“One reason so many new Samurai don’t survive past the first 24 hours is overconfidence. When an alien AI implants itself in your brain and lets you buy anything you want, it’s hard to not feel invincible. That cockiness can be deadly. The smart ones will learn from it. The others get dead.”

  ~Reddit AMA with [deleted user], May 2052

  The world came back all at once.

  Light flooded in and I gasped as my vision snapped into focus. I lurched forward, hands bracing against the edge of the machine as my balance went sideways, followed by the rest of me.

  It turned out the carpet I’d been sitting on was very scratchy, which my face did not approve of as it decided the ground is where I needed to be.

  “Easy,” someone said nearby.

  I barely heard them.

  The room looked… wrong. Not blurry. Not distorted. Just… more.

  It was like getting new glasses for the first time, but somehow worse. At least the floor wasn’t rolling like the ocean.

  Don’t even get me started on whatever the fuck Wing was doing. One eye felt like it was stuck in panorama mode. The other’s field of view was a freaking triangle. I guess this was the “calibration.”

  For all of that though, I noticed some immediate differences. Edges were crisper. Colors deeper. I could see dust motes hanging in the air like frozen stars, heat bleeding faintly from the walls, faint outlines where wiring ran behind plaster.

  Not only that, but my vision also exploded into highly detailed information about everything I was seeing. I’m not sure I needed to know what the exact composition of the carpet was. Or how long since it had been cleaned. But I did have that knowledge now!

  I definitely didn’t need to know that there was a hidden patch of mold growing under it.

  By the Goddess I was going to be sick.

  Calibration complete, Wing said, unmistakably pleased. You are now perceiving approximately thirty-seven percent more reality than you were previously capable of.

  “I’ve always wanted to see shrimp colors,” I muttered dryly as my vision returned to something similar to what I was used to.

  To help integration I’ve reduced their operational capabilities by 87%.

  I straightened slowly, standing up and taking a step away from the device. The floor steadied beneath me as my new eyes adjusted, overlays flickering briefly at the edge of my vision before settling into place.

  I swallowed. If this was only 13% of their capabilities, I was kind of terrified to see what 100% looked like.

  “Okay,” I said quietly as I moved to stand. “Yeah. I hope that was worth it.”

  Turning to the voice I heard earlier, I saw Private Morgan, the squad’s medic, standing there. “Sarge told me to keep an eye on you,” he offered with a soft shrug.

  “I appreciate it. Did anything happen while I was out?”

  He shook his head as a “No, ma’am,” slipped from him.

  By the Goddess these eyes were intense. I could make out individual pores on Morgan’s face now. And the fact that he either didn’t shave this morning or just had the kind of facial hair growth where a 5 o’ clock shadow was guaranteed by day’s end.

  Would you like me to go over the available features of your new Polychromatic Enhanced Expressive Perceptual Executable Retinal System?

  “…”

  “You named them Peepers?” I asked as I brought my hand up to pinch the bridge of my nose. I swear every piece of gear was going to have some ridiculous acronym.

  Once again, it’s better than calling them the O-421A/OPT/X9. Plus peepers is fun to say.

  He had me there. At least he didn’t…

  What do you see with your special eyes? He asked with a snicker in his voice.

  The groan that followed from me just… it couldn’t be stopped. This was my life now. A snarky AI that liked ancient memes.

  “Ma’am?” Morgan asked, giving me a concerned look.

  “My AI is a meme-lord,” I grumbled before turning to leave. “A meme-lord that should tell me what my ‘Special Eyes’ can do.”

  There is a lot they can do. However to keep things easy, I’ll run down some of their basic functions that you’ll probably use most for this mission.

  Stolen novel; please report.

  Some features include zoom, wide angle views, target tracking, battlefield management, various cyber warfare intrusion protocols, and a cleaner UI.

  All good things. I also guessed that the battlefield might not be the best place to try new and experimental features. I’d need to find a place to try those out. Maybe the mesh?

  “Okay. That sounds good. Are you able to control or interface with them to help a girl out?”

  Of course.

  Stepping out into the hall I joined the rest of the squad and nodded to Adams. “I should be good to go. New eyes should be able to locate and track the xenos, even if they’re hiding.”

  It felt strange having everyone’s attention focused on me.

  “Did you know your pupils look like camera lenses?” Voss asked right before Sims said “Damn, I didn’t realize that eyes could come in RGB.”

  Oh heck. “Wing. Why did you give me RGB eyes?”

  I think the better question is, why shouldn’t you have RGB eyes?

  A soft snort and I just rolled my eyes at that. I had a feeling I would be asking that question more often that I might have wanted to.

