Chapter 6 - Part I

It was a strange experience to be able to run through the Sarcophagus’s weapons inventory as though I was choosing guns from a game menu.

I was both surprised and unsettled by the variety of weapons stored inside the massive device.

Maybe it's bigger on the inside than the outside.

At present the Sarcophagus was sitting somewhere in Limbo, yet I was communicating with it through a three-dimensional interface I could clearly see in my mind’s eye. Simon had recommended I practice with it while keeping my eyes closed.

I cleared my throat and spoke softly.

“Long range sniper rifles. Anti-material rifles. Some of these are anti-tank weapons. Wow—I could shoot down a trans-orbit shuttle with this one.”

I continued running through the list…and found one that was rather interesting.

The specifications were listed alongside a detailed, rotating image of the weapon.

I added it to my list, which oddly resembled a shopping cart.

Licking my lips nervously, I switched over to a menu listing smaller weapons that were just as lethal at close range. A couple of semi-automatic handcannons grabbed my attention.

“My Vipers are here! Awesome. I wonder how useful they would be in a zombie apocalypse. Should I use them with a one shot one kill strategy? I think explosive tipped rounds would work best in that situation.”

I opened my eyes and sent a thought to the menu, willing it to move aside so that I could look at Simon unimpeded.

“Do you have zombies in your universe?” I asked him.

Simon had been sitting on the wide sofa opposite me and the coffee table, reading from a magazine sized tablet resting on his lap. His eyes widened considerably as he looked up at me. “What makes you ask?”

“Just curious.”

After an interminable length of time during which he remained perfectly still and quiet, Simon broke into a relaxed smile. “Of course not. Zombies don’t exist.”

“Oh…cool. That’s a relief.”

I realized I sounded somewhat disappointed.

Simon continued staring at me for a while longer before silently diverting his gaze toward the windows. “Quite…a relief….”

I closed my eyes and focused my attention on the menu.

I decided to go with a safe choice for up close and personal combat – my trusty Viper Vanquish rail-guns. However, on this occasion I chose to equip both handcannons with armor piercing rounds fit to punch through a permacrete wall or several inches of laminated steel.

Feeling Simon’s gaze on me, I opened my eyes and instructed the menu to disappear.

“Have you made your selections?” he inquired.

“Yeah. I’m going with the Vipers for close range, and something else for the opening shot.” I stood up and off the crescent shaped burgundy sofa, and looked down at myself dressed in a sleeveless blouse, tight denim pants, and stylish tennis shoes. “I guess I’d better change too.”

He placed the tablet on the sofa cushion beside him. “Are you sure this is what you want to do?”

I half grimaced. “I think I need to make an impact—a kind of powerful statement. Don’t eff with me. You know what I mean?”

“Most assuredly….”

I flinched inwardly as his voice trailed away.

I felt certain that since Simon had chosen to give me control of the Sarcophagus, he would bear the brunt of the blame over the decision I’d made. My pride and sense of righteousness wouldn’t allow me to dump all of the responsibility on him. I had to give something back and bear some of the blame. After all, this was the decision I’d chosen to help me understand where I stood with my sister and the Telos Corporation.

I shoved my hands into the pockets of my very feminine pants, and suddenly felt nervous and embarrassed when thinking of what I wanted to say.

I had to take a few deep breaths, which of course pushed out my large breasts in their sexy lingerie. Needless to say, those definitely grabbed his attention.

For a moment I felt a flash of irritation, until I remembered my response to Class Rep’s amazing bust each morning during the first month of the school year.

I sighed inwardly in disgust.

I’d be staring at this body too if I wasn’t wearing it right now.

I took in a quiet breath, and relaxed myself as much as I could but ultimately failed because I was blushing like a tulip by the time I started talking.

“Simon…I owe you one…so…if you need anything…I mean…if there’s something I can do…take make things easier for you”—I sucked in a lungful of air—“just let me know.”

“Win.”

Until then he’d been staring shamelessly at my chest.

