Deus Ex Machina - Godbound SI - Chapter 2

Location: Unknown Realm

Date: Day 1, Hour 3.

I stood and watched as all of my temporal-parallel selves picked up all the garbage, debris, and intact objects that could be moved and put them into organized piles. Most were quickly converted into steel and molded into plate.

The dwelling I was making would need to be strong if it is to withstand anything this realm can throw at it. While they worked, I gazed over towards the mountain and took a look at the titanic Dragon that laid dead beside it. It was surreal to see something that big and think it was once alive.

Then again, it wasn’t too outside of context for me. Godzilla was a thing after all.

A large truck passed by as the workers drove out to the designated distance to place a wall. It would be over fifty feet tall, and made so nothing can simply climb over without aid. Claws and jumping included.

It wasn’t more than a half hour when the dwelling was complete. It wasn’t pretty, but it was strong. Steel walls as thick as a man’s torso, sliding power door that weighed a ton, and sealed itself to the wall when closed.

Inside it was simple. A power generator that was just a giant battery was plugged into a circuit breaker, which was wired about the place to switches, which were connected to lights and plugs, which had a variety of devices to make the place feel like a home.

I had no source of water, but it was easy to transmutate something into water, and place that into a water tower connecting into the house. I didn’t need to drink or eat anymore, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t indulge in either. Plus water is necessary for cooling, being a solvent, and a variety of other things.

With a satisfied nod, I shifted my body into its combat mode, and thought about the anti-material rifle I had before and gave a moment of thought before nodding. Within a moment a new weapon appeared in my hand.

It was my own take on a Defenseport Core12-L semi-auto shotgun. Normally this firearm had a five or ten shell magazine, but I decided to summon one with a 20-round drum magazine, which was a bit cumbersome but it was wieldy compared to the 30-round drum Defenseport made.

It may seem gun-nutty, but technically I can make infinite ammunition. So, I didn’t have to lug around two or three additional drum-mags when I can just eject one, toss it, and summon another with a full load. I also didn’t want to eject and insert a new magazine every time I fired ten shells. Plus, unlike most shotguns where you had to limit your rate of fire to prevent the heat from damaging the barrel, this one was built with it in mind. To a degree anyways.

If need be, I could just summon up a new one.

Checking it over to see if everything was ready, I nodded satisfied. I worked the action and loaded a single shell into the breach, before closing it. Now I was twenty plus one. All slugs. Given the size of the critters I had flown from, I wasn’t going to beat anything with buckshot.

Closing the door behind me, I looked over the burned out husk of the city in the distance and grimaced.

“Gonna be the DC Wasteland all over again, with a hint of Metro 2032.”

Not the best thing to say at the start, but it was as good as anything else, as I began to walk.

I quickly got tired of that, and made a Quad. Took only a few seconds, but I was driving out through the gate and onto the road away from the port.

I got a better look at the landscape as it passed by and I realized that the knife like protrusions I flew over were not small at all, but the size of a grown person. They were spaced out unevenly without any rhyme or reason to them. They also got thicker as I got closer to the city. The road was devastated as I entered the city proper, with onyx like spikes poking through the ground and the road.

Impaled upon them were vehicles that were equivalent to something out of the nineteen forties, including combat vehicles that appeared to be light tanks. Reminded me of that Japanese tank that was used at the start of the second world war. Of course there were remains of people around these things as well. Burned skeletons from who knew how long ago.

“Actually.” I muttered as I paused and walked over to one of the tanks. A closer inspection showed the thing was beyond rusted. It was just a shell of dust and rust at this point, but touching it gave me the information I needed. I can learn from just looking at any machine, what it was, how to use it, and how to make it. Finer details needed physical contact, as it an intimacy that springs from the domain of the Words I have gifts in. Which is how I learned how old it this tank was.

“Only one hundred and ninety years old? Did the shattering happen recently? Or is this place just one of the latest victims of an old war?”

A sound of metal being crushed alerted me that I wasn’t alone, forcing me to take cover. With my shotgun already loaded, I switched off the safety whilst looking around the tank towards the source.

