"Hive! Bring a sword!"
-- Snippet from an audio recording of Drifter, 2056
"Spiders! Why did it have to be fucking spiders." Bdes shuddered.
As soon as she lifted the lid of the box a bunch of spider-like drones spilt out -that Boo pegged as Fox Spiders- and started climbing up our side and tched onto our shoulders and form into an arm that looked like it's made of these interlocking ptes about an inch wide each. The outside is a shiny white, ceramic with gold showing through the seams between them like kintsugi art.
When they finished forming our new arm, I started to run a diagnostic scan just in case, while Boo flexed the fingers and tried out the new arm. I caught a glimpse of a stylised sun with the exaggerated fme bits on the outside and a white circle in the middle, taking up most of the palm.
"Wow, this is weird, I can actually feel with it but it's... Fuzzy, like when your leg falls asleep."
Any discomfort should fade in an hour, so neither of you girls worry about it one bit.
"Good to know. What can this arm do?" Boo asked
"Oh, it can do a lot of fun stuff!" I squealed and hit one of the mental buttons.
"Nonon, why is it vibrating?" Boo squinted at the hand.
"Oops. Wrong button, here." I said and activated the feature I actually wanted.
The ring finger popped off, sprouted 8 legs and started crawling up the nearby wall. At the same time, a window with the video feed from the drone opened in the corner of our vision.
"I fucking hate spiders..." Bdes shuddered again.
"Oh, neat. I assume you can plug into stuff with it and hack it?"
"Yap, I should be able to." I grinned.
To assist with that, you can buy a Css I Basic Cyberwarfare Utilities Catalogue for 100 points
"Oh! Boo, when we have the points we should buy that!" I said as the finger reattached itself. "Also, I think you will like this one." Then activated another feature of our new arm.
"Oh wow!" Boo excimed when 5 wicked sharp cws extended from the end of our new fingers. "Okay, this is going to be fun."
"Okay, we wasted enough time." Bdes said, then groaned as he stood up. "Those pnt-faced fucks won't kill themselves."
"Sure." Boo said and stood up and stretched. "By the way, what is the deal with the Egyptian theme?"
"My ancestors are from Egypt, and there was this group of warriors called the Medjay." He smiled at us as he picked up his khopesh. "Fitting isn't it?"
"Heh, true." Boo finished stretching. "About that weapon."
"Here," Bdes said and threw the sword over.
Boo easily caught it and gave it an experimental twirl. "Thanks. Not the type of bde I'm used to, but this will do." She said with a smile.
"Oh," He quirked an eyebrow. "You are trained?"
"Eh," She shrugged. "Bit of a stretch, but there are a few good training softs on the mesh. We both are proficient with all kinds of Japanese, bded weapons. Though I'm better with swords or polearms."
"I see," He nodded. "That's good." Then took hold of a spear and a small round shield that appeared out of nowhere. "Ready?"
"Ready as can be. By the way, what does this do?" Boo asked as she gestured at the sword.
"Ah, it's from a mix of my catalogues, but mostly just wicked sharp." Bdes said as he walked towards the exit of the little lobby area we were in.
We followed, just a few steps behind. "Where did the Antithesis come from? I thought the raccoons had stuff under control."
"They mostly did, but as it turns out whoever was in charge of filling in the cavern left under London after it was stilted up did a piss poor job of it. And now the apparent stealth hive came ali..." Just as we passed a pair of escators, His expnation was cut short by the sound of footfalls crunching on broken css.
We shared a gnce, then popped off our ring finger again. "I'll take a look. Cinder can you share the video feed with Bdes?" I asked as I directed the spider drone out under the railing to peak at the level below us.
Already did Sweety. She said.
"I think those are Model Threes?" I asked for confirmation when I saw 3 shark dogs drag a dead guy out of a store. "What are they doing?"
"It looks like they are dragging them off..." He trailed off.
"Like one of those armoured sea cucumbers?" Boo asked.
"Yes, Model Eight A" Bdes confirmed.
"A?" She asked, tilting her head.
"Aquatic, Boo they are subtypes."
"Exactly." Bdes confirmed.
"Wait, you can hear me?" I said, armed.
To make communication easier, I took the liberty of sharing your voice along with the video feed. And sweetie, you should socialize a little more, you may find that once you get to know people they can be pretty nice.
"I..." Cut myself off and went quiet, thinking about all that.
"Aww, It's okay Nonon. We are all friends here." Boo said. "Anyway, do we deal with the dogs downstairs?"
"Good idea, but if they are dragging bodies away we may be able to follow them to the Model Eight. Though they are hard to kill. And every segment has its own primitive brain." Bdes replied while we made our way to the escator and I recalled the scout drone.
"How much are they worth?"
"Hah, five points."
Model Eights have a low threat rating. They don't directly engage in combat and mostly serve to recycle biomatter for the hive to use. Their tunnels can destabilize the foundation of buildings, however.
"Omm... How do we deal with that?" I asked.
"There are a few ways. One is the cssic 'blow it the fuck up' but you can also colpse the tunnels it's in the process of digging."
Those are the most optimal methods, conventional firearms are also a valid way of elimination but require a significant amount of ammunition.
