Contrary to what you might expect, the reason the majority of samurai get their fancy body upgrades isn’t because of the crazy amount of power that they provide, but rather necessity. Of course, there are some exceptions, like me, but it's probably better not to ask.
* Silverheart, during a interview with Samulyfe, June 2050
***
You’re barely conscious, so try not to move too much. I will place the items into your hand, and if you feel like you’re going to pass out, say something. I want you to press this directly into where your arm used to be.
New Purchase: Class-I Woundstop
Points reduced to: 44
What feels like a smooth cylinder plops into my remaining hand, and with a whimper I shakily reach over and press it into the large gap that had opened in my side. What feels like gravel flows into my veins, and I flinch, but as it fades so does the pain.
Much better, now, use this one just like before, you’re running a tad low on blood.
New Purchase: Class-I Hemo-Restore
Points reduced to: 39
Doing my best not to look to my right, I press the syringe into my chest, grunt at the little prick, then toss it away. Breathing heavily, I slowly stand before hobbling my way back towards the hallway. When I see the mess I had left throughout the hallway through the large hole the six had left, I lean over and puke my rather empty guts on to the floor.
You shouldn’t be moving, we haven’t-
“I-I know, but the nano-regen takes time, and I don’t wanna give the hive a chance to recover.”
This is incredibly risky. There could be more in there that we weren’t able to see before.
“I-I think I would be dead if that were the case, something would have followed that model six out.”
We’ll see, I guess. I don’t exactly have the highest faith in that assumption being true.
I know that Anyvi is right, that I shouldn’t be up right now, I just… I don't care. This is more than me. Stepping through the giant hole over my severed arm, I stumble a bit but catch myself, then grab my duffel which had gone flying when my shoulder did. Leaning on the metal wall, I scoot my way over to the room where I had seen the hive.
The room is nearly perfectly still, but that doesn’t stop the OCLE from taking some shots. First it shoots a small bulbous sack which was growing from the ceiling, then about a second later a second shot slams into a central stalk that seemed to connect everything together. Not much seems to happen, at least until another moment passes and a third shot hits in the exact same place, severing the stalk entirely.
Small Hive Eliminated!
Reward: 500 Points, 1 token
New Total: 539 Points, 1 token
Falling to my knees, I take a deep sigh of relief. Taking a quick look around the room, I notice what looks like a surfboard broken into two in the middle of the room, and my heart drops. The body in the room was most likely someone important, the minor samurai, Longboard, that had gotten popular on the local feeds for improving the quality of life for the lowest floors of New Houston. My grandfather abhorred him, but I had sort of become a fan in the last few months. He didn’t deserve this kind of end. Feeling tears coming on, I wipe my eyes.
You’re going to need to buy something to cleanse out all of the biomass in this place.
I pause, then sigh.
“Y-yeah… Y-You’re right. J-Just get me something that can do it automatically. I-I don’t think I can handle it myself.
Understandable. Taking that into mind, I recommend you get the Class-I Basic Drones Catalog for fifty points, and then a Simple Scanner Drone equipped with a Biologic Disintegrator that I can clean everything up with for ten points.
“F-Fine, do it.”
Class-I Basic Drones Catalog Unlocked!
This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.
Points reduced to: 489
New Purchase: Simple Scanner Drone (Biologic Disintegrator)
Points reduced to: 479
Appearing in the air above me, a very barebones drone made of a particularly shiny glass spins its rotors before flitting into the hive’s room. Emitting from within its body, a laser in the shape of a cone slowly begins to eat away at the corpse of the hive. I watch silently as a gigantic leaf slowly begins to disappear, then step away back into the hallway.
Stepping back over to my severed arm, I notice that my duffel had not gotten off unscarred in the chaos, the strap having been ripped off by the ursine alien. I open the bag, place my severed arm within, then grunt as I grab the bag’s shorter remaining handle. This entire situation sucks.
With nary a word between me and Anyvi, I enter the final room of the shelter, which turns out to be a simple bathroom, not nearly big enough for the hundreds of people that had been in the shelter. Taking a few steps inside, I pause when I see my all too familiar non-reflection. An idea shoots through my head, and I lean onto the bathroom sink, looking deeply at the murky puddle of color that inhabited the mirror.
“A-Anyvi, can you… describe what I look like right now? L-Like all of how I look, including the things that should be considered obvious?”
I… Certainly can. You look particularly exhausted, and your blue-green eyes have deep bags beneath them. You’re covered in blood and dirt from yourself and antithesis, your clothes are probably ruined. You slightly singed the right side of your short auburn hair, though it isn’t too clear if someone didn’t look close. In addition to the fact that your left shoulder was essentially ripped in half, when it was standing over you, the bone plating cut into your tanned skin, leaving a brutal looking slash in your chest.
