Adrian made his way towards the strangers, he could see they were similar to Cedric in nature, imbued with nanobots from the source before everything went to hell. He walked to the base of the building and jumped, catching the edge and climbing up. This startled them slightly but they tried to hold their composure. He eyed the newcomers warily before saying, "What is it?" They didn't move but the one in the front said, "We've come to seek an alliance. We didn't expect anyone to make it out of the chaos so well."
Adrian spoke with a gruff voice narrowing his eyes, "And why should I trust you?" The three shifted slightly, the front one still speaking, "Because we have no other choice." bowing their heads as one. Adrian analyzed the voice, listening for, but not hearing vocal waver or other signs of hidden intent. So he said, "And what do you propose for this alliance?" while he stared them down. The three raised their heads, the front one said, "a trading partnership maybe, and an agreement to be backup for us in case our location is overrun. It's not far from here."
Considering their offer, Adrian figured these three could get into and out of places easier than his group's current scavenging team. "We do have some plans that might require specialized items, tools and materials." He said rubbing his chin. "Before we move forward I need to know, how did you come by your nanobot tech?" The three looked at each other, giving a quick nod the front one said, "We were part of the early experiments. We've had them for a while. Ours are first generation, the new versions replicate much faster. So we do grow stronger, but for us it is very slow."
Adrian considered this and asked for their subject designations. The front one said, "I am subject twenty three." The one on the left said, "Subject thirty nine." The last one said, "Subject forty seven." He nodded at their numbers then said, "I am subject zero." the three immediately gasped. Subject twenty three, spoke frankly, "You shouldn't exist. How did it happen." Adrian just shrugged, "I have no idea, I killed a feral in the line of duty and a nanocore was initiated. But if it was that easy there would be more like me." The three could only nod.
"I have an engineering team that will be looking for many things in the near future. In exchange I will offer whatever help you need to stay alive. But the defense agreement needs to go both ways, if we need help you must join in as well. I may also have you join me for hunting ferals. The more I can kill the stronger I get. You three should be able to help draw out large numbers and funnel them to me. This is my offer." Adrian's voice was calm and authoritative, trying his best monarch parody.
The three huddled momentarily speaking quietly to each other, but to Adrian they might as well have been yelling their conversation out to him. Subject twenty three, spoke "We agree." Adrian smiled and said, "Good, follow me and I'll get you a starting list of what we are looking for." He turned and hopped off the building, landing as easily as taking a step. The trio looked over the edge amazed and climbed down to follow Adrian who was already walking towards the base.
Adrian led the alliance group to the base and introduced them to the security team first and then to head of the engineer team, Caleb. "These three are going to help us with hunting down specific items and materials for our needs. Give them your list and highlight what is most important and things that have proven harder to find." Caleb understood the instructions, he looked the three up and down before offering his hand in greeting, "Nice to meet you." He said with a warm smile. The leader, subject twenty three, shook Caleb's hand and followed him to the cafeteria to go over their list of needed goods.
Adrian addressed the other two saying, "Feel free to help yourself, we've gotten pretty stocked up on food, but it's mostly junk food for now." A wide smile crossed their faces as they nodded and headed over to get something to eat and drink. Their hunger was apparent as they took their time choosing a few snacks each. They sat down with Caleb and their leader to go over the list of short term needs.
Stepping away, he went over to the leader of security. Adrian let him know about the agreement that was made and to keep an eye on the three but try not to make them feel like enemies. In times like these people's demeanor can change in a heartbeat. Once done with security he headed to the empty lot next door to check on the progress of the new garden being set up.
A woman named Mary took the lead on grabbing tools and organizing the workflow with everyone that joined her team. A diverse group of children and adults, all willing to lend a hand in any way they can. Adrian asked, "Mary right? How are things going here?" Mary smiled as she dusted off her gloves before taking them off and offering a soft hand shake. "It's a good start, we still need a lot of things though; proper tools, seeds, fertilizer and the like. I think we can get something growing in the short term though. If we were doing this in a different season it would mostly be a waste of time." Adrian nodded and said, "Well I can offer you a small head start of sorts." He walked over to the garden and placed a hand in the soil. A swarm of nanobots flowed down his arm and into the ground around his hand, spreading out in the dirt and upgrading the soil's capabilities. Adrian said, "This should help enrich the soil making the crops grow faster and make the plants immune to blight."
