Chapter 6: Let’s try again!

  “Many people see samurai as violent, but that isn’t necessarily true. Many samurai choose not to fight. Others choose to fight by proxy, design weapons, let drones fight for them, you get the idea. A lot of them opt for the safer type of work, to do more cleanup than actual battle, you know?

  Of course, a large percentage of them are actually violent! They fight in incursions and yes, often against bad people and all that but it is normal to have those impulses and that drive to do what’s necessary. Many soldiers are drafted and do well in combat after all!

  However, there is another type of samurai. It is difficult to say how rare or common they are, but they need to be considered. The samurai that love fighting. The ones that enjoy violence in and of itself!

  They reassure me and inspire me. They give me hope that we can survive and beat back the enemy of humanity.

  They may also be the most terrifying thing on this planet.”

  –Online lecture on ‘violence in the modern day’, Professor of anthropology Julia Barton, 2046

  ***

  After a bit more nagging and some more purchases, I did buy that detoxification suite. I mean, I could admit that my thinking had been growing hazy.

  Now that I was fully repaired and changed out of those goo covered clothes, I did feel much better. However, that didn’t mean I was doing well.

  I was pretty damned worried and oh, yeah, I was still plastered with alien goop all over! I bought a slightly armored undersuit but I had to put it on over my disgusting skin. That was fun. A cheap sci-fi leather jacket that would be hard to bite through helped me feel less naked too.

  The undersuit was… very well tailored. Skin tight was underselling it. I was pretty sure any erection would be obvious as hell. Robin would like it. Sadly, I didn’t have time to check how my ass looked.

  One of my smartest buys was a perception speed enhancing combat-stim. It didn’t last long because that shit fried your brain if you didn’t augment yourself specifically for that.

  My favorite part? It was in my second vape device! What can I say, I loved vaping. Might be an oral fixation thing. Never bothered my husband, the opposite in fact!

  My massive, and I do mean massive, revolver was in its holster at my thigh, just under my hip. I was surprised when I saw it. There was no hammer, just a rectangular bit of metal that went to the grip and continued under it. Oddly, it fired from the bottom cylinder yet had a rectangular frame. Apparently, the space on top was filled with recoil gel. Awesome! I wouldn’t even try to comprehend how that worked!

  The customized grip fit my hand perfectly. The cylinder was almost as big as my fist! It also glowed red at the seams because why the fuck not? It said clearly and plainly ‘dangerous as fuck’!

  On a sling, I had my badass shotgun! It was a sort of bullpup with the thirty-six-shells drum near my shoulder. Both barrels were inside a very dark blue alloy with those wavy things you get on expensive knives! The reflex sights looked like they were just a part of the body.

  Under the second barrel there was a tube magazine for my eight ten gauge shells. I also had a forward vertical grip that seemed to melt off the body. The gun had two triggers, each in its own trigger guard along with a space for the rest of my fingers.

  That was the beautiful lever that fit like it was just a seamless part of the semi-pistol grip! Said body was tall enough that I could operate the short action of the lever without the very compact drum magazine getting in the way.

  The weapon was just… badass! It was pretty short yet just as dangerous since, you know, bullpup! It was sexy with fine edges, compact, perfect for tight spaces, fast firing yet powerful, god I loved it!

  There was, of course, a bit of RGB lighting along the few seams.

  Why? Because samurai, that’s why! It’d scare a Kai and make intimidation easy as pie! I let out a satisfied sigh, refocusing with a smile that was a bit rye. No more time to buy. It was time for the xenos to die!

  I was ready to kick ass and rock and roll! I tried to wipe the stupid grin from my face and failed miserably. It took a couple deep breaths for me to focus and stop giggling.

  In my defense, I was still waiting for some of my bones to fuse properly. While I waited for the go ahead from Altany, I slicked my dark kind of red hair back. Had to make myself ever so slightly presentable.

  Sadly, my hair stayed back thanks to that disgusting alien blood. It made for a good hair-gel and a terrible deodorant.

  My equipment felt bizarrely light thanks to that strength enhancement. I planned on buying some new eye gear as soon as possible, mine was pure shit. For now, I’d simply let Altany manage my HUD.

  I had an ammo counter with some two or three letters long descriptors. The interesting thing was, I saw logos here and there, but never the same. On the boxes, on my HUD and even on some of my equipment. Was Altany workshopping ideas?

  They didn't look terrible, mostly panda or shotgun themed. They needed some work though.

  You are good to go.

  ‘Thank you! Might ask for stuff quickly, don’t wait to confirm while in action. Also, I appreciate the work you do greatly, thank you.’

  You are welcome.

  I could hear some kind of emotion in Altany’s voice, but had no time to analyze. I touched my toes, then grabbed the bottom of my feet to check my flexibility. It’d been an issue with my arm mods, but now I felt even more flexible! How the fuck did that work?

  Whatever. I leapt to the top of the model six in one awesome jump!

  This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

  The scene that met me was carnage. Pure, undiluted carnage. To my left, I realized that some people had hunkered down at their place. It explained the amount of blood I was seeing in an area I didn’t fight in. The model threes had dragged them back to the hive…

  ‘Fight now, grieve later’

  There were scattered model threes, but seven in my immediate vicinity. Truth be told, I might have simply picked out the seven closest. What can I say, I wanted to test out my revolver! After a hit on my speed boosting vape, I let loose. The new gun did not disappoint!

  My first round hit dead center on a fubar-dog’s head. There was a subtle explosion inside the fucker, followed by massive amounts of gore exploding out the back. Some of those claymore balls even penetrated its main body.

  I instantly felt quite a bit better about the situation. I killed the next six with a single shot for each. Every fucking time I could see a massive splash of gore explode behind them!

  ‘Fuck I love those rounds, gimme some more please!’

