A Displaced Samurai

January 1st, 2050

Late in the morning, I woke up and recalled the events of the previous night. I had taken B.S.O.D. back to SHOCKS and parked the stolen Mack aircraft at the Colwood shelter. As the city had still been on lockdown at that time, but the fighting was almost over, I had crashed on my bed and taken a nap which had morphed into a full night's sleep. Meanwhile Wendy had busied herself with making some more parts for Arina.

As I looked at my tactical display it was free of enemy units. Wait, the sensor feed was online?

I have taken the liberty of keeping your Spectracopter fleet aloft and feeding the observation data to the HANAF network.

“Thanks! Now that you have mentioned it, perhaps we should automate the process to help HANAF with recon data even If I’m not available.”

That can be done for a few points.

“Let’s talk to HANAF first. By the way, how many points do I have now?”

You have one token and 14886 points now. Most of the new ones stem from HANAF using your weapons in the emergence.

“Nice. That’s one major purchase if we need it.”

An annoyingly chipper voice came from behind “Hello sleepyhead, with us again?”

“Good morning Wendy. Some of us still need sleep.”

“I’ll make some coffee to finish waking you up then!”

Soon I had a steaming mug of black goodness in front of me, and we each nibbled on a small pastry. Having a robot body, Weny did not need to eat anymore. She could eat small snacks though and process them in a built-in fuel cell. Right now, she was eating because she enjoyed the taste.

Suddenly Elya whispered in my ear.

Palace Athene wants to talk to you

So, the big boss? It had to be serious if she didn’t just leave it to B.S.O.D. to “manage” me. So I switched on the entertainment system and allowed Palace to access the webcam. She appeared on my screen as well, wearing her usual MG costume and a harried expression.

I dared to ask a slightly disrespectful question. “Good morning Palace. There is one thing I always wanted to know. Is that codename of yours intentional or has someone misspelled it when assigning it?”

“What? Why?”

“Pallas Athene from Greek mythology is not spelled like a king’s residence!”

Palace facepalmed. “Don’t remind me. Someone did, indeed, get it wrong. Then it got deeply into our computer systems, including some read-only components whose contents are not easily changed. Even B.S.O.D. did not dare to mess with those, she deemed it too risky.”

Those read-only components were designed by Microsoft, as part of an “AI” experimental software/hardware hybrid anti-malware system. The fledgling organization that would become SHOCKS was a little too eager to adopt it. That particular system should really be called “AS” for Artificial Stupidity.

Elya sounded disgusted even thinking of it. Next to me Wendy failed to hide a smirk. Palace looked irritated for a moment, but then she conceded “True enough. But let’s get to business. While we greatly appreciate getting B.S.O.D. back, your little foray into the Advent computer systems has also caused problems. The A.I. running the Sanctuary Advent weapons platform refuses to cooperate with us now. The supplies of synthetic food are still coming in, but we might not be able to recruit new Magical Girls. Also, certain specialty equipment mankind cannot make has become unavailable. So as a result I want you at an emergency meeting one hour from now, at SHOCKS. Don’t be late.”

I took a hasty shower to make myself presentable, then Wendy and I made our way to SHOCKS. On the way, I quizzed Elya about ways to help with the food supply and other issues.

As we entered a familiar conference room at SHOCKS, most of the high-ranking officers at SHOCKS were already waiting for us. Also present was Major Allen from HANAF logistics, which suggested that they hoped for some Protector tech based solutions.

Palace called the meeting to order and layed out the situation. It was essentially what she already had told me on the phone, plus difficulties with remotely managing the MG’s special organs and special abilities. She closed her presentation with “Does anyone have ideas how to get out of this mess?”

Everybody was looking at me. Fortunately I had something to offer.

“For what it’s worth, I found the blueprint for a food synthesizer in my database. It will not secure an independent food supply immediately though, as we have to ramp up production first.”

“And do you have the ability to do that?” Palace asked in a somewhat skeptical tone.

“Indirectly. The idea is that I release the blueprint for free and leave building the food synthesizers to the owners of the fabricators we have been selling for some time now.

“Let me give you an overview.” Elya hijacked the big wall display for me. A refrigerator-sized device appeared on the screen next to an elderly lady with an apron and her hair in a bun.

“Here we have an average human for size comparison. As you will see, the food synthesizer consists of two parts that can be manufactured separately.”

The food synthesizer on screen split into an upper and a lower part, then the image switched to a diagram of the measurements compared to the workspace in our bestselling fabricator model. The fabber would be able to make one of the synthesizer parts at a time.

“The upper part is the actual synthesizer. It also contains the apparatus for pre-processing of the raw materials, which are then stored in the lower part of the device. You can feed it with various types of biomass, the synthesizer is not picky. Ultimately, the system will provide you with pretty decent approximations of a dozen simple recipes.”

Palace seemed somewhat mollified. “That is certainly useful. Can we hope for some help with the MG situation too?”

“Not with the enrollment of new Magical Girls. I don’t have access to the artificial organ replacements the Advent are using. But perhaps I can provide some help with the remote management problems.“

“Such as?”

“Analyzing the Advent software Elya has, ahem, acquired, showed that the structure of the commands is not too complex by Elya’s standards. Elya and I may be able to come up with a compatible system, if some MGs are willing to help with testing. It might be dangerous though, so only volunteers please!”

“I’m sure we can find someone. If nobody else comes forward, I’ll volunteer myself!”

Which indicated that the matter was really urgent. I did not doubt Palace’s personal dedication, but risking the loss of the SHOCKS commander was a desperate move by itself.

Major Allen interjected “Demand for the fabricators will likely skyrocket, and I think we need to satisfy it as quickly as possible. HANAF will dedicate its share of Vanguard Industries’ production capacity to help. As soon as your girlfriend is available again, she will be temporarily reassigned to represent HANAF on the project and help with manufacturing. She can complete her basic training later, together with the next batch of recruits.”

That got a raised eyebrow or two from people who were not aware of our relationship yet. But nobody bothered to explain it to them. I chose to postpone the matter of an improved reconnaissance network, as people seemed already preoccupied with the existing crisis. With no further points on the agenda, Palace called the meeting to a close.

On the way out I asked Elya “Please give me an overview of the necessary purchases!”

Item

Point cost

Description

Class I Nutrition systems (catalog)

80 points

Covers a wide range of devices, from smart kitchen appliances to chemical fabricators for foodstuffs.

Autochef Mark II (blueprint)

2000 points

Makes basic dishes from a wide variety of biomass.

CrackStudio V2.2 universal decompiler (software)

90 points (discount from 100)

A reverse engineering tool for software and algorithms in general.

Codesmith V3 (software)

100 points

A multi-architecture compiler, covers all devices in the Class I Computation Devices catalog.

SmartSpeck Mk I (blueprint)

50 points

Low-power multipurpose microcontroller

Total price

2320 points

Remaining balance… One token and 12566 points

The software purchases allow me to give you a lot more help in creating new software, which you would be doing on the MG implant management project. The rules about buying tools first still apply in this universe, even if I might bend them for you from time to time. Otherwise, the list should be self-explaining.

“What’s with the discount?”

You have purchased the Decryption Protocol before, which covers part of the CrackStudio’s functionality. I can give you a small discount as you already have that capability.

Without paying much attention to our surroundings, Wendy and I started discussing the nuts and bolts of the tasks that lay ahead.