Chapter 5
Rache & Reversi
A LOT OF THINGS WENT to Justy’s mind as he dragged his feet into the mud. But even for a second, he never let his guard down. He was on the constant lookout for any objects that might appear on his map and to his surroundings.
“Strength +1.”
“Power +1.”
He looked back to the ship. He couldn’t help but feel sad abandoning it just like that. After all, it was his first actual space ship. Justy adored the ship, regardless of its name and the short time they have been together. If he could have his way, he wouldn’t leave it in the open just like that.
“Crabtree, what about our ship?”
“What about it?”
“Are we going to leave it just like that?”
“That’s the least of your worries, boney.”
“Well, how could we get off this planet without a ship?”
“I have activated its cloak and repair function. If the damage is not big, the repair bots could fix it.”
Justy felt relieved hearing that Scrotum will be in good hands.
Enhanced Vision and Dimensional Storage were the two innate abilities of the Suit he had used so far. He wondered what other abilities the suit had. He also remembered that the Suit learned some abilities because of his actions. Like how he acquired Roar, by shouting at the top of his lungs several times.
He smiled when he thought of things he could do. “Are there any more innate abilities this Suit had that I don’t know of?”
“Not much. This is a prototype suit after all. It has limited capacity. It has less power and less CEN’s.” Crabtree said. “It has only four innate abilities. The suit has a weird Cloak mode. I warned you not trust on it, it’s a very inefficient technology.”
Justy nodded. “What’s the last one?”
“Assimilation.”
“Assimilation?”
“Yeah, Assimilation.”
Justy sighed. Assimilation skill, Justy whispered.
AssimilationLevel 1 | 0.00%By feeding the CEN’s with a right amount of a specific material or object. The CEN’s could replicate its properties.
The higher the quality of the material, the greater the amount and time needed for the CEN’s to completely assimilate it.
Also, the residue in the process will be fed into the antimatter engine to be annihilated.
Justy uprooted one of the grass. “Assimilate.” Justy said. He felt some movement in his right arm. Then the black stuff, the CENs, covered the grass. All in all, it took four seconds before the entire grass vanished from his hand. Like a strong acid eating through everything it touches.
Analysis complete:
Species: Anophylaes Family
Material quality: Rank E-minus
Physical Property:
12200 times less compressive strength to current CEN’s configuration
14920 times less tensile strength than current CEN’s configuration
7020 times less resistance to heat
20100 times less resistance to radiation
10222 times less shocking resistance
20010 times less shearing strength
15% more resistance in its innate toxins
No. of Substances Harmful to Carbon-based life form: 1
No. of Substances Harmful to Non-Carbon-based life form: 1
Assimilation complete: 100%
Justy uprooted another grass and another.
“Strength +1.”
“Power + 1.”
“What are you doing?”
“Don’t you find it strange? Except those two bugs, we have not yet encountered any aliens in this swamp.”
“Yeah, you’re lucky. So what about it?”
Justy shrugged. “I don’t think it’s about luck. This grass and this thick miasma, most likely, is very toxic to them.”
“What do you plan to do with it then?”
Justy looked back again to his ship. He smiled knowing it will be safer than he is about to be. “Extract whatever is in it. Is there any better way to do that?”
“The default setting of the skill is to assimilate physical properties.” Crabtree said.
Justy nodded. Assimilate Chemical properties, focus on harmful substances, Justy thought. Again, the grasses he held vanished gradually in his hands as the CENs eat through it.
Analysis complete:
Two toxins found:
-Amino Tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin
-Diacetoxyscirpenol
Individual Toxin Assimilation: 4%
Not enough, huh. Justy thought.
He scuffled to the ground and dug up loads of grass. It took him thirty minutes to finish the assimilation while under constant nagging of Crabtree to hurry his ass off.
“Strength +1.”
“Power +1.”
You can now rearrange any matter, with the help of CENs, into these different toxins:
-Amino Tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin
-Diacetoxyscirpenol
Assimilation Skill have leveled up.
-2% less material needed in assimilation process
-1.5% less time needed in assimilation process
-3% less energy required in assimilation process
“Produce the toxins that is harmful in non-carbon based life form in liquid form.” Justy said. “Inject it in Rache rifle left chamber.”
The residue in the assimilation process that was supposed to go into the Antimatter matter engine was rearranged to be a liquefied version of Diacetoxyscirpenol. The nanites understood Justy’s command and injected the liquid in his rifle.
Justy grinned when he saw the chamber being filled up by blue liquid. He clasped Rache in the Air. “Let’s go.”
“Oh, finally. For a second there I thought you were going to eat all those grass.”
Justy laughed. “By the way, this toxic gases. Is there a chance it’ll affect me if I stay here too long.”
“Please don’t tell me you plan on sleeping here.” Crabtree said. “Worry about that if the Suit’s power gets dangerously low. It will prioritize more important function than filtering the air.”
Justy looked at the Energy notification in the upper right corner of his HUD. It says 76%. “What’s more important than filtering the air?”
“Losing a major organ. More or less.”
