The trip home should be nice and relaxing.

It was not.

You are receiving a call from someone in the Family, would you like to take it? It’s a video call I can send to your dash.

“Sure, why not.” Let’s see what the infamous Family wants with a baby Samurai.

A very young-looking guy in a cheap business suit pops up on my car's dash.

“Hello, Miss..Miss Witch of the West I am Mr. Brunswick. I have been assigned as your liaison, anything you ne-need from the family I will be your man.” He says, it looks like he’s reading from a script, and he is stuttering a bit.

I grin evilly, it’s so cute when they are nervous, this might be fun.

“Hi Brunswick, what’s your first name?”

“Ada-Adam Miss Witch of the West, you can call me that, yes.”

“Since we are going to be getting to know each other so well let’s just use our first names Adam, you can call me Mori, leave all that Samurai naming for the media and stuff.”

His face turns beet red. “Wha-whatever you wish Mori.” He practically whispers in uncertainty.

He sits up a bit straighter trying to compose himself.

“The Family through its ch-channels has found a possible hive that has taken root and begun producing Antithesis.”

“Adam, don’t you guys have other Samurai to handle this kind of thing, I am still new to this after all.”

“Ye-Yes we do, but The Family likes to give new Samurai first call so they can earn more points and buh-build up their gear.”

“Aww that’s so sweet of you Adam, so where is this hive at? Vegas should be fairly well protected so I’m guessing it’s somewhere else?”

“You are cor-correct Mori, it is south of Vegas around a town called Searchlight. It is a sm-small community of roughly twelve hundred people. They have been reporting Antithesis activity and believe a hive is hi-hiding somewhere in the surrounding mountains.”

“So, you nor they know exactly where the hive is, so I need to go down there find it and kill it? Sound about, right?”

“That is corr-yes Mori. Hank has also agreed to be on call should you need additional help.”

“That’s very sweet of him, I guess I have something else to do today instead of getting naked and soaking in a nice warm bath.” I said innocently, subtly pushing up my chest.

Adam’s eyes bulge out of his head, and his stammering gets worse. “I-I-I will send your A-A-I uh, the information we h-h-have.”

He then quickly signs off.

I let out a hearty evil laugh.

You are something Morigana.

“Indeed, well since I have everything I need already, I suppose we should head on down to Searchlight then.” I say grabbing my wand out of my glove box.

Re-routing your personal vehicle to Searchlight.

“Thanks Merlin you’re a dream.”

So here we go into the unknown, to the middle of the desert to help some shanty town to hunt down a hidden hive that could be anywhere in a huge desert.

“Merlin, I think we will need some eyes to help scout out the area. See if we can avoid aimlessly wandering around the desert.”

A wise choice Morigana, you have available to you a few drone options in your Warcaster catalog, Nanite Tech, and stealth catalogs. If you like I can combine them together to create a versatile set of micro drones that can cover a large area quickly and discretely. It would cost four hundred points.

“Yikes Merlin, that’s expensive for a drone.”

It is not just a drone, more accurately it is a micro drone swarm that forms a surveillance net that will expand to cover several miles at once. Its only real issue is durability but the small size, stealth features, and quantity aid in its survival.

“That sounds delightful then let’s go ahead and order one up, just have it deploy around the car please.”

No worries, deploying now.

New Purchase: Class I Invisible Divining Orb Swarm:

Points reduced to: 191

Outside the car a large sleek metallic Owl appears on the hood of the car. It spreads its wings, bursts into a dust cloud and then disperses into nothing.

“That was neat, guessing the Owl is the shape it takes when not in use?”

You would be correct; I have dispatched it into its swarm form and sent it ahead of us to scout. Once your upgrades are complete you should be able to handle the huge amount of data it will be able to acquire and send to you. Until then I will simply provide you with updates.

“Sounds good to me Merlin, I’m going to take a nap. Please wake me up when we get there.”

Enjoy your nap, we should be over Searchlight in fifteen minutes.

I close my eyes and almost instantly am woken up by Merlin.

Morigana, I hope you enjoyed your nap; the drones have arrived slightly ahead of us and have begun searching for the hive.

I look at the dash and see only seven minutes have passed, snarky AI.

“Have they found anything yet?”

They have found several hundred Antithesis gathering in the mountains south of the town. However, the hive still remains hidden, but this gives you a place to start searching.

“Show me an overlay of the town and Antithesis please.”

On my dash an image of the town displays the location of the horde. It looks like they are all centralized in a large valley that leads directly up into the town. If I can cut off the horde and box it into the valley my wand and whip can hopefully prevent them from ever reaching the town.

