Barricade was a man of his word, and work started a few hours ter. Unfortunately, between the rock cutting required to access the foundations, and the extruding maes, there was a massive amount of hin my workspace. It was giving me a migraine.

  “Should I get everyo of here? I ’t imagihe kids are handling the noise very well,” I said. I was sittio my truck, head in my hands, after giving up on squirrel operations for the day.

  The residence is pletely soundproof, I doubt they’re even aware that any stru is happening right now.

  “Wonderful! I have a ton to do, and this noise is killing me. Please suggest something I do elsewhere.” I swear, I could feel the vibration from the jackhammers behind my eyes, “Maybe I could go out and soure of the building materials I’ll be needing soon… or something. ANYTHING.”

  I have a couple of suggestions for that. The scrapyard won’t be suffit for your needs, it’s only really good for metals, so you’ll probably o leave the city limits.

  “Just tell me where.”

  There used to be a number of towns in the area surrounding Calgary, many were abandoned with the emergence of the Antithesis. Coe, to the west, didn’t have any strategic significe, so support to that area was slow. They mao survive for a number of years, but repeated Antithesis attacks slowly drove the popution away. Most things of value were removed long ago, but it’ll be suffit for your needs.

  “If all the valuables have been looted, what exactly will I be grabbing?”

  Everything else. You just he raw elements, so breaking dowhing from the structures to the streets will be useful in future projects. As an added bonus, there may be some loose Antithesis out there, for some easy points.

  “Great. I’ll invite Sharron, make an afternoon of it.”

  One reendation I have, since you’re recyg materials for more than just bears, I would reend unlog a more effit way to break things down. The matter refiguration maes are suffit for small projects, but they’re more effit at creation than breaking things down.

  “Great! Wonderful! we discuss this at the destination? I feel like my brain is melting,” I replied. I didn’t lose my cool that often, but with the repeated hammering I was having problems thinking. I sent Sharron a message, asking if she wao explore a ruin outside the city. I admit, it may have been a little disjointed, but I didn’t care and she agreed anyway.

  As I jumped into my truck I did remember to send messages to both Jane and Barricade, letting them know I was leaving; I somehow made them coherent enough that Jane didn’t worry, and Barricade didn’t pin. After that I just o gather a few squads of bears, and send Sharron a rendezvous point, then head off. Thankfully the pounding behind my eyes lessened as soon as I left the shelter, although it didn’t fully leave.

  The trip was mercifully quiet, so I took this time to tinue my previous versation with Nyx.

  “So, you were saying something about better ways to break shit down?”

  Correct, I reend the Css I Molecur disassembly catalog. It has simir funality to the refiguration catalog, but is focused entirely on the breakdown and colle of resources. You purchase a couple of Css I Resource Colle Rigs, which break most muerials down and store the raw elements. They’re wearable, and work faster than the refiguration maes. The only downside is they store the results in a dust form, which is harder to transport.

  “Wonderful.”

  You could purchase a dedicated vehicle to store and process the dust, then ruerial into a css I refiguration mae to assemble the material into bars. It’s not strictly necessary, but small bars are easier to manipute over a fine dust.

  “Sounds plicated, why not just put it straight into the reassembler?” I asked. Nyx was throwing a ton of information at me, and my brain was struggling to keep up.

  The colle rigs don’t require you to carry rge pieces of debris to the reassembly mae to break down. It’s much more effit when w on structures, e items.

  “Fine, what are the costs?”The Css I Molecur disassembly catalog is seventy-five points, and each rig is an additional fifty. If you want a truck for colle, it’ll be an additional thousand, that includes the creation mae.

  “What? Why so cheap?”

  You’re used t with Css II tech, which is much more expensive.

  “I guess that’s true. We’ll give the rigs a try when we arrive.”

  Nyx didn’t reply, so I let the truck fall into silence again. Outside the window I saw the st of the city fall away, leaving nothing but untamed prairie. Long grass, scrub brush, and the occasional copse of trees retty much all I could see. There were the occasional abandoned homestead, and broken-down road, but for the most part everything had been recimed by nature.

