“Prism, do you even understand how annoying contacts are?” Emmelyn sighs, pinching the bridge of her nose. “They don’t even make me look prettier, I don’t get the appeal. Plus, you don’t get to take them off seductively when you have a cute girl in your-”

Emmelyn giggles as she ducks under a playful swing of a harpoon, sticking out her tongue at her beet-red partner as she mirthfully dances away.

-Emmelyn ‘Limelight’ Seras, October 2056, one hour before the destruction of New Houston

The zombie awkwardly lunged at me on unsteady legs, far too unsteady in its footing for it to actually achieve anything worthwhile, before my Amp-Thrower unleashed a flood of electricity that forked into the dead pig. It fell to the floor convulsing before it finally went still.

Noticing the rest of the pigs were starting to pull themselves up, I began electrocuting them one by one as I stomped on any wayward worms, splattering their guts all over the floor. Off in the background, I heard a second mine detonate; The antithesis definitely knew I was here now, best to hurry things up in here.

I spent the next few minutes finishing off the zombies and squishing more bugs. By the time I had finished, the third and fourth mines had also detonated. Rushing up to the door, I found a pile of bodies just outside as the final mine killed off a group of Threes.

I grimace as I step over the corpses, scanning the horizon for any other Models. “Pyri, how many of these things did I even end up killing?”

The short answer is twenty-six units, not including the Sevens you were killing off inside.

Targets Eliminated! Model One x2 2 Model Three x17 170 Model Four x5 75 Model Five x1 20 Model Seven x71 355 Model Nine x1 25 Reward: 647 Total: 861

I had to pick my jaw up off the floor as I saw my point count nearly quadruple. “There surely weren’t that many Sevens in there right?”

There were indeed that many. You caught the antithesis moving their corpses fairly early, so most of the remaining livestock still had a unit inside them. Not to mention the ones you flattened.

Pyri’s explanation made sense, after a while going from corpse to corpse was getting a bit stale, so I had started paying more attention to the worms that were trying to infect me directly instead. Giving the list another glance I groaned at the last entry. “Oh great.”

I assume you’re referring to the presence of a stealth unit on this list?

“Yes Pyri, that is in fact what I’m talking about,” I moved slightly back inside the doorway to force a bottleneck against an advancing swarm of Ones I had spotted while preparing my final grenade. ”Is there anything I could get to see through their stealth?”

You do have a few options with the influx of points you have acquired. For one-hundred points, you can unlock Class I Cyber Warfare Utilities, which in turn makes the Mk IV Shift-focals available to you for seventy-five points. They are unique in that they are not only better than your current vision aid at doing their intended job, but also utilize modular technology to shift their form to better match the shape of your skull.

I threw the grenade right into the flock as they swooped down to pass through the door. As they all fell to the electricity piercing into their flesh, I asked:

“And the anti-stealth part?” I looked down at the gun in my hand, “Also how do I know when this thing is empty?”

The Shift-focals are merely a piece of equipment we will use as the base. For an additional twenty-five points you can buy a Perception Lens. This will slot in over one of the lenses, melding into it seamlessly.. They assist in clarity in a few different ways, but most important is their ability to allow for you to more easily distinguish Model Nines through their spore screen.

“Buy ‘em then,” I said as I poked my head out the doorway to check for any more antithesis, “Also can you get me a new box of those ‘nades? They’re too nice to not always have some on me.”

Combat Log Model One x29 29 Class I Cyber Warfare Utilities -100 MK IV Shift-Focals -75 Perception Lens -25 Jacob's Ladder Ball x8 -40 Reward: -211 Total: 650

Another pair of boxes dropped down onto the floor in front of me. The first had my grenades, the second held my new pair of glasses. They were almost identical to my current set with their partial framed rectangular lenses. The only difference being that these were white rimmed and very slightly heavier. Sitting in the box next to the frames was a light orange lens.

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Just place the filter over the matching side, and the glasses will do the rest of the work.

I followed Pyri’s instructions, and as the filter was being placed, the glasses seemed to grab it from me and fuse it to the… glass? I think it was glass anyway, sorta hard to tell. .

Go ahead and put them on, time’s still moving, and considering the presence of so many Models, it would be wise to cleanse this place as soon as possible.

“I know, I know, gimme five moments.” Swapping my glasses out, I found half my vision was disorientingly covered in a dull orange hue.

Copying over all your previous settings and info now.

My HUD flickered on around my vision a bit quicker than normal, and the sheer difference with my vision was astounding. I could see much further, and in far greater detail than with my old pair. I could practically see that far off Model Three’s pupil from fifty meters out!

Oh, right, I was still fighting antithesis.

