"I really thought there was a market for it, but it turns out there were two problems. The first was that new Samurai tend to be created in the thick of the action, and they either die or walk out with plenty of gear and points. The second was that Samurai are just terrible at working with a group."
-CEO of "Samurai Training Solutions", a PMC created with the mission of aiding new Samurai in farming points, founded in 2045 and bankrupted in the same year.
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I hopped out of my designated hovercar directly onto the top of the wall, and I could already see why I had been called here. From the ground, it had looked like there was a flurry of activity atop the walls, but from this new vantage point it was obvious how undermanned the defenses were, with each man or woman responsible for several meters of wall. Even as I arrived, gunfire was echoing from all sides nonstop, but in front of this position in particular, the Antithesis were making headway.
Much of the killing field had been cleared of corpses in the night, though it was hard to tell whether that was due to the defenders burning the bodies or the Antithesis taking them for recycling. I didn’t know whether defenses had merely been buried beneath a mountain of the dead yesterday or if the defenders were caught entirely flat-footed at the time, but at some point in the night, someone had taken the time to spread razor wire, anti-tank barriers, and mines throughout the field.
The attacking hoard was being slowed greatly by this combination of static defenses, but the Antithesis were not human, and had no qualms about using their own bodies to make a path over any obstruction they encountered. Here, near the corner of the wall, a particularly large number of Model Threes had set about doing just that, and I had no need to wonder why after the earlier briefing.
That said, it didn’t seem to be more than the squads already stationed here could handle. It was a particularly large amount, but only relatively when compared to the rest of the battlefield, which seemed to be receiving just enough attention to keep the troops in place.
“Hey, Juny, can you point me towards whoever’s in charge?”
“Certainly!” A marker popped up on my augs, directing me towards a militiawoman in the center of this section of the wall- about midway between me and the closest tank, which fired off an ear-shattering blast even as I turned. I jogged over to the woman and tapped her on the shoulder, unsure how else to get her attention.
“Who the f- oh, are you the new samurai?” She spat out as she turned to face me, irritation plain on her face. She glanced back towards the Antithesis for a moment before seemingly coming to a decision and stepping down from her post. “I’ve got a moment, but don’t take too long. No idea how long we have before things heat up.”
No introductions, then? Well, I probably wasn’t going to remember her name for long anyway.
“Nguyen sent me, but I’m not sure why after taking a look at what you’re up against. It kind of seems like you’ve got this covered?” I responded, not shouting as she had thanks to my close-faced helmet. My voice was just going straight to her comms. She gave me a once over.
“Listen, kid, I’m guessing you’re new to this shit going by the shiny kit. Don’t mean no disrespect, but everyone here knows the Antithesis don’t waste bodies for no reason. Fact they’re focusing more of ‘em here than anywhere else means something is up.”
“You think it’s a prelude, and not just them probing the defenses?” I asked, catching her meaning after a few moments of thought.
“They’re not advancing. They’re throwing themselves on the razor wire and mines. Almost like they’re making a path for something else.”
I took another look at the field, trying to gauge the validity of her claim. It probably wasn’t my place to question a more experienced fighter, but I have to imagine they don’t pick samurai just to have them follow orders. Now that I knew what to look for, I realized she was right; Model Threes were literally jumping on top of mines to detonate them and laying down on razor wire, allowing themselves to be shot the moment they were in place.
“This doesn’t make any sense. Anything big enough to clear a path for, doesn’t need them to clear a path. Why not bulldoze it with a Model Six or something?”
“Fucked if I know. I don’t have a cabbage for a brain.”
“They may be creating a road for a subsequent, massed charge!”
“That doesn’t sound good.”
“What doesn’t sound good?” It took a moment of being stared at for me to realize she didn’t hear Juny.
“Ah, sorry, my AI said they may be planning to group up and charge over the bodies.”
“Shit. Okay, we can’t let them get any further. Help us slow them down.”
I stepped up to the wall and lifted my submachine gun, beginning to add my own gun to the symphony of violence taking place. Burst after burst was released downrange, and although from this distance it was hard to tell how accurate I was, a steady trickle of points told me I was hitting something.
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One Model Three collapsed, riddled with bullets, only to fall forward onto a land mine anyway, detonating the explosive and preventing it from causing any real damage. I cursed as another tripped on razor wire, fouling my shot and causing me to miss. Someone else finished it off before I could adjust, so I switched targets.
“Fifteen!” someone shouted, and everyone around me ducked immediately. I was slower to respond, and caught sight of the monstrosity in the distance before I took cover. It wasn’t the first I’d seen, but that one had been obliterated as soon as I’d caught sight of it. This one was over a hundred meters away, but even from here I could identify it thanks to its size.
As soon as I understood what I was looking at, I regretted having looked at all. It was like a car-sized cricket or grasshopper, straight out of a certain apocalyptic sci-fi series, but the coloration of your typical Antithesis made it so much worse because its mouth, a vertical as it was, resembled nothing so much as a vulva with gangrene.
