Uhh Her assistant looked at her in confusion W What do you mean
Tatiana looked at him Immediately it became clear that there had been some sort of miscommunication from the bewildered look on his face She missed Vye dearly Then she curtly pushed him to the side and stepped up to the wall to look down at what they were all regarding with such slack jawed wonder
Below the wall along the road as far as the eye could see to the Northwest was a column of gleaming drones Instantly Tatiana narrowed her eyes Had Halloway been dishonest and the government was launching a separate inquiry for HelenÆs violence
But very quickly Tatiana recognized that these were not any of GhostÆs drones which were based on the same principles that Randidly used when creating machines No these were extremely complicated and ornate looking covered in thick layers of metal shielding to protect the valuable pieces that lay within their bodies
These were the creations of the Order Machina
Tatiana saw fully articulable metal centipedes with mounted flamethrowers and Mannatech canons There were large hives of metal built on wheels that could produce a thousand deadly flying knives within only a few seconds There were tall and lumbering dinosaur inspired collossai with long necks and teeth of superheated plasma
Truly the display was an oppressive one Just from a casual count of the models that Tatiana recognized there were probably five hundred high end machines moving in formation toward Erickson Steel At the front of this procession was a well preserved a neon yellow Maserati sports coupe undoubtedly made long before the System arrived
Still the fact it was so immaculately maintained was a testament to the financial power of the man at the helm
I just thought you should see isnÆt it amazing TatianaÆs assistant whispered I wonder does the Order Machina want to establish a branch here
Tatiana almost rolled her eyes You seriously got me out of bed for this
Chapter 1008
Honestly when the head of the Order Machina wandered back from the brief meeting with Tatiana wearing an expression of deep confusion Evan Crane felt a rush of catharsis So much so that he had to carefully school his face to remain neutral
Truly if Erickson Steel would have fallen to this sort of diversion it wouldnÆt have been a company worthy of having Evan at its head It was only because it continued to elude the many traps that Senator Heathridge set in its path that it proved to be the gem that Evan Crane so long obsessed over It was worthy of his jealousy due to the fact that so few other hands were able to brush it
How could they just reject me out of hand The head of the Order Machina mumbled Devin Finde was a rather young man considering his position but he had been a rising star at an Engineering firm before the System arrived But of course he was an insufferable ass who spent more time tinkering with old cars and obsessively trimming his goatee than actually attempting to improve himself
Not that what he had accomplished wasnÆt impressive Devin had created a parallel methodology of creating drones that involved heavily reinforced exteriors and interior circuitry that was much closer to old style technology than the Erickson Steel method of simply Engraving runes onto the materials
The benefit of the Order Machina style was that machines could be preprogrammed to respond to quite a bit more scenarios That internal machinery gave the makers a lot more real estate to work with in terms of Engraving surfaces In addition it did not require that they be connected to GhostÆs network in order to be controlled to fight They could function on their own should Zone 1Æs network ever be taken down or if the drone owner wanted to accomplish something without Ghost being aware of it
Which is why people like Senator Heathridge and his slimy ilk pushed for the Order Machina to be inducted as an official Order There was a lot of dirty money that flowed into LindeÆs many businesses that desperately needed an air of legitimacy
However that variety of drones were extremely time consuming to make Undoubtedly they would have been completely priced out of the market by RandidlyÆs drones if only there were more people at Erickson Steel who were capable enough to make the Engraving based drones
RandidlyÆs Engravings were theoretically open to anyone to utilize but most people were dumbfounded by the elegant ingenuity that they incorporated into their structure Without an Engraving Level over 100 it just wasnÆt possible to do what Randidly did with any sort of consistency Hell without an Engraving Level above 150 doing what Randidly could do in an afternoon took an entire week
Perhaps there is some sort of tool that Erickson Steel possesses that gives Randidly that ability Crane fantasized His fingers twitched but he resisted the urge to pull out and light a cigarette This was his last pack for today and he wanted to save them as much as he could And when Erickson Steel becomes mine then it will be ME that is the greatest Engraver in the world IÆll call it the Crane method
Abruptly Crane realized that Finde had settled beside him on the hood of CraneÆs humvee in a slump Ah she didnÆt give any reason to reject the Order Machina
Bah she said it was because they didnÆt need our help FindeÆs hands curled into claws I told you we should have waited until the monsters started to wander up here Hmph then weÆd have the pleasure of watching that bitch Tatiana begging for our help
That lovely eventuality of course was something that Evan Crane couldnÆt allow Because if they waited for the monster attack to actually come Erickson Steel would likely suffer irreparable damage And that was something that Crane couldnÆt bear So he just grunted noncommittally in agreement
So our next move Crane began but he trailed off as he saw a group of very dirty travelers jogging down the road toward them
Although the Order Machina had brought out their drones with their full regalia to impress Erickson Steel it was possible to condense their forces into a much smaller group of transport carriers for ease of movement Which after they were rejected was exactly what Finde did All of his pretty little toys were folded into smaller pieces and then moved around through the surrounding forest North of Erickson Steel to the East road where Crane had been watching the whole process play out
And now from the east a group of about thirty people was jogging past in an extremely haphazard looking line
All of the people in the ragged column were at least a little dirty but the group was led by three individuals who seemed a little bit more put together than their followers a teenage boy a lizard person and a cockroach
Crane narrowed his eyes Why do these three seem so familiar
Aside from the three more composed and stoic leaders the followers seemed completely gassed They staggered forward often stumbling over even the smallest obstacle in their exhaustion Large drops of sweat gathered on their foreheads as they continued onward And the more that Crane looked the more he released that they were equally covered in dirt and blood It seemed like these people had wandered out of a battlefield to arrive here
Should we Help those people Finde scratched his nose his own depression driven out by the extremely bedraggled state of the new arrivals He straightened and climbed onto the hood of the humvee Then he put his hand above his eyes and peered at them and the direction from which they originated Are they refugees But why would they be coming from the East
For almost ten seconds the two men watched the procession approach With the drones stored away in their transports and hidden in the surrounding forest it was likely that this strange parade of wounded wouldnÆt even see the pair Which was probably for the best because Crane just couldnÆt put his finger on why
Finde went pale then abruptly bright red Unless the monsters did attack But they somehow wandered past Erickson Steel and attacked another town
Shit shit Crane gritted his teeth If that was true Senator Heathridge would be pissed Part of the agreement here was for Crane to maintain control over the situation It wasnÆt hard for Senator Heathridge to arrange for the patrols to vary and allow monsters near Erickson Steel to build up but the good Senator would be thrown under the bus at the drop of a hat if the oversight came to light