Ch. 53 - Mounting Up"The biggest change to vehicles over the past thirty years has been the addition of the hoverdrive.

  The second biggest change may have been the preponderance of armor and armament—perhaps that is to be expected in a world under siege.

  Self-driving features may be worth an honorable mention, introduced more than thirty years ago and made reliable through technology imported via samurai.

  But otherwise, things have stayed much the same. A person born in the twentieth century would immediately recognize the modern conveyance."

  – Excerpt from The Wheeler, automotive magazine, edition of 2055

  ***

  "Um, Tynea. If we strip down the Light Communications drone, how cheap can it get? Get rid of the microphone and stuff."

  "That would indeed be the least useful feature of them. I'd like to repce the audio-imaging with infrared sensing, though. Antithesis hives tend to generate a lot of warmth, and as we're not in a jungle, they should be quite btant to a heat-camera. Cheaper, biodegradable pstics and batteries will drastically reduce material costs. Unless you intended to take the drones along with you?"

  I exchanged a look with Leah, who shrugged her shoulders at me. "Hard to pack a couple hundred drones on one or two ATVs with turrets taking up the avaible space…"

  "Indeed. It would be better to upgrade their durability and battery life so that they can follow you under their own power."

  "Which would increase their price." I replied. "Let's stick with the disposable ones. Say, how long do they take to decompose?"

  "Years for some of the parts, but that should not be an issue if we decommission them in hidden locations. They are very small, after all. To answer your earlier question, these drones would cost three points a piece."

  I gnced up, giving it a final think. It would've been nice to have a figurative mountain of eyes for the rest of our journey, but that sounded more like an unreasonable luxury buy at the moment. And they weren't even drones designed for scouting.

  Oh, yeah. "Hey Tynea, one question. How many of these throwaway drones do you need to have the equivalent scouting power to that quartet?"

  "You're comparing very unlike drones, so that's difficult to answer. The Scout's Quartet has much better cameras with greater resolution and a wider viewing field, coverage in all directions on every drone, along with a radar, a lidar, echolocation, and chemical air samplers. They are true scout drones, after all. I'll need to use very different search patterns with the Light Communication drones."

  Apples to oranges, huh?

  "Alright. We have about three hundred points left. Two hundred after the ATVs. Leah, do we want to get those turrets installed right away?"

  She shook her head, "Don't have the points for it. That's one-fifty per turret, and then more for weapons to install."

  "And the catalog?"

  "They're Warforge."

  "Cool. We can go loud—the swarm has passed, which means we don't have to worry about attracting insurmountable attention. So, a few points for ammunition, too… Which leaves us with, say, one-eighty for drones? The more we get early, the faster we get rolling hard."

  "Let's keep twenty points for emergencies, though. That nanite regenerator stuff costs twenty, right?" Leah asked.

  "Right. One-sixty for drones, twenty or less for ammo, one hundred for ATVs." I rubbed my nose, trying to come up with more. Nothing sprang to mind. "Anything else?"

  Leah only shook her head.

  That meant it was finally time to get gone for good.

  Well. We'd have to come back one final time, to poison the food and so I could set up all the tracking stuff. But, there'd be no more sleeping here.

  I looked outside. Where it was still raining. I facepalmed. Of course.

  "I'm stupid."

  Surprised, Leah looked at me. "Huh?"

  "Well, I need something for my antennae to not go all weird on me in the rain. Especially if I'm going to be riding ATVs."

  Realization fshed across her face, followed directly by a sliiightly shifty look. Before I could py detective, she said, "Don't get anything that you're pnning to use for very long. Um. Something really cheap?"

  Hmmmm…? This girl had something pnned. Something that would obviate any measure of antennae…what, rain-protection? Hmmmmmmmmm.

  I grinned at her and saluted. "Aye-aye, capt'n!"

  She blushed just a little, not enough to tinge her ears. Very adorable, indeed!

  "Tynea, any suggestions?"

  Regarding the sneeze reflex you experienced yesterday?

  "Yes."

  Do you tend to sneeze when looking at bright lights?

  "Uh, yes? Sometimes, anyway."

  That seems to be reted, then. It is a fairly common condition called photoptarmosis. You share it with a lot of people, and since your antennae access the relevant centers of your brain, they are affected, too.

  "Huh. Didn't know that, what, photoptar…mis? was a thing. So, a solution?"

  Photoptarmosis. Genetic editing is the most solid one, of course, but that would require some time to process. In the meantime, simply keeping the reflex in check should suffice. Your Medical Utilities offer a spray that may help. It'll regute spiking activity of nerves downwards wherever you apply it, and for your antennae, it will block the sneeze reflex. It's also good for burns or abrasions when you need to keep moving. It costs one point for five applications, and one application will st for one hour.

