Deep Dive Ch. 06 - Alone

Around late afternoon I stopped to assess my situation. Making detours took a heavier toll on my travel time than I anticipated, and I wasn't sure how long I could keep going before I would get a point of exhaustion. Now that I was alone, I had to pay more attention to things like this. Walking around the patrols was the safest option, but I should start looking for a place to camp for the night, and those were guarded most of the time. I couldn't count on finding another hidden bunker in the middle of the forest. Besides, I won't get any exp points if I keep avoiding enemies. Sooner or later I will be forced to fight, and being under-leveled didn't sound great.

I had another three hours of sunlight, tops, and I wasn't keen on exploring in the dark. I would have to take more direct routes now and clear a few outposts along the way, hoping that one of them will be suitable to stay the night at. Moreover, even if I wasn't running low on supplies right now, I still had some space in the inventory, and it's always better to have more gear.

------------|V|------------

This one won't do.

I sighed, sitting down on the crate. This was the fifth outpost I cleared out. All of the previous ones weren't suited for a camp either. Easy to spot, hard to defend. If not for the exp, I wouldn't even bother clearing them.

I reloaded the rifle and started walking north again. The time was running out and I was getting more nervous with each passing minute. The update goes live in twenty, and I was still walking around, hoping to find a place to stay the night.

Pushing forward I was fairly sure I was closing in on a bigger outpost. The forest was thinning out, and the dirt roads were now clearly visible, and not overgrown with grass as before. I still kept my distance from the main path, walking between the trees. It didn't slow me down as much and the cover it provided was more than enough to make it a worthwhile tradeoff. I wondered how much of it was thanks to my recon skills, not that I was complaining. I found it funny how I noticed all the shortcomings of my character but completely missed the advantages. Maybe it's because the first ones are easier to spot.

I reached the end of the tree line. Ahead of me was an open field that ended with a tall stone wall. What interested me, was a narrow rope ladder hanging from an opening in it, around ten feet up from the ground. If that was the only way to get there this would be an ideal spot to camp for the night. High ground with no easy entry point. Now the only thing left to do was to take down the guards.

I spotted four of them, sitting at the base of the rock wall, near the ladder. Those were the same enemies as the ones I fought back at the mansion, so I more or less knew what to expect. Still, four to one are not the best odds, doable, but dangerous. The distance played to my advantage, but I already learned once that sheer volume of fire can be a game changer, and wasn't about to rush straight in. I couldn't see the inside of the cavern, and I was almost sure that someone was inside as well.

Getting down on the ground I started crawling forward, out from between the trees and further into the field, using tall grass to hide. I was as careful as possible, never moving two limbs simultaneously. Slow and steady, until I reached the midpoint of the field from where I could see directly into the crack in the stone wall. It looked like the outpost was set up as much on the ground as up high, with a few boxes and bedrolls in the grotto above. Luckily, I didn't see any movement or lights in there.

I pulled up the mini-map for just a second, this time remembering to cover it with the other hand, and checked the time. Around two minutes until the update. Shit, I lost more time crawling than I thought I would. Should I wait until the new version goes live, and then engage?

Nah, let's do it fast.

I activated all three fast-equip slots I had available, and in a moment I could feel both of my holsters with pistols materializing on my belt, and the weight of my rifle pressing down on my back. Getting up on one knee and bracing the big gun against my shoulder felt almost natural at this point. I didn't even have to hold my breath as I sent the first bullet flying.

I heard the high-pitch electric crack of a shield discharging. This far into the level, everyone seemed to have one. Not a worry, I could fix that by pulling the trigger a few more times. The second and third shots went straight through his chest, taking one of the enemies down before they even knew they were in danger. The fourth bullet popped another shield. I dodged to the side as they aimed their weapons at me. Two more shots, burning through some of the energy of the suit to stabilize them, and now I didn't have to worry about shields anymore.

