(Rewritten) Ch. 42 – Bonus Samurai Content For The Kids?

"Squirrel!"

– Every dog, ever

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A dizzy heartbeat shuddered through me as adrenaline scoured my brain and I instinctively threw my arms up…and nothing happened.

Eyes wide, I saw a Four fling itself between two trees, where it scrabbled for purchase as it noticed my movement and fought to realign itself towards me, like a dog spotting a squirrel mid-sprint.

The sudden realization that I wasn't about to be in pain and the comical moment of the Four flailing in uncoordinated movements, ripped right through the flash of anxiety and settled me comfortably into familiar patterns. My hands anchored the rifle against my shoulders and a finger found the trigger for the Sentinel.

My first dart was already halfway to its destination by the time Leah began to take aim, and I hurriedly leapt several meters away, nearly colliding with a tree along the way. I forced myself to calm down more, watched as Leah's finger tightened on the trigger, and I flicked my antennae to hide behind my back just before the inverter enforced its silence.

This time it felt more like somebody had dipped my sensilla in glue and flash-dried it, only for the instant to recede, leaving me in a much better state than the last one. No migraine, no queasiness. Yeah, distance did the trick. I didn't even need to be very far away, a few meters would do.

The alien's bones broke as it smashed into the ground, and the taste of mold and cut grass filled the air. A slow drizzle peppered me with drops of water, pushing the smell down a little.

"Tynea, any idea how that Four remained undetected until it got so close?"

It was traveling quite quickly, and the drone was still circling in the opposite direction. It slipped through the cracks, so to say. Your antennae, however, are sensitive enough that you should have noticed it earlier, yourself.

Hmm… I focused around myself, and studied the effect the vegetation had on the air currents nearby. Eddies in the air were created or disrupted here and there, altered and channeled off their path. Every brush against a leaf or a branch killed momentum and changed the picture.

It would be easy to miss movement up between the leaves, at least without the experience to catch the clues.

This was as good a time as any to start practicing.

"Leah?"

"Yeah?"

"I'm going to focus on watching the trees above us."

"Okay. Do you want to leave the drone to me?"

"Maybe we should buy another two or three and have Ypsi and Tynea manage them?"

Their cameras have a viewing angle of one hundred and twenty degrees. Three would allow us to cover all directions.

"Three, Leah?"

"Um, Ypsi. Wouldn't it be better to have actual scouting drones, instead? Even if they cost a bit more."

"They can see more! With stuff other than cameras, too."

"Right. Are there any specific ones you'd prefer?" I asked Leah. "If not, I used a quartet of cheap, but useful, drones on my first day. Tynea took care of them for me, too."

"My scout drones are less scout drones and more light combat drones. They're also several hundred points each."

"That's expensive. Mine were a hundred, if I remember correctly."

You do.

"Could I buy the first two now, and the other two later?"

No, the four count as one item.

"Dang. Let's not waste points yet, if we don't have to. Can't really afford it. Leah, I suggest we get a second cheapo spy drone now, which we will need to watch the facility anyway, and buy actual scout drones only once we really need them."

"Sounds good."

"Alright. Tynea, if you would, please?"

Purchased:

Total cost: 15Remaining points: 61

I held my hand out, and another one of the round little drones fell into it, this time without a box. It immediately vanished, and a moment later, its weight disappeared.

A new video placed itself next to that of the first drone, and markers on my minimap showed their locations, circling us on opposite sides.

"I think this'll be fine for a bit."

Leah gave me a thumbs-up, and we started trekking towards the two Fours Tynea had reported earlier. True to my word, I focused most of my attention upward, really exploring the mountain of senses my antennae gave me, and even the improved eyesight I had.

Which led to some tripping and stumbling. I nearly fell flat on my face, saved only by the reflexes installed during my coma-training, until Leah decided that I needed to be led by the hand.

It was a little difficult to restrain my giggles while she was taking me for walkies, but we did keep going, and we arrived at the location of the hour-old sighting five minutes later with no further interruptions.

We split up and hid close to trees, while I scanned our surroundings with my antennae, and Leah and our AIs with the camera drones.

