It is my firm belief that wide scale implementation of food forests while using samurai sourced drones for harvest and protection could work to curb climate change, while also providing a source of nutritious food for more people. It could also be used to grow plants tailor made to poison antithesis swarms that try to invade with proper samurai backing!

-Rejected Nonsanto College of Agriscience and Engineering Application Letter written by one Spark Graham, 2054

‘Come onnnn. Come onnnnnn.’

Shall I purchase anything for when you grow too impatient, or if the antithesis eat your munitions?

Snorting, I gave Pyri a middle finger as I watched the antithesis file into the mixing room to investigate the sound I created. They sniffed at the C-Foam and left it alone only to then start licking up the feed dust left everywhere. It was just a bunch of Threes and a few Nines that blended into the wreckage of a few different machines.

The only reason I could see them was the fact that Pyri was highlighting them through my glasses as I watched a security camera feed.

Realizing Pyri was right, I looped my pull string around my hand and prepared to cook myself some charbroiled antithesis

With a single yank, I knocked down a prepared bucket of dust, (I was practically covered in the stuff now,) Sending a giant cloud of the dust into the air. The second yank had the lighter sparking into a cloud of the most common explosive substance you can find on an arable farm.

Grain dust.

The entire room ignited, the dust letting the fire wash over the room in an instant. Not enough to kill the antithesis outright, but more than enough to set their entire bodies aflame. The massive fireball blew out through the exterior doors …knocking away the C-Foam mines I had planted.

Shit.

Some of the antithesis charged back outside through the door they entered from in a panic only to feed the fire more air, and cook faster as their carapaces dried out into high quality kindling.

The models that stayed inside weren’t much better off as they had a more pressing concern than the fire consuming their bodies.

That concern was me running in with electricity arcing through the air now that the munitions were burnt away. The Nines were my first target as I ran through the door and crushed a Model Three’s cooking head beneath my boot. Lightning lancing out from the emitter of my gun, it coursed through the walking thorn bushes.

The rest of the Threes were dispatched with ease as they couldn’t react fast enough due to the extensive burns the fire caused. Walking out the opposite door, I found the rest of the Threes that ran away had cooked themselves by running around in a panic while on fire. The mine that had gotten knocked loose was laying in the dirt.

“Pyri, do I have to worry about anything else catching fire with this?” I asked as i picked the mine up and put it in my toolbelt for later.

No, but I do question your use of fire as a killing method when you didn’t know the full breadth of what could happen in the aftermath. Fire does spread after all.

Targets Eliminated! Model Three x7 70 Model Nine x2 50 Reward: 120 Total: 526

“I didn’t really have any other options at my immediate disposal!” I exclaimed, “and the idea entered my head so I was legally obligated to follow through.”

That is a poor excuse and you know it.

“At least it's better than the local Samurai,” I said with a growing scowl, “SkyFire would’ve bombed us to smithereens before leaving without a word. The other two would come in and fight without any care for further collateral, while lacing the ground with chemicals. And THEN they would leave without cleaning anything up.”

While fair, you did just torch a building on a whim.

Pyri sounded apologetic as she spoke, knowing that the continued lack of military support from anyone was one of the main things I despised about the local Samurai. I began walking towards the next building that needed clearing; the farrowing house.

“I know, but it was also pretty much trashed anyway. In fact, even if we all survived this, without my initialization we’d have to sell out to Nonsanto regardless. Everything here other than maybe the grain we have stored is a loss. The pigs and manure will need to be gotten rid of, most of the livestock related buildings are trashed.”

I let out a long sigh, “everything went to shit so quickly Pyri, and I don’t know how to fix it.”

While I am not able to just make everything better at a snap of your fingers yet. There are still other ways this farm can operate. Although it would be massively different.

“Like how?”

Ecological Agricultural Systems is a catalogue line that prioritizes both the production of healthy food, and environmentally beneficial selection and distribution of flora and fauna.

As Pyri was speaking, I came ‘round a grain bin to find a group of Threes and pig zombies. Unlike before Pyri continued to speak as I fought.

Effectively you could eventually create fully sustainable food forests that will help the environment, while producing large quantities of nutritious food.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

The fighting attracted a passing flock of Ones, which swooped down to help, only to find themselves getting wiped out with a few blasts of electricity.

“But what about the antithesis?” A thrown grenade electrocuted not only a couple more Threes, but a Nine disguised as a bag of feed laying in the grass. “A single hive starts in one and I just gave them millions of pounds of high-quality biomass.”

That’s quite simple, the Class I catalogue includes plants and animals that rebuff antithesis probing on their own via poisons, or consuming them instead. It wouldn’t handle an incursion without higher Classes, but even a raid of this size would be equivalent to a natural forest fire pruning back a forest and encouraging new growth.