“What have the Antithesis been eating to grow like this? From my understanding they need biomass or a decent deposit of nutrients to consume. Is there something rich in the ground that they are consuming?

A good question, according to historic records of the area this town was rich in gold at one point. The Antithesis may have found a large deposit of minerals and material underground and capitalized on the remoteness of this town to stay undetected for so long. Ah this makes sense now, the drones have discovered a mine entrance that the Antithesis are exiting. I’m assuming that is where the hive will be found.

Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

“Let’s set the car down here.”

I mark a spot on the map in the town next to a sports store on the edge of town. It’s roughly a mile away from the mine, and will set me up at the start of the valley the Antithesis are gathering in.

“Once I’m down, I think I will need a new weapon to use in the mines. My wand is perhaps too destructive to use in enclosed spaces, and my whip, while a good option, I think is a bit unwieldy in tight spaces.”

Understood, what did you have in mind?

“I’m not sure, but it needs to be able to kill en masse or quickly enough to take out multiple targets, and singularly and not be such a hazard as to collapse the mine or kill myself.”

I have an idea, but you would need a few more points, and to unlock Warcaster Class II catalog. It’s a self-replicating, fast acting acid that dissolves the cellular binding that Antithesis use in their biology. It’s very short range but in an enclosed space like a mine will be devastating.

“And how dangerous is this to humans, and how is it applied?”

It is relatively harmless to humans, but once it eats into Antithesis the gas released from the Antithesis dissolving can burn your lungs. With your shielding, you will be able to operate without much issue. As for application, there will be a hyper compressed bottle of the acid stored within your armor, and it can be sprayed at high velocity from your hand. The cost for the weapon system is seven hundred points, plus the five hundred and a token for the catalog.

“Let’s put a pin in that for now and see how we are doing when we get to the mine.

Of course, Morigana, we are about to touch down at the designated location.

My car sets down right outside a rundown looking store with a giant “Out of Business” sign on the front.

I hop out of the car and set my armor to active mode. I also make an adjustment to my left hip, creating a small holster for my wand.

“Alright Merlin, please set a waypoint on my mini-map and approximate distance to the horde.”

Done, and done, the drones have detected movement from the horde, your car seems to have attracted their attention.

“Fudge, let’s get moving then.”

I set a brisk pace away from town and into the desert hills. The area has a surprising amount of low shrubs and plant life all of it a dull brown. I crest over the first hill trying to keep low, so I don’t present myself too easily.

Below is the start of a valley that looks like it was a dirt road at one point. Well, it’s still a road it’s just being used by invading aliens.

Crossing through is a huge line of Model Threes, the Antithesis scouts and front-line units. These were C variants, adapted to the desert.

They are ripping up all the vegetation with their long tongues and stuffing it into their mouths. Above them I notice a small flock of Model Ones, circling looking for targets of opportunity.

“Merlin, can you please send out a warning to all the locals that the Antithesis are on the move towards town and to find shelter if they can.”

Message sent, also the Family has hired a PMC to help. They should be here in a hour or so.

“Right, let’s get this party started then, please hold my point count for now, I don’t want the distraction.”

Gladly, good hunting.

I grab my wand from my hip and adjust its settings for proximity and max range based on my hat’s sensors.

Let’s get these stupid birds first so they can’t track me as easily.

I duck behind the hill more, aim, and fire off a fireball.

The bead explodes near the top of the flock, enveloping them in a huge fireball, incinerating the ones at the center. The ones at the edge catch on fire and plummet to the ground.

The Model Threes on the ground take notice and search around for the source of the attack.

I quickly take aim at the pack as they notice me laying at the top of the hill. Thankfully the valley wall is fairly steep, and they are struggling to find purchase to climb up it.

I take aim and fire two more fireballs into the front lines of the Threes.

FWUMP, FWUMP!

Fireballs blossom into the sky sending flaming Model Three chunks into the air.

Little craters are left behind, I better be careful I may accidentally make a path of holes for them to use to climb the hill.

The pack snarls in their strange plant way and try clawing their way up.

I unleash my fireballs one after another into the horde, focusing on the ones closest to me, trying to prevent them from reaching the top.

Reloading your wand as needed Morigana, don’t worry. Don’t let up.

“Thanks Merlin.” I say, unleashing more blasts.

A pack of Threes have managed to climb up the valley farther down the line, highlighting on your augs now.

Just west of where I am, I see the red highlighted Threes charging my location.

I lash out with my whip horizontally trying to swipe them all off the hill, or in half whatever works.

Bit of both happens, the whip slices into the group at an angle slicing most of them up and pushing their bodies into the others dropping them down into the valley.

