The War Machine
Chapter 23: Meeting With a Changeling Queen Part 3
During the night, I've recharged my core and Luna has made two-thousand, four-hundred and six 7.62mm rounds for my death machine minigun before she raised the moon and taught Eve for a while longer before retiring till midday.
Once charged, I step out of my station and exit the workshop. I notice a few of the thestrals still patrolling the area in the early morning sunrise while the others get some rest. One of them flies down to me and salutes.
"Good morning, sir," she greets me. She's a couple inches shorter than her Captain, Night Hawk.
"Good morning. Please inform your Captain that I will begin their training later today as I have prior arrangements to keep. We shall begin once I've returned," I tell her and she nodded.
"Yes, sir," she replies and flies off to the camp.
'Father, shall I inform mother of your departure should she awaken before your return?' Eve asks me through the comms.
'You may,' I reply before activating my jet skates and head out to the diamond dog den.
The trip doesn't take long and I arrive at the large open iron gates of the den, the antenna for their radio's to work inside is still up and functional. The two guard dogs at the gate perk up at the sight of me and I note their tails are wagging.
"Alpha! Is honour seeing you again!" the left guard says to me with a bow.
"I've just come to see how your progress is coming along," I reply and they let me pass. I see a few other races wandering in and out of the den with materials and other items; for trading, most likely.
After passing the lively market area which looks very well maintained, I enter the main cavern and find it's been improved remarkably with a pool of sparkling water, a crystal floating overhead to provide light to all, sitting in the middle of the room to act as a gathering place. I figure the crystal was very likely sold to the Den from a unicorn at some point.
"Alpha! Welcome back," Spot walks over from the town hall they've built and greets me looking much better since I last saw him. He's wearing a small suit with a couple of gems sticking out of the chest pocket.
"Thank you, how are you and the others fairing?" I ask him. I can tell by just looking around that they're faring well, better clothes, tools, homes, and they all look much happier.
"We are good! Ponies and minotaurs very friendly now, they trade cloth and food for metal and gem. I dare say we do better than Alpha-King himself!" he replies with a smile.
"That is good to hear. I'll be needing gold and gems later to pay Luna's guards, will you be able to mine and gather some?" I congratulate him before getting down to my reason for being here.
"Of course! You help us be better, we help you however you need!" he replies happily and whistles loudly. Two guards walk over and bow to Spot. "Gather two carts of gold and gems! Alpha requires them," he tells them and they run off to get what they were told to.
"Thank you, Spot. If you require anything else, let me know," I tell him and he nods.
"Thank you, Alpha! I shall keep our home well and happy while you away," he says and bows.
"Have the carts delivered to my workshop later today, I'll also have some more tools made for you to take back," I inform him before turning around and head back to the entrance where many non-dogs stare or move out of my way.
Once outside, I use my jet skates to return to the workshop.
I've returned before Luna has awakened and began making plans on my Trailer's computer for a magic powered rifle. After witnessing Twilight's rifle and all the information I've read and processed on magic, I'm certain I can create a powerful long ranged sniper rifle utilising magic. Whether or not it'll be a beam or projectile type will remain to be seen.
It's close to midday and I've designed the body of the rifle after the anti-tank GX-20 sniper rifle. It's two metres long and has a scope that can zoom up to twenty times more than a human eye can see. I plan to make a large battery magazine that would be estimated to hold ten rounds before needing to reload or recharge.
I'm temporarily broken out of my thought processes when Luna yawns while leaving her room.
"Good afternoon, mother," Eve greets her.
Luna yawns again and walks over to the far corner where her food is kept in cupboards. "Good afternoon, Eve," she replies and retrieves an apple. "I take it the diamond dogs are doing well?" she asks me as she walks over.
"Very. They're prospering and trade with the other races is going well for them. Their quality of life has improved and the den is looking more and more like a town than the hole it used to be," I reply and step out of my Trailer.
