Stray Cat Strut

Chapter Six - Kitty Cat Palace

“There’s value in memes, you know?

It’s a bitch to quantify it, but it’s there. Anything that’s instantly recognizable by a large number of people has value. Maybe not value that can be instantly transformed into capital, but cultural and social value, and sometimes that can be worth a lot more than just money.”

--“So You’re a Meme, Now What?” Pamphlet, 2024

***

I hovered over the museum, some hundred metres over the top of it, my arms crossed so that my elbows were leaning against the handlebars of my bike. Below me, the last of the contractors were moving away, large hovering dumpster trucks flying with all the skill and precision of whales while smaller hovercraft darted away.

Renovating the museum would take people weeks.

Destroying it had taken hours.

The one was much easier than the other, and I bet if I was a more poetic sort of soul I’d find something meaningful to say about that.

“Is everything ready?” I asked.

It’s unlikely. While the contractors are professionals, they were in a hurry to execute your orders.

“Then we’ll start with the construction drones,” I said. “Two of them should be enough, right?”

A single construction drone could, given materials and the infrastructure with which to recharge itself, rebuild this city from scratch. The issue is less the number of drones, and more the amount of time you’re willing to give them to work. And to pre-empt your question, since the work is mostly done I suspect it would take one drone approximately an hour to check and finalise the work. It would take two less than half that time.

“Less than half the time?” I asked.

The work-time to workers ratio isn’t linear.

“Alright,” I said. I didn’t quite get it, but I also didn’t care enough to ask for a full-on explanation. “I’m going to need to unlock a new catalogue or two, won’t I?”

In this case, it would actually be somewhat cheaper to just purchase one catalogue with a wider range, than two more specific catalogues. The three things you’re looking for; construction drones, turret emplacements, and specification-precise pre-built structures, are all available in the Defensive Structures catalogue. The catalogue costs 400 points to purchase.

“Steep,” I muttered. “Alright, let’s do it.”

New Purchase: Defensive Structures
Points Reduced to: 10,094

I winced. My next purchase would drop me below ten-thousand points. That sucked, but I could live with it. “Alright, the drones next,” I said as I shifted on my seat. It was a decently comfortable seat. Some sort of gel padding, if I had to guess. And my armour was decently comfortable too. Still didn’t stop me from getting a bit sore from staying in the same position for so long.

I would suggest two Mark II Motherlode Construction Drones. They are fully autonomous vehicles that carry a load of smaller drones with them that can be deployed to fulfil smaller tasks while the main drone takes care of heavier lifting and resource management.

An alternate reality display opened over my cybernetic eye, and I took in a rotating image of the drone. It was an ugly, boxy thing, with a few thrusters on the sides for directional thrust and cut outs all over, likely hiding tools and the aforementioned mini-drones. Definitely one of those designs that was built purely for function over all else. “How much are they?” I asked.

Three hundred points each.

“More than my bike,” I said. They could do a whole lot more than just fly around though. It made sense. “Are they the only option?”

No, there are thousands of varieties of construction drones, though the variety mostly exists to cover a wide range of environments and possibilities. You don’t need drones capable of operating underwater, in high-pressure environments, in combat, or in empty vacuum. After narrowing down the list, the Mark II Motherlode Construction Drones seems like the most cost-effective option based on your stated goals. There are cheaper alternatives as well, but you would sacrifice points for build time or convenience. If you want to shop for things yourself, I can assist you there. A lot of Vanguard enjoy the experience of looking for their own equipment.

I shook my head. “Nah, no thanks. That kind of shopping isn’t my forte. Anyway, I’ve trusted you this far. Let’s get those drones running.

Technically, they fly.

New Purchase: Mark II Motherlode Construction Drones
Points Reduced to: 9,494

The drones appeared out of thin air with no more than a soap-bubble’s pop worth of noise. Two big boxy bricks that clung to the air as if set there by the hand of some clumsy god.

The drones gently turned towards the museum, then their sides opened and a dozen smaller, more skeletal drones fell out of them and took off towards the building.

