Ch. 31 - Hello World

"There exist an estimated sixty thousand modes of communication in this galaxy alone. The majority of these require an energy input exceeding the yearly total output of your local sun."

– AI 'Solygant', Road Rash's assistant, during an interview with an unnamed reporter

 

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"Okay," ripped out of me with a heavy sigh, "how're we going to deal with this?"

Leah shrugged her shoulders at me, and said, "I don't have any points yet. I'll just follow you. Once I'm a little richer, I can get us something pretty fast that'll have us out of here and back in the city in a few hours."

Giving it a few seconds of thought, I added. "We need vision, information, and a plan. Say, Tynea, you suggested getting an uplink, but didn't you say that my aug could access non-waveform communications gear from other Vanguards?"

They can, and I have pinged the local infrastructures handling esoteric communications, but they all appear to have been newly secured, even those stationed near Mars and Venus. Whatever is happening here, is happening everywhere. Since only Vanguard possess real-time communications technology, I suspect it's only a matter of time until somebody notices and contacts you.

Meanwhile, an Earth-standard uplink will cost you only five points, and give you immediate access to the Mesh.

"Okay, I'd have thirty-five left. I want vision around us. What did those jumping drones cost again?"

One hundred points.

"Ah, yeah, too much. What could I get for, like, twenty? Or less, even."

A Class 0 Light Communications Drone for five points could be…misused for your purposes. Cheap and certainly not very effective. No armoring, no stealth. I could modify it to add reliable stealth for ten points.

"That sounds affordable, at least. Say, that internet uplink, it'd have to be outside right? Can you stealth it, too?"

I would customize it for one point to visually disappear into the background wherever you choose to place it, even to sharp eyes. However it would need to be within line-of-sight through the door, due to the faraday cage built into the facility.

I'd have to go outside again, but I didn't see an issue with that—I wanted some Antithesis to come find us. Just not too many at once.

Another thought popped into my mind. "Tynea, can you add a camera to the uplink? I'll leave it here, and I'd like to know if people come to this place after we leave. So far we really have no clue about who kidnapped us—except that they left no method of communication at all. They had to have been checking in, periodically. As long as this global attack thing doesn't spook them too much, they'll eventually give in to their greed and show up."

I would suggest we simply leave the communications drone as a spy drone in this location along with the uplink. It's cheap and you'd be able to replace it easily. Additionally, it'd be mobile, unlike the uplink itself, and its batteries will last it for years.

I nodded, that sounded like a good idea. I could also install hidden signal boosters throughout the facility—once I had plenty of points—to make sure that the drone would have contact to the uplink from anywhere within. Those should also be pretty cheap. Cheaper than the uplink, even.

"Anything else?"

"Do you have enough ammo, Tinea?"

"Yeah. We'll want a weapon for you to switch to, though. That Hummingbird only has twelve salvos in it."

"I'll count along, then. Gonna have enough points to get my own stuff by the time I need it, I think."

"Fair enough. Lemme set up, then. Tynea?"

Here you go.

 

Purchased:

• 6 pts x 1; Satellite WAN Uplink, customized for camouflage
• 15 pts x 1; Stealthed Light Communications Drone

Total cost: 21
Remaining points: 19

 

I'll hold the uplink until you're in position to install it.

"Alright, thanks."

One box appeared at my feet, and I opened it, to watch a ball the size of my fist levitate itself out of it. It flickered into invisibility, but Tynea added a wireframe of it to my vision. It dashed out the door, giving me a view of our surroundings. Nothing moved.

I looked at my silk traps and considered whether I wanted to try that battle skin surface protein thing, but realized that I hadn't specified any such key when I laid them out. So instead I just hopped over them, until I was, once again, standing outside.

Tynea yoinked the drone a few dozen meters up to give me a bird's eye view. There was no movement, no indication that I'd been noticed by anything, so I just walked straight ahead towards the broken 'trail' I'd laid out, knelt down, and held my hands out for the uplink. I didn't want to leave a box lying around, out here.

A generic modern electronic device appeared in my hands. It was a head-sized bulb, with its satellite dish shaped like large leaves. It had multiple of them, and from what I could tell, they formed the transceiver.

I took it a few steps away from the trail to where similar plants already vegetated, and dug a hole for it. Once fitted in, I covered the non-planty part with dirt and made sure the area didn't look disturbed.

"Will it be able to reach inside the building? And how long will it last?"

So long as you do not move down the stairwell, connectivity should be no issue. The leaves are not only its communications dish, but they also contain a few photovoltaic cells. It can last indefinitely so long as they're not covered.

"Alright. Say, how do we best get a few Antithesis to attack our position, without calling the entire swarm down on our heads?"

You'll want the scouts to come investigate naturally. If you repeat the trick from earlier with the slurry, you should be able to get them to come investigate. Once you've killed even one, the smell of their death should attract more—this will escalate their attention on this area over time, however. The more you kill, the more will come to destroy the threat you pose.

I puzzled out a basic plan as I returned to Leah. "Tynea just told me that if we start taking out Antithesis, more and more will trickle in. Eventually it'll be a full-on siege. I don't think we can handle that with how little gear we have. We should be ready to just get the points we need to escape and immediately pull out, if things start looking sour. What kind of mobility can you get us, Leah?"

"Uh, I've got cheap ATVs, just a few hundred points. They can outrun anything below the thirties, and they're hardened against attack. If we want to fly, we'll have to spend at least a thousand."

I digested that while connecting to the uplink with my aug. "Leah, do you think you could set up an automatic buy for the first thing we could use to move out with, if it's looking like we gotta r—"

Tinea. There's a global incursion going on. I've collated the most important information for you. Here.

"?!"

A screen popped up in front of me, first with a map of North America, showing streaks of red centered around several of the megacities.

Those are Antithesis hordes attacking population centers. They all came active at the same time. There's more.

Green icons appeared, also mostly centered on those cities, but some of them spread across suburbs, or in the middle of the densest spots of red.

These are operating Vanguard. Most are defending the cities, some are escorting convoys, attempting to stem the hordes of Antithesis, and other measures. The majority of them are coordinating their efforts through an app. I can adapt it into neuroware for your organic augment. Do you wish to proceed?

"Well, fuck," I whispered, rather flabbergasted. Wonder if my condo still stands?

Focus.

"What's neuroware? Any dangers with that?"

None. I would guide your aug through a set of rearrangements of otherwise unused neurons and their links to emulate the original app. The cerebral augment came with a dedicated section for exactly that purpose. The result of this is 'neuroware', which, unlike geneware, does not require genomic adjustments.

"I have, like, a random access memory bank, but organic?"

Yes, it is quite efficient and utilizes a rather esoteric technology to reuse your…bits, so to say, without overwriting previously stored memories. Not that there are any, presently.

"Alright then, go for it. And share everything with Leah and Ypsi, please. Oh, remember that decryption protocol I got back during the incursion? Could you also convert that?"

Yes, I will do as you ask. Leah is also connecting to the uplink as we speak. The neuroware is being installed now.

I sensed nothing, no headache, no warmth. But a few seconds later, a new window was added to my visuals, a map similar to the one before, but it appeared much more detailed. There were added circles of orange and green, and the icons were replaced with newer icons filled with symbols and calling cards of samurai.

Mentally poking around the thing, I found I could see statuses, requests for help, details on dangers and priorities, assign myself to tasks, call for support myself, and more.

Then I received a call from somebody called 'Laserjack'.

"Ah… Tynea, patch Leah in, please."

Done.

 

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