Most of the time when we try to destroy a hive, we have to grind down excess numbers so we can actually get to the hive to begin with.

As annoying and as slow as that can be, I prefer that to getting to walk right in right off the bat without Sky raining fire on them first.

If they let you in, its because something wanted you to enter first.

And fighting an antithesis commander on ground they let you advance on is downright terrifying.

-InqueAbyss to xeir stream chat, 2055

“Ya know, while I love sitting here getting infinite points, I do wish I could just get to the goddess damned hive already.”

I see you’re discovering why most Vanguard tend to thin the hordes before entering the hive proper.

I almost spat to the side before realizing I had a helmet on. “Yes. Is there any way to make this whole thing faster?”

Not unless you want to cut corners that will make the antithesis resurge in this area.

With a curse muttered under my breath, I turned my full attention back to what I was doing.

That thing being mowing down Model Threes and Fours.

The closer I had gotten to the hive, the more frenzied the antithesis had gotten. Sending out swarms of the small dogs and tentacled fucks that only ended up being good practice for figuring out the best way to use the Trench Stormer against groups of grounded xenos.

It was mainly laying anode traps, enough of them that I had asked Pyri to just let my point counter tick up naturally unless I killed something massive or bought something nondisposable. That was fifteen minutes ago, I was sitting at a respectable five-thousand-ish and had only walked forward maybe two-hundred meters. Only now was I able to get any sort of progress, taking full advantage of the lull in bodies that was getting thrown at me to advance as much as possible.

I might have started getting a bit complacent at some point, and started going on autopilot.

Spark dear, if you don’t start paying attention properly, you will get hurt.

Pyri frankly didn’t care for Autopilot Spark very much.

“’S not like it’s my fault that they just keep doing the same thing over and over again!”

Would you like to be given medication to help your attention span?

I could feel my hackles raise up all at once.”Pyri, the last time I got medicated for my ADHD was with some fuck off thing called medidate. It felt like I was a hollow corpse walking around, and I refuse to go back to that.”

No this is not methylphenidate. Also, I personally think a part of that was the medication forcing you out of dissociation due to dysphoria. What I’m suggesting is just a basic medication that allows you to remain focused to prevent you from getting complacent.

Before I could even respond, I was pelted by a deluge of quills. Throwing myself to the ground behind the chitinous corpse of a Three, I searched the tree line I had been approaching to find the Five-

Only to find… nothing?

It appears you have a Model Five on your hands. Do you see why I don’t want you growing complacent?

“Yes Pyri I get it! Just give me a dose already! Just put it in something small I can clip to my belt and take later when a Model Five isn’t trying to snipe me!”

New Purchase! HMVF 4-Hour Oral Dose 5 Points Reduced To: 5179

The cute little box was clipped onto my belt almost as soon as it landed in my outstretched hand. Before long I was carefully treading forward, my head on a swivel. The Five was practically a ghost, having disappeared right after firing at me which made me even more anxious.

Dealing with something that large that could hide this well was terrifying, especially considering that I couldn’t hear a Model Six whistlin’ dixie out there, which meant one of two things.

I was dealing with yet another Seventeen, or this whole thing was being caused by variants.

“Pyri, have you seen anything to indicate a Seventeen out here?”

Any evidence of Seventeen activity I found was several hours old, easily attributable to the one you took down earlier. While this hasn’t ruled them out as a cause for this encounter, I find it quite a bit more unlikely.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

I let out a relieved sigh, “As long as I don’t have to fight another one of those things without help, I’ll take it.”

Pyri didn’t get a chance to respond before the antithesis decided I took enough ground and rushed from the woods I was only a few meters away from now. My shotgun roared in defiance as I began mowing the Threes down once again.

“Pyri, can you find that sniper anywhere? I want it gone.”

I’ve been looking, it seems to have ‘fucked off’ for now.

I buried a round of buckshot in the flood of walking plants and groaned.

“Perfect.”

A few rounds later, I ran out of shells again, and had to resupply myself while my Zapper was sending off weak blasts to cover me. Holding out my hand a new drum appeared and was soon strapped to my bandolier, soon followed by a second one, and a third replaced the empty drum in my gun.

Spark, you have enough energy left for one more reload. After that any remaining energy will only be usable for the structure holding onto your Foxes’ Trill.

I grimaced, without that cover fire I would be gradually overrun unless the antithesis ran out of Models to throw at me.

“Any suggestions?”

Assuming you don’t want to purchase more drones to cover you while you replace the power cells, you could buy a piece of modular equipment that will provide you with more energy than you will know what to do with.

