Outside observers claim that Scania was a net-loss for the world in terms of freedom of-movement, -information and -industry, and that the new Autocracy is an ignominious end to a pair of storied democracies. The official stance of the Scanian state, meanwhile, is that desperate times call for desperate measures, and that the inviolability of their people comes before all other considerations.

--"Scania, wikipedia article", current

***

The streets around the ruined building was a mess of Antis, and more were spawning from the overripe, fruit-like sacks on the pseudo-hive by the minute. I set my swarm to stinging them to death, dodging angry snapping and flailing tentacles, while beside me Titanite set off in the general direction of the mess. It was a block down and one over, but by the pace she was setting, she'd be there in moments.

I hurriedly opened up a voice-call to her, and when she answered, asked her "Where are you going?!"

"To stomp on the Antis, of course?" was her confused reply.

So. Plans needed revising. Already.

I knew the adage 'No plan survives first contact with the enemy', but this was a bit ridiculous.

I followed along, but at a more sedate pace. I wasn't going to be able to match Titanite's even if I tried, and anyway, I didn't want to be right next to the Antis, so I stayed back.

Titanite, meanwhile, had reached the first Anti corpses and had riled up the still living ones, who turned and charged at her. Or would have, if they weren't all staggering from uncontrolled muscle spasms. She still opened fire from the pistol in her hand, putting down the dying Antis.

"I've never seen Anti's stumble around like this." She said.

"Their nervous systems were shutting down, and they'd be dead in another ten to fifteen seconds." I replied a bit grumpily.

"Oh so that's what you meant by 'short while'. Seems awfully slow to me."

"Yeah, thanks. It works fine when you aren't literally on top of them." I groused.

Meanwhile, Titanite was stomping ahead, shooting as she went. Then she stopped shooting and let two Anti dogs close the distance, before stabbing them with a yellow blade that she extended out in front of her cannon arm's muzzle. It wasn't much of a fight, really, but she seemed excited about it nonetheless.

Soon all the Antis in the immediate area were dead, and we were left looking at the hive pod thing that had brought them here. Then Titanite raised her cannon arm and blew a roughly one meter hole in it, in a weird non-exploding way.

[That was a disintegrator cannon, it reduces atoms to their constituent parts. I would advise staying away from it, your suit isn't rated to handle weapons of that magnitude.]

I had more immediate problems.

"Watch it! You blew up one of my Wasps!" I shouted angrily.

"Eh, oops? Sorry?" She replied a bit sheepishly.

"It's fine, I guess. Look, are you going to keep disintegrating that thing, or should we throw some flesh melters at it or what?"

"Flesh Melters are so slow." She replied as she lined up a shot, then disappeared another chunk.

"Yeah, but we don't need to stand around and watch them work."

"I guess." She took another shot. "I just don't get to fire this baby that often..."

That was fair. I could see that cannon being rough on the integrity of the firing range.

"Well, your choice. I'm going to sweep towards the waterfront." I said and spread out my swarm again, across a couple of streets, moving them down along them looking for pockets of Antis as I went. Meanwhile I jogged closer to Titanite, and kept an eye on the surrounding area.

Soon I found another problem up ahead, a trio of the Tank-like Sixes who were busy ramming into doors and walls, opening up paths for their smaller Anti buddies. I brought over my Yellowjackets to take them out, while I engaged the Threes and Fours with Wasps. Then I heard a scream from within the building that had just been opened, and saw a Three assaulting a man on a flight of stairs. I cursed and started prioritizing attacking that one and the ones close to him, having multiple Wasps sting them all over to speed up the process.

It still took a handful of seconds, but eventually the man could kick the Three back a step and hit it a few times with the baseball bat he was wielding.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

He was bleeding, but was soon pulled back and replaced by another man, so I figured he'd be alright.

While this had been going on, I'd harassed the Sixes to distraction, until they eventually lay unmoving in the middle of the road. The trail of ruined walls and doors they'd left behind was still a problem, though, so I spent some frantic time flying through buildings, trying to make sure any people in there weren't in serious trouble. That I found a number of dead people wasn't wholly unexpected, but still disheartening. Luckily most were well barricaded on higher floors, and thus survived the first floor intrusions.

While this was going on, Titanite had finished clearing up the hive-pod thing and started moving down the streets I'd been clearing. I think she felt a bit superfluous because she would occasionally kick a corpse, sending it spinning down the street.

Then I found a school building positively teeming with Antis, and Titanite was off like a shot, set off by the map data I was sharing with her.

I hadn't spotted anyone in danger yet, but going by the pattern so far of Antis congregating near concentrations of biomass like food shops and, well, people, I figured there was a reason they were all there, and it probably wasn't because the school cafeteria was well stocked.

