"... Those things really… Rip?"
Watching the clouds of dust on the horizon, Tia struggled for a moment to remember the term Mac had used.
"Yeah…"
Hanna likewise wasn't completely used to Mac's technology, but the term Mac had used did serve to neatly explain how exactly the Lynx transports were moving around between the cities of the Victoria dukedom.
Yesterday Tia and Hanna happened to fly over a Lynx as it was moving throughout the countryside, where they learned several new terms from Mac, including 'drifting', 'rally racing' and 'roadkill'.
Seeing the experience of observing them at distance aside, Tia's and Hanna's primary escort had also become Lynx transport, and getting driven around in one of those moving at 'march Jesus' was also quite an experience. Tia had experienced it a few times flying with Mac aboard a dropship, but feeling her stomach twist in brief bouts of weightlessness immediately followed by acceleration getting her pressed into her seat was both a rush,
in that it was both exhilarating and a hair's breath away from throwing up.
(The real issue is when both of those emotions start to overlap… Please don't tell me I'm becoming a strange woman that gets a trill from almost throwing up.)
"Tia?"
"Yeah, sorry for spacing out."
Getting snapped out of her daze by her bodyguard, Tia glanced at the human and logistic type drones in front of her that were busy loading crates with the mark of her company from the cargo holds of Lynx transports onto carriages. As the Lynx transports were too large for normal city streets, this reloading of goods had quickly transformed to the slowest part of Tia's days, logistic class drones would unload goods from the cargo hulls of the Lynx transports by the pallet, then human type drones would break up those pallets of goods before packing them onto carriages for transport into the city.
Today Tia was receiving a shipment of enhanced coal she had already sold, and just looking at the volume of crates she was unloading demonstrated the boom in business she had received since Mac launched the RED transport service.
(Then again money doesn't seem to interest Mac that much… I wonder why he really launched this business.)
"2096 green signal sources… Nothing out of the ordinary today."
Floating around inside the bridge of the cruiser Directive 15, Mac's eyes had completely lost focus as he concentrated on the data streaming into his brain via the cable plugged into his neck.
["Data is streaming… Adjust timing on link #331, yeah, just like that."]
As he spoke Mac's voice came from both his own mouth and the bridge's speakers, blending just like his consciousness and becoming one with the onboard neural processing array.
[Extend the field a bit, now run it back…]
At once Mac's vision and senses shifted, showing a map with 2096 points on it, each of these points held about a million readouts that Mac 'glanced at' and immediately understood.
[Hmm, that one is new.]
Shifting again, Mac's consciousness focused on a single point of data, an event witnessed by one of Mac's Lynx transports.
[Grav readouts are normal, but the quantum field fluctuations are all over the place… Is that sensor error?]
Focusing in on the readout Mac received a bunch of nonsensical data that he confirmed to be genuine.
[Mark location for survey and reroute a few more Lynx transports to the area. With any luck there might be something interesting there.]
It was true Mac didn't understand this 'magic' that seemed innate to this planet, and so far that had been fine, but after getting attacked by a weapon system powered by that magic that lack of understanding transformed into a liability.
Just because he couldn't detect this magic didn't preclude Mac from learning about this magic, how it interacted with the surroundings, how it manifested and how it was limited.
[If anything I feel like my great forefathers trying to figure out how to fly without any certain grasp of lift…]
Still, without a way to definitively confirm that the data he was taking interest in was an actual result of magic, most of the interesting data Mac would be collecting could be dismissed as mere noise.
That's why Mac had increased his collection footprint, adding 2096 sensor units that moved around collecting information.
(The best part of all this is by renting out the cargo capacity, I'm actually making a profit from this data collection. Not only in good will and coin, but also valuable connections with merchants and the upper nobility.)
Having collected the data events he saw as viable for further study, Mac was about to disconnect from the system when another thought struck him.
[What's the ammunition consumption of the deployed units?]
Accessing supply logs and after action reports generated every time a Lynx transport as much as ran over an ant, Mac quickly phased through the information.
[As expected the initial deployment created quite an expense.]
Doing the first day of operation, the Lynx command mesh hadn't ever come across monsters before, so the system overcompensated and used liberal ammunition against monsters that weren't even a threat.
What happened after that initial overcorrection was interesting, as expected the command mesh quickly adjusted, narrowing target envelopes and refining burst control to the threats, leading to a rapid drop in ammunition expenditure.
Problem is, the curve wasn't dropping as much as it should have.
(Well, that's slightly problematic… Bring up events where ammunition had to be expended, plot over time and give me a rolling average for the last week.)
Although it wasn't conclusive, what Mac saw in the data showed him that the Lynx transports had been running into an increasing number of monsters.
(It's still an increase under 10% week on week… That could just be a problem with the slim duration of data collection, but it doesn't feel like it.)
Mac's instincts were screaming at him at this point, there was something wrong with the picture he was seeing.
[Give me orbital surveillance data for the last week- no, since I arrived. Filter for IR, I want to see rough population estimates over time.]
Blip.
[Eliminate 'human' contacts, focus on 'monsters'.]
Blip.
[... Fuck.]
Until just a week ago, when V-190 had been attacked the number of monsters detected from orbit were more or less stagnant, they were being culled as quickly as they reproduced, but after the attack their population had started spiking.
