“No matter how deadly antithesis incursions are, the worst part is always the aftermath. Streets and houses empty, previously full of life. Maybe it’s because the bodies are missing, maybe it’s the silence with which it all happens, but nothing prepares you for the aftermath. It’s like the fucking rapture.”

- Celeby in an interview with “Voice of the Streetz”, 2037

Class I Nanite Swarms Catalogue unlocked!

Points reduced to: 1462

New purchase: Mark V Variable Hard-Light Lance Emitter (Upgraded)!

Points reduced to: 962

New purchase: Mark VI Dusk and Dawn (Upgraded)!

Points reduced to: 512

New purchase: Mark III General Utilities Nano Swarm AIO!

Points reduced to: 242

Three small boxes appeared around me. As was usual by now, all labelled and with some decorations on them. It made me realise that I haven’t seen anything similar on either Jenna’s or Chloe’s boxes. Probably a Kaysa thing.

Deciding not to question my AI’s design decisions, it didn’t matter and I did like the decorations, I opened the first box, labelled Mark V Variable Hard-Light Lance Emitter, which was a mouthful. The Emitter itself came in the form of a small ring and generally followed the rest of my Hard-Light emitters in terms of design, making it fit into my look seamlessly.

Next up I opened the box with the Mark VI Dusk and Dawn, which also came in the form of a ring. It did make sense I suppose, rings were small, easy to fit into any design, and not obviously a weapon.

Finally I opened the box labelled Mark III General Utilities Nanite Swarm AIO. There was a small necklace inside, roughly the size of one of those old school coins that people used to have, made to look like a stylized fox head, similar to my earrings.

Once I had put them all on everything connected to my augs and soon I could quickly switch between what I wanted. Interestingly I could have the Nanite Swarm AIO produce nanites without a task, then select a task before I send the swarm out. I could “reload” the thing without needing to place the capsules into it manually, which was part of the reason it had been relatively expensive. Something about dimensional shunting that I didn’t really understand, nor cared to understand.

By the time I was done Chloe was already checking over her own new gear. The main piece was an upgrade for her rifle, from the looks of it. I didn’t understand the details, nor did I ask for them, but it looked like she had gotten some attachments for the rifle she had gotten recently. She had also gotten a second pistol in the same design as her first, both decorating her thighs in a most impressive manner. There were also some other bibs and bobs laying around that I didn’t know the function of. Safe to say though, they would help when it came to xeno killing.

What surprised me the most was Jenna’s new gear. She had, of course, gotten two more Sentinels, these in the same style as the ones she had gotten at the gate to the inner city, although both fashioned a firearm probably from Chloe’s catalogues. The more impressive part was her new weapon.

It was a bow, even if a strange one, in a similarly Egyptian style as the rest of her gear. Instead of one string this one had six from what I could tell, and it was large. Sandy browns, silver and gold accents, and some purples around the edges, in general this bow looked more like a cross between a guitar and a weapon, elegant but most certainly deadly. I wondered how she would be able to use it, but I was pretty certain that it had some kind of draw assistance, considering it was Protector grade equipment. Cleopatra wouldn’t sell Jenna something useless.

She must have caught my surprise, since she shrugged and smiled at me. “Cleopatra and I have done some talking and have decided upon this. It is both a weapon and an instrument, which means I don’t only have to focus on fighting. It can do some pretty impressive stuff, so it will not hamper me combat wise, but I also didn’t want to just get some weapon.”

I gave her a warm smile and a nod, “A weapon and a tool at the same time. I like it. Can you play it?”

She blushed a bit, “Not yet… It’s something to get to in the future. But I always wanted to play an instrument. My parents loved music but… Well… neither of them were able to play in their condition. I wish I could have played something for them before they passed…”

There was a moment of silence, and not the good kind. I slid over to her and pulled her into a hug. “Sorry… I didn’t want to dredge stuff up.”

She shook her head, “It’s okay… They might not be able to experience it, but I can still do my best to make them proud.”

We stayed like that for a moment longer, before she gently separated from me, wiping away a stray tear from her eyes.

“Well,” she said, “I think I am ready now. I got some points saved up, just in case.”

Chloe nodded, giving Jenna another warm smile, “Yeah, I’m ready as well. Let’s get going, hm?”

The street below was mostly empty of aliens. I could see some Threes and some Fours, and of course some flyers, but by far not as much as in other parts of the district. Probably because there really wasn’t much biomass to be had around these parts anymore.

“Once we get inside I’ll grab the lure. I have a lot of points still saved and I have some ideas on how to set up.” Chloe said, surveying the brothel from our vantage point.

“You got a plan?” I asked, following her example and checking the streets below. One part of my attention was busy keeping an eye out on things, just to make sure we wouldn’t be surprised again.

