“You mean to tell me these damn aliens put some robot person in someone’s head and then that person, instead of freaking out and getting it removed, just goes “oh, hey, cool, gimme guns please!” Hell no, I ain’t buying that! Shit stinks so bad Uncle Cletus’s skunk won’t go near it. Those aliens are brainwashin’ them boys. Mark my words, Elly, those aliens and their robots are up to something! They’re probably trying to take all our gold and Freedoms, maybe even the hooch! I see one of them boys and we gonna find out, you just watch!”
* Leroy McCoy, patriarch of the McCoy family, 2026 - 1 week before attempting to murder Samurai Gunslinger
When I was finally in a slightly better state of mind, I turned to the group, all of them staring at me with wide eyes. They seemed mostly uninjured, which was good. What was less good was the sight of Leon at the back, hiding behind the rest.
Rage rose up inside of me; for all his talk, all his boasting and inane threats, he hid behind a girl two heads shorter than him. He let her deal with this, instead of actually acting like the bigshot he pretended to be.
With an effort of will I pushed the emotion down. It wouldn’t help anything and I might just kill him otherwise.
Take deep breaths, Yurei. Keep calm. That ain’t your life anymore, stop thinking about it.
I couldn’t stop myself from giving him a glare, though. He noticed it and paled, my emotions obvious in my eyes. Then I tasted the scent of fresh piss on the breeze and I scowled. The coward had actually pissed himself.
“Yurei, what…” Zuri’s voice ripped me out of my thoughts and I turned my attention back to her, Leon all but forgotten.
Her breathing had steadied a little and she looked more aware of her surroundings. Her eyes were locked on my blood stained appearance, a mixture of both my own and the alien goo. So far I hadn’t paid attention to it. Being covered head to toe in blood was something I had long since gotten used to. To her it probably looked terrifying, though.
“I’m fine,” I said softly, giving her my best attempt at a warm smile, “How are you? Does it hurt anywhere, do you need anything else?”
“I… It’s better now. I think,” she replied with a faint smile of her own, one that didn’t do anything to hide the pain underneath, “Stryx says I’m going to be right as rain.”
She giggled, coughing. “Guess I’m a Samurai now…”
For a moment my mind reeled, and I couldn’t quite make sense of things. Then it hit me. Stryx had called her Samurai Zuri. Did they take her on as a Samurai as well?
I wasn’t sure how I should feel about that. On the one hand, that was good. If Zuri was a Samurai now, she could obtain items to heal herself up. But on the other hand, it felt rather convenient.
And now Stryx had her in hand.
“Stryx? What is going on?” I muttered, staring at Zuri with a mixture of relief and suspicion.
Zuri Neylan has proven herself worthy of becoming a Vanguard, due to her actions. Typically, should she have been monitored by another AI, they would have taken on the role of her AI assistant. However, as there was no other AI currently present, and I have the computational overhead to assist two Samurai at the same time, I have taken it upon myself to act as her assistant.
I took another deep breath, trying to cope with the situation.
Stryx had taken Zuri on as a Samurai. I should probably be grateful, considering that she would be safe, but I couldn’t help but be suspicious. So far I’ve never heard of an AI taking on more than one Samurai at a time. Of course, I couldn’t be certain that never happened, there were far too many Samurai around to keep a tab on everything. But I would have thought that I would have at least heard of something like that, considering Leah was regularly going through all the forums she could find and was often talking about that kind of stuff. Then again, maybe this was irrational.
Whatever the case, the fact that Stryx had taken Zuri as Samurai, made me suspicious. To me it screamed manipulation attempts. If Stryx wanted to control me, the best way would be to take Zuri hostage.
This sucked… Thinking like this wouldn’t help me at the moment. The situation was what it was. Right now I had to focus on getting everyone to safety. I would have enough time to gather information later, and it wasn’t like I could do anything about it anyway at the moment.
“Uh, Yurei? You okay?” Zuri asked weakly, ripping me out of my thoughts.
I shook my head, dragging myself out of my funk. I had to focus, no matter if Stryx was trying to control me, I had to get Zuri to safety. “I’m… okay. Just thinking about some stuff. Can you move?”
Carefully, she sat up, checking herself over. “I think. Won’t win a race, but I can move, yeah.”
“Good. We gotta hurry, more xenos could be on their way.”
Getting up, I looked around, trying to focus on the here and now, blocking out any worries about Stryx’ agenda. Zuri was talking to them in hushed tones, getting something to help her wounds. The boxes appeared, their design different than my own.
I grabbed my discarded weapons, then checked over the group. Zuri was injured and she wouldn’t be able to get out of the way quickly if things went sideways.
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That was a problem. I couldn’t carry her and defend the others at the same time. Leah and Sydney could probably support her, but if we had to run, they’d be too slow. Letting my gaze wander over the group my eyes fell on Leon.
My mood, already foul, dropped even further, thoughts about what a useless coward he was, running through my head. But despite all his shortfalls, he was strong and he was fast. He could carry her if need be. Even if I didn’t want him anywhere near her.
“Leon!” I shouted, getting the guys attention. He turned to me, his face paling.
“Get your ass over here.” I probably could have been less aggressive, but I really couldn’t bring myself to care. Not about that sorry excuse for a human being.
Despite his obviously terrified expression he moved fast, entirely ignoring that he had pissed his pants previously, looking at me very cowed.
