What's Junk? (The Mech Touch)

[Negation]

He'd assumed it was the students beings stupid and leaving things in the mech rather than them being paid to drop something 'innocent' in particular areas.

Click to shrink...

I thought those were "Booty Call" communication devices the students were paid to drop by parties interested in Bolt's seed.

 

[lurkingkraken]

Should have brought thier own self-powered explosives instead of relying the mech's power supply.

Also, this is a school. It's traditional to ask if you brought enough for everyone for a reason.
Whoever is behind this set of assassins clearly isn't actually trying very hard yet.

 

[Simonbob]

Also, this is a school. It's traditional to ask if you brought enough for everyone for a reason.

Click to shrink...

Bolt's balls won't thank you.

 

[lost star]

A few days after the guest lesson, Bolt was back at the university. This time it was for a simple designer debate. These weren't really public things. There was no real audience for it, and most non-designers found them boring. Even designers didn't really enjoy listening to them frequently. If the designers were prominent it was interesting, but outside of that it was really just a debate about technical specifications and such. The spectacle debates were on mech reveals, and those could be verbal sword fights that sometimes devolved into literal fights.

"There's no specific format for these things." The professor said as they entered the debate hall. "Really, the only thing that's important is that you refrain from insults and don't talk over one another."

Bolt nodded slowly. "Can't say I'm one fer insults."

"Oh that's more a general warning. There's nothing so bad as debates between academics. I've seen two fifty year old tenured professors get into fist fights over a single word." The man heaved a sigh that spoke of long nights, unprofessional debates, and old men acting like they were in their teens. "But enough about my issues. You've been nothing but polite so far so I'm glad you could make it."

At the podium another designer was already there. Between them was a picture of the mech Bolt had whipped up. The young man felt a bit of surprise at it.

"We believed that this would be the best topic for today." The designer at the podium said. "This isn't going to be about the design itself. We all know it was deliberately flawed and no one would consider it a demonstration..." The man trailed off as something seemed to occur to him. "Let me rephrase that. It takes skill to make something that people can learn from. So we as a whole actually appreciate it. The debate would be about the teaching tool."

"All right." Bolt stepped forward carefully and up to where he guessed he should be.

There was a small audience of fellow teachers there, with one or two high level students. Bolt had no context for if this was good or bad, but it didn't feel mocking. Really it felt more like this was a sleepy afternoon and there was some mild interest in entertainment. If he was going to be honest he didn't hate it.

"I'll go ahead and start off. My name is Jayce, I specialize in aquatic mechs and am a Journeyman." The man began calmly. "About a quarter of the mechs on this planet are mine, which sounds impressive until you realize they aren't anywhere else."

"All right. I'm Bolt, my specialty is a bit o' a mouthful, but can be best described as Recycling and Refining things." Bolt explained with an easy grin.

"That is an interesting field." Jayce muttered before shaking his head. "Hah, we'd have to talk about it in another time. Right now, the topic is the use of flawed and simple mechs as a teaching tool."

Bolt nodded in turn. "My first question is why ain't you doing it already?"

"Many reasons. One of them is we do usually stick to mech blueprints that students go over. They're mostly proprietary so you wouldn't see them." The Journeyman said with a small chuckle. "Ah, I should have added that I'm one of the teachers here. I do three advanced classes a week."

"Ah. No mech building though? That feels like an oversight." Bolt answered back.

"Budgeting concerns hinder a lot of the lessons we could teach." Jayce confirmed with a small sigh. "Even doing just one mech a year would be costly, and doing more than that would be impossible on our funds."

"That's what I assume would be Second Rate mechs though." Bolt pointed out. "You could do a stripped Third Rate mech easily."

"Yes, but would the students learn anything from that?" The other designer asked.

"They would." Bolt responded before pausing and grimacing. "Honesty has me saying that I'm not sure that they'd learn a lot really. Doing what I did took a lotta time and I ended up doing a lotta the work."

