Raptor One – Chapter 91
.
.
.
Sitting in one of the stores on the center of the station, I eat my portion of food that I ordered, the talk with Adeptus Mercy was somewhat interesting if not cryptic.
As I finish my food and pay for it I take two flasks of water and drink up before placing it back and getting up and leaving, the food was surprisingly cheap, but the price for water is on the ceiling, it’s almost what? Three times as expensive? It will be easier to buy LEF Tanks and do a planet side water harvest.
I shake my head as I head for the military sector with no hurry, half a hour of tranquil walk leads me to a surprising serene park with living grass and trees inside, the plethora of flowers is made more clear with the buzzing of bees, with gravitational drives working and the cycled sun lamps working normally brings the atmosphere of a Eden world, with so much tranquility I decide to sit down on the grass and meditate, I can feel the time pass as I meditate, despite the calm area my meditation is poor for the first 20 minutes but as I hit the 30 minutes mark I feel a breakthrough as my mind hits another shifter, the rush of information coming into my mind, sending me into deep contemplation.
*Select your new path.*
The archonexus ask me as the knowledge of the trees comes into my mind, as war lives side by side with all living things I chose the ‘Warlord tree’, the information of it’s first psionic cast rush my mind, ‘Speedboost’ is it’s name, cost 2 units of entropy and uses 8 units of neural heat for 3 hours of enhanced time perception, with only helps with speed related movements making my Cyber legs and it’s torsion hatchets nimbler.
With the choice done I return to meditation, this time focusing on my sensitivity, I'll give 1 hour and 20 minutes into it.
With this thought in mind I get back to meditating, I feel the time pass as my mind tunes more and more with the archonexus and it’s mysteries, my mind passing from information to information as it’s cryptic words and non sensical meaning hit me with each try, as I complete a hour of meditation I feel something break, then connect back into my mind, I feel the pain on my neck for a moment before feeling the capacity of entropy on my neck expand by becoming purer, I meditate some more before getting up, the difference to my perception and feeling is clear to me as entropy can be felt all over me, something which was not possible.
I sigh and get up, my mask release a condensed hiss from it’s four breathing ports as I start walking again to the military sector of the station, half a hour of walking later I finally get to my objective, the license pod.
As I was about to enter it a big and bulky human stops in front of me, a look show he’s another augmented, his clothes tell he’s from the stations army, a sergeant.
“What does a small sissy like you want with a license pod at this time?” The army sergeant say with a snort.
“Privet to you too, the pod still operating or should I come at another time?” I say with calmness.
“Oh? For a balless one you do have some nuts to crack.” He say with a grin before suddenly giving a jab at my stomach!
I fail to defend on time by the sudden attack and slide back by the force of the punch, I can hear my stomach plates grinding together keeping my organs intact as I slide into a stop.
“You trying to kill me or something!? If not for my plates I would be bleeding all over!” I say with seriousness as I right myself and activate my ‘speedboost’ psicast.
“Heh, so you are one of the augmented, a Edgerunner, by the sounds of it, do you know why I hit you?” He say with a murderous look as his first hiss, releasing steam as he walks my way.
“Because I hate your kind, you all say you’re good but are all balls of murder on the making, specially the Edgerunners, you psychos are a bane to us humans.” He say and swing his first at me again which I dodge, only to be met with a sudden kick to the stomach from a different location altogether.
I can’t endure the shock and vomit, but what exits my mouth is not food but pure NH3, it spray all over him and I can hear the composition Hiss along with his skin as I slide back and almost fall down as one of my torsion hatchets hits a bump forcing me to do a cartwheel.
As I stop in place some distance away I finally hear is cry of pain.
“ARGH! YOU WILL PAY FOR THIS!” He roars and bulldoze his way to me.
I was ready to pull my USCM4 but I heard another voice full of command.
“What are you two doing here! Sergeant! Stop right now! And you! Take your hands off the gun!” The human female yell at us so I resume my calm stance.
