Chapter 144

Chapter 144

I woke up instantly blinking and feeling just fine, I sat up nearly instantly and noticed I was covered in a scratchy blanket.

Well looks like we got the time right. Vik said noticing me wake up.

You got everything done in time?

Yeah, no problem on my side. How do you feel kid? Vik rolled over and started examining me.

Fine. Actually Hmm, I feel like my weight is off a bit.

Yeah well, thats what happens when you change out most of your bones for Titanium. I nodded, I looked at my limbs at my body only for there to be nothing there. No scars or anything but I knew there where Vik had cut into me to replace my boney bits.

It wasnt a complete conversion of course, but last time I had only really updated my chest and back to better integrate my Condor.

But it had gone so well. With just what I had done, it was only one adaptation point, although I hadnt put it in, but what if I finished what I started.

Legs, pelvis, ribs, toes and things like that too.

All titanium now.

I would be a lot harder to break from now on, and more importantly. I would have a stronger platform to place more chrome into.

Well the wounds certainly healed up. Vik grabbed my attention though as his face was serious. I wouldnt normally let someone walk out after a surgery like that. I want you to know the only reason Im not holding you in an actual hospital bed for a week, is because of your healing. But really kid. Take it real easy for a little bit. This This sort of thing is stressful on the body. Healing or not.

Ill be super careful Vik, promise. We just finished a massive gig, so Im mostly on tech duty right now anyways. Its why I thought it was a good time to finish this.

Alright. Lets do some tests. Wiggle your toes.

I laughed at the sudden random question and did as ordered my toes moved without any issue. As I ran through the tests I checked my system to see what it had to say about it.

MoorE Titanium Bones *Adaptation Titanium Bones 0/2*

Well the Adaptation went up, but otherwise I was looking good.

Well, everything looks good, your little secret nanomachines do good work. Still got nothing about where they came from. Vik muttered, rubbing his face a bit. Alright. Easy does it for a few days, and let me know if anything starts feeling weird.

Will do Vik. Thanks! I chirped happily as I got up, and after getting dressed walked right out. Stretching as the evening air hit me, I decided to do as ordered and head home.

I still had a lot of stuff to build.

--

I spent the entire night building new directional mics, then installing them into the housing I made for the other three helmets.

It was a lot of work, and despite making something I had already completed. I was improving a lot!

*100 Crafting XP Gained.*

*Crafting skill level up!*

*1 Perk Point Gained.*

Crafting 5! I had once again maxed out the skill, giving me a surge of new tricks up my sleeve. Which was good, because my next batch of work was all going to be design work. Hopefully I would get my Engineering level up from it.

Of course first, I had to select my perks! I ran through the list of options, with an eye to what I would want long term. Sure something like Salvager would give me more resources, but I made enough eddies now, that wasnt really a concern.

No, the option I decided on was a much better idea for the current me.This chapter made its debut appearance via N0v3lB1n.

Enduring builds. You can make it stronger. Tougher. You know the tricks of the trade to make your product rough and tumble.

Accepting the perk flooded me with all sorts of things that I could do to make sure my crafting didnt fall apart. Ways to make my stuff stay working even if you beat the shit out of it first.

I shook it off, and refocused on what I was doing.

Helmets done. Most of the extra work would be on the chest rig. I would need to modify them a bit to shrink them down, but luckily they were designed for a one size fits all, so that wouldnt be too hard. No it would be integrating an ECM system into them that would make them a pain in the ass.

Hiromi had done as I had asked, and reached out through her growing list of contacts and got specs for some ECM systems that werent just cyberware.

The Militech personal ECM unit was a neat little pre-unification war military surplus. Honestly it was probably about the same age as my arms.

Either way I had the scans for it, that Hiromi sent over, and she was in talks about getting enough for all of us.

I just had to figure out how to integrate it.

The biggest issue was how the ECM systems worked.

See there actually was a reason that the Tyger Claws integrated the ECM into tattoos. The ECM was a visual deterrent. The smart round would be scanning its target, hit the visual ECM and when scanning it, would either be infested with a virus, or simply get so much junk data the targeting would fail.

A literal memetic hazard.

So this version actually needed a visual component.

Unfortunately the main way to use it was a holographic light that the smart weapon would glitch out when scanning.

I didnt really want a holographic light on my chest. That sort of defeated the whole stealth thing. So my first thought was to hide the light.

Could I set the ECMs light to infrared? Or use a non visual light band?

Probably not. I realized that Kiroshi and other optics kind of took that option away. So I couldnt just alter the light to be non visual, how else could I hide it?

I was spinning in my chair round and round as I considered it.

I would need some sort of hardware, or programming solution As I spun the neon lights outside my window flowing into my optics over and over.

On and off. On and off.

On and off?

I continued spinning as I considered it. Sure, turning it on and off would solve part of the problem, but the system would have to be smart enough to turn itself on when smart rounds were targeting it

I could program that.

A few extra sensors integrated into the armor, and you could easily have it turn itself on and off, and a simple switch to turn it on yourself as well

Alright. Thanks Rogue. I look forward to working with you. I said, the first thing that came to my mind as I rose out of the seat and headed into the bar proper.

Huh. Major Leagues, Huh Jack? I whispered to myself before frowning. Jackie wouldnt take this well, but It might just give me a chance to pull Jackie into the Major Leagues and fulfill his dream.

But for now. I wandered around the place. I hadnt really explored the Afterlife the last times I had been here, but if I was officially in, officially welcome, then no one could say anything about me walking around.

Mercs. Lots of high end mercs. Most of them carrying enough chrome to fight off a small army.

Im glad I had just chipped in more, because I was going to need some upgrades to keep up if this is my peers.

