Chapter 29: HFUG

  “A submachine gun is an automatic weapon that shoots a pistol cartridge real quick. Easy, simple, cheap ammo and also cheap everything.

  Then you get to a light machine gun. Now this thing can shoot a damn dangerous round, it just needs to be light. Similar for machinegun but we don’t see a lot of those! Better a light machine gun that you can move even if it’s slightly less powerful.

  Then, you get heavy machineguns. Did you know that during world war one, there was an HMG that acted as artillery? It could fire light artillery! Popular for naval vessels, invented by the creator of MGs himself, Sir Hiram Maxim!

  Oh, when you get to HMGs, the sky’s the damn limit!

  -PMC HMG operator Nicolas Croll in roadside interview during post-incursion cleanup, 2034

  ***

  What Johnny, Altany and Bytal came up with was… brutal. Yeah, that described it well..

  In truth, modern guns didn’t really need the shooter exposed, it was kind of just an… expect shit to go sideways issue?

  A camera on the outside of your crew served weapon? That’s going to get covered in mud and dust or get shot off! Although, of course, the answer the protectors gave?

  Four self-cleaning cameras! The shield acted as a shell that perfectly protected the operator! The cameras worked in concert to make the interior look transparent. Three could get damaged before it started losing any functionality and there were spares!

  It was an amazing shield!

  Attached to a ‘holy-fucking-hell’ 35mm esoteric ammo packing, Mach 4.2 capable, triple barreled, 300rpm firing, chainable belt fed, liquid nitrogen cooled, crew served, perfectly covered from the front helical fuck you gun!

  “Jesus.” I said while looking upon the monstrosity. “I mean, this sounds a bit excessive but at the same time… yeah, my kids are over there so I appreciate it, I guess?”

  Johnny looked at me, apparently confused. “What?” I looked right back at him.

  “Johnny, you do realize that thing could take out, like, a tank. Not counting esoteric ammo.” I turned more fully towards him.

  “50 BMG goes at around Mach 2.6, and that’s 12.7mm, right?” He nodded, showing he understood. Probably a good comparison to use with a Texan.

  “This? This is 35mm… at Mach 4.2… of esoteric ammo… five times per second… and the rounds aren’t just nine fucking times the weight.”

  “So what?” He asked. I blinked.

  “Well, one, do you have any idea what Mach 4.2 sounds like up close? I’m not sure anyone does.” Now he actually looked down at the monstrous weapon.

  “Ah… Yeah, better not shoot that hard if it ain’t an emergency… and hum… get some extra hearin’ protection?”

  “I mean, we could get anti-friction coated rounds, it is 35mm so it fits in my catalogue I think? I used that stuff for hypersonic, so… probably going to work? Nah, I’m more worried about poking big holes in the building.” His eyes widened.

  “Oh, uh… yeah, that tracks.” We both looked at it now.

  It took a moment of silence before finding a solution.

  “Altany, mind managing this? I mean, it’s badass, don’t get me wrong! But… yeeeaaaah, adult supervision required.”

  I will coordinate with the gunners. There is a basic limiting program in the weapon already that I will interface with. I will upgrade it for future purchases to make it easier and allow more control over the system.

  We both nodded at that. Reasonable and if shit went sideways? Well, always good to know you could take out a couple dozen tanks when needed!

  In truth, the monster was more made to act as a heavy-fragger, rapidly shooting fragmenting rounds. It fired at Mach 2.5 for the most part, and if you went higher, the battery would start going down. You could do quite a few shots at the highest velocity, but you’d need recharge time.

  In an emergency though? It would absolutely obliterate a model six! We’d decided that alternating between three different types of ammo in the belts would be the wiser course, and it didn’t cost extra!

  One link used anti-personnel grapeshot that would burst open almost straight out of the barrel to act as a type of shotgun, followed by a link of the more classic distance/impact detonated fragmentation rounds.

  Then armor piercing rounds right after. We didn’t want the gunner hesitating and having to switch ammo in an emergency. Since it could launch five warheads per god damn second, they should be alright!

  It oddly didn’t cost that much because the tech just wasn’t that advanced? Most of it focused on the barrel material actually, so they could handle the liquid nitrogen rapid cooling and not wear as fast. Helical-coilguns were a thing, just not a very well developed thing for humanity.