The sergeant do the same while clicking his tongue, I can see the burns and frostbites he got, his hard breath tells me he inhaled some of the pure NH3 that became gaseous, must have burned his lungs.
“Izvinyayus, it was not my intention to vomit 100% NH3 on him, I got to know I could do this some hours ago.” I say while looking at the Female Commander.
“I know, Adeptus Mercy just got a call, it’s your ship that is being categorized, so I took some liberty to ask her about you, so I have some idea about your working. As for you, why did you initiate a fight again? The last Avali you took almost died if not for the fast medical rescue, Toru, your discrimination with Avali is holding you down.” The commander say with a sigh.
Toru clicks his tongue and leaves making the commander sigh at his insubordination.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
“Sorry for that, are you wounded?” The commander ask me and I shake my head in denial.
“His punches was strong but just rattled my plates into one another, so I'm unharmed, can I use the license pod?” I say and ask her.
“Uh? Sure, go on, just remember that between 12am to 6am most things are closed for energy recovery, the station’s battery system need the extra charge if we want to keep everything working.” She say with a nod.
“Rodzher, it’s clear the station has a nuclear reactor?” I say while unsure.
“No, we don’t, most of our energy comes from the solar array, we got chemical turbines for emergency power too, but no reactor.” the commander say while shaking her head with a sigh.
“If you get the materials I can build you one, a breeder reactor too, type 2, the biggest one I know, my ship itself have a type zero reactor, just working up some more cash to upgrade it to type Z0.” I say and suggest to the commander.
“Sure thing, I'll forward this talk to the higher ups, they may forward your words back to you, if they do accept I'll enter in contact.” She say with a smile.
“Spacibo, your name miss?” I say with a smile.
My teeth showing smile got her attention back making me receive a pat to the head, something sudden for me, making me reflectively close my eyes and squeak in happiness even though her hands are full of calluses, showing how hard she works.
“Oh, sorry about that, your race consider this act rude right? Name’s Zeta.” She say as she takes her hand back.
“Don’t worry miss Zeta, I don’t mind this type of contact as I know it’s a show of care, I must be going now.” I say with a happy chirp before giving a bye and getting into the pod.
As I get comfy on the pod it starts up, asking me for my credentials which I give, so it pops the available licenses that I don’t have.
Two new certs pop up on my view along with mine.
Personal->
-Captain Certificate
-Medical Expecialist
-Engineer Expecialist
-Commander Expecialist
-Spec Ops Expecialist
-Psionic Certificate
-Military Grade Certificate
-Artificial Intelligence Certificate(Sleever)
Ship->
-Independent Certificate
-Merchant Certificate
-Civilian Grade Certificate
-Military Grade Certificate(NA)
-Artificial Intelligence Certificate(NA)
Looks like I have to grab two certs if I want my ship flying in space, the selling of The taunt is not done yet, same with the crew and their possessions so I know I have more credits than what’s showing right now, so I take both certificates, the pod ask me for the companion AI to start both trials, so I take Sigma off my pocket and slot her into the socket and wait.
It takes five minutes but one of the licenses light up.
-Artificial Intelligence Certificate(NA)->Active
*Cost:107.200c*
I do a double take on the price and ask the system for the why.
*Artificial Intelligence are deemed too dangerous all around the galaxy, android enclaves with it’s broken, damaged or corrupted system cause chaos between civilians and military alike, same goes for sub persona cores as they count under the AI category, this licenses is hard to receive positive and is expensive, negated AI are to be recycled on the spot.*
Wow, this is bad.
I sigh and accept the cost, going into the red.
Credits:(-4.772[C])(Warning)
Ugh, this will be bad if I can’t get the ship sold.
Taking Sigma back with me and walking out of the pod I return with a brisk pace, With ‘Speedboost’ still activated the 1 hour walk takes 20 minutes only as I get into my ship after seeing that the upper front of the ship was changed with new plates.
As I walk inside I see Peppy storing the damaged plates, despite the sounds I'm making as I pass by she don’t look as she’s busy.
