[CYA] Chapter 187: Suits and Repairs (Patreon)

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https://docs.google.com/document/d/1L36fV4dfvP_RFS4OvNHfmeVLnAOTIAQvWw0CBpxCGrw/edit?usp=sharing

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<Alex, Real - Dorgon Calls for Aid, Innominate Staging Bay>

Alex took in the now stationary magical suits. They were clearly combat oriented, given the lack of exposed wires, servos, hydraulics, or anything of the like.

Stories in the language of power covered the exterior, rippling in rolling light.

The magic there was almost too complex for Alex to read… or more accurately, it seemed… obscured? It was as if a black marker had gone overtop of every line. He could probably pick out what lay underneath with time, but at a quick glance? It was illegible.

There was a decided ‘iron man’ like vibe to the armor, but really only in the sleekness and utility. There were no glowing circles on the chest or hands, and the faceplates didn’t seem to have any opening at all—let alone glowing eye rectangles. Though, the faceplates were contoured for deflection rather than simply being a flat curve of metal.

They bore no obvious weapons, but he could see that the glowing scrollwork seemed to cluster or shape around many areas in forms that indicated openings of various types. As such, Alex assumed that the weaponry was simply tucked away, whether through mundane or magical means.

The suits weren’t identical either. They were similar in an almost living sort of way, as if the armor was all of the same species, with variations between individuals. Even the coloring was varied, though the most common color was a gunmetal grey. Two suits were an almost scab-like dark red, one was white, three were dark blue, and one had a purple hue. There were other colors as well, and each seemed like such was the hue of the metal itself rather than being a paint, or other treatment.

Since they were all darker hues, the variation didn’t clash, and they all had tabards that were a bright, ruby red.

Those retracted as each suit opened in turn to allow the warriors out.

The platoon was composed of an incredible assortment of people, the armors not varying nearly as much as those who had been within.

Alex saw men and women of various ethnicities—both similar to Earth ethnicities and utterly unlike anyone he’d ever seen—orcs and dwarves, elves and goblins, halflings and other species he didn’t recognize.

In fact, the most common thing among them was the fact that they were all so varied.

Alex sent a message through his bracers to the rest of the crew about the plan. Grant responded instantly that he’d go start cooking.

Bless that man.

Still, Prime Fan’s question was awaiting an answer. Thankfully, the opening of the other suits had provided a reasonable cause for Alex’s pause, even if the truth was that he’d been distracted by the shiny armor.

I want one… He shook his head and smiled. Focus! If you swing this right, you might get to learn a ton about these. He nodded. “I am just beginning my path as a runewright. Even so, it is my second class.”

Fan’s eyes lit up with excitement. “That’s wonderful! You already have such a focused class? You must be incredibly talented for the System to offer you such.”

A woman walked up beside Fan, taller, but younger. She looked like a runner with short-cut brown hair and almost japanese features, though not quite in line with that Earth trait-set.. Her eyes were a bit too large and skin a bit differently shaded than Alex would have expected. Regardless, she was a lovely young woman… despite the skeptical look that she gave Alex. “Imotih Kanzaki, Second of the Flame Drake Platoon.”

Alex offered his hand. “Alex Johnson, Helmsman of the Innominate.”

She shook it, foregoing any silly test of gripstrength. “And burgeoning runewright?”

He chuckled. “Yes, Ma’am.”

She grunted. “You won’t be making any changes. You will only be allowed to spoof the runes and let us know if you see any issues.” Her eyes narrowed. “You do have the ability to spoof runes, right?”

Alex frowned slightly. “You mean check what they do and verify they are intact and without error?”

She nodded.

He smiled. “Then, yes. I do it more through comprehensive analysis than any means of ‘testing’ the runes directly, but I’m sure we can make something work.”

Imotih grunted again. “We’ll see.”

Fan clapped the taller officer on the shoulder. “Any work we can get done will be a boon. I’d hate to miss the drop onto Dorgon because we were doing repairs.”

That seemed to satisfy her. “As you say, Prime.”

There was a momentary pause as Fan and Imotih went back to their armor and pulled out necklaces.