The sound of roaring flames coupled with actual earthy feline snarls filled the air, and I beheld the source. My eyes widened, and I felt blood pool to my feet as I saw them. A trio of stone jaguars, made of stone, with molten rock under the skin and flames erupting from the mouths, eyes, and seemingly as a mane or facsimile of hair in the case of the third one.

They were huge. Twenty feet at the shoulder, they had to be at least twice that in length, plus more if you counted the tail which ended with what appeared to be either a flaming tip or a stone scorpion tail.

I gazed down at my shotgun and realized; I need a bigger gun.

Their eyes roamed about, as they moved about the street. I slunk back, hiding behind the tank corpse as they passed. I dismissed the shotgun as it was obvious it wasn’t going to work. Even if slugs were powerful at close range, they wouldn’t be enough.

So, I thought back to the guard shack I awoken to, and recalled I was able to summon weapons I knew only a little bit about in my testing so long as I remembered them, as the gifts did the rest in filling the blanks.

Thus, it was interesting when a Rock Propelled Grenade launcher appeared in my grip, ready to fire. Only for me to dismiss that, and replace it with a M32A1 Milkor USA 40mm Grenade Launcher. Possessing a drum magazine with six HE grenades, it was the most powerful weapon I had at the moment outside of a dedicated explosive like a C4 satchel charge, or some weapon from any of the multitude of video games I knew of, but couldn’t assume would just work in the real.

I waited, ready to bolt and blow, but the three monsters passed me by without even a check. I still held my breath until they were out of sight. I slumped to my knees, and I was shaking. It’s a good thing I was more or less a robot or cyborg at the moment, because I don’t think I could handle the high blood pressure right now.

From there on, I continued into the city far more cautiously. Sneaking about and taking cover in holes, nooks, and behind any cover there was whenever one of those Firestone Jaguars came about. I was fortunate to be undetected the entirety of my time wandering the city because I found nothing of value aside from some broken pieces of technology that were so obsolete that they belonged in a museum.

When I finally left and returned to the port base, I was tired. Despite the fact that I no longer needed sleep, or food, or even air, I got tired, but it was more of a mental strain as opposed to a physical one.

I suppose even I have a cool down phase, like all machines, otherwise I would break down like they do.

I shook my head, I needed rest. I settled in for the night and allowed myself to “sleep”, and got some fitful sleep despite the strange new place and unfamiliar sensations and sounds around me.

The next morning, I got up and went to the bathroom. I didn’t need to go to the bathroom anymore, but I felt the desire for a drink of water. Familiarity, I guess. After finishing I activated combat mode, and got ready.

Instead of immediately leaving however, I decided to test a few things out about my abilities. Yesterday was a wakeup call that I needed more powerful weapons, and aside from the ones I knew from my world, I didn’t know if fictional weapons from known franchises were possible at all.

So, I stood outside on the port near the edge of the pier, and focused my mind on the most common science fiction weapon that, as a weapon system, existed in my own world.

Lasers.

Focusing on the franchise I knew very well, I imagined a Fallout style laser pistol. I got it into my hand, and I looked it over, and immediately felt my grin fall. It was a plastic toy.

“Alright.” I grunted, dismissing the thing. So that didn’t work. I tried a variety of laser weapons. Lasguns, Dune lasers, Rifts Earth laser weapons, Battletech lasers, Helldivers, X-Com (Old and New), Robotech, I even tried to make steampunk versions with artifice from settings like Girl Genius, Atomic Robo, and more.

None of them worked. So either this realm didn’t allow them to work, or it lacked the ability.

“Alright. Gauss weapons.”

I put my mind to it, thinking of Gauss weapons from Battletech, and I was immediately given the Gauss SMG. It was like a P90 if someone gave it magnetic coil accelerators.

I looked it over, and was pleasantly surprised to see it gave me everything I needed to know on using it, maintaining it, building, etc. Setting it up, I aimed and pulled the trigger.

The sub-machinegun fired out a three-round burst of sub-sonic tungsten darts. I grinned like a shark.

“Alright. So, this is one system I can make that works.”

I dismissed the clan weapon, and replaced it with the Gauss Rifle from “X-Com: Terror from the Deep”. It was bulkier, and when I fired it, it was about the same as the SMG. Three round burst, a bit louder, but otherwise the same.

