To no surprise at all Tannis lost her mind when she stepped into the portal of my house. Her eyes rapidly scanned every surface and fixture in the room and thus easily spotted the food maker thing.
"We'll get to the tour of the place later. For now focus on getting clean." I said grabbing her by the collar to keep her from rushing over to the food maker and doing something we'd both regret.
"Unhand me! Science demands fulfillment!" she demanded as she struggled with a red face and dilated pupils.
"Nope." I said casually as I dragged her off to the bathroom by her collar like a misbehaving child.
I tossed her into the bathroom with a brief explanation of how it worked before shutting the door.
"You sure bringing her here was a good idea?" Roland asked once I returned.
I shrugged as I took off my mask "Can't ever be truly sure of anything in this world but I believe it is for the best. Should help keep her honest and not stabbing us in the back." I said honestly.
"You think she'll turn on us?" Lil asked surprised.
I nodded "She's a ruthless scientist who was willing to trade her undergarments to a dirty old man to get ahead, oh it's almost a certainty. Let's be honest here between a ragtag group of vault hunters and the elite forces of Atlas who do you think looks like the best shot at opening the vault?" I asked seriously.
"From a resource and experience standpoint Atlas has the best chance of succeeding." Roland said with a look of understanding dawning on his face. "You think she's been working with the lance don't you?" he asked and I nodded.
"None of you would realize it since you're not scientifically savvy like me but the stuff she has at her dig site could never do what she has been saying she has been doing. That sort of tech doesn't exactly grow on trees either and must be custom ordered and carefully maintained. There is only one way she'd get access to such resources here on Pandora, Atlas." I said seriously.
"Why are we still working with her then?" Mordy asked confused.
"Oh that's simple, she's not betrayed us yet. She's been nothing but helpful so far in fact as we have gotten reliable leads on two key pieces through her. The key moment here is what happens AFTER we get the last piece. It's why I brought her here in fact, to tempt her to betray Atlas instead of us. If it was just you four she is almost guaranteed to betray you since you were logically the worst option. With me here though I muddy that equation up really fucking good. What Atlas can offer I can as well and even exceed in some areas, experience opening vaults for example." I said honestly.
"So we are still working with her then, at least until we get the last piece?" Lil asked for clarity and I nodded.
It took Tannis much longer than expected to finish her shower but it was clear how badly she needed it as her whole body was much less tense when she walked out of the bathroom. She was also much more calm in the face of my houses extraordinary features though her excitement was still very much visible. As promised I took her on a tour of my house but made sure to keep her from messing with anything. This was slightly difficult with the crafting room and teleportation room but i managed.-
She was slightly interested in Ladon as well since he was a creature modified by my powers from before he hatched and thus a unique existence. But she didn't test her luck once I pointed out he would absolutely try to eat her if she bothered him enough. No matter how well trained and smart Ladon was he still came from a saurian origin and that meant hunting humans was not a strange thing for him at all. So far I had been able to instill a rough sense of friend and foe recognition in the big lizard so he wasn't straight up hostile towards everyone who wasn't me but that was it.-
If antagonized enough he was more than willing to ignore this training to get rid of the problem, something Lil had found out the hard way after getting a bit carried away. Still Tannis loosing her shit over the crafting room was hardly surprising for me and totally understandable. Even if you ignored the Eridian research value of the maker thing it's usefulness was ridiculous. So long as you had the resources, raw or otherwise, you could have absolute creative freedom.-
One must remember that the biggest problem in manufacturing was that sometimes there was a lack of methods to craft certain components. My maker skips this problem by directly spitting out a finished product through the Eridians weird magicky science. It was how I was able to make a ship with interstellar capabilities that was many times smaller than should be possible normally. For someone like Tannis the thing was the stuff of wet dreams as it would give absolute autonomy. As for the teleportation room that was mostly because of the sheer impossibility of the thing. -
The room allowed the person using it to literally cross the entire universe in an instant so long as they had been there previously. For an archeologist like her this meant she could in real time make fine detail comparisons between Eridian locations regardless of distance in person. This doesn't sound like a big deal but I can say for absolutely fucking certain it very much was. The Eridians were a tricky bunch so actually in person views of their stuff became necessary as cameras couldn't fully capture it. This was mostly due to the "living" quality the race liked to add to their stuff if I'm being honest.-
It wasn't a matter of pure architecture or tech at that point as the Eridians added a certain "feel" to their things so even things that appeared identical could have very different meanings. Made the things really fucking annoying to research to be honest. Anyways once the tour was over I sat Tannis down and demonstrated the food makers awesomeness with a feast for everyone. She was skeptical at first of the food since it had been practically 3d printed but after tasting it practically melted in her seat.-
She had asked for a thick apex grade steak cooked medium rare along with a side of spicy asparagus and red wine. By comparison the rest of us ordered much more normal food. Brick had a whole roast jerk turkey. Mordy had burritos and Lil ordered pizza with seven different toppings. Roland ordered a lasagna and I myself ordered a large amount of gumbo with all the fixins. Ladon and Bloodwing got raw meat and bones with bone marrow for their meals. The meal was quiet as we all dug in with gusto with Tannis unsurprisingly being the last to finish with her proper etiquette.-
It was rather amusing how heartbroken she looked when we left my house and I put it away.
