Kaleb held his breath and watched the barrel of the machine gun. He wasn’t sure what exactly 0.86% energy would do, but he hoped they would get something. Obadiah and Farrah both took a step back as the large gun whirred softly. An electric hum filled the air and Kaleb watched the Joranek glands glow softly. The whirring grew slightly louder, and the glands pulsed until the whirring suddenly died and glands stopped glowing.
Kaleb blew out a breath. He supposed it made sense, less than 1% power. What was he expecting? He saw Farrah move forward and tap away at the minicomputer as Obadiah returned his stare. The old cyborg seemed unsurprised as he moved closer to inspect the gun. Kaleb joined Obadiah in looking it over as Farrah spoke up.
“Yep, power is down to just above 0.05%. Guess we didn’t even have enough power to leave the barrel.”
Kaleb looked down the length of the long barrel. “Any idea how far the energy made it?”
“Probably didn’t even leave the receiver,” Obadiah said.
Kaleb sighed and nodded slowly. “Well, that was anticlimactic.”
“Damn, I wanted to see how this would stack up compared to the ones at SPPD Headquarters,” Farrah said, looking up from the minicomputer.
“I doubt these guns will be that impressive. I mean… I haven’t seen the SPPD’s defenses, but I imagine they are pretty high tech,” Kaleb said, checking the wires on the receiver mechanism.
“They are,” Obadiah said. “Any sign of electrical seepage over there?”
Kaleb shook his head. Hearing approaching footsteps, he turned and saw Two Gun making his way over to them. He gave the gunslinger a nod and went back to double-checking the wires. Two Gun walked up next to him and held a small back rectangle under Kaleb’s nose.
Kaleb stared at the object for several seconds before he recognized it. “Is that an actual pocket phone?”
Two Gun waggled the old-style phone before he said. “Yep, I figured since we are using D-Net, anyway. We might as well go completely old school.”
“That could work,” Farrah said, not looking up from the minicomputer. “The D-Net frequencies are free. Not too many people are using them. I can encode a channel so we can have a personal one.”
Kaleb sighed and looked between them exasperated. “Then what the hell did I even build our ear comms for?”
Obadiah ran his finger over the barrel of the long machine gun as he answered. “One can be for personal calls while the other can be Tac-Comms for when your team is all out in the field together.”
“Exactly! Besides these were cheap. Most old D-Net tech is,” Two Gun said, nodding along with Obadiah’s words.
Kaleb grabbed the offered phone and looked it over. It was an old, thin touchscreen phone, popular before wrist communication devices became the norm. Kaleb twisted the old device in his hand before he said aloud.
“Phone, on!”
The phone’s black screen remained blank and Kaleb shot a look at Two Gun. “Really? Not even a voice function?”
“Oh, shut up and take the dang thing. It’s not like you don’t have room in those damn pockets of yours,” Two Gun said rolling his eyes.
Kaleb sighed and slid the phone into his jeans pocket. It felt weird to have a rectangular box against his leg, but he felt he could get used to it. Two Gun handed one to Farrah and looked up to Obadiah apologetically. Obadiah just waved him off and spoke to Kaleb again.
“Well, it looks like the glands and the wires handled the charge well enough. Of course, we won’t know how the receiver will handle a massive charge until it fires one. I’d recommend reinforcing the barrel just in case.”
Kaleb grinned. “I can do that.”
Pulling out his pen cutter, Kaleb moved toward the slim barrel of the machine gun. He had the Protection Rune memorized by this point so it was a simple matter to get the rune etched into the gun’s barrel. After it was finished all Kaleb had to do was power up the rune with some Mana and stand back. Obadiah moved over to check his work as Two Gun asked.
“Will that little scribble be enough?”
Kaleb nodded noncommittally. “Maybe.”
