"Everyone in Test Group Nitro, you got the Antithesis-repelling sweat modification. If you notice Antithesis approaching you anyway, call us as quickly as possible, because it's attracting them instead. And we're going to need to recover your body before they eat it."
-Grotto Dickson, CEO of Gateway Experiments
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My heart leapt into my throat as I began to fall, but I had regained my composure by the time I was halfway to the next floor down. I had my weapons ready when I landed and began checking for whatever we had missed on this floor, but all I found were offices.
I knew they were empty, too, because they all had glass walls. Some kind of middle management office space? It was office after office, no cubicles in the center, and at the other end of the building was one massive glass room that spanned that entire wall. With no furniture it was impossible to tell if it was a meeting room or the intended space for some jumped-up, upper-middle management type, but it probably would have looked ostentatious as all hell if the original tenants had ever moved in.
It was odd, though. Why undermine the floor above, knowing I had to pass through that spot to go to the next floor up, and not fill this floor to the brim with Antithesis? I looked carefully, half expecting yet more Model Nines to appear, but there was nowhere for them to hide themselves. The floor was simply unoccupied.
But as I turned to my right, scanning for anything I’d missed, Juny turned to my left, and she barely had the time to utter the words ‘oh my’ before my motion tracker lit up like the inside of a rave and my ears were tortured by the catastrophic sound of thousands of dollars’ worth of glass shattering all at once. I jerked my head to the left and found an enormous pterodactyl-shaped Antithesis barreling its way into the middling amidst a cascade of broken glass, Model Fours detaching from where they’d been clinging to its flanks.
Its mouth could have swallowed up a car, and it was gaping wide in an attempt to do the same to me. When I came to my senses I hurried to back away, dropping my SMGs in favor of my shotgun with barely a moment’s thought. I knew they would have trouble penetrating anything about the first tier of Antithesis, and I’d seen pretty much everything below the Ten by now. This thing sure as fuck wasn’t going to be a Two, so I had to assume it was armored like a tank.
Before I could bring my weapon into place, though, a Model Four whipped one of its tentacles towards me, slapping the barrel of my shotgun away from its target the instant before it was in place. I squeezed the trigger out of reflex and the Impaler threw a slug downrange, going wide of my quarry and blowing apart another Four instead. My moment of opportunity having been squandered, I threw myself backwards to avoid becoming a snack, landing on my ass with my feet inches from the dino-plant’s maw.
It jaws slammed shut, giving me a clear look at four alien eyes gazing at me with hatred. Its four wings slapped against the floor as it tried to crawl towards me. I scooted backwards as quickly as it advanced, armor scraping against tile with a godawful screech, and hurriedly raised my shotgun again as the Model Four that had fouled my shot previously rounded the larger Antithesis model and came after me. I held down the trigger and sent several shots in its direction, and although I didn’t know how many I fired before I actually hit it, the Model Four was blown to pieces all the same.
This time, when the bigger Antithesis opened its mouth, there was nothing in its way. That was when I realized it wasn’t just trying to eat me though- it was carrying more Antithesis in its stomach, and one was crawling its way out of its throat at this very second. A Model Three’s split-hinged face poked its way into view, bringing to mind revolting images of a certain alien that reproduced using facehuggers, and I adjusted my aim at the last second to but a slug through both of their throats.
The Model Three died. The bigger bastard didn’t.
While its throat was now blocked by a gooey corpse, it didn’t let that stop it. Its survival caught me by surprise, and I barely managed to grab its upper jaw in one hand before it fell back towards me. I crammed a foot into its lower jaw for good measure, but almost immediately I felt its enormous strength bearing down on me, threatening to slam shut with me inside.
“Juny, can you lock my joints?”
“Of course, but it may dama-”
“Do it!”
A split second later the strain disappeared, but it was replaced by the groaning of metal. With no power assist besides that which carried the suit itself, I was essentially holding the Antithesis’ mouth open with the Dainsleif’s frame itself. I raised my other hand, which was gripping my shotgun, and pressed the barrel against the plant fibers that were even no working to close the jaws shut around me. With literally zero distance between the barrel and its jaw muscles, the slug I released blew apart the side of its mouth with no risk of missing, and Juny wisely released the locked joints the instant the pressure on them dropped by more than half.
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On the other hand, rather unsurprisingly, I couldn’t actually a fire a shotgun one handed without consequences. If I’d been holding it with my actual hand I would surely have shattered my arm, but instead I merely lost my hold on it as the shotgun wrenched itself free of my grip, tumbling somewhere off to the side.
