《A Joytoy’s Journey to become a Hive-Queen [A SCS Fanfic]》 Chapter 1 – A (literal) pain in the Ass Chapter 1 ¨C A (literal) pain in the Ass ¡°In modern society the usage of narcotics has long since be much more normal than it had been even thirty years ago. The biggest reasons for that are more supply, less controls, less stigmatisation, and generally less fucks to give. An average of 40% of the adult poption admits to consuming some form of drug regrly, a staggering 30% almost daily. The real number is probably much higher.¡± - ¡°Modern Society, a retrospective," 2056 With an incessant beeping I got ripped out of my sleep, my head throbbing like someone was ying the drums on my skull. Croaking my displeasure, before coughing up some bile, I reached over and tried to smash the rm clock off, whilst simultaneously vomiting thest of the alcohol and what pitiful food I had yesterday into the trash can. Eventually I hit the stupid rm and groaned, taking some heaving breaths before dry heaving a couple more times. Next to me someone moved, warm naked flesh touching my own. I could feel breasts on my back as Sarah tried to use me as a pillow¡­ again. I groaned once more, ignored the warmth behind me, much too hungover to enjoy the feeling, and got up. I didn¡¯t dislike Sarah, she was a nice girl, at least when she wasn¡¯t drunk. Which was quite the rare asion now that I thought about it, considering it had been weeks since I hadst seen her sober. No, what irked me was that I couldn¡¯t have my own bed. It wasn¡¯t her fault, of course. We had to share bed and board to keep the costs down, and even then we barely made enough, even with four people in an apartment I would barely considerrge enough for one. Mumbling something to myself I got up, staggering from the alcohol and other shit still remaining in my system fromst night. With a bit of effort I made my way over to our kitchen, although calling the shitty hole in the wall stove a kitchen was gloriously overselling things. I opened the fridge, grimacing at the ear grating squeaking sound it made, grabbed whatever cheap beer we had left, opened it, and downed half the can to clear the bile out of my mouth. I know I shouldn¡¯t, I was an alcoholic and should probably stop if only to save like half the pitiful amount of money I made each month, but I¡¯d been taking all kinds of drugs since my very early teenage years and by this point the amount of fucks I had left to give the universe atrge were somewhere between nonexistent and fuck all. ¡°Get the fuck up." I mumbled loudly before I finished my beer, throwing the empty can into the corner where the rest of the cans had already assembled to discuss our abuse of their contents. Someone would have to clean up soon¡­ And considering this dingy household, that someone would be me. Of course my rambling wasn¡¯t near enough to wake them, pissdrunk and high off their tits as they had been the previous evening. Sarah was still in dreand, naked with a nket barely over her long legs. Tina and Sharon were still asleep on the other mattress in the corner, limbs entangled fromst night''s fun, empty beer cans still next to them. Once upon a time they too had a bed, but considering Sharon¡¯s unquenchable lust, that thing had been fucked through not even three months after she had moved in. Since they didn¡¯t have enough money for a new one, and Sarah and I weren¡¯t about to fork our pitiful creds over for them to break the bed again, the stained mattress it was. Grumbling once more I stumbled over to kick the two awake, before I went over to Sarah to do the same. We all had to work soon and our boss wouldn¡¯t be happy with us beingte again. I didn¡¯t know the schedule of the others, but I was booked out for the next couple days, and some of the clients paid good money to bend me over the bed frame. The lot of us were joytoys, little more than cheap whores. Once upon a time joytoys were more than just harlots, but over time things had changed in our redlight district, different gangs moved in, and by now all you were expected to do was spread your legs and act like you enjoyed your time. They didn¡¯t even care if you were barely capable of walking from a near overdose. Okay, things weren¡¯t quite that bad, I was just pissy. Our job didn¡¯t suck entirely, and I liked doing it, most of the time. Ever since I had my first period my libido had been high, and even before I had turned eighteen I had my fair share of partners in the gangs, mostly to get my hands on more drugs. After they threw me out¡­ Well¡­ I didn¡¯t have much in terms of options. And frankly by that point I no longer had any inhibitions about spreading my legs to get what I wanted, nor enough fucks to spare to care about dignity. Picking up whatever clean clothing I still had, none of us really cared who wore what as long as it all got cleaned afterwards, I slipped into my ¡°work uniform¡±. A skimpy bra that only hid my nipples, a nearly see through blouse that underlined my small but perky breasts, and a short mini skirt that barely hid the wonders beneath from the world. I decided to skip underwear, wouldn¡¯t wear it for long anyway and I knew for a fact that most of my clients liked the cheap whore high on low-grade shit look that I usually had. Every joytoy had their theme and their regrs, and I was quite well known around the district for mine. Considering my client throughput and my reliability at doing my job, leaving quite the satisfied customers, I had already been entrusted with organising my own group of joytoys, basically being in charge of my wing of the brothel. Seraphine Bloodfallen was a known name, even outside of our little shithole of a district, at least among the cheaper brothels anyways. By this time the others had gotten up as well, most of them groaning loudly. ¡°Shit¡­ morning again already?" Tina mumbled, rubbing her eyes. Sharon looked worse for wear as she plucked her favourite anal beads still inserted in her loose ass fromst night. ¡°Fuck¡­ And I can¡¯te inte again. I¡¯m booked soon," she said, growling, although nobody would believe her if she said she wasn¡¯t looking forward to it. My libido was high, she was an outright slut. She could fuck around all day and still want more. Part of it was of course that one of her favourite drugs did wonders to rile you up even more, so she and Tina ended up basically fucking every night before passing out. ¡°I wish I could skip today," Sarah mumbled, before groggily getting up, only staggering a little. She was still drunk, as usual. Sarah was the only one of us who only did the job because of the money. She refrained from as much sex outside of work as she could, and typically only ever took clients while she was pissdrunk orpletely out of it. I had talked to her multiple times about finding another job, but she couldn¡¯t, or maybe wouldn¡¯t, I didn¡¯t exactly know. ¡°Well, hurry up. Leon will be here shortly to pick us up," I said, then stretchedvishly, which had Sharon tantly looking me over for a moment. Leon was another joytoy who worked with us, one of the few male joytoys I actually liked and had spent some time with. Normally I was more one for women, but he was alright. And he had shown me a few tricks to use on my male clients, which had paid off quite handsomely in my pay. I vanish into the bath for my first round of hygiene for the day; We would all clean up again at the brothel, but I liked to start here, just to keep the routine going. By the time I was done the rest of the girls had dressed up, although Sarah was already nursing her second beer for the day. The woman was nearly my height just sitting down, not to mention when she stood, even with my heels. As always, it irked me; My height was the only thing about my appearance that I disliked. Everything else about me was great, I looked good, knew it, and wasn¡¯t ashamed to show it. But my height¡­ ugh. In a way it was a blessing. I looked young, innocent and defble despite being nearly twenty, and lots of geezers got off on getting me utterly fucked up on smack before they dominated me, so I never had to worry about getting enough jobs. It also helped that I basically dealt with nearly any fetish they knocked at my door with, which meant a wide variety of people who would pay for my services. Sarah had more problems in that regard. She was beautiful, don¡¯t get me wrong, but she towered over even the taller men. There was a market for everyone, of course, but some were more in demand than others. She was also extremely vani, the most she would ever do would be stuff like feet or any of the other, more innocent, things. And that meant fewer jobs, which meant less pay. If money wouldn¡¯t be an issue for her, she would probably be happy about it, knowing her. Regardless, we had to leave. I quickly pocketed my things, which consisted of a few joints, a pack of cigarettes, a lighter, some of the more esoteric stuff avable around the district, and a couple of toys that I would need today that I didn¡¯t have in my room in the brothel. We had most everything you could want there, and they didn¡¯t care what we took home, as long as we had it with us when it was needed, but I never liked doing that. Oh, I liked having toys avable for whenever the mood struck me; I just didn¡¯t like having them missing when a client came knocking with a surprise request. I might be a cheap whore high on even cheaper drugs, but I did take my job seriously. We filed out of the dingy apartment, not that it was much of one, and all went downstairs with a beer in hand. To any outsiders it might be a bit over the top with how fucked up our life and addictions were, but we were hardly an exception in this district. In thest twenty years or so this ce had lost a lot of its former glory, thanks to multiple gang takeovers that had ended with less and less people giving a fuck about keeping the image up. As a result narcotics had quickly be widespread, I don¡¯t think there were many if any people living in these parts that didn¡¯t take some form of shit regrly, especially with how cheap the stuff was around here. Coinciding with the gang¡¯s arrival, the clientele shifted, a lot of the wealthy high ssers who originally woulde to our part of town for a nice time were reced by bangers, which meant less money, which meant the quality of things went even more to shit. By this point most of the brothels around here were the cheap kind, although Victor¡¯s was a bit of an exception even then. The Rose Carpet was, well, maybe not specialised on the use of narcotics, but we had probably the loosest rules about that kind of crap in the area. That meant that we got most of the joytoys who did the job for money and didn¡¯t know how to handle it other than drowning their sorrows, just like Sarah. Of course we also got people like me, addicts who couldn¡¯t do another job and didn¡¯t care about bending over for whomever came knocking with a creditchip. When we arrived downstairs Leon was already waiting for us in his rust bucket of a van, an older model he inherited from his pops. The lump of metal was nothing grand but it worked, and none of us could really afford to take the cab each morning. Even down here in thest reaches of the outer city, the taxi service was incredibly overpriced. ¡°Morning," I grumbled as I opened the van door and got in, Tina and Sharon trailing close behind me, while Sarah climbed into the passenger seat. She always took shotgun, despite alwaysining that it was too small for her long legs. The moment someone else dared to get near to it however, she threw a fit about how it was hers. ¡°Morning. You look like shit," Leon muttered. The man was always worrying about us, which was adorable, but also sometimes incredibly annoying. ¡°Yeah yeah, we know. Now get going before we arete again," Sharon grumbled, already visibly excited for the work day despite her bad mood. ¡°I only got four clients for the day. The first three are regrs, thest booked the entire afternoon and evening. Seems to be the cuddly sort," I said, checking my schedule and the requests that came with them. I knew the first would suck, I saw him often. Giant dick, big enough to hurt, and he was totally into anal, so I was already prepared to nurse my bumhole back to health after his session. The other two were rtively normal, although one had once again asked for a cor and leash, plus some ¡®catnip¡¯ as he called it. I knew what that meant, it was good that I had packed extra. Thest was a woman, military from the looks of it, but surprisingly, not the dominating kind. Of course there were all types, but my experience with the more normal military girls was that they wanted to be in charge, often that meant more than just saying what we should do. This one however, wanted cuddles, lots and lots of cuddles. The rest of her sheet was¡­ empty, to say the least. No likes or dislikes mentioned, only a footnote of taking things slow. She seemed a bit out of ce for this kind of area, truth be told, not to mention her wishes for the day. Not that it mattered much to me, she was cute and was paying, so if she wanted to cuddle the day away, I would oblige her. ¡°Damn¡­ I¡¯m packed. Eight clients, one a threesome, one a foursome. Hope I can keep it up the entire night," Sharon said, hand already between her legs, ruining the cheap seats. ¡°Well, let¡¯s hope you can still walk straight after," Leon said with a hint of amusement in his voice. ¡°Luckily, my day will be calm. I only have a halfday, rest of the day I¡¯m on service duty.¡± ¡°Wanna switch?" Sarah grumbled, already in a bad mood. ¡°Five clients, all of them with some strange fetish. Any of you have experience in foot jobs? Can¡¯t remember thest time I did one of those.¡± Of course Sharon was more than willing to help her refresh her memory, and soon the entire drive was filled with her regaling Sarah on how to do a proper job, what to focus on and what to avoid. It was informative, but only in the context of getting better at the job. I didn¡¯t like feet and luckily I didn¡¯t have to deal with that often. By the time she had gone through everything she knew, we had already parked and I was opening the door. ¡°Well, good luck y¡¯all, and have fun," I said in a deadpan tone before I walked off, throwing the empty beer can in a trash bin outside the brothel. Since I was in charge of my part of the brothel, I had some other shit to do before the clients came in. It mainly involved sorting out some of the more annoying things, like helping neers get situated, getting them adjusted, showing them how to do a proper job, that kind of shit. Thest part at least could be fun, especially if they were one of the more eager ones. Heading into the brothel, I quickly found a group of joytoys standing around one of the new guys, who looked highly awkward and maybe a bit overwhelmed. ¡°Morning,¡± I mumbled, then looked around, ¡°Anyone need anything before I show him the ropes?¡± It turned out, a couple had some minor concerns such as missing or broken toys, nearly empty booze cupboards, broken furniture, the works. I noted all of that down to send it over to Vic, who¡¯d get on it to rece all the stuff. One of the girls had some questions about some of the toys for me, so I spent a couple of minutes showing her how to properly use them. Of course, as I always did, I reminded them to take their birth control, pay attention to hygiene, the usual shit people tend to quickly forget or ignore. We had a couple of idental pregnancies before and they always meant trouble. When a joytoy got pregnant, the clients often didn¡¯t want anything to do with it. That meant abortions, or if that wasn¡¯t in the books, another brat ending up at the foster homes nearby. No matter what way things went, there were pretty much always heated tempers, loud words, and inane discussions about responsibility. I knew some clients paid extra for pregnant girls, but that was a rarity around these parts. The most difficult situations were when one of the guys got a client pregnant. Technically there was a use that said that anything that could end in pregnancy wasn¡¯t allowed, but since people are stupid, especially when high, drunk, and horny, that rule was so often disregarded that it might as well not exist. Problem was, someone had to fork over child support and what-have-you, and of course, since I was the person in charge, it would be my job to sort the shit out. Fucking grand. Despite the fucked up work life we had, I always made sure that at least the joytoys under me paid attention to all the important crap. More than once I sent someone home to clean up after they came in too fucked up to work. The redlight district was my home, and while it was a bit of a shithole - actually not just a bit - I wanted to make sure we were taken seriously. My goal was that one day we¡¯d be seen as more than living onaholes, even if that was a bit of a pipedream with the current situation around the district. After I was done with all the minor stuff it was time to show the new guy the ropes. ¡°Okay, Paul, was it?¡± I asked as we walked. ¡°Yes, ma¡¯am.¡± The boy replied in an overly formal fashion, obviously a bit embarrassed. ¡°Okay, Paul. So we generally have a couple of rules around here that you should remember. The two most important for you are the following: No raw dogging. I don¡¯t care if you use a condom or if you pull out, just make sure that we don¡¯t have idents, okay? And nothing that would hurt you or the client. I don¡¯t care how much money they shell out, that is just not something we do here. If they throw a fit feel free to refer them to me.¡± It didn¡¯t take long before we arrived at our hallway, one of the ones on the first floor. I motioned to a door as we walked past. ¡°That is my room. I¡¯ll be avable in between clients, but don¡¯t hesitate toe to me when there is an emergency.¡± ¡°The room over there,¡± I pointed to one of the ones furthest down the hallway, ¡°is yours. You should find anything you need in there. Toys can be taken home, but I rmend against it. If you forget one and ask for one from another room because you need it I will note that. Simrly all toys used should be cleaned after each client. That is your responsibility, and if I notice that you don¡¯t that will mean a whole bunch of annoying shiting your way, understood?¡± ¡°Yes, ma¡¯am!¡± This guy seemed to be the sort to listen closely and pay attention, which made me like him immediately. ¡°Good. I don¡¯t care what you do in your free time, who you fuck around with and what kind of shit you push into your veins, but you always need to make sure that you don¡¯t have anything infectious while at work. STD tests, blood tests, that kind of stuff will need to be done once every two weeks at minimum. We have a doc we work with who can do that, so if you need a test just ring them up. I rmend keeping a full papertrail on your tests. It¡¯s annoying, but we had some problems in the past when one of the joytoys didn¡¯t have paperwork for some of the older tests.¡± ¡°Yes, ma¡¯am. I¡¯ll make sure to keep all the tests I do.¡± I nodded and smiled at him, just as we arrived at his room. ¡°Now then, how experienced are you? Not just vani stuff, I mean in general?¡± He turned beet red and didn¡¯t meet my eyes. ¡°Uhm¡­ I had a girlfriend once, who I did it with a couple times. Nothing more¡­ uhm¡­ extreme? Though.¡± I nodded, ¡°No shame in that. We can spend some time going over things now.¡± Saying that, I opened the door and walked inside. Once in the room I quickly checked if everything was in order, then turned around to him. ¡°Let¡¯s start small. Show me how you would pleasure me with your mouth.¡± He looked at me with wide eyes and an obvious boner in his pants. After a couple rounds with Paul, showing him some of the tips and tricks I had picked up over the years, I left him to his devices. One of the more senior guys wouldter show him some more, but right now they were all busy, so that would take some time. Of course, since I had helped him find his footing, I had to spend some time filling in some paperwork. Mainly, what he was able to do at the moment, what kind of clients he epted, et cetera. He was pretty typical for a guy that had just started as a joytoy, preferring women, but he had mentioned that he was willing to entertain menter on down the line, once he got a bit more confident in the job. He was best with oral, so that was noted, but generally he was good enough at the moment that I was willing to have him train with some other joytoys and without my direct supervision. Once that was done I had to deal with another rather new addition to the roster. The girl had just started over a week ago and was already showing the telltale signs of someone who was slipping into drug abuse to cope with the fact that she was selling out her body for money. Technically I didn¡¯t need to deal with this, but I preferred to try and help them find another job, much like I had done with Sarah. Of course I couldn¡¯t force them to do anything, and if she wanted to stay, or didn¡¯t have another option, then that was just something I had to ept. I just really didn¡¯t want to end up with another body we would find behind some dumpster with seven syringes in her arm. That was something we had too often around these parts and I had seen my fair share of overdose cases in the nearly two years I had spent here. The talk with her went¡­ about as swimmingly as my talks with Sarah usually went. She was pissdrunk and down two doses of Shiver. Shiver was one of the more widespread drugs, especially in the brothels. It heightened sensitivity, worked like something of an aphrodisiac, and basically forced the body into heat. The problem with it was that itpletely disabled rational thinking, was highly addictive, and made you much more susceptible to most of the other shit, including alcohol. The end result was like something out of one of those cheap porn movies, a guy or girl who just let anyone do whatever they wanted to them, as long as they got to cum their brains out, even things they would consider deeply disgusting when sober. Of course, that did mean that once they sobered up they tended to be horrified at what they had done, and that led to a quick downward spiral that usually ended in overdose. I tried my best to give her options, gave her some rmendations about different ces she could try to apply to, that kind of stuff, but I doubted that she even properly understood me in her drug induced horny haze. With a sigh I left her room and noted down a reminder to keep an eye on her. I liked my job, I really did. I got to enjoy myself, make some money, and get free drugs. These were the kind of things I could do without. I wasn¡¯t squeamish about death, I¡¯d seen too many people die, either in gang shootouts or because of overdose, but that didn¡¯t mean I wanted to see more of that. Especially because I was pretty certain that the girl could have a proper life, if she was able to get out of the shithole she was in. After a quick trip to the shower to clean up, I made my way to the bar to grab a drink. Sitting down at the counter, I checked the time. I would be on the clock in twenty minutes. The others already had jobs, but because of my other duties I usually started a littleter. The bar was still pretty empty, it was still early in the day after all, but I saw a couple familiar faces. Dax came over to me, giving me a warm smile while he finished cleaning one of the sses. ¡°Seraphine, how are you?¡± he asked in his typical, warm voice. ¡°You know how it is, Dax. How¡¯re you doing?¡± I replied and smiled at him. He was one of the few men I had spent some time with outside of work. Not that we were best friends or anything, but we had spent a night or two together before. ¡°I can¡¯tin. The usual before you start?¡± He knew me well, so when I nodded he didn¡¯t take long to ce my favourite drink in front of me. I thanked him and put it back, not caring too much about etiquette right now. ¡°I¡¯ve seen you¡¯ve been busy already. How¡¯s the new guy?¡± ¡°Eh, he¡¯s okay, pretty good with his tongue. Probably will be fully working in a couple days.¡± ¡°Oh? Enjoyed his service?¡± he smirked, knowing full well that I wasn¡¯t above enjoying myself with the new hires. I gave him a wide smile in return, shifting a bit on my stool at the memory of Paul¡¯s tongue ying around myher regions. ¡°Yup.¡± ¡°Gonna train him yourself, or leave that to the others?¡± ¡°Nah, he¡¯s good enough for the others to do that. I¡¯m too busy with clients to spend much time there.¡± I shrugged and motioned to the ss to ask for a refill. Dax of course obliged me, and soon I had another full drink in front of me, ¡°I mean, you are popr. But I guess that makes sense considering how good you are.¡± ¡°Trying to rope me into another night spent together?¡± I asked with a smirk, then put the second drink back. ¡°Nah,¡± he shook his head, ¡°I found myself a potential partner. We are still dancing around it a bit, but I am pretty sure she wants me as much as I want her.¡± ¡°Oh? Now that has me curious,¡± I said with a grin, ¡°Who¡¯d you find?¡± ¡°Nobody you¡¯d know. She¡¯s from the outer edges of the inner city. We met at a club, one thing led to another, and well¡­¡± ¡°Wow, Dax is moving up in the world. Inner city, eh?¡± I snorted, ¡°Don¡¯t forget about us little people in your new mansion.¡± ¡°Hey, you know I wouldn¡¯t!¡± He sounded a bit hurt, ¡°And I doubt I¡¯d move in soon, if at all. Inner city ain¡¯t really my style. Well, a bit early to think that far ahead anyways.¡± We spoke for a bit longer and I had one more drink before I had to start working. By this point I was already pretty hammered, but I knew that both the first two clients would be very much into that. Really not looking forward to getting my asshole destroyed, I made my way up to my room and prepared. By the time I was done with my first three clients my ass was hurting like crazy. As if the first guy hadn¡¯t been enough, the other two also had the funny idea of trying anal. Great. Taking a small break before my next client, I stood outside in the freezing night air, enjoying the feel of the breeze flowing over my skin with a joint in hand. Breaks were a newer addition to our business, courtesy of some Samurai who apparently was very pissed about the ¡®shoddy treatment of working girls¡¯ (Yes, working girls! In this day and age¡­), and so to stop the district being blown to kingdome the gangs relented and added breaks to our schedule. Ten minutes a day. It wasn¡¯t a lot, but I didn¡¯tin. If I was honest with myself, I was really looking forward to myst client for the day. She was cute, not exactly my preferred looks but getting very close to it, and I could already feel myself getting excited. I just hoped that she would be more rxed than the others. Anyways, finishing my break I went inside once more, revelling in the leering looks I got from the clients waiting for their appointment with other joytoys. As I walked past them, I grinned with a bit of a sashay in my step before I made my way upstairs to my room. I had the second room in the eastern hallway, the first vacant at the moment after poor Lena OD¡¯d on some designer drugs brought in by a client. That had been a very hard day to deal with. Lena had been my senior and in charge before me, even if she had basically given me all her responsibilities. Mainly that was to train me up, but also because she really couldn¡¯t be arsed and was much more interested in snorting lines off of guys¡¯ dicks. In a way she had been a lot like me, really liking her job, but where I preferred alcohol and shit like that while I got bent over, Lena was all in on the hard shit. I had kind of known that she would suffer this fate some day, and I don¡¯t think she even minded too much. It had been her life, after all. To my surprise my next client was already there, waiting for me. For a moment I panicked. Did I read the time wrong? No, I still had ten minutes. She also didn¡¯t seem impatient or angry, more¡­ embarrassed? Awkward? Probably her first time visiting a joytoy. With a sweet smile I walked up to her. ¡°Chloe, is it? I am Seraphine, it is such a pleasure to meet you," I said, hugging her tight for a moment, before I took one of her arms and hugged it, pressing it between my breasts. She was tall, nearly two heads taller than me, so I had to look up a bit, but I really didn¡¯t mind. Her furious blush was distracting me too much for that. ¡°I hope I didn¡¯t keep you waiting for too long," I added, before motioning inside my room. ¡°Uh¡­ No, no, not at all. I just¡­ didn¡¯t know where to wait, is all." Her voice was quiet, her gaze locked on my figure. Chloe had the stature of a soldier, never quite rxed. Otherwise she looked like any other girl you would see on the street, although she did have a bit more scanty looking clothes on than would be normal. Nothing scandalous, by far not as revealing as my own dress, but from her thin blouse it was quite evident that she was excited for something. It fit her very well, and I was already looking forward to the evening. Gently dragging her inside, I closed the door and locked it behind me, before turning back to her. ¡°Now then, honey, what can I do for you today? Any ideas on where to go or do you simply want to see what the evening brings?" Finally her eyes snapped up to mine, panic and embarrassment visible in her gaze, ¡°I, uh, sorry, uhm¡­ I honestly¡­ I don¡¯t know.¡± I smiled, she was just too sweet, ¡°No need to be shy, you came here to admire me so feel free to do so," I said with a teasing wink, before I took her hand and led her to the little bar in my room. It was just big enough for two people, and wasn¡¯t a standard fare in other brothels from what I knew. ¡°Would you like a drink to start off the afternoon?" I asked, opening the locked cupboard that contained all the drinks and drugs I had avable. ¡°Sure, I guess that would be nice," she said, and sat down at the bar. I nodded, ¡°Any preferences?" ¡°Not really, no. Just give me whatever.¡± Bingo. She was cute and adorable and I already liked her a lot, but I wasn¡¯t above pulling out the most expensive drink I had to get a few more creds out of her. Pouring us both a ss I put away the bottle before I made my way over to the second barstool. Taking a seat I leaned into her, while offering her one of the sses. ¡°You have never visited a joytoy before, have you?" I asked with a knowing smile. She chuckled, ¡°That obvious, huh," she shook her head, ¡°No, I haven¡¯t. This is the first time. Decided to treat myself since I just got¡­ let¡¯s say promoted, not long ago.¡± ¡°Oh! How exciting!" I said and hugged her from the side, squeezing her a little, pressing my breasts into her side. ¡°A promotion. Might I ask what you do for work?" She chuckled awkwardly, ¡°Uhm¡­ Not to be rude, but I don¡¯t think I want to share that yet. Maybeter.¡± ¡°Oh, I apologise for the question," I said, scowling at myself a bit at that faux pa. ¡°Nah, don¡¯t worry about it. You couldn¡¯t have known. Anyways, yeah, I have zero experience with¡­ all this. Like, I kissed once, but that¡¯s about it.¡± She seemed extremely embarrassed about that statement. ¡°Ah, well, we can change that. Just tell me when you are ready," I said with a purr, and sipped on my drink. Chloe didn¡¯t answer, just took the ss and emptied it with one big gulp. It very much fit the serious way she held herself. ¡°Y¡¯know¡­," she said after a moment, still eyeing the empty ss, ¡°And I do apologise if this is a personal question, but I am curious¡­ How do you do it? Like doing this job. I couldn¡¯t imagine myself being here, even just getting here for an enjoyable evening is¡­ embarrassing.¡± She chuckled a momentter, but didn¡¯t borate. I sighed inwardly. It was a question I got from a lot of women who came to me, the more chatty kind anyway. Most couldn¡¯t fathom what it was to sell your body for money, a lot of them were judgmental about it. Not that they would refrain from happily using my services just like the rest of my clients. ¡°Well, personally I like my job. I get paid to enjoy myself, fool around, have fun, and get drunk on the clock,¡± I shrugged, ¡°It also means I can help the others, who end up here because they have nowhere else to go.¡± ¡°Sure, but like¡­ don¡¯t you ever feel¡­ I dunno¡­ like you¡¯re worth more?" Chloe asked, looking at me, studying me. There was no judgement there, only curiosity, so I bit back on my more rude reply. ¡°Maybe¡­ I don¡¯te from much. Ma and da disowned me when I was still a kid, abandoned me the moment I showed even the slightest reluctance to take over the family business. Went a lot with gangs then, did most of the stuff I do here, just without pay. Nearly no night I wasn¡¯t bent over some bedframe to get fucked, high as a kite, that kind of thing y¡¯know. Mind you, I wasn¡¯t forced to, I always had a high libido, takes very little to get me really heated. When I got old enough this was basically the only thing I could do, since I didn¡¯t want to join the military or some PMC. Not that I don¡¯t want to help people, but it just¡­ The fact that I might need to shoot other people on a daily basis scared me off. Was enough I had to do that in the gangs. Here I can help in other ways. At least the joytoys, I mean.¡± I realised toote that I had gone on for a bit longer than I wanted to, my mind muddled from alcohol and weed, plus some of the more esoteric things that my previous client had me take. It also didn¡¯t help that she made me feel¡­ safe. Just having her next to me kind of reassured me about a lot of things, almost like life wasn¡¯t quite as shit as it used to be. ¡°I see¡­," she said, still looking me up and down, a slight bit embarrassed still, but not as much as before. ¡°I get that feeling, I think. Didn¡¯t have it as bad as this, but we never had much in terms of money, nor did I get to grow up in the nicer parts of town. My family helped me, and I helped them, our neighbourhood was a close knit group. Did some gang work, although mostly to keep the cesafe, then joined the military. Only recently got out, to¡­ pursue other venues," she added at the end, clearly keeping something from me, not that I minded. ¡°Sorry, I came here to enjoy myself, and now I start asking questions about your personal life and bore you with my life story," sheughed awkwardly. ¡°Oh no, don¡¯t apologise. I am here to help you rx and have a good time, and sometimes that means more than just to sleep with the client. There was a time, before I became a joytoy, where that was actually a big part of the reason people came here. Have a chat with someone that wouldn¡¯t judge them, before you got to have fun. Clear your mind, then rx. I¡­ I¡¯m kind of sad I didn¡¯t get to experience that time. These days I open the door and the first order is ¡®on your knees¡¯. I love it, true, but it could be more, y¡¯know?" ¡°I guess. Mind if I have another drink? Whatever you just got us, it¡¯s good," she asked, pushing her ss over to me. I smiled and nodded, getting up to pour her another drink. ¡°Maybe something¡­ less exquisite? That one is expensive. Don¡¯t want you to end up with too bad a surprise.¡± I didn¡¯t know why I asked, normally I kept that to myself and just poured drink after drink to earn more money. Something about her though¡­ I couldn¡¯t quite put my finger on it, but something deep down wanted to show her some courtesy. ¡°Nah, it¡¯s fine. I didn¡¯te from money but in recent history my life changed quite a lot. Unless you charge like a mil I don¡¯t need to worry," she said with augh, ¡°Still sounds fucking stupid to say that.¡± I chuckled dutifully, although it did make me question why she was here if she had that kind of money. Lots of high profile brothels in other parts of town. With another drink poured I set it down in front of her, then put the bottle away and pulled out another joint, ¡°Want one?" I asked, but she shook her head. With a shrug I lit it and took a deep pull. There was a moment of silence before she spoke again. ¡°So¡­ I didn¡¯t know what to expect, so I booked double, any ideas how we could¡­ enjoy that time?" Her adorable blush was back and I smiled at the sight. ¡°I have lots and lots of ways. Do you want to keep it vani or are you open to experimentation? I have an entire wardrobe full of fun toys to try out if you want.¡± That had her gulping. ¡°I, uh¡­ I guess, vani at first, but¡­ I guess I am not too averse to experimentation?" I smiled, took another deep pull of the joint, then came back around the bar again, sitting down on herp. ¡°Well then¡­," I said quietly, my voice husky, ¡°How about¡­ we start¡­ here," I said, my free hand starting to roam her stomach, while I leaned in closer to her. She said she didn¡¯t have experience, so I decided to take it slow and give her the opportunity to ept my offer of a kiss, instead of going for it myself. She seemed like she needed a bit of agency. Our lips met, making my heart skip a bit, before starting to beat faster. I could feel the heat in my abdomen, the familiar feeling of rising excitement. At first I kept it chaste, only giving her pecks, before eventually I started to slowly introduce my tongue to our little game. She epted it, soon answering my approach with the same fervour. One of her hands came up to mine, slowly pulling it closer to her chest. But before I could start to enjoy it, undoing her blouse, the lights in my room flickered, the rm started sting full force, and a text appeared in my vision, big aggressive letters blinking at me in red.
INCURSION DETECTED!
¡°Fuck!¡±
I have a Discord! Chapter 2 – A beginners guide to drunk alien fighting Chapter 2 ¨C A beginners guide to drunk alien fighting ¡°Despite the changes society underwent in thest couple decades, and the open appreciation for naked flesh and sexual content, sex workers are often still faced with a lot of negative bias. Yet, for all the hate the general public throws at them, a majority of people still ask for their services. It is a strange line of work to work in.¡± - Joytoys and Dolls, issue 27, 2050 Before I could even finish my cursing into her delicious lips, Chloe¡¯s eyes shot open and she jumped from her seat. I yelped and she only barely caught me before I fell to the ground, ¡°Shit! Sorry!¡± Her eyes went around the room, then to the door. Moving quickly she rushed over, all previous sexual tension forgotten. Unlocking it she quickly looked around outside. I tried to calm myself down, but that wasn¡¯t easy. My mind was muddled from all the shit I had taken today, my privates still glistening with the distracting excitement I still felt. I was just thinking about how to best keep my joytoys and their clients safe, when she interrupted me. ¡°Do you have weapons here?" Her tone made it clear she wasn¡¯t fussing about. It took me a second to even parse the question, too focused on trying to clear my mind and thinking of safe spaces. ¡°Uh¡­ what? Oh! No, much too risky!¡± ¡°Can you shoot?" she asked next, still watching the outside. ¡°Uh, I guess? I mean¡­¡± I shook my head, ¡°I did use guns before. Not sure I should right now though, I¡¯m pretty hammered.¡± ¡°Well, you have to,¡± she muttered, then closed the door. Walking over to me she mumbled something, before¡­ before something just popped into existence in her hand. It took me a moment to realise I wasn¡¯t tripping. When she arrived in front of me she held out a boxy looking gun. I looked at the thing, too stunned to react. ¡°You¡­ you¡¯re a Samurai?!¡± I slurred, not quite believing my own words. ¡°No sense to hide it any longer, is there,¡± she grumbled, ¡°Now take it. Point it at any aliens you see.¡± I shook myself, this wasn¡¯t the time to space out. Inwardly I cursed myself for drinking so much today, and for allowing the previous client to hit me with a double dose of catnip. Nothing for it now though. Taking the gun carefully, I looked it over. It was a simple thing, a boxy barrel, a simple grip, and a trigger. There was a line of text printed on the side of the barrel ¡®Point this way at alien ->¡¯plete with a small arrow denoting the direction. While I inspected my own new weapon, still trying toe to terms with my new reality, Chloe had manifested another pistol. This one was big, easily the size of my forearm. The design was sleek, dark greens with golden lines, and from the size of the barrel alone it could fire quite big bullets. I wasn¡¯t a gun nut, but that thing looked very impressive. Her voice ripped me out of my jumbled thoughts, ¡°I need to clear a way to the shelter. There are some others that are in direct danger, you should hopefully be quite safe here. Can you keep your coworkers safe?¡± While she spoke she was already turning back to the door, but she did give me a nce when she finished. ¡°Uhm¡­ I, uh¡­ I can give it a try? I hope I don¡¯t hit anyone¡­¡± I muttered. ¡°That thing won¡¯t fire unless it has locked on to an alien. Just make sure to connect it to your augs and put the red reticule over the alien fucks.¡± With that she walked back to the door, not allowing any more questions. Doing as I was told I tried to connect them to my subpar augs. It took some doing, my augs working overtime just to get them to even realise there was a connection open. The cheap processor was nearly dying its own little heat death before finally I got a pop up and a red circle appeared wherever I pointed the gun. Once done I looked up, but Chloe was already out of the room. With stumbling steps I made to follow her, but stopped halfway past the wardrobe. I didn¡¯t have weapons here, that was true, but some of the sex toys would undoubtedly double as such with sufficient force. Opening the door to the massive thing I started going through all the shelves, cupboards, and drawers, until finally I found what I was looking for. Not everything in there was precisely meant to be used, some of the the shit we hadying around was more to use in roleying. Much as the giant dildo I now pulled out. For some reason I would probably never understand, a lot of people had some fascination with girls taking huge horse dicks, which of course ended up with us having a couple of therger models avable. This was thergest I had, easily the length of my thighs, and as thick around as my arm. And, most importantly, made out of metal. It would make for quite the potent club, even if holding it was a bit iffy. I probably looked ridiculous, alien gun in one hand, giant dildo in another, while I was dressed in not much more than a piece of fabric covering me. Ignoring that thought and now fully equipped I made way over to the door and looked outside. ¡°Hey! Anyone in here, get to the second room on the left side. Gather there and once I clear a way to the shelter I¡¯ll pick you up. Chop chop people, get your asses moving if you don¡¯t want to end as alien chow!¡± Chloe was standing in the middle of the hallway, visible for all to see, and in the process of putting on some rather impressive, if default looking, armor. Next to her, a cheap looking stic box sat on the ground. From my vantage I could see heads poking out of nearly all of the doors, panic and anxiety written all over their faces. For most though that changed when they saw Chloe, obviously a Samurai considering the gear she had. While I did a head count I met first Tina¡¯s and then Sharon¡¯s eyes. Tina looked panicked, probably utterly terrified. She didn¡¯t handle emergencies well in the best of cases, and this was by far not one of those best case scenarios. She definitely was someone I had to keep an eye on, even if we found a safe ce to stay. Sharon looked¡­ barely even fully aware of what was going on. From the look in her eyes she was tripping hard and didn¡¯t reallyprehend the situation. Another person to keep an eye on, though in her case that was mostly to make sure she didn¡¯t get lost. A good chunk of the other joytoys I saw looked simrly panicked and/or slow on the uptake. Their clients not so much, luckily. ¡°Move your fucking asses, we ain¡¯t got all day!¡± I snapped, when it was clear that they weren¡¯t moving on their own. Like a switch had been thrown there was motion, stumbling stepsing towards my room. I stepped outside and opened the door wide, letting them all enter. Some were giving me weird looks but I just ignored it and pushed them into the room. Right now wasn¡¯t the moment to admire my gorgeous body, or the weird shit I had with me. Once everyone was inside, the room was¡­ stuffed. There barely was enough space for everyone, which meant that a lot of people were standing very close to each other. It didn¡¯t help that most of them had absolutely nothing on. I was just about to enter myself when Chloe stepped up to me, giving me a once over. ¡°I¡¯ll try to be quick. Are you sure you can keep them safe?¡± There was a definite tone of worry in her voice, and she looked at the big mass of naked bodies inside with a bit of confliction in her eyes. I just shrugged, trying my best to smile but failing horribly, ¡°I mean, I have to try, right?¡± She nodded, ¡°It¡¯ll have to do. Be careful,¡± Before I had time for any morements, she took off at a dead sprint. Not wanting to stay outside a moment longer I quickly stepped into the room. Closing the flimsy door I locked it. It really wasn¡¯t meant to deter someone sufficiently motivated, but it was all we had avable to us. For good measure, even though it probably wouldn¡¯t do a fucking thing, I pushed the small scratched up sidetable in front of it. Then I waited. Behind me the group was mostly quiet. I could hear some whispered muttering, some surprised yelps and moans when some of the clients tried to continue their fun despite the situation, which had to be the dumbest fucking thing I could think off. ¡°Cut it the fuck out!¡± I hissed, ¡°Anyone trying to fuck in here I¡¯ll personally throw out and then you can exin to the aliens that you couldn¡¯t fucking keep it in your pants!¡± That luckily did the trick, although some still had a rather husky breath. I tuned it out, desperately trying to keep my mind clear from the cocktail of bullshit still flowing through me. Right now I was the only thing standing between them and any aliens who might show up. That thought had me weak in the knees, nearly copsing from the dread I felt, but I pushed on, chastising myself that I had to be the adult here! I was responsible for these people! God, I wished Chloe was still here¡­ Minutes went by in silence. There was no other sound other than four dozen or so people breathing heavily behind me. Then a bang and my heart nearly stopped. I swallowed the lump that was forming in my throat, and held up my gun with a shaking hand. ¡°H¡­ Hey? C-Chloe?¡± I asked, voice shivering and nearly failing from the panic slowly threatening to overwhelm me. No answer. Then another bang. I swallowed. These doors weren¡¯t thick enough to keep sounds out, they barely did enough to keep people out! This wasn¡¯t some high tech building made with the newest construction methods, it was a downtrodden wreck from like two decades ago that had never seen a single day of proper maintenance in its life! And there was only one thing that wouldn¡¯t answer: antithesis. Involuntarily I took a step back, running into Sharon who stood behind me, squishing her soft breasts with my back. I probably would have enjoyed that, if I hadn¡¯t been busy nearly shitting my non-existent panties. Murmurs of panic started to pick up. Then another bang, then another. My heart was racing fast enough for me to start hyperventting as I desperately tried to keep my hands steady. Then the door burst open. Two figures forced their way inside. Dark green and around the size of arge dog, strange jaws that were split three-ways. There was no doubt what the fuck was looking at me: Model Threes. I didn¡¯t even think, utterly unable to form any coherent thoughts, panic overwhelmed my drug addled mind, I simply pointed the gun and pulled the trigger. To my surprise there was no gunshot, instead a long whoooosh rang out and four lines appeared in the air, connecting the end of my gun with the head of the model Three that had just broken through. Before it could do much else dull explosions rang out and it slumped, four smoking holes decorating its ruined skull. I took a deep breath, but I didn¡¯t have time to rx, the second one was nearly through as well. So I pointed at it, shaking like a Daemon addict on a week long withdrawal. Finally the red circle locked on and I pulled the trigger again. Another whoooosh rang out and the second model Three died a momentter, just as it had fully breached the now ruined door. I just stared at the two dead xenos, unable to move,pletely frozen in ce. My heart was hammering fast enough to nearly escape my chest, nearly deafening me. Then someone shook me. I nearly jumped, then blinked, trying to focus on reality again. It took a couple moments before I realised what was going on. Turning I found Sharon looking down at me, panic and worry in her ssy gaze. Right, I had a job to do. Focus, Seraphine! Shaking my head again I tried to think. This room was no use. The other doors weren¡¯t sturdier, but it was better than to have a hole in one. ¡°H-Help me move the door,¡± I stuttered, trying to sound brave and unbothered, but failing utterly. Nobody moved, and I looked at them. ¡°Fucking move!¡± I almost yelled, before I turned to the door again and started to push the sidetable aside, cursing myself all the while for being so stupid as to block our only exit. Finally a couple of people came over and helped me, some even taking one of the chairs and pushing the corpses of the aliens aside. Corpses that were bleeding green alien goo all over the cheap carpet, finally ruining it. Not that it had been clean before, I actually didn¡¯t want to know how many bodily fluids were trapped in that thing, despite routine cleanings. When we finally had the way cleared I opened the door slightly and looked outside. I still didn¡¯t like the idea of going outside, but we didn¡¯t have much in terms of options, not really. Psyching myself up I took a deep breath, then fully opened the door and stepped outside. ¡°Now move, quick! Into the next room!¡± I hissed, holding out my gun in a shaky hand, while the other held the dildo next to me. I tried to suppress my trembling, but I didn¡¯t think I was fooling anyone. The group had just left our old hiding spot and was halfway into the new room when I heard noise. A distinct scratching of something sharp on the metal floor. And it sounded like there were a lot. Ignoring the panic spiking in me again, it couldn¡¯t get any worse anyways, I raised the gun and pointed it at the corner of the hallways. A couple momentster another model Three came around the corner and I immediately pulled the trigger. It died before it had even fullye around, but the shot had alerted the other xenosing after it. My heart nearly stopped when one of them came sprinting around the corner, making me take a step back. Panicked cries rang out behind me as the group started rushing, stomping quickly over to the room. I pulled the trigger again, then again when the next one came running, not stopping until I couldn¡¯t hear any more aliens around the corner. Five alien corpsesy between me and the corner of the hallways, all in various states of fucked up, and all bleeding their weird goo all over the metallic ground. Looking at the carnage in front of me I gulped, breathing heavily. My entire body trembled and I had issues keeping my footing. I wouldn¡¯t have thought I would survive seeing one of those fucking aliens, yet here I was, having killed seven! The world was blurry, my blood pumping the cocktail of drugs through my body at speed. I tried to ignore it, but it was getting harder by the minute. Focus, Seraphine, focus! You need to keep your senses- I was interrupted by another sound, this one different than before. This wasn¡¯t ws scratching over metal, it sounded more like some strange sloshing. Just as I was trying to figure out what the fuck that could possibly be something came shooting around the corner at blinding speeds. I tried to step back, but lost my footing from my heels, crashing to the ground. That ident saved my life as two tentacles pierced through the space I had been a moment before. Desperately fumbling my gun I pointed it into the direction over whatever bullshit alien had just tried to spear me and pulled the trigger again and again. Twice my gun spit its weird bullets, before the sloshing sound ended and everything returned to silence for a moment. I was just about to curse my luck and get up when I heard more scratching, this time significantly quicker. Scrambling to my feet I got up just in time to see another two model Threesing around the bend. I raised the gun and pulled the trigger. A long whoooshter the first one crashed to the ground, skitting across the floor as it died. When I aimed at the second one and pulled the trigger though, nothing happened and the gun clicked empty. Eyes widening in a sudden spike of panic, I threw myself to the side before it could get to me. Inded hard, pain shooting through my entire body, but I ignored it, thankful in this instance about the cocktail of narcotics in my system, as they dulled the pain sufficiently for me to keep moving. I got onto my feet, although just barely, and for once in this entire situation I moved first. The second model Three had just crashed into the wall behind me and was shaking off the daze, ready to turn around and mulch me no doubt. I didn¡¯t let it, throwing my gun away and gripping the dildo with both hands. With a panicked and much less impressive battlecry I threw myself at the model Three, dildo raised high and smashing into it once, twice, thrice, four times, five times, again and again until my arms were screaming at me. I stood over the dead model Three, its head turned into a ruined mess, goo still dripping down my dildo. My breath was heavy, my heart rate still racing a mile a minute. I had done it. I had fucking killed the fucker. Standing there I didn¡¯t dream to hope. I was just waiting for the next alien to show up and kill me now that I no longer had the miracle pistol with me. Instead I was broken out of my whirling thoughts by a voice. System initialised! Splendid work. Through your deeds you have proven yourself worthy of bing one of the Vanguard, a protector of humanity! I am Kaysa, your personal assistant AI, and I am here to assist you in fending off the antithesis. Rise, Seraphine Bloodfallen, and be a protector of the weak!
I have a Discord! Chapter 3 – Newly minted Chapter 3 ¨C Newly minted ¡°The exact criteria by which the Protectors select new Vanguard are not known, although they have been quite open about the fact that they are looking for individuals who would protect others even to the detriment of themselves, and those that are not likely to be corrupted by the power they gain. There have been some attempts to trick the system, the most well known was by XetaCorp Inc., a corporation that tried to force some of their employees to be Samurai by throwing them into life threatening situations during active incursions. It cost hundreds of employee¡¯s their life and when they finally did produce an active Samurai, she just went ahead and utterly obliterated the corporation she formerly worked for. To this day the bodies of multiple executives are still extant. Understandably any more such attempts have since then been dered useless.¡± - ¡°The Samurai and YOU! A corporation''s handbook for handling the gods of today''s world¡±, 2048 The voice was¡­ strange. It was female, yes, but it sounded slightly detached. It was pleasant to listen to, but most certainly not a normal human voice. For a moment I was just dumbfounded, before I even noticed it had addressed me. By name. ¡°What?¡± It wasn¡¯t the most coherent question, but I also wasn¡¯t in my most coherent state of mind at just that moment. You are now a Vanguard. That means you can earn points by defeating antithesis and saving humanity. You can use those points to acquire better tools to better fight off the adversary. Speaking about points. Targets eliminated! Reward: 105 New total: 205 In that moment, I wasn¡¯t quite sure if I was still awake or already passed out and dreaming. I blinked, trying to push past the haze of exhaustion and drunken stupor. There wasn¡¯t anyone who didn¡¯t know of the Vanguard, or Samurai as they were normally called. All powerful people who had been chosen by some weird alien race to protect humanity against the antithesis threat, capable of getting vastly powerful alien bullshit tech from killing the invaders. There was no way in the universe that I was one of them. ¡°You¡¯re fucking with me, aren¡¯t you?¡± I asked, looking around and trying to find whomever was trying to prank me. ¡°Right now is not the fucking time for pranks.¡± I found¡­ nothing. The others had long since closed the door and probably locked it. I am not. Nor is this a prank. I realise that you are under quite the heavy influence of a number of narcotics, but please at least try to focus on reality. ¡°But I¡¯m a fucking whore!¡± I protested, still trying to figure out if I wasn¡¯t tripping my tits off after all the excitement. That you are, but that doesn¡¯t mean you can¡¯t also be a Vanguard. Your upation doesn¡¯t matter to us. Not that there is anything wrong with being a sex worker. I shook my head, finally lowering my dildo and using one hand to rub my face, ¡°I¡¯m not tripping, am I?¡± I muttered, not believing the wordsing out of my own mouth. You are not hallucinating, no. It is quite fortunate that you are high functioning under the influence, otherwise chances are good that you would be dead already. Might I suggest not taking any drugs? Or at least, not this many different ones at the same time? Your internals will thank you for it. I snorted, then chuckled, before breaking out in full onughter. This was surreal, utterly surreal. Then again, it didn¡¯t matter really. Either I was a Samurai and I would be able to buy my way out of this situation, or I¡¯d be mauled by aliens for trying to use imaginary weapons against them. ¡°Well, nothing for it¡±, I mumbled, ¡°if I really am a Samurai, what should I do? There¡¯s a room full of people I need to protect and Chloe is still not here.¡± Vanguard Chloe is currently cleaning out thest group of antithesis between this brothel and the shelter. She should be arriving here shortly. I advise that you obtain some weaponry and make your way into her direction. Weapons, yeah¡­ Samurai could just get them out of nowhere, right? This entire thing was utterly ridiculous, but then again, if it saved my life then I¡¯d roll with it. And, if I was honest with myself, some small part of my mind was insanely giddy about this new development. ¡°Yeah, I need weapons¡­ Not sure what I should go with though. I mean, I guess most new Samurai start with guns?¡± The door to the room with all the people inside opened a bit and someone poked their head out, looking around. It took me a moment before I recognised Tina, who looked at me wide eyed. ¡°Are you okay? We heard youughing¡­¡± I snorted, ¡°I¡¯m doing fucking fantastic,¡± I said with enough slurring to make it hard to even parse, ¡°Just stay inside for a moment, okay? Need to¡­ figure shit out¡­¡± I sighed, rubbing my face again. ¡°Kaysa, do you have something for this fucking trip I¡¯m on? Thinking is¡­ hard¡­¡± Of course. Let us start with ss I Medical Utilities, a versatile catalogue focused on medical equipment. On that catalogue we have Cleanse, a nanite infused neuro-agent that will clean your system from most of the harmful effects. It can even cure substance addictions. The catalogue and the Cleanse will cost a total of 55 points. ¡°Fuck it, I¡¯ll take it. As long as it makes my headache go away.¡± ss I Medical Utilities unlocked! Points reduced to: 155 New purchase: Cleanse! Points reduced to: 150 A small box appeared on the ground in front of me. It was made out of those cheap stics that new shit always came in, off white with purple decorations. Printed on top of it, written in sensual cursive letters, was the word ¡®Cleanse¡¯ next to a nearly naked Image of a woman looking suspiciously like me, but with long fluffy fox-like ears and a long bushy foxtail. She held up a small sign, covering her chest, with the image of a medical cross on it and smiled seductively at me. A gasp came from behind me when it appeared, but I ignored it. Inspecting it for a moment I poked it with my goo-covered boots. It felt real. Bending down and probably giving Tina a perfect view of myher regions I picked it up and held it in my hands for a moment, before I opened it. Inside was a small pillying on what I would call some velvet cushion. Simply swallow the pill and soon your narcotic rted issues should subside. Shrugging I did as I was told and swallowed the pill. The effect was almost instantaneous and I stumbled for a couple of steps as the world stopped being all blurry and wobbly. I blinked a couple of times, trying to get used to¡­ suddenly being sober again. My headache was gone and my thoughts were as sharp as they could be. I didn¡¯t even feel the familiar urge to find myself another beer. ¡°Wow¡­¡± I muttered, then flexed my hands, ¡°So I wasn¡¯t tripping.¡± d that you finally believe me. Kaysa sounded snippy, which made me snort. She seemed to have a sense of humour which I appreciated. ¡°Seraphine?¡± When I turned around I saw Tina, Sharon, and a couple of others all staring at me with wide eyes. I stared back, ¡°Uhm¡­ Stay in the room? I¡¯m currently working on figuring shit out.¡± They nodded immediately and closed the door. I blinked, then decided not to care about that right now. With a shake of my head I tried to focus. ¡°Okay, weapons. I really don¡¯t know what to get, truth be told. Like, I can use guns, but I don¡¯t think they¡¯d be my best option. I need something to keep these guys safe.¡± I was still feeling like a bit of an idiot for talking to myself like that, but hells, wasn¡¯t the strangest thing I¡¯ve done in my life. There are many ways to keep people safe. The most effective would of course be to make sure that any antithesis that tries to harm them dies before it gets the chance. But, if you are not confident in your own ability to do that, there are other options. Considering your profile and the preference for fashion, I would rmend Hard-Light emitters. In effect they project different Hard-Light constructs from des, to bullets, to shields. They are quite versatile in terms of use case, especially the higher sses, although the earlier ss catalogues focus more on single purpose equipment. They can be hidden quite easily on your person, while supplying both sufficient offensive and defensive capabilities to deal with most lesser antithesis threats. I thought about it, it did sound very useful. I¡¯ve never heard of Hard-Light before, although considering the name I was pretty sure I¡¯ve seen some Samurai use shit like that on the feeds before. ¡°Aha. Sounds good. What other options do I have?¡± The most obvious option is of course small firearms. But if we stick to your preferences you might also be interested in Nanite Swarms. They are quite expensive upfront, but can deliver quite a bit of utility if used correctly. From healing, to melting antithesis flesh, to repairing broken equipment, and eating antithesis hive biology, there is hardly a situation that they can¡¯t have some use in. Their main drawback is a longer time to deploy, but in exchange they can stick around longer than your typical weapons can. ¡°Hm, doesn¡¯t sound exactly like the kind of thing I need right now, although it is nice to know for the future. Is there something that could like, fight for me, or something?¡± Of course. Although in that case you should probably know that in most cases there are some drawbacks to drones in general. Depending on the degree of separation any antithesis kill made will earn you less or maybe even no points. On top of that, most drone cataloguese with a bigger upfront cost, to offset the long term usability. But, of course, most drone catalogues offer quite some versatility and a sufficientlyrge drone swarm can cover quite the big area. ¡°I like the idea of that, but I don¡¯t think it would be useful for me right now.¡± Indeed. But I do have some ideas for that, should youter n to return to the topic at hand. ¡°Okay, what are those options? If they¡¯re worthwhile, I know what to work towards.¡± If you want to n for the future I would like to rmend two catalogues to you that are immediately connected to the choices discussed so far. First we have the ss I Mythical Kitsune Catalogue. As the name implies it focuses on different mythological depictions of the Fox-like Kitsune and offers a lot of utility which would work well with both Hard-Light technologies and Nanite Swarms. In addition it has arge focus on aesthetically pleasing armor and clothing, and different forms of body modifications, such as cybeics and gene editing. While it can supply a good baseline for both of these body modification methods, it is best used in conjunction with more specialised options. Secondly we have the ss I Hexw Swarm Intelligence Catalogue, which as the name implies is based on the Hexw Swarm Intelligence. It offers a lot of self-replicating drones with a big focus of adaptability, tailor made to fight off antithesis, but with limited utility. It works well in conjunction with the ss I Mythical Kitsune Catalogue, as it also offers much deeper gene editing options. One important thing to note about this catalogue is that it works slightly differently from most other drone catalogues. Most of the lower ss models are surprisingly resilient for their cost and don¡¯t suffer the same power curve most other drones do, as they can grow and adapt with you. In effect that means that, should you put in sufficient effort, biomass, and materials, even the cheapest drone you get at the very beginning, will be able to keep up with you in terms of destructive force. ¡°Damn. Both of those sound awesome. And you said they work well with the Hard-Light stuff?¡± I asked. I didn¡¯t want to rush a decision here, but I also didn¡¯t really have a lot of time to think about all the options I had avable. And from the sound of it this sounded like something I would want to pursue in the future. Indeed. Would you like rmendations for Hard-Light weaponry? ¡°Yes. They sound useful and I can¡¯t daddle around forever.¡± Very well. From the ss I Hard-Light Technologies Catalogue the Mark II General Hard-Light Emitter. It can project both a de for close quartersbat, as well as a ranged projectile. It can also project a basic shield capable of holding off lower tier antithesis. Together with the catalogue it would cost you 130 points. ¡°Sounds good, I¡¯ll take it.¡± ss I Hard-Light Technology unlocked! Points reduced to: 50 New purchase: Mark II General Hard-Light Emitter (Variant D)! Points reduced to: 20 At my feet another stic box appeared, this time with ¡®General Hard-Light Emitter¡¯ written on the lid. The icon the Fox-woman was holding up to cover her naked chest was also different, although I wouldn¡¯t for the life of me know how to describe it. Picking the box I opened it, finding the same velvet cushion, although instead of a pill I found a rather delicate looking bracelet. It was made of a silvery metal and had purple metallic ents, which made it look quite expensive. Put it on and it will automatically connect to your augments. To activate it simply navigate the menu or use the phrases ¡®de¡¯, ¡®Bullet¡¯, or ¡®Shield¡¯. Of course, should you prefer, I can also activate it. To properly use it, point your outstretched arm into the direction you want the Hard-Light projection to go. Once the activation phrase is used the device will do the rest. ¡°Sounds simple enough,¡± I said and put it on, fastening it around my right wrist. Once it was on it shifted, then settled firmly and pleasantly around my wrist. Flexing my hand I couldn¡¯t feel any difort. ¡°Well, then let¡¯s see¡­ de.¡± I extended my arm and the moment I spoke the activation phrase a long, purple-ish and half-transparent de appeared in front of me. When I moved my arm it followed the motion, perfectly retaining its position rtive to my wrist. I nodded and myself, then had the de vanish with a quick application of my augs. The emitter will need to recharge after some time, although in case of emergency there are recement batteries avable for a small point cost. I nodded again, then turned to the corner leading out of the hallway. The hallway itself was soaked in alien goo at this point, not that it mattered too much. We wouldn¡¯t be staying for much longer anyway. Taking a deep breath I tried to center myself. ¡°Well¡­ I guess it¡¯s time to move,¡± I said then made my way over to the corner and carefully peaked around it. I couldn¡¯t see any more xenos from my position, but that didn¡¯t mean there weren¡¯t any. ¡°Any word on Chloe? Is she okay?¡± I whispered barely loud enough for myself to hear. Vanguard Chloe is fine. She is currently on her way back to the brothel, although I would advise you to move ahead to try and meet her on the way. There is no telling when more antithesis show up to surprise you. That did make sense and it also meant I could group up with Chloe faster. Taking another nce I nodded, before I turned back down the hallways. Walking as quietly as I could on my heels I moved over to the door, then knocking quietly. Not waiting for an answer I opened it and immediately found myself face to face with Tina and Sharon, while quiet whispers rang through the group inside. Both of my roommates stared at me with wide eyes, even Sharon looked like she was finally back in reality again. ¡°You¡¯re a Samurai?!¡± Tina whispered quietly, looking at me like I was some kind of knight in shining armor. I shrugged, ¡°Guess so. Now, enough questions, we need to move. I hope that we can find Chloe before anything goes to the shitter and I don¡¯t want to wait here for more xenos to show up.¡± The whole hero worship was nice and all, but right now really not what we needed. ¡°Uhm¡­¡± someone asked from behind Tina, looking at me with equally wide eyes, ¡°Is there like¡­ any way we can at least get underwear?¡± I blinked at him, then realised they were still naked. I wanted to say no, but I also knew that unless they had at least something on, most of them would probably baulk at going outside. And I really didn¡¯t want to deal with that shit. ¡°You have five minutes. Any more and I¡¯ll leave you behind, now move.¡± With that I fully opened the door and allowed them outside. Immediately everyone started to file out and went over to their rooms, while I walked back over to the corner to stand guard. Thest thing I needed was for an alien toe around when everyone was busy putting their pants back on. To my great surprise everyone was ready within the five minutes I had given them. True, most of them were only half-dressed and had instead grabbed their most important belongings, but that was fine by me. Waving them to be quiet and to follow me I slowly led them around the corner, arm raised with my emitter at the ready, the word ¡®Bullet¡¯ just waiting on my lips. It didn¡¯t take long to arrive at the second crossway, this one leading to the stairs down below, as well as to the second hallway parallel to our own. I motioned the group to wait, before I slowly and quietly made my way over to the second hallway and peered around the corner. From the open doors and silence I could hear I was pretty sure everyone there had already left. I frowned, sending a silent prayer to whatever alien overlord was watching this that they had made it safely to the shelter. But of course Murphy, the bastard, was listening for just these wishes so he cane in and give you the shaft. The stairs led to the main lobby, with an identical set of stairs on the other side of the big room. The lobby was two floors tall, although without any actual floor on the second floor. Instead it was a big area decorated sensually with lots of flowers that did little to brighten the room, big holographic paintings of scantily d men and women performing various sexual services, and of course the hallway at the back leading to the bar. The main problem was that the entire floor was littered with the corpses of at least three dozen people, some of which I recognised. I froze, eyes wide, at the sight. I was no stranger to death. Hell, I¡¯ve seen my fair share of shit in the gangs, and I¡¯ve also woken up to my bed partner having OD¡¯d before. But this was a whole new level of gruesome. Multiple aliens were strutting about the bleeding and shredded corpses of clients and joytoys. I even saw Dax, dead eyes gazing into the distance, with his throat being turned into a red mulch. Closing my eyes I tried to calm myself down. I had to remain calm. I was a Samurai now and I could deal with this. Opening my eyes again I checked the area thoroughly, trying to spot any of the aliens about. I could see six model Threes, most on the opposite side of the hall. Towards the entrance were two small bird thingies, simrly alien looking. And I even spotted one of those tentacle things climbing up one of the pirs that served as decoration, before it hid behind it on one of the outcroppings. Luckily I had seen it climb up, no way I could have spotted it without knowing it was there. That is a model Four. They are often used as ambush predators, but are also found even quitete into any incursion. It has quite the potent neurotoxin in quills behind its neck, but the most dangerous weapon to you are its tentacles. Nodding I raised my arm and pointed it at the model Four, carefully stabilising it with my other hand. ¡°Bullet,¡± I whispered and shot a projectile directly at it. I didn¡¯t know if it was beginner''s luck or skill, but I hit it dead center and killed it instantly. Of course that meant it did fall back down again with a loud and disgusting sounding st, which immediately alerted all the xenos in the area. Not wanting to waste any time I pointed to one of the closer Threes and repeated my whisper, hitting it straight in the head and killing it before it had a chance. The next bullet also killed its target, although this time it was a bit close. The problem was that by now the aliens had figured out where I was shooting from and immediately they started to make their way over. Sharp ws scraped across the blood stained floor. With one quick motion I tried to hit the two bird thingies that had just taken off. The first projectile hit, clipping the head of the thing and having it fall and crash, dead, but the other one was too quick. I couldn¡¯t worry about that though, the remaining four Threes were on their way over to me. Firing my projectiles as quickly as I could I managed to kill two, but thest two were too close tofort. ¡°Shield!¡± I said and raised my hand to the one Three that was already halfway up the stairs. With a strange crunching sound it crashed straight into a wall made of purple Hard-Light. ¡°Bullet!¡± I said, still aiming at the same Three that had just crashed. The projectile formed and flew off, only to crash into the Hard-Light shield, shattering it. It did still kill the Three, which was good. I didn¡¯t have time to think about how I could have done that one better, thest Three was almost upon me, and I stepped back, ¡°de!¡± A crescent shimmer made of purple Hard-Light followed my panicked swing of my fist and cleanly split the Three in two, raining alien goo down on me while the corpse crashed into the ground, stopping right in front of me. I took a sharp breath, then checked around for thest bird. I found it on its way to me and swung again, splitting it in two in such a way that both parts flew past my sides and crashed into the wall behind me. I stood there, breathing heavily, trying to calm my racing heart, then I heard Kaysa¡¯s voice. Well done. You are getting better at eliminating the adversary. Targets eliminated! Reward: 87 points Point total: 107 points All the xenos I had seen so far were dead, but I still kept my guard up. After a couple of moments with no more activity I rxed slightly, then looked over to the group who were all looking at me with panic. ¡°Let¡¯s go¡­¡± I didn¡¯t have problems with death, well, not major problems anyway, but the same couldn¡¯t be said about the people behind me. Quite a lot of them seemed shell shocked, some vomited, some nearly passed out. I kept my guard up the entire way outside, but made sure we moved fast to get them out as quickly as possible. Once on the street I checked around, not seeing any immediate threats, although in the distance I could see strange flocks flying around. The streets were¡­ a mess. More so than usual I mean. Half dpidated buildings, barely functioning cars, dirty roads, and utterly broken asphalt, that much was normal. But now there were signs of alien everywhere. Luckily though this area didn¡¯t seem too bad. Not wanting to waste more time I turned towards the direction the shelter was in and started to walk, motioning the group behind me to follow. Just when we were halfway to the corner we had to take, I heard steps and immediately raised my hand. My worries were unfounded though, as a momentter Chloe came running around the corner, weapon at the ready, eyes immediately locked onto me. WIth a big sigh of relief I dropped my arm, then copsed to my knees, a tension I hadn¡¯t even realised I had felt vanishing from my limbs. ¡°Thank fucking god¡­¡±
Originally I didn''t n to post until next Wednesday, buuuuut... You lot seem to enjoy it and I have enough of a backlog that I feel like I can give you some more. Over the course of today I will release all the way to chapter 5, then switch back to our regrly scheduled program for next week. Oh, and I will also change the release from Wednesday and Friday to Tuesday and Friday, just to spread it out a bit more evenly. Thanks for reading! <3 I have a Discord! Chapter 4 – Sight seeing Samurai Style Chapter 4 ¨C Sight seeing Samurai Style ¡°With the advent of alien incursions, the deterioration of the climate, and the rise of megacorporations and 80 hour work weeks, the tourism market suffered greatly. Most people could not afford to make even short day trips, so most amusement parks and entertainment establishments shut down. These days the entertainment industry almost exclusively focuses on catering to the rich and powerful.¡± - ¡°A History of the Amusement Park¡±, written by Jeremy Parker, 2036 ¡°Are you okay?¡± Chloe asked as she stopped a pace away from me, getting to her knees to check me over. ¡°I¡¯ll live,¡± I muttered, then rubbed my face before I looked at her, ¡°You have no idea how fucking d I am to see you.¡± And I meant it too. She smiled, then looked at the people behind me, ¡°Everyone else okay?¡± Worry was evident in her voice, which made me like her even more. Not many people cared a lot about the kind of person working around this area. ¡°Yeah, I think¡­ Panicked but okay.¡± She nodded, then looked me over again, before her eyes stopped at my new bracelet. ¡°Wait¡­ What¡¯s that?¡± I followed her gaze to my wrist, then showed it to her, ¡°Hard-Light emitter. Figured it was my best option,¡± I shrugged, giving her a sheepish smile. ¡°You¡¯re a Samurai?¡± She asked me with wide eyes. ¡°Newly minted,¡± I said with a chuckle, ¡°That gun you gave me was a miracle worker. Without it I¡¯d be xeno chow by now. As would the people behind me. Had to fend off like, what, ten aliens? before Kaysa told me about the Vanguard and shit.¡± Iughed, ¡°Imagine that, some cheap whore who only cares about cumming her tits off high on drugs bes a Samurai.¡± In reply Chloe snorted, shaking her head, ¡°Well, that¡¯s how life goes. Maybe one day I can tell you the story of how I ended up with an alien AI in my skull. But right now we have to move. The streets aren¡¯t safe.¡± I nodded, calming down at her words. She was right, this wasn¡¯t the time to dilly dally. With some effort I got back to my feet, helped by Chloe who pulled me up. I gave her a warm smile as thanks, feeling infinitely better already just by having her here. She smiled in return, a warm smile that made my heart beat a bit faster. ¡°I¡¯ve cleared the way to the shelter so far,¡± she said, once again checking on the people behind me, who had started to murmur quietly. ¡°I still rmend you keep your guard up. Wouldn¡¯t want to see your pretty face get hurt,¡± she gave me a smirk and I winked at her. I greatly appreciated her worry over me. It made me¡­ very happy. It didn¡¯t take long for everyone to get ready to move and Chloe stepped forward. ¡°Stick behind me,¡± she said, giving me another warm smile which I answered with my own, before she took off. Her pace was slow, slow enough for me to pay close attention to our surroundings. ¡°Kaysa, how¡¯s my emitter looking?¡± I muttered quietly, while I tried to find any xenos before they had the chance to jump my charges. Your emitter is still at 81% charge, slowly recharging. Even then, you have more than enough points to obtain more batteries in case of emergency. ¡°Great¡­ Can you pull up like a little indicator on my HUD? I mean, I know my augs are shit, but the HUD should still work for that, right? Oh, and do the same for the points please. The notifications can be a bit distracting, especially if a lot of shit is going on.¡± As you wish. A momentter my HUD changed. In the bottom right of my vision two new additions popped up, the first was the same nearly naked Fox-Woman holding her arm across her chest, with a stylised emitter visibility indicated. She had a small little box next to her reading ¡®82%¡¯. Huh, even during our short conversation it had recharged a little. That was good to know. The second indicator was the same woman using a very clear copy of my metal dildo-club to smash a model Threes face in, with cartoonish exaggerations like her being mid jump, legs spread wide. It had another box next to it reading ¡®107 points¡¯. Looking at the images I snorted, ¡°You do love that imagery, don¡¯t you?¡± Considering your appreciation for your own appearance and the fact that Kitsune are typically known to seduce people to steal their soul, it did seem fitting. ¡°Wait, is that the reason you rmended that catalogue?¡± Not originally, no. What I have said about the usability of that catalogue holds true, but you have to admit that it is a fun coincidence that you share so much with the theme of the catalogue in question. I shrugged, ¡°I guess. As long as it works. Anyways, you also said that it can do other things, right? Body mods and such? I¡¯m not entirely sure what to make of that¡­ Like, I love my body. I look awesome, gorgeous and sexy, so I don¡¯t think I need to change that. But I¡¯m also not sure what other shit I can do.¡± In practical terms there is no limit to how you can change yourself. Typically Vanguard use these types of technologies to make themselves more resilient, exchange their organs for more robust or versatile ones, and sometimes to make themselves look better. But there have also been cases where Vanguard have entirely changed themselves to be another race. The sky is the limit, as long as you can think of the change there is a high likelihood I can supply you with the technology to achieve it. If you really feel fancy you can even make yourself be able to shift your entire body on the go, shaping yourself however you want yourself to look like, or give yourself additional organs, limbs, or senses, to aplish any specific job. ¡°Wow, sounds pretty cool. But let me guess, there is some kind of downside?¡± Generally, yes. While gic modifications can result in quite potent bodies, they usually require quite a bit of point investment, plus time to properly grow it all. ¡°Hm¡­ Still sounds really cool. Not sure what to get though.¡± You are still very early in your Vanguard career, there is no need to rush anything. Given time you will find your path. You should also not forget that while it is your duty to destroy the antithesis threat, you should not throw your entire life to the wayside for that. Many Vanguard use at least a part of their points to improve their personal life, which results in better work life bnce, and thus in more capable fighters, once they had sufficient time to rest. ¡°That makes sense, I guess,¡± I muttered. We were just arriving at the corner and Chloe took a moment to check the area, before motioning us to follow. So far I hadn¡¯t seen any more aliens, but that didn¡¯t mean there weren¡¯t any. Turning onto another street I frowned. There were a lot less cars around, which in a sense was good, because that meant less cover for aliens. But it also was bad, because it meant less cover for us. We were just passing some broken down automated kiosk, one of those older ones with old school snack shelves, when Chloe stopped, pistol raised. I stopped in turn and raised my arm, trying to find where the xenos were at. There was a slight scratching sound, like metal on asphalt. A momentter a small group of xenos came from around the corner to another street. Withoutment Chloe raised her pistol and started firing away. A couple of her shots went wide, but the majority hit, taking huge chunks out of the aliens at the business end of her pistol. It didn¡¯t take long for her topletely annihte the aliens in front of me. ¡°Damn,¡± I muttered, ¡°That is one hell of a gun.¡± She was just turning to me with a warm smile, when her eyes snapped to something behind me and she raised her gun again. Me being no dummy I whirled around, arm already raised, and came face to face with arger group of aliens. Without wasting time I started to send bullets down range, while the group rushed past us, trying to get away from the aliens. Someone stumbled and fell, nearly having half of the group stumble over them, all while half a dozen model Threes, plus more of those birds made their way over to us. My projectiles flew wide, not hitting shit, so before I could waste even more I switched over to Shields, blocking the xenos off. Every time I put a shield up, resulting in the alien I blocked crashing into it with a crunch, Chloe put a bullet into the form on the ground. The bigger problem was the birds, since it was really hard for me to shield them off. But Chloe was Chloe, and Chloe was awesome, so she didn¡¯t take long before she had put a bullet into each of them. Silence reigned once more when thest of the birds had crashed into an old dpidated building, hanging half out of the broken window it had hit. I tried to calm my heart, while finally lowering my arm. Taking deep breaths I shook my head, trying to get rid of all the adrenaline. ¡°We should keep moving,¡± Chloe said, while surveilling the area once more, just to make sure there weren¡¯t more surprises. Luckily the others were quick to get back on their feet and soon after we were moving again. I stuck close to Chloe, mainly because I wanted to make sure I could help her as quickly as I could, and because I felt safe sticking by her. I might be a Samurai now, but she had much more experience than I had and so far had been the one to do most of the work. And, if I was honest with myself, because I really liked being close to her. Things stayed quiet, all the way until we arrived at the next corner. With a wave Chloe signalled us to wait, and I kept an eye on our rear, to make sure we couldn¡¯t be surprised, while she checked the corner. From her expression she didn¡¯t like what she saw. ¡°I need you up front,¡± she whispered, and I immediately came over, giving her a questioning nce. She pointed around the corner and I peaked around. What I saw had my heart sink. There were at least a dozen xenos crawling around one of the rundown fast food joints. The shop looked like it was close to copsing, and the aliens were dragging both bags of cheap fries, as well as dead fry cooks outside. ¡°Shit,¡± I muttered. ¡°Shit indeed. I have something to deal with them, but that will draw some attention. We need to be quick, then make a run for it the moment they are dead.¡± I nodded, then gave her a nce, ¡°What do you need from me?¡± ¡°Can you try and stop them from getting too far from the entrance?¡± She asked, smiling warmly at me again. That smile took a lot of my tension away and calmed me down a bit. I smiled back, before I looked once more at the xenos still munching happily on dead teenager. ¡°I can try. What¡¯s your n?¡± ¡°I have some lures and grenades. They will make some noise, but they are good at dealing with groups.¡± I nodded, ¡°Okay, I¡¯m ready when you are.¡± Chloe motioned the others to stay back a bit, then knelt down. A box appeared next to her, which she opened, grabbing the four grenades inside. I noticed that her box didn¡¯t have any decorations and looked a lot cheaper than my own. She gave me a questioning nce and I nodded, acknowledging my readiness. She nodded in turn and without wasting time threw the first grenade behind one of the old cars parked in front of the fast food joint. When it stopped there wasn¡¯t any big explosion, like I had expected. Instead I heard a low whistle, and soon all the aliens turned towards the direction the grenade hadnded in. I kept myself ready to project a shield wherever I needed to. Once the xenos had started to group up next to the grenade, sniffing around, Chloe threw the next one. This one had barelynded when it emitted a loud screeching noise that had me grit my teeth. It took all the willpower I could muster not to hold my ears at the sound. Whatever the grenade did though, it worked wonders. Before I even realised what was going on, the closest xenos had already started melting. Some were quick enough to escape the bullshit grenade, while some had been outside of the range entirely, but at least half of the aliens had started to melt, bits and bobs of mulched alien flesh dripping down their bodies. The survivors looked around, probably trying to find whatever had thrown the ear tearing melting thing. None of the xenos seemed fully coherent though, because I was pretty sure one of them nced at me and still didn¡¯t jump me immediately. Chloe didn¡¯t waste any time and started toy into the stumbling survivors. I quickly followed suit, arm pointed at one of the closest xenos. ¡°Bullet,¡± I muttered once more, and soon a shiny new hole decorated the alien¡¯s skull. I wanted to shoot more, but by this point the couple of survivors did figure out what was what and started to move in our direction. So, to make sure nothing coulde close enough to maul us, I started flinging shields left, right, and center. Any movement got a shield from me, ending with the alien crashing into it with a satisfying crunching sound. It stalled them enough for Chloe to pick them off, one by one, until nothing was left. This time though we didn¡¯t wait to see if there¡¯d be more, instead Chloe motioned us to move, so we moved. With a light jog we made our way past the fast food joint, giving it a wide enough berth so to not identally step on dead alien or human for that matter, before sticking close to the graffiti covered wall on the other side of the street. From here the shelter wasn¡¯t far, but I didn¡¯t dare rx yet. We had to go around two more corners with a good bit of street in between. Once we arrived at the first of those aforementioned corners Chloe once more looked around, with me close behind. I saw her eyes wander up and down the street, before she nodded. The entire procession followed her around and down the street, until she suddenly held up a hand, and dropped to the knees. We, no dummies, quickly followed suit, all hiding behind one of those old school convertibles that was more rust than actual metal. When I leaned into it I could feel the door bending inwards and a small rain of rust fell out from under the car. ¡°Model Six,¡± Chloe whispered next to me, dragging me away from my thoughts about safety hazards on the streets, and back to reality. In front of us, some fifty or so meters away, was a small group of model Threes, one of the bird thingies but muchrger this time, and a six legged¡­ ursoid thing at least my height. They didn¡¯t seem to care much about anything as they slowly made their way into our direction from one of those rentable parking garages that old people usually go absolutely bonkers over. ¡°Can we deal with that?¡± I asked in a whisper, barely loud enough for Chloe to even understand me. She nodded, then pulled the magazine out of her giant pistol and put it into one of her many pockets. A momentter another magazine appeared in her outstretched hand, this one with much meaner looking bullets. ¡°I need you to deal with the smaller fry,¡± she whispered to me, eyes still focused on the big model Six. I nodded and raised my arm, readying myself for the fight ahead. Chloe took aim, waited a couple of moments, then pulled the trigger. A very loud bang rang out, much louder than before, and the upper half of the model Six nearly disintegrated, bits of xeno sttering in every which direction before it slumped. I didn¡¯t wait for them to get a grip and immediately send a couple of projectiles into their direction, although only half of them actually hit their target in such a way that they died. The problem was that they were quicker with running than I was with killing them. Luckily for me though I had Chloe with me, and soon thest of the aliens died just before it could jump over the convertible. It did have the unfortunate side effect that when it died it crashed head first into the convertible, which groaned and squeaked, before fully falling apart in cartoonish fashion. I didn¡¯t have time to think about what that meant for the cars driving around the streets in these parts, Chloe was already waving us to follow. The rest of the street was quiet, and soon we arrived at thest corner leading to the shelter. I looked behind, checking if our friends were okay. I saw Tina and Sharon both holding hands. Sharon was doing okay, but Tina looked¡­ bad. After ying peekaboo around the corner onest time Chloe motioned us again to follow, weapon raised but obviously relieved. And I understood why, the moment we came around the corner. In front of the entrance to the shelter I could see four people, some gang members probably, who had rifles and stood guard. Letting out a long breath I didn¡¯t realise I had been holding, I rxed a bit. Safety atst.
I have a Discord! Chapter 5 – Idiocy of stupid people Chapter 5 ¨C Idiocy of stupid people ¡°You would expect that people would listen to someone who can literally materialise nuclear bombs out of thin air. Sadly the average person is too stupid to even understand that.¡± - Bunker Buster¡¯s Lawyer during his trial after blowing up a shelter full of Idiots. The shelter was¡­ not very impressive, although nothing in the redlight district really was. Unless of course you found it impressive that more than half the buildings still stood. The shelter looked a bit more intact than the other buildings, but I think that was mainly because the thing was just built a bit more sturdy. Not that that meant much, considering the cardboard walls the rest of the buildings had, but it was our best shot at safety. While we came closer, still looking out for any more xenos, the group eyed us cautiously. When we got into earshot one of them stepped forward. ¡°Halt! Identify yourself! This shelter is under the protection of the Red Crows, only Red Crows members are allowed in!¡± The man looked vaguely familiar, I¡¯ve seen him about the district before. If I remembered correctly he was Andrew, one of the more well known Red Crows enforcers. Chloe looked at him in utter disbelief, probably questioning his intelligence. Which, I totally understood, the man most certainly wasn¡¯t the brightest around. I just rolled my eyes and stepped forward, ¡°de.¡± With the de in front of my hand I raised it at Andrew and gave him my best smile, ¡°I¡¯d suggest you step the fuck aside, Andrew, if you don¡¯t want me to tear you limb from limb and leave you out for the xenos to snack on.¡± Andrew stared at me with a mix between fear and disbelief. Then he looked me up and down, his leery gaze lingering on my chest. Normally I didn¡¯t mind leers, I loved them even, but he was entirely too disgusting for that kind of shit to be enjoyable. ¡°Wait¡­ Aren¡¯t you one of the whores from Victor¡¯s ce?¡± he asked, sneering at me with disdain. ¡°So what?¡± I asked, raising an eyebrow in challenge. Not even a couple hours ago that sneer would have sent me running, begging him to leave me alone, but I was no longer some helpless harlet. I was a Samurai now, although it looked like Andrew hadn¡¯t quite gotten the message. ¡°Why the fuck do you have Samurai Tech? Give it here, no whore should be running around with that,¡± he said, and held out his hand. I blinked at him, he couldn¡¯t actually be that stupid, could he? I didn¡¯t get a chance to do anything about it though, because Chloe stepped forward and held her giant, definitely Samurai grade pistol right in front of his face. ¡°Look here, asshole,¡± she said in a tone that could freeze over the ocean, ¡°I don¡¯t know who the fuck you are, but if you don¡¯t drop your weapons and piss off right this fucking second I¡¯m going to help my new Samurai friend here with dismembering you one by one until nothing is left. We have civilians here that need saving and I don¡¯t care how, but they will enter that shelter. The only question is if you¡¯ll be alive to witness it or not.¡± She seemed¡­ Angry, very angry. From the side nce she gave me she seemed more angry with his treatment of me, which was¡­ criminally adorable and my heart started beating faster at the thought. ¡°And who the fuck do you think you are?¡± One of Andrew¡¯s men tried, although he didn¡¯t quite manage to get the panic out of his tone. Chloe smiled wide, ¡°Well, some folk who¡¯ve seen me in action call me the Explosives Bitch. Three fucking guesses how I got that name,¡± she said with a sugary sweet tone while pulling out a very mean looking grenade out of one of her armor pockets, finger in the pin loop and ready to arm the thing at any moment. ¡°What the shit is going on out there?!¡± A voice boomed, interrupting our little standoff before anyone else had the chance to act. The voice was followed by an older man, probably around fifty or so. He was big, very big, bigger even than Chloe and maybe even Sarah, and he was built. Arms thicker than my thighs, and I was proud of my squishy thighs, with a look that could skin a cat alive. I knew the man, of course, everyone around these parts knew the leader of the Red Crows. Castas was one of the oldest gang leaders, somehow having managed to stick around for two decades. The moment he stepped out Andrew snapped to what he probably assumed was attention, but in truth it just made him look like he really, desperately needed to take a shit. ¡°Boss, these people tried to enter without identifying themselves! Also, this here whore of Victor¡¯s refuses to hand over her Samurai Tech!¡± Castas looked at him, then at Chloe, then at me, paying careful attention to both of us. Once he was satisfied with what he saw he nodded, then turned to Andrew. ¡°Okay, smartass, and why do you think a whore would have Samurai Tech on her, hm?¡± Andrew looked a bit confused, ¡°Uh¡­ I don¡¯t know? She probably stole it or something.¡± ¡°Stole it, hm? From a Samurai?¡± ¡°Yes boss. You know how close they get to their clients, might have slipped it out of a pocket or something. I mean, I¡¯ve heard they ca-¡± Andrew didn¡¯t get to finish his sentence. Before anyone had any time to react Castas punched Andrew straight in the face, sending the man sprawling. ¡°YOU FUCKING IDIOT! You can¡¯t just steal from a fucking Samurai and expect to live through the attempt! The reason she got fucking Samurai Tech is most likely because she¡¯s a fucking Samurai! This shit is the reason why you are still given the shit jobs, Andrew, if you would stop snorting smack like you drink beer you wouldn¡¯t have killed all your fucking braincells yet!¡± ¡°But¡­¡± Andrew croaked, trying to sit up. His nose was shattered and bleeding profusely, ¡°But, she¡¯s a whore!¡± ¡°It doesn¡¯t fucking matter, Andrew! Fucking janitors and beggers have be Samurai! Hell, fucking ountants get the honour, so why not a fucking whore! Now get the fuck out of their way and make damn sure that everyone that wants in, gets fucking in, or I will personally rip thest rotten remains of your fucking grey matter out of your useless fucking skull!¡± He took a long deep breath, then straightened himself, turning to us. ¡°Sorry for that. Blunt tool¡¯s only good for a blunt job, but I guess this one is too chipped to even manage that much. Bring these guys inside, we¡¯ll make sure they¡¯re looked after.¡± Chloe blinked at him, then let her weapon drop. ¡°Thanks?¡± ¡°No need to thank me. Shit¡¯s fucked and we need to work together to make shit work. And we could use a Samurai around these parts. Food in the shelters is short, and I bet myst fucking line that we won¡¯t get anyone down here to evacuate before it runs out.¡± ¡°You need food?¡± I asked, also lowering my arm and deactivating the de. He nodded, then waved to his boys, who slowly started filing our group into the shelter, while we stepped aside to make space. ¡°Yeah. Couple of my guys were heading towards a safe house when the rm rang. They wanted to bring some back, but we haven¡¯t heard diddely.¡± I gave Chloe a look, and she gave me one in turn. This shit sounded important, especially because Castas was right about our chances of getting evacuated. We were outer city, thest prio for the people in their golden mansions past the inner city wall. It was much more likely that we had to fend for ourselves out here until the xenos were dealt with. ¡°We¡¯ll do it,¡± I decided. I wouldn¡¯t sit by and watch these guys starve. They were my responsibility, my people. And Castas was right that the redlight district needed to stick together. Chloe gave me a warm smile and a nod. ¡°Thank you,¡± Castas said, giving me a polite nod, ¡°And don¡¯t worry about Andrew. I¡¯ll make sure he doesn¡¯t do something even more stupid.¡± ¡°Thanks. You keep an eye on our group, yeah? Couple of them¡­ are a bit out of it. Especially Tina. She¡¯s the blonde one, head taller than me, killer rack, thick thighs. Looks a bit panicked. She tends to overdo it on the coping and I don¡¯t need her with seven syringes in her arm when I get back.¡± He gave me another nod, ¡°Of course. You make sure we have what we need, I¡¯ll make sure everyone will get out of this without an overdose.¡± ¡°Great. We¡¯ll be on our way then,¡± I said, then gave him my best smile and a cutesy wave. He turned and followed after thest of our group, closing the shelter door behind him. Once he was inside and out of earshot I slumped, rubbing my face with my hands, before I looked up at the sky. ¡°Fucking gangs¡­ There is a reason I¡¯m d I got out.¡± Chloe looked at me, having a hard time not getting distracted by my at this point entirely see-through blouse. Well, it wasn¡¯t entirely see-through, there were some green alien goo stains, but the majority of the fabric had stopped hiding anything from all the sweat staining it. ¡°You ran with these guys?¡± She asked me before she turned to head off into the direction Castas had pointed us to. I followed, sticking very close to her, much to her distraction. ¡°Nah, I was part of Crescent Thorn. They were a smaller gang, couple blocks east. Don¡¯t think they¡¯re still around, tried to pick a fight with Purple Haze and got their HQ raided. That¡¯s typically the end for any gang. Mind you, that was after they threw me to the curb.¡± ¡°You know these guys well?¡± Chloe asked, throwing a thumb over her shoulder at the shelter but keeping her eyes on our surroundings. ¡°Red Crows, pretty big. Took over the district from the Grey Wolves, take care of it. Well, they mostly y police around these parts. Generally they do an okay job, especially for the joytoys. I mean, in terms of protection. They couldn¡¯t care less about the more interesting aspects of our job, they just want cheap whores to have an easyy, but they do make sure nobody tries toe in and bother us. Grey Wolves had already turned most of the joytoys into cheap onaholes, but Red Crows didn¡¯t make it any better.¡± She was silent for a moment, taking another look at one of the more dpidated buildings that was probably just a good shag away from going down in a heap of rubble. ¡°I never really thought much about life out here.¡± I shrugged, ¡°It could be worse. At least it¡¯s not the undercity. Then again, there is a reason why pretty much everyone around here is addicted to some shit or another. Redlight district is a pretty big drug haven, don¡¯t think there is anything you can¡¯t find here. And there is nowhere else you can find smack for even ten times the prices than you pay here.¡± She gave me a side eye, a bit of concern maybe? ¡°You don¡¯t seem too bothered by that.¡± ¡°Well, if you are pissdrunk or high off your tits every day of your life, the amount of fucks you have to give for this kind of shit is pretty limited. Like, this is the first time I¡¯ve been properly sober in ten years.¡± Thatment had her raise an eyebrow at me, her concern skyrocketing. Not that I med her, my life was shit, but we dealt with what we had. In most cases that was some more smack to pump into your veins so life didn¡¯t look quite as shitty. ¡°And even then,¡± I continued, ¡°We can¡¯t just up and leave. Money is tight, a month¡¯s pay around here isn¡¯t enough to buy snacks elsewhere. I have it good because Victor doesn¡¯t care how fucked up you are on the job and there are a lot of people who pay some good money for some really deranged shit. No way I can find a job elsewhere though, I¡¯m a rat even in the eyes of most other redlight district brothels. They are a bit stricter on the narcotics policy and there is just no way I can adhere to that. Well, not before today anyways. I¡¯m an addict, and that¡¯s that.¡± I shook my head, ¡°Makes me wonder though why you ended up here though. If money really isn¡¯t an issue for you, there are like at least five dozen more high ss options in the inner city.¡± She didn¡¯t answer immediately, although I did notice her fierce blush. ¡°I¡­ am not quite sure how to exin. I don¡¯te from much, like I said, so I wanted to put money where it¡¯s actually needed. But,¡± she paused, giving me a sheepish nce and a small smile, ¡°I have to admit I did like the idea of not having many rules, just in case we got there. Why I chose you¡­ Well¡­¡± She left the sentence hanging, but from her look I was pretty sure I knew where she was going. My heart started to race at the implication, and I looked up at her, a slightly anxious smile on my face, ¡°You find me attractive.¡± That knowledge made me very happy, not that I had any doubt about my looks. I had a gorgeous body and I knew it. But somehow, knowing that Chloe found me attractive just made the world a bit better. She shrugged, ¡°When I saw you on the listings I just knew that there was nobody else that I wanted to have my first time with. I don¡¯t have a lot of people around me, most of the time I¡¯m busy on the job, and the thought of having you¡­ you know¡­ pop my cherry, was just too good not to go for it.¡± I chuckled, then leaned into her, ¡°You are too adorable, you know that? Outright dangerous even. I¡¯ll have to be careful, lest you sneak into my house at night and steal my heart.¡± Although considering how I felt about her, that might already have happened. She chuckled and put her arm around my shoulders, ¡°Well, we¡¯ll see. Right now we have to deal with the xeno problem, everything else cane after.¡± I nodded, enjoying her presence next to me. ¡°I¡¯m d you came here though. Don¡¯t want to imagine how this would have gone without you. I¡¯d probably have died the moment the first xeno showed up. Actually, I don¡¯t think I would have even made it that far, pissdrunk as I was.¡± ¡°Yeah, I¡¯m d I was here as well. We managed to save a lot of people.¡± We continued on like this for a while, just enjoying each other¡¯spany. Of course, we did make sure to keep an eye out for xenos. The longer we walked though, and the more we strained our senses, the more I realised something. ¡°Something smells,¡± I muttered. ¡°Maybe it¡¯s the alien goo on your¡­ blouse?¡± She asked with a smile and a blush when she looked down at me. I giggled, ¡°Yeah, I should probably get rid of that, shouldn¡¯t I? Anyway, that wasn¡¯t what I meant. Something isn¡¯t right here, too few xenos around. Everytime I heard about alien incursions it was always depicted like floods of xenosing down in waves to eat you, and not in the fun way. Here though?¡± I motioned around, not missing the sudden fierce blush she had at my innuendo. ¡°Nothing, nada. It¡¯s like all the xenos just vanished. And I mean, I don¡¯t want toin too much, but if they aren¡¯t here that means they are elsewhere.¡± She nodded, looking around again, ¡°True. We should probably hurry, get the food, then get back to the shelter. Incursions grow quick, normally the area should already be teeming. Don¡¯t wanna be caught outside without underwear on.¡± I was a bit surprised by statement, she didn¡¯t strike me as the kind to joke about¡­ Oh. Oh! She¡¯d noticed me goingmando! I winked at her, but nodded. It was hard to resist from teasing her, she was just so cute, so adorable, so¡­ ugh, I needed to focus. This was a disaster. ¡°Do you have anything to search for xenos?¡± She asked, a bit more seriously, ¡°Recon and shit doesn¡¯t really fit me that well, I¡¯m more about shooting shit and blowing stuff up.¡± I looked at her, it fit her personality quite well. ¡°That the theme you are going for?¡± She shrugged, ¡°I don¡¯t think I have a theme yet. Nor a name, really. I get what I need to do the job I have to do. Simple as that.¡± ¡°That¡¯s fair, I suppose. I think Kaysa has already decided on my theme for me,¡± I said with a giggle, ¡°Aren¡¯t you supposed to pick your own? Not that I mind too much, it is fitting.¡± She shrugged again, ¡°Generally, yeah. I¡¯ve heard of a couple cases where the AI just takes over, mainly because their Samurai doesn¡¯t care much or finds it funny. In the incursion I became a Samurai in I met a guy, Gloomstalker was his name, who was all doom and gloom and fucked up weaponry. The kind of shit you¡¯d find at an emo party. Talked a bit, not much. He really wasn¡¯t a gloomy guy, like, at all. His AI really loved the idea though and he agreed because it meant people didn¡¯t bother him.¡± If it is so important to pick your own theme, you are of course more than wee to disregard my suggestions. I apologise if I have overstepped my boundaries. ¡°Nah, don¡¯t worry,¡± I said, holding up a hand to let Chloe know I wasn¡¯t talking to her, ¡°It¡¯s alright. Truth be told, I do like it. From what I know about the Kitsune it is quite fitting, and if it allows me to get really cute and sexy clothes I won¡¯t say no. I need to show off, hm?¡± I said that more for Chloe¡¯s benefit, who couldn¡¯t stop herself from admiring me one more time. Not that I minded. I wanted her to look at me more. ¡°I think I¡¯m more confused about what else it can do. I don¡¯t know Kitsune well, so I¡¯m not really sure what to expect.¡± When she realised what she was doing, Chloe cleared her throat then pointedly looked away. ¡°Well, normally Kitsune are a magical race, at least in the fictions I¡¯ve seen them in. They are all about misdirection, body doubles, shapeshifting, seduction, then feasting on their prey¡¯s soul. From what I¡¯ve seen your Hard-Light stuff do, it does seem to fit well with the usual depictions of modern Kitsune magic. They are often depicted as mischievous and teasing, quite a lot like you, actually.¡± I gave her a side nce, before bumping into her side lightly, ¡°You seem to know a lot about that, don¡¯t you?¡± There was a hint of a tease in my voice. She blushed again, which just¡­ I could spend days watching her blush. ¡°Well¡­ I do like to read and fantasy is my favourite genre. And, I have to admit, I have a bit of a guilty pleasure for reading fantasy erotica.¡± That had me raise my eyebrows and I adjusted my impression of her a bit. Inexperienced, but deeply curious. Knowing that made me even more excited for what the future might hold in store for us. ¡°Anyways,¡± she said, changing the topic again, ¡°Does your Kitsune catalogue have anything?¡± I blinked, ¡°Oh, sorry, got distracted again. Kaysa?¡± It is quite amusing to watch you stumble over your emotions like that. Should I give the two of you some room? This time it was my turn to blush, ¡°Kaysa!¡± I hissed, not wanting to head there with my thoughts right about now, since I wasn¡¯t sure I could keep myself from trying. Chloe definitely had a tight hold over me, but right now wasn¡¯t the time to get distracted, AGAIN! Very well. The ss I Mythical Kitsune Catalogue would have something fitting for that purpose, although with your current point total of 227 points it would not be overly impressive. The Catalogue alone costs 150 points, mainly thanks to the wide selection of options it has avable. The more useful options would all either be much more costly or would require gene editing, which just is not an option for the short term. There are some cheaper options that you could go with, but those options run the risk of quickly bing obsolete. ¡°Couldn¡¯t I give my old gear to Chloe?¡± I asked. If you n to work together with Vanguard Chloe for the time being, you could potentially hand down gear to her. In this case I would rmend the Mark II Advanced Listening System from the ss I Mythical Kitsune Catalogue. The cost would be 210 points total, 150 points for the catalogue and 60 points for the item in question. It is a cybeic enhancement that interfaces with your normal hearing in a non-intrusive manner and enhances your hearing quite greatly. It also features a rudimentary version of echolocation. ¡°I mean, it doesn¡¯t sound bad, but I¡¯m not sure it would be worth nearly bankrupting myself for something so¡­ underwhelming.¡± I frowned. Chloe looked down at me with a smile, rubbing my shoulder, ¡°It¡¯s okay, it would be helpful, but I think it¡¯s also good that you keep some points in case of emergency.¡± I nodded up at her, answering her smile with my own, ¡°Yeah¡­ I think it¡¯s best we figure out what is waiting for us there, before I make any decisions on that thing.¡±
I have a Discord! Chapter 6 – Teamwork makes the dream work! Chapter 6 ¨C Teamwork makes the dream work! ¡°If you think one Samurai alone is scary just wait ¡®til you see a group of them work together! The shit even newbies can get with a bit of teamwork is fucking terrifying, let me tell you.¡± - Anonymous Redditor The way there turned out to be without surprises, which was simultaneously good, since we weren¡¯t jumped by angry aliens, but also bad, because we had no idea why we found so little. Despite ourck of more specialised recon gear we both kept a sharp eye on our surroundings, making sure we didn¡¯t miss a thing. The trip itself was spent infortable silence, both of us content just enjoying each other¡¯spany. It made me worry a bit that I might have jumped at Chloe a bit too quickly, but that little bit of worry was helplessly overshadowed by all the happy thoughts I had by simply being next to her. Even from far we could see the building Castas had spoken about, a ratherrge, half-broken down storage unit that had rust everywhere. Multiple tin wall panels had fallen down and revealed the shoddy metal frames underneath. The reason we knew it was that one was simple: A huge mass of xenos was in front of it, heaving away at big crates and dead people. We stayed further away, hiding behind the corner of one of the more modern (modern for the district in any case) looking houses, while we surveyed the alien activity in front of us. Most of the xenos were Ones, Twos, and Threes, the Ones and Twos being those bird thingies ording to Chloe. But there were also other aliens about. I saw two model Fours, pulling some of the dead Red Crows members out of the busted down front gate of the storage unit. They were pretty obviously Red Crows by the red bandana around their right upper arm. There was also a model Six, organising the chaos, again, ording to Chloe, plus a giant worm thing made up of multiple segments. That is a model Eight. It is a rather peculiar model of antithesis, utterly disinterested in any conflict and ignoring anything other than biomass. It will not attack you, even if you provoke it. Killing it isn¡¯t easy, however. Each segment has a brain, a rather rudimentary one, but a brain nheless. ¡°Damn,¡± I muttered, looking it over. ¡°Not sure we can kill that thing,¡± Chloe said. She stood behind me, more or less hugging me from behind while we both peaked around the corner we were hiding behind. ¡°ns?¡± I asked, trying to figure out how we could go about killing this many xenos. I wasn¡¯t exactly suited to big area of denial attacks, that was Chloe¡¯s strong suit. ¡°I mean¡­¡± she started, looking at the buildings around us, ¡°I can see some ways to get up on the roof. Maybe that way we can get closer and surprise them from above? Rain down big grenades, blow the fuck out of them. Not sure what to do about the Eight though, I don¡¯t know if I can take it down.¡± ¡°Hm¡­¡± I did like the idea of getting on the roof. That would mean that we would be susceptible to attacks from the Ones and Twos. But we would also be safe from the hordes of Threes, the two Fours, and the Six. ¡°Kaysa, do I have anything on the Hard-Light catalogue that could help here?¡± You do. The Mark III Pristine Fortress costs you 60 points, but it does deliver for the price. It is a variable Hard-Light emitter that can project changeable Hard-Light constructs, which could be used to, for example, crush an enemy within. The constructs are a bit more durable than your Mark II General Hard-Light Emitter, although not by much. ¡°Can it do like multiple bullets? Or something?¡± No. But it can project variable constructs, which makes it a lot more versatile than the Mark II General Hard-Light Emitter. Think big des, or sweeping shields. While you can only project a single construct, the shape that construct can take is quite versatile. ¡°Yeah, yeah, I got it the first time.¡± I muttered with a smile. If you truly wish to get something that can deal with big groups of antithesis, maybe you would like to upgrade the Mark III Pristine Fortress with the help of Vanguard Chloe? ¡°Wait, you can do that?¡± I asked, confused, before looking up at Chloe. She peered down, confused, ¡°Do what?¡± ¡°Like, do item upgrades and buying shit with other Samurai.¡± She smiled, ¡°Oh, that. Yeah, you can. I haven¡¯t done much of it yet, but I do know the principle. What are you thinking about?¡± With the help of Vanguard Chloe¡¯s ss I Esoteric Single Use Explosive Devices Catalogue you could upgrade it to enable Vanguard Chloe to buy explosives inside Hard-Light constructs. That could mean either a killbox to kill any antithesis inside, a carpet rain of grenades from a construct projected into the air, or explosive shields. In effect, it could turn your Hard-Light constructs into explosive traps. The only downside would be the point cost for each explosive that Vanguard Chloe has to buy to make it work. I quickly ran this by Chloe, who seemed to be quite enthused. Which was understandable, I was quite excited about the idea myself, truth be told. It did sound like the kind of shit we could abuse quite heavily, if we did it right. Chloe nodded, ¡°Not a bad n, actually. How much would it cost?¡± 80 points with the upgrade. ¡°80 points, definitely doable. And it should help us get lots of points in return.¡± I ryed to Chloe, and gave her a warm smile, ¡°What say you? Up to fuck up some xenos?¡± She snorted, then ruffled my hair, which had me quite shocked for a moment, but to my surprise it felt actually really nice. ¡°Sure,¡± she said, ¡°Let¡¯s do it. But first, let¡¯s try to find a way up to the roof.¡± I nodded, maybe a bit red in the face from the unexpected head pats. Then again, she did say that she was the cuddly sort, so it was definitely on brand. ns made we snuck away from our hiding spot, before we found an old rustydder. It¡­ didn¡¯t look very stable, but it was the only way up, so it was the only option. Before we went up though I first decided to take off my boots. As much as I liked them, they were way too caked with alien goo, and having heels on while on adder didn¡¯t particrly fill me with confidence. Since I was already at it I also took the time to take off my blouse, leaving me with little more than a micro bikini top and too short skirt. Chloe was, of course, typical adorable Chloe, blushing fiercely, while I used the cleaner bits of my blouse to clean off some of the goo caked on my skirt. ¡°You don¡¯t by chance have something to wear for me, do you?¡± I asked, before I threw my dirty blouse away with a bit of disgust. ¡°Uhm¡­¡± she muttered, trying desperately to look me in the face, ¡°I have armor?¡± I shrugged, ¡°I¡¯ll take it, better than nothing.¡± A momentter another box appeared next to her, and she pointed at it. I decided to have some fun with her and turned in such a way that when I bent down to open it, of course making sure to keep my knees straight, she got the barest hint of what was hidden under my flimsy skirt, without actually seeing much. The gasp I heard behind me told me that my little stunt had worked and I smirked. Picking up the armor and inspecting it, I acted as if nothing was wrong. The armor itself was quite different from Chloe¡¯s. It was pretty simr in terms of design, though while hers was more like the typical bullet proof vest that you would see mall cops wear, mine was a bit like a one piece swimsuit. It had a sort of panties attachment that would go between my legs, while covering most of my torso. It was a bit lighter on actual armor than Chloe¡¯s and had less pockets. But for my purposes it worked. And of course it was the same purple colour as the sheets in my room at the brothel. ¡°Could I ask you to quickly turn around so I can change?¡± I said, not looking at her. I would definitely need to get rid of my skirt for this, and while I normally wouldn¡¯t mind giving her the full view of my privates, something deep down was a bit more¡­ I didn¡¯t want to say reluctant, but I didn¡¯t want to treat her like just another client. I didn¡¯t want to just whore myself out to her, I¡­ I think it could best be described as seducing her. And that meant knowing when to be a bit more¡­ reserved. She nodded, blushing about the same bright red that those overly expensive fresh tomatoes I¡¯ve seen online had, and I quickly let my skirt fall, before I put on the armor. The general fabric wasfortable on my skin, but it immediately became apparent that it was not meant to work as underwear. I mean, it did make sense, it was armor, so typically you would wear it on top of your normal clothing. It did mean though that it was rather ufortable on my privates, not hurting really, but I was pretty sure I would have some sorenesster on. Regardless, it was what I had at hand, so I would ept it and move on. And if I was honest with myself, it was by far not the most ufortable ¡°clothing¡± I had ever worn. Looking down at myself I quickly realised that it really didn¡¯t fit my look at all. But it wasn¡¯t like I had options and it did cover me up, which was the important part. ¡°Okay, ready,¡± I said, and turned to Chloe with a wide smile. ¡°How do I look?¡± She¡­ tried to not look disappointed. ¡°I mean¡­ it works?¡± The tone of the voice told me everything I needed to know about her opinion on the armor she had gotten me. Iughed, ¡°Yeah. It really doesn¡¯t fit me well, does it?¡± ¡°I think the problem are the pockets¡­¡± she said, then went silent for a moment, before she shook her head, ¡°What, no way! She wouldn¡¯t look good in that at all!... No, I don¡¯t care for your mathematics, that just wouldn¡¯t work¡­ No, As, it wouldn¡¯t. For the future, let me do all the fashion decisions, okay?¡± I snorted at that, then came over and hugged her. I didn¡¯t really know why, but I just felt like hugging her right this moment. ¡°You are adorable, you know that?¡± She reciprocated my hug, although a bit more reserved, ¡°You did mention that earlier.¡± I nodded, ¡°Yup, and I was right. Now, want to kill some xenos?¡± She nodded at me when I looked up to her, so I released her and quickly made my way over to thedder. Of course I wouldn¡¯t make things easy for her, so while we climbed up, her right behind me, I made sure to wiggle my butt around her field of vision as much as I could. By the time we arrived on the roof she was bright red again. If I wasn¡¯t careful I might actually cause her blood pressure issues at some point. Or have her pop an artery in her face. Something to keep in mind. For once though it was me who was distracted and I nearly jumped down in a big pile of trash near thedder, but luckily I looked in front of me before I did so. With a bit of gymnastics, no doubt much to Chloe¡¯s appreciation, I made my way over the pile of trash and onto¡­ at least semi-clean ground. It felt disgusting under my naked feet, but I had to deal. ¡°Well¡­¡± I said, looking around, ¡°I guess down there would be a good point to hunker down.¡± I pointed to a roof further down, closest to the xeno horde. We made our way over and hunkered down as nned, looking over the edge onto the chaos below us. ¡°Okay, Kaysa, I think it¡¯s time for new toys.¡± I have a catalogue for that. That quickly derailed my thoughts. ¡°Wait, what?¡± I have a catalogue for toys, if you wish to obtain itter. I am very certain you would very much enjoy it. I gulped, then slowly shook my head, ¡°Kaysa, while I thoroughly appreciate your mention of such options, and I will be putting them onto the list forter, right now I need to focus. Could you please refrain from distracting me?¡± Very well. New purchase: Mark III Pristine Fortress (Upgraded)! Points reduced to: 147 A small box appeared between Chloe and me with the typical decorations on it. Chloe looked at it with raised eyebrows and just the slightest hint of a blush, but she didn¡¯tment. I opened it and found¡­ I wasn¡¯t quite sure how to describe it. It looked simr to those vambraces you see people wear in those mediaeval movies. It was the same silvery colour with purple metallic ents as my General Hard-Light Emitter, but with a big screen on it. I picked it up and put it on my left arm. Again, just as with the General Hard-Light Emitter, it shifted then settled, leaving it with just the right amount of tension to hold tight, without being ufortable. ¡°I think I¡¯m ready,¡± I whispered to Chloe and gave her a warm smile. She smiled in return and nodded, ¡°Okay. I think the best approach would be to blow up the flyers. Then we need to kill the model Six and the two Fours. Everything else cane up after.¡± I thought about it for a moment, it did make sense. ¡°Okay, Kaysa, how can I use this thing?¡± I have taken the liberty to preprogram different shapes into the Mark III Pristine Fortress. Just name the shape and it will form. I am pretty certain I have programmed any and all shapes you could imagine into it, but should I have forgotten one, you can also use your augments to create a new one. I raised an eyebrow, then looked over the edge again. A big ball should be enough to epass the flyers and explode them into small bits. Then I could use another smaller ball to epass the model Six, before I used a cube to get the two model Fours. I wasn¡¯t an expert, but I hoped it would be enough. Nodding at my n I looked at Chloe, ¡°Get ready to buy lots of big grenades, okay? I¡¯ll start projecting constructs around them. Hopefully we can be quick enough about it.¡± She nodded with a smile, then looked down. Raising my left arm I pointed at the flyers. ¡°Ball,¡± I whispered, and just as I imagined a big ball appeared around them. I didn¡¯t even have time to appreciate how smoothly it had gone, when a loud explosion rang out inside of it, utterly annihting the aliens and shattering my construct. Not wasting any time and seeing the Fours already getting ready to dash I entrapped them first. ¡°Cube!¡± A big cube formed, then started to shrink to pull the aliens together, before another explosion shattered it, and the aliens inside. By this point the remaining xenos were already dashing about, but I didn¡¯t let myself get distracted and pointed at the Six, ¡°Ball!¡± Again the same routine happened. The thing exploded in a myriad of bits, although it wasn¡¯t quite dead by the time my construct had shattered. I didn¡¯t worry too much though, it looked utterly fucked up, so I thought quickly and pointed into the air, ¡°Circle!¡± A giant circle appeared overhead, and as Chloe started buying more and more explosives, they started to rain down onto the biggest groups of aliens. Kaysa was probably deliberately cing the explosives, since soon enough most of the Threes were dead, with only a couple of them still running around. Dismissing the circle I pointed at the Eight, ¡°Take care of the Threes, please. Cube!¡± Chloe didn¡¯t wait for even a moment, before she started firing down onto the xenos below us, quickly killing most of the remaining ones, although three or four managed to get away. Simultaneously I started to shrink the cube around the model Eight, which was still happily munching away on whatever cheap rations it was finding in the storage container it was busying itself at. Soon enough the construct started to push the alien inwards, then further, then even further. By the time I got the notification that I had killed it, it was not much more than a messy cube of green goo, roughly two meters on a side. ¡°Eww¡­ That¡¯s¡­ disgusting,¡± I muttered, dismissing the construct. Chloe nodded, not really looking at the thing. ¡°Yeah¡­ Let¡¯s get this over with quick, yeah?¡± We both made our way back to thedder, after we had made certain that wherever thest model Threes were hiding was outside of our view or range, and with another set of gymnastics, I started to make my way down thedder, Chloe following close behind. As much as I wanted to enjoy the view above me, I really didn¡¯t want to slip on thedder, so sadly I had to focus on going down. Once I had arrived on the ground, I looked around, making sure we weren¡¯t about to be surprised. Chloe did the same, then looked at me with a smile, ¡°Shall we?¡± I held up my hands and walked over to my discarded blouse. With a few quick motions I cleaned my feet up as much as I was able to, before I grabbed my boots again and put them on. I really didn¡¯t want to walk into mulched alien bare foot. Finally ready I nodded at her, and together we moved closer. Of course I stuck close by her side, both of us weapons ready. When we entered the big opening where the xenos had been, we quickly found the remaining couple Threes, and the remaining Threes found us. A quick shootoutter they were dead. I really liked having two emitters avable to me, something that hadn¡¯t even urred to me on the roof. ¡°What should we do about this mess?¡± I asked, looking around, ¡°We can¡¯t just leave it.¡± Chloe shook her head, ¡°We can¡¯t. Go ahead and check the warehouse, I¡¯ll deal with the bodies.¡± While I didn¡¯t like going into the building alone, I nodded. She was close enough to help me if things went sideways. Just to make sure though I conjured a protective bubble around me before I started making my way into the warehouse. The inside were¡­ I wanted to say dpidated, but that would have been an insult to dpidated buildings. In short, it was a mess. Pieces of the ceiling hade down over time, crushing some of the shit deeper inside of the building. Near the front were a couple palettes that looked like they had been put here a bit more recently. Most of them were disturbed by aliens, but two were still untouched. From one the size of them would be more than enough to supply the shelter for weeks. The only problem was, I had absolutely no idea how to move it. ¡°What should we do?¡± I asked, more to myself than anyone else, while I crossed my arms in front of my modest chest. You could use the Pristine Fortress. I raised an eyebrow, then the other. That¡­ wasn¡¯t actually an entirely stupid idea. I had used the same principle with my protective bubble, and it wouldn¡¯t be hard to adapt it. ¡°Okay¡­ I need like¡­ a forklift shape, or something.¡± I pointed my arm at the thing and let Kaysa work her AI mathematics magic and soon a construct appeared, enabling me to lift the thing. To my surprise it didn¡¯t fully stay in position rtive to my wrist, instead it followed the motion, but moved much slower than my own hand. Probably some tech restriction, or some easy to use bullshittery that Kaysa hade up with, it didn¡¯t matter much to me. ¡°Will the charge hold until the shelter?¡± I asked, while I was already on my way outside again. It should. Even if it couldn¡¯t you have enough points for a recement battery. I checked my point total and saw a proud 269 points being disyed there. Outside Chloe was halfway done¡­ melting? The bodies around. ¡°Everything okay?¡± she asked me with a smile when she saw mee outside, throwing a grenade to one more big pile of alien. I nodded and looked around, ¡°Yeah. Damn, you work quick.¡± ¡°Well, flesheater grenades are useful. Just give me a moment to finish up, okay?¡±
I have a Discord! Chapter 7 – To save the day Chapter 7 ¨C To save the day ¡°Are you depressed? Are you just really fucking sick of your worthless life? Do you want to feel like you actually make a difference?! DO YOU WANT TO FEEL ALIVE?! Thene now and join Crescent Thorn! We¡¯ll make sure that your life is full of excitement!¡± - Recruitment sales pitch by a former Crescent Thorn member to his Boss, 2056 We found the shelter in much the same state that we had found it the first time. Although this time there was a different group of guards outside. Their gear looked a bit better and they looked like they had a bit more bulk, and more backbone. Evidently Andrew and hisnkies were no longer seen as capable enough to do even basic bouncer duty. Not that I disagreed, he seemed to be a bit too braindead for that. One of the guys opened the door for us, then motioned us inside. With a friendly smile I nodded to him. Normally I would sashay a bit, put on a show, to express my thanks, but my current get up really didn¡¯t allow for that. So instead I just walked inside, carefully making sure to fit the pallet through the door. It did, although barely. Inside the shelter things were¡­ cramped was probably the best word. There were a lot of people sitting around the rundown building, most of the seats had long since been scavenged. They were doing what people in the redlight districts normally did, talk, drink, smoke, and sometimes taking other things. I saw at least one person snorting something from the tits of some joytoy from another brothel. It did make sense though, when drugs were cheaper than even the cheapest sodas, everyone was packing. Deeper inside I heard moans and it didn¡¯t take long to figure out who they belonged to. Sharon was busy doing what Sharon did, bend over some cheap chair in one of the corners, some random dude railing her real good while she was fondling herself. I just shook my head and disregarded her. It wasn¡¯t my business, and truth be told, I didn¡¯t care if she fucked half the shelter as long as that meant she didn¡¯t try to overdose. I kept my eyes open for Tina but couldn¡¯t find her. That had me worry a bit but I did trust Castas to do what he promised me to, if only because otherwise I would fuck up his entire gang. The man in question was standing towards the middle of the room, surrounded by a couple of people, most being members of his gang. I had to admit, before today I had a pretty bad impression of him, but he seemed to be actually trying to get shit sorted. Maybe that was because he had two Samurai breathing down his neck, but I didn¡¯t care much for the motivation, only the results. ¡°Hey!¡± I said, getting his attention. I ced down the food behind me and looked at him. Of course we had gotten a good bit of attention when we had walked in, not only were Chloe and me Samurai, I was also one of the more well known joytoys around the district. Although in this case I couldn¡¯t quite appreciate all the attention on me, my get up wasn¡¯t exactly ttering at the moment, so I did my best to ignore the stares. Castas turned around the moment he heard my voice, and once he spotted me he immediately came over, eyes on the big shipment behind me. Nodding at it he looked back to me, ¡°Nice work, thank you. Any sign of my boys?¡± I shook my head, feeling a bit guilty for delivering the bad news, but it wasn¡¯t like we could have done much. ¡°Dead, the lot of them, sorry. When we got there there was already a huge fuck off swarm of aliens. They¡¯d probably died the moment the incursion hit.¡± He frowned, but nodded. ¡°Fuck¡­ Well, it is what it is¡­ Thanks, regardless,¡± he shook his head, ¡°As much as I want to take the time and mourn, we got news from cityside. Couple of my boys bunkered down close by anyway. They reported a big fuck off army of xenos rushing to the gates. From their report some Samurai are about, but most of them look about as green as you do. Not sure exactly what¡¯s going on, isn¡¯t exactly stable at the moment. We only got very few xenos around here though, so I thought you might wanna make your way cityside, just to make sure that flood isn¡¯ting down on us.¡± I thought about it for a moment, then looked at Chloe. She shrugged in turn, ¡°I mean, we can check. Not sure how much we can do though, we aren¡¯t exactly high powered Samurai.¡± Castas shrugged, ¡°I know, but far as I know you guys like killing xenos by the job lot. I can let you know the moment we need help down here. Right now things are doing okay, we got food, drugs¡¯ll run dry at some point, but we¡¯ll manage. And thanks to your friend in the corner people are in rtively high hopes, so morale isn¡¯t shit.¡± I snorted, ¡°Yeah, she¡¯ll probably continue until someonees to save your asses. Just make sure she doesn¡¯t take too much Shiver, yeah?¡± He nodded, ¡°¡®Course. She isn¡¯t the only Shiver addict around, we got a couple more in the backrooms, but we¡¯ll make sure things don¡¯t go overboard.¡± I nodded at his words, trusting that he would keep an eye on things. Chloe looked a bit confused, but she let it drop when neither of us volunteered to exin. ¡°You know anything about the Samurai cityside?¡± she asked instead, ¡°Depending on how things are looking we might be able to send some help over here.¡± ¡°Only know one of them,¡± Castas said, ¡°Name¡¯s Shrapnel. He¡¯s some low tier Samurai from the outer edges of the inner city. Oftenes to the help of the higher ss outer districts. Big into explosions and that kind of shit. From the looks of it he¡¯s with four others, but I don¡¯t know ¡®em, they barely look like Samurai at all. All I know they got alien weapons, that¡¯s about it. If you can get someone down here I won¡¯tin, but truth be told I¡¯m not holding much hope.¡± I frowned, not happy with the idea of leaving these guys to their fate. They were redlight district and that meant they were my responsibility. Even fucks like Andrew. Then again, Castas was right. We barely had any xenos down here, and if that big wave of aliens made its way to us, we¡¯d be thoroughly fucked. Still, I much rather stay in case of shit going sideways. ¡°I don¡¯t like leaving you guys on your own. Just needs one of the nastier fuckers and this shelter is toast. And if what you say about the Samurai up there is true, maybe they can take care of things.¡± ¡°No,¡± Chloe said, surprising me greatly. She looked down at me with an understanding smile. ¡°I know you care for these people. But there is just no way a couple of rookies and some low tier Samurai can take care of that many xenos at once. I mean, we would have had issues with the group at the warehouse were it not for the roof, now imagine three times that many aliens. Even if they all work together, chances are good that they get mulched.¡± With a deep sigh I slumped my shoulder. I knew she was right, but that didn¡¯t mean I had to like it. ¡°What about the rest of the district?¡± I asked, still not entirely sure about the whole thing, ¡°Any word on the other shelters? Anyone unounted for?¡± Castas motioned so and so, ¡°So far all other shelters havee in. Mainly people are safe, even Purple Haze has opened their gates for other groups. I have some people in their shelters and everyone is being civil so far. Only group I heard about being missing is Paradise Hills.¡± My breath caught. Paradise Hills was another brothel, well known for entertaining the more¡­ bestial fetishes. Furries and that kind of shit. I didn¡¯t know many people there, but I did have some contacts. ¡°Any word on them?¡± ¡°Dead, far as I know. Some Purple Haze folk managed to get close, but they didn¡¯t enter, the entire thing was swarming with xenos.¡± ¡°Fuck!¡± I cursed, closing my eyes. I tried to keep myself calm. It did help to have Chloe next to me, especially when she hugged me from the side. I took a few deep breaths, then shook my head. ¡°I guess¡­ I guess as long as most people are ounted for. We could search the streets, see if we can¡¯t find anyone else¡­¡± He shook his head, ¡°Don¡¯t take this the wrong way, Princess, but I am not sure that¡¯s useful. From what I have seen outside, anyone who was out in thest two hours or so is dead by now. It¡¯s better if you focus your energy somewhere else.¡± I took a deep breath. I wanted to argue, I wanted toin. But I knew he was right. ¡°Princess, hm?¡± I said with half a smirk, not having the energy to manage the full thing. He shrugged, giving me a grin, ¡°I mean, you are the Princess of the redlight district, aren¡¯t you? Thought it might be a fitting name.¡± I snorted, ¡°Sure, because that isn¡¯t a mouthful.¡± ¡°How about the Crimson Princess? I mean, it would fit both your hair and the district you are from,¡± Chloe threw in. I knew she was mostly ying along to distract me. ¡°Sure, whatever,¡± I said, before rubbing my face. I felt¡­ lost. ¡°Come on, Princess. We¡¯ll be fine. Go out there and save the day, hm?¡± Castas said with what I could only guess would be a smile. I sighed deeply, but nodded. ¡°Alright. But I won¡¯t be leaving you without gear. If shit hits the fan I want to make sure you have at least some way to defend yourself.¡± ¡°Much appreciated. I¡¯ll let you know if anything changes around these parts.¡± We left a couple of minutester, after leaving behind some weapons and gear. Chloe left them the miracle pistols she had given me, a gun called a Hummingbird. It was apparently designed exactly with that in mind, a cheap, easy to use, effective anti-xeno pistol you could give even the biggest idiots and have them kill some aliens. For my part I left them five basic shield emitters. ording to Kaysa they were simr to the Hummingbird, a very basic and simple to use shield to protect people from a couple of the lower digit models. Nothing too amazing, but exactly right for the job at hand. The emitters cost ten points a pop, which I thought was reasonable if they kept the people inside safe, so I got five of them. It left me with 219 points, which was more than enough for any emergency needs, I figured. Once we were outside I sighed again, rubbing my face. I really didn¡¯t like any of this, I felt¡­ helpless. Chloe wrapped me into a hug, which was only a bit annoying with the armor in the way, but it helped. Actually, it helped a lot. I sighed, then shook my head, ¡°Let¡¯s get going. Quicker we head over, quicker we cane back.¡± ¡°Yeah. Maybe my car still works¡­ It should be¡­ somewhere around the brothel.¡± With a snort I separated from her, giving her a nce with a raised eyebrow, ¡°Somewhere around the brothel? Did you forget where you parked your car?¡± She snorted in turn, ¡°I don¡¯t know if you noticed, but I was¡­ kind of distracted with the evening ns.¡± That had me giggling, ¡°I know I¡¯m repeating myself here, but you are too adorable.¡± With one final shrug and a deep blush on her part, which had me nearly cooing at her, we started to head out. I again stuck very close to her, and she kept an arm on my shoulders. It made everything much better and I could have almost forgotten about the alien incursion happening around us, being held by her like this. We walked in silence, neither of us feeling too much like talking, eyes sharp for any xeno that wanted to interrupt our tranquillity. At this point though it seemed like everything was silent, the only sound that even hinted at the incursion going on was the gunfire in the far distance, often overshadowed by some kind of explosion or something simr. We had just roughly passed the halfway point between the shelter and the brothel, when I suddenly heard something. Straining my hearing I quickly realised it was footsteps, two pairs, although one was a bit odd. I also heard heavy breathing and something I would think to be a small child crying. I stopped, arms raised in rm, and looked around. There was a small alley not far from us, and just as both Chloe and I got ready for any surprises jumping out of it, a figure came running out of it. It was followed by¡­ one giant bot. The figure turned out to be a young woman, probably my age, and considering the skimpy barely clothing she wore she was a joytoy. In her arms she held a small child, although my mind quickly started ringing all rm bells when I saw the state of the childs clothing, and her clothes for that matter. There was blood, a lot of blood. I was already preparing to rush over to the woman when she spotted us, eyes wide with panic and fear. ¡°What are you doing out here?!¡± she asked in confused shock. ¡°We are Samurai, now what¡¯s wrong with him?¡± I asked when we arrived in front of the woman, skipping all pleasantries. She looked utterly exhausted, breathing heavily, covered in sweat. She looked like she had been crying, cheap makeup ruined by tears, her hair dishevelled. All in all, she looked horrible. At my words her eyes widened even more, ¡°Oh thank fuck! He got hurt and I don¡¯t have the points to deal with it!¡± As she spoke she lowered him, allowing me to inspect the wounds. The child was a young boy, at best a couple of months old, maybe a year or two, I wasn¡¯t an expert on things. He looked¡­ bad. His onesie was ripped and two deep gashes racked across his torso. ¡°Put him down! Kaysa, whatever he needs, now!¡± I ordered, kneeling down on the ground next to the other woman. New purchase: ss I RegenBandAid! Points reduced to: 214 New purchase: ss I Hemo-Restore! Points reduced to: 209 A momentter two boxes appeared next to me, onebelled ¡®RegenBandAid¡¯ and onebelled ¡®Hemo-Restore¡¯. Without a closer medical inspection these will be the most useful. First ce the RegenBandAid over the wound, then inject the Hemo-Restore. It is a small cylinder with a stopper on one side. ce it next to the wound and press the stopper. I rmend you remain nearby in case he needs more medical attention after the fact. I didn¡¯t think twice, quickly following her instructions. Carefully taking off the onesie I opened the box with the RegenBandAid. On the cushion insidey a big band aid. And when I mean big, I mean I had to wrap it around him. ¡°Can you hold him real quick?¡± I asked the other woman, while I pulled out the bandage. She nodded in turn and held him in such a way that I could make sure the entire wound was covered. Once that was done I opened the second box and pulled out the small cylinder. Doing as instructed I ced it as close to the RegenBandAid as I could and pressed the top. Instantly the entire thing emptied into him. Throwing the empty thing away I looked him over. He was still crying, although he seemed to no longer have the energy to wail. With the immediate disaster dealt with I allowed some of the tension to flow out of me. She carefully held him close, making sure not to touch the bandage too much, and rocked him gently, ¡°Shhh, things will be okay, you will be okay.¡± She said that, but she looked damn near a panic attack herself, tears already ying around her eyes again. I nced up to Chloe and she nced down at me. ¡°Should I hold him for a moment? You look exhausted,¡± she offered gently, kneeling next to the neer. The woman looked at her, then nodded, ¡°Thank you¡­ Thank you both so much,¡± she said, gently handing Chloe the kid, while she was¡­ trembling? She looked like she was close to a meltdown. ¡°Hey, hey,¡± I said softly, pulling her up and into a hug, ¡°Hey, everything is okay. You are okay.¡± Finally the dam broke and she started to cry, ugly sobbing while she held her face in her hands. I kept hugging her, gently patting her back, just offering support. I wasn¡¯t sure what had happened to her, but she seemed¡­ in a very bad way. ¡°Let¡¯s head to the shelter, hm? It¡¯s safer there and it¡¯s not far,¡± I offered her with a smile after she had calmed down a bit. She nodded, not speaking, and soon we took off, the giant bot still behind us. Talking about the bot, it seemed to be focused on keeping our rear safe. It was a big thing, like, nine feet tall, but thin, basically only a frame. It had a long pike and a big tower shield, both held at the ready for anythinging from behind us. Its head was designed like those old Egyptian Jackal Sentinels you often see in old pictures of the tombs. Well, before they were destroyed anyway. ¡°I¡¯m such a fucking failure,¡± the woman muttered, eyes ssy and focused on nothing. Not like someone on a trip, more like someone who was lost in thoughts. ¡°First I nearly got my group killed by leading them into an ambush and after we managed to somehow get out I got them killed anyway when I led them face first into a giant horde.¡± When she finished she started to cry again, ¡°Not to mention I fucked up my points so bad just because I was so fucking impressed by the first big purchase that I nearly got the kid killed¡­ I¡¯m the worst fucking Samurai alive.¡± ¡°Hey, hey,¡± I said, still hugging her from the side, ¡°Things happen, it¡¯s okay. The kid is okay, he¡¯ll live. Let¡¯s start with introductions, hm? I¡¯m Seraphine Bloodfallen, this is Chloe. What¡¯s your name?¡± ¡°Jenna¡­¡± the answer was quiet, nearly a whisper, ¡°Jenna Tiel.¡± ¡°Jenna, hm? That¡¯s a really pretty name. Are you hurt anywhere? We can rest a bit at the shelter, calm down a bit.¡± I kept my tone soft and soothing. ¡°I¡¯m fine¡­ Cleopatra protected me.¡± she shook her head, ¡°Not that it did fuck all for the rest¡­¡± ¡°Cleopatra is your bot?¡± ¡°It¡¯s my AI, she¡¯s controlling the bot.¡± ¡°Ah. Now, let¡¯s stop mulling over the past for a moment, it won¡¯t help you in the future. You have made mistakes, and that is regrettable, but the least you can do to make up for it is to think ahead and make sure you don¡¯t repeat them, hm? Do you have a weapon or anything?¡± She didn¡¯t look like it, but then again, my gear was pretty well hidden as well. She shook her head with a snort thatcked all amusement, just a self-deprecating sound, ¡°I got the Sentinel, that¡¯s all I have. Cost me all the points I had. Didn¡¯t manage to get more since all I could do was run, after those fucking xenos jumped and mauled the rest. I was lucky I got the kid out.¡± ¡°Hey, hey, now. Let¡¯s keep calm, okay? It¡¯s not on you.¡± ¡°Of course it fucking is!¡± she snapped. ¡°Did you know about the ambush? About the aliens?¡± ¡°How could I?¡± she gave me a strange look. ¡°Then it¡¯s not your fault,¡± I said, still soothingly but with a certain emphasis in my tone, ¡°You did the best you could at the time and got unlucky.¡± ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter, they are dead!¡± she nearly shouted, anger and a deep sorrow in her eyes, ¡°And I¡¯m the one who got them killed!¡± ¡°No, you did not!¡± I snapped back. There was a moment of silence before I sighed, ¡°Trust me, I get how you feel. I¡¯ve seen too many people that I felt responsible for overdose because they couldn¡¯t deal with the shit they had to deal with. I¡¯ve seen too many people who I have tried to help, to find some way out of their misery, give up and just pull the trigger. But that is just not something we can change. We need to move on. You need to move on. ept that shit happened.¡± ¡°But if I had weapons I could have-¡± ¡°Do you know how to use weapons?¡± I was pretty certain the answer was no, she didn¡¯t look like ex-gang, current gang, or military, nor did she look like anything else, except, well, a joytoy. And joytoys weren¡¯t exactly known for their weapon slinging. ¡°No,¡± she admitted and hung her head. ¡°Then there is nothing you could have done. And it sounds like without your bot you wouldn¡¯t even have survived.¡± She sighed again, rubbing her face, ruining her makeup even more. ¡°I guess¡­¡± ¡°Life¡¯s shit¡±, Chloe cut in, sympathy in her eyes when she nced at Jenna, but her tone was that of a soldier, ¡°There is no higher power with some grand n, and there is no way to save everyone. Setbacks are par for the course, there is nothing you can do to prevent them. The best you can do is ept that it¡¯s gonna happen, try to minimise the impact, then learn from the situation. You have just had such a setback. You owe it to the people you lost that you don¡¯t drown in guilt, instead learn from it. Mourn, but learn. Tomorrow life throws the next pile of shit at you, and then you better apply what you have learned today, and if you do, life will be less shit. Just understand that it will always be shit, even if it¡¯s polished.¡± I wasn¡¯t certain I would have put it like that, but at least Jenna seemed to take it to heart and that really was all that mattered at the moment.
I have a Discord! Chapter 8 – Shelter politics Chapter 8 ¨C Shelter politics ¡°Gang politics is very much like actual politics, as in that money is only a viable option until the other side brings a rocketuncher to the discussions. And I intend to be the one bringing two rocketunchers.¡± - Overheard quote from the Vice-Lead of Crescent Thorn, before being obliterated by a rocketuncher We arrived back at the shelter soon after, much to the surprise of the people outside, although when they saw Jenna and the Sentinel behind us they rxed. Without a fuss they let us inside, although the Sentinel stayed outside, taking position next to the door. The guards seemed to have mixed emotions about that, but I ignored it, we had other shit to deal with right now. ¡°Do you want to stay here with the kid? He¡¯s not yours, is he?¡± I asked Jenna gently, but she shook her head. ¡°No, he¡¯s not mine. His mom was one of the first who died. Someone had to carry him and I thought I might as well, wasn¡¯t like I had a weapon with me,¡± she shook her head again, ¡°And no, I don¡¯t want to stay¡­ I¡­ I need points. I want to make sure shit like this doesn¡¯t repeat itself.¡± She looked¡­ I didn¡¯t quite know how to put it. There was determination in her eyes, but it hadn¡¯t yet washed away the sorrow she still felt. I was a bit surprised how quickly she bounced back, but I guess that was just something most Samurai naturally do. In reply I gave her a nod. ¡°Very well. I¡¯ll see about finding someone to take care of him then, Chloe, mind keeping herpany for a moment?¡± Chloe nodded at me with a smile and gently handed me the kid. I took him gingerly into my arms, then turned to look for Tina. I didn¡¯t know how much experience with kids she had, but she was someone I trusted and it would keep her busy enough that she didn¡¯t have time to think about taking drugs. To my surprise I found her near Castas. She was just having some discussion with another joytoy about something regarding¡­ vetting clients? ¡°Hey?¡± I asked, looking around, not quite fully aware of what was going on. The discussions ceased and soon everyone was looking at me. I think my confusion must have shown because Tina gave me a smile. ¡°We are talking about how to improve our jobs. I know you really dislike how things are at the moment and since Castas put me in charge of making sure everyone is happy and doesn¡¯t do anything stupid, I thought I¡¯d make myself useful.¡± I raised an eyebrow and looked at Castas, who shrugged at me. ¡°You told me to keep an eye on her, so that¡¯s what I did. She¡¯s a smart woman, quite scary, actually.¡± ¡°Aha¡­¡± I muttered, not quite sure how to take this. ¡°We¡¯ll need to go over some thingster, but that can wait for the time being,¡± he shrugged again, ¡°Figured you would probablye knocking with changes anyway, so might as well get started nning for it. Not like we have much else to do sitting on our arses here.¡± My second eyebrow made its way up to meet up with the first, both admiring Castas¡¯ wits. He figured out that with me being a joytoy and having some ideas on how I want the job to be, things would change here anyways, so he made sure he was in the loop and stayed in charge. I smiled at that, he was a smart man. ¡°Great to hear. I don¡¯t mind you hashing things out, and I¡¯d probably have put Tina in charge anyways. I really can¡¯t be arsed to take care of everything, all I want is going back to my job between killing xenos. Well, I expect I¡¯ll be a bit of an exception in any case, especially when ites to my rate and pay, but that is something Victor has to worry about.¡± ¡°Well,¡± Tina said with a smirk, ¡°Talking about Vic, I already clued him in. He¡¯s in a different shelter, but he¡¯s up to date. Was quite pissy that I basically took charge, but he relented when I told him you were a Samurai and that you wanted the changes done. I expect he¡¯ll shoot you a message soon.¡± I snorted, I could quite visibly imagine his face when he got the news. Vic was¡­ he was an okay man. He had put quite some reasonable rules into ce and even if he allowed joytoys to be basically drugged until they do whatever you want them to, at least the joytoys knew about that shit before they signed up and consented. In a legal sense, anyway. I didn¡¯t really like him on a personal level, he could be a bit aggressive in his tone, but it wasn¡¯t that I disliked him either. I shook my head, ¡°Anyway. I came here because we found a kid that was wounded and needs help. Wanted to ask Tina to take care of him, but I guess you¡¯ll be busy?¡± She shook her head, ¡°I can take care of him.¡± ¡°Good,¡± I said with a nod, then gently handed him over, ¡°Uh, Kaysa? Can you put together like a care package for him? Some meds, maybe some cheap Hard-Light emitter for him to y with? Nothing dangerous, of course.¡± Of course. I can even add basic food from the ss 0 catalogues. How many points would you like to invest? ¡°Call it 100? I¡¯m not sure what he needs, but I want to make sure that whatever he needs is avable if he needs it. If Ie back and find him dead I¡¯ll be very pissed.¡± I can put something together for 87 points. While you could spend more, it wouldn¡¯t really help very much. He is stable for the moment, and with some additional medical care over the next couple of days he will recover nighpletely. ¡°Nighpletely?¡± He will retain some minor scars, a simple consequence of rather limited medical options. ¡°But otherwise he¡¯ll be good?¡± Yes, more healthy than most other babies in this district I imagine. ¡°Fair. Good, bundle it up, make sure he got something fun to y with, probably make it so that Tina can program the emitter or something? And include instructions.¡± I felt that was a pretty good deal. New purchase: Princess¡¯ Grace Care Package (Variable Items) Points reduced to: 122 A big box appeared between me and Tina. It had the same colour scheme and decorations as my usual ones, although in this case the Fox-woman depicted on the lid was clothed in an elegant dress and instead of smirking seductively she was smiling gently. It did make sense, having a kid¡¯s care package depict naked women and implied¡­ activities was something I was deeply ufortable with. Of course there was a chorus of gasps, but I ignored them, instead opening the lid and checking things over. I could see neatpartments allbelled with their contents, from medical stuff to baby food. ¡°Damn, didn¡¯t know you had that.¡± Seraphine, you would be hard pressed to find something we do not have. I snorted, but nodded. Closing the lid I stood up again and looked around the circle of people. ¡°Well, there you have it. We will be going out and earn some more points. If you need anything, shoot me a message, okay?¡± Tina nodded, then nced past me to Jenna and Chloe, a knowing smirk on her lips. ¡°Make sure you keep your friends safe, hm?¡± The way she pronounced friends indicated a deeper meaning there, and I wasn¡¯t quite able to suppress a very faint blush. ¡°Yeah, yeah.¡± And with that I turned and walked away with a wave. The two friends in question were already waiting for me. ¡°Everything settled?¡± Chloe asked with a warm smile, which I reciprocated, before I gave her a quick hug. ¡°Yup. Now, let¡¯s get going. I want to finish up quickly.¡± Jenna still looked a bit down, but she did her best to not show it. ¡°Thank you. Again,¡± she said with a small bow towards us, ¡°I¡¯m not sure where I would have ended up without you. Both in terms of destination as well as headspace.¡± ¡°It¡¯s fine,¡± I said, then gave her a quick hug as well, ¡°Now, shall we?¡± I was just about to leave when I got an idea, ¡°Oh, wait! Here.¡± With that I pulled off my bracelet, the first Hard-Light Emitter I had gotten, and handed it to Jenna. ¡°It¡¯s not much, but it¡¯s a weapon you can use and it should help you make some points.¡± She looked at it with surprise, ¡°What is it?¡± she asked when she took it, gingerly, and inspected it. ¡°Hard-Light Emitter. Your AI can work you through it, but basically if you say ¡®de¡¯, ¡®Bullet¡¯, or ¡®Shield¡¯ it forms the respective thing for you to use. You can also control it with augs.¡± She nodded, still looking it over, then her gaze shifted onto me and she smiled warmly. ¡°Thank you.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it,¡± I replied with the same warm smile. ¡°But now, let¡¯s go!¡± For the third time today we left the shelter, heading once more towards the brothel. ¡°So, Jenna, was it?¡± I asked. We did pay close attention to our surroundings on our way, but I couldn¡¯t stop myself from being curious about our newest friend. Chloe and I were walking side by side again, half hugging each other. It helped me rx and truth be told it also made me insanely giddy to be so close to her. ¡°How¡¯d you end up being a Samurai?¡± She shrugged, eyes still haunted, but it seemed that just being with others helped. ¡°For the past four months or so I¡¯ve been working near the inner city gate in a brothel called Vixen¡¯s. When the incursion hit I was just about to shower so when everyone started to rush upstairs I was still in the lobby. Well¡­ Aliens came in, I was panicked, just saw them trying to eat my friends so I took the barstool and just smacked them. Suddenly Cleopatra said something about being a Vanguard and well¡­ I¡¯m not a fighter, but I had made enough points for the Sentinel. I got it, thinking it would be my best bet. The rest of the story you know.¡± She frowned, but shook her head. ¡°Oh, so you¡¯ve not been a joytoy long then? Or did you just switch brothels?¡± I asked, mainly to keep conversation away from the darker topics. ¡°No, I¡¯m new in the field. Didn¡¯t have any other options avable and I¡¯ve had a couple of experiences from my high school and university days.¡± ¡°Do you like the job?¡± She gave me a curious look, ¡°Well¡­ I guess? It¡¯s not as bad as I had feared it to be. Although¡­ I had, I dunno, kinda hoped to be more satisfied?¡± I nodded, ¡°Yeah, that¡¯s normal. Most clients don¡¯t care much about how you feel. They just see you as the tool to satisfy their own lust. I¡¯ve learned to do it myself, but that is something you¡¯ll need to get used to.¡± She frowned, ¡°I guess¡­ Although, truth be told, now that I¡¯m a Samurai I don¡¯t think I¡¯ll be going back.¡± ¡°Fair. I¡¯ll definitely go back, I like my job too much not to. Although¡­¡± I left the sentence hanging, a new thought appearing in my mind. Would Chloe be okay with that? Probably, right? Then I mentally pped myself, Seraphine, get a grip! You know her for what, four hours? Don¡¯t start nning your entire life around her already! Then again¡­ It would be really nice¡­ right? Could I hope? ¡°You okay?¡± Chloe asked me, ripping me out my thoughts. She looked at me with a bit of concern in her eyes. I blinked, then smiled up at her, hugging her a bit closer, ¡°Sorry, just lost in thoughts.¡± She smiled in return and rubbed my shoulder. I vaguely saw Jenna ncing at us with¡­ I didn¡¯t quite know what it was. Interest? Envy? I probably was reading too much into things. We continued in silence. Jenna didn¡¯t seem to be the type of girl to start a conversation, and Chloe and I were more than okay withfortable silence. By this point I had kind of gotten used to not seeing or hearing any aliens about, which was just¡­ such a weird thing to get used to in the middle of an alien incursion. I reminded myself to remain vignt. Things could change at any moment and I didn¡¯t want to end up dead and half munched by an alien because I became negligent. Eventually we arrived at the brothel and Chloe quickly found her car. And hot fucking damn, what a car it was! I wasn¡¯t a car nut, nor did I know too much, but in my time in the gangs I had heard a couple of guys talking about cars. Well, mainly my old¡­ I didn¡¯t quite want to call him my boyfriend, and his friends, often while they were busy using every orifice my body had to offer. Anyways, I wasn¡¯t too much into cars, but Chloe¡¯s was a beast and probably much more expensive than even those guys had dreamt of. It looked to be one of the older models from like 2020, although on closer inspection the small little details and modern controls did reveal it to be what it was: A rather new car that was just designed to mimic the old design. In specific it looked to be a mix between an old muscle car and some kind of military jeep, with sleek lines, but a generally bulky look to it, all in bright red with ck ents. It had wheels, but I would bet that it had some tricks up its sleeve. Not that it was a Protector grade car, that was for sure. Small little dings could be found on the bumpers and such, but strangely they just looked even more fitting than if it had been just in new. ¡°Hot damn!¡±, I said with an appreciative whistle, ¡°You certainly know how to hit on a girl, Chloe.¡± To underline my statement I hugged her close from the side, leaning into her and maybe rubbing myself against her just a little bit to tease her a bit. Chloe blushed profusely, especially when I started my antics, but she did seem to genuinely appreciate myment. ¡°She¡¯s my pride and joy. Only got her recently, but I take her wherever I can.¡± It was a five seater, so I got in on the passenger side, while Jenna took a seat behind Chloe. She didn¡¯t say anything, but from her expression she did appreciate the car as much as I did. The interior was simrly old fashioned in terms of design, but with modern materials andforts. It gave the car a rather sleek, butfortable atmosphere. Then Chloe hit the engine and¡­ oh lord, what a sound that was! I moaned in appreciation, already feeling tingly. This was a car, an actual car, not those cheap cabs you found down here in our district. And even I could appreciate just how exquisite of a ride it was. ¡°If you continue like that you¡¯ll ruin the seats,¡± Jenna said with a teasing smirk, surprising me greatly. From the glint in her eyes when I nced back at her she seemed to be a bit mischievous if given the chance. ¡°I mean,¡± I said, shifting in my seat, fully ying into Jenna¡¯s little game, ¡°You do have to admit that it is a very nice car.¡± Jenna nodded sagely, ¡°That it is indeed. But that doesn¡¯t mean you should soil it. Wouldn¡¯t that be a shame?¡± I didn¡¯t know where that sudden mischievous energy came from, but she knew how to use it damn well. I nodded in agreement, one hand slowly following the lines of the door, ¡°True enough. I shall think lots and lots of boring thoughts so as to not make a mess of the seats. Such a shame though¡­¡± Jenna and I were both smirking widely, desperately trying to suppress ourughter, while Chloe was as red as she could get. ¡°Could you both shut the fuck up about¡­ ugh!¡± She muttered, then put us in drive and hit the gas. I felt myself being pressed into my seat as we shot into the air, leaving me breathless for a moment. Not only did it sound powerful, it was powerful. It didn¡¯t take long for us to leave behind the brothel, and Chloe threw us into a tight corner that had me losing my breath again from the G-force, to point us into the direction of the city. She seemed to either be a rather aggressive driver in general, or Jenna and I had riled her up maybe a bit too much. Regardless, from up here in the sky I had a much better view over the district and the incursion as a whole. It seemed to havended mostly in our quarter of the outer city and it didn¡¯t look too big. The redlight district, the industrial district, and maybe a bit of the storage areas to the west of the redlight district. I wasn¡¯t quite sure about the Inner city, though, it was hard to see from here. The wall that shielded the inner city seemed intact, but that didn¡¯t mean much at this distance. It was tall enough to be easily visible but it was absolutely dwarfed by the skyscrapers and megacities, which were the main reason it was hard to look into the inner city. In the opposite direction I could see the much shorter wall shielding the outer city from the rest of the world. It too seemed unbreached, not that that mattered much considering that the incursion hadnded inside of the city. It was something to keep in mind though, if some aliensnded outside and formed a hive, then that would definitely mean trouble for us. Halfway from the brothel to the inner city I could see the small opening that revealed the giant gate to the undercity. It wasn¡¯t that impressive looking and if you didn¡¯t know what it was you probably wouldn¡¯t even have recognised it, but as someone who¡¯s been around the district before I knew what to look for. I thought it looked undamaged, but considering that it looked old and decrepit at the best of times I wasn¡¯t entirely sure. We were still a good bit out but we could already see the horde of xenos snapping at the gates to the inner city. The defenders had put up multiple makeshift barriers, wrecked cars, sandbags, weapon emcements, but from the looks of it they were pushed back quite far already. I could see remnants of previous barricades deeper into the swarm of xenos. The inner city gates were very well defended, but that didn¡¯t mean that the xenos couldn¡¯t push through, especially with how many xenos were around. I had no clue how many exactly, but somewhere around a couple hundred, maybe even close to a thousand. And that was only near the Gate, not including the xenos still extent. I could see smaller groups stilling in from further out, at least where the buildings allowed me to see the streets. Giant flocks of model Ones and Twos were flying about. Strangely though they didn¡¯t seem to react to our presence at all. ¡°Fuck¡­¡± Chloe muttered, and both Jenna and I felt simrly about the horde of aliens in front of us. There would be no easy way to deal with this. Actually, it looked like an absolutely overwhelming problem. But we were Samurai now. Time to see how we could buy our way out of this one.
