Chương 44: Chapter 42 - The Shelter Anomaly

I woke up feeling terrible, like a herd of Model Twelves had trampled me while I was unconscious. It took me a minute to roll off the seat and step outside. The soldiers were halfway done with building a barrier with the sandbags they brought on the buses, and my bears were already set up in defensive positions. Hel stopped by while I was trying to stretch out my new muscles.

"How are you doing, no issues I hope?" I paused, mid stretch, "Not that I've noticed, I woke up in a lot of pain. Guess that's the price of replacing major body parts."

"Don't worry, it'll get easier." She patted me on the shoulder, which caused a jolt of pain to shoot down my back.

"Stay alert, this is a fairly big vault, so it'll take awhile to evacuate." I just nodded. After she walked away I tried walking for the first time. It was… interesting. My ankles were very springy, I practically bounced along, and the first time I brought up my CAR to fire at the Antithesis I nearly smashed myself in the face; I simply brought the gun up much faster than expected. It wasn't all bad, I could run like a mother fucker now and, after a little bit of practice, I could jump up to the top of my truck.

Quite an improvement from before.. I was just starting to feel a little bit better when Bandit paused, then flagged up an anomalous reading. The smell of blood from one of the still empty buses.

"Nyx, send a ping to the others, I'm going to investigate." Got it. As I approached the bus I could see it was bouncing slightly, like someone was moving around, but I couldn't see anyone, not even the bus driver. As I slowly climbed the steps the smell of blood hit my nostrils, and my glasses highlighted a thin trail leading towards the back of the bus. It was only after I stepped into the bus proper that I could see the driver, heavily mangled and dragged towards the back.

"Fuck, we have a problem…" Something moved. I couldn't actually see it, even with my glasses, all I could see was a slight shimmering in the air to my right. I brought the CAR up, but even with my new reflexes it wasn't enough. Something smashed into me so hard I could feel my bones crack, the force bounced me off the inside wall of the bus. A second impact followed, and this one pushed me right through the nearest window.

Thankfully the protective window shutters broke away sending me tumbling into the parking lot. My vision dimmed for a moment, it hurt to breathe, but I forced myself into a crouch, eyes on the bus. Bob was going nuts smashing at… something. I don't think he could actually detect whatever it was, but in such an enclosed space it couldn't escape his assault. At least that's what I thought until the back door of the bus was ripped open and I caught sight of that same shimmer bursting outwards.

I brought my CAR up, only to find it crushed, again. I watched as the shimmer disappeared around the end of the bus, just as Mirage and Hel arrived.

"Nyx, nanos," I managed between gasps. Nope, they'll be less effective with your new enhancements. I'm going to order up a bionic booster for the same price. Purchased Mark I Bionic Health Booster - 15 points Points Remaining: 1623"Whatever." I grumbled as I grabbed the hypo and jammed it into my ribs. Almost immediately I felt the pain ease, I began to breathe easier.

"What the hell happened?" Mirage asked as he and Hel jogged up.

"Fuck if I know, something got onto the bus, invisible, fast." I gulped down some fresh air, "it smashed me against the bus before throwing me out the window." I slung the broken CAR onto my back, which got me a couple weird looks. Whatever, I wasn't going to waste the materials.

"Then either a Nine or Twenty-One," Mirage said. I shot him a dirty look, I wasn't small enough for a nine to throw, probably.

"Either way it needs to be put down, I'm going to call Angeline," Hel announced. Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions. There was a moment of silence, then Bright-Eyes came running on all fours, jumping from bus to bus, until she skidded to a halt at the back of the smashed bus.

"Stealth models on the loose, can you find them?" Hel asked.

"Sure, no problem," Bright-eyes nodded, and the comically large goggles started to glow slightly.

"Uh-oh." Bright-Eyes AI, Dyana, is sending a data stream to everyone. Patching it into your augs now. Three faint outlines appeared, pacing on the street and nearby buildings.

"Glad I only ran into one of them," I grumbled. You should probably be glad you replaced your bones, that thing would have easily smashed un-augmented bones. Even with your improvements your ribs cracked.

"Fuck." I rubbed my ribs, that could have gone badly.