“Well, kind of,” Chloe said, a smile forming on her lips, “This is meant to be a diversion, right? But that doesn’t mean we can’t try and make some points off of it. I’d set up some pretty good defences to make sure we can keep this thing going for a while, before we head out. Maybe have a Sentinel and a Hatchling or two stand guard, to make sure the lure can’t be destroyed. It doesn’t need to last forever and I don’t want to activate it right away, but a bit of precaution could do us good.”

I nodded at that, it sounded like a pretty good plan to me. Was it perfect? Probably not, but it would help us tremendously when dealing with the Hive.

Once we had finished with our preparations we moved out, slowly making our way down from the roof. The Hatchlings followed us in their usual climbing manner, while Snuffles simply jumped down. She made quite the racket, but we were ready for the couple of Threes coming our way and quickly dispatched them. With the Sentinels and the Hatchlings falling in around us I send Snuffles out to scout and deal with any xenos she could find.

The brothel itself was much like I imagined it to be. Mostly intact, if utterly ruined, and with a lot of blood on the ground, but without any bodies. Neither human or antithesis, really. It made for quite the eerie scene.

We walked inside without talking, all of us I think felt quite… unsettled? I certainly was feeling a bit queasy. This place used to be full of people. Even if I had never been here before I could basically see the people walking around and enjoying themselves while I took in the surroundings, clients talking to joytoys, people having fun, the occasional incident that required the intervention of someone else.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

It was different from the Rose Carpet, in many ways, but at the same time, it also felt so intimately familiar. It made my stomach churn to realise that this was nothing more than a ghost town now, the people who had called this place their home dead.

Chloe quickly went to work and started placing different things, from barricades to turret emplacements.

“I… I think I’ll wait outside,” I said, voice low and flat, “Kaysa, send some Hexclaws in to search the place in case there is anyone still around… Just to be sure. Inform me if you find anything.”

Without any comment from Kaysa three Hexclaws separated from our group and started to head deeper into the building. Truth be told I didn’t have any hopes of finding anything around still, but I owed it to the guards near the undercity entrance to at least try.

I didn’t know why this hit me so close to home. I had seen death before, of course. But I had never seen it on this scale. There was a difference between a couple people dying in a shootout and an entire building just… being wiped out.

Once outside I picked up one of the old chairs laying around from the seating area out front. The ones that didn’t have blood on them in any case. Jenna followed my example and we both sat down. For a long time there was silence as we both worked through our own little issues in our mind. Eventually she spoke.

“Intellectually I had known… Just how much shit went down here. I mean, I think I’ve seen an overdose victim or two… But… This is just so much worse.” Her voice betrayed her calm expression. There was a hint of hopelessness in it, something deep and primal.

I nodded, numbly. “Ever since I got here,” I started, not really thinking about what I said, just… listening to my heart, I guess, “I have seen some really fucked up shit. I took my first drugs at what, nine years old? At that time I already saw my first corpse. Over time that number just steadily increased. And I guess, I am pretty hardened by it. I am not squeamish, nor do I feel much when I see the dead, it’s… I guess it's common enough? I got used to it. But this, this is different. It’s not the dead that are the issue. It’s the fact that it’s just so devoid of life. Humans are easy to grasp, they don’t need much to understand them. But the aliens? They are weird, and strange, and completely disregard life as a whole. They’re a bane, a bane that needs to be wiped out.” I admit that towards the end I might have gotten a bit… heated. I felt emotional, more emotional than I had felt in a long time…

Jenna just nodded in reply, completely agreeing with me.

We spent another few moments in silence, just… trying to accept reality. Rationally this wasn’t much worse than the rest of the district, but emotionally it was devastating.

“We need to up our forces,” Jenna said, out of the blue.

I didn’t disagree. Maybe I should lean more into the whole Hexclaw thing. I could, now that I thought about it, keep an entire army of antithesis contained with their help. As long as I had the biomass I could keep an army going. Maybe it wasn’t too bad a plan. Yeah.

I breathed a bit easier at that, I did have the tools to prevent this in the future. It would need some point investment, yes, but it could pay off handsomely.

Plans made, I sat a bit straighter, “Kaysa, remind me to get more Progenitors. We need more Hatchling throughput. The aliens won’t just leave us alone, we need to eviscerate them. Best thing for that are more forces. They are basically free if I have the biomass, right?”

Indeed. We could also go over different models depending on what you require. Keep in mind, however, that most Progenitors come with a rather big point cost attached to them.

“That’s fine,” I said, “I don’t mind the cost, as long as it allows me to build up my army. Being all sexy and alluring and gorgeous and stuff is nice, but I am a Samurai, it’s my damn job to protect people. This shit,” and I pointed to Paradise Hills, “Cannot happen again.”

While I am not happy about the outcome of this particular situation, I am glad that you found a spark of inspiration in the ruins.

I snorted, but didn’t comment. We had to deal with the Hive, had to make sure that this wouldn’t repeat itself. I sent Snuffles a mental command to start focusing on Hexclaw production. It would take time, of course, she wasn’t the fastest, or the most expensive Progenitor, but it would help. And until we got to the Hive it was the best way to accrue more resources.

