Aurelio felt like he was diving back into his data entry days from college with the amount of overhead he was giving to their numbers. The resource cache in the junkyard displayed the amount of each resource they had on hand generally, with his recently acquired INSPECT function allowing him to identify the specific resources they had.
Generally speaking, they had four salvage, three sludge, and three biotics, along with one unrefined stone. The corroded shell of the Vessel they’d hunted down counted as either salvage or biotics if fed to their mechanical synthesizer.
Investment in a suit was a necessary endeavor.
Aurelio turned back to the smithing stone and opened its store.
WELCOME
[Heavy Metal Exo-Suit] - x5 Salvage
[Birdcage Core] - x1 Corrupted Core + x2 Salvage
[Scrap Blaster] - x2 Salvage + x1 Unrefined Stone
[Crackling Staff] - x1 Salvage + x1 Unrefined Stone + x1 Sludge
[Slab of Iron] - x4 Salvage
[Industrial Chain Cutter] - x3 Salvage + x2 Unrefined Stone
[Jagged Steel] - x2 Salvage
[Carbon Cleaver] - x2 Salvage + x1 Sludge + x1 Biotics
!ARMORY ADDITIONS!
[Corroded Exo-Suit] - x1 Corroded Shell + x2 Salvage + x2 Sludge
[Compressed Core] - x1 Vessel Heart + x1 Sentient Circuitry + x1 Black Blood
[Cinderblade] - x2 Salvage + x1 Black Blood
[Ember Lance] - x1 Faulty Weapon + x1 Unrefined Stone + x1 Biotics + x1 Sludge
[Black Needle] - x2 Black Blood + x1 Sentient Circuitry + x1 Unrefined Stone
[Reinforced Umbrella] - x1 Salvage + x1 Unrefined Stone + x1 Biotics
As expected, the Pure Vessels suit and core were locked and would remain so until they hunted one down. That left Aurelio with the options of the [Heavy Metal Exo-Suit] or the [Corroded Exo-Suit].
He sighed. He remembered their general play style but not their piloting specifics. The former was tailor made for a tanking character and would work well with someone like Cantwell while the latter cared a bit about terrain and reach weapons? There were vague recollections of that exo-suit's innate weapon being a useful alternative weapon in a pinch. There were other advantages that he was failing to recall.
Aurelio was certain, however, that neither suit would benefit him in a meaningful way. If he wanted to make use of his [Ember Lance] and the rifle weapon class in general, he’d be investing a lot of resources towards a rather selfish pursuit elsewhere.
That’s if he wanted to take on his brother’s mantle of damage king. That wasn’t really his interest in the game and it wasn’t his interest here in this world.
Which meant he’d be serving as the crew's swiss army knife. It’d be easier for him to rush an upgrade on their junkyard and gain access to the loveable [Packrat Exo-Suit] if he was going to dedicate himself to that supportive role.
His evasion would plummet and his utility was dependent on further resource investments into active gear, but better to have utility and not need it than need it and not have it.
“Hello.” Cantwell said.
“Ah!” Aurelio yelped, jumping out of his skin to see Cantwell staring at him expectantly. “Jeez, Canti. You could have given me a heart attack.”
The bald headed man stared back at him with a neutral gaze, “I’m sorry about that.”
Aurelio took a deep breath and waited for Cantwell to follow up with his motivations.
And found only silence greeted him.
“Is there a reason you’re here, Cantwell?”
The man nodded, “Wanted to see your thoughts. Talk to you about the gearworks next door.”
It was good that they were being proactive at the very least.
“Well there isn’t a lot of discussion to have about what we can build over there at the moment. I’m leaning towards outfitting you with a new suit and taking full ownership of an older model. If we’re diligent in our resource gathering, we can have a line of custom exo-suits to use tailored to our styles of combat. While building up towards that future, we’ll piecemeal stuff from the gearworks with any remaining resources.”
“Huh.”
Aurelio scratched his chin and-
“Why do you care about more suits?” Cantwell asked.
“They’re incredibly important to fabricate early so each Scavenger can gain their piloting proficiency with the suit early and take full advantage of their benefits.” Aurelio replied.
