- V-Tuber Kelly ‘The REAL One’ Venus in an Interview with SuperGameStar, 2050
As awesome as my new piece of gear was, it only allowed for a little reprieve. We still had a rather large group of aliens trying to get closer to the shelter, and while the pheromones worked wonders to disorient them, the sheer number meant that they were slowly pushing closer.
It also didn’t help that I barely had any idea what I was doing, and had to rely on Stryx for my Hard-Light emitters. Mainly, because I had no idea on how to quickly designate targets and activate different programs on the fly. I really hoped that that would change eventually. Otherwise I’d have to get something that allowed me to think faster, or split my attention somehow. If that was even possible.
Problems for later, though.
I kept a close eye on the front line, utilising my threads and my bracelet to make sure nothing came too close. Most of the soldiers were using a similar strategy, probably to not waste ammunition. While we fought, I continued to make the rounds along our small fortress, restocking our little grenade launcher contraptions, and in some cases purchasing new magazines for those who ran out already.
“Ma’am!” One of the soldiers caught my attention. I looked up from the contraption I was working on, and glanced over to him. He was pointing into the direction of the horde, gaze focused on something at the back of the crowd.
Following his eyes, I soon found what he saw: one of those strange model Six thingies was slowly crawling closer, and it had a profound effect on the horde of xenos. Most of them were stumbling, barely able to even stand straight, shaking their head as if trying to shake off dizziness. Even if they managed to find the right way and walk closer towards us, they couldn’t move all that fast.
That changed once the model Six slowly meandered past them. I wasn’t quite sure, but it almost seemed immune or, at the very least, highly resistant to my pheromones. It didn’t show any of the symptoms as the rest: it didn’t stumble, it didn’t slow down, it didn’t start shaking its head, nothing. It just continued to slowly walk closer at a steady pace, eerily silent as always.
And whenever another alien came close to them, they stopped stumbling, and instead started to… almost jitter, before they began running towards us at blinding speed. The pheromones didn’t seem to affect them at all anymore, although they weren’t back to normal either. That was made clear when the first reached the barricades.
Instead of jumping over, as you’d expect, it just… ran straight into the concrete wall, braining itself and slumping down dead. The next two aliens shared the first one's fate, but the fourth one managed a stumbling jump. It wasn’t high enough, its legs getting caught by the concrete and it fell to its face on our side of the barricade.
One of the soldiers immediately put a few rounds into it.
“What the fuck is that thing?!” one of them shouted, almost hysterical. And I couldn’t blame them.
“Stryx?” I did my best to keep my voice calm, but I couldn’t quite suppress a slight tinge of worry.
It appears that this new variant is capable of negating the effects of your pheromones. Although from the side effects, it is highly likely that it does so by overloading the individual antithesis models with its own pheromones. I would recommend trying to kill it as quickly as possible.
“Yeah, no shit…”
More and more aliens started to rush towards us. I did my best to kill them as quickly as possible, but there was no way we’d be able to survive a barrage like this. Stryx was right, we had to do something.
“I have an idea on how to deal with it, but it is very stupid and reliant on a lot of luck. You got anything better to share with the class?” I tried some humour to help me keep calm. It didn’t work nearly as well as I hoped.
Zuri, of course I have some ideas of how you could deal with this situation. But I am rather hopeful that you find your own way of dealing with issues, instead of always relying on me or your sister. Unless everything goes ‘tits up’, as you humans like to say, I will keep my ideas to myself.
Now, what exactly do you have in mind?
I had to giggle at that, and it wasn’t the good kind of giggle. “Yeah, yeah, okay. So, can we target that thing with the big dragon thing?”
While I spoke I continued to cut down whatever aliens managed to rush through the horde. Their numbers were working in our favour at the moment, since even if they were unaffected by the pheromones, they couldn’t just rush through their own brethren either. And, luckily, it seemed like this new… frenzy, or whatever it was, wasn’t spreading all too fast.
Yes, although I am not sure how much impact that will have. Even if this variant might be a bit less resilient, a typical model Six has a lot of mass and can take some punishment. And that is excluding the fact that the La Lumiére is quite energy hungry. Big displays like earlier require some downtime for the batteries to recharge. You can simply buy new batteries, of course, to alleviate some of those issues. Just be aware that these batteries are not exactly cheap.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“Huh… Okay.” That did give me some ideas, although I wasn’t quite sure how to make those happen right then. So I stuck to the idea I had previously. “So, these Hard-Light things, they can create basically any shape, right?”
I had barely finished the question, when another frenzied model Three tried to jump over the barricade. My first slash missed entirely, but one of the soldiers managed to nail the damn alien in one of its shoulders. That gave me enough time to slice it up.
To a degree, yes. The underlying shapes are all relatively simple, Hard-Light emitters of this technological level are quite limited in what they can accomplish. A lot of the detail comes from holograms, layered on top of the actual Hard-Light. It is why your Hard-Light emitters were slightly more expensive than you would typically expect. Those were the costs for the additional holographic projectors.
