“You look utterly bad ass!” Johnny commed as she finished creating her battle armour. If it hadn’t been for the bottled BIO-MASS concentrate she wouldn’t have been able to craft the suit, power it, and fully stock it with ammo. It had taken a litre and a half to do so.

And it was utterly glorious. Modelled upon the Celestial Court’s Imperial Guard, it was a weapon of both beauty and practicality.

“Ready to kill people?”

“Hells yeah! Got a bottle for me?”

Mai snatched one up and threw it to him. It was a simple throw with her suit-augmented strength and automatic guidance systems.

“I’m going to be fucking unstoppable!”

“Don’t get too cocky. There’s no way that a suit like that doesn’t come with drawbacks.”

Rising to her full height, Mai trained her shoulder-mounted miniguns on the prisoners who had been left to guard their attack from the gangers.

Flames as long as a man was tall flared into life as the weapons shrieked. They were called Banshees after the harbinger of death. It was apt.

Firing over six thousand micro-rounds per second they absolutely obliterated the wall and the prisoners hiding behind it. She gasped as the suit’s BIO-MASS levels dropped drastically. There’s the drawback. Not having worn such a suit before, she hadn’t realised that in order to maintain it she would have to keep the suit’s BIO-MASS reserves filled.

Trigger held down, she skimmed through the READ ME that was attached to the template. And there it was. A simple one-liner.

IN ORDER TO MAINTAIN THE SUIT’S BIO-MASS, PLACE BIO-MASS BOTTLES IN THE RESERVOIR TO THE REAR.

It was too late to do anything about it now, and it wasn’t as if she was going to spend the rest of the Culling in it. To do so would just draw too much attention and too many crazies determined to see if they could take her on.

KILL!

CONTESTANT 002856 ELIMINATED

KILL!

CONTESTANT 574638 ELIMINATED

KILL!

CONTESTANT 546373 ELIMINATED

Striding out of cover, she raised an arm. Instead of a fist, her arm ended in a large-calibre barrel. It was called Thumper, a miniature cannon. Laying her sight onto the centre of the soldier’s position she fired. It thumped.

Bodies and bits of bodies flew into the air as the shell detonated. Her minimap filled with more kill notifications.

KILL!

CONTESTANT 902030 ELIMINATED

KILL!

CONTESTANT 911234 ELIMINATED

KILL!

CONTESTANT 923456 ELIMINATED

HIT! 50% DAMAGE

BLEED @19% PER SECOND

STUNNED!

Three circling birds appeared over her target as their health bar turned half-green, half-black.

HIT! 70% DAMAGE

STUNNED!

BLEED @20% PER SECOND

Three birds and a blood drop, with an even greater amount of black in their health bar.

HIT! 20% DAMAGE

STUNNED!

BLEED @10% PER SECOND

This one had already been wounded, their health bar having far more black than it did green. Circling birds and the blood drop marked the damage she had wreaked upon them.

HIT! 46% DAMAGE

BLEED @4% PER SECOND

There was a stunned pause in the battle at the other side of the bowl as the survivors realised that there was a far bigger threat approaching them.

With an unspoken agreement they turned their attention, and fired, onto the behemoth approaching them.

“Move up to the supplies Johnny, grab as many bottles as you can.” Mai raised her other weapon arm. Dragon’s Maw. In her haste to activate it, she accidently tripped the description.

Dragon’s Maw

- A suit mounted flame thrower, often with its barrel lovingly crafted to resemble the legendary creatures. In tight confines this is a truly horrific weapon to use. In open areas, it can still cause devastation to rival that of the creatures for which it's named.

Firing, she sent a stream of liquid fire splashing into the shattered position.

The still stunned survivors of the thumper shell didn’t stand a chance. A couple staggered away, arms flailing as the flames totally engulfed them.

KILL!

CONTESTANT 003990 ELIMINATED

KILL!

CONTESTANT 020405 ELIMINATED

KILL!

CONTESTANT 090807 ELIMINATED

KILL!

CONTESTANT 080604 ELIMINATED

LEVEL UP – CULLER LEVEL 9!

“Moving up! Leave some for me!” Johnny sprinted into the position, spraying it with SMG fire. “Dammit, Mai! You killed them all!”

The anger in his voice surprised her. Even worse was that she swore she could hear fear in his voice.

What the hells has he got to be scared of? I’ve just killed everyone!

“We need to move fast,” she replied. Deciding that she would ignore what Johnny had just said, she set about gathering more of the liquid gold. But, she wouldn’t forget what he said.

“I’ll cover you whilst you mine the area. Might as well see if we can take out more people. All of these culls are going to draw them like moths to a light.”

“Yeah, I can plant some mines, boss,” he said with a sneer.

What the fuck is his problem? It was as if he didn’t want her to succeed. As if he should be getting all of the kills whilst she sat back and clapped like a good little girl. Was his ego that damned fragile that he needed to be the best? Did he feel threatened by her?

Well, it wasn’t happening. She was happy for them to both do their part and it was her who had risked everything by moving to the supplies in the first place.

Why was it her fault that he hadn’t had the stones to leave cover and do that himself? And why did she feel so damned guilty that he was angry with her?

“Grow the fuck up, Johnny.”

She flicked off the team chat so that she didn’t have to bother with any further snark. It was a risky move considering that they sat on tonnes of supplies and a whole host of fresh cull markers, but at that moment it was one she was happy to take.

She saw him gesturing, face turning red.

“Sorry, I turned off chat by mistake. I was trying to work out what else this suit did before I binned it.”

He tilted his head quizzically. Spluttering as he tried to speak. “Why the hells would you get rid of it?”

“It’s too costly in BIO-MASS. I have to keep the BIO-MASS reserves topped up at all times and it’s a bloody bullet magnet. It’s more efficient to carry bottles of that stuff and drink it when we need it. This thing uses BIO-MASS just moving.”

“Right. Well,” He seemed lost for words at the fact she didn’t want to keep the suit. “I’ve made you a new pack. It’s larger. Made one for myself too. They’re both filled with the bottles and I’ve planted gods know how many mines.”

The change in his attitude threw her. Trying to keep up with his emotions was like trying to race the wind. Impossible and infuriating. Still, she’d take nice Johnny over arsehole Johnny.

Because they were in the same team she could use her minimap to see where he’d planted them.

“Wow. It’s going to be a carnage!”

“More explosions than Ascension Day!” He crowed and actually rubbed his hands together in anticipation.

Mai laughed. The old Johnny was back. That was for sure, but she would have to be on the watch for the new one.

What she didn’t see as she shed her armour, was the look he gave her. It was a mixture of fear, hatred, and deadly intent.