For the first time, he admitted to himself that his feelings for this machine/girl were more than just fondness… She did so much for him, and he had grown to love it/her… her.
Yes, he kissed her again, with more passion…
***
So the night ended with both of them washing the oil off one another. Samantha could have done it with a snap, but Kevin enjoyed this more, and after the day he had, he was glad Samantha took his mind off the real world. Samantha fixed the bedding with a snap, and Kevin liked that too, he went to sleep hugging the girl of his virtual dreams and wondering about the one just a few feet away in the real world.
Chapter 18 – All Dressed Up
After his morning routine, Drake was back in Omnia online.
He had a few goals to accomplish today. He needed to go to work and at noon retrieve the data-cube for Sidonia. But he also wanted to get his own blaster carbines and pistol checked out at the shop.
Drake felt that events were coming to a head, and he would soon no longer need to work at Cairbre’s. He made up his mind to give his two-week notice today, even though he had been working for less than a week.
Drake ran from the Guild Hall to Cairbre’s Gun Shop. He had heard that it was harder to set up traps if someone kept changing the route they used. So he picked a longer, roundabout route to run to work.
When he got to work, he asked Kaveh, the shop steward, if he could run his own guns through the machines to check and repair them. He was given permission to use the manual, hand held testing, and cleaning equipment to check his own weapons, but only on his own time. If the components needed repair or replacement, he would have to pay the materials cost.
This sounded fair to Drake; he would not be using anything he wasn’t paying for.
His morning went smoothly, and noon seemed to arrive in no time. He was getting so used to working his station in the shop, that he fell into a sort of trance, just repeating the steps.
Apapetux picked him up outside the employee’s entrance.
Drake was worried that the security company where he stashed the data-cube might be staked out if the Pirates had any good sources of information.
“Nah, don’t tcha worry, Tredido has had the place staked out all morning,” Apapetux replied to Drake when he mentioned the thought.
“In fact, we think it’s a good idea if you contact that Lawyer of theirs and tell em that you’ll be by with the cube on Wednesday after work, say 6 pm. This should keep them off your back until then.”
“To make it sound good, ask for a ‘finder’s fee’ something like 2k credits. We want to generate some messages between the lawyer and the gang, to see if we can get a trace on them. Sid has already tapped into the lawyer’s office, and is keeping a close electronic eye on the place.”
Drake had Samantha send the demand for money and the time he would be willing to meet.
“Good, good, let Sid work on tracing the bastard. This one is personal for her, but this will keep her busy and off her problems…”
They had no trouble retrieving the datacube. He still felt like there was a target painted on his back from the moment he left Apapetux’s ground car until they were back in traffic and on their way.
“You said this was personal for Sidonia? She’s your hacker, right?”
“Yeah hacker, tech, anything electric, she’s a genius. Anything with people, she’s a mess. She would rather hide in a lab all day working and building devices, but we think it’s better for her to get out and meet people.”
“Funny thing is we were making a lot of progress with her too, until a month ago. That’s when she found out that this gang had captured a transport full of passenger’s. Only one person escaped from 349 crew and passengers, including Sid’s sister, who was heading home from college. We don’t know for sure what happened to the people, we think slavery. So this job is personal for us.”
“We hope to recover some information about Sid’s sister. So we might capture a few of the gang alive, but Sid wants to get hold of their ship. She is sure she can recover some information.”
“Well here you are,” said Apapetux. As they return to the employee entrance. Drake grimace at the thought of vending machine food.
Just as Drake got out of the car, he heard Apapetux say; “Hey, don’t forget your lunch, and the gear you wanted.” And he passed Drake a cloth duffle bag, it felt heavy to Drake. Then the door closed, and the car sped away.
Drake was only a few feet from the door, but he spotted someone moving toward him in a hurry. So, Drake quickly entered the employee’s entrance.
Just a second after the door closed it opened again to admit the person he thought was rushing toward him.
As Drake looked behind him, the man said; “You must be late getting back too, huh?” and ran past Drake, whose hand was on his gun with his heart racing from a spike of adrenalin.
Drake hurried back to the gun shop. The team wasn’t back yet, so Drake took a look in the bag Apapetux had given him. There was a warped paper bundle, that Drake took to be his lunch and a full set of armor. He took out the lunch and crammed the armor into his locker.
The paper bundle contained a large sandwich, this Drake consumed in a hurry. He then went into the little break room to get something to drink and use the restroom.
He was in a hurry because he wanted to use the shop's tools to check out the condition of his blaster pistol.
He had the weapon apart in seconds, and he was nearly complete with testing the gun components by the time the crew returned from their lunch across the street. It looked like the blasters gavlin coil was worn down from use and poor maintenance. The shop materials cost to repair the blaster would just be a few credits. Drake was relieved, but it was now time to work, so he reassembled the weapon and put it back in its holster.
That afternoon Drake took the time to tell Cairbre that he was going to quit in two weeks.
