"We concur. No doubt, as an inhabitant of the Wasteland you have little desire to have that happen," Danik said.
That was obvious. But they weren't giving away as much as I'd like. It was time to push my luck.
"If you were a match for them, you would have already engaged. We like our odds, but it is still closer to a fair fight than we would like. Perhaps there is an area for cooperation between us here?" I asked.
"Perhaps there is. We have a problem. Our airships and theirs are operating under very different physical laws and once we breach their hulls and get aboard, their physical laws render our weaponry ineffective," Danik said.
The Scholars likely favored some sort of defensive powers in their construction. Once aboard, mundane weapons probably fared very poorly. It made sense.
"Can your people toggle off their dampening abilities?" Mechos asked.
"Briefly. Why do you ask?" Danik asked.
Mechos was sketching quickly on a pad. I saw what he was working towards.
"We can make backpack bombs that should be immensely powerful in their environment. We'll need to deliver them to key systems. If we teleport your people there, can they at least fight their way to the target and detonate the devices?" I asked.
"Yes, and that would be acceptable. As you know, death isn't a lasting thing for us. But so long as the ships crash," Danik said.
I wondered if that meant my attempt to kill one of them had failed. It might be to my advantage that it had, they didn't know I had that ability.
"We can't promise that, obviously. I'd like to do some tests of the bombs. Are your people willing to strike at their teams fighting on the ground?" I asked.
"Ready and eager," Danik said without hesitation. They wanted Scholar blood.
"We'll be in contact with the details," I said, and killed the channel.
"Backpack bombs?" Anna asked.
"We have the Fire Matrix. With Mechos we can enhance a traditional bomb and even have it feed off the biomatter of the Righteous," I said.
"I got the idea from those Slidekickers who attempted to blow up Emma's facilities," Mechos said.
Anna considered and nodded. "That could work. Normally they'd counter the effect, but on a Scholar vessel their void powers are going to be pretty much neutralized."
"These test versions will be just as described. I want the Righteous to trust us, to commit fully to this plan. I want the final version to also be Righteous killers," I said.
"You want to take them both out in one shot. Those are just visitors though. You aren't going to wipe them out," Anna said.
"I'm rather hoping we might start a shooting war, if we can convince each to place blame on the other," I said.
If the Righteous and the Scholars were shooting at each other, it meant they wouldn't be shooting at me. That gave me the chance to continue to abduct subjects and grow stronger, and it would do a lot to position us for the future.
"They'll suspect you," Mechos said.
Anna grinned. "I might be able to help with that. The Scholars have their own factions and their own wars. If we can pull this off, I can spin it."
"Then we've got a plan," I said. This would seriously tap my core point reserves, but I had been stockpiling them.
I should really begin some upgrades while I had the chance.
Bioreactor - Level 5
Your Bioreactor is now able to produce twice as many spawn as before, in addition they are able to produce more power for a longer time. This greatly increases potential operations outside of the main facility.
Infirmary - Level 4
With this upgrade the Infirmary will now be able to hold up to eight patients simultaneously. Infirmary effects now apply to all biologicals within the facility at one quarter power even when they are not in the Infirmary itself.
Those were a nice pair of upgrades. The spawn I hadn't even made use of, but suddenly I was pondering all new possibilities. That much concentrated power mixed with the Fire Matrix might prove to be a force multiplier to the explosives we had planned.
The Infirmary upgrade, although not explosive, was useful. The Infirmary stabilized the injured at the very least, which meant that now even a critically wounded human in my facility wouldn't perish—as long as I could keep them from taking further damage.
Growth Vats - Level 5
Your growth vats now contain numerous sub cells which can allow the growth of rare plants and organs. This considerably expands the possibilities of what you can create.
That upgrade would likely be far more impressive—if I wasn't in the Wasteland where I had yet to collect an interesting plant. One of these days, particularly now that I had teleportation available...
Cabins - Level 4
Vastly upgrades housing potential so you can support up to fifty residents. In addition, each cabin now contains a small entertainment suite and daily cookie production that will passively improve morale.
Cookies I didn't have to make myself. This would get the humans motivated. Which was good. The Righteous, the Scholars, they all had populations that dwarfed mine and always would, if I was going to continue focus on my research. I'd not be manufacturing competing numbers of humans myself. That meant I had to get them some other way.
I had a plan to do just that.
43
I'd been relying on Anna and Mechos for suggesting targets, but now with Bernard I was capable of finding my own. It was this way that I'd found the Frozen.
The Frozen had fended off an attack from the Scholars by constructing an endlessly replenishing wall of ice. Defensively it was an interesting ability, although I doubted I'd get anything quite so dramatic out of it. I was more interested in the casualties of the fight. There were over one hundred of them tucked away in a cave, all frozen solid, but alive.
With the temperature-regulating virus it was a condition that I could remedy, and this many people would be a strong start towards a long-term workforce.
I could expand further underground, grow my population even more, construct whole new facilities. While I could teleport the bodies a few at a time I doubted the Frozen would just allow it—if they were still standing. I needed to deal with them first.
Researching Hot Stuff had taught me a bit about fighting those with temperature control. I'd tried to freeze her out and found her internal heat overwhelmed anything that I could do. It was only when I'd forced her power to run out of control that I'd been able to stop her.
Taking out the Frozen wouldn't be a matter of making them hot, it was all about making them colder. I rigged a cooler with a vacuum pump. That should let me drop their temperature sharply. Hopefully enough to freeze them solid.
To this I added a magnetically driven pellet gun that could fire into the chamber after a portal was opened. It would allow me to deliver a lot of force to a small area and ideally should act like an ice pick if needed.
As always, I'd rather take my subjects alive, but I would settle for dead.
When it was time I used both Abigail and Bernard. I'd already upgraded them with the temperature-resistant virus so they could endure limited periods of even intense cold with minimal ill-effects.
Even after my failure to teleport Runner I was going for the double-teleport this time. First, I wanted the lieutenants.
The Frozen were slow. I got all four Lieutenants teleported before they had even raised much of an alarm. It wasn't without problems. Abigail and Bernard were already showing traces of frostbite in their extremities despite the virus and the cold weather gear they wore.
Fortunately, that wasn't something that would stop either of them, not while I was in control. They grabbed Frost, the leader, and transitioned him into the chamber as well.