Athanasia: My Hacker System-Chapter 111: The Ds and Ss Machine Units

"There are many," Ricky began, his voice taking on a rare academic tone. "D-100s, S-1000s, S-100s—the designations all depend on the era they were manufactured and the level of technology available at the time they were made in..."

Ricky explained that, in general, the D-series, the Destroyers, were designed as the frontline soldiers of the machines. They were mass-produced cannon fodder, meant to overwhelm enemies through sheer numbers and persistent laser fire.

The S-series (Strategic), however, was the elite. These units acted as sergeants, capable of leading large battalions of Ds. According to Ricky, S-units were capable of planning complex field manoeuvres, adapting to ever-changing warfare in real-time.

"Usually, a battalion of a thousand Ds would be under the direct command of at least one S-unit," Cissel added, her brow furrowing in genuine confusion. "That makes me wonder... Why didn’t we see any back there?"

"I bet there must be something we don’t know," Ricky said, taking her remark more seriously than John expected. "Perhaps this world has limitations that prevent S-units from being here. Still, it’s our luck, after all we struggled this far against mere laser guns of the Ds, imagine if we have to deal with the scary plasma cannons of the Ss!"

"Excuse me," John interrupted, feeling like a caveman who had suddenly been transported into a future of skyscrapers and starships. "What exactly is a plasma cannon?"

"It’s a lethal heavy weapon," Ricky simplified. "Imagine a laser gun, but a hundred times stronger. But there’s a catch—while laser guns are line-of-sight weapons that hit single targets, plasma cannons fire a condensed bolt of ionised gas. Upon impact, it creates a fierce, wide-scale explosion. A single well-placed shot is enough to take down a hundred enemies at once."

"Damn!" John sucked in a cold breath of air. He imagined his fight at the cliffside or the deadlier one in the fog. If he had been facing an S-1000 armed with a plasma cannon instead of the D-1000s’ light lasers, he wouldn’t have been vaporised in seconds. "Then why didn’t they arm the Ds with it instead? Are they that hard to manufacture?" 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

"No, not at all," Cissel shook her head. "The problem that stops both humans and mass-produced D-series from using those weapons is the energy requirement. Plasma generation requires a huge amount of power.

For machines, they have to carry high-capacity fuel cells. For us humans, those batteries are too heavy to carry into a sprint and incredibly deadly if an enemy sniper hits them. You become a walking bomb."

"Aha," John paused, a spark of realisation lighting up in his eyes. "Then why didn’t you say so earlier? If the D-1000s have fuel cells, we could have just targeted these to cause fierce explosions and take them down easily."

"No use," Ricky sighed, crushing John’s newfound hope. "The cells are located in the most fortified area of their bodies—usually deep within the central torso behind layers of reinforced tungsten-alloy. Even a direct hit from a standard laser gun won’t break through that armour."

"..." John fell silent, realising how naive he had been to think he could easily exploit such a glaring weakness.

"As for their versions, Ds and Ss and others," Cissel explained further, her voice steady as she spoke about what she knew about their mechanical foes, "they vary depending on the time they were produced.

The S units are built with larger bodies specifically to carry higher-grade energy cells, so they can power up plasma cannons with ease. But that’s simply not possible for the D units. The sheer weight of those high-energy cells would crush a D-series frame or make it too sluggish to function as an infantry unit."

"That’s why the D units are limited to rapid-fire lasers," Ricky concluded, while John kept nodding as he processed the information.

"Then how about the laser guns the D-1000s had back there? Can we use them?" John motioned back toward the direction of their new base on the far side of the river.

"Of course," Ricky couldn’t help but chuckle, a mocking glint in his eyes. "If you can carry a ton of energy cells on your shoulders, and somehow fight while doing that, then fine—be my guest!"

"You totally missed the point," John glared at Ricky, knowing the boy was deliberately being obtuse to annoy him. "I’m not talking about carrying them into the battle as weapons. I’m talking about fortifying our base! Like building walls and watchtowers, then mounting these laser guns on top of them to defend the perimeter!"

"Well..."

Hearing the strategic depth of what John was proposing made the other two fall into a pensive silence for a few minutes.

"We definitely need to fortify our area," Ricky said, his tone shifting from mockery to seriousness. "From my experience... I mean, from what I know about the machines, once they’ve identified a strategic zone, they won’t stop until they’ve claimed it. They are persistent."

Ricky paused mid-sentence, a flicker of regret crossing his face as if he had said something he shouldn’t have. John and Cissel both gave him a sharp side-glance before exchanging a silent, knowing look.

John could tell from the tension in Cissel’s shoulders that she was well aware of the weight behind Ricky’s unfinished words. It only fueled his curiosity to chase after the secrets these two were hiding, but he knew this wasn’t the right time or the place for this.

"Yet, our territory now is very huge," Ricky added, trying to smooth over the awkward silence. "And we don’t have enough workers to cut the trees and move them to build wooden walls. It would take months."

"Wooden walls are the worst idea anyway!" Cissel objected, her mind rejecting using the primitive material in building their defences. "Imagine standing against even a small scouting unit of D-1000s. A few concentrated laser shots, and the whole fortification would be burnt to the ground in minutes. We’d be trapped in a tinderbox."

"Good point," John nodded. He mentally scrapped the image of working tirelessly for weeks to build a decent wooden fence, only for it to be turned into charcoal by a single squad of machines. "Then... What do you think we should do?"

"It’s... a tough question," Cissel sighed, while Ricky nodded in agreement. "To stop a machine legion, we need iron walls. Steel or specialised laser-resistant alloys are the only way. But..."

"But we have no way to mine or craft any of those materials here," John finished with a heavy sigh. Then, a thought struck him. "How about the damaged bodies of the D-1000s? I estimate there are over five thousand of them scattered across that huge battlefield, not to mention the ones I left back in the fog. That’s a lot of high-grade alloy just sitting there."

"First, they are carved and shaped into limbs and different parts to match the small size of a D-unit," Ricky started, systematically dismantling John’s fantasy. "Then it comes to the issue of structural integrity. As you said, they are damaged! They’re warped, melted, and cracked.

Then there’s the weight issue. We can lay the alloy plates next to each other on the ground, but we’ll end up with a wall only twenty centimetres high! We can’t just stack them; their irregular shapes and heaviness would make the pile collapse under its own weight."

"And we lack the right tools or energy sources to fuse them," John added, completing the thought. "In other words, it’s better not try it now and wait for a future opportunity, right?"

The two nodded in sombre confirmation, which made John let out a loud, frustrated sigh. The territory they had gained was vast, far beyond the area cleared out of fog. He recalled the system’s description: Total dominance over the entire area.

The more he thought about it, the more certain he became that there were other numbered areas like this one nearby. The system wouldn’t label this as "Territory 11" if there weren’t at least others. And those machines—they hadn’t just appeared out of thin air; they must have moved from a neighbouring area.

’I need to find time today to check the new section, the Map!’ John thought as they finally approached the silver-leafed orchard.