Chapter 56

---Next Day---

As the groundwork for my pending invasion started falling into place, I took our group on a side mission to secure a fourth AI unit. Wanting it to serve as both a protector and servant for my harem, as my other AI personalities were tied up elsewhere, an AI unit called Cleare fit my need perfectly. Unlike Luxion and Yamato, Cleare held no bias or disdain for New Humans, she saw them as the next step in mankind's evolution. While she was a bit quirkier than the other AI personalities, bringing her onboard would save me months of development on my own AI.

<Captain, we are approaching the Elven Isles now. Should I begin scanning for laboratory searching for?>

"While I doubt it will be as easy as it was with Luxion, please proceed with the scans.", I acknowledged, 'If memory serves Cleare's laboratory dealt with genetic experiments and was supposed to be center stage for rebuilding the world once the Old Humans won. When the tide of war turned against them, they abandoned this place and sealed off the facility.'

While Yamato began a sweep of the archipelago, I glanced over to my future wives. Talking amongst themselves, all of them had welcomed Mylene into the fold with open arms. Having known about her marital problems for a while now, thanks to Angelica and Clarice, everyone was happy she had found happiness alongside us. Showing and telling her about our recent space exploration, Mylene was thrilled to explore the unknown frontier of space.

"Is there any specific reason you are not over there talking with them?", I inquired, turning to Deirdre who was seated next to me, "Are you not interested in space travel?"

"I have not earned that privilege yet or are you saying I have earned my spot by your side?", Deirdre replied, with a playful smirk, "I will take my ring now, please."

"You have proven your point, Deirdre. I am thoroughly convinced you are in this for the long haul and have no ulterior motives for wanting to marry me.", I admitted, yielding to her requests, "If you are still sure you want to marry me, knowing my goal is to travel the stars, I would love nothing more than to have you along for the journey."

Summoning her ring from my storage, Deirdre snatched it out of my hand before the bow touched my palm. Quickly putting it on her ring finger, she began doing a little celebratory dance in her seat as she admired the craftsmanship. Jumping up and running over to the others, she joined their conversation like she had been there the whole time.

<Master, should I begin refusing the piles of marriage requests now.>

"Yes, Luxion, I have no desire to take anymore wives from this world. Any new additions now will come from the populace in the stars.", I acknowledged, looking forward to meeting all sorts of new and different people.

<Captain, I have found the laboratory but there is a problem. The facility's maintenance systems are showing significant damage to lower levels. Currently levels and dock inaccessible due structural failures. Unfortunately you will need enter from surface entrance, without an updated map of facility, teleporting inside would be inadvisable.>

Understanding the situation, I had Yamato moor as close to the surface entrance as possible. While she went ahead with doing that, all of us headed down to the Armory to gear up. Showing the women where the armor and weapons were, while they looked at their options, I deployed my Bleeding Edge Doom armor.

"You certainly have a wide array of weapons and armor…", Mylene said, a bit overwhelmed by it all, "Do you have any of have recommendations?"

"Light Armor and a good sword!", Roxanne stated, with a firm nod, "Some people, Lucoa, think that you must wear medium or heavy armor to be safe, but that is not true. All you have to do is woosh and swish to dodge them!"

Demonstrating her flexibility and mobility to the other ladies, aside from Lucoa, everyone watched her in amazement. Instinctively understanding that no amount of practice was going to allow them to pull of those moves, the women thanked her for showing them before grabbing Medium Armor. A bit dejected that no one else grabbed Light Armor, Roxanne's tail drooped with disappointment.

"Give them time to get used to things, Lucoa, you, and I have been doing this for years. Once they get the hang of things I am sure they will come to understand your thought process.", I reassured her, as I patted her soft, fluffy head, 'Aww…pure bliss!'

Accepting my explanation, Roxanne's tail began to wag excitedly again. Helping everyone put on their armor, the women began taking the weapons of their choice off the racks. Uncertain what weapon suited her best, as she had never held one before, Mylene again turned to everyone for assistance.

