It took another four hours to clear the area between the Saints and the Terminal. I inally thought the Stacks would be a problem, that was before I realised Bob made an effective bulldozer. I felt a little bad destroying some housing, but it was either that or allow the Antithesis to re-establish themselves.

  The bears did most of the work ing up the Antithesis with their B3 Heavy Assault Rifles, or B3-ARs. I may have ighe pun at the time, it didn’t mean I wasn’t aware. The rifle’s power more than made up for the pun, as the heavier rounds were able to punch right through even the Model Sixes’ armor.

  It’s too bad I didn’t have any tokens earlier, they would have been useful in the hive.

  Once we’d smashed through the Stacks I made cheg oerminal a priority. The walls here were thicker than the Prect, and I hadn’t seen any Model Eights here earlier, but that didn’t meaupid pnts hadn’t tried something.

  I was sidering sending the bears around to make sure everything was okay when I received a call.

  [Evelyn, you’re back!] Jane's relieved voice echoed in my head.

  [I am… how did you know?]

  [Seriously? You’re iing the outside and you never bothered to look up slightly?]

  I did, only to notice half a dozen cameras mounted on the walls at regur intervals. Like any secure location would have. Obviously.

  [Ahhh… right.] I straightened up, people were watg after all. [I mao clear up the worst of the Antithesis yesterday, with the help of another Samurai. I’m trying to up the remnants now, gimme an hour and it should be safe enough to open up the dain.]

  [Okay, I’ll inform everyone here. Don’t do anything stupid, I’m watg. I’ll know.] There was excitement, and a touch of , in her voice. I could imagine she was going stir crazy in there, being stu there for over a day without being able to che the kids.

  I cracked a smile, I could just imagine her boung off the walls. [I’ll call you when this is done. Don’t worry about it.]

  [I hate when you say that, talk to you soon.] The li dead.

  I looked back at my posse, “Let’s get this over with. Bob, lure!”

  While Bob and I busied ourselves with setting up the lure, the other bears started taking up positions around the area. I’d noticed earlier that they seemed to be taking more and more as without prompting, at least when doing something routine. Perhaps the AI was learning, adapting to my strategies. It made things easier, I just hoped they didn’t learn too much from Nyx. I don’t think I could hahe additional snark.

  I shook my head, trying to clear all the unnecessary thoughts before I flipped the mae on.

  It only took a few seds for the first Antithesis to show up. A trickle of low level models that were slowly ramping up. The south was retively clear, I’d beehodically clearing my here most of the day, so I’d be surprised if there was any signifit Antithesis presence down there still.

  While I was c the west things started to go weird. I fired two shots into an approag group of threes, only to have three die, and then one I never shot started melting.

  “Nyx, what the hell was that?”

  I have no idea. The damage seems remi of one of your flesh melters, but you haven’t used those yet.

  “No shit.”

  As I watched the model three finished melting, then two i-like forms rose from the slurry and dove into the adjat Antithesis bodies. I stared, sck jawed, as those bodies also begaing as well. Soon there were four is diving into the nearby bodies.

  “Disgusting.”

  Effit

  “What the hell are those?”

  I’m not sure, but it appears to be self replig, anti-Antithesis tech. It’s almost certainly from a Samurai catalog, probably a high css one.

  I was still staring at the corpses when I noticed a few additional more of these bugs started showing up. Only one or two to start, but quickly that turned into a literal tide that pletely coated the street. They dug into every Antithesis they could reach, living and dead, slowly dissolving them from the i.

  “That’s safe right?”

  A voice echoed out from the middle of the swarm, “Perfectly safe for non-Antithesis lifeforms.”

  Out of the swarm flew a woman. She was pletely covered in peared to be tight, segmented brown power armor. A pair of ioid wings spread out from the middle of her back, and her helmet was featureless, except for a pair of antennae poking out of the top. The woman nded in front of me, nearly silently, and walked over.

  “I did not expect to find our Samurai to be out trying to up the streets the day after an incursion. Usually the others leave that to me." Her helmet split open and revealed a looking womaerranean, maybe mid thirties if I had to guess. A gentle smile spread across her face. "Hello young one, I am Maria Saitas, I represent the group known as the Family in Calgary. You may call me Brood Mother. Mother for short.”

  She wasn't what I was expeg, polite and friendly. It took my brain a mio catch up to reality, “o meet you, I’m Evelyn Cire, everyone around here calls me Teddy.”

  “I didn’t expeeet you until ter, what are you doing out here?” she asked.

  “Well, I holy didn’t expeeone else to e down and clear out the Antithesis after the incursion, so I was doing it myself,” I expined as I rubbed the bay head with one hand.

  She frowned, “That’s a pretty pessimistic point of view.”

  “So I’ve been told, I think it’s more realistic based upon my experience.” I paused, “Thank you for clearing them though.”

  “It was no problem. We ’t let people suffer by allowing the Antithesis to run free, we?"

  I nodded, slightly distracted by the is crawling across the front of Maria’s armor. They looked artificial, like someoook aian scarab and made it more angur, robotic.

  “Are those safe? Like really safe?”

  She ughed, “Yes child, my drones dig into the Antithesis and break them down from the i. They won’t attay other type of material, and they’re biodegradable so they’ll start breaking down ohe incursion is finished.”

  “Right… that’s good.” My eye twitched, I didn’t want to be rude but… “ you please stop calling me kid, I don’t like people looking down on me.”

  Her warm smile widened slightly, “I apologize Evelyn, I meant no disrespect, but to me all the Samurai iy are just children. You, yourself, remind me a little of my granddaughter. I will treat you with the proper respect going forward.”

  My mind froze. I really wao ask how old she really was, but after asking to be treated with respect it felt wrong to ask.

  “Humboldt told us about the situation down here, I apologize. Someone should have been cheg oatus of the Shelters down here. We will be more diligent going forward.”

  She bowed. This versation was starting to get super awkward for me, definitely not what I expected.

  “Barricade, another Samurai iy, wao take a look at the destroyed shelter ohe up was plete. I’ve heard it was one of your s as well, would you like to meet him?”

  “Sure… just gimme a few mio let everyone know things are ed up here. Excuse me.”

  I stepped away, my mind spinning, it looked like I was going to get a crash course in dealing with other Samurai today.