"Like what?” I asked.

Like the deep earth-cracking foot stomps coming from the North.

“You had to say it. Send your drones North and see what’s making the earth rattling stomping noise please.” Devoy said palming his forehead.

I leave a small group of drones to keep an eye on the survivors, and quickly dispersed the rest on a northern trajectory.

Let me help you, I can see from the satellite what exactly is causing the commotion. A Model Twenty-Three has been dispatched from the hive, along with eight Model Fifteens, three Model Seventeens, one hundred and seven Model Threes, nine Model Six’s, and a new type of model that I am unfamiliar with. They appear to be heading for the church.

Indeed, quite the treat to see a brand-new model. Displaying for you now.

In my mind’s eye I see the satellite view zoomed in really close. It looks like a giant chameleon the size of a school bus. Between its front and back legs are massive flaps of skin that seem to shimmer different colors constantly. It’s tail ends in a massive hypodermic needle about seven feet long, the rest of its body is covered in thick bark plates, and its eyes are at the ends of fleshy mounds that constantly shift in all directions independently of each other.

Yes, it appears to have mimicked the local lizard called a chameleon. Those giant flaps of skin extend several hundred feet and change colors to form an insanely detailed image. Looking at before and after images of the hive I see what happened. The Antithesis have developed a model that can produce high resolution images to fool satellites.

Indeed, it will make future recon more difficult.

Of course, done.

“Change of plans, let’s intercept the Antithesis before they hit the church, we want to avoid collateral damage. Having to defend civilians in proximity to hostile force can be a distraction and a liability, best to be avoided.” Devoy said.

“Okay, then we should probably run, I have some physical enhancements so I should be able to keep up with you.” I said, doing a few stretches, limbering up a bit.

“I have highlighted a projected intercept point, let’s go.” He said, taking off running.

I run after him, pumping my short little legs as quickly as I can. I’m surprised when I catch up to him easily. I match his pace, which is nothing to laugh at, it’s much quicker than I could have run just a few days ago.

The stomping is getting louder as we raced towards the danger. It’s crazy that I’m rushing towards the man-eating aliens instead of running away, who would have thought?

I can see the dust cloud billowing up to our right like an angry dust tsunami, I can make out shapes in the dust storm, two forms stand out, they are like some prehistoric horror shows. One a massive Model Twenty-Three, a T-Rex made of interwoven vines, longer than it is tall and the darn thing is nearly thirty feet tall. The other is the new model, standing just under the Model-Twenty-Three but almost twice as long, sweet celestial bodies!

We get a clear line on the side of the pack roughly a hundred feet away, intercepting it barely eight hundred or so feet away from the church, only a street away.

Wasting no words, Devoy unslung his rifle and started shooting into the pack. Every shot he fires kills something, Antithesis start dropping quickly but not quick enough. For a weapon that is firing semi-auto, I can’t distinguish the individual shots, it sounds like a machine gun going off.

It’s time to try my new weapon out. I read the instructions for this very carefully and extensively. I made sure I understood exactly how it worked and what to expect.

I accessed the staffs operating system with my hive network. I could feel the mental shift in processing as the world around me crawled into slow motion. I could even distinguish the individual shots fired by Devoy.

The full impact of my class II sensor suite went into effect, I sensed every Antithesis in the pack, as if I could reach out and touch them. Which is exactly what I’m looking to do, but with violence and hatred. I have had enough of these stupid plant aliens killing humans, I’ve seen enough suffering, and bloodshed. No more!

I link the particles from my staff head and map a route from it to each and every Antithesis within my sensor suites range. The mental strain is shared throughout my entire body as the calculations I’m performing strained my mind. I linked all the Model Three’s, then the adjacent models, I feel a full-on migraine forming, but it’s spreading into my entire body as the hive mind takes the load.

What feels like hours pass, but in reality, it’s only been a few seconds.

I have everything except the two big models linked, I figure they will be less affected by this than the smaller models.

For the final step, to initialize the lightning I push the first energized electron out from the staff and into the pathways I made, this creates a cascade of energy.

