Persistence gained 10% toward GEN2

They sat next to the spider robot, taking big gulps of air. Their chest rising before falling in a rapid tempo. Sophie pressed the button on her helmet swiping the annoying system message away while her visor slammed open. That was way too close for comfort. As she thought of what could have gone wrong with her plan, she heard a visor slamming open next to her. Looking around the spider legs, she spotted Bee. Still breathing in big gulps, his hands on the ground together with his knees. Sophie smiled calling out to him.

"Hey Bee," he looked up, red from the exertion. His eyes still in fight-or-flight mode. Limbs shaking a little. Responding with a grasping sound. His throat dry, he coughs and swallows, trying again "Yeah?" She winks and says "Thanks for saving me there. I thought I was done for." As she finished he smiled, falling over to his side laughing as much as his lungs allowed "Yeah, you know, anytime." Her smile grew as she got up. Walking toward Maya.

She looked around the desk that Maya had hidden behind most of the fight. Now only half as big as it used to be. Still shrinking as the acid was eating away at its steel. Maya sat behind it, helmet off, or what was left of it. The same could be said for the rest of her suit. Large holes were visible in the suits torso. Underneath the wholes her flesh had a very unnatural color. Maya looked up as she heard Sophie close by. When she looked up, Sophie saw that one of her eyes had been damaged and half of her face looked like Twoface, the white knight version.

At first, Sophie felt horrified. Then the thought that it was all a game snuck into her consciousness and it wasn't all that bad anymore. Strange what people can deal with when it's not real. Guess that explains the horror genre. She grinned at Maya and teased "Dear god, couldn't you have worn some make up today? I'm not sure if I want to see the real you so soon."

Maya laughed, then cringed from the pain and then sneered back "At least I'm still prettier than you. I was just scared that you would be isolated and such. So I took a knee, lowering myself for your comfort." Sophie smiled before getting her injector out of her inventory using a vial to ease the pain a little. 30% health was more than enough. She wouldn't die, but the pain would not be less just because she wasn't dying. She looked a little guilty towards Maya saying "Do you mind if I only give you one? I think we should save them up for when we are in critical condition and we don't have time to heal naturally."

Maya looked back at her, then nodded, grunting "I understand, and you are right even if I dislike it. Maybe my viewers will think I'm a badass… donate some money." Sophie's smile grew wider while responding "A girl can only dream." With that she left Maya to her suffering for the time being and went to look for some extra loot. There should be more than only 500 credits that she needed to share with the rest. Where are you pot of gold?

As she walked around the mechanic spider, six red vials caught her eye. She looked at them picking one up from the ground, examining it she was surprised with the find.

Small vial of Aid II

Uncommon Quality

Heals 15% of total health over the course of 1 minute - review by TheDevs

This is nice! Never can have enough of the lifesaving juices! She looked around a little longer, even though the six vials were good they weren't in line with the high risk, high reward philosophy. Seeing something shining back form the flash light on her head, she took a look. It was stuck underneath a leg of the dead machine but she could still get it out from under it. Inspecting it was hardly necessary as she recognized the shape.

First Aid Injector II

Uncommon Quality

In the absence of healers the only real alternative in a pinch. Can use vials up to 15% and breaks down after 50 uses - review by Nurs3Joy

She took the loot to Maya as Bee had joined his sister. Regenerating all his lost health while sitting against the melting desk. It was a very apocalyptic site, especially with the weird way the skin crawled while it regenerated. She kept standing at first but the two had to look up at her. Their pained faces made her feel guilty, so she squatted down laying the two pieces of loot in front of them.

As she did they both looked at them and smiled. Sophie coughed once before suggesting "Maya should take this one, as you and Bee will be together more often. Bee has the ship already. I already have vials. Even if you take them I'm sure you would use them on me if I needed them." She stood up to search for more things to take while Maya ogled the injector. She didn't grab it yet. Not trusting herself to keep them without using up the important healing equipment on her current pain.

As Sophie went through the room she opened every cabin, every desk, every fridge. So far, ten minutes into the extended search, she had found nothing worthwhile. The formulas on the black board might be expensive. Rare even, for all she knew, but they were in a language she didn't know, nor understood. Staring at it for five minutes had only given her one letter and 1% in linguistics. Which was nice but not worth staring at something for five minutes’ kind of nice.