"What were you doing?" she asks me and tries to look inside at the computer.
"I was designing a magic based sniper rifle; right now I have the frame planned out, but I just need to work on how it'll function next," I reply.
"What's a sniper rifle?" Luna asks me confused.
"It's a long barrelled rifle that is extremely accurate and can hit targets over a mile away, depending on weather, ammunition calibre, and the shooter's aim," I reply.
She goes wide eyed and stares at me. "Could we use that to take out Jackaal from outside Gryphonstone?" she asks me with wide eyes.
"Possibly, but I'll need a clear line of sight and I don't know if magic will even make an effective projectile for a weapon like this. If it doesn't, then I can always try to make it into a railgun using magic to increase the projectile's speed and accuracy," I explain to her and head over to the second Titan Tank still showing some damage from our attack on the gryphon outpost.
"I see, magic does dissipate the longer it's not supplied with more magic... the projectile would most likely fade away before reaching the distance you want," she tells me.
"Hmm, very well, a railgun it will have to be," I reply and head back into the trailer to begin work on altering the magazine to use .50 calibre rounds and make the barrel accelerate the bullet out of the weapon without generating recoil. I'm sure I can handle any additional recoil it may produce, but should I allow Luna to use it, I don't want it flying out of her grip.
"And what is this railgun?" she then asks me looking over my shoulder at the design on screen.
"A railgun is an electromagnetic projectile launcher, that foregoes explosive or propellant like gunpowder to launch the projectile down the barrel at over three kilometres a second," I explain and finish changing the design.
"Three kilometres a second!?" she exclaims shocked.
"Correct, this will make an effective anti-vehicle weapon and sniper rifle," I say and head out of the Trailer. "Now if you'll excuse me a moment, I should begin the thestrals training," I tell her and head for the door.
She follows me outside where I see ten of the thestrals up and about. I walk over to them and they look up towards me.
"Get your soldiers together, Captain Night Hawk," I tell the thestral Captain.
"Sir? We're guards, not soldiers," he replies, confused.
"After I'm through with you, you'll be soldiers and greater than the Royal Guards are, I can promise you that. You'll also have access to better armour, weapons, equipment and medical," I explain to him making them all mumble to each other.
"If it will help protect, Princ... Lady Luna, we will do it," he says confidently.
"Very well. Firstly I want you to run fifty laps around the workshop, then I want you to rest for ten minutes before doing fifty more laps flying. I'll work on building an obstacle course for you over the next couple of days," I tell them and they all salute before running off gathering the others and then proceed to run their laps.
"So what kind of course will this be?" Luna asks me.
"A standard one humans use, just altered to accommodate pony physiology," I reply and head inside to retrieve the materials I'll need for the course.
Two Days Later
The obstacle course is up and the thestrals are beginning their first attempts at it. Most are having trouble climbing the rope nets, but they excel at leaping over and ducking under the log hurdles, as well as the barbed wire course. Right now I'm just looking at their current physical condition, which at the moment is good.
I've continued with my railgun design with Luna's help during the integration of the magical coils it'll need around the barrel to pull the projectile through the barrel. We'll need a lot of the runes Twilight used for her rifle along the coils all chained together feeding the others to make them stronger.
Twilight came by and said she'll be staying in Ponyville for a week as her brother is visiting for a while. Trixie is spending time with her coltfriend and might not return until after her foal is born.
The diamond dogs arrived with two carts of gold and gems that I’ll be using to pay the thestrals with as promised, they also took back more tools for mining and digging.
I've left Captain Night Hawk to watch over his thestrals while we wait for Celestia and Chrysalis to show up. It doesn't take long and Celestia arrives via flying chariot.
"Hello, Adam. Hello, Luna. I take it Chrysalis has yet to arrive?" she asks us and I shake my head.
"Not yet," I reply and continue watching the thestrals.
"What's all this?" Celestia asks confused while watching the thestrals train.