Pleased, I dismissed the weapon and thought about its counterpart. Giving it some focus, I tried to summon from Rifts Earth a Boom Gun from a “Glitter Boy”. I was sadly disappointed when I just got a metal object that looked like one, but wasn’t functional. Given the setting had dozens of designs, I tried them all, ad got ziltch. Then I tried other settings. More of the same.

“Tch.”

It might have been more about how much I knew than the realm I was in. If that was the case…

I thought about the Space Marine Bolter, and within an instant, I had one. It gave me all the knowledge I needed about it.

“Well shit.” I said, surprised. “Maybe it is based on intimate knowledge…which doesn’t work now that I said it since I know all those technologies…wait a second.”

I dismissed the weapon, and focused back on Rifts Earth, and thought about another weapon system. Ion and Particle Beam weapons. I knew how those worked. Once more, I got nothing.

“Okay. It’s the realm. Not me.”

I thought about what I knew of this realm, and my first thoughts were the tanks I saw throughout the city. Maybe this realm had magic, but technologically, they only mastered the basics of physics. As a result, they never saw a need to improve upon those physical laws for this realm. Or maybe they did that on purpose in order to limit enemies.

My eyes widened a bit as I remembered the prison. “Maybe what was inside had strength in powers where energy expulsion was involved.”

It was only a theory, but it would make sense. There’s one test that would solidify this theory as more than just an idea.

I conjured up a generator and a tesla coil, set it up, and turned it on. I nodded, satisfied that I might be correct when electricity did not come out of the coil at all.

“That doesn’t answer the generator though.” As I looked at the machine with both an electrical charge, and working internal combustion engine. It may have been his Gifts making them work, or there might be rules in place that allow them to function. After a moment of thought, there had to be rules otherwise the Gauss weapons wouldn’t have worked at all. It might be allowing contained energy to work, but not if it is externally projected?

I paused for a moment as I thought about the Internal Combustion Engine, which led to the idea of fire, how it is a form of energy that can become plasma if it were hot enough. Those Firestone Jaguars are beings of fire.

“Plasma weapons.”

I dismiss the Tesla coil and Generator and focus on Warhammer again, and immediately a Plasma Pistol appears. I pointed it up to the sky, and pulled the trigger. A burst of bright blue energy fired out of the end of the weapon and into the sky before fading away. I grinned at the sight before regaining focus.

“It works. Which means…” I paused as a new thought occurred to me.

This place had obviously been attacked and destroyed by those Jaguars and that Dragon, and there’s lava and fire all over the place. Is that the case because it was the only means of using energy attacks that worked? Or was the empire that used these things just into Fire and Stone?

I rubbed my eyes. “Too many questions.”

I dismissed the plasma pistol and focused. Within a moment Han Solo’s Heavy Blaster Pistol from Star Wars appeared in my hands, data and all. Taking aim, I fired.

PEW

I smiled at the sound, and kept firing until the weapon was out of gas. Upon running out of power, I dismissed the Broomhandle-from-space. I followed up with the X-Com Plasma Weapons (Old and New), and the Fallout versions. I even summoned a DooM based version, and they all worked.

I then focused on what would be the strongest versions of plasma weapons I knew of, Rifts Earth variants.

This took more than a moment of thought as Rifts Earth weapons were…generally, magnitudes more powerful than most weapons in fiction. This was a result of the molecular density construction that went into the construction of the weapon. Every single part, from the wires to the metal plating, to the channeling chamber to the stock and guard, utilized that construction technique to make it stronger than any firearm dreamed of prior to that.

As a result, the amount of power and energy it can withstand is an order of magnitude greater than anything from my time, which in turn made the damage it did just as great. A simple laser pistol from Rifts Earth can destroy an Abrams Main Battletank in less than ten shots.

Within a moment, I was holding an NG-E12 Heavy Plasma Ejector. This thing was huge, weighing in at thirty pounds overall with the energy capacitor in its receiver like a gun magazine. I grinned manically as I activated the weapon and warmed it up.