Peeking out around the outside of the door again to make sure I wasn’t about to get ambushed, I rushed out of the building and fired at the Three. The curtain of blue lightning lashed out towards the dog thing, blanketing it in fiercely hissing energy that immediately dropped it to the floor.

Target Eliminated Model Three x1 10 Total: 660

Checking my map I found most of the nearby area clear of visible Models, the closest dot of red was in… the garden actually. My face twisted into a glare.

Those leeches were stealing our food!

Keeping an eye out for Ones and Nines, I ran towards where this whole thing started.

The gravel crunching underneath my boots would surely let them know I was coming, but I didn’t care. Even if I could just order food through Pyri, this was our garden, the fruits of our labor. Not theirs. Hell considering the fruits of their labor was more murderous plants their fruits could go screw themselves.

I might have been feeling a bit vindictive at this point.

Readying my Amp-Thrower, I rounded the corner to find next to nothing, except for a few torn up plants and turned over baskets with the remains of the vegetables strewn around them.

If I wasn’t dealing with a group of Nines, then this was the most passive flock of Ones I’d ever heard of. I swept my eyes over the carnage, silently begging my new glasses to show me something. After a few moments I froze. I could see an alien face staring right back at me.

It was disguised as one of the baskets, and as soon as I saw the face, I started picking out more details that were off. There were subtle lines running in ways that our gardening baskets just wouldn’t have alongside just not looking like they would hold anything to begin with. The metal bands were formed from what looked like flattened out fern stalks. In short; the whole thing was a caricature. One that fell apart the moment the filter literally exposed its face to me.

Not wanting to waste anymore time, I quickly brought the gun up and zapped the thing. The flash of the lightning actually pointed out 3 others nearby disguised as uprooted plants and one just lying flat in the dirt. Their deaths were swift as well.

As if they realized that I could see through all of their disguises, another three of them launched themselves at me, little tornadoes of blurred colors, claws, and teeth. None of them got dangerously close, if anything they made it easier for me to hold the trigger down to bathe them all in electricity.

Targets Eliminated Model Nine x7 175 Total: 835

“Was that all of them?” I asked as my eyes shifted over the trashed garden.

Yes, that was all of them. I will say that your initial response time being so late is quite worrisome. If you were closer that Model Nine would have jumped you. In fact, it was shifting into a better position to leap at you.

I turned towards the still roaring dryer. “Yeah, yeah I getcha’ Pyri. I just wanted to see the antithesis camouflage in a bit better detail. I know it’s probably not something I could train, but being able to pick a stealthed Nine out of a scene without prompting would be nice.”

I can get you equipment for that later on, rather than you risking your life over a skill that is already becoming unnecessary due to your current equipment.

In other words, please be safer.

I could feel my face heating up, so I quickened my pace towards the dryer. It was still running so the fan and heat weren’t damaged, but the scent of fresh biomass getting blown all over the place by all the various fans in not only the dryer, but all the other grain bins as well would be like a magnet to the antithesis.

Peeking around the dryer building I found nothing, although the dryer’s walls had scratches all over it. Next to the unloading pit however, a few Model Ones were hopping around and pecking at the ground like overgrown chickens.

Pulling a grenade out of the box I had tucked under my right arm, after setting it to proximity in case I mistimed the fuse, I wound back and threw it with a heave towards the birds.

…And it fucking fell short, landing in the grass a few meters away from them.

I rolled my eyes, and put my fingers in my mouth to whistle. The shrill note seemed to startle the birds out of their lunchtime. Predictably they flew right at me. Which had their flightpath going right over the armed grenade.

While clever, I do think you should have better accuracy with your throws. Or maybe buy a longer ranged option.

Targets Eliminated Model One x6 6 Total: 841

“Maybe later,” I turned to look out over the bin complex. “I do have to ask. Why aren’t they all over these bins? It’s quite literally free biomass!”

Limited numbers of Model Eights are the probable cause. Most of the combat Models are occupied with securing the barns and killing off the livestock within. Any remaining Eights are probably assisting with that effort. Not to mention, if they aren’t already, they will be searching for you.

I paled at the unshakable conviction in Pyri’s voice. “Me? Why me?”

Antithesis are quite predictable when not being controlled by a Model that is smarter than the base level intelligence of a Model Three. They react to the injuring of their brethren by attacking the threat that caused it. The scent of antithesis death however, tends to make them go wild. They will chase down anyone who has the scent of dead antithesis on them to put an end to the threat.

As Pyri was speaking, I had moved to the nearby livestock barn which was a second breeding barn.

And that threat in this instance is you, and you’ve killed quite a few of them already.

Opening the door, I flicked the light switch upwards, only for the lights to refuse to turn on.

And none of them will give up until the active threat has passed. Whether it’s you who succeeds, or them.