Not that I’d ever seen such a thing, although the sight certainly made me feel like I now had.
I crouched down behind the lip of the wall even as it launched something from its disgusting mouth, and moments later I could hear something pinging off the wall like rain, accompanied by a single pained scream. Several objects stuck fast in the surface of the walkway behind me- thin spines that had to have been inconceivably sharp to have penetrated concrete at all.
Our tank sang its song and the men and women around me followed it up with a volley of gunfire, mowing down the front runners of the Antithesis horde, which had moved several meters closer while we were pinned down. Someone screamed for a medic and I tore my eyes from the fight.
A man was clutching his neck, with another man standing over him, screaming for help, and I headed for them without a thought.
“Juny, what are the odds he survives without samurai tech?”
“Extremely low without immediate attention and an emergency room.”
“And what do I need to save him?” I could see a startling amount of blood pouring out even from here, several meters away. A spine fired by the Model Fifteen had gone entirely through his neck left of center, avoiding his spine and throat but clearly hitting an important artery instead.
“I would recommend a full course treatment administered immediately: a WoundStop to halt the bleeding, a Nano-Regenerative Suite to repair the damage, and a Hemo-Restore to replace lost blood!”
“Give ‘em to me as I need them and tell me what to do, please. I’m an artist, not a doctor.”
Blood stained my legs as I dropped down next to the two men. The injured man and his friend were both clutching at the wound futilely, their hands coated in red and their clothing soaking up blood as I watched. Juny dropped the first item, a WoundStop patch, into my hand, but I couldn’t reach the injury with them both trying to stem the bleeding.
“Listen, I can save him, but you’ll have to trust me.” I stopped for a moment, waiting for Juny, then began relaying her instructions. “First, break the spine and pull it through. You have to go fast, or he’s going to bleed out.”
“Shitshitshit how am I supposed to- if I move him he’s gonna die!”
“Just do it!” I growled, not having the training nor the bedside manner to walk him through it calmly. Part of me felt like an asshole for being so harsh, but we really didn’t have time for me to calm him down.
“Oh man, oh fuck…” he panted for several moments, wide eyed and panicked as he tried to process my orders while distracted by the blood soaking into his gear. After several rapid, deep breaths, he let out a wordless shout and shifted his hands, gripping the spine close to the other man’s neck with one and the end with the other. In one abrupt motion he snapped it in two and discarded the broken part, then shoved his friend onto his side and grasped the other end.
“As soon as the spine is removed, slap the WoundStop over the puncture wound. You’ll need one for each side.”
I lifted the WoundStop patch over my hand, already waiting on a hair-trigger for the spine to be removed. My ersatz-nurse yanked it out, eliciting a scream from the patient, and less than a second later I slapped the first patch on, thankful for my practice with the suit last night- without it, I may have snapped his neck.
The patch began to shift, doing whatever it does to seal the wound, but I ignored that and put out my hand for the next one. Juny dropped it right into my hand, and then it was in place, halting the bleeding- for now.
“Now, place the end of the Nano-Regenerative Suite inhaler to his mouth and pinch his nose closed. Depress the trigger when he begins to inhale!”
God, it was weird taking life-saving instructions from someone with the voice of a kid’s show host.
Still, I did as she said. The inhaler in hand, I rolled the man onto his back again and reached out with my other hand to seal his nose shut. He began to gasp rapidly, unsure why he could no longer breath through his nose, and I took the opportunity to feed him a lung-full of nanites. I shuddered, the sensation of plastic hitting his teeth reverberating back into my hand, but I pulled the trigger nonetheless, sending life-saving robots right into his body.
“The nanobots will repair the artery and halt any internal bleeding, but he is still likely to die due to blood loss. Next, you will need to inject the Hemo-Restore into his neck.” This time I received a tube with a stopper and no apparent needle.
“How do I use this? There’s nothing to stick him with.”
“Place the end against his neck and the device will do the work from there.”
Easy enough. I couldn’t identify any change in it, but Juny assured me it had activated, so I had to assume it did.
“Is he okay? Is he gonna be okay?” his friend asked, trying to wipe the blood off of his hands. The rag he held was saturated, and most of the blood was already wiped off, but he continued to scrub as if removing a residue only he could see. I put a hand on his shoulder, hoping it would come across as reassuring.
“He’ll be just fine. Get him behind some cover and then get back in position- we still need every gun we can get.” He nodded and reached for his comrade, grabbing him under both arms and dragging him into position. I felt awful as having ordered him to immediately go back to the fight, as if he hadn’t nearly lost someone, but we already had one man out of action. I didn’t think we could afford for it to be two.
When I reached my previous position and resumed firing, I could see that the Antithesis had advanced another few meters in the time I was gone. I hoped my actions were worth it- that saving that man’s life hadn’t doomed others as a result.
“Thanks,” I heard from beside me, barely audible over the gunfire. I glanced over at the squad leader I had spoken to earlier, but she was already focused on the fight again. I nodded to no one in particular as I gunned down another Model Three.