Dinner was a lively affair. Despite my insistence that I was fine and that I’d just been tired this morning, Mother fussed over me all evening. I didn’t mind it all that much. I’d rather have her focused on me than obsessing over what happened to my father. After dinner, Skyler, my mother, and I spent most of the evening on the couch sipping wine, eating chocolates, and watching an extremely cheesy romance movie.

  It felt nice to spend a calm, quiet night at home with the family instead of running around the street until I was exhausted.

  Skyler and I stumbled back into our apartment around eleven, tired but happy.

  “That was nice,” I mumbled to Skyler, who was cuddling against my side. “We should take more time off.”

  Skyler sighed. “We always say we’re going to take more time off, but we never do. Now that we’re samurai, it’ll probably be even harder to get time to ourselves.”

  “Maybe in the short term, but we’ve been slowly chewing through the different hordes and clearing out the local hives. Most cities only see an incursion every few months, so hopefully things will calm down a little once we clean up the remaining antithesis.”

  “That would be nice,” Skyler cooed as we slowly meandered towards the bedroom. Once we arrived,I gently led Skyler to the bed before slipping into the bathroom to clean up.

  “So what are we going to do tomorrow?” I asked, raising my voice so Skyler could hear me over the sounds of the sink.

  “I don’t know,” Skyler admitted. “I didn’t want to ruin our date by checking on the situation. Artymis, Athyna, do you have any suggestions?”

  {Arty: The situation off the coast has stabilized, but most of the samurai are still tied up trying to track down all the aquatic hives.}

  {Athy: What is far more concerning is the horde sitting outside the city walls. The Cascadian government expected the antithesis to run directly into the range of the city's heavy artillery, but they stopped just out of range. They spent all day yesterday probing the city’s defences, looking for weaknesses.}

  “That’s concerning,” I muttered. “How many antithesis could control a swarm of that size?”

  {Arty: At this level? Very few. They’re more common among the more advanced models, which humans would consider Model Forty and above, but we are only aware of a handful of different variants able to control that many models.}

  {Athy: The other samurai have been trying to identify the command model, but it’s managed to avoid detection so far.}

  “Well, the two of us aren’t exactly well equipped for recon operations, but we could probably use the points we earned defending the harbor to buy some equipment to help,” Skyler suggested. “Even if we don’t find the leader, I could help thin out the antithesis out there with my drones.”

  I nodded and finished brushing my teeth before returning to the bedroom. “That sounds good to me. Do you want to buy now or wait until tomorrow?”

  “How about you have a discussion with Arty while I use the bathroom?” Skyler suggested. “I already have my recon drones, but it shouldn’t take me long to upgrade them.”

  “I can do that,” I replied.

  As Skyler disappeared into the bathroom, I shucked my dinner clothes and sat on the corner of the bed. “So, Artymis, did we earn any tokens yesterday?”

  Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  Unfortunately not. Although you and Skyler earned a significant number of points, you didn’t deal with anything that would normally award a token.

  “That’s fine, I was kind of hoping that I could upgrade one of my shield catalogs, but I guess that’ll have to wait until another day. Talk to me about drones. Skyler already has access to basic recon models, so I’d like to look at something more multifunctional. Something I could take into combat, even if we don’t find the command model tomorrow.”

  That can be arranged. Since Skyler already has access to a basic drone catalog, you won’t have to unlock the basic frames, just the weapons and equipment. Do you want something reusable or disposable?

  I lay back on the bed and pondered for a minute. “Probably something reusable. I have the points; I might as well take advantage of them.”

  In that case, I would suggest taking full advantage of your shield catalogs in order to harden these new drones. With the two-stage shield generator installed, it would be very difficult for the antithesis to take them down. Equipping them with Automated Protection Systems would also make it very difficult for swarms of Model Ones, or even Model Elevens, to take them down.

  I cocked my head to the side. “Automated Protection Systems?”

