Cyber Viking 3

by Marcus Sloss

  “Getting everyone on the same communications page. I want these trees, the Goliaths can move them I would wager,” I said seeing Everly gasp in joy only to frown.

  “Eric, I love you and this would make me the happiest crixxi alive. There are two big downsides. You will get less mingling of species. Crixxi, fairies, and pandarin would stay in trees all the time. Humans and mounamine would be on the ground. It would split our intermingling which could lead to problems. The other is these funds could go to other purchases. The trees are not expensive but we have neilspar that could go to the next rotations dropships or sluggeros. Both of those are very expensive. You get my point?”

  I nodded with a smile, “I am going to be driving over to you in a bit. I want to experience a TG99 myself. Buy the big order of crixxi and save the rest. The trees will help with our new housing problem, make our residents happy, and apply a great new layer of defense an enemy will have to fight through.”

  “While I love the idea, I had to say the downsides,” Everly said, retreating to continue her work.

  “Sounds just like Jevon with that one,” Perci said with a smirk. “See you soon my love. Enjoy the ride, not too much with those sassy fairies. I will lay some kickass down if they get out of line.”

  I burst into a long laughter. “See you soon babe, Cap out.” When I closed the connection Willow was holding my silicone.

  “Nancy is getting the Gpads. Slide your arm in. And done. What armor set are you getting?” Willow asked with her lovely blue eyes trying to tempt me to reveal my secrets.

  I dipped back into the acrium to swirl in tandem with a multitude of creatures.

  The infinite voices moaned with relief. A gentle tone said, “Ah better, thank you for adjusting. We are symbiotic in a far different way than the virum. You will need to return us to our home within a day to start. Our levels are not buoyant enough to drift beyond that.”

  “I am trying to comprehend something. The translator may be having issues. Are you not healthy? Or can you be healthier?”

  “Your Mclain bought us what we need to fatten up is a term you might use. We are not skinny, merely not bloated with extra, or ready to split. Some of us will die taking damage, or die as a whole. We understand the nature of the universe and do our part to protect the hive at home. Eventually, Mclain said we would be housed somewhere safer than under a simple roof,” the voices said and I smiled.

  “Why do I not need to breathe?”

  The human nondescript shape blew bubbles. “We cycle air down to your lungs. In the water, we will rip oxygen out of the water and into your lungs. Forming a bond with the hive is amazing for you more than us. We merely cannot survive on most planets alone. Our needs require assistance that we rarely are provided for outside of situations like these.”

  “Ah, I am starting to understand it is important to keep you happy, I am glad Mclain purchased your base needs. Are you unhappy we have separated the vats?” I asked with concern.

  “That makes us happy. Are you ready to co-join?” the acrium voices asked. “We sense that you are, what coloration and configuration would you like? We cannot read minds, but we can sense desires.”

  I wanted to match Nancy, I liked the blue and white armor. I was not trying to be a ninja. My body would always be behind some armor and shielding. Stealth was less important to me than line troops. I also needed to prove a point. Bastion was my realm. I was the commander here, the humans may respect that but to the new arrivals, I was an unknown.

  I felt a shell encasing my body, the area around my skin swirling as the creatures flowed around my body to form their unique armor. Within a few seconds, they were done. I saw my reflection in the acrylic.

  I had a crown of pointed teeth atop my covered head. My face was a bright white with clear eye covers revealing my brown eyes. The edging of my armor had a dark blue regal appearance to break up the white armor. My muscles were well defined and I should wear a kilt at the very least to cover my detailed penis. I spun to see my back but the reflection twisted. I was very content.

  “Can you talk to me outside of the vat?” I asked.

  “Certainly, we will not do so unless something is dire or situationally requires our input. We enjoy this transition to view the universe as others do, we start our silence now,” the voices said fading into quiet.

  I exited the vat on a standing platform. Not a single spec of green goop joined me outside the tank. I stood above the vat on the stairs glancing around. My vision had a slight reduction. Nothing too major but there was a minor difference. Nothing an optic system couldn’t correct.

