Remnant - XVIII

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Requested By : Gib

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Architecture was as much art as function, in most usages of it, shaped almost as much by need as by culture.

On Cybertron, much of the world was industrial. It needed to be so, after all. Mines of a dozen types bored in winding, natural paths for resources, supported and structured by metal struts as needed. Habitation units were similar - blocky and stacked one on top of another as needed to suit the needs of the populace, aside from the wealthy. Those were wider, more open, with broad views and painted, carved or emblazoned windows. Atriums were filled by statues, carved out of stone and metal, and long halls were lined by prize weapons.

Culture fed architecture and, together, a people were comfortable.

So, with that in mind, he made sure to involve the most artistically inclined of his new… Acquaintances.

"Why in all the great depths of the ocean are you nunable to imagine anything except 'box' and 'cylinder', Shockwave?" Kali sighed and leaned over his plans, etched out on a length of salvaged and reforged steel stood up on a wooden table.

"They are the most efficient design layouts." He answered - aside from pyramids, of course. But he disliked pyramids, the narrow scope at their apex always restricted the placement of advanced suites for which height was preferable, such as radar, ladar, and sonar oriented systems. "And I seem to recall a great many square and cylindrical buildings in the city, Kali."

"Buildings, yes." She sighed, "But that's because we can't help it. We don't have the means to do much else. You do, though, so why not be more creative?"

"Hmmm." He rumbled a laugh after a moment of thought and sighed, almost wistfully in spite of himself, "You would have done well in Harmonex."

"What's that?"

"A great city of art, culture and learning." He answered, "On Cybertron. Or, so it was."

"It's… Gone?"

"What once was is, yes." What might come after could become as great as Harmonex ever was, in time. But what once was could never be again, no matter how desperately the survivors of the great war tried to change that. Shaking off the memories, he crossed his arms and looked down on the woman, "What changes would you make, then?"

"Well…" She hummed in thought and tapped the larger structure in the center, "I wouldn't change this much. It's an industrial building, with a job to do."

"But?"

"But the buildings around it." She ran her finger in a circle around the large, rectangular icon and asked, "What are those?"

"They are habitation units." Laid out along the coast and beneath the plateau coast-side, where they would be sheltered by the somewhat obvious barrier that would be the very purposefully fortress-like monitoring and communications hub. "For your people to work from, and dwell within."

"It looks like a prison, Shockwave…"

"Hmph." The districts were gridd-like, admittedly, and segmented by numerous high, if thin, walls meant to anchor defenses if the need should arise. And the houses themselves were multi-story, so that dozens could occupy the same plot of land with minimal limitations on space. "What changes would you make?"

"Wider roads." She answered, pulling a piece of paper out of the large, brown bag she'd laid on the floor and sketching out a section of the districts on it quickly. "And remove some of the houses for parks."

"Parks?"

"Places for children to play." She explained, "Natural places. Trees, maybe a pond."

"I see." He had observed such inefficiencies on Earth, and more than once. To that point, he asked, "Is such wasted space not inefficient?"

"If it were wasted, maybe it would be." She shrugged, turning to look up at him with a patient smile, leaning on the table and explaining, "But it's not. Thin roads press people in, which can cause… Tension. And parks and plazas are natural meeting places. They breed community, Shockwave. And that is what people coming here will sorely need."

"I see…" He loomed over the plans and, finally, saw that they were lacking. Turning, he hefted another sheet of steel and knelt down. "Let us revise our plans, then. I wish to conclude habitation unit construction within the month."

"That's pretty short notice…"

"Perhaps." He rumbled, "But I have Insecticons and drones to speed things along."

She only shrugged, more than used to his way of doing things by now, and leaned over the paper to finalize her own design to show him. At first the work was slow, as their base design concepts running into each other. Until he finally shrugged and simply told her to lay the parks, plazas and markets out herself, and allow him to construct around them. It was simpler, if vexing, but in the end the project moved along more quickly, and he could easily work around her desired tweaks and changes.

Which was… Acceptable.

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Sienna had made the trip back to Menagerie from Mistral a thousand times in the last three years, going to and from her raids with all the loot and rescues she could manage. Sienna knew all the ways her ships would, or even could, take. Where the reefs were, how far out they could range before erring towards Vale's shipping lanes and risking the quasi-neutral Kingdom's fleet meeting them. Whatever illusions they put out about not being interested in the war, she'd heard how Faunus were treated there, and they'd had more than one ship come in from Vale crewed by Faunus that had left of their own accord.