"Doing it in a single session and a large group like that was your problem." Jayce observed. "We have labs and assignments that can be spread out over a few weeks. The space concerns would be a larger issue at that point."

"Which would still run into the cost." Bolt concluded. "Not sure budget wise. I think Third Rate mechs should be in your budget."

"Again, we do live in a Second Rate economy here but we're a college, not a nation." The other designer reminded with a dry tone.

"Basics are basic. I'd expect you to teach kinds how to make a mech that walks first. Then you can do fancy stuff." Bolt responded with a hand wave. "Biggest thing is really the reactor. Second Rate needs different handling."

"Yes, your little trick has half our students double checking all the wires. I appreciate the attention to detail, but we had to have a specific lesson on that." Jayce said with a half grin.

Bolt gave a laugh of his own. "Don't tell me you haven't done that yourself."

"No comment." The designer replied with an amused shake of his head. "But back on topic, assuming that we surmount the numerous issues. Is it worth it teaching a mech designer by having them assemble simplified Third Rate mechs?"

For a moment Bolt wanted to say that was how he learned. It was a bad answer. Bolt knew he was different than most people. This wasn't a point of pride. It was a simple fact. Even if he wasn't smart, everyone was different and learned differently. He took a few moments to formulate an answer. Jayce let him, waiting patiently.

Eventually he had a good reason and words for it. "I think that ultimately the basics of how ta assemble a mech and do it with a minimum of automation is going to be important. All my masterworks were done by hand, and looking it up, the designers who do it consistently also do it personally. Some use more tech than others, but all of em devote their personal attention to it. If you aren't giving students a chance to be the best, then why teach them in the first place? Do you want office workers or designers that could become masters?"

"That is a good reason. Pity reality gets in the way. Students will frequently have to go into companies where taking the time to assemble a single mech that will be very flawed is a waste. We are very thorough about teaching them how to use fabricators and how to assemble mechs with standard tools. I'd argue that manual assembly is going away. Masterworks are exceptional. A hundred mechs made from automation is better." Jayce pointed out.

Bolt shrugged. "Could do both. Ain't like a factory stops because a mech designer is doing a personal project."

"Time management concerns hinder that, but I take your point." Jayce waved a hand. "Truthfully I would love teaching students more, not less. If we could have them make a baby mech I'd be first in line to approve it. We do come back to cost. Even doing Third Rate mechs would add up a lot."

Bolt nodded slowly before tapping at the podium. Fancy ones like this had a whole lot of tech they were connected to. One of them was a designer. With a few flicks he brought up some materials. Then he created a mech. Total time, about five minutes. It showed. The mech was absurdly simple.

"Just an idea." Bolt said. "These materials all recycle real well." He noted.

Jayce stared for a beat before shaking himself and staring at the design. "I'm afraid I'm missing the point."

"Basically, this is a mech made outta one hundred percent recyclable materials." Bolt explained. "Have kids make em outta all of these materials, and throw it back in the recycling. Total cost would be mostly in power. You'd lose about say five percent of the material each cycle I think?"

"Probably more like ten to fifteen depending on various factors." Jayce said after doing a few mental calculations.

There was always a loss somewhere when you recycled. Some of it was just because the material was just gone, but a lot of it was contamination and the fact that remaking could reduce some quality. It was just a fact of reality.

"Think it'd work?" Bolt asked.

Jayce considered it for a long moment before sighing and wiggling a hand. "It'd be good for an end of year project I think. We would have to specifically note that it's not good for mech design in general and be certain that it doesn't introduce bad habits. Using materials like that would require some specialized manufacturing and designing methods that wouldn't translate well."

"Ah." Bolt breathed out. "Yeah actually." He noted with a wince. "Kinda forgot that students can learn lessons ya don't want too."

"That's something that comes with time. I'd say that there's a good seed of an idea here, but it'd require some delicacy to implement."

