by Isaac Hooke
Tane went out to the shooting range and found a pistol sitting on its own in one of the stalls. “Bingo.”
He scooped up the weapon and hurried back to the showroom.
He aimed the pistol at the lock of the display case and blew it away. He performed a quick ID on the rifle and then slid it into his personal storage device. He continued in that manner, moving across the room, stowing the best weapons into his pouch.
When he came upon a weapon that was better than anything before it, he’d cycle through the items in his storage device and choose one to discard.
Between the two of them Tane and Sinive looted the entire place, and when they were done, most of the display cases lay empty, their discarded weapon choices lying scattered in piles on the floor.
Tane went through Sinive’s castoffs and chose one that he liked, dumping another weapon to hold it. In total he carried eleven weapons. Two hung from his shoulders as his primacy weapon choices. The remaining nine were stored in the pouch.
That had to be worth some upgrades when he got back to his own universe.
If he got back.
He examined the IDs of his main weapon picks again:
Weapon: T2 Laser Rifle.
Model: Tiger II-5 Multi-Pulse Rev b.
Item type: Uncommon.
Additional damage: 25% added laser burn damage per hit.
Additional effects: None.
Adjustable grip for spacesuit and battle armor gloves.
Laser Rifle specific:
Firing rate: Semi-automatic. 6 pulses released per shot, every time.
Recharge rate: 15 seconds.
Overall weapon charge: 100%.
Extra features: Weapon lights, illuminated scope, laser sight (all upgradeable). Pica rail for mounting purposes.
Weapon: D18 Plasma Rifle.
Model: Dagger G-18 Rev c.
Item type: Rare (Military Grade).
Additional damage: 50% added plasma burn damage per hit.
Additional effects: Smart targeting. Select targets, squeeze trigger, and muzzle rotates to disperse plasma bolts in desired pattern.
Adjustable grip for spacesuit and battle armor gloves.
Plasma Rifle specific:
Firing rate: Semi-automatic. 5-30 round bursts.
Recharge rate: 20 seconds per round.
Overall weapon charge: 100%.
Extra features: Weapon lights, illuminated scope, laser sight (all upgradeable). Pica rail for mounting purposes.
The D18 plasma rifle was his weapon of choice. When he picked it up, the grip and trigger area expanded to suit his bulky gloves. He planned to utilize that rifle for most encounters going forward, with the T2 laser ready as a backup. The rest of the weapons in his stash were of similar quality, but he’d be selling them.
With the showroom clear, he and Sinive proceeded to search the rest of the place, including the range itself. It was kind of fun to be able to go wherever he wanted and loot with impunity, without fear of arrest or pissing anybody off, and without hurting anyone in the long run, since his own universe would be unaffected by any pilfering here.
In a back office he found a desk, and a quick search revealed a cache of grenades in the bottom drawer. That was definitely the private property of the owners, as no gun ranges allowed grenade throwing that Tane knew of. Though why the owners would store their grenades at their office, Tane had no idea: maybe to secretly sell as part of some weapons black market. If law enforcement ever developed the ability to access the Umbra at will, they’d have a field day casing suspects. Say goodbye to search warrants.
He returned to the showroom and grabbed a harness big enough to fit over his spacesuit, and then he returned to the back office and stowed the grenades into different pockets on the harness. The weapons were a bit small for his gloves, but manageable enough.
He repeated his ID scan on the items. There were two types, energy and incendiary.
Weapon: G22 Incendiary Grenade.
Model: Grazer B-22 Rev c.
Item type: Rare (Military Grade).
Additional damage: 50% added fire damage per hit. Each hit also imbues 30% fire damage per second until the gelling agent is removed.
Additional effects: The explosion spews jellied gasoline in all directions, igniting struck targets in an incendiary effect. Contains no oxidizing agents, therefore the weapon is useless outside of atmospheres lacking oxygen, halogens, or similar oxidizers.
Grenade specific:
Lethal radius: 5 meters.
Effective wounding radius: 15 meters.
Can be thrown 40 meters by the average unenhanced soldier.
Reusable: No.
Weapon: P3 Smart Targeting Energy Grenade.
Model: Phaze C-3 Rev a.
Item type: Rare (Military Grade).
Additional damage: 50% added energy damage per hit.
Additional effects: Smart targeting. Select target, release grenade, and onboard thrusters will guide it to the target site. Upon impact, grenade releases four megajoules of pure explosive energy, releasing fragments in a three hundred and sixty degree dispersion pattern. Unarmored targets in the lethal radius are killed instantly.
Grenade specific:
Lethal radius: 7 meters.
Effective wounding radius: 25 meters.
Can be thrown 80 meters by the average unenhanced soldier, due to onboard propulsion.