Then his eyes met mine and I felt his gaze like fingers clamping onto my head, preventing me from looking away no matter how hard I tried.

My breath caught in my chest. “S—sorry? What?”

“Win. Be victorious in every match you participate, and earn the title of Gun Empress.”

I started biting my lower lip and had to force myself to stop. “I’ve already said I’ll do it. I want my body back, remember?” I touched my chest, noticing my hand was trembling. “Th—this is temporary.”

Simon’s lips drew into a thin line as he studied me for a substantial period of time. The longer his gaze scrutinized me, the more self-conscious I grew. I noticed I was inching my arms toward covering my breasts.

Eventually he shrugged, and resumed reading the magazine on his tablet.

“As you wish.”

I felt released from his grip, and visibly wilted where I stood.

Shit! What the Hell is wrong with me?

I turned away quickly, and walked away from the living area and into the adjoining dining space where I stopped beside the glass dinner table that shared the outline of a cashew.

After swallowing a couple of times, I spoke without turning, as I didn’t think I could survive another experience like before, at least not while I was still trying to recover my composure. “Simon, I’m sorry if I get you in trouble.”

“Don’t concern yourself with me, Princess. Just do what you need to do. Remember, I need you in tip-top shape for your first match this week. Try not to get too beat up.”

He was right. My first official match in the Princess Royale was this coming Friday. I couldn’t afford to get severely injured. Even if the Sarcophagus and Angel Fibers could patch me up, I would lose valuable training time prior to the match. And if what Simon told me about the woman who’d shot me, Akane Straus, then I would need to consider her a threat on par with a Gun Princess.

I looked up at the apartment’s ceiling. Simon had said my sister – I still couldn’t think of her as my cousin – and Straus were flying in aboard a VTOL transport. The apartment complex had a large landing pad on the roof, so it was likely they would touch down there.

I needed to get going.

At the door to the apartment, I turned round and was somewhat startled to see Simon standing in the wide hallway, watching me.

“Don’t get hurt, Princess.”

I swallowed past the sudden lump in my throat. “I won’t….”

Turning away, I opened the door and fled the security of his apartment.

#

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I took the elevator leading up to the roof and the landing platform.

To make the lift function for me, I entered the security code Simon gave me. It was a code given to all the Very Important People that were tenants of the luxurious complex.

Out of the elevator and down a wide, spacious corridor with low pile carpeting, I arrived at the broad door leading to the rooftop. It reminded me of a fire escape exit.

Simon’s private code worked on the door as well.

Once unlocked, I pushed it open and stepped out onto a windswept rooftop.

The landing pad was built atop a reinforced section of building’s roof, and thus elevated from where I stood by about a half dozen feet. A wide set of permacrete stairs with metal banisters led the way up to the platform proper.

However, I chose to remain were I was, a few feet away from the entrance, and cautiously looked about.

For the first time, I realized I could have used Jive’s help to locate the security holocams watching the roof.

No, we’re doing this on our own. No Jive. Not this time. Just me and the Sarcophagus.

I edged out onto the roof and took a better look around.

There was a security station constructed near the elevated landing platform. I caught the hint of movement inside, and backed away out of sight.

Near the entrance once again, I swept my gaze out over the surrounding buildings, and made my choice for a suitable vantage point.

It would have to be building to the west of the apartment complex, one with a tall spire all lit up with concentric arches of light that ran up the spire like brilliant pearl necklaces that grew sharper and shaper as they neared the peak.

Suppressing a grin, I focused my attention on the spire, and summoned the Sarcophagus with a simple desire.

*Get me over there.

A white mist bloomed out around me, spilling over the rooftop in thick, undulating waves. The air felt strange, and my surroundings wavered in my vision as the breach opened between Limbo and this realm of existence.

I chose not to turn around as something that felt like spidery arms latched onto me and pulled me through the breach and into the Sarcophagus’ interior. Squeezing my eyes shut in fear of what I would see if I opened them, I felt myself enveloped in mild warmth, and pictured being ensconced in a fluffy cocoon. Unlike the occasion when I was severely injured by the Gun Queen, nothing clamped down on my face and forced tubes up my nose or down my throat.

