Chapter Eighty-Three – Cat of All Trades

“The future of mechanized warfare is not walking mechanized vehicles. It will never be walking mechanized vehicles.

Legs will never trump tracks! You fucking pissants!”

–WarLightning Forums, 2028

***

I think, before you start spending points on a new mech, you should decide what you’re looking for in a new vehicle.

I frowned at that. “What do you mean?” I asked. Wasn’t I just looking for a bigger, better version of my last mech?

Generally speaking, most weapons can be divided into two broad categories. The specialized and the general-use. A handgun is a general-use weapon. It can use different ammunition and it’s almost always good to have on hand. A marksman’s rifle isn’t as useful in most situations, being too heavy and cumbersome to use, however, in its specific niche-use, it is far better to have than a normal handgun or even a more common sort of rifle.

“Alright,” I said with a slow nod. I could see where she was going with this. “And my previous mech was… what, a sniper rifle?”

Somewhat. Thinking in strict binaries won’t be good for you, think of it more as a sliding scale between the two extremes. The Nyanzerfaust is a decent all-around platform with a very specialized main weapon and secondary armaments that had lots of versatility. I would say that it leaned more towards the ‘Cat of all trades’ side of things.

“Was that a pun?” I asked.

I am the final arbitrator for what is funny.

I groaned and rubbed at my face. “Sure, whatever. Just get to your point.”

My point is, do you expect to use the Nyanzerfaust again in the future?

“Yeah,” I said after thinking about it for just a second. I was a bit attached to it, and it wasn’t that fucked up.

In that case, it might serve as a decent platform for general use. If you purchase another platform that can do everything the Nyanzerfaust does, but better, then you’ll never need it again. Seeing as how that might be wasteful, why not instead purchase something more specialized?

That sounded… not too bad. “So a sniper mech? Maybe a melee mech? Maybe something way tankier, so that I can take on big fuckers without worrying when I get chewed on?”

That would be three separate specialisations. How about all of them?

“Isn’t that just generalizing again?”

No. I mean why not purchase multiple mechanized platforms and a unit to transport them to the location where you want to use them? A carrier of decent size could ensure that you either have an arsenal of platforms available, or you could buy a single highly modular frame and switch out its specializations as you go.

I leaned up against one of my new garage’s walls as I thought about it. A fuck-huge flying carrier that transported a half-dozen mechs like my current one, all ready to be deployed and with different sets of weapons to fuck enemies up in new and refreshing ways sounded awesome as hell.

Having one mech that could switch out guns and shit on the fly… also sounded pretty awesome. “Okay… both sounds kinda cool,” I admitted.

I would suggest the carrier option.

“Why?” I asked.

The increased modularity is worth it, in the long run. The cost of the vehicle to carry mechanized units might be somewhat steep, assuming you want something armed and armoured and comfortable, but once you have such a vehicle, you can continuously upgrade your arsenal by buying new and improved mechanized vehicles. Those not in use can be stored here. It also gives you the potential to carry large amounts of materials to a site, or ever smaller combat or scout drones. 𝙧�

I was nodding along by the time she was halfways through. “Okay, but I need to see what this carrier thing will look like. And it needs to fit in here.” I gestured vaguely at the entire parking garage. If I was gonna have something like that, I’d want it to be parkable at my place.

Certainly. Let’s get you some options across a range of prices. There’s a holographic projector in the mechanical bay that we can use.

There was a smaller projector inserted into one of the workbenches. It looked like the kind of thing meant to display parts or schematics, but as I got closer and my Augs connected with the garage’s interface, the little projector came to life.

A swirl of lights later, and there was a hovercraft on display.

Seeing as how you have both a Class I Armoured Assault Vehicles, and a Class I Mechanised Warfare Platform Flight Systems catalogue, I will limit purchases to items that don’t require any new catalogue unlocks.

If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it’s taken without the author’s consent. Report it.

“Thanks,” I said as I leaned in closer.

The hover…tank, thing, was a rather boxy looking car. It was thin and long, with a fat nascel at the rear for its engines and what looked like two gull-wing doors on either side. Each one looked large enough to fit my current mech into.

The schematic had the doors open and close, revealing tight little bays on the interior where a pair of mechs could stand. Landing pad ‘feet’ unfolded from below, and there were even little ramps that slid out from under the openings for the mechs to get in and out easier.

The front was a blunt-nosed cockpit, with little more than a seat and driving controls. It… did look a little less angular on the sides, but not by too much.

All in all, it reminded me of one of those hovering delivery vans, but way longer and slightly beefed up.

This is a model that would only cost you four thousand points. It’s a capable vehicle, with decent speed and acceleration capabilities and room to store two mechanized units within itself. It is also perfectly street-legal. Unfortunately, it is unarmed.

Not too expensive. The 3d model I was looking at was colourless, but I could imagine a big black boxy thing coming in and dropping off a few mechs. It looked a little too… normal, though.

“Alright, next one up?” I asked. “I do need guns.”

This next one is based off of an ancient Sunwatcher gunship.

The 3d render was replaced by a new model, and I perked up a bit at the sight of it.

This one was much stubbier. Not as long, but way fatter. It had a sort of long, protruding cockpit in the middle, with two large angled gates next to it. That meant that the entrances for the mechs were all forward facing. The spine of the ship was actually lower than the two boxy containers for the mechs.

Myalis had the model spin a little, and I took in the shape of it. From above, it was almost coin-shaped, with a protrusion for the cockpit at the front.

It had small winglets, but there was no way it was aerodynamic enough to fly. “Weird looking thing,” I said.

It’s ancient, as I said. But the design features a roomy interior and it’s well-armoured for its size.

Myalis had the diagram blow apart, showing the inside. The cockpit was actually pretty large, like a big SUVs, and there was a walkway from it to a small cargo room that had a bed and a small living space. I could access the two mech holding spaces from there.

A longer, slightly more expensive version is also available for sixteen thousand.

The model stretched out. This time adding two more mech holds and a much larger living space. The original version had an underbelly turret and a pair of smaller guns on top. Now this longer version doubled that until there were six hardpoints spread across the carrier.

Room for four mechs was pretty nice, actually, and the living space was decent.

“I think… I like bigger,” I said.

Fantastic! Then you’ll like this one, at least until you see the price tag.

The image disappeared, and then was replaced by… “Is that a spaceship?” I asked.

It is not technically capable of reaching space.

The carrier was long. Twice the length of a semi-trailer, and about three times as wide, but still relatively low. It had three bay doors on each side, all of them numbered, and below that, six large mechanized legs.

The damned thing was bristling with small guns sticking out of rounded pods stuck to its sides and top and bottom. Myalis had them wiggle around, showing their firing arcs, then the legs retracted back in and the bay doors opened.

The thing looked like it belonged in a sci-fi movie.

The model opened up, showing off the interior. There was a conference room, a bathroom, two areas with tight little bunk beds, and a bridge. The entire middle section had room for six mechs next to the bay doors, and two more tucked within.

This model would cost you a neat thirty-seven thousand points, but it is quite capable in combat all on its own and can carry up to six mechanized units the size of your Nyanzerfaust onto a battlefield in relative safety.

The model reassembled itself, then spun. It looked intimidating… of course, the front of it had a slightly… feline look to it, but not enough to outright say that it looked like a cat.

Yeah, I could work with that. “A few changes…” I started.

***

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