Ch. 62 - Xenocide Act III; Leah's Pod And Leah's Gift

  Oniomania, on·i·o·man·i·a

  An obsessive or uncontrollable urge to buy things.

  "Onio. Isn't it funny that the Greek word for shopping should be so similar to the Japanese word for demon?"

  – Dr. Yovenheit, Linguist

  ***

  I was busy daydreaming tangents, when a whump and a splash made me turn around.

  There was a…thing settled into the mud next to Leah. Who was feeding herself to some weird super-black goop? Why did she look so delicious? What was I watching?!

  As I walked over, the egg thing unfolded four powerful, several-meters-long spider legs and stood up. All the mud and water just sloughed right off, leaving not a fleck of residue.

  That insane black made picking out any details nearly impossible, and as I approached, I realized that didn't change with distance. Thin golden lines acted as both decoration, but also, in some manipulatively dominating way, as succor for the eye and mind. Something to anchor oneself, something to hold on to.

  Leah's new suit had finished forming up around her, complete with a cowl for her head. Tiny intricate rivulets of mist pooled in its opening to weave a translucent veil, while her hair was a river of rich red curling and bouncing in front of her chest, highlighted by the utter black of the suit and just really, really there in an extreme contrast.

  The front of the egg opened up, and from within a small pilot's couch emerged on a boom. I could see some recessed slots for prosthetic limbs beneath the couch, along with rather slender robot arms integrated into the bottoms of those slots.

  Outside, panels opened and two new turrets readied themselves. More robot arms at the bottom of the, I guessed, cargo space.

  So much stuff to unpack!

  "What's this?" I asked Leah, waving at the egg-spider-thing.

  She grinned and explained, "Pilot's pod! This is actually supposed to be inside a proper Warforge Technologies tank, but those are way too expensive for us."

  "Oh?"

  "Mhm," she nodded. "The shittiest scout units start at five thousand points, and the real frontline heavy-duty tanks, they're fifty thousand minimum. I also can't control either of those with the prosthetics chip in my head. They'll require upgraded pilot's implants instead."

  She looked back at the egg and patted its side. "This thing's the piloting pod and emergency bailout for bigger Warforge vehicles, with life support and everything."

  "Big tanks with pods for the pilots? Real fucking Sci-Fi! Cool!"

  Leah giggled at me and mussed my hair, but all I could do was grin at her.

  "See that hollow space there," she continued, "underneath the turrets in the cube? Usually there'd be a jump jet in there along with some survival machinery, but I couldn't afford that. Yet. But we can use that space for freight instead. Say, that lure, once we're done here?"

  "And your suit-thingy?" I asked, poking Leah in the side. She didn't even squirm. Shit. Was that new suit anti-tickle armor?! Boo! No fair!

  Leah read my face and smirked at me. She straightened up her posture and set her arms akimbo with that knowing grin, as she answered with a dry tone. "Under-armor. It'll protect me from most things really, as long as I'm not trying to play volleyball with a tank."

  I squinted at her, and remembered something. "Hey, Leah. You know, when you first put on my overall, I punched you a little to let you see how it worked, yeah? Since you have new armor, I think we should do that again."

  She looked sideways, pursed her lips a little, and said, "I can still get squished. I just won't get perforated."

  "I'll be gentle, I promise. Just a little. Just the tip!" I held a fist up and Leah snorted at me.

  "Fine, fine. Messing around or not, I should probably know how it'll be like to get hit anyway, right?"

  She moved to stand with her legs shoulder-width apart and clenched her muscles, ready to receive my fist.

  I scratched the back of my head, feeling a little cringe. This was meant to be a joke, but Leah, well, she just turned it around on me, huh?

  Although, yes. She wasn't exactly wrong either. I breathed out and put the discomfort aside.

  "Alright. Don't bite your tongue, yeah?"

  "Mmm."

  I dropped my hips a little and made fist at about the height of my stomach. Stepped forward, letting momentum and weight connect with her gut, pushing through a little as I turned with the motion. A slow punch, less about explosive energy, and more about driving my body mass and momentum into her.

  The material of Leah's suit didn't react to it, but Leah oofed at me, and let the strike carry her back a step.

