NOVEL NEXT 2.25 CoPE Station
They drove around the corn forest with a wide berth, entering a village stuck somewhere between Fableton and Belvidere. Ramshackle buildings and repurposed storage containers piled up next to a section of the train tracks, where a wide bowl cut into the tarmac and connected to the long canyon. In the middle of the bowl rose a circular building with tall windows on all sides, and a sign on top read 'Church of Phasic Enlightenment — Grand Yellow Line Stop 34E'. On closer inspection it looked as if the church was actually the top floor of an observation tower that extended deep beneath the tarmac, but it was difficult to tell from all the life teeming in and around the bowl.
Several narrow bridges crisscrossed the open space, all made from long wooden poles lashed together that bounced under all the foot traffic. Phanya explained that dried corn stalks made cobwood, a springy and fibrous material that was the closest you could get to actual wood nowadays. A slow but steady trickle of activity flowed from the church vehicles idling around the perimeter and back again, dropping off or picking up goods and people for delivery. Ricky parked among a cluster of blocky industrial trucks while Salazar felt around the interior walls towards the rear of the jitney.
"Now where is… ah, here we go," Salazar said to himself, before he turned around and smacked his elbow against the wall.
A seamless panel popped open to reveal a hidden cache, and Tapper gasped. "The Smuggler's Boot add-on!"
"One of them, yeah. Always need to have a few surprises." Salazar pulled out three wristbands of thick, rubbery gray plastic and handed them out. "I've synced your burner Get-a-Gig accounts between the jitney's computer and these wearables. If you want to do any browsing outside the car then you'll need to buy glasses later, or splurge on a proper subdermal implant, but for now they'll let you access the job board."
Phanya squinted at a small tag on her wristband, her mouth silently working through the odd label. "This says, um, 'UwUsagi'."
"That's your username on the app. Yes you can change it, no you can't change it now."
"Heh, mine says 'WyrdWon'."
Tapper tapped Ricky on the shoulder and said, "Mine is labeled as 'RiteKnight,' and the spelling actually makes it more appropriate for your armored themes. Would you like to trade, Ricky?" They did, much to Tapper's enjoyment, and Phanya slipped on her own wristband.
"Anyway, there's several layers to runs: edge runs for specialists and espionage, blade runs for wetwork and open combat, and shadow runs for when things get weird. You'd like them, I'm sure. But your accounts are only cleared for basic milk runs, stuff like protection rackets and deliveries. They usually aren't too violent, but…"
Salazar rummaged through the recessed cabinet and removed two small tools. One looked like a handheld radar dish, currently folded inwards that might expand to a circle roughly 10 centimeters across, and the other was a simple black tube approximately 20 centimeters long with a 15 centimeter circumference. Tapper wrangled his computing as it tried to calculate more exact measurements, and gave the tools a second look from his emotions: The radar dish's panels tightly overlapped like a metal flower still in its infancy, but a small lever on the handle was positioned just like a pistol's trigger. Subtle glowing lines ran along the black tube's surface in square patterns, and it hummed with stored electricity.
They looked unassuming at first, but Tapper's second thoughts could sense the hidden weaponry.
Ricky also noticed. "Hey wait, you have hidden weapons? We could've used those when fighting the bugs!"
"Oh I'm sorry if I was too busy driving and navigating through the swarm storm by myself to walk you through the process of accessing my secret stash," Salazar snapped, and Ricky looked down from his glare. "Anyways, this is a snapback gun," he explained, holding up the first weapon. He pointed it away from the others, and when Salazar pressed a small button on the side of the grip the radar snapped open into a shallow bowl. A small silver bead sat in the middle of the radar dish and rolled around slightly without falling out, returning to the center as if it sat in its own personal gravity well.
"Pull the trigger to shoot, press the button to recall the bullet. You'll feel it pull in your hand, don't let go but don't fight it either. Otherwise you'll miss and it'll leave a welt. Once you've caught the bullet, press the button again to turn on the safety." He did so, the radar dish closed inwards again, and he handed it to Ricky. "Oh, and don't lose the bullet. It's paired to the PSI magnet that makes it work and can't be replaced, or something like that."