  Of course, it utilized more protector level tech! like the batteries, small generator, capacitors and the loading mechanism, but overall, it could almost be considered an earth-capable design!

  They were still a few hundred points each…

  The ammo would be a little bit worse, but not by that much. The bullets had no casings, just two little rails, but they were still 35mm! The belts were a bit bulky, almost fully encasing the rounds because they had to be loaded perfectly.

  However, they were stacked together three per link, all chainable. This thing could fire for a long, long time, and the belts were idiot proof.

  Oh you could fuck up the belts! Anything could be fucked up, of that I had no doubts! However, stacking them was crazy easy and if you put the rounds the wrong way, it just wouldn’t let you.

  I’d bought pre-loaded very long belts, empty belts and entire crates of ‘loose’ rounds, all securely packed of course since I didn’t want my people to blow up.

  All-in-all, I justified the expanse because one: They wouldn’t go anywhere after this. There were plenty of places that could use defenses this insane in our building if corpos really got pissed.

  Two: Those guns were crazy strong enough that I could actually trust those positions would be safe from swarms or big bastards. I could trust that my kids wouldn’t be in danger without more than one enforcer around them. It fucked with my nerves hard, but it needed to be done and those guns would ease my mind and let me focus.

  We decided that the militia and the enforcer that handled this would use it as a ‘shit shit shit fuck!’ gun. We didn’t want the hive getting used to these and trying to find ways around.

  Also, even if I died, I’d bought massive batches of ammo. Point efficient and all that. Also, extremely important: Johnny shouldered half the cost!

  He claimed it was part of his job as the sheriff! Not sure I could cover it by myself, or at least justify the massive point expenditure…

  I’d been prepared to pay but I wouldn’t say no to help! He also offered to pay for the rescued militia’s equipment since I’d equipped all the enforcers and militia before.

  “One at each entrance should do the trick. Any luck creating a route? Suspected survivors' prioritization included?” I asked Altany.

  Of course. I aimed for the most likely hiding spots. The electricity issues within this building still limit me in some ways. Many sensors and cameras are non-operational due to a lack of power. Bytal and I have found several options for quick retrieval of survivors before retreat to reduce the number of ingress points for the antithesis.

  “Alrighty! The… Helical fuck you guns are installed. Are they ready for two enforcers to retreat each?”

  Yes and no, they wish to test out non-participation before coming over.

  “Fair, we’re still ready to go, so we’re going to start.” I looked at Johnny. A lot of this plan started with us. We were essentially doing a Blitzkrieg!

  Don’t give time for the hive to reinforce, don’t let it swarm us and harm the civilians where we went! We’d go fast, enforcers as the tip of the spear, leaving insane defensive positions in our fucking wake!

  The first step would be tricky, though. Our original objective didn’t go anywhere, and Altany could confirm survivors down a side passage, possibly an enforcer among them, and I needed every single fucking one I could get!

  Also I was quite a bit worried about my fucking friends! Leaving that un-explored was not an option.

  “Everyone ready?” The fastest running enforcers were behind Johnny and I, ready to sprint in our wake and start up on that side passage while we focused on putting the defenses down, manning them with militia and then getting the fuck downstairs! My enforcers would need to keep it clear to prevent the defenses from getting hit in the back.

  “Let’s fucking do this.” I gave a nod to Johnny, then sprang forward.

  People usually saw strong people as slow. Complete bullshit. A lot of strength also meant a lot of power behind your damn movement. Which meant, even though I’d never beat Johnny in a race, I moved pretty god damn fast!

  Roger was behind us. He’d had his prosthetic (then his other) leg replaced with a speed boosting one. Not natural looking but springy and damn quick!

  The others would follow but this was the advance team. Francis was behind us, his legs allowing for more speed than you’d think given his massive gun. His job was to quickly and efficiently secure the stairwell so we could focus up front. Lila and Bella would stay with him and cover his back.

  Johnny had upgraded his revolvers, higher tech and better recoil control but also some experimentation. A pair of them were actually helical-coilguns! Apparently, revolvers fit well with the design. He had to reload the batteries manually though, exactly like a pistol. No idea why it looked so funny to me.