Every member of the platoon was affixing what looked to be ovoid gems of various kinds on silver chains around their necks.

When that was done, the armors each pulsed with power before magic streamed out and away, into the corresponding necklace gems.

When that happened, the language of power on the armors’ exterior faded as if the words had never been, and far, far finer engravings appeared on the myriad crystals.

The whole process took less than a minute.

Alex smiled at the gathering soldiers. “Welcome to the Innominate. Let’s get you some food and then let you get to sleep.”

That got a response of rippling gratitude.

Imotih’s voice snapped out, “We are guests. Enjoy their hospitality and don’t force me to keep you in line.”

“Yes, ma’am!” The response was instantaneous, crisp, and seemingly heartfelt.

Without further ado, Alex led them to what would assuredly be a packed-out dining hall.

<Alex, Real - Dorgon Calls for Aid, Innominate Staging Bay>

Alex was back in the staging area with Fan and Imotih.

The other members of the Fire Drake Platoon were back in their suits, magics of sleep and stasis rippling across their forms, powerful shields keeping anything external from reaching them in their rest.

Fan had assured Alex that, if the Innominate were to be destroyed, the platoon would come out all but untouched, unless something descended from a higher tier to smite them, and that was… unlikely.

The worldspirits were back in their respective armors, and Fan’s suit was laid out on the floor, open and exposed to their inspection.

Even so, Alex had felt something regarding him for a moment before he’d been able to see anything within. It felt much like a cat deigning to let him pet it… for the moment.

The absolute mountains of volumes of magic were incredibly intimidating to Alex. He still couldn’t quite see those that were exterior, but the interior was laid bare and seemingly without end.

If he were asked to find any particular part on his own, he would be at a total loss, even with Speed Reading.

It was the first time he was actually a bit frustrated with the skill. He’d been able to all but glance at a page to instantly read it, but that just wasn’t sufficient for the task before him.

He suspected if he advanced it to be able to read a book at a glance, he’d still take hours to go through everything within.

Blessedly, Alex wasn’t being asked to reverse engineer this thing, nor even to troubleshoot the entirety.

Fan was grinning proudly at Alex’s dumbstruck look. “Incredible, isn’t he?”

Alex nodded slowly. “He?”

“Yeah. He hasn’t reached sapience yet, so we haven’t chosen a name, but he’s definitely a him.”

Alex frowned. “I mean no disrespect, but… what’s the difference? Aren’t they spirits?”

Fan smiled. “Honest questions are to be honored, not derided.” He shrugged then. “Form hardly matters. He’s a he, no matter what vessel he inhabits. As to differences? Generally, male spirits are better at projecting their influence closer in. When they instantiate within a planet, they generally don’t have moons, and devote the resources that would go to nurturing a moon into greater power on their surface. Female spirits are usually better at long range projections of their power and influence. They are usually able to do a greater number of more complex tasks, while males are more able to exert more of their capacity upon singular—or at least fewer—tasks. None of this is universally true, of course, it is just tendencies.”

Alex arched an eyebrow. “So, if moons are like children—”

Fan shook his head. “They are not. That’s not how worldspirits propagate. Moons are a satellite, a tool that worldspirits can make use of. Most often, they are used to aspect starlight and sweep the surface of hidden ills that might otherwise gain a foothold. That makes those ills more powerful by drawing them to the surface, but it’s usually considered a good tradeoff.”

Alex grunted. “Better face an enemy head on than be knifed in the dark.”

“Just so.”

He frowned. “So… there’s no real difference then?”

“Universally? No. There’s no difference in worldspirits based on gender, just tendencies when looking at a large enough group.”

“And you just… know?”

Imotih interjected here. “Inspect or similar skills can tell you if your ability is strong enough. Otherwise, you can just get a sense as the spirit bonds with you.”

Alex shrugged. “Fair enough, I guess. So, what are we looking at, here?”

Fan smiled. “Well, he was a bit sluggish in retracting my armblade the last couple of times. Extension was quick enough, but I almost cut another suit when it didn’t pull back as expected when the issue arose.”

Alex nodded, turning his sense toward the arms. “Which side?”

