Why can’t conventional military forces destroy the antithesis and why do we need samurai? Well the truth of the matter is, conventional military weapons CAN deal with the antithesis. A heavy artillery weapon has enough punch to deal with anything up to the mid thirties, given enough time. The thing is the antithesis can afford to lose hundreds, maybe even thousands, of models for a single human casualty.

The average soldier, defending an entrenched position, might kill a dozen weaker models. That's why we need the samurai, they can slaughter hordes of smaller models and topple the titans. They kill enough antithesis to balance the equation, to allow us to survive.

-Professor AJ Hawk, Protectorate Studies

—

I cleared the entire monowire barrier before moving forward. Better to remove it, than risk blocking, or killing, someone that may try to escape through this area before it dissolved naturally. While I was clearing the way Skyler was cleaning up the bodies, so by the time I was done we were ready to move again.

I slowly advanced upon the square, the rest of the team at my back. “Why do we keep running into these large groups? They’re dangerous, but not the city devouring tides I expected to encounter” I asked as I stalked forward.

“It’s because the city has several high caliber, samurai grade anti air cannons. Pods have a very thick shell, and can shrug off most fire, but if you hit them with something dangerous enough they split apart. The flying models emerge to provide cover and the rest of the compartments scatter like dandelion seeds,” Emily explained. “It prevents the landing pods from being outright destroyed before they hit the ground, but also disperses the antithesis over a wider area.”

Skyler frowned. “Is that really a good thing though? If they spread over a wider area there’s a higher chance that one of the groups may go to ground, and spawn hives somewhere.”

“But it breaks their forces up into more manageable groups, groups that even the PMCs can handle, so it’s a toss up. Personally, I prefer fights that my team and I have a hope of winning, rather than being instantly overrun. But that’s just me.”

“So that’s why we haven’t seen any Ones since we came out here? They’re dumped out of the main pod?” I asked.

Emily nodded. “Both them and the Elevens. That’s… a mixed blessing, because they still flock up. If they ever catch a whiff of the pheromones, or dead antithesis, in this area we’ll get swarmed.”

“Let’s hope that doesn’t happen,” Skyler muttered, “I have some sky burst rounds but against that many…”

Before she could finish I threw up a hand, and started shushing the group. I could hear something. It didn’t sound like movement, at least it didn’t sound like a swarm rushing in, it sounded like… grinding stone?

“What is that?” Skyler hissed.

I shook my head, glanced around the square, then finally pointed at one of the pits the Eights had started digging. “It’s coming from there,” I whispered.

Emily nodded, made a couple quick hand signals, and her squad rushed forward to surround the depression. I could see Terrier and Bulldog exchange a quick glance, before they raised their weapons. “Clear… sort of,” the smaller man said.

I slipped into the plaza, and quickly made my way up to the team, interested to see what they found. The hole was a mess of half vapourized, half dismembered antithesis parts. The Eight had been hit directly by multiple mortar rounds, and ripped apart, but the truly disgusting part was that even though it lost more than eighty percent of its mass, the worm still appeared to be trying to dig.

Told you, distributed nervous system. With this much damage it’ll die of trauma and blood loss soon, but the fact it can keep moving for this long is impressive.

“That’s disgusting,” Skyler gagged as she came up behind me. “Can we do anything about that?”

[Is that gas we used in the office heavier than air by any chance,] I asked Artymis discretely.

Yup. I’m assuming you want one.

[Please.]

I let the grenade just roll off my hand and into the hole. It didn’t take long for the gas to fill the foul orifice, and the grinding to finally stop.

“So… the fact that the antithesis were trying to dig their way into the shelter is a good sign, right?” I asked. “It means they didn’t have easy access to the inside, unlike that office building we stopped at earlier.”

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“Well, yes and no…” Ratchet replied. “The antithesis kind of have a pattern. When they enter an area the scouts identify and collect ‘free’ biomass. Local flora and fauna, food supplies, and people caught outside of secure locations.” She half gestured towards the nearest greenspace, and I noticed the entire thing had been ripped apart. It looked like there’d been trees there before, but the antithesis had ripped everything down, they’d even dug up the roots. “Once they’ve secured that they move on to inefficient sources of biomass, and moderately difficult targets. Like eating synth leather, or ripping open military vehicles. They typically only start digging into hardened targets once they’ve run out of ‘easy’ targets.”

“So the fact they were trying to dig into the shelter here…” Skyler started.

