Flowered Metal

For Opal, two weeks passed in a blink.

The humanoid android project was on pause given the need to disassemble every joint. From there, she would refabricate the previous weaker, but quieter joints. Total manufacture time was 1h – including the time to clear the next project off the queue, finish up the next manufacturing bay, then mill the parts, print the plastics and mold any rubber pieces. Electrics would not be an issue as she’d already decided on several new standardized boards and other pieces that would fit together. A custom-fitted part would always be better, faster, and slimmer, but if they were going to be weaker, why waste the time if they’re going to be replaced faster?

Thus, it was simply added to queue as normal. It was a week turnaround on her end.

During this time, the human town had begun to step up in activity. At first, Opal hadn’t given the occurrence much thought initially. However, she changed the priority when they had activated their “panic button”.

To avoid an incident something happened, and no one knew, Opal along with Syfa had directed the beast-people to only travel outside of Opal’s immediate surveillance. This encompassed all of the shore line around the lake, the buffer zones around the beached ship, and any location under immediate control of Opal’s machines. However, this was not acceptable to them as they were organic, living beings that required a plethora of things. Thus, several Spiders were available at any moment to follow any Hikari that needed to travel out of these key areas.

That explanation aside, this drone had alerted Opal of the situation. Within a minute, she had Reaper-1 and Reaper-2 enroute to the location – the old Hikari village. It had been transferred into a memorial, and the humans were attempting to turn it over for their “investigation”. Following after, since they were slower, was a new experiment V/STOL she coded named the Seahorse-1. A modified Seaking helicopter that had its cargo area replaced with a hastily repurposed bomb bay that drops pods that hold Light Frames instead of bombs.

While Opal had the Reapers at a high altitude, the Seaking came low and loud alongside while the Walker IFV followed slowly behind as “inaccurate artillery”. With only plans for artillery installations, she would have to do with the far smaller splash of the IFV’s chaingun. Plentiful for saturation, a dedicated 155mm LRSB (Long Range Strike Battery) would have been superior. Despite Opal’s sight into the situation, and the feeling she was far unprepared to handle an actual combat situation that put the Hikari danger close, it seemed that the humans were unable to see that she inadequately prepared.

The forces were prompt to retreat from the old village the moment they were able to discern that the Seaking was heading in their direction. Being in a valley, despite how large it was, meant that the noise profile of a rotorcraft would attract the attention of most people in the valley. That was also my point to using it.

Opal’s access to technology beyond their understanding wasn’t so much a clear advantage. Her observations of the humans so far made that clear. Like the humans from Earth, they were cunning, smart, and dangerous. Their deviation was down the path of “magic”, rather than technology. Which would be their verison of technology in a sense.

Either way, the situation had been simmered with the intruders returning to the forest to observe the situation. Because of this, she did not waste the deployment of the Light Frames as she would then have to recover said light frames. Rather, Opal kept the Seaking in a loop involving that half of the valley – making a point not to go near the forest.

They observed for 5 minutes before they completely disengaged. Returning to the town and most likely reporting the situation to their commanders, Opal had the Reapers track them throughout their return trip. There had been six locations they stopped momentarily, disappearing into the brush for several minutes. Afterward, they continued onward.

Today, she would add another two reapers to the patrol schedule.

She was hesitant to add jet propulsion vehicles to her fleet, given that she was looking at her manifest right now.

Following that thought, Opal studied a 3d map of the valley and its surroundings. To the north were more valleys. It was filled with strange animals of different sizes that had seemed content not to make their way south, but was slowly moving towards her. . To the south was human occupied territory. Once sparsely populated on initial scouting flights, it was now bustling with activity that was slowly surging towards her.

She was in the middle of these two forces.

If she had jets, long distance flights wouldn’t be an issue to project her power. But the quality of fuel needed was far higher than just providing electricity to advanced batteries she could produce. Yes, her flight capabilities using electronic technology was limited. It required battery change outs and short flights normally.