  Nancy exited RV3 in a light blue summer dress with flowers on it. She looked stunning. Her face was exposed with only a bulge on her right thigh telling me she had a small side arm. This is what she wanted, to be a loved woman in a caring home.

  I was not sure how she got a dress made for the right dimensions with the acrium attached, but she had. I smiled down at my converted housewife. Now she was a sight to behold, a fitting queen. Impending motherhood only made her eyes sparkle brighter.

  “She pulls it off perfectly,” Willow said, offering me a set of double extra-large jungle fatigues. These would work for now. Willow’s eyes flickered to Nancy as she said, “Hey, where are you going?”

  Nancy jumped back into the goop before she answered. She returned with a matching crown just smaller than mine. Willow huffed and I flung her in when she put arms up like a child. I giggled at the silliness.

  “Sammie, is there another mounamine you defer to?” I asked.

  “That is not how we obey Master,” Sammie replied with eyes cast to the ground. “If you nominate one of us as a leader we fill that role. Perci said I was the cutest so I was the leader.”

  “Well, she was right about that. When you talk to me, as long as you are not being scolded, it will be with eyes facing me. Follow me,” I said, walking over to the gearing stations.

  Nancy raced ahead of me to the weapons rack and said, “These are your replacements. I understand a flood, and a divine-ape is hard to prepare for, so I bought custom straps. They are empowered connectors. No more having a strap breaks and your weapons are lost. There is a homing tracker and set of jets fire on to return your weapon to you. Okay, maybe a flood will still win, but this is a start. Simply slap the weapon on your body and it will stay their syphoning power off your generator.”

  Two mounamine used stools to attach my nitrogen generator. A cable snaked to my arm’s power source and there was a crackle when they connected. Pucks were strategically placed over my armor by delicate hands. I caught sight of a balled bun over the one mounamine’s rear. They hid their tails, I wondered why. When they mousy ladies finished I fired up the shield for a test. Blue hexagons flared to life telling me I had complete coverage.

  “The next two weapons are new. This is a pebblenator on steroids. One of these will go into every tank once we get a rack built,” Nancy said handing me the weapon. The weight was different from the regular version. Almost three times heavier. My muscle mass handled the heftier version without problems. Even before my enhancement I could ruck with this weapon; it was about the same as an old M249. “I know, a wise purchase against a select few foes. Just know that the sniper rifle firing nitrogen orbs will shatter a shield before this will.”

  I nodded in understanding. My side-eye caught Willow exiting the vat with a small crown too. The weapon butted into my shoulder and I aimed at the cliff. It felt great. “Next.”

  “This is the mini gun, we have enough for one in every TG99. They are shield poppers. They also weigh fifty pounds so they are not meant for long term fighting. Use it until it spools off, set aside until recharged, and then use again,” Nancy said, hoisting the weapon with a grunt.

  Willow grabbed the six cannoned monstrosity. It was over eight feet long and the back two feet was a boxy generator. Teal lighting showed the weapon was active and rearing to unleash hell.

  Willow was getting a feel for how to level it
when Nancy said, “However, we tested this against a large shield generator. About a dozen seconds of sustained damage and rounds arched through.”

  I was handed the nitrogen machine gun. My empowered arm hefted the weight with ease. My human arm guided the weapon as I aimed up high at the cliff wall. I saw no point in flagging people.

  A mounamine secured my new big sploosha to my left side and Nancy picked the nitrogen sniper for my right side. Willow accepted the rapid firing nitrogen weapon back and Nancy snatched the buffed peeblenator. We were ready to go to war. Except I was going shopping. Again. Ugh. I would have fun first with the new tank at least.

  “Okay we're going in that TG99 right there to buy some mounamine specific food for two weeks and some trees,” I said to the group.

  Longoria raised a hand and I nodded. “I would also like specific food for my kind. We can get enough to last a long time for very cheap. I would rather have ninety nine trees. Make it ninety, and then some proper wing dryers, and glowing fish for our pond. Oh, and specialty fabric that stretches with our wings.”