It beeped an alert that it was ready to use, and I shouldered it. I was only able to really do that due to the combat mode I was currently using. Taking aim at a random stone spike, and fired. The weapon’s recoil was low, but the sound and flash it gave off was radical. The weapon roared loudly, sounding like crackling thunder as super-heated gas met cold air and instantly combusted it on contact. This caused a corona of heat to appear around the burning burst of energy. The brightness of the plasma, and the corona was blinding. Like looking at the bright point of an arc welder, but a line of light about a meter in diameter.

My vision polarized to handle the glare for a moment. I was focused on the stone spike, which was about twelve feet tall, and it simply ceased to exist. It was annihilated as it turned into melted stone and superheated dust as the mass of plasma struck it. The mass of energy continued past the spike and into a few more before it finally stopped and left a puddle of glass where it stopped and immolated the ground.

“Niiiiiiiice.” I said with a shark grin before dismissing the weapon.

So, Mega-Damage is a go, or at least a very powerful weapon if nothing else. I will need to check the other weapons of the setting to see if that level of power carries over. Speaking of power…

Going back to the idea of stored energy, if Gauss weapons worked, then why didn’t the rail guns? It might be because I don’t know how they designed those specific versions, but the gift seems to take leaps of logic and make them work as if it knew how. It could be the act of drawing the rail itself, as that does require some external magnetic field to be at play. Not a lot of them, but they are there.

I shook my head.

“That aside, this test proves that some of the rules are either being played down, or my lack of knowledge is limiting my capabilities.”

So, I paced as I gave thoughts about how to test this. It came to me in but a moment, as the obvious answer came to mind.

“I made a Rifts Earth weapon just now. Assuming fiction is reality given my current situation…the Palladium Megaverse is a thing. If that’s the case…Robotech.”

Robotechnology was powered by that setting’s Protoculture, which was bio-fusion as a result of processing seeds from the Flower of Life. Robotechnology itself was extremely advanced technology made by the Triolian “Robotech Masters”, and despite knowing the grand strokes, I knew very little of the actual mechanics behind these things.

The gift of Scientific Method would be able to figure it out because, as its name implies, it would find a way to make it work as intended. It also allowed me to construct a “house sized” objects in “a scene”. Which usually meant about fifteen minutes of actual time, or less. Combined this with Ten Thousand Tools, and that time is reduced by a tenth, which meant a minute and a half.

So, I got started by dragging a good amount of rubbish near me via workers, and used transmutation to make metals and other materials. Taking the materials I knew were utilized in the product, my workers began to put it all together and make the various objects that were the parts, before finally putting them together.

By the time it was done, a few minutes had passed, and the vehicle and the combat armor it needed to be used with were sitting there finished and ready, save they that the vehicle needed fuel. This is where it begins to cost me.

“Extremely rare or magical substances cost effort for the day, and there are few things in existence more rare…”

The spot I chose to place materials began to shine brightly as I exerted my will, and felt half of my divine force leave, and in its place were energy canisters whose contents shone with vibrant aquamarine light.

“Than Protoculture.” I finished, a little out of breath despite being in combat mode.

I slowly walked over and picked up a canister, looking within the view port to see its fuel level, and I could hear its song. It was distant, like someone stood across a sunlit room and hummed to themselves, but the room was empty of anyone but them. My mind saw all of the data regarding Protoculture, that is to say, refined Protoculture.

The spiritual aspect was also presented within that data, and how it was unknowingly used to bring a form of man/machine fusion with people who were particularly sensitive to it. An aspect the Robotech Masters used with their female triplet singers, and their Bioroid warriors.

“A miracle of existence indeed.”

I took the canisters and strode over to the vehicle. The VR-052F Heavy Infantry Veritech Cyclone System. A bike that could transform around its rider into a respectably capable suit of power armor. Primarily a mass-produced trooper unit, it was hardly the strongest out there in the multiverse of franchises. However, aside from its fuel source, it was one of the most versatile due to its mobility.

Now, I could have made any number of different units before continuing my jaunt in this realm, but this unit was to test what was and was not capable within said realm. If this can be made, then almost anything can be made. I won’t make anything more today though, since I had used effort already, and it could leave me drained of energy for all but the base powers of the Words.