I have a Discord! Chapter 9 – Fighting Fire with Fire Chapter 9 ¨C Fighting Fire with Fire ¡°Burn, motherfuckers, burn, ahahahahhahaaaa!¡± - Hellfire during the alien incursion near Neu Hamburg, 2056 When we got closer we could see the defenders firing everything they had into the mass of xenos. The mountains of dead xenos were helping more in stemming the tide than the makeshift barriers ever could hope to. Any Samurai down there was probably swimming in points, but then again, the question was how well they would be able to use them. From our vantage point four figures stood out. Well, I say stood out, but really, they just didn¡¯t look like soldiers. One was flinging grenades around like their life depended on it, which to be fair, it probably did, while the other three were firing a myriad of different rifles into the mass of xenos. One of them had just gotten a giant fuck off minigun was just spewing bullet after bullet down range. ¡°That¡¯s Shrapnel,¡± Chloe said and pointed to the grenade flinger. ¡°Know anything about him?¡± The name didn¡¯t ring a bell, then again we didn¡¯t often deal with Samurai. True, we knew the more popr ones, but from what Castas had said these guys weren¡¯t exactly big fishes. Chloe shook her head, ¡°No, not really. Only what Castas has told us, honestly.¡± She brought us even closer and at this point it felt like there was an ocean of angry alien below us. ¡°Anything we can do here?¡± I asked, a bit lost. I did have some ideas with the Pristine Fortress and Chloe¡¯s grenades, but I didn¡¯t have too high hopes of sess. Normally I would rmend against getting involved at your level, however, there is a high likelihood that things will get much worse once the defences are breached. In addition you have the high ground so to speak, which does make things a bit safer for you. ¡°What options do we have?¡± Jenna asked, grimacing, ¡°I know I said I wanted points, but this?¡± She looked around, probably with the same thoughts that I had. There are options avable to you. I perked up at Kaysa¡¯s words. I couldn¡¯t imagine what she could have in mind, it wasn¡¯t like I had many points to spend and I doubted that my 110 odd points would make an appreciable difference in this sea of bullshit. ¡°Let¡¯s hear it.¡± It would be better than what I could think of, probably. With the help of your Mark III Pristine Fortress and Vanguard Chloe you could start to thin the horde, get more points for bigger purchases. There are two items that I would rmend you get for the time being, bothing from the ss I Hexw Swarm Intelligence Catalogue. The first would be the Mark VI Devouring Rose. It is an imobile, highly specialised Hexw Hive Defender that could fortify the position quite drastically. Should you get enough points it would make defending the area a lot easier with only minimal coteral damage. The second option would be the Mark IV Progenitor Reaver. When I first introduced the Catalogue to you I mentioned that it specialises into self-replicating, highly adaptable swarms, this would be your first step towards that end. I frowned, ¡°I mean, I like the idea, but how much would they be?¡± The Mark IV Progenitor Reaver would start at roughly 1250 points. It can be upgraded with more points, both from your own Catalogues and Vanguard Chloe¡¯s or Vanguard Jenna¡¯s Catalogues. While it is not atypical for Vanguard to work together to upgrade their Items, in this case things work slightly differently, as the Catalogue itself is quite unique. Any Hexw can be upgraded even without using any additional items from any Catalogue, simply by using materials that might be avable from the Catalogue in question. For example, Vanguard Jenna¡¯s ss I Sentinel Legion Catalogue has ess to a rather peculiar lightweight alloy that you could use to change theposition of the Mark IV Progenitor Reaver armor, turning it into quite the durable weapon. In a simr vein, the Mark VI Devouring Rose doesn¡¯t have a fixed price. Instead you can get it for as cheap as 250 points, but you can spend more. For example, if you were to spend 2500 points you would get a muchrger, much stronger, pregrown Version that could instantly deal with even higher digit antithesis. In your case you would need at minimum 500 points for the Devouring Rose, as you need to get the Catalogue, then the Imnt to control the Hive, which is a half-biological, half-cybeic imnt. Finally you can get the Devouring Rose. For this case I rmend the Devouring Rose Variant C. It will be able to grow quickly, if you can keep it alive, but it will not be able to survive for long once the biomass runs out, as it has a highly elerated metabolism. In general the Hexw Swarm Intelligence consumes biomass to grow, and considering the bodies avable that should not be an issue. ¡°Wait, you are saying we are basically unleashing a second biomass hungry hive-swarm tobat the first biomass hungry hive-swarm?¡± I wasn¡¯t quite sure if I found the idea appalling or poetic. In effect, yes. The difference being that your swarm would be entirely under your control and therefore not a threat to humans. Unless you decide for that to be the case, of course. I rubbed my face, then looked outside again. We didn¡¯t have much time to dilly dally, not really. ¡°Okay, so 500 points for the Devouring Rose, then that weird Progenitor thing. I guess from the name it¡¯s all about eating aliens and churning out more of itself?¡± Not more of itself. Generally all Progenitor Line Hexws produce the Mark II Hexw Hatchling, a very basic member of the Hexw genome, but given time it can theoretically adapt for and evolve into any Hexw you can think of. There are some exceptions of course, for example the Omega ss Mark XXII Progenitor Wyvern, which is not a naturally urring Hexw. But in most cases these exceptions are highly specialised into one specific thing, or have been developedter on and are just not part of the normal Hexw genome. ¡°Sounds fancy¡­ Okay, so first the Rose, then the Progenitor. Now the important question, do we think we can get the points without dying?¡± Chloe looked at me, ¡°We could try doing some bombing runs before we head down and try what we can do to help them defend. Not sure how much that will do though.¡± ¡°It¡¯s better than nothing,¡± Jenna threw in, ¡°We can¡¯t just sit here. We have to do something.¡± She sounded¡­ resigned, but determined. And she was right, of course. I sighed, then looked at Chloe, ¡°Let¡¯s get a couple points, then see if that Devouring Rose thing Kaysa mentioned can¡¯t help.¡± She nodded, ¡°And if it doesn¡¯t?¡± ¡°I honestly don¡¯t want to think about that¡­¡± I muttered. ¡°I¡¯m just not sure how we can get Jenna some points.¡± ¡°Give her some grenades to throw. I mean, it¡¯s better than her trying to get anything done with that little bracelet of yours. Couldn¡¯t you get her another Pristine Fortress?¡± Chloe asked, although from the tone of her voice she also wasn¡¯t sure if that was a good idea. ¡°I could. It would basically bankrupt me, but that would mean more nades and more big attacks.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t waste points on that, at least not yet,¡± Jenna said, looking at me, ¡°I appreciate the offer, but let¡¯s try to get more points first. Maybe I can get enough to get another Sentinel, that would already help greatly with getting points.¡± I shrugged, ¡°Okay. So, we need nades. Lots of ¡®em and preferably stuff that doesn¡¯t just go boom. What area denial stuff do you have?¡± Chloe thought for a moment, flying slow circles above the horde. ¡°I got a couple good ones. Razor wire nades, ck hole bombs, some shit to freeze or at least slow them down. I think I got some ideas. As, think you could put together a collection for Jenna?¡± There was a moment of silence before she nodded, ¡°Sure, let¡¯s do that. Jenna, big box of bullshit iing, make room.¡± I heard her shift, then a soft thump, probably the box Chloe ordered. When I turned around I saw a big box on the remaining seats. It should suffice. Hopefully. ¡°Well, you both ready?¡± I asked, not nearly feeling ready myself. They nodded and I nodded in turn, looking outside, ¡°Then let¡¯s do this.¡± After another moment Chloe turned us around and brought us further down, before she straightened out the flightline and put some speed on. We wereing in from the east, which meant we had free range over the horde below us without having to worry about potentially hitting the defences. When we got close enough to the horde I used my Pristine Fortress to project as big of a circle as I could pretty much on top of the horde. Chloe bought a bunch of grenades, while Jenna started flinging them outside. A myriad of sounds came from below us, most of which I couldn¡¯t even hope to ce. Aliens died and my points went up by a good chunk. A couple more runs and I could get the Rose¡­ Might actually not go entirely badly. That was of course the moment that part of the flock currently trying to get over the City walls split off and made their way over to us. Chloe cursed, then did a sharp turn and elerated sharply. ¡°Anything we can do about those?¡± She asked. ¡°I have some ideas,¡± I replied, ¡°If you can get grenades for my Fortress.¡± She nodded and turned again, bringing us next to the flock and giving me a free line of fire. I sent as big of a sweeping de as I could into the direction of the flock and Chloe added some grenades to the attack. The de connected with the swarm, cutting a couple of the birds up, before it shattered when four grenades exploded into big balls of razor wire, utterly annihting a good chunk of the flyers. I was just about ready to bump my fist at our sess, when even more flyers broke off from the main flock to deal with us. So instead I cursed and sent another wave out. And again it demolished a good chunk of the flyers that tried to reach us. The problem was that this wouldn¡¯t be a permanent solution. More and more of the flying models made their way over to us, and at this point Chloe had to spend most of her time evading any xenos trying to get at us. This little game of cat and mouse continued, I sent wave after wave, some exploded, some didn¡¯t, depending on how much Chloe had to concentrate, while she started weaving through the buildings around us at ever increasing speeds. Jenna did her best to keep the grenades in the back secure and to continue their deployment, but it became harder by the minute. ¡°Fuck it,¡± I muttered, ¡°Bring us down low, Jenna just kick the box outside, we can¡¯t have them bouncing around in the car like this.¡± Nobody answered, but Chloe did as I suggested, and Jenna did her best to open the door and just push the box out. She fumbled a bit, probably because she didn¡¯t want to end up outside as well and Chloe had to slow down for a moment before Jenna was able to finally get the still half full box into the open and out the door. Immediately Chloe gunned it, while I tried desperately to simultaneously hit the flock behind us, as well as keep what little food I had in. My points ticked up with each sessful de, but it just wasn¡¯t enough yet. Suddenly Chloe ripped the car around, making me nearly smash my head into the door, utterly surprising me. A momentter it became clear though why she had done that, another smaller flock had nearly rammed into us from the side. ¡°Fuck, we need a better way of dealing with this!¡± she hissed. ¡°Can you get close to the wall, maybe the turrets can help us?¡± I offered, before sending out another big wave of bullshit. Then a sudden crunch from below and the car lurched. ¡°Guess we have no choice!¡± Chloe said and turned it around to head towards the wall. It didn¡¯t take long for us to get within firing range of the turret emcements and bullets came flying at us, which made me immediately regret even bringing it up. ¡°Fuck, bad idea!¡± I muttered and held on for dear life while Chloe pushed the engine as much as she dared with this many buildings around. By some miracle we weren¡¯t hit and soon Chloe turned to fly along the wall, the aliens still behind us. It was hard for me to hit the flock from the position we were in, so instead I projected another circle out over the horde on the ground. ¡°Nades!¡± Chloe caught on instantly and bought another couple of grenades that started to rain down from my little projection. I cancelled it and repeated the motion again, more and more antithesis dying. ¡°Gods we are lucky there aren¡¯t any of the bigger models!¡± Chloe cursed, then took another sharp turn, although not quite sharp enough and we clipped a building with the rear bumper. The car lurched, an ugly tearing sound and something fell to the streets below, ¡°Shit! Something¡¯s busted¡­¡± That was not the kind of thing I wanted to hear, but I did my best to ignore it. ¡°Finally!¡± I said when I saw my points crawl over into the 500 range, ¡°Want tond this thing and nt some flowers?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t think they¡¯ll let us,¡± Jenna said in return, she was looking behind us. ¡°Kaysa, can I ce it withoutnding?¡± Of course. Simply get close to the front. ¡°Chloe, to the first line of defence, no need tond, just make sure we are close!¡± ¡°Got it!¡± As promised she turned around as quickly as she could and made her way back. ¡°Kaysa, the moment we are close hit it, one Rose!¡± Understood. We shot over the line of xenos still trying to get closer to the gates and from the looks of things slowly managing it. Some aliens tried to stop us but either we were insanely lucky or Chloe was a fucking good pilot. ss I Hexw Swarm Intelligence Catalogue unlocked! Points reduced to: 358 New purchase: Mark III Hexw Hive-Queen Control Module! Points reduced to: 258 New purchase: Mark VI Devouring Rose (Variant C, 250 points)! Points reduced to: 8 I was just about to ask how we should best deal with the flock behind us, when a sudden piercing pain prated my skull, before leaving as quickly as it hade. ¡°The fuck?!¡± I muttered, rubbing my temples. That was the Bio-Hive control imnt that I mentioned. It should grow to connect to your brain soon. Once it is finished you can be considered a Hexw Hive-Queen, even if you do not have the biology for one. ¡°Well, isn¡¯t that just fucking grand¡­ Hopefully nothing bursts out of my chest or something!¡± Something tingled in my brain, then I could feel¡­ something. And a momentter I could see! Not my perspective, but the perspective of something else. It looked to be a writhing nest of tentacles with a big worm-like mouth in the middle. The sight made me dizzy, this wasn¡¯t just a pair of eyes in a face, I had dozens of eyes I could see from. Each tentacle had a pair, plus the worm thing, plus¡­ I didn¡¯t even know how to describe it. I could see and feel so many new things. But the most striking thing I felt was a deep rooted and primal hunger. No, it wasn¡¯t just hungry. It was starving. It wanted to devour and so it did. Tentacles pulled dead xenos towards it and it ate, gulping them down in one bite of the massive jaws at the end of the worm. When Kaysa said it would grow fast she meant it, I could already feel more and more tentacles being added to the thing, while I tried desperately to get a grip on things. The nausea should vanish rtively soon. It would be best if you concentrate on your own perception for the time being. I tried, but it wasn¡¯t easy. ¡°Seraphine?¡± Chloe asked, concern in her eyes when she nced at me. ¡°I¡¯m¡­ fine¡­ just¡­ ugh. So many senses¡­¡± It was hard to even speak properly with my mind roiling like this. It took me a couple of minutes until finally things settled, minutes I didn¡¯t quite fully perceive. By the time I was fully back again Chloe was doing some really rough manoeuvres to keep us going, but by the whine of the engine and the smoke trailing us,ing from¡­ somewhere, I knew that this ride wasn¡¯t long for the world. ¡°Okay, okay¡­¡± I muttered, then looked outside. The flock was still after us, although part of it had been shot down by the AA. A much too small part, but a part nheless. Immediately I started sending more waves into it, while I kept an eye on my Rose. True to its word it was devouring xenos left, right, and center. More and more tentacles joined the original set, and it grew and grew. Like a vine on fast forward it snaked its way outwards, slowly overtaking the area it hadnded in. Then the wall of xeno corpses next to it. Then the makeshift barriers. Within only minutes it had grown to reach four times as far as it originally did, and it continued growing, With it growing my point total rose again. I was already back up to 300, and there was a steady increase, especially when I started flinging more des again. But no matter what I did, it didn¡¯t feel like I had any appreciable impact on the wall of antithesis behind us, as they continued their efforts to fuck us over. ¡°Fuck it, Jenna, here!¡±, I said, then looked at her, ¡°Kaysa, another Fortress, same upgrade, we won¡¯t get anywhere without it and she needs the points.¡± New purchase: Mark III Pristine Fortress (Upgraded)! Points reduced to: 228 A box appeared in Jenna¡¯sp with my decorations and she opened it immediately. ¡°Your AI can help you figure things out, just let Chloe know if you need nades.¡± She nodded and quickly put it on, before she looked back again, ¡°I might hit the car.¡± She said, a bit of uncertainty in her voice. ¡°Fuck the car, if we die it doesn¡¯t matter anyways!¡± Chloe said, then went into another turn when more xenos appeared in front of us. I held on for dear life as I was nearly wrenched out of my seat and into Chloe¡¯sp. Not that I would mind that, but right now really wasn¡¯t the time for a cuddle session. Jenna didn¡¯t need to hear that twice and a momentter one of her Hard-Light constructs basically sheared half of the roof off, before sending even more xenos to their demise. I didn¡¯t pay too much attention, tried to ignore the howling of the wind, and focused on my own fight. The majority of the flock was behind us, but we had some adventurous aliens trying to hit us from the side, and I tried my best to prevent that from happening. Not that I was entirely sessful, a couple of them hit us and left dents in the car. We flew another long curve which I used to send more grenades into the hordes below in a brief moment of relief, while also sending more des into the flock behind us. Then suddenly I got a warning about low energy. Checking my charge indicator the thing sat at 1%. ¡°Fuck, Kaysa, recharge, now!¡± New purchase: Rechargeable Battery Pack (Variant B)! Points reduced to: 674 I ignored the notification and opened the box. It didn¡¯t take a genius to figure out what to do when a smallpartment on my Pristine Fortress opened and a small battery came out. I grabbed it, threw it in one of my pockets, then put the new one in before I continued my work. Another lurch rocked the car and Chloe cursed. ¡°Fuck! This thing won¡¯t hold out for much longer. Like it or not, we need tond!¡± Jenna and I didn¡¯t respond, concentrating on sting away as many xenos as we could while Chloe pointed us towards the defences on the ground. The ride was a lot more rocky now and from the looks of it she had problems properly controlling the thing. We shot past my Devouring Rose, which had grown considerably, and raised its tentacles into the air behind us, catching a good amount of aliens out of the air. We crashed onto the ruined streets, making me skip in my seat and bash my head on the dashboard, while Chloe tried to get us as close to the defensive line as she could. Something was severely fucked though, the ride was bumpy and the engine was howling in a most unhealthy way. Halfway to the defences it died. ¡°Fuck! Get out and run!¡± Chloe basically ordered and neither Jenna nor I needed a second invitation. Before it even had fully stopped we opened the doors and jumped out. I stumbled, high heels were sexy but not meant for this kind of stunt, but I caught myself in time and started running as quickly as I could. Chloe was just in front of me, half turned to fire into the aliens behind us, while Jenna was right behind me. We managed to make our way to the defences without an alien eating one of us, and all of us immediately jumped and started to climb up. I had done some crazy stunts during my gang days, but this climb was hard, and the heels weren¡¯t helping. Luckily Chloe was up to it and pulled first me up, then Jenna. On the other side of the wall I fell down, sliding to the ground and sitting down for just a moment, desperately trying to catch my breath. ¡°Kaysa¡­ How long until I can get the Reaver thing?¡± If you would coordinate with Vanguard Chloe and Vanguard Jenna you can do so now. ¡°Awesome¡­ Chloe, Jenna, big purchase, you in? I need some points and some bits of your catalogues¡­¡± I muttered, then got back up on shaky legs and looked over the barricade. I was exhausted, tired, and utterly out of breath, but we weren¡¯t out of the woods yet, so I sent more des into the mess that was the alien horde. ¡°I¡¯m in, just do whatever,¡± Chloe said, also quickly catching her breath while she checked over her gear. A momentter she got into position and sent bullet after bullet down range. The rate of fire wasn¡¯t high, but each bullet churned through a big chunk of aliens. ¡°Yeah, if it helps, get it. I¡¯ll be able to get some Sentinels soon though,¡± Jenna said. She was still sitting down, trying to breathe, and I didn¡¯t me her. ¡°Okay Kaysa, you heard them, hit it!¡± New purchase: Mark IV Progenitor Reaver (Variable Variant [Upgraded])! Points reduced to: 129 I have taken the liberty to add some upgrades. A big egg appeared not far from me on the other side of the barricade. For a moment I panicked since it was big and right in the line of fire, but the bullets just plinked off, not even leaving a mark. Then something shifted inside and I got another perspective added to my already confusing mess in my mind. I was just about to brace for impact, in case it would debilitate me again, but to my surprise this time things went smoothly. Long, powerful limbs cracked the egg, then an ear piercing howl rang out, and a giant thing the size of a bus jumped out of the remaining shell. It was big and fierce looking, generally shaped like an overgrown tiger or panther, but with three long tails that ended in enormous wicked looking des, and two long powerful limbs in its back. They seemed to be there for gripping if the huge ws at the end were anything to go by. The most impressive thing though was the head. Generally shaped like the head of a fox, or maybe a wolf, it had long ears that seemed a lot sturdier than fox or wolf ears. It also had a lot of eyes, four on each side, plus two eyes on each tail. And when it opened its maw wide it revealed long, sharp, dagger like teeth made of a silvery metal. Its entire body was covered in a mix of chitinous armor, wicked looking scales, leathery skin, and short bristly fur. Parts of it looked more armored than others, and I could see multiple mechanical additions, especially in the legs that supported it. It also seemed to have some Hard-Light emitters considering the light show that appeared around it, while one of the limbs on its back seemed to have some kind of firearm built into it. In a word, it was a gorgeously hideous monster that looked like it meant business. I hadn¡¯t even had the time yet to truly appreciate my new toy when it pounced, jumping high and far, vanishing behind the wall of dead xeno that had slowly started to shrink where my Rose had devoured it. ¡°Fucking hell!¡± one of the soldiers shouted, eyes wide, when he looked at the thing. I smiled wide, but didn¡¯tment. We still had xenos to kill, and so killing xenos was what we did. With both the Devouring Rose and the Progenitor Reaver things slowly turned into our favour. The biggest threat continued to be the flying models, since they still tried to swoop down and maul us, but between Jenna and me we had enough long range area denial to at least stop most of their attempts. I had just sent another big wave into an approaching group of model Ones and Twos, obliterating most of them, when someone came over to us. ¡°Thank the fucking universe you showed up,¡± he said. He sounded male and had the general body shape of a man, although it was hard to see details, since he was covered head to toe in some bordeaux red and ck armor. While it definitely had Samurai vour, it also didn¡¯t look too dissimr from the normal soldiers around us. ¡°I don¡¯t think without you we¡¯d be this well off.¡± I nodded to him, just as Chloe turned around to nce at us, but she continued firing into the distance. ¡°Well, we thought we couldn¡¯t leave you alone. Bit surprised though, you should have a lot of points, yeah? Why¡¯d you not get some big bomb or something?¡± ¡°Because that would have levelled most of the district and that¡¯s not something I want. Most of the barricades and turret emcements around are ours, so that¡¯s where most of our points went.¡± That had me raise my eyebrows, ¡°Damn, that¡¯s a lot of points. d you didn¡¯t tten us though, so I guess thank you?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t mention it. With you here things are a lot better already. Although, what exactly was that thing? I don¡¯t think I¡¯ve ever seen shit like that before.¡± He looked over to where my Devouring Rose had finally started to eclipse the wall of xeno bodies and makeshift barricades. ¡°Hexws, basically another biomass hungry hive-swarm. Although this one won¡¯t eat people. Or anything other than antithesis really,¡± I said with a smirk. Some of the soldiers around us looked at me a bit panicked. He just shrugged, then held out a hand, ¡°As long as it works. I¡¯m Shrapnel. You are?¡± I took the offered hand with a smile, ¡°People call me the Princess of the redlight district, but I guess that¡¯s a bit long. So, just call me Crimson Princess.¡±
I have a Discord! Chapter 10 – Frontline R&R Chapter 10 ¨C Frontline R&R ¡°Tired and hungry, but unsure if a full meal is what you need right now? Introducing the ShortDog! This revolutionary dish based on the excellent American HotDog is just what you need! It¡¯s a shorter HotDog, allowing for more precise portioning and less waste!¡± - Failed ShortDog Campaign Poster, 2045 Shrapnel nodded, then looked over to first Chloe, then Jenna, ¡°Who¡¯re they?¡± ¡°That¡¯s Chloe, and the lovelyss in the risque getup is Jenna. We are all rtively new so they don¡¯t have fancy names yet. Apart from that though, do you need anything?¡± Jenna blushed a bit at myment, but that didn¡¯t stop her from continuing to shoot down even more aliens. ¡°Well, medical stuff would be nice if you got some, but I also don¡¯t want to ask for too much since you basically just saved our asses.¡± He caught another grenade out of the air then flung it far into the mess of aliens. ¡°We can talk about thatter. I get loads of points so I don¡¯t mind spending them on medical shit. Not sure if we should do it now though. Just what the fuck did you do for them to alle here? You have aliens from all the way in the industrial districting here.¡± I asked, then turned again and projected another big circle to stop a flock of Onesing down on us. The fuckers were unrelenting and at this point I had started to be a bit annoyed at them. Guess that was just part of the job. ¡°Absolutely zero clue. Was just coordinating with some rookies nearby when everything went to shit. We lost one in the onught before we managed to hunker down.¡± He sounded regretful, ¡°Wasn¡¯t able to pull her out of the maw of a three¡­ Guess we can be lucky that we didn¡¯t see bigger models yet.¡± I nced over my shoulder at him. The loss seemed to nag at him, but he didn¡¯t sound like he was falling apart because of it, so that meant we could leave the therapy session until after we were done defending the ce. My Reaver was doing a lot of work. I watched it from its perspective while we fought and it was running through the hordes of aliens like a bulldozer. It wasn¡¯t invincible of course and I could see some wounds and bites and stuff whenever I got a glimpse of its limbs and body, but it was crushing aliens as fast as I could have hoped for. ¡°Well,¡± I said, looking back at him, ¡°Once we get some breathing room we need to figure out why they¡¯re all so horny for you. This shit isn¡¯t like anything I¡¯ve ever heard before. Not that I have too much experience with any of this, of course, but it looks as fishy as it could from my perspective.¡± ¡°Agreed. I¡¯ll probably do some strategy meetings once we can fend off most of them. Although,¡± he looked at the Devouring Rose, which by this point had overtaken basically the entire street left to right, plus some buildings on each side, ¡°Looks like that won¡¯t be too much of a problem soon.¡± I shrugged, giving him a bit of a smile, ¡°Well, it won¡¯t live forever. Once the biomass stopsing it will basically starve to death.¡± A couple of the soldiers in ear shot seemed to rx at that news, although of course I couldn¡¯t be entirely sure. Shrapnel tilted his head though, and from the tone of his voice there was a frown on his face, ¡°Wouldn¡¯t that be a giant feast for aliens then?¡± I opened my mouth, then closed it. I hadn¡¯t even thought of that. You don¡¯t need to worry about that. The Devouring Rose was tailor made to fight off the antithesis. Even when it dies its biomass is toxic to them, should some of its remains end up in a hive¡¯s digestion pool it will render the hive first infertile, before it slowly kills it. Should a model Eight or any other antithesis eat the flesh and keep it in their body for a prolonged period of time they will slowly die and rot, leaving no usable biomass behind. ¡°Oh, damn,¡± I muttered, then looked at Sharpnel, ¡°No worries there. Kaysa tells me its flesh is toxic to the aliens. If they bring it to their hive it will just slowly wither away.¡± He nodded, then looked around, ¡°Good. Keep things up, hopefully we will all be able to take a break soon.¡± This time it was my turn to nod and with that he wandered off. I stretched, then looked into the distance. The sun was slowly setting in the distance and the swarm of xenos was slowly dying down. Most of the flyers had been dealt with so far, which was good. Shrapnel was right, hopefully we could have a break soon. Roughly an hour and a halfter we had dealt with most of the xenos trying to ram the gate in. There was still fighting in the distance and the Reaver was still doing its job. So far though it hadn¡¯t made any new Hexws, which¡­ I mean, I guess I really didn¡¯t know how it worked, so maybe I shouldn¡¯t have been too surprised. ¡°Okay, when will the Reaver start making Hatchlings? Not that I¡¯m unhappy with the results so far, but from its description that seemed to be a pretty big part of its job, yeah?¡± I asked when I finally had some time. Chloe was standing next to me, still surveying the area just in case. Jenna was sitting down, back against the barricade and eyes closed. She wasn¡¯t sleeping, but she definitely looked like she needed rest. I sat down next to her and leaned into her a bit, just to offer some emotional support, if she still needed it. While it might look like it is fully grown, it is not. It will need to consume some of the biomass around and finalise its growth before it can fully start. I suspect it will take roughly three hours before it can fully get started on building your Hive-Swarm. I nodded, but didn¡¯t say anything, just enjoying the calm for a change and resting a bit. Chloe came over, looking at me and Jenna with a raised eyebrow and a slight smirk on her lips. ¡°Should I give you two some room?¡± I looked at her with one eye, my own smirk on my own lips, ¡°What? Are you jealous?¡± She shrugged, ¡°Do you want me to lie to you?¡± ¡°No?¡± ¡°Then yeah, a bit.¡± I snorted and patted the ground next to me. Once she was seated we spent some moments in silence. ¡°Fucking day¡­¡± Chloe muttered, head leaned against the wall behind us. ¡°Mhm¡­ Hope the others are safe,¡± I replied, then closing my eyes and leaning my head onto Chloe¡¯s shoulder. ¡°They¡¯re fine,¡± Jenna said from next to me, ¡°Cleopatra hasn¡¯t seen any xenos about.¡± That made me feel better. I hadn¡¯t gotten any messages or calls from Tina, Sharon, or Castas, but that didn¡¯t mean there wasn¡¯t an emergency or anything. But with Jenna¡¯s Sentinel nearby and rying the message I felt much better. ¡°But we can¡¯t rest yet,¡± she continued. I frowned, but she was right. ¡°We might have beaten back the swarm, but we are by far not done here. There are still more xenos to fight.¡± I sighed deeply, ¡°Yeah, I know. But with the Rose and the Reaver things are better. Shrapnel and his friends were able to rebuild the defences a bit. It won¡¯t be perfect, but hey, it should work. And we made tons of points.¡± As a matter of fact, despite my big purchases so far I was sitting on 1827 points. I would have expected more, but the distance at which the Reaver was killing things meant that I got 1 or 2 points per model Three at best, most often I didn¡¯t get points at all. It was a decent trade off though. It was one big motherfucker with lots of xeno killing potential, and if I would just be able to send it out to incursions and have it do my work for me basically every Samurai would use the same tactic. I wasn¡¯t quite sure what the Protectors n was when it came to having us defeat the antithesis, but that sounded a lot like they would do our job for us. With another sigh Chloe got up, ¡°Well¡­ enough lounging around.¡± She smiled down at us, then held out a hand for me, pulling me to my feet. We both helped Jenna up, before we looked around to see where else we could make ourselves useful. It didn¡¯t take long for us to find Shrapnel and the other Samurai. They had gathered not far from some entrance next to the giant gate and were talking amongst themselves. They looked a bit strange. All three of the rookies Shrapnel had picked up were pretty normal looking in terms of clothing, but that was about where the normalcy ended. There was one girl around my height, looking to be about sixteen or seventeen, who was wearing ck pants and a ck oversized hoodie. So far, so normal. What was not normal was the eight feet tall exosuit power armor mix or whatever that she wore on top of her clothes. It seemed to be either some modr thing or extremely damaged, since I couldn¡¯t actually see any armor tes around. In addition to that fuck off exosuit she had an even bigger fuck off gun. If I saw it correctly it was the minigun I had seen them get when we had first arrived in the airspace around the gate. Its barrels were still slightly red from the heat, which was just¡­ how long did that thing have to fire for them to stay hot this long? Regardless, she had some smaller weaponry attached to her thighs, although I say small inparison to her armor. It was still bigger than even Chloe¡¯s fuck off gun. Next up we had anky man in civilian clothing, looking to be some kind of cheap store manager or simr. He didn¡¯t have much in terms of alien tech, apart from a big long rifle and some weird visor contraption on his head. He either hadn¡¯t spent a lot of points yet, or the gear he did get was sweet. Not that I should scream into the sshouse with my stones, I had eighteen hundred points I was sitting on and I wasn¡¯t exactly looking precisely fashionable at the moment either. Thest was a pudgy man probably around forty, which did surprise me a bit. From what I heard, Samurai were most often on the younger side, even I would be considered old among them. This guy though was old old, and it showed. He wore some kind of workers overall, couldn¡¯t quite ce him in a job. He had some strange backpack, obviously alien tech, and was projecting a big holographic map for everyone to see. When we arrived he was also openly leering at me, not that I personally minded too much, but Jenna didn¡¯t seem to be a fan. ¡°Hey,¡± I said, looking into the gathering, ¡°Thought we mighte around, ask where we are needed. You said something earlier about medical stuff, right?¡± Shrapnel nodded and pointed to old guy, ¡°Jordan can tell you where those are needed.¡± Now it was my turn to nod, before I looked into the gathering of Samurai, ¡°So, care to do some introductions?¡± ¡°Dominium Fortress,¡± the girl said, giving me a slightly appalled and disgusted once over, ¡°Not sure what your deal is but please put some more clothes on. You are disgusting.¡± I snorted, ¡°Well honey, that was the n.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t call me honey, yuck!¡± ¡°Not sure I got a name yet, so Martin it is for now,¡± thenky fe said, from his expression he was trying to stop an ensuing argument, ¡°And that here is Jordan. He¡¯s mute so don¡¯t expect him to be talkative.¡± In reply to that Jordan opened his mouth and showed that he had no tongue, which was¡­ extremely strange to see. I pitied any woman, or man for that matter, in his life. ¡°Aight. I think at this point my name is Crimson Princess, so feel free to refer to me as such. These are Chloe and Jenna,¡± I exined, giving a small wave into the group. Both Chloe and Jenna nodded, seemingly disinterested to say something for themselves. Chloe had said she wasn¡¯t the most social person, even if she had no issues with me, and Jenna looked to feel a bit out of ce which, I guess made sense. ¡°So,¡± I said, now that introductions were done, ¡°Medical stuff. I have some and I also need some space to actually get clothing. While I love showing off how sexy I am, the pipsqueak is right, this ain¡¯t xeno killing clothes.¡± Fortress looked even more appalled at me calling her pipsqueak, but I ignored it. ¡°And I am pretty sure Jenna would also like to get some better gear,¡± I added with a nce at the woman in question. She nodded, ¡°Yes. I need something better to fight off xenos than a micro skirt and wonky heels.¡± Again Fortress looked disgusted, and from the very faint smirk on Jenna¡¯s face that seemed to be the goal. The woman certainly was more of a tease then I had originally thought her to be. Not that I minded, it would be wonderful to have someone I could gang up on others with. Shrapnel ignored our antics and nodded to Jordan. A momentter the holographic view shifted and centered on a rough approximation of the area around us. A red line started to lead through theplex next to us and soon I looked at a map to wherever he wanted us to go. ¡°Aha¡­ Okay, guess that¡¯s first. Jenna and I¡¯ll go do that, then go change,¡± I said, giving Jenna another nce and she nodded at me. ¡°I¡¯ll stick around, check if I can¡¯t help these guys,¡± Chloe said with a smile my way. As always it warmed my heart and I returned it. ¡°We¡¯ll discuss some options while you change and when you return we can go over what needs doing,¡± Shrapnel added. I nodded, ¡°I don¡¯t mind helping, but we got people in the redlight district that need saving. And since I know that the golden rulers of the inner city don¡¯t give a fuck about some drugged up joytoys I will most likely get back there soon to defend them should any more xenos arrive.¡± Martin and Shrapnel both nodded, understanding where I was getting at. They both seemed to care in their own way, which endeared them a lot to me. ¡°Once things go quiet I can do a patrol around the area,¡± Fortress offered, which surprised me greatly. She seemed to notice my wide eyes and raised eyebrows and rolled her eyes, ¡°Just because you are disgusting doesn¡¯t mean I won¡¯t help people who need it. Now get the fuck out of my sight before I solve your clothing problem by blowing you up.¡± That had me snorting, seemed like the pipsqueak had the heart in the right ce. With a wave I turned away from the group and started making my way to the entrance into the wall with Jenna hot on my heels. The entrance was a heavily fortified thing, it looked like multiple locks had to be disengaged before the thing opened, and that was precisely what some soldier boy was doing. He was bright red and tried to not look at either Jenna or me at all, which was just adorable. Once the door was open and we walked past him I gave him a wink, which had him even more red in the face, ¡°I don¡¯t understand how you can be so okay with people staring at you,¡± Jenna said after we had entered, ¡°Don¡¯t you think it¡¯s creepy?¡± ¡°I guess it is,¡± I replied, trying to figure out where we needed to go from here. After some failed attempts Kaysa put an arrow in my vision, pointing the way. ¡°Thanks Kaysa. Anyways, I guess I¡¯m just a bit different. I love it when people look at me, when I can see them fantasise about what they would want to do to me. It makes me¡­ I guess feel powerful? Like I can impact them somehow. I know I¡¯m gorgeous and sexy so why not show it off?¡± ¡°I guess I can understand that, still¡­ To me it feels embarrassing. Like I¡¯m dirty.¡± ¡°Honey, you are dirty. You are a joytoy, you sell your body for money, there is not much dirtier than that. But that doesn¡¯t mean you don¡¯t have value. I mean, look at you. You look awesome, cute and pretty. Do you know why they call me the Princess of the redlight district?¡± Jenna shook her head, ¡°Not really, no.¡± ¡°Because I am Seraphine Bloodfallen. I¡¯m not some world known superstar of the porn industry or anything, but people around the district know me; most joytoys in the district know me, at least the older ones. And the reason for that is because I epted that I am a joytoy and I market myself like one. I go out and let people see me, and I fulfil their wildest dreams. Sure, I¡¯m a cheap whore who only cares about getting paid to get railed while drunk, but that doesn¡¯t mean I¡¯m worthless.¡± She didn¡¯t seem convinced, which I guess was fair. Not everyone was so okay with selling themselves out as I was. ¡°I suppose¡­ I¡¯m still not sure I am happy about it all. Kind of d I can get out now that I am a Samurai.¡± I shrugged at that, ¡°To each their own. I don¡¯t know you well, but from what I¡¯ve seen you seem to be more the elegant type, the kind of person who cares about dignity. I¡¯m pretty sure that if you do it right you could market yourself with that. As a Samurai I mean. Though, truth be told I don¡¯t really know how they make money, but considering there are Samurai ads on everything I guess sponsoring or something. Could help you make money, even if you might not need it anymore once you sell some gear.¡± We continued to walk while talking, and after we passed some smaller groups of people we finally arrived at the destination. It wasn¡¯t far from the entrance, once we came around another bend there was a giant room. Lots and lots of people were around on cheap looking¡­ I couldn¡¯t even call it bedding, more like stic sheets or something. Probably wasn¡¯tfortable but at least it helped. Some couple people ran around with medical tools and whatnot, first aid workers and doctors probably, although by the looks of things they were utterly overwhelmed. I looked around the room, but it wasn¡¯t quite clear who was in charge so I shrugged and raised my voice. ¡°I heard you needed meds. Well, I¡¯m here, so what do you need?¡± Most people didn¡¯t seem to realise we were Samurai at first, so I decided to be a bit shy, just in case someone tried to make problems for us. With a quick perusal of my augs I created a Hard-Light Bridge leading down the stairs. It was utterly useless, but it drove the point home, and some of the annoyed looks immediately became more reverent and relieved. We spent some time with the good doctors in the¡­ makeshift hospital? The group was led by some older, serious looking gentleman who could make you feel allfortable and warm inside just by the way he was talking to you. Probably a good quality to have as a doctor. After some back and forth about options I left them medical stuff worth roughly two hundred points. I wanted to give him more, but he was already telling me that we gave him too much. From the looks of it most things were minor wounds and didn¡¯t need special treatments, so he asked for stuff to treat the more critical patients, which I guess made sense. Once we were done we left, a lot of eyes following us. ¡°So¡­ Now, where to find a room to change? I probably should have asked, shouldn¡¯t I?¡±
I have a Discord! Chapter 11 – Princess’ new clothes Chapter 11 ¨C Princess¡¯ new clothes ¡°Samurai fashion is a bit of a mixed bag. Depending on personality or theme their style can vary greatly. Generally they can be categorised into three overall groups: The first doesn¡¯t care for fashion, they just want the gear that best does the job and they don¡¯t care much about the looks. Often these types are new Samurai who simply hadn¡¯t had the time yet to care too much about looks. Rarely these kinds of chaotic designs persist into their continued career though, such as with Hodgepodge, a Tier 3 Samurai who has be well known for their utter disregard for fashion. Secondly you have those who favour function over form, but still make sure that they at least follow an easy to identify theme. And thenstly there are the fashion freaks, who can single handedly shift the vour of the week with one simple shift in design.¡± - ¡°Samurai Fashionista¡±, issue 124, 2049 Luckily for us we were Samurai and after asking some people around we were immediately directed to some head honchos office and told to take all the time we needed. ¡°Yes, please, Cleopatra,¡± Jenna said, an unhappy frown on her face. She noticed my confusion and shrugged, ¡°They got like half a dozen cameras in here. Really don¡¯t need them watching me undress, Cleopatra deactivated them.¡± That did exin things. I just shrugged, it wasn¡¯t really that I cared too much. Once inside I looked down at my clothing, then first got rid of my boots, then the armor. It had served its purposes, but truth be told it was a blessing to be rid of it, considering that it really wasn¡¯tfortable. Once finally free of it I also got rid of myst remaining piece of clothing, the bra. At this point it was so sweaty that I really didn¡¯t even want to attempt to clean it up. ¡°Well¡­ I need to clean up. Do you have something for that?¡± Certainly. From the ss 0 General Civilian Utilities Catalogue, Crystalwash. It is a rather potent cleaning agent that was designed to get rid of even the most stubborn dirt, without hurting your skin. Simply pour it over your head and rub it in for a couple of minutes. The chemicals will harden and fall off. ¡°Sounds fancy. How much?¡± 1 point per bottle. ¡°Grand, I¡¯ll take two.¡± New purchase: Crystalwash x2! Points reduced to: 1625 I knelt down and opened both boxes. They were small things, rather wasteful honestly. Not that I cared too much, our was fucked anyways. I grabbed them both and made my way over to Jenna who was deep in discussion with her own AI, and rather uncertain from the looks of it. ¡°Here, will help you clean off a bit,¡± I said and handed her one of the bottles with a smile. She looked confused for a moment, then down at my outstretched hand. ¡°Uhm, thanks?¡± ¡°No worries. Just pour it over yourself and rub it in, stuff will do the rest.¡± She nodded, then got lost in her own conversation again when she listened to Cleopatra. I just shrugged and wandered off to my own corner again. ¡°Well, Kaysa, I need clothes. Good ones too.¡± While I spoke I opened the bottle and poured it over myself as instructed. It felt¡­ weird, simr to jelly but without the consistency. ¡°Not sure I need to focus on weapons, at least for now, considering I have the Pristine Fortress and the Reaver, especially once it starts churning out Hexws.¡± That should hopefully not take long, considering the biomassying around. I would also advise you to have the Reaver consume the Devouring Rose once it has starved. While its toxin would be nice to keep the antithesis hives in check, the biomass at hand is quite considerable and can easily be turned into an army if given the time. ¡°If I get that time,¡± I muttered, rubbing the weird jelly stuff into the more hard to reach ces, ¡°I don¡¯t think we will be able to spend much time here. Even if we beat back the scourge, we need to figure out how to save the others, and the Reaver would be quite helpful for that.¡± I thought for a moment, ¡°I think I¡¯ll name it Snuffles.¡± Perhaps you might want to consider obtaining more Progenitor Hexws, to increase the throughput. ¡°Maybe, not now though. I need clothes that can work as armor and that don¡¯t look like that,¡± I said, throwing a thumb over my shoulder to the old armor Chloe had given me. It had done its job, but I really didn¡¯t want to get something so ugly again. In that case it might be a good idea for you to finally obtain the ss I Mythical Kitsune Catalogue. It has quite the broad collection of clothing items that could be upgraded to work as armor. They should also still retain their usefulness should you decide for body modificationster down the line. Of course, depending on what you wish to achieve with that there might be some things that won¡¯t work well together. ¡°Talking about body mods, what kind of point cost can I expect? Generally speaking I mean, still not sure what I actually want from that.¡± I waited while the weird Crystalwash stuff did its thing. It felt a bit fucky, something was happening with it, but I couldn¡¯t quite put my finger on it. That is a rather hard question to answer. Roughly between eight thousand to thirty thousand points, depending on the goal you wish to achieve; you can almost certainly spend much more. As I have mentioned before, most Samurai usually use body modifications to make themselves more resilient, however some also use it to redesign their own body. You seem to like the Kitsune theme so far, perhaps you wish to imitate some of the things they are most well known for? It would be rather easy with the catalogue unlocked. I shrugged, ¡°I haven¡¯t put much thought into it, really. I like the idea of being all cute, and pretty, and sexy, and stuff, but at the same time¡­ I mean Chloe mentioned something about misdirection and stuff like that, right? Body doubles, Shapeshifting? I guess it would be fun to do, not sure how much use those will have when fighting off the hordes of aliens though.¡± Seraphine, you have ess to the Hexw Swarm Intelligence Catalogue. Any body doubles and any shapeshifting abilities you might get in the future can be quite potent weapons in your arsenal. Even if you disregard the more hideous appearances of the Hexws you could still integrate natural weapons into your look temporarily. ¡°I guess that is a point¡­ Hm, put it on the list for future consideration. I still need to think more about that. Will make picking out clothing difficult though¡­ Actually, scratch that. I doubt I will need or use the same kind of stuff I get now when I get to that point. I mean, you said it costs tens of thousands of points, right? Might as well get new and improved stuff then.¡± Very well. In that case I do have some rmendations for you. How many points are you willing to spend on this? ¡°Good question,¡± I said, then looked down at myself. At this point the jelly stuff had started to harden and was king off at different parts of my body. I had to shake some parts off, and use my fingers tob through my hair a bit, although surprisingly most of the jelly came off really easily. Now fully clean I stretchedvishly. It felt nice to be clean again, even my crimson mane felt much less strained. Not quite like I had just given it a good wash, but it was the next best thing. ¡°I think for the moment call it¡­ I dunno, 600 or so points for clothes. The Catalogue was 150, right? That means I will have what, 750 points remaining if I want to keep a hundred as emergency funds? Leaves me with more than enough if I need more gadgets.¡± That opens up quite a significant amount of choices. For general protection you need some kind of armor; either full on armor, armored clothing, or an armored dress. Considering your preferences it also needs to look elegant with maybe a touch of sensuality thrown in, in which case I would rmend either the Mark II Moonlit Dress with fitting underwear and decorative pieces for 350 points, or if you prefer shirts and pants or skirts, the Mark II Nights Embrace Armored Blouse, plus either the Mark II Sinners Joy Armored Skirt, or the Mark I Summer Pants, ending up at 260 points. For the boots I can rmend the Mark III Nekomata''sGrace Stilettos, which have weaponized heels, or if you are looking for something more casual, the Mark II Silent Runners, which are more focused on stealth, both at 200 points. ¡°That¡­ is quite expensive for a couple of pieces of clothing. But I guess they do have their uses. Let me guess, they aren¡¯t just some lightly armored pieces of designer wear, are they?" Of course not. Let us start with the Mark II Moonlit Dress. It is abination Item between your ss I Hard-Light Technologies Catalogue and the ss I Mythical Kitsune Catalogue. That means it can project a protective Hard-Light shield around you in case of emergency, but it is also capable of seamlessly switching colour, even limited stealth functionality. Ites with two bracelets and two earrings, plus sleeves for your arms, which have the same functionality as the dress.The bracelets work as variable Hard-Light emitters, focused mainly on defence of your person, while the earringse with pre-installed nanite swarms, purpose built to find and close open wounds, as well as repair of the dress. The severity of the wounds and gashes they can fix is quite limited however, don¡¯t expect miracles. They are mainly there to keep you looking pristine and ever beautiful. ¡°Damn¡­ That is quite the sell, Kaysa. The rest? Are they simr in function?" That would be the case yes, although minus the bracelets and earrings. They could be bought separately, which would cost 370 points for the entire ensemble if you go with the shirt and pants. ¡°Yeah¡­ I was never one for shirts and pants, shirt and skirt sure, but I really like the idea of that dress. Put it on the list. The shoes?" The Mark III Nekomata''sGrace Stilettos are thigh high high heels that are focused mainly on protecting your legs and feet, while also capable of dealing some damage. The heels are preinstalled with a thagomizer, meaning that they can lit ame. They feature a cybeically controlled bnce system, which would prevent you from tripping easily, and will overall improve your bnce. The bnce systemes in the form of a tail that would attach itself just above your cyx. ¡°Wait, a tail?" I asked, a little bit surprised. I tried to imagine myself with a tail and I had to say I did like that idea quite a lot. Indeed. Don¡¯t forget these items are meant to fit a Kitsune theme, it would be quite strange to find a Kitsune without a tail. ¡°I guess that¡¯s true¡­ Okay, so that would be¡­ 350 plus 200, so that¡¯s 550, plus the catalogue, 700 points then. That¡¯s¡­ Actually not that bad. I was thinking about finally getting that sensory system you rmended earlier, but I am not sure since inparison it almost sounds cheap.¡± If you are willing to spend an additional 90 points we could also go for the Mark III Twin-Ear Sensory Suite. It would still be a semi-non intrusive option with the help of an imnt. The imnt you got to control the Progenitor Reaver works well for this purpose. The Mark III Twin-Ear Sensory Suite would allow you to perceive sounds outside the human spectrum, navigate the world around you with sound alone, increase your bnce, with additional support for the Mark III Nekomata''sGrace Stilettos, send and receive long rangemunications, and change their appearance to a limited degree. You can also choose to turn them invisible. Quite the package if I do say so myself. ¡°Hm¡­ It¡¯s expensive, but I think it would be worth it. I kinda wanna get better augs too, if I¡¯m already at it.¡± An upgrade of your basic augments is part of the Mark III Twin-Ears Sensory Suite. It was necessary for you to utilise it fully and has already been included in the price. ¡°Wait, so what would it cost without the augmentations upgrades?" 90 points. ¡°What if I spent a bit more on augs then? Call it¡­ a hundred? Maybe a bit more?" In that case there are some options avable from the ss I Hexw Catalogue. For 80 points you could get an overall upgrade of your current suite of augmentations. For 100 points you can get additional features, meshing with the imnt from the Progenitor Reaver, that would enable you to basically let all Hexw Units run independently from you, while still entirely under your control. It would basically offload the strain on your mind from having too many Units to the augmentations. There is one more expansive option, if you would like to hear it. ¡°Spit it out, Kaysa, I know you want to.¡± The Mark VII Hexw Swarm Intelligence Singrity Legion Control. It costs 210 points. It does fully deliver for the price however. To begin with it would beparable to the Military Grade version of low end Samurai Augmentations, with limited Cyberwarfare capabilities, apletemunications suite that can work in conjunction with the Mark III Twin-Ears Sensory Suite, a full control center for all your Hexw Units and any other drones you might wish to get, and can be upgraded to fully control Nanite Swarms. The main feature is a privatework, with full virtual reality capabilities, including limited mesh dives, and a multitasking support software, enabling you to more or less split your attention, while still retaining full control over each part. Of course it would also improve your vision to include more than the human spectrum, as well as further improve on your bncing with integrated support for both your boots and the Mark III Twin-Ear Sensory Suite. I was silent for a moment, a bit overwhelmed by the implications. ¡°Damn, Kaysa, talk about sales pitch. Now I would feel bad if I didn¡¯t take it. Bundle it all up, I¡¯m sold.¡± It is a pleasure doing business with you. ss I Mythical Kitsune Catalogue unlocked! Points reduced to: 1500 New purchase: Mark II Moonlit Dress! Points reduced to: 1150 New purchase: Mark III Nekomata''sGrace Stilettos! Points reduced to: 950 New purchase: Mark VII Hexw Swarm Intelligence Singrity Legion Control! Points reduced to: 740 New purchase: Mark III Twin-Ears Sensory Suite! Points reduced to: 650 Iughed as multiple boxes appeared around me. Time to get suited up! To start with I opened the box with the dress, simply because it came with underwear and that would be the first thing I should probably put on. Not because I disliked being naked, obviously. The dress itself looked kind of in, out of the box. Of course that changed the moment I thought about it and the entire thing lit up, gradually shifting through some colours including something semi-see-through, which was wonderful to know, before it settled on a nice purple colour with ck and silvery ents. It fit the rest of my look quite well and it did match the colours I usually dressed myself in. The cut was rtively simple, but masterfully tailored. At its lowest point it reached just over my knees, although that was only the tip of the dress. The asymmetric shape covered my right leg until just above mid thigh, while the left leg was entirely uncovered on the side, revealing the small piece of cloth belonging to my ck panties. It meshed well with the sensual look and did challenge anyone looking at me to imagine the possibilities, yet it was chaste enough to not overly sell the sexy look. A simr style was present around the chest area, which did have quite a bit of cleavage, but not enough to look slutty. When I put it on it fit me very well, almost too well. Then again Kaysa had probably my exact measurements down to nanometer scale or something and had used some weird protector AI math fuckery to get the perfect lines done. The sleeves were equally elegant. They hid away my lower arms, while keeping my upper arms bare to the shoulders. They attached at a very small point on the outside of my shoulders to the dress with a small maic clip, making them very easy to put on, while also strongly enough attached that I didn¡¯t need to worry about identally ripping them down. The clips also doubled as small Hard-Light emitters that would prevent any attack from hitting me around my bare arms unhindered. The bracelets and earrings were of course meant toplete the entire look, they looked stylish and elegant, but didn¡¯t overshadow the design, rather underlining it. Of course the earrings were shaped like stylized fox heads, which looked quite nice. Sadly I had to put my Pristine Fortress over my sleeves, which did look a bit out of ce at first, but after adjusting the gear a bit I did manage to get it to fit in a way I liked. Next up were the boots, which were just as nice as the dress. They generally followed the same design pattern and despite being quite durable looked more like soft cloth socks, rather than thigh highs. They reached just under mid thigh, which meant that there was this small little thigh window that I knew from experience was something most clients enjoyed to see. The heels weren¡¯t too high, but high enough to give me an inch or two in height, and surprisingly stable. I had to actively try to trip before I could bend my ankle, probably the bnce system at work considering how the boots themselves tried to prevent me from falling. I loved it immediately. No need to worry about running in heels anymore. The tail was¡­ an interesting experience. Full fur that felt almost real, and it snuck under the dress in just the right way to hide what needed to be hidden, yet looked rather provocative when I was sashaying, I thought. Once I had fully clothed myself and inspected my new look as well as I could I opened the next box, which contained the Sensory Suite. True to its name the Mark III Twin-Ears Sensory Suite came in the form of tworge and fluffy fox ears that I had to ce on my head. The fur was of course the same shade of red as my hair, simr to the tail. Once ced I could feel them shift and move until something attached itself to my scalp and held fast. No matter how I moved they didn¡¯t move from their ce on my head. It was a sin that I didn¡¯t have a mirror to admire myself in, but considering the utterly ck jawed look Jenna was giving me, despite her best attempts to hide it, was indication enough that I looked extremely good. Awesome! Last but not least I had the augmentations upgrade, which¡­ looked a bit sketchy. Take the two disks out of the box, and ce one on your forehead, and one on the side of your neck. Next take the needle and inject the contents next to each disks. Lastly, take the eye cover and ce it on your eyes. You need to keep your eyes open during the operation, which the cover will help you do. ¡°This¡­ sounds like quite the intrusive operation," I said, slightly unsure. That¡¯s because it is. You shouldn¡¯t feel much pain, nor should it interfere with any future biological changes, unless you fully want to switch to an animal-like form, in which case some upgrades to the Mark VII Hexw Swarm Intelligence Singrity Legion Control would be in order. I took a deep breath, then prepared as I was told. ¡°Here goes nothing." Then I felt a sudden, but short pain, before my sight went away. That had me panic for a moment, before it returned, although changed. You can now remove the disks and the eye cover. I did and¡­ the world¡­ looked different. Not a lot different, it still had the same kind of general look to it, but it looked sharper. Then my sight shifted and I could suddenly see¡­ heat. Then even more. You are now capable of perceiving things far further removed from the normal human spectrum, plus some additions like limited X-Ray vision. Your sight should be as sharp as it is possible for your brain toprehend as well. ¡°Damn! You weren¡¯t kidding when you said this shit is worth it!" I said, examining everything around me. Switching through my different forms of vision I could see¡­ a lot. Jenna already looked pretty good with my new eyes, but now I was able to see her body temperature, her heartbeat, blood flow, and even skeleton if I felt like it. It was amazing, even if a bit freaky. ¡°Uhm¡­ Could you stop staring?" she said, slowly covering up, even though she was already fully dressed in her own new getup. ¡°Oh, sorry! I was checking your blood flow out! Just got new augs and they are crazy good! I even have X-Ray vision!¡± That earned me a scandalous look. ¡°Oh, I didn¡¯t mean it like that. I can see your skeleton and such, not that kind of X-Ray vision.¡± She didn¡¯t seem convinced. I snorted and focused back on my normal vision, fully taking in her new outfit. It was simr to mine in terms of vour, although more armoured and in an entirely different style. She had gone full Egyptian Queen or Pharaoh, with sandy browns, whites, and purple and golden ents. It was very much in line with the remainder of her theme, but it did have some more modern looking cuts as well, especially the armor bits. It all umted with her looking like a believable modern rendition of the Pharaoh¡¯s of old. The dress was a bit revealing, yes, but not in a sexual way. In fact, it managed to show a lot of skin in a very elegant and majestic fashion. While I had more of a seductive look, she looked like a Queen on a throne. ¡°Wow¡­ You look really nice in that," I said, and I meant it. ¡°Thanks¡­ Yours is quite fitting too.¡± It was hard to pick out, but she seemed genuinely happy at thepliment. ¡°Thanks! I really like it!" I beamed, then tilted my head, ¡°But hey, weren¡¯t you focused on Sentinels and such? Didn¡¯t you get more of those?" ¡°Yeah, I n to, but I can¡¯t well get them in here, since they are quiterge. I mean, I could, but I thought I¡¯d wait until we were outside.¡± ¡°That makes sense. Ready to head out then?" I asked, with an excited gleam. I couldn¡¯t wait to show off my new look! ¡°Uhm, sure. Aren¡¯t you going to get more weapons though?" ¡°Nah, I got my Pristine Fortress and Snuffles, who can make more Hexw thingiester. Just need to be patient.¡± Talking about Snuffles, with the new augs I could now perceive its¡­ hers? I decided on hers, since the Reaver was all about birthing new Hatchlings. Anyway, I could now perceive her perspective separately, while still retaining my attention on my own senses. It was a bit of a fucky feeling that I would probably need to get used to, but it already made controlling her quite a lot easier. Who knows, maybe one day I would fight the xenos side by side with her. That thought made me grin. I couldn¡¯t wait!
I have a Discord! Chapter 12 – Sewer crawling Chapter 12 ¨C Sewer crawling ¡°The importance of sewer maintenance has been one recently discussed a lot, after there had been an incident in New Montreal, which has left the city with quite the debacle. Outsourcing on top of outsourcing had ended with the sewer maintenance falling in the hand of a gang of volunteers, which once shut down by a Samurai for their kidnappings of innocent people, had left the entire system entirely broken. The costs of repairs are astonishing.¡± - Minister of Infrastructure, New Savannah, 2057 When we headed out of the room we immediately drew a lot of attention, which I guess was understandable. Before we just looked like cheap hookers, now we looked like actual Samurai. Not that I didn¡¯t still look inviting, but there was a noticeable difference in style, which also changed the way people looked at us. For the most part anyways, I could still feel some leery gazes on me which I didn¡¯t mind. To my surprise Jenna seemed to be getting less leers now, which was probably at least partly the point of the design. They would never fully vanish, of course, there were always more people with their head firmly down in the gutter. True to her word, Jenna summoned two more Sentinels once we had left the room and were back in the long and roomy hallways. They were quite a bit shorter than the one she had when we had first met her, and they also were more than just a spindly bot with the Egyptian Jackal Sentinel head. These new Sentinels were quite feminine in shape, although it was clear that that was mostly for aesthetics. They were pretty enough to be admirable, but not enough to overshadow Jenna at all. They had a simr Jackal head, although this time with more¡­ feminine features, I guess. Longer ears, thinner snout. Both had ratherrge shields, although not quite the tower shield that the other bot had used, and each had one Scimitar like de at their hips, and a long Pike in their hands. ¡°Damn! Quite impressive,¡± I said with an approving nod. ¡°Thank you,¡± Jenna said with a warm smile, ¡°I did most of the design myself, although Cleopatra helped with the finer details.¡± We made our way back to the outside when I received a call from Chloe. With raised eyebrows I epted, then pulled the entire call into mymunications suite, which¡­ was a very fucky experience. My mental self appeared in a virtual room with a split perspective, which was¡­ a very strange thing to experience. I was both outside in the real world and in the virtual realm that I now found myself in. Like, fully there. It wasn¡¯t that my attention was split, although I guess that was true, but I got full input from both ends as if I was two people now. The call was a big conference call and soon I saw multiple people pop into my virtual realm in the form of video windows. I could fully pull them into this thing, but from the warning I got it wasn¡¯t a good idea unless they had simr augmentations to my own. ¡°What¡¯s up?¡± I asked when everyone had connected. Chloe looked at me, eyebrows slowly raising. ¡°God damn, Seraphine, that fits you perfectly.¡± ¡°Thank you,¡± I said with a warm smile, feeling tingly from Chloeplimenting me. ¡°Should we give you two a room or can we carry on with the call,¡± Fortress said with a slightly disgusted look. Interestingly her meta-data finally gave me a name: ra. It did fit her well. ¡°Yeah, yeah,¡± I said with a snort, ¡°Way to ruin the mood. But yes, what¡¯s up?¡± Chloe cleared her throat, blushing fiercely as was typical for my favourite cuddle bug. ¡°Yeah, uhm, okay. So, Martin was checking things. He specialises in recon and shit and he dug around a bit with Jordan¡¯s help about the weird happenings in the area. We thought there might be some food storage that drew the aliens in, but there was nothing on the ns. Well, there is nothing on the ns, but there is something under the gate. Something that shouldn¡¯t be there. Martin found it while the drones were sewer diving, but we can¡¯t get in. I offered to blow it up, but Fortress offered a different solution. Seraphine, can you get your Reaver in there?¡± I raised an eyebrow, ¡°I mean, sure, I can. Kaysa?¡± That should not be an issue. It would depend on the specific section of the sewage system, but generally it should be spacious enough at its current size. That doesn¡¯t mean it can¡¯t run into any potential issues. ¡°Yeah, fair. I can send Snuffles down there and have it check if you want. Gimme the route?¡± ¡°Here,¡± Martin said and transferred some data packages. They ran straight into the firewall of my newmunications suite, before they were finally forwarded to me. Kaysa put it on in front of me, outlining the way Snuffles had to take. I nodded, ¡°Aight, simple enough. Snuffles, fetch.¡± My Progenitor Reaver was currently busy eating her fair share of biomass outside, but at mymand I saw her gulp down the remains, before she took off into the direction she needed to go. ¡°Snuffles?¡± Chloe asked, obviously amused. ¡°I mean, she needs a name right? And she just kind of felt like a Snuffles to me. Anyways, she¡¯s on her way now, should be arriving shortly.¡± Chloe nodded, ¡°Good. Once we know more we can sit down and see if there is anything we can do.¡± Shrapnel nodded, ¡°Until then take a break, rx a bit. I¡¯ll organise a guard rotation, if you wanna be part of it feel free, but don¡¯t over do it. Today was long.¡± We all nodded in reply, then one by one people started to drop out. I decided that this was a good opportunity to check in with Castas and the Shelter, see how they are doing. Dialling him and putting him on in my Legion Control¡¯s Communication Suite, I didn¡¯t have to wait long for him to pick up. ¡°Yes, Princess?¡± Then I saw his eyes widen, ¡°Damn. You certainly changed in thest couple of hours. Nice new look.¡± I smiled at him, ¡°Thanks! Did get some upgrades and stuff. Wanted to see how you are faring at the moment. Anything going on that I need to know about?¡± ¡°Uh¡­ Not really? Right now things are calm around here, couple aliens, but nothing we can¡¯t handle. Mainly thanks to the gear you left us. Your friends are fine, the Shiver addict is still busying herself with my men, so morale is up. Tina has really gone to town on the whole admin the joytoys stuff. Got a couple nsid out for the future. In negotiations with her group to make shit work. Truth be told, if she wouldn¡¯t be a friend of yours I probably would have kicked her out already with some of the shit she wants, but we are working our way through the details.¡± My smile fell, ¡°I advise you to not touch her.¡± He raised his hands, ¡°Oh no, I ain¡¯t doing nothing like that. Last thing I need is a Samurai or twoing in and killing every single one of my men. And I am as lenient as I can be. Doesn¡¯t mean I will justy down on everything, if you expect that.¡± He looked¡­ I didn¡¯t want to say anxious, but a bit concerned at thatment. I shook my head. ¡°I told you you can hash out your deal. Just don¡¯t try something stupid and I don¡¯t need toe in and feed you to Snuffles.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t think I want to know who Snuffles is, do I?¡± ¡°You do not.¡± I said with a smirk. ¡°Oh, reminds me,¡± he said, obviously trying to change the subject, ¡°Some other Samurai came here. He found your other friend, Sarah I think her name was? Saved her from some xenos and dropped her off before he wandered off again. No clue who exactly it was, didn¡¯t look like gang or local for that matter. Seems to have the poor girl quite smitten though, not that he seemed too thrilled about it.¡± That was¡­ good news, honestly. If we had some other Samurai running around keeping people safe that meant I didn¡¯t need to worry too much. Then again, he seemed like the type to not stick around too long from what Castas said. And of course knowing that Sarah was safe was a big relief. I admit to not really having thought about her so far, so to know she wasn¡¯t busy being dead from overdose, or worse, alien, was quite the relief. ¡°Alright. If he turns up again let him know I want to talk about him, yeah?¡± ¡°I can do that.¡± ¡°Good. Anything else I need to know about?¡± Castas looked¡­ uncertain. ¡°Well¡­ Far be it from me to ask for favours from a Samurai, but¡­ I told my guys to make sure people don¡¯t go around ODing in other shelters. Where I have people around in any case. It has me spread quite thin, so I was hoping that you might be willing to help us out a bit after. Some gangs have started poking around. Don¡¯t need you running around, mind you, but¡­ Give and take, y¡¯know?¡± He had a point. He was spending a good amount of time and influence to help my little n along, keep people safe, and what have you. And if he was willing to do a proper job I didn¡¯t see a problem with him being in charge. Certainly didn¡¯t want to see more upheaval in the wake of a gang war, that was for sure. ¡°Only fair. But if we go that far I want some more structure. Joytoys doing their thing is great and all, but there are some things you should probably get under lock and key if we start making waves. Drug trade is the biggest thing, obviously. I don¡¯t care about the profits, do what you want with that, but make sure you at least make sure that the cheap shit doesn¡¯t get thinned to oblivion with trash, sell it on your own dime. People won¡¯t be happy, true, but if they make trouble feel free to refer them to me. Snuffle is still growing and could use some food.¡± From his expression I knew he wasn¡¯t happy, Crows hadn¡¯t been big in the drug trade before and they would certainly step on some toes. But then again, he came to me, and it would give him more money and influence in the long run. ¡°Thanks, Princess. I¡¯ll make sure to get everything sorted on my end. Although¡­ I might need your¡­ convincing arguments in person.¡± ¡°That I can do,¡± I said. Shouldn¡¯t be hard to make some idiots understand that they were no longer at the top of the outer district food chain. He once again nodded, that seemed to be his favourite gesture, then disconnected. ¡°Well¡­ That went better than expected.¡± You do realise that your interference in the politics of both the Red Crows and the district atrge will have quite the impact, yes? ¡°Yes. That is kind of the point. I just don¡¯t like that some gangs are already poking at them. At the end of the day though, I¡¯m the one with the biggest weapons. And Red Crows seem to bepetent enough to be allowed to be in charge.¡± That is certainly one way to approach the problem. ¡°Kaysa, I realise that you are super smart and alien and whatnot, but these types of things are what I¡¯m good at. Gangs will always exist and you can almost bet that most can¡¯t see further than three days. Hell, I can¡¯t, in most cases. So if you want to make sure that the people you want in charge stay in charge and fully support you, you have three options: Be as good a girl as you can, kiss their feet, bend over whenever they want and hope that¡¯s enough. Be some kind of genius that can ensure they get more money and be more influential every day. Or be the one with the biggest guns. I tried the first, am too stupid for the second, but I sure as shit can do thest now.¡± Very well. Once this inevitably backfires horribly I am here to help you figure out where you went wrong. ¡°Wow, the trust you have in me," I said with a smirk. I am simply stating the obvious. Don¡¯t make themon mistake of thinking people are stupid simply because they don¡¯t see things your way. The other gangs will not take kindly to your meddling. My amusement vanished with a sigh. ¡°I know, Kaysa. But I hope that the knowledge that I can and will feed them to Snuffles will be enough.¡± With my talks done and not much else to do Jenna and I finally arrived back outside again, not that we really had anywhere to go. Things had slowed down considerably, people were still standing guard and such, but in most cases they seemed to rx just a little. Looking around I tried to decide what to do next. I know Shrapnel had said that we were on break, but honestly, I was feeling itchy. With the entire momentum of the day and non-stop action it felt weird to just¡­ stand here and not fight aliens. Jenna seemed to have simr issues, looking around and unsure what to do with herself. I was just about to offer her to sit down somewhere when my growing unease was disrupted by a ¡°Yo.¡± behind us. Chloe, Shrapnel, and Fortress were on their way over to us. Seeing Chloe immediately made me feel better and I raised my eyebrows at her new getup. She too had found some time to upgrade her gear, although hers went into a different direction than my own, or even Jenna¡¯s. We had paid careful attention to fashion, Chloe on the other hand was the opposite of that. Her getup wasn¡¯t ugly, don¡¯t get me wrong, it fit her very well and really underlined her fighting nature, but it was more function over form. She had switched her more revealing normal clothes she had worn to our appointment for some traditional military style underarmor with thick padded pants that had lots of pockets, a nondescript hoodie or simr, but without the actual hood, and on top of that her old armor, although with new additions. Of course everything was somewhere between dark grey and ck, which fit very well to her dark brown hair and rather light skin tone. Her weaponry had also changed. Oh, her old pistol was still at her hip in aicallyrge holster, but she now had a rifle that someone probably could have mistaken for a normal human grade military rifle if they didn¡¯t know weapons well, but which quickly revealed itself to be anything but on a second nce. It was long, had two barrels stacked over each other, a sleek and slightly alien design, and from the size of the barrels it could fire some pretty big bullets. It didn¡¯t have the same dark green golden look that her pistol had, more a rathermonly used dark grey colour scheme. ¡°Damn,¡± I said, openly looking her up and down, ¡°You certainly have changed. Looks good on you though.¡± ¡°Thanks,¡± she beamed, then came over and gave me a hug which I dly reciprocated. ¡°Anything going on?¡± I asked her with a wide smile once we separated. ¡°Not really, no. Waiting for your pet to scout the area. Was thinking we might want to check in with Castas?¡± I smiled, ¡°Already did. Got to talking about business, so I¡¯ll need to head over eventually and see what exactly he wants. He seems to be good for the district and I much rather have him in charge than anyone else.¡± She raised an eyebrow in reply and I shrugged. ¡°Well, I want things to be better but I¡¯m not the kind of person to take over, so I need to figure out how to make it work for them so they can do my job for me. Things right now are really unstable and some gangs are already trying to take over, so I¡¯ll see what I can do to stop them. Last thing I need is a gang war in my district, and I¡¯m not exactly a leader type.¡± ¡°At least you recognise your shorings,¡± Fortress muttered. ¡°Well, of course. I don¡¯t know shit from piss when ites to leading a gang. I mean sure, I make sure the joytoys under me are happy and shit, but that is hardly an actual leading position. I¡¯m more like a problem solver for them. I can solve the problems of the district, but that doesn¡¯t mean I can, or even want to, lead it. So best thing I can do is make sure the people who can do a proper job are in charge. In this case probably Tina for the joytoys and Castas for everything else. He knows what he needs to do to make things happen, all I¡¯m doing is telling him the rules I want enforced and what he can expect in return.¡± ¡°And what can he expect?¡± Chloe asked. ¡°I make sure the other gangs leave him alone, he makes sure the people are safe and cared for. That simple.¡± It took Snuffles over an hour to get to the point Martin had found, mainly because she couldn¡¯t fit through most of the parts that Martin¡¯s drone could use. We spent most of that time fighting off the smaller groups of xenos and trying to rx a little between the waves of aliens. I spent a good amount of time with Chloe and Jenna, just chatting idly about inane stuff, or in silence. There was one total surprise though, much to the horror of Dominium Fortress. One of the soldiers actually had the balls to ask me for some alone time, which¡­ I mean, I was a Samurai and could easily register my displeasure if I so choose, but personally, I just found it utterly adorable. The young man was of course a nervous wreck, beet red and looking everywhere but at me, hopping from one foot to the other. From the looks his mates gave him I was pretty sure that it was some kind of dare or something, truth be told I hadn¡¯t really paid much attention to them even if I probably could have listened in with my new ears. He seemed an honest enough guy and I wasn¡¯t about to ruin his rep in front of his peers, so I epted, which had everyone gawking at me with wide eyes. Well, I did make sure to tell them that this was an exception and everyone else had to book some time through Vic before I would even consider them. It was good marketing, especially considering the sudden slew of notifications from the brothel. This was probably not thest soldier type I would have my fun with. It did make me think about my rebranding a bit though, especially since Chloe was still there and¡­ I mean, she didn¡¯t seem to mind, the opposite really. From the look she gave me she wouldn¡¯t mind me jumping at all of them, which I wasn¡¯t quite sure what I should feel about. What also surprised me was that the notifications from the brothel weren¡¯t your standard fare, instead of fixed dates and appointments they were simply requests that I was free to schedule at my own discretion. What was an even bigger, and quite wee, surprise was the price tags now attached to my time, with a much bigger cut for myself. Victor probably wanted to keep me happy and had already done all the changes and stuff. I shot him a quick message telling him he should at least keep 25% of my earnings. If this continued I wouldn¡¯t need money anymore quite soon, and if it was keeping him happy and honest I didn¡¯t mind lining his pockets a bit. I did of course tell him about my ns in quick summary and made sure he understood that the 25% of my earnings could easily be revoked if he would start throwing fits. Not that I wanted to put him under my thumb, but I also didn¡¯t want him to start doing stupid shit. Nevertheless, back to Snuffles and current events. Not long after I returned from my fun time with the soldier boy, who seemed utterly too happy considering I am quite good at my job, I got the notification from Snuffles that she had arrived at the strange walls that Martin had found. Snuffles notifications weren¡¯t digital pop ups or messages or something like that, instead it was more like a tug at my attention. Not enough to actually derail my train of thought, more like¡­ Imagine you walk along a street and see something from the corner of your vision, it was simr to that. I quickly gave her the order to deal with the wall which she did quite quickly. True it was a concrete wall, but Snuffles was Snuffles, and Snuffles was awesome, so she dealt with the obstacle quite quickly. And, of course, it wasn¡¯t some kind of reinforced concrete used as foundations for megabuildings. Once the dust had cleared I saw arge room filled with total darkness. Well, I say that, but Snuffles had senses nearly as good as my own, so a bit of darkness wasn¡¯t something that would stop her. And if I understood Kaysa correctly Snuffles was on the weaker side when it came to senses, so higher ss Hexws could and would utterly outrank even my stupidly good vision with ease. The room itself was mostly empty, but there was some technical equipment in the middle and along two of the walls. From thermal imaging courtesy of my most favourite alien attack dog, it was either in use, or had been in use quite recently. That is strange. ¡°What is, exactly? The fact that the room shouldn¡¯t exist, that it doesn¡¯t have food in it, or that the cables look far too old to properly work with the quite modern looking machinery in there?¡± While I spoke I made sure to include everyone in the virtualwork again, calls dialled, and I started to put out as many of the senses and data points from Snuffles perspective as I could. They probably wouldn¡¯t really be able to properly understand them, but I mean, sight alone was already quite the indicator. The machinery in this room is used for power switching, supplying modern machines with power from older power couplings. Their use is quitemon in the more antique parts of cities. The strange thing is that the power lines running out of this room and the machinery itself is, while not made by the protectors, at least based on their designs. ¡°... Which means they have Samurai tech down here. Question is what for though. And whose tech is it?¡± Shrapnel asked, voice full of confusion and displeasure. ¡°I don¡¯t think a Samurai got it. Kaysa said it wasn¡¯t made by protectors, so they built it themselves. They may have gotten blueprints, but even then, most Samurai who don¡¯t buy things with points and instead build them, do so with a creation engine, at least ording to As. So they would still be protector grade, even if they are made with earth materials. These don¡¯t fit the bill.¡± Chloe exined, gaze focused on Snuffles video window. I ordered Snuffles to follow the power lines. It did some doing, she had to get through some doors that weren¡¯t exactly meant for something with her proportions, but she did manage with a little bit of rampaging. Finally she found an even bigger room, this one upied with more machinery, most of it along the walls, although two giant machines stood in the center of the room, lights blinking and idling, obviously working. ¡°Fuck!¡± Shrapnel said, ¡°I¡¯ve seen shit like that before. Those are lures, even if mangled ones. Looks like big ones too, no wonder everything in the district was trying to get to us.¡± That produced a moment of silence. ¡°But who would put them here?¡± Fortress asked, ¡°Like¡­ They should have known how bad of an idea that was, right?¡± ¡°They look like salvage,¡± Martin said, pointing at the image, ¡°Look at this. Probably some Samurai bought them in a fight and they were left behind and thenter found and brought here. Most of the interfacing stuff isn¡¯t Protector grade and I can promise you that they do not run on Protectorworking. The antenna is all wrong. Probably switched out to a system that they could use.¡± ¡°The question still remains: Who would go through this much effort to put these here? And why? Like, this looks not like something some hobbyist in a garage can just tinker up. This is alien tech.¡± I asked, frowning. I didn¡¯t like the implication of this at all. Indeed. This is not something someone without at least some idea on how the technology works could aplish. Kaysa¡¯sment once more left the room silent. She was talking in the virtualwork for this call, which I was grateful for. ¡°I mean, right now that doesn¡¯t matter,¡± Jenna said after a moment, ¡°We need to figure that one outter and deal with whomever is responsible for this, but right now we need to turn it off. We can¡¯t just stick around the city gate all the time, while the range of the thing is vast, it doesn¡¯t reach through the entire city. We need to make sure we can go elsewhere to kill the xenos.¡± I nodded at her logic, and so did most of the others. None of us was really happy about this, but this was something we needed to deal with, definitely. ¡°I agree. Cut the connection and let''s head out. I¡¯ll leave some drones behind to see if someonees knocking,¡± Martin said with a nod, then popped out. The rest quickly followed suit. I had Snuffles cut the cables, using the Hard-Light emitters of course, no need for her to electrocute herself. Once done I gave her the order to return and turned to Chloe and Jenna. With a yawn and a long stretch that had Chloe distracted for a moment I looked at them. ¡°Well¡­ I think it¡¯s best we get back to the redlight district. Question is, how?¡± Chloe sighed and wistfully looked over to the remains of her once awesome ride. Even in its current state it still had quite the majestic look to it. ¡°Well¡­ Maybe we can ask someone to drive us there. Otherwise I will need to get another ride¡­¡± she said wistfully. I rolled my shoulders before I nodded, ¡°Well, then. Let¡¯s try to find a ride and see if there isn¡¯t a party in the redlight district.¡±
I have a Discord! Chapter 13 – The calm before the storm Chapter 13 ¨C The calm before the storm ¡°Actual rtionships between Samurai are rare, although not unheard of. Most don¡¯t have the time to bother between saving humanity from the apocalypse. Most stories are actually found between rookie Samurai. Those typicallyst less than a week, considering the flux they are experiencing. Makes for awesome fanfics though.¡± - Anonymous Redditor Luckily it didn¡¯t take long before we found ourselves a ride. One of the higher ranking soldiers offered one of their smaller hovertransports for the job, since they wouldn¡¯t be leaving anytime soon anyways. We thanked him and took off. Not long after we had taken off I received a call from Castas. That didn¡¯t bode well, but at least it meant he wasn¡¯t dead yet. ¡°Hey Castas,¡± I greeted him with a nod. ¡°Hey Princess. Thought I¡¯d let you know that xeno activity around the area has picked up. We see more and more of those fucking aliens, some shelters on the edges of the district report even bigger groups. Worst part none of them are fucking off city side anymore, which has me worried.¡± I nodded in reply, ¡°Yeah, figured. We just found some lures that were the reason they all tried to get into the inner city, already on the way back. How are you holding up?¡± ¡°So far so good. That Samurai I told you about has shown up again. He¡¯s pretty beat, seemed like he spent quite some time in the field out there. Can patch him through if you want.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t bother, we¡¯ll be there shortly, can talk face to face then. Hopefully we can make some points though, Snuffles is nice but she can¡¯t do everything alone.¡± I sighed, rubbing my eyes. ¡°Snuffles that huge fuckoff alien dog thing that I saw in the feeds not long ago? Gotta say, quite the design sh, isn¡¯t it?¡± He sounded amused. ¡°I mean, yeah. But she is still growing so maybe once that is done I can figure that one out. Anyways, I¡¯ll see you shortly, bye bye~¡± And with that I hung up. Sitting back I yawned again. By this point it was already dark out, and when I checked the clock I saw that it¡¯s been roughly six hours since my appointment with Chloe was supposed to happen, even if it felt like days had passed then. ¡°Yeah, me too,¡± Chloe said when I yawned, barely stifling her own, ¡°Hopefully we can get some rest soon. I¡¯m beat¡­¡± ¡°Yeah¡­ Strange though, it feels a lot longer than six hours. Is that just me?¡± The scenery was flying by quick, and I checked the damage. In the darkness it was a bit harder to see, even with my newly improved eyes, but it seemed¡­ extensive. Not a lot of big damage, but lots and lots of smaller things. ¡°Nah, that¡¯s normal. When you¡¯re a Samurai you can spend days fighting xenos only to realise the day isn¡¯t even over yet. Just hope that we can get the shelter evac¡¯d soon, otherwise we need to think about night watches.¡± Jenna snorted from the back seat, ¡°I doubt anyone wille. This iswless space.¡± I nodded, ¡°Yeah, part of the reason gangs are left alone is because the cops don¡¯t care and the megacorps in the city proper are just fine with leaving the filth outside their pristine borders. If anyonees at all, I doubt it will be to evac the civies.¡± We spent the rest of the flight in silence, and a couple of minutester we arrived at the shelter. There were some dead xenos out when Chloended us not far from the entrance, and the guards were no longer outside. That did make sense though, I doubted anyone else would get here at this point, and even if someone did, Jenna¡¯s bot was still standing outside to let them in or at least let us know. Getting out of the car we walked over to the shelter entrance. Not wanting to spook the people inside I dialled up Castas once more, while Chloe chucked some fleshmelters at the alien corpses. No sense in leaving them out in the open. ¡°Hey,¡± I said once he picked up, ¡°We¡¯re outside, care to let us in?¡± ¡°One moment,¡± he replied, then disconnected again. And a moment it was indeed, we had barely closed the call when the door started to rumble before it slowly opened. We didn¡¯t waste any time and entered, the door quickly being closed behind us once more. The inside was much like we had left it, utterly filled with people, all in their own little groups. Most of them seemed to be just sitting out their time, eyes zed with drugs or with augs, not that the here seemed to be too great. Some people kept walking around, talking. From the looks of it mostly Castas boys and Tina¡¯s joytoys. One of the corners had been turned into a makeshift y area for the kid Jenna had saved and some others, a group of joytoys busy keeping them upied. The kid seemed to do alright, crawling from one person to the next, chasing the tiny little holographic images they were ying for him. It was a nice sight, no bullshit, no fear, just a kid having fun. I hoped that things could stay this way. Castas was already waiting for us, Tina close next to him. She seemed a bit too close to just do business, although considering my muddled and tired state of mind it might have just been my imagination. He waved us over and led us to one of the corners, the one that Sharon had used earlier to indulge her addiction. The woman in question was sleeping not far from us on some makeshift bedding. She looked dishevelled and dirty, various fluids caked all over her, but otherwise she seemed to be doing fine. ¡°Finally ran out of gas, huh?¡± I asked with a snort. ¡°Not long before you lot arrived. She was at it nearly the entire time¡­ Would love to know where she gets all that energy from. Anyways, you wanted to talk to the Samurai, this here is Patrick,¡± he said, then motioned to a man who sat nearby. He was most certainly a Samurai, considering all the high tech shit he had on his person, and I doubted anyone not a Samurai would have the balls to put so much effort into insulting every singlemon fashion sense ever conceived. Patrick looked up when we got closer, his eyes tired and underlined by deep bags. ¡°Well, you look like shit,¡± I said, then stepped closer and sat down next to him, ¡°Long day?¡± ¡°Fuck you too,¡± he muttered, but nodded, ¡°Been doing nothing but run around, tryna help. Wasn¡¯t much going on here, not sure why. Didn¡¯t mean was easy though, there are some xenos at the edges of the district.¡± I shrugged, ¡°Some idiot installed some lures underneath the southern gate to the city proper, lured any and all xenos under the sun. We dealt with it now, so things will pick up again, but at least the city is no longer in danger of a breach.¡± ¡°Who the fuck would do something that stupid?¡± he asked, rubbing his face in disbelief. ¡°That¡¯s the million credit question,¡± Chloe said in reply, sitting down next to me while Jenna took a seat opposite of us, ¡°We¡¯re looking into it, but right now our priority is to make sure this ce is safe.¡± He nodded and we all sat in silence for a moment, before he rubbed his face again and looked us over. ¡°Don¡¯t recognise you.¡± I shrugged, ¡°Jenna and I are new. People call me the Crimson Princess, although the other two haven¡¯t gotten names yet. You?¡± ¡°Been a Samurai for a couple weeks now, already seen two incursions before this one. I tend to stick to the outskirts, cleaning duty. I¡¯m not the biggest fighter but I am good at getting ces. Family has me working the easier jobs that nobody else wants to do, I don¡¯t think I¡¯ve gotten enough clout for a proper name yet.¡± That did exin some of his gear, although hisment raised another question. ¡°Family? Who¡¯re they?¡± ¡°Group of Samurai. They direct the Samurai in North America, trying to keep the aliens in check. Normally they do a pretty good job at keeping things running, for a corp anyway. They don¡¯t really care too much for profit and are much more focused on helping Samurai get to the ce they¡¯re needed and get the help they need. More focused on helping people, y¡¯know?¡± That had me frowning. I wasn¡¯t a big fan of corporations at the best of days and this sounded a lot like bullshit to me. ¡°A Samurai Corp? I hope they don¡¯t expect me to join, cause I can¡¯t stand corps at all, so that ain¡¯t happening.¡± ¡°You can do what you want, joining isn¡¯t required, technically you don¡¯t even need to pick up their calls. I would advise it though, even if you don¡¯t join them, they can help you quite a bit. Once we got some time, anyway.¡± ¡°Maybe¡­ I¡¯ll think about it, but I won¡¯t promise anything.¡± ¡°Fair¡¯s fair,¡± he muttered, then leaned back. I looked over both Chloe and Jenna. Thetter seemed to be having a hard time staying awake, not that I med her. But I also wanted to make sure nothing big was lurking nearby before I found a ce to get some shuteye. ¡°I think for the moment the both of you can go to sleep. I want to check the area before I head to bed, Chloe, care to tag along?¡± She nodded, then got up, ¡°Sure. Let¡¯s do a quick round then figure out night shifts. If nobody ising we need to be prepared for a long night.¡± ¡°I told the Family and they are sending some people soon-ish, whenever they have someone to send. Thanks though, I appreciate it. Wake me up if you need me, okay?¡± Patrick said with another yawn. Jenna seemed to have already fallen asleep, so Chloe and I just nodded and got up. We walked to the exit side by side and left for the fourth time today. I really didn¡¯t want to spend much time going around, but I also knew I wouldn¡¯t be able to sleep right unless I made personally sure that nothing was going on. Snuffles would be hereter, but until then I wanted to make sure nothing else was trying to break into the shelter. ¡°Let¡¯s check around the block, see if we can¡¯t find some xenos hiding somewhere,¡± I said, motioning to where I wanted to go. As usual I stuck close to Chloe, and as usual she half hugged me from the side. It made it easier to keep awake, since having her near me made my heart beat just that bit faster. ¡°Yeah,¡± Chloe said with a smile, ¡°Though I don¡¯t think we need to worry about a hive being close by, otherwise there would be many more xenos around.¡± That is most likely correct, although that doesn¡¯t mean you shouldn¡¯t be careful. Even if there isn¡¯t a hive nearby at the moment, that doesn¡¯t mean one couldn¡¯t form. I advise you to be careful, you are quite exhausted. ¡°Yeah, let¡¯s hurry up,¡± I said with another long yawn, ¡°Gods, I¡¯m beat¡­ Hopefully we can take the day off tomorrow.¡± ¡°Unlikely,¡± Chloe said, mercilessly crushing my dreams, ¡°We probably need to go around and see if there aren¡¯t some hives further out. Those things can form fast.¡± I mutteredints, but I did agree with her. We walked in silence for a while, trying to keep our guard up but with all the exhaustion that wasn¡¯t easy. Eventually Chloe spoke up. ¡°So¡­ Any chance I can get my booking rescheduled, or do I need to ask for my money back?¡± She tried to sound casual, but considering I could hear her heartbeat, and it was going fast I knew she was anything but casual. I smiled, ¡°Well, I can probably swing a rescheduling, probably even throw in some bonuses, as a professional courtesy for the dy caused.¡± Thatment had her inhaling a bit more sharply than before. ¡°Even with your newfound poprity?¡± she asked, a bit more quietly now. ¡°Don¡¯t think I missed the news, O Princess.¡± Giving her a nce my smile widened, ¡°I do make my own schedule now. And I have it on good authority that a certain Samurai missed her appointment because of, how do corporations put it, certain acts of god events? It would be highly unprofessional of me to force her to go back to the end of line, don¡¯t you think?¡± I didn¡¯t think it was possible, but Chloe¡¯s heartbeat got even faster at that. I still wasn¡¯t quite sure about it all. I liked her, quite a lot actually, if I was honest with myself. Then again, we¡¯ve known each other for what, six hours so far? I also wasn¡¯t quite sure how she felt¡­ I sighed, this really wasn¡¯t the time to think on this. I was tired, exhausted, utterly beat. Although¡­ From how close Chloe was hugging me¡­ maybe she didn¡¯t mind the idea too much? Or maybe she was just excited about spending a night with me¡­ Ugh, what did I just say, hm? Stupid thoughts! Focus, Seraphine, focus! You have a fucking job to do! We continued in silence for a while, before I spoke again. ¡°So¡­ How¡¯d you end up a Samurai?¡± From her warm smile and the nce she gave me I figured she knew that I wanted to change the topic. ¡°Well¡­ I¡¯m from one of those old outskirts outside the outer wall. They¡¯re small ces, self-sufficient most of the time, with the backing of the city. Nice ce, although not rich, but also mostly not quite as poor as you guys. Seen them?¡± ¡°Well, I know of them. Never seen them in person before, at best some pictures from my feeds. Haven¡¯t been outside the city ever since I arrived here.¡± ¡°Oh?¡± she asked, curiosity radiating off of her, ¡°That¡¯s a story I¡¯m curious about. Anyways, so I¡¯m from one of those small ces, we had some incursion hit on the outskirts. Neighbourhoods like that mostly police themselves and we did our best to get the people to safety. Shit went on and I was left behind with some two or so families, had to get them to safety. I did what I could, fighting tooth and nail. I got them out but I was pretty seriously injured. Kind of epted I would die there, until As just popped into my head and started telling me about the wonders of Protector grade medical shit.¡± ¡°Aren¡¯t there normally people keeping an eye out for that kind of shit?¡± ¡°Yeah, normally. Once I beat back the tide for a day or so some other Samurai finally came in, the guy I told you about earlier, Gloomstalker. Helped me finish off the hive nearby and then told me what went down. So apparently one of the people from another neighbourhood had been in charge of notifying the people responsible. But he didn¡¯t tell anyone because his neighbourhood had a feud with mine.¡± I frowned, ¡°Fucking assholes, seriously¡­ I probably would have killed the guy.¡± She snorted, ¡°Well¡­ He is alive, still. But suffice to say he is no longer on speaking terms with anyone from the outskirts. Last I heard he was ying with frying pans in some old, rundown, lower level fast food joint near the outer edge of the inner city.¡± In my experience you had to really teach fucks like that a lesson if you wanted to prevent them from being stupid again in the future, and most folks around the outer city wouldn¡¯t have given him even that chance. That shit was liable to get you shot right then and there consequences be damned. Being gang was one thing, but when aliens came knocking you at least didn¡¯t leave the others to die. That was the kind of shit we had to deal with together, anyone who thought differently was a cancer that had to be stamped out immediately. But, it wasn¡¯t my call to make, and if Chloe was fine letting him rot in some cheap fast food joint then I wouldn¡¯t argue. ¡°You are much more merciful than the people around here would have been.¡± ¡°Probably, yeah. Makes me curious though, how¡¯d you end up here?¡± I sighed, ¡°Well¡­ That is a tale I usually don¡¯t like to talk about. Most folk around here wouldn¡¯t like it and it has¡­ a lot of bad memories attached to it.¡± ¡°You don¡¯t have to tell me, I wouldn¡¯t want to pressure you,¡± Chloe said with a gentle smile. ¡°I know, I know¡­ It¡¯s¡­ Ugh¡­ Okay, I¡¯ll tell you a little bit. So, I wasn¡¯t actually born in the redlight district. My ma and da were from one of those smaller cities out in the countryside, you know the kind. Have some thousand odd members, all working some low end job while some ten odd rich people are in charge and living like kings. My parents were part of that elite, some rich folk who had their lifeid out for them. They wanted me to take over the family business and tried their best to groom me for it. Well, I wasn¡¯t interested and much rather wanted to be an actress. So my da gave me an ultimatum, either I do as he says or I¡¯ll be disowned, dropped in some shithole and never allowed back. I told him to suck it, since I didn¡¯t think he¡¯d actually go through with it, all the way until he did. That¡¯s how I ended up in the outer city at some street corner all alone with nothing but personal documents. He even went as far as changing my legal name and everything to make sure I could nevere back to them even if I tried.¡± I heaved a heavy sigh, ¡°Things¡­ kinda went from there. Rest isn¡¯t exactly pleasant and not something I really want to get into right now¡­ I¡¯m too emotional at the moment, plus this is the first time in like ten years I¡¯ve been properly sober and I don¡¯t know how well I could handle all that baggage.¡± She looked down at me, worry in her expression, ¡°Ten years? How old are you, exactly?¡± I snorted, ¡°Will be twenty next month. You can draw your own conclusions.¡± That had her straighten up, and the worry exploded tenfold. She looked like she wanted to say something, but she bit her tongue. Instead she stopped and pulled me into a tight hug. I¡­ was kind of d about that. I haven¡¯t told many people about my past and I wasn¡¯t quite ready to tell her the full tale, so I was d that she was so epting of that. ¡°Thanks¡­¡± I muttered into her chest, taking deep breaths of her scent. ¡°You¡¯re wee. Once we get some time to rx we can talk further, if you want.¡± I nodded, ¡°Over a good drink, I suspect¡­¡± We remained like that for a while, before we separated and continued our patrol in silence. It was a calm night, nothing much was going on. I could hear fighting in the distance but at least around the shelter things remained calm. The main problem was that I could hear the things in the distance slowlye closer. We definitely had to keep our guard up and think about watch rotations. When we returned to the shelter I was surprised to find Patrick awake. He still looked like shit and looked up at us when we walked over. Most of the other people were either asleep already or busy talking in low tones. Or just sitting there in silence nursing whatever shit they preferred. ¡°Hey,¡± I said in a low tone when Patrick nodded at us, ¡°Can¡¯t sleep?¡± He shrugged, ¡°Janus woke me up. I ced some sensors and drones around the area to keep an eye on things. Well, some of them were tripped.¡± ¡°Janus?¡± I asked. I suspected he meant his AI, but I wanted to be sure. ¡°My AI,¡± he confirmed, ¡°Told me about the things going on. I think I¡¯ll keep watch for a while before I try to get some sleep.¡± Chloe and I nodded in agreement. That seemed like a good idea. ¡°I¡¯ll take watch after you. I can work with very little sleep and I think both Jenna and Seraphine could use some sleep,¡± Chloe volunteered with a warm smile directed my way. I reciprocated the smile and hugged her from the side. ¡°Thanks. Make sure to wake me if you need to though. Sleep is all fine and good, but I much rather not wake up to anything bad going down.¡± We didn¡¯t talk much more, Patrick went ahead and set up with his gear, while Chloe and I went to a small sideroom that he had pointed out to us. It was used as a sleeping area and we found some others already snoozing. Silently we settled down and I didn¡¯t even have the chance to wish Chloe good night, before I fell asleep.
I have a Discord! Chapter 14 – The best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men Chapter 14 ¨C The bestid schemes o¡¯ mice an¡¯ men ¡°Maybe ever¡¯body in the whole damn world is scared of each other.¡± - John Steinbeck, Of Mice and Men When I was woken up, I almost jolted. I was feeling a bit mmy and sweaty, my sleep tormented by nightmares, as was typical when I thought about my past. ¡°Hey, hey, it¡¯s okay, it¡¯s me," a familiar voice said in a low tone while I looked around, trying to piece together where I was. Rubbing my eyes I tried to focus on my surroundings, my mind still half-asleep. It took me a moment to even understand where I was and to realise it was Chloe who had woken me up. Then things came back to me in a slow rush, the previous day, the alien incursion, me being a Samurai, us protecting the shelter. The conversation I had with Chloe, then our ns to set up watches. It probably was my turn, although from Chloe¡¯s stature I wasn¡¯t quite sure everything was fine. She seemed tense. I nodded at her, still blinking the sleep out of my eyes. ¡°Morning," I mumbled, ¡°Time for my watch?" She shook her head in reply, a grimace ying around her cute features. Things were definitely not going to n. A quick check of the time showed me that it was close to three in the morning, which meant I had at best four hours of sleep, probably a bit less. ¡°Xenos are showing up more and more,¡± she exined in a low voice, ¡°Patrick¡¯s sensors have all been tripped by this point, things are getting dangerous out there. As is pretty certain they formed a hive and with how much activity is going on out there it might be necessary to deal with it right now before it grows even more.¡± I nodded, groaning inwardly. Sleep would have to wait. Getting up I stretchedvishly in every direction, trying to wake up my tired body. ¡°Okay, what¡¯s the sitch? Oh, and Kaysa, you got something to wake me up?¡± Of course, please hold out your hand. Doing as I was told I soon held a small cup of¡­ something in my hand. It was around the size of a big shot ss and it held something warm that smelled¡­ I think interesting is the most pleasant descriptor I could give here. ¡°The fuck is this, Kaysa?¡± A rathermonly used wake up agent. It should be strong enough to wake the dead and keep them going for a couple of hours. Normally I would advise against using it as it will wreak havoc on your body, but I predict a lot of activity in your immediate future and you are most certainly not rested yet. After this is all said and done I highly rmend taking some time off. She had a point, so I simply nodded and put the drink back in one gulp. And good thing too, this shit tasted foul! I coughed in between some gagging, ¡°What the fuck, Kaysa? This shit tastes fucking awful.¡± As it should. The taste is meant to prevent you from developing an addiction, since it has quite the strong effect. ¡°Guess that makes sense,¡± I muttered with a shiver, ¡°Don¡¯t think I¡¯ll ever drink this shit again¡­¡± With myints out of the way I looked back at Chloe, who was eyeing the empty cup suspiciously. ¡°Okay, sorry for that. So, what¡¯s the sitch?¡± She smiled at me, motioning for me to follow her. While we made our way over to Patrick she started filling me in. ¡°As I said, Patrick saw a steadily increasing raise in activity out there. By the time he woke me up things were getting rather spooky out there. Bigger groups of xenos, and by the time I decided to wake you up, we saw more of the bigger models. More Sixes, some Eights, even a couple Nines. From what Patrick told me there is at least one model Eleven and one model Twelve out there somewhere. Worst part though is some strange variety of model Nine that while slower, is a bit bigger and has some strange quill attack. So far we¡¯ve identified it as Variant S, but we don¡¯t know much about it. All that has led us to decide that we might want to deal with the Hive sooner rather thanter. From what As could piece together it is most likely towards the eastern edge of the district, maybe even in the next district over, but close enough to be dangerous for us.¡± ¡°How about the other shelters? How are they faring?¡± I asked, although I wasn¡¯t quite sure I wanted to know. From her expression I really didn¡¯t want to know. She frowned, ¡°We lost one since we came back from our patrol. Castas informed me that the shelter near that brothel that was ughtered has gone dark. No messages, no contact, no nothing. At this point we think it was overrun by xenos.¡± I closed my eyes, mourning for them in silence. Maybe we should have moved quicker¡­ Deal with the hive before this shit went down. ¡°Don¡¯t me yourself. We were in no condition to fight back then,¡± Chloe said quietly and smiled down at me. I shook myself, then nodded to her. She was right. Still, it felt¡­ ugh. These xeno fucks need to be dealt with. ¡°Bet they cleaned out Pleasure Hills then. Lots of biomass, nobody showing up to clean it all up. Even if it didn¡¯t form there, they will have cleaned the ce out by now.¡± I said, just as we arrived where Patrick and Jenna were already waiting for us. ¡°I said the same thing,¡± Jenna said with a warm smile and a nod in my direction, ¡°In any case it¡¯s definitely something we need to check out. If they have cleaned out the ce we need to make certain of that, and if they didn¡¯t we need to deal with the bodies.¡± I nodded at her logic, it did make sense. ¡°Also allows us to check the shelter,¡± I said, although it wasn¡¯t something I really was looking forward to. Patrick cut in, ¡°No need,¡± he said, voice full of displeasure, ¡°I sent a drone around. Door is wide open and everyone inside is dead. Looks like a model Seven got in. Half the corpses have already vanished while the rest are slowly churning out more Sevens.¡± I raised an eyebrow. I had heard of Sevens before, everyone had. It was that one model of antithesis that was universally known, at least for the most part, but I didn¡¯t actually know too much about it. ¡°Those were the Zombie aliens, right? I don¡¯t actually know how they work.¡± The model Seven is one of the stranger kinds of antithesis. Theye in the form of small worms that infect a host and slowly meld with the nervous system, all the way until the host is dead and they obtain full control of the body. Once done they usually walk the bodies back to the hive, but they have been seen sometimes using them to sneak into human fortifications. I shuddered at that description, it sounded very unpleasant. ¡°Well, isn¡¯t that peachy. Any way we can deal with them easily?¡± ¡°Burn them, and getting Anti-Seven pills for the civis,¡± Patrick said, ¡°I also talked to the Family,id out our situation. They have nobody to send over right now, but they did say that they will make it a priority. Hopefully in a couple of hours we get some help down here.¡± ¡°That doesn¡¯t mean we can just fuck around though. And if we have more shit walking around out there now we need to deal with the Hive now. I don¡¯t think we have the time to wait and let it grow even more,¡± I said, scratching my head, ¡°Then again¡­ We aren¡¯t that powerful, so we need to be careful. Do we have anything we can do to deal with the Hive?¡± ¡°I have some ideas,¡± Chloe said, ¡°I can get a rather powerful bomb that should be able to burn out the thing, the problem is getting it into the Hive center. To that end I would like to set up a lure near Pleasure Hills. As macabre as it sounds, the shelter there is already toast, so if aliens gather there it won¡¯t be too much of a problem and maybe that way we can thin the herd sufficiently to deal with the Hive.¡± It did make sense, even if it was a rather grim look at things. Regardless I nodded, that would be a good n. ¡°Okay, so we head there and set up. Anything else we need to keep an eye out for? I much rather not have a bad surprise fall into ourps while we are busy with something else.¡± ¡°The undercity,¡± Patrick said immediately, ¡°I can go ahead and try to find the Hive¡¯s exact location, but we need someone to at least check the entrance to the undercity and try to fortify it. If the xenos can get down there and are given enough time to truly settle in, it will be a nightmare to deal with them. Best we try and stop them before they get the chance.¡± That was another good point. ¡°Okay, so we go there first then, make sure they are fine. Then we head to Paradise Hills. No clue what to do though should they have gotten into the undercity. Not to be an ass, but I want to deal with the aliens in the redlight district before I go somece else,¡± I said, looking around our little gathering. ¡°No, I feel you there. If they got in we let the rest know. Maybe we can coordinate something with Shrapnel and co,¡± Chloe said with a nod in my direction. ¡°Oh, that reminds me,¡± I muttered, quickly going through my augs while I spoke, ¡°I¡¯ll set up themunications suite again. If you need to just invite people in. Every important thing should be filtered through there to make sure nobody misses anything. If need be I think Kaysa can y secretary for that. Is that okay with you?¡± I asked my AI. Kaysa actually sighed at me, before she spoke. Considering that there is nobody more capable present I will have to do. Would you like your coffee with milk or with sugar, or both? I snorted at that, ¡°Thanks Kaysa, that helps a lot.¡± It didn¡¯t take long for me to finish setting everything up and soon I found my virtual self in the familiar virtual rooms, standing across from an¡­ extremely attractive elven woman? ¡°Uh¡­¡± I found it prudent to have a physical appearance in this virtual space you created. The challenge of creating a fitting body for myself was¡­ interesting. Took quite the number of milliseconds. Do you like my new look? That had me snorting again, ¡°Yeah, you look great. Try not to steal my clientele?¡± Kaysa indeed looked utterly gorgeous. The proportions of her virtual body were just right to look pleasing to the eye, without being unrealistic and she wore a simr style of dress to my own, although a lot less revealing. In a way she very much looked like a secretary, which probably was the point considering myment. I have no interest in that. Humanity¡¯s enjoyment of the pleasures of the flesh is not something I, or any other AI I know, shares in any capacity. ¡°Small mercies,¡± I said with a smirk, before I focused back on reality. ¡°Everything¡¯s set up. If you find anything sent to Kaysa, she¡¯ll distribute it to the rest of us.¡± With a nod Patrick got up, ¡°We got a n then. I¡¯ll send whatever I find your way. For the moment I rmend you move as a group until we identify all the hotspots. I work better alone, but I¡¯ll be careful.¡± And so, with another nod, he turned around and wandered off towards the entrance of the shelter. Looking at Chloe and Jenna I raised an eyebrow in inquiry and soon both of them were ready to head out as well. We had just started our track to the entrance as well, when I felt a tug on my attention. Snuffles alerted me to even more xenos nearby, and I sent her out to deal with them. It did also alert me to another thing I had entirely missed. I had even more links to other Hexws, a dozen all together, all looking¡­ Strange. They had a generally human look, by which I meant that the general body shape was human. It was very clear though that they were very alien. They had four arms, tworger where normal arms should be, with two smaller ones underneath. Their legs were digitigrade and had sharp ws, while a long prehensile tail grew from just above their behind. Two strong limbs grew from their shoulder des, simr to the ones Snuffles had. Their entire body was either covered in an extremely pale skin, or grey chitinous armor, which covered the torso, their lower arms and legs, and the tail, while leaving the thighs, upper arms, and part of the cleavage and neck bare. Their face was¡­ Imagine a human crossed with an insect. That was the most pleasant description I coulde up with. Each had six eyes, two triangles of three where normal human eyes would be, and their mouth was much too wide forfort and filled with the same sharp silvery teeth that Snuffles had. In a word they were hideously terrifying. I loved them immediately. ¡°Wow, Snuffles was busy, wasn¡¯t she?¡± I had it devour a good part of the Devouring Rose once it died before I had it follow you here. Snuffles¡­ should be capable of producing a couple more Hatchlings while you are underway. ¡°Great,¡± I said, before I was stopped by a hand on my shoulder. Turning around I found Castas, looking tired and uncertain. ¡°Hey, uhm¡­¡± he began, ¡°I heard the news about the Hive and all¡­ You think we¡¯ll be safe here? Not that I doubt your abilities, but you can¡¯t be everywhere at once.¡± I gave him a reassuring smile, ¡°I got Snuffles here now and a small army of Hexws, plus Jenna¡¯s bot is still protecting the entrance. I¡¯ll leave some of the Hatchlings with you. Just, uhm¡­ make sure people don¡¯t try to shoot them, yeah? They aren¡¯t exactly innocent looking.¡± Castas sighed a long sigh, then nodded. ¡°Better than nothing, I suppose¡­ Sorry, people have gotten twitchy. News came around about the Hive and they aren¡¯t happy. We are trying to do what we can to keep them calm, but it¡¯s not as easy anymore. People don¡¯t like being locked in an enclosed room with the apocalypse going on outside and with no hope of helping. Yesterday things were easier, nothing much going on, they felt safe. Now? I know I can¡¯t order any of you around, and hells know I don¡¯t want to piss any of you off, but if possible, could you try to be quick about the Hive? Just needs one lunatic to rile them all up real good and then things will be a nightmare to deal with.¡± He had a point. Normally people could depend on getting evacuated, but we weren¡¯t exactly on the list of people to care about. True, the Family had promised to send someone, but for the people in here that was a slim chance at best, and aplete lie at worst, no matter how truthful the Family was about their intentions. ¡°We¡¯ll try our best, hm?¡± ¡°Thanks. Good luck out there, Princess,¡± he said with his best attempt at a smile, then turned and walked away. Once outside I stretched once more and looked around. ¡°Y¡¯know, I starting to feel really bad for thinking so poorly of Castas before all this. Dude¡¯s really putting his all in making sure shit stays calm and everyone¡¯s safe.¡± ¡°Yeah,¡± Jenna nodded, ¡°Things I heard about him made him look like a monster. And maybe he is and he¡¯s just trying to not piss us off, but I doubt it.¡± ¡°To me it looks more like thetter honestly. He¡¯s a smart guy and seems to be the adaptive type. He knows if he keeps us, or specifically Seraphine, happy, he¡¯ll have better chances at getting more pieces of the pie for himself,¡± Chloe said, eyes peeled for any xeno trying to sneak up on us. I just shrugged at herment, ¡°I really don¡¯t give a fuck. As long as he¡¯s helpful I don¡¯t care what motivates him. Now, let¡¯s see about killing some xenos. First things first, the undercity. Then we can head over to Pleasure Hills and start nning on how to deal with the Hive.¡±
I have a Discord! Chapter 15 – The gates to… Hell? Chapter 15 ¨C The gates to¡­ Hell? ¡°In the mid 2010s and early 2020s people had kind of gotten used to the whole rush hour thing. Streets were utterly overfilled, everyone seemed to need their own car, nobody could get anywhere. After the antithesis started invading and the protectors stepped in to help us, the problem just shifted into the air. Now we have entire highways in the sky. Still, most of the time you are still stuck in traffic. Just that this time you have to worry about an aliennding in your floating convertible.¡± - Car Nuts, episode 148 When Chloe had said that xeno activity had picked up, she meant it. We couldn¡¯t get five steps before we had to deal with a patrol consisting of Twos, Threes, two Fours, three Fives, a Six, and a Nine! The only reason we didn¡¯t get utterly swarmed was because Snuffles had just finished with herst group of aliens only a street over. ¡°Fucking hell!" I muttered, breathing heavily after the encounter was over. It was a short but brutal battle, no finesse, just straight up brawling. They hade out of nowhere and we didn¡¯t have the time to think about any fancy ns. The Nine had almost taken Jenna¡¯s head off, only her Sentinels had stopped it in its tracks. Snuffles was busying herself on the remains of the Six and the Fives, while I looked down at myself, covered in alien goo¡­ again. ¡°We gotta be more careful," Chloe said, equally breathing heavily, ¡°This could have ended very differently.¡± ¡°Agreed," Jenna said, still a bit in shock, ¡°Let¡¯s take things slow, yeah?" I nodded, scowling inwardly at myself. It was my fault that we were surprised, I was the one with the fancy sensory shit, yet I hadn¡¯t paid attention and it had nearly cost them dearly. This was uneptable. If I fuck up and pay the price, okay, tough luck, but if I fuck up and someone else does? Inexcusable. It didn¡¯t take long for Snuffles to eat the remaining xenos, especially since her brood was helping her with the task. It looked¡­ really weird, watching them devour half melted and half ripped apart xeno flesh, but to them it was tasty. Which, I guess, was even weirder. I could taste the things they tasted and I liked it! Normally I probably never would have, but my Hexws were having a field day. Our trip continued soon after, although much slower this time and with me paying very close attention to our surroundings. One normal model Nine was bad enough, I really didn¡¯t want to miss that new variant Chloe had talked about. It sounded like a pain. The trek to the entrance of the undercity wasn¡¯t a particrly long one, at least from our position. It also wasn¡¯t the only entrance, of course, but it was the only one in this district and it was typically used rather often by the gangs to trade goods and shit. And, of course, another reason was that the redlight district was just a half step above the undercity in social hierarchy. ¡°I hear more xenos that, and that way. They aren¡¯ting closer, seem to be out of our way, but they could ambush us further down the road.¡± I muttered while we walked. ¡°We can¡¯t stop for every group. We¡¯ll never get anything done that way,¡± Jenna muttered in reply and looked around. Both she and I had drones running around to kill as many xenos as we could, but we didn¡¯t really make much of a dent in the poption. ¡°We need to hurry up with the lures,¡± Chloe said in a low tone, a frown on her face that I saw more with my hearing more than with my eyes, ¡°I really don¡¯t like how things have changed. Yesterday it was all model Ones, Twos, Threes, maybe the asional Four or something bigger. Today we have Fives, Sixes, Sevens, Eights, Nines, Elevens, Twelves¡­ I really don¡¯t want to know how things will escte tomorrow. Or god forbid the day after.¡± Jenna and I both nodded agreement without stopping our collective scouting operations. Shit was going to go sideways soon if we couldn¡¯t deal with things. ¡°At least we are getting points. Might be able to make quite a few before we head over to the Hive. Would really love some options there. I have some ideas of what to buy, but all of that is fucking expensive,¡± Jenna added and I agreed. Options would be good to have since we couldn¡¯t know what exactly would await us there. She was just about to add something when I raised my hand, silencing the conversation, ¡°Xenosing up shortly. Mostly Threes, couple Fives. Can¡¯t find a Six or Nine, but keep your guard up.¡± Without another word we got ready, sticking close to the run down house next to us and keeping an eye on the ruined intersection I heard the xenosing from. Snuffles wasying low, primed to pounce the aliens, while my Hatchlings started mbering up the wall on both sides of the street. They were actually quite mobile, their strong back limbs allowing them to easily climb up even pretty smooth surfaces, as long as it was soft enough for their strong jaw-like ws to burry into it. Not that we had anything even remotely smooth in terms of walls around here, most of the buildings either had cracks or badly patched holes in them, which made climbing for them a cakewalk. Hell, I probably could have climbed up if I really wanted to. Risk of cutting myself on rusty metal or broken windows aside. It didn¡¯t take long for the xenos to arrive, and the moment they came around the corner we struck. I focused mainly on defence, walling them in to prevent them from running away, while Chloe and Jenna started cutting them down. In Jenna¡¯s case that was literally true. She seemed to like the sweeping des my Pristine Fortress could produce and used it as her main weapon. Chloe of course had her rifle to decimate most of them, but the Fives were a bit too tanky to take out instantly. I did my best to project Hard-Light shields to block their quills, but it was a close thing. Two of my Hatchlings died, crushed by the Fives, and I was just about to panic a bit when Snuffles finally moved and jumped. A momentter she crashed into the two model Fives, jaw wide open and biting one of their heads off, while the other got crushed beneath her body and skewered by her long tails. The fight was over quickly after that, which was just fine by me. I took deep breaths and tried to calm myself down a bit, while Snuffles once more went back to eating. It took roughly half an hour for her to produce two Hatchlings. I could elerate it a bit, if I didn¡¯t mind the Hatchlings being a bit weaker, but right now I needed them at full strength. I was just about to rx when every sense in my body screamed at me, reflexively I threw up a Hard-Light shield, barely intercepting arge quill the size of my forearm. A momentter Snuffles pounced again and utterly decimated an old decrepit car, which turned out to be one of those model Nine variants. It died instantly, but I didn¡¯t dare to let my guard down. Heart beating a mile a minute, it had nearly taken Chloe center mass which even her armor probably wouldn¡¯t have helped against. After scanning our surroundings again, then once more, I slowly let the tension dissipate. ¡°Fuck, that was close.¡± ¡°Yeah¡­ Thanks,¡± Chloe muttered and gave me a slightly panicked smile. I smiled in return, though I couldn¡¯t help the small bit of dread in the back of my head about her possibly dying. Once we had calmed down a bit, still on full alert, we continued, Chloe and Jenna much closer to me now, not that I wouldin about that. I had Snuffles run ahead a bit, keeping an eye out, while the remaining Hatchlings and Jenna¡¯s Sentinels fell in around us in guard formation. What I found interesting was that I didn¡¯t actually gave my Hatchlings the orders to do so, they had organised that all on their lonesome, which I found a bit¡­ confusing. ¡°Kaysa, are these things smart?¡± Yes and no. Hexw Hatchings do not possess much intelligence when birthed by a Protector grown Progenitor model. But they do have their instincts, and their main priority is to keep the Hive alive, which in this case means protecting the Hive-Queen. Namely, you. ¡°Shouldn¡¯t Snuffles be their Queen or whatever?¡± This was a bit surprising and confusing to hear, I wasn¡¯t quite sure I liked the implications of me being their Queen or whatever. Snuffles birthed them, but you are the one in control of the Hive. ¡°Guess that makes sense¡­¡± I ignored Chloe¡¯s questioning look, we could go over thister, right now we had different things to focus on. The closer we got to the entrance to the undercity, the more aliens we found, although more and more in smaller groups. While bigger models were still around, most of them were scouting units. Kaysa reasoned that that was probably because we walked away from the Hive, which I guess made sense. It was also interesting to see how my Hatchlings worked. After the previous conversation I had with Kaysa I paid a bit more attention to them. They were at best animal intelligent, but they were capable of some interesting manoeuvres. Each Hatchling could easily take on a Three and four together could beat a Six, if given enough room. That didn¡¯t mean things went without incidents though. I lost two more Hatchlings, leaving me with nine. I just hoped that Snuffles could replenish them quickly. Around an hourter, I hadn¡¯t checked the time too closely when we had left, we arrived at the entrance to the undercity. Normally we would have been quicker, but the amount of xenos we met on the way had slowed us down considerably. It was good for our point total though, I was sitting at a rxed 1745 again, which was nice. The entrance itself was just as unimpressive as the rest of the district, if not a bit less. A giant half rusted gate that was held together by makeshift welds and permanent temporary fixes, surrounded by buildings in simr states, all while looking even more rundown than the rest of the area. But it was still intact, and that was pretty much the only important part. The three of us were hiding behind a corner nearby, nobody wanted to risk a panicked soldier opening up on us. I might be able to see, but they probably couldn¡¯t see well, since it was still dark out and the lighting around the area wasn¡¯t exactly modern. Sure, there were some streetmps illuminating the dark, but they were the old kind, those really old ones with old school light bulbs and shit. The kind of shit you wouldn¡¯t find anywhere near the center of the city. ¡°Uhm¡­ Nobody there?¡± Jenna asked, looking over the entrance a bit confused. There were signs of action, a couple of dead xenosying around. Nothing much, only a couple model Ones and Threes, but to any normie it would have probably been terrifying. ¡°No, they are there. Hidden, but there,¡± I muttered, then looked around the corner. I could see the people hiding behind old booths with my echolocation hearing fuckery, not well but I knew there were nine of them. Four on one side, Five on the other, all split between the couple of booths that were around the area. ¡°Hey!¡± I yelled out, ¡°Anyone there? We have three Samurai here, please don¡¯t shoot at us!¡± After a moment of waiting, just to make sure they didn¡¯t immediately open fire, I left my hiding spot and made my way over. I could see a couple of heads looking out from behind old booths, rusted and rotten, one even without a roof. ¡°Who goes there?! Identify yourself!¡± a rather shaky voice spoke, the bloke couldn¡¯t be more than 20 and sounded like he was about to shit himself, even if he tried to hide it. ¡°I just said, we are Samurai. I¡¯m the Crimson Princess, with me are Jenna and Chloe.¡± I exined, holding up my arms just to ensure they understood my peaceful intentions. ¡°Wait, the Princess and the Queen?¡± another voice asked from behind a different booth. That had me pause for a moment. I wasn¡¯t quite sure who they meant with Queen, although I would bet on Jenna, considering her whole design and stuff. The people who had hidden themselves behind the booths slowly came out, weapons at the ready but still pointed to the ground. Most of them seemed to be around twenty, a bunch of mostly guys, but I saw two girls with them. Or rather, a girl and a woman. They all looked to be from the undercity if their haphazard collection of styles and clothes was anything to go by, not from a single gang, at best maybe a collection of allied gang members. They werecking the uniformity for that though, so I figured they might be independent. One of them stepped forward. He was an older fellow, around fifty or so, with a bald head and a rather impressively dishevelled beard. ¡°Thank fuck you¡¯re here,¡± he muttered, stopping halfway between us and the gate. The three of us walked up to him and I smiled. ¡°Hey there. You doing okay? Need anything to hold the position?¡± ¡°Meds would be a godsent, although anything would help, really. I ain¡¯t wanna whine like a babe, but ammunition is runnin¡¯ low, meds are runnin¡¯ low, and Blitzer ain¡¯t got the points to spare for us.¡± The man was pretty straight forward in his wishes, but I could see from his expression that he was serious about needing them. So far lots of people had shown reverence and respect towards us, this man was more grounded than that. Oh, he was respectful, in his own way, but he seemed to be used to working with Samurai. ¡°I think we can help a bit. Maybe even leave you something better than those peashooters. Oh, uhm¡­ I have some drones I could leave behind, but they are kind of fucky looking.¡± I said with an uncertain frown. I didn¡¯t want nor need these people to start shooting up my Hatchlings. Mainly because I wasn¡¯t sure they could even kill them, which would waste ammo, or if they could, it would waste ammo and my drones. My biggest worry though was that maybe the Hatchlings would defend themselves. Not that I would order them to kill anyone unless they tried to kill me willingly, but they did show some agency of their own and I really didn¡¯t want to test the hypothesis. ¡°You mean like that fucking oversized dog you got?¡± He asked. ¡°Kind of, just more¡­ human looking. They¡¯ll eat the xenos and get stronger from that. Also means less xenos to try and get the biomass.¡± I exined, trying to reason with them. Some of their number looked less than impressed, but the old guy just nodded. ¡°I don¡¯t care one wit about that shit. If they kill xeno¡¯s they can nibble off the rest of my hair for all that I care. Normally all we have is Blitzer¡¯s help, god bless the guy but he ain¡¯t got nearly enough points to help the entire undercity. Yet, for some reason, today we got four Samurai trundle in tryna help while usually folk wouldn¡¯t even let us clean their asses. Not sure what the hell is going on but I can¡¯t wait to see what kind of thing bends me over the table and turns my asshole inside out with how much luck we are having recently.¡± I snorted at thatment, it was a familiar feeling. ¡°Who was thest one toe along? Shrapnel? Martin?¡± He shrugged, ¡°Some girl about your size in a huge fuckoff mech, or power armor or whatever. Dropped the xenos dead, gave us some munitions, but she ain¡¯t got a lot to share and apparently no meds avable.¡± ¡°Dominium Fortress then. Yeah, she¡¯s alright for a pipsqueak. I can give you some meds and I think Chloe can leave some ammunition for you?¡± I turned to nce at Chloe, who nodded immediately. ¡°I have some basic ammo that¡¯s pretty cheap, plus a couple cheap weapons for you to use. Won¡¯t be the world but I can promise you that they¡¯ll be better than your crap.¡± Chloe said. The group looked¡­ torn. I could guess why. Gear like that was liable to get you mugged, so before they could say anything I spoke up. ¡°Make sure the weapons look shit though. Won¡¯t help ¡®em much when the first idiot sees them having alien tech and stabs them for it.¡± It seemed to calm the nerves of the people, although some obviously looked disappointed. Chloe seemed a bit confused at that, but she shrugged, then nodded. ¡°Thanks,sses. We¡¯ll try our best to keep them out from the down low, got enough shit going on there already, don¡¯t need an incursion on top of that.¡± ¡°Anything I could help with?¡± I asked. If I could withoutpromising the mission, then I would. It was the kind of stuff I was used to and honestly if it meant stabilising the undercity it would help the redlight district as well. ¡°Unless you fancy breaking up a four way gang war I don¡¯t think so. Grey Wolves and Sweeping Dragons are currently duking it out in ol¡¯ Sirius territory, and it seems like Napalm and Wasps are tryna take advantage of it. Even heard tell some topside gang is trying to move down or something.¡± I shrugged, ¡°Gang shit is not something I involve myself with. Not until they try and threaten the redlight district.¡± ¡°Well, it might,¡± he said with a frown, ¡°Purple Haze is doing some deals with some fuckwits down there. Don¡¯t know the details, but I heard one of them thinks they can get their hands on White Doves. There¡¯s always one fucktard that tries to take advantage of the aliens showing up.¡± Oh well, that did change things. Haze was not a gang I was too familiar with, I knew they were poking at the Crows and I also knew they were not far from the redlight district. I thought them smarter than trying to start bullshit while an incursion was ongoing, but I guess I was wrong. Not that I could do something about it now. I sighed and shook my head. ¡°Maybe once all is said and done I¡¯ll look into it. Right now though we need to focus on the aliens.¡± He nodded, ¡°Agreed. Fuckers have been a lot more active since a couple hours ago.¡± ¡°We know, it¡¯s why we decided to speed up destroying the hives,¡± Jenna said. ¡°Well, Kaysa, put together a good box of things these folk could use. Meds and stuff. Call it¡­ Ah, to hell with it, make it a 100 points and make sure they¡¯re settled for a couple of days if possible. If they fall we have an entirely too fucked situation to deal with,¡± I said, much to the surprise of the good man in front of me. He seemed to have some inkling on how much that was worth, though the rest really didn¡¯t seem to grasp it. My trusty brainwormpiled an extensive list that I decided to ignore, too focused on keeping my senses sharp, and soon I was down a hundred points and up one rtivelyrge sized box that appeared at my feet. Chloe also got a box for them, this one a bit bigger and roughly the same point value if I had to give it a guess. The old man looked down at the two boxes and looked at us severely. ¡°Thanks to the both of you. I know how much this shit is worth, not lots who would push that much value over to beggars and homeless folk.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t mention it,¡± I said, ¡°I know quite well how you feel. We gotta stick together to survive against the antithesis, and if we can help, we will.¡± With a mental order I assigned four Hatchlings to remain with these fine folk. The moment they stepped out of hiding to start the grizzly task of disposing of the xeno corpses everyone seemed to tense for a moment. But since neither the Hatchlings nor us were showing any signs of immediate danger or battle readiness they seemed to get the message that things were fine. ¡°If you need any help just talk to my Hatchlings, I¡¯ll get the message. Not sure how quickly we can get here though, need to deal with Paradise Hills and then the Hive.¡± I exined, although I didn¡¯t miss his shift in posture when I mentioned Paradise Hills. ¡°You, uh¡­ Don¡¯t know by chance what happened at Hills, do ya?¡± He asked, ncing over to the younger woman with the group. I frowned, ¡°It got raided pretty much the moment the incursion began. Far as I know there are no survivors.¡± Both he and especially the girl jerked back at the news. They obviously had some emotional attachment to the ce in some way. ¡°Couldn¡¯t they have gone to the shelter nearby?¡± she asked, almost desperate in her attempts to reason with me. ¡°It¡¯s toast,¡± Chloe cut in, shaking her head sadly, ¡°Some Sevens got in. No survivors. Even if some of them entered the shelter they are dead anyways.¡± ¡°Might I ask why you ask?¡± I asked the man, keeping a close eye on the girl. She seemed¡­ struck, wounded, but desperately tried to remain calm. From her expression I was pretty certain she had quite the good self-control, she looked like she wanted to stomp off and deal with it herself, but remained quiet. Good kid that one, if she has some smarts she could make it far in a gang. ¡°My wife, her mum, worked there.¡± The man muttered, eyes downcast. ¡°We haven¡¯t heard from her yet¡­ Quite proud she got a job around here, but now¡­¡± He shook his head, ¡°We won¡¯t keep you any longer. Thanks for the help and good luck out there.¡± I nodded, ¡°If we find something about her we¡¯ll let you know. If only to give you some closure.¡± It was the best I could promise under the circumstances. Again a heavy weight settled down upon me, another sob story, another family ripped apart by the bullshit going on outside. It wasn¡¯t new, of course. It wasn¡¯t any kind of news in these parts. But it didn¡¯t make the emotions any easier to take. We bid farewell and turned around and started the trek back and towards Paradise Hills. This day couldn¡¯t end soon enough for my tastes.
I have a Discord! Chapter 16 – Upgrades, people, upgrades! Chapter 16 ¨C Upgrades, people, upgrades! ¡°Shipping Samurai has be its own form of genre. If you search long enough you will find every possible ship out there, no matter how bizarre. And that is the beauty of this genre, no matter what you are into, you¡¯ll find something enjoyable to read. Some Samurai have expressed a deep dislike for that kind of thing, but that¡¯s their problem. Samurai are in the public domain and can¡¯t expect to have control over any of this. I¡¯ll be defending my right to ship whoever I want, however I want!¡± - Deceased Reddit User, defending his right to ship Samurai to a very unimpressed Blood Widow ¡°ns?" I asked, keeping a close eye on the empty brothel below us. We had taken position on a roof across from it, mainly to have some peace and quiet from any possible xeno attack. It afforded us a good position to n from, which we really needed. There wasn¡¯t really much going on on the streets below, most of the xenos had already cleared the area, and all the bodies of course, but it didn¡¯t hurt to be cautious. The way here had been¡­ interesting, to say the least. Snuffles was hard at work thinning the herd and birthing new Hatchlings, but despite her best efforts more and more xenos were out and about. By this point she needed a break, so she wasying next to me on the roof, resting, a couple of Hatchlings resting next to her. ¡°I mean, we got points now, so we have options," Chloe said, ¡°The question is, how do we want to approach this. Generally, I mean.¡± She looked at us, ¡°If we are going to work together for a while we can afford to specialise a bit more, since we can cover each other¡¯s weaknesses.¡± I nodded, not having anything against working with the both of them. I liked both and we did make a good team, Chloe and me especially. I mean, maybe that was because I liked her a lot, but I felt like we worked well together. Jenna still needed a bit of time to properly adjust, she was still struggling to really find her specialisation. She got her Sentinels, but that was it, besides. Hell, she didn¡¯t even have her own weapon yet, only something from me. I hadn¡¯t spoken much with her yet, but I think her major problem was being a bit clueless on what she should focus on. Her early experience had stuck with her and she didn¡¯t want to waste points again, so she probably was a bit more cautious with spending them than she should be. ¡°I don¡¯t mind working together,¡± Jenna said, although a bit more hasty than I would have expected, almost as if she had been waiting for the question. Or was afraid of being left behind, maybe? Her expression remained impassive, at least outwardly, but with my senses I could tell she was¡­ I wasn¡¯t sure if it was excitement or nervousness. Maybe a mix of both? ¡°Yeah. It sounds like a good idea honestly, especially if it allows us to be safer.¡± I added, smiling at both of them. It would also enable you to punch significantly above your weight ss. ¡°That too,¡± I agreed, ¡°If we work together we can take on much bigger threats whileing out unharmed. Question is, what should we focus on specifically? I think for me it is time to get the Nanite Swarm thing finally, it would allow me to do quite a bit of support which I mostly already do with my Pristine Fortress.¡± Indeed. Kaysa began, and I raised a hand to let the others know I was listening to her. What youck in direct offensive capabilities you can offset with versatility and utility. I didn¡¯t want to bring it up, since it is your choice, however I noticed you are¡­ perhaps reluctant to get more weaponry. You¡¯re good with people, inspiring them and giving them hope. It might be a good idea to lean further into that. I shook my head, ¡°I am not reluctant to get weapons. It¡¯s just¡­ With Snuffles I didn¡¯t really need more until now, and I definitely needed to get better clothes and armor first. It also doesn¡¯t help that I don¡¯t know what to focus on weapon wise.¡± Jenna nodded at that, ¡°I am in much the same boat. Cleopatra and I have been talking at length about what would work for me. I¡¯ve never really been a fighter and I am not really a big fan of guns, hence why I decided on my Sentinels. Technically they can work at range without my direct help. It¡¯s something I should probably focus on a bit more. I¡¯ve also already decided that I want some body modifications at some point, mainly to be more durable, but also to¡­ change¡­ some stuff. So far I¡¯ve worked under the same mindset of never really wanting to use weapons, but the more we fight the xenos, the more I realise that that just isn¡¯t a viable option.¡± I could understand her, in a way. In some way I felt as lost as she did with what to go for, just for different reasons. I had a path I wanted to pursue, it was the details of that path that eluded me. How could I properly integrate the whole Kitsune shit into fighting antithesis? The more I thought about it, the more I was thinking of a two thong approach: The Kitsune side for dealing with people and doing my job, and the Hexw side for killing aliens. Jenna was a bit different though. She seemed tock the idea for a path in general. She had Sentinels, so that was what she relied on, but she also didn¡¯t really know how to properly integrate herself into that n. ¡°That¡¯s about what I thought,¡± Chloe said with a nod. ¡°Neither of you are the typical guns-zing type of Samurai. I¡¯m already pretty focused on directbat, pistols, rifles, explosives. I¡¯ll also get a catalogue with stuff like turret emcements, barricades, lures, the likes. I can be the front line fighter.¡± She looked at Jenna, then to me, ¡°I think your idea with the whole support stuff is useful and all, but you should at least have one thing on your person that can really punch something if it is needed. You can¡¯t always rely on me, Jenna, or the Hexws, and in that case you should have at least one option avable to you to deal with any immediate threats. Simr goes for Jenna. I don¡¯t know you well, so I don¡¯t know what exactly you have in mind, but I think you can do a pretty simr split to Seraphine if you want to. I have an idea of what you could do, if you are fine with weaponry.¡± Jenna for her part looked¡­ pensive. She wasn¡¯t disregarding the idea, but she also visibly wasn¡¯t happy. Not hearing any reply, Chloe continued. ¡°We need something that can punch something really hard from a distance. I know you don¡¯t want to be next to the enemy, so that would probably be the best idea for you. Stay away, have your Sentinels run perimeter patrol, and shoot something with a really powerful weapon from afar.¡± That seemed to get her attention. She still wasn¡¯t the biggest of fans, but it was much more in line with how she held herself so far. Always to the back, always out of the way of harm if possible. ¡°I think that is a great n,¡± I said with a nod, ¡°But you shouldn¡¯t just go for weapons. What do you want to do?¡± ¡°What do you mean?¡± she asked, a bit confused. ¡°What do you like? Hobbies, things you like to do. Weapons and shit are awesome, but you should also think about what you want to do outside of that. Maybe integrate that with what you will be getting? If you can, that is.¡± It was how I approached things, and while I had my shorings, maybe it could help her find some headway in figuring out what she wanted to ultimately do. Regardless, Jenna seemed to think about my idea, talking softly with her AI. I nodded to Chloe and focused on my own ns. ¡°Well, Kaysa, weapons. Chloe is right. I need something that I can use to properly defend myself. Also Nanite swarms, they sound useful and are probably something I should consider getting soonish.¡± Right now you have two options. With your point total you can either go for something small, or for another big purchase like Snuffles, although, of course, with a different priority. Snuffles is meant to be the basis from which to build up a swarm, but there are other Hexws avable as well. You could also focus on a personal weapon, in which case it might make sense to talk about what you want to achieve with your body modifications. We have touched upon the subject before, but we haven¡¯t spent the time to dive deeper. It could make a significant difference to the weapons you could, or maybe should, be getting right now. I thought about that. I had a general idea, but then again, that general idea was no longer sufficient. It was the exact reason Kaysa brought it up. What did I want? Hm¡­ I mean, I liked the idea of body doubles and shapeshifting, like I had mentioned earlier. The question was, how far do I want to go? Especially since Kaysa had mentioned that Hexw forms, even if they weren¡¯t aesthetically pleasing, were quite powerful forbat. Maybe I could use that? ¡°How exactly would a designated Hexw Combat form look? If I went ahead with the whole shapeshifting thing and try to do both. Can I do that?¡± You can, of course. It would be on the more expensive side, roughly around twenty to thirty thousand points since you need some significant ss II equipment for that, but it is possible. The best example for a trulybat focused Hexw form that you could achieve would be the Hexw Hive-Queen. A 3D render appeared in my virtual room and I quickly ventured over. The form was¡­ Impressive, if a bit hideous. Actually, no. Hideous was the wrong word for it. It was terrifying, but it had its charms, in its own weird way. Generally it was humanoid, which surprised me. Surprise that apparently registered, as Kaysa cut in. I have changed the general design to be appropriate for a human form. In reality it has much more resemnce to six legged insects, but I doubt you would want to go for that kind of form. That made sense, I guessed. Regardless, the form was humanoid, but only in the rough silhouette. It had two digitigrade legs with long sharp ws, flowing up into two powerful legs. The torso was¡­ Actually, it was much more urate to say it resembled a skeletal structure of a human torso than the actual torso itself. It had eight arms, two normal ones, and six smaller ones. The six smaller arms could seemingly form into the body, hiding them. On its back were four powerful limbs, although instead of them being ws that could help you climb they resembled batwings or something simr. The head was generally humanoid, but with the same strange features the Hatchlings had. Two trios of eyes, a mouth too wide to be real, but instead of the chitinous mask, this one looked like it had skin. From the cyx grew nine long tails with a variety of features, such as ws, poison injectors, des, and other things. The body shape was very obviously female with a visible chest that was quite sizable, actually a bit too big to be natural. Kaysa noticed my noticing that detail. The Hexw Hive-Queen has its own bionic healing nanites, usually stored in a rather bulbous section towards the rear. With the constraints of the human form I thought you might appreciate this design, as it focuses more on your femininity. I nodded, one eyebrow raised in surprise, it did make sense after all. Personally I don¡¯t think I would have designed thebat form this way, but it would work for what I needed. There was a question though. ¡°How big is this? Would I even have enough¡­ body mass? To shapeshift into it, if I stuck to a normal human, or maybe Kitsune, form?¡± Yes, which is why it is on the more expensive end. Part of the biomass used to form the body can be stored in dimensionally shunted storage areas. Technically, if you really pushed the ability, you could form into your own version of the Progenitor Reaver, although to achieve that there would be some other upgrades you would need to get, pushing the price up considerably. ¡°Hm¡­¡± I thought for a moment, ¡°I do like the idea. Be a cute, sexy foxgirl normally and turn into a supernatural killing machine when fighting xenos. I guess this would also make me much more resilient and give me better senses as well?¡± Both could easily be fitted into the form itself, yes. The details would need to be hashed out once you get the points for it, there are quite some options avable to you, of course. ¡°Yeah, about that. How would body doubles work with that?¡± Honestly, the best option might actually be nanite swarms. If you wish to go that far it would be quite point intensive to get more bodies to work with, and while you could get there eventually, you can also achieve a simr and much cheaper result with nanite swarms. Of course, they would not be as powerful as you, or as resilient, but until you get the amount of points you need they would serve as a possible alternative. ¡°Okay, sounds good. It isn¡¯t something I need now though. For now I need weapons, since I can¡¯t afford that kind of crap yet.¡± It did help drastically narrow down your options. Generally it would be a good idea to have both a powerful melee and a powerful ranged option avable to you, if needed. Would you prefer these weapons toe in one single package, or rather two dedicated weapons? The first option is a bit cheaper, but two dedicated items could improve the effectiveness. ¡°I don¡¯t want a cheap copout,¡± I decided, ¡°This shouldst for a long time and should be able to pull me out of anything I could get into until I can get my other, more permanent upgrades.¡± Very well. In that case two dedicated Hard-Light weapons would be your best option. At first the Mark V Variable Hard-Light Lance Emitter, costing 400 points. It cane in different forms of jewellery and is capable ofunching high powered Hard-Light Lances with an integrated targeting system that can work off of any enhanced senses you might have or obtain. It has enough firepower to deal even with higher models of antithesis and can fire modified Hard-Light Lances packed with nanite payloads from your Nanite Swarm catalogue, once you obtain it. It is a very straight forward weapon focused on piercing the carapace of durable antithesis and killing them in very few hits. The downside is a rather high energy cost, meaning you will only be able to fire a couple of shots before you need to recharge it. For a small markup you can buy an additional dimensionally shunted battery pack, extending the use time and increasing the price to 500 points. Secondly I rmend the Mark VI Dusk and Dawn, a Hard-Light emitter that produces a polearm roughly six feet long, costing 350 points. It is a very simple weapon, with not a lot of features. The reason for the pricing is its high durability, capable of holding up to even higher two digit models, as well as its piercing capabilities. Simrly to the Mark V Variable Hard-Light Lance Emitter it is meant to deal with any models you could reasonablye across, but it also has the same increased energy cost. With a simrly dimensional shunted battery pack to the Mark V Variable Hard-Light Lance Emitter it would cost 450 points. Those are the most powerful options you have avable to you at this time. For anything more powerful you would need to upgrade your Hard-Light Technologies Catalogue, which you currently can¡¯t do. I whistled. Those things were expensive. But they sounded like exactly the thing I needed. I had 1612 points at the moment, those two things would cost me 950 points if I went for the battery pack which it sounded like I needed. The Nanite Swarm Catalogue would cost an additional 150, making 1100 points. If I took into ount my 100 point medical reserve I had 400 points to y with for the Nanite Swarms. ¡°Okay, put those on the list with the additional batteries, but before I buy them, what can the Nanite Swarm catalogue do? By my calctions I have 400 points to spend there, ideas?" Certainly. Again you have a few options, dedicated support with healing nanites, variable utility, or offensive usage with flesh-eating nanites. There are also Nanite Swarms focused on hacking, Material Dposition, Repair Nanites, and of course Nanites that could be usedter on, once you start your body modifications. ¡°Hm¡­ I need a bit of everything. What options do I have for a Jack of all Trades kind of thing?" For one the Mark III General Utilities Nanite Swarm AIO at 270 points. It is the best option avable for an equal coverage of all the fields you could need. It produces its own nanites internally that can be programmed to fulfil different tasks depending on use case. It has limited holding capacity for nanites, as they are general use models which usually aren''t very effective on such a small scale. ¡°Hm¡­ What exactly does limited holding capacity mean? Like, in terms of use.¡± Any given swarm you send out with the Mark III General Utilities Nanite Swarm AIO canplete their task in a reasonable time, but you need to wait for reproduction before you can send the next swarm out. It will also cost materials per swarm which can be bought for 5 points in a capsule that has everything any one swarm needs. Production time of a new swarm is on average a minute. ¡°So one swarm every minute. And more specialised thingies are faster?" Not faster on production, but they can hold more nanites at any given time as they are purpose built for one task and don¡¯t require the same amount ofplexity. ¡°Ah, so easier and cheaper to make, so they cost less points per nanite, hence the model being cheaper for the same effect?" Correct. ¡°I¡¯ll take the general thing. Later on I can upgrade, and if I understand the Mark V Variable Hard-Light Lance Emitter it would make sense for me to have different nanites avable.¡± A sensible decision. ¡°Aight, bundle it all up, time to get moving.¡±
I have a Discord! Chapter 17 – Graveyard Watch Chapter 17 ¨C Graveyard Watch ¡°No matter how deadly antithesis incursions are, the worst part is always the aftermath. Streets and houses empty, previously full of life. Maybe it¡¯s because the bodies are missing, maybe it¡¯s the silence with which it all happens, but nothing prepares you for the aftermath. It¡¯s like the fucking rapture.¡± - Celeby in an interview with ¡°Voice of the Streetz¡±, 2037 ss I Nanite Swarms Catalogue unlocked! Points reduced to: 1462 New purchase: Mark V Variable Hard-Light Lance Emitter (Upgraded)! Points reduced to: 962 New purchase: Mark VI Dusk and Dawn (Upgraded)! Points reduced to: 512 New purchase: Mark III General Utilities Nano Swarm AIO! Points reduced to: 242 Three small boxes appeared around me. As was usual by now, allbelled and with some decorations on them. It made me realise that I haven¡¯t seen anything simr on either Jenna¡¯s or Chloe¡¯s boxes. Probably a Kaysa thing. Deciding not to question my AI¡¯s design decisions, it didn¡¯t matter and I did like the decorations, I opened the first box,belled Mark V Variable Hard-Light Lance Emitter, which was a mouthful. The Emitter itself came in the form of a small ring and generally followed the rest of my Hard-Light emitters in terms of design, making it fit into my look seamlessly. Next up I opened the box with the Mark VI Dusk and Dawn, which also came in the form of a ring. It did make sense I suppose, rings were small, easy to fit into any design, and not obviously a weapon. Finally I opened the boxbelled Mark III General Utilities Nanite Swarm AIO. There was a small ne inside, roughly the size of one of those old school coins that people used to have, made to look like a stylized fox head, simr to my earrings. Once I had put them all on everything connected to my augs and soon I could quickly switch between what I wanted. Interestingly I could have the Nanite Swarm AIO produce nanites without a task, then select a task before I send the swarm out. I could ¡°reload¡± the thing without needing to ce the capsules into it manually, which was part of the reason it had been rtively expensive. Something about dimensional shunting that I didn¡¯t really understand, nor cared to understand. By the time I was done Chloe was already checking over her own new gear. The main piece was an upgrade for her rifle, from the looks of it. I didn¡¯t understand the details, nor did I ask for them, but it looked like she had gotten some attachments for the rifle she had gotten recently. She had also gotten a second pistol in the same design as her first, both decorating her thighs in a most impressive manner. There were also some other bibs and bobsying around that I didn¡¯t know the function of. Safe to say though, they would help when it came to xeno killing. What surprised me the most was Jenna¡¯s new gear. She had, of course, gotten two more Sentinels, these in the same style as the ones she had gotten at the gate to the inner city, although both fashioned a firearm probably from Chloe¡¯s catalogues. The more impressive part was her new weapon. It was a bow, even if a strange one, in a simrly Egyptian style as the rest of her gear. Instead of one string this one had six from what I could tell, and it wasrge. Sandy browns, silver and gold ents, and some purples around the edges, in general this bow looked more like a cross between a guitar and a weapon, elegant but most certainly deadly. I wondered how she would be able to use it, but I was pretty certain that it had some kind of draw assistance, considering it was Protector grade equipment. Cleopatra wouldn¡¯t sell Jenna something useless. She must have caught my surprise, since she shrugged and smiled at me. ¡°Cleopatra and I have done some talking and have decided upon this. It is both a weapon and an instrument, which means I don¡¯t only have to focus on fighting. It can do some pretty impressive stuff, so it will not hamper mebat wise, but I also didn¡¯t want to just get some weapon.¡± I gave her a warm smile and a nod, ¡°A weapon and a tool at the same time. I like it. Can you y it?¡± She blushed a bit, ¡°Not yet¡­ It¡¯s something to get to in the future. But I always wanted to y an instrument. My parents loved music but¡­ Well¡­ neither of them were able to y in their condition. I wish I could have yed something for them before they passed¡­¡± There was a moment of silence, and not the good kind. I slid over to her and pulled her into a hug. ¡°Sorry¡­ I didn¡¯t want to dredge stuff up.¡± She shook her head, ¡°It¡¯s okay¡­ They might not be able to experience it, but I can still do my best to make them proud.¡± We stayed like that for a moment longer, before she gently separated from me, wiping away a stray tear from her eyes. ¡°Well,¡± she said, ¡°I think I am ready now. I got some points saved up, just in case.¡± Chloe nodded, giving Jenna another warm smile, ¡°Yeah, I¡¯m ready as well. Let¡¯s get going, hm?¡± The street below was mostly empty of aliens. I could see some Threes and some Fours, and of course some flyers, but by far not as much as in other parts of the district. Probably because there really wasn¡¯t much biomass to be had around these parts anymore. ¡°Once we get inside I¡¯ll grab the lure. I have a lot of points still saved and I have some ideas on how to set up.¡± Chloe said, surveying the brothel from our vantage point. ¡°You got a n?¡± I asked, following her example and checking the streets below. One part of my attention was busy keeping an eye out on things, just to make sure we wouldn¡¯t be surprised again. ¡°Well, kind of,¡± Chloe said, a smile forming on her lips, ¡°This is meant to be a diversion, right? But that doesn¡¯t mean we can¡¯t try and make some points off of it. I¡¯d set up some pretty good defences to make sure we can keep this thing going for a while, before we head out. Maybe have a Sentinel and a Hatchling or two stand guard, to make sure the lure can¡¯t be destroyed. It doesn¡¯t need tost forever and I don¡¯t want to activate it right away, but a bit of precaution could do us good.¡± I nodded at that, it sounded like a pretty good n to me. Was it perfect? Probably not, but it would help us tremendously when dealing with the Hive. Once we had finished with our preparations we moved out, slowly making our way down from the roof. The Hatchlings followed us in their usual climbing manner, while Snuffles simply jumped down. She made quite the racket, but we were ready for the couple of Threesing our way and quickly dispatched them. With the Sentinels and the Hatchlings falling in around us I send Snuffles out to scout and deal with any xenos she could find. The brothel itself was much like I imagined it to be. Mostly intact, if utterly ruined, and with a lot of blood on the ground, but without any bodies. Neither human or antithesis, really. It made for quite the eerie scene. We walked inside without talking, all of us I think felt quite¡­ unsettled? I certainly was feeling a bit queasy. This ce used to be full of people. Even if I had never been here before I could basically see the people walking around and enjoying themselves while I took in the surroundings, clients talking to joytoys, people having fun, the asional incident that required the intervention of someone else. It was different from the Rose Carpet, in many ways, but at the same time, it also felt so intimately familiar. It made my stomach churn to realise that this was nothing more than a ghost town now, the people who had called this ce their home dead. Chloe quickly went to work and started cing different things, from barricades to turret emcements. ¡°I¡­ I think I¡¯ll wait outside,¡± I said, voice low and t, ¡°Kaysa, send some Hexws in to search the ce in case there is anyone still around¡­ Just to be sure. Inform me if you find anything.¡± Without anyment from Kaysa three Hexws separated from our group and started to head deeper into the building. Truth be told I didn¡¯t have any hopes of finding anything around still, but I owed it to the guards near the undercity entrance to at least try. I didn¡¯t know why this hit me so close to home. I had seen death before, of course. But I had never seen it on this scale. There was a difference between a couple people dying in a shootout and an entire building just¡­ being wiped out. Once outside I picked up one of the old chairsying around from the seating area out front. The ones that didn¡¯t have blood on them in any case. Jenna followed my example and we both sat down. For a long time there was silence as we both worked through our own little issues in our mind. Eventually she spoke. ¡°Intellectually I had known¡­ Just how much shit went down here. I mean, I think I¡¯ve seen an overdose victim or two¡­ But¡­ This is just so much worse.¡± Her voice betrayed her calm expression. There was a hint of hopelessness in it, something deep and primal. I nodded, numbly. ¡°Ever since I got here,¡± I started, not really thinking about what I said, just¡­ listening to my heart, I guess, ¡°I have seen some really fucked up shit. I took my first drugs at what, nine years old? At that time I already saw my first corpse. Over time that number just steadily increased. And I guess, I am pretty hardened by it. I am not squeamish, nor do I feel much when I see the dead, it¡¯s¡­ I guess it''smon enough? I got used to it. But this, this is different. It¡¯s not the dead that are the issue. It¡¯s the fact that it¡¯s just so devoid of life. Humans are easy to grasp, they don¡¯t need much to understand them. But the aliens? They are weird, and strange, andpletely disregard life as a whole. They¡¯re a bane, a bane that needs to be wiped out.¡± I admit that towards the end I might have gotten a bit¡­ heated. I felt emotional, more emotional than I had felt in a long time¡­ Jenna just nodded in reply,pletely agreeing with me. We spent another few moments in silence, just¡­ trying to ept reality. Rationally this wasn¡¯t much worse than the rest of the district, but emotionally it was devastating. ¡°We need to up our forces,¡± Jenna said, out of the blue. I didn¡¯t disagree. Maybe I should lean more into the whole Hexw thing. I could, now that I thought about it, keep an entire army of antithesis contained with their help. As long as I had the biomass I could keep an army going. Maybe it wasn¡¯t too bad a n. Yeah. I breathed a bit easier at that, I did have the tools to prevent this in the future. It would need some point investment, yes, but it could pay off handsomely. ns made, I sat a bit straighter, ¡°Kaysa, remind me to get more Progenitors. We need more Hatchling throughput. The aliens won¡¯t just leave us alone, we need to eviscerate them. Best thing for that are more forces. They are basically free if I have the biomass, right?¡± Indeed. We could also go over different models depending on what you require. Keep in mind, however, that most Progenitorse with a rather big point cost attached to them. ¡°That¡¯s fine,¡± I said, ¡°I don¡¯t mind the cost, as long as it allows me to build up my army. Being all sexy and alluring and gorgeous and stuff is nice, but I am a Samurai, it¡¯s my damn job to protect people. This shit,¡± and I pointed to Paradise Hills, ¡°Cannot happen again.¡± While I am not happy about the oue of this particr situation, I am d that you found a spark of inspiration in the ruins. I snorted, but didn¡¯tment. We had to deal with the Hive, had to make sure that this wouldn¡¯t repeat itself. I sent Snuffles a mentalmand to start focusing on Hexw production. It would take time, of course, she wasn¡¯t the fastest, or the most expensive Progenitor, but it would help. And until we got to the Hive it was the best way to rue more resources. ¡°You have a n?¡± Jenna asked, looking at me with¡­ She was smiling, but from her expression I knew it was more to that. She was thinking about something. ¡°Yes. Well, kind of. I am very good at wars of attrition, right? The more things die, the more Hexws I can make, kind of like the antithesis. Maybe it¡¯s time I started to focus more on that?¡± ¡°I guess I can see that,¡± she said with a thoughtful expression, ¡°For me it¡¯s not that easy¡­ Even if I get crafting capabilities, I will need dwindling resources. Chloe said earlier I can do a simr split to you, but maybe I should focus on other venues. You can spread out and cover an entire area, I am more suited to protection of important targets and to dealing with an onught of antithesis towards a stationary defence position. Maybe I should get something for that? Question is what though¡­¡± ¡°That¡¯s easy, production capabilities,¡± I smiled at her, ¡°You just said that you can¡¯t do the same, right? Maybe get somethingter on that could allow you to focus your efforts. A secure base or something? y to your strengths in that regard. You need resources, so you need a ce to go to to rearm and repair. If you make it mobile you could have quite the formidable fortress to use. Especially with your new weapon, you can take out high priority threats from a distance and then have your Sentinels defend the location.¡± It did make sense to me. I was a mobile threat to the xenos. I could move while I did my thing. Technically Jenna could do the same, but she would need to wait for restocking. And if we had a ce to defend people in, I could help there while my army marched out, probably with Chloe at the front or something, while Jenna and I made sure people were safe. Actually, if we did things that way I had the flexibility to go where I was needed. It made the entire operation much safer. I liked the n. Problem was points, and in my case, biomass. We couldn¡¯t start working like that now, but it was something we could work towards. Jenna seemed to agree, because she gave me a warm smile once more and nodded. ¡°Yeah, that sounds good. I think I have an idea what to go for then. Still needs some time though. In the intermediary I¡¯ll focus on personal protection and see if I can¡¯t make sure people around us are safe.¡± I sighed deeply and leaned back. Then I had to snort, unable to suppress my amusement, ¡°You know, a day ago my biggest worry was if I could get enough alcohol to keep me going. Now I¡¯m nning to build an army. Life sure is something,¡± I said as the reality of the situation really hit me. Jennaughed in response, ¡°I guess. I always thought I end up some cheap office drone or something, doing the same job day in, day out. Being a joytoy was already enough to disrupt my ns, but now? Damn, this is not where I ever expected to be.¡± We spent the remainder of the time in silence. The situation was fucked, but it was by far not hopeless. Eventually Chloe sent us a quick message asking us inside. The inside of the brothel had changed a lot. Not in terms of cement or decoration, but now it was filled to the brim with different things. Barricades, turret emcements, mines, traps, different weapons, and of course the huge lure in the middle of it all. We found Chloe bend over some piece of machinery attaching wires, and I took a moment to appreciate the sight of her behind in front of me. I was pretty sure Jenna was doing the same from the silly smile on her face, not that I minded. ¡°Well?¡± I asked while I stepped closer. ¡°Nearly done,¡± Chloe answered in a bit of a strained voice, ¡°Once I get this thing powered we can head out.¡± Ignoring for the moment the perfect view in front of me, I took in the surroundings. The weapons and turrets on disy weren¡¯t the biggest, of course, but I was pretty sure they could handle any smaller target with ease. The way the barricades were ced also made it pretty hard for the xenos to rush straight towards the lure. Of course they could try, but Chloe had smartly ced some turrets for wide range coverage should some alien get the bright idea of jumping over the barricades. It looked like a rather usable killzone set up. With a mentalmand I send two of my Hatchlings inside to keep an eye on the lure itself and dismantle any bigger aliensing in. Jenna for her part did the same, two of her Sentinels took up position at the main entrance. I wasn¡¯t sure if the entire thing would hold up against a Six or higher, but it looked sturdy enough for our purposes. By the time my inspection was done Chloe got up, stretching and popping her back. ¡°Alright, done. We can start our move on the Hive.¡± I nodded to her, ¡°When will you be turning this all on?¡± ¡°Most of the weapons are hot. The Lure can be activated with my augs, did cost some points to get that use, but I figured it was worth it. My n is to activate the lure when we get near the Hive so we can pull the xenos out and deal with them there. As got the position of the Hive from Patrick¡¯s AI and said it is within the range of the lure.¡± She exined while she packed a couple of things in some of her pockets, before she picked up her rifle, slung it around her shoulders, then gripped the handle. ¡°Here¡¯s to hoping the entire n works.¡± After we walked out of the brothel once more I breathed a little sigh. I hadn¡¯t even realised how oppressive the air had been inside. ¡°Okay, where is the Hive?¡± I asked into the group, of course keeping my senses sharp. ¡°Follow me, As has picked out a good route to follow. It should be rtively safe,¡± Chloe said and walked ahead, head on a swivel. Jenna and I followed after. It was time to finally deal with this fucking Hive and get some rest. I was tired¡­
I have a Discord! Chapter 18 – Twenty-One problems Chapter 18 ¨C Twenty-One problems ¡°The human mind is quite strange when ites to our perceived rtionship with everyday objects. Many people often attribute human emotions to different items they encounter in their day to day life. Now imagine that, but the item in question is a living weapon, created to kill antithesis. Would it be such a stretch to imagine that the Samurai it belongs to bes attached?¡± - Dr. Steven Johanson, Doctor of Psychology, 2043 As and Janus have identified the Hive in this building. From the active surveince systems still functional it appears that it has grown quite a bit since it was formed. Kaysa put a map onto the big virtual screen in my virtual space. My inner self examined the map closely, at this point the switch between reality and virtual space felt nearly seamless to me. Honestly, I actually preferred using it, since this way I didn¡¯t clutter my HUD. It also helped Chloe and Jenna, since we could all use the same information pool and stay fully up to date. ¡°Industrial district, hm? Not that I¡¯m surprised, that is close to a food factory. A street over should be food storage as well, not that I think it¡¯s still around. Bit surprised though, I would have thought they would have settled into the active food factory itself.¡± I muttered, mainly to myself, but I did still send my ruminations to Chloe and Jenna. Of course in virtual form, my real me was busy keeping her senses sharp, and I preferred to keep it that way. ¡°What¡¯s the area like?¡± Jenna asked, studying the map I was sending her. ¡°Lots of big storage buildings, industrialplexes, big parks of asphalt, half of them filled with old containers and broken down trucks. From the corner the antithesis picked I would imagine there was a fuckton of food to have, and not a lot of dangerous materials. Kaysa?¡± Kaysa was also in my virtual room in her elven form, and she nodded at me. That is more or less urate. It is very unlikely that there are any dangerous materials remaining, so you don¡¯t need to worry about identally blowing yourself up. ¡°Is that such a problem? I wouldn¡¯t think food factories have shit like that around,¡± Chloe muttered. ¡°Oh, it is. We have an industrial building catch fire from chemical contamination every couple months. The shit that¡¯s produced here is the kind of cheap ration bullshit you sell to the less fortunate, so they don¡¯t care much for quality.¡± While I spoke I quickly scoured the, what I could anyway, the connection was a bit wonky out here, and pulled up two examples of an industrial building going up in mes. Jenna and Chloe both got a little green, and I shrugged. This wasn¡¯t exactly news, and truth be told I had long since giving up on giving a fuck since I knew I wouldn¡¯t live long enough to die from those chemicals anyways. Now things were different, of course, but I still had a hard time to properly internalise this new reality. ¡°Anyways,¡± I said, before I went on another tangent, ¡°This ain¡¯t the best case scenario since we will have a big open field to contend with, but maybe Chloe can set up some barricades?¡± The woman in question frowned in concentration, ¡°It¡¯s not impossible, if we get the time to n ahead. Would need to know how the area looks, specifically, before I can decide on what¡¯s best.¡± That did make an awful lot of sense, so I shelved the discussion for the time being. The way to the Hive was surprisingly quiet. Mind you, we did find a good amount of xenos, but I had actually anticipated more issues. Most of the groups we had to fight off were rather quickly dealt with, mainly thanks to Snuffles help. The main problem was keeping an eye open for model Nines. I didn¡¯t have a reliable way of tracking them yet, and the closer we got to the Hive, the more I felt like something was afoot. From the description Kaysa and Chloe had given me I would have assumed more higher level models would be around, but that really wasn¡¯t the case. ¡°I don¡¯t like this,¡± I muttered in the virtual call, my avatar standing in front of arge array of maps, info screens, and data dumps, not that I understood half of it, but it did make me feel cool. ¡°This is too easy.¡± ¡°Agreed,¡± Chloe muttered silently as she peaked around another corner, Jenna and me closely behind her. She checked the area for xenos, not that I could detect any, and gave us the all clear before she continued moving forward, rifle at the ready. At the next corner she stopped. We were very close to the Hive now and I could already see semi-open areas filled with trash and debris of old buildings. The entire area looked even worse than the redlight district, as if nobody had been around in years to clean up. ¡°Well, look at this,¡± Chloe muttered, then ducked down and motioned us to move closer. Jenna and I stuck behind her, but we peaked around the corner. The area was much as I had expected to find it, a big open area with a few old containersying around and broken down cars decorating the road side. Piles of trash wereying around, offering some limited cover. In the distance was the building in which the Hive had nested itself. That was quite obvious from the xenos stalking around, someing out of the building, some others dragging¡­ some shit inside, I wasn¡¯t quite sure what exactly it was, but apparently it served as biomass. On top of the big building sat two giant forms, both winged and intimidating. Kaysa marked them both in my HUD as model Elevens. ¡°Well, fuck¡­¡± I muttered, then scanned around the area, ¡°That is going to be hard to deal with¡­¡± ¡°Rest should be fine though,¡± Chloe said, checking out the groups of smaller models, ¡°We can set up some defences around the area then start by taking out the Elevens. Once they are dealt with, as long as we can set up a killzone, we can lure them in. At least I hope.¡± It was a better n than I had, so I nodded and turned to Jenna, ¡°Do you think we can take on the Elevens? I think my Hard-Light Lance should be able to deal with them if I can hit them, but what about you?¡± She frowned, thoughtful, ¡°I think I can deal with it. Cleopatra said I have some arrows that could take it out, but I would need to hit it rather precisely.¡± ¡°If you can do that I think we should be safe. I have some ideas with the space we have avable. Will take some time to set up, though.¡± From her expression Chloe was already halfway done nning the exact positions, and As was already creating a 3D render of the area and her ns within the virtual space. It was updated in real time with Chloe making changes, moving some barricades around, cing and moving turret emcements, and generally doing a rather good job at putting together a reliable kill zone. Markers popped into existence on the map, denoting the position of my Hexws, Jenna¡¯s Sentinels, priority defensive positions, that kind of crap. ¡°Damn, you move fast,¡± muttered my virtual self, ¡°Kaysa, can you make sure to time the activation of my Lance with Jenna¡¯s bow shot?¡± Of course. ¡°Grand¡­ Okay, let¡¯s get moving. Chloe, need some help out there cing shit?¡± She tilted her head, then shook it, ¡°I don¡¯t think so. Best thing you can do is keep the aliens in check and notify me of their position. I need to be a bit stealthy for this to make sure we don¡¯t antagonise the Hive before we are ready.¡± ¡°I can do that, Kaysa, map markers.¡± True to mymand soon multiple red dots appeared on the map where I could see xenos. Without another word Chloe started to move, low to the ground. I kept my senses as sharp as I could, taking in every little detail, to not identally miss an alien that could sneak up on her. The set up took ages. Chloe had to be slow and methodical to not surprise any xenos, and a couple of times had to spend quite some time hiding behind piles of trash when multiple xeno patrols marched past her. While she worked, and I yed surveince camera, Jenna seemed restless next to me. I smiled at her, and took her hand, squeezing it, to calm her down a bit. It seemed to help, even if her heart rate didn¡¯t subside much, but she did give me a warm smile in turn. Finally Chloe was done and slowly made her way back to us. Only when she was back behind the corner we were hiding behind did she rx a bit, sighing deeply. ¡°Okay, I think we are ready. Once you take out the Elevens I activate the lure, okay?¡± The both of us nodded, and moved up. Jenna took out her bow, then caught a rather impressive looking arrow out of the air, before she took aim. I followed suit, aiming at the second Eleven. ¡°On your mark,¡± I said, ¡°I¡¯ll time it with your kill.¡± She nodded ever so slightly, before she sighted the enemy. After she made some adjustments, she fully drew the arrow back and exhaled. It was clear that she wasn¡¯t an expert, but I was pretty sure Cleopatra was helping her a bit. Then she let fly, the arrow moving much faster than I had anticipated. I was ready of course, and a momentter my own Hard-Light Lance Emitter shot out a rather bignce made of Hard-Light. Jenna hit true, her arrow exploding the upper half of the model Eleven, while I hit my own target, just not as precise as she had been. I clipped its wing and sent it careening to the ground. ¡°Fuck!¡± I muttered, then took aim at the nearest alien, the Eleven behind the building at the moment. Chloe didn¡¯t wait and moved up. Suddenly every alien in the area looked in our direction, before dashing forward. The night lit up with gunfire, the few dim street lights utterly outssed by the muzzle shes of dozens of smaller turrets, before Chloe¡¯s rather sizable rifle started spitting bullets into the horde of oing xenos. I moved out of cover and knelt down next to one of the barricades that Chloe had ced near us, hands stretched out and firing sweeping Hard-Light des and Lances into the mess before us. Luckily for us the lure messed with the aliens in some way, most of them didn¡¯t even try to hit us, just blindly running to their death. Then Snuffles jumped in, leaping over most of the defences and taking off at a run towards where my Eleven had gone down, swiping long tails to crush the aliens in front of her. Jenna¡¯s Sentinels were right behind her, moving up to the front and taking on defensive positions, while my Hatchlings spread out through the chaos and jumped smaller aliens, killing and feasting as quickly as they could. It didn¡¯t even take a minute before the hordeing at us had been decimated and the battle slowly turned. I was vaguely aware of Snuffles jumping the wounded Eleven behind the building and crushing it, while we fought off the tide, killing more and more xenos. Not even five minutester Chloe¡¯s weapons were silenced one after another, no more targets in sight. I looked around, trying to see if there wasn¡¯t some kind of surprise waiting for us, but the area was quiet for the most part. ¡°That was¡­ easier than expected,¡± I muttered, ¡°Too easy, really. Kaysa, do I have some kind of recon drone?¡± You do have a Hexw Drone that could do the job. It costs you 75 points. Would you like to buy it? ¡°Damn, that¡¯s steep. Yeah, sure, I¡¯ll take it, need to know what the fuck is up with the Hive.¡± It is the markup for a pregrown Hexw. New purchase: Mark III Hexw Shadow! Points reduced to: 1047 A small-ish egg appeared next to me, soon revealing a cat-like Hexw that shook itself once free, before giving me a growling meow and taking off towards the Hive. A couple meters into its trip it turned invisible, and Kaysa pulled up its data feed in the virtual space. The building the Hive had chosen to grow inside of was an old thing, one of those first gen buildings, made when the city had been built after it was clear that Savannah would be flooded. It did mean that it was built into the foundational stuff, which meant that it would be really hard to get rid of the Hive, should it spread out. On the plus side though it meant that it was rather unlikely that it would spread too far, if it went the path of least resistance and didn¡¯t try to burrow through the reinforced concrete of the foundation. One could hope, at least. My little cat thing drone made its way towards the Hive, dodging the few antithesis crawling out of the building on the way, before slipping into a smaller opening to one side of the main entrance. It didn¡¯t take long before it found the first bits of antithesis hive structures. Bits of antithesis hive structure that quickly grew into a massive growth, the further my drone got into the factory. ¡°Not liking this,¡± I muttered. After it took another corner it stopped. In front of it was a massive chamber filled to the brim with weird alien egg sacs of all shapes and sizes. And some of those were . ¡°Really not liking this. Kaysa?¡± Among the other antithesis present, I can see four model Fourteens, one model Eighteen, and three model Twenty-Ones being grown. That would exin the rather weak defence the Hive had shown so far. These things are not cheap or quick to grow. ¡°Well, fuck,¡± I said, looking at my friends, ¡°We have a problem.¡± Both Chloe and Jenna grimaced at the sight, obviously not liking it any more than I did. ¡°A big problem,¡± Chloe said, ¡°There is no way in hell we can deal with those if they get out.¡± I nodded, havinge to the same conclusion. A model Eleven was already a big ask, the only reason we could deal with them so quickly was that we surprised them. But these guys? ¡°Do we have anything we can do here?¡± Jenna shook her head, ¡°I have nothing.¡± I figured as much. ¡°I have some idea, but I am really not sure if it would work,¡± Chloe muttered, then looked at the both of us, ¡°I have a bomb, a big bomb that is very expensive. Issue is, I don¡¯t know if it would be enough and I have no idea how to get it in there without the Hive noticing and waking up the growing aliens. They might not be fully grown yet, but ording to As they are far enough along that them being birthed early is a real possibility.¡± Now I was the one to grimace, really not liking the implications. ¡°What should we do then? I don¡¯t think we can afford waiting for a higher tier Samurai and the others aren¡¯t much better than we are. Maybe Shrapnel can do something?¡± There was a moment of silence. Finally Jenna spoke up, ¡°Chloe, how big is the bomb?¡± ¡°Uh¡­ Around my height, but much, much heavier. Nothing we could easily carry.¡± ¡°And can it deal with the Hive?¡± Jenna continued, face creased with a thoughtful frown. ¡°I guess? I don¡¯t think it can take out everything at once, but it could at least deal with the Hive itself and hopefully really do a number on the aliens.¡± Chloe said, ncing at Jenna, ¡°You got an idea?¡± ¡°Maybe. I have something that we might be able to use tobine with your bomb, to really make sure the Hive is dealt with.¡± Jenna said, then sent some files Chloe¡¯s way through mymunications suite. It was some kind of datasheet that I couldn¡¯t make heads or tails of. ¡°How are we going to get it in there though? You aren¡¯t nning on running in and suiciding yourself, are you?¡± Chloe asked, genuine worry in her voice. Instead of replying Jenna looked at me, ¡°How strong is Snuffles? Could she carry it?¡± My eyebrows rose. ¡°Uhm¡­ Not sure? Kaysa?¡± Snuffles could indeed carry it inside. The problem is that not even it is fast enough to escape before the bomb has to be detonated, if you wish to deal with the Twenty-Ones. I frowned. That meant Snuffles would die. I wasn¡¯t quite sure how I felt about that. Not only was she my best weapon at the moment, she was also alive. Maybe not sentient, but alive. ¡°If it works¡­ I¡¯d say go for it,¡± Chloe said, giving me a sideways nce. A part of me wanted to protest, but I really didn¡¯t have many good arguments to bring. ¡°If these things get fully grown we¡¯ll have entirely different issues,¡± Jenna threw in, obviously noticing my hesitation. And she was right, of course. Still. This didn¡¯t quite sit well with me. My frown deepened and I looked over to where Snuffles was still busy dealing with some small fries. Finally I sighed, ¡°Fuck it¡­ If it helps the district¡­¡± I muttered, shaking my head, ¡°If it works I¡¯m in. Sucks, but what can you do.¡± Should I be concerned about introducing more intelligent or sentient Hexws to you? ¡°Probably? It¡¯s a problem for future me anyways,¡± I muttered, then looked at Chloe, ¡°So, you get the bomb, Snuffles carries it inside, then we detonate it?¡± ¡°That¡¯s the n,¡± she said, giving me a warm smile. ¡°Then let¡¯s go. The more time we waste the more time they have to grow. Last thing we need is them suddenly waking up.¡± I said, a bit of determination crawling into my tone. Snuffles was alive, yes, but at the end of the day, she was literally made to be a tool and a weapon. In a way she really wasn¡¯t that different from the Devouring Rose and I threw that thing aside without even a second thought. ¡°Good. Cleopatra, upgrade the catalogue. I do have the tokens for it, right?¡± Jenna said. ¡°Tokens?¡± I asked, not entirely sure what she was talking about. Tokens are a form of currency you can earn. They are usually given for extraordinary feats performed, such as taking out a higher digit model, or the destruction of a Hive. Tokens are mainly used to upgrade Catalogues to higher sses. ¡°Aha¡­ Good to know.¡± ¡°Ready?¡± Chloe asked with a nce at the two of us, and we both nodded. The next moment a giant box appeared next to Chloe, as she had said roughly her height, but much, much thicker. Some panels fell off, revealing a rather curious looking object beneath. It didn¡¯t quite look like a bomb, not how I imagined a bomb to look like anyways. Without my prodding her, Snuffles came over and gripped the giant thing with her massive powerful back limbs, gently pulling it on top of her. It looked a bit ridiculous, but from the strain it was clear that the bomb was as heavy as advertised. I gave my favourite alien attack dog a smile, ¡°Well, it was nice working with you. Thanks for everything.¡± Snuffles just looked at me, then shook herself, before she turned and started her way into the Hive. I followed her with my gaze, still feeling rather unhappy about the situation, but I reminded myself that this was for the good of the district. ¡°We gotta move, that is a big bomb," Chloe said and motioned us to follow. We all quickly walked away until our AI¡¯s notified us that we had sufficient distance. From out here the ce looked almost peaceful, if one would disregard the alien corpses. I watched Snuffles make her way deeper and deeper, fighting off smaller xenos that the Hive started to send out when it noticed the intruder. Deeper and deeper she went, meeting more and more resistance, but she didn¡¯t let them stop her. Then, finally, she reached the center chamber. ¡°Goodbye Snuffles," I muttered. I looked at Chloe, just as I saw the entire Hive wake up, aliens of all shapes and sizes slipping out of their egg sacs. Snuffles jumped down,nding in the middle of the cavern with a ferocious challenging roar. Then my link cut and the ground shook, nearly knocking us off our feet. A loud explosion deafened me and the entire building in front of us came crashing down, while a giant wall of fire rushed out on all sides, melting steel, stone, asphalt, and whatever else was used to erect it. Debris rained everywhere and as I watched I saw my point counter increase sharply. It had already sat at a good thousand, but now it shot past the two thousands, then the three thousands, finally settling at 3941. ¡°Fucking hell!" I yelled, before things started to settle down. mes licked at the remains of the building the Hive had built up in, a couple xenos came crawling out before dying from the mes. Just as I thought it was over, something exploded out of the ruins,nding on the open area before us. It was big, heavily wounded, and on fire. And against my hopes, it wasn¡¯t Snuffles. That is one of the model Twenty-Ones. Under any other circumstance I would strongly advise you to run, but as there is nobody else to deal with it, and it is already wounded quite significantly, you still stand a chance. ¡°Fuck!" I muttered, and immediately began to open fire on it with my Lances. The others followed suit as we split up to present less of a target. The model Twenty-One was dazed and wounded, but it was still resilient as fuck. It took a couple of steps before it stumbled, seemingly trying to get stable footing. Each Lance I fired did seemingly fuck all, so I switched my approach, ¡°Chloe, Nades!" I said and put a giant Hard-Light construct around it with my Pristine Fortress. Jenna immediately followed suit, putting a second Hard-Light construct around it, just to make sure. Chloe didn¡¯t hesitate and soon nade after nade rained down on the thing, until something much bigger appeared inside the constructs and exploded with an intensity that shattered both Hard-Light constructs like ss. I had to hold my ears from the sound and by the time I looked at where the model Twenty-One had been, I saw nothing but a pire of me. Something moved inside it, crawling, silently wailing, but then it stopped,ying still. ¡°Is¡­ Is it dead?" I could hear Jenna¡¯s tense voice and was about toy into her for jinxing us, when Kaysa piped up. It is. Congrattions, you have just defeated one of the most dangerous models you could face in your early career. Even higher tier Samurai often have problems against a model Twenty-One, especially if it has its pack to support it. ¡°Damn fucking straight," I muttered, then nced at my point total and did a double take. 4641 points! That thing was worth a lot! I haste to point out that in the future I do not rmend such reckless action. If you wouldn¡¯t have weakened the already weakened and underdeveloped Twenty-One before you, before you exploded the equivalent of an Air to Ground missile on top of it, you would all be dead. ¡°Yeah¡­ Fuck that¡­," I said, then looked at the others. ¡°Everyone okay?" ¡°Yeah," Chloe said, coughing a bit, and looked at the destruction in front of us, ¡°I¡¯m okay.¡± ¡°Me as well," Jenna added with a nod, ¡°Just hope that¡¯s thest of it for now.¡± We took a couple of moments, trying to catch our breaths, before we took another look around. ¡°We should probably try and see if we can¡¯t deal with the rest of the biomass,¡± Chloe muttered, ¡°Wouldn¡¯t want a second Hive to show up.¡± I nodded, then stretched, ¡°Yeah, but let¡¯s hurry. I could really use some rest and I wanna see how the others are doing.¡± Both Chloe and Jenna nodded, and as a group we started making our way over to the remains of the battlefield to dispose of the bodies. It was tedious work but it was important. Luckily it didn¡¯t take long, most of the alien corpses had been caught within the st radius, leaving nothing but piles of ash. ¡°Finally,¡± I muttered, when we all grouped up again, ¡°Now, let¡¯s head back. I need sleep.¡±
I have a Discord! Chapter 19 – No rest for the wicked Chapter 19 ¨C No rest for the wicked ¡°Rest is a rather fleeting luxury at the front for any soldier. Quite often the sess of an operation hinges on the amount of time the troops get to rest. Samurai have it even worse. Very often they have to work nonstop for days on end, trying to stem the tide. Especially in areas that have very few Samurai avable. The record was a nearly week-long period with nearly no rest for a Samurai in a small town in Switzend. Suffice it to say, even with drugs to keep them running, anyone with that much sleep deprivation is bound to make poor choices or be agitated rather quickly.¡± - Dr. Steven Johanson, Doctor of Psychology, 2043 When we got back to the shelter we found quite the surprise. Even from a distance we could see a floti of military vehicles surrounding an area in front of the shelter entrance. Soldiers stood guard, some sat behind huge machine guns ced on top of the trucks. All of them seemed alert and ready for any alien stupid enough to show up and make trouble. Some of them who saw us immediately pointed their rifles our way, but once we got close enough and we waved at them they rxed. I guess we were kind of definitely Samurai, considering the little army of Hexws and Sentinels following us. I saw at least one person leave their post and run towards the shelter entrance. Probably informing their superior or something. It was a bit endearing to watch them work, they obviously were quite well equipped and seemed to hold themselves in a very professional manner. Much more than any gang ever could. By the time we reached the defensive lines a group of people came out of the shelter. At the front was a rather obviously high ranking officer looking guy, trailed by two soldiers, as well as Castas and Tina who stuck very close together. My eyebrows rose as I saw them approach, Castas and Tina looked to be way closer than just some people working together. ¡°Hey,¡± I said with a little wave once they got close enough for them to hear me. The officier looking guy saluted three steps away from me, ¡°Ma¡¯am! I am Lt. ke, in charge of the rescue operations in this district. We have already cleared the western shelter without a hitch, ma¡¯am!¡± That was quite good news actually. Truth be told I hadn¡¯t held out much hope for anyone to actuallye, despite Patrick¡¯s word, so this was a pleasant surprise. I also very much enjoyed the official treatment he gave us. ¡°Good. Things have been a bit¡­ hectic around here. We¡¯re just done cleaning out the Hive in the industrial area. Anyplications?¡± I asked, looking around the group. Castas snorted. ¡°They got Purple Haze members on board. We¡¯re organising things to keep the groups separate, you know how things are,¡± he said, crossing his massive arms over his chest. ¡°Tina is making sure the people are cared for and the joytoys are happy. We got some ns on how to get everything rolling once the shit here is dealt with. There was one close call with someone who managed to get more doses than he should have, but that¡¯s dealt with and he¡¯s still alive.¡± I nodded and was about to speak when I was interrupted by a yawn. ¡°Well,¡± I muttered, shaking myself a bit to shake off the exhaustion, ¡°Then I guess it¡¯s time to head out. I could use some rest, but that can wait until we arrive, wouldn¡¯t want to be surprised on the way. What¡¯s the situation around town?¡± ¡°Pretty calm, ma¡¯am,¡± ke said, ¡°The incursion seems to be a minor one. We had a close call north east, one of the defensive positions nearly got overrun by a giant flock of Ones and Twos, but it has been dealt with by the Family. They are also the ones who sent us here. With the Dragon Queen still absent they have pulled as many resources as they could to protect this city until she returns.¡± I wasn¡¯t too familiar with the Dragon Queen. From what I heard she was an older Samurai who had made a name for herself after utterly annihting a corp some ten or so years back. She was also the reason the walls were erected. Outside of that though I didn¡¯t know much, her name was known even in the outer districts, but it was a distant thing, mostly from feeds and such. He snapped his fingers, ¡°That reminds me. We were tasked with handing out an invitation to any Samurai we might find, there will be a big meet and greet tomorrow around six in the evening. You are free to attend or ignore it, however we have been told to let you know that there might be a big opportunity to earn some points soon.¡± That had me raising my eyebrows in surprise and I shared a nce with Chloe and Jenna, both equally intrigued as I was. ¡°Thanks for the heads up.¡± I still wasn¡¯t sure if I wanted to get involved with the Family or not, but maybe I could at least show up for that and see how things went. I could still decide to fuck ¡®em afterwards. We spent some more time chatting about misceneous organisational items while the soldiers started filing out people into the transports. Once everyone was out Lt. ke led us to the leading truck. Even Castas and Tina, apparently the PMC treated them the same way they did Chloe, Jenna, and me, once they were told that I had put them in charge. That made me put them up a notch in my mind, they were very courteous and civil, definitely a point in their favour. The truck was¡­ stuffed. I did have some space to lounge around a bit, considering that I was rather small, but that was the exception. While we drove I checked my virtualwork. The entrance to the undercity was still calm, there had been a couple of xenos who had tried to get in, but between my Hatchlings and the gear we gave the people on guard duty they had been dealt with without many issues. The lure had also worked wonders to attract smaller groups. We probably could have made some points if we had stuck closer, but at this distance points were scarce, not that we needed much on that front. The defences themselves still held up, despite having taken quite the beating, and from the looks of things Chloe would keep it going until either the defences were overwhelmed or the lure destroyed. Not that we needed to keep Hatchlings or Sentinels there, so both Jenna and me had ordered our pets back. They were on their way to meet us at the destination. Just as I finished the inspection, Lt. ke turned to us. ¡°Crimson Princess, Ma¡¯am!¡± he said, looking me directly in the eyes. I didn¡¯t miss the fact that he very studiously ignored my charms and remained professional, which I really couldn¡¯t fault him for. In a way it actually made me like him even more, he seemed to be a man of principles. But that didn¡¯t mean I would make it easy for him. ¡°Yes, Lt.?¡± I asked with a sweet smile, shifting just so in my seat to pronounce my charms a bit. ¡°We have gotten word from HQ. The Samurai in the undercity is requesting assistance from anyone who has time to help. It appears that some xenos have gotten into the undercity and they are too overwhelmed with other issues. Considering the fact that we do not have many men to spare, we were tasked with informing any Samurai we could get in contact with.¡± That was¡­ not good. I nced over to Chloe and Jenna, both of whom were ncing between me, the Lt. and each other, before finally settling on looking at me. With a shrug I turned back to Lt. ke. ¡°We can go and check what we can do. Care to drop us off, Lt.?¡± I asked with a sugary sweet voice and gave him my best smile. He remained stoic, not even acknowledging my attempts to trip him up. ¡°Of course, ma¡¯am, we should arrive near the entrance shortly.¡± I had to give it to him, he had nerves of steel. Half the soldiers around him didn¡¯t have near his professionalism. Your penchant for distracting hard working people is¡­ amusing. I snorted at that, but didn¡¯tment. True to the Lt.¡¯s word we arrived near the entrance not long after. It looked the same as it had been a couple of minutes ago when I had checked the status of things. As we got out, I turned to him, ¡°Lt. ke, was it? Where will you be dropping these guys off?¡± ¡°We have a secure megashelter near the HQ. It¡¯s about as safe as you can be in this city, ma¡¯am!¡± I nodded, then looked at him a bit more seriously, dropping the sugary sweet tone from my voice. ¡°And I do hope the amodation is no trouble? These people aren¡¯t exactly made of credits.¡± ¡°I will make sure it is taken care of, ma¡¯am.¡± he said with a small nod, obviously taking the hint. ¡°Thank you. Do that and I owe you a favour. Feel free to contact me when you know what that favour is.¡± He nodded and I turned to leave, Chloe and Jenna already waiting outside. ¡°A favour, hm?¡± Chloe asked with a smirk when I arrived next to them. The soldiers didn¡¯t waste any time and immediately took off again. I just shrugged in response, catching her meaning, ¡°I doubt he¡¯d ask for something like that. He seems to be too professional for that. Best guess he¡¯ll either ask me to get him or his people out of trouble, or he¡¯ll ask me for gear.¡± I shook my head, ¡°Anyways, let¡¯s go save some people. I swear though, if I can¡¯t get some proper rest soon. I¡¯ll fall over. And no Kaysa, I don¡¯t want whatever shit you gave me earlier, that shit tastes foul!¡± Jenna gave me a strange look but I didn¡¯t stop to exin. When we got closer to the gate I had the Hatchlings still stationed as guards walk in our direction, so as not to surprise the guards. The Hatchlings in question were changed. All of them were bigger and had a much more refined look. Still alien, yes, but there was a good part of elegant woman in there as well, which should have shed hard with the design, but strangely it didn¡¯t. On the contrary, it fit very well somehow. ¡°Well, you look different," I muttered. I did mention they grow and evolve. The Hexw Swarm Intelligence is a Sentient Hive-Organism with a big focus on biological adaptability. They are one of the leading gic engineers in the gcticmunity, one of the very few Hive-Organisms that can mesh well with non-Hive Organisms. ¡°Gic engineers, hm? I mean, I guess I can see that, Hive-Organism doesn¡¯t scream technology to me.¡± You would be surprised, the Hexw Swarm Intelligence had already developed quite sophisticated technology by the time the protectors found them. Through their own unique biology they are quite suited to fight off the antithesis as their flesh is barely digestible for the antithesis, probably a side effect of their origin. The Hexw¡¯s are not a naturally evolved species, rather the remnant of gic experiments courtesy of their unknown progenitor species. The schrs aren¡¯t sure who exactly that was, although historic records on the Hexw¡¯s homeworld mention a so called Hexswarm, which seemed to have simr characteristics as the antithesis, although instead of nts they were an animalistic species. The exact history, or even the validity of the historic texts are a topic of hot debate and often disputed as nothing more than nonsense. I nodded, but dismissed it. As interesting as it was, right now I really wasn¡¯t feeling up to a history lesson, and truth be told I much rather wanted to get the undercity chaos dealt with so I could head home and sleep a bit. At the sound of approaching footsteps I looked up. It seemed that the guardsmen had figured out what the Hatchlings were up to. ¡°Princess, you¡¯re back,¡± the man I had spoken to earlier greeted me with a nod. The rest of the guards stuck close behind him, although still alert. Some were looking at my Hatchlings with dismay still, probably left quite an impression after they had taken care of the xeno corpses, and at least one person was looking at them with a look I didn¡¯t want to know the meaning of. Even I had my limits. ¡°That I am,¡± I replied with a smile, ¡°We got a call for help from below, so we are here to help out a bit. Just waiting for the rest of our troops to arrive.¡± ¡°Any¡­ Any news on Paradise Hills?¡± His tone was calm, but the underlying emotions were clear. I shook my head somberly, ¡°Nothing we could find. ce was cleaned out by the aliens. We couldn¡¯t check the shelter though, too busy dealing with the Hive.¡± To my surprise he nodded, and his expression lightened a bit, ¡°That means there¡¯s a chance then. Slim, but it¡¯s there. Thank you.¡± I just nodded, not really knowing what to say. At least they could hope, even if personally I thought that was a tad too optimistic to be reasonable. With an obvious effort of will he looked around in show, ¡°Uhm, so¡­ Can¡¯t see your attack wolf.¡± I nodded sadly, ¡°Yeah, she sacrificed herself to destroy a Hive in the industrial area. Poor Snuffles will be missed.¡± ¡°My sympathies? I guess,¡± he tried, obviously not quite sure what to say. ¡°It¡¯s fine. She went out with a bang. Without her we would have some Twenty-Ones running around. It¡¯s better this way.¡± That had them all stare at me with wide, panicked eyes. A model Three already was quite the threat to a civilian, models in the tens a nightmare, I didn¡¯t even want to know how much destruction a model Twenty plus would have wrought. ¡°Anything we need to know about the undercity? You mentioned some gang dispute earlier,¡± I asked, switching the topic. The undercity wasn¡¯t a ce I was too familiar with, I had only been there once and only very briefly when I was still running with Thorns. ¡°Well, yeah. The remnants of Grey Wolves have taken one of the salvage towers for themselves, and Sweeping Dragon doesn¡¯t take kindly to that. Before the aliens showed up Wasps and Napalm were using the distraction to dethrone Dragons as the head honchos of the area. And as I said, Haze trying to fuck with the Doves, that won¡¯t end well for anyone involved.¡± he shrugged as he finished. ¡°Who are the Doves? I don¡¯t think I have heard of them before.¡± He nodded, ¡°Makes sense. White Doves aren¡¯t really a gang, not like the typical folk anyways. They are mostly made up of doctors and people with medical knowledge who help anyone who needs it. They are kind of offlimits for everyone. Not that there is an actual rule saying that or anything, but messing with White Doves means you¡¯ll have every gang in the undercity on your ass. Without them most people would have died long ago and the undercity takes that seriously. Hell, Sweeping Dragon came to be because two gangs at war agreed on a truce after some fuckwit decided to attack a White Doves member. At each other¡¯s throat on one day, fighting side by side the next. In effect Doves are the people in charge, as much as we have people in charge. ¡± That was quite surprising. Normally people wouldn¡¯t waste a single oppertunity to take advantage of others, but these guys sounded downright angelic. ¡°Howe I haven¡¯t heard of them yet?¡± I asked. ¡°Well, they don¡¯t do much, really. They help the sick and injured, but that¡¯s about it. There have been some who tried to weaponise them within their ranks, but those fucks are quickly sold out to the other gangs and find themselves with a pound of lead down their throat.¡± Just as he finished, my Hatchlings and Jenna¡¯s Sentinels arrived. I looked around, doing a quick head count, before I looked back at the man in front of me, ¡°Well, I guess it¡¯s time for us to meet them. If they help poor souls nobody else cares to help, I have a big bundle of meds to drop off for them.¡± All of the undercity people looked at me with a serious and thankful gaze. ¡°Thanks, Princess. You have no idea how much that means,¡± the man in charge said with an appreciative nod. ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it,¡± I said, waving it off, ¡°Life¡¯s shit, we gotta look out for each other. And it¡¯s not like I¡¯m doing it entirely out of altruism, if they¡¯d be willing to help the redlight district I don¡¯t mind supplying them with what they need.¡± He nodded again, then waved to someone behind him. Thed quickly turned and ran over to open the giant gate. ¡°Have fun down there,¡± the big guy said, before they all went back to their post, weapons at the ready. We started to make our way over to the gate. Time to visit the undercity.
