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[X] EXEC.AUTOSOLVE

"W-we should solve these first," says ReiZay, pointing at a the puzzles. "We need gear right? I bet it provides pressure gear. Or at least an equipment tree we can hack."

"I don't think there's a need to be good schoolgirls about this." Mirareki gives her a look of condescension that's masking something else. It catches you as unimportant, at least for now, and your precision drifts in a way that you find annoying. "The ship is being boarded. We shouldn't hang around here."

Maybe Aletta notices, she is a priestess, but Luyu definitely does. "Oh is that it?" one of her drawls, while the other stands post at the entrance to the transit station. "Just want to get out of here real quick, journalist? Or do you know what that symbol is?"

"I've never seen it before in my life. It's low information content, It probably doesn't mean anything. It's not like the schoolgirl's tattoo or whatever."

"We don't know what the conditions are like in the rest of the ship!" Reizay says. "It could be vacuum or radiation or anything. We should solve the puzzles and see what it gives us."

"It'll take far too much time we probably don't have–"

You're very impatient, abruptly. You cannot be bothered with any of this. You step forward and hear yourself make a strange sound. A little wave of spasms and itches passes through your body; you hear a low tone in your right ear.

Everyone is staring. Aletta takes a step forward.

"Be careful." Mirareki says.

"Don't worry.." Aletta says, hands serenely clasped. "I am highly skilled in self defence, and carry skills in psychological aid."

It's all very simple.

You surge forward into the logic puzzles, rotating, moving, solving trajectories and equations. They are simplicity itself. No more complex than putting out your hand. You approach each, see through it, perform whatever feat of acrobatics might be necessary, bark whatever orders at a serene Aletta and bewildered but compliant Reizey might be needed for completion, and finally come to a halt as the last diamond turns entirely red and sinks onto the floor.

"Congradulations–" The voice says. "Congradulations and and and and and good work team team team team–"

The far wall unmeshes along quickmatter seams and sinks into the floor to reveal an arc of equipment trees beyond.

"Stella?" Aletta asks at your shoulder. "Are you here?"

You start. It's like a dream has resolved to reality. "Yes. Sorry."

"Was she dead switched?" Luyu asks. One of her has come closer but is keeping a cautious distance.

"I don't believe her consciousness turned off in a conventional fashion." Aletta reaches out carefully to touch you. "That wasn't preprogrammed. You could see her working out each puzzle. Just very quickly. Possibly you have a module for this, that you've forgotten." Your head swims. You imagine fire.

"It could be some kind of controlled savantism." Reizay suggests. "Back home there are some people who can go into fugues like that. Oracles. They're blessed by the Enclosing Lady."

"I'll bet." Mirareki mutters. Reizay delivers her a poisonous look.

"Stella." Aletta says again, less serenely, more gently. You turn and realise it's not Aletta speaking.

"...may I have your name?" You ask.

"I'm Minetta," says Aletta's voice. She looks you over, then steps back. "Aletta is my transcendent, I am her confessor. Are you alright? Does anything seem amiss? Please, let me know."

"I'm just a bit confused." You rub your head. The lights flicker again overhead. "I'm not sure we have time to worry about me."

Something feels a little different. Like a change in the background.

"Agreed." The priestess' face shifts and she's cool, unflappable Aletta again. One of Luya's bodies is already examining the wall of equipment. Aletta walks forward to join her, looking through the clothing, probably for something more hard wearing than her spray suit which you've been trying not to notice doesn't give her nearly enough support. Each tree has one of the names from the tanks marked over it.. You find Stella and start to look through what options they, the mysterious they who set this up, have selected.

The equipment tree also appears to be unlocked, which would be surprising if the computer systems weren't clearly breaking down, but you think it'd be unwise to take the time to fab more than one additional custom item.

You may pick (1) of the items marked "requires fabrication."

