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Iron Blooded Commander
- Chapter 1.1 -[]
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What was once destroyed can be restored.
Awaking[]
Solaris City
Solaris VII, Lyran Commonwealth
June, 3020
When an eldritch abomination offers you a chance to travel to a new universe, a new life, and a special ability you of course say yes.
After all, if you are already face to face with an Eldritch creature you are already locked in to having an interesting experience, always better to stay amiable.
That was why I was here. Solaris born and raised. A Lyran citizen, fourteen years old, and in a surprise twist, I woke up this morning with knowledge of another universe, another life, and of course in my hands a noteputer, that was the most advanced piece of technology in the universe. Mostly because it wasn't actually a noteputer at all.
It was the database and fabricator of a Planetary Annihilation Commander. Although the current database itself was limited to three things.
A factory. That currently couldn't build anything, as I didn't have any designs.
An incredibly powerful sensor system that I could make, that would allow me to 'scan' tech and copy it into the database.
And of course. A metal extractor. Because even if I wasn't a massive metal monstrosity I was still a Commander now. And somewhere in some universe a Commander begins building a metal extractor.
Or at least that was my first step.
But first. I had some people to recruit.
Assembly the Gang[]
So I was an orphan in this life. My mother was a Solaris jock, and had unfortunately lost her life during a match when I was pretty young. I didn't know who my father was, and no one in the Solaris government knew either so I was placed in the orphanage and forgotten. I took a moment to cross my fingers that my father wasn't some infamous leader of an evil faction or something.
I walked into the open living space of the orphanage to look over my future troops. There were a lot of orphans that passed through this building. but I had been here a long time, so just about everyone knew who I was, so when I whistled loudly to get everyone's attention I had an audience, if not a happy one.
"Listen up everyone! I got a mission!" I called out as I looked over the other youngsters. I wasn't the eldest Orphan but at fourteen I wasn't the youngest either.
"I need tech scrap. Anything that has been beat up but might be fixable gather it up for me, It's for a secret project. But if any of you help me out, I promise you will make a nice little reward." I offer, rubbing my fingers together in the universal sign of cash.
There were some mumbled replies, but a few of the kids nodded along hearing my offer. Gauge, my best friend in this life, looked up from the bits of tech he was fiddling with. The poor guy even wore an approximation of ComStar Robes as his biggest dream was joining them. Rather than finding a family like most orphans dream. Of course he was only a few months from sixteen, and his time at the orphanage would end, so I wasn't surprised. I waved him over as I walked out the front doors.
The busy streets of Solaris bustled along but I waved off Gauge's obvious questions as I simply pulled him along after a quiet "Not here." As we made off towards our secret hideout.
All kids had secret hideouts especially here on Solaris, although most just just became Gang hideouts in the end. Ours was an old abandoned Mech Bay that had been heavily damaged years ago. It's entrance was completely sealed shut, but Gauge and I had found an entrance way through some old rubble we had excavated out. Apparently the old owners of this bay had their pilot go crazy and take his mech out and then try and blow the place up. He had been stopped eventually but the entire place had been trashed.
It was only a few miles up the road from the orphanage, but it was still a long walk with Gauge pestering me about what was going on and me denying him.
Finally we both sneaked into our little base and I grumbled as I wiped the dust from my clothes as I settled into the chairs we had gathered from dumpsters all over the city I turned to look at my annoyed friend.
"I'm gonna be opening a Merc company. I want you in on it. I need your tech brain." I tell him which causes him to blink at me for a few moments before sighing.
"Vicky. How are you supposed to start a mercenary company without… Anything? Money, equipment, people… Mechs?" He asked, waving his arm around at the abandoned Mech Bay that was stripped bare and empty other than the junk we brought in.
"That isn't entirely the truth anymore." I offer. "I got something coming up. It's huge, but I need an assurance here and now, Gauge. Are you on my side, on the Lyran side, or on ComStar's side? You'll need to pick."
I gave him a minute as he looked at me like a fool for a time. "What? Are you asking me to commit treason against the Archon or something?"
"No… Maybe. Only in the loosest sense. I don't plan on betraying the Lyran Commonwealth, I'm just asking you to maybe lie to them if they ever ask you questions about what I'm doing, or what is going on."
He goes silent for a moment. "I'm starting to get actually concerned here, Vicky. What exactly is going on?"
