World Keeper
Chapter 1263: Mechanical Menace

Lifre spent thirty minutes terraforming an entire planet into a giant sensor array, using her newfound abilities to convert every scrap of material the lifeless rock had into a part of her grand machine. Of course, such a massive construct was good for more than just scanning, and Lifre had included multiple other features as well. However, the primary function she needed it for right now was its ability to locate distant signals.

These robotic clouds have to operate on some form of logic. In order to communicate with the rest of their cloud, they would need a link of some sort, whether it is via mana or a more scientific signal. Given the nature of these monsters, the answer could be either… So! I just need to look for both!

Lifre grinned at that thought, tapping her foot on the ground. Behind her, a panel opened up, a silver throne rising to the surface. As soon as Lifre sat down, strings of energy passed through her eyes. “Even if they aren’t using a signal type I can scan for, just the act of scanning itself should be enough to get their attention.”

With that, Lifre lifted her hands, conjuring a number of holographic screens before her, which she began to rapidly interact with. Each screen was connected to a different sensor array, and she needed to configure each one before she began her deep space scanning. “Let’s start with the coordinates that the Geer provided…”

Pressing a button on another window, the ground shook as a silver rocket launched into the air, before immediately disappearing in a burst of silver light. Given that she knew the abilities of these monsters, the probes she was sending didn’t innately have any warp capabilities. Instead, there was a long-distance teleporter installed within the planet itself.

A few moments later, Lifre received the preliminary scans from the dispatched probe. Pulling up the window, she couldn’t help but whistle. “Yeah, that’d do it, alright.” She said, looking at the copper cloud spread out throughout an entire starfield.

The data provided by the probe lasted for less than a minute, before the swarm surrounded and devoured the probe. However, even that was enough to give Lifre a good idea of what she was looking at. “Judging by the information that the Geer provided, the swarm should have been a lot smaller than this when they encountered them…”

Lifre pursed her lips, pulling up a simulation to try to map out the growth pattern of the swarm. “They possess a Digital Conversion printer, so it is reasonable to assume that they have increased their numbers through printing. However, the energy required to obtain that many… Ahh…”

Lifre quickly understood, flipping back to the information that the probe had provided, where the vast majority of the swarm seemed to be centered around the system’s star. “They’re using solar power, and converting that into the necessary energies.”

Using this information, Lifre was able to produce a more accurate model to determine their predicted growth. “In five days, they’d be unstoppable.” She muttered to herself, shaking her head. The problem was that the only way to remove the threat was to annihilate every single member of the swarm. If even one little drone survived, it could absorb enough solar power to begin producing another swarm.

However, Lifre couldn’t even be sure that the entities that she could detect with her probe had been the entire swarm. There could have been other branches in distant star systems, all connected via a long-range link. Even if Lifre destroyed the entirety of this swarm, it would be pointless if the other swarm still possessed the same capabilities.

I hate that this reminds me of one of the big bad swarms from V-Day. Lifre thought to herself, pursing her lips. I could try to use a virus, but I would need to capture one of them. That’ll be easier said than done.

As she thought about that, Lifre couldn’t hold back the grin that spread across her face. If it was easy, it wouldn’t be worth doing. Besides, she still needed to test to see if her new Mechanic powers would be useful against these monsters.

Without hesitation, Lifre left her chair and flew up towards one of the ships that she had summoned. Once she got on board, she dismantled their hyperdrive, and created a program to trigger the long-range teleporter within her newly constructed machine world.

Lifre didn’t sit at the bridge, but rather stood on top of the hull. She wasn’t exactly worried about being exposed to the elements, she just needed a way to quickly reach her targets when she arrived.

With a thought, she activated the program, teleporting the ship to the same infested star system that she had only just probed. Upon arrival, she found the entire region of space covered in a copper cloud. The individual machines within the swarm were tiny, many of them small enough to fit in her hand. However, she was not going to underestimate this threat purely because of its size.

As soon as she appeared, the swarm reacted, rushing towards her. Lifre reached out with her mana, latching onto a single drone from the swarm and pulling it towards her. At the same time, she immediately felt the teleporter activate again, pulling her and her ship back towards the machine world.

This was the only way that she could feasibly perform this test, using a ship as bait to quickly snatch a drone and return. Of course, Lifre wasn’t just going to assume that she didn’t pick up any hitchhikers on the way back. She fully expected that there had been a few lucky bots that would have latched onto the hull of her ship prior to the teleport.

Which was why she immediately jumped from the ship upon arrival, watching as a giant plate opened up on the planet’s surface. A thick, green beam of light shot out from the hole, completely engulfing the ship. Given the seriousness of this threat, there was no way she was going to risk even a single drone digging into her machine world.

