Raptor One – Chapter 90
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Tesla Prime, or Magma Tesla IIIa is a terran planet with great resemblance to earth, it was done via terraforming, but unlike my old planet which had a unstable ozone layer, this planet have a permanent ozone layer and electromagnetic layer, the planet terraformers are all offline now.
-Orbit-
Tesla Prime Station, a bulky and well made station with plenty of space docks and minor fighter sized docks, it’s well partitioned and even have it’s own shipyard, a true full fledged space station with sensing satellites all over the orbit to sense incoming danger.
While the girls was working on Tenacity I was taking a stroll on it’s confines, walking with no direction or objective in mind, watching the people arrive and go in their busy schedule as missions come and go, traders get their resources, crafters receive their materials, so on and so forth.
Civilians in this station is a very low percentage, most of the civilians I’ve seen here where either workers or shipyard helpers.
A tap to the shoulder make me focus and look at the person.
“Da?” Is all I say while looking at the human girl.
“Whow, that’s one thick accent there, ehem, hello there, I'm Evir, nice to know you, are you new here? I've not seem your kind here that often.” Evir say with a smile.
“Da, I'm new here devochka, what do you need? You won’t approach me with no intentions in mind.” I say while looking into her eyes.
“Haha, that’s true, I was seeing you blind walking and with no clothes and thought you got a shakedown.” Evir say with a devilish smile.
“Ha! As if.” Is all I say and ignore her and her insult.
“Wait wait! It was not my intention to offend you, calm down and come back here will ya?” Evir say with a sorry smile, she’s not sorry.
“Devochka, you’re in luck that my psionic tree don’t come with psichic harm or I would give you the worst psichic drone you can think of.” I say while glaring at her.
“Woah there lil bro, calm down, I'm just a seller selling things, not a mugger or thug to beatdown.” Evir reply back with a bright smile.
“You are getting on my nerves somehow devochka...” I say with a glare, my teeth showing.
“Huh... Sorry? I’ll pipe down, I promise, can we talk business now?” Evir finally deflated into a talkable person, leaving that egoistical and self centered look of her.
“*huff* Da, we can talk, what do you want?” I ask again with crossed arms.
“Yes, that, can we move to my store? I can show you many things that would interest you, clothes included... No offense if you are a nudist.” Evir say to me and I see a flash of impishness coming back.
“This devochka... Da, da, let’s move.” I say with a sigh and follow Evir, I'm just wearing a friggin belt anyway, if she have something good then I have four ears for her words.
After a minute of walking we enter what seen to be a door on the wall of the station, as there was only plating around the door, but the inside was another sight altogether, the store was a refined and stylish place, well cleaned, well preserved, and well ventilated, but what took more of my vision was the lists of weapons on the side catalogue and it’s images, all custom made and with optional addons on the side with good prices.
“hey lil guy, that side is good and all but you need clothes first, I have fine nanite self repairing clothes for sale if you want.” Evir say with her annoying voice and greedy eyes...
“...” I stare at her for a second and sigh.
“What, are you in love with me? It’ll cost ya to get this lil body of mine!” Evir’s words make my head hurt by how annoying she can be.
“I'll pass, I got five devushki back on the ship that will gladly open their legs and start a relationship if I want to... Not that I'm going to bypass my morals with dirty thinking.” I say with a sigh and shake my head, this day is starting to take it’s toll on me.
“Aww, you are making excuses! How cute! I’ll let that pass for now, here’s the catalogue, see something you like in it?” Evir ask me.
I give the catalogue a cursory glance and see that there’s some interesting features being said here, but nothing that take my fancy.
“What are those nanite... Erm... Self repairing clothes?” I ask Evir with a tilt of my head, I thought things with no limit was banned by the archonexus.
“Oh? These are clothes with nanite bank addons that will repair the clothes from damage, it have different speeds depending from the type of material, but hyper weave is the best one, the nanite bank comes with a port for recharging right from your body, but can also be replaced manually when empty, want something with it?” Evir ask with her greedy eyes shining.
“Da, get me a good pair of pants and shirt combo, do you have anything avali related devochka?” I say while lifting my head and locking eyes with her.
