“Most people who follow Samurai often think of them as great heroes and idols. And sure, they often know that Samurai are scary powerful and are known to do certain things that would get the average citizen incarcerated for years, if not outright killed. But it would shock many of those same people to know that some Samurai are, or were, criminals, not rarely even before they were chosen. Why the protectors, or their AI, we still aren’t sure who exactly selects them, don't seem to mind uplifting outright murderers is unclear. Whatever the reason, the facts are indisputable and have been well known for quite some time.
Take the Samurai Cocktail, for example. He was a convicted arsonist and murderer before he became a Samurai. Now, I’m not saying that Samurai like Cocktail can't become heroes. Evidently some, including him, did. What I am saying is that during this css I invite you to look at them as more than just Samurai.”
Professor Jeremiah MacLeod, Princeton University, in his course ‘Samurai 101’, 2041
The voice was… strange. It had a certain female sound to it, but also not, quiet and soft, like whispers. There was a certain ftness to it, not emotionless, simply artificial. The voice of an AI.
What really shook me, though, was the name it had used to address me. And that, despite all the mess that I was in, was all I could focus on.
Trying to work out just what the hell was going on, I tried to reply, but my body didn’t want to obey me.
Listing the entire extent of the damage to your system would take more time than you have remaining. If you do not wish to expire, I would request you trust me for the moment. As a Samurai you can procure items by spending points. To that end I would suggest you acquire the Css I Shadowstalker Utilities Catalogue. It is within your budget and features, amongst other things, various medical utilities suited to heal your current wounds, given some time. Outside of a more dedicated catalogue, such as the Css I Medical Utilities, it is by far your best and most efficient chance at survival, especially considering your profile. I am quite certain you will enjoy the rest of the repertoire avaible in the Css I Shadowstalker Utilities Catalogue, once you have overcome your current situation.
At this moment you have 180 points avaible to you, 100 from the Samurai sign-up bonus, and 80 from the eight model Threes you have managed to eliminate. The catalogue itself would cost you 50 points. To actually deal with the damage currently pguing you, I would recommend you purchase the Css I Nano-Regenerative Suite, as well as the Css I Hemo-Restore. Together they would cost you an additional 25 points.
If you accept this purchase, please inform me. Your consent is required to finalise the transaction.
Something about the voice calmed me. The subdued way it spoke, the way it carefully, but concisely, listed out all the important information, how it made sure to expin everything to me. The way it provided reasons for the recommendations; it made me feel like I could trust it.
Or maybe it was just that it was a lifeline, and I was currently dying. My brain was muddled, and while I had made my peace with my fate, it would also be wrong to say that I was seeking death. If I had a chance then I would take it. Take it and survive. For Zuri, if nothing else. She’d be very unhappy with me if I didn’t.
There was also the small matter of the name it had used to address me. The st time someone called me the Ghostrunner, I was sent on a mission that was doomed to fail from the start. And just thinking about that… I wouldn’t mind a chance to repay them for all they did to me.
Making my choice, I nodded weakly. “Yes,” I croaked out. My voice was far too weak, nearly inaudible, but it seems to have been enough.
Very well.
Css I Shadowstalker Utilities unlocked!Points reduced to: 130
New purchase: Css I Nano-Regenerative Suite!Points reduced to: 110
New purchase: Css I Hemo-Restore!Points reduced to: 105
A moment ter two boxes appeared next to my right hand. They looked sleek and dangerous, yet also strangely calming. Dark and with sharp corners, each came with a small line of text neatly printed in white blocky letters on the lid.
In a way, they reminded me of my old equipment. A fact both soothing, because of the familiarity, but also terrifying, because of all the memories that they brought with it.
They were roughly equal in size, the first belled ‘Nano-Regenerative Suite’ and the second ‘Hemo-Restore’.
Please open the Nano-Regenerative. Inside you will find an inhaler. Pce it into your mouth and inhale deeply. It will be uncomfortable for a moment, so be warned.
With an effort of will, I managed to give a weak nod, clumsily moving to open the box. It took some doing, my body felt like it didn’t want to obey me. It was as if I was made of rubber, even the simplest motion seemed so impossibly hard. Everything compined with even the slightest movement. Eventually I managed to get it open, finding just what the voice had told me I would find inside.
