(Rewritten) Ch. 32 – That’s A No

"No, sir, stupid questions do in fact exist. These are questions that are only pretending to be questions. They disguise verbal attacks.

Yours, sir, was a stupid question."

– Road Rash, during an interview with an unnamed reporter

***

A male, gruff, and stressed voice spoke to us through my aug. "I'm Laserjack. I manage the defense of this region against the Antithesis. Who are you? Quickly, please."

I held for half a second, wondering if I ought to be honest. I didn't have the points to defend myself, especially not against another samurai. But then, Laserjack did social stuff for the Family. Should be safe, even if I don't know him personally...

I'd play ball.

"Tinea. New samurai. With another new samurai. We have no points, got kidnapped, freed ourselves, are stuck hidden, with ten thousand aliens inside…fifteen miles. Relatively safe for at least a few hours."

"Where?"

"Acid Crater, north north-east of New Montreal, seven hundred kilometers."

"... I can get you out, but it would cost us at least one samurai we need here, for several hours. Those remaining would have to pick up the slack. Less rest, bad decisions from exhaustion, defenses collapse somewhere, people die. But two new samurai could make up for that in the long run."

Did we need evacuation? We had a near endless source of points outside. Hundreds of thousands of points. We only couldn't afford all of those points coming after us at once. Could we manage that?

High risk, high reward. I looked at Leah, tilted my head, eyebrows raised in a question. She looked down, clearly torn. Then she shook her head at me.

Hmm. She wasn't happy with it, but she also thought we didn't need rescue. What could we do about the high risk?

"That's a no. We don't need evac, but do you maybe have long-range weaponry we can call in?"

"Orbital strikes, missiles, ballistic bombardment. Use the app. Stay in unpopulated areas to maintain access for the heavy hitters. Plan for minutes of scanning, recalibration, and travel time before a strike hits."

We could work with that.

"We'll make our way back. Might take days."

"Don't try any last stands. You'll die. Ambush instead, then move."

"Thanks. What's with this global invasion?"

"Truly global. Some cities have already fallen. New Montreal'll be fine. Corpoburgs and -towns won't. Thousands of hidden hives went active at the same time, everywhere. Kicked off by an alien pheromone signal. Lone samurai are defending entire towns by themselves, but we're getting a lot of new Vanguards. Tinea, get strong. Fast. Don't die."

"Not planning to."

And with a click, the call cut off.

I turned to Leah. "You wanted to decide differently, there."

"I want to know how the little ones are doing. I want to go to them. But if New Montreal is doing fine, then so are they. I'll just call them."

She paused for a moment, considering her words.

"I need gear, lots of it. The points are here, not back home. I…can't return, as weak as I am. They've kidnapped me once. I need to be strong enough that they wouldn't dare. Strong enough that there's no chance they'd harm the children to get to me. That means staying somewhere they can't see until then."

She was clearly bothered by it, so I hugged her. I had to stretch up pretty high and get on my tiptoes. What a strange, new experience. But she hugged me back, and relaxed as she let out a heavy breath that rustled through my hair. I could see why she'd enjoyed it, back before she'd gotten mobile. Having warm air flow down my nape made me feel safe, and eased my own tension so fast.

With a last squeeze, I let go, and said, "I'll set up bait. Some of that nutrient soup they have stocked here. It worked earlier."

"Yeah. I'll keep an eye on the door."

I left her to it, and her calls, and went back downstairs.

"Tynea, two questions. What would it cost me to hide signal repeaters in here for the drone to stay connected to the uplink, if it had to follow somebody into the facility?"

You could order ten camouflaged repeaters for two points. If the walls dividing the cells are not secured against radio waves, then twenty repeaters should be enough. Otherwise, thirty.

"Alright, that'll be a painless investment. Do you have any suggestions for Leah's legs and arms? I wanna give her good Class II stuff.

Leah's Class I Warforge Technologies combat vehicles utilize implants to connect the pilot. Your Class II Organic Moonsinger Augmentations catalog has biotech limbs which could replace implants as interfaces entirely. Alternatively, there are limbs with integrated weapons, both biological and technological, that would improve Leah's chances if she had to bail from a vehicle. Limbs focused on mobility are another option. She'll need to define her preferences a little before I can offer a reasonably narrow selection of suggestions.

"What kind of costs are we looking at?"

Around a thousand points for one limb, as a starting price. Roughly twice that again for each combat graft.

Twelve thousand for an instant replacement of all her limbs. Minimum. I'd want her to get real good ones, though. Five thousand each, plus adapters?

"Tynea, at what point can the Class I adapters no longer support my Class II catalog?"

Only the most complex cerebral augments couldn't be combat grafted at the moment. And even then, one could instantly install a lesser version of these, integrate it fully, and then upgrade it via gene therapy to the full model with some time investment.

