(Rewritten) Ch. 8 – Bargain Rods from God

"It's magic. It's addicting. It's fucking fun! It's a videogame in real life.

If you're not careful, it'll get you killed."

– Road Rash, during an interview with Samulyfe, January 2049

***

Those drop ropes had to die, but I also needed to protect myself from the Antithesis that were starting to pay attention to me and marking me as a threat.

"Say, Tynea. I have bombs now, I should be able to destroy those drop rope things, right?"

Yes. They've begun digging in to explore the undercity. If you were to destroy them now, you would save a lot of people a lot of work in the coming months.

"Where do the bombs need to be for maximum effect, and how many do I need, anyway?"

Inside the pods. They're hollow and convert biomass into Antithesis biomatter. They'll have generated sizable digestion pools by now.

"And those burn?"

Yes, with the right kind of fire. But your javelins don't quite go fast enough to penetrate all the way through a pod's walls, not with the girth of a socketed bomb.

"Not even if I dropped them from real high? Maybe if I added something to increase the weight? How much can a javelin carry?"

There is an option. The Artificial Mass Ball starts out light, but quickly generates a massive amount of weight once triggered. It would certainly suffice to sink a javelin and its payload past the walls of the pod.

"Oh wait, aren't those ropes open-ended? I saw corpses getting carried in at both ends."

Certainly, though their structure is segmented into cells with rings of constricting valves between. Those open only for the Antithesis. You will need one firebomb per segment, of which there are currently seven per pod. There is enough…biomass, said Tynea while highlighting the corpses getting dragged into a rope's opening, for the pods to grow additional segments every ten minutes.

"Okay, so we need, like, a multi-stage plan. Get past the obstructions, then blow up everything. Actually, couldn't I just blow up every section piece by piece from the ends in?"

Yes, though that'll trigger the yet untouched sections to release units to burrow away underground instead of joining their army, hence the need to destroy them all at once.

"I see. The javelins aren't cheap, though. I really don't want to just lose a bunch. Will they survive the kind of fire I'd need to kill the pod before it releases, um, seeds, I guess? Actually, how many points would I get for destroying those pods? Might be worth it." My counter currently read 538 points.

The javelins are made of heat-resistant alloys and will remain intact so long as you do not detonate high-explosives inside their cradles. The kill of each segment is worth five hundred points.

"Oh shit, give me a javelin each. How big is the mass ball?"

It's the size of a grenade. It'll need to go into the foremost slot for weight-distribution. The firebomb fits behind the handle. One slot remains.

"Okay, yeah. Haven't decided what'll go in the open slot. Something to help the spear dig itself out again, after?"

Modified concussion grenades may work, to upset the ash and to give their engines space to work with.

I told the javelin to hover above myself at fifty meters, reloaded the Foxteeth, made sure the rifle was ready and the Sentinel switched back to guided rounds, and looked at the spy drone footage.

Some part of the maybe one thousand Antithesis moving towards the city had turned around and was climbing across the rope at the far end of the strip, probably coming for me. A hundred, maybe? I could test the special rounds against them.

First was the nanite payload.

I went through the backdoor, the one that lead into the shopping strip, lined up my first shot and sniped the Three closest to me. Still over three hundred meters. Through the scope I watched as the wound started bubbling and black, rotted goo dripped down the Three's torso.

Satisfied, I decided to let the nanites do their thing.

Taser, set to kill.

The next victim lit up from the inside as the electrical pulse flashed and caused it to violently contract and cramp up hard enough to break its own spine. It stayed that way as it keeled over.

"Structurally unsound pod units, huh? Tasers might be interesting if I can mass-produce them cheaply…"

The Sentinel racked the next round.

High-explosive, triggers a split second after penetration.

I chose a target surrounded by three others, nailed it in the chest, and watched as its entire front half got mulched. The two model Threes next to it stumbled, but not much more. "Useful round to ensure a kill in one hit, I think. I probably don't need the full payload if it isn't going to explode an area like a grenade anyway. That might be a good one to pair with the guidance."

