A technomancer's journey in an apocalyptic world

Chapter 14: Creation of Home Base (Part-3)

An excited group of soldiers had entered the base as they looked at the place with wide eyes taking into the sight of their new home, as they were inspecting the Level 0 floor or what was identified by the name, 'Emergency/Reception', a chime was heard as the elevator opened up as the group who went down first came out of it, their clothes bearing wet marks because of their sweat.

Ryan simply greeted his mother by running and embracing him, Ciara was taken aback as her daughter joined as well then it hit her nose the terrible odor wafting off their clothes making her gag at that as she quickly pushed them off her as she chided them, "Get off you filthy heathens you stink what have you all been doing to make yourself like that."

Michalina grinned at her as she spoke, "But it was so dark and scary we simply wanted to hug you mom after returning from the dark depths."

Ciara glared at her not at all amused as Ryan simply smiled at her when Zhan strolled in, "Major please cut them some slack the underground was really dreary."

Ciara frowned at her as she spoke, "What happened?"

"Ryan led us down the stairs to turn on the power and girl it was scary as we descended into the darkness through those long winding steep stairs, the upper part is nothing the lower floors must be at the very least twice as deep as the upper part not to mention the underground was not only hot but air was not suitable for breathing as we had to some difficulty with breathing and then we worked together in order to turn the generator to power up this place and Ryan was running around flipping this switch and that switch and then the lack of proper oxygen hit him making him collapse on the floor, after the power was turned we went to another room directly above it and switched on the air intake and after that we came up."

Ciara's eyes widen at the summarized verbal report of Zhan as she looked at her children especially at Ryan with concern in her eyes as Ryan waved it off as he spoke, "Meh we are all safe and sound that is all that matters."

Ciara rounded him as she spoke, "That is not a small matter you cannot act so carefree Ryan what if something had happened to you all down there, you wanted to venture down there alone saying it was a surprise did you think what would have happened if something had happened with no one to help you."

Michalina quickly placed between the duo as she spoke, "Mom please lay off him a little there are many things to learn about the place you can scold him later after we are done seeing everything."

CIara sighed at that as she spoke, "Well you do have a point.", before she narrowed her eyes towards Ryan as she spoke, "But that does not mean you are off the hook."

Ryan was simply busy staring at his shoes as Michalina placed a hand on her shoulder as she spoke, "Bro show me the rest of the base will you."

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Ryan seemed to perk up at that as he took her along with others on a tour through the base, it was decided on demand the upper floors to be shown first as such Ryan led them to their future dorm , that had the capacity to hold around 200 people, as they stepped inside they were stunned to see except the lights there was nothing else inside the room not even a bed as such one of them could help but proclaim out loud, "Beds where are the beds."

Ryan shrugged at that as he replied back to her, "Well I ran out of materials while creating the base so beds will have to be formed a little bit later."

The same person looked aghast upon hearing that when suddenly she remembered the rest of the materials that are still present inside their temporary base as she spoke, "But but we have enough to make some there are plenty amongst the rubble that you can morph into bed."

Ryan nodded at that as he spoke, "I can but I will not those are vital resources that are needed for other stuffs without them the production of other items in this base would be incredibly difficult and if you cannot wait for a couple of days well the town still has some houses standing that you can use."

Nikita who was nearby spoke with a frown, "What other things that you need to build? I believe we have enough."

Ryan looked at her incredulously as he spoke, "Really we have everything?", as Nikita nodded at that Ryan spoke with a huff, "What about water? Don't tell me you all are okay with the paltry amount that can be gathered from that pond that is already on the verge of drying up."

Nikita's eyes widen at that as she spoke, "You can get running water?"

Ryan nodded at that as he spoke, "Not only that but we need resources for other things like clothes, weapons and ammunition if I use the resource willy-nilly I fear that those projects will be pushed back at least a few weeks."

Nikita raised her hand indicating Ryan to stop as she began to speak, "Do whatever you need to do to get us proper water and other necessary resources Ryan, beds can wait."

Ryan nodded at that as he resumed the tour, the base was mostly bare except for the vital machines that were necessary for it to work, after the tour was over under Ciara's orders the soldiers began to haul their stuff back to the base as Ryan began to work on his next project.

A few minutes of tinkering and using his powers Ryan finally managed to create 4 machines from the rest of the rubbles, he placed them against the walls each a little over 4 meters tall as others looked at it curiously Ryan went up to complete the setup by attaching them with inlets that down deep inside the earth to the production area, he had originally wanted to conveyor belt but then he though the problems that might arise because of things like rain and what not as such he conveniently used a cover on top of them as well and thus officially and unofficially running out of any materials they had including most of the pots and pans for cooking.

Angela the 'Elf Maiden', as she was being called much to her ire stood by Ryan's side watching at the contraptions that he had placed near the western side of the wall, she could see a few of her fellow soldiers looking down at them from the top of the wall, "Ryan what are this weird machines?"

Ryan wiped the sweat off his brows as he spoke, "Well they are Tier 1 'Resource Harvester' they gather various resources from deep within the bowels of the Earth."

Angela looked at the tall tower like structures with various rotating part on the outside, he could see a ladder going to the top and near the lower part were many buttons and knobs, "So this also need power to run."

Ryan nodded as Angela continued with a frown on her face, "But you have to hook it up right."

Ryan shook his head as he spoke, "Nah I do not need to do so, any machine that I create will automatically get power as long as they are inside the boundaries of the base."

Angela looked confused as she spoke, "How?"

Ryan smiled at her as he spoke, "Magic.", seeing the dubious look on her face Ryan spoke, "Really 'Elf Maiden' Angela you forgot how our world is now a days."

Angela growled at that as she spoke, "Shut up! Do not call me that I hate it."

