LucyKitsune

  Force majeure is a retive term - especially when it comes to universities. Many a Prof. thinks their course is more important than unforeseeable circumstances such as an alien invasion, often to the detriment of students.

  The unknown stresses of the student life, 2027

  There doesn't seem to be a point in waiting for that, would you like to go over options?

  I switched the halfway-empty magazine out for a new one and pocketed the old one, taking one st look at the melting pile of aliens behind me.

  “Sure, what do you have in mind for me?”

  It was shocking how easy it was to get used to having Lyona be there. I had only spent a few hours with her, but she already felt like someone I could trust with my life.

  To be fair, I kind of had to do that. But that's besides the point. I learned to rely on her judgement and take her suggestions into account astonishingly quickly, especially for someone who, as she would put it, ‘has a curiously low opinion of her fellow people.’

  Maybe that's where the crux of the matter was? Lyona wasn't a human. She was a supposedly all-knowing alien AI who had been created for the purpose of helping me equip myself to kill aliens. And thus far she was really good at it.

  There's two options here: You could get something from your Css 1 Light Body Armour Catalogues or alternatively you could get something more heavy-duty from the Snow Pouncer Technologies catalogue.

  If my assumption that you would one day want to purchase a tail to go with your ears is correct, I would recommend the tter, as those were made with Snow-Pouncers in mind, and thus won't need modifications to accommodate that tail in the future.

  Of course you are likely to want or need better armour by the time you have made a choice on that matter, so that may not matter all that much.

  “How about we focus on the now? What are the drawbacks and benefits of one over the other right now?”

  The main benefit of light body-armour would be that it's cheaper. It is also a bit easier to move in, but overall the armours from your Snow Pouncer Technologies Catalogue will offer more variety, modurity and protection, but at a much steeper cost.

  I thought for a bit, before deciding that equipment that would literally stand between me and certain death wasn't something to cheap out on.

  “Alright, can you tell me more about the Snow Pouncer one?”

  Currently I would recommend the Combat Leg Augmenting Weapon System mk. 6 as well as the Protective Augmenting Wrist Stabilizers mk. 6 for 150 points each as well as the Snow Pouncer Battlesuit mk. 5 for 100 points. While this would put you below the threshold of being able to afford the upgrades we talked about earlier, you are likely to earn back a lot of points by clearing out this building and possibly evacuating civilians.

  “What, no acronym for the battlesuit?”

  My processing power may be nigh unlimited, but unfortunately the Snow pouncers have decided not to give the battlesuit an acronym. If you wish, we could call it BWAFA though for Battlesuit Without A Fancy Acronym.

  “How about AWAFA for Armour Without A Fancy Acronym? That seems like it's easier to pronounce.”

  That works also. Do you want to go ahead with the purchase?

  “Before we do that, what do they do?”

  The AWAFA mk. 5 is basically an upgraded version of your current armour. It will be not only bullet-proof but more importantly also model 5-proof. In fact there's not a single model that isn't at least in the teens that can realistically threaten you, if you wear this armour. It also comes with sufficient pockets to store your current gear.

  The CLAWS and PAWS are a bit more complicated. They're meant to be a set and like the name suggests, they armour your legs and hands respectively. They do both have options for close combat as well as some mobility also in the form of two sets of cws.

  One of those is meant to be used as a weapon in close combat: They're incredibly sharp and only a single atom thick. They can and will cut through just about anything you can currently find on earth with next to no resistance, those are the monofiment-cws.

  The second set is more for climbing, digging your feet in or finding more grip on icy surfaces: A set of cws made with sharpened ceramic edges, set into a titanium alloy base. They can still be used to inflict harm of course, but they will be far less effective than the monofiment ones.

  The entire assembly is also environmentally sealed, however be aware that you do not currently have any capacity to store oxygen, so while your helmet would be compatible with this, you won't be independent of oxygen existing within the air around you.

  Is that along the lines of what you want?

  “Sure, let's buy it!”

  New Purchase!

  CLAWS mk. 6 - 150 Points

  PAWS mk. 6 - 150 Points

  AWAFA mk. 5 - 100 points

  Medical emergency fund - 100 Points

  New point total: 1853 Points

  I extracted the contents out of the three boxes they came in and went to the bathroom to get changed. I definitely did not expect a random giant worm to be sitting in it.

