"Today I'll be showing you how to play Doom on a Model Three's eyeball! First, make sure it's dead..."
-Biohacker, Samurai and Streamer
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I fell into a rhythm for some time. Aim, pull trigger, repeat, until my magazine would run dry, I would reload, and I would start again. For a while that was all that was needed- the Antithesis here had been making headway against the defenders when I arrived, but only just. Still, as the minutes ticked on, sacrificial waves of Model Threes piled up ever higher and cords of razor wire disappeared beneath their mass.
“This isn’t working. I’m just another gun right now. There’s gotta be a better way to slow them down these ambulatory vegetables,” I muttered under my breath, more to myself than anyone else. Eject, reload, fire.
“Technically, they’re a form of fruit!”
“…right. Hey, there was something in the catalogue I wanted to try out. The…Electromagnetic Implosion Grenade? How much was one of those?”
“40 points! You could also get it in the form of a rocket-propelled grenade, or a canister that your Impaler can fire.”
“I’ll take the grenade form for now,” I said, placing my gun to my hip and letting go. The magnet there activated and my weapon clung fast to the armor. A box appeared in front of me, and I quickly opened it and picked up the grenade. It was an oddly shaped thing, almost like an over-sized baseball rather than the egg or cylinder shape of most grenades, and with a surface made of hundreds of tiny metal balls.
I chucked it as hard as I possibly could, and despite my armor’s power assistance being mostly relegated to carrying itself, that was quite hard. I felt like one of those ball thrower guys on a football team that yeets a ball three quarters of the way across the field so the catchey-guy can score a point.
I don’t watch football.
As the grenade approached the ground, it burst apart, scattering hundreds of pea-sized balls across the field. They pelted the Antithesis below like hail, doing absolutely no damage but plinking around until they settled to the ground- and then the real fun began as the grenade actually activated.
The mechanism of the grenade was like a reverse shrapnel explosion. It scattered ball bearings first, then an absurdly powerful electromagnet activated and brought them all back. Through whatever was now in the way. Every Model Three, living or dead, within ten meters of that magnet erupted into a fine green mist as their plant flesh was utterly obliterated by not just a storm of metal balls but also strings of razor wire, whipped into the form of a blender as they were torn from the ground.
The destruction was so complete and so abrupt that everyone stopped shooting for several moments, watching as the pureed remains of their targets fell back to earth. Someone to my right muttered “holy shit”, and I couldn’t help but agree. I checked my points and found that, between that grenade and all the shooting I had done, I was already back up to a ridiculous 842 points, although considering how many Model Threes that added up to, I think it would have been at least five times that if I had killed all of these myself.
That kind of put things into perspective- I had been firing into the oncoming aliens for nearly half an hour, and even with that added onto the grenade I just threw, I my own contribution was only one quarter of the squads I had come to back up. Perhaps sensing that this approach was no longer giving them much chance of victory, though, the Antithesis began to fall back, shifting their attention to another part of the front lines.
“Thanks for the assist. We would’ve been overrun by now without help.” I turned to find a woman in militia garb speaking to me, but I was distinctly uncomfortable to receive that praise. I might have been new, but it seemed to me that a samurai should be worth more than a mere two squads. I needed to look into improving my weaponry next, now that my armor situation was sorted.
“No, I didn’t do much. Even one more squad here and I think you would have held them off.” Her face turned bitter at those words, and she turned to look back at the other troops.
“Yeah, well, we had another squad, til those PMC bastards went and pulled them somewhere else.”
“I was asked to replace the squads that were moved.” I shrugged. It wasn’t like the militia didn’t have a representative at the meeting, and he hadn’t objected. Still, she turned back to me with a scowl.
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
“And what happens if two places get hit at once? There’s only one of you, and it’s a damn big wall.” I had to admit that I really hadn’t considered that, but I wasn’t exactly a military genius. And it did seem like the alternative was our flanks being overrun.
“Alana was concerned about the Antithesis beginning to assault the flanks. A few squads were pulled from both the PMC and militia to prevent them from getting through. It wasn’t the Stalking Tigers that made the decision.”
“Psh. She’s one of ‘em. Just because she’s a samurai now doesn’t mean everyone forgets she was a merc.” More Antithesis were beginning to trickle into this group’s area of responsibility. The woman I was speaking to waved me away as she moved back to her position. “I’d best get back to it. Good luck out there, and thanks again.”
