Chapter 37: How to get shot 101!

  “God, you have no idea how fucking stupidly difficult it is to stop a bullet. I mean, it took over four hundred years after the invention of bullets for wearable protection to be invented… to stop a pistol.

  How the fuck do you expect me to stop god damn alien railguns!?"

  –N.U.S.A. Army researcher, fifth attempt at conveying information to the president, 2034.

  ***

  A dark part of me had wanted to torture the fucker, but I never let that part of me make decisions. Scaring the fuck out of him felt a bit satisfying, given what he’d done, but I had shit to do. “How’s the intel hunt Altany?”

  I have the identities of responsible high level executives as well as most mid-level management.

  Johnny reminded me we were on comms together. “Hey, didn’t wanna distract you, but are you alright?” I smiled.

  “Yeah, I’m okay. Just had to replace a fuckload of armor. Some got damaged, sure, but tons just hadn’t been strong enough. Sorry to scare the shit out of you.”

  Johnny snorted. “Very Canadian of ya, apologizin’ for bein’ shot. If yall don’t mind, I think I know my job here.” My eyebrows rose.

  “Which is? I’m curious, not doubting, to be clear.” He snorted.

  “Those SOBs are runnin’ like rabbits. If I don’t chase em’, they’ll vanish. I say you deal with the ones around here, protect the buildin’. I’ll go make sure justice is delivered.” I smiled.

  It felt odd. That little sentence I’d told him so he’d snap out of it a few hours ago seemed to have really internalized. It fit the both of us really well. “That sounds fucking great, Johnny Law. These fucks are too close to the building for my comfort. I can’t leave and you’re much, much faster. Let me guess, you’ll get a hovercycle?” He snorted.

  “Yeah, I’m a bit of a Bon Jovi fan, suck it. See you soon partner’!” Johnny said before cutting the connection and starting to move. A damn second later, a long, sleek hovercycle appeared out of thin air and he jumped on it, flying off.

  It was way too late into the night for sunset, maybe… riding off into the sunrise? Whatever. Unlike in the stories, he’d come back. “I’m glad he’s here Altany, real glad.”

  So am I.

  I remembered something. “Hey, Altany, how did you know I should raise my defenses?” The timing had been pretty tight.

  I knew because he received a confirmation. They prepared for samurai interference, hence they had weaponry ready for such. They could not fire out in the open however. Shooting a samurai in public is suicidal in most circumstances.

  “You’re dancing around something…” I said, eyes narrowed.

  The Family issued a bounty for you. Fifty million credits.

  I sighed, of course they did. “Why am I not surprised? That’s more direct involvement that I thought we’d get…” I’d deal with it.

  I didn’t want to fight samurais. They were usually good people for fuck’s sake! The fucking Family wanted me to fight good people? My chances sucked but fuck it, still had the same job to do.

  If it helps, even without access to The Family’s servers, I can be reasonably certain that no vanguard posted the bounty.

  “How’s that?” I asked with more tiredness than I’d like.

  These bounties usually offer points as well as credits.

  “Well, it’s good to know it wasn’t because of Laser Jack. Doesn’t make sense from him anyway. More importantly, that means that every fucking PMC in the area has the legal right to shoot me. Joy…”

  I switched to general comms for all enforcers. “All enforcers, be advised, got a new bounty on my head, so that means the nice folk executing innocent people might use that to justify ‘coming to get me’. Make sure you have every sky bridge surrounded by a lot of welcoming treats. I’ll be coming by every one of them to clean up the mess.” There were a few laughs and jokes. Most of us had a few bounties, I had quite the collection myself!

  Right after saying that, a few shots came my way. They missed, for the most part, but some hit my armor and annoyed me.

  Would you like to return the favor?

  Getting shot was… complicated. For one, the energy transferred. As an example, the intermediate cartridges being used to piss me off at the moment? They delivered maybe two thousand joules. Plenty enough for most people, antithesis in the lower tiers, etc…

  A heavy-weight boxer’s punch delivered roughly the same! The big difference was surface area. A punch, to do damage, focused on just two or three knuckles. A bullet used a small, sharp tip to penetrate better.

  Momentum kicked in after that, it’s what made it more difficult for that bullet or slug or whathaveyou to lose its energy.

  For our little bundles of joy, the calculus started with how they were stopped. If deflected, which my armor was well designed for, the energy transferred would be severely reduced!