“You have a plan?” Jenna asked, looking at me with… She was smiling, but from her expression I knew it was more to that. She was thinking about something.

“Yes. Well, kind of. I am very good at wars of attrition, right? The more things die, the more Hexclaws I can make, kind of like the antithesis. Maybe it’s time I started to focus more on that?”

“I guess I can see that,” she said with a thoughtful expression, “For me it’s not that easy… Even if I get crafting capabilities, I will need dwindling resources. Chloe said earlier I can do a similar split to you, but maybe I should focus on other venues. You can spread out and cover an entire area, I am more suited to protection of important targets and to dealing with an onslaught of antithesis towards a stationary defence position. Maybe I should get something for that? Question is what though…”

“That’s easy, production capabilities,” I smiled at her, “You just said that you can’t do the same, right? Maybe get something later on that could allow you to focus your efforts. A secure base or something? Play to your strengths in that regard. You need resources, so you need a place to go to to rearm and repair. If you make it mobile you could have quite the formidable fortress to use. Especially with your new weapon, you can take out high priority threats from a distance and then have your Sentinels defend the location.”

It did make sense to me. I was a mobile threat to the xenos. I could move while I did my thing. Technically Jenna could do the same, but she would need to wait for restocking. And if we had a place to defend people in, I could help there while my army marched out, probably with Chloe at the front or something, while Jenna and I made sure people were safe. Actually, if we did things that way I had the flexibility to go where I was needed. It made the entire operation much safer.

I liked the plan. Problem was points, and in my case, biomass. We couldn’t start working like that now, but it was something we could work towards. Jenna seemed to agree, because she gave me a warm smile once more and nodded.

“Yeah, that sounds good. I think I have an idea what to go for then. Still needs some time though. In the intermediary I’ll focus on personal protection and see if I can’t make sure people around us are safe.”

I sighed deeply and leaned back. Then I had to snort, unable to suppress my amusement, “You know, a day ago my biggest worry was if I could get enough alcohol to keep me going. Now I’m planning to build an army. Life sure is something,” I said as the reality of the situation really hit me.

Jenna laughed in response, “I guess. I always thought I end up some cheap office drone or something, doing the same job day in, day out. Being a joytoy was already enough to disrupt my plans, but now? Damn, this is not where I ever expected to be.”

We spent the remainder of the time in silence. The situation was fucked, but it was by far not hopeless. Eventually Chloe sent us a quick message asking us inside.

The inside of the brothel had changed a lot. Not in terms of placement or decoration, but now it was filled to the brim with different things. Barricades, turret emplacements, mines, traps, different weapons, and of course the huge lure in the middle of it all. We found Chloe bent over some piece of machinery attaching wires, and I took a moment to appreciate the sight of her behind in front of me. I was pretty sure Jenna was doing the same from the silly smile on her face, not that I minded.

“Well?” I asked while I stepped closer.

“Nearly done,” Chloe answered in a bit of a strained voice, “Once I get this thing powered we can head out.”

Ignoring for the moment the perfect view in front of me, I took in the surroundings. The weapons and turrets on display weren’t the biggest, of course, but I was pretty sure they could handle any smaller target with ease. The way the barricades were placed also made it pretty hard for the xenos to rush straight towards the lure. Of course they could try, but Chloe had smartly placed some turrets for wide range coverage should some alien get the bright idea of jumping over the barricades.

It looked like a rather usable killzone set up. With a mental command I send two of my Hatchlings inside to keep an eye on the lure itself and dismantle any bigger aliens coming in. Jenna for her part did the same, two of her Sentinels took up position at the main entrance. I wasn’t sure if the entire thing would hold up against a Six or higher, but it looked sturdy enough for our purposes.

By the time my inspection was done Chloe got up, stretching and popping her back. “Alright, done. We can start our move on the Hive.”

I nodded to her, “When will you be turning this all on?”

“Most of the weapons are hot. The Lure can be activated with my augs, did cost some points to get that use, but I figured it was worth it. My plan is to activate the lure when we get near the Hive so we can pull the xenos out and deal with them there. Atlas got the position of the Hive from Patrick’s AI and said it is within the range of the lure.” She explained while she packed a couple of things in some of her pockets, before she picked up her rifle, slung it around her shoulders, then gripped the handle. “Here’s to hoping the entire plan works.”

After we walked out of the brothel once more I breathed a little sigh. I hadn’t even realised how oppressive the air had been inside.

“Okay, where is the Hive?” I asked into the group, of course keeping my senses sharp.

“Follow me, Atlas has picked out a good route to follow. It should be relatively safe,” Chloe said and walked ahead, head on a swivel. Jenna and I followed after. It was time to finally deal with this fucking Hive and get some rest. I was tired…