[Good god that’s terrifying.]

[Not really Bomberman. I’ve seen stranger.] Drag-On had dropped all pretenses. [I’ve seen other swarm minds. Just none that went about it in this manner. It’s exceptionally effective sweety, keep it up.]

[Still wicked. Going to make clearing this section of the city easy. I notice you upgraded your murder ribbons too.]

[Yeah Bee. Exotic Melee Weapons apparently had some sort of energy boost thing that makes ‘em cut better plus the venom giving it a poison to everything cut. Naille says they should manage mid-twenties. I think I agree. That’s nine.]

[You going to stop multiplying?] Gravitas sounded morbidly curious at this point. She seemed to be focused on me.

[At ten. I think that’ll be enough for clearing buildings. Plus disposable bodies will be nice so I can remote pilot them into battle and if they break, oh well. In the end, when I’m done, I can use them to start clearing out the intercostal spaces of the city. The hidey holes all over.]

[Oh that’s a brilliant idea sugar! You can make a lot of friends doing things like that. Samurai who specialize in cleanup are a beloved breed by most civilians.]

[Well I don’t think I’ll be able to reintegrate with society so easily anyway. May as well make myself useful in the interim. Repair any damage I find too.] All of the me’s stopped in the street as the original was on my way down, looking for another building. [Shit. I think we got them all. Ready to get dangerous?]

An explosion in the distance punctuated my question perfectly. It made me start giggling that insane creepy multi-toned way again. The only thought passing through my meat was, “I may be a little insane at this point.”

[Are you okay? Are you losing it?] Bomberman trotted up near one of my bodies. [Seriously, are you fracturing?]

[You can’t lose something you didn’t have to begin with,] I retorted cheerfully. [No, I was just tickled by the perfectly timed explosion.]

[Shoggoth is correct. We have cleared our areas. They do require dealing with the incursion further on and as a representative of the Family I decree both newbies ready for the Orange zones, you too Bomberman. You’ve evolved enough to survive quite handily. Shall we all go?]

[I’m in.] Bomberman turned and started north, the direction of the yellow zones and the war others were fighting.

[Should we bring in the other two in this sector?] I was a little hesitant, as Bomberman had expressed dislike for one of them.

[No, they’re doing fine,] Snips pitched in. [They seem to be having fun bickering but they started earlier than you and have already finished their area. They’re already in a different zone.]

[That’s that then. Heading in!] Gravitas stepped off the roof she was on and started flying, attached to the ship pieces by a jointed arm connecting the whole thing.

I simply ripped out a very loud sound, like a foghorn but deeper still, before all of me turned and started moving much faster than you might expect in the same direction.

I had barely passed the retaining wall that separated the sections of the city when ECM started corrupting my connection across the disparate versions of myself. Instead of calling them to myself, I set the majority of them to autonomously seek low-level Antithesis and clear buildings, while the core two were drawn in close to use as buffers for my true self.

[I’m picking up lots of communications interference.] I didn’t slow, simply crashed into the first mob of single digits I found just past the wall. [Advise?]

[Oh! Sorry sweety. I should have mentioned there’s usually a lot of that problem the deeper into enemy-controlled territory you find yourself. You’ll want to pick up a catalog or trade with someone who has one for communications.] Drag-On didn’t seem too concerned.

{Is there any way to link all my sub-bodies to my extra-dimensional storage and communicate directly through that?}

<>Absolutely. But only at class three dimensional, I’m afraid.

{Damn. What about better communications gear? Quantum Coupled Comms?} I chewed my way through plants almost autonomously at this point. Melee range was too easy for anything below a ten.

<>Quantum Coupled Communications is available with Class Four Void Walker, or Class Three in Exotic Communications. You can pick up Class One Exotic Communications and gain several methods of hardening and enhancing your com network which would bypass the low levels you’re experiencing now. It will be helpful even in deeper areas where higher level Antithesis has stronger natural ECM.

{Do it.} I promptly checked my Point totals.

Points: 15,193 → 15,093

Tokens: 1

<>Now to enhance your communications ability you’ll need a better encryption profile and hardened communications nodes. Between the two that’ll run you one hundred fifty points.

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

{Okay. Can we buy blueprints for anything that needs it? Oh! Look, they're coming to me without any effort!} I perked up as another horde of low numbers came careening down the street at me. Joined by masses of the flying ones.

After a moment my communications cleared up considerably. I was able to get a firmer connection with my sub-selves, allowing me to direct the ones not engaged to begin converging on me.

<>We can, I assume if we’re able to I assume you’d rather buy blueprints than the actual object?

{Yes, from now on just go straight for the blueprints. Also, quote me on those prices.}

<>Understood. I shall purchase blueprints for recent purchases that haven’t already been getting but can now.

[Hey all, I recently purchased class one exotic Communications and have a hardened Comms device with better encryption. Would anybody like one? I’ve got blueprints and can manufacture extras for no real cost from the corpses of my enemies.]