Time resumes normal speed, from my staff a blinding flash of lightning arcs out like a spider-web of energized plasma, leaving burning streaks in my retinas.

CRABOOOM!!

A defining thunderclap accompanies the lightning, my shields flare, stopping the shockwave of sound from damaging my ears.

In a span of two seconds, every Antithesis in the web is struck with lightning, instantly cooking their insides, and igniting the plant like materials they are made of and flash boiling any liquids in them, causing some to explode. They all collapse onto the ground, some burning, others turned to ash, the smell of burning broccoli and ozone fills the air.

Devoy doesn’t miss a beat, he goes from firing on the small aliens, to rapid firing at the T-rex, and chameleon.

I slump down onto the ground using the staff to support myself. I’m exhausted, I knew that using this would mentally, and physically drain me, but not this bad.

Your internal nanites are working on repairing your body's fatigue, give them a few moments and you will start feeling better.

The Model Twenty-Three, and the new model are upon Devoy, he has switched to his sword and shield.

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

Both models are attacking him, relentlessly. He has his shield deployed into a massive shield, much larger than before, covering something like ten feet wide, and fifteen tall.

The Twenty-Three lunged at him with its huge jaws, large enough to swallow a car. The new model used its tail to try and pierce through the energy barrier. Thankfully, both are too big to attack at once, and are alternating strikes.

Devoy isn’t just taking it though; every time one of them strikes at his shield, he retaliates with his sword, slicing into the T-Rex’s head and neck, taking large chunks of it with every swing. His shield parts, allowing his sword to pass through unobstructed.

It takes a few strikes, against the new model’s tail but eventually he works through the extraordinarily dense plates on its tail slicing the tip of it off.

I never thought I would see someone take on a Twenty-Three with a sword and a shield, yet here was this beast of a man single handedly stopping a T-Rex and a super chameleon all on his own.

Without warning Devoy retracts his shield and bolts under the T-Rex, the Chameleon turns to try and slam its bleeding tail into him but smashes it into the T-Rex’s face instead. Devoy lashes out his sword into the back of the Twenty-Three’s legs where it’s armor plating is thinner.

The Twenty-Three tilts over onto the Chameleon, causing both of them to tear into each other trying to untangle their limbs.

Devoy pops up on the other side, taking a few steps back to avoid getting caught in the flailing.

“All yours, Mori I think your whip should finish them off.” He said, looking at the two monsters flailing about on the ground, mulching the dead bodies of the crispy lesser models.

I hobble up onto my feet and unleash my whip into the downed monsters. I focus on striking parts with less armor, snaking the whip into their internals, swirling it around for good measure. Both of the behemoth monsters stop flailing, coming to a smoking rest. Devoy walked over to where I’m standing, returning his sword to his armor.

“Well, that sure was interesting, and something I would like to avoid in the future without some better gear.” He said.

The sound of hovercraft interrupts any more conversation. I look over to where it’s coming from. It’s the Desert Foxes showing up, they have three APC, and two repulser tanks just like before.

“Good timing, they are early, I adjusted their insertion point and have them coming to support the church’s defense.” Devoy said. The transports fly over our head, and land in the churche’s parking lot.

We started walking over to them, as they disembark from their transports.

I keep behind the Major as he steps up to his men. He instantly starts shouting orders, setting up defensive positions.

They scramble to obey.

In just a few short hectic minutes they are embedded into the position, and I think nothing short of triple what we dealt with would be needed to unroot them.

There are roughly ninety soldiers spread around the building, and some on top of it. They have erected mobile barricades and walls, giving them all cover, and a way to funnel advancing Antithesis into kill zones. The two tanks are on opposite sides providing heavy cannon support to any side of the building. The APCs are dispersed around the building providing quick fallback points if evac is required, and their mounted turrets swiveled out to give overlapping medium fire support and suppression.

The soldier who took over when Devoy was injured smartly presents himself to Devoy, rendering a crisp salute that is promptly returned.

“Hello, Captain Stone, it’s good to see you!” Devoy said to him, with a smile in his voice.

