Chương 418: Book 7 - Chapter 14 - Aquatic Upgrades

"Evelyn… What's this?" Sharron asked when I showed her the bear's updated loadup a few minutes later.

"What? You said I could use your catalogs? What's the matter?" I asked, confused, looking back at the squad I'd assembled on the beach.

"Why are your bears all wearing a copy of my armor?" Sharron asked.

"Technically they're not wearing a copy of your armor, I could never produce Class IV equipment. They're wearing a copy of your old Class II armor," I replied.

"Evelyn…" Sharron growled.

"What?!" I exclaimed.

"Not only are some of your best weapons integrated directly into your armor, but they're hands-free, so the bears could use them without having to release their grips on the sharks. They're actually the ideal weapons for the scouts. Besides, they look cute, like mini yous." Sharron glanced over at me with a disapproving look, just for a moment, then her expression softened.

"I admit, they're a little cute, but shouldn't they be much bulkier than that? My Class II armor was more than eight feet tall and super bulky. These suits seem far more streamlined, closer to the Class III version."

"That's because your Class II armor had extremely thick armor and a series of heavy servos to allow you to carry everything," I explained.

"Since the bear's endoskeleton already provides them with a ton of protection, and their own servos are capable of carrying a ton of weight, I could remove a lot of the bulk. This version is barely armored; it's little more than a frame to mount the weapons on." I mentally prodded one of the bears, and it turned to show the back of the suit. Sharron's old suit had half a dozen long, prehensile metal tentacles mounted down the spine, each tipped with either a powerful laser or a vibro blade.

The bear's armor had a large hump just below the shoulders, which sported four much smaller arms, each mounted with a laser emitter. I'd left out the melee arms because I didn't expect the bears to encounter a ton of melee opportunities while mounted on the shark scooters. If I wanted to add additional arms, I would have had to increase the size of the hump to mount a larger reactor, making the armor far heavier and weighing down the scooter.

It might be something I added later, but right now I just wanted something that they could use on the move. Another mental push caused the bear to turn around again and rejoin the others.

"I still don't understand why you didn't purchase something bigger. The sonic cannon, for example, is capable of pulverizing entire groups of Antithesis. You remember what it did when I used it on the surface? It's way more effective in the water," Sharron said.

"I remember you almost blowing out my eardrums," I grumbled, "and while I admit the sonic weapons were tempting, I already have the torpedoes for dealing with heavy targets and tight groups. What I needed was something that allowed me to deal with fast single targets." Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

"If you hit an area with enough AoE then it deals with the fast targets," Sharron replied, with a smirk.

"I also wanted to avoid any potential friendly fire incidents, especially if the sonic cannon's power is increased underwater," I said.

"Since our allies are searching through the area, and I don't know where they are, I don't want any accidents."

"Fair enough," Sharron replied.

"Are you going to send them back out?"

"That's the plan," I replied, flicking my wrist at the bears, sending them scrambling across the beach towards the scooters.

"I really want to have them go out and find a random group of Antithesis, so they can do some weapon tests before I send them out to scout again. Gotta make sure the weapons properly work before relying upon them in the field." It seemed that even though the bears had enhanced servos, the added weight of the new combat armor really weighed them down, because they trudged down to the beach really slowly, and when they tried to climb onto the scooters, they just couldn't manage it.

I sighed and signalled the badgers that were standing by and had them pick the bears up and plop them down on the scooters, like a parent helping their toddlers onto a ride at an amusement park. Once the bears were all on, the Badgers pushed the scooters back out into the surf so the patrol could finally get to work.

"Now that I think about it, don't you usually like to lead your troops from the front? Why aren't you out there with the Bears?" Shannon asked before glancing over at me.

"Because I can't swim," I replied simply.

"And I don't think jumping into a body of water teeming with Antithesis is the best way to learn."

"Really? I think it's probably one of the best ways to learn. Plenty of motivation," Sharron joked.

"Besides, is swimming really that important? None of your bears can swim, and you have access to my catalogs, so you could purchase a decent diving suit."

"I'm not going in that toxic soup unless it's absolutely necessary," I declared.

"I'm confident that the bears can handle it."

"You mean the same bears that had trouble dealing with a basic Antithesis patrol?" Sharron asked.

"They'll do better now! I have faith," I replied.

"Besides, I'm not planning on relying upon them to deal the deathblow to the Gene Tender or the Leviathan. I just need them to either find those fuckers or drive them towards the rest of the team who are far more capable at aquatic combat."

"And what if they turn around and decide to engage your bears instead of running? What will you do then?"

"I'll send reinforcements to either tie them up or keep track of them until the real heavy hitters arrive," I replied.

"I'll probably throw a couple cruise missiles at them too, but since they're designed to deal with terrestrial threats, I'm not super confident they'll be able to do enough damage. It's better than nothing, though."

"I'm not used to you being so passive," Sharron said, nudging me with her elbow.

"It's kind of weird."

"I'm not used to being so passive!" I said.

"But if my choices are to sit back and watch or go swimming, I choose to be passive!"

"Alright, I get it," Sharron said, throwing up her hands in defeat.

"I never thought I'd see this side of you before. If you don't want to go out there and perform the patrols yourself, what do you want to do? I guess I could introduce some of the Samurai involved to you."

"Wait? You can?" I asked, confused.

"When did you meet them? I don't remember you ever taking a trip to the coast."

"You can't? What about when we went to Seattle?" she asked. I just stared at her blankly.

"I spent two days helping clear out the harbor, while you were clearing out the undercity and filling that hole, remember?" she asked.

"Oh yeah… I forgot about that," I muttered.

"So you really met a couple of the local aquatic samurai during that time?"

"From both Seattle and Vancouver, it was a big operation," she confirmed.

"So what do you say, do you want to meet a few?" I cocked my head to the side, just for a moment, before giving her a confident smile.

"Sure! I'll have to figure out who I'm working with sooner or later. I'm not busy right now, so let's do it!"

"That's the spirit," Sharron replied.

"Let's go."