  Reloading

  I holstered my beautiful, sexy and powerful revolver. It was time for the main event! I’d been heard, and quite a few fuckers were heading my way.

  First, I had to ensure no alien was going to bite me in the ass. I quickly sprinted for the restaurant/lure and was promptly reminded why recon was important.

  ‘Can you hack into the cameras? I think I fucked up…’

  There were a lot of them. So fucking many that they piled on top of each other! The improvised to-go counter, definitely not far enough away, was buried in model threes. Not only that, I could see movement in the back. Apparently, the distraction worked well.

  Yes and no, you should really upgrade your ocular augmentations and buy the cyberwarfare catalogue to have better access to such systems.

  ‘List. Busy.’

  All through Altany’s little speech, I fired round after round of that souped-up 12 gauge. Had to admit, I couldn’t have controlled the recoil without that strength augmentation. Even with it I had some muzzle climb.

  However, it did the trick, throwing those fucked up doggies around like a sledgehammer! However, there were just too many of them. I didn’t have a lot of space and they were closing in.

  Time to try my new toy-I mean tool! My drum was getting light so, I used the second trigger.

  It was orgasmic. I saw a little bit of the expansion just outside the barrel, creating a sort of black hexagon in the air for a moment. Then I saw the effect!

  I was never going back to lead, tungsten was the way to live! Each and every slug killed at least one of the little fuckers, often two! They hit hard and popped some like a balloon of green gore!

  It destroyed everything in a circle around my point of aim. I got down to one knee and aimed just a bit high. Perfect. More slugs hit two of them, including the ones at the back. I was hard as a mother fucking rock!

  However, I had to admit, the round weren’t a universal solution.. Everything outside the circle was fine and I had a carpet to deal with. That left quite a few survivors to pick off.

  ‘Drum and whatever that was again!’

  I felt like a kid saying ‘Mom mom mom can I please go on the ride again?!’, but fuck it! Everybody needs joy in their life, and I loved big bore firearms destroying shit!

  Would you like to explore something with a wider area of effect after this magazine?

  ‘Oh? Please go on, Altany, I am paying an unhealthy amount of attention. Also by the way, how much was that magazine?’

  It was fifteen points. Somewhat expensive, but I believe you’ll agree that it is a good investment. For your area of effect issue, may I propose monofilament shells? They will deploy a spinning monofilament cable that will slice through almost anything in flight.

  Altany clearly shared my enthusiasm for destruction, in her own less weirdly sexual way! I barely put any thought into accepting while I reloaded.

  ‘God yes, after this magazine. I want to do that again.’

  I’d kept an eye on my side the entire time. Altany was right about those damn augs. If I had a camera feed… oh well. You work with what you got.

  The aliens from the main corridor had gotten uncomfortably close. The assholes were quite a bit more spread apart, but I knew how to shoot moving targets! I didn’t have a lot of practice and the buckshot spread might have saved me a couple times but still!

  They annoyingly zigzagged through the long corridor. I might have fired in bursts to make sure I got the fuckers.

  Most importantly, I was moving forward. My people needed me. My enforcers needed me. Lila needed me. Robin needed me. My kids needed me.

  Every step brought me closer to the infamous intersection. I passed by Donna’s corpse, or what was left of it… Fight now, grieve later…

  The flow of aliens increased slightly, but I kept up, reloading fast now that I got the hang of it. Apparently, those gaping assholes noticed I was here. Good.

  They evaded less now that they had less space between them. I emptied my 10 gauge and switched to more precise 12 gauge shots. Had to switch to the Collapser a couple times before I could reload.

  Thanks to magic alien bullshit, my barrels took the heat without any issues even though I was burning rounds like crazy!

  The closer I got to the intersection, the closer I got to Anna’s corpse, crushed to the ceiling by vending machines. That model six had some kick. She was more mangled than… Fight now, grieve later.

  I noticed a little toggle on my augs. It said ‘HRZ v VRT’. I selected vertical for now, not knowing exactly what it was for. I found out when, getting to the center of the ‘T’, halfway to my destination, I saw down the corridor.

  At the other end, the garden hounds blocked each other with how many there were. Thankfully, it wasn’t that wide. One of the reasons for selecting this intersection.

  I quickly emptied the rest of my drum to create space, then tried out that monofilament stuff. I hesitated for a second at seeing George’s body, all chewed up. Would I be leaving something for a - fight now, grieve later!

  The slug moved at a glacial pace to my sped up senses (man that peach vape was good!). It clearly had a lot less velocity, probably to let the filaments do their work. Not even a meter outside the barrel, it turned into a dark disk in the air.

  It couldn’t have been more than a meter and a half in diameter, but everything that circle touched turned to pulp. Model threes were sliced so finely they became mush! If the disk covered the whole body, they turned to vat-meat slices.

  It was… cathartic, in a very strange, possibly fucked up, way.

  The death spinners were effective enough for me to hold back the tide. The slugs - no, warheads - weren't wide enough to cover the corridor but they had enough AOE to stop the wave of little shits.

  They weren’t perfect, stopping the moment the slug impacted anything or after cutting through too much hard material.

  However… fuck me they left a mess and a half! A beautiful mess!

  “Focus Louis, people need you…” I reminded myself. It was time to go back to my family.

  ‘Altany, I’m gonna need some turrets, something to hold those fuckers back while I get to my people. Fuck the points, get something good, I don’t want to worry about my back.’

  I have a few options…

  ‘Whatever, I trust your judgement, just buy and place them here, please.’

  Of course. While we have time, since you have the incoming tide semi-contained, should we address the issue with your ocular augmentations? You have an emergency installation catalogue.

  ‘Quickly, please, those cyberwarfare catalogues and some good augs. Fast emergency install, don’t care too much about pain.’

  That was a mistake.