Then Salazar presented the black rod, and he twisted the handle until it clicked. Part of the handle unlatched and swung outwards on a hinge, forming a second handle that stuck out perpendicular to the first, while the other end extended like a telescope until the rod nearly doubled in length. It looked like an archaic tonfa weapon, until Salazar pressed a button on the handle and small nodules popped up along the entire length that crackled with electricity. "Standard stun stick, shock and disorientate depending on where you hit. And it's rugged enough that if the battery runs out, you can still break bones if you really put your back into it."
The stun baton passed to Phanya, and she gave it a few practice swings. She could twirl it around just fine, but once she activated the electricity her Body Mastery class announced its distaste. She could compensate with her Commander abilities if she focused, but all sets of her instincts agreed that it would do her more harm than good.
"Darn, that would've been cool. Thanks Sal, I honestly appreciate it. But I can already tell that I will definitely stun myself with it before I can hit anyone else. Tapper, you want it?"
"Thank you for the kind offer, Phanya! Unfortunately, my programming prohibits that I knowingly use human weapons for their intended purpose. I am a bartender after all, not a security drone."
"But you're basically a whole weapon by yourself?"
"That is… different, Phanya. Though part of me does desire to learn how to wield a weapon." Tapper noticed Salazar shudder and he hastily added, "To improve my capacity for defensively deterring brigands, of course."
The distinction didn't make a difference to Phanya, so she dropped the subject and Salazar didn't pick it back up. He shook his head and said, "Suit yourself. Last thing, unlike the Privateer you're only protected here if you're in good with the PSIkers. And I ain't, so someone needs to stay behind and watch the car. Whoever it is can give me back their wristband and I'll add whatever job we get."
"Oh that's easy, Ricky'll stay behind," Phanya said, and held a hand up before he could retort. "Don't even start. Salazar has his creepy gas mask, but the only way you can hope to blend in is if you leave your armor here. Or you can play with your new toys while you guard the jitney."
"...I'll guard the jitney."
"Exactly." Phanya ruffled Ricky's hair in the way she knew he hated, and dropped the stun baton in his lap as a peace offering. "Now let's hurry up and go pay some bounties."
The party worked their way through the de facto parking lot and joined a small crowd gathering just outside the tarmac bowl. Monks in brown robes blocked the footbridges, and as they approached one church official held their hands up for attention. Tapper idly noted that one hand only had three fingers while the other had seven, and as he spoke a second unseen person copied his words with just enough delay that required effort to hear over the crowd.
"I understand your desire to walk our hallowed halls, but please bear patience. The train approaches, and only those of the enlightened path are protected." As the official spoke, several monks in the same brown robes exited the church and climbed ladders affixed to its sides to stand on the roof. They all held their hands in the air and began to chant as one, and after zooming in for a better look Tapper gained context on why the church used loose brown robes as their uniform. Every person he could see was visibly mutated; Tapper noted tentacles, bug-like chitin, limbs with too many or too few joints, and bony protrusions that leaked pus in unnatural colors.
The latter distressed Tapper so much that he almost missed the train. He saw the familiar blue glint on the edge of his vision, and zoomed out just in time to watch it stop so suddenly that it looked instantaneous to the human eye. Blink, and the train appeared. The engine was long and round, with a pointed nose and a smaller version of the support rings around the midsection, pulling over two dozen train cars that were each also banded by their own small ring. It gleamed white, and overall looked deceptively mundane as it hovered in the exact middle of the canyon.
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But the rapid deceleration required an equally massive counterforce, and the support ring flared with more energy than Tapper had ever seen so far. Crackling blue fire rose up like a tsunami over the small village, only to crash against an invisible wall directly over the church and split harmlessly around the people and structures below. They even dispersed the sound to a dull thud, though Tapper saw dust and small detritus kick up in the background. More than one onlooker cheered at the display.
"And that's why the cultists get to run the place," Salazar said matter-of-factly as they waited for the crowd to start filing down the wooden bridges. Every person that wanted to cross the bridge needed to first pay a tithe to the church, and when they reached the front the same church official from before smiled at the party. Tapper noticed a second set of teeth growing on the man's neck, and he suddenly wished he did not understand why it sounded like two people were talking.