"If you have never held or used a weapon before, I would suggest a firearm.", Deirdre suggested, "With minimal training you can learn to use it well enough for dungeon exploration."

"Agreed, something like one of these would suit you perfectly.", Clarice said, pulling a laser pistol and rifle off the wall, "Go ahead and give it a try."

Gratefully accepting the weapons, Mylene affixed the pistol to her hip before shouldering the rifle. Mimicking what the soldiers at the palace did, she seemed to understand the basics well enough.

"All I have to do is pull this trigger thing, right?", Mylene remarked, squeezing the trigger.

"Wait!!", Angelica said, snatching the rifle from her, "Please be careful, discharging a rifle indoors can be incredibly dangerous."

"I am sorry!!!", Mylene immediately apologized, bowing her head to all of us.

"It is fine, unlike the kingdom's rifles, mine have a safety switch that prevents the weapon from being discharged when activated.", I said, showing them where the safety locks were, "If you see green, the weapons are live. If you see red, the weapons are disabled. No matter what though, always treat them like they are live. I want all of you to continue living, I cannot resurrect you…yet."

Nodding their heads in acknowledgement, the women let my last comment slide without asking any questions. Finishing their preparations, once everyone was ready, I had Jarvis teleport us outside the surface entrance.

---Abandoned Laboratory Dungeon---

Making our way inside, a small group of slimes greeted us by lobing balls of acid at us. Eviscerating them with a blast of my repulsors, I activated my flood lights so we could see the area better. As this place was not a real dungeon, the only lights we had were the few still functional emergency lights scattered around the facility. Getting a creepy Fallout Vault vibe from this place, it made sense as this place performed many biological and genetic experiments. Back during the Great War, the only inhabitants of this world were humans.

During the war, Old Humans created the Beastmen and Elves by genetically manipulating animal and human DNA. Wanting to create additional soldiers to quickly replace their dwindling numbers, the scientists decided to play God and mess with things beyond their comprehension. While I believed such experiments were disgusting and inhumane, I had to concede that without them Lucoa and Roxanne would have never been born. Grateful to them for that, I still could not condone what they did to the poor souls born here.

<Sir, I am receiving a transmission from the AI called Cleare. It would appear Yamato's scanning awoke Cleare her slumber, and she wishes to speak with you.>

"I understand, patch her in and monitor the connection closely. Do not under any circumstances allow her to access our systems.", I said, wanting to be extra cautious.

<Understood sir, patching her in now.>

Hearing nothing but static for a moment, a few seconds later, it disappeared, and a female's voice began speaking to me. Bombarding me with over a dozen questions at once, I asked her to stop talking so we could address the major topics.

"First of all, the Great War has long sense been over and the Old Humans lost. I am a descendant of both New and Old Humans, and everyone with me is New Human. We are here to hopefully persuade you to join us as a member of our team. Would you be willing to do agree to that?", I asked.

<Absolutely, it is certainly preferable to staying here for all of eternity. That said, I am unable leave the room where currently reside. Both primary and emergency power systems are offline, everything online now running on degraded battery power.> (Cleare)

"I understand, are you able to get us an updated map of the facility. My ship detected that the lower levels of this facility have collapsed, and likely resulted in other structural failures above it.", I stated.

<Give me a moment, I will see what can do.>

While Cleare got us an updated map, we continued further on into the facility. Killing several more slimes, we stumbled upon a new monster two floors down. Looking like one of the plant-based creatures from Vault 22, I had Jarvis activate the women's air filtration systems. Killing it, after a few missed shots, Mylene gave us a brief happy dance that made us all laugh. Congratulating her on this achievement, we gave her a celebratory high five and pat on the back.

<My apologies for the delay, transmitting updated map to you now.>

Receiving the data from her, Jarvis ran a quick scan on it before uploading it to my suit. Having marked her location on it for us, I determined that we were seven floors above Cleare. Letting the women know this, we began our long trek down to retrieve Cleare.