So, I concentrated my efforts on scouting out the building, then, noticing the place had a comprehensive surveillance system, begged Eyon for help hacking into it to speed up the process. Meanwhile, Titanite was kicking down the front door and entering. Say this about Titanite, when she kicks down a door, it stays down. Once it has stopped bouncing, that is.

So, while she started redecorating the place with bullet holes and Antithesis sap, I quickly determined that yes, there was a local shelter in the basement, and no, there wasn't anyone outside of it. Not anymore, at least, there were rather a lot of Antis present. Their presence got denser closer to the shelter, until they were met with gunfire from a pair of turrets in the hallway leading up to it. Then one of the guns misfired and stopped working, and the Antis got a little bit closer still. A Six lumbered towards the front, barely fitting in the hallway, then charged straight on through the gunfire and slammed into the vault door, which held up. For now, anyway.

I had directed Titanite in the appropriate direction, and she arrived through the Antis as a second impact hit the door, pushing the Antis aside through main strength and weight of fire, until eventually she could start laying into the Six. She hosed it down with machine gun fire for a while, and when that failed to impress it, forwent her disintegrator cannon, probably for fear of ruining the hallway or the shelter or both, and closed to stab the thing, repeatedly, carving off legs and lumps of flesh until eventually she was the only thing standing in the hallway.

The remaining gun-turret chose this moment to spin around and shoot at her twice. She stared it down, then shrugged and moved down the hallway away from the shelter door. Antis were starting to fill the hallway once again, coming in from the rest of the school, and I had Wasps stab them on their way towards Titanite, trying to slow and stem the tide somewhat, before it eventually broke against her and her relentless gunfire.

Meanwhile, I was also clearing the nearby buildings, which weren't nearly as badly infested, trying to figure out where they all had come from, when all of a sudden a fucking shrub jumped at me and tried to mince me. One moment it was an innocent Azalea, the next it was a murderous blender of teeth and claws, toppling me over and frantically trying to penetrate my armour, which thankfully held for now. My Stinger had some trouble pivoting to get a shot, and my flailing wasn't doing much to it, either. Eventually, through all my scrabbling about, the geometry worked out and my Stinger hummed twice. The murder bush scrabbled at me for another five seconds with decreasing strength until eventually I managed to free myself and it twitched itself to stillness.

Fucking hell.

Target Eliminated!

Reward... 25 Points

[That was a Model Nine, a stealth and ambush model with the ability to mimic almost anything with surprising accuracy.]

I looked at the dead bush, its flesh saggy and boneless, and its skin losing it's mimicked colour and becoming a blotchy grey, smoothing out from the textured look it had just moments prior.

I then looked at my armour. It was scratched up, had some gashes in between the hardened plates, but looked whole.

Fucking hell indeed.

I shook myself back into gear. In the School, Titanite was doing fine even if I had been a bit too panicked to help for the last few moments.

Why didn't I spot that before it jumped me? I know I flew some drones through here.

[It is likely a Yellowjacket would have spotted it, if it was relatively close. It need hardly be said that none were.]

I am not happy about this, Eyon.

[I can tell. May I suggest a Class II recon specialized drone for close quarters safety and generic spotting, and more Yellowjackets for generalized surveillance and combat?]

You may. Two of those recon drones. And spend the rest on Yellowjackets. In fact, reserve five-hundred points on top of the emergency fund for flexibility, and buy me new Yellowjackets every time I have the points for them, up until I have at least fifty.

[Very well.]

Catalogue Unlocked: Class I Advanced Sensor Suite - 50 points

Catalogue Unlocked: Class II Advanced Sensor Suite - 400 points, 1 token

New Purchase: Class II Spyfly Recon Drone x2 - 200 points

New Purchase: Class II Yellowjacket Mk 4 Warfare Drone x21 - 2340 points

Points reduced to... 564

I kept one Yellowjacket on me, then sent the rest out to reinforce my swarm. I then connected to the two Spyflies and got a minor shock at how detailed the world was through their senses. I was suddenly seeing smells and feeling sound.

Also.

Spyfly. Really?

[Rolls right off the tongue, and it fits.]

They aren't even invisible or anything. How are they going to spy on things when they're the size of a fist and buzz when they fly?

[Here, try this.]

One of the drone's view zoomed in on the horizon, then kept zooming and kept zooming some more.

Okay, I'll admit you don't have to be right next to something to spy on it. Still, it'd be handy to hear what's going on over there.

Suddenly, I was hearing what was going on over there.

What? How the heck does that work?

[You bounce a beam of light off of a nearby vibrating surface, and based on the...]

Whatever. You've made your point.