Chapter Six - Pill Pusher

    Chapter Six - Pill Pusher

    They give you toys. Yeah, I know what youre thinking. Jackal, you have a handcannon that can disintegrate tanks. Thats not a toy! And youre right. It isnt. But thats not how it feels. You do a thing, you get a reward, you get a bigger toy. Its a cycle, and your little AI buddy doesnt even hide it.

    Damned useful though. And we do get to play with the best toys.

    -- Interview with Marie The Jackal Hunt. April 2051

    ***

    My world was still spinning a little. It made walking quietly hard. It was still worth the effort to try, even after all the noise I made earlier. Some miracle had prevented the other aliens, the Model Threes, from coming around to have some Cat for lunch, but I didnt want to push my luck.

    My luck was... I didnt know. I was a Samurai. It was enough that I wanted to laugh. I had laughed at the idea, way back when me and Lucy were younger and still had some optimism left in us. We had talked about what it would be like to be one of the elite, to fly around and kill aliens by the thousands.

    And she...

    I need to get to the others, I whispered. How long had I been back there bleeding out? Id lost track of time at some point. My HUDs clock gave me the hour, but I hadnt been paying attention before. Fuck, I need to move, I said.Ge?t latest novel chapters on nov(e)lbj/n(.)c/om

    You lost a somewhat substantial amount of blood. I advise caution before entering another fight.

    Fuck caution, the kittens, they... I need to help them.

    An admirable sentiment! In your current condition you would successfully distract a Model Three for approximately twelve to thirty seconds.

    I stumbled to a stop. It was right. I wasnt in any condition to fight. But, but still. I started stumbling ahead again. Then fix me, I growled.

    You could purchase some tools to alleviate that with Class I Medical Utilities. Two solutions seem prominent. A Class I Nano-Regenerative Suite. At fifteen points this utility would allow you to begin restoring some of your damaged internals. Hemo-Restore is a five point liquid utility that you consume orally. It replenishes up to a quart of blood naturally in the space of approximately two hours.

    Thats how it works, huh? I asked. Id heard some things about how Samurai got their awesome powers, their incredible weapons and tools. Everyone had. Still, I trusted the information Id skimmed off the net about as much as I trusted my own ability to run a marathon just then.

    Essentially, yes. Upon unlocking a Class Catalogue you can purchase any of the items available in that speciality. Prices are constantly adjusted.

    Yeah, cool, I said. I stopped by a cement pillar and just leaned against it for a moment to catch my breath. I wasnt hurting, in fact, my body felt like it should have been light. The reality was that every motion took some effort, just like moving underwater the few times the orphanage had brought us to places with swimming pools. I need something thatll let me, uh, fight.

    Fighting wasnt something I was used to, not at the best of times. It was frowned upon at the orphanage, for obvious reasons, and it just wasnt something I liked. Not that I hadnt been in a scrap or two, but being the one-eyed one-armed girl usually meant that any fight ended in someone elses favour.

    I can suggest a panoply of weapons and tools that you could use to defend yourself. Unfortunately, at your current point disposition, most of the better solutions are outside of your reach.

    Points reduced to... 15

    Well done. Now... as for a weapon.

    Just anything! I said.

    As you wish. I will pick something best suited to your situation from the current catalogue. There are only eight hundred weapons available at your current price point. This is a Hummingbird Mark I-D.

    I felt something pushing at my hand. When I raised it palm-up a gun dropped from out of thin air. Not a proper gun. This looked more like a toy. The barrel was a large square with three dozen needles poking out of the end. The handle was barely curved back at all, and the trigger was more of a squared button than anything. The case looked like brushed aluminium, which didnt fit with the heft of the thing at all.

    New Purchase:Hummingbird Mark I-D

    Points reduced to... 5

    How do I-- I began, only for my vision to go wild for a moment as my eyegear refreshed. I soon had a large circle floating off to the side. It didnt take much experimentation to see that it followed wherever I was pointing the gun.

    Aim at a target, wait for the reticule to go red, pull the trigger. So simple a child could use it. The Hummingbirds target lock will do most of the work.

    Right, I said. The... the drug?

    Arriving. Please look down.

    New Purchase: Mind Krank Ultra

    Points reduced to... 0

    A box appeared by my feet. No bigger than a matchbox, square, made of some cheap plastic. I bent down, almost lost my balance as my head swam, but managed to open it.

    A single bright red pill sat on a gauze cushion.

    Damn, I muttered.

    I placed the Hummingbird down, took the pill and just stared at it for a moment.

    Another scream came from the distance.

    I tossed the pill back.

    The world burst into clarity.