"Lieutenant." Vigil whirred in a joyful tone. "I believe I have made significant progress."

  Altair, who was reading the mech reports and checking the internal statistics, shifted his eyes and focused on the main interface. "Yes?" He swallowed a mouthful of saliva. Then, he raised his right hand and placed it under his chin in contemplation, then continued. "Have you made a breakthrough?" He asked in a contemplative manner.

  "The weapon I am thinking of is progressing nicely. I have named it 'The Resonance Disruptor.'" Vigil said with a rising tone, but then paused and stopped, as if trying to wait for something.

  Moments passed, and Altair raised one eyebrow in suspicion, but upon rummaging through his mind, he realized what Vigil wanted.

  "Well done!" He leaned back in his chair and clasped both hands. "Well, what does this Resonance Disruptor do?" He said in a deep and curious tone.

  "Well, basically, it is a kind of shield, but at the same time it is an area of denial ability we could use?" Vigil paused, then continued, "Does that make sense, Lieutenant?"

  Altair, who was lounging in his chair, analyzed what he had heard for a few moments before he answered. "So, basically, it can ward off Stygians? But wouldn't that drain our energy reserves fast?" He said, confused by what Vigil meant.

  "That's one of the problems I have encountered, Lieutenant," Vigil said in an embarrassed tone, then continued. "However, I am working on it."

  With nothing to do, Altair shifted his body back into a more comfortable position to analyze the data. He swiped through the interface and consoles, when he reached the energy storage, he had a sudden flash of inspiration.

  "Vigil." Altair called out. "The state of our energy reserves seems to be too vague." He pondered for a moment and then continued again. "Since we harvest energy from the atmospheric particles, and not only that, by killing Stygians, and also using that same energy to manufacture resources." He paused to breathe, then continued once again. "Wouldn't it be better to have a proper conversion ratio, so we could keep up with our logistics better?" He said, and let Vigil process what he said, then continued, "What do you think, Vigil?"

  "Hm, I understand." Vigil replied quickly. "That might actually help me in my predicament too."

  "Since our energy gets converted into various things, shouldn't we name it Units, then?" Altair said.

  Vigil buzzed for a few seconds, deploying information in and out of his mental consciousness that was beginning to form. "Hmm, Units might actually be a better name and format." He buzzed and paused, then continued once done, "Alright, I'll now analyze our entire technical capacity, and the proper conversion to units of all movements, and other areas that need resources or energy." He buzzed once again, for a longer period.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

  Altair, now without anything to do or talk about, once again moved into data analysis. When he got bored of it, he shifted into the video feed.

  "I haven't looked outside for a while." He thought to himself, and as he was moving from feed to feed, his eyes caught something interesting from his peripheral vision. "Hm." He muttered as he moved closer to the video feed. As he was focusing, there was a sudden gust of voice that came beside him.

  "Analysis complete, Lieutenant!" Vigil's voice came like a wrecking ball when he found Altair's shocked face, he lowered his voice to a whimper, "Uh, I apologize, Lieutenant."

  Altair merely breathed in and out and waved off Vigil. Instead, he chose to analyze the data more. "Vigil, could you help me analyze the video feed? The black rain is interfering with our cameras too much."

  Vigil agreed with delight, as he was happy to be of help as much as possible. His system then whirred into action, simultaneously moving each and every camera they had around. He would have wanted to deploy the drones, but unfortunately, the black rain was showering a little too strong this time.

  "I have completed the analysis, Lieutenant." Vigil fizzed, then continued, "I believe that is one of the giant Stygians we have encountered a while ago." Vigil responded in a cascading tone, as he remembered what they had sacrificed.

  Altair moved closer. "Do you think they are watching us?" He paused and then continued, "Perhaps learning?" His eyes narrowed further.

  "Most likely, Lieutenant," Vigil answered with certainty, "Based on what we have known about them so far, they are vastly capable of such things." He further confirmed.

  "I'll be damned." Altair bellowed, as he leaned back in his chair, trying not to concern himself with the giant Stygian that was watching them menacingly. "They want to learn from us? Fine! An eye for an eye!" He smirked as he thought of his ability to loop.

  "Indeed, Lieutenant." Vigil agreed, so he got back into his report. "Based on my findings, we are currently harvesting ten units of energy, and consequently taking five units of energy every hour." Vigil paused, then continued. "Our total storage capacity of energy reserves is ten thousand units of maximum holding capacity."

  Altair rummaged through his mind, calculating and making decisions. "Then that means we are only gaining five units of energy per hour as a profit? How about our resource consumption? What are our current energy reserves?" He went straight to the heart of the problem.

  "As of now, Lieutenant, we are hovering around nine hundred units of energy," he said, then continued, "It would take about one thousand eight hundred and twenty hours to completely fill our tank. Which…" He paused.

  "Which would take a significant time?" Altair interjected, "Are there any other ways to gain more units of energy?"

  Vigil hummed, sifting through thousands of data, and when it arrived at a conclusion, its tone rose even more enthusiastically.

  "Yes! Based on my analysis, I have located which part of the Ironside that gathers atmospheric energy. If completely analyzed, I could upgrade them, or create more harvesters, to boost our production rate." Vigil said with a clear and joyous tone.

  "Or?" Altair said with a raised eyebrow.

  "Or, we could kill some Stygians. Based on my extrapolations, a single Stygian could give us roughly fifteen units of energy. However, a single round of autocannons would cost us two units of energy. It is inefficient, but is viable for us for the meantime." Vigil said in a defeated tone.

  "Alright, halt this analysis first. Let us continue at another time, instead, now focus on the weapon that you were trying to make earlier." Altair said, with a little bit of sweat dripping down his cheeks. "Who knows? I cannot really control when or where I loop back. I hope we are not too late," he said as he glanced at the video feed once again, looking at the giant Stygians who were still ominously watching them.