“Evelyn Claire, explain yourself right now.” I’m not sure how I missed Celestia joining our call, it probably had something to do with the gun firing.
“Well… I was looking for a way to attract the attention of the Antithesis, and I was originally going to buy something from one of my catalogs, but then I remembered Blackdog’s mech had a few heavy weapons so I borrowed one.”
Celestia’s voice raised a couple octaves, “You fired something like that at the central support pillar? You could have brought down part of the upper city! What the fuck were you thinking?”
“First of all, I’m pretty sure the gun isn’t THAT strong, and second Nyx got some timed thermal shells to flash fry the Antithesis. You may have noticed a certain high pitched whistling noise, that’s a hive boiling in its own juices.”
There was a moment of silence, “You know what Celestia, I’m on Teddy’s side on this one.” It was the first time I’d heard Atlantica in awhile, she seemed to be in a good mood, unlike her sister. “You always worry about every little detail, but in this case Teddy just pulled the majority of that horde off our asses so we could do our job. It wasn't the smoothest operation, but it worked. Give her a break.”
“You think this is funny? She could have brought down the entire upper city. HOW IS THAT FUNNY YOU FUCK?” I had to lower the volume of my Augs when Celestia started yelling, I was really glad I was a few blocks from the rest of the party right now. Celestia wasn’t in a good mood and Atlantica was pushing her buttons.
Thankfully Humboldt broke into the conversation before the fight could get any worse. “Now isn’t the time for a fight. Teddy bought us some time, but the Antithesis will be back.” She paused, “You going to be alright out there Teddy?”
I glanced down the street at the Antithesis which were starting to gather around the base of the farms. Most were milling around, trying to figure out how to climb up and reach the source of the pheromones the steam was spreading around. A couple of the more mobile models were working their way up and trying to force their way through the steam. I shook my head as a few burned to death and fell from the tank.
“The Antithesis are occupied with the hive right now, doubt they’ll stay that way for long. I’ll figure out a way to keep them occupied and give you guys some more breathing room.”
“Without collapsing the city RIGHT.” Celestia said.
“I’ll do what I have to in order to get the job done, but I promise to avoid using heavy ordnance against the main support.”
Celestia started to reply but was promptly cut off by her sister, “That’ll be fine. Just make sure you stay alive, we’ve already had one casualty on this operation we don’t need another.”
I caught some movement out of the corner of my eye, a column of Antithesis had broken away from the main mob and was rushing down the street towards me. “I hate to cut this short, but it looks like I’m about to have company. Take care of those hives, and I’ll figure out how to keep the heat off you.”
“Right, we’ll talk to you later.” Atlantica replied right before the line went dead.
I jumped up onto the top of my truck to get a better view of the area, then sent a quick command to my bears in order to intercept the oncoming Antithesis. “Nyx, please tell me I earned some points from that hive.”
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
Around two and a half grand. You’ll also be receiving the rewards for saving all those people in a few minutes, the convoy is finally approaching the camp now.
“Ahhhhh…. Right.”
You forgot that you get rewarded for saving people didn’t you.
“In my defense I had a lot of things on my mind when it happened the last time. Why didn’t I just get those points at the sites?”
The city isn’t safe, so the civilians need to reach the evacuation camp before you could earn those points
“Fuck, well… I’d love to get Bob back on his feet, but I think I need to prioritise defences first. Does my Area Denial catalog have any actual fortifications, like walls I can have the bears man?
Unfortunately no, it has a lot of light fences and blockades. You can find more serious fortifications in the Class II catalog.
“If I unlock Class II Area Denial I can also get some of those APS systems that can shoot down model ones, and the model fifteen’s projectiles, right?”
You can, several different types.
“Then buy it, and put up a fortified wall to cover the side of the intersection closest to the farms. Make sure they can be removed afterwards, and add a gate just in case I need to fire the UHR again.” I paused, “And please share the ability to buy B3-AR ammo with the rest of the team.”
Done.
Purchased
Class II Area Denial Catalog - 400 points, 1 token
12m Bear-acade wall (4 x 3m Section)- 36 points
8m Bear-acade wall with gate - 32 points
Points remaining - 1977 points
The wall that appeared was a massive structure made of interlocking metal walls. Each panel had several heavy angled metal supports that had long metal spikes which drove themselves into the ground a few seconds after materialisation, and a ladder which connected to a catwalk mounted about 1.5 meters from the top. The new structure blocked off the entire street, even I wouldn’t be able to squeeze through the gaps on the side.
As soon as the structure had settled my bears clambered up the ladder and started firing at the street below.
“Now, a few APS systems. Preferably something I don’t have to monitor.”
How about an energy weapon then, something you could connect to the UHR or your truck to power. The Particle-beam Anti-Air Weapon System can shoot down five projectiles a second, and has an effective range of about 20 meters. 50 points per system.
My eyes narrowed, “PAWS?”
Don’t blame me, that’s actually what it’s called.
“And I’m sure you had plenty of other choices.” I sighed, “Fine, can you mount one on my truck?”
Sure.
“Then put one there so I don’t have to deal with the model ones in the future, and two on the walls so the boys can concentrate on the street.”
Purchased
PAWS APS system x3 - 150 points
Points Remaining - 1827 points
The system that appeared on my truck was a box about 6 inches square. The front had dozens of different lenses all packed together in a tight cluster, each one angled in a slightly different direction.
“It doesn’t look like much”
It doesn’t matter what it looks like, it’ll be effective.
“Fine.” I glanced over at the wall where my bears were busy firing into the street below. Now that there was a giant wall I couldn’t tell how bad things were, so I quickly pulled up Spooky’s optics. There were quite a few Antithesis making their way down the street now, but the majority was still over at the farms. The steam had already settled down, so it was only a matter of time until the mob dispersed again.
I was going to have to do something before that happened.