//------------------------------// // The Lab II: Mobilization // Story: The Storm War // by Mint_Keyphase //------------------------------// Date of creation: Nova Aetas 3, Jan 31 January drew to a close as the moon goes down a tiny bit, and back up again. It's easy to lose track of time in the long polar nights, especially when your sleep schedule is all but a mess. But for the past two (or three?) days, I've been putting together a design for a military PoniBot that satisfies my expectations. First, to make room for these modifications, I scaled them slightly bigger than a normal bot, it is a subtle difference, but it would hopefully provide enough room for upgrades, and, if I'm using space efficiently, some extra internal volume for a bigger resonance battery. Next, I had the outer platings switched from aluminium to manganese steel, which is stronger. This is an obvious method of improvement and needs no further documentation. Finally, and most importantly, their hydraulics systems are made with a parallel set, increasing output and redundancy. I finished off by adding some other minor modifications for its new military orientation, like electrodes on its hooves for takedowns and extra shock absorption in certain to reduce the impact of recoil. I kept some of the utilitarian features which I found many unexpected uses for, such as the built in electric screwdrivers, which turned out to be great at clearing out jammed guns and absolutely destroying locks in drill mode; and also the stronger than necessary electromagnet which makes them slightly better in hoof-to-hoof combat, as they can pull metal objects to where they shouldn't be, such as nails out of walls and swords out of hands. With that task done, I can move on to deal with the lack of air defense on my side. It was surprisingly easy to do so, all I had to do was to change out the impact fuse on the artillery shells for a timed fuse. It was a crude method, but it should work well with the makeshift radars I'm using... ...On second thoughts, I should try harder and make something that shoots faster than an artillery to deal with the all but expected swarms of airships. Since airships are most likely unarmored due to weight limits, I can use smaller shells that can be loaded faster and can shoot higher, they will bring the airship down in two or three shots anyways. Most other pieces can just be scaled down, but the biggest problem is trying to have the recoil operations work with the reduced force. I managed to get around it by having a small contraption that would use the escaping gas to supplement recoil. For something thought up in two hours, I felt quite impressed by myself. On second thoughts... No, nevermind, that will be for later, if I keep going on with this I will be up till next week, drawing out blueprints that are ahead of even my technological capability. Date of creation: Nova Aetas 3, Feb 1 And here I am, stepping into February. The moon is still hanging over the land, witnessing all the terrible things unfolding on the surface. Video records of battles are kept for 14 days, at which only videos marked as important will be kept to save on data encoding crystals. This means that after 14 days almost all the enemies that have fallen in combat will only remain a number, or even just an estimate. Not that I'm concerned too much though, and seeing how they pay no care about their injured, I doubt that they'd care either. The captured soldiers at the P.O.W. camps probably lived in better conditions than those in the Storm Empire's army, seeing that they did not even attempt a breakout once. Though the officers are acting the exact opposite, they probably enjoyed many privileges over the soldiers (and may be hated for it, as they now try to keep away from the crowd.) In any case, if I want to stay alive, these numbers should preferably stay as high as possible. Currently the daily kill count is around a few thousand from the nuisance raids, and sometimes a few ten-thousands when they carry out a proper attack. These numbers are nowhere near enough to repel them for long, and some lines are being forced to move back already. Since small arms fire worked well on them, I don't need to do too much about it, I just need to do it faster. A few hours went by and I've designed a effective killing equipment. How ironic is that for me to try to stop an enemy from killing by making something better at killing, guess that's how a war is fought. The weapon in question is a "machine gun", it's a gun with a machine to make it fire bullets continuously as long as bullets are supplied and trigger is held down. By using some of the gas produced during firing to reload, it can pour out hundreds of bullets in a matter of seconds. Any living being caught in the stream of metal would most likely be torn into pieces from the sheer amount of bullets cutting through them. I sent them to the production line directly, no testing needed. This is a relatively simple machine and I'd rather had it pushed into service immediately. I looked outside the window, a minor storm is bringing a large amount of snowfall to this area. It is great because I can lay down another avalanche trap... What have I become, I never thought I would say something like "It's nice to kill them with an avalanche." But they are invading me, and i'll make sure that they are NOT TAKING MY LAND, not even a chance without me putting up a fight. What am I supposed to do now though? I don't know how strong the Storm Empire actually is, and they aren't afraid to put everything on the table, then use all of them as cannon fodder to gain the upper hand. I can kill so many of them, but if they bring more, that number is instantly worthless. What am I supposed to do now?