“Right.”

Alex found the smaller library of magic there, sifting through the tomes until he found the armblade. Within the magics associated with that weapon, he began flipping through the headings, seeking ‘retraction’ or something similar.

There. He leaned on his second class and pulled the magic, lifting out to his perspective for closer examination.

He could instantly tell that this was different than with the dreadweavers. The magic he was observing was based upon intricate circuitry, and simply trying to force a change upon the magic itself would simply force a misalignment within the system, possibly damaging the suit if it did anything at all.

Still, he wasn’t meant to make changes, and a grin stole across his features.

It had been decades since he did anything more than basic coding, but he still understood the concepts. That coupled with his innate understanding of the language of power, and he immediately understood the problem. “A connection broke in here, bridging a section and triggering backup systems while the main ones are still getting the command. In essence, two sets of magic are attempting to retract the blade at the same time, and from your description, that’s causing it to stutter-step in the withdrawal. It’s still working, but it would seem like a slower result.”

There was more to the error, of course. He got an inkling that there were error-checking magics, and subsystems meant to help determine where trouble could be found. It was equivalent to a corporate structure with lower level, simpler magics doing most of the tasks and others, higher up, checking and guiding those minute tasks.

Or like the main trunk of code calling discrete functions, then error checking. Or a head contractor, subcontracting the various parts of a job, including someone to oversee and double check the results.

Regardless, he’d found at least part of the error. Imotih’s eyebrows rose. “You got that just from looking at the exterior?”

Alex huffed a laugh. “I can sense the magic within, and there is a lot to pore through.” He considered before giving a slow nod. “Even so, I believe your worldspirit helped narrow in on the issue. I doubt I’d have found it as quickly if those magics hadn’t been at least partly active.”

Fan patted the armor’s shoulder. “Good boy.”

The subtle ripple across the exterior script sped up momentarily, converging on the touch before dispersing once more.

The Prime moved to the arm and worked hidden catches and controls before pulling a plate free. “The suits self-repair to an amazing degree, but that can cause the issue of disguising deeper damage.” He chuckled. “If this plate had a hole punched in it, even I could figure out that there could be an issue within, but in the heat of battle, it is impossible to track the hits that come and go.”

There were layers of thin plates, each with intricate carving and inlay looking incredibly like arcane circuit boards, but in this case, Alex could read the pathways. Each was like a page from a random book, or even a confetti of pages all mixed together as the ‘pages’ weren’t arranged on the slabs so much as across them, many sections of magical script bridging vertically or even connecting with other plates entirely.

Fan was happily narrating along as he worked. “When this guy achieves sapience, much of this will become unnecessary, as he’ll be in direct command rather than the psuedo-intellegences in the magical matrix, and that is the largest step up in power for us in the Mechanus. We nurture our worldspirits toward that end. We’ll be able to move to a much more powerful—and less complex and expensive—suit and free this one up for the next generation.”

Alex grunted. “Then, this could all be armor, or end-point magics rather than connection, interpretation, and balance?”

“Precisely.”

Twelve plates in, Alex stopped the man. “There.”

He pointed to a portion of one plate that matched the incorrect portion of the magics projected in his mind.

“That’s where the issue is.”

It looked undamaged, just as all those around it did.

Fan didn’t argue though, pulling out a device that scanned the location Alex indicated. 

Thirty seconds later, the magical scanner—a thing that looked a lot like an android tablet with a hefty case—pinged red, displaying the section of circuitry with the difference that Alex had noticed highlighted.

Fan grinned. “Oh, I love you. This would have taken days for me to find, and I’ve known runewrights to take hours to suss out such minute errors.”

Imotih was regarding Alex with a bit less suspicion, but she didn’t say anything.

Fan, however, turned to Alex. “So, what will it take to poach you for the Mechanus? You’d be invaluable to have in our corner when we come back up from each tour down on Dorgon. That is going to be a far longer campaign than the proto-breach was.”

Alex smiled. “Thank you for the kind words. I’ve already committed to being in the drop-force. Even so, I’m happy to help out in any way I can once we’re down there.”

Fan’s eyes widened. “Say what now?”

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