I swung the rifle onto my back and started running forward, skipping and dodging to the sides as they fired at me. This was a tactic I figured out during my last few fights. Thinking back to what James told me, and my own experience with the game I figured out that unless I could massively outrange the enemy, there was no point in keeping my distance, especially when I had no one else to be a frontline. The numbers disadvantage proved more than once to be a match for my precision strikes, so I had to bend the rules a bit.

After two more firing sequences, one of which took a solid chunk out of my shield, the enemies stopped shooting, and rushed at me, taking out the metal batons they used for melee. Just like before, they did this when we were around thirty feet from each other, which confirmed my assumption, and that was a signal to start the third part of the plan.

I stopped in place, whipped out my new, ballistic pistol, and pointed it at the first enemy. As expected, the grunts chose to try and get into melee range instead of switching back to their rifles.

A mistake I was more than happy to exploit.

I dumped half of the magazine into the first one, not leaving any chances for him to get back up. Damn, that pistol kicked like a mule, I still had trouble keeping it on target. Aiming at the second opponent, I pulled the trigger twice before I had to dodge backward when he came too close.

Now came the most difficult part, the actual CQC. I tried it once and learned that I suck at it. Or at least my character does, so I created a new fighting style. It was still close quarters but didn't involve any punching or kicking. All I had to do was maintain enough distance to be able to still use my pistols and stay out of range of their melee weapons. Who would have guessed that the best weapon in a knife fight was still a gun?

I rolled to the side, as the metal baton swung over my head and hip-fired when I regained balance. One of the shots connected, but sadly it hit the healthy guy instead of the wounded one and to make matters worse the gun locked open as I emptied the magazine. I took another few steps back, holstering one pistol and reaching with my other hand for the second one when my shield popped.

I looked to the side from which I felt something connect and cursed as I saw another of those grunts standing in the opening up high in the stone wall. Fuck, that was not the plan! Was this guy fucking sleeping in there? Shit!

I dashed back again as the two closer enemies moved closer, but as I put more distance between us the one at the camp started shooting again. One of the stray bullets hit me in the arm making me grit my teeth from a momentary pain that quickly dulled into a low, persistent ache, but even that couldn't distract me as I furiously tried to come up with a plan.

If I fight up close with those two, I will lose. If I stay back, I will get shot at, and there is no way I can hit that guy way over there with my pistol. The only thing keeping me from being a shooting gallery is a threat of friendly fire. So I have to keep close.

Wait, I got it. Not close, just in the line of fire. I was faster than them, even if only slightly, but it should work.

I holstered my gun and started running toward the shooter.

He braced his rifle to the shoulder, aiming at me.

And stayed still.

I didn't have to look back to know that his two friends were right behind me, and he couldn't risk it. I had to watch my pace, not to outrun my pursuers too far, or else I would give the guy in front a clear shot, but at the same time not let the two behind me catch me.

I knew this stalemate wouldn't last long as I was running head-on into a dead end. I looked straight at the enemy up high, hoping for him to move. You can't shoot me, asshole, come down and fight me! The stone wall was getting closer and closer, just a few dozen feet now. Fuck, the first plan went bust, and the second one was me fighting with my back against the wall. Literally.

The shooter swung his rifle onto his back and started going down the ladder. Yes! At least it won't be three-on-one from the start. With a single move, I took out my laser pistol, turned around, and fired at the closest pursuer. He lost his balance and fell, maybe dead maybe not, I will have to make sure later. The second one on the other hand was feeling great and had zero problems with dodging around his comrade and slamming his baton with full force into my stomach.

I disabled all the pop-ups earlier, HP included, but I knew that this hit took a solid chunk out of my health pool even before I hit the ground. I got barely a second to get my bearings together before another attack came, this time with a downward swing. It missed my head by just a few inches as I rolled to the side. Not wasting the opportunity I grabbed his hand, placed both of my feet on his waist and torso used his momentum to throw him over behind me. I remember learning this years ago, good thing my character had at least some skills in hand-to-hand combat or I wouldn't have pulled it off.

