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Chapter 14: Safari Date

I didn’t think I would get to see full-on Empress bullshit so soon, but there is 30k credits worth of full mana batteries in my cargo hold. Before I could even open my mouth Penny says they are for an experiment and pats my face to accept them without protest. That’s enough power to jump us half a dozen times!

We’re on Elysium now, docked just outside of Representative V’tek’clor’s reception platform. The plant-based avatar wished us well in his odd way and gave me a small plant in an ornate box and congratulated me on our wedding.

“Penny! You told him?”

“Of course I did. V’tek’clor is my longest foreign ally. He witnessed the fall of my last partnership. He worries about me sometimes.”

->\ Hearty Agreement, the Empress has lamented long, and is deserving of a favorable coupling.\<-

“Gracious Acceptance, representative. Your gift is kind and generous.” I look over to Penny in hopes that I didn’t mess it up, she smiles at me and nods.

“Anticipated Hunt, my friend, or I would stay longer and ask after your branching ventures.”

->\Amused Understanding, we are jubilant that our survey vessel is near Kepler Four so I too have business.\<- He flutters his fingers with a head nod and Penny reciprocates but with glitter.

“Alright!” she bounces on her toes as we walk back to Kitty. “I’m sending kit-cat some coordinates for a drop point and I have some toys to give you.”

We walk onboard and ship girl immediately takes off. “After you drop us, you should re-charge in orbit. The Supiter area is likely the quickest charge we’ll ever see.”

“For a habitable world, for certain. I have not found a place more aether rich than this region outside of the absolutely ruined planet that the Imperial Vault lives on. It has an inner crust of Aethrite, so you can feel the absolute absurd amount of power beneath the surface, but the surface crust is completely covered in something like a kilometer of aether-hungry sand. I’m honestly flabbergasted to how the planet still exists.”

More in a list of things I will simply never understand that Penny says. I don’t have the affinities that she does or the sensitivity to magic’s life force in general. I can feel it, but she can feel eddies, swirls, and moods of the aether around us. Her whole existence has adapted to being a creature of aether and all that comes with it.

“How big is that vault anyway?”

“The building is just a five story library, mostly full of books. The storage realm that has been tethered to it is larger than my home planet. I have maybe ten million cubic kilometers stored in there and I still haven’t broken 1% capacity as far as I can tell. Tessa and Alaris came up with a way to parse and detail the space without going there, because stasis is a nightmare to come back from.”

“Oh, I thought you had a secret lab in your vault or something.”

“And risk blowing it up? Are you insane?” The incredulous look and her loud exasperation make me laugh as there is no way it is reasonable for me to expect it can even be blown up. “Sorry, I just thought about losing access to all of those books and my projects. Woo, yikes.” She takes a few deep breaths and continues “Yes I do have secret labs. They require teleportation to get to. I also have a transfer warehouse in Mercy where I store whole buildings sometimes.”

“You, my dear, are a ridiculous person living at a scale that mere mortals cannot comprehend.” I kiss her on the cheek.

A few minutes later, Kitty tells us that we’re at the drop site.

“Mikaela. You need to get in your good armor. We’re going to be hunting high three and low four Aetherforged out there.”

“This is the only armor I have?” I had just bought this armor before Penny told me she was promoting me. “It’s practically new.”

“Kitty, is she serious right now? Did you even try to explore your cabin?”

“Mom, I had to tell her about the coffee and juice dispensers. She definitely hasn’t opened the tactical retreat compartment.”

Penny rolls her eyes and proceeds to put both hands on the back wall of my closet, and the wall scans them before opening up at the middle. The wall reveals a sleek suit of Astorian Marshal colors, that appears to only have plating on the chest and thighs, seeming less combat oriented than what I’m currently wearing, but I have no idea what it’s made of. To the side are a few pistols and a rifle hung on the wall with a full duffel beneath it. On the left side, there’s a small control panel with three buttons: Comms, Assistance, Jettison.

Penny pulls down my suit and unclips the spine plates to unzip the jumpsuit? Wait, one-piece armor with an up-armored seam? That’s way different than any suit I’ve had before.

“Okay, so this is just what it looks like: a onesie habitat suit that is made of tier 3 ballistic and energy resistant materials. The extra plates are to cover your critical points and to power the shields and ripple drive. You’ll want to test integrating with your suit the way that you do with Kitty, I have no idea what it will get you, but it could be cool. You can also power the suit with your own aether if you have to.”