Cantwell chewed on that information, “But there’s only five crew members here. One suit for you is all we need, yeah?”
Aurelio chewed on the thought.
“I guess if we’re looking at suits as just the means to safely navigate the planet, yeah, we’d only need one more suit. But there’s other benefits to diversifying our suit roster.” He finished his sentence but Aurelio was unsure of himself. If he wanted to cruise through the mid-level threats, having access to piloting milestones would serve towards that goal.
But was he wasting potential by tunneling in this way?
“If there were other options with better scaling to resource investment ratios, I’d have recommended them already,” Aurelio sighed, “But you’re right. The suit is a secondary, maybe even a tertiary condition.”
“Uh huh.” Cantwell offered with a noncommittal shrug.
It made more sense, with Cantwell’s silent prodding, to acquire weapons for each group member. They’d be unable to earn proficiency for their trees without a corresponding weapon type and it gave them the added benefit of earning general buffs.
“Speaking of…” Aurelio grumbled, looking at Cantwell in earnest now. He pulled away from the smaller stone and moved towards the giant man, attempting to locate the INSPECT option somewhere on their person.
The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
“What are you doing?” Cantwell asked.
Aurelio squinted as he searched for a prompt, “I’m trying to open a diagnostics sheet on you.”
The bearded engineer scratched his chin in momentary contemplation before placing his hand on his chest. From there, he drew out a large rust yellow globule of fire and held it within his palm.
“This should work.” Cantwell stated.
The effect of Cantwell’s ember on Aurelio’s eyes were immediate, two prompts appearing just above it asking to be interacted with. There was an illuminated prompt to the left that allowed him to INSPECT Cantwell and an occluded option to the right that required the COMMUNE action to activate.
COMMUNE being tied to the scavengers raised its potential for Aurelio but he shelved the internal analysis for another time. With the way he’d been driving his mind on all cylinders, the tidbits he was shelving were going to fill up the archives by the end of things.
Aurelio clicked on the INSPECT option and opened Cantwell’s diagnostics sheet.
[Name] - Cantwell Star
[Status] - Healthy
[Species] - Human
[Heart] - 1
[Ignition Regen] - 1
[Ignition Cap] - 11
[Role 1] - Engineer
[Role 2] - None [ADD?]
[Mov: +0 | Acc: +0 | Str: +0 | Eva: +0 | Spd: +0 | Lck: +0]
[Weapon Class Specialization] - None [ADD?]
[Spark Level] - 2 [MILESTONE I ACHIEVED]
[Abilities and Impairments]
None Listed
“Huh.” Despite Aurelio’s nonchalance, there were numerous questions circulating through his head.
“I see what you mean now.” Cantwell stated.
Aurelio blinked, “What do you mean, wha?”
Cantwell used his meaty finger to underline the class specialization section, “You were talking about weapons. And it's there. Among other things.”
Aurelio nodded, “Yeah. Are you able to do the honors or am I going to take what you want and edit things as I go along?” He posed it as a question for him but it was more a question for himself, a lingering curiosity over the boundaries of the system that governed his abilities.
Cantwell answered by successfully opening the dropdown menu of the weapon class specialization section and registering his affinity for hammers.
“What’s this spark level going to do?” Cantwell asked.
Aurelio smiled, “Click on it and see. I have an idea but no time like now to see things unfold.”
Cantwell shrugged and accepted his milestone boon. A rusted yellow die materialized in front of him, spinning in the air at a feverish pace. He tapped the die and the spinning stopped on the number four.
The die then expanded and thinned out until it was a screen akin to the junkyard interface, listing the various boons available for him to select from.
Two yellow colored pips appeared just above the screen, an indicator for how many choices he could make for the boon.
“Hm.” Cantwell considered his options carefully. Aurelio watched without pressuring him one way or another, eager to see what sort of decision the man would come to.
In the end, Cantwell made a surprising choice. He elected to gain one point towards evasion and to gain an ability. Upon interacting with the second boon, the screen flashed three cards that were blinding and inscrutable to Aurelio’s own eyes.
“Huh.” Cantwell muttered. His finger pressed on one of the options and the fiery display elements fizzled into smoke.
“Any reason why you made the choices you did?” Aurelio asked.
