In pre-First Emergence nations where the warring parties could not afford proper tanks,

the so-called Technical dominated. Usually based on a simple but robust off road vehicle,

these cheap replacements for proper AFVs could still do a lot of damage.

– Hans Rommel in his book “History of Fighting Vehicles”, 2044

Carefully, we sneaked down almost to floor 20, but stopped on the landing before the very last flight of stairs. It was time to implement my master plan with the trolley. So I waved the guys with the trolley and the brooms closer and instructed them to tape the broomsticks to the trolley, so they formed a two meter pole sticking out of the rear of the trolley.

In the meantime, I ordered another Death’s Hand plus Foxteeth and ammo. I glued it onto the lower shelf of the trolley, barrel pointing to the right. I would circle the floor counterclockwise, with the turret peeking into the side corridors first. If something was hiding in these, the first thing it would see was the barrel of a Foxteeth.

Purchased: 1 x Auto turret “Death’s Hand” Mk III, 1 x Foxteeth Model D, 4 x Magazine

Points reduced to... 120

Before we started, our new contraption needed a name. In old British tradition I named it “Techy MacTechnical”, because the concept reminded me of the improvised fighting vehicle. Two unarmed group members, Julian and Fred, carried Techy down the stairs, while Brad, Jenny and I covered them from the stairs. Then I told them “Back behind the others, down here you are only monster food and bullet catchers”.

They complied and went back up the stairs. I went down the stairs to take control of Techy, then I called up the stairs “John, please come down and point your turret across the room!”

Slowly as usual John made his way down the last few meters and planted himself at the bottom of the stairs, his improvised gun platform pointing away from me. His position made sense to me, so I started my way around the corridor. By now my right arm had healed enough that I could push things around. But I could not yet take a firm grip on them. So I kept the Hummingbird in my healthy left and shoved Techy around the place before me, if a bit clumsily.

The cautious approach paid off soon. In the first side corridor, a tentacled something swung from the ceiling and attacked Techy MacTechnical. It crashed into the trolley and toppled it. Startled, I clamped down on the trigger. The Hummingbird salvo ripped into the baby Cthulhu, together with three shots from Techy.

Target eliminated!

Reward... 15 Points

This was a Model Four. It prefers to attack from ambush as you have seen. The tentacles are quite strong and sharp at the end. Be careful when taking it off your improvised gun platform. One of íts weapons is a hallucinogenic gas, stored in sacs in its chest. Your shots may have pierced those and set some of the gas free.

I took a close look at the creature. It looked like a misshapen squid, with neither visible eyes nor a mouth. It had some sort of rudimentary head though. What caught my attention were some gills on its back, but the situation was too tense to ask Elya for a biology lecture.

I held my breath just in case and pushed the critter off Techy with my foot.

Before I proceeded any further in patrolling the offices, I took a look into the side corridor the Four had come from, but there were no further surprises. The office doors were closed and I chose not to search the offices behind them. Then I grabbed Techy at a part that was not covered in alien body fluids and set him upright again. The turret seemed undamaged, so I resumed my way around the corridor, always pushing Techy ahead of me.

At the next office, I heard something behind the door. But the door was closed and seemed undamaged, so I figured opening it would be tempting fate. Ten meters further was another door though which was open.

I pushed Techy forward to the open door office. As soon as he was in front of the door, the turret opened fire. From inside the room came an enraged screech and some massive beast came storming out of the office.

I got a glimpse of something looking vaguely bear-shaped with four eyes and covered in armor plates, as it went after Techy. It crashed into the trolley like the squid before, but with its much greater mass, it buckled the metal frame and broke off the top shelf of the trolley. Of course, Techy fell over once more.

All hell broke loose.

The pseudo-bear turned around and went after me. I got off two shots from the Hummingbird before I had to jump out of the way. Most of the missiles bounced off harmlessly, but a few found weak points between the plates. The beast still sideswiped me but did not outright overrun me.

Techy’s turret had somehow survived the fall and started peppering the botanic bear with bullets from behind. John turned around towards the sound, and the turret he carried around opened fire as well. Both Death’s Hands together sounded like a whole squad of cops emptying their magazines into some hapless bum.

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Brad and Jenna joined in from the stairs with their pistols. The massive plant beast seemed confused for a moment, but then it focused on John and sprinted in his direction. I managed to hit it from behind. The skin was much thinner from that angle, and I was rewarded with a splash of plant sap from its exploding rear. Six salvos left in this Hummingbird.

But then the beast had reached John. It bowled him over and crushed him against the stairs, mauling his face with its square teeth. John stubbornly held on to his turret though, and more bullets ripped into its belly. Eventually, the monster collapsed on John and slid off to the side. I was shocked. Not so much about the violence as such, I might already be desensitized about that. More about how it had taken at least twenty rounds before the monster finally died.

Target eliminated! 1 x Model 6

Reward... 20 Points

New balance… 155 Points

That was a Model Six. Sixes are not only a lot tougher, but also a lot smarter and serve as low-ranking command units. Their command language is a distinctive whistle, unfortunately this one cannot give you a sample any more.