"I see." Boo said as we reached the next floor. "But first let's find where the Threes went."
Carefully, we sneak around, taking quick gnces into shops but only saw a bunch of overturned furnishing, until we come up on one of those automated fast food pces. There we found two Model Threes munching on some of the fries and cheap synthetic meat.
Boo stopped and straightened up. "What do we do?" I asked.
"We deal with them." She said, drew one of her throwing knives and sent it flying with a backhanded throw. It hit the Model Three right in the back of its head, dropping it dead.
It took a few seconds for the other to even notice that its shark-y companion was dead but by then another knife was well on its way to end its pnt-y life.
"Huh..." She muttered. "This was a lot easier than with a gun."
Just as Bdes was about to speak up, more noise came from deeper in the kitchen. All of our attention snapped to the source of the sound, another Model Three and before either of us could react Bdes threw his spear, pinning it to the tiled floor.
"Omm, we need to get rid of the biomass, right?" I asked.
"Yes, but I can take care of that." He said as he walked over and yanked his spear out of the corpse. "Collect your knives. You will need them, and I don't think you have a catalogue or the points to get new ones, at least for now."
Speaking of Points, you two earned 33 points for the three Model Threes, bringing you to a total of 35.
"Thank you, Cinder." I said.
"How much for a katana or a naginata?" Boo asked.
From your Fixed Point, Lethal Transition Melee Weaponry Catalogue, you can purchase one for 100 points.
"So we need to kill like another 6 Model Threes." She nodded. "Bdes, do you have something to deal with the biomass?"
"Yap." He said as a round cylinder fell into his hand, pushed a button and threw it into the kitchen.
"What was that?" I asked just before an awful screeching sound rang out.
Moving on, "Resonator. It breaks down the pnts into goo." He expined. "They are fairly cheap, just 5 points and pretty handy for clean-up."
It's an option avaible in the Css I Esoteric Single-Use Explosive Devices Catalogue.
"Oh, what else can we get from it?" I asked.
Many things, from shaped charges to ones that release an acid cloud, a grenade that explodes into Graphene Garrot fiments.
"Garrot fiments?" "I frowned. What is that like?"
Think of it as a bundle of really thin wire that acts as a blender.
"Oh, if we can get that into a bigger Model, that could do some serious damage." Boo commented. "Put it on our list, right after a naginata."
Noted, but you should pay attention sweetie, there is no telling what is hiding around the corner.
And we did just that. It took us another 30 minutes to sweep the floor but found nothing besides ruined shops.
"We should make our way up to the next shelter. Some PMC guys should have come back down by now with more people."
"Good point, it's weirdly dead here. I mean we have not seen a single pnt since those Model Threes." Boo added.
"The cameras are still down... The mall probably doesn't want footage of people becoming pnt food floating around or something..."
"Typical..." Bde groaned. "I bet they cheaped out on the shelters too."
"You bet, the door stayed open like a foot when the power cut."
We made a little more small talk, and as we climbed the stairs, Bdes mostly gave us some pointers on what to look for, what kind of specializations are common and tips in general. Like how we should set some points aside for "in case of emergency" expenses, like healing items or other items that can pull us out of a tight spot. We decided to keep 200 points as the "oh shit" fund. That would cover a pretty wide range of medical items and disposable weaponry like grenades.
Our conversation was rudely interrupted by a pair of Model Threes sniffing around at the end of a hallway we took a peek in. By the looks of it, they just finished munching on some poor sod.
"You two want to deal with them? From what I saw of you fighting, it should not cause you problems."
"Sure!" Boo said, giving the sword a twirl and just casually walked towards the alien pnts.
Of course, they noticed us a few steps in and started running at us full tilt. She waited until the st moment, and right as the leading shark dog jumped, she stepped aside and swung the sword at it.
The combined efforts of the alien's momentum and the ridiculous sharpness of the Khopesh made quick work of cutting through the pnt matter, severing its front leg completely and cutting the hind most of the way through, sending it tumbling behind us but not dead just yet. The second Three was not far behind, and it only left us with a fraction of a second to manoeuvre the sword into the right position. Boo managed it with ease and cut the offending shark clean in half.
"Huh." She looked at the sword in her hand as she walked back to the struggling, half-legless dog.
"Just what the hells kind of sword is this? It's wicked sharp." She commented, then stabbed the Model Three in its skull. "And I don't think it's supposed to stab so well."
Targets Eliminated!
Reward... 22 Points. New total: 57 points.
"If it was a regur Khopesh, then no. But my combination of catalogues allowed my AI to make it better at everything."
"Huh... You can combine them like that?" I asked.
Yes sweetie, the more catalogues you have unlocked the more options I have to mix and match technologies from them.
"That is good to know." Boo said as she flicked the pnt blood off the bde with a flick of her wrist.
"What worries me is that it's too quiet." I commented. "Like, you'd expect to see xenos all around, but we only saw... like a handful of them so far."
"Where did they even come from?" Boo asked.
"They were sent by the Techno-Necromancers of Alpha Centauri of course!"