We didn't find anything, except for a few broken branches where the Four had been.

"Think it was the one that came hurtling at us, Tinea?" Leah asked.

"Maybe? Are the cams showing any fresh damage to the trees in that direction?"

Yes, there is, and it is consistent with a Four traveling.

"Coulda been it, I guess."

"Alright. Next one?" Leah pointed in the direction of the second sighting.

"Yeah. And then I think we should stop bothering with single units. I don't feel great about having potential hidden Antithesis at our backs, but slowing down further to deal with them would be a strategic mistake. A few hundred points extra in gear will make us safer than preventing a potential ambush by solo single-digits. And that big swarm will cause a lot of damage eventually, if we don't get on top of it. We'll need a lot of points quickly."

Leah tilted her head as she thought that through, and nodded at me. "Yeah. And there's going to be a storm, which we don't really have the equipment to fight in, either."

"Right. Did you get that app installed, by the way? The Family one."

"Yes, Ypsi sorted it out." She said with a thumbs-up, smoothbore resting in the crook of her arm. "I saw that low priority alert you sent out earlier. Think we should upgrade it?"

After another look at the map and the horde of aliens, I answered, "Nah. The situation hasn't changed. They're not moving all that quick, and they won't get close to any humans today or tomorrow. I think it's fine."

" 'Kay. Ready to go again?"

"Yup. One last Four."

The drizzle picked up a little, and I had to squint against sprinkling rain drops any time I tried to look up, as we started walking again.

So instead I tried something new to keep track of anything above our heads, and to navigate. I completely closed my eyes, and relied entirely on the spatial awareness of my antennae.

That…wasn't my best idea. Yes, it actually worked, I could see where to walk, and getting rid of the visual distractions let me focus on stuff around me in all directions. But it left me very near-sighted.

I could tell what was right next to me, and even Leah, who was a few steps away, remained clear. But between the water droplets weighing down the air and the currents themselves generally losing cohesion and mutating vibrations the further they traveled, I had only the—literally—fuzziest sense of the world's shape ten or so meters out.

Basically, I still needed my eyes to actually see.

But it was an experiment with interesting results. Eliminating one of my primary senses had allowed me a much better…resolution, so to say, in the other. It gave me better control over my antennae, and I could just do more with them.

So that'd be something to actually practice, when I wasn't at risk of getting munched on.

"Tinea?" Leah's voice brought me out of my musings.

"Hmm?"

"When that Four surprised us earlier, could it have seriously hurt you?"

"Um. No, not unless it got lucky and stabbed me in the eyes or something. I'm not used to thinking that way yet, and the thing actually scared me since it came out of nowhere, but my skin is tough as armor. Maybe it could bruise me a little? I'm not even sure about that. But that's about it."

"So, basically, we should be safe from much harm against the weaker Antithesis?"

"Well, a Five or Six can seriously injure either of us, I think? Tynea?"

"Yes. They are heavy enough to suffocate you, for example. Leah's Overall is designed to absorb spikes of high kinetic energy, not the slow push of excessive mass. A Nine has extremely sharp blades that could cut through her armor, or your skin, Tinea, though it couldn't sever your bones. You are, with the exception of your nose, eyes, and ears, safe from models One through Four. Your active defenses offer additional protection against a Five's projectile attacks, as well."

Leah breathed out heavily, and I saw her shoulders relax a little. "So being careful makes sense, obviously, but we really aren't anywhere near as helpless as I feel we are, are we?"

"Yeah, we'll be fine. We've got layered protection and adequate weapons. And if there's anything we can't just shoot to death, there's grenades and bombs that we can buy at a moment's notice. We already outscale the immediate dangers we'll face today, and for those of tomorrow, well, we just need to move fast enough to outscale those, too."

"Mmm. I'm just feeling a bit unsettled. Sorry. I want to get home to my people, soon."

"Yeah. I get that, and we'll make it work. Let's do what we need to do to make that a reality, yeah? And while we're at it, we might as well get some bonus samurai content for the kids, hey?"

Leah giggled a little. "Yeah."

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