Our numbers keep dropping. Out of the more than 200 units that were working in the colony before the storm, now fewer than 60 remain. The survivors include Thrawn, Breen, and their teams, and only one of the Makimas, as the other went missing in the storm since she was in charge of the bridge as its overseer when the storm hit. The rest are mostly just the Builders, Transmuters, and the occasional Utility Engineer, with a few Combat Engineers here and there. My current best solution to stop the radiation is to literally spam the Jammer units.
Another piece of bad news: Thrawn reported that the outside temperature has reached a jaw-dropping -60°C. So we had to act fast, or we would lose even more manpower and potentially a generator or two. I started making a plan with Thrawn to get out of this dire situation. My first course of action should be to connect the two remaining active buildings together, without exposing myself or the Builders to further radiation and the cold. Thrawn suggested the most optimal course of action: we will dig.
I made different prototypes of units that could help us, but only two managed to come in handy. One of them was a new unit called Protectors. Their power is comprised of Iron Claws and a Mechanical Body that formed the Dread Drill, which permanently altered their bodies. They are now massive 7-foot-tall monsters, with a giant drill for one of their hands. Aside from that, their bodies are made to be extremely resistant to anything that could pose a problem during their work, such as extreme heat or cold, high amounts of pressure, and even vacuum. However, due to their changes, they are really slow and incredibly simple-minded, only able to follow basic and simple commands. They need active overseers to remain effective.
That takes us to the second of the two units: the Protectors' overseers, the Gatherers. They were specially made to help and calm down their partners. For this purpose, they have a combination of Calming Touch and Blazing Hair, called Soothing Blaze. Its main purpose is to keep the user and those around them safe and calm. Due to the side effects of the power, the user has permanently bright green fiery eyes and hair, and their skin is more greyish than normal. Their other use is to heat up the broken stone and debris their partner leaves behind and extract useful minerals from them. In dire situations, they can pump these materials into their partners to boost their capabilities for a short while. Due to their power, they are very resistant to cold and are almost immune to any kind of heat, but they have frail bodies that can tire out really quickly if they don't rest frequently.
I made two of each. The Protectors have a really imposing figure, with a body very reminiscent of old diver gear, but much more bulky and imposing. For the Gatherers to help them fit into tight spaces, I modeled them after little girls. I also thought that, due to their low stamina, they could even ride on the backs of their partners. To avoid them being attracted to me or my girlfriends, I made it so they are only capable of seeing the world in a more childlike vision. They will think that everything is just some game or other fun activity.
The little girls started calling me their big brother, due to them still holding the base adoration of every female unit, unlike the respect of the male ones. Thankfully, the change in their brains to see the world differently twisted that adoration from obsession and worship into more of a role model and parental figure. However, this showed me a problem with them: they are too naive and can be easily deceived. So I made the prime and main directive of the Protectors to protect any of the Gatherers, no matter if they belong to a different partner—their main priority is the Gatherers.
I know I could have made it less complicated by just making the Gatherers male as well, but something inside me told me this is the only acceptable version of these duos. And I mean, come on—they are perfect for each other. The mechanical giants guarding the frail little human girls—it's almost poetic.
So, with their customization and directives done, the Protectors began to drill downward towards the Factory. The Gatherers, not having anything better to do, just played with each other. When Momo rushed towards them due to their cuteness, I had to stop her since I wasn't sure if their guardians would attack her, deeming her a threat. To avoid making her sad, I grabbed her hands and slowly led her towards the kids. My breath hitched for a second when I saw both Protectors slightly turn their heads towards us, the yellow glowing light behind their helmets turning red for a moment. But when they realized who we were, they just continued to work on the tunnel.
While we waited for the tunnel to be completed, Momo and I played with the little girls. We almost lost one of the puppets when it got too close to us—the two iron giants literally crushed her. Fortunately, it wasn't the current main body of that specific group of Hivewings. After that, everyone was a bit scared of the overprotective golems and left the ground floor. However, before we left, Thrawn mentioned that once this crisis is over, he wanted to talk to me about some possibilities involving these duos.