  She looked down and rubbed her tummy, breathing deeply, the other hand over her mouth as she swallowed dry. A moment later she looked up and said, "Well, probably shoulda said this first, Tinea, but the suit absorbs hard and fast impacts. Like those fluids that get harder when you hit them harder. It doesn't trigger from something this slow."

  Oops. "Um, sorry? Are you, uh, need, like, a bag? To puke in?"

  Leah huffed at me, amusement in her eyes. "Nah, I'm fine. Wasn't expecting that in particular, but my stomach is already settling."

  Soo, uh. I wasn't exactly up to properly punching her. Um. I scrunched my eyebrows at her, and she laughed. Put her hand behind my head and pulled me in for a hug, tucking me under her chin. "It's fine, Tinea. I'm not gonna ask you to hurt me. At least I know what it'll be like to get hit too slowly, so I guess you helped me anyway."

  Love what you're reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.

  Slow hits… Oh. "Um, Leah, could you still wear the overall above that? It'll still stop those tentacles from beating you up."

  She soothed me with slow strokes of a hand down my hair. "The pod will do a better job than the overall at protecting me in melee combat. If something punched through its armor, it was going hella fast anyway, right? That's what the suit is for, to protect against penetrations, spalling, and shockwaves. I coulda gotten one that works against slow things too, but it wouldn't actually match this suit at catching shrapnel or bullets specifically, without being a lot more expensive." She plucked at the skintight suit. "I am gonna switch this out for the expensive stuff eventually, though. Don't wanna be stuck in the pod in the city."

  I gave her a squeeze and stepped back, looking around us. At the ATVs next to the lure.

  Pointing at hers I asked, "What about your quad? Are we leaving it here?"

  Leah shook her head. "Nah, not for travel. The pod can follow us until the bike breaks down or we can sell it or something. I'll get in the egg when we need to fight."

  I nodded. Um. Last thing… Maybe some proper holdout weapons for Leah inside the pod? I looked at the point counter and realized we had only twenty points left, combined. Oh my, that pod had been expensive, huh? Fair enough, it was supposed to be the heart-piece of rather imperious battle vehicles. Not enough points to buy another weapon, though.

  I pointed my thumb at her ATV's turret and asked, "Hey Leah, wanna use that for yourself? That Foxteeth is nice and all, but it's a bit anemic, all things considered."

  She grinned at me. "Don't worry, I've got something in mind. I'll have Ypsi deliver it as soon as we've got the points."

  "Right. I guess we're ready then? Shall I set off the lure?"

  "One moment!" Big smile. Hmm…?

  She rummaged around in her shawl, tip of her tongue between her teeth, and then presented me with two somethings.

  A tiny orb with some sort of miniaturized jack at the top, and, a beautiful…earring? No, not quite. It did have a pretty dangly bit, but it wouldn't quite work as an earring with that long bar of gold.

  Hmmmm? I tilted my head sideways.

  Leah laughed at my confused expression and carefully brushed my questing antennae out of the way. "It's a present. For you." Then seriousness stole the easy smile from her lips. "And also a thank you. For rescuing me, and keeping me together."

  All that I was focused on her, looked into her eyes and found the weary relief in there. The black shadows of the pain and terror she'd gone through, the helplessness that had sought to destroy her. For just a moment, I was back in that cell, where I'd found her lying shattered on her bed. That intense need to love and provide flashed through me again, and tears sprung to my eyes.

  Overwhelmed little sobs escaped me, and I didn't know what to say. So I glomped Leah and kissed her on her collarbone, the same spot she'd used so many times to signal…togetherness before she could talk, or walk.

  Leah hugged me right back, aww'd at me a couple times, made lots of soothing noises. And just held me while this…tiny bit of an emotional flashback shook me.

  Eventually, after a few minutes of hugging and crying and lots of gentle headpats, my tumultuous brain calmed down. Leah released me while wiping the tears from my cheeks with warm metal hands, smiling tenderly and letting me feel very not alone.

  It was all very new. Very different from anything I'd ever experienced. Being a girl is great, I thought. So easy to just share the stuff. So safe, too. So different from my childhood.

  I tore my thoughts away from that whole depressing topic with a shake, and instead looked at Leah again. She still smiled that lovely smile, and I decided to return it with a brilliant one of my own.

  "Thanks," I said, nose all stuffy. "So, what've you got for me?"

  She chuckled and dug out the presents again.

