2022-08-01 11:42:49
Xian BrockGreetings dear subscriber. This will be pretty confusing for you since I shifted somethings around. The chapters in book 1 were far too thin so I doubled them up to finish up the release of book 1 here. You'll need to go to what is now chapter 1.12 A fireside Chat in order to resume where you left off. Thanks for reading my book!
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Automata Prime 2.2: New proxies
It was sloppy work, but the clay was collected and put into large jars that then went into my [Inventory] for later. If we were going to be fighting more Automata in the future then having a weapon that could take them out quickly was going to be really useful. Getting the turtle apart was proving to be much more difficult though, even with the help of Mara and Kull. Both of them were skilled enough hunters in their previous village life, but neither had any experience with something this huge. I really wished I could call Najii, the Guild Dismantler, up on the phone and ask for tips or for her to swing by. Still, they knew the basics of dismantling which was better than me so I listened to any advice they had to offer. In the end, I had to build a huge sword with the fire crystal of
Automata Prime 2.3: Not the homecoming I was hoping for
The rest of the trip home went by quickly with Cyclone, though we rode in silence. Everyone seemed to be lost in their own thoughts, I’d have to do something for Elita to make this right. I’d really put my foot in it. When I was IronHide, it was the most natural thing to think that she and other Automata like her were less than what I’d become. Now I was horrified that the thought even existed. Where had it come from? We were still a couple of miles out from the Urd gates when we stopped to switch shells and walk the rest of the way in. It was mid-afternoon and possible that we might run into more Adventurers returning from quests so we had to play it safe. I really should have asked Beam for a mapping function. The ability to see the locations of others on a map would be super useful. We looked around but didn’t see anyone in the area.&
Automata Prime 2.4: Upgrading an orc
Below us, it seemed like every Knight Watch guard and Adventurer were out running around looking for us. Not one of them thought to look on top of their Guild Hall building. It would be much safer for us to move from roof to roof once the sun went down so we had some time to kill.First, I finished the repair work for Elita. Thankfully, I had my mobile workshop stored in my [Inventory]. A lot of supplies as well as all the projects I’d left in Jada’s shop were in my inventory too, but I had no idea how or why they had gotten there. Since I was doing work on her anyway, it would be a good opportunity to install an upgrade that I’d been wanting to give her for a long time.
Automata Prime 2.5: A daring escape
The ninja was engulfed in flame and hit the ground rolling to put the fire out. The second didn’t seem concerned for their comrade and kept pushing forward.I drew my two wakizashi and slashed at the oncoming ninja, but she dropped to her knees, leaning back and avoiding my strike. Elita was ready with the follow up and cut down with her own blade. The ninja caught Elita’s strike with a kunai and drew her own short sword. Before the ninja could strike, Elita sent a couple thousand volts of electricity through her sword, into the kunai, and into the ninja.The ninja crumpled into a convulsing heap as her sword clattered to the rooftop. Ravage, in bot mode, calmly picked up the fallen sword and stood on the chest of the heavily breathing ninja with the sword at her neck.
Automata Prime 2.6: What's the protocol for leveling a whole village?
