They fall by the score, plummeting into the masses below them.

Everything was going well until the Model Sixty unleashed its attacks.

The first thing the Model Sixty did was unleash its tongue harpoon at me.

As quick as it launched, my new shunt projector opened a portal to intercept the tongue. The tongue vanished into the void of darkness that was the shunt portal. The generator terminated the portal a split second after and sliced the tongue off at the tip.

Thank the stars, one of its primary attacks disabled in one fell swoop. In retaliation it instantly switched tactics and started chasing me. The tentacles around its body, while not as fast or kinetic laden, still provided a significant threat. It unleashed them at me like a wave of ever-growing angry vines. No matter how much evading I did, there were more tentacles, more than possible to avoid. My ship took constant hits, I could feel through my interface the point defense shields and the new shunt, deploying barrier after barrier, to prevent them from getting a direct hit on the ship.

I tried varying speeds and maneuvers around the large cave to try and build some distance, but it was just as fast and seemed to be able to follow my every move. I was not going quietly though. I had my fireball launchers, and lightning firing at it and the surrounding Antithesis like a disco ball of death. The cave was filled with explosions, lightning, and massive thunderclaps as I unleashed everything I could into the Model Sixty and the hives never-ending waves. I could literally watch the hive dump out new Antithesis in real time. It was primarily making mass amounts of Model Ones, and Twos. Mixed in, were a few Model Fifteens, to add in some flack to dodge from the ground.

The heat warnings and system overloads were flashing through my interface, warnings that the constant use of weapons and defense were building up too much heat in the ship and it was in danger of being overloaded.

Which one do you refer to? The giant floating tentacle monster, the hordes of Antithesis below you, spewing spines and flack grenades up at you, the ship overheating, or the hive ripping up some of its roots to try and swat you down?

Yes, it seems the hive is desperate enough to try and take you out by itself, a rare thing to see but it is possible the Model Sixty is controlling it.

Ah yes, that is a problem. You could route it all through your new substrate and fire it off as a thermal lance.

It’s an option in the interface, I would think you would notice.

Indeed, I have noticed, sorry. Here, allow me to initialize it for you.

In my interface I saw him shuffle through a few menus and open the substrate fire controls. He then selected the Model Sixty as its target and hit “the red button” and fired it off.

Nothing visually happened immediately, until I saw a small hole slice through the Model Sixty’s side, cutting through about twenty tentacles. I watched in glee as they all dropped onto the Antithesis below crushing several.

You are most welcome; I expect you should be able to do that on your own now.

The warnings for heat were all quieted, now that I had a safe outlet for the overload.

I continued swerving around the cave, I had to focus my lightning on several Model Elevens that swarmed up at me in a pack. Each one about the size of my Witchcraft, and dangerous enough to toss it around like a toy.

I broke through their formation, locking onto each with my lightning nodes, when they opened their massive mouths and disgorged a huge fleet of Model Fours directly at me. I quickly re-directed the strikes to encompass the hurled Model Fours before they could cling to the ship and try to break in.

Several pulses of lightning later, several of the Model Elevens were blasted from the sky and the rest veered off.

Between my shields, the lightning strikes, and shunts, I managed to stop most of the Model Fours from reaching my ships hull. Somehow three of them managed to latch on though, and start banging away at the hull directly.

Oooh, stars, that’s bad!

I note their locations on the hull and build up some speed, then make a rapid turn, and spin so they are on the outer edge of the turn hoping with enough change in vector they will be thrown off.

But it’s to no avail, they don’t budge an inch, I then tried spinning in a tight circle to see if that works.

Nope!

Several alarms ring out in my mind as hull breaches are made in several areas. Instead of shuffling nanites to fill the gap I have Merlin take over flying the ship.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

Of course, I have the controls.

I turn back into the cabin and can see the holes forming, and the Model Four tentacles wiggling their way through trying to expand on them.

I try to walk back and the ship makes a lurch dropping me on my hands and knees.

If only it was that easy, calm your tits.

With a grunt I manage to crawl to the back and stand up.

I give each hole a two second burst of the acid I have; almost instantly the acid spreads along the tentacles and into their main body. They quickly turn into piles of slush and drop away from the ship.

The ship shakes violently and throws me to the decking again.

Nothing to be concerned with, just the Model Sixty slapping us around with its tentacles. You know, business as usual.

I crawled back into the pilot’s seat, strapping in my harness again.

You have the controls, Morigana.

I happen to be passing over the cave entrance and see that Devoy made his way through and is completely encircled by ground units, he has a sizable pile of bodies around him that the Antithesis are having to crawl over to reach him. He has literally made a wall of dead Antithesis to help control how many can come at him at once.

I drop several fireballs around him to help thin the horde a bit. He looked up and gave me a thumbs up.