Free nanobots available: 43,452
Mary's face was ecstatic, with these changes they would be able to get things going much faster. She jumped up and down saying, "You're amazing, without the worry of blight we can grow everything in a more densely packed arrangement, not to mention if we don't have to worry about depleting the soil of nutrients." Adrian smiled, "The nanobots do most of the work, I'm just the storage unit." he said jokingly. "When you get farther down fhe road, talk to Caleb about setting up greenhouses so we can keep growing throughout the winter. We can't take any chances with the lives of our people." Mary nodded seriously, already planning what she would need to set a greenhouse up. She said, "That's a good idea, even a couple small ones could at least stave off starvation in tighter times. You've really thought of everything!" Adrian replied, "Just trying to cover all bases, we can't let something like hunger affect the morale of the group, it's already low as it is." With a wave Adrian was off to walk the plot a little before heading back to the cafeteria to check on the trio's progress.
He found them in deep discussion with Caleb, their heads nodding along as they reviewed the lists that were made for them. Adrian grabbed a small bag of chips and sat at the table listening in, enjoying the taste, savoring the salty goodness and memories of times before…this. Adrian threw in a few extra points of things that hadn't been mentioned from an engineering perspective, including greenhouse building supplies and things for the med-station. He also reminded them to send any survivors they found towards us, as the more they had the better. He said, "Also, for your own safety and for convenience you three might want to move your own space to one of the closer buildings that we've already cleared out. The extra security you could provide wouldn't hurt either, though I've got those ferals too scared to come to our area for now, that doesn't mean they won't eventually get desperate." Twenty three's eyes soften slightly, along with the other two, with that acknowledgment a pop up invaded Adrian's peripheral:
Followers: 35
Adrian tried not to react to this, but he hadn't expected them to change their stance so readily just from the offer, apparently they are more afraid than they let on. Adrian patted the leader on the shoulder, and said "Welcome to the team, you do your part and we will always back you up on your needs. Hopefully if we find other friendlies like your team we will set your spot up as our advanced security and scouting group." With that, Adrian stepped out into the foundry area.He walked to the slag pile and sent nanobots to collect the materials he needed for replication. The ten thousand a day was going to add up quickly over time, but he couldn't wait for the replication to provide what he needed, he must go collect more. The drive to move his nanobot core to the next level created an itch in the back of his mind. He had to be bolder, take bigger chances and head even deeper into the feral zone to achieve the numbers he needed.
The trio watched Adrian pulling materials from the pile of once molten metal and gasped. They had no idea anyone could manipulate the nanobots like that, to them it was like seeing the impossible. People like the trio and Cedric only had a set amount of nanobots; they replicated if given enough materials but very slowly. The numbers in their blood are unknown specifically but they could notice a difference over time. To be able to use the nanobots to pull materials from the environment, they could only be glad that they had chosen to join Adrian's group instead of fighting against them.
With his needs met for the short term, Adrian asked the three if they knew of any concentrations of ferals in the area. The leader nodded and pulled the map onto the table. The birds eye view of the buildings made an easy way to show the location of what they had seen. The leader piped up while pointing to the map, "Here, here, and there are large groups. They seem to work as a mob or horde in those numbers, moving almost as one. Around this building," pointing to a different location, "there seem to be particularly strong ferals, more capable than just your average one."
The leader pointed to a spot on the map that was a little farther away, "But, at this location is an anomaly, probably one of them that turned on their own kind to collect more nanobots faster than replication could account for, like you. Its mutated form was too frightening for us to even get close enough to confirm. If I were you, I would create a spiral-like pattern starting here, which would give you a maximum gain with less travel." Adrian nodded, taking it all in, creating the virtual map in his head. The plan was taking shape."OK, I'll head out shortly."
The leader of the trio added, "Be cautious, these things are getting stronger by the day as their nanobots naturally replicate." Adrian grinned, he knew that meant a better harvest was in his future. He gave his team a small salute before grabbing his bag, slinging it over his shoulder and tightening the strap. Looking over the base that was beginning to thrive, it more resembled a live ant hill than refugees of a strange war.
He smiled as he headed out the huge metal doors hearing the mechanism clanking closed behind him. His people were much safer now than they were before and that gave him some comfort while heading out on his mission. The goal, upgrade the nanobot core, thin the local herds of ferals, and scout out these stronger feral locations. The promise of the flood of nanobots in his future made him move quickly through the quiet streets. The silence is now welcome instead of fearful. With a quick leap, he was on top of a local building heading in the direction of the first point he had plotted. The map showed up like an overlay as he went.
When he got near the location, he slid to a stop on the roof, gravel grinding and flying away as he took in the view. Ferals everywhere, as far as he could see from there, like nothing he had seen to this point. A smirk broke on his face as he grew his claws, almost drooling at the prospects he saw before him.