Chapter 31: Tactics, boring but useful!

  “Nobody’s a tactical genius, it’s all about fucking up less than last time! I think we fucked up less! I’d say that’s being a good tactician!”

  –Kyle Cromwell, ex-PMC commander for the Terrible Thrashers after the July sixth Ottawa Incident, 2053.

  ***

  This time, we didn’t half-ass the plan. I paid half of Francis’s new armor and Johnny did the same for Bella’s rifle and augs. That last one was kind of a life changer. Bella used an old model, very borg-ish.

  It had been decent… maybe six years ago? Not great, but decent. Made for long range shots and sniper work in general. This year though? Super outed, without question.

  Her new implant stayed inside her eye socket, but oddly enough she asked for it to be red. The woman liked red and mixed with almost pitch black skin, it suited her very well.

  Her family had originally been from the Congo super-mines. After they arrived in New-Montreal for a better life; dead, foster, abused, foster, abused, etc… A pretty classic story for orphans, especially the ones who ended up down here.

  I’d describe her as an amazing sniper with a heart of solid gold. Lost a few jobs as an assassin for various moral reasons. Not wanting to shoot a guy’s head off in front of his son, refused to shoot pregnant women, stuff like that. Now, we fought together for the good of our people!

  Not the most talkative, really, but she felt no need to do so most of the time. We understood each other! At the big gatherings, we had our anti-social table with a few other enforcers.

  Asexual and proud! Also, not super comfortable with touching. As different as we were in those aspects, we came together on others, like our shared love of guns!

  Her new one was basically an improved version of the previous model. More controllable, larger, higher rate of fire, more dangerous batteries, higher charge capacity, all that good stuff!

  The new eye was a sniper’s marvel! Great for zooming, range estimation, reconnaissance, amazeballs scanning tech and more! To top it all off, a higher quality undersuit, in case of shrapnel and stuff. It also had a bit of camouflage tech.

  Francis’s armor didn't beat Lila’s, but it focused on protection above all else. Lower quality by quite a bit but he’d had less time to accumulate points. I also bought upgrades for Lila’s armor.

  Was it favoritism? Yes. Did I give a fuck? No. Lila was family. I was not losing Lila under any circumstances!

  I also asked Altany to keep her safe, even to use my points if necessary. Overkill? Who gives a fuck!? I wouldn’t lose family if I could fucking help it!

  For mobility’s sake, we wouldn’t buy an HFUG. Our tactician came up with something pretty damn good! I had no idea where Garry got all this super boring tactics talk but he sure spoke it well! I think…

  We needed to be absolutely certain wherever we chose to set up was completely abandoned. That complicated things, a lot. Oh, the entire South quarter of the second section was abandoned, no doubt about that.

  However, we were going to the ground floor.

  Apparently, most of the floor was kind of… missing. The independent elevator would descend to the second to give us more freedom of movement. The rest of the team would find our defensive position while I dabbled in high risk demolition!

  Then, same plan as before! I would piss off the hive to the extreme. The distraction team would keep its attention while our people took back the entire quarter. They’d start by going down, floor by floor, to give us cover when it came time to get the fuck out.

  Johnny became a pivotal part of the plan. We confirmed that I could send him points and he could borrow from my catalogues from a long distance.

  His job included equipping rescued militia and enforcers then putting them to work. We expected a lot from the currently unbroken shelter on floor eight. I’d check out floor one’s. No idea on what its status was but, well, ground floor…

  I told Johnny not to open the ones on floor fifteen and above, aka Cobra Kai territory. Rescuing the people in there would be a fucking mess. I had to handle it personally, too risky to leave to anyone else.

  “All enforcers ready to rock and roll?” I asked to a chorus of ‘hell yeah!’ ‘fuck yeah!’ and ‘fucking finally!’. In that last one’s defense, we did change plans quite a few times.

  “Garry, you sure about this? You can advise from afar.” I had to give him an out. We got him a good pistol and decent undersuit, but the guy mostly wanted analysis and recon stuff.