"We'll take one each," Hel announced, "Bright jump in if anyone is having issues, but prioritize keeping track of things." Everyone nodded, and as I grabbed my XR Railgun from Spooky one of the outlines changed color. Guess that one was mine. The twenty ones must have either sensed something was up, or they got impatient, either way they charged our lines. I winged the one closest to me with the XR, apparently my reflexes were faster but my hand eye coordination was the same as before.

It was enough to slow the beast down. Across from me Hel opened up with some sort of needle gun, when the needles connected with the Antithesis it started to freeze over. Mirage's target was enclosed in a transparent blue box which was slowly getting smaller. My target had only been staggered for a moment, it was enough for Bob to get involved. His claw caught it in the side of the head and sent it bouncing straight into the one Hel froze, which partially shattered at the impact.

Before my target could recover Bob was on top of it again, claws repeatedly smashing down until it lay still. Within seconds of Bob finishing it off, Hel's target died of shock, and Mirage succeeded in crushing his. The area went quiet.

"That was fun," Mirage said with a smile. I shot him a dirty look, only to notice that Bright-eyes had pulled a chocolate bar out of nowhere and was chewing on it. I had no idea how the girl could keep packing all that food in. Hel clapped her hands, grabbing everyone's attention.

"Back to work. These were a threat, but we still have civilians to protect." As everyone went their separate ways Nyx popped up. Have we learned the importance of armor yet?

"But I like my outfit!" I cried indignantly.

"Yes, the situation could have been much worse but… How did Bright-Eyes detect those things anyways? I'd rather spend my last token to improve Bandit and prevent that from happening again." Two tokens, you received one for dealing with the twenty ones, which are considered a high level threat to you.

"That's helpful," I chirped. Get the armor.

"Fine," I pouted, finally conceding to my AI, "but I want it light weight, and I still want my bear eared hood." Alright, we have a couple options. Lightweight armored bodysuits, power armor, and conventional armor.

"No bodysuits. I don't know why most Samurai want to show off, but I think it's embarrassing, probably worse armor too." I thought for a moment, "Also, wouldn't power armor be heavy?" Technically yes, but offset by the exoskeleton support.

"I feel like I'd have issues taking advantage of my new muscles with something like that." Alright, well, if you want to take advantage of your new bionics, and require a bear hood, I would recommend the Class II recon armor. You could get a set of Mark II Lightweight recon armor with integrated optics, and a Mark II Bear-ly visible camo cloak which has limited color change capabilities.

The catalogs would cost you four hundred and fifty points, the Mark II environmentally sealed recon helmet with advanced optics would cost you two hundred and fifty, the Mark II Environmentally sealed recon armor would cost you another four hundred and fifty, finally the Bare-ly visible camo cloak would cost you fifty.

"Totals not math Nyx." Twelve hundred and a token.

"That'll be another hit to my points… fine, I'm tired of stabbing myself with needles anyways. Purchased Class I recon armor catalog - 50 points Class II recon armor catalog - 400 points + 1 token Mark II Environmentally sealed 'Drop Bear' recon armor - 450 points Mark II Environmentally sealed 'Grinning bear' helmet - 250 points Bear-ly visible Camo Cloak - 50 points Points remaining: 423 points I grabbed the boxes that appeared and carried them back to my truck before opening them.

The armor was a matte dark gray color, there were metal plates covering vital areas, the rest was some sort of extremely hard, flexible plastic. Snug, not tight. The helmet looked like something worn during extreme sports, it had a wide visor and, most importantly, the area around the mouth was shaped like a bear's muzzle. The cape didn't look like much, but the hood was deep, and it had the required bear ears. Once I had the entire suit on I had to admit I looked bad ass.

More like a Samurai, and less like the street kid I was used to seeing in the mirror. That's when I realized something was missing.

"Fuck, I need a weapon," I grumbled. I could just get you the Class II version of your previous weapon, it comes from the same catalog as the bear's rifles anyways. It costs more but is lighter and has slightly more penetration power. It'll cost you 200 points. That sounded good to me.

"Sure." Purchased LCARS-372 Battle rifle - 200 points Points remaining: 223 points I grabbed the rifle. It looked similar to the older model but seemed to be made of some sort of composite instead of metal, and it weighed next to nothing. An alert popped up on my augs, the bears had detected another wave of Antithesis inbound. It was time to get back to work.