  Soft body armor of any kind captured the bullet, hence taking all the energy of that heavy-weight punch and dispersing it, but all within the vest. Also, on the person wearing it. That was not fun to deal with. I preferred the tank method.

  Hard armor was a bit more complex in energy distribution. Most of the energy, if the bullet fully stopped, would go to vibration and stress on the plate as well as a push. Said push would spread over the entire backface, thankfully. It would also create large amounts of heat due to friction.

  However, most bullets did not fully stop. The bounced off, deflected or, most commonly, shattered. In that case?

  The energy wouldn’t fully end up in the plate, it would go towards propulsing all the shattered remnants, creating a ton of heat, deforming the bullet and the surface, and into vibration/stress on the plate.

  The backwards force would still be spread out massively, much easier to deal with. Especially for someone with cheaty bullshit alien tech gel meant specifically to spread out kinetic energy!

  God, I loved having cheaty bullshit alien tech!

  That meant that I didn’t receive the equivalent of a punch from Mike Tyson! Yeah! It did mean if I wasn’t wearing a helmet I’d be dead in seconds from the shrapnel going up towards my face…

  Welp, I’d keep the helmet on if there was a chance of people shooting in my vicinity! Pretty good advice in general.

  “Altany, what kind of anti-gun plates did you give me? Should I be alright with ARs?” I asked with apprehension.

  You should be perfectly fine as long as you receive a reasonable amount of hits. By reasonable, I mean less than forty high caliber assault rifles with armor-penetrating rounds emptied fully-automatic directly on you at the same time. That would cause over-heating issues.

  The additional layer I gave you is very ballistic focused. They are, for the most part, plates of a resilient memory alloy that is hard, but also elastic. If you do not understand my meaning, they act like a spring. They store some of the imparted energy as vibrational force that is dispersed after contact.

  They will deform from heavy or sustained fire, but as they are memory alloys, it is an easy problem to address. The divisible plates are the same as they were, but with an exterior coating of nano-grain alloy. As I am certain you will not understand, I shall explain.

  I rolled my eyes, but she wasn’t wrong…

  The difference in hardness and toughness between different types of steel mostly comes from the crystalline structure they create. It is the purpose of the folding and hardening process, even if your species didn’t understand fully why before. It creates progressively ‘tighter’ and smaller crystals, aka grain, hardening the materials.

  ‘Nano grain’ refers to the size of this grain, which is impossible to achieve by conventional means. Your species has achieved this in a less than ideal and limited way. The Mole-Bears, however, were much more sophisticated in their uses of alloys, as you know. In general, they already have tighter grain in all of them, one of the reasons these perform so much better.

  This nano grain coating will ensure each card cannot be pierced by conventional ammunition. It is several thousands of times ‘tighter’ than your hardened steel. It is very complex to manufacture and becomes progressively more difficult the thicker that coating becomes. The coating is rather thin compared to what you could have with larger expenditures of points. Conventional armor underneath and your kinetic redistribution gel should handle the rest.

  This type of armor is less than ideal for fighting the antithesis. The weight, strength and size of your armor makes you a tank, but this design is not meant for fighting humans.

  “Good.” I said, decisively.

  The antithesis do not use small, hyper-focused, low-energy projectiles as humans do. Were I to have designed a suit of armor for fighting humans, you would have died in your battles against the antithesis. Your suit was made to battle the enemies of humanity, not humanity itself.

  That actually made me feel better. I didn’t want to fight humans. Now that I actually had an option, I’d rather fight the antithesis any day. I didn’t want to kill people, but I had to. With the aliens at least I didn’t feel like a monster for enjoying the fight.

  Your equipment is made to protect you in close-quarters combat, melee combat being a major component of such. Denser, stronger and heavier armor acting as a protective shell from bites, melee weapons at your beck and call, weight to ground you and add to your strikes as well as mobility enhancements such as the crampons you deploy frequently will make you much safer than focusing on small, low weight but fast projectiles.

  Also, there is your tail which, if you have arrived at a mentality where you are willing to admit its utility, power and greatness, helps tremendously in fighting the antithesis.

  To use an analogy you would understand, your armor was meant to handle a shotgun blast to the chest. This occasional add-on is to survive snipers and evil mercenaries with automatic weapons.

