NOVEL NEXT Chapter 28 – A name to go by
“Most new Samurai get their name either from older Samurai, which is sort of a rite of passage, or if they wait too long, from the trolls in online forums. Getting rid of a name you don’t like will take quite a lot of effort, so it is advised that any new Samurai settle on a name as soon as possible.”
- “A guide to the new Samurai”, a helpful booklet for Samurai by Samurai.
As I had expected, the Wasp territory was a mess. Nearly nobody was around, the few souls I did notice were hiding wherever they could find a spot away from prying eyes, and the majority of the district was abandoned.
Well, I say abandoned, but it would be more appropriate to say dead. The only living things still around were the plant fucks responsible for this mess, and in quite a few cases they had already stripped whatever building they had come across down to even the houseplants.
After I had convinced them to let me through, the rest of their border guard had taken off to places unknown, leaving behind most of their gear and decidedly not wandering into their district. I wondered why?
Luckily dealing with the few smaller groups of xenos around wasn't much of a problem. By this point the term ‘Hexclaw Army’ was actually true and I had close to three hundred drones running around, even excluding the small scout critters.
It was the main reason I was so damn tired. Organising this many bodies, even with all the Protector grade bullshit jammed into my thick skull was exhausting beyond belief.
Muttering my displeasure to the world at large, and completely ignoring the fact that it didn’t seem to give a shit, I went about cleaning up the small fry, while my scouts looked for the Hive.
Not that it was hard to find, I just had to follow the path of destruction and death. As expected and to nobody’s surprise, the Wasps hadn’t managed to hold the tide at bay, they barely even managed to get away from the look of things.
Seeing all the dead bodies didn’t do anything to improve my mood. If I ever found the fuckwit that decided that some pompous gang thugs with barely functioning gear could hold off a full grown antithesis Hive, I might change my stance on feeding humans to my army.
There was stupid and then there was stupid. And this guy most certainly was the latter, rather than the former.
It didn’t take long for my Najav to arrive, once I had found the Hive in question, not that I wanted to tackle that without the others. The Najav was great and all, but even without sending scouts inside the alien bullshit hole I could already see it was an entirely different caliber, one with at least four exits.
That could mean a myriad of things and I really didn’t want to try and have my Najav deal with it, just for a repeat of our earlier attempt to happen. If they had another big cave of madness down there I wanted some backup, if only to pull my sexy ass out of the pile of faeces I would inevitably end up in.
While my army worked I kept a lookout for a good meeting place and started reinforcing it with the few drones I had available for it. Proper defences had to wait until the others showed up, but having a dozen War Drones stand guard already made me feel better.
“Damn,” Chloe’s voice ripped me out of my thoughts, watching the Hive from afar and trying to come up with plans to deal with the mess.
Surprised by her sudden appearance I forgot to clamp down on my rather overeager emotional state and bolted over to pull her into a vice of a hug. Not that I seemed to do much, considering her armor.
And armor she fucking had.
Before she wore a rather standard looking set of body armor, nothing special even if effective. Now she wore sleek high tech looking armor, all in black and dark reds, with additional glowing highlights here and there.
What I found the most fascinating was that she had gotten herself two new arms, smaller than her flesh and blood arms, attached a little further down, similar to how my Hexclaws looked. These were obviously entirely mechanical though, and from the small pistols holstered close to them probably meant as additional hard-points for firepower.
In addition to that she had some small weaponry on her back that could slide over her shoulders. I had seen those in action through the eyes of the Najav when it had arrived.
The detail that surprised me the most, however, was that she now had a tail as well, although where mine was meant for balancing, hers was obviously meant as a weapon. It was a tad longer and had an obvious weapon installed at the end.
Her helmet looked different as well. It had a bit of a wolf design, although not too much. Probably a nod to her new name. It looked quite dangerous, with glowing red eyes and silvery teeth printed around the mouth area.
“Fucking hell am I glad to see you,” I muttered, looking up at her and pouting at the presence of her stupid helmet, preventing me from giving her a proper welcome.
“Hey,” she said with a chuckle, reciprocating my embrace.
“Hey yourself! I heard you finally got a name, hm? Should I call you Miss Bloodhound now?” I asked with a goofy grin, entirely too giddy to have her right here next to me.
“Oh hell no,” she said with a snort, then pulled her helmet off. I didn’t waste any time and instantly locked her in a kiss, surprising her. Tasting her soft lips made my heart race a mile a minute, and I had to pull on all of my remaining willpower to actually stop and pull myself back.
Chloe was, of course, blushing fiercely, but she didn’t seem to mind my outburst. Quite the opposite in fact, which just riled me up even more.
