Chapter 30: The problem with C.A.Ts and D.O.Gs

Ice was extremely tired by this point so he laid down on the crash couch.

He awoke several hours later to a weight on his chest.  The small catlike drone had been laying on top of him just like a real cat would.  He couldn't help but stare at it.  This was a new development.

"Um, Raven? Why is the drone laying on top of me?"

"I felt you needed a companion since you were lonely. The drones optical camouflage can look like any feline you want; you merely need to picture it in your mind." The AI answered him.

Of course Ice immediately thought of the little cat his neighbor had.  It was mean and constantly got out.  Everytime he had been near that cat it tried to bite him.

The drone immediately blurred, appearing as that tiny little bastard.  Ice stared at the cat and couldn't help himself, he just started laughing.  It was accurate right down to the chewed on ear and the neon pink bow Mrs. Johnson insisted the cat loved.  It got worse when it cocked its head to the side staring at him with a look of befuddlement.

He finally got himself under control after several minutes.  "Yea, thank you Raven I did need that."

After getting another thing of black bread and water from the store, Ice walked outside.  The small Industrial drone had stacked the broken drone parts near the ship and for some reason was dragging logs from the forest down to the ship. It was a lot stronger than he thought it would be.

"Ice, would you like to select a location for our planetary basecamp?"

Survival quest:  Log Cabin

Select a location for a planetary Basecamp

Protect this location

Survive

Reward: 300 points

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Ice groaned.  He had always hated area defense missions in games and here he was about to do one on an alien planet.

Ice looked at his surroundings.”Well, we can’t build this on a beach. Raven, are we capable of moving the ship in any capacity?”

“Yes, the Industrial Drone has the capability to move the ship short distances but not rapidly.”

Ice nodded to himself before walking off the beach towards the forest.  He thought he remembered a small clearing before the trees started that would do nicely.

---

The Emperor's ancient augmented eyes gazed upon the celestial star chart, keeping conscious amidst the ever-monotonous clicking and whirring of the automatons around him, the search for new rifting worlds. For only a flickering moment, barely perceptible even to his senses, there was a subtle change to the air around him, as if it was statically charged.

How long had it been since he last felt that, the sensation of another System User? Was it when the last one besides himself had fallen to the dark denizens of those abyssal rifts?

He remembered his brother and sister Users falling to the rift planets one by one. Buying time for the citizens to evacuate had not been won cheaply.  

Another System turned red on the map as he watched.  "Francis,  send the fleet to evacuate planet SFRA-10.  How is the search for that new user going?"  The Emperor's neural augments supplied the information without a sound.  

When had been the last time he heard another voice.  Even the Emperor's AI no longer spoke.  He gazed at the map as it highlighted the small remains of the empire, showing the parts that had been searched.  No sign of a new user.  Had he been mistaken.  No, he was sure that feeling was right.  A new user had appeared.  

It was his responsibility to help the new user.  Just maybe, between the two of them, they could protect what remained of the Empire of Aligned Sentients from those damn creatures.

First he had to find them.  He hoped the user had appeared in what was left of the empire and not one of the Rifted worlds.  Not a planet like where the others died.  Not VYBZ-8, the former capital planet of the Empire.  No one had survived the attack besides him.  And he only survived because of the Clockwork Clone Augmentation he had purchased.  

He drummed his metal capped fingertips on the edge of the map.  The tapping in time with the whir from the many nearby clockwork automatons.

He thought about the day the others fell.  The day he became Emperor.   Only crowned because he was the sole survivor in the tragedy that claimed the lives of his friends. The circumstances haunted him for a thousand years. This was his greatest failure.

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