I step into it and as soon as the zipper moves it rises steadily up, which is weird as Penny comes around me with my helmet in her hands. The suit proceeds to snap the spine plates over the seam and then readjusts the entire suit to fit me tightly.

“Let me guess, that helmet can take a plasma round and laugh it off?”

“A pulse pistol, yes, pulse rifle no.” She pulls a thin metal circlet with a small chord attached to it. “I want you to wear this in case your helmet is compromised. It’s a shield generator that connects to the collar in case your helmet is removed or you aren’t wearing it for whatever reason. It’s a big stress on the batteries.”

“Are you sure this is safe to get used to while we hunt?”

“Yes, honey, it has conventional thrusters in the boots and the shoulders, but I want you to use this suit from now on, okay?” She puts the circlet on me and rubs my cheek with her thumb before handing me the helmet. “I suggest putting on your boots first, and clipping the weapons you want to bring. Keep in mind I have access to the whole Merc. Arms inventory at hand.”

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“That sounds like a lot of fun.”

***

Penny assured me that the forest near the clearing was just low-level warmups.

This is the lowest level beast we’ve found so far and it’s the first of the flock I can hear in the distance. Problem is, I already shot it with my pulse pistol and the slightly singed feather it suffered made it call its friends.

“I think now would be a good time for a test rifle.”

“I’m happy to oblige, but these things are strong to energy weapons, so even a gauss rifle could kill it.” She turns to her menus and I pull the only conventional weapon I brought: a bolt-action sniper.

The pink taloned monstrosity isn’t sitting idle while we chatter about how to kill it, I have to engage my ripple drive for a moment to avoid being stabbed with that razor sharp beak. My thrusters take me up about fifty feet, and the drive keeps my steady while I aim. The 50 caliber bullet exits with a crack and Kip disengages my station keeping to let the recoil push me in the air.

The Flammangler is knocked to the ground and I follow it down and roast it’s head with my thrusters as I land. I rack another round and press the barrel to it’s dome and fire. Penny teleports the parts she wants away from the rest of the carcass and puts the meat in storage.

“See, kinetic rounds are the trick to these raptors.”

“I do see, but the length of this weapon is not my favorite this close in.”

“I have an assault rifle that shoots those rounds, but it’s not a lot of fun to shoot. Kicks like a mule because the tech is boring and I didn’t feel like making it better. I have automatic 38 pistols that are much more enjoyable, but can’t toss enemies about as well. Then I have these odd little pistols that use flexible magnetic coil tubing and stubby projectiles that needs to strap to your body with the trigger and exit held in your hand. But it’s the least practical thing I’ve ever made.”

“Does it need a controller?”

“Yes, but I never developed it very far, because it’s unwieldy.”

“I’ve got a stupid idea if you want to help me out. Can you strip the handles and the controller from the device?”

“I’m not sure I like where this is going, Mikki, but let’s take care of this swarm first.” I was about to tell Penny that we had some time to fiddle around with it as we were above the canopy, when the first group of razor-beaked pink menaces breeched the treetops headed in our direction. Penny hands me the heavy assault rifle and play Polly Wanna Cap.

It’s odd using my feet thrusters as loft stabilizers as my shoulder thrusters keep me from rotating after each shot from this ridiculous weapon. There are so many targets below me that with the first fifty rounds, I couldn’t miss. The next twenty five convince the remaining Flammanglers that can fly to retreat, so we land and see a mess of struggling birds in one state of dying or another. My Pixie girl hands me an engraved Titansteel machete to finish the job. The stubborn shits trigger my shields a few times, but twenty minutes later, I’ve put several dozen of the pink horrors out of their misery.

“Are you going to sell some of that meat?”

“I’ll see how much Guiseppe wants and then post it on the local marketplace. Elysium fare sells pretty well as the people that can use it can also afford to pay for it.” I watch her pull two thick, fiber-coated tubes with a huge box attached to the side of the pair, and handle and trigger mechanisms connected to the other. Shit, those are more than a meter long.”

We shimmy my armor half off and feed the tubes through the air input and return ports that connect to a standard Astorian fighter seat. I absorb the ends into my forearms after feeding the tubes up the side of my sport’s top and out the arm holes. When the suit is buttoned back up and tightens around me, the tubes are uncomfortable and poking into my ribs.

