“I’ve never seen so many corpos scrambling during an incursion. Usually, they’re the most calm. What the hell is going on?”
Titanbreak, 2056
“What exactly do you mean by that, Kyos?” I asked, a little trepidatious.
These people are dead. This is a sad state of affairs. You are alive and a Samurai. They’d probably want to help you ensure that more people are safe. Therefore, I may help you re-appropriate their assets.
“Oh my god, my AI is a kleptomaniac looter,” I shook my head as the revelation slowly set in.
Technically not kleptomania if they are deceased and do not have a say. Looter is a term that I can abide by if it suits you, but I will continue to help in this way nonetheless. You are now twenty million credits richer by the way.
“Ek-fucking-scuse me? HUH?!” I scrambled to check through my augs for if she was right. Yup. Certainly. It’s there. Twenty million credits…and counting. I couldn’t help but laugh. I had never seen that many credits in my account at once, much less most of my life.
Ok. I guess we’re paying SeaWorld. Seventy-five thousand credits down the drain. Well, that’s about half of my college tuition I spent to get into a boat to save people’s lives. With the credits spent, I opened the door previously paywalled and rushed into the ship.
I didn’t have the time to ponder the architecture of the interior because I could already hear the screams of people trying to get away from aliens. Turns out, floating boat in the middle of the ocean that the Antithesis can just waltz right through is not a tenable position for staying alive. And yet, here I was.
I rushed forward, brandishing my knife and attempting to kick off my diving flippers as I went because they were not helping me move faster. I stumbled across an open door leading into a room with a tentacle monster having broken through a window; a Model Four. Weirdly though, it was a regular one. This was going to be annoying, as from what I remembered from my xenobiology class that I took in college as one of my gen eds, getting in close with these things was…not ideal. Muscular and with many tentacles, and can secrete biological toxins that will fuck me and others up. These ones are…the least ideal for a melee fighter like me. Of course, things were even less ideal when you had a person who was currently in a heightened fear state running towards the door.
“RUN AWAY!” They screamed toward me as they bolted past, leaving me to fend for myself.
Huh. Well, at least things have gotten a tiny bit closer to ideality… in a similar way that logarithmic functions inch closer to zero.
You have enough to buy a weapon that may be able to keep you at range from this Model Four. A harpoon. It will also be useful in future aquatic combats on your way back to shore.
Worth it? Worth it. “Uh, yeah, please get that. Really could use something to make sure I don’t end up in a hentai situation.”
We definitely would not want that.
New Purchase: Piston Harpoon
Points reduced to…0
A long box appeared next to me, clattering open as it appeared. Thank you Kyos, my body that still wasn’t doing well with hard physical exertion thanks you greatly.
This harpoon can be used as a regular harpoon, but it also has the ability to retract and extend at a speed relative to earth based pneumatics. It can do this three times in succession before it requires you to let the servos cool down. To use that mode, there is a button near the middle of the harpoon’s shaft and also near the bottom of the harpoon in case you need it for long range.
Gotcha. Yeah, that would work. It needed to, especially with that big lug lumbering toward me, preparing multiple strikes. Guess I needed to do the same.
I moved my footing into a better position to dodge the lumbering beast. I didn’t really have experience with a harpoon before, but outside of bullets or explosives, that was probably the best chance I had. And so, I dived behind the Four, being raked against my diving suit by multiple tendrils, trying to make use of its forward trajectory to keep myself from being immediately pummeled.
As I reached behind the Model, I pivoted, wincing slightly as my torso twisted, and then moved just out of the path of a set of swings from the Four’s tentacles, quickly pivoting on my heels and tensing my thigh muscles to press forward with a strike. My adrenaline might have been all that was keeping me from being fully affected by the fumes from this thing, but that’s all I needed right now, just a little push.
Speaking of, I pressed the button on the side of the harpoon as the first strike landed in, and I felt a fair bit of recoil as the end of the spear spiked in and out of the creature’s flesh several times, going deeper with each strike. A screech was heard from the Model Four before it collapsed to the ground, dead.
Target Eliminated!
Model Four x 1
Reward…15 points
Total: 15 points
Alright. We’re getting somewhere.
Macy, your heart rate is extremely high at the moment, both from adrenaline and the toxins in the air. I highly recommend buying a Cleanse soon. That will clear your system of all harmful chemicals and biological agents that are currently harming it, including ones that previously may have already been affecting it.
“What, like the microplastics from water?”
Exactly.
“Well, count me in, how much is it for that?”
Five points. Also, putting back on your diving mask would be advisable to avoid further contact with airborne toxins.
“Well, lucky me…yeah, hit me with it.”
New Purchase: Cleanse
Points reduced to…10
A small box appeared next to me, which I opened to find a small syringe. I could guess what I needed to do, so I stabbed it into my leg and I could quickly feel my body get lighter in a way. It was weird, and mildly jittery for a few moments before it subsided. Once I put down the syringe, I hooked my diving mask back on.
Considering your posture, you must be wondering why you feel the way you do. Between toxins being filtered as well as other foreign agents within your bloodstream, you will probably be losing a little bit of stiffness here and there from buildup being unblocked.
Neato. This whole Samurai tech was enticing in various ways, especially for a biologist like myself, and there was a part of me that wasn’t fully considering the current situation, but the possible future applications of what I was learning and experiencing at the moment. But, another question crept into my mind that non-sequitur’d the hell out of that other train of thought.
“...so, while that works through, out of curiosity, can you funnel some of those credits into paying off my student loans?”
I’d be more than happy to, dear.
Every college kid dreams of hearing those words.