Luke
Targets Eliminated!
Reward… 15 points!
Total points: 523!!
Betsy bucked as Luke floored the accelerator and ran right over three Model 7 zombies at once. So far, so good. And the bomb had worked well. Blowing up his shop had gotten him over four hundred points in one go.
Five Pits had now been lit on fire, expanding in a circle around Pit Seven, where he’d seen zombies just jumping into the top. Intayis had told Luke that this behavior indicated hive activity, so he’d tossed two Firecrackers in just for good measure. Apparently, Sevens mainly were built to get their victims to walk back to the hive, so that the biomass could be used to build more Antithesis.
To prevent the giant spheres from closing, while Luke threw the incendiaries, Z was shooting the control cables which ran from the maintenance and operations control station to the giant traction motors under the ground which spun the things in circles. Intayis had told him the roots of the Hive were likely intruding into the bottom of the spheres, but that the motors weren’t powerful enough to sever them, so he had to prevent the computers from putting the fires out. This was the best way to get it done.
Turning back to the virtual window he had his augs project onto where the windscreen would be, Luke returned to his conversation with The General. Brigadier General Rosetta Smith was a hard-eyed woman in her mid 70’s, although she looked like she’d be able to chew nails while running a marathon even at her advanced age. Luke knew she could run that marathon - she’d increased her physical training since becoming stuck in the Underlake, and was a wiry, muscular, and sharp despite her age.
The Compound was where the diehards who had agitated for re-establishing the old US government had moved en masse after their citizenships had been revoked by P&L. There weren’t too many of them - only about two thousand, by this point - but they had more or less fortified old Juanita Bay, walling the entire area off against intrusion. It was exactly what they needed.
Right now, Luke needed a place for every single person in the Underlake to go. The Compound had its own power, water recycling, and even some weaponry. They’d dealt with corporate rule by simply being too much of a pain to eliminate while staying out of CWM’s way, fortifying their compound and rarely leaving it.
“Tinker, I get what you’re saying, but I don’t want to risk assets under my control for a bunch of gangers and corpo-goons. And we don’t have the space.” She ran a hand through thinning grey hair, obviously in distress.
“General, I know. But isn’t there a military term about refusing the enemy what they want?”
“Denial of resources. Let me think about this. I know what you want. I’ll call you in thirty minutes.”
“Okay, but I’m putting the word out anyways. You can shoot us if you want, but we’re still coming.”
General Smith sighed and the window winked out.
Zim was on his own channel, talking animatedly and apparently to himself as he waved the ancient-style SMG he was still holding around. “Yeah, look. I’m tired of this, guys. I’m sending you a package. Look at it. If you want to be worm bait, then go be worm bait. Just, when you decide you want to live, meet us at the Juanita Compound.”
Z palmed his face. “These people. It’s like they think the alien invasion is a plot to take their turf. Who cares about pit salvage territories when there’s actual, living zombies crawling all around?”
Luke tasted something metallic in his mouth and spat to the side. He wasn’t sure if the blood in his saliva had come from him, or from one of the zombies who had tumbled over the top of the old truck. But it didn’t really matter. They had a job to do.
“Intayis, I’m going to be arming a lot of people. Every person with a gun is one less potential zombie. I need weapons that people around here will be familiar with. I need them to be effective against the Antithesis. What can you do for me?”
A polite, slightly robotic voice came over the ancient stereo system. Lucas, I have millions of options in terms of catalogs. If familiarity is your goal, we even have a catalog for Earth weaponry.
Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.
“Isn’t there a downside to using puny human technology against the aliens?”
Oh, yes. Humans are quite inventive when it comes to inventing ways to destroy each other, but human weapons are not well-designed to fight Antithesis. However, such weaponry is effective, as-is, against most Antithesis in the single digit range, which we have been seeing up to this point. Locally available weapons are also discounted on a points basis, meaning that even if these weapons may individually be less effective than more refined alternatives from other catalogs, they still represent the most cost-effective way to arm humans.
