“Murphy’s Law states that anything that can go wrong will go wrong.
On the other hand, Charmi’s Law states that the presence of a samurai directly increases the value of an area’s entropy. It’s easy to see why they are often taught together.”
* Dr. Esteban Frump, at Vacuum 2050, before passing away in a tragic samurai cannonball accident.
***
As I stumble out of the barren marketplace back onto the metal scaffolding that traces the edge of the rig, I groan and lean my back up against the railing. When I had the sock on earlier, it was sort of awkward to walk simply because it was strange. The brace however, was an entirely different beast. In order to allow me to walk, it acts as an external bone structure, and my brain was sending a LOT of weird signals as a result, mostly feeling like my leg had fallen asleep. Popping up after around a minute of having the thing on, the typical strange sensitivity compounded with rather intense numbness to create deep enough discomfort to make me wish my leg simply wasn’t there.
Without warning, the OCLE, which had been floating quietly above my shoulder, suddenly brightens in the corner of my vision. The orb pulses, and I watch in slight amazement as a blue laser streaks through the air, evaporating a stray model seven that turns a corner in front of me. Unfortunately, I hadn’t considered the fact that where I had put the OCLE also happened to be right next to my eyes. With a cry of pain, the vision in my eye halfway goes white, one hand shooting to cover it and the other beginning to wave in the air in front of me.
“Gah! A-Anyvi, I need eye protection, a-and make it waterproof. J-Just put it onto my hand, please.”
New purchase: Mark I Marine Battle Goggles
Points reduced to: 24
Plopping into my hand, I immediately put the rather sleek looking pair of almost crystal clear glasses onto my face. I am pleasantly surprised when the temple tips of the glasses shift, connecting together to form a sort of circlet around my skull, and I shake my head to test their stability.
These came from your Class-I Basic combat garments catalog, and are designed for use in and out of water, along with built in stability and color changing functions. I used the points from that model seven to pay for them. I apologize, I did not consider the necessity of eye protection when using these kinds of weapons.
“N-No, it’s not your fault. I-I should have known the dangers of using laser weapons. A-Also, yell at me if I sit against the safety rails like that again, it’s not safe.”
I will do that.
I sigh in appreciation of my AI as I begin my waddle down the scaffolding.
“M-My best bet at the moment, to my approximation, is that I-I need to cut through the next floor down to get to the wet docks and t-that requires me to use a hatch near the center of the scaffolding to access. I-I’ve never seen it used before, since people were t-technically supposed to use the elevator in the center of the platform to get up and down, but I-I figure this is enough of an emergency that nobody would mind. P-Probably.”
As you are a vanguard now, I doubt anyone would mind regardless.
“A-Ah… Y-You’re right. I-I guess it still hasn’t fully sunk in.”
A couple minutes later, I reach about the halfway point to my destination, before something catches my eye in a section of water that was lit up by a lamp that had probably been in use since the mid-twenties. Shifting to look down on it, I remark at the slowly increasing bubbles, until I figure out what is going on. My eyes go wide and I desperately hold onto the rails as a large shadow very quickly grows in the water just a bit away from me.
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“Oh-”
-Shit.
My footing heavily rattles, and although I manage to hold on, I am almost immediately soaked as a gigantic building red with rust emerges from beneath the surface. Almost the same length as the rig itself, I watch a couple waves slam against our sudden visitor before I notice a few gigantic gray airbags along its far edges and it clicks what the hell I am actually looking at.
“H-Holy… A-Anyvi, that's one of the incursion shelters that was built into the lower levels. C-Can you tell which level it was?”
It appears to be the shelter of sublevel three, considering the side we are on. The shelter is designed to be purely mechanical in case of a situation where power goes out, so there are definitely people inside.
Noticing the shelter’s nearby hatch and how close in height the roof is to where I am, I barely even consider the drop before stepping up on the rail and hopping down onto the bobbing building. I nearly slip as I land on my feet, but catch myself and carefully take a few steps over to the hatch, grabbing onto the circular handle. I take a deep breath then pull with all of my might, and to my relief the hatch opens with a hiss. Descending a much shorter ladder than I was used to, I find myself in an airlock of sorts, and the hatch automatically closes above me.
“A-Anyvi, turn my goggles black please.”
My vision barely shifts as the glass flips its shade, and I am kind of amazed at how my field of vision doesn’t change at all as a result. About a minute passes as the airlock finishes its work, but an indicator light turns from red to green, and I know it is safe to open. With a twist and a tug, the shelter door opens, and I am immediately greeted with exactly what I didn’t want to see.
Beginning just before the airlock, fresh blood trails across the dull gray metal floor, and I grimace at the sight. Cautiously, I followed the crimson through the claustrophobic hallway, noting that there were three doors in the hallway, two on the right side and one much further down on the left, next to a gigantic blast door. Seeing the blood abruptly curve into the second doorway on the right, I take a deep breath and step inside.
My OCLE fires immediately, knocking a heavily deformed doglike alien with a three hinged jaw off of a dead body. The room is absolutely covered in what I assumed was roots, though most had already been cut up. As my orb prepares another burst, a ursoid model, much larger, covered in armor and with six legs to boot, begins to rush at me. I realize I need to move, and I step back through the door and to the side. The beast slams hard into the wall beside where I had been standing, denting it and sending me falling to my ass for the second time in a night. My orb fires again, but the pale blue laser leaves no mark on the alien’s bone armor.
That is a model six, you’re going to need to aim the OCLE yourself, specifically at the parts that don’t have armor. It’ll likely take two well placed shots to disable it, and I recommend the neck. I believe in you.
“G-Gee, thanks.” I groan as I scoot back a bit more before aiming at the six’s neck, then get into a kneeling position before I have to fall backwards again to dodge one of the ursoid's paws. The OCLE fires, and the shot actually does visible damage this time, leaving a scorch mark upon the beast’s skin. I manage to stand up, then pale when I see the alien stand on its hind set of legs, then use its first two sets to wrench a hole big enough for it to move through the door. Stumbling backwards away from the airlock, I turn my shoulder at a bad time, and I curse under my breath as my next shot hits the creature’s plating. I barely make it to another door and spin the handle so it opens, but I freeze up as the door opens. This was the entry to the primary section of the shelter, and there was a large assortment of dead bodies spread around the room.
Don’t stop, move!
My AI’s warning comes nearly too late, but I manage to sidestep slightly, meaning the Six’s jaws bite down onto my left shoulder instead of my head. In the next moment, it’s head and my body move in different directions, meaning as I fall into the new room, my arm and part of my shoulder is ripped away from me and I bite down on my bottom lip hard enough to cause blood to flow in my best attempt to not scream.
My ears begin to incessantly, deafeningly ring alongside a deep ache in my head, and I barely am cognizant as I manage to drag myself away from the door. The orb fires again, and I don’t turn to look as I continue to do everything I can to get away. The vibrations get closer, closer, and my heart begins to pump faster and faster as they do. I see the Six as it stands on top of me, and my eyes go wide as it goes in for the final blow.
But it doesn’t come. The OCLE fires one last shot, and it’s the perfect one, hitting directly where my second shot had weakened the skin and leaving a deep hole as it penetrates. The six freezes above me, and for just a moment, I think the worst, but instead it falls to the side, motionless. My head falls back, and I manage to get just two words out.
“H-Heal please.”