"No, not without your word. An oath. Hell, I'll take a blood oath if I thought you would actually care. I'm about to do some crazy stuff, Gauge, but I need to know if you are with me. Operational security. This is big, it means if what I am planning gets out, it all falls apart and I end up with nothing. So. Are you with me?"
He taps his foot for a time. "I'm with you. We are family. As far as that thing matters to us orphans."
I nodded. "Here is what is happening. I know where a lostech find is. A big one capital B. The kind that when it's over I won't be worrying about getting a family name, I'll probably just take the name of the planet the Archon gives me as a family name. That sort of big." I give him a second to process that.
The fact all the orphans entered into the orphanages here on Solaris had their last name removed, as a way to make them acclimate better into their new circumstances, and to make it easier to get adopted, meant a last name, a family name was something we all seemed to strive for. In the end, there were only two ways to get one. Get adopted, or age out of the Orphanage. Most of the kids would argue about which one they wanted more.
"Okay... Where did you find your information on this mythical lostech find? While sleeping in your room all night?"
I could hear the dismissal in his voice as he spoke but I shook my head. "Nope. Can't talk about it. I'm calling in my F-bills, friend-bills, right now. I need you to believe me, trust me, and help me. If it all crashes and burns, it won't cost you anything but some time." I offer out my hand then. "Join my mercenary company, and I promise you won't regret it."
He groaned. "I already do." But he took my hand. I shook it once firmly before dropping it.
"Great. Now. I need some metals, it doesn't matter if they are junked, but the higher grade the better. So Mr. 'I work as an apprentice mechtech' where do they drop the scrapped mech armor, and stuff that doesn't get recycled or used?"
He takes my question for a minute to the very obvious 'why do you need scrapped metal?' left unsaid after a moment before shaking his head. "Okay, now I really regret this." He grumbled, and despite the fact I was pretty sure I wasn't going to like this, I nodded. Step one complete.
Gathering the Resources[]
It was a junkyard.
But not the sort that people go to scavenge for usable equipment. The Inner Sphere were like packrats. If something was fixable it went back into circulation, but this junkyard was where the stuff that couldn't be fixed was dropped off at.
It had taken almost three hours by public transport and foot to end up here. On the outskirts of the bustling metropolis. In the end we had actually jumped onto the back of an old truck obviously hauling scrap to the place we were going to.
Gauge of course complained the entire way. He didn't understand what the plan was. But that was okay. He got me what I needed to get started.
We didn't even really have to sneak into the scrap yard. It was more a dumping ground for the mess that came from clashing mechs, most of it was rusted, melted or worse.
There was very little 'useful' material for someone looking to gain some scrap for mechs. But for me? It was plenty to get started. I led Gauge deeper into the yard climbing on old mangled hunks of scrap. Until we are well outside of view from the road and drop off point.
"So are you going to tell me what we are doing out here yet?" Gauge grumbled as he nearly tripped on a chunk of melted metal that he was clambering over.
"No, but I'm gonna show you instead." I pulled out the 'noteputer' I had awoken with and activated it's nanite extraction function.
In a flash, green light exploded out of a port along the top of the noteputer. The light attacked the metal hunk I pointed it at. A moment later the metal simply began disintegrating. Piece by piece. I heard Gauge gasp beside me as in a few seconds the hunk of old twisted metal, that was as likely to be a piece of mech as a chunk of ground vehicle. Disappeared.
I glanced at the screen, noticing that it had stored a small amount of metal, but only about .5% of the metal needed for my metal extractor.
"What in the hell is that?!"
"My Inheritance. It's a piece of lostech. It can break down metals, And then use those materials to fabricate anything it has stored in it's construction database. No, it doesn't have anything really interesting stored. It was wiped as far as I can tell. And no I don't know where it came from. Other than something my Mother found and made sure would end up in my hands." I ended with a lie.
"That's impossible! That sort of technology! Even at the height of the Star League they didn't have anything like…" he stops shaking his head. "I guess they actually did. Vicky, you understand that something like that it could-"
"It could change everything. Jumpstart the re-production of everything that we lost, and if anyone finds out about it, start a war that makes our little succession wars so far look like kids on a playground. There won't be any limits, nothing stopping the houses from full scale final war because whoever wins, gets an item that lets them rebuild from an apocalypse."
His mouth slowly closed mid word from where I interrupted him. "Gauge, this is something that you can't tell anyone. Ever. If it ever gets out that I have this, no that it even exists? I am trusting you, an oath, remember? Help me keep this secret, I know you want to join Comstar to fix things. But how about you join me and we really fix things."