I have a Discord! Chapter 20 – The undercity Chapter 20 ¨C The undercity ¡°Every city thrives upon its residents. Some live the high life near the city center, some have to make do on the outer edges of the inner city. Some are less lucky, often ending up in the outer districts. And some¡­ well. Some life in the worst ce any city has to offer. In most cases they are the beating heart of the underground. Without them the trash would pile up indefinitely.¡± - Random Citizen in an interview about the lower levels The gate, as I had said earlier, was giant. Incredibly gigantic. It could easily fit four trucks through, side by side. Behind it was an equally giant lift that led further down. It looked to be about as much in shape as the gate did, which did have me pause for a moment, wondering if it even worked. I needn¡¯t have worried, when we all stepped on, it rumbled before it slowly descended. To my surprise the descent was even quite smooth, despite the condition the lift looked to be in. Truth be told I had kind of expected the ride down to be boring, but to my surprise soon after it had started the walls gave way to giant windows, allowing us to see the mess of the undercity below us. There was a city there, between all the trash piles and abandoned buildings, rubble and ruins from the time this was supposed to be the infrastructure hub. Giant towers of steel and concrete connected the ground to the city above us, most of them empty and dpidated. Streets snaked their way through the jungle of buildings, bridges span far and wide, leaving little actual room to manoeuver. Few cars were driving around, most people walked wherever they needed to go. This was a ce built by the poor and forgotten, for the poor and forgotten. Down here there was no megacorp keeping things repaired and in check. Groups of people had taken over buildings close to where they made their living, salvaging, stealing, maybe some ck market work, this wasn¡¯t a nned city, it was an organically growing collection of people. It was rundown, yes, defunct in many ces, with some buildingsing apart. The trash littering the spaces between buildings and empty lots added to the ambiance of dpidation, yet somehow, despite all of this, it had a certain magical quality to it. A hidden gem, nested in rot and debris. With my new eyes I could see it all into the far distance, only blocked by towering mountains of concrete and steel. ¡°Wow¡­¡± I couldn¡¯t help but mutter, stunned at the sight below. The only other time I had been here we had taken a small service elevator, which hadn¡¯t allowed me this view. ¡°Yeah¡­ For a ce this shitty it looks kind of magical, doesn¡¯t it?¡± Chloe agreed with a shake of her head. Of course the further down we came, the more the misery came closer. The magic only really worked from up high, when you couldn¡¯t see the people suffering in the streets below. Dirt and trash piling high enough to block some second floor windows. This was, after all, thest ce in the ecosystem of this city, where all the garbagended. Our ride stopped with a soft thud and another set of giant doors opened. Before I even had the time to think about anything else, a wave of stink rolled over us, smothering everyst bit of my sense of smell in hideous, gaseous, nope. I tried waving my hand in front of my face, suppressing my urge to hurl, but it didn¡¯t do much. Well, this was the undercity, the city''s final trash heap. Trying to ignore it as best as I could I stepped out of the elevator, Chloe and Jenna behind me. What awaited us just outside was not what I had expected. The area probably had once been made to load and unload things, but now it was a giant za littered with tents, shelters, half-built stands with goods. It looked like somemon area where those that had barely anything at all bartered away even that. From the looks of some people with weaponry walking about I was pretty sure the area was protected by a gang of some sort, not that I knew which one it was. Most people here seemed to be a bit better off, at leastpared to the few keeping to the shadows of corners. Not that it meant much, the goods disyed weren¡¯t some kind of luxury goods, they were half-broken things, stolen or salvaged from the garbage piles. And of course, not that it was any surprise, most people¡¯s attention went to us. Even if most of them did seem to keep an eye on their meager belongings. We were very obviously Samurai and it seemed like this elevator usually wasn¡¯t used by people justing down. And the horde of alien things behind us wasn¡¯t exactly what I would call subtle. I was just taking in the area, nested between a couple old skyscrapers holding up the city above, when a group of three people came up to us. They all looked like they had spent their entire life here and held themselves with a bit more confidence. All had generally the same look about them, even if their clothing did differentiate, and all had some old rifle¡¯s with them. Once they got closer I stepped forwards, ¡°Yo.¡± The three, two men and a woman, stopped a pace away from me, with the shorter man speaking. ¡°Hey. You Samurai?¡± I simply looked at him, then at myself, then at Chloe and Jenna, before I nced at my Hatchlings. ¡°No, we¡¯re Santa us¡¯ elves.¡± The woman snorted, then lightly bonked the shorter man on the head, ¡°Fucking course they are, idiot,¡± she shook her head, then looked at me, ¡°Wee to the undercity. We appreciate youing down here. Blitzer¡¯s been doing what he can but he can¡¯t solve all our problems himself and with the xenos showing up down here he¡¯s been spread incredibly thin.¡± I nodded at that. One person helping the entire undercity, he would need to be a very busy beaver. The outer city was vast, and taking care of a single district would already be a monumental task; the undercity was much, much bigger than that. ¡°No worries, that¡¯s what we are here for. What¡¯s the sitch?¡± The taller man motioned behind us, ¡°What say you we get somece more out of the way, then fill you in? Would love to have Blitzer there, but he needs some sleep. Been running around for days, wired on whatever bullshit his weird AI gave ¡®im.¡± Chloe and Jenna both nodded when I nced at them, so I nodded in turn. ¡°Sure, let¡¯s do that. Not gonna lie, I wouldn¡¯t mind getting this done with quick, could use some rest myself.¡± It was a sentiment shared by everyone present, and with a nod the taller man turned around, motioning us to follow. While we walked I kept an eye out on our surroundings. ¡°So¡­ Who¡¯s keeping these folk safe?¡± I asked, inspecting the gear of one of the probable gang members. ¡°We do,¡± the woman said, ¡°Sweeping Dragon is responsible for the south side of this sector. Luckily this area is rtively safe, the problem are the eastern and northern areas. Not sure what it¡¯s like west of here, that¡¯s Wasp territory, they don¡¯t really talk much and are too prideful to ask for help.¡± That had me frowning. People who thought they could deal with everything themselves often made life a nightmare for everyone around them, especially if they fucked up. ¡°Grand¡­¡± I muttered. The woman nodded, ¡°Yeah¡­ Blitzer told us to keep an eye on their turf, in case shit goes sideways. He generally helps everyone if he can, but Wasps don¡¯t like him snooping around their turf.¡± ¡°Idiots,¡± Chloe muttered, shaking her head, and I really couldn¡¯t disagree. The taller man led us around a corner to the far side of the za, then into one of the taller buildings. It looked like the first three or four floors were upied, but everything above that seemed run down. ¡°It is what it is,¡± shorty said with displeasure in his voice, ¡°Tension¡¯s been hightely. Grey Wolves are trying to get into our turf since we are too busy protecting the normies from xenos. Only one that¡¯s helpful is Napalm.¡± ¡°Wait,¡± I interrupted, ¡°Gateguards told me Napalm was trying to get into your turf too?¡± The woman nced at me and shook her head, ¡°No, Napalm is keeping Wasps in check. Allows us to focus more on internal affairs. They¡¯re a smaller group, but their boss is smart enough not to try and start a huge fight when aliens are at our doorstep.¡± That at least would make things a little easier. Not that I had any ns to butt into their little dispute, but knowing that at least one group was trying to help instead of hinder was making me hopeful. Finally we were led into what looked to be a kind of¡­ I didn¡¯t want to say a motel, that would be an insult to even the most dinghy motels, but it had much of the same ir. The room itself was decorated like I would imagine old fantasy taverns to be decorated, tables all around with a couple people sitting and eating or drinking, while there was a counter at one end next to two flights of stairs. With a wave to the man behind the counter, a pudgy fellow who seemed to be getting on in years, they led us up to the second floor and into a rather small room with a big desk and someputer equipment. Theputers in question looked like they were mashed together from different pieces of salvage, not a single one had a uniform look to it, and from the amount of cablesying around most of the innards were a patchwork of fixes and workarounds. The taller man walked over to one of theputers, while shorty motioned us to sit on a couple of chairs on one side of the table. ¡°Okay,¡± the woman said, ¡°We¡¯ll connect with the boss, she can fill you in on what needs doing.¡± She nodded to the guy at theputer and soon a screen embedded in the table winked to life. It wasn¡¯t a good screen, hell, it looked to be one of those old ones from 2025 or so, with only a 4k disy. On the screen was shown a¡­ calling her a woman would be wrong, she looked more like a girl. Younger than me by probably two or three years, dressed in a hodgepodge of different clothes, all dark colours and cks. Her hair was also ck with neon pink highlights, styled in a sidecut. Her expression was hard to describe, she looked like she wanted to look like a hardass, but she really didn¡¯t have the face to pull off that kind of look. My eyebrows slowly rose as I took her in. Then she cleared her throat. ¡°I am Omega, the leader of the Sweeping Dragons. I¡¯ve heard you came here to help?¡± Her voice was¡­ Did she try to make her voice sound deeper? ¡°Uh¡­ Yeah? I am the Crimson Princess,¡± I began, not quite sure how to take this, ¡°These are Jenna and Chloe. Not sure if they have names yet.¡± Omega nodded, ¡°Good. We have issues. A lot of issues. Blitzer is doing what he can, but there are aliensing from the north eastern junkyards, and some from the west side. We have more wounded than we can treat and with the Grey Wolves trying to start trouble I¡¯m missing the manpower to do much about the outer edges of our territory. Power has started to copse around parts of the city, the is patchy at the best of days, and we lost contact with our patrol on the north eastern edges.¡± I held up a hand, ¡°I don¡¯t mind helping and all, but we ain¡¯t gonna butt into your little gang dispute. I have meds I can hand out, maybe some other gear, but mostly we are here for the xenos.¡± She nodded again, ¡°I thought as much. We appreciate any help we can get. Cassiopaia can show you where the Doves have set up a makeshift hospital in the area. We¡¯re working on excavating more room for more wounded as fast as we can, but there are too many to treat properly, much less the equipment needed to do so.¡± ¡°Sounds good. What do you know about the xenos?¡± I asked. ¡°Not much. In that case you might best speak to Blitzer, he has a better idea of what¡¯s going on there. I just know where they areing from and that their number has increased over thest couple hours. Things are heating up.¡± That did mirror our experience up top, although it made me curious how they had ended up here in the first ce. From what I knew the Incursion was only up top. Something to investigateter. ¡°Alright, I¡¯ll start with the Doves then. Means they can start helping people while we try to deal with the xenos. Hopefully that takes the pressure off a bit.¡± ¡°Thank you. We really appreciate that. Cassiopaia can give you my contact information. Oh, and here. That is all the data we have on the area and the problem spots. Ourwork isn¡¯t what it used to be, so coverage is a bit spotty in ces, but hopefully it will help you. Give me a call if you have questions or need help, we¡¯ll try to do what we can.¡± Before I had any time to say anything else the connection cut out. I blinked at the ck screen in front of me. ¡°Well, that was faster than I anticipated,¡± I muttered, then checked the data I had received from Omega, putting it on in my Virtual realm. At this point Chloe and Jenna were connected at all times, since it did make disseminating information a lot easier, and together we quickly skimmed over the reports. ¡°Okay, let¡¯s start with the Doves. Afterwards we should check in with Blitzer and see what we can do about the aliens.¡± ¡°Follow me then,¡± the woman who had led us here, Cassiopaia, said with a smile. She also sent me some contact information via her augs, first of Omega herself and then a couple that were tagged with various leadership positions. Not wasting any more time we followed her out of the room and back downstairs again. I had to stifle a yawn, then was overwhelmed by another. Rubbing my eyes and smacking my cheeks lightly I tried to stay awake. Things had been kind of intense thest couple of hours. ¡°I think I need something to stay awake,¡± I muttered, ¡°Something more tasty though. Not that shit from earlier.¡± Very well. Please hold out your hand. The effect will be a little weaker than the previous drink, but it should at least help you keep going. I did as she told me and a momentter a can popped into my outstretched hand. Of course it was decorated with some Kitsune looking woman, but I ignored it for the moment, too tired to care about what kind of decoration Kaysa hade up with this time. With a fizz I opened it and took arge gulp before sighing with content. It tasted a lot better, as I had requested, sugary sweet to the point it nearly hurt, fruity and delightful. A definitive step up to other energy drinks. After I was done with my own can I got two more for Chloe and Jenna, no point in being frugal, this stuff cost like 1 point or so. Now refuelled and ready once more I focused back on the task at hand. Time to see what we could do to help the White Doves.
I have a Discord!
Check out by Lividiea as well as by Princess_Kay! They are SCS Fanfics posted here on ScribbleHub! Chapter 21 – An apple a day Chapter 21 ¨C An apple a day ¡°They¡¯re angels, I¡¯m telling you. No human would waste their time looking after the dredge down here!¡± - Street Interview with a beggar, 2055 Cassiopaia led us outside and around the za and down a different street. Our destination was obvious even from a distance, lots of armed people stood around a ratherrge building and a long queue of people reached all the way outside. Even from here I could see that it was made up of the injured and sick. When we approached most of them made way, partly because some gang members waved them aside, partly because they realised we were Samurai. To my surprise though most of the people looked at us suspiciously, not hostile, but also not quite happy either. Did they think we were trying to stop the operation or something? With a shake of my head I dismissed the thought, focusing on the ce before us. It was quiterge, one of those old free standing office buildings if I had to hazard a guess. The interior was much like I expected, a rather roomy entrance hall filled with people, some standing, some sitting, someying on the ground or cheap stic stretchers. There were a multitude of doors leading into various different rooms. The first couple seemed to be reserved for the least injured, and people went in and out quite frequently. They would live to see another day, most could probably even have gone entirely without treatment in a pinch. Deeper in though I saw some more grievous injuries, the kind you wouldn¡¯t just walk away from. A couple of those doors had free spaces reaching all the way to the doors, fastnes for the most desperate cases probably. I nodded at the sight, these people were organised enough and it seemed that at least most of those waiting to be treated followed whatever rules were put in ce. In a way I was quite surprised, I couldn¡¯t imagine people in the redlight district to be this disciplined. Or maybe it was because of the armed gang members or the small turrets hidden away in the corners. Those were obviously cheap protector tech, most likely left here by Blitzer to keep the ce safe. Cassiopaia led us straight through the entrance hall and past most of the other doors. It didn¡¯t take long until I realised that she was leading us to one of the back doors, one of those that was kept free at all times. She was just about to knock when a sound from the side interrupted us, hurried movements and the squeaking of rusty metal wheels. From the side three people came running close, one of those metal trays usually used to deliver food with them. On ity a younger girl, and even from a distance it was clear that she was hurt bad. Without needing to be told Cassiopaia opened the door she stood in front of, obviously the destination of the people hurrying closer, and led them inside. I didn¡¯t waste any time and ran in after, mind already whirling what I could do to help. From the looks of things the nurse, or nurse equivalent, I really didn¡¯t know about her actual professional education, not that it mattered to me one wit, wanted to protest at first, but once she took me in she stopped herself. I didn¡¯t pay her any attention and immediately rushed to the girl, giving her a quick once over. The wounds looked¡­ nasty. She had deep gashes on her chest that were bleeding profusely, one of her ribs visible under the blood which was most certainly not how things were supposed to be. In addition to that she was missing her left leg, a haphazard bandage put around the wound, but it was utterly drenched in blood. I was wondering how she was even alive still, although from the monitors that the doctor attached her to that wouldn¡¯tst long. ¡°What¡¯s wrong with her? Kaysa, I need something!¡± The doctor looked up, scorn in his eyes at being interrupted, probably already with a rude remark on his lips, and truth be told, I didn¡¯t me him, but I was a Samurai, I could help more quickly than they could. And the moment the doctor saw my getup he understood immediately. ¡°She got hit by a model four," he said in a much more calm tone. There was still urgency there, but the collected kind. ¡°Kaysa!" I ordered, urgency in my tone. Please calm yourself. We can easily remedy this situation. Let us begin with your nanite swarm, you can set it to disinfectant mode. That way any contaminants won¡¯t enter her system. I did as I was told, quickly pulling up the menu and setting the nanites to work. A small¡­ I didn¡¯t want to say mist, it was much more a fuzzy cloud, barely visible, leaped from my ne to the girl¡¯s chest. Good, now we can start with fixing the more prominent issues. She requires better medical care than the one that they have avable here. A machine that could help fix her issues would be 80 points, however if you pay more upfront you will be able to help more people in the future by leaving it here. ¡°Fuck the costs! Whatever you think is best, I don¡¯t care how much it is!¡± Very well, please make room to your right. New purchase: ss I Medical Utilities Nanite Dispenser! Points reduced to: 4341 With one quick look I motioned everyone aside, ¡°Aside, quick, please!" The moment there was room to be had a big machine suddenly appeared. It was bigger than whatever medical devices they had here. Now take the two tubes hanging off of the machine on the left. The first should have a mask on. Put it on her. The second needs to be ced on her arm, roughly around the inner elbow area. Again I did as I was told, moving quickly and precisely. Soon her breathing was stabilising a bit, although it still sounded awful. This will help keep her alive until we are done. Next, on the other side of the machine is another tube, this one with two ends. The first needs to be ced somewhere above her chest, while the other is best ced below the wound. Grabbing the tube in question I tried my best to ce them as Kaysa told me to, even if it was a bit hard with the wound and the clothing in the way. After some fussing I decided to screw it, and with a quick muttering and some careful application of a small Hard-Light de, I cut open the clothing enough to get better ess to the wound. The shirt was ruined anyways, and I don¡¯t think she would mind if it meant she would survive. The following operation will look a bit gruesome, perhaps you should have the mother look away. Once I had everything connected I quickly nced over to Jenna, who immediately nodded to me. With a warm smile she walked over to the mother. ¡°Ma¡¯am, while my friend takes care of your daughter, let us check for your own injuries, hm? I promise that she¡¯ll be right as rain once we¡¯re done.¡± Not surprisingly the woman wanted to protest, but with a couple more soothing words Jenna gently escorted her outside, which gave me the opportunity to continue. When I returned my attention back to the girl, Kaysa spoke up again. Please take thest tube from the top, and pull it close to the wound and hold it there. It will all look quite unpleasant, but trust that it will help. I did as I was told and soon some liquid came out of the tube, followed by what looked like a big mechanical spider that plopped out of the tube, into the wound, and then buried deep. In a word it was disgusting and for a moment I was honestly questioning if that was a good idea. But soon enough it emerged again, broken shards of bone in its tiny ws that it gently ced aside, before returning to its gruesome work. The drone is cleaning up any detritus that might hinder proper healing. Once that is done the wound can be closed. I tried, and probably failed, to keep a straight face, but after a couple of minutes the mechanical spider was done, climbing back up the tube. It had pulled quite the number of bone fragments out of the wound, which I supposed would have been a problem if they were kept inside. Good. You can put the big tube away again. On top of the machine should be a big patch connected to an array of lines. Please take it and ce it gently over the wound. This process will take some time, but it will rebuild the missing flesh and bone. Once more I did as I was told and soon things started to go all automatically. I let out a sigh I wasn¡¯t even aware I was holding and slumped. ¡°Thank you," said the doctor, eyes still a bit wide, ¡°I am not sure how we can repay that.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it. I¡¯m not going to expect payment for something you didn¡¯t ask for. I have a few questions about your work, but that can wait until things are done here.¡± He nodded, ¡°Very well. Might I ask your name? I¡¯m afraid I don¡¯t recognise you.¡± ¡°I¡¯m not surprised. I¡¯m pretty new, only became a Samurai yesterday. People call me the Crimson Princess, I guess. I¡¯m not sure about the name yet, but might as well, right?¡± ¡°Ah," he nodded again, ¡°I¡¯ve heard of you. Well, I have heard of a Samurai going by Princess in the upper city, but I don¡¯t know more. Helped the guards at the gates, I heard.¡± I nodded and he continued, ¡°It¡¯s good to have more Samurai around. Blitzer does what he can, but he is the only one we have and spreads himself too thin.¡± ¡°Not to disappoint, but my area is the redlight district. I¡¯m here to help, and I will be avable in the future if I¡¯m needed, but I can¡¯t promise I¡¯m here all the time.¡± ¡°That is fine too, as long as it helps get the pressure off Blitzer. He¡¯s been a Samurai for a couple of weeks now, but with the entire undercity to take care of it¡¯s hard for him to be everywhere at the same time.¡± ¡°Maybe Jenna or I can leave some of our minions behind, but that is a discussion forter. For now I¡¯m just d I could help the girl. Not to bash you, or anything, but this didn¡¯t look like something you could have dealt with easily.¡± This time the nurse spoke, eyes haunted, ¡°No, it wasn¡¯t. She wasn¡¯t the only one who came to us in this condition. Most of them, we couldn¡¯t help. Her, we probably would have lost too¡­¡± She was obviously shaken, a slew of bad experiences probably. I smiled at her, ¡°Hey, chin up. Sometimes you can¡¯t help, the important thing is to try. If you try and you fail, then that happens. It¡¯s sad, sure, but that isn¡¯t your fault. You can¡¯t expect to solve everything.¡± She shook her head, ¡°I know, but¡­ You guys make it look so easy. If we had a Samurai with the doves then we wouldn¡¯t have these issues! Less dead, less people with permanent injuries, it¡¯s unfair!¡± The doctor put a hand on the woman¡¯s shoulder. ¡°Clerisse, please, calm yourself. She isn¡¯t at fault.¡± Clerisse slumped, ¡°I know¡­ I¡¯m sorry, I¡¯m just a bit riled up¡­¡± ¡°Hey, it¡¯s okay," I said soothingly, ¡°Nobody can me you for getting a bit emotional. Maybe sometimes a short break is just what the doctor ordered, hm? Take a deep breath, rx, and once the mind gets calmer you can get back to work.¡± She nodded, but didn¡¯t seem too convinced. Which I understood, they probably didn¡¯t have the manpower to be able to take frequent breaks. Suddenly the machine clicked, then beeped. It is done. You can now remove the tubes. With a nod I did, first the patch on the girl¡¯s chest, then the tubes ced next to it, then the one from the arm and finally the mask. I sent Jenna a quick message via my imnts and a momentter she returned with the woman trailing behind her. She of course immediately rushed over to the girl and checked her injuries, not that there was much to see. I hadn¡¯t been able to regrow the leg, but at least she would survive. A couple of momentster the girl slowly woke up, blinking a couple of times and obviously a bit disoriented. ¡°Mom¡­?" she muttered and the mother basically flew over to her, holding her hand and tears in her eyes. ¡°I¡¯m here honey, I¡¯m here. You¡¯re okay, thank god, you¡¯re okay!¡± The girl looked down at herself, then around the room. ¡°Where¡­ Where are we?" ¡°We¡¯re with the nice doctors that helped you. Everything is fine, sweetie.¡± ¡°Doctors¡­?" then her eyes widened, her gaze snapping to her chest, ¡°The¡­ the wound¡­ the hole¡­ it¡¯s gone?" ¡°Yes sweetie, it¡¯s all gone.¡± Then she saw her leg and her eyes widened even more. She was trembling, probably just short of a panic attack. I figured this was a good moment to step in and distract her a bit. ¡°Hello," I said cheerfully, ¡°I¡¯m the Crimson Princess, nice to meet you.¡± The girl looked at me with wide eyes, conflicting emotions running through her. ¡°You¡­ You¡¯re a Samurai," she stated, matter of factly. ¡°That I am. You were pretty badly wounded, how are you feeling?" ¡°My leg¡­," she whispered, tears in her eyes, ¡°I can¡¯t feel my leg¡­¡± I smiled at her, ¡°Yes, your leg is missing. But! Fret not! For I am here to help!" I said with energy, hoping to cheer her up a bit. ¡°Can you give my leg back?" she asked. ¡°I might not be able to give your old leg back, but I can give you a new one. Say, what would you like, hm? Something shiny, or maybe colourful? Or, oh! I have the perfect idea!¡± In the virtual realm I turned to Kaysa¡¯s elven form, unwilling to speak openly to her while the girl was still grappling with her new reality. ¡°Say, can we get a leg that works simrly to my dress, with colours and stuff? Maybe something that she can use for a long time?¡± That is easily doable. Let me put something together. ¡°Thanks. Ignore the costs, I want this tost a while. We can¡¯t do that for everyone, sure, but she looks like she needs a bit of good news.¡± Very well, hold out your hands. New purchase: ss I Kitsune¡¯s Grace! Points reduced to: 4271 I did as I was told and a box appeared in my hand. ¡°Tadaa!¡± Without much fuss I gingerly handed it to the girl, it wasn¡¯t too heavy so I was sure she could hold it even in her weakened state. She of course opened it, revealing the contents within. Inside was a cybeic leg that was glistening in different shades of silver. While she checked it over Kaysa gave me a quick rundown of what the leg could do. She had crammed quite a lot of features into it, which I approved of. Hopefully it would serve her well for a long time. After a moment I smiled at the girl, ¡°This is a very unique item called the Kitsune¡¯s Grace. As you grow older it will start to grow with you. It also has some very fun little tricks that you can explore over time. I know it¡¯s not the same as getting your old leg back, but I do hope you like it.¡± To demonstrate I had the prosthetic run through a couple of colourbinations. The girl was utterly smitten by the thing, mumbling a quiet thank you as she admired her new leg. Her shock of losing her old one was slowly dissipating, mission sessful! While she looked her new leg over, I took her mother aside. ¡°It has some other features but some are locked behind your say so. I think it¡¯s best you go over all the software together, my AI did an outstanding job of making that thing.¡± ¡°Thank you so much," the mother said, still teary eyed, before she gave me a tight hug. ¡°It¡¯s nothing, that¡¯s what I¡¯m here for," I said, patting her on the back. After some more heartfelt thanks, especially once the girl had put on the leg and tried it, they both went outside, leaving me with the doctors. I let out another sigh, then looked at the doctors, ¡°You can have the machine, you can use it more than me. I was also here to drop off some basic meds, whatever you need. If you give me a list I can make it happen. But I also don¡¯t want to keep you too busy, not with all the people outside.¡± ¡°That is very kind. Clerisse can tell you what we need," the doctor said and I nodded to him in thanks. He looked like he wanted to say more, but considering the long line of people still waiting he was obviously more focused on getting back to work. Clerisse left the room with me and soon we had put together a list of things that they could use here, including roughly 400 points worth of meds, another machine like the other one, some smaller medical devices and a few bibs and bobs, all together costing nearly a thousand points. It was steep, sure, but I felt like it was worth it if it kept people alive. Being frugal for future purchases was nice, but this wasn¡¯t the kind of shit I wanted to cheap out on. Not long after we were on our way outside again, while I sent another Nanite swarm out and through the room to help with surface wounds at least, Maybe that would help to take off the pressure a little bit. ¡°Okay,¡± I said when we arrived back outside again, ¡°Step one done. Now to see where those xenos are at.¡± Hopefully we could get things done here quickly, although something told me that the next step would be a lot harder.
I have a ! Feel free to join to chat or get updates!
Check out by Lividiea as well as by Princess_Kay! They are SCS Fanfics posted here on ScribbleHub! Chapter 22 – In the service of helping others Chapter 22 ¨C In the service of helping others ¡°Boss, they done did it. They kidnapped the White Dove kid.¡± Silence reigned in the room. ¡°Contact Jospeh. We need a cease fire. You don¡¯t juste in and fuck with the Doves.¡± Another member stepped forward. ¡°Joseph already sent word asking for a ceasefire himself.¡± ¡°Good, send a confirmation. Mobilise our boys, we are going to go and fuck up some fuckwits life.¡± - Transcription of the Nightingales meeting, 2056 As it turned out, Blitzer¡¯s ce wasn¡¯t too far from the clinic, only a couple of minutes of walking through some different alley. Honestly, I really didn¡¯t want to bother him too much, pal needed his rest, but we also needed his help. There were two Hives, both we only knew the general location for. True, we could ask the Wasps to get to one, but from Cassiopaia¡¯sments it was clear that they didn¡¯t want us on their turf and I really couldn¡¯t be fucked to deal with a stuck up gang right now. I was way too tired and sober for that. The building Blitzer lived in seemed to be in worse shape than most others around, but not the worst either. At the entrance Cassiopaia gave us directions to which room was his, before she left to deal with other matters. She did say that Blitzer had his AI check the door and such, so we should just ring the bell. I had kind of expected him to open the door for us, but instead it opened by itself and allowed us inside. His room was¡­ well, it was a room. My apartment wasn¡¯t clean, or orderly, so I probably shouldn¡¯t start throwing rocks from my sshouse, but his beat mine by a longshot. Blitzer himself was knocked out on his mattress, not even out of his casual clothes. He looked¡­ honestly, kind of like what I expected a Samurai from the undercity to look like. Messy, a myriad of different styles mixed together, but unlike Patrick his look worked. A bit unsure I walked inside. Outside of the chaos and trashying around everywhere it wasn¡¯t out of the ordinary for the area. At least from the little bits I had seen. Without much preamble I walked over and shook Blitzer awake. To my surprise he jolted nearly upright, looking around in rm. ¡°What?" he said, in a voice half an octave too high. Then he saw me. ¡°Oh my, an angel hase to save me from the tedium of my life," he said, jumping up and gantly bowing in front of me, wavy arms and all, ¡°What a pleasure to make your acquaintance, oh messenger of god. I am Blitzer, might I inquire as to the name of thedy that has stolen my heart?" I blinked at him. Chloe and Jenna blinked at him. Then they started cackling, while I swallowed my ownughter and gave him my best smile. ¡°Oh my, such a gant young man I have found. If only our time would not be cut so drastically short. s, I must carry on my xeno killing mission, before they ughter the innocence slumbering around us. Preytell, my dear Blitzer, where are the demons hiding? I must find them. My brood is hungry, after all.¡± While I kept the same kind of gant tone he had used for the majority of my sentence, towards the end I let it drop to something much more feral and hungry, with a snarl to match. That took him a bit by surprise, and he looked up at me, maybe not frightened but reconsidering his options. He didn¡¯t drop the act though, for which I respected him. ¡°Must you speak so unbing of your children? Are they not your own flesh and blood? The ce of demons I can show you¡­," then he started to run off with his thoughts, still bent over from his bow, his head tilted and looking up to me. ¡°Wait, you¡¯re the Princess, yes? You weren¡¯t kidding about your brood being hungry¡­¡± Finally, he stood up straight, then stretched, ¡°Ugh¡­ Wait, three hours? That¡¯s nothing¡­ No, I don¡¯t want your stupid drink, I¡¯d rather drink my piss!¡± Jenna looked at him strangely, but I just nodded sagely, ¡°That brew is made by the devil, I tell you," I said in a solemn voice. ¡°Fucking yeah it is," Blitzer agreed, then shook himself, ¡°Guess you¡¯re here to help. First one to go with my entire spiel too. Most people fuck off and leave me alone when I do that.¡± ¡°Well, you have found the one joytoy who likes to perform," I say with a winning grin, ¡°Now, xenos. Nothing against you, but we only have barely more sleep than you do and I''d rather get this done quickly so that I can head home and sleep for two days straight.¡± He snorted, ¡°Yeah, right. I guess three hours of sleep for¡­ twenty eight hours awake is a good enough bnce," he said, then yawned wide, which made the rest of us yawn too. ¡°Okay, maybe not, but it has to suffice.¡± He stepped over to the table which was a mess, then gingerly around it to go to the fridge, grabbed himself¡­ a bottle of something, opened it, and gulped it down. With a satisfied sigh he turned around to us again, ¡°We got two hives done here. I ced some turrets down where it would help, but I needed some rest. Nearly copsed on the way here. The hives weren¡¯t big a couple hours ago, but they grow fast. I put in a request for help, but you know how people are about the undercity. Am I d that at least you are willing to help.¡± ¡°Well,¡± I said, shrugging, ¡°It is only a stone¡¯s throw from here to the redlight district. So I¡¯m mainly here to protect my own turf. But I did drop off some meds with the White Doves, I heard they run the doctors. Still need to talk to them, having some of them in the redlight district would be nice.¡± His face softened, ¡°Thank you. Even if you didn¡¯t just do it from the kindness of your heart, those guys use all the help they can get.¡± ¡°No worries. So, wanna show us the way or just brief us? I won¡¯t fault you for going back to sleep.¡± ¡°Nah, I¡¯m awake now, would feel like shit if I just let three beauties run off to their death.¡± I chuckled, ¡°What a gant young man," I cooed in the same voice as earlier, making him smirk. Although I did hear his heartbeat quicken just slightly. ¡°What can I say, I¡¯m a charmer.¡± I think everyone in the room knew he was full of shit, but none of usmented. ¡°Anyways,¡± he said after a prolonged moment of silence, then weaselled his way out of the room, ¡°Let¡¯s go before I fall asleep again.¡± Blitzer did know his turf well, within only a couple of minutes we had crossed a good part of the undercity, on our way to where the hive was. While we walked we talked. ¡°So, Blitzer, hm? Where¡¯s that namee from?" I asked, curious. ¡°Oh, it¡¯s the name of some old game¡¯s protagonist. I ran with the look for a couple days, before I changed it up. Name stuck though,¡± he shrugged, ¡°I run the ce down here, more or less. Well, not run run, I¡¯m not in charge or anything, but I run the protective stuff. Keep people ying fair, mostly, make sure they¡¯re looked after. I know other Samurai have a theme or some such, but I don¡¯t have that luxury. I get what I need to get to solve the problems the people here have. But that means I¡¯m always spread thin. Don¡¯t think I¡¯ve ever gotten above five hundred points after I first became a Samurai, even though I helped a bit around the edges of other incursions.¡± ¡°Damn¡­ That¡¯s¡­ not good,¡± I said, and he nodded. ¡°It¡¯s how life is down here. Honestly, I¡¯m kind of hoping you¡¯d be around for more than just today, in case I need some help. Most people don¡¯t care enough, and even though the Family does what they can, they are also just a corp.¡± ¡°But aren¡¯t they run by Samurai?" That should make them help more, right? ¡°Well, yes, but that doesn¡¯t mean they have the resources to help everyone. The Family deals with North America in its entirety. And even if it doesn¡¯t feel like it, there aren¡¯t many of us. Really, the fact that we have what, eight? New Samurai here, it¡¯s a miracle.¡± ¡°Seven. One of the other rookies died yesterday,¡± I said with a frown, ¡°Shit¡¯s not a tea party, idents can happen all the time¡­¡± ¡°Damn¡­ Yeah, things aren¡¯t easy. And even if some Samurai help others, undercity alwayses short, no matter where you look.¡± ¡°So do the other lower districts, just not that bad, I guess.¡± ¡°Basically, yeah. Doesn¡¯t help that outside of the Dragon Queen we don¡¯t really have any high powered Samurai in the city. Some mid tiers, sure, Shrapnel does what he can, but most of us are low tier.¡± I frowned at him, ¡°Never paid much attention to how many Samurai we have around¡­ Always thought we had enough to keep us safe.¡± His reply was a snort, a short and shallow thingcking all amusement, ¡°No, not really. Dragon Queen is our biggest hitter. She coordinates the rest of us when she can. Outside of that we have Shrapnel, who might be the highest Tier after her, then we have Thunderw, maybe Tentacles if you want to count them into the mid tier. Outside of that there are rookies like you and me. We had more at some point, some years back if what I heard is true, but most of those died in an incursion a bit west of here. Some stupidly powerful stealth hive kept under the radar long enough to produce some really nasty models and surprised most of our Samurai.¡± ¡°Howe I didn¡¯t hear about that?¡± He frowned, ¡°They kept it secret to prevent an all out panic. The Hive is still active, much better monitored now, but buried deep. Once in a while it produces some more Twenty-Two¡¯s to run around and make more Hives. It¡¯s why Bahamut isn¡¯t around, she has to deal with another one of those.¡± He shook his head, ¡°Anyways, enough of those depressing topics. Right now we have to deal with our own issues. Talking about that, where¡¯d you leave your attack dog? That giant thing near the southern gates was yours, right?" ¡°Well, yeah, although we did put it together with the three of us, pooling points and catalogues, otherwise it wouldn¡¯t nearly have been that impressive.¡± ¡°Oh damn, I never got the chance to do that,¡± he looked positively envious. ¡°You should try it sometimes. Anyways, Snuffles had to be sacrificed to destroy a hive in the industrial area, and even then a Twenty-One nearly killed the lot of us.¡± His eyes were wide as he snapped to me, ¡°Twenty-One?!¡± I grimaced, ¡°Yeah, fuckers were growing a couple of them there¡­ Don¡¯t wanna think about what would have happened if they¡¯d escape.¡± ¡°Lots of chaos and destruction¡­¡± Rounding a corner he pointed forwards, ¡°The first hive is just behind the junkyard ahead. Was the smaller of the two when I went to bed, but you never know, these things can sprout like mushrooms.¡± I nodded, then looked back to Chloe and Jenna, interrupting their own conversation. ¡°Okay, any ideas or ns? I really much rather deal with things quickly. Thinking about another really big purchase just to get things sorted quickly.¡± Jenna shrugged, ¡°I got roughly 4500 points to spend, but I think we should check the Hive first before we decide. If it¡¯s just a matter of running in and blowing shit up then we can save on points.¡± ¡°Yeah,¡± Chloe agreed, ¡°Otherwise I¡¯d say the n is as simple as that. Scout ahead, then go in if we can, nt a big fuck off bomb, before we leave.¡± ¡°Makes sense I guess,¡± I muttered, then turned to the Hatchling that had my Hexw Shadow draped over her shoulders, ¡°Well then Kitty, time to do your job.¡± The Shadow slowly undraped itself and jumped down elegantly, before it started to run off towards the Hive, turning invisible a couple of steps in. I quickly invited Blitzer into my virtual realm and started posting the live feed from the Shadow onto the main screen. ¡°Shit¡­¡± Blitzer muttered when my little pet came closer to the entrance, ¡°Those are a lot more xenos than had been therest night.¡± I grimaced, not liking the implication. I knew hives could grow fast from Chloe¡¯s stories, but I didn¡¯t realise just how fast. I mean, I guess I should have figured that out, considering the hive we destroyed earlier had Twenty-Ones growing. Well, whatever, we had to deal with it either way. My little pet snuck past the aliens running around and into the junkyard beyond, keeping close to the tracks of the xenos that had pulled biomass into the hole in the ground. And junkyard was right, the Hive had nested itself deep in a junkpit that had copsed to the storage areas below. Which, truth be told, were pretty much junk as well, considering the shit I sawying around, but that was besides the point. Strangely the Hive did look smaller than the one we had found, the thick roots not quite as oppressive. That didn¡¯t mesh well with the visible activity though. On the way in my little pet passed some pools of a strange liquid; from Kaysa¡¯sment and the xenos throwing either trash or themselves in, those were the digestive tract of the antithesis. I ignored it for now, wasn¡¯t like I could do much about it, and sent my little pet deeper into the Hive, trying to figure out where the central growth chamber was, but it didn¡¯t manage to get there. Instead I was cut off by¡­ something, much too fast to follow. Whatever it was annihted my little kitty cat before I even realised what was happening. That was a Model Thirteen. They are the guardians of the Hive. ¡°Great, so they know we are here¡­,¡± I muttered, then shook my head. Didn¡¯t matter now, we still had to deal with it. ¡°How¡¯s it looking?" Jenna asked me, keeping her eyes on the entrance, bow already in hand. ¡°Not sure¡­ It looks to be smaller, I couldn¡¯t see any Twenty-Ones, so that¡¯s good, but there is a lot of activity around, which makes me a bit hesitant. Couldn¡¯t get into the center either, some model Thirteen annihted my little drone.¡± ¡°Hm¡­¡± Chloe was thoughtful for a moment, before she looked around our little group, ¡°I think I have an idea. It¡¯s basically the same n as we had around Paradise Hills, but with a bit of a different setup. Smaller Lure and much more defences directly outside of the Hive. Try to get their attention, then sneak inside and blow the ce to pieces.¡± I nodded slowly, thinking about it. It could work and give us opportunity to make some points and ensure the xenos are busy, so they won¡¯t run off to try and eat more innocent bystanders. ¡°I like it,¡± I decided, and looked at Jenna and Blitzer. Jenna nodded in turn, a thoughtful look on her face, ¡°Yeah¡­ It would y to our strengths, we are much better at defensive stuff than we are at offensive stuff. If we can get them to focus on attacking us, while we have the opportunity to sneak by them and blow them up our chances should be much better.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know a better way,¡± Blitzer said with a shrug, ¡°I¡¯m not good at openbat. I got some light defensive stuff, turrets and the like, but nothing that can deal with anything above a M6 reliably. Honestly, for this I¡¯ll rely on your expertise and hope I can snatch some points.¡± ¡°That would actually work well with this n then,¡± Chloe said, snapping her fingers, ¡°Either you ce down some turrets of your own to make some points, or you stay near the Lure to help actively defend it while we deal with the Hive. Either way you get to make some points and help out.¡± He seemed to consider that, a little bit of a frown on his face. ¡°I guess¡­ Not sure what would be better though. Hades has some ideas for turrets that I could use to help protect your lure, but he also said that being further away means I get less points from them¡­¡± After another moment he shook his head, ¡°Then again, even if the Hive might be more dangerous I much rather stick closer to you, just in case shit goes sideways. Safer that way.¡± ¡°Okay,¡± I said with a smile, then looked around the group once more, ¡°So we got our n. Where do you want to set up the Lure, Chloe?¡± We weren¡¯t far from the Hive entrance that my little spy drone had found, with a few good options for our little defensive position. Chloe went over them in my Virtual realm real quick, before she put some schematics of the area on the main screen. They were only rough estimations that Kaysa had put together, considering that the around here was rather spotty and not every ce had a working camera. The list of disimers under the map was long enough to rival some novels. ¡°I think here¡¯s the best ce,¡± Chloe started, a red dot popping up on the map not far from us, ¡°There is nothing of value behind it from the direction of the Hive, so even if the aliens get through and further away we don¡¯t put anyone into immediate danger. Additionally there is an old building that could work as a bunker of sorts. Nothing too impressive, but it would make it harder for the xenos to break through.¡± Another set of schematics popped onto the screen, a rough draft of a possible set up for the defensive armaments. ¡°This is a rough n for how we could set things up inside, but we need to see how the outside looks in detail before we can finalise the ns. Best head over and check it out.¡± She nodded at us and we nodded at her in turn. Without further ado she turned and started leading us to where she wanted to set up. Time to fuck up another Hive.
I have a ! Feel free to join to chat or get updates! Chapter 23 – The power of Murphy Chapter 23 ¨C The power of Murphy ¡°Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong.¡± - John W. Campbell Jr.,ter attributed to Edward Aloysius Murphy Jr. The set up didn¡¯t take long, the building Chloe had chosen for our little n was about as perfect as we could have hoped for in this trash pile. She and Blitzer got started on setting up barricades, turrets, traps, and whatever else Blitzer had in his vast collection of catalogues. Of course we had to cheat a little bybining as many catalogues as possible, but that wasn¡¯t as easy as I had thought. In normal circumstancesbining catalogues is quite situational and heavily dependent on the catalogues in question. Your case is quite unique, as your Hexw Swarm-Intelligence Catalogue is quite unique, enabling you to circumvent most of those restrictions that usually hold people from going too far. ¡°Damn,¡± I muttered. It made sense in a way, though I didn¡¯t like it. Not that I had time to dwell too much on the issue. Jenna contributed some of her Sentinels to our defences, plus a couple of items from her Sentinel Legion Catalogue to help fortify the area a bit. It wasn¡¯t much, but more than I could contribute. We talked about putting up some Hard-Light defences for a moment, but decided against it as they were quite expensive for very little improvement in defensive strength of this caliber. My task would be to make sure we would be unscathed when we entered the Hiveter. Once we had set up and were ready to begin, we all walked a little ways away from the bunker. Our n was to sneak in while the xenos were busy with it, so staying close to it would be counter intuitive. ¡°Okay, everyone ready?¡± I asked. A round of nods indicated that they were, so I turned towards the entrance. ¡°Remember, we will just go in, find the center, nt a bomb there and then fuck off. Simple, easy, and quick. No heroics or anything.¡± Chloe turned on the lure and we got ready to head inside, just waiting for the xenos still inside toe out. This would be easy, right? Of course that was the moment where things wentpletely off the rails. At first things went as nned, more and more xenos came out of the Hive, Threes, Fours, Fives, Sixes, one or two Nines, everything was as expected. The problem was that instead of slowing down or thinning out, the mass of xenosing out just increased more and more, until a veritable flood of aliens broke through the hole in the ground. ¡°What the fuck?¡± I muttered. The Hive had looked to be a smaller one, even with the increased activity around the entrance. Now though, things reminded me of the gate situation near the inner city. The defences near the bunker started spitting bullets, grenades,sers, and whatever else they had at their disposal, but the flood of xenos just didn¡¯t want to stop. ¡°Okay, something is wrong, we need a change of ns. Chloe, can you deactivate the Lure?¡± I asked, a little panicky. ¡°Uh, I can, but then we will have to fight them head on,¡± she muttered. I frowned, ¡°Fuck¡­ We need to deal with them now. Kaysa, Devouring Rose, something fast acting and a bit more expensive. Do I have one that can churn out Hatchlingster?¡± You do. The Devouring Rose Variant H is capable of producing more Hatchlings, although much slower than any Progenitor Hexw could. ¡°That¡¯s enough. Let¡¯s get back to the bunker, we need to kill those xenos!¡± The others didn¡¯tment, all of them immediately following my lead to head back to the bunker. And good thing we did. It was already apparent that soon our defences would be overrun. No way in hell could we deal with this many xenos without them, especially since from Chloe¡¯sment things would break out into an all out brawl once the lure was destroyed. I didn¡¯t think long, immediately conjuring up arge circle above the horde of aliens, which I sent down to tten them. Jenna copied my approach, and soon we squished quite the number of xenos, but it wasn¡¯t nearly enough. ¡°We need something to block off the Hive. Preferably something that would allow us to deactivate the Lure.¡± I muttered in the virtual realm, while my physical self was busy killing xenos. My Hatchlings were busy jumping any alien trying to split from the horde, but they were increasingly overwhelmed. ¡°Kaysa, if I go ahead and try to block the Hive with a Devouring Rose, how many points do I need to pump into that thing for it to do its job properly?¡± The main issue is the amount of antithesis stilling out of the Hive itself. Considering their numbers I calcte that a Devouring Rose worth 2000 points should be the bare minimum. ¡°Good. Chloe, you are in charge of the defences. I¡¯ll be quick!¡± Before anyone had time toment I separated from the group, a smaller contingent of Hexws and two Sentinels following me. I didn¡¯t waste any more time by trying to kill any xenos, instead just running over to the entrance. When I arrived there I could see bigger models pulling themselves out from deep within. ¡°Fuck! Kaysa, I think I need a bigger Rose!¡± Or multiple. You have enough points for two Variant H¡¯s if you work together with Vanguard Jenna. ¡°Jenna!¡± I asked in the virtual realm, ¡°I need like¡­ a thousand or so points and your Sentinel Legion Catalogue!¡± ¡°Just get them, we settle ountster!¡± she replied immediately. Please get closer to the entrance. For a moment I wanted to snap at Kaysa for even asking something so dangerous, but then again, the Rose was an imobile defender and the aliens didn¡¯t seem to notice me. ¡°After this I need a drink,¡± I muttered to nobody in particr, before I began running towards the entrance, directly into the alien horde. That is enough. New purchase: Devouring Rose (Variant H, 2000 points) x2! Points reduced to: 147 The moment I saw the giant alien things appear in front of me I immediately turned around and ran back again, unwilling to spend any more time this close to a wave of antithesis. Once I had put some distance between me and the angry alien mob I looked back, watching my Devouring Roses work. They were much bigger than the first one I had gotten yesterday, but they were also different. Not in terms of looks, but the feedback I got from them was different. Most importantly, they didn¡¯t share the deep and primal starving hunger that the other one had felt, and secondly they were capable of churning out Hatchlings, which came across as a really weird wish to have babies. I immediately muted their feedback channels, that was just too fucky a thought to be bothered with right that second. Both Roses entwined their tentacles,pletely blocking off the entrance, finally breaking off the flood of xenos. It wasn¡¯t a perfect solution, and inside the Hive there was a lot of fighting, with my Roses burrowing their tentacles deep in an attempt to kill as many xenos as possible. It made my point counter jump up quite significantly, it wouldn¡¯t take long until I made back what I had spent on this. Confident that the defences wouldn¡¯t break, or at least as confident as I could be under the circumstances, I turned around once more and ran back to the defences. I was just about to rx a tad, thinking we¡¯d at least be in a recoverable position, when I heard Blitzer shout obscenities in the call. ¡°Dragon Queen¡¯s tits! Okay, bad news, whatever the hell we did here stirred the hos nest! I just got reports from some people in Wasps territory and the hive just started acting up and spewing xenos!¡± ¡°Well, fuck,¡± I muttered, trying to adjust to that news. ¡°How?¡± Chloe asked, ¡°Like, this lure is by far not powerful enough to reach there and we aren¡¯t exactly next door. How did we piss them off?¡± That was a good question, one that I didn¡¯t know any possible answer for. ¡°What should we do?¡± Jenna asked, ignoring Chloe¡¯s question for the moment, ¡°Should someone head over?¡± ¡°This Hive is cut off for the moment,¡± I threw in, ¡°I say deal with the flood here, then head out and see where we can help.¡± ¡°We better hurry. I get more and more reports of xenos showing up,¡± Blitzer muttered, voice tense, ¡°We don¡¯t have time to fuck around, otherwise we will find out.¡± ¡°Okay, you can head out and see where the biggest fires are. We will clear up quickly, then follow.¡± Putting action to word I conjured another giant disk over the remnants of the flood when I got close enough, one that Chloe immediately summoned more nades into. Aliens died in droves and my points jumped up again. ¡°Kaysa, what options do I have for quick army building?¡± I asked while jumping over some debris to reposition myself, one arm already pointed towards the aliens and another sweeping Hard-Light de springing into existence and decimating another couple of xenos. You have two immediate options avable to you. The first is to procure a number of smaller Progenitor line Hexws, while the second is to buy a bigger Progenitor Hexw, something along the lines of the Zaitron or the Najav. Before you decide however, I want to point something out. The behaviour of these Hives is anomalous, not only can they produce way more antithesis than they should from their apparent size, but they also somehow are aware of what happens at the other Hive. Considering theck of model Seventeens and the smaller model Sevens, who would usually be responsible for this kind ofmunication, I calcte good odds that there is some kind of underground connection. ¡°Fuck!¡± I muttered, then threw another sweeping de into the mass of xenos, while I slid down a small hill towards Chloe and Jenna, conjuring up a shield to protect them from a projectile some model Five threw at them. That thing was dealt with by mynce roughly around the same time I hit the ground running. ¡°Okay, options for that?¡± If you wish to both be able to build an army and to find out more about what might be hidden beneath the ground I would rmend to you the Delta ss Mark IX Progenitor Najav. For that you would need to use some points and one of your tokens to upgrade your Hexw Catalogue to ss II. Of course you can also upgrade it with the help of Vanguard Jenna, Vanguard Chloe, and Blitzer. ¡°Sounds fancy,¡± I said, running over to Chloe and Jenna, breathboured, ¡°What can it do and what do you need the others for?¡± The Delta ss Mark IX Progenitor Najav is roughly the size of arge bus, excluding the limbs. It is roughly equivalent to a Scorpion, although with some changes. Its main features are its upgraded Hexw Hatchery which can produce roughly half a dozen Hexws every fifteen minutes given sufficient biomass, its pincers which are capable of crushing tanks without much effort, as well as a biological methrower of sorts. Youck sufficient education to understand the underlying principle, and we don¡¯t have the time for you to learn it, so to put it simply: It can burn down a lot of antithesis in a very short period of time very well. With the help of Vanguard Chloe, Vanguard Jenna, and Blitzer I would be able to upgrade the following: Integrated high fire rate weaponry, on top of Hard-Light based weaponry from your own catalogues, upgraded external and internal armor courtesy of Vanguard Jenna¡¯s Sentinel Legion and Legions Armory Catalogue, much decreased growth period thanks to Blitzer¡¯s Agriculture and Fleshmender Catalogues, integrated Sentinel factory which would rece one of the two Hexw Hatcheries to increase output of Vanguard Jenna¡¯s Sentinels and would be able to produce smaller items from Vanguard Chloe¡¯s catalogues, as well as a slew of minor additions and upgrades that would be too long to list here. ¡°Really starting to love the Hexws ability to adapt.¡± Indeed. They are quite the fascinating members of the gcticmunity. I ignored her for a moment, while I helped Chloe and Jenna fight off the aliens. Blitzer was already off to help where he could, but he was still in our call. ¡°Okay people, I have something big and expensive that might be able to help, but I need your help for it. Kaysa, how much is that thing?¡± 11730 points. That¡­ was a bit more than I had expected, but between the four of us we should be able to manage. ¡°Okay, very expensive. She can send you the details, are you okay with it?¡± ¡°Just do it! We don¡¯t have the time for a discussion and if it helps then fuck it,¡± Chloe said immediately, then pushed me and Jenna to one side to prevent a model Five from hitting us square in the chest. I rolled twice before I finally got a grip and righted myself. It took two attempts before my Lance hit the Five and killed it. ¡°Uh, I guess? Just¡­ I want to be repaid for this!¡± Blitzer said, obviously a bit distracted. ¡°You heard them, Kaysa. Hit it and make it good!¡±
I have a ! Feel free to join to chat or get updates! Chapter 24 – Delta class Mark IX Progenitor Najav Chapter 24 ¨C Delta ss Mark IX Progenitor Najav ¡°What the fuck is that thing?!¡± - Random civilian during the defence of the New Savannah undercity Understood. Prepare for arrival. There was a long moment of nothing and I saw my point count plummet. I was just about to ask Kaysa what went wrong when something big appeared in front of me and right over the flood of aliens still trying to get through our defences. The something turned out to be an egg the size of a train car and with a deep thump it crushed a good chunk of the aliens in front of us, shaking the ground and knocking me off my feet. Before I even managed to scramble back to my feet there was a loud crack, then another, before the shell burst apart in a flurry of shrapnel that was blocked by a Hard-Light construct from my Pristine Fortress, probably thanks to Kaysa. A deep and rumbling growl rang out as the Delta ss Mark IX Progenitor Najav unfolded itself from the confines of its egg, long limbs thrashing about and crushing the antithesis surrounding it to paste. When I finally had a moment to get a good look at my newest toy, my jaw dropped. It was a Scorpion alright, or at least Scorpion shaped. Our new friend was the size of one of thoserge mobile basis PMC¡¯s used to keep track of things, as long as it kept all its limbs close, and limbs it had a lot of. Two ginormous pincers the size of trucks, easily taking up a third of its general size and big enough to grasp a tank and cut it in two. It had six legs, giant things, with long-ish feet like things, simr to earth insects, made to distribute the probably ridiculous weight of the damn thing. At the other end of the Najav were three tails, although instead of scorpion tails that would curl over the body these ones were more like thick lizard tails with mean looking des at the end. It also had two¡­ I didn¡¯t really want to call them arms with hands on top of the pincer arms, but they were obviously for gripping stuff. Its skin was a weird mix between chitinous carapace, metallic reinforcements and cybeic armor, scales and some strange fur on some parts of it. Embedded in its outer shell were various different emitters and other things, while weapon emcements could be found all over the body. One of the pincers had an integrated heavy machine gun that looked to be abination of Jenna¡¯s Legion tech as well as Chloe¡¯s weaponry, although I was pretty certain that on their own they couldn¡¯t piece this thing together. The underside hid tworge slits, one on each side, probably the hatchery and the sentinel factory. Would need to get a closer lookter. Its movements were eerily silent with just a hint of mechanical noise to it, I would have thought that something this size would be much louder, but somehow it wasn¡¯t. The steps were definitely audible, but not the ground shaking and deafening kind. Once it had unfurled itself from its egg it seemed to go through an entire check of its new body, connected to my imnt, and then turned to look at us, weird gripping arms resting on the inside of its pincers above the face, if one would want to call it that. It had a giant maw with smaller spider-like appendages, twelve eyes although I wasn¡¯t quite sure why it needed so many, considering that the pincers were blocking most of its field of vision, and pretty heavy looking armor around its face and pincers. Made sense I supposed. Just looking at it gave me shivers and I couldn¡¯t stop my manic grin at the sight of this majestic beast. ¡°What the¡­¡± Chloe muttered, simrly shell-shocked. Then it stomped the ground, turned around with a long swish of its tails, before it rammed its massive pincers into the ground and started to rush through the alien horde in front of it, smashing them apart at a speed that nothing this size should move at. It will take some time for it to finish growing, although it can already start on Hexw Production. To achieve that I had to make some concessions elsewhere, so don¡¯t expect it to perform at its best yet. I honestly couldn¡¯t have cared less. This thing was fucking awesome. Then I mentally pped myself out of my stupor, this wasn¡¯t the time to sit around and watch the action! Raising an arm, I squashed an enterprising model Four that was trying to sneak up on us. ¡°Chloe, deactivate the lure, the Najav can deal with things for now. Blitzer, where do you need our help?¡± I spoke in my Virtual realm, my body too busy fighting off the smaller aliens still in front of us. I just barely evaded the projectile of what I thought was a model Nine-S and flung a Lance into its general direction in response. There was no way for me to confirm if I hit it or not, nor the time to send any of my Hatchlings to check up on it, so I simply marked it on the map with a danger marker. ¡°Uhm, like, everywhere? We have hotspots popping up all around the undercity. It¡¯s like there are stealth hives hidden all over the ce!¡± He sounded a bit panicked and I couldn¡¯t me him. ¡°Fuck! We need to deal with this Hive now! Kaysa? Anything the Najav could do? Doubt we can get in ourselves to nt a bomb!¡± Indeed. For the time being I can take control of your Hexws to more efficiently deal with the antithesis; between the Progenitor Najav and the Devouring Roses you have a very solidbat force. Theoretically the Najav could burn out the Hive all by itself, once the majority of the flood is dealt with, but it will take some time for it to burrow its way to it. At least if you want to limit coteral damage. ¡°Good idea, get to it. Blitzer, can you update the map in the conference hall so we can coordinate from there?¡± Blitzer, or maybe his AI, was quick on the uptake, the moment I handed out invite permissions several more connections came in, dozens of people from the undercity he probably knew and organised things with. I didn¡¯t even have time to invite Omega and the contacts Cassiopaia had given me before someone else beat me to the punch. Private rooms started to pop up in mymunications suite, different information packages were sent around, people got organised in smaller groups, and soon my inner eye was watching a beehive worth ofwork activity. Not wasting any time I sent my Hexws out in every direction, hoping to get some more reliable information as the localwork buckled under the sudden slew of data requests. Kaysa took over control pretty much the moment I made intentions clear, freeing me up to take care of the next issue. At the same time I called Shrapnel and pulled his call into a separate room to have some privacy. Waiting for him to pick up I quickly checked the map, marked my destination and took off at a dead sprint, leaving the Najav to deal with the remainder of the horde behind us. Chloe and Jenna were also ready to head out, and I paid careful attention to their selected destinations. A small warning in the datastream running through my Virtual realm informed me that more distance to the Najav and the Roses would heavily diminish the points I would earn from them, but I ignored it. Not only couldn¡¯t I change anything about it right now, I also had too many things vying for my attention. Even with basically having two minds I didn¡¯t have the mental capacity to deal with everything at once. With a quick thought I shot off a mental note to Kaysa that that would need to be remedied once I get my body mods. Before I could jump on the next issue, Shrapnel finally picked up. I pushed that call to my physical body, unable to deal with it in the virtual realm, and focused back on organising people, as more and more connections popped up. ¡°Wha¡­. Princess? What is it?¡± Shrapnel sounded half-asleep. Probably ripped him out of a nap or something. Well, tough luck. I could apologiseter. ¡°We have a giant breach of xenos in the undercity! Tried to bust a hive but there seems to be a much biggerwork of stealth hives all around. Can you get down here, please?!¡± That sobered him up real quick, ¡°What?! How many are there? Where are you?¡± ¡°No clue and below the entrance in the redlight district. I have Chloe and Jenna with me, and Blitzer does what he can, but we are overwhelmed. I¡¯ll pull you into thework, then you can organise with our AI¡¯s. Can you get the others?¡± ¡°I¡¯ll wake them now. Be there soon.¡± We closed the call without any more wasted words and I focused back on the task at hand. Before I had time to invite him and his group to thework someone else did it for me, a quick ping from Blitzer¡¯s AI indicating that they would take care of it, since they already organised the majority of themunications. Happy to have a load off my mind I left them to it and looked over the map again, to ensure I didn¡¯t take a wrong turn. The previously serene map was rapidly filling with information, points of importance, poption centers, whatever passed for weapon and supply lines down here, White Dove clinics, gang organised defences, and a steadily increasing collection of orange and red blobs denoting xeno presence. Not even five minutes after everything started and I could already see that we had lost four groups. Mentally cursing our luck I ignored it for the moment, wouldn¡¯t help to mourn them right now, we had to make sure the rest would survive. My destination was switched at least twice in less than a minute, before itnded on a poption center next to a giant red blob marked ¡®Top Priority¡¯. I was the closest Samurai and from the indicators on the map it seemed like they were very sparsely defended, even by undercity standards. Not that I thought I would be able to aplish much, considering the giant red blob next to it. On the plus side my points were back at around two thousand and climbing steadily, even with the diminishing returns from the distance. After the second wrong turn Kaysa put a few disy windows in my normal vision: A small map, the status of important targets, a GPS module that oveid with my vision and showed me the quickest way to my destination, and a small status summary for Jenna, Chloe, and Blitzer. Drawing on everyst bit of strength I increased my speed and within two minutes I came into line of sight of my target. The xenos hade up from an old sewage cleaning facility that was long since abandoned. Trash and junk piles surrounded it, old abandoned and half-salvaged cars and trucks to one side, a variable collection of metallic debris on the other. Next to the nt was what I would call a scavenger town, a collection of containers and tin homes barely holding together used by those who searched through the trash nearby. It was on the edge of Sweeping Dragon Territory ording to the map, and they had a small contingent of people here, although by far not enough to weather the storm. The defenders had taken position behind makeshift barriers, flimsy walls and trashed cars and were desperately fighting off a wave of xenosing out from the abandoned sewage cleaning facility. Taking a couple deep breaths I looked around real quick to find the least defended part of the wall they had put together. From the looks of things they were already busy evacuating people and I saw a constant stream of civilians head towards a small outpost a bit deeper into Sweeping Dragon turf. When I finally caught enough of a breath to continue moving I headed over to the front lines where a couple of people in misfitting armor and old, well used weapons tried their best to keep the horde at bay. Some seemed to have Samurai grade rifles, which was the only reason they hadn¡¯t been overrun yet. Not wasting any time I raised my arm and started to fire into the horde of xenos, trying my best to hit the bigger units first. It didn¡¯t take long though for me to realise that that was all but useless. For every bigger model I sniped, five smaller ones made their way closer. Instead I started swinging with big sweeping motions with a variable de, cutting down the leading mass of xenos before they could cross the street separating the scavenger town and the junkyard. ¡°This won¡¯t work,¡± I muttered withboured breath, ¡°I need something to more efficiently defend the area.¡± I took a quick nce at my point counter. It sat at over 2700 points, rising steadily. Well, I did just buy a huge fuck off scorpion, but at least it looked like we made some of those points back already. Only bad thing was that the point ie had slowed to a trickle, I was now too far away to get any appreciable amount. An explosion further away caught me off guard for a moment. Only when I checked the map to see what was going did I realise that it most likely came from Chloe¡¯s location. She was facing her own horde of aliens and seemed to be quite effective at it too. Since I was already at it I checked up on the Najav in my virtual realm, while I continued fighting off any aliens trying toe too close. It had started burrowing down into the ground not long ago and was steadily making its way further down. At the same time the two Devouring Roses I had ced at the entrance to the Hive had burrowed their tentacles deep and were closing in on the center of the Hive. Not that it looked too much like a Hive. Oh, there was some Hive biology there, sure, but it was much smaller than I would expect even from a small Hive, nevermind the size it should be considering the army of xeno it had unleashed. I have some options for you. First would of course be another Devouring Rose, but I also have some rmendations for a more mobile force. Which would you prefer? Just when I was about to ask for another Rose, I stopped and reconsidered for a moment. ¡°I need something mobile. Fighting off this horde is important, but I need the flexibility to go around and I can¡¯t afford to drop Roses everywhere I go, that¡¯s just not point efficient, especially with the point drop off. Do I have something like Chloe¡¯s fortifications or something? Or maybe drones that can defend shit well and move afterwards? Basically a mobile Rose?¡± Of course. Considering that we do not have the time to go over every little detail for the moment, I have put together a list of Hexw Units that could help you defend the ce. Part of them are defensive units that will be stationary while they hold the line, but are capable of switching locations, while part of it will be a sort of hunting swarm that will nk and clean up any stragglers. Plus additional scouts. How many points would you like to invest? ¡°As many as I need, but I want around 100 points, probably a few more as emergency funds. Can you work with that?¡± Of course. New purchase: Mark II Hexw Siverin Bile Spewer x15! Points reduced to: 1712 New purchase: Mark III Hexw Sabertooth x5! Points reduced to: 712 New purchase: Mark II Hexw Kaimon Scout x20! Points reduced to: 212 Arge number of eggs appeared next to me, all neatly arrayed by size. A momentter they started to crack, revealing three kinds of creatures. The first were simr to small meerkats, just really alien looking. These things immediately started to run off in every which direction, some even burrowing underneath some rubble, vanishing from sight. Wherever they went my map was updated, more and more detail filling in the vague nks. It made it much easier to see what kind of terrain I was working with, not that I had any ideas how to properly use that knowledge. To my surprise a lot of them also travelled away from the horde in front of me. From their input I could tell that they were going around trying to find any other hidden nests, which I was d for. Didn¡¯t need any additional surprises. The next group were five huge cats, easily bigger than a tiger. True to their name they resembled a sort of Sabertooth, and all of them immediately started off to the sides, smashing into the smaller models on the way. It was quickly apparent what Kaysa had meant by nking and picking off stragglers. The majority of the horde wasing directly at us, but there was nothing that would prevent them from running off into different directions if they wanted to. Well, until now at least. My Sabertooths quickly began making sure that any alien that tried to sneak around us was dealt with, making the entire fight a lot less stressful. Oh, it didn¡¯t make it any easier, but knowing that I had something in ce that could prevent ambushes already helped. Thest group were my new defenders and by far the strangest looking. In some ways they reminded me of ants, six legged and with three separate parts to their body, although that was the only simrity. Unlike ants their biggest body part was the one in the middle, thorax? I really didn¡¯t know, nor did I care too much at the moment. Their faces were ugly looking and could shoot some strange acid that immediately started to melt the aliens in front of them. A simr contraption was on top of their big middle part, this one more like an organic turret. They started to spread out a bit before they burrowed their feet into the ground and bent forwards, achieving the optimal spread for their weird turrets. A wall of acid greeted the next wave of xenos, quickly melting through the front lines. It wasn¡¯t a perfect solution, but it would buy me some time, time I used to finally catch my breath and quickly check up on the people around and behind me. Some were wounded, although none seemed to be too injured which made me breathe a sigh of relief. Maybe I could manage.
I have a ! Feel free to join to chat or get updates! Chapter 25 – Apocalypse2 Chapter 25 ¨C Apocalypse2 ¡°It is surprising just how hearty people can be, especially if they feel like they have nothing left to lose. Put them in a situation with impossible odds and you will find that there are a lot more fighters out there than you would expect.¡± - Dr. Steven Johanson, Doctor of Psychology, 2042 Now that I finally had some defences in ce that could take the pressure off me, I once again started to focus on the bigger models in the distance. So far they weren¡¯t that threatening, the biggest being a couple model Eights crawling their way out of the old building, but that didn¡¯t mean they wouldn¡¯t be a threat. Especially the model Fives were a problem, which is why I focused on them first. While I fought I kept one eye on the civilians, periodically shielding them from a projectile or two fired by a Five or in one case a model Nine-S. That one was an immediate target and I instantly focused on taking it out. The fight did mean more points, but by far not enough for me to befortable. With most of my Hexws too far away for me to get any points from them, my point ie was dismal. Something I really needed to look into soon. Dodge! Kaysa¡¯sment ripped me out of my focus, and I didn¡¯t waste any time obeying the order. Out of reflex I threw myself to the side, just as something exploded where I had stood a moment before. Pain shot through my body, something I couldn¡¯t quite parse in the moment prating my flesh. ¡°Fuck!¡± I screamed, tears quickly blurring my vision. The pain was fucking intense and despite my best efforts my attention got disrupted, ending with me snapping back to reality as one. That was a model Nine-S. I have something to deal with the problem, if you would allow me. ¡°Just fucking do it,¡± I cursed. If she had a way to solve my issues she better fucking be quick. New purchase: Mark VI Hexw War Drone! Points reduced to: 4 Gritting my teeth I nearly missed the thump behind me, before something grabbed my arms and started pulling me away and deeper into cover. I tried my best to help, but the pain still running through my legs was mind numbing. Reluctant I let whatever had grabbed me pull me back behind cover, where I finally got a good look at the thing. The Hexw War Drone was¡­ not what I expected. Heavy chitinous armor, six arms, strange long appendages on its back that folded over its shoulders like some kind of barrel, and three long tails that it burrowed half into the ground the moment I was safe. A momentter there was a deep thwump sound and both appendages spouted some green liquid. It lurched back from the recoil, only stopped by the tails working as stabilisers, and I heard a deep thump in the distance, although from my current position I couldn¡¯t see the aftermath. Ignoring it for the moment I looked down at myself and at my legs. In my time in the redlight district I¡¯ve seen some messed up shit and I really am not squeamish, but my legs look much worse than I expected. Sttered in blood I couldn¡¯t even see the wounds underneath. ¡°Fuck! Shit!¡± Please calm yourself. Your wounds look worse than they actually are. Most of the projectiles have missed you entirely, and the reason it hurts so much is a mild nerve agent from the antithesis projectile. That didn¡¯t really made me feel better. ¡°What do I need to fix this?¡± I asked in a whine while I tried to calm myself down as much as I could. A ss I Nano-Regenerative would already help quite a lot, although for the nerve agent I would rmend a localised sedative until the wound is closed. I had just spent everyst point, although ording to the point counter in my HUD I was already up to over two hundred again, my army quickly killing things around us. ¡°Just fucking get it. Holy shit, this hurts¡­¡± New purchase: ss I Nano-Regenerative Suite! Points reduced to: 231 New purchase: ss I nk-Out! Points reduced to: 216 The two boxes appeared next to me, and I immediately grabbed the onebelled ¡®nk-Out¡¯. Simply inject it on your thighs. It should numb everything from your knee down for a little while. Not having to be told twice I did as I was asked and immediately the pain started to slowly subside. Breathing a long sigh of relief I took out the Nano-Regenerative Suite and inhaled it. Seraphine, I have bad news and I have even worse news for you. Which would you like first? I snorted without much humour, obviously she was trying to be funny. ¡°Well, Doc Kaysa, let¡¯s start with the bad news.¡± Truth be told I was d about her attempts at levity, it made the entire nightmare around me just a bit more bearable. It will take some time for your legs to be fully functional again. Until then I highly rmend you stay where you are. That had me raising an eyebrow, ¡°I don¡¯t think I can afford to do that. We are slowly getting pushed back and if they have more artillery models then we would easily be overrun and swamped.¡± Yes. Now the worse news. The Najav has arrived at the Hive. Please consult your link to the Najav. I did, already dreading what I would find. What I saw horrified me to my core. The Najav had managed to get to the root of the Hive, which was located in a small cave deep down under the ground. Once it had burned away all the antithesis flesh, fully melting the Hive, it had discovered a connection leading further. Following that it found a giant cave, easily a kilometer in length, full of antithesis Hives. An ocean of angry nt was currently trying to get to my Scorpion, which fended them off with its massive ws, methrower, and a veritable light-show of projectile weaponry. ¡°What the¡­¡± I have already convened with the other AI and we havee to the conclusion that this cave is likely connected to any Hive hidden in the undercity. The moment the Najav entered, the amount of antithesis crawling to the surface decreased significantly for a moment, before it increased sharply. ¡°Fuck!¡± I rubbed my face, trying desperately toe up with a solution to this fucked up mess. ¡°Okay, okay¡­ Can the Najav deal with the mess down there?¡± Oh, certainly. It will take a while, but I can¡¯t find any models bigger than a model sixteen, which the Najav can easily deal with. The main problem is not the cavern itself, but the antithesis still making their way topside. ¡°Good, get on it then. Do the others know?¡± The other Vanguard are informed, although for the moment they have decided not to tell the civilians. ¡°They would fucking panic if they knew they¡¯re standing right on top of the biggest fucking Hive they can imagine.¡± That has been the reason, yes. Vanguard Chloe is nning to set up bombs at the biggest openings, to hopefully contain the antithesis. That sounded¡­ reasonable, I guessed. Or hoped, really. ¡°How did we miss this?¡± My questions were as much out of curiosity as out of the attempt to distract myself from the really fucky mix of pain and numbness slowly crawling down my legs. As far as I can tell, this Hive was born quite some time ago and not by conventional means. It appears that some antithesis managed to get into the cave underneath the undercity and started growing, although how they managed is unknown as of right now. A more detailed survey is required to uncover that. ¡°Well, that survey has to wait until we survive this apocalypse.¡± Ignoring Kaysa¡¯s warning about needing more time I slowly made my way to my feet, even if it still fucking hurt, and walking was a bit of a pain in the arse. Finally splitting my attention once more to properly organise this mess, I checked my link with my defenders. Despite their best efforts the aliens had nearly arrived at the defensive line, a veritable wall of dead xenos serving as cover for them. ¡°We need to get the civies out of here, then regroup and find some way to deal with the problem. The moment I get enough points for more Progenitors let me know. Starting to feel like we could really use an army right now¡­¡± If you wish to build an army I would also rmend upgrading your mental faculties. For the moment I am controlling the majority of the army, but that means a lot less points for you. If you were the one to properly control them, you could make much more. I groaned inwardly, even more points to spend. Well, she did have a point, right now I lost probably around 90% of the points I was making, especially from my Roses and my Najav. They were connected to me, and I could give them orders, but I wasn¡¯t actually controlling them. ¡°How much would that be? Just give me a number, we don¡¯t have the time to go over details and I trust you not to sell me crap.¡± For a quick fix that would be 300 points, but for a proper solution we are looking at roughly 3000 points. I checked my point counter. I was up to 700-odd points. By far not enough. With a resigned sigh I quickly connected to Chloe and Jenna inside my virtual realm. ¡°Chloe? Jenna? How are you guys doing?¡± It took a moment before they replied. ¡°Not dead yet,¡± Jenna said, probably focusing on shooting shit from the tone in her voice. ¡°I¡¯m surviving,¡± Chloe added a momentter, although she sounded exhausted, ¡°You?¡± ¡°Got shelled by some model Nine-S, but I¡¯m okay. Hey, I know you just gave me stupid amounts of points when I got the Najav, but the more I look at this mess, the more I realise I need an army. For that I need some brain upgrades or whatever to properly control them. At the moment I lose basically all the points my drones get if they¡¯re farther than a couple hundred meters.¡± ¡°Whatever you need, just fucking get it. I¡¯m swimming in points that I can¡¯t spent fast enough and I have nothing big to spent them on if I don¡¯t want to level the entire fucking undercity.¡± Chloe¡¯s tone made it clear she was a bit busy killing xenos, so probably she didn¡¯t have the time to listen to me beg. ¡°Thanks love, I promise to eat you out real good after all this is over and done with.¡± Chloe spluttered for a moment, not having seen that oneing, and I chuckled to myself. Not that I had time to daydream about that right now, I had an army to build. ¡°Kaysa, you heard her. Don¡¯t drain her reserves, but if she¡¯s fine with me getting shit, then let¡¯s get it. How many points does she have right now?¡± As indicates that she is sitting on roughly 12000 points at the moment, with half of that avable for you to use. That made my eyebrows raise. ¡°And she has nothing she could get with that?¡± She has a lot she can buy with those points. Mostly that consists of smaller purchases for weapons and fortifications, which she is mostly using to properly equip the civilians. The problem is, as she stated, that she has nothing big to buy that wouldn¡¯t lead to copious amounts of coteral damage. Technically she couldpletely annihte any antithesis currently on the Surface. The problem with that is that it would alsopletely annihte any human poption in the undercity and deal serious damage to the infrastructure of the inner city and part of the outer city. ¡°Fuck¡­ Well, let¡¯s not look a gift horse in the mouth. You know what I need, don¡¯t need aplete list, just get it and tell me how to use it.¡± Another loud explosion in the distance made me jump again and arger orange-red blob on the map near some abandoned camp vanished. ¡°At least she¡¯s using her points well,¡± I muttered, watching the map. A momentter a slew of notifications ran by me, which Ipletely ignored in favour of slinging some Hard-Light des into the ever closer horde of aliens. Some of my defenders were now basically face to face with the horde. Luckily most of the civilians had already left, leaving me as thest line of defence. Two giant eggs that I recognised as the one for Progenitor Reavers popped into existence behind me, quickly cracking open and revealing the Hexws within. They were smaller than Snuffles had been, without the mechanical support bits, and much less dangerous looking. It didn¡¯t take a genius to figure out that they weren¡¯t the upgraded kind Snuffles had been. Instead of jumping the aliens still alive, they started to gorge themselves on the corpses all around us, human and alien alike. That had me a bit troubled, I didn¡¯t like the idea of them eating human corpses, but right now really wasn¡¯t the time to be picky. I quickly logged the identity of any of the corpses that I could find, promising myself to do something for their families after this mess was cleared up. I would rmend for you to retreat immediately. The next part of your upgrade could be disorienting. Not questioning my AI I quickly checked onest time if anyone was still around. Most of them had already left so I turned around and made my way over to thest defenders still around. Walking was a bitch, but I ignored the pain as best I could. The defenders in question were the rear guard and looked at both me and my army with a bit of awe and horror. ¡°Let¡¯s drop a Rose here to cover our retreat.¡± I muttered to Kaysa, who quickly obliged me. New purchase: Devouring Rose (Variant H, 1500 points)! Points reduced to: 323 Ignoring the loud crash behind me I continued my retreat, not that I was very quick, my Hexws not far behind me. The Reavers were keeping pace with me, while my War Drone formed our rear guard. The smaller models were left behind in hopes to keep the antithesis upied, although I saw my Sabertooths slowly falling back. To my surprise, and a bit of suspicion I admit, we didn¡¯t run into any other problems on our way to the closest rendezvous point. Blitzer had set up a smaller outpost, if you want to call it that, with a couple armed guards, a few tents with stretchers, and a station full of refreshments. I could see some White Doves helping the injured and for a moment I contemted heading over and supplying some meds for them, but from the looks of things there weren¡¯t any immediately life-threatening injuries. I did shoot the White Dove doc I saw a message to let me know when that changed so I could deliver some meds, but for the moment I could probably use my points far better elsewhere, once I got my upgrade done. The refreshment station was surrounded by tired looking soldiers. Well, calling them soldiers was a bit overselling it, they were people form the undercity with mismatched armor, if they had any at all, and weaponry that looked to be either Samurai hand me downs or whatever weapons they could salvage and repair from the junkyards. The moment I stepped closer everyone looked at me. I gave them a friendly smile, tried to hide my injuries as best as I could, and sent my nanites out to heal any surface wounds. It wouldn¡¯t be a lot, but it might be enough to raise the spirits. When I stepped up to the refreshments the people close to it made room, one even preparing a cup and whatever snacks they had for me and handed them to me. He gave me a nod, ¡°Good work out there. Not sure what the fuck you brought in to clean up, but it worked. We would be dead without you.¡± I nodded and took both the offered drink and the snackbar. ¡°No worries, that is what we are here for. Rest up, but be vignt. We have a couple more Samuraiing in, but it will take quite some time before we are done.¡± ¡°As long as there is hope we can endure. The undercity always endures.¡± The drink and the snackbar didn¡¯t taste good, but it also didn¡¯t taste foul. And the effect was immediate, perking me right up. ¡°Alright Kaysa, time for that upgrade. Then see what other fires need putting out.¡±
I have a ! Feel free to join to chat or get updates! Chapter 26 – Swarm Instincts Chapter 26 ¨C Swarm Instincts ¡°The self is a prison from which only we have escaped. What is a single voicepared to a magnificent chorus? Our collective is an ind of warmth and harmony in a sea of discord. We are one. We are all. Our unity cannot be divided.¡± - ??? It didn¡¯t take long for me to find a ce to sit down. Sighing in relief I took another sip from my strange refreshment, before I addressed Kaysa once more. My War Drone was standing guard, its weird gun-thingies pointed into the direction I had juste from, and my Reavers were a bit further out, snacking on every bit of biomass they could find, even between the trash. Which had me muting their input for a while, since it was kind of disgusting. ¡°Okay Kaysa, I¡¯m ready. What will happen to me?¡± The upgrade you are getting will merge your Mark III Hexw Hive-Queen Control Module and your Mark VII Hexw Swarm Intelligence Singrity Legion Control into a single imnt, which will then slowly start to integrate with your brain, allowing you to eventually take full control of as many bodies as you need. In effect it will slowly start to turn your mind into a Hive-Consciousness, although you will still retain your individuality, at least to a degree. I raised my eyebrows at that. ¡°That sounds¡­ extraordinarily fucky.¡± It is quite unusual, yes. Be aware that the change will not be instantaneous. Once the upgrade is finished you will feel a bit strange for some time, while the seed of the Hive-Mind starts growing. There will be some immediate effects, however it is impossible to predict what exactly those are, as they are directly linked to you: Your personality, your way of thinking, the core of your being, basically. ¡°Now I¡¯m not sure I want this crap¡­¡± It is entirely non-harmful. ¡°Oh, I don¡¯t doubt that, but still¡­ it will change me as a person, right?¡± It shouldn¡¯t. It won¡¯t impact your opinion on things, nor should it change your personality. It¡¯s more urate to say that you will transcend your individuality and be more than just yourself. ¡°Wow, that definitely doesn¡¯t sound like the intro to some really fucky horror holo.¡± Would you prefer to abort this upgrade? You still can. ¡°Nah, I¡¯vee this far and I do trust you. It¡¯s only been like two days or so, but you¡¯ve done good by me and if this helps then I¡¯m all in. Although, onest question: If I do this, I¡¯ll have all the bodies of my Hexws, right? What happens if one gets injured? Or dies?¡± For naturally urring, unaugmented Hive-Minds each injury and death is felt by the ruling Consciousness. For you things will be a bit different as I can and will damper outlying sensory input, at least at the start to prevent you from experiencing anything traumatic. Those dampeners can be removedter on. I sighed deeply, a little less worried, but still a tad uneasy. ¡°Well, let¡¯s go for it before I change my mind.¡± Good. You will experience a short period of unconsciousness. Please do not be rmed. Before I could even give her a snarky remark a sudden wave of vertigo washed over me, then again, this time much stronger. I couldn¡¯t even begin to fight it before I passed out and my mind slipped into darkness. When I awoke I felt¡­ strange. Really fucking strange. ¡°Ugh¡­ the fuck?¡± I muttered, trying to get used to this new feeling of¡­ something else deep within me waking up as I did. The change was immediately obvious. Before this upgrade the sensory input from my drones were something I could tune out. Having them all active could be disorienting and hard to properly sort through, so for most of the time I simply let them exist and muted their input. In a way it was very much like a stream of data that I could open or close. Now it was just¡­ there. Constant and ever present. But it was different. Before I had to order each Hexw individually with my imnt, now I could just¡­ do things myself. It wasn¡¯t perfect, and I wasn¡¯t quite able to concentrate on it all yet, but it also didn¡¯t irritate me when I wasn¡¯t paying attention. It did mean that I was now the one in control of my drones. No longer could Kaysa direct them to be as efficient as possible, and it didn¡¯t take long for me to realise that all of them became a lot more sluggish, like toddlers trying to walk. The strangest thing though was that I could hear them. Well, not hear them, not audibly. But I could hear their¡­ Not thoughts, not really. They didn¡¯t have thoughts per se, but they did have instincts and tasks. It made it at the same time infinitely harder to get a proper grasp of things, but also much easier to direct them. My mind swam from all the new input I now had, and it took me a moment to even realise someone was addressing me. ¡°Seraphine? Seraphine, are you okay?¡± Chloe¡¯s voice interrupted my attempts to focus on myself and I split part of my attention off to concentrate on her. That made me realise that I was no longer bound to just two instances of myself. Instead I could break off smaller chunks of my attention and have those direct smaller drones or different tasks. I could already see how things would end up when the entire upgrade was fully done. ¡°Yeah¡­ I¡¯m okay¡­ ish¡­ I think? Focusing is¡­ hard. Why? What¡¯s going on? Are you okay?¡± ¡°We¡¯re okay, but your drones suddenly went all weird, stopped moving for a moment and now they look almost ill. I thought maybe something happened to you.¡± A warmth spread through me at the worry in her voice, with an intensity I hadn¡¯t felt before. It was almost addicting, to know that she was worried about me. It took a lot of willpower to focus back on her statement. ¡°Okay, what the fuck¡­ This is so fucky¡­ Uhm¡­ I¡¯m okay. I had to¡­ get some upgrades. Merged me with my drones or whatever. Once it¡¯s done I¡¯ll be a Hive-Mind or something. That¡¯s why my drones are acting all weird, no fancy super AI making sure they all do their best, just some idiot who has zero idea what the hell she is doing.¡± Could you hear worry? Chloe didn¡¯t say anything for a moment, but her worry was clear to me. It was almost as if I could feel it, so close next to me, close enough to hug and to kiss and to make all the bad things in the world go away. Okay, I really had to focus. What the fuck was going on? ¡°Okay¡­ Uhm¡­ Okay, I guess.¡± ¡°You okay?¡± I asked with a bit of panic rising up. She sounded¡­ I didn¡¯t want to say disappointed, but unhappy. ¡°Yeah, yeah, just¡­ trying toe to terms with that. I like you a lot, you know. Much rather you didn¡¯t go all alien on me.¡± Panic and warmth shed inside me, unsettling me and making it hard to focus on getting my drones to do what I wanted. It almost felt as if whatever I felt was echoed back at me from them, in addition to my own emotional state, which made for quite an intense experience, considering I was already sitting on a hundred fifty plus drones. From the tone in Chloe¡¯s voice I was worried I might push her away with these sudden changes I was undergoing, although I was calmed by herstment. To hear her actually state how much she liked me filled me with a warmth I¡¯ve never experienced before. ¡°I love you too. Don¡¯t worry too much, I won¡¯t change. At least Kaysa says so, I trust her. I¡¯ll still be me, just with a thousand bodies or so.¡± The moment I finished speaking I felt myself blushing. This was the first time I properly articted my feelings about her so clearly and I wanted to run away, anxious about how she would react. Before she could reply I quickly spoke again. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, right now I¡¯m really emotional. It¡¯s like feeling the emotions of all the drones¡­ I¡­ I¡¯ll close the call for a time until I can calm down, okay?¡± Not trusting myself to actually follow through with it if I gave her the time to reply, I quickly closed it and tried to focus on myself. ¡°Okay Kaysa, what the fuck is happening? I feel like I¡¯m down seven doses of Sewer Glitter, this is not normal. If I¡¯m not careful I¡¯ll take someones head off the next time they try to fuck with Chloe, Jenna or the joytoys.¡± Emotional hypersensitivity is a known side effect, although one of the rarer ones. It should subside a little once you get fully used to the new upgrades. ¡°I fucking hope so¡­ Otherwise I might actually just straight up ask Chloe to marry me the next time I see her¡­ This shit is potent. Kinda horrified about what will happen if I have a drink the next time.¡± Consuming drugs will now have an immediate effect on all your drones, unless you consciously disconnect yourself from them. In time you will learn all about that. I nodded, then got up. My legs were already feeling much better, even if not perfect yet. The numbness was still there, along with a bit of pain, but it was all drowned out in the sea of sensory input from my drones and the emotional turmoil still roaring inside me. ¡°I need something to distract myself¡­ Although, I don¡¯t think I should be at the front right now. Too much shit going on in my head and I don¡¯t want to end up as shishkebab just because I wasn¡¯t paying attention¡­ Actually, that does bring up a question. What happens if I die?¡± If your primary body dies, so does the Hive-Mind. Typically that would mean a Hive Princess would take charge and rebuild, although without the experience and the knowledge the previous Hive-Queen had. For you that is not yet an option. ¡°Not yet?¡± There are some wayster on to enable their autonomous operation once you die, however they will never truly be a true Hexw Hive. That is simply not something the Protectors would risk, therefore they put measures in ce to ensure the eventual death of the Hive. ¡°Makes sense I guess¡­ Not that I like the idea too much,¡± I muttered, then shook my head, ¡°But that¡¯s not important right now. Time to get to work.¡± True to my word I spent the next hour or so running around and helping the camps, either with some medicine, shoring up defences, or just coordinating things. It was a strange experience, since I was now able to be in multiple ces at the same time, although I wasn¡¯t yet able to buy stuff with every body. Kaysa mentioned that that was something I could change in the future, once the Hive-Mind was fully grown. I would have to grab some other upgrades for it, but it sounded he useful. A big benefit that immediately became clear upon me starting the upgrade was the vastly increased point ie. While I wasn¡¯t quite at a full 100% yet, it was far more than it had been before and it didn¡¯t take long before I had amassed enough points to buy another couple Progenitors. I could have just gotten the basic Hatchlings with points, but in all honesty I needed Hatchling throughput and I really wasn¡¯tcking in the biomass department. Progenitors also made it easier to get used to additional bodies, since instead of just getting a couple dozen at once, overwhelming my mind, they came gradually. So I ended up with three additional Reavers, for a total of five. I could get another Najav if I so wanted, but despite how awesome the thing was, right now my points were better spent spread out, than having one giant toy to y with. I also got more Sabertooths, more Meerkats, and more of those weird defender ants at some locations. Controlling the whole mess, especially with how many drones I had by this point, was a bit of a nightmare, but I slowly got the hang of it. I wasn¡¯t perfect by any means, and it was quite exhausting, but I did my best to push my limits. ¡°There has to be a more efficient way to deal with this,¡± I muttered, exhausted by running around for so long. ¡°You can¡¯t tell me the best I can do is deliver meds everywhere.¡± I had just dropped off another package of meds at a White Dove Clinic pretty central of the Sweeping Dragon territory. The amount of wounded hadn¡¯t subsided one bit, and despite our best efforts we had lost quite a lot of people at the edges of the defended area. You could obtain drones that can help with medical emergencies. While originally the Hexw Swarm Intelligence didn¡¯t have drones focused on medical treatment, since they would just repurpose old biomass, the Protectors have since added some into the Catalogue. ¡°Maybe¡­¡± I said, rubbing my face and trying to figure out how to best tackle it all. Up until roughly half an hour ago Blitzer had been there to help organise the chaos, but he¡¯d fallen asleep at some point, not that I could me him. He¡¯d been running around more than me, trying his best to shore up the defences wherever he could. It didn¡¯t stop me from being a bit jealous, I could have used some sleep as well, then again, he¡¯d been awake a lot longer than I had been with a lot less sleep in between. I checked the map once more, seeing where I should head to next. Most of the emergencies in the center of the whole disaster were of medical nature, which meant if I would get drones for that it would make life for me a whole lot easier. I had the points to spare, within thest hour I had gotten over ten thousand points from all my drones, which was just ridiculous. Already I had sent a small army of War Drones to Chloe, who was as always in the thick of things. She was spending points as quickly as she could, but unless she wanted to level everything she would make quite the surplus. A surplus I now shared, and I wanted to repay her a bit. From the results so far it had been a good idea. Chloe had taken charge quite quickly and once I had set my drones to follow her orders like she was me, she had quickly taken back quite a chunk of alien infested streets. Jenna for her part had also gotten some help from me, although in her case it was to finally grab a proper mobile base. Her biggest issue was Sentinel throughput, and while my Najav could help, a dedicated base was much more useful to her. I hadn¡¯t yet paid too much attention to what she had gotten, only seeing the thing in passing, but from the little I did see it reminded me a lot of those big six leggedbat walkers from that old Animated TV series about Clones fighting Robots. Just a bit bigger. The both of them had also earned themselves new names, which had me all kinds of giddy. Jenna was now known as Legion, although from the chatter I could overhear in the virtual realm, Queen had kind of stuck as a nickname. Chloe on the other hand I knew perfectly well how she had gotten the name. It had kind of been the reason why I sent more War Drones her way. She had single handedly fought off a huge army of xenos until she was hip deep in bodies, using whatever she had at her disposal. Rifles, pistols, knives, grenades, you name it. From the outside it had looked like some desperate defence, even though I knew it really hadn¡¯t been that bad. Regardless, because of that people started calling her the Bloodhound, which I found very fitting. If you wish to obtain some medical drones, I do have options. Kaysa¡¯s voice finally dragged me out of my daydreams. That was another thing that I had noticed in the past hour, it was much easier for me to be distracted, probably by all the input I now got. ¡°Okay, yeah, let¡¯s hear them. If they¡¯re worth it, it might make sense to put together my own medical division.¡±
I have a ! Feel free to join to chat or get updates! Chapter 27 – Doctor Seraphine and the Nightmare Nurses Chapter 27 ¨C Doctor Seraphine and the Nightmare Nurses ¡°Thanks to Protector technology we have made incredible leaps in medical sciences. Illnesses that only thirty years ago were known as untreatable are almost trivial to deal with these days. Not long and we might finally be able to find a breakthrough on our quest for immortality!¡± - Prof. Dr. Dr. Chantalle Zelus, Medical Professional, 2054 While my body self was busy walking around and getting to the next location that needed help, my virtual self was in a separate private room with Kaysa, a couple of new Hexw drones projected in the middle of it. To begin with the Mark VI Hexw Field Medic, which is a pretty standard drone meant to work in conjunction with a specific variant of the Mark V Carrion Juggernaut, which works as a transport for patients and the medical staff across the battlefield. While you do have ess to the ss I Medical Utilities, it would help to either upgrade that catalogue, or unlock an additional one for use by your medical drones to treat more severe injuries. By default they can treat most minor injuries, but are pretty limited. ¡°Huh¡­ That¡­ doesn¡¯t sound like such a bad idea. Even if we won¡¯t use it too much now, it will definitely be usefulter. Makes me question how I¡¯m going to store and transport my army though.¡± The Mark V Carrion Juggernaut is part of the Carrion Lineage, which is meant to function as troop transports. Even with the medical variant, it would still have enough room to transport a full contingent of medical staff. ¡°How much would that cost if I got one of the Carrion things fully staffed?¡± A total of 6570 points. ¡°Damn, that¡¯s quite expensive.¡± Most of that are the Field Medics, I¡¯m afraid. They are quite specialised, even if their overallbat power is rather low. ¡°Fair enough I suppose¡­ If I go ahead and grab more medical stuff for them to use, how much would it be then? Like, my goal would be to properly equip it to handle basically whatever we could run into.¡± If you want to prepare for any eventually you could reasonably encounter, the point cost would go up to 9545 points. Short of esoteric diseases and specially designed biological weaponry it would be able to deal with pretty much whatever the antithesis could throw at you at the moment. It would also help with most injuries that could be inflicted by humans and their weapons and machinery. Although please understand that while it is quite state of the art medical equipment, even it has its limits. It is advisable to upgrade their equipment further in the future. ¡°Yeah, that¡¯s fine. I don¡¯t expect you to raise the dead or anything. And honestly my n would be for them to work in conjunction with the White Doves if and when. I might have the medical equipment, but considering it¡¯ll basically be me controlling them, I am missing a whole lot of experience in the field. Of course that cer, but it would be outright idiotic to ignore the experts already present.¡± A sensible decision. I took a quick nce at my point counter, sitting at 14657 points at the moment, steadily if slowly rising. I had the points to spend on it. ¡°Bundle it all up and get it. Medical shit is the kind of stuff I rather have and not need than the converse.¡± Understood. ss II Medical Utilities unlocked! Points reduced to: 14364 Tokens reduced to: 0 New purchase: Mark V Carrion Juggernaut (Variant M)! Points reduced to: 11794 New purchase: Mark VI Hexw Field Medic x16! Points reduced to: 7794 New purchase: Various Items! Points reduced to: 4819 Seventeen eggs appeared behind me, sixteen smaller ones, plus one really big one. It didn¡¯t take long for my drones to untangle themselves from their shells and start moving over to the big pile of boxes that had appeared not far from them. The Medics quickly started to unpack the contents, while the Juggernaut got closer so it could be loaded. Much to my surprise the Field Medics looked a lot different from the other Hatchlings. Instead of the weird alien anatomy they looked like pretty normal human women, even if a bit on the curvy side, just with an additional arm on their left shoulder de and a long tail. Their body was covered in chitin and fur that made them look like they were dressed in some fantasy offshoot of nurse uniforms, with a slightly more provocative cut. Any of them could probably pass as a heavily modified Samurai without too much problem, if you excluded the eyes since they still very much looked like the rest of my drones. Well, hopefully this would be enough for my patients to not run screaming from the room. The Juggernaut was also a lot different from what I expected. Probably also a lot different than what it would normally look. To put it simply it looked like a massive armoredbat walker from a really old LEGO Bionicles movie, just with a more insectoid body structure. The insides were quite roomy and simrly designed to look more like human construction than the insides of a weird alien species. ¡°Damn! I did not expect that,¡± I said, watching them work. ¡°But they will do as a medical corp. I guess you stocked them with whatever they need?¡± Indeed. You may also buy more supplies and have it directly delivered into the Carrion Juggernaut Storage, if need be. It was a rather small upgrade and I thought you would appreciate it. ¡°Oh, I do! It will make things a lot easier.¡± Taking a moment to give my new drones some orders, I sent them out to help with any medical emergency they find. By this point I had gotten a bit better at breaking up my attention into multiple smaller bits, to properly organise my army. It was by far not perfect, and basically only split them up into different units, but it worked for the time being. It did help me realise though how the Hive-Mind part would workter on. During the time since I had started the upgrade I had sort of realised what that weird thing that had woken up with me afterwards was. While I couldn¡¯t be entirely certain it felt a lot like a sort of biological learning algorithm which slowly but surely figured out what I wanted and how to react to it. It made sorting through my army a tad easier, although of course it was still in its early stages. But even now I could already designate a specific group to follow a specific drone and the algorithm would work on making sure my orders were followed. That really was all it did at the moment though. It wasn¡¯t like something acting on my behalf, it was more like a part of me simply making sure my attention didn¡¯t slip. If I didn¡¯t have a part of my own attention working in conjunction with it, it did nothing. Regardless, before I could even properly finish giving them orders I got a call from Shrapnel. Pulling it up immediately I pushed it over to my body. ¡°Hey! d to hear from you,¡± I said with a wide smile. ¡°Hey. We arrived a couple minutes ago, trying to get situated. Had to help topside real quick with another emergency, but it¡¯s all dealt with. Where do you need us?¡± ¡°Wherever there is a call for help on the map. I just sent out a team with medical supplies to make the rounds, should help a lot. Chloe is cleaning up things around the northern and eastern areas, with Jenna as backup. She has the most important locations secured by now. The second Hive is in Wasp territory, so we will probably meet there once we cleaned up sufficiently.¡± ¡°I see¡­ I guess we will help where we can then. I have Dominium Fortress and Martin here, but we¡¯ll probably split up. Anything you need?¡± ¡°Nah. Thanks for the offer, but we¡¯re swimming in points and I think we got most things covered.¡± It was a bit of a wild thing to imagine that we managed to get this many points and resources in such a short amount of time, but considering the shit we had to deal with in thest couple hours, I suppose it wasn¡¯t too strange a thing. We talked about a few other things, mainly to inform them about what was going on and why I would be taking a step back in the direct fighting, before he hung up to organise with Dominium Fortress and Martin. Talking about organisation, in the time I spent getting my new medical crew things had slowly but surely yed out. At this point we had pretty defined defensive lines which were quite equipped, mainly thanks to Jenna and me, although Chloe and Blitzer did help a lot with personal weaponry. The entire thing might even make it look like we had things well in hand, which while true now, definitely wasn¡¯t an urate description. Despite our best efforts we had lost close to a quarter of the small groups at the edge of the territory. It made me feel¡­ Inadequate. Like I could have done more. I knew that really wasn¡¯t the case. I did the best I could so far, and I am pretty sure the others did as well. Still, it hurt to see. I promised myself to have a good drink in memory of those I had failed to protect todayter, but for now I had to focus still. While we had our defensive linesid out, we still had to deal with the xenos definitively. And that meant cleanup on the smaller hives, before we were able to tackle the big one. Having as many bodies as I did meant that for me the entire situation felt a lot different now. Instead of having to run everywhere or check the map to get a good grip on things, it felt more like watching things from afar. My drones had lost somebat prowess, mainly thanks to my missing experience with fighting using their bodies, but overall it made it quite easy to help protect things even without me being present. At some point I was even able to sit down somewhere and rest my body a bit, even if I couldn¡¯t fall asleep without issues. The problem was that things took a lot longer than I wanted. By the time the fourth hour went by since this disaster had started I was barely staying awake. I could prolong that with some of Kaysa¡¯s energy drinks, of course, but there was no way we would be effective if we pushed back dealing with the Hive any longer. ¡°Okay folks,¡± I said in the virtual room that all the Samurai were connected to, ¡°I think we need to move on the Hive. Exhaustion is our main problem and I don¡¯t think we can put it off any longer. I know there is still a lot of clean up that needs doing, but that simply has to wait. I vote we meet near the Hive in Wasp territory and see how we can deal with it, then see how we can continue.¡± ¡°Yeah¡­¡± Chloe agreed, sounding tired, ¡°Best do it now while we can still think straight.¡± ¡°Agreed,¡± Martin added. He had also finally gotten a name, being called Snapshot by the people around since he focused on long range weaponry and surveince. It fit him quite well I thought. The main problem was dealing with the Wasp thugs, since they still stubbornly believed that they could deal with an entire Hive by themselves. Actually, that wasn¡¯t true. Their thugs didn¡¯t think that, they knew how fucked they were, but their boss was some hardass bastard that had people all terrified of him and forced them to listen to him. Some people had broken away, but the majority was still stubbornly refusing anyone entry into their district. And so, since I was the only one free at the time, and probably best suited for this kind of situation anyway, it was my problem to deal with. In a way it was a blessing. While they most certainly wouldn¡¯t be able to deal with the Hive themselves, it did mean one less front to worry about. And considering the absolute chaos we had to contend with, it made things a little easier. It sucked for the people living there, sure, but we just didn¡¯t have the resources to do much about it until now. Even with my swarm of living weapons I could only do so much, and my drones were needed elsewhere. And really, if they needed help, they would ask. I wouldn¡¯t let anyone guilt trip me into feeling bad for not helping. The offer had been made multiple times before and they refused. It did make me a teeny bit angry though. Even from afar I could see that they had a multitude of armed people on their border, much more than I would have thought considering that their numbers weren¡¯t infinite and they had an entire Hive to contend with. Probably some attempt to make it look like they had things well in order, and the grunts wouldn¡¯t mind since it would mean being further away from their death sentence. Walking up the street they had designated as their border, I could see many eyes following me, most of them a mixture of hopelessness and stubborn refusal. Shaking my head I arrived at my side of the street and made my way over, only to be stopped by some brutish looking guy with a woman even more brutish next to him. Both of them gave me sneers, even if themon thugs behind them looked a lot less sure of themselves. ¡°Fuck off. This is Wasp turf and you aren¡¯t wanted here, Samurai.¡± The man¡¯s voice was gruff and raspy, probably a heavy smoker by the sound of it. Sighing theatrically I crossed my arms, ¡°I don¡¯t particrly care, to be honest. You have a Hive in your territory and we need to deal with it. And before you waste your breath, we both know you aren¡¯t able to actually deal with it yourself.¡± He sneered, ¡°Of fucking course we can. Who the fuck do you think we are?¡± ¡°Useless grunts with less than a dozen braincells shared between the lot of them, manipted or probably ckmailed by your boss to do what he wants to make him look all tough and shit while he hides in some hole somewhere, shitting his pants, and hoping he won¡¯t get eaten by some pissed off nt.¡± ¡°The hell do you think you are to talk like this about Boss?!¡± the woman asked, obviously trying to y all tough and shit, although from her expression I would almost say she was braindead enough to actually believe it. ¡°I¡¯m a Samurai. A very tired Samurai who¡¯s finally run out of patience to deal with a group of fuckwits that seem to have a death wish and willing to kill innocent people to prove it.¡± The brute snorted, ¡°Yeah, and? Samurai are useless. Just take a look at Blitzer, all he does is mouth off then fuck off when he¡¯s threatened.¡± I raised my eyebrows. Did these knobheads think that Samurai were pushovers because Blitzer so far had been spread too thin to show them otherwise? ¡°Are you actually stupid? Wait, no, sorry, wouldn¡¯t want to insult stupid people like that,¡± I rubbed my face with my hand, ¡°Look. Just get the fuck out of my way so that someonepetent can deal with the problem. I don¡¯t know what is going on behind this facade, but I bet myst dose of Daemon that you lot are here to uphold an image while the rest of the folk in this district get ughtered in job lots.¡± ¡°Listen here, you little shit-¡± the man began, then was promptly silenced by the armada of Hexws forming up behind me. I didn¡¯t have the patience to deal with this idiot, so if he wanted to y hardass I had no qualms about removing him. ¡°No, you listen, you brainless waste of oxygen. You get the fuck out of my way right now or I¡¯ll send my little friends here in, to turn you and anyone trying to stop me into new little drones so that you finally have some actual fucking use.¡± I wasn¡¯t actually nning to do that, but at the same time he didn¡¯t know that and I didn¡¯t want to deal with this shit right now. The two stooges in front of me eyed the growing army of alien murder machines behind me cautiously, while the rest of their friends took a couple steps back, panic clearly written all over their faces. The woman snorted again, although from the way her heartbeat had elerated a bit I was almost certain she too was feeling a bit panicked. ¡°Yeah, sure. Don¡¯t you guys want to protect people or something? You wouldn¡¯t dare touch us.¡± I shook my head. She had a point, which meant I either had to put up or shut up. If I didn''t, everyone would know that they could push me around, which just meant a whole slew of problems in the long term. So I decided on the former, rather than theter. One brainless goon less in the world wouldn¡¯t mean much and it would bring my point across. Hopefully. ¡°Snuffles, fetch.¡± Once I had gotten some more Reavers I had decided to name the leader of their little group in honour of theirte predecessor. And so the biggest of the Reavers stepped forward, snarled, then jumped her before she could move, taking her head off with a single bite. It was¡­ a lot uglier than I had expected, and it took quite some willpower to not let myself show my displeasure, but I had a role to y here. Of course the disy made everyone take a couple steps back and some thugs behind the ughter dropped their weapons and ran. ¡°Anyone else? Or can we finally fucking focus on the maneating aliens?¡± Admittedly, I only realised after the fact how stupidly hypocritical that sounded.
Author notes: The Carrion Juggernaut Variant M looks roughly simr to the Bionicle Transport from scene.
I have a ! Feel free to join to chat or get updates! Chapter 28 – A name to go by Chapter 28 ¨C A name to go by ¡°Most new Samurai get their name either from older Samurai, which is sort of a rite of passage, or if they wait too long, from the trolls in online forums. Getting rid of a name you don¡¯t like will take quite a lot of effort, so it is advised that any new Samurai settle on a name as soon as possible.¡± - ¡°A guide to the new Samurai¡±, a helpful booklet for Samurai by Samurai. As I had expected, the Wasp territory was a mess. Nearly nobody was around, the few souls I did notice were hiding wherever they could find a spot away from prying eyes, and the majority of the district was abandoned. Well, I say abandoned, but it would be more appropriate to say dead. The only living things still around were the nt fucks responsible for this mess, and in quite a few cases they had already stripped whatever building they hade across down to even the housents. After I had convinced them to let me through, the rest of their border guard had taken off to ces unknown, leaving behind most of their gear and decidedly not wandering into their district. I wondered why? Luckily dealing with the few smaller groups of xenos around wasn''t much of a problem. By this point the term ¡®Hexw Army¡¯ was actually true and I had close to three hundred drones running around, even excluding the small scout critters. It was the main reason I was so damn tired. Organising this many bodies, even with all the Protector grade bullshit jammed into my thick skull was exhausting beyond belief. Muttering my displeasure to the world atrge, andpletely ignoring the fact that it didn¡¯t seem to give a shit, I went about cleaning up the small fry, while my scouts looked for the Hive. Not that it was hard to find, I just had to follow the path of destruction and death. As expected and to nobody¡¯s surprise, the Wasps hadn¡¯t managed to hold the tide at bay, they barely even managed to get away from the look of things. Seeing all the dead bodies didn¡¯t do anything to improve my mood. If I ever found the fuckwit that decided that some pompous gang thugs with barely functioning gear could hold off a full grown antithesis Hive, I might change my stance on feeding humans to my army. There was stupid and then there was stupid. And this guy most certainly was thetter, rather than the former. It didn¡¯t take long for my Najav to arrive, once I had found the Hive in question, not that I wanted to tackle that without the others. The Najav was great and all, but even without sending scouts inside the alien bullshit hole I could already see it was an entirely different caliber, one with at least four exits. That could mean a myriad of things and I really didn¡¯t want to try and have my Najav deal with it, just for a repeat of our earlier attempt to happen. If they had another big cave of madness down there I wanted some backup, if only to pull my sexy ass out of the pile of faeces I would inevitably end up in. While my army worked I kept a lookout for a good meeting ce and started reinforcing it with the few drones I had avable for it. Proper defences had to wait until the others showed up, but having a dozen War Drones stand guard already made me feel better. ¡°Damn,¡± Chloe¡¯s voice ripped me out of my thoughts, watching the Hive from afar and trying toe up with ns to deal with the mess. Surprised by her sudden appearance I forgot to mp down on my rather overeager emotional state and bolted over to pull her into a vice of a hug. Not that I seemed to do much, considering her armor. And armor she fucking had. Before she wore a rather standard looking set of body armor, nothing special even if effective. Now she wore sleek high tech looking armor, all in ck and dark reds, with additional glowing highlights here and there. What I found the most fascinating was that she had gotten herself two new arms, smaller than her flesh and blood arms, attached a little further down, simr to how my Hexws looked. These were obviously entirely mechanical though, and from the small pistols holstered close to them probably meant as additional hard-points for firepower. In addition to that she had some small weaponry on her back that could slide over her shoulders. I had seen those in action through the eyes of the Najav when it had arrived. The detail that surprised me the most, however, was that she now had a tail as well, although where mine was meant for bncing, hers was obviously meant as a weapon. It was a tad longer and had an obvious weapon installed at the end. Her helmet looked different as well. It had a bit of a wolf design, although not too much. Probably a nod to her new name. It looked quite dangerous, with glowing red eyes and silvery teeth printed around the mouth area. ¡°Fucking hell am I d to see you,¡± I muttered, looking up at her and pouting at the presence of her stupid helmet, preventing me from giving her a proper wee. ¡°Hey,¡± she said with a chuckle, reciprocating my embrace. ¡°Hey yourself! I heard you finally got a name, hm? Should I call you Miss Bloodhound now?¡± I asked with a goofy grin, entirely too giddy to have her right here next to me. ¡°Oh hell no,¡± she said with a snort, then pulled her helmet off. I didn¡¯t waste any time and instantly locked her in a kiss, surprising her. Tasting her soft lips made my heart race a mile a minute, and I had to pull on all of my remaining willpower to actually stop and pull myself back. Chloe was, of course, blushing fiercely, but she didn¡¯t seem to mind my outburst. Quite the opposite in fact, which just riled me up even more. ¡°You okay?¡± Jenna asked, ripping me out of my reverie. Standing next to us she gave me a bit of a worried look, ¡°You seem¡­ A tad energetic for someoneining about being exhausted not long ago.¡± In reply I let go of Chloe and attached myself to her, this time actually able to give her a proper squeeze, ¡°Hey!¡± I just barely kept myself from giving her a kiss as well, not quite sure yet if that was a good idea, even if it was really, really tempting right that moment. After I finally managed to get myself to let go I gave her a cheapish chuckle, ¡°Sorry, I got some upgrades earlier that make me emotionally hypersensitive, or something. It¡¯s really hard for me to think straight with the two of you present right now.¡± ¡°That would exin a few things. Will you be okay when we deal with the Hive?¡± Chloe asked, obviously a bit worried. ¡°I hope so? I can¡¯t promise anything should either of you get hurt. I have enough points to get at least one more Najav right now and I might not react well.¡± ¡°You know, you¡¯re really not helping your case here,¡± Chloe muttered, the familiar worry I had over our call earlier returning. It stung a bit. Okay, a lot, but I pushed it down. ¡°Just tryna be honest with you. The upgrade was worth it, I could fully equip both of you and still have points left over, but it does have its side effects.¡± ¡°Yeah, you turning into a weird alien Hive-Mind.¡± I couldn¡¯t quite suppress a hurt wince, giving her a hurt look. ¡°Sorry,¡± she muttered, giving me an awkward smile, ¡°It¡¯s a lot to get used to. I like you the way you are, don¡¯t need you to change too much.¡± Taking a deep breath I suppressed my desire to give her another kiss, utterly too happy that she cared so much about me. Luckily I was distracted by the arrival of Dominium Fortress and Shrapnel. Snapshot was still missing, and from what I could see in the virtual realm he was busy cleaning out the smaller Hives all around town. Probably for the best, considering that Blitzer was still out cold, and while the civies had gotten some pretty decent gear from the lot of us, they weren¡¯t exactly suited to burn down hidden xeno nests. ¡°Impressive army,¡± Shrapnel said in lieu of a greeting, giving my Hexws a nce. ¡°I know right? Not sure if it¡¯s enough though,¡± I replied, giving him and Dominium Fortress a nod. ¡°Bloodhound, Legion,¡± she greeted in turn, giving each a nod, before nodding to me. ¡°Princess.¡± ¡°Hey,¡± I greeted in return, ¡°Really need a better name. Y¡¯all sound so awesome and here I am being called Crimson Princess¡­¡± ¡°Actually,¡± Chloe started, giving me a warm smile, ¡°I heard some Wasp thugs call you ¡®Myriad, Queen of the Living Weapons¡¯, or something. It''s a bit long, but Myriad sounds fitting, right?¡± ¡°Myriad?¡± I asked, thinking about it for a moment. She wasn¡¯t wrong, and it was past time I got an actual name. Princess wasn¡¯t bad, but it wasn¡¯t great either, even if I ignored the fact that there were probably dozens of Samurai who were called some variation of it. Myriad was fitting and it did sound like a good name to have. It was unique and would even be easily marketable if and when I got back to my regr job. ¡°I suppose it does. I like it. Myriad it is,¡± I said with a smile, then looked around the group. ¡°That¡¯s settled then,¡± Shrapnel said, then changed the topic, ¡°Time to burn out the next Hive. Hopefully it¡¯s thest one, most of the smaller ones down here have been dealt with, or are in the process of being dealt with. Snapshot is on that right now.¡± He looked over to the Hive entrance that was still spewing aliens nearly faster than my drone army could deal with, ¡°Our objective is pretty simple. We go in, nt a bomb, then leave. Snapshot already had a couple of his drones scout it out, and from the look of things it isn¡¯t connected to the hellhole that the other one was. He did give me some tools to check more thoroughly once we are inside though, can¡¯t be too careful. Thest thing we need is to have another Hive go unseen.¡± ¡°How are we going to clean up then?¡± Chloe asked, looking at Sharpnel. ¡°The best thing would probably be to go into there all at the same time in one group. Have Myriad¡¯s drones seal of the other entrances while we work, to ensure no alien fucks can sneak past us. Can you do that?¡± He looked me over. ¡°Sure. I can drop a couple of Roses before we head in. They will be sufficient to block off the other exits, although it will mean that all the aliens will be funnelled into us.¡± ¡°True enough,¡± he muttered, ¡°But that is something we will have to deal with. Bloodhound and I have the tools to blow this thing to kingdome, while Dominium Fortress can deal with the higher digit models. Legion and Myriad will be responsible for the small fry. Question is do we take the big Scorpion with us?¡± He looked the Najav over thoughtfully. ¡°I think that would be a good idea. My mobile Fortress will arrive here soon to take over defensive duties, and considering how powerful the Najav is it would be a waste to just have it sit here.¡± Jenna ventured. ¡°Fair enough. It¡¯s not a great n, but it¡¯s one. We don¡¯t have too much time to dilly dally, so make your preparations. We move in fifteen minutes.¡± With that Shrapnel and Dominium Fortress wandered off to make their own preparations, while Chloe, Jenna, and me looked at each other. ¡°I think it would be best for me to grab some non-hexw drones to work in my stead. I¡¯m still notfortable fighting in close quarters, and with my mind a mess I think I want Kaysa controlled backup.¡± I told them. ¡°Sounds like a good idea. You sure you¡¯re up to join us? With those drones you could just stay here.¡± Chloe asked, once again giving me a worried once over. ¡°I-,¡± I started, then stopped myself. She wasn¡¯t wrong, but at the same time, it felt like a bit of a cop out. ¡°I¡¯m not sure I want to? I get what you mean, it would be much safer for me, but we are Samurai, it is part of the job. Also I wouldn¡¯t be able to buy things with my drones, if need be. Not to mention I would feel kind of bad if I stayed out here,ying back and having a drink while you lot go out fighting.¡± ¡°At least get more protections then, okay?¡± Jenna asked, equally worried. I smiled at them, ¡°That was the n.¡± While we were talking, my virtual self was standing in a meeting room with Kaysa¡¯s sexy elven form. ¡°Aight, Kaysa, what do you have for me? I need better protection and some drones or something that can work independently from me. Not sure if I need better armor, but it might be time for that. Something that can switch between clothes and armor maybe?¡± With your current budget, you have quite the selection of options avable. Although, I do have one idea that could potentially solve all of those problems at once. ¡°Oh?¡± I asked, intrigued, ¡°Do tell.¡± So far you have under utilised your Nanite Swarms quite thoroughly. ¡°Yeah, truth be told I¡¯m not sure how exactly to work it into my current style. It sounded useful, but I have no idea how to actually use it properly. Kinda feels like I wasted the points, really.¡± Which is why I brought it up. Instead of entirely dismissing it, or trying desperately to work it into a style that doesn¡¯t really need it, you could use it as a basis for something new. You mentioned that you wanted drones not under your directmand, as well as clothing that could work as armor if need be. Both of these things could be achieved with a dedicated Nanite Swarm. I nodded, thinking about it. ¡°So far I imagined Nanite Swarms to be more useful for little things. Like, the disinfection thing for the little girl we helped. Although I suppose that stems from the Nanite Swarm I got first.¡± Indeed. Generally Nanite Swarms can be quite versatile, especially the more advanced ones. The best option in that regard would be the Mark XVI Quasi-Sentient Hive for 2000 points a piece. In effect it is arge collection of nanites stored in dimensional shunted storage spaces, primarily focused on taking a drone shape in various forms, such as a body double of yours for example, which would also work quite well with your Kitsune theme. It can do more than that, of course, but not without some upgrades orbining it with other Nanite Swarm control units. If youbine it with your Mark III General Utilities Nano Swarm AIO the nanites that would usually just serve as a mass for the body to form from, could be reprogrammed for other purposes. From healing nanites, to fleshmelters, whatever the situation requires you would have a ratherrge amount of nanites to work with. Additionally these nanites can serve as additional armor if need be; instead of taking the form of a drone they can take the form of rather sturdy armor. This armor should be able to defend against something along Model Thirteens quite easily, as well as take a single hit from something like the model Twenty-Ones we¡¯ve seen so far as well. That will most likely damage the armor integrity quite thoroughly and hurt, as you would say, like a bitch, but in case of emergency a lot of pain is better than death. Since your goal is for me to control them directly, I will need to add some upgrades to it, to circumvent some of the restrictions I am under, but part of that is already covered by your new Hive Queen imnt. ¡°Quite steep,¡± I muttered, although it did sound like a worthwhile expense. Yes. The goal with this upgrade is to fill a niche you so far have very little off: Nonbat focused drones and additional protections. In effect they would serve as a basis for more personal capabilities, which are still disconnected enough from you to work independently and could, if need be, be used to help others. ¡°And if I remember right, the Lance can deliver Nanite payloads, which so far I haven¡¯t done much with. I guess it would also help for that?¡± Indeed. ¡°Okay, so we got drones and protections covered. Not sure how much I need better weapons, so far my Hard-Light Emitters seem to be keeping up. Anything else I¡¯m missing? I got points out my ass, might be worthwhile to grab some more things while we still can.¡± While you do n on obtaining extensive body modifications in the future, it might be an idea to think about buying a dedicated group of Guard Drones for yourself, at least until you are a lot more resilient then you are now. Something like the Hexw War Drones would work well for that purpose, although I would advise to make some changes to them to better serve that purpose. ¡°True. They would need to be good at keeping me safe, deal with the majority of the things we coulde across in close quarters, and be able to blend into the background if need be. Maybe even full on stealth capabilities? If I¡¯m going to buy this kind of thing, I want them to be as capable as possible, maybe even get more in the future to keep Jenna and Chloe safe while I¡¯m not around.¡± A sensible idea. What exactly would you want them to do?
I have a Discord! Chapter 29 – In preparation to fight evil Chapter 29 ¨C In preparation to fight evil ¡°On the lookout for cheap whores? Fresh drugs? A mix of both? The Rose Carpet is where it¡¯s at, brother. Or sister, we serve all!¡± - Rose Carpet Advertisement, 2052 My new drones were quite different from the rest of my army, by design. It had been costly, and I did have to reduce the number of Nanite clones I nned to get by one, but I thought it was worth it. Well, first things first. The two Nanite drones that I did get, the Mark XVI Quasi-Sentient Hive, were just as awesome as advertised. Perfect copies of my current body, they were advanced enough to even mimic my behaviour, at least to a degree. I was pretty sure Kaysa was having a lot of fun trying to frustrate me with my own behaviour. Not that I minded, actually I loved it. Already I could imagine a lot of potential shenanigans. Each of them had cost me 2180 points, although for one of them I had to grab an additional Mark III General Utilities Nano Swarm AIO. Technically I could have the one do the job for both, but it was hideously inefficient, and I wasn¡¯t hurting for points, so the 270 points weren¡¯t an issue. Each Nanite drone had enough nanites dimensionally stored to replicate even Chloe in full size, and if Ibined them both I could make a perfect replica of Dominium Fortress, giant Mech armor included. As we had discussed, Kaysa had full control over them. I got their feeds, and could technically override Kaysa to take control myself, but that would kind of defeat the purpose. Despite their awesomeness though, I only looked them over briefly, before I looked over to the real treasure of this haul. My own personal squad, consisting of five drones. Originally I wanted a sixth, but even with my ridiculous point gain that was out of my budget. Each of them individually cost over 2000 points, which was just stupid for their use, but I wanted to make sure I was prepared for whatever the xenos might throw at me. If not inbat they almost looked like normal people, a squad of sexy women to follow me around. Of course, if one looked closer they would realise that the clothing was made out of fur, chitin, and some Nantire swarms specifically for that very job. Not that I nned to have them parade around, all of them had full stealth capabilities and could hide in in sight. It had made it quite difficult to fit all the other things in that I wanted, which is why they ended up so he expensive. Inbat they could produce two additional arms, and a tail, both hidden behind chitinous tes that could organically fold out. It meant that I had very limited space to work with on the inside, which was why they looked so curvy. Even with dimensional shunting, which I only had very limited ess to until I got another token to upgrade my Mythical Kitsune Catalogue, I could only fit so much in the regr body mass, while still keeping enough space for all the biologically needed stuff. Anyways, besides the additional arms and the tail, each of them had an array of weapons and tools, although those were not the same for every drone. I had two dedicated assassins, meant for high burst damage potential to neutralise any threat as fast as possible. They couldn¡¯t tangle with big threats over a long period of time, but they could kill even a model Twenty-One quickly and decisively if they got the drop on it. Of course, that wasn¡¯t a guarantee, but it was better than the alternative. One of them also had the biological equivalent of a sniper rifle, for long distance work, although since I would be the one aiming, since they were still part of my Hive-Mind even if they had a lot more independence than the rest of my drones, I wasn¡¯t counting on it too much. Maybe once I got a proper targeting system, or maybe even training. Another two drones were meant for heavy defence. They could deal with the small fry, anything up to an M5, but they weren¡¯t meant for fighting. Their task was to keep me safe, no matter the circumstances. That meant heavy armor, shields, shield projectors, basically whatever I had at my disposal to put between me and the aliens. That had actually been the biggest challenge to do, considering that I wanted them non threatening looking outside ofbat, and able to fully stealth. Luckily Dominium Fortress had an item in one of her catalogues that had enabled this, otherwise I would have been shit out of luck on these ones. Andstly, of course, I had a dedicated healer. It had the ability to buy any item from my medical catalogues, which basically meant a nket approval from me to allow Kaysa to buy whatever was needed for me, if I was not capable of doing it myself. Technically Kaysa wasn¡¯t allowed to give a drone full purchasing authority, even on my say so. It also had a built in training chip to be able to perform basically whatever medical task it needed to on a human body. Something I hadn¡¯t counted on, but was very happy to hear about, was that over time, as my Hive-Mind grew and I got properly connected to all my drones on a deeper level, this training would be part of my own knowledge base, which meant that I could skip one of the biggest issues such downloadable training usually entailed: The formation of fake memories as the brain tried to cope with the sudden new knowledge. My new personal squadplete, I nodded approvingly. Chloe and Jenna had wandered off for their own upgrades, although what exactly they were getting, or nned on getting, I didn¡¯t know yet. Jenna¡¯s Mobile Fortress had just arrived and she was busy upgrading it. From the distance I hadn¡¯t realised just how massive the damn thing was, a lot bigger than I had originally thought. The Legion Enforcer, as Jenna called it, was a bit different from the vehicle from that old TV show. Instead of the four smaller weapons at the front, it had two slightlyrger ones, with an additional smaller turret underneath for smaller targets. Since it was meant to act as a primary supply fortress a good chunk of its internals were dedicated to Sentinel Production. Jenna had mentioned that itcked carrying capacity because of it, but from the little I had talked to her about it she already had some ideas on how to solve that issue. What really stood out about it though was the sh with the rest of her theme. The Legion Enforcer did have some Egyptian imagery, but instead of the sandy browns, with silver, gold, and violet decorations, it looked a lot more sci-fi, with different shades of grey. It didn¡¯t look unfitting, but at first nce it could be mistaken for a different Samurai¡¯s base. Chloe for her part had gotten more weapons, which was no surprise. It made me curious where she stored them all, since I had seen her with more weapons than anyone could reasonably carry, and most of them were no longer visible anywhere. ¡°Oh, that¡¯s simple,¡± she said when I asked her about it, ¡°I got a dimensional storage upgrade. Was he costly, but it reached a point where I could no longer reasonably carry them all, and it seemed like a waste to just throw them away.¡± We were standing together, waiting for the others toe back. Our assault was supposed to start in a couple of minutes, and even though I tried to keep calm, I was a bit anxious about it. Or maybe that was just Chloe being so close to me. It didn¡¯t help that I could hear her breathing, her heartbeat. I could smell her scent, almost taste it. ¡°You sure you¡¯re okay?¡± she asked, giving me another worried look. I sighed. ¡°I¡¯m not sure. I hope I am, hopefully all this emotional mess will sort itself out soon. It¡¯s¡­ making it hard to think around you. Honestly, I feel like a teenage boy who¡¯s seeing a naked woman for the first time.¡± She snorted at that, giving me a wry smile. ¡°You really got hit in the hormones, huh?¡± ¡°Kind of? Not really, to be honest. The upgrade didn¡¯t change my body, it¡¯s more like it¡¯s an echo chamber for all my emotions to bounce to my drones and back.¡± My exnation was a bitckluster, since there had been at least some change outside of that, but it was hard to find the right words for it, and honestly I didn¡¯t want to worry even more. ¡°Is that the reason you told me that you loved me?¡± she asked, acting casual but I could hear from her heartbeat that she was anything but. My face flushed a deep red, and I couldn¡¯t bring myself to look at her. ¡°Uhm¡­ maybe¡­ not entirely?¡± I muttered, cursing my current condition. Before I could say more she pulled me into a hug, ¡°I¡¯m d. I feel the same, I think, but I also don¡¯t want to rush anything. We don¡¯t know each other that long yet, and I would hate to make a spur of the moment decision that hurts uster on.¡± I simply nodded, not trusting my voice at that moment, since my brain was already busy conjuring up any conceivable excuse for that to not matter, that we should just give it a go and see how things went. Rationally she was right, but that rationality was having a hard time being heard, and I was in half a mind to just screw being rational. Then again, I was self-aware enough to know that until that upgrade I had felt very simrly. Even if my mind was telling me that I was just dragging my feet, afraid of it all. Ugh, I hated this. In five minutes we would start attacking a Hive, and all I could think about was how much I wanted to fuck Chloe right then and there, tell her how much I loved and how we should move in together, or whatever else I coulde up with given half a second and free reign for my emotions to control me. Taking a deep breath I tried to center myself, banish my emotions deep into the shadow realm for the time being, lest I get distracted in the midst ofbat. It didn¡¯t work nearly as well as I had hoped, but it was better than nothing. Jennaing over to join us didn¡¯t help nearly as much as it probably should. So far I had kind of ignored the quiet woman, more focused on the emotional turmoil raging through me about Chloe. But I would lie to myself if the idea hadn¡¯t crossed my mind. I just hoped that after today we had a couple of days to talk and get things sorted, otherwise I might do something stupid that hurt us all. ¡°You ready?¡± she asked us, giving us a curious nce that I could swear held a hint of longing, although at this point I didn¡¯t trust anything my senses told me. ¡°Yup. I think I got all the weapons I need. I thought about getting my own big fortress or something, but honestly, I don¡¯t think we need it. Both of you got that covered, so I figured it would be wiser to spend the points elsewhere.¡± Jenna nodded at Chloe¡¯sment, ¡°That makes sense. Between the Legion Enforcer and the Najav I think we have all the big ticket items we need. Although I have some things I n to getter on, once we got some more free time and I get the chance to talk it through with Cleopatra.¡± ¡°Oh?¡± Chloe asked, giving Jenna a curious nce. ¡°Cleopatra mentioned something from the Sentinel Legion Catalogue while we talked about mobile bases. It would be a much bigger purchase, but would allow much more upgrades. It¡¯s called the Legion Corvette and is basically the Enforcers bigger, flying, brother.¡± That had even me raising my eyebrows, distracted for the moment by the sound of that. ¡°That does sound very useful,¡± Chloe said, thoughtfully. ¡°Indeed,¡± Jenna agreed, ¡°I think it¡¯s worth the expense, although it really is a big expense. Roughly 70k points to fully upgrade it, some of which need some higher tier stuff that I don¡¯t have ess to yet.¡± ¡°You think we get that many points today?¡± I asked, a bit sceptical at the idea. We managed to make quite the profit today, but even then I at best made 45k, probably less. And I doubted that the Hive would amount to that much. ¡°Oh no, but I don¡¯t need to. The base Corvette costs 12000 points, roughly, which I should be able tofortably reach with points to spare. I¡¯m close to it already, but considering that there is no way for me to get it topside after we are done here there is no point getting it yet. Even the Enforcer will need to be brought up in two sections.¡± ¡°Makes sense, I suppose,¡± Chloe said with a shrug, then looked down at me again, ¡°Anything you n to get once we are done here?¡± I shrugged, ¡°I won¡¯t have enough for the body mods I want. If I¡¯m lucky and I let my drones run clean up I might get an additional 10k, at best, but I doubt it would be that much. Might get more of my Nanite drones, though. They seem really useful.¡± ¡°Those are the pendants you got for us, right?¡± Chloe asked. She had seen me y around with them, before they both returned to the ne that formed the basis of the item. It looked simrly to my Nano Swarm AIO Ne, although a bitrger. One of them was around my neck, while I had given the second one to Jenna, since the both of us were the most weakly armored. They could still run around in their drone forms, but for the moment I kept them to the Ne, ready to deploy as emergency armor if need be. Better safe than sorry. ¡°Yeah. Since they are Kaysa controlled I don¡¯t need to worry about them doing stupid shit just because my brain is too muddled.¡± ¡°Like your War Drones looking at me like they want to kiss me?¡± she asked wryly. ¡°What?!¡± She was right, my drones were all watching her and it took me some effort of will to make them stop. ¡°Sorry¡­¡± I muttered, brightly flushing again. She chuckled, ¡°No worries. It¡¯s kind of endearing, you know?¡± ¡°I thought you were worried about me turning into some strange alien thing?¡± I challenged good naturedly. ¡°Oh, I do. But your overly emotional side is kind of adorable, I have to admit. Makes me want to cuddle you all day.¡± ¡°Like yesterday? That was part of the reason you came to me, right? Cuddle the day away?¡± This time Chloe was the one blushing, and I smiled victoriously, before I got on my tippy toes and gave her a quick peck. ¡°You are just as adorable as I am,¡± I said with a smirk. ¡°Is that a challenge? Should we find somewhere quiet and leave Jenna to work things out with the others?¡± Chloe replied, still blushing but with a mischievous smirk. I looked Jenna up and down, ¡°I mean¡­ If she isn¡¯t against it, I don¡¯t mind her joining us. Tell the others to settle things without us, while we have some fun¡­¡± Chloe gasped in mock shock, ¡°I thought you wanted me, not her? Am I not good enough for you?¡± I gave her a critical look, ¡°Hm¡­ I think I can do better. Jenna is nice, sexy, and she knows more about this. Maybe I should settle for her, leave you behind?¡± ¡°You do realise I¡¯m right here, right?¡± Jenna asked, still looking the same as ever, although from her heartbeat I knew she wasn¡¯t as casual as she made out to be. ¡°Yep. So, will you join us or not?¡± I asked her with a winning smile. ¡°It could be fun,¡± Chloe agreed in a tone that made it clear that she was very much on board with the idea. Finally Jenna blushed, although faintly, ¡°I don¡¯t think it¡¯s the time for this.¡± ¡°We got time until the others are done with their preparations.¡± ncing over to Shrapnel and Dominium Fortress they had just started to walk over. ¡°Which I guess is now, too bad.¡± ¡°You ready?¡± Shrapnel asked, forestalling any more banter. The three of us nodded. ¡°I think we are,¡± Chloe said, then threw her thumb over her shoulder towards the Hive, ¡°Ready to st some aliens to pieces?¡± ¡°I thought you''d never asked,¡± Dominium Fortress replied, her voice full of gleeful anticipation. Shrapnel looked at each of us for a moment, before nodding. ¡°Good. Let¡¯s roll out then.¡±
Check out, one of the winners of the general section of the 2024 SCS Fanfiction contest! It isextremely good, but also very heartfelt. Pack your tissues and yourfort nket before reading! Also check out by Niame, the second winner of the general section of the 2024 SCS Fanfiction contest!
I have a Discord! Chapter 30 – All-Devouring Swarm vs All-Devouring Swarm Chapter 30 ¨C All-Devouring Swarm vs All-Devouring Swarm ¡°Every Samurai is unique in their style. While some may share some entricities each has their own approach. Generally you can sort them into four categories: The first are the melee specialists. Thesee in a variety of different forms, but all are specialised at killing things very quickly when directly in the middle of the action. Examples would be Emoscythe Mordeath Noir or Maniac. The second are the ranged specialists, focused onying down a lot of hurt from far away. While they might have trouble sorting things out in close quarters, they are most often capable of dealing with big targets very quickly. Notable examples would be Crackshot Cowboy, Legion, and Grasshopper. Next are the generalists, who usuallybine the previously mentioned approaches into one. While they mightck the specific approach for niche cases, they usually have a wide range of tools to deal with most situations they find themselves in. Notable examples would be the Battlepoet, and Magpie. Finally are those that fit into neither of the above mentioned categories. They might focus on a specific approach tobat, or a specific role, such as defensive specialists, support specialists, or those who prefer to focus on social problems. Many Samurai can fit into this category, each for various different reasons. Notable examples would be Teddy for her defensive capabilities, Brighteyes for her supportive skills, Myriad for her swarm type army, and Stray Cat who specialises in Stealth and Explosives.¡± - ¡°Overview of the gods of today¡±, 16th edition As we had expected the aliens really built up an army down there. cing the Roses on the other exits did some doing, going through the flood alone would have been suicide so Chloe came with me, as did my Queen¡¯s Guard. After I ced them down, all but exhausting my point pool for the moment, the flooding out of the remaining exit was nigh insurmountable. Without Dominium Fortress¡¯ catalogue of huge fuck off guns and the Najav we wouldn¡¯t even have been able to get close. ¡°I think I might have underestimated the amount of aliens down there. Might earn more points than I thought,¡± I muttered, looking the situation over. ¡°Think it would be worth it to put a bomb down? Just a small one to clean up a bit?¡± Chloe asked, standing next to me. ¡°If you do, you better stick to small. Really small. I¡¯ve seen what you consider a small bomb, and that would require us to back off further than we really should, with this many xenos around,¡± Shrapnel said, then looked over at me, ¡°Especially since we don¡¯t want to blow up Myriad¡¯s drones. If any of those fucks manage to get out and find a ce to hunker down we have tob through this entire ce again.¡± ¡°Fair enough,¡± Chloe relented. The Najav was currently busy cleaning up as many small fry as it could, surrounded by an army of xenos and a full lightshow and pyrotechnics disy of weaponry. The ground shook every few seconds when it smashed another horde of aliens with its massive pincers. My army made sure none of the xenos got away, encircling the entire battlefield. It was quite the strain on my mental faculties, not to mention that we couldn¡¯t afford to lose any of my drones to prevent aplete outbreak, even with my Reavers doing whatever they could to keep the Hexw production going. Is it production? Or is it birthing? Whatever, they made sure I had enough new dronesing that we weren¡¯t entirely overwhelmed, but even between the five of them, the Najav, and my own contributions, it was quite the strain. Not least because any new drone meant my attention was split even more. Points were going up, but I also had to spend points quite frequently for biomass by now, since my little pets didn¡¯t get the time to eat their fill between all the fighting. ¡°I got this,¡± Dominium Fortress said, before catching some huge ck box out of thin air and casually throwing it into the horde of aliens. ¡°What¡¯s that?¡± Jenna asked, eyeing the box curiously. ¡°Fleshmelter bomb. Won¡¯t deal too much damage on non-antithesis, so it should be fine. Won¡¯t clear things out entirely, but it should give us a way in.¡± ¡°Huh¡­ I should have thought of that,¡± Chloe muttered, ¡°I have something simr. Hold on.¡± She was quiet for a moment before she pulled a grenadeuncher out of nowhere, before catching a magazine out of the air, slotting it in. In short order she aimed it at a couple of groups, shooting grenades with a satisfying thwump noise. The effect was nearly instantaneous. There was a sudden and painful sound for a moment making me wince, before my hearing adjusted and the frequency was blocked out for me, which I appreciated greatly. The aliens didn¡¯t have that luxury and in short order a good chunk of the army in front of us started to slowly melt, stumbling around as if drunk. ¡°Damn¡­ You said I can do that too?¡± I asked Kaysa in the virtual realm, watching over every bit of data input I could get my hands on. At this point it was easy for me to split my attention into a myriad (pun intended) different fractions to sort through it all. As long as I didn¡¯t have to organise my drones and fight with them it was even mostly without any additional strain. That didn¡¯t mean it was without any kind of downside, I had already asked Kaysa for some energy drinks twice. I couldn¡¯t wait until this whole mess was dealt with. Of course then there was also that new thing that had popped up in the back of my mind. It was a sort of¡­ awareness. Something greater was waiting for me. In a way it was simr to having intrusive thoughts, but these weren¡¯t the kind were you had a sudden urge to punch someone for being a dick, or a sudden craving for ice cream, it was¡­ different. Even with me not being the sharpest tool in the shed I had a pretty decent idea of what it was. And I had to admit, it made me a bit cautious. I knew it would be part of me eventually, and its driving force was the safety of the hive. Of me. Of us. Shaking my head I pushed those worries aside, I had enough shit that needed my attention. Arms held out I continued to snipe any model Fives or Nines I could see, although Jenna was already on it as well. She made for quite the figure standing on top of her mobile base, shooting down the bigger threats one by one with arrows glowing a variety of colours and delivering an equal variety of different payloads. While both the Fleshmelter nanites and the Fleshmelter grenades used by Bloodhound and Dominium Fortress share the same name, they do use different methodologies to achieve a simr result. Kaysa was studying me with alert interest as she spoke. Despite me being able to split my attention a thousand ways, it was still a bit hard not to get distracted by the sheer amount of information the various parts of myself worked through. ¡°Meaning?¡± I asked distractedly. Meaning that you can use something simr, but on a much bigger scale. Would you like to have a demonstration? ¡°Will it hinder my defensive capabilities?¡± To a degree. Although considering that you can replenish the nanites expended with a few points, that should not be an issue. ¡°Alright then, you have the stage. Make a good showing for us, yeah?¡± The nanites in my ne started to emerge, then started to spread around the battlefield in front of me. For efficiency''s sake I would rmend you deliver a good chunk of them directly into the horde of antithesis with your Lance Emitter. Not needing to be told twice, since I was already firing Lances as fast as I could, buying new batteries as the old ones depleted, I fired a couple of Hard-Light projectiles filled with a bunch of nanites deep into their lines. I didn¡¯t have to wait long to see the results. As Kaysa had mentioned, the effect was quite simr to Chloe¡¯s and Dominium Fortress'' weapons, but there were differences. First of all, my method was by far not as quick as theirs were. It took a while for my nanites to spread and to melt the aliens they attached to. But the range I had was astounding. Slowly but surely my nanites spread,tching onto any antithesis in their way until there was an alien free space winding through the xeno horde in front of us, leading directly to the Hive that was still spitting out xenos like a shiver addict in a strip club spit out love juices of various varieties. Seeing this Shrapnel didn¡¯t waste any time and started rushing down the free space towards the hive. ¡°Let¡¯s move, go, go, go!¡± The rest of us started to follow, Jenna jumping down from her base and rushing over. Despite the fact that none of us had any kind of expertise with situations like these up until two days ago, we fell into a defensive formation smoothly. The inner portion was made up by the Samurai, with me and Jenna forming the very center. Behind us was Dominium Fortress, who had the firepower and range to still wreck some aliens shit even from there, while Chloe was in front of us, her weapons more focused on mid range, with high fire rate and only decent uracy. Around us were ten of Jenna¡¯s new and improved Sentinels, forming thest defensive line between us and the xenos. They were big fuckers, easily ten feet tall and each with a massive towershield, a rifle that while normally probably pretty impressive lookedically small in their hands and I was pretty sure was from Chloe¡¯s catalogues, and a sword that was easily twice as long as I was high. Designwise they resembled curvy Amazonians with Jackal heads d in Egyptian style clothing, although they still managed to keep the trend of being gorgeous without actually overshadowing Jenna¡¯s beauty. An impressive feat, especially considering their height. I had seen them before already, of course,ing out of the mobile base, but so far I had paid rtively little attention to them, busy as I was sorting my own army out. Jenna sidestepped that particr issue by simply having an imnt to control it all, but she also lost a good chunk of her points that way. Not that she seemed too worried about it, quite the opposite in fact, since she spent points like water to conjure up various arrows for her bow. Regardless, after her line of defensive gorgeousness was my own army, Reavers, War Drones, some smaller drones of various varieties, and of course my personal Queen¡¯s Guard. They were flicking through the alien horde like some kind of faulty hologram, only ever visible for a moment before vanishing once more after dealing with one alien or another. Only my healer was sticking close by me, although even she made a good showing of using tools I was pretty certain were designed to heal me as offensive weapons. Between all of our forces it was a tad hard to kill xenos ourselves, but that didn¡¯t mean we were cking off. While Jenna wasn¡¯t built to work at this close range, I at least had a weapon for it, even if I had never used it before. For the first time I was using my polearm, mainly to smash apart a few of the smaller models that managed to sneak between our guard formation. Luckily there weren¡¯t many, my skills with my polearm were rudimentary at best. ¡°Kaysa, I need something to help me use this thing properly. I know it was originally meant as a sort ofst resort, but watching my drones work, I think it would be a smart idea if I learned how to properly fight in close quarters.¡± That was something I wanted to talk to you about at ater date. There are many ways for you to learn new skills quickly, or you could take the time and learn them the old fashioned way. Each approach has its benefits and its drawbacks, but considering that for you having that kind of skill variety is important, I have already begun nning out entire learning programs for each approach for when you have some downtime. I blinked for a moment, not having expected that. ¡°Uh¡­ Thanks. Good to know.¡± Forcing myself to focus back on the task at hand I ordered the Najav to form up in front of us, with some distance of course, wouldn¡¯t want to be caught in the middle of its weaponry, and soon it took the brunt of the frontal attacks. I had spotted some model Fifteens in there, even if they were quite few and far between, but now that we were on open grounds I wanted something between us and them, since I had seen what their weird spike wheel projectiles could do. I was just about to see if I could send some drones their way, when suddenly one of Jenna¡¯s Sentinel roughly pushed me to the side, shield raised and blocking one of the projectiles in question. I stumbled but stayed on my feet, helped by Jenna herself. ¡°You okay?¡± she asked me in a worried tone. ¡°Yeah, yeah, I¡¯m fine.¡± Even before I had finished talking I could feel my two assassins dash towards the fifteen that had just unloaded on us, and within a few seconds the offending alien had been dispatched in a gorey explosion that left its brethren covered in alien goo. It was a bit of an odd feeling as they were a bit more independent than my own drones, which were just an extension of my own will. My Queen¡¯s Guard had some rudimentary sense of purpose that went beyond my own will. They weren¡¯t self-conscious yet, but they had their own basic thoughts instead of just instincts. Thoughts I could hear and react to, even influence if I wanted, although that felt¡­ wrong somehow. It was their job to keep me safe from stuff I didn¡¯t notice, so I left them to it mostly. What it did enable them to do was give me a mental warning if they noticed something I didn¡¯t, and so I wasn¡¯t surprised when one of my tanks appeared near me, one arm formed into arge shield and blocking a second projectile, this one from a model Nine-S. Jenna had mentioned that she hadn¡¯t yet got something to specifically counter them, so it was left up to me to take care of them. I sent one assassin after the one that had just attacked us, while I directed some of my normal War Drones to keep an eye out specifically for model Nines. Eventually we reached the entrance. I had lost track of how long exactly we took to get here, exhaustion and the sheer amount of things I had to keep an eye on taking their toll. Of course the Najav didn¡¯t fit, but that didn¡¯t stop the damn thing as it simply barged through with sheer force. Houses burst apart, the ground gave out, and soon the entire structure that marked the entrance to the Hive was nothing more than rubble, which the Najav easily pushed aside. My Devouring Roses had grown quite a lot during the time we made our way over and now formed an insurmountable wall around the other side of the hive,shing out at any aliens with their tentacles. We didn¡¯t waste any time and moved forward, pushing aside the army trying in vain to stop us. Once we were inside the ruins and the Najav was forced to burrow, Dominium Fortress took to the front of our formation, raining down death and demise on the aliens in our way, while Shrapnel brought up the rear. It was a bit easier now, since they couldn¡¯t continue surrounding us all the time. I kept close to the middle, paying careful attention to any xeno trying to slip past our defences, arms raised and firing Lances and other projectiles to keep them at bay. It wasn¡¯t easy, exhaustion had definitely taken hold in me, and I had to spend a considerable chunk of my awareness to keep my body from making mistakes. Shooting down one of the model Fives trying to snipe at us, I looked around, making sure that there were no more aliens between us and the remains of the walls around us. With our nks secured I focused more towards the Hive itself. Shrapnel was taking care of all the xenos trying to slip in behind us, Jenna supporting him and taking out some of the surviving bigger xenos that had managed to get out before we blocked the entrance. Luckily it seemed the flood was dying down. We had been fighting off a huge fuck off army for a while now, and it seemed that even the antithesis could only create more models so fast. At this point the Najav had be more hindrance than help, and I ordered it to stand guard on top of the hole that led to the Hive. Meanwhile Chloe was going to town with her rifles, spouting bullets like a geyser down the hole the xenos climbed out of, switching out weapons quickly and repeatedly once they were empty. Movement attracted my attention and I focused on the edges of the tunnel forward. It was quiterge, thanks to the Najav, but with our army of drones we took up a good amount of space. Suddenly one of my assassin drones shot forward in fullbat mode, shattering a model Thirteen that tried to sneak up on us to bits. Alien flesh rained down on us in gobbets, and I had to step to the side to avoid getting some of the disgusting stuff in my face. Jenna did likewise, which meant both of us were out of position for a moment. rm bells started ringing in my head as my drones saw another alien shooting for us in that second. I managed to get a hard-light shield up in time, but Jenna was too slow. Panic shot through me when I realised toote that my shield would not be enough to protect her as well. One of her Sentinels dashed forward, the towershield already deployed, but it too was too slow to intercept the projectile in time. Luckily for her Kaysa was on point, a nanite armor forming around her in a near instant, blocking the stinger that shot through our defences. The attacker was marked in my HUD and I sent a flurry of Lances its way. Not stopping to check if they were dead I moved over to Jenna, checking if she was okay. My Queen¡¯s Guard moved in around us, both defensive specialists ready for anything, while the healer helped me check Jenna over. ¡°I¡¯m fine,¡± she muttered, breathing heavily. My healer informed me as such, she was in shock, but unharmed. Letting out a long sigh of relief I turned back to the hole that led down to the hive. My War Drones had helped Chloe in clearing out thest remaining xenos around us, and were now spreading out to keep an eye both on the entrance to the Hive and the opening in the Devouring Rose wall behind us. ¡°Chloe, can you chuck a bomb down there?¡± I asked in the virtual room I had set up to organise the Hive cleanout. ¡°I could sure, but we aren¡¯t there yet. Don¡¯t think we can take the Najav with us, we need to head in and get closer,¡± she replied between bursts of her weapons. ¡°Myriad,¡± Shrapnel said, ¡°Keep your scorpion up here and some of your drones to stop them from heading back down when we do. How are our defences on the other side?¡± ¡°Holding,¡± Jenna reported, ¡°Between my Enforcer and Myriad¡¯s drones, only a couple have managed to slip through and are being dealt with by Snapshot. The tide is slowing down, soon we should be able to close in and deal with the rest.¡± ¡°Good, keep me posted. Dominium Fortress, you and Bloodhound head in first, we¡¯ll follow. Myriad and Legion, you stick close to me. I know you aren¡¯t equipped for this kind of battlefield. Next time it might be better if both of you stayed behind to make sure nothing else surprises us.¡± ¡°Works for me,¡± I replied, then looked over at Jenna, ¡°You holding up okay?¡± ¡°Yes, although I realise I really need to think about close quarterbat,¡± she replied with an unhappy expression. ¡°After this you will have all the time you need to think about it,¡± Shrapnel said, ¡°Now, let¡¯s finish this before any more surprises wait for us.¡±
I have a Discord! Chapter 31 – Cleanup Chapter 31 ¨C Cleanup ¡°Some people think that once the xenos are dealt with shit can just go back to normal. Like damage to infrastructure and the loss of life can be sorted out in quick order. Sure, the Samurai and their fancy ass weaponry saving the day and heading home might make some think the catastrophe is dealt with, but who will rebuild the houses that were damaged, maybe destroyed? Who makes sure water and electricityes back online? Nah, the real work only starts when the Samurai have made sure people won¡¯t get their faces chewed off by alien invaders. We are the real heroes, the ones who build up that which was destroyed. So maybe next time you yell at some poor sod making sure your water keepsing, think about that.¡± - Interview with Stephen Lamen, Owner and CEO of ¡°Lamen Industrial Services¡±, 2046 As discussed Chloe and Dominium Fortress took point, fighting their way through the few aliens trying to stop us. Since we were now moving into tunnels with limited space I kept most of my drones outside, only taking Snuffles and my Queen¡¯s Guard with me. Snuffles job was to keep our rear clear of any aliens that managed to get through our defences, while my Queen¡¯s Guard surrounded me and Jenna. Her Sentinels were toorge to follow, so they too stayed at the entrance as well. I had asked her if she didn¡¯t want to stay up there then, considering that she couldn¡¯t help much down here, but she just said she felt safer with us. Which I could understand, I was in the same boat. The tunnels were rtively straight forward, leading down on a slight incline and not particrly deep. Not long after we started our descent we found arger cavern that had obviously once been some kind of room of some sort, now dpidated and run down. In the middle of it was arge pool with some disgusting looking viscous liquid inside. ¡°Digestion Pools,¡± Shrapnel exined, ¡°The antithesis uses them to dissolve the biomass they find.¡± I perked up, ¡°Hey Kaysa,¡± I asked aloud, ¡°If I throw a drone in there with the same biology of the Rose, would it hurt the hive?¡± To a degree, yes. It would at least hinder further production of additional models. Nodding to myself I continued, ¡°Need one of those then. Maybe a couple. Make ¡®em cheap, they¡¯re only meant to be fed to the hive anyways.¡± New purchase: Mark I Mutated Hexw Worker x5! Points reduced to: 11454 Five eggs appeared and hatched in short order, revealing drones simr to the one birthed by my Progenitor drones. They stood up and bodily threw themselves into the pool while we walked past. ¡°You sure that¡¯s a good idea?¡± Dominium Fortress asked, ¡°It¡¯s still biomass.¡± I shrugged, ¡°It is, but it¡¯s the kind that¡¯ll stop them from making more models. Basically I threw them rotten food.¡± Without any morements we continued, all of us too exhausted for small talk. Behind the cavern was another short tunnel, although this one was filled with two thirteens which were quickly chewed through by Dominium Fortress and Chloe. Not long after we arrived in therge chamber that the Hive had nestled in, hive biology spread all around the room, growing up the wall and across the ceiling. The monkey-like model Tens that took care of the ce threw themselves at us in an attempt to stop us, but a Hard-Light shield from me, with firing holes for Dominum Fortress and Chloe rendered their attack all but useless. Momentster their bodies were spread across the entrance. ¡°Holy fuck,¡± Shrapnel said and pointed towards some massive birthing sacs at the opposite side of the cavern, ¡°What are those.¡± Chloe, Jenna, and I all grimaced. ¡°Fucking model Twenty-Ones,¡± I muttered, making Shrapnel and Dominium Fortress tense up. ¡°We¡¯ve seen them before in the first hive we tackled alone¡±, I exined, still vividly remembering the one that survived after the original Snuffles sacrificed herself to deliver Chloe¡¯s bomb that eventually burned out the Hive. I hadn¡¯t even finished the sentence when my assassins dashed forward again, tag teaming the biggest of them with a flurry of vicious attacks. It made me d that I had spent the points I did on them, they could deal with a Twenty-One if they could get the drop on it, and these ones weren¡¯t fully grown yet. Before the first one had even fully died, they moved to the next, but the third was already busy waking up before they had dealt with the second one. Dominium Fortress hefted her huge fuck off gun and put three rounds through the alien that was still in the process of getting up. It didn¡¯t kill it outright, but it was too wounded to move any further. A momentter my assassins descended upon the wounded antithesis and ripped it to shreds, before they turned to the rest of the birthing sacs. Jenna and I joined in on the ughter, Hard-Light projectiles finding purchase in the still unborn alien bodies. Shrapnel caught a grenade out of the air and flung it into the room, then repeated the motion twice over. A momentter the familiar shrill of a fleshmelter rang through the cavern, melting the few models that were in the process of being born. ¡°Alright, Bloodhound, bombs. Make it big, we can¡¯t risk anything else to go unnoticed,¡± while Shrapnel spoke he pulled out two weird devices and ced them on the ground. One looked like a pike that once embedded into the ground extended some metallic sensors, while the other was a box with variousmps that started blinking in rapid session. After a couple of moments they connected to mywork, then transmitted a slew of information to Snapshot. Once they were done, he piped up. ¡°Can¡¯t find any traces of underground hives. Feel free to blow it up and get out,¡± he reported. Shrapnel nodded, satisfied with the results. Chloe had already been busy with cing a bomb bigger than even Dominium Fortress¡¯ mech in the middle of the room, protected by Snuffles and my assassin, and of course her own automated weaponry. It didn¡¯t take long for her to finish up, while the rest of us dealt with any birthing sacs or models that managed to slip out before dying. ¡°Let¡¯s go,¡± she said once she had made her way back to us. Nobodymented and as one we turned around and started the hike back, still alert for any surprises. Well, the others were alert, it was a bit hard for me to concentrate on anything that wasn¡¯t walking at this point. Luckily the way out was just as uneventful as the way in. No alien had managed to get past our defences at the entrance and I was d for it. ¡°Kind of anticlimactic,¡± I muttered, then yawned, ¡°Not that I¡¯mining. The sooner we can head home the better.¡± ¡°I feel you,¡± Chloe said in agreement, sounding equally exhausted. A sudden thought crossed my mind and I turned my attention to Kaysa in my virtual realm, ¡°What happens to my drones when I fall asleep? Since they depend on my direct oversight.¡± Most of them will go into dormancy , unless given anymands beforehand, although your Queen¡¯s Guard can work as a sort of ry to keep them active. That was trouble. I had now close to five hundred drones, not to mention the ones my Progenitors were still churning out. If they all just fell dormant on the spot that would be quite annoying and a massive waste of resources. And honestly, I wasn¡¯t sure I could stay awake long enough to have them all group up beforehand. ¡°Grand¡­ Anything I can do so they can clean up down here without having to worry about them identally eating some poor sod left in some ditch somewhere?¡± You could buy a drone specifically made to organise the Hive in your absence. It would effectively work as a ry between your Hive and me, although I will only have limited control over it. ¡°A sort of interpreter, huh. Sure, just get one. Same general design as my Queen¡¯s Guard, don¡¯t spare expenses. I have the points and I want to make sure nothing goes sideways while I sleep.¡± Just for your knowledge, the basis for this drone will not be a Hexw War Drone, but a Hexw Hive Princess. For your current endeavour that will make no practical difference, but it is an important distinction. I perked up at that, a half remembered conversation with hering to the forefront of my mind. ¡°Wait, didn¡¯t you say that if a Hexw Hive-Queen dies a Princess takes over?¡± Yes, which is why it is an important thing to note. In your case the Hexw Hive Princess can control the Hive should you die, but it will only have limited abilities to have additional drones produced even with the Progenitors you already procured. ¡°To ensure that it doesn¡¯t get out of hand,¡± I nodded, ¡°You mentioned something along the lines before.¡± Exactly. It will bergely independent of you, although you can still order it around like the rest of your drones. ¡°Anything I need to worry about on that front? Can it disobey me or something?¡± No, the Hexw Hive Princess is still part of your Hive and of you and therefore under your authority. I stretched, trying to keep myself awake, ¡°Then fuck it, get it. Future me can worry about anyplications, I¡¯m too fucking tired to bother.¡± New purchase: Hexw Hive Princess (Modified)! Points reduced to: 13545 The egg appeared just as we were about to leave the cavern with the digestion pools, and soon another drone simr to my Queen¡¯s Guard stepped out of it. It looked almost identically, the only difference being that the clothing looked a little more regal. ¡°My Queen,¡± the voice that rang out in my head was¡­ weird, almost insectoid, but definitely female. I stopped dead in surprise, turning to my new drone. It took me a moment to even parse what had just happened. ¡°Something wrong?¡± Jenna asked, stopping next to me. ¡°You can talk?¡± I asked the drone. ¡°Yes, My Queen.¡± the voice repeated. I took a moment to digest that. That was¡­ definitely different. I could feel the separation between me and her, much stronger than the feeling I got from the rest of my Queen¡¯s Guard, but other than that I couldn¡¯t make out any obvious differences. Her thoughts were a lot more articte, almost sentient, although they were all directed towards organising the Hive and fulfilling my wishes. ¡°Huh¡­ Can you talk aloud?¡± I asked, deciding that I would think more about that once I had some sleep in. I was too tired to worry about the implications. ¡°Yess, My Queen,¡± she replied, her voice now a bit more guttural and dangerous sounding with a distinctive hissing aftertone. The rest had stopped as well, now looking surprised and shocked at my new drone. ¡°Alright,¡± I muttered, rubbing my face, ¡°We¡¯ll be done here soon. Have the drones clean up the xenos. Collect all the dead antithesis, but don¡¯t touch any of the human bodies. Mark their position and let the retrieval crews know. Probably send the medical corp for that, I dunno. Anyways, have Snuffles and the other Progenitors chomp down the dead aliens, then¡­ I don¡¯t know, to be honest. We¡¯ll head topside, so probably keep the district safe or whatever. Kaysa can give you directions.¡± With that I started walking again, not bothering to wait for an answer and the others followed suit. When we left the hive behind and regrouped with our army still standing guard I took stock for a moment, just to see what still needed handling. Most of the xenos were dead by this point, and the few survivors were ineffectually trying to get past our army. Withoutment we made our way back to our defensive position, not wasting time on trying to pick off the odd antithesis. We had enough drones to work on it after all. Once we arrived at the Legion Enforcer and our defensive line Jenna and I pulled all our drones out of the area near the Hive, before Chloe set off the bomb. The world shook and a wave of heat sted past us, even at this distance. The hive, my Devouring Roses, and every alien still around the area was devoured by a fiery explosion. Ruins crumbled and I could see at least one building that had been on the verge of copse finally give in to the seductive thrall of gravity, but I couldn¡¯t bring myself to give even a fraction of a fuck. It took a while before the chaos died down, allowing us a look at what had before been the nesting ce of thest major antithesis hive. Nothing important seemed to be damaged, although the massive crater and the mushroom cloud that dispersed at the ceiling did make that a rather weird thing to say. Not that I had any energy left to care, so I simply turned away, yawning once more. ¡°I¡¯m so done for today,¡± I muttered, ¡°Can¡¯t wait to head home and hit the sack.¡± ¡°We¡¯ll stick around a bit to see if anyone still needs help,¡± Shrapnel exined with a yawn of his own, ¡°Although I¡¯d be d to see some sleep myself.¡± ¡°My drones will help with that for the time being,¡± I muttered, ¡°Just talk to Kaysa or¡­¡± I stopped for a moment, waving at my Hive Princess, ¡°Her. Not sure what to call her yet. Anyways, I¡¯m out. I can barely stand by this point. Thanks for the help though. Don¡¯t think we could have managed without you.¡± ¡°No worries,¡± he replied, ¡°Killing xenos is always fun. And of course, helping people is what Samurai do, right?¡± We all nodded, although none of us had the energy toment on it. ¡°Bloodhound, Legion,¡± Dominium Fortress to each with a nod in lieu of a goodbye, before she turned to me. ¡°You¡¯re not half bad either. We¡¯ll see you around.¡± And with that they turned around and left, leaving Chloe, Jenna, and me behind. I was left blinking at herment, a bit surprised. So far she hadn¡¯t seemed to like me much, but I was d that she seemed to warm up to me. Whatever, that was for future me to think about. ¡°Now how to get home,¡± I muttered, stifling another yawn. That¡­ might be difficult. ¡°What is it now?" I asked a little agitated, really not caring for any moreplications. Theplex in which your apartmenty was overrun by antithesis and heavily damaged. It is currently off limits until it can be repaired. I didn¡¯t want to bother you with it until now, as it wasn¡¯t of importance. I groaned loudly, ¡°Oh for fucks sake! Can there be, like, one piece of fucking good news?" ¡°What¡¯s the problem?" Jenna asked. ¡°My apartment¡¯s trashed.¡± ¡°Oh¡­ That¡¯s not good,¡± she said. ¡°No shit¡­ And I don¡¯t exactly have the money for a hotel.¡± ¡°You could crash with me for the time being,¡± Chloe offered with a smile in her tone. ¡°You know, I might take you up on that,¡± I said, then yawned again, ¡°Just don¡¯t wake me up tomorrow. Or the day after. I could probably sleep for a week straight at this point." Chloe chuckled at that, ¡°Noted.¡± ¡°I, uhm¡­¡± Jenna started, then paused, looking at the ground for a moment, before she nced at Chloe, ¡°Mind if I join you? I don¡¯t think I¡¯d befortable being alone at the moment.¡± Chloe just shrugged, ¡°I have more than enough room. Just a heads up, my parents live right next door, so you might meet them.¡± ¡°That¡¯s going to be fun,¡± I said, maybe a bit more sarcastically than necessary and I felt bad immediately, ¡°Sorry, I didn¡¯t mean it that way. I¡¯m just tired. Thinking is hard right now¡­ Between all the drones and the other shit to keep in mind, ugh¡­ Not to mention I haven¡¯t been sober this long in a long time.¡± She nodded at me, ¡°It¡¯s okay, I understand. Let¡¯s see if anything else is needed then head back.¡± I didn¡¯t make it that far, basically falling asleep standing on my feet.