“No sir, it’s really good to see you up and around already, and a Samurai to boot!” He said grinning ear to ear. “When we heard what happened we were all worried about you. We all wanted to reach out but did not want to interrupt your recovery, sir.” Stone said. The major placed his hand on his shoulder, turning him and walking towards the church.

“Let’s go check on our survivors, make sure they don’t need any medical attention or supplies, who knows how long they have been trapped in there.” Devoy said.

We entered the church double doors, which were little more than wooden frames with the glass in the middle blown out.

“Don’t shoot, we are here to help.” Devoy shouted out with his hands raised.

“Humans coming in, the Antithesis outside have been killed, and there is a PMC squad set up outside.” He continued.

The building was dark, all the lights were out, and so was the AC, so probably no power. It must have been like this for a while; the interior smelled of unwashed bodies, sweat, and other odors I did not want to dwell on too long.

“Oh, thank god, help has finally arrived.” A woman’s voice said from the gathering of people.

The gathering consisted of thirty-four terrified people, spread out around the room, all facing the door. Some of them had guns, others table legs and other objects with the obvious intent to be used as blunt weapons. They had up-ended tables, pews, and any other piece of furniture they could to provide makeshift cover.

Not bad for a bunch of untrained church goers.

The woman, who spoke stood up and came forward. She was maybe sixty years old with white curly hair that went only to her ears, she was thin and haggard looking.

“We have been cooped up here for three days, the Antithesis swarmed the town, killed many, and dragged others off to god knows where.” She said to us, hope filling her eyes.

“You can rest now; we will handle it from here.” I told her.

Looking around I see the Model Sevens they killed. To prevent them from being recycled, I douse them lightly with some of my acid. Not enough to have the gasses effect the survivors though.

A few soldiers come in and start dispersing water and ration packs to the survivors.

I send the drones through the rest of the church; they zip through quickly and find nothing of interest, just more dead Antithesis.

Devoy came over to me, his helmet lowered to expose his face, I can see the worry lines on his face.

“I love the part where we get to rescue and help people, but damn, I don’t want to tell them what happened to the rest of the town.” He said to me in a whisper.

“Maybe let them recover first? We still have the hive to clear out, and the truck stop.” I said to him.

“I know, I’m going to leave the PMC here to provide protection while you and I go check out the truck stop.” He said.

The survivors are sitting around drinking and eating.

“Let’s take a moment to eat and drink ourselves.” I said to Devoy.

He nods, grabbing an MRE and water bottle from the supplies the soldiers brought in.

I’ve never had an MRE, and it was interesting to see what was in it. Mine was called “Beef Stew” and it was anything but that. It tasted like plant protein generously drowned in cheap sauce, it also had some crackers, powdered beverages that I ignored, and a lemon pound cake that was dry enough to be used as a sponge.

But I ate it anyway, it was what everyone else had and I would feel guilty ordering something from the Samurai menu in front of everyone.

I noticed Devoy watching me with a grin on his face while I ate.

“What?” I asked with a mouth full of cracker.

“You can always tell when someone has never had an MRE, their face goes through a few phases. First confusion, as they try to figure out what everything is and how it works. Second, optimism as they see the items having some familiar names to things they enjoy. Third, either horror as they take the first bite and realize that the food is designed for maximum caloric value over taste, or joy because it’s better than the street vendors that serve up rat meat.”

I look down at my MRE, thinking about what my reactions had been. I definitely understand one and two, but three? I don’t think it was quite so horrid. Bad? Yes, for sure, but not so bad I couldn’t eat it.

Capt. Stone walks over and slips something into the Major's hands. I cheat and use my sensor suite to see what it was. Money, they bet on me!

“Hey, what did you bet on!” I demand from Devoy, setting my cracker to the side.

“Oh, nothing. Just as I thought, you were definitely the horror face version, that’s all.” He said, as he tucked away his ill-gotten gains.

“Harumph, rude.” I said, giving up on my food entirely. He just laughed, shoveling the last of his food into his mouth. He stands up and headed for the door.

“You ready?” He asked.

Standing up I brush the crumbs off of myself, and nod.

“Let’s go.”