What do I think about the protectors? I think they’re behind the incursions. If they have all this technology, they could probably exterminate all the antithesis the instant they arrived on the planet, or prevented them from arriving, if they wanted to.
Why? Reality TV. What’s more entertaining than giving some slub super technology, then watching them run around like a toddler with a raygun. That’s all samurai are, hopped up hidden camera TV stars.
-Jalex Homes, Misinformation Battles
—
As soon as Skyler saw me hobbling up the stairs she sprinted over to me. “I told you to be careful!” she cried as she slid under my free arm to help support me. “What the hell happened?”
“They were invisible,” I tried to explain as I was dragged over to the nearest bench. “And angry.”
“I thought your shield was supposed to protect you from shit like this,” she mumbled.
I slipped onto the bench and nodded towards the stairway, where the team was slowly bringing up Terrier’s corpse. “It did. Some of the others weren’t so lucky,” I said quietly. I noticed Skyler glance in their direction before putting her head down and checking my leg.
“You’re surprisingly fine. It looks like whatever hit you didn’t actually get through your armor. You have one hell of a bruise though,” Skyler explained as she poked my leg. I yelped in pain, and nearly kicked her when she did. “I’m concerned your invisible assailant may have broken a bone, gimme a second.”
While she busied herself, I leaned back on the bench. [Artymis, what the fuck was that? How the hell do alien plants have fucking mimic capabilities? I understand the toxins and shit, but that was something else entirely.]
The Model Nine is very versatile. It can use its thick transparent grass coat similar to fiber optic cable. It has an entire part of its brain dedicated to projecting light pulses into these strands, allowing it to project the image of objects. These images aren’t perfect, so it also projects an EM disruption field that messes with electronics, and helps convince other creatures nothing is wrong.
“They do what?…Owwwww!” I cried out as Skyler stabbed me in the leg with a hypo. The instant she did the huge black welt around my lower leg slowly faded.
“Stop being a baby. It was just a bruise,” she cried, patting me on the leg before she stood up and looked me in the eye.
“You were the one panicking when I came out of that shelter,” I pointed out, with a small smile.
“Yeah, well, someone has to worry about you. You always put other people first, and pretend you’re completely fine, even when you’re not,” she sighed, then leaned down and drew me into a deep hug. “Please don’t do anything stupid and leave me alone,” she whispered quietly.
“I promise. We’re going to live long healthy lives, even with these stupid plants,” I whispered back, slowly patting her on the back.
We stayed that way for a minute, until Skyler finally collected herself and sat down on the bench beside me. “What was it that you were saying when I stabbed you with the nanites?”
I glanced down at my leg, then over at my girlfriend. “I thought nanites were applied through an inhaler,” I said, confused.
“I guess they’re multifunctional,” she replied with a shrug, before elbowing me in the side. “Don’t change the subject, I asked you a question.”
“Artymis was just explaining the antithesis we encountered in the shelter, model Nines, project images into their fiber optic like foliage to mimic objects. Not only that, but they project an EM field which not only disrupts electronics, but also the brains of other creatures,” I explained.
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Skyler looked at me blankly. “What?”
“That’s what I said! How the hell did the antithesis evolve something like that naturally?” I asked. “Artymis?”
{Arty: The antithesis are genetic scavengers. When they kill other creatures they drag their corpses back to the nearest hive and not only recycle the biomass, but steal genetic sequences from the prey. Normally creatures would need millions of years to adapt, and evolve, but the antithesis can do it in a fraction of that time through their genetic thievery, and the fact that they can birth thousands of models an hour. Throwing out the bad mutations, and allowing the good to thrive.}
“That’s fucking scary. And they found something that has both mimicry, and EM manipulation capabilities?” Skyler asked as she snuggled a little closer into my side.
{Athy: No. What you need to realize is this conflict goes well beyond your planet, it’s universal in scale. The protectors send us AI out to almost every Sapient race they find, in order to allow you to protect yourselves, while they focus on their war upon the antithesis core worlds. That being said, the antithesis are currently engaged with hundreds of thousands of races, and they’ve consumed millions more. They’ve had quintillion generations to perfect their hunting forms. We’re just lucky that they can only send the weaker models through rifts.}
“These are the weaker models?” I asked quietly.
{Arty: Yes. The stronger models need to be born on the planet, from a sufficiently developed hive. That’s why we both recommend making hive removal a priority, and reward vanguard for doing so.}
“Well shit,” Skyler muttered. “We better not slack off then.” We sat in silence for a moment, before Skyler sat up straight. “Wait… we get a reward for removing that thing in the shelter then?”
{Athy: Normally no, but considering your actions to this point Artymis and I have decided to reward you a token for your achievements. You’ve encountered significantly stronger antithesis than most newly awakened samurai, and done well to survive until this point.}
“Neat,” my girlfriend whispered.
Across the square I noticed they finally brought Terrier’s body up, and the team was slipping him into a body bag. They’d also managed to extract Steve, and appeared to be performing medical checks on him. Skyler elbowed me, “How’s the leg?”
I waggled my foot, an action that would have caused excruciating pain a couple minutes earlier, before nodding my head. “Seems good now. No permanent injuries.” I told her as I jumped to my feet. I danced around for a second before offering my hand to help her up.
“Thank you my lady,” Skyler said, with a small smile, as I hauled her to her feet. “I guess we should go back and regroup with the others now,” she said quietly.
I nodded, and the two of us made our way back, hand in hand. Emily and Trevor were bent over Steve, so we wandered over there first.
“How is he?” Skyler asked when we got close.
“Stable, for now,” Trevor said without looking up. “He lost a lot of blood, but whatever samurai medical device Reina used downstairs saved his life. I doubt he’ll be up and about anytime soon though.”
“We might be able to get him up, with a few more samurai grade medical items. If you think it’s safe.” Skyler asked.
Trevor looked up. “I’ll be honest with you, I was my unit’s medic, and if it was terrestrial medicine I would tell you that he’s stable, so it’s better to leave him as is until we get to a proper hospital. That crazy samurai grade shit though? I watched his wounds close after having his jugular ripped out. He absolutely should be dead right now. If you think you can get him back on his feet safely, I see no reason to say no.” Emily didn’t say anything, but nodded in agreement.
Skyler took a deep breath, then started silently mouthing things. She must have been subvocalizing to her AI, so I gently patted her on the back before wandering towards the APC. I couldn’t help but stare at Terrier’s bodybag as I approached.
“Not your fault,” Bulldog muttered as I approached. “If you hadn’t been there, or warned us about that thing’s location, it probably would have killed the entire squad. Nines are notorious squad killers.”
“I know,” I muttered quietly. “Still wish I’d noticed earlier.”
The giant man just shrugged before picking up the body bag and slowly carrying it into the vehicle. He opened a compartment below the benches and slowly slid the bag inside, securing it before closing everything off again. “We can’t save everyone, so save who you can. That’s what our old commander used to say,” Bulldog said, gently patting me on the shoulder as he stepped back out of the vehicle.
“Emily told me your former commander was an asshole,” I replied softly.
Bulldog laughed, “He was that, but sometimes he knew just what to say to pull the squad together, or give us the support to get through the day.” He stepped down from the ramp and grabbed the gun he’d left leaning against the side. “Concentrate on the positive, yeah?”
Just as he said that there was a commotion behind me. I turned back just in time to see Steve sit up, clutching at his throat in surprise. “Concentrate on the positive,” I mumbled, “Yeah, I can do that.”