Morigana, they have sent another wave of Antithesis in your direction. It looks like more advanced units. Model Sixes are also setting up some Model Fifteens as artillery, they will be able to fire on your position momentarily.

Fudge, looks like I will need to get mobile, while my armor supposedly will protect me from the worst of Antithesis, I do not want to test it out like against the Nine earlier.

I get up from my prone position and start running across the valley wall in the direction the pack of Threes who climbed up came from. I need to get to those Fifteens before they bombard me, or the town.

I continue shooting fireballs into the valley taking out as many of the Model Threes as I can.

They die in large groups, their numbers slowly whittling down.

I make it roughly two hundred feet before my senses and Merlin scream at me.

Buried Model Fours below you!

Too late, up from the ground tentacles like from an anime girl's wet dream erupt from the ground slamming into me. Two of them grab around my waist and chest crushing me into the ground. The others start pounding into me, the barbs ripping into my armor sending nanite chunks into the air.

I can feel my armor sliding around my body trying to shuffle nanites around to the areas being destroyed.

I quickly send out my whip slicing through the tentacles holding me down and try to wiggle my way free. I gasp as the pressure is released from my chest, the other tentacles slap into my side and send me rolling down into the valley where the horde of Model Threes were waiting for me.

I land with a groan in the valley, I can feel cuts and scrapes along my body from the beating and fall.

“Merlin, armor repairs! Direct injection please!”

Repairs injected for additional cost but done!

I can also feel my internal bio-nanites start repairing internal damage from the beating, and fall.

I roll over to see the advancing Model Threes.

Still laying down I fire my wand into the masses trying to fend them off.

Pieces of Model Three’s fly into the air, filling the air with the scent of burning grass.

I don’t have a good method for dealing with the buried Model Fours, so until they come out, I will just have to wait. Not that I won’t be busy now that I’m ground level with the army of Model Threes.

Standing up, I try and make my way down the valley towards where the icon on my map says the Model Fifteens are positioned. Keeping my wand shooting I make my way around the bend.

I back myself up to a different valley wall, and rapid fire off some beads to buy myself time to take out the Fifteens.

Finally, after several tense minutes the Threes around me thin out enough I think I can take a shot.

Looking over, the Fifteens are launching their gross balls of spikes up into the air.

Fudge crackers.

They arc up into the sky and come hurtling down on my position.

I duck down into a small ball.

I let out a scream of fear, as they hit around me and explode sending out their payload of barbs and death.

I feel several needles punch through my armor, thankfully they are shallow only sticking into my body a few millimeters. One bounces off the shield over my head and lands in the dirt next to me. The rest are deflected off of me, thankfully.

I rip out the ones that are in my side, hissing in pain as each one is removed.

Breathing heavily, I take aim, I manage to get a volley of three maximized fireballs into the Model Fifteens' location.

FWUMPH!

Fire and hell engulf them all, turning them and the models around them to ash and gore.

“Merlin, I need my internal nanites to get a healing boost, please. Just inject me directly even if it costs more.”

Injection inbound, it will hurt more than normal, be prepared.

It sure as heck does hurt more, feels like my liver was displaced by twenty feet.

But it quickly fades, and I can feel pains I had start to clear up.

I survey the valley around me, the only thing standing other than me are a few Model Threes dragging themselves across the ground trying to get to me.

Using my whip I quickly dispatch them. I still need the Model Fours to come out to kill them too. Inspiration strikes me.

“Merlin, I need a strong sonic weapon.”

Simple solution is Mark I Concussion Grenade for five points.

“Yes please.”

New Purchase: Mark I Concussion Grenade:

Points reduced to: 4930

I extend my hand out and in it falls a baseball sized sphere with a red button.

I take aim, who am I kidding right? I chuck it the best I can at the buried Model Fours.

It flies short and off to the side, fudge.

It goes off in a loud invisible bang, though I can see the shockwave it produces in the air. Thankfully it hits where the Fours are buried.

They scramble to exit the dirt and sand to get away from the crushing soundwave that hit them.

I quickly activate my whip and slash across their bodies, and then send the tip back into them for a quick second hit.

Well-done Morigana looks like this area has been cleaned up. The path to the mine appears to be cleared at the moment.

“Fantastic.” I say exhausted. I can’t wait for my body upgrades to be finished.

I make my way through the rest of the valley, it dead ends in a large bowl surrounded by tall hills.

Random buildings and mining equipment dot the landscape, all abandoned. If I had to guess whoever used to own and operate this place has been turned into plant chow.

“Merlin, can you send the drones into the mine to scout while we make some purchases?

Gladly, drone swarm en route. I’ve also gotten updates from the PMC, they are fifteen minutes out.