“Ohh! Finally getting rid of the life of nudism I see! Right up, I'll get the clothes for you... Hum... What will be good on you... A short with magnetic locker should be good, will give a good look when engaged with your cybernetic legs... Hum... Black is a good contrast... The shirt... Sleeveless... Gray, to not bleed in with the pants... As for the avali related items I have it all, what do you want? A cloak?” Evir ask me after some good thinking, her serious tone is a mile of difference from her annoying side.
“Good choice, spacibo, as for the cloak? That’s a good idea, what do you have for me?” I ask her with a nod
“The cloak catalogue for avali is simple, ‘Nomad’, ‘Stalker’ or ‘Scientist’, all comes with two variants, cosmetic and armor, which one do you prefer? Note that they all comes with nanite banks and will couple with existing ones, I may be greedy but I offer only the best!” Evir say with a wide grin.
“Heh, nice one, I want the Scientist cloak, armor type please.” I say and Evir nods before leaving.
A minute later she comes with my clothes.
“Here, test it, they have adjustable coupler, so that Rig augment of your can juice it all with no issues.” Evir say while giving me the clothes, so I start getting it on.
Giving a look at myself I look like a civilian scientist despite the black cloak and cybernetic augments, they do look like it’s for survival anyway.
I look back at Evir and her big grin, she’s going to extort me for sure.
“Da, spacibo for the clothes, they are excellent, how does the cloak work and what’s the price?” I say while locking eyes with her.
“Sure, sure, the cloak have three layer of four big pouches, that’s a total of 12 big pouches, inside the cloak have the plate carrier pouches, you can stuff as much as you want, but remember it will weight you, each plate can be cut, the cut plates are enough for two plate pouches each, as for the price...” Evir say and stop trying to give a sense of surprise or terror, I just keep my eyes locked on her, unmoved.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
“...”
“You’re no fun! The nanite banks cost some money but the hyper weave does not as we have planet bound colonies that produce it for us, so it have low cost for us, the bulk of the price comes form the nanite bank and even that is low, each piece cost 3000 credits each, a total of 9000 credits.” Evir say with a sigh.
“Da, what price do you give this Tri pouch hanging belt I made?” I say and give her my belt after taking my items out of it.
“Hum... Good quality... excellent design... Very portable and don’t seen used at all, I’ll give you a discount of 3000 credits, so it’s now 6000c.” Evir say with seriousness.
“That’s a very charitable amount right there.” I say while closing a eye.
“That’s true for you, but I can sell this for 10k credits easy for the more adventurous yet stylish bunch that manage to get in here.” Evir with a big shit eating grin.
“You devochka sure is rotten...” I say with a sigh and pay up.
Credits:(121.098[C])
Payment delivered
Credits:(115.098[C])
As I see the confirmation from my ‘Virtual Reality(VR)’ vision coming from my gauntlets I look back up at her to see the big grin in her face, she may be rotten but she at least sell quality goods.
“What weapons do you have for me? My gauntlets are somewhat broken and I need a second option.” I say to Evir and feel my throat gluing itself because I'm parched, so I take a look at my new pouches...
Slot1:(6[M][L.I])(3[L])
Slot2:(6[M][L.I])(3[L])
Slot3:(36[S]Food Ration)(3[L])
Slot4:(36[S]Water Ration)(3[L])
Slot5:(1[L]Alpha Core[Sigma])(3[L]
From the 12 pouches 5 are being used, and... there we go, Water Ration, I take two flask of concentrated water and drink it up.
“You should worry about water here mister.” Evir say with a serious expression as she looks me drink my clean water.
“Potomu chto?” I ask her why as I pouch both flasks back, those things don’t grow on trees, specially pressurized ones.
“Let me translate that...” I see her placing my words on the translator and fumbling, so I say it again on the standard universal language.
“Because?”
“Is that the meaning of the words just now? What language was that anyway? It's not Terran nor Imperial, much less universal.” Evir ask me with curiosity.
“It’s Russian, Old Tera language, from the extinct language folder, my clan use it as codes and talking in general... My ex clan that is... Chert.” I say with a sigh and click my tongue in mad humor.
“Oh, sorry for that, fished on bad water I see... As for the why? The planet down bellow have some serious problem with pollution, it’s affecting Tesla Prime’s water, and the insectoids are going crazy down bellow making the colonies produce more mechanoids nurturing the problem with pollution, you won’t see a pure human like me down there.” Evir say with a sigh.