Justy grimaced. “I’ll make sure to keep my organs intact then.”
Justy took another step but this time the ground was hard. The miasma that was overflowing in the swamp became less. He could see more clearly now, but his vision were partly blocked by gigantic trees. He looked up to see how tall the trees were.
But he only saw leaves. Different looking leaves with the size of an adult’s open palm. The trees itself were covered in vines, thick as a human arm. The forest was awfully quiet. This time there’s no more toxic miasma fuming everywhere. But Jusy would gladly go back to that toxic swamp, at least there he wouldn’t have to worry about some Aliens hiding into those trees.
Justy slowed his pace. There’s too many openings and Justy didn’t liked that. His only comfort was that his chances of being surrounded would be significantly lower. He has an idea on how to use those massive trees to his advantage.
Justy heard some rustling. But saw nothing when he quickly turned. Justy loved the thrill in games, but this time he is feeling a lot more than thrill. In games, you can reset to your save point, but this time there was no save point. This time the stakes are real.
One wrong move and the game is over. Most players would lose a nerve at this stage of the game. But not Justy. His experience in competitive gaming where the stakes would go as high as thousands of dollars had molded his heart to become tough as steel, had modified his veins to flow ice water, to not falter in crucial moments.
And this is a crucial moment.
Justy strode towards his destination while constantly looking both ways. “Can I use the Suit’s cloak function? Because it would be very helpful at this moment.”
“Try it.”
“Cloak function info.” Justy whispered.
Cloak
The CEN’s dynamically scans the surrounding area and alters its skin color to match in real-time with the use of Nano-crystalline properties. Capable of fully absorbing or bending incoming wave spectrums such as visible light, radiowaves (Radar), Infrared (Thermal Imaging), and possibly microwaves or others, to render itself completely invisible to most surveillance equipment.
However swift and sudden movement could create distorted effect around the Suit and could reveal your position.
Use with caution: High energy consumption. It is advised to deal your initial attack to the target’s weak spot to maximize cloaking capability and avoid detection.
“Activate Cloak.” Justy said.
His hands were gone and so as his lower body. His rifle, however, remained. “Uhmm, I think my gun is visible.”
“Yeah, no kidding. Your weapons has no stealthing capability, only your Suit. I told you it’s a very inefficient function.”
“Capture Rache.” Justy sighed with disappointment.
He marched along the gigantic forest in Cloak mode. The trees, though massive, were not evenly spaced apart. Justy doesn’t know if there was sunlight peering through into the forest. His enhanced vision makes him see everything in bluish color.
The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
He noticed his Suit has now 68% Energy. He suspected the combined usage of Enhanced Vision and Cloak is draining the Suit’s energy faster than before. Still, he decided not to turn it off yet. After all, the danger is ever present.
He sidle around a huge tree blocking his path. A moment too late and Justy could have crushed a seemingly spherical objects in the ground. They were the size of a tennis ball. When Justy looked past the tree, he saw more of this objects. These objects, however, stick with each other forming some sort of cluster. Each cluster, Justy estimated, have at least five or six of them glued together and were covered with some sticky fluids.
Justy took a step back. He has a hunch of what it could be. He’d rather not wait and find out more about it. His senses were all tingling and saying those, quite possibly, eggs are bad news. But he was too late. Small glowing lights started to appear every second.
He swore he didn’t, accidentally or intentionally, created any sound. He knows it was not his body heat, for the Suit was doing a wonderful job concealing it. Must be the smell, he thought. No matter what it was, the fact remains that something, or a lot of things, have woken up from their slumber.
His breathing grew faster as the number of the small, round lights increases. Justy didn’t dare to move. But his heart thumped violently in his chest. Justy glanced, without moving his head, sideways looking for an escape route. Instead, he saw more of those small gleaming lights.
He was unarmed.
“Do not move.” Crabtree said softly.
“What do you think I am doi-“
Justy couldn’t believe it. The legs, which was divided by a three joints and arched in a semi parabolic manner, stood three meters tall. And it has six of them. Six hairy, thick, tapered legs. The body, almost touching the ground, looks like a saucer. With all the hairs around it and eyes gleaming in red. But Justy with his enhanced vision couldn’t tell if their eyes were red. And that their body was painted with orange and interspersed with some rich brown color.
It was only one. And then came another and another and another.
They all went for their eggs. The creatures raised their body and let out a gas from what looked like their butt. The creatures propelled the gas directly into their eggs and it frothed. Every single one of them did the same thing. Soon, the surrounding area was doused.
And so was Justy. Froth covered his entire suit. Something in it had disrupted the Cloak function. Justy knows that because a message appeared in his HUD. Uh oh, Justy said to himself fully knowing the grave danger he is currently in.
The intensity of the small lights grew stronger. Justy can’t see their eyes, but he’s positive they were all looking at him. If there was no Suit, Justy’s sweat would have poured all over, alas, every moisture, sweat, urine were all being, without his knowing, recycled back to his body.
“Run! You idiot!” Crabtree said.
There’s only one place he knew that might be safe. And he ran towards it.
