“What do you mean? Pummeling aliens is the plan!”
- Extract of a conversation between the Samurai Juggernuts and Rey “Brillenschlange” Daisy, 2049
I really didn’t like the idea of giving the woman a weapon. Every instinct in my body screamed at me to tell her to fuck off, that giving in would be my death. Yet, somehow, I relented.
Part of it was because of Stryx. They were able to shut down the weapon I had gotten, so I wouldn’t be in any danger of being shot by it. And rationally, it was better if I didn’t have to play babysitter all the time and make sure no aliens were trying to munch the woman’s face off.
Still, I couldn’t shake the tension I felt. I had told her that the weapon would explode to discourage her, but it didn’t actually have the capabilities to do that. Truth be told, I wasn’t sure if that was better or worse, really.
Regardless of my stance on the topic, her having a weapon did actually help a lot. While we didn’t run into many aliens, we did find some, and as apprehensive as I was, the woman was a damn good shot. Better than me, even. Once she had gotten used to the feel of this specific pistol, she seemed to be able to hit any shot, no matter how ridiculous it was, or how impossible it should’ve been. Not quite to the point of shooting things through walls, but I was halfway convinced she had some tech to locate adversaries even through any obstacles.
I had to admit, I was impressed. Firearms were never something I exclusively focused on, but I wasn’t too shabby either. She made me look like an amateur.
After we had left the little island, we had taken a relatively direct route towards the second shelter. As far as we were able to tell, there wasn’t any place to hide on the way, nor had we found any corpses or signs of fighting along the way. While it wasn’t a guarantee that nobody came to harm around here, it at least was a good indicator.
Things started to change when we came closer to the shelter, however. The air had long since started stinking of antithesis, a persistent backdrop to the otherwise pleasant scent. As pleasant as city air could be, anyway. It grew even stronger the closer we got, though. And that wasn’t a good sign.
Keeping a careful eye on our surroundings, I slowed down a little. I had a couple of undead with me, those that were still intact enough to endure a longer walk, and I signalled them to stay behind. With a glance and a wave, I signalled the woman, Ida, apparently, to keep her head down. Together we snuck closer, until the entrance of the shelter got into sight.
I wasn’t quite sure what I expected to see, although I doubted it could’ve been worse than what we found. The only saving grace in the mess playing out in front of us, was the fact that the shelter door seemed to be still closed and sealed.
That didn’t save the roughly three dozen bloody corpses slowly being dismantled by antithesis, though. Much like the other shelter, this one had a relatively open area in front of the entrance, doubling as the second entrance area. The gate was open, and it wasn’t hard to see that it hadn’t been opened in the intended way either. Even from here I could see the metal bars being bent and broken, making room for something rather large. Larger than any of the aliens I’ve seen so far.
The culprit wasn’t present, though, which wasn’t a good sign. Something of that size shouldn’t be hard to spot, but while I wasn’t an expert, I knew enough of the antithesis to know that they had some rather fucky ways to keep themselves hidden and to fool any detectors. The model Twelve was called the Bus-Bug for a reason. And that thing wasn’t exactly what I’d call small.
Granted, it was unlikely that it was the culprit in this case. The M12 could fly, so there was no need to force the gate open. Not to mention that while the hole in the gate was big, it wasn’t that big either. Certainly not big enough for a bug that was roughly similar in size to a hoverbus.
Unsurprisingly, there were still a lot of xenos around, mostly model Threes, but also some model Ones as well. From the trails of blood leading through the gate and deeper into the green area outside of the park, I was pretty certain that the intruders were from one of the other drop pods.
“I can’t see him,” Ida muttered, voice taught. Giving her a quick glance, I could see the tension in her, but also her determination to keep calm. I had to hand it to her, she didn’t let emotions take control. That was good.
I didn’t comment on the fact that most of the corpses were far too damaged to identify anyone or anything. Hell, I couldn’t even tell if they were men or women half the time. Not that I had too much time to focus on that.
While most of the aliens were busy cleaning up the biomass, some were determined to get through the shelter door and into the building proper. So far the door seemed to be holding, but I wasn’t exactly keen on trying to risk it. There was no telling when they’d change their approach to send more than just a couple M3’s to try and get through that thing.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
“Stryx, any idea on the status of the shelter door? How much time do we have until it gives in?” I couldn’t see any obvious damage from here, but I also wasn’t exactly an expert on steel and concrete. Not to mention that shelter doors were quite different from the obstacles that I learned to overcome over the years. And that extended to more than just the materials they were made out of.
If the shelter was built to specifications, then it should be able to withstand anything short of a model in the teens. I cannot find any direct indication of imminent failure, nor does there appear to be any significant structural damage.
