Marchand must be trying to keep her stables filled. Only makes sense.
When you live as long as some people can these days with rejuvenation treatments, regeneration treatments, transplants, cyberware at every level and all sorts of stuff people like me haven’t even heard of you need to take a long view.
People like Mrs. Marchand who’ve been around forever and will likely keep being around need to look at generational talent. No good keeping your reliable people around and not keeping an eye on the next generation because those reliables are going to age out of usefulness before long as far as you’re concerned.
I’d heard a lot of this stuff from a burnt out ex-corpo agent who used to live below our old apartment. He’d always smoke cigs outside on the balcony and I’d chat to him about stuff I didn’t know about, he’d correct me and then go on some monologue for a while. He had a lot of hate for the corpo lifestyle and the elite of the city.
His name was Mr. Klaver, he wasn’t that old to look at, middle aged looking. But he felt a good bit older and seemed richer than you’d think living down here. He never seemed to have any trouble with gangs or the city, he never seemed to do anything. Just sometimes I’d find him smoking and sometimes he’d not be there. Never see him out and about shopping or whatever. Kind of like old Allie. Did old people have some sort of secret passages or something? Maybe when you reach eighty you gain the power to teleport?
“That’s so nova Mal! You’re not worried about your growth being messed up getting chipped in this early are you?” She asked.
Urgh. Another vicious wound. You’re like a foot or two taller than me and your mom is small, I’ll outgrow you.
“It’ll be fine, netrunning gear is usually just subdermal or cranial so it shouldn’t mess up my actual growth much. Worst case is just some rewiring at some point. If they do offer anything that replaces bone or whatever I’ll just say no for now.” I said unconcerned. I’d grow. I’m going to be fourteen feet tall when I’m done.
“As long as you’re sure, you’ve already fallen behind me and you’re almost two months older. If you stay that size forever then you’ll have to ask me to get your gear down from the top shelves or something.” She said before laughing.
Laugh it up now. I’ll be twenty six feet tall by the time I’m eighteen and then we’ll see who laughing at who.
“Marchand has offered some netrunning training to get me going, then I’ll have to learn it as I go.” I said while contemplating the actual amount of work that would be.
“I won’t be able to help much with netrunning unfortunately, but runners do a lot of sneaking around in the field still, like my mom, so you’ll still need my iron. And you’ll still need to watch your back in the real world and on the net.” She said wagging her finger at me.
“Yeah it’s fine, I know. I’ll always need your iron one way or another. That’s just what an operator is.” I said.
“Tell you what, I’ll make you a special piece for you. A custom job from start to finish. You tell me what you want and I’ll look into it and give you a price, anything you want as long as it’s a standard firearm and doesn’t have anything milspec or spacer needed like a nanite silencer or a shifter action. I don’t have access to that level of stuff nor can I make it myself. Also if you go too extreme with the electronics it might end up very jury-rigged by the end, I don’t have a lot of schematics or access to advanced components.” She said, starting out confident and proud but wilting at the end.
“Yeah I don’t expect you to be putting out extreme end firearms and parts from your mom’s spare room Noe, it’s amazing you’re even able to make stuff that works well enough to save my life against a maddened borg.” I said soothingly.
“I can still make you something you’ll use for a long time though, even when you’re pulling in big operator money in the future.” She said, leaning forwards expectantly. “So tell me what I can make for you, something you’ll rely on.”
Thinking about the kind of work I liked to do, the way I liked to fight and how I’d like to fight in the future. I considered guns I’d seen and knew of. I had an idea.
“I might still need some thinking time on it but I’d like a light frame submachine gun but something chambered for heavier rounds, like a thirty eight or maybe forty five if you can keep the kick down.
I’d like it to be able to use normal rounds but also those smart rounds so it’ll need a BNU attached. I’d also like it to have a full top rail, even if it hangs over. Finally I’d like it to have a slim drum mag, but if you can make it one of the nice ones that don’t jam when you move it too much.” I rattled off, thinking of everything I’d want and some of the cool things I’d seen the gangers use and talk about.
“Oh, is that all? Don’t you want an under mounted crossbow? What about a deployable sentry grip? Maybe something simple like a micro missile rack?” She said leaning back and grimacing.
“You asked and I gave you my answer, if it won’t work then just do what you can with the idea. I’m not the ironmonger, you are.” I said, trying to defend my idea.
“No, you started well enough but then you went into fantasy. A strip-body heavy submachine gun, fine enough and certainly a good project. Smart rounds capable is okay even if it takes away from the lightweight design and adds a lot of cost. An smg with a full rail is silly and again makes it heavier. And you want a heavy “slim” drum mag, the ones that are even heavier than the bargain ones because they literally have a powered ammo feed mechanism. Both the BNU and the drum mag will need a PSU attached to the frame, more weight. Your “light frame submachine gun” is going to weigh a lot, you’ll be lucky to even haul it around without your tiny body dropping it even before you add sights or anything else.” She said, crossing her arms and destroying my idea totally.
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“Wow, okay yeah you make sense. So what would you suggest to fix my idea? It should give you an idea of what I want from the gun.” I said sheepishly.
Noe took a moment and leaned back and seemed to check her interface for a little while. Just frowning a lot and reading something. Her mouth was moving a little as she frowned. Obviously trying to make my idea work.
She looked back at me.
“Okay then, heavy submachine gun. Check. Lightweight. Check. I can make a BNU with a built in PSU, just a box on the side. Check. Full rail is a no, but I can put a right angle sight switch on the top so you can switch between two sights, half rail fit. Drum mag is super no, but I can fit a light extended mag and keep the weight under the line. It’ll have horizontal micro-stabilizing and a recoil nullification set up so you can fire it from the shoulder with almost no kick but it’ll be more fragile and need more repair.” She said, tapping her finger with each major point.
