Chapter 49: Not again.

  “

  Cronen: Long live the new flesh…

  Berges: Nop!

  “

  –Exchange between Biodrome inc researchers while testing Antithesis augmentative grafting on humans, 0.3 seconds before activating a nuclear-failsafe device, 2045.

  ***

  Nanite swarm deployed.

  Consciousness restoration stimulation administered.

  Nanites are carrying proper material for perfect bone fusion.

  Estimated time for full repairs: 3 minutes.

  Estimated survival time if user doesn’t wake the hell up: 1 minute.

  Awareness rushed back into me like a damn tsunami! In less than half a second, everything came back and I started to struggle. The damn tentacle was still on my foot, but now, other models were trying to gnaw at me.

  Joke’s on them, they’d never get through my plating! Playing dead wouldn’t do the trick in any scenario at this point, so better start stabbing! “Thought my fucking augments would prevent passing out!”

  No, they protect you from getting a concussion, which you do not have. You blacked out due to blood pressure differentials, similarly to a jet pilot, but much more painful.

  Actually, first things first, I engaged the coprocessor and tried to free myself. Two hands plus my tail all focused on destroying that fucking anchor and nothing else! Sure, the garden… tigers –fuck me– got sliced on the way, but that god damn appendage had to get severed!

  I succeeded but had no time to celebrate since another one grabbed the other leg! Fuck it. My shotgun came to my hands and I unloaded on the model thirteen pulling me again!

  Fucker took some damage according to echolocation and the flashes of light in pitch darkness my muzzle flash created, but it didn’t duck fucking let go! Worse than that, more of them appeared!

  I kept shooting, my tail going on a frenzy of chainsaw pulping! A smaller garden hound got half its body shredded as that hentai plug sucker pulled me closer! Everything got in it’s fucking way! At least none of those things survived. Progress, yeah!

  I hadn’t been awake for more than four seconds, yet I still wanted to go back under a bit…

  As my comms were in a frenzy, I decided to communicate. “Still alive! In the middle! Donkey dick sucking piece of cum soaked garbage on…” I had to distract them! My people would be okay if I distracted these fuckers! Rosalie and Katy could survive for a bit until reinforcements arrived!

  I stopped talking since I had to focus on the damn leash on my god forsaken ankle! I killed a lot of assholes in the carpet, but that meant they got in my rounds’ way!

  I mentally switched the ammo to hornet’s nest slugs, hoping they could make it. As I got reeled in, tons of models took pot-shots at me. None got through my armor, but it didn’t tickle either! Assholes threw off my aim. I had to use spikes, blades, my tail and my fists constantly to prevent a good old fashion dog-pile!

  Every-fucking-time I tried to resist, it only made furrows. Couldn’t really try with both my hands now, could I? My railgun didn’t even have enough space to fire for fuck’s sake!

  My tail racked up quite the kill count! After finally getting some space, I learned that it wasn’t a good thing. Model threes started moving back enough to sever the tentacle. Problem was? They moved back so the thirteens could have a crack at me.

  All seven of them.

  A massive metal club hit my chest at almost supersonic speed! The fucking thing was attached to a tentacle, where the fuck else would it come from!?

  Thankfully, my chest held the most plates. The one on top buckled in and demanded a fuckton of power to reform properly, but I was only thrown back. I could feel the entropic gel heat up massively! It’d absorbed a lot of kinetic energy, transforming it to heat and a bunch of other stuff. I collided with the wall, but not very hard.

  Recognizing how dangerous that was, I immediately jumped towards the center! A moment later, three blades and two clubs embedded themselves in the stone. I took another hit in the back and landed hard. A roll later, more hits descended on my old position. “They want an anvil!”

  Yes, I believe they understand that being thrown back weakens their hits and chances of cracking your shell.

  Movement was life, but I was too mother fucking slow! I jumped and rolled and dodged blades, clubs, spines, claws, everything! Every hit got dispersed yet still cracked parts of my armor. I’d dodge six tentacles only for a spine from a model five to fuck up my move and turn me into an easy target!

  My weaker plates broke utterly and the armor ‘cards’ snapped every so often. Their sturdiness surprised the fuck out of me, but I wouldn’t complain! Nano-grain alloys for the win! Nothing could fully penetrate, but it was only a matter of time.

  “Fuck! Give me turrets! Six of them!”

  Of course.

  Six Spiny Spiners mark who the fuck knew appeared in an instant, but before they could even start shooting, every single one got destroyed. Okay, not going to work, shit.

  Your entropic gel is losing integrity. The vibrational crystal lattice is breaking, reducing dispersion capacity.