So I wouldn't need to use my only token for those limbs. Good. No need for particularly responsible decisions, then.

I returned to Leah with an armful of jars and opened them up just inside of the door. With Tynea's guidance, I removed the fans from the computer, encased them in tunnels of silk, and used them to blow the smell of cheap, shitty food towards any Antithesis nearby.

"Leah, I've got some ideas for stuff we need to buy. Did you already think of something yourself?"

"I've set up a basic plan with Ypsi. Once I have a weapon and two hundred points set aside for medicine and ammunition, she'll begin to accumulate the next one thousand points in lots of two hundred. The more of these lots I end up with, the better our escape vehicle for when shit hits the fan. For a full five lots, I can get us something hella fast and airborne, though barely armored. I could also save up for a fighting vehicle, instead. Something we can use to make a lot of points with."

"I could fight from it, too?"

"Absolutely. I plan on there being a berth inside, even."

"How expensive will that be?"

"Six thousand minimum, sky's the limit."

"Hmm. That's not actually that difficult to get. I made twice that in, like, forty minutes, on my first day. I also used twice that to enhance myself." That last sentence made Leah's eyes go wide.

"Holy crap, what can you do?!"

I smirked, then faded into the background in front of her eyes over the course of several seconds.

"Wow! I can still see you with the cybereye, but without heat vision, I'd have a hard time finding you."

"Yeah, the stealth is incidental. I can match myself to the colors and texture of anything around me, but that's not actually the primary intended use for the adaptability of this skin. It's more to respond to different threats. Skin structures to repel a variety of toxic enzymes, chemicals, bond myself to other surfaces, stuff like that. Proper stealth would be a whole lot stronger than anything I can do. Can't even move much. As you saw, the change couldn't keep up."

"Still pretty cool, though. Chameleons already proved it works," she said with a thumbs-up. "What else?"

"I can probably outrun anything from Earth on the road. Doesn't matter how far I fall, I won't even bruise. And a bunch of other fun stuff. Biggest upgrades were toughness, strength, and senses, really. And those healing bionites you're already familiar with."

Leah's eyes went really soft there, for a moment. It surprised me, I was expecting a tease or something. I had no idea how to react to that, until Leah quietly said, "Yeah. Thanks."

"Um. You're welcome?" I glanced away, somehow really embarrassed.

Now, Leah giggled. And poked me in the cheek. I stuck my tongue out at her and a grin split her face.

I stared at those lips and imagined myself, with great focus, kissing that grin, until Leah blushed beneath my stare. I allowed myself a little smirk of victory, and didn't let Leah's narrowing eyes distract me from happily gloating about my strategic genius.

"I asked Tynea about replacement limbs for you, but we've got too many options. Any particular wishes? There's some special limbs that would allow you to interface with your vehicles, for example."

Leah pursed her lips and glared at me, like she knew exactly why I was gloating. Which of course she did. I let my grin widen, until she snorted, looked away, and answered, "I can get stuff to interface with my gear, I don't need special limbs for that. I don't actually need any limbs for that. I'd prefer some that would help me gather points until I can deal with whatever situation caused me to be fighting directly."

"Gotcha. Tynea, could you work that out with Ypsi and Leah, please?"

Certainly.

"Thanks. Now, Leah, those limbs I can offer you, at Class II, are kinda expensive. Tynea, you said something about splitting points for a bigger total?"

Your party gets a ten percent bonus, yes.

"Cool. Leah, there's so many Antithesis out there that we should be able to get you your fighting vehicle, limbs, and my wings, no problem. Plus a bunch of weapons. Tynea, can we set the point split?"

You can indeed, though whoever contributes more has to signal their intent to do so.

"Alright, understood. Leah, I think it'd be best if you get the majority of the points until you have that vehicle. I just want two hundred or so past my emergency funds, to be safe."

"You sure you don't wanna fifty-fifty?"

"Nah. I could probably run to safety past that entire horde. Sorta. Not for very long, but yeah."

Remember that without additional gear or upgrades to mitigate the strain, your ability to run at your top speed will disappear after approximately five minutes.

"Yeah, that."

Additionally, there are flying units in the double-digits that could absolutely catch up to you.

"Right. So I can run, but not for very long, and probably not without having to escape again. But that doesn't change the fact that Leah can't do any of that, at all. Not until she has several hundred to several thousand points in the bank. I don't mind pitching in for purchases, but if we got split up somehow… She needs those points herself."

"Split ninety-ten until I get my gear?" Leah asked.

"One hundred to ten, since we get that ten percent bonus, once I have my basic emergency funds of one-thirty, and another two hundred on top of that for wiggle room. If something happens to you, I need the points to help you."

"Yeah."

"Then… We just wait for something to come around sniffing."

"Yup," said Leah, as she settled in with a small smile.

***