Oppression until someone left was at least marginally better than sending in the police to beat and corral people…

Even that much consideration sickened her, and made her wish for enough manpower to divert there, too.

Maybe one day…

Regardless, as they left Mistral's shallow coasts and turned East instead of continuing South, she couldn't find the discomfort. It felt off, her instincts screaming at her to alter course. That they'd made a wrong turn and needed to realign before they ventured into Grimm territory. 'Ingrained instinct was a hell of a drug', she'd heard an old veteran say years and years ago. And if drugs formed addictions, then her habits would be that.

So she would just have to shake it off, like any addict did.

"Gods," she sighed, sitting on her ship's railing and watching the coastline pass by, "I've been talking to Shockwave too much. He's turning me philosophical…"

Still, her thinking wasn't wrong, and she kept her eyes open for it. Sea-Grimm, ships, unfriendly terrain, coastal defenses - she wasn't used to this route, and needed to keep watch for them all. She could see her men doing the same, but she kept on regardless. They could always miss something she saw, for any host of reasons. And she wouldn't let herself get complacent. Complacent men became equally complacent corpses.

There was the philosophy again…

Damn it.

"Sight!" He fore-shipmen said, standing on the prow of her ship and staring ahead with her sharp eyes. "Port in sight!"

"A port…" Already? She almost didn't believe it, but… Well, that insane machine had pulled off the impossible more than once before. Still, she stood and paced to the front of the ship, leaning against the railing as it came into better view.

The docks were long and simple, layered planks held up by long, cleaned lengths of timber. There were five of them, with a handful of barges stretched alongside each and fishing trawlers scattered around. She could make out men and women dragging, hefting, and rolling fish, crates and all manner of other things up and down the wooden piers, coming and going from any one of the five large warehouses set partially out on the water to the right of each of the docks. A long, wide plaza ran all along the coastline beyond the waterfront, lined by wooden and metal stalls, wide, open and grass and tree filled parks, and a fountain at the very center.

"He built a fucking fountain…" She murmured, "A fountain. On Menagerie."

It was simple, little more than three stacked bowls with water flowing down them, but… Menagerie had its own fountain.

Long, wide, paved brick paths as wide as ten men ran out from points lined up with each of the piers and lined towards the distant plateau. She could see breaks in the buildings that indicated side-roads and alleys, of course, but those roads were the most important ones. Their centers were lined in simpler concrete, broken up by tracks and flanked on one side by poles holding wires. Those wires branched up from the poles to taller light poles, with street-lights that hung out over the road, and then branched out to the buildings themselves.

At their fifth story…

"It looks more like Mantle than Menagerie." She murmured and, bar the fact that the walls were painted more vibrantly, some patterned with clouds, trees or grass, they were exact copies. Each could probably hold ten whole families. More, if the rooms were particularly small. "Gods, he's building a city…"

Menagerie had its own city…

Kali was waiting on the docks, dressed in her new black and white robes and smiling widely as Sienna's ship came in.

"Sienna!" She called out, pacing along the deck to keep up with the slowing ship, "Welcome to Menagerie's first second city!"

"It's impressive." She called back, turning and leaping from the ship to the docks easily enough. She slid to a knee and came up easily, smirking to match Kali's warm smile. Turning, she looked at the plateau above the burgeoning city. You did the city first?"

"Unintentionally…"

"Kali?"

"Shockwave and I may have gotten a bit too into designing the city itself." She admitted with a resigned sigh, waving off Sienna's raised eyebrows and joking gesture at the construct as if to ask 'Really?' "He says the radar and communications will be up and running inside another month. Then he'll build a hub on the wall at Menagerie."

"Good." Communications would be key. But then, a thought occurred and Sienna cocked her head, "It's going to stay 'Menagerie' then?"

"It is, yes." Kali answered, taking a step and letting Sienna follow her up the docks. "The name and continent may have been forced on us, but we are, all of us, making it our own. Menager will stand strong, a testament to our adaptability and good fortunes."

"Are we, though?" Sienna asked, "Making it our own, I mean."

"I don't follow."

"Shockwave is the one bringing us strength, Kali."

"Only some of it." Kali dismissed easily enough, "You bring him metal and salvage, and he fashions weapons. Just the same as anyone else, albeit more advanced."