“Alright, now please turn the controller on so I can start interfacing with the magitech mechanism.” I take a deep breath and trigger my stolen Talent for Bio-Machine Interface.

I agree and my mind wanders through the circlet and into the suit’s sensor array, and then swaps to the directional sensors embedded in the end of the EM tubes. After cataloguing the sensors, my mind starts collating the control data necessary to operate both devices instinctually. I shed this part to Kip as he is more well versed in my implants and the variety of connections to the meat part of my brain.

With Kip’s assistance the sleeves on my suit are shortened so that the tubes exit my arm into a wristband with a ton of blood vessels at the surface to shed heat as the bullet hits atmosphere. Wow, nice improv Kip. He also managed to reroute suit cooling along my spine and shoulders where the heat would have issues dissipating with the extra plating.

“That’s a little freaky, and kind of amazing. How much aether does a transformation like that take?” My most dutiful partner hands me a few slices of galaxy fruit.

I start nibbling as I acclimate to the new stiffness in my arms. “I can see why Kip was pressuring me to get shapeshifting. This Bio-Machine interface talent and my absorption would let me be one of those freaky movie cyborgs that could turn their hands into cannons.”

“Is that something you’re interested in? Shapeshifting does not interact well with mechanical bodies.”

I shake my head. “No, I like being mostly bio. When you invent supermass swarms with low-power shape keeping, let me know.”

Penny squeals with delight and smashes her lips against mine. “I needed an idea like this!! Dynamically reconfigurable tools, ships, people? Empress’ sweaty knickers that’s a project that should keep me occupied for years. Oh, hold on.” She looks to the underbrush and shoots a small black pebble faster than I can track, and a massive explosion erupts from around a kilometer away. She pulls out a rifle-length device and hands it to me.

“What in Andromeda’s name would drive you to make a rifle with a revolver cartridge?”

“It’s ripple tech. It’s the only way I could make it usable as anything but a sniper rifle. It can recharge one spindle per battery, so if you prepare, you can get seven shots, five minute recharge, and seven more.”

“No backpack charger and a second cartridge to hot swap?”

“Well, shit, Mikaela, this is why I wanted an operator to test my weapons. Get ready now, I only disoriented and sapped some of the beast’s stamina with that blast.”

I see a bounding figure flattening trees as it approaches, its mane fluttering around it’s face before disappearing beneath the foliage again.

“This is what you call a casual hunt?!” I see its nose again and fire the rifle. Fins on the side of the weapon flare as the round ejects is blinding, and a trail of fire follows a sound that could rival a lighting strike. The enchanted round splashes against the creature’s skull, cracking it slightly sending a rippling cone of destruction up the creature’s forehead.

I engage my thrusters and ripple drive to re-position whilst I spray EM projectiles from my arm. The beast roars at me, crouching for a leap, but the open maw is too juicy a target to pass up, so I send another strike into its gullet. I miss its throat and instead blow out the side of its jaw to where the maw of the beast is less of a threat, but the Tyrant still has massive claws. A disabling roar slams into me, causing me to freeze up completely as the gigantic feline crouches to leap at me.

Seeing this through my suit’s sensors, Kip manages to increase the power output of the thrusters that are already on, lengthening the distance between us to about 100m. The beast uncoils and the energy in the stun is similarly released. My addled brain can’t concentrate enough to engage the ripple drive on my suit, but the thrusters on my feet engage in a desperate attempt to get more distance.

I rotate the cartridge and put another round where I cracked its skull earlier, ejecting a bone plate and exposing it’s pink brain. When the Tyrant full elongates, and twists for a swipe with a paw larger than I am, I know I’m not moving fast enough. Kip inhibits enough of my fear response to line up one more shot, in hopes that if I survive this, the bastard can’t eat me afterward.

It’s a small reward when a hypersonic round smashes into the soft pink flesh, ejecting a mist that then catches on fire due to the atmospheric friction the round had caused. The giant cat slacks, but with the clawed paw still in motion, three and a half feet of murdering sharpness pierces my abdomen. Numbness washes over me for a mere moment before the Tyrants starts falling back toward the canopy with its claw still in me. When the claw tears down and into my hip bone, I feel myself shout briefly before I pass out from the pain.