“It’s each man’s business to know his place among the stars, so I don’t mean to pry, but is there something we did to make you feel unwelcome?” asked Cairbre.
“No, when I took this job, I thought I could learn some skills that would help me fill in the gaps in my engineering education. But the reality of this work is I’m a servant of machines, they do all the real work. I’m just not ready to settle down to a daily job like this, not if I’m not feeling myself progressing the way my spirit demands.” replied Drake.
“Ah, I forget you’re so young still. How old are you?”
“Twenty-four standard years.” One thing Drake liked about Omnia, it kept all the planets in artificial synchronicity.
“That would explain it; you’re still too young and have too much energy to settle down to a job like this. I agree this job would be fine for some, but maybe not for you… Well, Thanks for letting me know. I’ll have to let the employment agencies know I’m looking for two people now… If you ever decide to settle down, give me a call. Can’t make any promises, but a half trained gunsmith is better than idle machines.” grumbled Cairbre.
Drake was a little surprised by the gruff old Half-Dwarf. He had expected a more cross-grained response from the way the man first acted toward him.
When the day’s work came to an end, Drake stayed and worked on his weapons. Since Cairbre was staying to tend to some after hour business, like inventory and placing some orders for parts and supplies. He didn’t mind Drake staying to work on his own carbine and pistol. When Drake was done, he had Samantha sent the shop steward a note of the shop supplies he used. They amounted to just over twelve credits that would be deducted from his pay.
With his weapons repaired he asked Samantha to display their information on the wrist unit.
Dreanan Defender Heavy Blaster Pistol
Type: Blaster Pistol
Ammo: 35
Damage: 52
Durability: 28
Range: Medium
ExoPiro Defender Heavy Blaster Carbine
Type: Blaster Rifle
<
br /> Ammo: 50
Damage: 60
Durability: 32
Range: Medium-Long
He had seen a lot of guns and gun modifications over the last three days of work. The problem was that most modifications that upped blaster damage also harmed the blaster. He had heard the other employees talk about blasters that had melted or blown up, from a poor modification or over stressing the weapon.
He understood there were quality parts that could increase blaster damage, but for the cost, you might as well just buy a better weapon.
There was one gunsmith in the shop who worked on high-end weapons. He said that a few professions like snipers, who had to have very fine tuned gear, still relied on hand modified weapons to get the best accuracy and longest range they could from a weapon.
To Drake it wasn’t worth spending the years to learn this profession, just to provide a handful of people with tools. But that’s the job of a craftsman, he imagined, they seemed to love the weapons for the weapons sake.
With both his weapons now repaired, Drake took out the bag of armor to look it over. There were six pieces, two leggings, two bracers, torso armor and helmet that looked like a military helmet with a face shield that could swing down and lock into place. The left-hand bracer looked like a data bracer, very similar to the one Samantha now used, except it was armored. All the armor was a matched set; it was all the same dark grey-green color. It all looked used but well cleaned and repaired.
Probably the most surprising thing about the armor is that the left bracer looked like it had a data-display like Samantha’s Bracer.
There was a note with the suit of armor.
“This is some armor we picked up in the field a few years ago. It’s not up to our unit’s standard, but we kept it as backup gear. The price you can get for used armor is usually a fraction of their original value. This suit combined would run near 10k credits new, we were offered 2300 credits for it used. A lot of people don’t trust armor someone died in, which of course is where most used armor comes from. So we kept it in storage.”
“So as part of our deal, this armor is yours. This is a full set of Crezidine Industries Scout Armor.”
“Samantha, take a look at this bracer. How does it compare to the one you now use? And what can you tell me about the Crezidine Industries Scout Armor?”
“The A.I. bracer is designed as part of the integrated suit systems. It links with the helmet sensors, and when the helmet visor is down and locked, I can see what you can through the vision assist system build into the visor. The suit helmet can provide low light and no light vision as well as a heads up display that I can activate. Overall the bracer is a nice upgrade when used with the suit. And even has longer ranged comms then the one I now use. May I move to the new bracer Horatio?
“One feature of this scout armor you might like is that it has an active camo system built into the suit’s outer surface. The camo stays off most of the time to conserve energy, but if activated, it will take on the colors of your environment. If you stay still, it will attempt to pattern the colors to match your immediate surroundings. It’s not the highest grade of active concealment, but it’s pretty good.”
“Yes, Sam, move to the suit bracers and give me a display of the protection provided by the rest of the armor.”
Crezidine Industries Light Scout Armor
Type: Armored Helmet (Head)
Energy Protection: 29 (30)
Physical Protection: 18
Durability: 36 (38)
Crezidine Industries Light Scout Armor
Type: Body Armor (Torso)
Energy Protection: 29 (30)
Physical Protection: 18
Durability: 33 (35)
Crezidine Industries Light Scout Armor
Type: Greaves (Legs - 2)
Energy Protection: 24
Physical Protection: 23 (24)
Durability: 38 (40)
Crezidine Industries Light Scout Armor
Type: Bracer (Lower Right Arm)
Energy Protection: 24
Physical Protection: 23 (24)
Durability: 39 (40)
It looked to Drake like a major upgrade. He hoped the added weight wouldn’t slow him down too much. The new armor weighed only about 16 kilograms, but his old vest and bracer were only about 4 kilograms in weight. Still, for what they offered, the armor seemed like it should weight more. They must have used some really lightweight materials to make it so light.