I stood up looking at my hands trying to understand why wasn't I holding my pistol anymore. I must have dropped it after that first hit. Whatever, I'll just get the other one. The one with the chamber still locked open. I reached for a spare magazine when a burst of bullets hit me in the chest.

I hit the ground once again, cursing myself for forgetting about the third guy. I thought he would rush me after coming down, but seems I was wrong. My left hand still fished around my belt, trying to find the damn mag as I spotted the remaining pursuer getting up. I couldn't run, not now when he had fire support, so I just crawled back, trying to buy some time.

My fingers brushed against the metal and I pulled the magazine out of the holster. Seven rounds, single stack, sliding in with a satisfying click into the gun. It both flew from my hands before I could do anything useful with it as the metal baton slammed into my forearm. Luckily any serious pain in this game lasted only for a split second, or I would have called it right there.

The enemy raised his hand for another swing but I was faster. A well-placed kick to the knee took him off-balance, and the next one to the same spot forced him to support himself with one hand on the ground. In those two seconds he spent trying not to collapse I reached for the gun, released the slide, and loaded a round into the chamber, then placed the barrel against his head.

The world paused for a brief moment as I pulled the trigger. The muzzle blast was visible slightly too long, the recoil felt somewhat late. Then the body of now dead grunt collapsed straight onto my chest.

This must have been the update. The lag was easily noticeable, unlike previous hotfixes, so the devs must have pushed a lot of changes live. Now that I mentioned it, I noticed that there was no blood on me, which was strange since I just put a bullet through the head of the guy directly above me. I was also feeling different. Kinda in a good way, all of the dull sores that I collected after getting hit went away but instead were replaced with an overall sense of exhaustion. Guess that's a new way of telling the players how much health they have left.

I thought it was a positive change until I tried to get the body off of me. Earlier I could power through the aching limbs, and with a bit of determination still make full use of my strength, even when wounded. Now I was feeling better than before, but at the same time was too weak to make any substantial progress with freeing myself from the weight of the body on top of me.

Then it just moved aside on its own. My surprise turned way too quickly into anger as I once again realized, that I had forgotten about the last guy. Free to move once again I tried to pull my gun at him, but he sent it flying with a kick. Now I lost both of my pistols, probably more than half of my health, and about to get beaten into the ground with a metal bar. I pulled my arms up, covering my head, hoping to get at least some protection when the first strike came.

Instead, I felt my wrists being grabbed and then pulled up, as he knelt right beside me, keeping my hands pinned to the ground. The featureless helmet covering his face prevented me from guessing what he was planning to do next.

I wasn't kept guessing for long though, since as soon as my fists dug into the soil he switched to a one-handed grip, holding both of my wrists while his other hand moved down. For a second I thought that he was trying to take something out from his inventory, like cuffs or something, but the movement of his arm stopped halfway through, and his palm landed flat on my chest.

I had some subconscious feeling, that the new update may push the game in a very specific direction, especially after reading the developers' message on the terminal. But the chances of that scenario coming to fruition were so small I completely ignored it. Now I was witnessing it from the first-person view, but being proven right was such an unexpected outcome that I didn't even know how to react.

The alien's hand pressed on one of my breasts, the protective ballistic plate transferring the pressure evenly across all of it. I instinctually tried to twist my torso away, but his grasp prevented me from moving. He tried the same with the other breast, but the plating again dulled the sensation. Dulled, but not eliminated. I had some control of the situation for now, but I knew I was on a timer, and was not too keen on finding out what would happen when it ran out.

"Didn't expect that, huh?" I mocked, slowly rotating one of my fists, trying to get enough space to pull it free. "You know, the only other person to get it off me had to work a lot harder than this to..."

The words got stuck in my throat as I felt his fingers trace the outline of the plate and then hook underneath it. This should have not been possible, only I could disengage the binds. My eyes went wide as I watched him tear the plating off and throw it away.

"Wait, wait, wait!" I tried to twist away once more, the panic slowly creeping into my voice as my wrists were still held tight, "Don't you dare..."