Bolt nodded in agreement. "It'd have ta be paired with one or two other lessons, but I think its a sound idea." He added a few flaws. "Have em make this and identify the problem?"

"Do try to make flaws a non-journeyman would notice." Jayce said dryly and added one of his own.

The young designer stared at it. "I woulda figured out that one when I was ten." He observed, with only a little exaggeration.

Jayce stifled a chuckle. "You underestimate how stupid some new students can get."

Bolt chuckled, and that seemed to end the debate. He shook hands with the other man once they cleaned up and then got drawn into a few conversations about his work and other things. Most of it was pretty casual and just the designer version of light talk. Things about various simple decisions and brainstorming what could and wouldn't work.

He did get a job offer too. It seemed rather generous based off his rather poor understanding of things. Something like full tenure (Whatever that meant) and a high salary. That was nice, but not really his thing at all.

 

[Golgotha]

I can't blame them for shooting their shot there. Funnily enough it would be a great deal for any standard third rate designer who managed to go visit a second rate world.
But, ah, not so much for bolt.

 

[Luckless21]

not so much for bolt.

Click to shrink...

He's kind of attached to his boneyard of a planet that gives him (almost) all of the scrap he could want.

 

[Simonbob]

I can't blame them for shooting their shot there. Funnily enough it would be a great deal for any standard third rate designer who managed to go visit a second rate world.
But, ah, not so much for bolt.

Click to shrink...

Sure, but he has his own planet. One with all the junk he could ever recycle.


Edit: Stealth Meched.

 

[lost star]

Bolt had a problem. A very serious one. It was something he'd never encountered before. It was utterly unprecedented!

He was utterly bored. There was nothing he felt like doing and he'd run out of his non-mech related chores. Going out into some public setting felt uncomfortable to even contemplate. He'd done his daily workout. He'd done some review and studies to keep himself up to date with the latest technology. He wanted to avoid designing. What should he do?

Ah the pains of coming from a planet where the grand total of entertainment was watching paint dry. This was a bit of an exaggeration, but not by much. Bolt had grown up on MTA approved general purpose entertainment. Most of it was old Earth stuff. He wasn't really interested in seeing any sort of modern day movies and the like. Most of the recent stuff was such blatant propaganda that it was unpleasant to deal with.

Eventually he decided that he could do a bit of work partially related to mech design. Mostly message answering. There was always going to be a bit of a backlog.

Highest priority was messages about his Heart System and expert mechs. Several experts had ascended using his mechs and most wanted different ones. Bolt was perfectly fine with that, but a decent amount of them wanted to keep the Hearts of their mechs as well. That was a bit more difficult to arrange. The Heart System was currently locked to his designs and not independent. No one had figured out how to make derivatives. The spiritual factor's obscurity made any sort of alternative quite impossible if you didn't know the mechanics.

Bolt ended up reading through more than a few MTA rules and then messaging Bubbles. A bit of back and forth with the woman and he put in a request with the MTA bureaucracy. It was essentially a blanket approval for expert mechs to have the system installed. It was an unusual category, but perfectly acceptable and not totally unusual. Bolt would prefer to have the Heart System fully available to anyone who wanted to license it, but the MTA was doing a significant amount of work in the background so he couldn't do that just yet. (He did see how rumors of the next generation parts came about now though.)

Speaking of that. The company was still technically in the setup phase. People had been organized and they were going through testing. A lot of testing.

The designer gave a low whistle as he looked through the results of the tests. Just the crystal testing alone had multiple pages of checking. Configuration, size, shape, materials, and so on. Hundreds into thousands of tests and checks. He was again very happy he'd handed this off. He'd severely underestimated everything that needed to be examined. There was even some First Rate stuff here. That seemed like the first thing tested really, which felt a bit strange, but was probably the best decision.

He didn't even know half of the materials used, and he tried to keep up with everything!

