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I told Ratticus, "I know I praised your designer before. But I have rethought that and decided you'd have been much more useful without vocal chords at all. Strip the complex of everything that you can first. I want the wrecks scavenged as well."

I killed the comm. I was sure they'd have objections, but I didn't care.

If Anna was right, Cutout was planning to betray us. Even if he wasn’t, I doubted he'd provide supplies for us to repair damage we'd suffered on a side mission.

23

I continued to prioritize scavenging before any repairs. The engines were still in decent shape, which meant that most of our maintenance could be done in the air. We could undertake that once we were safe—an opportunity to get these resources wouldn’t come again soon.

While the Rats went about their tasks I took the opportunity to absorb the core that Anna acquired from Lotus.

You have claimed a Flora Core

You have unlocked the ability of BioArmor. By adapting the basic principles that Cellulose serves in plants you are now able to create armored shells for yourself and your creations making them much more durable against physical harm.

THAT WASN'T at all what I'd wanted out of the core. The carnage in the dome showed the immense destructive capabilities of plant control. Of course, the sheer damage both the ship and crew had just taken also showed the benefits of utilizing those capabilities in some defense.

You have an unspent core point

Your options are

Research 6

Research 6 will allow you to build a translation facility. Often upgrades and improvements are specific to certain core types or paradigmatic principles. With this you can undertake conversion of that knowledge into a form usable by your own systems.

Military 2

Military 2 will allow you to control a greater number of defense drones. There is power in numbers. In addition defensive systems all acquire a minor upgrade.

Engineering 1

Engineering 1 will allow the production of automated minions. They are capable of autonomous ship repair and will halve all build and production times for new facilities.

Command 1

Command 1 will allow status warnings. Currently you receive no notification when an individual component is in distress. With this upgrade you will receive alerts with the issue, severity, and suggested fixes.

Espionage 1

Espionage 1 will allow you to control a reconnaissance drone. This unit is capable of stealth and will allow visual and audio surveillance.

AS ALWAYS RESEARCH was going to be my first temptation. We still had the tomes from Sylax's magical library on board. In their current state they were useless to me, but eventually somehow I hoped to begin unlocking the potential of whatever research she had stored upon this vessel.

I had to consider other options. The recent battle had impressed on me that even with my multitasking it was easy to get distracted in difficult situations. Command 1 would offer a way to relieve that, and that choice seemed likely to offer a lot of useful upgrades going forward.

The lack of ship weaponry continued to be an issue. If I had focused more time upgrading my own military capabilities they might not be necessary since an army of well-equipped combat drones would serve as ship defense.

Then there was Engineering. Even back at the ground base I'd repeatedly put off production capabilities despite that upgrades became more time-intensive to construct. Recently, with the entire crew neutralized, I had very few capabilities for self-repair of critical systems.

As much as I wanted that Research upgrade I had to do the intelligent thing here. I'd been delaying some of the basics too long and it was hurting me. I invested the point into Engineering.

A new repair drone materialized on each deck. I set them to fixing the hull and begin the process of installing BioArmor in place of the existing plating.

That done, I could turn my attention at last to SCIENCE.

The salvage material the Rats were bringing up was already showing some interesting possibilities. I started with those.

Research

"Sonic Beam Cannons"

These fixed position cannons use beam weaponry to carry a Powered voice and resonate it through ships. Later modification allowed them to use similar beams to discharge large quantities of electricity. Research could result in either standard beam weaponry or in beam weaponry capable of carrying other powers to a target.

This project will take one week to research.

OF ALL THE members of the crew we'd inherited, Ratticus had managed to impress me the most in the battle. Although the man—if he ever bothered to manifest as a man— managed to be a level of irritating that even Anna could only aspire to, he'd proved capable of both quick thinking and in delivering results. I'd already teleported a large supply of cookies down to the dome for the Rats to enjoy while they worked.

Research

"Growth Lights"

These lights were in use in a hydroponics facility to accelerate plant life by application of abilities inherited from a Flora core. With the death of that core's inheritor the abilities are fading, but traces still remain for research.

This project will take one week to research.

THE COMBINATION of powers and technology discovered below were interesting and unexpected. To date the only ones I'd encountered able to do that possessed upgrade cores. We hadn't encountered anyone with one in the dome, but the presence of this technology suggested that they must have one. If they did, I very much wanted it—the upgrade core was the most central to my abilities and I suspected acquiring another would enhance what I could do more effectively than any other core I'd absorbed to date. I'd studied the abilities of Mechos, but that wasn't quite the same thing.

RESEARCH PROJECT

"Plant Samples"

You have samples from five different plant species that were being grown in bulk in the captured hydroponics facility. Potential of these samples is unknown and study will take some time.

This project will take three weeks to research.

RECREATIONAL OR MEDICINAL drugs most likely. I was curious to see what came of these.

In addition to those projects there were two others too long ignored. Ratticus may have impressed me, others had not.

RESEARCH PROJECT

"Baron Wolfson"

Baron Wolfson is imbued with the properties of a Fauna Core. In addition he has undergone extensive modification by an Upgrade Core. Research will unlock a lesser version of his Fauna core ability and may unlock versions of some upgrades that have been applied to him.

This project will take two weeks to research.

RESEARCH PROJECT

"Doctor Batavius"

Doctor Batavius is imbued with the properties of a Vision Core. In addition she has undergone extensive modification by an Upgrade Core. Research will unlock a lesser version of her Vision core ability and may unlock versions of some upgrades that have been applied to her.

This project will take two weeks to research.