Drake put the old vest and bracer in the bag.
He put on the new set of armor; it would take some getting used too.
“Samantha, I think I need to add wearing this type of armor to my training.”
“Yes, Drake we will have to set up some situational shooting courses for you to run through using this type of armor.” Samantha’s voice now came from the helmet he was wearing.
“Samantha, if I have the helmet closed, could someone even hear you?”
“Your helmet is designed to contained sounds coming from their internal speakers. Scouts often need to communicate and remain hidden and silent, so the helmet was built with that in mind,” said Samantha.
Wearing the new armor, with the face open, he put on his gun belt and slung his carbine. Now he felt dressed to kill.
Kevin exited the building and jogged back to the Guild Hall while trying out all the new toys build into the suit. He found no threats on his randomized path back to the Hall. But he did scare some restaurant workers who were hanging out in an alley, taking a break from their work. The camo system was kind of fun to use if you can be quiet.
Back in his room, he had to pull the powered cells for the whole set and connect them charging.
After stripping off the armor, he climbed into bed and logged out.
***
Tonight’s meal was enchiladas, with sour cream and guacamole; the dinner included refried beans and rice on the side.
While eating Kevin decided he needed more information on the gang of pirates he was going after.
“Samantha, you should have had a chance to look at that data we got on the pirates by now. What can you tell me about them?” asked Kevin.
“The Pirates have been causing a considerable amount of trouble in the local area. Their bounty has been increasing over the last few months. It may not be long before the Imperium decides to send the Navy to hunt them down.” said Samantha.
“Yeah, that’s one thing I don’t get. Why employ bounty hunters at all? Why not have an interplanetary police or the Navy go after criminals?” interrupted Kevin.
“It’s about politics and money. The Imperium is built on a charter that allows planets a considerable amount of autonomy. They are bound by rules dealing with trade and must accept the Imperial credit as currency; they also have to pay a tax to the Imperium to cover the cost of the Navy to provide for the common defense. But the planets don’t want to pay the high taxes it would take to maintain an Imperium-wide police service, nor do they want to create another branch of the Imperium that would interfere in their domestic affairs. Since the Senate votes for how much the planets are to pay in taxes, getting them to agree to pay more taxes for problems that they don’t see as their own, is usually a struggle for the Empress. So the Imperial Senate’s compromise was to pay for bounty hunters to deal with criminals that break the Common Imperial Laws.” said Samantha.
“The system has been in place for more than a millennia. But sometimes problems reach a high enough level of threat to be considered a matter of the common defense and these pirates may be getting close to drawing the attention of the Navy.” continued Samantha.
“So if the Navy comes in, no more bounties.”
“More likely, the Navy will accept the bounties and any captured ships as prizes, with one-third being rewarded to the crew as prize money, and the rest going to the navy to help defray the expense.” commented Samantha.
“So, tell me about the Black Blood gang then.”
There are curre
ntly ten known members of the gang. Their leader's name is Rados Ragnvald, and there is a 15k bounty out on him, the usual terms, dead or alive. The rest of his gang has bounties from 3k to 8k credits depending on the list of crimes they’re known to have been involved in. There is also a 1000 credit on any party caught in the act of supporting the gang at the time of their death or capture. This sort of bounty extension usually is only added if there is a suspected support organization helping the pirates, like mechanics that maintain their gear but haven’t been yet reported at a crime scene… It’s also a problem to claim since people like pirates will often force people into slave obedience collars to make them work.” said Samantha.
“What’s a slave obedience collar?” asked Kevin.
“It’s a collar that locks around the neck and causes the wearer to feel intense pain if they resist the person holding the control device. Strictly illegal for non-consensual use under Imperium law, but their pirates already so…”
Drake thought, ‘non-consensual use, who would submit to something like that; someone playing s and m games?’
“Anything else you can tell me, which may help?”
“Yes, they have been known to use two ships a converted Nelta 34 Light Freighter, which was used in the attack on the Fyffes Swiftstar and an old XR2 Patrol Craft. The Imperium is not sure where the patrol craft came from. The Imperial Navy decommissioned those old patrol craft about a hundred years ago and sold most of them off as planetary customs boats. A lot of planets don’t keep very good records, especially if they have corrupt local governments.”
The converted Nelta 34 Light Freighter is reported to mount twin medium blaster cannons on a top mounted turret. That class of ship would normally have a crew of two plus space for four passengers. So with a conversion, that would probably be a crew of two and one gunner with space for three more for an extra shift.”
Omnia Online (Omnia Online Series Book 1) Page 15