I told Sunny how to get to the shop, and in no time we rolled up to a small shop stuck between a budget e-mag refill store and a homegoods ‘emporium,’ whatever homegoods were. I jumped off Sunny’s back, happy to be on stable ground again and watched as Sunny hunched down enough to roll into the establishment. The place had 10 tables and only one was free at this early lunch hour. I quickly walked over to it and moved the chair so Sunny could claim the spot. “I will get our order in and be right back.”

  The chef was the only employee most days, he cooked at the counter facing the tables, he had to stand on a special bench to accommodate his height for the cooking equipment. He was a typical Deren, about one meter tall, looking nothing more than a rabbit, with shorter ears, and smooth skin instead of fur. Where humans and Neamans had hair, the Deren grew out their fur. It was weird but I am sure we were weird looking to them as well.

  He yelled when orders were ready in broken Spanglish, and took cash when he had a free moment. I mean who uses koins when everyone has digital creds handy? But it was worth it. And the Black Market◆ did like to use hard kurrency too. He only had four dishes, a yellow soup that I had never tried and then three vegetable stir-fries, they were all very good. The first was a salty sour dish with crunchy translucent tubers and neon green chunks. The second was a sweet and savory brown dish with white and orange chunks, and finally he had heaven on a plate. His last dish was very spicy, but it managed to balance heat and layered flavors that I have never found the words to describe.

  >>Sorry, Big Fe but you would never have the chance to enjoy this simple pleasure. >>

  I ordered two of the dishes when the chef had a moment to look at me. He nodded at me and continued his well honed routine. I think it was a he, but I wasn't too sure on that either. They seemed to be a diverse race from warriors to poets, to warrior poets and cooks. They did like their chemistry and had amazing pharmaceuticals as well as ‘pharmaceuticals’ and medical supplies. Or so I heard growing up. Perhaps that is why he was such an amazing cook?

  The local Deren community in Neu Ca?on was close knit but appreciated the peace and security the city brought, even if they liked to frequently sunbathe nude. With that thought in mind, I turned and went back to the table with Sunny.

  I slid into my chair as Sunny was watching the chef prepare our meals. “Sunny, I forgot to ask, but could Alexandria help with some items I need for the ‘borg-synths. I want to get enough armor for all the back up synths and increase the protection for the Squad Leaders.”

  Sunny replied, “Sure, I will send her a message. Let me know what you want.”

  I quickly sent a shopping list via my head-comp.

  Borg shopping list:

  UAI-r2 Heavy Infantry cyborg armor x2,

  UAI-r4 Medium Infantry cyborg armor x2,

  and UAI-r1a Light Infantry cyborg armor x20.

  Quality but generic cybernetic arms & hands x5, legs & feet x5, and chest/ torso x5.

  For the limbs, I really don't know if Under All Inc? is worth the price versus BADS (Badische Anilin Dow Sinopec) ^AG ?, or even Power Construction Corp ? industrial cybernetics, jeez even the fancy Hospitalaria Deren Corpo ? stuff. Oh and I guess BDwerks? makes decent stuff, didn't you design a lot of it?

  “Gabby, order up.” The chef called out. Without a second thought I sent the message to Alex.

  Wow, how did he remember me? I guess dad and I did eat here regularly. Sunny had parked himself with his back to the wall, so it wasn't easy for him to leave. I jumped up and grabbed our plates of food. The plates were made out of a dark wood, and the spoons were weirdly flat, almost spatulas, but the food smelled incredible. I grabbed both our bowls of food and the side dish as well. The chef offered noodles, mashed something, or rice. I always got the rice, and Sunny had requested the noodles. I grabbed our tray and returned to the table.

  The bowls had steam rising from them as Sunny and I both breathed in. The light yellow sauce covered a rainbow of various julienned vegetables. It was an amazing balance of texture, spiciness, sweet and savory. We both ate in complete silence. After I had finished, Sunny let out a groan, “I ate too much, but I couldn't stop. I don't need to eat for a week with that much food.” I am not sure if that is an upside or a downside to a cyborg conversion. Most of the time I didn't want to think about food and meals but then I have a dish like this, or when dad and I would cook or eat out, makes me second guess my priorities, for a moment at least. Molly’s cooking was more than alright too.

