"Does that mean I get 5 million points?"
"No. But I will give you five thousand points and a token."
"Sadnyss, you're a tyrant!"
"You're just realizing this?"
"Hey! If I summon a nuclear bomb, put it down in the middle of a city, start the timer, and let it tick down, then stop it at 1. Have I just saved a city?"
"Yes. You get 5 million points for saving them. But then you lose 6 million for putting them in danger.
"Dammit. I wanted to farm points."
-- Conversation overheard between Wade McBeerbelly and his AI, Sadnyss, after the Orlando Fusion Crisis 2052
***
After several minutes, I felt like I’d read the same description over and over again. The words were different, but they all amounted to the same thing.
--In the large strokes, they are all the same. They all form to your body better than spandex with less restriction and provide a certain minimum of protection. It’s the secondary aspects that make them different. Take this one, for example.
The screen scrolled to a set made from plates of smooth shell.
--This set is lightweight, though I put it at the upper end of the term. Under the chitin, there’s some musculature that acts as a strength enhancer.
--This armor over here is similar, but instead of the musculature, it has better performance against energy effects. There are also a lot of differences in materials. Some use chitin, keratin, bone, or even more exotic microfibers. That will make a difference in what attacks will get through the armor.
--Simple modularity. It can be modified as you grow to adjust for any weaknesses you find. In appearance, it looks and feels similar to a snake’s scales, which should be more appealing than some other options. The scales are made of a substance that’s related to carbon fiber but stronger. On impact, they link together to spread the blow over a larger area. Blunt force is a weakness of flexible armors, but this handles it a little better than most.
--I should point out that the thumbnail shows the fully grown armor, right before it morphs to class Two. To see it as purchased, expand the image.
I expanded the description to find a double image over more text. On the right, the armor covered a human from head to toe, with the image rotating to show its coverage. On the left, however, it only covered the torso and a short way down the arms and legs, leaving most of the limbs, head, and neck unprotected.
--It takes a while to grow out to cover your full body. Integrating additional symbionts for coverage or effects, like gloves and a helmet, expands the coverage. I’d recommend at least getting the helmet.
--Yes. This option also includes the self-storage you were asking about.
The images changed, showing the armor receding towards the figure’s back. They rotated to show a lump running over the spine into which the armor retreated.
--The older the armor is, the faster it will activate and stow. There’s also symbiont additions that store the biomass out of sight to prevent a hunchbacked look. That will become more important as the higher stages gain a little bulk.
--The Sidavor Symbiont is the midline on a number of spectrums, not excelling at any one thing. Neither fish nor fowl nor red meat on its own. It’s good general protection that you can modify to focus it nearly any way you want. The next few are biased toward various effects. Since other than the evasive/blocking spectrum, you haven’t shown any strong preference on armor, I went with the middle of the road.
--Sure. And at the higher classes, there’s a lot more options. One I like has a field that bends the local gravity to turn attacks aside. That takes a Class III catalog, though.
--Unless you want to select one from a different base armor, the difference is mostly look and style. How fierce do you want to look?
With a click, the P5-AT receiver snapped into place, completing its cleaning routine. I set it in the safe and moved on to the hunting rifle. It was an ancient model, built back when designers considered how to make cleaning a weapon easier, so the cleaning went quickly.
The picture for the armor showed a rather unpleasant mottled green and pink.
--Definitely. It can be changed at purchase, or there are cheap mods that can adjust the coloring. Maybe wait for aesthetics until the end, though? Some of your other choices might affect how things look. And maybe Kaitlyn will be awake by then to provide input.
Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.
--Sure, but from what I’ve seen of her online presence, Kaitlyn definitely has a better fashion sense than... How many pairs of the same jeans do you have?
A moment’s silence fell from the AI. Considering her processing speed, it was likely a pointed comment. I picked up a brush and attacked a stubborn bit of grime.
--Here are the compatible helmet designs. Like I said, the differences between them are mostly cosmetic and in the field of view. They all include full protection, retract to a less intrusive form, and have integrated hearing protection in both modes and gas masks.