He stared at me for a while I mean, we were both kids, I was barely fourteen, and he was almost sixteen. But he took in my warning, took a deep breath and nodded. "You're right. No one can know about that…"
"It's pretending to be a noteputer so that's what I'm calling it. Also, just a heads up. It is DNA locked to me. So only I can use it anyways. I think it was probably created by a great great grandparent or something, and my Mom probably couldn't get it to work, or didn't know what it did." I say although I knew that was a lie.
He looks around at the mountain of scrap. "So if you need metal, and that's why we are here, what are you trying to do?"
"Well it doesn't have a database… Mostly." I shrug. "It does actually have just a few blueprints. One is some sort of sensor system, but it's apparently super strong, like the craziest sensor system the Star League ever thought up. The second is actually called a metal extractor. But that is what I want to build cause it won't involve me coming out here and shooting green gunk at scrap all day and potentially being seen."
"What's a metal extractor?"
"Apparently it uses the nano machines just like these one and it mines metals without actually having to dig. Sooo." I made sure to lie about how they worked, I didn't want to bring in the schizo tech where the extractor was basically infinitely generating.
His eyes widened at my explanation. "That's. Actually impressive."
"Yep, and then there is the last blueprint saved into this thing… It's a factory schematic. If we get a complete enough schematic for... anything we can build a factory designed to build it."
"Mein Gott."
"Yeah."
"This… Vicky, what are we going to do?"
I took a deep breath even as I started the Noteputer's extraction again. "Gather resources. I wasn't lying about the Lostech find. We need money, transport, and protection. And then we are going prospecting. Then, well. With the Archon's blessing, we expand."
I grumbled as the numbers towards a Metal Extractor inched upwards. A half a percentage at a time.
Figuring out the Process[]
Gauge and I continued to talk, I explained more about what I was planning as I gathered the metal I needed, and eventually he was nodding along.
Gauge was always my tech guy. Where I was in both worlds more interested in the action parts of life. He was the one who just wanted a pile of electronics or an engineering problem to chew on. I needed him though.
You can't give someone unlimited power and trust them fully. Not even yourself. Plus an extra pair of hands made things easier. Despite his nerdy looks, he was tall and looked older than he was. He was going to be my face for the most part, until everything was working.
A fourteen year old girl didn't exactly indicate reliability. Especially one that still looked like a child. I was a bit gangling for my age, thankfully height wasn't something I would suffer without, but a chest was.
An hour into the constant deconstruction I gathered enough scrap. Although it took longer than it should have since I was constantly moving around and checking to make sure no one was watching us.
But then I ended up making a stupid mistake.
"What do you mean the Metal Extractor won't build?" Gauge asked me, sounding stressed out as I glared at the noteputer in my hand.
"I mean I click it to start the building process and it gives me an error. Hold on, I'm reading what this error says."
<<{Invalid Placement}>>
"Fucking video game description." I grumble before I remember a very important fact.
Metal Extractors have to be placed on metal node. It has to have something to extract FROM.
"I'm an idiot." I utter. "The sensor package isn't just some weird schematic. It's what I need to place the extractor!" I turn to Gauge as he slowly nods his head.
"Makes sense. So what do you need for the sensors?"
"Nothing. I already have enough metal for it, but I will need to gather more metal to afford the extractor again. Hold on!" I switched the build order to a sensor package and after a few moments what looked like a backpack with an antenna sticking out of it began materializing in front of me in a haze of green. It took a few minutes as it slowly began forming, almost like watching a 3D printer, except it appeared out of nothing but green light.
When it was finished Gauge and I both stepped up to it to look it over. It was really clean. I couldn't help but note. Most stuff in this era was something someone had owned for hundreds of years. This was brand new looking.
"It's amazing! Look at this!" Gauge on the other hand was in tech nerd heaven as he looked it over. He had already popped a hatch on the top of the metal pack and was looking at it's inside. "The materials inside are perfect. Factory fresh. I don't think I've ever seen something so new looking!" He muttered which I laughed at. Sure it was unusual in this universe but I had bought plenty of new devices and such in the old world.
But I did want to find out where to build a metal extractor. I tried queuing up a metal extractor again to see if the new sensors would solve the problem, but it had the same error. And then I noticed the data uplink chord that Gauge was playing with.