Some of the results were actually pretty interesting from an academic standpoint. They were all on the mechanical side mostly, but several results gave some very interesting data that required some interpretation. The composition of the heart had some strange effects sometimes, and if you used some First Rate materials, you got some very unusual results that didn't make sense on the mechanical side. Bolt was fairly sure that if you had a robust enough heart you could do some very interesting things with a mech. Something to consider for later. Right now, unusual effects aside, the tests were broadly positive.

The current trend of thought from the company was to have a few solid crystals that would work everywhere and a list of what would work for people that wanted to experiment. They very specifically wanted something First Rate, Second Rate, and Third Rate. First Rate was some sort of specialized, highly energetic crystal that could probably hold the entire galactic network if it was used for just data storage. It alone was worth than Morning Star. It would likely also become standard for First Rate mechs.

Bolt figured it was good business sense, but the price difference was more than a bit silly. If you discounted the storage size, there was no notable difference in performance between tiers. Something fancier just stored more physical data. If you used something very robust energy wise, it might increase the spiritual power, but Bolt didn't think it would be massive. That was just a guess though. The company wasn't testing for that really. First Rate stuff needed to be expensive. That was the sum total of the decision there.

Unfortunately for him, the review couldn't take up all his time. He was out of things to do again. No more work unless he wanted to get into designing.

With a grumble Bolt looked through possible actions. Movie, no. Beach, no. No mech designer events on the planet at all. There was an arena, but that was absolutely boring to him. Watching some fake fights was not his idea of a good time, especially after seeing Lilly fight. Maybe he could offer to help repair a few mechs? No, that was both desperate and a bit pitiful.

Out of mild desperation he poked into Iron Spirit. The game was still chugging alone as normal, though the local scene was rather depressed. The Sand War had really done a number on the people willing to play a game and more than a few matches had a tint of desperate desire to avoid reality. The game itself had actually added a small mini-game of sorts where you could fight sandmen. It wasn't really advertised, but it was quietly there and available for those that wanted to practice against the aliens.

Bolt's latest designs weren't in there. He wasn't sure if he even could do that. Some of his mechs didn't function right in simulations, and he felt a tiny bit bad about adding the newest ones in anyway. Most of the designers in the system were lower than Journeyman. Him throwing his mechs in was akin to Lilly fighting normal people.

Fortunately some fiddling with the settings and getting his official status updated in the game let him fix some of that. The people managing the system had a few ways of weighting mechs to make it so that Journeyman could still play without disrupting everything. Bolt figured that was perfectly acceptable. The game couldn't handle Seniors and up though, which was a bit of a pity, but also perfectly understandable. With that settled he began to get his new mechs uploaded. The free advertisement helped, and it was mildly amusing to think of them being used in games.

The Curse Crow was a royal pain to implement though. He had to take outside values, upload them, and then wait for approval. It occupied some time at least, and was more tedious than anything else. He rather looked forward to people's reaction there.

Bolt was quite happy with all of that. He was also bored again. He had several days before Lilly woke up. He really shouldn't be having this sort of issue!

Ultimately Bolt had to conclude that he'd let work consume too much of his life. If he took out designing from his work day, he had absolutely nothing left. That was bad precisely. He had gotten this far by focusing. He just needed some non-designing hobbies. What would be good there?

There wasn't anything really good that fit what he liked aside from one thing. That was his habit of making figures of his mechs. That had been mostly for more work, but Bolt figured it wouldn't hurt to turn it into an actual hobby. It'd at least be mildly entertaining, and it wasn't like it the hobby didn't exist. Even making them out of the proper metals and such wasn't that out there.

If anything Bolt was planning on being restrained there. Some enthusiasts made exact replicas, down to almost functional weapons. That was outright insanity. Bolt was just going to machine them out of the same metals the armor was. He also would have to paint them too.

No it wasn't social. Bolt didn't care one whit. It kept him occupied and forced him to look into other mechs. It was just enough work to satisfy the itch he had to keep working.