After that, I removed any with anything that looked like ears, spikes, or horns, which only narrowed it down to a couple hundred designs.
--If I may, what you select for sensory upgrades may change your choice of helmet. I can hold onto this list, and we can come back. The cost for these is all nearly the same.
--Yep. Did you want the list of options again?
--There’s three types of boosts that you need to decide between: constant boost, triggered boost, or micro-boost. The difference between them…
I cut in on her, which was weirdly easy and hard in our mental exchanges.
--Yes, you can have the same short-term boosting effects from various chemicals. That’s how most of them work, actually: some apparatus or symbiont releases chemicals that enhance you for either a very short time or a slightly longer period.
--Okay. To go along with your ancestor’s DNA, I would suggest the Silden Second Nerves for faster action paths, the Swift-Sin Colony to improve muscle action times, and the Vesali Bonded Osteopresintesis for stronger bones. Finally, you may want to add the Erythroglobulin Secretion Gland to improve your endurance.
--There’s a couple of ways to increase your speed, depending on what you mean by “speed.” I took you to mean both ways. First is the ability to react faster—both mental processing and nerve relay timing—and the second is to physically move faster.
--Your mental processes are already faster than average thanks to your ancestor and the SymTech Gland, so we need to increase the speed signals travel to the muscles to act on your faster decisions. The Silden Second Nerves will work in tandem with your regular nerves, creating a dual-channel signaling where each does not slow the other down.
--Then, when the command gets to the muscles, they need to produce more acceleration. The Colony will let the muscles contract at a higher rate. Simple physics means that for the muscles to move the weight faster, they have to apply more force, that is, strength. Fortunately, the Colony covers that. The increase will be less than a dedicated strength mod provides, but it’s not exactly small either.
--To prevent the increased strength from cracking your bones, they need reinforcement. It’s counterintuitive, but you need the added mass to both handle the strength and to stabilize your motions. You’ll still end up with a net speed increase.
--And, since you will be moving more and carrying more weight, you will be more prone to exhaustion. The Erythroglobulin Secretion Gland will help your body store and transfer energy, so you don’t poop out mid-battle. If the points come out tight, you could delay the endurance enhancement until it becomes a problem, though.
While listening to Corie, I did a final test of the rifle's action and then placed it in the gunsafe. Another one down, I moved on to the AK-47.
I checked the list of notes we’d made from the review.
--May I do a couple tests? Sensory input is where your body has caused troubles before, and we should know what will work first.
--Okay, first take off your glasses, then relax, and let me know what you sense.
We spent about twenty minutes doing tests where Corie sent commands to my hind-brain which created sensations for me to report. Visually, I only caught impressions like an out-of-focus picture taken of an impressionist’s watercolor painting. In other words, blurs of color that held no position, shape, or meaning. But other sensations, like fire on my hand or a gentle touch on my shoulder, came through sharp and clear enough to trigger my reflexes.
--Interesting… You can receive input directly from the SynTech Gland, but for some reason your mind won’t process artificially induced visual data. That could be a learning thing… It’s neither neurological nor biological, though. Any extra senses will be limited to non-visual too. I doubt that any symbiote’s visual supplement would be accepted directly unless it came in through the eyes or optic nerve.
--You can dive, whether in the Mesh or into a vehicle or drone, but the visual will be limited to what your glasses can show. Fortunately, we can work around that.
--Literally, yes. But not in the way that phrase is often used. It’s right in that area where biology, neurology, and psychology intersect and blend into each other. It is not something you can just think through or solve with a revelation and behavior change, but it’s not entirely at the cellular level either. Somewhere in the middle of those.
--You can receive the stimulus, but your brain doesn’t know how to interpret it. You could learn how—babies do that all the time—but it will take a lot of effort and sideline you for months at least. And in the end, I can’t guarantee you will get enough acuity to have the same data throughput as you currently have with the glasses, much less the higher level that you can reach for not a lot of points.
--No new visual input, unless it’s something like an organ swap; something that uses your existing transmission system. Anything else is fair game. That leaves a lot of options. Do you have any criteria to help me narrow it down? I’ll remove any that are not compatible, of course.