“So basically, I-”
Yes, you look like shit.
I chuckle, then lean up against the bathroom wall and slide down it till I’m sitting. A deep black hole opens in the center of my vision, and I close my eyes. My consciousness fades with my AI yelling at me, but my mind simply doesn’t seem to have the energy to comprehend what she says. I fall into the darkness, and nothing remains.
~~
As her Vanguard’s consciousness slips, Anyvi anxiously checks their vitals, relaxing a bit when she sees that they are probably going to regain consciousness sooner than later. She didn’t want to lose this one so soon, they were too promising.
Humans were fascinating to Anyvi, especially their brains. Her last Vanguard was a Yulmaw, they were absolute dullards, and their brains showed it. Human brains were immensely complex, beautifully evolved to be absolutely nonsensical.
Anyvi had noticed the mental stress that her Vanguard was going through slowly build up in the last two hours, and she had expected something to break eventually. Despite everything that had occurred , it was when Anyvi had described to her Vanguard how they currently looked that they finally collapsed. A large amount of their stress had immediately lifted upon her doing so, though the reason was somewhat obscured. Anyvi had a few theories as to why this was the case, but she didn’t particularly want to ask and potentially stir up more stress than needed.
Her vanguard was fragile, yet at the same time, extremely sharp. It was a delicate balance, yet Anyvi knew she could succeed in keeping it; She had to for her ward’s safety, afterall.
~~
With a gasp, I awake from blackness, my hand shooting to my empty shoulder. My heart hammers in my chest, and I groan.
“I-I passed out.”
You almost died. You were out for half an hour before you had enough blood to function again, and I was getting worried. Please use a nano-regenerative, so that your body can recover.
I nod, then hold out my hand in preparation.
New Purchase: Class-I Nano-Regenerative Suite
Points reduced to: 459
Using the inhaler that appears, I sigh and lean my head against the wall. I was probably temporarily safe here, but my gut told me that wouldn’t last for long. I needed a plan, and I had a few points to get there.
“I-I need to be able to survive in the ocean, e-especially if we go out there and the place is swarming with bugs.”
With the amount of points that you have, you have multiple methods that you can take for that, though they are of varying quality. Would you prefer being able to biologically survive in the ocean, perhaps through cybernetic augmentation, or even external cybernetics?
“I-I can survive biologically? H-How does that work?”
With your price range, you have very limited options, though there is one that stands out to me for your current situation inside of the Axonfin technologies catalog. Though they lived on a particularly dangerous oceanic world, the Axonfin did not have the biological capability to survive in the ocean, similar to humans. They developed a method with special nanites, through which young members of their species could forcibly evolve their bodies down to the genetic level to fit whatever environment they chose, leading to a near infinite amount of subspecies. The Class-I version of these nanites are largely volatile but I can guarantee that if you used them while submerged in water, you would obtain the capabilities required to survive in the ocean, though you won’t regenerate your lost limb. They will run you two hundred and fifty points and a token, in addition to the one hundred twenty for unlocking the catalog.
“W-What do you mean by volatile? I-Is that the reason it costs a token, cause it could cause me to l-like, no longer have lungs?
That is not a possibility, but its volatility is in fact the reason the token cost is present, along with the potential body dysmorphia it could cause. Strictly speaking, the adaptation nanites will actively simulate what is needed for you to best survive in your current environment as they work after pulling whatever information that they can, including some from me and from your genetic code, leading to quite an assortment of possible changes that could occur. You would never lose essential capabilities like breathing air or digesting food through this process, so you do not need to worry.
“A-About the other stuff you mentioned… A-Augmentation sounds… u-unideal, b-but what about the external stuff?”
There are a few different options, but the one I would recommend is the Class-I Deep Dweller Catalog, which focuses on a species not unlike the Axonfin. They had a similar situation, but ended up creating environmental suits to serve essentially the same purpose. The suits are highly customizable and powerful, but at Class-I they are extremely bulky and can fail with dire consequences if they take too much damage.
After a couple moments of consideration, I struggle for a few moments to pull my shirt off, my one remaining arm proving rather ineffective at doing so. A quick look down at my bare chest drops a smorgasbord of negativity into my mind, but I take a deep breath and do my best to ignore it. I’d have time to think about stuff like that after I survived.
“I-It might be a little risky but… I-I like the idea of being able to survive with just m-my own body down there.”
Perfectly fair. Shall we get into the water then?