 

[Luckless21]

The problem of suddenly no longer having anything you absolutely have to focus on, is that it leaves you with a lot of free time and often not a lot constructive to do with it.

 

[Simonbob]

Ah, yes.

Vacation boredom. Happens to me all the time. A week of relaxation, then I'm just bored.

 

[Pyro Hawk]

Ah the pains of coming from a planet where the grand total of entertainment was watching paint dry. This was a bit of an exaggeration, but not by much. Bolt had grown up on MTA approved general purpose entertainment. Most of it was old Earth stuff. He wasn't really interested in seeing any sort of modern day movies and the like. Most of the recent stuff was such blatant propaganda that it was unpleasant to deal with.

Click to shrink...

You know, now I'm wondering if the nature of Bloody Karma (or whatever Bolt's homeworld ends up gaining as it's true name) or at least Olympus might actually revitalise this area a bit as it grows into a 'true' world. Purely due to the fact that it has to be multicultural in acceptance, if with it's own unique culture, due to the nature of it's position and part of that's going to mean that a lot of their cultural development is rooted in that MTA approved general purpose 'usually Old Earth origin' entertainment. Meaning that they'll want more of it, or at least versions of it that aren't morbidly over-propagandised to the point of not even being laughable and so make it because they can't get it elsewhere.

And due to the nature of that stuff, it would also be acceptable, if not necessarily the 'preferred', stuff for everyone around them.

 

[Negation]

I thought he would pick up bonsai for novelty sake due to home not being very eco-friendly. Doing minis is just work on a smaller scale.

 

[EternitynChaos]

I thought he would pick up bonsai for novelty sake due to home not being very eco-friendly. Doing minis is just work on a smaller scale.

Click to shrink...

Pick something you love and you'll never work a day in your life lol

 

[Rustic]

Huh well he could get miniature cows. They are work hobby and amusement. It would also be completely off from the mech stuff.

 

[lost star]

Bolt was back in Tyra's office now. This time with Lilly. The expert looked relatively happy at the moment, also more than a little... Well polished was probably the best word for it. The two weeks of sedation had apparently included something resembling a spa, and Lilly's rather voluminous hair had been extensively treated and done. It was so well treated that the girl hadn't decided to braid it again after waking. She practically glowed overall really, though some of that was probably joy.

"I assume you have made your decisions?" Tyra asked.

"Went over the review package together last night." Lilly confirmed with a nod. "We'd like three kids. Boy, girl, boy. With a kinda general package, is that the right word?" She asked Bolt.

"General check, non-specific, human base compatible." Bolt clarified.

As unfortunate as it was to say it, they weren't designing children for fun. They were doing so because Lilly's genetics were just aberrant enough that her eggs couldn't be fertilized in a natural process. It was literally impossible to leave it to chance, so they had to define their children's future right now. Neither parent to be liked it. They still had to deal with it.

The general check was basically a thorough check to be certain that there weren't going to be any genetic abnormalities. Non-specific meant that they simply wanted their genes combined without any sort of specialized tampering. Human-base compatible meant the kid wouldn't need what Lilly did for this. Put in more legible terms, Lilly and Bolt were essentially just requesting that their genes be combined like they would had she been fertile, with some screening for problems. It was actually a relatively simple package to go for. The largest expense was going to be the human base part of the request. As the doctor had said, it was both tricky and expensive.

"You are both certain?" The doctor asked calmly and without a hint of her feelings as she noted a few things down.

"Yep." Lilly nodded, and Bolt followed with his own confirmation.

"I will note this doesn't guarantee anything passed on. You are both ok with that?" Tyra asked and received another pair of nods. "Very well. We will start the process after some signatures and authorizations from you. With your requested changes it will take two to three days to produce a series of fertilized ovum. After which Lilly will be implanted with one of them, and the rest will be placed into a storage container for the future. You will be staying for the entire pregnancy?"

"That was what we had planned." Bolt confirmed. "We decided to treat this as a vacation."

