It is sad to find fellow humans living under oppression we consider in-human. Yet what are we to do? We can save their lives, but can we tell them how to live it? We can help them break their shackles, should they ask, but disrupting their system, however vile, would lead to much suffering. We cannot save them, we do not have the space to shelter them all, and so we are left to suffer with them in spirit.

--Red Star, in interview

***

We soon found evidence of a Hive, too, this time it was barely hidden in a small park area, hard to see from the sky but very evident to my drones. After I reported it's existence and scouted out the perimeter of it, we hunkered down a ways away to discuss strategy. Titanite was predictably enough for just stomping down there and taking it on, but they both still listed as I quickly outlined how we'd taken out the Hive in northern Sweden. They both had suggestions for improvements, but soon I had bought another mortar tube, and had it zero in on the centre of the Hive. Titanite supplied the mortar shell, combing her catalogues with my Indirect Fire one. She dropped a stout, dark-green shell into the tube, and it fired off with a thump. She bought and fired off another three shells, the tube adjusting minutely in between.

Some thirty seconds later, I could report a large disintegration event in the Hive, followed by three more, turning the area into so many exotic particles. I had tuned out when Eyon tried to explain the thing in detail, all I needed to know was to not be near one going off.

We approached to clean up the stragglers manually, and was met with only sporadic opposition. Seems the Hive was running low on forces even before we turned up. So, Titanite approached and had her fun while Red Knight and I stayed back, me assisting her with my swarm, him keeping me safe in case of... I don't really know what, but I appreciated having him near regardless. Maybe he was just letting Titanite blow off some steam on her own? Who knows.

Regardless, it was nice being able to clear out a Hive without being trapped in a tunnel with it. Felt much safer this way. I pondered the option of simply shelling through any building or ground of the next one we found underground, but shelved the idea. It probably wouldn't be appreciated by whoever owned the intervening infrastructure.

Once we'd made sure that particular Hive wouldn't be a problem again, we carried on cleaning up the Antithesis we'd missed from the air, and those that hid in buildings. We found several little proto-Hives, ones that hadn't really gotten started yet and just consisted of a single central stalk and a few roots in basements and tunnels and the like. We stamped them out with prejudice, and carried on. We checked the sites of the Anti drop pods, and made sure those were dealt with, too. Then we came across a busted open shelter, with doors still intact but the adjoining wall was chewed and bashed through. The insides were not pretty, and I'd learned my lesson and only had a single Wasp look at the place. There was what looked like the remains of a cobbled together barricade just inside the hole in the wall, so they'd evidently seen their deaths coming. Further inside was another slaughter scene, although a lot of the corpses were already gone, leaving green and red splotches on the floor. I only took a cursory glance to confirm there were no survivors, then let Red Knight deal with the place.

Dealing with the place, as it turned out, was done by updating the shelter's flag on the map and scouting the place for any other tunnels out of the place leading to hives. When he found none, we took to looking closely at the surrounding area for where the missing Eights might have taken the remains. It took a while, but eventually we tracked one of them down, a fifteen meter long specimen, coming out of a building which helped narrow the search down significantly. It had left scuffs and marks on the carpet inside leading all the way to a staircase down and into another set of tunnels. I scouted ahead as we entered, and found a rather extensive network, this one clearly of the maintenance variety, with pipes and cables strung all along the ceiling and walls. The Antithesis presence down here was quite heavy, with Model Fours lying in ambush on the way down and every few steps after that. They were a bit of a pain to spot, hiding as they were behind and among pipes and things, but we dealt with that by having Titanite lead the way, after I'd dispatched the ones I'd spotted with Yellowjackets, which were fast and nimble enough to evade the flailing tentacles once the Fours were stung and realized they were spotted. I missed a bare handful of them on our way in, but Titanite dealt with those quite easily. There weren't a ton of models other than the many, many Fours, just a few roaming Threes and, one time, a pack of fifteen Threes that had apparently heard us and were coming to see if we were edible. We were not.