“You okay?” Jenna asked, ripping me out of my reverie. Standing next to us she gave me a bit of a worried look, “You seem… A tad energetic for someone complaining about being exhausted not long ago.”
In reply I let go of Chloe and attached myself to her, this time actually able to give her a proper squeeze, “Hey!”
I just barely kept myself from giving her a kiss as well, not quite sure yet if that was a good idea, even if it was really, really tempting right that moment.
After I finally managed to get myself to let go I gave her a cheapish chuckle, “Sorry, I got some upgrades earlier that make me emotionally hypersensitive, or something. It’s really hard for me to think straight with the two of you present right now.”
“That would explain a few things. Will you be okay when we deal with the Hive?” Chloe asked, obviously a bit worried.
“I hope so? I can’t promise anything should either of you get hurt. I have enough points to get at least one more Najav right now and I might not react well.”
“You know, you’re really not helping your case here,” Chloe muttered, the familiar worry I had over our call earlier returning.
It stung a bit. Okay, a lot, but I pushed it down. “Just tryna be honest with you. The upgrade was worth it, I could fully equip both of you and still have points left over, but it does have its side effects.”
“Yeah, you turning into a weird alien Hive-Mind.”
I couldn’t quite suppress a hurt wince, giving her a hurt look.
“Sorry,” she muttered, giving me an awkward smile, “It’s a lot to get used to. I like you the way you are, don’t need you to change too much.”
Taking a deep breath I suppressed my desire to give her another kiss, utterly too happy that she cared so much about me.
Luckily I was distracted by the arrival of Dominium Fortress and Shrapnel. Snapshot was still missing, and from what I could see in the virtual realm he was busy cleaning out the smaller Hives all around town. Probably for the best, considering that Blitzer was still out cold, and while the civies had gotten some pretty decent gear from the lot of us, they weren’t exactly suited to burn down hidden xeno nests.
“Impressive army,” Shrapnel said in lieu of a greeting, giving my Hexclaws a glance.
“I know right? Not sure if it’s enough though,” I replied, giving him and Dominium Fortress a nod.
“Bloodhound, Legion,” she greeted in turn, giving each a nod, before nodding to me. “Princess.”
“Hey,” I greeted in return, “Really need a better name. Y’all sound so awesome and here I am being called Crimson Princess…”
“Actually,” Chloe started, giving me a warm smile, “I heard some Wasp thugs call you ‘Myriad, Queen of the Living Weapons’, or something. It's a bit long, but Myriad sounds fitting, right?”
“Myriad?” I asked, thinking about it for a moment.
She wasn’t wrong, and it was past time I got an actual name. Princess wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t great either, even if I ignored the fact that there were probably dozens of Samurai who were called some variation of it. Myriad was fitting and it did sound like a good name to have. It was unique and would even be easily marketable if and when I got back to my regular job.
“I suppose it does. I like it. Myriad it is,” I said with a smile, then looked around the group.
“That’s settled then,” Shrapnel said, then changed the topic, “Time to burn out the next Hive. Hopefully it’s the last one, most of the smaller ones down here have been dealt with, or are in the process of being dealt with. Snapshot is on that right now.”
He looked over to the Hive entrance that was still spewing aliens nearly faster than my drone army could deal with, “Our objective is pretty simple. We go in, plant a bomb, then leave. Snapshot already had a couple of his drones scout it out, and from the look of things it isn’t connected to the hellhole that the other one was. He did give me some tools to check more thoroughly once we are inside though, can’t be too careful. The last thing we need is to have another Hive go unseen.”
“How are we going to clean up then?” Chloe asked, looking at Sharpnel.
“The best thing would probably be to go into there all at the same time in one group. Have Myriad’s drones seal of the other entrances while we work, to ensure no alien fucks can sneak past us. Can you do that?” He looked me over.
“Sure. I can drop a couple of Roses before we head in. They will be sufficient to block off the other exits, although it will mean that all the aliens will be funnelled into us.”
“True enough,” he muttered, “But that is something we will have to deal with. Bloodhound and I have the tools to blow this thing to kingdom come, while Dominium Fortress can deal with the higher digit models. Legion and Myriad will be responsible for the small fry. Question is do we take the big Scorpion with us?”
He looked the Najav over thoughtfully.
“I think that would be a good idea. My mobile Fortress will arrive here soon to take over defensive duties, and considering how powerful the Najav is it would be a waste to just have it sit here.” Jenna ventured.
“Fair enough. It’s not a great plan, but it’s one. We don’t have too much time to dilly dally, so make your preparations. We move in fifteen minutes.”