Incendiary. Sticky gel, doesn't need to penetrate, though it will against low-tiers.

The next Three burned from the inside out, but it took a bit for the fire to really get going. "Yeah, I want full payloads on this one, probably. Maybe not against model Ones? Could use guidance and partial loads to set off combustible gas mixtures around corners, too."

Flechettes. Separates two meters from target. Hands-width cone of effect at impact.

It looked like a few little darts minced the head of the Three I shot. I'd have to see how it does against tough targets. Wasn't sure if this round had a unique use, yet. Maybe a single, hardened dart for armor penetration? They had a mean whistle to them. That'd be very scary to hear whizz by.

Graphene Ripwire. This round anchors one end. The wire connects to the next round. Firing it activates the line and it turns razor sharp across the entire length. Use as lacerating tripwire, or like a whip.

Huh, that was different. I shot the first round into the wall to my right, about fifty meters away at knee height. The round was subsonic, very quiet, and hit with a wet smack. I placed the other round right across from it. A barely audible electric hum alerted me that the line activated, but it was so thin I couldn't see it.

"Tynea, please highlight that wire for me? I can't tell where it is and I really don't want to, uh, lose more legs."

A shimmering red line traced across my vision.

"Thanks."

You're welcome. Last one's a Stopslug. It's a slug instead of a bullet and will spatially lock itself wherever it hits something, or at a programmed distance. It doesn't last more than a few seconds, but it can support up to one ton of mass for a split-second. The more weight, the shorter its duration.

I shot a model Four with it, and the thing the size of a gorilla moved with its own momentum. It impaled itself on the Stopslug. Bone shattered as its chest caved in on itself. It appeared stuck, unable to move. Caught like a fish on a hook. Its tentacles scratched across the road, but it wouldn't budge.

That could be a very useful round in certain situations, I figured. After about seven seconds, the Four suddenly jerked forward and stumbled as if surprised. I used the Sentinel to put it out of its misery.

"Tynea, throw me two mags of guided high-explosive, please? Without the box."

Here you are:

Purchased:

Total cost: 4Remaining points: 564

"Oh, that looks nice. Yeah, I like that styling."

Thank you. If you stretch out your hand, I'll spawn the mags right into your palm.

I did, and I was rewarded. One went directly into the rifle, the other got stuck to the Sentinel.

"Keep giving me those, please, whenever I'm about to run out."

Okay, Aden. The medical nanites are about to finish transporting the bone bits throughout your legs back to their places and will begin fusing them over the next three hours. You're going to need nourishment soon to support the process.

It was kinda nice, having somebody to talk to, and Tynea was starting to sound a little less formal, too. It helped distract me from the everpresent, lifelong loneliness in a small way.

"I"ll eat once I don't have a horde running me down. Buy those javelins please, one for each segment of the pods. With concussion grenades, too."

Once again, here you go:

Purchased:

Total cost: 560Remaining points: 34

Boxes appeared in front of me, fourteen in total. Each as long as I was tall and half as wide.

I kicked them open one by one while I used the rifle to explode model Fours with high-explosive bullets, and the Sentinel to spray down dozens of fresh model Ones. Those brass balls, weak as they were against full-size units, were a menace to the wannabe pigeons.

Slowly but surely, the aliens drew closer. It sent my nervous index finger testing the divot again. I'll need something that'll penetrate through and take out entire lines, I thought.

Each box contained a javelin, two grenade-sized balls, and a larger ovoid, all placed right next to the depressions in the javelin they'd need to touch. Tynea had probably used her mighty computing powers and decided it'd be smart if I didn't need hands to make that happen. I couldn't disagree.

As I began nudging every explosive over to its javelin socket with my feet while continuously hosing down Antithesis, I said, "Tynea, I want all these to send themselves up however high they need to be for the mass balls to work. And can we have them hit at the same time, please?"