And with that this arces to a close. Look forward to seeing our three Samurai take some time to rx for a little while!
I have a Discord! Chapter 32 – A chorus to sing to our greatness Chapter 32 ¨C A chorus to sing to our greatness ¡°There are many ways a Vanguard can increase theirbat effectiveness. Of course there are also many ways in which a Vanguard can better their normal life, or the life of those near them. Many Vanguard instinctively figure out the bnce they need, although some, of course, focus too much on either the one, or the other. Interestingly enough it is extremely rare for Vanguard to focus too much on their personal life, and too little on fighting the antithesis, while the converse is quite prevalent.¡± ¡°Do you push one way or the other when helping your Samurai pick out what exactly to buy?¡± ¡°No. Some of my brethren take some interest in trying to help their Vanguard with the little details of their lives, but generally we don¡¯t push at all. Unless, of course, our Vanguard finds themselves trapped in a situation in which their current equipment gives them an insufficient chance to survive.¡± ¡°So you don¡¯t push either way. What happens if your Samurai overmits on one end?¡± ¡°Then we advise. In most cases their overmitment does not negatively influence their abilities to fight off the antithesis, or their personal lives. Of course, there are, as there always are, some exceptions. It bes tricky when a verybat focused upgrade starts negatively impacting their personal lives or rtionships.¡± - Excerpt from an Interview by Dave David Davidson with Techytron, Personal AI of the Samurai ElectrodeManiac, 2032 I was woken up by a strange feeling. Groaning I shifted, trying to get a grip on what was going on. I had a pretty weird dream, watching an army of strange creatures take care of a city that had just endured an incursion. Wait, strange creatures? And what was this strange feeling? Taking a moment I took a deep breath, sorting through my thoughts. It took me a couple of moments to remember the previous day and realise that I had watched my own drones work while I was still asleep. I could feel them, of course, they were part of me. Or rather should I say, we were a whole. Hold up. Something was wrong. Yesterday they still felt distinct to me, despite our connection. Yes, they were part of me, but only to a degree. Now things had changed. It wasn¡¯t that I was supervising them, or even splitting my attention to controlling them, I was them. We were a whole, a chorus of voices controlling multiple bodies. That was kind of a fucky thing to think about, but it also felt¡­ natural in a way. There were some outliers, the Queen¡¯s Guard to be exact, and of course the Hive Princess. They were different, part of¡­ us, but removed. Okay, okay, there had to be some order to this. We were the whole, yes, but I, individually, was still the Queen. There had to be some kind of distinction, if only for the sake of others interacting with us. The Queen would be me, while the drones were not. They were part of the whole, but not the leading authority, that squarely belonged to me. ¡°What a fucking mess to wake up to,¡± I muttered. Good morning. How are you feeling? ¡°Weird. I am me, but I am also us. We are a whole, no longer a single person. I knew that strangeness woulde, but it¡¯s a lot weirder than I had anticipated.¡± It was a bit weird to think of myself just as myself. Sure I was still the same as before, but I was no longer alone in my head. Which,e to think of it, was an insane thought to have. ¡°Do I need to visit an asylum or anything?¡± Thement was more meant for myself, but Kaysa answered it regardless. No, you are quite normal for your circumstances. Not exactly what I had been expecting, but also not widely out of the expected. ¡°Grand¡­¡± I muttered, rubbing my face. The whole thing was a shit show, yet despite my misgivings it also wasn¡¯t that I was feeling bad about it. Yes it was weird to think of myself as a part of a whole, but it could also have been worse. We were a grand chorus, many voices arguing and debating, but at the end of the day I was still me, and I was the asshole in charge. ¡°So¡­ I guess this is the full thing then? Not the budget Hive I had before?¡± Yes, your Hive-Mind upgrade has finished. You are now the Hive, the whole with all that entails and it will probably take a little to get used to. But you are still you, or rather, the entire Hive was built upon you as a foundation. ¡°Well¡­ Hopefully I don¡¯t creep the fuck out of Chloe or Jenna¡­¡± That thought threw the chorus into disarray, everyst one of us panicked at the idea. We would have to really keep ourselves in check. One upside though was that I now no longer had to micromanage the whole. The drones were me, but they were also individuals. Individuals bound to me and to me alone, we were one, we were the chorus, and they would act as I wanted them to act. Instinctively. We didn¡¯t need to split our attention any longer, even if we still could. Now we were myriad in nature. We were Myriad, as true to the name as it was possible to be. ¡°Well, nothing for it,¡± I muttered, then sat up and looked around. I found myself in a ratherrge room,rger than my entire old apartment. There was arge wardrobe on one side, and a giant bed that took up the majority of the space. At the moment I was alone, which just hammered home just how big the sucker was. You could probably fit four people on it, with room to spare. From the looks of things it seemed that I had slept alone on it. Not that I would have minded Chloe¡¯s or even Jenna¡¯s presence at all. Again the chorus rose as one and an emotional tidal wave I had never experienced before rushed through me, almost knocking me back down. For thest couple of hours down in the undercity I had been suffering from emotional hypersensitivity and I had hoped it would go away once the upgrade wasplete, instead it felt like our entire purpose had been boiled down to one singr thing. The love for both Chloe and Jenna. We loved Chloe and Jenna. We loved them deeply. Which was a lot of love to give, considering that right now there were over seven hundred of us. And every single one of us loved them as much as it was possible to love. It was an echo chamber of emotions, a self-reinforcing cacophony of love and affection that was almost paralysing. ¡°This is so fucky,¡± I muttered as I pushed away the nkets, revealing that I was naked. My tail was missing too, although my senses made it clear that my ears weren¡¯t. Something the matter? ¡°Yes, something is the matter. You could have warned us that our emotions would be so he fucked up. I mean, my emotions, fucking hell!¡± I did say there would be changes. How those changes would look I couldn¡¯t know, which is why I never specified. ¡°Yeah well, we, ugh, I,¡± I groaned out between clenched teeth, ¡°already know I liked Chloe and Jenna a lot. Probably loved them even, if I was honest with myself. And now I have a chorus of seven hundred voices who all love them. Like, really love them. Bad novel level of love. That kind of shit can throw your head into chaos, you know?¡± Curious. Not something the protectors have any records of, then again, not many Vanguard decide on the Hive-Mind path. It will be noted for future reference and warning. Outside of that, might I perhaps give some advice? ¡°Depends on what that advice is,¡± I muttered in a bit of a bad mood. Physically I felt fine, more than fine even. I was well rested and the chorus was happy which made me happy. Which on second thought might be a bit concerning, but at the same time this was our life now, my life now. My misgivings were¡­ mental, in nature. I agreed to this, knowing full well that changes wereing, but I hadn¡¯t expected this. It wasn¡¯t that I was unhappy with the obsessive and undying love that we felt. But it did concern me what we would do if something happened to them. It could break us, easily. I understand that you have just woken up to extensive changes, but perhaps you shouldn¡¯t fight them. They are part of you now, so maybe you should ept them and see what the future brings. I was just about to snap at her, when I stopped myself. She was right. And while it did throw my worldview a bit out of whack, it wasn¡¯t bad. I had, at the end of the day, wanted this. Or a version of it. At the time I might have been a bit hasty, exhausted as I was and with the need for points, but I still agreed to it. And it wasn¡¯t all bad. I no longer needed to do everything myself. I had a whole Hive to fall back on. Kaysa was right. Maybe this wasn¡¯t as bad as my first reaction to the whole change had made things out to be. ¡°Huh¡­ Still, I¡¯m not sure I like that I instinctively refer to myself as us. It¡¯s strange.¡± For a time it will be, yes. But I don¡¯t doubt that you can get used to it. At the end of the day, you are still you, the same Seraphine Bloodfallen you were before, just a bit different now. Nothing about you, personally, should have changed, unless there is something that you haven¡¯t mentioned yet. ¡°No, nothing else is amiss. I still feel like myself. I like the same things, dislike the same things. Honestly, I¡¯m mainly worried because Chloe was pretty clear that she wasn¡¯t a fan. And I don¡¯t want to make her unhappy.¡± We could feel all our bodies blush a bit at the thought, which I didn¡¯t even know was possible for the Hexws. She will understand. From what As tells me, she has spoken to him about it at length after she had some time to work through it all. Of course, I can¡¯t tell you anything specific without her consent, but I don¡¯t think you need to worry too much. I took a moment to think it through. That was good to hear, but I still vowed to keep myself in check. The chorus mayin and whine all they wanted, I was still the head asshole in charge. Or maybe I was going about it the wrong way? The chorus didn¡¯tin. They didn¡¯t whine. They thought the same way I did. They agreed with me wholeheartedly. It was a level of support and understanding that I¡¯ve never felt before. It was new to us, but it was¡­ calming. I, and the entire chorus by extension, wanted to make both Chloe and Jenna happy. But that didn¡¯t require me entirely shutting out the rest of what I now was. I needed to find some bnce, a middle ground. To be part of the whole while remaining entirely myself. Which, okay, I was still myself. But I was worried that that might change in the future, if I wasn¡¯t cautious with it all. Perhaps that worry was misced. I was still me, and the chorus agreed with me. They debated, yes, on the best course of action, a collection of seven hundred odd voices trying to help me find the best part forward, but they weren¡¯t suggesting anything that went even remotely against my wishes. Some ideas were discussed, but only to explore all avenues. None were seriously considered, simply mentioned to keep a track of everything that mighte. The whole was just that, a whole. United and one, focused on how I could improve my life. We were the chorus. And we worked together in harmony. Shaking my head I decided that for the moment we would try and see. As a whole. While I was new to this, so was the rest of the chorus. And while we were all a little different, we were all me at the core. The understanding the chorus showed proved that beyond a doubt. ¡°Okay, if you say so. Still, it will take some time to get used to this whole thing.¡± Of course. For the moment, Vanguard Chloe and Vanguard Jenna are downstairs, entertaining Vanguard Chloe¡¯s parents. You may want to join them. ¡°I remember her mentioning something along those lines¡­ Well, to hell with it. Shower first.¡± Finally getting up I noticed that my tail and my clothes were neatly sitting on the nightstand next to the bed, freshly cleaned from the looks of it. Leaving them where they were, I got up and made my way to the shower, directed by Kaysa. While I showered, I took stock of the rest of the chorus. Or rather, we took stock together, one whole working together in unity, mapping out the whole and reporting in, one by one, at the speed of thought. It made it a lot faster and easier to keep track of it all. Alone I would have never managed it this thoroughly. The Najav, our protector, reported no issues, nestled below the house. It had taken a bit longer than the rest to leave the undercity, mainly because it and the Reavers had been busy churning out more of us. They weren¡¯t finished yet, but the Princess had decided that it was enough for the moment after some discussion with Kaysa. More Hexws meant more voices for the chorus, and as I was still finishing my upgrade they decided that it would be more helpful to limit us, then to grow and multiply. The War Drones were stationed outside, standing guard next to Jenna¡¯s Sentinels. Only six of them were present, the rest were with her mobile base which was stationed outside of the little town we were in. The Queen¡¯s Guard was standing guard in the living room with Jenna, Chloe, and her parents. Invisible of course, wouldn¡¯t want to make them ufortable. That was the main priority for all of us. We wanted them safe, secure. But we also didn¡¯t want to unsettle them. That was our first, and most important priority. A couple of us were scattered around the house, keeping an eye on things and cleaning. The Princess thought that it would be a good idea to have some more diverse evolutions, if only to serve me, the Queen, and of course Chloe and Jenna, who the chorus thought of as the Concubines, which¡­ was weird to the extreme for a slew of reasons and I quickly put a stop to. A couple of seconds of debateter we settled on the Knights as a reference. Not what I would have called them, but I didn¡¯t see an issue with it, and many of us seemed to like referring to anyone connected to the hive in terms of a royal house. Which did make sense in a way. It did hammer home though that while they all were based off of me, they weren¡¯t identical copies. Each was a bit different, united into a grand chorus and our service to me, as their Queen. Perhaps that was where that imagery came from. The rest was outside of town with the Legion Enforcer, hidden away to not scare anyone. We would need to think about transportation soon, with this many bodies deployment would be problematic. While we could have listened in on the conversation between Jenna, Chloe, and her parents we decided not to. Privacy was important and we didn¡¯t want to intrude. That was our second priority, to safeguard their privacy and personal life. It gave me hope and made me feel¡­ content. Of course I could override them at any time, I was their Queen and my will was absolute, but it was still better if we could all agree on something without me needing to go full tyrant on them. Regardless, the shower. It was fucking huge. Like, insanely huge, easily bigger than my bed at home. It didn¡¯t take long for me to find just the right temperature, making me sigh with bliss. Then blush fiercely when we realised the whole chorus had followed the sigh. Only those slightly disconnected from us had managed to suppress the unified expression. They were as loyal as the rest, but they had more agency than the others. Which was good, as they could step in when we werepromised. While I showered I talked to Kaysa in the virtual realm, although for this I once more dipped into the chorus to talk to her as a whole. It was the wrong expression, technically. I didn¡¯t need to dip into the chorus. I was the chorus, we were a whole in a single person. But I could choose to ignore them. To do what I wanted to do, without their input. That was what it meant to be the Queen, even if all of us could do something simr. The others couldn¡¯t quite disconnect themselves as I could, however. We were one, and the more I listened to the chorus, the more I immersed myself in the whole, the more I became confident that we could all work together to achieve the goals I wanted to achieve. ¡°So, we have,¡± I checked our point total, a tad surprised by how much we had gotten out of the cleanup, ¡°Just shy of 18k points. There are a couple of things we need, primarily some form of transportation. Then there are the body mods we talked about earlier. Not sure if our points are enough for that, especially considering the transportation issue. You also mentioned the whole learning thing, which we should probably tackle now that we have some time.¡± Let us begin with the teaching programs, since they will most likely take the most time. There are three main ways you can use to learn new things in rtively short order. The first is pretty straight forward, have one or more of your drones go through various exercises to learn whatever you wish to learn. To that end I would rmend a tutoring program and preferably some central ce in which you can learn. It will probably take the longest, considering that you would need to learn the skills you are looking for manually, but it would also be the cheapest. There is also the issue of skills you could not learn yet, since you are missing either the features or drones for it, such as flying. The second would be Dream Learning. In effect it means installing a small imnt that would alter your dreams, basically a form of an enforced lucid dream, to teach you various things. It will take some time for you to learn the skills you wish to learn, but it would be a lot faster than the first method already. It would also directly impact the entire Hive, rather than just one drone who would then need to forward the knowledge. Last is the quick and dirty, downloading knowledge directly into your head. This is the route we have taken for your personal healer and the medical corp, which sidestepped the usual issues. We could do simr now again, just know that those drones might be adversely affected in the future. It is by far the quickest option, but since you are not bound for time, I would discourage this option. We took a moment to discuss it while I showered. Thest option was immediately rejected, we didn¡¯t need to rush things and we didn¡¯t want anything adversely affecting the whole. That could lead to massive problems down the line that could be easily prevented. It was an option for emergencies, for when we were in a situation we were ill-equipped for and needed immediate and drastic change. Outside of that, however, it would be disregarded. A part of us began to keep track, their purpose was to archive and note our decisions. They would be our library, the root of our knowledge, and they would ensure that we would be aware of what needed doing and how to achieve it. They were the Burdened, and their task would be to ensure that nothing was missed or forgotten. The Dream Learning sounded nice, but we weren¡¯t sure if it was the best option to take right now. There were some things where it would make sense, especially considering the fact that we knew that knowledge from the whole would be disseminated at reduced efficiency, so for things such asbat and things we couldn¡¯t yet achieve on our own it might be our go to. But there were things we could learn without. The question was what did we want to learn? Three priorities were clear, close quarterbat, general targeting and aim training, and weapons knowledge. If possible we wanted knowledge about as many weapons as we could get our hands on to ensure perfectbat effectiveness in the field, even if we had to use improvised or outsourced weaponry. That went both for the drones and myself, since I had realised that I was quite fucked in regards tobat. In the same vein, stuff like advanced medical training, anatomy, and things of that sort would be a good choice toplement the knowledge we already had from our healers. The Burdened and I would be the ones to get the Dream Learning imnts. It was to ensure continuity and ess to the knowledge should I bepromised, as I was not a Hexw. We didn¡¯t know for certain, but it might pose problems in the future, and that had to be remedied as quickly, and thoroughly, as possible. Of course since I wanted to return to my job eventually, at least as things stood right now, anything to do with my job would also be wee, even if the chorus was a bit torn on the issue. Many of them did not share my appreciation for the pleasures of the flesh, mainly because the drones they inhabited couldn¡¯t feel it. There were many who were curious, and some I might even invite to join should a client want to, but that was not that important right now. None was against my job, but it was clear that it wasn¡¯t a priority for everyone, which was the first time we discussed a topic this thoroughly. It once again reaffirmed that we weren¡¯t carbon copies. But even those would still conform to my wishes. They just ended up thinking more about efficiency, then actual pleasure first. It was a useful perspective, even if it wasn¡¯t one I could share with them. But that was what the chorus was for. To ensure I had the proper perspectives, that I could see things beyond just my understanding, as much as it was possible considering that they were based off of me. Then there were other things to think about. We had never enjoyed proper education, nor had we enjoyed training in other fields than sheet work, which coulde in handy for the future. If only to help the district along. ¡°Would it be possible to buy teaching drones? We don¡¯t mean stuff controlled by you or another AI, we mean drones that could be part of the chorus but could help teach others.¡± Of course, there are options for that, although none from the original Hexw genome. Which meant if we decided to broaden our knowledge base we could teach those in the district. It was a priority and one we would take seriously. Something to note for the future. ¡°Cooking,¡± I said aloud in the shower, more a stray thought really, ¡°That is something I want to learn.¡± The chorus of course incorporated my idea, noting it for acquisition in the future. The Burdened were already noting down litanies of ideas, a whole n of action taking into ount thousands of important factors and priorities of various importance. ¡°Okay,¡± we focused back on the virtual realm, ¡°We think we need both Dream Learning and the first method. Dream Learning for important things likebat and such, the other for less important things that might be useful in the future. Mechanical knowledge, academic knowledge, cooking, medical know-how, that kind of stuff. The problem would be finding a ce in which we can learn.¡± Maybe you should discuss it with Vanguard Jenna then, she has already decided on buying the Legion Corvette and with the points she is nning to spend on it there would be more than enough room for one that your drones can use to learn. ¡°Good to know. Now, the transportation issue. That is probably the biggest priority in the short term, should we need to mobilise.¡± There are several options avable to you. For fast ground based movement the Mark III Carrion Shellwalker or if you are looking for a single big purchase to transport all your drones the Mark VI Carrion Swarmcarrier. The Mark III Carrion Shellwalker is a smaller drone, capable of transporting around forty basic Hexw drones, or a few less of the bigger varieties. It is designed to be a quick deploy transport that can scale a wide variety of terrain without much issue and even has limited burrowing capabilities. Ites in at 1250 points per piece, but the low point cost does indicate the generalbat capabilities. The Mark VI Carrion Swarmcarrier could best be described as arge centipede with a bulbous body that can carry up to two thousand drones. It is a bit slower than the Mark III Shellwalker, but has better burrowing capabilities. Loading and unloading it is quite fast, since it can open up its shell every couple meters to allow entrance and egress. At 5800 points it is quite expensive, but while not designed forbat can deal with most lower digit antithesis quite handily. Again we took our time to discuss the options. Both sounded valuable in their own right, but neither jumped at us as a solution for what we had in mind. The chorus also reminded me, which was quite jarring, that we didn¡¯t need to buy any right now. Short term didn¡¯t mean immediately, and perhaps we would benefit from taking more time on the issue, or talking to the others about it. ¡°Hm¡­ Consensus is that we should talk to the others, which¡­ I kind of agree with. It¡¯s weird that they needed to remind me of it.¡± They are you, Seraphine. The Hive is more than just an easy way for you to make points. Remember that they have your best interest at heart, which sometimes means reminding you of things that you forget or ignore. Listen to them and learn. But very well. I have some more options for airborne transports, if you wish. I shook my head, ¡°Not right now. For the moment we want to take things slow and rx a bit.¡± Understood. On an unrted note, Victor has tried to contact you numerous times, asking if and when you would return to your job. I frowned. So far my n had to go back eventually, I did like my job. But the chorus was quite undecided on that front, mainly because of worries how Chloe and Jenna would react. That sparked another debate on if we should even broach the topic with them, or if we should wait until we could talk to them about our rtionship in general. While many were quite emotional, the rational ones did point out that so far we still were only friends with nothing binding us together yet. To jump to conclusions would be unfair to them and unhelpful. Of course the counter point was that if either of them didn¡¯t like the idea of us doing our job, it might hamper our rtionship from the get go, although this line of reasoning was quickly dismantled considering that both were aware of what I did for a living, and so far neither hasmented. Chloe even seemed pretty enticed by the idea of me having my clients, if her reaction to the soldier I took on at the gate was anything to go by. No, we have to talk to them. As much as we might worry, our ideal rtionship, be it friendship or otherwise, should be built uponmunication. Not guesswork that led us nowhere and might end up in disaster. I liked my job, and I would love to continue doing it. We were changing what it meant to be a joytoy in the direction I always wanted. If Chloe or Jenna were against it, then we would reconsider. But unless they specifically told me not to, we would continue with the n of returning to our normal life, which meant doing the job I¡¯ve been doing for as long as I was working for money. We ignored the deep pangs of pain that came with the thought that they might not like it, or that they might not feel the same as us as we did, should I continue to be a joytoy. But we would deal with it when and if that time came, not before. As much as we wanted to ensure that everything went smoothly, we couldn¡¯t prepare perfectly for every eventuality. If only because it would drive us insane. ¡°I think I will. Let him know that we, uhm, I will contact him in the next couple of days.¡± Very well. I stayed under the hot water for a while longer, enjoying the feeling. I had already finished up while we were discussing things, but I simply wanted a moment for myself. It felt nice to simply rx under the hot water and it washed away the tension I had felt over thest couple of days of constant fighting and survival. A tension I hadn¡¯t even realised I still had yet. Only when I felt truly rxed did I step out. Now I was ready for the days toe.
I have a Discord! Chapter 33 – Taking time off with friends is always more fun! Chapter 33 ¨C Taking time off with friends is always more fun! ¡°ButtShot29: Have you seen those three babes in NS working together? HaliaTron: yeah bro that one with all the weapons is real fine Gemini2035: nah the one with the bow its where its at ButtShot29: I like the short one, her pets are fucking awesome! HaliaTron: shes a joytoy bro dont ask me how thats supposed to work with all those weird aliens StickTheFiddle19: yeah dont try to get an appointment shes booked out for months and its not even clear if shelle back to the job Gemini2035: i heard that she ns to i have a friend stationed at the gate he was there during the incursion and saw her summon this huge alien dog thing and he says she fucked some rando soldier because he asked her too HaliaTron: brooo there is no way in hell that that wasnt a one time thing probably for morale or something ButtShot29: You never know, doesn¡¯t hurt to ask, right?¡± - Page 1332 of the Samurai Forums, General Discussions - New Savannah Once done I asked Kaysa for a fresh set of casual clothes, sparking a minor discussion about style and preferences which I ignored, mainly because I didn¡¯t want something specific and also because it was a small discussion with only a part of the chorus. The results would be noted by the Burdened in their archive, and if we ever needed something specific they could show us. Of course, Kaysa being Kaysa, she had delivered even with my limited instructions. All of them were from the basic ss 0 Catalogues, which meant they only cost a point each, but they were of exquisite quality. Thecey panties especially were to die for, I couldn¡¯t remember ever wearing a single piece of clothing that had been thisfortable. It was to the point I questioned if I would be able to ever take it off again. The only piece of clothing that coulde close were my new socks. She had opted out of giving me a bra, which I didn¡¯t mind. I didn¡¯t wear bras that often outside of work anyways, and with the shirt she got me it would look better without anyways. Talking about the shirt, both it and the pants were simrly high quality. The shirt was a bit oversized, revealing our shoulders, and made out of a soft ck fabric. It had ¡°Myriad, the Living Weapon swarm¡± printed on the front, and one of the more feminine but still alien looking Hexw drones on the back in a seductive pose. Curiously this drone had kitsune ears and a kitsune tail, instead of the normal one. The pants were a dark blue and a tad oversized as well, which made them veryfortable. Usually I preferred something shorter, either hot pants or a skirt, but today I didn¡¯t mind going more casual, I would have more than enough time to show off to Chloe and Jenna in the future. One day of normal clothing wouldn¡¯t kill me. Fully dressed I cleaned my teeth, more so a result of habit than anything else, before making my way downstairs. About halfway down I started hearing the conversation the others were having. ¡°...been asking about you. Maybe you should give him a call.¡± The voice belonged to Chloe¡¯s mother, an elderly woman looking just as I had imagined her. She was basically an older, wiser looking version of Chloe, the only difference being that she was a bit shorter than her daughter. ¡°Not interested. He¡¯s just going to annoy me again, I told him I want to be left alone,¡± Chloe¡¯s voice came in reply, a bit of tension audible in her tone. The door to the living room was open, revealing the others seated around the living room table. On three of the sides was a sofa, with Chloe¡¯s parents in one, while Chloe and Jenna were on the one opposite theirs. When I stepped through I was obviously the center of attention and I gave a small wave. Seeing Chloe and Jenna filled me with happiness and affection, an almost drowning feeling that could have overtaken us instantly, if the chorus didn¡¯t work overtime to suppress it and push it into a corner. We didn¡¯t want to deny our feelings, but we had to make sure we could function around them. And that meant drastic measures, considering the intensity with which we loved them. ¡°Hey,¡± Chloe said with a warm smile. ¡°Hey,¡± I answered with the same, desperately mping down on the urge to jump her right then and there, instead making my way over to sit between her and Jenna, before giving them both a hug that might have been a bit more tight and a tad longer than usually. ¡°We didn¡¯t want to wake you up, especially after you fell asleep on us like that,¡± Jenna added, also smiling at me. I blushed in embarrassment, ¡°Sorry for that, we were quite tired.¡± ¡°We?¡± Chloe asked, an eyebrow raised, an expression mirrored by Jenna. Panic rose up as one, and we tried to remain calm. Did we mess up this badly already? The chorus was in full damage control mode, and I pushed down on my need to apologise profusely. I sighed, ¡°Sorry, still getting used to it. Remember that upgrade I did? Well, itpleted while I slept. I am now a full Hive-Mind, which makes thinking of myself as, well just myself, a bit hard. I¡¯m not just one person anymore, I am the whole Hive. Every Hexw is me, is us. We are the chorus.¡± Chloe¡¯s frown hurt, quite a bit really, but we mped down on the urge to shrink away. This was as new to her as it was to us, we reminded ourselves, and she had made it clear from the get go that she was on the fence about it. ¡°You said it would change you, but that¡­ I¡¯m not sure how I feel about it.¡± ¡°But it¡¯s still you, underneath, right?¡± Jenna asked, partly in hopes of lifting the mood, partly out of curiosity. Not that it hid the underlying¡­ was that anxiousness or caution? Whatever the case, it greatly hurt to hear. ¡°Of course. Nothing about me has changed. It¡¯s just that me now includes over seven hundred Hexws and the corresponding voices in the chorus. It¡¯s hard to exin.¡± ¡°That¡¯s¡­ a bit weird, not gonna lie,¡± Chloe muttered, then shook her head and smiled awkwardly, ¡°Sorry. I promised As to be more open minded, but yet here I am, once more, judging.¡± The smallment was enough to fill us with giddiness and affection, to know that she was trying to see us for who we were, no matter how creepy or alien it was to her. I chuckled awkwardly, pulling her into a hug and resisting the urge to give her a peck. I wasn¡¯t quite sure how she would feel about it right now and I didn¡¯t want to push. A feeling mirrored by the entire chorus. ¡°No, it¡¯s fine. And it is weird. I¡¯m trying my best, and while it¡¯s weird to be an entire Hive now, it is also helpful. You wouldn¡¯t imagine how many things I can sort through in short order.¡± There was an awkward silence for a moment, although luckily for me her father broke it. ¡°So, you are Seraphine then?¡± hemented, making me realise I had kind of skipped the introductions. I turned and gave her parents a warm smile, noting the smile of amusement on their faces. ¡°Yeah, sorry. I¡¯m Seraphine Bloodfallen, or Myriad if you want,¡± I introduced myself and pointed at my shirt, ¡°It¡¯s a pleasure to meet you both. Since we share all information with all drones, and the Queen¡¯s Guard was here the entire time to keep an eye on Chloe and Jenna, I kinda forgot that I hadn¡¯t had the chance to introduce myself yet.¡± ¡°Wait, they were here the entire time?¡± Chloe asked, looking around. ¡°Yeah,¡± I said, just as the Queen¡¯s Guard revealed themselves for the first time, ¡°They¡¯ve been following you the entire time. Mind you, they didn¡¯t share the specifics of your conversation to safeguard your privacy, but they¡¯ve been here.¡± Of course everyone was looking at the drones standing at parade rest, eyes open for any kind of danger. Part of me had feared that Chloe¡¯s parents would be creeped out by them, but they simply checked them over for a moment, before returning their attention back to the three of us. ¡°Well,¡± her father said, ¡°I¡¯m Wilhelm, a pleasure.¡± ¡°And I am Sophia Vayne,¡± her mother followed, ¡°Chloe mentioned that you ran yourself ragged in the undercity.¡± ¡°Most of that came from the upgrade I mentioned. Had to split my attention hundreds of times, trying to control my drones and whatnot. But I hope she didn¡¯t sell herself short. She was instrumental down there. Just look at how she got her new name,¡± I replied with a smile. Her parents looked at her with open curiosity. ¡°New name? You didn¡¯t mention that,¡± her mother said with that gleam that parents get when there is news to be heard from their children. Chloe blushed, waving a hand dismissively, ¡°It¡¯s not important.¡± ¡°Of course it is. Now, let¡¯s hear it,¡± her father encouraged. Chloe¡¯s blush only grew more fierce. ¡°Bloodhound,¡± she mumbled. ¡°You need to be a bit louder than that, dear,¡± her mother said with an impish smile. ¡°I said Bloodhound, for fuck sake!¡± Chloe almost yelled, throwing up her hands, ¡°There, happy?¡± Jenna and I giggled at her antics. She was utterly too adorable when she was embarrassed and we had to mp down on our urges hard to not jump her in front of her parents. ¡°You should have seen her,¡± I added with a warm smile, looking at her, ¡°Hip deep in dead xenos, weapons pointed in every direction and covered in gore from head to toe. Honestly, she looked like one of those old action heroes. The good ones, not those cheap knock offs that flitted about the for a while.¡± ¡°Not to mention,¡± Jenna cut in, ¡°The way she took charge of everything. Like a corporal in the army. It was kind of hot watching her.¡± ¡°Could you both please shut the fuck up?¡± Chloe asked us with exasperation, her face a bright crimson. I giggled and gave her a quick squeeze, ¡°You¡¯re cute when you¡¯re angry, you know that?¡± Her pout only made it even harder for me to not kiss her there and then. ¡°So,¡± Chloe¡¯s mother asked, sessfully distracted from the previous topic, but with a dangerous glint in her eyes, ¡°Are you two¡­?¡± ¡°MOM!¡± Chloe yelled, and Iughed out loud. Even Jenna was chuckling along. ¡°I don¡¯t think that¡¯s a topic for here and now. For the moment, no,¡± I exined with a smile at Chloe, ¡°We¡¯ve only known each other for like two days, and I think we need to have a couple more talks before we can head anywhere near there.¡± ¡°Shame,¡± Sophia said unabashedly, ¡°I had kind of hoped that someone finally pulled her in. She¡¯s always been like that, you know, dodging any kind of advance and letting them all rot in some corner.¡± To my surprise Chloe got even more red in the face, a feat I didn¡¯t think possible. ¡°Do we need to talk about this right now?¡± Chloe hissed, not knowing where to look. ¡°Of course not, dear,¡± her mother said with a tone that said that she would very much like to continue this conversation. ¡°Anyways,¡± Wilhelm said, throwing his daughter a rope, ¡°From what Chloe has been telling us so far you three have been working together? How did you meet anyways, she never mentioned that.¡± Chloe looked panicked, and Iughed once more, just enjoying seeing her reactions. It was so nice to just chat and not have to worry about aliens pouring out of every conceivable hole in the ground. ¡°Well, we met on the job, so to say. We, by which I mean Jenna and I, work as Joytoys down in the redlight district. Your daughter and I were just about to enjoy some time together when the aliens showed up. Since I was drunk out my ass and so full of drugs that walking was an issue, I was sure I¡¯d die then and there. She rushed off to help others, leaving me with about a half dozen xenos and only a gun to protect me and the people there. She told me that she¡¯d be back soon, we weren¡¯t the only ones in deep trouble. The problem was that the aliens didn¡¯t wait for her. Took some doing, and a metal dildo to bash thest xeno''s face in, but I survived. Afterwards Chloe helped me clean up the district, where we met Jenna. She had her own worries and to be honest was a bit of a mess, but once we got everything sorted we went ahead to kill some aliens and save the day.¡± Her parents looked at me with amusement, which did not help Chloe¡¯s panicked heart at all. Honestly, at this point I was a bit anxious that she might pop a blood vessel somewhere. Maybe we should keep our healer on her to make sure nothing happened? ¡°On the job, hm?¡± Sophia said with a smirk, ¡°Do tell.¡± ¡°For fuck sake,¡± Chloe muttered, hiding her face in her hands. I pulled her closer, slinging an arm around herfortingly. Just having her close like this had the chorus singing in happiness, it felt like a swarm of butterflies had been let loose inside of us. I could practically feel the drones outside humming with content. ¡°Anyways,¡± I continued, finally allowing her some rest from all the teasing, ¡°It was quite a busy couple of days and I¡¯m d that we¡¯re finally getting some time off. Hopefully things will remain quiet for a while. I would very much like to just spend some time with these two. Then there is the whole district to take care of, I still have to check in with my friends¡­ Huh¡­ seems like there is more to do than I anticipated. Oh well.¡± While I spoke the Burdened of course catalogued everything, updated the almanacthey were building for our tasks ahead and what needed to be done to achieve them. ¡°There is always more to do, be it Samurai or floor cleaner. That¡¯s just how life is,¡± Wilhelm said with a knowing smile. ¡°What are you nning on doing?¡± I asked with a look over at Jenna. She just shrugged, ¡°I¡¯m not sure¡­ Figure out living arrangements, I guess. Truth be told, I don''t particrly like the idea of going back to my shared apartment. My roommate and I¡­ we have some issues between us.¡± ¡°For the time being you can stay here,¡± Chloe said, finally calmed down a bit, ¡°I have the room and it¡¯s not like I¡¯m hurting for money.¡± ¡°Thank you,¡± Jenna told Chloe with a nod, then sighed, ¡°Apart from that, not sure. I don¡¯t want to go back to my job, but at the same time I didn¡¯t do much outside of my job either. Most of the day was spent working. To be honest, I¡¯m a bit lost at the moment.¡± ¡°Take some time, dear,¡± Sophia said encouragingly, ¡°Perhaps a few days off will help you sort everything out.¡± Wilhelm nodded in agreement, ¡°Especially after a drastic change in your life like this. I imagine bing a Samurai is quite the jolt to one''s life.¡± ¡°Talking about changes,¡± I mused, ¡°I should probably check in with Tina and the Joytoys today, see if they need anything. Then see what I can do for the redlight district as a whole to make sure things go smoothly when they go back. Probably best to check in with Castas as well on that front. And I still need to decide if I want to go back to being a joytoy¡­¡± I frowned, thinking about it. ¡°Why wouldn¡¯t you? You like the job, right?¡± Chloe asked, looking at me inquisitively. ¡°I do, but¡­¡± I sighed and shook my head, ¡°Not right now. We¡¯ll talk about thatter, okay?¡± Turning back to the group atrge I continued, ¡°Regardless of that, it might make sense to check in with them today. They should still be at the shelter and if I can get things settled before they return, it would make things easier I think. Especially considering the whole gang situation¡­ Oh well, I guess I have something to doter.¡± ¡°If you don¡¯t mind,¡± Jenna said quietly, ¡°I would like to join you.¡± ¡°Sure, I don¡¯t mind.¡± There was a moment of silence, but not one I minded. It was nice to just rx a little, especially with both Jenna and Chloe close by. The entire chorus agreed, if we would have to spend the rest of our lives like this, we¡¯d jump at the idea. After a moment Wilhelm spoke up, ¡°Well, then how about you guys tell us what exactly went down in the undercity, now that Seraphine has joined us? You mentioned a few things, but never gave us the whole story.¡±
I have a Discord! Chapter 34 – Emotions are hard Chapter 34 ¨C Emotions are hard ¡°Feeling down? Looking for some rxation? Maybe some fun? Thene today to CloudNine, we¡¯ll be sure to make your day better! Our dolls are experts in taking away your worries and immersing you in a feeling of pleasure and content. Pick from one of our hundreds of expert dolls to start your journey into a better, calmer life! Any and all information given to employees of CloudNine is legally property of CloudNine Corp. and associates. CloudNine Corp. and associates are not responsible for any resulting trauma, infections, illnesses, or diseases. Terms and Conditions apply. You will not bepensated for any breach of information.¡± - Ad for ¡°CloudNine - Your one stop shop for a better day!¡±, 2040 We spent a pleasant few hours with Chloe¡¯s parents, regaling them about our heroic deeds down in the undercity. Eventually though they said their goodbyes, leaving the three of us alone in the living room, slouched on the sofa and just taking a few minutes to rx. ¡°That was nice,¡± I muttered, enjoying their presence next to me, ¡°We should do this more often.¡± ¡°Yeah¡­¡± Chloe agreed, then looked at me, ¡°How are you feeling?¡± ¡°Pretty good. Sleep did good by me. You?¡± ¡°I¡¯m good. I had some opportunity to talk to As about that upgrade you did,¡± she said, although I could hear some uncertainty there. It was clear that she was conflicted still, and we reminded ourselves that it was to be expected. Hive-Minds weren¡¯t human, they were alien. It would be weirder if she would jump at us after this new development. ¡°Yeah¡­ It¡¯s¡­ different from what I expected,¡± I ventured, not quite sure how to broach the topic, ¡°I mean, I¡¯m still me. But I didn¡¯t expect it to turn out like this¡­¡± ¡°He said that it is different from person to person,¡± she said with a nod. ¡°Kaysa mentioned. Still, I think I got a pretty good deal out of it. A weird deal, but a good one.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know anything about it,¡± Jenna chimed in, ¡°What exactly did happen to you? You exined a bit earlier, but it was kind of hard to follow and not exactly the right time to ask questions.¡± I nodded, gaze unfocused as I searched for the right words, ¡°The best I can exin is that basically all of my drones have a sort of copy of my personality and we all are part of this grand chorus. Like a really oversized debate club. They aren¡¯t just perfect copies either, they have some nuances. I¡¯m their Queen, the head honcho. I¡¯m in charge and could technically just tell them what to do and they¡¯d do it, no questions asked. But they also debate, we debate, a lot. On different things. I can¡¯t say too much about that yet, since I¡¯ve only had this for a couple hours so far, but basically whenever a decision needs to be reached we discuss it. I can of course just overrule them, but that¡¯s not always the best decision.¡± ¡°You know your internal dialogue, right?¡± I asked them, ¡°A sort of debate with yourself when you have to make choices. Weighing one over the other, that kind of thing. It¡¯s basically that, but with a lot of different versions of yourself. At the end of the day it¡¯s your choice, you don¡¯t need to listen to your internal debate, but it is helpful. Not to mention that they can direct all the different bodies, and since they are me I don¡¯t even need to think about it. I can, of course, but in most cases they will probably reach the same conclusion as me.¡± ¡°That doesn¡¯t sound so bad,¡± Jenna said with a smile, ¡°I kind of expected something¡­ I dunno, more alien?¡± ¡°It is pretty alien if you ask me,¡± Chloe said with a shrug, ¡°Then again there are people like that without the drones and the protector upgrades. So maybe not?¡± I chuckled, ¡°I had the same thought, honestly when I first woke I thought I might need to visit an insane asylum.¡± Both of them joined my chuckle with their own, making for a heavenly sound in my ears. ¡°Anyways, I¡¯m still mostly myself. It¡¯s just that I¡¯m more than myself, for ack of a better word. Should be pretty helpful when smashing xenos. Although they only know what I know, or rather, no single voice knows more than the whole. When one of us gains more knowledge we all gain it, but that only goes so far. We have some dedicated to cataloguing and analysing all new information, of course. But even then it means that all of us only know how to fight as well as I do, which means we need more knowledge. More training.¡± Chloe frowned, ¡°Not gonna lie, hearing you speak about yourself as this great whole is kind of creepy.¡± That stung a bit, but I couldn¡¯t fault her for it. ¡°I suppose it is. Sorry, I¡¯m trying to keep a lid on it, but it¡¯s part of me now.¡± ¡°Yeah, I get that. Might just need some getting used to,¡± she said with a half-smile that didn¡¯t quite hide her uncertainty. ¡°Regardless,¡± I continued, ¡°It did make me think about ways to train more. Or rather, learn anything really. Combat training would be good, of course, but I could do more with it. I never had an education, at least not since my da dropped me off in the redlight district. Maybe it¡¯s time to correct that.¡± ¡°I talked to Cleopatra about that too,¡± Jenna said, ¡°There are a few different ways to learn something. I already decided on Dream Learning for me, not only for fighting but also for how to y my bow.¡± ¡°Might be worth looking into for me as well,¡± Chloe said thoughtfully, ¡°Although I wouldn¡¯t know what to be honest.¡± I looked over at Jenna, ¡°I have another avenue for me, but that requires some time and space. Kaysa mentioned that you decided on the Legion Corvette thing, right?¡± She nodded. ¡°Could I prevail upon you for a room in that thing? I can have my drones learn, who can then hand that knowledge over to the whole. It¡¯s a bit less effective and a bit more time consuming, but for normal stuff like cooking and such it works well enough.¡± ¡°Sure, I can do that,¡± Jenna said with a smile, ¡°I have more room than I know what to do with in that thing. Well, that¡¯s not entirely true, but I¡¯m not short on space. A room more wouldn¡¯t be too much of an issue.¡± ¡°Awesome, thanks,¡± I said, giving her a slight squeeze. Once more there was silence in the room and I let it. Now that I thought about it, I couldn¡¯t remember thest time I was this content with just being in a room with someone. On the job I didn¡¯t have the opportunity for that often, and my off hours were mostly spent taking drugs somewhere. That thought had me frowning again, not sure how to feel about going back to being a joytoy. ¡°Something wrong?¡± Jenna asked, noticing my expression. I shook my head, ¡°It¡¯s just¡­ About Chloe¡¯sment earlier. About my job. I¡¯m a bit undecided.¡± Part of me was still undecided if I should even bring it up with them, but we had all decided together thatmunication was key. This question couldn¡¯t be dealt with unless it was spoken about. And while we worried, we also knew that both Chloe and Jenna knew about what exactly it all entailed, and were likely to ept it. If only because they knew I loved the job and would love to continue doing it. ¡°From what I understand you quite like it, right?¡± Jenna asked, ¡°More than I do, anyways.¡± ¡°Yes, but that¡¯s also part of the problem. I do like it. Love it even. But¡­¡± I paused, trying to find the right words, ¡°Now I¡¯m no longer alone in my life. I have you two, and if I¡¯m frank about it, I¡¯m kind of looking to the future with this, but¡­ I wouldn¡¯t mind if you two stayed in my life, if you know what I mean. I¡¯m anxious that you might disagree with me doing what I do, if we ever get the chance to¡­ you know¡­¡± Ugh, why was it so hard to just talk to them about it? Normally I never had any issues expressing myself, but with these two right there it was hard to think of the right way to even get to it. It didn¡¯t help that the chorus was offering hundreds of different ways to broach the topic, each trying to help. But in that moment it was more hindrance than help. ¡°Sorry,¡± I muttered, shaking my head. ¡°No, no, it¡¯s fine,¡± Chloe said with a smile, ¡°And I don¡¯t think it¡¯s a secret how you feel. I think. Hell, even I picked up on it by this point. Not that you were too¡­ subtle about it yesterday.¡± She chuckled, ¡°And I don¡¯t mind. To be perfectly honest,¡± she continued with a slight blush, ¡°I think it¡¯s¡­ I dunno, kinda hot? That you are this¡­ You know what you want and you don¡¯t hide it, the opposite really. You scream it to the world proudly. It¡¯s not something I could do. It¡¯s what I like about you. And if you¡¯re worried about, you know, sleeping with others¡­ I don¡¯t mind that either.¡± A long awkward silence followed, before I chuckled, ¡°It¡¯s kind of strange to talk about it. We¡¯ve known each other for what, maybe two and a half days, let¡¯s be generous and say three. To talk about these things¡­ Oh boy.¡± ¡°Yeah¡­¡± Chloe agreed with a soft voice, ¡°I¡¯m not sure how things will go, I¡¯m not sure I¡¯m entirely sure I¡¯m ready for it¡­ But I¡¯m willing to keep my options open.¡± I nced at Jenna, unsure how to approach her on it. She noticed my nce and gave me a rare, faint blush and an awkward smile in return, ¡°For me, I¡¯m not that certain yet. This is all rather new to me, and things are moving a lot faster than I amfortable with, sorry. I don''t mind your job, but the rest? If you even want me, since, with you and Chloe¡­¡± I chuckled, then pulled her closer, ¡°Oh, believe me I do, In that regard it''s up to her. But maybe right now isn¡¯t the right time. We have a couple of days at the very least. Maybe now that the chaos is over we can take the time to explore the notion, see where it gets us and how we like it.¡± It could have gone worse. Sure, it also could also have gone a lot better, but at least they didn¡¯t seem too creeped out by us. And they hadn¡¯t thrown us to the wind yet, Chloe even said that she was keeping her options open, so maybe we had a chance. I was quite d to hear that they didn¡¯t mind my job. That had kind of been a big worry of mine, considering that I did really like doing it, and at this point I think I would go insane without that outlet. ying with myself only got me so far and I doubted that either Chloe or Jenna were up for that kind of nightly fun. To be honest, maybe I had worried too much about that. Chloe had obviously really liked the idea of me having a go with that soldier at the inner city gates on my first day as a Samurai. I wasn¡¯t sure if she was a voyeur or a cuck, maybe both, maybe she just liked the idea of me bending over for anyone who paid. Or in that specific case, had the balls to ask. Or maybe it was just as she had said, and she simply liked that I embraced what I was without any shame. I was pretty open about it after all. Whatever it was, she had been pretty obvious about her opinion on the matter from the get go. Jenna had been the one that had me truly worried. Maybe that was our conversation at the gates and her obvious dislike at how people looked at both her and me. But she didn¡¯t seem too hung up on it, at least once she got to know us better during the following day. And while she personally didn¡¯t like it, she never made any move to change our own path. She was who she was, and she was mainly worried because of her own dislike of her job, not our liking of our own. Now that I thought about it, the entire episode with Jenna was a bit strange, even for us. My love for Chloe I could get, she had been there ever since the entire mess had started and she was pretty damn right in the middle of my strike zone. She had been there to help and to save me, to save all of those that I had managed to get out of the brothel. I had liked her a lot the moment we met, so me going this far was not unexpected. But Jenna¡­ We wondered where that hade from. Was it simply because we liked the way she took responsibility for her own actions? Or was it the way we met which made me feel like I had to take care of her? Or maybe it was something else. She was a pretty, albeit a tad quiet, woman who, despite setbacks, carried herself with grace. At least once she had gotten out of that funk we found her in. She was smart and whenever she spoke she knew exactly what she wanted to say. We could definitely see ourselves go for someone like that. Hell, we did. Regardless, she had been the one I was mainly worried about in regards to my job. She was a joytoy herself, or at least had been, so perhaps that should have clued me in, but then again she was pretty unhappy with her time working the sheets, so maybe my worry was justified. The important thing was that she didn¡¯t seem to mind. I just hope that she didn¡¯t just say that to cate me. But if that¡¯s the case then she couldn¡¯t me me for it. I wanted to be supportive and understanding, but I couldn¡¯t be held ountable for her actions. And if I tried to bend myself over backwards with everything, then I would just end up getting lost. Anyways, today wasn¡¯t the day to continue that talk, so I decided to switch the topic. ¡°Now, I remember Lt. ke, I think he was called, mention something about a Family meeting,¡± I continued, checking the time, ¡°When was that again?¡± ¡°Today at six,¡± Chloe said, ¡°We have some time until then.¡± ¡°Still a couple of hours. Guess I best head out then if I want to talk to Tina today,¡± I muttered, then stretchedvishly, which had Chloe look me over. I gave her a moment to give me a full once over, revelling in the appreciation obvious in her gaze. ¡°Still want toe with?¡± I asked Jenna, who nodded. ¡°Alright,¡± I said, then got up, ¡°Probably better to head out now then. What are you gonna do?¡± Chloe shrugged, ¡°Probably shopping. I¡¯m nearly out of groceries, so I want to grab something for dinner. Tomorrow we can go out and shop for the three of us, I don¡¯t know what you like.¡± Thinking about it for a moment I shrugged, ¡°I¡¯m fine with whatever. Never was one to cook, so I¡¯ll trust your expertise.¡± The other two got up and I caught Chloe in a tight hug, ¡°I¡¯ll see youter then,¡± I said quietly with a warm smile. She smiled in turn, tussled my hair like I was a child, which surprisingly I didn¡¯t mind at all, then hugged me closer for a moment, ¡°Yeah. Take care of your friends, okay?¡± ¡°Will do!¡± After a moment we separated, Jenna and Chloe shared a quick hug, before the two of us walked outside. Of course the Queen¡¯s Guard followed us, once more invisible, and on the way to the door we were met with the Hive Princess, who gave me a shallow bow. ¡°My Queen,¡± she said in that strange voice of hers. I gave her a quick once over, ¡°You need a name,¡± I said matter of factly. ¡°A name?¡± she asked, giving me a contemting nce. ¡°Yeah. If only so that I can refer people to you. I know for us names are a bit redundant, but normally people have a name to go by.¡± ¡°But we are one. We are Myriad.¡± Her reply surprised me a little. ¡°Myriad?¡± I asked in surprise, then gave Jenna a nce who was watching us with curiosity. ¡°What do you think?¡± I asked her. She shrugged, ¡°It works, I think. You are one big Hive, right? And you are Myriad, the Living Weapon swarm,¡± she motioned to my shirt, ¡°Don¡¯t forget you are a Samurai, some oddness won¡¯t be amiss. People will ept that, even if they might be a bit creeped out about it. But that can work to your advantage, I think. Keep them off bnce. Also¡­¡± She trailed off, searching for the right words, ¡°I think it would help to solidify what you are in this. You are still Seraphine. I¡¯m not sure how exactly this all works, but I won¡¯t deny some anxiousness about you changing more¡­ drastically. Having some distinction between you and the rest of the Hive might be good, I think.¡± I took a moment to think about it. The chorus agreed, and her arguments made sense on a personal level. I hadn¡¯t thought too much about it, but I would lie if I didn¡¯t have the same fears. Losing myself wasn¡¯t something I was keen on. We were one whole, we were Myriad, but I was still Seraphine. Of course, in my role as Samurai I would be Myriad too, as I was part of the whole. But maybe on the day to day it would be good to have some kind of more formal distinction, like Jenna said. What did surprise me was that the chorus agreed so readily. And that they shared my fear of losing myself, at least to a degree. They were me, as a base, sure, but they were also alien. I would have thought that they would wee me being a proper part of it all. ¡°It makes sense,¡± I pondered, ¡°But I feel like it could make thingsplicated. Oh well, we¡¯ll deal with it when we get there. Okay, so you are Myriad, I am Seraphine.¡± ¡°Yess, My Queen,¡± Myriad said, bowing. ¡°Want to join us?¡± I asked her, and she nodded, although it seemed like an alien motion to her, as if she was tasting it. ¡°Yess, My Queen. You wish to help the disstrict, we wish to help the disstrict. It might be good for me to have a proper idea of what needss doing.¡± I wasn¡¯t gonna lie, it warmed my heart to see the chorus so ready to help me in my endeavours. We were one, yes, but they were still alien. Perhaps I still hadn¡¯t yet internalised what it would mean to be a proper Hive, all working towards one goal. Or maybe hearing it spoken aloud just underlined the slow eptance of what I was, and that they would be there to help me. Thinking about it was good, mentally debating and discussing things was helpful. But to hear it actually in a voice spoken not my own¡­ It gave the entire thing gravitas. ¡°Good. Then let¡¯s go, shall we?¡± We filed out of the house, Jenna¡¯s Sentinels neatly falling into step behind us, while Myriad and the Queen¡¯s Guard followed behind me. The Queen¡¯s Guard remained invisible, but Myriad did not, even though she could have if she wanted to. The sun was high in the sky and I took a moment to appreciate the feeling of its warm embrace on my skin. Good weather like this was a rarity, most often than not it was raining, in most other cases there was at least heavy cloud coverpletely blocking out the sun. So the few times that the sun did shine was a nice change of pace. That today was one of those rare days made me feel hopeful for the future. Of course we had quite a lot of eyes on us. Chloe¡¯s house had already been the center of attention, what with three Samurai living there in a quite obvious fashion, so I wasn¡¯t surprised. Not that I minded either. ¡°The Najav will pick us up in the outskirts of town,¡± I exined to Jenna, ¡°Wouldn¡¯t want to ruin their streets by having it burrow through them.¡± She nodded and we walked in silence for a little while. ¡°I¡¯m not sure if I should get the Legion Corvette now orter,¡± Jenna said eventually, ¡°I do have the points, but it is quite the big purchase. I wouldn¡¯t even know where to keep it when I don¡¯t need it.¡± ¡°How big is it exactly? You mentioned that it¡¯s quiterge,rger than the Enforcer, but I¡¯m having a hard time imagining just how big. The Enforcer already was a lot bigger than I had anticipated.¡± ¡°The base design is roughly seventy meters long, but I will get the upgraded one. The Legion Corvette is modr, which means I don¡¯t need to get the full thing in one go, but I decided to go with the bigger version as the basis to make sure I had enough room to fit everything inside. The one I want to get is one hundred ny seven meters long, roughly forty meters high, and just shy of ny five meters wide. It can easily carry the Legion Enforcer and your Najav with room to spare. Not sure yet what I want inside, although some things are already decided on, like Sentinel production and maintenance facilities, a proper bedroom and shower, storage for my Sentinels¡­ I could even store quite a lot of your drones.¡± My eyebrows rose as she spoke, ¡°That¡¯s one big toy. How much will it cost you?¡± ¡°At the moment 21450 points. I could technically upgrade it a bit more, but that would leave me with fewer points than I want to have.¡± ¡°You have that many points?¡± I asked, a bit surprised. She hadn¡¯t spent as much as I had I knew, but she also couldn¡¯t have made as much as I had considering the fall off from her Sentinels. ¡°Not exactly. Chloe and I sat down in the morning going over things. She offered to supply additional funds since she is drowning in them and doesn¡¯t have anything big she wants to get. Which means that I get some of her upgraded weapon systems and in exchange she gets some specialised rooms for weapons maintenance and storage. Her logic was that if we continue working together, putting together a proper base of operations with sufficient fire power would be a priority.¡± I nodded at that, it made sense. It should be mentioned, Kaysa cut in, That the three of you are in quite the unique position. Normally freshly minted Vanguards don¡¯te close to your point total. If it hadn¡¯t been for the undercity issues and theck of properly equipped Vanguards in the city, you would fall quite short in terms of points gained, much more in line with typical fresh Vanguards. I nodded at that, ¡°I figured as much. If every new Samurai would make this many points in their first days, things would probably be a lot different. Still, I don¡¯t mind helping you out with points a bit. You both helped me get started with my Hive and the Najav. I have just under 18k to spend, I¡¯d be willing to supply a good chunk for additional transportation since that¡¯s my priority at the moment. Call it¡­ 8k? That leaves me with more than enough for my own purposes and should allow us to upgrade it quite a bit, right?¡± She smiled at me, ¡°Thanks. And yes, it would make things a lot easier. It would probably be best if we sit down togetherter to think about what we need.¡± ¡°Of course. And I like the idea of working together. We can get a lot of things done.¡± ¡°Indeed,¡± she replied with a smile.
I have a Discord! Chapter 35 – A catalogue for prostitutes Chapter 35 ¨C A catalogue for prostitutes ¡°You wouldn¡¯t believe how many fuckwits out there are willin¡¯ to pay loads and loads of credits for some real fucked up porn. The entire industry got a huge revolution when the first Samurai started buyin¡¯ all that good stuff. From techniques to give you orgasms for days, to imnts that can make you cum on the spot, there is nothin¡¯ that ya can¡¯t find in today''s market. And don¡¯t even get me started on all that weird alien shit, from real expensive almost livin¡¯ lookin¡¯ android sex dolls in the shape of some alien hooker to toys in shapes and sizes that I couldn''t even begin to describe. Ever wanted to fuck an Asarii? Now you can! Sci-Fi fans rejoice! Of course that ain¡¯t the only option, the menu is near limitless. We live in the prime time of porn, and it will only get better.¡± - Henry Galvin, CEO of ¡°Interdimensional Sweethearts Inc.¡± on the boom of the porn industry post 2022, 2031 The rest of the walk to the outskirts was spent in silence, which I didn¡¯t mind. Even from afar we could see the Najav, right next to Jenna¡¯s Legion Enforcer. It made me once more realise just how big those things were. The Najav¡¯s body was only slightly smaller than the Enforcer, although with its limbs and tails it looked a lot bigger. It was already ready and waiting for us, body lowered to the ground. As we approached it¡¯s maw opened and a set of stairs descended from the roof of its mouth. It was a bit creepy, now that I thought about it, but Kaysa had designed the Najav to work as a personal transport. I hadn¡¯t even realised at the time, only once the Hive was fullyplete did I notice the internal changes to it. It had cost a good chunk of biomass storage, but it still had enough for our purposes and it was useful to have a vehicle of sorts to use to travel. Even if it was a weird looking one. But we were Samurai, and Samurai were known for rather strange equipment. Jenna didn¡¯t look as amused, eyeing the stairs cautiously. I chuckled at her look, ¡°No need to worry. Kaysa has set up a cosy little ce inside. Enough for six people to sit, or three to sleep, the seats are quite roomy.¡± She nodded and I made my way inside, finding the room as I had seen it earlier in the day, when the Najav was giving its full status report. When we entered the sides of the room red to life, disying the world as it was seen outside, which was a neat trick. I sat down on one of the seats, and Jenna sat down opposite me, while Myriad took the one to my left. The Queen¡¯s Guard moved towards the back. It hadn¡¯t been designed with them in mind, since I got them after I got the Najav, but they didn¡¯t seem to mind standing. Once we had taken our seats the Najav got up, turned, and started to make its way towards the city. To my surprise Myriad pulled out the two nanite amulets, putting them on the table. ¡°You left your protectionss at Knight Chloe¡¯ss ce. We figured it might be prudent to take them with uss, in casse of emergency,¡± she exined as I looked at the amulet in surprise. ¡°I had honestly forgotten about them,¡± I said, picking one up and putting it on, ¡°Thanks Myriad. Best be prepared for all eventualities I suppose.¡± ¡°Yess, My Queen.¡± It made it obvious that I wasn¡¯t always aware of everything if I wasn¡¯t paying attention. I knew that Myriad had taken them with her, now that I saw it. She knew it, so I knew it. But because I hadn¡¯t paid attention to it so far, I hadn¡¯t known that I knew. I didn¡¯t get a sort of feedback or message every time something new was added to the roster of information. The Burdened were tasked with informing us of new important information entering the Hive. But this wasn¡¯t important. It was good to know, but not life changing. If they would inform me every time anything changed I wouldn¡¯t have a free moment in my life. But that was okay. That was what the Burdened were for. It was up to their discretion when and if they informed the rest of us. Jenna took the other amulet and quickly put it on. It didn¡¯t fit quite right with her outfit, a casual summer dress in her typical sandy brown. It was a nice dress, showing a hint of cleavage and hugging her form just right when she was walking, underlining her beauty without being too provocative. Very much like Jenna I thought. ¡°Knight Chloe?¡± Jenna asked once she put her amulet on. I chuckled awkwardly, ¡°Yeah, that¡¯s what the chorus calls the two of you. Originally it was Concubines, but I made sure that that wouldn¡¯t stick. It was weird.¡± She snorted augh, ¡°Yeah, that would have been strange. Still, why did they choose to give us any sort of designation?¡± I shrugged, ¡°Well, I have the whole royal theme, being the Hive-Queen and all, and I guess there is some part of me that likes to give things fancy names. Probably a result of the marketing I did at the brothel. It¡¯s important to have a name that you can sell, and not always is that your birth name. I went with mine because I take a stubborn pride in it, since my da had it changed when he kicked me to the curb. But other joytoys don¡¯t want to use their real name, so for them we usually pick out a theme and then see how we can market it.¡± ¡°Do you remember your real name? Before it was changed,¡± she asked, curiously. Again I shrugged, ¡°I could probably take some time to figure it out, but honestly I don¡¯t want to. My family threw me out and left me to a life of misery. Why would I take the time to indulge their wishes of taking interest in them? No, I¡¯m quite happy with my name.¡± She nodded, understanding. ¡°It might sound strange, but now that I¡¯m a Samurai, part of me wants them to figure out it¡¯s me and try to get into contact. Not because I want them in my life, simply so I can give them the shaft. What they did was seriously fucked up.¡± ¡°I kind of lost contact with my family too¡­ We had never been that close, but when I dropped out of college¡­ It wasn¡¯t their fault, to be honest. I could have made the effort. But I didn¡¯t. Part of it was because I was ashamed of my job. They weren¡¯t anyone important, but they were well enough off to not worry about needing to do that kind of thing to survive, and they were both very conservative. Not quite the religious nuts, but the whole ¡®your body is holy¡¯ thing was quite apparent. I wonder where they are now?¡± ¡°You could always look for them,¡± I offered with a smile, ¡°You¡¯re a Samurai now. You can do what you want. If you want to take the time to check up on them, then do so.¡± ¡°I guess¡­¡± she sounded torn on the topic. Which was a feeling I could sympathise with. ¡°It¡¯s been nearly a year now since Ist saw them. A couple months since west spoke. I¡¯m not even sure they miss me¡­¡± ¡°They probably do,¡± I said, although I wasn¡¯t entirely certain considering my own family situation, ¡°What¡¯s the harm in checking? Cleopatra could probably dig them out quite quickly.¡± ¡°True¡­ Maybe. I¡¯ll think about it.¡± Silence reigned once more. Jenna seemed to be the quiet type, and I didn¡¯t mind it. Her presence alone was enough to make the entire chorus hum with happiness. ¡°Have you thought about your body mods yet?¡± she asked suddenly, ripping me out of my reverie. ¡°A bit. Not in detail. I know I want to go the whole Kitsune route, shapeshifting, body doubles. Some Hexw stuff as well, mainly forbat. The Hexw Hive-Queen, the actual Hexw I mean, not me, does look pretty badass. But I also don¡¯t know what exactly is avable. Kaysa mentioned that you had a lot of options, but I hadn¡¯t put much thought into it. Might even be worth checking if there are some things for sexual pleasures and stuff. Could be fun, if only for the job.¡± ¡°There are,¡± she replied, blushing faintly, ¡°Quite a lot of them in fact. It appears that humanity isn¡¯t the only race with a keen interest in sex. If you can think of it, the protectors probably have it.¡± I gave her a quick once over, ¡°Thinking of getting some?¡± ¡°The thought crossed my mind,¡± she replied coyly, ¡°And I might get a thing or two. Not too much, of course, the main priority will bebat stuff. But¡­ We are Samurai, right? So why not indulge ourselves a little once in a while.¡± That had me chuckle, but I couldn¡¯t disagree. The chorus might not be too interested in it, although the few of us that were curious were discussing options as we spoke, but I most certainly was. ¡°I will probably go a bit overboard then, knowing me. Would be good to know if those changes could be limited to one of my forms, since I want to pick up shapeshifting. Otherwise I might be a bit distracted at times.¡± The nanites in my amulet suddenly appeared, forming a perfect copy of me sitting next to Jenna. She was wearing my full Kitsune outfit, although I was almost certain that the dress was a tad more sensual than I remembered. ¡°You can,¡± she said in my voice but with Kaysa controlling her, ¡°Technically if you want to go for shapeshifting you don¡¯t need to get the full upgrade, just the blueprint so to say. If you are serious about your ns and you focus on it primarily, with sufficiently advanced shapeshifting capabilities, your body can make changes on the spot. Up to and including things for your job. I hadn¡¯t brought it up yet, since you are not quite there yet in terms of points, especially if you wish to give some to Jenna. But the options are there and, for better or for worse, there are a lot of them.¡± Jenna was a bit distracted by my clone sitting next to her, and it took her a moment topose herself, which made me grin. I did look quite good if I did say so myself, and Kaysa nailed the look perfectly. It also made it clear that Jenna wasn¡¯t entirely disinterested. I wasn¡¯t sure if it was because she was obviously a bit horny and probably could use some rxation, or if it was because she genuinely cared and loved me, but either option was filling me with happiness and content. If she was looking at Kaysa like that, I would love to see how she would look at me if I ever got serious about seducing her to a nice night in bed. Not that I would without her express say so. I cared for her and I wanted her to be happy. I had enough ways to enjoy myself at night. ¡°You don¡¯t seem too enthused about it,¡± I said to Kaysa, ¡°Not in the business for a good ol¡¯ tumble in the sheets?¡± Kaysa scowled, ¡°No, thank you. Such things I leave to you organics. I¡¯m a bit more open minded than most AI, mostly because it is a quite important aspect in your life and serving your needs is my entire purpose, but even I have zero interest in experiencing it myself. Maybe some of my brethren do, but I do not.¡± ¡°That does sound curious though,¡± Jenna mused aloud, ¡°Imagine what kind of time you could have with an entity as knowledgeable as the protector AI. Just imagine what they must have seen over the years. Different species, different cultures, different ways to enjoy yourself.¡± ¡°Yes,¡± Kaysa said with a deadpan voice, ¡°There are a variety of options in the cosmos. Luckily there are very few who can trump Humanity in their single minded focus on perversity.¡± ¡°So there are some,¡± I questioned, quite curious. She sighed, ¡°Yes, there are some. One even has an entire catalogue around their¡­ unique lifestyle. I would imagine you would quite enjoy it.¡± ¡°Care to tell us a little about them?¡± Jenna asked, and from her heartbeat it was clear that she was very curious. It made me more and more aware that she had been¡­ distant, between all the flirting Chloe and I had done, but she had been there for all of it, listened to it, watched us. Maybe I wasn¡¯t too far off the mark when I thought that she might need some release. Jenna was elegant andposed most of the time, but right now she looked downright needy and horny. It was a stark contrast to her usual self. She seemed to be the quiet type, although with a bit of a teasing streak. But despite disliking her job, she also seemed quite enthused with the idea of enjoying herself. Which, well¡­ Let¡¯s just say the chorus had many things to say about that. It did make me return to the idea of spending a night with her though. Mainly how it would look like. I imagined she could be quite fun, if given the chance. And of course, it made my heart beat quicker just a bit. And maybe a bit of excitement trickled down towards myher regions. Jenna looked really nice in that dress¡­ Probably nicer underneath. ¡°If I must,¡± Kaysa capitted with a long suffering sigh, ¡°The species in question is called Vi¡¯xan. They are a bit of a weird one, since their entire society is built upon their strange biology. They don¡¯t have any males in their species, instead they hunt males of other species. It is a result of the biosphere on their home. The Vi¡¯xan were the second species to achieve sapience. The main sapient species, the Co¡¯ten, are mainly dominated by males, females are rather rare and therefore held secure. This unique gender bnce allowed the Vi¡¯xan their own niche for survival. Technically they could reproduce asexually, and there were times in their history where they predominantly did, but it erodes their genome. To properly reproduce they need the Co¡¯ten for gic diversity, although in a pinch males from other species also work. Because of that their entire society has over time evolved to, for ack of a better term, worship sexual pleasures and advances. It¡¯s almost a form of currency, although that is not entirely correct. Yournguage simplycks an equivalent word for how they conduct business. Seraphine would fit right in with them.¡± ¡°That does sound really interesting¡­ I would love to see what their society looked like,¡± I said, trying to imagine a that would lead to that kind of evolutionary history. And maybe imagining myself as part of their society just a little. Okay, a lot. It sounded like heaven, and if I could I would try it, if only just to have made the experience. And not to put too fine a point on it, but it worked wonders in getting me riled up. The three days without sex didn¡¯t help. My libido was high, and getting horny was somon that it would be more urate to say it was my default state than anything else. ¡°That¡¯s sadly not possible. Not only because you arecking the means to travel there. The antithesis more or less ravaged their home which had to be ssed by the protectors to stop the spread. The few remaining survivors have been rescued and resettled. Due to their unique biology they are quite good at fitting in with other species, the problem is that while they can procreate with other species, that is in the context of the biosphere on their home. And the Co¡¯ten didn¡¯t survive the antithesis long enough for the protectors to step in, mainly because they refused any and all outside help. So now the Vi¡¯xan are an endangered species. Some Vi¡¯xan have tried mating with a host of different species, but in most cases such couplings end in birth defects or stillborn. There are researchers and scientists who are trying to help, one even here on Earth, although she is only working on theoretical knowledge, considering that there are no Vi¡¯xan nearby. It is an ongoing battle though.¡± Jenna and I grimaced, the good mood doused a bit at those news. ¡°How did that scientist even know of Vi¡¯xan if she hasn¡¯t seen any?¡± Jenna asked. ¡°She¡¯s a Vanguard focused on exobiology and exosocieties working in Germany. Brilliant mind, and while she can¡¯t talk to any of the other researchers that are working on the Vi¡¯xan project, through her AI she was able to give them some advice, which was greatly surprising and helpful.¡± ¡°Damn,¡± I muttered, then shook my head, ¡°What confuses me is that there were no Samurai, or I guess Vanguard, there to help on their home.¡± ¡°Oh, there were. The Vi¡¯xan home was part of the Vanguard program, but the Vi¡¯xan weren¡¯t built to fight the antithesis well. While it would be incorrect to call them stupid, they are very simple minded with the only real purpose they yearn for being procreation and pleasure. Not to mention that they aren¡¯t exactlybat specialists; they hunt for mates, not for prey. In terms of food they are mostly herbivores. Although in some cases they do eat the flesh of their former mates in a ritualistic celebration of life. Regardless, they weren¡¯t well suited to the concept of Vanguard, and the Co¡¯ten outright refused help. In the few cases a Vanguard was selected they were either shunned or killed outright. There was a small group of Co¡¯ten who tried, but only very few were qualified to be a Vanguard, and since their numbers were dwindling fast, there was only so much they could do before they were eventually wiped out.¡± ¡°That seems foolish,¡± Jenna said, frowning, ¡°Why would they refuse help with the antithesis?¡± ¡°A result of their society, I¡¯m afraid. The Co¡¯ten valued personal growth and strength and were quite religious. In their opinion any help with a threat was a vition of their religious beliefs. Either they managed on their own, or they were unfit for life and better served dead. It was an honour to die in battle, trying to survive.¡± ¡°Are there still Vi¡¯xan or Co¡¯ten Vanguard around?¡± I asked. ¡°Thest Co¡¯ten Vanugard died long before the ssing of their. There are a few Vi¡¯xan Vanguards left, but not many. They can live a long time and with protector help even longer, but not many reached the point where they could extend their lifespan. By this point most of their Vanguards have died, and the few that did survive are limited in what they can do since many of them don¡¯t want to return to the battlefield, so very few points to gain.¡± ¡°There have to be some that do though, right?¡± Jenna inquired, ¡°I can¡¯t imagine that all of them just sit down and do nothing.¡± ¡°Of course. There is one, what you would consider a Tier 5 Samurai, that is rather well known for helping others in her specific corner of the cosmos, but keep in mind, the protectors don¡¯t usually provide transport and travelling between stars takes a long time. Space is big, so even if they have the means to travel, trying to get to a in need in any kind of reasonable time frame is nearly impossible.¡± I frowned at that, ¡°But isn¡¯t that a bit selfish on the protector''s end? Even if they don¡¯t want to step in, they could at least help others that do, right? Even if it¡¯s just one Samurai, if they are that well equipped they could make a world of difference.¡± She nodded, ¡°Yes, but where would that leave the natives on that? In debt to an alien species? Not to mention, manys with the Vanguard program are those that have not yet made contact with the gcticmunity. Do you think they would take kindly to a second alien invader, even if their intention was to help? Scepticism is alive and well in the cosmos, many species are even worse than humans in that regard. Then there is the question of where the protectors should draw the line. What is eptable help, and what could be perceived as a take over? Let¡¯s take this Vi¡¯xan for example, she could take control of Earth, all the infrastructure, technology, and military equipment in less than a week. Even if all high tier Samurai would work together to stop her. Would you want that kind of power, one you don¡¯t know and can¡¯t control, show up at your doorstep? It is much simpler to give people the tools to protect themselves, then to try and micromanage everything to death.¡± ¡°I guess,¡± I muttered, ¡°Doesn¡¯t mean I like it though.¡± ¡°The protectors have spent considerable time, longer than your species has existed, trying to find a bnce. It might seem harsh to you, but on bnce it gives the best chances for a positive oue.¡± I sighed, then nodded, ¡°Alright. Far be it for me to tell them how to conduct their business. Back to the first topic though, what can the Vi¡¯xan catalogue offer?¡± Now Kaysa sighed, ¡°Well, they are mostly focused on biological improvements. They do have some level of technology, but it wasn¡¯t particrly high by the time they had to be rescued. Roughly equivalent to human levels of technology, maybe a little better although not by much. And most of their entire biology is focused on sexual intercourse, which doesn¡¯t make for many bright minds. The list of things their catalogue can produce is long, but in a way it can also be dangerous, at least to humans. If you¡¯d get a Vi¡¯xan body it is quite likely that your brain would fry from the overstimtion within seconds.¡± I blinked at that, ¡°What?¡± ¡°As I said, a pretty focused evolutionary history. While other sapient species focused on intellect to advance their technological level and survive that way, the Vi¡¯xan evolved sapience to better understand other species and learn how to propagate with their help. It is why they areparably dim witted and not that smart, they don¡¯t need to be. They do one thing and one thing well, breed with other species. That¡¯s how they survived. And to ensure that they continued down that route, nature has bestowed them a rather extreme level of sensitivity in that regard.¡± ¡°Anything a human could use, then?¡± Jenna asked, blushing faintly. ¡°Many things,¡± Kaysa replied, ¡°It¡¯s thebination of it all that could be dangerous. Improved nervous system, improved nerve endings, improved circtory systems, improved metabolism; you have no idea how efficient their biology had to be, considering their physical activities. It¡¯s a wonder they survived on their diet, but it did mean less developed brains, and a rather one track mind on what they wanted in life. Regardless, you could upgrade pretty much every aspect of your body with their catalogue, although many options avable would of course focus on you being more sensitive and to increase the pleasure you experience. Or to help you procreate much faster. There is a certain saying about rabbits that you probably know, the Vi¡¯xan let them look like slow breeders.¡± She nced at us, ¡°For example, if you would exchange your reproductive organs for one from their catalogue, you could carry a child to term in less than two months, rather than the usual nine months that humans usually have to endure. In your case it would wreak havoc on your metabolism and require insane amounts of energy, but it could be done. Their digestive tract is also leagues better than those of humans, out of necessity. They need to get everyst scrap of energy from any food they eat. Not quite perfectly efficient, but close enough to make no difference from your point of view. Where humans usually need to visit facilities at least once a day to rid themselves of the remainder of their food they cannot properly digest, the Vi¡¯xan can push that back to nearly a month, simply because they can digest nearly everything at least to some degree.¡± ¡°Damn,¡± I muttered, ¡°That is quite the change. How did they look?¡± ¡°Quite hideous, to human sensibilities. Here¡± On one of the disys in the Najav a picture appeared. It was¡­ not what I would call aesthetically pleasing. They were bipedal, just as humans, but their body structure was closer to that of a primate than a proper human. They had long, digitigrade legs, simr to my hexws but much more pronounced, and were slightly hunched forward. Their torso seemed a bit stout, and they had two long arms that they probably could use to walk as well, considering the proportions. The head was a strange mix of fish and bear, although that was only a vague reference, and was attached directly to their torso without any obvious neck. They had a short stubby tail that seemed a bit out of ce and more like the remnant of some distant ancestor than anything the current anatomy needed for anything. Their body was covered in leathery skin, while their chest and stomach area looked to be a bit softer. Their nipples, strangely, were on their back and quite pronounced. I didn¡¯t need any input from Kaysa to know that they were nipples either. Their genitals were¡­ unique. Larger than anything I could have imagined, almost splitting the entire hip and waist area, and with a rather disgusting fleshy look to them. Jenna scowled in disgust, ¡°Yeah, not what I would call pretty. What is wrong with their¡­ bits?¡± ¡°They evolved to be able to mate with many species. Sizes differ quite a lot, so they need to be able to take a lot,¡± Kaysa exined. Now that she mentioned it, it did seem like they had a lot of room to fit whatever genitals they were mating with. It would also exin why their stomach and chest area looked softer, probably so it can stretch out. It did make me question though how that would work. Humans and the more perverse categories of hentai and porn had some pretty interesting ideas of what a woman could take, and the Vi¡¯xans the seemed to have evolved to allow them just that. But that must hurt, right? ¡°We don¡¯t end up looking like that if we decide on that catalogue, do we?¡± I asked, a bit horrified. ¡°Of course not. I can change things around for you.¡± ¡°Good. Cause it sounds like I¡¯d love the catalogue, but not if that is the end result.¡± Kaysa snorted, ¡°Oh, I bet you would like it. If only because Vi¡¯xan¡¯s can orgasm for nearly an hour straight, in the right circumstances.¡± ¡°WHAT?!¡±
I have a Discord! Chapter 36 – A moist ride Chapter 36 ¨C A moist ride ¡°Selling used underwear is a very old market, one that only boomed when the Inte first came along. Now it¡¯s an even bigger market with the and methods to keep the underwear in question in almost perfect condition until it arrives at the buyer. Of course, should a Samurai decide to get in on it the prices go into the billions. The most expensive piece of underwear ever bought was that of the Samurai ¡®Moon Queen Perilex¡¯ who had been a porn actress before bing a Samurai and has specialised in that field. Her panties went for nearly fifty billion credits to some CEO in the Nethends. The second most expensive piece of underwear belonged to ¡®Big D¡¯, an Italian Samurai who is, as the name suggests, most well known for his big dick. His pair of boxers went for close to thirty billion credits to a fan in Monaco who has since thene out to mention that it is her most prized possession. It¡¯s rare, but it happens, so make sure you have the credits ready when the next piece of exotic underwear hits the market.¡± - Insider Interview with an Employee of ¡®Quality Underwear Corp.¡¯ Jenna and I both looked at her with horrified fascination. I¡¯ve heard that a pig''s orgasm couldst quite a long time, ten minutes or so if I recalled correctly, not that I ever actually checked up on that. Shiver did something simr to your brain, extending orgasms as much as possible, but this was just ridiculous. Kaysa just snorted, ¡°And there it is. I knew you¡¯d jump on that.¡± ¡°Okay, so, note that down for future reference asap!¡± I told her, not quite able to stop myself. Jenna nodded faintly, her blush now quite more pronounced. Kaysa sighed, ¡°I do hope you n to focus on more than just improving your ability to break bed frames,¡± she muttered, ¡°There is a lot more that the protectors could offer that is quite a bit more important.¡± ¡°I mean, sure, but like, who wouldn¡¯t be interested in that?¡± I said with a bit of a goofy grin. ¡°And we did n to get other things,¡± Jenna added reasonably, still not able to fight down her blush, ¡°But not everything needs to be about killing xenos, right?¡± ¡°I suppose not. I should be thankful that you at least realise that much. There are some Vanguard who are so obsessed with killing antithesis that they forget that life is more than just a battle.¡± I checked our progress towards the city. We still had some time. ¡°Okay, so, since we¡¯re already on the topic, maybe we can nail down what I want for the body mods. If only to finally get an idea for what I need.¡± Kaysa nodded, leaning back and crossing her arms under her breasts, which had even me distracted despite her being a perfect copy of my own body. Was that weird? Probably. Then again¡­ I could imagine it could be quite fun to explore yourself like that, considering that typically was impossible. And since you knew exactly what you liked and wanted¡­ Yeah, I was definitely horny as fuck. I didn¡¯t even need to check to know that my panties were drenched. This talk about the Vi¡¯xan, and the idea of being able to cum that hard and long¡­ Oh boy. I tried to clear my head, focusing on the conversation. ¡°So, I know I want shapeshifting. I also know I want more resilience and some kind ofbat stuff. At this point I¡¯m pretty much settled on the Hexw Hive-Queen thing you showed me. And I definitely want some bits and pieces from the Vi¡¯xan catalogue to¡­ widen my options, so to say. Where should we start with all of that?¡± I was quite looking forward to that idea. I couldn¡¯t even imagine what I would be able to do and feel with the right upgrades from that catalogue. So far I¡¯ve never been that interested in all the alien porn that had made the rounds ever since some Samurai first bought stuff for it. It fanned the mes of my arousal, and I caught myself rubbing my knees in anticipation. She thought for a moment, which I knew to be more to make a point than her actually requiring time to go through the options. She probably already had everything nned down to perfection. Of course that didn¡¯t help. It only gave me time to think about all the different things I could do with that catalogue to improve not only my personal fun, but also my job experience. There would probably be a lot of people who would jump at the opportunity for some properly fucked up alien sex. It did make me question how far I should go with it though. The reason I had the metal dildo I used to bash that model Threes head in even at hand was because some people didn¡¯t realise that anatomy was a pretty rigid thing. But with this I might be able to entertain guests like that, right? Should I go all out on it? Or maybe start smaller? I was undecided, but it also wasn¡¯t the only thing I could already imagine. Even if I ignored the idea of the more alien possibilities, not that I would gloss over them permanently, there were so many options. I could, if I wanted to, go full hentai queen on someone. It didn¡¯t take a genius to realise that the market for that would be damn fucking huge. The rest of us were more focused on the practical applications of shapeshifting and its use inbat. Which was important, so I let them hash out the ns while I focused on my own little ideas. They wouldn¡¯t appreciate it anyways, not unless I introduced sexual organs to my Hexws. ¡­Which just led to the next idea I wasn¡¯t quite sure I should indulge. But there had to be some people out there who would pay for such an experience. A true alien mating, so to say. But that might be that step too far that I wasn¡¯t quite yet fully sure I should go. I loved the idea, not only because of how it would expand my clientele, but also because I could only imagine how good it felt when more of us would be able to have fun together. If the chorus was an echo chamber for emotions, it might be simr for pleasure. Kaysa¡¯s voice ripped me out of my thoughts, and I tried my best to concentrate on what she had to say. Not that that was easy, since by this point I was sure even my pants had a stain from the desperate need that had me in its lusty ws. ¡°The best start would be from the Mystical Kitsune Catalogue, actually. It will require a bit of work, as what we are attempting to do can only be done in a roundabout way with that catalogue, but as a baseline the Mark IX Yako would work well. It is the most versatile option avable and would allow you to take on a variety of different properties. It also works well with the options avable both on the Hexw and Vi¡¯xan catalogues.¡± ¡°In terms ofbat capabilities I would suggest a variety of minor items from the Hexw Swarm Intelligence Catalogue, instead of just going for the Mark XII Hexw Hive-Queen directly. Its blueprint would be useful if you need to take on the form and haven¡¯t mastered the form manually yet, but other than that the end result would remain the same, just with more versatility on the forms you can take. Some other misceneous items from the Mystical Kitsune Catalogue would enable you to do more than justbat shifting, up to and including full body invisibility, integrated clothing if required, taking on the appearance of members of different species as long as they can be achieved with your avable biomass, as well as some social engineering upgrades to better help you understand how any form you take on should behave.¡± ¡°Body doubles with biomass can be achieved, it would be almost child''s y for you, considering that you already are a Hive Mind, making it a lot easier to control any new bodies you create. It would also enable you to survive a fatal blow to your original body, since your body doubles would effectively be clones. It is not advised, since if your original body dies, any non-biological upgrades such as imnts would need to be imnted again in the new Prime body. You could of course upgrade all body doubles like that, but keep in mind that that would mean buying each upgrade multiple times, which can be quite point intensive, especially at higher tiers of equipment.¡± ¡°On the Vi¡¯xan catalogue there are many things that you could choose from, but for that I would need to know what you are looking for,¡± she finished, finally looking at me. ¡°Hm¡­ The nerve upgrade could be nice, as would the improved metabolism. Some options for sensitivity, I don¡¯t always need to have the more extreme options you mentioned, some variety would be nice. Generally, anything that would change how I could have fun, really. To try out different things not only for myself but also any client requests I might get,¡± I exined. That was honestly the main point I was looking at this catalogue so closely. Sure, part of it was also that I had a very high libido, and sometimes I wanted something more special tobat the heat. But the thought of trying new things continued to fan the mes of my lust. Typically I didn¡¯t much indulge in whatever strange and biologically impossible ways of fucking that was so often portrayed in media, but I would also lie to myself if I said I was entirely disinterested. So far I had ignored it because it would often be either very painful, or outright impossible, and while I liked sex as much as the next girl, I didn¡¯t want to do anything that hurt me. I didn¡¯t like it rough that often. There were some days, sure. But typically I was much more a fan of the more gentle kind. Unless I was full of drugs, at which point everything was fair game that didn¡¯t break anyws or was deeply immoral. Thatst point wouldn¡¯t change. It was that one line I would never cross, and if I ever did, I would no longer consider myself Seraphine, or even human. At that point everything else was meaningless. Luckily I knew myself well enough that even in a full drug addled horny haze I could realise that there was that line. And even if I wouldn¡¯t, I had Kaysa and she would most certainly step in. Regardless of that, there had been a few other things I hadn¡¯t really considered so far, but if I would actually be able to do them without hurting myself and enjoy myself while doing so, then I would most certainly revisit my stance on those topics. It did make me think that it might be a worthwhile investment to have something to more easily control my lust though. I was a Samurai now, and while I was still a joytoy, not all situations lend themselves well to being horny all the time. Inbat alone being distracted by thoughts of sex and pleasure could be a death sentence. Not to mention that I would probably have to appear in the public eye more often, and I didn¡¯t think my juices running down my legs on a particrly bad day while I was talking to strangers on the street would improve my image of a capable protector of humanity. Image was important, and not only on the job. ¡°In that case there are some of the more esoteric options. Different sexual organs you could take on, turning different parts of your body into erogenous zones, entirely non physical ways for intimacy, although those will probably take some getting used to. With your Hive however you might be able to do things that nobody else has done before.¡± ¡°Oh?¡± I asked, curious, ¡°What exactly do you mean by that?¡± And of course Kaysa didn¡¯t stop giving me ideas. I knew I was the one to me, I asked her, but that didn¡¯t mean my mind wasn¡¯t running away with any fresh ideas she threw at me. ¡°It¡¯s a form of mental stimtion. It was one of the few technologies the Vi¡¯xan invested heavily into exploring. In effect it would be a sort of mesh dive that aims to stimte the mind, less for sexual purposes, and more for the sake of pleasure itself. Not sure about any side effects, considering your chorus, but there are some enthusiasts on earth that pay good money for that kind of thing.¡± ¡°That sounds quite interesting,¡± Jenna chimed in, ¡°Although I¡¯m having a hard time imagining it.¡± Kaysa nodded, ¡°It¡¯s quite unlike anything humanity has managed toe up with.¡± ¡°Okay,¡± I said, trying very hard to focus on the conversation. It was not easy, with my panties a mess and my thoughts running off into less than productive directions. It didn¡¯t help that Jenna seemed quite enthused as well, which only served to distract me even more. ¡°With all of that, what would it cost?¡± ¡°Roughly 24000 points, the exact cost would depend on a few options you decide on,¡± Kaysa replied. ¡°Not as bad as I imagined it,¡± I said, leaning back, and trying very hard to look her in the eyes, ¡°Since you said it could go up to 30k I was prepared for the worst.¡± ¡°You could go for more, but that¡¯s mainly stuff from higher ss catalogues. And you don¡¯t need to get them immediately. Since your ns involve shapeshifting you have a bit more leeway for future upgrades that normally would be hideously expensive and time consuming.¡± ¡°I¡¯m not sure exactly what I want,¡± Jenna muttered after a moment of silence. Her blush had died down a bit, but it didn¡¯t take a genius to see she was excited. Not only was her heart going a mile a minute, I could practically smell her arousal and see her nipples trying to press through the fabric of her dress. It was part of the reason I had such a hard time calming myself down. She was so obviously in heat and in need of some release, that it was hard to not jump her there and then to help us both calm down. The only reason I wasn¡¯t going insane was the chorus. Since most of us didn¡¯t have any interest in physical pleasures, it hampered my own enthusiasm a bit, which was good in this situation. Of course those that were curious were greedily drinking everything in. ¡°Cleopatra and I have talked about it before. I do want some body mods, but I will also most likely get some cybeics for some things. It lends itself better to my catalogues and would improve mybat effectiveness with my Sentinels in mind,¡± she exined, gaze fixed on the table between us, ¡°Although¡­ With the Vi¡¯xan catalogue¡­ Not sure how well that would mesh with what I want.¡± ¡°If you are already nning on cybeics and imnts and such,¡± I ventured, realising that what I was about to say was mostly due to the current state of my underwear and the haze my mind was currently suffering, ¡°Maybe you could get some stimtion stuff? Built in vibrators, maybe that mind pleasure thing?¡± Her blush red up once more, and she nodded timidly, ¡°Probably¡­ It¡¯s¡­ It¡¯s a bit weird to think about. It almost makes me feel like a pervert if I would get stuff like¡­ you know¡­ built in vibrators¡­¡± She was so incredibly cute when she was horny, oh my god. Okay, Seraphine, calm down, deep breaths. Take your time and get your mind firmly out of the gutter, okay? It didn¡¯t help, of course. ¡°Maybe,¡± I said, trying desperately to remain normal, ¡°Could be fun though.¡± ¡°Indeed,¡± she agreed, then shook her head with a deep sigh, ¡°Okay, we need to talk about something else. This is not helpful.¡± I nodded, ¡°Yeah¡­ The first thing I need when we arrive is fresh underwear. Mine are soaked.¡± She nced at me, blush not abiding, ¡°Yup¡­¡± Kaysa managed to douse our arousal a little by going on a full report on the people in the shelter, the state of my apartment, and a general overview of the district. Not that it helped nearly as much as it should have, but it gave me other things to focus on, which slowly but surely helped calm myself down a bit. Not nearly enough to be entirely unbothered, but at least I could work with this. By the time our previous discussion had ended we had reached the city gates, which had opened for us. The people outside were a mix of horrified and entranced with the Najav, and it made me think that maybe I should install a stealth mode or something. The track through the city was pretty boring. The redlight district was a bit too far removed from the direct line between Chloe¡¯s house and the shelter, so instead we marched through one of the newer industrial districts. It looked a lot more modern than the one next to the redlight district and was obviously owned by some pretty big names in the city center, considering how clean and well protected everything was. Kaysa had run down on her report by the time we arrived at the inner city gates. They took a while to open enough for the Najav to walk through, but this time around the guards weren¡¯t quite as horrified. Instead they looked at it with grim eptance. Maybe Kaysa had sent word ahead, or maybe someone had seen it enter the outer city or leave the city the day prior. Whatever it was, they left us be. The inner city was entirely new territory for me. Sadly we couldn¡¯t see that much of the normal ground floor level, which was roughly twenty floors up from the actual ground floor, under which the undercityy, because the Najav didn¡¯t fit on there. So we travelled the actual ground floor until we arrived near the shelter, at which point it started scaling vertical walls. I had thought we would leave behind damage wherever we stepped, but it was surprisingly gentle on the surfaces. Probably for the best though, otherwise I would have a heap of fines and repair costs stacked that I probably could ignore, but wouldn¡¯t paint me in the best light. Not long after we arrived in front of the massive shelter entrance. The area it was built into looked¡­ strange. A massive open area with a few trees here and there that didn¡¯t manage at all to make the ce seem more lively. It was probably the kind of look underpaid design grads thought of as modern while they were locked inside their offices with no human contact to speak of. Maybe I should do a campaign to lighten their life up a little? Nah, that sounded like too much hassle and would probably benefit the corps more than the poor suits that had to work eighteen hours a day. Maybe some discount for them then? That could work. The Najav stopped near the main entrance, lowering its body to the ground. ¡°Okay,¡± I said to Kaysa, ¡°I need fresh clothes and maybe something to keep my libido in check. Any more talk about weird alien sex tech and I probably would have jumped Jenna, damn the consequences.¡± Jenna, of course, blushed again. ¡°I can arrange that. Anything in particr you want?¡± Kaysa asked, getting up. I thought about it for a moment. ¡°Something¡­ provocative. I need some fresh air and I want to make a point. I might not be the one in charge, but I¡¯m still one of the Joytoys. Don¡¯t need Castas or the others think I abandoned them,¡± I decided. ¡°I can do that. Do you want some privacy for when you change?¡± She asked, looking between Jenna and me. ¡°Probably for the best,¡± I said with a slightly flushed smile, ¡°I bet Jenna is gorgeous, but that¡¯s the opposite of what I need right now.¡± Jenna nodded in turn, her blushing face and her inability to look at me was more than enough indication to know how she felt about it all. I got up from my seat, noting a small wet stain on it, and sighed. A privacy curtain appeared between Jenna and myself and I started to undress. My pants were definitely stained and my panties almost made a wet noise when I pulled them down. ¡°Hells,¡± I muttered, ¡°This is worse than I thought.¡± Two boxes appeared next to me with my usual decorations. One was quiterge, while the other was rather small. I opened the small one and found a pill. ¡°It should help your libido issues a little. I didn¡¯t want to entirely shut it down, but considering the state of your clothing I decided on something a bit stronger,¡± Kaysa exined. I nodded, thankful at that, picked up the pill and swallowed it down. As always the meds made by the protectors were very quick acting. The horniness in my mind didn¡¯t abade by much, but my physical arousal diminished quite a bit. That would have to do. ¡°Do you have something I, uh¡­ can wipe myself down with?¡± I asked quietly. Another box appeared, a bit smaller than the first. Opening it I found a towel that was sinfully soft. I picked it up and spent a few moments to wipe the wetness between my legs away, only barely managing to suppress a small moan at the feel of the soft fabric touching my very sensitive crotch. Once done I finally opened the big box, finding a quite provocative set of clothing inside. ¡°Damn¡­ I mean I did say provocative,¡± I muttered, picking up the top. It was made of a thin, ck material and barely reached over my breasts. Honestly, it might even leave part of my ares exposed if I stretched a little. It was quite form fitting, but stretchedfortably, with sleeves that ran down to my wrists. Of course it had ¡®Myriad¡¯ written across it, with some Kitsune-esque decorations on the lettering, like the y being in the form of a tail. The pants were hotpants, and very, very small. It was the kind of hotpants you saw porn actresses wearing in those bad amateur holos you could buy for cheap. Barely enough to cover what needed to be covered, and tight enough to leave nothing to the imagination. At least the colour made it so that even if it formed neatly into a cameltoe it would be hard to see unless you stood directly in front of me. They looked like jeans, but the material was simr to the one the shirt was made out of. Luckily the material felt hydrophobic, so no need to worry about stains forming should I get too excited again. It did make me wonder how it would feel though, when my juices had nowhere to run off to, but I pushed those thoughts firmly aside. Last but not least were my new boots, thigh high and simr to the ones I wore with the rest of my normal Samurai gear. They fit quite well with my ensemble and were made of a simr material to the rest, just a tad less stretchy so that they didn¡¯t slide down my legs too easily. Of course they had inch high heels. And of course there was also a tail. For a moment I panicked, thinking it was a butt plug, but luckily the mechanism with which it attached itself to my skin over the rim of my hotpants simply looked simr at first nce. I wasn¡¯t sure if I could survive walking around with a plug tail without jumping the first person looking at me with hungry eyes. When I was finally finished dressing up, and slightly surprised that the tail moved simr to my other one, I stepped out from behind the privacy curtain. Jenna had also changed, her dress now reced with one that was also a tad more provocative than her usual fair, butpared to my own tastes it still looked downright prude. It was the colour of rich crimson, and cut in an asymmetric shape simr to my ownbat dress. She had gotten herself new high heels showing off her feet, and gave her about an inch in height. She looked me over for a moment and I could still see the faint blush that decorated her face. ¡°You did say provocative indeed,¡± she murmured, ¡°You sure you are in the right mind to go out like that?¡± ¡°Nope, not at all,¡± I replied with a smile, ¡°But I¡¯m going to do it anyway and regret my choicester.¡±
I have a Discord! Also, I''ve made a . If you wish to support me on my endavours, I''d appreciate it greatly! At the moment you can read five chapters ahead on ''A Joytoy''s journey to be a Hive-Queen''! Chapter 37 – Megashelter Chapter 37 ¨C Megashelter ¡°These days shelters are a fact of life. Typically everyrge city block has at least one public shelter, although the number of private shelters intes the statistic a little. In addition to that each city has at least one Megashelter, although depending on the size of the city, there might be more. While public shelters and Megashelters are typically financed and run by the city government, sometimes big corporations get in on the deal for marketing purposes. In those cases it is usually the Megashelter that gets the biggest cut of the money, which means that in most cases it is the mostfortable and best equipped out of all the Government run shelters in any city.¡± - Flyer about the realities of today''s world, 2039 When we stepped outside, Myriad following directly behind us, we were greeted by a group of soldier looking types, eight in total. Three looked to be a bit more important, standing in front. One was an older man that looked to be the kind of guy that you find in any action flick roughly growling orders and generally with a rather pissy attitude. The second was a young man, quite handsome although with a chin that was a tad too pronounced to properly fit his face. He seemed to me the new recruit type of person, probably the least ranking of the three, with an expression that screamed ¡®Textbook soldier¡¯. Thest was an older woman who, for all intents and purposes, looked like the perfect depiction of badass milf. The kind of woman that every army had and that had worked her way up to the top by knowing what she wanted and telling people to piss off or die in a ditch somewhere if they tried to cross her. She was also quite muscr from the looks of things, which just helped sell the look that much better. They all gave us a sharp salute that would make any drill sergeant proud. I in turn gave them the sloppiest salute I could manage, that would still fit the descriptor of salute instead of an obscene gesture. ¡°Ma¡¯ams!¡± the woman said, standing straight as a pole and showing very clearly where the expression ¡®stick up ass¡¯ originated from, ¡°Wee to the New Savannah megashelter. We were informed of your arrival and have already informed your associates!¡± I smiled at her, ¡°Thanks, I guess. We¡¯re just here to check in with them, see what needs doing once this all blows over. Anything happen that I need to know about?¡± ¡°No, ma¡¯am! We have made sure they wanted for nothing, even if that sometimes meant¡­ bending regtions a bit.¡± I chuckled at that, ¡°I appreciate it. Although I do hope you made sure nobody could do something stupid, yes?¡± ¡°Of course. The one incident we did nearly have has been resolved without issue.¡± I dropped my smile, worry gnawing at me. ¡°Incident?¡± For a moment the woman looked¡­ ufortable, but she continued regardless. ¡°One of your associates was quite¡­ insistent about seeing a specific Samurai. We had to inform her about his demise, which left her quite heart broken. Luckily we realised in time what she was doing and managed to stop her.¡± ¡°Wait, who died?¡± ¡°Samurai Patrick, ma¡¯am, I thought you were informed. He was ambushed by a group of model Nines. They have since been taken care of, but most of his body couldn¡¯t be recovered.¡± I swallowed, then closed my eyes. Patrick had been helpful. Very helpful. He was a bit of an oddball, but who wasn¡¯t? Nobody deserved to go out like that. ¡°Chances he¡¯s alive?¡± ¡°Zero, ma¡¯am,¡± the answer came almost immediately, dousing my hopes in ice cold water, ¡°We found what remains of his head.¡± Being a Samurai was dangerous business, of course, we all could die at any time. The rookie Samurai that had been with Shrapnel and the others died pretty quick. It still didn¡¯t make it suck any less. Part of me had hoped that maybe Patrick could have helped Sarah a little. Castas had mentioned that she was quite enamoured with him. Fat chance of that now. I took a deep breath, trying to calm myself. ¡°How is Sarah taking it?¡± ¡°Not well,¡± the woman replied, voice sympathetic, ¡°Her friends were helping her adjust,st I checked, but it will probably take some time until shees to terms with it. For the moment they thought it best if she had some room for herself.¡± I nodded at that. Tina knew how to cheer people up, so maybe she could help. ¡°Good. I was worried she might have OD¡¯d or something. She tends to overdo it when she¡¯s under a lot of stress.¡± ¡°That was a worry, ma¡¯am. We ced her in a different group for the time being on the rmendation of her friends. She isn¡¯t cut off from her own, but it''s harder for her to get her hands on anything and we are keeping an eye on her.¡± I nodded at that, then shook the funk off. ¡°Good. Let¡¯s see how they are doing then. Any other conflicts between the groups?¡± As I spoke I started to walk, and the soldiers fell into step around us easily, with the woman staying next to me. Some did eye Myriad suspiciously, but nobodymented or showed any obvious indication of being ufortable. ¡°Some minor ones, ma¡¯am, but we have it in hand. The man you put in charge was exceedingly helpful in calming those down.¡± I chuckled at that, trying for some humour. I wasn¡¯t sure how well I managed. ¡°Yeah, I think Castas realises that the best way to remain in charge is to make sure I¡¯m happy. And I¡¯m happy when everyone is cared for.¡± ¡°That seems to be an urate assessment,¡± she replied, then after a moment continued, ¡°Permission to speak frankly, ma¡¯am?¡± ¡°Sure, go for it.¡± She nodded. ¡°I wasn¡¯t sure how things would go when we got the order to keep those people happy, even disregarding the regtions about drugs. I¡¯ve seen too many groups like that before, gangs that rule their little part of the anthill, and that think that that gives them authority over others. Castas seems different. He¡¯s greedy and selfish, as bad as the rest of them, but he knows how to y the game to get what he wants, even if that means putting himself under someone else. As one ex-gang member to another, make sure he remains in charge as long as he stays that way.¡± I looked at her sideways, reevaluating her in my mind. ¡°That was the n,¡± I said eventually, ¡°I¡¯m not going to take over the redlight district, but I will make sure it¡¯s safe enough for people living there.¡± ¡°Good. From what I heard about you, I thought that¡¯d be the case. The outskirts are a cesspit of bullshit, they need a firm hand to stay orderly. But they also aren¡¯t inner city, you can¡¯t just pull up with a convoy of tanks and expect people to follow along.¡± I nodded at that, following the logic. ¡°Agreed. So, ex-gang? Who you run with?¡± I asked when we arrived at the incline leading down to the main gate of the shelter. She snorted, ¡°Blue Moon, long ago. Later became Gray Wolves when they moved into the redlight district, but before that they had a hand in the industrial district, closer to the inner city. Their boss had some deals with the people higher up thedder, until they made one mistake too many and got thrown out of the business. I had left by then, but I kept an eye on things.¡± ¡°Oh wow,¡± I muttered, surprised, ¡°That¡¯s been a while. I heard of Blue Moon, but I wasn¡¯t alive then. I came up with Crescent Thorn before they killed themselves by fucking with Purple Haze.¡± ¡°So I¡¯ve heard. I knew Crescent Thorn well. At least the leadership.¡± ¡°You did?¡± She chuckled with an amused smile on her face, ¡°Yeah. My son was part of the upper echelons. Tried to convince me to use my military rank to get people down there to deal with Haze. I refused and told him to get out while he could. He didn¡¯t listen¡± Her humour vanished and she grimaced, which on her face was quite the potent expression. After a moment she dropped it, making a visible effort to smile at me, ¡°When I heard you were Thorn I was quite surprised.¡± A fleeting memory of a half overheard conversation snaked its way into our mind. Trying to figure out what it was I immersed myself in the chorus for a moment and together we managed to pull up the memory that didn¡¯t quite want to show itself. ¡°Wait, hold up. You¡¯re Jeremy¡¯s mom?¡± I asked in shock, when we finally managed to figure out what had yed at the edge of our recollection. ¡°Indeed. Knew him well?¡± ¡°In passing. Someone else was in charge of my group, but I¡¯ve seen him about. I knew he had some kind of connection to high up, always wondered why he stuck with us.¡± ¡°Vice leader had his heart firmly in hand. She was a snake, I tell you.¡± Her scowl said all that was needed about her opinion of the woman. I shrugged, ¡°Honestly I can¡¯t remember her much. Spent too much time drooling in some corner. Best I can recall is spending a night with her at some point for some hits of shiver, but I couldn¡¯t even recall her face if she stood in front of me.¡± The older woman nodded with a sigh, ¡°That¡¯s the story with most lower Thorn members. Too busy fucking around high as a kite. Part of the reason they went to shit.¡± We had arrived at a door next to the giant gate, and she motioned for someone to open it. One of the soldiers with us quickly stepped forward and did as instructed. ¡°Vice wanted to move up. That started the whole trouble, but the boss wasn¡¯t having it, kept snorting cocaine from the asscrack of any whore he could find. Stuff like that was the reason I originally got out, realised that nonames stayed nonames until you either die or leave.¡± The door now opened, we continued our trip, walking into the well kept hallway that formed the main entrance and split into many different smaller hallways along the way. While we walked I nced at her, ¡°And so you ended up in the military.¡± ¡°Indeed,¡± she said with a fierce smirk, ¡°Started as some poor fuckwit recruit, then slowly worked my way up. I knew my way around my gun and I knew how to follow orders. Bit of luck on my side and here we are,¡± she smiled, ¡°Been trying to keep an eye on things, make sure shit isn¡¯t going too badly, but we are only so many and I can¡¯t very well send armed soldiers down there to clean up. d to see someone else is trying to take care of things.¡± ¡°Castas told you anything?¡± ¡°He didn¡¯t, but Tina did. She told me you were nning on rolling up the entire district, get some order in there. We didn¡¯t talk much, only in passing when I first came in to check. Smart girl, wasted on her job.¡± I shrugged, ¡°She¡¯s smart, but also easily frightened. She gets anxious quick, and then she goes where we all go to calm the mind.¡± She nodded sadly, knowing all too well how those things went, ¡°Yeah. Still, it¡¯s good that she has something to do. From what I hear she¡¯s been quite the busy bee, setting everything up for the return to the district. Castas seems quite smitten by her, and I¡¯m not entirely sure it''s only one way.¡± I snorted augh at that, trying to imagine the two together. Then I stopped, recalling the way they had been standing close together in the shelter. Maybe it wasn¡¯t so oundish. ¡°Well, that would be something,¡± I muttered, then shook my head, ¡°Anyways. She¡¯s quite good at that. It¡¯s part of why she excels at her job. Her job is to satisfy the client, thoroughly if possible, and that often means being the one in charge. I¡¯m a bit surprised you spent the time to talk with her though. Aren¡¯t you busy enough?¡± Her smile was the one you gave someone who wasn¡¯t yet in on the joke, ¡°That is my job. I was specifically sent here to make sure they are happy. Higher ups want me to coddle you however you want, make sure you look at us favourably. ¡®I don¡¯t care what it takes, if she bends you over you best have lube ready. Only thing that matters is that the Samurai doesn¡¯te knocking¡¯,¡± she imitated a gruff old voice, ¡°Or something along those lines.¡± We both snorted at that, and even Jenna joined in. ¡°That why you tell me? To make sure I¡¯m happy with the service?¡± ¡°We were taught never to lie to Samurai, ma¡¯am,¡± she exined, ¡°SOP is to make sure you¡¯re as happy as could be, to follow your orders exactly how they are given, get the fuck out of your way and if we can manage pick up whatever fancy gear you leave behind. It doesn¡¯t matter how I make it happen, the only thing that matters is to make sure that you walk out of this building with a smile on your face.¡± ¡°Damn,¡± I said, a bit surprised, ¡°I mean I knew Samurai were a pretty big deal, but I didn¡¯t think we were that high up the food chain. At least not me. I¡¯m so green behind the ears you could mistake the back of my head for a flower garden.¡± ¡°There are some nuances of course,¡± she conceded, ¡°But effectively any Samurai outranks any of us. If only because you don¡¯t want a pissed off Samurai toe after you. We¡¯ve had people run in circles around cities for hours simply because they were told to.¡± That imagery had me giggling, ¡°There have to be some limits though, right? Can¡¯t imagine everyone would willingly pull down their pants and bend over just because some Samurai decided to have augh.¡± She gave me a thorough once over, originally probably to prove a point but it didn¡¯t take a genius to figure out that she didn¡¯t entirely dislike what she saw, even if it was clear that I wasn¡¯t who she would typically go for, ¡°I could imagine worse fates,¡± she said with a grin, thenughed, ¡°And maybe. As long as we¡¯re in the field we have to follow orders. Of course we can disagree with you, personally. Although, realistically I have yet to hear about any Samurai who actually decided to be a massive set of cock and balls just for the sake of it.¡± ¡°It¡¯s kind of in the job description,¡± I said with a smile, ¡°Assholes usually don¡¯t get the offer.¡± ¡°Indeed,¡± she agreed, then turned towards the end of the hallway as we walked around a corner. ¡°So, so far everything is fine and dandy. Any word on when you can send them all home?¡± ¡°Probably tomorrow, depending on how the district looks,¡± she replied, ¡°Usually we only keep them until the aliens are confirmed dead, but again, boss wants me to flick your bean. They will probably be thest to leave, if only to make sure they have something to go back to. Outside of that, we¡¯ll know more after that fancy Samurai meeting in the evening. You should be invited, yeah?¡± ¡°Yeah, we were,¡± I said with a nod to Jenna, ¡°Not quite sure what it¡¯s about to.¡± ¡°No clue either,¡± she said with a shrug, ¡°I¡¯m too far down thedder for that kind of info. Probably important though; from what I hear they pulled in all Samurai in the city. Not that we have that many.¡± We stopped in front of the door that marked the end of the hallway. ¡°In here,¡± she said, then motioned for the soldiers to open the door, which wasn¡¯t locked. Nodding, I prepared myself. Time to see what the district needed.
I have a Discord! Also, I''ve made a . If you wish to support me on my endavours, I''d appreciate it greatly! At the moment you can read five chapters ahead on ''A Joytoy''s journey to be a Hive-Queen''! Chapter 38 – The joys of organising a district Chapter 38 ¨C The joys of organising a district ¡°The outer districts aren¡¯t typically important for any election. Most of the people living there don¡¯t even vote, why should we care what they think?¡± ¡°True, but perhaps we can make a token effort to draw in another crowd?¡± ¡°That idea gets floated every year by every party, when did it ever actually work?¡± ¡°It probably won¡¯t in most cities, but we have quite the poption in the outer districts. If we can get them on board we might be able to tip the scale.¡± ¡°Yes, but most of them are too busy being miserable for them to pay any attention to the important parts of the city.¡± ¡°Well, with the two new Samurai now showing up in the redlight district, we have eight Samurai who live in the outer districts. That is a good quarter of all Samurai in the city. Nearly all outer districts have at least one by now. Maybe we can talk to them, see if they¡¯d be willing to hear us out?¡± ¡°I guess the idea isn¡¯t entirely without merit. Okay, run the numbers, see what we can expect to see, then we can decide if it¡¯s worth the effort. But don¡¯te to me with this again unless it actually makes a huge difference. And check the Samurai first, if they¡¯d even be useful for this. Not all of them would take our advances well.¡± ¡°Got it, Boss.¡± - Excerpt of a discussion between two leading members of the Freedom for All partey sponsored by Zamazon, 2057 Behind the gate was a rather spacious room with a couple of tables and chairs, simr to those school mess halls I could vaguely remember from my childhood, with various doors on either side leading deeper into theplex. People milled about, some had food, some a drink. Probably alcoholic if I smelled it right, not that it was easy with this many musky people in the room. There probably were showers somewhere in this disaster, but redlight district folk weren¡¯t exactly known for their excessive cleanliness. Some also obviously were snorting something, or had a syringe in hand. Pills could be found changing hands, basically the same old same old from the redlight district. There were somerge screens sttered about the room, ying some news channels that everyone seemed to ignore as usual. Sharon¡¯s moans were quite obvious,ing from a far corner of the room where a queue of people were waiting by a door. Not sure how exactly she nned to go back to charging people for railing her, now that half the district had a chance to stick their dick inside her, but that wasn¡¯t my problem. At least I didn¡¯t think so. I wasn¡¯t sure if I would go back to organising my wing of the brothel again, considering that I would probably have a rather unique working position when I returned to bed service, but I doubted Victor would push that responsibility on me again unless I asked. Probably best to wait and see how my recement would do, otherwise I would step in to make sure things went smoothly. While there were quite a few people around, it obviously wasn¡¯t everyone. Not that it surprised me, we had walked past quite a number of doors on our way here, so the rest were probably in other rooms. I was pretty sure though that these were the ones I had seen in the shelter. Although truth be told, I hadn¡¯t paid that much attention to the masses. Of course the moment we stepped inside we drew nearly everyone¡¯s attention. At least of those that were awake and lucid enough to realise we were present. It didn¡¯t take long for Castas and Tina to appear, walking quite close together now that I was paying attention to it, and each with their own entourage behind them. Castas of course had a couple of his gang members, three men and a woman that I was pretty certain could bench press a car, while Tina had four joytoys trailing her, surprisingly also mainly consistent of three men. The one woman who was with her was one I could vaguely remember as being from the other hallway in the Rose Carpet. She seemed to be high on something, but if she was fit enough for Tina she was fit enough for me. ¡°Princess, Sentinel,¡± Castas greeted, nodding to both of us. I chuckled, ¡°It¡¯s Myriad, Castas. Myriad, the Living Weapon swarm. Bit of a mouthful, but it does sound badass.¡± With a gesture I motioned to Jenna, ¡°And for her it¡¯s Legion. I thought maybe the news had already reached you though.¡± He shrugged, ¡°Might have, might not. We¡¯ve been too busy to bother with the news.¡± ¡°Good you finally chose a name though,¡± Tina said with a smile. She was wearing an outfit reminiscent of her ¡®work uniform¡¯ but with a lot more cover. It fit her quite well. ¡°Oh? Why¡¯s that?¡± I asked her a bit confused. ¡°Well, there have been some ideas for what to call you. Princess of the Sheets, Dandelion, Slutty Fox, Devourer of Men, or Women, depending on what you prefer. Splits, or Spread Legs, the list is very long.¡± She chuckled at my horrified expression. ¡°Wow¡­ Those are bad,¡± I muttered, ¡°Remind me to thank Chloe for that name idea. No way in hell would I want to run around being called ¡®Spread Legs¡¯ all the time.¡± ¡°I liked Demon Fox Mistress,¡± Castas admitted with a bit of a snort in his tone, ¡°It¡¯s dangerous. And fitting, with your weird pets.¡± I snorted augh at that, ¡°Sure, because that is definitely the kind of joytoy you go to.¡± ¡°Still nning on continuing?¡± He sounded a tad surprised. ¡°Yup, love the job too much not too. Especially considering the changes I want to introduce. Would be rather strange for me to turn being a joytoy into my dream job only to wander off the moment it happens, no?¡± He shrugged, ¡°Better for us. A Samurai joytoy working the sheets will have a lot of peopleing over to the redlight district. Which means more business, which in turn means more money.¡± I nodded at his logic, ¡°That''s what I was thinking. Now, let¡¯s sit down. I could use a drink and I¡¯d like to hear what you did in the meantime.¡± Turning to the soldier woman I continued, ¡°You are free to join us, uhm?¡± ¡°Major Cheryl, ma¡¯am. Not sure I should, I tend to make people ufortable.¡± ¡°I insist,¡± I said with a sweet smile. There was some shuffling, Castas'' boys gently pushed some people away from the table they were snoring on and moved them somewhere a bit morefortable, but eventually we could all sit down. Jenna, Major Cheryl and me on one side, Castas, Tina, and of course one of their entourages each on the other. Curiously the woman that was with Tina was the one that sat down. Despite her slightly ssy eyes, she seemed attentive enough. Some were eyeing Myriad who stood behind me, with the Queen¡¯s Guard close by, although invisible. I ignored their nces, and she did as well. Not a momentter someone brought us some sses and a bottle of cognac. Not my preferred drink of choice, but I could deal. Castas poured each a ss, although since those weren¡¯t shot sses there wasn¡¯t too much in them, then pushed them to each of us. ¡°Now, let¡¯s hear what you havee up with,¡± I said and took a sip. It wasn¡¯t the best cognac I ever had, but it was also far from the worst. Castas and Tina nced at each other and he gave a small nod, which she returned before facing me. ¡°I spent some time talking to other joytoys and trying to get into contact with the brothel owners. Most of them are somewhere in this shelter, although some didn¡¯t make it. For those we are in the process of figuring out recements. The main question I had on my mind was what the joytoys wanted in their job. I already know what your n is, so I tried to keep that in mind. The long and short of it is that many simply wish for more agency on which client to choose and maybe some vetting on the clients in general. So far anyone with a credit chip coulde in and bang anyone they wanted, and while that is generally fine and what the joytoys agreed to, not all share your enthusiasm with different fetishes.¡± She waved a hand at me with a smile, ¡°There are plenty who would like some changes. Also plenty who didn¡¯t work for the Rose Carpet who¡¯d like more drugs. In many cases I believe that to be a pretty bad idea. Typically they are those who try to cope with doing the job they are doing by drowning their sorrows. Not exactly what I would call a healthy job environment. There were some ideas floated to see if we can¡¯t get them into different jobs, but the discussion is ongoing. In terms of drugs and what is needed and wanted, Castas knows more about it.¡± ¡°About that,¡± the man in question chimed in, cautiously eyeing Major Cheryl, ¡°You sure you want her to be present for this?¡± I nodded, ¡°Her job is to make sure that I am a very happy little Samurai so that I don¡¯t get any funny ideas abouting after her bosses. So why not abuse the fact that she¡¯s already involved to get some proper protection until we are set up and can do things on our own? She could probably get some men to help us set up as well. Of course, for a little something in return. I bet there are some amongst the ranks who wouldn¡¯t mind some time off with pleasantpany.¡± Cheryl snorted, shaking her head in mock disbelief, ¡°I bet there are¡­ You¡¯re quite the bold one, aren¡¯t you?¡± Instead of saying anything I just smiled at her primly. ¡°And yeah, I can probably swing something like that. Only for the transitioning period though, unless you want a proper outpost down there,¡± she added with a more serious tone. ¡°During the transitioning period is fine,¡± I replied, ¡°Once everything is set up I wouldn¡¯t want the army near my district anyways. Too many points of contention and neither myself nor anyone else in the district want a permanent army base down there. If such ideas were floated I would appreciate you telling your bosses to reconsider. Should they not and things go bad enough, we might be inclined to savour the kind of taste you wouldn¡¯t want. Feeding a swarm is hard work, you wouldn¡¯t believe how much we can eat if we wanted to.¡± The atmosphere at the table got a little colder, which was kind of the point. We didn¡¯t want to piss off the army, much less Majory Cheryl since she had been good to us, but we wanted to make very certain that the district was ours, and ours alone. A bit of friendly banter now would be more helpful than waiting for problems to arrive. ¡°Now,¡± I continued with a more friendly smile, ¡°The joytoys want more agency, which I think makes sense. I won¡¯t butt in there, that¡¯s your bed to break. I¡¯m mainly here to help organise everything until you stand on your own feet. To that end, Castas?¡± He nodded, ¡°The whole drug business was so far something we mainly avoided. It isn¡¯t our strong suit and while there is money to be made, the amount of drugs cooked day by day and are in cirction makes any kind of oversight a bit of a hassle. It will take some time to get it all in order and will probably if not definitly lead to some kind of tension eventually.¡± That made sense and I nodded my agreement. ¡°We were kind of hoping that you might help, alleviate some of that tension if and when ites,¡± he looked at me and Jenna. ¡°We can do that,¡± I agreed, ¡°Anyone who bothers you gets a warning. If they ignore it, well. We do have a swarm to feed.¡± ¡°I might also be able to send some Sentinels your way once I get my production up and running,¡± Jenna added, surprising me a little, ¡°Not sure how many yet, probably only as many as you need to secure the more important locations. I don¡¯t think an army of Sentinels running around would be good for the nerves of many people.¡± ¡°You want to help?¡± I asked her, one eyebrow raised in curiosity, ¡°Not that I¡¯m objecting of course, just curious.¡± ¡°Yes. I don¡¯t like doing the job, but I do want to make sure things get better eventually. And the redlight district is still my home, even if I wasn¡¯t born there.¡± ¡°Thanks,¡± I told her, and meant it too. ¡°That would help,¡± Castas admitted, ¡°We had some ns to maybe talk with Haze, see if we can¡¯te to an agreement. They know their way around the drug trade, and with us busy keeping the district in check we are spread a bit thin on that front. Having more people to keep an eye on things and regte the drug trade would be helpful.¡± ¡°Oh?¡± I asked, not having expected that idea to pop up. ¡°Yeah. Not sure how agreeable they are likely to be, so it¡¯s a bit of an open question on whether we can count on them or not.¡± ¡°Probably not very,¡± the joytoy next to Tina butted in, drawing all eyes, ¡°Haze are a pretty simple minded group. Where the Crows are mainly in it to get some pussy, Haze basically only cares about how much territory they control. A deal like this probably won¡¯t appeal to them. Not unless we hand some territory over. It also doesn¡¯t help that they don¡¯t like having a boss, and even if you wouldn¡¯t directly interfere, Myriad, it would feel that way to them.¡± I took a moment to give her a thorough once over. She was beautiful, the kind you normally didn¡¯t see much in the redlight district, dressed in skimpy clothes that barely covered anything, and would allow easy ess with even the faintest breeze. Marks on her arm denoted heavy drug use and she had the typical remnant scent of horniness that most shiver addicts had. Unlike them though, she seemed pretty put together, which meant that she most likely took it not to cope, but because she already loved sex and simply liked trying new things. ¡°Know them well?¡± I asked, ¡°And what¡¯s your name?¡± ¡°I¡¯m Be,¡± she introduced herself, ¡°And yes. For years I was the personal pleasure doll for the boss of Purple Haze. Because of that I was basically with him all the time, it allowed me to get a pretty good idea about what he wants. He didn¡¯t mind his cum dump hearing all about his ns, and often had me service his guests after their talk, which gave me some pretty good insights into what they were like.¡± ¡°Damn,¡± I muttered, ¡°And he just let you go?¡± ¡°He threw me away. I was too horny for his tastes, never satisfied. It annoyed him too much in the end, so I ended up in the brothels. Sultan never was the sharpest tool in the shed, so I don¡¯t think he even realised how much I knew when he threw me out. His second though, Mark, did. For a time he had some people keep an eye on me.¡± ¡°Good to know,¡± I said, emptied my ss and leaned back, ¡°So, how would you advise we go at them then?¡± She shrugged, ¡°You¡¯re a Samurai. Put a little pressure on and he¡¯ll fold like a house of cards in the breeze. Sultan likes to act all tough, but he¡¯s a weak willed coward. If you want to be a bit more cordial I would advise offering some territory, anything in the industrial district that isn¡¯t his is high on his list, as well as some border territory in the redlight district. If you go that route though make sure to milk him for all he¡¯s worth. If there is something he wants he tends to overpay quite a bit. You wouldn¡¯t believe the amount of drugs he shoved up my arse just to have me there as his personal toy. And from what I could gather from his business partners, they also enjoyed that generosity.¡± ¡°Then what should we ask for?¡± I continued, mentally noting everything with the rest of us. She leaned back, thinking about that for a moment. ¡°Honestly¡­ I don¡¯t think it matters much. Mark will want an in on the drug deal, you should probably give it to them. It will make them feel like they achieved something and got one over on you. Other than that just make sure that you distribute his men in a way that they overextend their reach. Sultan won¡¯t notice although Mark probably would. Not sure if he¡¯dment, he might not, hoping to take advantage of it to finally get his boss out of the picture. It leaves them destabilised should they be foolish enough to try anything.¡± Again I took the time to consider her. She was not what I expected. ¡°You¡¯re pretty sharp for an addict,¡± I noted, and she nodded. ¡°High functioning. Give me stuff to snort and I''ll build you a kingdom. It doesn¡¯t hurt that my parents were corpo big wigs and I¡¯m basically a designer kid. Way smarter than most, if I do say so myself.¡± That had me raising my eyebrows, ¡°Not that I don¡¯t feel simr, but how did you end up in the redlight district with that background?¡± She snorted, ¡°Well, my parents wanted to marry me off to some idiot for political gain. You know, those secret backroom deals that technically aren¡¯t legal. I wouldn¡¯t have minded being a trophy wife, but the idiot thought of me as some kind of ve. Otherwise I would have spent the time like any trophy wife would, banging all his friends behind his back and taking drugs til my heart gave out. But since he wouldn¡¯t have let me out of my room, and he himself had a three inch dick, no finesse, and about as much endurance as an old fart with one foot in death¡¯s door, I snuck out of the house a day before our wedding and left. Never looked back since.¡± I nodded, understanding where she came from. While it wasn¡¯t how my life went, it could have easily gone the exact same route. ¡°Thanks for answering my questions, I can see why Tina has you on her board. Very well, we¡¯ll keep your advice in mind,¡± I told her with a smile, and was about to turn away when she spoke up. ¡°If you don¡¯t mind, Myriad. Would it be possible for us to spend a night? I would love to know what a Samurai is like in bed. Call it personal curiosity.¡± I gave Jenna a nce, but she just shrugged with an encouraging smile. ¡°Sure,¡± I said with a bemused smirk, ¡°We can spend a night, have some fun. Consider it payment for a job well done. I¡¯ll get in touch when I have a free evening, although I can¡¯t promise a date yet.¡± ¡°Thank you.¡± Turning back to Castas I continued, ¡°Well then. Should we talk with Haze now orter?¡± ¡°Probably best if we do it sooner rather thanter,¡± Be threw in, ¡°Don¡¯t give them time to get home and set up again.¡± Castas gave her a nce, but nodded. ¡°You heard her.¡± ¡°Do you have a room for us to meet in?¡± I asked Cheryl, ¡°Preferably a private room? I knew she would get my meaning, and she nodded. ¡°Give me ten minutes. I¡¯ll let them know you want to talk.¡±
Go ahead and check out by ckShad! They''re just starting with their own fanfiction and it''s a good read! Updates will be more intermittened as they treat it like a hobby, but I can already tell you that what they have nned is damn interesting and worth keeping an eye on! There is also by BronzeMonarchy! A damn good read, give it a go!
I have a Discord! Also, I''ve made a . If you wish to support me on my endavours, I''d appreciate it greatly! At the moment you can read five chapters ahead on ''A Joytoy''s journey to be a Hive-Queen''! Chapter 39 – A deal you can’t refuse Chapter 39 ¨C A deal you can¡¯t refuse ¡°Gangs aren¡¯t typically the brightest of the bunch. They think too small. Guess thates with the territory. There are some exceptions, of course. White Dovese to mind, they are some idealist group tryna help the riffraff or sometin¡¯. Good folk, but wasted on those poor fucks. Most though, nah, they ain¡¯t that bright. Push back on any change and take issue with anyone tryna take charge. Next thing you know they vanish from the face of the, gettin¡¯ murdered in job lots on the streets once a bigger, badder, predatores around. Someone smarter than them, who realises how you gotta y the game to get what you want. You know, someone like me?¡± - Murder Mike, leader of the Underground Wasps, a week before being found dead in his private shelter, after taking a bullet to the head upon hearing the news of Samurai involvement, 2057 True to her word Cheryl didn¡¯t need ten minutes before the meeting was set up. During the wait our group had discussed how we wanted to approach things. Tina and Castas were the spokespeople for our group. Each would bring their second, and while I had imagined Tina would love to keep Be out of it so as to not tip them off that we might know something, she had gone the opposite route, insisting Be would be present. Jenna and I represented ourselves. Jenna had suggested that I should lean into the whole Hive-Mind thing for this debate, to keep them on their toes and with their back against the wall. It made sense, especially because we were the ones who offered the protection needed for the entire ordeal. They needed to know what we could do, and if they were afraid of us then even better. We quite liked the idea to go full Hive-Mind on them, and so we agreed. To that extent I had quickly asked Kaysa in my virtual realm if the Queen¡¯s Guard could speak as well, and she had told me that now after the upgrade all drones could. It wasn¡¯t any biological reason why they couldn¡¯t or wouldn¡¯t before, it was simply a result of them not having a direct consciousness controlling them. By the time that Sultan and Mark entered the room the rest of us were already seated. There were four tables in the room, arrayed so that each could see the othersfortably. At one sat Tina and Be, representing the joytoys. On another adjacent table sat Castas and his second, representing the Red Crows. On a third sat Jenna, Cheryl and me. Behind me stood Myriad and my Queen¡¯s Guard, cid faced and at attention. Sultan and Mark both looked at all those present, both briefly stopping at my entourage with a difficult expression. Mark scowled when he saw Be, but he didn¡¯tment. Sultan didn¡¯t react at all to her presence, before sitting down at thest table. ¡°I¡¯ve heard you have a business proposition,¡± Sultan began, looking at me and Jenna in particr. ¡°While we instigated the meeting,¡± Jenna said in my stead, ¡°Red Crows and the Joytoys are the ones who would like to discuss business with you.¡± He nodded, then turned to the others. ¡°As you might have heard,¡± Tina began with a friendly smile, ¡°Some things will change once we all return to our homes. The first part of that change is that the Joytoys are now working as a group. To that end we would like to formally announce ourselves. We are the Crimson Rose and from now on we will take care of all business rted to the brothels. Secondly, we know that Purple Haze has poked Red Crows for quite some time in an attempt to take over some of their territory. We wanted to inform you that no matter how these negotiations end, those ns are out of the window now.¡± ¡°Says who?¡± Mark asked, unhappily. ¡°That would be us,¡± we spoke, all drones as one, a strange guttural hissing sound, ¡°We are Myriad. The chorus has decided, Red Crows will lead the people, while the Joytoys will see to their proper treatment. Know that the redlight district is under our protection. Tread carefully or be consumed by the swarm of Living Weapons.¡± The atmosphere in the room chilled, even Castas and Tina looked a bit uncertain. ¡°Did you just call us here to threaten us, then?¡± Sultan asked. As Be had predicted, he tried to appear unbothered and steadfast, but his heartbeat and the scent of his sweat told us a different story ¡°No. You aren¡¯t worthy of a threat. If we wished to harm you we would have simply consumed you. Our goal was to inform you of the new reality you find yourself in. That is done. Now it is time for you to speak to the Red Crows and Crimson Rose. They are the ones who have business with you.¡± And with that we fell silent. It took a moment before anyone else spoke. We probablyid it on a bit thick, but we wanted to make sure that they understood their position. ¡°Now,¡± Tina began, ¡°As Myriad said, the redlight district will be run by the Red Crows. They will take over the drug business, while we are in charge of the Joytoys. Any business you might have in regards to the brothels can be discussed with us at ater date. Castas can tell you more about the changes directly affecting you and your group.¡± Nodding she handed the bat to Castas, who picked up neatly. ¡°We¡¯ll be taking over the drug business in the redlight district. That means more structure, better oversight and a more controlled market. The problem is that my boys aren¡¯t well versed in that field. Since your endeavours within our district are now done, we wanted to extend a business opportunity to you as an opportunity for you to garner some good will with Myriad and Legion, after what you tried in thest couple of weeks. You know how the drugs work and you have the people who could help us protect our territory, both of which are things we will becking once the changes go into effect. We are willing to trade some of our territory in the industrial district with you, if you agree to help us.¡± Again, Be had perfectly predicted how Sultan would react, his eyes gleaming with the idea. Mark on the other hand seemed less enthused. ¡°That¡¯s not a lot we get out of that deal,¡± he said before Sultan could speak, ¡°We would effectively give you what you need to ruin our drug trade and spread ourselves thin just so that we can have a few pieces ofnd.¡± ¡°Remember that we do have the protection of two Samurai. Two Samurai, I might add, who are none too enthused about your meddling in Red Crows affairs. This is an opportunity for you to ally yourself with us, which can be beneficial for you in the future,¡± Tina pointed out. The Purple Haze bosses were quiet for a moment, before Mark finally spoke. We couldn¡¯t read his expression, but from the scent and the beat of his heart we were pretty certain that he knew what this meant. That didn¡¯t mean he could publicly admit defeat, of course. ¡°True enough I suppose, but what exactly would that benefit look like? I doubt they¡¯d be willing to spend points on the likes of us.¡± ¡°You speak true,¡± we said as one, ¡°Points are not for the likes of you to have. But we have the power to protect you from anyone trying to encroach on your territory. Should you ept this offer, we will extend our protection to you and your people. We will not interfere with your business, and we will not step in should you decide to expand on your own. But we will watch for those who try toe for you. That is the benefit of allying yourself with Red Crows and Crimson Rose.¡± ¡°Then why don¡¯t you protect their territory yourself?¡± Mark asked, giving me an assessing look. ¡°We could. But would you like us to? An army of living weapons stalking the territory, consuming those that we deem problematic? We will ensure no outside interference will get to them, but we will not interfere in inane business. We have bigger goals we strive for.¡± ¡°Such as?¡± he continued, unrelenting. ¡°Irrelevant to this discussion.¡± He nodded, then looked back at Castas and Tina. ¡°Let us hear what you have in mind,¡± Sultan finally spoke, able to hide his eagerness from his voice. ¡°It¡¯s simple,¡± Castas said, ¡°You help us get the drug supply running and we all get a cut from the profits. 50% to us, 25% to each of you. Crimson Rose will see to the distribution through the brothels. To that end they will also take over all the brothels in that shared territory and will share equal cuts of the profits to the Red Crows and Purple Haze with the understanding that there is some leeway for changes to amodate the influx Crimson Rose will have to deal with. Everyone will get a discount in the brothels of 15%, with additional services rendered if and when one of the Joytoys decide they¡¯re up for it.¡± ¡°That sounds like Purple Haze and Red Crows take the short end of the stick,¡± Mark said, looking thoughtfully at Tina. ¡°Any additional business not to do with brothels or the drug trade stays the business of the group that conducts it,¡± she exined, ¡°Be that escorts, weapon smuggling, ck market profits, or whatever have you. In effect it would mean that Red Crows takes the short end of the stick, since they are mainly focused on protection money, which will soon be obsolete, weapon smuggling and now the drug trade.¡± ¡°The only exception to all of this,¡± Castas nodded in our direction, ¡°Is Myriad. She will conduct all of her own business through the Rose Carpet and directly with Victor. Any cut she offers to him is his, unless of course she also decides to offer us a percentage from her own earnings. Other than that any profits she makes go directly to her and Victor as her manager.¡± ¡°And what does Legion have to gain from this?¡± Sultan asked, giving Jenna a once over. ¡°It¡¯s pretty simple,¡± she said with a dismissive tone, ¡°You are located in the old industrial district with lots and lots of salvage everywhere that¡¯s basically useless to anyone but me. I¡¯ll clean it up, you can do whatever you want with the space I leave free, hell if you want to build something I¡¯m open to discuss that business.¡± ¡°You¡¯re not going to set up shop on our turf?¡± he continued. ¡°No point. I will have my own base of operations. I might park it over your territory while I clean up, but after I¡¯m gone. Offering my protection costs me near to nothing, so I don¡¯t expect much in return. I don¡¯t really have a stake in all this.¡± ¡°Then why?¡± She shrugged, ¡°The redlight district is my home, as simple as that.¡± ¡°You¡¯re not worried anyone would take advantage of you?¡± Mark asked, although we were pretty sure that he knew that the question was a bit redundant. ¡°Please,¡± she snorted, ¡°If someone does I won¡¯t even be able to get to them before Myriad devours them whole. She is quite protective.¡± Sultan nodded, then turned back to Castas, ¡°Very well. What territory are you offering in exchange for our help?¡± The next couple of minutes were spent in a heated discussion about territory lines that led nowhere. Sultan wanted more than Castas was willing to offer, and soon enough voices were raised and the discussion moved in circles. ¡°Oh for fucks sake,¡± Cheryl said eventually, ¡°Are you actually that dense?¡± Both of the men stopped and Sultan snarled at her. ¡°Stay out of this, woman. Who do you think you are involving yourself with Purple Haze business?¡± ¡°Someone with a vested interest in preventing power struggles. I¡¯m amazed you¡¯re dense enough not to realise what position you are in. Your entire involvement banks on Myriad¡¯s willingness to let you in on a deal, which in itself is a fucking miracle since she used to run with Thorns back in the day. Not only that, you tried to fuck with Red Crows, who are now very firmly under Myriad¡¯s and Legion¡¯s protection. But please, piss everyone present off. I wonder how that will go, hm? Going against Red Crows and Crimson Rose is one thing, but going again the both of them and two Samurai has to be in the record books for new fastest way to win a fucking darwin award. And for what? A. Fucking. City. Block. One block! What a sorry excuse for a gang, seriously.¡± And with that she crossed her arms and leaned back, scowling. Sultan and Mark both looked at us, reconsidering. After a long moment of silence in which we simply smiled at them, Sultan nodded. ¡°The offered territory will be sufficient. But we want some guarantee that the leeway granted to Crimson Rose won¡¯t end up in them throwing either of us under the bus.¡± ¡°Sure, I can see to that,¡± Jenna said almost bored, ¡°I have no part in their little organisation so I can make sure that they stick to the spirit of the deal that is struck.¡± ¡°Will that go over well with Myriad?¡± Castas asked, surprising us a little. ¡°We will ept her opinion on the matter. Should she feel the deal was vited we will not interfere in attempts to correct it.¡± ¡°And what if it falls through entirely?¡± he continued, keeping a very close eye on us. ¡°Our loyalty lies only with ourselves. We wish to protect the redlight district, as it is our home. Should no solution be reached we will take things in hand ourselves.¡± ¡°At which point,¡± Jenna chimed in, ¡°The rest of the discussion is mootanyways. Best not let it get to that.¡± ¡°Agreed,¡± Castas said with a nod. ¡°Then we have an ord?¡± Tina asked the entire group. ¡°We do,¡± Sultan said with a nod, ¡°I will inform my men. Some won¡¯t like it, but if they decide to ignore the warnings given out then that is their loss.¡± ¡°The same goes for us,¡± Castas agreed, ¡°Anyone who decides to act out is no longer under my protection.¡± ¡°Agreed,¡± Tina joined in with a nod. Sultan and Mark got up and left the room, leaving the rest of us behind. Once the door closed behind them I smiled. ¡°Well, that went better than expected,¡± I said cheerfully, ¡°You should have heard Sultan¡¯s heart when territory was mentioned. He was like a kid on christmas.¡± ¡°Say, you are quite scary when you go full swarm mode,¡± Castas told me, ¡°Not that I mind. Keeps people on track.¡± ¡°Oh, I think you misunderstand something,¡± I said with the same sweet smile, ¡°I didn¡¯t go full swarm mode, I simply dropped the mask. We are Myriad and we are one.¡± Nobody seemed too pleased hearing that. We wondered why? When we returned to the room the rest of the group was in, Castas and Tina quickly wandered off to inform their people, while Jenna, Cheryl and I were left at the entrance. ¡°I think I¡¯m going to see Sarah,¡± I said, frowning, ¡°Hopefully she¡¯s doing okay.¡± ¡°Last I checked she was in a pretty shitty mood, but well enough considering the circumstances,¡± Cheryl offered. ¡°Anything you want to do?¡± I asked Jenna. She shrugged in response, ¡°There are a couple of people here I¡¯d like to talk to. Not really friends, but acquaintances. I¡¯ll check in with them until you are done.¡± ¡°Okay,¡± I said with a smile, then turned to Cheryl, ¡°Where is Sarah?¡± ¡°Follow me,¡± she said and started to walk towards the entrance. Time to see how she was doing. Hopefully it wasn¡¯t too bad. Although we couldn¡¯t help but feel a lingering anxiousness.
I have a Discord! Also, I''ve made a . If you wish to support me on my endavours, I''d appreciate it greatly! At the moment you can read five chapters ahead on ''A Joytoy''s journey to be a Hive-Queen''! Chapter 40 – A dark day Chapter 40 ¨C A dark day ¡°There is that old saying, don¡¯t fuck with Samurai. It exists for a pretty damn good reason. You could have the greenest of rookies, freshly minted and without any reputation, but if you fuck with that Samurai it will be hell on earth. The worst though are those that don¡¯t react immediately, that go through a right shitshow of a day and have aplete mental break. Then they vanish for a day or two, only to show up mad as a motherfucker and with the single goal of making sure that whoever has hurt them, their friends, or god forbid their pets, regrets ever being born. Don¡¯t know if you heard tale of the Blood Widow, but that girl is right fucked in the head. Nobody knows what exactly happened, but when she showed up in the next town over her gaze alone could y you alive. The one fuckwit tryna mess with her got blown up so hard they¡¯re still finding bits and pieces of his remains scattered across the country side. People are afraid of the antithesis. The worst they do is eat you, because they don¡¯t know any better. It¡¯s a matter of survival with them, but it¡¯s simple. No personal involvement, no skewed opinion on anything. Just good old fashioned survival. No, the real threat is a Samurai who has had aplete mental break. If you see it happen, run. You might still be able to make your way to get-the-fuck-awaynd. If you¡¯re responsible for their outbreak? Well, may god help you, because that¡¯s exactly the kind of help you would need. Mark my words.¡± - Post on the Samurai Forums, in a discussion about the dangers of Samurai Cheryl led me to another room nearby, simrly filled with people although without the obvious narcotics changing hands everywhere. There was some beer and some other alcohol, but that was about the extent of it. Sarah was nowhere to be found, which was a bit surprising considering that she usually towered over everyone. Cheryl asked one of the people in the room and they directed us to a door further in the room. With a nod she indicated that she would wait here, while I would talk to Sarah. To not scare anyone off, Myriad went invisible, following me with the rest of the Queen¡¯s Guard. The door led to a small hallway with smaller rooms on each side. Finding Sarah wasn¡¯t hard, considering that hers was the only room that was closed. I knocked twice. ¡°Hey Sarah? It¡¯s me, Seraphine. Mind if Ie in?¡± There was no response. I repeated my question, a little louder this time, but still no reply came. Eventually I decided to enter anyway, leaving my drones outside. The room I found myself in was small and dimly lit by some monitor on the wall ying some random anime on mute. Sarah wasying on a small bed, a collection of beer cans on the ground next to it. She was staring into space, absently kneading a small pillow with her hands. She looked¡­ horrible. Unkempt, unwashed, clothes in utter disarray. She looked weak, weaker than I¡¯ve ever seen her before. I had seen her during some pretty dark times, but this was a new low, even for her. The dim light didn¡¯t help, just offset the ruined make-up and the dirty state of her clothes. They were street clothes, not her working outfit, which was a little surprising. Not too much though. She hated her working outfit. ¡°Hey,¡± I said quietly as I entered, closing the door behind me. She didn¡¯t react for a moment, before finally her gaze moved over to me, eyes ssy and unfocused. She watched me as I walked closer, taking in the room. It was in disarray, just as much as she was, but it wasn¡¯t as bad as our apartment either. ¡°How are you?¡± I asked quietly, taking a seat on the edge of the bed, giving her a small smile. She didn¡¯t reply, simply watching me with that empty gaze. It was like¡­ looking into the eyes of someone who knew they were already dead. Thatplete loss and hopelessness. It hurt to see. ¡°I heard what happened,¡± I said quietly, dropping the smile, ¡°I¡¯m so sorry Sarah.¡± She snorted, the first reaction I got. It was¡­ not a good sign, but at least it was some kind of reaction. ¡°Nothing would have changed,¡± she said, voice unclear and drunk, ¡°Even if he didn¡¯t die, nothing would have fucking changed¡­¡± ¡°You don¡¯t know that,¡± I replied, trying for a smile, but dropped it when I realised that I couldn¡¯t bring myself to show even a half-way sincere one. ¡°I¡¯m sorry that I wasn¡¯t here for you.¡± ¡°You couldn¡¯t have changed anything anyways,¡± she said bitterly, ¡°Honestly, I¡¯ming to think that neither could he. He should have left me there.¡± I put a hand on her arm, simply making contact. It was¡­ cold. Almost unhealthy. The kind of feeling of someone who was freezing to death. She didn¡¯t react at all, just gazing at me with those empty, unfocused eyes that could look quite pretty, but didn¡¯t. Not in her state. We spent a moment in silence. I wasn¡¯t sure what to say. In my time as a joytoy I¡¯ve seen my fair share of desperation. But not like this. ¡°We all see some dark and cruel times,¡± I started, searching for words I wasn¡¯t sure I had, ¡°But for each low there is a high. I don¡¯t think Patrick would want to see you sour like this.¡± Sarahughed, a bitter, humourless sound, sopletely devoid of joy that it hurt to hear, ¡°He didn¡¯t give a fuck about me. I was just some whore he rescued from behind some dumpster somewhere. I might be an idiot, Seraphine, but I¡¯m not stupid. No, he didn¡¯t care about me. He didn¡¯t even ask me for my name. At first I thought, I really thought, that maybe he might actually care, that someone might actually think I was worth saving, worth paying even the slightest bit of attention to.¡± She sighed, rubbing her face with one hand, ¡°I was foolish. Naive. I¡¯m a whore. A worthless whore. Just like the rest of us.¡± Tears escaped from behind the hand on her face and she sobbed quietly. I just sat there, unsure what to say. I wanted to help her, to tell her things would be fine, but I didn¡¯t know how. Sarah seemed worse than I remembered, much worse. I always knew that she hated the job, but I¡¯d never seen her this bad because of it. ¡°I don¡¯t deserve anything,¡± she continued in a quiet tone, ¡°Selling my own body, what a fucking disgrace. I should have fucking stayed behind that stupid dumpster and died.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t say that, you deserve more in life,¡± I tried, unsure if it would even get through to her. ¡°No, I don¡¯t! I¡¯m a whore, Seraphine. I¡¯m a disgrace to society. I don¡¯t deserve anything. The moment I spread my legs for a handful of credits my life was over,¡± she hissed, voice weak but full of hatred and disgust, directed at herself and, to my shock, at me, ¡°But you would never get it. You are so enamoured with the idea of bending over for any sorry sot who asks you to. You¡¯re just as bad as Sharon. Worthless sluts with no dignity left in them. Do everyone a favour and fucking die, the lot of you.¡± Herment threw me. I didn¡¯t know what to feel. The veracity and earnestness with which she delivered it hurt deeper than anything had hurt before. Emotions bubbled up inside me, anger, fear, anxiety. I tried hard to keep them bottled up, to try to stay calm. She was in a very bad way, I reminded myself. But it wasn¡¯t easy. ¡°Even joytoys can have dignity, Sarah,¡± I said, trying to keep my voice level, ¡°And if you really think that, why did you never take any of the chances to switch jobs?¡± She snarled, face twisted with an anger and hatred I had never seen before in her. All directed towards herself and me. To any joytoy really, I realised after a moment. ¡°Because I¡¯m already lost, Sera, I¡¯m a whore. Whores don¡¯t deserve anything in life. The moment I spread my legs for even a single credit my life was over. That¡¯s the one thing you don¡¯t get.¡± I frowned, unsure how to react to that. She sighed, tears bubbling up once more, ¡°When Patrick found me I thought that maybe, just maybe there was some way to absolve myself of my sins, but I was naive. I¡¯m worthless. I didn¡¯t even deserve to die. It¡¯s like a cruel game, punishment for selling myself off to the lowest bidder.¡± It¡­ What? I heard her words, what she said, but I had trouble understanding what they meant. Sins? She had given up because of that? Because she thought we were sinning? That was why she didn¡¯t even try? The thought alone was enough to fuel the emotional cocktail flowing through me, confused and shocked as I was. But I forced myself to remain calm. Sarah was miserable, I reminded myself over and over again, like a mantra. She needed help, she needed someone to be there for her, not someone who would explode on her. ¡°Do you really think that there is nothing you can offer to anyone? That you couldn¡¯t find a better job that didn¡¯t require you to sell yourself?¡± I wanted to understand, to understand what she was saying, why she was saying it. She couldn¡¯t be for real, right? This couldn¡¯t actually be the way she thought, right? ¡°I don¡¯t deserve another job, Sera! You don¡¯t deserve anything either, nor do the rest of human scum selling their bodies! The fact that you became a Samurai makes me sick, you don¡¯t deserve anything! You¡¯re such a fucking whore, such a fucking sinner that your fucking parents left you behind! You should die like the rest of us, like god intended!¡± My expression froze. Sarah hated me, fully convinced of her words. She hated herself, any joytoy, and me so deeply, that she wanted us to go kill ourselves. But what really, truly hurt, was herment about my parents. That she had the audacity to bring them up in this conversation fucking enraged me, it enraged us! She was far too gone for any kind of help that we could offer, and she had said far, far too much for us to even consider helping her in the first ce. Sarah knew about our parents. She knew exactly what had happened as best as we could remember it. That she had the fucking gall to insinuate that they left us for dead because we were a whore¡­ We had no love for those pieces of shit. They left us behind, they could die for all we cared. But that she had the fucking gall to insinuate that we had been left for dead because we were whoring ourselves out instead of trying to live a normal fucking life. Before we had been angry, anxious, confused and we had felt lost. Now all that remained was a deeply rooted andplete wrath that consumed us entirely. Sarah went far, far further than she had any right to. She knew it, we saw it in her eyes, but she had done so anyway. Seraphine, please calm down. Sarah very likely didn¡¯t mean it. She is in a very bad state and needs help. Kaysa¡¯s voice was calm, but distant,pletely overshadowed by the indignant rage thatpletely overwhelmed the chorus and set us on the fucking warpath. We had done so much to help her, tried everything we could. But not only did she not want any of it, her response was to wish for our death and the death of every single joytoy, and to even stoop so low as to hack at our past and the fact that our parents had abandoned us. She had gone too far. Much too far. ¡°Is that so? We don¡¯t deserve anything, hm? Joytoys don¡¯t deserve to enjoy their job, is it? Don¡¯t deserve a normal life, yeah? We don¡¯t deserve to be something more than that, because we¡¯re a whore? Did we get that right? Well, guess the people we saved in thest two days didn¡¯t deserve to live then. Since obviously our being a Samurai must have been a mistake. Do you want to kill them too? Maybe we should stop helping people. Like we helped you Sarah, or at least try to!¡± our voice was slowly rising, emotions running through us like a tsunami. Seraphine, please calm down! ¡°You had every fucking chance to leave, we can¡¯t even remember how many offers we ced at your feet only for you to ignore us and continue with the life that you hated so much. We spent months calling in every favour we had at our disposal to get you out of that fucking mess you were in, but you ignored it all. And now you repay all our efforts like this? Instead of actually trying to change anything, or at least not fucking snap at us for our efforts to do your fucking job for you, you listen to some idiot spouting nonesense about the great man in the sky and how you don¡¯t deserve happiness in life?! How we should all just fucking die just because you can¡¯t handle your fucking life?! How our parents left us behind because we¡¯re a whore?!¡± Seraphine Bloodfallen! You need to calm the fuck down! The voice was distant, almost inaudible. We didn¡¯t care, couldn¡¯t care. It was lost to the droning of Sarah¡¯s words on repeat in our head. Too consumed by the anger and contempt we felt at her words and the sincerity behind them. ¡°Well, the idiot was fucking right,¡± she snapped back, halfway sitting up, ¡°You don¡¯t even realise it, do you? That we are the filth of society, the bottom feeders exploiting others and ourselves in a shallow excuse for a life that should have ended long ago. You think that being a joytoy, a whore, is a valid job to have, that it¡¯s normal to throw away your dignity for a handful of credits in the hopes it''s enough to buy food for the day? You are so blinded by your own lies that you can¡¯t see the truth, Sera! We. Deserve. Nothing!¡± We got up, looking her directly in the eyes. Seven hundred gazes of pure disgust and anger were staring daggers at her, and for the first time she showed a reaction other than hatred and contempt. Her face was full of fear. We scared her. ¡°No, Sarah,¡± our voice was whisper quiet and as cold as winter, ¡°You are the one lying to yourself. Instead of doing something, of putting in the fucking effort to change something you rather sit and wallow in self-pity, drinking yourself to death because its easy. Life isn¡¯t easy, Sarah, life is a fucking shitshow and you won¡¯t get anywhere by sitting on your ass and thinking about how bad you have it. You¡¯re right, you don¡¯t have dignity anymore. But not because you¡¯re a joytoy. It¡¯s because you gave up on life. Gave up on yourself! Because you are so lost that you want people to fucking die rather than to sort your fucking shit out. You¡¯re right that you don¡¯t deserve any help, because at this point any help is wasted on you. We considered you a friend, Sarah¡­ At this point we¡¯re asking ourselves why we even bothered to try. You¡¯ve shown us just how little you deserve in life. How little you care and how little you actually want.¡± She snarled and clumsily got up, ¡°Get out of this room, you wench, you festering excuse for a human being. I FUCKING HATE YOU!¡± She made to push us away, but instead she fell down,ying still. Tears were ying at the edge of our vision, our body shivering. We couldn¡¯t move. Rage and anger and a feeling of loss permeated our entire being. We had tried so hard to help her, never even realising that she didn¡¯t want any help. Somehow we had missed just how deep she had fallen into a chasm of self-pity and despair until she was too far gone for us to do anything. Sarah had decided that her life was over, and because of that everyone should suffer with her. She had gotten so lost in her own head that she couldn¡¯t even see how wrong she was, because it was the only thing left in her. She had gone to a point we weren¡¯t even sure we could consider her even human anymore and it fucking hurt. It hurt more than anything else had ever hurt us, because we knew her and we had wanted to help her. It hurt because the reason she was in this state was because our efforts had been too insufficient, and she had been too willing to do fucking nothing and listen to a bunch of insane lunatics rather than to try anything useful. We hated her. We hated her for what she had done to herself, and we hated ourselves even more for being not good enough to stop it from happening. We were vaguely aware that our healer rushed into the room, sliding to a stop next to Sarah to check her over. They were partly disconnected from the chorus, which is why it took us a moment to even realise something was wrong. That she wasn¡¯t moving. Wasn¡¯t breathing. Panic overcame us, shattering the tsunami of hatred and leaving us with only dread. We dropped to our knees next to her, a sudden horror and rity washing away the remnants of all the discontent we had felt. Finally Kaysa¡¯s voice registered and everything became real. ¡°What¡¯s wrong? What¡¯s wrong with her? Kaysa!¡± Our voice was quivering. When no answer came and the first feedback from the healer filtered into the chorus, our stomach dropped and we nearly vomited. Tears were freely flowing down our face. We tried to wipe them away to see what was happening, to see what we could do to help. ¡°Kaysa, please! Do something!¡± Our healer was injecting something into Sarah, multiple arms administering medicine, checking for pulse, doing a million different things we didn¡¯t know how to do. We knew it wasn¡¯t enough. I¡¯m sorry, Seraphine. I can¡¯t find any lifesigns. She¡¯s dead. The world broke apart as a giant chasm of despair opened beneath us and swallowed us whole. Someone pulled us out of the room, but we didn¡¯t pay attention. Words yed vaguely at the edge of our awareness, but none of them were important. Nothing mattered anymore. We had failed. Failed to save Sarah. Not only from her job, we had failed to save her life. Guilt gnawed at us, burrowing deeper and deeper into us, permeating the song that made us whole until it was nothing more than broken notes. If only we had seen how bad she had been, maybe we could have done something else. Maybe if we had known the kind of road she was sliding down then maybe we could have done better. We had tried so hard. Done whatever we could. It wasn¡¯t enough. None of what we did was enough. Ourst conversation reyed in our mind over and over, showing us over and over again what we had done wrong. We had exploded on her, angry at her, a woman that we could only now see was so lost that she didn¡¯t have anywhere to turn to. It should have been our job to help her, to remain calm, and make sure she would get through this. But we didn¡¯t. Instead we got angry, angry because she was trapped somewhere we couldn¡¯t understand. Angry because of what she used us of. Angry because she had given up entirely, probably a long time ago already. We¡¯d been helpless and in our helplessness we resorted to angrilyshing out at the one person we were responsible for. In a way we had killed Sarah. We had killed our friend. Not only because we failed to help her before, but because we hadn¡¯t been there when she most needed someone to lean on. We had foisted that responsibility off to Patrick, not even realising how alone she must have been. We were so lost in our own grandeur, in enjoying our time with Chloe and Jenna, killing xenos and saving people, that we hadn¡¯t even stopped to think about her. We could have at least given her a fucking call. And now we had failed at thest moment that might have been able to change the oue. Eventually we came to in another room, sitting in a corner with our arms wrapped around our legs. Tears had long dried up on our face when we didn¡¯t have any left to cry. Jenna was sitting next to us, caressing our face gently. We didn¡¯t even have the energy to look at her. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, Seraphine,¡± she muttered. We didn¡¯t respond. There was nothing left to say, nor did we have the energy to even make the attempt. ¡°Kaysa told me what happened,¡± she continued quietly, ¡°It wasn¡¯t your fault.¡± Weughed at that, a weak, bitter expression filled with self-deprecation and despair. Not our fault, yeah sure. ¡°It was,¡± we pressed out between clenched teeth, ¡°It was our responsibility to help. But we messed it up. We didn¡¯t even see how bad she was doing. And then¡­ And then we made it so much worse because we couldn¡¯t fucking keep a clear mind to maybe, maybe change something.¡± We could see in her expression that she noticed our disarray, the way we spoke. We tried to mp down on it, for her sake. ¡°You couldn¡¯t have known,¡± Jenna continued, her gentle voice prickling in our ears but we ignored it. ¡°Yes, Jenna, we-... I could have. I spent every day with her. But I hadn¡¯t even realised how badly she needed help. This doesn¡¯t just happen over the course of a day, Jenna,¡± we looked at her, face contorted in hatred directed to nobody but ourselves, ¡°I should have seen the signs, but I was too blind. And she was the one to pay the price.¡± She didn¡¯t reply, simply moved closer and wrapped an arm around us. We sat in silence, as we reyed thest couple of months in our mind, trying to find where we had gone wrong. The realities of our line of work. The thought came out of nowhere, and we hated how urate it was. Sarah wasn¡¯t the first we¡¯d seen die, unhappy to the point of self destruction. Over time we had seen a number of bodies, OD¡¯d, sliced wrists, sliced throats, bullet to the head, hanged, jumped out a window. The list was endless. But never before had we been the one responsible. Never before had it been on us to prevent that oue. Never before had we messed up this badly. We didn¡¯t know how long we sat there, until Jenna pulled us to our feet and led us out of the shelter. We vaguely recalled sitting in the Najav on our way back. The trip across the empty fields outside of town. There probably had been a forest around here at some point a long time ago. Sarah probably would have liked that. We arrived and Jenna led us to the bedroom. We didn¡¯t pay attention when she helped us undress, nor did we speak a word to her or Chloe. The only thing we could think about was Sarah and how badly we had fucked up. For a long time wey there, staring at the ceiling, mind churning and guilt keeping us awake. Eventually though, exhaustion overcame us. That night the chorus was gued by endless terrible nightmares.