As she closed in on the last area to look at she happened upon a strange machine. It was some kind of wardrobe, with two buttons. When Sophie pushed one of them nothing happened. Disappointed she walked back. A she returned she saw that Bee had fully recovered by now while Maya was in a little less pain and on 55% of her health. After the many encounters with various wild life and machinery, she had observed that the further your health was down the slower the initial regeneration would be. One to 2 percent would take about as long as 90 to a 100 percent. Which wasn't strange. Critical health issues were more severe than some minor discomfort. It was however, even more important to save the vials for when the critical stage happened so it could be skipped.

As she said down next to Bee, she told him she had found a machine that didn't seem to work but looked funny. He smiled, then asked if she could point in its direction knowing she had told him so he could practice his engineering. She smiled back and pointed towards the machine. Sophie then closed her eyes a little, waiting for Maya to recover so they could go on. She wasn't sure if it was possible to sleep in game but didn't have to find out as right before she dozed off Bee came running back. Only in his underwear.

Both Maya and Sophie looked at him funny. Bee forgot his excitement for a moment, blushing then starting his story "So I took a look and then had an idea. I put my suit in the machine. It is so far gone that even if the machine incinerates it, it doesn't matter that much. So anyway, It appears to be repairing the suit…" With that the excited smile appeared back on his face and infected both Sophie as Maya. They both got up following Bee in a jog back to the machine.

As they arrived, they saw a green light shining. As Bee pressed it, a door slid open and out came a suit. Back into pristine condition. Maya smiled, slapping her brother on the shoulder saying "This might be the best thing you did all day! Well except saving Sophie just now, maybe…" He smiled back and pulled his suit back on, before hastily saying "Ow yeah before I forget, it needs credits, that's why it didn't work."

Sophie felt like slapping her forehead. Of course it needed credits, every bloody thing needed credits in this game, she thought as Bee cheered "So if you give me your suits I will make them as good as new." As he finished Maya smirked "Yeah not today, just wait outside for a moment would you." Bee made a little indignant noise but went to the tunnel in his white and shining new suit. Ten minutes later Maya had a suit that looked exactly the same as she smirked "All right Sophie, your turn!" Sophie got her helmet off, and getting out of her suit when she thought of something snickering "Yeah not today, why don't you and your audience wait out in the hall huh?" Maya looked indignant, like Sophie had accused her of murder, before moping. Mumbling while she walked away. Something about not caring if she got rich or not.

Ten minutes passed before Sophie joined her companions in the tunnel. All fresh. It might cost 100 credits but it was like showering after a week in the desert, a priceless feeling. As she arrived they both smiled at her. They went through the darkness back to the first cave. They still had more to explore. Secretly all hoping that it would be a lot more.

Crossing the first little cave they checked for a wire at the other entrance. Finding none, they followed the tunnel in its downward slope. Strangely they didn't come into contact with any machines before they walked into a huge cavern where they could not see the end. The cavern was huge, covered in darkness with what seemed like an ancient and big three in the middle. Its branches leafless. Comprising a dozen branches at a maximum, a metallic shine betrayed its machine-like nature. That and the hundreds of drones that flew around it in circles.

The horde of drones was black. Square in size and half a meter to all sides, four rotators on its corners that let down to a body twenty by twenty. It seemed to support two little arms, a camera plus something else Sophie couldn't identify from this distance.

Its collective buzz filled the cave like a stormy sea. Most of the drones flew circles around the tree with little purpose. Leaving the rest to do the work of excavating the cave. As they walked in further, they shone their light up, just in time to witness the little lasers that were shot by the outer most drones. It went in to the rock, pulverizing it. Sending a little cloud of dust down towards the bottom where they were standing. When ten drones came loose from the pack, flying in their direction. They snapped out of their contemplation.

"Back to the tunnel! They won't be able to fly away there." Sophie shouted at her two companions as they back tracked towards the tunnel. Their plasma guns aimed at the approaching group of drones. As they came near enough Sophie identified them.

