A Displaced Samurai

The next two weeks proved to be very busy. We took the time to fix up Arina, but after that we became completely absorbed with our new tasks. Wendy and Arina took care of manufacturing. Arina actually did most of the work as Wendy needed to spend part of her time on good old administration work.

I was working on the replacement “remote” management system for the Magical Girls’ special abilities. “Remote” in quotes because it would not be all that remote anymore. The MGs would get a lot more local control, with an intuitive user interface and the software doing a lot of the details in the background without anyone needing to monitor it.

My other projects had to be put on hold however. So building a new Explorer and interviewing the Mack MG, whose head I had retrieved from the Mack base, was sidelined for the moment. The only exception I made to that was the occasional check on the Mack base we had raided.

In that context, one thing had bothered me, namely that the Macks might be able to reverse engineer the remains of the Explorer. Fortunately they had missed their opportunity. Log files from units I had subverted indicated that the almost brain-dead Thirty-Two had started recycling the wreckage around itself. Including the wreck of the Explorer. Perhaps it was a good thing that we had failed to take out all of its eyes. Except in Mack MGs, those contained the controlling intelligence of the Macks. If a unit with only one sixth of that intelligence remaining fell back on its most basic programming, it did not surprise me too much.

Two days later a Magical Girl in her thirties showed up and introduced herself.

“Hi, I’m Ebon Ring and I’m here to be your test subject!”

I recognized her as one of the first generation Magical Girls, in retirement now but she still came back for the occasional mission when the need was dire.

“Nice to meet you, would you like a coffee?” Ebon Ring did not hesitate to agree. While she was sipping on her black brew, I said “Let’s start with scanning your communication chip.”

Ebon pulled a chip from behind her ear and handed it to me. I took it and inserted it into a scanning device I had prepared with Elya’s help. This was one of the occasions Elya had helped me cobble something new together from blueprints I already had, even if it might bend the rules a little.

Soon Elya and I had figured out the basics and I asked “Elya, please show a summary for our guest.”

The big screen of the entertainment system came on and showed a block diagram, with Elya explaining each part.

The “transceiver” is a sender and receiver module that works over a wide range of frequencies, using a quite clever frequency-hopping protocol to evade jamming. A strong wideband jammer can still interrupt the connection though.

Next is the link to your augmentations, so your operator can receive and view all the data on your enhancements. As well as view what you’re seeing and hearing. This function also allows the operator to feed you information.

Finally, there is the data link between SHOCKS and your Advent organ replacements, which appears to be the channel through which your operator can administrate some of your special MG abilities.

I added “From what Elya told me, replicating the functions of that admin link will be both the hardest and the riskiest part. We can easily handle the augment connection, but I suggest a cut-off switch on the MG’s side. Having it always on seems like a privacy nightmare to me.”

“Yes, there were times when I just pulled the chip out after training.” Ebon sighed. “That got me my share of reprimands, but sometimes it was just a little too much.”

“I’d like to start testing as soon as possible. Just in case, does SHOCKS have something like a training ground near Sanctuary? If something goes wrong, we don’t want you to be too far from the sickbay.”

Ebon took her chip back and called her operator. After a short conversation she told me “The training facilities are booked solid for the rest of the day, but I reserved one for 8:00 AM tomorrow.”

Monday, January 4th, 2049

At 8:00 straight, I walked up to the entry of Sanctuary and was promptly invited in. My escort for the day was Benjamin, one of the R&D guys at SHOCKS I had worked with before. I briefed him on the planned tests and he promptly came up with a few ideas for improving the setup. Working with competent people was such a pleasure.

At the training room, Ebon Ring was already waiting for us. Also present was Theodor, Ebon’s operator from her days as a fresh recruit. He would monitor the tests, both as a safeguard and advisor on possible improvements.

We started out with Ebon Ring summoning various supplies from SHOCKS. Or trying to. It turned out to be one of the things that we couldn’t replicate with a bit of smart software.

Replacing the entire system with our own was not feasible either. While we had some teleport technology, it was far too clunky for infantry to carry into the field. I asked Elya about more lightweight and compact options, but the point cost was beyond my means.

Next Ebon Ring started burning mana in other ways, such as the repeated use of her signature attack. The fireworks were magnificent but soon proved unsustainable. Ebon was swaying on her feet and Theodor quickly signaled a halt. After he guided the weakened woman to a bench, he called the cafeteria for an urgent food delivery.

While we were waiting on that, we reviewed the readings Elya and I had extracted from Ebon’s Advent organs. The mana gauge showed a consistent decline for every attack, and after the last one it was at 23% full.

Theodor quickly said “We need to recalibrate that. Ebon already showed a bit of weakness after her penultimate attack. I think we should set the empty point for normal use at thirty percent on this scale, and require an explicit override if they truly need more.”

He and Ebon Ring went on to discuss the mana consumption of summoning equipment, based on her memories. In case this delivery system was somehow restored, we wanted our software to be pre-programmed with an educated guess for the empty point. Theodor and Ebon Ring came up with preliminary estimates and included those in the requirements for the software I had yet to build.

Snacks arrived and Ebon Ring devoured them at record speed. It looked like being a Magical Girl also came with an accelerated digestion, even if the organ replacements did not include a high speed stomach. After she had eaten a small mountain of food, only a few scraps were left and Ebon signaled to us that we could have them.

Next we experimented on communications, using a limited prototype I had whipped up with Elya’s help overnight. Limited as in containing only communications and the augmentation link. That part worked so flawlessly that it was almost boring. We watched through Ebon’s eyes as she walked around the facility, listened to conversations through her ears and sent snarky little remarks back and forth.

It took a week of work to develop a decent user interface, implement the monitoring of the Advent-built organ replacements, and testing it with several MG groups of varying levels. Observed and advised by their operators, the girls used their special abilities to exhaustion and gave us their best estimate for what their personal limits were. It turned out that Ebon Ring’s initial estimates were a good representation of the advanced groups, but the newbies would need a more conservative setting. They would be able to modify those later as they grew in mana capacity.

Finally, Elya piped up over a nearby loudspeaker.

I believe we have a good enough understanding of the remote management system now. Once the summoning of items from SHOCKS works again, we might have to do more testing, but for now we have enough data to finalize version 1.0.

“Who was that?” several people asked.

“My AI companion Elya. She was a great help in this little project.”

One of the MG newbies asked “Is Elya like an operator? Because mine is sort of uncool, and perhaps an Elya of my own would be better!”

“Sorry, Elyas are special and not available to everyone. I got mine when I was enrolled in the Vanguards, but an Elya is not something I can just hand out.”

An Elya? I don’t know if I should feel praised or insulted now.