  I placed our dishes in the return bin and quickly dropped a few Koins in the box on the counter. I brushed my finger over the reader and was able to hack it to hide the double charge that I left. I couldn't change the values easily, just the order match to hide my good deed. The food was ridiculously reasonably priced and he didn't take tips. But I solved that with a quick telemechanic probe and a conversation with the dumb koin reader terminal, it approved four entree dishes and we were on our way. I guess who hacks a system to pay more?

  Being part of the underground Black Market◆, our employers loved the cloak and dagger approach. We needed to go to a bar, signal the staff there, say the key words, and then be told the rendezvous point. I mean we could just walk into the head Black Market◆ guy’s office in Neu Ca?on, I know where it is, but noooo, got to follow their rules. Well as long as it’s their money, it’s their rules. I hopped back up on Sunny’s back and he rolled toward one of several dive bars located in the merchant district. Which, I have to say, are an order of magnitude cleaner, nicer, and safer than the dive bars in the Independent district. The Double Barrel Saloon was a corner building across the street from the two story mega-sized BDwerks? storefront. Real subtle. Down the street was the major shopping district. This area was a maze of shops, stalls and boutiques that sold everything from potions to plasma pulse rifles, and everything in between.

  As we rolled up to the saloon I jumped off and walked in first, Sunny rolling quickly, right behind me. Luckily the architecture in most modern cities had ramps and reinforced floors and furniture for most every store or location. And given the variety of strengths, sizes, and temperaments of the clientele, it only made sense. The Double Barrel Saloon was dimly lit inside with a dozen tables in the front, and a long bar along the back. A pool table, shuffleboard and dartboards ringed the right hand side of the place. So it pretty much looked like every bar that I went into, which to be fair, as a teenager, wasn't that many.

  I saw the male owner Brody and female bartender Maxine at the bar. I am betting that they had a story, I didn't know it. The place was pretty dead, but given that it just opened, I am sure it would change. I grabbed a table against the left wall and placed my hands under the table,I gave the sign for contact needed, but I am sure Maxine would have accosted me anyway. See Brody was a retired merc, and he owned the place. But he didn't run it, his two employees, Maxine and Sam were active in the Black Market◆ and they had just muscled in one day and took over operations. I felt bad for Brody but clearly he couldn't keep up, or had a debt that he didn't deal with. After what felt like too long, but was probably five minutes, Maxine came over.

  “Hey frens. What can I get ya.” She said with a vapid smile that didn't quite reach her eyes. “I would like to drop some koin for a Citrus Myx ? soda please.” I replied.

  She favored me with an eye roll and a glare before turning to Sunny.

  “I’ll have the local extra hoppy pale ale, please.”

  “Of course sugar.” She smiled at Sunny, slightly less pissed off with his order.

  She sauntered back to the bar and began to pour our drinks. At least she came back right away with a few napkins and our drinks. I took a sip of my soda pop and sighed. I needed to figure out how to get a tap built into our camp kitchen, it couldn't be that hard I was sure. And the powder stuff just wasn't the same. I only took a sip because I saw her pour it and I was fairly confident she didn't spit in it. I finished my drink in no time and wiped my mouth with the napkins. Napkins I then placed into my pockets. Sunny took his time nursing his beer so I might have fired up my head-comp and began coding some learning algorithms for speed reading and comprehension so my Squad Leaders could level up on squad tactics and combat.

  As Sunny slammed his empty beer glass down, I whipped the drool that hadn't dripped out of my mouth with the pocket napkin and stood up. I reflexively looked at the napkin and saw the note that I knew was hidden there. ‘Last Night.’ I sighed out loud and Maxine, who was watching us, busted up laughing, with the mean look in her eyes. She continued to laugh and said, “7 pm slugger, prime time after all.” It was my turn to roll my eyes as we walked out of the bar. She didn't get a tip, or the tab paid off, but I am sure she would figure out how to charge it at my expense.