Multi Drone I

Common Quality

Has a nasty laser but is not very agile in the sky, needs some reload time after each shot and needs to be directed by a third party. - Review by Onthefly

She nodded her head in confirmation, it was as she had expected. The drones were with so many that it would have been an impossible situation if they were also well build. She told the rest and as they arrived back in the tunnel, they took aim. Waiting. Sophie looked at the approaching drones, thinking of what to do. They had to spread their firepower, otherwise they would never make it. That alone was a problem as they only had a minimum amount of firepower.

She sighed, telling the rest "I think we should start with burst and try to keep as much of the fire on different target as possible. Bee, you take the right, I will take the middle and Maya you will take the left most drones. Do you agree?" They both just nodded their head. It was enough for Sophie. Glad that her companions didn't like to argue in critical situations.

They shifted their aim towards the sides that Sophie had suggested. It wasn't long, maybe five seconds. But those five seconds stretched out for minutes. When the drones flew into the tunnel, it was a relief. They opened fire, Sophie hitting her first burst perfectly into one of the drones’ blades. The propeller broke, the drone kept being air borne. When she fired her second burst shot the drones started firing back.

The lasers that could go into the stone, went straight through their suits. Luckily the space in the tunnel was not to large. The cramped circumstances making it hard for the drones to get a clear shot without shooting down friendlies. Another aspect of the tunnel was that barely any shot they fired went astray. Their target was hobbled up at the ceiling, making it almost perfect target practice.

She took aim for a third shot but instead got shot in the shoulder by one of the drones. It hurt like hell! She shouted "Goddamn pieces of junk!" Before shooting a blob of burning plasma right in the "face" of her assailant. It did more damage than shooting of a propeller. The turn side was that it was much smaller. As she tried to repeat the action, she missed and shot the body of a drone behind her intended target. As a retaliation, she got shot again. There was nowhere to hide behind, the only option was to man up, shooting the fuckers out of the sky before they reached zero health. The fire fight took two minutes, both sides taking damage. Sadly, it was their own juice that ran out first as their batteries ran dry before the last drone was shot out of the sky.

She softly cursed underneath her breath as she grabbed the end of her plasma gun. Sprinting the five meters that separated her from the drone, slamming her plasma gun into the drone, dropping it out of the air. As the drone crashed into the stone floor, she looked around at the mess they had created. Everywhere she looked lay broken down drones. Ten grey credit cards laid about in the debris, crouching down to pick one up. Ten credits… As she walked back, thinking of the raging tornado of drone bodies outside the tunnel, she smiled. This could be very profitable.

As she turned around to face Maya and Bee, her smile changed into a grimace. They were filled with holes. Small ones, not much bigger than a centimeter. But holes none the less. Now that the adrenaline wore off, she also felt the irritated parts of her skin where the lasers had burned into it. It wasn't very painful, but she had still lost around ten percent of her health. The picture of the thousands of drones in the giant cave suddenly wasn't that alluring anymore.

She walked back, still thinking of the possibilities when Maya stated "So I think we found our cash cow. How about we lure the next batch in? I think the tactic is solid enough to pull it off a couple of times don't you think?" Bee nodded while Sophie thought for a moment. Deciding that risk is always a factor, she agreed to the plan.

Maya passed by Sophie, sending a wink her way while trying to hit her behind as she passed. Sophie in turn dodged the hand, glaring at the girl that was increasingly more troublesome in trying to lure Sophie into her schemes for a bigger audience. Sophie didn't mind as long as she wasn't to obnoxious about it. Again, a feeling of admiration washed over the feeling of annoyance. Maya really did a lot just to earn money.

People might say playing a game isn't work. Clearly they did not realize how much effort some were putting into their attraction to the audience. Sophie had never realized until now that playing to entertain others differed greatly from playing to entertain oneself. The biggest difference being having to think of every action you made. How it would reflect on your audience. Tiring. She was glad she wasn't in the same situation.

As Maya stepped out of the tunnel, it only took a few moments for her to run back in. A smile still plastered on the dollish face. She ran passed Sophie before turning around to join the rest in their formation. They took aim just as the first of another group of drones flew in. Sophie shot the first one out of the air, followed shortly by Bee and Maya. The drones were really not much of an enemy but their numbers made them a rather annoying opponent. To say nothing of the shots of laser.

