[CHAPTER 7]
“-eo, Leo wake up!” There was a sharp pain followed by the sound of a slap. “If you die here I swear I will kill you!”
Leo opened his eyes only to screw them shut a second later at the stabbing pain. “Wha- what happened?”
I’m sorry Leo, while the damage to your cranial tissues was minor, you are apparently very sensitive to any changes. Despite the pill working to limit any sensation you nonetheless felt the installation of your aug upgrades
“What does that mean? Will I still be able to see? Do I have brain damage now?!” Leo started panicking a bit.
Nothing quite that serious. It merely means that in the future we will need to take extra precautions before upgrading your augs or introducing any additional gear.
Leo sighed in relief. “Okay, I can work with that.” He tried opening his eyes again. Slowly the room came into focus, and then kept focusing until he could see details he never would be able to before.
Your new aug upgrade allows you to see details far beyond your previous eyes. It will also enable you to control more gear without the risk of heat damage.
‘Well that’s good.’ Leo sat up in the bed, only then noticing that Kat was kneeling next to the bed with tears in her eyes.
“Leo. I…I thought you weren’t going to make it. Are you okay?” Kat asked.
“Yea, I’m fine. Apparently I am extremely sensitive to any changes with my head-meat. Speaking of, Aegys, what exactly happened?”
A crackle came from a speaker near the ceiling. “Due to your sensitivity there was a massive adrenaline spike shortly after the installation started causing your vital signs to fluctuate wildly. I informed Samurai Katerina that you required immediate medical assistance.”
Kat piped up. “I rushed in here and hit you with some stabilizers but you still wouldn’t wake up. You’ve been out for almost two hours now”
“Two hours! How are the defenses, did anybody get hurt?” Leo asked
“Nobody is injured. We had a couple scares with some Model Fives and a single Model Six, but nothing we couldn’t handle. We could use your help to get rid of the buildup though.” Kat said, standing up.
Leo stood up but almost sat right back down after a wave of dizziness hit him. It quickly passed and he stepped towards the door. “Let’s get going.”
Kat stood in front of him. “Are you sure you’re okay? We can give you some more time if you need.”
Leo shook his head, “I’m fine. Best way to calibrate the new gear is to use it.”
She looked rather unconvinced, but finally nodded and left the room. Following after her Leo noticed a few people watching them with adoration in their eyes.
Stepping through the entrance to the shelter, Leo noticed a couple things right away. There was no longer a constant stream of people coming into the shelter, instead through the door Leo could see a cleared area with people running back and forth to man the defensive lines.
“Did we finally get everyone into the shelter?” he asked.
Kat glanced back, “I’m not sure it’s everyone, but we haven’t seen anyone else running around up top and the swarm of Antithesis has slowed down. Instead of a constant wave of them we get groups of up to twenty at a time trying to push to the lines.”
Leo nodded. “Ok, we let me get the hallways cleared of biomass and you can work on any upgrades you need.”
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“Actually, I don’t really need any upgrades right now. Well, I do need them, but any meaningful upgrades I get are going to need more room than we have. Buying all these turrets fully built is expensive so I want to get a production area, but we don’t have the room for that so I’ll just build up my points for later.”
Leo thought for a second before nodding. “That makes sense.” He moved to one of the lines of turrets. Past the line and into the hallway there was a mountain of Antithesis corpses. As he watched, a Model Three clambered over the top before the bark of gunfire to his right caused the Model Three’s head to burst.
Immediately after one of the soldiers called out. “Ma’am, we have another one that melted.”
Kat rushed over. “Shit, I’m spending more replacing barrels than I am buying turrets.”
Leo looked over after throwing a couple acid balls at the piles of plant gore. “What's going on?”
Kat shook her head. “Nothing unexpected. The turrets were firing almost constantly so a lot of the barrels had built up heat. It’s causing them to lose any structural integrity they had and droop like guys over fifty”
Worry not Leo. There are treatments available to Samurai that make that a non-issue
“I can probably help with that. My cloak can absorb the heat from them to keep them from breaking down. Also, Aegys shut up.” Leo fought down a laugh at his AIs response.
“That would be wonderful! But you would have to do it slowly to avoid the metal warping.” Kat said, jumping up from her crouched position.
“No problem. The Phoenix Cloak does it passively so it should be fine, right Aegys?” Leo asked.
There should be no problem
Leo gave a thumbs up as he moved to the other side of the defensive square. After throwing another few acid balls at the pile of Antithesis there he looked toward the doors that led to the main stage of the stadium. “We should probably head out and see if we can save anybody else. Maybe figure out if there is a hive nearby.”
Looking over at Kat, Leo saw her biting her lip. “I…I know we probably should, but the idea of actively walking into a hive terrifies me. Besides, I’m better built to defend an area, can’t really move turrets around too easily.”
Leo smiled at her. “It’s okay to be scared. Besides, somebody needs to keep the shelter safe. I’ll head out later and see if I can’t find anybody that needs help. I’ll send them your way so you can keep them safe okay?”
Kat nodded, relief clear in her eyes. “Sounds like a plan. For now, let's get these hallways clear.”
Leo tossed a few more acid balls on either side of the hallway before moving towards the doors to the stadium. Looking out he saw a field of dead Antithesis spread out all over. A couple of Kats turrets next to the entrance idly panned back and forth, constantly looking for more enemies.
‘Aegys, I don’t think my acid is enough to cover all of this. Do you have anything better?’
Part of the Class I Antithesis Biomass Denial catalog would be the Mark I Flesh Melter. They are programmed to find any organic materials and break them apart. Each use will cover a 30 foot radius circle. After deployment I would not recommend walking nearby for approximately 15 minutes.
‘Sounds perfect, if also terrifying. Get me enough to cover this whole area please’
Of course. Standby
New Purchase: Mark I Flesh Melter x4
Points reduced to - 2310
A box appeared with a button on top. After pushing the button a cylinder rose up with four soda cans, smoke pouring out of the opening in the box.
‘Is there a reason smoke is pouring out of this box?’
I thought it would look cool
Leo just shook his head as he grabbed one of the cans. Seeing a pop tab he cracked it before throwing it into the field of dead Antithesis. Seeing nothing happen Leo asked, ‘Did you get me a dud?’
The Mark I Flesh Melter is a slow acting nanite. It is meant as a utility item rather than a weapon
‘Huh. Well okay then, guess we’ll have to wait before going on a search mission anyway.’
Leo tossed the last three cans around the area and walked back into the basement. Looking over at the guards, “Make sure no one walks into the field of dead plants for the next fifteen minutes.” before continuing on to the shelter.
Once he got back to the entrance, Leo noticed that the hallways were once again clear of bodies and the air smelled faintly of mint. Kat was standing in the center of the defensive square staring into space. “Hey Kat, if you want to go take a break I can handle this for a while.”
She shook her head a bit before smiling, “Thanks Leo. I spent all of last night studying the other teams so I’m not exactly awake enough for an actual alien invasion.”
“I don’t think any of us are awake enough for that.” A couple of the nearby guards chuckled. “But you go get some rest. I’ll be here when you’re done.”
She nodded before turning and walking into the room he had used earlier. Leo settled in the center of the cleared area so his cloak could soak up any nearby heat and waited for her to wake up.