She was right, of course. She usually was. Not always, but most of the time. I had my own Nanite storage in the suit, but it would only hold 500. That and the small amount of storage in my body wouldn't be enough if we were trying to clear an entire planet.
"Good point. I guess we need to add a couple containers in the cargo hold," I replied.
"I'm thinking two big ones. That, and a Cluster harvester. They're really cheap, and if you don't have one you'll have to carry the Nanites into the containers manually. With a harvester they will flow directly into the containers."
"Is that in our budget?" I asked. We had stretched it quite thin at the end.
"They're not expensive, and I've already given the order for Brick to detach two containers from my hauler and bring them through the gate. The harvester itself is in a Manufactor right now."
"Right on, thanks Met," Marty said and gave her a high five. She took it with one of her larger upper arms, grinning back.
"Met?" I asked, raising an eyebrow at Marty.
"What?" he asked, mock affronted.
"Never mind. How long is the harvester going to take?" I asked.
"It's just about done now. It's a pretty simple device. The Nanites will travel along the conduits already in the Redemption. You just have to mount the harvester.”
Minutes later two containers that looked like space-age coffins came through the gate. They were long and flat with rounded surfaces like a stainless-steel lozenge. Spider bots carried them up the ramp and installed them on either side of the gate, vertically mounted on the walls.
The harvester came through soon after, a blister roughly half the size of a basketball. Metra plucked the harvester away from the bots carrying it and mounted it on the nose of the ship right beside where the hatch would open and close. It took her less than a minute to place and meld the blister to the hull.
I brought up the ship status sheet to check the changes.
╠═╦╬╧╪
Redemption
Hull Integrity: Nominal
2xLight particle beam turret/p>
1xPlasma turret
Defense Systems:
Basic combat shielding
Other Systems:
Mitrasa Deluxe Scoutship Stealth Package
Scout sensor package
Gate
2xNanite Cluster Storage Canisters
Nanite Harvesting Unit
Energy
Internal Generation: 800 PU/s
Internal Storage: 40000/40000 PU
Energy Consumption:
Weaponry: 0/1200 PU/s
Shields: 0/80 PU/s
Propulsion: 0/50 PU/s
Other: 0/145 PU/s
╠═╦╬╧╪
"How does it work?" Marty asked.
"Just turn it on and it will pull in every unclaimed Nanite Cluster within two hundred meters, nice and fast."
"That's awesome. Will it extract them from dead Ferals as well?" I asked.
"Yes. It wouldn't be much good if it didn't. It doesn't take a lot of power, so when you're clearing a battlefield you can just keep it on."
"You make it sound like this is a standard feature?" I said.
"Of course it is."
I turned to Marty. There was one last thing both of us needed to do before we went.
"Marty, I hate to delay our departure any more than we have to, but I think you should get yourself to the next tier of Transcendent Flesh and max out your stats before we go. We're going to need you at the top of your game."
"Hey, I'm not going to argue with that. I guess we can afford it now."
"I'm going to do some stat upgrades as well. I've got more than you already, but you'll catch up soon. I don't want to be one of those dummies that doesn't spend all his stat points before the boss battle because he might need them later."
Marty laughed. "No doubt."
We both returned to Pax and made our way to our separate quarters: mine in Mattias' living quarters in the Hab complex, and Marty to the quarters Metra had built for him off one of the Connector nodes. I settled back in the office chair, which was the one remaining piece of furniture that was fully intact. My armor stood nearby, back open and waiting for me to return.
This upgrade had been planned for a while, saved in the depths of my Interface. Until now I hadn't dared spend any of our precious exotics on stat upgrades I didn't really need. I brought up the summary in front of me.
╠═╦╬╧╪
Queued Upgrades
Transcendent Flesh +1 to 3/5
Strength +10 to 30/30
Coordination +15 to 30/30
Endurance +16 to 30/30
Acuity +10 to 30/30
Intuition +10 to 30/30
Perception +10 to 30/30
Costs:
568 Nanite Clusters
8.35kg Metals (Tier 2)
41.15kg Organics (Tier 2)
4.25kg Exotics (Tier 1)
╠═╦╬╧╪
"Materials are on their way, Jake," Brick said, anticipating my need.
"Thanks, Brick."
In my lap was a container filled with the Nanites I needed for the upgrade, withdrawn from the Pax storage arrays. Spider bots crawled up my legs, each carrying a portion of the materials my upgrade required. Each would drop it in my lap and leap off before the next one came in.
"I've got to buy some furniture and get this place livable again. This would be so much easier with a bed. I wonder what would happen if we put Redemption down in the parking lot of some big box furniture store and me and Marty started shoving furniture through the gate."
I chuckled to myself.
"Isn't there some better way the Union does this, Brick?"
"There is. It is a pod that has material and Nanite Cluster conduits. The Interface draws from it as needed rather than having to stockpile the materials ahead of time."
"Remind me to build some of those before we do this again."
The image of us Inducting and upgrading a lot of new people using our current methods had me chuckling again. Not everyone would be so open to robotic spiders crawling on them, delivering the needed materials.
"Noted," Brick replied.
Finally the