  Yeah, I could tell! The hits kept getting more and more painful, but I hit back! My tail shortening tentacles one by one, but slowly. It’d take a while with the absolutely ridiculous number of them I had to deal with, along with their fucking ridiculous amount of tentacles! Mostly, it just made sure they didn’t grab me.

  Every time they did, the squid fucks threw me around before my tail could intervene. My armor was heavy, heavier than me, but not by much. Every attempt to resist the pull met overwhelming power. Moving them? Ha! No chance in hell.

  I had no way to shoot back! By some miracle, I did hit them a few times, but it didn’t slow them down much. I felt like a hard to break toy. I survived by taking hits I could move with, but my bones cracked one by one, every strike causing more damage for my nanites to handle. My little helpers couldn’t fix me faster than the damage accumulated.

  Every time my railgun deployed, one of them grabbed it. The thing was too long and protruded too fucking far! The super paw cut down what it could, but there were just too many of them! It got hit countless times, leaving the handle dented and potentially dangerous. “Can I still use it?” The question came out at my most boosted speed.

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  Yes, but not for long.

  “Stupid god forsaken goat fucking squid cunts…”

  Your chainmail layer is suffering link breakages due to the blunt force impacts.

  “Of mule fucking course it is…” Pain filled every single one of my limbs, but my body had been reinforced for a reason! My bones, even cracked, were held up by the internal structure I had installed. The broken shards embedded in my flesh felt fan-fucking-tastic!

  A spine hit my helmet, causing it to snap to the side violently, followed by a thirteen’s strike to my chin. Without all the reinforcements to my skull, pretty sure the instant acceleration and decelerations would’ve killed me…

  Welp, the armor held tons of hidden blades for a reason! Feeling stupid, the Grave-Digger came out of hiding since it barely extended out from my arm. As a jump ended up sending me at a model four, I pumped some lower caliber rods-of-god slugs and killed it in an instant. Arriving on target, I used the corpse as a shield. “Med nanites! Better ones quick!”

  Teleporting, do not move.

  Easier said than fucking done! Buried under the mound of flesh, I could feel it getting smashed and sliced to oblivion! Some blades made it all the way to my armor, thankfully slowed enough by the corpse. Impacts rocked the damn thing so I had to anchor myself to the ground.

  One of them had the bright idea to grab the corpse and fling it off, but at that point, I’d already felt the super fucked up feeling of shit being teleported into my housing module. I rolled out of the way while slashing with an arm blade, cutting off one club and another blade tentacles. Only ‘fuck knows how many’ to go! None looked like they were running out!

  Another jump towards the center. I couldn’t head for the tunnel I came from, the one with all my damn enforcers! The others were cut off by big models and swarms of little shits…

  Also, If I left, they might not follow me…

  I fired my Grave-Digger at the thirteens but apparently, that did a whole lot of nothing! “Fuck! I need…”

  Then, I saw something. One of them went towards the tunnel.

  The tunnel with Rosalie and Katy. The one all of my enforcers had their backs to as they held back assaults from the branches.

  Rosalie, a purge era revolutionary who gave me cover and saved my ass on overwatch countless times. I’d seen her struggle through so much. One of the rewards for the shelter I’d given her? Helping her finish transitioning. Years of struggle to become who she was on the inside over. I felt so proud of doing that, but mostly, of her. Putting it all on the line for kids, suffering insane torture but not giving an inch, no matter what.

  Katy, one of the most powerful, resilient and determined women I’d ever seen. I could see so much strength and potential in her. Someone who, by all rights, should be cold and jaded, yet felt so much love and protectiveness. She’d become my enforcer because that’s who she was, deep down, the person she wanted to be at heart. A true warrior.

  My people were vulnerable. Katy and Rosalie weren’t equipped to hold back a model thirteen. It wasn’t in their wheelhouse. Add on top of that all the small fry they were trying to keep away already and they’d die, no two ways about it.

  No.

  “Better ROG 30 NOW!” I shouted, trusting Altany to parse out my meaning, then ejected the helical mag without a care in the world for whatever ammo was left.

  Ready!

  I spotted the right position, slightly recessed to give me better cover. I took a hit on my thigh-shell, some of my strongest armor still holding. It launched me at the ground and I jumped again with everything I had!

  Not again…

  A club at ridiculous speed cracked my ribs by hitting next to my spine, but I ignored it and rolled, barely slowing down. Something hit my ass plates and cheeks of solid steel were apparently enough to stop my hip from breaking! It just pushed me there faster.

  The moment I arrived, every brace or spike planted to attach me to the spot and I aimed. My shield deployed on the left, my strongest plates on the right protected my side. The two front stupid-strong plates came up to shield my throat while I brought the back ones to cover my gun arms. More and more of them followed in an instant, my armor moving exactly how I wanted in milliseconds.

