We exit my car, and step into the morning sunlight. It’s only 10AM and it’s already hitting 101 degrees. I wonder how much a built in AC unit in my armor would cost.

The town is dead quiet, not a vehicle or person can be seen anywhere.

“Have you ever been here, Major?” I ask.

“Once, and while this place is pretty dead most of the time, this feels wrong.”

“So, it’s not just me then?” I asked.

“No, something is going on here. Have you deployed your drone yet?” Devoy asked.

I started when we landed; the drone feeds are accessible to you with your hive aug.

Right, I need to start flexing my enhanced mental capabilities with my augs. I look into my mind and find the drone and its functions. I access its feeds and sensors letting them sweep through my mind.

From what I can process and gather through the thousands and thousands of sensory inputs is… the town is empty. Like not a soul in the mile and a half range that the drone has dispersed.

Of course, one moment… Yes, uhm, huh, problem. Every single resident is located at one of three locations. A church of LDS to the Northwest, the high school to the Southeast, and a truck stop to the north.

According to the local records, they are not. There is a bunker in the middle of town that is in easy range of the entire town. There is no reason for them to gather where they are. I advise you advance with caution.

“Major, Merlin found the population all gathered at three locations in town.” I tell him.

He activates his Phalanx armor, and unshoulders his rifle, then turned around in a circle looking at everything.

“I’ve seen this before Mori, and if it’s what I think it is this is going to be a tough day.” He said with a sigh, and a dip in his shoulders.

It clicks in my head too; I’ve done enough studies on Antithesis to know what pattern this is presenting.

Model Sevens. Fudge crackers.

Message away, Bobby has replied and wants to know if you need help.

Understood, please let me know if you want to call him in.

“So, how do we handle this Devoy? I can get a medical scanner upgrade for my drone and see if we can determine if anyone can be saved, lend aid, and then take care of those that can’t.” I said to him.

He nods, without stopping his sweeping of the area.

To upgrade your drone with the medical scanner will cost one hundred points to do remotely.

New Purchase: Short Range Drone-Operated Medical Scanner

Points Reduced to... 6,330

I take control of the drone swarm and send it into the nearest gathering point, the high school.

As the drone swarm flies over the town, it creeps me out how empty it is.

The school comes into focus, I direct it in the front doors and spread it out to search the area. Very quickly I find the residents, they are all gathered in the gym.

They all are sitting, or standing around, some laying on the ground, immobile, in a large pile. There had to be maybe two hundred of them, all of them gazing off into nothing-ness.

“I found them.” I whispered in disgust; I knew these models existed but had hoped never to deal with them.

I send the feeds over to Devoy. “Yeah, I was afraid of this, if they are too far along, we are going to have to kill them.” he said, turning to look at me.

“If you don’t want to do this, I will. There is no shame in not wanting to kill these, Mori.” He said to me.

I take a deep breath. “No, I need to do this too, if I want to be a good Samurai I need to be able to handle this.” I said with as much strength in my voice as I can muster.

“Okay, then change of plans. Let’s get the scans done first, though.” He said.

I re-focus on the swarm, finding the medical scan commands, I initialize the scan.

Moments later, I get what I feared. All of them have been compromised, the Model Sevens have completely taken over their brains and have converted them completely into plant drones.

I shook my head. “They are all compromised, at least they are all in one area.”

“Something, so change of plan is thus. We go in, use our melee weapons to clean out the gathering. Enter from the north of the school and push quickly into the gym.” He said, then marked the plan in my mini-map.

“Any questions?” He asked.

“No, let’s just get this over with.” I said.

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We start walking north on the road, the sign on the street says it’s South C. Ave.

At the intersection we turned right and walked all the way until we saw the school’s football field come into view. We cut across the dirt just before it, heading towards the school.

As we approached my sensor suite detects small worm like creatures in the dirt carpeting the area around the school. Model Sevens in their pre-host forms, gross. There are hundreds of them wiggling about, like fat little grubs.

“Use your acid spray on them Mori, I will keep an eye out for trouble around us.” Devoy said.

I point my left hand out selecting my acid spray, a trajectory prediction fills my mind, I make some adjustments for max coverage and begin to spray.

The quiet hiss of releasing spray filled the area, the deadly acid coated the ground in about a thirty-foot arc in front of me.

The Model Sevens who even get a tiny bit of the acid on them begin to shrivel up on themselves like slugs doused with salt.

After just a few minutes of off and on spraying, my sensor suite tells me there are no more in the vicinity.

You have obtained five hundred and fifty points, split with Major Devoy at a fifty-five percent split, for a total of six thousand eight hundred and eighty points.

Through the process of spraying the area we end up at the doors leading into the main building of the school.

The school itself is very rundown, damaged walls, poorly maintained roofing, and the doors look like a gentle breeze will knock them off their hinges.

Pushing into the school building, the floor is covered in blood streaks, and other slimy trails of some kind, the lights are still on but in such poor state they may as well have been candles. On the walls there are cheesy motivational posters, and not digital ones, we are talking serious old school paper posters. This town feels like it’s from the stone age, a considerable lack of modern technology.

We quietly make our way through the abandoned hallways until we reach the last doors leading into the gym. I quickly review my feeds from my drones, nothing has changed, all the poor souls infected by Model Sevens are still lumped into a pile.

