“So where would you like to begin?” Nyx was borrowing Spooky again, it took a few seconds for the little bear to waddle over and sit on the side of the trailer. “Between the points and the tokens you have plenty of options.”

Sharron came over, freshly purchased meal in hand, and sat across from the bear. “Please, enlighten us, O great AI, on the various doodads Evelyn could buy today.” There was a not so subtle smirk growing across her face, she always seemed to enjoy Nyx’s hi-jinks.

“Since Evelyn needs an expanded transport capacity I’m making suggestions. Although she expressed interest in expanding her forces I did not anticipate it happening so fast. In order to accommodate her future forces something much larger may be required. If high mobility isn’t required a mobile base might be a good choice. If mobility is a priority a rigid frame airship or even a sky fortress might be a better option. All three would provide a stable foundation to mount that artillery piece.”

I cocked my head to one side, “What the fuck is a sky fortress?”

As soon as I asked I received a ping with the specifications, and pictures of, a massive aerial vehicle. Five hundred feet long, a hundred feet wide, and held aloft by a series of massive hover engines. It looked more like a massive flying warship, with a massive array of weapons mounted underneath it, than an aircraft.

“Fancy! Evelyn can afford something like that?” Sharron asked. She apparently had received the same data package.

The bear shrugged, “She can, although she would be hard pressed to fully arm it with her current budget.”

“Well, as awesome as that thing is, I have no intention of blowing all my points on a single purchase right now. I’d rather concentrate on improving my troops rather than making frivolous purchases.”

“That’s fair,” Sharron said, between bites of her meal, “So what ARE you looking for.”

“I don’t know… something that carries bears. It doesn’t have to be fancy.”

Nyx, via Spooky, sighed. “You want to be more specific? I know transport isn’t that exciting, but I do need some direction. I could spend years recommending catalogs, but I could seriously cut that time down if I knew what you wanted.”

I shot the bot a look, “Fine, let me think for a minute.” I stared at the mass of bears milling about the area, trying to get my thoughts in order. It took a minute.

“When I buy the Class II Matter Reconfiguration Machines can I purchase a creation engine large enough to replicate vehicles?”

Sharron raised an eyebrow at the question, then we both turned towards the bear, expectantly. “Yes, that’s possible. Expensive, but possible.”

“What are the limits?” I asked.

“That depends on you, larger devices require more points and require a significantly larger area to set up. A typical mark II creation engine requires around two thousand six hundred points, a mark II industrial creation engine will set you back around four thousand two hundred. A mark II mass creation engine has a twenty five foot by twenty five foot area, and will set you back twenty six thousand points.”

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

Sharron nearly spit out her food, “That's a lot of points”

“Yeah, but if I don’t have to keep buying vehicles it’ll theoretically pay for itself in the long run.” I paused, “I assume there’s a vehicle or two that would work as a troop transport, that fits within those dimensions?”

“There are a couple. Since you’re planning on buying the blueprint I assume you don’t want something as simple as a truck.”

“You know me so well… something solid, preferably with a hover engine, with enough space for two or three squads of bears. I may use them to evacuate people if the situation comes to it, so keep that in mind.”

“Ummm… are you seriously considering spending that many points on a creation engine, just to build vehicles you may or may not need? That’s a huge amount of points.” Sharron asked.

“I earned a lot of points for killing all those Antithesis while you guys were at the farms,” I replied. “And I’ve gotten a lot of use out of the Mark I engine already. It’s better to spend those points on something I’ll get a lot of use out of then a bunch of single use crap.”

“If you say so.” Sharron shrugged. She didn’t seem fully convinced, but let the subject drop anyway. It seemed that eating was a higher priority than arguing.

“I think I’ve found something that fits your requirements,” Nyx said, once the conversation died. “You could open an armored vehicle catalog and invest in a Grizzly Light Armored Vehicle. Decent armor, at least for a transport, and you could mount a fairly heavy weapon in the turret. One thousand five hundred.”

“That’s more than I paid for my truck.”

“True, but the truck is relatively lightly armored, for a Samurai vehicle, while the LAV is combat rated.”

I sighed, “Fine, I’ll buy one for now so I can evaluate it. I can worry about production, blueprints and all that other shit later.” I stretched out, “Right now my priority is getting back to camp and recharging my batteries. I need some serious sleep right now.”

“I hear that,” Sharron stood up, throwing her food container into the nearby creation engine, “Let’s get this show on the road.”

Purchased

Class I Armored Vehicle Catalog - 100 points

Grizzly LAV - 1500 points

Points Remaining - 105,719

There was a burst of light as the vehicle appeared before us. The front was made of a couple heavy armor plates, one angled up and the other angled down, meeting in the middle to make almost a bill shaped front. The sides were slightly angled, and covered in armor plating, and the entire thing rested on a set of eight heavy duty hover engines. There was a boarding hatch at the back, and as soon as it opened a couple dozen bears pushed their way inside.

“It's a little ugly, but at least the bears don’t care that much about aesthetics.”

“I’ll make sure to fix that for the next one, I have a few ideas.” Nyx said, opening the back door to the truck and climbing in. “You said you wanted to get out of here, so I didn’t bother this time.”

“That’s fine with me, I just want to get out of here. We can discuss Miss Moneybags spending habits later, after I sleep.” Sharron was already climbing into the passenger seat, her suit climbing into the trailer automatically.

“I never, in a million years, expected someone to call me that,” I replied, climbing into the driver’s seat. “I kinda hate it.”

Sharron just laughed in reply.