[CYA] Chapter 191: Moving Forward (Patreon)

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https://docs.google.com/document/d/1hT6mYUES36mfWCie2aJk9i8klT43l7mWkl02NyETS0U/edit?usp=sharing

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

Even with his armor fixed, Gamble didn’t go back into hibernation, and by the second day of working on armor, the dwarf had begun to comment on Alex’s combat. 

It started as little things, like what part of his feet pushed off his hexes, but it grew in complexity.

“When you slash with your sword, you’re leading with your shoulder and elbow, lad. It’s good to gain centripetal force, that’s the power of a slash, but you need to have your weapon before your body at all times.”

When Alex had asked for a more detailed explanation, the truth had been a bit less extreme than the dwarf had initially stated.

Effectively, Alex was letting his body guide his weapon, trying to all but drag the heavy blade into place. What Gamble suggested was to act as if the sword were the leader, and his body was backing it up.

The motions didn’t change, not really.

Alex’s posture and positioning didn’t change, but somehow, the activation of his muscles shifted just slightly, the chaining clicking into place better, and each swing, slash or chop, gained just a bit more speed, more power.

And on it went.

By the end of that second day, Alex was entirely used to the deep tones, and found himself responding almost meditatively whenever Gamble spoke.

They were switching back to working on the next suit—the sparring having become an actual break once Gamble began giving Alex corrections—when Alex had a thought. “Does your skill only allow you to notice flaws in areas you have expertise in?”

The dwarf shook his head. “If only. I love the skill, but it is a misery always being hyper-aware of the defects in everything around me. I know it will be a boon when the skill upgrades further, but I also know that I’ll have to deal with even more overload.” He shrugged. “We live in a flawed existence, and those flaws are multitudinous.”

Alex grunted. “Then… are my efforts in diagnosing the various armors’ issues reasonably without flaw?”

The mechanis fighter’s eye twitched for a moment, before he snorted. “Hardly, lad.”

Alex frowned. “Then… why haven’t you said anything?”

Gamble’s eyes flicked toward Fan and Imotih. “I was told to ‘be nice and complain later’.”

Alex felt his cheeks heat. He created water and swallowed it reflexively. “Ahh… I see…”

The dwarf eyed him for a long moment but didn’t say anything further.

Finally, Alex sighed. “So… what am I doing wrong?”

The massive grin made clear that such was the ‘right’ response. “Well, let me tell you. I’ve no idea how you’re doing it, but you’re wasting stamina interpreting all the magics before you.”

Alex frowned. “I’m not, though. I’m only delving the sections with errors.”

Gamble shook his head. “Maybe so, but you’re going over everything in those sections. Why not just hit the highlights?”

Alex opened his mouth but paused. After a little while, he closed it again, frowning. Did he need to read the entire magical instruction set?

What if he just focused on the key juncture?

He already was skimming the bulk to find the ‘headings’ and only delved deeper where he had to, but that was like going to the right chapter and then reading it start to finish.

Sure, that was the right call for full comprehension, but he didn’t actually need full comprehension here. He wasn’t trying to execute repairs; he was a dowsing rod for where an error occurred.

That’s it.

On Fan’s first issue, Alex had delved deeper, finding the actual error, but that had been over and above in a way that wasn’t actually needed or particularly helpful.

The platoon’s repair devices determined the fix and executed it without need of his interpretation.

I just need error checking… but how can I do that? Alex grunted. “I see what you mean, but how is that helpful? I don’t have any diagnostic skills.”

Gamble shrugged. “I don’t have solutions, lad. All I can tell you is that something in what you’re doing isn’t right, and that’s where the error lies. The rest is up to you.”

Karen indeed… Alex’s frown deepened, and he pulled up his skill description, the one which he thought might be most pertinent.

Linguistics - Magical Symbology (Epic)You have a burgeoning understanding of Magical Symbology in all its myriad forms imparted and cultivated by the master of the field.

In addition to being able to translate most spell shapes that you are able to perceive, you can do the same to the resulting mana that you sense.

I can do the same with the mana radiating off a magical effect…

Gamble was already describing the next issue, and Alex was narrowing in on the right portion.

He found the right book of magic, and was about to Flash Read to find the error, but instead, he had a thought. Looking at the elven woman reading nearby, he asked, “Can you power this section?”