Taking the strange looking medical mask with a shaky hand, I brought it up to my lips. It took me two attempts to get the damn thing into my mouth, weakly cmping my jaws around it. Breathing was a lot harder than it should’ve been, but after a moment of concentration, I was finally able to inhale the strange… whatever it was.
The warning was appreciated, for a moment it felt like I was inhaling burning acid, my throat compining at the sensation. But I pushed it down with every st scrap of willpower I could muster. Luckily, the sensation didn’t st long. The moment the mask was empty, the feeling vanished.
With this, most of your wounds will start to heal. It will take a few minutes to fully take effect, I recommend not moving too much during this time. For now, please take the Hemo-Restore out of the second box and pce it next to one of your more grievous wounds that you can reach.
Doing as I was told, I fumbled the second box open, moving now being a bit easier. I felt strange, still in pain, but it was a bit more dull than it was before and I could feel something move around inside of me and fix things up. It reminded me of the emergency medical solutions I had to sometimes endure during my childhood when I came back from a mission in a much simir state.
The box only held a small cylinder with an arrow denoting which way I had to put it onto my skin. I brought it up to my chest. With a bit of effort I raised my head and looked down at myself, thankful for once that I was almost as ft as a board. In my current position it allowed me a better view of my torso and my sides.
The wounds were a gorey mess, blood slowly dribbling from deep gashes. It was already slowing, and even though I could see the wounds start to slowly heal, it was almost enough to make even me nauseous. And that was saying something.
I pressed the cylinder next to the wound. A strange piercing feeling shot through me for a moment that wasn’t quite pain, before the thing emptied almost instantly and I discarded it.
Laying back, I took a few deep breaths. The lightheadedness slowly started to subside, enabling me to think a bit more clearly once more.
For a moment, I wasn’t sure what to do. I had so many questions, but I also had the others to worry about. I had been given a third chance at life, and I wasn’t going to waste it. Taking another deep breath, I sorted my thoughts.
My highest priority would be getting to the others and seeing if they were fine. Zuri’s face came to mind, the tears running down her face as she was dragged around the bend and towards the shelter. Really, I was almost tempted to ignore the voice’s warning and rush off already, but I knew that would be a very bad idea. And, considering what I knew about the healing capabilities of Samurai, it shouldn’t take too long. While I could never confirm it, I was pretty sure that the Cn had gotten their hands on it somehow, and it was miraculous.
Deep breaths. Remember your training, Yurei. Take it slow, take it measured. You know your body, and you know it needs the time. Use this time to gather information and to form a pn.
It helped. As much as I hated just sitting here and waiting, I knew if I didn’t things would be a whole lot worse. And I wouldn’t be of any help to anyone if I just fucked up my recovery and died before I reached them, or was unable to fend off the aliens.
Instead, I focused on what I could do, what I needed, and the one question that had been pying in the back of my mind ever since the voice first spoke to me.
“You know about my name…”
I do indeed, yes. I know a lot about you, Yurei Neyn.
“What do you know, then?”
As much as there is to know about you and the Ghostrunner. It is not a perfect recollection of your life, nor is it a complete one; many details had to be pieced together from various different sources. But I did take my time to find out as much as there is to find, to make sure that I had a proper handle on your personality. Your life is very different from most, but I am confident in my findings. Otherwise I would not have gone ahead with my selection process.
I frowned, not liking the sound of that at all. Then again, it wasn’t as if I had taken time out of my life to purge all that history. And they were a super powerful AI. If they spoke the truth about being a protector AI, anyway. Which I was inclined to believe, considering that they just teleported stuff to me.
“And you still selected me as a Samurai?”
The thought alone was ughable. I was a criminal, a killer.
A sinner.
Yet, somehow, here I was. And despite all the arm bells ringing in my head, the only thing that would expin my miraculous survival that made any sense, was the expnation that the voice had just given me. That I was, in fact, a Samurai.
I did indeed. The reason for that was multifaceted, a mixture of a variety of factors; some to do with your combat proficiency, some with your past and history, some, of course, based upon your personality. Should we find ourselves with some time on our hands, we can go through the intricacies of the selection process, at least pertaining to your specific case.
For the moment, let us focus on your current situation and the options you have avaible to you. You are aware of how Samurai work, yes?
“Yes.”