Of course, we aren’t stuck with human designs. There is also a catalog available with the technological base of an alien race which you may wish to consider. Their name translates roughly as “The Exiles,” although in their tongue, it would be multiple sentences.
“What’s special about this group of aliens, and why would their catalog fit?”
The Exiles are a group of technologically advanced aliens whose homeworld fell to Antithesis conversion before we were able to deploy resources to assist them. This was many, many years ago. They evacuated their planet themselves, destroyed the world, and were thriving as a race of engineers living on asteroids and airless worlds when first contact was made.
Exile technology has some unique features, but the key is this. They’re pragmatists. Everything they build is meant to work well with any devices they pick up from us or another species. While Exile technology isn’t incredibly inventive on its own, they tend to find ways to enhance the ideas of others and build something functionally superior.
“What’s the downside? It sounds great. Does this mean we would be able to use alien tech to upgrade human weapons?”
The downside, and the reason why no other Vanguard on this planet has selected this catalog, is that it doesn’t come with many original designs. It’s mainly components. And Exiles do not consider visual aesthetics in their designs. At all.
Zim fired off a burst of automatic fire from the passenger seat, nailing a shambling corpse as they raced by at speed. “Sounds like a race of rednecks! Fucking perfect. Do these things come with free spit cups?”
I hesitate to dignify that comment with a reply.
Luke laughed. They’d arrived at another Pit. He grabbed a Firecracker from the box on the center seat, thumbed the button on the top, and launched the device into the large, circular hole in the ground. A loud whump followed. Ghostly blue and yellow flames licked up, out of the Pit. That’s six, out of five hundred. This was going to take some time.
“Intayis, get me those two catalogs. But, when you get the human catalog, can you make it broad? Give me, um, military technology. We can narrow it to that. But we need vehicles, small arms, armor, explosives.”
Easy to do. You’re sitting at six hundred and twenty points at the moment.
Pre-Incursion Human Military Surplus Unlocked!
Points reduced to… 495!
Exile Technology Tier One Unlocked!
Points reduced to… 370!
Luke grinned. New toys were always welcome. Then, Betsy hit something harder than anything else had been. One of the wheels locked up on the passenger side, in the rear, and Luke’s truck spun to a stop, facing the opposite direction which he had been traveling in before. From behind a concrete pillar, a massive shape moved out, just as large as the truck. It had six legs, and a muscular, alien-looking jaw. The Antithesis bit the front of his truck, taking a chunk out of the aluminum body panels as if it was chowing down on a piece of cheese.
Oh my. A model six. I was not anticipating one of these models, this early. This is not good.
Luke grabbed Zim’s arm and pulled him bodily out of the truck, tugging the kid onto the ground so that the truck’s chassis was between them and the massive alien.
“Intayis! I need options!”
If it was alone, I would suggest starting with the Barret M82 anti-material rifle. No lighter weapon could reliably penetrate the hide of a Model Six. They’re known as siegebreakers. But the problem is, they’re never alone.
Luke’s eyes widened.
Z screamed. “Luke! Oh, fuck! What’s that!”
A doglike shape had leaped onto the hood of the broken truck. A mouth shaped roughly like the alien from the old Predator movie hinged outward in four separate directions, each mandible having three hinges.
Luke didn’t hesitate. He raised his ancient Colt and put a round right down the throat of the alien. It dropped, but he heard scrabbling coming around both sides.
“Intayis! Two SMG’s, right now! Big magazines, light, I’m thinking P90. And give me two rocket launchers!”
New Purchase: FN P90 x2
Points reduced to… 360!
New Purchase: M72 LAW Disposable Anti-Tank Launcher x2
Points reduced to… 350!
Four bare items clunked to the ground in front of him - two sleek, small submachine guns made mainly from black plastic and two tubes about the length of an arm.
“Grab one! Let’s go!” Luke yelled as he slung the launcher over his shoulder and brought the SMG up to aim. Today just got worse.