CHAPTER 010: Arsenal

Adam Rytman

TCS Alum/Pontifex-A System

Long War

17 April 2547, 07:12

“So, who is that walf?” I asked King when we were sneaking through some maintenance corridors, using them to circumnavigate a defensive position of the Numbers’.

“Hmm? Oh, Avran.” Did I hear him clicking his tongue after that? “He is a Hero.”

What?

“Care to elaborate?” Sounded interesting.

“Well, locals have a long tradition of having ‘Chosen’ heroes doing stuff.” He began. “In their Middle Ages, they had one or two of them worldwide. Later on, things got industrial and during their wars against the Hegemony and Moloch the Choir sometimes fielded entire companies or even battalions of the Chosen. Avran never really elaborated about the Choosing, so I don’t know how that happens… the natives aren’t talkative, as it's a secret. But the Chosen are strong. When the locals were showing me the combat magic, it was Avran that led the presentation. I saw him crushing a tank like a tin can with a single spell.”

Oh.

“I think he has… uhm… how should I put it… too casual of an approach?” I asked King. “At least I think. I’ve heard him speaking, like, twice so far.”

“Well, he is also from an important noble family. Which, together with being a Chosen Hero gave him a bit of an attitude.”

“They have nobles down there?!” Well, I probably shouldn’t be surprised by cultural and societal differences at this point.

“Yeah. They are still around. Nobility, capitalists and a variety of intellectuals are pretty evenly matched in their war for being the second most important people in the Choir. After clergy.” Looks like King learned a lot of stuff when I wasn’t looking. “Nobility seems to have mostly switched to the military, though they are still quite important in the regional governments. Avran’s family is from the former group. He was groomed to be a soldier of the Choir’s army ever since he was five years old.”

Huh. Maybe they should use that time to teach him some military discipline. He was lacking in that field.

“And you tolerate him acting like that?” It’s not like I’m one of those idiots that ventilate their internal frustration by making the not-precisely-real (but feeling almost like that) NPCs in games grovel beneath their feet. But if we want to build functioning fighting forces, some degree of professionalism would be welcomed.

“He is one of the Choir’s strongest combat magician, has four academic titles, finished military academy with top marks and so on.” I could hear him sighing. “You told the Choir’s Voice to give us their best men, and he did. Avran is, without a doubt, a most valuable asset to us. And because of that, I’m fine with him happily ignoring military regulations as long as he gets things done.”

His former superior officers probably had an identical approach.

“I don’t want to interrupt you… but the ship’s Armoury is right in front of you.” Nymphae interrupted our talk.

“Right. How are the soldiers doing?” They had a job to do when we weren’t around. It was important.

“Quite well. They’ve eliminated 65% of Numbers’ unconnected to the Botnet.” After all, the Botnet-controlled troops were stronger… and if we start by killing them, the Elite will have reserves to take over and send against us.

Fortunately, the Botnet didn’t give a shit about them. It knew we were around and it already employed countermeasures. Nine Soldiers and one Grenadier - all of them enhanced by the Botnet control - were already marching against us, but it would take them a while to find us.

Besides, they were marching towards the Heart, as that’s where we fought the Numbers’ last time. The rest were digging in around the sole remaining reactor. I expected them to send a group after Avran’s soldiers any minute now - their digging was to make sure that those that remained behind could hold the reactor area from unexpected arrival of another group of enemies.

Let’s see… ten after us. Ten to defend the reactor. And twenty will march against our paratroopers, though the Botnet probably expects that ‘our’ squad will bolster their forces after it kills us. Hard to figure the enemy out, but it seems smarter than average Numbers’.

“Avran also caught two alive and tested the effectiveness of magic on them.”… Seriously? “And it works. At least some of it. They can be electrocuted or impaled with enough strength. A sufficiently strong freezing spell works as well. Fire works a little. Mind magic, surprisingly, doesn’t work.“ I sense a lot of sarcasm there. “He couldn’t test ‘black magic’, whatever it is, but white magic - which I presume is tantamount to holy magic - works, to a point. Judging from the overheard talks, he’ll have Everen write a detailed report for King since he is ‘too busy being busy’ to do that himself. Don’t ask me if he was serious, I have no idea.”

… Yeah, this cooperation will be a pain in the ass. Hopefully, it will be worth it.

I almost feel sorry for Avran’s ‘prisoner’.

***

TCS Alum/Pontifex-A System

Long War

17 April 2547, 07:23

We entered the Armoury.

It was significantly bigger than the one aboard the Cutlass. A lot of various weapons on the walls. Armour-tubes on the far wall. Several bodies riddled with bullet holes. All of them wearing sci-fi looking armour.

“One squad of marines guarded the ship.” Nymphae informed me. “Most of them reached the Armoury after the battle started…. but that was all they did.”