  “I should be good to go now,” I said in response to the slightly confused looks that the squad gave me.

  Nodding, Adams ordered everyone back in formation and we continued onto the next floor to start the clearing process once more.

  However, when we got to the next floor, things got weird. For starters, I could now adjust my field of view. I went from “normal human vision” to “I see in panorama mode.” It threw me for a second but I managed to recover quickly.

  According to McCallister, my pupils became horizontal slits like a goat’s. “Special Eyes” indeed.

  The first real problem appeared when we breached the closest apartment. My vision snapped to shades of blue, the antithesis flaring red as a dense information overlay bloomed beside each target.

  “Too much info!” I called to Wing as I let a pair of knives fly, sinking into an M-3. Bursts of fire snapped past me as Adams and McCallister took down a pair of M-5s doing their best to ambush us from a back corner.

  Thankfully, my AI quickly stripped down the overlays to bare essentials. Just the model names that were in the room. While not helpful at the moment, my subconscious was already thinking about how that could be implemented into a bakery. I could use it as a customer management database. Keep track of names, past orders, favorite pastries…

  I felt a tentacle wrap around my leg from the M-4 that I had neglected in my distraction. With a solid pull, it brought me to the ground as I landed on my ass. I pulled another knife out and drove the blade into the offending tentacle, severing it from the host.

  The blast of a shotgun tore through the space I had occupied to bury a slug into the M-4. Two more blasts and it lay lifeless on the floor.

  “Thanks,” I said as Voss helped me to my feet. The embarrassment that was spreading across my face was thankfully hidden by the mask.

  That was a reminder that new eyes didn’t make me untouchable. I could plan bakery shenanigans later. If I survived.

  I was hit by a thought that might help the rest of the squad. “Wing, are you able to send the targeting data to everyone else’s augs?”

  Certainly. Would you like me to send everything or just the outlines?

  “Outlines only,” I said. “Hopefully, that’ll make things easier for everyone.”

  Done. He said right as I heard the rest of the squad respond to being able to see the outlines of the dead xenos in the apartment. With that done, it was time to continue our climb.

  ***

  By the time we reached the seventh floor, I was beyond grateful for the new peepers. The targeting outlines alone made the cost sting a lot less.

  We’d found a rhythm by then. Kick. Clear. Move. The bitey fucks barely had time to be threatening before they were mulch. A couple of close calls while I adjusted to my new vision, but no more bodies on the floor. I called that a win.

  The seventh floor still felt… wrong.

  McCallister kicked in the first apartment door and I flowed in behind him, already scanning for movement, only to freeze.

  There was a woman standing in the middle of the living room.

  “Hold your fire!” Adams snapped.

  She didn’t react to the door exploding inward. Didn’t flinch at the shouted command. Just stood there, back to us like we weren’t even real.

  Then she turned.

  Something pale writhed in her open mouth.

  “Fuck,” Adams said, opening fire.

  The body hit the floor. Whatever had been inside her didn’t stop moving right away.

  Amby, Wing said calmly, this is not something you want to get close to you.

  “Yeah,” I muttered. “I got that.”

  We cleared the rest of the apartment in silence. No one commented on what happened. No one looked at what was left on the floor for longer than they had to.

  When we moved back into the hall, Adams paused just long enough to say, “Ask your AI for the pills.”

  Wing didn’t even say anything as a blister pack appeared in my hand.

  Everyone took a pill as we moved to the next apartment, the ease of the previous floors no longer buoying our spirits.

  Every apartment had more bodies standing in them where people used to be. Some tried to come closer. Infect us. Others stood there, waiting to die.

  For all that the apartments were the same, each was different. A pair of worn shoes next to the door in one. A mug of tea, still steeping in another. Food that had grown cold on plates. Some people were still in bed.

  This was no longer clearing the building. We didn’t need precision. This was a slaughter. There was nothing elegant about it.

  Breach. Slaughter. Clear. Repeat.

  Wing stayed silent though the entire floor.

  At least the zombies seemed to be limited to the seventh floor. After everyone had been… dealt with, we continued on our way.

  By the time we moved on, I’d already filed the whole thing away under experiences I was perfectly fine never repeating again.

  The higher we went, the fewer xenos we were finding.

  The rhythm we settled back into was comforting. I started to notice threats before they even moved. Xenos highlighted and put down before they noticed us. The last few apartments I was able to clear before the rest of the squad even knew there was danger.

  Maybe, just maybe, I was starting to get this. Maybe survival was more assured than I had initially thought.

  We had just finished the twelfth floor when everything went wrong.

  Discord for that!