Reusable: No.
Those latter grenades were essentially the same as short-range seeker missiles, as far as Tane was concerned.
When he met back with Sinive at the front of the place, he saw that she had elected to replace her existing pistol with two more that were basically twins of one another. Currently holstered, when he scanned the pistols, he learned that the weapons were military grade like much of his own, and self -aiming. He had wondered how someone could fire two pistols at the same time with any sort of accuracy. Now he knew.
“All right, that was a good run,” Tane said.
“Sure was,” Sinive agreed.
“And now I’m going to follow these threads.” Tane beckoned toward one arm and the filaments that led away to the east. “You can come with me if you want. Or you can go back to the shipyard. Up to you.”
Sinive sighed. “Of course I’m going with you. It’s not a very good idea to separate right now.”
He was relieved, mostly because he was bluffing. If she refused to back down and bid him farewell to head for the shipyard, he would have abandoned his search for the thread source and gone with her right then and there.
But now he was free to search for the dark source.
He wasn’t sure he actually wanted to.
Well, can’t change my mind now.
“This way, then,” Tane said, heading east.
“The exit is the other way,” Sinive said.
“Yeah, but my filaments point this way,” Tane said. “I’m sure there’s another exit on this side of the retail center.”
“Fine.” Sinive rolled her eyes behind her faceplate but didn’t complain further.
On the way out they passed a store that offered personal protection devices. Interesting how it was placed strategically close to the gun range. Inside, there were a couple of personal shield systems in the display cases. Tane selected one for himself and shot open the lock; Sinive did likewise.
He attached it to the center of his spacesuit’s utility belt, linked his chip to the device and activated it. A globe of blue light immediately shone from the shield system, telling him that it was working.
He reread the ID:
Shield: A2 Personal Shield System
Model: Aegis C-2 Rev a.
Item type: Uncommon.
Weight: 1 kg.
Damage absorption: 10
Shield effects: Protects against laser, plasma, energy, and melee weapons. Useless against Essence attacks. Can be worn over external gear such as spacesuits or powered armor.
Shield specific:
Ef
fective radius: Fifty centimeters on all sides of the body. External surfaces present during activation will interfere with the projection. For example when the owner leans back against a wall and activates the shield system, the back of the body will have zero protection. The same holds true for the soles of the feet during general operation when one is standing on the ground.
Current Charge: 100%
Recharge rate from zero: 180 seconds.
Battery level: *Warning* Extremely low. *Warning*
Tane glanced at Sinive. “I wonder how well these things will hold up against those dweller energy launchers.”
“Only one way to find out,” Sinive said, clipping on the personal shield she had chosen. “Though to be honest, I don’t plan on intentionally testing that out.”
“Neither do I,” Tane said. He didn’t really like the low battery warning, and was about to shut off the shield to conserve power when the blue globe of light flickered and cut out on its own. “Hmm, that can’t be good.”
He tried to reactivate it, but the shield wouldn’t respond.
“Battery’s dead,” Tane said.
Sinive glanced at him. “Me too.”
The two of them ran a quick ID on the other four shield generators on display, but all the devices had dead batteries.
“Might as well hang on to them in case we find a charging station,” Sinive said.
“Or to sell.” Tane checked his overhead map. “I don’t see any charging stations marked on the map. But what we should really do is find a nanotech store. There has to be a Microchipping Solutions branch around here somewhere.”
“Won’t matter,” Sinive said. “I tried that with Nebb last time we were in the Umbra. We weren’t able to program the nanotech, so we couldn’t inject it. And by the time we got back to our universe, the micro machines were inert. Waste of time.”
“Oh,” Tane said. “Yet another weird difference between our universes.”
“Yes,” Sinive said. “It has something to do with their size, I think. See how the edges of everything around us seem blurry, insubstantial? For nanotech, it’s not just the edges of the individual micro machines, but their entire bodies that are blurred. They’re just too small to properly exist here, even if they don’t form a neural net of any kind.”
Tane led the way down the eastern walkway, and took a gravalator to the first floor. As Tane stepped out into the concourse, he spotted a food court...
And immediately dove behind the side of the gravalator. Sinive joined him.
“What is it?” she asked.
“Kraals,” Tane said. He nodded toward the food court. The four-legged creatures were sprawled around the tables and chairs. They seemed to be asleep. Floating above a table in the center was a dark, pulsating crystal, about the size of a human head.
“What the hell is that?” Tane asked.
“It’s their food source,” Sinive said. “Last time Nebb and I were in this universe, trying to do some looting, we saw a different species of kraal crowding around a crystal just like this. They’d shoved their faces into it, and when their heads reemerged they’d walk off drunkenly to one side and promptly fall asleep.”