[Oh sweety! How generous of you! I’ve already got some but Gee should take you up on it.]

[Yes. I will! I’ll be down to your location in a minute. I’m being swamped by Model Ones and Elevens right now.] Gravitas sounded even more excited than she probably should have considering what I could see of the mass surrounding her.

[I’ll take one too. Should I come to you?]

[Naw, Bomberman I’ll shoot you the blueprints. Gee, We should set you up with a class two matter reconfiguration device. As it is, bring that mass down closer to me. I'll blender them and get them off you quicker. It’s not like we won’t share the points.]

<>That reminds me. We all felt sorry for your situation in the beginning and gave you an extra two percent improvement on the usual point share, shaving off five from the drone reduction as well. But now those numbers are back to normal due to your having advanced so well. Consider it a good thing we don’t feel the need to handicap you anymore.

{That’s fine. I don’t expect to be pampered.} I had finished the horde around me enough that my drones could finish cleanup and start piping materials to me, so I focused up on Gravitas as she was rapidly descending in my direction.

Extending my ribbons I formed them into a cage around her as she got in reach and started to spin them, moving them out as I went. I was a little surprised that the Model Elevens in the mass cut as easily as the Ones. The new tech was definitely going the distance.

“Thanks. That was a little rough. If it weren’t for the low-grade forcefield I picked up I’d have been screwed.”

“No problem.” I unthinkingly left my speaking voice on ‘Eldritch Horror’ which caused her to flinch. [Sorry. My outside voice is… disturbing. For a reason ‘tho.]

“I understand.” She smirked at me as she landed nearby. “Not eating?”

Instead of responding I lifted some of the edge of my body and showed there were grinders there chewing on the corpse pile I was sitting on. Instead of shifting my outside voice, I decided to keep using comms now we were close, but wouldn’t be for long.

[Here, new Comms you can integrate. I’ll give you access to my catalogs, you should grab a Matter thingy so you can build stuff off blueprints next time.] I passed her one of the fist-sized comms devices. [Makes life so much easier when you can just build your own.]

“Ah. Actually, I bought one when you offered it earlier.” She grinned sheepishly. “I think you were distracted right after by a horde of antis attacking..”

[Damn. Could have just passed the blueprints on that one then. Didn’t need to bother you.] I let the sheepish way I felt into my voice there. [Well then. I have a couple more blueprints, that might help you if you’ve got some in return?]

[I do. I’m more than willing to trade.] She grinned at me.

We were both completely unprepared for the surge of higher-tier plants that hit at that point. A smattering of Twenties barreled into my forward elements, which at that point had retreated to a few dozen meters from us.

[Numbers!?] I panicked a little, speaking on open coms. My disposable other selves turned to the assault and threw themselves into it.

[<>There are at least nine Model Twentys, two Twenty-Threes, and a Twenty-Two. As well as a swarm of threes, fours, fives, Four individual Model Fourteens, and a dozen Model Fifteens. Beware the Fifteens they are artillery models and will use ranged attacks.]

[Talk about biting off more than we can chew….] I sighed internally as I opened up with all the ranged weapons I had. My whole group of sub-bodies had already hit the wall and were getting mauled, but doing some decimating in return.

Next to me Gravitas levitated up into the air a few dozen meters and began lancing out with powerful lasers from the turrets on her pontoons. It was actually highly effective, cutting through plants quickly and efficiently. Until, that is, she started in on the Twenty-One’s which resisted her fire to a degree. Forcing her to focus fire to take one out. Not that my plasma was doing much better. We both had to be careful of backstops for fear of melting concrete or buildings in general, but the damn plants were too tough.

The drones in front acted as they were meant to and provided an amount of ablative armor. Four were destroyed to the point of becoming inactive before Drag-On swooped down on their huge dragon mech mount and used some sort of poison breath on the mob that reduced their ability to resist massively. Allowing the tables to turn and we were able to press attack well enough to completely destroy the mob over the next ten minutes. Still felt like hours. Combat sucks like that.

[Okay. That sucked. Is that what orange zones are really like? Maybe we should drop back a bit.] Gravitas floated back down a couple of meters, looking over her shoulder.

[No dear, that was a little rough even for an orange zone.] Drag-On seemed concerned. [Usually, you only need to face one or two higher-level antitheses at a time. That’s more like what you’d find in a red zone. You two hang back and I’m going to try tracking those back a bit. Bomberman would you mind watching them, Sweety?]

[On it. Just… need… to… finish… Here….] He sounded heavily distracted.

Instead of moving forward I set my sub-units to process the materials available and worked on fleshing out my ten drones again, this time with all the extra oomph I could give them. Gravitas simply floated there, seemingly lost in thought but probably conversing with her AI. That was fine, gave me time to manufacture, which took a bit for larger masses like lesser Shoggoth.

[Shoggoth? Why are you so free to help others? From what I understand most Shamrai don’t freely give out blueprints? I mean, trade yeah, but you just gave a bunch out. I feel inadequate for the ones I’ve given back.]