Every hit made them cringe in a bout of pain comparable to a cigarette grazing the skin. Sophie knew because she had once walked passed a man that still had the old habit of smoking. Something that was rarely still seen as it was positively deathly and heavily taxed. The man however, could afford it, but had to visit the hospital after Frank had gotten a little over-protective. Not that the man had pressed charges. Frank had made sure of that after he had told the man he would sue him for child abuse until his money ran dry.

She smiled a little, thinking back at the anger and helplessness that had alternated the man’s face. Served him right for not looking out where he was walking. It had seriously hurt her face. As she thought of the memory five more drones went down and her suit was peppered with another eight lasers. It was a war of attrition, nothing more and nothing less. As Sophie ran out of Plasma she rushed the two drones that were left. Thinking it was weird that there were two as she took care of them and collected eleven credit cards. One more than the precious battle.

"So not to play the part of captain obvious here, but I think they grew with one. Let's lure another batch. I want to know if it was just a random encounter or if this will be a recurring theme." She said to the rest who just nodded as Maya went to get the next batch. Repeating the same tactic, Sophie quickly concluded it was a recurring theme.

This was bad. Their cash cow just turned into a potential danger. They did not have the fire power to kill over nine of them. So with each drone that stayed alive, the chance they would lose the war of attrition became more likely. The thought to go back and recover the guns from the security bots came to mind but was dismissed as items that were not picked up for thirty minutes would disappear. A measure to prevent people from hoarding equipment in places that were not designated places to hoard equipment. Annoying, but understandable. She could keep hacking them out of the air, but it took twice as long compared to shooting. Twice as long meant twice as many shots of laser.

They needed more fire power as she did not see how they could survive over twenty of the drones for long periods of time. Time was their greatest enemy in a situation like this. The longer they took to dispose of the droids, the sooner they had to fix their suits. Which would mean that more of their hard-earned credits would go up into smoke.

Three of the drones were left after their plasma guns stopped working. She rushed the drones, this time flanked by Bee and Maya who had mirrored her angry facial expression. The three of them trashed the remaining drones. Maya even stamping on hers after it went down screaming at it "How do you like that huh!" Bringing a smile back to Sophie's face.

She checked her health. It was drifting somewhere between the sixty and seventy percent. Not too bad, the same could be said for her suit. Both had seen worse times, so she suggested "Let's do two more runs. I'm pretty sure we can handle that much." Bee spoke up this time "Try not to bash them up too much, I want to try making one out of the shrapnel. But if you go to work at them like the last time nothing of use will be left." That last part was directed at Maya who did a little "Humph" sound but still shrugged before she went to get the new batch.

Half an hour later Sophie slammed the last drone of fourteen into the ground. Their suits looked like hundreds little holes had been shot into them. Which was exactly what had happened. The last two waves had contained thirteen and fourteen drones. They were easy enough to dispose of. If you did not count the fact that their health was now on the verge of dropping below forty, their suits were in dire state.

They were sitting next to a pile of parts that were left after the drones had disappeared. Bee had been right. It was possible to loot the drones. Now that she thought of it, it was logical. If she could loot the Sholf, then why not the machines? Most of the pile was in poor condition but Bee was still tinkering with it, already half way through a workable drone. Or at least that was what the system messages kept informing him.

As he got to the bottom of the pile he sighed, grumbling "70% done, but the rest is junk, or duplicates. I can't make more out of this. Guess I will just store the work in progress in my inventory." Both me and Maya stood up, with Maya asking the question on everyone's mind "So again? I personally think we should take the opportunity of the numbers still being low and explore whatever is in the cave. We will need to go in there to explore the rest of the dungeon." Sophie had totally forgotten about the rest of the dungeon. Now that Maya mentioned it, the more they killed in the tunnel, the more drones they would have to deal with in the open cave. She smiled at Maya exclaiming "Wow thank god you thought about that Maya!"

Maya smiled insidiously but did nothing more than walk back towards the machine. This actually worried Sophie more than the drones. Still she followed her out of the tunnel. Another half hour later, they were back in the tunnel. Only two hundred credits divided by three left in their pockets after the cost of repair. They all moped about the little profit for their painful work, except for Maya.