There was no longer any point in holding on to the MurderBot body that I had in my [Inventory] since we wouldn’t be going back to the Guild to report. The MurderBots were about the same size as me, but our heads were more or less normal sized so it should fit on Shiro’s body okay.I was already starting to formulate theories on what had happened to Shiro and I couldn’t help but want to pay a visit to this village on Shiro’s behalf. As tempting as some vengeance might be, making Automata into a blanket enemy that the organics could rally against was a really bad idea. Even trying to talk to them right now would likely be fruitless since the ones that did this and their friends and families likely would see this less as a
Automata Prime 2.7: Shiro gets a new jam
AutomaTown was only another 2 hours or so up the road by car. When we arrived, the sky had already started turning pink, though the sun hadn’t poked up yet. Elita and Shiro got out, along with Sparky and I returned IronHide to [Inventory] as Sentinel and Jackie came out to greet us.“Sentinel Prime gave us a heads up. We’ll be ready to throw down with the King’s men, but if they come at us in force it won’t be pretty”, Jackie said somberly.“Thanks, Jackie. This is Shiro, I told you about him via Sentinel.”“Righto, how's it going Shiro? You've been in the wars, mate
Automata Prime 2.8: Doin' time
From inside the evidence locker in the Knight Watch headquarters of Urd, Alfred could hear a commotion outside.“Come on you old bat! We’re letting you out”, he heard a gruff male voice yell.“What’s the matter Noah? Get tired of pickin’ on old ladies?” Jada yelled back.“That little girl from the Guild convinced them that this was all due to some rogue Automata. You’re being released for now, but we’ll be keeping an eye on you.”“I don’t keep the windows open in my room, Noah. Keep your eyes elsewhere.”“What? No, gross! We’re watching to see if that
Automata Prime 2.9: Easy peasy
The Knight Watch Automata were all in the process of going through the [freedom.exe] installation. As Alfred watched them go through the process, he noticed that all of their eyes changed from red to blue. With such an obvious tell, I might have to come up with some way of faking an Automata’s eye color. On the other hand, most organics didn’t seem to notice. All of my proxies had green eyes and so far, no one had said anything; not even Jada. Ravage had purple eyes, so Primus only knew what that meant.There wasn’t time to allow the guard squad to go through the Memory Unlock features, so that would have to wait until they were all free and had some down time. For now, just being free from the Control Curse would be enough.
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3.9: Infiltration
After my update, I got all of my proxies powered back up and back to whatever jobs they were in the middle of doing. The exceptions being Carnivac and IronHide. Those two got the honor of hanging out in my [Inventory] as I prepared for my mission to Trone.I thought about also packing Cyclone but I got this strange feeling like the proxy shell wanted to stay behind and hang out with Sentinel and keep an eye on the village. I couldn’t really explain it. It was the same sort of feeling that I’d gotten with Carnivac the night before. By this point I had dedicated subroutines that I partitioned for each proxy. Since each on
3.8: Upgrades all around
The princess told me that in her previous talks with her brother that they’d heard rumors that the countries to the east and beyond the Northridge mountains were forming an alliance. The eastern coastal countries were the Principality of Kokoli, Yliasi, Jalagrorun, and the Maxorian Theocrasy.The Northridge mountain range created a natural border between the Fangwell Empire and countries to the north, acting almost like massive fortress walls. Kokoli was positioned at the southern edge of the range and was the first of the eastern countries with access to Fangwell without having to worry about those walls.I believed the former Auto-Knight Number 19, Kalua, was originally from a mountainous tree village in Kokoli while Number 18, Alika, was a soldier for their southern neighbor Yliasi. Princess Relena explained that
3.7: A check-in with royalty
I got everything cleaned up and snuck back into Carnivac without anyone noticing. Shiro had prepared some breakfast from the leftovers along with a thick, black drink called caff that I assumed was like this world’s coffee. I didn’t bother to ask though.When the parents were ready, Carnivac and Shiro adopted their running forms and were back on the road, such as it was. We stopped twice for breaks, but finally made it back to AutomaTown by lunch time. I don’t hold any ill will towards Shiro’s parents, I think they’re lovely, but I was determined to build an airship of some sort if it meant that I wouldn’t have to stretch a five hour trip into twenty-five. Especially if I wouldn’t have to carry people on my back that needed potty breaks
