Mai moved. Where didn’t matter so long as it wasn’t where one of the aiming laser sights from the momma drone was. Instinctively she knew that standing still was a sure fire way of getting her ticket punched.
As she zigged and zagged she re-activated her FREE RUNNING now that it had cooled down. Every time a laser swept towards her she tucked and rolled. It was exhausting. Even though the weight of the armour she had was evenly distributed over her body, it still added more mass than she was used to.
Spending another fifty percent of her bio-mass she reloaded her magazine. All the time she kept firing with her light machine gun. It was slowly chipping away at the momma drone’s armour, but patchily as she couldn’t use it to drill through a single point.
As she kept dodging and moving, she replayed her first attack. Ignoring all of the bounces, she looked where the hits had landed.
A rocket blasted into the ground next to her. Heat washed over her a millisecond before the blast wave lifted her from the ground and sent her spinning through the air.
DAMAGE! – 11% ARMOUR
STUNNED!
She didn’t feel stunned. She felt as though she’d been hit with a sledgehammer after being kicked off a mountain by a mecha. It was only through instinct that she kept moving and avoided the next attack, a bright beam laser that melted the floor of the pedway.
Bullets smacked into the ground, the impacts throwing up pieces of the pedway, snapping at her heels as she threw herself into a twisting dive.
Landing on her back she raised her rocket hand, sighted on one of the points she’d actually damaged and fired as soon as the launcher lock-on pinged.
With a kip-up she was back onto her feet, barely dodging the beam laser as it gouged its way through the floor. A side flip sent her through two other laser sighting beams and under a stream of tracer fire.
Sweat was pouring down her face, only stopped from entering her eyes thanks to the forehead pad in her helmet. Chest tight, she tried to suck in as much air as she could, but it still wasn’t enough to meet the demands of her body.
I’m surprised I’m not bloody drowning in sweat she thought, knowing that she was equally sweat-soaked over the rest of her body.
The drone was weaving through the air, trying to avoid her rocket as it homed in on the target box. She gave quick thanks to the Gods that it didn’t appear to have any point defences or other way of stopping the missile.
Probably not used to its victims actually being able to fight back like this, she thought bitterly, anger rising at the Celestial Court for allowing such a thing to happen.
“Are you okay?” she yelled to the girl, not taking her eyes off her opponent.
“Yes! Are you going to kill it soon?” Mai could have sworn that the girl sounded more excited than scared now.
Damn she’s pushy! Sounds like she’s enjoying the show! Thought Mai as she tried to suck air into her lungs.
“Yes! I’m going to kill it!” She managed to choke out.
Dodging to the left, the drone made one more attempt to avoid the missile, but it wasn’t enough. A brief flash of red and orange threw light into corners which hadn’t been lit in three lifetimes, critters skittering away to escape it.
Shrapnel pieces, large and small alike, shot in all directions.
HIT! – 20%
Forty-three percent total damage. That was better! A multi-barrelled laser hung sparking from the drone’s hull, smoke puffed out of the hole as if the drone was coughing. Another puff, and then the smoke started pouring out as the fire inside took hold.
Picking another damage point, Mai fired.
She’d waited too long though. The drone’s laser had merely brushed over her as she waited to fire, but the damage was astronomical.
DAMAGE! ARMOUR 38%
DAMAGE! 10%
HEALTH 90%
BURN!
BOILED!
Pain washed over her. At first it felt as though she’d been doused with ice water, but then it turned into a burning sensation that grew and grew. Her armour did nothing to stop the heat damage, seemingly designed only to defend against kinetic, and not thermal or energy weapons.
Mai screamed as the sweat-soaked pads of the armour flash heated. Longer and louder than she ever had had. Even more than when she had learned her parents were dead. She wasn’t on fire, thankfully, or she’d have been too busy dealing with PANIC! and INTIMIDATION!, as well as any number of other negative effects.
Activating her TREAT SERIOUS WOUNDS rather than wait for her passive HEAL skill to kick in she staggered into another sighting beam.
DAMAGE! 5%
HEALTH 85%
BIOMASS 20%
As fast as her TREAT SERIOUS WOUNDS was healing her, the drone was injuring her.
DAMAGE! 5%
HEALTH 80%
BIOMASS 15%
Dammit! She cursed as a hail of bullets punched through the already damaged section of her armour. Damaged or not, it still managed to SOAK up some of the effects. It helped that she was moving erratically due to her injuries.
Pain washed over her from the still-healing burn site, and the new bullet holes oozing blood. ENDURE PAIN was the next thing she activated, just to give her a clear head so that she could deal with actually fighting the drone, rather than trying to cope.
