“Sooo…” I started, staring up at the heavy metal superstructure that was now embedded in the middle of the shelter, “What do I o do to plete a building?”
I thought you’d already have some ideas about that. You were very fident that building a school was the best course of a.
“I thought I’d just use points to buy what I needed. Beyond that? No clue. I used to take things apart, not put them together.” I walked over to the heavy beam, and knocked on it. Even though it was a high tier metal, it felt more like a polymer, or ceramic. It passed seamlessly into the foundations. There was no sign of damage oher the floor or roof, it was like the metal had always been there. Barricade had provided me with a skeleton, the metal girder framework for a building, but the rest of the structure to me.
“So there are five floors within the shelter, then an additional ten floors on top of it. I’m not going to ect the two, in order to keep the shelter secure.” I tried to picture what the finished building might look like. “I think I’ll have hydroponi the top five floors, as a way to get food for the kids. The school occupy everything from the roof level up to hydroponics. That should be enough space to start.”
That’s it? You don’t want anything special?
“Well, I’m pnning oing civilians in, so I’ll probably need some stairs and catwalks to access that area. I’m not ed about internal security, there’ll be kids ing in regurly, and I use bears to manage access. Externally, I’d like to have APS hardpoints, just in case we run into another incursion.”
That shouldn’t be too difficult te, it’s just a question of hooints you are willing to spend, and where you want to focus. To start, I would reend a Css I Building Materials catalog, Css I Hydroponics Catalog, Css I Geically Modified Seeds, some sort of Css I stru Drones, and a couple Css 0 Furniture and Utility options. I’ve already created a few hundred floor pn alternatives for you, but if you pn on building other structures ter, you may want to i in some sort of architect AI to help you pn.
“’t I use the bears for stru?” I asked, gng over at the far side of the room, where several rows of bears were standing idle. “I am building twelve a day.”
You could, but I wouldn’t reend using them for anything more than heavy bour. They’re not designed for stru, sress would be slow.
“I guess… At least I use some of the spares to carry materials up from the matter refiguration maes. Since I have close to a hundred units, most of them are idle.”
A, you haven’t halted produ.
“Yeah, well, if I had a hundred ile I might have aplished more. I’m not sure how many more I’ll make, but I’ll know when I have enough.”
Without a doubt.
“Anyways… I think I’ll hold off on the purchase of the hydroponics equipment, and architect AI, for now. I wait until the building is plete to install the hydroponics equipment, but we’ll probably o at for the power drain. Maybe you could include a power floor in the designs? I’ll probably o install geors iure,” I asked, as I tried to picture what other equipment I’d need.
Already done.
“Anything else you’d reend then?” I asked, with a frown. Nyx was super helpful, but sometimes I just felt slow, and stupid, while talking to them. I wondered how many tingehey’d pnned for, that I’d never even sidered.
Perhaps it would be worth spending your st token on Css II Building Materials. It would be retively simple to upgrade most fixtures within the building, but not the structure. strug it out of Css II materials would make it nearly imperable to most terrestrial ons, aremely difficult for the antithesis to brea the future.
“And I could produce those materials with the elements I’m already colleg?”
Absolutely, the refigurators will break the source materials down aract the elements they here’ll be a fair bit of waste, but the structure will be stronger for it.
“Fine, how much?”
Five hundred and a token for the Css II materials catalog, then another four thousand for the base molecur formus fss, crete, metal and wood-ike posites.
I flinched, “That seems a little expensive.”
They’ll have simir textures, and uses to those terrestrial materials, but every one of them would be able to withstand a sustaitack from a model Twenty-Three, and not suffer much more than a few scratches.
“Expe worth it, I guess,” I said with a sigh. “What about the stru bots?”
There are millions of different options avaible, so it really depends on your personal preference. I would reend the Swallow flying drohey’re fairly rge, but mobile for their size, and strong enough to ferry materials to the higher floors.
“So no bears?”
You COULD make more bears, but you’d need another catalog for that. There’s a catalog that tains both flying stru rigs, and a stru analog of your bat bots. Higher strength, and preovement, but slower movement. They even have ied tools.
“And that would cost?”
Awo hundred for the catalog, two hundred for each flying rig, and fifteen hundred for the blueprints for the bots.
“ we get started with just the materials and bots?” I asked, as I squinted my eyes at the skeletal building.
Pretty much. Let me show you my initial design for the shell, we discuss the interior yout ter. I’ll include a list of other, minor purchases you’ll o plete it.
My augs fshed with a 3D representation of a building. It had a lot of gss windows, which were an oddity for the uy, but beyond that it wasn’t anything special. It retty much just the exterior, floors, a set of stairs, and elevator shaft. What really caught my eye was the massive list of blueprints I o plete it. Cabling, fasteners, door meisms and hundreds of other small doodads required for strug a building. I flinched when I saw the list.
“Is all this really necessary?” I asked, “It’ll cost a fortune.”
Necessary? No, but I do reend them. You manufacture each item using the Css II materials, and having the blueprints means you’d be fully prepared for any stru projects iure.
“And the cost?”
Only a thousand points. I curated the blueprints so you’d have everything you’d need.
“That’s not so bad… So the total is,” My impnt kicked in, helpih the math, “Seven thousand five hundred, plus two hundred for each lift drone. Say five of those, so eight thousand five hundred, and that’s before the hydroponid bots.” I sighed, that would really cut into my points, but at least it was things I could re-use iure.
“Fine, I’ll sider it all an iment. As soon as the purchase goes through, spool up the mass fabricator to start creating the materials, and s one of the industrials over to create the stru drones.”
As soon as I finished, four massive drones, each the size of a mid-sized car, appeared. They had rge ste partments underh, and dozens of maniputors, welders, and other attats I didn’t even reize. The drones flew over to my mass fabricator, waiting for the first bataterials to be created.
That leaves you with 17138 points. The swallow drones will start putting down floors as soon as they have materials, and your stru drones will start ohey’re plete.
“You’ve already decided on a facade, and made them look like something ridiculous, haven’t you?”
I HAVE chosen an appropriate facade, but I think they look very noble. Would you like to see them?
“Sure, show me whatever fantasy creature you’ve cooked up this time.” As soon as I asked, my augs fshed up a picture of a chubby rat, with massive buck teeth, and a rge, ft, bck tail. The bot was wearing a hard hat, and a backpack full of different meical arms, eading with a different tool. “What the hell is this?”
It’s a beaver. A semi-aquatiimal that was famous for its building skills.
“You know what? It’s fine. I got used to the moose, I get used to this.” I turned away from the superstructure, and headed towards the residence. In the grand scheme the form of the bots didn’t matter, as long as I got the building started.
What I had to do was much more important, and difficult. I had to talk to the gangs. That bunch weren’t known for being aodating, or in some cases rational, so if I was going to get them to cooperate with me, I was going to have to e up with a pn.
