Over the next two weeks, I worked myself like a fiend. I popped my Overclock Self ability every chance I could get, poured over all the currently available schematics. All in an effort, to make the next useful tweak, the next meaningful adjustment. I made hundreds of small changes to all of the Khalai units and buildings. Primarily integrating larger crystal cores for better processing and expanded shield capacity.

  Going over both the Shield Generator and Shield Recharger blueprints led me to reject their baseline models and go with a much larger combined structure. I even managed to incorporate a Pylon into my new design. The final product could generate a very solid, large scale and quick to recharging shield. That was without the support of the broader Psifield, when under the effect of the field the shield was almost impossible to penetrate. That was at least with any of the weapons I used to test the prototype. Khalai, Imperial, or Local. Even when it did finally fail, which only happened when I used my new Laspistol with it's Psifield supported overcharge feature, it rapidly recovered. A mere second later and the shield was thrumming with power once again. They might not last under sustained barrages from multiple sources, but it was better than the individual shields of most Protoss buildings. Never mind the Lordaeron buildings with no shielding at all. Those buildings were rolled out on the 3rd day after the start of my isolation began.

  Next, I focused on rebuilding the Power Armor designs from the ground up, using some of the ideas from the Kriegsmen armor for internal padding. A newly discovered denser version of the crysbronze for the most vulnerable areas. Which of course, led to increased weight, however, it was offset by embedding extra crystal nodes to act as regulators for more efficient power draw. Then in an inspired move, I integrated psiblades into both forearms for close work, or if the user was divested of their SOR. Lastly, I expanded the programing of the onboard V.I. including some protocols for locking down the armor and even self destruction if the user was not on a approved genetic list. These new suits rolled out on the 5th day. I had an idea to try Wisp integration with the Armor, but decided to wait until we could do thorough testing.

  Weapons were next. Here, I was torn. There were advantages to using either the Las weapons or the Ballistic models. The modified SORs had performed exceptionally well, so I was loath to change to the different problem solving platform now. However, that led me to a crazy idea. First I shortened the SORs another couple of inches, improving handling when indoors. Then I decreased the now insane recoil by including a micro field generator to push against the recoil from the gauss weapon. That took hours of fiddling with the programing to get the timing right. I made a note that the feature might require further adjustments later. I also added a Psibayonet module. Because you can never have enough utility. Heh.

  Then, I spent a frustrating day, designing many new ammo types, from armor piercing to explosive, EMP to Psiburst rounds. Nearly losing a hand, more times than I liked to recall. Psiburst rounds were my answer to the fear that a Daemon might shown up again. They were a compressed Psicrystal shard with a nanoscale explosive core. This resulted in a violent release of Psienergy and throwing out crystal shards and dust. I would require that our troops have to carry a mag of Psiburst ammo at all times. Just in case. All of my experiments to include mana into ammo failed.

  On the third day after switching to mana ammo testing, I remembered the movie Predator. Which gave me another crazy idea. I mounted a redesigned version of my Laspistol on the Power Armor's left shoulder. I linked it in to the V.I. for better targeting. The first two versions blew up, but persistence paid off, and the third version worked like a charm. I did have to remove the overcharging option though. Bummer.

  Finally, I turned to thoughts of adapting Power Armor to integrate with Probes, which would solve our manpower issue almost immediately. This was a real struggle, and require a total reshaping of the armor. The first designs were far too awkward to even make a testing phase. Finally, I realized that I was looking at it all wrong, they didn't need a full suit of armor. They just needed a frame with arms to allow them to handle better weapons.

  The final form of this Warframe may not have looked like much, but it added a ton of battle prowess to the Probes. Now they could utilize SORs, or Laz Weapons. In fact, I put two of the "shoulder" mounted Laz weapons on their frames. A large backpack like Psicrystal core gave the Probes more power to improve their normal shielding and a new set of algorithms to vastly improve their tactics and targeting abilities.

  Blinky, the first test subject for a frame refused to part with it when we were done. I didn't blame him and let him have it.

  All of these improvements rolled out together on day 10.

  I was pretty happy with all of these improvement so far. So I turned my attention to combining Mana and Psienergy. The initial tests resulted in an extremely high energy event. I had to switch to a different Forge while the Probes replaced the now totaled one. Too much, too fast. Probably. Well then lets try... nope. And how about... uh, that looked like a portal. Oops, there's a tentacle trying to grab stuff. Nope. Let's just detonate a mound of Psicrystals, right about there. And there's another Forge for the Probes to rebuild.