Everyone knew how Samurai worked. They killed antithesis and got points in return which they could spend to purchase a variety of items from the protectors. Of course, I also knew a bit more, considering that Leah was quite enamoured with Samurai. And since Zuri hung out with her often enough, I picked up a few things. Those details were not quite of importance to me right now, but I made a mental note to ask the voice about it ter. To ask Stryx ter, I reminded myself. They weren’t just a voice.
“I need weapons. You can procure weapons, yes?”
I can indeed, yes. You currently have 105 points remaining. With this you can afford a Css I weapons catalogue for smaller weapons. Considering your specific set of skills, I would recommend the Css I Shadowstalker Nullstrike Weaponry Catalogue, coming in at 50 points.
The Shadowstalker line of catalogues all build upon each other and offer a quite extensive set of technologies that work very well with your particur skill set. The basis for them is the Css I Shadowstalker Utilities Catalogue, which is part of the reason I recommended it to you in the first pce. There are a variety of other options avaible to you in the future, but for the moment they are not useful, not point efficient, or even affordable for you.
Keeping one ear on Stryx, I kept my senses sharp for any more threats. It was hard, from my current position I didn’t have the best look around, but it was enough that I’d at least know if something, or someone, tried to get into the kitchen.
At Css I the Shadowstalker Nullstrike Weaponry catalogue has quite the selection of weapons avaible. As should be obvious from the name, the focus of these weapons is mostly on stealth and covert takedowns. Because of this, many of the firearms on this catalogue will have a lower fire rate and higher stopping power. Alternatively, you could also obtain a number of bded weapons, such as knives and swords, including some ranged options, such as throwing knives, shuriken, darts, and simir. These weapons are built to be used in tandem with the rest of the avaible Shadowstalker catalogues, which means they offer synergy with different technologies you might acquire in the future.
There are, of course, more dedicated options avaible for either approach. It should also be noted that this specific set of catalogues is very specialised, and might not have an answer for every situation you might find yourself in, in the future. But I reiterate that I believe the Css I Shadowstalker Nullstrike Weaponry Catalogue to be the most efficient choice you have avaible at this time.
Taking a deep breath, I nodded. I had to admit that Stryx was very helpful in the way they expined everything. Some of it probably could have been skipped, but if I was honest, I didn’t mind it too much. I’d rather have it mentioned and known, than ignored and kept from me. And they did seem to genuinely try to y out my options for me, while not wasting any unnecessary time, which was better than what most would do.
I could probably ask them for a more in depth expnation of the options avaible; something I very likely would do in the future. Right now, however, I didn’t have time to waste, and I couldn’t argue with the results. The Catalogue did sound exactly like what I wanted.
So far, everything seemed to be quiet. I couldn’t see or hear any other aliens, and with the heavy scent of dead xenos and my own blood, trying to smell anything was all but impossible. At least I would have some time to go over my options, which was good. I preferred pnning ahead over mindless rushing.
The question was how I wanted to approach this situation. My end goal was to find Zuri and the others, get them to the shelter and to safety, while also being able to fend off any antithesis that might try to stop us.
The obvious answer would be a firearm of some kind. It would give me the range and stopping power I would prefer to have against the xenos. But there were a couple of problems with that as well.
Primarily, I was concerned about the civilians. I was a good shot, sure, but you could never guarantee that civies wouldn’t just run into your line of fire. And given the strict gun regutions in Germany, they very likely didn’t even know how to react around a weapon like that. It might cause a panic, which would make things just so much worse.
As stupid as it might sound to the average person, but Germany had a history with strict ws on that topic. And that influenced policies, even thirty years after the antithesis first showed their ugly face to the world.
Lastly, and maybe most importantly, I wasn’t sure if Zuri approved. Or if I did, either. It felt too much like the olden days. Pragmatically, it was the best option, but I didn’t want to worry her. Nor did I want to slip back into a life I might not be able to get myself out of a second time around.
Of course, if no other option was avaible, I wouldn’t hesitate. I’d rather condemn myself than to risk anyone else dying. But unless it was needed, there was no point in booking trouble.
For now, it might make more sense to stick to something more simple, something less conspicuous. And even a proper, Samurai grade knife would do wonders against the antithesis.
“Alright. I’ll take it. What kind of knives or daggers do you have on offer?”
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