"Ha-ha, very funny Nonon, but seriously I can't even begin to guess where their hive's entrance is."
Model Threes are mainly scouts and scavengers specialized in gathering biomass. The hive can be quite a ways away from here still.
"What she said, I came here to check on the shelters after Isys pointed out that she can't connect to the local subnet with the power out." Bdes said.
"From what I remember, there should be another shelter... two floors up? I think it's one of the big ones too." Boo commented.
"Huh?" Using one of our new drones I zoomed in on one of the corpses and saw what looked like maggots wriggling in it. "What in the nine hells is that?"
"What's what?" Boo frowned then paled. "Oh shit. Is that a bunch of Model Sevens?"
"Looks like it to me." Bdes confirmed then he caught another cylinder out of the air and chucked it over.
"What was this one?" I asked.
"Flesh Melter. It breaks down corpses kinda like the resonator, but it's more aimed at cleaning up and it's a lot slower acting."
It's a short-lived nanite swarm designed to break down any organic material. Cinder said. So don't go within 10 meters of it, girls.
"Gods, that sounds like it's from some horror flick." Boo commented between shudders as she took a few steps back.
"Let's go, we need to take a look at that shelter." Bdes said as he made for the next set of stairs.
"Yeah, if even one of them got in... they are all toast." She said as we rushed after him.
As we climbed the stairs, notifications about killed Sevens trickled in, and I spoke up. "Cinder, is it possible to get a readout of our current point total on our HUD? Hearing the 'Target Eliminated!' notification gets old fast."
No problem sweetie. She replied, and an icon showed up next to the clock in the corner of our vision.
It was a naginata with a sign hanging off of the Ebu reading out our Point total which was sitting at 90 at the moment.
"Oh, that's nice." Boo commented.
As we got to the entrance of the shelter we saw a small crowd in PMC gear just outside of it. And just as the one we tried to hide in, this one was also open just a crack, enough to fit maybe an arm in.
"That's not good." Boo sighed. "I have a feeling that those are all Sevens."
As if to answer her, the crowd turned and started to shamble towards us. Not wasting a second, Bdes raised his shield and rushed up to meet them halfway. We were not far behind and our sword, making quick work of the cloud of limbs and maggots trying to overwhelm us. There were some close calls, like when a woman tried to bite Bdes, only to get roundhouse kicked in the face as Boo cut an arm off of a man. When there were no more moving bodies around, Bdes got another Resonator and threw it in the middle of the bodies.
Girls, I recommend buying some Model Seven Proofing Pills, they give you immunity for 24 hours. They are part of the Css I Medical Utilities Catalogue which costs 50 points, and a pack of 10 pills cost 1 point.
"Good idea, let's do that." I said.
New Purchase: Css I Medical Utilities.
Points Reduced to... 128.
New Purchase: Model Seven Proofing Pills x 10.
Points Reduced to... 127.
A small box appeared next to us on the floor. After opening, it revealed 10 individually wrapped pills, each with a Kitsune mask on it with a waning moon on its forehead after taking one, Boo offered the box to Bdes.
"No, thank you, I took one st night, and you don't want to go over the dosage with it if what my AI said about it is anything to go by."
"I don't want to ask, do I..." She commented, as she tucked the box into our thigh bag.
"No, no you don't."
"Let's see how bad the situation is inside, okay?" I said, then popped off the spider drone from our hand again and made for the gap in the door.
What greeted me was not pretty. A mess of bodies carpeting the ground at the entrance clearly trying to get out while alive. As I moved more inward, it became more and more obvious that there was not a single survivor left. And to make it worse, I made the gruesome discovery that this pce seems to be pumping out more Sevens, and it looks like the small crowd we sughtered was meant to transport them somewhere else.
With a heavy heart, I told the drone to get back out and delivered the bad news.
"All dead... Gods.... it's gonna take a while to forget that scene..."
"It's okay, Nonon. There is nothing we could have done to save them. If anything, it's the fault of the fuck faces who were responsible for the shelters. And if nothing, then we can make sure that they get what they deserve for this."
"Yeah... but for now, we need to deal with this basically mini hive," I answered. "We need to seal that off, and I don't know, nanites? Acid? What are our options?"
You wanted to buy the Css I Esoteric Single-Use Explosive Devices Catalogue. It has a wide variety of explosives, including sealing foam and aerosolized acid.
"I'll leave you two to it, this will be your first hive, if barely. That should get you a token too."
"A token?" Boo asked.
Yes, Tokens are awarded for a wide range of milestones, such as saving your first 100 people, clearing a hive and defeating a higher-tier Model for the first time. They can be used to purchase upgrades to catalogues. For example, the Css II Moon Gazer Technologies Catalogue costs 400 points and 1 Token to unlock with the prerequisite of having unlocked Css I already.
"I see." She said, "In any case, let's get that catalogue, a few acid bombs and the foam to seal up the entrance."
Very well.
New Purchase: Css I Esoteric Single-Use Explosive Devices.
Points Reduced to... 77.
New Purchase: Heavy Gas grenade Mark I, Acid. x5
Points Reduced to... 52.
New Purchase: Expanding Seant Foam.
Points Reduced to... 47.