We played with the little girls for more than six hours when we finally saw the Protectors show up. We asked the girls if we could continue next time as we had a lot of things to do. They seemed sad but didn't complain, just saying goodbye as I moved them and their guardians into a secluded part of the vault so other units couldn't get too close and potentially get hurt—or worse. With the giants' threatening presence no longer an issue, the other puppets began to show up slowly and approached me for commands. I quickly ordered everyone to stay back, as it would be bad if we got crammed into the tunnel.
Momo, Breen, and I made our way towards the factory underground. I asked Breen why he was there. "Oh, that's quite simple. Since I am the head of administration, it would be my department's duty to assess the damages and come up with a viable solution to minimize the losses," he replied.
When we came up through the Factory's floor, I quickly looked around. It seemed that almost all of the missing Utility Engineers, Builders, and Transmuters were here, tirelessly working on a way to maintain the heat in the steam engine without it blowing up due to the massive strain this operation was putting on it. I quickly sent all the units that could help, including the Hivewings and the rest of the units that managed to reach the Command Center but were unable to return here due to the storm. With the extra help, the situation calmed down a bit, so Thrawn called me back to speak with him.
"I have an idea that could reduce the stress and seriousness of similar situations in the future," Thrawn said bluntly. I became interested and signaled for him to continue. "The idea came from the new possibilities created by the new units. You understand the concept of a hive, right?" I nodded, not entirely sure where he was going. "The best course of action would be to make a hive-like city out of Opportunity. We could start digging tunnels and large rooms for us to inhabit. For now, our priority should be to reach the same level all the way through the volcano as the height of the bridge, so we can start building the large industrial elevator we have the blueprints for."
I was skeptical since we were already in a difficult situation, and this plan seemed too big for us right now. "Don't worry," Thrawn continued. "We wouldn't start the real heavy work until spring. In the meantime, we should mine out the upper layers and reinforce them with different types of sheet metal and reinforced concrete." I didn't have any objections that couldn't be addressed later if problems arose.
[Last month of winter]
After we managed to navigate ourselves out of that sticky situation, the building of the hive city commenced. There were no major problems, but progress was much slower than I expected. Additionally, since we didn't have enough space to store the rocks and ores yet, I had to manually exhaust myself every single day just to store all that stuff away in the vault. I summoned an additional 28 Defenders and Gatherers to speed up the project a bit. For now, the top 100 meters of the mountain is almost hollow, with steel, titanium, and reinforced concrete keeping it structurally very stable and safe.
The final goal of this whole operation, for now, is to dig a big enough shaft through the mountain where an industrial lift could be built and installed. It should be large enough to fit multiple trucks or at least 1,000 people, as this will be the main lift between all levels of the city. Luckily, we've made amazing progress; we've already excavated one-fifth of the entire thing. It's surprising, as even smaller projects usually take years to make as much progress as we have. If Thrawn and Breen's calculations are correct, we'll finish before summer starts.
[Last week of winter]
Nothing interesting happened for a while, but since yesterday, Momo has seemed nervous all of a sudden. I tried to ask her what was wrong, but she just brushed me off. I even went as far as to ask Thrawn for his thoughts on what the problem could be or if I had done something wrong. After I asked, he burst out laughing for the first time since I upgraded and changed his quirk. Even after laughing in my face, he wouldn't budge, not even to give me a hint.
These days, I mostly go around the base, playing and hanging out with the Gatherers while their partners work on the elevator. Every time I run into Momo, she starts blushing but still won't say what's bothering her. Since I couldn't figure it out, I chalked it up to her missing her parents and Mei, which I can relate to, as I miss Mei even more than Japan as a whole.
[Last day of winter]
Today was especially suspicious. None of the Gatherers showed up at our usual hangout spot. But since I didn't feel any of their connections disappear and their Defenders weren't acting crazy, I chalked it up to an honest mistake. But that was just the beginning. Every one of my puppets started acting distant and cold toward me for some reason, so I decided to talk with Thrawn about it. But even he ignored me—he didn't answer the door when I knocked.
I felt like I was going crazy. By the end of the day, I just lay down on the bed next to Momo, who had already fallen asleep. "What did I do wrong?" With these final thoughts in my head, I drifted into a deep sleep, feeling a bit hopeful that Momo would remember my 14th birthday tomorrow.