I’ve been to the edge a dozen times, and only luck, allies, and preparation have brought me back. The hardest moment of being a Samurai is when you’ve been just pulled back from the edge of death, and you have to get up.
Because the work’s never done, and you have to get up and fight again, or people will die. But there’s always that sliver of a moment where you wish you could just rest. And let someone else take up the burden.
--Vanguard Thandbar
***
For the second time today, I awoke with a woman over me. This time, when I opened my eyes, the corridor lighting stabbed pain into them. I was lying with my head on Ginny’s lap while she looked off to my left. “Get the rest of the bodies out of the corridor. We’ll be leaving as soon as he’s on his feet. Throw them over the side.”
I groaned, then stretched. “What happened?”
“Your thigh wound nicked an artery. The spike staying in stopped up the hole at first, but during your fight it must have slipped.” Tara was sitting nearby, curled up in a ball. “You shouldn’t let that happen. We don’t want you to die.”
“I don’t want to die either. Once we get out of here, I’ll be able to prevent that.” I glanced at the totals in my glasses.
"Purchased: Class I Nano-Regenerative Suite
Cost: 20 Remaining points: 1,262
"Purchased: Hemo-Restore
Cost: 10 (qty:2) Remaining points: 1,252”
“Assuming I can still afford it, was anyone else hurt?” I sat up and pulled my legs out of the way as an ex-prisoner dragged the body of an M-4 past.
“No, there were only a couple left by the time we arrived.” Kaitlyn was through the doorway to the machine room, rifle aimed out into the room.
I was up and moving, but I still felt weak enough that I shouldn’t be walking. Instead, I turned my attention inward.
--I’m not allowed to buy anything for you without your permission or clear intent. Even if it is to save your life.
I thought about it for a few minutes before replying.
--Done. That is a policy that many Vanguards adopt, eventually. I don’t know why that isn’t standard practice, to be honest.
There was a long pause from my AI, during which I added “Healing” to the enhancement’s list and bumped it up to 4. When Corie finally responded, her voice was a little choked up.
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--Thank you so very much! You don’t know what this means to me. Or how hard it is to see your Vanguard dying and not being able to do anything but talk. I’ll be the best AI anyone’s ever had!
I had to smile at the relief and desperate happiness in Corie’s tone. I couldn’t find any words to respond, instead, I fumbled through sending the meaning of comfort over our connection.
The pistols I had dropped lay beside me, sitting next to the swords. All of them were pasted in alien blood and other substances. Unfortunately, there weren't any free scraps of cloth to clean them. And by now, my own clothes were in a worse state than the weapons.
Corie giggled.
--Here you go. I can make any mundane item like that. Unfortunately, it does cost one point.
“That better be some cleaning towel,” I muttered.
"Purchased: Class 0 towel
Cost: 1 Remaining points: 1,251”
It was indeed an amazing towel. Fuzzy enough to absorb the alien blood but firm enough that I did not feel like I was going to tear it by looking at it funny. “And how about you, Tara?” I asked while cleaning up my weapons.
“It was terrifying, and that was a stupid plan. You should have lured them down to you, where you could kill them at range.”
--She’s right. A simple sound and scent lure is only 2 points and is part of the general catalog.
I rolled my eyes at Corie. “Well, now that I know about it, I can do better. As I promised, I’ll try to take better care of myself. How do the scouts look?”
“It’s clear to the stairs. But I didn’t check the next level. One of my drones' is on guard at the stairs. The other is on patrol between there and here. In the other direction, the drone beyond the prison is still active. They have broken down the prison walls and are at the first security door. They are trying to break it down.”
“Kang,” I stood and turned to the man standing guard over the hallway towards the entrance. “Have your people move up. See this symbol?” I pointed to where I had painted on the wall. “The arrow points out to the surface and hopefully safety. Each symbol like this shows a choke point or a turn. I’ll be leapfrogging backwards from choke point to choke point.”
“You think we’ll see any antithesis in front?”
“There should be less, but that’s a far cry from none. Another Samurai is sealing the hive and has set up some turrets at the point where I came in. I worked my way upstream to here and blocked them, but they might have curled around since. Otherwise, I’d be keeping you all with me on rear guard. Tara is checking ahead, and she will tell us if she finds any.”
A loud boom from the machine room interrupted us, followed by another. “Get your people moving. With our luck, that will be our chaser horde. Come to speed us along.”
There was another loud boom, followed by Kaitlyn opening fire. I poked my head into the machine room to find an M-6 tangled up in the railing and half over the side. It flailed helplessly as it teetered on the edge. An M-5c pushed through and knocked the Six over the edge. I raised the Roomsweeper and fired off a burst, directing all of the flechettes to the new beast’s head.
“That tears it. Kaitlyn, back up into the hallway; use the door jamb for cover. Everyone else, get moving.” Several M-3s were already crawling through the re-opened doorway and starting down the catwalk towards us.
Kaitlyn and I held the door, and soon we were joined by Ginny. Our combined fire was more than enough to hold back the beasts at the narrow door. My worry was that we’d soon get visitors from the other door in the room too. I glanced over, and sure enough, a bunch of M-4s were entering the lower floor and starting to climb the walls to reach us. I eliminated those in three short, guided bursts.
Behind us, I heard the ex-prisoners trotting by. Soon, I felt a tap on my shoulder. “Last person!” they shouted as they ran past. I started a mental timer. We needed to give the civilians enough time to get past the next choke point before we withdrew too. I continued to split my fire between the two entryways, while Kaitlyn and Ginny focused on the walkway and broken door. I knew that we would soon start to get overwhelmed, and I was planning the retreat in my head.
When my mental timer was three quarters complete, the balance shifted. Another of the heavily armored M-6 pushed through the door and onto the catwalk, while at the other door, another large wave of M-4 rushed in. “That’s it. Ginny, retreat down the hallway to the far end of the boxes. Set up somewhere high so you can shoot over us.”