Swarm Ascendant

The Scania plan was initially compared to putting all of ones eggs in one basket and ridiculed for it. A popular rejoinder was, "If your basket isn't safe enough, have you tried lining it with more guns?"

--"Scania, the early days", page 14

***

It turned out that while matter reconfiguration machines were versatile, they weren't instantaneous, nor could they print out items of arbitrary size. So, the bigger pieces of furniture were printed out in pieces, which clicked and screwed together. That made getting them from the fabrication room to my room a lot easier, too, since we didn't have to manoeuvre them fully assembled through the doors and halls of the place.

It took a bunch of hours and quite a few trips, but finally the place was starting to take shape, minus the plants. I'd have to source those myself, I guessed. The bed was a gift from Val, a large thing she summoned into existence for a number of points she wouldn't disclose.

"You'll thank me once you wake up in the thing." Was all she had to say on the matter.

While lugging pieces of furniture around wasn't the most pleasant activity, the company made sure the whole experience was a rather nice one, and I'd like to think Katherine warmed up to me a bit during it. We took a break to let the machines print some more items, and to get off our feet and get some lunch. We headed to the dining area, where I decided to treat the two of them, and had Eyon summon up some vegetable curries for us. They were as amazing as always, and I once again ate much more than I had expected to. I topped it off with a plate of chocolate as a light dessert. The plan may have backfired a bit, as it took us a while to get going again afterwards, but I think I had gained quite a few points with Katherine if the way she looked at me after the first bite was anything to judge by.

Either way, we eventually got back to it and finished off the major pieces of furniture and got everything put in it's place. Now I just needed the plants and some smaller pieces to go on the shelves and surfaces, books and little trinkets and things. The meagre collection I'd brought with me looked a bit lonely, spread out as it was. Regardless, this was a very good new beginning. I could easily imagine this place fully decorated, and it pleased me so much I pulled Val and Katherine into an impulsive hug.

"Thank you so much." I said. "This is so exciting and it wouldn't have happened without your help. Thank you, truly."

Val returned the hug easily, but Katherine was a bit more stiff. I guess she wasn't as much of a huggy person.

"Seeing you this excited was all the thanks I needed." Val said with a smile.

"Yeah, it was no big deal." Katherine said a bit awkwardly.

"Nonsense. You've helped me move into your home, that's a big deal in my book. Thank you." I said while looking Katherine in the eyes. She blushed and looked away.

"You're welcome. Is the least I could do, after that w-welcome I gave you." She stammered out.

"We'll let you settle in a bit, get used to your new surroundings." Val said. "You can come join us down in the common area later and we can cook that dinner we discussed, to celebrate you moving in."

"Oh, that sounds like a great idea. I'll be down soon." I replied. Val grabbed Katherine by the hand and tugged her towards the door, then when they'd both left, I unpacked my clothes and tucked away the bags, then looked over the place. Coming along nicely indeed. I took a picture of the room to send to Dad, then fell over in the bed.

Val was right, this thing was heavenly.

I giggled. I was in Valhalla; heavenly was fitting.

***

Later, once I'd escaped the soft clutches of the bed, I changed into something a bit less armoured and made my way down to the common area, a small swarm of drones around me. It still felt a bit restrictive to not have them around, a bit like walking around with one eye closed. I had sent some ahead to scout without thinking, and once they reached the living room, I caught a bit of conversation.

"...could have said she was so pretty. Ugh, I still can't believe you gave me away like that. Now she'll hate me forever."

"Of course not, dear. She is much too nice for that. I actually think she likes you. Oh, here she is now. Hi Sylvi!" Val called out from the couch where she was sitting with Katherine, who looked away with a slight blush on her face as I entered. Well, now I felt a bit bad about spying like that.

"So, are we ready to start making dinner?" I ventured.

"Of course. Let's get cookin'!" Val said excitedly.

"I think I'll stay here and read for a bit, if that's okay." Katherine said a bit hesitantly. "I'm no good in the kitchen anyway."

"Well, you won't get better if you don't try." Val teased.

"I'll try some other time. Now stop bothering me, you devil woman."

Val smiled at that, then came over to me and said in another stage whisper: "I think she's just afraid of embarrassing herself in front of you."

A pillow hit Val in the back of the head.

"Stop giving her weird ideas!" A flushed Katherine said.

"Ow, okay okay, I'll stop." Val giggled and started pulling me towards the kitchen. "Let's see what we have in the kitchen, eh? Maybe if we cook grumps over there something nice she'll treat us better."

"I heard that!" Katherine called out.

I couldn't help but laugh at Val's antics.