“Hum... Noted, I think my ship have a filtration system in place on the Living Quarters, but just in case I'll get a third liquid tank in place.” I say with a nod.
“Now for the weapons!” Evir ay with a big grin. “We got all sorts of weapons! From guns to swords! From MK1 to MK2! You choose I have! Make your choice! What do you want? Advice are free for now!” She say while opening her hands wide with her annoying grin of hers making my nerves twitch.
“Da, I want a compact and powerful gun and a good sword, shoot up your advices.” I nod trying to keep my... More nasty words at bay, wonder why she can make me so angry?
“Compact and powerful! Full automatic only but shoots 5.56x45! 30 rounds per magazine! Has the best module, the Mark 2 bullet factory with biocoding! And accepts ‘Liquid Iron(L.I)’ and better along with normal bullets! The ‘USCM4’! Despite it’s short size, it’s still accurate and counts as a rifle, 7.5k but I'll give you a discount! 5k only!” Evir go into full vendor mode but show’s a good rifle that can be hung on my belt and have upgrades with no worries.
“What about the sound?” I ask Evir.
“It’s as loud as normal firearms, but with a sound suppresor it will Purr like a kitten, we have sight and underbarrel upgrades too.” Evir say with a big grin.
“I’m in, put it into the cart, one ‘sound suppresor’ a ‘underslug thrower’ and ‘Pro hunter sight’.” I place my order and Evir get to work on her terminal.
“I’ll say this first, only good quality and better items are sold here, this one is of good quality, you can make it better yourself with time and effort, the mark 2 bullet factory on this USCM4 is of normal quality however as I can’t have access to it’s blueprint, anything with MK2 in it is military grade and prone to placing a shot down target on you so I'm off this, but if you want a good Mark 1.5 or lower I can get you one.” Evir say while typing on the console, moments later my gun appear and get mounted in front of me.
Evir take the customized USCM4 and hand me the gun and a magazine, so I take a look how a MK2 gun work.
It’s magazine takes one unit of Liquid iron to fill and the bullet factory convert the liquid iron into a working bullet form and push the finished bullet into the chamber to be shot, it all works like a normal gunpowder gun, just make less painful to reload.
“Pass the credits and I'll reset the biocoding for you, as for the underslug thrower, it’s also a MK2, see this small vial? It takes one tenth of a unit to make one overcharged slug and I won’t talk about the sights.” Evir’s voice take me back into the conversation and I nod.
“How much?” I ask her the price.
“5, 5, 2.5, a total of 12.5k credits.” Evir sings with glee.
“Proving expensive.” I say with a frown but pay.
Credits:(115.098[C])
*Payment Sent*
Credits:(102.598[C])
“Oh, don’t worry, I have worse prices for you!” Evir say with a wicked grin as I hear the gun's Biocoder beep and reset.
I lock the USCM4 to me, a beep resound and as I was about to load the magazine Evir stopped me.
“Chto?” I ask her.
“It’s prohibited to have a loaded gun on Tesla Station.” Evir say with a serious voice and I nod.
I place the empty magazine on the USCM4 and pull the rack, the wine of the bullet factory gives out it’s empty along with the chamber, so I release the rack and holster the rifle to my left before looking at the nodding Evir.
“Good, as for the sword-” I cut off Evir.
“Niet, no need, that’s all, spacibo for the help.” I say and walk out of the store.
“Wa- Oi! Didn’t you want a sword!?” Evir cries out to me.
“Don’t want anymore!” I say with a big toothy smile as I walk out.
Back to the station’s corridors I continue my walk, only stopping to look at the station markers.
*Stores**Military sector**Docks**Shipyard**Engineering Sector*
Well, look at that, this station does indeed have a good amount of places to go, let’s look at the shipyard.
With that in mind I head for the shipyard, the walking in question takes half a hour just to show how big this station is.
When I look at the reinforced glass I see the space docks on a side with ships docking and undocking, on the other side, another wall with it’s reinforced glass lies the shipyard, a space shipyard, its rings each have extendable protrusions with tools for a plethora of tasks, it’s building another ship at this moment, another frigate, it’s design show’s that it’s for civilian use.