Devoy shouldered his rifle, then springs his sword out from his armor into his right hand. On his left hand his shield emitter surges to life forming a wall of crimson energy that covers his left side, like a riot shield.

“Do you know how to use a sword?” I whispered to Devoy.

“I’ve trained in a lot of melee weapons, spears, swords, axes, staffs, and a few others. It’s always been a favorite pastime of mine. Now, let’s focus on the task at hand. I’m going to rush in first and be the front line, I will try to stop them from getting past me. You, focus your whip on any that try to out-flank us on the sides.”

“Okay, I’m ready then.” I said, tensing up.

Through my drone, and my own eyes I watch Devoy rush into the room like a crimson bolt of aggression.

I can’t help but watch in awe and horror as he starts slicing through the Model Seven hosts.

The elaborate dance of foot work and sword movement is captivating. The pile of hosts reacts as a whole, all of them get up or started shambling over to Devoy like a living wave of bodies. They try to claw, bite, or slam into him with their bodies to very little effect.

As soon as one gets within sword distance, he slashes out, decapitating them, removing arms, legs, or cutting them right in half.

My stomach starts to churn at seeing humans being butchered like sacks of fruit.

I can adjust some of your internal nanites to suppress the urge.

A few moments later I can feel the urge to vomit receding, but the revulsion of watching humans being slaughtered does not dissipate.

As quick as Devoy is cutting down the hosts, more take their place and I can tell he will be overwhelmed soon if I don’t help.

Steeling my mind, I summon my plasma whip from my left hand. I try not to think about them as humans, and just see them as evil plant zombies.

I snake out my whip to the sides of Devoy, slicing through the hosts like wheat in the field. Removing the containment field, the whip burns its way through the masses easily. I work in sync with Devoy, hosts that he can’t attack in time get cut down by me.

We fall into a rhythm together and within ten minutes the shambling mound of Model Seven hosts is little more than a slosh of human remains and burning plant remains. If it wasn’t for the nausea suppressant, the horror before me would for sure have made me puke.

Devoy turns around to face me, he is covered from head to toe in the blood and ichor. Human organs are wedged into crevices on his armor and I’m having trouble looking at him.

“Good job Mori, I know that was not easy. Think you can spray this place down to ensure the Model Sevens can’t infect anyone else?” He said.

Wordlessly I retract my whip and get to spraying the area down in acid. It only takes a few moments to completely spray the gym down.

Once done, I quickly vacate the gym, entering the hallway we came in from. I press my back against the wall and start to cry.

To think, this is happening all over the world. Humans being turned from individuals with hopes, dreams, and a will to live, to biomass for a stupid plant that has no idea it’s causing harm to innocent people.

If only there was some way to communicate with them and tell them they are destroying living beings with thoughts and feelings.

Wait, why can’t we? Has anyone really tried? Surely the Protectors have, they have super intelligent AIs with abilities so far beyond our comprehension we may as well be ants to them. But there is something about human pluck and ingenuity that can’t be discredited.

Before my thoughts wind down into places best left be, Devoy squated down in front of me, placing a hand on each shoulder.

“It’s not okay, Morigana, and it never will be until these alien fucks are kicked off our planet. But until then, people like me and you have got to keep our shit together. I know it sucks, and it’s not easy, but we are the spearhead that keeps humanity safe.”

He sighed and took my hands into his. “Get up little Witch, people are counting on you.” Lifting me up as he says it. Sometime during my sulking, he cleaned his armor off, he looks pristine again.

“You’re right.” I said, “I can do this, let’s clean out this town and try and find any survivors.” Grabbing my staff, I head towards the exit, Devoy following right behind me.

“Let’s hit the church next, I’ll keep an eye out if you want to send your drones ahead to see how it looks.” He said to me.

Morigana, just so you are aware your new point total is seven thousand four hundred and twenty-four.

I direct my augs to the drone swarm controls and gather them up to scout out the church to the Northwest. We start walking through Beatty, crossing roads, all the while keeping an eye out for any Antithesis or people.

The drone swarm reaches the church in only a few minutes. The outside of the church is not covered in Model Sevens.

All the doors to the church are barricaded off with junk, pews, desks, alters and whatever else the locals could scavenge from the area. I feel a spark of hope that there might be some survivors in the building.

I move in the swarm and notice that the doors were once glass, and it’s been shattered, evident by the shards covering the floor. My hopes are likewise dashed seeing these holes in the doors.

I hold my breath as I send in the drones, inside a group of thirty people sit behind barricades with varying types of weapons. Laying around the barricade of pews is a scattering of Model Seven remains, roughly twenty or so in total.

I activate the drone’s medical scanner on the people, and other than elevated heart rates and some dehydration none of the people are infected.

Thank the stars.

“Major, there are survivors at the church, we need to hurry before something bad happens.” I said to Devoy.

“Mori.” He said dejected. “You have just committed the cardinal sin of military procedures.” He said coming to a stop in the middle of the road.

“I did?” I said confused.

“Yeah, never say ‘Before something bad happens’ or anything along those lines, because of course, something bad will happen.”

I stop a few paces away, and check around me, and check the drone feed. Nothing is moving, not even a tumble weed. What could happen?

“Like what?” I asked.