Before losing myself to the exploration of my new class, I recalled that the Probes could now build a Gateway. I was eager to see the noble Khalai warriors that Alina had shown me so much about. I'd Probius, begin construction of the new building on the other side of the Forge from the Hunter's Hall. Though I hadn't seen him in action myself, Probius assured me he can build far faster than his smaller brethren. As much as I wanted to watch him work, the call of my new Class could no longer be denied.

  The first major benefit of the Omnimechanic was that upon activation, Comprehend Machine Structure gave me and intuitive level understanding of all machines within a range of 100 yards. It lasted for 10 minutes and had a cooldown of an hour. Complexity of the machine I was working on didn't matter, origin of the machine didn't matter. The machine could be based on science or magic and I would still be able to understand it. Bizarrely the ability considered living beings, organic machines. Which meant I could feel the workings of a body somewhat like when I was healing them, but not quite as accurately. So the ability did have limits, though I as yet couldn't fully grasp them.

  The second major benefit was that Repair Machine could work on pretty much anything. It merely required mana. Vast sums of mana. But it was worth it to be able to fully restore any damaged machine. Yes, that included the previously mentioned organic machines. Even better, that included cyberware. My greatest barrier to healing the people of this world, now had a solution. An expensive solution, but a viable one. The weakness of this ability was that it would only restore something to it optimal factory settings. I couldn't as yet make any tweaks or adjustments, like I could with Life Crafting.

  The bad news was that this Class didn't help me make any changes to the Khalai schematics as the Warp-Smith class had. I had to input everything manually, increasing the time I spent altering designs by a factor of ten. Sure, I'd gotten the intuitive understanding of the Khalai machines, but I no longer had access to the nearly encyclopedic knowledge base that the the Warp-Smith class gave me. All I had left were what tidbits I'd managed to store in my long term memory. Which wasn't anywhere near as much knowledge as I'd like to have. I supposed this was a real natural talent vs lifelong scholar type of deal.

  After letting the Forge rescan me, so that I could alter my Power Armor to fix my new form, my priority project was to design Probius his own Warframe. Giving him access to more power and more options would be a load off my mind. At this moment, there was no one I trusted more than my Probes. By extension Probius was, to my thinking, already trustworthy. I needed to find ways to make him stronger. It would crush me to lose the greatest Robo-Buddy of them all.

  I started with the baseline Warframe design and then went nuts. A bigger power supply crystal, an enhance sensor suite based on the Observer's, improved targeting programming stolen from the Dragoon, and then I added two more pairs of arms. Probius was going to become a real beast. I queued the Warframe up behind my Power Armor.

  Then I realized I could still modify my Omaha Type XX with Khalai materials. So after getting a Probe to scan in my pistol, I gussied up my weapon. Though not as dramatic a change as I'd thought, it was still an improvement in terms and weight and durability. I'd have a new partner soon. Even better Probius would be armed with six of these puppies soon after I had mine. I imagined him floating toward our enemies firing six pistols and zapping any fools charging him, his shields deflecting everything they could throw at him. Heh.

  I'd been lost in my typical monofocused haze during my tinkering session. Hours had passed and night snuck up on me. Good thing the food on the pallets was in stasis or I'd have been pissed. Wait, was it just my imagination or was the Forge running a lot slower? No, my Power Armor hadn't even been finished yet. It was running slower, more Company bullshit probably. Whatever they could do to slow me down, seemed to be their modus operandi.

  Scanning around our little budding base, I actually was aware of, but couldn't see any of the Kaldorei. What the... Ah right Shadowmeld. Wait didn't I get that too? I did but I had to activate mine. Whatever, it was still useful.

  I had Probius build us a small stove. It was fun to abuse the Pylon's power systems. Cords who needs cords? Soon, I was cooking up a few burgers and frying some freshly cut potatoes. I called the Kaldorei over for a meal. I passed around a few of the good sodas. We all ate in blessed silence, just enjoying the food. And I could tell they really liked my cooking.

  "Were I but 1000 years younger, I'd handfast you just for this cooking." Lunaria mused after we'd finished eating, I happened to be finishing my Dr Pepper when she said it. The Kaldorei were treated to their first spit take. What a waste of good soda.

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  The real question was it her age, or the idea of bonding with the Huntress that shocked me? Why not both. Now, I was wondering how old she actually was. But even I knew not to ask.

  "The hell, Lunaria, don't tease me like that." I grumbled.

  "But it is ever so much fun, Ryan." The voice came from the air. She had already blended back into the shadows. Damn, she was good at that.

