Sometimes, the idea of nothing implicates more than anything else possibly could.
Anonymous, 2024
***
I don’t hesitate at all, rushing back the way I had e from. My lungs heave, my heart a drumline as I probably run faster than I ever have before. My muscles scream, already exhausted from the climb down here, but I push through the pain. Unfortunately, It’s not even halfway to the er that I realize I am not going to make it before the two things catch me, their legs now cttering against the rusted steel surface of the catwalk.
With my eyes darting around for any advantage I muster, I nearly trip as my injured foot slips a bit. I gasp, catg myself on the railing before I immediately start running again, wiping my hand against my clothes to get off the rust residue it had left on my skin. This gives me ahough, and while I’m irely sure it’s feasible, the sound of pursuit hastening behind me makes me disregard that worry. I clumsily get out the belt again, stuffing as many of the heavy objects I had hastily grabbed into its pocket as I .
“N-Nyvi,” I pant, “There wouldn’t happen to be det knuckle gloves in the bat garments catalog would there?”
There are, but they’d take the majority of your remaining points. I may see what you’re pnning though.
I peek behind me, seeing the bone-cd monsters rushing towards me. I bite my tohen scream, “T-That’s fine, put the best I get right on my hands!”
New Purchase!
1x Alloy-Infused GKG
Cost: 14 Points
Remaining Total: 5 Points
A pair of tight fitting gloves appear on my hands as I he er, the aliens right on my heels. I gulp, then slide to a stht as I turn the er, throwing the belt out in the air behihen whip it forward. It sms into the monster’s head right as it turns the er, the distinap of shattering bone immediately following. It stumbles back a bit, and as the sed pnt begins to scramble over the sudden obstacle, I drop the belt and rush forward.
Dropping into the all too familiar close bat form drilled into me by my Grandfather for all those years, my knuckles popping as I ch my fists hard. I take a right swing at the Alien climbing its twin, my knuckles smming into the bone carapace upon its head. It makes no noise as it falls over onto its back, its four little legs filing in the air like an upside down tortoise. Taking my ce, after a quick step back, I drop low and sm a sed, third, then fourth punch right into the same spot I had just hit. Its skull colpses upon the final hit, a goopy liquid unfortably simir to human blood spshing all over me as I do. I step back, shaking my ag hand while gring down at the monster I just killed, when Nyvi screams at me.
DON’T RELAX, IT’S NOT OVER YET!
I have barely any time to react as the monster I had hit with the whip rams into my leg, knog me over in the process. I scream in pain as it stomps on my right knee, a very, very loud crack as it does.
Looming over me, the Alien’s maw widens, revealing those damn not-humah, right before it begins to rev up. Not having many more options, I fell ba the lessons the old man had forced me to learn. I sm my good ko its stomach, then utilize my weight to push both of us to the side.
Over the edge of the catwalk.
For a moment, I am pletely weightless, but I don’t pause to think about it. I frantically reach out with my gloves, desperately grabbing hold of the rusted steel ptform. The monster fils its legs as it falls, smming onto the wet dock dozens of feet below. Thankfully, the gloves that Nyvi got me are incredibly grippy, so I am easily able to scramble myself back up.
Unfortunately, I’m still not done. I’m uain my footing, my shattered knee now throbbing with pain, so when I look at the corpse of the alien I killed to find a rather rge swarm of model-Sevens writhing all over it, I bnk a bit. Writhing over their brethren, the worms slowly grow, eae dev the flesh of both themselves and the dead alien. I hiss through my teeth, then force myself to crawl to my belt, biting my tongue as I drag my limp leg behind me.
Pushing myself up to a half knee on my left leg, I whip the belt out, the weight of the hit crushing one of the bloated Sevens. The swarm of worms immediately stops their feast, their pns ging as close to two dozen of them begin to slither towards me. I hold back a scream as I swing the belt in wide strokes, knog two or three away with each hit. It doesn’t do much to stop the horde, however, so after one final hit, I drop the belt again.
I begin to swing my right fist, crushing any worm that gets to close. When I have to, I do swing my left, but the muscles in that arm don’t work very well, so the blows are somewhat awkward at times. I sometimes have to punch twice if the worms don’t die from one, so they slowly begin to overtake me even as their numbers dwindle. I scream as one of the worms climbs up onto my left hand, biting down hard enough to rip out some flesh.