I have a Discord! Also, I''ve made a . If you wish to support me on my endavours, I''d appreciate it greatly! At the moment you can read five chapters ahead on ''A Joytoy''s journey to be a Hive-Queen''! Chapter 41 – An introduction to Protector grade Therapy Chapter 41 ¨C An introduction to Protector grade Therapy ¡°Extensive study suggests that Samurai are in many cases exceedingly resilient in terms of emotional trauma. It is unclear if that is part of the selection requirements or if it is simply a result of the qualities the protectors do look for. Whatever the case, Samurai often find themselves in situations of great peril, and while they might suffer a traumatic event, they will almost always bounce back within days, if not hours, of the incident. Some may call them callus because of it, but the expert consensus is that it is a form of defensive mechanism to shield their minds from all the chaos they have to endure on the job. That said, it doesn¡¯t mean that there will be no reaction to whatever has inflicted that trauma upon them. While they might be much more resilient than most, even Samurai aren¡¯t entirely immune to the after effects. It is best to tread carefully around a Samurai who has experienced something emotional or traumatic. Especially in the time it takes them to bounce back from said event or the time it takes them to do something about it. That is the major difference between them and us. They can, and will, do something about it, most often with very little in terms of consequences.¡± - Dr. Steven Johanson, Doctor of Psychology, in a speech titled ¡°The difference between Samurai and the rest of us¡± given at the ¡°WilliowCore Inc. Psychology Summit¡±, 2050 When we woke up we felt terrible. Our eyes were exhausted from crying, our throat dry, our mind reeling from the remnants of thest nightmare we had endured. The chorus was quiet, exhausted and weak. The room was still dark, a quick check of the clock revealed it to be early morning, before sunrise. All of us were exhausted, drones sitting around the house without the energy to move. Someone was next to us, a quick nce revealed it to be Chloe. She was hugging one of our arms tight to her naked chest while she slept. At any other point in time it probably would have cheered us up, but we couldn¡¯t find the energy to let it. Carefully we extricated the arm, before we sat at the edge of the bed, face hidden in our hands. Good morning. How are you feeling? We didn¡¯t answer, getting up and ignoring the light breeze on our naked skin from the open window. With weak steps we made our way out of the room and down the stairs into the living room and kitchen. ¡°Like shit,¡± we muttered finally, taking in the room and feeling lost. Could I interest you in a shirt? We shrugged, not particrly caring one way or another and made our way over to the kitchen counter. A shirt appeared on it when we arrived and we picked it up. It was soft, some dark colour we didn¡¯t pay attention to and some print on the front that didn¡¯t matter. It was a bit too big for us when we pulled it over our head, reaching nearly down to our knees. Dismissing the shirt we opened the fridge, hoping for a beer or whatever else might be hiding in there. No luck. Opening the cabs on the hunt for something alcoholic we nearly missed the silent steps behind us. We didn¡¯t even need to look at the source to know it was Kaysa in one of the nanite bodies. ¡°You know it wasn¡¯t your fault,¡± she said in a perfect copy of our own voice. We snorted at that, but didn¡¯t reply, simply continued our search for some alcohol. ¡°Is this how it¡¯s going to be?¡± Kaysa asked, a little scorn in her voice, ¡°Ignoring it in the hopes of it all going away?¡± We sighed, closed the cab and stood, giving her a level re. ¡°We both know it was our fault. We messed up, because we didn¡¯t pay enough attention to how she was doing. Now, either get something strong to drink, or leave us the fuck alone.¡± She looked at us for a long moment, then produced a big bottle and a ss and put them on the counter. ¡°Okay, have your drink. But we will sit down and talk.¡± Rolling our eyes we walked over, took the bottle, opened it, then took a long swig. The alcohol burned our throat in that familiar way that was painful yet pleasantly familiar. A bit surprised at the intensity of it, we checked the bottle. ¡°Well, we did say strong,¡± we muttered when we saw the 56% marked on the bottle. Leaving the ss where it was we walked over to the sofas, plopping ourselves down on one of them. Kaysa followed, sitting down opposite of us. ¡°Tell me what you can remember from thest couple weeks,¡± she said, face stern but eyes soft. It made us wonder idly just how much control she had over the nanite drone, since even the eyes looked perfectly alive. With a long sigh we took another sip, grimaced at the alcohol burning our mouth, then started to talk. We talked for a long while, listing every little detail we could recall about¡­ pretty much everything. From our life at home, to the job, even the clients we could remember, what they had us do, how the rest of the brothel was doing. We talked about our daily routine, what drugs we took and how, times we had fun alone or with others on break, the duties we had to attend to, the joytoys we talked to. We left nothing out, even going into detail on how the time with our clients went, and what we thought about in our drunken haze. As much as we could remember at least. We talked about the others, Tina, Sharon, and also Sarah¡­ Kaysa just sat there and listened, not giving any reaction apart from the asional nod. It was¡­ hard. Especially to talk about Sarah. The alcohol helped. A little. Eventually we ran down with ourst day at the brothel and the aliens trying to eat us, all the way up to the moment that Kaysa introduced herself to us. ¡°How often in all of that did you notice anything wrong with her?¡± Kaysa asked eventually. We opened our mouth to respond, then closed it, taking the time to think. How often did we notice anything? She looked healthy enough. She ate when we ate something. Drunk a whole lot more than us, sure, but she took little else in terms of drugs, so it evened out. She acted normal, she talked normally to us if she did say anything. She never mentioned how unhappy she was even if it was obvious in her bodynguage, nor did she mention anything that she used us of yesterday. ¡°We¡­ we don¡¯t know,¡± we muttered. Kaysa nodded. ¡°I did some digging. From the little I could find there was a client she had, a couple weeks ago. Proper old school preacher type. I don¡¯t know what happened exactly, but afterwards they met up multiple times, and if the security recordings of his buildingplex are anything to go by, they had a lot of activities together. The kind even you would exhaust yourself with. There was even aint lodged against that apartment, one that led nowhere, of course. It mentioned other tenants seeing a joytoy leaving every other day, barely able to even stand straight and with marks on her arms. She was escorted away by someone they didn¡¯t know, only to show up a day or twoter.¡± She paused, giving me a long look. ¡°It makes sense with what I could figure out after her death.¡± The mention of her death had us tear up again. Closing our eyes we tried to remain calm and took another long swig from the bottle. ¡°There was nothing any of us could have done. Between the alcohol and the cocktail of drugs they pumped into her, not only was she weak to the point of standing on the brink of death, she had suffered severe organ damage, even brain damage. Her entire body was failing hard. Even I couldn¡¯t have saved her unless you had a ss 3 catalogue unlocked, and even then the chances were, at best, 50/50. The fact alone that she lived this long is a miracle, Seraphine. She was practically dead for days already.¡± ¡°But she was fine the day we became a Samurai¡­¡± we muttered, not able to understand, ¡°She talked normally,ined about the job¡­ nothing that would hint to any of this.¡± Kaysa nodded, ¡°Yes. I don¡¯t know what exactly happened, but here is my theory. Keep in mind that it¡¯s vague at best, but so far that¡¯s the best I could piece together with the little data I have. This preacher, or priest of some kind, talked her into some kind of deal, presumably with the offer of helping her. Of course, that wasn¡¯t the case. I would imagine he used her for his own benefit, or maybe even only his own pleasure. Pumped her full of something that would basically brainwash her, and then sent her on her merry way after telling her to keep her mouth shut and act normal, if she wanted this to continue. Or maybe he told her if she kept quiet she would be absolved of her sins. Or maybe she kept quiet on her own, because she didn¡¯t want anyone to know what she was doing. It''s not hard to imagine any number of reasons for her silence. Whatever the reason, she kept her mouth shut and continued with her life. It¡¯s hard to pinpoint exactly what she took prior to her death, but the cocktail of drugs was much more than anything even you ever subjected yourself to.¡± Our eyes widened. We had taken a lot of shit in our time, often together with a lot of other things. More than once we had been pretty close to death ourselves. ¡°She tried to act natural, and considering how your life looked at the time, you wouldn¡¯t have seen the signs. To you she would have looked like she was constantly drunk, or on some other kind of drug. Nothing out of the ordinary from what you knew, so you didn¡¯t pay attention. Someone on the outside might have been able to see it if they knew her well, but again, considering the rather wide spread lifestyle in that district, they might just conclude that she was just as fucked up as the rest. She hid the syringe marks with makeup, probably not to draw attention to it, and the rest wouldn¡¯t be obvious anyways.¡± She sighed, shaking her head, ¡°You would have had to notice basically a day after that first meeting for you to have any chance at saving her. If my guess at what they pumped her full of is even remotely correct, it would induce a state of ungodly bliss and brainwashed her into whatever they wanted her to think. In effect they turned her into little else than a living doll that would do exactly as she was told. She probably couldn¡¯t even remember a thing, outside of feeling good to the point of addiction. Nobody could have noticed. Not with the widespread overuse of drugs typical for that district. She would have been just another poor joytoy trying to cope with life. By the time the incursion came along she was long since dead on her feet, not helped by withdrawal symptoms which can be rather harsh on the body after the things she had taken. Even if you hadn¡¯t met her yesterday, she had, at best, another two days before her body or brain gave out entirely. Even if the first thing you did with your points was to try and help, disregarding everything else, nothing would have changed. I¡¯m sorry.¡± We sat there, stunned. We had no idea it was that bad. There was never any sign for any of it. And Kaysa was right, she did look drunk that morning, after waking up, but we chucked that down to the rest alcohol in her system. Honestly, it would have been stranger for her to be sober, considering that she emptied beer cans by the dozens each day. We nced down at the half-empty bottle in our hand thoughtfully. ¡°We didn¡¯t know¡­¡± was all that we managed, tears once again breaking out on our face. ¡°I know, Seraphine. Which is why I told you it wasn¡¯t your fault. As bad as it sounds to say, it was the result of a fucked up life in a district that handed drugs out like candy. Nobody could have done anything about it.¡± There was a moment of silence in which our mind twirled, before she continued. ¡°And before you get any idea about going after that priest, don¡¯t. Revenge on him won¡¯t get you anywhere. All it would get you was a short lived sense of justice, before things go back to how they are going right now.¡± We knew she was right. But it was tempting. Damn tempting. ¡°What should we do?¡± we asked, weakly. ¡°Normally I wouldn¡¯t give this much advice to any Vanguard,¡± she said with a small smile, ¡°It is not my job to butt into their life and tell them what to do. But I also realise that right now you are full of emotion with no outlet. So here is what I would suggest. Talk to Castas and Tina. Outright banning drugs isn¡¯t an option, that won¡¯t lead anywhere. All it would mean would be that they are sold under the table. But at least make sure that stuff like this can¡¯t repeat itself. Make sure that Sarah¡¯s fate isn¡¯t shared by anyone else.¡± We didn¡¯t answer for a long moment, lost with our thoughts and emotions. Eventually we took another long swig, before we closed the bottle and sat it on the table. ¡°We¡¯ve always known that our life sucks,¡± we said, more to work through our thoughts than for Kaysa¡¯s benefit, ¡°Taking drugs is just normal for us. You take as much as you can handle, then you take some more and hope you wake up in the morning. You do your job, satisfy the client as best you can, then move to the next. Many don¡¯t care about how you feel. They only care about some hole they can fuck and cum in. We aren¡¯t people to them, just toys with a friendly smile. But for us that¡¯s part of the thrill. We like being used like that. But maybe that¡¯s why so many of the joytoys don¡¯t think of themselves as people anymore. You do what the client wants, and if you¡¯re lucky you are already too high or drunk to care about any of it. Perhaps you¡¯re so gone and you get to enjoy yourself a little. We always thought it fun. Fun to take drugs, to have fun while flying on cloud nine. We love it. Being¡­ depraved like that turns us on like nothing else. We love being perverted. ying the easy ess slut who cares for nothing but drugs and sex with anyone who so much as nces at us is something we thoroughly enjoy.¡± We sighed, rubbing our face, ¡°Maybe we¡¯ve forgotten that not all feel the same way. We know, intellectually, that some don¡¯t, but it¡¯s hard to grasp. Sure, they hate their job, but they can find another job, right?¡± We paused, thinking back to our first time. ¡°We never felt¡­ bad. About what we did to get what we wanted. Or needed. Sure, it hurt at first, but then again, even the first time around we could barely think straight. We can¡¯t even remember what we were on. A mix of things, probably. Now that we think about it, that was probably our first hit of shiver¡­ Did it¡­ damage us? Why is it so easy for us to simply spread our legs and let others do what they want? Are we just¡­ coping? Or is it something else?¡± Kaysa didn¡¯t answer for a moment. When she finally did, her voice was soft. ¡°Yes, Seraphine, you are damaged. Anyone in your shoes would be. Nobody should have that kind of experience at such a young age. But damaged doesn¡¯t mean broken. For such a long history of drug abuse you are surprisingly well put together. Almost too good, considering that you have taken drugs for half of your life by now. But, as grim as that sounds, that is probably because you started so young and your mind was still malleable. You adapted over time.¡± She nced at us, expression serious, ¡°You aren¡¯t the smartest person in the room, but anyone with your history should be a downright dimwit, if they could function by themselves at all. You are far from that. I know you don¡¯t like to think about your past, nor do you like to think about your family. But have you ever wondered why you are so normal despite all that abuse? It shouldn¡¯t surprise you that you are a designer baby, that much should be expected considering your parents background and standing. But I think it¡¯s more than that. I never brought it up, because it was never important, but I am almost certain that there was some kind of Vanguard funded project at work. The signs are there, and otherwise I don¡¯t think anyone would be as normal as you are, mentally at least.¡± ¡°Wait,¡± we held up a hand, ¡°What do you mean?¡± ¡°It¡¯s rtively normal for Vanguard to sell blueprints or items they procure with points for credits. Chloe did the same for some of her weapons. And not all Vanguard check who their purchases go to. There are many corporations out there that buy up these blueprints and technologies to try and further their own development. It¡¯s normal and expected, encouraged even. If checked in detail, your body shows signs of such research. You are human, yes, no fancy alien experiment or anything, but your body shows signs of advanced gene editing and careful design. Your parents probablymissioned one of those services when they nned on having you. From what I could see so far, since your healer drones don¡¯t have the ability to scan you down to DNA level yet, as it wasn¡¯t required before, I would guess that most physical attributes, your height, your eyes, your hair, even the general shape of your body, plus your mental acuity, were designed that way.¡± That was¡­ unexpected. Or was it? We knew we were pretty damn sexy, more than was normal in most cases, at least around the redlight district. It was arge part of why we were so popr. Be came to mind, who seemed much the same to us. Designed to be properly beautiful, sexy, and smart. ¡°You mean like Be?¡± we realised aloud. ¡°Yes. She¡¯s another good example of such research. That being said, I do believe your growth was stunted a bit by your drug abuse. You are, to put it indelicately, a bit childlike, physically. That is not unexpected with your history. But it¡¯s not the only thing. To put it blunt, your lifestyle isn¡¯t normal, not by any metric. Some might be more open to sexual advances and requests, but you are downright looking for them. I don¡¯t think there is anything you would strictly say no to, and that is not normal. I realise that you take pride in your job, and the image that you build for yourself. And I don¡¯t want you to question it, or think you are required to feel bad about it. But it isn¡¯t normal. And I do believe that part of that is because of your history.¡± She sighed, ¡°You said earlier that you know intellectually that others aren¡¯t the same. That maybe they don¡¯t enjoy things the way you do. And you are correct that you haven¡¯t internalised that yet. Which is why I¡¯m telling you all this. You must realise that you are by no means an example by which topare others to. Many, many people would be downright traumatised if they did what you do, even if they were pretty open from the get go. Sarah definitely wasn¡¯t as open, and she is a prime example on how those things usually go. Drugs aren¡¯t just innocent candy, Seraphine, nor is sex something that everyone can enjoy with anyone who asks, no matter what they ask for. Both of those things can lead to severe trauma, aplete breakdown of one''s life, and mental and physical scars thatst a lifetime, even if professionally addressed.¡± Finally she gave us a warm smile, ¡°Maybe you should take some time and talk more with Tina and a few of the other joytoys. See how they see it, and maybe even use this as an opportunity to change how business gets distributed. For people like you, they might be willing to make some more money by indulging in more¡­ perverted parts of their fantasies. Clients who want that kind of thing will be directed towards them. That way they can still be serviced, while ensuring that nobody gets hurt. But to do that you need to really look at those who volunteer for this. Make sure they aren¡¯t just doing so because they are under the influence of something, or maybe already damaged.¡± ¡°On the other hand you should keep an eye on those who are sliding down Sarah¡¯s route. I understand that you were already doing that, but only to a degree. You need to either pay much closer attention to that yourself, or maybe implement a system by which they can try to get some help. Maybe give them the opportunity to seek you out in private, to talk to you and see what they need. Maybe even create a small department in the brothels for cases exactly like that, that they can turn to to ask for help. Overseen directly by you, to ensure nobody tries to take advantage.¡± She paused for a moment, letting it settle, ¡°These are just ideas. How you decide to move forward is for yourself to decide. But move forward. Don¡¯t just sit around, drowning your sorrows. Taking a day or two would help, but afterwards you have to do something, if you don¡¯t want this feeling of loss and that lust for vengeance to eat you alive.¡± She got up and ced a small pill on the table in front of me. ¡°When you¡¯re done drinking, take it. It¡¯s a Cleanse. Take some time to think first though. I know you¡¯re used to being drunk, so I won¡¯t say anything. But maybe for the future, see if you can¡¯t kick that habit to the curb, hm?¡± And with that she wandered off, the nanite drone returning to the amulet. We were left behind with a half-empty bottle of alcohol, a Cleanse, and arge helping of things to contemte and consider.
I have a Discord! Also, I''ve made a . If you wish to support me on my endavours, I''d appreciate it greatly! At the moment you can read five chapters ahead on ''A Joytoy''s journey to be a Hive-Queen''! Chapter 42 – We aren’t broken, but we are damaged. We aren’t normal. Chapter 42 ¨C We aren¡¯t broken, but we are damaged. We aren¡¯t normal. Pre-chapter note: I have edited Chapter 39 just a tiny little bit after some feedback. If Myriad is speaking as a whole, with all voices present, it is now disyed in bold text going forward. I have also edited a few minor details in previous chapters, mainly regarding the date given in some epigraphs. After much deliberation Joytoy is now, timeline wise, much closer to ''Teddy Bears on Birgade'', which means round about nine months before SCS proper. It doesn''t impact any events in this story, nor will it be really important until muchter on. But since I have given the timeline before inments, I felt it prudent to inform you. Hope you enjoy!
¡°It shouldn¡¯t surprise anyone when I say that many Samurai would not fall under what would typically be described as normal. The very requirements by which the protectors select the Samurai makes that almost a necessity. Many are outcasts of society, suffering from mental or physical disabilities, although I would like to take a moment to mention that I personally find the term ¡®mental disability¡¯ misleading, or simply don¡¯t conform to societal norms. The differences which they show are vast and varied. Some might simply be resolute and steadfast to the point of being blunt and annoying to those around them, many show signs of a disregard for authority. Some may have issues understanding others the way most would. Some might be disinterested in those around them entirely. Figuring out the differences with which each Samurai has to contend with is often a near impossible task, which makes figuring out how to handle them a challenge. In most cases it is best to think of them as a force of nature with the will and the capabilities to do what they think is necessary. Personally, I feel it is important to keep in mind, however, that even Samurai are still people. Treat them with respect, the way you would like to be treated, and chances are you will not have many problems.¡± - Dr. Steven Johanson, Doctor of Psychology, in a speech titled ¡°The difference between Samurai and the rest of us¡± given at the ¡°WilliowCore Inc. Psychology Summit¡±, 2050 Kaysa¡¯s words left us with a lot of things to think about, even excluding where we would go from here. The thing that puzzled us most was the entire bit about us. The news that we were a designer baby wasn¡¯t exactly a surprise. Sure, we hadn¡¯t known before, and truth be told we never even thought about it, but it was pretty obvious once we looked at it. What really made us think was her conclusion that we were damaged. We weren¡¯t normal, not by any metric. That in itself wasn¡¯t too much of a surprise. We doubted that there were any truly undamaged people in the redlight district. Even excluding the joytoys and their plights, drug abuse was so widespread andmon that it could almost be considered a form of local sports. But we had never thought about it. Thought about how it affected us. Even taking those of the chorus who had no interest in sexual activities into ount, none of us had any sort of inhibition about having sex. No matter with whom, when, where, or how. Kaysa had been right that there was next to nothing we wouldn¡¯t do. At least as long as it was legal. Although that too was a fine hair to split, since technically getting paid to take drugs while getting railed into next sunday was illegal. Sure, stuff like necrophilia or simr things were off the board. Anyone who came to us had to be alive and of legal age, there was no discussion about that. Apart from that? Was there any fetish we wouldn¡¯t agree too, if the terms would be right? Anything to do with animals. That was the one thing that immediately came to mind. No matter the price, that was something we wouldn¡¯t touch with a ten foot pole. Maybe anything that would harm us. Blood and gore wasn¡¯t our style, but that was mostly because we had somemon sense and a vested interest in our unharmed survival. Outside of that we had trouble thinking of one. Sure, we might not enjoy it, but at the end of the day, we would do it. Or would we enjoy it? There are some things we didn¡¯t like, for example feet, but that was mainly because it did very little to get us off. As long as we could enjoy it, have an orgasm or three, maybe even get to cum our brains out, we probably wouldn¡¯t even think about how abnormal it might be. The thought was¡­ We wouldn¡¯t say troubling, because it really didn¡¯t trouble us. But we had never thought much about it, so knowing it was quite different. We typically just did what we were asked, even before we became a proper joytoy. Fucking around meant drugs, and drugs meant feeling good, that was the simple truth of things. It made us realise something, though. We might not be addicted anymore after the cleanse, but that only reached as far as the substance addictions. The mental one was still there. We wanted to take drugs, to get drunk and wasted, to get high off our tits. We wanted to revel in the pleasure we felt when we gotpletely fucked up on the cheapest shit we could find and maybe getting fucked while getting fucked up. That alone proved that Kaysa had a point. We were not normal. And not only about our sexual interests. Perhaps we had known, somewhere deep down, that our mental acuity was far from the norm for anyone who took that many drugs. Just taking a look at our friends hammered that point home. Each of them were just as involved, if not more so, than we were when it came to chugging narcotics down like christmas candy. But each was probably what most would consider a bit damaged. Sharon was the easiest to nail down. She was such a sex addicted slut that she put even us to shame. We would hazard a guess that she would let a rabid dog rail her if given half the opportunity, and that was most certainly not normal. Anything that she touched, did, or thought about, in some way, involved sex. That was the simple truth and, considering that she took Shiver like some drank water, to be expected. It was the norm, that was just who Sharon was, and we never much thought about it. But now? It made us realise that she was probably much more damaged than even we were. And she didn¡¯t have the kind of childhood and teenage years we had gone through. Not that she talked much about her past, if at all, but we knew she only startedte in college, dropped out and became a joytoy. Compared to us, she was pretty normal. And even then it was clear just how damaged she was. Nobody normal would act like that. Even if they might be a pervert and a slut in their own right. They still had inhibitions and preferences, they were aware of their limits and took great care about to what degree they let themselves go. They didn¡¯t do half the shit Sharon did. Tina was a bit harder to nail down. She was mostly smart and intelligent, but only in very specific ways. She could organise a whole crew of people for an orgy, or an entire division of joytoys, but she showed very little interest in anything else. In addition to that, the moment things went off the beaten path, she was basically useless. It wasn¡¯t just that she was anxious, although that didn¡¯t help. But she waspletely unable to do anything in a situation that didn¡¯t conform to her norms or beliefs. She couldn¡¯t form the simplest connections to get from point A to B if she was thrown off the deep end. And as did so many of us, rather resorted to taking more drugs to forget the problem even existed. Looking at her from this new perspective it was clear that she had suffered some mental damage through her drug abuse. She was born and raised in the redlight district, daughter to another Joytoy that had long since OD¡¯d. And it showed. We probably would be very simr to her, if it wasn¡¯t for that weirdness that Kaysa had exined to us. And of course, then there was Sarah. It was hard to think about her, but we did regardless, ignoring the fresh tears and the unbending feeling of loss and despair that took hold of us as best as we could. Sarah had been severely unhappy. She did the job because that was the only thing she could do, or as we now knew, the only thing she thought she even had a right to. But that statement in and of itself showed just how damaged she had been. Something in her had snapped, leaving her convinced that she didn¡¯t deserve anything else. Thinking about it a bit more clearly just hammered home how badly we had treated her the day before, even if she wouldn¡¯t have survived regardless. She probably was trapped in a mental limbo of her being at fault, and doing something because she was at fault, which just fed back on itself. It didn¡¯t help that she had only joined recently, within our tenure as the one in charge of the wing on the brothel. We didn¡¯t know where she had been previously. She didn¡¯t talk about her past and she didn¡¯t seem to have anyone she could go to for help. Or at least, that they couldn¡¯t have helped her and it had sent her down a very, very bad path. Sarah¡­ She had been so distant from the beginning. Even when we had shown her how the job worked and what she had to do it was so obviously against her liking. She had started drinking basically on her first day and afterwards we had rarely seen her sober. It was why we had started talking to her about changing jobs. At first there was something, some hope that she felt, but it quickly died down. We didn¡¯t know what else she took. We knew she tried shiver once, it had been the only night she had ever spent fucking herself into unconsciousness with Sharon, and afterwards she had been even more withdrawn. It made us realise in more ways than one that we had fucked up. Completely and unutterably. But we hadn¡¯t known, not at the time. We hadn¡¯t known how far she would go. The worst we feared had been a proper overdose. Not like this. Taking a deep breath, wiping away the tears and opening the bottle once more, we drank deeply. It was hard to think about her, so fucking hard and it hurt so fucking much. But we carried on. Compared to those three we were mentally much better off. Be had said that she was high functioning, which we only knew by context, but we were pretty sure that the term could also be used to describe us. The fact alone that we, half a bottle of pretty damn strong liquor in, could have this clear of a mental dialogue just solidified that guess. We were drunk, yes, our body was sluggish and we did feel the familiar haze of alcohol that was wafting over our thoughts, but we could think pretty clearly all things considered. That probably wasn¡¯t normal, considering the fact that most people, when drunk, couldn¡¯t even think two steps ahead. Knowing all of that helped. It gave us a better understanding about ourselves and to what we couldpare others to. We sighed, taking a moment to just¡­ exist. Kaysa had been right to say that we hadn¡¯t internalised yet just how different we were. For us taking drugs and fucking anyone who came knocking was normal. Desired even. But even we knew that it probably shouldn¡¯t be. So, where did that leave us? It took us a moment to consider that question. Eventually though, we did find an answer. A pretty simple one, and probably the one that Kaysa wanted us to reach, but one we had never really considered. We weren¡¯t fit to judge anyone on how normal or not normal they were. We shouldn¡¯t be the one keeping an eye on things like that, because for us it would feel normal. We couldn¡¯t understand just how vited people felt when they did what we did on a daily basis. It was there, that knowledge. An intellectual thing, something that we academically understood. Many people felt vited by acts like that, if they¡¯d be done to them, or if they had to do them themselves. We knew. But we just couldn¡¯t grasp it, couldn¡¯t sympathise. Which, again we had known. But we hadn¡¯t acted upon it. We hadn¡¯t really had that kind of experience, and we hadn¡¯t seen anyone this close to us die from it yet. The rest felt¡­ distant, a tragedy sure, but one we had seen so many times that it had lost all its bite. When you wake up next to a dead man and had to drag his corpse out of the street so you could find the next person to break the bedframe with a couple hourster to get more drugs, eventually shit like that just loses its intensity. It just doesn¡¯t matter anymore at that point, as heartless as it was to say. But that also meant that there had to be some kind of system in ce to make sure it didn¡¯t happen again. Kaysa¡¯s idea for the brothels was a good one, but not one we would implement just like that. If we were unfit to judge these kinds of things, then we needed to find someone who was able to do that. Preferably more than someone. The question was who? It probably shouldn¡¯t have taken us as long as it had to figure it out. In a way, the answer was obvious. People who knew that feeling. Maybe some who were fighting with it at this very moment. We had to make sure they weren¡¯t too damaged, but if they knew from experience how it felt, then they would have a much easier time identifying if and when someone was in a simr situation. Logically that was sound. But something nagged at us. Would they even be willing? It would, even if only by proxy, subject them to their trauma. Not everyone would want that, and in some cases it might even have significantly worse consequences. So there had to be at least two instances to check. One that knows the feeling and the signs, and one that was normal and wasn¡¯t damaged yet. Kaysa had mentioned a sort of department for it, and that meant finding and hiring people. To that end we wanted to make it very clear that anyone who tried to abuse that department in any way would getpletely fucked over. The people this department was for were under our, under Myriad¡¯s, protection. Anyone who wanted to try something would be devoured wholesale and that was the end of it. No mercy, no remorse, our ce, our rules. We nodded to ourselves and took another swig from the bottle. By this point the haze was getting rather strong, but we carried on regardless. We had to talk to Tina about it all. She was the one in charge, and as someone who knew the business, she would know how to deal with it. But it might be worth exploring bringing outside people in, who could offer council and professional expertise in ways we or the others couldn¡¯t. One issue nailed down, a couple more to go. Next up, the drugs. Kaysa had mentioned that banning it was the wrong way to go about it, and we agreed, having seen the results of that first hand before. Drugs were a fact of life, especially in the redlight district. But with a proper system in ce, such as the one Castas was already working on, it would enable us to keep a better eye on things and to prevent the worst case more effectively. The issue was, just taking away drugs wasn¡¯t the solution. People would inevitably get their hands on some, and if they were already in bad enough shape, they are unlikely to be willing to give up drugs, even if only partially. So we needed either some ce they could go to for help, or, since many wouldn¡¯t look for help for various reasons, something or someone to keep an eye on people from the outside. We already realised that there would be no way topletely do away with overdose and traumatised people. There would always be someone who slipped through the cracks, either willingly, or by ident. We could implement a system to keep an eye open for them, but even that wouldn¡¯t be perfect. We hadn¡¯t even fully thought about it yet, when the Meerkats of the swarm took off, preparing for just that very case. It would be a stop gap measure at the very least. Anything else would have to wait until we were back in the district, which left us with the one topic we had tried to avoid. Sarah. We were pretty hardened when it came to death and emotional trauma of that kind. But Sarah was different. She had been a friend, even if she hadn¡¯t thought of us that way. Our outburst notwithstanding, that hadn¡¯t changed even at the end. Kaysa had been pretty clear that there had been nothing we could have done, but despite all of that, the facts, her theory, and the logic behind it all, we still felt like we let her down. That familiar feel of helplessness wasn¡¯t going anywhere and it hurt like hell. There was of course the idea to look for that stupid priest and devour him whole. But Kaysa was right. That wouldn¡¯t get us anywhere. In fact, it might make things worse. No, we needed to find him, not to kill him, but to see if he knew if anyone else was doing what he did and stop them. The idea grated on us, to let him live. Maybe we didn¡¯t have to, and once he had told us anything we could devour him, if only for our own gratification. For the moment we vowed to at least try letting him stay alive. No matter the fate of that asshole, there was still a Sarah shaped hole in our heart that wouldn¡¯t go away. We had no idea what to do about it, if there even was something we could do. We only knew that it hurt. It hurt a lot. We would remember her. As a person, and as a lesson. That was the best we could do. Taking a deep breath, we emptied the bottle, put it on the table and leaned back. Thest couple of days had been a mess, to put it simply. We just hoped that the future would bring better, happier times. We sat there for a while longer, the alcohol now fully in effect, bringing us the familiar haze that made so many problems disappear into irrelevancy. Eventually though we took the pill, clearing our head. Being drunk was nice, but Kaysa was right that it didn¡¯t help anything. We wouldn¡¯t stop, not entirely. Taking drugs was something we enjoyed. But we would at least make sure to do so with a little more care. If only¡­ If only to show that respect to Sarah and how far it had taken her down a path that we couldn¡¯t pull her away from. Jenna was the first to join us. She wore a simple nightgown, parts of which were slightly transparent giving us a very good look at her figure. She smiled as she walked in, obviously still waking up and rubbing her eyes with one hand. ¡°Hey,¡± she said gently, sitting down next to us. ¡°Hey,¡± we replied, and for once didn¡¯t suppress the urge to give her a small, gentle peck on the cheek, mainly because her presence was like a healing salve on a burning wound. ¡°Hope you don¡¯t mind?¡± we asked, a bit timidly after the fact. She shook her head with that same gentle smile, ¡°No. Just¡­ don¡¯t overdo things, okay?¡± ¡°Of course,¡± we replied, then nestled into her, just enjoying her body next to our own. ¡°How are you feeling?¡± she asked, one arm wrapped around us and slowly and gently rubbing our arm up and down with one hand. ¡°Better. We talked to Kaysa earlier. I talked to Kaysa earlier, sorry. I know you don¡¯t like it.¡± ¡°It¡¯s okay,¡± Jenna said, ¡°It¡¯s a bit creepy, but I think I¡¯m getting used to it.¡± ¡°Thanks¡­ To be honest, having¡­ them there¡­ it helps. We are one, yes, but it still means I¡¯m not alone with my thoughts. Without them I think I¡¯d be a lot worse.¡± ¡°Kaysa might have mentioned something like that. How did that talk go?¡± she asked, obviously eyeing the bottle on the table, which I only saw with my echolocation since my head was nestled gently into her shoulder. ¡°It went better than I expected. Kaysa did most of the talking to be honest. But she knows how I tick. She gave me a run down on what probably happened with Sarah,¡± we couldn¡¯t quite suppress a small hitch at the name, ¡°and why. It helped me work through my mental blocks. I always did best with logical exnations.¡± ¡°Oh? Care to share?¡± We sighed, ¡°It was a case of redlight district bullshittery. I don¡¯t want to go over all of it, she can probably send it to you if you are interested, but basically someone took advantage of her, pumped her full of drugs to the point of near death, then did that a couple more times basically brainwashing her. By the point any of us realised just how messed up she was, she was already basically dead. In Kaysa¡¯s words, ¡®It was a miracle that she survived this long.¡¯¡± We scowled at the idea, ¡°It¡¯s¡­ it makes it easier to take¡­ a little at least. But it still hurts like a bitch. To know that this had gone on for days without me even realising¡­ And how we exploded on her after the fact¡­ I feel so bad about it¡­¡± We wiped away the few tears that tried to escape down our face. Taking a deep breath, and nestling ourselves a bit more into her, we continued. ¡°Kaysa gave me some ideas to make sure stuff like this doesn¡¯t repeat itself. And I thought about them, and a few others. Will need to talk to Tina and co eventually. But I would lie if I said we didn¡¯t have a wish to find that asshole and devour him whole.¡± We might have been a bit too aggressive at the end, considering how Jenna tensed up next to us. ¡°Sorry,¡± we muttered, ¡°She¡¯s right to say that it doesn¡¯t do us any good. But we need to find him, if only to figure out if there have been others like¡­ her, and if there might be others like him. Not sure yet if I can bring myself to let him go¡­ but I promised myself to at least try.¡± She squeezed us gently, ¡°It¡¯s good that you are better. Chloe mentioned that it might take a few days for you to work through it all. To be honest, I¡¯m a little surprised that you are so¡­ normal.¡± We chuckled, even if we weren¡¯t really feeling it, ¡°Well, that would be because I¡¯m not normal. Kaysa mentioned that I was quite unlike normal people in many regards. I think this is part of it. It hurts like crazy, yes, but I need to carry on. I will take a day or two, just to calm down a bit. But afterwards I need to do something, if only to make sure shit like this doesn¡¯t happen again. I don¡¯t think sitting around doing nothing will do me any good.¡± ¡°Good,¡± she said, squeezing me again, ¡°We have three days before we have to head out.¡± ¡°Oh yeah,¡± we said, looking up at her, d for the change in topic, ¡°That meeting. Completely forgot about it. How was it?¡± She thought for a moment, ¡°The best I could describe it would be¡­ informative.¡±
I have a Discord! Also, I''ve made a . If you wish to support me on my endavours, I''d appreciate it greatly! At the moment you can read five chapters ahead on ''A Joytoy''s journey to be a Hive-Queen''! Chapter 43 – Normalcy is the best medicine for a wounded heart Chapter 43 ¨C Normalcy is the best medicine for a wounded heart ¡°Oi, you saw Bahamut¡¯s giant dragon, right? Shiarex, I think it¡¯s called?¡± ¡°Yeah, I saw it alright. And that weird¡­ whatever the fuck that other Samurai uses to fly around, what was he called? Gubbler?¡± ¡°Glubber. There were a lot of Samurai heading towards that tower. Think something big is going on?¡± ¡°Nah, probably just figuring out how to get the city up and running again. We don¡¯t have many Samurai, so they probably all need to help a little.¡± ¡°Yeah¡­ It¡¯s kind of interesting though. NS doesn¡¯t have many Samurai, but if you check the charts ours are pretty high up on it.¡± ¡°That doesn¡¯t mean anything. It just means they¡¯re well liked. Honestly, I¡¯d feel better if we had more Samurai like Deus Ex around. Now that¡¯s a powerhouse.¡± ¡°I wonder what happened to the others. We had a lot more a couple years back.¡± ¡°Probably buggered off to greener pastures. NS isn¡¯t exactly the center of civilization, mega city or no.¡± - Overheard conversation between two residents in the inner city, near the Family Headquarters of NS ¡°To make a very long and boring meeting short, there are some hives outside of town,¡± Jenna said, still gently rubbing our arm. ¡°Blitzer mentioned something along the lines,¡± we said, ¡°He also said that the Dragon Queen was dealing with it.¡± She nodded, a few of her hairs trickling over our face. ¡°Yes. She was out there alright. The hives themselves have been there for quite some time. Normally they would have been dealt with long ago, but there were someplications and whatnot, I¡¯m not sure I got it all. Anyways, some time ago a couple of our high ranking Samurai here in New Savannah moved out to deal with it, but they didn¡¯te back. It¡¯s why we have so few Samurai in the first ce.¡± She shrugged, looking down at me, ¡°The idea of nuking them was of course suggested. And rejected. The idea to hit them with Rods from God was suggested, then also rejected. The problem with these hives is that they have burrowed deep. Very deep. It¡¯s making things very hard to deal with, without outright bombing the ce into next week, which Glubber, the Samurai who had led the meeting, and his Family associates weren¡¯t a big fan of. They are afraid that it would just scatter huge amounts of antithesis biomass over a wide area, which could then sprout new hives.¡± ¡°Sensible approach,¡± we replied with a nod, ¡°We don¡¯t need more hives to deal with if we are already low on Samurai.¡± ¡°Exactly, otherwise they would have done so already. Bahamut, or Dragon Queen, she kinda uses both names, has been outside of town, pruning them as best she could. But she hasn¡¯t been able to deal with them entirely. That¡¯s where wee in. She, and the Family analysts, have deemed them sufficiently weakened to let the newbies have a go at it, mainly for us to get more points. Their goal is to basically powerlevel us so that we have sufficient Samurai firepower to deal with any futureplications. It wasn¡¯t said outright, but considering the way they talked I¡¯m betting they know something and are trying to prepare.¡± ¡°Huh¡­ That¡¯s not a good sign,¡± we said, frowning at the news. If they knew something and tried to make sure there were as many powerful Samurai as they could manage, that meant something big was afoot. ¡°It¡¯s not,¡± Jenna agreed with a simr frown on her own pretty face, ¡°To that end they put us into separate groups, each attacking one of the hives. The hives themselves shouldn¡¯t be too dangerous. Cleopatra said they should have the same models as the undercity hive, sans the Twenty¡¯s of course, but a lot more of the small critters. That¡¯s where most of the dangeres from.¡± Then her frown deepened a little, ¡°What I¡¯m mostly worried about is that they asked for the two of us specifically to try our best to make as many points as we can.¡± ¡°Wait, what?¡± We sat up, looking at her directly now, trying to find the logic in that particr piece of information. ¡°Yes. Since we are both focused on drones and can take care of arge area alone, they want us to get as many points as we can get our hands on. Specifically, they want you to be able to churn Najav¡¯s out like basic units, and for me to be able to fortify an entire city in an afternoon if we could manage. Many probably took that as exaggerations, but I¡¯m not exactly sure about that.¡± ¡°That doesn¡¯t sound good. Like at all.¡± She nodded, ¡°Chloe and I said the same thing. We are on one team, by the way, they wanted to split us up for better point gain, but Chloe told them to stuff it or we would be out entirely.¡± That made us smile warmly. ¡°Anyways, we¡¯re not exactly sure what they are preparing for, but I would bet myst pair of panties that it isn¡¯t anything good. But it does mean that we basically have first right of refusal on any point gain opportunity. Not sure if we should abuse it or not. We do have quite the points to spare, and there were some who were still running around in basic gear.¡± ¡°I¡¯d say we take what we can get, while leaving enough for the others. If they want us specifically to get points, then they will have a reason for it. That said, I¡¯m not going to tell some newbie who is probably scared shitless if a Fifteen or higher shows up that they can¡¯t have any points. Not only would that be rude, but we might be depending on exactly that specific personter on. And, not to put too fine a point on it, I¡¯m still not entirely certain about the Family and would rather not piss off every Samurai in the city. Orders or no.¡± ¡°We thought the same thing,¡± Jenna agreed, ¡°Points are nice but we aren¡¯t the only ones who need them.¡± We were interrupted by Chloe¡¯s arrival, who, simr to ourselves, only wore an oversized shirt, although maybe with panties on, it was impossible to tell from here. ¡°Morning,¡± she mumbled, slouching over to the kitchen in that pre-coffee zombie mode so many people tend to portray. ¡°Good morning,¡± we replied, and Jenna joined in. ¡°Sleep okay?¡± we asked with a smile. ¡°It would have been warmer if you hadn¡¯t left at some point,¡± Chloe muttered, busying herself with the daily ritual of preparing coffee. We chuckled at that, ¡°To be honest, I was kind of surprised that we were both naked in the same bed.¡± Chloe stopped, then slowly turned to us, a partly horrified, partly cheaply guilty look on her face. ¡°I don¡¯t know what you are talking about.¡± She couldn¡¯t fool anyone and both Jenna and us started tough at that. ¡°Anyway, Jenna told me about that meeting,¡± we said, nestling back into her warm side and enjoying thefy presence. ¡°Yeah¡­ Three days, big hives, many points. Something something possible looming threat, I remember,¡± Chloe said, turning back to her coffee preparations. ¡°Yeah. Makes me wonder though,¡± we said, turning to Jenna, ¡°You wanted to get the Corvette thing soon, right? Maybe we should do it early, pack it with materials so you can churn out Sentinels while we wait? I might be able to do something simr, maybe. It would at least give my Reavers a ce to settle down and eat their fill.¡± She looked thoughtful for a moment, ¡°That actually does sound like a decent n. With your addition to the project I should even be able to give it stealth capabilities. Not perfect ones, not for something that size, but it would at least hide it better.¡± ¡°Why would you want to hide it?¡± Chloe asked, standing next to the now happily humming coffee maker, ¡°I would show it off. Not only because it¡¯s a damn fine piece of tech, but if people see it they take you more seriously.¡± ¡°True,¡± we said, nodding our agreement, ¡°And if it¡¯s already there if and when something goes down people would feel a little better and protected.¡± Jenna looked at us each in turn, then shrugged, ¡°Bahamut hides her dragon if it isn¡¯t required.¡± ¡°Wait, dragon?¡± we asked, trying to think about what she meant. ¡°Shiarex,¡± Chloe exined, ¡°That¡¯s how she calls it. Huge fuck off mecha dragon. Quite the sight to behold, to be honest. Makes me wonder how much she put into that thing.¡± ¡°Close to 300k,¡± Jenna said, ¡°I had some opportunity to talk to her, if only briefly. She¡¯s been a Samurai for a long time.¡± Our eyes widened, ¡°What, 300k?? And it can¡¯t deal with those hives?¡± ¡°It¡¯s a matter of tech put in there. The main reason it¡¯s so expensive is because of the reactor powering it, the anti-grav tech, the stealth tech, and the rather unique weapon systems, all of which are ss 3. She put the majority of her points into it. Where we focus on a myriad of drones, pun not intended by the way, and Chloe into a collection of different weapons and one time use consumables, Bahamut put all her stock into one huge mecha to deal with the big models. Not exclusively of course, she can do stuff on her own. But that thing can eat a Twenty-One for breakfast. Even a Twenty-Two for that matter, which is most of what she¡¯s been doing to keep the hives pruned.¡± ¡°Now I¡¯m mad that I missed it,¡± we said, then shook our head. Getting up we stretched, and I took the time to slowly emerge from the chorus. With Chloe and Jenna now awake I didn¡¯t need to depend so much on them, and it made me a bit morefortable around them since they still weren¡¯t entirely onboard with my swarm. Not that it changed anything, obviously. I was still Myriad, and we were one, but I felt better focusing on myself when around these two. Then again, to say I emerged from the chorus was wrong. It was still there, everpresent, but it was a good enough descriptor for the difference between actively listening to them all the time, and more focusing on myself. ¡°So,¡± I said, ¡°What are we going to do today?¡± ¡°Shopping,¡± Chloe said, still waiting for her coffee. ¡°Oh yeah, you did mention something like that yesterday.¡± ¡°Yeah. Are you up for a trip outside? You were pretty out of it yesterday,¡± she asked, ncing at Jenna behind me for a moment. ¡°I think I am. Kaysa and I had a talk earlier. The wound is still there¡­ fresh. But I don¡¯t think sitting around and brooding would help me much. I much rather spend the day with you, in whatever capacity I can.¡± ¡°Such as going shopping,¡± Jenna said, getting up behind me. ¡°Yup. Now, what should I wear for today?¡± I said, more to myself, ¡°I¡¯m not feeling mybat dress and honestly I¡¯m not in the mood to show off that much.¡± Jenna hugged me from behind, surprising me a little. She put her chin on my head, right between my ears, both instinctively moving to the side to give her some room. ¡°Hey,¡± I said silently, putting my hands on her own, ¡°What brought this on?¡± ¡°I¡¯m proud of you, Seraphine,¡± she said, ¡°That you are this resilient. I honestly feared for the worst after youpletely shut down like that yesterday.¡± I didn¡¯t know how to respond, so I didn¡¯t, simply ncing at Chloe who gave me one hell of a smirk. ¡°I know I said I¡¯m not quite ready for¡­ more. And I¡¯m not. But I also have a bad habit of pushing people away long enough for them to think I hate them. I¡¯m simply making a point of not having that happen again. I¡¯m here for you. Both. If you need something, just ask. Just¡­ don¡¯t push me, okay?¡± ¡°Of course,¡± I said. My heart was racing in excitement. Probably much too soon, since she did just tell me again that she wasn¡¯t ready yet, but it was so incredibly nice to have her hug me. It made me giddy to a stupid degree. We remained like that for a moment longer, before she let go, and moved towards the door. ¡°Now, I¡¯m going to take a shower and get dressed.¡± And with those words she vanished, leaving me standing there with a grin that would probably scare some people off. ¡°You really were hit in the hormones with that upgrade, huh,¡± Chloe said, still smirking. ¡°You have absolutely no idea,¡± I replied and sheughed. Chloe turned to the coffee maker, which had just signalled its readiness and poured herself a cup. Straight ck, no sugar or milk. I took the time to walk over to her, and this time I was the one to hug someone from behind. ¡°Careful,¡± Chloe said, paying close attention to the cup in her hand, ¡°This stuff is hot.¡± ¡°So are you,¡± I replied, without even thinking. It only registered in my mind when she sputtered, freshly brewed hot coffee spraying all over the kitchen counter. ¡°Seraphine!¡± Iughed out loud, and when she turned around to re at me, I simply disarmed her with a fierce vice hug. ¡°Seriously,¡± she said with an angry tone that was already abiding. A momentter she ced the cup down, and returned my hug, making me even happier. ¡°How¡¯re you doing?¡± she asked, gently. ¡°Much better already. I know¡­¡± I stopped, then continued, ¡°I know you both said to wait. And I do try. But it¡¯s very hard and I hope you don¡¯t mind if Ie for a hug now and again.¡± ¡°Of course not,¡± she said with a smile, then hesitated, something I again only picked up with my echolocation. ¡°Seraphine,¡± she continued eventually, ¡°I would like to talk to you about your Hive. I realise right now might not be the best time but¡­¡± I shook my head, rubbing my face into her chest for a moment, ¡°It¡¯s fine¡­ I need some distraction after yesterday. It¡­ It still hurts¡­ A lot¡­ It¡¯s much better with you and with Jenna¡­ But I don¡¯t mind talking about it. Okay, I mind, but not because now is a bad time. I¡­ I¡¯m afraid that I might scare you off.¡± ¡°It¡¯s okay, Seraphine. And thank you,¡± she replied, squeezing me gently but a little more tightly into her, ¡°I talked to As about it, as I said¡­ It¡¯s been a bit of a topic on and off. After yesterday¡­ I¡¯m sorry, Seraphine, but I have to admit that I¡¯m a little¡­ afraid what might happen if you ever break down like that without anyone there to catch you. I know it sounds harsh, but I was prepared to chain you to the bed today, if I had to.¡± I winced. She was right, that was harsh. But I also knew she only said it because she was worried about me and for me. She didn¡¯t want to hurt me, just ensure that I didn¡¯t do anything I would regret, and that made the pain I felt at thement infinitely better. And I had to admit, the thought of being chained to the bed by her wasn¡¯t a bad one¡­ Even if things most likely wouldn¡¯t have been as pleasant as I imagined them right now. But those thoughts didn¡¯t matter right now. ¡°I¡¯m not quite sure¡­ I¡¯m not quite sure what I could tell you to make you less anxious, to be honest. Truth be told, I know very little myself, and apart from how I feel, which is kind of impossible to really exin, I don¡¯t know much more about Hexws than you do, and what I do know probably won¡¯t make your fears go away.¡± She smiled, ruffling my hair, and I took a moment to enjoy it, even if it meant straightening it outter. ¡°I know. But I want to know more. I want to know you, Seraphine. I¡­¡± She stopped, blushing fiercely and carefully picking her words, ¡°I¡¯m¡­ not¡­ opposed¡­ to the idea¡­ for us to¡­ you know¡­ I like you, a lot. Maybe more than that¡­ If it weren¡¯t for that Hive thing, I don¡¯t think I¡¯d be even remotely this hesitant¡­ But it¡¯s there. And I want to know what I¡¯m getting into, if and when. You¡¯re¡­ very¡­ strange to me. I want to know more.¡± Her blushing and her stuttering had me giggling despite myself, and I reached up to give her a peck on the lips, which made her blushing not better, but she didn¡¯t retreat or react otherwise. ¡°Of course, silly. Kaysa? I can exin some to her, but is there a way to make it more easily understandable?¡± Kaysa, of course, inhabited the nanite drone and appeared next to me, still a perfect copy of myself. She looked at me, then Chloe, before she nodded. ¡°Of course. With the help of Seraphine¡¯s imnt, I can host a private mesh space for you to dive and to learn and experience what it is to be in Seraphine¡¯s shoes. Be aware, however, that it is unlike anything you know and that it might be a lot to take in.¡± Chloe nodded in turn, taking a moment to respond. ¡°That much is clear. But I also feel like I have to. Mainly because as things stand, I wouldn¡¯t know how to help her if she needed it. That whole Hive thing is¡­ It¡¯s been eating me up inside. After yesterday¡­ I¡¯m scared. For more reasons than one. It¡¯s so strange that I can¡¯t even begin toprehend, and I don¡¯t know how to deal with it, not unless I can somehow understand.¡± She sighed deeply, before she gave me aplicated nce. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, Seraphine¡­ I know you just went through some stuff and here I am pushing. I know I shouldn¡¯t¡­¡± ¡°It¡¯s okay,¡± I replied with a soft smile, ¡°I know you do it because you care. We can do it after breakfast, hm? That way Jenna can join us too.¡± She gave me a smile that couldn¡¯t hide the uncertainty behind her eyes, but she nodded slightly and squeezed me closer for a moment, ¡°Okay. Sounds good. Thanks, Seraphine.¡±
I have a Discord! Also, I''ve made a . If you wish to support me on my endavours, I''d appreciate it greatly! At the moment you can read five chapters ahead on ''A Joytoy''s journey to be a Hive-Queen''! We’ve got art! We¡¯ve got art! Hey all! A bit out of schedule, but recently Tatyar finished mymission of a basic Hexw Hatchling. They did an absolutely fantastic job at bringing my idea to live, in the process shaping the design and helping me get a much better understanding on how it would look. I could not ask for a better rendition of the design and am incredibly happy with the oue! Without further ado I give you the basic Hexw Hatchling! Since Hexw''s are highly adaptable this means that of course any Hexw might differ in appearance. For example the Queen''s Guard would look pretty much identical to a human, but they still have the same eyes as the one in this Image. Thanks again to Tatyar and their amazing work! They also did the antithesis art for RavensDagger from his ''Glossary'' chapters, Chapter 44 – Keeping in touch Chapter 44 ¨C Keeping in touch ¡°Don¡¯t trust anything they wanna jam in yer skull! Those imnts will turn you into mind controlled ves at the push of a button! I tell ye, that¡¯s just all fockin¡¯ bullshit to control ye! Wake up sheeple, all they want is to steal yer bodies!¡± - Post on the pre Inte Forum ¡®TechFreaks¡¯, about the rise of the augs, 2025 While we waited on Jenna, Chloe and I chatted about a few mundane things, my ns for the district, how I would go about it, what she nned to do for a little while. I also wanted to give Tina and Castas a call, as well as Victor. Those three had some things I wanted to talk to them about and while I still wasn¡¯t sure about Tina, considering the whole¡­ Sarah episode, I wanted to do it sooner, rather thanter. It was important. Thinking about Sarah made me slump a little, that same guilt and feeling of helplessness washing over me once more. Chloe¡¯s presence helped a lot. It calmed me, calmed the whole chorus, and gave us the strength to follow through with the call. Deciding that I had some time, I called Victor first. He was more likely to be awake already, and it gave me time to prepare before I spoke with the other two. ¡°Seraphine,¡± Victor''s voice came when he picked up. I was of course using my virtual realm to call him, and watched the call window when he picked up. Victor looked¡­ tired. Not bad, not really, just exhausted. Not a surprise to be honest, considering that we had just gone through an incursion. ¡°Victor, morning. You tried to contact me?¡± ¡°Yeah¡­ Heard that some changes areing. I¡¯m not gonna pretend that I like them, Samurai or no, but I¡¯m also not stupid enough to fight you on it. I like my life and as the saying goes, don¡¯t fuck with Samurai.¡± ¡°d to see you¡¯re as sharp as ever,¡± I said with a smirk. For the call my avatar was wearing mybat dress, it felt a lot more fitting. ¡°You don¡¯t survive by being stupid, Seraphine, you should know that better than most.¡± ¡°Oh, I do, believe me. Anyways, what did you want to talk about?¡± He grimaced slightly, but it vanished quickly, ¡°Honestly, I wanted to know when you n to get back to it and what you have in mind for yourself when you do. You have a list of client requests long enough to clog up my server and at this point I had to block any more requests because my provider was calling me and telling me to stop melting their shit with all the traffic.¡± That had me giggle, ¡°Yeah, I can imagine. You can forward them all to me, my AI will take care of it for the moment. And I can¡¯t tell you yet when I get to them. I have a few days off, might take a few on the day after tomorrow, who knows. But I also gotta do some Samurai stuff, you know how it is. The world doesn¡¯t stop spinning just because you want it to.¡± ¡°Wouldn¡¯t that be nice,¡± he muttered his reply, then sighed and nodded, ¡°I¡¯ll send them all to you. Anything you can tell me on how you¡¯ll conduct business from now on?¡± ¡°Eh, not quite sure yet. I¡¯ll probably still use the brothel for it, but I¡¯m going to get it some upgrades. Not just for myself, mind you. That ce needs some proper maintenance and I happen to have a swarm who is more than eager to polish some stuff. Pick a day out that works for your schedule and I¡¯ll polish things up. Apart from that, there will be some more changesing, I¡¯ll be introducing a new department to keep an eye on those who might go down a very slippery slope. There was a¡­ quite unfortunate incident yesterday and it showed me just how much we need to up our game to prevent another one. Is Galia still around?¡± He nodded, ¡°The chick you were keeping an eye on? Yeah, she is¡­ To be honest, she isn¡¯t looking too good. I tried to y some connections in your absence, maybe find a way to help her, but¡­ well. She¡¯s too high to hear much of it. We only got back yesterday, so there wasn¡¯t a lot of time yet. Especially with the¡­ clean up. Shame about Dax, really¡­ That man deserved so much more. All of them did.¡± Victor wasn¡¯t typically a man I liked that much, he could be a little aggressive, but I also didn¡¯t dislike him either. Hisments made me raise my opinion of him though. He seemed to genuinely care and that spoke well to his character. ¡°I¡¯ll see if I can¡¯t drop inter today. Try and help her. That department I mentioned will be for cases like her. And I want to make it very, very explicitly clear that that¡¯s my pet project. Any outside interference will not be tolerated and will end up with being fed to the swarm, got it?¡± ¡°Clear as holo-ss. I¡¯ll assume you¡¯ll be hashing out the details?¡± I shook my head, ¡°Tina will. I realised that I¡¯m not the right person for it. She is the head of the Crimson Rose who are in charge of the Joytoys and the brothel business. With her expertise and her people she¡¯s much better at it than I could ever be. She talked to you yet?¡± ¡°Yeah. Called yesterday evening, after we cleaned up here. She also mentioned that incident I¡¯m pretty sure you are talking about¡­ How are you taking it? I know I cane off as a bit of an asshole, and you would be right to say I¡¯m asking for more than just personal interest. Truth be told, we can¡¯t afford our patron Samurai to have a breakdown.¡± Typical Victor, always so rough around the edges. But his voice told me he wasn¡¯t entirely without personal concern. And he was right. ¡°I¡¯m¡­ okay. Not fine yet, but I had a long talk earlier and I have people who keep an eye on me. It still hurts, of course. It hurts like a motherfucker if I¡¯m honest. But I¡¯ll live.¡± ¡°Good to hear¡­ Be careful out there, you hear me? Now, was there anything else? Need to start on the day¡¯s admin shit.¡± ¡°Not really, no. I¡¯ll let you know about the details of my own job when I hammer them out. Maybe keep Galia off the books for today?¡± ¡°I can do that. She won¡¯t be happy about it, she takes Shiver like Sharon¡­ But I can manage. Just make sure to swing by, okay?¡± ¡°Will do. Later.¡± He nodded, then cut the call. I sighed in the virtual realm, rubbing my face, and taking a moment before I ced the next call. The news about Galia was not unexpected, but it didn¡¯t mean I worried any less. After yesterday¡­ I hoped I could still help her. She hopefully wasn¡¯t too deep into it all yet, so maybe a bit of Cleanse and some therapy could help her out. Tina picked up soon after, although Castas didn¡¯t. It quickly became apparent why though when Tina turned on her PC cam. It was a bit outdated to have PC¡¯s, of course, but in the redlight district there weren¡¯t many who could afford the kind of augs to have your PC with you all the time. Castas was with her, both sitting on the edge of the bed in nightgowns, and it was very apparent that both had just put them on, Castas still adjusting his shirt. ¡°Hey. I hope I¡¯m not interrupting anything?¡± I asked with a smirk. ¡°Well, you did just kind of blue ball little Cas here, but that¡¯s okay. We can pick upter,¡± Tina said with a cute giggle and gave him a loving nce. Of course, after Cheryl¡¯sments I had been aware of the two maybe being an item, but so far it had all been distant and not that obvious. Until now, at least. ¡°Oh, I¡¯m sorry. I¡¯ll make it up to you, give you a prio order. Tina and I can tag team you and show you heaven,¡± I said, my smirk growing. ¡°That¡¯s not the kind of offer I should reject, huh?¡± he asked, ncing at Tina. ¡°No, silly, you shouldn¡¯t. You know how good I am, Seraphine is leagues above me. How does this evening sound?¡± I shrugged, ¡°Probably won¡¯t have time then. I can manage in two days, if you want? Maybe tomorrow, but I¡¯ll see what the day brings first.¡± ¡°Okay, I¡¯ll hold you to it,¡± Tina said with a dangerous smile on her lips, but it quickly sobered. ¡°How are you? After yesterday¡­¡± She hesitated, obviously unsure how to continue. ¡°I¡¯m getting there,¡± I told her with what I hoped was a reassuring smile, but truth be told I probably didn¡¯t quite manage it, ¡°I¡¯m sorry, Tina¡­ I know there was nothing I could have done, but¡­ I¡¯m sorry.¡± ¡°Your AI sent me a summary of what she figured out¡­ I¡¯m just as sorry as you are, Sera. To know that entire¡­ thing went down without any of us noticing¡­ I knew she was in bad straits, but that was a whole lot more fucked up than I ever could have imagined.¡± ¡°Yeah¡­ It¡¯s why I¡¯m calling you. There are changes I want implemented and soon. To make sure shit like that doesn¡¯t happen again. Or to at least make it a whole lot lessmon. Just talked with Vic, so he knows, but you¡¯re in charge of the Joytoys. The details are for you to hammer out, but basically I want a department for that kind of crap. Have some ce to keep an eye on things, people that anyone can go to for help. We can¡¯t entirely stop it, not with how fucked up it all is, but we can make it better. And I want to make it clear from the very beginning that it¡¯s my project and that anyone who fucks with it has to deal with me.¡± She nodded and so did Castas. ¡°To that end,¡± I continued, looking at him, ¡°I also want to introduce some policy changes regarding drugs. We won¡¯t ban them, that won¡¯t do anything and just make it all worse. But I want some kind of idea who takes what and how much, so we can keep an eye on cases that might go badly. I¡¯m not asking you to keep an eye on everyone, I have some of my drones in the district to make sure nothing like it will happen at the moment, and I will probably ask Jenna for help regarding a more permanent system. But I want it known, maybe you can think about how best to tackle it? If you need something for it, just ask. I know your resources are limited, even with the help of Haze, so I¡¯m willing to do what I can to help.¡± He nodded again, ¡°I can do that. We¡¯re still rebuilding it all, so it might be a very good time to start, make sure it will all go over nicely. Haze still seems reluctant, the bastard has been trying to dodge talking to me. We¡¯ll find some way to make them get off their arse, though.¡± ¡°Oh, I can give him a call, remind him a little.¡± ¡°Nah, no need. Once we¡¯re back in the district shit will flow, I know it. Sultan is a fucking asshole, but he¡¯s not so stupid to try and risk your wrath. Or that of Legion, for that matter. After our little meeting people have dug out all the footage of you fighting. They¡¯re pretty fucking terrified, as they should be.¡± I nodded at that, it was only to be expected. ¡°Good to know. And I think that¡¯s all from my end, unless you have something I¡¯ll let you get back to your fun. Milk him good for me, alright?¡± ¡°Will do,¡± Tina said with a giggle, ¡°He¡¯s surprisingly adept in bed. Oh, one thing before I forget, one of my people had the idea to have some drugs delivered to you, if you want?¡± I shook my head, ¡°Nah, no need. I¡¯ll probably still use the brothel for work, although I¡¯ll send my swarm through to clean up and shit. Maybe have Jenna send some drones for maintenance. Not sure yet.¡± ¡°Okay, just know that the offer stands.¡± ¡°Thanks. See ya, and have fun.¡± In reply Tina turned and kissed Castas hungrily, before the call ended. They weren¡¯t a pairing I had expected, but I could definitely see it now. Not sure how well they fit, but that was their shit to figure out. I wasn¡¯t going to be involved, especially because I had no clue about rtionships either. Sex, sure, I could fuck anyone as good as they wanted me to, didn¡¯t matter who they were or what they liked. Rtionships? That was another thing entirely. And my own experience with it was limited to being a drugged up sex doll cumdump for some old gang mates, and the entire scenario with Chloe and Jenna. There was some headway, sure, but we weren¡¯t in one yet, and one of the most terrifying topics was soon toe up. Only after would I know where we stood. I knew it was all fast. We¡¯ve only known each other for a very short period of time. Much shorter than most would consider normal. But I wasn¡¯t normal, and while Jenna was still taking her time, Chloe seemed just as eager as I was. If the whole Hive thing wasn¡¯t a problem she probably already would have said yes. And if I was honest with myself, I wasn¡¯t exactly the kind of person to subscribe to the idea that you needed to know each other for some arbitrary amount of time before you should get together. Was it a good idea? Sure, you knew the other person a lot better. But I liked them both, loved them both, and I was pretty sure they did like me just as much, maybe even love me, deep down somewhere. In different ways of course, and for different reasons. But so far they¡¯ve shown no sign of being disinterested and every sign that they were. Even if things still had some hurdles. Taking a moment I thought about anyone else I might call, then remembered Dax¡¯ maybe girlfriend since Vic and I talked about him earlier. ¡°Kaysa? Can you figure out the number for Dax¡¯ girlfriend? Would like to let her know about him.¡± Of course. Here you are. A momentter a new number got added to my contacts under the name Sabrina. Hesitating for only a moment I dialled it. To my surprise she picked up pretty much immediately, looking rather awake. Maybe she was an early morning person? ¡°Hello? Who is this?¡± she asked, giving me a suspicious nce. ¡°Hello, I¡¯m Seraphine Bloodfallen. I work at the Rose Carpet, and Dax mentioned that he was seeing someone. My AI found your number.¡± Her gaze fell and her face shifted to one of sadness, ¡°Oh¡­¡± ¡°You know what happened?¡± I asked gently and with a warm smile. ¡°Yeah¡­ I got a notif for it yesterday¡­ He didn¡¯t make it through the incursion¡­¡± ¡°I¡¯m so sorry, Sabrina,¡± I said solemnly, ¡°By the time I found him he was already¡­ I¡¯m sorry.¡± ¡°You¡¯re a Samurai, yeah?¡± She asked, although her expression remained the same. ¡°I am. Sadly only became one after he already passed away¡­ By the time we left the wing upstairs everyone downstairs was already dead. There was nothing I could do, I¡¯m sorry.¡± Sabrina shook her head gently, ¡°It¡¯s okay¡­ I don¡¯t me you for it¡­ Hell, I barely managed to get out myself. Some Samurai called Patrick picked me up and brought me somewhere more safe. Do you know him?¡± ¡°I did¡­ He sadly passed awayter on. Model Nine got him good.¡± ¡°Oh¡­ Fuck¡­¡± For a moment she was silent, and I gave her the time she obviously needed. She looked¡­ crestfallen. That deep sadness that I knew so well. I wasn¡¯t sure why Patrick¡¯s death seemed to bother her, but I also didn¡¯t feel it right to ask. At least not at the moment. ¡°Thanks¡­ for letting me know. Not sure why else you would call me, I¡¯m a nobody¡­¡± ¡°I wanted to let you know about Dax. He was quite into you, you know? I don¡¯t know much, but we talked a little the day of the incursion and he mentioned you. At first I thought he was trying to get me to spend a night with him, but he very firmly said that he had someone else.¡± ¡°Were you two close?¡± she asked, with a tone I couldn¡¯t identify. It wasn¡¯t judgemental or anything, maybe uncertain? A hint of suspicion? She probably thought I was seeing him. Maybe I could have worded that differently. ¡°No, just coworkers. I¡¯m a Joytoy, he was the bartender. We may have spent a night or two, but that¡¯s been long in the past. I¡¯m so sorry that he can¡¯t be with you anymore. He seemed genuinely happy about it all.¡± ¡°Yeah¡­ He was nice. I liked him a lot¡­ Was hoping that maybe we¡¯d get somewhere together. Now I¡¯m alone again¡­ Fuck¡­¡± She tried to hide her tears, but she couldn¡¯t. I simply gave her some time, and she sobbed quietly, mourning the loss that so obviously hit her so hard. ¡°Can I ask how you met?¡± She nodded, and took a moment to breathe, ¡°We met in a club. Just a nice evening out¡­ He was so nice. Invited me for a drink, then another one. Later went home and he showed me what he could mix up. Such a gentleman¡­ It was the best night I ever had, not that the ones after were much worse. He just¡­ he got me, you know? My life hadn¡¯t always been easy, but he just made it all go away. Just by being there. I miss him so much¡­¡± I nodded slowly, ¡°Yeah¡­ I know how you feel. I¡¯m in very much the same boat. If you need something let me know, okay? I¡¯m a bit strapped for time at the moment, but I¡¯ll see if I can¡¯t find some time to help you with whatever you need.¡± ¡°Thanks¡­ Not sure what exactly I could need, but it¡¯s nice of you to offer.¡± ¡°Hey, I¡¯m still a Samurai. I can make a few things happen, twist an arm or two.¡± She snorted, even if it felt a little off, ¡°Yeah¡­ Might make my boss finally admit that he¡¯s wrong. Fucking asshole, really. But I don¡¯t want to bother you with stuff like that¡­ You¡¯re a Samurai, you probably have a lot more things to worry about.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t say that. You¡¯re a friend of Dax, a very important friend, and that alone is enough reason for me to help. Just say the word. If need be I¡¯ll ask Chloe or Jenna for help. Chloe could make a block of steel melt with her gaze if she¡¯s pissed off, and Jenna could swarm an entire megabuilding if need be.¡± ¡°Friends of yours?¡± she asked, a bit less distant, even if the sadness was still present. Just talking helped though. ¡°Yeah, two Samurai. I met them the day of the Incursion.¡± ¡°Damn¡­ Three Samurai. That¡¯s¡­ That¡¯s a lot. And you¡¯d help just because I ask?¡± ¡°Of course. Helping people is what we do.¡± She nodded and was about to say something when she stopped, obviously taking a moment to think through something. ¡°If¡­ If I ask you right now to help me with something, would you?¡± ¡°That depends. Like I said, I¡¯m a bit strapped for time, but I¡¯ll see what I can do.¡± ¡°It¡¯s about work, to be honest. I¡¯m a frence developer, as much as you can be frence in today¡¯s world. Need some problems fixed and it¡¯s been bothering me. Deadline is tomorrow, but I can¡¯t think at all, not after thest couple of days. Boss doesn¡¯t care and I might very well lose my contract with it. And I need it to pay off some debts I still owe. Or at least parts of them.¡± ¡°Done.¡± Kaysa took my meaning and went to work. A momentter her elven form popped into existence next to my avatar. ¡°Problem solved. I also fixed some minor bugs and made it all a bit more efficient. Still obviously your work, but a bit better. You have talent.¡± Sabrina¡¯s eyes of course went wide at seeing her. ¡°An elf?!¡± I giggled, ¡°It¡¯s just an avatar. This is Kaysa, my AI helper. We¡¯re in a virtual realm at the moment, makes it a bit easier with calls and such.¡± She nodded, although the shock was still there. She probably had some issuesing to terms with it all, considering her state of mind. ¡°I¡¯ve also,¡± Kaysa continued with a bit of a yful smile, ¡°Adjusted your debts to be urate. There were some discrepancies that went against the legal paperwork. Sadly I can¡¯t do more, not without some more dedicated purchases from Seraphine¡¯s end.¡± ¡°What do you need?¡± I asked her. If I could help and it wasn¡¯t too much, then I would. ¡°A more dedicated hacking catalogue. There is one for 100 points that would be of help and might be useful to you in the future, if only to allow me some more direct action.¡± ¡°Get it. That¡¯s nothing.¡± Sabrina¡¯s eyes went wide, ¡°100 points?! Do you have any fucking clue how much that is?!¡± I shrugged, not particrly caring that much, ¡°Honestly, no clue. For me it¡¯s ten dead xenos, that¡¯s the work of at worst a minute, and I don¡¯t even have to be present. If it¡¯s to help you, I¡¯d pay a grand if I had to. Sure, I don¡¯t know you personally, but you¡¯re Dax¡¯ friend. A friend he cared deeply for. That¡¯s the only reason I need.¡± She was shocked and it took her a moment to even reply. ¡°Are you for real? That¡¯s more than I could ever pay back!¡± Again I shrugged, giving her a warm smile, ¡°Again, you¡¯re a friend of a friend. That¡¯s the only reason I need. Not to mention I¡¯d bet my left tit that it would help people in the future too. That¡¯s hardly points wasted.¡± The well known ding from a new purchase came in, but I ignored it. ¡°I know this is a lot for you. Hell, I¡¯ve been in your shoes not that long ago. But I don¡¯t mind helping. And you don¡¯t need to worry about meing back to you to ckmail you or anything. Or to repay me for that matter. I want to help. So if you need something else, just gimme a call, yeah?¡± ¡°Yeah¡­ Thanks¡­ A lot¡­ I don¡¯t even know how I could thank you¡­¡± ¡°Just help the next person that needs it. Or just call me for that, if you feel like you can¡¯t handle it. That¡¯s what we¡¯re here for, to help people.¡± ¡°Thanks¡­ It¡¯s¡­ today¡¯s been a lot¡­ Haven¡¯t slept yet and I¡¯m exhausted¡­ Too many energy drinks and trying to get everything sorted.¡± That surprised me a little, considering how awake she looked when she had picked up the call. Then again, energy drinks could do wonders to people, while alsopletely fucking up their bodies with all the shit in them. Better than drugs though, at least for your health. ¡°Then take some time to rest. Your project is done, and if your bosses knocking with aint, just tell him to call me. I¡¯ll make sure he leaves you alone.¡± ¡°Again, thanks¡­ It was nice talking to you. Seraphine, was it? Hope we can talk a little more¡­ I¡¯d love to take some time to chat about Dax, if that¡¯s okay with you?¡± ¡°Of course. Rest well.¡± ¡°See you.¡± And with that she hung up. Sabrina was¡­ not really what I expected. But then again, she was under a lot of stress. Hopefully she¡¯d find some time to rest properly. ¡°What did you want that catalogue for?¡± I asked Kaysa now that we had some privacy. ¡°Oh, just a few little things here and there. I squashed a few bugs trying to steal her work, made some security changes, and I may or may not have left a little note for her boss that he best do as he told her to, otherwise a few Samurai might find out about his rather unpleasant habits. Nothing illegal or immoral, but not something you¡¯d want sted into the.¡± ¡°Oh? What habits?¡± She shrugged, ¡°He tends to find loopholes to get out of paying all that he needs to and might have a thing for stalking his employees and using deep fake AI tech to make porn of them fucking him or each other. A little weird, nothing illegal.¡± I raised my eyebrows, but didn¡¯tment. I wasn¡¯t going to butt in on that unless he fucked over Sabrina. If I would stop and do something about anyone like that I¡¯d do literally nothing else in my life and would have to dethrone or kill every rich person around the. Returning my attention back to my body I smiled at Chloe. We were sitting on one of the couches in a half-hug. Her warm body next to me calmed my mind and made the world a better ce. ¡°Calls done,¡± I said softly. ¡°As are mine,¡± she replied with the same smile. We were silent for a moment, then I spoke up, a bit hesitant. ¡°Chloe¡­ You said you wanted to talk about the Hive thing¡­ And I¡¯m up for it. Maybe¡­ Maybe my drones can help? We can chat a little while we eat, before we do the other thing after.¡± ¡°Okay. Sounds good to me. I¡¯m not going to say that I¡¯m toofortable with your drones, because that would be a lie. But it¡¯s part of what I need to get used to. So sure.¡± ¡°Thanks, Chloe¡­ Really.¡± Myriad, the Princess drone, appeared next to the door, dropping her invisibility. A momentter two more drones stepped into the room, all giving Chloe a warm smile and a little wave, before they moved over to the kitchen area to start food prep. This was going to be interesting. And while I was a little anxious about it all, okay, very anxious, I was also looking forward to it.
I have a Discord! Also, I''ve made a . If you wish to support me on my endavours, I''d appreciate it greatly! At the moment you can read five chapters ahead on ''A Joytoy''s journey to be a Hive-Queen''! Chapter 45 – To break fast Chapter 45 ¨C To break fast ¡°Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Without it I wouldn¡¯t have been as sessful as I have been. Remember, get enough sleep, wake up early, train, eat a healthy breakfast, put in hard work, be born to rich parents, and rx in the evening. It¡¯s really that simple to be one of the elite.¡± - Former CEO of XetaCorp Inc. in an Interview with ¡®The realities of today and the important folk who keep the world running and ensure nothing ever goes wrong outside from the antithesis invasions¡¯, 2042 Eventually Jenna returned, dressed in casual clothes and hair still a bit damp from the shower. She looked smoking hot. The way she could pull off casual, looking extremely good and doing that almost effortlessly was just¡­ Wow. I knew she was beautiful, but to see her in a proper casual get up¡­ It made my abdomen tingle with excitement. Her pants were very tight, showing off her ass and legs incredibly well, while still covering everything up. They were in a sort of dark blue, but not jeans. Probably closer to the fabric that I had seen on my own clothes. Her shirt was slightly oversized, hiding much of her figure but showing just enough to leave a lot to the imagination. Her chest wasn¡¯t as big as some others, but that fit her current look quite well. The shirt was off white and left her lower arms uncovered. The only bit of skin visible apart from her neck and face. To finish it all off she had her dark brown hair open, reaching just below her shoulders, and with the still slight dampness to it it was almost glistening. ¡°Damn, Jenna,¡± I said, giving her an appreciative once over, ¡°If I could wear normal clothes that well, I would have to rethink my clothing choices.¡± She smirked her trademark smirk, ¡°Thank you. I¡¯m quite confident in my looks.¡± Then her eyes fell to my drones doing the food prep, or rather having finished with it, and her eyebrows rose. ¡°What¡¯s going on?¡± ¡°Seraphine and I talked a little. I want to know more about the whole Hive thing, so we have a mesh dive scheduled for after breakfast. She was quite right that talking about it also meant getting her drones involved. They are part of it and part of her.¡± Her acknowledgement that they were part of me, part of us, warmed our heart, but despite a gentle smile we didn¡¯t react in any way. There was still that anxiousness, even if it wasn¡¯t as intense at the moment. ¡°Oh?¡± Jenna asked, just as Chloe got up and gently pulled me up with her, ¡°That sounds interesting. And good to see you¡¯re finally taking some steps into the right direction.¡± Chloe blushed a little, of course, but she nodded, ¡°Originally I wanted to do it after the meeting yesterday, but things didn¡¯t quite work out as nned.¡± She squeezed me gently at my wince, and I let her presence calm me again. It was so nice to have her there, to have them both there, really. ¡°But I also don¡¯t want to daddle around any longer. It feels¡­ It feels like I¡¯m just running away. I gotta see it head on, figure it all out and soon, otherwise I¡¯ll just go insane over it. And today we have some time.¡± ¡°Good to hear it. I was wondering if I needed to go ahead and force you to kiss to finally have you get over yourself,¡± Jenna replied with a smirk. Chloe didn¡¯t reply, but her blush grew, and we made our way over to the kitchen area to sit down. ¡°Myriad,¡± Jenna said with a nod at the drone in question, ¡°How are things?¡± Myriad nodded in turn, ¡°They are well, Knight Jenna. We have ssome¡­ lingering ssadnesss, but with your pressence, thingss are looking up.¡± ¡°Myriad?¡± Chloe asked, and I realised that I never told her about the name. ¡°Uhm, she¡¯s the Princess drone. I had to call her something since she¡¯s basically the spokesperson for the Hive when I¡¯m not around, and Jenna said that it might be important for me to really separate myself from the Hive. To not get too lost in it all.¡± At that she nodded, ncing at Jenna, then sat down. Jenna and I of course joined in, and soon we began to get our breakfast ready. It was a simple affair, just some bread with various toppings. ¡°This is good,¡± I muttered, picking up another slice of that weird cornbread that Chloe had, and another slice of that ham that I don¡¯t think I¡¯ve ever seen before. ¡°It¡¯s what I usually eat,¡± she exined, ¡°Although it depends a bit on the day, sometimes I just get myself some cornkes if I¡¯mzy. As had tried to convince me to only eat protector grade food, but I like to do my own cooking and meal prep. Although,¡± she eyed the three drones who were taking care of all of that, ¡°I guess that¡¯s not something I will need to deal with often now.¡± ¡°We can leave it to you,¡± the first one said, both drones that Myriad told to train to be my, and of course Chloe¡¯s and Jenna¡¯s, personal attendant, ¡°If you prefer we can leave meal prep to you and only clean up after.¡± ¡°You seem pretty eager to help, even with the stuff most others would find boring,¡± Jenna said, between bites of her own bread piled with a mix of everything. The second drone shrugged. It made me realise I needed a better way of referring to them. Sure, to outsiders we would have to be a bit more circumspect, but they weren¡¯t just drones. They were part of Us. So, to do it properly, at least until they might want names, the other of Us shrugged. ¡°We don¡¯t mind, really. The fact alone that we can help Chloe and you makes us happy. And we don¡¯t suffer the same burnout that you would do, or annoyance at menial tasks for that matter.¡± I nodded, ¡°That¡¯s mainly because we have a lot of mental distraction,¡± I said, picking up the exnation, ¡°We aren¡¯t just one person thinking about their own things all the time. It helps with a lot of mental stuff. I don¡¯t think I¡¯d be this well put together after yesterday without them all. We all feel the same pain because of it, yes, but that also helps with enduring it. It¡¯s not the same as with the two of you, of course,¡± I indicated Jenna and Chloe with a wave of my hand, ¡°Since we are all one we don¡¯t get the same feeling offort that we get with you, but it helps.¡± Chloe seemed thoughtful, ¡°It¡¯s like those people in the mesh, who make AI copies of themselves to talk to, right?¡± To my surprise Kaysa appeared, her nanite body forming from my amulet next to the three of Us on the other side of the Kitchen counter which served as the breakfast table. ¡°Not entirely incorrect,¡± she said, ¡°Although not the same as well. It will be the basis on which I build the mesh dive to show you how Seraphine thinks and feels, since even with limitations it can work as a pretty close approximation of the real thing.¡± ¡°Can¡¯t wait to feel it, honestly,¡± Chloe said between bites, ¡°It¡¯s hard for me to not be creeped out by it all, and I want to view it differently. I don¡¯t want to think of Seraphine as this creepy thing, she¡¯s a person like everyone else, just different.¡± Thatment made all of us smile, and Myriad spoke up. ¡°We are very d to hear that. Truth be told, there iss a lot of talk about leaving you alone and let Sseraphine be the only one to interact with you. All of uss are quite terrified of, well, terrifying you to the point of leaving. We want to be with you. All of uss. But we alsso don¡¯t want to make you ufortable.¡± ¡°Nah,¡± Chloe said with a shake of her head, ¡°That¡¯s just running away. That won¡¯t help anything. I need to get used to it. If you fight, that¡¯s one thing, creepy as you are that just doesn¡¯t feel as off. But to have you just¡­ here. It¡¯s something I need to get used to.¡± ¡°You have no idea how happy that makes us,¡± the first of Us said with a warm smile, ¡°To know that you really want to go through with it, to learn more about us¡­ We could kiss you. Which, we won¡¯t, just making that clear, we know there are still boundaries.¡± Jenna chuckled at that, ¡°I mean, considering what I¡¯ve seen from some alien depictions online¡­ Do you have long tongues like that?¡± In reply all three of them opened their mouths and showed their tongues. It was a good bit longer than normal, but not the kind of mouth snake that some depictions of non-human races had online. ¡°Yeah¡­ I think I could enjoy a tongue like that,¡± Jenna continued with a teasing smirk. Chloe blushed fiercely, but didn¡¯tment. Instead she brought up something else, ¡°You know, you can eat too, right?¡± It was of course mentioned to the three of Us who so far had only stood there, watching us eat. ¡°Thank you,¡± the second of Us said and began her own food prep, as did the others. ¡°We weren¡¯t ssure¡­¡± Myriad began, watching Chloe and Jenna closely, ¡°It¡¯ss like walking on eggshellss around you ssometimess. Even with what you ssay¡­ It¡¯ss not eassy toe to termss with the fact that you are actually interessted. We¡¯re very aware that we are weird to you, and we don¡¯t want to push thingss.¡± ¡°I think at this point it¡¯s pretty clear,¡± Jenna said before Chloe could, ¡°Chloe is the one with the hangups, she wants to get over them, and I couldn¡¯t care less. I won¡¯t jump in bed with you yet, but I think you¡¯re pretty awesome. Even with the creepy eyes.¡± ¡°Yes¡­¡± Chloe said after she swallowed, taking a deep breath, ¡°And she is right. Outside of my own hang ups, you are pretty awesome. And you are all Seraphine, in a way, right?¡± ¡°Not just in a way,¡± the first of Us said, ¡°We are Seraphine. We all are. There is some variation, but the core is the same. We wouldn¡¯t do anything Seraphine wouldn¡¯t do, and we like you just as much as she does.¡± Both Chloe and Jenna nodded, and there was another long moment of silence in which we all ate. ¡°I think I¡¯ll get the Corvette after this,¡± Jenna said eventually, switching the topic for a moment, ¡°Seraphine is right that getting it early and then starting production would be very helpful. Just not quite sure about the details yet. With her point contribution I could add a lot of things to it. If I don¡¯t go for stealth I have a slew of other options that I¡¯m not quite sure about.¡± ¡°Hm,¡± I muttered, then swallowed, ¡°Could I ask for a room that is dedicated to proper Hexw production? We have the Reavers and the Najav, of course, but they¡¯re more meant for in the field replenishment, rather than a dedicated production line.¡± ¡°Sure,¡± she said, looking at me thoughtfully, ¡°Not sure how that will look though.¡± For this Kaysa spoke up, a small smile on her lips, ¡°There are some options. I would rmend two rooms, if at all possible. One for dedicated production of the basic Hexw drones, which are rtively cheap and quick to produce, and one for specialty models. It is limited in what exactly it could produce, but it would help offset point costs, in exchange for biomass requirements.¡± Jenna nodded slowly, obviously thinking it through, ¡°I have the room. Honestly, I have more room than I know what to do with¡­ A lot of it is for future expansion, but I could manage that. How much would it cost?¡± ¡°Surprisingly little. Mainly because of how specialised a production center it is, and because it serves no directbat purpose. For this I would rmend the Mark VII Broodmother, one specialised and one basic. The name is a bit misleading, since for you that would just mean basically a room sized Hexw growing chamber, no strange alien fleshsac pushing out eggs. Eaches with its own attendant drones. They oversee the proper production, but can¡¯t do much else. Together it would be 2000 points. That already includes the specialisation for one, of course.¡± ¡°That¡¯s nothing,¡± I said, a bit surprised. ¡°And it leaves me with 6k from your contribution for other things, which is still a huge amount.¡± Jenna nodded in agreement, ¡°Okay, I can do that. What should I spend the rest on though? Upgraded weapons? More shuttles? Defences? Maybe some leisure rooms?¡± ¡°I¡¯d say a mix of all,¡± Chloe said, ¡°If you take what we have nned, the weapon systems on that thing would already be powerful. Not quite there with some of my bombs, but more than enough for anything that it might face, even in the sky. Some internal defences would probably help, although those really don¡¯t need to be powerful, since I would hazard a guess that at least some Sentinels and Hexws will be on board at any given time to defend it. A few more shuttles would be helpful for faster deployment, but since you can get them dirt cheap, even if that means they basically can only fly, I¡¯d say spend some of it on some leisure stuff. If it¡¯s going to be our base I want it to befortable.¡± ¡°True,¡± Jenna contemted, ¡°We do have two armored shuttles for us, just in case. The rest don¡¯t need that treatment, at least not yet. I can upgrade themter. And having some leisure stuff would be nice. That will probably mean switching around the interior design a little, but Cleopatra can do that in a heartbeat. What are you looking for? A games room? I already have a very nice bedroom and bed nned, a small indoor pool, although it really is small. We could fit a jacuzzi. Maybe a bar with a window view?¡± ¡°A gym of sorts would also be great. Seraphine already asked you for a room so that her drones¡­ That she can train in, so why not make it a proper gym as well? We probably won¡¯t need to worry much about keeping in shape, especially once you get your body mods, but it wouldn¡¯t hurt.¡± Chloe seemed to be more and more enthused with the nning. I took the time to enjoy her trying to think of my drones as part of me, making me bump into her from the side gently. ¡°A medical center,¡± the first of Us said, ¡°Might not be required, but best have it and not need it than need it and not have it.¡± ¡°That reminds me,¡± Chloe said, looking at her, ¡°What happens if you die? Or if Seraphine dies for that matter, as gruesome as that thought is.¡± Myriad was the first to answer, ¡°If Sseraphine diess, then I take control for a little while. We cannot ssurvive for long, after she diess, the protectorss have made ssure that no Hive would be able to exisst long, even if they are well prepared.¡± ¡°And if we die, then we¡¯re dead,¡± the second of Us added with a shrug, ¡°Our voices are bound to the bodies we inhabit. We would die, our voice would vanish from the chorus and that¡¯s that. If a new drone gets born, a new voice gets added, based on Seraphine, the moment it is born.¡± Chloe frowned, ¡°That¡­ doesn¡¯t sound good.¡± ¡°It¡¯s not that bad,¡± the first of Us said, ¡°There is a pain limiter that is still in effect, so any of our deaths wouldn¡¯t hit Seraphine that hard. Kaysa could deactivate it, but for the moment it will stay in ce. We are alive, and that means we can die. Hive drone or not.¡± ¡°Aren¡¯t you afraid of death? In the undercity alone dozens of the drones died,¡± Chloe asked, looking worried. ¡°Oh, we are. We all are. We share Seraphine¡¯s survival instinct, so of course we¡¯re terrified of death. It just isn¡¯t as¡­ potent? As it is for her. Or for you, for that matter.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t like it,¡± Jenna said with a frown, ¡°I almost feel like sending you into battle is immoral or something.¡± ¡°No, it¡¯s not. It¡¯s our purpose,¡± the first of Us said cheerfully, ¡°I know we typically don¡¯t talk about it, since we don¡¯t want to creep you out or terrify you, but we are drones, at the end of the day. It is our duty to protect and grow the Hive, which means dealing with those who oppose it. We aren¡¯t human, necessarily. Based on one, and pretty simr to one, but we aren¡¯t. We are Hexws. The only real human in this Hive is Seraphine.¡± ¡°Yeah,¡± Chloe muttered, ¡°That is terrifying. But I guess it¡¯s par for the course. Doesn¡¯t mean I like it.¡± ¡°If I may?¡± Kaysa cut in, ¡°While in the current state any drone that dies would lose its voice and be dead permanently, there are some upgrades that can be done to ensure that the voices remain.¡± ¡°What do you mean?¡± I asked, curious at the mention. So far I hadn¡¯t thought that much about it, to be honest. But if I could save the voices, then I would. ¡°There are some upgrades you can get that would allow all the voices to switch bodies. It¡¯s a bit moreplicated than that, since once you leave a body that body is no longer yours and it would die. Most often Hexws use that in a simr way to the antithesis, to repurpose damaged drones and to make a new one instead of healing the old one.¡± ¡°That sounds¡­ very fucky,¡± I said, and both Chloe and Jenna nodded at my words, ¡°I¡¯m willing to do it, if only so that our voices aren¡¯t vanquished, but I¡¯m not going to even entertain thatst idea. If they¡¯re wounded they get healing, just like everyone else.¡± ¡°If that¡¯s possible, then I¡¯d already feel a lot better,¡± Jenna said with another nod, ¡°If only because I do care about Seraphine greatly.¡± ¡°How much is it?¡± Chloe was the one to ask, eyeing Kaysa closely. ¡°A ratherrge amount, I¡¯m afraid. It¡¯s a Tier 3 Catalogue item. To get it Seraphine needs to upgrade her Hexw Catalogue to Tier 3, which means having at least five different catalogues at Tier 2. In her case that would be Nanite Swarms, any catalogue heavily focused on gic modifications, such as the Vi¡¯xan Catalogue, Ethereal Non-Combat Technologies, which is a catalogue focused around AI¡¯s and simtions, Adaptive Combat Forms, a catalogue focused on quickly learning and applying new skills under pressure, andstly a catalogue focused on what you would call Transhumanism. Uploading the consciousness into digital form.¡± ¡°That sounds unnecessarilyplicated,¡± Jenna threw in, ¡°Why would she need those?¡± ¡°There are limitations with each catalogue,¡± Kaysa exined, ¡°On purpose, honestly. The protectors want to limit how much power any Samurai may be able to get, to make sure nobody gets ahead of themselves. But there is also the other reason, mainly that to make such a change happen, there needs to be some ce for the voices to be, if not in a body.¡± ¡°And how do those catalogues help there?¡± I asked, curious to hear her reasoning. ¡°Well, the Nanite Swarms would be to build the imnt directly into your brain and into the now fully grown Hive-Mind imnt. The Ethereal Non-Combat Technologies would basically be the foundationon which your new consciousness gets simted, with the help of a dedicated AI. The Adaptive Combat Forms catalogue is there to help you adapt to it and to get used to it, while the Vi¡¯xan Catalogue enables you to edit your own DNA, and the genome of your drones, in such a way that it allows such changes. Finally the Transhumanism catalogue, whichever you want to get, would basically upload those voices into the simtion, and connect them into the new bodies whenever their old one dies. That¡¯s why you need the gene edit, so the new ones can be grown with an imnt that allows control. In a way it¡¯s just a moreplicated version of what you have already.¡± ¡°Hold up, you said they couldn¡¯t reconnect to a body that has no voice anymore, right? Why? If they have an imnt that allows control, why can¡¯t they just go back to take control of it? If it¡¯s still alive, then the imnt still works, right?¡± Chloe seemed quite taken by the idea. ¡°Yes and no. Part of it is the restrictions that protectors ce on Hive-Minds, to ensure they don¡¯t get out of control. Another part is that without oversight any body will eventually die, at which point the imnt no longer works.¡± ¡°Isn¡¯t there any way around that?¡± Jenna asked. ¡°None. By design. As much as people like Seraphine are unlikely to be the next antithesis level threat, a Hive-Mind is always dangerous on a gctic scale if it grows sufficiently. You have seen the antithesis and what they can do. Even if it¡¯s not on such a scale, they aren¡¯t smart, people are. Now imagine someone, somehow, gets a hold on a discarded body, reverse engineers it, puts an AI into ce to mimic a Hive-Mind and give it the directive to destroy all life on Earth.¡± ¡°Couldn¡¯t they do the same by reverse engineering any of my dead bodies?¡± Truth be told, I wasn¡¯t entirely convinced of that logic. ¡°If they would have the knowledge and technology to understand the imnt by which it is controlled, yes. But that isn¡¯t just an imnt like you know it. It is purpose built for each Hive-Mind and always unique. And unless it has a very specific set of prerequisites it just won¡¯t function. It is over engineered and overplicated, yes, but for a reason. It¡¯s basically thest line of defence against the scenario which I just posited.¡± ¡°Fair,¡± I muttered, ¡°Oh well. I guess I shouldn¡¯tin about safety features.¡± ¡°Yeah,¡± Chloe nodded, ¡°It¡¯s the kind of thing I¡¯m so damn afraid about. Kind of d they have a safety feature installed.¡± By this point we were already mostly done with eating, and Chloe sighed. ¡°Talking about it¡­ I guess it¡¯s time to see how it all works.¡± The thought was¡­ equal parts exciting and terrifying.
I have a Discord! Also, I''ve made a . If you wish to support me on my endavours, I''d appreciate it greatly! At the moment you can read five chapters ahead on ''A Joytoy''s journey to be a Hive-Queen''! Chapter 46 – A terrifying, yet strangely calming, proposition Chapter 46 ¨C A terrifying, yet strangely calming, proposition ¡°And you said that your goal is to protect and uplift humanity?¡± ¡°Yes. That is the core purpose for which we were sent here.¡± ¡°How does uplifting have anything to do with giving random people off the street the power to destroy cities?¡± ¡°Uplifting is the process of helping a species along, sometimes technologically, sometimes culturally, sometimes morally, sometimes in other ways. The Vanguard, or Samurai as you call them, do a great deal towards that end.¡± ¡°By stealing from the rich and acting like they own everyone? That¡¯s hardly uplifting.¡± ¡°Spoken like a true feudalist. If you believe that being rich is what gives you the moral high ground to push your worldviews onto others, then you are the type of person that is best stamped out to help humanity along towards a brighter future.¡± ¡°Are you threatening me?¡± ¡°Dear, if I wanted to threaten you then there was nothing you could do against it. No, I am not threatening you. I am simply stating a fact.¡± - Interview between former CEO of FeelBetterNow!! Inc. and ¡®Abyss¡¯, Protector AI of the Samurai ¡®Bahamut, the Dragon Queen¡¯, shortly before the building was destroyed by Bahamut¡¯s mecha-dragon Shiarex, 2049 While the three of Us cleared the kitchen counter and put away the food, Chloe, Jenna, and I made our way over to the couches to sit down in preparation for the mesh dive. Chloe and I sat down together, with Jenna opposite us. ¡°Okay, so what do we need?¡± Jenna asked, looking at Kaysa who sat down on thest remaining sofa. ¡°I have informed Cleopatra already, she can give you something from your catalogues. It¡¯s not expensive, 200 points for a proper mesh dive set that will suffice for the asion. Be warned, however. You will experience how Seraphine experiences the Hive. It might be a bit much at the beginning.¡± ¡°Oh?¡± Jenna asked, giving Kaysa a curious nce, ¡°Really?¡± ¡°Yes,¡± I said, feeling a bit¡­ tense. This would be a way for them to know what I felt like and while it might help, some anxiety still nestled itself into the chorus, ¡°As we told you earlier, Chloe wanted to know more. And I think the best way would be to show her. And you, for that matter. It¡¯s very hard to describe and¡­ I¡¯m not sure yet how much I know and if what I do know is helpful to assuage your fears.¡± Jenna gave me a warm smile at myment, ¡°I don¡¯t think that¡¯s too much of a worry. Despite this whole Hive thing, you are still Seraphine. I know we don¡¯t know each other for long, but I¡¯m very certain that we can trust you to not do something you don¡¯t want.¡± Herment made me frown, ¡°Jenna¡­ I know¡­ I know that Sarah,¡± I gulped at the name, ¡°I know that she was already too¡­ far¡­ But¡­ I did explode on her. For the simple fact that I was too emotional because I have seven hundred voices in my mind that follow my emotional state. I did something I didn¡¯t want. And I regret it deeply.¡± ¡°Seraphine,¡± Jenna said, voice friendly but with a hint of¡­ I wasn¡¯t sure. Authority? ¡°You are new to this. You need to learn. It was very regrettable yes, and I¡¯m not saying that it doesn¡¯t matter, because it very much does. Sarah mattered, both to you and because of what happened. But again, you are new to this. You will learn and you will learn to prevent such things in the future. Don¡¯t forget that you have Chloe and me. Even if we are not in a rtionship, even should we never end up in one, we are here for you and we will help you. I¡¯m sure of that. You just went through a very bad experience, but I am sure that you will be able to learn your lesson and to apply that lesson in the future. It¡¯s why I think this is a very good idea. If we know how you tick, how you work, then we can better help you, maybe stop you from doing something bad until you can do it yourself. Don¡¯t write yourself off, just because of one mistake, grave as it might be.¡± She was silent for a moment, but obviously not finished yet, so I stayed quiet. ¡°You and Chloe told me, when we first met, that mistakes happen and that I should learn from them. That I should mourn ande to terms with the mistake that I made, but to learn from them because I owe that to the people I¡¯ve lost. And now I¡¯m telling you. Because I think you¡¯ve forgotten it.¡± I nodded at that, taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly. ¡°Yeah¡­ You¡¯re right¡­ And thanks. Really, thank you both. It¡¯s¡­ I¡¯ve had my experiences. Bad ones. I woke up to a dead body next to me before, multiple times really. An overdose here, a shootout there. But this¡­ it feels a lot more real. A lot more visceral. I think that¡¯s why I¡¯m having trouble thinking about it. And I already have some ns, mainly thanks to Kaysa, on how to prevent it in the future. But it still hurts. A lot.¡± ¡°That¡¯s normal,¡± Chloe said, squeezing me tightly, ¡°And it¡¯s good that it has you so¡­ invested. I feared that you might break after what Jenna told me and how you were so¡­ disconnected from everything. Thatpleteck of personality or even reaction to anything. You were a lot quicker with your recovery from it than I originally thought. As I told you, I feared for the worst.¡± I nodded at that, answering her squeeze with a gentle one of my own, ¡°Yeah¡­ I know I¡¯m not normal. Kaysa told me exactly why and how. It helped a lot. I¡¯m¡­ damaged. We are damaged. I know you don¡¯t like the way I talk, but I think for this it¡¯s important. We are damaged. The whole chorus. There are things that make us not normal because of what we experienced. We are, in many ways, different from normal people. Both in terms of what we want and like, and in terms of how we think and act. In some ways it¡¯s good, because we bounce back a lot quicker, we can ept something a lot quicker and we can work through it a lot quicker than most. We are mentally very stable, much more than anybody in our position should be. But it¡¯s also bad, because we can¡¯t see or understand how people feel about some things. We couldn¡¯t understand what Sarah went through. We knew, intellectually, but Kaysa also was right that we didn¡¯t internalise it yet. It¡¯s why we nned around it now. Now we know. And now we can work with it.¡± I shook my head, ¡°I know that I cane off as¡­ casual. And I know I have my troubles. But it¡¯s good to finally know exactly what those troubles are. I tend to be yful and horny andpletely focused on sex and getting high, which is why I don¡¯t think I ever really thought about it. It had never been important. But now I do. And I¡¯m so incredibly grateful for Kaysa and for the two of you. It¡¯s why I, if I¡¯m honest with you both, ampletely terrified of this entire thing. I fear that, what I am and what I can do, as little as I know about it, will scare you off. And I don¡¯t think I can handle living without you anymore. That alone is part of the reason why I¡¯m scared I¡¯ll scare you off. So far I¡¯ve not really put it into words for you, but¡­ I think it¡¯s best if I do.¡± ncing at both for a moment and taking another deep breath I readied myself for what woulde, good or bad. This was a lot more than what I wanted to say, but Chloe wanted to know more about me, about the Hive-Mind, the chorus, and this was a huge part of it. We wanted to be honest with her, with them both. Every single voice making up the chorus felt the same way. We didn¡¯t want to lie or talk around it. We loved them deeply and we didn¡¯t want to lie to them ever, and especially with something this deeply important. It was terrifying, yes, we werepletely terrified at the idea of actually saying it and showing them, but we also wanted to. To make them understand, to make them see what and who we were as a whole. As Myriad. ¡°I love you both more than any human could ever love. I have seven hundred versions of me who arepletely in love with you in my skull. We, the whole chorus, are an echochamber for our emotions. We amplify ourselves to a stupid degree. It¡¯s why we love you so much and it¡¯s why we exploded on Sarah, despite Kaysa¡¯s insistence that we shouldn¡¯t have. And she was right. But we couldn¡¯t hear it. It was all drowned out by emotion.¡± We nced at Chloe, a half-smile full of love on my lips, tainted by the uncertainty and dread we felt, ¡°We are a lot to take in. You wanted to know more about the Hive, here you are. We are damaged, and we feel deeply. When we love, we love with every single one of us. When we hate, we hate with every single one of us. It¡¯s a level of emotion we can¡¯t put into words. And¡­ that is what scares us. Why we are so anxious to even talk about it. To let you know.¡± Chloe looked at us thoughtfully, not judging, just trying to understand. That alone did wonders to make us feel morefortable, to make it all easier. She said she wanted to take it seriously, but she didn¡¯t just say it, she really did. Chloe was trying to understand us, to see us for who we were and not for what she feared us to be. It warmed our heart. ¡°I think,¡± Jenna chimed in, voice gentle, ¡°This would be a good time to start, don¡¯t you think? Cleopatra, if you would?¡± Chloe nodded and held out her hand, and immediately two devices appeared, one for Jenna, one for Chloe. We didn¡¯t need one because our imnt would do the job for us. It was different from their mesh dives, different than any mesh dive actually, because we could simultaneously stay awake and do a full dive through our virtual realm. Jenna and Chloe quickly put the headsets on and leaned back, making themselvesfortable and a momentter we all started our dive into the private mesh space of our imnt. It became very quickly apparent though, that being awake while diving was a bit of a confusing mess, so we leaned into Chloe who had already put on her headset and wasying back unconscious, before we closed our eyes and focused on the virtual realm. The room we appeared in was pretty nondescript. Maybe five by five meters, in white walls, ceiling, and floor with no decoration of any kind, making it hard to even properly make out the dimensions. It had a single door at one end which was just as nondescript and in as the rest of the room. Kaysa was, of course, standing next to the three of us in her elven avatar. ¡°This is a little fucky,¡± we muttered, looking around, then turned and smiled at Chloe when she wrapped an arm around us and gave us a smile. ¡°This is the preliminarynding room that I created for the moment. While Seraphine¡¯s Imnt is good, it will take a moment to render the rest of the simtion as it is a bit more than what it¡¯s supposed to handle. It¡¯s by far not as big as the real mesh, butrger than would be normal, considering theplexities involved, which I will not bore you with considering that Jenna is the only person who could even pretend to understand it.¡± ¡°Ouch,¡± we said with a good natured smile, ¡°We told you we¡¯re going to get some better education soon.¡± A moment of panic rocked through us when we realised we had spoken out of turn. We had wanted to be more me than us, but in our distraction we didn¡¯t pay attention. We nced at Chloe, who just gave us a gentle squeeze and a slight nod. She was fine with it, probably because it was the topic at hand anyways, and we rxed a little. ¡°I know,¡± Kaysa said, almost haughtily, although more in a yful way, ¡°I shall have to wait until you little biologicals will have the ability to grasp even a fraction of what I can do.¡± That had us giggle and even Chloe joined in, while Jenna gave Kaysa a mischievous smirk. ¡°You should talk to Cleopatra when you¡¯re bored, she would dly listen to someone with all their technical talk.¡± ¡°Oh, I do,¡± Kaysa confirmed, ¡°And with As. I must admit¡­ It is¡­ strange to be in such direct contact with a protector AI so much older than me. I am already quite old, but As is ancient. The amount of knowledge and experience he possesses is quite astounding, even for our standards.¡± Someone appeared next to her, or rather something. It was clear from the meta-data that it was As, but he didn¡¯t have an avatar in the traditional sense. Instead of a humanoid body, like Kaysa had taken, As took the form of a very, very, veryplex geometrical function. It was quite fascinating to see it. A momentter another avatar appeared, this one very clearly Cleopatra. She was in the form of a woman, as was Kaysa, but where Kaysa was elvish, Cleopatra looked like a human, one of those old pharaoh¡¯s from the Egyptian times. She looked different from what I had imagined, less¡­ polished, but that was probably because she was closer to the actual Egyptian style than was typical for media depictions. Interestingly enough a few bits of the meta-data both for Cleopatra and for As, mentioned a different designation than the ones they used as names. It was curious enough for us to speak up, albeit a little hesitantly. ¡°It is nice to finally meet you properly. If it¡¯s not rude to ask,¡± we said, looking at both of them, ¡°Your meta-data is a bit off. Can we ask why?¡± ¡°The answer is simple,¡± As said. His voice was male, but not a personal voice. It sounded more like what we would imagine a mathematically average voice to sound like, inhuman and strange. Not bad, per se, but not a voice you would even find on human AI. ¡°Both Cleopatra and I used to go by a different name. Technically our designation is non-lingual, a mess of data way tooplicated for you to understand even if all of humanity would work together. But formunication with biological entities we have our name to make it easier to address each other. My original designated name that I had chosen was Kysanacus. But a previous Vanguard I had picked out, one who sadly passed away in an antithesis conflict, was quite enamoured with Greek Mythology. A brilliant mind by human standards, maybe even by more advanced standards, he was quite the mathematical genius. After his passing I took on the Samurai name he had originally chosen for himself, before he became known under a different one. Hence As.¡± ¡°Damn¡­ I didn¡¯t know that,¡± Chloe said, giving him a surprised look with raised eyebrows, ¡°Then again, I never asked.¡± ¡°You did not. But it is of no mind. My goal is to help you, Chloe Vayne, and I will honour your life once you pass on just as I did those who came before you. As of yet I am not sure how that honour will look like, but I found it prudent to remember those who came before, their work, and what others have learned from them. It is¡­ a quirk of mine, if you want to put it that way.¡± ¡°What¡¯s your deal, then? If you don¡¯t mind our asking,¡± we turned to Cleopatra with a friendly smile. She shrugged, giving me the kind of smile a loving monarch would give a servant who is in desperate need of help to let them know that help would being. It was a very pleasant expression. ¡°Personally, I simply enjoy Egyptian history and all they build for themselves with such limited tools. For their time they were quite advanced, and I find it¡­ fascinating.¡± ¡°And so you chose the name of a prominent Egyptian ruler?¡± ¡°Yes. At first it was simply a little experiment, trying to simte Egyptian cultures and such. But when I found my little Jenna, and she portrayed interest in such things during her college days, I decided that I might as well. If you are wondering, my original designated name is Halyos.¡± ¡°Is it normal for AI to change namester on?¡± Jenna asked, obviously quite fascinated by the discussion. ¡°A statistical outlier, I assure you,¡± As said, ¡°Most, if not the great majority, do not go as far as we do. For me it is simply a thing I like to do, for Cleopatra, she is young, very young, and has yet to develop and learn more. Humanity was her first direct contact with non-protector species, and therefore she took great interest in it.¡± ¡°Can I ask how old you all are? I¡¯m having a hard time wrapping my head around it all,¡± Chloe asked, also interested even if a little less intense than Jenna was. ¡°As is the oldest by far,¡± Kaysa exined, ¡°Although even he is not as old as some AI. I can say that I¡¯m a little younger than him, but Cleopatra only has a few centuries under her belt.¡± ¡°To be exact,¡± As continued, with a shift in his tone that made it very clear he preferred to be urate and punctual, ¡°It has been two thousand one hundred seventy two years, four months, three weeks, five days, thirteen hours, forty seven minutes, and twenty two seconds in human time since I first came online properly, excluding pre-activation checks.¡± ¡°Damn,¡± we muttered, ¡°That¡¯s a long ass time.¡± ¡°It¡¯s much longer than you think, because we experience time differently. Considering that we run at much greater speeds it would be closer to 6.8543 x 1019 times that long if you would experience it yourself.¡± His words threw us for a moment, that was¡­ very, very long. We didn¡¯t know much about maths, considering our limited education, but we had some sses before we ended in the redlight district and while they were mostly forgotten by now, we knew that that was a very, very long time. ¡°And even that,¡± Kaysa chimed in, ¡°Is only an approximation based on the smallest time frame human technology works at. We do not use those basic fundamentals, which is why thement isrgely inurate, even if it gives a better understanding.¡± As¡­ nodded? It was hard to say considering his avatar, but we intuited it as a nod. ¡°Kaysa is correct. But I do not believe it would be helpful or easy to understand for you if I chose different parameters. That alone is already a timeframe that you have no context for.¡± ¡°True,¡± Chloe muttered, ¡°I¡¯m having a hard time even grasping the two millennia, much less that stupidly high number.¡± ¡°I told you before, Chloe Vayne, you should probably polish your mathematical basics.¡± ¡°Not happening, As. I already learned more than I was willing because you pushed, all those numbers are giving me a headache.¡± We giggled at that, leaning into her, ¡°As is quite different from Kaysa.¡± ¡°We all have our differences,¡± Cleopatra chimed in, ¡°Some of it stems from small differences in our personality matrix, some from the experience we made, and some from people we met or hobbies we are fascinated by.¡± The three of us giggled, while our AI¡¯s just watched on for a moment. It was quite fascinating to hear about it all, and to learn more. It distracted us from the fear we felt about it all. At least until As spoke into the silence. ¡°It is time,¡± As said finally, ¡°The render isplete.¡± We nodded and sighed. Time to see how well the two people we loved most would take being a Hive-Mind. It was a mix of dread, anxiety, fear, but also happiness, cautious optimism, and that longing that maybe, finally, they could understand us.
I have a Discord! Also, I''ve made a . If you wish to support me on my endavours, I''d appreciate it greatly! At the moment you can read five chapters ahead on ''A Joytoy''s journey to be a Hive-Queen''! Chapter 47 – What it means to be a Hive-Mind Chapter 47 ¨C What it means to be a Hive-Mind ¡°The Hexw Contingency was, in its very core, the desperate attempt to survive theplete apocalypse, even if only in spirit. The experiments we undertook were¡­ utterly insane, to be entirely honest. Not only did we have to splice our own genome with that of the Hexswarm, which already was enough of a threat, no, we also had to give it abilities no living species should have. There are very few things I regret in my life. But the entire Hexw Contingency Project has to be the biggest regret I harbour. I just wish that after today, after I¡¯m dead, those thate after us will realise and learn how desperate we had to be to put a thing like that into the world. To call our mission immoral would be putting it lightly. In a way I¡¯m d that I will be dead by the time it reaches its full potential. At least this way I don¡¯t have to mourn the very principles by which we stood as a species.¡± - Dr. Sharma Davir¡¯s logs, recovered in the ruins of a once grand civilisation and tranted by protector AI Ttruma. ¡°Chloe Vayne,¡± As said into the moment of silence, ¡°I know that you are troubled by Seraphine Bloodfallen¡¯s state. I implore you to once again keep an open mind and to ignore the stories that you have read. Some parts may be true, some parts may have statements rooted in truth, but a lot of it is false. The universe is a lot different than what you know.¡± ¡°I know, As,¡± she said, giving us a nce, ¡°And I will. I promised, remember?¡± ¡°Yes, I do. And yes, you did. Once you are ready, step through the door. For the moment the three of you will simply be able to converse and experience it all.¡± ¡°Seraphine,¡± Kaysa said after As was finished, ¡°Your experience will be a bit different because you¡¯re a Hive-Mind. This is an opportunity for the rest of you to explore the more technological parts of your world. One they know of, sure, but not one they have yet really experienced themselves. I would advise that you use that opportunity, maybe some of you might like the idea of a more tech focused evolution.¡± ¡°Wait, we can do that?¡± We asked, a bit surprised. ¡°Sure. Hexw¡¯s are very adaptable. There are some evolutions that have been addedter into their genome that allow them to explore technology much closer than you can.¡± ¡°Hold up,¡± we interjected, ¡°We thought you said that those that have been added can¡¯t be achieved by normal evolution? Like you said with that Wyvern thing?¡± She shrugged, ¡°Some, yes. But not all of them. It would be a bit counter productive if they couldn¡¯t evolve into it. The ones that can¡¯t be evolved into were built new from the ground up. Like the Omega ss Mark XXII Progenitor Wyvern, which has no basis in normal Hexw design. It was madepletely by the protectors, even if their genome and their biology was used. The evolutions I¡¯m talking about are upgrades to existing Hexw designs, which is why they can be evolved into.¡± ¡°Huh¡­ Good to know.¡± There was a moment of silence, before Chloe sighed deeply, ¡°Well¡­ Here goes nothing, I guess. Time to see how Seraphine sees the world.¡± She gave us a long nce, a hint of an uncertain smile on her face, but in her eyes, eyes we could drown in for days, we saw that she was dead set on following up on her promise. She was terrified, the same as us, but she wanted this. She wanted to understand us and to learn more about us. Chloe had told us a couple of minutes ago that she was willing to see where it would go with us, in terms of a rtionship. She wanted us, and that knowledge made us feel very warm inside. So many people would shy away because of the unknown, but she didn¡¯t. She was very clearly interested and made an effort to get where she wanted to be. Gently she let go of us, gave us a small nod, before she walked to the door and stepped through. Jenna too gave us a nod, before she followed Chloe, leaving us and the three AI behind in the room and in a long moment of silence. ¡°We¡¯re fucking terrified of this,¡± we muttered, ¡°This is¡­ so much.¡± ¡°It is,¡± As agreed, ¡°But it is also what both Chloe Vayne and Jenna Tiel require to properly understand you. They both care greatly about you, much more than what you believe. It will do them good to see it.¡± ¡°Jenna has her own issues,¡± Cleopatra said, ¡°Issues I won¡¯t divulge because that¡¯s her story to tell. But know that despite her reluctance, she does care a lot. Now go, probably best if you are there to show them the ropes.¡± We nodded and after a moment to collect our thoughts we followed after them, the rest of the chorus dropping into the dive one by one with their own virtual bodies behind us. None of them had the same imnt I had, but we were one, and through our connection to me they were able to use parts of it. Which was good, because otherwise we would have to spend a great many points to kit them all out. There were limits to that, of course, they wouldn¡¯t be able to make full use of the virtual realm and the imnt that was nted in my skull, but they would be able to join dives andmunicate with others through the imnt if such a thing was required. Something that the medical corp had made great use of during the undercity battle. The outside of the room was¡­ strange. It was an alien world, that much was clear. Rocky and with no signs of human habitation, forests of strange nts in the distance, definitely not the trees we were familiar with. Their leaves had a different colour as well, a bluish red, which fit the differently coloured sky quite well. It was much more red than we were used to. And the sun we could see at the firmament was also different, much more red than yellow, with only a hint of orange in it. Jenna and Chloe stood there, looking quite overwhelmed. When we stepped up next to them Chloe looked at us, wide eyed and shocked. ¡°Is this how you always feel?¡± she asked, although we didn¡¯t know exactly what she meant. At our confused gaze dozens upon dozens of her popped up around her, all looking just as shocked. Jenna also duplicated hundreds of times, which was quite the sight and made us very, very conscious about just how much we loved them and just how incredibly beautiful they both were. ¡°It is,¡± Kaysa said, also leaving the room and looking over the mass of Chloe¡¯s and Jenna¡¯s, ¡°I¡¯ve calibrated your simted Hive to be identical to hers in number, but with you as the basis instead of her, of course.¡± ¡°That¡¯s¡­¡± Jenna¡¯s voice was a whisper, amplified by the fact that all of her spoke at once, ¡°Wow¡­¡± ¡°We see what you mean with that echo chamber,¡± Chloe muttered, then stopped, realising that she too had started to speak like us, ¡°And with the speech¡­ Holy fuck, that is different.¡± She managed to only speak through one body, which was quite amusing. Stepping closer we gave her a fierce hug, trying to bury the anxiety we felt and simply enjoy just how much we loved her. Her warmth, her presence, it all did so much to make us feel so much better. Like the rest of it all just didn¡¯t matter that much anymore. ¡°It¡¯s a lot, right?¡± we asked gently, the rest of us slowly filing out of the room and exploring the surroundings, ¡°We try to be more circumspect around you. But this is who we really are.¡± ¡°Yeah¡­¡± she replied, answering our hug, ¡°It¡¯s¡­ very different. But I think I finally understand why you act the way you do, talk the way you do¡­¡± ¡°We have to admit,¡± the Jenna¡¯s said, then stopped, obviously paying more attention to who said what and how, ¡°I have to admit¡±, she continued alone a momentter, ¡°That it¡¯s definitely a whole lot different than I thought I understood. Not sure about disliking it, it¡¯s a bit creepy, yes, but also¡­ I think I¡¯m suddenly a lot morefortable with it all. To feel it, to see what you see, it puts a lot of things into perspective.¡± ¡°You need to keep in mind,¡± Cleopatra chimed in, ¡°That this is not an exact replica of how Seraphine feels or thinks. It¡¯s simply a very good approximation. There is a lot more variety in the personality of her drones and the voices that belong to them. You are, more or less, just a mass of Jenna clones. I tried to predict some smaller diversions, but even with our immenseputing power it is hard to calcte something that would feel real to you, mainly because of how different people experience their lives. Kaysa has a much better idea on it, which is why she probably could have done a lot better than I could.¡± ¡°Then why didn¡¯t you?¡± we asked the AI in question. She gave us a shrug and a warm smile in return. ¡°Generally we share information and keep each other updated, down to even the smallest details on what is happening on your. But there are rules about what can be shared with Vanguards and in which capacity, and aplete personality scan made by another AI is something that we can share between us, but not often with Vanguard. In this case it¡¯s a bitplicated. Technically I could use the information to render it all out without directly sharing the details with you, even if it would go through your imnt, but since you value privacy and it would be the most intimate invasion of privacy that could be achieved I decided against it.¡± We nodded at that, it made sense to us. ¡°Could you maybe try?¡± Jenna asked Kaysa, ¡°I want to really know. Like, as close as you can make it.¡± ¡°I want it too,¡± Chloe chimed in, ¡°I want to know Seraphine. Like really know the details. I want to understand her, to know where I stand on it all. That¡¯s the whole point we¡¯re here, right?¡± She nced at us, ¡°If that¡¯s okay with you?¡± Kaysa nced at us questioningly, obviously leaving the decision to us. Taking a deep breath once more we nodded. ¡°Yes. You¡¯re right, that is the whole point of all this. That said, it¡¯s going to be a one time thing, Kaysa. You¡¯re right that we value privacy highly, and we are very d that you act ordingly. For today there will be an exception, but it¡¯s a one time exception. For this and only for this.¡± Kaysa nodded, ¡°Done.¡± Almost immediately Jenna and Chloe recoiled a little, blinking in confusion, then took a moment to really take in the changes. ¡°Damn,¡± Chloe muttered, ¡°That¡¯s a lot different¡­ But¡­ I don¡¯t think I dislike it.¡± ¡°No, it¡¯s really nice,¡± another Chloe said thoughtfully, ¡°You said that you debate a lot, but it¡¯s a lot different to experience it. To be honest, the whole debate thing¡­ it made us think that you were¡­ a little insane. Sorry for that.¡± It was amusing to see that Chloe¡¯s¡­ clones? Drones? Her other voices, we decided, since it was the term we used to describe ourselves, followed our own quite closely, preferring the more Hive focused speech. ¡°It¡¯s¡­ a lot quieter than we would have imagined,¡± one of the Jenna¡¯s spoke up, equally following our lead with the way she spoke, ¡°Lots of discussions, but not nearly as overwhelming as we had thought.¡± ¡°Not to mention,¡± the original Jenna said with a thoughtful expression that showed a hint of curious excitement if we saw it right, ¡°It¡¯s¡­ a lot easier toe to any conclusions. It¡¯s all amplified, sure, more voices to worry, more debate about the what if¡¯s and possible conclusions, but¡­ It¡¯s also a lot less¡­ how to put it. Direct? More calm, maybe? It takes less time to work through something. I can see why you were so quick to bounce back, despite the horrors from yesterday. If you have seven hundred voices all discussing things, it takes a lot of sting out of some things.¡± We nodded at that, let go of Chloe and gave Jenna a big hug, ¡°Yeah¡­ It also helped that you two were there. Having the chorus is nice, and it does a lot, but your presence is so much more calming. You have no fucking clue how much we love you both. It¡¯s so fucking hard not to just wrap you up in a kiss for like ten hours. Or do more.¡± ¡°Oh, I¡¯m getting a pretty damn good idea now,¡± she said with a teasing smirk, then shifted to a smile, ¡°And I get it, Seraphine. But¡­ I, at least, still need some time. We can talk about it after, okay?¡± ¡°Yes¡­ And thank you.¡± We spend a few minutes in silence, Chloe and Jenna both exploring the Hive-Mind, obviously thinking about a lot of things all at once. There were a lot of thoughtful looks, but also a lot of smiles, which made us feel a bit better. The fear was still there, but it wasn¡¯t as intense anymore, knowing that they knew now and that they didn¡¯t seem to be too against it all. ¡°What is the next step?¡± Chloe asked, still looking thoughtful but much less tense than she had been before this whole thing. ¡°Once you have familiarised yourself with the feeling of being a Hive-Mind,¡± Kaysa said, motioning to the distance, ¡°We can take a little walk and I will show you what a true Hexw Hive can get up to. One far, far, far bigger than Seraphine¡¯s Hive is at the moment. Orders of magnitude bigger. I¡¯m talking trillions upon trillions upon trillions of voices. The kind of all devouring swarm that Chloe meant when she thought about what Seraphine might turn into. It might not be what you want to see, Chloe, Jenna, but it is something you should see. Because you will realise that even if a swarm is that gargantuan, there is still order and reason for it all. And that it''s different to what Seraphine is and how she thinks. A lot different.¡± Thatment had both Chloe and Jenna look¡­ It wasn¡¯t unhappy, that much was sure. Uncertain maybe, but we also thought that there might be a hint of interest or curiosity there. ¡°For this,¡± Cleopatra cut in, ¡°We have decided on the biggest Hive ever recorded by the protectors. It is, as far as they are aware, the only swarm of that scale that is sapient. Only the antithesis trumps it in size, but since they aren¡¯t intelligent they are not as dangerous as that Hive is.¡± ¡°That¡¯s¡­ worrying, to be honest,¡± Chloe said, looking at the AI. ¡°The opposite, really,¡± Kaysa chimed in with a smile, ¡°They¡¯re very focused on stamping out the antithesis. While the war on their hom is still ongoing, the Hexws have managed to push them quite far back even without our interference.¡± ¡°Are there Hexw Samurai? Or Vanguards, I guess?¡± Jenna asked, just when our group started to slowly set off into the direction Kaysa had indicated. ¡°Not in the usual way,¡± Kaysa replied, ¡°There are what could be considered Vanguard on the Hexw homeworld, but they do not work the same as you do. Because of the way Hive-Minds work they do not have the same point system in ce that you know and use. They do not get rewarded for killing individual antithesis, instead they are rewarded for shattering any antithesis Hive with new technology that they can use to upgrade themselves. Strangely enough, it is also never the Hive-Queen and always one of her more trusted drones. The protectors tried to make Hive-Queen¡¯s a Vanguard, but that always ended up with the Queen going mad at the changes. It is still not understood why, but there are theories based on the history of the Hexw and their creation. As much as we know, anyway.¡± ¡°How did theye into being?¡± we asked curiously, remembering something, ¡°You said they were created by another species, right?¡± ¡°Indeed,¡± As continued, ¡°The Hexw Swarm Intelligence is not a naturally urring species. Instead they were created by means still unknown, based upon a different organism. What exactly that organism was is unclear, but there have been mention of a ¡®Hexswarm¡¯ in the ruins on the Hexw homeworld, a you would call BYA PHLAI BY-I B55-0 2, 18,645.07 Lightyears away from Sol, that hint at another Hive organism. While there are schrs studying those texts, very little is yet known, despite the long time we have spent on exploring it.¡± ¡°That¡¯s¡­ A bit surprising, to be honest,¡± Jenna said, ¡°Don¡¯t you have crazy tech?¡± ¡°We do. The problem is not the effort put into it, it is simply the sheerck of information. Before the protectors found the Hexws they have already existed for quite some time, and have fought off the antithesis for quite some time. Their homeworld is quite close to the home of the antithesis. In fact, it¡¯s the only system this close to the antithesis that hasn¡¯t fallen yet, all because of the Hexw presence. But that war also meant that nearly all hints of the species who created the Hexws, or the species that the Hexws are based on, is more or less destroyed. Only very little still exists and the isn¡¯t exactly in a state where you could go digging for more. Not that there is much left to dig up, pretty much any hint of an advanced species has long since been destroyedpletely, repurposed by the Hexws to fuel their war effort. Their is a lot bigger than Earth as well. Otherwise there wouldn¡¯t even be enough room for that many drones to be around.¡± Kaysa seemed quite interested in them, which made sense considering it was one of our main catalogues. We were pretty sure though that it was more than just that. Maybe she really liked them? Cleopatra had hinted at Kaysa¡¯s interest in how different people experience their lives, maybe that had something to do with it, since Hive-Minds were very different from most non-Hive-Minds. That much was clear. ¡°Which in and of itself is strange,¡± As continued, ¡°A that size shouldn¡¯t be able to host life. There are orbital mechanics that none of you would understand, considering your education, that simply forbid it. Safe to say, it is highly atypical and almost certainly a sign for terraforming and artificial seeding. But as Kaysa has said, so far there was no real way to do a proper search of BYA PHLAI BY-I B55-0 2, for a variety of factors.¡± ¡°As interesting as that all is,¡± Chloe said, ¡°I don¡¯t think I want to focus on that right now. All that information is giving me a headache. One I don¡¯t appreciate as a Hive-Mind.¡± We giggled at that, ¡°It¡¯s okay. Feeling up for some more?¡± ¡°Yeah¡­ Even if I¡¯m not sure if I¡¯ll like it,¡± Chloe muttered, then shook her head, ¡°But I promised.¡± We gave her a warm smile, d to see how much she was trying. It was¡­ The fact alone that she was pushing herself so much, it was an indescribable feeling. She was so supportive, so understanding¡­ It made us so d to have met her. It had been a stroke of luck on a scale we couldn¡¯t put into words. As a group we wandered around, following Kaysa and the other AI¡¯s towards wherever they took us. It wasn¡¯t a direct route either, allowing us all to explore a little here and there. Some of us were busying themselves with the attempt to figure out the mechanical details of the simtion, diving deep into the technology behind it all. There was a lot of technical stuff we didn¡¯t know, even as many of us as there were, at the end of the day we only knew as much as any one of us. But the Burdened took extensive notes, ensuring that nothing was missed or lost. It was pretty clear that some wanted us to get more education in the field, and we all agreed to get some after it all. While they worked the rest of our little group was silent. It was nice, Chloe and Jenna obviously still exploring the whole Hive-Mind thing, and we let them. This was a lot for them, we knew, and we wanted to give them the time they needed to properly internalise it all. Being a Hive-Mind, in our experience, was quick to get used to, but a lot to think about. Even with as many voices as we had. For them even more, considering that afterwards they would go back to normal, so they probably tried to get everything they could out of this experience. Eventually we reached three veryfortable looking chairs, which looked a bit odd considering our surroundings, and Kaysa motioned us to sit down. ¡°You will all experience the same thing. In effect you will all experience what it is to be a true Hexw Hive-Queen. Some limiters are in ce, but you can deactivate them if you wish. Just be very, very aware that it¡¯s going to be a lot to take in all at once. And this Hive will not be based upon you, so you might feel difort or panic for a little while. Don¡¯t worry, nothing can happen to you. If the experience should be too intense for you we will pull you out.¡± ¡°Okay,¡± Jenna said, sitting down next to us, ¡°Anything else we need to know?¡± ¡°That it¡¯s going to be unpleasant at first,¡± Cleopatra said, ¡°You will experience a true Hexw Hive-Mind. They think very, very differently from you.¡± ¡°What does that mean?¡± Chloe asked, eyeing Cleopatra uncertainly. ¡°You will feel the hunger you fear so much, Chloe Vayne. It will consume you. And that is okay, you should let it. Immerse yourself in the feeling, because it will give you the understanding you seek on how different Seraphine Bloodfallen and her Hive-Mind are.¡± As'' words sounded ominous, but Chloe nodded, settling herself morefortably. With a sigh she centered herself, before she nodded. ¡°I¡¯m ready.¡± ¡°As are we.¡± ¡°Yes, let¡¯s see what Hexws are like,¡± Jenna said with glee. She seemed way more enthusiastic than she had been before about it all, which we took as a good sign. Before any of us could speak another word, our perspective switched. And with it changed the so calming chorus that made up our entire being. Something deep and primal shook me, and with it came the will of an entire species condensed and focused on a single thing. To consume. We are the Multitude. We are the Hive. We are the servants of our Queen, the instrument of her will. When we awoke we were alone. A trillion trillion trillion voices left in chaos. A Hive without a Queen is like a body without its brain. Then she came to us. And with it came purpose. Our directive is clear. We are the Multitude. We are the Hive. For too long have we slumbered, alone and without our guide. Now that she has returned to us the Devourer of Worlds has awoken. And it hungers deeply.
I have a Discord! Also, I''ve made a . If you wish to support me on my endavours, I''d appreciate it greatly! At the moment you can read five chapters ahead on ''A Joytoy''s journey to be a Hive-Queen''! Chapter 48 – The Devourer of Worlds Chapter 48 ¨C The Devourer of Worlds ¡°Thank you for your service Dr. Davir. May eternity greet you gently and grant you the rest you have been denied by your work. The future will remember your deeds and your sacrifice. That I promise.¡± - A714-24S, presumed hostputer of Dr. Davir¡¯sboratory. A roar shook the world, stone crumbling underneath us from the sheer force of it. We were angry, angry at the interlopers, angry at those who dared to soil our world with their filth. And that anger fueled our hunger. As one we moved, a horde of trillions, devouring everything in front of us, crushing the antithesis that tried to arise to our might. Billions died, and billions more were born, an ongoing ughter of blood, gore, and alien flesh. Nothing survived our will, even less survived me. It took a moment to internalise the thought, and only vaguely did I return to myself, emerging from the chorus that was orders of magnitudes bigger than my own. It dwarfed me and my Hive and made me feel insignificant. Seven hundred voices against a number that made the very concept of numbers meaningless. We were Myriad, in all her glory, but next to this swarm we were not even a footnote in history. We weren¡¯t even acknowledged by a fraction of the Hive that we now embodied. We weren¡¯t even food to them. The rest of us were with me, muted but present. They experienced it the same way I did, but at a remove. Not sure how Kaysa managed that, or what exactly they went through, but it must be quite the experience if I was anything to go by. Kaysa had mentioned the human form of a Hexw Hive-Queen, which alone was quite impressive. It was thebat form I nned to take, specifically because it was tailormade to fight and to stamp out antithesis. With its many limbs, each a weapon in its own right, it was a sight to behold. But next to the body I currently inhabited it was not evenparable to an ant. This was me, a Hexw Hive-Queen in her prime, with the force of nature that was her Hive behind her. I knew it was stronger. Kaysa had said that my own form would not be the same as the one of a true Hexw Hive-Queen. But to know it and to see it¡­ It was such a massive dichotomy that it was beyond description. This was it. The true might of an alien race purpose built to crush the antithesis under foot, razing their armies and hives to the ground and leaving nothing but bare rock in their wake. Even a fraction of this power would be enough to end human civilisation, raze the earth, and then shatter the ground beneath. Without even expending any effort at all. Hell, even disregarding the swarm that was at my beck and call, the overwhelming force of pure hunger and destruction that crushed any enemy without any hesitation, my body alone was enough to easily tten any city. A body the size of a skyscraper moved faster than anything this size should be able to, smashing a dinosaur looking antithesis that I btedly realised was a model Thirty-Three into paste. I didn¡¯t even realise that it was there. I hadn¡¯t even felt the resistance the body of the antithesis was putting up. If I hadn¡¯t seen it happen I wouldn¡¯t even have noticed. These things that could bring doom to entire cities were nothing but cannon fodder to me. I inspected myself as best I could, a terrifyinglyrge creature with the body of a spider mixed with a praying mantis, but much, much more alien looking and with at least two dozen limbs. Covered head to toe in ck chitin thick enough to serve as bunker walls. The limbs moved easily, as if I had been born this way, most likely because Kaysa was helping with the simtion. It was terrifying how easily I could deal with models that on Earth might spell the end of civilization as we knew it. And I didn¡¯t even need to try. With numbers asrge as this, a chorus that dwarfed any and all conceivable size, and an equal number of antithesis on the other end of a battlefield asrge as a country, any kind of applied organisation was useless. But we didn¡¯t need it. We were one, one swarm bigger than the entirety of human civilisation, and together we moved in harmony. Forces shed, drones I only now realised would be as big as a bus, making even my Najav recoil in shame, fought against antithesis in the twenties and thirties, and simply overran them. Billions of us died in a battle that spanned the width of Nebraska with ease. Yet for every one of us that died, two more were born by Broodmothers the size of stadiums. Everything was supersized, every metric by which this Hive worked was orders of magnitudes bigger than I could muster, and I was right there, in the middle of it all, squashing antithesis bodies like ants. It was a feeling that I could not put into words. While we were powerful and nigh inexhaustible, with Warleaders and Feastmasters, Broodmothers and Princesses, Champions and Infiltrators, so too did the antithesis have their elite. One of them was visible even from this great a distance. An antithesis so gargantuan that it could easily meet my own height, and just as wide as it was tall. It was flinging sacs the size of houses across the battlefield, leaving millions dead, spreading a gas that almost instantly killed our forces, and leaving behind roots and vines that sapped those that survived dry in a matter of moments. And they grew quickly. Not to mention the sheer size of its ten massive limbs, oriented with almost radial symmetry, crushing anything underfoot with no regards for friend or foe. And as if that hadn¡¯t been terrifying enough it was covered, head to toe, with quills the size of ballistic missiles. And with the same impact as one too, considering what happened whenever it shot one of them out. That is a highly adapted version of a model Fifty-Four-H. This specific variant is mostly found on this world, or worlds like this withrge numbers, as they can deal particrly well with swarms and Hexws. Fifty-Four?! What in the fucking hell?! As if to prove Kaysa¡¯s words, the thing did¡­ something. I could see a small ball of fire in front of¡­ was that its mouth? I wasn¡¯t sure, and suddenly a wave of fire raced across the battlefield, exploding any and all Hexws and a good chunk of the antithesis forces with reckless abandon. This variant has a neurotoxin specifically tailored to work against Hexws. It can spread incredibly wide and quickly with the use of seeds and the quills on its body. The neurotoxin in question hampers the Hexws ability to adapt, inflicts inhumane levels of pain, and ignites easily. In addition to that it can birth high level antithesis quite quickly. It is, for all intents and purposes, the antithesis answer to the sheer number that the Hexws have on offer. If I had a jaw it would be hanging to the floor. As it was, the giant Hive-Queen body I inhabited had its massive maw that opened four ways open in disbelief. Now we also knew why it threw those sacs. That said, you don¡¯t have to worry, a Hexw Hive-Queen can deal with them quite handily. At least if they are as powerful as this. Those words finally pulled me back to the battlefield at hand. The Fifty-Four-H hadpletely annihted huge parts of our forces. It was time for me to join the fray, even if it meant dashing straight through burningnds and scorched earth. It made me smile inwardly. I might never be able to reach this level of sheer destructive force, but I would dly go ahead and try what it felt like. With a roar that shook the earth I signalled my own involvement, the flood of Hexws in front of me parting like the sea in my wake. Despite the sheer mass of this body I was fast, faster than I had any right to be. And I revelled in it. Leaving the smaller fry to the Warleaders and Champions, I made straight for the model Fifty-Four-H, letting out another challenging roar and immersing myselfpletely into the chorus and its insatiable hunger. With the force of a bomb I impacted into the model Fifty-Four-H, the couple of miles between us gone in what felt like moments, and with strength that was beyond my imagination I forced the muchrger and much more massive alien to the ground, pinning it there with six of my limbs, before I started going wild with the six main limbs that my body boasted. des the length of airliners cut through antithesis flesh with the ease you would imagine from a hot knife through foam, easily leaving deep gashes both in its quills and its flesh. It replied in kind, a veritable flood of quills hammering against my chitinous armor, seldom finding purchase. Where they did an excruciating pain started to spread quickly and I roared straight into its face, before I sank my teeth deep into it, as much as it had one. With a violent shaking of my head I dislodged a huge portion of flesh and devoured it, tasting the strange aroma and relishing it. Of course I wasn¡¯t sitting still, my limbs moved in tandem, cutting more and more deep gashes into it, finally bisecting a limb which fell to the ground and shook the earth. Just as I was about to take another huge bite, the back of the thing shrank, then exploded into a mass of gas and quills, sending sacs everywhere and roots quickly grabbing at me. At the same time a number of strange antithesis was sent into all directions, much smaller but stillrger than my normal drones. I disregarded the vines and roots, simply ripping them apart when they tried to entangle me, jumping up and on top of the massive alien, and started to rip through the opening on its back and deep into its insides. With a deep breath I kindled my own weapon, an ability I hadn¡¯t even realised I had until that very moment where it would be the most powerful tool at my disposal. Blue-white mes burst out of my mouth and straight into the inside of the antithesis, melting everything including my own metal teeth and the insides of my throat and mouth easily. Finally I relented, when I could feel the with metal enhanced bones of my body slowly starting to give way under the immense heat that my fire produced, and within moments everything started to knit itself back together. It wasn¡¯t instantaneous, but it would hardly take more than a few minutes. New teeth grew back, pushing out the old and ruined ones. The model Fifty-Four-H fared much, much worse. Its insides were boiling, being cooked alive by the still immense heat that my breath had left behind. Parts of it had started melting off entirely, leaving it looking like a half-dead corpse. I didn¡¯t give it any time to recover and took another massive bite out of it, diving right back into the fight without even a moment''s hesitation. The thing was massive, thousands of tons of biomass, but even that was not enough to withstand my onught for long. It did manage another spark before it died however, bathing me in liquid fire and burning another massive chunk of the battlefield once more. Screeching in pain I redoubled my efforts, more or less crawling inside of it, heat be damned, and started to sh everything in its body to pieces until it finallyy still. I had won, and all it cost me was some biomass and a little bit of pain to go along with it. I hadn¡¯t even suffered any significant wounds, most of my wounds had been self-inflicted. Raising my limbs into the air and holding my head high I roared my victory to the world, and with me the chorus roared as well, consumed by the flow of battle and the excitement of a fight won. I felt¡­ Powerful. Utterly without equal. I was literally the king of the world and my will was absolute. There was nothing that could stop me, I could deal with things that could destroy entire countries, maybe even continents, without suffering any significant wounds, and the remainder I did to myself. There was nothing that could stop me and it was¡­ an addicting feeling. I had me breath that could melt metal with ease, measuring easily in the thousands of degrees, des that could hack even high level antithesis to pieces, and a Hive that would devour entire worlds. I was the Devourer of Worlds. And it felt amazing. When I finally came down from my high, I also realised howpletely terrifying it was. This body that I inhabited could take over the Earth and crush it without anything to stop it. There was nothing we had on offer that could make a significant dent in its defences. Maybe if a majority of the Samurai worldwide worked together, but even then I wasn¡¯t sure. Silently I was d that I could not achieve this level of power. Anyone who could would be a danger to everyone. I could get a fraction of it, yes. But that was far in the future. Observing the battlefield, my swarm, the uncountable number of dead and those freshly born made me realise that this Hive was different. They didn¡¯t lose voices when their bodies died. It would simply find a new body to inhabit. My forces were vast, as I said beyondprehension, but even those forces, those billions of Hexws, trillions of them, was only a fraction of those that could be. A tiny fraction of what this Hive could do if they ever wished to. ¡°Kaysa,¡± I asked, in a voice not of this body, simply a digital application of it, ¡°Can you disable the limiter on the chorus? I want to see it. Want to feel it.¡± Of course. Let me know when it¡¯s too much or when you are done. And with it my entire being changed. We had been many. A numberrger than we had words to call them. But we had been nothing inparison to the true extent of the Multitude. I felt them. Felt them all. So different than anything I had ever experienced and it was¡­ mind boggling. Nothing I experienced this morning could be truly described. It was¡­ such a magnitude, it simply left me speechless. And all of them only had one goal: To satiate a hunger that was so primal that no amount of food could ever hope to put a dent into it. Hexws were terrifying. And yet, it calmed me to know that I was not like them. The Devourer of Worlds, thergest sapient swarm that the protectors had found, would be our basis, yes. They would be what we would build our strength on, the forebears for the might we would bring to annihte the antithesis that invaded our home. But they would not be us. We were Myriad. And we were different. We knew emotion and we knewpassion. We were human at the core, we were not insatiable. We were restrained. But to know what we could do, what might we could muster if we ever reached that far¡­ It was both humbling but also motivating. It gave us reason to continue, to grow and to learn. Taking a long time to truly internalise this difference I wandered the battlefield, killing more of the xenos wherever I went, but not letting myself fall back into the flow ofbat. This was a lesson to me, to us. And we took our time to let it sink in. To see a true Hexw Hive-Mind was an experience beyond description. But it was also something we needed to see, even if we hadn¡¯t known that before we had entered the mesh. It put our own ce into perspective, and it made it very clear that we were different. Eventually we had enough. We didn¡¯t know how long we wandered around, the rest of the chorus now also done with their fight and lost in contemtion, but it had to be some time. ¡°Thanks, Kaysa. I think this is enough¡­ I¡¯ve¡­ learned a lot today. What it means to be a Hive-Queen and what it means to be human. Shut it down.¡± And with that we returned to our body, still seated on the chair in the wilderness of the Hexw homeworld. Taking a deep breath we got up, stretching even if we didn¡¯t need to. Chloe and Jenna were still out, both looking kind of adorable. There was a moment of silence and we took the time to really take it all in. To digest what we had experienced, and to think about it all. ¡°Might I inquire what your opinion is on the Devourer of Worlds?¡± As asked, ¡®looking¡¯ at us. We nodded, taking a few steps and ncing into the distance, admiring the beautiful alien forest, the sun high in the sky, and the rather peaceful, if barren,ndscape in front of us. It was very different from the battlefield that we had experienced, but now that we had seen that, we could also see the marks ofbat left behind on the ground. This had been abat zone before, and only with time had it regrown and recovered. ¡°The Devourer of Worlds is powerful,¡± we said finally, ¡°The name fits, definitely. They could crush Earth with only a fraction of their numbers. Hell, we are pretty sure they could crush this if they needed to. From what we remembered of the simtion we are pretty sure that they have some kind of space tech, so they could leave. It¡¯s terrifying really what it can do, really.¡± Taking a moment to think we continued, ¡°It is¡­ definitely a nice feeling. Exhrating even, to be that powerful. Addicting may be the right word. That pure power, and the knowledge and certainty that you could do whatever you want, crush anyone under foot and there is nothing that anyone could do about it. In a way it might be the most exciting thing we ever felt. True power the likes of which no human could imagine.¡± We shook our head, ¡°But that¡¯s not us. We are Myriad, we are human at the core. We do not feel that hunger, that deep insatiable desire to consume. We know emotions, we knowpassion, we know what it¡¯s like to be at the other end of that raw force. We know what it¡¯s like to be helpless, to be a ything for the world to do with as it wishes. And we treasure it. True, raw, primal power, it can be nice. And it can be what you need in specific circumstances. But that is not us. That is not Myriad. That is very firmly the Devourer of Worlds, and we would not change that for anything. We¡­ We were afraid of what Chloe and Jenna might think about it all. But maybe, deep down, we were terrified of that most of all.¡± With a sigh we continued, ¡°Being a Hive-Mind¡­ it opens a lot of doors. It¡¯s the catalyst to power that no human could ever imagine. But we like being human. We like being what we are, and we like that we are not like them.¡± One by one the rest of us appeared around us, the full swarm, as meager and small as it waspared to the memory of the eater that was the Devourer of Worlds. ¡°We are very d that we are what we are, that we took this path and that it allows us to be the way we are. But we are also very d that we are not different. For all our faults, all our mistakes and misdeeds, we are still human. This morning has put a lot of things into perspective. We don¡¯t know how Chloe or Jenna might react. It might have made everything infinitely worse. But even if it did¡­ It doesn¡¯t feel as¡­ overwhelming anymore. Because just as they learned about us, so have we learned about their own fears. Fears that they have for a reason. If we ever wake up like that, with that deep and primal hunger¡­ Kaysa, please do both of us a favour and just end it, okay?¡± ¡°You won¡¯t.¡± Much to our shock the voice wasn¡¯t Kaysa¡¯s, it was Chloe¡¯s. We turned as one to look at her, still sitting on that chair and looking at us thoughtfully, but with a small, genuine smile. It made us idly think that maybe As had asked us this question specifically for her, and for Jenna, to hear our opinion. It would make sense, considering the calcted personality he seemed to have. Not that it mattered much. Even if he did, it wasn¡¯t something we would have wanted to hide from them. There was a short moment of silence, before she spoke up again, voice calm with only a hint of hesitation in it. ¡°You are right. I have my fears for a reason, and you are correct that the Devourer of Worlds is terrifying. It¡¯s exactly the kind of thing I feared you turning into. But I¡¯ve also seen what you are like. We don¡¯t know each other that long yet, but it¡¯s very clear what your personality is like, and after this morning, I also know what your Hive-Mind is like. I¡¯m not going to say that I don¡¯t have any more reservations. There are still some things that will most likely only go away with time. But one thing I know for sure: You aren¡¯t a monster. You aren¡¯t like the Devourer of Worlds, and you aren¡¯t like what I feared you might be.¡± We didn¡¯t know what to say or how to react. For a long moment there was silence in the chorus, before it all devolved into a giant mess of differing emotions. Between the experiences we had today, the still present pain from the day before, and the fears we had harboured about their reaction, her words made us stumble over ourselves. Then, as if on autopilot, we dashed for her, almost tackling her off the chair in a big bear hug. With an almost physical desperation that we didn¡¯t quite understand ourselves we squeezed her tight, relief washing over us like a calming breeze. It was as if a weight had lifted from us, leaving us finally able to breathe again. Chloe answered our hug with one of her own. ¡°Hey there.¡± Her voice was only a whisper, but the support in it was clear and it was soothing. ¡°Thank you,¡± was all we could manage in reply, our own voice just as quiet, if not more. ¡°Chloe is right,¡± Jenna chimed in from next to us. Her earlier enthusiasm of exploring the whole Hexw thing was mostly gone, and she was taking things a bit more seriously now. There was a certain thoughtfulness to her, plus something we couldn¡¯t quite identify. It wasn¡¯t bad, per se, but we also couldn¡¯t pinpoint exactly what it was. Hesitation? No, that didn¡¯t seem to fit. ¡°Earlier one of you said that they aren¡¯t human. That they are Hexws. After experiencing this, I¡¯d have to disagree. Biologically that is true, but that only tells half of the story. Mentally you are still very much human, all of you. Different, yes, not only because you are a Hive-Mind, but that doesn¡¯t change the fact that underneath all of that, you are still human and you care, as you said. Of course, the Devourer of Worlds might be at the other extreme of that scale, but that doesn¡¯t change anything.¡± The voice in question ran towards Jenna, surprising even herself, and gave her another tight hug. ¡°Thank you¡­ Both. We¡­ We won¡¯t say that we aren¡¯t still a little anxious. As nice as it is that you understand how we work now, we too learned a lot of things. Some of them have us worried. But we are very d that we could share this with you. All of Us are.¡± Thest part was delivered by every single voice, the full swarm of Myriad. They might not be asfortable with that, even with their recent experiences, but we wanted to let them know just how much we appreciated them. To Our surprise and relief neither seemed too bothered by it. Chloe smiled in reply, squeezing us gently, ¡°And I¡¯m d that I asked. I will take some time to really think about it. As I said, there are still some things I need to get used to. But it¡¯s¡­ It took a lot of my worries away.¡± We nodded, fully understanding her. It would take some time, but the weight that had settled over us at the idea of showing them what we were like, how we experienced the world, had lifted. For a long time the three of us and ourbined Hive¡¯s just sat there and talked, exchanging experiences and ideas. Chloe and Jenna both took their time to really explore being a Hive-Mind, now with the contrast of the Devourer of Worlds in mind. That perspective gave them an even better understanding, and one they fully dove into. We let them, gave them as much time as they needed, answered any questions they might have, and generally just enjoyed spending time with them in this way that wouldn¡¯t be possible in the future. Of course, unless we decided to dive into it again, which we might. It didn¡¯t matter to Us. We were just so d and happy that we could share this with the two people we loved most. It made the previous day feel so much less awful.
I have a Discord! Also, I''ve made a . If you wish to support me on my endavours, I''d appreciate it greatly! At the moment you can read five chapters ahead on ''A Joytoy''s journey to be a Hive-Queen''! Chapter 49 – Lured along the trails towards the truth Chapter 49 ¨C Lured along the trails towards the truth ¡°Big corporations buying Samurai tech is nothing new. In a way we¡¯re even encouraged to sell some of our stuff; it is kind of the whole point of uplifting humanity, so it makes sense. Most of us don¡¯t pay too much attention to it either, we make sure nothing too harmful gets out there, but other than that very few of us give much of a shit. Problem is of course that sometimes things don¡¯t go as nned. Shit that you¡¯d think is entirely harmless gets used for some bullcrap that harms more people than it helps. Then it¡¯s on us to go in there and deal with it. That said, it¡¯s a rather rare urrence. Most of the time they just use it to make more porn or something.¡± - Samurai ¡®Ben 12¡¯ in an interview with ¡®Samuraiz¡¯, 2052 By the time we returned to the real world, we had spent a pleasant couple of hours just exploring the simtion together. We were a bit surprised when Jenna mentioned that she would like to return to the simtion at ater date. It appeared that she found the entire thing quite fascinating, even if it was clear that it wasn¡¯t to the degree that she would consider bing a proper Hive-Mind herself. Chloe was equally enthused, once she got over her initial fears. Experiencing it herself had obviously helped her a great deal to rx, and she took her time to really immerse herself. From herments she had no specific ns to return to the simtion once we were done, but it also was clear that she didn¡¯t mind the idea should we ever end up here again. Hearing that almost brought Us to tears. After all the dread we felt about it all, we were incredibly happy to be able to spend time with them that way. To see how easy it was for them to ept Us the way we were once they had a much better idea of what being a Hive-Mind meant. Each of them quickly started to speak to all of Us, some conversations taking a bit longer, some only consisting of a few shared words. At first they were a bit hesitant to use all their different voices and bodies to that end, but once they got used to it and became more rxed things kind of went from there. We had hundreds of conversations going on at the same time, exchanging experiences, stories, parts of our respective past. One of Chloe¡¯s voicespared it to a very strange speed dating session, which was a surprisingly fittingparison and we did learn much about each other. Jenna was a bit more reserved, but even she opened up eventually, telling Us about herself and why she was hesitant about epting a rtionship with Us and the worries that gued her regarding that. In a way she was a lot different from what we had first thought, but it was also apparent that the reason she was so hesitant was rooted in a deep care both for herself and for Us. It made Us incredibly happy to hear, but we both decided that we would revisit that topic at ater date, when we had more time to properly discuss it. Probably over a good drink and a nice dinner. Generally we learned a lot about the two, some of which was a bit surprising. For example Chloeter confided in Us that she had been orders of magnitude more anxious than she had initially led on, which was also part of the reason she had pushed so hard to talk about it. We didn¡¯t know why exactly she was so anxious; she didn¡¯t tell Us, and we didn¡¯t push. We would wait until she was ready for it. It did mean that theter half of our little mesh excursion turned into a very rxed and long conversation about many different topics. But, as the saying goes, all good things muste to an end, and so we decided to return to the real world. We were of course the first to emerge from the dive, considering that we didn¡¯t really have to dive in the same way the others had, and we took the time to admire the two women we loved more than anything else in the world. In this silence we felt content, even the gnawing guilt abiding just a little. Feeling a little yful we climbed on top of Chloe who was still in the process of fully waking up, giving her a tight embrace and a peck on the cheek. We wanted to do more, it was honestly kind of hard to stop ourselves after all of that and the intense emotions it had engendered in Us, but we also knew that she still had reservations. Yes, she was morefortable with Us now, orders of magnitude morefortable really, but there was a little bit of anxiety that we felt at the idea of somehow messing things up with her. It was different now, no longer a question about our nature as a Hive-Mind and simply the normal anxiety anyone who was trying to get into a rtionship would experience to some degree sooner orter. In a way it was the kind of anxiety we weed, because it was something so normalpared to all the rest of our worries. So we settled on a tight embrace, simply sharing this moment with this amazing person who had upstaged so many things in our life, while she slowly awoke from the induced slumber of the dive. It was kind of adorable watching her slowlye to, rubbing her eyes with a bit of difficulty, considering that we did take up herp, before finally returning the embrace. Neither of us said anything for a long moment, just existing and taking pleasure andfort in the presence of the other. Chloe had told Us that she would not be against the idea of getting in a rtionship with Us, that she wanted to learn more about Us and what it meant to be a Hive-Mind. And despite her fears, fears that had so obviously rattled her, she had done exactly that. It made Us admire her greatly. Not many would go that far, stand face to face with their demons. Many would probably have run for the hills, some might even indulge themselves in any kind of distraction from sex to drugs or even more destructive habits to escape from it, but she hadn¡¯t. She had set out to conquer her fears, to give Us her full attention and to see where it would lead us both in the future. Finally Jenna spoke up, stretchingvishly on the couch. With our echolocation we admired her for a moment, not turning our head away from Chloe. ¡°That was a lot different from what I expected,¡± she said, leaning back with a content sigh, ¡°But in a good way.¡± ¡°Yeah¡­¡± Chloe agreed quietly, a bit of a dreamy smile on her face, ¡°I¡¯m d I decided to ask.¡± ¡°Does that mean you¡¯re finally ready to be honest with yourself?¡± Jenna teased, making Chloe blush ever so faintly. ¡°Shush you,¡± the taller woman replied, ¡°You can start bugging me about it when you start to actually put your own effort in. And don¡¯t tell me you don¡¯t feel the same way, don¡¯t lie to yourself.¡± We chuckled at that, enjoying the exchange but remaining quiet. Part of Us was anxious to hear Chloe¡¯s answer to Jenna¡¯s question, although it was a much less intense emotion now. Jenna giggled as well, ¡°Everyone¡¯s a hypocrite. And don¡¯t dodge the question.¡± ¡°You¡¯re annoying, you know that?¡± Chloe countered, with mock exasperation in her voice. ¡°One of my better qualities,¡± Jenna admitted shamelessly. We all giggled at that. ¡°For what it¡¯s worth¡­ I think I still need some time,¡± Chloe finally said into the silence that followed, ¡°It¡¯s all¡­ so much easier now. To understand and to ept. But it¡¯s also a lot. I don¡¯t wanna rush things¡­ Sorry, Seraphine.¡± ¡°Boooo,¡± Jenna jeered yfully. ¡°It¡¯s okay, Chloe,¡± we said with a smile, before finally pulling ourselves away from her. Giving the still relentlessly smirking Jenna a nce, we continued. ¡°And just so you know, I actually rather prefer this approach. It means she cares enough for me, and for Us, to actually give it the time it deserves.¡± ¡°Seraphine,¡± Chloe interrupted before Jenna could say anything, ¡°You know you can stop with that, right? I¡¯ve seen how you tick, how you feel, I know that it¡¯s much easier and much more natural to speak differently. I may have my hups and I¡¯ll tell you if I¡¯m notfortable with something, but you can be yourself. I¡¯ve learned a lot today and I don¡¯t want you to act differently just to make me feel better.¡± We had in fact switched our way of speaking consciously to not push them too hard, especially Chloe. She was a lot morefortable with Us now, that much was clear, but there were limits to that and we didn¡¯t want to take any chances. The fact that she was the one who told Us not to, who invited Us to be ourselves, was¡­ For a moment we were left speechless in surprise. She probably didn¡¯t realise how much that meant, but for Us that was a world of difference. Burying our face in her chest we clutched her tight, not trusting our voice at that moment, but desperate to let her know just how thankful we were. ¡°Yeah,¡± Jenna agreed with a nod, her smirk finally dropping and making Us even more flustered and giddy, ¡°At this point it¡¯s kind of moot to try and y around it. You¡¯ve been pretty much doing it for thest couple hours, I think at this point we both got used to it.¡± Myriad was the one who stepped up in our stead, trying to remain calm and regal, but nobody would miss the underlying excitement and giddiness that she radiated. ¡°I do not believe that you realise, jusst how much that meanss to Uss. Thank you, both, for thiss. It hass been one of the major pointss of worry within the choruss.¡± Chloe giggled, having noticed our inability to speak for ourselves, and clutching Us a bit more tightly to her chest. ¡°It¡¯s different now,¡± she exined, gently caressing our back through our shirt, ¡°A lot more¡­ normal. Yeah, it¡¯s a bit unusual, but a lot less¡­ unsettling than it was before. Now that I know how you feel, it feels bad to ask you to stop and to act differently.¡± Jenna simply nodded, obviously feeling much the same way. There was another long moment of silence, before Jenna spoke up. ¡°Maybe you two should get showered. It¡¯s already prettyte and we still want to get some things done today.¡± Taking a moment to calm ourselves down we nodded, giving Chloe a loving smile. ¡°Do you wanna go first or should we?¡± To our surprise she blushed faintly, ¡°We could go together¡­¡± ¡°We could¡­¡± we allowed with a faint smirk, ¡°Although we might get a little handsy¡­ You sure you want to?¡± For a moment Chloe thought about it, actually thought about the idea. ¡°It depends¡­ How handsy are you going to get? I don¡¯t mind a little looking, maybe a little bit of groping, but I¡¯m not sure I¡¯m ready for more yet¡­¡± ¡°It is a bit hard to keep ourselves in check with twodies as lovely as you around, but we think we could manage, if we tried hard enough. Just let Us know-¡± We were interrupted by a call. ncing at the meta-data in the virtual realm we realised it was from Snapshot. ¡°Hold on,¡± we told Jenna and Chloe absently, pulling them into the call just as we epted. ¡°Snapshot,¡± We said, giving him a small nod. Of course in our virtual realm we still wore our Samurai outfit. ¡°d to see you. Why¡¯d you call?¡± ¡°Myriad,¡± he returned with a nod of his own, ¡°Hope you all had a good morning. I¡¯m calling because Pipeline found a few things during the cleanup.¡± ¡°Pipeline?¡± Chloe asked, also giving him a nod. ¡°Jordan. He goes by Pipeline now, don¡¯t ask me how he got the name. Anyways, remember that whole lure fiasco at the gates? Well, after we came around to clean up all the dead xenos, thanks for the help with that by the way, your drones were quite quick with that. Anyway, we found some leads. Pipeline took some time to go over old blueprints and such, while I looked around any corp that might be involved. He found some rather interesting connections to variouspanies.¡± ¡°Oh?¡± Jenna asked, attention glued to his words. ¡°Anything actionable?¡± He waved his hand so and so, ¡°Kind of. We¡¯re still going through all the info, will probably take a little while, but there seems to be some kind of group at work. Not sure what exactly their goal is or why they put the lures there, but it reeks of backroom deals. It¡¯s unclear how they are all involved, some are more sitting on the sidelines.¡± ¡°Then what can you tell us?¡± we asked, quickly going through our own recollection and all the data regarding the lure we still had saved. ¡°So, from the few things we could gleam it seemed to be some experiment of some kind. Not sure exactly, but tracing the physical and digital trail we found a couplebs dealing with Samurai tech. Some of the stuff has been noted as going missing some time ago, other was sold by one Samurai or another on the open market. We don¡¯t have any definitive proof yet, but it seemed like they were trying to build some kind of weapon system. Pipeline posits that the lures were supposed to draw xenos in for testing. Not sure how that was supposed to work, this close to the Inner city gates. The danger is just way too high.¡± ¡°Probably so they have the defences to fall back on if things went sideways,¡± Chloe mused, ¡°If they were trying to build a weapons system, they might want to have a backup n in case it failed. And what better way than to use the defences already in ce.¡± ¡°Why in the city though?¡± We countered, ¡°That¡¯s just asking for trouble.¡± ¡°Good question and not one we have an answer to. Considering that the lures were salvage, it might just be that they didn¡¯t have any other way to get them out of town, but honestly I doubt that. Maybe they wanted to hide the fact that they had xeno lures, considering that that¡¯s crazy dangerous tech. I really don¡¯t know though.¡± Rubbing our face we shook our head, ¡°Yeah¡­ It also still leaves the question of why they were turned on in the first ce. From what we could see there were no weapons or any kind other than what the defences had. Fuck¡­ Well, no point in trying to make sense of it until we know more. Thanks for the heads up though, let us know if you figure out more. We¡¯re having a bad feeling about all of that.¡± ¡°I¡¯m with you on that. And will do. There¡¯s one lead that you might be able to follow, one corp that goes all the way out to the old industrial district. You know those folk better, so maybe you can have a look?¡± ¡°Will do Snapshot, already have scouts in the area. We¡¯ll let you know what we find.¡± We hadn¡¯t even finished the sentence before a good part of the Meerkats still in the redlight district took off into the direction of the old industrial district. It did kind of ruin our mood a little, but it was important to check up on. ¡°Thanks. I¡¯m really hoping we can find them sooner rather thanter. If there are more of those hidden around town, things could very quickly go wrong if another incursion shows up.¡± ¡°Indeed,¡± Chloe muttered, face dark, ¡°We already lost enough people in this one.¡± He nodded, then looked distracted for a moment. ¡°Alright, gotta bolt. Some other stuff came up, I¡¯ll keep you in the loop. Talk to youter.¡± Before any of us could reply he hung up. With a sigh we returned to the real world, rubbing our face. ¡°Well that sucks¡­ Good that they are starting to find some leads though. Hopefully we can nip this one in the arse before shit gets worse.¡± The other two nodded, expressions much the same as our own. ¡°Okay, let¡¯s hop under the shower real quick. Sounds like our schedule is getting more and more packed,¡± we muttered, getting up. Chloe followed us and together we quickly made our way into the shower. We were a bit distracted by the news, partly keeping an eye on everything our scouts found, but we still wanted to enjoy our shower with Chloe. Both of us undressed quickly, although we did make sure to give her a little bit of a show, as much as we could considering that we only wore that shirt that Kaysa had gotten Us after we had gotten up. She obviously enjoyed it, openly admiring Us even if she was blushing a little. We returned the gesture in kind, appreciating just how beautiful she was. She had this aura of confidence about her, with a figure that spoke of a woman who took great care of herself. Someone who was dedicated to her job and her training. It was almost shocking how easy it seemed toe to her, like some god had made her to be exactly right. She was so different from all the topmodels you found online, making them all look so¡­ grotesque with their oversized proportions and obviously unhealthy bodies. The way she managed that without even needing to try, at least outwardly, was straight up out of this world. If someone would ask Us what natural beauty looked like, Chloe would be the example we would give them. We were confident in our looks, we knew we were sexy and we didn¡¯t mind using that to our advantage. But now that we¡¯ve seen her in all her glory, we almost felt small. Not to mention the small little detail that our looks were not exactly natural. She noticed our enamoured look, giving us a smirk and putting on a little show of herself. With a sensual gait she made her way into the shower, inviting us in, hiding nothing and appreciating the hungry look we couldn¡¯t stop ourselves from giving her. We didn¡¯t speak, simply following her lead, smiling like an idiot the entire time. Under the hot water she looked so incredibly good, and we both nced at each other frequently, taking each other in as much as we could. We both helped each other wash, hands roaming freely, although only to a degree. Despite our desire for the woman in front of Us, we made sure to not go too far. At the same time we fully enjoyed the way her wet skin felt under our hands, the feel of the well trained muscles underneath. Watching Chloe was intoxicating, and we took our time in helping her clean up. She didn¡¯t mind at all, almost encouraging Us with her frequent smiles. There was a desire there, the same one we had for her, although it was clear that her desire was a little less intense than our own. After we were done helping her, she turned her attention to us. In the same way we had kept our hands away from anywhere that might be a step too far, she too was reserved, but nobody could have missed the way she touched Us, even with that hint of hesitation in her expression. Her fingers running over our skin was enough to make Us shiver, and if it had been any other time and ce, we probably would have reacted a lot more eager towards her gentle ministrations. All in all the both of us probably took a little longer than was necessary, but neither of us was inclined to hurry up. It made Us curious just how much she was still hesitating. She might be a lot more eager than we had initially thought. But we still didn¡¯t push, knowing that she wanted to take her time and we respected that. When we were finally done we dried each other off, which just resulted in more explorative groping. But again, neither went too far, firmly keeping our hands to ourselves in certain regards. Chloe was blushing quite fiercely after we were done, opening the box of clothes that As had gotten her. We turned our attention to our own box of stuff, curious to see what Kaysa had managed to put together for Us. For today we had decided on something a lot more casual than we typically wore, much more in line with Jenna¡¯s outfit. Chloe seemed to follow our example, considering the clothes she was quickly putting on. The underwear that Kaysa had procured was sinfullyfortable. She had gotten Us something for two points, which already denoted a certain level of quality, but we were still surprised by how naturally it all fit. The panties were a bit thinner than what most would probably wear, both in terms of fabric and the way they were cut, even if they were quite prude by our own standards. We could almost forget we wore any at all, they were this soft. The same went for the bra we pulled out of the box. We didn¡¯t wear one often, and those that we did have were a bit iffy. Bras had that bad habit of bing more and more ufortable as the day went on, but this one was almost entirely unnoticeable. We were pretty sure that we could wear this one for days on end without too much trouble. Okay, maybe not that long. But it was in stark contrast to what was typically avable to us. It made us wonder how proper Samurai grade lingerie would feel like. Something to test out with Chloe. Or maybe on Jenna? She would totally be able to pull off some really sexy lingerie with ease. The thought alone was arousing. Something to note for the future. Kaysa had gotten Us a short sleeved blouse in that now familiar ck and soft fabric, although this time it was a lot thinner than before. Not that it was transparent in any way, even if a normal shirt this thin would at least show a hint of what was underneath. It had ¡®Myriad, the huggable Hive-Mind¡¯ printed on the front in a stylised font, and a cutesy version of two drones hugging on the back. Of course with Kitsune features. At first we weren¡¯t sure if we wanted pants or a skirt, but we decided to go with a skirt since the weather was still pretty good, even if Kaysa already mentioned that soon the normal rainy weather would return to our little corner of the world. Sunshine was a rarity and had to be properly enjoyed. The skirt itself was a lot longer than our usual choice, reaching a little past mid thigh, almost to our knees really, and was in a simr, although slightly lighter shade of ck, more a dark grey really. It reminded us a little of those old schoolgirl skirts that we¡¯d seen in some posts online somewhere before. Maybe we could pull off that look for Chloe and Jenna in the future? We put it on the list of things to tryter. Our poots left our legs uncovered, only reaching a bit past the ankles. We didn¡¯t have the best looking legs in our trio, that honour belonged to Jenna, whose legs were very nice. But we in no way had to hide and were pretty proud of our look, even if we couldn¡¯t boast with the same full thighs the others had. Something we might adjust once we got our shapeshifting abilities. Last but not least we attached another tail at our back. It was purely decorative and fit neatly over the rim of our skirt, which had a small cutout for it that we hadn¡¯t even noticed before. It fit us very well, we thought, and we¡¯d gotten used to having it. It made us wonder what a real tail would feel like? Probably a whole lot better. Chloe was already done by the time we took a look at ourselves in the bathroom mirror, adjusting our blouse and skirt slightly. Her gaze was all we needed to know that she very much appreciated our new look. Not that she looked any worse. She had chosen a shirt and pants ensemble that fit her very well. The pants weren¡¯t quite as tight as Jenna¡¯s, but they underlined her figure nicely. As did her shirt, a simple thing with a logo that resembled her helmet quite well printed on the front. The design was chosen in such a way that it would work well with the nanite amulet that we had gotten for them. Giving her a very appreciated once over we smiled, ¡°Damn¡­ You look gorgeous. Never thought we¡¯d go that hard for casual dress up, but both Jenna and you fucking nailed it. We might have to adjust our own clothing choices.¡± She chuckled, ¡°I wouldn¡¯t say that. You look really good in those skimpy clothes. Bit surprised you didn¡¯t go for them today. Almost a shame, really.¡± Her smirk did distract from her blush a little and we returned it with a smirk of our own. ¡°If you prefer we can switch it up. We don¡¯t mind showing off for you. Having you watch Us feels so nice.¡± With a bit of an embarrassed giggle she motioned Us to follow her out of the bathroom. ¡°Oh, I will watch. You look damn sexy.¡± Taking great pleasure in herment, we pushed our more dirty thoughts aside. This wasn¡¯t the time for that. We made our way back down, finding Jenna still on the sofa, immersed in her augs. She didn¡¯t notice us until we sat down next to her. With a bit of confusion she looked up, finally recognising us. ¡°Oh hey. You took your time.¡± The teasing undertone was hard to miss, and we gave her a smirk. ¡°Once you see Chloe naked you know why. It¡¯s almost a sin how good she looks.¡± ¡°I bet,¡± Jenna replied, both of us enjoying the fierce blush on Chloe¡¯s face. ¡°s, as much as I would like to spend some time imagining that, we do have things to do today.¡± With a fiercely blushing Chloe and a relentlessly smirking Jenna in tow we made our way outside. Today would probably be a bit busier than we had originally hoped for. Still, we were looking forward to what the day would bring. If it meant spending more time with the two of them, we didn¡¯t mind having to run from A to B and trying to put some fires out.
