"How did Madison end up like this? Well, during that huge antithesis siege in 38, damn near the whole state government just packed up and fucking ran to milwaukee. So much for leadership. The corps were already half in control, so after the siege they just took the other half. We've been a fucking capitalism paradise ever since."
— rlacthemagnificent, meshit post.
Elliot pressed the inhaler against Quinn’s mouth, and soon an electric buzzing that started in her mouth swept some of the worst of the mental fog away. Unfortunately, it also swept away her blissful ignorance of how much the rest of her hurt.
“Uuuurgh” she groaned “Everything hurts”.
Despite the complaining, it was rapidly improving. Apparently the nanites had spare capacity to fix some of the massive bruising she had, and thankfully nothing felt broken. With an inventory of her health complete with no immediate emergencies, she turned to the next priority.
“Elliot. How did you get that, did Irys let you buy it for me? and what happened to your shoulder?”
He touched his hand to the red staining his shirt “Oh, don’t worry about that. I got a little scratched when a model-3 went for Maya and Amelie and kind of blocked the blow with my chest. I patched myself up and came to find you.”
Quinn gave him a withering look as she began crawling out of the mech. “And that’s all that happened?”
He gave her a shit eating grin “Oh nothing too important, killed a few stragglers, initialized, such boring matters.”
Her center of gravity pulled her over the edge and she faceplanted into the floor in front of his squatting form, before pulling herself up and punching him gently on the knee “Oh nothing too important huh? How come it didn’t happen earlier?”
He shrugged “Dunno, maybe I proved something in the last fight. I’ll ask Hylios later.”
He stood up and offered her a hand, she took it and he helped her up. She glanced around, taking stock of the situation. Antithesis corpses littered the floor, including the huge model-6 a little past where she had fallen. Cassie was on her side, arm partially mangled, but she saw the streaks of purple flitting around and bit by bit repairing the damage. Maya and Amelie were moving over towards them, Maya striding without much of a care in the world, Amelie cautiously picking her way around the bodies, acting like someone half convinced that a corpse may suddenly come alive and jump her at any second.
She talked as she scanned “That your AI’s name? Mine’s is Irys as a note, I guess they chose them to compliment?”
“Do they? I thought they just picked random names”
“Apparently not, they are both ancient greek gods, I think?.”
He nodded sagely in an exaggerated fashion, like he definitely now possessed her entire understanding. “I see.” He swung his eyes round, sweeping the room “We should get these two into the shelter, and then figure out a way to get Cassie upright again before heading out. That reminds me, give me a minute?”
He fell silent, though his mouth was still moving, and started walking towards the other end of the room while beckoning with a hand to the two others. Quinn followed, deciding to let the repair nanites do their thing before trying to right Cassie.
As they drew closer to the side of the cavernous basement to their left, a white box dropped into being at Elliot’s feet. He bent down and opened it up, extracting a gun with a cylindrical profile punctuated by two wing-like flares starting at the end of the barrel and going about a quarter of the way down the length, and two much smaller ones at the other end. He extracted a tube from the box before inserting it into a hole in the back end, then pulled the small wings back before letting it go with a clack.
“Damn, looks fancy” Quinn remarked, giving it a look.
“Yeah, apparently from some sorta bird like aliens called the Wind-Hunters.”
Quinn gave him a questioning look “Really?”
He shrugged “Hey, we called our planet ‘dirt’ basically didn’t we?”
“It sounds much more grandiose in their language. As a note, I can link you and Elliot up via interfacing with my colleague if you two should so desire.”
“Uh, Irys says she can link us up via her and Hylios if we both agree”
Elliot gave a half head tilt “Sure, works for me.”
A moment later, and Quinn had a new voice in her head “Hi Quinn! I’m Hylios, nice to meet ya!” The voice was excitable, like a college student who hadn’t lost the early teenage energy, and she had a hard time deciding if it was more masculine or feminine.
“Nice to meet you.” She subvocalized.
“And hello Elliot, I’ve heard a lot about you.” Irys tone was its usual slightly sultry but with an edge of menace.
“Hi there!” If Elliot had picked up the undertone, he didn’t display it.
“Hey guys, uh.. We’re here” Maya interjected, and Quinn suddenly noticed they were stood; in front of the large steel door of the shelter. Elliot gave them a thumbs up, then went over to the console and buzzed for a person. They were promptly answered, and unlike last time this one seemed more professional.
“Name and business?” The voice was gruff and to the point.
Elliot seemed to shift subtly to be standing a little straighter. “Elliot Ruthers, with me is Quinn Takimura, we’re dropping off a few civilians we saved.”