Basic kit
[x] Medical Kit: a standard medical kit containing dressings, thread, scissors and the like as well as various drugs and nanomachines
[x] Scanner band: A small horned headband that picks up electromagnetic radiation
[x] Vacuum mask: A standard ambulatory mask that covers and seals face and ears, with smartmatter straps to hold it firmly without distressing any ordinary hairstyle.
[x] Wearable implant extension: A small computer designed to extend the ability of already implanted systems, providing additional data storage, connectivity and the like. Includes an analyser wrist plate.
[x] Hair pins: Stylish black hair pins to control your gigantic amount of hair.
—[ ] Meatballs
—[ ] Cat ears
—[ ] Menger sponges
—[ ] Plain pin
[x] Makeup set: While modern skin is designed to not require makeup, a lot of people do wear it, including, apparently, you. The nanotech means you can make precise adjustments to colour and easily correct mistakes once applied and makes it survivable even against hash treatment.
[x] Water canteen: standard evaporative model.
[x] A smart rope: made out of quick matter, basically animate
[x] Various pouches and stuff
[x] a toolkit

Protection
[x] Defence Aura Emitter: standard for Gardenites in dangerous situations. A defence aura is a set of devices that combines jammers, small force field generators and an intercept laser system that can deflect incoming fire. These look like a set of bangles.

Choose 1
[ ] Tactical Suit: a close fitting garment of smart matter, tactical suits are standard wear for most Gardenite light infantry. Provides good mobility, very low signature, average protection in combat and low protection against environmental hazards.
[ ] Hazardous Engineering Suit: Somewhat thicker than a tactical suit, HE-Suits are usually worn by engineers. They provide good mobility, and excellent protection from environmental hazards, but have only average combat armour and provide no signature reduction.
[ ] Hard Suit (Requires Fabrication): A form of light power armour commonly used by special forces and militia emergency response teams. Provides good mobility, low signature and good protection in combat, but low protection against environmental hazards.
[ ] Boarding Shell (Requires Fabrication): A powered combat hardsuit designed for espaiters and combat engineering teams, boarding shells provide average mobility, low signature and good protection from both combat and environmental hazards such as rads.

Weapons

"Huh. Most of these guns are CRC spec." Luyu comments as she looks over the weapons. Your mind brings up "Combined Response Committee" but you're not sure what they might be a combined response too.

"Do you think that's who kidnapped us?" Reizay asks. "I-I've heard they're quite fierce."

"It could be, but it doesn't seem like their style." Luyu pulls a gun off the tree and tests the action. "Their weapons aren't quite the most common yet, but they're the most common stuff from the last fifty years. So I'd guess that's why whoever these guys are are using their gear."

You find a utility knife, and a slim, old school pistol that fires polymer cased rounds. Such slow slug throwers aren't really very useful in combat anymore, but are still carried as extreme backup weapons. Looking at it it seems briefly antique, almost more than the knife, then it bonds smoothly with your neural interface and you have it.

Back Slot: Pick One
You remember having the skills to use more than one of these at once, but your body appears not to have the plugs. It's a little surprising how limited its capacity to run external devices is. Maybe it can be upgraded later.

[ ] CRC Type 1 Assault Catapult: The standard weapon for most Garden troopers, a assault catapult is a gravity assisted electromagnetic device mounted that fires a variety of smart grenades. It is mounted over one shoulder and linked to the nervous system through the interface plugs.
[ ] CRC Type-11 Funnel Crown: Used heavily by elite assault troops, a funnel crowd deploys a cloud of eight drones called funnels, each mounting a powerful beam weapon.
[ ] CRC Type 5 Multipurpose Hive: A multi-purpose hive capable of deploying micro-synthetics and combat nanotech. While useful in defence, hives do not have the range to make good primary weapons.
[ ] CRC Black Light Offensive electromagnetic pod: A fairly standard offensive electronics suite, capable of disrupting enemy communication and sensor systems and the control links for enemy UAVs and drones.