  His job would be to inflict quick, painful damage to the enemy and take out anything that might slow me down. After, he’d do damage down the side passage and extract the injured. Carol was ready if needed. Me? I’d be the bulldozer.

  As I heard shots ahead of me, I engaged all the boosted neurons and muscles that I could! The world slowed and I took in the scene. I didn’t need any weird ammo, that super buckshot would do the job wonderfully.

  All the bigger pieces of shit were dead, so all I had to deal with were hive hounds, and I had just the thing!

  Without slowing, I unloaded an ungodly amount of tungsten down the corridor! I used my fast muscles to just twitch the barrel slightly again and again and again! I didn’t slow down, but that meant I didn’t get all of them.

  As I arrived in melee range, I switched to my morphic halberd in one hand and my revolver in the other.

  I… wasn’t very good with the halberd. Did I have good edge alignment and use it efficiently? Fuck no, but it was a vibro-blade, so it cut anything it touched. It worked fine… this time. God, I needed that stupid martial art training implant!

  Even if I didn’t use it well, I knew how to fight, and that did most of the work.

  This would be my type of fight! Physical, satisfying, up-close and personal, and it felt fucking personal! They were in my building, attacking my fucking people! I wanted to murder every single last one of them with my bare fucking hands!

  That would be inefficient though, so I’d have to settle for dragging my melee weapon in my wake, slicing them into tiny little chunks, or punching a vibro-blade through their skull, or the feeling of driving my tail through their chest and making slush out of their insides!

  I had to admit, I might have –kind of sort of just a bit– liked the tail… Not in a furry way!

  It’s just… that stupid mental integration! Now it felt like my tail! Like it was meant to be there! It also had some great tactile, so it felt like I had a real, none-armored tail and yeah, killing aliens with it was a great feeling. Like killing them with my bare hands!

  It’s a normal feeling if you have a tail! I think…

  The corner came fast and my railgun stood ready. Since the walls were concrete, the moment I got the right angle, I sent out fragmentation shells in such close proximity, without my level of armor it would definitely have been suicide.

  This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

  My foot hit the wall and I slowed down marginally as my shotgun reassembled… and got peppered with a lot of shrapnel. I was fine with it!

  I sent more tungsten buckshot at whatever fleshy thing looked undestroyed. Then, I pushed forward once more. My railgun kept up the fire for a little bit but I got back to my shotgun and ‘just to be sure’ pokes with my tail without slowing down. I needed the militia and my enforcers to have an unobstructed path.

  Then, we got to the first problem area. This one, thankfully, Johnny already worked on. The corridor opened into a small concourse and at the center, there was that damn stairwell, already spewing more of the friendly little weeds…

  Monofilament shells risked the integrity of the stairs, and super-buckshot wouldn’t do the trick. I started sending down hyper-compressed buckshot at high velocity, which was destructive as all hell! However, I had to be sure not to hit the damn stairs…

  It poked big holes in the crowd down there… and in the ground –damn, those craters impressed me a bit!-- but I still had to deal with a bunch of them in melee. I’d be stuck until…

  “I got this, boss.” I relished the sound of Francis’s voice as he turned the corner. Roger arrived faster though, and he’d just cleared the field of fire. I got the fuck out of there as well since the place was filling back up and I had to stem the tide.

  Francis opened fire and mowed down the fuckers coming from the stairs! I had no idea what he was packing but it sure as fuck worked! The HMSG had a great rate of fire as well… I hoped the ammo to point ratio wasn’t too bad.

  Although, given the destruction I could see with echolocation, I didn’t worry much.

  The passage that led to the central concourse started to spew more model threes. I jumped up, already sending the same hyper-compressed high-velocity buckshot at my destination. It mostly kept them from refilling the place. The amount of propellant I had to use meant the recoil slowed me down, sadly.

  Thankfully, Roger took shots at the stray survivors of Johnny’s rampage and my pretty tungsten rain. Good, because I needed to hurry, hence get messier.

  Johnny had to keep them back until I got there. I needed to secure the entrance all by myself until the HFUG gunner arrived.

  Taking long range shots from models five and up and just shrugging it off? That was my thing. Even if Johnny emptied the side-section of aliens, he just couldn’t hold that entrance on his own.