Something cracks in my head, and I grab the belt once again, taking the heavy pocket into my right hand. I sm it down over and over, crushing as many of the worms as I with each hit, even if they are on my other arm. It’s as I’m smming the makeshift on into one of the rgest worms that I hear Nyvi speak.
Please calm down! It’s over!
I y eyes and shake my head, my vision swirling as I find that I had just been fruitlessly hitting a dead worm.
“I-I-I- I won?” I mao stutter, all the tension in my muscles slowly fading away.
You did aremely good job honey, but we don’t have much time before the Twenty-Seven realizes those Seventeens failed.
I take a shallow breath, doing my best not to cry as I utter, “K-K hurts. H-Help me.”
It’ll be okay honey, put this right where it hurts.
Points Update!
Starting Total: 5 Points
Targets Eliminated!
2x: Model 17-T
Reward: 100 points
24x: Model 7-T
Reward: 120 Points
Total Gain: 220 Points
New purchase!
1x: Css-I Extending Brace with Auto-Ior
Cost: 25 Points
Final Total: 200 Points
A metallic disk appears o me, and I shakily pick it up, then push it against my khial struts begin to grow out of it, ing around nearly my entire leg as all of them go tight. I hiss in pain at the sensation, but after a sharp poke in my thigh, the pain almost immediately vanishes. I take a shaky breath, recolleg myself as I look at the total age around me.
“T-This was… brutal,” I whisper, raising my trembling hands to see them coated in blood.
An uatement if you’ve ever made one, honey. Once you’re ready, we o go down two more floors.
I take a few deep breaths, then slowly I shakily stand, leaning on the crete wall to make sure I don’t stumble.
“W-Why down?” I take a hesitant step with my braced leg, thankfully feeling nothing but a miniscule dull pinch. “S-Shouldn’t it be safer to get farther away from that… T-That thing?”
It might seem like it, but there is a gondo two floors down we take to go to the Family’s rig.
I blink, taking aep. “T-The Family? I-I didn’t know they had a rig here…”
They were given it in preparation for the First Gulf Offensive, five years after the fall of Corpus Christi. There isn’t an active staff there anymore, and it isn’t open to the public due to some plications, but all Samurai automatically gain the required credentials to enter.
“I-I’m surprised I’ve never heard about this…” I whisper, s through the infinite war stories grandfather would always boast about. None included the Family.
I’m not surprised, I access the logs from here, and yrandfather has only been there on the st three decades.
“T-That seems… off.” I mutter as I reach the dder, taking a deep breath as I once again begin my dest.
It’s certainly strange, but not all members of the Vanguard are fans of the Family.
I slightly tilt my head in silent agreement, then begin to focus on not falling to my death. The brace is surprisingly easy to work with, almost like having an exoskeleton that allows me to move as if my knee wasn’t in a million pieces. I really don’t kly what I do about that, but I quickly decide to not think about it. When we are safe, I’ll ask, but until then, I’ll focus on staying alive.
After five excruciating minutes of careful dder a, I am able to get onto the gondo without a fuss, taking a seat as soon as I . The tiny monorail jerks to life, quickly and effortlessly zooming upwards towards a distant tower. I peer out the dusty window, the once crystal clear waters now dark and murky, refleg the image of the full moon above us nearly perfectly.
Less then five mier, we arrive at a strangely spotless rig, the surface of its steel an almost shiny silver, a far cry from the red hue of the tral tower. I step out of the monorail to find a set e automatic doors in front of me, so I immediately walk towards them. With a click, they unlock, revealing an astonishingly well kept building.
The lights flicker on as I eheir yellow hue giving off a fortable warmth. The walls and floors are covered ierile white tiles, each of which seems to be meticulously ed to perfe. Beside the entrance is a small reception booth shrouded in gss, but no os behind it.
In fact, despite the seemingly perfectly kept state of the pce, it’s seeming pletely empty.
There is no furniture, no people, no teology. It’s eerie, and a deep unease fills me as I begin to roam the halls. Doors automatically shoot open when I ast, revealing the barren innards of their rooms. I shiver when I peek into a room to see a gutted kit, waterlines and wires loosely dangling from the walls. I walk around a er, then pause when I see a bathroom.
“N-Nyvi,” I ask, “I-Is there perhaps running water here?”
Uhe upkeep nanites failed somehow, there should be.
