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VLCC (Very Large Cargo Carrier) Autonomous Freight Drone
(You have lost trait: Burning)
(You have gained trait: Scorched)
This is not as bad as Gargaresh, you are thinking to yourself, as the agony of rolling around upon insalubrious vertical slum rooftop grit finally smothers the burning flames - it feels like jagged stones grating the raw nerves and tendons of pink meat - but you have not survived thirteen firefights without becoming Hardened to pain. This is not even one tenth as bad as when you lost an arm, in Gargaresh, that second time... (the phantom pain of your missing limb twinges a little, amidst the nest of connectors of the two synthetic grafts)
Overhead there is a sequential pattern of looming shadows, darkening your surroundings. It is not Gnadenfrei, but a convoy of autonomous scavenger cargo ships - and one amongst them looks almost like some outlaw ganger or pirate vessel, stacked and laden with rusted freight containers. As this ganger cargo ship draws closer and its gravitics churn the pollutant mist and lingering ionised burnt cinders, you can see there is an intimidating silhouette, an ogre-like shape nestled amidst the shipping containers, its shoulders serrated with the irregular edge of firepower, like the cannons mounted upon crenellated battlements -
All of a sudden, you realise why Princess Hercules was so arrogant as to adopt her "bikini exoskeleton" unarmed naked midriff look. The exoskeleton itself was not the weapon... it was merely some tactical musculature driven-interface, for piloting something much, much larger...
Gnadenfrei hangs in the air. You can sense its machine mind evaluating, though to your surprise, it takes no action against this new threat. It just waits.
