Chapter 69 – Nice

Chapter 69 – Nice

“Man, I tell you, she’s a bloody menace in bed!”

“Fucks sake, bro, can you like not simp for her for like a single day? Shit’s annoying as fuck.”

“You’d change your tune if you ever booked an evening with her. It’s magical, is what it is.”

“As if I’m going to pay those exorbitant prices. How far in debt did you get just from that one trip, huh?”

“Who cares about debt? It’s all worth it, trust me!”

“You need some help. Some real good help.”

“All I need is another appointment!”

“You need Jesus, bro.”

- Discussion between two civilians, shortly after Myriad’s first day as a Samurai Joytoy

It didn’t take long for us to find a veritable wall of xenos. It wasn’t surprising, and we had expected as much. Even if most of the caves we had cleared out the previous day were still empty, the antithesis hadn’t been idle. Still, it was a bit daunting to see just how quickly they could reproduce if given half a chance.

What was more problematic was the now much more prevalent presence of bigger models. From model Fives, all the way to model Nines, with Tiny even having to deal with models in high teens. While model Fifteens didn’t fit into the tight tunnels in most cases, we now had to deal with model Fives at basically every corner, which made pushing into the Hive a whole lot harder.

Luckily we came prepared.

It would still take some time before our Heavy Duty Shield Carriers would evolve properly into their role, but we had still given them a few dedicated Hard-Light emitters. It was a bit more pricey, but with their help we now had a much better defence against the hail of quills that the aliens tried to pepper Us with.

To that end, we had changed the makeup of our group as well. Bobby and Chloe were still forming the spearhead, but now they were supported by three of these Hatchlings, a number of upgraded War Drones, as well as some of Jenna’s Sentinels.

With our new defences and our new training we were also now better equipped to handle front line fighting and were no longer relegated exclusively to defensive duty. Of course, we still made sure nobody got hurt, but being able to actually fight off the flood of plants was a much appreciated change of pace.

It did require Us to think differently about our fighting style, however. So far we had mostly focused on shields, using our virtual realm to keep an eye on things. And that worked well, for the most part. Now, however, we needed to focus on actually fighting, so shielding was a bit more difficult. Luckily for Us, the PRISM wasn’t as constraining as the Pristine Fortress was, so our virtual self was able to take on shield duty, while our body self focused exclusively on using our Polearm.

Dashing forward we swung the weapon wide, amazed at how light on our feet we felt. The Hard-Light construct easily cut through the row of model Threes that formed the front, and we stepped to the side, escaping one of the quills coming our way and letting it bounce harmlessly against the cave wall behind Us.

At the same time, we put up shields around and in front of Chloe and Bobby, enabling them to hunker down and fire into the mass of walking fruit without needing to worry about being clawed at. It added to the defensive line our Shield Carriers had put up, giving us plenty of room to work with.

Utilising the holographic emitters of our new armor, we projected false images within the rows of alien forces. The smaller models weren’t all that smart, they had good senses, but that was about all there was to it. The issue we ran into were the larger models organising the smaller ones, which rendered our holographic images kind of moot, even if the momentary distraction was enough to sow some chaos. Leaving it to our virtual self, we began to blink the holograms in and out all around Us, just for that little bit of added confusion.

Our Assassins were close by, deeper in the horde, dealing with any of the bigger threats. Model Fives and model Sixes were their main priority, as well as any model Nine we could spot. It left Us with a relatively safe front to fight on, which we abused as best we could, our polearm dancing around Us and finding alien after alien, cutting them to pieces.

Our Defenders added to that safety by blocking any alien trying to take Us from the side, which we did appreciate greatly. It gave Us the space we needed to really put our new training into practice, something that was desperately needed. Even with the Dream Learning there was a difference between training and actually fighting. Being able to get used to it without having to worry too much was a boon.

Cleaving through yet another small group of aliens, we let the momentum carry Us, projecting a long blade from the Pristine Fortress and cutting a model Four in half that was trying to overwhelm one of our Defenders.

At just about the same time, we saw one of the bigger models in the cave going down from the corner of our eye, our Assassins cleanly decapitating it. It shifted the balance of the front, and we pushed deeper, Bobby and Chloe one step ahead of Us and laying into the horde of alien plants with reckless abandon.

Taking the left side of the front, and leaving the others to deal with the rest, we dashed into the fray once more, not giving the aliens any time to recuperate or reorganise. Jumping over one of the smaller groups, we swung the Dusk and Dawn in a wide arc, killing most while clipping the remainder, wounding them. Our Defenders were trying to keep up with Us, while the Sentinels began to lag behind a bit, something that became apparent when a model Five unloaded on Us for all it was worth.

The defences in our new armor sprung to life, blocking the incoming torrent of quills, and we shrunk back, momentarily surprised. Nothing much came of it, much to our relief, but it did remind Us that we had to be more circumspect.

While we fought off the aliens on our side, slowly decemating their numbers, our upgraded War Drones and the Shield Carriers pushed forward, cutting them off from reinforcements, which made our job so much easier. We kept one eye on the main front in the cave, while we continued to weed out the remaining aliens, watching our newly upgraded drones work.