  I walked over to the Hunter's Hall, inside were a large variety of magically powered work stations. There were purple and blue crystals floating here and there which were radiating mana. The workstations I could see seemed to be mostly geared toward woodworking, when I entered another room and saw a metalworking forge. A different room had leatherworking stations, though there wasn't the unpleasant smell I would have expected. There were a few more rooms, each with a different type of crafting in mind.

  I touched one of the woodworking station. Ah, I could feed different types of wood into the station and it would shape the material into anything from furniture to weapons. Simple and efficient. But what would happen if I fed the station a Mineral cube. Later, I'd try that.

  Mostly, I enjoyed looking at the artistry of everything in the building. There was an understated elegance to it all.

  On the second floor I found a couple of rooms that didn't seem to have a purpose, until I touched the bookshelves in them. One room was a Bestiary. Listing known locations of animals to hunt, as well as their habits and weaknesses. The other room was a Bounty list, with all known information on past targets.

  That certainly painted Lunaria in a different light. This seemed to be the primary purpose of Hunters. Mini versions of Mr. Wick.

  The idea of Lunaria get her ass handed to her by John, put a cruel grin on my face.

  Probius had finished the Gateway, and it was an interesting sight. It reminded me of that movie Stargate. But this Gateway always seemed to be open. Several steps led up to a platform where a large crysbronze ring framed a writhing mass of void energy. There was a low toned ominous hum in the air. What would happen if I stepped into that void energy? Perhaps, I'd try that some other day, maybe.

  I touched the crysbronze frame.

  [ Khalai Gateway Options

  Summon Zealot - 5 minutes ( Limit 5 )

  Summon Templar - 15 minutes ( Limit 1 )

  Transfer unit to a linked Pylon - 1 minute ]

  It appeared I needed more infrastructure to support the Gateway. The Templar probably needed some building I hadn't seen yet. But I had no clue what was needed for the transfer option. Was that like teleportation? If so, that would be awesome. Planting a cloaked Pylon, and then there's my army ready to grind our foes into dust.

  I queued up the Zealots, then pulled out my agent to try to get a little help with these hover pallets. My fingers stopped moving, before that I needed to design my Food Truck. I'd nearly forgotten.

  I had Probius queue up two more Forges and a few more War Pylons for increased protection. While the Pylons could cloak us, it was good to have backups, and more firepower. While I was thinking about it I had him mark out places for several Photon Cannons too. He got to work while I started scheming on my Food Truck idea.

  Hmm. I started with our Modified MRAP design. Hard to wrong with a classic. I kept the front as was, in the back I added in everything needed for small professional kitchen. It turned out great. I added a side window for interacting with the customers. Then I went with a simple light green and modest red color scheme, and a very generic "Food Truck" label.

  Hmm, the chaingun was great, and had going anywhere. But what about smaller problems? Let's add a CWIS style mini photon cannon to each corner of the Truck. Heh. Probius had one of the Forges done, so I send the order for the Food Truck to it. It probably wouldn't be ready until tomorrow, but what the hell, I could camp here for one night.

  Checking on the Probe's progress on converting the closest trash mountain into something useful again, gave me some great news. We already had a large stockpile of Mineral cubes and the Probes had already put down a Assimilator. Dozens of Vespene canisters were awaiting use. Hmm, I didn't ask them to put the building up, but the Infused Probes had always shown more initiative. Good.

  The last Zealot had arrived. The rest had been waiting quietly while watching the Probes shuffle about. I approached them. Their glowing blue eyes locked onto me.

  "En Taro Adun, Executor!" They cried out as one. That unity was both awesome and terrifying. How deep did it go? Eh, let's not get sidetracked more than I already was.

  "Greetings, noble Templar." I returned their greetings. Their appearance was much like Tassandar's, though more heavily armored, and still reminded me a bit of humanoid birds. Though now with my increased height, I could properly look them in the eyes. My glowing greens met their glowing blues.

  "What battle calls us?" Asked the Zealot closest to me.

  "None as of yet, though many hands are turned against us in this land. Come let me introduce you to some of our allies." After I had them exchange greetings with the Kaldorei, I then caught them up to date on our situation.

  "Fear not, Executor, we shall guard the builders from danger." Say what you will about them the Khalai understood their duty.

  I left them to their own devices, they knew how to ask the Probes for anything they needed, and went back to design some new ideas in the Forge.

  Tomorrow, I wanted to be able to shock Night City with some good food.