Her current boon at the moment was that Reapers could just flight above the clouds. She installed solar panels into its fuselage. Their flight time was extended so long as it was day, and it was above the clouds. The same went with the ground frames as well. Charging infrastructure was planed, and partially installed within the ship itself at convenient locations for the drones to access. The reactor could push enough power to feed the whole New York City on its own on a hot summer day.

Power was not an issue.

But she only had enough capacity to field three jets at max if she kept their flights limited to once a month for all three. Or just one with three flights. One would be economical. Three would be for the possibility of another engagement that required lethal and quick delivery of munitions. In the event that her slow-movers could not drop ordnance on a target – the one keeping her rotorcrafts out of the air – a fighter jet would be a dream answer.

Opal closed the map and focused on another holoscreen that appeared. This time it showed security footage of another human patrol on her border. She made a disgusted face, similar to what she’d seen Syfa make often.

A desire to open fire on them boiled inside her. To drop a single High-Explosive missile in the middle of the group. Reaper-1 was in the air. It wouldn’t be a problem for her to do so. It was as simple as…. She felt her entire being freeze, and the reaper drone observing the town jerk itself back on course for its patrol. The AI caught itself about to act on its compulsion, and that scared her. The loss of control made her close the window. She scanned over cyberspace, desiring for some outside influence that could have caused it. None was to be found

Opal pushed the problem away for the moment – hopefully permanently. There were a lot of issues to deal with and possible rampancy was not something she wanted to confront at the moment.

Moving on, the AI sighed and looked at her notifications.

She smiled to herself, something she’d seen the Hikari do. On her list was that the android was done. It had been done for a few hours, but she’s put it off while she made sure to handle any outstanding tasks. Which, she went down quickly.

/// TASKS

_______________________________________

> Android body refurbishment: COMPLETE

> Secure perimeter: SECURE

> Patrol human activities: IN PROGRESS

> Examine and analyze Earth produced schematics in database: IN PROGRESS

> Secure & create 2 areas for artillery batteries: HOLD

> Secure oil: HOLD

> Expand East and West: HOLD

>

END LIST ///

Several in progress objectives and a single one on hold. That one would take a considerable amount of time. Time spent better elsewhere besides prospecting and drilling. Not to mention that humans have been here for some time per Syfa’s brief explanations on the continent’s history. Opal would assume that oil has been found in some capacity. It would be a matter of time until it comes up. The assumption also assumed that Opal would not be constrained to the Valley.

During Reapers’ patrols, they had spotted what looked like civilization to the South-East and the South-West. Currently, she has a small avenue over the eastern ridge. This offered a direct narrow and risky route. The south-western pass would be the same but required her to pass through a lake that side of Lake Erie. Each route would require excavation up the sides of the mountains, clear out a pass, and then do the same on the other side. The east offered land for more expansion. The west offered the possibility of creating a small naval fleet to control it. Given that this was a new world, both would enter new threats into her logs. So for now, pacifying this valley would be the first step.

The android body was done, and there would always be a laundry list to complete. She decided to take a moment to not overheat her banks attempting to solve her problems at all moments.

Transferring over to the Autoforge…

Basking in the workshop lights was the new body. Complete and all. She also took the liberty to finish off the android with Real Flesh ™ , a synth-skin cover that mimics human flesh. She shaded it to the average Hikari tone since the beast-people seemed to be mostly human. Opal classified them as “Mostly” since she had not dissected one of them. Thus, she had to class them on appearance only…. She made a note to request any recently deceased Hikari for medical purposes.

She looked over her hand while simulcasting a portion of herself to the IFV in the village. There, she stopped the nearest Hikari and requested they inform Haiafe and or Syfa that Opal’s body was completed. She would wait for them in the Forge.

During this downtime, she stretched her body in different manners. Mimicking the stretches diagrammed in her medical exercise database. It had no muscles to speak off. Its bones were titanium. Its joints low-end servos for the lowest noise profile. Retractable blades were housed in its forearms, and magazine storage compartments were housed in her outer thigh and inner thigh respectively.