Taking a deep breath, I ehe restroom, relieving myself before walking over to the sink. I strip off my ruined clothes, then grimace as I look down at myself. I immediately begin to use the probably way too old bar soap that had bee behind to scrub away at my skin, doing my best to se myself of the bloody gunk that I was covered in. Thankfully my hands had been spared thanks to my gloves, but the rest of me wasn’t so lucky.
After I finish the bits on my legs, I begin to work on my arms. I run the soap ay chest, grimag at the small bump indig that the nanites had not fully mao remove the model seven from my body. I pause when I look in the mirror; It’s blurry as always, a fact that makes my heart drop. Biting my lip, I do my best to look away, but then a thought crosses my mind.
“U-Um… Nyvi?” I meekly say, “ you perhaps… See what I look in the mirror through my eyes?”
I .
I take a deep breath, closing my eyes as I say, “P-Please describe me. A-and you don’t o make it souer then it is..”
You are a rather sickly looking young adult, deep bags beh your verdant emerald eyes. Your shaggy light brown hair has grown out to brush against your somewhat small ears, which are very slightly tilted away from your head. Your face is bony, but the sharp look reduces when you smile due to your dimples. Your lips are visibly chapped, and you seem to have gotten a cut on your nose sometime today.
I blink, then chuckle as I brush the y nose. I hadn’t even realized it had happened until she mentio.
“W-Well…” I mutter, finishing the scrubbing of my skin, “I-I need some new clothes, you choose some I won’t hate and doesn’t uch?”
I certainly try, also, you remove that sock whenever you want now.
New Purchase!
1x Css-I bat Top
Cost: 5 Points
1x Css-I bat Skirt
Cost: 5 Points
Remaining Total: 190 Points
I freeze as two pieces of fabric appear in front of me, defiaken aback by my AI’s choices. I first pull on the pastel yellow, flowy short sleeve top, which stretches down to my hips, then pick up the sed item, staring at it for a few moments. Why did Nyvi choose a pleated white skirt, exactly? I hesitate, then slowly step into it, finding that the hem rests right on my knees. My heart does a little flip, sending incredibly ingruent feelings to my brain. Deg to file that away for ter thought, I rip off the disgusting gel sod toss it into the pile of ruined clothes building up on the floor of the bathroom.
I stretch a bit, finding that the new clothes actually are really nice. I have a lot of freedom of movement, and the different airflow from the skirt was actually pretty refreshing. “O-Okay, I guess we should get a real on now, huh?”
It seems prudent. While fighting with your fists isn’t unheard of, it’s rather unsuited to your personal style. May I reend something for you?”
“I-I don’t really know what I want to fight with so…” I say, then immediately follow with, “W-Well, actually I don’t like guns, so uh, reend something other than that, p-preferably with a wide variety of options that will be useful ter. ”
Noted. After our situation, I have determined we would heavily be from a catalog specializing in aquativiros. As such, I would reend the Css-I Axonfin General Teologies catalog, which costs one hundred points. Then, you have a choice between a melee ed on for fifty points, leaving forty for emergency uses.
“U-Um.” I tap my , doing my best to figure out what the better option is. “ you describe the ons a bit more?”
Certainly, honey. First is the ASHR Harpoon-Halberd, a melee on designed with several iing funs. First, while it does fun as a normal harpoon, its tip is specially super heated, which easily light our enemies on fire. This heat serves a sed purpose as well, however. By stig the superheated on into any biological material, the on will automatically create a brand new bde for sshing through your oppos with superheated fervor. Finally, it has a release fun, which allows for you to easily let the bde loose, which is extremely useful for leaving burnial ss within a Model's body.
“W-Wait, I want that.” I put my hand out. “G-Gimme.”
Do you not wish to hear the ranged option?
“N-Not for now,” I murmur, “I-I like the sound of that thing and I really don’t wanna have to mull over this right now.”
Fair enough. Here you go.
Catalog Unlocked!
Css-I Axonfin Teologies
Cost: 100 Points
New Purchase!
1x: ASHR Harpoon-Halberd
Cost: 50 Points
Remaining Total: 40 Points
I grunt as the harpoon drops into my hand, a surprisio it that I hadn’t been expeg. I flip it around, tapping its viscous sharp tip on the ground, finding that the thing is taller than me by a few inches. Now, I’m ly the pinnacle of height at five foot five, but a six foot tall pole isn’t anything to s. I sigh, then grab my duffel and leave the bathroom.