So, it was a slow walk through the tunnels, and I stayed rather far back, but still lead the way with my swarm. I eventually picked up the edges of the Hive, it wasn't that far in, and mapped out the tunnels around it. They were in a regular grid pattern, and so rather easy to navigate. I approached the Hive itself with a sacrificial Wasp, expecting... Yep, sure enough, swatted right out of the air by a ludicrously fast tentacle. This was proving to be a pattern, one I didn't like the shape of.

Eyon, that quick setting foam Red Knight used, think you can get me a canister of that?

[Of course. The catalogue, Class I Battlefield Utilities, will cost fifty points, the canister itself two. You could also borrow the catalogue from Red Knight.]

Hmm, I think I like the idea of having access to battlefield utilities in the future. Just unlock it for me.

[Very well.]

Catalogue Unlocked: Class I Battlefield Utilities - 50 points

New Purchase: Quickset Evaporating Foam, canister - 2 points

Points reduced to... 5101

A canister with a hose and spray attachment appeared, this one in all black with a stylized wasp in yellow on it. I filled Red Knight and Titanite in on what I was doing, then started filling in the side tunnels we were passing. They were spaced out roughly twenty meters apart and I started once we were ten intersections away from the Hive, leaving the closest three for Red Knight and Titanite to seal up. I had to buy another canister, and Red Knight bought one of his own, leaving us with one long tunnel as a retreat path and hopefully no surprises once we engaged whatever Thirteens were guarding this Hive.

Stolen novel; please report.

Red Knight got the party started by sending a jet of flame down the tunnel at the Hive from his flamethrower, and soon we had the familiar wail of a distressed Hive in our ears, and a bunch of Fours on fire, staggering towards us, but dying before they could reach. A Thirteen swung into action, only lightly singed, and Titanite clipped it on the way in with her disintegrator cannon, taking out a body and a mess of tentacles. It flopped to the side, centre of mass suddenly different, then slammed down into Red Knight, who had dropped the flamethrower and was now wielding a sword and shield, both of which glowed and seemed much too large for practical use, with a solid looking core and much larger extensions made from semi-transparent glowing light. I suspected shenanigans.

Regardless, he was keeping the Thirteen at bay, so I stepped up a bit and filled the bastard with neurotoxins from my Stinger, as Titanite laid down a barrage of gunfire from her arm-mounted machine guns, it being a bit close for disintegration. The Thirteen kept on the offensive, but Red Knight proved too tough a nut to crack, and after several seconds the thing started to flag and shudder, falling still some five seconds later, still attached to the ceiling by two tentacles.

Red Knight stepped back, and Titanite shot it a final time with her disintegrator, severing its attachments and causing it to flop to the floor.

We took stock, me checking the other tunnels leading to the intersection where the Hive had it's core. Nothing much was moving, aside from the Tens still tending to the Hive. Red Knight had strapped the sword to his side, and was approaching the Hive with shield in one hand, flamethrower in the other. He cooked the Tens who were pulling a sickly looking Thirteen from a pod, which for a surprise also died in the fire. Guess that one wasn't ready for combat yet.

I inspected the tunnels all around the Hive, and found some shambling Fours coming our way, which I stung in passing, but nothing else.

"Looks pretty clear to me." I said a bit dubiously.

"Yeah. Lets prep, blow this thing up, then melt it." Red Knight said.

This time we both followed him into the Hive, then Red Knight and I used up our canisters to seal off the three tunnels leading to it, making sure to include as much of the Hive roots as was feasible. We then retreated to our path out, while Titanite did her thing with a much smaller disintegrator bomb. Red Knight planted a flesh eater, we sealed off the tunnel behind us, then left the way we came.

"I expected much worse." I said as we were leaving.

"It's hard to know." Titanite said. "Much depends on how old the Hive is, how much time it has had to prepare. And what it has prioritized spending its resources on."

"Good thinking on the prep-work, though." Red Knight said to me. "We didn't end up needing it, but it is much better to be safe than sorry."