  By the time I entered the rather narrow (maybe three people could walk comfortably?) passage that would lead to the exit and the side section, I could tell Lila and Bella had turned the corner. They must have really sprinted!

  With the more confined space, I could actually take on most of the aliens in melee. It slowed me down a bit, but with Roger bringing up the rear and taking care of what made it past me, I ran faster overall.

  The shots from down the corridor kept going, and there were a lot of them! I pushed my body to the limit to get there faster! I left more for Roger to deal with, which made me worry.

  “You alright Roger?” I asked while panting pretty hard. Fuck! I’d forgotten to upgrade my lungs and cardio stuff!

  I heard a snort. “I could do five times that boss, don’t mind me!” came over comms along with his shots. Well alright then!

  I pushed for more speed and less kills. “Johnny! I’m almost there! You alright?”

  The response came quickly from my quick buddy! “Yes! Defendin’! Hurry!” I arrived two seconds after he finished saying it. Well…

  ‘Arrived’ might have been a polite way of putting ‘crashed into the wall so hard I chipped off some concrete then almost fell on my ass’... Whatever, I was there now!

  “Ah! Yeah, S&R bud, I got this!” A nice, simple swarm. Johnny was built for single target assassinations, really, he didn’t do swarms.

  I did swarms though! I did them real good!

  A few hyper-compressed buckshot shells later, I advanced! I needed the Helical-Fuck-You-Gun, and yes, I was making that official, to be deeper in or it wouldn’t amount to much cover for the section we were evacuating. For now, after placing it, I’d have to count as the cover until the militia made it here!

  The swarm grabbed so much of my attention that I got a nasty surprise. “Fuck!” I exclaimed as a spine punched into my chest armor! It hurt! Thankfully, it wouldn’t punch through me anymore, but it sure as hell punched hard!

  “Ok, let’s-fuck!”

  “Not now, lover boy, busy…” Lila sent over comms. It helped my mood. The fucking spine that punched me in the gut didn’t!

  Then another one came, then another.

  I’d already started shielding myself however, which made things much easier. I’d lost a couple divisible plates with those gut shots.

  None of them made it to my skin though! Good armor! I’d pet the suite later.

  Problem was, the swarm of spines didn’t go anywhere! Hell, it intensified! “ Altany! Triangulate those fuckers and send them a warm gift with my railgun!” In less than a second, my railgun hummed and fired projectiles that apparently let off quite the blast!

  As it did so, I started to raise my shotgun but another spine got deflected, by my fucking head this time! The shield would stay up apparently! “Altany, need you to kill those long range fuckers! Just keep shooting with my railgun!”

  I’ll take care of it, any preference for munitions?

  I thought about that… “One shot-goat fuckers!-one kill is the priority! Try not to throw me around too much? Argh! Going to need to-son of a- fight up close I-shit!- fucking think… Could I get a better hand cannon? Can’t fucking let go of the fucking shield!”

  I tried real hard to aim my shotgun while holding up the shield! it just didn’t work…

  My accuracy became trash tier, I had to keep velocities real low so it’d be controllable, and the fucking shield either got in the way or didn’t protect me.

  Tetrahedralization is ongoing, firing every time I have a shot, clear or through antithesis. As for a ‘handcannon’, I have multiple options. The one I suggest you take is a single handed variation of your current weapon.

  The Grave Digger Mark 9, it will contain itself mostly in your bracer. You will be able to shift the weapon back up your arm to deliver blows after it is assembled.

  Usually I loved shopping for guns but fuck did I not have any mother fucking time! “Buy it then explain!”

  This design will cost eight-hundred points. Do you approve the purchase?

  Fuck me, that’d be even more than the original! However, at the same time…

  Yeah, that meant it was probably damn good and I needed it a minute ago. “Sure! Plus the usual bells and whistles with recoil and shit!”

  Already factored in, I know how you like them.

  I decided to just eat the hits and fired quite a bit of hyper-compressed buckshot into the corridor followed by super napalm. “Quick install and buy a bunch of ammo, whatever, I trust your judgement.”

  As always and as you should.

  New purchase: Grave Digger mark 9 + esoteric ammunition!

  Points Spent… 875!

  Points reduced to… 630!