Our Shield Carriers laid down another defensive wall of Hard-Light constructs, crude but effective. It was clear already that they’d be a boon once they properly evolved into their new task, even if it was still a bit awkward at the moment. Our War Drones took position behind it, while the Hatchlings began to utilise the new mortar like grenade launchers on their back, sending clouds of nanites into the enemy lines.

They weren’t immediately lethal, but they did take some pressure off of the front, something that the rest of Us and Bobby took advantage of immediately. Now that the balance of the fight had shifted, Chloe turned and focused more on laying down cover fire into two of the tunnels leading further down, stopping the xenos from pushing us back.

Nodding to ourselves, we rushed forwards once more, killing off the last remaining alien on our side with a wide swing of our polearm, before we turned our attention back to the other side of the cave. Raising our right arm, we let the polearm dissipate, instead pulling up the aug menu for the PRISM and sending large bolts of Hard-Light into the masses, adding more nanites into the mix that slowly began to eat away at the aliens skin and muscles.

We were pushing the aliens back, slowly at first, but now that we had gotten a foothold in the cave, that pace increased. Then it increased some more, when another group of Hatchlings arrived behind us, raising their new rifles and slowly and methodically picking off any of the aliens that managed to get past our defences.

“Sorry!” we said to the rest of Us as we rushed over, trying to help those that were frozen.

Luckily for Us, they were pretty resilient, and thanks to the upgraded materials, they didn’t suffer any significant damage from the frostbite. Still, we felt horrible that our mistake had hurt them, even if they didn’t blame Us for it.

A ping from the chatroom caught our attention, and our virtual self turned toward the new message.

[Buckshot Bobby:] We just had an 18 bury into one of the caves, they might be setting up some new tactics.

[Bahamut:] Thanks for the info. I’m organising a large scale ping to find out more about the makeup of the Hives. Stealth is out the window now anyways, no need to hold back with the scans.

Her message was followed by a massive ping on all frequencies, some even potent enough to make Us nauseous for a moment when the low sounds rattled the ground. We were the only one affected from what we could tell, considering our highly upgraded ears. Still, it was very unpleasant.

Quite effective, though.

The map updated almost immediately, with a much more up to date image, even if it didn’t reach down far enough to get a good read on the core of the Hive. What it did reveal was quite alarming, however. Massive groups of aliens, mostly smaller ones, but with a few bigger models amongst them, were moving around the Hives. The center most one was the worst, with almost double the aliens we had to deal with.

“Tiny, get over there and help as much as you can,” we ordered immediately, “Kaori, see what you can do to help. Bellona, can we send some forces over? Without Us, they’ll be overrun in no time.”

“Already on it,” Bellona replied, her mental message containing a small update on the new disposition of our forces.

Then Bahamut came on the horn. “Legion, we might need you on the other Hive. Do you think you can help?”

“I’m already moving my forces into position,” Jenna replied almost immediately.

“We sent some of our own as well, not enough to weaken Us here, or to deal with all the aliens there, but it should help.”

“Thank you. I’ll get back to you if we need something else.” And with that Bahamut disconnected once more, and we turned our attention back to the cave we were still in.

“We should move carefully,” Bobby said with a grimace, “I knew this was going to be a harsh day, but that is so much more than I anticipated. Come on, we don’t have time to waste.”

“One moment,” we said, interrupting him, “We want to see if we can’t get something else to help with all this mess.”

He nodded at that, and we turned our attention to our AI.

“Kaysa, do we have something we can send into the caves deeper down to weaken them? Nanite carriers or toxic drones?”

There are some options, yes. The Mark V Erdbound Silthen is a smaller Hexclaw that can burrow quite fast. It can be equipped with nanite storage or biological warfare equipment. For this I would recommend unlocking the Class I Biological Warfare Catalogue. While it is not as specialised as others, it would allow you a broad arsenal of chemical weapons that would be quite useful in this scenario.

“Get it. And get as many of those drones as we can, and equip them. Make sure that we don’t go over our limit, though. We aren’t quite ready for that yet.”

Understood.

Class I Biological Warfare unlocked!

Points reduced to: 129.744

New purchase: Mark IX Erdbound Silthen x125!

Points reduced to: 85.994

The eggs appeared around Us one after another, some appearing next to the Spotters we still had running around. It took a while, since the Slithen were quite big, although surprisingly cheap. The reason for it became obvious relatively quickly, once the new voices linked up with the rest of Us.

They weren’t meant for dealing with big models. They could fight, of course, but compared to most of Us, they were quite weak, limited to dealing with models in the lower digits. It made sense, their purpose was to spread as many nanites and chemical toxins as they could, and for that they were well equipped.

We grimaced as we realised we were now up to 1398 drones. 102 away from our limit.

Immediately the Silthen began to burrow deeper into the Hive, some even making their way over to the other Hives. It wouldn’t be a permanent solution, but hopefully it would be enough to weaken the aliens sufficiently to make a difference.

Turning our attention back to Bobby and the rest, we nodded at them. “Okay, ready.”

“Let’s get this over with,” Chloe muttered, before she began to move into the next tunnel, weapon at the ready.

We all nodded, and quickly prepared ourselves for the next altercation with the alien plants infesting this place.



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