But I was quickly disrobed and I had no idea how.

It was sufficient to say my clothes simply fell away from my body.

My bare skin touched the interior of the cocoon before a layer of stickiness ran over my body. It was like honey was being poured all over my body, up to my neck, without the sweet smell and pleasant flavor.

Bland, odorless honey.

The stickiness hardened, and through Cassidy’s body I remembered the sensation of the skinsuit she’d worn for the exhibition match with the Gun Queen.

As soon as I was clad in the skinsuit with its odd skirt, numerous spindly hands began outfitting me with the weapons I’d requested. At least, I pictured them as hands as I felt them swarm over me, attaching the Viper Vanquish rail-guns across my back, and filling the skirt’s ammunition pouches with magazines loaded with armor piercing rounds. Last but not least, I felt something long yet light delivered into the grip of my left hand.

In the next moment, the Sarcophagus delivered me onto the rooftop of the not so distant building with the tall spire covered in illuminated arches.

The mist bloomed all around me as I dropped to the narrow walkway running the square perimeter of the roof. A four-foot tall parapet divided the walkway from the ledge that extended two feet out from the building. The square base or foundation of the spire rose from the middle of the building in stepped layers with the well-lit concentric arches flowing over them.

Turning around as the mist faded, I caught a glimpse of the air shimmering wildly a couple of feet behind me. Then the phenomenon vanished, and once the cold mist dispelled into the night air my view of the world was just as it should be – crystal clear.

I breathed a sigh of relief.

Phase one complete. Now onto phase two—

Something caught my eye, and I walked over to where the shimmering had taken place.

From the light of the glowing arches, I had a pretty good view of the rooftop and walkway ground. There was also the fact that Cassidy’s night vision and clarity was far better than a human’s was so I was able to see the layer of powdered permacrete that covered a narrow stretch of the walkway from the ledge to the spire’s foundation.

I crouched, and ran my gloved fingers over the powder.

So this is what the breach between Limbo and reality leaves behind.

Beneath the powder, faint cracks ran along the rooftop’s surface. They reminded me of stress fractures and they cut across the walkway. Standing up, I studied the stepped foundation and saw that it too was cracked but only up to a height of a few feet.

Simon said his apartment wasn’t affected by the breach between realms. Was that because it took place in open air and avoided contact with any surfaces?

Rubbing the powder between my fingers, I stood up smoothly, walked to the parapet, and looked out at Ar Telica’s skyline illuminated by countless windows, complemented by the exterior lighting of the super-scrapers, as well as numerous advertisement banners projected onto the buildings by enormously powerful holo-emitters.

However, the almond shaped airships that frequently crisscrossed the night sky, their bodies lit in bright neon lights and surrounded by holographic advertisements, were absent tonight and there was a reason why.

The wind rushing by was anything but gentle, and I had to brace myself against it. Looking east and out over the harbor, I saw flashes of light in the far distance, lighting up the massive storm that was headed this way.

I wondered how long before the rain started to come down, and turned my gaze back to the city, quickly locating Simon’s apartment complex. For a short while, I ran my gaze along the southeast face of the building in a vain attempt to locate his apartment. Then I looked down at the pipe with trigger, grip, and carry handle that I held in my left hand.

The launcher was three-feet long and eight inches in diameter, while the missile warhead sticking out of one end resembled a foot long pinecone. Overall, the weapon was reminiscent of the rocket propelled grenade launchers of yesteryear.

With my gloved right palm, I touched the surface of the launcher, and greeted it with a thought transmitted from my wetware to the weapon’s receptors.

The missile launcher’s Artificial Awareness returned the greeting, and began warming up the weapon systems.

I smiled down at it.

*So…wanna tell me how I’m supposed to use you?

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I lied. Here's part one in draft 1.0. Hehehehehehe....