  “Lyona, what the fuck is that?”

  That would be a model 8. It's not threatening by itself but it generally indicates trouble, as they tend to pop up near hives. Their main function is to transport biomass back to the hives.

  Shooting this one won't work since you'd need to kill each segment individually, but since it doesn't really do anything, you can just feed it a flesh melter while it's still alive. It would gain you the exact 5 points spent on the grenade back once it's dead, so you won't be making a profit, but you will be making whatever cleanup you need to do easier for yourself.

  I tossed a flesh-melter into the worm's mouth.

  “Cleanup?”

  Yes. Every bit of Antithesis presence needs to be completely removed. Every model has the capacity to grow back into a hive if left alone. On most worlds in the Vanguard programme, this is handled by Vanguards who specialize in such efforts, because it is a retively low risk way of earning points, but you have the honor of being among the first Vanguards of this pnet.

  “And by that you mean I have the honor to not just fight the big exciting fights but to also py custodian after?”

  I left my old armour behind, its services no longer needed.

  Essentially.

  “Lovely.”

  I was about to ask how to put on the boots, when they opened up slightly, so instead I just put my foot down into them. Afterwards some weird compression happened and the boot fit snugly around my foot. Like a ski-boot, except a fuckton more flexible and more comfortable.

  Which was a good thing because the boots reached all the way to my thighs and if they weren't flexible, walking would have been difficult.

  I put on the other boot, admiring how snug it fit yet again, before moving on to the gloves ssh gauntlets, which ended halfway to my elbows.

  They also, simir to the boots, fit extremely tight but without being uncomfortable.

  “Lyona, why does it feel like these were specifically made for me with how well they fit?”

  Mostly because they are. Every bit of gear you purchase with your points is tailor made for you by me, before I teleport it to your location. And since I have all of your measurements down to a nanometer scale, you will never have to worry about finding clothes that fit again. One of the benefits of the job.

  That was one hell of a benefit alright. I pocketed the rest of my gear, discarded what had outlived its usefulness, put my helmet back on, which caused the AWAFA to seal itself to the other parts of my armour with a satisfying hiss and then moved on to checking the building for survivors and/or Aliens.

  Starting with the front desk because they were supposed to keep tabs on how many people entered and left in case emergency responders would need to figure out evacuations.

  The post was abandoned, but the paperwork had been done, and if it was correct, there would be a bit under 500 people in the building still.

  Which was just shy of a first semester lecture worth of people.

  “Lyona, can you check if any first semester lectures were happening and in what rooms when this was going down? I have a hunch where the civilians might be. Also check who is teaching them?”

  Of course. There is STEOP: Introduction to mathematics happening in Lecture hall 14, held by Uniprov. Dr. Dr. Mag. Habil. Müller. There was also one supposed to be happening in lecture hall 1, but you entered directly in front of it and would have likely heard any ongoing lectures. And seen people be in that room.

  I groaned. Of COURSE he of all people would insist his lecture was more important than an alien invasion.

  You know him?

  “Unfortunately.. Lecture hall 14? I guess we'll go crash his party…”

  I made my way up the stairs and also through some more Antithesis small-fry, giving me a perfect opportunity to test out my new tools. They did not disappoint. I was especially pleased to see that the cws on my gloves could deploy both from the fingertips and from the knuckles, if I made a fist.

  As I made my way through the aliens however, I started thinking about how to evacuate the people. I could walk through these without needing to worry too much as basically nothing they had could touch me, but I couldn't afford to provide the same kind of protection to hundreds of people. I would need something else.

  “Lyona, do you have anything that will help me get these people across the street? And while we're at it, I'll need some stuff to help me look for Antithesis and survivors because I am NOT checking every room of every building by myself.”

  It would be possible to combine a Snow Pouncer Reconnaissance Drone with an assault-rifle and targeting software to kill both those birds with one stone. It would cost 150 points per unit and two units combined with yourself have the capacity of gunning down any Antithesis that try to get close.

  After the evacuation, the drones can then use their built-in scanners to detect both human survivors and Antithesis. They could sweep the rest of this building while you are getting your upgrades.

  “Well then I'll take two of those and shall have them do just that. And now it's time to go yell at a professor.”

  I grabbed the door handle to lecture hall 14, just as two boxes appeared at my feet, both of which opened, to release a robotic fox.

  LucyKitsune