He used his own mana to tap the block of spellwork within the armor even as he looked at it floating before his eyes above the suit.

She glanced his way, nodded absently, and a moment later, a trickle of power moved through it, sending out ripples of overlapping magic.

There! The ripples created a dissonance, and he narrowed in and read only the section in clear disharmony with those around it.

“Found the error.”

Gamble grinned. “Slower, but less intensive. You shouldn’t need as many breaks now, yes?”

Alex huffed a laugh. “I suppose you’re right.”

The Prime and Second moved to pull out the requisite pieces from the armor to run through their repair devices, and Alex considered further.

Troubleshooting in this way was like building a version and trying it in the real world instead of just creating a three-dimensional model in a computer.

Sure, the first was less efficient from a time perspective, but it revealed things that would otherwise be incredibly occluded.

Learn something new every day. He smiled at that. Since the System’s arrival, it felt more like he was learning new things every hour.

Regardless, with Alex’s shift in methodology, they were able to pick up the overall pace of the repairwork, even if each individual diagnosis took a bit longer individually.

And like that, they spent what was left of the night getting through the rest of that suit’s repairs and even completing the next as well, returning both to tip-top shape.

By that point, Gamble was ready to go back into hibernation, so he bid Alex farewell. When the stocky man stepped back into his suit and moved toward hibernation, Alex let out a long sigh of exhaustion, feeling the intensity of their pace as well.

Fan patted Alex on the shoulder. “He’s a lot, but we love him anyway. He makes us all better… but he’s a pain.”

As Gamble turned around and stepped the final bit into place his voice floated out. “You know I can still hear you, right?”

Fan smiled toward the armored man. “Oh, absolutely.”

“...Fine. See you on the other side, Prime.”

Alex chuckled and even Imotih cracked a smile before she supplied, “I think Cam next?”

“Sergeant Alverez?” Fan nodded to himself. “Yeah, I think that’s ideal.” He turned to Alex. “This man is a poet, and his pen is that armor, Alex. He adapts to any issue more easily than fire burns paper.”

Imotih walked over to a gun-metal grey suit that looked almost entirely generic. The singular exception was that the right arm was a barreled weapon of some kind from the elbow down. The magics around it were familiar to Alex, at least in aspect: Devouring Flame. It wasn’t the only suit with such a weapon, but it was in the decided minority.

The Prime continued. “We’ll have to push to get to the issues, and he won’t be much use to you as a sparring partner outside the armor.” He chuckled. “The man has combat skills that barely outstrip a raw recruit out of armor, but I promise you, you’ll never find a better member of the mechanis, minora or otherwise.”

Alex nodded. He’d met people like Fan described. Seeming savants in a singular area, yet barely showing even basic competence in surrounding fields.

The armor hissed as it opened, and the man who stepped out was about average height, maybe a hair shorter.

His black hair was in a crew cut, and he was vaguely hispanic, but not quite like Audry was. Both were close enough that if Alex had been told they were from Mexico he’d have shrugged and thought nothing of it, but in the context of interstellar travel and the System? The oddities added up.

Cam took one step forward and saluted, fist to heart. “Sergeant Cameron Alverez reporting, sir.”

Fan waved him off. “At ease, Cam.”

The soldier fell into a parade rest that was very Earth-like to Alex’s eyes.

Alex stepped forward. “I’m Alex, Helmsman of the Innominate.”

“We met briefly in the mess, sir. Thank you for the hospitality.”

He smiled at the seemingly younger man. “We’re happy to have you. Can I help get your suit in tip-top shape?”

“That’s not necessary, sir. Vick’s functioning just fine; we’re battleready.”

“Vick?”

“She’s on the edge of sapience, and that’s the name that seemed to appeal to her the most.” He shrugged. “We’ll change it if she wants later.”

Alex grunted, “Very well.”

He then glanced toward Fan, and the Prime returned a knowing smile. “Cam, you know we get readouts on your status?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Then…?”

Cam stared back at his commanding officer. “Sir, I’m not Gamble. I wear the suit and engage, contact front.” He shrugged. “Vick and I are in fighting shape. That’s all there is to it.”

Imotih snorted. “Sergeant. Let us make you more effective.”

HIs shoulders rolled in a nonchalant shrug once again. “I don’t know what to tell you, ma’am.”

She arched an eyebrow. “How long to cycle your plasma aspect lance?”