  It only took about five mio get from the city outskirts to Coe. It was kind of surreal, the buildings were retively modern, but all abahere were even broken-down cars left in the middle of the street. Various pnts poked through the pavement and sidewalk, slowly reg the area. I parked the truck, pulled my hood down as far as it would go, then jumped down.

  The area wasn’t pletely abahough, as soon as my boots hit the ground a small group of model threes burst out of a storefront further dowreet. I casually raised my rifle, squeezed the trigger a couple times, and watched them colpse. I holy had expected more.

  Behind me my squad scrambled out of the truck, only to be joined by the two additional squads of bears that followed me in their IFVs. Without a word the bears, foxes, and moose spread out, and started cheg the surrounding buildings. I ducked into the building while they secured the perimeter.

  The old house’s interior was still i shape, but as Nyx suggested earlier it had been heavily ransacked. Anything valuable had beeher taken or destroyed, leaving ay space covered in dust and garbage. It was a waste, a lot of people in the uy would kill for a space like this.

  I shook my head, then stepped back out onto the porch, just in time to see Sharron’s RV hover doark o my vehicles. When the woman stepped out I was surprised, instead of her super-heavy battlesuit, she was wearing something closer to an armored diving suit. She was resting a massive rifle on one shoulder as she wandered over.

  “M Tiny,” she called.

  “Hey Squiddy, fit. Didn’t feel like getting dressed up today?” I replied.

  She scoffed, “Believe it or not I don’t run around in that tin ALL the time. This is still Css II armor, and if we really he heavy firepower I just o hop bato the RV and I’ll be suited up in seds.” She paused, looking around the area. “This is a pretty desote pce, what exactly are you doing here? You mentiohere may be Antithesis.”

  I nodded, “There were a couple when I arrived, and this town was abandoned due to the stant Antithesis harassment, so there are probably some pnty bastards around.” I stepped off the pord looked further dowreet, “As for why I’m here… destru.”

  “Pardon?” Sharron looked at me, slightly fused.

  “Sihis town is abandoned I’m going to disassemble some of the buildings for the raw materials. I’ll hem for stru going forward.”

  “And you figured it’d be easier to take them from one of the ghost towns? I guess that makes sense.” She shifted her rifle from one shoulder to the iving me a glimpse of the barrel. I didn’t know what kind of ammo it could possibly be using, the rounds would have to be massive.

  “The initial check is done, nothing in the immediate area, so I’m going to order my new equipment. You want to stick around, a pings from my re team, or explore on your own?” I asked.

  “I’d like to see this new equipment of yours, then I’ll decide. I expect you’ll be here for a while anyways”

  I nodded, gng around the area again. I didn’t see anything, and the area had been cleared, but something about the situatio… wrong. Perhaps I just wasn’t used to being in such a quiet area.

  “Nyx, gimme five rigs to start.”

  Purchased

  Css I Molecur disassembly catalog - 75 points

  Css I Resource Colle Rig x 5 - 250 points

  Points remaining: 24092

  I watched as five rge boxes appeared oreet in front of me. I popped one open, revealing peared to be a rge tank-like backpack, which was attached te rifle-like device by some sort of hose. I poked the device, unsure exactly how it could be used, when one of the nearby bears came up and picked up the device. It strapped oank, picked up the rifle, then poi at a nearby wall. The device made arical zapping sound, as a beam shot out against the wall. As I watched the wall dissolved, the small particles were pulled bato the gun and deposited iank.

  O got going, the process was actually pretty quick, disassembling a rge se of the wall in moments.

  “Impressive,” Sharron said, watg over my shoulder. “Why don’t we use that against the Antithesis?”

  “Probably much slainst living tissue, or advanced materials, or something,” I replied.

  Satisfied with the results, I sent out a and to the squad to pick up the remaining devices ao work. Within moments the squad suited up, and started ripping apart the surrounding buildings.

  Sharron stretched, reag high into the sky, “They’re impressive and all, but I really don’t think sitting around will do muy point values, or sanity. I’ll meet up with your re team, which way?”

  I sent a quick query out, the reply took the smile off my face. “They’re about two blocks west,” I replied, “Unfortunately, two of the bears appear to be missing.”