As Pyri talked about it, I realized what she was explaining went beyond my wildest dreams. I tried to get into college with a paper about these sorts of farming practices- Where a willing Samurai would help with getting everything properly started, and farmers could swap to producing fully beneficial foods.

Well, now I was that Samurai, and the idea of developing this and making it available for those who needed it first rather than the elite…

“Pyri once, I'm established with regards to combat capabilities and my body, I want to revisit this.”

Understood, I have created a floating reminder in your itinerary.

That brought me up short, “I have an itinerary?”

Yes, I made you twelve of them depending on the outcomes of today.

The sheer confusion I was feeling must have been obvious, because she continued.

Making them is quite fun, if it wasn’t for the fact that I am holding myself back from excess, you would have millions of them.

“Pyri?”

Yes?

“You’re an absolute dork.”

I have no idea what you’re talking about. Have some points as a distraction.

Targets Eliminated! Model One x12 12 Model Three x8 80 Model Seven x4 20 Model Nine x1 25 Reward: 137 Total: 663

With that important issue taken care of, I continued towards the farrowing house, and got a good look of what the antithesis were doing near the finishing barns.

‘Pyri, I need a gun that’s a bit stronger if I want to handle that.’

May I recommend the Foxes’ Trill MK II for one-hundred-fifty points? It is a rifle that fires singular bolts of electricity and can maintain an arc if the trigger is held down. It sports higher range, a basic targeting system designed to cause bolts to consistently hit distant targets without veering into obstacles, and more power to the point weaker Tier One Models that aren’t resistant to electrocution will perish within a split second of contact with the bolts, more durable Models will take a second or two longer.

I stared down the gravel drive that connected all the finishing barns together. There was a massive pile of pig corpses surrounded by zombified pigs doing milling around, various antithesis, and a squat crab-spider looking thing feasting on a body.

‘And the energy to power it?’

Currently you would need to supply it with energy from Vulgoran energy canisters, Which are basically rechargeable batteries. Five points each for around three minutes of continuous fire.

‘Get the rifle, three spare batteries and a bandolier for me please?’

A pleasure doing business with you.

New Purchases! Foxes’ Trill MK II Rifle 150 Vulgoran Energy Canister x3 15 Combat Bandolier 2 Final Cost: 167 Points Reduced To: 496

Two boxes plopped into the grass in front of me; I quickly holstered my hand cannon, and opened up the smaller one first. In it was a basic looking bandolier strap beside three cylinders that looked like glorified soda cans that had boxy looking things where the tab should be. I quickly put the strap on and buckled it into my holster belt, before attaching the canister's boxy side up.

The larger box opened up to reveal a rifle painted in dark purple with glowing cyan lights. Rather than a regular gun barrel, it had a small cylinder with a glowing lighting bolt on the sides, with a thin metal rod extending from it.

As I picked it up the gun gave off a light hum as the glow intensified slightly. It was almost as if it was saying hello. Looking over to the door leading right to the farrowing house, I smiled.

‘Let’s field test this new toy.’

As I turned to enter the building I was next to, I noticed that the crab-spider had stopped its feast and was staring right at me.

‘Pyri what the hell is that thing?’

Get inside, that is a Model Seventeen. It’s both a breeder for Model Sevens and is a battlefield commanding unit that uses Sevens connected to wires to control other Models. It is the most likely candidate for the mastermind of this assault. Kill it and any other units that can command antithesis and this raid will become phenomenally easier.

As I backed into the building I saw a lumbering Model Six come around a corner, where it stared me down before emanating a low whistle.

Multiple Threes and pigs took off running towards me.

With widened eyes, I immediately began dropping all my grenades at my feet in remote detonation mode, and requested the bag refilled. With that, I rushed through the door as I slammed it shut.

I loudly cursed.

Unlike the rest of the barns, the farrowing house used metal grates as flooring instead of concrete.

“Pyri you said my boots would be able to insulate against my electricity, does that still apply with the rifle?”

No, but I can supply you with outer wear for your-

The grenades I had dropped began detonating with far too little of a delay between each for comfort, “No time! Just get me something!”

New Purchase! Insulation Sleeves 15 Point Reduced To: 481

Two large slipper things appeared on the ground in front of me and I wasted no time sliding them on as the detonations abruptly ceased. Backing away from the door, I brought the rifle up and made sure only the bottoms of my feet were touching anything.

The door in-front of me and the one on the opposite end both burst open at the same time, revealing the last thing I needed to see.

Several Model Fives had been sent to join in on the fun, and they boxed me in.

“I fucking hate Seventeens!”