  They are firing anti-personnel hollowpoints made to fight antithesis according to your armor’s response. Anti-armor ammunition may be more problematic as the munition will not shatter and disperse energy nearly as easily. That is, to be clear, when it comes to intermediate cartridge fire.

  You will start feeling the kinetic force quite a lot more if you receive fire from a heavy machinegun, especially if they are firing anti-armor munitions, even more so where your armor is thinnest.

  The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  I would not recommend taking fire from a heavy machinegun.

  I snorted. “You are so wise…” I said in a jokingly reverent tone.

  Yes.

  That made me chuckle at high speed, which must have looked weird as hell. I was still getting shot at but I had shit to do and no time to do it in. I’d multi-task! Killing the bastards didn’t require my entire brain power!

  “By the way, makes me think, how many points do I have?” I asked, curious. I hadn’t asked since the first floor battle now that I thought about it…

  Current point total:

  Points… 42, 642

  Tokens… 3

  “What!?” I asked in sheer disbelief. I had fucking how many points?

  You took on the hive’s entire output in personal combat for almost an hour along with a team that fought by your side, under your command and with your equipment. You have also suppressed the hive along with Johnny using the HFUGs, which afforded you less points but still meant a strong income. You have earned many points. How many did you expect to have? You had more, but you have spent quite a few. The upgrades to your armor and shield were rather expensive, but not overly so.

  “So, hum, yeah, first order of business, how’s the clean up going.” I asked as I started walking towards the PMC at the other end. I’d borrowed the guilt software from Johnny. All red. I tried to distract myself from the staggering amount of wealth. What the fuck would I do with all that!?

  “Also, would you kindly give me some more usable grapeshot? Something I can fire without impeding my movement. I’d like to suppress those gaping swine cunts.”

  Altany delivered, as always, and I started peppering their positions with high-velocity buckshot or whatever. I’m a shotgun guy, sue me.

  Very well. The hive is being cleaned up from below and no more models are escaping the first floor entrances. The militia and enforcers are hard at work clearing areas. Several injuries were incurred, but no fatalities. Enforcer Carol has handled them all without difficulty. The equipment your troops have been provided with proved its value. Several would be dead without your, and Johnny’s, purchases.

  I smiled at that. “That’s sweet, but I’m worried about survivors. Are we still finding some?” I asked, still walking but with my coprocessor engaged to deal with the whole mess faster. I had a lot of shit to deal with now that I was connected to the net.

  Yes. Losses on the upper level were minimal given the time they had to enter shelter. The ones who ran out were executed on the lower levels, but the highest were safe. It seems that they wanted to empty the first twenty-eight levels.

  Shelters were to be ‘cleaned’. The contract with the Cobra Kais would not have been honored. The idea seemed to be that the upper section would be too attention grabbing. Certain non-expendable personnel are still living there.

  To be clear, they determined that ‘non-expendable’ meant that it would grab media or samurai attention.

  I chuckled. “Can you make sure it grabs media attention? Samurai attention is kind of a done deal.”

  Of course… I seem to be running into an obstacle. A vanguard grade one. Involvement from The Family, including Laser Jack’s AI, seems to be covering up the Family’s involvement as much as possible.

  I sighed. Every company would, but they had samurai backing, so it was to be expected Altany would have trouble. “Can you bypass?”

  Attempting… No. Unless you wish to spend more points this will be beyond my tools’s capabilities. However, I feel a need to mention that the expenditure would be severe.

  “Fuck it, what about the rest?” The enemy position started getting close and the few brave enough to fucking try me got some shots to bounce of my armor before dying.

  The short sell was more successful than anticipated. It seems you received some help. Laser Jack is a partial investor in your venture and helped fund some of the shorts. Shareholders started unloading shares as soon as the hologram made it past the point of no-visibility.

  However, the value of the building kept dropping after. To be clear, the property as a whole. It is still descending. Would you like to purchase it? You have the credits.

  My eyes bugged out and I asked how many creds we had. I almost faceplanted. It spoiled my shot enough that a few prolapsing assholes disguised as human beings got decent shots. They just bounced off.

  Are you well?

  “Nop, I’m fine, super fine, just… Fuck me sideways with horse cock... Fuck it, please buy it. Just… Gimme a sec…” I said before raising my shotgun. High-velocity staballoy penetrator slugs pierced through sandbags, concrete and whatever they thought would be good enough cover. It wasn’t. At all.