"Welcome to the Church of Phasic Enlightenment," the man said. Without the need to shout over a crowd, his second mouth almost matched his words and Tapper could almost ignore it. "We accept all major corporate cryptocurrencies from outsiders, but if you join the Church today then it will only cost one Phase Point for the group."
"Stow it, we're just here to work," Salazar grumbled, and pressed a credit chit to the reader in the announcer's seven-fingered hand. Phanya did the same, and the announcer looked pointedly at the robot.
"I am merely equipment!" Tapper happily explained, and the other two dragged him along before the church figure could say anything.
They entered the church at the ground floor of the observation deck, where people busied themselves at ticketing counters lining the walls. At the far end of the large room were another line of figures in brown robes, guarding wide sets of stairs leading up to the actual boarding area. Unlike the smiling representatives outside, these church members all openly carried weapons as they checked tickets. Salazar instead led Phanya and Tapper to the side, where a ticket counter had been converted to show a giant hologram of the Get-a-Gig mascot giving a thumbs-up. Everyone touched their wristbands to a terminal below the hologram, and Tapper felt the possibilities open up before him.
Salazar started scrolling jobs, but stopped and loudly sighed after only a moment. "Bot, why are you crowding me?" he asked, jostling Tapper off his shoulder.
"Because it's a quest board! Endless opportunities await for work and experience!" Tapper's excitement at the prospect of no longer waiting for quests to appear overrode his social decorum programming, and he reached over Salazar's shoulder to poke at the screen. His excitement didn't last long. "Mister Salazar, every one of these jobs appear to be crimes."
Phanya had been watching the crowd behind them, an odd mix of haggard passengers hurrying to catch the train and armed mercenaries slowly stalking around like predators, but turned to peer at the screen over their heads. "Mug this guy, revenge mug another guy on the first guy's behalf, shake down that market stall, steal a shipment when it changes trains…"
"I told you, that's the nature of runs. They're for gray market mercenary outsourcing and deniable asset jobs, where if you get caught then the guys posting the job don't get in trouble. That's the whole point, the risk for the pay."
"I do not wish to willingly engage in illegal activity, Mister Salazar."
"It's not illegal if you don't get caught. Look, this is what we have to work with, you won't find jobs asking to save a kitten or pick corn for actual money."
Tapper kept scrolling while they talked, and his eyebrows started wiggling when he neared the bottom of the list. "On the contrary, there is a job here for the cornfield."
Salazar did a double-take and slapped Tapper's hand out of the way so he could read the screen. "'Wanted: Night shift corn tenders. Hours: Sunset 'til sunrise. Pay: §1 per meter of cobwood, §5 per ear of corn. Bonus for special ears, see Phase Initiate Hadder for details.' They're paying that much for corn?" He sidestepped the terminal to the counter, where a monk sat with their head bowed in prayer. Salazar rapped his knuckles on the counter and the monk jerked to attention, trying and failing to conceal a pair of virtual reality goggles under their hood.
Their baggy robe concealed most details, but Tapper easily read the anxiety as their large and mismatched eyes — one a bright blue, the other yellow with a slit-shaped pupil — darted everywhere until they realized they weren't in trouble. "Ah yes ahem, my apologies. How can the Phase enlighten you today?" The monk's stature looked like a child sitting behind the counter but they spoke with an adult feminine voice, so Tapper's customer protocols concluded that she must be a young amalgam woman.
"The corn job. Those prices really aren't a typo? Why's it just for nighttime?" Salazar asked, his tone short and curt.
"Prices are set by whoever posted the job, and influenced by market demand. Mostly that… no one in the Church wants to pick corn at night." Her eyes shifted away as she spoke, and Tapper felt a tickle in his sense of Adventure. The monk's evasiveness added an essence of intrigue, and he wanted to find out why.
"We'll take it!"
"We could've just taken a few shakedown jobs and been done with this," Salazar grumbled again.
"It is not befitting a hero to attack others without provocation or justification," Tapper argued back. "Though I am slightly disappointed that the job was not a proper quest."