The doctor smiled. "It is a good place for that. I'd advise Lilly refrain from piloting after the first trimester and highly advise avoiding it after the second one. Simulations are fine at all times, but actual piloting is something different. We will be providing regular health checkups." Here the woman's smile dropped. "Lilly, due to a variety of reasons I'd like to emphasize that if you feel any pain at all in your stomach you immediately come here. While you have no known health issues, that doesn't mean any can come up. I'm also going to put in a request for a consultant to be brought on. We could use a specialist just in case."

Bolt had reviewed a bit of that, so he knew. Lilly was small for a woman. Some of her genetics were non-standard as well. There was a distinct possibility that there was a unique interaction somewhere that would make the pregnancy more difficult than normal.

Worry about it wouldn't help. Bolt and Lilly did the required paperwork with no complaints and authorized the specialist. They then moved back to their suite and Lilly flopped down on a couch immediately.

"Finally." She breathed out and gave a small giggle. "Yay!"

"Glad yer happy." Bolt noted.

"Course I'm happy. I don't get many chances to be a girl ya know? Plus I wanted kids!" Lilly sat up and gave Bolt a mock glare. "You get to be happy too you know?"

"Yes, I'll be happy when the kids are grown." Bolt teased back. "Until then they're gonna be a lotta work."

"Good work." Lilly said back and took a breath. "But later. How's everything around here?"

Bolt took a seat and pulled out the sunglasses he bought. "Honest, kinda annoying. Already did everything mech designer related locally. There's absolutely no piloting stuff either."

"I mean, that's sort of what a vacation is?" The expert woman pointed out slowly. "Doing non-work stuff?"

"Can't say I like that all." Bolt shot back and gestured with his sunglasses. "Buying these damned near exhausted me for a day!"

"Aw, poor baby." Lilly grabbed the glasses and put them on her head. "Haha. Oh wow. These are nice!"

"Yes, Second Rate stuff is very nice and very expensive." Bolt responded without a hint of sarcasm.

Lilly hopped up from the couch and threw the glasses onto a table. "That's why we have a budget." She paused. "Why are there so many tools here?" She asked curiously as she finally noticed the mess Bolt had on one of the tables.

"It's the only hobby I could think of that would occupy time." Bolt answered with a long sigh.

The woman stared at it and at the room at large. "All right. We're going swimming." Lilly concluded with a frown. "You are not going to spend this entire vacation crammed in a room doing something you could do at home."

"Really?" Bolt didn't plead, but it felt like a close thing.

"Really really!" Lilly responded with a small smile as she pushed the young man into the bedroom to get changed.

They had packed swimsuits at least. Or rather had them made. The things were over engineered really. Designed specifically for swimming, one literally couldn't drown in them. They had an oxygen tank and an ability to force a person to float somehow. It was honestly a bit impressive because they were still rather skimpy swimsuits. Lilly's one-piece wasn't immodest, but it was certainly skin-tight, and Bolt's trunks were well... Trunks. Shorts. A very small amount of clothing.

Bolt stopped thinking about it as he reached the beach. There was apparently some sort of routing that made it so that none of the beaches were too crowded, so they practically had the place to themselves. It was actually rather nice. The sand was surprisingly fluffy, and the waters were clear. They could even see a few colorful jellyfish around.

It was at that point Bolt recalled that his swimming skills amounted to 'I know how to float.' This turned the trip into a few lessons on swimming instead of anything else. He couldn't say it was a bad time really. It was something new at least, and he sorely needed that sort of thing in retrospect.

The couple spent more than a few hours with just learning how to swim and doing other things you were supposed to do at beaches. For a brief moment they were normal. No lingering worries, no serious threats, just two people on a beach playing around. Both knew it wouldn't last, but that was just their life.

