“Sky, as he likes to be called by friends (according to an interview after the Sector 4 building collapse disaster. Link Here) likes long walks on artificial “philosophical” beaches, the beauty of natural earthborn horticulture, and dancing in the air on frequencies of 132 hz to 432 hz.

Honestly, all his interviews feel like he is on a dating show. A mad one!

I know that he is using his A.I. to feed lines to him. Like? Who says that? What does that even mean?

I am unsure how I feel about Sky’s laziness or unserious behavior.

Another Question: Would an Alien A.I. even be interested in human romance?

And if it is…should we be afraid? Or horny?”

* An anonymous comment on Sky-Blue Wire’s page of the Samurai Fanbase Website, June 2051

***

“I saw the message Amadeus sent out.” I said calmly to the tablet on my side.

Pvt. Magnella was out of sight and I kept my voice low to avoid attracting any remaining plants in the area and from some embarrassment if Magnella could hear me.

“... I spent hours trying to keep you alive and now you are running back into danger?”

I shrugged.

“Thanks for saving Private Belleniachia Magnella for me. I was unable to provide assistance and could only watch the loss of life. But…now with you here. I guess I can. But only if you want to.

“I do.” I said earnestly. Saving Magnella was one of the best things that has happened to me.

This time around, I was saving people, not hurting them. The Ascendency plagued my mind for a second until an image of Magnella thanking me superimposed itself over the bygone trauma.

“And I’ll do so by helping others from falling for Amadeus’ trap.” I was confident in warding off potential Samurai with Monitor’s help.

“Amadeus means to destroy Macroon by setting off a massive explosive in the nuclear reactor. He is just baiting the other Vanguards to catch them in the blast or use their parts for a larger explosive.”

“Can’t he just buy a large bomb? Why is he killing other Samurai for it?” I asked as I equipped the vest Magnella left. It’d give me some protection from Antithesis but not from Amadeus’ flames.

“It appears that Amadeus doesn’t have access to the kind of arcology destroying weapons he seeks and must build it himself.”

“He can’t buy the catalogs?” I said, my voice muffled through the vest.

“I…hypothesize… that he can only access catalogs he already unlocked before he started killing other Vanguards and endangering the lives of civilians.”

“That sounds logical. His A.I. must have froze his points. The question then is how much does he have in store and can he be taken down with anything I have?” I started loading up the vest’s pockets and the jacket with the miscellaneous equipment the private left for me.

“Nothing you have will harm him. Give it up, only Vanguard grade weapons can harm him now.”

I wanted to help and while it did seem like Monitor was discouraging me, they were also helping me with the very real situation I was getting into.

Facts about what can or can’t harm Amadeus was very useful.

I thought for a moment. How could I get a Samurai grade weapon? Easy enough if you know a Samurai, but of the two I met in person the meeting with Amadeus, if you could count that as in person, was mainly spent hidden behind the plexiglass ceiling he dropped that killed two security guards.

But I really couldn’t ask Sky.

Wait a minute.

I reviewed the fight in my head for a second.

“That’s it. I’ll get a Samurai weapon. And I know exactly where to find it.” I said excitedly as I checked the map and started plotting my route back to the fifteenth floor.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

I could take the elevator up to the fifteenth. As I plotted that in, the Monitor placed an overlay of camera footage of the elevator lobby on the fifteenth floor.

“Oof, you saved me again. That would’ve been ugly.” I said as the footage shrunk down and placed in a corner.

I was looking at other ways to the floor when a path was plotted for me.

“Thanks.”

“It is the most efficient route that avoids swarms of Antithesis. I should point out that the longer the Incursion lasts, the more Antithesis there are. Worse even, as the higher models will be produced.”

“Worse than a swarm of Model 6-Ds?” I asked.

With a positive flash from the screen I cursed.

“Fuck. So I have to go as fast as possible?”

“It won’t be a matter of minutes. It is far more likely that Amadeus will set off the bomb before that happens. I just wanted to remind you that this isn’t the worst of the Antithesis. If left alone they will kill and consume everything on this planet. The Vanguards are here to hold back the waves, but even as they are very powerful, they too die against our shared Alien foe.”

“So Amadeus could be overwhelmed by Antithesis?”

“Yes, at some point. A lot sooner than usual because he doesn’t have access to the expanded catalogs the Protectors provide. But like I stated previously, it has a higher statistic that Amadeus would just set off the explosive before that happens.”

I filed away an idea for later use.

“Do I really have to trudge through the Inbetween space again?” I asked.

“While I don’t have camera footage in there, I am tracking Antithesis movement patterns and no large group has gone through any areas that have an entrance to the Inbetween space of Floors fourteen and fifteen.”

