"Doctor Hollengrehn, how can we quickly ready one thousand two hundred of your Class 64s?"

"The improved design should speed up the production of let's say... one hundred units a week."

"I see. Have you figured out the weakness of the armor shown in that small battle at Altrecht?"

"I'm sorry Mister Faricy, but we could not recreate the bullet that was used against them. Our attempts to retrieve the destroyed units are still unsuccessful at the moment. My closest improvement is to add a little more sloping to the chest and rear armor sections to ensure the units will be able to deflect those bullets."

"No big matter, for now. I highly doubt the Empire can mass-produce the gun that would use such munitions."

†

Four great furnaces have been fired up for the longest time; on top of these were containers that burned away ore and left pools of blazing tongues of glowing red and orange poured out of large crucibles mounted in several struts and chains. These were coursed into narrower paths, which then led to funnel-shaped extruders right before they poured out as centimeter-thin beams into awaiting molds. The molten metal was cooled by an array of blue pyramidal crystals. Solid, almost azure light will be fired upon the molds that converted the bright glow of the liquefied metal into darkened, solid shapes. Each of the cooled metals had different shapes; rods, discs, tubes, and plates came out of the lines.

These shapes took a different path of the process, where they were exposed to another series of alterations: four lanes of smaller crystal lances that directed fine beams of concentrated red light downward. Each of the beams worked to cut even more elaborate forms from the molded parts; metallic hands reached down to separate the formed product from the cut materials. The new parts were then sorted according to the intended component they were supposed to create; skeletal-looking frames for arms, legs and what seemed to be triangular torsos were assembled from the constructed pieces.

At the end of the assembly were standing humanoid metal frames which were then subject to what seemed to be a twenty meter-long tunnel. Awaiting them were all sorts of mechanical arms that hung from above and from each side; saws whirred, claws clicked, blowtorches hissed to life and the slow clanking of the conveyor belt underneath subjected the inanimate constructs to the installation of cables for electrical pathways, gearing for joints and plates of armor to cover the internals, helmet-like assemblies that contained crystal fashioned after eyes. A large mechanical arm inserted a glowing white crystal orb to a cavity at the center of their chest. The completed unit would then be subject to inspection at the only point of the assembly where people were to inspect the end product. Each inspector held a square object with eight connecting wires that would be mounted to cover the white crystal; each of them was linked to certain points located in the neck, arms, waist, and hips of the metal units. One last metal arm then covered the entire chest assembly with a triangular armor piece that resembled a shield rather than a chest plate.

A green glow from their head units indicated that a construct was activated. It stood up using bowed, insectoid appendages with feet that were almost as long as its lower legs. A person holding a slab-like device moved his hand around a half-sphere placed at the center. The machine walked two steps front, two steps behind and walked sideways twice. Two more personnel approached the newly-assembled construct and looked at the angled, almost crocodilian headpiece. The machine stood still, ignoring the shadows that pass around it.

†

Hollengrehn never thought that the forge and the assembly plant would ever become this busy.

He woke up to see the second day of the Class 64s' mass production run; the sound of metal being cut, hammered and honed into mechanical humanoids was music to his ears. This day was something he never expected, having been content to see his constructs produced only by the dozen, and now the Gray Fox's assembly lines were building hundreds of them, maybe his mechanical warriors were about to reach a thousand by now. Hollengrehn took another tour of the output end of the assembly line, where the newly-made battle machines were fitted with a new shorter barreled gun. One of the workers attached a drum-shaped magazine to the weapon's underside. The lead weaponeer approached the man saying:

"How was the performance of the new StG-36?"

"The tests were carried out with no issues concerning gun performance." A masked man, wearing a brown shirt with a gray overcoat said, "There is a test unit at the firing range if you'd like to try it."

"This is the 250-round drum model?"

"Yes, Doctor Hollengrehn, with two spare drum magazines as you have specified."

"Good, good. Carry on."

He left the worker and went to the next section where the constructs are lined up. An apparatus with six upward-facing dishes came to view. Below these circular transmitters were four displays; each of them was being tested by operators to show the serial number of each unit assigned to the machine, a visual link through a flying camera to survey the area, a map grid of the area of operations and a fourth blackened monitor for unknown purposes. Buttons and switches were of varying number and size for each monitor; a part of the control panel had as much as two hundred switches, whereas another had only forty-eight buttons.

It was impossible to assign enough personnel to become the "brains" of the projected one thousand two hundred-strong force. This controlling device was created to ensure that two human operators can coordinate the movements and actions of a bigger number of machines. A hundred and fifty constructs would be working along with the humans to defend and to silence anything that would attempt hostile actions. This would also free people to operate other needed machinery to ensure no other part of the operation will be compromised.

Hollengrehn passed by the assembly lane to spot a tall figure clad in black armor. A faint red dot glowed at the center of his forehead, the same lights were also seen on his left and right temples. He stood still; his eyes gave a blank expression and a rather mechanical way of blinking. A long, muffled groan escaped his lips at random times, which made the scientist hesitant to approach the man – he decided to observe from a distance, just in case the attention he was giving would not bother the person. It was a pitiful sight: a great commander and hero of the empire reduced to a puppet. He would have never understood what went inside Trevalyn Faricy's head to create these methods; machines would have suited the job just fine, if not better. It was just like that monster the crime lord decided to keep at a restricted portion of the facility.

His opinion would not have mattered anyway, as his role in this upcoming scheme was to make sure that his metal war machines were ready for action, and that the preparations were done with no error. Hollengrehn walked away after deciding to return to this production area after two hours.