"The night guards wanted to serve Luna still, so I offered them payment, equipment, and training for their services," I reply.
"Training? The night guards were already trained," she tells me with a frown.
"No offence to you, Celestia, but your guards’ training and tactics are outdated and put your troops at risk; the death count you suffered during our assault showed that. I'm going to be teaching these thestrals human tactics and strategies," I reply. A thestral then yelps as she trips on the wire grid trying to hop through them quickly.
Luna winces as the mare's chin slams into the ground. A couple of other thestrals come over and help her up and lead her away to get checked out.
Celestia glares at me for my honest opinion on her guards. "I myself designed the guard’s training program four-hundred years ago," she tells me in a stern tone.
I turn to look at her and if I had eyebrows I would be raising one right now. "That would explain a few things, you haven't tried to improve or add to it? The humans who built me always strive to better themselves, they push beyond their limits. It's one of the reasons I exist: without them expanding their limits, I wouldn't be alive," I reply turning my attention back to the training thestrals.
Celestia was about to retort, but a buzzing sound I recognise as changeling wings comes from the Everfree Forest getting my focus. "They're here," I announce, distracting Celestia from whatever she was going to say.
I detect three changelings coming our way and see Chrysalis with two drones following her.
"She's looking better than the last time I saw her," the white alicorn comments.
The thestrals stop their training and keep an eye on the newcomers. Chrysalis eyes the Apache on the workshop's roof before landing a few metres away from us.
"Welcome, Queen Chrysalis," I greet her and she nodded to me.
"Thank you, Adam. I must say I'm surprised that all these ponies are here, are you raising an army of your own?" she chuckles at me with a grin.
I chuckle in return and shake my head. "No, they're here to protect Luna," I reply.
"I see..." she says and turns to Celestia. "Hello, Celestia..." she greets the alicorn with a neutral tone.
"Hello, Chrysalis... how are you?" Celestia asks timidly.
"Oh you know, starving slowly after you rejected to help us all those centuries ago," the changeling Queen replies sarcastically.
Celestia's ears go flat against her head with a regretful expression on her face. "I... I was fearful for my ponies. I thought you would end up draining all the love out of them making them hateful and cruel... I, I let my paranoia get the better of me. Only now that we’ve learnt more about your people do I regret my actions," she says sadly, head hanging low in regret.
"And because of that paranoia, my changelings have suffered for centuries! Did you know the only time I've had a decent meal since then was from Adam when he came to us?" Chrysalis tells Celestia with a frown.
Celestia winces and closes her eyes. "I know saying sorry won't be enough... but I wish to make amends," she says to the Queen.
Said Queen snorts and looks away. "Then you can start by getting those crystals you promised working," Chrysalis replies still with her frown.
"Of course," Celestia says and looks up at her. "We've almost got them working right, it shouldn't be more than a week or two now... but until then, would some of my magic be enough?" she offers the Queen who looks shocked.
"Sister? You would give some of your magic?" Luna asks surprised.
Celestia smiles sadly and nodded. "It was my fault that they're in this state in the first place. I have to make it right," she replies and walks over to Chrysalis.
The Queen backs up a step with a stunned expression. "Y-You would allow me to feed off you?" she asks slowly.
"A little, I still need to raise and lower the sun," the white mare replies and taps her horn to the Queen's.
Chrysalis gasps as magic flows into her horn making her legs shake, the holes in her body all close and her ribs are no longer showing. The Queen's legs give out and she collapses to the ground panting before a loud belch escapes her.
Luna giggles at the disoriented changeling and smiles.
"I'm afraid that is all I can give," Celestia says sadly.
From the expression on the Queen's face, I'd say it was more than she was expecting.
"We're afraid our Queen is unable to continue, do you have a place for her to rest and process the lov... magic she was given?" one of her guards asks, surprised his Queen is smiling contently.
"She can use my bed for now," Luna offers and levitates the twitching Queen whose eyes are glowing bright green.