Work will start immediately.

“Probably for the best,” I said. The Motherlode drones dropped too, and I noticed a lot of eyes turning their way as they approached the museum. They were pretty attention grabbing for large grey blocks.

Next up should be your largest expense yet.

“We’ll want to keep a few hundred points for tomorrow. Just in case. Never know if I might need some very specific piece of equipment before all the fighting starts.”

We can work around that. We also need to purchase the blueprints to the turrets that you wanted.

I nodded. “Yeah, good point. Those’ll cost a bit too, I bet.”

We can save some points by only purchasing a turret blueprint from an existing catalogue. Plasma-Casting Weaponry, Sunwatcher Technology, and Stealth Technologies all have turret models that might fit all the criteria you’re looking for.

“That would be nice. Anyway, the building first. Did Lucy finish up the design?”

She completed two designs. One she labelled as ‘Serious and Boring,’ the other as ‘Fun, Iconic, and Trendy and Cat Should Pick This One.’

I rolled my eyes, but I couldn’t help the smile that snuck up on me. “That does sound like Lucy’s way of naming things. Let’s start with the boring one first.”

This is the Serious and Boring design.

My eyesight flickered over the museum, and then the building was complete. The addition was slightly opaque, and I could see vehicles moving through it. So just a projection, but a damned realistic one.

The top floor was now a sharp-edged box. The roof tapered in at the edges. There were added landing pads on the sides, as well as a few pillars that stuck out at an angle. “Are those turret emplacements?” I asked.

Indeed. They are there to give any turret placed within them a wide downwards firing arc.

It looked pretty modern. Sleek and sharp. It contrasted a bit with the rest of the building, but not so much so that it looked wrong.

I couldn’t see much of Lucy’s touch in the design. Then I squinted and it was as if the outer walls melted away. The interior was spacious, with lots of rooms and a few corridors connecting everything together. Other than the bedrooms, most areas were open enough that there wouldn’t be any places to hide. Lots of upper-floor balconies and half-walls separating areas apart.

It was much bigger than the museum was. Not so much in width and length but in height. There was a dip on one end around Longbow’s turret installation, but the rest was much taller. That would wreck his line of sight, I figured.

“Alright,” I said. “It looks perfectly acceptable. And yeah, a bit boring. What’s the other one?”

The projection disappeared, and I found myself looking down at the torn open top floor of the museum again for just a moment before a new projection flickered into place.

I closed my eyes and sighed. “Dammit Lucy.”

The building now looked like a giant cat.

It wasn’t a furry, cartoony sort of cat. More like a sphynx. It was a bit blocky, and the shape was strange, but there was no denying that the entire floor was cat-like. The front had a head looking out towards the edge of the city, with a landing space between two paws.

The worst thing was that it looked mostly functional. There were windows hidden along the sides where the walls jutted out as a series of angled panels that looked tough and also imitated fur a bit. The face had windows behind the eyes and what looked like study rooms once I looked past the walls, and the main body of the cat left plenty of room on the inside for living space. Not as much as the previous design, but still plenty.

If anything, I liked the interior of this design more. It was a bit less impersonal.

While the design is amusing, I want to note that I ensured that air circulation, living space arrangement, and defensive installations were optimised before it was finalised. I don’t want to compromise too much for aesthetics.

“It looks a bit... damnit.” I wanted to say childish, but Lucy had been too clever by half for that. The building didn’t look cartoonish at all. It could have been the top floor of a fancy casino, or maybe a themed hotel. “Does it have room for defences? Like, offensive defences?”

Panels opened along the cat’s back, revealing hidden gun emplacements that were left empty.

Longbow’s gun emplacement would have more room too, being right at the base of the cat’s neck. It would block one angle of attack, but not the rest.

And the building would be iconic enough that people would know where to find me. Which wasn’t a bad thing.

“How much is this thing?”

Seven thousand six-hundred points.

“I can’t believe I’m going to spend so much on a fucking meme.”

***