By the following day, the workshop was no longer quiet and empty. Inside, tools and half-finished schematics floated in the air like restless ghosts. The skeletal frames, once suspended in neat rows, now bore crude reinforcements and clumsy stabilisers where Anton and Ivan had wrestled with alien alloys.
From the elevator, Luthar descended in silence, his red-and-gold robes trailing across the floor. He paused to watch the two Vankos at work. Anton was hunched over a spinal joint, muttering equations into his battered notebook, while Ivan scrolled through a holographic schematic with growing frustration.
"Weight distribution is a complete nightmare," Ivan muttered. "Without AI to self-correct, the pilot's going to topple over."
Anton grunted without looking up. "Stop complaining. We'll make it work."
Luthar's voice cut through the air, cold and precise. "Well, it looks like you have started your work. If there is anything you want to know, you can tell me now."
Anton wiped his hands. "The reinforced spine can carry the reactor's weight now. It won't collapse outright."
Ivan crossed his arms, scowling. "But balance is still garbage. These things stumble like drunk oxen."
"Then integrate gravitic emitters with a gyroscopic stabilisation system," Luthar said, stepping closer. His mechadendrites flexed as they traced the skeletal frame. "If you can't even do this small work, then I can only replace you."
Above them, Lily sat cross-legged on a hovering drone, swinging her legs. "Don't mind him. That's just how he says 'good job'~."
She tapped a control, and a tray unfolded with sandwiches, lowering between the Vankos. "Eat something before you starve. Starving engineers don't build doomsuits."
Ivan shot her a glare. "Are you ever serious?"
"Very," Lily said with a grin. "Keeping you alive is serious work." Googlᴇ search N0velFire.ɴet
Luthar ignored them both and snapped his fingers. A hologram flared to life above the platform, revealing a fully assembled exosuit plated in angular armour. Ener-conduits pulsed along its limbs like veins of molten light.
"This is the final frame," he said. "Light enough to manoeuvre across a battlefield. Strong enough to tear apart a tank."
Even Ivan let out a low whistle. "…Okay, that's actually impressive."
Anton circled the projection, noting the wide cavity and reinforced back mount. "You're not using an Arc Reactor… does that mean you've designed something better?"
"Correct." Luthar shifted the hologram to display a cylindrical core, layered with shielding and conduits. "This is the Universal Reactor Core. It can run on almost any fissionable or high-energy material—uranium, plutonium, thorium, even deuterium in emergencies. Under ideal conditions, it will use my own synthetic isotope."
Anton's eyes widened. "A multi-fuel reactor… but feasibility should be low."
Ivan frowned. "If you're using uranium or plutonium, the radiation's going to fry anyone inside the armour. Might as well just build an Arc Reactor."
Luthar's gaze sharpened. "Do not worry about radiation. Exposure will be minimal—barely enough to stain your bones. The core is triple-shielded and stable. It will operate anywhere—Siberia, the Sahara… even Mars. And if a breach occurs—" his tone turned like a blade, "—the consequences will still be minor."
Anton hesitated. "Minor?"
"As long as you don't die instantly," Luthar said flatly, "I have medicine that will scrub the radiation from your body. I intend to keep you useful."
Lily twirled lazily on her drone, grinning. "He means it won't explode and turn you into soup. Probably."
Neither Vanko pressed the issue. Whoever ended up inside the suits would not be them, and as long as Luthar wasn't forcing them to pilot, the danger was someone else's problem.
Anton leaned closer to the projection, awe creeping into his voice. "If we integrate all-day technology with new armour, soldiers wearing this would be unstoppable."
"That is the goal," Luthar said. "You will focus on making the armour usable for ordinary men. And make sure to install internal bombs that can be detonated remotely. This way, if some soldiers rebel, we can just blow them up."
He gave them their orders and turned away, climbing the balcony once more. Lily hopped after him, her drone buzzing like a lazy insect.
From the side, they watched the Vankos return to work. Servo-skulls drifted past like silent predators, exosuit frames swayed gently from their gravitic harnesses, and the entire chamber pulsed with quiet mechanical life.
"What are you going to do next?" Lily asked.
"Go to space and release my ship," Luthar said. "Once I make the necessary upgrades to its engines, in free time we can travel to Mars and deploy essential equipment to initiate the terraforming process."
Her eyes sparkled. "Want me to train them while you're gone?"
"Just monitor them," he said. "I'm assigning you one hundred Skitarii. Their weapons are upgraded, and you'll hold the triggers for their nanobombs."
Lily grinned, bright and mischievous. "Ooh, fun. I hope someone misbehaves so I get to push a button."
"Do not give them a reason to rebel," Luthar warned.
She leaned against the railing with mock innocence. "Don't worry. I won't cause you trouble."
Below, the Vankos bent once more over their sketches and alloys, the clang of their tools echoing like a heartbeat.
The mechanical nursery had begun its work. Soon, its children would learn to walk—and to kill.
Authors note: I guess I can't write any other novels right now as I have to start the damage control. chapter I have to re write I only thought I would have to do little bit looks the situation is really bad now I am fixing it if you want to support you can do it from the which is in the description as I am not even in the mood of copy pesting the link