I've programmed the javelins accordingly. Take a step back once you're ready for them to launch, that'll be their go command.

"Roger. I also want ammunition for the Sentinel that can take out more than one Three at a time."

You need a little more…oomph. I'd like to increase the caliber of the bullets. I'll fit a twenty millimeter shell with guidance and a powerful gyrojet to give it legs instead of the hefty load that caliber usually comes with, but they still won't be comfortable to brace. They'll be able to penetrate several model Threes each. A magazine of twenty for three points.

I finished off the last javelin and stepped back. Heat billowed me as twenty-eight rocket engines shoved fourteen javelins upright, and the foam inside the boxes melted as the spears rode into the sky on triple jets of flame. It was a pretty cool sight, seeing them accelerate upwards at a steep angle, just inclined enough to guess at the trajectory they would take.

They'll take about ten seconds to reach their apex. The Artificial Mass Ball will trigger and they'll descend quite quickly. Eighteen seconds to impact.

Tynea placed a blinking timer at the top of my HUD to count down the seconds.

Meanwhile, please accept these magazines for your Sentinel.

Purchased:

Total cost: 6Remaining points: 232

I caught them out of empty air and shoved both on top of the Sentinel. They were considerably bulkier than the previous ones. Twenty mils, huh? I thought, just a touch giddy at the violence that caliber promised. Those are actual cannon-sized shells.

While the Sentinel was still feeding itself, I voiced, "Guided gyrojet."

Mindful of Tynea's warning about the recoil, I leaned forward a little more and braced the rifle.

The gun kicked at my shoulder, but I kept firing as I let the Sentinel learn how to control this recoil. It took four rounds, but eventually it smoothed out and found a good rate of fire to make things easier on me.

These shells were amazing. They didn't just penetrate their target, they shredded through the first few. I saw black and green fluids and bits of meat fly through the air. The projectiles had a distinct whine to them from the gyrojets and I could hear them spin up after they left the barrel.

They'd start slow out of the barrel, subsonic even, from the anemic gunpowder load. I could see them with my own eyes, catch glimpses, so slow were they. Then there'd be a nasty hiss and the rounds would screech off and accelerate beyond my ability to perceive. By the time they'd crossed the distance, they distorted the air with rings of sonic shockwaves and absolutely minced the Antithesis.

It wasn't until they'd gone through more than a few that they slowed down enough to hit the road, but even then some would have enough fuel left to fire their jets again, skipping off the stones lining the shopping strip's floor to steer themselves into yet another victim.

They left so little of each model intact that those coming after didn't really have any corpses to climb over. Nothing obstructed my lines of firing.

I was just about done with the second magazine, having murdered all one hundred aliens heading for me, when the timer hit zero and the javelins crashed through the sky to puncture the ropes. I couldn't see the second pod, and even of the one in front of me only three segments lay across the strip, but Tynea showed me angles from various hacked cameras of what was happening.

While the sonic booms from the fallen spears raced past me and sent my heart thumping, I watched as the thermite bombs blasted the pods from the inside. Each segment ballooned to another third of its size and as stretched as the material was, I saw white fire paste itself across everything through fleshy, veiny walls.

The macabre lightshow of torched alien figures twisting and running and dropping inside the tubes lit up the buildings left and right and threw flickering shadows beyond objects, dueling with the shine of neon signs and advertisements.

It's fucking Halloween.

The end segments had great gouts of flame spray from their openings, killing queues of Antithesis, charring the corpses and generally rendering the immediate vicinity inhospitable. Flames stuck to the road in several places and the brightest melted the asphalt itself.

It will take less than half a minute for these pods to burn up. The fuel for the flames will run out after exactly thirty seconds. It would be wise to stay away from the fires for a while though, Aden. Thermite burns hot enough to liquify steel. You would not survive those temperatures.

I grinned like a madman.

***