Chapter Forty-Three – Armed

“You can tell how experienced any given Samurai is by how human they look. If they could be any john or jane doe off the street, then they’re probably still green. If they’ve replaced a few bits, then they’ve been around for a bit.

–Jim Harris, Journalist in Chief for BCB International, February 2037

***

I didn’t want to just abandon the AA gun. Not if I could still help it, even a little.

Keeping the thing firing, even for a minute, would mean that many more dead xenos.

Sure, they would come aground, collect all the alien goop, and just make more. But that would take time and resources, and maybe it would help others just a little.

There was also the more selfish reason for trying to help. I wanted those points.

I don’t think I was hooked to the system or anything, but I could really use a few hundred extra points. It’s why instead of running deeper into the building to find cover, I went back down to the door on the platform next to the AA emplacement and kept the entrance wide open. It overlooked the spot where the most aliens were sneaking up to the AA gun from.

What I did was something like hunting down a flock of ducks by opening fire into the whole lot of them with a gatling gun.

Model Ones would swoop up, Model Fours would pull themselves onto the roof, and I would greet them with a barrage of flechettes and incendiary .45s to the face.

“Myalis!” I called out as I emptied a second and third round into a Model Four that was being tenacious. “I’ve got points to spend.”

You do indeed! You’ve nearly accumulated a thousand points.

What. “Seriously?” I asked.

That was a frankly insane amount. What was I even supposed to buy with that many? I could probably buy enough guns with that amount to live a comfortable life for the next few years if I sold them all. That was, assuming I survived the next few minutes.

I… was probably not the best at handling money, or points. Christ, Lucy would have been a thousand times better than I was at this. “Myalis, I need stuff,” I said.

I can get you stuff. Where do you want to begin?

I looked out of the door, then grimaced as I emptied the last of my magazine into a cheeky Model Four that flung itself over the edge.

My shots echoed out into the open air, into a world that had gone quiet. The AA gun had been firing less and less over the last few minutes, conserving the last of its ammo while the smaller guns tied to it acted as point defence.

Now it was entirely silent.

I shoved my Trench Maker away and pulled the door shut with all of my weight before pressing my back against it.

“Myalis,” I said. “I need a hand.”

Do you mean a literal prosthetic or organic replacement for your missing arm, or do you require assistance. If it’s the arm you want, there are a few catalogues that have arms in them. If it’s assistance, then perhaps some remote stealth drones.

I blinked. “I meant an arm. I, I think I could handle having two again.”

Wonderful! I was worried that there might be some psychological reservations against replacing the missing limb. It’s good to see that that was unfounded.

It probably wasn’t. The entire day had felt weird, being flung from one disaster to another with only a bit of snark keeping me sane. Getting a new arm, that would be… big. I didn’t have the words for it. Maybe a sort of sign that it was all real? I shook that away, it wasn’t the time to get hung up on shit like that. “Get me a really cool arm,” I said.

I think my earlier suggestion that you try Class I Sun Watcher Technology. The catalogue costs one hundred and twenty points, and the arm that I think would suit you best costs two hundred points and requires a Sympathetic Neural Uplink Mark II which costs an additional fifty points.

“God damn, you’re going for the expensive stuff,” I said.

All prices are carefully balanced for maximum value. Don’t worry, some very smart AI have made sure that everything is worth its stated value.

Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

I swallowed.

The building shook, a noise like an electrical transformer blowing up zapping out from somewhere just outside.