  "Let's add that to the shopping list."

  Done, Tinea.

  That solved for the foreseeable future, I focused on my surroundings again.

  Leah stood next to me, smoothbore in hand, slightly damp overall equipped, helmet readied with the robot arm, counting points on her fingers. She'd deposited the Sleeve, and I told it to move to me and fold itself into a small square.

  My bathrobe needed some work. It was going to get all kinds of soaked, and my silk tended to swell uncomfortably when it absorbed water. I cut away any loose silk, so that I ended up wearing a tight top and fluffy…undies. Sure. Better than sitting naked on an ATV, I guessed.

  My rifle was loaded with HSRP, it had a silken sling, the Hummingbird was glued underneath my arm, horseshoe and Sleeve glued to my back…

  "Ready to buy the stuff, Leah?"

  "Ready."

  "Alright. Tynea, if you would please? And let's prepare two magazines of those 20mm rounds I used on my first day for each of us. We'll want real stopping power."

  As you wish. I've excluded any expensive, stealthed drones in favor of better coverage. Please look through this offer:

  She sent me a list of our purchases, and I forked it to Leah with a mental swish.

  Purchased:

  1 pts x 1; Css I 'Relief' Anesthetic, local, spray3 pts x 4; 20mm Deyed Guided Gyrojet, magazine of 203 pts x 64; Css 0 Light Communications Drone, stripped50 pts x 2; Css 0 All Terrain Vehicle, wheeled, single seater, baggage rackTotal cost: 305Remaining points: 30

  "Looks good to me? Leah?"

  She acknowledged the list and three boxes of varying sizes appeared in front of us. The biggest one had no lid, and dozens of little brown pstic balls with small bck lenses and small openings with impellers inside, poured out the door with the hum of a hundred bees.

  I'll spawn the ATVs once you're out front.

  "Right." I picked up the rger of the two remaining boxes. Inside were four very chunky magazines, each one as long as my forearm. One I fed directly to my Sentinel, the other it grabbed and held next to itself, and the st two I gave to Leah.

  "I've used these once before, and they're really deadly. They chew through lines of aliens effortlessly. And they're guided, too—please make sure your targeting is set accordingly."

  Leah took the magazines and studied one of the cartridges. They were twice as thick and twice as long as the average middle finger, most of that the projectile itself. They used barely any powder, just enough to evacuate the barrel and travel a meter or two before the motor kicked in and generated the actual kinetic energy.

  That was good; the twenty millimeter caliber was traditionally not fired from the hip, but rather installed as the main armament of infantry fighting vehicles. Perhaps I could hoist and shoot a twenty-mil cannon with my new body and suffer no injury, but my light weight would still just see me get flung around.

  The smallest box had my spray in it, a tiny bottle with Shake Me! printed on it. When I did, some liquid sloshed around inside and quickly dissipated, and the bottle itself cooled slightly in my fingers. A moment ter, a small ding announced that the spray was ready to use.

  I held one of my antennae still with one hand, while I carefully applied the misty vapor first to one side, and then the other. To anyone else, the thing would've probably been odorless, but my sensitive antennae could pick up an ever-so-light scent of disinfectant, and a chemical taste I couldn't quite pce, but that my antennae-impnted olfactory library told me was an anesthetic.

  I repeated the action with the other antennae, tested them out, and felt…nothing off.

  Tynea did say the spray only killed intense signals. I flicked the stem of one antennae, and instead of the pain I expected, I really only got a gentle knock echoing through.

  Helpful, I hoped. Huh. Actually, that'll be more than helpful in the public, where people might squish my antennae. I ain't the biggest person around anymore, after all…

  Focus.

  Alright. Weapons, ammo, drones, I counted out. Gear ready. Glue sticky. Girl hot? I looked over to Leah. She had her helmet on, and gave me a thumbs-up with her free hand. Girl hot.

  That just leaves the ATVs.

  We walked out of the building, and two unremarkable tan quad bikes settled on the damaged concrete, one next to each of us.

  They looked quite durable, had thick pstic baskets to shield hands and legs in the forest, and oversized steel racks behind the seats. There'd be plenty of space for a turret.

  Mine also had a small windscreen, and sptter guards for all four wheels, presumably because I wasn't wearing a helmet or an overall.

  Elsewise, everything looked good. There was a white button for the ignition, some switches for lights, no key required…brakes… Yeah. I could already feel the vehicle training from the dreams kick in, as I cataloged every function, every lever, entirely on autopilot.

  Oh damn, I was actually starting to look forward to this!

  I gave Leah a wild grin, hopped on mine, and twisted the handlebar to hear the engine rev like a prayer to maniacal abandonment.

  ***

  Eleeyah