  “I’m sure, boss. I want my home back. It’s like you said, if you’d asked me to stay at that intersection, I would have. Not backing out of this, especially since we might survive this one.” That got a round of chuckles.

  We opened the independent elevator and it did not inspire confidence. One of those old freight elevators without closing doors except for a screen of metal. “When’s the last time that thing got inspected?” I looked at Garry dubiously after he said that.

  “When’s the last time any elevator in this building’s been inspected?” I countered. Peach Trees never inspired confidence, why start now?

  “Fair point, boss. Although, I think there are still rich fucks on the upper floors.” I nodded. Fair point.

  “Don’t they have, like, private elevators?” I wondered aloud while putting the decrepit system in motion. I worried our badass war-ready gear might exceed the weight limit. The elevator expressed its dissatisfaction quite loudly!

  It was an uncomfortable ride, and none of us talked for a while. I turned off my mic. “Altany, should I be buying something?”

  Yes. The answer to that question when heading towards extremely dangerous situations is always yes. It is wonderful to see you learning from your mistakes!

  That got a snort out of me. “Fair. What would you recommend?”

  Based on your recent experiences, self-healing or self-repair systems. Taking into account your current plan of action? I would recommend an upgraded barrel and better recoil systems for the Tunneler. Also, you may wish to consider a more advanced propellant.

  I thought about it since the slow as fuck elevator gave me plenty of time. “I’ll take the upgrades to the Tunneler. I need it to fire faster, but also to fire stronger shots faster, if that makes sense?”

  It does. One option for you to consider consider; add a second barrel with its own recoil management system. It would feed the same way and double your fire rate. However, that would double the point cost.

  You could also simply improve recoil management in general. The Tunneler’s action is motorized. The limits on your fire rate come mostly from you. It could fire much faster without the limitations of your fragile human body. We could add a recoil management module to your armor as well.

  “I’ll take it, that recoil stuff for my armor and the single barrel upgrades, plus that liquid nitrogen cooling. Do I need a new barrel for that? ” The point cost would be rough.

  No. I planned in advance. You’re welcome.

  New purchase: Tunneler Mark 12 barrel upgrades!

  Points Spent… 120!

  New purchase: Tunneler Mark 12 recoil and cooling upgrades!

  Points Spent… 180!

  How much do you want to spend for recoil management within your armor? I recommend at least two hundred and fifty points for effective results given the already immense forces you work against.

  “Call it three hundred and fifty? I’m gonna fight a horde, need to be on my A game!” Might be expensive, but we were heading for a fucking bloodbath.

  I had to make sure the blood would be green, not red.

  New purchase: Bearer Enhancement Against Recoil Mark 4!

  Points Spent… 325!

  I should mention that it is not nearly as powerful as the systems vanguard Johnny Law utilizes.

  I wanted to groan and rub my face, but that wouldn’t be good leadership… Fuck it, I still groaned inside my helmet. Lila noticed. “You alright Panda?” Altany, of course, the incredible bitch, answered on open comms.

  I believe he is dissatisfied with his new Bearer Enhancement Against Recoil Mark 4 system. Perhaps seeing the grizzly results of his improved shooting will help.

  My elite badass super geared up soldiers stifled laughter and giggled like school children. God damn it…

  Francis decided to weigh in. “You know, you have to be careful, Altany. One day he might snap and kill you with his bear hands.”

  Lila got on the bandwagon. “Sorry for em-bear-assing you, Panda.”

  Garry, currently my favorite enforcer, decided to come to my defense! “Alright alright, we should stop.” Good man. “We really have to pre-bear for this o-bear-ation.” I was going to kill Garry.

  “Fuck me…”

  “Boss, I hope you know you need to bear protection for that.” Francis had a good deadpan going. It was great. Super…

  “Oh, I feel so bad, this is unbearable…” Lila was getting coal for christmas! I had no fucking clue where I’d find coal, but I would find it! “Oh, sweety, we’re bear-ly getting started!”