His response was instantaneous. “Two point five seconds, ma’am.”

“What is the technical spec for that weapon?”

“Two seconds, ma’am.”

“And isn’t that a problem?”

“No, ma’am. The variance forces me to be off-beat from what any informed enemy would expect. It creates openings while providing a threat and disjointment in hostile expectations all while undercutting their certainty in the information they’ve received and potentially opening up opportunities for the other plasma gunners.”

She turned to Alex and gestured as if saying ‘We told you so.’

Alex chuckled, almost believing the man’s reasoning himself. “Cam, can you tell me about other ways in which your armor forces disjointment in enemy intel?”

Cam quirked a smile. “You sound like the mechanis engineers, sir. You can leave me and Vick alone. We’re doing just fine. Your time is better spent helping out the rest of the platoon.”

Alex sighed, shaking his head, finally understanding the man’s angle. “You see, I can’t do that, and my reasoning is entirely selfish. I aim to fix every suit and harness the task to reap myself some sweet experience.”

Cam blinked a few times. “You’re going to fix all of them?”

“Of course.” Alex tilted his head to the side. “What did you think this was?”

The man shrugged. “A kindness, fixing a few suits for some easy contribution.”

“I mean… yes? But I want as much of that as possible. I’ll keep helping out until we run out of time, which is what we’re wasting now.”

Cam’s eyes flicked to Fan, and the Prime nodded. That seemed to finally break through to Cam, and he nodded. “In that case, the traction on Vick’s right foot isn’t providing full coverage. The left front quadrant isn’t gripping as it should.”

Alex nodded. “That’s as good a place to start as any.” He then smiled. “But we’ll get to the plasma aspect lance too.”

“If you say so, sir.”

As they worked, Alex finally asked something that he’d been interested in. “Why worldspirits by the way? Couldn’t these suits function without them?”

Fan nodded absently as he shifted sections. “Of course, they’d even be simpler without worldspirits at this level, but they’d be weaker, and they’d never grow. Similarly, we aren’t really necessary. They could create drones that did most if not all of what we do, but we grow; we become better without end. It’s the same with the worldspirits. They add an extra layer of power and self-repair even before they gain sapience. They facilitate faster reactions, and with their meta-structure, greater throughput is possible. They are also a potent secondary source of mana, health, even stamina in the event of great need. Then, as I referred to earlier, they can gain their own skills, abilities, and even attributes.”

Alex had to admit, that was intriguing. “So, it’s like picking or striving for a more advanced class. It’s a heavier burden at the start, but it will take you further.”

“Exactly, yeah. The System is filled with such trade-offs.”

Alex grunted, thinking about when he returned to Earth. “Are there any people operating armored suits outside of the mechanis?”

“You mean Ronins? Yeah. They have to be some tough, knuckle-busters to make their way in the wider world, but there are some among the most high-value mercs the Imperium draws on from time to time.”

Alex nodded. “Good to know.”

Without further adieu, Alex dove into the fixes. Cam’s armor only took a couple of hours to fully diagnose. That was partially because his suit had burgeoning sapience, and thus, she was both less complex in construction and much more able to bring the problem areas to the fore for investigation.

And that was the pattern that Alex fell into. He trained in every way he or his companions could conceive of, his duties on the Innominate only factoring in for jumps and occasional intra-system navigation as they chose non-spacecombat missions in order to allow the others to focus on their own combat and ancillary skills in preparation for arrival at Dorgon.

They occasionally ran into other Initiate groups, helping them out at need—though that was rarely required—and completing missions alongside one another in the same star system as often as not.

Regardless, they always parted ways amicably, and Alex was able to trade for quite a few fun aspect types, even if the quantities were rather limited.

The largest thing of note was Alex continuing to pour his excess Life into his dadao around all else that he was working on. It had soaked up a total of nearly thirteen days of regeneration for that resource so far.

Living(Lineage) Steel Dadao[Legendary]HP: 8,000/8,000 [15,783]

With the Innominate spinning up for the final jump to Dorgon, and the final mechanis armor repaired, Alex decided to push the sword’s Life to an even double of its base. Something within himself, his classes, and his skills told him that if anything were going to happen, that would be when it would reveal itself.

As such, Alex was situated in his chair, sword in hand, ready for the final push, and assuming it gave any experience at all, he’d gain a final level before their arrival.

Here goes nothing.

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