  What fell in my hand was… a new bracer? Fuck it who cares! I put it on and the thing… melted? Integrated? Couldn’t tell. Then the mental connection established and I knew what it was and how it worked!

  It definitely impressed me.

  The system had been miniaturized and I wouldn’t be surprised if it cost more only because of the alloys necessary to prevent it from blowing up!

  It couldn’t take the insane bore diameter of my Tunneler, but had the ability to get up to shotgun size! Speaking of…

  I raised my hand and the absolutely mad design assembled itself. The intricacy was insane. It looked like an entire gun made by a watchmaker who did LSD with MC Escher! Even the damn barrel! Being more expensive just made sense with all of that.

  It used two… cylindrical magazines? The propellant helical mag and I had no idea what to call the other.

  It had six long lines of warheads and I could switch between them. No more storing some in the gun itself, which kind of sucked but not that much?

  Six types of esoteric ammo? It’d be plenty enough options. Six times more than most people. The handle surrounded my hand, feeding on both sides of my wrist.

  Technically a bullpup. The barrel might have been roughly twice as long as my extended fingers? Really pushing for the longest barrel possible, since the thing’s design had suites like mine in mind. Who the fuck cares about a handgun’s weight while wearing power armor, really?

  Behind the feeding was protector magic recoil whatever!

  The Grave Digger is, obviously, a morphic design. It is hampered by the constraints of needing to be a single handed weapon, but it gains some advantages as well.

  Due to this weapon's integration with your bracer, any recoil will be fully transferred to your arm as the weapon cannot pivot. It can widen to fire 16mm, or 20 gauge, shotgun shells. It is limited but powerful for its category.

  I put theory to practice as I fired around my shield, letting my echolocation ears and my aim assist module guide my shots. Add my twitch muscles to the equation and I punched some very high powered rounds –for a handgun– into a lot of heads.

  Spines kept thump-thump-thumping into my fucking shield however!

  My railgun answered but not fast enough to eliminate the threat, apparently. I switched to a different warhead and tested out the high calibers!

  You will be able to load higher amounts of propellant, but you will have an upper limit much lower than your Tunneler. Several recoil-reduction systems are active within the bracer as the bolt construction extends into it.

  “Altany, what am I shooting?” It did a nice fucking job. The projectiles could pierce the plates and create massive holes without any explosives.

  These are an interesting design of mine, I am glad to see them tested. I may propose it to enforcers. I call them ‘hornet’s nest’ slugs.

  They are made of a high penetrator tungsten slug of small length but wide width. When it impacts, the surrounding casing shatters and eighteen sharp tungsten needles behind the slug spread inside the target.

  I would add more needles with a higher diameter. It reaches higher speeds since it is rather lightweight for a slug, allowing for better penetration.

  It seems that even with the reduced velocities of the Grave Digger, some of the needles penetrated all the way through and impacted others. Would you mind testing them a bit more, but with a higher propellant charge?

  I reminded myself that it might be good to keep the super powerful AI entertained and shrugged. “Sure, what makes them so interesting?” This situation may not have been great overall, but this felt like the least I could do for Altany!

  She never asked me for anything. So, I wanted to do something for her now that I finally had some kind of way of doing it!

  It wasn’t like using those made me less lethal, really. Hell, probably the opposite.

  The rate of fire was damn good because of the reduced weight and recoil. Also, the gory vegan minced meat they created made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

  They are non-esoteric.

  My eyes widened in surprise! “Holy shit, does that mean they’re cheaper? Do you even need the catalogue to make them?” Those slugs did a lot of damage!

  A slug to the chest did the job for most model threes. Massive hydrostatic shock followed by a lot of the needles spread in a circle around the point of impact if the exit wounds were any indication!

  Some of them were clearly perpendicular with the slug and seemed to follow its trajectory, penetrating deeper than it did… I could see why Altany found this stuff fascinating now that I had the tools to observe properly.

  It is a fully earth capable design, and no, I do not need the catalogue, but it makes things easier and in this case, less costly. Also, yes, these are very inexpensive. I would recommend them if you are only handling model threes.

  It may be insufficient for quick kills on model fours however. I could make a staballoy version, but it would make them a bit pricier. Pure tungsten requires almost nothing to make in comparison…

  Altany sounded a bit… distracted, partially lost in thought. Also, clearly interested, like a scientist muttering about a fascinating topic.

