The laser grids managed to hold off the Antithesis for about ten seconds. Then a group of Model Sixes all hit the grid all at once, absorbing enough punishment to allow a handful of Model Threes to sneak between them.

The intruding Antithesis were immediately gunned down by my bears, but the fact they made it through at all was concerning.

“Nyx, please tell me I’ve earned enough points to reinforce the front line already.”

Yes, you just crossed the thousand point threshold a second ago.

I let my rifle drop a bit as my brain tried to process what Nyx just told me. “How much?”

A thousand one hundred now. How about we reinforce the lines first, then talk about it afterwards.

“Right.” I brought my rifle back up and scanned the lines. The grid was doing its job, unfortunately it was just being overwhelmed by the sheer mass of Antithesis bodies getting thrown against it. I quickly swapped over to the bears stationed on the other walls to check how they were doing. The Antithesis were starting to approach from those directions, but only in dribs and drabs, nothing like the wave hitting me from the north.

“Nyx put down two more grids on every side, one ten feet further out and one ten feet closer from the current grids.”

Purchased

High Frequency Laser Grid x8 - 720 points

Points remaining: 624

As soon as the additional grids manifested the pressure on my defenses eased. There were still moments when one or two Antithesis snuck through the first grid, protected by the mass of plant flesh between them and the emitters, only to fall to pieces as soon as they hit the second barrier. Nothing survived long enough to reach the third.

Finally satisfied I wasn’t going to get overwhelmed in the next minute or so, I lowered my rifle.

“Now then… how many points?” I asked again.

You're earning around a hundred points a second, hardly surprising considering the situation. Between your bears and static defenses you're well situated to farm points in this sort of setting. Previously you were almost always on the move, or point sharing with multiple other Samurai. Even though you’re receiving a fifty percent reduction due to killing indirectly, you are killing between one and two dozen Antithesis a second. That adds up.

You should know that if your main squad did nothing but kill Model Threes you should still be able to make over a thousand points a minute, you’ve just never been in a situation where there have been that many Antithesis around, while not being grouped with other Samurai.

“Fuck me.” I stared at the Antithesis on the street spaghettify themselves for a minute, letting the points roll in. “I’m glad I can fill in the blueprints and catalogs I’m missing, but first…” I glanced into the intersection, at a semi crushed lump that used to be Bob, “I want a bear repair system.”

You realize that a Class I catalog wouldn’t be able to completely fix Bob's systems right?

Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.

“Well, it can be used to get the front line bears back into the fight faster, but I’m hoping it will be enough to get Bob back on his feet so his auto repair systems can repair the worst of the damage.”

It’s possible, but unlikely.

“Well, I’m going to try it anyways. What do I need?”

If you’re serious about this I would recommend Class I Robotics Repair systems, and the ‘Repair-a-bear automated gantry’. It needs resources to function, but I can customize it to fit in the trailer and siphon raw materials from your creation engine.

“How much?”

One hundred for the catalog, one thousand for the gantry.

“Fine. Once that’s paid for I want six more bears, with rifles, to load Bob into it and help man the other walls. Then, I’d like a few more drones, a pair of laser array emplacements to reinforce the northern wall, and THEN we can talk about blueprints. Don’t bother me with the totals unless I can’t afford something, I’ll get an update when we’re done here.”

You’re still worried the Antithesis may break through?

“I’d rather be prepared if the worst happens, the stupid plants have surprised me before.”

I watched as a tall mechanical frame covered in robotic arms appeared in my truck. It vaguely resembled Leah's surgery table, but instead of delicate medical equipment there were industrial welders and spray nozzles. It barely fit within the truck. A few seconds later bears started to appear at the base of the wall and head over to Bob's body, it took three or four of them to even start dragging the big bear over towards the device.

As much as I wanted to see Bob back on his feet, I stopped paying attention when the drones started showing up. There were plenty of other things that needed my attention.

I turned back towards the Antithesis just in time to see a couple fours climbing up the walls, trying to make room for the other models. They didn't even make it to the grids before my team shot them down. Since the front didn't need my immediate attention I quickly pulled up feeds from the bears on the other walls, making sure there were no issues, before commanding the half dozen drones I'd purchased to spread out and scout the area.

As they explored the map in my augs filled out, numbers flashed at the corner of my vision as Nyx calculated how many Antithesis were on the street. There were a lot out there, but the shrimp wasn’t one of them. I frowned, “Nyx what are the chances that Antithesis would have destroyed that shrimp themselves? It was injured during our last encounter.”

If the hives were a little more mature, I’d say it’s possible. Fortunately they haven’t developed to the point where they could birth more of those monstrosities, so they’d keep it around. It’s too efficient to just recycle.

“I was afraid of that.”

I was still searching for the shrimp when I lost contact with one of my drones, mobbed by a flock of Model Ones right outside of the nearest kelp farm. A few seconds later I lost a second drone, this one a block closer.

I flicked my augs off in concern and turned towards the central pillar only to find the air filled with a massive, roiling cloud of the small Antithesis fliers.

“Nyx you better be right about those APS systems.”

I am.

“We’re about to find out.” As the flock dove down towards my location I reflexively ducked, not that it was necessary. The APS systems opened up, killing dozens of the fliers a second through precision weapon fire. Some got close, but none survived long enough to do any real damage. Once I realized this I stood up again, slightly embarrassed.

“Well, that’s taken care of, but it doesn’t take care of our Shrimp problem. Where the hell could something that size go?”

I was so distracted by everything going on that I didn’t realize Bandit was signaling me, until the little fox came up and literally tackled me to get my attention. The bot waved its hands around frantically before pointing down at the ground. It only took me a moment to pull up his POV, and when I did my eyes went wide. The acoustic sensors were going nuts, movement below.

“Nyx… please check how wide the sewers are here. I think I may have a problem”