  I tuned her out walking for the gravity-defying tank, she would do the shopping not me. Felix was messing with a tank three over from the one I pointed at so I adjusted my path.

  “Felix, you putting nitrogen generators on?” I asked a somewhat rhetorical question.

  “Yeah, the helium ones are meh at best. This will give you additional tree jumping abilities. Take that one, she is ready with five instead of three. We overbought on generators, if there is such a thing. Our tanks will pack far more punch than before. Oh and Cap,” Felix said and I rolled my wrist forward for him to continue. “The XO ordered no shooting inside either strongholds. Also no more blasting trees in the area, apparently some humans got a bit trigger happy. If we clear our natural barriers it means a quicker route for the enemy to reach us.”

  “Thanks Felix, those are great ideas,” I said, searching for the opening command on the tank.

  Willow passed me by to place her palm on the side of the tank. A doorway whooshed open revealing a large bleak interior. A set of stairs folded out of the side that I gingerly walked up. They looked so fragile and I felt so big while fully geared. My mind grumbled when I realized this removed sex off the table for me until I visited a vat.

  My entry into the tank was uneventful. There were only a few things in this tank. A control podium built for two, and then two side gunner stations. There was a final spot for a rear gunner but we did not have turrets up there yet and the main gun swiveled three sixty.

  The podium adjusted to my height as I approached. Willow slotted into the right side of the station a gunner display opened for her. Well, there was no Goldie at least. The interface was a series of clear screens that adjusted to our heights. I dialed into our Gnet and populated a map. I saw Marble heights not far from where we were. I selected the screen for that location and was given a prompt. I confirmed my selection with autopilot as an option.

  I turned to my guests as the side door closed. The tank slid into motion with the slightest of jerks.

  “Normally you will not be leaving the Strongholds unless it is golden gate time or the situation is unique. Even so, having you protected in some form of even basic armor will be addressed down the line,” I said, gesturing to their exposed forms. At least Sammie was wearing leather with padding. Sure inside they could be sexy, but when there was a chance of hostility a bathing suit was not armor even if video games in the past said it was. They would get proper gear eventually. “In our history we have stories of the ordinary rising to the occasion and becoming extraordinary. While I am not saying that is what I expect. A lower mortality rate in exchange for an almost limitless supply of zinc in these mountains is a fair trade.”

  Sammie raised her hand. “We are not great fighters but we go to great lengths to protect our young. Queen Perci briefed us as a group that we were allowed to… impregnate,” Sammie said while looking at my hips. I guessed that was better than the ground. “Well, except your personal servants. My point is, I like your idea to give us the chance to protect our young even if they are not mine personally. I may not be a great fighter or extremely courageous, but I will try to buy others time if it saves them.”

  I gently laid a hand on Sammie's shoulder expecting her to flinch. She nestled into my touch instead. Awe, I rubbed behind her ear infatuated by her response.

  “That my little Sammie is the definition of courageous. We will get settled for this season, do a whole lot of looting and do another max buy next rotation. For the community,” I said and Nancy stepped forward to scratch her other ear. Sammie tilted off my fingers and swapped to Nancy’s affection.

  “When he says for the community, he means everyone,” Willow said lovingly.

  Nancy scoffed and input, “Shit, he is a Viking King, I tell him to crush his foes and enslave their women and he gets all soft. I guess he has us to lay down the law. Right Seteria?”

  “I am being spoken to so I can speak. I find this process fascinating. I expected to be a sex toy before I killed myself from the torment. If what I am hearing is true, we will get a home just as grand as Mai `Shin, and with time, not shun the portals but embrace them. That is something I would eagerly wish to build,” Seteria said folding her arms and propping her breasts up.

  “Oh, um. I am a biologist, are you fairies using baby control?” Nancy asked.