  “I hate all of you…” I decided to install my upgrades while getting bullied. Multi-tasking!

  “Sorry boss, there’s a claws in my contract about making fun of you.” At least Francis branched off from the single word. Red pandas had claws, I could take that.

  The barrel upgrade acted just like a sleeve for the old one. “Oh, is that a new bear-rel?” Garry, the traitor, asked. Dude got real comfortable real quick with the enforcers. I ignored him.

  In truth, I really liked seeing them joking and fucking around. It made for great tension release and kept them loose. Still…

  “Maybe we should paws before we get there…” Bella, of all fucking people, delivered that one! It got a great laugh out of everyone but Bella. However, she smiled! That was rare! “...Then we can really prepare for a clawsome arrival.” Fuck her smile!

  The recoil… stuff installed itself in the buttstock. No fucking clue how I’d describe the metal gel whatever. Liquid nitrogen cartridges fit inside the foregrip.

  I shut off my mic to avoid ruining their fun. “The self-healing thing, Altany. Just sell me something. By the way, can’t I use my nanite housing module for that?”

  Yes, but it will be a modification of the system. When you receive new augmentations, you will have to get a new one or use another method. It is a sacrifice, but I believe the savings are worth the future inconvenience.

  The housing module in your chest utilizes a dimensionally expanded space for materials. This would help significantly with your modified body. A self-healing kit can perform many tasks such as replenishing blood cells, reconstruction of damaged organs, stopping bleeds, and reknitting your skin. This is only a small sampling of available options, of course.

  However, replacing Mole-Bear alloys is not possible for most nanites. Having a cache of them inside your anatomy would be invaluable. It could also store synth-flesh and blood components, among other things.

  “Alright, I think I want to have my bones fuse back together, my muscles to repair if damaged… replenishing blood supply sounds good? Anti-Poison, closing and repairing wounds… I can’t think of anything else at the moment…” I muttered through the horrible puns without shame. They didn’t need my participation to be assholes.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  In this case, I recommend a self-healing augmentation catalogue. Your current module focuses on housing, not management. May I also propose the Medical Nanotechnology catalogue?

  After I thought about that for a moment my eyes widened. “Those second chance nanite-suites I bought, would they be cheaper?” I got a bit excited at the idea!

  Yes, I could reduce the cost to 320 points for one hundred units instead of 360 points.

  That was that then. “Buy it, and yeah, we’re converting my housing module, I’ll just have to deal next time I augment.”

  Class 1 Self-Healing Augmentations unlocked!

  Points spent… 75!

  Class 1 Medical Nanotechnology unlocked!

  Points spent… 100!

  We shall have to continue this discussion at a later time. We have arrived.

  I interrupted the ‘annoy your boss’ festival. “Almost there, get ready.” Everyone raised their guns and got their game faces on… mostly.

  “Bella, you’re ready honey?” Lila joked with a shit eating grin I could hear.

  “Why?” I whined like Rachael when I hugged her in front of her friends.

  She turned to me. “Just be-claws.” I facepalmed. With my helmet on. I didn’t give a shit about the noise at this point, mostly because of the loud as fucking hell elevator.

  As we arrived, the doors opened with a rattle. Thankfully, this deep in the building, very few aliens would hear. Our mini-map showed the rendez-vous along with a path, thank the fucking mesh! Even people living down here got lost in this fucking rat’s nest.

  My objectives were marked just as clearly. I unquestionably needed a path to the corner of the fucking building. That’s how messy it was!

  As they headed for the defensive position, I ran as fast as possible. This was the dangerous part.

  Not dangerous for me, dangerous for my nerves! I left them alone for a somewhat long amount of time (by combat standards).

  I had to destroy two different stairways and grab the attention of the hive before they seriously engaged the antithesis. Even if they shouldn’t get their attention… Well, they didn’t exactly gear up for quiet.

  The corridors in this god forsaken maze were short and narrow. The original investors needed workers to arrive on time, but the plebs could also just learn to get up earlier. Two people could walk side by side without much personal space.