  "I designed this with Ypsi and Tynea's help. We combined your esoteric defenses catalog, and my Warforge Technology one, to create this rather powerful field emitter. From mine comes the reactor-capacitor combo inside this bar."

  She held up the jewelry-looking thing, the way-too-long-bar-to-be-an-earring. It had some very thin wires on one end along with the female mate to the orb's jack, and the dangly pretty bit. The bar was wider and flatter on the other end with what looked like a three-way combination of a hair clip, comb, and skin-glue pads on the comb's tines.

  "And this here," she lightly flicked the dangly pendant, "is the force field emitter, from your catalog."

  The dangly pretty was an artist's rendition of a leaf in gold, with a little gem set into the lower third. Beautiful filigree, truly. It reminded me a little of my own antennae with the way those veins of the leaf were swung.

  "This thing is quite a bit stronger than it should be, really, due to the powerplant-emitter combination from two different catalogs. It can stop a single tank shell at hella output, according to Ypsi. Although, it'll need to go through a lengthy recharge after that, so it's a one-time-save-your-bacon kinda thing. And only for your head—the forcefield is really small. I'll let Tynea give you the specific details."

  "That's seriously powerful," I said, smiling brightly up at Leah and rocking impatiently on my toes, keeping my hands locked behind my back.

  She grinned and asked, "Want me to help you put it on? It goes on your forehead, by the way. And it's removable, of course."

  Oh! Indeed not an earring. I nodded, and said, "Thank you!"

  Leah grinned at me, and her words made me giggle. "Nope. Thank you."

  She touched the blob with the jack to my forehead, and warmth penetrated my skin. "This is an over-under-skin tektoo that provides the computing. I'll share my view with you in a second."

  "Mhm!"

  Then she combed my hair with the bar and tucked the thing against my scalp, where the adhesive pad tines activated their glue and stuck fast.

  Finally, she jacked the jack into the bar's slot, and with a ping against my aug, the new device greeted me. "Oh, hello!" I said.

  "Hmm?" I'd surprised Leah a little with my outburst.

  "Ah, it's working, and saying hello. Um, let's see. On-off switch, and, oh! I can change the shape of the pendant when inactive?"

  "Yeah, it is the antenna for the emitter and modulates the forcefield by reshaping itself."

  "I see," I said, flashing her a smile. "And color of the gem?"

  "It'll glow like an LED. I set the default to match your antennae's particular rainbow spectrum. By the way, about the forcefield. Um, remember when I hinted not to bother with anything expensive for the rain? You could set the forcefield to very low output to keep your head and antennae dry. It'll almost last forever like that."

  "Oh, sweet!" I toggled that on, and a pinkish glow illuminated my bangs and undersides of my antennae. Strong enough to be noticeable, but not strong enough to be annoying. Neat. Then an ultra-thin layer lit up the electromagnetic senses of my antennae for half a second, before it settled into a very low barely-there background hum. Little zaps crackled where raindrops hit a barrier. Nice!

  "And, finally, it's asking me for sensor input for threat evaluation. Hmm." I tried feeding it the raw data stream from my antennae and voilá, it worked!

  Leah looked at my forehead and said with satisfaction, "There you go."

  A few eye swishes later, she shared her view with me. I upsized the window, and watched as tiny, glowing orange pinpricks spread across the center of my forehead, chased by midget wires from the bar that made them look like mini-constellations. They formed connections between the bar and several spots of the tektoo. Between the tiny stars and the fiery gem, it was all pretty in that classy, high-end cybertech way.

  I was very happy with it. My vanity—greetings!—was happy, too. It looked beautiful, it was functional, and it definitely worked with my face.

  I squeezed Leah tight, which she happily accepted. Then she poked my nose, thumbed at the lure, and said with a big smile, "I think we're good now. Wanna go for it?"

  Grinning, I nodded definitively, and flicked a switch. "Yup, let's!"

  The device extended its pole, and the familiar hypnotic hum of a Six streamed from it at nearly ear-shattering volumes, made barely bearable by the painkilling spray.

  My grin grew a lot more vicious.

  ***

  Remember the pendant from the illustrations? I’ll post it again, here:

  Discord! This is where we meet, to share feedback, suggest ideas, or just to have a chat!

  ! If you'd like to support me. Thank you!