The two changeling guards follow her into the workshop where she and Eve will both keep an eye on them.
"That turned out well," I comment to Celestia who looks upset still.
"I didn't know I put them through such hardships... just because of rumours and fear," she replies and sighs. "Please inform me when she awakens, I would like to continue our... discussions," she asks me.
I nodded in reply. "Very well, Celestia."
She smiles slightly and then takes off back to Canterlot on her chariot.
I then turn to the shocked-looking thestrals. "Get back to training!" I order them and they snap out of it before running the course again.
I head inside and to the back where Luna's room is to find Chrysalis on Luna's bed babbling to herself with a smile.
Luna turns to look at me and giggles. "She'll be fine, she's just overfed and... I guess high on the magic in her system right now," she tells me while the two changelings look nervously at me.
"I see, I take it you'll be looking after her while she's out?" I ask her.
"Yes, these two will inform me if anything changes," she replies gesturing to the Queen's two guards.
"Alright, I'll be in my Trailer working on my design then," I tell her getting an affirmative.
I then head back to my computer and continue work on the magic railgun design.
good job
I'm seeing the rail gun from mgs4.
That seems unnecessary.
I love this story and i bow to bask in your glory, oh great Master Urimas
7572006 Ah was supposed to be "Raised" thanks for spotting that.
7572010 no problem, Lord Urimas
Oh the lolz Chrissy high on magic oh urimas I love this why can't anyone else do the things you do it's awesome
7572003 after researching that railgun, and the sheer size of it, might I suggest instead the railgun from Halo 5? Since the ponies are smaller than Adam, and (assuming that Adam is about the size of the playable character in MGS4) the MGS4 railgun is almost as big as a human, that would seem rather unwieldy for a pony to use, no? Whereas the Halo 5 railgun is smaller, more manuverable, and has a nifty little mechanism that allows for easy insertion of a new round into the chamber when you go to reload, which would allow for better user ergonomics...
7572030 But Luna has alicorn magic, who says she can't just super grip it with telekinesis? If she can just barely lift Adam (1.6 tons) surely she can lift a large rifle.
7572036 yes, that is so, but designing a whole new weapon system that only two individuals (three if you include Celestia, but you know she likely wouldn't touch it) would ever use? That seems like a large waste of resources, no? We've already seen how efficient Adam tries to make things, and that right there is basically the opposite of his modus operandi. I'm looking more along the lines of a weapon that more units could use, much like real-world anti-materièl units that basically fit the same role that Adam is looking to fill here. He is already helping the Equestrian war effort with supplies, training, and new tactics, so this could be one more thing placed in there.
7572030
I was thinking it would be scaled down for Adams use and the scheme of it just matched up to his overall look.
7572049 Not if he's only making one and for his own use in mind as only unicorns can really use his firearms. (as shown by only unicorns using the arcana rifles.)
7572052 but scaling down a weapon proportionately means also scaling down caliber. OP has said it is a relatively large-caliber round (.50 is a very large caliber round for the theories on em-powered weaponry, most use slugssized at 2mm or less), which the Halo 5 weapon has already for its smaller size, whereas the MGS4 is l, at its current size, said to use a 4mm slug (for a reference point, .50 inches is 12.7mm). Shrinking the weapon would mean condencing the weapon's caliber as well, less you risk shredding the weapon apart with each use of it, let alone risk of injury to the operator - there is a little thing known as Newton's Third Law in play here...
Alive.
Not created. Not built. Alive.
Nice touch there.
7572056 yes, but then since they can use Arcana rifles, along with other offensive-based magic spells, why would he currently need to provide anything to them? What about the pegasi or earth ponies, who were basically stuck using flintlocks or archery in the stead of archana rifles due to their lack of ability to actively manipulate magic like that? Should he not create something that pegasi or earth ponies can operate? Such as a smaller, pony-portable rail weapon?