  Sunny was quiet until we were away from the saloon and then turned to me and asked, “Alright so what was that? Where is the meet up.”

  I sighed again and said, “The Last Night. You know the ‘classy’ gentleman’s club. I am not sure if Maxine or her boss Lauren thought this would get a rise out of me, but I couldn't care less. They think some humans and aliens showing some skin is going to embarrass me, they don’t have a clue. They think I am some kid who is squeamish about that sorta thing? Pfft.”

  Sunny, wise as usual, said nothing.

  Shaking my head, “Alight so we have almost 5 hours. Let’s do some weapons shopping and you can tell me what you were thinking.”

  We continued walking toward the shopping center, several of the shops specialized in weapons of all kinds. There were Exotic Arms selling corpo and offworld weapons, a huge Rosatom General Energy? showroom with their flashy and deadly energy weapons, and several magic and magitecha weapon shops. But unless Miles changed the universe with his research, synths and drones couldn't use magic. Sunny led us to a middle of the road shop called Neu Ca?on Armory. It was a bit past the other shops on the row, but was large and crammed full with armor, weapons, and equipment. I had been here before and Bill was a salesman but he could cut good deals now and then. Sunny rolled in first and Bill greeted him by name. It would have been more impressive if I didn't know that he had cybernetic eyes that helped him store and identify all customers. He turned to me and said “Ahh Gabby Gama too. Just wonderful, what can my humble shop do for you.”

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  Sunny wasn't a mercenary or corpo goon but he spent his time in the wild and could scrap with the best of em. “We are looking for some weapons upgrades for our crew. We really like the Power Construction Corp? (PCC) Grasshopper armor but we need some weapons with a bigger bite.”

  I guess a little flattery couldn't hurt, and we did buy nearly 5 million cred worth of gear from him when we started out. That reminder couldn't hurt either.

  He actually paused to think before answering, “sure sure. Of course. So what are you thinking, gauss? Explosive shells, old school kinetic, or Plasma casters, microjet?”

  Sunny and Bill began discussing things like the RGE Plasma Heavy Combat Rifle vs the UAI gauss gun Rifle Mark 2 or Mark 3. I tuned it all out. We might end up buying the RGE weapons here versus the RGE showroom across the way. Given the preferred alliance RGE struck with the American Empire, I was loathe to give them any money, but if we decided with RGE at least I could give Bill the cut. The men continued to talk about grenades vs microjets vs machineguns and I wandered over to the armor section.

  I really liked my PCC? Mechanic spec Infantry armor, but it never hurt to look, right? Bill had a virtual catalog, but had a dozen suits on display in a double row at the front of the store. He had an amazing advanced suit on display from Under All Inc ?, the Detente Variable shield armor. After they were outlawed by the American Empire their gear was hard to find. As hybrid Earth-alien tech it was far ahead of anything I had seen before and this heavily armored suit was no exception.Humans and aliens called Diggers had collaborated on this and other UAI products. I had never seen a Digger in person but they were giant elephant sized rodents that, well seemed, to burrow underground. They had very advanced kinetic manipulation and mechanical engineering skills. Their power armor suits were approaching Gretta in size!

  Back to the suit, it had built in passive, active, and thermal shielding. There was a kinetic field that would slow down physical rounds proportional to their initial velocity. It couldn't stop them, but it could make them less lethal, and the heavy armor could stop the rest. Hopefully. The thermal shielding wouldn't prevent plasma or laser impacts but would reduce the damage there as well, to a lesser extent. It was ideal if you didn't move but even on the move it would reduce the damage received. Bill wanted a cool 2.5 million creds for this suit. I know that was triple the original price but availability is king.

  I had no use for it, but I couldn't help but think of a squad of synths decked out in variable shield armor stomping around. Dang, I gave myself goosebumps. The only other suit that caught my eye was on the other end of the spectrum. RGE, again, had a bargain basement suit of ‘power armor’ that was battery powered, had no built in weapons, but decent protection and enhancements, for the price. RGE almost never made armor, preferring to develop energy weapons and energy generation and storage. And that was the key to this suit. Instead of expensive micro-fission or fusion generators, high density batteries provide competent but finite duration power. The RGE Armadillo Light ExoSkeleton Battle Armor was not only a mouthful to say, it was on sale! The price tag said 100,000 creds. I wonder if we could get that reduced and if he had any more. I made a note to ask Sunny later. I wandered around for another hour and a half. How could Sunny talk that long! He eventually called out to me and I headed back.