“Speed +1”
“Power +1”
The froth in his suit chipped away gradually as he ran back to the swamp.
“Release Reversi.” Justy said.
He knows the importance of having a weapon. He didn’t released Rache because of its length. He’d rather not lose his only rifle hitting some tree.
“Disengage.”
He took the white Reversi and held it on his left hand. He glanced into his map and saw several objects converging on his position. He had a head start but they were closing in fast. Those unbelievably long legs were not just for show.
“Speed +1.”
“Power +1.”
Justy took a gamble. Instead of going straight back to the swamp he deviated to the right side. And the spider-like creatures followed. He was hoping they would slow down in turns. But Justy was wrong. He forgot to take into account that the forest was where this creatures live. It was their home and their territory.
The creatures who were after him, through millions of years of evolution, have above average agility and speed, and those numerous giant trees blocking every path forced them to develop muscles to make quick turns. Justy just delayed his escape. With no more tricks up on his sleeve, he ran fast as he can back to the swamp. He fired his blaster, the black Reversi, to the back while running hoping the sound might dissuade them to stop chasing him.
“What were you shooting there?” Crabtree asked. “Just keep your eyes forward. I got eyes in your back.”
Justy was glad that he is not actually alone. That’s right, he has Crabtree with his horrible personality and all. But the respite was over. There were still countless spider-like creatures hot on his ass. They have marked him rendering his cloak function useless.
The froth-like substance were meant to fertilize their eggs. So imagine the surprise of the spider-like creatures when some of their stuff were moving away from their nest. Their motherly instinct kicked off and went after Justy, who they deemed a threat to their offsprings.
“Speed + 1.”
“Duck!” shouted Crabtree.
Justy didn’t know what it was, but he obeyed. It was a front leg sweep aimed at his head. And he dodged it perfectly. The creatures had caught up on him and still no sight of the swamp. “Fuck it!” Justy said as he turned right having his back into one of the trees.
“Capture Reversi, Release Rache.”
After switching his weapons, he peeked quickly at his map. He turned around and used the blaster (the main muzzle) in the first creature he saw. He didn’t bother to see if it was dead. He ran and quickly turned his body to shoot another creature at his left.
“One more to your right, 4 o’clock.” Crabtree warned.
He shot at it. This time, again, he didn’t use incendiary rounds or the infused rounds, though he was tempted. He prefers one shot, one kill. Although, he was not sure if he was actually killing them with one blast of highly explosive rounds.
“Roll to the ground.” Crabtree said.
He rolled, but more like tumbled. He spun, aimed and shot. The first he shot was the one who just nearly impaled him with its two legs. Then he aimed to his right and took another shot. Every time when they got too close at him, Crabtree informs him and he shoots them.
Thanks to Crabtree’s timely warning, he was able to avoid attacks. And soon, a familiar sight of fuming miasma neared ahead. But the hope of escaping back to the swamp vanished like a puff of smoke when several spider-like creatures blocked his path.
He shot a burst of incendiary rounds and followed it with HE rounds. This time he saw the one he shot staggered and bent. He then shot another. The first one he shot recovered and getting back up. He stopped and skidded for a bit.
He pressed the two triggers in Rache, which were the two ancillary functions, the infused rounds and the incendiary rounds. Pressing the last trigger will invoke the high concentrated explosive rounds. He didn’t have his fingers on the main muzzle trigger yet. Because of its slow rate of fire, Justy reserves it when they got too close.
He shot a controlled burst of both rounds to each creatures in front of him. Then he ran straight to them with continuous fire. He fired the HE rounds to their legs. Their body might be tough but their legs weren’t able to absorb the explosion.
The blast was not enough to completely destroy the legs. Their hide was really tough. But it was enough to induce compound fractures. The creature who just had its legs broken, crumbled under its own weight. Justy saw the opportunity and he rushed to grab it.
He sprinted towards the fallen creature. He captured Rache and released Reversi and disengaged it as well. With the creature’s body blocking the way. Justy jumped, and during midair he stretched his arms outward while shooting the other creatures sideways.
“Speed +1.”
“Power +1.”
Or at least, that’s what he envisioned. What really happened was less… dramatic. He’d done it right up to the point where he disengaged Reversi. On the jump, however, he failed miserably. The Suit, with only nine Strength, wasn’t enough to hurdle the obstacle before him.
He was supposed to land at the top of the creature, with his feet, but he landed with his face.
“Fucking idiot.” Crabtree laughed.
Just like when you slipped on a public place and you stood up so quickly and you refused to look around and acted as if nothing happened. Justy did just that. But there was no time to reminisce and laugh at his misfortune, for the creatures were still there.
And this time, it was their chance.
Crabtree warned him and Justy jumped away from the body just in time before getting impaled by several pointed legs.
He ran and ran.
“Speed +1.”
“Power +1.”
He managed to take a deep breath when he stepped on a muddy ground. Normally, one would not want to rush into a toxic swamp, but Justy was not normal, he became different when he equipped the Suit. He had become something else, he had become more machine than human, and this toxic swamp was his salvation.
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