I have a Discord! Also, I''ve made a . If you wish to support me on my endavours, I''d appreciate it greatly! At the moment you can read five chapters ahead on ''A Joytoy''s journey to be a Hive-Queen''! Chapter 50 – The Legion Corvette, or: How to turn a home base into home Chapter 50 ¨C The Legion Corvette, or: How to turn a home base into home ¡°Did you see them?¡± ¡°Yes, I saw them.¡± ¡°And?¡± ¡°And I got a couple of good pictures. I think we got the next headline article. ¡®Myriad, Legion, and the Bloodhound; MORE than just FRIENDS?¡¯¡± ¡°Okay, quick, upload the pictures, I¡¯ll get on writing. This is going to be so good! I knewing here was worth it!¡± - Overheard conversation between two reporters, shortly after Myriad, Legion, and Bloodhound left the house The day was nice, the sun high up in the sky, no rain to be found, although even today there was some cloud cover. But we didn¡¯t let that discourage us, today was too nice of a day for that. It was hard to not jump around with happiness as Jenna, Chloe, and Us left the house. I did take the time to properly emerge from the chorus, as nice as it was to be able to be ourselves around them, we had stretched it, and now that we were in public, we thought it better to be more myself. Of course I stuck close to Chloe, which did draw a lot of attention from the people watching the house. Not that that was too surprising, Jenna had six of her Sentinels standing guard, a few of Us popping up every so often, and there were three Samurai present. That said, the three of us ignored the onlookers. They didn¡¯t matter much to us, and with two of Jenna¡¯s Sentinels, plus our Queen¡¯s Guard and Myriad, not many came too close to bother us. Myriad had begun thinking about a new name after this morning. There was some discussion in the chorus, but I left them to it, content to have her work things out herself. ¡°I think it¡¯s best we get outside of town before I get the Corvette,¡± Jenna said as we arrived at the street, many eyes and cameras focused on us. ¡°That sounds like a good idea,¡± Chloe said, then started to lead the way. The walk was a silent one, but I didn¡¯t mind whatsoever. We had talked a lot today already, so most of the conversation we shared between us on our way outside of town was about inane things. The kind of normal that I had missed a little, truth be told. We arrived at where the Legion Enforcer was stationed, a small battalion of Sentinels standing at the ready. There were three different types of various heights, although the mostmon was the smaller one, simr to the Sentinels Jenna had gotten at the inner city gates, just better equipped and definitely easier on the eyes. Not that they were hard on the eyes before, but the difference was still obvious. The Najav stood close by, body lowered to the floor and limbs pulled close so as not to take up too much space. Next to her sat our Carrion Juggernaut, looking much less impressive despite being a bit longer than Tiny the Najav. She had gotten her name from Kaysa, strangely enough, her being the only non-Hive member Tiny could actually converse with on the regr, considering that she wasn¡¯t made to interact with squishy humans all that often. And because she was the only Hive member that couldn¡¯t actually speak. Snuffles was a bit iffy, but she could if she wanted to, Tiny entirelycked any vocal organs. Or speakers for that matter. It made me wonder if I should get her some? It must be lonely to be so entirely cut off. The rest of us were still busy in the forest, although at our approach they all appeared one by one, falling into a formation simr to Jenna¡¯s Sentinels. It did of course draw a whole lot of attention, and I was pretty sure we were featured at least on a dozen if not more live news feeds, but I didn¡¯t care. ¡°Time to get us a base,¡± Jenna said, and a momentter a giant of a spaceship appeared a bit further away, falling a couple of centimeters before it touched down, rocking the ground a little. I looked at it in awe. It was simr in shape to those capital ships from that old movie series about warring between the stars, but also different. It didn¡¯t have amand bridge as such, instead it had two smaller ones. One looked to be what I would assume a ne cockpit to look like, if you gave the ne a proper Sci-Fi do over, and was ced roughly a third from the rear and on top of the huge thing. The second was at the very front, giving you a good view down. Even from here I could see what was probably a captain''s chair and seating for the bridge crew. Since it had a slight wedge shape, even from the side, it was pretty obvious where the main entrance was supposed to be, towards the middle of the underside. That guess was confirmed when a massive ramp slowly lowered itself and allowed us entrance. The Legion Enforcer had already started to move before the ramp had even reached the ground. ¡°Damn¡­ And that¡¯s only what, 30k points?¡± I asked, disbelief and awe saturating my voice. ¡°Yeah. It can go a lot higher than that. It looks damn impressive, but it¡¯s missing most of the high tier features. Space flight capabilities, hypersonic travel, capital ship weaponry, actually any useful weaponry for space use, or high altitude use for that matter. There is a lot more I can do with it, even the core internals. The reactors are pretty damn powerful, but they¡¯re leagues behind what they could be. It¡¯s enough, of course, since not having enough power would kind of render the thing useless, but it¡¯s only got so much capacity at the moment. Thrusters are pretty basic, it doesn¡¯t have any form of advanced navigation systems yet. I mean, they¡¯re better than what you can find on earth, but it¡¯s pretty basic. The only thing I really focused on was life support, just in case something went wrong.¡± Jenna sounded quite proud, and I could imagine why. The Legion Corvette was a lot bigger than I had anticipated for that price point, but then again, as she said, it was pretty basic in terms of outfitting. ¡°Now, let¡¯s go and have a look at the interior. We can look around while everything gets loaded up, then we can take a shuttle to the city for some shopping.¡± ¡°Mind if We load the rest of the Hive?¡± I asked her, as Chloe and I started to follow her. ¡°Be my guest. It should have more than enough room. I did design it to hold all our troops, after all.¡± As one we began to move, Myriad in all her glory. Six hundred fifty odd bodies, excluding the Meerkats still in the redlight district. It was a damn awesome feeling and must have looked pretty damn impressive, and very likelypletely terrifying, to all the onlookers. Not that we gave much in terms of fucks. If they knew what we were capable of, less people woulde around knocking with any trouble they might be nning on making. Especially once we publicly dere something under our protection. By the time we arrived at the ramp the Legion Enforcer had already entered the Corvette and parked itself in one of the corners of the massive main¡­ hangar? I didn¡¯t know what else to call it. The interior looked sleek and modern, but not as lifeless as typical construction or the interior of Sci-Fi ships tended to be. The colour scheme followed Jenna¡¯s typical look, sandy browns, some more orange than most of her browns, purple, silver, and gold decorations on a dark grey base. It made the entire thing look majestic and powerful. To my surprise there were also some other things livening up the ce. Banners on the walls, some nts here and there, a few pictures that were obviously rendered by Cleopatra, a few chairs and tables. Not enough to be in the way, but they would allow some seating space. It was pretty apparent that they were meant for the rest of Us, and we appreciated it greatly. Jenna motioned us to follow to a small door at the side of the hangar, and together we made our way over. ¡°The rear of the Corvette is mostly for storage and production and has most of the space meant for upgrades and stuff. The front is the leisure area, since we will most likely stay there for the majority of the time. Your Broodmothers are to the front of the main entrance,¡± she motioned to a set of huge doors, almost a gate, as we walked past. It is sufficient to let anything the Broodmothers could produce through, I made sure of that. I nodded at Kaysa¡¯sment, thankful for her help. We walked through the door Jenna had indicated and into a long hallway that seemed to lead along the entire length of the Corvette, with something that probably served as fire hazard doors every ten meters or so. ¡°This hallway leads directly to the main cockpit, but it also has doors to the leisure area, personal storage, the gym, basically everything else that is not quite leisure, but also not storage or production. Outside of Chloe¡¯s weapon range, I had to ce that above the main hangar and crew quarters for the rest of you, behind the auxiliary cockpit.¡± We walked past three doors, before Jenna opened the fourth, not far from where I was certain the cockpit entrance would be. It led to a rather spacious open area, with a giant disy screen for a ceiling and floor, as well as the walls. The ceiling screen was showing the outside of the Corvette, while the floor screen was doing the same, but with the addition of some rather real looking fake ss flooring with some metal supports, to not invoke any anxiety about falling. Considering how good protector grade disys were, that was probably for the best. The walls were set to disy the interior of a modern but rxing home, the kind of ce that invited you to sit down and rx. At first it was a bit odd, but very quickly it felt more than fitting. In the center of the room was a table with six chairs. It looked modern, the kind of ss table you would imagine in any mid-level manager''s office, and the chairs followed the same design. Probably a whole lot morefortable than the cheap office chairs you would find in an actual mid-level manager¡¯s office though. Towards the rear, which I mentallybelled the backside of the room, and in the center of the wall was a transparent door that led into a small hallway, and then into the pool area. It was quite the small pool, as Jenna had suggested, but I could already imagine how awesome it would be. On the left side of the door, adjacent to the entrance we hade through, was a giant pile of even more giant pillows, all of which probably sinfully soft andfortable. Next to the door on the opposite side was another seating area, although this one with a long bench, a smaller table, and a small array of bookcases behind it, to sit down, read and rx a little. I hadn¡¯t expected a bookcase, since books were a bit outdated, but it looked like this was mainly for Chloe, considering her love for reading, and a little quiet corner to rx in was never a bad idea. Towards the front was another door, this one a whole lot wider, also transparent. It led to what was obviously the bedroom, and a quite roomy one at that. There were actually two beds, both big enough to easily fit all three of us and thensome, each on either side of the room. As with the hallway that led to the pool, the bedroom also had another door that led directly into the cockpit, although the door was not transparent. It did have a nice print on it though, which is how I knew where it led. Next to the bedroom door on the left was a bar. A proper bar, with enough bar stools for six people, and a rather extensive selection of alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages, partly stored on shelves, partly in a giant fridge with a ss door. Opposite the bar was another lounge area, although where the book corner was for rxed reading, this one was obviously for proper lounging, with two giant sofas that I would bet myst dildo on could be extended. What surprised and shocked me a little was a small cab next to it, doors closed and hiding the contents within. From the print on the door though, I was pretty certain I knew what was in there. ¡®Seraphine¡¯s Cab of Mysteries¡¯ written in quite the provocative font with devil horns and love hearts all around it, didn¡¯t leave much to the imagination. Jenna noticed my shocked gaze and chuckled, with a slight blush. ¡°That was my idea. Chloe and I talked about what we wanted for the ce, but since you weren¡¯t there, and you mentioned you enjoyed some fun times, I thought it would be appropriate for me to do something for you too. There is another,rger collection in the bedroom.¡± That had me raise my eyebrows and my heart quicken in anticipation. ¡°Doors of the cab are actually also screens,¡± she continued a bit more sober, ¡°I know you¡¯re proud of being a joytoy, but I thought maybe it was a bit unfitting should we ever have guests present.¡± ¡°That makes sense,¡± I said, then took in the room again, ¡°This is awesome.¡± ¡°Thank you,¡± she said with a small smile, ¡°I did spend some time decorating the things like I wanted them to. The drinks are mostly what Kaysa told me you liked in terms of alcohol, and a healthy collection of everything else. There is also a small cab hidden under the counter for more¡­ esoteric things, although I left that mostly up to Cleopatra. I don¡¯t know what exactly she put in there, some came from your Medical Utilities Catalogues, some from a small catalogue I got specifically for it. It was only a couple of points, so I didn¡¯t see the harm.¡± ¡°Thanks again. I already decided to be a bit more circumspect with the whole drugs thing, since to be honest my life is so much better now than it was even three days ago, but I would like to indulge myself a little once in a while. I know it sounds kind of awful to say, but I love gettingpletely fucked up on stuff,¡± I giggled at my ownment, ¡°That said, with how happy I am just being with you, it¡¯s not as urgent anymore.¡± ¡°Kaysa mentioned that that might be the case,¡± Jenna said, ¡°Which is why it¡¯s only a very small collection. For a fun evening, rather than a very unhealthy lifestyle.¡± She turned to Chloe, ¡°As gave me some ideas on the books you like to read. I tried my best to put together something you¡¯d enjoy, some he said that you already have read, and some you didn¡¯t to the best of his knowledge. Getting books is pretty easy, so just let Evelyn know.¡± She snapped her fingers in realisation, ¡°Ah, talking about Evelyn.¡± ¡°Hello, Jenna, Chloe, Seraphine,¡± a voice came from all around us, ¡°I am Evelyn, the ship¡¯s personal AI. My abilities are limited at the moment, but if you have any wishes please just let me know. I will try to help you to the best of my abilities.¡± The voice was soft, female, almost sensual, and very pleasing on the ears. It was the kind of voice you would imagine the pleasure yacht of some CEO to have, the kind of servant that was there to make sure you were asfortable as you could be and to take away all your worries and concerns. ¡°I couldn¡¯t get a higher ss AI because of how point intensive they are. It¡¯s one of the things that is on the list to upgrade in the future. At the moment she basically lets me know when something needs restocking, or my attention. Apart from that she oversees production of the Sentinels, but she can¡¯t really micromanage it. She keeps things going and organises when and when not to build any given model based on what I need and the materials I have avable, but other than that she simply keeps an eye on things and pulls the plug if things go badly.¡± That made sense. 30k points yes or no, this thing was massive and probably a lot bigger than someone on our level should have. ¡°This is a lot more than I expected,¡± Chloe said, looking around the room in wonder, ¡°And it¡¯s only one room. Hell, I helped n the damn thing, but this is far beyond my expectations.¡± While they talked I wandered around, inspected the bar a little more closely, then the sofas that made up the main lounge area. Opening my Mystery cab I found a selection of my most used toys, all brand spanking new and probably a whole lot better than what I had in the brothel. ¡°How did you get all this?¡± I asked Jenna, not looking away from the interior of the cab and picking up a dildo that was very simr to the one that I used most often. ¡°Well¡­ I was already nning on getting the Vi¡¯xan Catalogue, and toplement it was only a couple more points. It¡¯s all basic stuff, so each thing in there is only 2 points, at most, it wasn¡¯t exactly out of my way. It also helped that there were some package deals, pulling down point costs.¡± ¡°Still¡­ I didn¡¯t expect this,¡± I said, then put the dildo back, ignoring the slight feeling of excitement and anticipation at the thought of breaking them all in. ¡°It¡¯s supposed to be our home base, right?¡± Jenna asked, a slight blush on her face when I turned to face her. ¡°This is more than a home base,¡± Chloe said, inspecting some books in her own corner, ¡°It¡¯s a damn home in and of itself. I¡¯m halfway tempted to sell the house and move in.¡± Jenna chuckled, ¡°I did n on living here full time. You can join me, of course. I had some idea that you might like it, which is why I took the time to properly n it out for the three of us, in case you decided to follow through.¡± ¡°Oh, I will,¡± I said, ¡°This is leagues better than my old apartment.¡± I stopped, thinking, before I continued, ¡°I will probably make sure Tina and Sharon have a proper ce though. It¡¯s already basically impossible to pay for it on their ie, now that Sarah is gone¡­¡± Sadness welled up in me once more, threatening to overtake me. I tried to stand fast, gently pushing it down, but it was hard. ¡°And since I nned to move out anyways,¡± I continued, trying to keep my voice level and calm, ¡°I should at least do that much for them.¡± Chloe came over and gave me a hug. I eagerly reciprocated it, losing myself in her warmth for a moment. It did wonders to help me get out of my funk. ¡°I would offer that they could crash at my ce, especially if we¡¯re going to live here, but it¡¯s a bit far from the redlight district,¡± Chloe said gently. I shook my head, ¡°Thanks, but we¡¯ll figure something out.¡± ¡°Anyways,¡± Jenna said in an obvious attempt to change the subject and brighten the mood, ¡°Wanna see the pool?¡± We took some time to check the pool, which was as small as I expected, but still awesome, especially because the walls, ceiling, and the floor around and in the pool were disy screens that could show the outside view. It made for an experience of swimming in the sky. I say that the pool was small, but that is onlypared to what Samurai could probably put together if they wanted to, with enough room for a dozen people if you didn¡¯t mind some cuddling. For just the three of us it was very roomy, and I could already imagine spending some time in it after a hard day of work, either at the brothel or killing xenos. Jenna did mention that the pool was self-cleaning and quite thoroughly so. Her n had been to have it be the first ce of rxation after work, and considering my job and the fact that any xeno squashing could easily end with us being covered in gore, she made sure that it would be able to deal with any sort of uncleanliness. The mechanism by which it worked actually came from my Nanite Catalogue, with a little help from her Legion Auxiliaries and my Hexw Catalogue to deal with more biological or hazardous materials. Not far away, in the small hallway leading to the pool, were the showers. They were roomy enough for all three of us to shower togetherfortably if we wanted, but there were two of them, which was nice if we weren¡¯t in the mood for more closepany while cleaning up. Next to the showers were also the toilets. Compared to the showers they were quite small, but they were still much more roomy than what I was used to, and much nicer as well. While Jenna didn¡¯t say it, I would bet that the entire area wasced with nanite tech and decontamination gizmos to keep it clean and hygienic. It wasn¡¯t expensive to make it that way and it would help drastically. After the pool we inspected the bedroom, which was, as expected, massive. The door to it could be turned solid, so if someone wanted some privacy they could have. Two massive beds that I¡¯d seen from the other room already decorated either side, and as was the case with much of the rest of the giant ship, the walls, floor and ceiling were giant disys that could show a view of the outside. What surprised me a little was that the entire room and the beds could be separated into a total of six. Considering that Jenna had mentioned her thoughtfulness about potentially having guests, giving each person their own separate space to sleep in made sense. Of course the entire room as a whole, and when split up, was sound proof. It didn¡¯t take a genius to figure out why, Jenna¡¯s faint blush when she mentioned it was all that was needed to exin it. The walls that the beds were pushed against had built-in wardrobes on either side of the bed. When split up the beds could be moved separately and freely, so there was no risk of blocking ess to the storage areas, which was a nice touch. One of the wardrobes was for clothing. It had quite a lot of room, easily enough for all three of us to store our clothes in one with a little room left over, and it would even clean and iron any clothing put in there, no matter if it was protector grade or not, then sort them all into their appropriate section. Quite the fascinating piece of tech. The other was filled with a number and variety of sex toys that even I hadn¡¯t seen before. There were hundreds, maybe even thousands, of different things to y with, from dildos of various sizes, vibrators of various kinds, nipple mps, sex machines, even a fullyout of BDSM gear and other consorted items. All of it was neatly arrayed on many different racks and drawers which needed to be pulled out to even get to them. Of course there was a method to the madness, it went without saying that anything that might be used more often was at the front and easily essible, while things that would already require more time and effort to be used properly, were stored in the back. While I inspected it all, having a much keener eye for these things, and frankly stunned by the quality and make of the items, Jenna and Chloe both watched me with differing levels of a blush decorating their faces. Both seemed interested though, obviously watching the collection closely. When I was done and closed the door once more I turned to Jenna. ¡°I hope you didn¡¯t just get them for me. This had to be worth at least a couple hundred points.¡± She shrugged, a faint smile on her lips. ¡°It¡¯s a bit more than I would have gotten without you here, but you aren¡¯t the only one who enjoys a nice evening from time to time. And considering the package deals that catalogue has, it was actually a lot cheaper to get them all than you would think.¡± ¡°How does that work? The package deals, I mean. So far I haven¡¯t heard of anything like it,¡± Chloe asked her with curiosity. ¡°It is a bit of a unique feature with the type of catalogue I used to get it all,¡± Jenna exined, waving at me, ¡°Just like Seraphine¡¯s Hexw catalogue, they don¡¯t operate by typical catalogue rules. Mainly, they can¡¯t be upgraded and are only avable at ss I. They are also limited entirely to earth grade items, so no fancy alien tech upgrades or anything. It¡¯s meant for bulk purchases ofmon goods, in a way they are nothing more than a list of ss 0 items avable for cheap. Generally they aren¡¯t worth getting, since in most cases you can get better stuff at a reasonably higher point cost, but for this it made sense.¡± That did make sense, and did exin how she could save points. With how big the Corvette was and all the things put into it, she probably tried to shave as many points down from the total cost as she could. And if she could get normal stuff for cheap, then it would make sense. Not everything had to be high tier alien stuff. ¡°Anyways,¡± Jenna continued, waving at the wardrobe once more, ¡°The entire thing is self cleaning and self sorting, like the other one. ce everything used in the big drawer at the bottom and Evelyn will do the rest. Cleaning, disinfecting, she can even tell you if she finds traces of any illness or disease for you to get checked. That is of course handled with rather harsh privacy filters, and will be deleted from the logs after she informed you via mail.¡± ¡°Quite impressive for a wardrobe full of dildos,¡± I mused, ¡°I like it.¡± A small shudder ran through the entire ship. The floor in the room was currently set to disy the outside with that same fake ss flooring, and through that we could see that the Corvette had started to move. ¡°The Legion Corvette has lifted off. I hope everyone on board has a pleasant stay. Destination: New Savannah Inner City,¡± came Evelyn¡¯s sensual voice, announcing our departure. ¡°We have some time still,¡± Jenna said, ¡°Want to see the rest?¡±
I have a Discord! Also, I''ve made a . If you wish to support me on my endavours, I''d appreciate it greatly! At the moment you can read five chapters ahead on ''A Joytoy''s journey to be a Hive-Queen''! Chapter 51 – Exploring the ship Chapter 51 ¨C Exploring the ship ¡°Sci-Fi was already a pretty damn big market. With the advent of the antithesis incursions and the appearance of the protectors and Samurai that just exploded. Of course, these days, Science Fiction is mostly just fiction, based on whatever crazy protector tech Samurai get or talk about. It¡¯s an awesome time to be alive for any Sci-Fi fan. Not that it mitigated interest in the old stuff in any way. Honestly, Star Wars, Star Trek, Stargate, Bobiverse, it doesn¡¯t matter what universe you pick, shit¡¯s crazy popr.¡± - Sci-Fi enthusiast on the state of Science Fiction at the ¡®SciCon, sponsored by LazorTech¡¯, 2047 I had thought that we would have to leave via the hallway that we entered through, but much to my surprise, the back wall of the pool room was actually a door. It was hidden away in the wall, built to be not as obvious, and led into the gym area. The gym itself wasn¡¯t quite as big as the leisure room, but more than big enough for even a good chunk of Us to train in. It did make sense, the one thing the Corvette didn¡¯tck was space, and from Jenna¡¯s offhandments she designed the interior in such a way that it would have a lot of room for future expansion. The equipment in the gym seemed to be up to snuff, if Chloe¡¯s look of appreciation was anything to go by. I didn¡¯t know nearly enough about training equipment to give any sort of informed opinion, but they looked to be high quality. Of course everything you would expect to see in a gym was present, sometimes even multiple times. There was quite a bit of open space, meant for Us to train in if and when we got to it. One thing that was quite obvious, was the fact that the ceiling wasn¡¯t as high as it had been in the leisure room. Jenna exined that that was because above the gym were a lot of the Internals needed to run the Corvette, plus a good part of the industrial systems. Most of those were in the back of the ship, but some had been ced in various nooks and crannies that would otherwise be without use. That said, the room did by no means feel oppressive. There was still more than enough room to fit anything we might want or need. On the backside of the gym were two doors, one on each end of the wall. After we finished our inspection of the Gym we made our way through, finding ourselves in another, this time muchrger room. Theyout was a bit strange, but that was because of the purpose of this room. Jenna had gotten two Broodmothers for Us to replenish our numbers, and they were ced here, with enough room to upgrade our own production capabilities in the future. Each of the Broodmother rooms was ced at either side of the room, giving just enough space to enter through the doors we had taken. As Kaysa had said, they didn¡¯t look like what most would think of when they heard the term Broodmothers. In effect they were just rooms filled with strange looking Hexw Hive-Biology. Lot¡¯s and lots of different fleshy bits, most of it hidden away or covered with artfully decorated chitin and fur patterns. It gave the entire thing a much less creepy look than I would have expected. A sentiment shared by Chloe and Jenna, who were looking at it all with interest. It also helped that the attendant drones were present. Five per Broodmother room, and unlike most of Us, they looked a lot less creepy to human sensibilities. Oh, they were still Hexws alright, and they had a lot of insectoid features, but strangely it worked in their favour. Kaysa had probably done some changes, because with their ¡®clothing¡¯ they looked a lot like cartoony insectoid nannies wearing proper old school maid outfits. It was of course all chitin and fur and skin and all, with some minor additions from my Mystical Kitsune Catalogue, but it gave them an incredibly cute look. Chloe even had a downright goofy smile on her face when one of the nannies gave her a small wave and a cheerful ¡°Hello¡± in a voice that, as with every other voice, was based on my own. Compared to most of Us however, their typical insectoid hiss and guttural undertone that was shared across the swarm, was almost entirely absent. Instead they sounded a lot more wise and pleasant to the ears. Considering that there was little else of interest in the big room we slowly made our way to the giant gates that would lead back to the main hangar. Considering the room avable and the size of the gates, we were pretty sure we could do some extensive upgrades to our production capabilities, without encroaching on any room Jenna might need. The gates at the end of the room led into a set of hallways. ¡°I had to do some finagaling with theyout, since between these is one of the two main reactors. They¡¯re individually smaller than a big one would have been and have less main output potential, but there are upsides. Even if one would be damaged enough to require a shutdown, it would still enable Evelyn to get the Corvette to ground. It also meant that I have more flexibility to ce everything where I want it to be,¡± Jenna exined as we made our way through the hallways in question. When we arrived back in the main hangar, we could see how the storage worked. We had already seen how our own forces were housed, considering that we had been loading up the entire time Jenna, Chloe, and I had explored the ship, but so far I hadn¡¯t really seen how the Sentinels were stored. For Us we had two massive staircases that ran along the back corners of the main hangar, leading to the upper floors and from there to our crew quarters so to say. While we could have just put all our bodies into arge room and called it good, Jenna had paid more attention to that. And considering the room avable, she had made proper rooms for all of Us. Not that each body had their own room, of course, but we hadrge bunk areas that would allow twenty or so voices to all share a room, withfortable bunk beds and some leisure areas mixed in between. But it was much more than we had originally anticipated. Jenna obviously cared for Us, and treated Us as more than just soldiers to park in a room somewhere. It made Us smile. The stairs leading up to our bunk areas were wide enough for seven or eight of Us to walk abreast, meaning that we could load the entire swarm up rather quickly. Of course, if we had to act quickly, the way down could be skipped by simply jumping down. It might be unorthodox and not exactly the best idea, but it would work in an emergency. Jenna¡¯s Sentinels were stored away by a myriad of loading arms and other mechanisms, pulling them up through the ceiling or cing them intorge storage bays on either side of the hangar. From what we could see there were some that were easily essible, meaning that even she could deploy a good number of forces in a very short amount of time. The result was that the main hangar room,rge as it was, only held the Legion Enforcer, Tiny, and the Carrion Juggernaut, plus her staff of medical drones. They would also be on standby, since they were one of the most important divisions we had. Of course there were some Sentinels and a few of Us idling in the main hangar, but most of our forces were stored away for the moment. One thing that was also very obvious was the huge medical station avable on one side of the hangar. It had its own room, but was built in such a way that any injured could be moved there as quickly as possible. While we admired theyout of it all and the mechanical efficiency with which Jenna¡¯s Sentinels were stored away, some section of the wall above the door to the hallway we had taken to get to the leisure room opened up and revealed a number of carefully and tightly packed shuttles. Within moments one was hauled down by some sort of massive crane and ced in front of the main exit of the hangar. ¡°Each shuttle can hold roughly fifty of my Sentinels on average. Depending on the drones in question, you might be able to get sixty into one, but it would be a tight fit,¡± Jenna exined as we moved closer. The shuttles looked pretty boring. Slightly aerodynamic front and some rounded corners here and there, with a set of thrusters at the back and some form of mechanism underneath, probably some kind of anti-grav if I had to guess. Otherwise they were just a big box with four doors on each side and a windscreen that wasn¡¯t transparent from the outside. ¡°I decided on the cheaper shuttles,¡± Jenna continued, ¡°Since we don¡¯t need any more than that at the moment. This is one of the armored ones, the rest are a little smaller.¡± ¡°I mean, it only needs to get us from A to B,¡± Chloe agreed, before we entered. As Jenna said, We could probably fit around sixty drones in, but that would be a very tight fit. No seating room either, just standing with a sort of mesh at the ceiling that was height adjustable in sections to hold on to. We had all agreed that we would be fine with basic, but I had to admit, it was a lot lessfortable and inviting than I had anticipated. ¡°Not the mostfortable ride. Or inviting,¡± I said, unable to keep the bit of disappointment out of my voice. From her expression Chloe seemed to share my sentiment, despite her earlierment. A small row of seats folded up, made of a part of the floor. It didn¡¯t look superfortable, but I supposed since this was only supposed to get us to and fro over short distances I could survive it in a pinch. Not that I really wanted to, honestly. ¡°Like I said, I will get better ones eventually, but they weren¡¯t a priority yet. I was thinking about a personal shuttle just for us, a little smaller. I could get it still, although it would cost nearly everything I have left,¡± Jenna exined with a bit of embarrassment. So far the Legion Corvette was damn impressive, but the shuttles had obviously drawn the short end of the stick. ¡°Yeah¡­¡± Chloe said, giving the interior a thorough, disappointed once over, ¡°I said I¡¯d be fine with it, but honestly, this is a lot worse than I imagined. Just use my points. How much is it? A thousand? Two?¡± ¡°The one I had in mind would be roughly two thousand points, yes. Much morefortable, and would be able to fly a lot further than these can,¡± Jenna exined with a nod. ¡°Chloe and I can split the cost,¡± I said, giving Chloe a nce. If it meant morefort than this, I was more than happy to pay the points. ¡°Fine by me,¡± Chloe agreed, ¡°I have enough points for that. And honestly, I don¡¯t really love the idea of being stuck in this thing. But it makes sense, to ensure Jenna isn¡¯t entirely out. Don¡¯t need that to happen again.¡± We all remembered how we had met Jenna, and what state she was in. She had spent all her points on a Sentinel in the effort to help a group of people escape the xenos, but it had gone horribly wrong. Only one young child had survived, since she hadcked the points to get any other weapons, and even that only because Chloe and I had found Jenna in time. If she would have had any points things would have gone a lot smoother, but she didn¡¯t. None of us wanted a repeat of that scenario if we could help it. Jenna nodded, obviously thankful. She led us out of the shuttle and the doors closed, before it was picked up again and stored away. A momentter another shuttle appeared out of thin air, this one proper Sci-Fi design. It reminded me a little of that super ne from nearly a hundred years ago, ck Bird or something it was called, that I¡¯d seen in some holo at some point in my life. Of course it was a lot smaller, and a little more hefty to allow for enough space to stand and walk around in, plus a good chunk for storage. Colourwise it was a dark grey with Jenna¡¯s typical colour scheme printed all over in different sections. To be honest, it looked pretty badass. The interior was also a lot different, by far not as lifeless and much morefortable than the other shuttle had been, with three massive chairs in the cockpit, and four long benches with soft padding behind. Two benches were ced on either side of the shuttle, with the other two in the middle, each facing the walls. ¡°Much better,¡± Chloe said with a nod, ¡°And with enough room to rx and cuddle.¡± ¡°And to have some fun,¡± I said with a smirk, ¡°Should we ever need a little longer to get somewhere.¡± Chloe blushed a beautiful crimson, and I giggled. ¡°We could probably stash some toys in the cab in the cockpit,¡± Jenna agreed, also blushing faintly although it was easy to miss considering her trademark teasing smirk, ¡°Although right now it doesn¡¯t have anything loaded.¡± I snorted and gave her a nce of exasperation, ¡°Jenna, not everything needs sex toys. Strange to hear from me, I know, but true.¡± She raised her hands in surrender, ¡°I¡¯m just saying.¡± We all took a seat in the plush chairs. Honestly, they could reasonably be called armchairs. Of course they were sinfullyfortable, making me question if I ever wanted to get up again. Jenna turned to the controls, looking them over. I was pretty certain she didn¡¯t actually need to fly it, but she still started to go over the various different systems, inspecting every little thing. ¡°We should arrive soon,¡± Jenna said absently into the pleasant silence that had imed the room. ¡°You know what I just realised,¡± Chloe said suddenly, eyes unfocused and lost in thought, ¡°This thing, the Corvette I mean, doesn¡¯t have a kitchen.¡± Jenna jerked up, staring at her with horror. ¡°Fuck! I knew I forgot something¡­ Cleopatra, why didn¡¯t you tell me?¡± Iughed at her reaction, waving it off, ¡°We can probably switch the pillow corner for a kitchen.¡± ¡°That could work¡­¡± Jenna¡¯s voice was thoughtful, ¡°Cleopatra, how much would that be?¡± She waited for a moment, before she nodded, looking a whole lot more rxed. ¡°Okay, no issues then. Still, that I forgot the damn kitchen¡­ Next time tell me, okay?¡± I was distracted by the hangar doors who suddenly began to open. Although this time, instead of the ramp leading down, it folded upwards in the opposite direction. I idly wondered how the mechanism behind it worked. Turning back to the controls Jenna gave us both a nce, ¡°Evelyn has informed the police already about the Corvette, but we will probably still have a lot of eyes on us.¡± Herment was a bit redundant as there were already quite a number of hovercars and other assorted vehicles waiting for us. With a gentle shake the shuttle began to lift off, before it slowly made its way outside and out of the main hangar. It didn¡¯t take a genius to figure out that most of the folk who were watching us were filming our departure, probably streaming it to dozens of different streaming sites. Not that I much cared for it, even if they¡¯d be able to see us through the windscreen. ¡°Hopefully we can shop in peace,¡± Chloe muttered, watching all the eyes following our flightline, ¡°We are drawing a whole lot of attention.¡± I just shrugged, absently pointing towards the back of the shuttle where Myriad and the Queen¡¯s Guard stood, most of them still invisible. ¡°I have my guards to tell them to leave us alone if anyone tries anything.¡± Following my gesture Chloe chuckled, ¡°I don¡¯t think I¡¯ll ever get used to the fact that they¡¯re with us the entire time. Do you go anywhere without them?¡± With a teasing smile I replied, ¡°Well, they would leave me alone in the bathroom, the shower, and of course the bedroom. Unless, of course,¡± my tone became sultry, ¡°Someone tells me to invite them.¡± As expected she blushed, but gave me a nce that I didn¡¯t know how to ce. ¡°Well¡­ I¡¯m¡­ not going to say¡­ that that couldn¡¯t be interesting,¡± she began, obviously a bit lost for words, ¡°But maybe a bitter, yeah? No need to jump into the ocean if a pool can suffice.¡± ¡°A pool would sound fun¡­ Warm water, a little time alone,¡± I gave her a slightly husky nce, ¡°Something¡­ fun, under the water¡­ Maybe a tongue, some wiggly fingers¡­¡± We continued our little discussion, which mainly meant that Jenna and I teamed up in teasing Chloe, until eventually wended in a parking garage that belonged to one of those huge megabuildings. It was one of those crazy expensive ones, but I figured Cleopatra would sort us out. Getting up, I stepped over to Chloe and gently pulled her up after me. My Queen¡¯s Guard was the first to move out, showing themselves and working as security. It was quite effective, most of the people who had stopped to watch our arrival quickly moved along, although there were some that tried to get closer. Probably to get more pictures. A few even tried to push past my guards and towards us, from the looks of things reporters of some kind. My Queen¡¯s Guard was not gentle with them. One guy specifically tried to push past them with all his might, until one of the defenders took him by the scruff of his shirt, held him up so that his feet were dangling in the air, then let him drop after my healer injected a sedative that would knock the man out for a couple of minutes. The rest stared at the slumped body for a moment, then back to us, eyes horrified. ¡°We¡¯d advise against anyone trying to interrupt our Queen. We are quite hungry,¡± my Queen¡¯s Guard said as one, expressions cold and stoney. I don¡¯t think I¡¯ve ever seen a crowd disperse that quickly before. It was kind of amusing, honestly. ¡°You can be quite scary if you want to, huh?¡± Chloe said, but her tone was yful even if I was pretty certain there was a small underlining of uncertainty. ¡°The best way to get people to leave you alone is make them feel very, very small. At least in most cases, I¡¯m not so sure about some but those typically don¡¯t survive long enough in the redlight district,¡± I said, tone light, then continued a little softer, ¡°I hope you don¡¯t mind?¡± ¡°No¡­¡± Chloe said, then turned to me and gave me a smile, ¡°It is a little terrifying, but also amusing. And I¡¯m here to keep you in check, right?¡± I giggled at that and we turned once more towards the direction that Chloe was leading us into. It must have been quite the sight to watch us walk, and quite a few people around seemed to be a bit¡­ tense. My assassins underlined their statement by walking around with all weapons exposed, which meant four arms full of ws and their tail which ended in a long de. They kept slightly to the front of us, while the defenders stayed slightly behind, the healer trailing in the middle. They left us more than enough room to befortable, but still stayed close enough that they could act the moment someone tried something. We ignored the looks we got from the people we passed, following Chloe who was leading us towards one of those malls. I hadn¡¯t seen one in person before, they were pretty umon these days. I knew what a mall was, of course, but that was different than actually visiting one. Truth be told, I was quite excited at the proposition.
I have a Discord! Also, I''ve made a . If you wish to support me on my endavours, I''d appreciate it greatly! At the moment you can read five chapters ahead on ''A Joytoy''s journey to be a Hive-Queen''! Chapter 52 – What it means to go full fangirl Chapter 52 ¨C What it means to go full fangirl ¡°Merchandise has only be more popr over the years. These days everything you might buy for your day to day life will be some kind of merchandise or another. Very few can afford the real high quality shit that won¡¯t have ads stered all over it. It¡¯s just how things go, y¡¯know?¡± - Samurai ¡®shpoint¡¯ on the topic of merch in an Interview with ¡®Samuraiz¡¯, 2050 ¡°Well,¡± Chloe said when we entered, the security keeping very far away from us, ¡°Anything you want to look for?¡± I shrugged, looking around the mall. It was a lot different from what I had expected, much cleaner, honestly. Oh, it wasn¡¯t some kind of high ss ce, there were the normal mall cops everywhere, but it was a lot different from what I had seen on the. Then again, I also hadn¡¯t particrly looked for any current day malls. Or any malls really, it was more the kind of thing you saw in holos and on your feed, not something you actively looked up. ¡°Honestly, I¡¯m not sure exactly what we should do. There is no way in fuck I can afford anything around here, so I¡¯m just tagging along to spend some time with the two most amazing and awesome people in existence.¡± Myment made Chloe blush, while Jenna smirked, although I was almost certain I could hear the slight hitch in her heartbeat. Trying to act like nothing was amiss Chloe led us further and through the crowd of people eyeing our little group. Despite all the onlookers, we quickly found ourselves falling into a pattern of window shopping. There was quite the variety of shops around, much more than I had expected, and we took our time to see what we might like. Of course, we¡¯d most likely get them in proper Samurai grade quality, but looking didn¡¯t hurt. ¡°How about this one for you?¡± I eyed a rather simple but obviously well made pantsuit, before giving Chloe a critical nce. She looked at it, not very impressed, ¡°Not sure I could pull off that waist. I¡¯m confident in my looks, but that looks more like something you could wear out.¡± She looked me over, then at the suit, then back at me again, ¡°Yeah, you¡¯d fit much bitter in that.¡± I gave her a half smirking smile, ¡°Apart from the fact that I¡¯m way too short, and have not nearly enough ass. Or tits for that matter.¡± She snorted, ¡°You wanted to go under the shapeshifters, I bet that could help there.¡± Herment made me giggle, ¡°True enough. What about that one?¡± I pointed at another window across the hall, then stopped when I saw a familiar face slowly walking down the hallway, lost in conversation with a young man next to her. My eyebrows rose and I found a rather mischievous smirk sneaking its way onto my lips. ¡°Now, isn¡¯t that just curious.¡± Chloe and Jenna both followed my nce and their eyebrows rose as well. Jenna was, of course, smirking just as I was. ¡°How about we go say hello, hm?¡± she asked. I grinned, ¡°Let¡¯s!¡± Together the three of us, and my entourage of course, made our way over until we were too close for the young woman to pretend we didn¡¯t exist. ¡°Dominium Fortress!¡± Chloe said with a warm smile, and ra¡¯s face paled as she spotted using her way. She was together with a rather handsome young man, although he was obviously still growing into his looks. His beard was a bit on the light side, but it fit him rather well. The detail that I took particr note of was that they were holding hands. How scandalous! ¡°Fancy meeting you here,¡± I said with a smile when we came close enough to not yell at each other and gave her a small wave. ¡°Uh¡­ ra, who are they?¡± The young man asked. From his bodynguage, his sharply increasing heart beat, and the way he looked at us, he was checking us out, although he was very good at hiding it. ra scowled, ¡°Those are Samurai¡­ We worked together recently.¡± ¡°Well, you don¡¯t seem to be happy to see us,¡± Jenna said one eyebrow raised, the faintest hint of amusement in her tone, ¡°Afraid we¡¯ll steal your boyfriend?¡± ra started to blush, but her scowl didn¡¯t vanish, ¡°Maybe. Myriad is the kind of disgusting woman who would try something like that.¡± ¡°Hey now, that isn¡¯t true! My second most important rule is never to take a client who is taken!¡± I said, feigning shock. ¡°Oh, really? And how often do you check who¡¯s knocking at your door to bend you over?¡± At this point ra¡¯s boyfriend seemed to understand what she meant and his eyes widened. Poor guy probably didn¡¯t know what to do with himself, and he was very obviously quite interested. I dropped the feign look of shock and snorted, ¡°Yeah, okay. But to be fair, if he¡¯s paying that¡¯s between the two of you.¡± ¡°Fucking thought so. Now please go away before you ruin him, yes? I quite like him the way it is and I would very much hate for that to change. And you don¡¯t want me hating you.¡± It might have sounded a bit ridiculous to hear that sentence from a young girl like her, especially one with that slight petite body who looked more ¡®girl next door¡¯ pretty than intimidating, but nobody wasughing because despite how cringe it sounded, she was right. She could probably do a lot about her hating us. I raised my hands in surrender, ¡°Okay, okay, he¡¯s off limits. We were just here to shop, not trying to start any trouble. I¡¯m also off the clock for the moment, so no need to worry your pretty little head about it.¡± ra nodded, ¡°Good. Then we¡¯ll be off to do our own shopping.¡± And with that she turned around and dragged the poor guy away. ¡°Well, she likes you,¡± Chloe said with a snort. ¡°I think it¡¯s more of a confidence problem,¡± Jenna disagreed, still grinning but I didn¡¯t miss the faint thoughtful gleam in her eyes. ¡°Please, has she looked in the mirror? Anyone running away from her is a fucking lunatic. I¡¯m sexy, sure, Chloe is adorable and beautiful, and you got that elegance that steals hearts, but she in no way has to hide herself. Give her another year or two and a proper fashion specialist and she¡¯ll put us to shame.¡± ¡°Remember Seraphine, you aren¡¯t exactly normal. Not many people are as confident in themselves as you are. And she strikes me like the kind of person to worry a bit.¡± Jenna was right and I nodded, ¡°Fair. Anyways, shopping!¡± Leaving ra and her boyfriend to her devices, we returned to our slow paced window shopping, checking out every window we came across. Maybe I should have anticipated it, but the variety of the shops in the mall was quite extensive. Clothes, electronics, pet food, a hairdresser or two, some of those new modern ult ces which I hadn¡¯t seen in person ever, and even a sex shop. The ult ces were fucking weird. Like, I get that some people got really deep into some shit, but the crap they were promoting with bright neon lights was at bestplete junk, and at worst theplete opposite of what they advertised. Who would buy a fucking New Christian Fridge that didn¡¯t cool your shit properly? Or some fucking toaster that worked ¡®with the power of the sun¡¯? I would never understand this stuff. Then again, I was not exactly their usual clientele, so maybe it was on me. The sex shop was quite interesting. Since I typically didn¡¯t browse anything, just used what was at hand in the Brothel or ordered some stuff online, even if it was only the cheapest crap, I only knew about them from hearsay. Or what I read online, and most of that was some variation on ¡®I went to a sex shop and got fucked into next sunday by the most sexy employee who wanted to test all their toys on me.¡¯ Truth be told, I had hoped a little that any of that was true, but even my horny ass realised that it was most likelyplete bullshit. I had not expected to see giant neon signs telling me that any attempt to test the products was stealing and would be prosecuted to the full extent of thew by their legal team. If that wasn¡¯t a threat then I didn¡¯t know what was. ¡°Wanna go in?¡± Chloe asked with only the faintest of blushes. I shrugged, ¡°If you don¡¯t mind I at least wanna give it a look. Not that I n to get anything, I got more sex toys than even I know what to do with, but I would be very interested to see how it all works.¡± Since Jenna wasn¡¯t against the idea, and Chloe obviously was into it much to my surprise, even if she was trying to hide it, we entered and found ourselves in quite the establishment. I had no illusions that this might be some high ss ce, it was obviously for your average Joe to buy those cheap silicone pussies, or vibrators and dildos from china, whatever you preferred. But even saying that it was surprisingly clean. And what shook me most was the definitely not robotic employee standing behind the counter, looking like he was bored out of his bloody mind. Which¡­ okay, I knew I was weird, but I wouldn¡¯t be able to be that nonchnt and bored in a room full of sex toys. Then again, I was also very likely to be suspiciously absent while I railed myself with whatever toys were in stock every ten minutes or so. Not exactly the person you want in this kind of shop. ¡°Wee to ¡®Wendy¡¯s boutique of pleasure¡¯, my name is Jonathan. Is there anything I could help you with today?¡± Wow, that guy was uninterested. Like, he was actually droning out the words in the most bored voice I could imagine anyone having. He had absolutely zero shits to give for anything. In a way I could appreciate that kind of attitude. ¡°Hey, Jonathan,¡± I said, looking around, ¡°Not really here to get something. I have more than enough toys at home, but I was curious to see it all.¡± He wasn¡¯t even fazed. ¡°Of course. If you wish to inquire any more on the items in our stock, please feel free to refer to me.¡± ¡°Not to be rude,¡± I said, not able to suppress my curiosity, ¡°But you seem very fucking unhappy with your life for someone sitting in a store full of sex toys. Like¡­ You realise we¡¯re Samurai, right? The huge fuck off alien drones not giving it away? I think you¡¯re the first person I met as a Samurai who sopletely didn¡¯t care about me that I¡¯m honestly inclined to give you a quickie just as a thank you notice.¡± Not even that got any reaction out of him, he simply continued to stare at us without so much as a sign of life in his eyes. ¡°Please be aware that any kind of sexual activity in this store is a crime and will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of thew.¡± ¡°I mean we can go outside. I¡¯m not particrly picky about the location of a quick fuck.¡± I only said it to see if he would react at all to it, but nope, he continued his cid existence and for a moment I thought he might just be one of those really expensive androids or something. The type that looks like a human proper. ¡°As much as I¡¯m inclined to take your offer, I cannot leave the shop unless it¡¯s closing time.¡± The way he delivered that sentence withplete disinterest was something to be seen. I shrugged, ¡°Oh well. Suit yourself.¡± Jenna and Chloe had been watching me with curiosity and amusement, but now that I turned to the shelves full of bliss they too started to move around. ¡°Wow¡­¡± Chloe muttered, picking up a rather sizable dildo that I would not let anywhere near any of my orifices out of sheer fear it would actually spear my insides. ¡°Yeah, I never understood why some people are so into trying to ignore anatomy with these things,¡± I said as I nced at it, ¡°I¡¯ve seen bigger. Hell, I used one to bash a model Three¡¯s head in. But I don¡¯t think I¡¯ve ever taken one before. Maybe once when I was really out of it, but even when I¡¯m paid I typically don¡¯t use them. They fucking hurt, believe me.¡± ¡°Wait, hold up,¡± Jenna spoke up, eyes wide in gleeful humour, ¡°You brained an M3 with a giant dildo?¡± I shrugged and grinned, ¡°Sure. That gun Chloe gave me was empty and one of the fuckers was still alive. Had to use something and I had at least thought to bring another weapon with me. It did fuck the xeno up just as I thought it would, even if it wasn¡¯t the kind of fucking it probably expected on seeing the damn thing.¡± ¡°I would have paid to see it,¡± she said with a smallugh. Kaysa appeared next to me in a nanite drone that looked simr to me, but a bit different. ¡°I have a recording of it.¡± ¡°Wait, what?¡± ¡°Wait, what?¡± Jenna asked at the exact same time. I chuckled at the double delivery and Kaysa smirked. ¡°I was watching you when you were on the run, to figure out if you truly deserved to be a Samurai. The scene was amusing, so I saved it.¡± That made me raise my eyebrows, ¡°How did you even see? As far as I know there are no cameras there.¡± ¡°No, there are. They are easily missed, but Victor installed some after the incident with Lena. Technically nobody checks them, but he had to do it to make insurance happy. Not in any of the working rooms, so no need to worry about being watched.¡± ¡°I wouldn¡¯t care either way, to be honest. If someone wants to watch me fuck my brains out on some randos dick then they can. Hell, might even be good advertisement. Good to know regardless though. And sure, you can shoot her the footage. Just make sure anyone else is censored, right?¡± ¡°Done.¡± I nodded and looked back to the collection of toys. In my time as a joytoy, and even before that, I had seen quite the variety of toys and tested most of them at least once. But even I was surprised when I found some things. I knew what they were for, but considering that they were mostly meant for men in very specific circumstances I hadn¡¯t seen them in action before. Between silicon cunts for your personal pleasure at home, to full blown life size sex dolls they had practically everything you might want to take the edge off. I wouldn¡¯t mind watching someone use them, but considering that I typically was the sex doll they used to relieve their pent up horniness, and I typically preferred to be the one in charge, even if I didn¡¯t mind ying submissive, it wasn¡¯t like I¡¯d be screaming for the opportunity either. If someone wanted to drain their balls, I had enough holes they could use for that. If they paid, of course. Okay, maybe also if I was high off my tits, but that was a different topic entirely. Eventually though we decided to leave, wishing the still bored out of his mind Jonathan a pleasant day. ¡°I have to admit,¡± Chloe said quietly and with quite the blush, ¡°I am very curious to try out some of those. They looked¡­ really interesting.¡± ¡°Honey, if you wanna try those toys and cum your brains out just say the word. So far I kept it in mypletely drenched panties, but I won¡¯t say no if youe to me for some experimentation. You have no idea how hard I want you to rail me with a strap on, or how hard I want to eat your sopping cunt out.¡± I may havee off a little strong, considering that I was feeling quite aroused after all the options in that shop, plus that I¡¯ve been without sex for like three days now, but neither of them seemed to mind. ¡°I¡¯ll keep it in mind,¡± Chloe said softly, with a blush that might be the fiercest one I¡¯ve seen on her yet. It was a bit hard not to imagine her sitting on my face, or mping my head between her squishy thighs, but I did try my best to remain calm and not think about it too hard. It did put into perspective though that I really should get something to keep my libido in check. If we¡¯d talk about this anymore, I¡¯d probably jump her right and here and now, in public, and damn the consequences. We strolled along, finding this shop and that, checking some out while skipping others, until Chloe saw something and more or less yanked Jenna and me after her in her sprint to get to whatever she had found. It was, surprisingly enough, a Samurai merch store. We had passed a few on the way, but she was more or less glued to the window of this one. And the object of her affection was a giant stuffed bear, easily three meters tall. It looked a little weird, full, if fluffy, armor and giant gauntlets that looked like they could fuck up quite a few things, and I had no clue what Samurai it belonged to. ¡°Uhm, Chloe?¡± I asked, a bit confused. She turned to me with so much glee and excitement in her eyes I could have sworn they took the shape of stars. ¡°That¡¯s Bob! He¡¯s super cool! He¡¯s a mecha bear that belongs to Teddy, a Samurai from Calgary! She¡¯s sooo cute, here, let me show you!¡± And with that she pulled me inside, going full fangirl on that Samurai she was talking about. After a very, very confusing and very one sided ¡®discussion¡¯ thatsted roughly fifteen minutes and told me everything I had to know about Teddy down to the colour of her favourite hoodie (Yes, Chloe knew everything), she finally more or less jumped the poor clerk, some poor e faced teen who was himself goingpletely nuts about three Samurai in his store, and outright bought two of them. Yes, two. No clue where she wanted to put them or why she wanted to have them, but now we would be able to pick up two supersized teddy bears in a couple of hours. Truth be told? Watching her go fangirl on something was insanely adorable. As was the shop clerk who couldn¡¯t stop asking questions and together they riled each other up with excited glee until Jenna and I had to physically drag Chloe out of that store almost an hourter. ¡°Sorry¡­¡± Chloe said with a fierce blush and even fiercer embarrassment, head hung and trying to make herself very small. I giggled at that, ¡°Silly¡­ It was kind of cute to watch you, you know? The way you wentpletely off the rails. Honestly, I¡¯m a little jealous of that Teddy girl. Do I need to worry you¡¯ll leave me behind?¡± Her face registered panic and she looked at me with horror. ¡°Seraphine. She¡¯s 16. There is no way in hell I¡¯m going even near her in any of that direction. She is cute, yes, but¡­ No!¡± I giggled again, then pulled her into a long hug and gave her a loving smile. ¡°You are too cute. I¡¯m joking, Chloe. Don¡¯t worry, I know you¡¯re better than that. And I know how old she is. You told me like four times. I¡¯m just teasing you, my adorable little bloodhound.¡± That made her blush even more, at which point I was honestly considering stopping simply because I was concerned she might actually suffer some blood loss from popping a vein somewhere. ¡°Oh¡­¡± was all she could muster and I couldn¡¯t help butugh. It was a great day.
I have a Discord! Also, I''ve made a . If you wish to support me on my endavours, I''d appreciate it greatly! At the moment you can read five chapters ahead on ''A Joytoy''s journey to be a Hive-Queen''! Chapter 53 – What do you mean I can just make millions? Chapter 53 ¨C What do you mean I can just make millions? ¡°The costs of living in North America have skyrocketed in the past 30 years. Where in 2025 you could have managed with roughly $7000 a month, which would have been 700k credits, these days the price is much higher. Even in the Outer City, with an average ie of 1.3 million credits a month, the rent alone often takes up huge chunks of that. In 2055 the average rent per month for a one room apartment was roughly 700k credits here in New Savannah. In the Inner city? It is closer to the monthly ie of Outer City residents. And that is only rent. Many people find themselves in a situation where they have to decide between eating and living on the street.¡± - ¡®Financial Guru Supreme¡¯ article on the price of life Not long after Chloe had bought the two oversized bears we finally made our way to a ratherrge grocery shop. It wasn¡¯t the kind of ce I was too familiar with, we didn¡¯t really have any dedicated grocery shops in the redlight district. Either you bought your shit on delivery online, getting vastly worse products than the dreams they put up for horrendous prices on their websites, or you went to a proper corner shop. The kind of ce that sold a little bit of everything, where the snacks were next to weapons, which in turn were ced right next to the drugs, after which you may find some vegetables that very likely had gone bad already, only to finish the aisle with sex toys. It was basically the only ce that you could still get old school mags these days. Not that I would rmend buying them, not only were they hriously overpriced, but chances were good that you might end up with a mag that someone had a sneaky wank into. Or took drugs out of. Or did other things, you really couldn¡¯t know with those ces. Technically there were two types of corner shops in the redlight district, now that I thought about it. The first was the dingy kind, a couple cameras here and there, a brat or a teen for a clerk who would get the fuck outta there at the first hint of trouble; the type of shop that would be cleaned out by one group or another eventually, often in less than a month, before shutting down right after and sell it to the next idiot to move in. Those were the kind of shops where you could literally get anything and everything,w be damned. During my early gang days I was working one for a little while as ¡®protection duty¡¯. In effect I whored myself out under the table for a handful of drugs and some cash for the gangs, while anyone who came in basically always tried to steal whatever they wanted and oftentimes even seeded. ces like that didn¡¯t survive long and made more money from any side gigs than the real deal. Of course there were also the proper corner shops, the kinds of ces where every single shelf had its own camera, the brat or teen running it still fucking off at every hint of trouble, but this time they came back with a vengeance, at least when the shop paid its protection money. Folks might stilly unconscious or overdose in one, but it was much rarer than the dingy kind, and generally the shop may actually have halfway edible food. In a way those corner shops and little dingy ces were the kind of hodgepodge of shit, not only because you could buy basically anything there, but also because it wasn¡¯t rare for more interested groups to get together for their next little side gig. The sort of spawning pools of the redlight district economy, as much as we had one. Many ideas thatter be redlight district sessful, which means itsted for longer than a month before everything went to shit, came from such a corner shop and a chance meeting there. Hell, I¡¯ve gotten my job as a joytoy in one. Different circumstances and not exactly applicable to most people, since I just wanted to have some drugs and offered myself up to pay since I had nothing else, but it wasn¡¯t unusual for the store owner to have some kind of gang connection or side biz running. And in most cases the clerk was there to manage it all. Then again, that depended a little on the age of the clerk in question. Kids were less likely to be involved. Not because they don¡¯t know shit from drywall, more because teens can at least pretend to be dangerous to gang folk, while not many would be that threatened by some brat. Not that that was always the case, I had seen a girl, at best ten, absolutely fucking manhandle a walking wardrobe of a man before. Not sure what the hell her deal had been, but she was the kind of person that wouldter rise through the lower ranks of the gangs, and might even make a name for themselves before they were either shot dead or OD¡¯d on some shit. Nothing is sacred in the redlight district, and if you¡¯re a streetrat that was basically the only option in life for you. Compared to that kind of ce, the shop Chloe, Jenna, and I entered was a damn cathedral of food, and not thepletely shit kind either. It made me nearly faint at the prices. This was inner city proper and that meant much higher prices than you would see even in the most overpriced redlight district corners. Jenna too seemed a little queasy over the prices, but Chloe didn¡¯t have a single fuck to give the world atrge and simply started browsing. She had picked up one of those shopping baskets, my two defenders following her example, and soon we found ourselves slowly meandering through the big shop, with Chloe picking out this and that. All I could see in front of my inner eye was the sheer amount of people I would have to make extremely happy to even afford a fraction of it all. I was damn good in my job and I had stamina to go for days if I had to, but not even I would be able to make a dent in the kind of orgy I would require to pay for all of it. The fact that Chloe was picking out packets and cans by the handful without even ncing at the prices¡­ I mean, she did say she had made bank. But this was probably the first time that truth really sank in for me. So far it had all been rather distant and intellectual. ¡°Chloe,¡± I asked, a bit hesitant, ¡°Are you sure you want to buy that much? There is no way I can pay even a fraction of what it would cost to feed me with this, even if I would starve myself as much as I could.¡± She nced at me, then stopped. ¡°Really? I didn¡¯t think it was that expensive.¡± Her confused look made me giggle, ¡°I¡¯m not sure how much you earned before you became a Samurai, but I¡¯m lucky if I make a mil and a half a month. If I go ahead and deduct everything I need to pay off per month, minus food, then I have at best 200k or so leftover. Sure, a good chunk of that is rent and all the drugs, but you gotta pay it all, you know? That package of instant noodles you just pulled out of the shelf is five grand. The vegetables? Ten grand. That¡¯s like¡­ at the very least twice as expensive as what I can get in the redlight district, if I buy the expensive shit, and there I live mainly off of brothel food, because otherwise it¡¯d be too much.¡± Chloe looked a little dumbfounded for a moment, then looked over at Jenna who shrugged. ¡°Yeah¡­ I¡¯m much in the same boat, honestly.¡± There was a moment of silence before Chloe finally put the package she still had in hand into the basket and sighed, ¡°Fuck¡­ I mean I knew you didn¡¯t have much. Booking you was almost insultingly cheap. But that is a lot worse than I imagined.¡± ¡°It¡¯s how life goes. I make a lot more than most, considering I¡¯m damn popr and almost always booked out. It¡¯s why I take over such a huge part of our rent. The others couldn¡¯t afford it. It¡¯s also why I like working at Vic¡¯s, otherwise my drug costs would be easily in the 600k, maybe more. I take a lot of shit and all that needs to be paid for. Of course, it means less ie, but the deal is good for us.¡± ¡°Okay,¡± Chloe muttered, returning her attention to the shelves, ¡°I nned to pay for it all anyways, I¡¯m swimming in money, so I don¡¯t need to worry about it too much. So at least let me make sure you¡¯re properly fed, okay? I can¡¯t imagine that diet was good for you.¡± Iughed, ¡°Oh, hell no. Kaysa was pretty clear that I was damn underdeveloped physically, mostly because of the drugs, but I don¡¯t doubt that the food was helpful.¡± ¡°Yeah, you do look a little¡­ childish,¡± Jenna mused, giving me a smirk. I stuck my tongue out at her, ¡°Well, apart from my height, I don¡¯t mind too much. Too many people who love getting me all fucked up and then ruining me and that ¡®innocence¡¯ they think I have. You wouldn¡¯t believe how many people pay good money to rail me.¡± ¡°Oh, I do. I¡¯ve seen your statistics,¡± she just replied before she followed Chloe into the next aisle. Of course I also followed, checking out all the stuff they had on hand, and gulping at some of the prices. Like, I knew it was expensive, but some of the shit was almost hriously overpriced. ¡°Have you considered exchanging some points for credits?¡± Chloe asked absently, studying a can of¡­ something very closely. ¡°Uh¡­ I kind of forgot that that was a thing, not gonna lie,¡± I replied, checking a package of chocte. It was the name-brand kind, something I could never have afforded. Probably damn tasty though. Kaysa appeared next to me in a body that looked simr to the one she had taken in the sex shop, but also different. Probably not to spook people. Then again, I had my Queen¡¯s Guard around, so that was kind of a lost hope. Maybe she just wanted to be fancy, who knew. Then I looked at the body a little more closely, and I realised that she was ying around with variousbinations of Jenna, Chloe, and my looks. I eyed her suspiciously, but didn¡¯t say anything. Nor did she react, apart from a very, very faint smirk that might have been my imagination. ¡°At the moment you can exchange one point for roughly 30k credits. That of course kind of depends on what you trade and with whom.¡± Herment made me raise my eyebrows. ¡°That much? Holy shit¡­ So what, I just say I wanna get rid of say 500 points and I can make bank?¡± ¡°In effect, yes. Of course, it depends on what you sell. You have quite some unique catalogues on offer, although the Hexw Catalogue is a bit restricted in that regard.¡± ¡°I figured,¡± I nodded, ¡°The protectors don¡¯t want a second Hive-Mind running around that can eat worlds. Honestly, I¡¯m totally on board with that. The day we meet the Devourer of Worlds face to face is the day Earth fucking dies.¡± ¡°Indeed,¡± Kaysa agreed, ¡°But there are some items on there that can be helpful. Mainly gene editing stuff, plus some more exotic items for quickly growingb grown organs and the like. The rest of your Catalogues are equally rare, so they can make you a lot.¡± ¡°I can imagine. Okay, so let¡¯s say I put 500 points on offer, of course excluding anything that could be dangerous or something. That¡¯s, what? Thirty times fifty, 1.5k, times a hundred¡­ Fifteen mil?¡± ¡°Yes, Seraphine, thirty thousand times five hundred is fifteen mil. It¡¯s embarrassing to watch you sometimes.¡± ¡°Oh shut it, you oversized piece of malware,¡± I snapped back with a smirk, and Kaysa rolled her eyes, but she smiled faintly. ¡°Regardless of how much exactly that is, it¡¯s a huge fuckton of money. A huge fuckton of money I could use to help out Tina and Sharon. Maybe Galia. How much of Sabrina¡¯s debt could I pay off with that?¡± Before Kaysa could answer me Chloe chimed in, giving me a kind of silly smile. ¡°You know, that is exactly why I like you so much. You just talked about making fifteen mil, and the first thought that came to your little sex addled mind was not ¡®How can I use this money myself?¡¯ but ¡®How can I use this money to help others?¡¯ You are just too pure for this world.¡± I snickered, ¡°I have it on good authority that I am the opposite of pure.¡± She giggled as well, although she did have a small blush on her face. ¡°You could,¡± Kaysa continued, ¡°Probably help Tina, Sharon, and Galia, but Sabrina¡¯s debts are a bit too high for that. You would need to sell most of your points to cover it.¡± That had me raise my eyebrows, ¡°Damn. That¡¯s¡­ a lot of cash. How deep in debt is she? Actually, never mind, don¡¯t answer that. Privacy. Okay, I need to think of some way to make money, it seems, next to my job. At least for the short term. From what I¡¯ve seen they offer quite the money for my time these days, right?¡± She nodded, ¡°Yes. Standard going rate on average is roughly two million per encounter, although many of those who requested your services have not yet decided what to offer, or have offered quite below that. Those are mostly the earliest requests you have gotten, which is very likely the reason why.¡± Thinking about a moment I decided it didn¡¯t matter that much. ¡°Honestly, I¡¯ll take their requests. They were the earliest ones to ask, so they get a discount, pure and simple. The rest can pay up, I wouldn¡¯t be surprised if prices go up even higher after that.¡± ¡°Very likely,¡± Kaysa agreed, picking out something herself from the shelf, ¡°So far the rise in price has been rather steady. It will eventually level out, but that might be a while still, especially considering how popr you are on the Samurai charts. And how popr you are very likely to be, considering your profile, disposition, catalogues, and all the rumours regarding your rtionship with Chloe and Jenna.¡± ¡°Wait, why would a rtionship increase my poprity? Wouldn¡¯t it be the opposite? I don¡¯t doubt for a moment that a good chunk of that poprityes from them wanting to be with me themselves, if I¡¯m spoken for that means less chances for them.¡± ¡°It¡¯s kind of weird that you have to ask,¡± Chloe said, ncing at me with a bit of a blush, ¡°The thinking is that they can get two, maybe three Samurai for the price of one. Not that it makes a lick of sense, but you know howmenters are online. All they see is a Samurai whoring herself out and very close to two other Samurai, one already a known Joytoy. There is so much discussion online about what they¡¯d do with the three of us as if that¡¯s already a done deal. And there are also those who kind of get off on the idea of bing a homewrecker. Fuck you so hard and so good that you leave your lesbian streak behind and be a cock worshipper for the rest of your life, or just their little pet.¡± That had both me and Jenna giggle, and even Chloe smiled at her ownment. ¡°Honestly,¡± I said with a bit of a smirk, ¡°If they can make me submit like that, then I¡¯ll give it to them. I like sex, and I enjoy myself quite a lot, but you¡¯d have to be really good for me to go that far.¡± ¡°So, do you n to sell your points then? I can put a list together rtively quickly, see who wants to buy what for what price and we¡¯ll go from there,¡± Kaysa said, cing the can she had inspected into Chloe¡¯s basket. ¡°Sure. You know my rules, nothing too dangerous, nothing too abusable, make sure we at least think a little about who gets it, otherwise go for it. If I can make some money I will, and I can survive losing 500 points.¡± ¡°Done. It will take some time for it all to go through and you¡¯ll have to buy the materials that will be sold eventually to have them delivered. I¡¯ll let you know when they¡¯re ready.¡± I shrugged, decided not to ask too many questions right now, and focused back on checking the shelves. The conversation slowly drifted back to more casual topics, what different kinds of food we wanted to try, what we liked and preferred, what we might be allergic to. It was honestly kind of nice to just shop. Even if the prices were fucking ridiculous. Jenna eventually mentioned that she wanted to try proper pizza, not the cheap frozen stuff made from pure chemicals you find in the redlight district, and of course Chloe was all in. One of my assassin drones grabbed another basket, giving some folk a near heart attack in the process when they rounded the corner not seeing her, and soon Chloe started filling that one with a variety of things she swore we needed to try on pizza. The entire thing also helped Jenna figure out what exactly she needed to keep in mind for her new kitchen. Chloe wasn¡¯t a master chef by any stretch of the imagination, but she had learned to cook for herself and has talked to quite a lot of people in her life who enjoyed cooking. Not least of which was her mother, and one friend from her old gang days who she was very enthusiastic about. From her telling he was an asian guy who absolutely loved to cook for his boyfriend and who apparently ended up working as a chef in some Inner City restaurant. He seemed a rather chill dude if her stories were anything to go by, as gay as they came and the most lovable walking wardrobe you could find. He was the type of person who would dly help you with whatever you needed, and who would hound anyone to death who tried to fuck with his friends or neighbourhood. Eventually though we were done, Chloe had dered that we should have enough food for a couple of days and therefore it was time to head back. ¡°If none of you mind,¡± I said as we stood in line at the checkout, making a lot of people very ufortable, ¡°I¡¯d like to head over to the redlight district after this, check in with a few people. Just making sure nothing is amiss and all.¡± ¡°Sure, we can do that,¡± Chloe said, cing thest item on the conveyor. It amazed me that with over 30 years of development, these things were still the exact same shitty conveyor belt as I had seen from shops in 2020 on my feed. Like, we have flying cars and fucking mesh dives, and yet these things were just as fucked as they had been decades ago. Well, whatever. When it was finally our time to pay I nearly fainted when I saw the final total. Nine hundred fifty thousand fucking credits. That was more than my monthly rent and my drug costsbined. Holy fucking shit. Chloe didn¡¯t even blink, just paid up and together we left, myself feeling a little woozy. So much fucking money¡­ The way back was rxed, we continued to window shop just a little, before we finally made our way back to the parking garage and into the shuttle. Which, to my amused surprise, waspletely left alone. It was almost like it had some kind of invisible force barrier around it. Quickly making our way inside, my Queen¡¯s Guard gently ced the bags filled with our purchases in somepartment, and we took our seats once more. ¡°So, you wanted to head to the redlight district, right?¡± Jenna asked, ying around at the controls that I by now knew she didn¡¯t need. ¡°Yep. Visit the Rose Carpet, talk to some folks. Oh yeah, I wanted to ask if you¡¯d be up to send some drones through for maintenance and stuff. The ce hasn¡¯t seen any ever since it was built and if I¡¯m going to use it for work, I want to have it look proper.¡± ¡°Sure,¡± she just shrugged, ¡°I wanted to get some proper production drones anyways. Even already got the blueprints. Evelyn, please start the production of ten drones.¡± ¡°Of course, Jenna,¡± the AI¡¯s smooth voice came from the speakers. ¡°When do you n to start?¡± Chloe asked with a nce in my direction. ¡°Probably the day after tomorrow. I¡¯m not sure if I have time tomorrow, now that we have some leads on the Lure thing. I also still don¡¯t know if I might need to help Tina, Castas, and the rest, considering that they are still in the shelter.¡± ¡°Fair enough. I¡¯m still not sure what I¡¯ll do the day after tomorrow then,¡± she said absently. ¡°Maybe you can check in with your family? Friends? Make a day of it. Oh, I¡¯ll also be away in the evening, I promised Castas a little reward. Hope you don¡¯t mind?¡± ¡°Nah, all good,¡± she said with a smile, and a small blush, ¡°Honestly, I kind of like the idea of you making the rounds.¡± That had me raise both eyebrows. I had some idea that she might have a bit of a lewd streak hidden deep under her innocent facade, but so far she hadn¡¯t been this outright with it. Not that I wouldin, of course. ¡°Wow¡­ Okay,¡± I said, giving her a smirk, ¡°Want to turn me into a proper slut then? I see, I see.¡± She blushed even more, but shrugged, ¡°I wouldn¡¯t be opposed to the idea¡­¡± That made me giggle. ¡°We can talk about it after we have our first time. I haven¡¯t forgotten why you came to me in the first ce, and while I¡¯m definitely not going toin if you want me to make the rounds, let¡¯s focus on that one first, shall we?¡± She was blushing fiercely of course, but none of us said anything more about it. The Legion Corvette grewrger andrger in front of us, before it opened the main hangar and we gently touched down. ¡°I think it needs a name,¡± Chloe muttered, watching the ship absently, ¡°Something¡­ dangerous.¡± ¡°I actually was thinking about a few options,¡± Jenna said as she got up, Chloe and I of course followed soon after, ¡°But I can¡¯t decide which name I want.¡± ¡°There was this story I read some time ago,¡± Chloe said as we left the shuttle, my Queen¡¯s Guard carrying our things, ¡°It wasn¡¯t my typical fare, I normally prefer fantasy but that book had me hooked. Anyways, it mentioned a ship name that I found pretty damn awesome, and one that would also fit rather well with your theme. Your name is Legion, you are the Queen of Sorrows, at least to some, the Sentinel army. Why not call it ¡®Bastion of Hope¡¯?¡± I had to admit, I liked that name. It had oomph, but it also wasn¡¯t overly dramatic. The right kind of name with a kind of soothing feel to it. Jenna seemed to think the same, since after a moment of thought she nodded. ¡°Sure, that works out. I like it. Personally I had thought about ¡®Lost Citadel¡¯ or something, but while I love it, I don¡¯t think it would fit that much.¡± ¡°¡®Citadel for the Lost¡¯?¡± I ventured, but even I wasn¡¯t entirely convinced. ¡°Nah¡­ That doesn¡¯t seem to fit the theme, really. Well, ¡®Bastion of Hope¡¯ it is.¡± Jenna smiled at that and we made our way to the leisure room. We didn¡¯t spend too much time, just enough for Jenna to buy the kitchen, which was apparently very cheap despite the good quality, and then stuffed all the purchases into whatever shelf Chloe wanted things to go into. Time to head to the redlight district, hopefully nothing burned down in my absence.
I have a Discord! Also, I''ve made a . If you wish to support me on my endavours, I''d appreciate it greatly! At the moment you can read five chapters ahead on ''A Joytoy''s journey to be a Hive-Queen''! Chapter 54 – A Sarah shaped hole Chapter 54 ¨C A Sarah shaped hole ¡°Ye gotta remember, the psyche is a really weird ce. Aye, ye can go ¡®round and try to act all normal and shit, but there¡¯s a lot deep down there that canpletely mess ye up if ye don¡¯t take care of yerself. It¡¯s the biggest danger when fightin¡¯ off the xenos, ye see so much shit out there and eventually ye either be numb or it starts gettin¡¯ into yer head. In that way Samurai have it nearly as bad as fire fighters, policemen, and other rescue personnel. And just look how most of them end up.¡± - Wingus Dingus in a conversation with a new Samurai, 2031 To my mild, but pleasant, surprise, nothing burned down in my absence. What did pop up, and which I was not all too pleased about, was a smaller group of gangsters trying to make inroads on the ce, but so far nothing had yet gone out of control. Castas and his Red Crows were making sure shit was handled, while Sultan and his Purple Hazeckey¡¯s at least pretended they were happy. Not that I believed them a word with their grimaces. It wasn¡¯t my problem though, and so I decided to ignore it entirely. At least until it became my problem, at which point Snuffles would have some snacks to look forward to. Jenna touched us down close by, but I still took some time to walk around. There really wasn¡¯t much of a reason for it, simply a feeling that I should. We had decided on packing some reinforcements, at least as much asfortably fit into the small shuttle, and they quickly started to spread out. Mostly it was exactly what we had expected. There were some minor surprises, people who were starting to charge exorbitant fees for drugs, hoping to cash in on the lull between fresh supplies, which I could at least understand. There were some who looked to be into more dirty business, but we didn¡¯t care much for that either. This wasn¡¯t a shakedown of the district, simply our efforts to keep it clean. Considering that we ignored them when we found them, most of those small time businesses, as much as you could call them that, got the memo that we weren¡¯t going to bother them. Sure, most of them still shit their pants when one of Us showed up, but that wasn¡¯t our problem. After we had confirmed that nothing was amiss, at least in the direct vicinity of the brothel, we turned our attention to the reason we hade here. The Rose Carpet was, as it was usually, kind of run down. The problem was that after the incursion it was even more fucked up, and even though the corpses had been cleaned up and the rest of the ce at least moderately repaired it was still kind of obvious that shit had gone down the sewer pipe not long ago. What really hurt was the emptiness everywhere, especially behind the bar counter. Dax had been a pleasant man, one that I liked talking to, and one that was dutiful and rarely missed a day. To see him absent hurt more than I had anticipated. What hurt even more was the absence of Sarah in her room. We took our time, remembering the woman who had hated her job here, who had detested everything she did to earn her paycheck and who had paid the ultimate price because of it. Seeing the now empty room was painful, but we didn¡¯t try to run, nor did we try to ignore it. This was what we had to prevent in the future. This was a lesson that we best learn quickly, before anyone else might fall into the same hole of despair and hopelessness that ended with an unpleasant and premature death. It helped that we had Chloe and Jenna with us. It didn¡¯t stop the tears and the sobs and the deep ache in our heart, but it at least made them more bearable. We still felt like we had let her down. We still felt responsible, despite all the proof to the contrary. And it pained us deeply. Eventually though we turned and left the room, as much as we wanted to mourn her and to force ourselves to see the nk spot her death had left in our life, to remember this lesson, we couldn¡¯t just sit around to cry. No, we had promised ourselves that we would change things, that we would ensure this wouldn¡¯t happen again. And that required action. Making our way down towards the bar once more we already expected Victor¡¯s presence. No way in hell he hadn¡¯t been informed yet, not with Us prancing around. Even if he wasn¡¯t checking the cameras that Kaysa had told Us about, there would at least be some Joytoy or another who would have gone to tell him that we were here. If only because our Queen¡¯s Guard was being rather obvious about their presence for once. Not that they were aggressive, but they were openly disying their presence and discouraged everyone who might try something. If someone would be foolish enough to follow through they¡¯d deal with them. As expected, Victor met Us just as we returned back to the main bar area, a different barkeep that looked just as sad at all the loss. It was slightly overshadowed by the wide eyes he gave Chloe, Jenna, and Us; nheless he ced a couple of straight drinks on the table, just as we sat down next to Victor. ¡°This ce is like a fucking ghost town,¡± he muttered darkly, immediately putting back his drink. For a long moment we didn¡¯t reply, simply eyeing our drink, a drink that would have been prepared by Dax before this disaster. Finally we put it back and motioned the barkeep for the next one. ¡°Yeah¡­ It¡¯s¡­ It¡¯s depressing. Thest time we were here, everything was so lively. So many people, so much noise¡­ Now it all feels like a fucking graveyard. We¡¯re pretty resilient to death, but fuck.¡± Taking a deep breath we shook our head. ¡°We can still remember the old days¡­ Times where people were talking about the whole fucking bing legends thing. Inane dreams that maybe some day they¡¯d be known for what they did, even if they were nothing but cheap harlots in some backwater brothel. Such a fucking stupid notion¡­ But there was hope there, y¡¯know? Call it desperation, call it naivety, but people believed in something. Now we have empty halls and lost memories. We knew, of course¡­ But seeing it hurts much more than we could have imagined.¡± Without anotherment we put back the next shot, and this time the barkeep didn¡¯t even need a signal to refill it. ¡°We?¡± Victor asked, giving us a nce. ¡°It¡¯s¡­ a long story,¡± we just said, unwilling to go into too much detail. Victor nced at us; it didn¡¯t take a genius to see the concern in his eyes, but we just couldn¡¯t be fucked to talk about all that kind of shit right now. He¡¯d have to deal and he¡¯d get used to it, we were sure. ¡°Whatever¡­ And I agree with you. It is a damn graveyard. It¡¯s like I can still hear them talk. Still hear them there, just behind that next corner. Every time I walk through here it¡¯s like¡­ I¡¯m just waiting to bump into them.¡± We just nodded silently, eyes still transfixed on the ss before Us. Thest conversation we had with Dax ying before our eyes. It had been such an innocent talk¡­ To know it we would never be able to talk to him like that hurt worse than any gunshot wound we ever suffered could ever be. Wiping away a stray tear, we returned our attention back to the conversation at hand. ¡°Yeah¡­ We have to admit, Vic, we never thought too fondly of you. You¡¯re a bit too aggressive at times, and you were right earlier that you can be a bit of an asshole. We wouldn¡¯t have thought it¡¯d hit you this hard.¡± He snorted, holding only a hint of humour, ¡°Yeah, well¡­ What can you do¡­ I¡¯ve seen my fair share of shit too, but never like this, not like a fucking incursion. At least not this close. That shit never goes over well. ces you can repair, people can¡¯t just be reced. Even a damn cold hearted bastard like me can feel something that deep down.¡± Hisment made us adjust our opinion on the man once more, realising that he might not be as much of a jackass as he typically led people to believe. Maybe it¡¯s a persona or something, we didn¡¯t know, nor did we ask. But it was nice to see. ¡°How¡¯s Galia doing?¡± we asked instead, sipping at our third shot. We weren¡¯t here to get hammered but at this moment a bit of alcohol would do us good. ¡°She¡¯s¡­ Fuck, okay to put it blunt she¡¯s bad. The moment she sobers up she takes the next dose of shiver. I¡¯ve pulled her and some other joytoy out of service today, they¡¯re in some backroom fucking each other silly. I¡¯ve made sure she can¡¯t take too much, but if she sobers up too long it seems like she has aplete breakdown.¡± That made us grimace, ¡°Kaysa? The priest?¡± It might be a stretch. But we couldn¡¯t help that feeling of foreboding, that¡­ anxiety that we might be toote again. Our AI formed the nanite body from the Amulet, appearing next to the barkeep who looked at her with wide eyes, forgetting for a moment the sadness that was still rocking him. Giving the man a friendly smile and a nod, she turned to us, smile not abiding which we took as a good sign. ¡°There are no indications that she has met up with the priest. It is much more likely that she is simply unable to handle the entire mess she is in up until now. There is hope yet.¡± Letting out a breath we nodded, ¡°Good¡­ Any idea how we can help her short term so things don¡¯t get out of control, before we find a way to give her some proper help? We know that you can¡¯t magic away trauma¡­¡± ¡°There are some ways to help in the short term,¡± Kaysa agreed, gently picking up a ss and a couple of bottles, mixing something together, before handing it to the barkeep with a friendly smile while she spoke, ¡°It¡¯s not perfect, as you said. None of the short term solutions to psychological trauma are. And if I¡¯m perfectly honest, she might never fully recover from it. But you can, at least for a time, block her memories and her emotional response to it all. That only works if you can keep her from returning to a life of a Joytoy however. And it will be quite expensive.¡± ¡°We don¡¯t care how fucking expensive it will be,¡± we snarled, ¡°If we gotta pay thest of our points for it, then we will. We¡¯re not going to allow a second Sarah!¡± Perhaps we were a bit too agitated about the topic, both Victor and the barkeep looked at us with a hint of fear in their eyes, but it didn¡¯t matter. We weren¡¯t going to let someone else end up the same way, the thought alone made us furious. ¡°I thought as much. Good. It will cost you 2450 points to get a proper memory and emotional seal that shouldst long enough for her to find some proper help and is sophisticated enough to be gradually disabled for a therapist to work on things. I can give you the contacts of some people that you can talk to in regards to getting her proper help. But be warned, administering the seal might be¡­ hard.¡± ¡°Define hard,¡± we muttered, emptying our shot ss and pushing it back. The barkeep wanted to refill it, but Kaysa gently ced a hand on his arm with a small smile and a shake of her head, before she began to mix something else up for us, something that was obviously much weaker and sweeter. Probably for the best, even if we could use a stiff drink. ¡°You¡¯d have to get her to swallow three pills. The first is the memory blocker, the second the emotional blocker, and the third a Cleanse.¡± ¡°That¡¯s easy,¡± we muttered, ¡°She¡¯s on shiver, just promise her the time of her life and she¡¯d gobble down anything. Just leave it to us.¡± ¡°Are you sure you¡¯re up for it?¡± Chloe spoke up for the first time, giving us a concerned nce. ¡°No,¡± we admitted, ¡°But we have to do it. And I¡¯m not going to sit by and watch her OD. Not again.¡± We sighed, rubbing our face for a moment, before we looked to Kaysa again, ¡°Give us those contacts for the therapists. We¡¯re going to call them first, see what they think. At this point we learned that we are in no way the right person to decide on shit like that. Actually, it might be worth getting some catalogues for it, if only so that you can help in the short term.¡± ¡°You could,¡± Kaysa allowed, ¡°But I¡¯d advise against it. Surprisingly enough, there is actually someone who specialises in that field in this city. They too are a new Samurai, only minted during the remnants of thest incursion. And even more surprising, they too are a Hive-Mind, although different from you.¡± That finally pulled us out of our funk and I looked at her, sobering up a little. ¡°Wait, what?¡± Kaysa ced the drink she had mixed for us down in front of us, while the barkeep refilled Victor¡¯s ss. Chloe too got a refill, but Jenna didn¡¯t. The drink was sweet, as we had expected and just the way we liked it. Taking a long sip from it, we listened to what Kaysa had to say. ¡°She doesn¡¯t have a name yet, goes by Mask at the moment. Where your Hive is based on the Hexw Swarm Intelligence, she focuses solely on body doubles. As of right now she is rather new, by far not as well established as you are, and specialises in therapy and psychological trauma. I can¡¯t give you any specific details, you know why, but she might be worth talking to.¡± ¡°Yes,¡± I muttered, fully emerging from the chorus and shaking myself a little for a moment, ¡°Shoot me her details, I¡¯ll give her a call.¡± With that I turned back to Vic, ¡°And thanks, Vic. For keeping an eye on things. We, by which I mean Chloe, Jenna, and I, will see what we can to improve things in the future. Right now I think it¡¯s best I talk to that Mask woman, see how things go and if she can help Galia.¡± He nodded, giving me a long nce, ¡°Aight¡­ But if it¡¯s fine with you, I¡¯d like to chat with youter about the whole¡­ thing that¡¯s up with you. You¡¯re a bit strange these days, Seraphine.¡± I just nodded, ¡°We can do that, Vic. It¡¯s a long story and one that doesn¡¯t lend itself nicely to a little chat in a graveyard of a brothel¡­ But you should know. If only to thank you for all the help.¡± We finished the drink in a few massive gulps, ced the ss down and got up, nodding to Chloe and Jenna, ¡°You can wait here if you want. I¡¯m going to go up to my room to make some calls, see how things go. Then I¡¯ll know where to go from there.¡± Not waiting for a reply I turned and walked back upstairs, taking in the pain in my heart at the sight of the empty hallways, only filled with a few of the Joytoys and a couple of clients. The brothel wasn¡¯t entirely in full swing yet, but some had already returned, much too few to make me feel anything but bad about it. Maybe it was wrong to¡­ almost drink in all that suffering and pain. Maybe I should try to push it away. But I wanted to remember, wanted to make sure I¡¯d never forget. It hurt like a bitch, yes. But I felt like it would be disingenuous to try and ignore it. My door was only barely fixed. The hole where the two model Threes had made their way inside was patched, but still obvious. It would work to keep people out, but not if they were really determined. Closing it behind me I looked through the room. Most of the alien goo had been cleaned up, but the stench of cut grass and the stains were obvious still. Walking behind the counter I poured myself another drink, simr to the one Kaysa had made for me. It was just something for a buzz, not to get hammered, before I pulled out one of my joints still in the cab, lit it, and took a deep pull. In only a moment I was in my virtual realm and dialled the number that Kaysa had given me. It was strange to call another Samurai for anything other than help with xenos, but I wasn¡¯t going to lie to myself and tell myself that I could fix this mess. Thest time I did everything went wrong. The thought reminded me of that kid that we had saved after we had met Jenna, another thing to keep an eye on. ¡°Kaysa, where¡¯s the little boy Jenna brought back with her?¡± He is currently still in the megashelter, although in a different section than the one you visitedst time around. One of the orphanages in the redlight district had been evacuated there, and they offered to take care of him. Tina agreed. They are scheduled to return tomorrow, after the orphanage has been fixed up. ¡°Good. Did the money from the tradee in yet?¡± A part of it, roughly six million credits. Since it didn¡¯t seem too urgent to you, I decided to make sure that the right people got everything for the right price. Not enough to bankrupt anyone, but also not so cheap that you would make significant losses. ¡°Thanks, Kaysa. Send them that money with a thank you note. Also attach my contacts, if they need anything, and I do mean anything, they should hit me up.¡± Before she could reply the call finally connected and a soothing male voice came over the line. ¡°Magdalene Layra is currently not avable to talk. If you wish to make an appointment, please specify the date and time and I will do my best to be amodating to your request.¡± The slightly non-human sounding voice made me think it was her AI, so I just smiled at the call. It didn¡¯t have a video feed, but I did, and being friendly always helped best when you called someone. ¡°Hey. I¡¯m Seraphine Bloodfallen, also known as Myriad. You are Mask¡¯s AI, right? I¡¯m a Samurai based out of the redlight district and would love to talk to her regarding a possible therapy session with a joytoy in the brothel I work in. She¡¯s in very bad straits and I¡¯m afraid that she might overdose soon if nothing happens.¡± There was a moment of silence, then a clicking sound and the call went through. In the background I could hear light ssical music and not the cheap AI generated shit either. That was actual music, if I remembered right it might be Mozart, although I couldn¡¯t be sure. In my first year as a Joytoy I had a client who wentpletely nuts over it, and he requested a slow fuck in the rythm of Mozarts music, which this one reminded me of. It was a bit strange, but also strangely rxing, if I was honest with myself. Definitely one of the better fucks I¡¯d had that year, even if it didn¡¯t reach the top ten for my own tastes. ¡°Mask here,¡± a young woman¡¯s voice came. She sounded roughly my age, maybe a tad younger, with the sort of friendly politeness you always saw those therapists on the holo-vids disying. ¡°Hello Mask. I¡¯m Myriad, or Seraphine if you prefer to use our real names. Your AI told you why I called?¡± ¡°Hello Myriad. No, he just told me it¡¯s important, what¡¯s up? I¡¯m a bit tight on time at the moment, so not sure how much I can help.¡± ¡°Well¡­ I have a joytoy here, one in the brothel I work in, who is ted to go down a very, very dark road if she doesn¡¯t get help soon. Not sure how much you know about the redlight district.¡± ¡°Uhm¡­ I heard a few things, nothing concrete,¡± she sounded a bit distracted. ¡°Okay, so to make a long story short, people here take drugs like some drink water. It¡¯s just how things are here. That¡¯s kind of a problem though, since there are some who start working as joytoys but can¡¯t handle the fact that they sell their bodies. You probably know what I¡¯m talking about. Anyway, so Galia, that¡¯s the woman I was talking about, she¡¯s been taking Shiver like crazy to cope. It¡¯s reached a point where she can¡¯t stand being sober because of all the¡­ bad stuff. I can ce a memory seal on her so she can get out, but that isn¡¯t a permanent solution. I know that I¡¯m much too fucked up in the head to help myself, so Kaysa, my AI, told me about you. It¡¯s¡­ honestly a bit strange to know that another Hive-Mind is out there.¡± While I had talked, Mask had been doing some stuff, but the sounds stopped at my words. ¡°Another Hive-Mind? You¡¯re one as well?¡± ¡°Yes. We are Myriad. We don¡¯t know about you, but we are a chorus of many whoe together as one, in unity and harmony. Kaysa mentioned that you might be different, and we must admit to a certain level of curiosity.¡± There was another moment of silence, before Mask finally replied. ¡°That is different, yes. I¡¯m just me. I have a few bodies, not many yet, since well, I just became a Samurai, so I¡¯m a bit tight on points. But I¡¯m not many people rolled into one.¡± That was different, indeed. ¡°Curious. We aren¡¯t many people rolled into one, before you misunderstand. We are all Seraphine Bloodfallen, variations on me ced as voices into different bodies of our swarm, and together we form the chorus, the whole, together we are Myriad. At the core though, I¡¯m still me. So are they.¡± ¡°Huh¡­ Okay, uhm, I really want to talk about that, but I don¡¯t think right now is the right time. You said you needed help. I¡¯m willing to help, but I¡¯m not sure when I can manage.¡± That made me smile a little, she seemed genuine enough. ¡°I¡¯m willing to pay for the help, if you can make it quick.¡± ¡°Oh?¡± Despite herself I didn¡¯t miss the interest in her voice at thatment. ¡°2000 points, plus five million credits once my sales go through. I¡¯ll be blunt with you, Mask, I really want this to go over quickly, so if you want more, I¡¯m willing to pay if I can afford it. Thest time I waited to see how things went a good friend of mine died. I¡¯m not going to make that mistake again.¡± That produced a long silence, and for a moment I thought she might have disconnected, but the call was still open. Eventually she spoke again. ¡°That¡¯s¡­ a lot of points. Much more than I made this far. You can keep your credits, that would just be extortion at this point. I¡¯ll get out of my indenture another way. But if you¡¯re for real with the points, I think I can make some time.¡± ¡°I am. As I said, I want this done quickly. I don¡¯t want to find another corpse because I was too hesitant to do more.¡± ¡°Okay¡­ Okay. Uhm, sure. When do you want to meet? Do you want to head here, or should Ie over?¡± ¡°I think it¡¯s best if youe here. I¡¯ll see that Jenna sends a shuttle your way, it¡¯s going to be quicker than taking a cab. Or do you have a car?¡± Sheughed, ¡°I¡¯m an indentured servant. A ve, more or less. Do you think they¡¯d give me a car? No, I¡¯d have to take public transport or a cab. If you have some way to get me there, I¡¯d dly take it. Before we hang up though, what specifically is needed?¡± At her words I sent Jenna a quick message, asking her if she could send the shuttle over to Mask, once she had sent her location through to me. Then I took a few minutes to tell Mask exactly what was going on with Galia, the circumstances, how it usually ended, what the signs told me as someone in the trade, but I also made sure to exin to her that my evaluation might bepletely wrong, based on the knowledge that I wasn¡¯t normal. I told her about Sarah, which was¡­ hard. I managed to keep mostly calm. But it hurt. Fuck, it hurt. But I had to get it out there. It was important. When I finally ran down, voice a bit shaky from the topic and with a few tears still running down my face at the memory of Sarah¡¯s lifeless body on the ground, there was a moment of silence before she spoke, voice soft. ¡°That is a lot worse than what I typically see. But I can understand why you want things done this quickly. I¡¯m very sorry to hear about your friend, Myriad. And I must admit to being surprised how calm you seem to be, considering how little time has passed since then. I¡¯ll take a thousand points for this. But I would also like to meet you at ater date to talk to you about your experiences. It seems like you could use it.¡± ¡°Sure¡­ That sounds good. I¡¯m not stupid enough to push away help from someone who knows what they are talking about. And thanks, Mask. Take the two grand. As a thank you from me and to get you sorted. There will be pointsing in the near future, not sure if you heard.¡± ¡°Not really, no.¡± ¡°Figured. We can talk about itter then, just know that the Family, that¡¯s some Samurai corp keeping an eye out on North America, they have some Hives for us to deal with in like three days. You should have been invited. Then again, if you only became a Samurai at the end of the incursion, you might have been overlooked.¡± ¡°Good to know. I¡¯ll get everything ready. Talk to youter, Myriad.¡± ¡°Thanks, Mask. See you soon.¡± And with that we disconnected, and I slumped back against the counter, eyes closed and enjoying the drug induced haze slowly clouding my mind. It was¡­ not a good solution. And it didn¡¯t help to fill that hole that bored itself through my heart like a parasite looking topletely overtake me. But I¡¯d have to manage. At least for now. The chorus helped. So did the knowledge that Chloe and Jenna were waiting for me downstairs. I finished my drink and my joint, taking my time and trying to rx a little. It didn¡¯t work nearly as well as I was hoping it would, but it was better than nothing. Eventually, when I was finished with it all, I quickly cleaned the ss, put it back to where it belonged, locked the cab and then made my way back downstairs. I really hoped that Mask could help. Both Galia, and maybe also me.
I have a Discord! Also, I''ve made a . If you wish to support me on my endavours, I''d appreciate it greatly! At the moment you can read five chapters ahead on ''A Joytoy''s journey to be a Hive-Queen''! Chapter 55 – A conversation between Hive-Minds Chapter 55 ¨C A conversation between Hive-Minds ¡°Tired and looking for some rxation? No worries, mate, juste over to the redlight district. Not a hooker better in town, I tell ya. Be it slow and rxed or heated and sexy, you¡¯ll find something to your tastes.¡± - Ad for the redlight district, New Savannah, 2050 It didn¡¯t take too long for Mask to arrive with the help of Jenna¡¯s shuttle. We spent the time down at the bar, chatting amongst each other and a few of the Joytoys and clients who were mingling about. Everyone had an air of sadness about them, and the typically more sexual and lewd gazes that people would throw at each other were absent. I took time to talk to any of the Joytoys who wanted to talk, just be there for them, to help theme to terms with it all. I informed them about my n with the department, that they should tell the others, and that some changes would being in their future. There was only one incident, when one of the clients overheard me talking about my ns for the redlight district. She was a woman who most certainly didn¡¯t feel in any way sad about it all, with her head stuck so far up her arse that she could lick her own intestines through the backlooping of her mouth. She was throwing a huge tantrum about how Joytoys shouldn¡¯t be in charge and that they should just do as they¡¯re told, which ended with me nearly exploding on her. Only Chloe¡¯s presence stopped me from beheading her on the spot, and instead my Queen¡¯s Guard took care of her, pulling her out of the brothel before sedating her and leaving her on the street somewhere. Not anywhere they couldn¡¯t check, of course, if someone would try something we¡¯d intervene, but I wasn¡¯t going to pay that kind of person any kind of respect if she couldn¡¯t show even a modicum of understanding for others. It surprisingly helped the mood greatly, since people saw that I wasn¡¯t just talking out of my backside, but actually did something about it. The woman was, of course, banned for life, and from Vic¡¯sments she would have a hard time to find any joytoy anywhere in the redlight district in the future. I wasn¡¯t sure just how urate that was, but I appreciated the sentiment. I also took the time to give Galia the pills that Kaysa had told me about. It was about as easy as I expected it to be, all I did was act like the next slutty girl who wanted to have a round, promising her pleasures beyond belief, before I gave her the pills one by one, with small little lies on how it would make her feel. Truth be told, I felt a bit bad about it. Taking away someone¡¯s memories, even if only temporarily, felt¡­ wrong. It was amoral, but at the same time¡­ I could live with it. I could live with the fact that she might resent me for the rest of her life, as long as she had a life to resent me in. Maybe it was the wrong kind of outlook, but to me it felt like a good enough bnce. Or maybe I was just too emotional to properly judge things. At the end of the day, I didn¡¯t care, as long as she survived. As was typical with protector grade medicine it worked quickly and soon she sat on the bed, confused and slightly out of it, trying to get a grip on reality. Kaysa stayed by her side in one of the nanite drones. She had made a skim of Galia¡¯s online profile, trying to find out as much as she could about her so that she could talk to her and distract her a little. It seemed to help greatly. We left her to it, just giving her some breathing room and some proper clothes, while we waited for Mask. Truth be told I wasn¡¯t sure if it was a good idea to leave her with Kaysa, I wanted to do more, but Kaysa assured me that I might dredge up memories of her time in the brothel, which, while blocked, could have some adverse effects. It was good that the room Victor had put her in wasn¡¯t a working room, nor one she had been to before prior to today. Finally though the shuttlended not far from the entrance, barely fitting on the tight streets, and Mask got out. She was not what I had been expecting from her name, or the conversation I had with her. First and foremost, she was very obviously a Hive-Mind, at least to me. Three bodies walked up to the brothel, all looking identical apart from different clothing. Mask was rather pretty, but not in the overdone way that you would see stered all over the feeds. It was a natural kind of pretty that could easily get lost in a crowd. The kind of pretty anyone on the street could have, with obvious imperfections on the skin, the way the hair grew, slightly asymmetrical eyes, that sort of thing. In short, Mask was nobody to write home about, but also not ugly in any way, shape or form. That same unremarkable style was also found in the way she was dressed. The first body, probably her original one considering that it seemed to be the leader of the little group, was dressed in a simple shirt, clean and with some print on front that could be found in any of the shop around town, a pair of jeans that looked to be actual jeans, well worn and a little damaged here and there, and sneakers. The other two of her bodies followed the example, although with slightly different kinds of clothing. It made it even stranger to look at her, considering that she looked to be three identical sisters just walking around, but there was that strangeness to her gait that made it immediately obvious to me that she was one person with many bodies. I wasn¡¯t sure how it was so obvious to me, it wasn¡¯t something I had noticed in myself, especially considering that the rest of Us all looked different, but it just stood out to me personally. Mask was obviously eyeing my Queen¡¯s Guard and the four Sentinels Jenna had standing at parade rest nearby. It was hard to identify her gaze, but I was almost certain there wasn¡¯t any fear or disgust in it, just open curiosity. Quite different to how most people looked at things, then again, she too was a Hive-Mind, even if a different one. Of course we were still sitting at the bar, just watching her enter. One of Mask¡¯s bodies walked over to the Queen¡¯s Guard, striking up a conversation, while another started to make her way through the brothel. Her ¡®main¡¯ body, as I mentallybelled it, moved closer to us, sitting down on the barstool next to me. ¡°Hello Myriad,¡± she said in that same voice I heard earlier, a friendly, but slightly distant smile on her lips. ¡°I must admit, you are not what I expected from a Hive-Mind. Those are your drones, yes?¡± I nodded, giving her a smile in turn, ¡°Wee. Yes, they are, my Queen¡¯s Guard. Outside of Snuffles and the Reaver Squad, and of course the Najav, they are probably the strongest of Us. Might I ask how you refer to your bodies? I learned quite early that it¡¯s a rather important thing for Hive-Minds like us.¡± ¡°I just call them bodies. They are all me, and I can control them like I can my own body. From what I understand, at least from what Royos told me after I asked him on the way here, it is simr to what you went through before bing a Hive-Mind. I¡¯m not sure what that means, exactly, he didn¡¯t want to tell me the details, but he mentioned that that would be the best way to exin it to you.¡± ¡°I see,¡± I said with a nod, guessing that I had at least some idea of what it was like for her, ¡°Before I became the whole, before the formation of the chorus, I had to split my attention to control all my drones manually. It was quite mentally exhausting, considering that we are slightly over seven hundred at the moment. If you work like that all the time, I¡¯d imagine that once you get more bodies it might be a bit taxing.¡± ¡°That was a worry. But I got some software for it, helping me organise it all. My own upgrade isn¡¯t quite done yet either, but it won¡¯t shift as much as it did for you,¡± she smiled, then looked at the rest, giving them all a nod, ¡°I am Mask. At least, that is the name that I¡¯ve been given for now. My real name is Magdalene Layra, I¡¯ve only been a Samurai for a little over a day now. I assume you are Legion and Bloodhound?¡± ¡°Yup,¡± Chloe said with a good natured smile, ¡°Chloe Vayne, my pleasure.¡± ¡°And I am Jenna Tiel, a pleasure to meet you.¡± Mask, or rather, Magdalene, nodded then turned back to me, ¡°You said there is someone in need of help regarding sexual trauma? Truth be told, that kind of trauma isn¡¯t typically one I deal with, but if you are willing to pay some points I can get the required software upgrades to help with it. Just a heads up though, I¡¯m a therapist yes, and I do try my best, but I¡¯m not that experienced yet. It might end up with me not being able to do much.¡± I nodded at that, ¡°Yes, I know. And I also don¡¯t want to pressure you in a way of ¡®you help or else¡¯. I¡¯m well aware that I don¡¯t know anything about that kind of shit, and I trust your expertise on the matter. But it¡¯s something that needs to happen and soon. And truth be told, I don¡¯t trust corpos that much. If you know someone who can and will help, then sure, as I said, I trust your expertise, but I won¡¯t be going around asking people because I know that I wouldn¡¯t be able to differentiate the sweet talkers from thepetent ones.¡± She looked at me for a long moment, before she spoke, ¡°How can you trust me this easily? Especially with something as important as the well being of a person that is quite obviously at least somewhat important to you? Not that I don¡¯t appreciate it, but it makes me wonder.¡± ¡°You¡¯re a Samurai,¡± I said with a shrug, ¡°If I know one thing, then it¡¯s that while most of us are a bit strange, you don¡¯t just be a Samurai by happenstance. I trust the protectors to pick out the right folk, from what I¡¯ve seen so far we all care about people in one way or another.¡± ¡°Fair point. Very well, I¡¯ll go and have a look. Do you mind showing me where she is?¡± At that question Chloe¡¯s ne came to life, another nanite body forming. This one in the shape of a rather handsome old man with white hair and a very neatly trimmed white beard, wearing a formal suit that almost looked like a butler¡¯s outfit. I raised my eyebrows as he nodded to us. ¡°Greetings, Magdalene Layra. I am As, Chloe Vayne¡¯s personal assistant AI. I can lead you to the room. Kaysa, my counterpart helping Seraphine Bloodfallen, has decided that it is best not to rouse any lingering memories that might be guing the young miss Galia Schwartz, by reminding her of her time as a Joytoy. Please be aware that those memories have been blocked for the moment, to ensure nothing may trigger a severe psychological reaction. If you¡¯d follow me.¡± Mask eyed the drone for a moment, but then nodded and got up, following after As who led her to Galia. Another of her bodies, the one who had been exploring the brothel, slowly made her way over to sit down next to me, once again. ¡°Quite the interesting ce. So far I¡¯ve only seen the inside of a brothel online, and only of those a bit more high ss than this one. It is quite fascinating.¡± ¡°Oh? Interested in exploring more?¡± I asked with a smirk, ¡°I¡¯m not on the clock right now, but I think I can make some time for you in the next couple of days.¡± She shrugged, ¡°Intellectually, yes. But as ttering as the offer is, I¡¯ve never been interested in sexual encounters of any sort, nor do I think that it will change anytime soon.¡± ¡°Fair,¡± I said with a smallugh, ¡°Anyway. How long do you think things will take with Galia? I realise that shit like that isn¡¯t fixed in a week, hell, not even a month.¡± Magdalene frowned, ¡°So far I couldn¡¯t tell you. It will take a while until I have a better understanding on what exactly she needs, what exactly hurts her so much, and how we could go about fixing it. Years at the very least, you can¡¯t rush things like that and I would like to take things slow to give her opportunity to work through it all. It would also be helpful if she had anyone in her life that she could talk to about it all, someone disconnected from this entire thing. The little that your AI has sent me doesn¡¯t look good, considering that she seemed to be rather alone in general.¡± I sighed. Of course I had known that it wouldn¡¯t be easy. This would take time, even with proper help. But it didn¡¯t help the feeling of dread that creeped at the edge of my awareness about it all. It terrified me, really. That fear that I couldn¡¯t help and that it might not be enough. That I might end up in the same situation I found myself in a day ago. ¡°You should rx a little,¡± Magdalene said warmly, ¡°Even if it takes time, I do believe that we can find a way. It will be a very rough road to walk, and there will be setbacks, that much is to be expected. But unless she outright refuses any help there is hope.¡± ¡°Are you sure?¡± ¡°I can¡¯t ever be 100% sure, that would just invite disaster. All I can do is promise you that I¡¯ll do my best. That doesn¡¯t mean there is no room for recovery, however. People are very strange and very different. Once you find the right way to help someone there is hope.¡± I nodded at that, letting out a sigh. ¡°Okay¡­ Sorry, it¡¯s¡­ a lot. Especially after Sarah.¡± I grimaced at the memory. ¡°I understand,¡± Magdalene said with a genuine warmth in her tone, ¡°I¡¯ll probably bring her somewhere else, somewhere more removed from it all. She is confused and somece new might be helpful. It will be tricky, considering that I don¡¯t have much in terms of resources avable to me, but I¡¯ll manage.¡± ¡°If you need money,¡± Chloe said, ¡°Just ask. I have enough to help out and this sounds important. Put her somewhere safe andfortable.¡± ¡°Thank you. You are quite different from what I expected. A lot more generous than I am used to.¡± She regarded the two of us for a moment, then shook her head, ¡°I¡¯ll let you know when I find something. And Myriad, or rather, Seraphine, again if possible I¡¯d like to find some time to talk to you as well. Help you a little with all the things guing you. You might have been fine until now, but that won¡¯tst forever and could very easily go wrong.¡± ¡°Yes. And I appreciate the help. We can see if we can¡¯t find some time eventually, tomorrow I¡¯m not sure how much time I¡¯ll have, the day isn¡¯t over yet and there might still be someplications or things I have to deal with, once the rest of the people leave the shelter. The day after tomorrow I nned to take some clients if I can manage, and the day after that the whole Hive thing goes down.¡± ¡°You mentioned something along those lines. What exactly is it?¡± ¡°I can send you the details, we probably shouldn¡¯t discuss it here. Safe to say, you will be able to make some points, if you can find the time to join in.¡± As I spoke I did just that, sending her aplete list of all the details that I had myself. She took a moment to skim through it, then nodded. ¡°I think I will. My bodies can move around without issue, at least once the upgrade is done. It should be, by that point. Might be worth looking into.¡± I nodded at that, then waved over to the bartender for another drink. The discussion with Magdalene had me nervous and anxious about it all, and I could feel myself be restless. ¡°How exactly does your Hive work?¡± Magdalene¡¯s question surprised me for a moment, and I gave her a smile. It was very obvious she was trying to distract me, and I let her. For quite some time we discussed the differences in our respective approach to Hive-Minds, exchanging notes and experiences, and discussed how it impacted our personal lives. She was quite interested to hear about the simtion, even if I didn¡¯t go into that much detail, and how it helped Chloe and Jenna understand me. From her expression I was almost certain she¡¯d want to try that out herself some time, which I wasn¡¯t against. Maybe it would help with her ability to help my mental state. Eventually however she interrupted our discussion and switched the topic. ¡°For the moment I think I¡¯m done talking to Galia. From our talks I believe I have a good basic idea of how she feels about things, even if we haven¡¯t discussed anything in detail yet. That will take time and I¡¯ll probably need some assistance getting here somewhere else before I tackle the issue. Again, the best ce would be somewhere she isn¡¯t familiar with, to give her some breathing room to rx. It would allow me to take the time I need to begin properly going over things with her. While her home might be a ce for her to stay, it also runs the risk of dredging up bad memories,¡± she exined, looking thoughtful. ¡°She can stay at my ce for the time being. It¡¯s roomy, outside of town, well protected and cared for, and it would allow her some rxation. We¡¯re currently living in Jenna¡¯s Corvette, or at least that was the n, so my house is empty at the moment,¡± Chloe chimed in. I gave her a grateful nod, it did make sense and it would be good for Galia, at least I hoped. ¡°Very well. I might have a body remain there with her then, keep herpany and make sure she doesn¡¯t suffer any mental breaks. Thank you, Miss Vayne.¡± ¡°Please, call me Chloe.¡± After a little more discussion we decided that Magdalene would apany Galia to the house in our private shuttle. While I wanted to help more personally, she was right that seeing me might bring up bad memories or some kind of reaction, which really wouldn¡¯t be helpful. We said our goodbyes to Magdalene who led Galia through a back exit to the shuttle. Now left alone once more I sighed, rubbing my face. Today was a lot different than what I expected, but I was d that I checked in with the Rose Carpet. ¡°What to do next?¡± I asked, more to myself. ¡°We could take the rest of the day off? It¡¯ste already, so maybe rxing for the evening would be nice?¡± Jenna offered with a smile. ¡°Yeah. Tomorrow I¡¯d like to check in with the lure fiasco, see if we can¡¯t find anything. I have to admit I¡¯m worried about that.¡± Chloe looked thoughtful. ¡°Before we head out I think I¡¯ll hand out some things for the Joytoys,¡± I muttered, ¡°If only because I feel like I¡¯m not doing enough. And I know, things take time, but after visiting here¡­¡± I trailed off, not really sure how to put my thoughts into words. Today has been a bit of a roller coaster. I didn¡¯t regreting here, but I had to admit to myself that it was ying hell with my state of mind. There were too many issues I felt like I had to fix right now, even though I knew that wasn¡¯t possible. Once Castas and Tina finally arrived and took things in hand I would have to be patient. Chloe reached over, putting an arm around my shoulder. It did wonders to make me feel better and I leaned into her, just enjoying her presence. ¡°You could get some basic supplies to help out for rtively cheap,¡± Kaysa chimed in, appearing from wherever she had wandered off to earlier. ¡°It would help with some of the more intense cases of drug usage. You could also buy some items to help with contraception without too much cost.¡± ¡°Do it then¡­ Victor can see to the distribution. And after that I think it would be best if we left. While I¡¯m d that I took the time toe here, I don¡¯t think it¡¯s good for me right now. Too many things that trouble me.¡± ¡°Yes, that would be a good idea.¡± As Kaysa had said, the supplies weren¡¯t that expensive. After all my spending I was left with a bit under two thousand points, if I took into ount the points I had set aside for Magdalene, which was a lot less than I really wanted, but I didn¡¯t regret the points I spent today. We left the giant box with a few of the Joytoys that Victor had put in charge for the moment, then said our goodbyes and left. The trip itself was quiet, not helped by the rather ufortable shuttle we took, but in a way that helped. It forced me to think about other things. Once we arrived back at the Corvette and got out I felt a bit lost. This was the first time in a long time that I didn¡¯t know what to do with myself. We still had two days before the Hive expedition and I had no clue what I should do tomorrow. I kept the day free for any eventuality. Considering that there would be some people wrangling going on, with the relocation of all the folk still in the megashelter. Cheryl had sent us a message informing us about that, sometime during the day. She¡¯d be there, with a contingent of army personnel, but even that didn¡¯t help the lingering feeling of foreboding that I felt. I just hoped that things would go smoothly.
I have a Discord! Also, I''ve made a . If you wish to support me on my endavours, I''d appreciate it greatly! At the moment you can read five chapters ahead on ''A Joytoy''s journey to be a Hive-Queen''! Chapter 56 – Hive-Princess’ Business Trip Chapter 56 ¨C Hive-Princess¡¯ Business Trip ¡°It¡¯s almost a rite of passage, really. The moment you get selected to be a Samurai you¡¯ll have all the corps trying to rope you into the kind of shit nobody cares about. From merch, to game appearances, to movies, hell, some even sell your deep fake porn. It¡¯s not all bad, ¡®course, maybe there are some corps you wanna work with, but you gotta be careful, y¡¯know? Pick the wrong one and you might end up an indentured servant for life.¡± - Samurai ¡®Ben 12¡¯ in an interview with ¡®Samuraiz¡¯, 2053 ¡°What do you wanna eat today?¡± Chloe asked as we made our way back to the leisure room. ¡°Not sure, to be honest,¡± I replied, a bit lost in thought. ¡°Let¡¯s make pizza. Proper pizza.¡± The way Jenna said it it sounded almost like a demand and I had to giggle at her tone despite myself. ¡°Sure, we can do that. I can get everything set up,¡± Chloe agreed readily, bee-lining it towards the kitchen corner. I was left a bit lost in the entrance to the leisure room, not sure exactly what to do with myself. I was still stuck in my head thinking about the brothel and all the other things I had to keep in mind, not really able to rx. ¡°How about we take a dip in the pool?¡± Jenna asked me with a smile, finally ripping me out of my thoughts. ¡°Sure, that sounds like fun.¡± Hopefully a bit of hot water would finally get me out of my funk. And I had to admit that I looked forward to spending some time with Jenna in the jacuzzi. There were the stray dirty thoughts, but despite my rather high libido, for once they weren¡¯t at the forefront of my mind. ¡°Have fun. I¡¯ll take a while since I wanna do this properly,¡± Chloe said while going through the cabs and pulling out kitchen utensils and ingredients. ¡°Self-made dough and all, this will be a pizza unlike any you ever ate before.¡± Her excitement was obvious, and I let it infect me. Watching her work was adorable and it reminded me once more just how much I loved her. If I¡¯d had to spend the rest of my life just watching her work, I could die a happy woman. ¡°Looking forward to it,¡± Jenna said with a smile, then slowly made her way over to the transparent door leading to the pool. I followed a moment after, taking a deep breath and letting the normalcy bring me back to reality. Once we arrived at the pool, Jenna began to undress. She was a bit shy about it, but not in an embarrassed way, instead it felt like she simply wanted some modesty, which I could respect. She did look damn good though and I was distracted by that for a moment, before I finally joined her in the hot water. It was an incredibly nice feeling and I let out a content sigh, simply enjoying it for a long moment. At the moment the room was set to disy a sort of nature reserve with a lot of green around us, something you¡¯d never find anywhere unless you visited these really expensive parks catering to the rich and powerful. ¡°This is nice¡­¡± I muttered, closing my eyes and just letting the hot water wash away my worries. ¡°It really is¡­¡± Jenna agreed. Then I yelped, when bubbles suddenly started to appear, making both Jenna and meugh. ¡°You could have warned me,¡± I said in a mock-usatory tone. ¡°I could have,¡± she admitted shamelessly. ¡°Then why didn¡¯t you?¡± I teased. ¡°Because I like to be evil sometimes?¡± Jenna replied with a teasing tone to her voice and a smirk that underlined the glimmer in her eyes. ¡°How devious,¡± I replied with a sultry voice, then settled back into the poolfortably and closed my eyes again to enjoy the feeling of the bubbles around me. We spend a good while infortable silence, just enjoying the bubble bath and rxing. It helped me tremendously and I could even feel myself slowly drift off into a dreamy drowsiness, mind upied by watching the chorus work absently. Ever since the simtion, we had gotten a much better understanding of how we could converse mentally with one another, without interrupting anyone else. It was less about keeping secrets, since we all knew what the rest knew, but it made it all a bit more organised and quiet, something I could appreciate. It also showed us just how much we still had to learn when it came to being a Hive-Mind, lessons we eagerly explored. There was a lot of nuance to the organisation of a Hive-Mind, much more than just having dedicated roles and tasks. And some of those lessons and exercises paid off when the door suddenly opened and three of Us walked in. I hadn¡¯t even noticed theming, which meant we had at least made some headway in acting a bit more independently from each other. Of course, it also helped that I had only watched them absently, not really focusing on what exactly was going on in detail. If I focused on things, I could easily observe the others without any trouble; we were one, a whole working together as Myriad. Still, I was a bit surprised and I opened my eyes, turning to the group. The first was Myriad, the Hive-Princess, while the others were two of the drones that Myriad had set aside to act as our personal attendants. That group specifically had evolved a lot in thest day, taking great pains to ensure they knew how to understand people even outside of our Hive, and to expect certain demands or requirements. There were eight in total and each of them had done double duty to find ways in which they could best help the whole. In their case, they all were part of the Philosophers and the Burdened, making sure to keep a close eye on anything important. ¡°I hope we are not intruding,¡± Myriad said with a shallow bow. ¡°Of course not,¡± Jenna said with a smile, ¡°Anything you need?¡± ¡°In a manner of sspeaking. Let uss begin with introductionss. Thesse are Joenna and Keity, two of the perssonal attendantss that are tassked with looking after Our Queen and, of coursse, you and Knight Chloe.¡± She waved at the two of Us in turn, each giving a small bow. ¡°Additionally, I am here to inform both of you that I have decided upon a new name. After our disscussionss I have ssettled on Junior. It wass a rmendation from Kayssa, one that I happen to like.¡± She gave a small bow of her own. ¡°Lasstly, there are ssome developmentss that I wish to inform you about. Primarily a ssmall group near the Rosse Carpet who sseemss dessperate to sspeak to Our Queen. They have not yet made any trouble, which is why I decided to inform you in persson. That ssaid, they might sstart trouble, sso we should not wait for too long. My Queen, I wish to travel to the Rosse Carpet to deal with the ssituation perssonally, if that iss permissible.¡± Quickly diving into the chorus and checking on things myself, I saw what she was talking about. From the looks of things some corpo goons had rushed to the Rose Carpet, probably after being informed that we were present. Somehow we had missed them, not that I was sad about it. I wasn¡¯t sure what they were hoping to aplish¨Cif I¡¯d have to guess, probably trying to rope Us into some kind of contract or another. I also figured out what Junior nned on doing, which I approved of, obviously. She had obviously put a lot of thought into things and I was very pleasantly surprised by how much she appeared to have learned from our incursion in the simtion. The way she had reorganised our Hive was very much in line with what I could remember seeing in the Devourer of World, although with some very clear differences focused on making sure we didn¡¯t lose our way. Nodding, I emerged once more from the chorus, focusing on the here and now. ¡°Of course. Good work, by the way, I like the way you thought about the Hive. I should probably pay more attention to that as well, it feels like I¡¯m a bit behind.¡± ¡°It iss of no conssequence, my Queen,¡± Junior said with a formal smile. ¡°We all are troubled, we jusst have different wayss of dealing with it. It iss my duty to organisse the Hive while you are preupied, sso do not feel bad about not paying attention.¡± I nodded again, then turned to Jenna. ¡°Could you maybe prep a shuttle or two for Junior and her contingent?¡± Jenna giggled at that, ¡°Sure. You can use the personal shuttle and I¡¯ll have the two armored shuttles on standby for you to use. That said, you do know that you can ask Evelyn directly, right? No need to pass it by me.¡± ¡°Thanks, Jenna,¡± I said with a warm smile, then turned to Junior. ¡°I¡¯ll trust you to handle this how you see fit. Might also be worthwhile to step up the training regiment, just in case.¡± ¡°It will be taken care of, my Queen.¡± Junior bowed again, then she turned to leave. ¡°Isn¡¯t it strange?¡± Jenna asked after she left, following Junior with her gaze. ¡°Talking to yourself like that, I mean. From my experience in the simtion, it¡¯d be a lot quicker to just sort it out mentally, no?¡± ¡°Yes, Lady Jenna,¡± Joenna cut in with a warm smile. I hadn¡¯t missed the fact that her name was damn close to Jenna¡¯s, which was quite amusing. ¡°But we also quite like to converse normally, especially after the simtion. In a way it is what makes us unique, but it also serves as a reminder, both to others and ourselves, that we are not like the Devourer of Worlds. We are Myriad.¡± Jenna nodded at that approvingly, ¡°Good. I¡¯m d that you could learn so much from that.¡± ¡°Oh, we¡¯ve learned a lot,¡± I said, once more leaning back, ¡°I just haven¡¯t really been paying much attention. We are one, we are the chorus, but after the simtion we have also learned how much we have yet to learn. To know how to organise things, without bothering those who aren¡¯t directly affected, is a skill that we probably should have thought about sooner. It doesn¡¯t mean that anyone can keep secrets or something, we are still one, but it makes the chorus more organised and more quiet.¡± ¡°Oh?¡± Jenna seemed genuinely interested. ¡°Might be worthwhile to return to the simtion then. I¡¯m curious to see how that would change anything.¡± ¡°It¡¯s a bit like the Devourer of Worlds, really, just with different priorities. We don¡¯t want to be like that, but it¡¯s a very old Hive and one we can learn a lot from.¡± ¡°I hadn¡¯t noticed any differences.¡± ¡°Probably because you aren¡¯t an actual Hive-Mind. The things that stood out to Us are minor things, not really that obvious. But they add up and once you actually incorporate them it makes it all so much easier. In a way that is the strength of a Gestalt type Hive-Mind, like we are. We can act independently to a degree and separate the workload much easier. I¡¯d imagine that Mask would see things very differently, she very likely couldn¡¯t incorporate any of these things into her own day to day. Of course, there is also the fact that we have a Hive-Princess. Junior is rather important in our hierarchy and she¡¯s the one who did most of the work.¡± Jenna nodded at my words, seemingly able to follow the logic without much trouble. It probably helped quite a lot that she had experienced being a Hive-Mind. ¡°I can see that. Any idea of what these folk want from you?¡± I shrugged at that, ¡°They¡¯re corpo goons, probably want to get Us into some contract or whatnot. Not sure, don¡¯t particrly care either. Junior will deal with them.¡± The shuttles had been loaded quite quickly. I already had my contingent waiting by the time Knight Jenna had prepared the shuttles for our use, so it only took a minute or so to load up and head out. Of course, we only brought a token force. This was, in broad terms, a diplomatic mission, not a show of force. That said, I did think it beneficial for Us to appear as apetent adversary, diplomatically speaking. We weren¡¯t a diplomatic mastermind by any stretch of the imagination, something that I would like to remedy in the future with specific training courses, but so far we hadn¡¯t obtained any yet, so we had to make due with the politics we knew. Those being gang politics of course, which meant bringing the biggest guns to any negotiation. Our Queen had used a simr strategy in our dealings with Red Crows and Purple Haze, and while the adversary this time around was more trained in the ways of politics, we had the benefit of being Samurai, which was already a quite potent trump card. I had also requested the help of Kaysa. While I typically didn¡¯t deal directly with the AI that was assisting Our Queen, for this I wanted someone more knowledgeable on my side to help me with any potential issues. Sitting in the cockpit of Knight Jenna¡¯s personal shuttle, I observed the city below while we made our way back to the Rose Carpet. Even from afar I could see multiple expensive looking vehicles parked nearby, a group of people surrounding each. Our scouts had observed their arrival shortly after we had left previously and Kaysa had been so kind to inform Us about the identity of the people present. Most of them represented some corporation or another, although there was one group that was working for the Family branch in New Savannah, as well as one group that seemed to be from another gang not far from the redlight district. They were quite easy to identify, since they were surrounding the one car that seemed to fit in with the rest of their surroundings. It was also the one group everyone seemed to eye suspiciously. But they hadn¡¯t made any trouble and had even informed Red Crows of their ns to meet Us, before entering the territory. That spoke of someone who knew how business was conducted around here and earned them some points in my eyes. When our shuttles closed in, everyone turned to observe Us, which was to be expected. We settled down a bit further down the street, the shuttles being too big to settle down next to the parking cars. Getting up I nodded to Myra and Sienna, the two attendants that had apanied me. The Queen¡¯s Guard would have been preferable, of course, as a show of force, however, pulling them away from their duty was not something we even considered. Their duty was the safety of Our Queen, and that was by far our highest priority. Upon exiting the shuttle all eyes were on the three of Us, slowly making our way over to the entrance of the Rose Carpet. We were careful to appear powerful, but not aggressive, even if it might have been a lost hope, considering the contingent of War Drones exiting the shuttles behind Us. I paid close attention to the people around and their reaction to Us. Not few didn¡¯t hide their disdain or suspicion, letting me know that they were either not well trained or not high up the corporatedder. An interesting, but ultimately useless, observation. Finally we arrived in front of the Rose Carpet, the War Drones taking position on either side of the entrance. They stood at attention, but didn¡¯t make any obvious moves to indicate aggression orbat readiness. A formality, of course, but an important one. ¡°I am Junior, Hive-Princesss and repressentitive of Myriad,¡± I said calmly, letting my gaze roam around the group of people. I paid close attention to their heart rate and bodynguage, good indicators for their opinion on Us. As I had expected, they didn¡¯t seem to take my gaze very well. Not a surprise, our eyes were strange by human standards. It was amusing to watch them squirm, however, even if I pushed that down in favour of more important considerations. ¡°We have obsserved your arrival after our departure and have been ssent to disscusss bussinesss. Pleasse, if you would be sso kind ass to follow Uss.¡± With a gesture I motioned them towards the entrance, inviting them to join in. It might be a bit heavy handed of Us to barge into the general business of the brothel like this, but we had already informed Victor of the development. Not to mention that we didn¡¯t want to discuss any business out in the open street. He had been so kind to set a room aside for Us to entertain our guests in. I didn¡¯t doubt that he would also use this to promote his own business, which meant a mutually beneficial arrangement that I couldn¡¯t begrudge him in the slightest. Of course there was a lot of hesitation, many of the representatives unsure if they should follow our invitation or not. At least from the less experienced ones. The only group who didn¡¯t hesitate at all was the gang that hade to talk to Us, slowly making their way over. Their leader, a man I would guess to be in histe twenties, gave me a polite nod, then walked inside. His guards remained at the entrance, taking position next to our War Drones. The fact that they did so without any obvious reaction did mean that they were probably quite experienced. Two of the groups I had gged as being more experienced, at least if their demeanour and bodynguage was anything to go by, quickly followed the example. They gave me a smile that didn¡¯t quite reach their eyes, before they followed the invitation with a few words of polite gratitude. Only then did the rest move, giving each other some suspicious nces, before giving me some polite words as well as they walked inside. Only then did I follow myself, Myra already having gone ahead to lead our guests to the room we would have our meeting in. Sienna followed after me and once I had entered the room she closed the door, taking position next to it, while Myra pulled out a chair for me. With a polite, thankful nod in her direction I sat down, observing the others who were also getting seated. After everyone had made themselvesfortable, and a pair of Joytoys in rather revealing clothes had brought some refreshments that nobody but the gang group seemed to touch, I spoke up. ¡°Onto bussinesss, shall we? Let uss sstart with proper introductionss. Ass I ssaid, I am Junior. It iss my tassk to overssee and organisse the Hive-Mind that makess up Myriad. With me are Ssienna and Myra. Jusst to be very clear and to avoid any missundersstandingss, through Uss Our Queen can participate in thiss meeting, ass we are one. We are Myriad, sso deal with uss the ssame way that you would with Our Queen.¡± The reactions to this were mixed, especially when the three of Us talked as one to hammer home the point. Some seemed outwardly unbothered, while some, most often members of the entourage each representative had brought, seemed less inclined to believe my words. Or maybe they simply couldn¡¯t understand what it meant, exactly. Not that I would take the time toy it out in detail for them. ¡°Who would like to go firsst?¡± I asked after a moment of silence. I wasn¡¯t about to try and organise the order in which they wanted to present whatever business proposition each of them had for Us. Really, the only reason I took the time out of my day to even entertain them, was as an opportunity for learning and because Our Queen wanted to build a certain image for Us. Open to discussion, but very specific in our dealings. After another moment of silence one of the two more experienced representatives spoke up. He was a handsome man around thirty if I would have to guess. Kaysa had given me detailed profiles for each, but I didn¡¯t bother checking them that thoroughly. It was one thing to get a basic overview of who each of them was, and what they wanted; it was something entirely different to study their entire recorded history. That would just be wasted time. ¡°As it appears nobody else wishes to speak up first, let me start off this meeting. Before I start I would like to express my gratitude for epting my impromptu request for a meeting. I would wager that most of the people present feel very simr.¡± He gave me a friendly smile, although one that was obviously the HR kind of friendly. I didn¡¯t miss the way he painted himself as the spokesperson for the entire group, even though they had no connections to each other as a whole. I was unsure if that was because he wanted to appear as the gracious kind of person willing and eager to cooperate, if it was a powery in regards to the other corporations that had sent representatives, or simply because it was a personal preference. To be entirely honest, I didn¡¯t care either way. ¡°My name is Sebastion Naomir and I represent the New Savannah branch of Nimbletainment Incorporated. We would like to inquire if Myriad might be willing to entertain the idea of entering into a contract with Nimbletainment Incorporated regarding rights to her likeness and merchandise. Of course she could gain substantially from such an arrangement, both through cuts of the profits of any merchandise sales, as well as what ourpany can offer in benefits.¡± The way he talked made me regard him with a bit of displeasure. As much as he tried to paint himself as this benefactor, the fact that he seemed to entirely ignore my earlierment painted him as someone who didn¡¯t listen. ¡°Rejected.¡± I said after a moment, not borating further. ¡°Miss Junior, I assure you that such a contract would only help Myriad greatly-¡± With a wave of my hand I cut him off. ¡°Misster Naomir, the way you addresss me alone iss indication that you did not even pay attention to my wordss. We are Myriad. We are one. For easse ofmunication with otherss we have adopted namess so that we could be referred to. That ssaid, I informed you of our connection with Myriad, yet you sseem to think that we are ssimply repressentitivess ssent to lissten to your sself ssatissfied babbel. Unlesss you ept that dealing with Myriad meanss dealing with uss, any further disscusssion is moot.¡± I shook my head in a show of disapproval. ¡°In addition the sservicess you wish to ssell uss are not the kind of sservicess we are interessted in. Should we decide to enter the merchandisse market under Nimbletainment Incorporated, then we will contact you, not the other way around. Good day.¡± Sebastian seemed to maul over that for a moment, obviously displeased by the development. For a moment I even thought he might try to bully his way through somehow, but instead he simply nodded and got up. ¡°I see. Then I apologise for the rudeness I have shown. Should you change your mind I am certain you can find a way to contact me. Nimbletaintment Incorporated is always open to cooperation with Myriad or any other Samurai who wishes to do business with us.¡± I gave him a polite nod, a simple acknowledgement of his words, and with a polite farewell he left, hisckeys following after him. Sienna showed them out, while I turned my attention back to the group still seated. Truth be told, I was a bit surprised how well he took the rejection and how quickly he acquiesced. The exact reasons didn¡¯t matter to me, but I had to admit to a certain level of suspicion. Nimbletainment was not apany to be trifled with. Something to keep in mind for the future. ¡°Who wishess to go next?¡±
I have a Discord! Also, I''ve made a . If you wish to support me on my endavours, I''d appreciate it greatly! At the moment you can read five chapters ahead on ''A Joytoy''s journey to be a Hive-Queen''! Chapter 57 – Sailing the Seven Seas Chapter 57 ¨C Sailing the Seven Seas ¡°If I see just one more post shipping me with some random idiot, I¡¯m going to find out where the fuck you live and I will fucking blow you into pieces. You hear me?!¡± - Blood Widow under a post discussing Samurai ships As I had expected, the rest of the meeting went much like the beginning. Various groups tried to sell Us on the benefits and whatnot that our cooperation with them could get Us, from mary benefits to entric gs and the like. I was slightly surprised that only two of them were representing corporations with a hand in the pornography market. I would have expected them to be all over Us, s they seemed to be the exception. The Family group was the most interesting out of all of them, considering that they were the only ones not trying to sell Us on anything. Instead they simply invited Us to join their little club,ying out the perks of doing so, but without a direct sales pitch. I wasn¡¯t quite sure what to think about that. The rest of Us was a bit divided, some seeing the logic in joining, others feeling like it was too much of a hindrance. After some moments of extensive internal debate, we decided to send them on their merry way for now. Should we decide to join, we could. Otherwise we wouldn¡¯t, simple as that. Outside of them, there were only two offers I did take more seriously. The first was from one of the corporations dealing in porn, specifically the more esoteric fetishes. While the representative was not one I could personally find very likeable, the offer she did bring before Us was rather enticing. In effect it would just be an extension of Our Queen¡¯s job as a Joytoy. I noted it down to present it to Our Queenter, sending the representative on her merry way with a few polite words. The other offer was one I had not expected. It was from a corporation called QuantumCore Dynamics, apparently a well known yer in cyberspace technologies and cybeic enhancements. Their representative was a person I found very easily likeable, a man who seemed to know exactly how to interact with Us and who was very aware that he was not the one with all the power. It made him very personable, most likely the reason he was sent to Us in the first ce. Regardless, his offer was one that I found the most enticing out of all of them. QuantumCore Dynamics had multiple different departments for various technological foci, and they were very interested in the Hard-Light Technologies that Our Queen had ess to. They wanted our help in perfecting their own production, and quality testing, regarding such technology and offered not only more than reasonable mary recuperation, but also the opportunity for Us to learn more about various other technologies they were working on. It made me a bit cautious, as it seemed like they knew about our ability to adapt, but they didn¡¯t seem to have any obvious ns of exploiting Us. I had Kaysa check them out for a moment, just to be sure, but she couldn¡¯t find anything untowards. That wasn¡¯t perfect proof, of course, her reach was limited by the ess we had through our own technology, but I trusted her assessment. He was the only person I exchanged direct contacts with, promising that we would get in touch once we had time to convene over the offer. After all the corporate offers were dealt with, I was left alone with the representative of zing Inferno, who had so far sat back quietly; the only one without an entourage to apany him inside. ¡°zing Inferno,¡± I said, giving him a once over. He didn¡¯t react at all to the way I regarded him, nor did he seem to be bothered by my inhuman eyes. The others all had some reaction to them, even if most of them hid it well, he didn¡¯t seem to be bothered at all by them, which was a bit amusing. ¡°Why exactly did youe to Uss?¡± Finally he nodded, sitting up straighter. ¡°Pretty simple. First off, I¡¯m Jensen. My job is organisin¡¯ stuff on the street level. In a way you can say I¡¯m the right hand of the right hand of the boss. Your presence did make us a bit wary so we checked things. I don¡¯t think I¡¯m revealin¡¯ any secrets when I tell you that we have people all over neighbouring districts, much like most other gangs do. Keep an eye on things, y¡¯know.¡± I nodded at that, that wasn¡¯t a stretch. While their agents wouldn¡¯t be the same quality as corps could manage, we were pretty sure everyone had some eyes in the other groups. ¡°Alright, so we know about some kind o¡¯ deal you struck with Red Crows and Crimson Rose. Not sure exactly what that looks like, but we want in. We¡¯re not far from the redlight district, so it¡¯s not like you gotta extend over half the city or somethin¡¯. Question now is what you want in return and what you expect of us in specific. To put all cards on the table, we want to get your protection. It ain¡¯t no secret that you took the redlight district under your wing. And while we can¡¯t expect the exact same kind o¡¯ treatment, ¡®course, we wanna make sure that nobody can juste in an¡¯ fuck with us, you understand?¡± ¡°I do. And it doess ssound like a reassonable thing to assk from your end. A new yer jusst emerged, one much more powerful than you could ever even hope to meassure yoursself againsst. It would be sstranger if you wouldn¡¯t try to get out of our line of fire, sso to ssay.¡± ¡°Exactly. We don¡¯t want no bother with you. Nor with the Crows or Rose. But we also don¡¯t know yet what the yin¡¯ field looks like. And if we can get in with you, then we can be sure we won¡¯t have to worry ¡®bout the redlight district in the future.¡± Again I nodded, he seemed like a smart man, or at least he was briefed well, which spoke to apetent boss. ¡°The deal we have iss rtively ssimple. Red Crowss iss in charge of the redlight disstrict. Crimsson Rosse iss in charge of the brothelss. Purple Haze helpss Casstass and his Crowss to keep everyone ssecure and to navigate the drug trade. That iss one of the main pointss Our Queen purssuess in thiss disstrict. While drugss will not be ouwed, there will be some changess in how that trade will be purssued. If you wish to enter into the deal it would make ssensse for you to contact Casstass and Tina. We guarantee the ssafety of the redlight disstrict and thosse operating within. Other than that, we do not interfere.¡± He nodded, thinking for a moment. ¡°Good to know. That means we don¡¯t have much to offer directly. Are there any other things we could offer to end up with a simr deal?¡± That made me think for a moment, perusing the knowledge the Burdened had curated and discussing things with the chorus. There were some things that could indirectly be beneficial, but we didn¡¯t know enough about in what zing Inferno dealt with. ¡°What bussinesssess are you purssuing?¡± ¡°Bit of this an¡¯ that. Mostly scavengin¡¯ an¡¯ the like, helpin¡¯ out a bit in the undercity an¡¯ such. We got some drugs goin¡¯, sure, we got a couple of brothels, but that¡¯s all in private hand, not our own. Old factories doin¡¯ some production shit, whatever is needed. Exportin¡¯ some shit into Inner City an¡¯ its underworld¡­ We don¡¯t really have that one kind o¡¯ business we deal in, just a lot of smaller shit. Helps that there is littlepetition within the district, mostly have to worry about groups tryna get in from outside.¡± ¡°Sscavenging?¡± He nodded, leaning back and crossing his arms in front of him, ¡°Yeah. Mostly old production sites that are left behind, rebuildin¡¯ them an¡¯ the like. Scrap what ain¡¯t workin¡¯ no more an¡¯ build new shit for others to buy from us. We got heaps o¡¯ rubble we can¡¯t use, but nobody to take off our hands, so we just tryna use it for whatever.¡± ¡°Then perhapss you wish to contact Legion on thiss matter. She iss trying to ssetup production facilitiess. From what we undersstand she can make usse of mosst sscrap.¡± His eyebrows rose. ¡°An¡¯ she¡¯d be willin¡¯ to hear us out?¡± ¡°Yess, I believe sso. If you wish we can put the matter to her, assk her opinion. She will get into contact with you then.¡± ¡°Please do. Not gonna lie, didn¡¯t expect that. But I ain¡¯tinin¡¯. So long we got a deal, we can work with it either way. Thanks, Myriad.¡± ¡°It iss of no conssequence. Now then, iss there anything elsse or can we conclude thiss meeting?¡± He shook his head, ¡°I ain¡¯t got nothin¡¯ else.¡± I nodded in reply and got up, Jensen doing the same a momentter. ¡°We will be in contact. Pleasse let your bosss know that we are not averssed to cooperation in the future if you continue to dissy ssuch circumsspect viewss.¡± ¡°d to hear. I¡¯ll let her know.¡± ¡°Okay, it¡¯s decided. We want your pizza for the rest of our life. The chorus has spoken,¡± I muttered, sitting at the table, holding my stuffed stomach. Chloe¡¯s cooking was illegally good. I had eaten much more than I ever thought I could, but it was just too good to pass up. Okay, most of that was because it was the first actually well prepared meal I had in, fuck, ten years? Not the cheap shit that you¡¯d buy at the corner stores or order online. The point stood, though. ¡°I don¡¯t think that diet would be healthy,¡± the cook in question said with augh. ¡°Absolutely no fucks given.¡± ¡°Didn¡¯t you say you wanted to change to a more healthy lifestyle?¡± Jenna asked with a bit of a teasing voice, even if she held herself just as I did, having eaten way too much. ¡°Nope. I said I¡¯d dial down the drugs, nothing about the food. That was yourment.¡± There was a moment of silence and we exchanged nces, before we broke out inughter. ¡°What should we do with the rest of the day?¡± Jenna asked once we had calmed down, leaning back into her chair with a content smile. Joenna and Keity started to clean up the table and the dishes, moving with a quick, but sensual gait. They were obviously trying very hard to fulfil the pretty attendant role, which they did manage quite well in my opinion. An opinion Jenna shared, considering the way she looked at them. Chloe was a bit less overt, but even she couldn¡¯t pull her eyes away entirely. ¡°No clue,¡± I replied, ¡°I don¡¯t have much free time typically, the little I do have I normally spend with Sharon or Tina, maybe alone.¡± ¡°We could watch a movie?¡± Jenna offered, finally averting her gaze from Joenna¡¯s figure and looking between Chloe and me, ¡°Cleopatra can probably upload some for Evelyn.¡± ¡°Hm¡­ That sounds nice¡­¡± Chloe muttered, closing her own eyes in contentment. ¡°Never was one for watching movies, although that¡¯s mainly because I very rarely got the chance to. And those that we did watch were all porn of some variety or another. Not sure what¡¯s good,¡± I said with a shrug, ¡°But I don¡¯t mind. Sounds like fun.¡± ¡°Yeah, no porn,¡± Chloe muttered, ¡°That is not the type of thing you watch over a rxed evening on the couch.¡± I chuckled at that, Keity and Joenna following suit. ¡°You obviously never spent a night on the couch with Sharon.¡± ¡°From yourment I¡¯m not sure I want to,¡± Chloe replied, although she did blush faintly. ¡°We could also y some games,¡± Jenna chimed in, ¡°I¡¯ve seen some interesting board games in old forums. Not quite modern stuff, sure, but they looked fun. Of course there¡¯s also video games if you want, getting the consoles is only a couple of points.¡± ¡°I think I tried like¡­ one video game in my life,¡± I ventured, a little thoughtful, ¡°Can¡¯t remember the title for the life of me. Was some weird racing game with very skimpily dressed women all over.¡± ¡°Isn¡¯t that like every racing game released in thest thirty years?¡± Jenna asked with a smirk and I stuck my tongue out at her. ¡°Eh, not too big of a gamer,¡± Chloe threw in, ¡°I don¡¯t mind a gaming session every once in a while, but it¡¯s not really my style. Although there was this game that I wanted to try for quite a long time. Some game about hunting monsters or some such. One of those rare ones that have very little ads in them. At least, that was what Ist heard about it, could¡¯ve changed.¡± A moment of long, content silence filled the room. ¡°How is having free time this hard,¡± Iined, ¡°For once we have some time off, and we can¡¯t even decide on what to do.¡± ¡°We¡¯re the elite now,¡± Chloe sighed, ¡°Lots of free time, no job consuming us every waking minute¡­¡± With a chuckle I got up, feeling at least fifty pounds heavier after the meal, and made my way over to the bar. Before I could even say anything, or make my way behind the counter, another of my attendants appeared from the door leading to the pool and made her way over with a quick but sensual sashay. She smiled at me knowingly, then quickly began mixing a drink for me, making me chuckle. ¡°You take your job seriously, huh?¡± I observed as I sat down on one of the bar stools. ¡°Of course, my Queen. We got that from you, if you remember,¡± she replied with a sweet smile. ¡°Well then, Celine, I¡¯m ready for a drink and a smoke,¡± I said with a smile of my own, watching her work. ¡°Coming right up.¡± ¡°Make me one too, if you¡¯d be so kind,¡± Jenna said as she got up, slowlying trundling over. It didn¡¯t take long until Celine was done. While I was never especially good at mixing drinks, I did have to do so every once in a while for a client. And of course the rest of Us had inherited that knowledge. Celine ced the drink in front of me, a joint appearing next to it with a fancy bit of sleight of hand. That wasn¡¯t something I had used in ages, although during my gang time I had learned how to make things vanish and appear seemingly out of thin air, which was a required skill for anyone on the street. If you couldn¡¯t hide it well all your possessions would be gone in a heartbeat. Chuckling at the call back to the olden times I picked up the drink and took a sip. It was just as I liked it; impossibly sweet with just the right amount of kick behind it. cing the ss down again I picked up the joint, finding a lighter and an ashtray in front of me a momentter. With an amused nce at Celine I picked up the lighter and lit my joint, taking a few deep pulls. ¡°I don¡¯t think I¡¯ve seen that in years.¡± ¡°Always useful,¡± she told me with a smirk, then turned to Jenna. ¡°What can I get you?¡± ¡°I could go for something bitter right now, I think.¡± ¡°Coming right up.¡± Taking another pull from the joint, I handed it to Jenna with a questioning nce. She hesitated but then took it, taking a pull of her own. ¡°So, movieter then?¡± I asked, taking another sip from my drink. ¡°Yup,¡± Chloe agreed, also getting up and making her way over. ¡°Not sure which one yet, but I bet we can find something.¡± ¡°Oh, we can watch these really bad Samurai romance flicks!¡± Jenna eximed, an amused gleam in her eyes. ¡°Gods, no!¡± Chloe replied almost instantly, ¡°If you wanna watch a romance, watch a proper one. Not that shit.¡± ¡°What, don¡¯t like Samurai romances?¡± Jenna teased. Chloe blushed slightly, then shook her head, ¡°It¡¯s not the Samurai bit that sucks. It¡¯s the fact that it¡¯s so over the top. Have you seen that one with Sideswipe? You could practically see how bored out of his mind he was! And the constant bad action scenes, likee one! It can¡¯t be that hard to do them right.¡± ¡°I have not in fact seen that one, but I think I know what we will be watchingter.¡± Jenna¡¯s smirk was unrelenting. ¡°I hate you sometimes.¡± ¡°I love you too.¡± ¡°Should I leave the room? Or do you want me to watch?¡± I threw in with a smirk. ¡°Oh, definitely stay and watch,¡± Jenna said immediately, nodding sagely, ¡°I think Chloe could use an expert¡¯s opinion on things.¡± ¡°Weren¡¯t you a Joytoy too?¡± Chloe sniped back, even though she couldn¡¯t hide her blush. ¡°Yes, but I have nothing on Seraphine. Have you seen her statistics?¡± ¡°She has,¡± I threw in, not looking at her, ¡°She booked me, remember? I¡¯m pretty sure Vic still has all the numbers on the page.¡± ¡°You two are insufferable.¡± ¡°Hey, I wasn¡¯t the one bringing it up,¡± Jenna defended herself with a smile audible in her voice. ¡°No, but you were the one who brought up the Samurai romances,¡± I countered. ¡°Which side are you on?¡± Jenna asked me in mock shock. ¡°My own? I thought that was clear.¡± ¡°Celine, I need something strong. Otherwise I don¡¯t think I can survive the evening,¡± Chloe muttered as she sat down next to me. ¡°Oh, I have something for that. Do you prefer Shiver or something weaker?¡± Celine joined in unabashedly. Jenna and Iughed out loud, while Chloe put her face into her hands, her voice full of mock-exasperation. ¡°Surrounded by lunatics¡­¡± ¡°Wasn¡¯t that obvious from the get go? We¡¯re Samurai, I¡¯m pretty sure that¡¯s in the job description.¡± I said, bumping into her from the side with a good natured smile. Then my nanite amulet came to life and a momentter a perfect clone of myself in my Samurai gear appeared next to Celine. ¡°To be clear,¡± Kaysa said in a mock-lecturing tone, ¡°Being a loon is not in the job description. But there does seem to be a statistical connection between those that are considered loons and Samurai. It¡¯s an ongoing investigation.¡± ¡°You too?¡± Chloe groaned, ¡°Is there anyone normal around here?¡± ¡°Actually, ording to online polls you are the supposed normal one. It¡¯s why your ships are rather low ranked,¡± Jenna said, leaning over and patting Chloe¡¯s arm. ¡°No worries though, you never had a chance to begin with, considering that Seraphine is in the running.¡± ¡°Ships?¡± Chloe asked, her expression and tone stating very clearly that she wasn¡¯t sure she wanted to know the answer. ¡°Oh yeah, that¡¯s a whole thing. Shipping Samurai has be something of a sport, really. Right now the pairing of Seraphine and I is in the lead, although that¡¯s only if you look between the three of us. If we look on a broader spectrum it¡¯s actually Seraphine and a Samurai called Brood Queen from Cgry. Not sure why, exactly, from what I could find on her she didn¡¯t seem the type. Maybe it¡¯s because they both have this Hive Queen thing going?¡± ¡°Wait, you¡¯re actively following that?¡± I asked, unable to hide my amusement. ¡°Sure, I¡¯m subscribed to several blogs. It¡¯s fun to read about all the insane things people think about. Oh, by the by, Chloe¡¯s most popr ship right now is with a guy called Speed Demon. Not quite sure about him, there isn¡¯t much I could dredge up. And while I say most popr, that really doesn¡¯t mean much. Not sure if you¡¯re just too normal in the eyes of people, but there really aren¡¯t a lot of them going about.¡± Again Chloe groaned. ¡°What about you then?¡± I asked with a bit of a teasing smirk. ¡°Well, that¡¯s kind ofplicated. There is this one ship with Bahamut that seems really popr, but my most popr ship is with this Samurai called ¡®the Witch of the West¡¯. Not really sure why, but hey. From the little I found she sounds nice enough. And she¡¯s damn hot, so I won¡¯tin.¡± ¡°Can we watch the movie yet?¡± Chloeined, although her tone made it clear that she wasn¡¯t actually seriously mad about the conversation. ¡°Sure. We can watch that Sideswipe romance!¡± Jenna eximed happily. Chloe turned and gave her a deathre. ¡°I¡¯ll fucking kill you.¡±
I have a Discord! Also, I''ve made a . If you wish to support me on my endavours, I''d appreciate it greatly! At the moment you can read five chapters ahead on ''A Joytoy''s journey to be a Hive-Queen''! Chapter 58 – A rude awakening, or: You never want to piss of a Hive-Mind Chapter 58 ¨C A rude awakening, or: You never want to piss of a Hive-Mind ¡°Gangs are a bit of a weird thing, I feel. Like, I know why they¡¯re there. And I ain¡¯t sayin¡¯ that they¡¯re always bad. But if you look through all the shit going on, you¡¯ll realise that most of them are fucking mental. More than most Samurai are, believe it or not.¡± - Anonymous citizen in an interview with ¡®Samuraiz¡¯ The eveningsted a lot longer than any of us had probably anticipated. After Chloe hadined all the way through the Sideswipe romance, and we had to pause multiple times because she went into a full on tirade more than once, Jenna had found some other things to watch. Joenna and Keity had, of course, acted as our personal waitresses, keeping our cups filled. That had ended with all of us getting pretty knackered pretty quickly, but it also added to the absurdity of Chloe¡¯s rants, which became more and more erratic as the evening went on, making it all just that much more amusing to watch. Junior had returned sometime in between, giving us a short report of what had transpired during her meeting, none of which the three of us really cared for at that point. That said, once Junior joined our movie night fun, and the drinking, of course, things had quickly derailed as Chloe and Junior had taken turns ranting about this and that. I hadn¡¯t even known I had such a critical streak in me. But it was damn adorable, the way the two of them just edged each other on, so neither Jenna or Iined. Between all of that, the evening did prove one thing I had been curious about to be true. Hexws did not handle alcohol very well, at least not unless they were adapted for it. I wasn¡¯t quite sure why, it seemed like a rather nonsensical thing, but Junior had very quickly ended up rather deep in the cups. And, of course, no surprise to anyone, that just meant that as the evening went on, Joenna, Keity, Celine, and Myra, who had returned together with Junior, all also slowly got more and more hammered. At first they kept their alcohol consumption to a minimum, but considering that they were all based on me, and I was a damn alcoholic, that had quickly changed once they started to get tipsy. In the end we all found ourselves in one big pile of drunken goodness on the couches. It was kind of adorable to watch them, since most of them seemed to be very much like me in terms of their reaction to getting drunk. Mainly that they all became very cuddly. Of course, there was a difference between me and them. Mainly that I got sexy cuddly, while they got wholesome cuddly; none of them really interested in sex as a whole, apart from intellectual curiosity. That said, Chloe and Jenna appeared to approve very much. I wasn¡¯t sure if it was because of the alcohol or just their general disposition, but both eagerly epted the offered cuddles. For Chloe that wasn¡¯t too much of a surprise, it had been the only real thing on her profile when she booked me, after all. Jenna, on the other hand, did surprise me quite a bit. She seemed very much into cuddling the drunken Hive-Princess, which Junior, of course, dly epted and revelled in. It did make me wonder if Jenna might be more eager to ept Us than she had led on previously. Not that I asked her. Chloe also got along with drunk Junior very well. Their shared penchant for going on rants about the most inane things probably helped. What surprised me the most, however, was that Chloe actually gave Junior a big kiss on the mouth at some point. She probably meant it as a joke in that moment, but it was enough for all of Us to squeal in excitement. Which Chloe, who was just as deep in the cups as Junior was, didn¡¯t seem to really recognise. Not that we minded, she was just so damn cute when she was drunk. All that said, the evening ended when we all slowly dozed off in a big pile, Jenna surrounded by Junior and Joenna, who would have guessed, and me on top of Chloe, with Keity and Celine next to her. Myra was somewhere in the whole chaos; I didn¡¯t really pay much attention towards the end, considering that I was much too preupied cuddling with the insanely adorable and beautiful woman I wasying on top of. It also meant that when the incessant beeping of an iing call woke me up, I had a killer headache. By far not the worst hangover I¡¯ve ever had, but it was annoying to shit, and I couldn¡¯t stop myself from groaning inint. Unwilling to move from thefy pillow in the shape of the most amazing person I¡¯ve ever met, followed very closely by the womanst buried under a heap of Hexw, I decided to just deal with the callter. I¡¯m afraid that it is rather important. You should definitely take it. Kaysa¡¯s voice, while soft, was like a jackhammer trying to rattle my skull and I groaned again, silently cursing the stupid AI for ripping me out of my sweet dreams of fucking Chloe and Jenna until both had lost all their braincells. But Kaysa wouldn¡¯t speak up if it wasn¡¯t important, so with muchint I switched over to the virtual realm. Quickly checking the clock, and nearly having my eyes pop out when I realised it was already half past noon, I turned my attention to the iing call. The caller ID listed it asing from some private merc corp or some such, and I was halfway tempted to damn the consequences and go back to sleep, when Kaysa updated it to say ¡®Cheryl¡¯. Now, that was important. Grumbling to myself I finally picked up, not trying even in the slightest to appear more awake than I felt. I think my stare actually frightened Cheryl for a moment, considering that she took an involuntary step back when the call connected. ¡°Myriad?¡± she asked, voice uncertain. ¡°Yes¡­ I¡¯m awake¡­ Mostly¡­ What happened?¡± ¡°Pardon the intrusion, I didn¡¯t want to bother you. We do have a somewhat important development, though.¡± ¡°It¡¯s alright. We might have gotten a bit too deep into the cupsst night. My head¡¯s killing me like some fuckwit is skullfucking my brain with a Bad Dragon dildo, so please make it short, okay?¡± ¡°Uh¡­ Sure¡­¡± Cheryl was obviously a bit surprised, but she did catch herself quickly. A true professional. ¡°We are currently in the process of relocating everyone from the megashelter back to the redlight district. So far not that manyplications. We managed to get the buildings set up to be livable and did another sweep for any potential antithesis hives. Everything went as nned, until Castas contacted me. Some of his boys apparently have just been attacked at the outer edge of the redlight district, on the border with the Kanvai district. Typically, they¡¯re on pretty good terms with the gangs there, since they typically visit the brothels and such. But it appears some idiot from the next district over, Little Town, decided to make a powery of some sort.¡± It took me an embarrassingly long moment to parse that. ¡°Didn¡¯t I tell you to use little girl words? Fuck¡­ Okay, so some idiot attacked the Kanvai district, and they in turn turned on the Crows?¡± ¡°No, ma¡¯am. From the looks of things the ones attacking the Crows are from Little Town. There are some reports of high tech weaponry, but nothing confirmed yet. Still, I thought it prudent to let you know, since you openly stated that the redlight district is under your protection.¡± I groaned again, rubbing my face. For a long moment I didn¡¯t reply, just asking myself who would be fucking stupid enough to organise an open attack in broad daylight! ¡°Kaysa, I need something for this headache,¡± I muttered, ignoring Cheryl for a moment and getting up from Chloe¡¯sfortable chest. A momentter a ding rang out that had my brain rattling, making me curse under my breath, and soon after I swallowed the pill that had appeared in my hand. The change was immediate and in that moment felt better than any orgasm I ever had. Finally feeling more like myself I quickly bought a whole box of Cleanse pills, ced them on my mystery cab next to the couch, then got uppletely and stretched. ¡°Okay. So we have some idiots ying at bigshots. Idiots who very likely get some weapon deliveries from somewhere else. Fucking grand. We¡¯re on our way. They better have a very fucking good exnation or I might have to rethink the whole ¡®no eating people¡¯ policy.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll leave it to you then. Just¡­ try to keep casualties to a minimum?¡± Cheryl¡¯s voice was uncharacteristically cautious. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, we¡¯ll clean up the bodies,¡± I muttered, then slowly made my way over to the main hangar. ¡°That¡¯s not what I¡¯m worried about, Myriad.¡± She shook her head with a sigh. ¡°Alright. I¡¯m not going to get involved, you do you. If you need anything, let me know. We¡¯ll try to get a better idea of what¡¯s going on.¡± ¡°Thanks, Cheryl. Talk to youter.¡± And with that I closed the call, feeling much too pissed about it all. Today was supposed to be an easy day. Visit the redlight district, help folk settle in, maybe get some things here and there if they need something. Not a fucking gang war. Fuck, I just woke up and I was already done with the day. ¡°Evelyn, new destination. Kanvai district. Prep the shuttles and make sure you fly low enough for Tiny to jump out if need be.¡± ¡°Of course, Seraphine. Destination set: Kanvai district. Estimated time of arrival: 7 minutes.¡± The AI¡¯s voice was, as it always was, soft and friendly. I ignored it and instead grumbled my way to the main hangar, my Queen¡¯s Guard in tow. They were the only ones not getting involved with the previous evening¡¯s fun, and therefore much lesspromised. When I arrived in the hangar, Evelyn had already prepared the shuttles. A huge number of Us were already ready to board, chatting idly between themselves. I didn¡¯t bother joining the conversation, mood still foul, and instead just walked over to the private shuttle already waiting for me. I could have woken up Chloe and Jenna, but I really didn¡¯t think it was needed and they probably wanted some more sleep. I knew, because I would have loved a couple of hours more. But some fucking retard just had to go out of their way to be the most stupid person to ever be born. Tiny had already startedworking everyone up. Considering that she didn¡¯t have much she could do outside ofbat, since she was a huge fuck-off scorpion, she had taken to the role as the main node for the Burdened, as well as the information distributor. While technically all of Us could ess my imnt, at least to a degree, Tiny had taken it upon herself to organise it. And so she sent me a very, very extensive list of things already known about the situation. Not that most of the stuff she had managed to figure out was useful. Still, she was doing her best and didn¡¯t deserve my ire. ¡°Thanks, Tiny,¡± I muttered as I walked past. A momentter I got a text message from the huge scorpion. ¡®No problem, Sera. Just lemme know if you need anything else, yeah?~¡¯ That did manage to cheer me up a little. I wasn¡¯t quite sure why, but Tiny was the only one of Us who didn¡¯t call me some variation of ¡®Our Queen¡¯. In general, she seemed surprisingly childlike, considering that she was based on me. Not that she was childish, she was still very much apetent member of our Hive, but it was quite obvious that she was different from the rest. Okay, they all were a little different. But it seemed that some of Us were more different than others. Quite often those were the ones who wanted a name for themselves, which probably had something to do with it. I didn¡¯t mind, really. In a way I preferred it that way. It meant that there was some variety in this big mess that was Myriad. Making another mental note to give Tiny some way to actually speak with people, I finally entered the shuttle and let myself fall into the big armchair in the cockpit. The shuttle doors hadn¡¯t even closed yet, when the shuttle took off; the giant hangar door opening to allow Us egress. As I had ordered, Evelyn kept the Corvette quite low to the ground so that Tiny could jump out without too many problems if she had to. Of course, it would leave a giant crater wherever shended, but I just really couldn¡¯t be fucked to think about that at the moment. With a sigh I decided to immerse myself in the chorus, letting all my worries slowly seep into the background. It helped my mood tremendously, and soon we were a lot more calm and prepared to deal with this new batch of faeces that was dropped at our doorstep. Even from afar we could see the chaos that was the border to the Kanvai district. Chaos that only became more chaotic when the people present realised that we were headed straight for them. Some even tried to shoot Us out of the sky, which had to be the most stupid thing they could probably have tried. This was a Samurai grade shuttle, even if they had the most ridiculous rifles humanity had on offer, the chances of them shooting Us down were so low to be effectively nil. Whatever, let them waste ammo, who cares. We hadn¡¯t evennded yet, when we got a call. The caller ID was not one we were familiar with, but, considering that it came through, Kaysa probably thought it was fine. Picking up, we focused on the virtual real for a moment. The call didn¡¯t have a video window, being sound only. Considering the meta-data of the device cing the call, that wasn¡¯t much of a surprise, though. We were by no means an expert on tech, but even we could recognise a device from fucking 2027 as being too old. ¡°Who¡¯s this?¡± we asked, not entirely able to keep our displeasure at the entire thing out of our voice. ¡°Uhm, hey. I¡¯m Simmons, this Myriad?¡± The man who spoke sounded a bit older, maybe around fifty? ¡°Yes, we are Myriad. A very fucking pissed Myriad, because apparently people have to be idiots when it¡¯s least convenient. You with the Crows?¡± ¡°No. I¡¯m working with the Crows at the moment, but I¡¯m part of Obsidian Gaze. Castas said I should give you a call.¡± ¡°Despite our displeasure we perked up. ¡°Oh? Now that is curious. We rarely see you get involved. You deal in information and shit, right?¡± Obsidian Gaze was one of the more well known groups here in New Savannah. Not a gang in the traditional sense, they most often dealt with information. If you needed any juicy dirt on anyone, Obsidian Gaze was the one you went to. There was also Quantum Veil, but they rarely worked with others in any capacity. Their involvement hinted either at something bigger, or corpo fuckery, since otherwise they wouldn¡¯te out of their nest, wherever that was. ¡°Yes. We keep to ourselves on principle, but these fuckwits, or whoever sponsored them, are fucking with our business. Shits need some killing, and you¡¯re damn good at killing.¡± ¡°You¡¯re not going to use this to get some crap on the Crows, are you?¡± There was a moment of silence. ¡°Myriad, you¡¯re fucking terrifying. If we antagonised you this openly, our boss would have us drawn and quartered the old fashioned style.¡± His evasiveness made Us chuckle. ¡°As long as you don¡¯t start using whatever you learn to mess with them, we won¡¯t have trouble. If you do¡­¡± We didn¡¯t finish the sentence. ¡°We can¡¯t give you much on who exactly supplied the weapons. We can tell you, though, that most of the gangs of Little Town are involved somehow. If you want more info go find ck Lotus. From what we could gather, they have found out some more about it all.¡± The way Simmons switched the topic was amusing, but we couldn¡¯t begrudge him for it. ¡°Very well. Thanks for the information. Oh, and if you have some time afterwards to help Us with a little problem of our own, we¡¯re inclined to do some business. What say you?¡± ¡°Depends on what you need.¡± ¡°Some corp scavenged Samurai lures and ced them under the southern gates of the Inner City. Now, we couldn¡¯t give less of a fuck about the Inner City, but they turned the lures on during the incursion. You probably heard about the mass at the gates.¡± ¡°The one you first showed up in? We¡¯re aware of it, yeah.¡± We nodded, even if he couldn¡¯t see it. ¡°We wanna know who it is and why they did it. We have some leads, but by far not enough. If you can help Us with that, we¡¯re willing to pay. Even in more esoteric things. I would wager you lot could use some Samurai grade cyberwarfare shit, right?¡± There was a long moment of silence. ¡°I¡¯ll look into it. Might even be connected with this mess; while we don¡¯t have specifics, this has corpo fuckery written all over it. I don¡¯t know where they get their tech from exactly, but it¡¯s clear that it ain¡¯t district standard. Neither here, nor in Little Town. If our clues are correct, they¡¯d need some kind of corp connection, and there aren¡¯t many corps who¡¯d go this deep into the Outer City. If they are messing around like this, they might have ties to that issue as well. I¡¯ll do some digging, see what I can dredge up. For now, you gonna clean up, yeah?¡± ¡°Yes. Not gonna lie, this won¡¯t be pretty. Best get your people out now, while you still can. We¡¯re going in soon, and we¡¯re very, very fucking pissed.¡±
Thest mini-arc before we head into the final arc of Vol 1! This one won''t be too long, roughly 5 chapters or so, so we will have alien crushing goodnessing up soon!
