Four hours later) [Brockton Bay Sanitation Site]
Overhead in the orange-red shades of late afternoon sky, hungry pigeons circled as I surveyed the site of my would-be base: the local landfill.
Stretching out before me was a great heap of unsorted rubbish dumped across an area larger than a football field. Plastic bags of every colour full of rotten food and other such refuse. No one would ever choose to go here willingly apart from having to dump their own garbage here. But as the trite saying goes 'One man's trash is another man's treasure.'
A dozen of my newly purchased[Servo-Skulls]floated all around me as they chittered in harsh chirping of binharic chant. They will be instrumental in this laying the foundations: A few of them were equipped with advanced auspex scanners that could detect metals and electronics through solid rock. With their aid, I can find all the waste electronics that people have just carelessly dumped into this landfill.
And it was here that all of my chosen libraries from the Celestial Forge worked in glorious synergy.
The[Servo-Skulls]were equipped with advanced auspex scanners that could detect metals and electronics through solid rock. Detecting them through heaps of garbage would be easy in comparison. With all the waste electronics that people have just carelessly dumped into this landfill, I'll have all the raw materials I'll need to get started.
The[Reclaimer]supplied the knowledge on how to properly salvage whatever electronics I found in a plethora of ways ranging from efficiently stripping all the parts that I can get from it, to outright making it run again.
The[Magos Designation Augmentics]provided all the blueprints of things that I can build from the parts I'll salvage as well as all the rites and rituals for actually making things work. The Purification Rituals to cleanse and appease the machine spirit, the Rites of Assured Activation to rouse it from its dormant state, and the Benedictions of Enduring Functions to ensure that it keeps functioning for a long time to come
And finally, the[Cranial Implants]will ensure that I can keep focus on my work by suppressing sleep, hunger, thirst and other weak flesh-functions… at least until I can make the tools to quench or outright remove them.
All together, I can convert whatever electronic and metal scrap I find into fully functioning augmentics and other technological wonders for me to use. Iwouldimmediately rush to manufacture gynoids, but my[Magos Designation: Augmentics]told me that I required massive infrastructure to even attempt such an endeavour. The manufactorm must grow first.
"Skree-skree-skree!" one of my[Servo-Skulls]chittered excitedly to me as it hovered over a patch of garbage.
"Oh, it would seem we have our first salvage at hand." I murmured in acknowledgement as I began tossing garbage bags away from the spot. And that's when I saw it- the decomposing dead body of man. But the body itself wasn't important. No, it was what was halfway inside the man's rotting cranium: Atoaster.
"This is a Sign from the Omnissiah." I gasped in reverence as I beheld the two-slot toaster.
I knew it was a sign- it couldn't have been anything else. The very first piece of technology that I was to salvage and it was this toaster that sat lodged into the skull of the rotting carcass of a long dead man. Undeniably, it was a symbol for how the Blessed Machine will always outlast the weak flesh. It was a sign that this landfill was truly the place to build my Manufactorum- my rumbling temple to the Omnissiah. I wished to immortalise the vision- this image of a perfect machine persisting triumphant over the rotting flesh of humanity. One day, I'll erect a monument of this inspiring sight. But for now, I'll recover the toaster and claim it as a sacred artefact of the Cult Mechanicus- it will sit in a safe until I can properly enshrine it.
Taking the sacred toaster in both of my hands, I pulled it out of the skull that it was lodged in with a wet squelch. I turned to face the dozen of[Servo-Skulls]- the flying skulls with their dark sockets and the red glare of their optics staring at me as I held the toaster above my head and victoriously declared.
"I am the Magos, and android pussy will be mine! The Machine God will it! Hello World!"
And the night came alive with the binharic cheers of blessed machines.
18 hours later)
"-And by the glory of the Machine-God, may this humble outpost of the blessed machine withstand the apocalypse. Amen."
The 'humble outpost' just so happens to be a meagre hovel located at the edge of the landfill. Sheet metal welded together to form the floor, walls and ceiling. And regardless of the location, home was home especially when it had its upsides. The interior was already filled with scrap electronics that I'd have salvaged. Cracked smartphones, broken routers, old TVs… even refrigerators and microwave ovens and air conditioners! Where people saw refuse, my [Reclaimer] saw a goldmine of reusable components.
Of course, the first thing I made out of the components was a gas mask to keep out the constant smell and toxins of the decaying landfill. I would have made a bionic respiratory system instead, but I didn't have the equipment nor the clean room for bionic organs.
The second thing I made was a taser gun. It was extremely basic, but it would certainly stop a bear in its tracks.
And the third thing that I was going to make were new hands. Mine were sporting a bit too much pus and blackened stuff on the skin. Who knew that spending time in a landfill and digging through rotting refuse and decaying detritus with your bare hands can lead to infections and diseases?
It was a good thing that [Cranial Implants] numbed pain. I didn't have anaesthetic…
(Another 18 hours later)
Both of my fleshy arms began frosting over as I closed the cryo-freezer door over them.
"Goodbye, my fleshly right and left hands. We had fond memories jacking off to Cortana R34." I muttered mournfully, "But the journey ahead is too perilous, for I require hands that are strong and durable enough to survive fingering android girls."
Raising my new and far more superior mechanical hands to my face, I admired them for a while.
Declaring {Manibus Mk. I} as new Augmentics function
A rudimentary model of bionic arms. The Manibus Mk. I is often seen as a rite of passage for many of an Augmenticist's circle. Simple and robust, the Manibus Mk. I is able to bare-handedly bend steel, function ceaselessly without rest, and perform extremely precise movements down to the tens of micrometers. Deeds that normal human arms are incapable of.
Strength Rating: F-
Dexterity Rating: F-
Durability Rating: F-
Further upgrades may improve augmentics ratings in the name of the Omnissiah.
They were bulky metal things- rugged piston biceps almost as thick as a normal person's thighs, hands that whirr and clank with every movement. They weren't aesthetically pleasing or easily hidden, but they were strong and they were precise. They will certainly get the job done splendidly. With these new arms and hands, I'll be able to sort through trash even more and tinker up new things even faster.
But even that came with some bad news. My Logis Acceleritas told me as much…
Salvageable components in this landfill will not last two weeks at current rate of utilisation.
Approx. 99.7% of trash in this landfill is food packaging and food waste. Unusable.
No other sources of refined metal and heavy metals can be acquired with current equipment.
Discovery and/or contact with filthy flesh-normies is inevitable within two weeks.