“Huh… Okay. But can- Oh, shit!”
With a quick movement I pointed my bracelet at one of the model Fours that had started to rush towards us. Luckily Stryx got the message, and two Hard-Light projectiles shot out, finding purchase on the thing’s tentacled front before it could get too far.
“Can you make, like, big impressive weapons?”
As much as I really didn’t like the idea of jumping into this mess myself, I could see the soldiers slowly losing faith in our ability to defend this place.
Yes. Do you have any preferences?
“How about the ones from that dragon from earlier? If I recall, that was from a game with some rather big weapons, right?”
Indeed.
“Alright.”
I took a deep breath, trying to mentally prepare myself for this. If I wanted to make sure that the others didn’t lose faith, I had to make something spectacular happen. I really, really didn’t want to, but the only other option I saw was us slowly dying.
Have confidence. Your gear should be sufficient to keep you safe, unless you throw yourself face first into a horde of antithesis.
“Not sure if you noticed,” I muttered quietly, “but that is kind of exactly what I have planned.”
Ah. In that case, how about we make extra sure it raises their spirits, hm?
Before I had time to comment, though, another wave of frenzied xenos tried to push their way through, this one a bit bigger. It was now or never.
With my heart hammering in my chest, loud enough to deafen me, completely overshadowing the music still ringing in my ear, I mustered all the willpower and courage I was capable of.
Taking steady steps, I walked towards the barricade, doing my very best to keep myself from turning around and running away screaming. That mental image made me giggle, despite myself. It helped far more than I had thought it would.
Clearing my throat, I climbed up on the barricade, feeling very light headed. In a way, it was almost as if I was watching someone else controlling my body. Immediately, every last Hard-Light emitter on my person lit up, projecting the form of many clones. Like before, all were wielding different weapons, acting as a sort of phalanx in front of the concrete barriers.
With a smile that was entirely forced, I turned to the soldiers, only to stumble when my foot came a bit too close to the edge of the concrete. I yelped, trying to find balance. Some of the soldiers close to me made to rush closer, but I waved them off, once I got steady footing once more.
For a long moment I stood there, protected by Stryx and the gunfire that cut down the aliens coming close. It felt almost like a dream, like I wasn’t even here. Like all of this was just some nightmare and I would wake up soon.
Zuri.
Stryx tone was soft, but it cut through the sudden barrage of panic, pulling me back towards reality. I didn’t have time to waste.
Holding out my hands, I tried to put on a confident tone. “I’m kinda getting sick of these plants. How about we cut them down a bit, eh?”
It sounded so cringe to say, but I tried my best to act nonchalant. On cue, my Hard-Light emitters activated, and I soon found myself holding two massive greatswords. They were easily longer than I was tall, and broad enough for me to hide behind.
The first was dark, a mixture of black and purple, with a skull near the handle, while the other was white and gold, with a sort of blue eye thing instead of a skull. I didn’t inspect them too closely, instead lifting them both with ease. They didn’t weigh anything, which probably looked ridiculous, but looking ridiculous was exactly what I was going for right now.
<”These things are actual weapons?”>
They will cut down your adversaries without issues.
Nodding, I kind of… moved forwards. It wasn’t quite a sprint, I couldn’t quite stop myself from slowing down out of fear, but it was faster than just a walk. Immediately I found aliens coming towards me, most of them slow and stumbling, but a few were rushing me.
The phalanx of clones moved in step with me, holding out whatever weapons or shields they had to cut down the aliens in front of them. Now that I had the La Lumiére they were actually able to hurt them, which was good, not that I could pay too much attention to that.
I swung my weapons, far more frantic than I really wanted, when two model Threes came close to me. The massive swords hit their bodies, and for a moment I was kind of expecting to not do much. Instead… I cut through them like paper.
Since I had expected some resistance, I had braced myself. Now I found myself nearly falling onto my face when no resistance showed itself. For a long moment I stood there, dumbfounded.
Then, when it finally dawned on me that I wasn’t entirely helpless, a small smile crept onto my face.
I told you, you were worrying too much. That said, you probably should not just stand there.
I nodded, suddenly feeling a lot more confident. Another swing, and another alien died. It felt almost too easy, really.
<”How long can you keep these things active?”>
A couple of minutes easily. They do not draw that much energy, but you still should not waste time.
That I could work with.
“Time to do some gardening!” My voice sounded a lot more confident, although I still didn’t quite rush into the horde.
From the corner of my eye, though, I could see the soldiers looking a bit more relieved. That was good. If they could keep the horde at bay, I could try to go for the weird model Six. Hopefully once it was dead, we could clean up.
Being a Samurai certainly wasn’t how I’d ever thought it’d be. There were far too many ups and downs for my liking, and far too much stress. But the longer I was here, the more I realised that maybe I wasn’t entirely helpless.
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