  Think small, extremely fast tracking turrets. They’re typically mounted on armored vehicles and ships to intercept incoming munitions, but there are plenty of Class I models that are small enough to be mounted on a drone. Artymis explained. They’re ideal for dealing with swarms of Model Ones.

  “That’ll be useful, since Skyler and I don’t have dedicated anti air. Skyler can swap her drones over to flak shells, but they’re not optimized for that, and they’re really only good against mass swarms,” I muttered. “Can those APS systems double as weapons?”

  They could, but I wouldn’t recommend using them as primary weapons. They’re relatively low damage and would be unable to do any significant damage to larger models. I would recommend choosing some other form of primary weapon.

  “I don’t want to put guns on them. Skyler’s drones make me jump when they fire, even when they’re twenty or thirty feet away. I think if I had something firing right next to me, I might flinch at the wrong time.”

  I find that highly unlikely, especially once your Class II genetic enhancements fully develop. You’ll have no trouble focusing on the task at hand. Artymis replied. That being said, I wouldn’t actually recommend equipping them with long-range weapons. Skyler already has that covered, and you would probably find it much more useful to have close support weapons.

  “You want me to make them melee-focused?”

  Despite your extremely fast reactions and reflexes, you can still be flanked and overwhelmed if enough antithesis swarm you. Having some close combat backup would help protect from being overwhelmed, or at least attract enough attention and allow you to reposition.

  “Makes sense. So what exactly would these drones cost me?” I asked.

  You already have access to most of the required tech. You'll need the drone melee weapon catalog, which will cost you a hundred points, and I would also recommend picking up the Automated Drone Sensor Systems catalog for another two hundred. Each drone will set you back about six hundred, seven hundred if you invest in an improved sensor suite for the search.

  “And how many points do I have?”

  Just shy of six thousand.

  My eyes went wide. “That many?”

  Since the antithesis don’t care about self-preservation, they threw themselves against both your monowire and Skyler’s torpedoes. Even though you were mainly killing the smaller Models, the points start to build up over several hours of combat.

  “No shit,” I muttered. “Well, in that case I don’t have a problem with the cost. Can you send me the schematics of the fully improved version so I can take a look?”

  I can do better than that. I’ll send you a full render, along with several combat simulations with all antithesis models up to Model Twenty.

  “That’s really useful, thanks!” I chirped.

  Artymis’ drones were large, nearly three feet wide and two feet tall, and they had an insectoid appearance. Theeight large circular sensors on the front resembled massive red glowing eyes, and six scything arms were mounted around the main body. Both the frames and the hover jets appeared to be a much heavier build than Skyler’s drones.

  The combat simulations only reinforced what I already suspected; they were slow but could take some serious punishment. They completely shrugged off the blows of most of the smaller antithesis and could stand toe to toe with a lot of the larger models.

  “Aren’t they a little slow for recon purposes?” I muttered.

  As you’ve seen, they’ll be practically impervious to ranged combat. The only thing that can threaten them isthe Model Elevens, and even then the drones should come out ahead nine times out of ten.

  “I like them,” I declared after a couple of seconds. “Unfortunately we’ve already stuffed every possible inch of Skyler’s car with equipment, and I don’t think we have the space for them.”

  In that case, we might want to discuss investing in a new form of transport. One that’s actually designed to hold all your drones and robust enough to survive close encounters with the antithesis.

  “Ugh… I really don’t want to discuss that right now,” I grumbled.

  “Discuss what?” Skyler asked as she emerged from the bathroom.

  “Getting a new car, one with enough space to transport more drones,” I explained.

  Skyler paused for a moment. “Not a bad idea, but maybe we can have that discussion tomorrow. It’s getting late, and I really don’t want to go through all the details right now.”

  I got up and gave her a quick kiss on the lips as she walked over. “No arguments from me. Artymis, please save those drone plans for now, we’ll review them tomorrow.”

  {Arty: Can do. You two have a good night, we’ll talk to you tomorrow.}

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