I keep looking each time I pass by a window, as I get closer to the space shipyard I start to see a small dot there, moving about, a closer look with my VR system show that it’s a person, I give a look at it’s data and see it’s...
A Lamia?
The heck?
With this info in mind I walk faster to close in on the returning person, another 10 minutes walking I pass by a sign saying 'Shipyard', when I look around I see small ships being built from the ground up as the workers grind down or up the many ships on these parts.
“A new face join our midst, what bring you upon us augmented one?” I hear the voice of a Lamia talking, the cryptic way of talking tells me she’s another Adeptus Mechanicus, so I look to where the voice is coming from.
What get into my eyes is a fully augmented Female Lamia, her arms keep springing up sensors and tools, and her entire look don’t feel, it ‘is’ mechanical, I can see and count the different mechanical modules on her tail alone, don’t get me started from the torso up.
“Privet tovarishch.” I say with a nod and look at the time.
Time->
Seconds:(0/60)
Minutes:(40/60)
Hour:(1/6)
Cycle:(3/4)
It’s... 6, 12AM, 6, 7:40PM, It’s hard to look at this clock, I need Sigma’s help to change this and get us a frikin date, I can’t just run on hour numbers, too bad Beta Stratta did not have connection to the rest of the galaxy.
“Are you fine fellow comrade? You’ve gone silent for some time now.” The Lamia ask me.
“Da, I am, just thinking about the faults I have to repair, like these.” I say and lift my arms, the faulty wiring comes right out as my gauntlets leave the confines of my Rigid Black Scientist Cloak.
“Oh? A pair of cyber gauntlets of ultra tech design... Hum... It’s upgrades seen damaged, how come? They are very hard to damage, only total loss of integrity will break the upgrades... The name is Mercy.” Adeptus Mercy say while examining my gauntlets.
“Got all my upgrades via Archonexus after getting basic knowledge from a Medicalis codex, Adeptus Ade gave it to me after seeing my knowledge database.” I say and open my cloak to show the rest of my body.
Adeptus Mercy gave me a look of interest before looking at my body.
“I see, you also have a pair of Cyber Legs... ‘Armor Boots Upgrade'... ‘Dampener Upgrade’... For what... Oh, I see, you got a ‘Runner upgrade’ with ‘Power Jumping capacity’, how do you move with two big slabs of torsion hatchets on your foot?” Adeptus mercy gives me a once over and name my upgrades before starting repairs on me for some reason.
“No need to answer, as a lamia I wouldn’t get the knowledge, only the theory of balance, which you yourself got a perfect tuning...” She continue before going silent.
“Spacibo, Adeptus Mercy, may I know how to get to the license pod?” I ask her.
“It’s for your machine spirit I presume? Don’t make that hostile look, I won’t trespass my bounds, how does you feel? I fine tuned your cybernetics, as for the license, you need to connect to me so I can give you directions.” Adeptus mercy say with a nod as she can’t smile with a mask on, just like me.
“Rodzher, connection stabilized.” I say as my left eye start giving a light blue smoke while showing it’s targeting system.
“It’s done my fellow Medicalis, just so you know, you got corrosive breath, your stomach has one upgrade that collects and mix the nutrients and place it back into the blood system, it have pure NH3 stored, and your stomach system has the protection to regurgitate the liquid out, be it as liquid or as gas.” Adeptus Mercy say and walk in the direction of my ship.
Huh... What?
As I was confused I receive a closed package and a message from Mercy, so I open it while testing my now functional Gauntlet.
*Hello fellow Adeptus, here is your gauntlet new parameters.*
*Cyber Gauntlet Upgrade: Medicalis addon*
*A welding and suture combo with grabbers for extra precision, can weld wounds shut and suture it with almost no pain with it’s precision laser, equal efficiency with mechanic and medical tasks alike.*
*Adeptus Mercy: You should be wondering why I wandered to where your ship is located, it’s for classification purposes, all ships with standard galactic parameters follow the ‘Nation’, ‘Size’, ‘Class’ nomenclature, your ship is called ISS-Tenacity, in galactic standards, it’s wrong, I have some doubts that your ship may be a warship so it should be ‘IFW’, or ‘Independent’ ‘Frigate’ ‘Warship’, well see each other on the space docks.*
Huh, nice, I'll open the package later, I need to get this license done...