He did dare, and my voice was cut short, turning into a sharp inhale. The skintight suit didn't offer any protection this time, as I felt my breast get roughly squeezed. Subverting another expectation, he also didn't stop.

I gritted my teeth, trying to keep my voice down, not knowing if I was doing it for his sake or my own. I could feel my heart beating faster and faster, my body responding to the stimulation in the only way it knew how. I pulled my hand with all my might, but it barely even fazed him, not enough to get myself free, not enough to even slow down his groping. Either he was stronger than the others, which I wasn't betting on, or I was losing my strength not only as my health went down, but also as my arousal went up. This was bad, really bad.

I exhaled frantically getting a second of respite when he moved to the other breast. This one was still covered with protective plating, but I knew it wouldn't be for long. I had to do something now. Doesn't matter what, just do anything, or I'm done. I could feel the now familiar sensation slowly building, and I knew that once I crossed this line it was over. This is all wrong, I shouldn't even have breasts in the first place!

Some hidden but curious part of my brain asked a question if it was even possible for me to have an orgasm without any stimulation down below, but the more rational part, which held the majority, shut it down almost immediately.

I felt the fingers trace the edge, then hook underneath. One solid pull sent the other plate flying but also provided me with a small window of opportunity. The alien lost his balance for a second, and that was the moment I was waiting for. Using his hand pinning my wrists to the ground as a hold, I pulled both legs to my chest and delivered a double kick to the stomach, sending him tumbling backward.

Now what?

I stood up, begrudgingly noticing that my knees were shaking slightly, and started looking for my pistols. It took just one glance to realize that I won't find anything in the tall grass around me, and another glance at the approaching enemy to know that I simply didn't even have time to do it.

Guess it's down to good, old hand-to-hand combat. I took the position, my feet wide and hands up, ready to dodge whatever he threw at me. I didn't have any special skills when it came to melee, but I had a solid dexterity score. Maybe I stood a chance if I focused on counter-attacks. Not the best plan, but what choice did I have? Run? He still had his rifle. I'd rather dodge fists than bullets.

I ducked underneath the first punch and threw a quick right jab at his head. Despite the helmet, it seemed to have some effect as he reeled back a step. I could read from his body language that he was as surprised as me with the whole situation.

Getting a necessary boost of confidence I skipped from one leg to the other, scanning his armor for weak points at the same time. He pressed forward with another straight punch, and I answered with a low right hook this time. Similar reaction, it staggered him for a second, but I didn't know if I dealt any damage. I could stall the fight like this, but not win.

I took a few steps back until my back pressed against the stone wall. I saw the rope ladder from the corner of my eye and was trying to figure out a way to use it to my advantage. If I knock him down I could climb up into the cave, and then I would have the high ground, which is an automatic win.

I ducked left as he came at me with another punch and answered first with a right hook. Seeing an opening I followed with a left haymaker, which turned out to be a bad idea, as a spike of pain shot through my arm when my fist connected with the helmet. This distraction was the tipping point. The fight was going slightly in my favor up until this moment, then the uppercut to the sternum forced all the air out of my lungs and my vision went black for a second.

The world was still spinning as my back hit the wall behind me, slowing down my fall. Something grabbed my hands and dragged me to the side. I was aware of that happening, but couldn't do anything to stop it. This must have been one of the in-game status effects. I felt the rope with my fingers and instinctually grabbed it. I clutched it so hard my wrists started to hurt.

Wait, why would my wrist hurt from that?

The world decided to not be blurry once again, and as I came back to my senses I noticed two things. First, I was sitting on the ground, directly below the entrance leading to the hideout above. That was good, I even was holding the ladder. The second thing I noticed when I tried to get a better grip and something didn't let me do that. I looked up and understood why my wrists hurt.

"Oh fuck," I tried to pull, but the knot held my hands securely in place. I looked down at the alien who was watching me struggle, probably all smug now since I couldn't do anything about it. "Yeah, you got me. I'd clap if I could."