"Thank you." I said, feeling myself blush slightly at the praise. "Don't want to make the same mistake twice."

"Especially when said mistakes end up putting holes in me." Titanite said with a small laugh.

Red Knight reached up to slap her on the shoulder with a chuckle. I didn't laugh with them. My friends getting stabbed by Antis wasn't a laughing matter.

We exited the tunnels and I spread out over the surrounding area, looking for more Antis. There weren't any immediately around, and, looking at the map, it seemed most of this area had been cleared by other Valkyries while we had been busy below ground. Zooming out and looking at the bigger picture, I was surprised to see the city covered in a friendly green colour, with only occasional splotches of yellow.

"I think one of the big hitters came by, cleared the place up." Red Knight said. "I'm a bit surprised it took them this long, honestly. Still, this was a rather small incursion, maybe they just didn't want to get out of bed early for it."

"That's so irresponsible!" I exclaimed.

"It is what it is. Also, it is considered bad form to deny new Valkyries all chances to get points. Maybe they were just letting us and the rest of the nearby Valkyries take a whack at the problem before solving it for us? Who knows."

I was still upset that a Valkyrie had apparently been able to solve what would have taken us most of a day in the about an hour we had spent underground, and yet they hadn't done so immediately. People had died! This wasn't just some game you could choose to play or not, there were real consequences!

Thinking of this, my mind hit upon the unmaintained shelter we had come across. I was still determined to find out who was supposed to have maintained it, and why they hadn't. They had better have a good explanation.

"Well, I think we're just about done here." Red Knight said after a short pause. "Either of you need a few more points for something, or can we fly home? I think we can just about make it in time for sleep if we leave soon."

"I think I'm good to leave." Titanite said. "How about you, Hornet?"

"I actually wanted to stick around a bit longer. I have some questions to ask a certain maintenance group."

"Oh? OH!" Red Knight exclaimed. "The shelter, right?" At my nod he continued. "Listen, things work a little differently out here. Corruption is rather normal, corners are cut where they really shouldn't be, and the regular citizens pay the price for the greed of the rich and powerful. It isn't right, in fact it is anything but, but that's the rules they play by under corporate ownership. Getting involved in it is... Look, it's complicated, alright? We can't just make them all see reason and change their ways, not when the wealth and status of the rich depends on them not doing so."

"I know that, and I don't mean to, but this is basic common sense we're talking about. Shelters are first on the list of things you maintain!" I all but yelled.

"I think you'll find that the shelters of the rich and powerful are very well maintained. It's the ones for the poor out on the fringes that, well. I think the phrase is 'It's not profitable.' But still, I don't think it's a good idea for you to get involved. Look, I know some of the local Valkyries, and they aren't bad people. In fact, I think they'd be very interested in knowing about the shelter you found, and would take the people responsible to task."

"They would?" I asked doubtfully.

"They're Valkyries, right? That means they've got their heads screwed on right, unlike some of these bloody capitalists. Besides, what would you even do if you tracked them down, asked them to explain themselves, and they told you to get lost?"

"I'd... Uhm." I hadn't really thought that far.

"You seem way too kind to deal with capitalists, Sylvi. They aren't nice, reasonable people. You have to get a little rough with them to get them to really pay attention, and I don't think you have that in you."

"She wouldn't be alone. She'd have me along, at least." Titanite said.

Red Knight was silent for a bit after that.

"I won't stop you if you really want to do this." He said at last. "I'll just say that I expect it to get messy, and that I'd advise you to leave the mess to the locals who are better positioned to deal with it."

"I understand." I said with a sigh. He was probably right. "But can you at least figure out a way for me to learn what comes of it?"

"Of course. I'll let them know that you'd like to be kept in the loop. That's only reasonable, since you discovered the problem in the first place. I'll even ask Huginn and Muninn to check in on it, assuming they have time to come here and help with the cleanup."

"Okay, I guess that's fine then. In that case, let's just head home I guess." I said with a sigh.

Humans were a lot harder to deal with than the Antithesis.