I came to. Slowly.

Meowser filled me in. It had been a few hours.

He had gotten all the Bots reloaded and the hoppers of the Spider Drone filled. They had even managed to refill all of the empty ammo cases left on the Mule Drone.

"Good Job, Buddy!" I croaked out. I wasn't a hundred percent just yet.

Also, it seems like the day had flipped over.

[ You have defeated a Challenge.

You gain 15 GC, 15 MC, 15,000 credits ]

[ You gain 65,000 Exp.]

[ You have gained Exp through the actions of your Minions.

Since you do not have a Base you only gain 1/10th of the Exp.

You gain 200,000 Exp. ]

WHAT! NO! Shit Fucking Hell!

All that Exp lost to the void. I felt the cold grip of depression.

On the other hand, now I knew I could gain exp from their efforts. Dreams of Auto-farming began to dance in my mind.

I lifted my heavy ass up. Argh. Everything hurt.

I touched my gut, felt around a bit. Good everything seemed to be closed up.

It occurs to me I need to start keeping some healing potions on me. Dumbass. If I could find ones that worked on me. Trusting my Regen too much, could end up being a real problem.

I looked down at myself and was repulsed by the state of my gear, it wouldn't do at all.

I spent 3200 credits to buy 16 repair kits.

12 for the Bots LMGS. They did such a good job. I was so happy to have actual murder Bots on my side.

1 each for my armor, axe, Kraken and underarmor. Had to get back to full combat effectiveness. Any weakness now and I was sure to be jumped.

I started the repairs. Before I serviced the axe I took that Bitchcake's head off, what was left of it and strapped it onto the Mule Drone.

Damned thing was as big as me. Woo. A bizarre feeling rushed through me. Pride, maybe. I don't recall feeling anything like it before, not in all my years.

I washed off as best I could in the break room before putting my now fresh armor back on. Xeno ichor was not only corrosive, it smelled like sewer water. Who knew?

Probably best to avoid getting splashed in the future.

Then I fixed several meals from the dehydrated stuff, in the cabinets. Sure it tasted like cardbroad soak in liquid plastic, but it helped filled my unsurprisingly empty belly.

Somewhat refreshed. I realized we couldn't just leave yet.

Sigh. Always problems, I wondered if someone could handle shit for a change.

We made our way down back to the egg room, scanning for survivors, faceglompers, people in the process of being seedbeds for more Xenos, and the fucking eggs.

The Queen had bulldozed her way through everything so the path was amazingly clear.

What a unit. One one hand, I really admired the raw destruction. On the other, thank fuck she was dead.

We found the first room where we saw now dead Queenie. I had gotten most of the eggs with my grenades. Good. We burned the rest in there and proceeded to comb the rest of the hive.

Fire cleanses all sins. Never had that felt more true.

We discovered two more egg chambers. It was cathartic to burn those lumps of shitty alien DNA. Some faceglompers had tried to grab me but the Bots blasted them.

Dodged a bullet there. I really didn't want to see a Xeno running around with my overpowered genetic template.

We found a chamber with some still living victims. We gave them what peace we could.

Their cries of pain had been haunting. I still hear them sometimes.

They could give rise to multiple Xenos. The young nymphs were careful in their feedings and their escapes. They only required about five pounds of flesh to grow to the next stage and avoided major blood vessels. Sadistic effiency.

Some of these people could have been down here weeks, being fed the other dead pasted up humans to keep them alive longer. They could have already brought forth some of the Xenos we had killed.

"The Bitch is dead. You are avenged." It hurt giving them bullets to the head, whether they were Ghouls or not.

Once they had been freed, from the pain, I burned everything. Best to be sure.

I'm not crying, you're crying. Shut up.

Okay, I had never seen anything quite this bad before, without being mentally screwed with, so it hurt my heart. I really hated seeing people reduced to this state.

I didn't think I had this much sympathy left.

Maybe, that's why my Nature sense hated them so much. Perhaps that's why they made my inhuman bloodlines so pissed off.

The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

Or maybe it was my soul's recognition this is what I was becoming, in a weird sort of way. A monster. I really didn't like that thought.