“Ironic that it would exist in a food court,” Tane said. He stared at crystal and found himself irresistibly drawn to the thing. He couldn’t shake the sudden overwhelming avarice he felt. “I bet that thing is worth more than anything I have in my inventory. We’ll be rich when we get back.”
“If we get back,” Sinive said. “Forget it, Outrimmer. We don’t need it. Do you really want to risk stirring up the kraals to satisfy your greed?”
“Look at them, they’re fast asleep,” Tane said. “We might as well pick it up while we’re here.” He moved quietly out from cover and approached the sleeping kraals.
“This is a bad idea,” Sinive said. She remained rooted to the spot behind the gravalator, but she had drawn her two pistols and was covering him.
Tane moved between the different kraals. The dark threads were pulling him away from the food court, to the east, where there was indeed another exit. But he couldn’t share the allure he felt when he gazed on that crystal.
The kraals were spaced relatively far apart from one another near the outskirts of the food court, but as he got closer to the floating crystal, they creatures were very close together, and he had to be careful where he put his boots.
When he was about five meters away he was forced to climb onto a table because several of the kraals were piled on top of each other, blocking the way on both sides. He could try to go around them, but there was no guarantee he’d find an easier path than simply scaling the table.
On the other side of the table there was hardly any empty floor space at all, and he had to be very careful where he placed each foot, otherwise he’d wake a sleeping kraal.
Maybe this is a bad idea. We could leave now, get away scot-free.
He almost turned back, but then he glanced at the dark crystal and felt that overwhelming pull again.
I have to have it. And I’ve come this far...
He tiptoed between the remaining closely-packed beasts and paused beside the final table. He gazed up into the floating crystal, not sure what he would see up close, but there was only that same pulsating blackness.
“Any ideas how to pick it up?” he said quietly over the comm.
“Nope,” Sinive said. “You should have thought about that before you tiptoed out into the middle of them.”
While the object looked solid, Sinive had said the kraals were able to shove their faces inside. What if his hand passed right through it?
He hesitated a moment longer, and then leaned against the edge of the table—being careful to avoid the kraal that was lying right on top of it—and then reached underneath the crystal. Palm up, he touched the underside.
His glove didn’t pass through. The object seemed solid enough. He could feel it pulsing slightly in his grasp, like a beating heart.
He tightened his grip and was able to move the dark crystal away from the table and toward his body. He attached it to a spare buckle on his harness and then turned away from the table.
The object continued to pulsate against his suit, shifting in color from black to darker black with each beat, sending out subtle vibrations every time.
He made his way back across the crowded floor, and when he reached the outer perimeter where the kraals were more spaced out, he exhaled in relief and quickly closed the gap to Sinive.
“There, see?” Tane said. “That wasn’t so bad.”
“Can we go now?” she asked.
“I don’t want anything more,” Tane said.
A howl behind him sent him leaping straight into the air. He spun to find a kraal standing up on a table and pointing directly at him. The other kraal leaped upright, almost as one.
“Time to go!” Tane said, retreating.
He swung down his D18, pointed it behind him with one arm, and selected the auto “smart targeting” feature. Then he squeezed the trigger. He could feel the vibrations as the muzzle shifted to target different pursuers. He glanced over his shoulder and saw that he had mowed down six of them.
Beside him, Sinive twisted her torso and also fired as she ran, using her smart targeting to an equally deadly effect.
“Hope you’re happy now!” Sinive said.
Tane burst through the exit and wrenched an energy grenade from his harness. The smart targeting indicator appeared on his HUD; he swiveled his torso as he ran and selected the lead kraal that was still inside the building behind him. Before the swinging doors shut, he casually chucked the energy grenade toward them, and the thrusters in the weapon immediately activated, steering through the gap in the doors and toward the incoming kraals beyond.
The grenade detonated a moment later. The doors exploded: embedded within the glass and metal pieces that flew outward were black kraal body parts.
“This way!” Tane said, following the direction of the ephemeral threads emerging from hi
s spacesuit.
“Are you sure you want to follow those dark filaments now of all times?” Sinive said. “If it’s a trap...”
“Then it’s a trap.” Tane proceeded eastward.
As the pair sprinted down the street, the kraals began to close behind them.
“Give up the crystal!” Sinive said. “Get them off our tail!”
He wrapped his gloved fingers around it. He wanted to cut it loose, he really did, but he couldn’t bring himself.
Instead he wrapped his fingers around an incendiary grenade and tossed it behind him. It detonated with a satisfying kaboom, and when he glanced over his shoulders he saw a large fiery splat around the blast crater, with several nearby kraals running around in circles, their bodies on fire. When other creatures accidentally plowed into them, the flames spread to their bodies as well thanks to the jellied gasoline.
