Stray Cat Strut

Somnus Deus Ex - Chapter Two

Somnus Deus Ex - Chapter Two

Daisy turned her head and looked at the alarm clock sitting next to her bed. It was battery operated, which was the only reason it still displayed the time. 12:10, in the AM.

She almost wanted to cry.

It was, in every way that mattered, Monday.

With a long-suffering sigh that came from deep, deep within her, Daisy pushed her blankets up. They were heavy, thickly padded things, and the plushies on top only served to make the blankets even harder to raise.

Are you well?

"Yeah," Daisy said. She slipped her feet into her slippers, then stood. "It's Monday."

I can confirm as much, yes.

Daisy very, very reluctantly stood. She adjusted her nightgown, then just stayed where she was, the weight of having to wait a whole six days until the next Sunday pressing down on her. "God damn it," she whispered.

Is everything okay? Your hormone levels are consistent with someone grieving. I'll admit that I'm somewhat concerned.

"I'm in mourning. Another Sunday has laid its life on the line and won't ever be seen again. It's a tragedy." She shook her head. "Sorry, I'm being melodramatic. It's just frustrating that I have another week to wait."

I probably shouldn't bring this up, but you know that as a Vanguard, the usual rules don't truly apply to you.

Daisy paused, then shook her head. "No. They still do. The rules don't apply to powerful samurai. I'm not that. Not yet. But I guess I can work on it." She stretched, a hand raising up as high as she could bring it while she tilted her upper body to one side. "How many points do I have?"

One hundred and thirty. Twenty from the two kills you secured. Another ten from your daily allowance.

"Okay. How do I spend them?"

That depends very much on what you want. What are you looking for?

"You're the expert," she said. "But I'm gonna head out now. So whatever would help?"

I see. Do you mind if I look into your media profiles? I can deduce from that the kind of equipment would be best suited for you. Though your actual preferences might be different after actual time spent in the field.

"Go nuts," Daisy said. "Can't imagine I'll get the good stuff for one-thirty."

In practical terms, I'd suggest energy-based weaponry. As for your defensive capabilities, I'd suggest not being hit.

Daisy blinked, then laughed. "Yeah, alright, I can do not being hit." She stretched the other way, then gestured to a row of trophies over her dresser. "Do those factor in?"

Your gymnastic experience is a factor, yes. It will be hard to tell how accurate you are until you pick up a weapon properly, but you did well enough with your father's shotgun at close ranges. The weapon is notably not suitable for you in terms of size and weight.

"Mhm," she said. The recoil had surprised her the first time, and the kick had hurt. Not enough to leave a bruise, but enough to make her respect the gun a little more with the second shot. "Alright. Shortlist some sort of light armour anyway. Something that I'll be able to move in. But first priority is on a good weapon. Third priority is on utilities."

Utilities?

"Something to help me move around. Gear to keep me in one piece. Cameras, better augs than what I have. I'm not averse to replacing bits and pieces of myself, but I'm guessing that kind of thing's expensive."

Daisy changed into an outfit better suited to leaving the house. Nice, tough jeans, a clean blouse, then a long-sleeved shirt with a few small pockets tossed on top of that. She picked through her closet until she found an old faux-leather jacket.

Catalogue unlocked: Light Energy-Based Weapons

Points reduced to: 80

Here, I think this will be suitable for you.

Weapon unlock: Pillowfriend.

Points reduced to: 30

A box appeared on the edge of her bed, and Daisy stared at it, then at the prompts. "Pillowfriend?" she asked before popping the box open. A gun sat within, small, compact, with a collapsed stock and folded sights atop it. Otherwise, the gun was sleek, bare metal with a small foregrip under the barrel. It almost looked more like a toy than anything else.

It's designed to be small and compact enough to hide away. Most of its functional parts, stock, sights, foregrip, are designed to fold into the weapon's main body. It's an energy weapon. The battery is usable for fifty full-powered shots. It's rechargeable via induction charging or direct-to-serial-bus charging. There's a wire in the box.

Daisy grabbed the gun, feeling its weight. She accepted the prompt to connect to it via her augs. A quick selection on the gun's simplified app had the stock and sights and foregrip popping open.

She grabbed it, tucked it against her shoulder, then aimed across the room. There was a little red-dot laser to help.

"Nice. Will this kill aliens well?"

It'll kill smaller, weaker models without too much difficulty. The penetrative power isn't all that impressive. You're going to have to make up for lack of punch with additional accuracy or volume of fire.

"It'll do," Daisy said. She toggled the weapon to fold itself back up, then checked in the box for the wire. It was a plain charging cable, the sort she'd found in drawers her entire life for old devices. Most modern things didn't do wired charging anymore, but the e-waste didn't just disappear overnight, and there were public places for recharging still. There was also a strap within the box. She idly hooked it onto the two small tabs on her new gun, then slung it over her shoulder so that it rested by her hip.

The gun's app read as fully charged. She was about as ready as she could be.

Stepping out of her room, Daisy picked up her dad's shotgun and moved it from next to her door to next to her dad's office. She knocked on the door. "I'm heading out," she said.

"What?" came her dad's tired reply.

"I'll be back in a bit. Don't worry," Daisy replied before moving on. "The gun's by your door," she called back.

She paused by the entrance, next to the now-decomposing alien corpses, to put on a pair of comfortable walking shoes. Then she had to move the bodies aside.

The house was dark, and the corridor outside of their apartment wasn't much better. The only illumination came from glowing red emergency lights.

She kicked both corpses out of her house, then closed the door. The lock didn't engage, because it was purely electronic, which was more annoying than anything else. "So, where can I find some easy kills?" she asked.

The building is on orange alert. The outer edge of the incursion reached this area some hours ago, but was mostly rebutted. You might have to leave the megabuilding complex in order to find a decent number of antithesis. Try heading west.

Daisy took a moment to remember which direction was west, then she started that way. The elevators were down, of course, but the power being out didn't stop the stairs from working.

Three floors down, she left the stairwell and started towards the largest open space within the mega building. A large interior park-like space lined by multiple floors of shops and community areas and enough ads to outshine the sun. They glowed, even with the power cut out.

From one of the upper floor balconies, Daisy was able to look down upon several hundred people all crammed into the bottom floor. They looked lost. Desperate. People in corpo outfits, the cream of the middle-class crop, all calling out to sweaty security for help.

She could very easily imagine her own family down in that press.

"Right," she said. "Let's not go down there. You said west, right? Let's find a way out of this place.

The megabuildings had dozens, hundreds of different exits. Some were bridges across to the next buildings over, others were for cars or service vehicles. There were only four primary exits, though, each leading out into the larger city around them and located at the 'ground' floor of the building.

Those were shut. The heavy bulkhead doors, each weighing several tones, slammed down and unmoving. So Daisy found a convenient walkway a floor above and left through there. The big door was a selling point for the building's security. She didn't ever expect it to keep anything determined out, or in.

The moment she stepped out into the wider world, Daisy knew something was wrong.

The city was burning. There were thick clouds of dark smoke, illuminated from below and rising into the sky like ungodly pillars. The distant crack of gunfire was so frequent that it might as well have been raindrops on tin. Sirens wailed and she could faintly pick out screams. Above, aircraft, helicopters, and hovering cars raced back and forth.

She stared for a moment.

Are you okay?

"Yeah. It's just... this feels like more of a Monday than usual."

***

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