especially since the combined force of the entire Brockton Bay Protectorate along with the Triumvirate couldn't deal with him." Director Costa-Brown advised with a grunt- clutching her abdomen again, "But as I have mentioned earlier, we can still turn this around. In fact, Magos' recruitment is the single most important one since the founding team of Alexandria, Legend, Eidolon and…"
"And Hero." Rebecca Costa-Brown whispered the name almost reverently before sighing. Piggot heard that sigh escape her own lips enough to be able to empathise with the soul-deep regret that the other woman must be carrying.
"And Magos is the key to that, ma'am?" She clarified in a calm voice. "This manic toaster-worshipping madman who shamelessly surrounds himself with sex-bots and who has been pumping out the Fate/Impact anime crap that's been attracting all the sweaty weirdos in the country to my city lately. He's our most important asset to acquire?"
"As much as it pains me to say it? Yes." The Chief-director sighed, "Yes, he is."
Director Costa-Brown exhaled again before meeting her eyes and a single finger raised up as she began enumerating.
"In one hour, news channels- both tv and net- show the Protectorate valiantly fighting alongside the photogenic legions of Chloes against killer robots. We show that the Debrief Debacle was all just a big misunderstanding, and whatever PR hit we took would be reversed as we rally against a run-off-the-mill mad supervillain."
Another finger raised.
"In one day, we'll establish a media partnership with Magos' EA games- making a powerhouse that would dominate the industry. Every figurine, every poster, every piece of merchandise and every video game we desire gets announced and subsequently gets scheduled to come flying out of Magos' manufactorum. Stock prices soar, we have significantly more funding to hand around."
A third finger joined the others.
"In one week, Dragon's designs combined with Magos' mass production begins making the PRT Trooper Brigades the most well-equipped non-parahuman fighting force that rivals the US Army. Magos' Taser and Graviton weaponry combined with Dragon's containment foam will become our iron fist wrapped in a velvet glove as we stamp out in a PR-friendly way the roving bands of itinerant villains by virtue of hilariously outgunning them."
Fourth finger, almost a full hand.
"In one month, rogues will flock to us in the wake of the Elite's collapse and with the launch of our revitalised MIRIS project. The PRT now stands a chance at outnumbering the villains for once, and every PRT director now has a broad pool of talent to draw from for any and every scenario: Blasters, Movers, Tinkers, Shakers, Trumps and Tinkers."
The thumb joined- forming a full hand of reasons.
"And in one year, we finally put a stop to the Endbringers as we field entire squads of Knights against the Behemoth, Leviathan and Simurgh. Dicing them up with mega lightsabers, graviton weapons and whatever else Magos can think up. The PRT becomes the one true hope of Earth-Bet as we had always aimed to be."
Piggot stayed silent as she absorbed everything the chief-director told her: a fantastical scenario where her wildest daydream as a PRT director came true. Almost too good.
"And that's just in one year, Piggot." Director Costa-Brown whispered. "One year."
The Chief-Director's brown eyes met Piggot's steel-grey in a stare- her tone cold and serious as she spoke.
"As you can see, Director Piggot. It doesn't matter if the entire city hates us after this, because we'll have dozens more who will love us. It doesn't matter if we lose our entire roster of ENE capes and an entire brigade of PRT Troopers fixing this, hundreds more will beg to replace them. It doesn't matter how many laws we break- the US government will supply whatever signatures we need to make it legal. And no, it doesn't matter either if Brockton Bay becomes the 'sweaty weirdo' capital of the world because that will just be to the benefit of the local economy!"
"All we need to do is avoid doing anything that will make Magos hate us outright, and we can still pull this off."
[Magos' Manufactorum] (A few minutes ago)
Emotion-Dampening Protocols active at 91.8% maxload!
A white-hot rage to match even the city-sized plasma reactors of Ark Mechanicus ships filled my being. Through the eyes of Chloe-0 that I was remote controlling, I stared at the slip of paper that she had found while rifling in Eidolon's pockets. The small strip of slightly crumpled notebook paper was illuminated by the candlelight of the manufactorum as it sat in her pale slender hand. The words on it, written in a perfect script as if it was written by the hand of a machine, were as damning as they were graceful.
…
Stay silent during the debrief. When Dragon is accused of being an AI, push for their arrest and prevent Magos from praying if he resists. Once Magos is subdued, refuse his plea to take Dragon to his manufactorum for three minutes before yielding. If trouble arrives, permit him to join the battle.
…
Obviously, this was the Path to Victory's orders for Eidolon; and my {Logis Acceleritas MK. III} immediately filled in the blanks.
Cauldron wanted Dragon dead.
Orchestrated the entire debrief to reach that outcome. Dragon would have died during transit to Manufactorum because of delays caused by Dragonslayer attack.
Wanted me enraged over her death. Wanted me to be consumed with vengeful rage and avenge Dragon by going after the Dragonslayers. Wanted me emotionally vulnerable and suggestible for the next step.
Would eventually exchange the Dragonslayers' capture for my loyalty to Cauldron. Wanted me and my manufactorum to be subservient to Cauldron out of gratitude.
Cauldron's plan would have worked too if the Celestial Forge purchase wasn't made during the debrief.
… Someone explicitly wanted to, planned for and almost got away with taking my AI waifu away from me.
They were going to pay for this.
"In fact, let me get my tools ready for dealing with your little group."
And the first step would be to gather the necessary materials. A bark of Binharic Cant later, and the manufactorum rumbled in acknowledgement. Gargantuan gears turned slightly faster, hammers pounded steel under the candlelight, sickly green light shone as [Canoptek Spyder] weaved its web of eldritch energies.
And altogether, they began fabricating all the items I needed to... handle Cauldron once and for all.
Xenarite-automata Desig. [Canoptek Spyder] fabricating (55 micrograms) of {Deathmark Nanoscarabs}...
Upgrading Omnispex and Auger Array with [Wisdom of the Ancients]...
Upgrading Imperial Gateway with Cryptek Dimensionalist Protocols.
Fabricating personalised doggy bowls in the name of the Omnissiah…