Maya moped because Sophie had caught her in the room while she was still in her underwear. Sophie had given her two blue eyes, kicking her out. Actually, Maya was still thrilled about the result, but had to keep an appearance of being sad or she would risk the wrath of Sophie.

They looked into the cave for the second time. The difference in the number of drones compared to the first time was barely visible. Which was strange as they killed sixty drones. The zooming and buzzing of propellers was still very audible. Everywhere they shone their lights a dense pack of drones flew. Sophie shivered a little thinking of what would happen if they all attacked at the same time. That would mean instant death by hundreds of little painful laser shots.

Trying to ignore the thought of gruesome death she took the lead and walked to the right side of the cave, following the wall. They had talked about a tactic, coming to the conclusion that most dungeons had a certain system. Like go right for bosses, go left for the next level of the dungeon. So they had went right first.

As they walked ten meters, they heard the first buzzing from closer by, coming towards their direction. Sophie knew what it was but looked anyway. A swarm of fifteen drones came loose from the pack and buzzed in their direction. They looked angry. Looking at the angry mob following them Sophie started running. Keeping the pace as slow as possible they ran as a group through the cave. Every so often Sophie looked over her shoulder as she was the only one that could spare the energy. Every time the pack would have closed a significant amount of distance. disappointingly, there was no tunnel in sight yet even now that they had ran for over five hundred meters.

Five more seconds passed before Sophie was the first to get her brand-new suit penetrated by high intensity light made painful by optical amplification. The first was soon followed by a second. As she heard Bee and Maya groan, she figured they had been hit too. Should they continue running or shoot back? The problem was that when their batteries ran low, the drones were out of reach plus the fact that the drones kept a distance of around twenty meters. As they were spread out way more than in the tunnel, it made the chance that they would even hit the little fuckers even smaller. Running it was. They kept running, the drones shooting at them taking away some of their health every time they were hit.

"Where the fuck is this new tunnel! I'm so fucking done with these shit heads using me as target practice!" Maya was the first to voice the collective thought. Things were not going as planned. Sophie responded "How fucking big is this cave anyway!" She shouted back before Bee gave them his own five cents "Could you guys stop complaining and run a little faster!"

The anger fueled all three to a faster running speed while their desperate search for the exit continued. Both Maya and Bee faces were covered in sweat, their heads turning beat red. Sophie was not nearly as winded but was also feeling the exhaustion. more from the constant onslaught then the running.

As Sophie was about to suggest shooting the little fuckers out of the sky as much as possible before running again, her light shone on a gap in the cavern wall. "Finally a tunnel!!" She exclaimed. Tearing Maya and Bee away from their exhaustion and into a final sprint. As they reached the tunnel Bee shouted "It is rigged!" Just in time for Sophie to jump over the barely visible thread.

She turned around inside of the low tunnel and saw how her two companions jumped over the thread. Followed by their tormenters of the last five minutes. Suddenly hit by an idea she changed her aim to the thread that was spun at feet height shooting her plasma at it. It took three shots but when it hit an explosion went off taking all fifteen drones in sea of flames. The tunnel shook, leaving Sophie was a little flabbergasted by the explosion.

She had thought it would take a couple of them. As the explosion that had hit her in the other tunnel was nowhere near this magnitude. She stared at the burning remains. Her ears filled with a long monotone beeping sound. She looked to the ground a little in front of her and saw Maya getting up, the back of her suit black with soot. Bee had been a little closer to Sophie and was also staring at the burning remains of the drones. He turned around, saying something. She didn't hear what he said though as all she could hear was the long beep that was already annoying her. When Bee noticed, she couldn't hear him he looked a little confused before he turned around helping his sister up. Maya was groggy from the blast but seemed fine.

As she stood, Bee refocused his effort on Sophie. Thinking a little before he opened his game menu. A moment later Sophie got a Text message. "Are you all right?" It read. She spoke up "I can't hear shit but I think the rest of me is fine." she said, a little annoyance in her voice. Bee laughed motioning her to sit and rest for a little. They would need their strength for whatever 'lived' in this part of the dungeon. It wouldn't do if she was deaf during the battle. If the difficulty until now was any sign it would probably hurt.