I didn’t have time to scramble after it, because even as the Antithesis reeled back from the damage, I realized its abdomen was straining as if about to explode from within. The huge creature didn’t even flinch as its stomach tore open and disgorged nearly a dozen Model Threes.
Instinctively, I punched the first one that got close to me, but with nothing enhancing my strength, the blow did fuck-all. I kicked it in the jaw next, and that had a bit more of an effect, leaving its face drooping bonelessly due to three broken jaws. By then, though, I realized the others had surrounded me, and the grievously wounded pterodactyl was still bearing down on me for good measure.
Although individually, none of them were a real threat by now- though, for the big one, that only applied due to its horrific injuries- but I was definitely getting torn apart if they all got their teeth on me. The Model Threes came at me as one, closing the circle faster than I could possibly arm myself and kill them. I turned and jumped instead of fighting, and the Double Jump triggered as well, sending me high enough that my helmet tore plaster from the ceiling.
“I need a grenade like that blackhole mine we used against the Model Ones!” I shouted in midair, and Juny obliged by materializing a perfectly round metal object into my hand.
New Purchase: Atlas Mk IV Anti-Grav Grenade
Points Reduced to…5,996
When I hit the ground, I spun, then primed and lobbed the grenade underhanded, sending it rolling through the middle of the Model Threes, which were still sorting themselves out after having missed me. It went right on past them, but they weren’t my target.
The sphere came to a stop when it bounced off the big fucker’s chest, rolling the other way for just a moment and then going still. A moment later it activated. There was no sound, no external sign other than the pterodactyl’s lower jaw hitting the ground, followed soon after by its upper twin. I took off in a run back towards it and leapt over the Threes again, this time barely avoiding their snapping jaws as I sailed past them.
With my running start, I was able to clear a bit more distance. I came down not on the floor but on the large Antithesis’ back, using it as a springboard for one more jump that took me back up to the sixth floor through the hole in the floor. The grenade pulled me down when I passed over it, but that just meant that I landed on the beast’s back a bit harder before I pulled out of the field and jumped again.
When I landed one floor up, I came face-to-face with Juny’s Eyebot, which had apparently fled back up through the hole long before I did. A small explosion went off below, but my points didn’t increase, so I had to assume the big one was still alive.
“Okay, before they get up the stairs, give a grenade that has a good chance of killing them all without destroying my guns in the process.”
“Of course!”
New Purchase: Disco Ball Laser Refraction Grenade
Points Reduced to…5,946
I didn’t even bother to comment on whatever the fuck was going on with that. I just primed it and tossed the disco ball into the hole. After a moment the floor below lit up with multicolored lasers, some of which came right back up the hole, burning holes in the ceiling above me. I had to assume they were more for show than actually functional, because I knew damn well there was no reason for laser weapons to use the visible spectrum of light.
As the flashing continued, my points ticket up by ten at a time. Ten, twenty, thirty…they stopped at 6,056. Enough for eleven Model Threes, but that still left the bird king alive.
“What the hell is that thing, anyway?” I asked, finally having the time to do so. I peered down through the hole and saw it shuffling backwards, though I didn’t know whether it wanted to escape the building or stick its head through the hole in the floor.
“A Model Eleven! They are heavy air units and transports! It is actually the second you’ve encountered.”
It took me a moment to figure out what she was talking about, but I got it after thinking back to yesterday. At that time it had been little more than a blur- the thing that had been shot out of the sky by a Stalking Tigers gunship, destroying the bridge I was about to cross.
“Huh, I guess I never did ask what that was. Anyway, turn off the grav-chute for a moment,” I said, gathering my courage. If weapons weren’t going to kill this thing, maybe a fundamental force would. I waited patiently as it backed up, oblivious to what I was planning. Finally its head came into sight, and just as it spotted me, I hopped forward.
With me I brought several hundred pounds of battle-armor, dropping feet first onto its skull.
Finally, after all the punishment it had taken, that was enough. Its head didn’t even put up a show of resistance before giving out, going to pieces as my legs took a magical journey through its mind. I received another hundred points and a token for my victory.
“They’re still only sending the second tier models in ones and twos, but they’re definitely getting smarter. I don’t like it,” I commented to distract myself from the task of extricating myself from the pile of yuck I was in. The only bit of good fortune I found was that my weapons survived the battle. The SMGs had been protected from the disco ball of death by virtue of being stuck under the Model Eleven, and the shotgun made it through with only a few scorch marks.
“Here is your friendly reminder to wash yourself off before you eat!”
“Tell me that when I’m back at base!”