With that Shrapnel and Dominium Fortress wandered off to make their own preparations, while Chloe, Jenna, and me looked at each other.
“I think it would be best for me to grab some non-hexclaw drones to work in my stead. I’m still not comfortable fighting in close quarters, and with my mind a mess I think I want Kaysa controlled backup.” I told them.
“Sounds like a good idea. You sure you’re up to join us? With those drones you could just stay here.” Chloe asked, once again giving me a worried once over.
“I-,” I started, then stopped myself. She wasn’t wrong, but at the same time, it felt like a bit of a cop out. “I’m not sure I want to? I get what you mean, it would be much safer for me, but we are Samurai, it is part of the job. Also I wouldn’t be able to buy things with my drones, if need be. Not to mention I would feel kind of bad if I stayed out here, laying back and having a drink while you lot go out fighting.”
“At least get more protections then, okay?” Jenna asked, equally worried.
I smiled at them, “That was the plan.”
While we were talking, my virtual self was standing in a meeting room with Kaysa’s sexy elven form.
“Aight, Kaysa, what do you have for me? I need better protection and some drones or something that can work independently from me. Not sure if I need better armor, but it might be time for that. Something that can switch between clothes and armor maybe?”
With your current budget, you have quite the selection of options available. Although, I do have one idea that could potentially solve all of those problems at once.
“Oh?” I asked, intrigued, “Do tell.”
So far you have under utilised your Nanite Swarms quite thoroughly.
“Yeah, truth be told I’m not sure how exactly to work it into my current style. It sounded useful, but I have no idea how to actually use it properly. Kinda feels like I wasted the points, really.”
Which is why I brought it up. Instead of entirely dismissing it, or trying desperately to work it into a style that doesn’t really need it, you could use it as a basis for something new. You mentioned that you wanted drones not under your direct command, as well as clothing that could work as armor if need be. Both of these things could be achieved with a dedicated Nanite Swarm.
I nodded, thinking about it. “So far I imagined Nanite Swarms to be more useful for little things. Like, the disinfection thing for the little girl we helped. Although I suppose that stems from the Nanite Swarm I got first.”
Indeed. Generally Nanite Swarms can be quite versatile, especially the more advanced ones. The best option in that regard would be the Mark XVI Quasi-Sentient Hive for 2000 points a piece. In effect it is a large collection of nanites stored in dimensional shunted storage spaces, primarily focused on taking a drone shape in various forms, such as a body double of yours for example, which would also work quite well with your Kitsune theme. It can do more than that, of course, but not without some upgrades or combining it with other Nanite Swarm control units.
If you combine it with your Mark III General Utilities Nano Swarm AIO the nanites that would usually just serve as a mass for the body to form from, could be reprogrammed for other purposes. From healing nanites, to fleshmelters, whatever the situation requires you would have a rather large amount of nanites to work with.
Additionally these nanites can serve as additional armor if need be; instead of taking the form of a drone they can take the form of rather sturdy armor. This armor should be able to defend against something along Model Thirteens quite easily, as well as take a single hit from something like the model Twenty-Ones we’ve seen so far as well. That will most likely damage the armor integrity quite thoroughly and hurt, as you would say, like a bitch, but in case of emergency a lot of pain is better than death.
Since your goal is for me to control them directly, I will need to add some upgrades to it, to circumvent some of the restrictions I am under, but part of that is already covered by your new Hive Queen implant.
“Quite steep,” I muttered, although it did sound like a worthwhile expense.
Yes. The goal with this upgrade is to fill a niche you so far have very little off: Non-combat focused drones and additional protections. In effect they would serve as a basis for more personal capabilities, which are still disconnected enough from you to work independently and could, if need be, be used to help others.
“And if I remember right, the Lance can deliver Nanite payloads, which so far I haven’t done much with. I guess it would also help for that?”
Indeed.
“Okay, so we got drones and protections covered. Not sure how much I need better weapons, so far my Hard-Light Emitters seem to be keeping up. Anything else I’m missing? I got points out my ass, might be worthwhile to grab some more things while we still can.”
While you do plan on obtaining extensive body modifications in the future, it might be an idea to think about buying a dedicated group of Guard Drones for yourself, at least until you are a lot more resilient then you are now. Something like the Hexclaw War Drones would work well for that purpose, although I would advise to make some changes to them to better serve that purpose.
“True. They would need to be good at keeping me safe, deal with the majority of the things we could come across in close quarters, and be able to blend into the background if need be. Maybe even full on stealth capabilities? If I’m going to buy this kind of thing, I want them to be as capable as possible, maybe even get more in the future to keep Jenna and Chloe safe while I’m not around.”
A sensible idea. What exactly would you want them to do?
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