(Rewritten) Ch. 37 – Resolution

"Keep your priorities straight.

You're gonna find yourself torn between options sometimes, and it's easy to get greedy. Be greedy all ya want, but don't be dumb about it.

When you're gonna go to battle, stop for a moment and think about what really matters. Figure out what you're willing to give up if it comes down to it.

Recall that argument when you're gonna do something stupid. Measure your choice against it."

– Road Rash, on his livestream during Blood Month, when incursions hit three large cities in North America at the same time in June of 2045

***

I wanted to know who'd kidnapped us—and I imagined that need was a whole lot stronger for Leah.

But what could we do? If we stuck around, lying in wait, we'd get overrun quickly. If we left, we'd leave the place to be infested. And we couldn't install any obvious measures to protect it, lest any kidnappers thought we might return at any moment..

Couldn't leave, couldn't stay. God dammit.

"Leah, whoever kidnapped us was a professional. They know to prevent samurai from lashing out, by simply not being available. That means they probably have practice and are going to do it again."

She looked at me, then continued my line of thought, "Which means that even if we lose them here, we can keep an eye out for other victims and pick up the trail there, again. Assuming it's the same assholes."

"Yes. It'd be a pretty long hunt, though. It might take us years and years to find enough clues to really start digging."

"If we even find others like us to rescue and investigate."

"Mmm. As long as it doesn't blow up in their faces, they'll try again. Maybe," I continued, still holding Leah by the hand, halfway up the stairs, "we aren't completely reliant on somebody showing up here, and them not getting spooked, and us being able to track them, and..."

"No, but it's still our best chance," she said. "And we know we'd be chasing the right bastards, if they came here."

"So, we still want to secure this facility?"

"Yeah, I'd prefer making hella sure that I get those assholes, specifically. Even if I had to give up a lot of points for that."

"Okay. We do need to prioritize, though. We're not made of points, not yet. I value our lives above justice."

Leah nodded at me, and I decided that I'd let my subconscious worry about the facility for a while. It had a habit of coming up with something smart when I wasn't trying to.

Come to think of it, it's already dinged up around the door. The whole point about drop-ins not getting spooked might be moot. Whatever. We'll see.

"I'm gonna get us both a few water bottles and food, then we'll start moving?"

"Sure. I'll keep an eye on the door."

I rushed down the stairs, jumping as far as I could, and really poured on the speed in the corridor. It took me less than eight seconds to cover the entire distance, where normally walking would require more like a minute.

"Tynea, my new body is awesome. How close am I to actually going full throttle?"

Just a few more hours. Your bones have largely been reinforced, and the majority of the effort goes to securing the connective tissues across your musculature and where they attach to your skeleton, as well as a few final adjustments to your organs. You do require specialized nutrition to replace all the minerals that have been used up throughout your transformation.

"Those food marbles didn't cover them?"

They supplied the critical materials. It would be ideal to deal with the left-over deficiencies, if only to improve your ability to heal those safely.

"That means points, doesn't it?" Didn't want to skimp on stuff that would affect my healing…

A few, yes.

I grabbed four bottles and two jars, and ran back upstairs to Leah.

"Say, Leah, would you mind if we stored these bottles in your legs?"

She gave me an amused grin and said, "Gimme water legs, sure."

Snorting at the terrible, beautifully long-legged punster, I mentally ordered the Sleeve to open up at the front of her thighs, and glued the bottles in. There was more than enough space for the jars as well, and I used a bunch of silk to pack everything tightly, so there wouldn't be any loose mass messing with Leah's balance.

Samurai biology was seriously handy.

"Alright, now we're ready, right?" I raised my brows at Leah questioningly.

"I'd say so. We'll return anyway to prep the place for any additional kidnappers, yeah?"

"Yup."

"Then let's go," Leah said with a gusto that yearned for freedom.

I grabbed her by the hand again, smiling happily, and we moved closer to the door where I reconnected with the spy drone for a quick gander about. There were multiple aliens coming in from every direction, of different sizes, but none that would reach us within the minute.

After I sent access for the spy cam to Leah, we moved out and began sneaking towards the nearest pack.

"We have thirty-five points combined, right?"

Correct, Tinea.

"Okay, I'd like some silent ammunition for the Sentinel's rails, please, and a silent weapon for Leah. Something she can reload easily while she still has to focus on not tripping."

I would suggest an unusual solution. Do you remember that impulse muffler I mentioned earlier? A lesser variant of it could be adapted to silence any gun it is attached to. Your Class I Small Arms Ammunition catalog provides subsonic bullets, as well.