  “The virum does not rev up our sex drive like it used to. We kept losing infants as we ran out of space. Infants and the murder rate spikes so dominate females could have more young. The virum changed the way we reproduced. They dictated when we would ovulate to keep our species alive. The more dominant females had priority and only when there was space,” Nilvia said in a soft tone. Her assertive nature was gone. I would wager the second they moved into trees they would start scraping again. “We will probably start going into desires soon.”

  “You will, most definitely,” Longoria said with her hands on her hips. “I have raised over a hundred generations. Most of them moved onto new homes to build new strongholds or join other communities. When our previous master ran out of zinc funds we were isolated and became sick. The dozen of us with children lost them unfortunately. Hence why our contracts have a daily amount of zinc in them now and why we sold so cheap for an all-female unit. Our previous masters felt terrible. I am already licking my lips wanting to get a belly full of young again. The virum, when empowered to reproduce, has a sway on your libido.”

  “Um… King Eric. If there is a control I recommend the option being -”

  “We can try, I can make no promises,” I said, killing the line of thought.

  Nancy turned on her bedside manner and launched into the whole ordeal of stones.

  I turned my attention back to the tank. We had hovered out of the furthest southern gate that was rapidly ascending in construction. A left onto the county road had us traveling over sixty MPH. Damn these generators had a lot of power.

  “Hold on, not sure if there are dampeners. Conducting some maneuvers,” I said and the reply was unanimous in a complaint there was nothing to hold. “Well, if you get hurt you will heal. I may toss you out if it gets bad.”

  Glancing over my back I muttered, “Put a couch in here or something.”

  I turned the TG99 for the retention pond off to our right. I applied a vertical jump that was immediate with minimal effect of inertia. How the technology defied the laws of physics was unknown but it explained why there were no chairs in this vehicle. We were fifty feet over the ground when our height stabilized. We crested over the pond with ease. I checked our generator power bar and we were dropping at a manageable rate. I reverted our height to twenty feet and the rate of consumption almost stabilized. I returned us to the road and at ten feet we were good to hover forever.

  I input a note into the command net.

  ‘3 nitrogen generations, TG99 - 0-10’ AGL ∞’ Cap

  With that done I pushed the speed to the max. Wow, one twenty in a t
ank. I wondered what six generators would do. I smirked at my thought. Of course, going faster than a governed sports car was not enough. Men always wanted their toys to do more.

  We sped by Marble Heights. I stopped all forward acceleration, spun the tank, and reapplied acceleration. This time there was a jerking motion that the dampers struggled to combat. The group behind me stumbled by stayed upright. We had just gone from a hundred to zero and back up to a hundred in five seconds. That was a metric ton of inertia to combat.

  I repeated the process with less input to glide us into Marble Heights.

  “Slowing, charge reaching maximum. Fire full power into the indicated home,” I said, selecting the home Perci bought for us.

  “Firing,” Nancy said and the entire tank shot sideways from the port facing turret ejecting a beach ball sized orb of teal.

  The projectile ballooned in size to the point it grew too big and chewed into the ground. The round was still devastating to the home as it was splintered into bits if not outright melted. But I wanted more efficiency. I picked us up to ten feet while the generators recharged our core container. When it hit full I drove us forward.

  “Target selected, fire a single fifty percent shot left side, then fifty right side of home. Engage,” I commanded.

  I input a drift toward the target on the same angle as the turret.

  A ball of power belched forward with a sizzling display of illumination. The round grew into the size of a car by the time it ripped apart the left side of the home. The second round was already in the air when I spun us for the Xgate. The rear cameras showed complete and utter destruction of the target home.

  “I think I am in love,” I muttered.

  “Yeah, this thing makes a girl weak in the knees,” Willow said with a long whistle.

  I left the control station and said, “You have command, Willow. Take us to Perci, the shortest route.”

  I left her side to mingle and learn more about our newest community members. I knew deep down, making them feel integral and showing them I cared would pay dividends. I had to admit. I was also kind of excited to get some monster trees. The crixxi towers were awful and an eyesore.