She felt… a bit… moody?

I inspected the nearest body. The bullet holes didn’t look similar to the damage on the bodies I saw earlier. Hmm… Oh.

She detected that I found out.

“I will not apologize.” She looked away from me, avoiding eye contact. “I really had no other choice. After the captain issued the evacuation order, she also unleashed viruses that were supposed to eradicate me. When I fought back, she ordered the marines to go to the Heart and destroy it with explosives. But they forgot about the sentry turret in the Armoury. Though most of ‘me’ from back there is gone, together with my memories. The viruses worked almost well enough at the end.” She went silent for a short while. “I figured it out only after I woke up in an abandoned ship and saw the mess in the Armoury through cameras. Before the Numbers’ came and cut me off from it.”

We were talking in a private channel. King would not know anything.

“Well…” I said in my thoughts. “We all have a right for self-defence, right?”

It didn’t look as if I raised her spirits. Eh.

“So, why are were here?” King finally got tired with a prolonged silence. He probably suspected a hidden talk and wanted to be allowed in.

“Enter the tubes.” Nymphae said. “We’ll get you a proper armour.”

***

TCS Alum/Pontifex-A System

Long War

17 April 2547, 07:30

I left the tube, wearing the same armour as the fallen marines that lied scattered around the whole room. Which, admittedly, wasn’t a good advertisement of its effectiveness.

“Oh, stop whining.” Nymphae were more or less back to her normal self. “You are only doing it because you do not understand the true magnificence of the battle armour you are now wearing.”

“Please enlighten me.” She is excited about that.

“What you wear is no simple bulletproof vest, like your former suit.” She informed me, with her nose high in the air. “It’s a battle armour. Self-adaptable battle armour that allows you to keep fighting with no inhibition in every possible environment. It can withstand temperature from -240 to 400 degree Celsius for several hours. It can stop every and all bullets short of an artillery round. It works like an exoskeleton, massively improving your ability to carry objects - you can now run around for days while carrying three to four hundred kilograms of equipment of your back. And that’s all merely its passive abilities! When it comes to active ones, it can…”

“Alright, stop it.” I had enough. “Too many it-cans. It’s an awesome armour, I agree, now let’s continue onwards. By the way, why the heck does it look so old-school?!” That was something that bothered me for a few minutes now. “I mean, why do these boots have shoelaces?!”

The boots I wore until one had nothing like them. They had a nano-machine component that made them split open and close at order. They fit perfectly. The ones from the battle armour did so as well, though.

“Aesthetics.”… I’m sorry? “With soldiers being able to carry hundreds of kilograms on their back, and both nanomachine component and advancements in terms of electronics and production technology, you can design a fully functional body armour of pretty much every shape. Unless you really go full retard. Its flexible elements change their shapes, density and so on to make sure they are always a perfect fit and do not limit your movements no matter what. Because of that, outer designs don’t matter from the practical point of view. It’s just a matter of aesthetics now. And trust me, there are people with a weird sense of aesthetics in Human Space.”

“Do I even want to know?” She chuckled.

“Well, imagine Roman Legionnaire’s. But in Space. Or a soldier wearing Wehrmacht or Waffen SS uniform from the Second World War. With both of them able to continue fighting after getting hit point blank by twenty bullets from a 20mm autocannon. Though you can’t get around wearing a helmet and having an oxygen tank on your back. There are still some minuscule limitations.”

Well, I think I’m feeling a growing excitement. She would be terrifying as a car dealer.

While there were several tubes, there was only one automatic production module that could make any adjustments to stored battle armours. So we had to enter them one by one. I was the first one. King was after me, and… he finished gearing up.

“So… let’s kick the Numbers’ asses, alright?” His nod was the only answer I got.

“Before you ran into the enemy as you stand, a short tutorial on using battle armours.” Nymphae interrupted us, making me give her a begging look. ”Listen, this armour has an internal battery. Powerful, and it should easily last a week. On standard mode. It can also enter several specialized modes that make it deplete much faster. In Speed mode, you can speed up to 50 km/h or more in case of better models. On foot. You can also make 20 metres long jumps. In Armour mode, the ability to withstand impacts is improved a lot. There is also a mode for massively improved strength in case of fist-fighting a dangerous alien, one for acting like a mule and carrying a heavy load for a lot of kilometres, and one for precise firing. It gives you such a cocktail of stimulants and nervous system enhancements you go bullet time for a while.”

…

“Of course, setting stuff like that manually would be retarded.” Nymphae continued. “Who has time for that?! So it goes through direct machine-brain connection via your implants. In short - your thoughts. However, we don’t really have the time to teach it your mental patterns. Instead, you’ll go on manual settings, though I’ll intervene if I must. Also - you can fire several modes at once, but the effect is weakened.”