Farrah jerked her head up before Two Gun could say anything more and announced, “Ok, I think I have a decent algorithm for the receiver. I had to estimate on some higher numbers. But ultimately, I think we can get a good idea on how long it will take the gun to charge fully. Of course, we will have to work that out later to get a perfect reading.”
“So, how long will it need to charge?” Kaleb asked.
Farrah tapped a few more buttons on the minicomputer’s screen before she answered. “A little over 3 hours.”
Kaleb swallowed his groan of disappointment and he nodded his head. “That’s… good. I guess.”
Farrah just shrugged and stood up and flexed her fingers. Obadiah looked between Kaleb and the gun before he gave a short nod and started back toward the workbench. Two Gun left to join Claire, who was taking the food they had bought downstairs along with the fridge. Kaleb followed Obadiah and found both Daivor and Roy hovering over a mass of parts.
Kaleb grimaced slightly as he saw Obadiah trying to work around the Gnome and boy pair. The Mechanics Room was fairly spacious. But with four people trying to work on the same workbench they would get crowded real quick. Farrah also seemed to identify the problem as she started to join them before veering off and heading to her D-Net set-up.
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Obadiah was getting annoyed with the pair as they seemed to argue over certain pieces. Roy still couldn’t understand Daivor so the whole scene played out like a weird silent play. Obadiah moved around Roy and picked up various bits and bobs to build another receiver into the second gun. Kaleb moved closer and tried to ask them to move but Daivor cut him off.
“Before you ask: No we can’t move. You want these drones done? Then we need the space.”
Kaleb opened his mouth to argue, but he quickly closed it again when he realized the Gnome was right. They had limited space outside of the workbench. So instead he just nodded and moved the second large machine gun out the doors. Obadiah sighed loudly and patted his grandson on the shoulder.
“You’re not gonna make your old grandpa work on the floor, are you?”
Roy just turned and gave Obadiah a wide smile before he turned back to his work. Kaleb covered a snort as he went to work on the second turret gun. Working from the floor wasn’t too bad and since they had completed one already the work went by fast. Kaleb had the receiver assembly almost completely taken apart before Obadiah came back with several Joranek glands and some wiring.
The two pairs worked in silence as they each worked on their respective projects. Daivor and Roy seemed to come to an agreement on the drone's form factor as Kaleb and Obadiah got the glands attached to the machine gun’s new receiver. The staccato rhythm of Farrah clacking away at her new computer punctuated their silent work.
Kaleb briefly wondered what she was doing, but he pushed it from his mind. He and Obadiah finished up the second machine gun and picked it up to move it back outside with the first. He glanced out at the surrounding airfield and tried to see his new force field. A thought occurred to him as they got the gun attached to the minicomputer.
“Does the shield extend underground?”
Obadiah nodded. “Slightly. It will not block anything traveling deep underground. But it will keep the bugs out.”
Kaleb shook his head and went back to trying to align the machine gun with its mount. Thankfully Obadiah could hold the large gun by himself as Kaleb went to work. After they got the second gun set up Kaleb checked the minicomputer. After he confirmed that the system was registering the second gun he and Obadiah walked back to the Mechanic’s Room. Roy and Daivor were using the workbench’s clamp to bend a piece of metal into the shape they wanted.
Kaleb placed his hands on his hips as he thought of his next project. Obadiah stretched his arms and asked.
“What’s next?”
Kaleb nodded to himself in thought before replying, “I think Two Gun’s new weapons and then it’s my turn for an upgrade. I want to see if I can amp up the power on my Cybar pistol.”
Obadiah just nodded and he and Kaleb looked around the mechanics room for a few seconds. But before Kaleb could get any sparks of an idea for Two Gun’s new weapons, Farrah spoke up.
“Umm… I think you might want to see this.”
Kaleb twisted his head in confusion before he walked over with Obadiah following behind. Kaleb heard Roy get up and join them and the tell-tale *fwip* of Daivor’s new rigging vest. Joining Farrah, Kaleb paused for a second and stared at the chair she was sitting in.