“Zuri is wounded. If shit goes sideways and we need to move fast, you will carry her to safety. Try anything, and I do mean anything, and you’re a dead man.” I leaned in closer, voice soft, “Don’t think I won’t notice. I will find out and I will find you, there is no universe in which you can escape me. I know where all your friends and family are, I have your entire life studied and memorised. If you so much as think about doing anything to Zuri, I will make the remainder of your worthless life a living hell. Do you understand?”
He stared at me with wide eyes, pure terror evident.
“I asked if you understood!” I hissed.
“Y-Yes!” he stammered.
“Good.”
Turning away from him I tried to calm myself. I was much too tense, everything happening went not how I wanted it to, but I had to keep calm.
Dismissing him from my thoughts, lest I get tempted with doing something drastic and irreversible, I glanced at Zuri, who gave me a difficult to read look. I gave her my best attempt at a smile, which was even worse now, before I returned my attention to our surroundings once more.
Luckily, it didn’t take Zuri long to get ready. She had gotten herself a large band-aid for her wounds, as well as some other bits and bobs that I didn’t know the function of. Not that I cared much beyond the fact that it helped her.
Then I was distracted by a sudden sound, hidden under the rustling of the leaves and the murmur of the people around me. Turning, I observed the foliage in that direction. I couldn’t see anything yet, but I didn’t think it would take long for them to get to us.
“We should hurry, I can hear something coming closer,” I said to Zuri, not looking at her.
“Yeah, yeah, one second,” she muttered, then I heard her slowly get up with a groan.
Giving her and Leon a quick side glance I found him standing next to her a bit awkwardly, obviously not entirely sure what to do with himself. Dismissing him once more, I made my way over to the other end of the group, checking for any other signs.
Whatever had made that sound was getting closer. By now I was sure there were at least three more, probably four.
“Okay everyone! Let’s move. Unless you want to wait for aliens to eat you, we should hurry.” She was so much better with people than I could ever hope to be, and in short order everyone started to move.
We weren’t as fast as I would have hoped, but Zuri was injured, and we had some elderly folk with us who couldn’t quite keep up with the pace that I wanted to set. I stuck to the back of the group, ignoring the glances I got from some of my classmates.
And good thing I did. Stuck to the back of the group I mean. It didn’t take long for more aliens to show up, four model Threes. There were also two model Threes coming in from the front that I hadn’t noticed until now. The wind came from the wrong direction and the sound the group made drowned out their silent steps.
Zuri, to her credit, noticed them nearly at the same time I did. Something appeared in her hands, a glove of some kind that I couldn’t identify. I didn’t have the time to check what it did, because the aliens behind us moved fast.
Ignoring the two at the front, trusting that Zuri knew what she was doing, I let myself fall back into the flow of combat. I just hoped that Leon would actually do what I asked him to, because otherwise I would scatter the rest of his remains all around Neu Düsseldorf.
Most of my wounds had healed by now and I felt much lighter on my feet again. Additionally, I was in a very foul mood, and I welcomed the chance to work through my frustrations.
Turning and falling into a light sprint, I angled my approach to cut off two of the fucks. I wasn’t confident in taking them all on, but I was confident enough that now, with some proper weapons, I would be able to delay them long enough to wear them down.
Fully immersing myself in my instincts, I reached the first alien, ready to jump at me. Letting myself fall backwards, I slid under it, already pulling out one of my throwing knives. The second was already waiting for me, but I was also waiting for it. I had barely cleared the first, when I flung my knife straight at the second.
Rolling to the side, I escaped its clutches, springing back to my feet, then had to do another step back when the third tried to join the fun. Luckily for me, it ended up right in front of me and I plunged my dagger down, right behind its head, killing it. Unluckily for me, I had to leave the blade where it was, when the fourth joined the fray. The first one was also turning toward me, and the second one was trying to cope with the knife stuck in one of its eyes by thrashing wildly.
Pulling my second dagger out of its sheath, I dashed around the alien trying to jump me, throwing a second throwing knife at it to distract it for a moment. It bought me enough time to finish off the second, before I had to retreat when the first decided to make my life hell.
Unable to push with two xenos on my tail I tried to think of some kind of solution. By my calculation I should have sixty points, but I didn’t know what I could get to solve this issue.
Luckily, I didn’t need to. Something happened and the first xeno fell into two pieces behind me. Turning, I found Zuri not far, running over as fast as her injured legs could carry her, waving her hand with the glove around.
Something graced my arm and for a moment I panicked, but nothing happened.
You do not need to worry. Samurai Zuri has obtained a Nanite Enhanced Mono-Molecular thread weapon. While it currently does not yet offer any beneficial effects, in the future she will be able to apply various supportive buffs via this delivery method.
That was interesting to hear, although it did make me question why I hadn’t been cut like the alien had been. The change in position was enough for me to deal with the last alien, however.
With a quick motion I did an almost standing turn, a technique I had learned quite early in my life, and bolted in the opposite direction, once more sliding under the alien now trying to pounce me. Was I glad they were stupid as bricks and never learned their lessons. While I slid under it I buried my blade into its belly, both slowing myself down and leaving a deep wound.
By the time I came to a stop and jumped to my feet, Zuri had already decapitated it. Taking a deep breath, I tried to center myself again, looking around and making sure nothing else was trying to eat us.
Zuri was also breathing heavily, swaying slightly. “Fuck…”
“You okay?” I asked, turning to her, suddenly very concerned.
“Yeah, yeah… Just… Everything still hurts a bit. Come on, we should go.”