Claire observed silently as the finishing touches were applied to the latest of the weapons born of the time, energy and power invested in their research. The weapon’s time of completion was far swifter than the work done on the last one had been. Of course, this was mainly due to the fact that the power of this weapon wasn’t as severely temperamental as the previous two examples had been. Not that this made it’s installation, deep within the fluid filled tank at the rear of the chamber, made the head researcher any less apprehensive about the weapon’s creation or it’s impending utilization.

Much like Number-99 and Number-73 “B3Y-LiL, Number-57 bore a similar aesthetic. A large armored sphere was the core of the machine’s design, housing it’s cockpit and the nerve center of it’s various functions. This sphere was further enclosed within a larger, ovoid shell, with two semi Ovoid propulsion and weapon pods installed on either side of upon it’s dorsal body. A trio of winged fins sprouted from these pods, each housing the arcane systems that were components in the gyroscopics that kept Number-57 stable as it levitated about. The middle of these fins was the largest, only a few meters separating their tips from the walls of the pool in which the weapon floated. Upon the forward hull of the machine, two large, vertical structures resembling blades were situated. Both of these weapons, dubbed the “Blades of Raetheon” were instruments of war that had been repurposed from the battlefield of another world, their detritus washing up in the interdimensional tidepool that was the gateway situated at the far ene of the chamber beyond the tank. Even at minimal power, the Dolls and Technicians that swam about the weapon, fighting the light pull of the vortex current it generated, kept their distance from the blades, well aware of the forces it had purportedly unleashed before it was discarded by it’s original creators. Beneath Number-57, the weapons maintenance crew kept two personal watching their backs as they worked amid the nest of cables and conduit lines that ran from the base of the pool to the cluster of connections situated in a ventral dome beneath the weapon. These cables and lines pulsated with blue light, channeling the power of a reactor, situated safely on the floor beneath the current level, to power Number-57’s myriad systems so that it needn't rely upon it’s own reactor, reducing it’s overall effectiveness. As the connections were secured, the two primary weapons pods were fitted to the weapon, both situated below the propulsion ones. These, however, were firmly weapons systems. Though they added to the web of forces that allowed Number-57 to levitate and float, this was merely a formality. The true purpose of these pods, and the lance like weapons that jutted from them, was to channel these forces into attacks that could sunder the reinforced rock of fortress walls, blast apart entire armored columns of knights and crumple the armored ablative of tanks as if they were cheap tavern tankards. Even when no power was flowing into them directly, both of these lance like weapons were ringed with luminous halos that provided all the light those toiling in the weapon’s shadow needed to complete their work. These luminosity also provided a clearer view of the machine in the weapon’s depths as it’s various components came together. The crest of the organization could be seen upon it’s dorsal shell, and along with it the symbol of the kingdom, perhaps giving insight into the future battlefields upon which Number-57 could soon be serving.

Within the machine’s armored cockpit, surrounded by dials, controls and screens, sat the weapon’s command cockpit. Two individuals were present, the only two in Number-57’s immediate vicinity that weren’t required to labor upon the arcane device at the crack of a whip from Claire above. The cockpit, like the pool, was flooded with a deluge of chemicals, the purpose of which was evidently to shield the cockpit’s delicate systems from the weapon’s awesome release of magical power when it fired. To that end, the occupants of the cockpit were required to go about their task in big and ornate, if extremely bulky, suits that weren’t too dissimilar from armor that had made the acquaintance of a diving suit. Air hoses ran from the machinery at the base of the cockpit chairs to the metal fittings on the chest, shoulders, and back pack of each suit. A translucent window, that was more like a porthole of sorts, roughly two feet in diameter allowed the suit’s occupants to see as they went about their tasks. They could hear one another only via the use of cables that ran between their suits, regulated by a communication device that took the form of a nearly featureless black box on a console to the pair’s right, with a back up to their left. Within the cockpit, it’s normally gloomy nature was lit up by the suit of the individual that walked their companion through the various systems and functions of Number-57. In spite of the suit’s encapsulating nature, it simply served as a conduit for her radiance, the pearl white of it’s surface and the gold of it’s metal components simply enhancing it. The suit of the individual next to her was of the same type, if smaller due to the fact that the boy within was not a towering Goddess.

Palutena carefully checked the interior of the magitech engine’s control pod, looking for imperfections and cracks within it’s foundation that might prove detrimental in battle. While she was grateful the machine wasn’t the abomination B3Y-L1L or it’s distinct successors were, she also wasn’t certain she trusted anything built on the knowledge that came out of collaboration with the Aensland Sisters. The stink of dark power was rife on both Succubuses, and Palutena knew that they couldn’t have had anything good in mind for the world around them. Yet, Claire insisted that she could keep them in line. So for now, Palutena relented in her desire to strike both Sisters down where they stood. After her inspection of the pod, she turned back to the machine’s pilot, checking to see if the Boy had completed reading all of the information pertinent to Number-57 and the signature weapon that assisted it known as the “Dragoon System”.

“Is everything comfortable so far?”

The would be Goddess inquired, sitting on the console to the Boy’s right as she folded her wings in, doing her best to dim her radiance should he look directly upon her.