Cottontail Chapter 4 (Patreon)

I was so scared leaving the safety of the truck stop. Like, what the hell was I doing? I wasn’t a fighter. I wasn’t a warrior. I was just a dang technician. An insignificant cog in the machine of capitalism.

My new gun trembled slightly in my hands as I swung it around, trying to find the nearest alien. Weren’t the antithesis supposed to be like mindless murder machines hellbent on consuming the nearest chunk of manflesh? Surely they knew we were all inside the shelter.

Did I want to be sneaky and try to wait and see what they were doing, or did I want to yell out and get their attention? Maybe they hadn’t noticed me?

“H-hey Gyre, where are they?” I whispered.

Despite the lack of amenities and dilapidated appearance, the shelter is remarkably good at obscuring human occupants from the less intelligent models of antithesis, Gyre explained in his very butlery butler mode of speech.

“Okay, I guess I’ll go find one to shoot,” I muttered, and took a few steps sideways out of the light. Did they even use light to see?

Tiptoeing out into the night, I kept my senses as alert as possible. The land around the truckstop was yellow, orange, and red desert, with shrubs littering all of it. Every few hundred metres or so, a tree tried its best to grow despite the lack of water around the place.

707, may I suggest something?

Pausing, I asked, “Yeah?”

Your augmentations have the capability to display AR content, like the floating repair instruction pages you are used to. With your permission I would like to rewrite them to highlight targets that I have spotted using your eye-cameras. I would also very much like to purge your augs of all the bloat and spyware that your company has installed. I assume you want to stop the security division from being able to watch you pass waste, yes?

I almost tripped over while standing in place when he mentioned that last little tidbit of information. Of course secdiv was using the augs to spy on people.

“Yeah… uh, go ahead,” I whispered, hunkering down to wait for him to finish.

I didn’t even finish settling myself before he announced, Done. Highlighting two Model 3F’s now. They appear to be harvesting biomatter.

Sure enough, two augmented reality outlines flickered into place, showing me where the tan and orange creatures were trying to pull up various plants from the roots. Unlike their standard counterparts, the 3Fs had evolved to deal with the outback environment. Their skin was coloured to blend into the sand and scrub, and from their heads sprouted two thirty centimetre long horns.

Taking a deep breath, I raised my new rifle and sighted down the cheap holographic sights at my target.

The calibre you are using is unlikely to do enough damage to kill it in a single shot. I advise firing three times at each target. At least.

Ah. Lovely. I knew the tiny 9mm rounds would have a tough time but this was going to be way more sketch than I first thought.

Whatever. Time to pack all my fear away in a nice little box and do the thing I was here to do.

Easing my breathing again, I placed the crosshair over the target and gently pulled the trigger three times in quick succession. Three loud gunshots echoed out across the desert, and the doglike antithesis staggered and fell, dead.

Target Eliminated!
Reward... 10 Points.

The other model three twitched and looked in my direction, dropping the plant it’d just pulled out of the ground by the roots. Before it had the chance to act, I was firing again.

Bang, bang, bang. My bullets whipped through the air, but I hadn’t taken enough time to aim, and only one of them hit, taking a leg out from under the alien beast. It tried to charge me, but whatever I hit inside the leg made it unable to put its weight on it, and it ploughed into the dust.

I wasn’t going to let that opportunity pass me by, so I placed another two shots directly between its horns.

Target Eliminated!
Reward... 10 Points.

“Phew,” I said, rubbing my shoulder absently while I glanced around. “Now what?”

Move to a new location and watch your original location. More will be coming.

Oh. That made sense.

Doing as I was told, I stood up and rushed as quietly as possible out into the desert, then dropped onto one knee and sighted again. Two more alien dog creatures bounded silently out of the desert opposite me across the road. They rushed for the side of the shelter where I’d fired from and began to investigate. Crap, I needed to shoot these things quickly before they realised there were people inside the shelter.

I was more liberal with my bullets this time, placing four on one and then four on the other. Alien blood splattered across the dirt, and I was up another ten points for each. This wasn’t so hard after all. I could totally do this!

Now is not the time for self congratulation, 707! Get moving again before more arrive.

Ah! Fudge!

I scrambled back to my feet and rushed for another spot that would give me a better view of the area over the road. The antithesis appeared to be coming from that direction.

I wasn’t fast enough. Three more dog models rushed out of the scrublands and saw me. As one, they surged forward like death’s silent hunting hounds and came at me. I’m not proud of it, but I panicked. My bullets flew wide and buried themselves in the dust.

What was worse was that I lost count of my shots. There were thirty bullets in the mag, and I used 16 before, but in my panic, I had no idea.

Stay calm, 707! You’ll just die faster if you panic.

Gyre shouting inside my head managed to pull me back just an inch or two from the brink, and I shot again. Three bullets hit the lead dog, and it tumbled to the dirt and tangled with one of its comrades. I fired again, killing the dog that’d been tripped, and turned my gun on the last one.

One bullet came out, shattering a horn on the model three that was almost on me, and then I heard the sound I’d been dreading. Click.

Squealing like a small terrified animal, I released the magazine from my gun and pulled it out. “Gyre, I need a new mag!”

Then, proceeded to hold the empty mag out and shove it into the creature’s mouth as it leapt at me. My half baked plan was to use the empty mag to stop its jaw from closing, but to my horror, the damn thing had more than one jaw joint. Teeth ravaged my arm as I pulled it out of the maw of the beast, and I screamed with pain.

A magazine of ammo dropped to the ground next to me without the usual box, and I grabbed it with my poor bleeding hand and loaded it into my gun. The model three lunged at me again, choosing to just swallow the mag in its mouth. Desperate now, I jammed my gun into its mouth and fired.

Alien goo exploded out the back of its head in a fountain of gore, and I dropped my gun with a whimper, cradling my arm to my chest.

“Healing please,” I squeaked. “I want to stop bleeding.”

New Purchase: Electroactive Polymer Bandage
Points reduced to… 68

Shaking, I pulled the bandage out of the case and peeled off the plastic coating on it. It was hard to apply one handed, but when it was on, I sighed in relief.

“Okay, and uh… do I need nanites?” I asked, breathing heavily.

It would help, but you are rather low on points. You can do without it, I think.

I nodded, but told him to buy the nanite regeneration suite thingy anyway, because I wasn’t sure how safe we were and my aim would be off until my arm healed.

You have 53 points left. I suggest we spend them.

"Give me an SMG," I said. "Something with punch, and… I don't know. Options?"

You have a few options, now that we have a smidge of breathing room. I suggest the Pathos Tracer Smart SMG. It has a 50 round magazine that fires smart bullets capable of altering their trajectory slightly to turn a near miss into a hit. Magazines are two points per purchase, but it's worth it.

"An SMG with real life aim assist?" I chuckled, shaking my head ruefully. "Is my aim really that bad?"

I can disable the flight adjusters if you wish to make the job of hunting antithesis more sporting.

I let out a snort. Sassy AI. "No, it's fine. Leave it on. Please. And buy the SMG, it sounds great. Thank you."

New Purchase: Pathos Tracer Smart SMG
Points reduced to… 13

The box dropped to the ground next to me with a soft puff of dust, and I reached for it, careful of my still healing arm. The gun inside the case was longer than I expected it to be, with a full stock and a chunky receiver area. The magazine went into an angled rail that protected the pistol grip and trigger. On top, there was another, slightly more responsive holographic sight. On the sides were various ammo selector buttons and a tiny screen on a little adjustable swivel.

“It’s perfect,” I grinned, hefting the gun and getting a feel for the weight. “What do I do now?”