  Not again.

  A quarter of a second after my back hit the wall, I’d turned into a micro-bunker. The new helical mag finished clicking in place and my tail flailed around, protecting me from grabbing tentacles.

  I screamed something, no idea what. Wrath consumed my being, every single process in my brain ignored as long as that cum soaked son of a fubar octopus on crack was going for my enforcers, my fucking friends!

  Not. Again.

  The Tunneler fired. Altany’s new ‘rods of god’ slugs were almost three times as heavy and I pushed the velocity hard! I must have hit mach 2.5, at least. The shot pushed me deeper into the wall.

  Hits rained down at insane speed, one after the other! Whip cracks resounded again and again and again! My shield’s top was pierced, the blade stopping after trying to scratch my helmet. I ejected the top to not give the fucker a chance to pull me away. Model five spines at the right angle got in the gap of my wedge, pounding already cracked ribs. I didn’t care.

  Time had slowed more than should be possible. The moment I finally muscled the muzzle down enough, I launched another warhead. Agony fueled more and more determination.

  Not again!

  The thing kept fucking moving!

  More and more pieces of my shield were jettisoned. Plates broke on my right since nothing dispersed the force anymore. Even if they held for a while, even if they reformed by guzzling power to reshape, there were just too many strikes too fast.

  Every hit pounded my alloy-reinforced bones, all of which were found wanting. Dozens of hits every second accumulated more and more damage. My stomach’s armor cards broke one by one. The pain didn’t overwhelm me, I wouldn’t let it.

  I kept screaming, my voice filled with rage and desperation. The tentacle monsters surrounded my position, except for the ‘about to be fucking dead’ one. Not good enough. Bladed tentacles hit the ever-multiplying weak spots, blocked by the awesome chainmail I got so long ago. Sadly, that meant the hits weren’t dispersed nearly enough. My ribs were fully pulverized, sternum caved in and a few organs would’ve burst without the internal elasticity mod.

  Not again!

  I fired! Apparently, my clavicle broke at some point. I could tell by the blinding agony! Just fuel for the nuclear fire of rage in my chest! Helped me focus on the thing that couldn’t be allowed to live! Plates broke or flew off. Nothing could move me. The spikes and braces and blades kept me in place perfectly.

  Using your nanites to move the housing module upwards. You can do this.

  The entropic gel might have started to boil. With less and less in the way and an anvil for their hammer, blades started making it through. My chestplate kept my vitals safe, but my stomach was fair game. My bowels were sliced, my stomach received some damage, disgorging some acid inside me in the most painful injury I’d ever had. A lucky shot sliced the bottom of my right lung, which started filling with fluid.

  Something broke my left tibia and only my braces and spikes kept me up. Stab after stab perforated my abs and sides. A well placed hit bent my knee to the side at an unnatural angle. My world was nothing but pain… Except for the squid in front of my people. It. kept. Fucking. Moving.

  I screamed again, wet and bloody. I boosted the velocity one last time. My shoulder already broke, so what did it matter? My shotgun was covered in dents already. My tail guarded me, stopping the assholes from grabbing the barrel. A club hit my helmet front and center hard enough to embed it into the wall.

  NOT A-FUCKING-GAIN!

  Thankfully, my weapon was aug-linked. The aim-assist module helped once more, and I shot what was left of the fucker center-mass. The kickback pounded what was left of my shoulder into dust but finally, after so much destruction, it stopped moving.

  I’d done it. I wouldn’t lose my friends again…

  The fight wasn’t anywhere close to over however. My enforcers needed me, dying wasn’t in the cards. My colonic injector had disgorged everything into my veins already, but the insane amount of bleeding fucked with delivery. The KP-Kicking would take effect soon, but my injuries were too much to fight all of these monsters at the same time. They had to die. If they didn’t, they’d go for my friends too.

  At last, I got an idea. “Alta…” Another hit took my breath away, but I pushed on, my throat full of blood. I had to fight not to cough, no time for that. I pushed all the scraps of air left out in a quiet wheeze. “Napa… scrape ceil…”

  You are loaded. You can do this Louis. Your friends need you.

  Just what I needed to hear. I let wrath take me over more and more. Pain was wreaking havoc through every single nerve in my body, but that was fuel! Just fuel! A savage smile spread on my bloody lips.

  I couldn’t deploy my railgun properly, no way. It’d get grabbed and pulled or slammed or sliced or something. However, I didn’t have to deploy it! Assembled on my back, pointing straight up, it hummed dangerously.

  I fired. The shell followed the ceiling’s slope and detonated. The world turned to beautiful flames, and I just kept on shooting.