3.6: Camping overnight
The tiger thing recovered quickly and took a swipe at Carnivac’s head, which ducked back down and out of the way. When it poked its head over the edge to check on Carnivac, he grabbed a fistfull of fur on the side of its head, then another on the other side.The creature jerked its head back in surprise but wasn’t fast enough. With his full body, Carnivac planted his feet near the top ledge and shoved, pulling the creature over the lip and flipping over Carnivac’s head. At that point, gravity kicked in and Carnivac sailed right off the cliff face after the tiger.Keeping a tight hold on the shocked tiger’s face, Carnivac allowed the momentum to pull him on top. The tiger smashed into the ground on its back with Carnivac landing knees first into its chest and stomach. All of the air escaped out of the tiger with a crunching sound.Carnivac climbed off of the creature as Dad wandered over to have a look.“That was quite the move,” Dad complimented Carnivac. “You’re pretty comforta
3.5: Meeting the parents
Shiro and Shrapnel were waiting in the market place and they had brought Shiro’s parents with them. They didn’t have a whole lot to pack up to begin with and it looked like Shiro intended to bring them back with us right away. By normal carriage the trip from Trone back to AutomaTown would be about four days, so I wasn’t sure that Shiro had thought it through for his ancient parents.“Ah, Mister Carnivac, there you are,” Shiro said in a cheerful tone.“We need to leave. Now,” Carnivac responded, shepherding Shiro and his parents towards the city gate as he took all of their belongings into my [Inventory]. At least Shiro had remembered to turn his disguise back on.“I thought you wanted to do some shopping for supplies.”“I found some good deals already, but I have a feeling that things might get a little rough soon.”“What? Why? What happened,” Shiro argued and slightly dragged his feet.“There may or may not have been a slight accident at The Factory. Just to be safe, I’d rather
3.4: The Factory
“Lord Jhiax is amazing!” Traluna shouted, sitting up straight in her chair for the first time. “He’s the kind of genius that the world has never seen before! The things he invents and comes up with are like from a whole other world.”“Traluna,” Gree warned.“Lord Jhiax is on a whole other level than us!” she said, getting more excited.“Traluna!” Gree snapped. Traluna shrank back down again at the rebuke.“He’s an artificer, eh?” Carnivac probed.“He’s so much more than some artificer. Lord Jhiax is a god among us!” she shouted, perk
3.3: Welcome to Trone
Carnivac and Shiro passed through the gates and into the city of Trone. Shiro let out an imitation of a sigh of relief and placed a hand on Carnivac’s shoulder and leaned over.“I am so glad that worked. I have to admit, I had my doubts,” he said, regaining his composure.As Carnivac looked around, he could see a large variety of shops. Most of the shops near the gate were food based but as you got further into the city you could see many different specialty Automata shops. Unlike the magic tool shops in Urd that might have a selection of Automata, here in Trone there were entire shops devoted to just servant type Automata, or warrior types, or labor types. There was even a shop that specialized in Au
3.2: I should do some shopping
I climbed inside of Carnivac and tried moving around a bit. Everything had been properly repaired, though the shoulder joint felt a bit loose. If he had been an action figure, a couple of drops of floor polish would have done the trick, but I doubted it would help much on an action figure that was seven feet tall with a magisteel exoskeleton covering a mana fiber musculature.Shiro and I left my shop and headed over to the village Inn. Shea was staying there along with the two Adventurers from the guild, Shiro’s organic helpers from the nearby town of Thompson’s Fork, and Princess Relena. Being an Automata now, the princess didn’t really need a room since she didn’t need to eat or sleep, but it was still nice to have a space to call your own to have some down time.A small communal eati
3.1: Slowing down?
My shop was starting to feel more and more like a doctor’s office than a machine shop. Though when you’re a being made out of magic and metal, I suppose they’re one in the same for your species. Scara, from our construction team, had built me a lovely reclining chair. It wasn’t soft or cushy but it was solid and strong enough to handle the added weight of an Automata.It reminded me a lot of the chair at a dentist and was super useful for being able to examine my fellow Automata. Today, I was the patient though. After a mishap on my part, I’d done considerable damage to myself that included destroying half of my face and losing an eye.I sat in the chair and my proxy, Ratchet, set a pin in the chair to recline me back. Ratchet had been designed expressly for handling r