ALRIGHT, NOW I’M REALLY EXCITED TO TEST THAT THING.

“...and you’ll have an occasion soon.” Nymphae answered me immediately. “It looks like the Botnet’s squad is about to come say hello.”

***

TCS Alum/Pontifex-A System

Long War

17 April 2547, 07:36

I had to admit - the difference between Botnet controlled Numbers’ and the standard ones was… substantial. They marched as a group, with Scout Bots in front. When we destroyed them, they knew where the enemy was. So they stormed the Armoury prepared for combat.

The door opened. We fired grenades… but two of the enemy Soldiers carried riot shields. The grenades bounced off, and the shields seemed to be designed to not carry electricity, so they nullified our attack. When they established a bridgehead in the room, the Grenadier walked inside - still hidden behind the shield - and rained grenades on us.

Several mines we placed all got fried by EMP grenades. Our battle armours were partially shielded from such attacks, so we weren’t in any way limited.

After that, a rain of stun and smoke grenades.

Let me guess, after that happens, you’ll just open the shield wall and send in Soldiers to kill us all. Ugh. I don’t like the sudden jump in enemy intelligence. Killing Botnet will be a pain.

“For your information, they are close to ‘normal’ level of intelligence for Numbers’, but still not fully there.” Nymphae interrupted me. “Something’s still inhibiting their thought processing. Normally Botnet-controlled Soldiers would be even better.”

Fuck.

Well, when it comes to preparations, I’m genuinely paranoid. The marines stationed aboard Alum had explosives and anti-tank weapons. Even a fucking howitzer. I don’t know how they planned to use it, but I would not complain.

The RPG I fired punched through their riot shields and exploded. The grenadier and the two shield-bearers died since I used an anti-personnel explosive grenade.

The enemy, unfortunately, seemed to have predicted this and the rest of the Soldiers were in the safe distance from the entrance. Probably just in case something went wrong with the RAIN GRENADES ON THEM plan.

Yes, the enemy is much smarter. And I hate it.

The six remaining Soldiers charged inside, our vision obstructed by a futuristic smoke-equivalent (I don’t think it’s simple smoke). We shot two of those coming in front, but those behind them immediately grabbed the damaged robots… AND USED THEM AS SHIELDS TO DEFEND THEMSELVES WHILE MOVING TO COVER?!

Are you kidding me?! One of them suddenly threw the body away and fired a hail of bullets at me.

I ducked behind the cover, the battle armour UI showing multiple hits at chest and even head. No penetrations, though. Huh.

King lost his patience and brought out a genuine minigun. He took few seconds to have the barrels roll fast enough for the weapon to shoot… but when that happened, all the Soldiers immediately dropped behind the cover as the hail of bullets began annihilating everything in their side of the room. With the armour, he actually kept the minigun in his hands!

And then one of them - King obviously couldn’t keep suppression on them all - threw a grenade on him. He reacted fast enough by dropping the minigun and jumping away.

Yeah, so they found a counter for that much too fast for my taste. Though I still sneaked an explosive grenade behind one of their covers, so it’s one Soldier less.

Then they took advantage of King being forced to abandon his prior, well-prepared cover. Two of them suppressed him, one made sure I couldn’t interrupt them, and the last two moved from cover to cover, hoping to get close to King and take him out.

Fuck, not goo…

“Alright, that’s enough.” Nymphae suddenly appeared in front of me, kneeling behind my cover. “I can’t watch this cripple fight anymore.” CRIPPLE FIGHT?! “Requesting permission for a temporary takeover of your body to finish the skirmish properly.”

What?!

Alright, you know what? Ugh. Just ugh. “I trust you. Permissions granted.”

Then she rose from behind the cover, several bullets hitting me in short succession.

What?! Is she nuts?!

Then she suddenly leapt off the ground. A complicated diagram showed up at the edge of my view, showing where she redirected the power of the suit.

Ten meters. I flew up in the air for ten meters. Right at the Soldier that was shooting me. I took like forty hits - which depleted the - IS THAT A FUCKING HP BAR? - armour by maybe 10%.

No penetrations.

She practically had me land on it while bashing him with a stock of my rifle with my strength massively improved by the suit. His head broke.

“It would be much more efficient to murder him with some ‘normal’ melee weapon. Think about equipping one.” Nymphae added calmly while the other Numbers’ redirected their attention at me.

I immediately recognized the mistake they made. The attempt to take down King made them separate… and the two Soldiers that tried to charge them were too far. Besides, there was a cover - some short wall probably made for aesthetic’s sake - between us. So only two enemies could fire at me.