7572003 I was seeing the Gauss rifle from Doom
7572079
Yeah I going to say magic is going to bend and break the rules while Adam adjust to trail and error runs.
7572079 He's going to make a rig for the thestrals to have a LMG strapped to their right side and an ammo box on the left to do attack runs. also a back mounted sniper rifle like weapon using a helmet like visor to show where the barrel is pointing. He has plans to weaponize the ponies... that sounded wrong.
7572094 well for that, you don't need to use a railgun in the first place for the theatrals, all you need is an M249 on one side and an M14 on the other, and you're good to go. No need to even design a Railgun in the first place then!
But alas, he is still developing it, no?
Also, if he just wanted to weaponize Ponies, he'd just have to find out how to condence their adorable into a usable dosage and fling it like a Molotov Cocktail at his enemies...
I love seeing this update. I think i've read all your stories so far.
7572104 simple throw a sad applebloom at 'em
orig15.deviantart.net/ba5f/f/2014/031/5/6/sad_apple_bloom_by_mysticalpha-d4ah2rd.jpg
There is no sutch thing as to many bullets.
overkill is best kill.
What Celestia just did was ofering a bufet but presenting it like it was a afternoon snack. Perfect.
Railguns are cool, especially magic powered ones.
Well, hopefully relationships with the Changelings continue to improve, it would be interesting to see some Changelings infiltrators go into Gryphonstone to do some sabotage.
7572094 god damn it man!! Why are you so good at this!?!?!? TEACH ME YOUR WAYS SENPAI!!!
Thing about a railgun is that it needs to be VERY long to work. If its not long enough then the electromagnets would not turn off quick enough where the best case would be a slow moving bullet, worst case would be that the bullet doesn't leave the barrel at all, being stuck to one of the magnets.
7572790 Who said anything about magnets? This bitch be using magic yo!
7572797 Telekinesis then instead of magnets? I think it would still encounter the same problem unless it's more of a slingshot then a fling(Slingshot being a constant force pushing it rather then a fling being a pulling force)
7572810 He'll borrow the same system Twilight's Arcana Rifle is using, runes along the inner barrel pushing magic (or in this case a bullet) out the barrel.
Railgun ftw!
7572831 not just any railgun a certain magical railgun.
7573102
7572810 keep in mind he's centuries ahead of us and has knowledge of technology that we haven't even thought of yet.
7573499 Yes. But, last time I checked, if a force is strong enough to pull metal that far that fast then if it isn't 'turned off' BEFORE the bullet reaches it then it would get stuck to it. Technology may change but physics don't. If two things are attracted then they will at one point collide and over come other forces to STAY that way, even a computer wouldn't have time to turn off that force before that happened leading to a highly ineffective bullet. All I was saying is that the barrel was going to have to be much longer then most sniper riffle barrels, not that it wouldn't work -.-
7574134 untrue. people have made very weak handheld railguns out of household stuff. the most powerfull in the world have been able to punch a projectile the size of a paint chip threw a 12" plate. the problem is charging and capacity. which i would guess magic would make null.
7572790 people have made handheld ones out of crap laying around there home. its not that hard.
7574412
Let's hope the charging part doesn't drain a unicorn... to death. Big batteries will need a lot of power. And why all the complaints about the length of the railgun? Isn't that what bipods were designed for? So what if it looks more like a techy PTRS-41 (Russian anti-tank rifle), your target is almost two miles away and you're going to need all the accuracy and ballistic velocity you can get out of that barrel. Give Adam some time, he's starting with spears and bows after all.
And anything he makes could be copied and used to take out a Princess for example. Making it so only an alicorn could power it gives it a failsafe to prevent another unfriendly country from shooting back with them.
7572406
Except for when your ammunition stockpiles are on fire...
I kind of want to see Adam make a stupid over powered as hell one shot cannon. Just to see what he would brace it against, besides the obvious of the ground. Stupid because it would only get used once, then it would either be out of ammo, or just self destructed due to a single successful use. Sort of like the Final Stage weapon from the last episode of Big O.