I got to my feet and walked over to John. He breathed only shallowly and his face was a mess. Mostly on one side though, and the biggest wounds were close enough together that I could cover them with one RegenBandAid. Or perhaps I should let someone else do it. One of the party guests was a certified EMT.

So I called up the stairs “Hey Amanda, I could use your help here. I have some Samurai first aid stuff, but I’d like to keep my attention on the surroundings”. Silently, to Elya: “One RegenBandAid please!”

Amanda came down and I pointed to the new box. “It contains a sort of XXL band aid and is supposed to suppress infections too. Perhaps you don’t even need gloves.”

Amanda gave me an evil glare. “You always use gloves. At the very least, wash your hands if you can. Over there is a restroom and I will damn well use it, even if it is for guys!”

“OK, but let me check out the room first.” I went ahead, alternately looking left and right for threats. None were visible, but the door to the restroom was ajar. That did not bode well. Brad was busy tending to his dad, so I asked Jenna to help me cover the restroom door. I went up to the door, gave it a kick to open it and quickly took a few steps back.

At the rear of the restroom, the ass of a Three was visible. It seemed to be drinking from a urinal. Amazingly careless of it to ignore the racket outside, but that was fine by me. One salvo from the Hummingbird obliterated its posterior half.

I checked out the rest of the restroom, but found no further enemies. Amanda washed her hands and even found rubber gloves. I grabbed some of those myself along with a bunch of paper towels, then I went over to Techy MacTechnical while Amanda looked after John.

I started to clean and inspect Techy. The wheels were intact. The turret looked OK as well. Besides, it had obviously still worked after its fall. The broken off handling stick was easily fixed with some duct tape, even if it was now shorter than before. I pulled it upright once again and positioned it to cover the corridors we had not searched yet.

The inspection of John’s turret was less encouraging. While the Foxteeth seemed OK, the hand was bent and the turret would not rotate anymore. Brad came over to extract Foxteeth and ammo from the broken Death’s Hand, then he waved one of his friends over and gave him an introductory course on firearms. The guy was downright ecstatic to get some alien weaponry.

I found it rather tasteless to show so much enthusiasm about getting a gun because someone else was too injured to use it. And a bit worrying that the introduction was needed in the first place. Our pool of qualified shooters was truly small.

In the meantime Amanda had patched up John’s face, but he was still in shock and unable to walk. I figured we should search the floor for something we could use as a stretcher. But beforehand, I had to organize a little more firepower. “Elya, what can you recommend for upgrading our firepower?”

Equipping the most proficient shooters in your group with more powerful guns. That does not include you. One option would be the Wolfbite Mk II, a larger and more powerful cousin of the Foxteeth.

With its caliber of .50AE, it is much more effective for only 10 points. There is also special ammunition available. I recommend armor piercing explosive rounds, for two points per seven round magazine. These offer considerably better stopping power than simple lead slugs.

That sounded promising, but I also had seen videos of people shooting the Desert Eagle in .50AE. The recoil was hefty and might be a little too much for Jenna. That left Brad. “Brad, would you like a bigger gun? My AI has a sweet Desert Eagle knockoff for you.”

“Damn right I would.”

Purchased: 1 x Wolfbite Mk II, 2 x magazine (armor piercing explosive)

Points reduced to… 141 Points

Brad grabbed his new toy. He also found a second acolyte for the Foxteeth cult, who got Brad’s erstwhile gun.

Sigh. The way things were going, it would take a small eternity to get my new augs. Camera hacking aside, this was the chance to exchange my broken ones for something decent.

We resumed our inspection of the floor, with me pushing Techy before me again. No Antithesis in open offices, but now we went through the closed ones too in search of a stretcher for John. We did find a suitable cot. Praise be to overworked office drones who are too exhausted to drive home overnight.

Brad organized his helpers into a rearguard with the strict command to aim away from the other refugees, then the whole group marched off into the stairwell Alan had recommended. Jenna was at the front of the column with us.

The layout differed from the first stairwell. Instead of one deep central shaft, this one had the stairs winding around large pillars, mostly obscuring the opposite stairs. Each second landing had a corridor leading away into a small warren of offices.

I had Julian and Fred carry Techy MacTechnical again, but before each corridor I made them set Techy down so I could move it past the junction myself. Apparently, that was the best way for me to earn those precious points.

I was not disappointed. Only two floors down, we were greeted by a small flood of Threes that had been lingering in the corridor. Including my Hummingbird, a hail of bullets and missiles from four guns cut them down. Techy was bowled over once again, but not further damaged.

I was glad for my ear plugs. With them the noise was still unpleasant, without them I would have seriously feared for my hearing. But damn, Brad was good with that new gun I got him!

Targets eliminated! 6 x Model 3 by you, 9 x Model 3 by your allies

Reward... 69 Points

New balance… 210 Points