  Sunny seemed genuinely pleased, “Alright Gabby, I told Bill we had hired a merc unit of about 40 but they were green and didn't have much in the way of heavy weapons. He suggested that we keep 50% as riflemen, but replace 25% with a heavy weapon, plasma or machinegun of some type, and the other 25% with grenades or microjet launchers.”

  With Bill nodding, Sunny said, “we are looking at the RGE 4cm Plasma Heavy Combat Rifle I told you about, or perhaps the BDwerks? XO-33 3cm Plasma Caster at one-third the price.” Continuing without breathing, “We could also look at the BDwerks? PunchThru Squad Assault Weapon, the machine gun version of their rifle, but ammo and wear could get quite spendy if we use it a lot. Moving on the explosive armaments we have an amazing offering from PCC, the same people who make my multidozer and well most of my cybernetics!”

  Shaking his head, he continued “Ahem, anyway, the PCC-AGL is a tripod or man portable grenade launcher with amazing damage throughput, but will need ammo replacements and reloading. The alternative is another BDwerks? weapon, the GMG-16 Shaker. It’s barely man portable but our ‘cyborgs’ and ‘power-armor’ guys can deal with it. And it holds 16 microjets. Again one third the price, but the ammo will be more expensive.”

  I think I understood most of that. I thought about it a moment longer and said “Wow Sunny, Bill got you to do the sales pitch for him. But really I don't care. It sounds like a choice between RGE & PCC and BDwerks?, expensive versus cheap.”

  Bill interrupted, “Well, Gabby it's a bit more complicated than that, see you also have to factor in range, ammo capacity, and reload speed, neh?”

  Nodding my head quickly I said, “Sure sure, which do you recommend?”

  My question seemed to derail Bill, the salesman, for a moment, “Well if I was to do it, I would go with the cheaper Plasma Caster from BDwerks?, while it's 50% less damaging on average, it’s not worth the 300% price increase. It would be a major upgrade to what you are using right now. And while hard to find, I have several in stock. Even the Depot down the street often runs out. It will still far outperform your current RGE Pulsed Particle Guns in 10mm rifle. ”

  “It is actually more like 250% more expensive, but I get what you are saying.”

  Bill looked slightly impressed that I noticed, before he continued, “As for the squad weapons, I would suggest a mix, get half grenade launches and half microjet launchers and see which they like better in practice.”

  Now that wasn't a half bad idea.

  “And because you are valued customers, I will give you the same discount you get at BDwerks?, so there is no need for you to buy your weapons from them there.”

  I had to laugh at that. “Alright, if you are happy Sunny, let's draw up the papers and see what the damage is, oh and throw in three used Armadillo Light ExoSkeletons, if you have ‘em.”

  “That will clean out my supply but they are all yours, for a discount of course.”

  I shook my head and walked out the store as Sunny finished up the paperwork. We would place the order electronically and have the goods delivered to our Kombi-Max truck at the docks.

  If my math skills were right it looks like we just spent 1.7 million creds not including the discount but before we spend a lot more on ammunition. Dang, maybe we should have avoided the grenade launchers, I feel panic setting in. I will have to scrimp and save on the repair parts. Could I manufacture my own munitions? Sure, but where would I get the raw ingredients? I also couldn't help but wonder if Bill pulled a fast one on us, but in the end, it wasn't like they were awful weapons, and I would know instantly if they were broken or counterfeit. I have no other choice and I do trust Sunny’s experience.