After getting into the middle deck and entering the Command Module I stop to look at the big server tower behind my chair, Zu is on her station training and spots me as I walk forward.
“Hello love, how was your walk?” Zu ask me with a charming smile, her droopy blue eyes locked on me, making me smile back.
“Privet Love, my walk was somewhat bad, but fruitful, got a seller for the ship?” I say as I click open the server and place Sigma into the socket, the entire server coming online.
*Sigma’s start up complete.*
*Hello Omega, how long was I asleep?*
Sigma say after coming online, her projection appearing beside my chair on her full size, her long and silky blue hair flowing with her movement as she looks down to me, her white admiral clothes and her white admiral cloak enhance her looks.
“Wow Sigma, looking good.” Zu say with a smile.
“You where asleep for.. What? Two days?” I say with a tilt of my head.
*That’s a very fast working time you got there, I took a look at the ship history and it’s data and saw that it was quite the adventure while I was sleeping, wish I was awake to help.* Sigma say with a sigh but smile to me afterwards.
“It’s good to have you back Sigma.” I say with a nod and focus my attention on Zu.
Zu nod back to me and start talking.
“Yes, I got a seller for The Taunt, the ship got light damage and was a little used, but overall it was in good condition despite being a pirate ship, so it’s selling price was astronomical, the ship will be overhauled into a true carrier warship by the station government, it’s total price was a little higher than expected however, we got 50.000 credits for each intact module, that’s 8 modules intact so that’s 400.000 credits, the heavily damaged module sold for 15.000 credits and the rest was off for... 40.000 credits.” Zu finish her words with numbers.
*That’s about 455.000 Credits if we don’t count the debt.* Sigma say with a nod.
“Oh, we got a visit from the adeptus of this station, she took a look at the ship and classified it by the galaxy standard, we got a warship classification on our hands now.” Zu say with a smile.
“Da, that’s nice to hear, now we just need to wait the credits to arrive, so for now I’ll sleep, later.” I say and start walking away while waving bye.
“Ah, I'm done here too, let be your company.” Zu say and walk besides me as we walk to the living quarters.
Getting there I see Shy, Cold and Nail lazing around, they look our way as we enter the living quarters.
“Privet devushki, how was your day?” I say and lift my hand in hello.
“Full of training, we know we could do better there.” Cold reply first.
“We all got the basics down and is half way into knowing more practical options.” Nail reply with a nod.
“As they say we did not feel like standing still, I'm sure that tomorrow I will understand better about my station.” Shy reply with a sheepish smile.
“Da, that’s good, what about you Zu?” I ask as I look at her.
“All this time on my station let me understand a lot and get some tips on how to better use it, and my ears got more sensitive to sound so that’s a boost.” Zu reply with a smile.
“Well now, our danger awareness got better, that’s a plus all around, and you Peppy?” I ask as Peppy arrive inside the living quarters.
“Oh? Me? Same as my sister!” Peppy say with a big grin.
“How did she know White was talking about their training?” Zu ask out.
“Simple, it’s the twin’s connection, it’s a feeling and a bridge, we understand each other on the subconscious level.” Shy reply to Zu.
“Peppy, if you wake up before me please get us the materials for a third liquid tank and filtering system.” I say while placing my 'Scientist Cloak' on my locker and holstering my 'USCM4' besides it, my new clothes get some looks from the girls as they finally take note of my clothes as I walk to my bed.
“Nice clothes, better than the last one, won’t they rip in battle?” Peppy ask me as I jump into my bunker bed on the ceiling atop the table.
“Niet, all my new clothes have a Nanite system that will self repair the clothes, only total loss will deny me of my clothing, and the Cloak have armor modules, get some intact titanium plates into it for me if it’s not too much to ask.” I say and close my eyes.
“Right now.” Peppy’s voice is the last thing I hear as my body shut down and my mind rewind back into my Gamma Core ‘Cortical Stack’.