Most of critical systems were housed in the ribcage. There had been an artificial sexual organ system in the original maid design, and it had been removed in Opal’s modified design. In its place, she housed a small fuel cell for a jetpack. For those times she’d need rapid acceleration. The question of keeping the original system had been brought up with the Hikari siblings. Haiafe wanted opal to keep it, after some shy mumbles. Syfa had overruled him and asked Opal to add more of her own system into the android. The AI had a fondness for the sister. While she did not pretend to like her technology – she did not shy away from understanding it and assisting Opal with design quagmires she often found herself in.

All and all, her body mimicked that of Syfa to 87.2978% accuracy. The deviation was made at Haiafe’s request. Several other Hikari women came in to assist with the final body alterations. Aside from weighing nearly 500lbs, the android was nearly indistinguishable from a real human female.

By the time Syfa arrived, with her brother, Opal had completed all system checks. Several Spyders had brought one of each handheld weapon system. She tested her weapon handlings and found it lacking. Her movements were identical to her Light Frames… Maybe because they had the same programing.

“I knew it,” Syfa sighed as she rubbed her temples. “You’re in the nude.”

Opal dry-fired an M14-CM. It was an M14 with modifications to be used with an augmented human. Thus, it was equipped with inputs for sights, a range finder, light and laser combo. All of which had no physical switches. All of it would input digitally to opal through connectors in her palms and the weapon’s integrated handle.

“I do not possess clothing.” Opal answered objectively. “And I am not a living organism.”

Syfa paused for a moment as she watched the AI’s unnatural movements before she cringed. “Old gods… Its creepy how you move. Have you not watched how the others move? Did not make some sort of… program…? I believe thats the word… To mimic our movements?”

“No. I believed it unneeded as this body is a construct.” Opal said.

“Opal, you are spending considerable resources on doing this. The least you could do is commit to it. Otherwise, why bother?” Syfa refuted her.

Opal stilled, her eyes on the M14-M on the table. It took 20 seconds for the AI to respond. “I will endeavor to learn.”

Syfa nodded. “I thought you’d be naked anyways. That’s why I had my brother stay back and watch the village. I brought with me our weaver. She will make you leathers and weave any clothes needed. We will make the finest we can for you.”

“I simply need basic coverings.” Opal said as she watched several newcomers enter the forge with the IFV pulling a cart full of leathers and other materials. Opal found her left eyebrow raise involuntarily. The IFV was operating on its own at the moment. All of her drones had decision making capabilities, but it seems they were growing beyond their designated boundaries. Not that Opal saw a problem with it. So long as they followed her overall desires. What Mother wouldn’t want her children to grow?

….

She dismissed that thought, scared of where it came from.

For the next hour, she allowed the weavers to measure her new body. They fawned over her youthfulness. There was also sentiments of sadness that she had not taken on the appearance of the Hikari – mainly the ears and tails. As well as her not being a living being as they would have loved to wed her to their surviving sons. They complimented her on the beauty nonetheless.

Opal promised that her next iteration would be of the Hikari. Sadly, there was an issue with hardware conflict. The AI needed to redesign the headspace completely as it’d been fashioned for human maintenance. The Autoforge did not need hourly pay, nor worried on getting their expensive maid/sex companion back in a timely manner. To her, she could simply make several bodies to be on standby.

In the end, the weavers could not address how to dress Opal. Each of them had their own vision. Opal had to come in and display the original dress that came with it. The picture was found in an email advert on an engineer’s terminal. It was a “milk-maid dress”. The women fought over how “sexual” it was, but also looked at Opal. There was unanimous agreement that it would be fine. Opal had “breasts” but had no sexual organs. Not even a fake vagina. She also possessed no sexual drive.

There was more to discuss as they crafted her dress in their materials. Opal found she did not have the heart to tell them she could have done it herself. All of them seemed to revel in their chance to do this for her.

She found herself inadvertently smiling as she watched the women happily put the final touches on her new outfit.