“You know best here. But what’s with the recoil nullification?” I asked.
“Because you could blow away in the wind at your size and now you’re switching over to a fully automatic weapon with heavy rounds.” She said with a smirk.
I am now dead. You have struck me down, Noe.
“Shooting the signet didn’t blow me back, I can handle the recoil.” I said.
“Not firing while moving you can’t, not while climbing or hanging or other situations where you don’t have a good anchor position. You’d have hit nothing but air or even caused yourself to stumble.” She said with a hand wave. “It’s just mathematics, your weight to the firepower involved doesn’t leave you in a favorable position when you aren’t planted and I don’t want to give you a gun that gets you killed because it took your balance at a critical moment. I don’t want to be the one that got you killed.” She said with a frown.
That was fair. She was worried about me and wanted to be the one that saved me, not the one that got me hurt.
“Alright Noe, like I said you know best. So how long do you think that’ll take to put together?” I asked, folding my arms in my lap.
“I think it’ll be a little while, my printer is precise but slow. I’ll need to research the materials I want to use for this specific purpose and run some simulations on faults and so on. Part of the light weight design will be a lot of potential weaknesses which could be fatal with a heavy caliber round.” She said while tapping her lips and thinking.
“So how much do you think it’ll cost? I won’t be working for a little while but then I’ll be doing netrunning jobs and I don’t know how much they pay.” I said, a bit lost.
“I’ll worry about the cost for now, I make some money on the side to keep the cogs turning and I can just treat this like my own project for now. When the gun is more ready and I know what it’ll cost to get finished I’ll let you know.” She said while nodding to herself.
“Huh, thanks Noe, that’s really helpful. It’ll be great to get a gun that uniquely mine. I’ll have to give it a nova name. Like the “Automotokoto one hundred”, or something.” I said, thinking carefully of names.
“You gonk. Is there something wrong with you? Did that borg actually scramble your brain and you didn’t realize? That’s the worst name ever, for anything.” Noe asked with an grimace.
“I’ll think about it some more then. Maybe an animal name or something.” I said, embarrassed.
“Hm, I want to go get the gunpowder cleaned up and get started on your iron. Even if it’s just the early parts. So I’ll leave you to recover Mal, go lay down and nurse your wounds or whatever. I’m sure your mom will appreciate seeing you around the house. And you’ve got your surgery in a few hours, I’ll drop you a get well card on the grid for you.” She said standing up and smiling.
I got up too and gave Noe a hug, again I’m a hugger. I was glad I’d lived to see her again. Her gun had saved me. She hugged me back and didn’t smell of prunes this time, just soap and gunpowder which was much better, even if it was a weird mix.
“I’ll head out then, see you later Noe.” I said as I pulled away.
“See you Mal, I’m glad you survived.” She said while smiling cheekily.
She walked off into the storage room as I left, gunpowder puffing through the opening door as she opened it. Must have really made a mess.
As I was walking out of Noe’s apartment hallway I spotted that blue patched Indian looking operator guy from the other day walking up the street. I leaned over the railing to get a better look. He seemed calmer today than when I last saw him at least.
He was glancing around casually at the different people watching him through the street but when he saw me I waved a little with my arm on the railing and he frowned. What the hell? I haven’t annoyed you, don’t frown at me.
The guy soon took a right and went into an apartment gate on the street floor and disappeared. I headed down to the street myself and across to head home. Maybe get mom to stop wiping down random furniture for no reason.
I entered the apartment and mom was taking a nap in her room, hooked up to her incarna player. At least she’s doing normal things now even if it’s incarna based. She’s got her incarna friends to check up with as much as I’ve got my real world friends to after all. Maybe soon I’ll have net friends to keep track of, you never know really.
Grabbing a pack of staries from the kitchen counter I sat on the sofa and switched the vid screen to the news and muted it, if anything interesting popped up I could unmute it. I started eating the starries while thinking at Sanctum.
Your systems can help with netrunning right? You’ve hacked some stuff in the past on your own and theres the whole skill system thing. Do you have stuff for netrunning that can help me get into it?
[Sanctum’s ability to aid the User in netrunning is wide ranging given the semi-digital nature of Sanctum’s design and the high level of synergy with the User available based on the complexity and function of installed cyberware and supporting hardware.]
[There are also several Skills available for integration that are directly related to netrunning and associated actions. While Abilities do not directly transfer over their functions to your digital form due to the fundamental differences in sense of time and brain-chemical influences, there are effects that Sanctum can extend functionality of into digital actions.]
Wait, so the abilities work a little bit in the net? That’s crazy. Preem though. How do they work?
[Exact functionality is largely User derived as there are different translation integrations for different Users based on individual pattern compatibilities and tolerances. Current User Ability translations are untested, pending User netrunning cyberware installation.]
Alright then. I wonder what the KD or AAB will do in the net? Maybe a defensive response thing, or an instant counter attack maybe? We’ll have to see. Makes me kind of want to slot another ability to see the difference of more things.
[User is extremely advised with all possible emphasis to allow the full integration of existing Abilities before choosing another. Along with an increase in physical Attributes to allow the function of the AAB Ability without self injury.]
Don’t worry, I’m not stupid. I wasn’t going to slot in another yet. Cool as it would be to see more synergies. Maybe an ability that lets me hide synergies to let me hide instantly when someone sees me, and then the net version helps not be detected. That’d be cool.
[Abilities do not translate so literally from real to the net functionality. They depend on distinct brain chemical reactions and problem solving routines that vary distinctly from their comparable situations in the net environment which is why translation is important for User comprehension and utilization.]
Let me know when you have those abilities translated after the surgery, it’d be cool to see what they become on the net.