Shaking my head, I climbed back into the hovercar, deciding they didn’t need help anymore. Nguyen hadn’t messaged me again yet, so I probably had time to sort out my gear.
Juny lifted the card into the air and parked it on top of high rise midway along the wall, where I could more easily respond to distress calls.
“Juny, I remember you mentioned other upgrades I could get for my SMG. Something about rails, and an adjusting barrel?”
“Indeed! What features are you interested in? I should note that your current weapon cannot be upgraded, so a new purchase would be required.”
“Well, this one runs through ammo like a hose, and it’s not much more effective than a normal gun. I was thinking I might get two so that I can swap them out while the other reloads, and I was wondering how effective the rails would be. Would the bullets just hit harder, or could they, I dunno, go through multiple targets?”
“Magnetic rails would increase the velocity of each bullet to the point where they can over penetrate soft targets, yes! This would only be possible against the most lightly armored Antithesis models, such as the Model Three, which I assume is what you are concerned about. It would also prevent the Model Fours from shielding themselves with their limbs, as the bullets will have sufficient velocity to reach their body after penetrating the limbs.”
I grinned at that. That was exactly what I was looking for. Right now I was doing just about as much damage as the average grunt, outside of my explosives catalog. This would give me a bit more oomph.
“Great. So, how much would it cost me to get two SMGs with the same features as this one, plus the rails and the adjusting barrel?”
“The T12 Beaver would satisfy all of those requirements!”
“The…beaver?”
“It chews right through wood!”
Ah. Should have seen that coming. I guess aliens like puns too. Or at the very least, Juny did. I was increasingly convinced she was just naming these things on the fly, barring the existence of alien beavers.
“Can you make it look like the current design?”
“That will cost one more point per weapon.”
New Purchase: T12 Beaver x2
Points reduced to…440
“I’ll take it.” Two boxes appeared on the seat next to me. I thought for a moment before discarding my current weapon into the back seat. It had served me well, but I really didn’t need an extra, less effective SMG. I unpackaged one of the new weapons to find it looked largely the same, but with glowing blue rings around the barrel at even intervals. There was also a bright blue bar on the side.
“What’s with the lights?”
“Vanguards often believe that glowing equipment looks more powerful! It is also a quick way to indicate to allies that you are equipped with Protector issued weaponry. The rings are part of the coil assembly, and the bar indicates the charge. If the charge runs out, the gun will revert to firing standard chemically propelled rounds, but your suit will recharge the battery during reloading, so this should not be an issue.”
“…right. So, any messages from Nguyen yet?”
“Nothing y- oh! You’ve got mail!”
“Put him through.”
“Saint? We’re getting some strange readings on the seismic sensors. I think something is- shit! We’ve got holes popping up all along the line! At least a dozen already! They’re…Model Eighteens! With Fourteens behind them!” He sounded panicked, so I could only assume that was a very bad thing, but the model numbers were new to me. Hadn’t really had time to study the Antithesis bestiary yet.
“Juny?”
“The Model Eighteen is a biomass collector. They are incapable of offensive action, but the Antithesis are likely using them to make tunnels for the Fourteens, which are transports. Each Model Fourteen is likely carrying numerous smaller models!” Juny projected images onto my augs showing two models that looked like enormous bugs. One of them was far longer than the other, and she had it marked as the Model Fourteen, with a Model Three for comparison.
“She’s right, there’s Threes and Fours pouring out of those Fourteens. The Eighteens are dead already, but the Antithesis assault is picking up steam, so we can’t divert anyone from the walls. Actually, we had to call up the off-duty units to reinforce the walls. Captain Lafayette is deploying her militia to defend the areas with the largest civilian presence. Ma’m, could you please hunt down the Antithesis that bypassed the wall?”
“Should probably fill the holes first…Juny, get me markers for all the holes on our side of the wall and try to keep track of the Antithesis that made it in. Nguyen, does anyone need a rescue, or can I plug the holes before I start hunting?”
“I sent out an alert telling the civvies to barricade themselves in. That should buy you a few minutes, but I don’t know how long they can hold out.”
“Fuck. Okay, Juny, get me to the first hole. I’m going to need some of those foam grenades.”