No, I shook my head. I should chip in when, and what I wanted, not to keep up with some gonks that I had no reason to keep up with.

In the end I circled the whole club before coming back to the bar, and then I caught sight of a familiar group.

I was planning on just walking out, but well

I turned and headed over to the section that had Maines crew hanging out around a table.

Hey. How goes? I greeted as I walked over, although I didnt sit down, just hanging out at the edge of their table so I could leave if I was intruding.

Heeey! Motoko, youre here? I didnt get a call from Emmy to let you in. Sasha greeted her face instantly morphing into a cat like smirk at the sight of me.

Ah, well I just got finished with a big gig in the badlands, and Rogue invited me to the Afterlife. So I got my own access now I guess. I explained, and the noise I earned in return surprised me.

Maine, Dorio, Sasha, Pilar, and Rebecca were all here, all looking like they were waiting on something, probably a client?

But the noise the small group made was pretty loud.

Okay mostly it was Rebecca.

Eeeeeh!? The hell!? You!? Rogue. The Queen Bitch of the Afterlife gave you an invite? Rebecca had stood up and was palms on the table, standing on the seat, and I was still pretty much on height with her.

Rebecca smole. It was literally all my brain could process.

Thats impressive. Maine offered in that rumble of his as he jerked his head sliding his glasses down just a tad on his nose to look me over. You impressed Rogue?

Wow! Toko! Thats nova! Come sit! Tell us everything you can about your gig yeah? Sasha offered, but I was mostly keeping an eye on Becca who looked like an angry honey badger ready to tear my throat out.

Seriously!? I havent gotten my own invite yet! Rebecca growled but it was Maine that reached out and placed a hand on her shoulder Well more all around her shoulder considering the size difference.

Youll get there Becca. He calmed her, his voice rumbling, but a moment later he turned to me. If you can or want to, wouldnt mind hearing how you got in.

Ah well I shrugged, nothing about our gig was that sensitive other than the listening post which I obviously wasnt going to mention. I slid in next to Sasha who had made room for me and was urging me on as I shrugged and started explaining.

So we got this gig from an Arasaka manager. An AV was downed in the badlands and he wanted some of the supplies inside recovered. We were told we could have whatever we found as long as we brought back what he wanted.

Damn. A direct gig from an Arasaka corp? I dont know if I would have taken that. Sasha offered and that is when I had to blush a little.

Well The manager is actually my chooms father, shes part of my crew so sort of got the gig straight, and we could be fairly confident it was safe.

There was a round of surprised expressions on the faces of Maines crew, but it was Rebecca that broke first.

Pfft! Thats so fitting! So thats how you got into the Afterlife? A baby gig handed out by the corpo father of your choom? Rebecca scoffed downing a hit of her Ni-Cola without really looking at me.

Becca. Dorio started but I waved her off.

Honestly it was a really tough gig. We had to track down who did the attack. We hit a normal Rafffen camp first and managed to figure it out from some information on a computer there, and then we hit their main camp, this group was fifty plus strong. I snuck in flatlined their leaders, then dropped some hacks on their camp and shot them up. We got most of them.

My explanation earned a nodded head from Maine, but Rebecca was still seemingly irritating, and I just shrugged it off. I guess Id be annoyed if a kid got into the afterlife when I didnt have access.

Taking on a Raffen camp isnt a joke. I see why Rogue let you in. Maine replied earning another scoff from Rebecca, but he ignored her. To the newest merc in the Afterlife. He said raising his glass and his team, even Rebecca did the same which had me blushing a bit.

Its not that big a deal Anyway we found the supplies and managed to loot practically an entire Arasaka AV worth of equipment. So Ive mostly been setting up equipment for the last few days. I offered trying to change the topic.

Yeah? You tinker and program? Sasha asked with a laugh, You sure spread yourself around dont you?

They are pretty closely connected. Ive had to do programming for some gadgets Ive made. I just want my team to be ready in case something bad happens.

Heh. A good Techie is worth their weight in gold. Too bad all we have is Pilar. Dorio offered, the last bit teasing, and dragging the techie into the conversation.

Fuck off! He offered both middle fingers to Dorio. Id like to see you gonks do half the work I do! He snapped, but everyone was just laughing, and soon enough he was smirking too.

I guess despite everything, Maines crew got along well.

It was cute.

So you tinker with stuff too? What have you been working on? Sasha prompted me, even as Dorio and Pilar got into an arm wrestling match that was obvious to everyone who was going to win.

Oh I picked up these sets of Arasaka troop rigging. The armor is good, but its Cheap isnt the right word, but they keep things pretty cheap. I updated the helmet with a direction mic, so we can listen in on conversations, and Im updating the chest rigging with an ECM system. So well have some protection against smart weapons.

Wait, what? Rebecca asked suddenly, having been focusing on Pilars suffering at being thrown around by Dorio.

Im adding an ECM system into my chest rigging, for me and my chooms.

What system? Please dont tell me, its some Tyger Claw thing.

No. Militech, the Light Aegis. Three-seven. I said, recalling the name from memory.

Huh. Rebecca suddenly was focused on me. You got the deets on that?

Yeah. I shrugged and flashed a shard with what I had for the ECM system and the chest armor so far and handed it over. After a few moments she nodded.

Three-seven is solid, I like your integration. Customizing the emitters is preem. You could use a KangTao Battery bank. The new ones theyve been putting out? Its flexible, used in armor and stuff you could probably attach it to the bottom of the chest rig. Probably wont hurt as much if you fall on it. She offered and I was instantly there, hands grabbing her own.

Thats so smart! Ive been working on some other stuff too! We should talk shop!

Ah? Rebecca squirmed as I practically bounced in my chair.

Becca was tech talking with me! So preem!

Uh, sure I guess.

I gave her a big smile.