“You still need to review the Ursa and the missile weapons,” Nyx said. “I’d recommend finding a wide open space to test the missiles. They’re far too destructive to test inside.”

  “Yeah… I may play fast and loose in the field, but I’m not stupid enough to fire high explosives in my own base,” I grumbled. “You said we needed the holo projector to check out the Ursa, right? Do you want me to send someone to go get it?”

  “I’m one step ahead of you,” Nyx replied, gesturing towards the maintenance area. As soon as they did, a moose came jogging out, carrying a briefcase-sized box. The bot ran up, placed the box down about ten feet away, and then took off again.

  “I still don’t understand why you stored the portable holo projector down in maintenance instead of up in one of the storage areas,” Deadbeat said.

  “There are already holo projectors built into the meeting rooms in the residential areas and on the bridge, so I didn’t think we’d ever need it up there,” I explained. “I figured the Beavers might be able to mock up their projects.”

  “You do realize they’re connected to the command network, right? They can design, analyse, and update blueprints thousands of times every second, all while working on their existing construction projects.”

  “I do now…” I muttered.

  While we were chatting, the top of the box lit up, flickering like an old monitor coming out of sleep mode. It took a second for the entire surface to be covered by a dull, white glow.

  Nyx took a couple steps and positioned themself between the projector and the rest of the group.

  “Without further ado, I present the Ursa!” they declared, gesturing towards the projector theatrically. The light on the top of the device surged, and a moment later the image of a sleek armored vehicle flashed into existence above it.

  The main fuselage was slightly shorter than the Kodiak, and it had a pair of swept-back wings sticking out of the side. It had four hover engines, two massive ones between the wings and the fuselage, and another pair attached to some sort of elongated tail section. The ship also had a large sliding door on each side, directly below the main engines, to provide easy access to the cabin.

  It looked kind of like a dropship from one of those old sci-fi movies.

  “It feels smaller than the Kodiak, and it doesn’t have the heavy plating bolted to the outside like the APCs,” I remarked.

  “It is slightly narrower because the Kodiak has all its hover engines mounted on the underside, while the Ursa has side-mounted ones. And despite how it looks, the Ursa has the same armor that the Kodiak does. The bulky armor on the APCs is more of a design and aesthetic choice than a defensive one,” Nyx explained.

  I frowned, then stepped through the image in order to get closer to Nyx. “What? Why is that a design choice?”

  “When most samurai buy a vehicle, it’s usually for personal use, and they look for some combination of style, speed, firepower, armor, and comfort. You, however, wanted troop transports. I could have provided you with featureless grey cubes, but modeling both the Kodiak and Grizzly after terrestrial APCs gives them a profile recognizable to other samurai and military personnel. They would never be mistaken for a civilian vehicle,” Nyx explained. “The Ursa, likewise, vaguely resembles older military close air support vehicles.”

  “Older close air support?” I asked. “Why not the more modern ones?”

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  “Well, the truth is, most PMCs and militaries don’t use them anymore. Between sucking model ones into the engines and being unable to outrun a dive-bombing model eleven, they had a rather short lifespan. Most military units prefer to use a combination of enclosed armor, artillery, and high-altitude bombing.”

  I frowned. “If close air support has a history of being deathtraps, why am I adopting this form?”

  “Because the Ursa isn’t made with your brittle Class 0 materials. The Class II engines can suck up any number of Model Ones and shred them without stalling, and the fuselage can withstand a number of Model Eleven strikes. That is, assuming either type of Antithesis can ever get close. I integrated the same PAWS anti-missile systems used on your other vehicles for active protection, so the Ursa should fry any minor threat before it can get close,” Nyx explained.

  “So it won’t go down to sucking something into the engine. That’s great, but I believe the whole reason we decided to investigate a new vehicle was to have something that could fight while approaching a combat zone and not be reliant on the top-mounted turret,” I said before slowly turning and waving at the image floating above us. “And unless I missed something, this thing doesn’t appear to be armed.”

  “That’s true. I didn’t put the weapons on yet. I didn’t want them to distract you from inspecting the rest of the vehicle,” Nyx said,

  “I’ve seen weapons before Nyx,” I grumbled. “I think I can handle it.”

  “If you say so…” Nyx replied, a sly smile slowly growing on their avatar’s face.

  They raised their paw and waved it at the hologram, and the image shifted slightly. Now the ship had a cannon sticking out of the fuselage, just under the nose, and a pair of boxes hanging off the stubby, relatively useless wings.

  As I started wandering over to investigate the boxes, I noticed the side doors were open, and there was a gun sticking out the side of the craft.

  “Modular gun mounts,” Nyx explained. “You can mount any of the heavy weapons the Moose use on them, and they fold away when not in use. They’re not much, but they provide a little bit of extra firepower when you need them.”

  “And the boxes?” I asked, sticking my face in front of the strange addition. The thing was three feet wide, three feet tall, and about four feet long. All I could make out inside was row upon row of perfectly spaced holes. I quickly counted, nine by nine. “What are these?”

  “Splatter packs. Rapid fire, area denial, missile weapons. Although each missile is relatively low yield, firing eighty-one of them in fast succession tends to clear an area,” Nyx explained.

  I ducked away from the opening. “This thing shoots eighty-one missiles?”

  “Yes. Although what you see there is just an image,” Nyx smirked. “The mount is modular, so you can swap it out for different missile systems later. I would recommend picking up some larger, anti-titan missiles at some point. Even though I mounted the same cannon you have in the turret of the Kodiak in the nose of the Ursa, you’ve run into a couple threats lately that even your heavy coil guns can’t handle.”

  “I can’t even afford two different sets of missile schematics?” I asked.

  “Nope. One vehicle mounted, one bear mounted. That’s it,” Nyx replied. “I told you, vehicles are expensive.”

  “Wonderful,” I sighed. “What’s everyone think about the Ursa? You think it’ll be worth the points?”

  “It’ll make a better rapid deployment and fire support vehicle. I don’t think it’ll be as good for holding areas,” Spooky said.

  “You’re the one that wanted a new vehicle,” I grumbled. “Now that we’re looking at one, you’re not satisfied.”

  Spooky shook his head. “I think you misunderstand me. I believe this’ll be a fine addition to our forces. It’ll cover some of our weaknesses, but I don’t think we’ll be able to completely phase out the Kodiak. Having mobile cover and an extra heavy weapon while securing an area is invaluable. We just need to make sure we deploy both the Ursa and Kodiak to the situations that best suit them.”

  “Oh. Well… We have a shitton of Kodiaks already, and I wasn’t planning on recycling them. Shit, we still have the Grizzliess sitting around. I don’t have a problem deploying both at the same time,” I muttered. “Anyone else have a question, concern, or observation?”

  “It’ll be easier to jump from! I can crush so many bugs from this thing!” Bob announced.

  “True… but not helpful,” I said. Since no one else seemed to have any observations, I turned back towards Nyx. “I think we’ve seen enough. Let’s get the blueprint ordered up and a couple Ursas queued for construction.”

  “Can do,” Nyx replied. “Do you want to see the portable missile system?”

  I paused and thought it over. “Nah. Like you said earlier, I can’t test them here, and I can replace them later if I need to. You haven’t steered me wrong before now, so as long as you choose an effective indirect fire model, I’m sure it’ll be fine.”

  “Awww… that’s probably the sweetest thing you’ve ever said to me,” Nyx said.

  “Okay, that’s a little creepy,” I said, seeing Nyx’s smile. “And probably also true. Just make sure you choose something good, alright?”

  “You got it,” they replied. “You won’t be disappointed.”

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