Ryan looked at her with a frown, since the change had occurred Angela had not taken her change of looks well she looked like some exotic night elf beauty form fiction, and to speak the truth she looked better than some of the models yet the long eyes and slight purple color skin of the night elves made her feel overly conscious of her looks and bitter as well, "Angela look around us you are not the only one who had changed look at aunty Zhan look at her and tell me is she moping around in self pity like we all are changing some like you have changed overnight others are slow, aunty Zhan's changes have granted her enormous strength but what about you, you are not the only one who no longer look like human what about sister Ellie she has wings out of her back not to mention the horn on her head, was she upset I bet she was but she learned to cope with them and they both are using their strength and where as you are drowning in self pit no one knows if this changes are permanent or not or they can be reversed in the future you can at the very least try to work with them make sure that you find your gifts and I do not think they are only related to looks and help others.

Angela balled her fist as she spoke, "You would never understand the pain of changing."

Her words seemed to as if had slapped Ryan, who stood up from his kneeling position as he rounded up her as he literally shouted at her face, "Look in to my eyes, LOOK AT IT YOU GODDAMNED WOMAN!!"

Angela was taken aback before she felt a strong grip on her chin as she was forced to look into Ryan's eyes, it was complete different than it normally used to be, Ryan was ginger haired blue eyed who was considered handsome by many, but now as Angela looked at his eyes which even though had retained the color was completely different than before it looked inhumane like, "Your eyes they look like a robot.", that was the only thing that came out of her mouth as she looked at the blue iris that had miniature mechanical contraptions moving and the sclera it was another story, normal human eyes had blood vessels visible on them running haphazardly but Ryan's eyes were more like lines formed by circuit.

"Bionic the correct term is bionic, the more I use my powers the more I will become the farthest thing from a normal human that is the curse I have to bare for using my power yet I do not care why? Because I refuse to let others die and suffer when my powers could have saved them, my eyes are not the only thing that is changing there are many but unfortunately they are not visible, so do not tell me that I would not understand, my changes took place in the morning you have seen I was carried off to the infirmary with tears of blood flowing from my eyes, and pain what would you know of it, it took 1 minutes and for that duration it felt someone was poking and prodding my eyes with a hot knife."

He released her with a push but before he could continue a voice stopped her, "Brother Ryan enough I will speak with her."

Ryan looked at speaker and saw Ellie standing and glaring at Angela as she spoke, "Brother Ryan if I were to believe you have a tight schedule and as such even after great protest you left the infirmary, not to mention you were ordered not to mention you were ordered not to take any form of stress."

Ryan nodded at that as he let out a deep breath as he spoke, "You are right sister I have many things to accomplish by today, and I will get on with it."

Ellie send a small smile before she dragged off Angela with her as Chloe who was nearby took over Angela's spot their orders were simply, assist Ryan in any way he needed and to make sure he did nothing stupid and Angela caused him to get angry as such as she was dragged off Chloe volunteered herself.

She watched curiously as Ryan opened a case which contained what looked to be a typewriter wired to a screen along with various buttons on its side she watched as Ryan brought out a long wire as he opened a part of the panel and plugged the wire running from the machine to his newly build 'Resource Harvesters', then he turned on the resource harvester which began to let out a small beep every now and then as Ryan went towards the case, Chloe noticed the multiple words had formed on the screen and finally her patient ran out as she asked, "Ryan what is this?"

Ryan looked up to her as he spoke with a grin as he gestured dramatically towards the machine as he spoke, "This, my dear Chloe is a 'Portable Ancient Quantum Stochasts'."

Chloe looked at him with a clueless expression for a moment before she spoke, "A what? Stoke??"

Ryan shook his head as he corrected her, "No no Stochasts, a Portable Ancient Quantum Stochasts."

Chloe was dumbfounded for a moment before realization bleed into her as she spoke, "So it is a computer, a laptop perhaps."

Ryan looked physically struck before he nodded tiredly at that as he spoke, "Yes sister yes it is a computer."

He then turned towards it as he operated it, before he ran to the 'Resource Harvester as he turned on a lever and with a groan certain parts began to rotate, he then followed the actions with the other four as Chloe asked him once again, "So what are you doing with this machines."

As Ryan was gathering his stuff he spoke without looking up, "This resource harvester gather resource from the planet I was simply setting them up properly feeding them with instruction on what they should do and what not well more like prioritizing what is to be gathered and what not to be, if I had allowed them all to gather the same thing it would be taxing and the stuff might not be in great quantity and quality."

Chloe's eyes narrowed the more he spoke the more questions arose in her mind, "Gather what?"

Ryan looked at her as he stood up while he began to speak, "Why Copper, Iron, and Coal those types of things."

Chloe's eyes widen as she spoke, "There are those resource beneath us?"

Ryan gave her a smile as he shook his head as he replied, "I do not know not do I think there is, it simply harvest the resources more like it is like exchanging the resources with the soil beneath it continuously as for how it works well I can launch into theories and what not that has mysteriously appeared in my brain but that I do not understand even a percent of so do not ask me how."

Chloe shook her head as she spoke, "You powers are on different level it is as if it is sentient.", she stopped walking seeing the grimace on Ryan's face as he spoke, "That is something I also wonder often, now let us move I have to create a solution for the water problems."

Chloe looked at him as she spoke, "Will we move out of the base."

Ryan nodded at that as Chloe sighed as she spoke, "Well then wait here for a moment I will have to arrange an escort you know the drill."

Ryan nodded tiredly before he spoke up quickly, "Ah before you leave I want you get at least one of the fliers to come with us I might need them.", Chloe nodded as she left with a brief nod as Ryan looked up towards the sky his mind whirling with various thoughts.