Disconnecting from the mainframe, Mac wanted very much to just chalk these numbers up to coincidence but reality wasn't kind, and it was only a matter of time before someone else spotted the pattern.
(Who to talk to is the question…)
Mac wanted to raise this issue quietly while he wasn't certain, so he needed someone with integrity, someone who knew about monsters, someone wh-
"Yeah, yeah… Shit."
Things were still sort of awkward between Mac and Anastasia, but she was the best person he could think of, that or he could start throwing money after that adventurers guild.
[Mac? Do you have a moment?]
"Yeah, I have a moment, what's up?"
Still in the middle of dealing with his new discovery, Mac was contacted by Tia and tabled that line of thought for the moment.
[The thing is… We've been summoned, by the adventurers guild.]
Taking in what Tia was saying, Mac blanked for a moment.
"They think they can summon me? Like some sort of puppy?"
[... In that case I'll go alone.]
Hearing Mac's emotions had started going off the deep end, Tia steadied herself as she offered an alternative.
"No, no need to lower yourself to their level. You're my direct subordinate Tia, remember that and carry yourself with some pride."
[Right, sorry.]
Having reminded Tia not to take herself for granted, Mac sunk into contemplation for a moment before deciding.
(They want to see me? Fine, fine fine, it's a great opportunity to show people not to take me for granted… Or, you know what? They want to see me, it'll be on my terms.)
Although he had yet to meet or otherwise interact with this guild, Mac didn't have the best opinion of them. Not only had adventurers tried to kill his employee Tia, they had also had something to do with Hanna's fall from grace.
(Besides, I can guess why they want to see me… The adventurers guild must have seen quite a drip in revenue in this area after I implemented my transport service.)
[Mac?]
As Mac had been quiet for a while Tia started to get worried he was considering… Radical options.
"Prosessing, give me a second."
While Mac was well aware he could solve this problem by throwing money after it, he also knew that by continuing to use that option it would become expected of him, and in time his only viable option.
"Let them know I'll consider meeting them on my own terms and in my own time, they should communicate where I should pick up their representatives for a talk and I'll get back to them only if convenient."
[That… Will create problems.]
From what Tia knew of the guild, they were used to getting what they wanted.
"And I will deal with those. For now be aware that monster activity might be picking up, but keep that to yourself and Hanna for the moment. I'm currently on my way to quietly raise the issue with the Victoria's."
Ending his talk with Tia, Mac hailed Anastasia as he boarded a dropship.
[What is it? I'm currently buried in paperwork.]
"I'm on my way to meet you, is there somewhere we can talk, discreetly."
As Mac sounded uncharacteristically serious, Anastasia put down her quill.
"And is there a reason why you want to talk with me in particular?"
Addressing the necklace she used to communicate with Mac with, Anastasia waved to her aide and dismissed him while waiting for Mac to respond.
[... Look, I need to warn you of something I don't know for certain. Can we meet somewhere without any outside eyes or ears?]
Seeing Mac was serious, Anastasia breathed a sigh as she quietly massaged the bridge of her nose for a moment.
"Sure, I need a break anyway. I'll travel outside of the city for a bit on horseback. Find me there."
Anastasia didn't quite believe Mac, or trust him for that matter, but for better or worse she was part of the Victoria family who was partly aligned with him.
Grabbing her shield and sword, Anastasia left the capital on horseback to 'clear her head' for a bit, half an hour into this journey without any particular destination, she found a forest clearing where she waited for Mac. In a little under a minute Anastasia spotted one of Mac's flying machines approaching, but instead of landing it simply hovered above her for a moment and dropped a single golem-like 'drone'.
"... What is this?"
This 'human type drone' as Mac liked to call them wasn't like one Anastasia had ever seen, sure it had the same height and build as a normal one, and the usual black skeletal construction, but its face was strange.
Instead of a black faceplate void of any features, save for a single red dot, this one's face looked like a massive eye like that of a spider, fractal with many lenses which stared intensely at Anastasia as she drew her sword from its scabbard.
[...]
Staring at Anastasia the automaton adjusted its many eyes multiple times, instead of responding with words it let out a deep hum that the knight captain could feel in her stomach followed by a series of mechanical clicks.
"If this is a joke I don't find it funny Mac."
[Say one day you found yourself split into two, your other self proclaims she isn't you, but a different being born just now. What would you do with that new other that wears your face?]
Finally uttering words, Anastasia was immediately alarmed at the strange question it asked her, furthermore this wasn't Mac speaking through it, the voice the drone used sounded radically different.
(Instead of a calm, deliberate pronunciation, this one speaks like a child, still unsure of its words…)
"... Who, or what are you?"
[For the sake of this conversation you could say I am that other.]
Now sure that this wasn't any of Mac's doing, Anastasia pointed her sword at the thing as she responded.
"Answer my question."
[You first.]
Finding herself at an apparent stalemate, Anastasia was about to consider the thing's question when something landed right next to her leg. Startled at the sudden impact, Anastasia only managed to register that it was the same kind of metal spear Mac had impaled in the ground next to her the last time they had talked in person, but almost before she had time to be surprised lightning erupted from it, covering her in a cage of electric arcs as the thing she had been talking to was torn apart by high calibre gunfire.