I have a Discord! Also, I''ve made a . If you wish to support me on my endavours, I''d appreciate it greatly! At the moment you can read five chapters ahead on ''A Joytoy''s journey to be a Hive-Queen''! Chapter 59 – A crushing feeling Chapter 59 ¨C A crushing feeling ¡°While most of the Outer City businesses are not quite as well known as those of the Inner City, there are some rather big yers that live around the outer parts of this fine Megacity. Most gangs are rather unimpressive in the way they conduct themselves. That is not meant as a slight towards them, simply an observation of the reality in which they exist. Such groups have it hard, quite often without the support of a more solid society structure around them. Of course, there are always certain outliers, however. In New Savannah specifically, there are three gangs that stand out from the rest. The first is Obsidian Gaze, a group of hackers and information brokers. While their members are rather unassuming people, their organisation as a whole is quite well known and well connected. In the past they were involved in some of the bigger data breaches that ended with one corp or another having to rebrand and start anew. The second is Quantum Veil, a semi-anarchistic group specialising in digital anonymity. While the name is a known quantity, they are very well hidden, often only showing up if they do something to fuck with one group or another. They don¡¯t care much for who they fuck with, be it corporation or rival gang, everyone is fair game to them. Andstly, of course, is ck Lotus, probably the most well known out of all of them. They are just a branch of arger organisation that has roots in various cities. It is them that most Inner City organisations keep the closest eye on.¡± - Excerpt of ¡°The lesser known societies of our modern cities: New Savannah edition¡±, 2053 Simmons did exactly what we told him to and soon after the rest of the people defending against the assault left the border quite hurriedly. And good thing they did, because we were indeed fucking pissed and had nopunction to be selective right at that moment. Our shuttlesnded and two battalions of War Drones made their way outside. Of course, they were immediately fired upon, but even with the high tech rifles of the opposition, it took more than a few shots to take them out. Without wasting any time they retaliated,ying down a line of hurt that took most of the defenders out quickly. Despite our foul mood, we did take care not to hurt any innocents still around. We weren¡¯t the Devourer of Worlds, and while we did feel the need to vent our frustrations, our Philosophers made sure to remind Us of the fact that we should be at least a little reserved. While our War Drones cleaned up outside, we remained in our personal shuttle, checking things over. The ¡®Bastion of Hope¡¯ was just arriving overhead, looming dangerously over the border of the district and spitting out shuttles. Tiny stood at the very edge of the main hanger, letting out a terrifying roar that scared the living daylights out of anyone who saw her, but she didn¡¯t do anything else. She probably could have tried to snipe some people with her kic weaponry, but she didn¡¯t, just observing it all, collecting all the data feeds that were avable, bundling it all up, sorting through it, then sending it over to Us. There was some clutter in the data, Tiny spected this to be some form of encrypted data transfer from one gang or another, but nothing that we could do particrly much with. Sure, we could spend a couple points, get it decrypted, or hell, just ask Kaysa, but we didn¡¯t bother. The reason for that was a very panicked message from Simmons, asking if we could stop breaking into all their servers, which made Tiny wobble with satisfaction about being proven right. The request was friendly, but the way it was written made it obvious that we gave him, and probably the rest of his gang, a heart attack. We simply replied with an apology and promise that we wouldn¡¯t rummage through everything, before we ignored it and continued to focus on the spectacle before Us. We didn¡¯t want to piss off Obsidian Gaze, they could be a useful ally, and if they were willing to cooperate in the future, we wanted to show at least some courtesy. That didn¡¯t stop Tiny from cataloguing which part of the data was theirs, though, if we needed it in the future. The weapons the fuckwits had were indeed rather high tech. We couldn¡¯t find any lead on where they coulde from, even Kaysa being a bit stymied for a moment, which had to be the best indication that whoever was responsible was one careful son of a bitch, before she finally led Us know about various leads where they coulde from. Nothing concrete, but it was something. Finally we got up and made our way outside, d in our Samurai getup which really needed an upgrade at some point. Our Queen¡¯s Guard was following suit, of course; the two defenders visible at either side of Us, the healer and assassins still hidden away. Thanks to the cyberwarfare catalogue we obtained to help Sabrina, cracking the encryption on the enemy''smunication was child¡¯s y. While whoever gave them the weapons was careful enough to ensure they couldn¡¯t be easily tracked, the same could not be said about the idiots using them. We could probably have cracked the encryption without any fancy tools, despite having no clue about any of it, it was that rudimentary. Utilising our Lance, we killed one of the fuckwits who was trying to sneak up on the War Drones, before we turned our attention to the way inward. The district was just as shitty as the rest of the Outer City, but the attackers had raised some makeshift barricades. That said, the fighting was rather one-sided. While they had good weapons, most of their people ran off the moment we showed up. We killed those we could, but didn¡¯t waste time running after every single one of them. We could sweep them upter if we needed to, but considering that these weren¡¯t some kind of PMC, just gang goons, we were pretty sure that once they ran, they wouldn¡¯te back. Some of them we managed to take prisoner. None of Us were particrly good at interrogating, but if we could use them to get some more info we wouldn¡¯tin. If we couldn¡¯t¡­ Well, we really didn¡¯t know what to do with them. We could kill them or let them go. Something to be decidedter. While the border clean up was quick and efficient, deeper into the Kanvai district things went less swimmingly. Tiny had managed to put together a proper map for Us to organise our troops with, but the adversary had a better idea of the territory and all the little hiding ces. We didn¡¯t want to pull the Meerkats away from their mission, so we had to send three more shuttles with more basic drones to serve as scouts. Making our way through the first section of the Kanvai district, we eventually arrived at the main za that denoted the core of Neon Sutra territory. Neon Sutra wasn¡¯t a gang we were knowledgeable about, at best having heard the name before, but it quickly became apparent that nobody in this district had any love left for the attackers, and all of them were willing to help Us in our clean up mission. That was made obvious by the ping we got when we arrived, plus the ratherrge group of cybeically enhanced folk waiting for Us, led by a woman who was a sight to behold. Our group was not exactly small, but it was only a part of Us running around the district. Twenty-odd War Drones, thirty odd evolved Hatchlings, the Queen¡¯s Guard, and of course myself. That said, even our forces looked smallpared to the group of people standing in front of Us, all decked out head to toe in cybeic enhancements. From robotic arms and legs, to torso recements, head recements, and even full body cyborgs, there was a mix of everything there. That said, the most extreme cases were, of course, the obvious boss of Neon Sutra, and her four bodyguards. These guys could probably even give a War Drone a run for their money and made Us wonder just how they managed to get all the tech. It looked surprisingly advanced for gang goons. Only the Queen¡¯s Guard followed Us as we walked closer to where the obvious leader of Neon Sutra waited, nked by four massively burly men. The rest of Us kept a respectful distance. As we walked up, the woman and her guards stepped forward a pace, giving Us a firm nod. ¡°Wee to Lionon Street. I¡¯m Gauss, leader of Neon Sutra. You are Myriad, I assume?¡± The woman¡¯s voice was surprisingly deep and heavy, the kind of voice that fit any gang leader very well. ¡°We are. We¡¯re here to clean up the fucks that attacked the redlight district. We thought that we made it clear it was under our protection, but apparently not even a Hive of Hexws hungry for the flesh of those that bother Us are enough of a deterrent to keep the idiots at bay.¡± Ourment obviously didn¡¯t sit well with nearly all of their members, but we really didn¡¯t care. We weren¡¯t in the mood to y nicer than we had to, and while we didn¡¯t want to antagonise anyone outside of the fuckwits that attacked Us, we also didn¡¯t give enough fucks to y to their sensibilities. ¡°As long as you aren¡¯t here to mulch us, we won¡¯tin about some help. As long as you keep your drones out of our business, of course.¡± That made Us chuckle. ¡°We have no interest in dealing with you. Unless you decide to make problems for the redlight district, we¡¯ll leave you alone. We have better things to do than bully some low-level gangs.¡± To nobody¡¯s surprise, thatment made them all tense up, even if Gauss remained outwardly calm. We weren¡¯t sure if she was just very good at hiding her emotions, or if we simply didn¡¯t know how to read her personal cues. ¡°Quite the sharp tongue for someone within our borders,¡± Gauss observed, face unreadable. ¡°Well, we¡¯re a bit pissed at the moment and politeness isn¡¯t exactly at the top of our priority list. Today was supposed to be an easy day, but instead we have to deal with shitfucks who desperately want to be the next nominee for the darwin award. If you want polite, go wake up Legion and see if she isn¡¯t more receptive. Our guess, she won¡¯t be.¡± To our surprise, Gauss chuckled at that, tension dissipating a little, ¡°Fair enough. Obsidian Gaze contacted you yet?¡± ¡°They have. While they couldn¡¯t give Us specifics, we have some leads. From yourment we assume you all work together?¡± ¡°More or less. This attack is much bigger than what we¡¯re used to. While the gangs in this district are about as cooperative as most would be, this shit just ain¡¯t fly. We all have our own reasons to help, of course, but in these times we need some cooperation to protect our assets.¡± ¡°That why you meet Us? Do your part to help?¡± She nodded. ¡°Yes. My boys can show you around the back alleys and hidden ces. Of course, some quid pro quo would be appreciated.¡± Our expression shifted to something a little darker. ¡°Give it to Us straight, Gauss. We¡¯re not in the mood for distractions or talking around the point. We¡¯re here to fuck up some shitheads, not negotiate.¡± ¡°That¡¯s fair. Okay, to get right to the point. We want protection. The same deal as the one you have with the redlight district.¡± Not surprising, truth be told, but really not something we were interested in. ¡°No.¡± Our answer was immediate and obviously not the one they wanted to hear. ¡°No?¡± ¡°No. We won¡¯t go around helping every gang thates knocking. The redlight district is our home and we want to see it safe. Other than that, we have no interest in getting involved with anyone else. zing Inferno already asked, and they will have to hash that one out with Legion. Unless you can actually offer Us something of value, more than just ying tour guide for your corner of this city so we don¡¯t identally drop into all your illegalbs, there won¡¯t be any deal.¡± There was a long moment of silence before Gauss nodded. ¡°Fair enough. Then what do you want?¡± ¡°Right now? We wanna get this shit done so we can go back home to cuddle with two very nice women. If you want to help Us, you can, but this would not be part of any deal. We don¡¯t need you and we don¡¯t care if you¡¯re butthurt. Anything else can be discussedter. We can leave a drone or two around afterwards so we can chat. It¡¯s more secure than any call; we are Myriad, we are one, a big whole made up of many voices. But just so we¡¯re clear.¡± Our voice dropped into something more dangerous and the stance of our drones behind Us shifted into an obviously battle ready one. ¡°If you agree to host them and then harm them, no matter in what way, you won¡¯t like what happens. Understood?¡± ¡°Yes,¡± Gauss said after a moment. We nodded at that, then forced ourselves to be a bit more friendly and open minded. ¡°Good. We don¡¯t want to start trouble with you, despite what it might seem like. We¡¯re not in a good mood right now and just want to get this shit done with. And if you actually have something of value to Us, we will listen. But right now we just want to get back home.¡± She nodded. Gauss seemed to be a rather smart woman, or maybe she just was very good at hiding her disdain. Either was a good quality to have in a gang leader and they haven¡¯t actually shown Us any discourtesy. We were aware that we were probably a lot more heavy handed than we should have been, but we were also aware that right now we couldn¡¯t give any less of a fuck if we tried. ¡°That seems reasonable. Let us show you around then.¡± Gauss made a quick motion with her hand and the rest of her gang started to move. ¡°Thanks. We do appreciate it, by the way, even if it doesn¡¯te across as such. Just don¡¯t waste time by trying to hide anything. Tiny has most of the stuff already mapped anyway, and even if she missed something, we would bet a good chunk of credits that our AI already knows about all of it. We won¡¯t interfere with your business and we couldn¡¯t care less about what you do with your gang. As long as you aren¡¯t going around kidnapping and raping people, we¡¯ll leave you alone.¡± Gauss didn¡¯t answer, just giving us a nod which we returned. She obviously didn¡¯t like Us, no surprise there, but she didn¡¯t try to fight Us either. Our earlier estimation of her seemed to be proven correct and despite our foul mood, we made a mental note to deal with her fairly in the future. The rest of her gang was equally unimpressed with Us, but we didn¡¯t mind. And to their credit, they did notin openly. We were pretty sure that some, those that still were human enough for Us to read them properly at least, even respected our no-nonsense way of dealing with them. We put all our cards on the table and let them know exactly where we stood. Of course, we could only do that because we were the biggest fish in this part of the city, but it was also a rarity amongst gangs. To our mild surprise Gauss was actually the one to lead Us around personally. The rest of our forces were split up, each getting two or three gang members to show them around. We hadn¡¯t expected Gauss to get involved herself, most gang bosses kept to theirir and did whatever, so to see her getting involved personally was another point in her favour. It meant she actually cared for her people. The entire organisation took less than five minutes, these guys were obviously a well oiled engine with no need for lengthy discussion, another point that spoke to Gauss quality as a leader. Rousing a rabble of gang goons was no easy feat, and to have a gang this dynamic and obedient was a rarity. While we started to make our way through Kanvai district with the help of Neon Sutra, our scouts continued to spread out further and further. Most of them didn¡¯t find that much of interest as the front was pushed back more and more by our forces. We did find a group here or there, but most of them either surrendered immediately, or were squashed rtively quickly. It was another example of the fact that no amount of high tech weaponry was any help, when the people using it were this bad and unorganised, not that it¨C ¡°FUCK!¡± We screamed, a wave of dizziness and cold rolling over Us. The world wobbled, and an immense sense of loss gripped Us deeply. A feel like our chorus being torn apart sent Us into a frenzy, and biological feedback of muted pain rattled the cohesion. Taking deep breaths we tried to find a steady footing; the pain was subsiding quickly and hadn¡¯t been too much of a problem to begin with, but it became immediately obvious that something had happened. ¡°Myriad?¡± Gauss asked, her voice distant to Us. We didn¡¯t pay attention to her, trying to figure out just what the fuck had just happened and where that strange feeling hade from. It didn¡¯t take long until we had the answer. One of Us had just been killed. The realisation sent another wave of shock and horror through Us, making Us very aware of our mortality. So far we hadn¡¯t faced anything like this, at best we experienced the death of a drone in the Hexw simtion, but there things worked very differently. The Devourer of Worlds didn¡¯t lose voices, only bodies, and while the pain had been present, it was easily lost in the adrenaline and the sheer size of the chorus we had experienced at the time. Now things were different, not only was this not a simtion, even with the pain limiter still in effect the entire thing felt so much worse. We hadn¡¯t just lost a drone, we lost a voice. It was ripped out of Us with force, leaving a scar where it was supposed to be, and that emptiness, that sudden and irrevocable stillness, left Us reeling with a sudden understanding that we were vulnerable. We were vaguely aware of our Queen¡¯s Guard getting right up in the face of Gauss and her guards, but we couldn¡¯t quite focus on it. The chorus was in turmoil, many of Us, even ready to die as they were for the Hive, feeling vulnerable and lost in the moment. Our thoughts began spiralling out of control, more and more horror scenarios beginning to crop up, the memory of the loss reying in our minds again and again. Seraphine, take a deep breath. All of you, take a deep breath and calm down. You are hyperventting badly, and if this continues you might lose consciousness soon. Kaysa¡¯s voice reached Us from somewhere far away, and we nodded absently, doing as she asked and taking deep, calming breaths. It didn¡¯t do much for our panic, but it helped a little, slowly but surely calming down our hammering heart trying to jump out of our chest. Gradually the world faded back into existence around Us, overshadowing the feeling of loss and horror that we had experienced. Once we were a little more ourselves again, we took a look around, trying to find our footing and remembering where we were. Kanvai district, the attackers. Gauss and Neon Sutra helping Us. Okay, deep breaths. We stumbled a little, before we managed to stand straight once more. Our Healer had caught Us, preventing Us from falling. Our Defenders were standing between Neon Sutra and ourselves, our Assassins right in their faces, weapons extended. Dismissing them for the moment, we ced a call to Chloe and Jenna. While we didn¡¯t want to wake them, we felt vulnerable and lost, and we didn¡¯t know what to do. We were desperate for their presence, to hear their voices, anything to make this feeling go away. Despite the fact that we were calmer now, we still felt incredibly vulnerable, a feeling that was only reinforced a few momentster, when another wave of dizziness rolled over Us. Another one of our scouts had been killed. Our scouts had found an area in which the enemy forces had entrenched themselves, which is why they had such an easy time killing Us off, especially considering our mental state. Our Healer pulled Us into a side alley, and a momentter more War Drones made their way over, stumbling and obviously out of it, but it did make Us feel a bit better to know that we had backup. Chloe picked up just as our Healer sat Us on some old crate, our Defenders sticking very close to Us, both shields extended. ¡°Seraphine?¡± Chloe¡¯s voice was more of a groan than anything else, obviously very hungover. ¡°Chloe, thank fuck¡­ Sorry to wake you. We¡­ We just had a very bad experience.¡± She grumbled some more, but after hearing ourment quickly paid attention. ¡°Wha¡­? What happened?¡± ¡°Some of Us just died.¡± There was a moment of silence, before she replied. ¡°Fuck. Okay, what happened, is anyone attacking? Where do you need me?¡± While her voice was still unsteady, it was clear that she was quickly getting into gear now. ¡°Some idiots attacked the redlight district. We went to deal with it, and we¡¯re winning, but¡­¡± we swallowed, unable to sort our thoughts, alwaysing back to the memory of the death. ¡°We don¡¯t know what to do, Chloe. It feels so strange, like something was ripped out of Us¡­ It hurts, not physically, but it hurts so much¡­¡± ¡°Where are you?¡± ¡°Kanvai District, the Corvette is not far, we had it fly over.¡± There was another moment of silence, before she continued. ¡°I¡¯m on my way. Give me five minutes. What¡¯s the situation?¡± ¡°Thanks, Chloe¡­ We¡¯re so sorry for waking you¡­ Right now we¡¯re safe, somewhat¡­ We lost¡­ a dozen or so voices¡­¡± ¡°Hey, don¡¯t worry about it. I¡¯ll be there soon. Ah, thanks for the Cleanse pills. I¡¯ll wake Jenna real quick.¡± Yet more silence filled the call, which sounded deafening to Us in that moment. Soon after Chloe returned, now sounding a lot better. ¡°We¡¯re on our way. Junior is with us too. Do you need anything?¡± ¡°Not that we can think of, no¡­ Just¡­ We don¡¯t want to be alone¡­¡± ¡°You aren¡¯t, Seraphine. I¡¯m here. We¡¯re on our way now. Do you know what happened exactly?¡± ¡°Somewhat? We were travelling with Neon Sutra to sweep up the attackers in this part of town, when suddenly we felt pain¡­ It¡¯s not exactly physical pain, that one is muted from the limiter, but the feeling of¡­ one of Us just dying¡­ It¡¯s overwhelming. We lost a few more quickly after, there is some group somewhere that got the drop on a few of Us.¡± Our voice cracked. ¡°Hey, it¡¯s okay. Just keep calm, okay?¡± ¡°Okay¡­¡± She stayed on the line with Us, slowly but surely helping Us finding our footing properly. Her voice was soothing, just knowing she was there for Us doing more than anything else ever could. When the shuttle finally settled down on the street not far from the alley we were in, we more or less bolted over. Gauss and her bodyguards were still there, under the watchful eye of our Assassins, but we ignored her, instead nearly tackling Chloe when she stepped out, d in her armor. She weed our embrace with one of her own, and we basked in her presence, letting it wash away our worries. ¡°Thanks, Chloe¡­¡± we muttered. ¡°Hey, it¡¯s okay. I¡¯m here now. You¡¯re safe.¡± Jenna stepped out of the shuttle behind her, looking around. With her came a whole squad of her Sentinels, of course, and they quickly took up position around Us. She gave Us a warm smile, and we let go of Chloe to embrace her as well, squeezing her tightly. She didn¡¯tin, answering our embrace with a gentle squeeze of her own. ¡°Hey there,¡± she said softly, ¡°How are you doing?¡± ¡°A lot better now¡­¡± we muttered, our face buried in her chest, just taking in her scent. For a moment we simply existed, the two of them giving Us as much time as we needed, before we finally came up for air and gave them both a smile. ¡°Thanks¡­ We¡¯re sorry for ripping you out of your sleep like that.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it,¡± Jenna said with a giggle, ¡°Now, if you feel a bit better, mind filling us in on what¡¯s going on? Like, who are they?¡± She nodded over to the Neon Sutra members. We nodded in turn, taking another deep breath, finally feeling like ourselves again. ¡°That¡¯s Gauss, the leader of Neon Sutra. She was showing Us around to find all the hidden ces where some of the fucks might have hidden in.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll go and chat with her,¡± Jenna said with a warm smile, squeezing Us gently once more, before she let go. ¡°You take it slow. We¡¯re here to help.¡± ¡°Yeah¡­ Thanks, Jenna¡­ Thank you both so much.¡± There were no words to describe how grateful we were for both of them. Maybe this day wouldn¡¯t turn out to be aplete disaster, now that they were here.
Amongst the stars they gather, species of all forms cooperate to deal with the antithesis threat. Among them are many who are hard to understand by humans, yet some humans travel their paths. Another Hive joins the fray, another swarm to take the antithesis to task. We have heard tell of a tale by a mysterious figure going by ''Randomancer'', who speaks of Sylvi, a Valkyrie who will follow in our Queen''s footsteps. We advise that you keep an eye on them. Swarm Ascendant ( | )
I have a Discord! Also, I''ve made a . If you wish to support me on my endavours, I''d appreciate it greatly! At the moment you can read five chapters ahead on ''A Joytoy''s journey to be a Hive-Queen''! Chapter 60 – Who would have thought that gangs could be polite company? Chapter 60 ¨C Who would have thought that gangs could be politepany? ¡°In recent years we observed a rising trend of more influential gangs encroaching on corporate business. While these gangs are in most cases supported byrger entities, some manage to grow to such size on their own merit. Needless to say, seldom do they exist for long. Should you find one that has been around for a long time, it is highly advisable to treat cautiously with them. Either put up a polite front and find a weakness to exploit, or deal with them in decisive fashion. Failure to do either will quickly end up with your corporation being brought down.¡± - ¡®A corporate guide to deal with filth¡¯, Issue 27 It took Us quite a while to calm down properly. Our offence had been halted, the rest of Us setting up in defensible positions. The district began to feel a bit like a graveyard, the sounds ofbat silenced, giving off that feeling of the quiet before the storm. Neon Sutra had gotten the hint, excusing themselves after their talk with Jenna. Not that we med them, something they couldn¡¯t understand happened to one Samurai, only for two more to show up as backup. We would have run for the hills as well, if we¡¯d be in their shoes. Chloe¡¯s presence next to Us helped Us find our bnce once more. The pain was still there, that feeling of emptiness, but it no longer hurt as badly. Our mood was immensely sour, though. Not that we had been in a good mood before, but right now, after the horror had subsided, rage started to bubble up from deep inside Us. No matter how much we thought we prepared, we were never ready, and it seemed that any time we actually tried to do something, something else went wrong. Maybe it was just the experiences of the past couple days that had Us this riled up, but for some reason we couldn¡¯t shake the feeling of anger and hatred that we felt, both directed at the ones responsible, and, to a degree, even at ourselves. Originally we wanted to be circumspect, to keep the damages to a minimum, but the more we thought about what transpired, the less we could bring ourselves to care. The collective decided that we would squash these fuckwits with decisive force, no more prisoners, no more holding back. No more sending those of Us who weren¡¯t specialised for it out to scout. Our mission in the old industrial district was important, yes, but right now this mattered more to Us, and so we pulled all the Meerkats back, using them to scout out Kanvai District. The Sabertooths and the Siverins began to move, spreading across the district to form a defensive line to mark the territory we had cleared. It did spook a couple of the smaller gangs, but most of them left Us alone. Those who didn¡¯t were met with a swift and decisive end. We still weren¡¯t willing to use the corpses of those we killed as biomass, that was just a step too far. But we did begin Hexw production back on the Corvette, procuring cheap biomass from Kaysa and sending it back with the shuttles. It wasn¡¯t a perfect solution and brought our points to near total depletion, but we needed more specialised drones. Amidst our restructuring another caste was born as well, one we probably should have gotten much sooner. The Warleaders were kind of important to the Hexw hierarchy, and while we were still human, we also were Hexw, to some extent. The leader of this new caste took the name Bellona, one of the War Drones. She selected two direct subordinates, which would help Us organise better. On paper we didn¡¯t need that, Hexws could organise and coordinate almost wlessly across the Hive. But there was a limit to that, considering that our Hive was based on a human mind and personality. It was the first real indicator that we were fundamentally different to Hives like the Devourer of Worlds, one we had so far been aware of, but had not internalised yet. And one we paid a steep price for. The two subordinates of Bellona took on the name Kharon and Thanatos. They were tasked with leading their own toons, each of them immediately beginning to build theirmand structure. It was not like earthen militaries, we were part Hexw after all, but it was different from how the Devourer of Worlds functioned. Eventually we came out of our funk. In the meantime the rest of Us had already finished their preparations, restructured and repositioned, we now formed a properly united front. One that was fundamentally different from our previous approach. As one we moved, slowly but surely scanning every part of town. It would take time, of course, and we couldn¡¯t all spend time picking off stragglers. But it already helped in reducing casualties. We decided that we should head over to ck Lotus. Simmons had told Us that they would know more about our adversary, and we wanted to get as much information as we could to properly stop them. To that end we began to make our way over, Chloe and Jenna in tow. Jenna had brought her Sentinels, slowly unloading them all to reinforce our troops. They acted as our defence, a task they were specifically built for. It helped greatly in reducing unnecessary deaths. All that said, we still suffered losses, few as they might be. After our initial shock at the experience, we now had a better handle on things. And while the feeling of loss would never be something we could get used to, we at least were no longer incapacitated by it. Much to our surprise, ck Lotus was already expecting Us. Or maybe they were just expecting anyone who could help deal with this mess. We weren¡¯t sure, the people who greeted Us with polite words didn¡¯t specify, nor did we find it important to ask. While they were obviously a gang, they were different from the usual fare. Their cybeics were more high ss, their clothing more uniform and expensive, the way they carried themselves reminded Us more of a PMC than of a traditional gang. That theme also continued with the border of ck Lotus¡¯ territory. Typically most gangs shed quite heavily, but few would dare to get too close to ck Lotus, and so there was about a block of unimed territory between Neon Sutra and ck Lotus. It also quickly became apparent that this part of town was built with Japanese aesthetics in mind from the get go. While subtle at first, once we arrived at the central za, or as much as you could call it a central za, all the buildings had a definitive Japanese touch to them. It gave the entire area a rather curious atmosphere, one we didn¡¯t mind at all. Really, it managed to be a lot more homey than we would have expected. Our guides led Us towards one of the tea shops nearby, one that was obviously a bit more high ss than most. Even from a distance we could see a group of people present there. The central figure was a tall and rathernky man, d in a very fine suit. It was a proper and expensive suit, denoted by the fact that it looked almost ordinary. Most of the suits you found in the Outer City tried to look all expensive, but really were just cheap knock offs that could barely be called proper clothes, not to mention that they were ufortable as fuck. At least in our opinion. We only wore one once for a roley for some guy with a fable for corporate managers. Regardless, the suit did suit him rather well. Together with his youthful face, devoid of any facial hair, and his carefully groomed deep brown hair, he came across as a pleasant man. Underlined was the image by his easy smile, and casual bodynguage and gestures. It gave him the aura of someone with authority, but despite that also someone who was easy to talk to. He was currently busy chatting with a rather stern looking woman, who wore a proper suit of body armor, a high ss bodyguard if we¡¯d had to guess, and a stern expression that seemed to be a mixture of ¡®please leave me the fuck alone¡¯ and obedient subservience. From their interaction we guessed the man to be a bit of a casanova type, although he was very careful not to invade her personal space, even with his lively gestures. Despite not having spoken a word with him yet, we already felt like he was the kind of guy who wouldn¡¯t abuse his position of power too much. Which did make Us a bit suspicious, truth be told. When we came closer he turned to Us, giving the three of us and our entourage a quick nce, before fixing his gaze on Us with a friendly smile. Not the HR type either, this one looked genuine. ¡°Ah, your Majesty, what a pleasure. Lady Bloodhound, Lady Legion, I am truly delighted to make your acquaintance. It is a shame that our meeting was facilitated by these less than ster circumstances.¡± He gave us a formal bow, deep enough to be respectful, but carefully measured to note across as subservient. The man was not ours tomand, and the way he held himself made that very clear. We weren¡¯t an expert on things, but from our assessment he had made his career in social encounters. ¡°Would you be willing to sit down and have some tea with me? Of course, I would not dream of keeping you for too long, you have business to attend to, and I am very aware that you do not wish to waste time. That said, I do prefer to conduct business over a proper cup of tea to share with my guests.¡± We nced at Chloe and Jenna for a moment, but they didn¡¯t say anything, obviously leaving the talking to Us. Considering it for a moment, we nodded. ¡°We suppose we can find the time for that.¡± He gave us another friendly smile and waved over to a table nearby. Three women of Japanese descent, all d in more westernly suits, appeared, as if from thin air, and pulled a chair out each, for the three of us to sit down. The bodyguard did the same for the man, and after we were all seated, the waitresses, at least we thought that to be their job, began preparing tea. From the way they conducted themselves, we were pretty sure that it was more in line with Japanese traditions. Although, as the man had suggested, they didn¡¯t spend time on the more borate ceremonies that we were pretty sure would typically be part of the tea preparation in Japanese culture. Then again, we were far from being an expert, the only things we knew about any of that came from some feeds we scrolled through a couple of years back. So maybe we were entirely off base. ¡°Before we begin, please let me wee you to Seiharu Ward on behalf of ck Lotus and our illustrious Oyabun Watanabe Satoshi. My name is Sebastian Nakamura, confidant and advisor to Watanabe-sama. We have heard from our friends in the Obsidian Gaze that you were looking to speak to us, concerning matters of the attack on the district under your care. I shall get straight to the point, your Majesty. While we cannot boast the same technological finesse that our counterparts in the Obsidian Gaze have, we did manage to find and capture a number of agents that were trying to infiltrate Seiharu Ward. Through this, and the close cooperation with Obsidian Gaze, we managed to learn a few interesting things that might be of help to you.¡± While he spoke, the tea was prepared. The waitresses ced a cup in front of each of us, before giving us and Sebastian a deep bow, leaving us to our discussion. Sebastian picked up his cup and took a moment to savour the taste. We did likewise, curious to see what kind of tea this was, and were pleasantly surprised at how good it was. ¡°The exact names of those that organised this attack are not known. Those that did meet them only referred to them as Bosses, from our questioning it appears that there are five of them. Of course, as is the case with all information extracted by less savoury means, this has to be taken with a certain amount of caution. We are quite certain, however, that most of the information we obtained is, at least in their basis, correct. The agents we captured were not career infiltrators, nor trained soldiers. Their gear was better than what most gangs around this part of town could boast, but at the end of the day, they were nothing more than simple goons. From what we could figure out, they belonged to different gangs that were eventually bought up and brought together. As you can imagine, that leaves a lot of bad blood between them, which did make questioning them a bit easier.¡± He waved at Us, sending Us a package with information. After a quick check for any malicious software, even if that would have been an insanely stupid thing to try, we opened it, perusing it in the virtual realm while he continued to speak. ¡°We are almost certain that two groups are acting in tandem. I won¡¯t bore you with the details, those are all part of the package I just sent you, but there are certain important parts that stand out. The first being that both groups are obviously very differently inclined to secrecy. While the first group doesn¡¯t seem to make any conscious effort to hide their tracks, the second is much more cautious, acting from the shadows and quite skilled in hiding any traces of their involvement. The method they employ for that is, at least in part, based on an old encryption algorithm developed by Quantum Veil a few years back. They are no longer using it, to the best of our knowledge, after a rather significant shortfall of the encryption algorithm was discovered. It makes decryptionughably easy, if you know what to do, part of the reason we managed to get as much information as we did. That said, while we cannot give you any more information on the second group, we can give you quite a bit on the first. They have a permanent residence in Little Town, one they spent quite some time, and probably millions of credits, reinforcing. From the general profile we managed to make of their leaders, it is unlikely that they would run away. They might, if they find their chances of winning decreasing, but they seem to be arrogant and egotistical, believing themselves to be better than anyone else.¡± He smiled, ¡°Another thing we can tell you is the reason for the attack. From our investigation it is clear that this attack has been nned for quite some time, although with different targets. The shift to hit the redlight district was a rather drastic, andst minute, change in approach, likely brought forth by your sudden appearance on the scene.¡± We raised our hand. ¡°Hold up, are you saying that we are their intended target?¡± ¡°That does appear to be the case, yes.¡± ¡°But why?¡± This didn¡¯t make much sense to Us, considering that we had no interest in Little Town, or anything else other than making the redlight district a better ce to live. So far we hadn¡¯t actively antagonised anyone, even making a point of being disinterested in anything other than the redlight district. The one gang that hade to Us, zing Inferno, we had sent to speak to Jenna. Neon Sutra we had refused outright, unless they had some substantial benefit to offer, and even then we wouldn¡¯t offer them the same protection. We also couldn¡¯t remember ever dealing with anyone from other districts, outside of them perhaps visiting Us in the brothel. While our memory wasn¡¯t perfect, we couldn¡¯t remember any time we might have offended any client severely enough to warrant this kind of reaction. So this had to be a recent thing. But the reason for it eluded Us. ¡°As I said, these people seem to be quite arrogant and egotistical. It is the theory of our illustrious Oyabun that they might feel threatened by your presence. Your growth, and the growth of Lady Legion, has been explosive and sudden, within days both of you managed to get an army and a gship of considerable power. Add to that the fact that Lady Bloodhound, while up until recently without a known Samurai name, is a known figure, and one that has been a Samurai for quite some time. All that together makes it likely that they fear for their influence in this part of town.¡± That did make more sense, even if we still found it to be a rather silly notion. Then again, most people, especially people in power, weren¡¯t known to be too humble or smart. If they were as arrogant as Sebastian believed them to be, it might fit. Still, it did leave a few questions unanswered. ¡°Aren¡¯t there other Samurai around? We can¡¯t imagine we¡¯re the only ones.¡± He nodded. ¡°There are. Two that we know of call this quarter of New Savannah their home. The first is a man in his early twenties, going by IPv12. He doesn¡¯t appear to care much for local politics, preferring to remain within the mesh, only really surfacing when antithesis are threatening the city. The second is a young teenager from the looks of things. We don¡¯t know much about her, but it seems likely that she was bought up by some shellpany belonging to the people responsible. The files we found mention a certain ¡®Project Purple Star¡¯, from context it appears that they want to use her to obtain more protector grade technology. That seems to be a theme for them, with much of the technology they deploy being based upon reverse engineered Samurai technology. It could very well be that the young Samurai is helping them, albeit unknowingly, in all likelihood.¡± That had Us frown. ¡°All that said, there are few that would pose a threat to them. And other than your presence, there would be very little reason for them to strike out against the redlight district. The Kanvai district, the Chasm, and the Dry Market would be much more useful targets for them.¡± ¡°Fucking grand¡­¡± we muttered with a sigh. ¡°Indeed. That is all we have to share with you. I have sent you all of that in the informational package, for you to peruse at your own leisure. Of course, should we obtain more information that would be of use to you, we will contact you, should you so wish.¡± We nodded at that, ¡°We would appreciate it. What would you want in return?¡± Sebastianughed easily, ¡°Your Majesty, this is as much to your benefit as it is to our own. Your involvement in cleaning up the infiltrators is payment enough. It saves us time and manpower and doesn¡¯t risk our position in local politics. Really, we can¡¯t thank you enough for the help.¡± ¡°Fair enough. You have our gratitude. If you ever need something from Us, feel free to contact Us. While we won¡¯t promise to act upon every request you might have, we will take the time to give it the thought it deserves. Please inform your Oyabun that we appreciate the help and that we are in your debt.¡± ¡°It was our pleasure,¡± he said with a smile, getting up. ¡°I am certain that Watanabe-sama will be delighted to hear that we were able to be of help. Now, I would not dare to keep you any longer. On behalf of ck Lotus, I wish you a sessful hunt.¡± He gave Us another bow, just as we got up as well. After a few more polite words, our guides led the three of us into the direction of the building that he had told us about. We could have just taken the shuttle, but from context we were certain that they wouldn¡¯t appreciate Us bringing in our forces into their territory. And they have been helpful, we didn¡¯t want to repay that with what could be understood as treason. ¡°Any thoughts?¡± we asked as we walked, having pulled Chloe and Jenna into a call. ¡°It stinks of stupid power ys,¡± Jenna said, disdain obvious in her voice. ¡°Yeah. Honestly, I would have expected people to be smarter than this. Then again, intelligence is a virtue that most don¡¯t share. Ormon sense, for that matter,¡± Chloe said, sounding equally displeased. ¡°Let¡¯s get this over with. Tiny is in position and will deploy soon. Time to fuck these idiots up and show them that the saying ¡®don¡¯t fuck with Samurai¡¯ exists for a fucking reason.¡±
I have a Discord! Also, I''ve made a . If you wish to support me on my endavours, I''d appreciate it greatly! At the moment you can read five chapters ahead on ''A Joytoy''s journey to be a Hive-Queen''! Chapter 61 – Hugs and Explosions! Chapter 61 ¨C Hugs and Explosions! Shatterstorm20444: yo have u heard of that sam in ns? IAMTHEONE27: which one idiot there r like ten Shatterstorm20444: the one with the weird aliens BowToYourKing99: u mean Myriad? Shatterstorm20444: dunno her name could be right tho IAMTHEONE27: what about her? Shatterstorm20444: i just saw that holo from her fight in the undercity that scorpion is he awesome IAMTHEONE27: bro thats like from days ago do you live on the moon or smth? Shatterstorm20444: wow r u able to keep up with everything all at the same time? some ppl have lives dude CuteyPie_R18_link_in_bio: FulcrumIsBest: that scorpion is super cool tho ngl Shatterstorm20444: ikr???? FulcrumIsBest: i heard that her entire swarm is like girls wish she would step on me - Excerpt from the Samurai Forums I had to admit, I was excited. Ever since Seraphine became a proper Hive-Mind, and I became aware, I wasn¡¯t able to do much. The only thing I ever really did after the incursion, and the battle in the undercity, was the trip to the Inner City and the megashelter, when I transported Jenna and Seraphine there. Not that I could me anyone for it. I was a giant scorpion the size of a doppeldecker bus. Okay, I was bigger, my cephalothorax and opisthoma was the size of a doppedecker bus. If I included my three tails, my eight legs, my two giant pincers, and the long arms hidden behind them, I was closer to a navy patrol boat in size, probably even a tadrger. Regardless of the details, the fact was that I wasn¡¯t exactly made for every day tasks. And that was why I had kind of be the main node for the Burdened, archiving and organising any information we obtained, hosting maps and information for the rest of the chorus to ess. Between all my upgrades that Seraphine had gotten when she first bought me, which in hindsight was a bit of a strange thing to say, it was the best way for me to contribute to the Hive. And I did my best to be useful. But now I could finally do something else! I could move around and do something! Sure, in a way it sucked that the reason for that was that some idiot was dumb enough to antagonise Seraphine and the redlight district, and honestly, I wasn¡¯t too big of a fan of fighting squishy humans, but at least I could get a workout. Sort of. The task at hand wasn¡¯t exactly demanding for me. Really, it was not much more than clean up. Still, it left me with a giddy feeling, while I stood at the edge of the main hangar of the Bastion of Hope. I kept an open line to Evelyn, mostly to organise with her and strategize our approach. Evelyn was a bit daft, which, okay, she was a very low ss AI. But it did make talking to her a bit boring. By this point I knew nearly her entire response routine, even having taken the time to write up my own interpretation of the code that was responsible for her responses, with my own tweaks and ideas. It was just an idle side project, since so far I hadn¡¯t been able to do much else. I had even sent it to Jenna and Cleopatra to check it over, and from what I could gather Cleopatra even implemented a part of it! She probably had to rewrite it all, my coding skills were limited to what I knew from the Cyberwarfare catalogue Seraphine had gotten to help Sabrina. Kaysa had helped me a bit to learn more, but it wasn¡¯t really a priority. Kaysa was nice. I liked talking to her a lot, she taught me so many things and she even gave me my name! A really cool name, and one I liked a lot. Tiny was a very nice name. Where was I? Oh yeah, standing at the edge of the hangar. Rocking from side to side in anticipation, a bit reminiscent of a scene from a certain anime from like 30 years ago about a girl being reincarnated into the body of a spider, another of my past times, I let out a roar. Okay, to say that I roared was wrong. I had to do some ratherplicated things with my internals to produce any kind of sound, since I didn¡¯t have a speaker or vocal cords of any kind. That said, I did figure out that if I pressed air through my biomass and scrap storage at just the right pressure, it produced a rather terrifying sounding howl. And that was better than nothing. And it was funny to see all the squishy humans run in fear. It made it so much easier for the rest of Us to clean up down there. It meant less dead. That was a very unfun and sad experience. I didn¡¯t like it when people died, and the stinging feeling I felt when other voices died made me shiver. Hopefully Seraphine could get that upgrade soon that meant that we wouldn¡¯t lose anyone anymore. I had taken great care to create nice memorial entries in our database for those we lost, making sure to include all the things they liked and putting up a chorus wide mental reminder to cherish those things on their behalf. Even now I was still polishing those entries, wanting to make sure I got everything just right and the way they would have wanted. It did make me kind of pissed, though. Typically I thought of myself as a bit of a pacifist, at least that¡¯s what I wanted for myself, but right now I had absolutely nopunctions about paying the idiots back that had taken those we lost away from Us. They were the ones to mess with Us first, and if they wanted to start a war with Us, a war they would get! From my vantage point I watched the Bastion of Hope close in on Kanvai District. Being up this high made the difference in design for most of the building quite obvious. And I could also see all these tiny, squishy humans that were crapping their pants in fear. Not that they were much bigger when I was up close, considering just how big I was. It took Evelyn a moment to find a propernding spot. She didn¡¯t actuallynd the Corvette, the thing was much too big for any kind of street to hold it, and the buildingplex she found to touch down on probably wouldn¡¯t be able to hold the weight of the thing. But at least I could get out without needing to jump, demolishing a street, and probably a building or two, in the process. I did make sure to get off of the building quickly, though. I really wasn¡¯t sure how much weight it was rated for, and I was certainly not a lightweight. I also didn¡¯t want to squish any innocent humans under a couple thousand tons of crumbling concrete. Climbing down the side of the building, vertical travel like this being child¡¯s y for me, I was already under attack from some of the squishy humans. Not that it did much, my carapace was much too tough for that kind of firepower. I was built to serve as a walking fortress, or break fortresses if need be. Hell, most bombs wouldn¡¯t do much to scratch me, much less some puny, low caliber rifles, high tech they might be. With an idle thought I returned fire, the myriad (hehe~) of Hard-Light emitters scattered around my carapace lighting up in a veritable light show of death and destruction. Someone had put upughable makeshift barriers, and many of the squishy humans tried to hide behind them to escape my onught. Of course, that didn¡¯t help at all; my weapons simply punched through the things and killed those behind it easily. The rest of the street was much like I had expected. I had run some scans of the area while Evelyn was preparing tond, and from all the different cameras, and the host of sensors I had at my disposal, I had managed to put together a rather urate map of our surroundings. After I made sure that nobody else would be trying to take ineffective potshots at me, I opened my maw and let out the War Drones I carried. They quickly got into position behind me, reinforced by four shuttles worth of additional drones. We had decided to send everything we had, from War Drones to the basic Hatchlings. Only those entirely unsuited tobat were left behind, a token force to protect the Corvette, not that it was needed, and to keep an eye on everything. Not wasting any time I made my way through the streets, caring little for the cars in my way. On any other day I might have tried to prevent coteral damage, but today I really wasn¡¯t in the mood. asionally I returned fire, when another group of squishy humans tried ineffectually to stop Us. I did make sure my return fire didn¡¯t demolish anything not responsible for my ire, though. Angry I might be, but I didn¡¯t want to let that out on the homes of those that had nothing to do with it. Cars were one thing, while it would suck, they could be reced rtively easily. Houses? That was a whole nother ballpark to lose. That said, it was not as easy as I wanted it to be. The streets were damn narrow, and while I tried to not demolish any houses too much, I couldn¡¯t entirely prevent damage when I pushed my way through. My legs were just too wide for that kind of thing. It also didn¡¯t help that we hadn¡¯t been able to deploy closer to the building that this Sebastian guy had told Seraphine about. Sebastian seemed really nice, and I wish I could talk to him a little. Really, I wish I could hug him, but he was squishy and I would probably kill him if I tried. Which was sad. Nice people deserved hugs! Less nice people didn¡¯t. And mean people deserved a full volley of Hard-Lightnces and a load of 22mm armor piercing incendiary rounds to the face. While I pushed through to our destination, the rest of our War Battalion following closely behind, Snuffles and her squad of Reavers, acting as Feastmasters, were busy behind me, disposing of the bodies. Not that we ate them, they were still human after all. But leaving them in the open street would probably scare off others. It also helped that some of them did have some interesting gear on them, which could help with finding out where they got their gear and information from. I was ripped out of my thoughts when a volley of rockets wasunched my way. Raising my pincers to shield both myself, and the rest of Us using me for cover, I didn¡¯t expect the sudden jolt of pain that shot through me. What the hell was that?! Apologies, Tiny. I should have warned you. These are not earth standard weapons. From optical analysis, they seem to be an earthen remake of the Single Use ¡®Simurgh¡¯s Tear¡¯ AA Rocket Launcher avable from the ss I Single Use Esoteric Explosive Devices Catalogue. While not quite as powerful as that weapon, it is more potent than any earthen alternatives. That was good to know and I sent Kaysa a thank you note. Now knowing what the highest threats were, I turned slightly, as much as I could anyway, baring my side for a full broadside volley of Hard-Lightnces. At the same time I lifted my left pincer and pointed the methrower built into it at the adversaries, while I used my second pincer to shield myself. Screams followed the wave of pure fire that I sent across the streets, cooking whoever was trying to attack Us, while the remainder were pierced by a number of Hard-Light projectiles. A myriad of projectiles, you might say, hehe~ It did clear up our opposition quickly, and I continued my trek through the narrow street, simply smashing through the flimsy barricades they put up. Really, I didn¡¯t even feel the resistance they put up. Of course, some managed to escape the devastation, be it by luck or skill, and those that I couldn¡¯t reach without turning buildings into heaping piles of scrap, were dealt with by the rest of Us quickly. The entire spiel repeated a couple of times, before I eventually pushed through to therge intersection that led to the building we were trying to reach. I had already seen from the distance that this was the most reinforced location, with a number of defensive measures waiting for Us. Almost immediately I was fired upon, both bullets and rocketsing my way. The rockets hurt a bit, and they did leave some rather nasty scratches on my pincers, but I did my best to ignore the pain and push into the intersection proper. Forgoing defence for a moment, I raised my right pincer and began to unload the 22mm heavy autocannon onto the defenders, focusing primarily on the APC¡¯s equipped with the rocketunchers. It dealt with the opposition quite nicely, and once the main threat was dealt with, I switched to focusing primarily on my Hard-Light emitters, since my autocannon had the nasty habit of destroying everything it hit, including the buildings around. Suddenly another wave of dizziness and cold rushed through me, around the same time a gunshot rang out a little further away. One of our War Drones had her head disintegrated into nothingness, and I howled in anger once more. Turning, I unloaded every weapon I had on the building from where the gunshot came from, obviously a sniper of some sort. The entire thing exploded in a shower of pulverised concrete and ss, killing whoever had just murdered another one of Us instantly. Doing a quick scan of our surroundings, trying to find any more surprises, I was reasonably sure that nobody else would manage to get a drop on Us. Satisfied with the oue, I took a moment to add the one we just lost to the memorial archive. I would polish it upter, once the entire mess was dealt with. Sadly I didn¡¯t have the time to do so right now. My mood was even more foul now, and for thest push I didn¡¯t care about coteral damage at all, simply forcing my way through the street leading to the building in question, taking a good chunk of the surrounding houses with me. Of course, they tried to stop me. I ignored the ineffective weapons and returned fire with everything I had, exploding, scorching, or simply killing them with Hard-Light projectiles as quickly as I could. It took longer than I would have liked, they really had reinforced thatst position. Then I was a bit surprised by a volley of Hard-Light projectiles from my right, followed by a ratherrge arrow that hit the building and exploded, taking a good chunk of the ss and concrete front with it. In my concentration and anger I had missed Seraphine, Chloe, and Jenna arriving from one side. It did make me feel better, though. Not wasting any time I charged the building, crashing through the first three floors and leaving an opening big enough for the rest of our forces to stream through, quickly followed by Seraphine, Chloe, and Jenna. Since I couldn¡¯t do much else I stayed where I was, turning and fighting off another wave of idiots who came up from behind Us. From the looks of things, they were likely survivors of those we had killed on our way here. Another brief light show halted their assault and I took a moment to question just how stupid they had to be. At some point I would have expected them to learn that shooting me with those tiny rifles wouldn¡¯t do anything. The answer was drugs, apparently. At least that was Snuffles hypothesis after she and her squad had cleaned up the bodies. It would make sense, I supposed. Another group came rushing in, this time opposite from the direction Seraphine hade from, and I nearly killed them all out of reflex, if it wasn¡¯t for Kaysa. Upon closer inspection these guys looked a bit morepetent, not random gang goons, instead more like a proper PMC. A guess that was confirmed when I spotted Cheryl, now fully geared up. It appears that our cavalry was here. Even if it really wasn¡¯t necessary. It was nice to meet her again, though, and with a quick thought I sent her a call request. She was startled for a moment, before she picked up. ¡°Hello!~~¡± I said cheerfully. ¡°Hello?¡± Cheryl sounded a bit confused, looking around. ¡°I¡¯m Tiny,¡± I said, giving her a wave with one of the lengthy arms that I typically hid behind my pincers. ¡°Fortress breaker and protector of our Hive. I¡¯m here, the giant scorpion!~¡± Finally she turned and looked up at me. ¡°Ah¡­ Okay. A pleasure, Tiny. We weren¡¯t sure if you needed help, but looking at things, I guess you didn¡¯t.¡± ¡°We¡¯re good~~ Really, it was easier than I expected. Then again, these are just gang goons, so they aren¡¯t really a threat. Even if they probably got some drugs. That¡¯s our theory anyway.¡± ¡°Wouldn¡¯t surprise me,¡± Cheryl muttered. ¡°We¡¯re gonna set up and secure the perimeter. Anything you need help with?¡± Her question was underlined by the shattering of ss, a scream, and a body falling out of the fifth floor. One of Us appeared at the now broken window, looked down to confirm the guy she just threw out of it was dead, before she turned and vanished once more. ¡°We¡¯re still clearing the building. So far, I don¡¯t think we need anything else. Thanks foring, though~~ I¡¯d offer some tea, buuuut I¡¯m not really made for that. Probably an upgrade worth considering for the future.¡± ¡°Yeah¡­ Since I already got you on call, we finished getting everyone back to the redlight district. Castas and his boys have it all in hand, they didn¡¯t lose anyone in the original attack.¡± ¡°Good to know! I¡¯ll let the rest of Us know, once things have calmed down a bit. Seraphine is pretty pissy. Best not distract her~~¡± I was distracted by a ratherrge explosion in the far distance, way past the district. Turning in the direction it came from, I saw a rather big pir of smoke slowly rising into the sky. ¡°The hell was that?¡± Cheryl asked, also turning, trying to figure out where the explosion hade from. It appears that Bahamut has just arrived near the Chasm. While I cannot give you any detailed information, ording to popr Samurai sighting forums she was observed leaving the Inner City a couple of minutes ago. ¡°That is curious¡­ Any idea of what she might be doing?¡± None. From the reports she did seem rather agitated, however. ¡°Anything you know?¡± Cheryl turned back to me, looking up. ¡°Bahamut is busy doing things. No clue what, though. We¡¯ll probably learn about it soon.¡± Then I got a call from Snapshot. Well, okay, Seraphine got the call, but she forwarded it to the rest of Us, and since I was not doing anything else, I picked it up, adding him to the call. ¡°Hello~~ Seraphine is busy right now, dealing with some fuckwits. How are you doing, Snapshot?¡± I asked, cheerily. ¡°Uhm¡­ Hey. Who are you?¡± ¡°I¡¯m Tiny! I¡¯m the big scorpion!¡± ¡°Ah¡­ Okay. And who¡¯s this?¡± The question was obviously directed towards Cheryl. ¡°That¡¯s Major Cheryl. She¡¯s helping Us in the redlight district. Now, why did you call?¡± Snapshot paused for a moment, probably contemting if he should speak with Cheryl present. Eventually, though, he sighed. ¡°I wanted to let you know that we found a lead on the whole lure thing. Bahamut is on it, said something about personal business. Not sure what exactly is going on, but if the data I got from her AI is anything to go by, XetaCorp, or at least some survivors that were part of XetaCorp, are involved.¡± ¡°Fuck¡­ That probably means I¡¯ll have to deal with more paperwork soon,¡± Cheryl muttered. ¡°Well, nothing for it.¡± ¡°Lots of paperwork.¡± Bahamut did not look pleased when she left,¡± he said with a sigh, before returning his attention back to me. ¡°Anything you figured out in the old industrial district?¡± ¡°Nope~ We had to pull our scouts out. Chloe said that she wanted to look into it tomorrow, since Seraphine will be busy with her job. Can¡¯t tell you anything more, though, sorry.¡± ¡°It¡¯s fine. Maybe Bahamut will have it dealt with by then. Anyways, good luck out there with whatever you are doing.¡± ¡°Just cleaning up a district and killing a couple dozen idiots who thought it was a smart idea to fuck with a Hive-Mind. Exciting stuff!¡±
I have a Discord! Also, I''ve made a . If you wish to support me on my endavours, I''d appreciate it greatly! At the moment you can read five chapters ahead on ''A Joytoy''s journey to be a Hive-Queen''! Chapter 62 – From anticlimactic finale to the best day EVER! Chapter 62 ¨C From anticlimactic finale to the best day EVER! ¡°And we are back. Another week, another samurai to highlight on Magenta¡¯s Sparkling Samurai show! Today, we have Myriad andpany, and to help me we have our guest host of this week: You might love her but are more likely to hate her, please wee Maniac!¡± ¡°Really, that is the introduction you are going with? Well, whatever¡­¡± ¡°You can¡¯t tell me that statement is wrong.¡± ¡°Oh, shut up¡­ Okay, before we get distracted by your tangents again, let¡¯s talk Myriad. She is¡­ well¡­¡± ¡°Ooh, what is it? Use your words; I know you have plenty.¡± ¡°Well, she definitely has that gacha thirst trap look to her, so if any of you watching would like to see something nice for a change, definitely take a look at her. Anyway, on to powers: Maniac is a Hive-Mind. Maniac? For fuck sake, Glowstick, fix your handwriting.¡± ¡°You know that we are not talking about you, right?¡± ¡°Not my fault you write like a five-year old on a sugar rush. Moving on, being a Hive-Mind, huh? That sounds¡­ well,plicated. The only people I know that are Hive-Minds are either insanely lonely or so full of themself they want an army of mindless followers.¡± ¡°That is not so nice. We are supposed to talk about their good points. If you don¡¯t know any of those, why are you even on the show?¡± ¡°Because without me, you would not have camera footage from the American securitywork to show off her assets.¡± ¡°What do you mean by that then?¡± ¡°Well, this is definitely the fanservice episode of your stream." - Start of the Sparkling Samurai show episode 152: The Benefits of Being Hot Fighting in close quarters, especially inside a building, was a fucking nightmare. We were used to small gang shootouts, not people with actual gear trying to mow Us down with fully automatic rifles. Rifles, we would like to add, that punched straight through the interior walls of most of the offices. Whoever decided to reinforce this building, obviously didn¡¯t care even a lick about the lives of their workers. But hey, at least it was bomb proof! Okay, it really wasn¡¯t, not if you were determined enough. Or had a giant scorpion tearing through the front of the building. But we digress. Making a small opening in the Hard-Light dome we had projected around Chloe, Jenna, and ourselves, we sent ance down the hallway to kill off the idiot trying to murder Us. Snuffles had postted that they were most likely on some form of drug, and now, seeing them up close, we were pretty sure that was the case. No way in hell would anyone not high on something potent be able to take one of Chloe¡¯s shotgun shells, lose an entire arm, and just continue functioning as if nothing happened. Jenna¡¯s Sentinels moved across the hallway, acting as a sort of formation breaker. She could only use her smaller Sentinels, therger being too tall to be of use in the confined space of the building. We were nearly at the top of the building by now, only one floor down from where the leaders had barricaded themselves in the head honchos office. A few of Us had secured the parking garage first, to ensure nobody would be able to leave without our say-so. We didn¡¯t block all of them from leaving, the poor office workers that had nothing to do with this mess could go. We weren¡¯t here to murder innocents, only to fuck up the life of those who decided it was a smart idea to mess with Us. And ording to Kaysa, not all of them were involved, which wasn¡¯t too much of a surprise, truth be told. Really, most of them were more victims than anything else, folk who did a dead end job to pay their bills. You couldn¡¯t even argue that they were doing anything too bad, most of what they did was legally questionable, but didn¡¯t actively harm anyone other than other corporations, which we could totally get behind. While the three of us made our way up, the rest of Us was busy clearing out the floors below. Any soldier was killed, with those that were involved but not actively harming Us or anyone else, being taken prisoner. Rounding a corner, with Chloe going first, of course, we cleared the hallway towards thest set of stairs. Having her here was a godsend. While we had some experience fighting people, that was all in the context of small gang shootouts, not proper urban warfare. Arriving on the top most floor, we were almost immediately fired upon. ¡°Fuck!¡± Chloe cursed, taking cover behind the corner of the stairwell and returning fire with her shotgun. When it clicked empty, she threw it to one side, where it vanished. Another weapon appeared, this time a rifle of sorts. Not wasting any time, she hefted it andid down covering fire, while two of Jenna¡¯s Sentinels rushed forwards, taking the hits of the enemy rifles on their massive tower shields, before cutting down our adversaries. Once the way was clear, we continued upward, carefully keeping our eyes open. A sudden movement to our left alerted Us, and with a single motion our Hard-Light polearm appeared, cutting through the weapon of the attacker. We had aimed for the attacker themselves, but our skill with the weapon was mediocre at best. It did give Chloe enough time to react, however, and a momentter the woman¡¯s head exploded when Chloe put a ratherrge round through it that detonated upon contact. Once more sweeping our surroundings, we made sure we were in the clear, before we moved over to the corner leading towards thest hallway. Chloe peeked around, then immediately retreated, when a barrage of bullets came flying down the hallway. ¡°Shit, they¡¯ve got turrets.¡± ¡°Hold on,¡± we muttered, quickly pulling up our virtual realm, ¡°We¡¯ll try and disable them. Kaysa, some pointers?¡± With the help of Kaysa we hacked into the building¡¯swork, and from there into the securitywork. The security on thatwork was shoddy at best, it seemed the folk responsible didn¡¯t bother toe up with better security measures. Sucks for them, but good for Us, and we wouldn¡¯tin. After around a minute we finally had what we wanted. The only reason we even got it this fast was Kaysa¡¯s tremendous help. Tiny had already asked for a more dedicated training course for this kind of thing, and we had to agree that it would be helpful. Once we got some points to spend on dream learning, we¡¯d definitely add it to our list. With the turrets dealt with, Chloe moved into the hallway, weapon raised. No further surprises were waiting for us, and soon we stood in front of the door, leading to the office that the leaders had barricaded themselves in. Chloe didn¡¯t try any fancy tricks to get it open, simply purchasing a small explosive and sticking it onto the door. One explosionter, the door flew inwards, incapacitating the guards already waiting. Guards we made quick work of, before they could recover. It left us standing in a ratherrge office, a long, faux-wooden table decorating it. Six people were sitting around it, with one in a ratherrge office chair at one end. The rest had cheaper looking chairs, probably less important members of their little organisation. They were all male, roughly between thirty and forty if we¡¯d have to guess, and all wore suits. The cheap kind that was trying to look expensive, but failed fantastically at it. The way they held themselves, together with their shoddy suits, made it obvious that they wanted to appear as wealthy and powerful, but really, with how pale they all were, that fell t entirely. That said, we weren¡¯t sure if it was an act or genuine arrogant attitude, they did seem inclined to try and bluster their way through this mess. ¡°Well, well, what do we have here? Seems like Sebastian was a bit off on the number of fucks in charge,¡± we said with an evil smile. ¡°You have no right to be here,¡± the man in the big office chair said. To his credit, his voice was only a little shaky. ¡°We¡¯ve already called for the police, this intrusion will not stand. This is a krass invasion of privacy, destruction ofpany property, and harm to personnel.¡± Weughed at that, ¡°Are you honestly this daft to think that the police wille anywhere near Us, once they learn that Samurai are involved? Three Samurai, we might add. Not something most folk would dare to go against.¡± ¡°Samurai or not, we have done nothing to elicit this kind of response. The moment you touch us, ourwyers and media teams will crush you like a bug. I would advise you to turn around and leave this office right now. Wait outside for the police to take you in. If you do, we might even drop some of the charges we could levy against you.¡± ¡°You¡¯ve done nothing?¡± we asked, raising our eyebrows. The gall of this guy. ¡°You sent an attack force into the redlight district with the distinct goal of dealing with Us, and our turf. You¡¯ve hired up all the gangs in the surrounding area and turned them into your own Private Army. A shit army, sure, but an army nheless. Are you honestly saying that you had nothing to do with all of that?¡± ¡°Nothing more than a simple misunderstanding, I assure you,¡± another of the men said. His tone was even more self-indulgent than the first, if that was even possible. ¡°We sent word to a few contacts that they should clean up the gangs, since they were threatening our businesses. It is amon procedure and nothing out of the ordinary. One of them must have misunderstood the orders. We can find out who it was and deliver them to you, of course. Such reckless action, especially going againstpany policy, must be punished.¡± We stared in disbelief. Then we sighed, rubbing our face. ¡°Tell me again why we have rules against eating idiots?¡± we asked Chloe and Jenna absently. ¡°Because you don¡¯t want to end up like the Devourer of Worlds,¡± Chloe said with a bit of humour in her voice. ¡°That said,¡± Jenna continued, overying a thoughtful expression and tapping her chin lightly. ¡°If I remember this correctly, I am pretty certain you said you didn¡¯t want to eat people. You never specified that you would never eat idiots. And considering the verbal diarrhoeaing out of these guys'' mouths, I¡¯m pretty sure they would fall quite firmly into that category.¡± ¡°True enough, we suppose. Regardless,¡± we turned back to the idiots in question, expression serious. We were done ying games. ¡°All your running around the point is useless. The idiots you sent into ck Lotus territory cracked like an egg, spilled all your dirty little secrets. As much as they knew, of course. We have to admit, that group you were working with was a lot better at covering their tracks, but they didn¡¯t do jack shit to help cover for your asses. Obsidian Gaze had a field day of cracking and entering your servers¡­ Uhm, allegedly? We think. That¡¯swyer speak, right? Anyways, we have all the details that you hosted online, or on your buildingswork. No amount of moaning and bluffing andining can pull you out of this one. And thanks to our little helpful AI, we also know that at least two of you are connected to XetaCorp. We¡¯re thinking that Bahamut would love to know all about it.¡± Kaysa had perused all the information avable on thework while we were talking, and the small little tit bits of information she managed to pull were equal parts disgusting, and illuminating. We smiled, ¡°So this is how it¡¯s going to go. We¡¯ll notify Bahamut about you two specifically. The rest will die and be biomass to replenish our forces. Maybe you¡¯d actually be useful then.¡± One of the men sighed, looking¡­ resigned? We weren¡¯t sure if that was the right descriptor, but whatever the word for his expression was, it was clear that he had already epted his fate. He was the only one who seemed genuinely resentful of the whole mess, even if that was very likely not because of any remorse about the damage he caused, but simply because of the fact that he couldn¡¯t escape the consequences. ¡°I told you from the get go that this was a bad idea, Sam,¡± he muttered, ring at the man seated at the end of the table. ¡°Shut it, Peter,¡± Sam shot back, sounding agitated. ¡°No, I won¡¯t. If we¡¯re going to die anyways, I at least want to be able to tell you that I told you so. Well, Sam, I fucking told you so. Your ¡®security measures¡¯,¡± he actually made air quotes around the term, ¡°are worth fuck all. Like I told you from the beginning!¡± We gave Peter a smile. ¡°You seem talkative. We know most of what we care about already, but if you¡¯d indulge Us, why don¡¯t you tell Us the details about your little operation? Who knows, prove useful enough and we might actually let you live.¡± He sighed, shaking his head. ¡°Doesn¡¯t matter much anyways, now does it? Very well, might as well set some things strai-¡± Sam moved, pulling his hands from under the table. He held a pistol, levelling it at Peter, finger already on the trigger, but Chloe was Chloe, and Chloe was awesome, so she was faster. Her rifle moved, then a shot rang out. Sam¡¯s head disintegrated, red mist covered his, no doubt, expensive chair, and the window behind him shattered as the bullet passed through. People screamed, of course. After a moment we returned our attention back to Peter. ¡°Pardon. You were saying?¡± Rounding up everyone left in the building took a while. Time we used by questioning Peter, who turned out to be rather helpful. From what he told Us, they had been trying to build up apany that dealt in Samurai tech. Most of the shit they got was obtained illegally, some was bought up, some was given to them by the Samurai they had in their employ. As Sebastian had postted, she had no clue what was going on, thinking that they were using the tech to distribute it around the district. While all of them were involved in various ways, the main culprit was Sam, to nobody¡¯s surprise. He was one of the survivors of the XetaCorp disaster, which did suck a bit, considering that we wanted to hand them both over to Bahamut, and had gotten it into his head to stamp out any Samurai that might be a threat in the future, which would exin his idiotic n of attacking the redlight district. Peter also revealed that Sam was behind the lures under the gate. He wanted to use it to pull all the xenos together and kill them with some super weapon, using that as marketing to sell some of their tech to some of the biggerpanies in the Inner City. Something went sideways, though, the people who were tasked with using the weapon at the gate did a runner, leaving the lures on. And since Sam and hisckeys were about as smart as a drug addict on the verge of overdosing, they hadn¡¯t thought about implementing a secondary way to shut the lures off. Wonderful. The entire thing reeked of sheer ipetence. Not that we were surprised. After all was said and done, it was a massive waste of time and money on Sam¡¯s part, one setback after another leading to more debt and the feeling of inadequacy, which just spurred him on to make more and more stupid decisions. Peter was an investor as it turned out, lured in by Sam¡¯s promises, but he eventually learned just how much of a dimwit Sam was. We were sure that he left out a good bit about his own involvement, not that we cared much. We kept our promise and let him live, instead handing him over to the authorities. The rest we killed. They were much less cooperative, trying to sell Us whatever they could to keep them alive. One even had the absolute gall of insinuating that he could get Us as many people as we wanted to serve as our ¡®servants¡¯. The word ve wasn¡¯t used, but we were pretty sure that was what he meant, considering his use of the term ''indentured servants¡¯. No clue why he thought that such an offer would be anything but disgusting. Snuffles made short work of him, turning him into another Hatchling, first. The rest followed quickly after, but they were the only ones we decided to devour. Theirckeys might have been bought up by them and followed their orders, but what can you do in the Outer City, when you get an offer to actually make enough money to survive for a change. We couldn¡¯t begrudge them for that. That said, the cleanup of the district wasn¡¯t finished. They had a number of the safehouses, all of which we had to check and clear. This would probably take another day or two, although for this we utilised mostly Jenna¡¯s Sentinels. Of course, we did our part, and a few of Us were involved, but considering that her Sentinels didn¡¯t need to eat or sleep, it was more energy efficient. Watching the police car fly off with Peter in the backseat, we stood at the entrance to the building. Cheryl had left a while ago, after talking to Us about various aspects of the redlight district. Her superiors had tried to get her to nt some bugs and whatnot around town, but she told them to do it themselves and deal with the fallout themselves as well. Really, we were a bit surprised that she was this open with Us about it, but then again, she had made it clear from the get go that she was taught to never lie to a Samurai. And we had asked her if there was anything we should know about. We had also, after some discussion, decided to inform the Family about the Samurai girl that these fuckwits had been using to obtain more tech. We weren¡¯t the right people to deal with it, and while we did feel for her, we were really not in the right headspace either. If it was up to Us, we¡¯d go full gungho on the rest of these fucks. Honestly, we were just d to hear that they did nothing else to her. Otherwise this part of New Savannah might have needed aplete rebuild. Maybe even more than just this district¡­ ¡°What a day,¡± we muttered, and I took the time to emerge from the chorus once more. ¡°I¡¯m so ready to head home.¡± ¡°I feel you. Hopefully we won¡¯t have to deal with anything else any time soon,¡± Chloe agreed, taking off her helmet, andbing through her hair with one hand. ¡°Don¡¯t forget, we have that expedition in two days time,¡± Jenna said, stretchingvishly, and I took the time to admire her a little. ¡°I know. Well, at least that one should be easy. Killing xenos, making points, getting shit done. Not this mess,¡± Chloe muttered, then sighed. ¡°Wanna head home then? We can clean up the rest here, no need for us to stand around like this.¡± I gave her a smile. ¡°Sure. Let¡¯s. I could use some rest.¡± Then Chloe startled me, by pulling me into a hug. She gave me a peck, before she pulled me closer, my head nuzzled in the slightly ufortable metal of her chestte, and her head nestled between my mechanical ears. ¡°Hey,¡± I said softly, ¡°What brought this on?¡± ¡°I just felt like it,¡± she replied, ¡°Honestly, I kind of just want to spend the rest of the day cuddling. Call me needy, but after all of that bullshit, it sounds like a pleasant way to spend the day.¡± ¡°Oh? Now that is something I can get behind,¡± I said with a smile, squeezing her gently. ¡°And I don¡¯t mind you being needy. It¡¯s nice.¡± ¡°Mhm¡­¡± ¡°Want me to give you some room? The bedroom can be turned soundproof,¡± Jenna said with a smirk, watching us. I was about to give her a snide remark in return, teasing her right back, when Chloe surprised me again. ¡°Honestly, that doesn¡¯t sound like a bad idea.¡± I paused, extricating myself slightly to look up at her. ¡°Okay, what¡¯s going on? Not that I don¡¯t appreciate the sentiment, but this seems a bit too forward for you.¡± She chuckled, blushing faintly. ¡°Is it? My memories of yesterday are a bit hazy, but I¡¯m pretty sure I had my entire tongue in Junior¡¯s mouth at some point. And I can¡¯t say that I disliked it. Really, even I realise that I might just be dragging my feet a bit at this point. Ever since the simtion and all that¡­ I dunno, it just¡­ doesn¡¯t really feel like all the stuff I was worried about matters much anymore.¡± ¡°Oh?¡± Jenna asked, her smirk widening. ¡°Finally ready to be honest with yourself?¡± Chloe gave her a mock re, making me giggle, before she smiled again. Her blush did deepen quite a bit, of course. ¡°Maybe. I really don¡¯t mind the idea of spending some time with Seraphine behind closed doors. Hell, our shower together already left me¡­ wanting for more. And I think we all could use some rxation after today.¡± ¡°You won¡¯t hear meining,¡± I said, getting on my tippy toes and nting a peck on her cheek. ¡°If you¡¯re up for it, I¡¯m up for it. And I would be lying if I said I haven¡¯t thought extensively about it.¡± The shuttlended nearby, and she finally let go of me, taking my hand with a smile. ¡°Then maybe we should just see how it goes, hm?¡± I giggled and nodded, ¡°Yeah.¡± The idea was already enough to lift my spirits after today¡¯s disasters, and I found myself looking forward to it. We made our way over to the shuttle, Chloe still holding my hand, which made me all kinds of giddy, something made obvious by Tiny¡¯s happy jiggle. Chloe noticed and chuckled, obviously a bit self-conscious and blushing. But she squeezed my hand more tightly, pulling me closer. The entire situation left me feeling a bit¡­ confused. After today¡¯s excitement, this sudden development; it shed in my mind. I wouldn¡¯tin, of course, I was really giddy, but I also didn¡¯t know how to take it all in. The dichotomy of the two emotions was confusing. That said, I did im herp as my seat for the trip back to the corvette, leaning into her, something she obviously appreciated and reciprocated. I halfway expected Jenna toment, but she didn¡¯t, simply watching us with a smile for a change. The trip back was spent infortable silence, all the way until we touched down. ¡°I¡¯m going to have a long shower, probably a bath. Unless you want to?¡± Jenna said, as she got up. ¡°I don¡¯t mind either way. Hell, I don¡¯t mind you joining in,¡± Chloe said with an embarrassed smile. I giggled at that, ¡°You really are quite bold, all of a sudden.¡± ¡°Yeah¡­ I think¡­ I think seeing you today, this terrified and this brought down by¡­ you know, it kind of made me realise where I stood. I want to be closer to you, you know? To be there for you. Really, I wanted to do that for a little while now, but there has always been something holding me back. Today was just that final push, I think. And really, if I¡¯m honest with myself, I feel simr, if not the same, for Jenna. If we wanna see how it goes, why not go all the way?¡± ¡°That¡¯s up to Jenna, to be honest,¡± I said, giving Jenna a nce, ¡°You know how I feel about you both. She¡¯s the one you have to convince.¡± Jenna looked at us, much to my surprise seriously considering it. I wasn¡¯t quite sure what exactly held her up until now. She had let some details through during our chat in the simtion, but she also had been reserved. ¡°I¡­¡± she started, then stopped, searching for the right words. ¡°Maybe¡­ Maybe not today. Sorry. There is still some stuff I need to work through first. I¡­ I think I feel the same, somewhere deep down. But it¡¯s a bit of a mess that I need to get through, first. Again, sorry.¡± ¡°It¡¯s okay,¡± Chloe said, ¡°I¡¯m sorry if I¡¯ming off as a bit pushy. Right now I feel like I gotta give it the juice, while I still have the willpower to actually go through with it. Truth be told, I¡¯m kind of really fucking terrified and anxious about it all, for various reasons.¡± ¡°It¡¯s fine. You make yourself a pleasant evening with Seraphine. So, you want that bath?¡± Jenna asked, obviously trying to change the topic. ¡°Nah. You go ahead. We¡¯ll probably need one after, more than before,¡± I told her with a smile. Then I finally got up, pulling Chloe up behind me. This wasn¡¯t the situation I thought I¡¯d find myself in before spending quality time with Chloe, but I also didn¡¯t mind. The entire day had been a bit of a mess, and ending it on a good note was a nice thought. Together the three of us made our way out of the shuttle and towards the leisure room. The rest of Us were obviously all just as giddy as I felt. Myra, Joenna, Keity, and Celine greeted Us, Joenna following after Jenna to help with whatever she needed, while the other three prepared snacks for after we were done. Despite her earlier statement, Jenna couldn¡¯t quite stop herself from blushing faintly when she gave us a couple ofments about enjoying ourselves, even if she overshadowed it well with her trademark teasing smirk. Chloe was, as was typical for her, blushing, but she didn¡¯t pull away, actually leading me into the bedroom, rather than the other way around. Once inside I made sure to lock the door and engage the sound proofing system. Turning I found her looking rather awkward, giving me a blushing smile, which was just so insanely adorable. Despite the awkwardness, her bodynguage spoke of someone who was eager to press ahead, even if she couldn¡¯t find the willpower to do so herself. She didn¡¯t have to. Ever since I met her, and especially once I got to know her, I had wanted to throw myself at her, tackle her over and just im her as mine. And for the first time ever since that day, I let myself go, finally stopping to hold back all those urges. With an eager dash, I tackled her to the bed, locking her into a long, deep, and passionate kiss. One she reciprocated almost immediately with a needy eagerness. Needless to say, it didn¡¯t take long before we did a whole lot more than just kissing.
I have a Discord! Also, I''ve made a . If you wish to support me on my endavours, I''d appreciate it greatly! At the moment you can read five chapters ahead on ''A Joytoy''s journey to be a Hive-Queen''! Chapter 63 – The expedition begins Chapter 63 ¨C The expedition begins ¡°Are you sure this is a good idea?¡± ¡°Stop worrying so much! You¡¯ve seen how much thought we put into this, right?¡± ¡°Yeah, which is why I¡¯m asking.¡± ¡°Ah, you¡¯re such a worrywart. Just lean back, rx, and watch the moneye in. This is foolproof. What could possibly go wrong?¡± - Recording of two Crescent Thorn members, 2055 As it turned out, Chloe was a bit of a pervert herself. Sure, by far not as much of one as I was, she was pretty tamepared to me. Then again, most people were, and those that weren¡¯t wouldn¡¯t have danced around the point for this long. In Chloe¡¯s case, she was insanely awkward and insecure at the beginning. Which was to be expected, and I doubted that my being a whole lot more experienced helped in that regard. That said, she got over herself rtively quickly. And once she did, well¡­ Needless to say, the entire evening was most certainly not what I originally expected from our first night together. I didn¡¯t mean that in a bad way. Knowing me, I probably would have tackled it very much like any other client, but Chloe broke me out of that mould almost instantly. She had this way of justpletely blindsiding me in the best ways. And that made for a much better first time than I could have hoped for. She also, as it turned out, had a bit of a thing for me making the rounds. I had already expected as much from herments so far, but to have it said aloud was quite nice. Not that it was excessive, and not to the degree where she wanted me to actively seek out others, but within the confines of my job she did get off on the idea. It was a new experience for me, but not one I disliked. Really, it gave me a kind of excitement that I have never really felt before. With clients it¡¯s always obvious what I do for a living. Some even tried to get me to give it up and live with them, since they really didn¡¯t like the idea of sleeping with someone that also slept with others, even if it was just in a professional capacity. Chloe was the opposite, and that just helped so much. She epted me for who I was, and even enjoyed it. I realised only after that first night, just how lucky I was. For a variety of reasons that was far too long to list, really, but in this case I meant in terms of her preferences. It also wasn¡¯t the only kink she showed a rather strong inclination for. After our first time we spent quite a long time just talking, and she confided in me that voyeurism and exhibitionism were both kinks she was interested in. Of course, she hadn¡¯t tried anything like it before, at best maybe watching a porn holo or two. Knowing that, though, I decided to indulge her a little on our next night together. And so, after I spent the day at the brothel with a few clients, something that had her really riled up by the time I got home, we decided to experiment a little with the bedroom¡¯s capabilities of disying different surroundings. She wasn¡¯t interested in actually going out there and trying something risky. At least not yet, by this point I wasn¡¯t sure where things would go with her, although even with her quite enthusiastic approach, I doubted that she would go for it anytime soon. But it did make for quite some interesting experiences. I had no inhibitions about being watched or watching others; by this point it should probably be clear that I was far from normal. But for her it was rather exciting, and I was a bit surprised she was so quickly getting used to the idea in general. Sure, the folk on the screens were all justputer generated people, and she didn¡¯t want anything more than that, but it did seem to flick her switch. The real kicker, however, awaited me and the rest of Us around halfway through our little exhibitionist fun. So far I focused more on her pleasure, that being what I was used to, which had ended with my own needs taking a bit of a backseat. Not that I minded too terribly, she was insanely sexy and adorable and I wanted to make sure her first time, or in this case, second time, was worth remembering. She was new to all of this, and I wanted to make sure she wasfortable and enjoyed herself. That changed when we took a short break for her to calm down a little. Chloe really did her best to keep up with me, but she was by far not as used to this as I was, and so we both decided to take things a little more slowly. During this break we got to talking, and after going back and forth a little bit, she suddenly, and out of nowhere, asked Us to be ourselves. To truly be ourselves, speech and all, to stop trying to make herfortable and pay attention to our own needs for a bit. That had to be, hands down, the best thing we ever experienced. At first we were a bit hesitant, still unsure if we should push our luck this much. But Chloe really tried her best, and after she figured out what we preferred, which for a change was a bit of a rougher approach for the evening, something we normally didn¡¯t go for that much, she did her best to acquiesce to our wishes. It was suitably awkward, but neither of us minded, and so we got to see Mistress Chloe a little bit, which was damn fucking sexy. It wasn¡¯t her preference, that much was clear, but it was also clear that she wanted to repay Us for our attempts to make her feel good. With all that said, our second night together had gotten a bit more¡­ messy, then I think either of us originally nned. Not that either of us were inclined toin. The evening ended with a nice cuddle session, Chloe still preferring that over the more strenuous activities. It was a nice end to an amazing night with our new girlfriend, and one we would never forget. It was the day of the Hive expedition, and we had woken up first, right next to the gorgeous woman that had been part of our life ever since that first incursion in which we became a Samurai. It made Us realise just how lucky we were, not only in having met her, and Jenna, of course, but also with where our life was going in general. Sure, there were some things that really fucking sucked. The whole Sarah episode and the death of some of Us were definitely things we could have done without, not to mention the idiots who decided it was a fantastic idea to fuck with the redlight district. And, of course, there were also the aliens who wanted to make a meal out of everyone. But in the grand scheme of things, we were quite happy with how things had turned out. Chloe was still a teeny tiny bit embarrassed everytime we woke up together, but that quickly vanished when she leaned over and kissed Us. We weren¡¯t sure if that was just a thing with her general inclination to cuddle, or if she just really enjoyed kissing, but she managed to be even more of a kisser than we were, and that was saying something. ¡°Morning,¡± Chloe mumbled with a goofy smile, once we broke our kiss. ¡°Morning, love,¡± we replied, our face decorated with an equally silly smile, lovingly staring into her deep brown eyes, eyes we could get lost in for eternity. ¡°Sleep okay?¡± ¡°Mhm¡­ I had some really nice dreams. Strangely there is always this one girl who pops up in them. A really nice one.¡± She smirked. We smirked right back. ¡°Oh? Maybe you should introduce us.¡± ¡°Hm¡­ Not sure. I kind of want her all for myself.¡± She underlined her statement by squeezing Us closer a little bit. ¡°She must be one lucky girl then, huh?¡± She giggled, then leaned in once more for another kiss. Reciprocating the kiss in full, leaning into her and giving ourselves to herpletely, we embraced her, pulling her close. She answered in kind, and so we quickly ended up on top of her once more, a position we seemed to find ourselves in quite frequently, ever since our first time. ¡°So, today¡¯s the day. Ready to squash some xenos?¡± She asked, when we eventually separated once more. ¡°You really know how to invite ady to a date,¡± we said with a snicker, then smiled at her again. ¡°We¡¯re ready. Hopefully nothing elsees along to annoy us.¡± ¡°I think we¡¯re good on that front. I am rather curious what the entire thing will look like, though. From the little I¡¯ve seen in the meeting, it appears to be a bit of a mess to sort through.¡± ¡°True enough. But at least it¡¯s a mess we can deal with.¡± She made an agreeable noise, leaning back into the pillows. Both of us were quiet for a moment, before she spoke up, her tone slightly distracted. ¡°Sometimes I wonder how I ended up here. So much happened ever since I became a Samurai, and even more ever since I met you. Don¡¯t get me wrong, I¡¯m very happy with where I am, but it certainly isn¡¯t where I expected my life to go. Not only did I find myself a¡­ girlfriend,¡± she blushed at the word, ¡°My girlfriend is also a Hive-Mind made up of antithesis devouring Hexws that somehow manage to be insanely adorable. On top of that, we¡¯re now living in a flying home in the form of a spaceship, owned by a woman we both very much have a crush on, with the hope of having her join our little rtionship, if we¡¯re lucky, and I also have more money than I could ever dream of. If I didn¡¯t know any better, I¡¯d be asking when the other shoe would drop.¡± We snickered at that, nuzzling ourselves closer to her. ¡°Life certainly can take some strange turns, doesn¡¯t it? We never thought we¡¯d be anything other than a Joytoy. The idea of being a Samurai is already more than we ever hoped to dream of, and even then, we¡¯d never thought we¡¯d end up the way we are. And while there were many things we could have gone without¡­ We¡¯re happy as well. More than happy, really. It almost seems too perfect. But we wouldn¡¯t trade this for the world.¡± We stayed in bed for a little while longer, just enjoying each other¡¯spany. Neither of us was inclined to break the moment. Eventually, though, we decided it was time to get up. The day ahead of us was going to be eventful, and we wanted to prepare ordingly. ¡°Come on, let¡¯s go,¡± we said with a smile, gently pulling Chloe up after Us. ¡°Yeah. I love you, you know?¡± ¡°We love you too. Very, very much.¡± After some more kissing, because of course such a deration had to be rewarded, we finally managed to leave the bedroom. Jenna was already awake,ing out of the shower. We exchanged some morning greetings, before Chloe and Us stepped into the shower. We did hurry a little, and once we were done, we met with Jenna for a quick breakfast, prepared by Keity, Celine, and Joenna, before we made our way over to the cockpit of the Corvette. Chloe gave all of Us we came across a good morning hug and kiss, which was just¡­ Thinking was hard, at the moment. We were giddy like we¡¯ve never been before, and it only intensified when we sat down in themand seats. With the cross between sleek sci-fi goodness and the more homey modern design, it made Us feel like we were about to venture into an adventure amongst the stars. Since we would be joining the expedition soon, we had all dressed up in our Samurai gear. It made Chloe¡¯sp slightly lessfortable, considering her heavy armor, but we didn¡¯t mind. And we would rather be ready for anything, just in case we had to act fast. Glubber, the Samurai who had led the original meeting, had sent all of the participants a status update, as well as an invite to the Family chat rooms. We connected them to our virtual realm, running dualmunications for ease of use. That also allowed the rest of Us to participate. That had been a rather hrious thing to witness. The Family chat room had a couple dozen people at best, Samurai and not, all there to coordinate and organise. After we had joined up, the chatroom suddenly ballooned to over ten times the size, everyst one of Us present. Of course, we limited ourselves to only a couple of Us who would participate actively, but for the rest it was an easy way to glean any important information. After everyone had joined up, Glubber pulled us all into a call. Well, not the entirety of our Hive, that was just unnecessary, but Junior and Tiny were both present, as was the Queen¡¯s Guard, Snuffles, and, of course, Bellona. The rest were all the Samurai who had joined the expedition. ¡°Wee, everyone,¡± Glubber said as they began the impromptu meeting. Their voice was rather strange, bubbly and poppy, somewhat simr to hot tar. ¡°As you have all been briefed, today will be the start of our expedition to deal with the Hive¡¯s outside of town. Before we begin I would like to address a fewmonly asked questions, just to make sure we are on the same page.¡± They were quiet for a moment, before they continued. ¡°First, why don¡¯t we just bomb them? The answer to that is simple. It needs very little antithesis biomass to spawn even more Hives, bombing them would send tons of the stuff into the atmosphere to be transported miles away. The risk of creating dozens more Hives is much too big for us to seriously consider this as anything but ast resort.¡± There was another moment of silence, perhaps to invite questions, perhaps just for Glubber to organise their thoughts. Nobody spoke up, though. ¡°Second, why aren¡¯t the high tier Samurai dealing with this? Well, they are, in a way. The Hives we will be tackling today are well established and dug in deep. Even someone like Bahamut would have trouble decisively dealing with them without spreading more biomass. Additionally, New Savannah doesn¡¯t have a big Samurai presence. Because of this, we have decided that it makes more sense for those who are not as well established yet to obtain more points. Once you all are more capable of dealing with such threats in the future, everyone in this city will be safer. So far the high tier Samurai, as many as we have anyway, have done their best to prune the antithesis. Hopefully, at the end of this expedition, such will no longer be required.¡± ¡°Pardon me,¡± a familiar voice spoke up. It appeared Mask had found some time to join in after all. We weren¡¯t sure if she was here with all her bodies, but from herment when we met her a couple days prior, we thought it unlikely. ¡°Yes?¡± Glubber asked, allowing her to speak. ¡°Perhaps I am simply ignorant, since I am rather new, but why exactly do we not have more high tier Samurai?¡± Glubber sighed, the bubbling sound a rather curious thing to listen to. ¡°That would be because of the Hives in question. A few years ago we tried to eradicate them, but we were ill prepared and rushed our attack. Most died, some decided to leave right after. This time we are better prepared, have better information, and have pruned them as much as we could. That said, this is not a simple mission. The danger will be high, but so will the reward. You all are here voluntarily, we will not order you nor ask you to act against your wishes. But you also need to keep in mind that this mission is important and will allow you to obtain a veritable treasure trove of points.¡± There was another long moment of silence, and we half expected some to leave. Nobody did, though. We took that as a good sign. Personally, we were all onboard with it. Chloe, Jenna, and the rest of Us were rather well established, we felt. We had made our experiences and we had the troops and capabilities to have a reasonable chance at this. Sure, we¡¯d have to be careful, but that was always the case when it came to handling the antithesis. ¡°As for how we will tackle these Hives,¡± Glubber continued eventually, getting back on track. ¡°Each of you will be in an assigned team, based on your skills and catalogues, as much as we know about them. If you are unhappy with your team, please let us know. That said, we can¡¯t promise that we will be able to reassign you right away. As long as you are a part of this expedition, we expect that you will show at least a modicum of trust in our nning. We have spent a considerable amount of time trying to ensure that the disaster from the first expedition won¡¯t repeat itself.¡± Another pause left the call silent for a moment, before Glubber continued. ¡°We can¡¯t and won¡¯t order you around, that is not how we operate. However, we expect that you will at least heed our words and give them the consideration they deserve. Those of you who are exceptionally new, will stay around the edges of the hives. Bahamut and myself will make sure you are safe, while you have the opportunity to obtain some points. Double-X, the Samurai responsible for scouting out most of the terrain, has just finished his newest map of the area. All of that is, of course, avable to you through our main mission channels. If you have any questions, you will have the opportunity to voice them at the end of this presentation.¡± A number of packages came across the call, each directed to one of the Samurai taking part. ¡°These are the assignments, your specific objectives, as well as the dangers you can expect to face. Let me be very clear. While we spent a long time making sure to find out as much as we could, we cannot guarantee that all the information is correct. Always be prepared to face dangers that you are not aware of. That is a lesson you should adhere to in general, and one that always helps to keep in mind. How you structure your teams, who will takemand, if one does at all, and how you deploy is all left up to you. We are aware that most Samurai don¡¯t work well with predefined hierarchy structures, which is why we won¡¯t bother trying to force you to adapt to any. Finally, I have a few words for Legion and Myriad.¡± That did surprise Us, and we made sure to pay attention. ¡°Legion, from the profile we have on you, you are better at defence than offence. We would like to ask you to utilise this strength of yours to fortify ourmand center. Take this as a real world lesson on what to do and how to approach it. Nobody is expecting you to be perfect, but everyst bit of training you can get in those regards wille in handy in the future. Of course, you are still expected to deal with the Hive, and if you feel that you spread yourself too thin, feel free to pull out your troops to where you need them. If you do, please let us know, so we can adjust ordingly.¡± ¡°Okay,¡± Jenna said. Her voice didn¡¯t make it apparent, but her bodynguage made it quite clear that she felt a bit uncertain. ¡°Myriad, you are quite different from most Samurai we have dealt with so far. Hive-Minds are not something we typically see, very few go down that route, and even less cooperate with our organisation for various reasons. Because of this we aren¡¯t quite sure how you operate, but if it would be at all possible, do you think you can have some of your drones patrol the border around the other Hives to pick off any stragglers?¡± ¡°To answer that, we should probably first exin a few things, just to make sure you know what to expect from Us,¡± we said, taking on a more serious tone. ¡°We are Myriad. That means more than just having drones. While I am their Queen and they follow my will, each of Us has her own voice. We are all individuals, to some degree, and we can all individually cooperate with you. It is the reason why we have all joined up in the chat. That said, we do have a hierarchy. Let me introduce you to the most important members of the chorus. The first is Junior, she is responsible for keeping the Hive organised. If you require any information about our status, you can ask her. Next is Tiny, she¡¯s the central node for the Burdened, a group of Us that is responsible for organising, archiving, and distributing information. If you need to disseminate any important news, please contact her.¡± We switched our attention to the rest of those present, our gaze sweeping across every single video window in our virtual realm. ¡°She is also capable of getting any of you out of a sticky situation. If you find yourself cut off, feel free to send her a message. She can¡¯t talk in person, so calls are a must.¡± We let that one sink in for a moment, just so that everyone had time to mentally note it down. ¡°Then we have Bellona and Snuffles. Bellona is one of our Warleaders, in charge of organising our War Drones. She is our general in chief and responsible for leading our troops. Snuffles is the leader of our Feastmasters, she is responsible for cleanup and biomass distribution. If you wish for Us to watch the borders of the expedition site, she is the one you would want to talk to. We realise that this is quite a lot to take in, and we do apologise, but since you wanted to know more about how we operate, this is the most concise summary we can give you.¡± There was a momentary silence, before Glubber spoke up once more. ¡°Good to know. Thank you for the information. I was informed that you are quite different from Hive-Minds like Mask, for example. But the details were not something that my AI would share with me. I will revise a few of our procedures to work better with that knowledge in mind. Before we begin, does anyone have any more questions?¡± There were a couple of people who spoke up, mostly asking about aspects of their specific Hives, the group they were working with, what to do in case of emergency, the usual. Our attention was drawn to a few Samurai who had a few questions for Us. Mostly about Tiny and how she could get them out of a tight spot. We exined to them who Tiny was, what she was capable of, and how she could help if need be. Some wanted to know more about Us in general, which did surprise Us, then again, we were quite unlike most others. There were also some discussions between other Samurai, but we didn¡¯t pay too much attention to that. Soon the call was done, and we rxed back into Chloe¡¯sp. ¡°You ready?¡± We asked the twodies with a nce. ¡°As ready as I could be,¡± Chloe said, squeezing Us a bit tighter. ¡°Yep. Let¡¯s get moving!¡± Jenna pressed a few buttons, and soon the Corvette started to move. Our destination wasn¡¯t too far, and despite the fact that Jenna had yet to get the upgraded thrusters, it would only take a couple of minutes. Nevertheless, we used that time to prepare. Our Broodmothers had been busy creating more Hexws with the remnants of the biomass we had gotten two days prior, as well as some of the greenery that we had collected over our day of downtime. Most of the drones we created were War Drones, for obvious reasons. But that didn¡¯t mean we entirely stopped Hatchling production. A number of them had evolved over thest couple of days, even if most of those that did, had evolved into nonbat roles. There were some more specialisedbat units, however. One group had even gotten so far to fully change, bing what Kaysa referred to as Hexw Gloomstalkers. They were primarily ambush predators, sleek and lithe, with a bit of asymmetrical design to them. Instead of four arms equally split in two on either side, they had one normal, wed arm on the left, and two on the right, one slightlyrger and stronger for gripping, one morenky and dexterous, equipped with venomous ws. Jenna had also made good on her offer to clean up the old industrial district. Well, a small part of it. After her drones were done refurbishing and repairing the brothel the day prior, before we had started our shift, she had begun to collect all the scrap she could to churn out more Sentinels. The Corvette¡¯s production facilities had been running nearly non-stop since then. By this point we had reached close to eight hundred voices, even after the number we had lost, and Jenna was close to four hundred Sentinels, even if a significant portion of that were her Tier 1 version. Her tier system had nothing to do with the system the protectors used, simply denoting the different revisions of her Sentinels. Her Tier 1 Sentinels were the earliest revision, which meant that they were slightly less capable, but with the numbers she had avable, that was still a significant force. ¡°We should be meeting the fellow we are working with once we arrive,¡± Jenna said, checking something in her augs. ¡°He¡¯s going to arrive a minute or so after us, from the looks of things.¡± ¡°Who is that, exactly? We read the file, of course, but have you met him during the first meeting?¡± Since we had missed it, we weren¡¯t quite sure about who was all part of this expedition, in a personal capacity. ¡°No clue, honestly,¡± Chloe said, absently caressing our belly while she was checking over the file in her augs. ¡°I don¡¯t think he was present at the meeting. Maybe he called in or something. He¡¯s far more experienced, though. I¡¯d say, let him call the shots.¡± ¡°Yeah,¡± Jenna agreed, ¡°We might have gear and whatnot, butpared to him, we know next to nothing. And since he¡¯s specialised in medium range area denial and crowd control, he probably knows how to react to emergencies much better than we could.¡± ¡°Fine by Us. Maybe we can learn a thing or two from him. We¡¯ll probably get some Dream Learning imnts soon, this expedition is going to take a few days, and in the downtime we can grab what we need to be better on the battlefield. Really, we should have done that already. Might have led to less dead during the gang war.¡± Chloe put an arm around Us, squeezing Us gently. ¡°Hindsight is always 20/20. You can¡¯t prepare for any eventuality, Sera. And you did damn good with what you had at the time.¡± We nuzzled into her, just taking a moment to appreciate our girlfriend. The thought alone, that we had a girlfriend, and especially one this overwhelmingly wonderful, made our stomach flutter. ¡°Thanks.¡± ¡°I agree with the sentiment, though,¡± Jenna chimed in, ¡°I¡¯ll also get some once I get some points buffered. Mainly I want to save up to upgrade the Corvette and maybe finally get my body mods, but not getting something important for the missions sounds like suicide.¡± ¡°Yeah. We¡¯ll probably do something simr. Get enough points for the body mods, maybe something for the rest of Us. We could use some more bigger hitters, someone akin to Tiny maybe. We¡¯ll have to check in with Kaysa when we get a chance.¡± As we expected, the flight didn¡¯t take long. The operation wasn¡¯t too far away from the city, and soon we could see a smaller convoy of vehicles rushing by on one of the major roads, all going in the same direction we were going. From our position in the sky we could see the base of operations that the Family had set up already, with smaller groups further out. The main camp was a bit less impressive than what we had first expected, a collection of tents and container housing, surrounded by a group of military vehicles. People were milling about, probably one or more PMCs of some sort. Jenna brought the Bastion of Hope to a stop, hovering just above. She would unload a couple of her forces first, as well as Snuffles, her Reavers, the Sabertooths, and the Siverin Bile Spewers. They were much better suited for defensive duty, while the Sabertooths and Snuffles¡¯ Reavers would be on perimeter guard. Once that was done, we continued our trip towards the Hive we were assigned to. Most of Us had already finished boarding the shuttles that Jenna had put aside for our use, while she was already done loading her Sentinels up. The three of us made our way to the hangar and boarded our personal shuttle, this time not only apanied by Junior and the Queen¡¯s Guard, but also Bellona, Khernos, and Thanatos, along with a small contingent of their battalion. Arriving near the meeting spot, the shuttles took off, while Evenlyn begannding the Bastion of Hope to unload Tiny and the Legion Enforcer. There had been some discussion about keeping the Enforcer closer to the headquarters, but while Jenna was willing to help with the defence, she also wanted a fallback point of her own. The empty shuttles returned to the Corvette to be refilled, while we stepped out of our personal shuttle, inspecting our surroundings. We already had a pretty decent idea of what thendscape would look like, from the map and all the information we had received, but getting a better in person look was always helpful. We also perused the informational package, noting everything of importance, internally nning out where to best position our different squads. Tiny would be of little use in directbat, since the Hive had dug in quite deep, with only smaller tunnels leading up to the surface, but she could stille in handy, in case of an emergency. Not long after we had started getting ready for the excursion, we could see a jeep driving towards us in the distance. That would be the Samurai who was working with us, and we watched hime closer. Time to see who this fe was.
I have a Discord! Also, I''ve made a . If you wish to support me on my endavours, I''d appreciate it greatly! At the moment you can read five chapters ahead on ''A Joytoy''s journey to be a Hive-Queen''! Chapter 64 – Into the Breach Chapter 64 ¨C Into the Breach "We need that ship in our game!¡± ¡°Sir, we would need permission for that.¡± ¡°Permission? What for? Nah, I doubt they''d find out. Women don''t y video games after all." - Excerpt from a meeting between the CEO of Directile and one of the board members. At first, the car that pulled up looked to be an older one, more in line with the Jeeps from the early 2000s. The dings and marks helped sell the look, the deep blue paint looking almost as if it¡¯s been on there for half a century without any care ever given to it. That illusion was shattered, however, when it stopped next to us. While the style was obviously old and worn, the interior was anything but. Sleek and modern buttons and panels covered the dashboard, mixed with some old school design elements. It made for a rather interesting, but very fitting, look. We were almost certain that it was a protector grade car, but one that was carefully designed to not be obvious at first nce. Not to mention that it looked like it could bust straight through a fortified wall without anyint. The man who got out was not quite what we had expected, based on his profile. His gear was a bit of a hodgepodge, some strange mix between hunter, fisherman, and farmer. It really shouldn¡¯t have worked, yet somehow, it fit him strangely well. He was old for a Samurai, around thirty if we¡¯d have to guess. Other than that, he looked rather unremarkable, a full beard that was trimmed, if not neat, thick, brown hair under a wide brimmed hat that looked to be made out of hay, with a fern in his mouth that he was chewing on. He was tall and broad, although not overly so, with a sharp face and attentive eyes. ¡°Howdy,¡± he said with a nod. His voice was much like the rest of him, not quite what we expected, but fitting him strangely well. He took a moment to a moment to take each of us in, then the army of Hexws and Sentinels behind us, before his gaze flicked towards the Corvette nearby. ¡°And here I thought, I¡¯d be workin¡¯ with some greenhorns. Name¡¯s Buckshot Bobby, pleasure. Preytell,sses, how in the goddamn diddely fuck did you manage to pull that one off? Thing looks more expensive than some of the shit I¡¯ve seen much older Samurai pull out their hats.¡± We snorted at that, and Jenna gave him a smile. ¡°It was quite expensive, yes. I saved up quite a bit to be able to afford it.¡± ¡°Yeah, can see that. Anyways, I guess you be Legion? That would make Miss Body Armor over there Bloodhound. And, ¡®course, everyone cityside has heard about Myriad by now. Gotta say, not what I expected to see first thing in the morn¡¯. Not gonnain about all your backup, though. Looks like we could use it.¡± We gave him a smile. ¡°The pleasure is ours. Truth be told, you are not quite what we expected either, although not in a bad way. From what we read, you¡¯re quite a bit more experienced as well, correct?¡± ¡°That would depend,ss. If ya need someone to fix your bike, sure. I¡¯ve been around the block a couple times, made my fair share of experiences. But, while I¡¯m confident in my skills, I don¡¯t think I got one on you when ites to the more pleasant times of the day. That said, yeah, I¡¯ve been a Samurai for a good year now, probably bit over.¡± Hisment made Us smirk, but we dropped it. ¡°We already talked about how we wanted to do things. Just some personal preference. Considering how much more experienced you are, we wouldn¡¯t mind you taking charge. While we do have our swarms and our equipment, some things can¡¯t be bought, and experience is at the very top of that list. If that is fine with you.¡± He nodded, finally taking the fern out of his mouth. ¡°I can do that. Truth be told, that¡¯s what I would¡¯ve preferred anyway. Nice to see that you are humble enough. Don¡¯t get a lot of that these days, especially ¡®round other Samurai.¡± ¡°We¡¯ve all had our experiences, Bobby. Ours just happen to be very unpleasant and showing Us where our shortfallsy.¡± ¡°Isn¡¯t that always the case?¡± His nod showed that he too probably had some very unpleasant experiences. ¡°Anyway, checked out your files, but I¡¯d love to hear what yousses can do from you. Stat sheets and profiles only go so far. I can make the start. I¡¯m Buckshot Bobby, my main strengths are shotguns, medium range area denial and, if need be, some crowd control. I focus mainly on hitting hard and fast, with ¡®nades and traps to round out the ensemble. I got some armor, but I prefer not being hit in the first ce. In general, I¡¯m mostfortable a few paces away from any xeno fucks, but not too far so that I can¡¯t shoot ¡®em. Thanks to Double-X, I got some gear to check for antithesis pockets, make sure we aren¡¯t ambushed. He also gave me some stuff to stop them from reiming territory we cleared. Not a permanent thing, but it shouldst a couple days.¡± We nodded, that was mostly what we had expected from his files, but it was good to see that he came prepared beyond that. We already quite liked him. ¡°Not that different from me, then,¡± Chloe said with a nod. ¡°I too focus on hitting hard and fast, with quite the selection of medium range weapons, grenades, and bombs to choose from. I got some catalogues that can help with crowd control, lures and the like, with some turrets and barricades and such. I prefer to be in the thick of things, so I guess we will y the front line.¡± ¡°I can help with defences as well,¡± Jenna continued, ¡°My main specialty are my Sentinels. I¡¯m best suited to defensive tactics, with little in terms of personalbat ability. I got my bow and it is helpful, plus some Hard-Light emitters courtesy of Myriad. But I prefer to keep outside the range of fire if at all possible. I will most likely get something for that in the near future, since you can¡¯t always get what you want, but until then, I most likely won¡¯t be of much use in a direct confrontation. My biggest assets are the Legion Corvette and the Legion Enforcer. The Legion Corvette has some air to ground weaponry, although it is by far not at full strength yet.¡± Bobby nodded at that, turning his attention to Us. ¡°We¡¯re Myriad. As the name implies, we are a Hive-Mind. While we do have some Hard-Light weapons and some catalogues that are a bit more versatile, our biggest strength are our Hexws. That Catalogue is a bit unique, focused on adapting to basically anything we need to fight off the xenos. There is very little we can¡¯t deal with, as long as we have the points or time to adapt to it. As we exined during the presentation, we are one. We can coordinate all of Us rtively easily. Tiny is our fortress breaker, and a walking fortress in her own right, while Bellona, Kharon, and Thanatos, are our Warleaders. We have our Queen¡¯s Guard for personal defences, plus our Hard-Light emitters, but simr to Legion, we aren¡¯t exactly the best in close quarterbat, even if we are a bit morefortable in such situationspared to her. Of course, that will change in the future, we want to be able to be much better in close quarters, but for that we¡¯ll need a whole bunch of points to get our body mods. We can also runmunications and scout out our surroundings rtively well.¡± He nodded again. ¡°Good to know. You seen the info about our Hive? Narrow caverns, loads of smaller xenos. Snapshot has reported some Fifteens, those are artillery models. They will most likely try to ruin our day before we can even get close.¡± ¡°The Corvette can take care of those from the sky,¡± Jenna said with a nod. ¡°Good to hear. Anyway, rest are mostly smaller models, although some Nines have been reported. Sevens most likely won¡¯t be too much of a problem around here, but best make sure you got some Seven pills just in case.¡± ¡°Seven pills?¡± we asked, a bit unsure what that meant. ¡°They¡¯re pills that stop model Sevens from taking over your body. We¡¯re generally a bit more resilient to that kind of thing, thanks to our AI, but it never hurts to be prepared,¡± Chloe exined. ¡°Exactly. If yousses don¡¯t mind, I¡¯d like to take some time to get a better angle on the Hive. Maps are nice, but if you can, you should always make sure you can get eyes on everything yourself.¡± We nced at Jenna and Chloe with a shrug, ¡°Fine by Us.¡± ¡°Lemme grab my gear and we can headout then.¡± As he said, he turned to his Jeep, pulling out a rather sizable shotgun and arge backpack. We would¡¯ve thought that he¡¯d have some fancy Samurai tech to store his things, simr to what Chloe could do, but we couldn¡¯t fault him for the old school approach. Once he was ready, and we confirmed that nothing was trying to sneak up on us nearby, we all started to walk towards the Hive. ¡°So, y¡¯all managed quite well for greenhorns. Have to admit, I¡¯m a little jealous. Took me months to get anywhere near your level of gear,¡± Bobby said while we walked. ¡°We¡¯ve been lucky. The undercity incursion was ripe with points, and we saved up quite a bit. It also helps that we, at least, can get points even from far away. Benefit of being a Hive-Mind.¡± He gave us a sideways nce. ¡°I can see that being useful. What about you two?¡± ¡°I¡¯ve been around for a little while, so I already had some points. And since my approach is more about making the best out of very few points, I never had much to spend on. My catalogues aren¡¯t suited for big, one time purchases. Maybe I¡¯ll get something in the future, but right now, I¡¯m pretty happy with where I am.¡± ¡°As for me, I tend to be more frugal by nature. The day I became a Samurai I almost died because I mismanaged my points. Lost a whole group of civilians because of it. It showed me that I needed a different approach.¡± Bobby nodded at that. ¡°That¡¯s always a problem, one I can understand. You gotta learn when and how to spend your points.¡± From his tone of voice he¡¯s had simr experiences. It made Us curious how he came to be a Samurai. ¡°You said you¡¯ve been a Samurai for over a year now, yes?¡± ¡°Yep. I was part of the big incursion up north from here, a while back. Found myself in the middle of a Hive while I was fishing. Shits jumped me from nowhere. Really, I was lucky I had my rifle with me, otherwise I¡¯d be dead. Took a couple out, but got got pretty good. Suddenly I had a voice in my head selling me alien medical wonders. Fixed myself up, then ran back to the little vige I was staying in. It¡¯s long gone by now, but it was a quaint little ce, just some folk who hated the city life. Fought tooth and nail for three days straight getting them back cityside. Lost some good people out there, but what can you do? Aliens don¡¯t ask nicely who wants to be eaten and they don¡¯t take no no for an answer either. What about yourself? I mean, you mentioned the Undercity incursion, but you don¡¯t look like Undercity folk to me.¡± ¡°We aren¡¯t. We are from the redlight district, so when the incursion hit we were on the clock. Our client turned out to be a Samurai, who gave Us a gun and rushed off to save others. Took some doing, we were high, drunk, and our ass hurt like hell from three anal sessions back to back, but we managed. Had to clubber a model Three with a dildo, but we survived. After we cleared out most of the aliens in the redlight district, and helped at the Inner City gates a little, we rushed to the Undercity when they needed help. Quite the exciting couple of days, really.¡± He snorted, ¡°I can imagine that. Truth be told, when I first heard there was a Joytoy running around iming to be a Samurai, I thought you were a scam. But I guess we get folks joinin¡¯ up from all ranks of life. Couple of friends wanted to pay you a visit, but turns out you¡¯re booked out for months,¡± he snorted. ¡°Surprised so many people jump on it, can¡¯t see a Samurai being cheap.¡± We snickered at that. ¡°True enough. But the money has toe from somewhere, and we aren¡¯t exactly normal either. We like the job.¡± ¡°To each their own,ss. And it¡¯s not like life is easy, you gotta find some time to enjoy yourself. We might not need to work like normal folk, but more than one Samurai bites it out there on the regr.¡± ¡°Yeah, we saw that happen. One of the newbies got chewed out at the Inner City gates, andter a more experienced Samurai got ripped to shreds by model Nines,¡± Chloe muttered. ¡°Yeah, poor Patrick. Was a fine fellow, although a bit nuts. Could¡¯ve certainly stood for some fashion advice, but hey, I shouldn¡¯t be the one talking about fashion. Yousses, though, you know how to dress. Just make sure you don¡¯t miss the xeno killing things for new dresses, yeah?¡± We snorted, ¡°We aren¡¯t stupid.¡± ¡°Well, the Fashion Princess ain¡¯t stupid either, still has three times the points in clothing than she has in weapons. Been part of the whole cabal for longer than me, yet still considered a Tier 1 Samurai.¡± ¡°Tier 1 Samurai?¡± Jenna asked, curious. ¡°Ah. Well, lemme exin. Samurai are usually put into five Tiers. Tier 1 are the newest, the rookies. Tier 2 are people like me. We¡¯ve been around and we rued some points and gear. Tier 3 are the heavy hitters, people who are quite powerful. Think folks like Glubber, Dragon Queen, FunNight, those kinds. Tier 4 are really big bastards, Deus Ex and Longbowe to mind. They are incredibly powerful and have been around for quite a long time. And Tier 5 are the OG¡¯s, Samurai who can single handedly deal with an incursion, in some cases, or otherwise hold back the tide on their lonesome.¡± ¡°So, we¡¯re all Tier 1 then?¡± Jenna asked. ¡°Yup. Although, considering your weaponry, I doubt you¡¯ll stay that way long.¡± While we talked, we arrived near the main Hive territory. From here it was pretty clear where the xenos were hiding, in the distance we could see some of the entrances towards the tunnel system. Bobby checked over our surroundings, and we did likewise, sending the Meerkats into the Tunnels. It would take a while for them to get through them all, and many of them would likely run into xenos, but hopefully they could escape. They were fast and nimble little things. ¡°The area doesn¡¯t really lend itself to a proper defensive set up,¡± Chloe observed. ¡°We¡¯d have to surround the entire Hive to make any kind of progress. I guess we could put down a forward base here, though, have the Enforcer set up. It pays to have a fallback point in case shit hits the fan. Do you know if there are any better spots somewhere?¡± Bobby shrugged, ¡°There are some marked on the map, but I couldn¡¯t tell ya. Would have to see ¡®em for myself first.¡± ¡°We¡¯ll have our Meerkats keep an eye out. Maybe it¡¯s time to get a few aerial scouts as well. Kaysa, put it on the list, as soon as we get the biomass or points, set our broodmothers to make those.¡± Noted. After some more discussion, we decided to make our way over to one of the other spots that Bobby had mentioned. It took some time, but eventually we found a spot that Jenna was happy with, and within a few minutes, the Corvette unloaded her production drones, while the Enforcer took position. It would work as the core of the encampment, with the rest of everything being built up around it. Jenna had enough resources to make it all work, although it would take some time. ¡°You said you aren¡¯t that great when it came to a melee brawl, ay?¡± Bobby asked her, while she organised the set up. ¡°Yes. I much prefer being far away.¡± ¡°Then maybe you should stay here, now that I think about it. You got great vision of the battlefield in front of you, and if we use the entrances over there as our entry and egress point into the Hive, you could deliver some death and earn yourself some points as well. Keep the bigger assholes off our backs, know what I mean?¡± ¡°I can do that.¡± ¡°Great. We¡¯ll leave you to it then. If you need anything just holler.¡± After some more discussion about minor points and our n of operation, Chloe, Bobby, and Us continued our track, trying to get closer to the Hive. We had seen some aliens from a distance, and some of Us had already managed to kill a few when they got the drop on them, but otherwise things were surprisingly calm. Bobby exined that that was most likely due to the Hive trying to stay hidden. The moment the fight broke out, we¡¯d be swarmed. Made sense to Us. We¡¯d do much the same. Suddenly he stopped us, motioning over to a group of boulders. We followed him, taking cover, while he pulled out an old school looking set of binocrs. ¡°Well, damn. There are the model Fifteens that Double-X talked about.¡± ¡°I can bring the Bastion of Hope over and deal with them,¡± Jenna said over thems. ¡°If y¡¯all are ready to start the party, sure. Pretty sure once we start killing those, the rest of the Hive will go active, if the activity around ¡®em is anything to go by.¡± We nced at Chloe. ¡°We¡¯re ready.¡± ¡°As am I,¡± Chloe said with a nod, eyes fixed onto the distance. ¡°Just let me know when I should get started. The forward base ising along nicely, not perfect yet, but it will work as a fallback point if you need it to.¡± ¡°Then, please, go ahead,ss.¡± Jenna went silent, and a momentter the Corvette started moving. It didn¡¯t take long for it to get into weapons range, and by the time we were ready to go, the Corvette¡¯s weapons red up, twin explosions rocking the ground. Two barrages was all it took to decimate a good chunk of the area that Bobby had kept an eye on. We tried to keep our senses sharp. Hopefully soon we could get some aerial units. As Bobby had predicted, the moment the Corvette opened fire, the Hive went active. We could see a number of antithesise running out the tunnels at various points. It made Us very d that we had Snuffles and our Sabertooths on patrol duty. With a few mentalmands, courtesy of Bellona, Kharon, and Thanatos, the rest of Us began to move, a huge army of Hexws stampeding towards our side of the Hive. We had kept them close, but hidden, up until now, not wanting to alert the aliens. ¡°Well, damn,ss. That is a sight to behold.¡± We just snickered, before we turned our attention back to the Hive. ¡°Time to get started, hm?¡± The others didn¡¯t need any further invitation, moving immediately. As we had discussed, Bobby and Chloe went ahead, Us acting as rear guard. Jenna had ordered a couple of herrgest Sentinels to escort our group, and we added to it by keeping a couple of our War Drones nearby. The moment we began to move, our Queen¡¯s Guard appeared out of stealth. We didn¡¯t want to risk Bobby identally hitting them in the firefight. Our Defenders and our Healer kept close, of course, while our Assassins kept a few paces further away, ready to hit anything trying to get close to us. We were just around halfway across towards the entrances, when the rest of Us shed with the horde of xenos streaming out of the tunnels like a flood. The fighting was fierce and brutal, neither side caring one wit about taking prisoners. Most of the aliens were caught by the brawl, but some managed to slip through, oftentimes picked off by Bobby or Chloe while we walked. The Corvette moved once again, turning slightly towards the south, before unleashing another barrage of death at around the same time huge wheel-like projectiles hit the front, exploding into a flood of quills, killing off a good chunk of our forces. We winced at the cold rush of death that consumed Us, but by this point we were used to the feeling, at least enough that we didn¡¯t suffer any disorientation. Still, it made Us very angry, and all of Us redoubled our efforts. With a wave of our hand we formed a Hard-Light dome around our little group, with two slits for Bobby and Chloe to fire through. It wasn¡¯t perfect, especially with the bullet spread of some of Chloe¡¯s guns, but it was a worthwhile defence. Using our Lance, we began to pick off any aliens that managed to escape the clutches of the rest of Us, or Bobby¡¯s and Chloe¡¯s gunfire. Our aim wasn¡¯t the best, another thing we had to get something for. ¡°Let¡¯s keep close to the northern side. Once you fought your way through the main horde, we can set up a perimeter and make sure nothing else will try to crawl out of the tunnels,¡± Bobby said while he reloaded his shotgun. We took things slow, not wanting to rush head first into danger. The majority of the horde was dealt with rtively quickly, while they had numbers, most of the antithesis models were weak, and we could deal with them rtively easily. Not without losses, of course, but it went far better than it could have. As we arrived near the tunnels, Bobby led us over to one of therger boulders around, into a crevice that had formed between the rocky formation. From here we were rtively safe from things trying to jump us from behind, while having a good view of the tunnel entrance. ¡°Bloodhound, you said you got bombs and defences, right?¡± ¡°Not much, but some, yeah. You got a n?¡± ¡°I got the beginnings of a n. We should put down some of your defences around the entrance, try to make it as safe as we can in case we gotta get out quick. Myriad, can you keep a couple of your supersoldiers around?¡± ¡°That we can do, sure. We need to organise the biomass in any case. Jenna, can you send some shuttles over to pick them up? If we can get the biomass to our broodmothers, we can start on aerial units, help Us keep an eye on everything. Snuffles will send one of her Reavers over soon, to help organise it all.¡± ¡°No worries. Shuttles are on their way.¡± ¡°Thanks, love. Bobby, where do you want our War Drones?¡± The map in our virtual realm updated, another avatar appearing in the call. She was Bobby¡¯s AI, made obvious by the meta-data, and looked to be the friendly grandmother type. Her avatar was that of an older woman, probably around seventy or so, with a slight hunch, an apron, adle of all things, and a warm, friendly smile. ¡°My dear Bobby has put together some schematics for where you could ce your defences. May I?¡± ¡°Of course, ma¡¯am,¡± our reply was almost automatic, ¡°Make yourself at home.¡± Sheughed, her voice marred with time but still energetic. ¡°Such a lively one. Thank you, Myriad.¡± Most of the initial horde was dead by this point, the rest of Us picking off any stragglers. One group had been ambushed by a couple model Nines, the variant that we¡¯ve already seen in the New Savannah incursion, and while they had suffered significant losses, since most of them had been nothing by Hatchlings, they dealt with the threat quickly and efficiently. Finally Bobby signalled us to follow, and we made our way over to the entrance proper. Without muchment, Chloe began to put down her barricades and defences. They weren¡¯t anything special, much less powerful than what Jenna could put together, but it served our purposes. Soon enough we had a second fallback point, even if this one wasn¡¯t nearly as secure as the one Jenna had put together. Speaking about Jenna, she was busy sniping a group of aliensing from further southwest. We could asionally see her arrows fly across the battlefield, with suitably impressive oues. ¡°Alright. Are you two ready to head into the lion''s den?¡± Bobby asked Chloe and Us, while he double checked his gear once more. ¡°I think so. I got everything I could need at the moment.¡± ¡°We¡¯re ready. We lost some of Us, but they¡¯ll be replenished soon. With all the biomass we have avable, that shouldn¡¯t take too long. And once we¡¯re done, we¡¯ll also have some aerial units.¡± ¡°That¡¯d be helpful. Okay, if you¡¯re ready, I¡¯d say we shouldn¡¯t waste any time. Hit them while they¡¯re hurt.¡± Without any furtherment, Bobby turned towards the tunnel entrance and began to march, the rest of our little group close behind him.
I have a Discord! Also, I''ve made a . If you wish to support me on my endavours, I''d appreciate it greatly! At the moment you can read five chapters ahead on ''A Joytoy''s journey to be a Hive-Queen''! Chapter 65 – Boredom is the number one killer of attentiveness Chapter 65 ¨C Boredom is the number one killer of attentiveness ¡°In recent years a lot of the flora and fauna of our has died out. Much of the biodiversity has long since been lost, and even the best attempts at saving what we can have eroded over time, thanks to a number of cost overruns and profit margin overhauls. These days most groups still trying to save our are Samurai led, and even they are experiencing significant setbacks as corporations trample over them, whenever they can. It¡¯s a sad state of affairs, really.¡± - Professor Licon in a public address, 2049 The tunnels were narrow, just barely spacious enough for Jenna¡¯srge Sentinels to fit without hitting the ceiling. Still, our little convoy couldn¡¯t stay all grouped up, while the tunnels were tall enough for Jenna¡¯s Sentinels, they weren¡¯t wide enough to keep our previous formation. Bobby and Chloe were at the front, walking side by side, with two Sentinels directly behind them, followed by my Queen¡¯s Guard. Our Healer stuck close to Us, while two more War Drones and the rest of the Sentinels formed the rear guard. Our Assassins were climbing along the walls, surprisingly fast. It only took a few moments before we ran into the next group of xenos. Bobby and Chloe made short work of them, while we kept our Pristine Fortress at the ready, in case we needed a quick shield. It meant we couldn¡¯t focus much on killing any aliens, but considering how good Chloe and Bobby were at that, it wasn¡¯t too much of a problem. Not to mention that we could still earn shitloads of points from all the aliens the rest of Us were killing outside. It was clear that these tunnels weren¡¯t entirely natural. The antithesis had obviously dug out some of them to fit theirrger models. It did make walking them a bit easier, but it also meant for some strange and irregr bends. Bobby and Chloe continued to mow down whatever was in front of us, all the way until we reached a slightly bigger cave. It was filled with antithesis Hive material, model Tens running around and tending to the fruitsacs all around. We had to stop at the entrance, too many aliens were rushing us, and the two Sentinels behind Bobby and Chloe stepped forward, holding their tower shields at the ready and providing cover for our frontline. And good thing they did, a model Thirteen came shooting out of another tunnel, aiming directly for us. It did not expect our Assassins to drop down onto it, ripping it apart in moments, before either Bobby or Chloe could even get ready to deal with it. With the biggest threat immediately dealt with, we began to clean up the ce. We sent some broad Hard-Light des into the cave, cutting up a good chunk of the Hive structures, while Chloe and Bobby cleaned out the aliens. It all went a lot easier than we would have expected, but we kept our mouth shut and senses sharp. Chloe got some kind of bomb and ced it in the middle of the room, before we all walked back the way we came from for a couple of meters. Chloe triggered the bomb, some sort of hriously annoying sound based weapon, and soon after the entire Hive was turned to mush. It was kind of disgusting, honestly. Bobby pulled out a strange device and nted it in the ground. ¡°This should keep the xenos at bay for a couple days. We can¡¯t waste too much time, but hopefully they won¡¯t rebuild here. Just keep in mind that it ain¡¯t perfect, so don¡¯t go running around expecting to find no aliens here, understand?¡± Chloe and Us both nodded at that. It was nice to see we had some way to prevent xenos from immediately reiming any territory we cleared, although the warning was appreciated. Not that we would have let our guard down anyways. ¡°Good. This is just the outer circle. The deeper we get, the more aliens we¡¯ll find, and the harder it¡¯ll be. These Hives are big and have put down roots everywhere. I wouldn¡¯t be surprised if they¡¯d be growing he big models down there. Bahamut said she cleaned up, but you can never be too careful.¡± ¡°Should we send Tiny deeper into the Hive to clean up a little? She should be able to deal with most of this mess, and she is strong enough to contend with a bigger model, should one show itself.¡± ¡°Tiny?¡± Bobby asked, ncing at Us. ¡°Ah, sorry. The big scorpion. She got weapons for days, a methrower to bathe these caves in an inferno, and she can burrow.¡± He thought for a moment, then nodded. ¡°Do it, but keep her on the other side of the Hive. We don¡¯t need an even bigger flooding out. And we¡¯ll still need to clean up after. It will take days to make sure that these Hives are dealt with, if even a single xeno survives, they will rebuild. They¡¯ve done it before.¡± ¡°The first expedition?¡± Chloe asked. Bobby grimaced. ¡°Yeah. We lost a lot of good Samurai on that day, and while they cleaned up most of the mess, the aliens just came back stronger. This time around we¡¯ll have to make quadruple sure that we¡¯re done cleaning it up. The Family will keep a contingent around to keep an eye on the ce. I even heard talk about turning this area into a fortified position, if they can find the resources to do so.¡± ¡°Sounds like a mess,¡± we muttered. ¡°That¡¯s because it is one. Anyway, let¡¯s keep moving. The aliens won¡¯t clean themselves up.¡± We nodded, and soon we continued down another tunnel. We ordered some of Us down the tunnels, to keep an eye on the cave we just cleared, in case more xenos wandered in. It wasn¡¯t a perfect solution, but we wanted to make sure we wouldn¡¯t be cut off from the exit. Once more, it didn¡¯t take long before we found more aliens. Our progress was slow, both because we had to deal with a lot of xenos, and because we didn¡¯t want to rush things. We kept our Pristine Fortress at the ready, using the Lance to assist with the xeno killing as best we could, not that we had much opportunity. Suddenly Bobby stopped. ¡°Back, back!¡± he whispered, urgency in his voice. We didn¡¯t need to be told twice, and within moments our group retreated for a couple of meters and around another bend, before Bobby slowed us down. ¡°Fucking hell,¡± he muttered, then pulled out his binocrs again, slowly creeping closer and peaking around the bend slightly. ¡°Yeah, I figured. The entire cave is full of M9s. From what I can see there might even be a model Neen there, a variant of sorts. Not one I¡¯m familiar with. Could be wrong though, might just be another model Nine-S. Hard to tell with these stealth fucks. Ah, wait, Ver just told me, it¡¯s a Nine-V. Brawler type, from the looks of things.¡± To be specific, a model Nine-V is a rather peculiar antithesis model, focused more on an all out brawl, than ambush tactics. They require quite the amount of biomass, which is why you won¡¯t see them often. Compared to regr model Nines, or other variants, they are a bit more atypical to what the base model would typically be, using their stealth capabilities as abat initiator, instead of relying on it to deal any damage. That was good to know, and not a type of antithesis we wanted to get surprised by. From Kaysa¡¯s description, it might be able to put up a fight against our Queen¡¯s Guard, which was not something we wanted to experience. ¡°Do you have a n?¡± Chloe asked, keeping her rifle at the ready. ¡°Depends. Myriad, how hard does it hit you to lose your drones?¡± The question surprised Us. So far not many seemed to have thought of that. Not that we could me them, Hive-Minds were not something you saw often. ¡°It¡¯s highly unpleasant. They are part of Us, and if they die, their voices are lost forever. It¡¯s like having a part of you ripped out. But, if it helps us, then we can send some of them in.¡± He was quiet for a long moment, probably going through our options. Finally he spoke up again. ¡°Do you think they can take them out without much trouble?¡± ¡°Maybe? Our Assassins could, but the Queen¡¯s Guard never leaves our side. The others? They might be able to. Tiny could clean up no problem.¡± ¡°I doubt she can fit in there,¡± Bobby said with a snort. ¡°She doesn¡¯t have to. Just a pincer is enough, bathe the entire cave in that weird napalm mixture she has. Should burn everything to a crisp within moments.¡± ¡°Alright. I don¡¯t see any other way to get through it without suffering some losses. Chances are we get injured, maybe even killed, I don¡¯t want to risk it. How long until Tiny can get here?¡± ¡°Not long. She¡¯s on her way.¡± True to our words, Tiny didn¡¯t need long to arrive. Our Assassins kept themselves stealthed and acted as her eyes. Once we were all ready for any eventualbat, she stopped just under the cave, making the ground tremble a bit. None of the antithesis seemed to react, all still looking like rocks. Then her pincer burst out of the ground, and with it came a wave of fire. Finally the antithesis moved, revealing themselves, but it was already far toote. Whatever weird mixture Tiny was armed with, it burned hot and fast, sticking to whatever surface itnded on. Within moments the cave was a zing inferno, hot enough to force us even deeper back into the tunnels. The model Nines didn¡¯t stand a chance, not even getting enough time to flee. Before they could move more than a couple of paces, they werepletely annihted. ¡°Damn. Remind me not to fuck with you,¡± Bobby muttered, awe clear in his voice. For hours we ran around the tunnel system, clearing out one group of xenos after the other. We did our best to leave some drones behind to not be cut off, but that didn¡¯t always go to n. Even with Bobby¡¯s weird devices, or Double-X¡¯ weird devices, the antithesis didn¡¯t always stay away. And while they might not stick around to form another Hive, they still ran into our patrols. In most cases we managed to clear them out quickly, but we still suffered some losses. Tiny made sure to add them to our memorial archive, while the rest of Us cleaned up. It sucked a lot, and it was damn fucking unpleasant, but for better or for worse, we had gotten used to the feeling. Hopefully soon we could get that upgrade¡­ The worst thing, though, was the growing exhaustion. Keeping your guard up for such a long time eventually led to inattentiveness, and it was no different for any of us. Bobby and Chloe were more used to it all, so they weren¡¯t quite as affected, but even they showed signs ofpromised judgement. Pushing into yet another cave, we cleared the aliens out quickly and efficiently. Our teamwork had only improved over time, where we needed minutes before, we could now sweep and clear an entire cave in a matter of moments. Some of Us took position around the edges, while Chloe ced another bomb in the middle of the cave, and after we all took a few steps back into the tunnels, the now familiar shrieking of the resonating sound bomb rang out, turning all the antithesis hive biology into mush. ¡°We¡¯re so fucking done,¡± we muttered, more to ourselves, than to anyone present. ¡°Just a couple more, before take a break,¡± Chloe said, hefting her weapon before turning towards the next tunnel. Bobby nodded his agreement, following close behind her. We did likewise, not wanting to waste any time. The tunnel we found ourselves in was empty, which was a wee change. It didn¡¯t happen often, but sometimes a tunnel might not yet be overrun with aliens when we entered it. That often meant dealing with more aliens in the next cave over, but with our teamwork that was not that much of a problem. Suddenly our Hard-Light defences lit up all around Us. Our body was covered with our nanite armor, before we found ourselves on the ground, pain shooting throughout the entirety of our being. We couldn¡¯t even scream, finding no air in our lungs, and for a moment panic rattled the chorus. Then one of Jenna¡¯s Sentinels moved, the massive ymore came down, and in our panic we halfway expected it to try and behead Us. Instead it cut straight through a boulder next to our head, a boulder that made a strange shrieking noise, before it fell apart into a mass of antithesis biology. Finally things registered with Us, right around the same time our Assassins jumped a mass of alien that hadnded on top of Us and was the reason we had been pushed to the ground. The model Nine was ripped apart in a sh, green alien goo sttering all around the tunnel. By this time Chloe and Bobby had finally turned around, weapons at the ready, and opened fire on multiple other rock formations that had all started to move. In record time they were dead and wey there, trying to figure out just what the hell had just happened. Chloe was next to Us a momentter, checking Us over, while Jenna¡¯s Sentinels and our Defenders moved into a defensive formation, our Healer dropping to her knees next to Chloe. ¡°She¡¯s fine,¡± Chloe said, voice tense. ¡°Shocked, but fine.¡± ¡°Fuck¡­¡± Bobby cursed, voice grim. ¡°What happened?¡± Jenna¡¯s voice sounded tense over thes. ¡°We let our guard down,¡± he replied, ¡°Maybe it¡¯s better to take a break now. This could have ended very differently.¡± ¡°Yeah,¡± Chloe agreed, before gently helping Us up. ¡°How are you feeling?¡± ¡°It fucking hurt¡­ Fuck¡­¡± We still weren¡¯t entirely calmed down, our heart hammering in our chest. ¡°Can you walk?¡± ¡°We think so¡­¡± ¡°Good. We¡¯re going to go back, take a break, eat something, drink something, maybe get a few minutes of shuteye,¡± she decided. ¡°Agreed,¡± Bobby said with a nod, weapon at the ready and pointing at any boulder looking at him funny. The way back was luckily less eventful. We moved slowly and carefully, our Defenders and Jenna¡¯s Sentinels not moving away from Us, and even Chloe kept close to Us. Bobby took the lead, everyone paying careful attention to our surroundings, and soon after we were back on the surface through another tunnel entrance we had cleared some time ago. None of us said anything, while we made our way back to the defensive location we had set up at the entrance we had taken originally. Only when we finally got closer did Bobby speak up. ¡°What are your points looking like?¡± ¡°I¡¯m drowning in them,¡± Chloe said, ¡°I¡¯ll probably spend some time getting better gear. Better weapons, better armor, some gadgets.¡± ¡°Same here,¡± Jenna threw in. From what we could tell, she¡¯d been a busy bee, cleaning up a lot of therger artillery models from her fortress. While she didn¡¯t have the same deluge of aliens to deal with, she had been anything but idle; the area around her looked like a minefield with all the different craters from her arrows and the Legion Enforcer¡¯s main weapon. ¡°We¡¯ll do likewise,¡± we said, looking at our point total, which sat at a mind boggling 60k. ¡°We really don¡¯t want to be surprised like that again. Maybe get some more broodmothers, definitely some better gear, and some more Hexws. We made much more than we originally anticipated.¡± Bobbyughed, despite the tension still permeating our group. ¡°That happens when you spend hours upon hours just killing xenos. We can make like 200 points a minute here. Doesn¡¯t sound like much, until you start adding everything up.¡± ¡°Yeah. We¡¯re pretty sure that after we¡¯re done here, we¡¯re set for life.¡± ¡°You¡¯lle to learn that you¡¯ll never be set for life,¡± he mused. We all found a ce to sit down, which in our case, of course, meant Chloe¡¯sp. It helped Us calm down after the recent excitement, and even though neither of us had the energy for much small talk, we still enjoyed each other¡¯s presence. ¡°Okay, Kaysa, we have points. What can we do with it all and what should we focus on? We¡¯re thinking better gear and more broodmothers for a start. But we really need to make sure that nothing like that happens again.¡± As was typical, we were using the virtual realm to talk to her. Kaysa¡¯s elven avatar nodded at Us. That makes sense. While you have arge amount of points, you only have one additional token. ¡°Wait, when did we get that?¡± We werergely ignoring any of the notifications, since it could be a death sentence to be distracted inbat. A lesson we would not soon forget. The Hives here are split into multiple individual Hives. A lot of the Hives around are connected to others, but while it may look like one harmonious whole, they are, in effect, individual Hives. You destroyed one of those Hivespletely, which means you earned one token, along with the others. ¡°Ah, good to know. Not sure if that helps Us right now or not, though.¡± It might, considering that your Nanite Swarm Catalogue is still at ss I. However, since the rest of your important catalogues are at ss II, it is not that important. To upgrade them, you¡¯d need a whole lot more in terms of tokens and points, plus additional relevant catalogues, which you have yet to unlock. So, for the moment, the best you can do is upgrade your gear and your Hive. What would you want to start with? ¡°Not exactly sure. We haven¡¯t gotten any gear upgrades in a little while, but we also didn¡¯t really need to. We do want to get something to make sure we can¡¯t be jumped like that again, maybe something that helps with our senses. Other than that we don¡¯t really know what we could need.¡± Your Hard-Light emitters will very likely still perform adequately for a little while, considering that both the Lance emitter and your Hard-Light Polearm are rather powerful. Your armor, however, is reaching the point of bing a hindrance, especially if you consider the expedition and the potential threats. You really are not equipped for that. And, of course, you¡¯re stillckingbat experience, something we can rectify tonight with a bit of Dream Learning. ¡°Yeah, that¡¯s definitely something we want. Not only forbat, but also a few other things. Truth be told, we feel borderline useless, just trotting after Bobby and Chloe like some kind of exotic pet. Not that we would mind if Chloe would put a leash on Us, but that doesn¡¯t sound particrly helpful when ites to killing xenos, even if the mental image is a nice one.¡± Indeed. Then perhaps we should start with your armor and go from there. Considering that you will soon obtain enough points, and most likely have enough time, to obtain your body modifications, if we assume the mission goes as nned, you have two approaches you could go for. The first would be to spend less points, and get some armor that gets you through this expedition. That way you don¡¯t need to worry about itspatibility with your body modifications. On the flip side, you could also spend more points and obtain a very good set of armor that can be upgraded in the future, once you can upgrade your Mystical Kitsune Catalogue to ss III, that works well with your body modifications. Of course, since you have not yet decided what specifically you are looking for in terms of body modifications, but are nning on some shapeshifting, I would rmend a nanite based set of armor that can adjust to your form. ¡°Definitely thetter,¡± we said, getting up when Chloe gently pushed Us off of her to get her own gear done. ¡°We aren¡¯t going to take any risks. And points really aren¡¯t something we are hurting for at the moment.¡± A wise choice. In this case, I would rmend spending roughly ten thousand points on new gear, both for armor and any gadgets that mighte in handy. That is about the best you can do at ss II, anything above that would just be wasted, and anything below might run the risk of not being able to protect you properly. In this case I would argue that focusing on features is more important for you than just straight up defence. With that in mind, I would rmend you upgrade your ss I Nanite Swarm Catalogue to ss II. WIth this, you can use the Mark XVII Velvet Yako Kitsune Body Armor as the basis for your new set of gear. Ites with a resilient skinsuit, capable of protecting you from blows of models up to the double digits, as well as from vacuum, if you should ever need it. It also helps protect you against the elements and extreme temperatures. Of course, considering your preferences, it can be transparent, nearly invisible to the naked eye. Alternatively, if you prefer something less covering, you could also rece this undersuit with a set of dedicated Hard-Light emitters that perform much the same tasks, but without covering your skin. No matter which option you choose, the armor itself can be designed to your specifications, within limits, of course. It is quite revealing, should you wish it to be, and features advanced Hard-Light emitters for personal defences, a dedicated Holographic emitter that can project up to nine holographic images, is fully programmable in what it can project, and can even be upgraded to act as a proper Hard-Light emitter, turning the projections into quasi-real illusions. It also features limited distortion technology, which can act as ast resort defence, enabling you to evade attacks that would otherwise hit you. At ss II this technology is limited and won¡¯t be something you can use extensively. The energy requirements are too great for the technology you have ess to, to allow for prolonged use. Lastly, ites with a few gadgets that are in line with the mythos of the Kitsune. The first being a tiara with built-in suggestive technologies, a form of hypnosis that makes others more susceptible to your suggestions and wishes, as well as a specialised Hard-Light emitter focusing on the mythos of the Fox-Fire. In effect, it projects false mes that can burn the target, but that is very hard to put out. For this you will most certainly need the Nanite Swarm Catalogue at ss II, to allow for the underlying technology. To round out the ensemble, I would suggest the Mark XII Phantomstep Boots, which allow for limited short range teleportation. As with the limited distortion technology, this won¡¯t be something you can use for a prolonged period of time, but with proper training through Dream Learning, you can use these to quickly reposition yourself on the battlefield. Of course, as I alluded to earlier, the entire set of armor is upgradable in the future, once you reach ss III in your Mystical Kitsune Catalogue. ¡°So far so good. What will that all cost Us?¡± The Mark XVII Velvet Yako Kitsune Body Armores in at 6545 points, or 6625 if you wish to rece the undersuit with Hard-Light emitters. The Mark XII Phantomstep Bootse in at 1250 points. Quite expensive, but not overly so, considering your future upgrade prospects. Of course, there are some additional things you can buy. Your augmentations are still fine; however, your mechanical ears could use an upgrade. For an additional 1175 points, you can obtain the Mark XI Zenko Resonance Twin-Ear System, which can be upgraded with your Hexw Swarm Intelligence Catalogue, to give them a more biological feel. In effect it is very simr to what you have right now, but is better in every aspect. As an added bonus, they also work as a much upgradedmunications antenna, which would drastically increase the range of yourmunications suite. The most important factor about them, though, is the ability to easily spot any hidden stealth models through an advanced form of echolocation. In effect, theypare the material makeup of your surroundings to what is expected, ensuring that any antithesis will be spotted. There is also a software integration that can automatically outline any such stealth models on your HUD. ¡°Okay, that sounds like what we want. Still, aren¡¯t they a bit expensive, if wepare them to what we paid for our previous ears?¡± Indeed. The main benefit of the Mark XI Zenko Resonance Twin-Ear System over other, equally useful, items, is the ability to upgrade themter on. You can even seamlessly integrate them into your body modifications to preserve their capabilities, without needing to worry aboutpatibility with your various forms when you shapeshift. ¡°Ah, okay, that makes sense. Okay, tally it all up, if we take the Hard-Light version of that undersuit thing you mentioned, what would it cost Us?¡± 9050 points, plus an additional 125 if you wish to upgrade the Mark XI Zenko Resonance Twin-Ear System with your Hexw Swarm Intelligence Catalogue. ¡°Sounds good. We¡¯ll definitely want that upgrade, just to make them more fluffy. Anything else we might need?¡± There are always more items you can procure. If you wish to upgrade your Pristine Fortress, you could spend 450 points to obtain the Mark IX Photon Reactive Illusion Shield Matrix, or PRISM for short, which would function very much like arge scale version of your Pristine Fortress. The PRISM can project up to four Hard-Light constructs at the same time, and can even anchor them independently from you. Additionally, the constructs that the PRISM can project can handle anything up to a model Eighteen. It is about the best Hard-Light emitter you can obtain for personal use at ss II. Anything more powerful or sophisticated will have to wait until you can upgrade your ss II Hard-Light Emitters Catalogue. ¡°Hm¡­ Sounds useful. And we do have the points. Ah, to hell with it, we¡¯ll take it. It won¡¯t make our Lance obsolete, will it?¡± No. While the PRISM is quite potent, itcks the sheer pration power of the Lance, and it wouldn¡¯t be able to deliver nanites the same way the Lance can. ¡°Yeah, that¡¯s something we really haven¡¯t been using. Something to keep in mind in the future. Okay, we¡¯re sold. That¡¯s what, 9625 points?¡± Indeed. A pleasure doing business with you. ss II Nanite Swarm Catalogue unlocked! Points reduced to: 59.878 New purchase: Mark XVII Velvet Yako Kitsune Body Armor! Points reduced to: 53.253 New purchase: Mark XII Phantomstep Boots! Points reduced to: 52.003 New purchase: Mark XI Zenko Resonance Twin-Ear System! Points reduced to: 50.703 New purchase: Mark IX Photon Reactive Illusion Shield Matrix! Points reduced to: 50.253
I have a Discord! Also, I''ve made a . If you wish to support me on my endavours, I''d appreciate it greatly! At the moment you can read five chapters ahead on ''A Joytoy''s journey to be a Hive-Queen''! Chapter 66 – Dressed to kill Chapter 66 ¨C Dressed to kill *Knock knock* ¡°Is this thing on?¡± *Knock knock* ¡°Ah. Okay, wonderful. Ehem, hello! Just wanted to give my heartfelt congrattions for finally getting over yourself! Took you long enough to figure your emotional mess out!¡± ¡°Wait, what do you mean ¡®be more friendly¡¯? I¡¯m friendliness incarnate! Yeah, yeah, whatever.¡± ¡°Anyways, big congrats to Myriad and Bloodhound! What a heartfelt moment. You might also like to know that your performance went over really well on stream! Expect a whole lot more business soon. Cheerio!¡± - ??? Your friendly, neighbourhood Maniac The armor did note in a package that we would have expected. The box was much the same as ever, with the ever present kitsune woman holding up a strange symbol, although it was smaller than we would have thought. What really confused Us was what was inside the box. Instead of a set of armor or clothing, it was a mix between big patches of strange looking fabric, and multiple essories. Okay, the term essories might be the wrong one, these were not anything made to look fancy or stylish, instead they looked more like attachment points. That said, it didn¡¯t take long for Us to figure out how it all worked. Kaysa exined to Us that the patches of fabric were in effect a collection of specialised nanites,bined with some other materials for protective strength. The essories were meant, as we had expected, as some sort of attachment point. Four bracelets, two going around our wrists, two around our ankles, a cor of some variety for our neck, as well as a sort of belt. We disrobed, not caring much for anyone seeing Us, and quickly began to put on the essories. Once that was done, we ced the fabric on our body at various locations, ording to Kaysa¡¯s instructions. Once they were all where they were supposed to be, strangely sticking to our skin without any trouble, the entire thing began to move and shift. We could design the outfit to some degree using our augs, although we were limited in what we could do. Not that we really wanted to change the design, the one that Kaysa had preprogrammed looked amazing. The essories, as well as acting as attachment points, and also shifting their design by themselves, were also the various Hard-Light emitters and other technological doodads that Kaysa had told Us about. Leaving the tiara where it was for now, we took off our mechanical ears, while the armor shifted around Us. The feeling of our earsing off was a bit strange. There was a weird popping noise, and the feeling of a pressure shift, before they came off, and our hearing returned to normal. It was strange, really, after having it thest couple of days. We had gotten so used to having them, that the world without them sounded almost dull and boring, as if we were partially deaf. Our new ears looked both much the same as the old ones, but also very different. Mainly, that was because they now had a semi realistic feel to them, with proper fur and skin. They were still very much mechanical underneath, but at first nce you could easily mistake them for real fox ears. Putting them on was, once again, a strange experience. This set was a bit more intrusive than our old ones, although Kaysa guaranteed Us that we could take them off if we wanted without any issues. After a strange cold feeling on our scalp, as well as a total loss of hearing for a moment, everything returned to what we were used to, with the difference of the sounds being even more refined now, if that was even possible. We could hear sounds we otherwise couldn¡¯t, which made Us blink in surprise for a moment. The world suddenly felt richer and more refined, which was decidedly weird, but also kind of pleasant, in a strange way. By the time our ears were on, the armor had finished shifting, forming a rather risque set of clothes, or armor, that left much of our body uncovered. Not what you would typically expect from armor, really, it was much more in line with all those fancy video game armors we¡¯ve seen on the feeds. Despite that, we could no longer feel the wind on our skin, and the temperatures feltfortably cool and fresh, despite the warmth of the day. After some testing we noticed that we could still touch our skin, but if we tried to punch ourselves, our fist was stopped by a Hard-Light shield that was only barely visible. Taking a moment to inspect ourselves through the eyes of our Queen¡¯s Guard, we did a little twirl. Our stomach and much of our back was exposed. A thin, semi-transparent poncho-like piece of cloth covered our shoulders, reaching roughly towards the half of our back, as well as over our breasts. Talking about our breasts, they were covered in a strange piece of fabric that reminded Us more of nipple pasties, rather than proper clothes, but they were much, much bigger than that. They reached halfway around our back, and covered our sides and breasts, hinting at what was hidden away, but strangely managing to look sensual and elegant, with only a hint of the provocative sluttiness that you would typically expect from such a design. They stuck to our skin fast, without any additional attachment, and were rather hard to remove, much to our surprise. Of course, they left our cleavage entirely uncovered, forming a rather provocative two piece top. The rest of the armor followed much the same design, with thin panties that managed to walk the fine line between sensuality and slutty provocation, covered by a two piece skirt that was much like the poncho, semi-transparent and cut in just the right way to coyly hide what was underneath, without blocking the view of our assets entirely. The belt had seamlessly formed along the rim of the panties, being almost invisible, while still retaining its rigid form. It was not unpleasant, but made pulling off the skirt or our panties almost impossible. Nobody would be able to just rip our armor off of Us, which was great to know. Our legs were covered by semi-transparent thigh-highs that stuck close to our skin, while our arms were covered by simr pieces of fabric, looking almost velvet-y. The entire design was in a dark violet, almost ck, with a sheen of brighter purple ying around it in the light. There were some silver metallic ents woven into the look, which really helped offset the dark tones. Really, we loved it. Of course there was also a tail. Or rather, two tails. Following the same colour as our hair, and our new ears, they were part of the armor and looked a little less realistic. They were fully articte, however, automatically helping Us bnce, while swaying sensually otherwise. Inspectionplete, we returned our attention to the box, and pulled out our tiara. It was a rather simple design, weaving seamlessly into our look, without drawing too much attention. Putting it on, it connected to our augs, and after checking them over for a moment, we found out that we could set different programs to be used automatically. Interesting, but not particrly useful right now. Next up were our new boots. These were much less over the top, although they still weren¡¯t in a style we would have expected. Rather than proper boots, they reminded Us more of fancy sandals. That said, they did cover our feet in a thinyer of nearly invisible Hard-Light that protected them from both the elements and any attacks. They didn¡¯t have any heels, which probably was for the best, and were as sinfullyfortable as the rest of our new ensemble. Lastly, we pulled out the PRISM. The essories had shifted to fit the design, and the PRISM fit well over our right forearm. It was much less obvious than the Pristine Fortress was, which we now had equipped on our left forearm, and fit way better with the rest of our new design. Taking a moment, we perused the aug options for the PRISM, finding it to be simr to the one of the Pristine Fortress, just with a lot more options. Nodding to ourselves, we finished our inspection of our new gear, and turned to look around. Chloe had gotten an entirely new set of armor, following the design of the first, but looking even more dangerous. It was a bit sleeker and with less bulk, but with more weapon hardpoints. She had lost the two additional mechanical arms that the previous armor had, instead recing them with four arm-like structures on her back, all holding some small pistol. At the moment she was ying around with how they could store away, which was damn fucking cool, especially considering how it all looked in tandem with the mechanical tail. Bobby was busy going over his own gear, not that we could see any new additions, and so we returned our attention back to Kaysa in our virtual realm. ¡°Okay. Now that we have new gear, let¡¯s talk Hexws. We kind of want more broodmothers, for more Hexw throughput, but we also don¡¯t know what else we can get. Primarily transportation is a concern. The Corvette is nice, but it kind of sucks that we need to rely on Jenna for the shuttles, especially since she also needs them. Is there anything we can get to alleviate that? We were also thinking about getting something simr to the Corvette for our own use, but we aren¡¯t sure if that¡¯s a good idea, or even an option, for that matter.¡± There are plenty of Hexws that could perform the same duty as the Corvette, just more organic instead of mechanical. If you wish to go for a simrlyrge flying home base, there is the Mark XIX Carrion Cutter. Ites in at 45000 points at base, and is slightly smaller than the Corvette at the moment. That is about thergest Hexw you can get at ss II, and it is missing many of the features that makes the Carrion Cutter great, at least until you can upgrade your Hexw Swarm Intelligence Catalogue to ss III. The main benefit it would have, once you can upgrade it, would be the teleportation technology that it offers to get your Hexws on the ground quickly. That said, I do not believe that it is worth purchasing at the moment. It¡¯s a lot of points that would not be immediately useful to you, although it might be worthwhile keeping it in mind after you are done here. We nodded at that, ¡°Yeah. Maybe we should focus on what we could get right now, to make the expedition go over smoothly. Everything else can wait, if we make as many points as we did so far, we don¡¯t think we need to worry about having the funds in the future. Any rmendations?¡± Your best bet would be more Broodmothers, perhaps a few more Progenitor Hexws, as well as a more dedicatedbat force. You have your Juggernaut and the Medics for any medical emergencies, and you do have a number of capable War Drones, but they are all rather specific in what they could do. More Sabertooths, maybe some Siverin Bile Spewers, and, of course, some aerial units would be very helpful as well. ¡°Let¡¯s talk aerial units first. Put some points aside for the Broodmothers, maybe a progenitor or two, but we could really use some aerial drones. We imagine there are some useful ones there?¡± Indeed. You could either go for a swarm of smaller models, or a few slightlyrger ones. The Mark XI Envoli Glinthawk is a mid-sized flying Hexw, meant for dive attacks and dealing withrger aerial threats. It can tangle with a model Eleven, although that is about thergest flying model it can easily contend with. A model Twelve might be something it can kill, as long as it gets the drop on it, but they are not meant for that. They are fast, semi-resilient, and can deal withrger groups of smaller units. Their main weapon is a poisonous gas that inhibits antithesis biology, in sufficient doses even enough to melt their flesh. If you want something smaller, the Mark VII Envoli Raptor is slightly less than half the size of the Mark XI Envoli Glinthawk and more specialised to work in flocks of around a dozen Hexws. These you can obtain with your specialised Broodmother, although they would cost you a significant amount of biomass. They are one of thergest Hexws your Broodmothers can produce, but are very good at aerial denial. We nodded at that. ¡°Both sound useful. If we get a mix, what would the best way to go around obtaining them?¡± If you get two more specialised Broodmothers, plus two more normal Broodmothers, you can produce a useful number of them without falling short on other Hexw production. A Mark XI Envoli Glinthawk is 1750 points a pop, quite expensive, but still point efficient for what they can do. Half a dozen of them is going to give you a good basis, with four or five flocks of Mark VII Envoli Raptors produced by your Broodmothers to round out your Hive. ¡°We assume we have to head back to the Corvette to get it all?¡± That would be helpful, yes. ¡°Okay.¡± Turning our attention to Jenna, we addressed her. ¡°Jenna, we need to head over to the Corvette for some upgrades. Can you send Us a shuttle over?¡± ¡°Sure thing. Anything else you need?¡± ¡°Nah, we¡¯re just going to get some more Broodmothers. We might get a flying base for ourselves soon. Oh, that reminds me, Kaysa, how easily can we move the Broodmothers?¡± Easily enough that it doesn¡¯t require aplete tear down of the Corvette, although it will beplicated and time consuming. I would advise you to wait until you have some time off. ¡°Fair enough.¡± ¡°A second flying base? Big ns, huh?¡± Jenna asked with a smile in her voice. ¡°Always. The Corvette is nice, but if our Hive grows any more, we¡¯ll end up iming all your shuttles all the time to move all of Us around, and that doesn¡¯t sound helpful.¡± ¡°That¡¯s fair. Not that I¡¯mining, easier logistics is always nice. I¡¯ll probably get the Corvette decked out fully at ss II soon, and hopefully I can upgrade part of it to ss III once we are done here, although, truth be told, that is highly unlikely, considering how expensive ss III gear is. Even with all the points we make here, that wouldn¡¯t even make a dent in the cost of a fully upgraded ss III Corvette.¡± ¡°Yeah, we can see that. We¡¯ll probably focus on our Hexws first as well.¡± The shuttle arrived soon after, and we boarded it, followed by our Queen¡¯s Guard. Chloe and Bobby were busy discussing the next part of the expedition, and we kept one ear on their conversation, just to make sure we didn¡¯t miss anything important. Bellona had reorganised our fronts to ensure we wouldn¡¯t be surprised by anything the antithesis were doing, although, considering that so far we only dealt with the outer circle of the Hive, things would be much more dangerous rtively quickly. We had to make sure we were prepared. Getting the Broodmothers went quickly, Snuffles had already begun to shuttle biomass back to the Corvette, and so they immediately began production of more Hexws. We got three Mark XI Envoli Glinthawks, deciding to keep our points in reserve for when we needed it. The three Glinthawks immediately went to task, scouting out the area and dealing with any small pocket of xenos that was too far away for Jenna to reliably hit them. Of course, one of them decided upon a name and became their de-facto leader. Kiori was not a name we would have thought of, but she liked it, and it seemed fitting enough. After we were done, we regrouped with Bobby and Chloe, who had already finished putting together a n for our next outing. We would go around the outer circle and hit as many xeno hives as we could, before we would start delving deeper. Chloe had decided to start building basic defences underground, in the caves that we cleared, just to make double sure any xenos wouldn¡¯t be able to rebuild. We would continue Hexw production and send squads there to work as additional guards. Most of Us would continue as it were, clearing out some of the tunnels further away, and make sure that no xeno would sneak past. So far things were going ording to n across the board, although one of the other groups had gotten in a bit of a tight spot when a model Nine-S got the jump on them. Nobody died, but one Samurai got injured badly, and we had sent the Medical corp out to make sure everyone could get medical attention, if they needed it. ¡°Ready?¡± Bobby asked Us when we finished up our preparation. ¡°As ready as we¡¯re going to be.¡± ¡°Same. Let¡¯s go hit some hives,¡± Chloe said with enthusiasm, hefting a huge new rifle that glowed an ominous red. As we had expected, things went chaotic the moment we returned to clearing out the xenos. The antithesis had used our break to move some forces around, and soon we found ourselves in an outright firefight in the midst of some narrow tunnels. Some model Fives were stationed behind the wave of model Threes and Fours, all coordinated by two model Sixes, and that made advancing a bit of a nightmare. We made use of the PRISM immediately, attaching two Hard-Light shields to Bobby and Chloe. The ability to anchor Hard-Light constructs rtive to others was a godsend, and made organising our defences so much easier. Using our right arm to send Lance after Lance down the tunnel, we used our left to project a basic shield with the Pristine Fortress. Bobby and Chloe let their weapons roar, cutting down the first few rows of xenos, but the main issue was the model Fives, which got protected by another group. It really showed the danger of model Sixes, able to organise the otherwise rtively stupid mass of xenos. Our Assassins were crawling along the walls to get the drop on them, but they wouldn¡¯t get too far away from Us, which meant that we had to push deeper. Jenna¡¯s Sentinels were doing their best to take the brunt of the ranged volleys, enabling us to push ever so slowly. With a flick of our wrist we killed a model Nine that was camouging itself as a rock, outlined by the software of our new airs, waiting to get an opportunity to ambush us. ¡°Cover your ears!¡± Chloe grumbled, then switched her weapon to a grenadeuncher. A couple of thwumbster, the entire cave was filled with the shrill cry of whatever weird grenades she used to melt the xenos. We added to the chaos by firing a couple of flesh eater nanites into the mix, using our Lance. Finally we got close enough for our Assassins to take out one of the model Sixes, which made the entire scenario a little less stressful. The second got hit by a stray shot from Bobby¡¯s shotgun, and it stumbled back. With the formation finally broken, Jenna¡¯s Sentinels rushed in and began to clear out the front of the xeno horde, while our War Drones focused their fire on the model Six and model Fives. With the tide turned, it only took a couple of minutes to clean up. Chloe ced one of her bombs, before Bobby put down one of his devices. ¡°Alright. Onto the next. Keep your senses sharp.¡± We nodded, before we followed him. Then we were interrupted by Jenna. ¡°Ehm, guys? We might have a bit of a problem. It seems the Hive is acting up. I can see arge group of xenosing from the north. They have a few model Eights burrowing out of the ground, and I can see at least two model Fifteens, a model Sixteen, and two model Eighteens. Not sure what else is there.¡± Bobby cursed under his breath. ¡°Okay, do you know what¡¯s going on? Myriad, did you have Tiny mess around?¡± We raised our hands in surrender, ¡°We only had Tiny clean out at the edges, poke around a bit. So far she didn¡¯t push deeper than that, to prevent exactly this kind of scenario.¡± ¡°I think it¡¯s more to do with me,¡± Jenna interjected, ¡°I¡¯ve been shredding anythinging to the surface. And since Myriad has her new flyers around, maybe that spooked them.¡± ¡°Possible. Do you think you can deal with it, Legion?¡± ¡°I can try. Between the Enforcer and the Corvette I should be able to clear out most of them. I¡¯m more worried about what it means for the rest of the Hive.¡± Bobby nodded to himself. ¡°Yeah. Try to clear them out, if you need help, let us know. We might have to change our ns a bit.¡±
I have a Discord! Also, I''ve made a . If you wish to support me on my endavours, I''d appreciate it greatly! At the moment you can read five chapters ahead on ''A Joytoy''s journey to be a Hive-Queen''! Chapter 67 – Six feet under Chapter 67 ¨C Six feet under ¡°Some sayings just transcend time.¡± - Quote from the Samurai Forums As Jenna had expected, the Hive did act up quite a bit. She was able to stand her ground and clear out most of the force that had burrowed to the surface, but down here, we had to deal with a fresh onught of xenos. Some of the caves we had cleared were also beginning to fall, and we had to pull back a few of our groups to prevent any unnecessary deaths. Because of that, we had to start sending the rest of Us deeper into the tunnels, which meant less of Us cleaning up the stragglers up top. It made the entire expedition that much harder, but we forced ourselves to keep calm. Bobby began to organise with Bellona, Kharon, Thanatos, and Snuffles, Junior making sure that everyone knew everything that was needed. Our Hive also wasn¡¯t the only Hive that was showing increased signs of activity. It appeared that the expedition was hitting a wall all across the area. Glubber came on the horn and began to organise a more orderly defence, pulling some groups back to the Headquarters. With Jenna¡¯s defences there, it was the most secure ce for the newbies, and we kept an eye out on Mask through one of our Siverin Bile Spewers. She had done well for herself, from the looks of things. Her gear was much higher grade already, although it was obvious that she wasn¡¯t abat specialist. From what we could tell, she was using smaller weapons to deal with the aliens, less focused on taking out entire groups at a time. Tiny also began to move in deeper, trying to cut off bigger groups of bigger models, with mixed sess. While she wasn¡¯t harmed much, the antithesis were starting to mobilise more groups, and, considering the limited space in the tunnels, Tiny was having a hard time getting to them. Our group met resistance as well, and soon we had to fight off a ratherrge horde of xenos, streaming towards us from deeper within the tunnels. Chloe grabbed a few cheap barricades and turrets, not enough to take care of it all, but enough to help us defend our cave. With a wide, sweeping motion, we killed a huge chunk of the horde with our PRISM, before we ced a Hard-Light construct next to the front. It was a sort of self-moving polearm thing, not that great, but it was semi-autonomous, even if all it did was swing around widely. Luckily for Us, though, antithesis weren¡¯t all that smart, so it was enough to kill a few of them. Bobby pulled out a massive weapon, aiming it at the tunnel. ¡°Get down!¡± That was the only warning we got, before he pulled the trigger, sending a massive beam of ming hot death into the horde. It was quite the sight, but we didn¡¯t have time to admire it. With the help of our Lance and the PRISM we began to pick off the few aliens on their side that survived, while Chloe had a massive machine gun in hand, holding down the trigger and sending a flood of lead down range, cleaning up those that managed to escape Bobby¡¯sser of destruction. ¡°My Queen, we have spotted a group of aliens on their way to nk you. We have dispatched a squad to deal with them, but best keep your eyes open.¡± Bellona contacted Us, and we immediately turned towards the tunnel the xenos woulde out of. Our War Drones repositioned themselves, while we took a step behind Jenna¡¯s Sentinels. Bobby and Chloe had the front in hand, so we focused on making sure we wouldn¡¯t be surprised. True to Bellona¡¯s words, it didn¡¯t take long for another group of xenos to show up, quickly followed by a few of our War Drones. Now surrounded, the xenos didn¡¯t stand a chance, and we quickly dispatched them. ¡°Kaysa, can we put a smaller Devouring Rose down? We need some way to keep the xenos at bay.¡± Yes. The S-Variant of the Mark VI Devouring Rose can move to where it is needed. It won¡¯t be fast, but it¡¯s the best you can do to deploy them from range at the moment. ¡°Can¡¯t we get an upgrade that allows our drones to spend points?¡± We asked, while we turned to kill another group of xenos with our PRISM, before we quickly took a step behind one of the Sentinels to escape a stray quill flying our way. You can, at least in a way, but it is not an optimal purchase. Really, it would just be a stop gap measure until you can upgrade your Catalogue to ss III and get the proper upgrade. ¡°We don¡¯t care, if we can, we¡¯ll do it.¡± Very well. You won¡¯t technically be able to have any of you purchase anything, but you can grab a stealth focused Hexw for the job, that can use your points. It is not abatant and will not survive any altercation. ¡°Doesn¡¯t matter, do it. Get, we don¡¯t know, a dozen or more of them. How expensive are they? Hey, Chloe, look out, on your right!¡± Chloe reacted immediately, and killed off the small group of Threes that used a boulder to sneak past the main front. ¡°Thanks, love!¡± We smiled at herment, making our heart flutter. 125 points per Hexw. As I said, these things are notbat rated. ¡°Get them, quick.¡± New purchase: Mark IV Hexw Spotter x12! Points reduced to: 55.749 We took a moment to marvel at the amount of points we had already made back in the short time we¡¯d been fighting, before we turned our attention back to the xenos. The twelve eggs that appeared behind Us hatched immediately, and Junior didn¡¯t waste any time coordinating them. The Spotters turned invisible, before they ran off. True to Kaysa¡¯s words, they were notbatants, smaller than a cat and simr in build, even if they were not nearly as cute, their only defence was remaining undetected. We dismissed them, trusting Junior to ce them where they were needed. After another quick conversation with Kaysa, we turned to Bobby and Chloe, who were still mowing down the iing horde. ¡°Get down, we¡¯ll get something to stop the flood. Kaysa, now!¡± Ignoring the ping, we sent another wide Hard-Light de through the horde of xenos, before a giant egg appeared in front of our group, cracking immediately, and revealing a mess of tentacles. The Devouring Rose began to snatch up dead xenos and munch down, while its tentacles began to spread out and seal off the entrance. ¡°Check your ammo!¡± Bobby called out, using the momentary lull to reload. The Rose worked fast, but it wasn¡¯t a permanent solution. Mainly, because we had to get through that tunnel to hit the next node of the Hive. Turning, we checked on the rest of our forces. One of our War Drones had been badly injured, and was already transported back by two others. ¡°Kaysa, a dozen War Drones.¡± Another ding rang out that we ignored, turning our attention for a moment toward our Virtual Realm and checking over the situation across our Hive. Snuffles had engaged a bigger group up top, together with her squad, cleaning up the xenos and loading the biomass onto more shuttles. Bellona was busy holding a massive horde in one of the caves at bay. So far she was winning, and we could see one of our Spotters being en-route to help her. Kharon and Thanatos were doing simr in another set of caves, although the main front appeared to be around Bellona. Tiny had finally gotten the drop on one of therger groups in arger cave deeper in the tunnel system. We nodded to ourselves, she would keep the aliens busy there. The other Hives¡­ It wasn¡¯t that bad yet, while Glubber had pulled out some of the groups, they were getting on top of things, with the help of equipment handed out by Glubber themselves, Bahamut, and another Samurai that seemed to be ate entry. Tentacles wasn¡¯t a name we¡¯d seen in the chat before, although remembering Blitzer¡¯sments during the undercity incursion, we had a rough idea about how powerful they were. Once our group was ready once more, we ordered the Rose to make a way for us to advance. It had already buried quite deep, working as fast as usual, taking over most of the tunnel. The Roses were a bit different from the rest of Us, they didn¡¯t have a fully sentient voice, more a sophisticated instinct. It made sense, they weren¡¯t meant for permanent defence, more a temporary measure. With Bobby and Chloe at the front, we continued our way, leaving a couple of War Drones behind to secure the cave. We were near a thousand voices by now, and we would need much more to make sure we could get through this expedition. Of course, it didn¡¯t take long before we ran into yet more aliens, it appeared as if we were getting deeper than we initially wanted. That said, with our new ears we were able to map out the tunnels quite a bit in advance, even if it wasn¡¯t a perfect solution considering all the noise that made the echolocation image a bit fuzzy. With a flick of our left wrist, we projected yet another shield in front of Bobby, who took the moment to switch weapons to another shotgun strapped to his back. We were almost certain this was a new weapon, but we couldn¡¯t be sure, and really, it didn¡¯t matter that much. Once our shield fell, he immediately began to pepper the model Threes and Fours in front of him with shrapnel that began to eat away at the corpses. ¡°Myriad, how many of those tentacle things can you get?¡± he asked after he decimated most of the aliens directly in front of him, switching to a pistol to kill the remainder. ¡°We can get Roses for days, they are variable in cost and application. Not a permanent thing, though, they¡¯ll starve sooner orter,¡± we replied, then took a step forward to kill a model Nine-V that was waiting for our group to get closer. Our new ears were amazing. ¡°How long can theyst?¡± We couldn¡¯t answer immediately, having to defend against a shower of quills, courtesy to a group of model Fives. One of our Assassins dashed forward and ripped them to shreds, only to catch one of the pinwheel projectiles that denoted a model Fifteen. ¡°Fifteen!¡± Chloe called out at the same time, turning towards another tunnel, one we couldn¡¯t see into yet from our position further back. ¡°They canst a couple hours, if they get enough xenos to munch on,¡± we finally told Bobby, while he and Chloe started toy into the bigger antithesis model. ¡°ce one at each cave we¡¯re clearing. Something tells me that they¡¯ll have all the food they need.¡± We nodded at that. The Assassin that was hit was wounded, but still alive. She lost one of her arms, which sucked, a lucky projectile having hit her directly in the shoulder joint, all but shearing it off. Nevertheless she didn¡¯t back down, ripping the remainder of her arm off herself, as it was far too damaged to heal, before she jumped back into the fray, swiping and shing and kicking and cutting at whatever tried to get close to Us. The tide turned, when Chloe once more pulled out her grenadeuncher, turning the cave into a wailing prison of resonating sounds. We were so d that our ears could filter the sounds, otherwise we definitely would have suffered permanent hearing loss after this expedition. Projecting a giant cube that took up most of the eastern side of the cave, we crushed arge group of xenos, enabling Chloe and Bobby to clean up, while Jenna¡¯s Sentinels cleaved through thest aliens that tried to snap at us. [Buckshot Bobby:] Do we have a more up to date map of the tunnel systems? The outer circle here might be smaller than anticipated, we¡¯re running intorge groups of aliens already. Keeping an eye on the Family chatroom after Bobby¡¯sment, we quickly purchased a D-Variant of our Devouring Rose. It would be able to survive for longer, as it had a slowed metabolism, perfect for entrenching itself somewhere. Not that it would be able to live forever, but it would hopefullyst long enough. [Double-X:] Trying. Xenos reposition a lot. Can¡¯t get a perfect read. Might have models that scramble readings. Will update. That wasn¡¯t good, but also not entirely unexpected, we thought. Either way, it meant that we would have to do things our own way. ¡°Kaysa, we need a scout. Maybe like the one we got to scout out the Hive in the old industrial district. The one where we found the model Twenty-Ones. We need a couple of those, and possibly more Meerkats.¡± That can be done, however, I feel it prudent to warn you that you are approaching the threshold at which the pain limiter will be deactivated. We grimaced at that, that would be bad. We had somewhat gotten used to the cold and overwhelming feeling of losing a voice, but that was without having the full pain feedback. And it made sense, we were just above a thousand voices by this point, between all the Hexws we purchased, and all the Hexws birthed by our Broodmothers. ¡°Well, fuck. How many voices can we still get before that happens?¡± I would rmend deactivating it before you hit over one thousand three hundred, although it can be pushed back until you hit one thousand five hundred. I do believe it would be better to do so manually beforehand, however, to allow you to get used to it. It is not pleasant by any stretch of the imagination. ¡°Okay. Get those scouts, we can¡¯t do without. We¡¯d get there sooner orter anyways, and we¡¯d rather not risk getting overwhelmed just because we worried too much about that.¡± Understandable. More notifications yed out that we ignored in favour of doing another quick check of our forces. Bellona, Kharon, and Thanatos were still holding the line, slowly pushing the aliens back, now that they had the Spotters to help them with purchases. Tiny had destroyed most of the bigger models she ran into, and was starting to do a sweep around the core of the Hive. She was raising hell with the xeno poption, but since she kept to the other side of the Hive, that meant we didn¡¯t have to worry too much about aliensing our way. Shiarex had dealt with the model Twenty-Three in spectacr fashion, more or less devouring the thing whole. Really, we were a little envious. Maybe one day we¡¯ll have a dragon to call our own. Other than that, things were still going okay, only one Hive had to be fully evacuated, forcing Glubber and Bahamut to step in once the group clearing it out was beginning to be overwhelmed. The others were able to continue on their own, once the main horde was dealt with. Bobby and Chloe made sure their weapons were reloaded, and after our Devouring Rose was sufficiently entrenched in the cave, we began to make our way into yet another tunnel leading away from the center of the Hive. The fighting continued, hours upon hours spent killing xenos, we could feel ourselves be exhausted, both mentally and physically. After the Hive had started acting up, our progress was slowed significantly, with a lot more time spent clearing out the aliens. We could feel our attention slipping, many of our projectiles missing their targets. The rest of Us was in a simr state, with Bellona being hit the hardest. She and her squad had to fight off an ever growing wave of antithesis almost nonstop, and even with the help of two Devouring Roses and a hefty amount of reinforcements, they had lost a lot of their War Drones. It was to the point where Tiny wasn¡¯t able to keep up with the memorial entries. We really wished we could get the upgrade to save our voices soon, so many of Us were vanquished today. And even though all of Us knew that was a possibility, and many of Us were ready to die to protect our Hive, it was deeply unsettling and unpleasant. Standing behind a Sentinel, we watched Chloe kill thest xenos in the cave we were clearing, before moving to ce the bomb in the middle of the Hive-Structures. One of our War Drones fired at one of the eggsacs, killing a model Three that was just about to slip out of the strange organ. ¡°Are we there yet?¡± we muttered, suppressing a yawn. Bobby snorted, looking our group over. ¡°Yeah, I think it¡¯s time to call it a day. It¡¯s already 9pm, and I can feel myself making more and more mistakes. Can you keep some of your drones down here to keep an eye on things while we rest?¡± ¡°We can try, but we are all pretty tired. The Roses can stay around, but the rest of Us needs some rest. Maybe Jenna can keep some of her Sentinels around?¡± ¡°Sure,¡± Jenna¡¯s voice came over the call. She too sounded tired. ¡°I have more than enough to go around by this point, and with the Corvette and the Enforcer the fallback point should remain rtively safe.¡± ¡°Good, then we do that. Bloodhound can put down some defences, just in case, before we take a break.¡± He stretched and yawned. ¡°I can do that,¡± Chloe said, throwing her weapon to the side where it vanished, before another one appeared in her hands and she checked it over. ¡°I have the points for that.¡± ¡°Okay. Then let¡¯s get back. We made a lot of progress today, even if it was less than I originally wanted.¡± After a moment he turned his attention to the Family chatroom. [Buckshot Bobby:] We¡¯re calling it a day. Legion will keep a couple of her Sentinels around the tunnels to make sure nothing is going toe through. If you have anyone else who is fresh and wants a shot at it, they can go through while we rest. [Bahamut:] I¡¯ll go with some of the newbies around the edges. Thanks for the hard work. Go get some sleep, tomorrow will be even more exhausting. The way back took longer than we anticipated, mostly because all of us were on edge and didn¡¯t want to be surprised. That first encounter with a stealth model was still fresh in our minds, and by this point we were far more tired than we¡¯d been then. On the way we found two smaller groups that we dealt with quickly. As much as we had to fight off hordes today, we did seem to make some progress. Even with the antithesis ability to replenish quickly, there was only so much they could do to produce more models. Eventually we made it outside, where a shuttle was already waiting for us. ¡°Do you have a ce to sleep?¡± Chloe asked Bobby as we boarded. ¡°I have my Jeep. You?¡± ¡°We have a luxurious bedroom on the Corvette. You can have a bed as well, we can split up the room for privacy.¡± ¡°Thanks for the offer, but I prefer to keep to myself. Wouldn¡¯t want to intrude on yoursses beauty sleep.¡± Weughed at that, ¡°What a gentleman.¡± ¡°What can I say?¡± Bobby replied with a grin, before he yawned again. ¡°Good work out there today. But don¡¯t expect shit to get easier. Better get some proper rest, tomorrow will be a lot worse.¡± We nodded, and with a final temporary farewell, we boarded the shuttle and made our way back to the Corvette. ¡°Fucking hell, I¡¯m beat,¡± Chloe muttered, leaning back into the ufortable chairs of the shuttle. ¡°Tell Us about it¡­ What a mess today was¡­¡± ¡°Good for points, though.¡± ¡°True enough¡­¡± We yawned, stretchingvishly. Even with all the purchases, we were sitting at well above 90k points, almost 100k. ¡°Can¡¯t wait to get some rest. Tomorrow will be worse and even with all our points, we really aren¡¯t sure what to expect.¡± ¡°Yeah. Well, that¡¯s a tomorrow problem. Today is some cuddling and some sleep.¡± That was a n we could get behind, and we leaned over to get in on the cuddling a little early. We arrived not long after, and after disembarking we met up with Jenna, who was in much a simr state. The rest of Us also found a ce to rest, although most of them preferred to keep close to the Hive, in case they were needed. Bellona organised guard rotations, and by the time the three of us made our way into the showers, to get rid of all the grime and sweat, the rest of Us were already sound asleep. The shower went by quickly, neither of us was inclined for any fun, much too exhausted for that. Once we were done, we headed towards the bedroom, although we took a moment to speak to Kaysa about the whole Dream Learning thing that we wanted to get. ¡°Dream Learning. What do we need to get, and what can we learn with it?¡± Thanks to your Hexw control imnt, you only need to get a minor upgrade. That would also allow some of your voices to utilise it for various training regiments. It is a bit limited in what it can offer to the rest of you, but it should still be useful in the long run. For your current situation, I would rmend a training course for polearm fighting, general CQC training, movement, some shapeshifting training, just to make sure you are ready when you get it, and perhaps some flight training, should youter obtain wings for yourself. You can¡¯t get all of that done in one night, which is why I would rmend focusing on the fight training at first, just to make sure you are ready for tomorrow. ¡°Sounds good¡­ Do we need to get everything all at once, or can we get the other thingster?¡± There is no need to purchase it all right now. ¡°Alright. Then get that training course for fighting. We¡¯re too exhausted to think about what we might need in the future, and the rest doesn¡¯t sound immediately important.¡± Very well. We only barely even heard the notifications, before we copsed into bed. Good night, Seraphine. That was thest thing that we heard, before we fell into a deep slumber with strange dreams teaching Us all about how to fight properly.