I grabbed it from him and plugged it into the side of the 'Noteputer' . Watching as the metallic backpack suddenly seemed to turn on. Lights along the top activate and the antennae actually extending.
"Oh It's activated!" Gauge muttered as he stood up to look at my Noteputer. The screen had opened into a geomap. Showing a sort of wireframe topography of the area around us. Including the junk we were surrounded by, zooming out at the touch of a few buttons showed the range of the radar seemed to be around one hundred miles despite being at ground level.
I couldn't help it and whistled, Gauge offering a quiet "Wow" at the same time.
"Okay this is a seriously powerful radar."
"Yeah, look at the detail, and… It does penetrate ground! This is super lostech, I mean, imagine mining claims! Or just… Tracking a Battlemech." He stopped slowly staring at the same thing I was. The red wireframes that were tracked in real time. Battlemechs within one hundred miles of us, of which there were quite a few.
And even ones that according to the readings were inactive, were still tracked.
"Okay. If watching you create that out of nothing didn't do it, I definitely believe that is Lostech now, Vicky." Gauge muttered as we both tracked a Mech battle in the arena that was in Silesia near where the orphanage was.
"This would alter any battle it is used in." I whispered in a mix of horror and delight. This may actually be the most useful part of everything I was given.
I blinked the wonder out of my head and hit a few buttons, looking for a metal node that I could build on. In the entire one hundred miles there was only a single one, and I grimaced. We were already way out on the city limits. This scrapyard was well outside what people would call Solaris city, and then, this metal node was almost eighty miles out farther. For a pair of kids without a car, this wasn't going to be easy.
Keeping a Secret[]
We spent another hour or so gathering up enough metal to finish an extractor, and I spent a good bit longer as well, so I would have some in reserve. I had an idea.
We hitched a ride or hoofed it back to our hideout to hide the sensor pack, and then to the orphanage which we got to fairly late, and so earned a stern talking to by one of the many matrons that watched over it. Not that either of us cared. We were both well out of the age for getting adopted, so the orphanage was more of a place to sleep, and get free meals than a home.
The next morning, Gauge practically dragged me out of bed. He was so excited, but thankfully kept his mouth shut about what was going on. I did have a stack of broken games, and electronics waiting for me the night before that I hadn't bothered with as I went straight to bed after dinner, but this morning I dragged the small clump of items into a spare bag and we ran out to the hideout.
First thing first. I connected the noteputer to the pack and messed with the settings, and I was right. The sensor pack could also create incredibly detailed blueprints of objects. It had a small hand scanner that popped out of the side and after a few minutes, I had an exact copy of an old game system that not only turned on after, it actually had all the data that the old one had.
"That's… How the hell does it copy data!? I mean, for it to be that exact it would have to be copying the object to an incredible degree!" Gauge was fascinated with the new game system having instantly pulled out his little electric repair tools and popping it open.
"It's brand new." He uttered once again shocked at how clean and working everything was.
"So. We need to get to the metal node that we found, but it's too far to walk, or hitch a ride, which means we need transport." I mutter to myself as Gauge speaks up.
"We could buy one. I mean we can make fresh electronics, sell a few of these, and we could probably buy a cycle, or even a small car."
"True, or we could just find a car parked somewhere and make our own." I remind him which silences him for a minute as he thinks about that. "But that also has risks. We would have to take the sensor outside and actually try to scan the car. Not something we can do easily without potentially causing a problem."
"I.. I guess that's true. We don't want to let anyone know, and if we go around scanning a car or something someone is gonna notice."
"Yep. Or. And I think this is the best plan. We go sneaky. Can you fix a few of the old pieces, and get them working using the fresh ones as spares?"
"Oh.. Yeah. I mean why do that though?"
"I want to sell them, or trade. We can rent a cycle or something from the Squatters, bring it here, scan it, and return it. Then we can just make a copy, no one twigs we did anything weird."
"Why not just sell the brand new ones then, I mean we could get top dollar for this stuff."
"Yeah top dollar and questions about why a pair of orphans have factory fresh tech."
He stills at my rebuttal as he nods. "Good thinking. Yeah give me like an hour? I mean I have the perfect copies right here to work off of, soo this shouldn't take long.
I nodded, turning back to the noteputer. The blueprints for the different pieces of tech were all still saved. But I was more interested in the fact they weren't broken. Each piece had been fixed as if it wasn't damaged at all.
"How smart is this thing?" I ask aloud thankfully quiet enough Gauge didn't hear me.
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