  What stopped my first shot usually got destroyed, then the second finished the job. I stopped the suppressing fire, wanting to conserve points. These assholes weren’t worth any points. “Can you get into the building’s cameras? Get me an idea what I’m dealing with?”

  In less time than it took to finish that sentence, I had an image. They’d prepared a welcoming party for me! Hidden by the wall, on the left, several heavy machine-guns and some heavy fraggers. Even a couple mechs! I felt so special!

  “Can my shield handle those rounds?” I asked with apprehension. I didn’t stop moving forward of course. They were a bit far from the entrance to make sure I wouldn’t see them too soon.

  With your upgrade, yes, but the heavy fraggers may throw you around a bit.

  “Cluster white-phosphorus with thermite cores. Make sure you hit the mechs. Thermite should get through their armor I think. Shoot when you have a shot, I’ll just zigzag until they’re hit.”

  Loading… Ready when you are.

  I deployed my shield, which had become a bit heavier. My armor in general felt a bit heavier, actually. I crouched and sprang forward as fast as possible, using ground spikes for purchase! After passing the threshold, the gunners opened fire right away. So did Altany.

  I took a few shots that threw me off a bit on my shield, but not many. HMGs weren’t really meant for precision shots on moving targets. However, the blindingly bright white-phosphorus is what really eliminated any precision. That’s when I ran for them.

  The mech operators panicked, and rightly so! The thermite melted into their systems, shut them down or even detonated ordnance! Plenty of soldiers died from the heat and, of course, the burning holes in their bodies. Several ammo and ordnance crates exploded, but usually not that devastatingly.

  No, I would be the real damage dealer. I reached their positions too fast for any to aim my way. My tail penetrated armor easily, and so did my axe. I lost myself in combat, in vengeance, in wrath.

  I focused, never taking shots avoidably. Violence became a dance of non-stop horrors. I threw half a body into another red human garbage before grabbing onto a rifle that would have shot me and pulling the fucker by the sling, shredding him with my tail right after. I then jumped onto the semi-functional mechanized walker, using my weight and momentum to tip him over as I punched again and again into the cockpit’s ‘glass’ with spiked punches. It took quite a few to break it. My punch carried through and I caved in a red chest.

  Red monster after red monster, I got them all. I didn’t go ‘berserk’, at all. I stayed cognizant, focused, alert and methodical. I picked my targets and kept my order of priority in mind. I may have loved it, no matter how distasteful or plain fucked up that was to say, but I didn’t let the fury control me. I controlled it.

  Hence why, where someone going berserk would have continued, I stopped.

  Green. Someone was green.

  “Hi.” I said to the green guy. He looked young, way too young. The fuck was he doing here? A card appeared over him with his name and age, barely eighteen. Every red had died since I’d just punched through somebody, aided by a vibro-blade on my gauntlet.

  Terrified, the young man emptied an SMG on my chest, a low powered one, even for an SMG. It did nothing. “What’cha doing here, buddy?” I probably looked a bit scary. The blood all over me probably didn’t help. Oh, shit, right, the guy impaled on my arm! That for sure made things worse. I extracted said arm.

  “Not going to hurt you. Mind answering my question?” His helmet had a transparent visor. Even I could recognize horror.

  “I’m… I’m a n-n-newbie. They gave me a shitty SMG as a joke. I… I was brought here and th-they told me to shoot aliens. I… I did and then… then people came. They…” The kid swallowed, clearly having trouble with the recent trauma.

  “They told me… they told me to shoot them. I… I didn’t and they said that… that if I didn’t they’d kill me. They said I’d be a loose end, since I’d be innocent and could talk…” I remembered that.

  It sounded similar to my discharge. I felt for the kid, I really did. “They put a gun to your head, but you just couldn’t do it, could you?” I asked, with kindness in my voice. The poor guy calmed down some. He started to believe I wouldn’t hurt him. Good.

  “You got someone depending on you?” I asked as gently as I could.

  He looked down. “My sister… she’s… she’s got MS… I needed the money but I just…”

  “Couldn’t execute innocent people. You’re fine with fighting, with killing, but not innocent people. That just… can’t happen. You wouldn’t be the person you want to be then, the one your sister loves. You’d be the people you hate. Am I close?”