“The new Samurai, we’ve been informed. What are your plans now?”
Elliot glanced at Quinn and subvocalized in their link “Do we have a plan for what’s next, boss?”
She scrunched her nose at him “What you do you mean boss! You’re a Samurai too now, why do I have to be in charge.”
He chuckled and turned back to the console “Unsure, resupply and hunt more aliens, likely.”
“Understood, we’ll let the civilians in, then we were asked to let you know Lieutenant Briggs wants to speak with you at the entrance to the corp compound.”
Elliot pondered, “You can tell them we'll consider it.”
“Acceptable, opening the door now” The line cut.
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Within a few moments the giant door began to creak open, and Maya and Amelie stepped towards it, they gave each other a brief look where Amelie nodded before Maya spoke up.
“Hey guys, I know you’re sam and all, but you saved our asses in a pretty personal way. Amelie wanted to ask if you guys wanted to get dinner, on us, later.” She awkwardly played with a strand of hair laying near her face “You just got a promotion of a lifetime, so I understand if you don’t”
Yeah, no, Quinn wasn’t going to stand for someone else being this self deprecating, that was her job!
“We'd love to!” Some of her confidence left her when she realised she'd spoken for Elliot “I mean.. I would.”
Elliot swooped in “Agreed! I'll have Hylios send you my contact details.”
Maya grinned as she moved towards the entrance “Sounds good! we'll give you a bit to wrap up the incursion and all”. Amelie gave a small smile and a little wave, and the two women slipped inside the shelter.
As the large door finished closing Elliot put his free hand on his hip “Okay then, shall we go see about getting cassie back on her feet then?”
“Sure”. Quinn replied, and the two started back towards where the mech still lay tipped over. She noticed as they approached that the previously half crushed right side was looking significantly more intact, if seems like the repair nanites had been working as they'd been away. Thankfully too the gun also seemed intact.
Elliot moved over to cassie's side and, after scanning the basement again, put his gun down. He squatted a little and got under the fallen flak turret, before pushing up with a grunt of effort. The mech didn't move an inch as he struggled, and after a couple of seconds of getting steadily redder in the face he gave up. Quinn tried to stifle a laugh, made all the more harder when he turned round and made a face of mock hurt when he saw her barely controlling herself.
He picked up his gun and leaned the top against his shoulder. “Well, that didn't work. Can she push herself up?”
Quinn thought back to the old, incredibly terribly corporate training videos she'd had to watch to get certified.
“Not unassisted, the training talked about either using a crane or like six people to assist.”
“Damn. buying a crane or something feels like a waste.” he huffed and shifted back to look at the mech. “Can we.. get something that generates a lot of force, or messes with gravity or something Hylios?”
“There is!” Hylios was adorably eager to reply “Antigrav technology is only tier 1, so its relatively cheap. Or you could just buy a tier zero jack!”
Quinn couldn’t help but snort. Elliot snickered a little too.
“Hylios is right darlings, but it would be a prudent investment for you Quinn, antigrav is one of the better ways to improve mobility for large vehicles such as mechs. However, I do feel like we should address the, as they say, elephant in the room.”
Quinn instantly felt her heart drop out of her chest as the vague statement ignited her anxiety. Is this where Irys told her she hadn’t been living up to expectations and needed to step aside?
“To be succinct; Cassie is rapidly reaching redundancy. It sufficed when you had little points, but at this point the chassis is becoming more of a hindrance than a benefit, considering you are going to require points just to right her. I think you need to accept that we may have to replace her.”
Quinn went from anxiety to confusion to a spark of annoyance mixed with relief.
“Fuck Irys, you made it sound like it was something deadly. Don't drop vague sinister statements on me like that.”
Irys actually took a moment to respond, and when she did, it was in a new fashion for her, slightly hesitant.
“I apologize, am I to take it that this discussion isn’t a source of stress for you?”
Quinn shook her head “It is! Look, couldn’t we just keep upgrading her like we have been doing?”
“While an option, it will rapidly end up costing you more points than it would take just to upgrade to a t1 mechanized chassis. It would only take around 300 points to acquire an adequate tier one replacement, and you currently have 534”
Elliot whistled, then chuckled “Beating me, I'm only on…”
“350! It's still a good amount, we gave you the cooperation bonus in the last combat” Hylios chimed in.
“Cooperation bonus?” Quinn asked, momentarily pulled out of her funk by the tangent.
“We like when vanguard work together, so we give a 10% bonus to points earned before splitting it between you when vanguard work together. Overall we've found human vanguard cooperation increases suvival rates by..”
