Chapter 128. Rhea’s Progress

Over the past two years, Rhea had been a tremendous help on the farm. She began by replacing the old mist-based hydroponic system with a drip version, simply by changing the valves. This greatly increased the farm's efficiency, reducing both the buildup of minerals in the greenhouse and the amount of minerals needed to water the plants. The change gave the Goomy and Araquanid pairs more time to train, as their cleaning schedule was reduced from daily to just once a week. Next, she ensured that Elara's harvesting, planting, and packaging drones maintained their efficiency. She also made small improvements wherever possible, fine-tuning the machines to be more effective. Finally, Rhea managed to build a brand new fifty caliber sniper rifle from scratch. The weapon was powerful enough to pierce through a defending Expert rank Pokémon with low defense and health, killing the target behind it as well. Granted, it did not significantly expand the list of viable targets, since defending Pokémon with immense durability were typically picked to begin with. However, it was more than enough to deal with those who had grown complacent and neglected their personal defenses. Her next successful project involved creating automatic weapons. She started small, using the spare pistols Alex had taken from the human supremacist faction. By programming the wind-based energy crystals to discharge as quickly as possible, she hoped to automate the firing process. However, she quickly discovered that the firing rate was far too slow. The energy crystals needed time to redistribute their energy throughout the crystal after firing before they could respond to another firing prompt. Technically, it worked, but only at the speed of a human pulling the trigger multiple times, which was insufficient for her goals. Before long, she adapted one of Alex's ideas for a rotary gun. Rather than trying to increase the rate of fire of a single weapon, she strapped multiple pistols together and linked them to a unified trigger mechanism. Traditional rotary guns require rotation because they use a single firing mechanism at the rear, and the rotating barrels allow time for cooling between shots. Rhea's design had a different purpose.  She aimed to increase the rate of fire by increasing the number of guns. Her version did not rotate. Instead, the electric trigger mechanisms were controlled by a program that activated each energy crystal in an alternating pattern, firing as fast as their limits allowed. The result was a devastating rate of fire though it came at the cost of significantly increased weapon weight. Her second approach to achieving the same weapon drew from another of Alex's ideas: attaching a separate energy crystal to each bullet. She had already succeeded in implementing this concept with the sniper rifle. This time, she significantly increased the magazine's capacity by using space-folding technology. By folding space within the magazine and adding a larger internal feeder inside, she created a long barreled automatic rifle with an enormous ammo reserve.  However, its rate of fire was noticeably slower compared to the earlier weapon with multiple barrels. The problem was the feeder being slower than her requirements. A problem that could be fixed if given enough money, energy, and time to solve.  To overcome that limitation, she combined both ideas and engineered a six-barrel machine gun capable of firing continuously for several minutes. The result was a devastating weapon, exceptionally powerful, incredibly heavy, and almost impossible to control due to its inhuman recoil. Fortunately, Alex had no trouble wielding it as an Elite ranked trainer. He tested it against Hydreigon with her permission and found he could bring her down in under ten seconds, a major improvement, considering he could never manage that with his pistols. The weapon's success came from its overwhelming rate of fire.  Hydreigon could dodge a few shots, but not all of them. To make matters worse for the target, the rounds were loaded with Feint or Phantom Force, rendering defensive moves like Protect completely useless. Conversely, a weaker version using just six energy crystals can keep a Pokemon at full health for as long as the weapon continues to fire Heal Pulse rounds at them. Stick a Focus Sash on them and they become invulnerable. Add Aromatherapy bullets and they become unstoppable. Add status increasing moves like Coaching, Decorate, etc. and they become all powerful. Needless to say, the weapon and its cousin was incredibly successful. Her next project was based on another of Alex's ideas, using drones to replace people in combat. After all, bullets loaded with Special attacks had no recoil and only needed electricity to fire, so it should have been possible to mount it on a drone and fire it remotely. Once the prototype was built, it proved to be a success, but with one significant drawback. There was no existing software capable of fully automating combat. Rhea had been banging her head against the wall trying to develop an artificial intelligence that could handle autonomous combat, but it ultimately proved futile. Even with Nyx's help, they couldn't make one AI to rule them all.  