It’s great to plan out your attack and figure out the best way to handle any particular hive. They are all different, you know? And you don’t want to risk letting some little Four escape since that could mean more work later on.


    But sometimes it feels good to just let loose and hammer away without a care. A girl’s got needs, you know?


    --T4 (Tiny Tough Terror of Titans), Guest star live stream with Dealpas during a thinning excursion in northern Canada.


    ***


    <Alright, upgrades. As I see it, there are several types to look at, boiling down to: Armor, Brain & Cyber, Weapons, Body Enhancements, and Senses. Am I missing anything?>


    --You mentioned mobility, so maybe something for transportation? And what about saving something for home defense?


    <And also… call it Personal Logistics. Things like supplies, how you carry gear, and training. That would include transportation. And food fits in there if I end up with special dietary needs.>


    --You really have thought about this a lot.


    <I don’t think anyone of my generation hasn’t played the “What if I became a Samurai?” game when we were little. Some of us never stopped. In the computer games I play, the characters have the same needs and obstacles as a Samurai. And we gamers have built ways to talk about those needs, so we all understand each other. That teaches you how to organize the needs so you at least know your weaknesses, if not fill them in.>


    --It certainly covers the basics. While there are other ways of organizing it, I don’t know that they would be better. The only additions I’d suggest are: Longevity, Connections, and Luxuries


    <Not sure what you mean by Longevity or Connections? Luxuries explains itself.>


    --Longevity would be making sure you can keep up the pace. The large part of it is production facilities for consumables and a means of income. Often hobbies fall under longevity too, since they help keep you mentally stable.


    --Connections would be about helping or improving the people and community around you. Helping and protecting your family is popular, but the section also includes any projects not related to killing antithesis.


    --Both categories are secondary expenditures that can be overlooked, causing them to be starved for points when something comes up.


    <Alright, I don’t want to buy things piecemeal. I’d rather look at the whole, and see what all my needs are before making any specific recommendations. To that end, I’d like to review today, particularly the battles, and see what comes out of that, both for where I can improve and what gear options they suggest.>


    Having finished cleaning the pistol, I confirmed the safety was set on the rest of the weapons, removed the magazines, and cleared the chambers. Since everything else still needed cleaning, I left them on the table for now and put the pistol in my safe while on the way to the living room couch. I didn’t want any distractions while doing this review.


    --I’ve several hours of video, often in a couple angles. Tara often had a camera on you. Did you want the full raw feed? Or should I select out parts?


    <Just the best angles and only the times of combat, please.>


    --Queue the video montage!


    What followed was less of a montage and more of a skip-step of most of my battles today displayed on the data glasses. Between drone coverage and Kaitlyn’s recordings, Corie had a lot of video of me, even some from public security cameras from my initial battle out on the street. We paused often to critique my performance and brainstorm fixes, of which I kept tallies.


    Surprisingly, I was more critical than Corie. From her perspective, any flaw fixable by spending points could be forgiven. I, on the other hand, held myself to a high standard of skill. Any upgrades should be ways to overcome physical weaknesses and human limits, not a crutch to avoid using and improving my natural ability.


    We saved the two most critical fights to the end and reviewed them in detail. Those were the battles in the cultist’s room and clearing out the M-4 at the entrance to the machine room on the way out. In other words, the times when I ended up in melee. Despite the severe injury in the later battle, going into the review I felt that I hadn’t done too badly.


    Watching the fights in the camera’s third person forced me to see them objectively. And frankly, I sucked at close combat. I only survived due to being unpredictable and not in a good way. More like a flailing about “hoping I get lucky” way. The sharpness of my blades proved the biggest factor in my survival.


    This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.


    <Training in melee combat is definitely needed. I honestly don’t know how much I’ll have to use it. I’m a gun person, and I’d rather kill the Anti’s when they still can’t reach me, but when you need it, you really need it.>


    --That’s true. There’s lots of times when you can’t keep them at a safe range.


    As we talked, I moved back into the dinette and picked up the P5-AT. Years of practice and familiarity made for quick cleaning while I continued the conversation.


    <First priority is healing. I have a promise to uphold, and any other upgrade doesn’t matter if I’m dead.>


    --Any thoughts or preferences? Even just within the Valerian catalogs, there’s a zillion options.