Cantwell shrugged, “Dunno. Felt right. Want to be upfront and not get hurt. Abilities sounded interesting too.” After a protracted moment of silence, Cantwell stretched his massive body and walked into the junkyard, digging at patches of soil with intense scrutiny.
Aurelio watched his soft spoken crew member scrutinize his surroundings and left him be. Knowing a character through the professionally written side stories was a different beast to the actual presence and awkwardness that Cantwell brought to every conversation.
He once again gathered the information given to him by the rest of the crew and poured into the shopping list with renewed vigor.
With his purchases, the team would be one weapon short but that too wasn’t a necessity yet if not everyone was going out on an expedition.
He asked Cantwell to exit the dumping grounds and fabricated two new weapons for their arsenal.
---
They were down to one sludge, two biotics, and the multipurpose corrupted shell already. Early game resources were going to flow through their outpost like water but the investment was necessary to increase their safety.
In the end, Aurelio fabricated a [Black Needle] and a [Slab of Iron]. The former was an improvised weapon, a crude imitation of the dark blue tendrils of the Vessel’s true form. The sentient sludge pooled around the back of the hand like a viscous bubble, the overall weapon wielded like a gauntlet. The [Black Needle] would react to the presence of their sparks to switch between a rigid needle point and a more watery whip-like tool.
The [Slab of Iron] was a simple yet massive hammer; a primitive crushing instrument often used to pulverize rocks and walls of various compositions.
They would be Phineas and Cantwell’s tools for devastation, leaving Kalani and her need for a pistol at the end of the list.
The rest of his preparation time was spent with sorting the diagnostic sheets of the other group members and drawing the radar events. Phineas cracked jokes about being a high roller after looking to Cantwell for information on the process and proceeded to roll a one for his milestone bonus; grumbling about the unfairness of the die and increasing his luck.
Elena refused to let Aurelio look at Kalani’s diagnostics sheet unless she was present. A blessing in disguise, all things considered, because Kalani immediately forced Elena to comply with his assessment of her diagnostics sheet once things were all said and done.
Kalani rolled a three on her milestone bonus, acquiring a point in strength and selecting an ability of her own. If she had any questions for Aurelio, she didn’t attempt to ask them.
Elena rolled poorly alongside Phineas, acquiring a two and selecting to invest her sole boon towards accuracy.
Aurelio hadn’t hit the level milestone with that excursion because their first night fighting monsters was technically up in the tutorial station and not down on the scrap planet with him.
He was one short on the level up.
At the very least, he had his own rolls to contend with. In the end, he acquired a point in movement, accuracy, and strength. The large 3 next to his stats bar had disappeared.
The last task on his list was the scanning for the mission ahead. None of the others were willing to enter the station yet after the stone titan invaded their minds and so it was left up to him to assess the conditions of the test.
Aurelio stared at the console panel with its blinking lights, buttons, and dials, and began the scanning process. Since Phineas had failed to locate the entrance to the catacombs and the other locations were too dangerous in his mind to deal with, he kept their hunting grounds within the Mire.
A new monster had appeared in the list of potential quarries. The monolith had deemed the crew capable of handling the Malignance.
Aurelio certainly did not. Unlike his brother, he wasn’t a risk taker and he wasn’t willing to discard his allies in an aggressive play for advanced resources. Especially when he still wasn’t certain what death would mean for him and the rest of the crew.
The tabletop game encouraged throwing Scavengers into the meat grinder in numerous instances since flesh was replaceable but enough discrepancies between his situation and that game design made him very reluctant to give that idea a shot.
Regardless, Aurelio selected another Vessel and narrowed his search for the Pure variant. He drew out his spark and allowed the cerulean globule to sink into the console's indentation.
The station fired up with activity. The center monitor buzzed with activity amidst the static, whisperings slithering into his ear while symbols attempted to insert themselves into his mind. In moments, the connection disconnected and Aurelio was plunged into complete darkness.
The radar scan yielded nothing of value. He’d drawn the Blackout event.
He sighed in relief. Better to get no news than bad news on the state of the Mire.
All of their affairs were in order. There was nothing else to do other than take a deep breath and rest for the upcoming hunt.
A hunt he did not plan to participate in.