 

[Golgotha]

Very cute

 

[lost star]

The Five Scrolls Compact was a complicated organization that had a lot of history. Most of that history was no longer relevant. They had once been the rulers, the kings, and the terrors of humanity. Under their realm people had been both elevated and devoured in equal measure. Their philosophy was rather complicated and centered around a series of spiritual artifacts known as Scrolls. At their peak they had five. Now they had less.

Diminished as they were, they could still be called a rival to the Big Two. They were the unofficial third faction. One that survived because they hid, and because they still had a significant of power and reach. They'd lodged themselves into the hidden places and become a boogeyman that devoured things int eh dark.

A planet like Morocco Haven was just another easily exploited target. Truthfully, if they wanted to, they could easily raze it to the ground. That was something they refrained from doing routinely for a variety of reasons. One of which was that they were still 'third.' If they made a large enough noise both the CFA and MTA would eagerly pounce on them.

The Five Scrolls lived because they had learned and then mastered subtlety. If there was a strength they had nowadays, it was in that. They existed in the shadows, recruited in the shadows, and lived because of those shadows.

Doctor Tyra knew nothing of this of course. Her point of contact was with a isolated cell. If she reported them it would destroy a few patsies, nothing else. She didn't know she was working with a group willing and able to blend everyone on the planet into a smoothy for a refreshing drink. All she knew was that she was speaking with a rather pleasant fellow expert that had bought her a few drinks and was acting as a consultant to her latest case.

"I do recognize the genetic markers. I believe I might have been brought in to check on the child. It was naturally awhile ago so my memory might be faulty." The man laughed.

"Oh?" Tyra asked back with intrigue.

"Yes, the woman said she did it herself. She was quite insane." The man shook his head in dismay. "Or high. Or both. You know those wild young scions that have more money than sense? She was the worst example. She found some examples from old hidden historical records and absolutely had to follow them. Since she was typically on some sort of designer drug, this resulted in some rather unpleasant outcomes. You can probably guess the rest."

Tyra shook her head. "That poor child. Lilly appears to have thrived, but her genetics are definitely non-standard and probably enough to disqualify her from many things."

"They're actually a combination meant to enhance sensitivity and non-verbal communication skills if the records were accurate." The man explained with a long sigh. "The records were outdated, incorrectly done, and yes not something I'd apply to a child."

"Well. That makes the parents decision a bit easier to swallow. I at least don't have to worry about crippling the kids." Tyra wiggled the glass in her hand. "Just have to be sure that there's no dyslexia, which is easy."

The man poured her some more. "You do good work. I'm sure you can verify everything so it's proper and I can double check everything on my end. Our profession means we don't always get to agree with the decisions. Did they want something unusual? We've both had some rather... Well unpleasant requests is putting it politely."

"It's more that they just wanted children. I will not say it's bad, but it's both boring and not particularly challenging aside from being sure that the mother's genetics don't cause issues. That her foundation was designed to mean something means at least I'm less conflicted about it." Tyra sipped at the drink. "But I've spilled a bit too much. I should change the subject."

"Let us then." The man said before snapping his fingers.

Tyra giggled and continued to drink. "Issayss-" Her words devolved into nonsense while the man got to his feet.

She'd remember more talking and perhaps something else. The man didn't much care. He'd gotten the information he needed. Most importantly, he could fulfill the first stages of his mission without suspicion.

The clinic was state of the art. It had security measures up to the edge of Second Rate, and close enough to First Rate that it'd take effort to prevent an alert. That was if you were unauthorized. The man was a consultant. A real one. He had the degree and he had the expertise. He was actually in a position lower than what he could accomplish. The Five Scrolls had unparalleled abilities in certain areas, and genetic augmentation was one of them.

Lilly was a result of that. Sort of. The man hadn't lied there. Her mother had been flat-out insane and should not have implemented the changes she'd done as she'd done. It was a miracle that the girl had been born sane and whole. She was a result of an amateur applying a formula with nothing but gumption and drug-fueled inspiration. Had it been done properly, and the right people informed, she would have been an ideal candidate for the arts the FSC practiced. A perfect soldier in their ongoing war, perhaps more. The genetic signatures combined with her potential could have made her a candidate for so many things.