“Fine.” I agreed but didn’t like it. Tightening the straps on everything I set off to the stairs. Sadly the elevators and stairs were very far apart. It was very tempting to head into the service tunnels where I was most familiar but I knew there would be Antithesis there.

A Model Nine is terrifying. All I knew was the higher the model’s number, the scarier and tougher they were. So far Model Fours are much worse than Model Threes. The tentacle beasts killed Belken without warning.

Ambushes are something to keep an eye out for. The Model Threes weren’t too terrible if you knew where they were and had a serious weapon.

The Model Six-D…Modeled after a Dinosaur, a creature of earth’s past. Fuck. I killed one but it took a lot of punishment before it finally dropped.

I didn’t even see the Model Nine but it tore through the entire room in a matter of seconds.

Yeah…no service tunnels until I find a way to spot and kill Model Nines.

The thirteenth floor was nice. It had some plants that I totally didn’t shoot out of reflex and the soft lighting was relaxing where it didn’t illuminate blood trails.

The store fronts I slinked past had actual items on display and not holograms or screens. One was a gun store. It looked to be the most useful in the shopping district but the number of bodies was a clear indicator of the effectiveness of that tactic.

I was curious so I glanced inside.

Hundreds of guns lined the walls. Some had colorful LEDs lighting up different parts of the weapons. They ranged from sleek pistols and handguns to rifles with different prints.

Only a few display cases were broken and the corpses of their new owners lay across the counter.

“What the..?” Then I saw the sign behind the counter.

Guns and ammo sold separately

Oh…they were just hunks of useless metal and plastic without their ammo.

A couple weapons did catch my eye. The first was a bulky assault rifle, more barrel than anything else. It was a duo color of dark gray and white in an almost wave pattern.

The other was a small, sleek pistol without any frivolous parts besides what is required for power. The barrel is the only straight part on the weapon itself. It was also duo colored but this time in light blue and white.

But these weren’t what caught my eye. Instead I focused on the small charms that both boosted.

They were the same type of aquatic creature as my Hammerhead but instead of a T, the pistol’s charm head cut into a sharp point. The assault rifle’s charm was bulky and its head didn’t taper out as sharply.

Reading the names of the weapons I found that the rifle was a Great White Assault packing something called .470 Nitro Xterminator.

The handgun was a Mako Automatic that used .17 Mach 2.4.

I didn’t have the time to free them from the casing and find their ammo. But I was sure that I would like to return and pick up more ‘tools’ to use.

Walking away from the gun store I found another storefront that sold knives. The blood trails I saw were a different color. Antithesis blood.

I guess there is always a silver lining. People did make it out.

I was almost out of the shopping district when I saw a place that sold tools. I didn’t think much of it until I realized they may have a couple tools to help me sort out my equipment.

Stepping inside I found a mixture of human and Antithesis gore. This was a brutal brawl with many different tools used as weapons, some more effective than others.

I found a Model Three nailed to a wall.

Guess that was one of the more effective tools to find here.

I found the counter with the needed supplies. I grabbed a few sets of electrical tape and zip ties. All the other kits were taken by looters. Probably the nailgun user, they needed it while I didn’t so I wasn’t too worried.

But I was amazed at the workstation section. It had different tables and machines someone could rent to manufacture almost anything.

A laser guided blade to cut and carve had a Model Three bisected on it but still, it was usable.

I felt my engineering side wanting to stay and work. I had a lot of random projects. I could even try to modify the Hammerhead since the gun store was so close.

Alas, I had a timer or everyone dies.

Curse you Amadeus!

Stepping back out I found the stairs just another hallway over.

The stairs weren’t covered in graffiti as the lower floors were. They were wide enough for a large amount of traffic to this floor for shopping.

The stairs were also oddly illuminated, with lights under the stairs themselves as well as the overheads to make it bright.

I climbed the stairs with a paranoid feeling toward the ceiling. The Model Four came to mind as I ascended.

If I was a nasty Antithesis the size of a small bear, I would hide in the shadow of the ceiling lights. There should be enough space for the ceiling hugging monster.

Regardless of my paranoia, no spiked tentacles shot out from the shadows.

Reaching the fourteenth floor I swept the area for Antithesis.

None.

I didn’t want a group chasing me as I climbed into an area I knew had swarms of Antithesis.

But I couldn’t block the area.

I had to trust Monitor’s watchful gaze to keep me aware of what’s behind and ahead of me.

But I didn’t climb the stairs to the fifteenth floor.

Instead I ventured into the fourteenth floor in search of a particular ladder and a much nastier floor.