“Is an anomaly,” Ratchet finished.

I could see Emily, perched at the top of one of the access stairways a few feet away, eyes narrowed as she stared into the gloom. “We won’t know why until we check on the status of those people,” she grumbled. “Terrier, Bulldog and Steve with me, the rest of you keep watch.”

“Actually… I think it’s best if I go first,” I announced. “Confined spaces, and close quarters, are kind of what I do best.”

Emily paused for a moment, then nodded, stepping aside so I could pass. The shelter entrance reminded me of the old subway entrances you saw in old movies and TV, before tunneling horrors and hover vehicles made the design obsolete. I moved lightly down the approximately thirty steps before I came to a sealed steel door, which had been scratched up by some sort of antithesis, but not penetrated, and a security panel. I tapped the panel a couple times, but it stayed dark.

“Power’s out, but the door is sealed properly. I doubt the other entrances are any different, but we should check, just in case,” I called back up the stairs.

[I take it this is a location without sufficient backup power] I asked Artymis silently.

Actually, it’s SUPPOSED to have backup generators. I had it listed as a moderate risk, because it had failsafe doors and it went through an inspection within the last few months. The system shouldn’t be down right now.

[Is there any way we get enough power to it to at least access comms, or interior surveillance?]

There are exterior power ports hidden below the panel, just in case the rescue crews encounter this exact sort of situation.

I felt underneath the panel, and discovered a small compartment which I could slide open. Inside there were some massive three inch wide power connectors. They kind of looked like the charging port on my car. “What the fuck am I supposed to do with these?” I muttered.

“Try this!” I heard Skyler’s bright voice echo from above. I looked up to find her laying at the edge of the side of the stairs, dangling a power cable down.

“What’s this?” I asked suspiciously.

“Power of course! The rescue teams typically connect external power to their vehicles, but I connected this cable to Howie,” Skyler explained as she lowered the cable down to me.

“How did you even know that I needed it in the first place?” I asked suspiciously.

“Well… Artymis told Athyna what you were doing, and then Athyna told me, and suggested Howie could substitute as a power source. Simple!” Skyler explained.

“Right. I’m not quite sure I’m comfortable with my AI discussing things with other people behind my back, but it does solve our power issues,” I grumbled.

“We should make a chat channel that’s only accessible to us and our AIs,” Skyler called as she disappeared above the lip of the stairs. “That way we can discuss, and plan, without other people listening in.”

“That’s a good plan,” I called back. “Artymis would you mind…”

It’s already done.

{Rei: I’m ready to plug in the connection} I sent to test our new connection.

{Sky: Howie is all set up, do it!} Came the reply.

I crouched down, and gently eased the cables into the connectors. After a few seconds the screen flickered to life. I just barely had time to stand up, and check the system when Emily appeared at the top of the stairs again. “We checked the other access points, all of them are sealed, and powered down,” she explained as she slowly descended the stairs. “I see you two have been busy since I left.”

“We literally just got this thing plugged in. I was just about to see if I could see inside, want to join me?”

Emily nodded, and came to stand at my side as I brought up the display. The thing wanted credentials, so I just placed my hand on the screen and concentrated for a moment to bypass the security. The screen flickered, then displayed a menu which would have looked out of date fifty years ago. Three simple options, ‘Cams, Comms, and Open Door,' the last option was grayed out. I glanced at Emily, who shrugged.

“The Cascadian government wanted to make these things as idiot proof as possible, so they simplified and standardized shelter access terminals,” she explained. “Rescue teams have to at least look into the shelter before they’re allowed to crack the doors, to prevent them from releasing anything.”

“I guess that’s sensible,” I grumbled. “Wish they’d provided an easier way to do it.”

I touched the ‘Cams’ button and waited. The screen cycled, but didn’t display anything, just static. I clicked the next cam button, and again nothing. Frustrated, I slammed the button again. This time the cam connected, I kinda wish it hadn’t.

The signal was heavily degraded, and staticy, but I could see enough. The interior was a charnel house, with bodies just lying everywhere, literally sliced into pieces. I blanched, and reached for the disconnect button but Emily caught my hand. I looked at her, questioningly, so she pointed at the corner of the display. There was something there, a fibrous, yet fleshy looking growth; It kind of looked like a man sized cocoon growing on the wall. I could swear it was pulsing. “What is that?” I asked softly.

“A real big problem,” she replied quietly.