She knew it was risky. Without being able to feel pain, she would have to rely on the notifications to know if she was seriously wounded. Walking on shattered limbs wasn’t a good idea even if it didn’t hurt.
Another lock-on ping sounded, and she fired again. She stopped firing her light machine gun, it wasn’t doing enough damage and was just eating through vital bio-mass.
Pointing to her backpack, which she’d left next to the girl when forming the armour she used the suits vocal amplification microphone to ensure she heard her.
“Get one of the bio-mass boost bottles out and throw it to me when I say!”
There was no time to wait for a reply as three laser sight beams homed in on her from different positions on the drone. They strobed through the dust and smoke of the battle. Blood pulsing, she instinctively knew that letting any of them touch here would be a bad idea. And with that she re-activated FREERUNNING, using the ACTIVE rather than PASSIVE skill to gain the added bonus. A flip, tuck, dive and roll took her away from the danger zone.
HIT! – 15%
Fifty-eight percent damage. Now she was getting somewhere. For the first time since the battle had started, Mai thought she was actually in with a chance at defeating the huge drone.
If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
Smoke and sparks were pouring out of the various holes she’d blasted into its hull and another couple of weapons were hanging uselessly.
Checking her own bio-mass she cursed as she saw it was at only five percent now. Her burn wounds had cost a lot to fix. But it had been worth it just to stop the pain she knew would wash over her once the ENDURE PAIN went into cooldown.
Sliding into cover behind what she thought was a dumpster, she looked over at the girl.
“Throw me the bottle!”
There was a pause, long enough to make Mai think the girl hadn’t heard her despite the amplification, and then the bottle came soaring over the shield she was still sheltering behind.
You’ve got to be kidding! The bottle dropped short and in the open, strides away from Mai’s position and right in the middle of the momma drone’s sighting lasers.
“Have you got it?” The girl sounded both hopeful and sceptical at the same time. Mai wasn’t sure how that was possible.
“Yes!” Mai replied, not wanting to scare the girl any more than she already was. INTIMIDATION hung above the girl and Mai could see that it was nearly at the PANIC level. If that happened and the girl tried running she was dead.
Not happening, Mai pushed herself out of cover and sprinted towards the bottle. Looking beyond it she could see another potential source of cover and angled herself so that she could enter it as easily as possible.
Absorbing her light machine gun she dropped to her knees, leaning so far back that her shoulder blades touched her ankles as she slid across the floor and under a laser sight, snatching the bottle up in one smooth motion.
Face shield popping open, she was drinking before she’d even got back to her feet, continuing her sprint to the low wall. Immediately her HEALING kicked in, the nanites racing to fix the damage done to her battered body as if competing with the TREAT SERIOUS WOUNDS.
A kick of her feet and she was diving through the air, clearing the top of the wall as a hail of bullets blasted into the air behind her. As she landed on the ground, Mai rolled, moving away from where she’d entered the cover, knowing what was coming.
A rocket exploded, showering her with bits of plasticrete and shrapnel but it was nowhere near as bad as it would have been had she stayed where she landed.
Her ENDURE PAIN went into cooldown and she gasped as the injuries her nanites were still trying to HEAL came back.
“My turn,” Mai said as she created another rocket launcher on her free hand. She’d been able to ignore the pain of creation initially, but her body was so battered that it seemed as though she had just dipped her hand into a vat of acid.
BIOMASS 60%
Screaming in pain and rage, tears blurring her vision, she stood and aimed. Both weapons pinged and she launched two rockets, the force nearly knocking her from her feet.
The drone replied with its beam laser, the bright blue light arcing towards her. At the very last moment she threw herself to one side and then charged towards the momma drone.
She’d finally spotted a weakness. If she could get directly beneath it, none of the weapons it had could sight on her. The sighting lasers could only depress so far, creating a cone in which she would be safe.
If I can keep in it , that is!
HIT! – 12%
HIT! – 18%
Shrapnel, bits and pieces of her missiles as well as the drones whickered away in all directions like red-hot. Mai cheered, she only had to cause another twenty-two percent damage. That was two hits with her launcher.
DAMAGE! – 7%
Dammit! She cursed herself for not paying more attention. Moving erratically due to the damage it had suffered the drone had slewed, forcing her straight into a laser sight. There was no pause before firing. The drone didn’t have to think about such things after all.
Coming to a sudden halt beneath the drone, Mai looked up. Target boxes literally festooned the bottom and she kicked herself for not realising what needed to be done before.
Damn thing’s so bloody intimidating!
Raising her rocket hands, she grinned as she waited for the ping. The drone’s lasers cast about as it searched for her. If it was alive, she would have thought it was panicking. A sudden sideward motion had her hurrying to keep under it, the lasers coming perilously close to touching her.