“Is that the chair from the office?”
“Yep,” Farrah said, tone daring him to say something else.
Kaleb wisely remained quiet and turned to look at the video she had on screen. The video was obviously from a street camera and it faced down a long street Kaleb didn’t recognize. In the video, groups of people were running down the street, terrified. A few seconds later they saw what was scaring them.
A giant boar was thrashing its way down the street. From what Kaleb could see it looked like the creature was taller than some nearby buildings. Its large tusks jutted from its lower jaw, swinging every which way. Kaleb thought he could see a body still impaled on the boar’s right tusk.
“Ahhh, a Manthian Boar. Looks young too,” Obadiah said with some awe in his voice.
“That’s young?!” Roy said surprised. “How big are the older ones?”
Obadiah shook his head. “It’s not really about overall size. It’s more about tusk size and how glossy their coat is.”
“Where are the cops?” Kaleb asked trying to bring the conversation back to the matter at hand.
Farrah switched through a couple of cameras until she got to another street. In the video several police cars were making their way to the scene. Farrah snorted and Kaleb didn’t understand why at first until Obadiah pointed it out.
“They're not even SPPD. They are regular cops.”
Kaleb’s eyes widened as he understood the gravity of the situation. The regular Austin PD wasn’t equipped to deal with large threats such as the boar. At least Kaleb didn’t think so. Kaleb reached over and switched the camera feed back to the original street. Farrah looked like she was ready to swat his had away from her setup but the rampaging boar seemed to get their attention.
People were still running down the street, trying to get far away from the boar. The boar for his part seemed more willing to destroy anything that was near him. So far that had been cars and the occasional lamp post. Kaleb twisted his head toward the stairs and shouted.
“Y’all probably want to come up here!”
Two Gun and Claire must have already been on their way up because they both appeared almost as soon as he yelled. Two Gun was still chewing on the remains of an apple and Claire seemed to be chewing on something too. Kaleb waved a hand at Farrah’s screen as they got close.
“Jesus!”
“Oh, Wow!”
They both exclaimed as they stared at the screen. The Boar was passing just underneath the camera and Farrah quickly scrolled through cameras until she got the correct one. Kaleb checked his weapons and his pockets before asking Farrah.
“Where are the others? Aren’t they patrolling?”
Farrah shrugged. “I don’t know. I haven’t seen them on the cameras yet. But the system is weird. The cameras are non-sequential. One second I’m on Decker Lake Road, the next I’m on Levenwood, then I’m over by the 130. These cameras make little sense.”
Kaleb sighed and looked to Claire and Two Gun. “Ok then, for now it’s just us. Where is the boar headed?”
Two Gun and Claire headed for their car as Kaleb asked Farrah. Farrah typed a few buttons and answered.
“It’s headed down Blue Bluff.”
Kaleb nodded and turned to Obadiah. “You mind…”
The old man put up his hands and shook his head. “Sorry, kid I have to be careful about who sees me around here. I can’t help you.”
“I wanted to ask if you could help these two with the drones,” Kaleb said, smirking and pointing at Daivor and Roy.
“Oh… uh, sure. I can do that,” Obadiah said.
Kaleb wasn’t sure but he could swear the old cyborg was blushing in embarrassment. Shaking his head Kaleb set an ear piece down on Farrah’s keyboard and followed Claire and Two Gun to their car. Getting into the sedan’s back seat, Kaleb checked his weapons again as Claire started the car.
“Straight north from here on Blue Bluff,” Kaleb said as the car floated into the air and spun.
Claire nodded her head. “I heard, dear. You just hang on and don’t get my back seat dirty.”
“How would I get your back-hurk!” Kaleb was cutoff as Claire slammed her foot on the accelerator.
He swore he could feel his stomach jump up into his throat as Claire raced down the airstrip and out the gate. Kaleb struggled with his seat belt as Claire drifted the hover-car through a corner and turned northward toward the giant boar.