Last Updated:
2024-10-29 19:42:56I don’t remember opening my eyes, or rebooting, or anything, I was simply sitting in a chair at a dining room table. The dining room reminded me of a large open kitchen like you see on shows that take place out in the country somewhere.
I was the only one in the room and I was apparently in the middle of breakfast. On the table before me, sat a bowl of some sort of cereal. At least, I thought it was cereal until some of it started swimming around.
Crap, did I die again? I looked down at my hands. They were black. Jet black, armor covered, and claw tipped. I was wearing a denim work shirt with the sleeves rolled up and heavy duty overalls. A second set of arms was holding the bowl and chasing the things inside with a spoon. I realized that as I was looking at my hands, I coul
Previous Chapter
Related Chapters
Automata Prime 2.15: Recovery Build
With the help of Shrapnel I managed to get my limbs reconnected much faster than my natural repair systems would have handled it. I didn’t have much time but whatever it was that Elita was up to I now had a ton of new materials and even some processed materials to work with. I still hadn’t seen her since she went out to go kill something but all the evidence of her work kept showing up in my [Inventory].I even found some Automata parts showing up. I really hoped that she wasn’t out murdering people to get me parts. I appreciated the thought, but... No, I was sure that she just happened to find them somewhere. Don’t ask qu
Automata Prime 2.16: A bit of recon
When Carnivac arrived back at AutomaTown, he handed Ram’s body over to Ratchet, who got straight to work on replacing the damaged arms as well as all of the fried internal components. I didn’t have any fire based crystals on hand so restoring her forge abilities would have to wait but hopefully I’d be able to get her back online. I put Rom to work with the CloudBurst repair job while I worked to get the LandMine armor built. I only had a couple of hours until dawn and no idea where the Royal kill squad was actually at.The only proxy I had with flight abilities was Shrapnel and he didn’t have near the range to scout out their location. Shiro had extended gliding abilities but I wouldn’t send him on such a mission. That left Elita, but I had no idea where she was or how to find her. Okay Carnivac, old buddy, looks like it’
Automata Prime 2.17: Welcome home
My plasma tests went well, if you don’t count igniting The Range on fire. After the flare-up, I pulled IronHide out of storage to dig a trench between The Range and the treeline of the forest. I figured it wouldn’t hurt. Remember, only you can prevent forest fires. I said that to Elita but she gave me a confused, what-are-you-on-about, look for my troubles.Once I got the containment field working properly, I was able to hold a mass of superheated plasma at the blunt end of my second hammer. The first one was sacrificed in learning that I needed to use the containment field to protect the hammer itself from the heat of the plasma. The mass was intentionally quite thin, only a few millimeters thick, but it was more than enough to cause some pretty serious damage to whatever came in contact with it.
Automata Prime 2:18: Hammer time
With the [HammerTime] keyword command, the hammer parts disappeared from my legs, going back into [Inventory] and then reappearing in their proper configuration on the staff. The overall weight of the hammer was a bit more than I was expecting in practice and I nearly toppled over as I swung it around. I caught Elita stifling a giggle and gave her a wink... which with a single working eye was completely lost on her.“Alrighty then, let’s establish a baseline...” Once I found the proper rhythm for swinging the weapon around, it was just a matter of building up the momentum and then letting it cr
Automata Prime 2:19: The curtain opens
Sentinel sat on a rock that he had dragged into the middle of the road and carefully whittled at a small carving of a robotic condor. He had swords built into both of his arms, but it was nice to carve with the small knife that Kull had given to him.“Maybe I should have been named SoundWave,” he chuckled to himself as he thought about the bird design he’d been crafting. “SoundWave Prime.”From around the S curve of the road, the two centaurs came trotting along, looking very confident and less like “scouts” and more like a “spearhead”. When they saw Sentinel, they slowed to a stop, allowing the Automata and the lizardman to catch up to them. Sentinel slowly looked up at them from beneath his wide brimmed hat.
Automata Prime 2.20: A wolf shaped speed bump
From his hidden position in the trees, Carnivac watched as the Prince ignored the conversation between my main body and the Princess to whisper something to the Captain. The Captain then relayed those orders to a subordinate who ran to the rear of the caravan.The soldiers started to gear up for battle, beginning with the remaining Automata. Their handlers barked orders at them and ineffectually shoved them when they didn’t move quickly enough. The Automata were sent into the tree line in order to flank our group, followed closely by their handlers. Even in a situation like this, it seemed like the leashes on the Automata were kept quite short.The golems sat like statues until four specialized mages approached each one and began chanting spells of power and activation. The mages entered a trance in a protected area as th
Automata Prime 2.21: Cyclone's fight && IronHide takes on some ogres
With a yell from their captain, the prince’s soldiers rushed at us and the unlocked Automata met them steel for steel. A deep roar bellowed from the command group and with a terrific leap, the Guild Master came flying over the heads of the royals and the officers. He landed with a heavy thud, already growing in size and swinging a fist the size of a frozen turkey in my direction.Elita sent a bolt of lightning into the oni’s back. The electrical shock hit him and he convulsed, dropping to a knee, but not out.“I have business with you, Guild Master,” she spat with sword and needle gun at the ready.“Fine! Don’t worry, this won&rsq
Automata Prime 2.22: Carnivac && Prime's fight
Carnivac sprinted out from the trees, headed for the golem mages to take them out in the confusion. Just steps away from his target, a row of kunai throwing knives sprung up between him and the mages as he dodged out of the way. Carnivac skidded to a halt and turned to see Ryuski glaring at him.“Well, if it isn’t the fake wolf,” Ryuski began. “I was hoping that we’d run into you. Your little buddy is talking with the Prince so I won’t have to worry about you pulling that little trick again.”Carnivac glanced to the side of Ryuski, but his owner didn’t appear to be with him.“Don’t worry, we have a couple of minutes before she notices,” Ryuski said. “I have to say, curiosity
Latest Chapter
- Automata Prime
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
- Automata Prime
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
- Automata Prime
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
- Automata Prime
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
- Automata Prime
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
- Automata Prime
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
- Automata Prime
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
- Automata Prime
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
- Automata Prime
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
