Chapter Forty-Six - Monster Interrupt

“Verified-User Deus Ex:Yeah, nah, the worst hives are the ones in places you can’t get to. Like sure, hives in cities suck, but they’re at least visible, you know? You can tell aliens apart from human-made shit easily. Now hives out in the desert, or underground, or god forbid, underwater? Fuck that.

User; Find-El: Omg, who asked?”

Verified-User Deus Ex: ... I know where you live.”

-WriteIt Live, Deus Ex FAQ, 2055

***

“Alright,” I said as I tossed a bomb up and down one-handed. “Here’s the plan. We toss bombs all over, then get the fuck out before shit goes down.”

Manic huffed. “What a plan,” she said.

“I like them simple,” I said.

The pulsating mass of antithesis flesh ahead of us gurgled and we both stared as some of the sacs burst open and disgorged half a dozen model threes onto the tiled floor. One of them slipped near the edge of the pool and fell in with a splash, its body writhing as the acids at the bottom started to eat it.

“Okay,” Manic said. “Simple’s alright.”

I should warn you, there’s a good chance that this small hive isn’t the only one in the basement.

“Crap,” I swore. “Manic, blow those guys up, then toss this... this and this around,” I said as I placed a trio of bombs on the ground. The first was one of those acid sprayers, the second and third were more conventional explosives. “These two go on those pillars next to the pool.”

“And why am I doing all the work?” Manic asked.

“Because I’m gonna make sure the rest of the building comes down too.” I patted Manic on the shoulder. “Scream if something happens.”

“Alright,” she said before scooping up the bombs and stuffing them into the pockets of her jacket. The freshly-birthed model threes were shaking themselves off of their sac goop and had started to notice us, so Manic was going to have a bit of fun ahead of her, but I figured she’d be fine.

Heading back down the corridor leading to the pool, I checked my gun’s ammo count, then wondered if it was worth reloading when I still had over ninety-percent of a magazine left. Eh, it was probably fine. I didn’t feel like wasting points just yet. I was doing alright for myself, but I noticed that as my gear improved and started to cost more, I made fewer points per kill.

The curse of having better equipment was that it all cost more.

I was still in the black though, so I couldn’t complain too much. “Myalis, can you get me a blueprint of this place? Maybe give me an idea of where to put the bombs?”

Certainly.

A map of the basement popped up in my augs. It was isometric, made entirely of pixel art, and featured little pixel bombs (in the style of those round cannon balls with the little fuse sticking out the top) where I needed to place explosives.

Manic’s position was replaced by a tiny rocker-girl figure, and my location was a pixel-art cat, its back leg pointing to the heavens as it cleaned itself.

“For fuck’s...” I started, then stopped. It was still a functional map, all the jokes aside. The first bomb placement was right by the intersection ahead. Turned out that one of those walls was load-bearing or something.

I slapped a bomb onto them, then checked the map again. The basement was more or less square, with a big chunk of it taken up by the swimming pool. The rest though was a sort of L-shape with small rooms sticking out from the sides. The map didn’t label them, but I imagined they were mostly more community rooms or whatever.

I pretty much just had to place bombs at all four corners, and that would be enough to bring everything down.

So, of course, the moment I was in the main corridor and approaching the intersection I heard scrambling from around the bend. I shouldered my Laser Pointer and went wide so that I’d see the most corridor possible as I came around.

The first beastie I saw was a lone model three who gratefully ate a few rounds to the face.

Then I found more aliens waiting for me and opened up properly.

I was expecting to kill a dozen or so, maybe a couple of bigger models. But they kept coming. Soon my shoulder-mounted railguns were out and spitting fire into what felt like a deluge of aliens coming around the corner.

“What the hell,” I said as I lowered my gun for it to reload while taking a few steps back. “Myalis, what’s going on down here?”

It seems as if this area is connected to a larger hive, perhaps? I can’t see around corners, I’m afraid.

I grunted, and as soon as my gun was reloaded, pushed forwards. With a decent sight and some practice, taking down the aliens became less of a fight and more... point-and-click adventures in xeno genocide.

The hallway on the other side was filled with aliens. They were backed up all the way to the end of the corridor where a gaping hole was missing from the wall. “Which way is that?” I asked as I slid back around the corner for cover.

That’s pointing more or less straight towards the shore. It might be where the underwater hives are feeding into the city.

And those wouldn’t be affected by our nanomachine plague. I swore some more. “Acid bomb,” I ordered up. I caught a bomb as it appeared over my hand, pulled the tab, then flung it hard around the corner.

It went off with a hiss, and after a few stragglers came around, the number of aliens decreased.

I poked my head around and could make out dozens more through a thin orangey fog that was obscuring everything and melting any alien that got caught in it.

“Alright,” I said. “I’m not going over there, through that, to place a bomb.”

Maybe you should have considered that before filling the corridor with deadly acid?

“Meh,” I said. “If we can’t put a bomb on the support, we just need a bigger bomb here, right?” I asked. Myalis sighed into my ears, but then a large box appeared by my feet with a heavy thunk. It was a bomb. A large one. With little wires behind a glass case and big bundles of plastic explosives with metal rods in them. “Classy,” I said.

I do try. The other option is a rocket launcher.

I paused.

You want to try the rocket launcher?

“Well, now that I know it’s an option,” I said.

I pushed the big bomb back towards the wall with a foot. It wasn’t like it would go to waste, then I giggled and rubbed my hands together as Myalis summoned up a box that was half as long as I was tall. Kicking it open revealed a long tube and a single very obvious rocket right under that with a metal rod on one end and a very obvious rocket head on the other. The words SINGLE USE. POINT THAT WAY => were painted on the side of the launcher.

I picked it up, slid the rocket into the end, then spun around the corner and took a knee. There was a handle with a big old trigger on it, and a little glass sighting thing that I used to aim the rocket down the corridor.

A corridor now nearly entirely filled by a single, massive alien that was charging down through half-melted corpses without a care in the world.

“Ah, shit,” I said before I fired.

The rocket screamed forwards and rammed the alien in the face, then it dug in and sputtered out.

“Ah, shit shit,” I said as the alien continued to charge.

That was a model eighteen, and I had no idea how it was fitting into the corridor.

That rocket was supposed to be detonated from range. It’s packing a rather powerful explosive warhead, to compensate for the fact that you’d likely miss the section of wall you were supposed to aim for.

“Okay, and?” I asked as I ran.

The model eighteen is carrying it back towards you.

Right, that was a problem. I pulled out a couple of grenades from my belt, tugged the pins out, then flung them behind me. Hopefully they’d gain me a few seconds.

Then the model eighteen barreled around the corner and rammed into the far wall while its trunk-sized legs scrambled for purchase.

“Manic!” I called out ahead. “Manic, we’re leaving now!”

Manic popped up at the T-junction ahead, looked at me, then past me to the big alien on my ass, and then she did the smart thing and darted into the stairwell. I followed after her, shoulder checking the door out of the way as I barged in. She was already halfway up the stairs. “Hurry up!” she said.

“You don’t need to tell me twice,” I said. I flung more grenades behind me. Resonators, adhesive grenades, garrots, whatever would slow the big bastard down without setting off the bomb lodged in its face.

We burst out onto the ground floor, then took off through the building even as the linoleum cracked and the model eighteen started to ram its way up from below.

“Jennifer!” I shouted as I got to the maintenance closet and tore the door open.

“Hello,” the sexbot said.

I grabbed it by the wrist and ran. “Move!”

***