章 28: High life

[GCV-44 welcome to crown landing, as we have confirmed you to carry weapons please submit to voluntary weapon lock, failure to do so will lead to your destruction.]

"Crown landing this is GCV-44 complying with your last, looking forward to spending a lot of credits here, we need to do some mods, so please assign an appropriate pad for us."

[Affirmative, GCV-44 you have been assigned to pad 99A in complex 7. Happy shopping.]

As landing control cut off communication, Miked turned to River.

"This place is a playground for the top 0.1% of the 1%, most of the people here are born into wealth they have no hope of ever spending and egos so inflated that there's no reasoning with them, if we fuck with them we need to leave behind a sea of corpses to get out of this place."

"Right, so we don't fuck with the spoiled rich kids, got it."

While the outside of the Wyrm's shield started to heat up due to reentry heating, Jessica's mind was preoccupied weighing her options. Mike was clearly insane, that much was certain, and while River seemed reasonable enough from the little they had been talking, everything about the duo that had picked her up was unpredictable.

(Mike mentioned this was a capital world we would be visiting, in that case, there will be plenty of opportunities to strike out on my own… The real question is if they'll let me, fighting River will be tough, but possible as long as I have surprise on my side…)

Although quite far in her planning, Jessica was working off of some fairly massive misconceptions and flaws, chief among those was assuming this world she had somehow ended up in was anything like her own just because River and Mike somewhat looked like her. The first sign things weren't as Jessica expected came when the Wyrm finally broke through the cloud layer and Mike started his approach to land, although the planet had seemed somewhat normal from orbit, close up it told a very different story.

"... What the hell is that? Is that perhaps the palace?"

While the high-density 10-kilometre tall administrative skyscrapers had been partially visible from low orbit, Jessica found herself unable to figure out why one of them had been painted in gold and outfitted with what seemed to be massive displays running along its 6 kilometre wide sides displaying some sort of code of arms.

"That? I don't think so, it's not opulent enough, so it is properly just the home of a ducal family or a barron that wants to show off… That over there is more like it, but that's just the mall we'll be hitting up to get you a firearm."

Taking Jessica's attention away from the slightly tacky office building, Mike pointed to a massive 25 square kilometre, flower-shaped building which looked sort of like a white rose blooming due to the building materials being mostly marble adorned with gold inserts and detailing that was mostly overshadowed by the complicated, building-wide 3-dimensional projector system which made the 'rose' appear to be blooming in the middle of a field while changing its colour every few seconds and sometimes even making it appear transparent.

"... Well, nothing screams 'we serve real pieces of shit' quite like that so I think that is the place."

Having also noticed where Mike was pointing, River spent no time voicing her destain for the building. Touching down near one of the landing complexes consisting of multiple multi-tier landing pads and runways surrounding a single, massive traffic control tower outfitted with multiple 640 mill railguns able to hit things all the way in orbit. As the Wyrm touched down on its designated pad, its landing gear was locked in place and the landing pad itself moved like an elevator into an underground hangar.

"Okay, helmet on unless we're inside a store, bring your PDW, Jessica will take your smart rifle since mine is still fried from that EMP."

"Roger."

Having instructed River on the playbook, Mike turned to Jessica and handed her the rifle River had used when they broke out of the guild at Lex heavy industries' station.

"This is a coil rifle, the fire control system should link into your suit's systems, squeeze once to tag targets, squeeze again while bringing a tagged target into your sights to transform a head into red mist."

Seeing Jessica's confusion after being handed a loaded weapon, Mike put on a knowing smile.

"River is whitelisted in the fire control system so you can't shoot her, I'm not but if you shoot me I imagine River is going to skin you alive. Keep your helmet on and communication to a minimum."

"... Right."

Putting on her helmet after Mike, Jessica followed Mike and River out into a sea of traders and travellers flocking in and out of terminals, massive elevators, and cargo of all shapes and sizes. Amazed by the sheer number of travellers it wasn't long before Jessica found herself along with Mike and River inside a mag rail pod headed to their first destination.

"Are we really getting me a firearm?"

Still not understanding why Mike would go out of his way to arm Jessica who was likely to backstab him, it was only the beastkin's gratitude to her saviour that made her finally voice those concerns.

"Yeah, we're getting you a backup, but after shopping for upgrades."

"A backup?"

Briefly explaining the function of a backup weapon to Jessica, the group arrived at their first destination, one of the countless stations inside the rose-shaped super mall. While there was hardly as much foot traffic inside the mall as the station under the landing zones, the type of foot traffic inside the mall was vastly different.

Instead of flight suits of varying quality and practical travel wear like Jessica had been used to. Needless to say from an Empire that rewards its upper echelons with genetic enhancements, each specimen looked like they had been sculpted by Greek gods of old; sadly they also seemed to share many of the sentiments of those old gods. The few that were gracious enough to even look at the lowlifes that had so rudely invaded their territory only responded with distrain, holding their own noses as they made sure not to go anywhere near the dirty group of mercenaries.

"This is actually a warmer reception than I expected… Here we are, a shop licensed to outfit Wyrm's, one of the few places we can get parts for our ship."

Updating then dragging Jessica into the store before she could cause any problems, Mike at least didn't have to worry about River as she was just as disinterested in the rich nobles as they were in her.