I raised my eyebrow as a round of buckshot went through a Three’s head before electrifying its brethren behind them. “Go on.”

If you are willing to spend one-thousand-seven-hundred-fifty points and one token, you can buy a portable generator that works on the same principles as the Industrial Xenon Generators you bought earlier. It is modular, and can come with an equipment rack like what the Zapper has. Most importantly you can purchase a stronger emitter and I can mount it to the generator before teleporting it to you, meaning you won’t have to worry about on site assembly.

“What kind of emitter would you mount on it?”

The current Zapper’s big brother. It requires a small cooling period to ensure it doesn’t light itself on fire, and continued use will increase this period.

“Okay, and how much does it all cost?” I asked while loading my final drum.

Two-thousand even for the generator, rack, and emitter.

I looked at my point counter, it was sitting just under six-thousand, and while spending that much when I was saving hurt, I wouldn’t be able to finish my transition because I refused to spend money on better equipment and ended up dead.

My decision was made the moment my shotgun clicked empty.

“Buy it now!”

New Purchases! Class II Vulgoran Electrical Utilities 500, 1 Token MK VI Portable Modular Xenon Generator 1250 MKII Personnel Equipment Rack 10 Vulgoran Electron Discharger 240 Total: 2000, 1 Token Points Reduced To: 3970, 1 Token

My new toy dropped onto the grass, the emitter on top instantly came awake with a whirr before letting loose a wave of electricity that dropped around thirteen xenos instantly.

I do suggest you put your new weapon on dear.

Shaking myself from my surprise, I rushed over, taking the straps of my backpack zapper off, and putting on my fancy new toy.

The generator itself was a round cylindrical object reminiscent of the generators I had gotten for the BioShifter. It was basically a tube with a small window around the sides that revealed a lot of spinning machinery and glowing bright purple energy dancing through it. It of course was attached to a cushioned pad with straps on it, and had a small rack circling the rest of it with interspersed arms. Rather than being attached to the generator by a multi jointed arm, the VED was attached to a flexible cable type thing that seemed to have near complete freedom of movement.

In short, the whole thing looked like my Backpack Zapper had grown up and got an engineering degree, and then body modded itself.

The Zapper itself was expending its final drops of energy to hold the antithesis back while I put the thing on. I quickly passed my Trench Stormer back to be mounted onto the generator, and pulled the Trill off the Zapper.

With a pleased hum, the Trill was spitting bolts after bolt of electricity at the oncoming swarm, when I saw a new horizontal gauge with a timer next to it pop up above the power level indicator of my rifle.

“What’s with the new meter?”

The gauge and timer are for your VED. The timer is how much time you have until a new wave of electricity is ready, and the gauge is a measurement of how long you have to wait until the overheat prevention is reset.

“Makes sense,” I said while blasting a Model Four with enough electricity to leave it smoldering. “I think.”

I am glad you think so. Look at your four o’clock by the way.

I turned, letting the VED handle what was in front of me, and I saw the Five I had been looking for.

It was smaller looking than any of the Fives I had ran into before.

The bolt of lightning was already hitting it before it even realized I knew exactly where it was. I was quickly rushing that way to see why the hell I lost track of it so easily.

The antithesis seemed to think I was running away and chased after me with renewed vigor, only to run headlong into a few dropped grenades. Reaching the corpse I had just made, I realized just how much I undersold the Five’s size. It was downright scrawny! Almost The size of a Four with its tentacles pulled in rather than the big fuckoff tank I was used to. It was also clearly using some form of camouflage.

Not as effective as a Nine’s but enough to skulk off after it fired that first volley of quills at me.

I stood up and began regaining the ground I had given up.“Pyri what the hell am I looking at here?”

That is a Model Five-S, it’s a variant of the Model Five that utilizes a smaller frame, and camouflage to act as an ambush sniper. They can be quite dangerous in wooded areas and caves where they can hide in crevasses in the earth, but with your armor they are more so a nuisance than harmful, unless they attempt to resort to melee.

“So keep an eye out, but don’t get excessively paranoid?”

Exactly! I- Spark watch your step!

Pyri’s warning came a tad bit late, the next step I took over a fallen tree had my foot going out over open air.

“UAAAAAAUUUGHHHHHHHH!”

I fell down ass over teakettle, and the VED let out a deafening roar as soon as I hit the dirt head spinning.

“What the fuck…”

Spark, you might want to get your bearings quickly.

You seem to have stumbled onto a hive entrance.