Nymphae redirected power again. I felt a sudden sting on my chest. Time slowed down. What the…

Then she calmly rose the rifle, switch it into anti-armour setting, and fired. One of my bullets for ten of theirs… but mine were better. First pierced his chest, the second did the same but right beside the first bullethole, and the third exploded his head.

I lost another 20% of HP at the same time. And one hardlight shard - massively slowed down - hit me right in the eye. I could see it flying towards me for like ten minutes (subjectively speaking) before it hit. Only for it to break and disperse around, sending a minuscule tremor throughout my visor.

It’s probably the nanomaterial absorbing the impact. Damn, this thing is effective. I didn’t even feel it, so the absorption was practically perfect.

The second Soldier fell right after that. Then Nymphae turned towards the two Soldiers that were storming King. They discovered a much more important target, so they turned towards me… but I could see King slowly rising from behind his cover and raising his rifle to shoot one of the Bots.

Both were raising up tubes I presumed to be an alien equivalent of an anti-tank RPG. And both were facing me.

Ah, crap.

King killed one. The other fired before my bullets hit him.

Another sting. Time slowed down even more. I felt weird. Like after some drug. Strong one. Ugh.

The RPG projectile looked like a thick, long crystal. It flew at me… but then Nymphae avoided it. She moved sideways and I could see the ‘grenade’ fly right past my face.

HOLY SHIT.

There was a pain in my chest. Then I suddenly felt a strong shock, just as the time began speeding up.

“I had to give you quite a cocktail of stimulants for that last move.” Nymphae acted with normal speed, probably accelerating herself to fit my speed. Then, another shock. “I’m using the defibrillator to stabilize your heartbeat. You started having atrial fibrillation on me.”

“Seriously? Is that something standard for people using such armours?” Doesn’t sound like a good idea.

“Well, stuff like that happens when you aren’t in an optimal health condition.” ...Really? “Normally people that don a body armour do that after extensive medical check-ups and after a long and dedicated body training to make sure their body… and heart especially… is in top condition. You should probably train your body if you want to use the armour.”

I think I’ll try running in free time. I’ll leave the suicide missions for King, though. I don’t have enough time to become a supercommando while also being a wannabe-admiral.

“Aand… done. Cardiac arrest averted.” Nymphae informed me with a smile. “And for future reference - when it comes to Numbers’ technology, most of their gear is equivalent to what Humans had three hundred years ago. Unless you see them carry Precursor weapons or something else they stole from some ruins, it’s the best to end the fight quickly. Otherwise, they’ll just keep sending endless waves of soldiers and Elites. And before you ask, at least some variants of the latter are a genuine pain in the ass even for Corporation’s marines.”

“I see.” Humanity looked quite advanced in that universe.

“The situation is different when you’re facing human threat. Especially one of more modern nature.” She continued. “Then it’s the best to not charge blindly. But since that’s not exactly the case….” She shrugged.

Hmmm… “I have a question.” I still wasn’t precisely sure of the… scale of the world and the game. “That’s standard equipment for marines?” If yes, then damn, those guys are probably scary.

“Yes.” Oh. “Truthseekers Corporation has access to cutting-edge weapons and armours, though, so it’s twenty or thirty years of technological progress ahead the average Human state. Five to ten ahead of the most advanced ones. Though the technological progress halted to a snail’s pace after the Fourth Colonial War.” I’ll ask about that… but not now. “Most of such countries use more or less similar body armours for the regular formations of their ground armies.”

“And… one last question. How big is the biggest of those space armies?”

“I think that would be the Terran Federation’s forces.” So, I guess, Earth and its surroundings. “Yes. Their standing army is estimated to be close to two billion soldiers.”

… Seriously?

“Then again, we are talking about a country with an estimated population of five hundred seventy-five billions. That’s just standing armies, they also have a lot of planetary militias that can sometimes reach few dozen millions, though they are amateurs using outdated guns and wearing bulletproof vests even worse than your former armour.”

“You know what, I won’t even ask about the strength of their navy.” I sighed loudly. “I’ll only end up feeling dejected.”

The Choir was estimated to have one billion citizens. Top. Even if you exclude the obvious difference in industrial potential, we will not play in even a remotely similar league anytime soon. Probably not before the game concludes. Which might take years. With Long War being a worldwide hype, the EI probably will try to keep it running for as long as it’s even remotely possible.

I turned towards King. He was patiently waiting for me to end my talk. Seems like Nymphae gave him a sign we were talking.

“The armour seems neat.” I commented. “You should probably train me to use it to its full capabilities. As soon as possible.”

“That will be my priority. I assure you.” He remained calm, but the faint smile - one of the most extensive signs of emotions he showed me - told me he was really eager to test new possibilities.

For now, we should focus on taking back the rest of Alum. The Botnet’s still around and kicking, I’m afraid. And it’s probably pissed at us beyond imagination.