Chapter Two – Finally Getting Good

Chapter Two – Finally Getting Good

“Mesh Sex is the best, no worries about birth control, there’s always someone willing, and no matter the kink, you will find a group of enthusiastic weirdos to talk to about it!”

–An Enthusiastic Meshizen, 2039

***

I wasn’t about to go gallivanting in the matrix while in the kiddie pool. Nah, I was going to do that on the bed. I laid down, fiddled with my augs until I found my Full-Dive System, and I flicked it on. There was that weird sensation of sneezing backwards as I dove in.

One of these days I’ll convince you to buy better neural augmentations. Then you won’t need to set up all of these extraneous things.

“I told you, I’m not super fond of having my brain messed with. Also, where am I loading into?” I asked. For the moment, I was a shapeless nothing in a void, which… while not exactly unpleasant, wasn’t nice either.

Then the world turned on, as it were, and I found myself in a room with cement walls all around. There were a few tables to one side, then a couple of booths overlooking a long, long room with some holographic targets floating at the end. They looked like glowing orange model threes, though these were entirely stationary, and a bit cartoonish.

“Is this the place Grasshopper wanted me to see?” I asked.

This is a training facility. The tablet to your right allows you to pick and choose a weapon, as well as attachments and equipment. The range is to your left. You shoot things from there. Time is slightly dilated here, so that three hour’s training in Mesh will count for one outside of it.

“Uh-huh,” I said as I walked over to the little panel and picked it up. Then I stared at my hand. It was… a hand. My hand. Mostly. I squinted and noticed that the texture of the skin wasn’t quite right. “Right, VR bullshittery,” I said. Outside of the Mesh that arm was cybernetic. I glanced down at myself, just to be sure. I looked… like me, but in a dull grey jumpsuit. The only hint of personalization was the nametag CAT over my left breast.

You can hardly train with a weapon if you’re not in your own skin.

“Yeah, I suppose,” I said before tapping the panel. It lit up and I found myself with a dozen options. “Assault rifles, DMRs? Bolt-Action, Handguns, Shotguns, Exotics, I’m guessing these are the bigger categories for guns? How many guns are on here?”

All of them.

“When you say that,” I said.

A large number of gun enthusiasts have recreated nearly every weapon ever made by humanity as faithfully as they could, including many prototypes and otherwise lost weapons. The latter were designed off of existing photographs and records. All of these are available for you to play with.

“Wow, what a bunch of nerds,” I said.

I also took the liberty of adding digital versions of the weapons available to you through your current catalogues. All seven-hundred thousand of them.

“Oh,” I said. “Well, that’s a bit much, isn’t it?”

I don’t think anyone expects you to memorise all of them. This space should let you try things out on your own, though.

I tapped on the shotguns list, because I happened to be fond of those, then frowned as it sub-divided itself some more. Automatic, semi, pump, heavy. I didn’t know what heavy was, so I pressed on that, and was greeted by a long, long list of guns. Each had a little thumbnail next to its name and some information that went over my head. I guessed that ROF was Rate of Fire and the weight and ammo count was self-explanatory, but a lot of it was clearly meant for nerdier nerds than me.

Heavy, as it turned out, meant the kind of gun that required two normal humans to operate, or that were loaded onto a vehicle. I could probably manage them with my power armour on. I scrolled down, then stopped on one in particular that looked cool enough to try.

“Okay, how do I get this one?” I asked while pointing to a HMSG-m49. The name wasn’t as sexy as the gun itself.

Tap the selection, then configure the weapon as you please. Afterwards, press the Ready button on the bottom right and the weapon will appear on the range bench.