"I suppose the Hummingbird wouldn't benefit from the muffler?"

No, indeed not. The muffler would not silence the whistle of the missiles.

I hadn't wanted to give Leah the Foxteeth because it had no guidance by itself, and because the Hummingbird was extremely convenient to use for somebody who'd be constantly distracted trying to stay upright. But she'd had enough practice by now to walk somewhat more naturally, and between my specialty bullets and her eye and tracking visor, she'd have no issues hitting targets.

So the muffler was a solid reusable option, and I passed the idea to Leah and Ypsi.

She tugged me to a stop just before we hit the first of the foliage, and affirmed the purchase for fifteen points. I handed her my Foxteeth after disconnecting its cartridges from the Sentinel, and gave her a pocket for the Hummingbird.

I bought us both some subsonic ammunition, these ones with nanites to destroy the flesh of anything we would kill, lest we find ourselves surrounded by fresh Antithesis nests in a day's time.

Purchased:

Total cost: 23Remaining points: 12

My forty darts came in two simple and plain boxes of thin steel to be fed to the Sentinel. When I gave it the command to switch to "Subsonics", I realized that it might be time to discard some of the rounds in there—the switch took a full second, and the Sentinel positively squirmed to get the things delivered to its barrel.

My readout told me I still had a bunch of loose gunpowder rounds stored in the adapting sidearm's magazines, and since I wasn't planning on going loud, I decided to stash those, along with most of the surplus recycled ball ammunition.

I wove a silk tube, with soft cotton inside to stop the cartridges from clinking against each other, then I had the Sentinel empty itself into it, before I wore the sash of a belt like a bandoleer.

Leah traded her magazine for a subsonic one with a movement that looked quite practiced—should've seen that coming, what with her being a samurai—ejected the chambered cartridge, and clicked it back into its magazine. I gave her another two pockets in the small of her back for the loud magazines, where they'd be out of the way.

Next, Ypsi teleported the muffler into her waiting palm. It was a little boxy device Leah affixed to the underside of the Foxteeth's barrel shroud. When she activated it, three very small dishes emerged and pointed forwards. They looked like high-tech versions of those old magnetic speaker membranes.

I called both Leah and Tynea via my aug, "How effective are my darts, Tynea? Are they going to kill Sixes and other large Antithesis?"

Not reliably. The nanite payload would deconstruct the brain over the course of a few minutes, if a dart manages to penetrate the skull. You'd have to hit the weakest bone plate behind the eye, though. Should you face a model Five or Six, I'd suggest a quiet ammo type such as the 'Ripwire' rounds you're already familiar with. Their monofilament wire will sever their necks for far less effort.

Um! Ypsi chimed in, Leah's 9mm rounds do a bit better than your darts, though! I can definitely help her make them hit in the right spots, too.

I could hear the earnest nods in her voice. The juxtaposition of Ypsi's cuteness and Leah's badass Warforge aesthetics forced me to go to war against a smile that threatened to otherwise steal onto my lips. Leah smirked at me, and I doubled down to claim victory.

"Gotcha," I said taking advantage of the fact that I could modulate my brain-voice to show none of my amusement, "Leah, this time I'll leave the larger models to you, and take out the small ones myself."

Nodding, she finally got us moving through the brush. We used gaps in the foliage and bare ground to stay silent, while I kept the spy drone patrolling a perimeter around us. Combined with my antennae, I was very able to detect movement nearby, and we surprised a model Three that Leah killed with her newly muffled gun, to test it out.

I could sense the push of the projectiles through the air, a quiet wave with little energy behind it. It wouldn't get us noticed.

But the energy field of the muffler was a different matter. It felt like the air around and up to about a meter in front of the Foxteeth had been grabbed for a split second, forced to hold still and invert on itself as the bullet pushed through it.

A weird shiver raced down my antennae and planted itself in the base of my skull, like the screech of a feedback loop had short-circuited itself and left a shadow buzzing with static electricity behind.

Thankfully, the uncomfortable sensation pulsed only for a moment, and I suspected that I wouldn't have felt it from a dozen meters' distance. But even if it messed with me a little, Leah did have a way to kill isolated targets silently.

We continued on, creeping up on a group of aliens we'd been tracking with the drone through partially thick—and partially sick—foliage. Six Fours, and three Threes.

It wasn't anything compared to the hordes I had killed ten days ago, but unlike then, we had to hold back and act with caution, or we'd find ourselves torn apart by hordes of raging Antithesis very quickly.

That did make our tiny and sneaky ambushes feel rather perilous.

***