"Well we should get back to New Haven since we need to wait a bit to proceed. Thankfully there are lots of jobs available and projects to be done. Boredom sucks." I said and turned to leave with the others.
Tannis looked like she wanted to stop us but couldn't bring herself to speak up even after we left. Oh I knew that what I was doing was cruel as fuck but it served my purpose so I frankly didn't care.-
After living on Pandora for so long luxury was a fatal temptation for someone and giving a taste of it before abruptly taking it away was enough to drive even the strongest will to desperation. Perhaps not immediately but as she was forced to go back to how she was living before Tannis would start craving the luxury I had given her a glimpse of until it consumed her. That or she'd get over it and it would be as though nothing happened but I fucking doubted it. She was obsessive minded and that means she literally couldn't help but fixate on something once it was in her head.-
It was a great trait for a researcher but a terrible one for a manipulator. That obsessiveness was the key to making her not betray us later. The best part is I knew that she knew I was manipulating her, she was too damn clever not to realize it. I looked forward to seeing how she handled the fatally tempting trap I had laid for her. As for us we did as I said and headed back to New Haven to pass the time.
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https://www.pa treon.com/user?u=81578854#:~:text=pa treon.com/pa treon_loskro
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Alexander Drake
Lifeforce:368,697
Integrated Traits: [Gun expertise-Uncommon grade]X4, [Clever mind-Rare grade],[Enhanced senses-Epic grade]X2, [Demi-supreme body-Legendary grade], [Supreme armored hide-Epic grade]X2, [Energy projection-Legendary grade], [Superior vitality-Epic grade]X2,[Flame breath-Uncommon grade],[Regeneration-Epic grade]X2, [Disease resistance-Epic grade],[Amphibious lungs-Uncommon grade], [Thermal sensing-Uncommon grade], [Water resistance-Common grade],[Active camouflage-Epic grade], [Eridian engineering expertise-Mythical grade], [Efficient lungs-Rare grade]x2, [Fire resistance-Epic grade]X3, [Elemental body(fire)-Legendary grade], [Shock resistance-Epic grade]X4, [Energetic sustenance(shock)-Epic grade]X2, [Radiation resistance-Epic grade]X3, [Energetic sustenance(radiation)-Epic grade]X2, [Biometallic bones-Epic grade],[Elemental body(shock)-Rare grade]X3,[Quick thinking-Rare grade], [Minor spatial awareness-Epic grade], [Buzzaxe expertise-Uncommon grade], [Siren(Phaselock)(Altered)-Mythical grade], [Pugilist expertise-Uncommon grade], [Adrenal rush-Rare grade], [Mechanical engineering expertise-Rare grade], [Gunsmithing expertise(degrading)-Common grade]X3, [Elemental body(Corrosive)-Rare grade], [Corrosion resistance-Rare grade], [Mechanical Savant-Epic grade],
Stored traits: [Flame projection gland], [Mechanical engineering expertise(degraded)-Common grade]