(500 stones Chapter of this Week)
As the Elite troops returned from Saturn, the green Gundam Pilot went to see someone he had not seen for years!
"Setsuna!" Lockon walked over to the ex-Celestial Being's pilot. The sniper noticed that he was no longer a teenager.
Well, that much is given; it has been seven years.
"Lockon."
"That uniform. You are with G-Force?" The brown-haired pilot commented on Setsuna's clothing.
"Of course he is." A boastful voice interrupted them.
The pair looked to the side. There was another man in custom G-Force clothes.
It was Graham Aker.
"Our Young Man over here." The blonde man motioned with his chin at Setsuna. " Tried everything… from working in construction to being a chef. Nothing stuck with him.
At the end of the day, he accepted the offer to become an Imperial officer and serve the Empire." The blonde knight said, arms crossed.
"No one instructed you to explain in my stead." Setsuna sighed, and there was Graham Aker, who came as a bonus with his new job.
"No need to be that stiff. You need to relax." Graham walked over and patted Setsuna's shoulder.
"From what I heard, we are getting a month off. We could visit Jupiter's colonies. I heard they have one of the best ski resorts on one of the moons."
"...Did you just say Jupiter's moon?" Lockon's curiosity got piqued.
"Wait… you don't know?" Graham looked in shock.
"Hey. I was stationed here from the very beginning!" Lockon defended himself! He wasn't even in the other world yet!
"...Oh… that's quite the assignment." The blonde was shocked after hearing that.
"Anyway. We can pull some strings and book in advance. I heard that G-Force get priority." Graham winked at the perks of being elite.
"...I am considering passing on it. I know you will make a competition of everything." Setsuna's sixth sense picked up on the blonde's intentions.
"Oh, c'mon! Fighting those ELS was hard to decide who was better, so I suggested something else."
"And there is this that comes with the job." Setsuna used his chin to motion at the blonde.
Lockon laughed as he realised that his fellow G-Force member had made a friend!
~~~
"Hmm…"
Marcus looked at the goey mess that was on his table.
"The material is like it's super hard. Yet extremely flexible. Not only that…" The Emperor brought over several instruments capable of interacting with quantum brainwaves.
"We still have active brainwaves." He said to his AI.
[The composition of the DNA is unique as well. It's nothing I have ever seen.]
A DNA strand popped up on a holographic screen.
"Amazing. So it's an organic being! It evolved in a completely different way than anything we have seen!" Anna joined in, looking excited.
"Oh, darling. You are early."
"Hmph! I knew you would be here from early morning." The pinkette strolled over as she ended up snuggling into him for a bit before looking at the contents of the holographic table.
"Of course. And I was part of the celebration last night." He reminded her. It was quite a cooking feast since most of his wives and kids were there.
So he had a chance to cook on a huge grill.
"Let's ignore the parts where you tried to sneak out." For a second, the Science Empress poked his side with her fingers, reminding him of that.
"Well, I gave you girls a large berth to celebrate however you wanted." He teased her, as he did the same, he poked her sides, but unlike him, his wife has sensitive sides.
"Eep!" Anna ran away for a bit.
"Regardless, Euphemia ended up drinking Leila under a table. It was quite something." Anna commented on the funny event.
"...Yeah, about that. How does Euphie smuggle alcohol in?" Marcus frowned as he wondered on that front.
[...]
"Legion? Do you allow her to do that?"
[...From what I saw, she brings alcohol in her luggage. And what Brigid said, she keeps some in the cockpit. I assume she predicted victory and brought the liquids early.
It would seem it runs in the family to prepare early.]
"Hmm, I see… well." Marcus was a bit surprised that Euphemia's own Gundam is selling her out like that.
With that said, he looked at the alien goo before him.
"I have some time until the portal opens, so why don't we make a prototype control platform for this goo?" The Emperor said, summoning his database and going through an array of neural interfaces.
He selected the latest model, and then the Quantum Brainwaves interface modelled thoughts for a machine.
[As you wish. I shall begin the process to locate a frequency that the ELS has a reaction to.]
What followed afterwards was trial and error for thousands of variations, and Marcus even used his Quantum Brainwaves with the help of a Trans-Am.
After a considerable number of tries, there was a reaction; the only issue is that the metal goo was brain-dead.
But that was fine because Marcus created something similar to a tiara, around his forehead, that boosts his Quantum Brainwaves. With the Tiara's boost and Legion's with Veda's help, he began to force his will on the ELS.
"Oh…"
The Emperor imagined the goo to move, and sure enough, the grey blob began to move like a blob of slime.
"...Fascinating…"
He ordered the alien thing to become a ball and solidify.
Well, it only worked after a couple of times, as it was a new thing for the Inventor Emperor.
"...Hmm…"
After a ball, he turned it into all sorts of different shapes, until the serious experiments began.
For the next couple of days, he made the ELS assimilate rocks, metals, and even pieces of technology.
Honestly, what it can do is insane.
Especially technology! It could easily copy… everything.
Not only could ELS breed! As long as there is material to consume, it can use it!
For example, it could consume rocks, sand, water and all that stuff. It could recycle… everything!
This stuff is perfect for waste recycling!
Not only does the goo copy the material it assimilated! For example, E-Carbon and Nano Metal are used to make his Gundam.