With that being said, I would like to caution you to take that as a sign that there won’t be any issues. In recent years incidents have become far more commonplace, the result of human error, cost cutting, and lack of sufficient maintenance. In addition to that, there have also been incidents where shelter doors were opened wirelessly and without the inhabitants doing anything to confirm such an order. Reasons for those incidents range from simple technological failure, such as insufficiently secured opening mechanisms, to deliberate action.
While I calculate a rather low chance for such happening here, I do believe it is important to keep in mind.
Do you have any plans for securing the area?
That was… kind of horrifying, really. I vowed to make sure that such could not happen with any shelters my family might have to rely on in the future.
“I have some plans, yes, although I am not quite sure of any possible reinforcements. Once we can deal with the majority of the horde, I should have the necessary troops to secure the shelter, but until then we’ll have to be careful about any surprises waiting for us.”
I left it unsaid that I still didn’t fully trust Ida. She had alluded to the fact that she had been on the wrong side of the law when she convinced me to give her a weapon, and that she knows how to fight, which was evident in the way she used the weapon in question. But I wasn’t quite sure if I trusted her word that that was indeed all in the past.
By this point I was relatively certain that she truly did want to save her husband. While she didn’t let her emotions control her, it was evident that that was a rather tough fight. People could lie and act, of course, but it was hard to pull off a convincing emotional reaction in such subtle ways.
I really wasn’t good with people, but I was good at people. And I had to learn when someone tried to bullshit me. Often in the hard way. This wasn’t that. It had taken some time and observation, but I was sure of it now.
On the other hand, though, the fact that she had been in that kind of business before didn’t exactly warm her up to me. And, if at all possible, I’d rather not rely on her help when it came to securing the area, or securing my safety.
“We should start from the north side, I think.” Ida’s comment made me glance at her, not having expected her input.
Not that I disagreed necessarily, northside made a lot of sense considering the direction of the wind, but getting there would be hard and risky. Not to mention that it didn’t allow for a good fallback point, thanks to the dense brushwork.
“The main threat of reinforcements would be the gate, I think. We haven’t seen any signs of heavy xeno activity around here. If we can make sure that is blocked off, things would be a lot easier. I’m not sure what you can do to block it off, but if all else fails you can just have your… zombies or whatever stand guard. Considering the circumstances, having some aliens run off wouldn’t be too bad. Yes, we’d have to deal with them eventually, but this entire park will have to be checked up and down to make sure no xenos are missed anyway. And I don’t think we can focus on catching all of them right now.” She paused, giving me a short glance. “I can help take out things at range. I’m not that good in CQC, though.”
Despite my immediate response of telling her off, I swallowed it. She was right, and her plan did make sense, despite my dislike of the approach angle. And as much as I disliked having to deal with her on Overwatch, it would at least be better than her trying to rush in and do everything herself.
She wanted to, I could see it in her eyes, but she bit back on it, for better or for worse.
Taking a brief moment to consider it, I begrudgingly nodded. “You have a point. But I’m not going to approach from northside. Technically that would be best, yes, but I don’t like being that constrained. And not having a fallback point, or an easy way to get out, is a death sentence.”
To my surprise, she seemed to disagree. “Why? This isn’t some high security prison or something. You don’t need cover from weapons fire or anything. And the brushwork will help against any aliens trying to follow you. At the very least it should give you enough time to dispatch them before they reach you. I know you can do that, because I’ve seen you fight. Hell, I probably could do it. And I’m not nearly as capable as you.”
That… made me stop for a brief moment. She was right. Again.
So far I mostly treated fighting aliens the same way I did fighting humans. Including the need for cover and potential weapons fire. But that really wasn’t necessary, and while being prepared was always better than being caught flat footed, there was such a thing as being over prepared.
It seemed that this would be a lesson I’d have to make sure to keep in mind, lest I get distracted and repeat my mistakes.
“Very well,” I muttered after another short break, focusing back on the mess in front of me. “Stryx, any idea on what I can do to block off the gate?”
There are plenty of options available to you. From simple, Class 0 items for the low price of 1 point, all the way to more advanced security installations that would require you to unlock another catalogue.
“And those cheap things will work?”
Those would be simple concrete barricades, more than sufficient for the job, if a bit unwieldy.
“Good,” I nodded at that, before giving Ida a final glance. “You ready?”
She just nodded, checking over her weapon one last time. With that I started moving, sticking close to the underbrush on the north side for visual cover. She’d been right, this would be sufficient to get enough distance if need be.
With a deep breath, I let all those thoughts vanish from my mind, focusing entirely on the here and now, and the impending fight. Time to clean up a little.
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