"The job being a job is the justification! And why do you keep calling them quests?"
"Well, I agree with Tapper," Phanya said. She had been walking ahead while the other two bickered, but jumped into the conversation before Tapper could pick up with his strange Adventurer talk. "I wouldn't mind those other jobs if we knew they actually deserved it, but we're already so dang late that waiting a few hours won't kill us."
Once they reached the jitney Phanya casually spun around and slammed the side of her fist against the side of their vehicle with a resounding bang. Everyone heard a muffled yelp from within, which became clear swearing when Phanya slid open the side door. "Motherf… damnit, Phanya!"
"Knock knock! You wouldn't be surprised if you were paying attention!" Phanya laughed, taunting Ricky with a sing-song voice. He halfheartedly threw a small gear at her, and Phanya explained the corn job to Ricky.
"Oh, well. That makes sense. Good on you for making an executive decision Tapper, you're really adjusting to the whole 'free will' thing."
Salazar muttered his misgivings about rogue AIs under his breath, and Tapper ignored him. "Thank you, Ricky! And that brings to mind something that I have desired to do all day." Tapper sat down at the computer desk, only fell out of the chair once, and with a flourish pressed the '2' button on the keyboard.
"Wait what did you do!?" Ricky asked, shoving Tapper out of the way so he could see the terminal.
"Executive decision!" Tapper happily answered from the floor.
[Level 4 Upgrade: Add-on Additive
Now with a fresh mint on the pillow. Any one installed add-on can receive a free quality upgrade, with all associated bonuses. Bonus scales with initial quality rating. Requires a full action to change designated add-on, and can only be performed outside of combat.]
[Please choose an add-on to apply bonus:]
Salazar eyed the commotion as he got settled in the front. "I'm surprised the bot didn't choose Big Red. Sounds more like your brand of chaos," he chuckled to himself.
Ricky didn't share the humor. "Oh damnit, Tapper. We could've just waited until tomorrow, not like we need the car for anything else until then."
"Counterpoint: It takes time to learn new abilities, and not choosing an upgrade is leaving money on the table," Tapper explained as he stood up. "Also Mister Salazar, I am programmed with hospitality and service in mind. With that in mind Ricky, could you please try to apply the upgrade to the Comfort Suite add-on?"
Ricky still sulked about the missed opportunity, but he couldn't deny his own curiosity and he tried a few computer commands. After a moment something clicked and the various components of the small living section all started to shift at once, clacking in and out of their stored positions as they changed shape. A shower curtain dropped around the new toilet/shower combo hygiene station before rolling back up to the ceiling; a heating element grew on the counter top as the water tank grew more sophisticated; the cot flipped over itself, and when it settled the bedding looked fluffed and freshly washed.
[Add-on: Comfort Suite (Mk I+)
+ Bonus: Improved water quality, free hygiene privacy, hidden hotplate, cot gives Rested buff after baseline 8 hours]
Unfortunately, the cot did not spawn a mint on its pillow.
No one moved after the jitney stilled, afraid that a drawer might snap at their fingers. Eventually Phanya reached over to fill a cup with water from the faucet, sniffed it, and took a sip. "Hey, it doesn't taste like filtered piss now!" She cheered Tapper with the cup and drained the rest.
"Yeah, I guess it's pretty cool," Ricky groused, and Tapper gave his friend a second look. Had his expression of free will overstepped a social boundary in an unfriendly way?
"Excuse me Ricky, would you like to step out and stretch your legs? Salazar can watch the jitney and we'll all stay within sight, so you can leave the armor behind. We can even test out our Dexterity like you've been wanting." Tapper wiggled his eyebrows conspiratorially, and Ricky's eyes lit with comprehension.
"Oh heck yeah. Come on, Phanya!" Ricky grabbed Phanya by the wrist and pulled her back out of the car, ignoring her protests about getting to try out the new bed.
Salazar watched them leave without a word. The exhaustion of the past few days caught up to him in a wave, before he could comprehend the weirdness of watching his living quarters mutate right before his eyes, and he stretched with a great yawn instead.
"Finally, some peace and quiet."