To test that he made ELS take the form of E-Carbon, and Marcus took a human-sized beam rifle, loaded a compressed GN particle cartridge, walked some distance away and then shot at the E-Carbon sheath.
Several times until there was a hole.
"Repair."
Marcus motioned with his hand, sending a command to the ELS. The E-Carbon sheet began to reconnect and seal the holes within moments.
The issue was that the sheath became smaller, and the reaction was weaker afterwards.
In other words, it needs energy… nutrition.
Now nutrition comes in several shapes. It needs sun, like photosynthesis and minerals.
But it could be anything; rocks have all sorts of minerals, and the same goes for sand or water.
And then there was something else…
Once ELS takes shape, it can 'shit it out' and make more. That's how they created the 'planet', it was actually its waste. As these metals created a cocoon that they can live in.
If he can properly harness that trait…
Well, he can break the world, the economy and all that stuff.
'Hmm… I will keep that to the royal family and its circles. These metals are far too dangerous to spread to everyone.'
Marcus realised that. These things, if controlled by some ambitious guy, could make anything! As long as they have resources.
And in future, when the Empire rules hundreds of worlds. Resources won't be an issue. Sacrificing a world to 'spawn' thousands of warships won't be hard.
That's where the issue lies.
"You really are into this." Leila's voice brought him back from his thoughts.
"Hn." He turned around and saw the pair of ladies walking over. Anna was with his blonde Empress.
"It's only been a few days, and you're already testing their sturdiness." The blonde said as she walked over to the sheet of metal.
"I can assume that is why you spent five years developing that brain burst.
Let me guess, you use the thought accelerators to figure out their true nature, and now you can use the liquid metal to build things rapidly.
I suppose it was worth it, but dangerous. What if the brain burst didn't work as well as you imagined? That metal could have assimilated Earth in a matter of days if not hours." Leila sighed.
Now that she had time, the Logistics Empress had time to think of the worst-case scenario… and it was horrifying.
"That is why I spent so long tailoring it. It became a universal tool for blowing minds.
In fact… I could make it weaker and just mind-crush civilisations if need be.
Sending some aliens back to the Stone Age or turning them into a drooling mess… a vegetable state." He explained to her as he stepped aside and placed his beam rifle on a rack.
"...I see… I suppose it is better than waging an endless war if our natures clash." The blonde sighed even more.
"More importantly, what did you learn?" Anna intercepted as she walked over to the sheet and inspected his work.
"A lot. I mean a lot." He returned to his wives, who were inspecting the ELS.
"In fact, these guys are so… game-changing that I am thinking severely limiting their use."
"!!!"
The pair of them looked at him with wide eyes. What they heard was madness! Their husband was so liberal with technology to this very day.
Flying cars, he destroyed the car industry in a day, thanks to that. Same with planes, they went bankrupt, same with countless weapon production companies. None of the old ones exists. Same with medicine, he took breakthroughs over any pre-existing model.
So what he is saying is basically crazy to them.
"Isn't this why, instead of destroying them, you went to brain-burst them? So that you could accelerate Empire's scientific progress?" Anna commented with confusion.
"That's the thing." He placed his hand on the goo, and it began to move, sliding on him and becoming a piece of armour… made from E-Carbon.
"This little guy, if I drop him into the ocean right now, in a week or so, he could spawn a Gundam for me, with a functional GN drive.
Do you understand how dangerous they are? In fact…"
At that moment, he decided what to do.
"Legion, I want you to seal away the information on the ELS control function behind S Tier Imperial secret. Same as your other top-tier secrets."
"..."
"..."
[Understood, all of the files and designs are classified and only accessible through your royal decree.]
"...That bad… It would seem we were looking for gold but ended up discovering the Holy Grail." Leila shook her head.
"Still, you will be utilising them to some degree?" Anna asked hopefully as she got some ideas on where she could use them.
"Don't worry. We will be using them in colony construction and terraforming efforts and several other important things." He said with a sigh.
"But the rest… the ability to become anything? Yeah, quantum brainwaves linkage… You do realise if a decently educated Innovator with this on his head, he could literally create an army of robots in a matter of days." He pointed at the tiara he had on his head.
"Such a development, in an empire that had countless worlds on its belt, and a massive amount of resources. These goo could strip mine a planet in no time at all."
"...That is dangerous." Leila can already imagine it. They already have Legion and Legion Bots. Sometimes she is worried that the AI could go rogue. What could it lead to?
But Marcus never stopped improving his trusted 'partner in crime' as he calls his AI. The AI itself is a creation of many smaller AIs. If there is 'contamination' and a rogue Legion breaches the protocol, Central Legion would terminate the affected AI itself.
It is one of the core principles of AI. It can't break its own protocol.
But the situation with ELS is different. Because ELS has no will of its own, it depends on who is controlling it, and unlike AI, the Emperor can't truly control people.
Greed and lust for power can end any loyalty to the Empire.
"Good, leave the designs for just a few. Anna needs in her scientific pursuit and I… I need raw materials FOR YOUR toys." She poked him with her finger.
"...Sure…"
~~~
500 powers stones = 1 Extra Chapter
1000 Power Stones = 2 Extra Chapters
And so on, You know what to do.
~~~
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