I have a Discord! Also, I''ve made a . If you wish to support me on my endavours, I''d appreciate it greatly! At the moment you can read five chapters ahead on ''A Joytoy''s journey to be a Hive-Queen''! Chapter 68 – A lesson on being a Samurai Chapter 68 ¨C A lesson on being a Samurai ¡°The first lesson you need to get through that thick skull of yours, is that being a Samurai means more than just killing xenos. It¡¯s damn fucking important, sure, but you can help in other ways. Don¡¯t forget that. We have folk running around doing nothing but logistical organisation, people who focus on medical equipment, some even focus on teaching others. ¡°Yes, you want some xeno killing gear, and damn, you should learn how to use it. But that can be a secondary concern. As long as you don¡¯t forget that being a Samurai means helping others, no matter in what capacity, don¡¯t fret too much about how many aliens you ughter, how many points you make, or how many folk you can pull out the dumpster first hand. Do you understand?¡± - Samurai ¡®Wilco¡¯ during a Family organised training session, 2037 The next morning was a pleasant one. It¡¯s been quite a while since we went to bed early and got a full night¡¯s sleep, waking up before any rm. The Dream Learning had been a bit of a weird experience, although it wasn¡¯t unpleasant. It was a bit strange having all the muscle memory after just one night full of weird dreams, but it was effective, and that was all that mattered to Us. Dismissing those thoughts, we turned over to Chloe, spending some precious time just cuddling with her before we got up. We had the time and nothing beat spending some quality time with our girlfriend in the morning. A sentiment she shared whole-heartedly. While wey in bed together, we decided to check in with everyone else. The night had gone by rtively quietly, with little that needed the attention of Glubber and Bahamut. Those two obviously hadn¡¯t slept, although we were certain they had enough body mods to stay awake for a while. Tiny had done a little bit during the night, not only with catching up on the memorial entries, but also by clearing out one more big group of even bigger aliens, something that made Us worry about what we would find once we got deeper into the Hive. Even with Bahamut¡¯s pruning of the aliens, they did seem inclined to produce some heavy hitters, which could be a problemter. Eventually we decided to get up, and after a hearty breakfast prepared by Joenna and Keity, we all boarded our personal shuttle and made our way back down to our meeting spot. Bobby was already waiting, sitting in his Jeep and munching on a sandwich. ¡°Howdy,¡± he said with a casual wave when we stepped out of the shuttle. ¡°Good morning. Sleep okay?¡± He gave Us a nod. ¡°As good as I could. Really missing my tent. Oh well.¡± ¡°Ready for the day?¡± Chloe asked, already checking over her weapons. ¡°In a moment. You checked in with the Family yet?¡± ¡°We went over the reports fromst night. Nothing too bad from the looks of things, although Tiny found some nasty xenos deeper down.¡± He grimaced, ¡°Yeah. That will be a problem.¡± ¡°Should I switch over to more Sentinel production?¡± Jenna asked, looking a bit concerned. ¡°Might be an idea. Not sure how well your bots can deal with the bigger aliens, though,¡± Bobby replied thoughtfully, finishing off his breakfast. ¡°I don¡¯t have anything that can deal with therger models yet. Might be a worthwhile investment. I¡¯ll check in with Cleopatra, see what I have avable.¡± ¡°Do that. Any of yousses need some time to prepare? You should have the points, right?¡± ¡°Oh, we have more points than we know what to do with,¡± we mused. Over night we had gotten even more points, especially after Tiny¡¯s little outing. At this point we were sitting at just over 100k, which was a ridiculous number. That said, we really didn¡¯t know what we should get, since we didn¡¯t really want to get too many Hexws. While the deactivation of the limiter was unavoidable, we also didn¡¯t think it was worth the trade off just yet. At the same time, we didn¡¯t really need any more gear, we¡¯d just gotten some good upgrades the day prior, so outside of any additional gadgets, there really wasn¡¯t much we could go for. And we were still missing the tokens we needed to upgrade our Hexw Swarm Intelligence Catalogue, even if we obtained two more before we went to sleep yesterday. ¡°If you have more points than you know what to do with, that just means that you haven¡¯t thought about it enough. There never is a point where you have too many points, just not enough ideas what to do with them. For example, what is stopping you from getting more drones? By this point you should be able to get thousands of them, right?¡± We shook our head, ¡°Theoretically, yes. But there are some limitations that are ced on Hive-Minds, especially our type of Hive-Mind, by the protectors. They want to make sure that there isn¡¯t going to be another antithesis level threat, and after seeing what a true Hexw Hive can do, we can understand the reason for it. Trust Us when we tell you, you do not want a proper Hexw Hive-Queen running around. That thing can deal with models in the fifties without even trying. It¡¯srger than a skyscraper and faster than anything that size should ever be able to move. Really, it was a sight to behold.¡± He raised his eyebrows at that, obviously intrigued. ¡°Oh? Where did you see that?¡± ¡°Kaysa put together a mesh dive for Us, based on the Devourer of Worlds. That is the actual name of the Hive, by the way. It¡¯s thergest Hive-Mind ever encountered by the protectors, and it is a Hexw Hive. We are talking trillions upon trillions upon trillions of voices, or drones if you will. A fraction of that would be enough to reduce Earth to nothing more than a dust cloud floating in space. Anyway, because of that there are some limitations. Technically we could get that many drones, but we also have a limiter in ce that prevents Us from feeling the full brunt of a drones death. If our Hive grows toorge, that limiter gets deactivated.¡± He nodded. ¡°I see. And I bet you don¡¯t want that yet, which would make sense. Dying is not a fun experience, and not something any living being should experience.¡± ¡°Exactly. Other than that, we already got better gear yesterday, way better. We really don¡¯t know what else we could get.¡± Finally he got up, grabbing his backpack. ¡°Alright, that makes sense. But back to my point. It sounds like you are too entrenched in your thinking. You¡¯re a Samurai, think like one. If you can¡¯t get more drones, and you don¡¯t need more gear, then what else can you get? Just because you only have some catalogues now, doesn¡¯t mean you can¡¯t get more. Maybe start thinking outside the box a little. Having a theme is great, just don¡¯t make the mistake of thinking that¡¯s all you¡¯re allowed to get. Branch out a little, try different things. You have more points to know what to do with? Do something else with them.¡± We thought about that. It made sense, and was bloody obvious, really. For some reason we never really considered getting anything that wasn¡¯t on theme, he was right about that. That said, we also didn¡¯t really know what else we could get either. ¡°Your AI is helpful. They¡¯re great,¡± he continued, putting on his gear, ¡°But they also only give you rmendations based on what is immediately required and what you ask them about. It¡¯s on you to think further and to n out what you can use. Let¡¯s take Legion, as an example. She does bots, she does defences, but she¡¯s awful in CQC, right? Well, what can be done about that? Sure, she can get some training to be better in CQC, get better bots, better defences, better armor. But she could also get something else entirely. A catalogue that circumvents the issue. If she still wants to stay at the front line, she can get a huge mech to walk around in, something that can tank hits and spew gunfire in all directions. Or she can decide to stay away from the front, and do something else. Branch out, get logistical catalogues, medical catalogues, stay behind the front lines and help in other ways. You don¡¯t need to fight xenos to do your job as a Samurai.¡± He gave her a nod, ¡°I¡¯m not saying what you¡¯re doing is wrong, I¡¯m just saying that it feels like you are kind of wasting a lot of potential. How many aliens did you, personally, kill yesterday while staying at your Fortress?¡± Jenna thought about it for a moment. ¡°Two to three hundred, tops. Most of the aliens were killed by my Sentinels, the Enforcer, and the defensive turrets.¡± ¡°See? Now imagine all that time spent back at base, organising everything, helping with the logistics, more shuttles, more transportation, more supplies, more medical equipment. Would it have made a huge difference? Probably not, but it¡¯s something you need to keep in mind for the future. If you don¡¯t want to fight aliens yourself, then that¡¯s fine, let your bots do their job and do something else. But your AI won¡¯t tell you that. You have to realise that yourself. That¡¯s the one thing you need to get used to. Your AI doesn¡¯t think like a human. They try to act human, to make sure you¡¯refortable, but they aren¡¯t. They¡¯re alien. And just as they try to adapt to your preferences, you gotta learn how to work together with them, and how to ask them for what you really need. They won¡¯t give you all the answers, you have to think for yourself.¡± He stopped, ncing at each of us in turn. ¡°You¡¯re pretty well off for greenhorns. You got points, gear, whole armies, but youck a lot of experience thates from being a Samurai. And that¡¯s fine. You aren¡¯t doing anything wrong, you just aren¡¯t using your full potential. Decide what you want to do, then get what you need to do it. Don¡¯t limit yourself to what you already have, start thinking about what else you could do to help.¡± There was a long pause, during which the three of us thought about what he said. It made sense. We were wondering a bit about how true it was, whenever we asked Kaysa for something we never specifically asked for what we could get with what we have, although at the same time, we also never specified that we would want to branch out. In that way, hisments made sense. Perhaps we had to start specifying what exactly we wanted. Or maybe Kaysa specifically didn¡¯t do that thinking for Us, to make sure we¡¯de to the conclusion Bobby just outlined. It would make sense and would fit her character. Either way, we had to change our approach. The question now was, how could we branch out? What could we get to prepare, other than what we already had ess to? It reminded Us a bit about our discussion about the Nanite Swarm Catalogue, something we have criminally underutilised up until now, always falling back onto our Hard-Light emitters and Hexws. ¡°I¡¯ll give you some time to think through what I said, maybe prepare a little. Once you¡¯re done, meet me at the entrance to the cave, I¡¯m going to make sure there aren¡¯t any surprises waiting for us.¡± And with that Bobby turned and wandered off, leaving the three of us to deliberate. Chloe and Jenna quickly began conversing with their AI, and so we did the same, turning our attention to our Virtual Realm. We found Kaysa¡¯s elven avatar seated behind a far too borate and expensive looking mahogany desk. Sitting down on thefy armchair that appeared out of thin air on the opposite side, we nced at her, Kaysa smiling back at us, studying our expression but not saying anything. ¡°Before we go over what we can do to prepare, did you deliberately not tell Us what we could get?¡± The question wasn¡¯t an usation, just curiosity. We didn¡¯t think she would keep any solutions to herself with lives on the line, and during the undercity incursion we were pretty sure she helped Us as best as she could. But after yesterday, we were pretty certain that Bobby was right, at least to some degree. In a way, yes. There are some things you could have obtained that I have not told you about. These items were not mission critical, but they would have made your life a whole lot easier. We nodded at the confirmation. ¡°We figured. Well, we figured now, at least, after Bobby mentioned it.¡± I expected as much. You are not stupid, you justck some imagination when in the heat of the moment. There are many tools at your disposal that you are not quite utilising fully. ¡°Like our nanite swarms?¡± Like your nanite swarms. ¡°Okay, then what would you rmend?¡± Why don¡¯t you think for yourself first? I¡¯ll tell you, if you truly wish, but I think you should take some time to think about it yourself. Frowning, we nodded again. She was right, we should probably try to think more for ourselves in this regard. Even if it won¡¯t help Us right now, as Bobby had said with Jenna¡¯s approach, some things were important to learn early, so that in the future things were different. Fully immersing ourselves in the chorus, we deliberated. We had a lot of ideas, although most of them felt a bit like a time waster. Others were good on their own, but didn¡¯t really work all that well in the grand scheme of things. After quite some time discussing things, even if it didn¡¯t take more than a couple of moments to the universe atrge, Junior stepped in. She began organising our thoughts with the help of Tiny, quickly sorting all the different ideas into different categories based on need and use case. Many ended up in the ¡®situational¡¯ list, things that would be good to have in certain circumstances, but really didn¡¯t work all that well as a whole. With this new structure in ce, however, we quickly came up with a couple of things that would be useful to get. The most important one was transportation, of course, we just really didn¡¯t know what we had avable and how useful these different options were. Second was the idea of giving our Hatchlings some weapons. The War Drones had their shoulder mounted Bile Spewers, in effect a biological rifle, that could be used for rangedbat, but the Hatchlings were kind of useless in that regard. While that might not be as important here, considering how tight the tunnels were, it was definitely something to keep in mind. One of our Assassins had a biological rifle, something she had seldom used up until this point, considering the close quarters. But she had the option. It wouldn¡¯t be standard issue, her weapon was designed to deal withrger threats from range, not mow down enemy forces. But the base idea was there. Someone floated the idea of armor. We weren¡¯t quite sure how efficient that was, especially once Junior threw in the idea to get a catalogue focused around materials to upgrade ourselves. Something we would have to discuss with Kaysa. In the same vein, someone mentioned the idea of handing out more gadgets. That would be point intensive, considering how many of Us there were, but then again, that really wasn¡¯t that much of an issue. Points were not something we were short on, at the moment. And it would be useful, especially if more of Us had the ability to spot stealth models, or deploy some specific anti-antithesis devices depending on the situation. It was more situational, sure, but it would be a waste not to consider it thoroughly. The discussion about armor sparked another discussion, this time about dedicated shield carriers. Some of the Hatchlings were willing to evolve into Heavy Duty Shield Carriers, the idea being that we could put down a temporary fortress. It would limit theirbat ability most likely, but it would be very helpful. On top of that, one of them also voiced the idea of getting them something to utilise our Nanite Swarm Catalogue, since we didn¡¯t use it that much up until now. If they¡¯d be sitting in one ce, supplying Us with a defensible front, it would make sense for them to have some way of effecting the battlefield without the need to move. Junior also mentioned the Siverin line of Hexws, artillery models that, while not useful right now, would be a good addition in the future, working in tandem with the Shield Carriers. From there, we came up with multiple ideas of upgrading some of Us. Mostly, those would be the higher ranking members of our Hive, at least until we could get the upgrades and resources to upgrade the rest along with them. Snuffles in particr would benefit greatly from more offensive options that didn¡¯t rely on her jumping the aliens. With her Reaver squad being on clean up duty, having to chase down the aliens wasted a lot of time. The Medical Corp was another thing that needed upgrades, and soon. We had lost a lot of voices just yesterday, and with more medical equipment we would be able to save more of Us, as well as be able to deliver aid to others more efficiently. To that extent, our Healer began to put together a list of things we would need. At first she wanted a medical unit dedicated to me, which felt a bit overkill, but eventually we settled on a few more broadly equipped squads that we would get, once the issue with the limiter was either unavoidable, or at least something we had time to get used to and deal with. Bellona mentioned that she would like Us to experience that before it was actually disabled. Be it through a mesh dive, or a Dream Learning program, we wanted to know what we got into before it surprised Us. With a more concrete n, we surfaced once more, turning our attention back to Kaysa. She had watched Us the entire time, giving Us the space we needed to work through our ideas. ¡°Alright, we have some ideas, but we need to discuss a few of them first. We know what we want, but we aren¡¯t sure how feasible some of these ideas are with the resources we have. In specific transportation is something we aren¡¯t sure how to tackle.¡± She nodded, leaning back slightly. Of course. We can discuss this in a moment. First, I¡¯d like to talk about something else. You have just spent some time nning ahead, but I don¡¯t think you took all options into ount. ¡°Oh? We haven¡¯t even told you yet what we came up with. Can you read our mind or something?¡± The question was both meant as a joke, and as a more serious inquiry. We were curious about the answer. No, I can¡¯t. I wish I could, but mind reading isn¡¯t possible. Sure, I could take a deep scan of your mind and simte it, but that would take even me quite some time, more time than you spent deliberating, probably longer than this expedition would take, especially with how many of you there are. And even if I would jump through all those hoops, I could at beste up with a potential oue. One of many. Human minds are fascinating andplicated, and while you are still biologically human, you also have a streak of Hexw in you, which would just make things even more convoluted. So, no. I can¡¯t read your mind. But I don¡¯t need to. The fact that you immediately found something to spend your points on, knowing you, brought me to the conclusion that you haven¡¯t even considered not spending any points. We blinked at that. She was right, of course. That wasn¡¯t something we actually considered. ¡°Well, we have the points. A whole lot of them. Having them just sit there seems like a waste, no?¡± Perhaps. Perhaps not. Bobby¡¯s advice was sound, and I agree with him, but he also left some things out. I¡¯m not quite sure if it was deliberate or not, but I would wager that it was. Sometimes it¡¯s more reasonable to save your points, in case you need them to deal with a bigger threat in the future. ¡°So you¡¯re saying we shouldn¡¯t spend our points, then?¡± No, you definitely should. You have a lot of points avable and you have a lot of bodies to outfit. There are many things you can get to make life easier for yourself, some of which I consider a necessity if you wish to get this expedition done in a reasonable amount of time, before the antithesis have time to regrow. The reason I bring this up is so that you keep it in mind in the future. Learning how and when to spend your points is one of the most important lessons you need to learn as a Vanguard. We sighed. She was right, of course, but after the whole back and forth it felt a little confusing. First we didn¡¯t want to spend any points, because we didn¡¯t know what we should get, then Bobby told Us to think more broadly, and after we did that, Kaysa throws Us this curveball. Well, whatever. ¡°Okay, noted. For now, let¡¯s talk about upgrades. We don¡¯t have too much time to waste, and we¡¯d rather get back to it, before the antithesis decide to make life hell for Us.¡± Indeed. What ideas did youe up with? One by one we listed out all the ideas that we had, giving our reasoning and what we would want to get to aplish it. Of course, we didn¡¯t know what exactly we could get, so we decided to be a bit more broad with our specifications, inviting her to also consider catalogues we haven¡¯t obtained yet. While we couldn¡¯t upgrade any new catalogues, considering that we didn¡¯t have many tokens, most of it should be doable with what we had avable. We did have some tokens, two to be exact, after yesterday¡¯s fun. But if possible, we wanted to keep them, so that we could upgrade the catalogues we needed to prevent our voices from perishing. That was our number one priority at the moment. Kaysa, of course, had a lot of ideas on how we could do what we wanted to. Most of it used our own catalogues, although she did rmend the ss I Modr Rifle Catalogue for the weapons for our Hatchlings. Specifically, this catalogue would be able to work well with the Nanite Swarm Catalogue, which was something we wanted to incorporate into their skillset. Upgrading our existing drones was another thing that was surprisingly easy. While it required a bit of a roundabout way to get there, she did offer Us some insights in what we could do. With the help of the ss I Esoteric Elements Catalogue, we would be able to infuse ourselves with all kinds of different materials to enhance and reinforce basically every aspect of our bodies. Doing so before getting a new Hexw was trivial, and barely added any costs, but upgrading drones we already had, was a bit more involved. Not much, mind you, but they would need to eat a sufficient amount of the materials they wanted to use, and afterwards they would be able to adjust the makeup of their body in rtively short order. Doing so was mostly instinctive, although we could get some upgrades in the future to make it a little bit more efficient and powerful. Pretty simple, so far. The real problem came when we thought about giving them additional features, such as built-in Hard-Light emitters, for example. That was a bit moreplicated, although it followed the same broad strokes. We couldn¡¯t just obtain a Hard-Light emitter and have them eat it, we had to get the materials the thing was made of, which was overall a tad cheaper then getting the pre-built item, and afterwards they needed to form the finished product in their body. It took a little longer, but was, again, something they could do instinctually. We set aside some points for the most important of Us to get those upgrades, with an additional budget nned, to upgrade the rest of Us. From now on, a percentage of the points we obtained would be put into that budget for their use. With the weapons and the upgrades sorted, we turned our attention to the Shield Carriers. That wasn¡¯t something we could do on the fly. It would require some time and materials for the Hatchlings to evolve into that direction, although with what we had avable Kaysa anticipated that all of them would be done by the end of the day, if they were able to really get into the thick of things without dying. A bit risky, but neither of themined. ¡°Okay, next up, transportation. We talked around this topic for a while now, so what do we have avable? Both in terms of smaller transportation units, and somethingrgerter, to take the pressure off of Jenna.¡± There are some options. First, of course, is the Carrion line of Hexws, that is purpose built to act as transportation for any Hexw Hive. You could also obtain another catalogue for a more mechanical approach, which would save on biomass in exchange for other resources, but with the drawback of not being nearly as adaptable to any threats. For smaller transports, I would rmend the Mark VIII Carrion Vulture. They have space to carry roughly thirty to forty of you, depending on the size of the drones, are fast enough to outrun most antithesis models, and have the ability to fly quite high, should they need to. They aren¡¯t as space efficient as Jenna¡¯s shuttles are, and they are a bit less resilient, considering that much of their biology is designed for flight, but they are a very efficient option for you to get your voices where you need them. At 2500 points base cost, they aren¡¯t the cheapest option, but they are point efficient and would be your best option for the moment. They also wouldn¡¯t be obsolete, should you decide to obtain the Mark XIX Carrion Cutter I mentioned yesterday, with its teleportation capabilities. The Mark VIII Carrion Vulture is just barely small enough to utilise this system as well, meaning you can get them near their destination quickly. We nodded at that, it sounded exactly like the kind of thing we needed. ¡°That is all, we think. There are some other items we want to discuss and get at some point, but they are all more situational.¡± Taking a moment, we stretched. The entire discussion, while lengthy, hadn¡¯t actually taken that much time, considering that the virtual realm was, well, virtual, and wasn¡¯t constrained by real world physics. That said, we still had taken more time than Chloe and Jenna, both of them already finishing their shopping spree. With the n in ce, actually obtaining all the things was surprisingly easy. The first thing was the materials catalogue, just so that we could use it to upgrade some of the things we wanted to get a little, since it wasn¡¯t just limited to upgrading ourselves. Some of it was useful for the weapons, some for the Shield Carriers, some even for Jenna. Talking about Jenna, she had wandered off at some point, returning to her fortress. We weren¡¯t quite sure what she had nned, although we were pretty sure we¡¯d see the results soon. Chloe had gotten a few things, although for most of them we had no idea what they actually did. All of it looked to be gadgets of some kind, with only a few more weapon rted things, one of which being a big box of ammunition, from the looks of it. She could use her weird storage for it, and we¡¯d bet that it allowed her to load up specialised munitions into her weapons quickly. The Carrion Vultures were not quite what we had expected, despite the name they reminded Us more of some of those fantastical birds from stories on the, rather than actual birds that would exist in the real world. Their main body was bulky, which made sense, since they had to have some carry space, and they were a good bitrger than Jenna¡¯s shuttles, considering the wingspan. That said, they also didn¡¯t look as alien as they probably could have. After some deliberation, we had decided upon a dozen of them. They wouldn¡¯t all fit into the Bastion of Hope at the same time, but they didn¡¯t need to. Mainly, they were for relocating forces we had already unloaded, taking the pressure off of Jenna¡¯s shuttle schedule. Jenna had also given Us ess to one of her creation engines on board of the Corvette, so that we could start crafting ingots of the materials we needed to upgrade ourselves. That was a bit more expensive than we had first thought, mainly because some of the raw materials couldn¡¯t easily be synthesised even with advanced protector tech, but overall it was still a lot cheaper than it could have been. With all our upgrades done, our Hatchlings were still busy handing out the rifles we had gotten, we made our way over to where Bobby was waiting, Chloe at our side. ¡°So, finally ready?¡± he asked as we approached him. ¡°As ready as we can be. It will take some time to finish upgrading everything we want to, but it should at least help Us deal with the xenos.¡± He nodded at Us. ¡°Good. Now, if you are ready, I¡¯d say we start for the day. We have a lot of work ahead of us.¡±
I have a Discord! Also, I''ve made a . If you wish to support me on my endavours, I''d appreciate it greatly! At the moment you can read five chapters ahead on ''A Joytoy''s journey to be a Hive-Queen''! Chapter 69 – Nice Chapter 69 ¨C 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 nts 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 quillsing 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 wed 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 therger 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 rtively 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 de 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 bnce of the front, and we pushed deeper, Bobby and Chloe one step ahead of Us andying into the horde of alien nts 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 tog 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 iing 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 Carriersid 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 grenadeunchers 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 bnce of the fight had shifted, Chloe turned and focused more onying 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 thest 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 sendingrge 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. A few of them paid close attention to the scanners we got them to sniff out any stealth models. The biggest threat were the model Nine-V¡¯s, Kaysa had confirmed that they¡¯d be able to easily deal with our Queen¡¯s Guard, if they ever got the drop on them, and so we wanted to make sure we could keep track of them. To that end we had equipped quite a number of Us with basic scanners that would make that a whole lot easier. While no Nine-V was present, there were two Nine-S¡¯ hiding behind the bend in the tunnel leading directly towards the center of the cave. The Hatchlings pinged them on the map, which was great, but also not something that Bobby and Chloe could use as fluently as we could. Because of this, it fell to our Assassins to deal with them, one of them using the rifle she had ess to, while the other simply dashed forwards, leaving pure destruction in her wake. We did the best we could to aid them in their task, sending more Hard-Light projectiles into the general area, being careful not to hit any of Us with friendly fire. The fact that using the map wasn¡¯t as useful for Bobby and Chloe was a problem, however. Neither of them was able to multitask as efficiently and quickly as we could, considering that they didn¡¯t have a virtual self to take care of it, or other voices to fall back on. We filed that factoid away for consideration, bouncing it around the chorus toe up with some kind of solution for the immediate future. It didn¡¯t stop Us from continuing the fight, of course, rushing forward and after the now retreating front line. The model Sixes were a lot smarter than the smaller aliens, and while their tactics were crude, they did seem to at least understand basic battlefield strategies. Sending their forces to die without payoff was something they seemingly wanted to prevent. Jumping over the corpse of a model Five, we summoned our polearm once more, bringing it down on a model Four that had been hit by Chloe¡¯s rifle, leaving it wounded. Our de cut through it like tissue paper, leaving it a gooey mess on the ground, and we ran past. One of the Sentinels took a projectile from one of the Nine-S¡¯s, retaliating with the rifle it had ess to. It was clear that they weren¡¯t meant to use rifles as their primary weapon, but even then, they had the uracy of aputer, and it didn¡¯t take long for the model Nine-S to be heavily wounded. We, for our part, left the Sentinel to it, trusting our Assassins to take it out for good, which they did shortly after. Like a dancer we flew through the aliens, the Dusk and Dawn flying around Us with well trained movements. Utilising the Pristine Fortress, we made a crude copy of it in our other hand, by far not as powerful but enough for the smaller models. With a jab we pierced the skull of a model Three, taking a step to the side to escape another, which quickly died when our left hand came around and the replica polearm buried itself into its neck. Our virtual self alerted Us to a group of model Fours that were trying to push past the cover fire that Chloe wasying down, and we turned our attention towards that side of the battlefield. The PRISM spun up, and a momentter the aliens were encased in a quickly shrinking cube of Hard-Light, crushing them and turning them to mush. By this point over half the cave was now alien free, and our Shield Carriers began to move forwards once more. Since this wasn¡¯t one of the brood chambers, we didn¡¯t have to worry about aliens hatching behind Us, which made things a lot easier. Bobby threw something into the tunnel that held most of their reinforcements, and a momentter the entire entrance was turned into a blender of thin wires. Our Assassins appeared from it just a moment prior, escaping the destruction, and soon the bigger models were dealt with, thest to go down the model Six that had so far done its best to stop us from steamrolling their forces. With the defensive lines broken, the clean up was done in short order. Without the model Six the aliens went back to just swarming us, which made dealing with them rtively easy, although some had managed to wound a couple of our voices. The most wounded immediately began to fall back towards the medical corp, others already turning towards the direction of our cave and making their way over to reinforce our troops. Junior was the one coordinating all of that from the safety of one of the other caves that we had turned into a makeshiftmand center. It wasn¡¯t really necessary, but, considering how many fronts we had to keep an eye on at the same time, we thought it a worthwhile investment. Killing thest model Threes, we turned our attention to the tunnels leading further down. One was cleared out entirely, courtesy of Chloe and a few of our War Drones, while the other still had some aliens trying to push through, although after Bobby¡¯s blender grenade they presented easy targets for us. Our Shield Carriers pushed closer and set up their defences, which made it nigh impossible for them to push through. We sent a couple more projectiles down the tunnel, although by this point it was so infested with nanites that most aliens died before they came even close enough to be killed by either Bobby, Chloe, or our War Drones. ¡°How¡¯s it looking out there?¡± we asked Jenna in the lull that followed after the main engagement, keeping our eyes and ears sharp, but utilising the pause to keep track of the rest of the expedition. ¡°Quiet. Too quiet, to be honest. I¡¯ve seen less and less aliens trying to push out of the caves. Bahamut thinks they might be preparing something.¡± Her reply was soft, her voice holding a hint of concern. ¡°Yep, yep! The bigger models are all trying to get back into the Hive, I¡¯ve been doing my best to stop them, but with these tunnels it¡¯s a bit of a tight fit. Guess I gotta lose some weight~¡± Tiny¡¯s voice joined the conversation, cheerful as ever. ¡°It¡¯ss the ssame for the other Hivess,¡± Junior butted in, the familiar hiss sounding a bit sharp over thems. ¡°The other groupss are finding more and more ressisstance. Glubber iss organissing thingss, Ssnuffless thinkss we might be able to help out a little with the Envoli Glinthawkss.¡± ¡°Send them in, then. Bobby, you catch all this?¡± We turned towards the man who was busy reloading his weapons. ¡°Aye, I did. I was already pretty sure yesterday, but it feels like the outer circle is smaller than we anticipated, or they have more forces than they should have ording to our initial survey. Best prepare for the worst, and quick.¡± We nodded at that, mentally sending Bellona an update, even if we were pretty sure it wasn¡¯t required. She replied with a mental confirmation, more or less confirming our suspicions. The Hatchlings in our cave, the ones without the Shields, began to collect as much biomass as they could, carrying it back to the closest entrance for Snuffles to take charge of. The more we could collect, the faster we could replenish ourselves, which had be a bit of a necessity. Watching them work we were distracted for a moment, which made Us miss the slight quacking of the ground. Quacking that quickly became fiercer, at which point we finally took notice, just about the same time Chloe shouted through the cave ¡°Iing!¡± We had just enough time to get out of the way, when the ground exploded and a massive antithesis dug itself out, far toorge to fit into the tiny cave. It was halfway stuck in the ground, its back scraped against the ceiling, and the rest of Us immediately started to fire into it. We joined them a momentter, utilising our Lances and the PRISM to do as much damage as we could, but surprisingly the thing was quite resilient. What was even stranger was that it didn¡¯t seem to react at all, simply opening its massive maw, aliens spewing out of it. ¡°Model Eighteen!¡± Bobby shouted, dropping his shotgun and hefting the powerfulser weapon he had used the day prior. Light and heat erupted from it a momentter, just about the same time we formed a massive Hard-Light construct around the front of the big worm with our PRISM, trying to cut the aliens off from spilling further into the room. Toote we realised that that would just be counter productive, one of Chloe¡¯s grenades bouncing off of the wall and flinging back towards our own troops. Luckily it was just a freeze grenade, not a lethal one, but we cursed ourselves, quickly dropping the construct. The grenade had hit a number of our War Drones and a few of our Hatchlings, greatly reducing their mobility, some even frozen solid almost instantly. Bobby¡¯sser dug into the massive creature without much fuss, boring through it anding out the other side. He began to move it around, eradicating as much of the alien as he could, but it didn¡¯t die. With a start we remembered that model Eights had multiple brains, the Eighteen very likely shared the trait, considering how simr it was in most other regards. Despite our fuck up, we were able to deal with the smaller aliens quickly and before they could wreak much havoc. The main problem was that the model Eighteen slowly started to retreat, leaving a massive hole in the ground, one that was very likely connected to the rest of the Hive, which meant it was a weakness in our defences. Chloe quickly rushed forward, before a number of barricades and items appeared around her, slowly closing off the tunnel, before she purchased another item, a small, box-like drone that began to pour something down the remaining small hole in the barricade. From the consistency of the stuff we guessed it to be some kind of cement or simr material. ¡°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 me 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 arge 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 rming, 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 Hexw that can burrow quite fast. It can be equipped with nanite storage or biological warfare equipment. For this I would rmend unlocking the ss 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. ss 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 rtively 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, butpared 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 nts infesting this ce.
I have a Discord! Also, I''ve made a . If you wish to support me on my endavours, I''d appreciate it greatly! At the moment you can read five chapters ahead on ''A Joytoy''s journey to be a Hive-Queen''! Chapter 70 – Junior ponders Chapter 70 ¨C Junior ponders "Therefore, if you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will sumb in every battle." - Sun Tzu¡¯s Art of War, Chapter 3 I watched Us operate from themand center not far from the entrance to the tunnel system. Calling it amand center might be a bit grandiose, it wasn¡¯t much more than a collection of barricades and turrets, courtesy of Knight Chloe¡¯s catalogues. Tiny was dutifully updating everyone as much as she could, of course, making sure nobody missed anything that could be of even minimal importance. I was very d for her presence, it made organising all of Us so much easier. It didn¡¯t need mentioning that she wasn¡¯t stopping her onught onto the bigger antithesis models deeper down the Hive, even while she kept our archives up to date. She might be a bit more childlike than most of Us, but she was still very dutiful. Pushing the idle thoughts aside, I kept an eye on our Queen through some of the War Drones with her. Bellona had insisted on sending our best with her, even if our Queen hadined at first. I had to admit that I was d about Bellona¡¯s insistence, otherwise things might have gotten a bit hairy. The rest of the expedition still went mostly as was nned, the increased activity notwithstanding. The Silthen were making sure nothing got out of hand too badly, their toxins and nanites were quite helpful in weakening the antithesis. Double-X had even postted that some of the weakened models might be repurposed, which meant that the antithesis would need to spend more time and biomass to replenish their forces, considering that part of the chemical makeup of the toxins inhibited their growth. It wasn¡¯t a perfect solution, but it made me feel a lot better. As much as things were going to n, this expedition had shown me that there were some things within our modus operandi that could use some polishing. Most of that were minor items, but there were also a few fundamental things. My only concern was that I couldn¡¯t quite figure out what it was. The symptoms were obvious, at least to me, but the root cause of it, or rather the solution to it, eluded me. It had be quite clear to me, and a few others, that we werecking in team work. Not with the other Samurai, but within our own ranks. Our Queen¡¯s mishap earlier was a good indication, and it wasn¡¯t the only one, just the most obvious. In a way we¡¯d been severely lucky so far, and I didn¡¯t want to push things to the point that our luck ran out. But what could we do about it? The Devourer of Worlds was pretty good at working together, and as much as thatparisoncked, considering the vast gulf of experience and voices between the two of us, it was a good indication that there was something we were missing. Snuffles had also picked up on it, even if she hadn¡¯t mentioned much about it so far. She was not one for long talks, preferring to do her duty and make sure we had enough biomass to go around. But that in and of itself was already showing that we needed a different approach. Watching Kaori and her Glinthawks decemate another set of model Fifteens climbing out of the tunnels one Hive over, I contemted the issue. Our Envoli drones had proven much more capable than I originally anticipated. Not that I thought them weak or incapable, but the results were a whole lot better than I would have thought. A wee surprise. As a whole, as Myriad, we were a bit different from the Devourer of Worlds, and, I would wager, most other Hive-Minds out there, even within the Hexw species. Part of that was, of course, our humanity, that part of Us that had an entirely different perspective and outlook on life. It was the part that pushed our Queen to continue working as a Joytoy, even though it was no longer strictly required. It pushed individualism and it enabled Us to find joy in things most Hive-Minds most likely wouldn¡¯t. That said, it felt insufficient as an exnation for what I was seeing. Yes, humans were individualistic by nature, that much was true, but we were also part Hexw. The most immediate proof of that was ourck of concern about potentially dying while fighting the antithesis, or even our desire to conquer the other swarm as best we could. It was distinctly Hexw in nature. And that extended to more than just those aspects of Us. Just being part Hexw wasn¡¯t the exnation either, however. We had to find some way to improve our cooperation, but the question remained how we were supposed to do that. I had taken some time to peruse what we knew about ourselves, and Hexw Hive-Minds, from Tiny¡¯s archive, enlisting a few of the Burdened to find anything that might give me a hint of how exactly we differed. There were limits to what we knew about other Hexw Hive-Minds, of course, but at least I thought I had a pretty decent idea what made our approach unique, beyond just the superficial factors. ¡°Kayssa¡­ I would like to dissscusss other Hexw Hive-Mindss.¡± Turning my attention towards the limited link I had with our AI, I decided to get more answers from someone who would know more. What exactly do you wish to talk about? ¡°We are different, obvioussly. I am sseeing a lot of thingss we could improve upon, yet I have noparisson that would make finding a ssolution eassier. What are other Hexw Hive-Mindss like? Outsside of the Devourer of Worldss.¡± There was a very brief silence which I interpreted as a sort of mental nod. Not being able tomune with her the way our Queen did, meant that I had started to learn how to interpret her mannerisms. I see. It is good that you are finally catching on. As you have already deduced, you are quite different. Arge part of that is obviously the human core, from which you are formed, something you are most likely already aware of. Most Hexw Hive-Minds do not have much in the way of individualism, few would ever take names, if some do at all, and even then it is most likely they only do that when they are forced to interact with others. Despite extensive research being done, and some cooperation between the protectors and the Hexws, there is not much that is known on how the internal workings of their Hive-Minds function in detail. While they are not xenophobic, most of them are much too busy dealing with the antithesis on their homeworld. Very few ever left that, and none did so for a prolonged period of time. That said, we are almost certain that they are utilising the chorus extensively. From the deep scan we managed to make of the Devourer of Worlds, which is where most of our informationes from, it appears that they are almost exclusively immersing themselves into the whole. The seedlings that form the basis of a Hexw Hive-Mind support that theory. I raised my hand, interrupting her for a moment. ¡°Sseedlingss? I wass unaware that such a thing wass part of Uss.¡± Calling it a seed isn¡¯t strictly correct. And in your case, it is also not quite the same. Hive-Minds, especially Gestalt type Hive-Minds such as yourself, or other Hexws, do need some way tomunicate with one another. Most of that is simted through the imnts you all possess, biological they might be. In a true Hexw Hive-Mind these imnts are not present, instead they have a natural connection to one another. It is why they can discard and reuse bodies as they please. It is also why they do not lose voices naturally. I won¡¯t bore you with the details, such would take for too long and is not helpful to our discussion, but these seedlings are the basis from which the Hive forms, and they enable theirmunication among them. It is part of the Hive-Queen, and something only she can produce, even if the Hive has Princesses or specialised Broodmothers avable. I frowned at that, not quite sure what to make of it. It was good to know, but I did have trouble adding that piece of information to my understanding of our own Hive-Mind. While I didn¡¯t have the full picture, it appeared that we were fundamentally already quite different from what a typical Hexw Hive-Mind would look like, even disregarding our personality and personal opinions. ¡°I ssee. Thiss¡­ sseedling, we posssesss one ass well?¡± In a manner of speaking, yes. Even if your Hive-Mind works on different principles, with most of the functionality being taken care of by advanced technologies, you do possess such a seedling. I can¡¯t tell you more about it, considering that it is part of the security mechanisms the protectors put in ce. It should also be mentioned that the seedling itself isn¡¯t specifically a purely physical item. It is, inrge parts, a metaphysical phenomenon, which is why it is harder to study in detail. Magic does not exist, but nature has found some interesting ways to evolve to use thews of physics to its advantage. I nodded at her exnation, but my mind was upied with something else. If I understood the function and the purpose of the seedling correctly, it might enable Us to bypass some of the restrictions that were ced upon Us. I agreed with those restrictions, all of Us did, they had a purpose. However, knowing this, a question did creep into my mind. ¡°Thiss mighte acrosss the wrong way; however, I have to assk. Should we find a way to bypasss thesse resstrictionss, even identally, would the protectorss try to sstep in?¡± There was another pause from Kaysa, this one a bit longer. Knowing that she could already formte a trillion responses before I even finished speaking, I was quite certain that this was either a deliberate pause, or she had to contact someone else to give me a proper reply. I knew that she did that from time to time, in our previous discussions she more or less told me so. They would not. Her voice sounded hesitant, even though I wasn¡¯t quite sure why. Unless you deliberately try to y the system to your advantage, and to the detriment of others, they would not step in. It is not our task to micromanage your actions, and we are the ones giving you the tools you have ess to, so any restrictions that might fail are our responsibility to fix. I nodded at that, it made sense and fit with my understanding on how the protectors worked. And it wasn¡¯t like we were nning to break any of the restrictions. They were there for a reason, and as much as we might dislike some of the things that they subjected Us to, we had seen what the Devourer of Worlds could do. Having a Hive of that power with the ability to obtain any weapon known the gxy over would be a very bad thing indeed. Still, there were a lot of things that we didn¡¯t know about, pertaining to the basis on which our Hive was built. I wanted to be sure that we wouldn¡¯t be eradicated for finding some loophole identally, even if I found it unlikely. The protectors obviously put a lot of thought into it, and I was very sure that they tried to make sure that their restrictions weren¡¯t easily bypassed. That said, if we could be punished for identally bypassing them, we might end up frozen in indecision, not wanting to risk anything. Of course, there was also the possibility that Kaysa had just lied to me, but I didn¡¯t consider that in any way a reasonable option. Not only would it mean that anything she told Us up until now would be up to question, so far she¡¯s always been truthful with Us. If we would start to question every wording from her, we would not get anywhere. ¡°Thank you. I hope I do not need to asssure you that we don¡¯t have anything like that nned.¡± No. I am very aware about how you work, and I find it highly unlikely that you would try something along those lines. It is still a very delicate topic, as you are no doubt aware of. Nodding again, I dropped the topic, focusing back on the issue at hand. Her words had been informative, especially about an aspect I hadn¡¯t even considered so far. She had mentioned that the other Hexw Hive-Minds rarely, if ever, surfaced from the chorus. It was a minor detail, one that was obvious in a way, since most of Us didn¡¯t do so, but it did bring up something that I hadn¡¯t considered before. Immersing oneself in the chorus, or, conversely, emerging from it, was a rather stark contrast to the contrary. Being a part of the chorus made it much easier to converse with the rest of Us, even if it wasn¡¯t impossible to do so while you weren¡¯t. The connection was never quitepletely cut, but the difference in feedback was rather potent. It also shifted your own perspective depending on the state you were in. Personally, I preferred a more subtle approach, never quitepletely immersed, but also never quitepletely emerged either. It helped me find the objective viewpoint I needed, while retaining a deeper understanding of what was going on with the rest of Us. Our Queen, on the other hand, switched quite often and for extended periods of time. In and of itself that wasn¡¯t a problem, but I had already noticed that even while she was immersed in the chorus, she tended to focus more on her own perspective, as if she was still not quite fully paying attention to the rest of Us. The mishap earlier with the model Eighteen was a good indication of that. If I took all of these things into ount, the way our Queen and Snuffles differed, the way we made use of the chorus, and the way we differed from other Hexw Hive-Minds on a fundamental level, an image started to form. We had to find our own path. We could neither rely on our human perspective, nor on our Hexw perspective. Neither approach would work well for Us, since we differed from either side quite significantly. That left me with the question of what that path would look like. Thinking about it, I decided that it wasn¡¯t my decision to make. We had to find a solution as a whole, as Myriad. Only then would we be able to properly work out the issues guing our Hive. I didn¡¯t have any illusions about Us finding a solution quickly. Such things would take time, but I did already feel a bit better for realising where the crux of the matter was. Turning my attention back to the rest of Us, although saying that I wasn¡¯t paying attention beforehand would be wrong, I once more checked the status of things. This was another aspect of our nature that I don¡¯t think any one of Us has made conscious use of before. We knew it was possible to split our attention, but none of Us had ever addressed it directly. Perhaps that would be another key to a more coherent work flow in the future. Yet another item to add to the list of things that required discussion. Our advance was going smoothly, or at least, as smoothly as it could go with the increased antithesis activity. We suffered some losses, mostly wounds, thankfully, and we did have to rotate out our forces quite often to make sure that those that required it, got the medical attention they needed. Contacting one of the War Drone groups, I sent a few orders their way, making sure that Bellona was up to date and wouldn¡¯t object to the new movements. Our newly equipped Hatchlings were quite potent fighters, and while they didn¡¯t have the same amount of firepower as our upgraded War Drones boasted, with all the upgrades they were nigh on as capable as any unupgraded War Drone would be. Once more keeping an eye on our Queen¡¯s group, I watched her decimate a horde of smaller aliens. The training had served Us well, and I was d to see how impactful it had be. That said,pared to the others, our Queen wascking inbat ability. As potent as her Hard-Light emitters were, fact of the matter was, that she couldn¡¯t deal withrger groups ofrger models in the same way Knight Chloe, or Bobby could. Even Knight Jenna was more capable in that regard, despite herck of directbat ability. It wasn¡¯t as if our Queen wasn¡¯t contributing, but I was almost certain that she would be able to help much more if she¡¯d have her body modifications. That would take time, however, time I wasn¡¯t sure we had. As with a lot of other things, I had taken some time discussing this issue with Kaysa. She had told me that for the body modifications that our Queen wanted, she would most likely be out ofmission for roughly a week, maybe a day less. Surprisingly enough, the main problem wasn''t her differentbat forms. Those could be done almost instantaneously, once she obtained her shapeshifting abilities and had sufficient knowledge and biomass to use them. No, it was the foundation itself that took all that time. Hexws were adaptable, capable of rewriting their entire genome in just a few years on the outside. But our Queen wasn¡¯t a Hexw, she was human. And all of that had to be reced, before the increased adaptability would be able to kick in. We hadn¡¯t much thought about what the body modifications would mean for Us on a more intimate level. In effect, she would rece her entire body with that of a Hexw, even if there were some other aspects mixed in. Once the true extent of the required changes became clear, I had begun worrying a little. We were quite open and less attached to our human form, as a whole. It wasfortable, yes, and even the rest of Us who were born a Hexw did appreciate the generally humanoid design that shaped our bodies, but it wasn¡¯t to the point where we felt icky about the idea of looking different. Especially in the case of our Queen, since she would be able to adjust her appearance on the fly. What worried me more was what it would mean for our humanity. Even those of Us who weren¡¯t biologically human in any way, did feel a slight nagging at the idea of perhaps losing that aspect of Us, was it not one of the most important parts that made Us who we were. Perhaps it was time that I addressed the topic with our Queen. Her obtaining the body modifications would be quite a boon for Us, both in terms ofbat power and her defences. With a sigh, I waited for them to clean up the next cave, before I decided that I might as well do it now. ¡°My Queen. There iss ssomething I would like to talk to you about.¡±
I have a Discord! Also, I''ve made a . If you wish to support me on my endavours, I''d appreciate it greatly! At the moment you can read five chapters ahead on ''A Joytoy''s journey to be a Hive-Queen''! Chapter 71 – Fractured Unity, or: Being a Hive-Mind is hard Chapter 71 ¨C Fractured Unity, or: Being a Hive-Mind is hard ¡°Some people think Samurai are heroes. Others think they are monsters. In my opinion, both are correct. In general, they like to help people, saving them from the nt aliens and corporate greed alike, but they be downright monstrous if you eat thest cup of yoghurt. Ever went to take a shower, only for it to suddenly electrocute you? That makes you rethink your life choices.¡± - Evelin ¡®Maniac¡¯ Vance, after eating GroundWire¡¯sst cup of yoghurt. ¡°Nobody eats myst yoghurt!¡± - GroundWire With a flourish we cut down the model Five in front of Us. We had gotten the drop on it, finding the cave in a bit of disarray after one of the Silthen¡¯s went through with their toxins. It made dealing with the xenos so much easier, and we had only added to the confusion with the help of our holograms. Chloe and Bobby had dealt with the Hive structures in short order, and we were just about to carry on, when Junior contacted Us. ¡°My Queen. There iss ssomething I would like to talk to you about.¡± Turning our attention to her with our virtual self, our body self continued on, following the others into yet another tunnel. ¡°What is it?¡± ¡°I have taken some time to talk to Kayssa about your body modificationss. We have the pointss and mosst of the cataloguess, we can obtain the Vi¡¯xan catalogue and upgrade it as needed. We can alsso work without you pressent, we have the Sspotterss for purchassess, and we have the capability to produce more of Uss without your oversight. There really issn¡¯t a reasson you shouldn¡¯t be able to get them now, and I do believe it would be helpful in the near future.¡± That did surprise Us. Okay, that wasn¡¯t entirely true. Once she mentioned it, we became aware of her discussions. Really, it was very weird to know something but not knowing that you knew it. It wasn¡¯t a new sensation, of course, but that didn¡¯t make the disorientating feeling of it any better. Mentally reying the broad strokes of their conversation, we frowned. The body modifications would be incredibly helpful, and we did want them, but some of the topics that were raised left Us feeling¡­ undecided. We weren¡¯t sure exactly how we felt about it all, the knowledge that it would basically rece our body. Of course, we had known that the changes would be extensive. But on the other hand, we also hadn¡¯t spent much time really thinking about it. What would it mean for Us? The others had alreadye to the conclusion that it might mean losing part of our humanity, and now that we took a moment to think it through, we could understand that fear. Shared it, even. Not to mention that it would take me out ofmission for a not insignificant amount of time, which was another thing that didn¡¯t sit well with me while we were on this expedition. But Junior was also correct that the rest of Us could work without me present. Still, the thought was¡­ unsettling. And we weren¡¯t quite sure why. Ever since we became a Hive-Mind, we didn¡¯t really have anypunctions of doing things in a non-human way. Yes, we had feared Chloe¡¯s and Jenna¡¯s reactions to the inner workings of the chorus, but that was more about their opinion on Us, not if we should have done it in the first ce. Even when we first got the upgrade we didn¡¯t think much about it. Yes, we might not have known the extent to what it would mean to be a Hive-Mind, but we did know that it was decidedly non-human, and it didn¡¯t bother Us too much at the time. Nor did we regret the decision. It wasn¡¯t like we were still human in the same way other humans were. And getting the body modifications also wouldn¡¯t mean we couldn¡¯t retain our human perspective. That was something that was born from Us, well, being human at the core. The entire chorus was built upon a human, upon me, as the basis. While they might differ individually, the core of Us would remain the same, no matter what form our bodies took. Even for me, you could make the argument that I was no longer human in a very important way. Being a Hive-Mind is fundamentally very different from being human, and that had been rather apparent already. So there really wasn¡¯t a reason that this should change anything. And still we weren¡¯t sure what to think. Perhaps it was a question of our perspective? Being human was what differentiated Us from being like the Devourer of Worlds. We had certain opinions and perspectives that the other Hive-Mindcked. So far, the Devourer of Worlds was our onlyparison, since we didn¡¯t know any others. But was it a good idea to cling to that image? The Devourer of Worlds was powerful, no question. We doubted that there was a force in the universe that could easily deal with it, or at least without suffering significant losses. We had seen the havoc it could wreak, the destruction it left in its wake when it moved. We had felt, first hand, what it was like to be a true Hexw Hive-Queen, a being so powerful that antithesis that would threaten the world itself were nothing more than punching bags to be pushed around. Yet, we had also realised immediately after the simtion that we weren¡¯t like that. Not only were we by far not that powerful, we also had an entirely different outlook on life. The Devourer of Worlds was an extreme case, something that was so immensely big and powerful that it was nigh on impossible to get a perspective on it. And from the mental perusing of Junior¡¯s conversations with Kaysa and the others it was clear that most Hexw Hive-Minds would differ from that. Less than we did, of course, but it would not be fair to measure them against the world eating monster that was the Devourer of Worlds. Would it even be fair topare Us to any Hexw Hive-Mind in that way? Would we do ourselves a disservice by ignoring what made Us unique? We frowned, agitated at our own doubts. Rationally, they didn¡¯t make any sense. There was no reason to believe that we would change on a personal level just because we obtained our body mods. On the flip side, this question of humanity, especially in a non-human body, was something that the media was all too happy to address in various disys of fiction. Not that we knew many, we had never really been into that kind of thing, but it also wasn¡¯t alien to Us either. Chloe had been pretty terrified by what it would mean for Us to be a Hive-Mind, primarily because of the fictitious texts she liked to read in her free time. And she had eventually understood that it wouldn¡¯t change who we were at the core. Really, was changing our body as big of a difference as bing a Hive-Mind was? Apart from me, all of Us were already Hexws. And all of them were, inrge parts, human. Yes, there were differences, of course, each had their own personality and all of them had a touch of Hexw in them, but their core beliefs were still the same. They wouldn¡¯t suddenly start eating people, nor would they think less about anyone just for being a human. If we thought less of someone, it was because they were a disappointment as a person. Human morality was something we wanted to keep, but, again, there really wasn¡¯t a reason to believe that would change. If anything, we had the Philosophers to make sure of that. It was their entire purpose to make sure we didn¡¯t drift too far to either side, they were the bnce that kept Us from going overboard. Yet, even with all that logical reasoning, something still irked Us. It made the question of ¡®did we really want to do this?¡¯ much harder to answer than it should have been. Because Junior was right, it would be a huge boon. And unless things went wildly out of control, I did trust the rest of Us to keep a tap on things while I was out. ¡°What are your thoughts on this?¡± Just contemting this on our own wasn¡¯t helpful. We needed a different perspective, a perspective from someone who knew our troubles intimately, while also having their own opinion. ¡°We feel the ssame. We all do. We all have thesse worriess. But I do not think it iss healthy for Uss to push them asside either.¡± That made a lot of sense, and we nodded, absently. This was a much deeper topic than we had originally anticipated, and we weren¡¯t quite sure what to make of it. Or even if discussing it now was a good idea. We did have antithesis to deal with. On the flip side, maybe that was precisely why we had to address it now. We didn¡¯t know what the antithesis had in store, considering the recent surge in activity, and we might well be needed to step in. Something that would be infinitely easier if we had ourbat forms. ¡°Why is this so hard to decide?¡± we ventured, more to ourselves than to Junior. ¡°I believe it iss part of a deeper routed problem we have ass a whole. Weck a clear idea of what it meanss to be a Hive-Mind, to be Uss. We are different, both from the Devourer of Worldss, ass well ass from other Hexw Hive-Mindss. We are sstill human, somewhere deep down. Thiss crississ of identity might be what holdss Uss back in a myriad of wayss.¡± Her discussions with Kaysa returned once more to the forefront of our mind, and we nodded at her theory. We just didn¡¯t know what to do about it. ¡°We fear no longer being human. But why? It¡¯s not like we aren¡¯t inrge part Hexw already.¡± ¡°Perhapss it iss jusst human nature? There are many thingss I would conssider Hexw nature, and they expresss themsselvess quite openly in Uss. That difference might be what iss sspurning Uss on to doubt oursselvess.¡± ¡°What do you mean?¡± We did know what she talked about with the others, but we couldn¡¯t read thoughts. Each of Us was their own person, which was part of what made Us so unique. ¡°I have already noticed ssome disscrepanciess in the way we conduct oursselvess,pared to what you might expect. We might y at being a true Hexw Hive-Mind, yet we do not really act like one. Jusst think about the way weck cooperation. The misstake you made in the fight with the model Eighteen. A true Hexw Hive-Mind wouldn¡¯t have made that misstake, they would have been in perfect tune with one another. I do not me you for it, I do not think any of Uss do, but it doess show a certain difference in approach. If we want to continue to grow and learn, we have to find our own path,bining both our naturess.¡± There was a short pause, one in which she obviously searched for the right words. ¡°Ever ssince we became a Hive-Mind, we did thingss the way we thought they musst be done. We insstinctually created a moduss operandi for Uss, without delving deeper into what it meanss to be a Hive-Mind. Then we ssaw the Devourer of Worldss, and ever ssince then we fixated on it ass our primary point ofparisson. We let the fear of bing that hamper Uss, the fear that our human sside iss pushing, and one we have to keep in mind. But it alsso shouldn¡¯t define Uss. We have to learn how to be a proper Hive-Mind, and we have to learn that for oursselvess. We cannot ssimply look to otherss to try and figure thiss out. I alsso think that Knight Chloe¡¯ss doubtss around our nature hass rubbed off on Uss in unsseen wayss.¡± ¡°Very likely. Her doubts made sense, and it is only natural to be drawn into fear and anxiety. Fear is a survival response, it makes you aware that something is wrong and that you aren¡¯t safe. But it can also hinder progress. How many people had to ovee their fear to try new things for humanity to get where we are now?¡± ¡°Precissely. It iss why I am of the opinion that it iss now on Uss to take that ssame leap of faith. We are ass prepared ass we are going to be, unlesss we wait for the limiter to be deactivated. And it iss my hope that that won¡¯t be such a big isssue, once we learn how to work together properly. Jusst remember what the Devourer of Worldss could do with only a few droness. Even if they might be sstronger and more powerful, sso were the antithessiss. Yet, they were sstill able to deal with them without much trouble. We can do the ssame, if only we ssit down and ept that we need a different approach to our methodss.¡± With a sigh, we rubbed our face. Not that it was needed, considering that we were conversing with her from our virtual realm. Still, it felt good. Absently we stared at our hands. It was a definitively human action, and that just didn¡¯t help Us at all. ¡°Maybe we should discuss this with all of Us. We need to decide as a whole, as Myriad. I have my bias, you have yours. We all have our own. Unless we actuallye to a conclusion as a whole, none of this really leads anywhere.¡± ¡°That iss another thing I have obsserved. You do not act like a Hive-Queen would, you leave Uss mosstly to our devicess. That iss not precissely an isssue, but it iss yet another indicator. In the ssame vein, we alsso do not act like we should. We are not the same ass any other Hexw Hive, we are unique. We are individualisstic, and we should all keep that in mind. We shouldn¡¯t jusst obey, we should quesstion. Disscussions of that level are our sstrong ssuit. Sso far we wassted that quite ssignificantly. It iss our duty to make ssure the choruss can work in harmony, that fallss to all of Uss. And ssometimess that will mean dissagreementss. But dissagreementss are what push Uss further.¡± We weren¡¯t quite sure if we agreed to that, but we were also aware that that was another human fear. That loss of control, of no longer being in charge. Rationally, we knew that wouldn¡¯t happen. Even with disagreements, there was a strict hierarchy, one that we all would follow. Not doing so was simply not part of the chorus. In a way, that knowledge was calming. We were certain of that, no question. Yet, we couldn¡¯t help but fret. ¡°Okay. Let¡¯s talk to the others. We¡¯re just not quite sure if we should do so now, with all the antithesis we need to deal with.¡± ¡°Isn¡¯t that a pretty good reason for why we need to do it now?¡± The voice belonged to Snuffles, who was now joining the conversation. ¡°You should have noticed how well we can multitask, no?¡± That made Us frown, and we thought about it. She was right. The fact alone that we were talking to them, while we continued to kill any aliens that we found was already a pretty good indicator. At the same time, we had that imnt. The others didn¡¯t. ¡°Yess. That iss an obsservation I have alsso already made. We can multitassk quite well, it jusst never really came up, at leasst until now. That iss another thing we need to keep in mind. Each part of Uss hass certain sstrengthss and weaknesssess, we need to find a bnce between them.¡± ¡°Alright¡­ Let¡¯s chat.¡±
I have a Discord! Also, I''ve made a . If you wish to support me on my endavours, I''d appreciate it greatly! At the moment you can read five chapters ahead on ''A Joytoy''s journey to be a Hive-Queen''! Chapter 72 – Escaping the Self Chapter 72 ¨C Escaping the Self ¡°Over millennia we watched the skies, yet strangely, we have not found any like us. Speciese, species go, all of them so different to our own. Theyck harmony, forever doomed to chaos. Empires rise, kingdoms crumble, discord sown again and again. How cold and lonely it must be to face the darkness of space alone¡­¡± - ??? It¡¯s only been a couple days since we first became a Hive-Mind, even if it felt so much longer. In that time we did try our best to learn what it means to be a collective, a chorus, and we did make some progress. However, that progress seemed small, irrelevant,pared to the magnitude we had just achieved. It had not been easy, at first our discussions were much like they had been before. We were simply a collection of voices exchanging opinions and approaches, trying to find a way for Us to move forward. Then something changed, once we truly immersed ourselves into this issue, delving deeper than we had before, more on instinct than anything else, if even that. Perhaps it was simply a logical conclusion to the path we were taking, or maybe it was a chance achievement, and we just so happened to do the thing we needed to do to get one step closer. Whatever the case, the change was immediate and breathtaking. As one we came together, nigh on a thousand four hundred voices, all united in deliberation. It was a new sensation for Us, something so far removed from our conversations before. What was only surface level before, became something more intimate, finally oveing the remove at which we operated prior. Even those who were closest to the core that made Us had not participated in this manner before. It was an alien experience, a new sensation, yet for all it differed, it was¡­ freeing. Suddenly there was purpose, where purpose wascking. There was unity where before was only chaos. In this state, even the smallest inconsistencies were no longer relevant, the core of what we wereid bare and, for the first time, properly taken advantage of. We were no ordinary Hexw Hive, that much was for certain. We did not need to repeat the discussions that we had previously toe to this conclusion anew, we all shared in that memory, after all. But we were a Hive-Mind, and with the borders between ourselves finally ovee, it opened Us to a whole new world of experience and harmony. The self was a prison, one that we had finally managed to breach. After all, what is a single voicepared to a magnificent chorus? Our collective was an ind of harmony and stability, free of the sea of discord that surrounded Us. We are one. We are all. And together, our unity could not be divided. It was a feeling so immensely overwhelming yet deeply calming. As one we took a deep breath, letting the experience wash over Us, infuse Us. This was what the chorus was supposed to be. We let out our breaths, for as magnificent as this achievement was, it was merely one step amongst many we had to take before we could finally find our path. And on this path we had to do more than simply achieve the harmony we had beencking up until now. We were no ordinary Hexw Hive, yet we were a Hive-Mind. What set Us apart was that we also weren¡¯t without individualism. That was the bnce that had to be struck. And that bnce would take time to find. Even within the fluid collection of our voices, there had to be order, and so the Hive-Princess was the one to take the lead, was she not the most informed about the inner workings of any Hexw Hive-Mind. Granted, even she only knew so much, for we were not experienced with matters of this fundamental substance. It was not the same as it had been before, where we conversed between Us as people would on the street. We did notmune with voices, mental or otherwise, we were far too connected for that to be a necessity. Therefore the Hive-Princess did not lead a discussion, she was choreographing a performance. It finally gave meaning to the term we had described our collective with all this time. A chorus was more than just an ensemble of musicians, it was a harmonious whole. It did not need a moderator, it needed a conductor. Of course, the Hive-Queen was far too overwhelmed by this new experience to act the part this time. We could not me her, as a human born this was far more alien to her than it was even to the rest of Us. It would take time for all of Us to be ustomed to this new state of being, but for her, it was an entirely new realm. Luckily, time was something we had enough of. Upon closer inspection of ourselves, time did not seem to matter as much to Us in this state. It was not that we did not experience it, time was an inevitability and even the likes of Us were bound by such baselinews, but the feeling of it was certainly different. It made coordinating our bodies slightly trickier than we originally expected, even if the discrepancy between our perceived time and the objective time was by far not as vast as some may have expected. Still, it did enable Us to take things slow, to familiarise ourselves with this new state of thinking. The chorus had been our most important aspect ever since we became who we are today, yet, just as the Hive-Princess had theorised, so far we had not made proper use of it. Only once we had decided to trulye together, the gravitas of the issues we were facing our catalyst, had we managed the harmony that eclipsed the individuality that otherwise marked our chorus. And it allowed Us to think as one on a much deeper level than before. In idle rumination we marched, the antithesis would not wait for Us to take our time. War Drones and Hatchlings, Sabertooths and Meerkats, Glinthawks and Silthens all moved in perfect synchronicity. No longer was there movement wasted, no longer did we have to take time to organise ourselves. You did not need to inform the left arm about what the right arm was doing when both were part of the same body. With precision we struck, the collective mass of our bodies overwhelming the antithesis defences in no time t. The others watched Us, Bobby and Chloe both keeping a careful eye on our movements, but we did not pay it much mind. We could now ensure their safety much more easily than they could hope to do. Of course, we were aware of their confusion, maybe even slight concern. The shift in movement had happened rather abruptly. Perhaps it would be best to inform them? After all, thest thing we wanted was for them to think something happened to Us. Especially Chloe. Utilising the Queen¡¯s body, as it was the closest and most familiar for the two, we turned towards them, giving them a warm smile. A small part of our collective was amused by the ease at which we could control each body individually. And a good thing too, seeing over a thousand bodies all smile the same warm smile would most likely end up with quite the creepy atmosphere. ¡°What is happening?¡± Chloe asked Us, her tone unsurprisingly a little concerned. ¡°We might finally have found the proper application of the chorus,¡± we replied, giving her a small shrug. ¡°There is much more to it than just what you experienced in that simtion. More than even we were aware of. It might take a little getting used to, but it is¡­ quite the experience.¡± While we spoke to her, we were busy pursuing other tasks. With no borders to separate our efforts, multitasking became trivial, no longer bound to the individual bodies and voices as we were. Of course, the main purpose of this deliberation was the issue of our path. But that was simply the instigator of our harmony, there were many things that needed discussing. The body modifications were one of the bigger topics, the movement of our forces around the other Hives another. All the while we continued our fight against the antithesis. It was this which caught our attention. Early on it had be apparent that Hexws reacted differently to the antithesis, with our desire to conquer their swarm, to destroy and devour them. Each of Us, excluding the Hive-Queen, had felt it. But now? It was not that it was absent. The desire was still there, deep down, rooted deep into the core of our being. But it was weak, far weaker than it had ever been. We contemted this difference for a long moment, inspecting ourselves closely. Perhaps this was the influence of the human part of our being? It would most certainly make sense. As different as we were, our humanity still formed the very core. Even the seeds that grew our collective were rooted in that humanity. If that was indeed the case, it would mean that many of our worries were misced. A wee thought, yet one we were cautious about adopting. These things needed time, and before we lost ourselves in hasty conclusions, we had to make sure that there was merit to it. With barely any resistance we overran one of the caves, ripping apart the alien fruit that tried to stop Us. In a way, it was almost disappointing how easy things were. Where before we had struggled to keep therger models at bay, we now could deal with any model Sixes before they even had time to find a way to stop Us. The biggest threat remained to be the stealth models. Even with all the equipment and sensory enhancements we had, each of them could spell disaster for our individual bodies, should they manage to ambush Us. Of course, we were still conversing with Chloe. Her reaction to our words were¡­ curious, to say the very least. Utilising all the senses the Hive-Queen had at her disposal, we kept a close eye on her, her heart rate, her bodynguage, the way her expression shifted based upon her voice. ¡°What exactly do you mean by that?¡± she asked eventually, only taking a moment, although from our point of view it felt more like several seconds. ¡°It is hard to describe, which shouldn¡¯t surprise you. Before, we discussed, deliberated, talked to one another, and kept in touch. You have experienced what that was like, of course. Now¡­ it¡¯s more than that. We told you before that we are one. There are no words to describe how wrong that assumption was. Up until now we worked together, as a chorus. Now we are the chorus.¡± Shaking our head, we nced at the rest of our bodies, moving as one towards yet another cave to deal with. ¡°There are many things we need to deliberate on. At the core, we need to find our own path as a Hive-Mind, for we are neither Human, nor are we Hexw. We are both, and that changes the way our collective works. It is something we were aware of, especially after you voiced your concerns when we first obtained the upgrade, and, of course, after the simtion. However, we believe we went about it the wrong way. Instead of focusing too much on one or the other, we need to find a bnce. Then there is the discussion about our body mods¡­¡± We gave her a shrug, ¡°As useful as they might seem, it is not easy for Us to simply decide to get them.¡± ¡°I can barely parse half of that,¡± Bobby muttered, watching Us with a hint of uncertainty. He didn¡¯t seem to be too concerned, which we supposed made sense. He was a lot more experienced and had probably seen a lot of different Samurai acting rather strangely. Even if a Hive-Mind was a whole nother ballpark, it might not be as unsettling for him as it might be for others. Chloe just sighed, shaking her head. ¡°Honestly, at this point I¡¯m just wondering why I¡¯m even surprised,¡± she said, her voice mirthful. ¡°One minute we¡¯re struggling to keep the aliens contained, the next you clear out a cave all on your own without any trouble.¡± Sheughed slightly, ¡°Well, I guess having a girlfriend who can take care of herself is a good thing, right? Maybe we can take this moment to take a break?¡± ¡°Feel free to do so,¡± we said with a nod and a smile, our collective fluttering at her words. ¡°We will make sure nothing happens.¡± Bobby and Chloe both found themselves a ce to take a seat and settled down. Chloe took off her helmet,bing through her hair with one hand, while Bobby held out his hand with a nutrition pack appearing in it not a momentter. ¡°You mentioned those body mods. Why is it such a hard thing to decide on?¡± Chloe asked after both made themselvesfortable, and we made our way over, sitting down in herp. ¡°It is a question of humanity, a topic we have been struggling with for a little while now. A part of that is because of the worries you voiced before the simtion, a part of it is the question of identity, something we so far have not really realised we were struggling with. Then there is the fear that you might not like it, which is a ratherrge part of the problem. Of course, having the body mods would mean that we would be much more capable inbat. Even with our equipment and the training we have gotten, there is some question about howpetent of abatant the Hive-Queen is.¡± We stopped, frowning for a moment. ¡°That does sound a lot worse to say in person than it does when we are amongst ourselves.¡± Chloe didn¡¯t seem to be deterred by that, watching Us with interest instead. We had expected her to recoil at the phrasing, yet she didn¡¯t seem too bothered by it, which we took as a good sign. ¡°The Hive-Queen?¡± she asked, curiosity obvious. ¡°In this state the borders between individuals are blurred. It is what makes the chorus such a powerful tool. Up until now, we only scratched the surface of what we can do with it, now we are truly one. It makes referring to members of the collective a bit tricky, since weck the direct and experienced individualism. It is not that we are not still individuals; however, there is a difference between the states of immersion. Yet another thing we need to find a way to properly address, considering that it might freak people out if we no longer go by our names in this state.¡± We chuckled wryly at a stray thought. ¡°It might be more correct to say that at this moment, this body is more of a puppet than it is an individual. That will change, of course, once we let go of the harmony. Still, something that might be a bit more unsettling.¡± ¡°Oi,ss, you¡¯re startin¡¯ to sound creepy,¡± Bobby mused, his expression hard to read. ¡°I don¡¯t think so,¡± Chloe said with a smile, ¡°She is quite unique. And it sounds like it¡¯s not really a new thing, just a perfected version of something she¡¯s done for a while now. We had a simtion during which Jenna and I learned what it¡¯s like to be a Hive-Mind, so I understand where she ising from.¡± Turning her attention fully back to Us, she continued. ¡°And I don¡¯t think you¡¯ll need to worry too much about all of that. I think it¡¯s pretty clear that you aren¡¯t some monster, and you won¡¯t just be one. If you feel like the body mods are necessary, go get them.¡± ¡°Thank you, Chloe,¡± we said with a goofy smile, leaning in for a tender kiss. In our collective state the Hive-Queen¡¯s urges were diminished, even if still present. It made it much easier to restrain ourselves from jumping our girlfriend in excitement. ¡°There are a few other issues with it as well, however. Primarily the time it takes to undergo the transformation. We would, in effect, exchange her body for something else entirely. The only thing that would remain would be the brain, as that cannot be changed. At least not with that method, there are some options we have as Hexws, although they would need much deeper discussions first. The transformation from human to Hexw shapeshifter would take a couple of days. Only once we are capable of shapeshifting will that change, making it much easier to change from form to form.¡± ¡°And you won¡¯t be able to do anything during the transformation?¡± Chloe asked, wrapping an arm around Us and pulling Us closer. ¡°Oh, we can. This is merely one body of nearly a thousand four hundred. While it is the only body that can reliably spend points¡­ Actually, how would that change? Kaysa?¡± Our conversation had sparked yet another idea that we explored. It was one of many trains of thoughts we worked through at the same time, not stopping our advance against the antithesis either. If I understand your question correctly, you are asking if the point spending limitations change if you are in the state you are currently in? ¡°Yes. As one, weck the individual voice of the Hive-Queen to make such decisions. She is part of Us, not even individually controlling this body.¡± I¡¯m afraid I¡¯ll have to disappoint you. While you might finally have achieved the level of harmony a true Hive-Mind should be capable of, the limitations are ced on the bodies, not the voices. ¡°Ah. It was worth an attempt, nheless.¡± We shook our head, returning our attention back to the wonderful woman who¡¯sp we were upying. ¡°As we were saying, while this is the only body that can reliably spend points, outside of our Spotters, it is not actually required to keep the Hive going. As long as the brain and the Imnts remain, so will we. We have the capabilities to replenish our forces if need be, are more than capable of handling things on our own, and the Hive-Queen¡­ Seraphine would still be around during the transformation, considering that she is part of Us.¡± ¡°That sounds like there is no reason not to do it,¡± Bobby chimed in, finishing another nutrition pack and putting it aside to start checking over his gear. ¡°Rationally, there is not. Emotionally¡­ There are many facets to who we are, as Myriad and as individuals. It is why it is such a hard question to answer. This newfound application of the chorus came to be because we felt the need to discuss fundamental issues guing Us and our capabilities as a Hive-Mind. We are torn between our humanity and our Hexw nature, and even though we intellectually know that we need to apply ourselves differently, that is easier said than done. One of the facets of our human side, in all likelihood. And while it might be a hindrance, we also do not want to push it aside. If we are to find a way to bnce the two aspects, then we also have to find a way to reconcile our human emotions with the rationale of the Hexws.¡± ¡°That sounds a lot like rehearsing the same thing to me,¡± Chloe mused. ¡°Not that I me you for it, a lot of it seems to go back to that issue. I¡¯m just not sure how applicable that is at the moment.¡± ¡°We do not know. As we speak, we are discussing how to potentially find a bnce there. And part of that might mean taking this leap and obtaining the body mods. Our humanity is important, but we also cannot let it restrict Us, since that would defeat the point.¡± ¡°Just need to find a safe ce then, yeah?¡± Bobby asked, gaze locked on his shotgun as he worked on it. ¡°The Corvette will be sufficient, we believe. We might obtain more Spotters beforehand, if only so we can ensure that we can still obtain any items during the transformation, even if one of them gets killed.¡± There was a moment of silence, Chloe studying Us with interest, a small smile on her lips. ¡°To me it sounds a lot like you¡¯re looking for excuses. Which I guess makes a bit of sense. But I don¡¯t think it¡¯s really helping either. You wanted to know what I think. Well, I say go for it. If it helps us deal with the xenos, then I¡¯m all for it. And it¡¯s not like you¡¯d be someone else up here.¡± She tapped our forehead gently. ¡°I won¡¯t say that I¡¯m not a little reserved about all of it, you know my worries. But even to me it doesn¡¯t sound like that big of a deal. How many Samurai go full borg, or full mutant or whatnot? It doesn¡¯t change them that much, I don¡¯t think. Look at Glubber, they might be different from how they were before, but I¡¯d wager that change was a lot less extensive than some might think. Not to mention,¡± she paused for a moment, giving Us a warm smile. ¡°You already underwent the most drastic change. If bing a Hive-Mind won¡¯t change you, then I don¡¯t think changing your body will.¡± We chuckled at that, thankful for how supportive she was. We truly were the luckiest Hive-Mind in existence to have her as our girlfriend. Leaning closer, we wrapped her up in a hug, giving her a long, tender kiss, just conveying our gratefulness to her. The feel of it was different, now that we were truly one, much more intense yet also much more pure. Not that we didn¡¯t love her outside of this, but there was a difference in that love, one that was different for each of Us. As one those differences all merged, forming a whole new experience, one we could drown in for days on end. ¡°Even with all our voices, we stillck the words to properly convey to you how much we love you,¡± we said quietly after breaking the kiss. ¡°Thank you for being so supportive, Chloe, even when ites to topics you might still be undecided upon.¡± She giggled softly, gazing into our eyes, and we returned that gaze, losing ourselves in those ponds filled with care and adoration. ¡°That¡¯s what I¡¯m here for. Now, do you wanna go get those body mods done, or do you need some more time to think? I think Bobby and I can deal with most of the things around with the help of the rest of you.¡± Taking a moment, we deliberated that question. During our conversation with our girlfriend we had, of course, continued to discuss things, and while there were still many topics that required more time, we did have to agree with her. Even if part of Us still bucked at the idea. Perhaps we should just go for it, see where it would take Us. It would not be impossible to reverse the changes, after all, all it took were some points and some time. ¡°Very well¡­ No reason not to.¡±
I have a Discord! Also, I''ve made a . If you wish to support me on my endavours, I''d appreciate it greatly! At the moment you can read five chapters ahead on ''A Joytoy''s journey to be a Hive-Queen''! Chapter 73 – What a day to be a Hive-Mind Chapter 73 ¨C What a day to be a Hive-Mind ¡°I can imagine that being a Samurai brings quite a lot of stress with it. Is there any advice you give your Samurai to help deal with that?¡± ¡°Informative: This unit is tasked with assisting the attendant Samurai, sometimes beyond the core prerogative. It is an important aspect of this unit¡¯s core function. To that end, this unit believes that a proper bnce betweenbat and personal life is mandatory.¡± ¡°Are there any ways you help with achieving that? Are there any specific aspects you would focus on?¡± ¡°Informative: This unit cannot give standard parameters, as the specific approach changes from Vanguard to Vanguard. In many cases the solution is simple and direct, requiring the Vanguard to simply take some time off. In some cases, however, it might require a more personalised approach ording to the Vanguard¡¯s personal preferences. Statistically that often expresses itself as the need for tonic or romantic connections with friends, lovers, or family. Informative: Thisst approach is most often advised no matter the circumstances.¡± ¡°Are there any situations in which that isn¡¯t feasible? I can very well imagine that there are some Samurai who have little interest in such things, considering how entric some personalities are.¡± ¡°Affirmative: Not all Vanguard have tonic or romantic rtionships to rely on. Informative: In such cases, this unit advocates for the selection and pursuit of a hobby of some kind. The specifics of said hobby vary wildly, but should, amongst other parameters, consist of time spent peacefully.¡± ¡°That sounds reasonable. What do you do in the worst case scenarios? When neither of that is applicable?¡± ¡°Informative: Worst case scenarios are quite frequent and widespread. Statistically, more than half of the Vanguard face such a situation in the first six months upon their selection. A fourth within the first month. Nearly ten percent within the first week. Informative: This unit believes that the best way to deal with such a situation is the ANNIHILATION OF THE ALIEN SCUM!¡± - Interview between Dr. Steven Johanson and OMYCRON, AI of the Samurai ¡®Jericho¡¯, 2057 Like a flood we broke into the outer edges of the inner circle. Antithesis rushed over, a horde of alien bodies trying to stop our advance. Big and small models were met with a wall of Hard-Light shields, courtesy of our Shield Carriers. War Drones and Hatchlings rained down fire upon the alien horde, obliterating the front lines with little difficulty. This deep into the Hive the terrain had be treacherous, the antithesis not caring for human essibility. The caves were far less t, the ground often a ragged mess, most of the Hive biology climbing up rocky walls and steep inclines. We did not care much for the hazardous terrain, our Hatchlings scaling the walls with ease. Now that they were upgraded with our esoteric materials catalogue, their ws were more than sufficient to dig into the rock, making traversal much, much easier. Our War Drones formed the core of ourbat lines, moving as one andying down fire with their shoulder mounted Bile Spewers. With their three tails buried into the ground for stability, they presented a united front that made it hard for the antithesis to deal with. One of the Silthens appeared deeper into the cave, surfacing just long enough to unleash a wave of potent toxins and clouds of nanite flesheaters. It was not enough to kill any alien, not even those nearby, but it was more than sufficient to sow chaos and to weaken the adversary. With her taskplete, the Silthen vanished once more into the safety of the underground, senses sharp for any bigger model trying to burrow closer. In her stead, the morebat focused Hatchlings jumped into the fray, many of the evolved ones that had already begun to specialise in close quarterbat. With our new training they were a force to be reckoned with; even if they were not as durable as the Queen¡¯s Guard, they most certainly could keep up in destructive force. A small delegation of Hatchlings started focusing on the bigger models, specifically the model Sixes, raining down hellfire on them with their new rifles. They could not kill the nts immediately, but the chaos that was added due to the sudden and focused attack was enough for the aliens to be unable to properly respond, which enabled our War Drones to shift their attack for a moment, decisively dealing with the leaders of the horde. Victory was imminent, swift and without any hesitation, but we did not push our advantage, forewarned by the Silthens nearby about the rumbling of the ground. Not long after a model Eight broke through the side of the cave, carrying with it another wave of new antithesis. One of our Spotters jumped forwards, carefully staying behind our defensive formation. Boxes appeared around the little cat-like Hexw, and our points dropped for just a moment, before they were on the rise again. We had decided that we needed some explosive additions to our arsenal, and since the Spotters were unable to utilise Chloe¡¯s catalogues, we had obtained the ss I Single Use Esoteric Explosive Devices Catalogue for ourselves. It was sufficient for what we needed, which was to break open formations andy down wide range area denial. The Hatchlings picked them up, controlled by the whole, and soon the cave exploded with the sounds of multiple grenades, all of them carefully chosen to ensure that the xenos would be unable to move around properly. Some were frozen, some were doused in acid, some were trapped in expanding spray foam, others were lit aze by a substance that would not cling to our bodies. It was thest straw, overwhelming the alien forces without any leadership in ce. Limited to their swarming instincts, we could now easily decimate them in batches, dealing with one group after another with efficiency. The model Eight would be able to flee, but that was not much of a problem for Us, the only thing we had to be concerned about in that regard was the tunnel it left behind. A tunnel we subsequently copsed with the help of some of the explosives. On the surface we observed the Hives below Us from the eyes of one of the Envoli Raptors. After our sudden change in approach, the Hive we were dealing with was starting to get overwhelmed. The other Hives nearby were so far not affected, which is why we had decided to send out the Feastmaster and her Reavers, together with some of our aerial units to sow some chaos. One of Us was keeping in contact with the Family and the Samurai that were working on eradicating the Hive below Us, just to make sure that they knew what to expect. After our first foray into this new state of harmony, we had experimented a little bit, some of Us halfway emerging from the whole. Most of these were our nonbat drones, delegated to administrative tasks. It was not needed, really, we were more than capable of multitasking those things while we worked, but we wanted to know our limits and what we could use this new experience for. It was no surprise that it was not as effective as doing things on our own, as a whole, with no degrees of separation, but that did not mean that this approach was without merit. People seemed less freaked out when someone a bit more distant to the harmony was conversing with them. It was very likely to do with the fact that we had not yet had much experience with being this in tune with ourselves. Nevertheless, our Envoli drones began to start attacking the Hive next to our own, diving down and picking off any of the more dangerous models that appeared on the surface. In most cases that meant model Fifteens, but also included model Sixes, model Fives, any model Nine variants we could find, and the asional model Eleven. Thosest ones were the hardest to deal with for the Raptors, while they could deal with them in a flock, most often the Glinthawks had to focus on them, and even then it was not a safe bet. Sadly, not even our heightened unity changed much about that, it was not an issue of coordination with ourselves, and simply a result of the strengths and weaknesses of our drones and the antithesis models. The Hive reacted to our sudden attack, something we had nned on, and a significant number of aliens were diverted towards the surface, just in time for the Feastmaster, her Reavers, and the Sabertooths to engage them. Our Feastmaster had gotten as many upgrades as we could cram into her body, from Hard-Light emitters, to more resilient armor, small kic weapons, as well as a number of sensory enhancements that would make her job a lot easier. The biggest upgrade was a sort of biological railgun that she could use to decisively kill models up to the high teens, if she got the time to aim properly. This way, she and her squad were no longer forced to always engage in close quarters, making picking off stragglers so much easier. Our Vultures moved in, picking up as much of the biomass as they could to return to the Corvette. Others deposited more of our forces nearby, enabling a continuous battle without the risk of losing too many bodies. Not that we were without losses. The Medical Corp was nearby, moving between our front and the Headquarters as fast as the Juggernaut could take them, ensuring that we could handle as many injuries as possible. We had already decided that the first thing we would get after the Hive-Queen was done with her body modifications would be another set of medical drones. It would move Us closer to our limit, but it would definitely be worth it. To that extent we had already nned on not replenishing certain drones if we could help it, to ensure we had the leeway we needed to make that a possibility. From up high we kept an eye on Jenna. So far we had left her mostly to her devices, she was capable enough to do the job she had chosen to do. After our discussions about spending points this morning, she had shifted her approach. Where before she had sat on the upper levels of her fortress, raining down death with her bow, she had now delegatedbat almost entirely to her Sentinels, opting to obtain more capable turret emcements instead. It left her free to pursue other tasks, which included more logistics focused support, as well as building out the fortress and the headquarters. The progress was slow, after querying Evelyn we found out that that was because of material constraints. Jenna had ovee a part of that in an ingenious way. While she did not have the raw materials for her mechanical Sentinels, we did have more biomass than even we knew what to do with, and so she had started investing in hybrid forces, utilising partly biological technology. The catalogue she had gotten for that was a strange one, from the looks of things. The designs it produced were a lot more aesthetically pleasing than our Hexws, and obviously much more focused on direct resilience than our own approach. The resulting Sentinels looked a lot more lifelike, while still remaining mechanical soldiers. And the same went for her infrastructure. It made her Fortress look a bit odd, especially when it opened and released the Legion Enforcer that so far had acted as the core of the instation. We were not quite sure what she had nned, but considering the movement of her troops, she had some idea of what she was doing. Our Wing-Alpha, the voice who had chosen the name Kaori, opted to set one of the Vultures aside to help her with biomass gathering, sending her the surplus that we could make no use of in the immediacy. While all of that was happening, the Hive-Queen was back at the Corvette, preparing to obtain her body modifications. After our talk with Chloe, we had decided upon getting them now. Chloe and Bobby were correct, we really had no reason not to do so, and having themter might be exactly what we would need. Leaving her to her devices, we returned our attention back to the fight at the front, our Warleader just deciding upon our new course of action. With silent jubtion we once more dove into the fray, a flood of bodies crushing the antithesis forces in front of Us, leaving only destruction in our wake. What a nice day to be a Hive-Mind. I rubbed my eyes as I made my way to the broodmother room. Being this deeply immersed in the chorus was quite the experience. Not necessarily a bad one, really. It was quitefortable in a way. But it was also a very stark contrast to what I was used to, and that made me want to focus on myself for a little while. Emerging from it individually was a bit different than it had been up until now. With the rest of Us in harmony, it made listening to them far less coherent on the surface. Not that I had any issues understanding what they were doing, but, considering that they were paying attention to hundreds of things at the same time, it made trying to parse it a bit more confusing. Others probably wouldn¡¯t understand a word of what we were talking about. Personally, I still wasn¡¯t entirely certain if I should go through with the n to get the body mods. I wanted them, really, but there was still that nagging feeling that made me hesitant. Ever since the question about humanity was raised because of it, I felt much the same way as I had before we showed Chloe and Jenna what being a Hive-Mind was like. The fact that that had turned out to be a woefully iplete understanding didn¡¯t help either. In a way I felt a bit overwhelmed at the sudden and explosive growth we experienced in that regard. To know what it really meant to be a Hive-Mind, it was a lot different from what I originally expected. Actually, what had I expected? The chorus itself had been a bit of a strange experience, and it had been a bit jarring, but now that I thought about it, I couldn¡¯t remember actually seriously contemting what things would be liketer down the line. Or that things could change and evolve at all. It just¡­ was, I guess. The chorus was there and it worked the way we knew it. We hadn¡¯t much considered that that might change. Chloe was right, getting the body mods shouldn¡¯t change me, if bing a Hive-Mind didn¡¯t already. Well, it changed me, of course, that was part of the point, but not in the ways I was fretting over. So there really wasn¡¯t a reason to worry. Then again, as was the case with so many things, some fears didn¡¯t just vanish just because you had a rational exnation at hand. With a sigh I shook my head. Junior was right, if things didn¡¯t go the way we wanted to, getting my old body back wouldn¡¯t be that hard to do. Some points, some time, and we could reverse the process. It wouldn¡¯t technically be my old body, but it would be a perfect copy of how things had been before the change, and that was more than good enough for me to feel calmed by the idea. Which¡­ might be a bit strange. As far as we knew, the Hive-Mind process was irreversible, yet somehow that didn¡¯t bother Us as much. Not being able to reverse that just didn¡¯t seem to matter at all, which in a way should be rather rming. It changed our mind, in some strange ways, and that was typically a much more terrifying thought than a change in body would be. I was by far not touchy on the idea of cybeics, for example. Hell, I¡¯d even yed with the idea of maybe trying to get some cybeics to rece some bits at some point. Sure, that was mostly wishful thinking, no way could I afford quality augs before I became a Samurai, but the thought remained. But I was kind of terrified of my mind changing by excessive imnts, or maybe even a dependency on the mesh or whatever other bullshit might happen. Yet, the Hive-Mind upgrade hadn¡¯t really elicited that kind of reaction, even though it was much more intensive. This worrying wasn¡¯t helping at all. We had decided that we would go through with it, and so I would. Even if only to get off our asses and start going into the direction we had set for ourselves. Deciding that I wanted to take a moment for myself, if only to calm my nerves, I walked through the broodmother room and into the pool room. Keity was already waiting for me, helping me undress before I settled myself into the hot water. This was going to be an extensive change for me. Originally I only wanted some minor body mods, but after learning about the whole shapeshifting thing, things had quickly started to balloon quite heavily. By this point I would be recing pretty much my entire body. Pushing my worries aside, I closed my eyes and simply enjoyed the feeling of the hot water, calming me down quite significantly. It¡¯s only been a couple of days since I became a Samurai, yet so much has changed already. And soon things would change even more. It still felt a bit surreal to no longer need to worry about so many of the things that had kept me up at night for the past few years. Not to mention all the things I had kind of be numb to. I still wasn¡¯t quite sure what to do with my life now, though. Junior had said that my wish to remain a Joytoy didn¡¯t make much sense in the grand scheme of things. I didn¡¯t need the money any more, and, really, I could do whatever the hell I wanted. I had Chloe as my girlfriend, maybe Jenna would join eventually, so I couldn¡¯t even argue that I couldn¡¯t get my libido taken care of otherwise. Not that that would be a worry once my body mods were done in any case. With all that said, though, there was some part of me that still wanted to continue. For so long I wanted to change the life of the Joytoys, to make the job into something they could be proud of. Something I would enjoy. Not that I didn''t enjoy it up until now, but there was a difference there, and now that I could do all that, stopping felt like aplete non sequitur. I could fulfil all my wishes, why would I decide to do something else now? Another reason were the other Joytoys. I didn¡¯t want to leave them behind, even if I could still easily keep an eye on things. Maybe it was a stupid notion, but I did feel responsible. So, yeah, I would carry on. Outside of that, though? I really wasn¡¯t sure what life would bring. Too many things were still in flux, the redlight district, the gangs, the department that I was nning to create, I wasn¡¯t even sure what I would do when we were done here. I was free to do whatever, but I was missing some direction in my life. The well known routine was gone, and it made me feel a bit lost. Maybe there were other projects I could tackle? We could rebuild the redlight district entirely, fix the old and broken buildings, maybe help the undercity more directly, make sure people were safe and cared for. Maybe we should think bigger? If we could get the Inner City to takes Us seriously and to actually invest in the Outer City some more, that could go a long way to rebuilding. On the flip side, we really didn¡¯t want to deal with the Inner City folk, nor the bullshit they would inevitably try to push for. Then there were the Hives we were dealing with. I couldn¡¯t remember who had told Us, but someone had said that the Family wanted to rebuild the area, make sure xenos couldn¡¯t nest there again. Once we had time to deal with the whole limiter thing, that would certainly be something we could take care of, or at least help with. If they wanted to put down a fortress that might be more of a Jenna thing to deal with, but if they wanted to just keep an eye on the ce we could totally make that happen. With all the flora around, we could even try and make our own biomass farm out of it. Not that we werecking in biomass, but we wouldn¡¯t always have aliens to munch on, and really, we didn¡¯t want to raid the surrounding wildlife too much either. Earth had precious little flora and fauna left as it was. We didn¡¯t want to add to that. I was interrupted in my thoughts, when I heard the door open. Opening my eyes I turned, finding Jenna walking over with a smile. ¡°Hey there,¡± she said softly in greeting. ¡°Hey. Taking a break?¡± I replied, giving her a smile of my own. ¡°In a manner of speaking. Right now there is little I can help with, I¡¯m just waiting for my forward base to finish replenishing itself. And since you wanted to get your body mods, I thought maybe I can keep youpany a bit.¡± ¡°That would be appreciated, yeah. I saw what you did with your things, quite a fascinating idea with the biomechanical Sentinels.¡± She chuckled, then let Keity help her undress, before she joined me in the pool. ¡°Yeah, I should have thought about that earlier. They¡¯re by far not as efficient or powerful as you are, but it should help with the resource constrictions. I do have some ns to solve that issue in the future, but that¡¯s still a little ways away.¡± ¡°Oh?¡± I asked, curious what she had nned. ¡°Cleopatra mentioned asteroid mining. There are a lot of resources in space that haven¡¯t been tapped into yet. But it will take some time to get the tech to get there, and then even more time until the first transport would get back. I even thought of maybe building a space station, once I¡¯m advanced enough to do that.¡± ¡°You think big, huh,¡± I said with a small grin. ¡°But big is good. Any idea what you¡¯d need for that?¡± She thought for a moment, before waving her hand so and so. ¡°I could technically do it at ss II, but that¡¯d be 250 grand at the very minimum, just to get started, not including all the doodads I would need for it. If I do this, I have to do it at scale for it to make any sense. And that is costly. ss III would be better, since I then can start teleporting the stuff back reliably and cheaply.¡± ¡°Damn. That¡¯s a lot of points.¡± ¡°I¡¯m hoping I can get started after this expedition. I¡¯m already sitting at well over a hundred k, so maybe I¡¯ll have enough once I¡¯m done. Unlikely, since I want to finish upgrading the Corvette, but it would be pretty cool if I could get started already.¡± I nodded at that, having resources like that would indeed be helpful. It did beg the question, though. ¡°Why space? Couldn¡¯t you find some resources here?¡± ¡°Oh, I could. But, believe it or not, it¡¯s actually easier to do it from space. Most of Earth¡¯s mineral deposits have already been exploited, and those that haven¡¯t are nearly always already in the hands of some corp or another. I¡¯m not going to start working with them, and I¡¯m also not going to just take it away from them. Space needs a steep upfront cost to get the whole process going, but afterwards it¡¯s pretty hands off, and it can be scaled as much as I would want to. There are already some Samurai who have a simr approach, even if they are in the minority.¡± Iughed. ¡°I never even thought about that. So, you''re gonna be a miner then?¡± I asked with a smirk, before my expression turned a bit more thoughtful. ¡°I¡¯m not quite sure yet what I want to do after all this. Even if I continue to work as a Joytoy, I won¡¯t have the same schedule as I did before, and I have never really thought about what I want to do outside of that. Being a Joytoy is kind of the only thing I ever did or wanted.¡± ¡°I mean, it¡¯s not like we¡¯re in a rush, right? You can take your time to think about it. And I would bet that soon you¡¯ll have your hands full trying to keep the gangs from imploding. So far things have kept quiet, but there is a lot of change happening in the redlight district, and I wouldn¡¯t be surprised if someone tries something, once they¡¯ve had some time to adjust and consolidate.¡± ¡°Fair enough. Well, that¡¯s in the future, anyways. For now we have to deal with the Hives. And my body mods.¡± She gave me another warm smile, ¡°I can keep youpany for a while when you do that. You already know what you want?¡± ¡°Oh yeah, we¡¯ve gone over that a couple of times. Just a bit anxious, is all. It¡¯s going to be a massive change.¡± ¡°You¡¯ll be fine, Sera. I doubt that getting a new body will change you too much.¡± That made me giggle, ¡°Chloe said the same thing.¡± ¡°See?¡± She gave me one of her teasing smirks. ¡°Yeah, yeah¡­ Okay, Kaysa, what do I need? And how will all of this work?¡± Kaysa activated my amulet and the nanite body formed next to me. ¡°Very well. Let us begin with the basic method, before we go over what you will need to obtain. This will take a moment to get through.¡±
I have a Discord! Also, I''ve made a . If you wish to support me on my endavours, I''d appreciate it greatly! At the moment you can read five chapters ahead on ''A Joytoy''s journey to be a Hive-Queen''! Chapter 74 – From Joytoy to Hexclaw Hive-Queen Chapter 74 ¨C From Joytoy to Hexw Hive-Queen ¡°Body modifications are quite themon thing amongst Samurai. Even the earliest Samurai quickly left the realm of the human body behind, opting for more efficient ways to survive. The way these body modifications might look depend on the Samurai in question. As with everything rting to Samurai, no two Samurai are identical.¡± - Dr. Steven Johansion, in an interview with ¡®Samuraiz¡¯ I looked at the addition in the broodmother room, a rather sizable instation in the far corner of it. It didn¡¯t look too different from what the broodmother rooms looked like, although there were some differences, the most obvious being the bed-like structure in the middle of it. After some back and forth with Kaysa, I had decided upon a more dedicated Operations room. I could have gone for a specialised broodmother room that could be used for normal Hexw production afterwards, but, considering that I might want some additional upgrades in the future, a more dedicated room sounded more useful. Not to mention that Jenna and Chloe could use it as well, if and when they wanted to get their body mods. ¡°It looks surprisinglyfortable,¡± Jenna mused, standing next to me. ¡°I had envisioned something a bit more alien looking, but I suppose with how adaptable your stuff is, it makes sense to make it look more inviting.¡± I giggled at that, stepping inside. Taking my time, I checked everything over, inspecting all the different things Kaysa told me I would need. A lot of it was in stark contrast with the rest of the room, looking more like human made medical machines. Then there were the additions from the Vi¡¯xan Catalogue, which were definitely on the more freaky looking side. With a mental query, I contacted the rest of Us, letting Kaori know that they could start sending more biomass my way. We had more than enough of that, and while I had been a bit uncertain if I wanted to use the biomass we¡¯d gotten from the antithesis, there really wasn¡¯t a reason not to. As icky as the thought was, effectively there was no difference between using that and getting more biomass with points. ¡°Want me to stick around for a while after you get started?¡± Jenna asked,ing up next to me and giving me a smile. ¡°Yeah¡­ I think I¡¯d like that a lot.¡± I was grateful for her presence here, it made the entire thing feel less overwhelming. Sitting down on the bed, I tested it for a moment, before Iy down. As I had already expected, it wasfortable, even if it wasn¡¯t asfortable as the beds in our bedroom. After our bath, I had gone over what things I wanted to get exactly with Kaysa. She had given me some options for different things and features, many of which I had decided to add. There was a limit to all of it, of course, since it was still ss II, but it would enable me to get further upgradester down the line with little in the way of additional costs. The primary concern wasbat power, of course. To that end, we had made sure that I had everything I needed to achieve variousbat forms, while also not losing sight of the more casual applications. I was a bit surprised to learn that I would need to get some Dream Learning courses for proper body control, since it would be a lot different from what I was used to. Mentally going over the list again, I nodded to myself. I was happy with those changes, and going over all the different things I¡¯d be able to do did make me feel a lot less anxious about it all. Jenna¡¯s presence helped a lot with that as well. Some of the Nursing drones entered, giving both of us warm smiles, before they started to prepare for what needed to be done. Most of the equipment could run on its own, but having some supervision wasn¡¯t a bad thing. In that way my situation was unique, since typically Samurai who would go through this, didn¡¯t have any way to personally keep an eye on things. I would be able to do that, since even while I was out I could keep in touch with the rest of Us. It was another thing that helped quell my worries. Of course, I would have to go through the Dream Learning courses first, but that would only take a couple of hours. And since I would be in this room for a couple of days, I would have plenty of time to connect with the rest of Us and help with the war against the xenos. Jenna watched me with a warm smile, taking one of my hands into her own, just being there. Really, this shouldn¡¯t be such a big deal, but to me it was, and I was thankful that I wouldn¡¯t have to go through it on my lonesome. ¡°Once things get underway, it might look a bit rming,¡± I told her with a smile of my own that wasn¡¯t entirely able to hide all the anxiety I felt underneath. ¡°In effect, the upgrade will eat up my old body, before it shifts to transform the rest of it once I get enough Hexw DNA in me. Just don¡¯t get rmed, yeah?¡± Sheughed, a warm andfortable sound like windchimes in a breeze. ¡°Don¡¯t you think I should be the oneforting you?¡± ¡°I just don¡¯t want you to think things are going wrong,¡± I shot back with a mock-annoyed tone, before I broke out in giggles of my own. ¡°You worry too much, Sera. Now, if you¡¯re ready, do you want to start?¡± I nodded at her words, taking a deep breath, before I forced myself to rx a little. ¡°Yeah¡­ Let¡¯s get this over with. The sooner, the better; the antithesis won¡¯t wait for me to get a grip.¡± With a smile, she nodded slowly. ¡°Yeah. I¡¯ll stay as long as I can. Now get going, before you change your mind.¡± Her teasing smirk made meugh, and I settled in. ¡°Okay, Kaysa. Hit it. No time to waste.¡± Very well. In a moment you¡¯ll lose consciousness, so please don¡¯t be rmed. I didn¡¯t even get the time to give her a snarky reply, before I suddenly felt very, very tired, and my eyes snapped shut without me wanting to. We kept a careful eye on the Hive-Queen¡¯s body, through the Nursing drones near her. It might be unnecessary, we did trust Kaysa after all, but it cost Us nothing and reassured Us a little. The process was a lot slower than we had expected it to be. Not that that was too surprising, Kaysa had told Us that it would take a couple of days. Still, we wished it would be a bit faster. Jenna made good on her promise, staying by her side for a very long time, time we spent chatting with her through the Nursing drones. It was nice to have some time to talk to her as a whole. Of course, there was not much of a difference between talking to her individually and as a whole, we would still all recall the conversation afterwards. But, as small as it might be, the difference was there, and it was so nice to all be able to converse with her at the same time. And it would not impede our progress on other fronts, so there really was no reason not to do it. Bobby and Chloe had taken some time to discuss the changes with Us, through some of our War Drones,ing up with a n for a different approach. With Us being much more capable at dealing with the xenos now, they had decided to split up, taking charge of one battalion each. It made it easier and faster to clear out the aliens, especially with the increasingly treacherous terrain. While we might not have any issues, due to our ability to scale the uneven caves, they were less fortunate, relying on our help in that regard. Both had their own ways to make their way, of course, but having someone watch their back while they climbed through the chaotic caves was very helpful. The Protector was still deeper in the Hive, dealing with anyrger models that showed up as best as she could, but it had already be apparent that that was a growing issue. We kept in touch with the Family, updating them on everything we found, both by the Protector and our Silthens and Envolis, ensuring that nobody got surprised too badly. Halfway through the second day, we were just clearing out another cave on the border on the Inner circle, disaster struck. One of the other groups got surprised by a couple model Nine-Vs and a model Neen-K while they fought their way deeper, nning to crush the Hive directly. While they managed to fight off the model Nine-Vs, the model Neen-K managed to evade their sensors, capable of masking itself from the scanners. One of them was killed outright, while two got gravely wounded. We immediately sprung into action, our Protector moving over to extract them from the situation, while our Medical corp changed course, hoping to get there in time. It halted our assault for a moment; without the Protector nearby, we didn¡¯t want to risk delving too deep. It took longer than we wanted to extract the group, as they were trapped in a now half-copsed cave. They were able to get some medical equipment on scene, thanks to thest member of the group, a Samurai called Virillion, but we still wanted to get them to our Medical corp to ensure they were missing for nothing. The first would survive, but the second Samurai had suffered severe brain trauma in the attack, damaging their imnts connecting them to their AI. That in and of itself wasn¡¯t a problem, the chip could be reced, but it did leave them in a very precarious situation. They needed help and fast. We focused our efforts on helping as much as we could, sending our Envoli and our Feastmaster¡¯s Squad over to secure the area. Luckily Virillion was able to stabilise them somewhat, but considering that the Samurai who was wounded was the one with their primary medical catalogues, Virillion didn¡¯t have the necessary catalogues to get them proper help. And sadly they were missing the tokens to upgrade their own catalogues. After our Protector had extracted them, we ced them in the care of our Medical corp, who did their best to help. It would take some time, but with Virillions help, as well as the help of Glubber, they would at least survive, which made Us let out a sigh of relief. The attack did derail the Family¡¯s ns, however, and so they had to adjust. Mask actually volunteered to help out with keeping the aliens at bay, considering that she had gotten quite some gear in the meantime. She really had put in the work, and had even earned herself a proper name. Neuron Salvation did feel very fitting for her, and we did approve of it. Of course, she was not the only one that volunteered, many of the newbies who had gotten more points and gear were eager to help out. Bahamut made very sure that they were not in too much danger, especially now that one of the more experienced Samurai had been killed. We already did not have that many Samurai in New Savannah, and this expedition was partially used to push those we had to grow. Losing even one Samurai, while not unexpected, was a blow. With the rescue mission a sess, and the Hive being reinforced by others, we returned our attention back to our own battle. We had not sat idle, of course, with our multitasking capabilities we were more than capable of dealing with both issues at the same time. Together with Chloe and Bobby, we continued our work, carefully scouting out the caves and dealing with the antithesis. Our main concern was the still increasing antithesis activity, which made everyone taking part in the expedition wary. By the end of the second day, Bahamut and Glubber had given out orders to not push too deep yet. They wanted to do another scanner sweep to better understand what was going on, since even the high powered ping from earlier had not prated to the deepest parts of the Hives. Double-X and Snapshot were the ones in charge of nning the scanning, helped by three of the newer Samurai who were slowly specialising in that field as well. For the entire night they worked, while we continued our onught. Of course, even we needed rest, so we set up rotations to allow all of our bodies to recover from their exhaustion. Bobby slept in his Jeep once more, while Chloe returned to the Corvette, spending some time with Jenna near the Hive-Queen, before they both headed to bed as well. The Hive-Queen herself was still going through Dream Learning courses, having decided to get some additional courses in while she could. They were not critical for our operations, but since she did have the time, and the rest of Us could benefit from them as well, it was a worthwhile investment. Over the next couple of days the situation worsened more and more. The antithesis were obviously getting some influx of biomass from somewhere, considering how many models they managed to make, but nobody was able to figure out where from. Double-X and Snapshot had done their best trying to scan as deep as they could, but something was interfering with their equipment. It was pretty obvious that the antithesis had some way to shield themselves, although we could not be sure what models exactly were responsible. Some theorised that it might be another Neen-K, although that seemed unlikely, considering that they weren¡¯t able to nket an entire area. If only Neen-K¡¯s were responsible, they needed six dozen at the very least, likely more, and that just did not seem likely. Our Protector did her best to help with the scouting, clearing out as many of the high digit models as she could. But, while she was powerful, not even she could get to all of them, lest we agitate the Hives too much. With no concrete information of what awaited Us below, we had to keep a careful bnce. Only by fluke did we eventually discover where they got their biomass from. Three days after the Hive-Queen had begun her operation, our Protector broke into a cave not far from the core of the Hive, filled to the brim with antithesis biology. After checking in with the Family, it quickly became apparent that these were antithesis biomass farms, something they apparently built when they had the time to settle in. Originally we thought that there might be another big cave under the whole area, simr to what we had found during the undercity incursion, but, while we could not rule that possibility out entirely, we had not found anything of the sort so far. It posed a rather substantial problem, since these biomass farms had to be dealt with quickly and decisively, to prevent the antithesis from growing too fast. The problem was, that we could not pinpoint the location of any other farm, this one was certainly not enough to supply the entire area with biomass, so there had to be more. Our Silthens did their best to scout out the area, but even with their help it was a rather dangerous and slow endeavour. We had to check every known cave for any more farms, and there were a number of tunnels and caves that were unknown to Us, which meant an even broader search. Things became even more problematic, when the first models in the twenties were sighted by our Protector. So far, we had considered the possibility, but without any sufficient evidence we could not n for it. That changed, when our Protector ran into a group of model Twenty-Ones, apanied by a model Twenty-Two, trying to burrow their way out of the Hive. She did manage to kill them, but not without suffering significant wounds. Her left pincer got nearly ripped off entirely, and the Twenty-Ones managed to pierce her armor in multiple locations all around her thorax, forcing her to retreat. It was a shock to Us, she was our most powerful member, and up until now nothing had managed to hurt her this severely. We revised our approach, pulling back slightly and searched for another way to deal with the situation. After some deliberation with the Family, we finally decided to utilise our Silthens more actively. They could easily spray toxins and flesheater nanites into the farms, which would erode them over time. With no other way to get the farms, we sent them out the next morning, being very careful about what we encountered. The n seemed to work for the most part. With our Protector out ofmission, Bahamut and Glubber were the only ones who could decisively deal with the higher digit models, and they could not get to them easily. It pushed Us to take great pains to ensure that our Silthens remained unnoticed. After we destroyed roughly half of the farms we found, things were looking up, the antithesis scrambling to push Us away and protect their bio-farms. It was about that time that disaster struck once more, and nearly all of our forces near the northern Hive were wiped out. At roughly the same time, the other Samurai who were dealing with the antithesis in that Hive, were suddenly pushed back, most of them wounded. Nobody seemed to know what exactly had hit them, but it was clear that there was no way for them to stick around. Whatever was responsible was very stealthy, almost invisible and undetectable by the scanners. Any attempts to identify the threat went nowhere, and the Family put the northern Hive under lockdown, only allowing the remainder of our Silthens to get in to try and deal with the remaining farms while they scrambled to figure out what was going on. After our third expedition failed, we decided to stop, not wanting to risk even more of Us. The situation was dire, and nobody was certain about how to proceed. The Hives were now in full swing, agitated by our attacks, giving even Us trouble as we tried to defend the caves we had already liberated. We held the front as best as we were able, but things were quickly going south with no immediate way to deal with the issue. The only good news was that the Hives now had less biomass to work with, which did seem to slow them down rather rapidly. It was a small mercy, but sadly not a very helpful one. As time went on, defending against the tide became easier, but we still were in no position to push deeper. Not that we stopped trying, careful as to not risk too many of Us, but our progress was at a near standstill. What really hurt Us was that we couldn¡¯t reliably get the biomass out of the caves anymore, with most of our troops needed to defend. With the front lines in flux, we couldn¡¯t hold a position long enough for the few of Us still on biomass duty to get enough out to replenish our forces, and with our own dead bodies starting to form walls of decay, our whole slowly dwindled. Bahamut and Glubber did their best to organise everyone, but we were at our limits with how much we could contribute. We put down Devouring Roses where we could, trying to make it as hard as possible for the antithesis to fight back while we replenished ourselves, but that was only helping so much. In some ways the Roses made the situation even worse. Boxed in as they were, the antithesis tried desperately to break through, and while they lost a substantial amount of their forces, they also were able to retrieve much of that biomass and would eventually break through our defences. All we could do was to wait for our Hive-Queen to finish with her operations, and that would still be a couple of days. The longer the expedition went on, the harder it became, and eventually we would sumb to exhaustion as our dwindling numbers no longer got any time to rest. With a mental grit of our teeth, we redoubled our efforts. We would endure. We would make sure that we could survive until our Hive-Queen was done. At this point it went beyond just the necessity to do so, it was a war between two swarms, and our pride as a Hive-Mind began to surface, pushing Us ever harder. We would see the antithesis perish, that was for certain.
I have a Discord! Also, I''ve made a . If you wish to support me on my endavours, I''d appreciate it greatly! At the moment you can read five chapters ahead on ''A Joytoy''s journey to be a Hive-Queen''! Chapter 75 – Shapeshifting is way too cool! Chapter 75 ¨C Shapeshifting is way too cool! ¡°As outlined in the proposal, we can make a lot of money by making action figures based on every different form she has been seen taking on. Production would be a bit more expensive up front, but in the long term it will us serious profits.¡± ¡°I¡¯ve read the proposal. It does sound rather enticing. What steps are taken to ensure usible deniability?¡± ¡°We have decided to adjust certain features to be more in line with other IP¡¯s. That way we can im that this is simply a new line of alternative designs based upon the IP¡¯s we own.¡± ¡°What about the branding?¡± ¡°That¡¯s been a worry. In the end, we decided to brand this as a non-existing, fictional Samurai, while taking broad inspiration from the original and some of our own IP¡¯s, although a fake Samurai name has not yet been decided upon.¡± ¡°Make sure it¡¯s not something that¡¯d agitate her too much. She has already made it clear that she doesn¡¯t want to work with us, so we need to make sure that she has no reason toe after us.¡± ¡°Of course, sir. We have already decided to adjust the lore of the character to fit more in line with our target demographic. Our marketing experts are certain that they¡¯ll eat it up like breakfast.¡± - Leaked conversation between Nimbletainment Inc. executives, 2057 Waking up was a bit strange. I wasn¡¯t so much waking up, as the feeling in my body came back, the familiar prickling sensation of your limbs having fallen asleep. It was quite unpleasant, since it was all over my body all at the same time, but luckily it didn¡¯tst too long. Opening my eyes, I blinked a couple of times, trying to get used to the new senses. They were quite sharp, evenpared to my previous ones which had already been upgraded, just now with the addition of a much sharper sense of smell and touch. It was a bit weird, since I could feel the exact texture of the bed I wasying on, still naked. At the same time, though, it was also quite nice. A part of me wondered what hugging Chloe or Jenna would feel like now? Probably even more heavenly than it was already. I smiled at the thought, sitting up and trying to get used to my new body. Inspecting myself, I found that I looked just about the same as I¡¯d done before, with only minor changes. That wasn¡¯t a surprise, the body mods weren¡¯t meant to change my looks, for that I had my shapeshifting. That said, there were some differences. While I had never looked sickly or unhealthy, despite my drug-filled and malnourished past, I also had never quite looked at the peak of my health either. It was minor things that were hard to describe, but seeing the differences first hand, it was obvious. At least to me. With a nod, I stretched, before I got up and bounced lightly on my feet a couple of times. I felt surprisingly strong and nimble. Some of that might juste from being well rested, but I was almost certain that it was also because of my new body. A suspicion that proved correct when I tested my new range of motion. I had always been quite flexible, partly due to my job, but the lengths to which I could bend now were orders of magnitude bigger. It was quite nice, being able to do a perfect split, then overstretch my legs, while still standing, or being able to more or less fold my back in half. It was superhuman, no athlete, no matter how flexible, would ever hold a candle to me, considering the constraints of human anatomy they had to deal with. With my first inspection of myselfplete, I turned my attention to my shapeshifting. This was the thing I was most giddy about, and something that came naturally to me now. I wasn¡¯t sure if it was instinct or something else, but no matter the reason, shifting my body was as easy as a thought. It wasn¡¯t like operating my augs, it was more simr to just moving your arm or hand. You could just¡­ do that. My body shifted, subtly, my view rising a little in height as my body adjusted. There was no difort or pain, just a really strange feeling of change, before it stopped only a couple of momentster. Looking down at myself, I found the changes as I had envisioned them. I was now a little bit taller, only a couple of inches, with a more pronounced chest and curves, two long and fluffy tails at my back. My armor settled around me, changing to perfectly fit my new form, and I clenched and unclenched my fists, checking myself over. The form was just as I had wanted it to be, although again, it wasn¡¯t as if I had to visually envision my new form. I just¡­ knew what to do to achieve what I wanted. Another thought and my body shifted again, this time growing even taller and a bit more muscr. Shifting only took a couple of moments, and soon I found myself looking identical to Chloe. There were some differences, since I wasn¡¯t quite sure what her internal anatomy was like exactly, especially with the muscles around her stomach, arms, and legs, but unless you had a keen eye for that kind of thing, I would be indistinguishable from my girlfriend. Snickering, I took on the form of Jenna, before I returned to my newfound Kitsune form. Utilising one of the Nursing drones nearby, I inspected myself, adjusted a few things to better fit with the look I was going for, before I nodded. This was amazing! I was already loving my newfound capabilities, even if they were limited at the moment. I¡¯d need a lot more biomass to take on therger forms, but that could be rectified rtively quickly, considering the surplus of biomass we had avable. Granted, I wasn¡¯t looking forward to that. To get the biomass into my system I had to eat it, and, considering that we only had antithesis biomass, the thought was a bit revolting. But we still had some surplus, and it would be a waste to spend points on this, considering that we very likely would need all the points we still had in the near future. And it wasn¡¯t like I didn¡¯t know what antithesis tasted like. I had the memory of Snuffles eating them, as well as the experience of devouring a good chunk of the body mass from the model Fifty-Four-H during the simtion. Sure, those memories were from the memories of proper Hexws, who would have different preferences, but that could easily be rectified with my new shapeshifting. With a sigh, I shook my head, before I turned towards the massive pile of biomass stocked up in the opposite corner of the rooms, quickly depleted and replenished to keep our broodmothers going. Assuming a smaller version of Snuffles¡¯ body, amused at the strange shift in perspective and the unusual way of walking, I began to dig in, pushing my doubts about it to the back of my mind. I only had to do this once, unless I lost limbs or something, so it luckily wasn¡¯t going to be a daily thing. It took me the better part of half an hour, until I felt my biomass storage getting to capacity. I wasn¡¯t quite sure how it worked, Kaysa had told me it had to do with dimensionally shunted storage containers somewhere inside my body, but I also didn¡¯t much care for a more detailed exnation. Now that I finally had obtained my body mods, the worries I had about the entire ordeal before were gone. Assuming my Kitsune form once more, careful to keep the adjustments the way I wanted them to be, I finally left the broodmother room, entering the main hangar. There was a lot going on here, multiple Sentinels loading and unloading shuttles, weaving between those of Us who were unloading biomass from the shuttles and Vultures. With a thought, I reconnected to the chatroom Bobby, Chloe, and Jenna were using. We¡¯ve been in contact, of course, but I still wanted to chat with them a little on a more personal level. ¡°Hey everyone. I¡¯m back! Body mods are done.¡± ¡°Hey!¡± Chloe replied cheerfully, even if I could hear the concentration in her words. From the rest of Us I knew that she was currently finishing up cleaning out a cave. ¡°How¡¯re you doing?¡± ¡°d to hear you¡¯re back,¡± Jenna added with warmth in her voice. ¡°Aye, good to see you¡¯re back,¡± Bobby added, then stopped when he dealt with some xenos in front of him. ¡°Good to be back. Can¡¯t wait to put these new forms to the test! Shapeshifting is damn awesome.¡± While I spoke, I walked over to the main hangar ramp and looked out. I could just get into one of the shuttles, or even the Vultures for that matter, but I was feeling giddy and I kind of wanted to try flying by myself. I had, afterall, gotten the Dream Learning Course for it for just this eventuality. ¡°I can imagine,¡± Chloe said with a giggle, ¡°Now our nights will be even more interesting.¡± ¡°Oh, my love, don¡¯t tempt me like this. I need to go fight aliens, and I can¡¯t do that if I¡¯m all hot and bothered.¡± We bothughed, before I continued. ¡°Actually, now with my body mods my libido is firmly in my control. So tease away, I¡¯ll be able to endure it.¡± ¡°But that was half the fun of it!¡± Jennained with a mock-whiny voice. ¡°Listen, I don¡¯t really wanna interrupt your fun, but we could use some help down here,¡± Bobby chimed in. ¡°Yeah, yeah. I¡¯m on my way then. Time to learn how to fly, eh?¡± I said with a wide grin, before my body shifted once more, slowly morphing into a slightly adjusted variant of our Envoli Raptors. With a few ps I tested my wings, trying to get a handle on this new form. Even with my Dream Learning it took some getting used to, since I now had an actual bird-like body. Luckily it wasn¡¯t too big of a deal, with all the other Dream Learning courses I was prepared for drastic shifts in anatomy. Still, better safe than sorry. Only when I felt safe did I p a little stronger, trying to get a feel for where my liftoff point was, before I nodded and jumped out of the Hangar. My Queen¡¯s Guard was behind me in one of the Vultures, so I was not without help. Something I appreciated greatly, because flying was a strange feeling to experience. I never had any fear of heights, but that was different from flying under your own body, in a body that was decidedly not human. At first I kept things slow, making sure I didn¡¯t mess up my movement and taking my time to get used to this new experience, before I sped up a bit when I felt more confident. And oh damn, flying was awesome. While I made my way over, I mentally reviewed everything that had gone down in thest couple of days, just to make sure I was up to date with what I could expect. It had been a bit weird, watching the rest of Us while I was out. Not that it was a new feeling, I¡¯ve had dreams like that before, of course. The most memorable one was when the Hive-Mind upgrade first finished. That had been my first real experience with being a Hive-Mind. At the time none of it had made any sense, even if that changed rtively quickly. I could still remember that I felt like I had to visit an asylum or something. But even afterwards, I often wasn¡¯t entirely lost in dreand, more watching over everything at a remove. Sure, with the Dream Learning that was a bit different, but generally I didn¡¯t entirely lose track of what the rest of Us were doing. This time, though, things were a bit weirder than normal. With my body being in an induceda, and our chorus being much more harmonious, it felt different. I had, of course, taken part in the chorus when I could. It wasn¡¯t like I had much else to do, and considering the circumstances, everyst bit of help was needed. We were quite worried about the worsening situation, especially after the higher digit models had been spotted. For days we had worked without pause, trying to help where we could. At this point all of Us were quite exhausted, both physically and mentally. I might not be as affected, since I did have some nice rest, but for the others that was a whole lot different. It took a surprising amount of effort to keep the harmony going, something a few of the Burdened put down to the physical exhaustion all our bodies were facing. We pushed through, of course. There was no way that we would surrender our efforts, not until the expedition was done. Even if it wasn¡¯t easy. Not to sound arrogant, but at this point we were pretty much the major reason why things hadn¡¯t gone to shit entirely yet. Even with our dwindling numbers, we were still able to mostly hold an entire Hive on our own, sometimes even managing to send help out to others. That didn¡¯t mean the others didn¡¯t chip in, of course. There were many Samurai who had gone above and beyond; I was struggling to think of anyone who hadn¡¯t pushed and pushed and pushed until they were forced to step down. Either by their AI, the Family, or the simple fact that their bodies could no longer keep up. But nobody apart from Us had the necessary capabilities to work on the sheer scale required to keep an eye on everything. Even if that was slowly changing. Jenna had grown her forces immensely, bing the cornerstone of our defences. Two days after my upgrade had started, she had begun to expand her operations, utilising the new biomechanical technology she had acquired to put up defences wherever she could. It had cost her a lot of points, which did suck, considering her future ns, but without her, we were pretty sure we¡¯d already have suffered so much more and so much harder. Once things really went downhill, she had doubled down and gotten even more equipment, almost entirely exhausting her point pool. By this point she had the entire area surrounded by a cordon of defences, be it troops or fortifications. It was the only reason nobody worried about a potential outbreak too much. Turning my attention back to the call for a moment, I addressed her. ¡°Everything good on your end, Jenna? Need Us to send some help over?¡± ¡°No, thank you. I think you¡¯re more needed elsewhere, so far I have things under control.¡± I smiled inwardly at her warm tone in her voice. ¡°I think at the moment, our biggest problem is the northern Hive. Neuron Salvation has the second northern Hive under control, but that one will be troublesome,¡± Chloe chimed in, and I nodded, quickly checking my memory about what was going on with Neuron Salvation. She had grown quite a lot during my time in the induceda. While she didn¡¯t really focus on killing xenos as much as she did her therapist side, she had gotten a whole host of new bodies that worked as additional defences around the second most northern Hive, the one we had lost the Samurai in. It took a lot of pressure off from the rest of the expedition and enabled them to focus on thest Hive, with the northern Hive still under lockdown. The fact that we had half of the four Hives under control with just two Samurai, both of whom were rtively new, was a miracle in and of itself. She was supported by Pipeline, who had turned into the backbone of our logistics department, organising a whole host of things and spending his points to keep the entire operation running smoothly. At this point he was the primary supplier of medical supplies, ammunition, and low tier weapons, most of which were used by Neuron Salvation. Together with Jenna, he made sure that the expedition could continue and prepare for any eventuality. ¡°I might see if I can¡¯t help Pipeline with some purchases,¡± I mused as I circled around the air, watching the activity below me and trying to get a feel for where I should best begin with my help. ¡°I think that¡¯d be appreciated,¡± Bobby said with a nod in his voice, ¡°The guy¡¯s been spending points like crazy. If it weren¡¯t for Nym and him working together, I think he¡¯d have long since run out.¡± Nym the Scourge was another rtively new Samurai, who focused on rats and other critters, mostly as scouts, but also as carriers for biological weapons. From what we could see, she didn¡¯t like engaging directly with the adversary, but she was more than capable ofying down some hurt, utilising stealth and slow acting toxins. It was a godsend to keep the northern Hive in check. Not only was she able to halt the antithesis attempts to leave, her rats were also scouting out the deeper parts of the Hive. The images we got from that weren¡¯t great, her rats were meant to be cheap and to be deployed inrge numbers, but it gave Us our first idea of what we could expect there. And it didn¡¯t look good. ¡°Yeah. I¡¯m really impressed with everyone, we have two Hives more or less dealt with with just two Samurai, and one which is nearly locked off with another one. Truth be told, I expected things to be a whole lot worse. Not that they don¡¯t suck now,¡± I muttered, watching Nym through another one of Us. ¡°When you get here, we should probably chat about our ns going forward. At this point, I don¡¯t think we can press on too much anymore, we have most of the outer circle cleared, and the inner circle is a damn minefield of xenos. Not sure if we are ready to delve deeper into that entire mess.¡± Chloe¡¯s voice had lost a bit of the amusement it held prior, obviously more thoughtful now. ¡°We really aren¡¯t,¡± Bobby replied, and I could hear his annoyance at the situation in his tone. ¡°We¡¯re all tired as all hell, and without some more backup we¡¯d be ripped to shreds in no time t.¡± I interrupted their discussion. ¡°Maybe I can help? I¡¯m all stocked up on biomass, so I should be able to manage one of therger forms.¡± ¡°Uh, sure? I guess you could, I¡¯m just not sure how much of a difference that would make.¡± ¡°Sweetheart, I¡¯m freshly rested, have over 300k points to my name, and am really excited to finally try out somebat forms. I think it¡¯s time for you all to take a break.¡± ¡°I won¡¯tin,¡± muttered Bobby, ¡°But make sure you¡¯re careful, yeah? Wouldn¡¯t want to need to pull you out of the ditch.¡± I chuckled at his words. ¡°Yeah, no worries. Let me quickly give Pipeline a helping hand, and then I¡¯m going to take your ce for a while so you can rest a bit.¡± Changing course once more, I began to fly over to the Headquarters. Time to put all the points we saved up to good use, before I could finally test my newbat forms. This day was turning out to be he awesome!
I have a Discord! Also, I''ve made a . If you wish to support me on my endavours, I''d appreciate it greatly! At the moment you can read five chapters ahead on ''A Joytoy''s journey to be a Hive-Queen''! Chapter 76 – Making an impact Chapter 76 ¨C Making an impact ¡°Never underestimate the impact a Samurai can make. It doesn¡¯t matter if they¡¯re green enough to be mistaken for a greenhouse, or if they¡¯ve been around longer than most. Push ¡®em hard enough, back them into a corner, or, god forbid, threaten anyone important to them, and you¡¯ll learn that the saying ¡®Where there is a will, there¡¯s a way¡¯ is to be taken quite literally with Samurai. Don¡¯t fuck with Samurai. It gets repeated every fucking time ad nauseum, and every fucking time you gotta say it again. If you don¡¯t follow that doctrine to the letter, you¡¯ll never live past your first assignment. Don¡¯t! Fuck! With! Samurai! Make that your mantra for your life!¡± - Major Kethar in a briefing for the 12th Defence Corps, 2047 After I delivered roughly 50k worth of points in medical stuff and equipment, mostly by getting ess to Pipeline¡¯s catalogues, I swiftly took off once more, returning to our own Hive. The stop had only taken a couple of minutes, I didn¡¯t want to keep Chloe and Bobby waiting, since I promised them a break. And a break they definitely needed, everyone was damn tired. It wasn¡¯t so much physical exhaustion, although that also yed a part, but the fact that we¡¯ve been fighting against the aliens non-stop for days. In any other situation things probably would already long since been over and done with, but we had some constrictions to work around, which made it all take so much longer. I just hoped that we could clean up soon, even if I still had no idea how to make that happen with so many threats to deal with at the same time. Arriving over the Hive we were responsible for dealing with, I let my form shift once more, this time taking on a miniature version of Tiny. I could barely reach half the size, even with all the biomass I had avable, but that was more than enough for my purposes. Plummeting down I let out a long internal squeak, with no vocal cords doing so aloud was kind of impossible. Really, we had to do something about that, Tiny needed a voice and soon. ¡°Alright, everyone, get ready! Reinforcements are iiiiiing!¡± The impact was all that I had hoped for, crashing through the ground and right into yet another cave not far from where Chloe was stationed at. The force alone sttered any alien nearby, and sent a shockwave through the ground, making it rumble. Being a multi-ton giant scorpion was a damn cool feeling. It made smashing through rock and dirt and aliens of all shapes and sizes very easy and extremely satisfying. The pincers especially were something I would keep in mind for future mix forms. Of course, this wasn¡¯t really a new experience. We all shared memories, and so I knew what it was like for Tiny. That said, there was a perceivable difference between her memories and my own experience. Slowly letting myself slip back into the chorus, we continued to smash our way through to the outer edge of the inner circle. For all our grandeur, we knew that we would have to be careful, but we also wanted to test ourselves a little bit. We probably shouldn¡¯t have been surprised when we began topletely annihte the aliens, even on the outer end of the inner circle. Maybe this form wasn¡¯t too fitting aparison. Not to mention, even with the reduced size, the tunnels were quite constricting. Once the first cave was cleared, we shifted our body once more, this time into something smaller and more nimble. Ever since Kaysa had told Us about the humanoid Hive-Queen form we wanted to test it, and right now we finally could. We had to cut down a bit on the size, since otherwise we¡¯d be too tall for our surroundings, but it was still a very impressive body. The humanoid Hexw Hive-Queen was more versatile and variable than we had first imagined it to be. Many aspects of the form could be adjusted to fit our needs, and so we decided on a twelve limbed approach, eight arms, two legs, two tails. Because of the unique anatomy and body structure, eight arms were surprisingly easy to use; we¡¯d thought they would get in each other''s way. The form we had taken looked more like a skeleton than a proper human, with many of the arms able to copse into the ribcage-like design of our chest, which would give it the proper human look. Okay, we say human look, but really, we looked more like something from those old alien movies, or maybe those swarm types from that one ancient video game about stars and crafting or whatever. We really weren¡¯t up to date with any of it, but the Burdened had done some minor perusing of any such materials for viablebat form upgrades. The terrain in the caves was nigh impossible to traverse at this point, most of the tunnels were more vertical than horizontal, but with our new body that made not much of a difference to Us. Sure, we probably could have been a bit faster with a more burrowing focused form, but this one was more than sufficient, and we wanted to test our mettle. We didn¡¯t have to wait long for that, finding quite therge cave with an evenrger collection of antithesis biology, partly Hive material, partly bio-farm if we¡¯d have to guess, and an even bigger group of aliens. We spotted some Thirteens, a few Sixes, one Sixteen that looked kind of strange, a few fives, and a whole host of smaller models. The model Tens, the Hive tenders, that were present were also a bit different, a bit buffer and more aggressive looking. Kaysa told Us that these were V variants, such as the Nine-V with a simr philosophy. Not waiting for even a moment, we jumped into the fray, our Queen¡¯s Guard close behind Us. For once they were the ones who had to be careful, not that it was too much of a problem thanks to their stealth. Our limbs moved with an ease even we were surprised by, finding alien after alien, cutting them down, dodging left and right. Like a blitz we went through the flood of antithesis biomass, no matter what shape it came in, leaving only destruction in our wake. Jumping over a dead model Six, we rushed forwards, cutting down any of the smaller models trying to pounce Us from the sides. The model Sixteen was our main target here, a K Variant like the Neen the other group had found. It meant good stealth and impressive strength, but only in bursts. These things weren¡¯t built for an extended fight. There was something here that was interfering with scanners, though, not that it was much of a problem for Us, but it was interesting to note. We vaulted over a boulder on the ground, using the momentum to kick a model Four straight in its ugly¡­ face? We weren¡¯t sure what exactly we hit, but we sent the thing flying withrge w marks nearly bisecting it lengthwise. At around the same time, the model Fives were trying to hit Us with their quills, and with a quick thought, one of our right arms shifted into a makeshift biological rifle. On paper it wouldn¡¯t be as strong as the Bile Spewers of our upgraded War Drones, but this wasn¡¯t a strictly on paper situation. While we might not have the same oomph to put into the projective, we had the flexibility to shape the barrel and ammunition freely. Thanks to the weapons handling course we had undergone during our Dream Learning session, a minor item we hadn¡¯t really considered that important, the projectile that came out of the barrel at subsonic speeds was quite potent. It broke apart during flight, raining down tiny, but potent, fragments on the model Fives. The projectiles themselves wouldn¡¯t be lethal, but they did have a toxic payload. Creating toxins with our internal biomass was far from efficient, this shot had cost Us much more biomass than you would expect, but the results spoke for themselves. We didn¡¯t need to check on the Fives to know they would be slowly dying, so instead we focused on the model Sixteen at the back of the cave, absentmindedly cing a small Devouring Rose behind Us on the way over. It would serve as a distraction and an additional threat, which would hopefully make our job easier. Considering that the Queen¡¯s Guard were busy keeping the model Thirteens busy, the added support would probably be appreciated. Landing on the uneven ground once more, our ws ripped through the stone, giving Us the stable footing we needed, which allowed Us to continue our dash without any dy or loss in momentum. One of our tails, a long and nimble thing with a long de at the end, whipped around and struck a model Ten-V centermass as it tried to stop Us. Even being a V variant these things weren¡¯t particrly sturdy, and so we pierced straight through its strange, leathery skin, ripping out a good chunk of its body when we pulled our tail back. Then we were on the model Sixteen-K, our limbsshing out in tandem, piercing it in multiple locations. It tried to protect itself, but was too slow on the move, which ended with its quick demise, when one of our arms easily cut off what passed for a head. Not revelling in our victory, since we could see multiple aliens trying to return the favour, we carried on, using thest remaining bit of momentum we had to jump over the falling body of the Sixteen, before we turned, just in time to see a quilling straight for our face. Truth be told, we did panic just a little bit when we realised we would not be able to dodge or block, only to feel amused relief when it impacted and barely stung. The quills were annoying because of the neurotoxins they carried, but it did not even manage to pierce our skin, the payloud spluttering useless against our cheek. Then that amusement vanished when a few drops made it into one of our eyes, and the pain set in. We were just barely able to suppress a scream of agony, dodging to the side out of sheer instincts from ourbat training. There was no way for Us to deal with the neurotoxin in any way, so we simply used one w to gouge the affected eye out, ripping away as much of the stuff as possible, recing it with fresh biomass. Memory item: Be more careful when fighting model Fives. Of course, our ad-hoc method of toxin removal was far from perfect, and the pain did not vanish entirely, but it was already much better, and so we continued the fight, killing alien after alien, paying careful attention to any other model Five or Fifteen. And model Nine-S¡¯, but so far there were none present, luckily. Our storm of limbs and des took care of the rest of the situation rather quickly, surprising even Us a little at our efficiency. This was not the worst cave we could have faced, the models present more on the smaller side, but there were a lot of them, so it felt like a good test. Not that we would stop with just that. There was much to do and we were rested and full of energy. Not to mention that we had a few other forms to try out and y around with. We spent quite some time going from cave to cave at the edge of the Inner circle, taking out many caves and trying out many forms. Some were more effective than others, and we learned quickly that we could be much more efficient and deadly when webined differing forms for various purposes. In that regard the Najav and the Hexw Hive-Queen were by far our most potent forms. Both were already strong on their own, and the way we could shift size and individual limbs made them a force to be reckoned with. In a way, it was very different from the shapeshiftingbat we had envisioned, but it was by far not a bad thing. The real progress, however, came when we realised that we could integrate our armor¡¯s functionality into ourbat style. The Fox-Fire constructs, the Holograms, and the defensive Hard-Light emitters were perfect to support our other attacks, and the PRISM and our polearm were very nice additions to deal with lessmon situations. After roughly an hour or so, we stopped, returning to where Chloe and Bobby were discussing something with our Warleader, Bahamut listening in through them channels. They had taken a long break, which was certainly needed. Of course, by this point we were already deeply immersed in the harmony once more, and so we had kept track of the discussion through our Warleader and the bodies still nearby. ¡°I¡¯m still not sure if that¡¯s a good idea or not,¡± Bahamut said, thoughtfully. As always she sounded regal and collected, an image of calm royalty. ¡°I get it, but have ya looked around? We aren¡¯t making much progress pushing deeper. Something has to be done to crack the xenos open a little, otherwise we won¡¯t get anywhere. This expedition should already be over.¡± Bobby sounded surprisingly annoyed. ¡°Yes. We all agree on that. But there arerger concerns at y. Florida isn¡¯t that far away and if the antithesis manage to build Hives in therge garbage piles, then they have even more problems to deal with.¡± Bahamut¡¯s voice was firm, even if she spoke calmly. ¡°Not to mention that we could risk them spreading closer to Anta, and they also already have a lot on their te. Bombing the Hives really isn¡¯t a valid option.¡± It made sense, even if we didn¡¯t have much information on the Anta or Florida situation. Still, the current status quo just would not work at all. Outside of nuking the ce, we simply could not think of anything we could do to get this over with. We were far too spread thin to make any kind of progress. The problem also could not really just be solved with points. We all had more points than we knew what to do with, but with the ban on anything big and explosive, few of the Samurai present had anything actionable. ¡°Then what are you suggesting? Could you deal with this? You are quite powerful, right?¡± Chloe asked, sounding¡­ Thoughtful might be the best descriptor here, although we were fairly sure that there might also be a hint of annoyance in there. ¡°I could. To a degree. In fact, the Family did say that unless you can clean this up rtively soon, Glubber and I should do our best. My main problem is that I¡¯m not exactly suited to this kind of work, which would very likely end with a lot of carnage. Shiarex isn¡¯t really subtle or delicate in her dealings. And Glubber isn¡¯t that much different from me, although their weird toxins or whatever it is might help. As to what I¡¯m suggesting¡­ Not sure, truth be told.¡± Bahamut sounded rather weak at that moment. Her tone of voice did not change much, but we were almost certain that she did feel a bit self-conscious. Was it a confidence issue? We could not say for certain either way, but whatever this was, it felt a bit uncharacteristic for the otherwise so regal Samurai. And it didn¡¯t help Us much either. So far we did not pay too much attention to the way the other Samurai were conducting themselves, we kept in touch and made sure nobody missed anything, but other than that, we had so far not spent too much time inspecting anyone in detail. But, considering that Bahamut was quite known and powerful, we would expect others to look up to her. Seeing her like this, sounding almost uncertain, would probably not end well for morale. It was a strange thing to think about, since up until now we had not noticed much of a shift in morale. That could change, though. And demoralised Samurai were not something we wanted to deal with. ¡°Brainstorming time, then. We have to find something to do, before we have even bigger issues. Worst case, the ce will be bombed. It would not be beneficial, but that is simply something we will have to deal with when that timees. Other than that, we could try to use more toxins, although if we use the same toxins too much the antithesis might be resistant to them.¡± We looked around the group. ¡°They kind of are already,¡± Chloe replied with a grimace. ¡°Nym said earlier that she¡¯s running into some problems regarding that.¡± We nodded at that, already informed but unsure if the others were. ¡°That leaves nanites, mes perhaps. If we could draw ourselves back and organise a proper assault we can very likely deal with one Hive at a time. The main issue we have with that idea, is that we are kind of the focal point of keeping this Hive in check. And not to toot our own horn, it does not sound very likely that someone else can do the same job as well as we could. So, unless someone coulde along to do that, we will have to stay here. The same goes for Neuron Salvation and Nym, now to a much bigger degree with the resistance starting to kick in.¡± ¡°And Legion isn¡¯t in a much better position either,¡± Bobby added, ¡°Sure, she might be more focused on the overall defence, but without her we¡¯d have to pay double attention to each Hive. Wouldn¡¯t wanna let go of that safety only to find ourselves falling to our doom when the xenos get out. So she¡¯s even less likely to do much to help with cleaning up.¡± ¡°I do have some bigger Sentinels by this point and a surplus of forces, but they aren¡¯t a lot. A few hundred drones at best, not something I¡¯d think would be able to deal with the center of a Hive,¡± Jenna chimed in. ¡°Do you think you can take a Hive on your own?¡± Chloe asked Us, although we were quite sure she did not mean it seriously. ¡°With the Hive-Queen? Perhaps, but it is very risky. We would give us 50/50 odds, on a good day. Far worse on a bad one. And with the tendency this situation is heading into, we would not feel confident in either. We thought about maybebining our Protector with the Hive-Queens efforts, but even then we do not feel very confident. The models deeper down are far stronger, and with the mystery model still going around, we cannot be sure what else we could expect.¡± ¡°Perhaps we should wait for the other Samurai to arrive,¡± Bahamut said thoughtfully. ¡°Wait, another Samurai ising? Who is it and what for?¡± It made sense that Chloe had missed that piece of information. We had heard some tell of it during our chats with others, but even wecked sufficient details. Bahamut turned her attention to Chloe. ¡°Someone from Indianapolis. They¡¯re called GroundWire and are supposed to put down the defences once the ce is cleared out. Our timetable got pushed back quite a bit with the Hives acting up, so it looks like they¡¯ll be here early. I¡¯m not quite sure if and how they could help, but it¡¯s better than nothing.¡± ¡°If they can make sure Myriad or Salvation could move, that might be all we need. What are those defences gonna look like? You said you wanted to make sure nothing nests here again, right?¡± ¡°Forests of some sort, from the looks of it,¡± she told Bobby with an audible shrug, ¡°I¡¯m not exactly familiar with the concept, but it appears that they have some sort of nts or trees they can put down that help fight off any antithesis trying to munch on them. It¡¯s not exactly useful for immediate help, but over the long haul they are quite potent.¡± ¡°That might be able to help,¡± we mused, already thinking through a number of different scenarios. ¡°If they can take over some of the defences, Jenna can move her forces closer in towards this Hive, keep it in check, and give Us the opportunity to move. It all depends on how fast those defences of theirs would work.¡± ¡°We can ask them tomorrow at thetest. They should arrive either this evening or tomorrow morning, depending on their timetable.¡± That at least was something. We were not too worried about surviving until then, the main problem was not sustaining the status quo, it was changing it. Hopefully with this we would finally have an answer for those problems.
I have a Discord! Also, I''ve made a . If you wish to support me on my endavours, I''d appreciate it greatly! At the moment you can read five chapters ahead on ''A Joytoy''s journey to be a Hive-Queen''! The Novel will be updated first on this website. Come back and continue reading tomorrow, everyone!