  I took turns after turns, killing the odd aliens here and there. A spiked kick or a tail strike took care of most of life’s problems. My boots constantly planted spikes into the ground for better grip and acceleration.

  Every turn became an exercise in reflexes! I mostly planted a foot on the wall to launch myself in the right direction at need. However, four way intersections forced me to brake by using smaller crampons that could dig furrows. Full stops would send me cartwheeling at my speed!

  I grabbed the sides of walls every so often after overshooting. Everything was brutalist concrete down here, which helped a lot. Not a really nice place to live in. Guess I’d have to change that.

  “Think we can get a renovation drone or something? Like, to tear down walls and make two apartments into one?” I asked while closing in on my first target. I encountered a lot more aliens, but didn’t shoot any yet.

  Of course. Certain catalogues are focused on infrastructure and many would fit nicely for your building.

  “Yeah, though maybe… maybe we could simply hire the people here to do the job? It’d give the community a massive economic boost! Although that would depend on how much we can steal from the fuckers who did this. I could also make…”

  I stopped myself as I arrived at the stairway. “Fuck me…”

  A full carpet of antithesis covered the first floor! Nothing but black, green and whatever bodies. I couldn’t see the fucking ground!

  After falling from the sides, they just tried again! There were guardrails originally. These fuckers packed in so much they pushed them off!

  A group came out of the doorway, clearly intent on finding the assholes causing trouble on this floor. I didn’t waste my time with them.

  My railgun deployed and started spitting high explosive rounds. No shrapnel, just what Altany called ‘armor-piercing demolition shells’. I took a knee and aimed as my AI got to work.

  Those damn shells were fat fuckers firing at high velocity to penetrate whatever super concrete this building used. I fought hard against the kickback.

  To destroy as much of the stairs as you planned, you will have to move forward. I lack the angles necessary to destroy the third floor.

  “Fuck, alright, gimme… a fucking sec…” I was a bit busy shooting at the moment! Altany aimed for the other side of the spiraling ramp to avoid blowing me up. She wouldn’t hear me fucking complain!

  Apparently, to make sure the aliens couldn’t just pile on top of each other to reach higher, I’d have to destroy a few fucking floors. Some worm or transport models could even bridge the gap if I didn’t fucking obliterate the alien mega-highway enough.

  I fired high-velocity hyper-compressed buckshot while Altany fucked with my shoulder using those massive demolition charges! It took me a few seconds to actually step forward enough to finish the job.

  All the massive debris falling down on the antithesis helped. Some even blocked the ground floor for a few seconds. The big fuckers could really push when they wanted it seems.

  I’d also get points for the ones I crushed, yeah! Keeping back the tide got intense while Altany did her thing. I didn’t really succeed.

  I ended up in melee far more than I’d like! My tail proved itself useful time and time again. I also took quite a few fucking shots from model fives!

  “Are we fucking done?” I demanded impatiently. Four small model threes were fucking gnawing at me while my tail tried to throw them off!

  In three, two, one, done. I will destroy this landing after you leave.

  “That’s goat fucking awesome!” I shouted after taking a fucking painful spine to the wrist. Might be sprained, fuck! I took off as fast as possible and enjoyed the explosion following in my wake tremendously.

  “That self-healing stuff, sell me on something good! This shit fucking hurts and I don’t want to rely on drugs!”

  Wise decision, you’ve shown altered mental faculties under the effects of certain drugs. May I propose the Healing Operation Nanomachines Executor type Y, Mark 42, sometimes described as ‘honey in your veins’.

  I closed my eyes and pushed down my annoyance. “Seriously?” I asked with defeated frustration.

  I did not propose it for the name. This modular nanite manager can integrate with your housing module and focuses solely on healing without storage.

  Its small number of nanites will spread through your bloodstream. These specialize in information gathering. They communicate the need for intervention as well as type of injury, then the H.O.N.E.Y. will send the required nanites and materials from your module.