As it was, her first born would be taken instead.

The man moved through the security checkpoints and carefully made his way into places he was authorized. Then he tapped Tyra's keycard against the next area, and tapped a finger to the genetic scanner and fingerprint scanner. His finger, an exact replica of the doctor's at the moment, let him pass the security without a single alert. Then he was in an unmonitored area where he had full access to all of the clinic's machines and all their patient profiles. He brought up Lilly's record.

Three children. Male, female, male. He couldn't determine the order they'd be implanted in as it hadn't been decided yet. Which really didn't matter much. Adjusting them all would be just as easy as one with these tools. The computer was already attempting to alter the synthesized sperm and ovum for proper fertilization. Since it was meant to be pseudo random, it'd simply selected the parts at random. All he needed to do was adjust a few criteria. It was trivial for a master of the genetic arts like the man was.

From the outside the results would look random. The actual children would have higher sensitivity, proper spiritual baselines, brilliant minds, honed bodies. The man stifled a chuckle. The parents made this easy. A lot of this had already been likely. Pity he couldn't retain the Golden Body physique without causing alerts, but that it practically perfect for any sort of base he could conceive anyway. Really what he was doing was perfectly acceptable for the kids future. There were plenty of other physiques that rivaled it, and those were less obvious. It was actually keeping with the spirit of the parent's request even! He was just tilting the odds towards certain outcomes.

Pity he couldn't remove the freckles and other things that marred the children's beauty though. This was meant to be pseudo-random. Some changes wouldn't be noticed. Deliberately picking ideal looks would be noticed. Subtly weaving all his changes into the potential children was difficult enough. It was actually a rather large challenge that he quite enjoyed doing truthfully. It was a pity he couldn't recruit the parents. If they had been encouraged to have children under the FSC, he'd have a dozen children with the potential to be heirs rather than one.

One was still fine for their purposes. A child with potential like this would be quite the coup. It just meant the competition would be with other people rather than the family. The man finished up his changes and erased his tracks. He then double checked all the security measures to be certain his presence was concealed before heading out. He'd leave the keycard on the doctor's person and she wouldn't be any wiser.

This was rather important because they weren't done yet. He needed to be sure Lilly carried the child to term and had the appropriate treatments at key points in time. As a consultant he could advise all of it, and it'd be relatively easy to ensure that there was no suspicion at all on him. Really, he'd just have to recommend certain brands and add an adjustment here or there. The FSC had to get food for their potential mothers from somewhere after all! Him recommended certain brands was expected.

It was how the FSC worked really. They had thousands of cells doing very normal things with just a hint of spirit. None of it was obvious at all. They were everywhere and no one really knew it aside from key people.

Unfortunately there were a lot of complications on the horizon. Many of them would be the other spies around the couple. The man had already counted three separate groups, and he expected that there would be even more shortly. It'd be a hilarious mess if he wasn't involved in it. Instead he was in the unenviable position of both keeping his targets alive and not exposing himself until the birth. Part of what would make the child so valuable was her mother's power. If she didn't carry the child long enough it'd cripple the child's future development, rendering all of this moot.

Well, it wouldn't be boring at least.

 

[Simonbob]

I never found out what the Five Scrolls folk were on about, so this will be interesting.


I still want either Bolt or Lily to find out and suplex him, but if I can find out what and why before, that'd be nice.

 

[Luckless21]

As it was, her first born would be taken instead.

Click to shrink...

Time for the countdown to begin until they get their asses kicked.

 

[foo-jin]

As it was, her first born would be taken instead.

Click to shrink...

Of course the xianxia faction is full of ruthless psychos, guess Ves had to get it from somewhere. This deserves... what was the saying those types like to use again? Ah yes, nine generations extermination, for the entire FSC please.