I pause as soon as I step into the hallway however, something to me.
“N-Nyvi, what’s ?”
I reend we desd to sea level, where we take one of the boats out of the hangar to a safe pce to recoup and tact help.
“S-Sounds good to me,” I mutter, then begin to head dowairs directly in front of the bathrooms. Turning halfway down, we end up directly beh where we were before. As I walk through the hallway, I find to my fusion that there simply aren’t any doors here, so I walk down the passage until I turn a er, where a door sits smackdab at the end, likely the exterior exit I was looking for.
However, about halfway through, I notice a sed door a few feet away, seemingly leading to a different part of the building. I blink, then slowly walk over, fling as the door stutters open, seemingly unwilling to reveal the dark void within. Far too curious about what this room was, I enter inside, and am sort of shocked to find that this part of the building seemed to be entirely open, a bit like ay warehouse. I was expeg something a bit more iing, but I jolt to a stop when all the noise I could hear outside disappears right as the door closes behind me.
Utter silenvelops me.
I walk in a bit further as Nyvi adjusts my augs, gng down when I see the cssic airbrush texture of graffiti. Then, I see another mark, though this one is a different color, followed by another. Everywhere I looked, there was more of the same, a kaleidoscopic hurrie of color. I squat down, running my hand over a crimson message, its words so simple despite raising so many questions.
“Give them back,” I whisper, pting it for a moment, before I move to the one, an emerald green cry to the heavens, “Justice for the gulf…”
I stand up, taking one more step forward, when a lonely, warm light pops on within the eye of the storm. Three gigantic granite monoliths sit still and resolute, pletely unmarred by the desperate pleas around it. Glowi is sprawled across each of the monoliths, but the words they make owo outside sbs takes my breath away.
Names.
Hundreds, if not thousands of names, carved deeply into each of the granite, memorials of a people I had not thought ever existed. I sloroach, reag my hand out to toue of the names. I gasp as a video pops up in my augs, a young man happily dang around with a woman in his arms. I put a hand on my heart, my eyes sing ead every name.
Finally, I step to the odd monolith out, finding a poem scrawled upon its surface, below a rge pque that states, "In memory of those lost to negligeo those iure who look to learn from our mistakes."
I gingerly touch it, another video appears, this one showing a morose female soldier, dressed in a white uniform, from I think the old U.S navy, standing at attention in front of the mo.
As she begins to speak, her voice faltering a bit from emotion, a small shiver roils ay skin.
”O sweet illusions of song
That tempt me everywhere,
In the lonely fields, and the throng
Of the crowded thhfare!
I approad ye vanish away,
I grasp you, and ye are gone;
But ever by night and by day,
The melody souh on.
As the weary traveler sees
I or prairie vast,
Blue kes, with trees
That a pleasant shadow cast;
Fair towns with turrets high,
And shining roofs of gold,
That vanish as he draws nigh,
Like mists together rolled—
So I wander and wander along,
And forever before me gleams
The shining city of song,
In the beautiful nd of dreams.
But when I would ehe gate
Of that golden atmosphere,
It is gone, and I wonder and wait
For the vision to reappear.”
—?Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Fata Mana (1873)”
The woman bows as the video ends, once again the void of akes over. I slowly move a step back, pting everything now id out before me. I bite my lip, then walk up and touother name. A young girl, barely ieenage years giggles as she runs along the beach, a wide smile on her face.
I grimace, then touch the one, revealing a woman around my age flying a phe is an older man, g at the gift of a new car his family had given him. The oer that is of a baby, just born and with a whole life ahead of them.
I touch every single one, burning their faces and names into my memory. My sorrow soon fades, repced with a miniscule yet blindingly bright rage. I scowl as I finish, my bones crag as I ch my fists. I step backwards far enough that I see all three monoliths, then take a picture.
“N-Nyvi,” I state, my voio longer wavering, “Store that picture for me, and don’t let me lose it.”
Uood. If you’d like, I tell you what really happened during the ihat led to this.
I hesitate, then y eyes and take a deep breath.
“N-No-”
I pause, clearing my throat, then begin to speak again, slower and more deliberately this time.
“No. I think I already uand what I o do.” I turn, only opening my eyes once I hear the door slide open, the cacophony of New Houston flooding into my ears.
I take one final look back, then step out into the future.
Aliapanacea
Aliapanacea