  I started heading around the bend toward the other shops in this neighborhood. Bill was cheaper because he was off the beaten path as well. The large and imposing Bank of Neu Ca?on loomed over the corner of the market. The bank was one of few places you could exchange the various flavors of credits in North America. It seemed every penny anti kingdom wanted to have their own currency but the major flavors were the Black Market◆ chit, Universal Credit (in corpo we trust), the dollarbuck (American Empire), and the NeuYen (Asia). Everything traded against the Universal Credit, so there was your answer. If you had gems or precious metals you had to go to one of the money changers in town. And the bank only dealt with high net worth individuals. I really should have an account there, but all my eggs were in the Black Market◆ basket, so to speak.

  Sunny caught up to me as I was admiring the graceful columnar architecture of the bank. “I think we will be all set for your troops, Gabby. At least we will have a lot more flexibility. And having your full complement ready will be a boon as well.”

  I shrugged, still preoccupied with the costs and credits for our refit and upgrades. Looking at Sunny, I asked the first thing that popped into my mind, “So what’s the deal with Molly. Who is she?”

  Sunny's human face turned bright red. His lower arms subconsciously grasped each other. His larger fists clenched. He cleared his throat, “Ahem. Molly, uh, works for Alexandria. She made a, sorta, deal with Alexandria and a part of that means she is working for her, for a while.”

  I wasn't sure what any of that meant. But Sunny continued, “and ugh, she is a really nice girl, err woman, I mean.”

  I interrupted, “I meant more like did she have military experience, was she partially ‘borged up?”

  Sunny's face started to cool down. “Oh, I see, umm well it's kinda complicated who and what she is…”

  I give up, “ok, nevermind. No biggie.” Just when I think I understand grownups, they bore the heck outta me. I could not care less about their seksumi. Shaking my head, “Anyway we have a few more hours to kill before we meet up with Lauren. We could check out one of the pawn shops on the other side of the row?”

  Having nothing better to do, we backtracked past Neu Ca?on Armory, With a brief pit stop at a Hungry-Hungry Inc ? convenience store. After grabbing a name brand Citrus myx? soda for me, and another local beer for Sunny.

  >>Man Big Fe, corpos are everywhere.>>

  We made our way to one of the crappiest pawn stores in all of Neu Ca?on. The derivatively named ‘Biggies Pawn Shop.’

  It was run by an entirely too lazy Neaman. But it beat the other major pawn shop in town, “Merc Market Pawn Shop” which was a front for the Black Market◆. And worse was run by the most unfriendly human ever. Rumor has it he would eat unruly customers. On the other hand, the lazy frelling yono here was called Pig. He wouldn't eat you, but wouldn't lift a finger to help you find anything. He was a typical lazy guy, man. Neaman, whatever. And he has literal tons of items. He would buy scrap equipment by the pound. If you couldn't sell your gear anywhere else, you could always hock it to Pig. His double wide storefront was on the edge of the Merchant district. And a good thing too, wrecked and almost wrecked vehicles were staged out front.

  Behind his shop were piles of junk, trash, and almost treasure that sometimes reached above the top of his shop. And inside his shop was worse. He would periodically shovel the equipment from inside the shop, out back, but only when it sat for a very long time and he actually noticed, and he decided to do something about it. Which, given his nickname, you can imagine wasn't very often. Sunny and I strolled in and began to circle the shop. The key was looking for totally worthless items that still had solid structural material. A composite breastplate with a giant hole would not catch many buyers, but I could repurpose the material to reinforce a synth or even a vehicle. It was all about jury rigging and making do, something I excelled at. I could gyver together a toaster or a super computer better than any corpo product off the shelf.

  I spent 2 hours, this time in my element, looking at everything from broken toilets (for my giant mech), to rolls of communication cable (to more reliably interconnect the vehicles in camp). I had identified almost a ton of material and 2 broken vehicles that I was interested in. The hover bike was cracked completely in half, and would never fly again, but I am sure I could make use of it. The truck had been on the losing end of a major gun fight, but had an axle and drive parts that I could adapt for our dead Roundabout. I haggled with Pig for a few minutes but I could tell he wasn't going to contest me when I pointed out all the flaws and damage that I could sense with my telemechanic skills, at length. I made out and spent only UC 8,000 for everything! I was happier than a vampire in a slaughterhouse, at night. I had to pay extra to get it shipped to the Sky Port, but I wasn't going to quibble about not having to haul it all.