  On day 13, I had a small break through. By mixing a very small amount of each type of energy very slowly a new mineral was formed. There was some versatility to this new mineral, depending on the type of mana used. Pure Mana with Psienergy resulted in a bright neon blue metallic mineral. Life Mana resulted in a dense seemingly nonreactive light blue gas. I had no real idea of the utility of each as yet, and I'd run out of time to keep testing.

  I decided to check up on my messages. Just reports from Jaina. These reports only had a few events of note. Back on day 4 Alina had finished her study of human anatomy and adaptation of Khalai Cyberware. As much as I wanted to play with that I felt I was too busy, so the first trails were conducted by Jaina with a volunteer from the new batch of footmen. The Soldier quite enjoyed the increases in his speed and strength, roughly a 100% increase for both. More test were needed but nothing that required my direct intervention. Sadly, we didn't have time to run all of the tests, so full integration of Khalai Cyberware with all of our troops would have to wait.

  On day 8, Ingrid regained full consciousness and promptly killed herself. Nobody had been paying attention to the agents by that point. I didn't know how to feel about that, so I buried my emotions in more work for now. Velma remained in a coma.

  Back on day 10, there was a fly over event by several different Corporations' AVs. Back and forth they flew over our area, hunting for our location. They didn't stop, however, no active scanning was detected. So we did nothing. The constant roaring of their engines did negatively impact the nerves of many of the Lordaeron folks. They'd led simple lives before being brought here and were unused to the sights and sounds of AVs.

  Maybe the Corpos were trying to bait us into action? If we attacked them, that would give them a good idea of where to hunt for us. Though they were already too close for my comfort, probably due to the agents final reports.

  This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

  Day 12 had a small snafu between some of the Aldecaldos and some of the New Lordaeron folks. Supply orders for sales were going out with Amanda on a run to Dakota. The orders got mixed up. I didn't get the full details but some heated words were exchanged, a few fists flew. Thankfully, Amanda kept it from escalating to further violence.

  I spent day 14 tweaking my own Power Armor design. I tricked it out with a heavier shielding module and two shoulder mounted Laspistols. Also I removed the V.I. and added a clone of Alina so I could rely on her to defend me if I needed to heal people. When it came out of the Assembler it I patted the Armor.

  "Take care of me, alright?"

  The best part, it fit like a glove.

  My excitement grew by leaps and bounds. I was ready to bring the pain.

  Once again I noticed that returning to the lower mana density of New Lordaeron was a let down. This reaction triggered a contemplation of whether someone could develop mana dependence. I'd be willing to bet it could happen, and was probably common in places with widely variable concentrations of magical energy. How you might go about preventing or treating mana addiction was a mystery to me.

  I used my message system, to let everyone know I was making my way towards the Mana Sink. I was ready to go, and already armored up. I had my own SOR and several hard cases, mounted to my armor, full of loaded magazines for all occasions. Other than my second shoulder mounted lasweapon I had added one more identifier to my armor. A golden wolf's head emblazoned across each pauldron. It really stood out against the dark green. A remembrance to Lumiar as well as a squad marker. Later, I'd have our different squads create their own markers, which would expand out into future platoons and so on.

  Now that I had spent some time in relative quiet and isolation, my Life Crafting aura was much easier to control. I allowed it to be active but I pulled it in to just coat my armor. I spent a little bit of time to work on both keeping it contained and flaring it out to its limits. I also had allowed it to grow and collapse colonies of bacteria in my own body, both beneficial and harmful. I wouldn't recommend do this to any budding Biomancers. The mess was unpleasant to say the least. Thankfully, Purify worked wonders in just erasing unwanted microorganisms and bodily waste.

  Oddly, I was still having trouble feeling pain properly, but there were no signs of nerve damage. I would be able to heal it if that was all the problem was. Perhaps, I was inflicted with a psychosomatic effect.

  John was the first to arrive at the Vortex, as expected. He probably had some odd form of teleportation. When I got there, I saw him manipulating a pool of shadow. How does that even work? I mean darkness isn't a thing, it's an absence of a thing. Is he really working with the absence or a weird pseudo-thing? I'd have to talk with him about that at some point. Truly interesting.

  Raynor, and almost 50 footmen all geared up and ready to rock, were next to arrive. Followed by Amanda and Jaina who were discussing something, they seemed to be getting along well. which I thought would be good for both of them. On the other hand, Jaina had been very perfunctory with her reports to me. Given that, and the way that her eyes avoided me, I thought we might have a problem brewing between us. We probably needed to sit down and have a chat, just the two of us. Not that I had any fucking clue about what to say, but letting things like this grow, was not good.