The rockets pinged and she launched.
They raced straight up, punching into the drone’s weaker belly armour and through into its vital systems.
HIT! 45%
CATASTROPHIC DAMAGE
HIT! 75%
CATASTROPHIC DAMAGE
KILL!
DRONE KILLER!
NEW TITLE DRONE HUNTER!
DRONE HUNTERS ARE TRUE HEROES, PITTING FLESH AND SINEW AGAINST TITANIUM AND SERVOS TO DEFEAT IMPLACABLE FOES!
DO YOU ACCEPT YES/NO?
Flames poured out of the drone’s belly and an electronic scream filled the air, so loud that Mai feared she’d been defeaned for a split second.
Spinning, the drone shot hundreds of paces up into the sky, hovered for a couple of heartbeats and then dropped out of the sky like a lead balloon.
Mai stood, mouth open, stomach sinking as the realisation of what was happening sunk in.
There was no time to run, all she could do was form as many shields as possible and take cover beneath them.
BIOMASS 57%
She managed to pump out three before the drone came crashing down.
DAMAGE! 75%
CRUSHING
“Miss? Are you okay? Are you still alive?” Mai could barely hear the girl’s voice as she strained to keep the drone from crushing her into jelly. With no oxygen in her lungs to spare, she didn’t – she couldn’t – reply. Her armour had servos, lending her strength, but even so the momma drone weighed at least a tonne and she’d never tried to bench press a wet towel, let alone a human organ harvesting killer drone.
Frantically scanning through her menu she spotted a weapon which might help. Jackhammer.
JACKHAMMER – A tool used by miners and builders to both find the resources that the city needs to continue its glorious existence, and to continue the growth of our marvellous city as it reaches for the stars.
Jackhammers are five per cent BIOMASS, and users should be carefully trained in their application as all mines and builders are required to understand the health and safety implications of using such powerful tools.
Ten per cent BIOMASS for the two was a bargain in Mai’s opinion. And she either accepted the cost and sucked it up, or she allowed herself to be crushed to death by the momma drone. It didn’t take her more than a heart beat to make the decision.
Absorbing her rocket launchers, which were currently pointing barrels up either side of her face, barely fingers width away as they held the shields and momma drone away from her, she recycled the bio-mass to form two massive hammer hands. Already lying on her back, with her hands above her to hold a shield in place, she fired the hammers.
They paused and then they started to punch back and forth so fast that they blurred. The sensation was strange, the vibrations making her feel nauseous as the impacts of the hammers went through her body, making her bones feel as though they were turning into jelly.
Bit by bit she punched her way through the shields, then the drone, pieces of it flying in all directions. It felt counter-intuitive to be punching her way through the drone, but if that was the only way to stop being turned into jam she’d take it.
After what seemed like an age, she broke through the top of the drone and what passed for light poured down.
“Oh thank the Emperor,” said the girl. “I thought you was well and truly dead! You saved me.”
MISSION COMPLETED
DO YOU ACCEPT YES/NO?
Mai gratefully blink-clicked the YES as she stiffly pushed herself onto her knees and then stood up gasping deeply as her lungs sucked in more air than she ever thought possible.
“No worries kid, all in a day’s work,” she kept her tone light, trying to hide the tears that threatened to spill.
“I’m going to tell everyone what you did, you’re a hero!”
NEW TITLE! HERO OF THE PEOPLE
DO YOU ACCEPT YES/NO?
CONGRATULATIONS YOU HAVE PROVEN YOU ARE A TRUE HERO OF THE PEOPLE!
Pausing for a second, hand hovering over the YES, Mai tried to work out what the title actually meant. She’d never heard of it before but considering she hadn’t really been the most productive or involved member of society that shouldn’t really have been a surprise.
Shrugging, she pressed YES. Anything that sounded that positive must help towards her REPUTATION. There was a chime as she did, and she opened her SASS to see what had changed.
She gasped, she’d gained a rank, and therefore an additional five per cent across every skill whilst her reputation with the civilians had leapt to an impressive seventy-five per cent. Well, it was impressive to her as she’d managed to score that high in any school tests, and she’d not known where her standing had been prior to getting the title.
“Are you going to save the other Cullers now?” asked the girl as she handed Mai her backpack over to her.
“Yes,” Mai said, although what she truly wanted to do was put the whole idea to bed and get back to her own comfortable bed back at base, and damn whatever Anna might say. But she couldn’t. If there was a chance to help Cullers get out of the event and save them from horrendous deaths, she knew she had to take it. “Make sure you head to my base okay? They’ve got a lot of hot food. Let them know I’m coming back soon.”
Mai looked at the guideline leading away from where she stood.
Time to go rescue some Cullers, Mai thought wearily.