As Lifre landed on the planet’s surface, she looked at the docile drone held within her hand. It had a flat, circular plate on its back, and four robotic legs. Its ‘mouth’ had a series of lasers meant to cut into various materials, and a small scanner to analyze devices. On its own, it was unimpressive. Lifre could crush it in one hand if she wanted to, but that would defeat the purpose of bringing it back.

“Let’s see what’s going on in your brain, before your friends come to pay us a visit.” She said with a grin, eyes lighting up with mana. Immediately, she could sense the living code within the machines, an almost feral form of artificial intelligence. Although the code was alive, it was more akin to a digital monster than a true AI like Blank.

From this digital monster, Lifre could sense a feeling of abandonment and loneliness. It had been cut off from the hive, and was desperate to return. “Sorry, buddy. Not that easy.” She muttered under her breath, diving deeper into its archived memories. She wanted to learn as much about the swarm’s structure as she could while she had the chance.

Unfortunately, this particular drone was rather young, and its memories only dated back a few hours. The most that Lifre could pull from it were the ranks within the swarm, and their level of authority.

There were five ranks of bots within this giant swarm, which Lifre considered as Drone, Soldier, Worker, Sentry, and Queen. The drones, like her little friend, were simply in charge of gathering materials and bringing them back to the swarm. Soldiers held the authority to issue military commands or designate hostile targets. Sentries provided the drones with map data. Workers sent material requests to the drones. And finally, the Queens had full authority.

If I want to get rid of the entire swarm, I’ll need to use the queen authority to send a self-destruct code. The problem is that queens probably can’t command one another, so there will be some stragglers.

Still, this was the most viable method that Lifre had discovered to eliminate the swarm. Thankfully, it wasn’t too hard for her to accomplish, either. She didn’t need to capture a queen in the same way that she had captured this drone. Now that she had the drone, she was able to read its code and understand how it accepted its commands.

With this, she could reverse-engineer the signal of the queen, and plant that in a device to broadcast the new command. Lifre immediately began producing one such device with the aid of her machine world, factories churning to life beneath the surface of the planet.

How long will it take for your friends to get here? Lifre wondered, analyzing the thrusters of the drone. According to her brief review, this drone could likely reach up to ten times the speed of light, and did not possess any warp capabilities of its own. Impressive, but not enough for rapid transit. If this is all they’ve got, I shouldn’t need to worry.

As she thought about that, Lifre chuckled, finishing her thought aloud. “In other words, I need to assume that this isn’t all that they have. Given the rankings and apparent purposes, it is likely that the soldier, queen, and worker are all capable of storing drones and sentries for long-range transit. And if they can store them like that, it is reasonable to assume that they are far faster than these drones…”

The problem, of course, was that Lifre still didn’t know how fast. Or, at least, she didn’t. Looking up, Lifre blinked. “Ah… that fast.” She thought, sensing the copper cloud rapidly approaching her machine world, coming in from the outer reaches of the solar system. This was clearly not the full swarm, and Lifre estimated that less than one percent of them had come.

However, one percent of a swarm capable of covering a solar system was still an unreasonable amount of targets. Lifre pursed her lips, but ultimately was left with no choice. “Broadcast the kill code.” She ordered, one of the satellite dishes turning towards the incoming swarm. A small device rose up from the floor, attaching to the side of the dish.

Lifre was reluctant to use the kill code on such a small percentage of the swarm, because the queens would surely be able to identify how she crippled the other robots. If she was lucky, she would be able to use this method twice, but most likely they would create a countermeasure after only seeing it once.

Lifre could sense the signal being broadcast, and watched as it reached the approaching cloud. Knowing that she would have very little time to act, she shot forward without hesitation. She didn’t know how many queens would have come with this detachment, but there would surely be at least one. As long as she could capture that one, she would have a better idea on how to deal with the rest.

A few seconds later, Lifre found herself in the heart of the swarm, its members floating aimlessly. She quickly scanned through them, finding a total of six robots that were still fully operational, all of which were fleeing in different directions. Lifre knew that these had to be the queens, and stretched her hand out towards it.

Lifre’s eyes began to glow bright blue as her mana surged, crossing space to latch onto the fleeing queen. While the other five instantly disappeared into deep space, Lifre had at least managed to acquire one. Hopefully, one would be all it would take to settle this problem, unless it turned out that there was yet a higher authority within the code of the queen…

She grumbled under her breath at that thought, retreating back to her machine world. The other queens would no doubt report back to the swarm and prepare a countermeasure to her kill signal before risking a return.