  The PMC said nothing, but nodded his head. I nodded mine. “You helped murderers that killed a lot of kids Vincent. That’s a lot of people on your conscience, even if you didn’t kill them. I know. I’ve been there.” His eyes had been growing moist, but tears came when I finished. He looked straight into my animated eyes.

  “I… How do I…”

  “You help people. You become a person who protects. I didn’t get that chance at first. I got picked up by a gang since I was good at… well, this…” I said as I gestured around me. “They made me do bad things, but only to bad people. That was my line, but… they were worse people. I was becoming someone… lesser. The things they did ended up on my conscience, no matter how far I stayed away from that.”

  “My mom, she had cancer, my version of your sister. She killed herself. Left me a note. I never tell anyone what it said, but I’ll tell you. It’s what kept me from going bad, and it might prevent your sister from having to do the same, but you have to promise that it stays with you, okay?” I had no idea what the expression on his face meant, but he nodded.

  “It said ‘I can’t be the reason you become someone else. I know you won’t stop protecting me, taking care of me. The only solution I have is this. I’m sorry. The only thing I ask is that you stay my little panda.’” I smiled, my animated eyes probably conveying it. A few tears escaped my normal ones. It still hurt, but not nearly as much as it had before.

  I felt thankful in a way, but I wished for all the creds in the world that I still had my mom. We’d spent so much time together. I’d done all I could to keep her alive and well. I have no idea how the situation could have been different without changing it fundamentally. I couldn’t change anything for her, but maybe I could make sure it didn’t happen to someone else though…

  “I can't let someone like me end up like I did. I can’t let someone else be in as much pain as I was for the sin of caring too much.” I stepped forward, getting closer to him. He looked at me in a way I couldn’t interpret. Some kind of mix of hope and apprehension.

  “I’m Mad Panda. I’ll make you a deal, give you a chance to atone, but it will be your choice. If you say no, I’ll leave. I won’t hurt you or yours, you’ll never have to deal with me again. If you say yes, you’ll move to my territory. You’ll protect the people of Peach Trees. I’ll train you, see what you got. It’ll be rough as all hell, but you’ll be able to provide for your sister. How does that sound?” His face changed expression many times. Confusion and concern were the ones I could understand.

  “My… my sister, she’ll be safe?” He asked, making me like him more. My smile widened.

  “I’m pretty confident she’ll be safer than she is now. She’ll be one of my people. I’ll kill anyone that comes to harm her. I became a samurai during the massacre. I wish with every bone in my body it had happened sooner. Your colleagues wouldn’t have made it to the building.” I said, sadness entering my voice.

  “Why?” He asked, clear enough confusion on his face.

  “Because you care. Because you cared enough about an innocent stranger to risk your life to not shoot, even knowing they’d almost certainly die anyway. Because you care deeply about your people. Eventually, I want you to care about our people, the way I do.”

  Now, the kid stabilized. His face appeared determined. I could tell. He understood. He wanted it. He wanted the community, the care of others and to have others to care about. He was ready. “Please, I want… a chance.” My smile widened.

  “Altany, enforcer data stick.” I said, holding my hand out to him. He didn’t hesitate to put it to his port. Brave or stupid? I couldn’t tell. The data stick melted into nanites, as always. He had more of a trembling reaction than most to the process. Altany showed me what she sent him.

  Welcome to the Bear-Yakuza, provisional enforcer trainee Vincent Lavallée.

  I nodded once more. This had been rather quick but I needed to move. “Alright, Vincent, gotta bounce, that wasn’t the only team. What’s your type of gun?” He looked back at me, bewildered. “Uh… Shotguns, I like shotguns.” That made me laugh.

  “I knew I liked you for a reason. Altany, shotgun, something decent, same budget as usual. Now, go get your sister and bring her here, fast. Be safe about it. We don’t know what the organizers might do since they’re morons. I’ll pay for an expensive cab. Altany, you mind?”

  Already done, and no, I don’t. Thank you for asking.

  The kid stabilized, his sister’s safety bringing him back to operational efficiency. “Alright, where do I bring her eh… boss?”

  “Altany will pick a safe landing location, there are still some aliens. We’ll put her somewhere well protected, close to my family. I wouldn't want anything to happen to her after spending so many points curing her MS.” I said with a wink before heading back.

  It made me chuckle to see him sprinting full tilt.