All I know, for certain, is I would never be the same.

When I was sure there was nothing else we left.

I'd blow the whole area if I could.

We made out way back toward the East Trap Site, it took a few hours moving at top speed for the Swarmer Drone.

We stopped to Charge up at the Junction before the Kill zone. Didn't want to be caught lacking.

Tons of Xenos bodies everywhere.

Hundreds of Underdweller Bots and Drones already moving them somewhere else.

Thankfully we were still registered as friendlies. I checked the Trap.

Hoowee!

It had done some work. At least twice as many as we had killed below. Piles and piles of twisted, broken Xenos. It warmed my heart.

Good thing too. If they had been down there we'd have been overrun eventually. It was close as it was.

We made our way to the UnderMarket. Clumps of corpses here and there growing rarer as we got to the walled off sections.

So the traps had pulled everything.

We got to the gates.

"Hey you made it!" One of the Guards said.

"Yup, I got Bitchcakes there to show for it." I patted the Queen's head.

"Holy Shit! That's a Big Bitch!" The other guard exclaimed.

We shared a grim chuckle.

They waved me through.

Things were quiet inside. No one was about.

I guess some folks had probably run uptop at the first sign of trouble. The rest were cowering in their homes.

Eh, I don't blame em. Xenos are fuckin' scary, man.

I made my way to Captain Theo's office. He was waiting.

He also looked like thirteen miles of bad road. I guess he decided to get a few Xenos kills for himself. Good for him.

"Victor! You got through! Good News I hope." He looked excited. Tired but really for more.

"Yeah!" I knocked on the Alpha's head. "This asshole here almost one-shotted me. Ambushed me good. Had it's tail spike been just wee bit longer or curved like so, I'd be burning in some hell somewhere."

"Bitchcakes here, " I poked the Queen's Head. "Almost tore me open with her tail, after we tricked her into an ambush." Small twinge but mostly true.

"Fucking good job." Cpt Theo smiled.

"I found them down on thirteen. Now I can't promise there aren't more down there or further down. But we got the all eggs we could find and the people being used..." My breath hitched a bit, "And a bunch more of the fuckers."

I shook my head. "You know what they are now. You have a chance to deal with any more yourselves, but if you need help, give me a call. Meowser will give you my contact info."

"You'd face them again?" He blurted. Ah, yeah he had fought them, he knew how fuckin' crazy it was.

"Sure for a good price." I joked.

We shared a laugh. A lame one to be sure, but a laugh not the less.

I gave them the Heads and they brought around my rewards. I got a nice surprise.

"Oh there are extra?" I said as my eyebrow raised on it's own, not that they could see it.

Four pallet drones, each loaded with 10 turret kit crates.

"Yeah, we took up a collection, I guess you'd say. 10 ground targeting Anti infantry .45s, 10 vehicle targeting .50s, 5 Anti-Air Flak cannon 20mm, 5 Anti-Air Smart Rockets, and 10 Dual purpose point defense .308s. Figured you deserved a bit extra." He chuckled. Yeah, he really had seen how bad this shit could get.

He offered his hand.

"I'm not proud, I'll take em." I shook with him. "Now forgive me, but I gotta get back topside. The tunnels are driving me nuts."

"I hear you. A lot of Upsiders get that way. Despite the circumstances, It was good to meet you Victor." Cpt. Theo looked almost sad to see me go.

"Thanks Captain. Call me Vick. I wish yall luck." I gave him a wave.

I left with my new loot. Smiling under my Helmet.

We made it to the elevator without any drama.

The area had been cleaned up and there were Bots and Drones guarding it. They let us through.

We waited around a while for the platform.

I looked over the bunker and turret placements, while we waited. They had added new heavy gates to the exits. All in all a really good job for being so rushed.

Once we loaded up, we took it all the way to Under Floor One. The brighter light and cleaner air was cheering me up a little.

It took a couple of hours to find our way to the Doors where I had first entered this crazy place.

Once I was outside, I had Meowser contact Trish and Yumi.

"Vick you're alive!" Yumi responded first. Oh, she really cared.

Trish came into the call with, "Vick you bastard, it's been days, we were worried about you."