“Thanks for the assist, Little Witch! I’m doing fine though, getting a healthy dose of points down here.” Devoy radioed in.

“Glad to hear it, manage to get any models captured?” I called back.

Before he could answer I got an alert. A huge energy build up was being detected from the Model Sixty.

“Model Sixty is about to use its EMP, Devoy! Get ready!” I shouted over the radio.

A huge blue-white ball of energy erupted out of the things mouth, creating a pressure wave in front of it that could be seen by the naked eye. The flying Antithesis around the Model Sixty were turned into mush as the pressure wave slams them into walls and each other.

I brace just before it hits my ship, it pushes the ship sideways from the force. Then the blast hits, everything sends off warnings and alerts. Thankfully, the substrate works as advertised and absorbs the blast, protecting the ship from shutting down.

You have approximately seven seconds to discharge the blast before it overloads everything and the ship melts.

Okay, precisely 6.8742 seconds but its easier to say 7.

Not wasting any more time with Merlin’s sass, I direct every weapon system I have onto the Model Sixty, and for good measure, hit the physical fire button with my hand. I know it’s not required, but moons above, does it have a cathartic effect smashing it down!

A searing bright beam of energy lances out from the ship, the windshields immediately darken to try and protect my eyes. Concentric rings of vapor follow behind it, leaving a trail of sonic booms that ripple down into the other Antithesis, squashing countless into goo. Right behind the beam, fireballs and lightning vomit from every available launcher and emitter.

The damage is spectacular! It rips through the Model Sixty, making a relatively small hole, but blows out the entire back end of its body. There is no blood or gore, everything is incinerated or boiled off instantly. The force of the trailing pressure smashes into it next, crushing the husk against the cavern’s distant wall, which, even that, did not escape unscathed. It now has a large bowl like area of melted rock at least thirty feet across.

Did the hologram display not show the thing dying?

Well, I can’t predict every instance of when and where you will fire it off! Or even how much energy will be poured into the EMP attack. In fact, the energy from this EMP was 42% more powerful than the one it used on you before.

Uh about that, it nearly was not, the margin of absorption was estimated based off that initial hit and +/- 50%. So, had it been any stronger, it would have just melted the substrate instead and most likely destroyed the ship.

I sat in silence for a moment while I processed that.

You do, but you would need to view the system parameters and info, that I now include in every upgrade I give you.

I will endeavor to do better.

He is whole and has continued fighting.

I review my immediate area to see how the battle space has changed since the Model Sixty was killed.

Everything in the air has been removed, and now it’s just a swarm of the standard ground units. The hive seems to have been damaged in the attack and stopped producing more units.

Great idea!

Loot inbound!

New Purchase: Class II Antithesis Biological Containment Vessel x 1:

Points reduced to: 26,480

Well, you have killed off a considerable amount of Antithesis, so…yes?

I grab the vessel from the box it spawned in, and maneuver the ship to where the Model Sixty fell. I open the back hatch and toss the ball at it’s corpse, hoping it still grabs it up. The ball hits it and bounces off, for a moment I figure I’m about to have a poo day trying to harvest samples. Until the ball opens and sucks in the whole body.

Awesome!

Now to clean up the mess, and pick up Devoy.

That’s when Devoy calls me.

“Mori, I have your samples. Any time you want to come pick me up would be great.”

“I’m on my way now!”

I fly across the cavern, dodging the random spines and stuff still being thrown up at me, but without the air units and the Model Sixty, it's hardly a challenge anymore.

Devoy has managed to make a massive pile of dead Antithesis around him, and there are still more coming.

I drop fireballs around him, and a few chain-lightning blasts to clear the landing zone. I zip in above him, and dropped the rear hatch, Devoy leaps up at least twenty feet, and into the ship. That saves me from landing, I guess.

“Welcome aboard!” I shouted back to him.

“Glad to be aboard, it’s a mess down there.” He said, walking up into the flight deck and flopping into the co-pilot chair.

He dropped the backpack between his legs on the floor. “I got your samples here, tried to get a bit of everything, filled all twenty balls.”

“Fantastic! I can’t wait to get into them!” I said with glee, clapping my hands together.

“Let me finish off this hive and we can get out of here!”

Over the next few hours, I flew around in circles, blasting everything with fire and lightning, scorching everything in sight, and making sure nothing can grow back.

I configured some fire controls for Devoy so he could have some fun with fireballs too, that, and give him some points as well.

Once everything was ash and bad memories, we left the cave system the same way we came in.

“What a first date eh?” I said, lifting my eyebrows at Devoy.

“A first for me, normally its dinner and some entertainment after.” He responded back, shinking his helmet down so I could see his face.

I frowned a bit, was he upset that we did not do something more normal? I hope not, but maybe he deserves a more traditional date after this. I will have to pull out something really nice, I have the money and clout now.

Hmm…