Chương 83: Book 2 - Chapter 11 - Supply run

Barricade was a man of his word, and work started a few hours later. Unfortunately, between the rock cutting required to access the foundations, and the extruding machines, there was a massive amount of noise within my workspace. It was giving me a migraine.

"Should I get everyone out of here? I can't imagine the kids are handling the noise very well," I said. I was sitting next to my truck, head in my hands, after giving up on squirrel operations for the day. The residence is completely soundproof, I doubt they're even aware that any construction is happening right now.

"Wonderful! I have a ton to do, and this noise is killing me. Please suggest something I can do elsewhere." I swear, I could feel the vibration from the jackhammers behind my eyes, "Maybe I could go out and source some of the building materials I'll be needing soon… or something. ANYTHING." I have a couple of suggestions for that. The scrapyard won't be sufficient for your needs, it's only really good for metals, so you'll probably need to leave the city limits.

"Just tell me where." There used to be a number of towns in the area surrounding Calgary, many were abandoned with the emergence of the Antithesis. Cochrane, to the west, didn't have any strategic significance, so support to that area was slow. They managed to survive for a number of years, but repeated Antithesis attacks slowly drove the population away. Most things of value were removed long ago, but it'll be sufficient for your needs.

"If all the valuables have been looted, what exactly will I be grabbing?" Everything else. You just need the raw elements, so breaking down everything from the structures to the streets will be useful in future projects. As an added bonus, there may be some loose Antithesis out there, for some easy points.

"Great. I'll invite Sharron, make an afternoon of it." One recommendation I have, since you're recycling materials for more than just bears, I would recommend unlocking a more efficient way to break things down. The matter reconfiguration machines are sufficient for small projects, but they're more efficient at creation than breaking things down.

"Great! Wonderful! Can we discuss this at the destination? I feel like my brain is melting," I replied. I didn't lose my cool that often, but with the repeated hammering I was having problems thinking. I sent Sharron a message, asking if she wanted to explore a ruin outside the city. I admit, it may have been a little disjointed, but I didn't care and she agreed anyway.

As I jumped into my truck I did remember to send messages to both Jane and Barricade, letting them know I was leaving; I somehow made them coherent enough that Jane didn't worry, and Barricade didn't complain. After that I just needed to gather a few squads of bears, and send Sharron a rendezvous point, then head off. Thankfully the pounding behind my eyes lessened as soon as I left the shelter, although it didn't fully leave.

The trip was mercifully quiet, so I took this time to continue my previous conversation with Nyx.

"So, you were saying something about better ways to break shit down?" Correct, I recommend the Class I Molecular disassembly catalog. It has similar functionality to the reconfiguration catalog, but is focused entirely on the breakdown and collection of resources. You can purchase a couple of Class I Resource Collection Rigs, which break most mundane materials down and store the raw elements. They're wearable, and work faster than the reconfiguration machines.

The only downside is they store the results in a dust form, which is harder to transport.

"Wonderful." You could purchase a dedicated vehicle to store and process the dust, then run the material into a class I reconfiguration machine to assemble the material into bars. It's not strictly necessary, but small bars are easier to manipulate over a fine dust.

"Sounds complicated, why not just put it straight into the reassembler?" I asked. Nyx was throwing a ton of information at me, and my brain was struggling to keep up. The collection rigs don't require you to carry large pieces of debris to the reassembly machine to break down. It's much more efficient when working on structures, or large items.

"Fine, what are the costs?" Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings. The Class I Molecular disassembly catalog is seventy-five points, and each rig is an additional fifty. If you want a truck for collection, it'll be an additional thousand, that includes the creation machine.

"What? Why so cheap?" You're used to working with Class II tech, which is much more expensive.

"I guess that's true. We'll give the rigs a try when we arrive." Nyx didn't reply, so I let the truck fall into silence once again. Outside the window I saw the last of the city fall away, leaving nothing but untamed prairie. Long grass, scrub brush, and the occasional copse of trees was pretty much all I could see. There were the occasional abandoned homestead, and broken-down road, but for the most part everything had been reclaimed by nature.