Huh, it felt nice when people worried about me. Who would have guess?

I started laughing, "Yeah, it got a bit spotty there, I finally made it out. Yall have any problems with Saul?"

"He was upset we left you, but he understood, when we showed him the logs." Yumi answered.

"Good. I was worried he'd crack with ya a bit." I chuckled. "Anywho, I best give him a call. I got some info he's gonna what to know. Plus I gotta get my money."

I almost didn't care about the money anymore, but it was the way of things.

"Sounds like you earned it Vick. How about we get together at Lucy's once you settle back into things." Trish with the invite. That really made me feel better.

I nodded, "Sure, sounds like a date."

"Ahahaha. A date. Old Man, you couldn't handle us." Yumi poked me right in the ego. I poked back.

"I think you'd find it's the other way round. I'm too much man for ya Ladies." I smirked jokingly. Not that they could see it.

"Any man is too much for us, Vick." Trish smirked back.

"Huh?" I turned that over for a second, realization set in.

Act like it didn't hit me from left field, "Oh! Eh, well okay. I still stand by my previous statement. Even if we'd never find out." I blushed a bit, good thing they couldn't see. How I'd miss that? And what's up with the embarrassment, it's not a big deal.

"He's probably thinking about what he missed." Trish said in a gently mocking tone.

"You get a little Hyper-focused Vick." Yumi responded. "It's not like we hide it."

One run together, and they already had my number. Terrifying. Was I really that transparent?

"Heh, true enough." I snorted, still trying to put it together. Wow, okay. That really threw me for a loop.

We said our goodbyes and they let me go so I could call Saul.

Damn, I'm a moron sometimes.

Saul answered quick. "Vick, comp. You are alive! This is a gleam day!" I was now 300,000 NBs richer, after Saul took his cut.

I smiled sadly. "Heya Saul, it's not all NBs and fun times." I had Meowser send him the full records of everything. I waited, tapping my fingers, while I let him scan through it.

Ah fuck!

I forgot to bring a Gamma corpse up for the Arbiters to check out. Well, screw it, they could send one of them down to get their own samples.

I'm staying above ground as much as I can. For a while.

"Rust! That's some grim slag Vick. You think there are more?" He sounded worried. Good nowhere was safe.

"They are always more of those bastards somewhere Saul. It's kinda their bag." I shook my head. "See that the right people get a copy of all that info. And the video feeds, just scrub the stuff they could use ta pin me. Don't want to end up in a blacksite hole."

"Yeah, already on it. Word will get around." Saul nodded. I felt some tension vanish, not my problem anymore. At least not just my problem.

"Shifting gears. First, can you get me a bigger Van, something self driving. As you can see I got some new friends to haul." I asked.

"Good Comps to have, I see. Yeah, I got a line on a fully loaded Bronto. Just 60,000 NBs." I transferred the funds. "It'll be there in about 20 minutes."

"Thank Saul. You got any word on the other project, I asked about?" I shifted focus.

"Hmm, yeah. I got two places. One's an old power plant, abandoned in the CR (Consumer Rebellion), picked it up awhile back. The other's a Manufacturing plant for Bot parts, forfeited to me about 5 years ago, I'd forgotten all about it till you asked about stuff outa town." He sent me the deets.

"You're the best Saul. I'll wait for the Bronto, then go back to the apartment. I gotta rest for a while." I sighed.

"Looks like you earned it, Comp. I'll touch base later. Get some sleep." Saul was sounding like my Uncle, the one I never had.

The Bronto came around. It was a nice ride, and huge. Almost a fucking RV. Just Wider.

But I could admire it later, I was half asleep as it was.

I got the Pallet Drones loaded in. Along with the Mule. The Spider Drone got on top and latched on. One Bot took shotgun.

The Other Bots and I got in the Anky. No one had fucked with it. Good for me, better for them. I got no sense of humor for people who fuck with other people cars.

When I got back to ARC 10-C, I left the Mech Crew to keep an eye on each other, with Meowser on Overwatch.

I stumbled back into my Apt. Locked up and crashed out on the bed as soon as I got to it.

My Dreams were troubled.