery and trigger device cost me thirty mana to create.

Overall, it seemed I could divide the creation into two parts. The motors would cost me 120 mana and the combination of the remaining parts would cost me 135 mana. I would still have some mana left over after each, so it would take roughly thirty minutes to create the parts for one drone. I should be able to create forty-eight sets of parts in a day while inside the Library World. That doesn’t cover installation time, but we can assemble them as they’re being created.

I would like to have a net of at least three hundred drones before moving into the town, so we would be in here for almost a week, but it would only be about a day and a half in the outside world.

The last thing I needed to work on, was going to be the AI software to control the drones. It would need to be taught how to navigate and handle situations. Hopefully, seven days would be enough time for it to learn enough for a basic operation. I went back in the house and created a basic computer with a brand-new operating system. The computer by itself wouldn’t have the processing power to handle the neural network, so I added some auxiliary components in a separate cabinet to give it the extra oomph it required.

Once I had the system created, I logged into the computer and started designing the neural network. It took me a few hours to get something I was happy with, but my combined knowledge of every programming language known made the task much easier to accomplish. I created the simulation program for it to run through various combat and policing scenarios, then named her Minerva after the Roman goddess of strategic warfare. I launched the program and let her get to work on learning everything she needed to know for our future operation.

Once I had that done, I queued up the creation of the motors and remaining components in alternating patterns with each piece delegated to appear in separate piles outside. I wanted to get a surplus created before we started assembling, so I went back inside and sat down at the table in the new kitchen. It looks like Ava filled it with all the necessary appliances we would need while in the Library for the next week, what a good girl.

“Alright Tom, I owe this wonderful girl right here some attention. You ready to lose at Duopoly?”

“Oh, yea I’m ready to show you capitalism at its peak! Friendships are ended over this game, so be prepared you two!”

And just like that, Tom and I were crying on the table three hours later after being bankrupted by Ava.

“Ha-ha, you two thought you could beat the assistant of a pretty much all-powerful system that allows storage of all data you come across? Who do you think processes all of the information to make it compatible with your squishy little meat brain?” She paraded around laughing while flashing multiple colors above our heads.

“Alright, you got me. I guess I should have seen that coming… Well, time to move on to assembly Tom. Don’t be such a sore loser, maybe if we work together from the start next time, we can beat her.”

Tom just groaned from the table. I went outside and gathered some parts before bringing them to the table for assembly. We spent the next week alternating between playing board games and assembling the drones when there was an excess of parts completed. We only left when I sent Tom out to get some food from the basement for us. The week was actually really enjoyable, and almost felt like normal life again, but that wouldn’t last long after this.