Kick the Sphere 12 (Patreon)

Kick the sphere

Chapter 12

-VB-

I hummed as I went through the compound to catalog everything.

So far, everything has been working out extremely well for me and my … Well, calling us a company was technically correct, but it felt disingenuous compared to what actually went on.

See, I think we’re a family business.

I was the head of the family, Janice and the T-Dolls were my direct family (even if they weren’t), Jarod was the trusted employee, and everyone else was …

Actually, our structure was closer to that of a mafia or yakuza than a family business. A family business didn’t have mini-minions. Still, I was beginning to trust them despite the circumstances that they came to be under me. Sure, one or two of them were still begrudging me, but most of them weren’t, shockingly.

Of course, I knew that some of it had to do with how bandits were shitty parents. Being a thief, murderer, rapist, looter, and kidnapper wrapped up in one package often left not much room for good parenting in general. Of course, it didn’t apply to everyone. Just ask the two who hated my guts. I actually had to ask the girls to keep their eyes out on them, because I wasn’t sure what they would do. Aside from those two, I felt that I trusted enough of my “company” to move on to the next stage of the plan.

With the immediate region secure, our Marris Mercenary Company needed to build real infrastructure to take over the rest of the planet and protect it from potential invasions. I really did believe that it was a matter of time before the rest of the Inner Sphere found this world, and they would descend upon it in madness for the tech I showed off. I’m not even thinking about the greater powers; most of them probably didn’t even care about some rumor from bumfuck nowhere boonies in the near-periphery of the Free Worlds League.

It’s the Free Worlds League, after all. They may as well depend on rumor mills for their intel instead of their own spy agency.

How would I accomplish that, however? Accomplish peace and safety on a single planet when my future enemies, should the “need” come to pass, can burn away worlds?

I had a potential answer in the Lantean Database. It was something very recently uncovered by one of the orphans who did not recognize what he brought to me.

See, the Lanteans… even they feared something. They never feared the Wraith, who defeated them in a prolonged war through attrition. They never feared Asgard, their peer in the scientific realms who made intergalactic travel in seconds. The Lanteans were wary of the Ori, their cousins from their home galaxy, but were not fearful of them.

No. If there was a single thing that they ever feared at the height of their power, then it was their own creation, the Asurans. Asurans were hyper-advanced nanite technology turned gestalt consciousness machine race who was kept from conquering an entire galaxy simply due to their own programming preventing them from doing so.

I intended to make very dumb versions of those Asurans, the Replicators.

See, Asurans were a Lantean problem in like … ten thousand years before the main canon storyline of the Stargate SG-1. SG-1 encountered the Replicators, a similar but ultimately much more primitive version of Asurans. Replicators could only copy technologies they “sampled” while Asurans already possessed galaxy-destroying technology.

See, my plan was very very simple once I got my hands on the Asuran blueprint. I would make Replicators with myself as the primary administrator, give them samples of low-tier interstellar technologies, and then fortify the entire Dansur system and planet. Any attack at that point would be useless because replicators would tear through jumpships, dropships, mechs, and tanks alike.

If anyone came before I could fortify the system, then I would have no choice but to send “primitive” replicators out to the galaxy to devour my enemies’ infrastructure and tech while I hid the true threat that Asurans can be.

A single replicator could chew through a mech. A single replicator on a jumpship can kill all crew, hijack the ship, and start disseminating replicators to worlds it could jump to. A single replicator can hide in a city and start a hive that could and would overrun a planet.

The threat of a replicator would be worse than a nuclear bomb. My enemies would not be able to use even iron or bronze tools.

They would be stuck in the Stone Age.

And that’s the replicator, not the “I can turn hyperspace into a bomb at every portal of entry” Asurans. The “I will burn the galaxy to destroy my enemies” Asurans. The “Oh, I can make a bunch of these ZPMs that could individually destroy a star system if something went wrong” Asurans.

… Of course, this was still a bit of a faraway dream for now. I needed a few more purchases with the Forge and actual building of a few computer labs and nanite forges before I could make even a primitive replicator, but I could! That was the high point.

Because I already made that computer lab.

-VB-

“But … but mechs!” Turry exclaimed in horror.

The boss wanted to do something big that would make mechs useless. Turry didn’t get what the boss said about people thinking things and doing things, but understood that boss wanted to do something that would ruin mechs.

Mechs were cool!

Boss looked at him for a second, and Turry realized that he forgot he’d been spying on a super-secret meeting between the Girls and Boss.

Boss rolled his eyes.

“Look… Terry.”

“Turry.”

“Turry.” He paused. “Turry? Like Furry but Turry?”

“Yes. Like tough and furry. Furry’s what one of your Girls called me,” he replied honestly because everyone learned by this point that Boss liked honesty.

Boss bounced his head around a bit before shrugging. “Alright. Turry, you know you’re not supposed to be in here, right?”

“Yeah, but one of the Girls shouted something about mech and I got curious.”

“And how did you get into this secured building?”

“One of the windows is open.”

Boss stared at him and then facepalmed. “Right, that was my fault. Thanks for telling me. I think I’ll set up an automated closing feature or something down the line,” he mumbled.

“B-But Mechs! You’re gonna get rid of them?” Turry asked frantically before Boss’s attention slipped away.

Boss stopped turning around and paused. “Well, no, not really. I’m just thinking about it.”

“Please don’t, boss! Mechs are cool! I wanna drive one!”

“Pilot.”

“Pil-ot. Yeah. Whatever. That. I wanna do that with a mech!”

Turry knew he could be a bit pushy with Boss. He wasn’t an asshole or murderous. He also knew that he couldn’t push too much, because Boss might be a dumb kind guy who would invite the kids of his enemies to join him, the Girls weren’t as nice and made sure to let everyone know what would happen to the next person and every person after who might harm Boss.

Except for Janice. She was just too fucking nice. God, how could a girl be that nice? A little bit of a ditz, though, but everyone was nice to her in turn.

Well, almost everyone. The mudhuts like Jarod were rude, distant, and offensive. He kept everyone away from being more than just “compound” mates. Turry knew Jarod was up to no good. Why else would he not become part of this “compound” thing that Boss and the Girls made?

Boss scratched the back of his head. “Well, I guess I could make mechs still part of … something. Maybe like patrols. Asurans might not be suitable for that for now with how underdeveloped I’ll be making them.”

He grinned.

Mechs weren’t going away. Hurrah!