It only took about five minutes to get from the city outskirts to Cochrane. It was kind of surreal, the buildings were relatively modern, but all abandoned. There were even broken-down cars left in the middle of the street. Various plants poked through the pavement and sidewalk, slowly reclaiming the area. I parked the truck, pulled my hood down as far as it would go, then jumped down.

The area wasn't completely abandoned though, as soon as my boots hit the ground a small group of model threes burst out of a storefront further down the street. I casually raised my rifle, squeezed the trigger a couple times, and watched them collapse. I honestly had expected more. Behind me my squad scrambled out of the truck, only to be joined by the two additional squads of bears that followed me in their IFVs. Without a word the bears, foxes, and moose spread out, and started checking the surrounding buildings.

I ducked into the nearest building while they secured the perimeter. The old house's interior was still in decent shape, but as Nyx suggested earlier it had been heavily ransacked. Anything valuable had been either taken or destroyed, leaving an empty space covered in dust and garbage. It was a waste, a lot of people in the undercity would kill for a space like this. I shook my head, then stepped back out onto the porch, just in time to see Sharron's RV hover down and park next to my vehicles.

When the woman stepped out I was surprised, instead of her super-heavy battlesuit, she was wearing something closer to an armored diving suit. She was resting a massive rifle on one shoulder as she wandered over.

"Morning Tiny," she called.

"Hey Squiddy, nice outfit. Didn't feel like getting dressed up today?" I replied. She scoffed, "Believe it or not I don't run around in that tin can ALL the time. This is still Class II armor, and if we really need the heavy firepower I just need to hop back into the RV and I'll be suited up in seconds." She paused, looking around the area.

"This is a pretty desolate place, what exactly are you doing here? You mentioned there may be Antithesis." I nodded, "There were a couple when I arrived, and this town was abandoned due to the constant Antithesis harassment, so there are probably some planty bastards around." I stepped off the porch and looked further down the street, "As for why I'm here… deconstruction."

"Pardon?" Sharron looked at me, slightly confused.

"Since this town is abandoned I'm going to disassemble some of the buildings for the raw materials. I'll need them for construction going forward."

"And you figured it'd be easier to take them from one of the ghost towns? I guess that makes sense." She shifted her rifle from one shoulder to the other, giving me a glimpse of the barrel. I didn't know what kind of ammo it could possibly be using, the rounds would have to be massive.

"The initial check is done, nothing in the immediate area, so I'm going to order my new equipment. You want to stick around, and get pings from my recon team, or explore on your own?" I asked.

"I'd like to see this new equipment of yours, then I'll decide. I expect you'll be here for a while anyways" I nodded, glancing around the area again. I didn't see anything, and the area had been cleared, but something about the situation felt… wrong. Perhaps I just wasn't used to being in such a quiet area.

"Nyx, gimme five rigs to start." Purchased Class I Molecular disassembly catalog - 75 points Class I Resource Collection Rig x 5 - 250 points Points remaining: 24092 I watched as five large boxes appeared on the street in front of me. I popped one open, revealing what appeared to be a large tank-like backpack, which was attached to a large rifle-like device by some sort of hose. I poked the device, unsure exactly how it could be used, when one of the nearby bears came up and picked up the device.

It strapped on the tank, picked up the rifle, then pointed it at a nearby wall. The device made an electrical zapping sound, as a beam shot out against the wall. As I watched the wall dissolved, the small particles were pulled back into the gun and deposited in the tank. Once it got going, the process was actually pretty quick, disassembling a large section of the wall in moments.

"Impressive," Sharron said, watching over my shoulder.

"Why don't we use that against the Antithesis?"

"Probably much slower against living tissue, or advanced materials, or something," I replied. Satisfied with the results, I sent out a command to the nearest squad to pick up the remaining devices and get to work. Within moments the squad suited up, and started ripping apart the surrounding buildings. Sharron stretched, reaching high into the sky, "They're impressive and all, but I really don't think sitting around will do much for my point values, or sanity. I'll meet up with your recon team, which way?"

I sent a quick query out, the reply took the smile off my face.

"They're about two blocks west," I replied, "Unfortunately, two of the bears appear to be missing."