  That… sounded good? Annoying but good. “How fast will it heal me?” I engaged my neural coprocessor since I’d be at the other stairway much faster than the last one. The beauty of straight lines!

  I used the wider and straighter main passages. They connected to most of the floor’s housing sections. Otherwise? No one could ever find their fucking way in this jumbled mess!

  That will depend on how much you wish to spend. The difference in price and effectiveness comes from the nanites you buy, which will actually do the work. The management system itself will cost 360 points. Do you wish to buy it? You will have to stop for a few seconds.

  “Sure!” I got injured pretty often. As a close-quarters fighter, it was kind of inevitable. When I got to an intersection, I kicked a wall in front of me to brake. Another couple seconds to get into an empty apartment and I was ready!

  Whoever’s door I broke through wouldn’t be super happy… if they were still alive. Still, I thought they’d be alright with it!

  “Ready!” Then, I remembered that thing. The thing I agreed with other me to never talk about.

  New purchase: Healing Operation Nanomachine Executor type Y, Mark 42!

  Points Spent… 360!

  “Argh!” Again, my insides rippled like a stone thrown in a fountain! “Fuck! I forget every single fucking time!” I agreed with other me that we were fucking idiots.

  “Do I need to be stationary to get the nanites in there?” I asked, suddenly remembering that little fucking detail!

  Nanites and materials. Your biology is now modified with several augmentations that render traditional nanites unsuited for the task. Also, yes.

  “Yeah, yeah, come on, quick, gimme… fuck it, a thousand points’s worth! I don’t even know what I’m at fuck…” I had to move, now!

  I apologize, you tend to prefer conciseness in these situations. I will add your point total on this notification.

  New purchase: Medical nanites and materials!

  Points Spent… 1000!

  Points reduced to… 6625!

  I felt a slight ripple, but not much. “Jesus, that’s more than I thought.” I took off once more.

  Your destruction of the stairway proved rather profitable. Also, enforcers as well as militia gunners using your HFUGs have been hard at work.

  Suddenly, my wrist started to tingle! It took a bit longer than I’d like for combat, but I got back to one hundred percent effective! “Fuck that’s nice! Any idea on how I could protect against something like that?” I asked, expecting another type of plate or something. However…

  Upgrade your kinetic redistribution gel.

  That sounded so obvious I felt stupid for not doing it already. “Fuck I’m stupid… Can I install that on the run?”

  Yes, however, you are almost there, and you may need to focus.

  Correct, as always. This time however… I’d apparently pissed off the hive already. “Hum… Altany… Hyper-sonic grapeshot?” I requested, slightly worried.

  I’d arrived at the main corridor leading to the stairway. It was filled with xenos.

  If you aim above the heads of the closest ones.

  “Please.” I sounded a bit more scared than I’d admit to.

  I dropped to one knee as the weight shifted in my back mounted magazine. All the support struts and bracing shit deployed quickly.

  I trusted Altany to fire when ready and… well, good thing I wanted to destroy the place. Only a few untouched meters of xenos separated me from a buffet of plant mist, puree, limbs and organs!

  The stairway got pretty fucked too! Actually, just the doorway and a bit of the other side’s stairs. I still had to actually go there and do the job.

  The hyper-sonic boom broke a lot of shit and probably deafened all surviving aliens. Took me a few seconds to recover as well.

  “Cluster shells! Let’s clear the way a bit! Explode on entry!” I chose hornet’s nest slugs to clean up the leftovers. Worked well for the price and, well, deaf xenos. Not a huge threat.

  The cluster shells turned into tons of little bombs the moment they passed the… hole that used to be a doorway? The little bundles of joy mostly ended up going down the hole.

  It was a shrapnel party down there! Same thing up here, actually. “Keep the clusters coming until we get to the door!” I stepped forward, firing at the survivors. A few puckmarked model fives made it. They didn’t survive long but they made it!

  As I got to the doorway, I had to stop using cluster shells. They suppressed very well, but also left a ton of survivors. The shrapnel damaged the aliens, but not a ton. The smaller sub-bombs just didn't have enough power to deliver fatal blows to the bigger bastards.