    <I’d be stupid to ignore that I’ve been hurt twice already to the point of losing consciousness. I need something built in that can do a burst of healing like those nanite dispensers. It doesn’t have to take me back to full health, only enough to get me back into the fight. On top of that, we can layer a general regenerative boost for long-term and downtime recovery.>


    --And the general regen should make the burst healing more effective. I have a few hundred options for each type of upgrade. Did you want to see the choices?


    <Sure.>


    I paused my cleaning while a pair of lists appeared in my glasses, each with expandable options showing details about the upgrade. One list was labeled “Burst Healing,” and the other “Metabolic Enhancement.” Both began with a highlighted option, then several more were flagged as good options, followed by page after page of other options. They grew stranger and less suited for me the farther I scrolled down.


    I stopped at one of the enhancement options several pages down, which offered “augmentation of metabolism by external reprocessing waste for a secondary handling by the host.” The expanded image showed a person with a series of tentacles inserting into the lower stomach. They lead up to an organism hanging on the chest that ended in a single tube that ran up the side of the neck and into the figure’s mouth. With a disgusted look on my face, I closed that sub-window.


    <To be honest, I’m not sure what I’m looking at with these. Why did you select those top ones over the others?>


    --I chose them primarily for their versatility and effectiveness. They are the strongest in their category at what they do. They also are entirely internal, leaving your appearance unchanged. While you don’t seem particularly vain, you have expressed concerns that you want to stay you, and part of that comes down to general appearance.


    I nodded my head and resumed cleaning the rifle.


    <What are the details of those options? How do they work, and what do they do?>


    --The Bionite Nodules will grow using your own metabolism, forming a renewable resource. Each nodule contains a large quantity of bionites, which are microscopic programmed biomes. Part cell, part virus, they act similar to nanites, except they are fully biological.


    --When you take severe damage, the symbiont will release the bionites in one or more nodules for a burst of healing. The symbiont and bionites can be directed via your SymTech Gland for focused healing. The symbiont will have three nodules to start, but you can expand that if necessary.


    --The Symbiote Alimentary Support System is the second core component of the Valerian system. It will allow your body to digest any nutrients needed for your symbionts so you can support them and regulate your immune system to prevent rejection of the symbionts. The regenerative boost and other improvements, while nothing to scoff at, are frankly side effects of a more efficient metabolism. Even if you didn’t ask for the regen boost, I’d be recommending this when we get to any other enhancements.


    <That should cover that commitment. And I think the SymTech Gland has me covered for Brain & Cyber unless you have other suggestions?>


    --Did you want to go over the training options for cyberwarfare now? Or later?


    <Let’s get to that later. There are several trainings I’m interested in, but it’s better to get the big ticket items out of the way first so we know how much I have left.>


    --Armor and Body enhancements are the two big ones left.


    <It’s not going to matter which comes first, so let’s go in alphabetical order. I prefer light and flexible armor over bulky and heavy. When we had proper battlefield control, the only real threats today were the Model Six and Model Five. M-6s I can dodge if I’m fast enough. So the real threat right now is the ranged attacks from the M-5 and the next one up, the Model Sixteen?>


    --I think you mean the Model Fifteen. Any armor you buy right now that could take a direct hit from one of those would not be classified as “light.” In fact, it’d be more of a powered body armor and quite expensive. But you could certainly get something to survive secondary frag effects.


    <With light armor and good reflexes, I should be able to get out of the way of their attacks. My focus with the body enhancement will be speed, though I do not intend to make that a defining feature. I’m aiming for a slippery devil, not a full-on dodge tank.>


    --Sure, any other ideas about the armor?


    I thought about it for a few minutes.


    <One bonus thing, not a deal breaker, but it would be nice if the armor can be easily hidden or stowed. I’ve always felt that Samurai who always wore their armor were showing off or compensating for something.>


    --I’m sure sometimes that’s from hard experience. It sucks getting hurt because you left your armor behind to go clubbing only to have some corpo with a grudge crash the party.


    <True, which is why I said hidden or stowed, not left at home. But then again, showing up to the club in full battle dress is either a sign of distrust or arrogance. It also separates the Samurai from the common people, making them less approachable. I don’t want to cut myself off from humanity if I can.>


    --That helps me narrow it down some. Not that the look of most of these can’t be altered. Colors certainly can be changed, and even some textures.


    Another window appeared in my glasses with an incredibly long list. This time several options had been flagged as possibilities, and several dozen more as good fits. I scrolled down them for quite a few pages, checking out some that caught my eye.