Sweet! An update! I hope this means there's more to come soon!
7575061 I guess thats true.
7575112 o god I love big o
7574134 That's just it, his computers probably are fast enough with a normal length barrel.
7576513 It does not necessarily need to be whole computer but just processor made specifically for one single purpose... All you need is when to turn it on and when to turn it off ... so... pull the trigger to turn it on and sensor or, since the bullet is standardized with all that superior mathematic precision, simple time-limit on how long it is supposed to be on and do not forget to take reaction time of used components to account
So one of my concerns here is that Adam is a AI housed inside his Titansteel body. If anything were to disrupt or corrupt or destroy his hard drives or processors and such then he would cease to exist. That is unless he either has a copy of himself for such a emergency. His memories as well I believe are stored inside the trailer. So it would also make sense for him to at least have a back up plan in case something goes south. Since this isn't set to far in the human's future I can't suggest more ideas that would make sense without breaking away from the current timeline. His body I understand is nearly indestructible with the ponies and other races current technology but you never know whats around that corner. This is just a nagging thought that I thought I'd bring up.
Another thought I had was the fact he has hard drives. Those in themselves are a defect to his design as they can only process so fast and can fail rather easily compared to some other sci-fi variations of storage. Plus his knowledge base of humanity shows he has quite a in depth database of almost everything about humans from our history to weapons to our movies, etc. He could have learnt this all from the internet but to not only have storage for it but also skill sets such as blacksmithing and being able to create complex circuitry and circuit boards and processors.....just cause he's a machine doesn't mean he knows how they are made. I find it hard for a bunch of hard drives to hold all this info plus extra for day to day storage of his ever increasing memory.
His knowledge of military training is understandable but the creation of all military weaponary and ammunition and vehicles is a bit over board. I'll roll with it but this lack of this part backstory is a bit of a hole wherein he has knowledge that we never saw him attain, even though we were with him from his birth.
From my understanding the military wanted a soldier not a jack of all trades. I'm not even sure that his father could have properly coded all those skills into him within the limited time frame he had with the A.I. program.
Also you should note that hard drives tend to corrupt and fail within 5-10 years and their read-write speed slows down approaching that time frame.
7578819 Wow, my rage for walls of text almost made me blow a blood vessel, but thanks for the feed back. Most of the data he has is stored on the server in the Trailer which he just accesses when needed, it's where Eve is learning from as well.
As to how he knows so much, he had nothing to do during the nights he was left alone at the base, so he downloaded all he could learn to the server.
He also constantly updates his memories and experiences to the Trailer as well for just as you said, in case he unexpectedly suffers critical damage.
7578911 That still leaves the issue of memory capacity. Even the trailer can only hold so much on something as simple as a hard drive, even server grade ones.
I don't typically leave walls of text, but I felt it necessary to give you some feedback in this regard.
7578943 How much can a military server hold? I'd like to say the Trailer's one is more advanced than compared to our day's tech.
7578973 So after some research one center I found is a 1 Million sq. ft. structure that houses a server that contains a estimated 3-12 exabytes of storage capacity and info. So as far as I'm concerned that can maybe hold all the info you've gathered so far. Plus Adams memory but it will run out. Also server centers like these need to be maintained daily with proper on-going maintenance. This satisfies my one capacity on space but still these drives will still fail over a time period of 5-10 years. Pushing that gap a little more with technological advancement is only slightly likely within the next 20 years in our time.
But all that space is only because of the sheer size of the building. I doubt you could cram that all into the trailer and still have room for everything else. Soooo..... good luck figuring out this dilemma for sure.
7579572 Hmmm... I could have Adam build a basement as a data centre for everything he learns and use magic nonsense to preserve or at least lengthen the time they degrade.
7580012 Super magical mega storage solid state drives? :D
7582177 Quite.