We moved into the kitchen where we soon had a sauce going for some homemade pasta. The ingredients Val pulled from the fridge and cupboards were mouthwatering, and she explained that she bought them in bulk from a food catalogue. A few early tastes had me seriously considering giving up my other plans and just investing in foods, a thought I only gave up on because I already had access as long as Val was around. Which, looking at her, I hoped would be a long time. She was a joy to be around, consistently having me oscillating between laughing at her jokes and blushing as she stepped near me to help me with something or other, or feeding me samples on a little spoon for my opinion on.

Gosh, I was in love, wasn't I?

***

As we sat down to eat, we were joined by Anker, a boisterous man who introduced himself as Terry, a quiet woman named Rian, and, for a surprise, Red Knight. He had just come back from his patrol, had smelled what was cooking and had hurried to change to join us.

Turns out his actual name was also Jens, a fact I found a bit funny, to everyone's confusion. And so I had to tell them all the story of how I became a Valkyrie, and soon someone, I suspected either Val or the snake himself, Jens, had put up a video compilation of 'Sylvi messing things up on her first day' on the big screen. On repeat.

I struggled to seem like this wasn't the most humiliating thing to ever happen to me. I must have been redder than the tomato sauce.

The others seemed to be in good cheer though, sharing anecdotes of their own mess ups, and soon other video compilations replaced mine on the screen, of Red Knight stepping on a loose pipe, then falling on his butt when it rolled out from under him, of Ghost Widow getting one of her spider mechs stuck in between two buildings and many more. Seems everyone had a story like that. I calmed down and after a while joined in on the laughter.

This was nice.

I learned that both Terry and Rian specialized in Antithesis cleanup, and were kept rather busy in that role. Their Valkyrie names were Huginn and Muginn respectively, and they were those rarest of Valkyries, a couple who had been chosen as Valkyries together, and were still together even now.

The laughter and stories continued on well into the evening, everyone making me feel included and welcome. We ended up playing a few games and snacking on various delicious things the others bought. The chocolate was, of course, objectively the best.

I went to bed that night feeling sated emotionally.

Yes. This was definitely nice.

***

When I woke up the next day, I luxuriated in the feeling of floating in what felt like clouds for far too long. Eventually, I poked Eyon.

Is there something productive I can do while staying here? I don't want to get up yet, but I also feel like I'm wasting daylight.

[You could finalize your purchase plans.]

That caught my attention.

Do you feel like our current ideas have any major flaws?

[You will not be as powerful in a straight up fight, but you will be much better at avoiding said fight and taking it on your own terms. It is definitely a workable strategy.]

Right. Let's do it then.

[Do you wish your drone production facility in here, or would you prefer it near the other production facilities? If you put it here, you will have to transport materials over.]

Is the thing quiet? If I can't run it at night, I'd rather it be somewhere else.

[It is entirely noiseless, yes.]

Then I'd rather have it here. Feels right, somehow. Oh, and you can post-pone the Yellowjackets. Don't really need them right now.

[Very well.]

Catalogue Unlocked: Class II Command and Control Cybernetics - 400 points, 1 token

Catalogue Unlocked: Class I Robotic Environmental Hardening - 50 points

Catalogue Unlocked: Class I Matter Reconfiguration Machines - 75 points

Blueprint Purchased: Class I Wasp Mk 1 Recon Drone - 500 points

Blueprint Purchased: Class I ECM Hardening Module - 200 points

New Purchase: Logos Mk7 Command and Control Implant - 2500 points

New Purchase: Matter Reconfiguration Machine, Small Drones - 500 points

Points reduced to... 699

I felt a sharp pain in my head, like my skull was a few sizes too small, and my eyes watered as my vision went blurry. It faded almost immediately.

"Eyon?!"

[Apologies. The installation of the Logos sub-brain is now complete, but unfortunately making it entirely pain-free is impossible.]

Couldn't you have warned me, then?

[I could have, but then you would only have worried about it.]

I... What did you even do, anyway?

[I teleported the Logos module into your head for installation. It is a small sub-brain that sits between your two brain-lobes and interfaces with both them and your Monolith brain-mesh. You should have a much enhanced capacity for drone control now, again enhancing over time as it integrates fully.]

I reached out to my drones, and it came so naturally to me now that I was wondering what I'd been doing before. I took flight ten, twenty times over. The drones were like extensions of myself, no they were me. I barely had to think to move them around. I laughed as I closed my eyes and enmeshed myself fully in the feeling of flight, of looping around and between myself in the air above the other me. Six of them, the Yellowjackets, gave me an even clearer view of the world than my own eyes did, with options to see into the infrared and in low-light. I frowned at this.

"Eyon, will I need to replace my eyes?"

[Not unless you want to. I will note, however, that there are several hundred different upgrades available and the benefits are many.]

"But I like my eyes..." I said a bit petulantly.