  Plenty deadly against humans, but for the more tenacious antithesis? Also, my shells just weren’t that big. Even with compression, I couldn’t send that much. So, I ended up with a good carpet of injured aliens being trampled to death by healthy aliens!

  The shotgun upgrades saved my life. Boosting to two and a half times the velocity on 20mm hyper-compressed buckshot became a semi-auto proposition! It did ridiculous damage. Every single fucking one of the sixteen slugs hit like a truck! They blew holes twice the size of my fucking fist!

  It wasn’t enough, not even close.

  I kept firing and kicking or… tail striking? Whatever, I had to do quite a bit of melee to stay in place! Altany focused on her job while I got buried in horse cock sucking fucking assholes!

  When she finished, it took quite a bit to extract myself… ok, it’d be more accurate to say I stumbled out of the doorway kicking and punching the fuckers off in a frenzy.

  Thankfully I was dealing mostly with a ton of model threes. I’d aimed for the big fuckers most since my armor could take some chewing.

  I took off running as fast as I could towards the central concourse. Not hard to find since they were made to be accessible from the stairways. When I got there…

  I couldn’t really call it a central concourse since there really wasn’t a lot of concourse left. In its place, just holes. A lot of holes. Out of which came a fuckload of xenos non-stop.

  That’s when I realized, we might not have been the hive’s main focus. A lot of them must have been going further up. This was… insane. How the fuck were we supposed to handle this many?

  Then I remembered I was a fucking samurai! “Hey Altany, you remember those white phosphorus balls with thermite cores?” Oh, I had a dangerous idea.

  I do.

  “If I pay enough, could you get me a cluster shell that throws those balls instead of shrapnel when the sub-bombs explode?”

  I could, yes. I imagine budget isn’t much of an issue?

  “No, no it’s not.” I smiled viciously.

  Understood. These will cost 165 points per shell, although I predict they will pay for themselves. Loading.

  I received heavy fucking shells! My railgun shifted into its largest configuration and my tail’s vibro-blade rotors powered off.

  If you would kindly brace and put your foot back a bit.

  I did and immediately understood why! The hyper-sonic shells required a lot of power because of the insane velocity needed. These?

  They guzzled power because of how stupidly fucking dense they were. It felt like someone tackling my shoulder with every shot. Definitely worth it though!

  Now, was it lethal to every alien? No. Did the stupidly bright and hot little balls make big holes and disable everything they touched? Fuck yes!

  I basically lobbed them out like a grenade launcher. At the top of their arcs, they turned into way more sub-bombs than I thought possible.

  Each one turned into glowing white showers of shrapnel. So bright, it looked like I’d covered the ground in high-powered LEDs!

  “I think I got their attention.” My confirmation came in the form of an artillery shell hitting me in the chest and blowing up on impact. It thankfully hit my chest plate, but it sure as shit bruised and threw me back!

  My ability to speak came back after some coughing. “Oh… fuck… Altany… That kinetic thing? I’ll take it please… something in the four-hundred point range maybe? Also, please keep shooting…” An artillery shell left my railgun as my favorite AI answered.

  I would recommend incorporating an entropic gel, which will turn incoming kinetic strikes into several non-harmful energies, such as heat or vibrations. This will be on top of increased redistribution, of course. For 380 points, I have the Crystal Lattice Anti-Weaponry Solution mark 6.

  I groaned for two reasons as I got up. “Will it hurt less next time?” I asked, my voice hopeful.

  You assume there will be a next time? You are aware that you could dodge or intercept, right?

  “I’m not that much of an optimist…” I said, getting up with difficulty since my railgun kept pushing me down.

  Fair. Yes, it will hurt a lot less. Your current gel has… obvious limitations. Since you seem set on testing those, I’d even recommend spending an extra 185 points for the mark 8.

  “Sounds good…” My oh so lovely new nanites got to work. It took a few moments before I felt solid enough to head for the rendez-vous.

  V1.14