Shoulder Weapon: Pick One
[ ] CRC Type 221 Tactical Carbine: While hand held weapons have become secondary in most combat operations, they are often still useful, especially in very close assaults. Uses a frontal magazine and fires .5cm rounds electromagnetically. It's operating mechanisms are from the Iris Defence force G-442 but with updated control ergonomics.
[ ] Type-228 Sustained Fire Weapon: A copy of the Cherry Arms Collective 'raydart' sustained fire weapon, the type 228 is a successor to old machine guns. While somewhat heavier it uses the same .5 cm rounds as the 221. Used to suppress enemy infantry and engage enemy drone swarms.
[ ] Type-219 Missile Gun: A multi-barrelled, repeat fire, mini-missile system, weapons like this go back to the founding of the Garden. While largely replaced by the much easier to handle Combat Catapults, the sheer number if guided micro-missiles that a missile gun can fire can be impressive, and they provide excellent platforms for point defence suppression and the deployment of jammers. The 219 is an updated copy of the Peony Arms Acrididae.
[ ] Cherry Weapons Collective 'razortree' 35mm Micro-Cannon (Requires Fabrication): Used extensively by the Sakuran military, colonial defence collectives and mercenaries, the 35mm micro-cannon is a heavy electromagnetic launch system used in both hands like a carbine, but much bigger. It's 35mm projectiles are extremely fast, and this very speed lets them cut through most forms of point defence.
[ ] Cherry Weapons Collective 'stingbloom' Plasma Gun (Requires Fabrication): A light plasma gun based on River technology, the Katana has a terrible range in atmosphere, but is known to be absolutely devastating if it does hit. Heavy radiation side effects make it mildly unhealthy and extremely obvious.

Side Arm: Pick One
[ ] Rego Animal Protection Pistol: A huge mechanical hunting pistol, fires massive, low velocity 12mm rounds. Some people say it's good against modern armour. Of course if the enemy is wearing a defensive aura, or any kind of hard plate then it's going to be worse than a high velocity round.
[ ] CRC Tantalas Micro-Grenade Producer: A device that produces a variety of micro grenades from fabrication stock. These can be thrown or fired from an assault catapult.
[ ] CRC Type-1002 Whipsword: A nanotech sword capable of varying its length and sharpness, or become a powered whip.

You sure do know a lot about guns. You wish you knew more about other things.

Mobility System
Pick 1
[ ] Thrust Pack: A standard micro-G jump pack. Can boost jumps in gravity though only to a limited degree.
[ ] Grapnel Gear: A standard 3d grapple and boost pack for use in urban environments, usually used in gravity though of some use in micro grav
[ ] Locust Legs (Requires Fabrication): A set of external leg implants, locust legs allow for very long jumps and fast traversal.


Around you, the rest are gearing up. Reizay has put on a tactical suit and is layering pockets over it with various computer equipment, along with a whip sword. She seems frightened to even touch the guns. Mirareki has put on a HE-suit, trusting to her skin for the rest, and tied on a catapult and a carbine, while the Etta's are still unarmed, save for a knife, but now wearing a tactical suit.

The most impressive sight however is Luyu, now clad in a pair of gleaming black boarding shells and wound around with weapons. One is wearing a funnel crown at a jaunty angle, and supports some kind of drone swarm backpack on her shoulders, with a carbine almost disappearing in the other hardware on her chest. The other has a particle beam weapon clamped across her stomach. Both have catapults on their shoulders, and they're fussing around with a combat drone, a five legged thing with a turret on the back. One Luyu tracks her eyes back and forth while the other watches it, checking that the turret properly responds to her otherself's head movements. After a moment she's satisfied.

"Alright." She glances at you. "Smooth moves there, but we still need to figure out where to go now."

[ ] Head to the Control Centre
[ ] Head to Engineering
[ ] Head to a shuttle bay
[ ] Head to the Crew Section