"But-"

"And besides," Kali cut her off, smiling warmly to show how little offense she'd meant by it, "Shockwave didn't choose to be here, either. He arrived against his will, and has no choice but to make it a home. Like the rest of us, a castaway."

"I suppose you're right…"

"Oh, of course I am, dear." Kali chuckled, "I'm always right, after all."

"I will toss you in the ocean." Sienna paused to watch one of the Insecticons trundle down the street carrying a bus-sized metal box full of timber in its hands. It dropped it off by the warehouses, then turned and carefully stepped around a clutch of children playing a game in one of the plazas. "So, everyone is just… Ignoring the giant death robots?"

"Oh, just you wait." Kali chuckled, "Crusher likes to let the kids paint him."

"Who does what?!"

"Oh, Sienna." Kali sighed, "You're in for a long couple of days. Scrapper!"

The Insecticon that had brought down the wood paused, cocked its head, and then turned, looking back at them from across at least a hundred feet of trees and grass. Still, she heard it growl, voice like gravel, "Yes?"

"Tell Shockwave Sienna is back." Kali called over, hands cupped around her mouth, "She brought scrap!"

"Scrap!" It shouted back, nodding eagerly, "Scrap is good! I will tell Master. Master will be pleased."

Sienna waited until it had turned away, driven to be quiet in the face of a titanic metal monster she knew had probably ripped people in half happily, to speak, "Master…?"

"That's what they call him." Kali shrugged and threw her hands up, "What can you do?"

"Show me where to get a stiff drink." Sienna growled, "That's what you can do, Kali."

"Sure, sure." The woman laughed, "Come on, I'll show you to the pub. All we have is honey mead for now, though, I'm afraid."

"It'll do." Sienna sighed, thinking quietly as she followed along beside the other Faunus. Finally, she asked, "If that's just going to be Menagerie, then what is-"

"Harmonex."

"What the hell kind of-"

"It's the name of one of the only cities Shockwave told me about, from his home." Kali explained quietly, "With everything he's giving to us, I felt it was only right to honor his home somehow. And that was the best way to do it."

"I guess…"

"Why?" Kali pressed, "You have a better idea? Maybe I should have just named the city after him?"

"Tides, no." Sienna scoffed, "The bastard is already arrogant as all hell. That would just inflate his ego way, way too much."

"Then what?" Kali chuckled, "Should we call it 'Scrap Heap'?"

"Fine, fine, Harmonex is fine." It was an alien name, that sounded like some sort of demented attempt at an instrument, but it was better than the apparent alternatives. And those were the alternatives - Kali was set on naming it something Shockwave related, and as always, Kali wasn't easily swayed about anything.

And she'd been raised being told men were stubborn…

Finally, she caught sight of the pub. It stood out easily enough, with tables scattered out front of an otherwise samey looking building. But the men and women drinking spoiled the game. Kali shoved her into a seat and moved off to get their drinks and some food while Sienna sat. Sat, and watched the city around her.

Gods, it was so nice to just see everyone living…

If anyone accused her of being misty-eyed, though, she'd deny it.

And then gut themn, probably.

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Ironwood sat in his quarters, enjoying the cool air on his bare back, and lifted the weight in his Human hand while he thought. And Gods, did he have a lot to think about. He'd had a lot to think about for weeks, now, and in spite of Ozpin's assurances, time was not helping him reconcile with it all. Magic, Maidens, Relics- It was all so much. Just thinking about the implications, that Atlas was held aloft in large part thanks to literal magic that could, at any moment, be reversed and send his home crashing to Remnant's frigid surface…

It made him dizzy just to think about it.

But, more importantly…

"Surely, he wasn't serious." He murmured to no one. "Sue for peace…"

If he even tried it, Atlas would crucify him, and Mistral would never fall in line. And, short of invading Mistral instead of Menagerie, he couldn't force them to. And Ozpin had made it clear, he didn't have the influence necessary to make Mistral sue for peace. Even with Haven's old Headmistress on their side, the political landscape just didn't allow for such a huge change.

"But he's right that the war can't keep going on…" Ironwood hummed, setting the weight aside and rolling onto the floor to do his push-ups with his one good arm. As he did, he thought more.

Ozpin needed the war over, before it escalated into a full inter-Kingdom war… And for painfully obvious reasons, too. Such a conflict could easily bring the Grimm washing over any of the four Kingdoms.

So, he needed to end it. But for that, he needed political capital.

And, as a military man, he only had one way of earning that…

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