  Last to arrive was a group of a hundred Probes in their Warframes, they'd be providing general security to the town while we figured this Mana Sink out.

  "How's everything going?" I started speaking, trying to put as much pep into it as I could.

  Raynor chuckled, "First Platoon's ready, Hoss." The Troops behind him saluted, right fists to hearts. They were synced up and looking deadly.

  "Good." John grunted. He let of a ball of condensed shadow he'd been playing with dissipate.

  "Everything's fine, my Lord." Jaina stated while looking at John. Her eyes sparked with blue mana. She was trying to unravel the nature of his mana. A useful ability, that I'd like to learn.

  "We just got back from a delivery. Should be a fat chunk of Eddies coming your way soon." Amanda pointed back towards the parking area. New buildings were just barely visible from here. Workshops and Garages for the Nomads to work on their babies, probably.

  "Anything you remember, that could help us in the Dungeon, Jaina?" Her gaze snapped to me. I couldn't make out much of what she was feeling. Just some shame and embarrassment, though not in any large amount. Thankfully, the overwhelming nature of the Voice of the Emperor Class had not returned, only some of the abilities, though still at a muted quality. The faith energy, however, was as strong as it ever was. More golden energy flowed into me daily, probably from the prayers of the Kriegsmen.

  "Only that they usually allow limited interaction. Perhaps 5 people, perhaps 10, it changes. There are usually stronger monsters at certain points, that will have to be defeated to progress." Her eyes had returned to John. What was that about? Ah wait, she was helping him with his magic, right? Maybe they were getting closer? That might be a good thing, or it might explode horribly. Kind of depended on John.

  "So, only some of us can go in? How do we know how many?" These Dungeons seemed like odd things, and I already had too much on my plate. We needed to find someone to examine them, or maybe I could buy info on them in the CStore.

  "I don't know, my Lord." She stared at the Vortex trying to pierce it's secrets.

  "So we wing it. Nothing new there." Jim chuckled.

  "Be careful." Amanda said it as a general statement, but we all knew who it was addressed to. Raynor nodded.

  "How about this? We line up in rows of five in front of the Vortex. First group goes in, then the next group tries, if they can good, if they can't, oh well." Best idea I could think of without more information. Everyone voiced their agreement.

  "The first group in should be the "best" to make sure we have the greatest chance of success. John, Jim, me... not Jaina, she can't due to her restrictions, and it's best if Amanda gets her own armor before she tries this. Hmm, Jim pick your two most adaptable men to roll with us."

  He nodded, "Eagers and Borfen fall in." Eagers was a mountain of a man, a full head and more above the rest of us. He carried a honking huge hammer in addition to the normal loadout. The Probes must have worked overtime to get him outfitted. Borfen was just a normal sized guy but had covered his armor with cloth with leaves and branches attached. A sneaky setup. His SOR was modified to match Jim's, a sniper's weapon. We lined up, while another Squad of Jim's troops lined up behind us.

  "Ready?" I asked.

  "Good to go!" Barked the Troops.

  "On your mark, Hoss." Jim nodded.

  "Yeah." Came John's quiet replied.

  I lowered my visor, enjoying the HUD features for a second. Everyone but John did the same.

  "Let do this!" I let my excitement bleed into my voice. We stepped forward...

  ... and into an Alleyway. Huge concrete and brick buildings surrounded us, while steam billowed up from grates in the asphalt. It was nighttime according to the sliver of sky I could make out above us. Our weapons were up as we scanned the area.

  A concert was going on nearby its music a distraction and the cheering of the crowd almost unnerving. Where were we? Then came the sound of rushing steps.

  "Johnny! Johnny where have you been?" A body threw itself at John. Of course, they missed.

  We found ourselves looking at a figure in what I would term punk garb. Quite revealing. Young and aggressive. Her side shaved blue green hair waving back and forth as she tried to figure out who the rest of us were.

  "Wait what's going on?" She had a pistol out in a split second, which was a bad move as we all focused our weapons on her at the same time. "You're not Johnny, who are you?"

  I noticed some figures stalking up behind her. They were armed and ready to rumble.

  "Rogue, what going on?" The largest of them called. His massive frame, had chrome looking skin. Rogue, that name tickled my brain a bit. Where had I heard it before?

  "I don't know, he looks like Johnny but he's obviously not him. A twin?" She wasn't even a little worried about the rifles pointed at her. Bizarre.

  "I'm John." There's that old Wick charm.

  "You even sound the same." Her pistol came down to her side. She cocked her head.

  "How about we all lower our weapons and have a talk." I suggested.

  "O-okay." She agreed. Everyone relaxed slightly.

  What the fuck was going on here?