Basic aimbots were easy enough to program, until the AI began misidentifying targets that fell within acceptable accuracy thresholds. Navigating real terrain turned into a nightmare, especially in forest environments with swaying branches everywhere. Combining both systems became increasingly difficult, as any camera movement forced the system to recalculate its aim from scratch. In short, she faced a mountain of challenges. That did not stop her from building hundreds of drones capable of firing Pokemon moves through energy crystals. However, it did prevent her from using them the way she had originally envisioned. There was a surprisingly simple solution to her problem, but Rhea hated it. It felt like a shortcut, and she despised taking shortcuts. So when Alex heard the unmistakable buzz of drones filling the battlefield, he knew she had finally given in and accepted the one option she had been avoiding. From within the mansion, hundreds of drones emerged in perfect formation. They flew with mechanical precision and immediately opened fire on any unauthorized Pokémon in the area.  The ammunition they used wasn't Alex's usual selection, but rather the vast stockpile he had amassed from raiding the human supremacist faction. Alex typically only used bullets imbued with Phantom Force, Feint, Thunder Wave, Beat Upx6, Fire Blast, or support moves. But the human supremacist faction had developed thousands of other move-infused rounds, many of which Alex had never touched, until now. Rhea had loaded those unused bullets with Special attacks in them into the drones and deployed them to thin the enemy numbers across the perimeter of the farm. Meanwhile, Alex's Pokémon used the opportunity to rest and cycle through rotations, taking turns dealing with the stronger Expert-ranked Pokémon and the occasional Elite that appeared. 'How's it going, Metagross?' Alex asked through their mental link. 'So! Much! Fun! Like playing games in real life!' Yes, the shortcut was simply using Rotom, Porygon, or Metagross as the AI. Even through a basic camera feed, they were intelligent enough to analyze the battlefield and determine the best course of action. Their thoughts processed at machine speeds, allowing for flawless coordination. Rhea hated it, hated that she wasn't good enough to build a proper AI herself. But in the face of their current emergency, she had finally relented. Drones scattered across the entire farm, positioning themselves to ensure that no Pokémon could hide. They darted toward any detected targets and unloaded their rounds until the intruding Pokémon fainted. It took less than a minute to clear the entire farm of all Pokémon that had managed to slip through. Afterward, the drones shifted focus to the forest perimeter. They scanned the treeline for threats, breaking formation only to strike. Upon identifying a target, a drone would shoot forward, eliminate the intruder with precision, and return to its original position without delay. Naturally, some Pokémon retaliated. But the drones were fast and efficient, and any resistance was quickly overwhelmed as additional drones arrived to provide immediate support. Once they ran out of ammo, the drones returned to the mansion to reload using Rhea's autoloader and recharge before heading back out. It was an efficient and fully integrated system that kept the farm perfectly defended. Unfortunately, they would eventually run out of bullets as the Pokémon Flood continued.  To manage this, Metagross rotated the drones with well-rested Pokémon to cover the perimeter when needed. This ensured the drones did not waste all their ammo and the Pokémon could fight at peak condition. It became a juggling act that perfectly satisfied Metagross's gaming addiction, allowing him to defend the farm through both the drones and the Pokémon. Previously, many Pokémon had been able to slip through due to lapses in attention.  Now, the smaller intruders were swiftly eliminated by the drones while the larger threats were handled by the Pokémon. It was a seamless cooperation that maximized efficiency and ultimately allowed the farm to endure the flood. Just as Misty had said, there had not been enough Pokémon born since the flood a decade ago to sustain a flood of this scale, let alone cause one naturally. As a result, the attack only lasted a few hours before it came to an end. "Well… at least we don't have to worry about Pokémon meat for the next decade," Alex commented as he looked over the battlefield, where Pokémon lay scattered across the farm and along the perimeter. Most prominent was Gardevoir's kill zone, a grotesque stretch of land that resembled a carpet of pulsating flesh. Several fainted Elite-ranked Pokémon were buried beneath it, their bodies merging with the mass and giving the entire area the illusion of a living, breathing flesh carpet. Alex's Pokémon worked through the night, storing the corpses while he and the girls captured the fainted ones in Poké Balls. By morning, the preliminary cleanup was complete, with only the damage to the farm left to repair, a task that left Kaia fuming over all the plants she had lost during the battle. Alex, on the other hand, was thrilled by their gains. Most notably, he looked forward to the League's compensation. ----- Support me on Patreon patreon/babywrath