It only took me a few minutes to fill the eastern road with enough obstacles and traps that even the Shrimp would have a hard time approaching. The oversized crayfish had already proved nigh invulnerable to most of my weapons, so instead of filling the street with more mines and lasers I filled it with tank traps, snares and quick hardening foam. Anything that could slow the Antithesis down long enough for my UHR to hollow it out. The gun was already anchored to the ground, and a shell was primed, all I needed was the guest of honor.
When the drone was only about a block out I pulled up the feed one last time. The creature was about half a block back now, following warily. It had attempted to rush the drone a couple times, only to be thwarted by a burst of speed or increase in elevation, and so the creature had started hanging back. It almost looked like it was planning something.
I took one final look as the drone hit the end of the street, then disconnected as it sped around the corner. My bears, each one armed with an XR, braced their weapons on the outer wall, and behind me I could hear the UHR charging up. I’d opened up the gate in the wall earlier, so as soon as the Antithesis turned the corner the massive gun would have the perfect shot.
The seconds ticked by agonizingly slow. Five, then Ten. Twenty seconds and no Antithesis.
“You have got to be kidding me, did it give up right at the end? Why won’t this thing just DIE!” I whispered angrily. Pulling up the tracking signal in my Augs I quickly checked the far end of the road, nothing. I swept my vision further north, trying to identify where the monster went, when the building to my immediate left shook. My eyes flicked to the building in an instant. “No fucking…”
The closest wall exploded outward, pieces propelled by a massive claw, as the massive Antithesis pushed its way through. The creature wasn’t smart, but it still had some sort of instinct to ambush its prey, and because of that it fucked up my plans, again.
Thankfully there were still defenses close to the wall, feeble compared to the rest of the road, but still intact. As the Antithesis took its first steps into the street ice and glue erupted around its legs. The shards had little impact, spreading frost and ice around the creature but doing little to slow it down. It was the glue that finally brought the Shrimp to a stop.
The bulbous eyes swiveled downwards, trying to identify what had bound its feet. The asphalt creaked as the Antithesis struggled, putting an unbelievable amount of force into pulling itself free from the trap. I wasn’t going to give it the chance. A quick command caused the UHR to swivel as far left as it could without repositioning, just enough to catch the front of the Antithesis. The gun thrummed, power surged as all the capacitors prepared to discharge. Unfortunately the brief delay the UHR needed to charge up was enough for the shrimp to break free, as it reared back the road gave way and shattered. The shell which had been on target moments earlier caught only the front pair of legs, then burrowed through the rest of the block, detonating a block away. I grimaced, that fuse would have caused the shell to detonate within the Antithesis, if everything had gone as planned.
I grabbed the nearest XR in frustration and targeted the only soft target on the shrimp, the eyes. Miraculously the round found its mark, despite my lack of skill, causing blood and gore to coat the street. It also caused the shrimp’s other eye to swivel over and lock on to my position. The two of us locked eyes for just a moment, just before the creature started to lash out at everything in range. The walls deformed with each blow, the shaking threatened to dislodge me and my bears from their positions, so with a thought I ordered the bears on the wall to fire the remaining XRs. None of the rounds managed to penetrate the shell, but they did stun the Antithesis for a moment.
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In that moment I did the only thing I could think of, and evacuated the platform. Rather than jumping to the ground I leapt up to the building on my right, clung to the bars protecting the third floor windows for a moment, before launching myself up to the roof. I immediately rolled to the edge to check the Antithesis’ position. The monster was still locked on to my position, and had attempted to follow, but immediately stepped on to another glue mine and got stuck again.
“Nyx, get me another shell for the UHR right now!”
Unfortunately the UHR suffers from the same weakness that it’s smaller cousin does, and requires a significant cooldown period, it won’t be able to fire again for several minutes.
“Wonderful! What else could go wrong?”
Celestia is calling, probably to find out why you fired again.
I rolled to my feet, took a few pot shots at the Antithesis, then made my way further down the street. “Tell her to go FUCK herself. I’m a little busy to deal with her shit right now.”
The Antithesis slowly made its way towards my location, accumulating more and more of the road on its legs as it went. At this point I was pretty sure I pissed it off, and heavily mauled the thing, I just needed a way to finally kill it.
"Nyx I want to get some bears to flank this thing from the other roof. If it presents even the slightest opening I want shooters ready. Something fast and accurate."
That can be done. If you’re serious about making them faster you could open up the Class I Autonomous Actuators upgrades catalog and…
"I don’t need a fucking sales pitch, just fucking do it if I have the points. Put two on the opposing roof with XRs,” I snapped. The Antithesis was still approaching, so I jumped to the next rooftop to make space. Across the road a pair of silhouettes appeared, then mirrored my movement. More bears and XRs weren’t a solution, but they gave me options.
Running out of ideas?
“I have thrown EVERYTHING I have at this thing and it’s still punching. I can’t think of any solution with my current catalogs, and I’m not even sure what other Class I catalogs would help at this point. If you have advice, share.”
Your new friend left a couple toys for you, one of them would cause extreme internal damage, even through armor.
I paused, then reached into the pouch at my waist and pulled out the Sonic grenade. “You’re sure?”
Do you have any other choices at this point?
Without a second thought I yanked the pin from the strange, speaker covered orb, then pitched it into the street. Nothing happened for a moment, the Antithesis advanced a few more steps and placed its bulk directly above the device. In the next moment my world was filled with sound, and pain.
The vibrations shook me to my very core. My vision blurred, hearing failed, even my bones hurt. The three seconds the grenade was active felt like an eternity, and when it was done I could do little more than crawl to the side of the roof and check upon my prey.
The Behemoth’s insides were leaking through every single crack and joint in its armor. The part of the Antithesis that had been directly over the grenade had completely failed and broke open. It wasn’t moving, I'd finally won.
I collapsed on the roof where I was, half in exhaustion, half in pain, and waited for my healing to kick in. I had just closed my eyes when Nyx piped up, in an annoyingly chipper voice.
Well done, I think that deserves a token.