LucyKitsune
"It's uncanny! The samples brought back from the battlefield suggest that we are dealing with pnts that move around like animals. This could change everything we know about botany! Wait, is it growing? Hans? Hand me the Bunsenbrenner!"
Recorded clip of a German biologist looking at samples of alien corpses, 2022Donning my new protection, I stepped back out into the street. I had stored my belongings in the pockets of the armour and was pleasantly surprised to see that it was possible to colpse the spears back into a metal rod, about as long as a pen. That made putting one of them away for use ter much easier.
I moved towards where Lyona said the center of this incursion would be, having some time to think along the way. Next to the barracks, there was also the building housing the faculties of math and ecology - It was barely past noon, so there probably were a few students in there, not to mention staff.
"Lyona, can you look up the schedule for every room in Oskar Morgensternptz 1 on u:find? I want to know which lecture halls and seminar rooms I need to check for survivors."
Certainly. I would send you the list, but I think it would be more efficient if I just tell you when we get there, rather than having you check your phone. Unfortunately, humanity has not yet developed augmented reality impnts.
I shook my head. "We're working on it. Or, I guess that dumbass Melon Usk is. Not that I'm putting anything he makes into my head. I won't be putting anything in my head, ever. Maybe I'll make an exception for some of the stuff you have, but I don't trust humanity not to turn whatever impnts we produce into a dystopian hellscape."
You have a remarkably low opinion of humanity for someone who is currently working to save it.
"That's different. I can't save humanity, that's not a one woman job. I CAN save people. So that's what I'll do. Save people because apparently no one else can be bothered and someone will have to."
It is fascinating that you make a distinction between people and humanity.
I checked the street ahead of me for aliens and upon seeing none, I moved forward, spear pointing ahead. I needed to get a shield at some point. Probably.
"Yeah, well being the scapegoat of the current fascist uprising across the world has a way of teaching you that shit is complex and that just because everyone collectively sucks, doesn't mean individually there's no nice people."
I'm not sure I understand. What do you mean by scapegoat?
I spotted some more dogs on the hunt. Time for the hunters to become the hunted.
"I am both a lesbian and a trans woman. A quick gnce at social media should give you the missing puzzle-pieces."
I tried something new this time. Instead of running at the aliens, I estimated the distance and based on that the angle and force with which I had to throw this spear to impale one of them. A simple quadratic equation. Math doesn't lie, the problem would be whether or not physics, and more importantly biology, followed through on it.
I of course failed horribly.
"The moment I understood the weakness of my flesh, I became disgusted by it..." I muttered, as I pulled out and expanded my backup-spear.
Well then you're in luck! There's quite a lot of enhancements you can purchase. Should I suggest some catalogues? The Snow Pouncers do have some cybernetic enhancements, but overall there are better catalogues for it.
“Sure but let’s file that away for now. I got some dogs to kill.”
That line would have been really badass, if it hadn’t been followed by me stabbing one of the dogs through one of its mouths, before being tackled by three or so more, forcing me to flinch and let go of my spear. I braced myself for being ripped apart, except that didn’t happen. I sure felt the dogs trying to chew me up and kill me, but they didn’t actually hurt me.
Well they could hurt me, but not really harm me apparently. I was probably gonna walk away from this with some bruises, but the armour did its job remarkably well. It was a good investment. I started punching the dogs, but that wasn’t exactly the most effective way to deal with them.
“Lyona, can I afford a knife or something that will make this quicker? I have shit to do and I need these to die faster than I can kill them by punching them to death.”
Certainly. Have a simple combat knife!
A knife appeared in my hand and I didn’t waste any time before stabbing into pnt-matter. It probably wasn’t pretty and I was very happy that none of them thought to go for my very unprotected head, but all in all that was pretty good. I didn’t actually count how many I actually ended up killing, but I figured Lyona would eventually inform me.
After I was done stabbing aliens, a box appeared next to my feet. I was a bit confused but I opened it anyway, where inside I found a sheath for my knife, which I swiftly strapped to my armour.
It usually includes that but since you wanted to use it immediately, I figured I would send the sheath ter.
That made sense. Time to look for more aliens to kill. And also to retrieve both my spears. I colpsed one of them to put into my pocket as I kept walking ahead. I would get to the university, so that I could make sure the people there were safe.
Actually…
“Lyona, can you look up pces that will be retively safe for civilians? Preferably reachable on foot, I’m not sure I want to gamble on the metros running properly again, by the time we reach them.”
Well, one option would be in the basement of the university. However that may become troublesome if the Antithesis start burrowing in to get to them.
I interrupted her: “They can do that?!”
That and much, much more. As I was saying, underground is a good option, as long as the walls are stable enough to not allow digging. Another good option is the cafeteria on the first floor. It is very well defendable seeing how it only has two entrances, and you could blockade or colpse two of the three sets of stairs leading up to the first floor, then booby-trap the long corridor leading to the cafeteria. Of course, that would leave you open to some flying models potentially, but as long as people either stay away from or kill anything that flies in through the windows, it shouldn’t be too bad.
And, of course the most obvious solution would be the military instaltion across the street. I’m not sure you can find a safer pce within the boundaries of the incursion-zone than a building full of soldiers. I unfortunately cannot get any room-pns for it, as there are none avaible online, but I highly doubt they are unable to make space.
While Lyona was listing these options, I made my way through some more model 3s and even stabbed three model 4s to death, noting that their sharpened tentacles were not good at stabbing through the ptes around my torso. I had no idea what this suit was made of, but it was doing a pretty good job at keeping me alive.
“Lyona, how we doing on points?” I asked, pulling my spear out of the corpse of a model 4.
Allow me to sum up:
Kills:
Model 3 x 12: 120 Points
Model 4 x 3: 45 points
Purchases:
Simple combat knife x 1: 5 points
New point total: 163 points
You can buy the css 1 Snow Pouncers Technologies catalogue now, if you want to. However it may also be wise to, eventually, create an emergency fund of points for, well, emergencies. Thus far none have happened, but you are far from invincible.
“I’m guessing you have a catalogue for first aid stuff that can bring back the dead or something?”
I kept walking ahead, in what was easily my most eventful walk from one uni building to another yet.
Nothing you can realistically afford at the moment can quite bring back the dead, but it is possible to heal a lot of injuries with things included in the css 1 Medical Utilities catalogue. It costs 50 points and it generally is a good investment.
I nodded. “I’ll keep that in mind for now. I guess I’ll hold off purchasing new stuff for now because what I have is mostly working?” I shrugged. “Something like that. I guess we’ll go spend more points on whatever we need next. I am interested in that Snow Pouncers and whatever cybernetics you had in mind?”
Purchasing a cybernetics catalogue right now would be unwise, as you have no way of installing them at the moment. But I will take notes of things it seems like you might want, to narrow down the list of avaible options. It is, after all, my job to suggest the best purchases for you.
I looked around the next corner and found some Antithesis I had never seen before.
“Lyona?” I whispered.
Those would be model 5s. They are capable of shooting needles at subsonic speeds. Be careful, your current armour is not rated for sustained fire from model 5s.
I checked once more and counted four of them as well as some more 3s. The tter wouldn’t be a problem.
The former?
I needed to be strategic about this.
Of course my phone decided to ring exactly at this moment.