Thirty-four units of Advanced Salvage was a power he hadn't held since the graveyard cache. It sang in the System's ledgers, a potential that hummed through the Bastion's very bones. Isaac stood before the strategic map, the two paths forward glowing with equal, compelling urgency.
Path One: Immediate military expansion. He could flood the Barracks queue, produce a full fireteam of Grenadiers, a squad of Scouts, and still have salvage left for the Javelin ammunition and more. He could become an unassailable porcupine, a fortress bristling with specialized, lethal units.
Path Two: Industrial breakthrough. The schematics unlocked by the Barracks Level 1 included tantalizing greyed-out nodes: Engineering Bay, Vehicle Bay. They required massive amounts of basic and advanced salvage, and a higher Leyline Synergy, but they promised a quantum leap in capability. The Vehicle Bay, in particular, whispered of a solution to his greatest weakness: mobility and armored projection.
The image of the Reclaimer Beast, a mountain of grinding terror, was seared into his mind. Infantry, even Grenadiers, were insects to that. He needed something that could stand in its path. Something that could not just raid the quarry, but dominate it.
The Land Ironclad. A Bastion tank. A moving fortress.
He opened the Vehicle Bay prerequisite tree. It was a brutal list. The Bay itself required the Engineering Bay first. The Engineering Bay required a Secondary Power Conduit from the Nexus and 50 Advanced Salvage. He had 34. He was close.
But to build a tank, he'd need the Bay, then the schematics, then the resources to fabricate it. It was a pyramid of investment that would consume everything and leave him defenseless during the construction.
The Sergeant, monitoring his focus, spoke. "Analysis: Path One offers immediate tactical security and reinforces current operational patterns. Path Two offers strategic paradigm shift but includes a window of critical vulnerability. The Reclaimer Beast will adapt. Current tactics have a diminishing return."
The unit was right. The Cuckoo gambit would work once, maybe twice more. Then the Beast would learn, or the Convergence would birth a smarter guardian. He needed to win the arms race, not just stay ahead of it.
"Then we don't choose," Isaac decided, a new plan crystallizing. "We do both. We use the salvage to build the infrastructure for the Ironclad, but we do it inside a shell of new infantry. We stretch our resources thin, not break them."
He gave the orders.
First, military expansion. "Barracks, produce two Grenadiers (G-002, G-003) and one Scout (S-002)." This consumed 14 Advanced Salvage but gave him a potent, flexible core of specialists. He now had three Grenadiers (including the retrofitted Mule, which could be re-armed if needed), and two Scouts.
Second, infrastructure. "Manufactorum, fabricate the Secondary Power Conduit node." This was a set of focusing crystals and relay stations that would siphon more energy from Nexus Gamma-7 and stabilize it for major industrial draws. Cost: 10 Advanced Salvage, 20 Essence.
While it built, he sent the two new Scouts, S-001 and S-002, on a coordinated mission. "Map the Convergence's perimeter. I don't want to know where the Beast is. I want to know where it isn't. Find blind spots, terrain features that obscure line-of-sight from the core, old lava tubes, anything a vehicle could use for a covered approach."
The Secondary Power Conduit was installed, a spine of crystalline cabling running from the Core to the outer wall, where it linked psychically with the distant Nexus. The Bastion's power hum deepened, grew more potent.
Leyline Synergy: 1 -> 2 (Stable).
System-Wide Passive Essence Generation: +0.5/hour -> +1.5/hour.
The increased energy flow was immediately palpable. Lights brightened. Machinery ran smoother. The Manufactorum's production speed increased by fifteen percent.
Now, the Engineering Bay. The schematic required the Conduit and 50 Advanced Salvage. He had 10 left. He needed 40 more.
He looked at the Wisp drone, then at the map where the two Scouts were painting a detailed picture of the Convergence's vulnerabilities. "One more haul," he murmured. "A big one. Then we build the future."
Operation Cuckoo, Phase Two, launched that night. This time, with two Wisps (SD-005 and the newly built SD-006). The deception was the same: the Mule with decoys, luring the Reclaimer Beast on a merry chase to the north. But the harvest was doubled. The two Wisps, guided by the Scouts' precise maps, slipped into a deep, shadowed ravine on the southern edge of the ruins—a blind spot. They didn't grab scattered struts. They targeted a partially collapsed, but largely intact, support arch from the fallen Spire. It was a single, curved piece of alloy as big as both Wisps put together.
Working in tandem, they locked their magnetic clamps onto opposite ends. Their motors screamed in protest, but reinforced by the Bastion's new power flow, they held. In a coordinated heave, they lifted the massive arch and, moving in perfect, strained sync, carried it out of the ruin like ants hauling a leaf.
They delivered it to the Manufactorum. The yield was staggering.
Resource Acquired: Gloom-Forged Alloy (Structural Grade). Convertible Yield: 58 Advanced Salvage.
Combined with his remaining ten, he had 68.
It was enough.
"Manufactorum. Cease all other production. Fabricate the Engineering Bay. Priority: Absolute."
For the next 48 hours, the Bastion was a cathedral of construction. A section of the lower Manufactorum was walled off and rebuilt. Gantries rose. Heavy fabricators, capable of casting entire vehicle chassis, were assembled. The sound was a continuous, deafening symphony of industry. The Essence drain was constant, but the Nexus, now synergized, kept pace.
As the Bay took shape, Isaac reviewed the first vehicle schematics it unlocked. Not the Land Ironclad. That was a Level 2 Vehicle Bay project. But it unlocked the 'Warden' Light Patrol Vehicle—a small, fast, open-topped scout car with a front-mounted light repeater. And, more importantly, it unlocked the 'Anvil' Foundry Module, which could reprocess basic salvage into vehicle-grade armor plate at a 1:1 ratio.
He was building the toolbox to build the weapon.
Finally, the noise ceased. The interior doors of the new Engineering Bay slid open with a hydraulic hiss. Inside was a cavernous space smelling of ozone and hot metal. In the center stood the Anvil Foundry, a massive press-hammer unit, and the skeletal outlines of assembly jigs.
Facility: Engineering Bay (Level 1) – ONLINE.
New Capabilities: Advanced Material Processing, Light Vehicle Fabrication, Structural Fortification.
Isaac walked into the Bay, the Sergeant at his side. He placed a hand on the cool surface of the Anvil Foundry. He had his factory within a factory. His Grenadiers and Scouts stood guard at the walls, his new power thrummed in the conduits, and outside, a confused Beast guarded a quarry that was already being mined.
He had taken the first step off the defensive. He had built the anvil. Now, he would forge the hammer. The Land Ironclad was no longer a dream. It was the next item on the production queue.