  Obviously artificial and she probably had to ham it up so I’d get it. The AI did a million things at a time, but she seemed enamored with the design process… From what I could tell, which, yeah, I’d just take her at her word, fuck it..

  I sucked at people, alright? I had talent for specific parts of the people thing but… yeah, I mostly just sucked. I probably didn’t understand AIs better than humans.

  However, I did understand what she conveyed, even though I always suck at that…

  Wait, could it be she… actually, yes, it made sense. she adapted to me! She learned to speak my language!

  Not English, no, my personal language and the way I communicate and understand emotions! She then used it to communicate interest and complex emotions!

  I felt like hugging her! However, since I was getting shot at, I decided to wait a bit before engaging in brain surgery.

  Of course, she seemed to enjoy testing her stuff out on the xenos most. I made sure to keep her entertained!

  “Well, time to see the damage on model fours!” I said as a bad-touch plant turned the corner. Turns out, if I cranked up the power a bit and aimed for the center, they still did very decent damage!

  I believe I will recommend this to enforcer Francis, it would reduce the cost of his ‘cheap’ belts.

  Welp, she sounded happy, which made me happy!

  I wondered, did making reduction of cost a priority allow Altany more freedom in enjoying her past-time? Maybe an excuse?

  Something to contemplate later, while not getting bombarded with fucking spines! I refocused on the fight and my shooting.

  I could feel the difference in recoil. Something moved within my bracer as I fired. The whole barrel moved back with every shot. It was quick, of course, but it felt odd to have it affect the inside of my armor.

  My strength, weight and armor combined with the recoil control systems amounted to barely any muzzle climb! That meant, a lot more deadly accurate shots.

  The velocities may be lower than what is achievable through your Tunneler, and muzzle flash could be a concern you wish to address, but it is exponentially more effective than your Bearier.

  Alright, my new toy was awesome! Couldn’t wait to get to use my melee weapon along with it, but I had bigger concerns…

  “How many ranged models are out there, Altany?” I got pretty fucking concerned, actually. We hadn’t culled them in a bit…

  It is difficult to say, you would need to advance out of the corridor to allow me to get a proper picture. I believe if there are stronger ranged variants, they may let the lower tiers do their work. If they are effective enough, why expose more valuable members of the hive?

  Fuck… The swarm just kept growing. I fired mono-filament shells and hyper-compressed buckshot, but since they lacked the usual punch, my tail and kicks ended up carrying a share of the work. “God fucking damn it! How’s the elimination going? Can I put down the fucking shield soon?”

  It appears the model fives that I eliminate are replaced in short order. You will need to move further forward to gain a better understanding. My apologies, I lack the tools to observe or eliminate the threat.

  “Got a recon drone in Mole-Bear tech?” I asked, growing impatient. The militia would be here soon, manning the HFUG I’d placed already, which meant we’d push them back. I needed more intel!

  Yes, an inexpensive model that you can throw?

  “Yes please!” I said before a ball appeared out of the air above my Grave Digger. The entire assembly moved back and up my arm, leaving my gauntlet bear. “Handy!”

  I designed this feature to allow you to fight in melee. It will not impede morphic manipulation of your gauntlet or the deployment of vibro-blades.

  “Damn fine work Altany, thank you, I appreciate your efforts deeply.” I said with nothing but gratefulness and conviction. Why people didn’t do that more often was a mystery to me.

  As I showed Altany my appreciation, I cocked my arm back and threw the damn thing hard! It flew above the small models and fed images the moment it left my hand.

  The images weren’t blurry and useless which was impressive! There were also many, many cameras on it. As it arrived in the center of the building, I paled. “Call Johnny.”

  Connecting you now.

  “Howdy! What’s up?” His voice was a bit strained, but nothing major.

  “What are you up to?”

  “Evacuating injured civvies! I brought the doc over, she’s stabilizin’ before I make the trip, why?”

  “Evacuate all of them.” My voice was firm and without hesitation. It caused him to pause.

  “That ain’t a small order. Why not just defend the tunnel?”

  “Remember the weeding we did of the long range models?” I asked with apprehension.

  “Yeah?”

  “We waited too long to do it again...”