I placed the canisters into the Cyclone’s storage compartment, and placed one into the fuel cell insert. Within moments, the canister connected and the whole machine became energized. The engine hummed with power before going into energy saving mode. I nodded with satisfaction that Protoculture appeared to function in this Realm.

I drank more water to satisfy my craving, before putting the CRV-3 Body Armor on so I can actually use the Cyclone. Checking all the systems over, the armor’s environmental protection systems, radio, HUD, and its connection to the Cyclone. Checking over the weapon systems, all the mini-missiles were H.E.A.P. warheads since I needed something that could break rock monsters apart. I was also equipped with an EP-37 Pulse Beam rifle.

Glancing at said rifle, it was loaded with a Protoculture based energy capacitor. Given that it worked for the Cyclone, it should also actually make the weapon work as well. I pulled it off, and the weapon was heavy, though lighter than the Plasma Ejector. Taking it over to the shooting range, I powered it up, and after it warmed a charge, I aimed and fired. The laser beam struck out invisibly, soundlessly, and flashed fried a stone spike I aimed at. The immediate increase of heat caused the stone to melt and explode, but little else, unlike the Plasma Ejector before.

I fired four more times, each hitting and destroying a stone spike, before I nodded in approval.

Placing the weapon back on, I realized I didn’t have any other energy capacitors for it. I couldn’t just summon those like I could other weapons, since Protoculture was not commonplace.

Taking out a fuel cell, I transmuted it, and some more raw material, into a dozen energy capacitors, and placed them into storage. I paused and took out one last fuel cell and decided to see about one last test.

“I made the bike, the armor, fuel, and ammo…so why not complete the ensemble?”

With focus, and materials, it was but a moment of focus, and a full powered and equipped H-90 Gallant appeared. A fully modular weapon system, it basically was a gun that could be a pistol, a sub-machine gun, or a rifle. I made the entire thing, so it was a rifle. Plus, dozens of magazines for its energy cap needs. I placed those into storage, and a few on my person, and stowed the weapon on the Cyclone.

I looked it over, a small amount of pride in my work leaked through, but it was buried as I focused on the mission. Climbing aboard, I activated the motorcycle, and the 1,190cc protoculture fired rotary engine spun up like a small jet engine. With a shift to first, I took off like a rocket out of the gate, and into the distant city.

The landscape was a blur as I approached the maximum speed for this model, one hundred and seventy-five miles per hour. Upon reaching that I hit the thrusters which increased that to two hundred and thirty-five miles per hour for a bit before slowing back down. The trip which took over ten minutes to make from my compound, took only a few minutes before I had to slow down to nothing.

I let out a breath. “What a rush that was. Wooo~.”

Glancing around, seeing no stone monsters were about, I flicked the switch, and within a moment, the motorcycle transformed and attached itself to me, becoming a suit of power armor.

Rifle in hand, and mini-missiles ready, I grinned with confidence that I could face the challenges now.

Glancing at my HUD’s motion tracker, I felt myself freeze when it detected movement one hundred and twenty feet to my right and above. Looking up, I stared into the face of a large Lobster Bird. Now that it wasn’t dark, I could see it was less of a bird and more a bat…made of stone. Oh.

It roared before jumping off the building and diving at me. With a jolt, I jumped to my side and fired off a laser blast. My shot missed, but it missed me as well, swooping past me and rising into the air. I turned quickly and took aim, before firing off a burst shot. It veered away, making my shots burn through the air harmlessly.

I hissed a curse at the waste of energy, as it turned and dove at me once more. It got closer, but missed as I jumped at the last second. Once more I fired a burst, and this time I was pleased to see it hit. The creature screeched in pain as amplified light burned into its body to the point of combustion stone. My grin fell when it broke apart and died before the other four pulses had even struck. I stared as its dead body fell to the ground, breaking in chunks of stone, as the molten blood within cooled down and hardened into stone itself.

I sighed. “Well…it works…but it’s really powerful. So single shots only until otherwise.”

I looked at the energy capacitor and saw it had only eighty-four shots left. I had to conserve my energy, as I only had so much protoculture.

“Next time, I need to make a lot more.”

Seeing nothing on my motion tracker, I left behind the smoldering corpse and began my search for food and answers in earnest.