“Thank you Hylios” Irys interjected with a firm tone “We can chat about the reasons why later. So, Quinn, could I make some suggestions for upgrades?”
“So, I just buy a new mech every tier and throw away the old one?” Quinn responded with some distress as the conversation veered right back into uncomfortable territory.
“That is the standard way of doing things. There are paths to upgrading incrementally and various advantages to do so, notably cost and depending on how its done, flexibility, but I’m afraid Cassie is just too poorly made compared to even the most basic of vanguard tech that it just isn’t feasible long term.”
Quinn plopped down one of Cassie’s legs, and fondly ran a hand along the cool metal. Maybe Irys was right, but she didn’t just want to abandon Cassie like that. It was stupid, it was only a fucking machine, but it had been a bright spot in her life when things had been pretty shit, and then had done more than that when it saved her life allowed her a glimpse of a life she had never even dreamed was possible.
Elliot quietly stepped up beside her and put a hand on her shoulder “Its okay Quinn, we can work something out. You don’t need to do the optimal thing all the time”
She considered shrugging him off, but decided to just enjoy the touch for a short while. She started chewing on the nails of her other hand as she thought, and it helped center her enough to make a decision.
“No, I’m a Samurai, I’d feel worse half assing things based on some stupid sentimentality. Irys, you mentioned that 300 is to get an adequate replacement? How much to get a good replacement for Cassie, one that I could actually upgrade without losing value.”
“A rough minimum would be about 600, but the sky is the limit. However around 1000 points you'd likely start seeing diminishing returns per point. Eventually it makes more sense to simply acquire a higher level catalog and purchase superior options from there.”
“You need tokens or something for higher level catalogs though, right?” Elliot mused. “How do we even get those?”
“Feats of skill or bravery of course, though details would be spoilers!” Hylios almost whispered the last word.
“And would there be an antigravity solution that we could later take off and put on a new chassis?”
“Yes, there would. Did you have a plan in mind?
Quinn nodded and stood up from her seat “Yes. Lets buy the antigravity stuff and use it to keep Cassie going for one more fight. Then I’ll use the points we get from that to buy a replacement. We can give her one last hurrah, at least.”
“An adequate plan, but I will mention that there is no guarantee you’ll have another lull in the action to make a planned switch before circumstances force one.”
Elliot came to stand with Quinn, a determined look on his face. “I can cover for her if necessary. We’ll make it work one way or another.”
Irys’ tone turned slightly disappointed mother. “Very well Darling, if you insist. In that case, you have 534 points remaining. At this time, I’d suggest 100 for the Tier 1 Anti-Gravity Technology catalog, then 100 for a paired set of antigravity generators, though I’d caution that your current power supplies will not last to power them for longer than short bursts. Alternatively, Tier 2 Gravitic Manipulation Technologies would be 300, and then the same cost for the antigravity generators.”
“Oooh! Could I suggest reloads for your guns too, you’re running a little low.” Hylios seemed excited to be able to help.
“Sure, give it all to me”
New Purchase: Tier 1 Anti-Gravity Technology Catalog
Points reduced to... 434
New Purchase: Tier 1 Twinned Antigrav Generators, Exoskeleton Rated
Points reduced to... 334
New Purchase: Raging Tsunami Drum Magazine- x1
Points reduced to... 329
New Purchase: Automated Flak Turret Ammo Box - x2
Points reduced to... 323
As the boxes with their stylized mecha landed, Quinn gave Elliot her best puppy dog eyes “Can you show me how to reload them? I should probably know, just in case?”
He gave her a warm smile “Of course, here”
They reloaded the flak guns and the raging tsunami together, and then Elliot held the antigrav generators up while the repair nanites incorporated them into the back of the mech. Quinn slipped back in and prepared to right herself.
“Okay, turn them on when I start to push up, Irys?”
“I will do so.”
She carefully maneuvered the left arm so it would push up at the right angle, then shifted the joystick hard. Initially cassie barely shifted, but then a noise like an engine heard through underwater started up, and suddenly cassie was pushing herself upright. She had to slow the push at the last moment to avoid overshooting and tipping cassie onto its other side, but thankfully for her pride she made it.
Finally back in the saddle, she turned towards the cargo elevator.
“So, do we want to go speak to this Lieutenant Briggs?” She asked Elliot as they started to make their way over.
“I don’t see any reason why not” he offered. “We can at least see what he has to say, and maybe find some more weeds to kill and people to save in the meanwhile?”
“Sounds good to me. Lets go give Cassie a hell of a send off.”
Should I continue to post daily until I've finished this arc? (Till chapter 16)