While the inside of the store looked like a mix of a bank and an insurance firm with different employees having their own desks spread out throughout the store, the firm had apparently thought it a good idea to have a full-scale single-seat Fennec-X11 racer (a spaceplane Mike would describe as more thrusters than actual plane) on display as a centrepiece which immediately caught Mike's attention.

"Ooh, mercenaries, how rare~ Come come, I'll take good care of you over here."

Getting called over by a clerk, River was initially surprised by the clerk's entirely pink suit, but as Mike had no reaction other than taking off his helmet she figured this much was normal.

"Hey, I'm here to outfit my Wyrm."

Placing his hand on the desk, Mike transferred data on the Wyrm to the clerk, and the information immediately showed up on an implant on top of his iris.

"Oh wow, she sure is a beast~ Railguns, launchers and a beefy drone controller too? What else could you possibly need, a hot tub? No, you already have one of those, you got me at a loss honey."

"I need some long endurance ability, a scoop and perhaps some targeting upgrades for nukes."

"So more teeth and some better legs, I had a feeling when you three walked in but I really do like you already."

Tapping on his marble desktop, the clerk made a holographic display and keyboard appear before he started typing away at lightning speed.

"So looking at what we have available I'm going to have to apologise about the teeth for your beast, the fire control system is already at spec of what we have but I'll throw in a new firmware update for the better sight stabilisation and acquisition… As for scoops we have passive and active versions for use with all compatible star types so it is up to your personal preference honey."

Turning to River and getting a shrug in response, Mike was left to figure out what to choose on his own. Active fuel scoops worked by actively collecting fuel elements from a star's upper atmosphere, the advantage of an active approach was a quick refuelling cycle allowing rapid travel, but as it needed to be mounted at the front of the Wyrm it would necessitate removing some armour segments to make room for it, furthermore, the extremely high operating temperature meant a relatively short life cycle.

A passive fuel scoop on the other hand worked by passively absorbing solar wind at a longer range by unfurling a several kilometre wide net-like structure and slowly collecting fuel particulates being radiated outwards. Obviously, such a manoeuvre would leave the Wyrm open to attack as it couldn't move around too fast without ripping off the delicate structure, but on the other hand, it was a simple process and it would even be cheap to graft holes.

"Let's go with a passive one then, do you have anything in stock that can handle a bit of constant rotation?"

"Sure, this is my personal recommendation, it should work great with your current outfit… All in all, this is our quote for the entire pre-honeymoon manicure, we can have it done and validated in 36 hours."

Presenting Mike an overview of everything that needed to be done to handle the installation of the passive fuel scoop, firmware update and repaint totalling 2.5 million credits, the clerk made sure to hint at the option to add a tip.

"Say, do you know any place where they sell firearms? The functional type with minimal glamour."

Figuring he might as well ask as he added a 3% tip, Mike failed to notice that River had started getting annoyed with the clerk ever since he had called their trip a 'honeymoon'.

"Bit of an odd choice for a wedding present but there's a few, let me-"

"Nobody here is getting married! Now get a move on, both of you!"

Slamming both her hands down on the countertop with a considerable amount of force, River's outrage succeeded in both getting a slightly hushed 'oh my~' from the clerk along with everybody's attention inside the store, an amount of attention which quickly made River turn and leave the store with Jessica in tow.

"I am so sorry about that."

Adding another few percent points on the tip, Mike quickly completed the transaction as the clerk transferred the location of a few stores he recommended.

"Be careful with that kitten, she sure has some claws in her."

Putting a hand over his mouth as he offered a final remark, the clerk made Mike offer a wry smile as he explained.

"You misunderstand, that's the best part by far… She's so hot I can't even."

"In that case, I wish you good luck. Please come visit me again sometime with an update~"

Finding the shop the clerk had recommended, Mike, River and Jessica entered to find it all but empty except for a sales android on standby behind its own counter.

"Could be worse I guess…"

While the inside of the shop seemed as luxurious as the rest of the mall, with firearms that seemed more like works of art than actual weapons, there were a few items in stock Mike would at least classify as 'usable'.

"Right, there are two sidearms that classify as fully mechanical backups. Out of these two, which do you prefer?"

Showing Jessica a semi-automatic, low calibre handgun with a high capacity quad stack magazine and a revolver style high calibre hand cannon, Mike quickly saw her confusion and decided to explain a bit further.

"This Damian DC-15 has a lot of rounds in the magazine and low recoil, it can perform well against armoured threats, but the post penetration performance isn't the best. The Griffon X-97 has low capacity and is slow to reload but more than well makes up for that with performance, extremely high penetration that is outside the realm of anti-personnel and almost enters anti-material category."

Taking a second to consider, Jessica picked up the revolver and tried out the grip before checking the iron sights and giving a nod.

"I would like to try shooting it first, but it feels great so far."

While Jessica's plan had been to get away from Mike as soon as she had armed herself, that plan quickly got put on hold as she entered the store's attached firing range along with River and Mike to find it occupied by a group of young nobles doing drugs and drinking while the shot at the targets without any sort of discipline.

"Hey, this place isn't for lowlifes, fuck off!"

Immediately getting a loaded gun pointed in his face, Mike reacted on instinct as the youth started pulling on the trigger and disarmed the youth with a quick jab to the face before taking his jewel covered hand cannon away from him.

"Gha!- You fucker!"

Pointing his newly obtained weapon as well as his own pistol at the offending party, Mike quickly found himself in a standoff he could neither lose, nor afford to win.

(Well, shit…)