Class I Rudimentary CQC Weaponry unlocked! Point Cost: 30. Points reduced to... 85. New Purchase: Basic Hand-and-a-half Mace. Point Cost: 3. Points reduced to… 82.

Do you require any other armaments, Vanguard?

The voice in my brain speaks again, and I can barely process what it’s saying in my current situation. I managed to knock another Model 3 off-course with the carcass of the first, but there’s still two more, primed to leap.

Right now, all I have to face them down with is a mace- one I barely know how to hold. I could maybe land another swing- and that’s already a big ask- but that’d still leave one left to bite me in half. I need something to block them with, to buy me time to think. I need…

“Shield!” I’ll need a hand free for that. I fight back the death grip I’m holding the mace with, my instincts screaming that this is the only thing between me and disembowelment. Instead, I pull a hand away.

Very well.

New Purchase: Basic Kite Shield. Point Cost: 5. Points reduced to… 77.

And then my spare arm is suddenly weighed down by a shield, so heavy and sudden that I barely manage to steady it. It’s big, and lightweight for what it is- most of it looks like something metal, aluminium maybe, but there’s a window of plexiglass at the top, and through it, a shadow is growing, looming-

Thud. I flail backwards, trying to keep my feet, trying to steady the shield, trying desperately not to collapse on my ass, as the alien bounces off me. And I’m backing away as hurriedly as I dare, because I know there were two-

THUD.

The second monster’s pounce must have been dead-on or something, because my entire shield-arm goes numb. Despite that, I’m grinning behind my mask; that’s the last one. Now all four of us are on the ground, and I can fight back.

I peek through the shield-window at the three hunched forms in front of me. Okay, simple- mace, meet alien skull, right? The quicker I end this, the less time they have to flank me, surprise me.

So, I take a firm stride forward, and I swing my mace, right at the closest, a solid, worthy swing, that-

Pretty much misses. The monster flinches back, and it wouldn’t be agile enough to dodge a true strike, but my strike errs and scrapes along its flank instead. It still hisses and darts backwards, but the crunch of impact I was bracing for doesn’t come, doesn’t slow me, so now I’m overbalanced forward, stance completely fucked. And the second beast pounces on the wrist I’ve left dangling.

Pain- instant, fiery pain. Can’t think; can’t process. Sensation like my hand has been ripped off in a single second. I can only hope that the feeling is an exaggeration.

I lash out, trying in vain to shove away the predator who has me locked in its jaws- or, at least, it would be in vain, if I didn’t still have my shield. Instead of a shove, it’s more of a bash, and the grip on my wrist loosens. Encouraged, I slam my shield home another couple times, desperately trying to brain the thing.

It works well enough to get me free, and I stumble backwards, until my back meets cold marble. Blearily, I register that I’m somewhere near my desk. In front of me, the hound that just released me is looking… Hmm. Well, what I assume is the thing’s face is now remarkably flat, and it seems unsteady on its feet.

The others, thankfully, seem to pause just a moment; I use it to glance at the state of my arm. The good news is that the hand is all there; I flex my fingers against the handle, and they mostly seem to move, though they shake, and badly. The bad news? Well, most of my forearm is just… Gone.

The whole thing is just a mess of red, and underneath, I glimpse the white of the bone- before a fresh flood of crimson coats it. Somehow, that’s not reassuring. My nerve endings scream, but I can barely respond to the pain, and I’m vaguely aware- as if from a distance- that I’m going into shock. Ah. Fuck.

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I observe the monsters about to dismember me, and I find I can… Barely care. It’s all just so… So far away. It’ll suck to be Jet in a few moments, but thankfully, that’s someone else, someone else who’ll get ripped to pieces, and I’m somewhere else, something els-

ZAP. Something goes off in my brain; you could call it a spark, but only in the way ‘wave’ accurately describes a tsunami. It rips through me, tracing every neuron that makes up me, and in its wake I feel incredible pain- but I do feel pain again. It’s happening to me; this mass of muscle and nerve endings is me again, and all at once, I am here, now, and I am angry.

“What the fuck was that?!” I demand.

The voice’s tone is bland. I apologise, Vanguard. You were drifting. I needed to bring you back.

I’m still furious, but right that moment, I don’t have the faculties to interrogate that; instead, my gaze shifts to the mace I am still desperately clutching, and my ire shifts with it. “Why the fuck did you give me a mace, anyway?! I don’t know how to use this thing!”

Apologies again. I wasn’t sure of your preferences, so I made the best choice possible, given the circumstances. She certainly doesn’t sound sorry.

My anger will have to wait; the monsters are regrouping. “Give me a fucking gun!”

Ah. And what’s your specific preference in firearms, then, Vanguard? I swear, even though her tone is nothing but business-like, she must be fucking with me.

“FUCKING ANYTHING!” I scream- the recovered hounds are tensing to leap.

New Purchase: CQC Shorty Shotgun- Buckshot Variant. Point Cost: 10. Points reduced to… 67.

My damaged hand grips a gun handle. It’s short; pistol grip. It fits my palm like a glove. My finger curls around a trigger. It twitches; involuntary, nerve damage.

My world lights up in fire. The shotgun booms; fires a dozen or more pellets down range, ripping apart the damaged Model Three and mutilating the others. My hand jerks upwards, damaged muscles screaming at the motion. My ears are instantly ringing, and I suspect hearing loss- I’ve only ever fired shotguns at an outdoor range, with ear protection. In an enclosed space like this? Fuck.

My forearm manages to avoid snapping in two, at least, so that’s something- I level the shotgun out, and consider if I want to fire it again. I mean, I might have permanent hearing loss already; a second shot might actually rupture my eardrums.

My twitching fingers answer for me, as I depress the trigger again, and- nothing. I glance at the gun, through the window of my shield. Ah, right. Pump action. Slight problem.

I glance back at the lurching forms in front of me. Well. I have a second.

With no other obvious solutions presenting themselves, I drop my shield, slightly worried that the antithesis will jump at me the second I do; but, no, they’ve definitely been maimed pretty good, as each step they take towards me is jerking and tremulous.

I take the shorty’s pump handle with my free hand, and slide it back; the spent shell ejects with a clink. Forward again, and I’ve tucked up my bleeding arm to my side, trying to keep it steady. The antithesis limp closer; I’m only going to get one more shot at this, so I let them group up for me, drawing level with the corpse of their buddy.

Then I fire, and the world erupts again; but this time, the ringing in my ears bucks higher like a roar of thunder, then abruptly it’s a dull buzz that worries me much more. I think I just felt my ear drums blow.

But it’s worth it. As I blink, dazed, past the flash, I find- two more perforated monster corpses.

I’m safe.

I survived.

Targets Eliminated! Reward… 40 points.

I blink, dumbly. That… I heard that. “What? How?” I try to ask, and while I can tell I’m talking out loud from the vibration of my throat, the dull buzz barely changes.

The voice, when she responds, sounds clear as day. I am your personal AI, my Vanguard. I do not communicate with you through anything as crude as tissue membranes.

“My… What?” I ask, or- at least, that’s what I try to say. No real way to tell right now.

Oh, that reminds me! She responds, and then her manner takes on an unexpectedly chipper cadence.

System Initialized! Congratulations. Through your actions you have proven yourself worthy of becoming one of the Vanguard, a defender of humanity. I am Anaideis. I will assist you in uplifting humanity so that you may defend your homeworld from the Antithesis threat! Rise, Jet Galleani, and become a protector of the weak!

Now, and suddenly her tone is all business once again, I would suggest you reconvene upstairs, so I can explain what that means. Oh, after we keep you from bleeding to death, of course.